one Church which we must own for the only Catholick Church and reject all other Churches as Heretical or Schismatical or Un-catholick Churches who refuse Obedience and Subjection to this One Catholick Church For if this be not the Intent of it what will all the Notes of the Church signify to prove that the Church of Rome is the only true Catholick Church And if they do not prove this the Cardinal has lost his labour For tho the Notes he assigns were the Notes of a true Church yet they may and must belong to all other true Churches as well as to the Church of Rome unless he can prove that there is but One true Church or but One Church which is the Mistress of all other Churches and the only Principle and Center of Catholick Unity And this ought to have been proved first before he had thought of the Notes of the Church So that there are many things to be proved here before we are ready for the Notes of the Church They must first prove that there is but one true Church in the World for tho we all grant that there is but One Catholick Church yet we say there may be and hope nay more than so know that there are many true Churches which make up the Catholick Church Yet before the Notes of a true Church can do any Service to the Church of Rome they must prove that there is but one true Church in the World and then it will signify something to prove the Church of Rome to be that true Church They must prove also that the Catholick Church does not signify all the particular true Churches that are in the World but some one Church which is the Fountain of Catholick Unity which all other Churches are bound to submit to and communicate with if they will be Members of the Catholick Church For tho all the Churches in the World were in Subjection to that Church yet they receive their Catholicism from their Communion with that Church and therefore that only is the Catholick Church It is not meerly the Communion of all Churches together which makes the Catholick Church but it is the Subjection of all Churches to that one Catholick Church which makes them Catholick So that they must prove that there is one particular Church which is the Catholick Church that is that a part is the whole that one particular Church is all the Churches of the World for so the Catholick Church signifies in Ancient Writers This is so absurd that some of our Modern Advocates for the Catholick Church of Rome tell us that they do not mean the particular Diocess of Rome by the Catholick Church but all those Churches which are in Communion with the Church of Rome But suppose this yet it is only the Church of Rome which makes all the other Churches Catholick and therefore she only is the Catholick Church And I will presently make them confess it to be so For let us suppose that no other Churches should submit themselves to the Church of Rome by the Church of Rome understanding the particular Diocess of Rome would she be the Catholick Church or not If notwithstanding this she would be the Catholick Church then it is evident that they make the particular Church of Rome the Catholick Church if she would not then I cannot see how Communion with the Church of Rome is essential to the Catholick Church These things I say ought to have been proved before the Cardinal had given us the Notes of the Church for it is a hard thing to prove by Notes that the particular Church of Rome is the only Catholick Church till it be proved that a particular Church may be the Catholick Church or that there is one particular Church which is the Catholick Church This he knew we all deny and it is a ridiculous thing to think to convince us by Notes that the Church of Rome is the particular Catholick Church when we deny that there is any such Church and affirm that it is a Contradiction to own it as great a Contradiction as it is to say that a Particular Church is the Universal Church 4thly But when I consider the farther Design of these Note-Makers to find out such a Church on whose Authority we must rely for the whole Christian Faith even for the holy Scriptures themselves it makes me now admire that they should think this could be done by some Notes of a Church especially by such Notes as the Cardinal gives us For suppose he had given us the Notes of a true Church which is the utmost he can pretend to before we can hence conclude that this Church is the Infallible Guide and uncontroulable Judg of Controversies we must be satisfied that the true Church is Infallible This indeed Bellarmin attempts to prove in his third Book of the Church and it is not my Concern at present to inquire how he proves it But I am sure this can never be proved but by Scripture for unless Christ have bestowed Infallibility on the Church I know not how we can prove she has it and whether Christ have done it or not can never be known but by the Scriptures So that a Man must believe the Scriptures and use his own Judgment to understand them before it can be proved to him that there is an Infallible Church and therefore those who resolve the belief of the Scriptures into the Authority of the Church cannot without great Impudence urge the Authority of the Scriptures to prove the Church's Infallibility and yet thus they all do nay prove their very Notes of the Church from Scripture as the Cardinal does and think this is no Circle neither because we Hereticks believe the Scriptures without the Authority of their Church and therefore are willing to dispute with them out of the Scriptures But this is a fault on our side and when we dispute with them whatever we do at other times we should not believe the Scriptures till they had proved them to us their way by the Authority or their Church and then we should quickly see what blessed Work they would make of it How they would prove their Church's Infallibility and what fine Notes we should have of a Church when we had rejected all their Scripture-proofs as we ought to do till they have first satisfied us that theirs is the only true Infallible Church upon whose Authority we must believe the Scriptures and every thing else I confess I would gladly hear what Notes they would give a Pagan to find out the true Infallible Church by It is certainly a most sensless thing to resolve all our Faith into the Authority of the Church as if the Church were the first Object or our Faith in Religion whereas it is demonstrable that we must know and believe most of the Articles of the Christian Faith before we can know whether there be any Church or not The order observed in the Apostles Creed is a plain Evidence
THE NOTES OF The Church As Laid down By Cardinal BELLARMIN Examined and Confuted With a Table of the Contents IMPRIMATUR Apr. 6. 1687. Guil. Needham LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXVIII THE SEVERAL TRACTS Contained IN THIS VOLUME 1. A Brief Discourse concerning the Notes of the Church with some Reflections on Cardinal BELLARMIN's Notes 2. An Examination of Note concerning BELLARMIN's First The Name of Catholick 3. His Second Note Antiquity 4. His Third Note Duration 5. His Fourth Note Amplitude or Multitude and Variety of Believers 6. His Fifth Note The Succession of Bishops 7. His Sixth Note Agreement in Doctrine with the Primitive Church 8. His Seventh Note Vnion of the Members among themselves and with the Head. 9. His Eighth Note Sanctity of Doctrine 10. His Ninth Note Efficacy of the Doctrine 11. His Tenth Note Holiness of Life 12. His Eleventh Note The Glory of Miracles 13. His Twelfth Note The Light of Prophecy 14. His Thirteenth Note Confession of Adversaries 15. His Fourteenth Note The Vnhappy End of the Church's Enemies 16. His Fifteenth Note Temporal Felicity 17. A Vindication of the Brief Discourse concerning the Notes of the Church in Answer to a Late Pamphlet Intituled The Vse and great Moment of the Notes of the Church as delivered by Cardinal Bellarmin de Notis Ecclesiae Justified 18. A Defence of the Confuter of Bellarmin's Second Note of the Church Antiquity against the Cavils of the Adviser 19. A TABLE of the Contents THE CONTENTS Of the following NOTES The INTRODUCTION to the Notes of the Church THE Visibility of the Catholick Church takes away the Necessity of finding out Notes to distinguish it by especially of such Notes as are matter of Dispute themselves p. 3. The Vse of Notes of find out an Infallible Church and these appropriated by the Cardinal to the Church of Rome only p. 4. What Protestants intend in those Notes they give of the true Church and what the Papists by their Notes of a Church p. 5. The Protestant Way of finding out the Church by the essential Properties of a true Church p. 6. Three things objected to this by the Cardinal and Answers returned p. 7 8 9 10 11 12. The Cardinal's Way considered and examined 1st To find out which is the True Church before we know what a True Church is p. 13. Two Enquiries in order of Nature before which is the True Church whether there be a True Church or not and what it is ibid. No Notes of these but such as they dare not give viz. the Authority of the Scriptures and every Man 's private Judgment of the Sense and Interpretation of them p. 14. 2ly She gives us Notes whereby to find out the True Catholick Church before we know what a particular Church is p. 15. Impossible to know what the Catholick Church is before we know what a particular Church is ibid. No other Notes of a True Church but what belongs to every True particular Church and that can be nothing but what is essential to a Church and what all Churches do agree in viz the true Faith and Worship of Christ p. 16. The 6th which is the same with the 2d and the 8th are the chief if not the only Notes of this Nature and here our Claim is as good if not better than theirs ibid. His 9th 10th 11th and 12th not properly Notes of a True Church any otherwise than as they are Testimonies of the common Christianity which is professed by all true Churches ibid. The 13th 14th 15th no Notes at all because they are not always true ibid. His 3d and 4th Notes are not Notes of a Church but only God's Promises made to his Church p. 17. His 1st Note doth not declare what a Church is but in what Communion it is and is no Note of a true Church unless it be frrst proved that they are true Churches which are in Communion with each other ibid. His 5th common to the Greek and any other Church who have Bishops in Succession from the Apostles or Apostolical Bishops p. 18. The 7th Note serves to purpose the Cardinal's Design and doth his Business without any other Note ibid. 3dly Another Mystery in forming these Notes is to pick out of all the Christian Churches in the World one Church which we must own for the Catholick Church and reject all others as Heretical or Schismatical or Vncatholick Churches who refuse Obedience and Subjection to this one Catholick Church p. 19. That there is but one True Church in the World and that the Catholick Church doth not signify all the particular True Churches but some one Church which all others are bound to submit to and communicate with if they will be Members of the Catholick Church this necessary to be proved before the Cardinal had given us these Notes of a Church p. 20 21. 4thly Another Design in making these Notes is to find out such a Church on whose Authority we must rely for the whole Christian Faith even for the Holy Scriptures themselves p. 22. But here we must first be satisfied that the True Church is Infallible this can never be proved but by Scripture which a Man must first believe before it can be proved to him that there is an Infallible Church p. 23. The Church is not the first Object of our Faith in Religion since we ought to know and believe most of the Articles of the Christian Faith before we can know whether there be any Church or no. p. 23 24. The Contents of the First NOTE CATHOLICK THE sincere Preaching of the Faith or Doctrine of Christ as it is laid down in the Scripture is the only sure and infallible Mark of the Church of Christ p. 25. The Church of Rome declines being examined by this Rule p. 26. Bellarmin's Argument for the Name Catholick being an undoubted true Mark of a True Church p. 26. The Weakness of the Cardinal's Argument exposed in three Particulars I. In what respect the Name Catholick was esteemed by some of the Fathers in their Time a Note of a Catholick Church and in what respects 't will ever be a standing Note of it p. 27. This shewn to be upon the account of the Catholick Faith and therefore in their time is joined with the Word Catholick p. 28. What the Catholick Faith and why called Catholick ibid. None in the first Ages of Christianity went by the Name of Catholick but those who profest the true Catholick Faith. p. 29. II. No Argument can be drawn from the bare Name of Catholick to prove a Church to be Catholick p. 29. I. The Christian Church was not known by the Name Catholick at the Beginning though of an antient and early Date and therefore no essential Note of it p. 30. 2. Names are oft times arbitrary and at random and falsly imposed on things and therefore nothing can be concluded from them ibid. 3. Names are oft times imposed on
of Infallibility church-Church-Authority and resolution of Faith and Judge of Controversies c. p. 119. The Reformation never did decline the Judgment of the Primitive Church for its Justification p. 120 121. Luther and Calvin misrepresented by Cardinal Bellarmine p. 122. The Apostolick Church founded and governed by the Apostles over all the World is the true Standard of the Christian Church ibid. The Scriptures the only Authentick Records of the Apostolick Church and the only certain account we have of the Faith and Doctrine of the most Primitive Church p. 123. Several Doctrines Examined by Antiquity 1. Supremacy not allowed of by the first Council of Nice nor that of Constantinople nor Chalcedon p. 125. 2. Transubstantiation acknowledged by many of the Schoolmen not to have been the Doctrine of the Primitive Church ibid. This Doctrine brought into the Church a little before Berengarius and not throughly understood even then by those who held it p. 126. Berengarius his Recantation and the Gloss upon it p. 127. The Number of the Sacraments not declared to be seven by the Primitive Church nor mentioned by any Author till 1100 Years after Christ ibid. Necessity of Auricular Confession questioned by Learned Men in the times of Peter Lombard p. 128. Purgatory not mentioned by any Antient Writers p. 128 129. Indulgences received very late into the Church ibid. Prayers and Oblations for the Dead an Antient Practice but no Doctrine of the Primitive Church ibid. Prayers in an unknown Tongue never the Practice any where of the Primitive Church ib. Worship of Saints and Angels and of Images of no Antient date in the Church ibid. All these Doctrines of the Roman Church which distinguish it from the Reformed that they were not Doctrines of the Primitive Church is further proved 1. From their Expurgatory Indices p. 130. 2. From the Correcting or rather Corrupting the Fathers and the counterfeiting so many false ones and obtruding Spurious Authors upon the World. p. 131 132. 3. From that little esteem and regard they too often have for Antiquity when ever it makes against them p. 133. 4. From the Determinations and Decrees of the Present Church which are the only things they stick to and which they prefer a thousand times before Antiquity or the whole sence of the Primitive Church The Seventh Note The Union of the Members among themselves and with the Head. UNity no proper Character of a true Church because found upon Societies of different natures and contrary designes p. 137. It is a good mark when 't is a duty as 't is a duty when the terms of Vnion are so ibid. Wherein this Vnity consists according to Bellarmine p. 138. Hereupon three things are endeavoured 1. That the Vnity here offered is no true Note of the Church forasmuch as Vnion with the Pope as Head of the Church hath no Foundation in Scripture Reason or Antiquity p. 140. 1. Scripture p. 141 142 143. 2. No Foundation of it from Reason p. 144 145. 3. Nor any Colour from Antiquity p. 145 to 149. The Cardinals Argument for the necessity of this Vnion from Experience considered p. 149. 2. The Vnion which they pretend to among themselves as Members no certain Note of the Church p. 150. 1. This is no more than what any Society may have as well as the true Church and any other Church as well as the Roman p. 151. 2. As there may be this Vnion out of the true Church so its may not be within it ibid. II. If Vnity were a true Note of the Church yet the Roman Church hath it not which is probably true of the first and most certainly true of the second branch of the Cardinals Vnity p. 152. 1. It is probable that there is not now nor hath been for many Ages any true Pope for the Church to be Vnited to ibid. 2. Neither is there that Vnion in all points of Doctrine amongst the Papists or such a Vnion of their Members as shall prevent the breaking away of some from the Communion of the rest p. 153. Not that wonderful agreement as the Cardinal pretends in the Sacred Writers of their Church nor in the Decrees of their Lawful Councils nor in those of their Popes p. 154. Several Disputes between the Canonists and Schoolmen in many material points of Doctrine between the Thomists the Scotists and Occamists between the Franciscans and Dominicans about the conception of the Blessed Virgin the Jansenists and Molinists p. 155 156. Bellarmin's Answer to all this viz. They differ not in those things that belong to Faith considered p. 156 157. The Cardinals difference between the division of Hereticks from the Church and a division from Heresie considered p. 158. If there be in the Church of Rome a certain rule for ending Controversies viz. The Sentence of the chief Pastor or a definition of a General Council ibid. 1. Why were not these the means of composing those Controversies that carried us away from them ibid. 2. How could those be certain means of composing Controversies concerning which even in their own Church there were the greatest Controversies of all p. 159. This largely shewn from the Learned Launoys Epistle to Nicholas Gatinaeus upon this Question p. 160 161 162 163. III. That that Vnity which is indeed a Note of the Church we Protestants have and that in a much greater degree than they p. 164. The true Grounds and Notions of Church-Vnity represented ibid. 1. Vnity of Submission to one Head our Lord Jesus Christ ibid. 2. Vnity of professing the Common Faith once delivered to to the Saints grounded upon the Authority of Scriptures and summarily expounded in the Antient Creed p. 165. 3. Vnity of Sacraments in the Church ibid. 4. Vnity of Obedience to all Institutions and Laws of Christ p. 165. 5. Vnity of Christian Affection and Brotherly kindness ibid. 6. Vnity of Discipline and Government ibid. 7. Vnity of Communion in the Service and Worship of God. p. 166. Some tho' not all of these necessary to the being of a Church viz. The acknowledgment of our Lord the profession of one Faith and admission into the state of Christian Duties and Priviledges by one Baptism ibid. Those particular Churches which keep Vnity in all these respects better than others do have the mark of Ecclesiastical Vnity in a higher degree than those others have p. 167. The Church of Rome as she holds one Lord one Faith one Baptism is part of the Catholick Church and so far maintains Catholick Vnity ibid. Wherein she departs from Catholick Vnity Purity and Charity shewed in several instances p. 167 168. The Church of England not chargeable on the same account ibid. 168 169. Vnity of Communion in the Church of Rome is Vnity of Communion among themselves but not Catholick Vnity of Communion because the terms of it are many of them unlawful and unjust p. 170. The Contrary to which the true Case of the Church of England ibid. 171. The Conclusion p. 171
wants For since there are a great many Christian Churches in the World as the Greek the Armenian the Abyssine the Roman Church he would find out which of these Churches is the Catholick Church which after all their shuffles they can never make any better sense of than which of the Parts is the Whole Since there are many unhappy disputes among Christians the use of Notes is to find out an Infallible Church which must by an indisputable authority dictate to all other Churches what they must believe and what they must practise and to bring all other Churches into subjection they must find out a Church out of whose Communion there is no pardon of sin no Eternal life to be had That is in short the use of Notes is to prove the Church of Rome to be the only Catholick Church the only Infallible Oracle of Faith and final Judg of Controversies and that the promises of Pardon of Sin and Eternal Life are made only to the Church of Rome and to those other Churches which are in subjection to her Thus Bellarmine unriddles this matter that the usefulness of this Inquiry after the Notes of the true Church is because in the true Church only there is the true Faith the true remission of sins the true hope of eternal salvation Omnes enim â—onfitentur in solâ verâ Ecclesia esse veram fidem veram peccatorum remissionem veram spem salutis aeternâ Bell. de Notis Eccl. cap. 1. which is certainly true that all this is to be had only in the true Church of Christ For there can be no true Church without the true Faith and no remission of sins nor hope of salvation out of the true Church But then all the Churches in the World which profess the true faith of Christ are such true Churches But this will not do the business neither for it is not enough to know that every true Church professes the true Faith but we must find out such a Church as cannot err in the Faith and has authority to correct the Faith of all other Churches and we must allow the pardon of sin and eternal life to be had in no other Church but this which is the only thing which can make such a Church the Mistress of all other Churches and this Church must be the Church of Rome or else the Cardinal is undone with all his Notes and Marks of the Church The observing this gives us the true state of this Controversie which is not what it is which makes a Church a true Church which is necessary for all Christians to know that they may take care that nothing be wanting in their Communion which is essential to a true Church which is the only use of Notes that I know of but the dispute is how among all the divisions of Christendom we may find out that only true Church which is the Mistress of all other Churches the only Infallible Guide in Matters of Faith and to which alone the promises of pardon and salvation are made and by some Notes and Characters of such a Church to prove that the Church of Rome is that Church The first of these is what the Protestants intend in those Notes they give of the true Church to show what it is which is essential to the being and constitution of a Christian Church for that and none else is a true Church which has all things essential to a true Church The second is what the Papists intend by their Notes of a Church to prove that the Church of Rome is the only true Church and some brief remarks upon both these ways will abundantly serve for an Introduction to a more particular examination of Cardinal Bellarmin's Notes of the Church which is the only design of these Papers It is no wonder that Papists and Protestants differ so much about the Notes of the true Church since the questions which each of them intend to answer by their several Notes so vastly differ When you ask a Protestant What are the Notes of a true Church He answers to that question What it is which is essential to a true Church or what it is which makes a Church a true Church that is What a true Church is And examines the truth of his Church by the essential marks and properties of a Church When you ask a Papist for Notes of a true Church he answers to that question Which is a true Church and thinks to point you out to a true Church by some external marks and signs without ever inquiring what it is which is essential to a Church and this he must of necessity do according to his principles for he can know nothing of Religion till he has found the Church from which he must learn every thing else Let us consider then which of these is most reasonable First To begin with the Protestant way of finding out the Church by the essential properties of a true Church Such as the profession of the true Christian Faith and the Christian Sacraments rightly and duly administred by persons rightly ordained according to the Institution of our Saviour and the Apostolical practise This is essential to a true Church for there can be no true Christian Church without the true Christian Faith and Christian Sacraments which cannot be rightly administred but by Church-Officers rightly and duly Ordained The Regular Exercise of Discipline is not necessary to the being of the Church but to the purity and good government of it This is the sum of what the Protestants alledg for the Notes of the true Church and these are as infallible Notes of a true Church as Humane Nature is of a man for they are the Essential Principles of it By this every man may know whether he be a Member of a true Church or not for where this is there is a true Church where this is not there is no true Church whatever other marks of a Church there be And I know no other use of Notes but to find out what we seek for In answer to such Notes as these Cardinal Bellarmin objects Three things 1. That Notes whereby we will distinguish things must not be common to other things but proper and peculiar to that of which it is a Note As if you would describe a man to me whom I never saw so as that I may know him when I meet him it is not enough to say that he has two Hands or two Eyes c. because this is common to all Men. And this he says is the Fault of these Notes for as for the sincere Preaching of the Truth or the Profession of the true Christian Faith this is common to all Sects at least in their own Opinion and the same may be said of the Sacraments All Sects and Professions of Christians either have the true Faith and Sacraments or at least think that they have so and therefore these marks cannot visibly distinguish the true Church from any other Sect of
Christians Now I must confess these Notes as he well observes are common to all Christian Churches and were intended to be so and if this does not answer his Design we cannot help it The Protestant Churches do not desire to confine the Notes of the Church to their own private Communions but are very glad if all the Churches in the World be as true Churches as themselves The whole Catholick Church which consists of a great many particular Diocesan or National Churches has the same Nature And when the whole consists of univocal parts every part must have the same Nature with the whole And therefore as he who would describe a man must describe him by such Characters as fit all Mankind so he who gives the Essential Characters of a Church must give such Notes as fit all true Churches in the World. This indeed does not fit the Church of Rome to make it the only Catholick and the only true Church nor do we intend it should but it fits all true Churches wherever they are and that is much better To answer then his Argument when we give Notes which belong to a whole Species as we must do when we give the Notes of a true Christian Church there being a great many true Churches in the World which make up the Catholick or Universal Church we must give such Notes as belong to the whole kind that is to all true Christian Churches And though these Notes are common indeed to all true Christian Churches yet they are proper and peculiar to a true Christian Church as the Essential Properties of a man are common to all men but proper to mankind And this is necessary to make them true Notes For such Notes of a true Church as do not fit all true Churches cannot be true Notes As for what the Cardinal urges That all Sects of Christians think themselves to have the true Faith and true Sacraments I am apt to think they do but what then If they have not the true Faith and true Sacraments they are not true Churches whatever they think of it and yet the true Faith and true Sacraments are certain Notes of a true Church A Purchase upon a bad Title which a man thinks a good one is not a good Estate but yet a Purchase upon a Title which is not only thought to be but is a good one is a good Estate All that can be said in this case is That men can be no more certain that they have a true Church than they are that they have a true Faith and true Sacraments and this I readily grant But as mens mistakes in this matter does not prove that there is no true Faith nor true Sacraments so neither does it prove that a true Faith and true Sacraments are not Notes of the true Church 2. The Cardinal 's second Objection is That the Notes of any thing must be more known than the thing it self which we readily grant Now says he which is the true Church is more knowable than which is the true Faith and this we deny and that for a very plain reason because the true Church cannot be known without knowing the true Faith for no Church is a true Church which does not profess the true Faith. We may as well say that we can know a Horse without knowing what the shape and figure of a Horse is which distinguishes it from all other Creatures as that we can know a Christian Church without knowing what the Christian Faith is which distinguishes it from all other Churches or we may as well say that we can know any thing without knowing what it is since the very Essence of a true Church consists in the true Faith which therefore must be first known before we can know the true Church But the Cardinal urges that we cannot know what true Scripture is nor what is the true interpretation of Scripture but from the Church and therefore we must know the Church before we can koow the true Faith. As for the first I readily grant that at this distance from the writing the Books of the New Testament there is no way to assure us that they were written by the Apostles or Apostolical men and owned for inspired Writings but the Testimony of the Church in all Ages But herein we do not consider them as a Church but as credible Witnesses Whether there be any such thing as a Church or not we can know only by the Scriptures But without knowing whether there be a Church or not if we know that for so many Hundred years these Books have been owned to be written by such men and have been received from the Apostles days till now by all who call themselves Christians this is as good an Historical Proof as we can have for any thing and it is the Authority of an uninterrupted Tradition not the Authority of the Church considered as a Church which moves us to believe them For setting aside the Authority of Tradition how can the Authority of a Company of men who call themselves the Church before I know whether there be any Church move me to believe any thing which was done 1600. years a-go But there is a Company of men in the World and have been successively for 1600. years whether they be a Church or not is nothing to this question who assure me that these Books which we call the Scriptures were written by such inspired men and contain a faithful account of what Christ did and taught and suffered and therefore I believe such Books and from them I learn what that true Faith is which makes a true Christian Church As for the true interpretation of Scripture that we cannot understand what it is without the Church this I also deny The Scriptures are very intelligible to honest and diligent Readers in all things necessary to salvation and if they be not I desire to know how we shall find out the Church for certainly the Church has no Character but what is in the Scripture and then if we must believe the Church before we can believe or understand the Scriptures we must believe the Church before we can possibly know whether there be a Church or not If we prove the Church by the Scripture we must believe and understand the Scripture before we can know the Church If we believe and understand the Scriptures upon the Authority and Interpretation of the Church considered as a Church then we must know the Church before the Scripture The Scripture cannot be known without the Church nor the Church without the Scripture and yet one of them must be known first and yet neither of them can be known first according to these Principles which is such an absurdity as all the Art of the World can never palliate 3. The Cardinal 's third Objection is That the true Notes of the Church must be inseparable from it whereas the Churches of Corinth and Galatia did not always teach true Doctrine some of the Church
of this for all those Articles which are before the Holy Catholick Church must in order of Nature be known before it That there is a God who made the World that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God who was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried and descended into Hell that he rose again the third day from the dead and ascended into Heaven and sitteth on the Right-hand of God the Father Almighty and from thence shall come to judg the Quick and the Dead I believe in the Holy Ghost and then we may add the Holy Catholick Church and not till then For the Church is a Society of Men for the Worship of God through the Faith of Jesus Christ by the Sanctification of the Holy Spirit which unites them into one Mystical Body So that we must know Father Son and Holy Ghost before we can know what the Catholick Church means And is it not strange then that our Faith must be founded on the Authority of the Church when we must first know all the great Articles of our Faith before we can know any thing about a Church This inverts the order of our Creed which according to the Principles of the Church of Rome should begin thus I believe in the Holy Catholick Church and upon the Authority of that Church I believe in God the Father Almighty and in Jesus Christ and in the Holy Ghost and no doubt but the Apostles or those Apostolical Men who framed the Creed would have put it so had they thought the whole Christian Faith must be resolved into the Authority of the Church This short Discourse I think is enough in general concerning the Notes of the Church and I shall leave the particular Examination of Cardinal Bellarmin's Notes to other Hands which the Reader may expect to follow in their order The End. BELLARMIN'S First Note of the Church concerning the name of Catholick EXAMINED Prima Nota est ipsum Catholicae Ecclesiae Christianorum nomen Bellar. cap. 4. de notis Ecclesiae p. 1477. IMPRIMATUR Apr. 8. 1687. Guil. Needham RR. in Christo P. ac D. D. Wilhelmo Archiep. Cant. a Sacr. Domest THat the sincere Preaching of the Faith or Doctrine of Christ as it 's laid down in the Scripture is the only sure Infallible Mark of the Church of Christ is a Truth so clear in it self so often and fully prov'd by Learned Men of the Reformation that it may justly seem a Wonder that any Church which is not conscious to her self of any Errors and Deviations from it should refuse to put her self upon that Tryal This gave Being to the Church of Christ at first makes it One and makes it Catholick According as this fares in any Part or Member of it is that Church distinguish'd and denominated it will be True or False Pure or Corrupt Sound or Heretical according as the Faith it holds bears a conformity or repugnance to the written Doctrine of our Saviour An Orthodox Faith makes an Orthodox Church but if her Faith becomes Tainted and Heterodox the Church will be so too and should it happen wholly to Apostatize from the Faith of Christ it would wholly cease to be a Christian Church This may seem to be the Reason that the present Church of Rome being notoriously warp'd from Truth declines the being examined and measur'd by this Rule having indeed some reason to be against the Scripture that is so evidently against her and endeavours to support her self with great Names and Swelling Titles Hence it is that we so often hear of the Name of Catholick Antiquity Amplitude Vnity Succession Miracles Prophecy and several others that their great Cardinal sets down as so many perpetual and never-failing Marks and Characters to find out the True Church and to Assert his own I shall in this short Tract examine the first of these and that I may give it all the fair play imaginable endeavour to represent it in its full force and to its best advantage Bellarmin makes it thus to speak for it self The Apostle in 1 Cor. 3.4 makes it the Sign and Mark of Scismaticks to be called after the Name of particular Men tho' of the Apostles themselves whether of Paul or Apollos or Cephas And in the Writings of the ancient Fathers the Orthodox Churches were known and distinguish'd by the name of Catholick and the Conventicles of Scismaticks and Hereticks by the Names of their first Authors And therefore since the Church of Rome is by all even her bitterest Adversaries called Catholick and the several Sects of the Reform'd after the Names of their particular Doctors as Luther Calvin Zuinglius and the like it follows that the Name of Catholick is not only a sure undoubted Mark of the true Church but also that this Church of Rome is that Church This is his Argument and as much as he values his Church upon it I can see no more in it but this that because Churches professing the true Orthodox Faith were anciently styl'd Catholick therefore all that have been styled Catholick since be their Faith what it will must be True and Orthodox Churches And because the Apostle forbids Christians to be call'd after the Name of particular Men tho of never so great Eminency in the Church And those mentioned in the Works of the Ancients were really Scismaticks and Hereticks that were so call'd as the Valentinians Marcionites Montanists and others Therefore all that in after-Ages shall be so nick-nam'd tho out of Malice and Ill-will by their Enemies whilst they disown it themselves must go for Scismaticks and Hereticks This is so weak a Topick that I might justly break off here having expos'd it sufficiently by a bare Representing of it Yet for the Reader 's farther Information and Satisfaction in this matter I shall proceed to shew these three Things I. In what Respect the name of Catholick was esteemed by some of the Fathers in their Time a Note of a Catholick Church and in what Respects 't will ever be a standing Note of it II. That from the bare name of Catholick no Argument can be drawn to prove a Church to be Catholick III. That the Church of Rome having egregiously corrupted the true Catholick Faith neither is nor deserves the Name of a Catholick Church I. In what Respect the Name of Catholick was esteemed by some of the Fathers in their Time a Note of the Catholick Church and c. And this as evidently appears from their Writings and even from those Testimonies cited by Bellarmine was upon the Account of the Catholick Faith that in their Time was generally and for the most part in conjunction with the Name of Catholick and when ever it is so 't will be an Infallible Note of a Catholick Church The Catholick Faith is that which was deliver'd by Christ himself to his Apostles and by them to the Church contain'd in those Writings which they by
from themselves is consistent with their Nature and for all which if the Errors are not fundamental they are Churches still but to find Errors and Contradictions in an Infallible Church is to confound the nature of things to give the Infallible Church no advantage over the Fallible and to expose the Persons that betake themselves to that shelter to all the Disquietudes Uncertainties and Disappointments of Ignorance and Error For what is the usual Reason given for forsaking other Churches but because they are Fallible What is the Reason why they go over to the Church of Rome but because she is as they are made to believe Infallible But if with her Infallibility she has mistaken if with her Certainty she contradicts her self if she was one thing in one Age and another in another then there is the same Reason to quit the Church of Rome as there was to imbrace it and such persons must either be contented with a Church that is Fallible or be of none THE END Pag. 63. Marg. lin ult read in Apoc. 17. 5. LONDON Printed by J. D. for Richard Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1687. The Fourth Note of the CHURCH EXAMINED VIZ AMPLITUDE or Multitude and Variety of Believers Quarta Nota est Amplitudo sive Multitudo Varietas Credentium Bellarm. L. iv c. vii de Notis Ecclesiae IMPRIMATUR Apr. 27. 1687. GVIL. NEEDHAM WE could very willingly appeal to our Adversaries themselves were they unconcerned whether a plainer Proof can be given of a Baffled Cause in a Controversy relating to any Point of revealed Religion than for the Assertors of it to decline maintaining it by those Books which alone can acquaint us with Divine Revelations But 't is Notorious that the Romanists are highly chargeable upon this Account in their Endeavours to persuade the World that theirs is the only true Church They need not be told that we are beholden to the Holy Scriptures for our having any Notion of such a thing as a Church and they and we are agreed that that only is the true Christian Church which professeth the true Christian an Faith and therefore how is it possible they should not be aware that the best way to be satisfied whether those who challenge to themselves the Title of the True and Catholick Church have it really belonging to them is to examine their Faith by the Holy Scriptures Which 't is hard to imagine they can think to be so imperfect a Rule of Faith as to believe it a justifiable thing to be so averse to this Method as we have ever found they are This we of the Reformation have always stuck to and we are desirous of nothing more than that it may be tryed by the Faith we profess whether we are sound Members of the Catholick Church and the soundness of our Faith may be tryed by the Scriptures But instead of taking this Course those of the Roman Communion have invented and do insist on a Company of Notes and Characters of the Church which are either not to be met with or are far from being plainly delivered in Scripture Had this been our practice I appeal to their own Consciences whether they could have imputed it to a better Cause than our being conscious to our selves of the disagreeableness of our Faith with the Doctrine of Scripture and our not daring to have it brought to this Touch-stone Of this sort of Notes Cardinal Bellarmine hath given us no fewer than Fifteen among which he could afford no Place to this Note of ours though 't is as evident as the Light that this one alone would have signified much more to his Purpose than all that long Bead-roul put together The Design of this Discourse is to examine his Fourth Note viz. Amplitudo sive Multitudo Varietas Credentium Amplitude or Multitude and Variety of Believers And how far he makes it to extend his next Words inform us viz. Ecclesia enim verè Catholica non solum debet amplecti omnia Tempora sed etiam omnia Loca omnes Nationes omnia Hominum Genera The truly Catholick Church ought not only to comprehend all Ages but also all Places all Nations and all Sorts of Men. And First He endeavours to prove this to be a true Note Secondly To make it to belong to the Church of Rome and to her alone Thirdly To perswade us that those particularly who call themselves the Reformed Churches can lay no claim to it And it shall be my Business First To shew that this cannot be a Note of the true Church And Secondly Supposing it to be so that the Church of Rome will however gain nothing by it as to her Pretension nor the Reformed Churches lose any thing Nay on the contrary that it will quite overthrow her Pretension of being the whole Catholick Church and do the Reformed Churches as great Service as Her Prejudice First I will briefly shew that this cannot be a Note of the true Church By a Note is understood a distinguishing Character but this is such a Character of the true Church as no one could less distinguish it And that whether we consider the Members thereof under either the notion of a great Multitude or a great Multitude of Believers Considering them under the Notion of a great Multitude the Church which is Christ's Kingdom is far from being distinguishable as such from the Kingdom of Satan which was always incomparably more numerous Or from that part of it which consisteth of Idolatrous Pagans What Romanist can boast of his Church in reference to this Note as Demetrius the Silver-Smith did of his Diana when he said That all Asia and the World worshipped her Nor can the Church of Christ by the Number of its Members be distinguished from the Worshippers of that great Impostor Mahomet which the Sons of the Roman Church must especially grant to be far exceeding the Members of Christ's true Church in Number since they make themselves the only Catholicks Again considering them under the Notion of a great Multitude of Believers there was an Age in which the Orthodox Christians could not be distinguished from Hereticks by the greatness of their Number whom the Romanists will not admit to be Members of the Church in any sense for in the Reign of Arrianism ingenuit Orbis mirabatur c. The World lamented and wondred to find it self turned Arrian saith St. Hierom. And it became a Proverb Athanasius against the whole World and the whole World against Athanasius And lastly the Church of Christ is not to be thus distinguished from the Kingdom of Antichrist I wish our Adversaries could impartially consider whose Note that of having Power given him over all Kindreds and Tongues and Nations is most likely to be Apoc. 13.7 And who it is that is described by sitting as upon seven Hills so upon many Waters Chap. 17.1 Which Waters are Peoples and Multitudes and Nations Vers 15. and Tongues These
often fallacious way of arguing however popular and that needs less Trouble in Examination from Persons to things whereas these will continue the same but they are changeable 1. But then it may be observed of the Roman Succession that the case seems so extremely chang'd since the first Times So great an Alteration there is in the Persons and in the Office to which the Succession is now come that it can hardly be look'd on as the continuation of the same The Episcopal Power is all that we can find for some hundred of years laid claim to and our Note is only concerned in it tho in some few single Acts it began by degrees to be stretch'd so as to put other Bishops upon their Guard and Protestations as in the case of Appeals by the Africans Yet were all Bishops owned to have an equal share in that all to be of like Power and Authority all alike Successors of the Apostles whether at Rome or in the meanest City as in the known Testimonies in St. Cyprian and St. Jerom c. But the Papal Power now challenged and exercised is so vastly and widely different from Episcopacy that scarce any Propriety of Speech can bring them under the same Name But to come to matter of Fact. Notwithstanding the high Elogiums given by the Antients on particular occasions to the Roman Church or Bishops and the very bold Efforts and very lofty Aspirings of some of these yet he must have other Eyes or other Spectacles than we can procure who can espy any thing like the Supremacy and Authority claim'd by the present Papacy in the Principles or Practice of the Church for more than five hundred Years which as hath been observed could not but have been as discernable in all the Histories of those Times as the Reference to the power of our Kings and manner of our Government must be in our own History 2. Farther indeed there seems no great Reason for them to be much concerned at the Succession of Bishops that are not very favourable to the very Order We know what great Opposition in their Council of Trent the Divine Right of Episcopacy met with from the chief Favourites of that See when the Determination was so strongly pressed by others De Pont. Rom. l. 1. c. 8 9. l. 4. c. 24. And the Author of these Notes is pleated to determine the Government of the Church not to be chiefly in the Bishops but properly and intirely Monarchical in the Pope only and that he derives his Power immediately from Christ But the Bishops have theirs from him as to Jurisdiction which is Government 3. Moreover they have the less reason to except against any Churches for the want of this Apostolical Order when their very Catechism that multiplies Orders with much less Distinction of Office makes this no distinct Order but only a different Degree of the same Priesthood the supreme Order in their Church ascending only gradually from that of a common Presbyter to that of Bishops Arch-Bishops Patriarchs and the Pope himself Some of the intermediate we know admit no distinct Ordination Nay the pretended plenary Power of the Pope hath sometimes by particular Delegation empowered mitred Abbots but meer Presbyters to supply the Place of two of the Bishops if but one be present even in Ordination it self and that of a Bishop as Bellarmine in this very Note yields Many other Instances might be given of their endeavours to advance the first as it were on purpose to fence off the danger of a Rival To what use else should serve so many Priviledges and Exemptions long complained of Their chief Rise hath been upon the Depression of Bishops and robbing them of their ordinary Power So quite opposite is the true case from the Jelousies of some about this Primitive Order 4. Also they will have little cause to glory much in this pretended uninterrupted Succession when they consider how many Nullities according to their own Principles may dissolve and separate the closest Connexion thereof For besides confused Tumultuary and Simoniacal Promotions from which their own Writers will scarce free some of them That one Principle of the Intention of the Priest being necessary to the Effect of any Sacrament had need make them fearful of relying too much upon it For in case this were once wanting in some of the principal Sources through so long a Tract of time variety of Circumstances and different Temper of Persons which many will think no hard matter to suppose however can never be certainly proved otherwise by this Rule they cannot be secure of any Order yea scarce of any true Christian among them So I proceed to the Third Inquiry How insufficient a Proof this will afford them of any Great Advantage Inquiry 3. Indeed Bellarmin himself seems so Just as in part to yield this in his Answer to the Fourth Objection about this Note He says an Argument may be brought that there the Church is not where there is not this Succession but it cannot thence necessarily be gathered that there the Church is wheresoever this Succession is So that it seems no positive Proof with him Wherefore he thinks fit to exclude the Eastern Churches or break their Succession upon pretences of Heresy 1. For First This Succession is no sufficient Evividence of the Truth of the Doctrine of any Church Indeed were Tradition so infallible a Conveyance of Truth as some Men that talk of nothing below Demonstration would vouch Were it impossible for any new Opinion to creep into the Church Were it necessary that Men must believe to Day as they did Yesterday and so in short as it were at one Leap up to the very Apostles and that the passage of sixteen hundred years were able to make as little Alterations in the Memorials or Evidences of what Doctrines or Rules of Practice were first delivered by word of Mouth as the last Nights sleep does of what pass'd the Day before Then every Church of Apostolical Foundation and such were all then Planted had been and would still continue as Infallible as the Church of Rome thinks her self and we should not have had any dispute about their Tenets nor any such Exceptions against their Succession What Security theirs hath from the Defections which others are charged with or have been found liable to what Evidence may be produc'd that any Church or Company of Men in the Church may not add in process of Time some Doctrines and Usages very prejudicial to the Common Faith once delivered to the Saints And that the Resolution of our Faith is only with safety to be made into the Perpetuity and Infallibility of the Roman Church alone by it self or its Dependants we are yet to seek And much wonder that the Ancients in all their Disputes with Hereticks and Schismaticks should take so great a compass to confute their Adversaries from Scripture Reason and other Authorities beside what the See of Rome afforded and not with our
we of more than 200 Certainly the Argument from Succession here is much stronger the nearer it comes to the Original from which all the Authority and Virtue in the following are derived the Water may be supposed clearer and more natural the nearer to the Fountain-Head There is at least some danger from every Remove or Change made I am apt to think they themselves will hardly suppose they have a better Argument from Succession than those had 1200 or more Years since For if it be good now be sure it was so then But it will not follow alternately if then good it must hold so still The Case may be presum'd much different in the Succession of Ecclesiastical Dignities and Secular in this latter it may be suppos'd the Title gathers still more strength by the length of its Continuance is more confirm'd by long Possession many super induct Obligations but was it may be weakest in its Beginnings as in most particular Governments now when of a meer Human Original so far as we may with due Modesty and Reverence look that way But Spiritual Power in whomsoever where Legitimate can only descend at first from an immediate Divine Commission and that we may suppose gains nothing by passing through Human Hands and Infirmities being most strong and powerful in its first rise Indeed did the Cardinal only argue for a Temporal and Ecclesiastical Monarchy and would he be content to begin it after Pope Gregory the First and then to rise by degrees for a while Succession appears to me the best Argument they have However it is much easier to shew fair Evidences of the unaltered conveyance of the same Truth from one to another when it hath gone through so few Hands and that the eldest bears its Date but a very few Centuries of as Irenaeus expresly in the place cited l. 3. c. 3. and Epiphanius Hom. 27. Carpocrat p. 104. than it can be when they are multiplied to the present number and the Foot-steps of its continued Passage are almost worn out through so long a tract of Time and numerous cross Accidents Yet to give them their due the eminent Zeal of several of their first Bishops that Sealed to the Custody of the true Faith with their Blood being still as it were in view of their Persecutors their general Constancy thereto in which so many wavered or fell in the time of the Arian Persecution the Relief and Refuge they then and after afforded to such as suffered in that or like Causes as well as the Prerogative of their Place in the Imperial City and the current Tradition of their Churches first Foundation by the joint Labours of those chief Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul these gave them great credit in those Ages and while they used their Power so well every one was ready to enlarge it and to flee thither for Sanctuary when oppress'd In which case Men are very apt to speak bountifully of their Patrons And no marvel if they single out sometimes so venerable a Name and Authority to oppose and even to bear down the impertinent Obstinacy and peevish Presumption of every new upstart Schismatick or Heretick that would dictate to us strange and unheard-of Principles and unchurch all before or beside themselves and must begin the Date of it from themselves For thus most of the Citations mention'd are plainly levell'd And in such a Case we should judg the arguing sufficient still to silence such an insolent Boaster though we should begin the Succession no sooner than the time they ended and when we own Religion began to decline in some parts but sure not to expire Nay I could add though we should rise no higher than the Reformation it self as late as it was and how contemptuously soever they are pleased sometimes to speak of the happy Instruments thereof An extraordinary Providence also seems to have attended the Preservation of them so long under the Arian Gothick Kings and a strange temporal Felicity in being still Gainers in the end by all the Invasions and Calamities incident to so many Changes of Government by which most beside were Losers But I should think if they consulted Scripture Reason and Experience of former Examples with present sensible Observation more than any fancied Schemes and Models of their own what they would judg best to have done They might think it not unlikely at least be more willing to stand to the tryal whether it be not so that upon so long a continued and still growing accession of Wealth and Greatness to their Church many and great Corruptions might creep in which we charge them with and have only removed by the Reformation without turning them or our Ancestors out of the Church before or our selves since If the Favours they have so long enjoyed make them more industrious and cautious in the Examination of themselves to reform whatever they can find amiss and to be more charitably helpful and beneficial to others they will be far better employed than in grasping at still more Power and justifying all that they teach or do by the oft to us unaccountable Successes of Providence which the worst Causes have fled to for shelter and the worst Men when they had nothing else to plead God Almighty give us all Grace entirely to devote all our Studies and Labours to the Service of our Great Master and the best and most certain Benefit of his Church in the Furtherance of Sound Faith and Universal Holiness of Life in all true Piety Probity Charity and Peaceable Communion among all that in every place call on the Name of the Lord theirs and ours Which will afford us a far more comfortable Reckoning at the great Day of Account than to busie our selves in thrusting all beside out of the Church here and pronouncing Condemnation against them for hereafter or on the other side in carrying on still unaccountable Prejudices and endless Separations The God of Wisdom Truth and Peace will I hope at length give us a right Understanding in all Things THE END LONDON Printed by J. D. for Richard Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1687. The Sixth Note of the CHURCH EXAMINED VIZ Agreement in Doctrine with the Primitive Church Sexta Nota est Conspiratio in Doctrinâ cum Ecclesiâ Antiquâ Bellar. L. iv c. 9. de Notis Ecclesiae IMPRIMATUR May 19. 1687. Guil. Needham VVEE are very willing to own this for a true Mark of the Church its Agreeing with the Doctrine of the Primitive Church and we are so far from confuting Bellarmin for his giving of it that we do not doubt but he has hereby confuted himself and the whole Cause of the Roman Church for if we may be allowed to go back to the Primitive Church and to examine the Doctrine and Belief of that in order to find out what is the true Church at present then the pretended Infallibility of the present Church and the Necessity of receiving and believing all
plain Evidence of the want of true Antiquity This is like suborning of Witnesses which is enough to make all the World suspect that what they are brought for and what they depose is not true it is no other than forging of old Writings and Instruments to help out the known Weakness of a crackt Title Thus the Decretal Epistles were counterfeited to prop up the Pope's Spiritual Power and Constatine's Donation to establish his Temporal The Cheat of the first was so evident from the Style being so sordid and so unlike those Ages and yet being so like it self in all parts as shew'd it to have throughout but one Author that tho they were formerly made use of and did great Service yet they are now laid by as too gross to be owned by most of the Learned Men of that Church and the other tho it be still defended by some of them yet has such marks of Forgery as makes most of them confess it but great numbers are there of forged and spurious Authors whole Testimonies are still produced by these Writers for those Doctrines and Opinions which are destitute of true Antiquity a Collection of which is given us by our James in his Bastardy of the false Fathers and all those Criticks who have wrote Censures upon the Fathers Works cannot but own it I cannot charge this upon any publick Act of the Church as that of purging and correcting the Fathers but most of their Writers who bring such large and false Musters of the Fathers are guilty of it and particularly some of their late Books amongst us * Consensus Veterum Nubes Testium We have a very great and early Instance of this notorious way of Forgery in the very Head and Governours of that Church and that was in falsifying the Nicene Canons and thrusting in a Canon of a particular Synod among those of a General Council thereby to claim a Power of Appeals to themselves which was such an Imposture as shows what some Men will do to gain Power and Authority over other Churches and what an unfaithful Preserver a Church may be that pretends to be infallible not only of Oral Tradition but even of Writings too for they had Copies without question of the Council of Nice and if the other great Churches of Constantinople Antioch and Alexandria had not had authentick and agreeing Copies to the contrary the Churches of Africa had been run down by one of the most palpable Forgeries in the World and the Church of Rome would no doubt have made a great deal more use of it afterwards than upon that particular occasion But 3. Tho Antiquity is to be sometimes supprest and stifled that it may say nothing against them and sometimes suborned and counterfeited that it may bear false Witness for them and tho they generally make a fair show and a great noise with the pretence of it yet they cannot but often betray the little Esteem and Regard which they have of it thus to give an Instance or two In the famous Question of the Virgin 's immaculate Conception tho the Fathers are acknowledged to be generally against it and their own Bishop Canus †De Sanctorum Auctoritate l. 7. loc Theolog. c. 1. Lovan reckons up St. Ambrose St. Austin St. Chrysostom and a great many more who expresly assert her being conceived in Original Sin and says that this is the unanimous Opinion of all the Fathers who happen to make mention of it (a) Sancti namque omnes qui in ejus rei mentionem incidere uno ore asseuerarunt beatam Virginem in Peccato originali conceptam hoc vid. Ambig hoc August hoc Chrysost c. Ib. yet he declares this to be a very weak and infirm Argument which is drawn from the Authority of all the Fathers and that notwithstanding that the contrary Opinion is piously and probably maintained and defended in the Church (b) Infirmum tamen exomnium authoritate argumentum ducitur quin potius contraria sententia probabilitèr piè in Ecclesiâ defenditur Ib. and Bellarmine says (c) Inter Catholicos non sunt numerandi Bellarm. de Amis grat l. 4. c. 15. they are not to be reckoned among Catholicks who are of another Opinion tho it be contrary it seems to all Antiquity Thus at other times Bellarmine shifts off the Authority of St. Cyprian when he plainly opposes that of the Pope and says that he mortally erred and offended in so doing (d) Videtur mortalitèr peccasse Bellarm l. 4. de Romano Pontifico c. 7. and concerning Justin Martyr Irenaeus and others their Opinion he says cannot be defended from great Error (e) Eorum sententiam non video quo pacto ab errore possumus defendere Bellarm. de beat §. l. 1. c. 6. when it is against his own thus also of St. Hierom he was of that Opinion but it is false and it shall be refuted (f) Videtur Hieronymus inâ—eâ sententiâ fuiâ—se sed falsa est c suo loco râ—fâ—llenda Bellarm. de Pontif. Rom. l. 1. c. 8. And to mention no more tho they stick not upon all occasions to slight and contemn Antiquity when it will not make for them Baronius one of their greatest Searchers into Antiquity but as great a Corrupter of it who had taken that Oath I suppose prescribed by Pope Pius 4th not to receive or expound Scripture but according to the uniform Consent of the Fathers yet doth unwarily but ingenuously confess that the holy Fathers whom for their great Learning we justly call the Doctors of the Church yet the Catholick that is Roman Church doth not always follow nor in all things the Interpretation of Scripture * Nam sanctissimos Patres quos Doctores Ecclesiae ob illorum sublimem eruditionem merito nominamus in Interpretatione Scripturarum non semper ac in omnibus Catholica Ecclesia sequitur Baron Annal. Eccles an 34. n. 213. p. 238. Colon. They can go off it seems from their Oath and from the Fathers too when they think fit and they are not always bound to keep so close to Antiquity as they give out at other times and pretend they do But in the last place 4. The Determinations and Decrees of the present Church are the only things they stick to and 't is the Authority and Infallibility of that which they relie more upon and a thousand times more regard than all Antiquity or the whole Sense of the Primitive Church They pretend indeed not to determine any thing contrary either to Scripture or to the Primitive Church but they make themselves the only Judges of both they tells us they make no new Doctrines nor no Innovations in Faith but they keep to themselves the Power of declaring what Doctrines are new and what are not and then I can see little difference between their making and their declaring new Articles of Faith since 't is their declaring makes them to be believed
In omnibus Dogmatibus inter se conveniunt all Doctrines Just so the Councils of Constance and Basil decreeing That all Power even the Papal was in things appertaining to Religion to be subject to the Council agreed with the Abolition of the Pragmatick Sanction by the Lateran Council under Leo X by which the Council is made to truckle to the Pope As to which and other Instances of the like sort no help is to be had from that Qualification of Lawful Councils since what the Jesuits will not own to be a Lawful Council is by other Parties in that Church owned to be so And that Church must needs be at wonderful Unity within it self that cannot so much as agree what Councils are Lawful and what are not And yet if they were so agreed their Church-Unity is not to be bragged of when there are enough amongst them to make an unlawful Council and to determin otherwise in a point of so vast Consequence as that above-mentioned than they ought to do For if in the same Communion one Council determines one way and another the contrary way that Communion cannot be said to agree ever the more for one being a lawful and the other an unlawful Council Whereas he pretends that the Decrees of Popes are also at Unity with one another one would expect that in the next place Fire and Water should be brought in for an Example of Agreement too For they may be made to agree as soon as the Decrees of many Popes Leo and Gelasius condemned receiving in one kind De Consecr Dist 2. cap. 12. Have there been no Popes since that condemned the contrary Nicholas IV determined that Christ was a Beggar Extravag Joh. Tit. 14. cap. 4. and had Right to nothing but John XXII comes not long after him and makes it Heretical so to say It has been so frequent a practice for Popes to overthrow the Decrees of their Predecessors that it were endless to recount the particulars As for the Writers which they may justly claim to themselves how Bellarmin should come to fancy such a wonderful Agreement is very strange who in his own Controversies has observed so many notable Differences amongst them De Concil lib. 2. cap. 14. alibi Was it not Bellarmin that observed several Catholick Writers to have agreed with the Hereticks in asserting the Council to be above the Pope And that as those did not agree with themselves so neither did the other side of Canonists and School-men that asserted the contrary And this is no trifling Question neither Such Disagreement is noted by the same Cardinal upon other material Points viz. Concerning the Pope's Temporal Power Whether Vows of single Life are dispensable What Worship may be given to Images Whether Images of God may be made or not Whether Extream Unction and other of their Sacraments were instituted by Christ Whether Intention be necessary to a Sacrament Whether an express purpose of forsaking Sin be necessary to Contrition Whether good Works be truly meritorious And concerning many more Questions in most of which some or other of themselves have held as Protestants do against the rest of their Church Not to insist upon the Disputes between the Thomists the Scotists and the Occamists which were not all about Trifles the Question between the Dominicans and Franciscans about the Conception of the Virgin was by themselves esteemed of such Consequence that there have been Revelations about it against Revelations and if we will believe them Miracles against Miracles To which we may add the flaming Contentions between the Jansenists and the Molinists See Veteres Vindicat. c. 10. both which grew to such a height that it has been all along almost as dangerous to the Interest of the Roman Church to let their Controversies go on as to go about to decide them I confess the Divinity of the New Methodists the French Expositor and the English Representer has as yet occasioned but little disturbance in that Communion for which I know a good Reason But this I will say that if their New-Popery can in all Points be received with the Old See Defence of Exp. of the Doctrine of the Ch. of England p. 90. I do not see but from this time forward their Unity may be inviolable now that they have got the Knack of making Contradictions agree with one another But to all such Instances as these Bellarmine hath supplied them with a ready Answer That they differ not in those things that belong to Faith. Upon which cautious Answer one would be apt to enquire how nearly a Question in Religion must be allied to the Faith before it may be said to belong to it The Cardinal himself tells us now and then of something held by Catholicks that is fere haereticum as he calls it almost heretical in which case the Question should be also almost of Faith and may be said to belong to it But if he means simply that they all agree in Matters of Faith as he says afterward and that all Catholicks say the same thing about Doctrines of Faith as we were told before we are willing to hear him But then we expect that the Church of England the Lutherans and the Calvinists should be heard too when to the Papists charging them with some Differences they make the same Answer that they have all the same Faith especially since when they come to prove the Truth of what they say they will shew that the Matters wherein they differ do not break the Unity of the Catholick Faith which is something a better Argument than the Cardinal produces for the Unity of his Party in matters of Faith viz. that they all profess to believe that which shall be judged necessary to be believed in the Roman Catholick Church For to say no more to this at present notwithstanding this Profession we are very sure that some of them take those things to be matters of Faith which others do not if we may believe them of which the Infallibility of the Pope and the Deposing Doctrine are notorious and undeniable Instances But now if by the Vnion of the Members should be meant such a Union as will hinder the separation of some from the rest then this Note must not by any means be pretended to in the Church of Rome from which so many Churches that once were in Communion with her have broken away Indeed he does not expresly say that he means this by the Union of the Members among themselves but some such thing he must mean or else by virtue of this Note he does impertinently run down the Lutherans as being Hereticks because they have begotten so many Sects which as he pretends charge each other with Heresy And then it may as truly be said that the Church of Rome in whose Communion we were before the Reformation wants the Mark of Unity because so many have broken away from her as that any other Churches want it because some
have also divided from them For 't is very idle to say that tho we were Members of that Church when we first began to differ from it yet that by our Divisions we cut our selves from her Communion and therefore that the Unity of her Communion is not affected by our Departure For thus we may as well excuse all the separations from ours or from any other Church viz. that by separating from us they no longer belong to us We are very confident that in all Points of Doctrine of any great moment we of the Church of England do agree much more together than those of the Church of Rome and as for them who have gone out from us they as little break the Unity of the rest whom they are gone from as Luther's departing from the Church of Rome broke the Unity of those who still remained in it So that either the Church of Rome must renounce her pretence to Unity upon this account that Sects and Parties have not broken away from her or she must set up this wise Note of the true Church that all her Members are united except those that are divided from her which is a Mark that will fit any Society in the World. But the Cardinal does here offer a difference between the Division of Hereticks from the Church and a Division from Heresy That in their Church they have a certain Rule for ending Controversies viz. the Sentence of the chief Pastor or the Definition of a general Council and therefore Dissension does not arise among them from the Doctrine of the Church but from the Malice of the Devil Now in answer to this not to be importunate with that Question That if these be the ways of compounding Controversies how comes it to pass that their Controversies still remain I would know 1. Why were not these the means of composing those Controversies that carried us away from them Our Fathers were once of their Communion and those means were not sufficient to retain them in it To say this arose from the Malice of the Devil is to say in effect that the Devil was in 'em which is a little too Magisterial for a Controvertist though he were a Cardinal Unless he resolves to ascribe it to the Devil that they were taken off from an implicit Faith and a blind Obedience to the Church of Rome For it seems to be some Peoples Opinion when Men begin to judg a little for themselves the Spirit of Heresy comes in and then away they go But from hence I gather that the Sentence of the Pope or of a plenary Council is no certain Rule for ending Controversies nor certain means of preventing Divisions if some other means be not used to keep Men from trying the Spirits and proving all things What they are the Cardinal knew very well but mentioned them not nor shall I need to do it In the mean time when whole Countries went off from that Church as soon as they had a little considered what they had believed upon her Authority I need not say whether the Separation was caused by the Doctrine of that Church or by the Malice of the Devil but leave the World to judg But 2. How could those be certain means of composing Controversies concerning which even in their own Church there were the greatest Controversies of all What deference is to be given to the Sentence of their chief Pastor has always been a great Dispute amongst them and the best if not the greatest Part of their Church do not think him infallible Nor is it yet agreed what is requisite to make the Sentence of a general Council decisive nor of those Councils that have contradicted one another which they are to follow And that cannot be a certain Rule for deciding Controversies which is it self controverted So that they have neither that Union of Members among themselves nor those certain means of Union which they pretend to have Which I shall farther shew from a Learned Writer of their own the Famous ‖ Ep. par 8. p. 353. Launoy who in an elaborate Epistle to Nic. Gatinaeus wholly overthrows the pretence in Question For whether or no there be such an Union in the Church of Rome as will serve the Cardinal's turn I will leave the Reader to judg by this short and faithful account of that Epistle First then He proves unanswerably by numerous and apposite Testimonies of every Age That from the Apostles Times till the Council of Trent the constant universal Doctrine concerning the Church was this that it is the Society of the Faithful without ever inserting into the Definition of it any thing relating to its being united to the Pope or any other Bishop as to a Visible Head. Nay P. 400.415 Secondly That all the most Learned Lovers of Antiquity and Godly Opposers of Novelty in the Roman Communion both in the Time of the Council of Trent and ever since have retained that Notion of the Church and stuck to the Ancient Definition And Thirdly P. 415.419 That Canisius and Bellarmin have egregiously innovated in their Doctrine by adding to the ancient Definition such things as are repugnant to all Antiquity and mean while that they opposed each other Canisius making it of the nature of the Church to be under a * Uno summo post Christum capite Monarch and giving no place in his Definition of it to other Governours to whom the Church also is to be united Whereas Bellarmin makes an Aristocracy wherein one is Chief at least †Esse caetum hominum c. colligatum sub regimine legitimorum pastorum ac praecipue unius Christi in terris Vicarii Romani Pontificis De Eccl. l. 3. c. 2. a tempered and limited Monarchy essential to the Church going in this matter against Antiquity against Canisius and against himself in that he elsewhere makes Antiquity a Note of the true Church and says 't is a Demonstration of the Novelty of a Doctrine when the first Authors can be named and pointed to which is his own Case and Canisius's as to this Doctrine He reflects upon both of 'em P. 418 419.428 for ill Logick in these Definitions and shews how they destroy each other He censures the Followers of Canisius sharply and judiciously and then remarks that tho Bellarmine have greater Authority amongst Divines yet Canisius's Definition is more generally received and that for four Reasons because there is more Court-Flattery in it because it is put into Catechisms which the other is not and so sticks by virtue of an early Impression because some Men are mad upon Novelties and lastly others insufferably Ignorant as to the Holy Scriptures and Ancient Tradition the Principles of true Theology Fourthly He thinks they have done harm to the Church and that for these Reasons 1. Because P. 430. for want of Logick they have confounded the Nature of the Church with the State of it 2. They have neglected St. Paul's
they are we can never be certain whether any one Church in the World doth profess 'em or no for how can we know whether or no a Church professes we know not what And unless we certainly know that these Principles are true we can never be certain whether that be a true Church which professes 'em for seeing it is the profession of the true Principles of Religion that makes a true Church it is impossible for us to know whether any Church be a true Church till we know whether the Principles it professes are true So that before a Man can be secure that he hath found the true Church by this Note he must be certain either that every thing it professes is true or at least that the main and fundamental Principles of its Profession are true Neither of which he can be certain of according to the Principles of the Church of Rome For First She decries Mens private Judgment of Discretion as utterly insufficient to make any certain distinction of Truth from Falshood in matters of Religion Secondly She allows no sufficient Rule without the true Church to guide and direct our private Judgment of Discretion Thirdly She resolves all Certainty as to matters of Faith into the Authority of the true Church Fourthly She authorizes the true Church to impose upon us an absolute necessity of believing such Things as before were not necessary to be believed First The Church of Rome decries Men's private Judgment of Discretion as utterly insufficient to make any certain distinction of Truth from Falshood in matters of Religion Seeing we are to seek the true Church by Notes our certainty that we have found it must wholly depend upon our certainty that we have found in it the Notes of the true Church but tho there is no one thing in the World of which we are more concerned to be certain than that we have found the true Church and are in Communion with it because no less than our Eternal Salvation depends upon it yet it is only our own private Judgment of Discretion that by applying the Notes of the true Church can ascertain us in this Point For while we are in quest of the true Church we have no other way to find it but by carrying the Notes of it along with us and by examining and judging by our own private Discretion which Church these Notes do belong to either our private Discretion is sufficient to assertain us in this Matter or it is not if it be not we can never be certain which is the true Church if it be it must be sufficient to assertain us in all other necessary Points of Religion because one of the Notes by which we are to seek the true Church and that a principal one too is Sanctity of Doctrine or an unerring profession of the true Religion at least in all necessary points But before we can be certain which Church this Note belongs to we must be throughly satisfied in our own private Discretion what this unerring Profession is which we can never be till we are certain of the Truth of all the Particulars of it and when we are certain of this we are certain at least as to all necessary points of true Religion which must all be included in every unerring Profession of it So that before we can be certain of any Church that it is the true Church we must be certain that it doth not err in its profession and before we can be certain of this we must be certain of the Truth of all those particular Doctrines whereof its Profession is composed and of this we have as yet no other way to be certain but only by our own private Judgment of Discretion because till we have found the true Church its impossible we should conduct our selves by its Authority and in the absence of the true Churches Authority we have nothing to conduct us but our own private Discretion either this our private Discretion therefore is sufficient to assertain us of the Truth of all the particular Doctrines whereof an unerring Profession of Religion is composed or it is not if it be it must be sufficient to assertain us as to all necessary points of Religion if it be not as the Church of Rome affirms it is not it is impossible we should ever be certain that we have found the true Church again either therefore the Church of Rome must allow that certainty in all at least in all necessary Points of Religion is attainable by the free and honest use of our own private Judgment of Discretion which as I shall shew by and by she can never allow without undermining her own Foundations or she must leave Men hovering in eternal Uncertainty as to one of the most necessary Points of Religion viz. which is the true Church Secondly The Church of Rome allows no sufficient Rule without the true Church to guide and direct our private Judgment of Discretion Seeing the Constitution of the true Church is not natural but entirely founded upon Divine Institution this Question Which is the true Church is not to be resolved by Principles of Nature but by Principles of Revelation and therefore without some revealed Rule which is every way sufficient to guide and direct our private Discretion we shall never be able to find out which is the true Church because without such a Rule we have nothing but the Principles of Nature to go by which in this Enquiry are utterly insufficient to direct us But while we are out of the Church we have no other revealed Rule to direct us in our Enquiry after it but only that of Scripture for as for Tradition the Church of Rome teaches that the true Church is the sole Conservator of it and that tho it be a part of Divine Revelation yet no Man is obliged any farther to believe it than the true Church hath defined and declared it And seeing I can have ho certainty what is a true Tradition till such time as I am got into the true Church How can Tradition be a Rule of Faith to me while I am out of it Or How can that be the Rule of my Faith whilst I am in quest of the true Church which I have no other Obligation to believe but only the true Churches Authority Whilst therefore I am out of the true Church the only Rule I have to go by in my Enquiries after it is Scripture And this the Church of Rome tells me is insufficient both because it is not full enough and because it is not clear enough Which if true I can never be certain I have found the true Church by this Note of an unerring Profession 1st She teaches that the Scripture is not full enough as not containing in it all necessary Doctrines of Faith and Manners but that there are certain unwritten Traditions in the Church of equal Authority with it by which its defects are supplied And if so How is it possible I
should find the true Church by the direction of Scripture For since according to this Note that can be no true Church which doth not unerringly profess all necessary Doctrines of Faith and Manners when I have found a Church which professes all such necessary Doctrines as are in Scripture I cannot be secure that it is a true Church supposing there are other necessary Doctrines out of Scripture viz. in the unwritten Traditions because then the profession of these will be altogether as necessary to its being a true Church as the profession of those All that the Scripture can satisfy me in is only this whether such a Church profess all the necessary Doctrines in Scripture but if there are any necessary Doctrines out of Scripture it 's certain that the profession of them is as necessary to the being of the true Church as the profession of those that are in it And therefore before I can be certain that it is the true Church I must be fully satisfied that it professeth both which I can never be unless I have some other Rule to go by besides this of Scripture 2dly The Church of Rome teaches that the Scripture is no sufficient Rule in respect of clearness the Sense of it being so obscurely exprest that we can never be certain what it is without the Interpretation of the true Church Which if true it 's utterly impossible for one who is out of the true Church ever to find it by the direction of Scripture For according to this Note that only is the true Church which doth not err in its Profession at least in any necessary Point either as to Doctrines of Faith or Doctrines of Manners But before I can know whether any Church doth not err in its Profession I must be certainly informed what the true Profession is or what are those Doctrines of Faith and Manners of which this true Profession consists as to which the Scripture can never certainly inform me if it be not sufficiently clear For if I can never be certain what the true sense of Scripture is without the Interpretation of the true Church How is it possible that while I am out of the true Church I should ever be certain of its Sense as to all the particular Doctrines which the true Profession of Religion contains So that according to this Principle the Scripture is so far from being a sufficient Rule to one that is out of the true Church that it is perfectly useless to him in his Enquiry after it for either it can certainly direct him to the true Church or it cannot if it can it must be sufficiently clear to inform him of its own Sense without the Interpretation of the true Church concerning all those Doctrines of Faith and Manners whereof the unerring Profession of the true Church is composed and if so this Principle of the Roman Church is erroneous if it be not to what purpose doth it serve unless it be to lead him into an endless Maze of Uncertainties wherein the further he wanders the more he will lose himself So that if a Man hath had the misfortune to be born and bred out of the true Church in an Heretical or Schismatical Communion and is enquiring his way in by this Note of an unerring Profession he hath no other Rule to instruct and inform him what this unerring Profession is but only that of Scripture which according to the Principles of the Church of Rome is insufficient for his Purpose How then is it possible he should ever be certain that he hath found the true Church when the only Rule he hath whereby to enquire what that unerring Profession is whereby he is to seek it is utterly insufficient to resolve him Thirdly The Church of Rome resolves all Certainty as to matters of Faith into the Authority of the true Church and indeed this is the fundamental Principle of Popery viz. That the only ground of Certainty as to matters of Faith is the Authority of the present true Church teaching and proposing ' em Till such time therefore as we have found the true Church and do believe upon the Authority of its teaching we can never have any true Certainty of the matters which we are to believe And yet before we can be certain that we have found the true Church by this Note of an unerring Profession we must have very good certainty as to all matters of Faith for we can never be certain upon the Authority of any Church that what we believe is true till such time as we are certain that it is the true Church nor can we ever be certain that it is the true Church until we are certain that it doth not err in its Profession or which is the same thing that all the matters of Faith which it teaches and professes are true So that the certainty of our Faith after we have found the true Church and do believe upon its Authority must depend upon the certainty of our Faith while we were seeking it and did believe without its Authority Because before we can believe with any certainty upon the Authority of any Church we must be certain that it is the true Church but we can never be certain that it is the true Church till we are first certain that its Profession is true as to all the matters of Faith contained in it To make the matter more plain I will briefly represent it in a short Dialogue between a Protestant and a Papist Protest You tell me I can never be certain as to matters of Faith unless I believe upon the Authority of the true Church Pap. I do so and upon the Truth of this Proposition all my Religion is founded Protest But I beseech you May I be certain as to matters of Faith if I believe upon the Authority of any Church tho I am not certain whether it be the true Church or no Pap. To what Purpose do you ask this Question Protest Because if I may then in believing upon the Authority of the Church of England which you say is a false Church I shall be as certain as to matters of Faith as you who believe on the Authority of the Church of Rome which you say is the only true Church Pap. Why then I tell you you can never be certain as to matters of Faith in believing upon the Authority of any Church unless you are certain it is the true Church upon whose Authority you believe ' em Protest Why so Pap. Because it is not the Authority of a Church merely that is the true ground of Certainty but the Authority of the true Church otherwise the Authority of all Churches true or false would be equally a true ground of Certainty And therefore you can never be certain that the Authority of that Church upon which you believe is a true ground of Certainty unless you are first certain that it is the true Church Protest I do allow your Reason But then pray
how shall I be certain that it is the true Church Pap. Why this you must examine by certain Notes of the true Church whereof one and that a principal one is Sanctity of Doctrine or an unerring Profession of the true Religion Protest But Good Sir can I not be certain that it is the true Church till I am first certain that it doth not err in its Profession Pap. No. Protest Why then I must be certain of the Truth of all those matters of Faith whereof its Profession consists before I can be certain that it is the true Church Pap. You must so Protest But pray how shall I If that be true which you told me just now viz. That there is no true ground of Certainty but the Authority of the true Church For how is it possible I should ever be truly certain when as yet I know no true ground of Certainty Pap. Why have you not the Authority of the true Church Protest But as yet I am not certain that the Church upon whose Authority you would have me believe is the true Church and till I am certain of this with what Certainty can I depend upon her Authority Would you have me be certain that whatsoever she professes is true upon her own bare Word and Authority before I am certain that she is the true Church If so why may I not as well believe any other Church to be the true Church seeing there is no other Church but what will pass its Word for the Truth of its own Profession as well as yours If not you must allow me to have some other ground of Certainty as to Matters of Faith besides the Authority of the true Church For before I can securely rely upon the Authority of any Church as the true ground of Certainty I must be certain that it is the true Church and my Certainty that she is the true Church must depend upon my Certainty of the Truth of all those Matters of Faith comprised in her Profession So that before I am certain of the Truth of her Profession it is too soon for me to rely upon her Authority as the only ground of Certainty and when I am certain of it it is too late because I am certain already Fourthly And Lastly The Church of Rome gives Authority to the true Church to impose upon Mens Minds a necessity of believing such things as before they were not obliged to believe For she makes the Church's Authority not only a concurrent motive of Faith but the very formal reason of it so that we are not only obliged to believe what the Church declares but we are therefore obliged to believe it because she declares it 'T is true some of the Roman Doctors tell us that the Church hath no power to make new Articles of Faith but only that seeing there some old Truths in Scripture and the unwritten Tradition of the Church which the Church hath not yet declared and which therefore Men are not yet obliged to believe the Church hath Authority when ever she thinks meet to declare 'em and thereby to oblige Men under pain of Damnation to believe 'em but others of 'em and particularly Cardinal Bellarmin de Potest Sum. Pontif. tell us That the Church of later Time not only hath power to explain and declare but also to Constitute and Command those Things which belong to Faith. And indeed the difference between declaring and constituting or making an Article of Faith is only Verbal For an Article of Faith is a Truth that is necessary to be believed And therefore if the Church by declaring a Truth which was not necessary to be believed makes it necessary to be believed it thereby makes that Truth an Article of Faith which was not an Article of Faith. And so to declare and to make is the very same thing But in this they are all agreed that the true Church hath power to make those things necessary to be believed which were not so before And if this be true no Man can ever be certain by this Note of an unerring Profession that he hath found the true Church For before I can be certain of any Church as for instance the Roman that it is the true Church I must be certain that that Church's Profession is true but when I proceed to examine the particular Articles of it as I must do before I can be certain of the Truth of the whole I shall find there are several of them of the Truth of which in the opinion of several even of her own Doctors I have no sufficient ground to be certain either in Scripture or Tradition which while I am seeking the true Church are the only Rule I have whereby to examine them as particularly Transubstantiation Seven Sacraments Necessity of Auricular Confession Roman Purgatory and Indulgences Vid. Note the Sixth pag. 125. c. And if these Roman Doctors pretend to be certain of them upon no other Reason but because their Church which they are sure is the true Church hath declared them How shall I be certain of them who am but an Enquirer whether it be the true Church or no And therefore as yet cannot be supposed to be sure that it is for without her Declaration they themselves confess I have no sufficient ground to be certain of the Truth of them And till I am sure she is the true Church her Declarations are no ground of Certainty to me And as I cannot be certain that these Articles are true till I am sure that the Church which declare them is the true Church so supposing that the true Church hath power to impose upon me a necessity of believing such Things as before I was not obliged to believe I cannot be certain that they are false because no Authority can be supposed to have a right to impose upon Men such a necessity of believing but what is infallible and cannot impose what is false on them unless it be supposed that Men may be rightfully obliged to believe what is false If therefore the Roman Church be the true Church as for all I yet know it may then for all I yet know it hath Authority from God to impose upon me a necessity of believing whatever she declares and consequently for all I yet know she is Infallible But as for my self I know that I am a fallible Creature and therefore whatsoever Infallibility declares to me must certainly be true whatsoever Probabilities yea or seeming Demonstrations I may have against it how then can I be certain that any Article is false which is declared to me by a Church that for all I yet know is Infallible if it be Infallible I am sure that whatever it declares is true And if it be the true Church it must be Infallible Supposing that the true Church hath Authority to impose new Necessities of believing but whether it be the true Church or no is the Thing I am now enquiring by this Note of
an unerring Profession But till I am certain one way or t'other whether she be the true Church or no I can never be certain whether her Profession be true or false till I am certain that she is the true Church there are some Articles in her Profession of which as her own Doctors confess I cannot be certain that they are true and till I am certain that she is not the true Church I can never be certain that any one Article in her Profession is false and if I cannot be certain whether she errs in her Profession or no till I am certain whether she be the true Church or no to what purpose should I enquire whether or no she be the true Church by this Note of an unerring Profession If supposing her to be the true Church she hath Authority from God to oblige me upon pain of Damnation to believe to Day that which I was not obliged to believe Yesterday to what end do I enquire whether those things which she commands me to believe are true or false If she be the true Church as for all I yet know she may be I am sure what ever she commands me to believe must be true and therefore till I am certain that she is not the true Church I can never be certain that any thing she commands me to believe is false For how can I be certain that any one thing she imposes is false when for all I yet know she is the true Church which the God of Truth who can neither impose himself nor authorize any other to impose on me that which is false hath authorized to impose it and if till I am certain that she is not the true Church I can never be certain that any thing she imposes is false How can I ever be cartain by this Note of an unerring Profession whether she be the true Church or no For if any thing she professes or imposes be false by this Note she cannot be the true Church but whether any thing she professes be false or no I can never be certain till I am first certain whether she is or is not the true Church THE END ERRATA IN the Seventh Note Pag. 137. the first cum Capite in the Title is to be blotted out P. 147. line 17. for Arian r. Asian P. 148. l. 6. f. Complaint r. Complement LONDON Printed by J. D. for Richard Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1687. The Ninth Note of the CHURCH EXAMINED VIZ The Efficacy of the Doctrine Nona Nota est Efficacia Doctrinae Bellarm. L. iv c. 12. de Notis Ecclesiae IMPRIMATUR June 8. 1687. Jo. Battely BY Efficacy of Doctrine must be meant either that power which the Word of God has in the Minds of Particular Men to dispose them to believe aright and to live well or else that success which it has in drawing Multitudes outwardly to profess and embrace it The former of these is too inward a thing to be the Note of a true Church No Man being able to know what the Word of God has done in anothers Heart but instead of that apt rather to be deceived in what it has done in his own The Second which must be that the Cardinal means can as little be a Note by reason of its Uncertainty and if we cannot be sure of the Note we shall be less so of that which we are to find out by it If indeed there were nothing which could or did move Men to relinquish Heathenism Judaism or Turcism for our Religion but the pure Efficacy of the Christian Doctrine it would be a very good Note of the excellence of the Doctrine it self but according to the Cardinal 's own Principles it could be no Note that that were the true Church which preached it since he will not allow the sincere preaching of Truth to signify any thing Lib. iv 2. And we shall have much less reason to rely on this Note if we consider how many other things there are besides the Efficacy of the Christian Doctrine which have and may convert whole Nations to it Let us therefore at present grant in general the matter of Fact to be true that such Conversions as the Cardinal speaks of were made by the Church of Rome yet how shall we know that they were made purely by the Efficacy of its Doctrine and that no other means such as Force c. were used Is it enough that he tells us so The Bishop of Meaux tells us that in the late great Conversion in France not one of the Persons converted suffered Violence either in his Person or Goods That they were so far from suffering Torments Pastoral Letter p. 3 4. that they had not so much as heard them mentioned and that he heard other Bishops affirm the same Now if those Reverend Prelats were out as most people think they were in a matter of Fact of which they might be Eye-witnesses why may not the learned Cardinal be so too in his Relation of Conversions made so many hundred years since If he be out his Note falls to the ground and if it cannot be made plainly to appear to us that he was not out his Note as far as it is founded upon those Histories which he produces wants that certainty which should give us satisfaction Historians who wrote in those obscure times and were perhaps themselves Converters being most of them Monks might vain-gloriously ascribe much to the Efficacy of their own Doctrine and the Centuriators themselves whom he so often quotes might not be very curious to search or accurate to relate the chief motives of their Conversions because they wrote before the Cardinal had made Efficacy of Doctrine a Note of the true Church and little dream't what odd use some Men would make of their History But notwithstanding these Neglects and Disadvantages I do not doubt but that if we look'd back into the Writers of those Times nay even into the Centuriators themselves we should find some other things besides Efficacy of Doctrine concurring to the Conversions which were then wrought An instance whereof to pass by at present the particular examination of those mentioned by the Cardinal we have in those Converons wrought by Charles the Great to whose victorious Arms they were more to be ascribed than to any thing else besides For not to mention that the Clergy were not then in any great capacity of doing much by the Efficacy of their Doctrine the Bishops being so ignorant that they were to be commanded to understand the Lord's Prayer and could hardly be brought to make some few exhortations to the People but instead of that turned Souldiers to shew that they were willing to do somewhat towards the propagating their Religion such was the Zeal of that Prince rather to defend and increase the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Mezeray in the Life of Charles the Great than to inlarge his own Empire that Peace could never be
things as Marks of Distinction only without any further Design of lessening their Natures and Qualities by them p. 31. 4. It does not follow that because the Name Catholick in that time when it was for the most part conjoined with the Catholick Faith was a sure Note of a true Church it must always be so even when the Name and the Thing are parted p. 32. The worst of Hereticks laid claim to it p. 33. The Rule to know the True Church by proved from Lactantius and St. Austin ibid. 5. It doth not follow that because the being called after the Names of particular Men in that Age when all so called were for the most part corrupt in the Faith was a sure Hand of Schismaticks and Hereticks that it must always be so p. 33 34. III. The Church of Rome having egregiously corrupted the Catholick Faith or Religion neither is nor deserves the Name of a Catholick Church p. 34. This justified by comparing her Doctrine in several Points with that delivered by Christ and his Apostles p. 35. For Instance that Angels and Saints are to be prayed unto and worshipped this contrary to Scripture ibid. The worshipping of Images contrary to the second Commandment which they make the same with the first p. 36. The Scripture commands all Persons indifferently to read the Scriptures the Church of Rome allows not this Liberty to the Laity but upon License ibid The Scriptures forbid Prayers in an unknown Tongue and the Church of Rome enjoins such and no other p. 37. Purgatory contrary to Scripture ibid. The denying the Cup to the Laity contrary to the express Instistitution of our Saviour p. 38. The Scripture saith that the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament even after Consecration is Bread and Wine the Church of Rome says the Bread and Wine is Transubstantiated into the natural Body and Blood of Christ. p. 39. The Propitiatory Sacrifice of the Mass according to the Scripture derogatory to Christ's own Priestly Oblation whereby he once offered himself a compleat Sacrifice of Expiation p. 40. In all these Particulars the Church of Rome a Corrupter of the Christian Faith and Doctrine and consequently deserves not the name of Catholick ibid The Second Note ANTIQUITY THis Mark and Character of a true Church is not proper to the Church of Rome alone nor in truth doth it belong to it To prove this three things are here offered I. That the Plea of bare Antiquity is not proper to the Church but common to it with other Societies of false Religion p. 41. The Notes of a thing must be proper to that of which they are a Note and not common to it with other things p. 42. 1. Because what is proper to a thing is inseparable from it and did ever belong to it since it had a being and can at no time be absent from it ibid. 2. Other Societies have laid claim to this Note and it could not be denied them and therefore no proper Note of a Church ibid. This shews that bare Antiquity cannot be a Note of Truth p. 44. Antiquity and Priority widely different p. 45. A twofold Antiquity one in respect of us the other absolute and in it self ibid. The Church of Rome will not be tried only by the Scriptures which is the true Antiquity p. 46. Error almost as ancient as Truth for which reason several wicked Doctrines running down to Posterity have made use of the plea of Antiquity to give them countenance and support p. 47. II. The present Church of Rome vainly pretends to true Antiquity i.e. to ancient Truth p. 48. Wherein true Antiquity doth consist ibid. The present Church of Rome not ancient by reason of that alteration they have made in the ancient Creed p. 49. Cardinal Bellarmin's Ratiocination against this charge consisting of 6 things to be observed in all Changes of Religion none of which he says can be shewn in the Church of Rome since the Apostles time ibid. His reasoning built upon very false grounds this considered and largely answered in four Particulars p. 50. 1. As being contrary to all History and Experience there having been great Changes in Religion the Authors and the beginnings c. of which cannot be known p. 50. 2. Neither do the Examples they alledg for this their reasoning serve to no other purpose but to shew the falseness of it as in the case of the Nestorian and Arrian Heresies p. 51. 3. Supposing them true they would uphold the greatest Impieties ibid. The Heathen Gods and their Oracles supported by this Argument p. 52. 4. The Roman Church it self an instance of this there being an acknowledg'd change in it and yet they cannot tell who first began it viz. Communion in one kind ibid. Two instances out of Polydore Virgil when and by whom they were brought into the Church of Rome p. 53. 1. Their grand Article of Faith the Papal Authority brought in by Victor and carried on by the following Bishops ibid. The present Definitions of the Catholick Church and the Power of the Pope to depose Kings not challenged till Gregory VII i.e. 1000 Years after Christ ibid. 2. It is known when Images crept into the Church p. 55. A little more than 100 Years since unwritten Traditions were decreed to be a part of the Rule of Faith i. e. of the Word of God. ibid. III. That the Religion of the Church of England by Law established is the true Primitive Christianity p. 56. The Third Note DURATION THree things are here considered I. What is to be understood by the term Duration p. 58. Duration includes 3 things 1. A Being of a Church from the beginning p. 58 2. The continuance of that Church to the end p. 58 3. The continuance of that Church from the beginning to the end without interruption p. 58 Bellarmine's Application of the first of these to the Church of Rome yet deficient in the latter Branches p. 59. II. How far Duration is a Note of the true Church p. 59. This is no Note by which a true Church is to be found out or distinguished from the false ib. For four Reasons 1. The nature of the thing will not permit that it should be a Note p. 60. 2. That cannot be a Note of the true Church which doth not inseparably belong to the Church in all seasons and cases p. 61. 3. That which is a Note must be proper to the thing which it is the Note of and not common to other things as well as that p. 61 62. Common to false Churches as well as true ibid. 4. If it be a Note of a true Church then those could not be true Churches which have not not had that Duration ib. This unchurches the 7 Churches of Asia p. 62 63. III. The Church of Rome hath no just and sufficient title to this Character p. 63. This proved as to 1. Place 2. Persons 3. Order 4. Doctrine these being the things by which a Church doth exist and is made
visible p. 63 64. Rome not always the principal Seat of the Church p. 63. Avignon was for 70 Years where the Pope and the whole Court recided ibid. Several Popes Hereticks p. 64. Two Popes at once contending for the Chair and this for above 40 Years together and at one time 3 Popes p. 64. The Church of Rome compared with it self in reference to several Doctrines p. 65. What the Church of Rome now holds and what the Church of Rome hath held ibid. Her being the Mother-Church and the Pope being Christ's Vicar ibid. Concerning the Apocryphal Books ibid. Scripture and Tradition p. 66. Scripture in unknown Tongues ibid. Merit p. 67. Indulgences ibid. Purgatory p. 68. Prayers in an unknown Tongue ibid. Praying to Saints p. 68 69. Image-worship p. 69. Sacraments the Number of them ibid. Transubstantiation p. 70. Communion in one kind ibid. Solitary Masses p. 70 71. Auricular Confession p. 71. Extream Vnction ibid. Priests Marriage ibid. In all these Particulars Rome is not now what it hath been The Fourth Note Amplitude or Multitude and Variety of Believers THE Scriptures first gave us the Notion of a Church p. 73. A true Christian Church professes the true Christian Faith. p. 74. Instead of this the Church of Rome have invented several Notes and Characters of a Church which are not to be met with or are not plainly delivered in Scripture ibid. Of which this Amplitude or Multitude c. is one ibid. What Bellarmine understands by this Note p. 75. In Answer to him I. It is shewed this cannot be a Note of the true Church ibid. 1. Whether you consider the Members thereof under either the Notion of a great Multitude or 2. a great Multitude of Believers ibid. Satan's Kingdom more numerous than the Kingdom of Christ. ibid. The Worshippers of Mahomet exceed the Members of Christ's true Church in number since the Romanists make themselves the only Catholicks p. 76. The Kingdom of Christ not to be distinguished from the Kingdom of Antichrist by this Note ibid. This Note therefore no true Character of a Church p. 77. The several Places of Scripture whence Bellarmine pretends he fetches this Note of his ibid. This is so far from being a Note of the Church that it is no more than the variable State and Condition of it p. 78. This acknowledged by the Cardinal himself in his Explication of this Note ibid. The present State of the Church not to be compared with what it shall be before the End of the World. p. 79. Many plain Prophecies brought for the Proof of this ibid. The Cardinal's Citation of Vincentius Lirinensis for the confirming this Note considered p. 80 81. II. Supposing this to be a true Note of the Catholick Church it doth not advantage the Church of Rome as to that her pretention of being the true Catholick Church ibid. 82 to 85. III. Supposing again this Note to be true it doth the Reformed Churches a very great Service in demonstrating them to be true Parts of the Catholick Church p. 85. This demonstrated by two Arguments p. 86 87. 1. That in the first Ages of Christianity the Catholick Church then was more ours than now it is the Romanists p. 86. That there is a great Agreement between the antient Church of Rome and the present Church of England ibid. This is evident by comparing the Doctrine and Worship of each together ibid. 2. That upon computation the Churches subject to the Roman See exceed not the Reformed Churches in Amplitude or Multitude of Members p. 87 to 91. The Conclusion p. 92. The Fifth Note Succession of BISHOPS IN Examination of this Note Three Things are inquired into I. How far this Note may be necessary to any Church p. 94. True and Lawful Pastors necessary to the Constitution of the Church and this Pastoral Power Originally from Christ ibid. Power of Ordination entrusted with Bishops the chief Governors of the Church and ordinary Successors of the Apostles p. 94 95. The Government of the Church of England by Bishops and its Succession not interrupted in the Reformation ibid. 1. Obs Tho Succession of Bishops be necessary to the compleat constitution of a Church yet it may be doubted whether it is indispensable to the very being of it so as to unchurch every place that wants these 2. Obs It is not necessary for every Church which firmly presumes upon this Lawful and Orderly Succession even from the Apostles should be able to produce the Records of its conveyance thro' every Age and in every single Person by whom it hath past p. 95. The Antients contented themselves in delivering down to us the Succession of Bishops in the greater Sees and Mother-Cities As of Rome Alexandria Antioch Jerusalem c. ibid. 3. Obs Some irregularities and uncanonical proceedings in times of great Schisms or publick Disturbance have been interpreted for no interruption of this Authentical Succession p. 97. II. How far the Succession of Bishops may be granted to the Church of Rome p. 98. Little left upon Record of many of the first Bishops in the Church of Rome excepting their bare Names ibid. If Heresie breaks the Succession this is chargeable upon the Church of Rome p. 99. If Schismatical Intrusions can dissolve the order of Succession this chargeable likewise on the Bishops of that Church viz. Felix the 2. and Vigilius ibid. 1. The Case of the Roman Succession extreamly changed since the first time p. 101. No Supremacy to be found in the Church of Rome for more than the first 500 Years p. 101 102. 2. The Church of Rome not very favourable to the Order of Bishops ibid. The Divine Right of Episcopacy disputed in the Council of Trent ibid. 3. Their Catechism makes this no distinct Order but only a different degree of the same Priesthood p. 103. III. How insufficient a proof this will afford them of any great advantage ibid. 1. Succession is no sufficient evidence of the Truth of the Doctrine of any Church p. 104 105. 2. An unintterrupted Succession of Bishops is no warrantable ground of the Claim of Superiority over another Church which hath not so clear evidences thereof p. 105 106. The Cardinals Testimonies out of St. Augustine Irenaeus Tertullian and Epiphanius examined p. 107 108. His Inference from these citations about Succession considered p. 109 110. The Conclusion The Sixth Note Agreement in Doctrine with the Primitive Church THis is acknowledged a True Mark of a Church p. 113. The Infallibility of the present Church is to be laid aside till it be first known whether it agrees with the Primitive Church or not p. 114. The True Chuch only to be discovered by the True Faith. p. 115. Those matters of Faith in Controversie betwixt us are to be determined by the Doctrines and Practices of the Primitive Church p. 116. The Church of Rome waving Particular Controversies that may be made plain and evident to most capacities delights rather to run out into General Controversies
172. The Eighth Note Sanctity of Doctrine THat this Note as well as the others is far from performing what is promised for it by the Cardinal is sufficiently made evident by four Particulars p. 173. I. What is here meant by Sanctity of Doctrine p. 174. Tho' that is the best and purest Church which hath the least of Error and Corruption in its Doctrine and Discipline yet that which is the best is not the only true Church p. 157. II. That Sanctity of Doctrine i.e. a pure profession of true Religion without any mixture of Error is no true Note or Character whereby a man may distinguish the true Church from all false Churches p. 176. That this can be no true Note of the true Church made evidently appear from the consideration of those necessary Properties of all true Notes by which Things are to be known and distinguished p. 177. These are Four. 1. Every true Note ought to be common to all of the same kind with the thing which it notifies p. 177 to 180. 2. Every true Note ought to be proper and peculiar to that kind of things of which it is a Note and not common to Things of another kind p. 181. 3. Every true Note ought to be more known than the Thing which it notifies p. 182 183. 4. Every true Note ought to be inseparable to the Thing which it notifies p. 184 to 188. III. In what sense this may be a Note of the true Church p. 189. That is a true Church which professes all the Essential Articles of Christian Faith and receives all the Essential parts of Christian Worship and Discipline p. 190. The Church of England willing to be tried by this p. 192. IV. According to the Principles of the Church of Rome the true Church is not to be found by this Note in which soever of the two Senses we understand it ibid. This clearly made out in Four Particulars 1. The Church of Rome decryes mens private judgment of Discretion as utterly insufficient to make any certain distinction of Truth from Falshood in matters of Religion p. 194. 2. Shee allows no sufficient Rule without the true Church to guide and direct our private Judgment of Discretion p. 195. Which is the true Church not to be resolved by Principles of Nature but those of Revelation p. 196. No other Rule while we are out of the Church to direct us in this Enquiry but only that of Scripture ibid. This the Church of Rome tells us is insufficient and that for two Reasons 1. Because the Scripture is not full enough as to all Doctrines of Faith and Manners And therefore there are certain unwritten Traditions in the Church of equal Authority with it by which its defects are supplied p. 197. 2. Because it is not clear enough the Sense of it being so obscurely expressed that we can never be certain what it is without the interpretation of the true Church p. 198. These considered and answered 3. The Church of Rome resolves all certainty as to matters of Faith into the Authority of the true Church which indeed is the Fundamental Principle of Popery p. 199. A short Dialogue upon this Argument between a Papist and Protestant p. 200 to 202. 4. The Church of Rome gives Authority to the true Church to impose upon us a necessity of believing such Things as before they were not obliged to believe p. 203. to the End. The Ninth Note Efficacy of Doctrine BY Efficacy of Doctrine Two Things understood Either 1. The power which the Word of God hath in the hearts of particular men to dispose them to believe aright and to live well Or 2 That Success which it hath in drawing Multitudes outwardly to profess and embrace it p. 209. The first too inward and the second which is that which the Cardinal understands by it too uncertain a thing to be a Note of a True Church ibid. Many other things besides Efficacy of Doctrine which have and may convert whole Nations to the Christian Religion such as hopes and fears outward force necessity p. 210. An Instance hereof in the Conversions wrought by Charles the Great p. 211. The difference between such Conversions and those which were made in the first Ages of the Church p. 212. In answer to the Cardinal upon this Note Three things laid down I. That the prevalency of any Doctrine can be no Note of a True Church p. 213. This appears 1. From what our Saviour hath said in this matter ibid. 214. 2. From the Consideration of the Temper and Constitution of Mankind p. 215. to 217. 3. From plain matter of Fact. p. 218 219. Error hath such an influence often up n mens minds that they have rejected Truth and preferred the most gross and impious Opinions before it ibid. This apparent from the Histories of all Ages ibid. More particularly in the Case of Arianism p. 219. And in that of Mahomitanism p. 220. The Conversions wrought by those if the Greek Church whom the Church of Rome accounts Hereti ks p. 221. The Efficacy of the Reformed Doctrine ibid. II. That the Prevalency of the Doctrine professed in the Church of Rome is no Note of its being a True Church p. 222. And that for these reasons 1. Because of that great mixture of Errors which there is with the Truth which it professes p. 223. 2. Because the Doctrine of the Church of Rome is so much altered from what it formerly was ibid. 3. Because it hinders those who embrace it from throughly examining it p. 224. 4. Because Art and Force have sometimes been made use of to make it prevail p. 225. III. The Arguments the Cardinal makes use of to prove this to be a Note of the True Church proved to be Insufficient p. 226. 1. His Arguments from the Scriptures considered ibid. 2. His Arguments from the prevalency of the Christian Doctrine in the beginning of the Church examined p. 227. 3. His Arguments from the particular Instances which he gives of Conversions wrought by those of the Church of Rome reflected on p. 227. I. The Conversion of the English by Austin the Monk considered p. 228. Four Things alledged in answer to it ibid. 2. The Conversion of the People of Franconia by Kilianus replied to p. 228 229. 3. The Conversion of a great part of Germany by Vinofrid otherwise called Boniface considered ibid. The Conversion of the Vandals of the Danes of the Bulgarians Slavonians c. Ascribed to other Causes than the naked Efficacy of the Christian Doctrine ibid. The Barbarous Cruelties that were used by the Spaniards in the Conversion of the Indians p. 230. The Instance of Heraclius the Emperors Letter to Dagobert King of France concerning the method he made use of for the Conversion of the Jews p. 231. The Conclusion The Tenth Note Holiness of LIFE IN this Argument it is shewn I. What the Notion of Holiness is p. 233. Holiness is of Two kinds 1. Holiness of Calling and Dedication What
whole Work. p. 390. FINIS Books Printed for and Sold by Richard Chiswell Dr. CAve's Lives of the Primitive Fathers in 2 Vol. Folio Dr. Cary's Chronological Account of Ancient Time. fol. Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity fol. Sir John Burlace's History of the Irish Rebellion fol. The Laws of this Realm concerning Jesuits Seminary Priests Recusants the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance explained by divers Judgments and Resolutions of the Judges with other Observations thereupon By William CawleyEsq fol. Dr. Towerson's Explication on the Creed the Commandments and Lord's Prayer in 3 Vol. fol. Bishop Nicholson on the Church-Catechism 40. Mr. John Cave's seven occasional Sermons 40. Bishop Wilkin's Natural Religion 80. His Fifteen Sermons 80. Mr. Tanner's Primordia Or the Rise and Growth of the first Church of God described 80. Spaniards Conspiracy against the State of Venice 80. Dr. Cave's Primitive Christianity in three parts 80. 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An Answer to a Late Pamphlet Intituled The Judgment and Doctrine of the Clergy of the Church of England concerning one Special Branch of the King's Prerogative viz. In dispensing with the Penal Laws 4o. A Discourse of the Holy Eucharist in the two great Points of the Real Presence and the Adoration of the Host in Answer to the Two Discourses lately Printed at Oxford on this Subject To which is perfixed a Large Historical Preface relating to the same Argument Two Discourses Of Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead The Fifteen Notes of the Church as laid down by Cardinal Bellarmin examined and confuted 4o. With a Table of the Contents Preparation for Death Being a Letter sent to a young Gentlewoman in France in a dangerous Distemper of which she died By W. W. 12o. The Difference between the Church of England and the Church of Rome in opposition to a late Book Intituled An Agreement between the Church of England and Church of Rome A PRIVATE PRAYER to be used in Difficult Times A True Account of a Conference held about Religion at London Sept. 29 1687 between A. Pulton Jesuit and Tho. Tenison D. D. as also of that which led to it and followed after it 4o. The Vindication of A. Cressener Schoolmaster in Long-Acre from the Aspersions of A. Pulton Jesuit Schoolmaster in the Savoy together with some Account of his Discourse with Mr. Meredith A Discourse shewing that Protestants are on the safer Side notwithstanding the uncharitable Judgment of their Adversaries and that Their Religion is the surest Way to Heaven 4o. Six Conferences concerning the Eucharist wherein is shewed that the Doctrine of Transubstantiation overthrows the Proofs of Christian Religion A Discourse concerning the pretended Sacrament of Extreme Vnction with an account of the Occasions and Beginnings of it in the Western Church In Three Parts With a Letter to the Vindicator of the Bishop of Condom The Pamphlet entituled Speculum Ecclesiasticum or an Ecclesiastical Prospective-Glass considered in its False Reasonings and Quotations There are added by way of Preface two further Answers the First to the Defender of the Speculum the Second to the Half-sheet against the Six Conferences A Second Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England against the new Exceptions of Mons de Meaux late Bishop of Condom and his Vindicator The FIRST PART In which the Account that has been given of the Bishop of Meaux's Exposition is fully Vindicated the Distinction of Old and New Popery Historically asserted and the Doctrine of the Church of Rome in Point of Image-worship more particularly considered 40. The Incurable Scepticism of the Church of Rome By the Author of the Six Conferences concerning the Eucharist 40. Mr. Pulton Considered in his Sincerity Reasonings Authorities Or a Just Answer to what he hath hitherto Published in his True Account his True and full Account of a Conference c. His Remarks and in them his pretended Confutation of what he calls Dr. T 's Rule of Faith. By Tho. Tenison D. D. A Full View of the Doctrines and Practices of the Antient Church relating to the Eucharist wholly different from those of the Present Roman Church and inconsistent with the belief of Transubstantiation Being a sufficient Confutation of CONSENSVS VETERVM NVBES TESTIVM and other Late Collections of the Fathers pretending to the Contrary 40. A BRIEF DISCOURSE Concerning the NOTES OF THE CHURCH With some REFLECTIONS on Cardinal BELLARMIN's Notes LICENSED April 6. 1687. JO. BATTELY LONDON Printed for Ric. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXVII PAge 11. l. 15. for Character r. Charter and p. 14. l. 8. r. Charter p. 16. l. 12. after Ancient and Apostolick Church add Which is the same with his second Note concerning Antiquity which must refer to the Antiquity of its Doctrine for an Ancient Church tho founded many years since if it have innovated in Doctrine cannot plead Antiquity and a Church founded but yesterday which professes the Ancient Faith may p. 18. l. 6. f. first r. fifth p. 22. l. 14. f. now r. more A BRIEF DISCOURSE Concerning the Notes of the CHURCH c. IF Cardinal Bellarmin had not told us That this is a most profitable Controversie Controv. T. 2. L. 4 de Notis Ecclesiae I should very much have wondered at that pains which he and so many other of their great Divines have taken to find out the Notes of the Church For is not the Catholick Church visible And if we can see which is this Church what need we guess at it by marks and signs and that by such marks and signs too as are matter of dispute themselves Cannot we distinguish between the Christian Church and a Turkish Mosque or Jewish Synagogue or Pagan Temple Cannot we without all this ado distinguish a Christian from a Turk or a Jew or a Pagan And it will be as easie to find out a Christian Church as it is to find out Christians for a Christian Church is nothing else but a Society of Christians united under Christian Pastors for the Worship of Christ and where ever we find such a Society as this there is a Christian Church and all such particular or National Churches all the World over make up the whole Christian Church or the Universal Church of Christ But this will not do the Cardinal's business Though the Christian Church is visible enough yet not such a Church as he
of Corinth denying the Resurrection and the Galatians warping towards Judaism and the Church of Corinth being guilty of great miscarriages in receiving the Lords-Supper and yet were owned for true Churches by the Apostles An argument which much became the Cardinal to use it being the best evidence I know of for the Church of Rome being a true Church that every corruption in Faith and Sacraments do not Unchurch but how this proves that true Faith and true Sacraments are not an essential note and character of a true Church I cannot guess I would desire any one to tell me for him whether a corrupt Faith and false Sacraments be the Notes of a true Church or whether it be no matter as to the nature of a Church what our Faith and Sacraments are Secondly Let us now consider the Cardinal's way by some certain marks and notes to find out which is the true Church before we know what a true Church is To pick out of all the Churches in the World one Church which we must own for the only true Church and reject all other Churches which do not subject themselves to this one Church To find out such a Church on whose authority we must rely for the whole Christian Faith and in whose Communion only pardon of sin is to be had That this is the use of Notes in the Church of Rome I have already shewn you and truly they are very pretty things to be proved by Notes as to consider them particularly 1. To find out which is the true Church before we know what a true Church is This methinks is not a natural way of inquiry but is like seeking for we know not what There are two inquiries in order of nature before which is the true Church viz. Whether there be a true Church or not and what it is The first of these the Cardinal takes for granted that there is a Church but I wont take it for granted but desire these Note-makers to give me some Notes to prove that there is a Church There is indeed a great deal of talk and noise in the World about a Church but that is no proof that there is a Church and yet it is not a self-evident proposition that there is a Church and therefore it must be proved Now that there is a Church must be proved by Notes as well as which is this true Church or else the whole design of Notes is lost and I would gladly see those Notes which prove that there is a Church before we know what a Church is To understand the mystery of this we must briefly consider the reason and use of Notes in the Church of Rome according to the Popish resolution of Faith into the authority of the Church the first thing we must know is which is the True Church for we must receive the Scriptures and the Interpretation of them and the whole Christian Faith and Worship from the Church and therefore can know nothing of Religion till we have found the Church The use then of Notes is to find out the Church before and without the Scriptures for if they admit of a Scripture-proof they must allow that we can know and understand the Scriptures without the authority or interpretation of the Church which undermines the very foundation of Popery Now I first desire to know how they will prove That there is a Church without the Scripture That you 'l say is visible it self for we see a Christian Church in the World but what is it I see I see a company of men who call themselves a Church and this is all that I can see and is this seeing a Church A Church must have a Divine Original and Institution and therefore there is no seeing a Church without seeing its Character for there can be no other Note or Mark of the being of a Church but the Institution of it And this proves that we cannot know that there is a Church without knowing in some measure what this Church is for the Charter which founds the Church must declare the Nature and Constitution of it what its Faith and Worship and Laws and Priviledges are But now these essential Characters of a Church must not be reckoned by the Romanists among the Notes of a Church for then we must find out the true Church by the true Faith and the true Worship not the true Faith by the true Church which destroys Popery Hence it is that these Note-makers never attempt to give us any Notes whereby we shall know that there is a Church or what this Church is for there are no Notes of these but such as they dare not give viz. The Authority of the Scriptures and every mans private judgment of the Sense and Interpretation of them for at least till we have found a Church we must judg for our selves and then the Authority of the Church comes too late for we must first judg upon the whole of Religion if we must find out a true Church by the true Faith before we can know the true Church and we cannot rely on her Authority before we know her and therefore they take it for granted that there is a Church which they can never prove in their way and attempt to give some Notes whereby to know which is the Church and then learn what the Church is from the Church her self which is like giving marks whereby to know an Unicorn before I know whether there be an Unicorn or not or what it is 2. Another blunder in this Dispute about Notes is That they give us Notes whereby to find out the true Catholick Church before we know what a particular Church is For all Bellarmin's Notes are intended only for the Catholick Church and therefore his first Note is the name Catholick whereas the Catholick Church is nothing else but all true Christian Churches in the World united together by one common Faith and Worship and such acts of Communion as distinct Churches are capable of and obliged to Every particular Church which professes the true Faith and Worship of Christ is a true Christian Church and the Catholick Church is all the true Christian Churches in the World which have all the same Nature and are in some sense of the same Communion So that it is impossible to know what the Catholick Church is before we know what a particular Church is as it is to know what the Sea is before we know what Water is Every true single particular Church has the whole and intire nature of a Church and would be a true Church though there were no other Church in the World as the Christian Church at Jerusalem was before any other Christian Churches were planted and therefore there can be no other Notes of a True Church but what belong to every true particular Church and that can be nothing but what is essential to a Church and what all true Christian Churches in the World agree in viz. The True Faith and Worship
Whence hath it Tares They did not know that is how they came there no more than we may be able now to know how Errors came into the Church But that they were there they knew and were sure as we are sure there are false Doctrines in the Church of Rome that were not of our Saviour's planting 2. Nor do the Examples whereby they illustrate this Ratiocination serve to any purpose but to shew the Falseness of it They can name they say the Authors and Beginnings of all the ancient Heresies for instance the Heresy which affirmed there were two Persons in Christ was begun by Nestorius in the Year CDXXXI Which is not true for though then it took its Name from so great a Bishop who maintained it yet the Heresy had been before from an unknown Beginning it being mentioned by St. Ambrose in the foregoing Age in his Book of the Incarnation The like may be said of the Arian Heresy whose Beginning they date in the Year CCCXXIV but it was born long before among the Gnostick Hereticks and only got Reputation by so noted a Man as Arius Nay some of the learnedst Doctors in the present Roman Church have taken a great deal of pains to make the World believe that Tertullian and a Number of other ancient Fathers were infected with it So uncertain they are in their Discourses about these matters 3. Which if they were true would uphold the greatest Impieties For what will become of the Christian Religion if the Traditional Law of the Jews be true And according to this way of Reasoning it must pass for Truth that it came from Mount Sinai by word of Mouth as the written Law did for none can shew its Original much less name the Authors of the several Tradions and who opposed them c. Nay the Worship of the Heathen Gods was supported by this Argument as is excellently observed by Clemens Alexandrinus who tells the Gentiles Admon ad Gentes p. 36 37. That Fables and Time had advanced dead Men into the Number of the Gods. For though things present being familiar to us are neglected yet those which are past and gone being out of the reach of Confutation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the obscurity and uncertainty of Times have honour invented for them By which means those that are dead long ago glorying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a long time of Error are accounted Gods by Posterity The same may be said for the lying Oracles among them the Beginnings and first Authors of which cannot be traced 4. But we have an Instance of this in the Roman Church it self where there is an acknowledged Change and yet they themselves are not able to tell who first began it because it crept in by insensible Degrees The Communion I mean in one kind was not used for above a thousand years but being begun in some Churches they themselves cannot tell which nor when grew to be a general Custom not long before the Council of Constance in these Western Parts of the World and there was established as a Law. But it did not begin by the Decree of any Bishop nor was carried on by any publick Order and if you ask them who first set it on foot they will tell you that doth not appear Therefore the Second alone of those Six things being proved that new Doctrines and Practices have been brought in of which we are very certain there needs none of the rest But we are sure there was a time and Authors of them and People that embraced them though we should not be able for want of ancient Records that are lost or because things that come in insensibly cannot in every Age be noted and recorded to tell the very time and Place and Persons when and where and by whom they were introduced All which is not said by us because we are not able to give an account of the other parts of that Ratiocination but only to shew the Frivolousness of such Discourses as these in which they of the Church of Rome place their main Retreat For we can tell nay their own Authors have told us when and by whom many things were brought into their Church which were not there in the Beginning Polydore Virgil if I had room to insert his Words would furnish us with several Instances But I shall content my self with Two which were at no great distance the one from the other The First is their grand Article of Faith about the Papal Authority We know and have often told them by what steps it grew to the height wherein now it is or would be when the Bishops of Rome began to exceed their Bounds how they were opposed and snub'd who and by whom was first declared the Universal Bishop and Head of the Church Victor began the Dance Zozimus after some others followed it Boniface continued it Celestine carried it on Who met with so sharp a Rebuke from the African Bishops for his intrusion into their Affairs upon the pretence of a forged Canon of the Nicene Council as is sufficient to shew his Ambition and Craft was greater than his Authority The Attempts of the rest are as notorious and so is the Opposition they met withall till at last Boniface the 3d procured to himself from Phocas the Title of Vniversal Bishop and to his Church the Title of Head of all Churches All this we can justify out of Authentick Records but it is not in their Power to name so much as one Man that owned the Universal Jurisdiction of the Roman Bishop over the whole Church till that time that is till above six hundred years after our Saviour's Birth For though Bellarmin alledges an Epistle of Justinians wherein he calls the Church of Rome the Head of all Churches yet is signifies nothing but that they are at a loss for want of Proofs because as it is with great Reason suspected to be spurious so it can intend no more than Head of the Churches of the West because in an undoubted Edict of his he calls the Church of Constantinople by the same Name the Head of all other Churches i.e. Chief of those in the East Which is so certain that their own Pope Gregory not much above a year before this arrogant Title was assumed most vehemently disdained it or rather thundred against it Nor can they name one Man in the whole Church for so long a time that believed their present Definition of the Catholick Church much less the Power of the Pope to depose Kings which none challenged till Gregory VII that is till above a thousand years after our blessed Saviour Insomuch that their fore-named Champion †C. Bellarm. Tract de potestate Summ. Pontif. p. 27. being to prove this deposing Power out of ancient Authors is able to say no more than this I have alledged above LXX famous Writers some of which flourish'd more than 500 Years ago A goodly Business a glorious Shew of Antiquity instead of the
seven Sacraments truly and properly so and whosoever saith there are more or fewer instituted by Christ is accursed Trid. Sess 7. Can. 1. Transubstantiation 13. Bread and Wine after Consecration are turn'd into the Substance of Christ's Body and Blood without changing the Species Conc. Trid. Communion in one kind 14. The People are forbidden to receive the Sacrament in both kinds Trid. Sess 21. c. 1. Solitary Masses 15. Solitary Masses wherein the Priest communicates alone are approved and commended and whosoever saith they are unlawful and to be abrogated is accursed Trid. Sess 22. Can. 8. Auricular Confession 16. Without particular Confession of Sins to a Priest is neither Forgiveness nor Salvation to be obtained Trid. Sess 14. c. 5. Can. 6 7. Extreme Vnction 17. Extreme Unction is a Sacrament and to be administred when Persons are in imminent danger and last of all to be applied Trid. Sess 14. c. 13. Priest's Marriage 18. Those that are in Orders may not Marry and those that are married may not be admitted to Orders Conc. Later 1. Can. 21. Later 2. Can. 6. What the Church of Rome hath held 1. Before the time of the Nicene Council little regard was had to the Church of Rome So Pope Pius 2. Epist p. 802. and the Church of Rome call'd others Apostolical and Sister-Churches 2. For one Bishop to set himself over the rest and to have all the rest in Subjection to him is the Pride Lucifer and the fore-running of Antichrist Pope Gregor 1. Epist 36. 3. St. Jerom who was a Member of the Latin Church saith That tho Tobias Judith and Maccabees c. were read yet they were not received as Canonical Scriptures Prolog Proverb And Pope Gregory 1. quoting the Maccabees excuses himself for producing a Testimony out of a Book not Canonical We do not amiss c. Moral in Job l. 19. c. 13. 4. Gregory 1. saith All things which edifie and instruct are contained in the Scriptures and that from thence the Teachers may presently teach whatsoever is needful In Ezek. Hom. l. 1. c. 8. de Cur. Past l. 2. c. 11. 5. Pope Gregory the 9th An. 1227. declared the not knowing the Scriptures by the Testimony of Truth it self is the occasion of Errours and therefore it 's expedient for all Men to read or hear them Epist ad Germ. Archiep Constant apud M. Paris Hen. 3. 6. Gregory 1. saith that the best of Men will find no Merit in their best Actions And that if he should attain to the highest Vertue he should obtain eternal Life not by Merits but by Pardon Moral l. 9. c. 11. And elsewhere he saith I pray to be saved not trusting to my Merits but presuming to obtain that by thy Mercy alone which I hope not for by my Merit in 1 Psal poenit 7. Fisher Bp of Rochester in Hen. 8th's time saith the use of Indulgences seems to be late in the Church and upon the recital of this Testimony Polydore Virgil adds which being things of so great moment you might expect them more certainly from the Mouth of God De Invent. l. 8. c. 1. Cardinal Cajetan saith there is no Authority of Scripture or ancient Fathers Greek or Latin that brings them to our Knowledg Opusc 15. c. 1. 8. Bp. Fisher saith There is none or very rare mention of Purgatory in the ancient Fathers Roff. contr Luther Art. 18. And Pope Gregory 1. saith that at the time of Death either the good or evil Spirit seizeth upon the Soul and keeps it for ever with it without any change Moral in Job l. 8. c. 8. Vid. Vindication of the Answer to some late Papers pag. 76. 9. Bellarmine acknowledges that long after the Apostles both in the Eastern and Western Churches the People were wont to answer in Divine Offices De Verb. l. 2. cap. 16. § sed neque Vid. Discourse concerning Celebration of Divine Service in an unknown Tongue p. 46 47 48. 10. Irenaeus Bp of Lyons saith Throughout the whole World the Church doth nothing by Invocations of Angels but directeth her Prayers to God which hath made all and calls upon the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ And it seems not to have been an Article of Faith in the times of Lombard and Scotus as it is now the one of which saith It 's not incredible the Saints do hear what we say And the latter It 's probable God doth reveal our Prayers Lomb. Sent. lib. 4. Dist 45. Scot. in 4 Dist Q. 45. 11. Pope Gregory I after he hath allowed Images in Temples for information of the Ignorant doth professedly forbid the worship of them Lib. 7. Epist 109. ad Serenum Registr Epist l. 9. Ep. 9. c. 12. Cassander a Member of the Church of Rome saith we shall not likely find any before Pet. Lombard who lived about 1130 that did define the number of the Sacraments Art. 13. § de num Sacr. And particularly Alex. Hales the famous Schoolman saith that Confirmation was ordained to be a Sacrament by the Meldensian Council Par. 4. Q. 9. M. 1. 13. Pope Gelasius saith That in the Sacrament the Substance or Nature of Bread ceaseth not or perisheth not Gelas cont Eutych Gregory I. saith That our Bodies as well as our Souls are nourished by the Eucharist Sacram. 16. Kal. Mar. in 6. Psal poenit 14. Pope Gelasius declares Either let them receive the whole Sacrament or let them be driven from the whole for the dividing of one and the same Sacrament cannot be done without great Sacriledg De Consecr Dist 2. Comperimus And Pope Gregory I. affirms it to be the constant practice for the People to receive in both kinds Sacram. in Quadrag Tr. 3. Vid. Vindication of the Answer to some Papers p. 75. 15. Anacletus Bishop of Rome did decree That all present should communicate or else should be turn'd out of the Church for so the Apostles did order and the Holy Church or Rome observeth Par. 3. Dist 1. Episcop 2. peracta Gregory I. forbids the Priest to celebrate the Eucharist alone Greg. lib. Capital cap. 7. apud Cassand Liturg. c. 33. 16. This was neither in the Time of Pope Gelasius or Pope Gregory I. Vid. Vindication of the Answer p. 73. 17. In Gregory the First 's time it was used in order to Recovery and the Eucharist was to be given after it Sacram. p. 253. Vid. Vindicat. of the Answ p. 77. 18. To marry was a priviledg belonging to the Clergy as well as others So Cassander Consult Art. 23. Polyd. Virg. Invent. l. 5. c. 4. By this Parallel thus far drawn betwixt the Ancient and Present Doctrine of the Church of Rome we may be able to judg of the Immutability and Duration of the Church which can no more be consistent with it than one part of a Contradiction can be reconciled to another or than Infallibility can be consistent with the having actually err'd To find fallible Churches mistaken and at some times to vary
more evidently proved to be no true Catholicks than those of the Roman Communion may in all those Articles of Faith which are peculiar to themselves For as to Points of mere Belief how much more than the Apostles Creed can they shew us to have been received always every where and by all Christians But as for that large Addition of Tridentine Articles annexed to that Creed by P. Pius the 4th no unbiassed Person can believe they have ever done any thing like proving that any of them have been received always and much less every where and by all those whom themselves own for Catholick Christians 4. By this Note of a Catholick no Society of Christians can bid so fair for Catholicism as the Reformed Churches but especially the Church of England whose avowed Principle it is to receive nothing as an Article of Faith but what is contained in the holy Scriptures Artic. 6. or may be proved thereby Nor doth she embrace any one Doctrine as an Article of Faith but what is clearly expressed in those Books of whose Canonicalness there never was the least Dispute in the Primitive Church Secondly I proceed to shew that if we should acknowledg this to be a true Note of the Catholick Church instead of enabling the Church of Rome to make good her Pretension of so being it will destroy it And instead of doing Disservice to the Reformed Churches it will do them excellent Service and be a certain Argument of their being true Parts of the Catholick Church And 1. I will shew that it will not at all Advantage the Church of Rome as to that her Pretension and therefore can do us no Prejudice The Cardinal proves 1. That his Church began to fructify throughout the World in the Days of the Apostles from these Words of St. Paul Col. 1.6 The Truth of the Gospel is come unto you as it is in all the World and bringeth forth Fruit as it doth also in you c. But what is this to his Church Is the Gospel's bringing forth Fruit in all the World the same thing with the Church of Rome's so doing 2. He adds the Authority of several Fathers for this Church's being spread in their Time all over the then known World but gives us none of their Sayings except St. Prosper's The first Father he cites is St. Irenaeus in the 3d Chapter of his Book Edit Paris p. 53. But the Father here only saith That this Faith which he sums up immediately before and is but the chief part of the Apostle's Creed the Church disseminated throughout the World diligently preserves as if it were confined but to one House But how doth this concern the Church of Rome Which is not once mentioned with others here particularly named except we could be made to believe that wheresoever the Word Church is found that Church is still to be understood Next he cites Tertullian adversùs Judaeos Edit Rig. p. 189. and having search'd that Book these or none are the Words he means viz. Those Words of David are to be understood of the Apostle's their Sound is gone forth in all the Earth and their Words unto the End of the World For in whom have all Nations believed but in Christ who is now come The Parthians Medes Elamites and those that inhabit Mesopotamia Armenia Phrygia Cappadocia Pontus Asia and Pamphilia Egypt Africa and beyond Cyrene the Romans and Jews now in Jerusalem and other Nations as now of the Getuli and Moors all Spain divers Countries of the Gauls and those of the Britains which the Romans could never conquer are subject to Christ c. But I again ask What is all this to the Church of Rome more than to any other particular Church belonging to any one of the many Nations of which that of the Romans is one and two whole Quarters of the World here mentioned His third Father is St. Cyprian Edit Oxon. p. 10◠in his Book de Vnitate Ecclesiae But here is nothing he could fancy to be for his purpose except these Words The Church is one which by its Fruitfulness is extended into a Multitude As there are many Rays of the Sun and but one Light c. So the Church of our Lord which being filled with Light sends forth her Beams through the whole World is but one Light which is diffused every-where But though this be said of the Catholick Church is here the least Intimation that the Church of Rome is this Catholick Church After St. Cyprian follow several of the later Fathers their Books being only directed to But the narrow room I am confined to will not permit me to examine them nor need we look any farther to be satisfied how this greatest Man of the Roman Church condescended to the most shameful impertinence in citing Scripture and Fathers for the doing her Service But we must not overlook St. Prosper's Verses in his Book de Ingratis viz. Sedes Roma Petri quae Pastoralis Honoris Facta Caput Mundo quicquid non possidet Armis Relligione tenet i. e. Rome the Seat of Peter being made the Head of Pastoral Honour in the World whatsoever Country she possesseth not by her Arms she holds by her Religion But considering how early this Father lived viz. about the beginning of the Fifth Century he could mean no more than this That the Church of Rome the most Honourable of all other by means of that Cities being the ancient Seat of the Emperors keeps still possession of those places by the Religion they received from Her over which she hath lost Her Old Dominion And what is this but another plain Instance of most idle quoting of Ancient Authors Not to reflect upon Fetching Arguments from Poetical Flourishes But not to stand to consider how Ample the Roman Church was in the times of those Fathers nothing is more evident than that that part of Christendom she took up was but a small Spot of Ground compared with the Space those Churches filled which tho they held Communion with Her were distinct Churches from Her and owned no Subjection to Her. And it was about or above an Hundred Years after the youngest of those Fathers that the Pope was inverted by that Execrable Wretch Phocas a Blessed Title in the mean time with the Primacy over all Churches And Gregory the Great who died in the Beginning of the Sixth Century not only sharply inveighed against John Patriarch of Constantinople and his Successor Cyriacus for assuming to themselves the Title of Vniversal Bishops though there was no appearance of their designing any thing more thereby than an Addition of Honour not of Power to that Patriarchate but also called those who should affect such a Haughty Title Greg. Epist 37. 70. lib. 11. Ep. 30. l. 4. the Forerunners of Antichrist And as these Bishops taking this Title was a Demonstration that they acknowledged not the least Subjection to the Bishops of Rome so Pope Gregory's calling
those Bishops who should so do without Exception Forerunners of Antichrist is as plain a Proof that the Bishops of Rome to his time did not look on themselves as having a Primacy over all Churches And 't is manifest that in the time of the Council of Nice the Church of Rome was not thought to include the Catholick Church or to be any more than one part thereof This I say is manifest from the Sixth Canon of that Council viz. Let the ancient Customs be preserved for the Bishop of Alexandria to have Jurisdiction over Egypt Lybia and Pentapolis because the Bishop of Rome hath a like Custom c. Which is as much as to say that the Bishop of Alexandria had then the same uncontroulable Power in his large Jurisdiction that the Bishop of Rome had in his And therefore that Council knew nothing of this Bishop's having any Power over the Alexandrian and much less over the whole Catholick Church Nor is any thing more certain than that the mere Superiority of Honour which the Roman Church had was founded on no Divine Right but only on that Cities being the Seat of the Empire For as the Second General Council viz. that of Constantinople decreed in its Third Canon That the Bishop of Constantinople should have the priviledg of Honour next to the Bishop of Rome upon the account of its being the Imperial City and therefore called New Rome So in the Twenty eighth Canon of the Fourth General Council viz. that of Chalcedon it was ordained that for the same Reason the Bishop of Constantinople should have equal priviledges with the Bishop of Rome So that 't is a plain Case that whosoever shall undertake to prove from any Sayings of the Ancients for the first 500 Years at least that the Church of Rome and the Catholick Church were reputed to be the same and consequently that whatsoever they said of the Amplitude of this is to be understood of that Church must necessarily make as sad work of it as Bellarmin hath here done And therefore it is apparent too that no Service can be done to the Church of Rome by this Note as to her pretension of being the true Catholick Church From whence it will likewise follow that no prejudice can from thence accrue to the Reformed Churches But this is not all For 2. This Note were it a true one would be Destructive to that her Pretence and do the Reformed Churches great Service viz. in demonstrating them to be true parts of the Catholick Church This also may be concluded from what hath been said but it will be made more evident by these following Considerations 1. If the Church of Rome had as Ample a Spread over the World for some of the first Ages as Bellarmin contends for this would far more redound to the Advantage of our Churches of the Reformation were Amplitude a distinguishing Property of the Church than to the Advantage of the present Church of Rome because that Church then was more ours than now it is the Romanists For there can scarcely be a greater Disagreement in Doctrine and Worship between any two Christian Churches than there hath for a long time been between the same Church as she was then and is now But the Agreement is as great between the Ancient Church of Rome and our Churches and especially between Her and the Church of England This our Adversaries could not but see would they impartially compare the Doctrine and Worship of each together And the only Quarrel they have with us is that we will not admit more into our Creed than the Christians of the First Ages did into theirs And that we worship God only by the alone Mediation of Jesus Christ as they did That our Laity partake of the Communion in both kinds as theirs did And in short that we believe the Holy Scriptures to be a compleat Rule of Faith as it was every where believed to be by the Primitive Catholicks and that we will not receive into our Worship the Roman Novelties those things which were utterly unknown to both the Roman and all other Churches in those Ages Now whereas the Cardinal would have it observed for the better explaining the meaning of this Note That if one Province alone should retain the true Faith it might properly be called the Catholick Church so long as its Faith is one and the same with that which at one time or other had prevailed in the whole World We desire no greater Advantage to our Church and all other in Communion with Her since these and those Churches which in the Primitive Times were extended all over the then known parts of the World are agreed in much more than all the Fundamental Points of Faith. 2. It hath been estimated upon Computation that the Churches subject to the Roman See exceed not much the Reformed Churches in Amplitude or Multitude of Members Especially since Italy Spain See the Preface to Brerewood's Enquiries and Portugal are detained in the Romish Religion not by Choice or Judgment but by Ignorance and the Tyranny of the Inquisition But who can be ignorant that the Church of Rome bears not the least proportion upon those Accounts with these Churches considered in Conjunction with that part of Christendom which agreeth with them as in all the main Points of Christianity so in refusing Subjection to that Church and in most of those Doctrines and Practices which we condemn in Her as contrary to Holy Scripture or as not founded thereon and yet made necessary to Salvation by Her and not taught by the Primitive Church So that should all the Churches which deny that of Rome to have any Authority over them deal with Her as she hath dealt with them and pronounce Her to have nothing more left Her than the mere Name of a Church this Her Note would be an unanswerable Objection against Her being A true Church as well as The true Church on supposition that as she holds of two Parties of Christians rejecting Communion with and unchurching each other but one of them can be a true Church That so large a part of Christendom I say agrees with the Reformed Churches in all the Grand Articles of Faith and in the Chief of those wherein they are at Varience with the Church of Rome as makes the whole an incomparably greater Body of Believers than all those together who own that Church for their Mother is so notorious that 't is impossible our Adversaries should dispute it The Cardinal indeed tells us on this Note That Besides all Italy and Spain and almost all France which the Church of Rome possesseth And besides Germany England Poland Bohemia Hungary Greece Syria Aethiopia Egypt in which many Catholicks are found even in the New World viz. America She hath Churches without the mixture of Hereticks And we can Reply That Besides England Scotland and Ireland in which Protestancy is the National Religion and in the two former of which the Number
Churches had they judged it necessary when within a very few Centuries and not through very many Persons the oldest might have been traced to its first Original But much different is the case now after so many Changes of Nations and Cities by the violences of War and other Commotions for more than sixteen hundred Years since the first Dispersion of the Church Some Irregularities and Uncanonical Proceedings in Times of great Schisms Observ 3. or publick Disturbances have generally had a very favourable Confirmation to make up those Breaches not otherwise easily to be healed and so been interpreted for no Interruption of this Authentical Succession Such as the Allowance of several Schismatical Ordinations if not by down-right Hereticks and other violent and tumultuary Proceedings which would not beforehand have passed without a very severe Censure but afterwards have been rather judged charitably to be connived at then with extreme force and danger to be wholly altered Without a very candid Interpretation of many publick Occurrences through a long Series of time all Government would be exposed to endless Confusions The greatest Reason Interest and Duty oblige all private Persons not to busie themselves in prying into much more not invidiously to expose every Punctilio or fancied Defect in the least Formality of the Constitution of those orderly set over them where no direct encouragement is given to the most presumptuous and sacrilegious Invasions Neither can we think our most gracious and merciful Redeemer deemer will severvly exact from his humble and obedient Followers the Failure of their Guides which it was not in their power to amend or deny them the salutary Benefits or his own Institutions for want of the most exact Regularity of those who dispense them In which case I doubt the Romanists would have as little Security as any beside Inquiry 2. And that brings me to the Second Inquiry How far this Succession of Bishops may be granted to the Roman Church The usual Succession of Persons in the Government of the Church of Rome from the very Apostles we are not concerned to call into question though little we have left upon record of many among them but only their bare Names and that signifies not much And for the small knowledg we have of any of the rest at the Beginning or of what past among them for some hundred years after St. Clemens we are beholden to the Writers of other Churches This so famous Church having left none for some considerable time that I know of except the Decretal Epistles as termed be called in Which the most ingenuous among them will scarce own for any other than spurious or doubtful at best and yet what great stress has been laid on them And excepting also the very little Remains in other Authors If they or others for them have been more accurate in preserving the Memorials of the lineal Descent of their Bishops than most Churches though Learned Men are not yet agreed neither among themselves or us about the exact Order of the very first of them Yet I suppose the other Patriarchal Seats of Constantinople Alexandria and Antioch to mention no more will think themselves as secure of their own Pedigree and the derivation liable to as few Exceptions For if the Charge of Heresy break the Connection of this Chain which Bellarmin here objects against the Greeks It will be as hard for him to clear the like more notorious Objections against Liberius Vigilius and Honorius to mention nothing of later Popes whose very Gross Errors if not Blasphemies if they must not come under that Name yet certainly some of them deserve every whit as bad being as destructive to all Religion wherein may be consulted their own Writers of their Lives I take no delight to search after such Matters Not to insist on the foul Depravations of Faith and good Practice we charge upon them for so long time I hope not without great Necessity and Reason If Schismatical Intrusions presently dissolve this orderly Succession which the same Author charges so confidently here upon others De Rom. Pont. l. 4. c. 9 10. He himself will own Felix the Second and Vigilius to have come in so And that to save any of them if possible from the former Imputation and yet nevertheless to fill up the Number of Lawful Popes yea of Martyrs or Confessors too To which may be added the several Schisms and Tumults from opposite Elections and sometimes Admissions As those at the Choice of Damasus See Platina of them and others Symmachus the First Boniface the Second Sergius the First John the Thirteenth Benedict the Fifth Leo the Eighth Gregory the Fifth Benedict the Ninth Silvester the Third Benedict the Tenth Nicholas the Second Calistus the Second Honorius the Second Innocent the Second Vrban the Sixth and that great Schism when three Anti-Popes Gregory the Twelfth Benedict the Thirteenth and John the Twenty Third or as some will have it the Twenty Fourth after the Death of Alexander the Fifth claim'd the Chair of St. Peter at the same time Each had his Followers to end which Contention the Council of Constance thought fit to depose them all and set up Martin the Fifth I mention nothing of that Story which be sure was no Tale of the Protestants but some have observ'd it was first called in question by them Neither do I insist on the Popes Seventy Years Residence at Avignion in France These and such like Accidents what ever Difficulties to know who had the best Title they may afford not easy to be cleared from him that had a mind to seek Objections Yet seeming for the main no more than what the Intricacies and Perplexities of the Current of Human Affairs have been ever exposed to I should not have taken notice of had not the Foundation of all Truth or Certainty and the perpetual duration of the Church of Christ been thought only with safety to be placed upon the suppos'd Rock of the Stability of this Chair and Indefectibility of this Church and with many the Infallibility of him that presides therein And were they not so Bold to say no more as to prescribe very strange and extraordinary Rules or Measures to the supream Providence in the Conduct thereof whatever becomes of any other or else all must be lost We acknowledg the wonderful Providence of God in the preservation of His Faith and Church as much from the Corruptions of its own Members as from the Violence and Policies of its profess'd Enemies But we dare not be so presumptuous as to challenge our Saviour with being wanting to his Promise or complain we want any needful Security to our Faith or that there is any defect in the Authority or Ministrations of our Spiritual Guides if any particular Person or set Number of them may possibly be liable to mistake in matters of Faith or determine otherwise than they ought or prove false to their Trust It is a very unsafe and
modern Controvertists make short work in appealing to this last only effectual way of Decision had it then been received and known for so fundamental a Principle of Christianity as is now pretended 2. As this uninterrupted Succession of Bishops where yielded is no sufficient Proof of the Truth of the Doctrine of any Church so neither is it a warrantable Ground of the claim of Superiority over another Church which hath not so clear evidences thereof And if these two fail those we have to deal with they will gain very little by this Note For as the Succession may yea ought to be supposed good when sufficient Proof appears not to the contrary So where there really appears Want of this Succession and need to to fly to other Churches for the Relief thereof yet this charitable Assistance which all ought most freely and willingly to offer or lend to each other does not presently give one the Power over the other for ever after The Apostles themselves seem not to derive their Power over the Churches by them planted so much from the Success of their Labours as from their immediate Divine Commission intimated in the Beginning of their Epistles though the one was a great Endearment and Enforcement to the others and so it ought to be We may suppose sometimes greater Churches converted by the Ministry of the less who were so happy as to receive the Faith before them Younger Churches have many times leapt over the Heads of much Elder and the Inferior having gained some considerable Advancement in a Civil Account have soon arrived at a proportionable Promotion in the Ecclesiastical as particularly the Church of Constantinople And somewhat like may be observed in the Changes of other Cities Superior Bishops are ordained by those over whom they after have some Authority For if not only Priority of Order but also Superiority of Jurisdiction be unalterably entailed upon the Eldest I doubt the Church of Jerusalem which was certainly the Mother-Church must be also the Mistress of all And if that Line be extinct I believe there are many other Branches it must descend to before it come to the Roman Some have disputed whether Britain it self had not a Church as soon And that they should ground a claim from what they will not yield to others sufficient for the same purpose seems very unequal But surely the Designs and Effects of this Spiritual Warfare are not like those usually of the Carnal meerly to inlarge the Dominions of their Leaders and advance the Power of their Governors The Churches conquests consist in the multitude of Souls gained to Christ in the new Plantations or farther Growth and Emprovements of all Christian Graces and Vertues in Mens Winds in fastning some Good and Benefit on them and not in gaining new outward Dependances to our selves any farther than the needful Preservation of Peace and Order in every distinct Dominion What is more smells too strong of Worldly Policy Temporal Gain or Secular Ambition to have any true Place here When Men are more industrious to promote and encourage every where sincere Piety and Probity and less concern'd in the claims of unlimited Soveraignty and Power then may we think true Religion and not other Interest to be the first Mover with them But to consider a little the Cardinal's Testimonies here The Second out of St. Augustin Psalmo contra partem Donati being the fullest and alone pertinent to their purpose I single out Numerate inquit Sacerdotes vel ab ipsa Sede Petri in ordine illa Patrum quis cui successerit videte Ipsa est Petriae quam non vincunt Superbae Inferorum Portae As to the latter part of it where the stress lies we have this Argument that it must be interpreted only as an occasional Allusion that in many places where he purposely expounds that Passage of the Gospel he makes Christ himself confessed by St. Peter to be the Rock on which he built his Church as Retract l. 1.21 Tom. 1. p. 30. and in cap. 21. Sti. Johan Tom. 9. p. 572. Super hanc Petram quam confessus se c. And indeed asserts no more but matter of Fact in a single case that the Seat of St. Peter to which the Donatists when condemned by the African Bishops upon their Appeal to the Emperour were referred was as a Rock which the proud Gates of Hell so he resembles their Presumptions doe not prevail against That is the cause was given against them by the Roman Bishop and others joyn'd with him Where though some Allusion may be made to the Place in the Gospel yet it is not fair to strain an Argument thence against the plain and expresly designed Exposition of if especially among such short Strictures of which that Tract is made up And for the other Testimonies in Irenaeus Tertullian and Epiphanius We acknowledg their Arguments good against upstart Teachers of new Doctrine But they expresly joyn Succession of Doctrine with that of Persons otherwise it had been of no Validity unless by referring their Adversaries who were not much moved by Authority to the evidences of the conveyance of the opposite Opinions to them from the first Originals The other two places in St. Aug. and that of Optatus against the Donatists imply no more to those presumptuous Inclosers of the whole Church within their own narrow Bounds and Beginners of it from themselves than a Challenge for them to shew any thing of the Apostolical Original thereof or after-conveyance like other Churches and particularly the Roman wherein St. Augustin Epist 165 after a Catalogue of the Bishops thereof thus closes In hoc ordine successionis nullus Donatista Episcopus invenitur And in all his Disputes with them lays the charge of the Guilt of their Schism upon the separation from all the Churches dispersed over the World according to Prophetical and Evangelical Declarations No Person or Place to prejudicate to all others it follows in the fore-mentioned ut certa sit spes fidelibus quae non in Homine sed in Domino collocata All which and more to any that consult the References throughout rather confirm our Claim We have as good Evidences and Conveyances as our Adversaries can challenge we pretend not to any new Doctrine But for the main ours are what themselves dare not but own What we reject among them are not only as Additions which none must make to the first Principles of Religion but over and above very dangerous and destructive to the common Faith of both For the Proof of such Doctrines or continuance of it we need no new Miracles or new Authority from Heaven but an orderly conveyance of the old and that we still Thanks be to God retain And truly Bellarmin's Inference from the mentioned Citations will carry in it little or no force but seems rather to incline the contrary way If they says he made so much of the continued Succession of 12 20 or 40 Bishops how much may
that she imposes must be set by till it appears that she requires the same Doctrine and no other than what was taught and believed by the Primitive Church For according to this Note it does not appear which is the true Church till it first appears that it agrees with the Doctrine of the Primitive and till it appears that it is a true Church it cannot sure appear to be an Infallible one for it cannot he pretended that Infallibility belongs to any but the true Church and therefore it must be first known that the present Church agrees with the Primitive before it can be known that she is an Infallible Guide or Teacher So that we manifestly gain this first by this Note of the Church that all those big and blustering Claims to Infallibility must be postpon'd and laid aside till that of agreeing with the Doctrine of the Primitive Church be made out and when that is done we shall not have quite so much reason to question her Infallibility We desire nothing more than to have the matter brought to this Issue Whether the Doctrines of the Reformed or the Romish Church do agree best with the Primitive Since for Reasons well known to themselves and very much suspected by others they are so willing to goe off from Scripture and to decline the Judgment of that as incompetent and insufficient in most of the Controversies between us we are very ready to leave them to be decided by any other indifferent Arbitrator for we think it is a little odd and unreasonable they should make themselves the only Judges of what is in difference between us and therefore we are very ready to stand to the Award and Vmpirage of the Primitive Church and we are not in the least afraid to venture our whole Cause to the sentence and decision of That for tho the Scripture be our only Rule of Faith and Doctrine necessary to be believed by us because we know of no other Revelation but that and nothing but Revelation makes any Doctrine necessary to be believed yet we are very willing to take the sence and meaning of Scripture both from it self and from the Primitive Church too so according to Vincentius Lyrinensis to have the line of Scriptural Interpretation be directed by the Rule of Ecclesiastical and Catholick Judgment †Ut Propheticae Apostolicae interpretationis linea secundum Ecclesiastici Catholici sensus normam dirigatur Vincent Lyrinens contra haeres c. 2. that is to have the Primitive Church direct us in interpreting Scripture where it stands in need of it or there is any Controversy about its meaning Let the Scripture therefore as sensed by the Primitive Church and not by the private Judgment of any particular Man be allowed and agreed by us to be the Rule of our Faith and let that be accounted the true Church whose Faith and Doctrine is most conformable and agreeable with the Primitive We desire nothing more than to find out the true Church by the true Faith and we think this is the true way to find it out For Christian Faith is prior and antecedent to the Christian Church and that must be first known and supposed before we can know any such thing as a Church for 't is the Faith makes the Church and not the Church the Faith and therefore the true Church is to be known by the true Doctrine and not the true Doctrine by the Church as is some Folks way If a Church then has never so many other glorious Marks yet if it has not the true Faith according to the Rule before laid down it cannot be the true Church and if it have never so true a Succession of Pastors deriving their Power in an uninterrupted Line from the Apostles yet if it have not a true Succession of Doctrine too from them it is not a true Church So far indeed as it holds and professes the common Christian Faith so far for that very Reason it is a true Church and so far we allow the Roman to be a true Church and so far they cannot deny us to be one neither as the same Faith Fundamentals of Christianity are received and believed by both of us for this Faith being the same to both of us makes us both so far to be true Churches upon the same grounds but so far as we differ in Matters of Faith whether we or they be the true Church is the question between us and we are willing to have this determined by the Primitive Church If the Faith then and Doctrine of the Roman Church wherein it differs from us be the same with the Faith and Doctrine of the Primitive Church then that is the true Church If it be contrary and unagreeable to the Faith and Doctrine of the Primitive then it is not the true Church but a false and erroneous one And here we ought to make a particular enquiry and examination of all those Matters of Faith which are in controversie between us and bring each of them to the Test and Trial and see which Church does most agree in all those disputed Doctrines with the Doctrine of the Primitive Church for here we must be allowed to examine particular Doctrines that are in difference between us and every private Christian who is seeking for the true Church must if he would find it by this Mark of Bellarmine be allowed to inquire into and examine the Doctrines of the present Church and see whether they are agreeable to those of the Primitive or no and this he must do by his private Judgment and by the best means and helps he can use to this purpose for he is not yet supposed to have found out the true Church but to be finding it out by this Mark given of it and till he has found it out by this Mark and Direction he cannot be under its guidance and conduct so that he must make use of his own Reason and Judgment at least till he has thus found it that is he must have the Liberty to search and inquire into the Faith and Doctrines of the Primitive Church and to judg for himself as well as he can by his own best Discretion and the best helps he can use which Church does best agree in its Faith and Doctrines with the Primitive and according as he shall upon his own enquiry and examination find so he must choose that Church which he thinks is the truest but he must not give himself up to the absolute guidance and direction of any Church at least till he has by this way found out the true which is another manifest Advantage that we have by this Note against our Adversaries who are rather for bearing Men down with the bold pretence of Infallibility and the terrible fright of Damnation out of the true Church rather than suffering them according to this true Method to find it out And as he must thus use his own Judgment in an impartial search
into the Doctrines of the Primitive Church which will have as many Inconveniences in it I fear as they are apt to object against searching to this end into the Scriptures so he must examine all the particular Doctrines that are controverted between both Churches to see which are most agreeable to the Faith of the Primitive for he cannot know this in the Lump and by the Gross and to tell him as they sometimes do that 't is impossible for their Church to have departed from the Faith of the Primitive and that the present Age could not alter from the Doctrine of the foregoing and so upward this is not to make the Primitive Faith a Note of the present Church but to prevent all enquiry about this Note and to make it wholly useless and insignificant He that will therefore make use of this Mark to know the true Church by must be supposed and allowed to inquire into the Doctrine of the Primitive Church about all those particular Controversies and Matters of Faith that are in difference between us and must not have his Enquiry stopt and precluded by any general Pretences of the Infallibility either of Oral Tradition or of the present Church but must freely and impartially examin the particular Doctrines that are controverted that so he may bring every one of them to the Touchstone of the Primitive Faith and try whether they are agreable to the same or no and according as he finds this that is whatsoever Church he finds to hold the same Doctrine with the Primitive in all the particular Points of difference That he must conclude to be the true Church from this Note given of it Our Adversaries do not usually care to enter into particular Points of Controversy wherein they are very sensible they shall be sooner foiled and bafled and therefore they generally wave those which are capable of being made more plain and evident to most Mens Capacities and they chuse rather to dispute and wrangle about more general and intricate Matters in which there is some more room to cavil and to amuse and perplex themselves and others with seeming Difficulties so that tho particular Controversies may be made very plain and it appears often in them as clear almost as the Light on which side the Truth is as Whether Prayers ought to be in a known Tongue Whether the Communion ought to be in both kinds Whether the Scriptures are to be read by the People and the like yet to avoid those and to prevent the Disadvantage of such manifest and particular Points they carry the Dispute off to other things and run into the general Controversies of Infallibility and Church-Authority and Resolution of Faith and a Judg in Controversies and the like and here they think there is more room for Cavil and Sophistry and they can hereby lead Men if not into Scepticism and Doubtfulness yet into a Maze and Labyrinth where they shall not so easily get out Which way of theirs seems to me just as if a Person in a plain Controversy about Weight or Measure which were otherwise easy to be determined should to avoid that think fit to run into the perplext Dispute What was the true Standard of Weights and Measures or everlastingly wrangle about that Question Whether Matter consisted of Divisible or Indivisible Parts and because he could raise Difficulties here and keep up a long and intricate Controversy about those Matters would not be brought to yield that a Pound was heavier than an Ounce or an Ell longer than an Inch. I cannot but think that some of our particular Controversies may be almost as clearly decided as those two and that the running into some general ones is as remote and sophistical as the other We must therefore according to this Note of the Church not be foreprized or prevented with any general and more perplext Dispute but we must fairly examine all the particular Doctrines of the Church and see whether they are agreeable with those of the Primitive Church or no before we can find out the true Church at present not that the true Church we are to look for is confined to any particular Place or Country but like a great Homogenial Body every Part of which is of the fame nature with the Whole wherever the true Primitive Faith is profest in all the Parts of it there is a True Church and all particular Churches being united together in the same Bond of Faith do make up the Catholick Church over all the World. If there were but one Particular Church upon the whole Earth that did profess this True Faith that alone might be called the Catholick Church because that alone had that Catholick Faith which did properly make and constitute the True Church But this Faith being common to a great many Particular Churches this makes them to be all true and all Catholick as to Faith but as to Place 't is ridiculous to call any one Catholick and as absurd as to call a Part the Whole in that sense no Church is Catholick in the other every Church is that holds the Whole Christian Faith We are not therefore to seek for any Particular Church that shall usurp to it self the Name of Catholick in exclusion to all others but for any Church that maintains the true Catholick Faith profest by the Primitive which upon that account is a True Church and acknowledged so by this Mark which is here given of it To find out such a one and to distinguish it from others we must very carefully enquire into all the particular Doctrines and Points of Faith which are held by it and see whether they are agreeable to the Faith and Doctrine of the Primitive Church and according to this Method and saving to our selves all the forementioned Advantages of it we are very willing to have the Difference adjusted between us and the Church of Rome and to have it decided by this Note whether we or they are the True Church that is whether we or they in all Matters of Controversy between us do most agree with the Doctrine of the Primitive Church And here is a very large scope offered to me and what has taken up a great many Volumes on both sides so that to most People Scripture one would think should be a shorter and an easier and therefore a better way to know the True Church by but since our Adversaries are not willing to leave the Case to that we are ready to accept of the Primitive Church to be Judg between us and as has been often offered before by Bishop Jewel and others we shall be very willing to stand to its award and decision for however some few Divines of the Reformation before they were so well acquainted with Antiquity and when they could not so well distinguish what was genuine from what was spurious and corrupted by your Church were at first especially more jealous and distrustful than they need to have been of it and unwilling to
venture their Cause to any other Sentence but that of Scripture which had so plainly decided for them and was indeed the most proper to be appealed to yet the greatest number and the most learned of the Protestant Writers have never declined the Judgment of the Primitive Church but next to the inspired Writings of the Apostles have always esteemed and been willing to be determined by it And we are well assured that the Ancient Church even the Roman it self as well as the whole Christian besides is in all material Points on the Protestant side and a perfect Stranger if not an utter Enemy to those new Articles of Faith and Corruptions of Doctrine which have been since brought into the Western Church and which we have for that Reason protested against because they were unknown and contrary to the Faith and Doctrine of the Primitive Church It would too much exceed the set Limits of this Paper to make this out so fully as might easily be done by going through the chiefest Points of Difference between us Bellarmine in his Discourse upon this Note goes wholly off from it and chuses rather to pursue Luther and Calvin and some other worthy Reformers through all the Paths of Calumny and Slander but I shall not follow him to take him off from those false and injurious Representations he hath made of their Doctrines If any Body has the curiosity to see the Art of Misrepresenting in its greatest perfection let him but read that Chapter but if he will see it as perfectly shamed and exposed let him read Bishop Morton's long and learned Answer to it * Apologia Catholica p. 61. to p. 278. We are examining the Doctrines and finding out the Marks of the Church and not of particular Men and had Calvin or others taught any such Doctrines as are very falsly there laid to their Charge I know none had been concerned in them but themselves and no Church could have been prejudiced by them any farther than it had received them I shall therefore keep more close to Bellarmine's Note tho not to his Method upon it and I assure a late Adviser †Advice to the â—onfuter of Belâ—â—mine 't is not the design of confuting him but setting Men right in the way to the True Religion and the True Church when others are so busy to draw them off by false Marks and Pretences which is the cause of this Vndertaking I confess it would be too prolix as Bellarmine says to produce all the Testimonies of the Ancients thereby to shew what was the Doctrine of the Primitive Church in every particular Point controverted between us I shall therefore offer only some plain and brief Remarks by which the sense of the Primitive Church may be undeniably known in most of the Controversies and by which it will appear what was the Doctrine of the Church then and how contrary that of the Church of Rome is now to it And here I should first begin with the most Primitive that is with the Apostolick Church which truly and only deserves the Title of being Mother and Mistress of all Christian Churches that ever were or shall be in the World it is as vain as arrogant for any later and particular Church to assume that to it self which is but a Sister-Church at most and younger than some of the rest and tho more fine and proud yet not half so honest and uncorrupt This Apostolick Church which was founded and governed by the Apostles over all the World is the true Standard of the Christian Church and as in revealed Religion That which is first is true according to Tertullian's * Id verum quod prius id prius quod ab initio ab initio quod ab Apostolis Tertul. de praescript l. 4. Axiom because it comes nearest to the first pure Fountain of Revelation so as he adds That is first which is from the Beginning and from the Apostles We should first then examine what was the Faith and Doctrine of the Apostolick Church the greatest and almost only account of which we have in their own Canonical Writings which are received and allowed as such by the whole Christian Church and in these our Adversaries find so little of their own late and new Doctrines that they cannot but own that these are insufficient to authorise and establish most of them without the Authority of the present Church and without the help of unwritten Traditions When we produce Scripture against our Adversaries we then produce the only Authentick Records of the Apostolick Church and the only certain account we have of the Faith and Doctrine of the most Primitive Church let them object therefore never so much against Scripture as a Rule of Faith yet whilst it contains the only sure Testimony of what was taught and believed by the first Christian Church so far as any of these Doctrines are not in Scripture so far they cannot appear to be the Doctrine of the Apostolick Church and whilst we hold all that Faith and all those Doctrines that are contained in Scripture we hold all that can be known to be so in the most pure and most Primitive Church and whatsoever they have added to Scripture which they will needs have to be but an imperfect Rule of Faith they have added so far as can be known to the Doctrine of the Apostolick Church for if Scripture be not the only Rule of that yet it is the only Historical Account we have of it But I shall not at present deal with them out of Scripture tho as it is only a Record and Evidence of the Apostolical Faith they will count this but a Trick I know to draw them into a Scripture Dispute which they are mighty averse to and which they design to avoid by an Appeal from that to the Primitive Church we will go on therefore with our Note as they I suppose mean and understand it and that we may not be too troublesom to them with Scripture and the Apostolick Writings we will go several Ages lower even down to those Times wherein the Church was in its glorious State under the first Christian Emperors and whether their Doctrines or ours were most agreable to those of this Primitive Church Let us now come briefly to enquire in some particular Instances and by some few short Remarks and Observations And First Was any such thing as their pretended Supremacy then allowed of when in the first general Council at Nice * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conc. Nicen. Can. 6. There was a limited Power assigned to the Bishop of Rome as there was to the other Metropolitans of Alexandria and Antioch who were to keep their Bounds set them by antient Custom which is utterly inconsistent with an Universal Supremacy over the whole Church by a Divine Right as is since pretended and claimed contrary to all Antiquity For the next General Council appoints the Bishop of Constantinople to have Prerogatives of Honour
diversa sentire inveniuntur quia super his varia ac penè adversa tradidisse videntur Doctores Lomb. Sent. l. 4. dist 17. That Learned Men were found to have different Sentiments about it and that the Doctors delivered themselves variously and differently upon it and therefore it could not be the Doctrine of the Church then but of this see a learned Treatise written on purpose Was the Roman Purgatory a Doctrine of the Primitive Church of which Alphonsus à Castro confesses There is almost no mention of it in any of the ancient Writers ‖ De Purgatorio fere nulla in antiquis Scriptoribus mentio Alfons de Castro contra Haeres l. 8. p. 115. Bp Fisher * Roffens contra Luther Art. 18. is of the same mind with him and that old Christian Custom of celebrating the day of their Friends Death as a Festival and Day of rejoycing because they were then released from all Pain and Sorrow †Nos non nativitatis diem celebramus cum sit dolorum atque tentationum introitus sed mortis diem celebramus utpote omnium dolorum depositionem Comment in Job apud Origen l. 3. is to me a plain Argument they did not in the least believe any such thing What shal we think then of Indulgences as they relate to Purgatory Had the ancient Church any such Notion of them But meerly as abatements of Canonical Penance and Purgatory I suppose is no part of that Does not Alfonsus own That they were received very late into the Church * Earum usus in Ecclesiâ videtur sero receptus Alfonsus de Castro l. 8. p. 115. And Cajetan say There is no Authority of Scriptures or of any Fathers Greek or Latin that bring them to our Knowledg †Cajet Opusc 15. c. Prayers and Oblations for the Dead I confess are a very antient Practice but I know no Doctrine the Primitive Church had concerning them but of the Communion of Saints which was both in the Church Militant and Triumphant and they are so far from bordering upon the Roman Doctrine of Purgatory that they utterly destroy it for they were offered for those who were owned to be in Happiness and could never be supposed to go to Purgatory to wit for Saints and Martyrs and Apostles and even for the Virgin Mary her self as appears by the antient Liturgies ‖ Lyturg. Aegyptiac Lyturg. Chrysost As to Prayers in an unknown Tongue this cannot I hope be said to be the Practice of the Primitive Church and if the Language of Rome had been as unalterable as she pretends her Faith is her Prayers had been in a known Tongue now but I doubt they are both equally changeable As to the Worship of Saints and Angels and the offering up Prayers to them and to the Blessed Virgin I shall offer but one Observation out of Antiquity which does for ever destroy all manner of Worship of what degree soever to any but the true God and that is the Charge of Idolatry which was laid by all the Orthodox Fathers against the Arians for worshipping and praying to Christ when they believed him not to be the true God but only a Creature tho of the most exalted Nature This does so fully shew the sense of the Church against all Worship be it of what kind it will to any Creature for it was not the highest and most sovereign Worship which the Arrians were supposed or charged to give to Christ that it is the plainest thing in the World that there could be no manner of Worship then to Saints or Angels or to the Blessed Virgin as there is now in the Roman Church But he that will see the clearest Account of Antiquity in this matter let him consult a most excellent Discourse concerning the Worship of the Blessed Virgin and the Saints with an Account of the Beginnings and Rise of it among Christians against Monsieur de Meaux As to the Worship of Images it is too well known at what time and with what opposition that was brought into the Western Church and how great a Part of it did then declare against them so that it was impossible that should have been the Doctrine of the Primitive Church which was with so great a strugle and violence brought into the Roman at the latter end of the 7th Century As to the first Ages it is plain from the Instance of Epiphanius and the Council of Eliberis that they would not suffer Images and Pictures in their Churches and at first hardly thought the very making of them to be lawful as appears from Clemens Alexandrinus But I must not insist on Particulars I offer only some few undeniable Breviates of Antiquity by which it cannot but evidently appear to any ingenuous Man that these Doctrines of the Roman Church which distinguish it from the Reformed were not the Doctrines of the Primitive Church but are plainly and notoriously contrary to the best Antiquity tho they are very apt to brag of that upon all occasions yet how little they esteem it and how conscious they are to themselves that it is not for their purpose and that it is truly against them I shall by some general Remarks unquestionably demonstrate and make them if they have any shame confess it themselves And First What mean their Expurgatory Indices whereby they have corrected so many Fathers and blotted out and expunged so many Sentences out of the Writings of the most antient Doctors of the Church and by new Additions made them speak contrary to themselves in so many places of their Works if they were not sensible that those ancient Authors who bring down to us the Doctrine of the Primitive Church were in many things Witnesses against them and bore evident Testimony against their new Opinions This is so plain a Confession that Antiquity is against them and renders them so much self-condemned that they intended to have kept these Indices very private and it was only by chance that we came to the first knowledg of them Our Learned James has acquainted the World with the Mystery of them as he calls it but it is so plain a Mystery of Iniquity that it needs nothing to discover the Fraud and Villany of it To raze ancient Records is a Crime of the highest nature and they who are guilty of it as the Church of Rome is in the greatest degree by thus purging and correcting the Fathers by an Inquisition the most cruel of any other and that appointed by the Council of Trent need no other proof to convict them that that Cause which stands in need of such Arts is not to be defended without them and this is such a Note of a Church that it brands and stigmatizes it with another Mark than that of Antiquity 2. Besides the correcting or rather corrupting so many Fathers which were genuine Monuments of Antiquity the counterfeiting so many false ones and obtruding so many spurious Authors upon the World is a
Christ and that we might grow up into him in all things which is the Head even Christ Now here we do not only find our Saviour represented as the Head of his Church and we as the Members of his Body but that amongst the several subordinate Members of which his Body consists there is no mention of that most necessary Member of all if I may call it a Member the Vicarious Head of the Church For it is not said that he gave first Peter to be Head of his Church and then Apostles c. But he gave first some Apostles and those not as Heads of his Church neither but as principal Members of it And in the Beginning of the same Chapter where he describes the Unity of the Church he says there is one Body and one Spirit one Hope of our Calling one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all Now I would fain know whether the Cardinal would have omitted here one visible Head of the Church in which all ought to be united And then let any Man tell me why St. Paul did He had the like occasion in another Place where having said much concerning the Unity of the Body of Christ Ye are saith he the Body of Christ and Members in particular And God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondly Prophets 1 Cor. xii 27 28. thirdly Teachers c. Now I say if this visible Head of Unity had been elsewhere mentioned never so often he ought not to have been omitted in any of these three places much less if he were mentioned no where else But no notice being taken of this Head elsewhere nor here neither is little less than a Demonstration that that there was no such Head to be taken notice of When any one shall pretend to so high a Prerogative and vast a Dependence as this implies we may in Reason expect he should be able to produce some very good Evidence of his Right to it And therefore the meer silence of the Scripture is prejudice enough against the Pretence But the silence of the Scripture in such places as I have produced is a direct Argument against it Nay Lastly The Scripture is so far from giving the least intimation of any such Headship where the mention of it was unavoidable if it had been a Divine Constitution that it seems expresly to oppose it For St. Paul speaking against those Contentions which happened by one saying I am of Paul another I am of Apollos a third I am of Cephas he does not oppose Cephas or Peter to the rest as if it were lawful for them to say I am of Peter but not I am of Paul c. but utterly reproves all such Distinctions and requires them all to be united in Christ Is Christ divided says he Was Paul Crucified for you Or were ye Baptized in the Name of Paul Plainly shewing that to establish any mortal Man as the Center of Union in the Christian Church is in effect to divide the Authority of Christ and that if we unite our selves in such a Head we may as well be baptized in his Name and have him for our Saviour too 2. As little Foundation is there in Reason for this Headship of the Pope over the whole Body of Christ since it will necessarily require that all the Christian Churches in the World even those that are at greatest Distance from one another be reduced under his Government and depend upon his Authority the Administration of which vast Power and Trust is incompatible to any mortal Man. Being vested in a wise and good Man it could be but of little benefit to a Body so diffusive as the Catholick Church but in the Hands of a weak or vicious Person it would become the Instrument of Pride Tyranny Oppression and Divisions A small Bishoprick requires the utmost Care and Prudence to manage it aright but what Ability without a Miracle could be sufficient for a tolerable discharge of so great a Trust as the Inspection and Government of the whole Church from one end of the Earth to the other But the Temptations to abuse such Power would be infinite and the Abuses themselves intolerable and hardly capable of Redress as we see also by no small Experience For after that that Power was pretended to at Rome and submitted to by the Western Church the Scandals Miseries of this part of Christendom grew to such an Extremity that it could not be dissembled Insomuch that the Cardinals and Prelats appointed by Pope Paul the Third to advise concerning the state of the Church Consil de Emend Eccl. in Richer l. 4. assured him that she was just falling head-long into Ruine and that the chief Cause was that the Pope's Will and Pleasure had been the Rule of all his Doings And he that shall consider what a lewd and filthy place Rome it self was grown by their own confession may observe from thence how likely it is that the Government of the Catholick Church should thrive in one Man's hand after another who are too busy to attend upon the Reformation of most scandalous and crying Disorders at home 3. Neither is there any colour in Antiquity for this Headship of the Pope altho they are the Primitive Fathers upon whose Authority chiefly they would support this Usurpation The Testimonies which the Cardinal has chosen for his Purpose are so far from it that one would wonder to see so weighty a Superstructure laid upon so weak a Foundation Thus because S. Irenaeus says that every Church i.e. the Faithful who are all about must needs resort to the Roman Church because of the more Powerful Principality i.e. because the Imperial City drew the Business of the World to it self and by consequence Christians in all parts had occasion of recourse to it therefore the Bishop of that City was the Head of all Churches in the World. Because S. Cyprian call'd the Roman the Principal Church from whence the Vnity of the Priests did arise and the Matrix and Root of the Catholick Church Therefore he could mean nothing else but that Union to the Bishop of Rome is absolutely necessary to a part in Christ and his Church Whereas it is most evident that elsewhere he did freely assert the Independence of other Bishops upon that Bishop and of other Episcopal Churches upon that Church And consequently that he called it the Principal Church as being constituted in the Principal City so Rigaltius acknowledgeth and the Spring of Sacerdotal Vnity and the Root of the Catholick Church because Bishops having occasion either to come up to Rome or to send thither from all parts did by their Unity with the Church there manifestly declare their Union to one another which was a convenience accruing to that Church and to all others from the Imperial City in which it was constituted but by no means inferring that other Churches were more obliged to Union with her than she with others Again because
Direction of not being tossed to and fro c. 3. Are condemned by Tertullian who bids us adhere to what is first And 4. By Vincentius Lyrinensis And 5. Have given ill Example by which the Reformers can justify themselves And lastly Have plainly condemned several Popes and the whole Lateran Council under Innocent III as not sufficiently knowing what the Church was since their Notion of it could not content those which came after them A great Injury and of dangerous Consequence Lastly Upon a Comparison of one with the other P. 432 c. and of both with the Antient Doctrine and Discipline of the Church he looks upon Bellarmin's Definition as the better of the Two because it may be so mollified by the Help of the Word Praecipuè chiefly which is in it as to admit of a tolerable Reconciliation with the Definition of the Antients which as he shews can no way agree with that of Canisius And upon the whole he concludes P. 450. That however Bellarmin's might be preferrable if either of them were necessary yet it will be hard for Catholicks to make their Complaints of Innovating which they heap upon Hereticks to appear just so long as they themselves shall retain such a Novel Definition and that if Gregory VIIths Rule were observed viz. That nothing should be drawn into Example or Authority which is contrary to the Fathers then even this his Definition tho it had been received yet ought to be rejected To this purpose that Accurate Writer as he is deservedly called by ‖ Letter to Bp. of Linc. p. 319. F. Walsh has argued to the utter confusion of the Cardinal's Argument from Union with the Pope as Head or of the Members among themselves For how can that be a Note of the True Church now which never was thought to belong to the Nature of it for 1500 Years together and which their own most Learned Lovers of Antiquity and Pious Opposers of Novelty do not think essential to it at this Day And where is the so much boasted Consent of the Members amongst themselves in all Matters of Faith I believe the holy Catholick Church is an Article of Faith. I would know of those Gentlemen who are at such perfect agreement amongst themselves what this Church is Bellarmine answers one thing Canisius another so contrary that if one speaks true the other must needs have told me that which is false And while the Definition of the former is followed by some and that of the later which is the worse is more generally received Launoy and many more of the most Learned sort stick to the Antients who are as different from both as they are from one another And yet after all we must be told that they are perfectly agreed in all matters of Faith and that this invisible unintelligible Union shews plainly that the Roman is the true Church One would hardly think that they are in earnest unless by Union they mean an equal Resolution to carry on the Dispute as long as they can contend and no longer Which kind of Union is to be met with almost every Term in Westminster-Hall where one may see two Parties prosecuting one another with all imaginable vigour who yet resolve to be quiet when the Bench has made them so Not that the Party who is cast in the Suit must needs change his Opinion of his own Cause because the last Verdict was against him but that if a new Trial will not be granted he is bound to acquiesce in the Judgment of the Court because it has a Sheriff with the Posse Comitatus to put it into Execution Thus they that make the Sentence of the Pope and they that make the Sentence of a Council the Sentence of the Church are united in a Resolution to stand to the Arbitrement of the Church there being a certain sensible Obligation upon them to profess that they will acquiesce in its Determination But in the mean time they may undoubtedly quarrel amongst themselves about Questions of such mighty Importance as that we mentioned even now and this without breach of Union amongst themselves till the Sentence of the Pope or the Sentence of a Plenary Council or the Sentence of both comes to part them Which yet will be long enough first if each side of the Question be abetted with numerous and able Parties that are at present both of 'em resolved to submit absolutely to the Church lest one of them upon an unseasonable Sentence should be provoked to change its Resolution And thus as we observed before the Question about the Immaculate Conception has been left undecided so long lest by determining that a more dangerous Question should be raised by the disobliged Party But if it should so happen that the Church cannot well avoid declaring her self in such a Case this new-fashion'd Union goes forward still tho she speaks so ambiguously that each Party fancies the Sentence to be on its own side which was done often at Trent with great Application and Art Particularly in the Decrees concerning Grace and Assurance of being Justified c. Which being finished Soto and Vega differed not only as much but something more than they did at first for now they had a new Question to debate viz. on which side the Council had decreed and so they fell to writing great Books upon it against one another But for all this they were admirably agreed because they agreed in submission to the Council I proceed to shew III. That that Vnity which is indeed a Note of the Church we have and that in a much greater degree than they Which Point will I hope yield some Discourse that will be more useful than barely to discover Mistakes and expose Sophistry For here I shall represent as well as I can the true Grounds and Notions of Church-Unity and then see who has most reason to pretend to it they or we 1. There is the Vnity of submitting to one Head our Lord Jesus Christ which is the Foundation of all other Christian Unity and therefore mentioned by St. Paul amongst the principal Reasons why the Church is one Body Eph. iv 5. One Lord. 2. There is the Vnity of professing the Common Faith that was once delivered to the Saints which is grounded upon the Authority of the Scriptures and summarily expounded in the Antient Creeds And therefore to One Lord the Apostle in the forementioned place adds one Faith. 3. There is an Unity of Sacraments in the Church One Baptism by which we are all admitted into the same state of Duties and of Priviledges undertaking the Conditions of the New Covenant and gaining a Right to the Promises thereof Thus saith St. Paul 1 Cor. xii 13. By one Spirit we are all Baptized into one Body And the like Unity is inferred from the other Sacraments 1 Cor. x. 17. We being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread. And again
we are all made to drink into one Spirit 4. There is also an Unity of Obedience to all the Institutions and Laws of Christ which is an Instance of Unity that ought by no means to be forgotten this being no less a common Duty than the Profession of the Faith the performance whereof uniteth us effectually to him as to our Head and maketh us living Members of his Body 5. There is the Unity of Christian Affection and brotherly Kindness of which our Lord spake when he said By this shall all Men know that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another Thus St. Paul 1 Cor. xii The Members should have the same care one of another c. 6. There is an Unity of Discipline and Government which is maintained chiefly by retaining for substance the same Form that was left in the Church by the Apostles by the Bishops and Pastors confederating together as much as may be for the edification of their Flocks by regarding every Regular Act of Authority in one Church as the Act of the whole and giving no occasion to breach of Christian-Communion by abusing a lawful or by claiming an undue Authority c. 7. There is likewise an Unity of Communion in the Service and Worship of God in glorifying God with one Mouth in joining in the same Religious Assemblies for Prayer and Sacraments for Acts of common Piety and Devotion according to the Rules of the Gospel I need not mention any more Instances of Christian Vnity since those that are more particular may be easily deduced from these Now to speak clearly there ought to be all these kinds and Instances of Unity in the Church but we see evidently that they are not all there I mean in every Part and Member of the Church And therefore they are not all necessary to the Being of a Church how necessary soever they may be whether to the Wellbeing of it or to the Salvation of those Persons whereof the Church consists But some of them are necessary to the Being of the Church and they are the acknowledgment of the one Lord the Profession of the one Faith and admission into the state of Christian Duties and Priviledges by one Baptism And this is all that I can find absolutely necessary to the Being of a Church inasmuch as the Apostle says That we are all baptized into one Body And therefore so far as Vnity in these things is spread and obtains in the World so far and no farther is the Body of the Church propagated because it is one by this Unity But then indeed there ought to be a farther Unity an Unity of observing all the Institutions of our Lord Jesus an Unity of Christian Charity and good Will an Unity of Government and Discipline an Unity of Communion in Religious Assemblies to which I will add also that there ought to be an Unity of Care to keep out of the Communion of Christians all dangerous Errors and unlawful Practices And when such begin to appear much more if they have taken root and are grown to a scandal to root them out again But Unity in these things does not run through the whole Church or through that Body which is one in the three former Respects and therefore it must necessarily be granted that the Church is not one Body in those later Respects tho it ought to be so But because these are proper Instances of Church-Unity tho not absolutely necessary to the Being of the Church therefore it cannot be denied that those particular Churches which keep Unity in these Respects better than others do have the Mark of Ecclesiastical Unity in a higher Degree than those others inasmuch as they have not only that Unity which is a Mark of a true Church but that also which is the Mark of a pure Church and are not only one Body in those things without which they could not be Parts of the Catholick Church but one also in those things wherein all other Parts of the Church ought to be one with them We therefore according to Truth allow the Church of Rome to be a Part of the Catholick Church because she holds that one Lord that one Faith that one Baptism which we hold without which there were no Church at all And thus far she maintains Catholick Unity But inasmuch as she hath violated the Institution of our Lord Jesus concerning the other Sacrament as in other Respects so by withholding the Cup from the People notwithstanding he said Drink ye all of this and that the Apostle said We are all made to drink into one Spirit even all that belong to the Body of Christ she has departed from Catholick Unity the Unity of Obedience Because she will not be content to be a Sister but claims to be the Mother and Mistress of all other Christian Churches and has advanced her Bishop to be Head and Monarch of the whole Church and will have Commuion with no other Christian Society but such as will be content to become her Subjects and will allow no Act of Ecclesiastical Authority to be valid but in a State of Dependence upon her she has therefore departed from the Catholick Unity of Government and Discipline Because she has brought the Sacrifice of the Mass Transubstantiation Purgatory Invocation of Saints c. into her Creed and Practices suitable to such false Doctrines into her Worship she has departed from that Purity of professing the Faith c. in which all Churches should be one And because she will have no Communion with us but upon these Terms which are impossible she has departed from the Unity of Catholick Communion Finally Because she has pursued all Christians that dare to open their Mouths against these Innovations with Anathema's c. and sacrificed the Lives of innumerable Christians to her resentments she has departed from the Unity of Catholick Charity With these things the Church of England cannot be charged nor with any such things as these not truly and justly I am sure In her Worship and Aministration of the Sacraments she transgresseth not the Institutions of the Lord in her Government she encroaches not upon the Liberty of other Churches To her Creed she hath added no Novelties To her Communion she hath annex'd no unlawful Conditions she doth not unchurch those Parts of Christendom that hold the Unity of the Faith no not that Church it self the Church of Rome which has added thereunto so many enormous Innovations She hath not embroiled the World nor wasted Countries with violence Upon such accounts as these she hath the Mark of Christian Vnity incomparably more than the other Church From such distinct notions of Vnity as I have laid down it is evident that nothing can be more idle than to seek for a Church by that Mark of Unity which the Cardinal lays down which comes to no more than this that Men be all of a mind that there be no Divisions among them c. since it is not
meerly Unity that is a Mark of the true Church but Unity in the true Faith nor is Unity the Mark of a pure Church unless it be upon Terms of Obedience to God of Charity to one another of keeping the Faith unmixed with Errors and Innovations and the Worship of God free from material Defects and forbidden Practices From hence also the Folly of that conceit may be easily discerned that in this divided State of Christendom there must be one Church which is the only Church of Christ exclusively to all the rest that are not in Communion with her Which is as much as to say that because there is not that Unity amongst Christians which there ought to be therefore there is none at all and because they are not united in one Communion therefore they are not united in one Lord one Faith one Baptism That fond Principle now mentioned is advanced by the Romanist for the sake of this Inference that because we grant the Church to be but one and withall acknowledg them to be a true Church therefore we being divided from them can be no true Church our selves That is to say because we acknowledg that they have that one Faith in which all that are united belong to the Church therefore we are out of the Church our selves who have the Unity of that Faith too and moreover the Unity of observing all the Institutions of Christ and the Unity of Catholick Terms of Communion c. which they have not If some part of the Church gives just cause of Offence or if another takes Offence where none is given this is indeed contrary to the Duty of the Members of the Church but not utterly inconsistent with their being Members of it And if St. Paul was in the right when he said If the Foot shall say because I am not the Head I am not of the Body is it therefore not of the Body It will be also true that tho the Foot should say to the Hand thou art not of the Body because thou art not the Foot the Hand would be of the Body for all that As for the Unity of Communion which they boast so much of in the Church of Rome I say 't is an Unity of Communion among themselves but 't is not the Catholick Unity of Communion because the Terms of it are many of them unjust and unlawful whereas we of the Church of England having as much Unity of Communion among our selves as they have this also to say as we have abundantly shewn that the Terms of our Communion are every one of them just and lawful and therefore ours is a Catholick Unity If there are some Protestants that will not communicate with us it is no more our Fault than that the Papists refuse to do so And tho in point of Interest this tends to weaken yet in Controversy it cannot prejudice the common cause of Reformation That part of the West that has left the Church of Rome may labour under Discords that affect their very Communion while she her self does not and yet in the Cause against her they may be all in the Right Where Truth is maintained against a corrupt Church there may yet be Disobedience to Authority overvaluing Questions of no great moment a greater stress laid upon Opinions and Practices than the Cause will bear and this shall be sufficient to break Christian Communion And at the same time gross Errors may be maintained and with one consent imposed upon the World by the other Church and all the while the Differences how weighty soever that happen by the bye may be so over-ruled by Force and Power and the sensible Interests of this World that they shall not affect their Communion with one another But for the Reasons already laid down it were a fond thing to chuse a Church by the Mark of such Unity In short If we would in all Respects keep within the Unity of the Church this must be done by professing true Doctrine by leading good Lives by a charitable Spirit and Behaviour towards all Christians by frequenting Prayers and Sacraments and by submitting to the Authority of our lawful Guides in all things of Indifference and Expedience And then we may be sure that whatever others do we keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace And though the Church after all is not that one Body in all Respects which it ought to be and which it would be if all Men did their Duty yet that we our selves are such Members of that one Body as we ought to be and as all others ought to be likewise Now all this Unity we may keep in the Communion of the Church of England but we cannot keep it all in the Communion of the Roman Church as the Terms thereof now stand But if this Unity be not enough when once the Romanists can prove that Union to the Pope as Head of the Church and Union to the Roman Church in all that she believes and teaches is also necessary to our Being of the Church or even to our maintaining that Unity which ought to be amongst all Christians we will also acknowledg the Pope's Supremacy and believe as the Roman Church believes but not till then THE END LONDON Printed by J. D. for Richard Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1687. The Eighth Note of the CHURCH EXAMINED VIZ Sanctity of Doctrine Octava Nota est Sanctitas Doctrinae Bellar. de Notis Ecclesiae L. iv c. 11. IMPRIMATUR June 4. 1687. Hen. Maurice SEeing the New Covenant is the Charter upon which the Church of Christ is founded and all the Blessings which this Covenant promises are appropriated to that Sacred Society to be in Communion with it is doubtless a matter of vast importance to the Souls of Men and it being so it is not to be imagined but that the blessed Jesus the most concerned and careful Friend of Souls that ever was hath been sufficiently mindful to leave such plain and easy Directions behind him how we may find his Church and satisfy our selves whether we are in Fellowship with it or no as that neither the Learned nor Unlearned may be left in the dark for resolution in such a momentous Enquiry But how much the Church of Rome hath made it her Business to snarl and perplex several Points of Religion which our Saviour left plain and obvious enough to all Capacities is too notorious and in nothing more than in this how to discover and find out the true Church In order to which her most Learned Doctors and particularly Cardinal Bellarmin have given us certain Notes by which as they pretend the true Church may be distinguished by honest and diligent Enquiries from all false Churches whatsoever But how far these Notes are from performing what is promised for 'em hath been sufficiently proved upon a very fair Examination of the Seven first of ' em I proceed therefore to the Eighth viz. Sanctity of
present they are true Churches or which is the same thing whether they have at present the true Notes of true Churches But if I enquire as the Cardinal doth which of all the Churches now extant is the true Catholick Church before I can be fully resolved I must not only be satisfied which of 'em is a true Church at present but also which of them shall always continue so because tho particular Churches may cease to be true Churches yet the Catholick Church cannot it being founded on that promise of our Saviour that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it And therefore before I can be secure of any present Church that it is the true Catholick I must have some certainty not only that it hath not erred for the time past and that it doth not err at present but also that it will not err for the time to come for seeing the true Catholick Church is always to continue if not to err in its profession be a true Note of it it must always be inseparable to it as well for the time to come as for the time past and present And therefore before I can be certain of any Church now extant that it is the only true Catholick Church by this Note of an unerring Profession I ought to have very good assurance that it is inseparable to it not only for the time past and present but also for the time to come But that it is possible for a Church which doth not err now and did not err heretofore to err hereafter the Church of Rome cannot deny because she allows no Church now extant not to err but her self and yet owns that there are many Churches now in being which once did not err and for several Ages continued untainted with Error which yet have erred since and therefore are now no true Churches and therefore seeing that in the Nature of the Thing it is no more impossible that a Church which doth not err now may have erred heretofore and may err again hereafter than that a Church which errs now may not have erred heretofore and may not err again hereafter I cannot conclude of any Church that because it doth not err at present therefore it never hath erred nor ever will. Suppose then that there were only two Churches in the World viz. the Roman and Greek and that the Roman Church at present doth not err and the Greek doth I can from hence no more conclude that not erring is inseparable to the Roman Church than that erring is inseparable to the Greek The Roman Church doth not err now what then neither did the Greek Church err once why then may not the Greek as well be the true Church because once it did not err as the Roman because now it doth not Seeing that not to have erred heretofore and not to err now are only different Respects of the same thing to different Times and that the not erring at one Time doth no more notify the true Church than the not erring at another it is not therefore sufficient to notify either to be the true Church that this Note belonged to it at such or such a time whether it be the time past or the time present seeing one time or other it hath belonged to 'em both but that of the two must be the true Church to which it always belonged and from which it was never seperated But before I can pretend to be certain that it always belonged to the Church of Rome I must have perused the Histories of the Church through all times past to the present Moment But alas those Histories as the Learned of all sides confess are some of 'em so short and imperfect others so partial and insincere and others so repugnant and contradictory to one another that supposing there were some Church now in being that never erred and that Church were the Roman it is next to impossible for me to be certain of it for even in the Histories of the Church of Rome which pretends to be the only unerring Church there are so many at least seeming Contradictions of one Pope and General Council to another that it is impossible for any Man who is not prepossest with a strong Opinion of her Infallibility to pronounce with any degree of certainty that she never erred And methinks 't is something hard that I must seek the true Church by such a Note whereby it will be impossible for me to find it without spending a great part of my Life in laborious researches of Ecclesiastical History wherein after all in seeking after a Church that never erred I doubt I shall but seek for a Needle in a Bottle of Hay But suppose I were so far satisfied of the Roman Church as to believe that it neither hath err'd for the time past nor doth err at the present Before I can be certain that this Note is inseparable to her I must have very good assurance that she will not err for the time to come and by what Argument can you assure me of that Why hath not our Saviour promised that the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against his true Church And doth not this necessarily imply that his true Church shall never err Suppose it doth you ought to consider that I am now enquiring whether the Roman Church be the true Church or no and consequently whether this Promise belong to her or no and therefore as yet neither this nor any other Promise can be a sufficient Evidence to me that this Note of not erring is inseparable to her for the future The Church of Rome cannot deny but that there are several Churches now extant in the World which for several Ages did not err yet now are erroneous and therefore supposing that she hath not erred for these 1600 Years past how can I thence conclude that she will not err hereafter when she her self owns that there are Churches now in being which for 8 or 900 Years did not err and yet have erred ever since And what Reason can you give why it should be more impossible for a Church to err after 1600 Years profession of the Truth than after 900 Wherefore before I can be certain that this Note of not erring is inseparable to any one Church now in being I must have very good assurance not only that she doth not err at present nor ever did but also that she never will. But before I can be certain that she neither doth err nor ever did I must be next to infallible my self and before I can be certain that she never will I must be certain that she is infallible because if her not erring for the future be a Contingency that may or may not be I can never be certain whether it will be or no. But it is impossible I should be sure that she is an infallible Church before I am sure that she is the true Church because if Infallibility be granted to any
known and distinguished from others Much good may do them with such Witnesses as Calvin and Luther who did to the last bear Testimony against the Corruptions and Innovations of that Church III. I shall examin the Question a little farther and more especially the Testimony of the Jews I might make many Remarks upon what the Cardinal affirms that whereas Catholicks neither praise nor approve the Doctrine or Life of Heathens or Hereticks yet these speak well of them I do not think the Romonists the more Catholick for this that they speak well of none but of themselves and will allow Salvation to none but those of her own Communion I could name a certain Lord of this Kingdom who was upon his Death-Bed urged to declare himself of the Church of Rome from this Argument of Bellarmin viz. That they of the Church of Rome denounced Damnation to all out of her Communion whereas we Protestants allowed Salvation as possible to some of them But he answered the Priest that urged this That he thought it safest to dye in the Communion of that Church that was most Charitable A Man would think that Charity which is an inseparable Note of a Christian and made so by our Blessed Saviour Joh. 13.35 might have been allowed to have been a Mark of the true Church also That they do not commend Heathens the Cardinal affirms roundly and yet 't were no hard matter to prove that many Catholicks have done it and that they might very well do it For why may not Heathens be commended for their Justice their Fortitude their Temperance Gratitude c. He tells us likewise the same of Hereticks that the Catholicks neither commend their Life or Doctrine Indeed they have little Reason to expect it from them who are resolved to speak well of none but those of their own Party and Way And yet because the Cardinal lays so great a stress upon the Confession of Adversaries and condescends to receive the Testimony of Hereticks as he is pleased to call us when it makes for his purpose I shall at least produce on our own behalf as many Confessions from those he calls Catholicks as he hath produced of ours on the behalf of his Church and those also both with respect to our Lives and Doctrines And tho it be true that they of the Church of Rome have blackned Luther and the other first Reformers as Men of flagitious Lives yet there will be found among them some who have given a better account of them I might give in a very fair account of J. Huss and H. of Prague from a Contemporary of their own Church who knew them well and conversed with them before they died For Martin Luther whatever the Romanists say of him now yet certain it is that Erasmus who I hope will pass with C. Bellarmin for a Catholick who lived in his time gives a better account of him In his Letter to the Card. of York speaking of Luther Erasm Ep. l. xi Ep. 1. he says Hominis vita magno omnium consensu probatur jam id non leve prejudicium est tantam esse morum integritatem ut nec hostes reperiant quod calumnientur His Life was then approved by all Men and so entire were his Manners that his Enemies could find nothing to reproach him with Epist l. v. Ep. 38. Again in a Letter to Ph. Melancthon Martini Lutheri vitam apud nos nemo non probat i. e. All Men among us says he approve the Life of Martin Luther The same Erasmus says of Oecolampadius Ep. l. vii Ep. 43. Maldodat in Mat. vii 15. that he meditated of nothing but of heavenly things Maldonat the Jesuit an allowed Catholick and fierce Enemy to the Calvinists says of them that there appeared nothing in their Actions but Alms Temperance and Modesty But their Doctrine is of greatest Concernment in this present Question Let us see if any of our Adversaries of the Church of Rome have made any Confession in favour of our Doctrine And here I will not enlarge 't will be enough to produce a few more Testimonies and those more pertinent than what the Cardinal hath produced on the other side The Doctrine which our first Reformers preached was not so absurd as 't is by some represented Many of the Church of Rome have spoken much in favour of our Doctrines Erasmus did so of many of those Doctrines which Luther taught The Things says he Epist l. xxii Ep. 10. ibid. which Luther urgeth if they were moderately handled in my Opinion come nearer to the Evangelical Vigor And speaking of the Eucharist he adds that were he not moved by so great a Consent of the Church he could embrace the Opinion of Oecolampadius He adds that he found no place in the Holy Scriptures where the Apostles are said to have consecrated Bread and Wine into the Flesh and Blood of the Lord. The same Erasmus elsewhere does profess that he wisheth that what Luther writes of the Tyranny Covetousness and Filthiness of the Court of Rome had been false Hist Counc Trent l. 1. Cardinal Mattheo Langi Archbishop of Salzburg told every one that the Reformation of the Mass was honest the Liberty of Meats convenient and a just Demand to be discharged of so many Commandments of Men but that a poor Monk should reform all was intolerable The Doctrine was not so obnoxious as to offend the most moderate and considering Men of the Roman Church many of them have upon occasion frankly declared on our side It hath been proved that St. Gregory the Great was no Friend to private Masses or Transubstantiation and 't is well known that he renounced that Title of Vniversal Bishop which is now claimed by the Popes of Rome Seâ— Bp. Morton's Appeal l. i. A learned Writer of our Church hath long ago produced many Witnesses of the Church of Rome that have born Testimony to the Doctrine of Protestants E. g. The Doctrine of Purgatory was not for along time universally believed in the Church says Polydore Virgil. Some before Luther taught that Papal Indulgences were but a kind of Godly Cheat says Gregory de Valentia The Worship of Images was condemned by almost all the Fathers says the same Polydore Virgil The Authority of a Council is superior to that of the Pope say the Councils of Constance and Basil Marriage of Priests is not prohibited by Legal or Evangelical Authority but by Ecclesiastical says Gratian Venerable Bede owns two Sacraments on which the Church is founded For many other things disputed between us and them we appeal to the Learned and Moderate Men amongst them and doubt not to defend our Doctrines by Confessions of those of their own Church Such are they of the number of Sacraments the Primacy of the Bishop of Rome c. We make no doubt but to produce many Catholick Authors speaking on our side For Communion in both kinds we have the Testimony of the Council of
from being dazled at the Sight that they were no more affected than if I had looked on a Piece of Green Silk But I doubt he will censure them very hardly for it and think they are a sort of malignant Cavaleerish Eyes I can't help that but whatever Eyes they be since I have been able to hold them open so long against the glaring imaginary Splendor of These These Triumphant NOTES I will venture to draw out the whole Train once more and give a little Remark upon every one of them as they pass by 1. The Name of Catholick This is a Note which may be easily usurped by every bold Pretender but till it can be proved that it is joyned with the Profession of the true Faith the Name alone is nothing but an empty and insignificant Sound 2. Antiquity I shall not here mention the Antiquity of some Errors nor that there were many Churches in the World before there was any at Rome but will freely confess that that had been ancient enough if it had preserved that Doctrine in its Purity which it received at the first But it is well known that the Additions she has made unto that concerning Infallibility Images Purgatory and the like cannot be pretended to be of Antient and Apostolical Tradition Nay many of their present Tenents were never declared necessary till the last Age and the Church of Rome as it is now constituted can be esteemed no older than the Council of Trent that is about fourty Years younger than the Reformation 3. Duration By this the Cardinal would perswade us that his true Church has been from the Beginning and shall continue to the End of Christianity The first we deny the second can never be proved till the Day of Judgment We are sure the Church of Rome has been changed already from what it was and we hope and believe that it will be changed again from what it is And then what would become of the Duration they boast of if they should ever reform themselves from those Errors and Abuses which have crept in among them as has been often attempted and a long time most earnestly desired by many of the best and most impartial of their own Communion So that granting this to be a Note it would make against them both ways For what is past we know what Alterations have been made by them and they can never be secured against others that may happen hereafter 4. Amplitude or Multitude and Variety of Believers This can by no means be made a Note of the Church for the time was once that Christ's Flock was a little Flock Acts 1.15 and the number of the Names together were but about an hundred and twenty And afterwards the Arrian Heresy had almost overspread the Face of Christendom insomuch that the whole World was thought to be against Athanasius and Athanasius against the whole World. Or should we let it pass for a Note they could gain but little by it For they are infinitely exceeded in Multitude not only by Heathens and Mahometans but by Christians of other Denominations 5. Succession of Bishops How far this may be necessary to the Being of a Church I need not dispute But the uninterrupted Succession they of Rome are wont to glory in is manifestly false For besides the long Vacances that have sometimes happened and the many Schisms they have had when two or more have pretended to the Papacy and no Man could determine who had the Right which must make it dubious the confessed Hereticks that have possessed themselves of the Infallible Chair must quite cut off at least interrupt the Succession Or if they have it notwithstanding this or any other Objection that might be made We of the Church of England can plead the same 6. Agreement in Doctrine with the Primitive Church This is a good Note indeed if they mean the truly Primitive Church for that agreed with the Scripture and Doctrine of the Apostles But then I hope they will not have the Confidence to affirm that their Prayers in an Unknown Tongue their Half-Communion their Adoration of the Host and many other things which they now receive are agreeable to the Practice and Belief of that Primitive Church 7. The Vnion of the Members among themselves and with the Head. Of this they are continually making their Brags but the many and violent Contentions that have often been betwixt the several Pretenders to the Papal Dignity and the endless Feuds and Animosities that are kept up amongst them about many Controverted Points do sufficiently declare that their Church has been rent and torn with Factions and Intestine Divisions as much as any other Society Or if they were as firmly Vnited as they pretend it is no more than other Combinations of Men have been in known and wicked Errors 8. Sanctity of Doctrine For they generally assert as the Cardinal does here that the Roman Church maintains nothing that is False either in Matter of Faith or Manners If they were able to prove this there might be some Reason indeed that their Church should be esteemed the Mother and Mistress of all Churches as she has been wont of late to stile her self But since the Power of deposing Princes has been openly assumed and frequently practised and never yet condemned by any either Pope or Council since the Doctrine of Aequivocation and many other absurd and impious Opinions are taught by their Casuists and made use of by their Confessors in directing the Consciences of their Penitents and since these and many more very dangerous Errors do not only escape without a Censure but are approved of and incouraged by their Governours I do not see how they and their Church can possibly be excused from the Guilt of them 9. The Efficacy of Doctrine Here we are told of the wonderful Success they have had in the Propagation of their Faith and the Conversions that have been made of whole Nations And supposing it were as they say yet Heresy and Infidelity has often had as great and swift a Progress in the World as any that their Doctrine can boast of and considering the Pravity and Corruption of Human Nature it is not strange that the most gross and pernicious Errors should be more readily received and spread themselves faster than the most divine and sacred Truths 10. Holiness of Life This is indeed the most real Commendation of a Christian and I will not go about to rob them of the Glory of it But then it cannot be denied but meet Philosophers and some of the Antient and many of those whom they account Modern Hereticks have been of a very strict and unblamable Conversation and divers of their Popes and other Ecclesiasticks of the greatest Eminency of Place have been very infamous for all sorts of Wickedness and Debauchery and their very Religious Orders have been often complained of for the neglect of their Discipline and loosness of their Lives as is abundantly testified by their
own Authors 11. The Glory of Miracles These alone were never a Note of the true Church And those extraordinary Gifts which were bestowed at first for the Confirmation of Christianity we think they are ceased long ago But we are forewarned of False Christs and false Prophets Mat. 24.24 which should shew great Signs and Wonders which me-thinks should make a Church very careful how they made any pretension to Miracles But the Church of Rome is resolved to do it and would fain perswade us that there are many great Ones wrought among them to this very Day and as they believe always will be But we know and they will not deny it that many of the Miracles they have talked of are meer Forgeries and Delusions others altogether incredible and but weakly attested and wholly unworthy of the Seriousness and Gravity of the Christian Religion most of them said to be done in Corners and are never to be seen but among themselves When they please to oblige us Protestants with the sight of a few of them they may then deserve to be farther considered till that be done they must give us leave to think that their Church is reduced to great Streights when it shall stand in need of such slight Artifices as these to support it 12. The Light of Prophecy This if they had it can bring no more Advantage to their Cause than the other The Church of God anciently when extraordinary Revelations were more common had not always Prophets in it And when any appeared the Prophet was to be tryed by the Faith of the Church and not the Church by the Predictions of the Prophet And we are still commanded to try the Spirits whether they are of God 1 Joh. 4.1 Because many false Prophets are gone out into the World. 13. The Confession of Adversaries This if the Cardinal's Instances were pertinent would yet be but of little Consequence for if some Protestants have spoken favourably of his Catholicks some of his Catholicks have spoken favourably of Protestants Or if we should be willing to hope well of some of them as we are and they should adjudge us every one to Eternal Damnation as they generally do this would be but an ill sign that their Church must therefore be the truer because it is more Censorious and Uncharitable than Ours 14. The Vnhappy End of the Church's Enemies A wise Man would be something afraid of passing this into a Note before he was himself safe in his Grave For all things come alike to all Eccl. 9.2 there is one Event to the Righteous and to the Wicked Many of the most Zealous Patrons of the Romish Persuasion have met with as Tragical and Unfortunate Ends as the most accursed Heretick that ever was devoured by Vermin or burnt at a Stake 15. Temporal Felicity This may be placed in the same Rank with the former it is altogether as variable and inconstant as that no certain Judgment can be made upon it They are not to learn that the Enemies of their Church have been often successful and that Victory has not always waited upon their Catholick Arms no not in their most Holy Wars when Religion has been the only ground of the Quarrel Thus upon a Review of all the Notes in order as they are mustered up by the great Cardinal it may appear to any unprejudiced Enquirer that he has missed of his Aim For that they are either no Notes of a Church at all or not proper to that of Rome And now after the highest Pretences of an Infallible Church and the absolute Deference and Submission which they say is due unto it any Man that shall seriously consider the Matter must needs wonder they should have no surer means at last to find it out than a few slight and improbable nay some of them very vain false and extravagant Conjectures The Protestants whom they will not allow to be certain of any thing have far better Evidences than these and as good Assurances of the Truth of their Church as can be desired For we think the True Faith True Worship and a Right Administration of the Sacraments do unquestionably make a True Church These the Romanists themselves cannot deny to be the great and necessary Notes and if the Controversy betwixt us come to be determined by these it will soon appear which Communion we ought to prefer We make Profession of the whole Catholick Apostolick Faith as it is contained in the Holy Scriptures and briefly comprized in the three Creeds which is all that was ever received in the Primitive Church They have made large Additions to the Antient Belief and increased the number of the Articles from Twelve to Four and Twenty many of which were not so much as heard of in the First Ages and never made necessary to be believed till above fifteen hundred Years after the Publication of the Gospel We Worship Almighty God and none but him and unto him we Pray in a Language we understand through Jesus Christ our only Mediator in whose Name when we ask we are sure to be heard They have a kind of Worship which they give to Saints and Images which as to all External Acts of Adoration is the very same they pay to God himself and when their Addresses are directed unto Him all their Publick Service is in an unknown Tongue and they set up to themselves many Mediatours of Intercession when they cannot tell whether they hear them but it is most certain that God has never promised to hear them for their Sakes We receive the two Sacraments which Christ ordained in his Church and administer them both in such Manner and Form as he has appointed They without any Divine Authority have made Seven Sacraments and in the Lord's Supper they believe that there is offered up a proper Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Living and the Dead they adore the Elements which they think are Transubstantiated into the Body and Blood of our Saviour and suffer the Laity to communicate but in one kind robbing them of the Cup contrary to the plain Institution and express Command of our Blessed Lord. And since we have the True Faith True Worship and the Sacraments rightly Administred it is evident that we are not deficient in any thing that is necessary to the Constitution of a True Church But They will never be able to prove themselves such a One by the late Additions they have made to the Creed and their many Deviations from the Primitive Rule And yet they will be continually vaunting that they are not only a True Church but the only True Church in the World and upon this Presumption they thunder out their Anathema's upon all Christendom besides and confidently condemn them for a Company of Heretical and Schismatical Conventicles But they cannot justify that rash and uncharitable Sentence nor make good any part of this heavy Charge For we that heartily believe all the Antient Creeds cannot be accused of Heresy neither are we guilty of Schism because we only Reformed those Errors and Corruptions which they had introduced and wanted not sufficient Authority for what was done But if they are still absolutely resolved to stand to the Censure they have passed and allow no True Church upon Earth but their Own it is not Cardinal Bellarmin's Fifteen Notes that will ever prove it FINIS ERRATA Pag. 367. l. 3. for not r. most P. 371. Marg. l. ult for cap. 3. r. 13. LONDON Printed by J. D. for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1687. BOOKS lately printed for Richard Chiswell THE Pillar and Ground of Truth A Treatise shewing that the Roman Church falsly claims to be That Church and the Pillar of That Truth mentioned by St. Paul in his First Epistle to Timothy Chap. 3. Vers 15.4o. The Peoples Right to read the Holy Scripture Asserted 4o. A Short Summary of the Principal Controversies between the Church of England and the Church of Rome being a Vindication of several Protestant Doctrines in Answer to a Late Pamphlet Intituled Protestancy destitute of Scripture Proofs 4o. Two Discourses of Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead An Answer to a late Pamphlet Intituled The Judgment and Doctrine of the Clergy of the Church of England concerning one Special Branch of the King's Prerogative viz. In dispensing with the Penal Laws 4o. A PRIVATE PRAYER to be used in Difficult Times 8o.