upon the person but considers the person as believing so or otherwise and so condemneth him And how a man that cannot err as they say in matters of Law should err in matters of Fact cannot be conceived by reason he having ones Book and being an infallible searcher and interpreter of ones meaning can fall into the question of Fact out of the question of Law and so pronounce that this and no other was the meaning of the Author 2. Because Law maketh a prescription unto a Fact it is not likely that he who cannot err in matters of Law should do so in matters of Fact. 3. Because sometimes out of a Fact ariseth a Law therefore the same question which was before a question of Fact after it is become by long continuance a question of Law may be handled and decided by the Pope infallibly 4. By this way the Pope shall never be able to condemn a Heretick or strike him with a thunder of an Anathema as one that hath a fallible judgment in matters of Fact which shall not be admitted by the Papists 5. That the Pope may err in matters of Law and that most horribly we have shortly shewn the same a little higher So that hence we may perceive how sallibly they believe that place the infallibility in the Pope For the last followeth the third meaning of the Papists viz. That the infallibility of the Church resides in the Pope and Council together But Incidit in scyllam qui vult vitare charybdin Because the same difficulties which were proposed before arise again Besides it will be dubious which of them parties viz. if the Pope unto the Council or the Council unto the Pope doth communicate the infallibility Afterwards if the Pope be absent and be there by his Messengers if they have the same authority he should have if he was present The same they could not have because it is his own formally or else he could grant it as well to all the Bishops of the Council as to his Messengers Moreover it will be very doubtful if those Decretals which were framed in the Popes absence will be infallible and binding the Conscience for if all the Decretals are of no value without the Pope's confirmation it cannot be conceived how that these Constitution made in and by the Council of Trent can be ratified extraconciliariter or without it by reason the Popes infallibility doth not consist as he is separated from the Council but as he is joyned with it Hence then every one that hath not a face of a Wizell may see how the Papists make their business to catch a shadow and affirming their Church to be Infallible doth not know nor cannot agree amongst themselves wherein this Church doth consist and so they do not know how to satisfie their own selves nor others neither although they brag very much of it Projiciunt ampullas sesquipedalia verba I my self remaining yet in the Popish Religion did perceive my self to be entangled by these difficulties and therefore I often considered how to be extricated out of them that so I might praise God in purity and holiness with the freedom of my Conscience And although being in Spain which is my native Country I did hear very much of the Protestant Churches nevertheless I could never meet with any Books written by the Divines of that Communion by reason we are severely forbidden to read them But because I did hear that they found all their Doctrine upon the Scriptures I took a great desire to read the same and to search after the Truth in order to my Salvation Neither do they forbid in Spain as a Countrey religious above the rest of the Papists to read the Holy Bible And after I had made it my business to read the Holy Word of God I met with those words of the Apostle Paul 2 Tim. 3.16 17. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness That the man of God may be perfect thorowly furnished with all good works Here it seemed unto me that the Apostle had drawn a portraicture of a Minister and proposed not only the method of Preaching but also the matter and the off spring of it and so declared by what means a Man of God that is a Minister of Christ might come to a full perfection of learning in order to the Instruction of their souls that should be committed to his care Namely he meant the Holy Scriptures of which he thought they did contain the treasure of the Divine Wisdom when he pronounces them to be able to make one wise unto salvation 2 Tim. 3.15 and expresseth the four fountains of Christian Morality to be contained in them and chargeth not only himself but an Angel likewise with an Anathema Gal. 1.8 Gal. 6.16 Isa 8.20 if he should preach any other Gospel unto us than that he hath preached and pronounceth his blessing upon them that walk according to this rule God himself is willing to reduce his People from them that have familiar spirits and from wizards unto his will and counsel sendeth them to the law and to the testimony and addeth That for them that do not walk according to this word there is no morning that is no life everlasting according to the phrase of the Psalmist when he saith Psal 46.5 God shall help Jerusalem when the morning appeareth that is when the day of our salvation will be approaching This was the reason that John on his Revelation declareth If any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy Apoc. 22.19 God shall take away his part out of the book of life Seeing then that the Apostle Paul did speak so highly in the commendation of Scriptures as a man that hath not shunned to declare all the counsel of God Act. 20.27 Act. 26.22 saying no other things than those which Moses and the Prophets did say should come I concluded presently that there was no other fountain out of which we could derive the true Church but only out of Scriptures by reason we are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Eph. 2.2 Jesus Christ being himself the chief corner-stone And I saw likewise that the Ancient Father Austin L. 3. cont Ma. Arian did not disagree with my opinion when he saith Neither will I alledg the Nicene nor do you alledg the Council of Arimine unto my prejudice Let matter with matter cause with cause reason with reason decert by the authority of the Scriptures which are not belonging only to one party but impartial witnesses of both Contra Donat. There that is in the holy Scriptures as he saith somewhere else Let us search after the true Church and handle our questions But searching more narrowly after the Purity of particular Churches I found none answering so exactly the Scriptures as the Protestant Churches Therefore I
stedfastly concluded with my self as soon as God would grant me an opportunity to associate my self in the Protestant Church and reject the Roman Idolatry Which I accordingly have done and having renounced the Popish Religion have adjoyned my self unto the body of our Saviour Christ Jesus that is unto the true Protestant Church Whose truth I am going to shew now as shortly as I can and that by this argument That Church which doth vindicate the authority of the Scriptures defends the proprieties of them and teacheth according to the Scriptures is a true Church but the Protestant Church doth so The Major is firm and without contradiction The Minor is to be proved which I am endeavouring to do Neither will I be so Scripturary as that I should reject the old Fathers and the Primitive Councils I will alledg them likewise as bearing witness unto truth which cannot be overthrown As to the first The Protestant Church doth vindicate the authority of Scriptures when she denieth the same to depend from the authority of the Church not so much as to us Robert Bellarmin seeing that these who affirmed without any limitation Bell. de V. D. l. 1. c. 46. the Divinity of Scriptures doth depend from the authority of the Church did not speak soberly enough he endeavoured to mollify the Proposition with this distinction viz. that the Scriptures must be considered either in themselves or in respect unto us As they are considered in the first manner they do not depend from the authority of the Church but as they are in the second But as the distinction is vain because every authority is Relative and is not so much to be considered in it self as in respect of the object so likewise the supposition is false viz. That the authority of Scriptures in respect or in relation unto us doth depend from the Church But before I come to the demolishing of this assertion we will consider the reason why Papists say and believe so And indeed I can find no other besides this that they seeing themselves unable for resisting the Arguments of the Protestants which are drawn out of the Scriptures endeavouring to pervert the sense of them asserting that the same dependeth from the interpretation of the Church and so consequently are constrained to affirm that also the authority of Scriptures dependeth from the Church of which Scriptures nor of the right meaning of them nothing can be certain without the Tradition of the Church And by this same they very handsomely tread in the footsteps of the old Hereticks of whom one thus speaks The Hereticks when they come to be argued by the Scriptures they presently fall to the accusing of them as if they could not be from or of a sufficient authority or not so to be understood and of which no certainty can be had without Tradition Here is the true Protraicture of our modern Papists But to the thing it self We deny the authority of Scriptures to depend any way from the authority of the Church but only from the holy Spirit speaking within the Scriptures 2 Pet. 1.21 2 Tim. 3.16 17. by reason he is the author of them and so he doth endue them with an irrefragable authority And as Christ desires no testimony from any besides from the Father so likewise his word which he hath been pleased to leave upon earth instead of his person And as it is very unreasonable that the Kings Proclamation should depend from a Crier or a Rule from a thing that is ruled or that the Sun should borrow its brightness from that Orb or Vortex which it is contained in so it is very disagreeable to affirm that the Scriptures should depend from the authority of the Church The Church is a Candlestick the Word of God is a Candle as our Saviour declareth Luke 8.16 Now as a Candlestick doth contribute nothing at all to the light of the Candle so neither doth the Church to the authority of Scriptures We do not reject the Ministerial Testimony of the Church in that case by reason the Church leads us unto the Gospel as the Samaritan Woman did lead her fellow-citizens to Christ as Austin saith yet for all that none of them can be call'd the cause of our faith but an instrument Yet the Papists do object against us viz. 1 Tim. 3.15 That the Church is call'd the pillar and ground of the truth and from thence they bring in this conclusion that she is the only cause from whom the authority of the Scriptures doth depend But very foolishly because first that I may pass by the Observation of Camero who affirmeth these words to belong unto the 16 verse by reason there is to be found in that verse a Copulative Particle which otherwise should be to no purpose c. the Apostle doth speak of the Church considered as a house and then sheweth which is the chiefest pillar or ground of the same and indeed if we speak reasonably a house cannot be a pillar but a pillar is in a house It is secondly to be observed that by this pillar is not to be understood an Architectonical but a Political one not one that should uphold by its strength the authority of Scriptures but one upon which the Proclamations and Constitutions of the Supreme King are affixed Neither is the exception of Bellarmin against this distinction of any value viz. That by this way the Church may be as well call'd a Library as a Pillar by reason we do affirm that the office of the Church is not only to keep the books as it is of a Library but to expose the Contents of the same to the view of people and to under-teach them in the way of their Superiors will which belongs to a pillar The Church then can be an external Motive unto us that the Scriptures are of divine authority but cannot perswade us unto it by reason it is only the propriety and the business of the holy Ghost whom the Lord joyneth with his word Ps 59.21 when he saith My spirit which is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth c. Austin speaketh very handsomely to that purpose Lib. de Confess speaking of the authority of Scripture But how shall I be perswaded to believe this Moses indeed did say so it is true he said but he is gone and although he should be present and talk Hebrew to me I should not understand what he meant but if he should speak Latin I should understand But by what means should I know that he speaketh truth Therefore inwardly inwardly I say in the Cabinet of my heart not the Greek nor the Hebrew nor the Latin neither the Barbarian truth but he that without the sound of lips or the noise of syllables should tell me he speaketh truth and I should say to this this man You speak truth You may see Christian and impartial Reader how Austin did
think he could be perswaded of the authority of Scriptures not by the authority of the Church nor by the perswasion of Moses or the Prophets but by the internal truth speaking in his heart Which is the holy Spirit And let them not make an instance against us that every one pretends the holy Spirit by reason pretension maketh no prejudice to truth Neither is the question betwixt us and the Papists as betwixt admitting the authority of the Scripture and denying the same by reason both of us do admit the same and then the question ariseth how or by what way we may be perswaded that these Scriptures which we embrace as divine are not prophane And if we or they answer more agreeably let every impartial Christian be a judg We conclude therefore as this question to be unworthy of a Christian man If the holy Bible be the Word of God so another assertion of a Jesuit Sambar de fide orthodoxa called Sambar to be very foolish viz. that the Protestant Churches have no Scriptures For besides that he defends this proposition for no other end but to escape the strength of the arguments derived out of the Scriptures likewise he confirmeth this proposition by no other medius terminus or reason but because the Protestant Church having no notes of a true Church is false and so she can have no Scripture being the Scriptures dependeth from the Church both in their material and in their formal part Whereas both the argument and its probation is false and they foolishly petunt principium take that for granted which we utterly deny viz. that the Scriptures and their sense doth depend from the authority of the Church as we did touch this point somewhat higher Moreover the Jesuit by this assertion doth shew his desperate cause by reason none of the ancient Fathers did deny the Scriptures to any Heretick as they suppose us to be that they might shew his case plain and Austin saith that the Scriptures are not belonging as proper to one Aug. lib. 3. contr Ma. Arian but that they are common witnesses of both the sides And if we would be so rude we could change the scene and affirm that the Papists themselves have no Scripture as to the formal part because we did plainly shew a little higher their Church not only to be false and erroneous but none at all But being I am not afraid of their arrows which they can take out of the Scriptures I will not deny them the Bible Having thus far secured the Sentiment of the Protestant Churches about the authority of Scriptures I descend to the proprieties of them I affirm therefore the holy Scriptures to be perfect as well touching the perfection of parts as of degrees and thence to be sufficient to our salvation The Law of God is perfect saith David Psal 119. and the sufficiency of it is shown by the Apostle in the forementioned words 2 Tim. 3.16 The accession of the New Testament to the old maketh no prejudice to the perfection and sufficiency of Scriptures because he that declared all the counsel of God spoke nothing other than what Moses did say and the Prophets as we writ before Hence the old Fathers said very well As the New Testament is hidden in the old so the Old Testament is declared in the new neither gradus variat speciem doth a degree change the nature of things that are of the same kind Neither do we dispute with the Papists of this or the other part of Scriptures but of the whole Canon as it is made by the Apostles declared by the ancient Church and enumerated by Hierom. Hierony in prol Gal. They are not therefore to commit a fallacy of division And as we do justly cut off from this perfection and sufficiency of Scriptures the books call'd Apocrypha by reason they contradict themselves and the holy Scripture neither were they found in the Jewish Church unto which were committed the Oracles of God Rom. 3.2 So we reject the distinction of the Papists betwixt the books Protocanonical and Deuterocanonical by reason a Canon cannot be changed And for this reason we do very little esteem Traditiones non scriptas not written Traditions because out of that is written Joh 20.31 2 Tim. 3.15 we may have sufficient instructions for the life-eternal To refer unto these Traditions the several Orders of Fryers and the sheaving of their Crowns the words of Christ John 16.12 I have yet many things to say unto you but you cannot bear them now is a very great folly Because if this was the meaning of Christ he could very easily have called a Barber and commanded the heads of those Disciples to be shaven But may be he could not by reason of their baldness Besides that Monks Hieronimus whose duty was to weep and not to teach as an old Father saith were not shaven for a sign of their honour and pre-eminence but for a sign of their penitence For the last Psal 19.8 Rom. 16.4 the Scriptures are easie to be understood The Commandment of the Lord is pure enlightning the eyes and whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Which could not be if the Scripture was not easie and light We affirm therefore that as those things which are absolutely necessary to salvation are few so they are plainly set down in the Scriptures But as for other questions I do not deny such things to be found in the Scriptures that can afford work enough for a human wit. Namely as one saith The holy volumes are of such a nature Chrysostomus that as well a lamb may wade in it as an Elephant swim Being then that the holy Scriptures are perspicuous as it is evident out of reason testimony and the consent of the ancient Fathers therefore the Protestants proceed very lawfully in attributing judicium discretionis or a judgment of discretion to every true Christian So that every believer by the often reading of the Word of God and by the conferring of one place of Scripture with the other may interpret the Gospel 2 Pet. 1.20 21. because no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation for it came not by the will of man but by the holy Ghost As for the Fathers of the ancient Church and the four Primitive Councils we imbrace them as interpreters of the holy Scriptures yea we affirm likewise that they may bind subordinately to Scriptures our conscience but not force them to the faith ligant non obligant yet we deny whether the Fathers or the Council or the Roman Pope to be a Judg of the Controversies about matters of faith Austin Fatetur Andradius contra Kâ—mnitium Defens Concil Triden l. 2. Bellar. sacra scriptura regula decidendi certissima tutissimaque est Heb. 4.12 but only the Holy Ghost speaking in his Word