examine the matter and being infallibly assisted by the Spirit of truth which our Saviour promised should be with his Apostles to the end of the world that is with the Church their Successor which was to continue to the worlds end shee declares what is true and what is false as agreeing with or disagreeing from that doctrine which shee hath received from her Fore-fathers the Prophets and Apostles upon whom shee is built as S. Paul saith built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Ephes 2.20 For as in a building there is not the least stone which rests not upon the foundation so in the doctrine of the Catholique Church there is not the least point which is not grounded on or contained in that which was delivered by the Apostles For example in the principles of every Science are contained divers truths which may be drawn out of them by many severall conclusions one following another These conclusions were truths in themselves before though they did not so appear to us till wee saw the connexion they had with the premises and how they were contained in them And by the many severall conclusions so drawn the truth of those principles doth more shew it selfe but doth not receive any change in it selfe thereby even so in the prime principles of our faith revealed immediately by God and delivered to the Church are contained al truths that any way belong to our faith but it was not necessary that the Church should manifest all these at their first meeting in Councell but only so much in every severall Councell as should concerne the present occasion of their meeting which is some particular heresie or heresies then sprung up and so more according to the successive growth of heresies which when shee hath done shee cannot be charged with creating of a new faith or altering of the old but shee doth only out of old grounds and premises draw such conclusions as may serve to destroy new heresies and shew them to be contrary to the ancient faith In this manner the Church hath grown and increased in knowledge by degrees and shall still do so to the end of the world And as the sun spreads the raies of his light more and more betwixt morning and noon and his beames display themselves in a valley or some roome of a house where they did not before without any change of light in the sun himselfe So may the Church spread the light of her faith shewing such or such a point to be a divine truth which before was not known to be so or which though it were a divine truth in it selfe yet it was not so to us for want of sufficient proposall that is of the Churches wherein the Church resembles our Blessed Saviour her Lord and Spouse who though he never received the least increase of grace and knowledge from the first moment of his being conceived yet the Scripture saith He grew in wisdome and age and in favour with God and men Luc. 2.52 to wit because he shewed it more and more in his words and actions This also further appeares by the method which Catholique Fathers and Doctors observe in and out of Councells in proving and defining points of faith namely by having recourse to the authority of Gods Word conteined both in Scripture and Tradition and to the belief and practise of the Church in searching whereof the Holy Church joynes humane industry with Gods grace and assistance For when any question or doubt of faith ariseth particular Doctors severally dispute and write thereof then if further cause require the Holy Church assembles her Pastors and Doctors together in a generall Councell to examine and discusse the matter more fully as in that first Councell of the Apostles whereof the Scripture saith The Apostles and Elders assembled together to consider of this word Acts 15.6 The Pastors being thus come together and having the presence of our Saviour and his Holy Spirit according to his promise amongst them out of Scripture and Traditions joyning therewith the consent of holy Fathers and Doctors of foregoing times she doth infallibly resolve and determine the matter not as new but as ancient orthodox and derived from her forefathers making that which was ever in it selfe a divine truth so to appeare to us that now wee may no more make question thereof So that from hence it appeares that the Church makes no new Articles of faith such as then may be said to have their beginning but only explications and collections out of the old which were delivered to the Apostles and by them to us And though the Church doe thus grow in the knowledge of points of faith yet this is no newnesse of faith but a maintenance of the old with a kind of increase by way of explicating that which was involved cleering that which was obscure defining that which was undefined obliging men to believe more firmly and explicitly that which before they were not bound so to believe That is only to be called a new faith which is contrary to that which was held before or hath no connexion with it and when we cease to believe that which we believed before this indeed is change of faith the other is but encrease And if this encrease of faith by the declaration of Councells may be called a change and innovation of faith there is no Heretique but may challenge antiquity to himselfe and put novelty on the score of the Church For he may say such a thing for example that the Sonne is of the same substance with the Father was not held de fide a matter of faith before the Councell of Nice therefore it is new That Baptisme administred by Heretiques is good baptisme was not held as a matter of faith before the daies of S. Cyprian therefore it is new And the Heretique may say that he believes only that which was believed before such or such a Councell which he please for the case is alike in all and therefore he believes the antient Faith By which way of arguing he may renounce the decrees of all Councells as Novelties and maintaine many Heresies as the antient Faith Yea by this absurdity a man may deny divers Books of the Scripture as the Epistle to the Hebrewes the second Epistle of S. Peter the Epistle of S. Iames of S. Iude and the Apocalyps with some others because they were not admitted for Canonicall untill 300. or 400. yeares after they were written Yet when they were declared to be Canonicall there was no change of faith in the Church thereby for the believing of these Books was involved in this revealed Article I believe in God and the believing of them to be Canonicall was involved in this revealed Article I believe the holy Catholike Church onely hereby was an increase of the materiall object of our faith to us not in it selfe we being bound upon the declaration of the Church to believe that thing firmely and without dispute
and dislike of this That so his Soule may be now as the Philosophers say it is when it comes into the world like a smooth table or white paper wherein there is nothing painted or written And having read understood and considered let him make his choice and I doubt not but he will by the assistance of Gods grace which is never wanting to those that are not wanting to themselves imprint in his Soule the characters of this eternall truth But if he harbour contrary opinions with obstinacy of will and a beleefe of their impossibility of being erroneous he cannot be a meet judge in this cause Seeing according to the rule of Philosophy INTUS EXISTENS PROHIBET ALIENUM That which is within stops the entrance of that which is without Even as hee that hath the christalline humor of his eye tainted cannot see any thing in its owne true colours And such a mans partiall understanding is like a judg that is already bribed on one side So also if there ly hid in his heart any sinister and inordinate affection it will check the entrance of the true and saving faith maugre all the most powerfull perswasions that can be used to introduce it like as a peice of iron or other matter remaining in a wound will controule the efficacy of any remedy applyed thereunto Our Saviour saith of the Jewes How can ye beleeve which receive honour one of another and seek not the honour that is of God only John 5. 44. And in the Parable of the Supper Luke 14.24 the Master of the feast professeth that none of them that were invited should tast thereof because they coloured their denyalls with the excuses of farming marrying and the like By which you may see that the honours pleasures and profits of the world and their contraries poverty disgrace and paine are the one sort like Syrenes which melting our hearts in delight arrest us here and divert us from prosecuting our christian course and the other as the Giants the sonnes of Anak did the Israelites fright us from entring into the land of Canaan Numb 12.33 But if having truely deposed all obstinate prepossessions of judgement and worldly interests and so having read this book you are not yet thereby perswaded that the Roman Catholique is the only true Religion wherein salvation is to be had and therefore at any perill to be imbraced this must proceed from want of understanding in you and capacity of the reasons here alleadged to which I can apply no cure but my prayers saying as S. Paul did to Timothy Consider what I say and our Lord give thee understanding in all things 2. Tim. 2.7 To which if you adde your owne frequent and zealous prayers also I assure my selfe you shall find the same effect which the servant of the prophet Elisha did that your eyes shall be opened and you shall see that they that be with us are more then they that be with them 4. Kings 6.16 you shall understand that the reasons on the Catholique side are far more and more powerfull than the reasons of all other Religions whatsoever And if after the reading of this Treatise there remaine in any ones judgement any objection against the sufficiency of any argument and motive here alleadged or any argument against the Catholique Faith which is not here taken away or any defence of your own religion whatsoever the religion or argument of defence be if you please to seek you may find those amongst you that can much better than I clear all your doubts or if you have a mind being unlearned to receive further information from me or being learned to oppose me I oblige my selfe to answer both the one and the other and that with due circumstances and respects aiming at nothing else but the Glory of God and the good of your souls And to this end I have in this later Edition added the discussion of two particular points of controversie more largely then the rest though more breefly then they might be being such as I know most Protestants doe much stumble at to wit of the lawfulnesse of communion in one kind And of prayer both publique and private in the Latine tongue Nor let any of you think or shew that he thinkes so by his practise that to pursue this quest of the true Religion and drive it home to its issue is not worth his time or not so much worth it as the pursuit of pleasure profit or other worldly availes seeing you all well know what our Saviour saith in the Gospell what doth it profit a man if he shall gaine the whole world and lose his owne soule Math. 16.26 Suffer not your selves through the seducing of others or your owne obstinacy to be undone by your too much confidence continuing still in darknesse like that of Egypt Exod. 10.23 wherein no man rose from his place nor say with the Laodiceans I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing c. Rev. 3.17 But according to the Apostles direction Prove all things hold fast that which is good 1 Thes 5.21 And adjourne not this tryall to a future time seeing the present is that only which is in your power Say not as Felix said to S. Paul putting him off for the present when I have a convenient season I will call for thee Acts 24.25 For this is but a suggestion of the devill to retard your returne unto God The foolish virgins you know while they delayed their preparations and too late went to buy their oyle the bridegroome passed by and they were excluded Mat. 25. therefore to day if ye will heare his voice harden not your hearts Psal 94.8 Lastly think upon the difference betwixt this life and the future that this is but of the indurance of a few score of years and that therein even to the happiest misery is their freehold their inheritance as Job saith Man borne of a woman living but a short time is filled with many miseries Job 14.1 and that the next life is eternall either in unutterable felicity or torment according as men do here seale up their lives Which infinity of time and extremity of good or evill without any mixture of the contrary are two such circumstances that their consideration should make a man sleight and contemne all things that concern him for this moment of time in comparison of those things which concerne the setling of that future estate which is never to receive an end or change and he that doth not so is surely worse than prophane Esau that neglected his birthright for a messe of pottage or the wicked Jewes that preferred Barabbas before Christ O who can comprehend eternity Or know what it is to be damned for ever Yet to reflect often thereon me thinks should make a man never to pause or rest in his mind till he had put himselfe into such a condition as by which he might have just ground to hope to escape that
to the direct meaning thereof and so either in those things become Popish themselves or accuse their teachers of Popery § 5. Another fraud I have observed amongst the Canonical Protestants which is that when they dispute against Catholikes they have recourse to the Scripture and wil be tried by that only but when they dispute against the Puritanes and other Sects amongst them who deal with them at their own weapon of Scripture only then they have recourse to the Fathers and the Tradition of the Church and use the same arguments against Sectaries that Catholiques do against them and particularly in the points of baptizing of Infants against the Anabaptists and the keeping of the first day of the week holy against the Sabbatarians who would have Saturday for either of which there is not any command in Scripture And shall Tradition serve them in those cases and not in others Or shall Scripture with them prove all other points and not those And this shift is such a one as S. Augustine in Psal 80. witnesses to be common to Foxes and Heretiques For as Foxes have two holes to save themselves by one when they are driven from the other so Heretiques whom the Scripture figures out by Foxes when the Spouse saith Let us take the young Foxes that destroy the vines Cant. 2.15 have a double passage to save themselves by the one when they are assaulted by the other so that he that will catch them must set his nets before both issues and besiege both passages as the excellent Catholique Writers have done and have left them neither Tradition nor Scripture wherby to escape For although the Scripture do not teach all in direct and particular terms that Caliques do yet it teaches nothing that Protestants do in the things they differ from Catholiques And in generall the Scripture teaches all that Catholiques do by referring us to Tradition And this is sufficient for it is not required that all that we believe or do be expresly set downe in Scripture it is enough that there be no Scripture against it for what is not forbidden is lawfull as the Apostle saith where there is no law there is no transgression Rom. 4.15 If then there be no law of Scripture against it it is lawfull especially if it be warranted by the Tradition of the Church to which the Scripture referres us and is to us more evident to come from God than the Scripture is which we do not know to do so but by the Churches testimony So that I found the Protestants were like to the Giant Procustus mentioned by Plutarch who having a great iron bed fit for himself all strangers that he took he layed therein and if they were too long for the bed he cut off so much of their leggs if too short he stretched them out till they came even So the Protestants having built a Religion after the modell of their owne fancy doe examine Scriptures Councells Fathers and all authority by it whereof some they cut off as being too long in affirming more than they do and others being too short for their purpose they miserably serue tenter and rack till they come to the length they desire And had I the wicked ambition by impiety to make my selfe famous I believe I could conjure up new opinions which laying aside the authority of the Church I could varnish with as much reason and Scripture as any they professe Whose attempts have had no better successe then Achelous had in fighting with Hercules who took upon him severall shapes hopeing in one or other to overcome him but was by Hercules beaten through all his shapes and forced at last to take his owne proper shape and yeeld So Protestants fighting against Catholiques are by them beaten through all their changes and formes and shifts through which they wander and are forced at last to take the true forme of Protestancy which is obstinatly to deny the plaine and manifest truth But I heartily pray that it would please God to bring them to the true form which they ought to have which is of Roman Catholique untill which they will like the blinded Sodomites perpetually roule wander and grope in the darknesse of uncertainty and instability till eternall darknesse seize upon them For by embarquing themselves in such an enterprize as is the boarding of the Ship of Peter they are like to arrive at no other port but ruine and destruction § 6. Moreover I found this proceeding of the Protestants to be most uneasonable and full of pride in that they being but few in number especially in their beginning yea but one one infinitely audacious Luther once a child of the Roman Church should presume to correct or reforme the whole Christian world a thing which no man would admit in the private regiment of his own family that a sonne or servant should presume to find fault with and change the customs of the house against the consent of the Father Master and all the rest and assume to himselfe alone to be judge of the cause One earnestly desiring Lycurgus to establish a popular State in Lacedemon that the basest might have as great authority as the highest answered Begin to doe so first in thine owne house which he refused and thereby saw the injustice of his own demand So these men that will not admit within themselves either in matters Ecclesiasticall or civill that they whose duty it is to obey should command they whose duty it is to learne should teach withwhat face can they defend the practise thereof in the Church which is the house of God of which our predecessors were guilty in the first attempt and this present generation in the continuance of their Rebellion Nor let them think that their having of the Bible in the Mother-tongue will save them as if it were like the Palladium to the Trojans a thing dropt down from heaven no man knowes how with this condition annexed that while they kept it in their city they should never perish while in the mean time they extreamly pollute it with two things their interpretation and their conversation whereas the Church of Rome hath not only the word but the meaning of God also as the Apostle saith we have the sense of Christ 1 Cor. 2.16 both proved by never-erring authority And lastly weighing all the Protestants arguments with all impartiality or if there were any inclination of the ballance it was to their side with whose doctrines I had been from my childhood seasoned and had been a teacher of others for the space of neere twenty yeares and to whom to receive contrary impressions I knew must prove extreamly prejudiciall who therefore addrest my selfe to this enquiry with the disposition of a jealous husband seeking that which I was most loath to find yet all this notwithstanding I found that all their pleas and pretences and their answers to Catholiques were weake sleight false or impertinent and like to a certain fish called Sleve