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A71073 A second discourse in vindication of the Protestant grounds of faith, against the pretence of infallibility in the Roman Church in answer to The guide in controversies by R.H., Protestancy without principles, and Reason and religion, or, The certain rule of faith by E.W. : with a particular enquiry into the miracles of the Roman Church / by Edward Stillingfleet ... Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699. 1673 (1673) Wing S5634; ESTC R12158 205,095 420

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did not believe on the Infallibility of your Church their Faith was but a kind of guilded and splendid infidelity and none of them Christians because not Jesuits And doth not this principle then fairly advance Christianity in the world when the belief of it comes to be settled on Foundations never heard of in the best and purest times of it nay such Foundations as for want of their believing them their Faith must be all in vain and Christ dyed in vain for them And what now saith E. W. to all this First he saith I do not bring Instances enough Secondly That I bring too many 1. That I do not bring enough for he much wonders I omit to touch upon an instance far more difficult than any of these concerning rude and illiterate persons which I and all others are bound to solve Me● thinks he might have been contented with those I had brought unless he had answered them better and should not have blamed me for omitting that which I purposely take notice of and give a sufficient answer to in these words Although the Ignorance and carelesness of men in a matter of so great consequence be so great in all Ages as is not to be justified because all men ought to endeavour aster the highest ways of satisfaction in a matter so nearly concerning them and it is none of the least things to be blamed in your Church that she doth so much countenance this ignorance and neglect of the Scripture yet for such persons who either morally or invincibly are hindred from this capacity of examining Scripture there may be sufficient means for their Faith to be built upon For although such illiterate persons cannot themselves see and read the Scripture yet as many as do believe do receive the Doctrine of it by that sense by which Faith is conveyed and by that means they have so great certainty as excludes all doubting that such Doctrines and such matters of Fact are contained in these Books by which they come to the understanding of the nature of this Doctrine and are capable of judging concerning the Divinity of it For the Light spoken of in Scripture is not a light to the eye but to the mind now the mind is capable of this light as well by the ear as by the eyes The case then of such honest illiterate persons as are not capable of reading Scripture but diligently and devoutly hear it read to them is much of the same nature with those who heard the Apostles Preach this Doctrine before it was writ For whatever was an Argument to such to believe the Apostles in what they spake becomes an Argument to such who hear the same things which are certainly conveyed to us by an unquestionable Tradition So that nothing hinders but such illiterate persons may resolve their Faith into the same Doctrine and Motives which others do only those are conveyed to them by the ear which are conveyed to others by the eyes But if you suppose persons so rude and illiterate as not to understand any thing but that they are to believe as the Church believes do you if you can resolve their Faith for them for my part I cannot and am so far from it that I have no reason to believe they can have any Judge now Reader what measure I am like to meet with from such men who can so impudently charge me with omitting a difficulty which I give so punctual an answer to 2. But those instances I have brought are too many for him as will easily appear by the shuffling answers he makes to them My design was from them to prove that the Churches Infallibity was not necessary in order to Faith he puts it thus If the Infallibility of the Church be a sure Foundation of Faith c. Is not this a good beginning to put Sure in stead of Necessary or only sure For that may be sure which is not necessary and it was the necessity I disproved by these Instances To them however he attempts to give an Answer 1. In general That none make the Roman Catholick Church in all circumstances the only sure Foundation of Divine Faith For the first man that believed in Christ our Lord before the compleat establishment of his Church had perfect faith resting on that great Master of Truth without dependance on the Christian Church for Christ alone was not the Church but the Head of it Faith therefore in general requires no more but only to rely upon God the first verity speaking by this or that Oracle by one or more men lawfully sent to teach who prove their mission and make the doctrine proposed by them evidently credible In like manner the Apostles preached no doctrine in the name of the new Christian Church whilst our Saviour lived here on earth but testified that he was the true Messias by vertue of those signs and miracles which had been already wrought above the force of Nature A very fair concession which plainly destroys the necessity of the Churches infallibility in order to Faith For if no more be necessary in order to faith but to rely upon God the first verity speaking by this or that Oracle c. how comes the infallible testimony of the Church to be in any Age necessary to faith For God spake by Christ and his Apostles as his Oracles by whom his word is declared to us therefore nothing can be necessary to faith but to rely upon God the first Truth speaking by them And this we assert as well as they But he must prove that we cannot rely on God as speaking by them unless he hath an insallible Church in every Age if he will make this infallible testimony of the Church necessary to faith which I despair of ever seeing done while the world stands 2. In particular 1. To the instance of the disciples of Christ believing the divine Authority of the old Testament without any infallible testimony of the Jewish Church only upon the rational evidence they had to convince them that those Prophesies came from God he answers that it is hard to say where the force of it lies seeing there were innumerable Jews then dispersed all Jury over and the other parts of the world who most firmly believed the Divine Authority of those Books upon whose Testimony the Apostles might believe those Books to be divine A most excellent answer if we well consider it Have not they of the Church of Rome proved the necessity of infallibility in the Church from Deut. 17. 10 11 12. of which abundant instances might be produced and particularly the Considerator of my Principles which words if they imply any Infallibility at all do necessarily prove that it is lodged in the supream Ecclesiastical Judges and no where else so that if there were no infallibility in them it could not be supposed to be any where else therefore I proposed the case at that time when these Ecclesiastical Judges consented
Vincentius and a letter of his is exta●● which he writ to him wherein he expresse● no such admiration of him and that is th● famous Chancellor of Paris John Gerso● He wrote a discourse against the Sect of Whi●pers which by the preaching and enco●ragement of Vincentius was again revived and 10000. saith Rauzanus in his life followed him up and down many of which did so soundly lash themselves according to Vincentius his instructions that he saith some account it a miracle that none fell into any sickness by it In which discourse he lays op●● the folly of this Sect and saith men mig●● as well brand themselves with hot Irons 〈◊〉 castrate themselves as hope to expiate their si●● by such bloody whippings of their bodies But besides this Vincentius preached of the very ne●● approach of Antichrist and the day of Judgement both which Gerson dislikes in him b●● saith he if any man offers to bring new miracles to confirm the near approach of Antichrist let him know that the world is in i●● dotage and therefore is easily imposed upon by the apparitions of false miracles As an old man is troubled with dreams in his sleep therefore saith he miracles are now to be ve●emently suspected unless a very diligent ex●mination be first made of them See now what judgement this truly great man in that Age passes upon these pretended miracles of this admirable Saint However it hence appears that in the Church of Rome they have not pretended to any one sort of miracles alone but let them be of what kind soever some among them setting only aside their own resurrection from the dead have challenged to themselves the glory of them But after all this is a miserable shift to avoid this Testimony for this Author makes no other difference of signs than that the miracles of false Christians were only in appearance and brought no advantage to the world whereas the miracles of the true Christians were real and beneficial to the world but now saith he this working of miracles is wholly taken away and only false Christians pretend to it Which testimony is so strong that I expect no other answer to it than calling the Author of it Heretick and Arrian But against St. Chrysostom he objects more plausibly viz. from the daily wonders which he confesses are wrought by the Martyrs and particularly by Babylas when the D●vil told Julian his Mouth was stopt at the Oracle 〈◊〉 Daphne since Babylas his bones were lai●● there It is not to be denied that St. Chr●sostom did look upon this as a wonderfu●● thing and saith afterwards that the Devil still expressed such consternation at the shrin●● of the Martyrs as might convince the im●●dence of such who disbelieved the miracles 〈◊〉 the Apostles But St. Chrysostom speaking o● these extraordinary things which were do●● by the Martyrs calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and no● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he does the other for he saith exprefly that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were ceased i. e. a●● such miracles as gave any Testimony to the infallible commission which persons had from God to deliver his doctrine but yet the●● were may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 still done by the Martyrs i. e. such extraordinary things which we cannot suppose God would permit to happen if these Martyrs had not been highly in favour with God and therefore these were only attestations of their Sanctity in a time when they were so much despised as they were by J●lian and his followers and when Paganism began to recover again and it was very agreeable with the wisdom and methods 〈◊〉 Divine Providence in an extraordinary manner to vindicate the innocency of the Martyrs as he did in the case of Babylas to J●lian himself by stopping the Oracle by the nearness of his Bones to the Temple of Daphne ●nd when they were removed by setting the ●emple on fire in so wonderful a manner as ● is at large related by St. Chrysostom and ●e Ecclesiastical Historians of that time The same account we are to give of St. Au●stins opinion in this matter In his Book 〈◊〉 True Religion having shewed how neces●ary miracles were to confirm the Authority ●f those who were sent by God to declare his ●ill he adds that by their working mira●les they are become unnecessary to us now ●or saith he since the Catholick Church is now ●stablished and diffused through the World Miracles are not suffered to continue to our ●imes that we may not always seek after vi●●ble things and left custom should abate the ●steem of them Much to the same purpose ●e discourses in his Book of the usefulness of Believing against the Manichees where he ●hews the necessity that there was of miracles ●o confirm the Christian faith at first and the nature of the miracles wrought by Christ and his Apostles and then puts the Question as St. Chrysostom did Cur inquis ista modo non fiunt Why are not such miracles w●●● ght now to which he answers because miracles would not move men if there were not something wonderful in them and there would be nothing wonderful if they were common It is true that St. Augustin did consider both these places in his Book of Retractations not as though he Recanted every thing which he handles there for Retractati●● in St. Augustins sense was no more than to review for mentioning the former saying he adds that it is true for saith he the miraculous gifts of tongues are not now poured out when hands are laid on the baptized nor are sick persons healed at the shadow of the preachers of Christ and many other such things which it is certain are now ceased But he would not have it so understood as though no miracles at all were then wrough● in the name of Christ for then he saith he knew that a blind man was healed at the Shrines of the Martyrs of Milan and s● many other such things were done that they could neither know them all nor enumeralt those he did know And to the other place he saith that he gave that Answer because neither so many nor so great miracles a●● wrought now as were by Christ or his Apostoles And can any sayings be more contradictory than this of St. Augustins and E. W's asserting that as many and as gre●● nay greater miracles are wrought sinc●●●● ever were in their days It is true that St. Augustin doth there say that there were so●● miracles still left in the Church and he produces several instances elsewhere but in the ●●me place he denies the necessity of these ●iracles since the large propagation of Chri●●ianity in the world and accounts him a ●odigie that yet seeks after prodigies to con●●m his faith Only he shews Gods extra●●dinary kindness to his Church in that time while there were so many Pagans yet left ●mong them that he did not leave them without some Testimonies of his miraculous
discovery by these persons whom they disposed of in several places and fed with money and promises and kept from their Friends and sometimes threatning them that if they confessed any thing the Devil would possess them worse than before and withal told them that without an Oath they might say any thing to excuse themselves but Harrington a Priest that had taken to himself one of the Wenches afterwards under pretence of marrying her told Friswood Williams which was her right name that if she were examined upon Oath the Church did dispence with her so as she might answer what she thought good notwithstanding because an Oath did not bind her to confess any thing that might tend to the dishonour of their Priesthood or of the Catholick Church Before this imposture was discovered it did the Priests very great service for Anthony Tyrrell one of the Priests in his examination confessed that in the compass of half a year they had gained five hundred persons to their Church and some said three or four thousand And the Priests had written several Books concerning the miracles wrought by them full of most notorious forgeries as appeared by the particular examination of the Persons pretended to be dispossessed by them Tyrell said that Weston the Provincial of the Jesuits had written a Quire of Paper of the Visions of Mainey one of the persons out of whom he said he had cast out Devils and another Book to prove the continuance of this power in their Church and to shew the vertue of holy Relicks especially of their late Tyburn Saints Campian Sher●in Brian and Coltam This business making so much noise put the Persons in Authority upon enquiring more strictly into it and having at last seized upon some of the Persons concerned in it in their several examinations upon oath they confessed the whole cheat as I have delivered it from them Their examinations were entred upon Record in the Court of High-commission and afterwards published A. D. 1604. with a particular declaration of the whole imposture In which any person may satisfie himself of the Truth of what I have reported and abundance of circumstances which I have omitted Tyrell the Priest upon his oath June 15. 1602. declared in his consession written with his own hand that having perused the examinations of Sara Williams and Friswood her sister of Anne Smith and of Richard Mainey he was fully perswaded that they have deposed the truth in such points whereof they were examined belonging to their pretended possession or dispossession The effect whereof saith he is that they were drawn by our cunning carriage of matters to seem as though they had been possessed when as in truth they were not neither were any of the Priests ignorant in my Conscience of their dissimulatino nor the parties themselves as now it appeareth of our dissembled proceeding with them And afterwards adds a very material thing viz. For although both my self and so I think of the rest did know that all was but counterfeit yet for as much as we perceived that thereby great credit did grow to the Catholick cause and great discredit to the Protestants we held it lawful to do as we did For the general conceit saith he among all the Priests of that Order is that they may deny any thing which being confessed doth turn to the dishonour of the Catholick Church of Rome and concludes his confession with saying that they do not account it evil as I verily think to c●lumniate the Protestants by any device whatsoever that may carry any probability with it nor make any Conscience at all to tell and publish any untruths which they think being believed may advance and promote such points and matters as they take upon them to defend for the honour of the Church of Rome and dignity of their Priesthood Judge now Reader whether such persons do not deserve the highest credit in all their stories of Miracles who think it lawful both to cheat and lie for the sake of their Church Not twenty years after the discovery of this imposture ●e find them at the same work again when they writ the faithful narration of the proceedings of the Catholick Gentlemen with the Boy of Bilson with this sentence at the beginning and end of it Non nobis Domine non nobis sed Nomini tuo da Gloriam Whereas the history of this imposture is so particularly laid open by the confession of the Boy himself that it would make any others but such as have the impudence to compare their frauds and impostures with the miracles of Christ and his Apostles be ashamed ever to mention or own it Such another imposture Thuanus at large relates concerning Martha Brossier A. D. 1599. which gave great disturbance in France happening so soon after the edict of ●ants One James Brossier being weary of his poor imployment at home wanders from place to place with his three Daughters and this Martha pretended to be possessed with an evil Spirit and although the cheat was discovered in other places yet at Paris they hoped to meet with some who would be ready to make use of such a counterfeit possession for their own ends accordingly there the Capuchins presently lay hold upon her and perswade the people she was really possessed the Arch-Bishop of Paris disliking the Capuchins proceedings appointed some of the ablest Physicians in Paris to watch and examine her who presently suspected the imposture but desired further time and advice In the mean while Fr. Seraphin very solemnly falls to his Exorcisms and she acted her part so artificially with writhing her body rolling her eyes and trembling of all her joynts as caused great astonishment in the Spectators but at these words Homo factus est she moved her whole body in so strange a manner from the Altar to the doors of the Chappel that Fr. seraphin cried out if there be any Infidel yet among you let him come and try his strength with this Spirit At which Marescot the Physitian said he would do it then the cunning Gypsie cried that the Spirit had left her wherein she was seconded by the Exorcist While the Physitians were by she lay very still but she no sooner thought them gone but she was at her old tricks Then these Physitians were shut out and others brought in who would be more favourable to the design and by these a certificate was drawn up attested by themselves that she was really possessed and an Abbot affirmed that when she was held by six men she got above their heads four foot into the air and there stood When this account of her was published Marescot confuted it answering all their arguments and giving an account of all the strange Symptoms which were s●en in her But so much were the people moved by this that there was great danger of a tumult the King therefore gave order to the Parliament to prevent riotous meetings and to commit the pretended possessed person to
insallibility supereminent he saith and above all the Certainty which the principles of natur● can afford This is the substance of E. W● principles of Faith in his first Book which is somewhat more enlarged in the second In one Chapter he designs to prove if the Roman Church be not infallible there is no tru● Faith in the world the reason of which in his own easie terms is this For the meer possibility of deceiving Christians in one Article impossibilitates the Belief of all she proposeth In another Chapter That she is not only infallible but that the Adversaries of her infallibility destroy the very essence of Christian Religion And in the next That divine Faith in this present state of things necessarily requires a Church infallible because the infallibility of faith necessarily requires not only an Infallible Revelation but a● infallible Proponent Ruine one or the other Infallibility faith can be no more but an uncertain Assent and consequently can be no faith at all This reason he diversifies into many shapes and represents it in different words but it comes in at every turn So in the next Chapter he proves the Catholick Church Gods infallible Oracle because infallibility once taken away no man can have assurance so much as of one Christian verity the reason is no man can be assured of what is fallibly taught because what is so taught may by vertue of the Proposition be ●alse but a doctrine so far removed from in●allible certainly for want of a due application of its infallibility comes not near to the doctrine of Christ and his Apostles which was applied taught and proposed infallibly And in the same Chapter he saith It is utterly impossible that an infallible verity as revealed though fallibly proposed should have influence upon faith or work in believers a most firm assent Not long after he asserts That infallibility being taken away no man can tell but that Christian Religion is a fiction for these are his words A feigned and fallible Religion are near Co●sin Germans The one is a Fiction the other at least may be so and for ought any man can know is no better And in the same Chapter he saith That without infallibility Religion is meer Scepticism because all other means infallibility being set aside may be equally pleaded by Hereticks as Arians and such like as by any other To the same purpose in the following Chapter where he proposes that which he calls the last proof of the Churches Infallibility which is still the very same over and over for he out-does the Cook of Brundusium in serving up the the same meat in several dresses viz. That the denyal of it overthrows Christian Religion be pleased to observe his concise way o● reasoning If the infallibility of reveale● doctrine be lost as it were in the way between God and us If the Revelation appear not as it is in it self infallible whe● we assent to it by faith that is if it be no● infallibly conveyed and applied to all by a●●nerring proponent as it subsists in its first cause infinitely infallible faith perishes w● are cast upon pure uncertainties and ma● justly doubt whether such a doctrine separated from that other Perfection of Infallibility be really true or no In his third Di●course we meet with a convincing Argumen● as he calls it for Infallibility If all Authority imaginable whereupon faith can depend conveyed or delivered these verities both as infallible Truths and infallibly and I assent to the doctrine with a belief not infallible but only morally certain I leave by my fallible moral assent the true infallible teaching and conveying Oracles of Christian doctrine and believe upon a meer phansied Authority which was never impowered to convey Gods verities to any Before I come to examine these things it will be necessary to lay down his notion of faith in his own terms viz. That it essentially trends obsecurely to its own object no matter for understanding it but the words found well together and by this saith we l●y hold upon the most supream and all comprehending infallibility proper to God alone But withal we are to take notice of a twofold certitude in faith the one a certitude of Infallibility arising from the supernatural principles which concur to the very act of belief and these being not liable to error can never operate but when the divine Revelation really is and implies not only the meer truth of the act but moreover an infallible determination to Truth the other a certitude of adhesion not grounded on evidence but upon most prudent motives proposed to Reason which clearly discover'd the Will by her ●pious affection commands and determines the intellectual faculties to assent indubitably After all which he concludes that the plain and easie Resolution of Faith is into Gods veracity as speaking to men by an infallible Church Thus I have laid together so many parcels of E. W's rambling discourse as were necessary in order to the examination of it And indeed I cannot compare his reasoning to any thing better than his own pretty notion of faith for just as he saith Faith essentially tends obscurely to its object so his principles do to his conclusion But that I may proceed with the greater clearness I must premise these two things 1. § 2. That the Question is not concerning the necessity of any internal Assistance o● divine Grace but of an external insallibl● Proponent in order to divine Faith So tha● whatever certainty of saith is derived from the Spirit of God is no ways pertinent to ou● present debate I do not deny that a trul● divine faith doth suppose a divine and super natural assistance I do not deny that th● Holy Ghost may confirm mens minds to suc● a degree of certainty which may exceed th● rational grounds they are able to give t● others of their faith But I say all this i● very far from the purpose For I had expresly laid down this caution before that o● Question in the Resolution of Faith did no● relate to the workings of the divine Spirit o● our minds of which no satisfactory accoun● can be given to others but to the externa● motives and grounds of faith whether the● must be infallible or not To what purpos● is it then for E. W. to talk of a certitud● of Infallibility as he calls it arising from the supernatural principles which concur t● the very act of belief and these not liable t● error can never operate but when the divine Revelation really is Granting all thi● to be true yet what doth this prove concerning the necessity of an external infallible Proponent such as the Church is All that ca● hence follow is that those whom the Spirit of God enables to believe cannot believe a falshood but what then Hath he proved that the supernatural principles of faith do never operate but where the Church first infal●ibly proposes No this
and divine Human● as it is first grounded upon the Testimony of men and Divine as it finally rests upon the Testimony of God And in the present condition of mankind it is not reasonable to suppose that any Faith should now immediately rest upon the Divine Revelation without some rational evidence antecedent to it For the thing to be believed being the Testimony which God gave at the distance of above one thousand six hundred years we must either suppose an immediate Revelation of it or it must be conveyed to them by the credit of others Which according to this notion can beget only a humane faith for to resolve the belief of one Divine Testimony into another is to proceed without end but this humane faith if it be so called satisfying a mans mind concerning the Testimony which God gave and thereupon assenting to what was delivered upon that Testimony this Faith proceeding in the same way of rational evidence becomes a divine Faith by resting upon the Testimony which God gave to those who declared his Will 3. The Faith whereby we must first embrace a Divine Revelation cannot in this sense be called a Divine Faith i. e. as divine Faith doth rely upon a divine Testimony For that Faith is built upon those two Foundations viz. That whatever God saith is true and that this is his Revelation Now neither of these two can be entertained at first o● the account of a Divine Testimony th● first I have shewed already cannot be withou● a circle neithe● can the second for still th● Question will return on what account you believe that Testimony So that although thi● be commonly cal●ed an act of divine Faith yet if Faith be taken in this strict sense fo● believing upon a divine Testimony we must find out some other name for this Assent no● thereby to take off from the certainty or excellency of it but to prevent that confusion which the not observing these things hat● caused in these Controversies And if th● Terms of Divine Supernatural Infallible Obscure and Inevident were banished th● Schools the School-men themselves would be forced to speak sense in these matters And it would be a pleasant sight to see how pitifully E. W's Discourses would look without them For the main force of all he saith lies in the misapplying those terms and th● rattling noise they make is apt to keep in awe a vulgar understanding especially that hath been bred up with some more than ordinary Reverence to these astonishing terms § 4. These things were necessary to be premised before we could come to the true State of the Question which we now plainly see doth not relate to that Assent whereby we believe whatever God saith to be true but to that whereby we believe this particular Revelation contained in the Scriptures to be from God And so the Controversie is brought to this issue Whether in order to the certainty of our faith concerning Gods Revelation an Infallible Testimony of the Church be necessary which he affirms and I deny For in order to the certainty of Faith we have already seen he frequently asserts the necessity of an Infallible Oracle and makes all degrees of certainty short of Infallibility insufficient for Divine Faith But that we may the better understand his opinion we must take notice of his own explications of it and the distinctions he thinks necessary for that end 1. He distinguisheth between the judgement of credibility necessary to faith and the act of faith it self and the Resolution of these two though they have a due subordination to each other yet depend upon quite different principles the judgement of credibility whereby the Will moves and commands the intellectual faculty to elicit faith relies not upon that object which finally terminates faith it self but upon extrinsecal motives which perswade and powerfully induce to believe super omnia 2. He distinguisheth between the nature o● Science and faith Science is worth nothing unless it prove and faith purely considered as faith these words he desires may be well marked is worthless if it prove For faith reasons not nor asks how these mysteries can be but simply believes O● as he expresseth it in his former Book Fait● solely relies on Gods revealed Testimony without the mixture of reason for its motive And here he asserts That there is a more firm adhesion to the infallibility of that Divine Testimony for which we believe than the extrinsecal motives inducing to believ● either do or can draw from us 3. He distinguisheth between the Humane and Divine Authority of the Church the Humane Authority being as such fallible is not sufficient to ground divine faith But the first act of faith whereby every one believes the Church to be Gods Oracle is built upon her infallible divine Authority manifested by miracles and other signal marks of Truth By the help of these distinctions we may better understand his Resolution of Faith which he delivers in this manner Demanded why we believe the mystery of the Incarnation it is answered Scripture asserts it Ask again why we believe the Divinity of that Book called Scripture It is answered the Church ascertains us of that But how do we know that the Church herein delivers truth It is answered if we speak of knowledge previous to faith then he brings the motives of credibility which make the Churches Infallibility so evidently credible that we cannot if prudent and manifest reason guide us but as firmly believe whatever this Oracle teaches as the Israelites believed Moses and the Prophets This one would think were enough of all conscience but he thinks otherwise for there is saith he but one only difference and that advantageous to them that in lieu of Moses they have an ample Church innumerable multitudes in place of one servant of God the incomparable greater Light the pillar and Ground of Truth the Catholick Church diffused the whole world over and a little after asserts That they have the very same way of Resolving faith which the Primitive Christians had in the time of Christ and his Apostles Here is enough asserted if it could be proved § 5. Against this way laid down by my first Adversary T. C. I objected these three things 1. That it was unreasonable 2. That it did not avoid the main difficulties 3. That it was notoriously false these three waies of attacking it of which a short account is given in the entrance of this Discourse I must now more largely defend I shewed this way to be unreasonable and that upon these grounds 1. Because an assent is hereby required beyond all proportion or degree of evidence for the act of Faith being according to E. W. an insallible assent and no other grounds assigued for it besides the motives of credibility he must make an Infallible assent only upon fallible grounds And it is not sufficient to say that the Infallibility of the Churches Testimony makes the Assent Infallible
Gods word which I hope is an Oracle altogether as infallible as the Church But the question is whether such a one may be divided from Gods infallible Truth or not if not he is absolutely infallible if he may then what security hath any one to rely upon him upon such a conditional Infallibility which he can have no assurance of But still he hopes to retort the Instances upon me I never saw such a way of retorting in my whole life My design was to prove by these Instances that an infallible Testimony of a Church was not necessary in order to Faith he saith I must solve my own difficulties I confess I see none at all in my way that need to be answered for I assert that men may have sufficient Grounds of Faith without an infallible Proponent Well but he supposes all these Barbarians converted to Christ to have had true Faith and consequently prudent Motives to believe before they firmly assented to the Divine Revelation And so do I too But what were these motives To this Question he saith I return the strangest answer he ever heard for I seem to make the motives inducing to faith nothing but the Rational evidence of the Truth of the Doctrine delivered and therefore I grievously complain that they destroy the obligation which ariseth from the Rational evidence of the Christian Religion upon which he discourses as though by rational evidence the self-evidencing light of the doctrine and consequently all the miracles wrought by Christ and his Apostles were to no purpose Have not I reason to applaud my good fortune that I have met with so ingenuous an Adversary But I see those who write Controversies must be true Nethinims not only hewers of difficulties and drawers of the waters of contention but bearers of burdens too even such as their Adversaries please to lay upon them Could any thing be further from my meaning than by the rational evidence of Christianity to understand the self-evidencing light of the Scriptures But it is not what I say but what E. W. finds in his common-place-Common-place-Books a little before when I had proposed an argument he had not met with in those terms he presently fancied I meant another argu●ent which he found under the title of Defectilility of the Church and then in comes that with the answers he found ready to it Now for the rational evidence o● Christian Religion he finds not that Head in his Note-Books and cannot therefore tell what to make of it But an argument he had ready against the self-eviden●ing ligh● of the Scriptures and therefore the Seraphims seather must serve instead of St. Larence's Gridiron He might have been easily satisfied in that very Paragraph what I mean by the rational evidence of Christian Religion viz. the unquestionable assurance which we have of the matters of fact and the miracles wrought by Christ for confirmation of his Doctrine and this within four lines after the words by him produced And in the foregoing paragraph I insist very much on the evidence of sense as to the miracles wrought by Christ as a great part of the rational ●vidence of Christianity which is destroyed by the doctrine of the Roman Church while transubstantiation is believed in it For what assurance can there be of any object of sense such as the miracles of Christ were and his Body after his Resurrection if we are so framed not only that our senses may be but we are bound to believe that they are actually deceived in as proper an object of sense as any in the world And if such a thing may be false what evidence can we have when any thing is true For if a thing so plain and evident to our senses may be false viz. that what I and all other men see is bread what ground of certainty can we have but that which my senses and all other mens judge to be false may be true For by this means the criterium both of sense and reason is destroyed and consequently all things are equally true and false to us and then farewel sense and reason and Religion together These things I there largely insist upon which is all very silently passed over the Schools having found no answers to such arguments and therefore they must be content to be let alone But however though arguments cannot be answered I desire they may not be mis-represented and that when I fully declare what I meanby rational evidence such a sense may not be put upon my words as I never dreamt off There is nothing after which looks with the face of an answer to the●e Instances unless it be that he saith that none can have infallible assurance either of our Sav●ours Miracles or of any other verity recorded in Scripture independent of some actual living actual infallible and most clear evidenced Oracle by signs above the force of nature which in this present state is the Church These are good sayings and they want only proving and by the Instances already produced I have shewed that Persons did believe upon such evidence as implied no infallible Testimony and if he goes about to prove the Church infallible by such Miracles wrought by her as were wrought by the Apostles I desire only not to believe the Church infallible till I be satisfied about these Miracles but of that afterwards But I demanded if we can have no assurance of the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles without an Infallible Church what obligation can lie upon men to believe them who see no reason to believe any such Infallibility And since the Articles of our Faith are built upon matters of fact such as ●he death and resurrection of Jesus Christ whether these matters of fact may not be conveyed down in as unquestionable a manner as any others are Cannot we have an unquestionable assurance that there were such persons as Caesar and Pompey and that they did such and such things without some Infallible Testimony If we may in such things why not in other matters of fact which infinitely more concern the world to know than whatever Caesar or Pompey did This his Margin calls an unlearned objection and in the body of his Book saith I might have proposed a wiser Question an ●asier I grant I might as appears by the answer he gives it For two things he saith may be considered 1. That the man called Christ dyed upon the Cr●ss and this he saith both Jews and Gentiles yet assent to upon Moral Cer●ainty but therefore do not believe in Christ. 2. That the man called Christ dying for us was the only Messias truly God the Redeemer of mankind Here we have he saith the hidden verities of Christian Religion the certain objects of faith conveyed unto us by no moral assurance but only upon Gods Infallible Revelation A very wise answer I must needs say if intolerable shuffling be any part of wisdom Read over my words again and be ashamed If so then men
cannot have any unquestionable assurance that there was such a Person as Christ in the world that he wrought such great miracles for confirmation of his doctrine that he died and rose again Is all this no more than the common consent of Jews Gentiles and Cbristians that Christ died on a Cross Was ever any man so senseless as to make only the belief of the death of Christ on the Cross the reason of believing his Divinity But I say his Miracles before and Resurrection a●ter gave abundant testimony that he was sent from God and therefore his doctrine must needs be true and when we believe the truth of his doctrine w● are bound to believe every part of it such are his being the only Messias the true God the Redeemer of mankind and all other divine verities contained therein Let the Reader now judge whether the Objection or the Answer savours of more ignorance and folly But it is the mischief of this School-Divinity that it adds confidence to Ignorance and it makes men then most apt to despise others when they most expose themselves I proceeded to shew that instead of setling faith on a sure foundation by the Churches Infallibility they bring it to greater uncertainties than it was in before because they can neither satisfie men what that Church is which they suppose Infallible what in that Church is the proper subject of this Infallibility what kind of Infallibility it is nor how we should know when the Church doth define Infallibly and yet I say every one of these Questions is absolutely necessary to be resolved in order to the satisfaction of mens minds as to the Foundation of their Faith His Answer to these Questions refers us to his proofs of the Roman Churches Infallibility as the only society of Christians which hath power to define Infallibly by her representative moral Body which when I see proved I shall confess an Answer is given to those Questions Only one thing he thinks fit to give a more particular Answer to which is that this Infallibility should be the only Foundation of believing all things in Religion and yet so many things and some of them very strange ones must be certainly believed before it Here his common-place-Book again fails him and therefore wanting his Compass he roves and wanders from the point in hand He tells me it is hard to guess at my meaning for I name not one article thus assented to Perhaps I would say that the verities revealed in some Books of Scripture called Protocanonical known by their own proper signitures or motives as the Harmony Sanctity and Majesty of the Stile may be believed without this Testimony of an Infallible Church Well he doth not know what I meant but he knew an Argument he had an Answer ready to and therefore that must be my meaning But are not my words plain enough to any one that reads them And what a vast measure of faith say I is necessary to believe the Papal Infallibility for unless a man believes the particular Roman Church to be the Catholick Church unless he believes that Christ hath promised an infallible assistance to the Pastors of the Church and that not as separate but as assembled in Council and not in every Council but such as the Pope calls and presides in and confirms he cannot believe this Doctrine of Infallibility Nay further he must Infallibly believe the Church to be Infallible though no Infallible Argument be brought for it that this Church doth judicially and authoritatively pronounce her sentence in matters of Faith though we know not what that Church is which must so pronounce that he Infallibly know that this particular sentence was so pronounced though he can have no other than moral means of knowing it and lastly that the Infallibility must be the first thing believed although all these things must be believed before it Could any man well in his senses after reading these words imagine that I meant the self evidencing light of the Scriptures again But they write for those that believe them and that never dare look into the Books they pretend to consute Yet he hath a mind to prove the name of Roman Catholick Church to be no Bull which I said in a Parenthesis was like German universal Emperour This gives a new start another common-place Head is searched Title Catholick Church there he finds ready the old weather beaten Testimonies Rom. 1. 8. Your Faith is renowned the whole world over ergo Roman and Catholick are all one A plain demonstration What need they talk of the obscurity of Faith where there is such convincing evidence But what if it should have happened that S. Paul had said the same thing of the Faith of the Corinthians or Thessalonians would it not have been a most evident demonstration that the Church of Corinth was the Catholick Church at that time and was to continue so in following Ages But Scripture though never so plain cannot serve their turn they must have Fathers too So E. W. brings in St. Hierom St. Cyprian St. Athanasius St. Ambrose all evidently proving that the Church of Rome was once Catholick and what then I beseech him Were not other Churches so too But these very Testimonies as it unhappily falls out had been particularly and largely examined by me in a whole Chapter to that purpose But it is no matter for that I had not blotted them out of his note-Note-Books and there he found no answers and therefore out they come again § 11. 2. The second thing I objected against this way of resolving Faith was that it did not effect that which it was brought for for supposing that Chuch Infallible and that Infallibility proved by the motives of credibility they do not escape the circle objected against them Which I shewed 1. from the nature of divine Faith as explained by them 2. From the consideration of the persons whose Faith was to be resolved 3. From the nature of that Infallibility which is attributed to the Church I must now consider how E. W. attempts the clearing of these difficulties 1. As to the nature of divine Faith I ask whether a divine Faith as to the Churches Infallibility may be built upon the motives of credibility If it may then a divine Faith may rest upon prudential motives if not then this way cannot clear them from a circle in the resolution of divine Faith For I demanded why with a divine Faith they believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God Their answer is because the Church which is Infallible delivers them as such to us If I then ask why with a divine Faith they believe the Churches Infallibility I desired them to answer me if they can any other way than because the Scriptures which are Infallible say so It is a very pleasant thing to see how E. W. is miserably put to his shifts about this difficulty for although in his former Discourses he had
cured a man of the Palsie The Gardiner of the Monastery being troubled with a Thief that came over the hedge and stole his herbs commanded a Serpent to follow him and to lie just cross in the way he was wont to come over the Serpent presently obeyed the Thief was taken and the Serpent released From hence afterwards he scarce deserved the name of a Saint of whom they could not tell some extravagant stories of the power he had over Serpents of which multitudes of Instances may be seen in Colganus and Capgrave besides many other more ancient than they The story of St. Equitius in Gregory and St. Elias in Capgrave as to t●● way of their being delivered from all lust●● thoughts by an Angel appearing in the nig●● and seeming to castrate them is the very same by which we see out of what Magazineth later Legendaries took their materials whi●● they altered and adorned with such varieti●● of circumstances as would best go down wi●● the people Methinks then Baronius migh●● have let alone Canus in this matter and no● provoked others to give an account of th● soppish miracles contained in that Primitiv● Legend such as the Devils entring into Nun because she eat a Lettice in the gard●● without crossing it and when St. Equiti● demanded of him what he did there the D●● answered he was sitting upon the Lettice a●● she came and eat him up but it was well f● her that St. Equitius sent him going witho●● prescribing her a vomit as Nonnosus 〈◊〉 removing a stone by his prayers which fif●● Yoke of Oxen could not stirr and all this f● no other end but only to make way for a litt● Kitchin garden for the Monks as the sa● mans praying the pieces of a glass Lamp wh●● again only for fear of the displeasure of 〈◊〉 superior which was a substantial reason fo● so pretty a miracle And his multiplying o● by a miracle rather than the lazy Monks shoul● 〈◊〉 out to gather Olives as Boniface's re●iving 12. Crowns by a miracle because his ●ephew complained be had opened his Chest ●nd had taken a way so many from him to give 〈◊〉 the poor and his adjuring all the Erue's 〈◊〉 his garden in the name of Christ to be gone ●nd ●ot eat up his herbs which they imme●iately did and not one remained and ●aking the Fox by his prayers bring back the ●●llet he had stollen because he complained 〈◊〉 God Almighty in the Church whither he ●un upon this sad disaster that he could eat ●one of his Mothers Poultry as Martirius 〈◊〉 signing the cake in the embers with the sign ●f the cross without touching it only making 〈◊〉 towards the fire at which it gave a great ●●ack and was perfectly signed with the cross ●hen they took it out These may serve only for a ●ast of the kind of these miracles out of his first Book that men may judge with what reason Canus made such exceptions to Gregories Au●hority in this point of miracles It would be too ●edious to give an account of the miracles in his ●hree other Books but they are so much alike ●hat by seeing these we may judge of the rest Thus we see the opinion of Vives and Canus about the Testimony on which miracles are believed in the Roman Church but we must not think these persons were singular in this opinion for in several ages men of any honesty and judgement have complained of t● pious frauds which have been used in the matters and that some thought them la●● to be used as long as they were for the hono● of the Church or the Saints So Petrus D● miani saith there were some who thought th● honoured God by making lies to extoll the ●●tues of his Saints which words he uses up● this occasion of miracles and goes abo● seriously to confute them by telling them th● God doth not stand in need of our lies 〈◊〉 to the same purpose he speaks in the pres● to the lives of St. Maurus and of Domini● Ferratus written by him What secu●● can there be then of the miracles repon● by them who think it lawful to invent lies 〈◊〉 the Honour of the Church or of the suppos● Saints who live and dye in it If the Primiti● Church had made lying for the sake of Ch●●stianity lawful it would have been the mo●● reasonable pretence for infidelity that co●● be supposed For how can any man thi● himself obliged to believe another that do●● not think himself obliged to speak truth 〈◊〉 the Primitive Christians had made lying 〈◊〉 indifferent thing all their sufferings could hav● given no security of the truth of their Test●mony for notwithstanding the falshood 〈◊〉 their Testimony they might then hope however to be rewarded in another world an● consequently might suffer any thing here ●t when they declared at the same time that ●ing was utterly unlawful and yet ventured suffer the utmost extremity to attest the ●uth of their Testimony this gives the high●● credibility to the things asserted by them ●t we have no satisfaction as to either of ●●ese things in the witnesses of the miracles in ●e Roman Church no man hath ever lost much as a finger to give Testimony to one ●iracle among them and supposing they ●●ould suffer we have no assurance but they ●ight think it lawful to lie for their Religion ●●d therefore all their sufferings could not ●ove the truth of their Testimony We have 〈◊〉 sentence or declaration of their Church ●●ainst pious frauds but we have large con●ssions from their own Writers of the practice them and the good end they are designed 〈◊〉 viz. to keep up the devotion of the people ●●n Gerson honestly confesses this to be the ●d of the Legends and miracles of the Saints ●nd their visions and revelations so much ●lked of in the Roman Church viz. to stirr up ●piety and good affections of the people for ●ese things saith he are not proposed by 〈◊〉 Church to be believed as true but they are ●ther to consider them as things that might done than as things that were done And i● no matter saith he if some things that are really false are piously believed so that th●● be not believed as false or known to be false the same time And I wish he had added o● condition more viz. that the infallibilit● of the Church be not to be proved by them for in that case I hope it is of some litt●● concernment whether they be true or false B● are we not like to meet with credible Test● monies in such things where the most hone● and learned among them think it is no gre● matter whether they be true or false N● wonder then that Lyra complains of t●● frauds used by the Priests in the Churches 〈◊〉 make the people believe that miracles wo● wrought no wonder that Cajetan so mu●● slights the argument drawn from modern miracles and revelations and saith
us as though God had nothing else to do with his Power but to pervert the course of nature by it at the beck of any idle fellow as it God did not manage his power as he does all things else with infinite wisdom as if God imployed his extraordinary power without great and most urgent causes For when it was necessary to shew his power for the confirmation of the Christian Religion and the Satisfaction of unbelievers then all persons might see the wonderful works of God but now saith he when the Truth of Christianity is known it would be to no purpose for God to shew so many miracles But whence then comes it that so many miracles are still talked of This arises saith he from the devotion of some who attribute ordinary effects of nature to a miraculous Power and from the Superstitious folly and fraud of others who will not endure any thing cryed up for a miracle should be ever questioned by any but say it is profane Atheistical and which is somewhat worse heretical to do it Whereas poor wretches they do not think what injury they do the Catholick cause while they go about to strengthen it with lies and forgeries when the Christian doctrine is already fully confirmed by the most true and undoubted miracles of Christ and his Apostles What need they then to feign any new miracles Doth God need your lies will ye talk deceitfully for him as I may justly use the words of Job saith he of these men Another cause of so much talk of miracles in the Roman Church he saith is Ignorance whereby any extraordinary accident though such as might happen where Christianity was never known is extolled for a miracle Quorum operum causas nulla ratione videre Possunt haec fieri divino numine rentur From hence he proceeds to particulars and shews that most of those who are accounted possessed among them are Melancholy and Hypochondriacal men and Hysterical women and then examins the pretence to Inspiration and Prophecy to raptures and extasies to miraculous cures to prodigious fastings to incorruption of bodies to raising from the dead and shews under every one of these heads how very often the meer effects of nature pass for miracles in the Roman Church to whose learned discourses I refer the Reader and we may easily understand the meaning of such a person when he tells us after all this that the Church will not suffer men to be deceived about miracles but such as the Church approves are to be approved Now let any one judge whether such persons who receive no other miracles but such which the Church commands them to believe could ever imagine that the Infallibility of their Church was proved by such miracles which they would not believe to be true unless they first believed the Church which approved them to be infallible Fortunatus Scacchus a man of great Authority in Rom● grants that it is a very easie matter to take false miracles for true and that no certain argument can be taken from Tables which are hung up at Images or shrines that wicked men may do real miracles which he proves from Scripture and History and the continued practice in their Church from whence he concludes that no argument can be drawn for the sanctity of any Person but only from such miracles as are approved by the Roman Church For saith he it belongs only to the Authority of the Roman See and the Bishop of Rome to determine which are true miracles because the promise of infallibility is only made to the Roman Church and the Head of it From whence he concludes that no other Bishop hath any Power to approve miracles especially if they be supposed to be wrought by an uncanonized Saint For we are to understand that the great use of miracles in the Roman Church hath not been pretended to be for proving the faith or Infallibility of the Church but for an argument of Saintship of those who are to be Beatified or Canonized So Aquinas determines that miracles are either wrought to confirm the truth of a doctrine preached or for the demonstration of the Sanctity of a Person and therefore in the Process of Canonization one main enquiry is about the miracles wrought by the Person who stands for the preferment of Canonization In the Process about the Canonization of Andreas Corsinus presented to Paul 5. the Auditours of the Rota say that to the Being Canonized it is concluded by all to be necessary that the person have wrought miracles and there they agree that it is not necessary to a miracle to be wrought for the confirmation of faith seeing miracles may be done for another end viz. for the proof of the Sanctity of the Person And such miracles say they are those which are done among Catholicks for whose sake miracles would be necessary on no other account because miracles are a sign not to believers but to unbelievers whence as they well observe from Isidore St. Paul cured the Father of Publius by a miracle but pres●ribed to Timothy a natural remedy And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many other processes of Canonization to the same purpose viz. to prove that it is not necessary to a miracle that it be done for the confirmation of any part of Christian faith Since therefore the far greatest number of the miracles in the Roman Church are such as are wrought for another end how can they from them prove the infallibility of their Church unless they can make it appear that where ever there are true Saints the Church is Infallible From which it appears that the miracles of the Roman Church ought no more to be compared with those of Christ and his Apostles as to the Testimony by them given to Infallibility than in point of credibility and that in both respects they are so infinitely short of them that nothing but the height of impudence could make any man pretending to be Christian to assert that as great nay greater miracles have been done by the Roman Church as ever were done by Christ or his Apostles in which subject I have taken the more pains not meerly to detect the frauds and impostures of the Roman Church but to preserve and vindicate the Honour of Christianity lest that should suffer by the intolerable rudeness of these comparisons The END Books sold by Henry Mortlock at his Shop at the Phoenix in St. Paul's Church-yard and at the White-Hart in Westminster Hall A Rational account of the grounds of Protestant Réligion being a Vindication of the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterburies Relation of a conference from the pretended answer of T. C. by Edward Stillingfleet D. D. in Folio Cotgraves Dictionary French and English in Folio Sermons Preached by Anthony Farindon Folio House of Mourning in Folio Sheppards Practical Counsellor in Folio Animadversions on the 4. part of Cooks Institutes by William Prynne Esq Folio Observations upon Millitary and Political afairs by the Right