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
we can draw out of the writinges of that precedent age are able to convince Thus rationall Reader thou seest what hath bin my motiue to spinne this thridde for thee to worke thy selfe out of the ambiguities and labirinths wherein our country is att present so perplexed in matters concerning Religion the designe of it is to make thee discerne that disputation att large as it is commonly managed is Needelesse Vselesse and dangerous Needelesse because there are other meanes Easy for those who are otherwise busied and neede belieuing and cleare for those who wil take the paine and employ the time requisite for their instruction Vselesse because neither the ouercommer doth gaine his cause nor doth the weaker loose it since in such a disputation nothing is compared but what the two Antagonists did say or att most could haue said which is litle or nothing to the maine cause it selfe Besides such a running discourse may well fill the auditors heads but can hardly euer cleare them there wanting time rest and quiet to settle a mature and solide judgement And lastly such disputation is dangerous because in encounters of that natures witt tongue and chance do for the most part beare a great sway and haue a maine stroake and oftentimes do breake and disorder the better cause and the weaker sort of hearers apt to judge by the euent do take sinister impressions and receiue damage att the indiscretion or misfortune of an ouersett disputant In a word the scope of this short discourse is to shew that quietnesse and solitude in which our braine is serene and our spirits are calme and a man hath his best wittes present to him Not publike disputes wherein vsually is nothing but wrangling and provoking one another into distempers and mutuall animosities Is the most proper meanes to discerne truth and especially in matters of Religion And I dare confidently say that whosoeuer shal take this course will finde the fruite of it which I hartily wish to all those who stand in neede of it As for Mr. Biddles booke If those of his aduersaries who are separated from the Catholike Church are able to confute it by their principles that is to say if they can shew not onely that the truth which they maintaine is more plaine in scripture then his errors are but that it is so euident that the explications which may be brought for his party are not receiuable and so that his errors may be condemned out of the force of scripture alone Then Catholike writers will not neede to engage their pennes against him But if I am not much mistaken whosoeuer shall goe about it wil find it a hard taske the question being of such a nature as requireth a seeming contradiction in wordes to expresse it and so the knott of it lyeth in determining which part of the seeming contradictory passages ought to be explicated by the other Now how such a controuersy can be decided by bare wordes I can not comprehend If then those aduersaries do proue to weake too maintaine this cause and the inefficaciousnesse of single scripture in this so maine a point do become euident It may be necessary to vse Catholike arguments for the defence of Christian truth Vnto which the following considerations may prepare thee The first REFLEXION What Religion is TO vnderstand a right the nature of disputation about Religion we must first know what Religion it selfe is We due not here take it in the sense of Schoole-diuines for a speciall vertue by which we performe the honours due to almighty God to his frendes the Saintes and to what euer holy thinges do belong to him and his But Religion in our present treatie signifieth a skill or art of doctrine coming to aeternall blisse To vnderstand this the better we are to remember that it hath euer bin receiued as an undoubted truth among the true-beleeuers both in the law of nature and in that of Moyses as also more euidently among Christians that man hath two lifes The one in this state of mortality and corruption while we live vnder the lawes of change and of necessity in this world the other which we expect after the end of this to dure for euer in great blisse and happinesse if we behaue our selfes here as we ought to do or in great miseries and torments if we neglect our duties in this world Now the life of the next world being to last for euer and the consequences of it for good and bad being so highly exalted aboue the contentments and afflictions of our present life it followeth that the art or skill of steering a right course towardes it is incomparably more necessary and more esteemable then any art or learning whatsoeuer belonging to the affaires of this world Beyond the skill of trading and of gaining wealth in which the Easterne and Arabian wizardes place their wisedome Beyond the out witting and the ouer powering glory of the Potentats and State Masters of the Earth whose felicity is to ensnare the world into the necessily of a willfull bondage to their vnlimited ambition beyond the selfe-pleasing contentment of those who settling in their owne nest do laugh att the restlesse negotiations of such as turmoile in the waues of fortune and to satisfy themselues with the enioying of home-bred and easily-compassed delights of body and of minde So that the skill designed by the name of Religion in our proposed discourse is of an excellency and of a necessity not to be paralleled by any other whatsoeuer and being compared to all others it outweigheth their worth beyond all measure and proportion and at that rate deserueth to be esteemed by vs and to be sought after with our whole force and with our vtmost endeavours Besides what we hitherto said Philosophers do offer us yet another consideration not to be neglected They make a generall diuision of mans actions into two kindes whereof the one they seeme to say are the actiōs of man as he is man But that the others do proceede from him as he is endowed with some particular quality yet withall that such quality is proper onely to humane nature As for example no liuing creature but man cā be a smith a carpenter a Pilot a musitian a Philosopher And yet none of the actions peculiar to these persons are in themselues considered to be the Actions of Man as he is Man But if any Action bee prudently valiantly justly or temperately performed they say that action proceedeth from him who doth it as he is Man But truly according to my judgement this is not properly a diuision of Actions as Actions but rather of the degrees or of the qualities of the same kind of actions For the smith and the Pilot cannot exercise their respectiue trades but that their working must needes be either in convenient measure and circumstances or out of such and accordingly what they do must be either prudent or imprudent just or vniust c So that to be vertuous or
vicious is a quality common to all sorts of Actions not a speciall kinde of Action And yet an Action is said to proceede from Man as Man as farre as it is vertuous or vicious Neither is there any Action so proper to vertue and vice as not to include some other nature within it selfe Fortitude requireth some action or passion to gouverne and wherein to exercise courage and stoutenesse temperance hath pleasures to moderate as in meate and drinke which belong so an other faculty Justice hath civill actions to regulate which are determined by lawes and by customes And Prudence is a common eye over all Yet possibily though the actions be the same the sciences wherein they are concerned may never the lesse be divers As the skill of Musike or of Logike is very different from the science which teacheth to make use of them with moderation in due time and place So Philosophers assigne Arts to the one and the science of Morall to the other Wherefore it is apparent that what in Christian language we call Religion is correspondent to that which the heathen wizards termed Morall Philosophy Correspondent I say or rather proportionable with the imparity of pagan darkenesse to the light of truth delivered us by almighty God For as the next world was altogether obscure and unknowne to those old Philosophers So was also by consequence the true end of humane life and action And therefore all their skill and study fell short and was notable to bring them to the least action perfect in the way of nature since it was not possible for any action to be perfect in respect of nature which not onely missed but not so much as aymed att her true End and consequently was uncapable of reaching to the circumstances due thereunto Now that which I draw from the mention I have made of these Philosophers is that Reigion is in proportion to Christian life what they did esteeme Morall Philosophy to bee towardes a good or happy life in naeure The second REFLEXION How Religion is naturally to be bred in mankinde FRom these premisses it followeth clearely that if Mans nature were in its due perfection Religion would be as well knowne and with as much security assented to as are now the common principles of nature and of naturall liuing For since according to the maxime of Philosophers no one action can be performed by man as man but that it must be either vertuous or vitious and by consequence in euery passage of his life a rule is necessary for him by wich to square and regulate his proceeding that it may be vertuous It is manifest that if he be not very secure and perfect in this discipline he must vnauoidably faile and swerue from vertue and nature and consequently he would not be complete in the course of nature nor enioy that perfect State which is conformable to his nature Therefore enioy the perfectiō of human nature it is necessary that he have all security of his beliefe and a complete rule for his actiōs and consequently the principles of Religion ought to be as euident to him as the principles of nature No lesse is euident out of the former part of our discourse For if Religion be the skill of obtaining beatitude or heavenly glory and if this be the end of our birth and of our liuing in this world It followeth that our very life here can not be so directed as it ought to bee vnlesse we have the science and rule of Religion And because the right direction of our life to aeternall Beatitude is of greater valew and worth then our continuation in this world It is euident that the science of attaining Beatitude ought to be more cleare vnto vs then the skill of guiding our selfes in our corporal life Wherefore seeing that we finde Religion is not now so cleare and certaine vnto vs as are the Principles of our naturall and ciuill life we may easily gather that we are not in the right temper which human nature requireth And from hence one may argue that if the happy state in which our first Parents were created had continued till their multiplication had filleth the earth the knowledge of God and other principles for gaining so celestiall blisse would haue bin as naturall to them as the prouiding of meate clothes houses and such naturall accommodations are to vs now and would have bin derived from Parents to children with the same connaturallnes and would have bin embraced by the children with a like or greater heate of affection And that the vnhappy apple was the cause it is not now so as it likewise was of all other disorders in mankinde whereof this is not the least if not the source of most of them as they who looke into the matter will easily discerne The due way therfore to attaine the knowledge of Religion is by nature Such nature I meane as we may obscure to worke in children when they learne their first languages which as it is not effected without the deliuering of them by their mothers and nurses so neither is it without the endeauours of the litle soules labouring to expresse their thoughts and mindes And nature hath in her such principles that neither the one party nor the other can give over the paines till they have brought the effect to passe after the same maner in that happy state of innocency children would have bin trained vp in Godliness as perfectly as in naturall qualities without any violent straining of them thereunto and as it were even before they should have bin awarie of it And this is clearely deduced out of an axiome that Philosophers do vse in the beginning of Logicke where they teach vs Logick ought to be learned before other sciences because it is an instrument or methode to obteine sciences by and consequently ought to be possessed before one setteth himselfe to the gaining of science So Religion being the instrument and methode to guide vs for the well acting of our lifes when once we are come to the vse of reson It is cleare that it ought to be planted in vs before we come to the age and vse of discretion Againe since no action ought to be exempt from the direction of Religion not euen the very first It can not be doubted but that Religion ought to take possession of our hearts euen before Reason Neither do I speake this as a thing that should haue bin onely in the state of Paradise but as what is connaturall to vs here and is practised by many pious Mothers who teach their children their prayers and stampe in their mindes a deepe conceit of God and of heauen before they are capable of judging in matters concerning temporall commodities So that it is plaine that it belongeth truly to the nature of Religion to be propagated in man kinde by discipline and by deliuery ouer from father to sōne and to be embraced in the meere vertue of such a reception through the
is all one a Protestant On the other side If it be the Catholikes share to be the Defendant He is bound to make good many points That is to say all that doctrine which we maintaine to be of faith and to have received by Tradition The Conclusion therefore is that the Catholike hath much to maintaine and little to oppose The Protestant hath great choice of what to oppose and little to maintaine So that his advantage on this hand is very great in regard of disputation Since if he receive a wound in any limb of that great body he is to defend it is a mortall one to his cause And his adversary is invulnerable to him every where but in one pointe The reason of this difference dependeth of the knowne Axiome Bonum ex integrâ causâ Malum ex quolibet defectu The Catholike Party hath a Religion hath an Art and skill of living well and of going to heaven Such a thing must have a body And a body can not consist without many members and parts Every one of which must be defended and made good All other Sects are but deficiencies more or lesse from this rule Those more who cleave fastest to the rule of deficiency that is to say to the rejecting of all that cannot be convinced out of Scripture Those lesse who perceiving the inconveniencies this bringeth upon them do soonest recede in practise from this crooked rule and to contradict their maine ground of all being fallible by forcing their subjects to hold their Tenets that they have no authority for themselves having forsaken the legitimate authority by which the Catholike Church sticketh to Tradition The eleventh REFLEXION Of some particular Caveats for Catholikes THe Catholike defendant having so hard a taske some few notes will be necessary for him As first that he should not ofter to maintaine against arguments drawne out of nature such positions as he is not able to satisfy himselfe in for example against an Arrian or Sabellian lett him not undertake to dispute and argue in reason how the same thing can be one and three unlesse he be first sure that hee understandeth it well and that himselfe resteth satisfyed with reason in that point For it is impossible to give the Auditory satisfaction if he hath it not himselfe Especially if the disputant be subtle and able to manage his Argument The like is of the blessed Sacrament to shew how one body can at the same time be im more places then one In this case therefore the Defendant is to keepe himselfe upon the generall defence that wee believe Mysteries of faith whether we can answere Arguments against them or no That the word of God is able to give us certitude above all demonstration and above all that wee can understand Neither are wee without the example of our Adversaries themselves when we do thus For in this very Mystery of the Eucharist they will tell us that Christ is really and truly present in it But that the Manner how he is there is not understandable In the Trinity and in the Incarnation Protestants do the like acknowledging these Mysteries to be true but withall professing them to be above their understanding Yet this rule is not so peremptory but that by discretion it may admitt exception For our Adversaries are so weake that they ground most of their Axiomes and proofes rather upon confidence wee will not deny them then that themselves are able to make them good So in the Mystery of the Eucharist when they insist upon the Maxime that the same body can not be att the same time in two places If you putt them to proove it you shall finde that their word will be to say that even our owne Doctors confesse it or that experience assureth us of it Whereas experience is no Argument against Gods Omnipotency And as to what private Doctors affirme it is att every Mans pleasure to grant or deny it So that if you understand your Adversaries strength you may non-sute him by putting him to prove what you know he can not But this is a hazard And you are shamed if you faile An other Caveat for our defendant is Not to engage himselfe in a Controversy upon the opinion of one party of Devines Nor undertake to defend against his Adversary a position which some of our owne Devines do oppose and so is rather a question of Scholasticall Divinity then a Controversy of faith To this purpose it is to be noted that some opinions are of a greater latitude then others establishing faith upon that whereof others confine it but to some one part As in the Matter of Infallibility some place it in the Pope some in a generall Councell some in both some in the whole Church which conteineth all these and more Here the cautious Controvertist that hath care of his Safety will be sure to choose that which is most ample and so quitteth himselfe from the trouble and danger of answering Arguments made against the single parts and keepeth himselfe to the strong hold of Christianity wherein all parties agree True it is that if the defendant be putt to declare his position and an Argument do presse him Hee may sometimes be obliged to choose one opinion of Divines before an other or rather is forced to follow that which he is best acquainted with But the rule I give must serve where and when there is place for it And besides the already mentioned advantages that this course giveth It causeth a great narrownesse or brevity in controversies which bringeth the dissenting parties farre neerer to agreement and setleth more stablenesse in Religion by making men dicerne what belongeth to faith and what doth not but is the opinions of particular Doctors The twelfth REFLEXION Of the qualities of some sort of Arguments drawne out of Scripture THe next thing we are to look into Is the quality of the Arguments which are to be used in those Disputations By the precedent discourse it is evident â—hat they are of three kindes Out of Scripture out of Fathers and out of reason To begin with Scripture It is againâ— cleare that arguments may be thence deduced two wayes The one out of the pure force of the wordes The other out of the connexion of the sense and discourse acknowledged â—n the wordes With the conclusion that iâ— to be proved In the former way Arguents either presse the wordes of one single sentence which they bring thinking to make it evident that their assertion is the very meaning of those wordes Or else they bring a conglobation of sundry places of which the one fortifyeth the other so as to make it evident that the plaine sense of wordes so often reiterated cannot choose but be the true meaning of the Scripture To begin with the first branch of the Manner of drawing arguments out of single Texts of Scripture we may divide into two kindes the Texts that are produced for this purpose For they are either such as
of which the action formally is considered or else in respect of some other quality of the same person To speake more clearly A Catholike who writeth or disputeth against a Protestant or conferreth with him may deferre to him either in his very argumeÌ„t or in other things not concerning it as he may acknowledge him an eloquent man a good Linguist a subtile Critike or some other commendation belonging to either his understanding or his will Or else that his argument is good or hard to be solved or that his skill in divinity is extraordinary or the like Now as for this last commendation It is evident that it can not be given him without prejudice to the cause the Catholike maintaineth And therefore even if it should prove true which it is impossible it shoud Prudence would advise his adversary to wave taking notice of it as farre as ingenuity will allow him But he needeth not appreheÌ„d being reduced to streights upon this account For Protestant arguments out of authority are easily answered And if some drawne from reason be difficult and intricate it is because that nature upon which the question dependeth is obscure and unknowne not because the Divinity part hath any speciall difficulty in it What the pitch of Divinity is that a Protestant may arrive unto wee have already declared As for other qualities both humanity requireth we should afford them a friendly esteeme of their good parts and the very ayme we have in discoursing with them which is to change their judgements to agree with ours maketh it no small part of our businesse to proceede with a faire and just difference towardes them if we understand how much the will conferreth to incline the judgement and how powerfull courtesy is over the will As for the arguments themselves it is necessary especially in writing which alloweth descending to many particulars to shew that they are but slight ones and that they proceede out of ignorance and that they imply a great distortion in the will of him that maketh them which onely causeth them to be well esteemed of and the like according as there shall be cause It is necessary also to display how the producer of such arguments is not a man to be replyed upon nor hath those qualities which are requisite in a teacher For either his braine is weake or the will of maintaining an evill cause worketh upon him to throw out pittifull and triviall objections instead of framing strong and solide ones which is the worse condition of the two Now with what justice may one give the commendations of an honest man to one that for his owne honour or interest will maintaine a proposition himselfe knoweth to be false especially of that nature that the salvation or damnation of the hearer as well as his owne dependeth on it Were it not better he cheated me of my purse robbed me of my credit tooke away my life then to bring my soule into the hazard of perpetuall damnation How then can hee who doth this bee esteemed an honest man and worthy of such civill testimonyes as shall enable him the more to ensnare poore soules who will rely the more upon him for his receiving such applause He may peradventure defend himselfe by saying that if he seduceth others he is first seduced himselfe and so ignorance excuseth him att least from being malicious and wicked But he mendeth his cause very little by this plea since he who undertaketh to be a Master of others especially in matters of so great consequence and hazard must not be admitted to alledge ignorance for an excuse Why doth he undergoe the office of a teacher if he understandeth not what he undertaketh to teach He who will affirme any thing must first know it Else he is a lyar and if it be in a matter of great prejudice a knave Perhaps he will againe answere for himselfe that there is no meanes to come to certainty in Religion and that therefore he is not more faulty for being a teacher then every one else is that doth the like In saying thus first hee blasphemeth against God as not having provided man-kind of that which farre beyond all other thinges is most necessary to it Secondly he proceedeth very rashly for how doth he know or what demonstration hath he made or can he make that he knoweth all that can be said to the coÌ„trary Thirdly he knoweth with out the least doubt that either himselfe or his very late predecessours did leave the way they were bred in Now if it were but for likelihoods and that there be no certainty in Religion how was it honestly done by the first that made the breach or is now by him who maintaineth it onely upon peradventures But to make it appeare more evident that they who have left the Catholicke Church or that still keepe out of it are unexcusable and to take away their mis-understaÌ„ding of some points wherein their mis-taking of what we believe may seeme to justify in some sort their deserting us I will set downe a short explication of Catholike doctrine as farre as it is controverted by judicious and sensible men on both sides Against which I scarcely believe that any prudent person will thinke it fitt to make an objection unlesse it be out of naturall reason where the Mystery is difficult not for it selfe but because wee understand not nature As he who perfectly understandeth Logick will have no difficulty to believe the Trynity who knoweth the composition of body and soule in Man will easily admitt the Incarnation And who comprehendeth how living Creatures do nourish themselves will not sticke at the Mystery of the Eucharist I pretend not to set downe all For as there is no All of those demonstrations for example which may be made of the natures of a Triangle or of a circle So farre lesse of the dependencies of the Mysteries of our faith which the opposition of Adversaries may make necessary to be known and professed Therefore I content my selfe with those which I apprehend to be the most troublesome among the points in controversy now att present A briefe Explication of Catholik faith in order to moderne Controversies WEe believe that from all Eternity there was a Thing not made by any other but having its being from â—â—selfe without beginning or springing That this thing is unchangeable anâ— immortall Having neither parts noâ— composition and so is perfectly indivisible and spirituall That this same Thing is Substantially and Essentially knowing and loving it selfe And so is a substance knowne a substance knowing and a substance loving the Thing knowne That as a thing knowne it is from which the thing knowing is and as a Thing knowne and knowing it is from which the substance or Thing loving is That as it is a substance knowing or knowledge wee explicate it well by a name taken out of our naturall considerations that is by the word sonne and likewise as it is a substance knowne by the
do acknowledg the thing the Catholicks call the Fathers accepting thereof commonly that is the two latter opinants no considerable part of them and the larger opinion nothing neer the half So that the consent of the Fathers in the sense of the Protestants signifieth nothing but the opniō of some few who have written either nothing or litle and obscurely of the points in cōtroversy The fourth Shuffle Of this Word Catholick Church TO the Catholick Church all plead the Apostles Creed forcing them to the name And Catholiks by this word understand a Church which hath endured from Father to Son from Christs time to ours still teaching the same Doctrine and living under an outward Visible goverment the head of which is in the Church of Rome and is the Pope And so acknowledg and obey a Visible and determinate authority to which recourse for Doctrine may in every moment bee made by looking into theire Catechismes and lives which are publick as those which were made by the order of the Council of Trent and in great ocasions to Generall meetings and in the meane while to the particular Church of Rome But the Protestant by this name pretends to a Church made of all whome they account good Christians which hath no other Rule then of the scripture that is of the fancy of every particular Congregation for their opinions no common goverment no bounds or limits to bee knowne by but such as the particular fancy of the Protestāt shal upō occasiō set to include or exclude whome he pleases So that plainly what they mean by the name of the Catholick Church is no determinate Congregation of men nor can have any influence to govern either faith or behaviour The fifth Shuffle Of consent with the Greeck Church SOme Protestants highly brag of theire communion with the Greek Church or rather of their consent of Doctrine with it for I have not heard of any communion unless with the Patriarch Cyril who for that cause was put out as an Heretik a business though of no consequence now yet for the name of what it hath been anciently of a colourable credit to them Let us therefore see what the Protestant means by this communion or consent Two points there are and onely two of moment of dissension betwixt the Greek and Latine Church The one about the Procession of the Holy Ghost in which the 39. Articles men agree with the Latine Church against the Graecians and yet these are the men who most pretend to the Greek Vnion The other of obedience to the Pope in the which the Greeks freely acknowledg the Popes Primacy which is the stumbling block to the Protestants and confess he were to bee obeyed if he made just commands and onely except against his oppression as they call it and clayming of more then his right And in this which is no matter of faith but of Schisme and if unjust confest if doubtfull suspected rebellion So that this glorious consent they boast of is not in Doctrine or sacraments the life of Christians but in a case of schisme and disobedience which is common to all Hereticks The sixth Shuffle Of Roman Church Nay some of thē being ashamed of their owne orphanage and that they can not name their Father or Mother wil in spite of the Roman Church and her defying them intrude themselves into heroff spring saying shee is substantially a true Church though shee coucheth insufferable errours in her faith which force them not to communicate with her let us therefore see what these meane by this Word the Roman Church Catholicks Meane by the name of Church a Congregation of men joyned with Rome in an obligation of Government for the maintaining faith sacraments and good life taking this obligation to bee that which maketh the mene bound together by it to bee a Church The Protestant takes this obligation to bee an unsufferable Tyranny wil have no rule of faith but such an one as hee can turne which way hee thinkes best for his interest or fancy sacraments and government no other then what hee cannot avoide out of his proposed rule of faith or at most without the shame of the world So that hee meanes nothing that belongs to the making a multitude of men a Church but onely the multitude of men of which a Church may bee made as if a man should call a house or Palace the ruines of one lying in a heape where it was fallen The seventh Shuffle Of the Word Mission THese are some but Generally the Prelatick party engages in deriving themselves by Mission from the Roman Church Lett us see then what they intend by this word Mission The Catholick interpretation is that Mission signifies a command givē to the party sent to deliver a Message to them to whome hee is sent which makes the Apostles question good How can they preach if they are not sent That is if no body deliver them an Errand to carry and God is sayed to put his owne Words in the Mouths of those he sends and Christe when hee sent his Apostles bad them preach or deliver to the world what he had taught them Now because this command or commission is delegated in the Catholick Church by a certaine ceremony which is called ordination or the sacrament of Order The Protestant grew ambitious of this outside and so pretends his first Prelates had an Ordination from the Catholick Bishops whome they had deposed or at least violently cast out from theire sees And this they call to have a Mission from the Roman Church So that they do not as much as pretend to the substance of the thing called truely Mission but to an outside and shadow good enough to serve their turnes who love the Glory of men and seek not after Gods honour The eighth Shuffle Of being like to the Primitive Church Another thing in which they insult over Catholicks is Antiquity the which because it hath a venerable awfulness in it self they specially the Presbyterian party much presume upon professing their Church to be more like the Ancient Christian Church thē the Catholicks is asking whether S. Peter were the Prince of Rome Bishops in such great Pompe had such Courts Altars Churches pictures in such abundance and so richly attired Ceremonies and Sacraments performed with so great magnificence and Order By which we see wherein these men place the Antiquity they pretend to to wit that the Church had not those meanes to draw weak hearts which need the helps of bodily appareances to raise themselves to the conceit of invisible goods Whereas the Catholick pretends to Antiquity and to bee like the primitive times in the substātial means of Christian life as in Church government and power of Bishops their accommodating of the quarrels of the faithfull by the order of the Apostles Performing the mass Baptisme Ordination and other Sacraments with exactness and diligence the Reliques and Holy Burialls having Feasts Fasts Penitential Canons flocks of People of both