Sanctifications or Initiations to enter us in the other six vertues Baptisme for faith Confirmation for hope Penance to redresse the wrongs we do to God and to our neigh-bour Matrimony and Extreme-Unction to injure us to temperance and to fortify us against the terrours of death Prudence because it eminently belongeth to commanders received its proper initiation in the installing of Spirituall Gouvernours which are Priests and Bishops Who being more eminent in Science and Charity have power to governe the flocke oâ— Christ And to the end that emulation might not breake unity among them Christ by his owne practise and mouth gave the Primacy to Saint Peter to whose see and successour inferiour Bishops were to have recourse in all publike necessities or dissentions of the Church And who att this day is commonly called the Pope It is incredible how great encrease of devotion and Charity accrueth to Christian people by the reverent administration and faithfull reception of these sacraments What respect and awe towardes to what adhesion their teachers their doctrine what obedience to their directions in fine how great a life to the Church and eminency above such synagogues as are destitute of these holy institutions The Apostles therefore armed with these and the aforesaid powers dispersed themselves into all the quarters of the earth planting this common doctrine and practise through the universe and dying left the inheritance of the same to their successors Who in debates about doctrines and in other dissentions meeting together and finding what the Apostles had left to the Churches they had planted did cast out such as would not conforme themselves to the received Tradition And so Christians were divided The parties cast out being denominated from their Masters or particular doctrines The part adhering to the Apostles Tradition retaining the name of the Apostolike Church Which because it was as it were the whole of Christians was therefore termed Catholike or Universall These Apostles and Disciples left certaine writinges But neither by command nor with designe to deliver in any or all of them a summary of our faith but occasionally teaching what they thought requisite for some certaine place or company which the Holy Ghost intended for the comfort of the Church In which as we professe there is nothing false or uncertaine so we know the unwritten Preaching ought to be the rule of their interpretation att least negatively Neither can we vindicate those bookes from the corruption of transscribers and much lesse of Interpretours whose labours can not pretend to the authority of scripture otherwise then by a knowne conformity to the Originals Tradition therefore became the rule of faith and Councells and Apostolicall Sees became the infallible depositaries of Tradition The other Sees fayling either by the destruction of Christian Religion in those quarters or by a voluntary discession from the rule of faith the Roman See first instructed by the two chiefe Apostles and afterwardes by perpetuall correspondence with all Christian countries and their recourse to it in matters of faith and discipline remained the onely single Church which was able in vertue of perpetuall succession to testify what was the Apostles doctrine Afterwardes Heretikes confounding equivocally the names of Apostolike and Cathlick by an impudence of saying what they list without shew of reason the Catholike party hath been forced for distinction sake to adde to their Church the sirname of Roman Declaring there by that the Roman particular Church is the Head and Mistresse and cause of Vnity to all those Churches that have share in the Catholike By this linke of truth namely of receiving doctrine by succession and by the linke of Vnity in the Roman head of the Church as the Church hath hitherto stood in Persecutions Heresies and Schismes so we are assured it will never faile untill the second coming of Christ but do hope it will encrease into an universall kingdome of his to dure an unknowne extent of Ages designed in the Apocolypse by the number of a thousand yeares in great prosperity and in freedome both from Pagans without and from Heretikes with in and in great aboundance of Charity and good life This being evidently the effect of Christs coming we see that the generall good life of Mankinde which proceedeth from the knowledge of the End to which we are created and from other motives and meanes delivered by Christs doctrine was the great and onely designe for which he tooke flesh that is to be the cause to us of a happy life both in this world and in the next The which having been the main advantage of the State of Paradise or of our nature before corruption It is cleare that Christ hath repaired the fault of Adam by making whole Mankind capable of attaining everlasting blisse unto which before his coming one only family had means to arrive The settling of Mankind in this repaire restored it to such a condition in respect of God that from thenceforth he resolved to bestow his greatest benefits upon it that is eternall felicity Whereas before as long as it was in the state of sinne his decrees were for its Vniversall Damnation By which it is cleare that Christ appeased his Fathers wrath and made him a friend of a foe he had formerly been unto us So that because eternall blisse followeth out of a good life and out of a constant habit or inclination to it as likewise damnation out of the state of a sinnefull inclination formal justification and sanctity do consist in the habit of good life and the state of damnation consisteth in an habituall inclination to sinne Neither the one nor the other in an extrinsecall acceptation or refusall of the Divine Will or its arbitrary Election or dislike which are only the efficient causes from whence proportionably to their natures they depend Further because Man-kinde was not able of it selfe to gett out of the State of sinne and by consequence lay in subjection and slavery to it And seeing that Christ by the explicated meanes and actions did sett it free and gave it power to come out of that subjection and misery he did clearely Redeeme Man-kinde from this servitude of sinne and of sinnes Master the Divell and gave it the liberty wherein it was created att the first And because Christ did this by his death and by the penall actions of his life he is rightly said to have by them payed a ransome for mankind Notwithstanding this generall preparation by which Man-kinde was enabled to well-doing no particular man arriveth to any action of vertue without the speciall providence and benevolence of Almighty God By which by convenient circumstances both externall and internall he prepareth the heart of that man unto whom he is gratious and favourable to receive these common impressions and maketh it good earth fitt for the seede of his eternall cultiuatour who without any respect to former merits planteth faith and charity and all that is good in him meerely of his
and serious apprehension of the future life and of the goods of it But that sense prevayleth in him above reason Now that the Catholike faith hath all the advantages upon which wise men do use to adventure their lives estates and honors wil easily and clearly appeare if the right way be taken to shew it the authority of the Church being so farre beyond all wittnesses used in judgments and all probabilities men use to rely upon in warre and in marchandising that there is no comparison betweene them And the objections which Heretikes use to bring to hinder their clients from embracing the Catholike faith are for the most part but authorities of the nature of those we have discoursed of before Which in such abundance of writings as are in Scripture and in the Fathers cannot faile of being easily mett with by those who purposely seeke them there being in them so many sayings delivered upon the by whiles the Author is attentive to some other question or in circumstances not well knowne to us In fine such difficulties as is impossible to be avoided in much speaking and that neither convince the Authors minde nor much lesse the verity of the question debated The Arguments which are drawne from reason for the proofe or disproofe of particular points are chiefly about Mysteries difficult in nature against which Heretikes use to frame the ordinary obvious objections As against the blessed Trinity how the same thing can be one and three against the Incarnation how the same person can be God and Man and against the Holy Eucharist how can Christes body be divided like a homogeneall body or be at the same time in different places such kind of arguments Universally are hard to be answered because neither the propounder nor the auditory have usually Philosophy enough to understand the solution and sometimes the answerer himselfe falleth short For not every Catholike nor yet every Catholike disputant is necessarily a great Philosopher At the least if the Catholike disputant suspecteth his adversaries subtility in questions of this nature he ought either to bee provided for him or abstaine from disputing or professe himselfe no Master in such speculations and so rather wave them with his owne disparagement then attempt them with the dishonour of the cause In other points the objections against Catholike Truths are generally very triviall ones As against the Popes authority that there cannot be more heads or foundations then one and that Christ is that one Against satisfaction for sinnes that Christ satisfyed sufficiently for all mankinde Against praying to Saints that there is but one Mediatour or that Saints have no eares and therefore can not heare And the like which are pittifull pulpit-bables to fill the mouths of weake persons as soone as with one of these they have troubled some simple persō that themselves are fitt to dispute with the Pope of Rome Such toyes are obvious against any thing And an exercised disputant can not be ignorant of the answeres to them though he may soone be weary of the employement in answering them and ashamed of having suffered himselfe to be drawne unto it As for arguments from reason to proove Catholike Truths They may have as much strength as the disputant is capable of For no argument is so strong but that if it be shott from a weake hand it may prove wholly blunt and impenetrant And therefore I leave the Catholike disputant to his owne discretion in this part Which will tell him that he ought not to engage himselfe in it unlesse he be assured both that his dart is a good one and that he hath the dexterity to ayme it right and the strength to throw it home Out of this short survey of the nature of arguments a good Logician will easily discerne that it is meere losse of time to fall on disputing with one who is not able or will not so much as professe to bring a demonstration for what he intendeth to prove It being indeed to no more purpose then the tossing of balls in a tennis court So that the reason why wee answer or att least ought to answere Hereticks arguments is because they thinke them demonstrative which are not for want of sufficiency in Logick and wee make oppositions which are not demonstrative because they are not able to judge what a demonstration is for to please them with apples whose stomachs loaht strong food The sixteenth REFLEXION On the Qualities requisite in the Auditory that is present att the Disputation HAving said thus much of the disputants It is reasonable to say a word or two of the Auditory Those then before whom you are to dispute are either favorable to you or cōtrary or indifferent And because these qualities arise either out of the understanding or out of the will we will take a survey of these two faculties To begin with the understanding It is cleare that in order to that nothing rendereth a man unfitt to be at such a disputation but incapacity And this is either naturall or for want of study and art or by custome The incapacity of nature is helped by much explication and so is that which proceedeth from want of study with this difference that natural incapacity is taken away by explicating the particular Matter in hand which is tolerable because it doth not draw the disputation out of its owne boundes But when the incapacity is through want of study It is because the disputation supposeth some principles whereof the Auditory is ignorant And these are of two kindes The one Logicall the other Theological The first happeneth chiefely in the use of disputation As if the Auditory be ignorant of the forme that ought to be used in disputing and so wil have the disputant play the defendants part or contrariwise the defendant act the disputants part or desireth that instead of rigorous forme they fall on discoursing or preaching at large Likewise if he be ignorant of the right use of distinction And so either hindereth the defendant from distinguishing when it is necessary he should or permitteth it him when there are not truly two senses in the wordes the disputant speaketh But the defendant by adding some wordes of his owne seemeth to finde two senses where indeed there is but one As for example If the disputant should assume that it is the nature of a man to have two legges And the answerer should distinguish allowing it to be the nature of white men but not of blacke men or the nature of Europeans but not Africans Now if this be allowed the disputant is wronged For taking his rise from this that to have two legges is the nature of a Man hee might prove that Africans have two legs because they are men So for want of Logcik in the respondent and in the Auditory the defendant is not allowed to take the nature of Man in common but is confined to the nature of an European and so is putt beside his argument The second
Sexes dedicated to God Religious Ceremonies and all sorts of enticements to love heaven and follow good life So that the Antiquity the Protestant pretends to is of wanting wilfully those means of helping soules which the primitive Church wanted by the Violence of Persecution and the Antiquity meaned by Catholicks is of being like the Ancient Church in all things that promote vertue inwardly and outwardly The ninth Shuffle Of the Word Tradition TO Antiquity hangs Tradition that is the receiving of Doctrine and Customes from the Ancient Church The which Catholicks place in this that it is derived fom the Apostles to us by the continuall and immediate delivery of one Age to another the sons continuing their Fathers both beliefe and conversation in Christian life and treading the same paths of Salvation This was a bit of too soure a digestion for Protestants being not able to shew any Masters from whome they had received theire beliefe Yet a Tradition they must have not to be openly convinced of having forged their doctrine Some of them therefore sayed they received their doctrine by the Tradition of the Bible made unto them by the Churches continuing since the Apostles time Wherein you see an open equivocating in the word of Tradition Catholicks taking it for the delivery of doctrine that is of sense and meaning the Protestants for the delivery of a mute book or killing letter Others call Tradition the Testimony of the Fathers of all Ages and so att least divert the Question Turning the proof of Religion which is plaine and easie to every ordinary understanding into a business of learning and long study in which though they be worstted yet the People cannot see it nor descry theire falshood The tenth Shuffle Of the word Really TO descend from the Universality or defence of their whole Religiō to speciall articles of it wee shall finde them there like themselves As for example those who beare an outward respect to the Fathers finding them concurring so thick to testify Christes Body to bee in the Holy Eucharist will see me to say the same and use the word of Christ being Really and verily and truely in the Sacrament and that they onely question the manner how he is there which is lawfull amongst Catholicks to do So that you cannot almost distinguish them from Catholicks Vntil you come to explicatiō There the Catholick sayeth that Christes Body is in the sacrament as the substance of Bread was in the thing which before wee called Bread and now is no more but turned into that body wich was hanged on the Cross by an entitative and reall mutation The Protestant wil tell you that it is stil Bread and naturally and entitatively the same thing wich it was before consecration but that by faith which is a real actiō it is Christes true body to us How to justify these words that by Faith it is Christes true body is impossible unless they wil have us believe by faith what they tell us is false Therefore others say it is an assurāce of Christs Body as a bond is of mony Peradventure of enjoying Christe in Heaven But how different both senses bee from the Catholick which they seek to be thought theirs and from the natural meaning of the words every mā cā see So that the manner of being Christes Body which they question signifies whether it bee truely there or no but onely by a false apprehension they call Faith The eleventh Suffle Of the Word Sacrifice The like is of the word Sacrifice and Altar and such other In which the Catholick position makes these words proper and that the Mass is as or more properly signified by the word sacrifice as the sacrifice of the old law That there is a true and real separatiō of the body of our Saviour from his bloud and more proper to the names then nature can make which can not make a true body when the bloud is separated nor true bloud whē the body is left out wich in this sacramēt is performed and nevertheless Christe entire and untouched But a Protestāt wil tel you that whē the Holy offering is called a sacrifice it is meaned a sacrifice of praise or thanks giving that is in reality no sacrifice but an outward ceremony of praise or thāks giving others that it is a resemblāce or represētatiō of a sacrifice to wit of that of the holy Cross so that you see the differēce of the two significatiōs is no less thē whē by the same word as of Christes one means Christs Person another a Crucifix or the picture of Christe The twelfth Shuffle Of the Word Priesthood In consequēce and conformity to this they abuse the Word of Priesthood For finding al Antiquity gloriously full of this name they must also use it and finding St. Paul had too expressely taught us that a Priest was a publick Officer ordained to offer to God giftes and sacrifices and that he ought to be legitimately called to the office and that Catholiks take Priesthood in this meaning And how on the other side themselves had taken out of the Church all solemn offerings and sacrifice the business of a Priest and nevertheless shame on one side and ambition on the other egged them on to call themselves Priests they were forced to corrupt the Word sacrifice first as is declared to come to the name Priesthood So that Priesthood in the Protestant meaning is an officer chosen to sing Psalmes in the sight of the People The which how different it is from the Catholick explication of being the publick Officer of the eternall sacrifice is too plain to be declared Onely I must add that who takes ordination with the intention onely to become the chief or high singer of the Parish receiveth not Priesthood as it is meaned and used in the Catholick Church The thirteenth Shuffle Of the word Faith THe abuse of this name Faith must not bee omitted which Catholicks taking for a perswasion of such truths as are necessary to bring us to good life and salvation which perswasion wee settle upon Christes doctrine delivered unto us by Tradition of the Church The which meaning is cleare in the Apostle who expresseth himself to speak of faith that works by Charity The first Protestants took the word Faith as excluding Charity and cryed downe good works as improfitable the latter ashamed of this as destroying good life and plainly contrary to the whole designe of Scripture and Fathers took it for the same faith that Catholicks do but would have it have force precisely out of its being a persuasion and the working to follow to no effect but as a hanger on without any End whereas Catholicks make the persuasion to bee chiefly or wholly to breed Charity which is the true cause of salvation But the presbiterian party and the plainer dealing Protestants have quite changed and destroyed faith saying faith is a Persuasion that the believer must have that hee in Person is one of the