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A67649 Dr. Stillingfleet's principles of Protestancy cleared, confuted, and retorted And the infallibility of the Roman-Catholick Church asserted; and that the same church alone is the whole Catholick church. In a letter from a Catholick gentleman to a Protestant knight. Warner, John, 1628-1692. 1673 (1673) Wing W911; ESTC R219411 19,248 38

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only Rule of Salvation and by consequence that it is not repugnant to the wisdome and goodness of God not to set down all his will in writing in the Law of grace or not agreeable to the same that God make men insallible in writing so much of his will as is contained in Scripture or even all that is necessary for Salvation though that writing be not clear to every sincere and sober person 't is sufficient it may be explained to every man by the Doctors and Pastors of the Church according to that of Deut. 17.8 Thou shalt go to the Priests to enquire and they shall shew thee Deut. 33.10 They shall teach thy Law Neh. 8.8 They caused the people to understand the Law And Mat. 23.2 They sat in Moses chair all things therefore c. which last Text doth not agree with the Proposition saying that for some ages before Christ there was no body infallible among the Jews to attest or explain to them the Writings of Moses or the Prophets As for the Testimonies of the New Testament see Mat. 7.24 and 13.19 and 24.14.16 and 28.19 and Mark 16.15 and Matth. 18.17 c. But Dr. Stillingfleet will demonstrate by his 16. Proposition That the Roman-Catholick Church is intolerable by its pretending to Gods infallible assistance in proposing matters of faith And why so Because forsooth every Preacher of that Church doth not work as great Miracles as Christ and his Apostles Doth every Protestant Preacher work such Miracles Did you Dr. Stillingfleet Did any of your Church or Reformation ever work a Miracle If not why do you expect or exact that any should beleeve your Reformation or that your Church is assisted by the holy Ghost If all rational persons must grant that Miracles are necessary to plant any new Doctrine pretended to be divine how much more necessary must they be to reverse the old and reject Doctrine held for many ages as Divine and confirmed as such by so many Prodigies against whose supernaturality our adversaries have no other Arguments then their own arbitrary Interpretations of Scripture and those things which the Jews objected against the Doctrine and Miracles of Christ and his Apostles This much we may at least exact and expect from Dr Stillingfleet that he will either confesse the truth of our Doctrine and Miracles or confute them by some better reason then by a bare supposition that they are against Scripture or by rashly averring they are but tricks of covetous Monks and crafty * Dr Field in his Treatise of the Church lib. 3. cap. 48. Jesuites Other Protestant Writers confesse ingeniously that our Massing Priests and Jesuites have wrought many true Miracles in the Indies Japan Congo and China converting those Nations to Popery And Mr. Hartwell ‖ M. Abraham Hartwell in his Report of the Kingdom of Congo edit An. 1597. in his Epistle to the Reader Symon Lythus in Respons altera ad alteram Gretseri Apol. pag. 331. Daneus contra Bellar. pag. 781. speaking of the Conversion of the Kingdom of Congo saith Shall this Action which tendeth to the Glory of God be concealed and not committed to memory because it was performed by Popish Priests and Popish means God forbid If Dr. Stillingfleet thinks that his Church or the Reformation by not pretending to Miracles or Infallibility in proposing matters of Faith be a more certain and safe Guide to Salvation then the Roman-Catholick Church that with undeniable moral evidence pretends to both few considering and consciencious persons will be of his opinion it being a clear principle in Moral Theology That in matters of Eternity we are bound to choose the surest way and no prudent man will deny but that it is a surer way to Heaven to be directed by a Guide that pretends to be certain of that way and produceth moral evidence for that certainty then to follow a guide that plainly confesseth his own uncertainty of the way and hath nothing to say against the moral evidence and assurance of the other but railing Raillery or turning to Ridicule such forged and incredible Miracles as we our selves discover and punish To conclude it is not necessary that every particular Doctor or Preacher of the Faith shew or work a Miracle 't is sufficient that any one of that Faith do it or did it to prove the Faith and Infallibility of the Roman Church If this be credibly reported to the dissenters they are bound to beleeve it and become Roman Catholicks Herod never did see any of Christ or the Apostles Miracles at least many of the Jews did not and yet they who heard them credibly reported were obliged under pain of damnation to beleeve the Christian doctrine because they were credibly informed that it was confirmed by Miracles So that it is a rash mistake to maintain that no Protestant is bound to submit to the Authority and Doctrine of the Roman-Catholick Church unless he be convinct first by seeing a Miracle Such things as are own'd to be Miracles by our Church are so well examined and so authentickly proved that any one may prudently beleeve them for though perhaps none now living did see them yet many credible persons that lived when they were wrought did see them and we may rely upon their sight and search with as much Reason and more Religion then upon our own according to Christs saying to S. Thomas Blessed are they who have not seen and yet believed Proposition XVII Nothing is more absurd then to pretend the necessity of such an infallible Commission and assistance to assure us of the truth of these Writings and to interpret them and at the same time to prove that Commission from those Writings from which we are told nothing can be certainly deduced such an assistance not being supposed or to pretend that Infallibility in a body of men is not as liable to doubts and disputes as in those Books from whence only they derive their Infallibility The 17. Proposition is a gross or wilful mistake of the Roman-Catholick Doctrine We do not ground the Infallibility of the Church upon the words of Scripture which assert it but upon an impossibility or incredibility that God would permit such a Church as the Roman-Catholick qualified with so many seeming supernatural signes of his favour and seals of his Divine Commission as our Miracles Sanctity Conversion of Nations to Christianity c. upon an Impossibility I say that God would permit a Church so apparently qualified with supernatural Marks of Divine * See Father Thomas Bartons Treatise of Religion and Government edit 1670. where he cleareth this point as also the obscurity of Christian faith Authority to leade men into any errour when it pretends to propose and declare Gods Revelation This we say is not compatible with Gods Veracity or with his infinite sincerity or inclination to truth and aversnesse from falshood whether in fundamental or not fundamental points of faith For even amongst men he that
following a guide that owns not to be fully assured whether his own Doctrine be the right way to Heaven The 5. Conclusion makes it lawful for every man to reject the authority of the Church of England and to make himself sole Judge of the Scriptures and all this out of love to his soul and out of reverence to Gods Veracity which is in equivalent terms to make Dr. Stilling fleets Religion inseparable from Heresie and Rebellion and inconsistent with the safety of any State or Soveraign Conclusion VI. Though nothing were to be delivered as the Will of God but what is by the Catholick Church declared to be so yet this doth not at all concern the Church of Rome which neither is the Catholick Church nor any sound part or member thereof From all which it follows that it can be nothing but wilful Ignorance weakness of judgment strength of prejudice or some sinful passion which makes any one forsake the Communion of the Church of England to embrace that of the Church of Rome This 6. Conclusion I shall endeavour to confute by proving that the Roman-Catholick Church alone is the whole Catholick Church In order whereunto I will set down these few Propositions 1. That there is and always hath been upon earth a visible Catholick Church otherwise Christ would not have commanded us to repair to it in our differences nor the Apostles have made it an Article of our Creed 2. The Catholick Church must have some visible and supernatural signes far exceeding all others in the appearance of being such whereby it may be discerned from all ●agan and Heretical Congregations pretending to be a part or the whole Catholick Church If this be not granted no man is obliged to be of any Church nay rather all men are obliged to be of no Church because not having any signes to prefer one Church before the other none could know which is the true one and therefore it 's a hundred to one at least they would fall into some Heretical Congregation there being so many and the true Church or Congregation but one 3. That no supernatural signs or Miracles can be visible and wrought for conrfimation of doctrine in any Congregation but in that one which is the true Church because the signes or Miracles which Christ said would follow the Beleevers Mark 16. or the true Church are of the same nature of Christs Miracles and in order to gain credit for the testimony it gives of it self and his doctrine and God being the Author of truth and concord cannot give supernatural signes of his trust or truth to any two or more dissenting Churches for if he did the wisest course as I said learned and pious men could take would be to turn Scepticks and not believe in God Hence also it followeth 4. That the Catholick Church cannot be composed of any two Congregations dissenting in any one point which eith●r holds to be an Article of Faith fundamental or not fundamental the reason is because if they be of equal authority men ought rather to suspend then submit their judgments to either of those Congregations and though both should agree in fundamental Articles yet because God being truth it self is as contrary to small as great un●ru●hs or errors he can no more permit the Testimony of his Church and his Miracles to confirm a little then a great untruth and so it must be infallible as well in not fundamentals as in fundamentals 5. Gods being of infinite Veracity as hath been proved in my confutation of Dr. Stillingfleets 6 16 17. Propositions cannot permit any false Church to have or shew so credible an appearance of true Miracles as hath been alwaies and now is pretended to be in the Roman-Catholick Church They are so convincing that our adversaries can as little prove the fraud as deny the fact They are so frequent that there is scarce a Countrey in Christendom wherein they have not been wrought They are so authentick I speak only of such as are approved by the Bishops of Rome in order to the canonization of Saints that there cannot be a more narrow scrutiny into the nature and cure of the disease nor into the sincerity and sufficiency of the Witnesses and the severity of our judgments against such as we finde to be cheats and Impostors is notorious even in Ireland where our Ecclesiastical discipline is restrained by the Laws we have ventured to silence James Finanghty a simple ignorant Priest because himself and he who caused them to be printed were so weak as to fancy they were true Miracles I know Dr. Stillingfleet may object against this Proposition the Miracles of Antichrist but his Miracles will not be of the same nature with the Miracles of Christ and ours he will not convert Nations to Christianity by imitating the Apostles humility poverty and chastity as the Apostolical men of our Church have done in all former ages and even in this Witnesse both the Indies Brasile Ethiopia Persia Japan and China Besides though Antichrist's Miracles could be in appearance as palpable and as plausible as ours yet besides the precedency and prediction of ours as true the particular circumstances wherewith Scripture hath described that man of sin and the warning it hath given us not to beleeve his Miracles do so discredit him and them that no man who will reflect upon the Scriptures words and recurr to God for help will be deceiv'd by Antichrist's Impostures and lying Prodigies True it is that according to * See D. Stilling fleets Answ pag. 469. D. Stillingfleets Principles making every particular person Judge of Divine Revelation and admitting nothing as such that he thinks doth contradict sense in its proper object Antichrist's Miracles must be judged true Miracles and by consequence his Doctrine must be embraced as Divine Revelation For upon this account alone doth Dr. Stillingfleet deny the Miracle and Mystery of Transubstantiation notwithstanding the clearness of Scripture for it being impossible to express that Truth or any other in more clear terms then by Christs saying This is my body so likewise it must be concluded from Dr. Stillingfleet Principles that though Christ tels you clearly Antichrist's Miracles will not be true Miracles yet if your eyes tels you that is if you see a man lie like dead and afterwards see him stand and move by Antichrist's command you must prefer this evidence of sence in its proper object before Christs clear words and Revelation For the proper object of sense goes no further then to the outward appearance or accidents it doth not penetrate to the substance of bread or wine much less to the life or soul of a seeming dead man and by consequence men may be mistaken in the substance of both though they rely upon senses evidence in its proper object which is only the species or outward appearances or if you will follow the modern opinion certain impressions made upon the Organs of our senses and this may be