undertake to demonstrate with equall evidence when and by what Apostles whatever he so delivered stands recorded And till the Roman Church shall make this out certain we are that those words of our Blessed Saviour I have yet many things to say assisted with those of St. Luke he spake of the kingdom of God prove not the thing for which our Adversaries urge them namely That there were severall necessary Doctrines delivered by Christ to his Apostles after his Resurrection that are nowhere found in the written Word of God 2. But since these forenamed Texts will not doe their desired work the Champions of the Trent Faith who are resolved to endeavour the Justification of every Article maintained and concluded on by that illegal Conventicle of a few suborned packed and titular Bishops are obliged to try some other if possibly they can find the least Countenance for their Traditions in Sacred Writ There is another expression of the Evangelist St. John that is often urged as a Text that will doe their businesse indeed and thus it runs Many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his Disciples which are not written in this Book No 't is observed of St. John by one of the Greek Fathers that he wrote 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many of Christ's Sermons but few of his Miracles For 't is certain that his Gospel at the request of the Bishops of Asia and in opposition to the Gnosticks and other Hereticks was written last upon which score he did advisedly passe by those Miracles which were already recorded by the other Evangelists and so might well tell the world thus Many other signs truly did Jesus which are not written in this Book And withall 't is observable that the Evangelist doth not mention 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 other Doctrines but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 other Miracles which are not written in his Gospel But what then what Evidence gives this to those Traditions about matters of Faith and Manners which the Roman Church pretends to be as necessary to Salvation as those great Doctrines of Christ and his Apostles which are clearly found in the written Word I remember that St. Chrysostom and some other Interpreters do restrain this expression of the Evangelist to those Miracles onely which Christ wrought after his Resurrection Many other signs truly did Jesus Here Theophylact puts the Question thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What Miracles were those which the Evangelist here speaks of were they such as our Saviour wrought publickly and before his Passion He answers thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Saint Chrysostom conjectures too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It seems to me that the Evangelist means those Miracles which were done by our Saviour after his Resurrection and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 onely for the sake of his Disciples And methinks this Conjecture of St. Chrysostom Theophylact and others hath a very fair foundation in the Text it self which tells us Many other signs did Jesus which are not written in this Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the presence not of the multitude but of the Disciples and probably the Disciples onely and that with a design to confirm his Apostles who had been too incredulous in the faith of his Resurrection And certainly if these Miracles of Christ were wrought in private before his Disciples and for their sakes onely to be as Theophylact styles them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Evidences and Proofs of his Resurrection to remove their personall doubts to satisfie their Curiosity and to establish their Faith 't is not easy to imagine that the omission of some of these Miracles by all the Evangelists should any way countenance the Traditions of the Roman Church nor prejudice the Faith of the Vniversall which hath otherwise such abundant Testimonies of Christ's Resurrection from the written Word that it cannot need the Assistence and Supplement of Traditions for its Confirmation in that or indeed in any other Article of its Belief And as for those mighty Works of wonder which were publickly wrought by our Blessed Saviour to prove his Commission from God and to confirm the Divinity of that new Religion which he was then to introduce into the world that they were not all written we do easily grant There might be several Miracles done by Christ which St. John and the other Evangelists thought fit to passe by ut minimè necessaria saith Grotius as things no way necessary to be recorded For although our Blessed Saviour being desirous to doe good where-ever he came and being willing to convince the whole Jewish Nation that he was indeed the true Messias had frequent occasions to work various Miracles because he went to severall places and conversed amongst severall companies where he met with divers objects of Mercy and various persons that were to be brought over to his new Religion yet we do affirm that any one Miracle of his being rightly considered and duly weighed had been enough to have satisfied all its Spectatours that the Person and Doctrine of Christ were both approved and sent by God And this blessed effect some one single Miracle did sometimes produce When Christ had raised Lazarus from the dead we are immediately told upon that Many of the Jews which came to Mary and had seen the things which Jesus did believed on him And if so if one Miracle were sufficient to secure that End for which all Miracles were wrought 't is sure that we have enough recorded What though the Apostles did not register all the Miracles of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one by one and with all those Circumstances that did attend them St. John saith they could not doe it If they should be written every one I suppose that even the world it self could not contain the books that should be written But what then are we obliged to run to unwritten Traditions are we bound to believe the Truth of all those Miracles which as some say Christ wrought in Egypt when he was but a Child as much as those which he wrought in Israel when he was a Man and thereby shewed himself to be the Son of God too Are we no more bound to believe the miraculous Stories of the Four Evangelists then that related by Sozomen who tells us that when Christ in his Infancy was entring into Hermopolis there stood near the way an exceeding high tree which as our Saviour passed by did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bow down his branches to the very ground and thereby owned and made obeisance to its Lord Of this Miracle Maldonate saith Meritò Traditio videri potest 'T is a Story that well deserves the name of a Tradition and Sozomen saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Story and some other miraculous ones too about the same Tree are testified by the Inhabitants of Egypt and Palestine But are we therefore obliged to believe them with the same credit which we give to the Gospel No though all
his Greatness Splendour and Magnificence that Doctrine which asserts his Power to dispense with Vows Oaths and in several cases with Matrimonial Contracts either to allow or null them that Doctrine which assigns him a Power more then ordinarily Ministeriall to pardon Sin and deliver whom he will from Purgatory c. makes for his Wealth and fills his Bags apace And if so if these and other Doctrines do bring in such a Revenue to the Roman Bishop and many more of his Church too 't is very likely that they will be so kind to themselves as to plead for those Traditions by which alone those Doctrines can be maintained That the Bishops of Rome have the usual Infirmities of other men and may perhaps fail now and then in matters of Morall Concern I think no man denieth 'T is a bug word that Baronius speaks of Pope Vigilius whom he calleth a Thief a Brigand c. and 't is no great Commendation which Bellarmine gives of John the Twenty third when he doth acknowledge him to have been a man vitae dissolutae of a loose and dissolute Conversation so dissolute that fifty three severall Articles that concerned his Manners for in Points of Faith the Pope though an Heretick must not be thought to erre were exhibited against him in the Council of Constance and proved by sufficient Testimonies These two Instances not to name the Sorceries and Treasons of Gregory the Seventh nor the Concubine of Nicholas the Third and to passe by the late pretty stories of Donna Olympia who governed the Roman Chair as Themistocles his little Son ruled Athens are more then enough to evidence that even his Holinesse himself may erre in point of Morality And since other Vices are incident to the Bishops of Rome why should we think it impossible for them to be a little tainted sometimes with those small Infirmities of Covetousness Pride and Ambition Though St. Bernard indeed might tell his friend Pope Eugenius Apostolis interdicitur Dominatus Christ forbad his Apostles to exercise any Despotick Power at least over one another yet perhaps Boniface the Eighth might have in him some little remainders of unmortified Pride which might prevail with him to accept the Title from others yea and to style himself too Mundi Dominum the Lord of the World And though Alexander the Fifth who professed himself a rich Bishop a poor Cardinall but a mere beggarly Pope might perhaps deserve that Character which St. Paul requires in a Bishop not greedy of filthy lucre yet what may we think of John the Twenty Third who was so covetous of Money and heaped up so much Treasure that he thought himself concerned to brand that man for an Heretick who should dare affirm that Christ and his Apostles had no Possessions in the World Now then if the Roman Bishops as well as other men may possibly so far forget themselves as to be guilty of Ambition and Avarice 't is not reasonable that we should admit their Testimony for the Justification of those Traditions wherein their own Advantage and Honour is so very much concerned they are Parties so mightily interessed in this Cause that there is ground enough to suspect their Evidence and to imagine that they will represent the matter not impartially as it really stands but with those favourable Constructions or false Glosses and Equivocations which an ambitious or covetous heart may probably suggest and a bad Cause doth certainly require But 2. Although the Testimony of the Roman Bishops should be admitted for the justification of their own Traditions should we be so kind as to accept their Evidence in a Cause which so deeply concerns themselves nay should we pass a candid interpretation upon it and suppose it to be impartial yet neither so would it doe their work nor prove firm sure and cogent See why upon a double ground 1. The Testimonies of several Roman Bishops especially those early ones who would indeed have been very credible Witnesses in any matter which concerns the Church have been counterfeited and notoriously forged Methinks we may use the same Consideration to invalidate the Testimony of any Roman Bishop which Bellarmine himself doth to weaken and take off the Evidence of a Roman Cardinall We find what horrid Crimes if Simony Heresie Sorcery and Adultery be such indeed are by several Authors laid to the Charge of Pope Gregory the Seventh And because these detestable Villanies do much reflect upon the Honour of the Roman See and do intrench too much upon that Fundamental Point of the Pope's Infallibility 't is the great endeavour of Bellarmine by all ways and means to wipe off this Guilt and to make the world believe that all these Vices objected against as he styles him an innocent Pope were but unworthy Reproaches and base Calumnies that were raised by Tilmannus and the Centuriatours out of a forged Book that was fathered indeed upon Cardinal Benno but was probably written so Bellarmine would have it by some Lutheran or other This kind of Argumentation we may justly retort upon the Roman Church who justifie their own Traditions and unjustly charge us with Heresie as having departed from the true Faith of the Primitive and Catholick Church and this they would fain prove by Testimonies produced out of some Writings which are ascribed to several ancient Bishops of Rome whereas 't is very certain that those Writings neither were nor could be theirs 'T is the great Honour of the Roman See that in the three first Centuries the Bishops who governed that Church were very choice and excellent Persons we reade that Thirty and one successive Bishops of theirs even from Linus to Sylvester if we except but Hyginus and Pius who lived under the kinder Empire of Antoninus Pius were Martyrs or Confessours at least The memory of these Champions and stout Assertours of the true Catholick Faith being precious and their Authority being venerable in the Church of Christ some well-wishers to the present Roman Church that there might be some pretence of great Antiquity for their superstitious Novelties have written such and such Epistles Constitutions and other Tracts in the names of these Primitive Roman Bishops which they have published and sent abroad into the world with as much confidence as if they were genuine and authentick indeed What Authority such Epistles have in the Roman Church we learn from Gratian who equals them to the Definitions of General Councils and is not ashamed to make St. Austine say that they are equal to the very written Word of God But St. Austine is so much wronged in being produced by Gratian as the Authour of such an intolerable Assertion that Bellarmine who for once hath something more of Modesty doth thus excuse it Deceptus est Gratianus ex depravato Codice quem ipse habuit beati Augustini Gratian was deceived by a corrupted Copy which he had of St. Austine's Works But however though Bellarmine dare not equal these Decretall Epistles
own Judgments delivering the sense of their own Understandings they have sufficiently evidenced themselves to be too fallible as our Adversaries themselves do acknowledge It is true where the Fathers do but seem to countenance the fond and superstitious Doctrines of the Roman Church if there be found any Passage in them that can possibly be pretended to favour that absurd and incredible Assertion of Transubstantiation or those advantageous Doctrines of Purgatory Indulgencies auricular Confession or the like every such Passage how ambiguous soever must pass for a certain Truth as if it proceeded ex Tripode even from an Oracle But in common cases and especially in those Controversies wherein the Fathers contradict the Opinions and Practices of that Church they are esteemed no more then other men and how clear and plain soever their Expressions are they are counted doubtful and fallible enough Thus Lorinus Gentiles ignorantiâ Linguae Hebraeae lapsi sunt ac nonnulli etiam Patres The Gentiles being ignorant of the Hebrew Tongue did erre and so did some of the Fathers too And in the same place he speaks thus of Clemens Alexandrinus Longè abest à vero quod arbitratur Clemens Alexandrinus The Opinion of this Clemens is far from being a Truth And as for St. Basil he giveth us this Caution too Tanti Patris Doctrina cum Cautione intelligenda est The Doctrine of so great a Father must be understood with Caution And why pray with so much Caution certainly some nice and tender Point lieth at stake and that was this Nè justissimis Pontificum Decreâ—is adversetur Lest St. Basil should perhaps contradict the Pope Well since 't is granted on all sides that the very best of the Fathers were subject to mistakes we have reason to believe that they might more probably erre in the case of Traditions sooner then in any other Point whatever and upon that score such Traditions as have no Countenance from the written Word nor the general Testimony of Antiquity we cannot receive as Apostolicall though such and such a particular Father may seem to recommend them But 2. The Second Reason why we cannot comply with every thing which we find recorded in the Works of such and such ancient Fathers is Because the Writings of these Fathers have been miserably abused corrupted falsified or forged Such Abuses have the most early Fathers met with So Ignatius who was as Eusebius tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amongst most men renowned the second Bishop of Antioch being the immediate Successour of St. Peter But though this excellent Person were indeed so ancient that his gray hairs might justly challenge a Veneration yet have they not secured him from several gross and foul Affronts We find some Bastards laid even at this old man's door 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supposititious and spurious Epistles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. ascribed to Ignatius though none of his And as for those Epistles collected by Polycarp and mentioned by Eusebius which notwithstanding all the Cavils of Blondel Walo and other Antiepiscopal persons our learned Pearson and Hammond 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have sufficiently vindicated and proved to be his we find even these as worthy Isaac Vossius well expresseth it ità interpolatas ut plurimùm Ignatium in hoc Ignatio frustrà quaeras so interlarded and stuffed with such numerous Insertions that in this new Ignatius the old one can scarce be found And as for Origen though it is generally granted that his Writings even as they dropped from his own Quill are many times to blame yet 't is easily believed that some Corrupters and Falsifiers of his Works have made them worse Thus Daniel Huetius who hath given the world a solemn account of Origen's Life and Opinions doth assure us Cùm ab Haereticis violata esse constaret Origeniana volumina c. Since it was evident that Origen's Books were abused by Hereticks c. And doth not Valesius tell us Clementis Romani libros qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inscribebantur ab Ebionaeis corruptos fuisse atque falsatos that the Books of Clemens Romanus named The Journals of Peter were corrupted and falsified by the Ebionites And this our Adversaries of Rome do not deny when-ever it makes for their Advantage to confess it Cornelius à Lapide a learned Jesuit finding that St. Hierom's Epistle to Damasus made against him flieth to this Refuge Epistola Hieronymi ad Damasum non videtur esse Hieronymi sed conficta The Epistle of Hierom to Damasus seems not to be really his but a meer counterfeit Well sure we are there are no persons to be named throughout the world that have shewed themselves shall I say more ingenious or more impudent in imitating their Forefathers Hands and counterfeiting their Voices and that to very ill Purposes too then the men that we have now to deal with 'T is the great Shame of the Roman Church and such a Blemish as is not to be wiped off for ever that they put unsavoury words into their Fathers mouths and cite the Dead to bear Testimony to those Follies and Falshoods which when alive they would have abhorred with just Indignation and Zeal 'T is well observed and unanswerably proved by an eminent Divine of our own Church that the Romanists have used several Tricks to corrupt the Fathers and make them speak even as they themselves would have them For sometimes they insert illegitimate and bastard Treatises into the Fathers Works hoping that these spurious Brats will pass for their lawful Children because found within their doors Sometimes again they do falsifie the known and undoubted Writings of ancient Authours by adding one thing detracting a second and changing a third Sometimes also they do cite and alleage such and such Passages out of such and such Fathers so miserably wrested from the Sense of the Authour that they offer Violence and commit a sacrilegious Rape even upon the Dead The Purging of the Fathers by suppressing razing and blotting out such and such Passages which do not please them the Roman Church doth own Thus they tell us concerning the Venetian Edition of St. Austine Curavimus removeri illa omnia quae fidelium mentes Haereticâ pravitate possent inficere aut à Catholica Orthodoxa fide deviare We have taken care for the removal out of St. Austine all those Passages of his which might infect the minds of the faithful with Heretical Pravity or make them turn aside from the Catholick Orthodox Faith We are also told in the Preface to the Paris Edition of St. Austine Ex sanctissimo Concilii Tridentini Decreto veterum Patrum Codices expurgandi By the most holy Decree of the Council of Trent the Books of the ancient Fathers are to be purged And for so doing doth Sixtus Senensis thus commend Pius the Fifth Expurgari ema culari curâsti omnium Catholicorum Scriptorum praecipuè veterum Patrum scripta Thou hast caused the