AN EXAMINATION OF Dr. Balyes Five Waies WHEREBY He endeavours to prove the Church of Rome to be the only Church of Christ wherein Salvation is to be had and the Church of England to be no True Church BY ROBERT SEPPENS Rector of Hingham in Norfolk LONDON Printed by M. C. for William Oliver Bookseller in the Market-Place in Norwich 1679. TO THE READER WHen King CHARLES the First that glorious Martyr of ever blessed memory was by his inhuman and unnatural Subjects most barbarously Murdered there were Missionaries from Rome employed in all parts of the Kingdom to disaffect the people to the Monarchy and the Hierarchy to the Religion and the Government of the Kingdom Established by Law Amongst the rest one came to a Gentlewoman not far from me when I lived at Bradenham and presented her with a Book Stiled An End to all Controversies of which Doctor Baly was the Author Now Doctor Baly you must know was revolted from the Church of England and was had in great esteem for two famous Books formerly Published by him One was a Romance Dedicated to the Lady Crane of Suffolk Entituled Herba Parietis or the Wall Flower the other was A Narrative of the Conference betwixt King Charles the First and the Marquess of Worcester at Ragland Castle It is not my present business to enquire how well he discharged himself in those his undertakings But certainly the last Book he Published viz. An End to all Controversies and that indeed which was given to the foremention'd Gentlewoman in order to some further design upon her was palmarium opus the most worthy of the three The Gentlewoman after the perusal of it brought it to me with an earnest desire to hear my judgment of it to satisfie therefore her request I Read it over and in the Reading of it I observed it consisted of these two parts especially A Calumnious invective against the Church of England then a Polemick Discourse wherein the Doctor by Five Arguments had there endeavoured to prove the Church of Rome to be the only true Church wherein Life and Salvation was to be had and the Church of England to be no true Church The Gentlewoman soon perceived what dangerous Consequence this Book might be of and so was not infected with any of those pernicious Principles contained in it But I fearing lest through the weakness of her Sex though indeed she was Prudent Vertuous and in matters of Religion of understanding above her Sex she might have been prevail'd upon by those Arguments and being very much concern'd to deliver her from the danger and poyson of them I thought my self oblig'd to commend an Antidote to her to prevent infection To effect which I passed by the Railing invective part of his Discourse and made it my business to Answer the Polemick part of it wherein though he very confidently boasts of his Arguments as unanswerable and invincible yet after a strict enquiry and examination of them I neither found Hector nor Achilles in them This Discourse I Penned long since and immediately after delivered it my self to the forementioned Person who liv'd to see the happy Restoration of His Majesty and then dyed in the Communion of the Church of England I long expected some Answer to this but hearing of none I have now ventur'd to make it publick not out of any desire to appear again in publick but partly to vindicate my self from the suspicion of Popery which I have been traduc'd for partly by way of caution to others Such as it is I willingly submit to the Judgments of unprejudiced Readers and that it may prove effectual for the vindication of our Church from the false accusations of its adversaries is the hearty Prayers as well as desires of R. S. Sacraments of the Lord. Augustine Psalm xxxii Epist 48. and 164. c. The peevish Schismaticks took advantage upon this their Concession to conclude themselves to be the only Church and to exclude all others If it be so say they Communio nostra est Ecclesia Christi Our Communion is the Church of Christ alone Aug. de Bapt. de cont Donat. lib. 1. cap. 10. And Petilianus dixit Petilian saith Come to the Church O people and fly from the Traditors if you will not perish that you may know they are guilty they judg rightly of our Faith c. Contra lit Pelit lib. 2. cap. 1.8 If this reasoning of Petilianus was good then the Roman Church it self was excluded if it was not why does the Romanist use it against us We must not do that to others we would not have others do to us For that Argument the Doctor frames out of our Concessions towards the end of that Chapter 'T is very fallacious The Church of God is but one The Church of Rome is the True Church The Church of England is opposite to that Church Therefore the Church of England is no True Church But not to trouble you with the vitiosity of his Logicks I shall answer it as it lies When we say the Church of God is but one we mean the Universal Church we speak not Emphatically or Exclusively as if she were the whole or the only Church but we mean she is a True particular Church When we say the Church of England is opposite to the Roman Church we mean Secundum quid in some things not simpliciter not simply in the Essentials of a Church but in some Doctrins and Observations In which respect some Church may be opposite to the Roman Church and yet be a True Church still as long as she retains all the Fundamentals As for example one Doctor in the Roman Church may be opposite to another in some Opinions and Observations of Discipline and yet be a True Catholick still as well as the other A Second way whereby he pretends to end all Controversies and prove the Roman Church to be the one Holy Catholick Church where Remission of sins is only c. Is by reference to a third party as Umpire in the business and so he saith Protestants are cast in their own Cause by the Arbitrement of St. Augustine who being the Monarch of the Fathers is Appealed to by both Parties as a competent Judg. Cap. 26. 'T is well the Doctor will acknowledg any Umpire in the cause but the Pope or the Roman Church Surely this is a work of Supererogation which he now does in a Bravado to shew what abundant ways he hath of confuting the poor Church of England but he was not the Authour of this device Ieronymus Torrensis a Jesuite many years ago abbreviated all St. Augustines Works and Published them in honour of his Church by the name of Augustinina Confessio Augustines Confession And Brerely a Priest contracted his Doctrine into a lesser Model after him and call'd it St. Augustines Religion How much the Doctor is beholden to his two forerunners for their Collections the world must not know and 't is no matter whether they
do or no if he can make it out by any means that St. Augustine hath prejudged us so many hundred years ago it must needs be a fatal blow to the Church of England and this he endeavours to do by giving us St. Augustines Judgment in all or most of the particulars Controverted but how truly you shall see in the sequel St. Augustine saith he tells us plainly that the Church was built upon Peter in the first of his Retract Cap. 21. Yet in this very first place St. Augustine he knows retracts it and saith plainly by the Rock may be meant the Person whom he confessed it was not said to him Tues Petra sed tues Petrus Petra autem erat Christus quem confessus Simon Thou art the Rock but thou art Peter for the Rock was Christ whom Peter confessed and though in the following words he leaves it to the choice of the Reader to take which Interpretation he pleaseth yet by retracting of the former it appears he adhered to the latter As is made more probable by another passage of the same Father in a Sermon de verb. Dom. Serm. 13. Non me super te Petre sed te super me I am not built upon thee Peter but thou upon me and therefore in this point Pighius condemns that Father as inconstant to himself St. Augustine acknowledged the Popes Supremacy but not that unlimited Supremacy that is now challenged consisting in a Superiority over Councils jurisdiction over Kings in being Judg of all Controversies for St. Augustine himself denyed Appeals to Rome St. Augustine saith he taught the Assumption of our Blessed Lady her freedom from Original sin her vowed Chastity But in that Book de Sancta Virginit he refers us to I find mention only of her vowed Chastity which is no matter of Controversie but nothing of her freedom from Original sin and 't is well known that Opinion of the Virgins freedom from Original sin is of a later birth it being unknown in St. Bernards time nothing determined of it till the Council of Basil 1431. St. Augustine saith that the Authority of the Catholick Church is of more efficacy than the word it self and we are of his Judgment too if he be rightly understood that the Authority of the Church is of more efficacy to some in some respect to move Pagans and Infidels St. Augustine tells us 't is an Heretical thing to insist only upon Scripture and so say we we know Reason must be used to convince Heathen and Tradition to convince Hereticks St. Augustine saith that the Church cannot Err so say we if we understand by the Church the Church Universal with this limitation in Fundamentals St. Augustine The Church of Christ is Universal and so say we St. Augustine tells us that the Church Catholick must be Visible so say we St. Augustine teacheth that there are Seven Sacrament that 's false St. Augustine no where speaks of that just number neither was it ever determined till the Council of Florence nor heard of before Peter Lombard St. Augustine saith he believed Transubstantiation in effect but not in terms how does he know St. Augustine believed it in effect when he does not express so much in his terms St. Augustine teacheth us that the Sacrament is to be adored but in all the places he refers us to I can find nothing to that purpose but only upon Psalm xcvii where he hath these words Nemo carnem illam manducet nisi prius adoraverit let no man Eat that Flesh unless he first adores which I hope no good Christian will refuse to do Christ no Question ought to be adored in our approaches to that Sacrament and the Sacrament it self is venerable with all due respects to be handled and received Not to trouble my self nor you with examining all the Points of Divinity he gives us St. Augustines judgment on if St. Augustine taught the Eucharist to be a Sacrifice Confession of sins to a Priest That Orders ought not to be conferr'd but by a Bishop That 't is an Error to affirm a Bishop and a Priest to be a like in Dignity If he maintained Freewill Justification by Works That men are made Righteous by Works For that was St. Augustines Notion of Justification If he taught that good Works do Merit in some kind the difference betwixt Venial and Mortal sins Prescribed days of Fasting If he commends Monastical life The Learned of the Church of England will give their suffrage to St. Augustine in all these particulars and not betray their cause neither So you see we have received no great damage by this reference yet But if we turn over St. Augustine again and enquire out his judgment concerning the Innovations and new Doctrines maintained in the Roman Church we shall see that these Appellants themselves are condemned by St. Augustines Sentence The present Church of Rome maintains Worshipping of Images St. Augustine condemned it in his 119. Epist ad Jan. saying nulla imago ejus coli debet c. no Image of God ought to be Worshipped but that which is the same with himself and in his Book de moribus Ecclesiae Cap. 34. he hath these words Do not follow the rout of ignorant people which in the true Religion are Superstitious I know many Worshippers of Sepulchres and Pictures And upon Psalm cxii he hath a long Discourse to shew how dangerous the use of such Images is The present Church of Rome maintains that the Scriptures are imperfect and obscure in matters of Faith and good Life St. Augustine teacheth the contrary in his Book de Doctr. Christiana in those things which are plainly delivered in the Scripture are found all things which concern Faith and good Life The present Church denies the Scripture to be Judg of any Controversie St. Collat. Carthag 3. Cap. 187. Augustine summons the Donatists to the Judgment of Scripture alone in that Controversie in one place he saith the Divine Testimonies alone are sufficient to demonstrate the Church Let Divine Authority alone speak let Scripture alone be produced to which both of us owe submission And in his Book de Unitate Ecclesiae he saith Non audiamus haec dico haec dicis sed audiamus haec dicit Dominus c. Let us not hear this I say and this thou sayest but let us hear this the Lord saith There are the Lords Books let us there seek for the Church let us there discuss our cause let those things be laid aside which we produce one against another not out of the Divine Canonical Books The present Roman Church forbids people Reading of the Scripture St. Augustine exhorts his Auditors all to Read the Scriptures upon Psalm xxxiii Read the Scriptures saith he therefore God would have them written that we might be comforted The present Church of Rome hath taken away the Cup from the people in the Sacrament St. Augustine saith all the people must receive it if they will have life Quaest 57.
in Levit. The present Church of Rome maintains Transubstantiation St. Augustine denies it in his Book against Adimantus he hath these words The Lord doubted not to say this is my Body when he gave a sign of his Body And in a Sermon upon Psalm xcviii he hath these words Non hoc corpus c. You are not about to Eat that Body which you see nor Drink that Bloud which is poured out by my Crucifiers I have commended unto you a Sacrament which being Spiritually understood shall quicken you and although it be necessary to celebrate it visibly yet it ought to be understood invisibly it were an easie matter for a man meanly versed in St. Augustine to instance in many more particulars wherein that Father varies from the judgment of the present Roman Church As concerning the number of the Sacraments the Virgin Maries Immaculate Conception Prayers in an unknown Tongue Purgatory Invocation of Saints c. But I am weary and troublesom and so shall put a Period to this part desiring you now to judg impartially whether we be cast in our cause by St. Augustines Sentence or no. The third way he pretends to end all Controversies is by the known and ever acknowledged Tribunal and Seat of Judgment provided in that behalf and so Protestants are cast in their own Cause again by Judiciary way of proceeding by the highest Judicature in Causes Ecclesiastical the Church of Rome Arguments are not so plentiful with the Doctor as he makes shew of when he is forced to make use of this new Topick viz. to prove the Roman Church to be the whole Catholick Church by the judgment of the Roman Church If I bear witness of my self saith Christ my witness is not true John v. 31. Nemo qui de seipso fert testimonium fide dignus est propter suspicionem de nimio sui ipsius amore Euthym. No body that bears witness of himself is worthy to be believed because every man is suspected to love himself too well And therefore whatsoever others may this Argument is not like to sway much with rational men 't is a poor thing of so great a Clerk who hath so good a Cause as he conceives and all learning of his side to use such pittiful begging of the Question Whether the Church of Rome be the Judg of all Controversies is one thing in question And to Appeal to his Church as Judg before he hath proved her to be so is a piece of Sophistry But this he makes us believe he hath done before in part Cap. 1. and now he will do it more fully by Scriptures Fathers Greek and Latin the practice of all Ages Nations Tongues and People and the confession of her very Adversaries If he can do as much as he promiseth let him be Anathema Maranatha that shall not conform his judgment to the Roman Church but if these be all Ostentations Rhodomontadoes to amaze his Reader and charm his Proselytes into a Circle of ignorance Hath not every wise man cause to suspect that Cause that needs such Arts to underprop it Two things there are I suppose the Doctor is obliged to do to make this undertaking good First to prove that the Roman Church is provided and ordained by God the Judg of all Controversies and so that she is lawfully possest of this Office Secondly That de facto she was ever acknowledged so to be For the first he seems to do it by these Scriptures God erected a standing Judicature for all Controversies among the Jews Deut. xvii 8 9. He foretels that at Christs coming his House should be established on the top of the mountains Isay ii 2. and all Nations should flow unto it Christ commands to hear the Church Matth. xviii and foretels that he will take the Kingdom of God from the Jews and give it to another Nation i. e. the Romans Matth. xxi 43. St. Paul tells us he hath given some Apostles c. Ephes iv 11. But these being all impertinent and miserably wrested I shall not wast time and paper in answering them and truly unless the Doctor had had more pertinent Texts to have proved the Question he should have done well to have waved this kind of proof especially seeing the Church of Rome hath not always claimed by this Title of Divine Right when the contest was betwixt the Romans and Africans about Appeals Zozimus Bonifacius and Celestinus the then Popes of Rome did not urge Divine Law for their claim of receiving Appeals out of Africa but the Decrees of the Nicene Council whereby it appears that then they thought not that this Jurisdiction belonged to them by Divine Right Yet this failing if he can prove the matter of Fact it will be somthing this is the Strength and Bulwark of the Cause and this he seems to manage with more dexterity for very numerous he is in Quotation of Fathers and very Rhetorical in persuading but his Authorities if you observe them are most of them impertinent he produceth the testimonies of the Fathers in great numbers to prove that the Pope of Rome was St. Peters Successor had magnificent Titles given him was call'd a Catholick Bishop and Bishop of the Catholick Church That the Roman Church was in Ancient times very highly accounted of that the Roman Faith was called the Catholick Faith Only in the fixth Division Pag. 234. He seems to come home to the Question for there he gives us a just Catalogue of oppressed Bishops that made complaints to the Pope of Rome and of some Holy Fathers that made their addresses to him upon some other occasions which seem to argue that he was then acknowledged the Judg of all Controversies This at first makes a great noise like the ratling of Hail upon a House top but soon falls to the Ground The Pope of Rome may be considered in a threefold capacity First of a Bishop over a particular Diocess and so there belonged to him as to other Bishops a Judgment of Jurisdiction over his own Clergy Secondly of a Patriarch in which respect there belong'd to him Authority to hear complaints of Bishops against their Metropolitans and determine all differences amongst Metropolitans under his Patriarchate Thirdly of the Prime Patriarch of the Catholick Church without whose concurrence the meaner Patriarchs could do nothing in the weighty and important affairs of the Church to whom the Cognizance of some things belonged above other Patriarchs by the Canons of the Council of Sardis and to whom singular honour was done and some extraordinary Priviledges granted as Bishop of the Imperial City as the Fathers of the Council of Chalcedon said in all which respects Complaints and Appeals might be made to the Pope of Rome and yet it does not follow that he was ever acknowledg'd the Judg of all Controversies For 't is evident notwithstanding all the Priviledges of the Pope of Rome that yet there was reserved to every Bishop the Judgment of all differences amongst