Christians Now I must confess these Notes as he well observes are common to all Christian Churches and were intended to be so and if this does not answer his Design we cannot help it The Protestant Churches do not desire to confine the Notes of the Church to their own private Communions but are very glad if all the Churches in the World be as true Churches as themselves The whole Catholick Church which consists of a great many particular Diocesan or National Churches has the same Nature And when the whole consists of univocal parts every part must have the same Nature with the whole And therefore as he who would describe a man must describe him by such Characters as fit all Mankind so he who gives the Essential Characters of a Church must give such Notes as fit all true Churches in the World. This indeed does not fit the Church of Rome to make it the only Catholick and the only true Church nor do we intend it should but it fits all true Churches wherever they are and that is much better To answer then his Argument when we give Notes which belong to a whole Species as we must do when we give the Notes of a true Christian Church there being a great many true Churches in the World which make up the Catholick or Universal Church we must give such Notes as belong to the whole kind that is to all true Christian Churches And though these Notes are common indeed to all true Christian Churches yet they are proper and peculiar to a true Christian Church as the Essential Properties of a man are common to all men but proper to mankind And this is necessary to make them true Notes For such Notes of a true Church as do not fit all true Churches cannot be true Notes As for what the Cardinal urges That all Sects of Christians think themselves to have the true Faith and true Sacraments I am apt to think they do but what then If they have not the true Faith and true Sacraments they are not true Churches whatever they think of it and yet the true Faith and true Sacraments are certain Notes of a true Church A Purchase upon a bad Title which a man thinks a good one is not a good Estate but yet a Purchase upon a Title which is not only thought to be but is a good one is a good Estate All that can be said in this case is That men can be no more certain that they have a true Church than they are that they have a true Faith and true Sacraments and this I readily grant But as mens mistakes in this matter does not prove that there is no true Faith nor true Sacraments so neither does it prove that a true Faith and true Sacraments are not Notes of the true Church 2. The Cardinal 's second Objection is That the Notes of any thing must be more known than the thing it self which we readily grant Now says he which is the true Church is more knowable than which is the true Faith and this we deny and that for a very plain reason because the true Church cannot be known without knowing the true Faith for no Church is a true Church which does not profess the true Faith. We may as well say that we can know a Horse without knowing what the shape and figure of a Horse is which distinguishes it from all other Creatures as that we can know a Christian Church without knowing what the Christian Faith is which distinguishes it from all other Churches or we may as well say that we can know any thing without knowing what it is since the very Essence of a true Church consists in the true Faith which therefore must be first known before we can know the true Church But the Cardinal urges that we cannot know what true Scripture is nor what is the true interpretation of Scripture but from the Church and therefore we must know the Church before we can koow the true Faith. As for the first I readily grant that at this distance from the writing the Books of the New Testament there is no way to assure us that they were written by the Apostles or Apostolical men and owned for inspired Writings but the Testimony of the Church in all Ages But herein we do not consider them as a Church but as credible Witnesses Whether there be any such thing as a Church or not we can know only by the Scriptures But without knowing whether there be a Church or not if we know that for so many Hundred years these Books have been owned to be written by such men and have been received from the Apostles days till now by all who call themselves Christians this is as good an Historical Proof as we can have for any thing and it is the Authority of an uninterrupted Tradition not the Authority of the Church considered as a Church which moves us to believe them For setting aside the Authority of Tradition how can the Authority of a Company of men who call themselves the Church before I know whether there be any Church move me to believe any thing which was done 1600. years a-go But there is a Company of men in the World and have been successively for 1600. years whether they be a Church or not is nothing to this question who assure me that these Books which we call the Scriptures were written by such inspired men and contain a faithful account of what Christ did and taught and suffered and therefore I believe such Books and from them I learn what that true Faith is which makes a true Christian Church As for the true interpretation of Scripture that we cannot understand what it is without the Church this I also deny The Scriptures are very intelligible to honest and diligent Readers in all things necessary to salvation and if they be not I desire to know how we shall find out the Church for certainly the Church has no Character but what is in the Scripture and then if we must believe the Church before we can believe or understand the Scriptures we must believe the Church before we can possibly know whether there be a Church or not If we prove the Church by the Scripture we must believe and understand the Scripture before we can know the Church If we believe and understand the Scriptures upon the Authority and Interpretation of the Church considered as a Church then we must know the Church before the Scripture The Scripture cannot be known without the Church nor the Church without the Scripture and yet one of them must be known first and yet neither of them can be known first according to these Principles which is such an absurdity as all the Art of the World can never palliate 3. The Cardinal 's third Objection is That the true Notes of the Church must be inseparable from it whereas the Churches of Corinth and Galatia did not always teach true Doctrine some of the Church
meant by it p. 234. 2. Holiness of Mind and Manners What understood by it ibid. II. Neither of these kinds of Holiness can be properly called a Note of the True Church ibid. Not the first because it appertains to its Essence and Constitution shews what a Church is and belongs to every Church whether Greek Abyssine Roman or English p. 235. Not the Second kind and that for Three Reasons 1. Because of that general admission of men of all Nations and Conditions upon their profession of the common Christianity into the bosome of the Christian Church p. 236. 2. Because many men live sometimes with more and sometimes with less Morality p. 237. 3. Because a man must first understand the Nature and Doctrine of the Christian Church or he cannot know what Sanctity is and what that is in the Life of any man which he is to take for the Holiness of a Christian p. 238. III. If Holiness of Life were a Note of the true Church the Roman Church would not from this concession derive any great advantage p. 239. Other Churches as famous as that of Rome for their Faith and manners ibid. In latter Ages the goodness of Morals in several of that Communion to be ascribed not so much to Popery as its cause but to those Principles that are common to all Christians p. 240. The Reformation not free from bad Men tho this proceeds from the Men not from the Cause ibid. Luther herein misrepresented by Bellarmine and others p. 241. Great complaints of Corruptions in the Romists Writers in the Latin Church p. 242. Many in the Romish Church Infamous for their Impieties p. 243. Reflections on Pope Gregory the Great who is said to be the last of the good and the first of the bad p. 244. On Pope John the XII p. 245. On St. Dominick ibid. On the Austerities and Mortifications of their several Orders p. 246. Many things in the Roman Church which by helping forward an ill life do in part deface this mark of Sanctity p. 248. The Eleventh Note The Glory of Miracles BEllarmins Explication of this Note and the grounds upon which he builds it p. 250. In answer to this Three things are laid down I. That meer Miracles withou any other consideration are not a sufficient Note of any Church or Religion whatever p. 252. The Miracles of the Primitive Church compared with those that are more peculiarly appropriated to the Church of Rome p. 253. The several Circumstances considered which recommend the Primitive Miracles viz. 1. That they were highly beneficial to Human Nature p. 254. The Miracles of the Church of Rome very many of them defective herein p. 255. 2. The Primitive Miracles of great importance and significancy and the design of them plainly laid down before-hand in the Prophecies of the V. T. p. 256. This applied to those of the Church of Rome p. 257. Miracles in the most comprehensive sense of the Word are no proof of the Truth and Divinity of that Doctrine they would advance p. 258. This Instanced in those of Jannes and Jambres and of Apollonius Tyaneus p. 259. Photius his Censure of those of Apollonius Tyaneus p. 260. Miracles whether supposed in a Heathen or a Heretick not acknowledged by the Fathers to be a good proof that either of them are in the right p. 261. This apparent from St. Origen ibid. St. Cyprian ib. St. Irenaeus p. 162. St. Austin p. 263. II. Miracles of the Church of Rome no proof or confirmation of those Doctrines Practices wherein the Reformed Church differs from them p. 264. Here three Things are considered 1. That there is no ground throughout the whole Scriptures to expect any Miracle for the Confirmation of any particular Doctrine whatever p. 265. This evident from the Mosaic dispensation ibid. The Christian Institution p. 266. The following Ages of the Church ibid. 2. Many of those Doctrines for which these Miracles are alledged are so far from being asserted or warranted in the Holy Scriptures that they are rather contrary to them ibid. This Instanced in Transubstantiation p. 266 267. Adoration of the Host p. 266 267. Worshipping of Images p. 266 267. Praying to Saints departed p. 266 267. Purgatory c. p. 266 267. Miracles for the advance or support of those Doctrines justly suspected p. 268. 3. No ground of certainty as to matter of Fact of most of those miracles which the Romanists make the Glory of their Church p. 269. The Story of the Bones of Babylas considered ibid. Those of Gâ—rvatius and Proatsius revealed by Vision to St. Ambrose reflected on p. 270. The fabulous Stories of later Ages amongst them condemned by several Writers of the Church of Rome p. 271. 1 Persons St. Bernard reflected on p. 273. St. John Damascen p. 274. Some Miracles wrought in confirmation of Transubstantiation considered p. 273 c. III. We of the Reformed Religion as we do not pretend to the Working of Miracles in our Age so if we did we could pretend to prove nothing by them but what hath been already sufficiently proved by the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles p. 280. The Twelfth Note The Light of Prophecy TWO Things to be understood by the Light of Prophecy 1. That Divine Revelation whereby a man is enabled to foretel such or such contingent Events will come to pass p. 285. 2. Or the Testimony that is given by the fulfilling of Prophecies to some Doctrine that was designed to be confirmed by it p. 286. In the latter sense it may be admitted as a mark or rather an Argument of that Doctrine the Profession whereof makes the Church p. 287. Great caution must be used in laying down the fulfilling the Predictions as an Argument to prove the Truth of Christianity ibid. Two Things here Examined I. Whether this be a Note of the Church The Cardinal offers three Arguments to prove it p. 288. The first of them disproved and the Prophecy of Joel applied by St. Peter Acts 2.16 to the Church explained and vindicated p. 289. His second Argument that none knows future Contingences but God only considered p. 290. His third Argument from the 18th of Deut. examined and overthrown p. 291. The foretelling of a future contingent Event no certain Note of true Doctrine ibid. There have been true Prophecies among Heathens the famous Acrostic of the Sybilla Erythroea the Books of Hystaspes the prediction of Balaam which shew the gift of Prophecy not to be confined within the Communion of the Church p. 292 293. Light of Prophecy no Note of the Church because separable from it there having been true Prophecy out of the Church and because it hath not alwayes continued in the Church p. 294. II. If it was a Note the Cardinal hath not sufficiently proved it belongs to his Church and no others p. 295. His Instance of Agabus and the Old Prophets may serve any Christian Church as well if not better than his ibid. His Instance of Gregory Thaumat Bishop
whole Work. p. 390. FINIS Books Printed for and Sold by Richard Chiswell Dr. CAve's Lives of the Primitive Fathers in 2 Vol. Folio Dr. Cary's Chronological Account of Ancient Time. fol. Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity fol. Sir John Burlace's History of the Irish Rebellion fol. The Laws of this Realm concerning Jesuits Seminary Priests Recusants the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance explained by divers Judgments and Resolutions of the Judges with other Observations thereupon By William CawleyEsq fol. Dr. Towerson's Explication on the Creed the Commandments and Lord's Prayer in 3 Vol. fol. Bishop Nicholson on the Church-Catechism 40. Mr. John Cave's seven occasional Sermons 40. Bishop Wilkin's Natural Religion 80. His Fifteen Sermons 80. Mr. Tanner's Primordia Or the Rise and Growth of the first Church of God described 80. Spaniards Conspiracy against the State of Venice 80. Dr. Cave's Primitive Christianity in three parts 80. Certain genuine Remains of the Lord Bacon in Arguments Civil Moral Natural c. with a large account of all his Works By Dr. Tho. Tenison 80. Dr. Henry Bagshaw's Discourses on select Texts 80. Mr. Seller's State of the Church in the three first Centuries Dr. Burnet's Account of the Life and Death of the Earl of Rochester 80. Vindication of the Ordinations of the Church of England 80. History of the Rights of Princes in the Disposing of Ecclesiastical Benefices and Church-lands 80. Relation of the present state of the difference between the French King and the Court of Rome to which is added the Pope's Brief to the Assembly of the Clergy and their Protestation published by Dr. Burnet 80. Dr. Cumber's Companion to the Altar 80. Dr. Sherlock's Practical Discourse of Religious Assemblies 80. Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet's Unreasonableness of Separation 80. A Vindication of the Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet in answer to Mr. Baxter and Mr. Lob about Catholick Communion 80. Sir Rob. Filmer's Patriarcha or natural Power of Kings 80. Bishop Wettenball's Method and Order for private Devotion 125. Valentine's Private Devotions 40. Dr. Spencer de Legibus Hebraeorum Ritualibus earum Rationibus fol. Dr. John Lightsoot's Works in English in 2 Vol. fol. Sir Tho. Brown's Vulgar Errors with all the rest of his Works fol. Patris Simonii Disquisitiones Criticae de Variis per diversa Loca Tempora Bibliorum Editionibus Accedunt Castigat Opusc Is Vossii de Sibyllinis Oraculis 40. The Case of Lay-Communion with the Church of England considered 40. Two Letters betwixt Mr. R. Smith and Dr. Hen. Hammond about Christ's Descent into Hell. 80. Dean Stratford's Disswasive from Revenge 80. Dr. Hez Burton's first Volume of Discourses of Purity and Charity of Repentance and of seeking the Kingdom of God. Published by Dean Tillotson 80. Sir Thomas More 's Vtopia newly made English by Dr. Burnet 80. Mr. Seller's Devout Communicant assisted with Rules Meditations Prayers and Anthems 12â— Dr. Towerson of the Sacraments in General Of the Sacrament of Baptism in particular 80. The History of the COVNCIL of TRENT in which besides the Ordinary Acts of the Council are declared many notable Occurrences which hapned in Christendom for 40 Years and particularly the Practices of the COVRT of ROME to hinder the Reformation of Their Errors and to maintain Their Greatness Written by Father Paul of the SERVI To which is added the Life of the Author and the History of the Inquisition Books lately Printed for Richard Chiswell Dr. Burnets History of the Reformation of the Church of England in 2 Vol. Fol. A Collection of Sixteen several Tracts and Discourses Written in the Years from 1678 to 1685. inclusive by Gilbert Burnet D. D. To which are added A Letter written to Dr. Burnet giving an Account of Cardinal Pool's Secret Powers The History of the Powder-Treason with a Vindication of the Proceedings thereupon An Impartial Consideration of the Five Jesuits dying Speeches who were Executed for the Popish Plot 1679. 40. A Dissertation concerning the Government of the Ancient Church more particularly of the Encroachments of the Bishops of Rome upon other Sees By WILLIAM CAVE D. D. Octavo An Answer to Mr. Serjeant's Sure Footing in Christianity concerning the Rule of Faith With some other Discourses By WILLIAM FALKNER D. D. 40. A Vindication of the Ordinations of the Church of England in Answer to a Paper written by one of the Church of Rome to prove the Nullity of our Orders By GILBERT BVRNET D. D. Octavo An Abridgment of the History of the Reformation of the Church of England By GILB BVRNET D. D. Octavo The APOLOGY of the Church of England and an Epistle to one Signior Scipio a Venetian Gentleman concerning the Council of Trent Written both in Latin by the Right Reverend Father in God JOHN JEWEL Lord Bishop of Salisbury Made English by a Person of Quality To which is added The Life of the said Bishop Collected and written by the same Hand Octavo The Life of WILLIAM BEDEL D. D. Bishop of Kilmore in Ireland Together with Certain Letters which passed betwixt him and James Waddefworth a late Pensioner of the Holy Inquisition of Sevil in Matters of Religion concerning the General Motives to the Roman Obedience Octavo The Decree made at ROME the Second of March 1679. condemning some Opinions of the Jesuits and other Casuists Quarto A Discourse concerning the Necessity of Reformation with respect to the Errors and Corruptions of the Church of Rome Quarto First and Second Parts A Discourse concerning the Celebration of Divine Service in an Unknown Tongue Quarto A Papist not Misrepresented by Protestants Being a Reply to the Reflections upon the Answer to A Papist Misrepresented and Represented Quarto An Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England in the several Articles proposed by the late BISHOP of CONDOM in his Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholick Church Quarto A Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England against the Exceptions of Monsieur de Meaux late Bishop of Condom and his Vindicator 40. A CATECHISM explaining the Doctrine and Practices of the Church of Rome With an Answer thereunto By a Protestant of the Church of England 80. A Papist Represented and not Misrepresented being an Answer to the First Second Fifth and Sixth Sheets of the Second Part of the Papist Misrepresented and Represented and for a further Vindication of the CATECHISM truly representing the Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome Quarto The Lay-Christian's Obligation to read the Holy Scriptures Quarto The Plain Man's Reply to the Catholick Missionaries 240. An Answer to THREE PAPERS lately printed concerning the Authority of the Catholick Church in Matters of Faith and the Reformation of the Church of England Quarto A Vindication of the Answer to THREE PAPERS concerning the Unity and Authority of the Catholick Church and the Reformation of the Church of England Quarto Mr. Chillingworth's Book called The Religion of Protestants a safe way to Salvation made more generally useful by
omitting Personal Contests but inserting whatsoever concerns the common Cause of Protestants or defends the Church of England with an exact Table of Contents and an Addition of some genuine Pieces of Mr. Chillingworth's never before Printed viz. against the Infallibility of the Roman Church Transubstantiation Tradition c. And an Account of what moved the Author to turn Papist with his Confutation of the said Motives An Historical Treatise written by an AUTHOR of the Communion of the CHVRCH of ROME touching TRANSVBSTANTIATION Wherein is made appear That according to the Principles of THAT CHVRCH This Doctrine cannot be an Article of Faith. 40. The Protestant's Companion Or an Impartial Survey and Comparison of the Protestant Religion as by Law established with the main Doctrines of Popery Wherein is shewed that Popery is contrary to Scripture Primitive Fathers and Councils and that proved from Holy Writ the Writings of the Ancient Fathers for several hundred Years and the Confession of the most Learned Papists themselves 40. The Pillar and Ground of Truth A Treatise shewing that the Roman Church falsly claims to be That Church and the Pillar of That Truth mentioned by S. Paul in his first Epistle to Timothy Chap. 3. Vers 15. 4o. The Peoples Right to read the Holy Scripture Asserted 4o. A Short Summary of the principal Controversies between the Church of England and the Church of Rome being a Vindication of several Protestant Doctrines in Answer to a Late Pamphlet Intituled Protestancy destitute of Scripture Proofs 4o. An Answer to a Late Pamphlet Intituled The Judgment and Doctrine of the Clergy of the Church of England concerning one Special Branch of the King's Prerogative viz. In dispensing with the Penal Laws 4o. 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 perfixed 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 4o. With a Table of the Contents Preparation for Death Being a Letter sent to a young Gentlewoman in France in a dangerous Distemper of which she died By W. W. 12o. 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 Tho. Tenison D. D. as also of that which led to it and followed after it 4o. 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 their Adversaries and that Their Religion is the surest Way to Heaven 4o. 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 40. The Incurable Scepticism of the Church of Rome By the Author of the Six Conferences concerning the Eucharist 40. 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 Tho. Tenison D. D. A Full View of the Doctrines and Practices of the Antient 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 CONSENSVS VETERVM NVBES TESTIVM and other Late Collections of the Fathers pretending to the Contrary 40. A BRIEF DISCOURSE Concerning the NOTES OF THE CHURCH With some REFLECTIONS on Cardinal BELLARMIN's Notes LICENSED April 6. 1687. JO. BATTELY LONDON Printed for Ric. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXVII PAge 11. l. 15. for Character r. Charter and p. 14. l. 8. r. Charter p. 16. l. 12. after Ancient and Apostolick Church add Which is the same with his second Note concerning Antiquity which must refer to the Antiquity of its Doctrine for an Ancient Church tho founded many years since if it have innovated in Doctrine cannot plead Antiquity and a Church founded but yesterday which professes the Ancient Faith may p. 18. l. 6. f. first r. fifth p. 22. l. 14. f. now r. more A BRIEF DISCOURSE Concerning the Notes of the CHURCH c. IF Cardinal Bellarmin had not told us That this is a most profitable Controversie Controv. T. 2. L. 4 de Notis Ecclesiae I should very much have wondered at that pains which he and so many other of their great Divines have taken to find out the Notes of the Church For is not the Catholick Church visible And if we can see which is this Church what need we guess at it by marks and signs and that by such marks and signs too as are matter of dispute themselves Cannot we distinguish between the Christian Church and a Turkish Mosque or Jewish Synagogue or Pagan Temple Cannot we without all this ado distinguish a Christian from a Turk or a Jew or a Pagan And it will be as easie to find out a Christian Church as it is to find out Christians for a Christian Church is nothing else but a Society of Christians united under Christian Pastors for the Worship of Christ and where ever we find such a Society as this there is a Christian Church and all such particular or National Churches all the World over make up the whole Christian Church or the Universal Church of Christ But this will not do the Cardinal's business Though the Christian Church is visible enough yet not such a Church as he
one Church which we must own for the only Catholick Church and reject all other Churches as Heretical or Schismatical or Un-catholick Churches who refuse Obedience and Subjection to this One Catholick Church For if this be not the Intent of it what will all the Notes of the Church signify to prove that the Church of Rome is the only true Catholick Church And if they do not prove this the Cardinal has lost his labour For tho the Notes he assigns were the Notes of a true Church yet they may and must belong to all other true Churches as well as to the Church of Rome unless he can prove that there is but One true Church or but One Church which is the Mistress of all other Churches and the only Principle and Center of Catholick Unity And this ought to have been proved first before he had thought of the Notes of the Church So that there are many things to be proved here before we are ready for the Notes of the Church They must first prove that there is but one true Church in the World for tho we all grant that there is but One Catholick Church yet we say there may be and hope nay more than so know that there are many true Churches which make up the Catholick Church Yet before the Notes of a true Church can do any Service to the Church of Rome they must prove that there is but one true Church in the World and then it will signify something to prove the Church of Rome to be that true Church They must prove also that the Catholick Church does not signify all the particular true Churches that are in the World but some one Church which is the Fountain of Catholick Unity which all other Churches are bound to submit to and communicate with if they will be Members of the Catholick Church For tho all the Churches in the World were in Subjection to that Church yet they receive their Catholicism from their Communion with that Church and therefore that only is the Catholick Church It is not meerly the Communion of all Churches together which makes the Catholick Church but it is the Subjection of all Churches to that one Catholick Church which makes them Catholick So that they must prove that there is one particular Church which is the Catholick Church that is that a part is the whole that one particular Church is all the Churches of the World for so the Catholick Church signifies in Ancient Writers This is so absurd that some of our Modern Advocates for the Catholick Church of Rome tell us that they do not mean the particular Diocess of Rome by the Catholick Church but all those Churches which are in Communion with the Church of Rome But suppose this yet it is only the Church of Rome which makes all the other Churches Catholick and therefore she only is the Catholick Church And I will presently make them confess it to be so For let us suppose that no other Churches should submit themselves to the Church of Rome by the Church of Rome understanding the particular Diocess of Rome would she be the Catholick Church or not If notwithstanding this she would be the Catholick Church then it is evident that they make the particular Church of Rome the Catholick Church if she would not then I cannot see how Communion with the Church of Rome is essential to the Catholick Church These things I say ought to have been proved before the Cardinal had given us the Notes of the Church for it is a hard thing to prove by Notes that the particular Church of Rome is the only Catholick Church till it be proved that a particular Church may be the Catholick Church or that there is one particular Church which is the Catholick Church This he knew we all deny and it is a ridiculous thing to think to convince us by Notes that the Church of Rome is the particular Catholick Church when we deny that there is any such Church and affirm that it is a Contradiction to own it as great a Contradiction as it is to say that a Particular Church is the Universal Church 4thly But when I consider the farther Design of these Note-Makers to find out such a Church on whose Authority we must rely for the whole Christian Faith even for the holy Scriptures themselves it makes me now admire that they should think this could be done by some Notes of a Church especially by such Notes as the Cardinal gives us For suppose he had given us the Notes of a true Church which is the utmost he can pretend to before we can hence conclude that this Church is the Infallible Guide and uncontroulable Judg of Controversies we must be satisfied that the true Church is Infallible This indeed Bellarmin attempts to prove in his third Book of the Church and it is not my Concern at present to inquire how he proves it But I am sure this can never be proved but by Scripture for unless Christ have bestowed Infallibility on the Church I know not how we can prove she has it and whether Christ have done it or not can never be known but by the Scriptures So that a Man must believe the Scriptures and use his own Judgment to understand them before it can be proved to him that there is an Infallible Church and therefore those who resolve the belief of the Scriptures into the Authority of the Church cannot without great Impudence urge the Authority of the Scriptures to prove the Church's Infallibility and yet thus they all do nay prove their very Notes of the Church from Scripture as the Cardinal does and think this is no Circle neither because we Hereticks believe the Scriptures without the Authority of their Church and therefore are willing to dispute with them out of the Scriptures But this is a fault on our side and when we dispute with them whatever we do at other times we should not believe the Scriptures till they had proved them to us their way by the Authority or their Church and then we should quickly see what blessed Work they would make of it How they would prove their Church's Infallibility and what fine Notes we should have of a Church when we had rejected all their Scripture-proofs as we ought to do till they have first satisfied us that theirs is the only true Infallible Church upon whose Authority we must believe the Scriptures and every thing else I confess I would gladly hear what Notes they would give a Pagan to find out the true Infallible Church by It is certainly a most sensless thing to resolve all our Faith into the Authority of the Church as if the Church were the first Object or our Faith in Religion whereas it is demonstrable that we must know and believe most of the Articles of the Christian Faith before we can know whether there be any Church or not The order observed in the Apostles Creed is a plain Evidence
Novel Name and disputing that their Religion vvas the truer because they were strengthened and defended by the Authority of Antiquity So vve reade in Arnobius (a) Lib. 2. and in Symmachus (b) Ad Valentin Theodos Arcad. and Prudentius (c) In Agone Romani Martyris and many others vvhom I omit contenting my self vvith St. Austine alone because he gives a most pertinent Answer to this poor Pretence vvhich will as well serve us against the Papists as it did him against the Pagans (d) Quaest ex Vet. Novo Testam ent Q. cxiv Who contended that what they held was true because of its Antiquity As if saith he Antiquity or ancient Custom should carry it against the Truth Thus Murderers Adulterers and all wicked Men may defend their Crimes for they are ancient Practices and began at the beginning of the World. Though from hence they ought rather to understand their Errour because that which is reprehensible and filthy is thereby proved to have been ill begun c. nor can it be made honest and unreprovable by having been done long ago But this is a part of the Devil's Craft and Subtilty as he excellently observes in the same Place who as he invented those false Worships and sprinkled some jugling Tricks to draw Men into them so he took such course that in process of time the Fallacy was commended and the filthy Invention was excused by being derived from Antiquity For by long Custom that began not to seem filthy which was so in it self The irrational Vulgar began to worship Doemons or dead Men who appeared to them as if they had been Gods Which Worship being drawn down into Custom of long Continuance thinks thereby to be defended as if it were the Truth of Reason Whereas the Reason of Truth is not from Custom which is from Antiquity but from God who is proved to be God not by long Continuance or Antiquity but by Eternity Let this be applied to our present Business and it is sufficient to shew that bare Antiquity cannot be a Note of Truth For there are very ancient Errors Which is so evident that it is a Wonder such a Man as Bellarmin was should let this pass the Muster among the Notes he reckons up of the Truth of his Church which he could intend for no more than to make a show not for any substantial Service Of which this is a Demonstration that he had no sooner named ANTIQVITY as the Second Note of the Church but discerning it would stand him in no stead he immediately sets it aside and cunningly slides to another thing with which he endeavours to blend and confound it For thus he argues L. iv de Ecclesia c. v. Without doubt the True Church is ancienter than the False as God was before the Devil And consequently we reade the good Seed was sown first before the Tares But who doth not see that these two things are widely different the one from the other Antiquity and Priority that which is Ancient and that which is First Whatsoever is First is undoubtedly true but whatsoever is Ancient is not always so unless it be of such Antiquity that it be also First There is a double Antiquity therefore one in respect of us the other absolute and in it self This last sort of Antiquity is the same with what is First Unto which we are desirous to go to which we are willing to stand and by which we would be judged By the Rule which Tertullian lays down in several of his Books * L. iv contra Marcion c. 5. Adv. Praxeam c. 2. De praescript c. xxx We would fain bring our Cause and Church to be tryed That is truest which was First that First which was from the Beginning that from the Beginning which was from the Apostles And in like manner that from the Apostles which in the Churches of the Apostles was most Sacred viz. That which they reade in their Holy Writings This is our Antiquity as he speaks in his famous Apology praestructa divinae literaturae †Apologia c. xlvii built before upon the Divine Learning This is the Rule of Faith which came from Christ transmitted to us by his Companions to whom all those who speak other ways will be found to be of later date But to this they of the Church of Rome will by no means agree they do not like to be tryed only by the Holy Scriptures which is the true Antiquity that is undoubtedly First before all other Traditions A very bad Sign this an Infallible Note all is not right among them that they dare not abide by the Scriptures but cry up other Traditions that is boast of what is later not what is first And what is after the First though it could be proved to be of great Antiquity cannot certainly be relied on Because there are Errors and Heresies so ancient that they sprung up presently after the first Truth Mere Antiquity therefore is not a good Proof For though the Devil be not first yet he is of great Antiquity being the old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that ancient Serpent who was a Liar as well as a Murderer from the Beginning And was so crafty as in Process of Time to make use of this Argument to prove he was the Ancient of Days that is God. And if there had not been something else whereby he might have been discovered to be a Serpent who could have contradicted him Or confuted his Doctrine and Worship if they had been to be tried by bare Antiquity Which is a Proof so insufficient that God Himself as ye heard before out of St. Austin is not proved to be God by Antiquity but by Eternity Truth and Error were born so near together that after a long Tract of Time they could not be distinguished merely by their Age. No sooner was Man created but this Serpent by his Subtilty beguiled Eve. And immediately after our Redemption he attempted again to corrupt Mens Minds from the simplicity that is in Christ 2 Cor. xi 3. 1 Thess iii. 5. And accordingly as there was a Church of Christ so there was together therewith a Synagogue of Satan Rev. iii. 9. There were Depths of Satan also and a Mystery of Iniquity which wrought even in the Apostles Days as well as a Mystery of Godliness and the deep things of God. Which wicked Doctrines running down to Posterity made use at length of the Plea of Antiquity to give them Countenance and Support Nor could it be denied tho it was proved to be a mere Deceit For it was refuted by the Fathers in such remarkable Words as these which give a deadly blow to the like Plea of the present Roman Church Custom without Truth is but the Antiquity of Error And there is a short way for Religious and Simple Minds to find out what is Truth For if we return to the Beginning and Original of Divine Tradition Human Error ceases Thither let
Whence hath it Tares They did not know that is how they came there no more than we may be able now to know how Errors came into the Church But that they were there they knew and were sure as we are sure there are false Doctrines in the Church of Rome that were not of our Saviour's planting 2. Nor do the Examples whereby they illustrate this Ratiocination serve to any purpose but to shew the Falseness of it They can name they say the Authors and Beginnings of all the ancient Heresies for instance the Heresy which affirmed there were two Persons in Christ was begun by Nestorius in the Year CDXXXI Which is not true for though then it took its Name from so great a Bishop who maintained it yet the Heresy had been before from an unknown Beginning it being mentioned by St. Ambrose in the foregoing Age in his Book of the Incarnation The like may be said of the Arian Heresy whose Beginning they date in the Year CCCXXIV but it was born long before among the Gnostick Hereticks and only got Reputation by so noted a Man as Arius Nay some of the learnedst Doctors in the present Roman Church have taken a great deal of pains to make the World believe that Tertullian and a Number of other ancient Fathers were infected with it So uncertain they are in their Discourses about these matters 3. Which if they were true would uphold the greatest Impieties For what will become of the Christian Religion if the Traditional Law of the Jews be true And according to this way of Reasoning it must pass for Truth that it came from Mount Sinai by word of Mouth as the written Law did for none can shew its Original much less name the Authors of the several Tradions and who opposed them c. Nay the Worship of the Heathen Gods was supported by this Argument as is excellently observed by Clemens Alexandrinus who tells the Gentiles Admon ad Gentes p. 36 37. That Fables and Time had advanced dead Men into the Number of the Gods. For though things present being familiar to us are neglected yet those which are past and gone being out of the reach of Confutation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the obscurity and uncertainty of Times have honour invented for them By which means those that are dead long ago glorying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a long time of Error are accounted Gods by Posterity The same may be said for the lying Oracles among them the Beginnings and first Authors of which cannot be traced 4. But we have an Instance of this in the Roman Church it self where there is an acknowledged Change and yet they themselves are not able to tell who first began it because it crept in by insensible Degrees The Communion I mean in one kind was not used for above a thousand years but being begun in some Churches they themselves cannot tell which nor when grew to be a general Custom not long before the Council of Constance in these Western Parts of the World and there was established as a Law. But it did not begin by the Decree of any Bishop nor was carried on by any publick Order and if you ask them who first set it on foot they will tell you that doth not appear Therefore the Second alone of those Six things being proved that new Doctrines and Practices have been brought in of which we are very certain there needs none of the rest But we are sure there was a time and Authors of them and People that embraced them though we should not be able for want of ancient Records that are lost or because things that come in insensibly cannot in every Age be noted and recorded to tell the very time and Place and Persons when and where and by whom they were introduced All which is not said by us because we are not able to give an account of the other parts of that Ratiocination but only to shew the Frivolousness of such Discourses as these in which they of the Church of Rome place their main Retreat For we can tell nay their own Authors have told us when and by whom many things were brought into their Church which were not there in the Beginning Polydore Virgil if I had room to insert his Words would furnish us with several Instances But I shall content my self with Two which were at no great distance the one from the other The First is their grand Article of Faith about the Papal Authority We know and have often told them by what steps it grew to the height wherein now it is or would be when the Bishops of Rome began to exceed their Bounds how they were opposed and snub'd who and by whom was first declared the Universal Bishop and Head of the Church Victor began the Dance Zozimus after some others followed it Boniface continued it Celestine carried it on Who met with so sharp a Rebuke from the African Bishops for his intrusion into their Affairs upon the pretence of a forged Canon of the Nicene Council as is sufficient to shew his Ambition and Craft was greater than his Authority The Attempts of the rest are as notorious and so is the Opposition they met withall till at last Boniface the 3d procured to himself from Phocas the Title of Vniversal Bishop and to his Church the Title of Head of all Churches All this we can justify out of Authentick Records but it is not in their Power to name so much as one Man that owned the Universal Jurisdiction of the Roman Bishop over the whole Church till that time that is till above six hundred years after our Saviour's Birth For though Bellarmin alledges an Epistle of Justinians wherein he calls the Church of Rome the Head of all Churches yet is signifies nothing but that they are at a loss for want of Proofs because as it is with great Reason suspected to be spurious so it can intend no more than Head of the Churches of the West because in an undoubted Edict of his he calls the Church of Constantinople by the same Name the Head of all other Churches i.e. Chief of those in the East Which is so certain that their own Pope Gregory not much above a year before this arrogant Title was assumed most vehemently disdained it or rather thundred against it Nor can they name one Man in the whole Church for so long a time that believed their present Definition of the Catholick Church much less the Power of the Pope to depose Kings which none challenged till Gregory VII that is till above a thousand years after our blessed Saviour Insomuch that their fore-named Champion †C. Bellarm. Tract de potestate Summ. Pontif. p. 27. being to prove this deposing Power out of ancient Authors is able to say no more than this I have alledged above LXX famous Writers some of which flourish'd more than 500 Years ago A goodly Business a glorious Shew of Antiquity instead of the
first five hundred Years after Christ to refer us to the last five hundred Which is to confess the Novelty of their most beloved Doctrines And consequently to quit this Note of Antiquity as in Truth he plainly doth in that Book where being pressed with this Argument That no such Power was claimed in the first Times of the Church he answers ‖ Ib. cap. 3. p. 69. That he hath not right Conceptions of the Church of Christ who admits nothing but what he reads expresly written or done in the ancient Church For the Church of later time hath Power not only to explain and declare but constitute and command those things which belong to Faith and Manners Which is as much as to say they need not trouble themselves about Antiquity for they can make Articles of Faith now which were not heard of in the Beginning 2. We have often also told them by what steps Images crept into the Church For they remained at first only in private Houses for Ornament or for Commemoration and not uncensured There being above 300 Years past before they came into any Church and then not without Opposition and for this end only to be of an Historical use to remind People of things past Which improved in 300 Years more to a Rhetorical use as we may call it to stir up Devotion in the People For which purpose Gregory the Great fancied they were profitable and tho he by no means allowed them to be worshipped yet he thought the People might look upon them and worship God before them And this looking upon them to help Devotion was improved in the time of the second Nicene Council into a downright worshipping of them which would not pass in these Western Parts for good Doctrine And when at last we know and have told them by what steps this new Worship advanced hither and grew to a greater Degree of Religious Respect than that Nicene Council admitted the most zealous Defenders of it could not agree about it nor do they know what to make of it to this day We could tell them of other things that are much newer for it is but a little more than 100 Years since unwritten Traditions were decreed to be a part of the Rule of Faith that is of the Word of God. But this is sufficient to shew that they vainly boast of Antiquity which is only ancient Error and some of it not very ancient neither As for ancient Truth that 's on our side whom they most injuriously accuse of following Novelties III. For the Religion of the Church of England by Law established is the true Primitive Christianity In nothing New unless it be in rejecting all that Novelty which hath been brought into the Church But they are the Cause of that for if they had not introduced new Articles we should not have had occcasion for such Articles of Religion as condemn them Which cannot indeed be old because the Doctrines they condemn are new tho the Principle upon which we condemn them is as old as Christianity we esteeming all to be new which was not from the Beginning For as for our positive Doctrine Polydore himself hath given a true Account of it and makes it the Reason why the Sect called Evangelick as he speaks increased so marvelously in a short time because they affirmed that no Law was to be received which appertains to the Salvation of Souls but that which Christ or the Apostles had given * L. viii cap. 4. de rerum Inventoribus And who dare say that this is a new Religion which is as old as Christ and his Apostles With whom whosoever agree they are truly ancient Churches tho of no longer standing than Yesterday As they that disagree with them are New tho they can run up their Pedigree to the very Apostles Thus Tertulian †L. de praescript c. xxxii discourses with whose Words something contracted I shall conclude As the Doctrine of a Church when it is divers from or contrary unto that of the Apostles shews it not to be an Apostolick Church tho it pretend to be founded by an Apostle So those Churches that cannot produce any of the Apostles or Apostolical Men for their Founders being much later and newly constituted yet conspiring in the same Faith are nevertheless to be accounted Apostolick Churches because of the CONSANGVINITY OF DOCTRINE THE END LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard 1687. The Third Note of the CHURCH EXAMINED VIZ DURATION Tertia Nota est Duratio diuturna nec unquam interrupta Bellarm L. iv c. vi IMPRIMATUR Apr. 30. 1687. GVIL. NEEDHAM HOW far the Church of God is beholden to the Industry of some Learned Men in the Church of Rome for the Notes they give of a Church is not my Business at present to examine But those of the Reformed Religion must acknowledg themselves obliged to them for so frankly quitting those Characters which are essential to every true Church and for taking up with such as either apparently belong not to their Church or belong to other Churches as well as theirs or lastly such as may be found in a false Church as well as a true This might easily be proved against them through the fifteen Notes which are offered by them to the World But I shall content my self to give an Instance of it in the Note of Duration which is made by them a necessary Mark of the true Church In Prosecution of which I shall consider I. What is to be understood by the Term Duration II. How far Duration may be said to be a Note of the true Church III. Whether the Church of Rome hath a sufficient Title to this Character § I. Duration according to Bellarmin is the continuance of a Church throughout all Times without Interruption and he adds that the Catholick Church is so called not only because it always hath been but also because it always will be So that this Duration doth include in it these three Things 1. The Being of a Church from the Beginning 2. The Continuance of that Church to the End. 3. The Continuance of that Church from the Beginning to the End without Interruption Let us now see how he applies it to the Case It 's evident saith he that our Church hath continued from the beginning of the World hitherto Or if we speak of the State of the New Testament it hath endured from Christ to this Year 1557. The Year when he wrote this But for all his Beginning its evident there is no Proof of what he affirms and his Assertion is very insufficient 1. That he takes it for granted that his Church and the Christian Church are one and the same and that there is no other true Church but his It 's evident our Church c. 2. That he has omitted two main Branches of his Duration viz. That part of it which was to the end of the World which is
from themselves is consistent with their Nature and for all which if the Errors are not fundamental they are Churches still but to find Errors and Contradictions in an Infallible Church is to confound the nature of things to give the Infallible Church no advantage over the Fallible and to expose the Persons that betake themselves to that shelter to all the Disquietudes Uncertainties and Disappointments of Ignorance and Error For what is the usual Reason given for forsaking other Churches but because they are Fallible What is the Reason why they go over to the Church of Rome but because she is as they are made to believe Infallible But if with her Infallibility she has mistaken if with her Certainty she contradicts her self if she was one thing in one Age and another in another then there is the same Reason to quit the Church of Rome as there was to imbrace it and such persons must either be contented with a Church that is Fallible or be of none THE END Pag. 63. Marg. lin ult read in Apoc. 17. 5. LONDON Printed by J. D. for Richard Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1687. The Fourth Note of the CHURCH EXAMINED VIZ AMPLITUDE or Multitude and Variety of Believers Quarta Nota est Amplitudo sive Multitudo Varietas Credentium Bellarm. L. iv c. vii de Notis Ecclesiae IMPRIMATUR Apr. 27. 1687. GVIL. NEEDHAM WE could very willingly appeal to our Adversaries themselves were they unconcerned whether a plainer Proof can be given of a Baffled Cause in a Controversy relating to any Point of revealed Religion than for the Assertors of it to decline maintaining it by those Books which alone can acquaint us with Divine Revelations But 't is Notorious that the Romanists are highly chargeable upon this Account in their Endeavours to persuade the World that theirs is the only true Church They need not be told that we are beholden to the Holy Scriptures for our having any Notion of such a thing as a Church and they and we are agreed that that only is the true Christian Church which professeth the true Christian an Faith and therefore how is it possible they should not be aware that the best way to be satisfied whether those who challenge to themselves the Title of the True and Catholick Church have it really belonging to them is to examine their Faith by the Holy Scriptures Which 't is hard to imagine they can think to be so imperfect a Rule of Faith as to believe it a justifiable thing to be so averse to this Method as we have ever found they are This we of the Reformation have always stuck to and we are desirous of nothing more than that it may be tryed by the Faith we profess whether we are sound Members of the Catholick Church and the soundness of our Faith may be tryed by the Scriptures But instead of taking this Course those of the Roman Communion have invented and do insist on a Company of Notes and Characters of the Church which are either not to be met with or are far from being plainly delivered in Scripture Had this been our practice I appeal to their own Consciences whether they could have imputed it to a better Cause than our being conscious to our selves of the disagreeableness of our Faith with the Doctrine of Scripture and our not daring to have it brought to this Touch-stone Of this sort of Notes Cardinal Bellarmine hath given us no fewer than Fifteen among which he could afford no Place to this Note of ours though 't is as evident as the Light that this one alone would have signified much more to his Purpose than all that long Bead-roul put together The Design of this Discourse is to examine his Fourth Note viz. Amplitudo sive Multitudo Varietas Credentium Amplitude or Multitude and Variety of Believers And how far he makes it to extend his next Words inform us viz. Ecclesia enim verè Catholica non solum debet amplecti omnia Tempora sed etiam omnia Loca omnes Nationes omnia Hominum Genera The truly Catholick Church ought not only to comprehend all Ages but also all Places all Nations and all Sorts of Men. And First He endeavours to prove this to be a true Note Secondly To make it to belong to the Church of Rome and to her alone Thirdly To perswade us that those particularly who call themselves the Reformed Churches can lay no claim to it And it shall be my Business First To shew that this cannot be a Note of the true Church And Secondly Supposing it to be so that the Church of Rome will however gain nothing by it as to her Pretension nor the Reformed Churches lose any thing Nay on the contrary that it will quite overthrow her Pretension of being the whole Catholick Church and do the Reformed Churches as great Service as Her Prejudice First I will briefly shew that this cannot be a Note of the true Church By a Note is understood a distinguishing Character but this is such a Character of the true Church as no one could less distinguish it And that whether we consider the Members thereof under either the notion of a great Multitude or a great Multitude of Believers Considering them under the Notion of a great Multitude the Church which is Christ's Kingdom is far from being distinguishable as such from the Kingdom of Satan which was always incomparably more numerous Or from that part of it which consisteth of Idolatrous Pagans What Romanist can boast of his Church in reference to this Note as Demetrius the Silver-Smith did of his Diana when he said That all Asia and the World worshipped her Nor can the Church of Christ by the Number of its Members be distinguished from the Worshippers of that great Impostor Mahomet which the Sons of the Roman Church must especially grant to be far exceeding the Members of Christ's true Church in Number since they make themselves the only Catholicks Again considering them under the Notion of a great Multitude of Believers there was an Age in which the Orthodox Christians could not be distinguished from Hereticks by the greatness of their Number whom the Romanists will not admit to be Members of the Church in any sense for in the Reign of Arrianism ingenuit Orbis mirabatur c. The World lamented and wondred to find it self turned Arrian saith St. Hierom. And it became a Proverb Athanasius against the whole World and the whole World against Athanasius And lastly the Church of Christ is not to be thus distinguished from the Kingdom of Antichrist I wish our Adversaries could impartially consider whose Note that of having Power given him over all Kindreds and Tongues and Nations is most likely to be Apoc. 13.7 And who it is that is described by sitting as upon seven Hills so upon many Waters Chap. 17.1 Which Waters are Peoples and Multitudes and Nations Vers 15. and Tongues These
more evidently proved to be no true Catholicks than those of the Roman Communion may in all those Articles of Faith which are peculiar to themselves For as to Points of mere Belief how much more than the Apostles Creed can they shew us to have been received always every where and by all Christians But as for that large Addition of Tridentine Articles annexed to that Creed by P. Pius the 4th no unbiassed Person can believe they have ever done any thing like proving that any of them have been received always and much less every where and by all those whom themselves own for Catholick Christians 4. By this Note of a Catholick no Society of Christians can bid so fair for Catholicism as the Reformed Churches but especially the Church of England whose avowed Principle it is to receive nothing as an Article of Faith but what is contained in the holy Scriptures Artic. 6. or may be proved thereby Nor doth she embrace any one Doctrine as an Article of Faith but what is clearly expressed in those Books of whose Canonicalness there never was the least Dispute in the Primitive Church Secondly I proceed to shew that if we should acknowledg this to be a true Note of the Catholick Church instead of enabling the Church of Rome to make good her Pretension of so being it will destroy it And instead of doing Disservice to the Reformed Churches it will do them excellent Service and be a certain Argument of their being true Parts of the Catholick Church And 1. I will shew that it will not at all Advantage the Church of Rome as to that her Pretension and therefore can do us no Prejudice The Cardinal proves 1. That his Church began to fructify throughout the World in the Days of the Apostles from these Words of St. Paul Col. 1.6 The Truth of the Gospel is come unto you as it is in all the World and bringeth forth Fruit as it doth also in you c. But what is this to his Church Is the Gospel's bringing forth Fruit in all the World the same thing with the Church of Rome's so doing 2. He adds the Authority of several Fathers for this Church's being spread in their Time all over the then known World but gives us none of their Sayings except St. Prosper's The first Father he cites is St. Irenaeus in the 3d Chapter of his Book Edit Paris p. 53. But the Father here only saith That this Faith which he sums up immediately before and is but the chief part of the Apostle's Creed the Church disseminated throughout the World diligently preserves as if it were confined but to one House But how doth this concern the Church of Rome Which is not once mentioned with others here particularly named except we could be made to believe that wheresoever the Word Church is found that Church is still to be understood Next he cites Tertullian adversùs Judaeos Edit Rig. p. 189. and having search'd that Book these or none are the Words he means viz. Those Words of David are to be understood of the Apostle's their Sound is gone forth in all the Earth and their Words unto the End of the World For in whom have all Nations believed but in Christ who is now come The Parthians Medes Elamites and those that inhabit Mesopotamia Armenia Phrygia Cappadocia Pontus Asia and Pamphilia Egypt Africa and beyond Cyrene the Romans and Jews now in Jerusalem and other Nations as now of the Getuli and Moors all Spain divers Countries of the Gauls and those of the Britains which the Romans could never conquer are subject to Christ c. But I again ask What is all this to the Church of Rome more than to any other particular Church belonging to any one of the many Nations of which that of the Romans is one and two whole Quarters of the World here mentioned His third Father is St. Cyprian Edit Oxon. p. 10◠in his Book de Vnitate Ecclesiae But here is nothing he could fancy to be for his purpose except these Words The Church is one which by its Fruitfulness is extended into a Multitude As there are many Rays of the Sun and but one Light c. So the Church of our Lord which being filled with Light sends forth her Beams through the whole World is but one Light which is diffused every-where But though this be said of the Catholick Church is here the least Intimation that the Church of Rome is this Catholick Church After St. Cyprian follow several of the later Fathers their Books being only directed to But the narrow room I am confined to will not permit me to examine them nor need we look any farther to be satisfied how this greatest Man of the Roman Church condescended to the most shameful impertinence in citing Scripture and Fathers for the doing her Service But we must not overlook St. Prosper's Verses in his Book de Ingratis viz. Sedes Roma Petri quae Pastoralis Honoris Facta Caput Mundo quicquid non possidet Armis Relligione tenet i. e. Rome the Seat of Peter being made the Head of Pastoral Honour in the World whatsoever Country she possesseth not by her Arms she holds by her Religion But considering how early this Father lived viz. about the beginning of the Fifth Century he could mean no more than this That the Church of Rome the most Honourable of all other by means of that Cities being the ancient Seat of the Emperors keeps still possession of those places by the Religion they received from Her over which she hath lost Her Old Dominion And what is this but another plain Instance of most idle quoting of Ancient Authors Not to reflect upon Fetching Arguments from Poetical Flourishes But not to stand to consider how Ample the Roman Church was in the times of those Fathers nothing is more evident than that that part of Christendom she took up was but a small Spot of Ground compared with the Space those Churches filled which tho they held Communion with Her were distinct Churches from Her and owned no Subjection to Her. And it was about or above an Hundred Years after the youngest of those Fathers that the Pope was inverted by that Execrable Wretch Phocas a Blessed Title in the mean time with the Primacy over all Churches And Gregory the Great who died in the Beginning of the Sixth Century not only sharply inveighed against John Patriarch of Constantinople and his Successor Cyriacus for assuming to themselves the Title of Vniversal Bishops though there was no appearance of their designing any thing more thereby than an Addition of Honour not of Power to that Patriarchate but also called those who should affect such a Haughty Title Greg. Epist 37. 70. lib. 11. Ep. 30. l. 4. the Forerunners of Antichrist And as these Bishops taking this Title was a Demonstration that they acknowledged not the least Subjection to the Bishops of Rome so Pope Gregory's calling
plain Evidence of the want of true Antiquity This is like suborning of Witnesses which is enough to make all the World suspect that what they are brought for and what they depose is not true it is no other than forging of old Writings and Instruments to help out the known Weakness of a crackt Title Thus the Decretal Epistles were counterfeited to prop up the Pope's Spiritual Power and Constatine's Donation to establish his Temporal The Cheat of the first was so evident from the Style being so sordid and so unlike those Ages and yet being so like it self in all parts as shew'd it to have throughout but one Author that tho they were formerly made use of and did great Service yet they are now laid by as too gross to be owned by most of the Learned Men of that Church and the other tho it be still defended by some of them yet has such marks of Forgery as makes most of them confess it but great numbers are there of forged and spurious Authors whole Testimonies are still produced by these Writers for those Doctrines and Opinions which are destitute of true Antiquity a Collection of which is given us by our James in his Bastardy of the false Fathers and all those Criticks who have wrote Censures upon the Fathers Works cannot but own it I cannot charge this upon any publick Act of the Church as that of purging and correcting the Fathers but most of their Writers who bring such large and false Musters of the Fathers are guilty of it and particularly some of their late Books amongst us * Consensus Veterum Nubes Testium We have a very great and early Instance of this notorious way of Forgery in the very Head and Governours of that Church and that was in falsifying the Nicene Canons and thrusting in a Canon of a particular Synod among those of a General Council thereby to claim a Power of Appeals to themselves which was such an Imposture as shows what some Men will do to gain Power and Authority over other Churches and what an unfaithful Preserver a Church may be that pretends to be infallible not only of Oral Tradition but even of Writings too for they had Copies without question of the Council of Nice and if the other great Churches of Constantinople Antioch and Alexandria had not had authentick and agreeing Copies to the contrary the Churches of Africa had been run down by one of the most palpable Forgeries in the World and the Church of Rome would no doubt have made a great deal more use of it afterwards than upon that particular occasion But 3. Tho Antiquity is to be sometimes supprest and stifled that it may say nothing against them and sometimes suborned and counterfeited that it may bear false Witness for them and tho they generally make a fair show and a great noise with the pretence of it yet they cannot but often betray the little Esteem and Regard which they have of it thus to give an Instance or two In the famous Question of the Virgin 's immaculate Conception tho the Fathers are acknowledged to be generally against it and their own Bishop Canus †De Sanctorum Auctoritate l. 7. loc Theolog. c. 1. Lovan reckons up St. Ambrose St. Austin St. Chrysostom and a great many more who expresly assert her being conceived in Original Sin and says that this is the unanimous Opinion of all the Fathers who happen to make mention of it (a) Sancti namque omnes qui in ejus rei mentionem incidere uno ore asseuerarunt beatam Virginem in Peccato originali conceptam hoc vid. Ambig hoc August hoc Chrysost c. Ib. yet he declares this to be a very weak and infirm Argument which is drawn from the Authority of all the Fathers and that notwithstanding that the contrary Opinion is piously and probably maintained and defended in the Church (b) Infirmum tamen exomnium authoritate argumentum ducitur quin potius contraria sententia probabilitèr piè in Ecclesiâ defenditur Ib. and Bellarmine says (c) Inter Catholicos non sunt numerandi Bellarm. de Amis grat l. 4. c. 15. they are not to be reckoned among Catholicks who are of another Opinion tho it be contrary it seems to all Antiquity Thus at other times Bellarmine shifts off the Authority of St. Cyprian when he plainly opposes that of the Pope and says that he mortally erred and offended in so doing (d) Videtur mortalitèr peccasse Bellarm l. 4. de Romano Pontifico c. 7. and concerning Justin Martyr Irenaeus and others their Opinion he says cannot be defended from great Error (e) Eorum sententiam non video quo pacto ab errore possumus defendere Bellarm. de beat §. l. 1. c. 6. when it is against his own thus also of St. Hierom he was of that Opinion but it is false and it shall be refuted (f) Videtur Hieronymus inâ—eâ sententiâ fuiâ—se sed falsa est c suo loco râ—fâ—llenda Bellarm. de Pontif. Rom. l. 1. c. 8. And to mention no more tho they stick not upon all occasions to slight and contemn Antiquity when it will not make for them Baronius one of their greatest Searchers into Antiquity but as great a Corrupter of it who had taken that Oath I suppose prescribed by Pope Pius 4th not to receive or expound Scripture but according to the uniform Consent of the Fathers yet doth unwarily but ingenuously confess that the holy Fathers whom for their great Learning we justly call the Doctors of the Church yet the Catholick that is Roman Church doth not always follow nor in all things the Interpretation of Scripture * Nam sanctissimos Patres quos Doctores Ecclesiae ob illorum sublimem eruditionem merito nominamus in Interpretatione Scripturarum non semper ac in omnibus Catholica Ecclesia sequitur Baron Annal. Eccles an 34. n. 213. p. 238. Colon. They can go off it seems from their Oath and from the Fathers too when they think fit and they are not always bound to keep so close to Antiquity as they give out at other times and pretend they do But in the last place 4. The Determinations and Decrees of the present Church are the only things they stick to and 't is the Authority and Infallibility of that which they relie more upon and a thousand times more regard than all Antiquity or the whole Sense of the Primitive Church They pretend indeed not to determine any thing contrary either to Scripture or to the Primitive Church but they make themselves the only Judges of both they tells us they make no new Doctrines nor no Innovations in Faith but they keep to themselves the Power of declaring what Doctrines are new and what are not and then I can see little difference between their making and their declaring new Articles of Faith since 't is their declaring makes them to be believed
Direction of not being tossed to and fro c. 3. Are condemned by Tertullian who bids us adhere to what is first And 4. By Vincentius Lyrinensis And 5. Have given ill Example by which the Reformers can justify themselves And lastly Have plainly condemned several Popes and the whole Lateran Council under Innocent III as not sufficiently knowing what the Church was since their Notion of it could not content those which came after them A great Injury and of dangerous Consequence Lastly Upon a Comparison of one with the other P. 432 c. and of both with the Antient Doctrine and Discipline of the Church he looks upon Bellarmin's Definition as the better of the Two because it may be so mollified by the Help of the Word Praecipuè chiefly which is in it as to admit of a tolerable Reconciliation with the Definition of the Antients which as he shews can no way agree with that of Canisius And upon the whole he concludes P. 450. That however Bellarmin's might be preferrable if either of them were necessary yet it will be hard for Catholicks to make their Complaints of Innovating which they heap upon Hereticks to appear just so long as they themselves shall retain such a Novel Definition and that if Gregory VIIths Rule were observed viz. That nothing should be drawn into Example or Authority which is contrary to the Fathers then even this his Definition tho it had been received yet ought to be rejected To this purpose that Accurate Writer as he is deservedly called by ‖ Letter to Bp. of Linc. p. 319. F. Walsh has argued to the utter confusion of the Cardinal's Argument from Union with the Pope as Head or of the Members among themselves For how can that be a Note of the True Church now which never was thought to belong to the Nature of it for 1500 Years together and which their own most Learned Lovers of Antiquity and Pious Opposers of Novelty do not think essential to it at this Day And where is the so much boasted Consent of the Members amongst themselves in all Matters of Faith I believe the holy Catholick Church is an Article of Faith. I would know of those Gentlemen who are at such perfect agreement amongst themselves what this Church is Bellarmine answers one thing Canisius another so contrary that if one speaks true the other must needs have told me that which is false And while the Definition of the former is followed by some and that of the later which is the worse is more generally received Launoy and many more of the most Learned sort stick to the Antients who are as different from both as they are from one another And yet after all we must be told that they are perfectly agreed in all matters of Faith and that this invisible unintelligible Union shews plainly that the Roman is the true Church One would hardly think that they are in earnest unless by Union they mean an equal Resolution to carry on the Dispute as long as they can contend and no longer Which kind of Union is to be met with almost every Term in Westminster-Hall where one may see two Parties prosecuting one another with all imaginable vigour who yet resolve to be quiet when the Bench has made them so Not that the Party who is cast in the Suit must needs change his Opinion of his own Cause because the last Verdict was against him but that if a new Trial will not be granted he is bound to acquiesce in the Judgment of the Court because it has a Sheriff with the Posse Comitatus to put it into Execution Thus they that make the Sentence of the Pope and they that make the Sentence of a Council the Sentence of the Church are united in a Resolution to stand to the Arbitrement of the Church there being a certain sensible Obligation upon them to profess that they will acquiesce in its Determination But in the mean time they may undoubtedly quarrel amongst themselves about Questions of such mighty Importance as that we mentioned even now and this without breach of Union amongst themselves till the Sentence of the Pope or the Sentence of a Plenary Council or the Sentence of both comes to part them Which yet will be long enough first if each side of the Question be abetted with numerous and able Parties that are at present both of 'em resolved to submit absolutely to the Church lest one of them upon an unseasonable Sentence should be provoked to change its Resolution And thus as we observed before the Question about the Immaculate Conception has been left undecided so long lest by determining that a more dangerous Question should be raised by the disobliged Party But if it should so happen that the Church cannot well avoid declaring her self in such a Case this new-fashion'd Union goes forward still tho she speaks so ambiguously that each Party fancies the Sentence to be on its own side which was done often at Trent with great Application and Art Particularly in the Decrees concerning Grace and Assurance of being Justified c. Which being finished Soto and Vega differed not only as much but something more than they did at first for now they had a new Question to debate viz. on which side the Council had decreed and so they fell to writing great Books upon it against one another But for all this they were admirably agreed because they agreed in submission to the Council I proceed to shew III. That that Vnity which is indeed a Note of the Church we have and that in a much greater degree than they Which Point will I hope yield some Discourse that will be more useful than barely to discover Mistakes and expose Sophistry For here I shall represent as well as I can the true Grounds and Notions of Church-Unity and then see who has most reason to pretend to it they or we 1. There is the Vnity of submitting to one Head our Lord Jesus Christ which is the Foundation of all other Christian Unity and therefore mentioned by St. Paul amongst the principal Reasons why the Church is one Body Eph. iv 5. One Lord. 2. There is the Vnity of professing the Common Faith that was once delivered to the Saints which is grounded upon the Authority of the Scriptures and summarily expounded in the Antient Creeds And therefore to One Lord the Apostle in the forementioned place adds one Faith. 3. There is an Unity of Sacraments in the Church One Baptism by which we are all admitted into the same state of Duties and of Priviledges undertaking the Conditions of the New Covenant and gaining a Right to the Promises thereof Thus saith St. Paul 1 Cor. xii 13. By one Spirit we are all Baptized into one Body And the like Unity is inferred from the other Sacraments 1 Cor. x. 17. We being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread. And again
in their own Tongue to have it in Latin they stoutly resisted him So that the Pope that he might keep up his usurped Authority was forced to pretend that he gave them leave to have it in their own Language But amongst all his Instances the Cardinal had least reason to have mention'd the Conversion of the Indians and Jews For as for the Indians the unheard-of Cruelties which even the Popish Historians relate to have been used towards them and their gross Ignorance after their Conversion are a sufficient Evidence how little they were beholden for it to the Doctrine which was taught them One would wonder how it were possible for Mankind to be guilty of such inhuman Barbarities as Bartolomaeus Casas who was a Bishop and lived in India relates the Spaniards to have committed In abhorrence whereof Acosta has a Discourse on purpose to shew the Unreasonableness of making War against the Barbarians L. 2. c. 2 c. De Ind. salut procur upon the account of Religion He afterwards discourses of the Capacity of the Indians asserting that they ought to have better Instructors sent them That those which they then had had been of such little use to them that after the space of forty Years there were scarce any found amongst so great a number of Converts who understood two Articles of the Creed L. 4. c. 3. p. 358. or had any apprehension what Christ Eternal Life or the Eucharist meant But this concerning the Conversion of the Indians has already been mentioned in Note the fourth As for the manner of converting the Jews I shall only make mention of one Instance which happened in the time of Heraclius the Emperour who writ to Dagobert the King of France that he would command all the Jews in his Dominions to turn Christians Aimoin iv 22. and either to banish or slay those who would not who accordingly did so banishing as many as would not be baptized Since Erasmus who knew these matters well enough has so freely declared that altho their Conversion be a thing much to be wished for yet that such Courses were taken by some to effect it that of a wicked Jew Erasm Annoâ— in Mat. 23. it often happened there was made a Christian much more wicked than he was before his Conversion Having thus shewn the weakness of the Cardinal's Arguments all that I shall add upon this Subject shall be only this That the mean Account some of our new Converts have given of Themselves and the Motives of their Change looks not very favourable upon this Ninth Note and makes it suspicious that the Efficacy of Doctrine was not the only thing that did the work But that on the other hand since the chiefest Patrons of the Romish Cause do at this time endeavour to disguise their Religion with so much Artifice and to represent it as like ours as they can they do really think their Doctrine by its own Worth and Excellency then most likely to prevail when it is made appear to be most akin to that of the Reformed Churches THE END ERRATA PAge 212. line 26. read sets it in Page 223. line 22. r. the Church LONDON Printed by J. D. for Richard Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1687. The Tenth Note of the CHURCH EXAMINED VIZ HOLINESS of LIFE Decima Nota est Sanctitas Vitae Auctorum sive primorum Patrum nostrae Religionis Bellarm. L. iv c. 13. de Notis Ecclesiae IMPRIMATUR June 22. 1687. Jo. Battely IN this Argument it may suffice if it be shown I. What the Notion of Holiness is II. That Holiness is not properly a Note of the true Church III. That if it were a Note of the true Church yet it would not so belong to the Roman as to distinguish it from all other Churches and to appear upon it as the Infallible Character of the only Fold of Christ I. For Holiness it is of two kinds Holiness of Calling and Dedication of Mind and Manners By Holiness of Calling and Dedication I mean the Separation of Persons from the unbelieving and wicked World and the incorporating of them by Baptism into the Spiritual Society of the Christian Church And by such means the dedicating of them to the Service of Christ according to the tenour of the Evangelical Covenant In this Sense St. Paul told the Members of the Church of Corinth (a) 1 Cor. 6.11 that they were wash'd and sanctify'd or by their Christian Calling or Dedication made Sacred and Holy. By Holiness of Mind and Manners to which Bellarmin here gives the Name of Probity a Vertue commended by him but coldly obey'd I understand the habitual private and publick Practice of Christian Religion as it proceeds from the true Principle of it the Love of God as it is measur'd by the True Rule of it Right Reason in Conjunction with the Revealed Will of God And as it is directed to its proper Ends the Glory of God and the Good of all reasonable Creatures For this kind of Holiness St. Paul (b) 1 Thess 5.23 makes pious Application to God in behalf of the Thessalonians saying The very God of Peace sanctify you wholly and I pray God your whole Spirit and Soul and Body be preserved blameless to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Now II. Neither of these kinds of Holiness can be properly called a Note of the true Church For the first Kind It is confess'd that the Christian Church is Holy and it was called Holy in the Creed before the Epithet of Catholick was inserted into that Sum of Faith (c) S. Cypr. Epist 70. p. 190. cum dicimus h. e. Baptizandis credis in vitam aeternam remissionem Peccatorum per Sanctan Ecclesiam And the Supream Pastor of the Church lov'd it in such extraordinary manner that (d) Ephes 5.25 26 27. He gave himself for it that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of Water by the Word by Baptism and Assent to the Doctrine and Conditions of the Gospel That he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinckle or any such thing any thing which may seem uncomely to Christ to whom she as Supream Head is united That it should be Holy and without blemish This Holiness of Dedication is elegantly set forth after the manner of the Oriental Poesy in the Book of the Canticles in which is represented the Spiritual Marriage of Christ and his chaste and unblemish'd Church Though some Romanists have wrested these and other places which speak of her Dove-like and undefiled Nature and apply them to that which they please to call the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin (e) V. Coron preuves par l' Escriture du contenu en la foy Catholique p. 1. So ready are they who upbraid the Reformed with Interpreting Scripture out of their own Heads to do the same thing themselves and with a much greater mixture of
beginning the Christians at Rome were famous both for their Faith and Manners And no Man that I know of asperseth Linus the first Bishop there who as Platina saith had a mighty Reputation for Sanctity and dy'd a glorious Martyr under Saturninus the Consul But the like may be alledged in favour of the Mother-Church of Hierusalem and of St. James the Bishop of it In the mean while it may be noted that in Rome it being the Imperial City there was a very early affectation of such Superiority as Christ forbad in his Kingdom And St. Hierom at the same time (i) S. Hieron Epist ad Marcellan p. 127. that he takes notice of the right Faith of Rome for then it was contain'd within the limits of the Apostles Creed he reproves that Ambition which had seated it self in Purple on the Seven Hills And this Leaven had before that time swell'd the Contentious Popes Victor and Stephen Secondly It must be further acknowledged that in the later Ages there have been Men of that Communion devoutly inclin'd and of good Morals But this Effect has not had Popery for its Cause but has been derived from Principles common to all Christians And it is from the influence of the first twelve Articles and not of the Additional ones of Trent that such Men have been so pious and so free from blemish In this number are usually put Thaulerus and Savanarola And it appears by their Words that mere Romanism was not the Spring from which their Devotions flow'd There (k) Thauler in Fest de uno aliquo Confess Luc. 11. be many saith Thaulerus who go under the Name of Religious who take great pains in Set-Fasts Vigils Orizons and frequent Confessions For they believe they may be justify'd and sav'd merely by such external Works For Savanarola his Spirit may be discerned by such Discourse as this (l) Compend Revelat. Savan p. 272 273. I never was delighted with such Books as the Revelations of St. Brigid or Abbot Joachim I never read the former and the latter very sparingly The reading of the Old and New Testament pleaseth me so much that for many Years I have used no other Book disgusting as I may say other Writings Not that I despise them but that in comparison of the Scriptures all such sweet things taste to me as bitter Neither Thirdly Have the Reformed so much of the Pharisee as to justify themselves and say that in all their Field there has not been a Tare But the Men have been in fault and not the Cause God be merciful to us Sinners greater Sinners than some others upon one account inasmuch as we offend against clearer Light. Yet it may be here noted that Bellarmin has put into his Catalogue of Sinners Simon Magus Valentine Marcion Montanus and such others as do not at all belong to us and that He and other Romanists mis-represent Luther blackning of him with slanderous Art and then exposing him as a perfect Aethiopian He was indeed a Man of warm Temper and uncourtly Language But besides that he had his Education among Those who so vehemently revil'd him it may be consider'd whether in passing through so very rough a Sea it was not next to impossible for him not to beat the insulting Waves till they foam'd again He had his Infirmities but his are taken notice of whilst more Candour is shew'd to Men of great Name and well nigh equal Heat To omit the fierce Words which pass'd betwixt St. Chrysostom and Epiphanius St. Hierom and Ruffinus it is manifest that Lucifer Bishop of Calaris in Sardinia who was much esteem'd by Pope Liberius and who is called Holy Lucifer according to the style of the time in which he lived wrote Books against his own Emperor Constantius which were one entire Invective And when for instance sake he pleas'd to call him Most Impudent Emperor (m) Luc. Calar Ad Constant pro S. Athan. p. 25. l. 1. Responde Imperator Impudentissime p. 39. Filius Pestilentiae c. p. 102. Qui sis non solum mendax sed Homicida I suppose he had not a better Talent than Luther in the Address of Courts There was therefore something else which sharpned the Tongues and Pens of many against Luther Erasmus tells us That (n) Erasm Ep. ad Albert. Episc Princ. Mogunt Cardin. p. 584 585. he perceiv'd the better any Man was the more he relish'd the Writings of Luther That his very Enemies allow'd him to be a Man of good Life That he seem'd to him to have in his Breast certain eminent Evangelical Sparks That 't was plain that some condemn'd those things in Luther's Writings which in St. Austin's and St. Bernard's Works pass'd for Orthodox and Pious The same Erasmus pointed to the true reasons of this usage of Luther (o) Carion in Cron. Auct a Peuc l. 5. He said he had two Faults He touch'd the Monks Bellies and the Popes Crown There have been much worse Men than Luther in all Parties and particularly in the Roman Church which if Inquisition were made for a Society by the Marks of Holy Life would not above all others be taken hold of And First Thus much may appear from the Complaints of Corruption in the Latin Church made in so many places by so many considerable Persons and with such deep Resentment Many Books have been professedly written upon that Subject such as those of Clemangis of the corrupt state of the Church of Alvarez Pelagius of the Plainct of the Church of Picus Mirandula concerning the Reformation of the Church offer'd to the Fathers of the Council of Lateran and of Petrus de Aliaco Cardinal of Cambray presented by him in the Council of Constance Others have in particular places tho not in an entire work given vent to their Grievances upon the like occasion How black are the Characters which are given of the State of the Latin Church by Baronius (p) Baron Annal. ad Ann. 900. p. 650. ad Ann. 912. N. 8. p. 685. N. 14. p. 689. Ed. Col. by Bellarmin (q) Bellarm. Chronol Ad Ann. 1026. p. 93. de Sacram. l. 1. c. 8. de Gemit Columbae p. 192 208. 209 392. by Genebrard (r) Genebr Chronol Ad Ann. 901. About the Year 900 and so forwards for more than an hundred Years Baronius speaks of Monsters intruded into the Holy See and by the help of Monsters For such were John the Tenth and Theodora who advanc'd him Bellarmin represents the Popes of those Times as degenerating from the Piety of their Predecessors of which some had no very great share And he says that in the West and almost all the World over and especially amongst those who were called the Faithful Faith had failed and that there was no fear of God among them He mentions the Vision of Pachomius the Abbot who it seems saw Monasteries increasing and Piety decreasing And he applys the Vision to his Age and upon that
occasion he useth the Words of the Prophet Thou hast multiply'd the Nation but not increased their Joy. Genebrard reports that for almost 150 Years the Popes were rather Apostatical than Apostolical So dismal a state of things might if he had pleas'd been reprov'd more solemnly than with a Chime of Words St. Bernard (s) S. Bern. Serm. 33. in Cant. p. 673. thus laments and reproves the loosness of his Age. Woe to this Generation because of Hypocrisy if that may be call'd Hypocrisy which for the abundance of it cannot and for its Impudence does not desire to be conceal'd In the Ceremonial for the Election of Popes (t) Cer. de Elect. Pont. p. 17. there is deep Complaint of such Corruption as in the Phrase of that Book caused the Pillars of the Church to shake In our own Kingdom the Norman Invasion has been in great measure imputed to the decay of Learning and Piety in that Age (u) G. Malms in Wil. 1. l. 3. p. 102. in which the Priests could scarce stammer out Mass He was esteemed a Prodigy in Learning who understood Grammar the great Ones frequented not the Church all sorts of People were given to shameful Intemperance In sum for many years together before the Council of Trent which acted contrary to the design for which it was by good Men desir'd no Voices were more frequent and more loud in the Roman Church than the Cries for Reformation But Secondly To pass by general Complaints we may furnish our selves with abundance of Instances in the Lives of particular Men of that Communion who have been infamous for Impiety And because Bellarmin is pleas'd to send us to the Fathers and Doctors of his Church for Examples of Holiness we will thither go observing three Things by the way First That he has put the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles into his Catalogue tho they are more Ours than His. Secondly That he has forborn the mention of any one Pope lest he should have put us upon inquiring after the rest Thirdly That He could not be ignorant of the History of the Scribes and Pharisees who were esteemed great Doctors Reverend Fathers in the Jewish Church and sate in the Chair of Moses but said and did not and dishonoured that true Church but had upon them no Note of real Sanctity by which they might commend it My Business is not to write a History of the Lives of Popes or of the Founders of Monastick Orders I shall content myself with a few Reflections upon two or three of this sort of Men with whom the more the World is acquainted the less Veneration it will have for them I will not be partial but begin with an eminent Man Pope Gregory the Great who is said to be the last of the good Popes and the first of the bad This Man took upon him to give Austin the Monk Authority over the British Bishops who were Strangers to him and never under the Yoke either of him or his Predecessors He fawn'd upon the Emperor Mauritius whilst he liv'd and prosper'd and own'd him as his Patron and the maker of his Fortunes (w) S. Greg. l. 1. Ep. 1. fol. 356. Par. 1523 l. 2. Ep. 61. fol. 373. Ex illo jam tempore dominus meus fuisti quando adhuc dominus non eras even before he had made his own But as soon as the Emperor and his Family were barbarously murthered by the most bloody Vassal and Usurper Phocas Gregory insulted over this dead Lyon and flatter'd this living Monster (x) Ep. 43. l. 11. fol. 441. Quantas Omnip Dom. laudes debemus quòd remoto jugo Tristitiae ad Libertatis teÌ„pora sub Imperiali benignitatis vestrae Pietate pervenimus c. and his most immoral Wife Leontia (y) Ep. 44. l. 11. fol. 441. Quae lingua c. He used such Words at his usurp'd Exaltation as he did at that which he call'd the Conversion of England (z) Ep. 58 l. 9. fol. 431. ad Aug. Episc Angl. de Convers Gentis Gloria in excelsis c. Lib. 11. p. 441. Ep. 36. Greg. Phocae Augusto Gloria in excelsis Deo qui juxta quod Scriptum est mutat tempora transfert Regna c. Laetenâ—ur coeli exultet Terra singing profanely Glory to God in the Highest Let the Heavens rejoice and the Earth be glad He exercis'd also his Talent of unchristian Flattery towards Brunichild Queen of France (a) L. 5. Ep. 59. f. 392. Greg. Brun. Excellentiae vestrae Christianitas c. who was stained in the Blood of ten Crown'd Heads and against whom Lucilius if alive could not write a Satyr If now even in the Life of St. Gregory the Great we want the Note of sufficient Probity at what a loss must we be in the Life of such an one as Pope John 12th who in a Synod held at Rome (b) Luitprand Hist l. 6. c. 6 7 8 9 10. p. 153 to 158. was formally accused before Otto the Great of these horrible Crimes viz. The ordaining a Deacon in a Stable the committing of Adultery and Incest the putting out the Eyes of a holy Man the drinking a Health to the God of this World the invoking of Jupiter and Venus when he was at Dice in favour of his Cast The Synod sate the Witnesses were ready his Presence was urged by the Emperor and the Synod He refused to appear and instead of purging himself he sent this Menace to the Synod That if the Fathers deposed him he would excommunicate all of them and make them uncapable of ordaining and of celebrating Mass This is testified by Luitprandus upon whose Word Bellarmine concludes the Sanctity of Pope Formosus (c) Bell. Cron. Ann. 891. p. 83. and therefore against him at least he is Author sufficient for the Wickedness of Pope John. This surpriseth not those observing Men who look into the Inside of the Consistory and see those evil Arts by which Elections are often made Arts some of which the Ceremonial it self does not dissemble (d) Cer. de Elect. Pont. p. 17. denique per quot simoniacae Haeresis Trapezitas repetitis malleis cebrisque Invasionibus subjacuit Vide in p. 37. Bull. Iulii 2. contra simoniacè electos simoniacè eligentes Touching the Sanctity of Founders of Orders St. Dominick is one of Bellarmine's great Examples But he must excuse the Reformed World if it will not take a blot for an admirable Figure Pope Innocent dream't that Dominick was chosen as a Prop to the Lateran Building which without the aid his Shoulders gave it would have fallen to the Ground As if his Holiness had not been Pillar enough for the supporting of it for perhaps he was as omnipotent as he was infallible Yet after all this he was a Trumpeter in that holy War against the innocent Albigenses in which both Swords were used to the Ruine of so many Families and the Loss of so many
's making Jesus Christ the Head of the Church never made it one So far was he from making this a Note of the true Church that he rather makes it a Sign of the contrary Luk. 6.26 Wo unto you says he when all Men shall speak well of you for so did their Fathers to the false Prophets Mat. 5.11 Our Lord calls them Blessed and certainly he speaks not of them that were out of the true Church that are reviled and have all manner of Evil said against them Luk. 6.22 23. He pronounceth them Blessed who are reproached and whose Name is cast out as Evil he bids them rejoyce in that day and be exceeding glad St. Peter reckons the Reproaches for the Name of Christ a Glory and Happiness 1 Pet. 4.14 And Simeon foretold of Jesus that he was set for a Sign which shall be spoken against Luk. 2.34 And we preach Christ crucified 1 Cor. 1.23 unto the Jews a Stumbling-block and unto the Greeks Foolishness says the great Apostle of the Gentiles So far is this Confession of Adversaries from being a Note of a true Church as the Cardinal would make it that the Reproaches and Scoffs of Enemies is no Reflection upon the true Church of Christ The worst of Men do not use to treat the best things well and when these bad Men are Enemies they do no Prejudice with wise Men by their Invectives and Reproaches Qui enim scit illum intelligere potest non nisi aliquid bonum grande à Nerone damnatum Tertull. Apol. Tertullian concludes the Christian Religion good because Nero one of the worst of Men bent his Force against it The Church will want nothing that is required though Jews and Pagans should with one Consent perpetually declaim against her In a word this Confession of Adversaries of what use soever it may be can be no Note for it is contingent and arbitrary and lies at the pleasure of those who are not only out of the Church but Enemies to it and in the Infancy of Christianity the Church was without this Note and if that be allowed to be a true Church this can be no true Note of it II. But if it should be granted that this is a true Note the next Enquiry will be whether or not the Particulars produced by the Cardinal do evince that this Note is peculiar to the Roman Church exclusively to other Christians that are not of her Communion 'T is certain that by the true Church the Notes whereof the Cardinal attempts to give us he means only the Church of Rome V. C. vi C. ix C. xi And what in the Beginning of his Book he calls the true Church he calls afterwards our Church and makes them both one and the same At last it comes to our Catholick Church with him So that this Note of his which he calls the Confession of Enemies must belong peculiarly to the Roman Church or else 't will do him no Service For this is a Rule which the Cardinal hath laid down C. II. that Notes must be proper and not common For says he if I would describe a certain Man to one who knows him not I must not say he is one that hath two Eyes and Hands c. because these are common things and he will never find him by such common Descriptions as these According to this Account we may justly expect that when the Cardinal produceth the Confession of Adversaries in behalf of the Church he should produce Witnesses who speak of that very Church of which he makes this Confession a Note else these Witnesses prove nothing to his purpose If they should chance only to speak some favourable words of Christianity or of some few Christians this will be short of what they are produced for in this Place And what ever good use may be made of their Confession yet 't will not belong peculiarly to the Church of Rome They must speak to the Church of Rome and in her behalf or else the Cardinal had better have spared them They 'l do him no service if they do not make good his Note and that cannot be done if they witness not in behalf of the Roman Church 'T is time now to call the Witnesses and hear what they have to say in behalf of the Church of Rome And here not to invert that Order which the Cardinal hath taken we will begin with the Pagans and see what they have to say in behalf of the Church of Rome The Cardinal begins with Pliny the Second He in his Epistle to the Emperor Trajan gives this Testimony in behalf of Christians viz. that they detested all Vices lived most holily and were blamable on this account only that they were too forward to part with their Lives for their God and they rose up before day to sing praises to Christ But what is all this to the Church of Rome especially as it is now constituted and distinguished from other Christians which are not of her Communion and do not own themselves subject to the Bishop of that Church He speaks well of Christians and we allow that those of the Church of Rome at that time were such We have no quarrel with the Christians of the Roman Church who lived in the days of Trajan Pliny speaks well of them He does so indeed But what does he say Does he say that they worshipped Images or that they adored the Host That they prayed to Saints and made use of several Intercessors That they deserved Favour because they came so near the Pagans in these things He says no such thing He tells us that they lived well and detested Vices that they sang praises to Jesus and were willing to die for God. Did we ever find fault with any of the Church of Rome for their good Lives or the Hymns of Praise which they sing to Christ Have we ever quarrelled with them for detesting Vices or exposing their Lives for the Honour of the true God He commends the Christians that lived then but not for any thing which they either believed or practised which is now a matter of Controversy between us and the present Church of Rome Pliny commends the ancient Christians Be it so Why must this be restrained to the Church of Rome Were there no Christians but what were in Communion with and were subject to the Roman Church He commends the Christians of that Time But will this justify them who afterwards shall call themselves by that Name He commends them for their good Lives their Love to God and Gratitude to their Saviour Will this justify the present Church of Rome Will it serve to defend the Worship of Images or Prayers to the Blessed Virgin and Invocation of Saints Does it appear that there were no Christians in the World but those of the Church of Rome and that that Church was then what it is now What the Cardinal produceth afterwards hath no greater Force than
this Testimony of Pliny Tertullian tells us that the Heathens would not hear the Cause of Christians whom they knew to be guiltless but condemned it at all Adventures and that the best Emperors favoured Christianity and that 't was persecuted by the worst All this however it may serve the common Christianity does not make for the purpose for which the Cardinal does produce it The same may be said as to what he mentions of the Efficacy of the Prayers of the Christian Souldiers from the Epistle of M. Aurelius and if St. Antony St. Hilarion and St. Martin were reverenced by the Pagans I do not so much as imagine what Service this will be to the Cause the Cardinal hath undertaken to defend or what Prejudice 't will be to ours So that hitherto here is nothing said to the purpose in hand nothing said but what the Protestants may as well apply to themselves as the Church of Rome His next Set of Witnesses are Jews if we examine them we shall only find that he hath wisely made choice of two great Names but that neither of them speak one Word to the purpose His Authors are Josephus the Historian and Philo Judaeus two incomparable Authors they are and by no means to be excepted against Here 's the Mischief that neither of them have a Syllable that makes for the Defence of the Church of Rome or the Prejudice of the Reformed However let us hear them speak And first let us hear what Josephus the elder of the two hath to say It is this that Jesus was a wise Man Jofeph Antiq. Jud. l. 18. c. 6. if it be lawful to call him a Man that he was the Effector of wondrous Works c. and that he was the Christ or Messias By the way the Cardinal makes Josephus speak Non-sense as he reports his Testimony For he says not only that Josephus does affirm Christ to be more than a Man but that he was truly the Messias Now Josephus would never speak at this rate to affirm that Christ is the Messias is to affirm that Christ is Christ for the Messias and Christ are the same Josephus affirms that Jesus lived at that time which he mentions and that Jesus was the Christ or Messias But to let this pass I grant that Josephus affirms that Jesus was the Christ what is this to the Church of Rome any farther than it concerns our common Christianity I would fain know why the Cardinal produceth this in behalf of his Church or what reason can be assigned why Protestants may not as well apply it to their own The common Christianity is concerned in such a Testimony and so far the Roman Church is also But set aside that Consideration and take the Church of Rome as the Cardinal does as distinct from and opposed to other Christians that are not of her Communion and I dare say I will produce Testimonies as pertinent as this of Josephus out of any Page of Homer's Iliads or the Commentaries of Julius Caesar For what Coherence is there between these two Propositions Josephus confesseth that Jesus was the Christ Therefore the Church of Rome is the Catholick Church And yet this is in truth the Cardinal's way of arguing Let us hear next what Philo Judaeus hath to say in behalf of the Christians of the Church of Rome Now it would be to me a wonderful thing to find Philo say any thing in behalf of those Christians when he never once mentions the Name of Christian in all his Works Yet the Cardinal hath the Confidence to affirm that Philo hath written a famous Book of the Praises of those Christians who lived in Egypt under St. Mark the Evangelist After this his positive Affirmation that Philo had written such a Book as being sensible that Philo hath no Book that bears any such Title he adds the Testimony of some of the Ancients that Philo meant the Christians and not any Sect of the Jews as the Centuriators would have I do not think it worth my while to examin his Antient Writers which he quotes for his Opinion Philo Judae de vitâ Contemplativâ I will for once take it for granted that Philo means the Christians of whom he gives so good a Character under the Title of Therapeutae Let it be so What is this to the Business Because those Christians in Egypt were good Men and such as Philo describes them must therefore the Church of Rome be the Catholick Church The next Witnesses which the Cardinal produceth are Turks He tells us that in the Alcoran 't is said that Christans are saved that Christ was the greatest of Prophets and had the Soul of God and that the Sultan of Egypt reverenced St. Francis whom he knew to be a Christian and a Catholick To what purpose all this is produced I do not understand I am sure it cannot serve that of the Church of Rome as she stands separated from other Christians And if it be a Testimony in behalf of our common Christianity then all Christians are concerned in it as well as that of the Church of Rome The Alcoran will do the Cardinal no Service unless he could have produced some Testimony peculiar to the Roman Church or that might have justified the Worship of Images Adoration of the Host the Doctrine of Transubstantiation or some of those Doctrines and Practices peculiar to that Church The last Set of Witnesses produced by the Cardinal he calls Hereticks A Man would think the case very desperate that needs such Witnesses But yet I find the Church of Rome does not disdain such as these when they speak of her side But in the present Question we shall find they do that Church no Service The Substance of what the Cardinal alledgeth is what follows viz. That an Arian King honoured St. Benedict a Catholick That Luther when an Heretick owned that in the Papacy were many good Things nay all that was good e. g. The true Scripture Baptism c. That Calvin calls Bernard a pious Writer and yet he was a Papist That another Protestant acknowledgeth Bernard Dominic and Francis to be Holy Men To which he adds a Passage of Cochlaeus who reports an Article of Agreement wherein the Protestant Helvetians write that they would dismiss their Confederates Quiet as to their true undoubted and their Catholick Faith. From all which I see not what he can collect for the Interest of the Church of Rome We do honour every Man that is good in the Church of Rome but this does not infer that we justify all her Doctrines We own that they have the true Scripture and Sacraments but this does not justify their addition of Apocryphal Books to the Canon of the Scriptures nor of more Sacraments than were owned to be strictly so in the Antient Church We will allow that there have been pious and holy Men of that Church and are not scrupulous in calling them by the Name by which they are commonly
Constance and Trent that 't was the ancient Practice For the Doctrine of Transubstantiation See a Treatise of Transubstantiation by one in the Communion of the Church of Rome Printed 1687. one of the Communion of the Church of Rome hath given us an Account lately he proves from many Doctors of the Church of Rome that it is not ancient viz. from Peter Lombard from Suarez Scotus the Bishop of Cambray Cardinal Cusanus Erasmus Alphonsus à Castro Tonstall and Cassander And that 't is not taught in the holy Scriptures he proves from the Testimonies of Scotus Ockam Gabriel Biel and Cardinal Cajetan and after all that it was not the Doctrine of the Fathers of the Church It would have been very fit I should here have made an end having considered every thing which the Cardinal hath offered as to this Note of the Church But there is a late Writer I will not call him Author hath taken the Confidence to produce the Testimony of the Jewish Writers in behalf of the Church of Rome Mr. Sclater's Consenf Vet. and which is most surprising of all he quotes the Rabbins in Defence of the Doctrine of Transubstantiation which they are as far from asserting as he is from understanding them The Cardinal was too learned and modest to attempt any thing of this Nature but this Gentleman advanceth higher than he thought fit to do What he offers speaks nothing so lowdly as the Writers Effrontery and Ignorance not to say something worse Tho he thought fit to desert his Mother the Church of England yet it little became him to fly in her Face and suborn a Rout of Jews against her His Discourse is so weak that I shall bestow very little time and pains about it I shall however say something to it that he may not think any Part of his Pamphlet unanswered and do heartily wish him Repentance for his Folly and that he may learn Modesty for the future And for my better proceeding in this matter I shall do these things First I will briefly shew the true use and value of the Testimony of Jews as to the Christian Religion Secondly I shall shew the gross Ignorance not to say Dishonesty of this Writer in this Matter Thirdly I shall prove that the Jewish Writers are so far from serving the Church of Rome that they bear witness against it and that also in this very matter of Transubstantiation First I shall consider how far the Testimony of the Jews is useful to Christianity And several such there are that serve the common Christianity 1. The Jews as to matter of Fact confess that there was such a Man as Jesus that he wrought wonderful Works They do in their Talmud and elsewhere mention several of those Names which are mentioned in the New Testament and are there mentioned to have been at the same time in which they are placed there This is an useful Testimony and serves the common Christianity and saves us the labour in our Books against the Jews of proving these Matters of Fact. 2. They are also good Witnesses as to the Number of the Canonical Books of the Old Testament which were deposited in their Hands This is owned by Cardinal Cajetan who affirms that this is one Advantage we receive from the Obstinacy of the Jews Cajetan in Rom. xi v. 11. that tho they believe not in Christ themselves yet they approve the Books of the Old Testament and therefore those Books cannot be supposed to have been invented by the Christians to have served their turn This Testimony of theirs serves indeed the common Christianity but is so far from serving the Church of Rome that it is a good Evidence against the Council of Trent who have receiv'd those Books for Canonical which the Jews never received into the Canon of Scripture 3. They are good Witnesses of the Promise of a Messias which is reckoned among the Fundamental Articles of the Jewish Faith. And this is an other Advantage that Christians receive as Cajetan well observes in the Place mentioned before from the Obstinacy of the Jews Abravenel C. Fidei c. 1. They agree that such a Promise was made and that therefore it cannot be supposed either a Forgery of the Christians or a vain Belief peculiar only to them 4. They are good Witnesses where they interpret those Texts of the Old Testament of the Messias which belong to that matter and which are by the Writers of the New Testament applied to that purpose And the more ancient Jews do thus The Chaldee Paraphrasts and other of the more ancient Jewish Doctors do apply those Texts to him which the Christians also understand to be spoken of him Of which were it not too great a Digression it would be easy to produce very many Proofs This serves the common Christianity greatly and in our Disputes against the Jews affords us very great Advantages 5. Nor do I deny but that some of the Catholick Doctrines of the Christian Religion I mean such as have been always believed from the first Beginning of Christianity may receive some Confirmation from the Writings of the most antient Jewish Doctors But to produce them as Witnesses as this Writer does to a Doctrine never received by the antient Church is the most extravagant thing imaginable Secondly I shall shew the gross Ignorance not to say Dishonesty of this Writer in this matter His Author from whom he borrows all his Rabbinical Learning is Galatinus He tells if we will believe him that he was always accounted a very learned Man Preface to Consens Veterum It would have been more to his purpose to have vouched for his Honesty After this he falls into a Fit of Devotion he is of a sudden transported with Admiration that the Hebrew Writers long before Christ's time take Mr. Sclater's word for that should have such Notions But the Wind bloweth were it listeth c. He might have staid till he had been sure of the matter of Fact and then 't would have been time enough to admire at it But the Reader is to know that Mr. Sclater was mightily inclined to believe in this matter with the Church of Rome or else Galatinus could never by his Arguments have prevailed upon him This appears from his own Words after he had drawn up his Evidence from Galatinus P. 27. he tells his Reader that Galatinus thought and I 'le assure you 't is hard to say what a Jew that professeth himself a Convert to the Church of Rome does really think these Prophecies and Interpretations he might have called them Dreams and Figments argumentative not only against the Jews but a Confirmation also of the Christian Religion against all Hereticks c. But if you ask Mr. Sclater what confirms him in this Belief you 'le find him not hard to believe I am confirmed says he by the Title-page of his Book Of so great force is the Title-page of Galatinus his Book with Mr. Sclater of
Putney This Galatinus was born a Jew he was afterwards a Convert to the Church of Rome and a Fryar and pretends to discover something in the Hebrew Doctors to justify the Doctrines of the Roman Church to which he had betaken himself 'T is certain that learned Men have represented him as a Man of no Sincerity and have taken notice of his Falsity and the Forgeries of his Book Johannes Mercerus a Man of singular Learning J. Mercer in Job ii 11. and Scaliger a great Judg give this Account of him And so also many others Scalig. Epist ad Casaubon and some of the more learned Men of the Church of Rome have done Sixtus Senensis reprehends him for belying Pope Clement 5. Joseph de Voisin Biblioth St. l. 2. a Priest of the Church of Rome J. Voisin Theolog Judaeorum p. 237. taxeth him of Ignorance of the Doctrine of the Jews The best Character I find of him is that he was a Plagiary or Thief He stole what is good out of the Pugio Fidei of Raimundus Jac. Maussaci Prolegom in Pug. Fid. For other things in his Book they are Figments and Forgeries Trifles and ridiculous things His Testimonies out of Gale Razeiah and Zohar are of no credit Jac. Mausacus and the above-named Jos de Voisin Authors against whom Mr. Sclater cannot except J. de Vois observat in Proaem will give the Reader this Account of him In a word he was a Converted Jew and what kind of Men they have proved I need not tell nor can I think of that matter without sorrow he is one that Cardinal Bellarmin thought not fit to quote in behalf of their Church one that is condemned and stigmatized by the learned Men of the Church of Rome But yet this Author hath so great force with Mr. Sclater of Putney that he is confirmed by the very Title-page of his Book I should be vain if after this I should be operose in examining the Testimonies produced and yet I cannot but reflect a little farther upon the stupid Ignorance or Insincerity of this Writer R. Sol. in 72.16 He quotes R. Solomon for the Proof of Transubstantiation All that R. Solomon says to his purpose is that the LXXII Psalm is wholly meant of the Messias and that many of their Rabbins interpreted that which we render Handful of Corn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a modern Word probably from the Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of certain Sweet-meats or Dainties in the Days of Messias It is very well known that the Jews fondly expect great feasting in the Days of the Messias and no wonder that many of the Rabbins should interpret these Words of those Dainties After all this R. Solomon gives another Interpretation of the Place V. Buxtorf Synagog Jud. l. 36. But what is all this to Transubstantiation But be all that as it will With what Face can he affirm that he produces several Jewish Masters when he produces not one Conssens Vet. p 21. And yet he confidently attempts to name them tho he bewray his great Ignorance in it He says he produceth the Book Siphre R. Ira Midras Coheleth where he reckons Midras Coheleth which is but the Title of one Book viz. a Commentary of Ecclesiastes for two Rabbins This I dare say is Mr. Sclater's own he could not borrow it from the learned Galatinus Mr. Sclater adds that he says that by the Tops of the Mountains in that Psalm nothing can be more rightly designed than the Prelates and Priests of the Church in whom this Scripture is then fulfilled and verified when the Body of Christ is elevated Now there is not one Syllable in R. Solomon of Siphre R. Ira Midras Coheleth not a word of the Priests and Prelats All this is Mr. Sclater's Galatinus himself affirms no such thing of R. Solomon and therefore if by he produces Pag. 21. l. 37. Mr. Sclater mean R. Solomon as any Reader will be apt to think he wrongs him for in truth he quotes none of those Authors tho Galatinus do For his first Quotation out of R. Moses Haddurshan or the Preacher if we should allow it to be truly cited yet any indifferent Reader will find it nothing to the purpose For what follows is too transparent to gain belief Besides that a learned Society of Hebricians were many Years ago consulted about a Quotation of Galatinus Dr. Morton's Catholick Appeal P. 394. out of that R. Moses who gave it under their Hands that they found in the place quoted nothing to the purpose For his Citation out of Mechilta tho there be nothing in it to the purpose yet if there had P. 22. he ought to have referred to the Page or Leaf of that Book if he had done sincerely For R. Cahanah who he says was born before Christ P. 23. we have so little evidence of that that it does not appear that there ever was any such Writer And for R. Johai there is no such Author found P. 24. nor mentioned by any but Galatinus For the Fable of Elias his being present at Circumcision 't is a Jewish Dream the use he makes of it is ridiculous P. 24. and the Testimony of R. Judas a mere Figment For the Gale Razia cited by him and what he cites from Rabbenu Hak-kodesh by whom he should mean the Compiler of the Jewish Misna they are mere Counterfeits And Mr. Sclater is something unlucky P. 25. for he in his Book instead of Gale hath Gate and in his Errata he hath it Gaize III. I shall prove that the Jewish Writers are so far from serving the Church of Rome by their Confession that they bear witness against it and that also in this very business of Transubstantiation And here it were easy to enlarge and to bring abundant Proofs from Authors known and easily to be procured and from such as have the greatest Reputation among the Jews The ancient Jews are on our side as to the number of Canonical Books of the Old Testament Joseph Antiq. Jud. l. iii. c. 4. Philo Jud. de Decalogo I could easily prove both from Josepus and Philo the Jew that they are against that distribution of the Precepts of the Decalogue which obtains in the Church of Rome and with us do reckon the Commandment against Images to be a distinct Precept and the second in Number The Doctrine and Practice of praying to Saints and worshipping of Images Nizach Vet. p. 128. the Jews except against R. Isaac p. 383. Lipman p. 16. the latter of which is against the very Letter of their Law. The Doctrine of Purgatory Lipman 's Nizachon p. 25. Nizach Vet. p. 23 42 43 196. the Practice among Christians of Crossing themselves when it Thunders the Christening of Bells the Doctrine of the necessity of the Caelibacy of Priests the vowed Caelibacy of Monks and Nuns R. Isaac Chizuk Emuna p. 345. as well as
the receiving of Apocryphal Books into the Canon of Scripture and other Opinions and Practices in the Christian Church And for the Doctrine of Transubstantiation as it is against the common Sense of Mankind and destroys the certainty of every thing else so the Jews upon all occasions object against it We have a Witness beyond Exception even of the Roman Church who brings in the Jews objecting against this Doctrine Fortalitium Fidei Lugd. Anno 1525. and representing the unreasonableness and absurdity of it from fourteen several Heads of Argument which I may not here represent to the Reader because it would be too great a Digression Nor do I find this Learned Author who writes in Defence of the Roman Church and attempts to answer these Objections alledging that this was the Doctrine which was taught by the Hebrew Doctors The Jews have so far abhorred this Doctrine Decret Gregor l. v. Tit. vi cap. 13. Accepimus autem c. and so far detested Christians upon this account that they were wont when they made use of Christian Nurses to force them to throw away their Milk for three Days together before they gave suck when it happened that at Easter these Nurses had received the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ This Pope Gregory complains of and decrees upon it that Christians should not for the future be Servants to the Jews J. Albo Ikkarim And Josephus Albo disputes against this Doctrine of Transubstantiation very vigorously And so do many others V. Nizach vet p. 255. in their Books against Christians And many more Testimonies might be produced Lipman Nizachon p. 11. were not most of their Books printed in Italy where it is not safe for them to be too plain And Learned Men do very well know that the Passage in Joseph Albo against this Doctrine of the Roman Church hath been expunged in one Edition of that Author 'T is very well known that all the later Jews are against this Doctrine And that Trypho the Jew and the most ancient Writers have not objected it against Christians is only an Argument that this Doctrine was not so old as that time in which they lived This Doctrine the Jews are certain cannot be true because if they are not certain of the Falsity of this they have no Certainty of their own Religion nor can ever be convinced of the Truth of ours The Truth is this is one great occasion of hardening them against Christianity and we are never like to see them come into the Christian Church till this Doctrine of Transubstantiation and the Worship of Images be removed out of it But then the Practice annexed to the Doctrine of Transubstantiation of worshipping a Creature is so dangerous that even they who own the Doctrine confess if that be not true they cannot be excused from Idolatry God give us a just Sence of these things that we may not hereafter have besides our own Sins which will be load great enough the Obstinacy of the Jews in great measure to answer for THE END LONDON Printed by J. D. for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1687. The Fourteenth Note of the CHURCH EXAMINED VIZ The unhappy End of the Church's Enemies Decima quarta Nota est Infelix exitus seu finis eorm qui Ecclesiam oppugnant Bellarm. L. iv c. 17. de Notis Ecclesiae IMPRIMATUR July 27. 1687. Guil. Needham IF he be an unwise Builder who pulls down what he intends to build up then Cardinal Bellarmin tho one of the Master-Builders of the Church of Rome deserves not to be reckon'd one of the wisest For he must shut his Eyes close who does not plainly see that he frequently defeats his own Design by giving Notes which conclude that Church to be false which he design'd to prove was the only true one Such for instance is that which is now to be consider'd as shall in the Sequel of this Discourse be made appear The Confutation of which cannot be difficult since I find nothing in the whole Chapter that hath so much as the shew of an Argument Whereas some of his Notes are guarded with a pretence at least of Scripture Reason and Antiquity this is exposed naked to the Assaults of its Adversaries without so much as a Paper Shield to protect it He tells us indeed many Tragical Stories of unhappy Deaths some of which are true some doubtful and others false some of Persons who were deadly Enemies other of Persons who were zealous Defenders of the true Church But had the Stories been all certainly true and had the Persons who thus died been all of them implacable Enemies of the Church of Rome yet what does it signify unless he had also proved That when a Person dies an unnatural Death the meaning of it is That that Church of which he professed himself a Member is false and the Church he opposed the only true one But how unwise soever he was in the choice of his Note he was so wise as not to attempt the proof of this unless the Citation of this Scripture may pass for a Proof Praise his People O ye Nations for he will avenge the Blood of his Servants and will render Vengeance to his Enemies (a) Deut. 32.43 God will avenge the Blood of his Servants therefore if a Protestant die an uphappy Death the Church of Rome is the only true Church But why did the Cardinal send out this Note so forlorn For a good Reason because no Defence could be found for it But why did he then bring it into the Field Because he knew it was Popular and might serve the Cause better than another that was never so well fenc'd For will not he dread to oppose the Church of Rome who is persuaded that God will set a Note of Vengeance upon those that do so Will not he stedfastly adhere to it who believes that that is a certain way to an happy Death In short whosoever can be persuaded to believe that the Church of Rome is by this Note distinguish'd from all other Churches he will as much dread to turn Protestant as he does to die the most prodigious sort of Death But the Mischief is That however serviceable this pretended Note may be to them among weak and undiscerning Persons it will do there as much disservice among those who are judicious and able to examine it For when they shall once see what a palpable Cheat it is and in case that it were a Note of the true Church that the Church of Rome hath the least Reason of any Church in the World to pretend to it they will be thereby disposed to break off from the Communion of that Church which contradicts its own Marks and betake themselves to some other Church which hath a better Title to them For the effecting of which I shall proceed in this Method I. I shall premise some Things as preparatory to what follows II. Shew that this can
own Authors 11. The Glory of Miracles These alone were never a Note of the true Church And those extraordinary Gifts which were bestowed at first for the Confirmation of Christianity we think they are ceased long ago But we are forewarned of False Christs and false Prophets Mat. 24.24 which should shew great Signs and Wonders which me-thinks should make a Church very careful how they made any pretension to Miracles But the Church of Rome is resolved to do it and would fain perswade us that there are many great Ones wrought among them to this very Day and as they believe always will be But we know and they will not deny it that many of the Miracles they have talked of are meer Forgeries and Delusions others altogether incredible and but weakly attested and wholly unworthy of the Seriousness and Gravity of the Christian Religion most of them said to be done in Corners and are never to be seen but among themselves When they please to oblige us Protestants with the sight of a few of them they may then deserve to be farther considered till that be done they must give us leave to think that their Church is reduced to great Streights when it shall stand in need of such slight Artifices as these to support it 12. The Light of Prophecy This if they had it can bring no more Advantage to their Cause than the other The Church of God anciently when extraordinary Revelations were more common had not always Prophets in it And when any appeared the Prophet was to be tryed by the Faith of the Church and not the Church by the Predictions of the Prophet And we are still commanded to try the Spirits whether they are of God 1 Joh. 4.1 Because many false Prophets are gone out into the World. 13. The Confession of Adversaries This if the Cardinal's Instances were pertinent would yet be but of little Consequence for if some Protestants have spoken favourably of his Catholicks some of his Catholicks have spoken favourably of Protestants Or if we should be willing to hope well of some of them as we are and they should adjudge us every one to Eternal Damnation as they generally do this would be but an ill sign that their Church must therefore be the truer because it is more Censorious and Uncharitable than Ours 14. The Vnhappy End of the Church's Enemies A wise Man would be something afraid of passing this into a Note before he was himself safe in his Grave For all things come alike to all Eccl. 9.2 there is one Event to the Righteous and to the Wicked Many of the most Zealous Patrons of the Romish Persuasion have met with as Tragical and Unfortunate Ends as the most accursed Heretick that ever was devoured by Vermin or burnt at a Stake 15. Temporal Felicity This may be placed in the same Rank with the former it is altogether as variable and inconstant as that no certain Judgment can be made upon it They are not to learn that the Enemies of their Church have been often successful and that Victory has not always waited upon their Catholick Arms no not in their most Holy Wars when Religion has been the only ground of the Quarrel Thus upon a Review of all the Notes in order as they are mustered up by the great Cardinal it may appear to any unprejudiced Enquirer that he has missed of his Aim For that they are either no Notes of a Church at all or not proper to that of Rome And now after the highest Pretences of an Infallible Church and the absolute Deference and Submission which they say is due unto it any Man that shall seriously consider the Matter must needs wonder they should have no surer means at last to find it out than a few slight and improbable nay some of them very vain false and extravagant Conjectures The Protestants whom they will not allow to be certain of any thing have far better Evidences than these and as good Assurances of the Truth of their Church as can be desired For we think the True Faith True Worship and a Right Administration of the Sacraments do unquestionably make a True Church These the Romanists themselves cannot deny to be the great and necessary Notes and if the Controversy betwixt us come to be determined by these it will soon appear which Communion we ought to prefer We make Profession of the whole Catholick Apostolick Faith as it is contained in the Holy Scriptures and briefly comprized in the three Creeds which is all that was ever received in the Primitive Church They have made large Additions to the Antient Belief and increased the number of the Articles from Twelve to Four and Twenty many of which were not so much as heard of in the First Ages and never made necessary to be believed till above fifteen hundred Years after the Publication of the Gospel We Worship Almighty God and none but him and unto him we Pray in a Language we understand through Jesus Christ our only Mediator in whose Name when we ask we are sure to be heard They have a kind of Worship which they give to Saints and Images which as to all External Acts of Adoration is the very same they pay to God himself and when their Addresses are directed unto Him all their Publick Service is in an unknown Tongue and they set up to themselves many Mediatours of Intercession when they cannot tell whether they hear them but it is most certain that God has never promised to hear them for their Sakes We receive the two Sacraments which Christ ordained in his Church and administer them both in such Manner and Form as he has appointed They without any Divine Authority have made Seven Sacraments and in the Lord's Supper they believe that there is offered up a proper Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Living and the Dead they adore the Elements which they think are Transubstantiated into the Body and Blood of our Saviour and suffer the Laity to communicate but in one kind robbing them of the Cup contrary to the plain Institution and express Command of our Blessed Lord. And since we have the True Faith True Worship and the Sacraments rightly Administred it is evident that we are not deficient in any thing that is necessary to the Constitution of a True Church But They will never be able to prove themselves such a One by the late Additions they have made to the Creed and their many Deviations from the Primitive Rule And yet they will be continually vaunting that they are not only a True Church but the only True Church in the World and upon this Presumption they thunder out their Anathema's upon all Christendom besides and confidently condemn them for a Company of Heretical and Schismatical Conventicles But they cannot justify that rash and uncharitable Sentence nor make good any part of this heavy Charge For we that heartily believe all the Antient Creeds cannot be accused of Heresy neither are we guilty of Schism because we only Reformed those Errors and Corruptions which they had introduced and wanted not sufficient Authority for what was done But if they are still absolutely resolved to stand to the Censure they have passed and allow no True Church upon Earth but their Own it is not Cardinal Bellarmin's Fifteen Notes that will ever prove it FINIS ERRATA Pag. 367. l. 3. for not r. most P. 371. Marg. l. ult for cap. 3. r. 13. LONDON Printed by J. D. for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1687. BOOKS lately printed for Richard Chiswell THE Pillar and Ground of Truth A Treatise shewing that the Roman Church falsly claims to be That Church and the Pillar of That Truth mentioned by St. Paul in his First Epistle to Timothy Chap. 3. Vers 15.4o. The Peoples Right to read the Holy Scripture Asserted 4o. A Short Summary of the Principal Controversies between the Church of England and the Church of Rome being a Vindication of several Protestant Doctrines in Answer to a Late Pamphlet Intituled Protestancy destitute of Scripture Proofs 4o. Two Discourses of Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead An Answer to a late Pamphlet Intituled The Judgment and Doctrine of the Clergy of the Church of England concerning one Special Branch of the King's Prerogative viz. In dispensing with the Penal Laws 4o. A PRIVATE PRAYER to be used in Difficult Times 8o.