not They was the dividing party and Actors in this separation being so contrary to the nature and notion of Schism from Scripture and Antiquity yea and a common sense for how could a Church possibly separate from a Communion whereof they never were Members though it should be granted that they made the separation yet they say that Schism being a voluntary departure from the Communion of the Catholick Church they cannot be condemn'd for Schismaticks who only separated themselves from the particular Church of Rome But alas this is no better then a Cob-web Plea to keep Protestants from falling into the Gulph of Schism For first grant that the Church of Rome be but a particular Church yet as such 't is a true Member of the Catholick Church as the most Learned Protestants of the Church of England not only grant but contend for against other Dissenters and so they could not separate from the Church of Rome as such but of necessity they must separate from the whole with whom she as part thereof communicated Secondly if the separation was only made from the particular Church of Rome and not from the Universal let them shew us any Body of Christians agreeing with their Protestant Church in all Material points of Faith and practice to whom the first Reformers united themselves when they made a separation from their Catholick Mother If Communion with the Greek Church be pretended 't is most irrational when condemned by themselves in their Belief concerning the Procession of the Holy Ghost Mass Transubstantiation c. And indeed if they will be of their Communion they must agree with us almost in all points wherein they now differ from us and alledge as just causes of their separation But how justly shall be scann'd hereafter If with the Lutherans 't is as vainly pretended for by the Confession of those who made a full search into the Lutheran Tenets they agree in more points with the Church of Rome against the English Protetestants then on the contrary And 't is well known that when the Controversies were hot between the Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants as Hereticks are always as well fighting among themselves as against the Church the Remonstrants plainly asserted they would sooner return into the Bosome of their Catholick Mother then joyn in those points with the Calvinists with whom of all other Sects the English Protestants may most pretend to have Communion Which nevertheless hath as airy a foundation as either of the other when the greatest Patrons and Goliahs of the English Reformation condemn the Calvinists of fundamental Errors in denying Episcopacy to be jure divino and the Kings Supremacy in Ecclesiastical matters and for differing from them in other points contain'd in their 39 Articles and Book of Common-Prayer their publick Liturgy and way of Worship And so while they separate from the particular Church of Rome as they pretend and not from the Catholick from which they grant no man ought to separate they notwithstanding are found to be left by themselves a Church of their own constituting finding no part of Christs Catholick Church or any other with whom when they separated from the Roman Communion they actually joyn'd themselves or do yet in the belief of the same Articles of Faith in the acknowledgment and submission to the same Church Government in the participation of the same Sacraments and way of Worship which are essentially requisite to Church-union But thirdly though no Catholick denyes the Church of Rome as taken for the peculiar Diocess belonging to the Bishop of Rome is a particular Church as well as the Church of Ephesus or Church of Corinth and the Pope as Bishop of this Roman Congregation belonging to no other Jurisdiction is a particular Bishop Yet seeing also that all Catholick Christians do and the first Protestant Reformers did believe before their separation that the Roman Church as taken for the whole collection of the Faithful as holding Communion with the See of Rome is the Catholick Church and that the Pope of Rome as succeeding St. Peter in his Primacy by divine Right add Institution hath a Universal Headship and Jurisdiction in Spiritual matters over all particular Churches I say the whole Catholick World and first English Reformers thus believing before their separation they stand condemn'd for Schismaticks by the most Sacred and highest Tribunal on Earth not for separating from the particular Church and Bishop of Rome but from the Communion of the Roman Church as Catholick in respect of the extent of her Power and Jurisdiction and the Pope as St. Peters Successor supream Pastor and Head thereof And this guilt will never be wip'd off 'till it be evidenced that the Christian World is in an error and believes a lye and that the Supream and Universal Jurisdiction of the Pope of Rome is but a meer usurpation and innovation in the Church But this the Protestants neither have done nor ever will be able to do and yet ought to have been done by the first Reformers before they separated or by the continuers of it for the justification Which is an attempt no less desperate then to endeavour to perswade the World that the judgment of a few interessed passionate persons may not only ballance but also ought to out-weigh and be preferred before the greatest Authority and certainty we have on earth This is enough to manifest the unity of this Plea to any unbyassed and indifferent judgments But because Protestants do sadly deceive themselves in being perswaded they are true Members of the Catholick Church by imposing upon the word Catholick a notion different from the most usual and common sense of the Church in all Ages and thereby satisfy themselves that their separation is neither damnable nor dangerous that is not Schismatical this being a proper place for it I shall endeavour to undeceive them by applying the word to its genuine acceptation in which sense it had much influence on my Conversion SECT V. The sense and meaning of the word Catholick as it is us'd by the Church THe Church is said to be Catholick in three respects First ratione loci according to universality Mat. 28. 19. Mar. 16. 15. Jo. 4. 21. Act. 1. 8. Ro. 1. 17. Ro. 10. 12. Eph. 2. 14. of place whereby 't is distinguish'd from the Jewish Synagogue For the partition-wall being broken down by Christ the chief corner stone of this Spiritual building both Jew and Gentile were united into one and the same body of Christianity extending it self into all corners of the World Hence it is that of St. Cyril The Church is called Catholick because 't is spread over all the World from one end to the other Whereas before the true Worship was confin'd to Judaea and the Jewish Nation Secondly the Church of Christ is Catholick ratione temporis according to universality of time from its first existence because being once founded by our Blessed Saviour Mat. 15. 14. Dan. 3. 44.
opposition to all Sects of Christians divided from it though never so many or so numerous Which separation from a mother-Mother-Church is as manifest in the Protestants as in the Arrians or any other Schismatical Hereticks who might as well have objected to the true Church from which they separated that she was not Catholick because they professing the Name of Christ and holding most points of the Christian Faith were not Members of her Communion So then a Catholick is a Christian communicating with that Church in Faith and Practice which was founded by Christ and his Apostles Which Church doth evidence it self for such by a perpetual visibility and succession from that time to this present Age By consequence he is no Member of any new Communion of Christians gather'd together by some Doctor teaching contrary to the aforesaid Church and Faith received Neither would there have been any need of adding Roman to the word Catholick had not Hereticks arose denying the Church of Rome to be Mother and Mistress of all Churches and St. Peter's Successor to be the supreme visible Head and Pastor of the Faithful and yet in their divided Communions pretending either to be the only true Church or a part of it But then true Believers did and do commonly call themselves Roman-Catholicks to distinguish themselves from all such false Churches And a Roman-Catholick is in plain English a Member of the Church of Christ founded by the Apostles scatter'd over the face of the whole Earth in Communion with the Bishop of Rome as supreme Head and Pastor of it Which the word Catholick by it self signifies as vertually this only more expresly The Church always being very careful upon emergent occasions to express her self by distinctive marks or terms sufficient to point out the only safe and high-road to the haven of Happiness that those belonging to her charge might not shipwrack their Faith on the rock of Heresie or be swallowed up in the gulph of Schism And those who are without might know their dadger and fly to the saving Ark to preserve themselves from perishing in the deluge of their sins Hereupon with the Ancient Fathers to be a Member of the Catholick Church or of the Roman Church signifies the same thing and to be a Catholick is to be in Communion with the Roman Bishop Qui Cathedram Petri c Who hath forsaken the Chair of Peter upon which the Church is founded doth he perswade himself that he 's in the Church So that St. Cyprian St. Hierom De vnit Eccl. ca. finding divisions in Syria and every one being greedy to gain such a person to their Communion gave them this Answer I communicate Ep. 58. ad Dam. Papam with him who communicates with the Chair of Peter Which they all pretending to and it being not possible for them to be all Catholicks in divided Churches he earnestly desises of Damasus then present Pope Even by the Cross and Sufferings of Christ to write unto him with whom he might communicate in such distractions As is manifest at large in his 58 Ep. to the said Bishop And in his 57 Ep. to the same Pope among much more he hath these words Ego Beatudini tuae id est Cathedrae Petri communione consocior c. I communicate with your Beatitude that is the Chair of Peter I know the Church is built on that rock Whoever eats the Lamb out of this House is a prophane person So then in St. Hierom's judgment He was no Catholick who did not communicate with the Bishop of Rome and whoever in Church-divisions adher'd to him could not be otherwise The Catholick Church being founded on the Chair of St. Peter as a rock to remain for ever maugre all the malice of her enemies The words related by St. Ambrose De Obit Satyri of his Brother Satyrus are home to this purpose Rogavit c. He demanded saith he whether he was of the same judgment with the Catholick Bishops that is the Roman Church Optatus Milevitanus proves L. 3. cont Parme. the Donatists not to be Members of the Catholick Church Because they were not in communion with Syricius the then Bishop of Rome And St. Austin tells every Christian He may Epist 162. 163. know himself to be in the True Church if he be a Member of the Roman Church by Communicatory Letters in use Anciently in which the Primacy of the Apostolical Chair always flourish'd Of which this also is a manifest argument in that the Fathers to convince Separatists that they were no Members of the Catholick Church by shewing the true Church to have a perpetual visible succession of Pastors by Divine institution always made use of the succession of the Roman Bishops reckoning from St. Peter to the present Bishop then in possession of the Apostolical Chair So St. Irenaeus adver haer l. 3. ca. 3 4. St. Aug. l. cont Epist Manich. quam vocant Fundamenti ca. 4. St. Athana Orat 2. cont Arianos Epiph. haer 27. St. Cypri l. 1. Epist 6. c. And at present in the common use of the word the best key of language in the mouth of our Adversaries all Christians in Communion with the Roman Bishop are called Catholicks St. Austin observes the same in his time Velint nolint c. Will they nill they not says he Hereticks and Schismaticks themselves cannot but call a Catholick a Catholick And therefore advises to hold the Christian Religion in the Communion of that Church which is Catholick and so call'd even by her Adversaries In vain therefore do Protestants pretend to be Members of the Catholick Church if the Fathers be Judges not communicating with the Church of Rome acknowledged by them to be true And as vainly will the Puritans have the Church of Rome cease wholly to be a Church to make themselves a true one being both alike condemned by Antiquity Neither can they possibly escape the force of St. Austin's dilemma wherewith he set upon the Donatists Did the Church Lib. 1. cont Gaud. c. 7. perish or did she not If she did what Church then brought forth the Donatists We say what Church then brought forth the Puritans Where received their first Founders their Faith and Baptism From whom had they deliver'd to them the Sacred Oracles This argument strikes them dead S. Austin proceeds If she did not perish what madness mov'd you to separate your selves from her on the pretence of avoiding the communion of bad men This argument confounds the Protestants who acknowledge she did not perish and yet will not confess the madness of their separation but endeavour to justify it though the same Father affirms positively We Epist 48. are certain no man can justly separate himself from the communion of all Nations And again All separation L. 2. cont â— p. Parme. made before the drawing of the net on shore alluding to the Parabolical expression of the day of judgement Mat 13. 47
Let them give any convincing reason why Feed my Lambs Feed my Sheep spoken by the fountain of all Jurisdiction to an Apostle should not be an Authoritative Commission as well as Go teach all Nations Matt. 28 Besides had they only been admonitory words to excite St. Peter to the work of his Apostleship they would have been as necessary to have been spoken to all the rest as to him who were equally Apostles with him and therefore not now minded of their duty because afterwards they were all to receive power from above by the descent of the Holy Ghost upon them for the performance of that great and glorious work So then being a Commission and only given to St. Peter it must necessarily follow that he was thereby invested with some Spiritual Authority which the other Apostles had not though all Apostles And the question put to St. Peter by our Blessed Saviour immediately before the words of his Commission have no small influence to prove a Superiority of Power to be instated upon Him above the rest For being asked Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me more than these Those words of command Feed my Lambs Feed my Sheep do not correspond nor are at all emphatical as what follows relates to them if thereby no Authority more or above the rest was not imparted to him as a reward of his extraordinary affection in that he loved our Lord and Saviour more then the rest of the Apostles Moreover in short as St. Peter did profess his Faith before the rest when this supreme Authority was promiss'd to him so now our Saviour would have him profess his love especially above the rest when he conferr'd upon him this Jurisdiction Thus if these places be expounded according to the light of present circumstances in all reason Scripture makes for a Supremacy in Peter above the rest of the Apostles And as hath been shown the Ancient Fathers from these Texts unanimously assert That the Church was in a special manner founded on St. Peter in being constituted Vniversal Head and Pastor of it To which if we add the voice of the present Church attesting it to be a Universal Tradition handed to her as such from Age to Age the unerring Rule of Catholick Faith it amounts to an Infallible certainty and puts the question out of all question and further dispute And how unsafe it is and dangerous to forsake the direct Texts of Scripture the the constant interpretations of the Ancient Fathers and the consent of the whole Christian World in matters of the highest concernment and to rely upon the bare Authority of private and new invented glosses of a few interessed and confessedly Fallible Doctors or our own more vain presumptions let any sober-minded man be judge And whether the Protestant Church of England in separating from her Catholick Mother the Church of Rome can possibly be upheld from falling into formal and notorious Schism leaning only on such unstable grounds The fourth Motive That the many Miracles God hath ben pleased to work in the Roman Catholick Church and still continues to do more or less and in no other Communion divided from her are manifest proofs that she 's the true Church And those Miracles which in a special manner regard some Doctrines denyed by Protestants to come from God are Divine Testimonies that the said Doctrines are as well Heavenly Truths as others taught by the Church are confess'd to be so SECT I. A Preliminary Discourse IT being manifest by what hath been discuss'd in the precedent Motive that the Protestant Church of England is undeniably guilty of Heresie and Schism in a high manner by their wilful separation from the Church of Rome in Faith and Government and thereupon the universality and perpetual visibility of the true Church by a never interrupted Succession of Believers teaching and practising the same Faith and Worship from the Apostles to these present days have been in some sort handled as points co-incident and con-natural I shall not make any large discourse of them severally though they did not a little contribute to my Conversion but contract their strength into one Syllogism and so proceed to show what efficacy Miracles wrought in the Catholick Church for visible confirmation of her Faith and Worship to come from Heaven ought to have upon our Adversaries to reduce them to the bosom of that Chuch they have forsaken The Argument runs thus The true Church of Christ hath Universality perpetual visibility and Succession of Pastors and People from Christ and his Apostles to this time and so to continue to the Worlds end inseparably annexed to it But no Schismatical or Heretical Communion of Christians can possibly be universal or have a perpetual visibility and Succession of Believers in those points which constitute them a distinct Communion from the Catholick Church of which they were Members before their separation Therefore no Schismatical or Heretical Communion of Christians can be the true Church of Christ That the Minor or second proposition belongs to the Protestant Church of England is manifest from the former Motive where 't was evidenced to be Schismatical and Heretical which once prov'd concerning any Communion of Christians 't is implicatory in ipsis terminis to say that 't is or can be universal visibly Successive from Christ and his Apostles to this time being all one as to assert That it was founded by Christ and his Apostles and yet began afterwards by a voluntary separation from the true Church so founded which is the Essence of Schism and that they were a Congregation Believing Ordaining Preaching and Administring Sacraments before they had a Beeing in the World That is they were and were not at the same time The Major or first Proposition is manifested from Scriptures and Fathers briefly thus From St. Matthew Behold I am Mat. 28. 20. with you always even to the end of Word From St. Luke He shall reign Luk. 1. 33 in the house of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdom there shall be no end From St. John The Comforter the St. John 14. 16 17. Spirit of Truth shall abide with you forever From the promise of God All Nations shall flow unto it From Isa 2. 2. the Commission of Christ Go teach Mat. 28. all Nations Which clearly demonstrate the Church of Christ from its first foundation to be Catholick both in respect of Time and Place This also is the Doctrine of the Fathers 'T is only the Catholick L. 1. ca. ult Church hath the true Worship and Service of God saith Lactantius Let Praefa in l. â—â—â—â—ar the Doctrine of the Church be kept saith Origen which is deliver'd from the Apostles by order of succession and remains in the Church to this very day See more in Iren. l. 1 c. 3. St. Aug. Ser. 131. 181. de Temp. de Vnit Eccl. c. 2. Tert. contra Judaeos For the perpetual visibility of the true Church in an
among the Gentiles and they should Sacrifice in every place and Chap. 1. 11. a Pure Offering should be offer'd to his Name a new form of Worship prescrib'd a new form of Government erected new Sacraments instituted new Precepts deliver'd Councels super-added agreeable to the Evangelical Law And in a word a Catholick Church founded to continue for ever This Church of Christ as it is one body so likewise it was of one heart and of one mind while Apostolical purity remain'd unspotted The Professors were all united in the same Faith Worship and Government holding close to Church-Tradition the Pillar and ground of Truth without any rent or Schism Till among Act. 20. 29. 30. themselves arose Wolves in Sheeps-cloathing not sparing the Flock teaching perverse things to draw away Disciples after them That is who set up a Congregation of Christians separated from the Communion of that Church which was founded by Christ and his Apostles And so by this means unity being destroy'd and Faith perverted Heresie shut up the gate of Heaven against false Christians as Infidelity did against Unbelievers A sad case this yet not so much to be wondred at seing the Apostle tells us Opportet esse Haereses There must 1 Cor. 11. 19. be Heresies for the Tryal of others and greater glory of the Truth And therefore the true Church hath in all Ages been more or less vex'd with them But never more then in these last and perillous days which since Luther's Apostacy from the Church of Rome have produc'd such an innumerable brood of New Gospels and Sects all pretending to believe and practice those Doctrines and that Worship which were taught by Christ and his Apostles and to be the only true Church of God or at least the purest Members of it Now it being acknowledg'd on all hands that they only are the true Church who believe and observe all points taught by Christ and his Apostles necessary to Salvation and 't is impossible contrary Beliefs and Worships should be all true and come from the Fountain of Truth Christ Jesus those whom a more serious desire and care of their Eternal Good may excite to seek for satisfaction in so important a business shall upon diligent inquisition by the blessing of God find that the chief externe grounds or evidence ordain'd by Christ for the guiding us in the knowledge of what was taught and left by him to be believ'd and practis'd to the Worlds end and consequently also for discerning which is the true Church among so many Pretenders are those according to which the Church of Rome regulates her Faith and Worship namely Universal Tradition and the Authority of the present Church as shall hereafter be made manifest And the farther they search into the Rule of the Protestant Religion that is sole Scripture interpreted by private Reason or Spirit exclusively to Tradition and Church Authority the more they will see such unsteady Maxims are destructive to Faith and manifestly leading to endless Divisions and Errors in matters of Religion This Conviction I had in examining the Fundamentals of the Roman and Protestant Religion and therefore am not to be blam'd for the Change I made and to my understanding whosoever searches as I did will easily receive the same satisfaction SECT II. A Preparatory Discourse to Church-Tradition and what it is THo' whosoever examines aright the Motives of Christian belief cannot rationally but become a Catholick that is find evidence how he may come to the certain knowledge of what Christ and his Apostles taught the World yet Faith is not grounded on Reason but Authority and that no less then Divine which excludes all possibility of Errour Whatever it is that brings men to know what they must believe Faith hath for its formal Object Divine Revelation into which it finally is resolv'd So that we believe nothing as of Faith but what is revealed and because it is revealed by Essential Verity who can neither deceive nor be deceived Catholicks then believe by Divine Faith Truths only revealed by Almighty God wherein Protestants agree with us But Catholicks believe the same Truths as they are ascertained declar'd and handled down to us by the Testimony of the Church wherein Protestants are defective the difference thefore between us in Faith arises chiefly from hence in that we use not the same externe Medium to convey unto our understandings the knowledge of what Truths are revealed and what not For could we once agree about this latter we should soon be of one Heart and of one mind in all points of Faith especially when once this Medium is proved to be infallible As to this Medium therefore Catholicks regulate their Faith by the Rule or Standard of Tradition and Church-Authority as the externe Proponent of Faith a Proponent also evidenced to them by the same Rule to be Infallible and thus they safely rely on the Testimony of Tradition and Church Authority in Declaring and Expounding both the Sense of Scripture and all other Christian Misteries necessary to Salvation Whilst on the contrary Protestants relying on the sole express Texts of Scripture interpreted by private Reason or Spirit as their only Rule and Guide in matters of Faith become unsteady in their Belief obnoxious to dangerous Errors and divided amongst themselves into endless Sects and Factions But because a more clear understanding of this matter in some sort depends on a right notion of Tradition we shall here define it in the sense it is usually understood by Catholick Divines Tradition then is the delivery of that Doctrine which was taught by Christ and his Apostles from hand to hand descending as such from Fathers to their Children making up the body of the Faithful This is the true notion of Tradition among us Catholicks and it matters not whether it be call'd Divine Apostolical or Universal being only the same thing exprest by divers adjuncts For it is call'd Divine because Christ our Lord as well true God as true man is the Spring-head of it It is call'd Apostolical because the Apostles immediately receiv'd from him things so deliver'd and Preach'd them to all Nations And Universal because Attested by the Catholick Church of all Ages to have been handed to her as originally proceeding from Christ and his Apostles And to prevent all mistakes let Protestants take notice that the Church of Rome sends not her Children only to search for what is Divine or Apostolical Tradition in matters of Faith and Discipline out of the Writings of the Fathers or other Libraries of Books fill'd with dead Words which are subject to various Interpretations by Critical heads without any hope of Agreement and can have no Authority dependent on Tradition though upon this account she has infinite advantage against all other Communions in the World to justify her Faith and practice in any unbyass'd Judgments But sends them to a visible living Oracle Oral Tradition that is the voice of the present Church attesting
that what she teaches as of Faith she so received from the Age immediately foregoing and so from Age to Age from Millions of Sons to their Fathers up to the Apostles and the Sacred Mouth of Christ himself From Church-Tradition thus explain'd briefly may be drawn those Positions First that the Doctrine taught by Christ and his Apostles comprises all points necessary to salvation Secondly That all such points taught by Christ and his Apostles have been continued in the Church from believing Fathers to their Children by an un-interrupted succession without Diminution or Addition and shall so continue for ever Which involves these two Propositions that nothing comes to us upon the tenure of Faith but what is of Tradition Yea though contain'd in Scripture seing we only are ascertain'd what Books the Apostles wrote and what is the true sense of them by Tradition And that there are no new points of Faith in the Christian Church quoad Substantiam as to the substance of what is reveal'd the present Church only believing what it received from precedent Ages Which assertion whosoever opposes contradicts not me but the Sublime Angelical Doctor St. Thomas expresly teaching that in Doctrina Christi Apostolorum c. 22ae 1 q. ar 10. ad 1am 2am Et in 1a par q. 32. ar 4. corp In the Doctrin of Christ and his Apostles the Truth of Faith is sufficiently unfolded but because perverse men pervert the Doctrin of the Apostles and other Doctrines and Scriptures to their own Destruction as is said in the 2 Ep. of St. Peter and the last Chap. Therefore the explication of Faith was necessary against arising Errors in after-times not containing another Faith but the same more clear'd Thirdly That this universal Tradition or handing of Christian Doctrin by oral Teaching and visible practice of the Christian World is and was the constant Rule of Faith as well after as before the Scriptures were written and received by the Church The first Thesis or Position though it hath been deny'd by some Hereticks as namely the Montanists yet is not controverted between us and Protestants The proof lies upon the second which being demonstrated the third will follow of it self and cannot be deny'd with show of Reason SECT III. The clearness and certainty of Tradition in delivering Matters of Faith NO other externe prudential evidence or assurance in matters of Divine Faith whose efficient Cause is Divine Grace is necessarily requir'd then a Moral certainty that what is propos'd to be believ'd as of Faith is the very same Doctrin which was taught by Christ and his Apostles Which assurance neither is nor can be had among Protestants who build their new Church upon their own confused and unsteady Interpretations of Scripture But is manifestly to be found in that Communion of Christians viz. the Church of Rome which grounds its Faith as to such evidence upon Universal Tradition a Principle not well lyable to Error and therefore cannot rationally be expected to fail those who relie upon it As I shall endeavour to demonstrate thus Christian Religion is supernatural descending from Heaven to us by Revelation that is such a one as is not to be learn'd but from Almighty God and his Missioners namely from Christ and his Apostles and so successively from them brought down to us by Church-Profession Wherefore the Apostles being Commissionated by him to whom was given all Power in Heaven and Earth to this end and purpose deliver'd to the World wholly and entirely the Law of Jesus Christ making so long stay in those places principally in which by mutual consent they had chosen to plant the Gospel 'till by often inculcation it was written in their hearts and by practice so confirm'd and clear'd to their Judgments that rationally they could not mistake or doubt concerning any points so deliver'd all things being by this means sufficiently provided for the constituting and governing of the Church Now though the Apostles were many yet being all taught by the same Master impowered by the same Commission and guided by the same Spirit in all parts of the World did bring up their Disciples in the belief and practice of the same Doctrin and Discipline to continue for ever so that all particulaâ— Churches though of different Nationâ— and Languages founded by several Instructers and so far distant from one another yet did harmoniously meet in the unity of Faith in all points Traditionary whatsoever Neither could it be otherwise they only believing what was taught them by the Apostles and these only teaching them what they receiv'd from Christ and were Infallibly directed in by the extraordinary assistance of the Holy Ghost Amongst which Apostolical Doctrines one main Article was That there should be in all Ages to the Worlds end an Vniversal Visible Body of Pastors and People term'd a Catholick Church Divinely assisted and authoriz'd to preserve teach and hand down to Posterity without Error all Truths necessary to Salvation This Catholick Church thus founded practis'd and taught their Children what they received from the Apostles condemning by her Authorative Rule of Tradition all such for Hereticks and Shismaticks who taught any contrary Doctrines and divided from them By this easie method all Critical Disputations about points of Faith were cut off having only to inquire what had been taught and practis'd from the beginning and to receive all Doctrines witnessed for such by the voice of the 1 Tim. 3. 15. present Church The Pillar and ground of Truth and consequently Infallible in her Attestation Who leave this Rule must needs be obnoxious to Error but how those who stick close to so safe a Principle should fail is morally inconceivable For such Traditionary Doctrines abstracting from Authority cannot loose but gather strength by time because the multitude of Believers increafing and delivering to their Children all points of Faith as they received them the Tradition becomes more famous and universal carrying along with it a greater evidence of Truth and moral Impossibility to be deceiv'd Unless we will say that the Mystical Body of Christ so diffus'd and numerous can forget to day what they believ'd and acted yesterday and so ignorantly mistake or knowingly conspire together to teach their Children to receive any Doctrines as originally proceeding from Christ and his Apostles which yet they never had from their immediate Fore-fathers upon that tenure Questionless that such a Body of Christians should be wrought upon wilfully to damn their own and others Souls by attempting to gull the World to their faces in a business of no less then Eternal Interest or that in things of so high a nature so visible so easily contradicted they should prevail to introduce the belief of a noon-day Lye is surely to be rank'd in a high degree of Impossibility And whososever sees it not as such I know not whether all the Hellibore in Anticyra will cure him For where can one pick a hole in the everlasting coat of universal
true Church who knows himself by communicatory Letters which anciently were in use to be a Member of the Roman Church in which the Primacy of the Apostolical Chair always flourish'd More need not be said at present to shew that to be true Members of the Catholick Church is to live in the same communion with the supreme Pastor thereof under the same Government in the acknowledgment of the same Articles of Faith in the participation of the same Sacraments in the same manner of worship brought down to us by Tradition from Christ and his Apostles And to be separated from this One and Catholick Communion after once we have been Incorporated by Baptism is formal Schism pertinaciously to contradict her Doctrines of Faith is formal Heresie Thus the Scripture and Ancient Fathers concerning the nature of Heresie and Schism Now let us see whether the Protestant Church of England by separating from her Catholick Mother in Doctrine and Government be not both Schismatical and Heretical whatever is pretended to the contrary SECT II. Wherein is shew'd that the Protestant Church of England is guilty of Schism and Heresie by their Separation from the Roman THe Separation of the English Protestants from the whole body of Christians into a Church by themselves is a matter of Fact not so Ancient that it cannot be easily traced The Case in short was this King Henry the Eighth was of the same Faith and Communion with his Pious Predecessors from the very first Conversion of our Island and the whole Church in all Ages 'till the Popes Spiritual Power did cross his Amorous desires And then alas the unruly passion of Love so blinded his Reason that he could not see or would not longer acknowledge the Primacy of the Church of Rome which not long before he had so famously maintain'd against Luther the Apostate that deservedly he was rewarded with the glorious Title of Defender of the Faith For giving way to his Intemperate pleasure he fell passionately enamour'd on Anne Bullen who being of a subtil wit and perceiving the King charmed with her Beauty was resolv'd not to yeild to his Will unless he would first marry her This her resolute denyal did blow up the fire of his Love to a greater height and he being toss'd up and down with the billows of several passions determin'd at last with himself to quench those raging flames with her embraces according to her own terms though the impendiments seem'd almost insuperable and the consequences might prove very sad Hereupon he pretends scruples of Conscience about his Marriage with Queen Catharine no less then 22 years after their solemn Espousals sealed with the endearing pledge of Issue to succeed him in the Royal Throne And upon his hot Devotion to his new Saint he grew suddenly so tender-hearted in the point that by all means his former Marriage must be disannull'd that the storm and inquietude in his breast might be appeased And forthwith Addresses are made to the Pope to Commissionate Legates in England to hear and determine the business with all possible speed But the Queen appealing from them to Rome by the advice of her most Learned and Counscientious Councel and the Pope understanding the equity of her Case and how much it might be endanger'd where the King had so much power accepting of her Appeal recals the hearing of it to Himself and after mature deliberation notwithstanding all attempts and political motives to the contrary gave it as he was bound in Conscience on the Queens side against the King Which indeed was no more then to ratify what before had been adjudg'd lawful both by the Apostolical Chair with the approbation of the Christian World His Majesty now perceiving that all hopes were pass'd to procure from Rome a Divoce from his Lawful Wife and Vertuous Queen whom he could not but Honour even while he persecuted and a Dispensation to Marry his Beloved he grew highly enraged and passion so far prevail'd that abandoning Catholick Christian Peace and Unity he renounces all obedience to the Church casts the Popes Authority out of England under pain of death to the Acknowledger makes himself sole Head of the Church in his own Dominions and consequently Judge in his own Cause and then no question all things must pass for him and an usurped power would effect what Justice could not In a word he Divorces himself from his most Religious and Vertuous Queen shakes hands as I may say with Religion and joyns himself to Anne Bullen This was the original of this fatal Schism from this impure fountain stream'd a deluge of miseries upon our 'till then most happy Island For no sooner had he to satisfy his lusts remov'd the rampire of Church Government the sole preservative of Faith and Unity but an inundation of Evils broke in violently upon us and with Schism likewise Heresie Sacriledge Oppression ruine of Churches and Monasteries extirpation of Holy Orders contempt of Religion by making it lyable to perpetual changes uncertainties and and confusions as sad experience hath but too clearly manifested Thus was the Protestant Reformation as they call it in England first brought forth into the World and these are the Miseries which attended it I wish this point might be serionsly and impartially weighed and I doubt not but by God's Grace it would prove to others as it did to me a strong motive to return to Catholick Unity And here it will not be amiss to take notice what mark the Holy Scriptures have stamp'd upon Schism and Schismaticks to be known by Among your selves saith Act. 20. St. Paul shall arise men teaching perverse things to draw Disciples after them So did their first Reformers being Members of the Catholick Church till they contradicted the Doctrine which they before believ'd with the whole Body of Christianity to come from Christ himself and his Apostles teaching new Doctrines to draw Disciples after them They went out from us 1 John 2. saith St. John And so did they erecting a new communion distinct from the universality of Christians under a new Church Government it being never heard of before that a Secular person should be Head of a Spiritual Body or that Christ had left such an Oeconomy in his Church Scripture then condemns them for it condemns such Who will not hear Mat. 18. the Church it condemns such who 2 Thess 3. will not obey the word of her Governours it condemns such who sepeperate St. Jude Rom. 16 17. themselves who cause Dissention and Scandals contrary to the Doctrine delivered to the Saints And such were they as evidently in matter of fact as any thing that 's left upon Record in the World If therefore whosoever before them in the like sort separated themselves from the Church were accounted Schismaticks by all Catholick Christians how came they to be no Schismaticks by their Separation Never let them pretend any cause given on the Church's side to justify them for the Church
Ecclesia vera neminem latere potest S. Aug de vnit Eccl. cap. 14. our and his Apostles 't is to continue by a non-interrupted visible succession of Pastors and People to the Worlds end Which is no less express in Scripture than the former Take it from the mouth of an Angel And of his Kingdom there shall Luke 1. 18 be no end Or if that be not sufficient from the Sacred Lips of Truth Mat. 16. 18. it self Vpon this rock will I build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it What but for a time No not so But behold Mat. 28. 20. I am with you always even to the Worlds end This universality is as essential to make the Church Catholick as the former and hereby 't is not only distinguish'd from the Jewish Worship which being Ceremonial and Typical was but to continue for a time and to vanish when the Sun of Righteousness appeared But also from all Shismatical and Heretical Communions of false Christians who separating themselves from this Catholick Church thus founded to continue for ever do erect new Congregations distinct from it Which new-born Communions whatever were their pretences to separate from the old though professing the name of Christ Catholicks did never account any more true Members of Christs Mystical Body or part of the Universal Church as now Protestants pretend to be since their separation then either Jews or Heathens who never acknowledged Christ to their Saviour Witness St. Irenaeus We must obey I. 4 contr Haer. ca. 13 those Priests that are in the Church those that have a succession from the Apostles c. And all the rest who have departed from the original succession where ever they be assembled are to be look'd upon as Hereticks or Schismaticks and all these fall from the Truth Witness St. Austin whom some Epist 48. contr Dom. call the Tongue of the Church and certainly he speaks her Doctrine when he tells the Donatists You are with us in Baptism in the Creed and in the other Sacraments of our Lord but in the Spirit of Vnity and finally in the Catholick Church you are not with us And therefore he says confidently with us elsewhere Let him adore Idols saith the Devil he 's mine let him remain in the superstition of the Jews he 's mine let him quit Vnity and pass over to This or That or any Heresie he 's mine And no wonder seeing that corruptio optimi est pessima Nothing is so bad as the greatest good corrupted For though extensive Judaism and Paganism involve a far greater number of damnable errors yet intensive more malignity is often couch'd in Schism and Heresy by reason of their exceeding perverseness and obstinacy being sins against the greater light and means of grace to come to the acknowledgement of truth Now the Protestants finding themselves wholly at a loss in this particular it being impossible for them to shew a visible succession of their Doctrine and Government in Pastors and People from Christ and his Apostles to this present Age which is a sufficient evidence they neither are the true Church nor any part of it they will by no means allow the word Catholick in the Creed to be understood of a un-interrupted visible succession of Christian Belief and Worship in external Communion as Antiquity interprets it but referring it to Doctrine S. Aug. Ep. 48. only will needs have it sufficient to be true Members of the Catholick Church to profess the name of Christ and believe some Articles always taught and acknowledged though of a distinct Communion wholly and in many points of a different belief from the perpetually visible Church And think they have done enough to prove their Church Universal in respect of time because the Church of Rome from whom they separated did never fail nor cease to be a true Church though as these men pretend much corrupted Which to my apprehension is as much as to say that they who are of different Faiths in a different Communion are notwithstanding of the same Faith in the same Communion and parts separated from the Body yet actually continue Members of it And that a Commonwealth of ten years old may justly maintain themselves to be of a thousand years standing because Monarchy which they cast out to set up their new Common-wealth was of such continuance by a visible succession and agrees with them in some common Principles of Reason and Government Who can resolve these riddles Are not these pretty props to uphold the new Protestant Church to be of the Ancient Catholick Faith Strange Can men of Reason satisfy their Consciences in what concerns eternal Salvation What is the Catholick Church but a Congregation of Believers united in Faith and Worship And yet to hem these men in Jerusalem must not be as a City at unity with it self but a body composed of Antipathies and Contradictions Let them speak ingenuously will not this way of arguing make Arrians and Donatists or any old condemned Hereticks to be Members of the Catholick Church as well as Protestants The Arrians did deny but one point of Catholick belief and were cast out And shall the Protestants who deny many be kept in and reputed Members Shall that absolve the Protestants which condemns the Arrians For 't is not denying this or that but any point of the Catholick Faith with pertinacy whatever it be though Heresies may be more or less malignant and dangerous that casts us out of the true Church and makes us cease to be actual Members of it Besides can they as a Protestant Communion have a perpetual visible succession from the Apostles and yet begin to appear first in the World in the days of King Henry the viii 100 years since and somewhat more Is it any thing to their purpose to produce a visible Congregation of Believers in a never-interrupted succession of the same Faith with them in sueh point wherein they agree with the Catholick Church when such points are not those which constitute them a Protestant Church but those wherein they differ from us If they will with any shew of reason defend their Protestant Faith as such to have universality of time from the Apostles they must produce a visible Body of Christians in Church-Communion professing those points wherein they differ from the Roman Church and for which they separated from her and condemning those points and practices in her which they now do Otherwise to talk of a perpetual succession of the Protestant Religion in a Communion from the Apostles to their present Pastors is no better then a sick mans dream or any airy Vtopia without any real beeing or existence Now the Puritan-Protestants and many other Sects either not well considering the grounds why the most Learned of the Reformation defend the Church of Rome to be a true Church and perpetually visible or else plainly seeing the impossibility of rationally maintaining their deductions thereon depending
in the storm of a blind zeal against the Church of Rome split themselves against another rock never caring for perpetual succession and visibility to make them Catholick confidently assert that the Church of Christ was over-spread with the infernal darkness of Superstition and Idolatry that it wholly ceas'd to be a true Church for a thousand years and upwards more or less for they cannot agree among themselves about the determinate time which gave this fatal period to Christianity 'till by their blessed Reformation the glorious light of the Gospel did dawn a-new unto the World and with the ruines of the Whore of Babylon hopeful Children to cast such durt in their Mothers face they did beautify the revived Spouse of Jesus Christ Wherein they wholly agree with the Donatists of old who after their separation from the Catholick Church thought they could not defend themselves from Schism and Heresie unless they would maintain that the Universal Church was totally perish'd and shrunk into their new-born Conventicle which hath in it the the mixture of thus much Truth that no separation from an acknowledged true Church can be justifyable But this is wonderful that those very men who pretend so much veneration of Sacred Scripture as to make it the sole and adequate Rule of Christian belief should notwithstanding to free their own Religion from Schism and Heresie affirm the Church of Christ to have perish'd totally for so many Ages the contrary to which is so plainly contain'd in those Sacred Oracles Our Blessed Saviour says That he Met. 16. 18. will build his Church upon a rock so that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it The Angel says Of his Luke 1. Kingdom there shall be no end Can possibly Jesus Christ be with the Mat. 28. 20. Governours of his Church to the Worlds end to direct them by his special assistance to pretect them by his irresistable Power and yet the Devil so far prevail over his beloved Heritage as to ruine it Can he make good his promise of leading Joh. 14. 26. 16. v. 13. them into all Truth and yet suffer his Church to be corrupted with damnable errors and practices as totally to perish St. Paul says God hath placed in his Church some Apostles Ephes 4. 11 c. some Prophets others Evangelists and Doctors for the perfecting of the Saints that we might be one and the same faith and not toss'd and carried about with the wind of every Doctrine And that the Church is the Pillar and ground of Truth These 1 Tim 3. 15. are plain express Texts for the Churches Indefectibility needing no Interpreter as St. Austin saith De Vnit Eccl. c 16. in the like case of evident places out of Scripture for the universality of the Church against obscure Texts objected by the Donatists And yet this generation of men will palpably pervert plain Texts of Scripture rather then confess a guilt in separating themselves from their Catholick Mother Perkins a great Champion of the Reformed Religion saith expressy Exposit of the Creed pa. 226. That during the space of 900. years the Popish Heresie had spread it self over the whole Wold Calvin affirms That the Church of Instit l. 4. c. 18. Rome made all the Kings and People of the Earth drunk with the cup of her abomination from the first to the last Bennet Norton says The whole Christian World knows that before Luther Treat of the Church p. 145. all Churches were overwhelm'd with more then Cymerian darkness Bibliander a Lutheran is very positive That without all question from In Orat. ad Princ Germa the time of Gregory the Great the Pope is Antichrist who with his abominations hath made drunk all Kings and People from the highest to the lowest Yet Simon Voyon affirms no less Catal. Doct. Ep. ad Lect. confidently That when Boniface was installed then was that universal Apostacy from the Faith foretold by St. Paul And to name no more Chamierus saith That Apostacy averted the whole body from Christ Consider well these expressions and then tell me if any thing can be more contrary to Sacred Scripture Lay them close together that the opposition may more visibly appear The Church is builded upon a rock and the gates of Hell shall never prevail against it Of his Kingdom there shall be no end I will send you the Spirit of Truth who shall lead you into all Truth The Church is the Pillar and ground of Truth Thus teaches Scripture Now these new Pastors tell us That Heresie which is the strongest bar of Hell gates overspread the whole Christian World That all Churches were overwhelmed with more than Cymerian darkness That there was an universal Apostacy from the Faith That Apostacy averted the whole body from Christ Are not these Doctrines directly contrary to each other Now which shall we believe For both we cannot 'till contradictions be both true Are not these rare men to make Apostles Yet before I part with them I will ask them one question in St. Austin's words wherewith he expostulates the same case with the Donatists In Scripturis didicimus Ep. 166. ad Donat. Christum c. In the Scriptures we have learned Christ in the Scriptures we have come to the knowledge of the Church These Scriptures are common to us both why do we not from them keep as well the same Church as the same Christ And afterwards If for the verity of the Scriptures ye believe in Christ whom ye read of and see not wherefere do ye deny the Church which ye both read and see A Church which the same Father assures you The Prophets have In Psal 30. L. de vti cred c. 7 8 c. more plainly spoken of then Christ himself to prevent mistakes in a matter of so great moment A Church which the Scriptures assure you shall as militant continue in a visible succession to the end of the World as triumphant world without end After this one Catholick and Apostolick Church was founded in the World and began to spread it self into all corners the Members of it were called Christians to distinguish them from all not professing Christ But when some of themselves arose teaching perverse things to draw away Disciples after them and so separating from the Church whereof once they were Members erected new Communions then those Christians who stood firm adhering fast to the Church and Doctrine establish'd by Christ and his Apostles were called Catholicks to distinguish them from such false Christians who had separated themselves into Schismatical or Heretical Congregations Which if the Protestants would consider aright they would never argue thus incongruously The Roman Church is not the Catholick Church because it comprehends not Us and others in her Communion who are Christians when Catholicism in its genuine notion denotes an Universal Communion of true Believers continuing in the Faith and Worship first deliver'd to the Saints in
THE PRODIGAL Return'd HOME OR THE MOTIVES OF THE CONVERSION TO THE Catholick Faith OF E. L. Master of ARTS In the University of Cambridge Et tu conversus confirma fratres tuos Luc. 22. 32. Printed Anno Domini 1684. THE PREFACE TO THE Protestant Reader WHensoever it pleases the Almighty Goodness to enlighten with the glorious beams of Divine Truth those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death in so powerful a manner as that forsaking the perplexed labyrinth of Errors they betake themselves for repose and safety into the bosome of the Catholick Church 't is Satan's policy by his Agents to make the World believe that the motives of their Conversion were but weak and carnal least others should follow their example Herein I have been as deeply censur'd as others to whom God has vouchsafed the like extraordinary mercy Yet truly whatever calumnies have hereupon been cast upon me by some who have imbitter'd Spirits and Hearts swoln with rancour against the Catholick Church as much as concerns my self I should for many reasons bave contentedly sat down in silence rejoycing in the testimony of a good Conscience if the good of those upon whom my conversion may have most influence had not in charity oblig'd me to refuse no pains that might afford them help or satisfaction in a business of the highest nature and concernment This was the pressing consideration which at last prevailed with me to give these Motives of my Conversion a publick beeing and common air to breath in that their own eyes might be Judges what just cause I had to change my Religion and how much reason there is for them to follow me Of which I conceive great hopes when to me it seems impossible for any prudential man who seriously enters into the consideration of the grounds of Christian belief with a Soul wholly divested of all prejudices and self-interests whatsoever earnestly imploring the Divine assistance and direction I say it seems to me impossible for any prudential man in these circumstances not at last to discover the truth of the Catholick Religion and acknowledge the Church of Rome to be the only high-road to Heaven and Happiness he will hear a Divine voice whispering Jerim 16. 16. to him This is the old path walk in it and thou shalt find rest unto thy Soul Thus by Gods blessing I sought and this rest at last I found and never found it 'till after much pains and study after many Prayers and Tears after many Fastings and Watchings after many tossings and turnings after many sad delays and expostulations after many conflicts and agonies in Spirit my resolutions by the powerful workings of Grace on my Soul breaking through all difficulties did effectually bring me into the arms of the Roman Church In which I saw no reason to suspect any delusion when my most serious reflections pass d judgment on it seeing this happy change was not wrought in me by any humane persuasion but the God of Truth did by his immediate inspirations begin this work of mercy on my Soul when having no thoughts at all of becoming a Roman Catholick and finding much bitterness in the ways of sin and worldly vanities I was earnestly seeking of God what course I might best take how to please him and save my precious and immortal Soul But to prevent all fear of Enthusiasm pretended illuminations and false lights wherewith many poor Souls in our Nation are so miserably misled God who is as well essential Reason as Goodness did not only move my Will but also rationally convince my Understanding that all Communions professing Christ beside the Roman were more or less erroneous and she only the true Catholick Church according to the constant notion of Antiquity out of which ordinarily Salvation was not to be expected And therefore I must flie to her as to the saving Ark that I might not perish in the deluge of my sins So then this change in me was not a passionate distortion of an interessed will pushing forward the blind understanding to fix suddenly and adhere pertinaciously to more then the light of reason did clear up to the eye of the Soul but undoubtedly mutatio dexterae Excelsi the work of God wrought in my heart by convincing arguments as the following Motives do sufficiently evidence Nor could it be to satisfy the inclinations of sensual nature when I was to forsake my Relations my Friends my Temporal Revenues and Preferments and all worldly contentments to take up my Cross and follow Jesus by contempt of the world in the perpetual practice of self-denyal and mortification And happy is he who had rather have a Cross with Christ than a Crown without him Thus the Father of Mercies was graciously pleas'd by an efficacious call to bring his Prodigal Son Home For his Church is his House where he dwells among his Saints on earth with his special presence to govern and provide for them all things conducing to their happiness From which houshold of Faith I was an Alien while I was a Member of the Protestant Church which stands dis joynted from Catholick Unity by a Schism too notorious to be justified And until we like true Penitents return unto our Mother Church which made us Christians we like Prodigals feeding on ratling Husks of formal Devotion without any substantial nourishment to our Souls miserably mispend our precious time on which inevitably depends Eternity And this shall suffice by way of Preface for an Introduction The door is open enter and view well the Motives and the eternal Sun of righteousness who is the true Light of the World open thine eyes to see and guide thy feet into the way of Peace Yet before the Lecture I thought good to advise whosoever shall peruse these Papers that bere is not to be expected that variety of Arguments which may be found in more Judicious Controvertists but a true Narrative of what principal Motives prevail'd with me to forsake Protestanism and yield my self into the Arms of our Mother Church And yet methinks they are sufficient to convince the ablest Heads if they have but hearts resolved to yield to Truth I must likewise tell thee good Reader that these Motives had long since seen the light if some accidental occasions had not retarded their birth into the World However though they lost their choicest season of publication which is when such Conversions are most fresh in memory yet 't was thought fit by persons as well judicious as zealous that they should by no means live any longer in obscurity but be set upon a Candlestick in the House of God to give light to others and I did acquiesae in their judgment and was content to have them publish'd for the common good Read them Impartially consider them Seriously and practice Faithfully what God shall inspire into thy Soul And remember in thy Devotions Thine in Jesus Christ E. L. The first Motive containing the grounds of the Catholick Faith Sect.
perspicuum est c. 'T is apparent from this place that he St. Paul and the other Apostles delivered many things not committed to writing Which Epiphanius also applyes to the same Haere 61. purpose teaching us Oportet autem Traditione uti c. That we must make use of Tradition seing all things cannot be taken out of sacred Writ The Apostles have delivered some things in Writing and others by Tradition Even as St. Paul says Sicut tradidi vobis As I have delivered to you And no less St. Lib. de spir◠S. Basil It is an Apostolique thing to persist constantly in Tradition not written for saith the Apostle I praise you in that you are mindful of whatsoever thing came from me and observe the Traditions which I have given you And affirms them to be so many that the day would fail him should he enumerate them Moreover That no man will contradict Ibid. it who hath the least experience in Ibid. Church Laws And as potent Patrons of the same Doctrine are St. Iraeneus l. 3 cont Haer. ca. 3 4. Tertullian de corona militis cap. 3. lib. de Praescrip S. Aug. Ep. 118. ad Januarium lib. 5. de bapt cap. 23. The second famous Nicene Council in the 7th Act c. by whom Traditionary points are invincibly vindicated And teach otherwise they could not except their words should contradict their Faith and practice though Protestants who are of a contrary belief are also of a contrary Doctrine and have invented several evasions to darken the evident light of these Texts whereby they alas deceive poor Souls To the native lustre of Scripture if we add the unanimous consent of the Fathers expounding them for us they more manifestly make good against the Protestants that the same Scriptures cannot be an un-errable and compleat Rule of Faith to Christians without Tradition And indeed Catholicks do not deny Scriptures to be a Rule but that they are not the compleat Rule of Faith nor can be a Rule of Faith at all as interpreted by private reason or particular fallibility Congregations which is their new way and practice but as expounded authoritatively by the Catholick Church according to the line of Ecclesiastical Tradition the constant custom of all Ages Now why Religion was setled in the Christian Church by Universal Tradition as a perpetual Rule of Faith rather then written Precepts will presently appear to any one well considering how that way of delivery is far more secure from mistakes and errours than Writings this being notoriously visible in actions common to all mankind in which all sorts of conditions do agree and can read the inward belief of their hearts in those outward well-understood expressions whereas written words are different and if understood by some few eminently Learned yet lyable to a thousand casualties and misapprehensions conveying erroneous Thoughts sometimes even where exactest diligence is observ'd And withall that it is more lasting then written Books which may perish totally by the fury of Persecution or be lost by some accident or other as most certainly some Scriptures are Whereas Christian Doctrine thus conveyed cannot perish but with the total ruine of all Believers But principally that sacred Scriptures themselves both for Canon Incorruptness and true sense of the Text are necessarily depending on Tradition not It on them being a self-evident Principle that needs no proof Which great and notable advantage will be more evident if we consider that the main end and principal errand of the Apostles being to deliver entirely to the World the Gospel or Law of Jesus Christ what they Preach'd throughout the whole World with their common and united endeavours inculcating it in season out of season and ingrafting it by daily and visible practice in the hearts of Believers must needs descend to us with more certainty and evidence of Truth because accompanied with a higher degree of Tradition than the Books of Scripture which were not any part of their Commission or by any joynt consent intended to comprize the whole Law of Christ but meerly an occasional work of their Apostleship according as the present circumstances did require writt by some single Apostle or Evangelist sent to some particular Church or Person as all the Apostolical Epistles upon whose Authority and Credit the whole Church originally must rely to believe it to be the true Writing of such an Evangelist or Apostle that is to be the undoubted Word of God And this is the genuine reason that while Traditionary Doctrines being on all hands acknowledg'd because founded in Universals which cannot easily fail The true Books of Scripture because at first of particular and unknown Authority agreeing therein with all errorus were cauceously rejected by some particular Churches and could not obtain due veneration and acceptance but by degrees as they were communicated to other Christians by those to whom they were at first delivered and so at last upon diligent inquisition received by the whole body of Believers for Canonical In which examination the Traditional Doctrine being universally Famous and first planted in their hearts and that of Scripture originally obscure and of an after Birth They neither did nor could rationally argue thus The Doctrine we have been taught is the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles because agreeable to this Book But thus this Book attested to us for Scripture may safely be received for the Writing of such an Apostle or Apostolical man as they witness who have already accepted it for such because we have no reason to think they are herein deceived or lye against their Conscience in that we find it conformable to the Doctrine we have been taught and have received by Tradition For to have proceeded è converso had been to prove I say not obscurum per obscurius but clarum per obscurum and contrary to all Rules of Logick and Reason Hence it is that we find the Ancient Fathers expounding some Texts of Scripture for Traditionary Doctrines of the Church which afford sometimes perhaps scarce probable Topicks for those points to which they are applyed Now this they do not as if they founded their belief of such Articles upon the Scriptures St Aug. de Civ Dei l. 20. c. 24. lib. de fide Oper. c. 15. S. Am in ca. 3. ad Cor. St. Jer. in ca. 5 Matt. Origen in eandem locum c. as might be specified in the 1st Corin. 3. from the 12 ver to the 16. and Matth. the 5th ver 25 26. for Purgatory The 15 of the foresaid Epist ver 29. For a state wherein the dead may be help'd by the living Luke the 1st ver 34. For the perpetual Virginity of the Mother of God c. But being in possession of the belief of such points with the present Church of their Age upon the tenure of Tradition they only bring such places for the further confirmation and explanation of their Faith that very probably such
Traditionary points may be involved in those Texts So that we may safely argue thus far from such expositions they held such Tenets or else they would not have applyed those places for the confirmation of such Doctrines though such Doctrines cannot manifestly be concluded from those places And therefore when Protestants rationally show that some Texts so applyed by the Fathers may admit their Interpretations yea sometimes perhaps with greater probability they must not think they then carry the cause against Them and Us in those points This indeed is enough for Catholicks to do in all Controversies of Faith against Protestants who depend wholly upon Scripture as explicated by Wit and private Reason or Spirit for their Religion But it is no concluding argument against some Ancients for their over-credulity as I may say in relying on such Texts for some points now denyed by Protestants or against the present Church of Rome as relying upon them when that the Fathers neither did nor doth the Church of Rome now only rely upon such Texts for those particular points nor yet upon Scripture for any point of Faith at all but as handed and fensed to us by Tradition But to conclude this point seing Scripture thus manifestly descends to us by a lower degree of Tradition than Christian Doctrine and being received for the Word of God upon the credit of Tradition by Protestants themselves we cannot enough wonder at their unreasonable prevarication in taking the Churches word for the whole Rule of their Belief and yet refusing to rely upon her credit for any one Article of Faith in acknowledging her Authority Infallible in the delivery of the Letter and yet denying to believe her Tradition for the Ssense nor will be perswaded to conform to her in those points and practices which are handed to us by her attestation with far greater evidence of credibility And this being clear to me could I any longer continue a Protestant Had I not all the reason in the world to become a Catholick The second ground of the first Motive viz. The Authority or Infallibility of the Church in determining all Controversies concerning Faith and defining what is of Faith and what not when call'd in question SECT VI. An Introductive Discourse concerning the Judiciary Power of the Church YEt notwithstanding this certainty of Tradition handing from Age to Age the Evangelical Law with so much evidence unreasonable men have arose of perverse minds questioning and contradicting the Truths of Jesus Christ Insomuch that hardly yea perhaps not any one fundamental point of Christianity but hath been controverted in some Age or other Wherefore as Tradition is a constant Rule so the Wisdom and Goodness of Almighty God hath provided in his Church an Authoritative Judge to give Sentence by the guidance of the said Rule if there happen to be contentions about matters of Faith among Believers For unless in such cases an Authoritative Judge be allowed to give a definitive Sentence from which there is no appeal by the contending Parties for the decision of such Controversies Authoritatively assuring us what Doctrines were taught by Christ and his Apostles if denyed and what not when falsly pretended Actum est de fide unitate Faith and Church-unity must necessarily be destroyed and all Religion lost in a Chaos of disagreeing judgments without any probability of reconcilement A supreme and unerring Judicature being then absolutely necessary for the ordering and preserving of the Church in all things essential to Salvation how little satisfaction and that not without just cause I received in this point from the English Protestants who indeed grant a Judge but one wholly Inefficacious to this purpose yea impossible to reconcile Dissenting Litigants as the super-abundant experience of above sixteen hundred years for all Hereticks fly to the dead Letter of Scripture for their refuge hath sufficiently evidenc'd I shall make hereafter appear in the examination of their Rule and Judge and for the present endeavour to demonstrate how all Christians ought to be contented and acquiess as I did in what the Church of Rome teaches and the Catholick Church always hath and doth practice on such occasions Now what the Catholick Church teacheth and always hath delivered in this point is briefly this That all Divine Truths taught by Christ and his Apostles necessary to Salvation whether Traditionary only or also Written are deposited in the Church as a Witness to attest them and as a Judge Divinely assisted to Interpret and give an Authorative Sentence if their be any Controversy about them which all Christians are obliged to believe and follow under pain of Damnation A Doctrine brought down to us from the Apostolical Times by a more visible practice and unquestionable Tradition than the Scriptures themselves which yet the Protestants receive for the Word of God upon the same Authority What concerns the Church as a Sacred Depository of all Revealed Truths written and unwritten hath already been manifested in the precedent Discourse And that the Spouse of Christ is an Authoritative Judge or Infallible Guide to determine all Controversies of Faith among her Children that they may know with security what to believe and follow according to their Duty I hope shall be made no less evident in the following Sections SECT VII That there is a Supreme Visible Judge to decide Controversies in matters of Religion Instituted by Christ Infallible in all points of Faith to which as such all Christians are obliged to a submission of Judgment under pain of Damnation is here made apparent from Scripture And some further Reasons also given TO acknowledge a visible Judge to interpret and apply Laws in Controversial matters is so conform to common Sense and Reason and so confirmed by the experience and practice of the whole World in all kinds of Governments that to deny such a Power from God in his Church is in effect to say That Jesus Christ the Wisdom of the Father hath not so well provided for the regulating and preservation of his Kingdom and peculiar People purchased with his own most precious Blood in order to their eternal Good and Happiness as meer men subject to manifold weaknesses and Passions do by the common Light of Nature and ordinary Principles of Prudence and Discretion provide for the well-being of Families and Commonwealths in Temporal matters A Position unavoidably drawing after it so many strange and to say no worse dangerous consequences that they will be here better lamented than infisted upon But because Protestants whom I have forsaken fly to Scripture as the only Infallible Judge in all Controversial matters of Faith thither I shall bring them first to be tryed and show them out of those Sacred Oracles of Divine Truth which they acknowledge what ample and most abundantly satisfactory provision the Wisdom and Goodness of Almighty God hath made and left in his Church to bring us securely to the certain knowledge of his revealed will nothing being wanting on
his part if we neglect not so great Salvation The chief Texts for the Churches supreme Teaching and consequently Judging and determining Power when any controversies of Faith arise by Commission from Christ the Head-spring of all Spiritual Jurisdiction are these and such like Mat. 28. 18 19. Go ye make Disciples of all Nations teaching them io observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you And that this Authoritative Teaching is performed by the Pastors of the Church as his Delegates and Representing his Person is plain from that of St. Luke He that heareth you heareth me and he Chap. 10. 16. Mat. 14. 18. that despiseth you despiseth me Again Whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven And again He Ephes 4. 11 12 13 c. gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ 'till we all come to the unity of the Faith and be not tossed too and fro with wind of every Doctrine What more express And yet if it may be the Churches Infallibility in the delivery of the Law of Christ is taught us in plainer terms as namely in Ch. 14. 26. those Promises in St. John The Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my Name he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you When the Spirit of Truth Joh. 16. 13. S. Matt. ch 28. 19. is come he will guide you in to all Truth And those in St. Matthew Teach them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you and behold I am with you always even to the end of the World And that in the 16 1 Tim. 3. 15. Chap. Vpon this rock will I build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Such a Church as this thus founded thus assisted thus guided cannot possibly teach damnable Haeresies or dangerous Errors but must needs be the Pillar and ground of Truth as that glorious Vessel of Election the great Apostle of the Gentiles doth assure us And therefore we may securely rely upon her word to do it also so much concerns us that not to hear and obey is no less then under pain of damnation and that too from no obscure Texts He that 1 Epist 4. 6. knoweth God heareth us saith St. John and he that heareth us not is not of God and by this we know the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Errour And that famous place Dic Ecclesiae Matt. 18. 17. Tell it to the Church and if he neglect to hear the Church let him be to thee as an Heathen and a Publican Persons doubtless in no fit case for Heaven I 'll name but one more out of St. Mark Go ye into all the World Mark 16. 16. and Preach the Gospel unto every Creature And what then He that believeth not shall be damned Plain and sad places these are to all Unbelievers and Incorrigible Hereticks But especially to these last who receiving these Scriptures for the Word of God do notwithstanding not only not hear the Church Obediently in her delivery of the Gospel but with obstinacy and pride of heart presume to teach the Church and will needs force upon her a new Creed which was never taught by Christ nor handed to us from the Apostles How can such as these escape the punishment threatned in the above-mentioned Sentences Their account must needs be heavy and the light they had will only serve to augment their guilt And I cannot omit for a Testimony of these and such like Texts against Protestants that being so express and unavoidable for the Churches Authority and Obedience to her in their first Editions of their English Bibles after their defection from the Church of Rome for Church they translated Congregation least common understandings should discover how they were withdrawn from their Ancient Faith by new Doctrines and Expositions so expresly contrary to the Word of God 'Till afterwards when by divers Artifices these Teachers perceived they had bred in their Followers a strong aversion from the Church of Rome and that they were sufficiently confirmed in their Errours the word Congregation in the later Translation was turn'd into Church that from the evidence of such Texts they might gain some credit to their usurp'd power set up against the pre-existent Authority of the whole Christian World Neither is it without reason that Christ hath set up in his Church such a supreme Judicature when to deny this Power to those whom he hath appointed for ever to be Governours of his Kingdom on Earth is doubtless to advance the Jewish Synagogue above the Christian Church their Sanedrim or Great Council whesein the High-Priest was supreme Judge in all doubts Deut. 17. and questions about the Law having such absolute Authority in giving Sentence that no man could appeal but was bound to obey under pain of death And yet that was but a temporary Pedagogy delivered by Moses a faithful Servant of the House of God in Types and Shadows prefiguring and leading to Evangelical Perfection whose Ministration is far more glorious endowed with more transcendent and admirable Priviledges foretold by the Prophets and in plenitude of time fulfill'd revealed and established in Person by the Eternal Son of God Lord of all things upon better Promises to continue for ever Secondly Christ our Lord having so dearly purchas'd a peculiar People and furnish'd his Church with all means necessary to the Salvation of mankind if we deny such Authority in her namely Infallibility to witness and when circumstances require to determine by a finally decisive unerring Sentence what these means are they cannot be effectual to the end for which they were with so much Sweat and Blood Instituted to continue for ever being otherwise according to the ordinary method of Divine Providence impossible to be known with an assured certainty and by consequence also to be put in practice Neither indeed could it be truly said that Christ hath provided in his Church all things necessary for our Salvation without this Authority when amongst things necessary that questionless seems to be most so by which we can only come to a certain knowledge of all the rest Thirdly seeing God hath made his Church a Proponent and Witness of his Truth in all Ages for 1 ch 8. that of the Acts Ye shall be witnesses to me both in Jerusalem and all Judaea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the Earth As to the substance of it belongs not only to the Apostles but to their Successors in the Office of making Jesus Christ and his Law known to the Worlds end the unanimous consent of the Catholick Church must needs be an undoubted testimony of revealed Verities seeing it
the Church which the Holy Scriptures without any ambiguity do demonstrate To the end that because the Scripture cannot deceive us whosoever is afraid to be deceived by the obscurity of any question may have recourse to the Churches judgment concerning it which Church the Holy Scriptures demonstrate without any ambiguity Two things are suitable to our present purpose which are clear from hence First that though we may sometimes doubt what is Truth yet we can never doubt which is the true Church demonstrated to us by the Scriptures upon whose judgment while we rely we are secure from holding any thing contrary to the written Word commending to us her Authority Secondly That though the Scriptures are Infallible and cannot deceive us yet if we will not deceive our selves and kill our Souls by the dead Letter without the quickning sense we must believe what the Church believes submitting our private reason to her publick Interpretation For else let Hereticks never so much boast of Scripture for them we may tell them in the words of the same Saint This ye Cont. Faust l. 32. c. 19. seem to do that Scriptures may loose all Authority while every one may allow or disallow what his own mind suggests to him out of them That is may not subject his Faith to the Authority of Scripture but subject Scripture to his Faith It being indeed the property of all Hereticks not to take sense from but to bring sense to those Sacred Oracles forcing them by manifest distortions or dark conjectures to speak in defence of their prejudicated Tenets and so make nothing of Scripture while they seem to value nothing else Now what remedy against this intolerable abuse of the Word of God and everlastingly-quarrelproducing evil but that of Origen Quoties c. As often as they Hereticks Ho. in Mat. Praef. l. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bring forth Canonical Scriptures which no Christian but believes and assents to they seem to say Behold the word of Truth is in our Houses but we must not believe them nor depart from the Primitive Ecclesiastical Tradition nor believe otherwise then as the Churches of God by succession have deliver'd to us And to put them to silence with that of L. de Praes p. 19. Tertullian We must not appeal to Scriptures neither is the controversy to be setled upon them in which either there will be no victory at all or very uncertain Yea there is no good got by disputing out of Texts of Scripture that is as interpretable by private reason and play'd upon by wit but either to make a man sick or mad But that is only to be believed for for Truth which in nothing disagrees from the Tradition of the Church Thus he fully agreeing with Origen in the fore-quoted place And I cannot omit here what the glorious Bishop of Hippo hath so apposite for our present purpose to his Catechumens The Holy Church the Church which is one the true S. Aust de Symb. lib. 1. v. 6. Church the Catholick Church fights against all Heresies She may be resisted but cannot be conquer'd All Heresies have gone out of her as unprofitable branches cut off from the Vine see Protestants your Original but she remains in her Root in her Charity The gates of Hell shall not prevail against her Nor that to Honoratus when therefore we see God standing for us and so much fruit and proficiency doubt we to repose our L. de util Cred. c. 17. selves in the bosom of that Church which from the Apostolical Chair by Successions of Bishops Hereticks on all sides barking in vain against her hath obtain'd Supremacy of Power To whom not to give the chief is truly either the highest Impiety or harebrain Arrogance Thus the Fathers always brought Believers to the Church for a firm foundation in tottering times there they cast Anchor and fix'd themselves amidst the storms of Controversies and Contentions rais'd by unreasonable men with the wind of strange Doctrines lest they should make Shipwrack of their Holy Faith this still they prest upon all Christians in doubts of Disputations the Church the Church believe the Church the Pillar and ground of Truth the Sacred Depository of revealed Verities the rich Store-house of all things belonging to Salvation protected by Christ to the Worlds end endowed with the certain gift of Truth by the special guidance of the Holy Ghost founded upon a Rock that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against her Which is nothing else but what they had learn'd and received from Scripture and Tradition A Truth so convincing that it extorted from Dr. Field a great Patron of the English Protestants In his Book of the Church words to this effect Controversies are now a days grown to that height and so numerous and intricate that few have time to discuss and search into them thoroughly for satisfaction fewer wit and abilities to do it as such a business of concernment require that no security remains but to fly into the arms of the Church and acquiess in her judgments and definitions But from words let us proceed to deeds from the Doctrine to the practice of Antiquity SECT IX The aforesaid Authority of the Church cleared and demonstrated by the constant practice of all Ages IF we cast our eyes through the whole Christian World not a Popish Priest in the exercise of his Spiritual Jurisdiction but is in some sort a practical proof of this Authoritative Power wherewith the Church is invested by Jesus Christ Yet residing more eminently and with larger extent in Bishops the supreme Order of the Clergy made Overseers of their respective Flocks by the Holy Ghost it appears more gloriously visible in the Decrees and Acts of General Councils the highest Ecclesiastical Tribunal determining all emergent Controversies in Spiritual matters with Anathemae's against all Contradictors whatsoever And Catholicks in all Ages acknowledging their Sacred and obliging Authority paid most inviolably the just Tribute of Obedience to their Decisions with submission of their private Judgments and Opinions however rational before they seem'd unto them So that what points soever were once declared to be of Faith by lawful and approved Councils those who persisted in the contrary Doctrines where accounted Hereticks and being justly Excommunicated for such incorrigible obstinacy shunn'd by all the Faithful as no better than Heathens and Publicans Now I cannot think that English Protestants will say though such Decrees issued out from General Councils yet it was by an usurped Power not of Right and so though such exact obedience was paid by Christians to them yet it was in their own prejudice and not of duty or obligation though truely in deeds they assert it because they pretend much veneration to the first four General Councils and Bishop Montague one of the Learnedest In his Appello ad Casa men they ever had proceeds so far as to defend against his more zealous Brethren of Romes ruine the
Infallibility of all such Councils in Councils in Decrees of Faith And indeed abstracting from the Institution of Christ and Apostolical practice it is so notoriously unreasonable a thing and destructive of all Government to deny Occumenical Synods to be the fiâ—â—est Judges in such matters that few or no Hereticks ever had the confidence absolutely to disclaim against the Authority of such Assemblies as Tyrannically assuming a Power over other mens Consciences in things not appertaining to them but acknowledging their Authority still causelesly pick'd quarrells either about their Calling or Convening or Proceeding or Confirming or Receiving pretending them to be Defective some way or other to justify their Disobedience to their Decrees And doubtless as fittest so if they were not lawful Judges in all spiritual matters by Commission from Christ the Supreme Head of his mystical Body and necessary when made so by present circumstances the Apostles themselves when Controversies arose in the Infant-Church among Believers about some legal Observances would not have taken this course to define those matters Neither would they have prefix'd to their Decrees a Visum est Spiritui Act. 15. sancto nobis and so justly father those determinations upon the Holy Ghost had they not been Divine Sanctions though made by men yet according to the appointment and will of God infallibly assisting their endeavours Neither would the Universal Church in after-Ages have on the same occasions insisted in their steps or presumed in the same authoritative stile to attribute their Meetings and Decisions to the Holy Spirit A Power as Divine withal so necessary that no other way could with so much efficacy and satisfaction preserve declare or explicate the Faith once delivered to the Saints extirpate Heresies maintain Peace and Unity in the Church strengthen the Nerves of Ecclesiastical Authority reform Clergy and Laity and depress the Enemies of the name of Christ our Lord and Saviour Insomuch that Hooker a very learned Protestant pleads strongly for Submission and Obedience to Decrees of General Councels telling those that are otherwise In the Pres to his â—ccl Politic. minded That the way of Peace they have not known going against the dictates of Nature Reason and Holy Writ And as I remember gives instance in the first Councel celebrated by the Apostles the pattern of what were to follow whose Decrees put to silence all former doubts and disputations every Christian obeying without the least scruple to be misled by them and with all readiness as if God himself had spoken to them And questionless the Divine Providence thus order'd that this main point of the Authority of Councels should as well be delivered to the World by Apostolical Practice as Precept that with greater evidence they might know whom and what to follow when questions about Christian Doctrine did arise and that after the definitive Sentence of that supreme Judicature all wranglings were to cease and they had then nothing to do but to obey In the Centuries immediately succeeding though Satans Missioners were spreading false Doctrines to corrupt the Faith and Perturb the Peace of the Church yet no Oecumenical Synods could be celebrated by reason of those General Persecutions which hal'd the Christians to their Martyrdom as far and wide as the vast Roman Empire had Arms to do it And indeed all that while the Blood of those Noble Armies of Glorious Martyrs spoke as lov'd and as Powerfully for the Faith of Christ as the Decrees of living Confessors could have done supplying as it were in that extraordinary manner what these had a constant Power and will also to perform but no convenience to put in execution However they met as well as they could and took the best course those sad times would permit to kill Soul-destroying Heresies and keep true Faith and unity alive in the Christian Church Afterwards in the time of Constantine that Great and Glorious Emperour the first publick Nursing Father of his Catholick Mother when Arianism had Instill'd its Poison into the Veins of many Christian Bishop or Antichristian rather and so diffus'd its Contagion into a great part of the Body of the Church by denying the Divinity of the Son of God the first Oecumenical and most Famous Synod was Celebrated at Nicaea in Bythinia Ann. Ch. 327. to provide an Antidote against his Venemous Infection where after most mature deliberation and debate the Consubstantiality of the Son of God with the Eternal Father was defin'd and declar'd by the Council to be of Faith against the Arch-Heretick Arius and all his followers And the prime end for which General Councils were instituted and endowed with this supreme Judiciary power being for the preservation of the Catholick Faith by the Authoritative condemnation of incroaching Heresies the next Oecumenical Synod celebrated at Constantinople against Macedonius and Ann. Ch. 381. whom he had taught contrary to the Doctrine of the Church to deny the Divinity of the Holy Ghost the third Person in the Sacred Trinity Ann. Ch. 431. The next at Ephesus where Nestorius the Patriarch of Constantinople with his Adherents were Condemned for distracting Christ into two Persons And the fourth at Chalcedon against the Eutychians for contracting Christ into one Nature Ann. Ch. 451. And so others in following Ages to our present times were called on emergent occasions to determine and declaring to all Christians what was to be believed as sufficiently reveal'd by Almighty God and the like practice will be to the Worlds end when the necessities of the Church require it Yet not as making new Substantial Creeds or precise Articles of Faith not before in beeing for that would require new Revelations of God's Will which Catholicks pretend not to acknowledging Christ to be a perfect Law-giver by himself and his Apostles but only declaring and explicating what already is revealed when call'd in question For the definitive Sentence of a General Council in a matter of Faith includes and presupposes an universal Tradition of that Doctrine and is but a publick Authoratative and more explicite declaration of what hath been taught by Christ and his Apostles and what the Church holds upon that tenure when any Contradictors endeavour to rob us of our Holy Faith For Catholick Faith always is the same although the Evidence and verbal Notions of that Faith are not always alike nor is it material so they be but sound and agreeable to Tradition yea sometimes words never before in Ecclesiastical use are accepted by General Councils into the Churches language to express her immutable Faith as circumstances then require for the more efficacious redress of present evils and preventing all mistakes of that nature for the future even in the earnest understandings For by this means Catholicks knowing assuredly what to hold and stick close to in points controverted could not be circumvented by the subtile insinuations and wily expressions of Hereticks whereby they lie in wait to deceive the unwary and insensibly
instill into well-meaning Souls their Pernitious Doctrines for saving Truths And this is the true reason why the Arians did so storm at the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Consubstantial and in furious rage cry against it as an innovation when first inserted into the Creed by the Nicene Fathers as a most proper and powerful Antidote against their poison And why those Sons of subtilty did take such indefatigable pains and put in practice such curious Artifices to counter-check or wholly extirpate that term out of Christian Confessions as well knowing if that word liv'd and prosper'd in the Church all their Arts and Eloquence could not easily gain more Proselytes but their Anti-Doctrine must die and perish And as upon the same account the General Councils of Lateran and Trent after the unhappy birth and growth of the Sacramentarian Heresy did make use of a new word viz. Trausubstantiation to express more aptly the Ancient Faith so for the same reason our modern Reformers exclaim against that term as a novelty in Religion because it manifestly contains their condemnation and enervates their main Plea of Reformation SECT X. A farther Declaration of the Churches Authority or Infallibility in General Councils from Autiquity THe Church of God in all Ages by General Councils giving an decisive Sentence in controversies about Faith as hath been shown in the precedent Section each Decree and Anathema speaks in deed and reality her Infallibility in such Decisions Notwithstanding lest perverse minds or weak apprehensions should misconstrue her Actions and not judge aright of the grounds of such proceedings the Ancient Fathers who best understood the belief and meaning of their Catholick Mother have in their Writings left undoubted Testimonies to the World that they cannot erre who follow her voice declaring by those Assemblies what ought to be believed for revealed Truths S. Athanasius so famous for his Confession of Faith and Sufferings for it in his Epistle to the Affrican Bishops tells them that Verbum Domini per Oecumenicam Niceae Synodum manet in aeternum Not doubting to affirm the Doctrine of the Nicene Fathers to be the Word of God and of Eternal Verity From whom and other Fathers the Glorious Emperour Constantine had Learn'd to write to the Churches That whatsoever is Decreed in the In Epist ad Ecc. apud Sacta l. 1. c. 6. Holy Council of Bishops is altogether to be ascribed to the Divine Will S. Ambrose that great maintainer of Ecclesiastical Authority and Discipline professed resolutely that he would rather part with his Life then the Nicene Faith Sequor tractatum Epist 12. Niceni Concilii a quo nec mors nec gladius me poterit separare The Council of Nice is my guide from which neither Death nor the Sword of Persecution shall divide me And what of St. Hilary and other Catholick Bishops and Confessors that suffered from the power and malice of the Arians before they would part with one Syllable or Letter of the Nicene Faith by changing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the same Substance into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the like Substance is well known from the Faithful Records of those times When above six hundred Fathers were gathered at Chalcedon in a General Victor Afri de Persec Wand ca. 61. Barronius c. Council there celebrated and some perhaps secret Arians propos'd the re-examination of the Nicene Decrees it in no sort would be permitted the Holy Synod crying out Si quis retractat c. If any one retract let him be Accursed If any one inquires anew about them let him be accursed Cursed be he that adds Cursed be he that Innovates For in such definitions in points of Faith being rather the Decrees of God than men should they have been subjected to a fresh Inquisition had not been so much to question the Fathers Assembled in the name of Christ as the Infallibity of the Holy Ghost assisting their endeavours in such Decisions Which is not my collection but the assertion of St. Leo the Great both for his Sanctity and Supreme Pastorship in the Church of God in his Epistle to the Emperour Martian in these words Praenoscat Pietas nostra Venerabilis Imperator c. Venerable Emperour let Ep. 78. your Piety first know that whom we send from the Apostolical Chair are not directed to combat with the enemies of Faith we daring not to go about to handle those things which have been defin'd by the good pleasure of God both at Nice and Chalcedon as if they were weak and doubtful which so great an Authority hath ratified by the Holy Spirit And therefore the Emperour that the said Decrees might be more vigorously Habetur in Codice Justini executed publish'd an Edict Strictly commanding humane contentions and Inquisitions to cease about those matters and all Christians under the Roman Jurisdiction to submit their Judgments to the Decrees of the most Holy Synods Because besides the penalties of the Laws they would by such quarrells incurre the just censure of joyning with Jews and Pagans against the Church Yet alas Protestants do so and will needs be the only or truest Christians St. Austin the Oracle of Antiquity De Bapt. cont Donat l 1. tells us That though concerning Rebaptization of Hereticks persons of eminent Learning and Piety did dispute among themselves peaceably the question insomuch that there were contrary decisions of particular Councils in the business 'till in a plenary Synod of the whole World that which was soundly believ'd was without all doubt confirmed And elsewhere That concerning the validity of Baptism Cont. Parm. lib. 2. given by any one not a Christian nothing ought determinately to be concluded without the definition of some General Council And that concerning the validity of Baptism given by Hereticks there was no question to be made being already agitated perfected and defined in the unity of the whole World Which had it been done before St. Cyprians Glorious Martyrdom he makes no doubt but the Holy Martyr would have submitted his Judgment to the L. 7. cont Donat. ca 53. Authority of an Oecumenical Synod And therefore that saying of Lib. 2. de bapt cap. 3. the same Father Priora Concilia nunquam a posterioribus emendari That former Councils are sometimes corrected by the later is not possibly applicable to decisions in points of Faith as if something amiss in such Decrees might be amended for then the Saint must needs contradict himself in his well-known assertions And therefore is to be understood either of further explications of such points and then 't is sound and Catholick Doctrine or Customes and Rights appertaining to Church-Discipline which are alterable by the Authority of Councils for the better as present circumstances shall require And doubtless many opposite Canons of Lawful Councils may be found in such matters and makes nothing against the Doctrine of the Church concerning her Infallibility But in matters
of Faith no General approved Synods did ever make contrary Decrees so that when any are shown opposite in words they may with sufficient satisfaction be reconciled and manifested to agree in the Catholick sense of Doctrine therein contain'd For could there be really contrary Decrees in points of Catholick Faith determin'd General Councils confirm'd by the Pope and received by the Church that would be eternally false and most unreasonable which is ratified for a most manifest Truth and most agreeable to right reason by universal Church-practice namely That all those who will not he accounted Hereticks must conform themselves to the Deerees of Oecumenical Synods And are the words of Vincentius Lyrynensis in his Admonitory against Prophane Novelties a Discourse as express for us as if it were now ex professo writ against Protestants in this controversy But not to be tedious I will close up these Testimonies so pregnant for the Infallibility of the Church declaring her Faith by Oecumenical Synods with the most famous Speech of St. Gregory the Great Sicut Sancti Lib. 1. Ep. 24 ad Pat. Constan Alexan. Evangelii c. I confess my self to receive and venerate the four Councils as the four Books of the Holy Gospel And then names them yet not with any intention to exclude the like esteem of the fifth being the second Ann. Ch. 553. General Council at Constantinople which afterwards he specifies and were all the General Councils celebrated before his happy Government of the universal Church Neither will the Protestants be ever able to give any satisfactory reason why they do not give the same veneration and acceptance to all approv'd Oecumenical Synods and in particular to that of Trent being confirmed by the same visible Head and received by the Body of the same Catholick Church And to make this more evident I will make a brief parallel of the Protestants Case with the Arians by them confess'd to be Hereticks by which I think will easily be discover'd that they can say nothing to justify themselves against that Council but will be as good and strong for the Arians against the Nicene Fathers their tryals being alike upon their disturbance of the Peace of the Church with new Doctrines and their condemnation alike by the same Authority If they say the Council of Trent was not a lawful General Council did not the Arians pretend the same against the Nicene Synod and all Hereticks take up the same Plea against the Councils by whom they were condemned If they say true they did so but They without cause We justly Let them give us a demonstration of this and we are satisfied and nothing else can carry it in this controversy Did not the Arians repute the Novatians Hereticks being condemned by a Council though not General And yet refus'd themselves to stand to the Nicene Synod though Oecumenical Why The Novatians say the Arians complain without cause We justly Did not the Nestorians and Eutychians abhor the the Arians as justly anathematiz'd by the Nicene Fathers and yet these refuse to obey the Decrees of the Chalcedon Council those of the Constantinopolitan Why The Arians contradicted without cause say the Nestorians and Eutychians but we justly In a word 't is a plea common to all condemned Hereticks with Protestants and if they would speak fully amounts to thus much We will receive no Councils farther then they agree with us and will never acknowledge or submit to any as lawful that condemn our Doctine For when they they have a long time hunted up and down for excuses this in reality is the only and justest cause they have of their disobedience If they appeal from the Council to the Scriptures as in their Opinion standing for them did not the Arians do the same And I dare be bold to say with far more probability then Protestants can pretend to in many points controverted between Them and Us. If they say they never had a fair hearing before Sentence was pass'd against them and that they were condemn'd by their Enemies being Judges in their own cause Did not or might not the Arians and any other Hereticks pretend the same against the respective Councils by which they were condemned And 't is all one as if some Rebels stubbornly refusing to answer for themselves in a just Tryal according to the establish'd Laws of the Kingdom which they have transgressed should after Sentence pronounc'd complain of Illegal proceedings as not being heard for themselves and having no reason to plead where the Party offended was their Judge by his Commissioners This is the parallel And seriously for my own part in the most Impartial examination of it I cannot see any possible evasion for the Protestants but that in all Doctrines of Faith wherein they contradict the present Church of Rome they are as notorious Hereticks by the decisions of the Council of Trent as the Arians for denying the Divinity of Christ by the Authoratative Sentence of the Nicene Fathers And to conclude this Section and Motive after all these express Texts of Scripture for the Churches Authority and Obedience unto her under pain of damnation with the sense of them so brought down to us by the Writings of Antiquity and Church-practice of her jurisdiction which is an evidence that all contrary Interpretations are false and spurious for any blinded with Interest or Passion to venture his eternal Salvation upon a May be otherwise or a probable argument deduced from Scripture leaning on the weak crutches of private reason or a particular Fallible Congregation is a strange and dangerous presumption For in Fine the Authority of the Catholick Church in such matters is of more weight than ten thousand Arguments of private Reason It being a thing manifest to judicious men that there is no place for Ifs and And 's where there can be no evidence brought against a point of Doctrine which the highest Tribunal upon earth had already Decreed and propos'd to be believ'd by all Christians as sufficiently revealed by Almighty God The second Motive That the English Protestant Church making Scripture the only sufficient Rule of Faith without any Visible Judge to Interpret and give the Sense of it Authoritatively to Christians stands on a most uncertain and groundless Foundation SECT I. An Introduction to the following Discourse THus having by the Grace and Blessing of God on my endeavours in the inquisition of Truth found sure Principles whereon to build Faith and Religion in the Roman Church and no where else nothing remained but notwithstanding all interposed difficulties to betake my self to that Communion wherein rationally that is upon Infallible grounds I was perswaded Truth only was to be found and Salvation ordinarily to be expected However that I might give the Religion I had profess'd so long a full hearing to the best of my abilities and understanding before I shak'd hands with it I diligently examin'd the grounds of the Protestant Church and Doctrine which too few do
and after much enquiry it was evident to me they could not afford to Impartial Judgments any solid and real satisfaction For the main Pillar of the Protestant Religion being to make the Scripture the sole Rule of Faith I finding by clear conviction this foundation to be without Solidity how could I in Reason or Conscience stand firm to that Church which I saw built on so unstable a bottom And indeed were Protestants able to perform what they promise that is to resolve all Controversies of Faith by Sacred Scripture we should be so far from being true Christians the best of men that we were worse than Beasts if we should refuse to be judg'd thereby Wherefore it is a wrongful Imputation in them to bear the World in hand that we have not a due veneration of those Sacred Oracles of Divine Truth when our reverence and respect to them is in reality more than theirs our Canon more general our Expositions more elaborate humble and submissive and our Assent unchangeable to whatsoever the Church declares to be revealed by them or is contain'd in them evidently by necessary consequence They in the interim only believing by a Spirit with a strange presumption what they please saying and unsaying in Civil Wars among themselves as well as against us whom they call the common enemy what they think is for their present advantage to serve their turn on all occasions And while we necessarily urge to all Christians the Authority of the Church as the Pillar and ground of Truth we are so far from intending any diminution of their just esteem that if they can produce but one single place of Scripture evidently containing the contrary to what we believe Conclamatum est The controversy is at an end we will confess we are in the wrong and for this Miracle for 't will be no less when ever it is done yield the whole cause unto them But 'till then let thâ—m cease to traduce us as Non-Veneraâ—ers of Sacred Writ because we will not receive it for what God did never intend it and leave it to his Church And against the evidence of our own Eyes and long experience acknowledge it to have conditions fit and requisite for the plain and Infallible instruction of all Christians of the whole Law of Christ and final decision of all Controversies For that Scripture by it self cannot perform those necessary Offices in the Church will manifestly be made to appear in the following Sections But first I shall shew that herein they agree with other Hereticks and Dissent from the Antient Church as well as from Us in this main fundamental of their Religion SECT II. Hereticks from the beginning were accustomed to Appeal to Scripture as the sole Rule of Faith whereby they would be judg'd in opposition to the Traditionary Doctrine and Sense of the Catholick Church THat whatsoever is purely of Divine Faith depends necessary on the Word of God is sound Doctrine but that all Supernatural Verities revealed to the Church are so written in the received Canon as none can misunderstand them is a most dangerous position yet the Anchora Sacra and chief refuge of old condemned Hereticks as well as of our modern Adversaries who groundiug their novel Opinions upon Texts of Scripture as interpreted by their own private Reason do at last make them Heretical by choosing pertinaciously to adhere to them against the Sense and Judgement of the Church A sad Case this that with the Waters of Life they should suck in Eternal Death into their Souls But alas Thus they turn Remedies into Diseases and blind their Eyes with the Heavenly Light of the Word becoming so much the more incorrigible because they perswade themselves even against evidence if seeing they would see that they have Divine Authority for their Doctrines The Arians in the Controversy between them and Catholicks about the Divinity of Christ would admit nothing but Scripture as St. Austin testifies bringing in Maximus an Arian Bishop thus disputing with him If you produce any thing Cont Max. l. 1. Init. out of the Divine Scriptures which are cemmon to all of necessity we must give ear unto it But these words which are without Scripture in no Case are received by us The direct Language of Protestants who in this however are perfect Arians The Macedonians impugning the Divinity of the Holy Ghost rejected the Gloria Patri Filio Spiritui Sancto whereby the Church professes her belief of a Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Divine Essence because not contained in Holy Writ Witness St. Basil They Li. de Sp. S. c. 25 26. the Macedonians cease not to brag up and down that the Glorification of God with the Holy Ghost wants Testimony wants Scripture Thus they then and thus Protestants now in points controverted between them and us But hear the same Holy Fathers answer Verily against The Church then in â—hâ—r Doxology us'd Cum Spiritu Sancto as El Spiritui Sancto that they say the Preposition cum Spiritu Sancto to want Testimony nor to be extant in Scripture we reply thus If nothing else be received without the Scripture neither truly let this be received by us without Scripture let us also receive this among many other For I think it Apostolical to adhere to the unwritten Traditions You see we need not new words to condemn the Protestants who will never be able to give any rational satisfaction why they receive some things not in Scripture only upon the score of Church-Tradition and yet refuse other alike commended to them by the same Authority In all reason they deserve an equal reception and so they must become Catholicks Euryches the Arch-Heretick denyed Christ to be perfect man as well as perfect God and for his defence appealed to Scripture Ergo a S. Scripturâ—s 〈…〉 saith he have vet learned from the Sacred Scrâ—ptures of two Natures To whom it was replyed Neither have we been Concit Chalced. Act. 1. taught the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from Sacred Writ Which must needs put him to a bashful silence the verity of Christ's Humane Nature being as fully deliver'd in Scripture as his Divine though not in such express terms as they required And therefore both either to be necessarily receiv'd or rejected by them But Protestants certainly have far less to say for themselves who with the Eutychians receiving the term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not found in Scripture yet deny the Corporal presence of Christ in the Blessed Eucharist by a real though Invisible Change of the Visible Elements when My Flesh is Meat indeed and my Blood is Drink Joh. 6. 51. 55. indeed And again The Bread that I will give is my Flesh which I will give for the Life of the World And the most Sacred words of Institution This is my Body This is my Plood are plain and express terms as any Doctrine can be delivered unto our capacity The Pelagians to
name no more and only such as Protestants themselves repute Hereticks those Arch-Enemies of the Doctrine of Grace so abundantly delivered in Sacred Writ yet fly thither also to set up Nature against it as St. Austin who best knew relates of them in these words Let us say they the L. de Nat. Grat. 39. Pelagians believe what we read what we read not let us believe unlawful to maintain Thus Scripture was their Sword and Buckler against the definitions of the Church whereby they were condemned neither could they so escape the brand of Heresie And Protestants taking up the same Weapons in the same manner to uphold themselves against the Faith and practice of all Ages by treading in the steps of such Predecessors shew sufficiently of what Generation and Spirit they are and seem justly involv'd in the same condemnation Thus having made good the first thing I promis'd in this Section namely that the common course of Hereticks is to have recourse to sole Scripture and to urge it as Interpreted by themselves against the Churches sense and judgment to speak any thing of the second to wit the different Faith and Practice of the Christian World would be but actum agere a superfluous labour being so largely before declared Sect. 5. of Trad. and the two last Sections of the Churches Authority in the handing of Tradition and the Infallibility or Authority of the Church and thither I refer the Courteous Reader Only for the present give me leave to say that I carefully comparing both these together found manifest different Rules of Faith without any possibility of reconcilement old and new Hereticks appealing to Scripture and resolute to be tryed by nothing else without any visible Judge to interpret them The Ancient Fathers and present Catholicks asserting the word of God whether written or unwritten as delivered to us by the universal Tradition of the Church and declared by her voice in approved General Councils to be the only sufficient and sure foundation of Christian belief I found that if these built their Faith on solid and safe Principles as it appeared to me they did the other must needs rely on an uncertain and groundless foundation for their Religion and having a desire to be numbred with the Saints not Hereticks of old I found I could not be so except I did relinquish Protestancy and unite my self to the Roman Church of the same belief and practice with Primitive Christians SECT III. A declaration of the English Protestants Doctrine how and why they make Scripture the only Rule of Faith FOr the clearer handling of this point and prevention of all mistakes I shall faithfully deliver what the Protestant Church of England teaches Principally in this main fundamental of her Religion and not injure it or her to the best of my judgment by any Observations made thereon First she teaches That Holy Scripture doth explicitly contain all things necessary to Salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an Article of Faith or be thought requisite and necessary to Salvation This the Composers of her Articles do teach and this they must teach who will make the written Word an entire Rule of Faith that is comprehending all points necessary to Salvation Now in all reason to satisfy those whom they would perswade to be of this belief it ought to be made evident that the Apostles in their Writings did intend plainly and perfectly to comprize whatsoever is necessary to be believ'd and practis'd by all Christians and deposited them in the Church as a complete Rule of Faith for the tryal of all Doctrines she also receiving it for such and practising accordingly in all Ages Which once done their position is then a most clear and rational inference But this being impossible for them to prove because contradicted by the Faith and practice of the Primitive Church which could not be ignorant of all Apostolical Doctrines and Constitutions and also of present Catholicks receiving them from her by an uninterrupted visible Tradition must needs be a false and most dangerous Principle though laid for the foundation of their Religion Secondly for a further ground-work she teaches That General Councils may and have erred even in things appertaining to God That is in matters of Faith as well as of Fact as her own Expositions more freely express her meaning A Doctrine the first Reformers would never have given place in the foundation of their Spiritural building even for their own sakes but that it was not possible their new Fabrick of Faith could stand for any considerable time without fall of the Churches Authority Were not they then sit men to be credited if General Councils may err But that which follows Wherefore things ordained by them as necessary unto Salvation have neither strength nor Authority unless it may be declared that they be taken explicitely out of Holy Scriptures Is the very quintessence of Anarchy and Rebellion so destructive of all Government though an Engine made only to batter down the Church that were it put in practice as here taught confusion would cover the face of the earth and the World would run quickly back into its first Chaos For if things ordained by General Councils have neither strength nor Authority unless it may be declared that it is made out to every private Judgment that they are taken out of the Holy Scriptures I demand by whom this may be or must be declared Now let it be considered that Church Governours are instituted by Jesus Christ having the Keys of so wonderful and transcendent power committed to their hands That whatsoever they Mat. 18. 18. shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever they shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven With a promise from Christ That where they meet in his Name he will be in the midst of them and ver 19. that he will be always with them to the Mat. 28. 20. Worlds end And that the Holy Spirit shall guide them into all Truth Joh. 16. 13. I say let this be consider'd and if the Decrees of such a Tribunal ordaining concerning points of Faith and proposing them to all Christians to be believ'd as the revealed will of God by his word from Heaven and necessary to Salvation have no strength nor Authority 'till it may be further declared that they are taken out of Holy Scriptures those that require this condition to make them obligatory cannot possibly give any reasonable satisfaction to this demand unless they find out such a Judge who is fitter and in all probability more likely not to err or deceive us in teaching what are revealed Truths But how impossible this is to be done any one of an ordinary understanding may without much study determine Yet while they are in vain attempting it if men should take their word as too many have already in denying
Tradition and Authority of the Church not they but this can only truly and rationally be asserted for a compleat and perfect Rule comprehending all things necessary to Salvation handing them down from the Apostles themselves to us now living as the revealed Truths of Jesus Christ and believed as such by all respective Ages upon that tenure Among which Truths so attested That such Writings are the undoubted Word os God is a Principal one and believed because so attested But all other Traditionary Doctrines of Faith having the same convincing proof that they came from Heaven whatever of them were occasionally committed to Writing afterwards by the Apostles are still to be believ'd upon the same account viz. Tradition and Church Authority the certainty of Scripture as well for the Sense as Letter depending thereon Again I demand of English Protestants by what Authority they condemn the Anabaptists to be Hereticks whether by Scripture or Tradition If they say by Scripture they must give me leave to tell that St. Austin with the primitive Christians were of another mind who tells them very plainly That Consuetudo Matris Ecclesiae c. The L. 4. cont Donat. custom of the Church our Mother in Baprizing Children is in no sort to be despis'd nor by any means thought superfluous nor at all to be believ'd except it was an Apostolical Tradition But if they value not Antiquity and presume the Fathers were but School-Boys to them in the understanding of Sacred Writ let them produce any one Text for Infant-Baptism so clearly proving it that the Contradictors must be unavoidably convinc'd and left confounded without any shadow of reply before thoroughly knowing and expert Judges in such Controversies and will confess the Fathers were but dull and heavy men compar'd to their quicker and more deep-sighted judgements in diving into the sense of Scripture and rest satisfy'd that upon the score of only Scripture Anabaptists may be condemned In his Reply Fisher for Hereticks I remember Bishop Land much presses that place in the Acts to be convincing for Infant Baptism Repent and be Baptiz'd Act. 2. 38 39. every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the promise is unto you and to your Children Yet not without the help of Tradition enlightning and exalting it to that force and efficacy But Dr. Hammond In his Ans to 6. Quaeres a great Scripturist and Defender of the Protestant Church confesses it is not at all concluding for it Without more ado the Truth is did not Church-Tradition shining bright in universal practice decide the controversy they could not satisfactorily answer those Texts of Scripture wherewith the Anabaptists confront those other produced by them nor justly enroll them in the black Book of Hereticks Does not this manifestly destroy their main foundation of Scripture to be the only and sufficient Rule of Faith Besides it is not an Heretical practice to Re-baptize those who have been Baptiz'd by Hereticks observing the true form of Baptism Can they evince it for such by any Scripture St. Austin tells them That custom which was opposed to Cyprian L. 2. de Bap. cont Donat. ca. 7 l. 5. c. 23. is to be believ'd to have taken its rise from the Tradition of the Apostles and that he believ'd it for such Moreover the form of Baptism is not expresly deliver'd in Holy Writ nor the number of the Sacraments nor yet the word Sacrament in the Scripture apply'd at all to those they acknowledge for such at least generally necessary to Salvation But for all these we are beholding to the practice and Tradition of the Church This is not all for farther yet let them show any precept in Scripture for the Abolishing of the Jewish Sabbath and observation of the Lords day in its stead A point doubtless necessary for Christians however as applyed to multitudes in Church-Communion Here also they are forc'd to leave Scripture and betake themselves to Tradition for the condemnation of the Sabbaterians Moreover would they willingly part with the Apostles Creed the Observation of Lent which their In his Sermon upon Lent Bishop Andrews contends to be Apostolical and see all Christian Festivals trampled under the prophane Feet of furious Fanaticks with most Ep. 118. ad Janua insolent madness as St. Austin calls it Yet they are all gone if Scripture must hold them up without Tradition In a word the greatest Champions of the English Protestant Church in these later years especially perceiving by sad experience the Vnder Sectaries who were Spawn'd from them to endanger and at last for a time wholly to destroy their new form of Belief and Worship by vertue of this Principle of Only-Scripture do now betake themselves to the Sword and Buckler of Tradition to defend and justify themselves against their Treacherous Brethren And thus although they fly to our Rule of Faith Vniversal Tradition for conviction of their Adversaries in some points by themselves accounted necessary yet they will needs have the Holy Scriptures to be the only and perfect Rule of Faith Doubtless it had been more safe and ingenuous to have acknowledg'd with the Ancient Fathers Traditionary Doctrines as well as the Holy Scriptures to compleat the Rule of Christian belief but contradicting Antiquity by contracting the Rule of Faith into Scripture alone they have likewise contradicted themselves the inevitable Fate of all Truthopposers Secondly The Holy Scriptures are not clearly evident without dispute in all points necessary contain'd in them and consequently no compleat nor certain Rule of themselves as the common experience of all Ages makes good Can any say the Consubstantiality of the Son of God with the Father is in evident or express terms in Sacred Scripture Yea or so contained in it by inevitable consequence as to destroy all probability in the Texts brought for the contrary by Contradictors Then certainly the Arians who had as subtil Heads and able Brains as any Protestants to understand the Logick of their Adversaries were mad men to appeal from Councils and Tradition to the written Word They knew very well that without the Tradition and practice of the Church delivering the sense of Scripture they could handsomly enough evade the force of all Arguments might be rais'd from the bare and dead words of Scripture though stretch'd upon the Tenters of most rigorous Criticism Yea they doubted not but there were Texts for them more evidently asserting the Inferiority of the Son and appropriating the Divine nature to the Father only which was the ground of their confidence in appealing to the written Word to be tryed thereby without Tradition And yet the Protestants condemn the Arians for Hereticks and justly too But how they can do it rationally upon their own Principles I confess surpasses my understanding True it is add to Scripture the Tradition of the Church and the Authoritative Sentence of an approved General Council so interpreting it and the case is clear but these
relying we have only a firm and rational belief of revealed Verities constant and immoveable among all the changes of Sects and Hereticks True it is in every act of Faith there is use of Reason whether it be referred to the Authority of God revealing or the Church proposing For we captivate our understanding to the obedience of Faith because we judge nothing more reasonable than to believe God and we securely rely upon his Church whom he hath promis'd to assist with Infallibility in such proposals But shall we say therefore that Reason is the prime intrinsical Motive of Faith and into which it finally is resolv'd Nothing less For this discourse and approbation of Reason are but necessarily previous and antecedent to our deliberate and rational acts of Faith the acts themselves are acts of the understanding not discoursing but purely assenting Which assent is not for Reasons sake but for Authority Were the last resolution into the judgment of private Reason Faith could not be Divine or Supernatural Reason indeed produces an act of Faith as well in Catholicks as Protestants but with a vast difference For a Protestant believes such a Truth to be from God relying upon his Reason only that it is revealed and this assent is not rational because his ground is deceitful But in a Catholick Reason acts only so far in points of belief as to bring him to Authority declaring such Truths to be sufficiently revealed by Almighty God which he cannot with any reason suspect to be Fallible in such declarations I believe this says a Protestant because my Reason tells me it is revealed and will allow no other judge of this Revelation I believe this says a Catholick because an Infallible Authority assures me iâ— is revealed and my Reason tells me there is no other sufficient ground or evidence for Divine Faith and therefore give up my private judgment to the Church And which of these Principles is more safe and rational let Reason judge Thirdly I demand of these Rationalists whether there be any such thing as Heresy in the World and what it is Oportet esse Haereses 1 Cor. 11. 19. c. There must be Heresies St. Paul hath said it and that 's sufficient And as for what it is 't is well known the Church hath always taught That Heresie is the voluntary Election of some private opinion contradicting the Doctrine of the Church And that he is to be accounted an Heretick who neglecting the Churches Authority with a stubborn mind defends wicked opinions But if we should admit their new definition That Heresie is to contradict any fundamental point expresly contain'd in Scripture In my poor judgment according to such a definition there 's no such thing as Heresie or Hereticks but both Arians Anabaptists Fanaticks c. are as good Catholicks as any Christians of the World For if private Reason be the only judge of the true Sense of Scripture for every one to rely upon these and all other condemned Hereticks the Montanists excepted relying upon the written Word as interpreted by Reason with sober enquiry and real endeavours to find out Truth cannot justly be so reputed The Arians have so much Reason and Scripture too in the bare Letter on their side that take away the Churches Infallibility and universal Tradition interpreting and delivering to us the true sense of it the Controversy would never be decided All places would swarm with Nestorians Eutychians Anti-trinitarians Barengarians Anabaptists c. neither could we condemn them if this Principle be good for doing their duty in following Scripture as the Light of their own private Reason or Spirit dictates to them Let them not say that these and such like are justly condemn'd for contradicting express Scripture against their knowledge and the judgment of their own Reason For they must remember first that themselves do not condemn the Anabaptists upon only Scripture grounds Secondly that it hath been demonstrated that all fundamental points are not so express in Scripture as they imagine And thirdly that 't is most uncharitable to say That all those whom they condemn for Hereticks do against their own knowledge and Conscience contradict the express Word of God and run headlong to hell with their eyes open Can we possibly imagine that among so many Millions of Arians there was not one single person had any Conscience It cannot be denyed but that many Hereticks have and do live Vertuously in the Eyes of the World For who knows not That Satan sometimes transforms himself into an Angel of Light And while they profess and protest that if it was once made apparent to them that their Tenets are against the Word of God they would not one minute persist in them we judge it uncharitable to affirm that notwithstanding the protestations of their sincerity and real though misguided zeal they all wilfully sin against the Light and knowledge of their Consciences We Catholicks indeed assert That sufficient evidences of credibility are produced by us to convince them of their Heretical opinions and dangerous state without Repentance But withall we say That God in his just Judgments which are inscrutable suffers them through strong delusions to believe Lyes in that the Light of Truth is veiled from their Eyes by passion or prejudice or worldly Interest while they so continue and we pray for them in hope that the Father of infinite Mercies will in his good time discover Truth unto them and bring them home unto his Church But for these Rationalists to damn all those whom they esteem Hereticks as contradictors of the Word of God against their Conscience and knowledge is a censure most unreasonable and little beseeming such whose lives are not so Gospel-like but that many Sectaries who differ from them in fundamentals may justly be reputed at least as conscientious and in charity cannot be thought otherwise All which duely consider'd plainly proves that they must either change their Judge of Controversy in points of Faith or give us some new Rule to discover Heresy And withall that if they will stick close to this Principle they must maintain that all the General Councils of the Church even that celebrated by the Apostles themselves were meer tyrannical Usurpations in obliging all Christians to believe and practice according to their Decrees whatever their private Reason could say to the contrary Fourthly in vain and to no purpose hath Jesus Christ instituted Authoritative Overseers and Governours in his Church For the perfecting Eph. 4. 11 12 c. the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the Edification of the Body of Christ till we all come in the unity of Faith c. If every one must acknowledge no visible Authority upon Earth to have any obliging power over him in Doctrines appertaining to God but be his own Teacher in all points of Faith according to the Dictates of private Reason Fifthly If every one be sent to Scripture to compose a Creed for himself
in delivering such to Satan others might learn not to Blaspheme And after that direful Sentence though they did profess the Name of Christ they were never esteemed as Members of the Catholick Church but as Heathens Mat. 18. and Publicans 'till they were restored upon repentance Answerable to which is the constant Doctrine of Antiquity contain'd in the Fathers as a cloud of Witnesses not to darken but clear up Truth if it be not yet bright enough to discover Heresie and Schisme to us St. Irenaeus notably describes Church-unity in these words Hanc fidem c. This Faith L. 1. adv haec c. 3. as aforesaid the Church scatter'd over the face of the Earth doth carefully keep as dwelling in one House Believes alike as having one soul and one heart Preaches and delivers to her Children alike as having one mouth For though in the World are different Languages yet the vertue of Tradition is one and the same And neither the Churches which are founded in Germany do believe otherwise and teach otherwise by Tradition nor those who are in Iberia nor those in the East nor those in Egypt but as the Sun is one and the same in the whole World so the Light of the Gospel shines every where and enlightens all men with the same beams who will come to the knowledge of the Truth And neither he who among Church Governours is powerful in Speech preaches otherwise then these for none's above his Master nor he who is less Floquent will diminish Tradition For Faith being one and the same neither he who is large in his explications adds nor he who is brief takes away What can be more express for the unity of Faith and the ground of of it Tradition And St. Cyprian is no less clear for unity of Government Ecclesiae L. de vni Eecl unitatem c. Whosoever keeps not the unity of the Church doth he think he holds the Faith who disobeys the Church who forsakes the Chair of Peter upon which the Church is founded doth he believe that he 's in the Church Can a Protestant read this and not see his own Condemnation This hath been the Original not only of theirs but of the Heresies and Schisms in all Ages Neque enim S. Cypri Epist 55. ad Corne. aliundo Haereses obortae sunt neque nata sunt Schismata c. For Heresies and Schisms says the same glorious Saint and Martyr have sprung from no other head but that the Priest of God is not obeyed nor one Priest for the present in the Church and Christs Vicar is not thought on Whom if all Christians obeyed according to the command of God no man would rend the unity of the Church by Schism nor pleasing his own fancy and swelling with full sails of pride by himself out of the communion of the Church would shipwrack his Faith on the rock of Heresie What is Schism saith St. Austin but a Separate communon of such who Cont. Gresco Gram. are united in the same Faith and Worship with the Catholick Church But Heresie is a diverse belief from the Faith of the Church So that Schism properly is oppos'd to Charity because 't is a breach of Unity Heresie properly is oppos'd to Verity because 't is a corruption of Faith To which Schism does so fatally dispose that that of St. Hierom is no less than an Oracle Nullum Schismae est quod Super illud Titi 3. Haereticum hominem c. non sibi aliquam Haeresins confingat ut recte ab Ecclesiâ rescessisse videcatur There 's no Schism which doth not invent some Heresie to justify its separation from the Church Which is not to be taken so rigorously that every one who errs in a point of Faith is presently to be censur'd for an Heretick For one may hold what is Heresy and yet not be an Heretick as St. Cyprian holding the invalidity of Baptism given by Hereticks pertinacy being essential to make an Heretick after the Churches declaration in the point Which is manifest by that of St. Austin against the Donaetists Haeresis semper pertinaciam adjunctam L. 4. cont Donat. ca. 16. habet c. Heresie is always joyned with pertinacy which consists in this that any one knowingly and witingly holds any point against the Catholick Faith and neglecting the Authority of the Church makes choice of his own Opinion and persists in it Grant some body believes of Christ what Photinus believ'd being perswaded 't is the Catholick Faith I do not pronounce him yet an Heretick except the Catholick Doctrine being manifested to him he had rather resist Faith and choose to adhere to his own Tenet And therefore the same Holy Father says of himself Errare possum Haereticus esse non volo Though I may err I will be no Heretick Because in all points of Faith he had a mind prepared to submit his private judgment to the publick Sentence of the Church By which means it came to pass that St. Cyprian holding a material Heresie was absolved and those who adhered to his judgment after the Churches determination to the contrary were condemn'd for Hereticks Whereupon Vincentius Lyrinensis breaks forth into exclamation O rerum mira conversio c. Cont. Haer. ca. 11. O wonderful change of things the Authors of the same Opinion are Catholicks but the Followers are adjudged Hereticks The Masters are absolved the Disciples are condemned Writers of such Books shall be Sons of the Kingdom but Hell shall receive the Maintainers of them For who doubts but most B. Cyprian that Light of all Saints and Bishops and Martyrs to reign with Christ in everlasting glory Or who on the contrary is so Sacrilegious as to deny but that the Donatists and such like Diseases of Religion who by the Authority of that Council boast that Rebaptization is lawful shall burn for ever with the Devil in Hell fire Thus the Holy Fathers believ'd and taught And therefore we find St. Hierom in his Exposition of the Creed submitting himself and Writings to Damasus the then Bishop of Rome as supreme Pastor of the Universal Church Haec est Fides Papa Beaptissime c. This is the Ad Dame Papam in fine Faith most Blessed Pope which we have learn'd in the Catholick Church in which if any thing be deliver'd not with sufficient skill and circumspection we desire you to correct it who professes the Faith and Chair of Peter But if this our Confession be approved by your Apostolical Sentence whosoever will find fault with me will prove himself ignorant or malevolent or also no Catholick not me an Heretick And Optatus concludes the Donatists Contra Parmeno l. 3. not to be Members of the true Church because they were not in communion with Syricius who was then Pope of Rome Neither is St. Austin less positive in determining who are Schismaticks Ille est Epist 171. in vera Ecclesia c. He is in the
can give no just cause to her Children to separate from her communion except they will say Christ hath not left his Church sufficient means to maintain Unity Besides the Fathers tell them that 't is impossible there should be just cause for any to separate from the Communion of the Catholick Church St. Iraeneus is very plain It is impossible to receive such an injury or provocation from the L. adver haere Governours of the Church as to make a separation excuseable And St. Austin is as positive It is impossible there should be any just cause to make a separation from the Communion of all Nations And therefore Antiquity Epist 48. judg'd a separation from the body of the Church how specious soever were the pretences of the dividers to be a sufficient evidence to prove such formal Schismaticks by the very matter of fact without any other argument I object to you the crime of Schism says the same Holy Father to the Donatists which St Aust cont Petilian you will deny and I will presently prove because you do not communicate with all Nations Upon which grounds if the Ancient Fathers were now living they must of necessity condemn Protestants as well as Arrians or Donatists in their days And thus being condemn'd both by Scripture and Antiquity for Schismaticks I know not what or who can justify their Separation or the continuers and maintainers of it It is not the Votes of a Parliament whom Christ never made Church Governours nor Judges in Controversies in points of Faith 't is not the Acts of a National Synod held by a few Schismatical Bishops when such Councils even of Catholick Bishops may and have erred 'T is not the consent of two Vniversities either for fear or flattery or self-interest renouncing the Papal Authority in England and acknowledging the King Supreme Head of the Church in his Dominions 't is not any or all of these can bear them out and make them innocent Yea these consequent Acts make their Schism far more inexcusable For what in the beginning the height of passion might somewhat extenuate by this solemn deliberation became more voluntary and so aggravated the former malignity However notwithstanding this undeniable prevarication they have patch'd up some Fig-leaves together to cover the nakedness of their Schism and that they are no better I shall endeavour to make appear in the following Sections SECT III. Wherein the Protestants plea that they did not separate from the Church but were forcibly cast out from her Communion and therefore the Schism which is a voluntary recession from the Church not imputable to them is answered SEeing it cannot be denyed but that the first Reformers were bred in the bowels of the Roman Church communicating with her before this unhappy rupture to wipe off from them the odious crime of Schism they lay the fault upon the Catholick Church for casting them out by force from the Communion whereas Schism is a voluntary recession from the Church and theirs was not they not separating themselves but being separated In answer to which I say first that never were any Hereticks or Schismaticks even whom they acknowledge for such in any Age cast out from among the Faithful by Sentence of Excommunication for their contumacy but they might with as much show of reason use the same plea for their justification Secondly how can they impute their separation to the Church when after her utmost endeavours to maintain unity they would by no means be perswaded that it was lawful to communicate with her in Doctrine and Worship herein preferring their own private opinions before the judgment of the whole Christian world But thirdly how frivolous this plea is will most manifestly appear if they will but consider what was acted by themselves wholly antecedent to the censure of the Church That the Church hath just Power and Authority to Excommunicate such of her Subjects who deserve it is confess'd on all sides Yea that she 's obliged to cut off corrupted and incorrigible Members from the body of Christianity lest others be infected with their errours is plain to common sense And that it was the practice of the Church in all Ages to injoyn the Faithful to abstain from Communion with those who pertinaciously maintain'd a different Faith from her no man can doubt who knows any thing in Church-history Now when they had voluntarily receded from the Doctrine and Government of their Catholick Mother or if any compulsion appear'd in the business it was not on the Churches part but from their new Spiritual Head the King when they had demolish'd Monasteries ceiz'd on their Revenues Persecuted the most Conscientious of the Clergy Confiscated the Estates of contradictors and put to death some most eminent for Learning and Piety because they would not prostitute their Faith and Conscience to the Kings assumed Authority in Church Affairs When they had abolish'd the publick Worship of the Church as Superstitious and Idolatrous and cast out most of the Sacraments as prophane and unholy things when they had moulded a Religion according to the policy of State and Interests of the great ones who had added to themselves by taking from the Church When they had forsaken the only certain Rule of Faith and made way for innumerable Sects and Subdivisions which they have found too true by sad experience God lashing them with their own rod that they may see their sin in the glass of their punishment And lastly when to fill up the measure of their sins they remained unrelenting and obstinate in their manifold disorders and miss-called Reformations in the Churches Faith and Discipline when they had done and acted this in a most violent and head-strong manner to the wonder and pity of the understanding World and all possible means being us'd to reduce them to the Catholick Unity from which they were fallen but all in vain The Church then and not Anno 10. Eliz. Reg. 'till then by Authority Christ proceeding according to her duty and constant practice in like cases to the just Sentence of Excommunication They cry out not guilty they are innocent and have done nothing amiss the Schism is not to be laid to their charge who made no voluntary recession from the Church But to the Church who against their wills did cast them out Just as if a Malefactor who hath made himself incapable of Mercy by his unpardonable offences should accuse the Judge as guilty of his death because he pronounces on him the Sentence of Condemnation Is not this a pretty plea to excuse themselves from Schism So bad a cause stands in need of better Arguments to maintain it self SECT IV. Wherein is shew'd the emptiness of their Plea that they did not separate from the Universal but only from the particular Church of Rome BUt seeing there is a palpable Schism in the Church by their new erected Ecclesiastical Government and they cannot make the World believe that the Church of Rome
c is damnable and the sin of Schism which surpasseth all other crimes This is so home and punctual that to quote any more will be superfluous neido I see admitting the Holy Fathers Authority what can rationally or satisfactorily be reply'd by our Adversaries But thirdly the Church is Catholique respectu hominum saluandorum in respect that as many as are saved are called to be Members of it Therefore 't is said Acts the 2. v. 47. That there were added to the Church dayly such as should be saved And St. Paul tells us Quos praedestinavit Rom. 8. 30. hos est vocavit c. Whom God has predestinated to Grace and Glory from all eternity those he in time calls out of the World into the Congregation of the Faithful which is the proper notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Original from whence comes the word Ecclesia that in the Communion of his Catholick Church they may make their calling and election sure by working out their election with fear and trembling Testimonies of the Fathers in all Ages are very copious to this purpose View a few of many The Holy Catholick Church says L. 14. Moral ca. 2. St. Gregory the great teaches that none can be saved except within her affirming that none can be saved in any-wise who are without her Whosoever Ep. 152. ad Donat. says St. Austin shall be separated from this Catholick Church how laudibly soever he thinks he lives by this only wickedness in that he 's divided from the unity of Christ he shall not have life but the wrath of God abideth on him And again Being Do vnit Eccl. c. 19. out of the Church and divided from the collection of unity and bond of charity thou shouldst be punish'd with eternal fire though burn'd alive for the Name of Christ St. Fulgentius his Schollar hath the fame l. de fide ad Petrum ca. 37 38. St. Cyprian's words are little different Do they De vn c. Eccl. think says he Christ is amongst them when they are assembled out of the Church of Christ No though they were drawn to torments and execution for the confession of the Name of Christ yet this pollution is not wash'd away no not with blood this inexpiable and inexcusable crime of Schism is not purged away even by death it self Which is no more then what they have learn'd from the great Doctor of the Gentiles when he says Though 1 Cor 13. 1 2 3. I give all my substance to maintain the poor and though I give my body to be burn'd and have not charity it will profit me nothing And the reason is because 't is a sacrifice without charity which Schism destroyeth For charity saith St. Austin no man transports out of the Church Are not these loud Alarms in the ears of Protestants and all other Separatists to awaken them from their present Lethargy and make them sensible of their sad condition Can they hear these terrible accents and yet continue to deceive themselves with the specious Name of Reformed Christians While they are divided from the Communion of the Catholick Church can their morally good Lives their civil Conversation their formal Piety without the power thereof their Saint-like zeal which in the preciser sort dazels the eyes of common People who think all is gold that glisters Can any or all of these save their precious and immortal Souls No they cannot For out of the Catholick Church saith the same St. Austin Epist 48. cont Donat c. they may have Faith they may have Sacraments they may have Scriptures they may live laudably they may do good works they may suffer death it self for the Name of Christ all this they may do and have but out of the Church Salvation they cannot have Thus the Ancient Church always taught and we with them And this all Hereticks and Schismaticks will sadly find true without repentance But God of his mercy make it work effectually on them as it did on me to bring them into the bosom of the Catholick Church I will close up this discourse with that famous place of St. Austin Multa L. cont Ep Fund ca. 4. sunt quae in Ecclesiae Catholicae gremio me justissimè teneant Tenet consensio populorum gentium tenet auctoritas miraculis inchoata spe nutrita charitate aucta Vetustate firmata tenet ab ipsa sede Petri Apostoli cui pascendas oves suas post resurrectionem Dominus commendavit usque ad praesentem Episcopatum successio sacerdotum tenet postremo ipsum Catholicae nomen quod non fine causa inter tà m multas haereses sic ista Ecclesia sola obtinuit ut cum omnes haeretici se Catholicos dici velint quaerenti tamen peregrino alicui ubi ad Catholicam conveniatur nullus haereticorum vel basilicam suam vel domum audeat ostendere Ista ergo tot tantaque Christiani nominis charissima vincula recte hominem tenent credentem in Ecclesia Catholica etiam si propter nostrae intelligentiae tarditatem vel vitae meritum veritas nondum se apertissime ostendat Apud vos autem ubi nihil horum est quod me invitet ac teneat sola personat veritatis pollicitatio Which is to this effect That the consent of Nations an Authority set up with Miracles nourish'd with Hope increas'd by Charity establish'd by Antiquity the uninterrupted succession of Priests in the Chair of Peter the Apostle to the present Bishop and lastly the very name of Catholick most justly kept him in the Catholick Church while only the empty name of Truth did keep a noise and ratling among Schismaticks wholly destitute of all these arguments to work upon a rational understanding And let any man who desires sincerely to follow Truth and save his Soul judge whether these motives which kept St. Austin in the bosome of the Catholick Church after his Conversion ought not to convert him to become a Member of the same Church and keep him in it SECT VI. Wherein the Protestants Plea of pretended Errors in the Church of Rome to justify their Separation is refuted BUt they object further that the Church not only may but did err in points of Faith and Worship and that they separated not from the Church of Rome but from her Errors and Corruptions that they might not communicate with her in her sins But certainly whoever impartially considers what has been said in the precedent and some other Sections concerning the Churches Indefectibility can never think it possible that such gross errors and corruptions could invade the Church to her utter ruine The Church of Christ which is the pillar and ground of Truth and could not be so was she her self lyable to error in points of Faith hath always been more Faithful in keeping the Depositum of the Gospel intrusted to her inviolate and unspotted from all blemishes of corruption which unreasonable men that is Schismaticks and
Hereticks have endeavoured by all means possible to introduce thereby to defile the Virgin-purity of Christ's Spouse contending so earnestly for the Faith once deliver'd to the Saints that in this Holy quarrel she was ever very liberal of her dearest blood willing rather to undergo the greatest tortures then it should suffer in the least manner Yea so vigilant and eagle-ey'd hath she been hitherto in the discharge of this important duty that no Authority Learning or Sanctity of any person whatsoever could introduce the least innovotion in Religion without vigorous opposition and condemnation As is evident in Origen and Tertullian those wonders of their times to name no more being a thing so obvious in Church History See Vincentius Lyrin ca. 23 24. Moreover all points of Christian belief being taught and establish'd in the Church by Christ and his Apostles and as such conveyed down to us ever since that time by Universal Tradition and for the most part most visible practice as the Sacrifice of the Mass Prayer for the Dead Invocation of Saints c. 'T is altogether impossible the Church should fall into such damnable errors as are imputed to her by our Adversaries except so many millions of Christians of different Nations and Languages scatter'd over the face of the whole earth should to no purpose in some Age conspire together to teach the World a palpable lye in direct opposition to what they had received and in matters whereon depend no less then the eternal Salvation of themselves and Posterity a thing inconceivable to humane reason But impossibilities clouded in plausible terms shall be asserted for truths before some men will confess themselves Schismaticks in separating from the Roman Church and Infallibility must err before they be condemn'd as erroneus who yet confess themselves Fallible But let us suppose though it be not true that the Church was lyable to errors in matters of Faith can these men who accuse her to be erroneous assure us that they err not in the accusation For being by their own confessions Fallible that is not certain whether what they affirm be true or no unless they can evidence that those are errors indeed which they lay to the Churches charge no man can rationally believe them seeing the publick judgment and attestation of the Church to the contrary is incomparably of far greater Authority and will overpoise whatever amounts to less then demonstration And in all Justice the right ought to be thought on the Governouts side ' til the revolters from them by producing causes sufficient to justify the withdrawing of their obedience make the contrary undeniably clear to every eye They are the accusing Party the Church defends her right without a definitive Sentence can be no decision What Judge will they therefore stand to in this Controversy We know they ought to submit to the judgment and determination of the present Church her voice being as it were the voice of God in declaring what is of Faith or not and cannot but wonder that they will not also acknowledge it when our Blessed Saviour says plainly of Luke 10. 16. Church Governours He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and who despiseth me despiseth him that sent me And 1 Thess 4. 8. St. Paul He that despiseth these things despiseth not man but God who hath also given to us of his Holy Spirit But because by her they already are convicted and condemned and therefore refuse to stand to her determination as Hereticks and Schismaticks have done in all Ages will they refer it to Antiquity and let the Ancient Fathers give the Sentence This they cannot rationally refuse neither in word to make a flourish do some of the most Learned of the Protestants but only pretend to reform the present Church that they may conform to Antiquity and undertake to rectify the Church of Rome in points wherein she hath forsaken her primitive purity But they are at great variance and in disorder amongst one another in that they cannot agree when Religion began to be adulterated and when these errors crept into the Church For being no less then damnable errors as they pretend in things practical and daily in use by so great a Body and therefore notoriously visible and speaking aloud their original seeing they can assign no certain time a task impossible as we have before shewn when first they were brought into the Church 't is an undeniable argument that they are not innovations but of Apostolical practice and institution According to that famous Rule of St. Austin Quod ubique ab Ecclesia Catholica observatum est c. Whatever the Catholick Church observes in all places if we find it to have been instituted by no General ouncil we must believe it to have come from the Apostles themselves to us by Tradition Some of them allow the Spouse of Christ to continue in her Virgin purity for the first five or six hundred years 'till the time of Gregory the great that glorious Saint and Pope so affectionate to our Countrey and justly called our Apostle Others think this confession too liberal and will have the Mystery of Iniquity to begin sooner which is true if understood of Apostates from the Church not of the Church Apostatizing and so with them this defection from the Faith by the mixture of Antichristian Doctrines and practices must invade the Church immediately upon the first 300 years after Christ or thereabouts some maintaining this others that Pope to be the Antichrist every one fancying a time which they conceited most advantageous for their purpose For after tryal finding that the Fathers of the first 600 years could not be admitted Judges in the Controversy without a manifest condemnation of themselves they warily retreated within the first 300 years of Christ which being times of hot and bloody persecution more or less and little then written by the Fathers of the Church they thought nothing considerable could be produced against them within those Ages for their condemnation in the present Controversies not then started or what was upon record might easily some way or other be evaded So that they will have the light of their new Gospel to be tryed only by dark times as to the decision of the present points like Litigants who will admit only of such Witnesses who can say little or nothing to the cause in hand and by all means will have those debarr'd to speak who can give sufficient evidence against them For no rational cause possibly can be given why they should assign 6 or 5 or 300 years after Christ for the beginning of the Apostacy from the Faith as if Christ should just then forget his promise of pâ—rpâ—tual assistance and guidance of his Church into all Truth or else not be able to perform it more then any other time but only they were resolv'd whâ—â— they found those Doctrines and practices to be evidently asserted by the ancient Fathers which they
Bullwark for the Catholick Faith against Cent. 4. Ep. ad ori Episc the Arrians is no less express and punctual to our purpose Sicut B. Petrus Apostles c. As Blessed Peter was chief of the Apostles so the Roman Church consecrated in his Name by our Lords institution was first and Head of the rest and all great Churches and Assemblies of Bishops should have recourse to her as to the Mother Church and Supreme I have put these too together because Popes which cannot derogate from their Authority our Adversaries having nothing justly to say against them St. Irenaeus surely was no Protestant in this point affirming The most ancient known Church to all men L. 3. cont haer c. 13. founded and establish'd at Rome by the two most famous Apostles Peter and Paul brought down by succession of Bishops to his time to be that Church to which by reason of its more powerful principality every Church that is all the Faithful over the World ought to resort Tertullian calls St. Peter The Rock of the Church and the Bishop In praeser c. 22 36. of Rome the High Priest and Bishop of Bishops Origen is clear When says he the chief charge of feeding Christs sheep was given to Peter and the In ca. 6. Ep. ad Roma Church founded upon him c. There was required of him the confession of no Virtue but Charity Relating to that place in the 21 of St. John's Gospel where is described when and how our Blessed Saviour invested him with this Supreme Pastorship and Jurisdiction We saith St. Cyprian as the Epist ad Ju mouth of the Church hold Peter the Head and Root of the Church But that famous place elsewhere is more full and convincing The enemy perceiving De vnit Eccles his Idols to be forsaken and his Temples to be deserted by the multitude of Believers invented a new deceit to gull the unwary by the name of Christian raising Heresies and Schismes to corrupt Verity and subvert Faith This is O Brethren because we have not recourse to the Origen nor seek to the Head Which if we would consider and examine there would need no long Treatise nor many arguments to find out the Truth Our Lord said to Peter Thou art Peter and upon this rock will I build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it And again after resurrection saying As my Father sent me so send I you c. Yet to John 20. 21 c. manifest unity he constituted one Chair and by his Authority he dispos'd the Origen of that Vnity to begin from oneâ— The rest of the Apostles were that which Peter was the Primacy was given to Peter that the Church of Christ might appear to be one and one Chair Here are couch'd many things remarkable First That all Hereticks and Schismaticks are not true Members of the Catholick Church but meer nominal Christians Secondly that Heresie and Schism in their own nature are as damning sins as flat Idolatry being Satan's new-invented snareâ— to catch poor Souls and his utmost endeavours to keep up his tottering Kingdom after the promulgation of the Gospel to all Nations Thirdly That unwary Souls are only taken by these ginns of the Enemy who have not recourse to the Visible Head of the Church in communion with whom Truth is only to be found Fourthly That St. Peter is this visible Head of the Church constituted by Christ himself first by Promise afterwards by Commission The Promise Thou art Peter and Mat. a6 upon this rock will I build my Church unto thee will I give the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven The Commission Feed my Lambs feed my Joh. 21. Sheep Being words spoken to St. Peter and no other Apostle Fifthly To prevent an Objection that they were all Apostles as well as Peter and therefore equal in Authority he grants they were equal in the Apostleship as much as concerns an illimited Power and Commission to Preach the Gospel to all Nations and so they were all foundations of the Church But St. Peter in a more peculiar and eminent manner was a rock on which the Church was founded in as much as he was made their Head and supreme Pastor of the Faithful To whom St. Hierom wholly accords affirming That although all the Apostles were alike in Apostleship yet Christ for the better keeping of Vnity L. 1. adv Jouin. c. 14. and Truth would have one to be Head of them all that a Head being once constituted occasion of Schism might be taken away Neither is he less punctual in asserting the Bishop of Rome to succeed Peter in this Primacy writing thus to Pope Damasus Ego Beatudini tuae id est Cathedrae Petri communione consocior Ep. 57 58. c. I am joyn'd in Communion with your Holiness that is the Chair of Peter I know the Church is built upon that rock whosoever eates the Lamb out of his Family is a Prophane person Whosoever is not in Noah ' s Ark perishes in the flood Ask St. Austin his Faith in this Tract 56. in Joha point and he tells us The Primacy among the Apostles by special grace is pre-eminent in St. Peter And elsewhere he calls St. Peter The Head Ep. 86. of the Apostles the Gate-keeper of Heaven and the foundation of the Church And what he believ'd concerning the Power of his Successors is evident by these words Sedenti Ep. 162. in Cathedra Romanae Ecclesiae c. The whole Christian World in the transmarine and remotest parts of the Earth is subject to him who sits in the Chair of the Roman Church St. Gregory also assures us that he knows no Bishop but is subject to the See Apostolick And that the care and Principality of the Church L. 4. Epist 32. Ep. ad Maurit hath been committed to St. Peter the Prince of the Apostles and yet he is not called Vniversal Apostle That is as if there was no other Apostle but He. Thus vindicating the supreme jurisdiction and Primacy of the Roman Bishop as St Peter's Successor against John the proud Patriarch of Constantinople arrogating to himself the Title of Universal Bishop in a sense contrary to the Doctrine and practice of the Catholick Church To cite more at large would be tedious but to these might be added the Epistle of St. Marcellus Pope and Martyr to the Bishops of the Province of Antioch concerning the Primacy of the Chair of Rome Leo the great Ser. 3. Anniu Assump Ser. 2. in Nat. S. Petri. Epist 89. S. Athana Ep. ad Faelicem S. Ambr. in ca. 2. ad Galatas l. 6. ad Lucam c 2. S. Epipha haer 51. S. Chrysost Hom. 55. in Matt. Optatus Milevit l. 2. cont Parm. Fulgentius de Incar gratia c. 11. Prosp l. 2. de Voca Gentium ca. 6. Euseb Ep. 3. Campaniae c. And many others but these may suffice This harmony
we find among the Ancient Fathers concerning the supreme Pastorship and Jurisdiction of St. Peter and his Successors the Bishops of Rome while they speak severally in their Writings Let us now hear them speak united in General Councils the most Sacred and Supreme Judicature that is on Earth in things that concern our Eternal Happinefs The General Council at Florence Ann. Ch. 1234. declares the Faith of the Catholick Church in these words Definimus S. Apostolicam Sedem c. We define that the Holy Apostolick Chair and Pope of Rome hath Primacy over the whole World and that the said Pope of Rome is Successor to S. Peter Prince of the Apostles and true Vicar of Christ and Head of the Vniversal Church and Father and Pastor of all Christians and that full Power was given to B. Peter by our Lord Jesus Christ to feed rule and govern the Vniversal Church as is contain'd in the Sacred Canons of Oecumenical Councils Which though celebrated but 400 years since and upwards yet I first produced it because not only subscribed by the Latine Fathers but by the Greek Church also and taken out of more Ancient Councils as the words express and former Acts make good For in the first General Council Ann. Ch. 325. at Nicaea so famous for Anathematizing the Arrian Heresie it was defined That who holds the See of Rome is the Head and Chief of the Patriarchs seeing he 's the first as Peter to whom Power is given over all Christian Princes and all their People as he who is Vicar of Christ our Lord over all People and the Vniversal Church of Christ The General Council of Chalceden Ann. Ch. 451. Acti 16. consisting of above 600 Fathers after mature deliberation declare That all Primacy and Chief Honour according to the Canons is to be kept for the Archbishop of old Rome Which is not so to be understood as if the Sacred Constitutions of General Councils first gave this Supreme Authority to the Roman Bishop but upon several occasions the Councils defin'd this Supremacy of Jurisdiction to belong of right to the Bishop of Rome by Divine Institution Else how could the sixth Canon of the first General Nicene Council say Ecclesia Romana semper habuit primatum The Church of Rome always had the Primacy And by what tenure she held it in their judgments is manifested in the Preface of the said Council in these words Ecclesia Romana c. The Church of Rome by no Synodical Decrees was set over the rest but by the Evangelical voice of our Lord and Saviour obtain'd the Primacy And in the second Session of this Council of Chalcedon after the Epistle of Leo the great then Pope to the Fathers was publickly read confirming the Nicene Creed against the Arrians there arose an unanimous acclamation Haec Patrum fides Apostolorum fides c. This Faith of the Fathers is the Faith of the Apostles we all believe so all Orthodoxal believe so let him be accursed who believes not so Peter hath spoke by Leo c. Which last words signify nothing if they had not believ'd Leo then Bishop of the Roman and Apostolical Chair to succeed St. Peter in his Faith and Jurisdiction I am sure the same Leo believed so when he tells us That our Blessed Saviour said only to Ser. 3. Anniu Assump St. Peter I have prayed for thee that thy Faith fail not And chose him alone of all the World to be set over the vocation of all Nations and all the Apostles and all the Fathers of the Church by a peculiar Commission to feed and govern his whole flock Besides in the third Session they stile him Vniversal Archbishop and Patriarch of old Rome and afterwards give sentence against Diosorus in the name of Leo and St. Peter to acknowledge and testify thereby that they believ'd him to succeed St. Peter in his Universal Pastorship Which Title of Universal Bishop though St. Gregory the great out of Humility refuses as not used by his Predecessors and bitterly inveighs against it in that sense the then Patriarch of Constantinople did proudly arrogate it to himself Yet 't is most certain and evident from the same Epistles he did maintain it to belong by Divine right to the Bishops of L 4. Ep. Ep. 31 34. L. 7. Episâ— 30. Rome as St. Peter's Successors that very Supremacy and Jurisdiction in Gods Church which all Catholicks now attribute to the Apostolical Chair And whoever confesses the thing we will not quarrel with him about the Name If our Adversaries will assert with St. Gregory That the care of the whole Church is L. 4. Ep. Ep. 32. L. 11. ca. 54. L. 7. Ep. Ep. 63. committed by our Lord himself to Peter the Prince of the Apostles That the Roman and Apostolical See is Head of all Churches That all Bishops found in fault are subject to it We shall not much press him to call the Pope of Rome Universal Bishop neither ought he in that sense which St. Gregory condemned And indeed the usual stile of the Church is not to call the Pope Universal Bishop but Bishop of the Universal Church More may be seen to this point in the Letters of the said Council to the same Glorious Pope Leo. And in the first Act of the Council of Constantinople under Menas they address themselves to Pope Agapetus in these words To our most Holy and most Blessed Lord Archbishop of old Rome and Oecumenical Bishop To which may be added Conc. Sardicense Gener. ca. 3. Synod Rom. sub Sylvestro ca. 20. Conc. Tolet. 1 sub finem assertionis fidei Conc. Milet. ad Innocent Papam ejusque responsum Conc. Turon ca. 21. Conc. Afric ca. 15. ad Papam Celestinum Syno Rom. 4. ca. 3. Conc. Bracanse primum ca. 23. Conc. Aurelian 4. ca. 1. c. with many more which none ver'st in the Acts of Ecclesiastical Synods can be ignorant of and these may suffice being so full and punctual to the purpose If to these Testimonies so undeniably asserting the Popes Supremacy over the whole Church we should add universal practice which from undoubted Records would appear by the Popes calling of General Councils presiding in them personally or by their Legates confirming their Acts by Appeals to the Apostolical Chair from all parts of the Christian World in Ecclesiastical Causes by determining Controversies reforming Abuses by investiture of Bishops Depositions Censures erecting new Sees Conversion of Nations by Apostolical Ann. Ch. 596. men and in particular of our Nation by St. Austin and his Fellow Monks sent hither by St. Gregory the Great and in a word by their Authoritative ordering and care over all the Churches of the Christian world the prosecution of these particulars would swell whole Volumes and therefore not here to be undertaken But by what has been said 't is apparently manifest that our Adversaries herein cannot be of a different Faith from us but they must also forsake
of Divine Authority And how in after Ages to this present the Truth of Christian Belief was attested to all men by signs from Heaven more or less wrought in the Catholick Church by her Professors is manifest by the undoubted Records and Histories of the whole Christian World Yea our Adversaries themselves who are Magdebu Centuria no friends to Miracles have distinctly set down and asserted manifold wonders wrought successively in the Church for 1300 Ages after Christ and why they should not as well believe the Miracles of the 14th Century and upwards wrought in the same Church related by as credible Authors as the former with as much evidence of certainty no man can imagine but that they were resolved Miracles should cease before their Church had a Beeing in the World lest they should justly be thought to introduce a false Religien having not the voice of Divine Miracles to attest it Wonderful The frequent use of Miracles was afforded to the the first Promulgators of the Gospel to give give it rooting and afterwards for increase and no sooner comes their Religion up but down goes Miracles to gain credit to It. As the Fathers must loose their Authority and begin to be erroneous when they manifestly assert what condemns their Doctrine So Miracles also must be put to silence and witness no longer to the Truth because they will not speak for their Religion And indeed themselves being wholly destitute of Miracles to confirm their new Faith and confessing they had been so long continued in the Roman Catholick Church they were necessitated if they would be obstinate in their way though against all evidence of Authority to deny any such to be now wrought in her least thereby they should confess that she only is the true Church of Christ But that the strength of this Motive may the better appear I shall in the further prosecution of it first declare wherein consists the nature of true Miracles Secondly I shall set down the causes why God is pleas'd to work such signs and wonders in and by his Church And thirdly I shall cull out among infinite some special Miracles which relate to our present Controversies being no less then so many Seals from Heaven stamp'd upon them in Divine Characters as visible evidences of Truth on the Catholicks side And those who assert the contrary do as it were deny God's attestation who can neither deceive nor be deceived SECT III. Wherein the nature of true Miracles consists is declared A True Miracle is an effect beside the ordinary course of the whole Creation and so above the Power of any Created entity visible or invisible Man or Angel Deus solus qui sacit mirabilia magna 't is God alone who worketh such wonders being the products of no less then Omnipotency it self For the order of the Universe in the concatenation of Causes and Effects being set a going by the Infinite Wisdom and Goodness of our great Creator the first mover not by necessity of nature but as a most free Agent according to the good pleasure of his will when it seems good unto him he can act besides this appointed course of nature either by producing the effects of secondary causes without their concurrence as by restoring sick and maimed persons to their perfect health and soundness in a moment by a word or as we read in the Acts Acts 3. 7. ca. 4. 30. ca. 5. 3. ca. 19 11 12 c. of the Apostles by Aprons and Handkerchiefs and such like things which having first touch'd the Bodies of his Saints are applyed to the parties ill-affected for their recovery Yea Act. 5. 15 16. the very shadow of St. Peter did cure many sick and infirm persons who were expos'd in the Streets lying in their Beds as he pass'd by Or else by restraining and curbing in the innate vertue of secondary causes from producing such effects to which by nature they are determin'd necessarily in the present circumstances as when the furious flames did not consume the three Dan. 3. 22 c. Children in the fiery furnace yea not so much as the smell of fire took hold on their Garments And as when the Sun was darkn'd at our Blessed Saviours passion the Moon being in opposition to it in its natural course Or else by producing some effects beyond the activity of created Agents to which second causes though strain'd to the utmost with their united forces cannot extend themselves as causing two bodies at the same time to be in the same place as when our Blessed Saviour came into his Disciples through the doors shut or raising the dead to life again as Lazarus was by our Blessed Saviour Notwithstanding our Souls being clouded with ignorance so that we apprehend not the utmost energetical vertue of created causes many things which are effected by a power secret and unknown to us are accounted by us though falsly truely Miraculous which indeed are either but Phantaâ—mes and meer deceptions Vide S. Tho. 22 ae q. 178. a. 2 in corp that is things not really done but only seem so Or if really produced and not in appearance only they are done by the application of natural causes though indiscernable to dim-eyed reason Vera mira truly wonderful to us because effected by a secret vertue But not Vere Miracula not true Miracles in their nature created causes producing them in the hand of quick-sighted strenuous and nimble Agents Of which sort are all those wonderful things which Magicians and Witches bring to pass by the Power and assistance of the Devil Such as the Aegyptian Magi wrought to harden Pharaoh's heart that he might not think Moses was sent from God or did by a Divine Power work true 2 Thess 2. 9 c. Miracles to confirm his Mission And Antichrist will come in great Power and signs and lying wonders according to the operation of Satan not true Miracles the only and peculiar work of Omnipotency Antichristi De Civ Dei l. 20. c. 19. opera possunt dici esse signa mendacii c. The works of Antichrist says St. Austin may be câ—ll'd lying wonders either because he shall deceive mens senses by Phantasms seeming to do what indeed he does not or if they be true Prodigies yet they shall draw men to believe a lye For they shall give credit to that man of sin as if he brought them to pass by a Divine Joh. 14 12. Power though only are effected by natural causes unknown to them Now though all things are alike easie to Omnipotency and so no Miracle properly greater then another 1 p q. cv a. 8. corp as having eye to the Power producing such effects Yet as more or less exceeding the faculty of created causes and looking that way they are truely said to be more or less Miraculous according to that of our Blessed Saviour Who believes in me the works that I do he shall do also and greater than
what they are taught and what they profess be eye-witnesses of the Angelical Lives of thousands of Holy persons to their admiration and confusion also if they will not be moved to repentance by such examples And methinks the most understanding Protestatents who acknowledge for glorious Saints many who live and die in the Roman Arms when a Protestant Saint was never heard of and notwithstanding will not tread in their Holy Steps do sufficiently condemn their own practice and in effect say We know the way to Heaven but will not take it SECT III. A further prosecution of this Motive from the new Doctrines and profane Practices of Heretical Communions NO man can be ignorant that the Religion of Protestants doth disclaim against the practice of this super-eminent Sanctity and condemns it in Catholicks as meer Superstition and Will-worship Forgetting or not regarding that 't was first councel'd by our Blessed Saviour Preach'd unto the World by his Apostles and practis'd in all Ages of the Church Indeed for Protestants to have commended it and yet not to follow it was too gross an absurdity to gull the World withall and would have given too palpable a lye to the godly name of Reformation They were resolv'd therefore to enlarge the narrow way to Heaven thus straitned for more security in a business of highest concern by abolishing the glory of Christianity under the pretence of Christian liberty And they easily perswaded themselves that a sense-pleasing Religion back'd by the Secular Power as it was in England by King Henry in its first Introduction and advanced by Temporal Interest in impoverishing the Church to enrich greedy Courtiers would over-ballance in Carnal minds the strict Austerities of Catholick Purity Or to make the best construction of this strange piece of Reformation on the Clergy's part who had a hand in the business when they saw nothing would quench the Avarice of the sensual King but the Revenues devoted for ever to the maintenance of extraordinary Devotion they thought it policy not to withstand his will but to flatter him by palliating the matter with specious colours Especially when they considered that the Rich Bishopricks and Cathedral Preferments might be the better preserved when this auri sacrae fames in the Great ones who were sharers with his Majesty in these Spoils of the Church could not but be appeased by engrossing to themselves so many Rich and Sumptuous Monasteries and Religious Houses the Glory and Envy of our Nation For I am perswaded the Clergy in this change were not all well pleased in this particular And I remember a remarkable saying of Doctor Jackson a Protestant of no mean note sadly complaining in these words or to this effect If three persons in the Sacred Trinity had been as great an eye-soar to us as three Monasteries in every Shire we should have been as well reformed Atheists as reformed Christians But whatever were the Motives of several Interests in erecting a Religion founded on State-policy this is most certain that the Substantial practice of eminent Sanctity was banish'd out of England at the same time with the Catholick Faith Neither was the birth of the Protestant Church in England the death only of super-eminent Holiness but its malevolent influence did cool the fire of true Devotion in all sorts of Christians who gave it any entertainment For no sooner had this tree of Reformation took rooting in our Land but it spread it self into arms and boughs on every side plentifully yielding the bitter Fruits of Dissoluteness Uncharitableness Oppression Envyings Back-bitings Strifes Ignorance of necessary Truths Curiosity in knowledge vain and frothy disputes staggrings in Faith Spiritual Pride contempt of Ecclesiastical Authority Irreligion Profaneness Sacriledge Abuse of Holy things casting off the Sacraments Blasphemies Atheism and in short whatsoever is contrary to true Godliness and Evangelical Precepts of Jesus Christ So bad a tree could not bring forth better Fruits wheresoever once it took sure rooting so notorious and visible to the World that the Arch-reformers themselves could not but confess it and to their shame and conviction have left it upon record to Posterity 'T is fit Luther the first Founder of this new Faith should have the precedency in delivering his Verdict Give him Audience while he tells us that Mundus ex hac Doctrina c. The World by this Doctrine Conâ— 2. Daw. 1. Adventus daily becomes worse Now seven devils are entred into every one who formerly were only possess'd with one Whole troops of Devils now get into mens hearts that in this so glorious light of the Gospel they are more covetous more crafty more unjust more inhumane more stubborn then formerly they were in Popery And observe it that he confesses those evils did proceed from his new Doctrine not occasionally but as the natural fruit of it And if ever he spoke Truth after his Apostacy here we have 't For they that consider what an innundation of evils broke in upon a great part of the Christian World upon his breaking from the Catholick Church and Preaching a new Gospel first in Germany may very well think that now Apoc. 20. 1 2. was the time come For unchaining Satan and Hell was broke loose to torment us mortals here on earth Witness Calvin In exiguo illorum numero c. Amongst the small number of them who have forsaken Popish In c. 11. Dani. v. 34 Idolatry the greatest part of them are full of Perfidiousness and Treacheries They outwardly profess a notable Zeal but if examined inwardly you will find them abounding in deceits Neither indeed could a false Faith bring forth any other but a counterfeit Holiness For these are those Hypocrites whom our Blessed Saviour speaks of That are ravenous Wolves Mat. 7. in Sheaps cloathing that cleanse Mat. 23. 25. the outside of the cup and platter leaving the inside full of rapine and uncleanness Or Like whited Sepulchers ver 27. which appear beautiful to men but within are stuff'd with dead mens bones and putrefaction These are those Reprobates concerning the Faith fore-told by the Apostle Having 2 Tim. 3. 5 c. a form of godliness denying the Power thereof Those Saints of the highest elevation in their own conceits whom St. Jude calls Clouds ver 12. without water darkening only the splendor of the Gospel not making it fruitful in good works by any refreshing influences of real Piety Which the same Calvin discern'd so clearly through these clouds that Comm. in 2. Pet. 2. 1. he confesses Vix eorum decimus c. Hardly the tythe of those who gave their name to the Gospel that is who left the Church of Rome to be of their Religion did it for any other end then to wallow in wantonness more freely without restraint Andreas Musculus affords us likewise as ample a testimony extracted from him by evidence of Truth against his will Quod si veritatem L. de noviss die c.