particular all the Articles of Faith which the Learned Pastors of the Church believe yet they are bound under the Penalty of Eternal Damnation not to deny wittingly any one of them nor to doubt stubbornly of the truth of them nor to believe wittingly the contrary for he that so doth falleth thereby into the damning Crime of Heresie Which ever includes an Election or Culling out of certain Articles out of the Doctrine of the Church which are imbraced for true and a Rejection of the rest as Doubtful False or Erronious Which presumptuous discarding of Divine Verities revealed by Christ to his Apostles for the direction of Mankind to Eternal Happiness and by them laid up in the Treasury of the Church as a Sacred Depositum 1 Tim. 6. 20. under the sure Custody of the Holy Ghost is no less than High-Treason against Christ our Saviour in regard that it raises a most pernicious Rebellion in his Spiritual Kingdom bringing part thereof again under the Tyranny of the Devil It frustrates the full Operation of his Passion extinguishes the true and right Worship of God despoils Christian People of Divine Faith and thereby of the true means of Salvation It deprives the Saints of due Honour defrauds the Faithful departed of necessary Relief It robbs Heaven of Souls and inriches Hell with innumerable unwary and most unhappy People For which respects it is rightly stiled one of the greatest Sins and of the loudest crying Crimes that is Although I say the Unlearned of the Church are not bound to believe explicitly all Her Sacred Verities yet they are bound not to deny any one of them wittingly even as they are not bound to know all that is in the Sacred Scripture yet they are bound not to deny any thing therein contain'd though it be never so small a thing because all is warranted by the Authority of God which is of equal Force and Worth of equal Truth both in great and in small things which therefore are of equal Certainty it being as far from God to lie and deceive in small things as in great And therefore prudent Men in Matters of Faith and Religion seek no farther than whether this or that be warranted by Gods Authority or no which they learn by the Teaching of the Church guided by the Holy Ghost for there is no other sure and infallible Means on Earth to direct us in the obscure Misteries of Faith about which anew God now reveals nothing but leaves us to the Teaching of his Church guided as I said by the Holy Ghost which makes all Discreet Christians to submit so humbly their Judgements to the Church and to relie so securely upon her Authority God himself assuring them that She is the Pillar and Ground of Truth 1 Tim. 3. 15. The Second Truth is That the Subjects of the Church of Christ are not bound either to know or believe certain disputable Points of Divinity not defin'd by the Church which are controverted among the Learned The pernicious Falshood inferred out of these Truths is That Christian People who are not Learned are not bound under hazard of their Souls to believe those Articles of Faith taught by the the True and Catholick Church of Christ which false Prophets which Heretical Men reputed Learned do question deny and dispute against As though the Bad Proud Rebellious and Ungodly proceeding of these Men were a sufficient Warrant unto others to doubt of the Truth of Gods revealed Verities to mangle and believe by halves his Sacred Religion to disobey their Lawful Prelates to deprive their Souls of the fruitful use of Christs Divine Sacraments to contemn the Doctrine and to forsake the Communion of the Church Which is manifestly absurd and untrue being contrary both to Reason and Scripture as I have shewed Which teach that Christian People in the profound Mysteries of the Christian Religion are bound to be guided by those Doctors and Pastors Act. 20. which God hath placed in his Church and authorised to Teach Direct and Guide them And that they are likewise most deeply obliged to beware of and to shun false Prophets and Heretical Teachers and not to heap to themselves new Masters with itching Ears leaving the Truth of the Pillar of Truth the Church of the Living God and turning to Fables that is either to their own Self-conceits or to the Self-conceits of others which in the Mysteries of the Christian Religion when they swerve from the Doctrine of the Church are no truer than Fables though they be gilded over with the fair Title of the true Light of the Gospel and therefore the Faith of those who are guided by such Conceiters is never Divine never the Gift of God never available to Salvation For the clear understanding of which Assertion Note First That most true it is that God hath revealed many profound Misteries and Divine Verities for Men to believe to be thereby directed fittingly what to hold and to practise for the obtaining of ever-during Happiness Note Secondly That it is also most true that Man of himself without the Aid of Coelestial Grace is not able to believe these Verities fittingly and suitably to his Supernatural End. Note Thirdly That God cannot stir up and draw men by this his Heavenly Grace to believe these Verities unless they be proposed to be believ'd without all mixture of Falshood for if any Falshood be packt in among them and proposed with them for a Divine Truth revealed by God he cannot draw men by his Grace to believe them thus mingled and proposed with Falshood as is manifest because he cannot induce men to believe any Falshood at all And therefore whosoever doth thrust in among some Divine Verities any false Doctrine contrary to that which God hath revealed proposing the same to be believed as a Divine Truth and therein stubbornly contradicting the Teaching of the Church he debars God from co-opperating with his Grace and from drawing People to believe with Divine Faith the Doctrine so mixt and proposed Note Fourthly That Gods revealed Verities will fall out to be of no utility at all to Mankind but rather a Trap to ruine them unless there be some sure un-erring and infallible Proposer of them who doth propose them to Gods People without any mixture of Falshood at all in such sort that he doth not propose any thing as an Article revealed by God which is not so or which is false and contrary to that which God hath indeed reveal'd And therefore that God may draw men by the special aid of his Grace to believe with Divine Faith his revealed Misteries and Verities he must cause them to be proposed to men sincerely and without all mixture of Falshood He I say must cause them to be so proposed because no man of himself without the continual guidance and assistance of the Holy Ghost is able always so to propose them All then that will have Divine Faith must be guided by Gods Proposer of Divine Doctrine and
believe as he doth teach For if they follow any contrary Proposer who does mingle Truth with Falshood contrary to the Doctrine of the right Proposer their Faith cannot be Divine nor avail them to Salvation If any one ask who is Gods un-erring Proposer of Divine Verities I answer now as I answer'd before no other but the Ordinary Doctors and Pastors of the ever visible and Catholick Church of Christ which Doctors and Pastors among other things propose as a Divine and certain Truth that out of the Communion of the True and Catholick Church no Salvation can be had out of whose Communion those most certainly do live who are separated from the Chair of St. Peter and profess Riligions by it condemned And therefore those which esteem themselves secure by believing only those general Points of the Christian Religion which are not controverted betwixt the Learned of the Protestant and of the Roman Church are greatly deceived they being not only destitute of Divine Faith but also very far off from performing the Duty of good Christians as may sufficiently appear by what is said And therefore this their Conceit serves to little else but to bring them to Hell with a quiet and unfrighted Conscience Fourthly Out of the Grounds laid a sufficient Reason doth appear of the Doctrine of the Ancient Fathers who constantly taught that out of the Catholick Church there is no Salvation which Catholick Church they esteemed to be no other than that which is joyned in Communion with the Chair of St. Peter Hear a word or two out of those ancient Worthies St. Athanasius in his Creed approved of and received by the whole Church speaketh thus Whosoever will be saved before all things it is needful that he hold the Catholick Faith the which unless one keep entire and inviolate without all doubt he shall perish eternally St. Cyprian De Simpl. Prelat And St. Augustin De Simbol l. 4. c. 10. saith If any one be found without the Church he shall be an Alien from the Children of God neither shall he have God for his Father who would not have the Church for his Mother The same St. Augustin speaking of Emeritus a Donatist and a Bishop saith Serm. de gestis cum Emerito He cannot have Salvation but in the Catholick Church out of the Church he may have all but Salvation He may have Honour he may have the Sacrament he may sing Alleluja he may answer Amen he may hold the Gospel he may both have and preach Faith in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost but Salvation he can no where have saving in the Catholick Church Where note that Bishop Emeritus being a Donatist was not so much separated from the Roman Church as Protestants are And yet this Learned Father and great Light of Gods Church esteemed him to be out of the Catholick Church and out of the State of Salvation In vain then do Protestants confide that they are within the Catholick Church they being farther separated from the same than this Bishop was St. Fulgentius De Fid. ad Pet. c. 39. saith Most firmly hold and in no sort doubt that each Heretick or Schismatick Baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost if he be not restored to the Catholick Church how great Alms soever he give yea though he should shed his Blood for the Name of Christ yet he cannot be saved Thus these Holy and Learned Fathers with whom in this Point agree the rest Fifthly It appears by the Grounds aforesaid that there can be but only one saving Faith and Religion in the World because there can be but only one Doctrine of Faith that is wholly true and free from all mixture of Falshood for all other Doctrines of Faith must of necessity be mixed and stain'd with some Falshood more or less according as they do more or less differ from and contradict that one Divine Doctrine of Faith which is wholly true as is manifest And therefore God cannot draw men to believe any of them with Divine Faith required of necessity to Salvation And so no Religion whose Doctrine of Faith is mixed with Falshood is truly and really a saving Religion how much soever it be adorned by the seducing Teachers or the seduced Followers thereof with the gay Title of the pure Light of the Gospel Sixthly It appears how just cause all Protestants have to return with speed to the Roman Church in which they may assuredly be saved even by the Judgement of the most Learned among them as hereafter shall appear because it is more than probable that the Protestant Profession is not a saving Religion in regard that the Doctrine of Faith which it imbraceth is not nor cannot be wholly true but really and certainly is mixed with much Falshood 1. Because in divers weighty Points of Faith it directly contradicts the express Word of God as I before have shewed 2. Because this Doctrine of Faith is not directed by any sure Rule of Faith by any Infallible Interpreter of the Scriptures by any Un-erring Judge of Controversies nor proposed by any sure and Infallible Proposer 3. Because Protestants are divided into several Branches or Sects which greatly differ and are contrary one to another in divers weighty Points of Faith as I before have noted And 4. Because Protestants hold that all Churches are subject to erring yea and have erred in their Doctrine of Faith. What assurance then have they that Theirs doth not err none at all But to come now to the principal Point intended in this Question I affirm that out of the Grounds laid which Christianly cannot be deny'd it clearly follows that according to the main Tenet and Ground of the Protestant Religion Jesus the Son of the Virgin Mary was not the true Messias promised in the Old Testament nor the true Saviour of the World. This monstrous Falshood and detestable Blasphemy I say doth clearly and inevitably follow out of the chief and Fundamental Ground of the Protestant Religion For if the Church which Jesus founded came to erre in her Doctrine of Faith in the Ages after the Apostles and to be corrupted with many pernicious Falshoods and Superstitions as Protestant Teachers affirm the Promises of God concerning the Messias made so seriously to the Patriarchs of the Old Testament cannot possibly be verified of Jesus and consequently he was not the true Messias the true Christ and Saviour of the World for of the true Messias these Promises must be verified most certainly in regard that God cannot be false of his Word Thus then he promised to Abraham Gen. 12. 3. In thee shall all the Kindreds of the Earth be blessed Gen. 18 18. In him Abraham are to be blessed all the Nations of the Earth To Isaac Gen. 26. 4. In thy Seed shall be blessed all the Nations of the Earth To Jacob Gen. 28. 14. In thee and in thy Seed all the Tribes of the
for them to give a proper and True Definition of an Heretick but therein they must involve and inclose Luther Calvin Zwinglius and such other prime Founders of the Protestant Religion How improbable then a thing is it that God among so many Wise Learned and Holy Men as flourish'd in his Church in the long tract of above a thousand years could not find any fit to be by him particularly imploy'd for the restoring of the True Light of his Heavenly Religion to the World again if it were lost till Luther and his carnal and jarring Off-spring appear'd And how slenderly do Protestants provide for the safety of their Souls who hazzard them upon so manifest a Falshood as this Question XIV Whether God by Miracles can draw and incline men to believe a false Religion or no Where it is shewed that God by Miracles did draw our Fore-Fathers at their first Conversion to Christanity to believe Papistry MY Fourteenth Demand is Whether God by Miracles can move and draw Men to believe a false Religion or no Or thus whether Men may safely and without danger of their Souls esteem that Religion False VVicked Pernicious and worthy to be hated and persecuted to believe which God doth stir up and induce men even by Miracles as by curing the Lame Blind and the like I think no understanding Protestant will be so ill advised as to affirm this for he that should so do should utter a manifest Blasphemy tending to the denial of God and of all Christianity For he that draws men to believe false Religions cannot be a good Spirit but a Bad cannot be God but the Devil as is manifest or the Devils Agent God being infinitely VVise Good and True and a zealous Hater of all Falshood Moreover what certainty can we have of the Truth of the Scriptures of the Doctrine of Moses and of Christ or that Christ was the true Messias and Saviour of the VVorld if God by Miracles may draw and induce men to the imbracing of a false Religion Far then be it from all true Christian Breasts to hold so great a Blasphemy as this and therefore let me lay for a sure and uncontroulable Ground that God by Miracles cannot draw men to imbrace a false or bad Religion and that therefore that Religion to believe which God by Miracles doth stir up and induce is not Bad Superstitious and False but true Holy and Divine yea wholly True and the only Saving Faith of Christ because there can be but only one Faith but only one Religion in the VVorld that is intirely True and truly Saving as I before have shewed This Ground being agreed upon which Christianly cannot be denied I propose to all prudent and considerate Protestants this Syllogism That Religion to believe which God by Miracles doth stir up and draw is wholly True Divine and Saving But God by Miracles doth stir up and draw men to believe Papistry Ergo Papistry is wholly true Divine and Saving yea it is the only Saving Faith of Christ The Major is clear and certain out of the Ground laid The Minor I could prove by the Testimony of innumerable grave Authors and by relating the Conversion of divers Heathen Nations to Christ brought to pass in former Ages and also in our Times But omitting these to avoid Prolixity I will only insist upon the Conversion of our own Nation to Christ which was effected a thousand years ago by forty Holy Monks sent hither by Gregory the Great then Bishop of Rome St. Austin the first Arch-Bishop of Canterbury being the Cheif of them who converted our Fore-fathers not to the Protestant Faith which then was not so much as thought of in the VVorld but to Papistry for what Religion should the Pope send in and Monks bring in but Papistry This is manifest by the Churches Altars Abbeys Monasteries Nunneries which our first Christians built By the Names which they imposed upon Churches and upon sundry Days of the Year as Christmas Ash-Wednesday Palm-Sunday By the Crosses which they every where erected By the Pictures wherewith they adorned their Altars and the Glass Windows of their Churches By their perpetual Subjection to the Pope and the Paying of the Peter-pence unto him from the Time of King Inas even to Henry the Eighth Yea This is so evident that even the most earnest of the Protestants cannot deny it Bale Cent. 1. Fol. 3. saith That Austin was sent from Gregory to season the English Saxons with the Popish Faith. Doctor Fulk Confu of Purg. pag. 333. for this cause tearms our Conversion to Christ our Perversion Danaeus Resp ad disput Bellar. Part 1. pag. 780. Terms the same The Inebriation of the VVhore of Babilon Mr. Ascham Apol. pro caena pag. 33. Calls St. Austin who brought our Fore-fathers from worshipping the Devil to worship Christ The Overthrower of true Religion and the Establisher of Popish Doctrine Mr. Harrison in his Description of Britanniae set before Hollinshead in plain terms confesses That Austin came and brought in Popery Bale in Catalog cent 14. pag. 117. saith That Austin by his Interpreters taught our People the Papistical Faith. The same is clear out of the Magdeburgians Luke Osiander and others who shew that scarcely there is a Ceremony now used by Papists that was not then brought in by St. Austin And so there can no doubt be made but that our Fore-fathers by their first Converters were made Papists and that that Faith in Christ to which God by his Grace did draw them was Papistry It rests then to prove that to this Faith God did convert and draw our Fore-fathers even by Miracles VVhich Point being well and firmly proved no prudent man will deny but that Papistry is truly and really a Holy and a Divine Religion yea the true Light of the Gospel and the only Saving Faith of Christ as my former Syllogism doth demonstrate That God then by Miracles did incline and draw our Fore-fathers to believe and imbrace that Faith and Religion which Austin taught that is Papistry is testified first by Venerable Bede a Holy Grave and Learned Author who living near the Time of our Conversion while things were yet fresh in Memory and writing out of the assured Records of the whole Business then extant and to no meaner a Person than a King is not likely to have erred through ignorance or to have feigned This wise then and Holy man in his first Book C. 26. speaketh thus But when the King himself being much delighted with the Purity of their Life namely of Augustin and his Associates and the Example of their Godly Conversation as also with their sweet Promises which to be true they proved by working many Miracles did believe and were Baptized there began more and more daily to resort unto their Sermons and renouncing the Rites of their old Gentility to joyn themselves by Faith to the Vnity of the Holy Church of Christ Thus in this place Bede Who in his Second
and Obedience is very meritorious and pleasing to God That Virginity vow'd and Consecrated to God is better than Matrimony That Bishops and Priests ought to live chaste and single Lives That the Body and Blood of Christ is truly and really in the Blessed Sacrament which Sacrament is also truly and properly a Sacrifice Christ therein being truly offered to his Heavenly Father in an unbloody manner under the forms of Bread and Wine which Sacrifice doth not only represent the Sacrifice of the Cross but it doth also copiously apply the same to those for whom it is Offered both as it is impetratory and also as it is satisfactory That it is not lawful to interpret the Scriptures contrary to the Interpretation of the Church or to reject any parts thereof by Her approved But in this and in all other things appertaining to Faith and Religion we are bound under pain of Damnation to submit our Judgements to the Teaching of the Church and to believe as She doth direct us These and the like Points professed now in the Roman Church were in practice amongst the Primitive Christians which lived presently after the Apostles as is manifest not only by the Records of Antiquity but also by their Practice which clearly sheweth their Faith For Fasting the keeping of Lent the abstaining from Flesh on Fridays the Vowing of Virginity of perpetual Chastity Monastical Discipline the wearing of Hair-cloth and other like Austerities the single Life of the Clergy and the like were in use and did wonderfully flourish amongst them Insomuch that Sebastianus Francus a Learned Anabaptist searching most curiously among the Writers of former Ages after the Protestant Religion and finding no Footsteps thereof in all Antiquity even up to the Apostles times he freely and boldly affirmeth in his Epistle of abrogating all Ecclesiastical Statutes That presently after the Apostles times all things were turned upside down c. and that for certain through the work of Antichrist the External Church together with the Faith and Sacraments vanished away presently after the Apostles departure Into which Blasphemy this Learned Protestant would never have fallen if he could have found any certain signs of the Protestant Religion among the Primitive Christians which lived presently after the Apostles or could have inclined his Conscience to outface the matter with stout lying as many of his Fellows do to conceal the Truth in this point from the Eyes of well-meaning People The same in effect is affirmed by Coelius Secundus Curio a Learned Protestant also in his Book of the Amplitude of the Kingdom of God Lib. I. pag. 43. Are we ignorant saith he in how great Darkness and Blindness the World hath continued almost from the Apostles Age to these our times in which beyond all expectation the Lord hath begun to manifest himself The Protestant Author of the Book Entituled Antichristus or Prognostica finis mundi pag. 13. affirms likewise That from the Apostles times till Luther the Gospel had never open passage To that there can no doubt be made but that the first Christians who lived presently after the Apostles did forsake and abandon the easie pleasing and sweet Liberty of the Protestant Religion if ever they were taught it by the Apostles and fell of themselves through all the world to believe and practice the hard and harsh Discipline of Papistry contrary to the custom of Mankind The which how improbable yea how impossible it is Who is so senseless that he doth not see Which improbability and moral impossibility will appear yet much more clearly if we take into our consideration that not only a few ignorant People must be thought thus to have neglected and abandoned the Doctrine and Discipline of Christ and of his Apostles if that indeed was such as is now believed and practised by Protestants and to have preferred without any necessity without any Utility yea with manifest peril of their Souls Fasting before Feasting Pennance before Pleasure Labour before Ease course Dyet before Dainties hard Couches before Beds of Down rough Hair-cloth before soft cloathing a mortified chaste and single Life before the delights of Wedlock seeking foolishly as Protestants imagine to curb and bring under the Appetites of the Flesh and to rid themselves of the molesting temptations thereof rather by severe harsh and cruel usage of their Bodies than by the pleasing remedy of a Female Consort as Protestant Ministers use to do Not only I say the ignorant and vulgar sort must be thought thus to have neglected the sweet liberty of the Protestant Gospel if ever the Apostles had settled them in it and to have embraced foolishly and madly the hard and severe Discipline of Papistry but the better sort also even the Learned and Holy Fathers of the primitive Church such as were Dionisius Ignatius Cyprian Athanasius Basil the Great Gregory the Divine Chrysostome Hierom Ambrose Augustine and others the chief and principal Lights after the Apostles of the Church of Christ All which were either real Practisers or Praisers of Monastical Discipline of the chaste and single life of vowed Virginity and the like which they would never have done most certainly if these things had been contrary to the Doctrine and practice of Christ and of the Apostles and against the true liberty of his Divine Gospel of which they could not be ignorant being so excellently skilled in the Scriptures as they were and living so near the times of those Blessed Founders of the Christian Religion as they did And so the Doctrine and Discipline of the Ancient Fathers and of the Christians of the primitive Church which really was the same in substance that is now in use in the Roman Church do evidently convince that the Apostles were not Protestants neither in Doctrine nor in Practice but rather that truly and really they were Papists in regard that they were strict Practisers and Teachers of those many points in Papistry which so clearly shined in their Disciples and Successors the Pastors and People of the primitive Church which is so certain out of the Doctrine of the Antient Fathers and other Records of Antiquity that it cannot be denyed with any colour of Truth And therefore the Conceipt of those Protestants who imagine that the Apostles practised and taught the easie Discipline and Belly-pleasing liberty of their new Gospel is but a meer fancy a vain and empty Dream there being no colourable ground thereof at all neither in the Word of God nor in the Records of Antiquity Out of which Records how little may be expected to prove that the Apostles were Protestants doth sufficiently appear by that which hath been said For if by them it doth appear as most certainly it doth that much Fasting great austerity of life Monastical Discipline the vowing of Virginity of perpetual chastity and single life in the Clergy did greatly flourish among the first Christians what Hop can there be to gather from thence that the Apostles were Protestants certainly none
these Ancient and most Learned Fathers were great Praisers and Practisers of austere and penitential works consisting in frequent Prayer in much watching in severe fasting in hard lodgings in course and spare Dyet in wearing of Hair-cloth and the like They lived single Lives Many of them bestow'd their Wealth upon the Poor and other Pious Uses and professed Voluntary Poverty following therein the counsel of Christ given Matth. 19. 21. and they not only allowed of but also most highly extolled the observing of perpetual Chastity and Virginity preferring the same far above Matrimony Were not these men then strange Protestants Thirdly Take notice that these Ancient Worthies even by the Confession of all Protestants were Men of excellent Wits of excellent Learning If then they had found in the word of God as Protestants say they find that only Faith does Justifie That Good Works are not meritorious That in Works of Grace Men have not Free-will That they are not able to keep the Commandments That it is not in the power of Man or Woman to live perpetually chaste That Virginity is not more pleasing to God than Matrimony That to give all to the Poor to Fast Pray and watch much and to undergo other Austerities and mortifications of the Body doth not profit and inrich the Soul That there is no Purgatory no Pennance to be done no satisfaction to be made for Sin no punishment to be inflicted upon the Faithful for them after this Life If I say the ancient Fathers had found these and the like Doctrines of Protestants in the Scriptures and why should they not have found them there if there they had been they being so Wise so Learned and so industrious Searchers of the Word of God as they were If there I say they had found these things and had believed them as Protestants do they would have lived as Protestants do for why should they not If these pleasing Doctrines which are light and easie to Flesh and Blood and the sweet Liberty of the new Gospel had as feelingly pierced and as strongly possessed the Hearts of those Antients as it did and doth the Breasts and Bowels of Luther Zwinglius Bucer Peter Martyr Calvin Beza and their Followers the Teachers of the Protestant Religion they would without all doubt with these have preferred Pleasures before Pennance Feasting before Fasting the delights of the Conjugal Life before the continent and single And in a word Riches Honours Pleasures before the labours and smart of a penitential and mortified Life before voluntary poverty and the vexing Attire of Hair-cloth or else they had been mad had they believed as most Protestants do that such Exercises as these are needless fruitless yea and superstitious Toys But the Truth is that those ancient and shining Lamps of Wisdom and Sanctity did not believe as Protestants do and therefore they liv'd not as they do for they were otherwise instructed in the School of Christ they read and learned another Lesson in his Divine Gospel even the same that Papists now do and therefore they instituted their Lives as they did and were in very deed as much Protestants as the Pope and his Priests and Fryers now are and no more most certainly unless we will have them to have been Sots and Mad-men If a douzen Protestant Ministers now should consociate themselves together and shaking off the Delights of the World should apply themselves fervently to much Prayer Fasting Watching lying on hard Couches wearing of Hair-cloth and such other austerities of Body and forbearing to marry should highly extol the single Life perpetual Chastity and should exhort young Maidens Noble Gentlewomen Princes Daughters to the perpetual keeping of their Virginity and Consecrating of it to God would they be held for sincere and well-grounded Protestants I think not Nay would they not presently be suspected for Papists No doubt but they would the institute of their Life plainly breathing Papistry and wholly swerving from the Belief and practise of Learned Protestants Let not then my Noble and dear Countrymen the misreports of some of your Teachers so far prevail with you as to make you believe the better to keep and quiet you in Protestantism that the Fathers of the primitive Church were Protestants For certainly those Blessed Servants of Christ were as far from being Protestants as the most zealous of your Teachers are from being Papists yea from being Monks or Fryers and from instituting their Lives as those Ancients did If then you truly prize the Learning and Sanctity of the Primitive Church and Christians become of that Belief which their Lives and Practices do Preach unto you If you think them saved be not so hardy as to seek a new way to Heaven for the safety of your Souls is of greater moment then so to be exposed to hazard being there can be but one saving Faith as my Tenth Question will make plain unto you Eternal Glory is not easily to be set upon the Dice when you may take a secure way to it Become then of the Communion of that Church in which the Fathers lived and dyed that therein seconding your Belief with a Virtuous Life you may assuredly attain to everlasting Happiness which I cordially wishing unto you shall infinitely rejoice if these my Questions which I now leave to your perusal shall further or occasion your return to that Religion which assuredly leadeth thither As most certainly they will Gods Holy Grace concurring if you will but attentively and with impartial Eyes read them and not be shuffled off with frivilous Answers or rest satisfyed untill you see my Arguments solidly refuted which you will never see if you look well to their Fingers who shall undertake the answering of them And so beseeching God to prosper your Reading and Meditation to his own Glory and the Salvation of your Souls I remain unfeignedly A Well-wisher of Your Eternal Felicity T. K. THE CONTENTS Question 1. WHere was the Protestant Religion believ'd and practis'd the last Five Hundred Years before Luther Page 1. Question 2. If Luther was not the first Teacher of the Protestant Religion to whom did he immediately succeed in the Office of Teaching the same Where also is treated of the Mission of Protestant Teachers p. 4. Question 3. If the Protestant Religion be truly Catholick when was it spread over the World and what Heathen Nations hath it Converted to Christ p. 11. Question 4. What likelihood there is that to bring to pass and effect the great and merciful Work of the Conversion of the Nations of the Earth and of their Kings to Christ God hath never yet made use of the True Religion of Christ and of the pure Light of the Gospel p. 12. Question 5. Whether it be not a very inconsiderable thing and full of danger to prefer in matters of Faith and Religion the Teaching of Men before the Word of God p. 16. Question 6. Whether God hath left to Christian People any sure Rule of Faith
prove even in this Sense their Religion to be Apostolick Question III. If the Protestant Religion be Truly Catholick When was it spread over the World and what Heathen Nations hath it Converted to Christ IF the Protestant Religion be truly Catholick as the Teachers thereof do stile it it is now and in former Ages must have been spread over the World. For Christ as Daniel foretold c. 2. Was to grow into a Mountain that is into a Church which is his Mystical Body that was to fill the whole Earth And as the Royal Prophet Sung Psal 2. He was to have the Gentiles for his Inheritance and the ends of the Earth for his Possession The Christians also of all Ages were bound to believe a Catholick Church according to the Creed of the Apostles as I before shew'd Which being so if Protestants have been this Catholick Church and their Religion the most common and Vniversal Religion believ'd over the World They must have spread themselves and their Religion over the World by Converting Heathen Nations to Christ according to the clear Promises of God made to the Patriarchs that in their Seed that is in Christ all the Nations of the Earth should be Blessed Which Promises you shall find in my tenth Question and according to the words of Christ Matth. 24. saying This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be Preached in the whole World for a Testiomny to all Nations And then shall come the Consummation That is the end of the World. Now then I demand of Protestants what Heathen Nations in this and in former Ages they have Converted to the Belief and Practice of their Religion and have thereby spread the same over the World as the True Catholick Faith of Christ ought to be spread If they cannot truly name any such Nations as indeed they cannot unless they will feigne Let them confess as the certain Truth is that their Religion is neither Truly Catholick but so term'd to delude the simple nor the true Faith of Christ by which in him the Nations of the Earth are to be Blessed Let each Prudent Protestant who truly seeks Salvation thoroughly weigh this Point Question IV. What likelihood there is that to bring to pass and effect the great and Merciful work of the Conversion of the Nations of the Earth and of their Kings to Christ God hath never yet made use of the True Religion of Christ and of the Pure Light of his Gospel IT is certain out of the Word of God alledg'd in the last Question that Christ was to have the Gentiles for his Inheritance and the ends of the Earth for his Possession as the Royal Prophet foretold Psal 2. 8. That is He was to destroy false Religions and the Worship of False Gods and of the Devil through the World and to introduce his own Divine and most Holy Religion and the True Worship of one God amongst the Nations of the Earth Thereby to bring unto them the Blessing Promised Gen. c. 12. c. 22. c. 26. c. 28. and Psal 71. 2ly It is also certain that Christ was to enter upon this his Inheritance and to begin the ruine of Idolatry and the Conversion of the Gentiles by the Preaching of his Apostles within some few years after his Ascension As is clear out of the Commission which he gave them Matth. 28. saying Go Teach all Nations and out of the words of St. Paul Act. 13. saying to the Jews To you it behoov'd us first to speak the Word of God But because you repel it and judge your selves unworthy of Eternal Life behold we turn to the Gentiles for so our Lord commanded us I have put thee to be the Light of the Gentiles that thou mayest be Salvation unto the utmost of the Earth Isaias 49. Thirdly It is certain that although the Conversion of the Gentiles was to be begun by the Apostles yet it was not to be compleatly finish'd by them but was to be continued by their Successors the Doctors and Pastors of the Church Ephes 4. 12. And not to be accomplish'd till toward the end of the World as is clear out of Gods word Matth. 24. Where our Saviour being ask'd a Sign of his coming to Judgement and of the end of the World gave the compleat Preaching of his Gospel to all Nations for a sign thereof saying This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be Preached in the whole World for a Testimony to all Nations and then shall come the Consummation This also is manifest out of Isaias by whom God foretold the conversion of the Kings of the Earth to Christ his Son and their lowly subjection to his Church saying v. 7. c. 49. Kings shall see and Princes shall arise and Adore for the Lords sake And again Kings shall be thy Nursing Fathers and Queens thy Nurses With Countenance cast down toward the ground they shall Adore thee and they shall lick the Dust of thy feet And c. 60. Thy Gates shall be open continually day and night they shall not be shut that the strength of the Gentiles may be brought to thee and their Kings may be brought For the Nation and the Kingdom that shall not serve thee shall perish And a little after speaking again of the Church of Christ gather'd out of the Gentiles he says For that thou wast forsaken viz. in the time of the Law of Moses and hated and there was none that pass'd by thee I will make thee to be the pride of Worlds a joy unto Generation and Generation And thou shalt suck the milk of the Gentiles And thou shalt be Nursed with the Teats of Kings Out of which clear Prophesies it seems to be manifest that the chief Conversion of the Gentiles was to be effected long after the times of the Apostles When the Roman Empire the strength then of the Gentiles in the time of Constantine the Great And in the following Ages the Kings and Princes of Spain France England Scotland Ireland Denmark Norway Swedeland Poland Hungary and of other Countries were Converted to the Faith of Christ and wonderfully Honour'd and Inrich'd his Church as the Laws of exemption which they made or receiv'd the Edifices which they Built and Bishopricks and Monasteries which they Founded and Endowed do abundantly testify For in the Apostles days and some Ages after was rather fulfill'd the Prediction of Christ foretelling Luke 21. That his Disciples and Servants should be Hated before Kings and Presidents and should be Despis'd Persecuted and Kill'd by them Which things being so I demand of Prudent and Considerate Protestants what probability there is that to bring to pass the Divine and Merciful work of the Conversion of the Nations of the Earth and of their Kings to the Chaste and Holy Faith of Christ and to the Worship of the true God from the Impure Service of False Gods and detestable Worship of the Devil God hath never made use of the True Religion of Christ and of the Pure Light of his Gospel if
the Old Religion to be such so Vile Absurd and Superstitious as the false Tongues and Pens of divers of their Teachers who like to those of Isaias 28. 15. make Lying their Hope and are protected with Lying depaint it to be that so with more tranquility of mind they may enjoy the Liberty of their New Religion esteeming the Absurdities reported of the Old to warrant them sufficiently not only not to look after the same but also utterly to hate and detest it Yet in a Business of so great importance as is the Salvation or Damnation of their Souls they might remember that one Tale is good till another be heard and the rather for respect to their Noble Progenitors and to the numerous Troops of Blessed Souls now reigning with Christ in Glory which have liv'd and dy'd in the Old Religion But seeing that neither the Wisdom and Sanctity of these nor the earnest Cries of Catholicks now living who continually avouch that Protestants are mis-informed mistake mis-construe mis-understand the Tenets and Practises of the Catholick Religion can move them to make a serious Scarch into Religion Catholicks must comfort themselves to think that howsoever their Religion is here dis-esteem'd yet the Haters Impugners and Oppressors thereof will be of another mind at the Judgement Seat of Christ when their great Account must be made when Pleasures Riches Honours will be past when Obedience to Christ and his Church when a Holy and Mortify'd Life will be priz'd and when the Glorious Troops of Holy Doctors and Pastors and of innumerable other blessed Men and Women will stand up in Judgement with great constancy against all that have neglected vilified contemned derided their Authority Teaching Practice Examples as many of the New Gospellers usually do Question IX Whether the Way to Salvation be narrow or no IN the Ninth Place I demand of Considerate Protestants whether the Way to Salvation be narrow or no If this happy Tract be not indeed a narrow Way Why did Christ with a kind of Admiration say Math. 7. 14. How narrow is the Gate and straight the Way that leadeth to Life and how few there are that find it Was he deceived or did he intend to deceive us if neither because in very Truth this Way to Flesh and Blood is narrow and not to be kept and travelled without much Labour great Difficulty and frequent Mortification both of the Body by crucifying the Flesh and the Concupiscences thereof Gal. 5. 24. and also of the Mind by subjecting the Will to the Laws of Charity 1 Cor. 13. and by bringing the Understanding into Captivity for Obedience to Christ in believing as the Apostles and their Successors do teach 2 Cor. 10. 5. without suffering much for the Love of God for the Practice of Virtue for the avoiding of sin and for the Profession of our Faith if a storm of Persecution arise If I say for These and such like respects the Tract of Salvation be indeed a narrow way as the Blessed Son of God affirms who best knew this matter How may any Protestant Prudently perswade himself that the Protestant Religion is really this hard and narrow way seeing that it is one of the easiest Religions in the World one of the widest and broadest ways For what greater ease and freedom in Religion can there be than to be ty'd to no sharpness and Mortification of Body And to be at liberty in Mind to believe in matters of Religion what we think best our selves VVhich liberty most certainly all Protestants have by the very Tenets and Principles of their Religion which freeth them from being bound in their own Conceit to Believe as the Church Teaches And takes from them in the same manner the yoke of Fasting of Confession of Pennance Freeth them from all necessity of doing good VVorks to be Sav'd Yea and of keeping the Commandments of God as most Protestants hold And Teacheth them to esteem themselves justify'd from Sin and secur'd from all pain in the next Life and sure of Salvation by only Faith by Believing only and stedfastly that the Lord hath dy'd for them and pay'd the shot of their Sins That this is so not only their express Doctrine but even also the Lives of Protestants especially of their Teachers and Ring-leaders do evidently convince And therefore seeing that no doubt can be made but that the Protestant is a most easie Religion and exceedingly pleasing to Flesh and Blood There can no doubt also be made but that it is not that narrow way of which our Saviour did speak which leadeth to Salvation But rather the broad way which leadeth to ever-lasting Perdition VVhat satisfying Answer to this Protestants may make I see not And therefore such of them as truly desire to secure their Souls and to avoid everlasting misery may do well and wisely to return whilst they have time to that Religion wherein their Fore-fathers for the space almost of a thousand years were Sav'd And wherein also they may be Sav'd if they will even by the grant of their own Learned men as hereafter shall appear which Religion if they will practice exactly they shall find it indeed to be a Narrow-way to Flesh and Blood Yet sweet and easie to Minds elevated by Grace and inflam'd with the Love of Heaven Question X. How it can be defended that Jesus was the True Messiah promis'd in the Old Testament if the Church which he Founded err'd so many Ages in her Doctrine of Faith. IT is a certain undoubted and undenyable Truth and not to be question'd amongst Christians that Jesus the Son of the Virgin Mary is the true Messias the True Christ promis'd in the Old Testament the Omnipotent Son of God Truly God Truly Man and the true and sole Redeemer of the World. This I say is a most certain Truth and not doubted of by any but wicked Miscreants Yet to discover the Nature of the Protestant Religion and to shew clearly to my Dear Countrymen whether it tendeth that thereby if they will they may receive the less hurt by it I must crave leave to demand how this prime and Fundamental Truth of Christianity can be defended and maintain'd against Atheists Turks and Jews if we admit for a Truth that That Church which Jesus founded and which his Apostles planted in the World hath grievously and perniciously err'd in her Doctrine of Faith and in the practice of the Worship of God for many Hundred years Yea almost even since the times of the Apostles That the Church of Jesus hath so Erred is the Main Prime and Fundamental Ground of the Protestant Religion as is well * The Homily against the Perils of Idolatry p. 57. known For upon This as upon a sure Foundation Protestant Teachers have raised all their New Buildings Upon this as upon a sufficient Cause they have forsaken the Old Religion of the Christian World pretending it to be Erroneous Superstitious Idolatrous and have undertaken their various and discordant
THE APPENDIX Whether the Apostles were Protestants or no. PRotestants generally conceive and believe that Jesus Christ and his Apostles Preached and planted in the World the Protestant Religion even the very self-same that Protestants now believe and practice and that they were really Protestants not in Name but in their Belief and Practice And that they instituted their Disciples and Followers that is the first Christians in the self-same Liberty of Gospel which Protestants now follow and charged them that with all Care and Diligence they should deliver this sweet and easie Religion which is so pleasing to Flesh and Blood to those who were to succeed them that so for ever it might be continued in the World for the Salvation of Mankind Thus I say do Protestants generally conceive and upon the Truth of this Conceipt they hazard their Souls notwithstanding that they are not agreed nor cannot yet agree among themselves which makes the matter very strange and the conceipt wholly improbable whether the Apostles in their Belief and Practice of Religion were Lutherans or Anabaptists or Swinglians or Calvinists or New Arians or Quakers or Arminians or Parliamentary Pretestants for each of these sorts or Branches of Protestants lay Claim to the Apostles and the Learned of each sort do bear their Followers in hand That the Doctrine which they Teach is the pure Light of the Gospel even the self-same that the Blessed Apostles Believed Taught and practised and of this they are all certain alike And so the conceipt of Saxony Denmark Sweden is that the Apostles were Lutherans The Conceipt of some of the Cantons of Switzerland is that they were Swinglians The Conceipt of many in Moravia and in Holland is that they were Anabaptists The Conceipt of Geneva of Scotland of Puritans of England and of some parts of Germany is that they were Calvinists The Conceipt of divers in England and Holland is that they were Quakers And the Conceipt of the Protestant Church of England is that the Apostles were of the same Belief and practised the same Worship of God that by Act of Parliament is here settled and established But to speak the Truth as it is impossible that the Apostles should be of all these Beliefs so it is more than probable that they were of none of them but rather that all these Beliefs are meer conjectural Conceipts of new Teachers who are wholly uncertain of what Belief the Apostles were For if they were certain that the Apostles were of some one of these Beliefs they would all doubtless be of the same But the Learned of the Protestants being indeed altogether uncertain and really ignorant of the Faith and Practise of the Apostles by guessing thereat so near as they can they have divided themselves into so many Branches and into so many contrary Faiths and practises each of them having nothing but his own conjecture to lead him to the true Light of the Gospel and to the right Religion of the Apostles But notwithstanding that Protestants do thus differ about Religion and are uncertain of the Faith and practice of the Apostles Yet they will not forsooth have it deny'd but that the Apostles were Protestants and that they planted in the World the Protestant Religion And so it must be supposed that they Taught That we are justified by Faith only That we have not Free-will in the works of Grace That our best Works are impure and stained with Sin That we do not merit by them either Increase of Grace or Glory That by Faith in Christ we are freed from the Yoke of the Law which is such as no man can keep and therefore Christ having fulfilled it for us our breach thereof doth neither wound the Conscience nor endanger the Soul. Moreover according to this supposed Doctrine of the Apostles we are not bound to confess our Sins to the Priests of God's Church or to do pennance for them no Works of ours being truly satisfactory Neither is Sin punished any where after this Life but in Hell and therefore we need not fear any purging Flames Christ having paid for all Furthermore we are not bound in Conscience to Fast or to abstain from Flesh upon certain days according as the Church doth appoint this being contrary to the Liberty of the Gospel It is likewise vain foolish superstitious to endeavour to gain Heaven by Prayer Fasting Alms-deeds by a Holy and mortified Life or to Vow Poverty Chastity and Obedience or to esteem perpetual Virginity Consecrated to God better more noble and more pleasing to God than Marriage Again according to the same supposed Apostolical Doctrine the Church of Christ is subject to Erring in her Doctrine of Faith and therefore we are not tyed to believe as she Teaches further than we esteem her Doctrine to agree with the written Word for to be so tyed is against the Liberty of the Gospel Against which Liberty also it is that Bishops and Priests should be tyed to live Chaste and Single Lives Lastly all sorts of Protestants saving Lutherans esteem the Apostles to have believed and taught that the Eucharist is not the true Body and Blood of Christ but a Figure or Remembrance thereof And so they consequently hold that Christ left no true and proper Sacrifice to be daily offered in his Church nor no true Priest-hood which cannot subsist without a true Sacrifice This is the Conceipt of Protestants in general real or pretended Real it may be of the ignorant and simple but pretended only I believe by the Understanding and Learned For these cannot but know that if the Apostles indeed had been Protestants and really had Preached spread and settled amongst the Nations of the Earth to which they Preached in Asia Europe and Africa the Protestant Religion which is so easie and so pleasing to Flesh and Blood that the same had continued infallibly at least for some while in the following Ages and that it could not possibly morally speaking so upon the sudden have been cast aside and extinguished in all places at once but that there would have remained illustrious Memory thereof at least in some of the primordial Churches in some of the Countries Provinces or Cities where the Apostles Preached This I think no understanding man will deny 1. Because the first Christians were zealous Followers and Imitators of the Doctrine and manners of the Apostles of whom they had a high esteem as also of their Doctrine which they knew the Apostles had confirmed by many true and Divine Miracles 2. Because they were very careful of their own Salvation as is evident by their admirable Constancy in suffering Losses Tribulations Torments yea terrible Deaths in the cruel and bloody Persecutions raised against them by the Roman Emperours for the space almost of Three Hundred Years How then is it likely if thus they suffer'd to save their Souls that they would wilfully cast them away by forsaking the true Religion of Christ which his Blessed Apostles had planted and so firmly