he concluded there had bin no such thing as Christs Diuinity and proceeded to teach Circumcision and Poligamy and at length came to be an impure Apostata as the famous Beza doth term him in his Treatise de Poligam pag. 4. Impurus ille Apostata Bernardinus Ochinus Read likewise Sebastian Castalios ' own words in his Preface of the great Latin Bible dedicated to King Eduard 6. which are The more I do peruse the Scriptures the less do I find the same he meanes the profecies of the conuersion of Kings and Nations performed hovvsoeuer you understand the same profecies Dauid George say the Protestant Diuines of Basil in their History of him edit 1568. discoursed thus If the doctrin of Christ and his Apostles had bin true and perfect the Church vvhich they planted c. should haue continued c. But novv it is manifest that Antichrist hath subuerted the doctrin of the Apostles and the Church by them begun as is euident in the Papacy therfore the doctrin of the Apostles vvas false and imperfect And so this protestant Apostle of Basil by reflecting vpon the fundamental principle of the Reformation which is a supposition that the true Church and doctrin had bin inuisible or destroyd for many ages by Popery became a blasphemous Apostat affirming that our Sauior was a seducer In like manner Adam Neuserus the chief Pastor of Heidelberg turnd Turk and was circumcised at Constantinople See Osiander in his Epitom Centur. 16. pag. 818. The like fate had Alemannus Beza his bosom friend as Conradus Schlusserburg sayes in Theol. Caluin fol. 9. and Beza confesseth ep 65. pag. 108. Alemannum affirmant ad Iudaismum defecisse And all their conuersions to so damn'd sects were grounded vpon their not finding any pagan Kings or Nations to haue bin euer conuerted to protestancy but all wayes to popery Q. I must confess Sir that if all the Heathen Kings and Nations haue bin conuerted to that Christianity which we call popery and this was performed by Papists which could not be don without miracles and no pagan Kings and Nations haue bin euer conuerted to Protestancy nor by Protestants yee haue much more to say for yourselues than euer I heard before and we much less But I doubt you will hardly proue that untill the end of the first 600. years there were any Kings or Nations conuerted to Popery though afterwards I must own that profession was spread ouer the world and reignd untill our Protestant Reformation began in the year 1517. And to auoyd prolixity I desire you to rosolue me this one question whether Constantin the great the first Christian Emperor was a Papist Vve belieue that he and the Church of his time was Protestant because the purest Christianity Protestancy was then in vogue though afterwards it degenerated insensibly into Popery A. Euseb de Vita Constantini l. 3. c. 47. lib. 4. cap. 38. S. Hieron contra Vigilant ante med Costantinus Imperator saÌ„ctas reliquias Andreae Lucae Timothei transtulit Constantinopolim apud quas Daemones rugiunt And ibid. Si reliquius Sanctorum traÌ„sferre in aureos loculos re condere non licet sacrilegus fuit cum Constantino Arcadius omnes Episcopi non solum sacrilegi sed fatui iudicandi qui rem vilissimaÌ„ cineres dissolutâ—s â—n sericâ— vase aureo portauerunt c. S. August tom 39. dâ— Sanctis saith Crucis caracterâ— Basilicae dedicantur altaria consecrantur S. Greg. apud Bedam hist lib. 1. c. 30. Euseb de vitâ Constantini l 3. c. 2. atque interdum vultum salutari illa passionis signavit nota Zozomen hist l. 1. c. 8. Sanctae Crucis plurimum tribuit honoris Prudentius in Apotheosi vexillumque Crucis summus Dominator adorat S. Chrysostom in ep 2. Cor. hom 26. versus fin Nam ipse qui purpuram indutus est accedit illa amplexus sepulchra fastu deposito staâ— Sanctis supplicaturus ut pro se ad Dominum intercedant See the same also in S. Chrysost ad pop hom 60. versus finem That Constantin the great was a Papist and the Religion then in vogue and the only then called Catholik was Popery is euident by Eusebius his Ecclesiastical History written a litle after Constantins death as also by what the Centurists of Magdeburg and all other learned Protestants confess For it is euident by their writings that Constantin erected Temples in memory of Martyrs and the Apostles prouided his Sepulchre there to the end that after his death he might be made partaker of the prayers there offered He translated to Constantinople the reliques of St Andrew Luke and Timothy at which the Deuil did roare which particular circumstance St Hierom presseth against Vigilantius whom he concludeth an heretik for being against the praying to Saints and worshiping their reliques St Augustin and St Gregory two other Doctors of the Church defend the practise of consecrating Churches when Constantin built them with the sign of the Cross and sprinkling of holy water which I belieue the protestant Clergy of Dublin were ignorant of when as I haue bin credibly informed they framed very lately a new form of their own heads to consecrat Mr Lingars oual Temple with such hatred to the Cross that they would not make use of the sign therof in the Consecration nor bless themselues in the beginning or throughout the whole work nor place any Cross in the top of the Church for fear of profaning it or troubling the Spirit of that peaceble Minister not long before departed Nay Crosses were pull'd down in that Diocess and Catholiks punished for opposing them who committed such sacrileges Vvithout doubt Constantin the great was one of the most rank Papists and though he was the man who pulled down Idols and established Christianity in the world with its splendor and publik exercise yet I feare our Zealous Dublinian Clergy will protest against his Religion as superstitious and censure him guilty of Idolatry when they heare how often he blest himself making the sign of the Cross in his forhead nay which is worse not only adorning but adoring with an inferior religious worship the Cross and which is worst of all praying to St Peter and Paul that they vvould be Intercessors for him to God At least the Church of England will not challenge him as a member of theirs he being so auerse to the spiritual supremacy and Ecclesiastical iurisdiction of temporal soueraigns that he would not sit down at the Councell of Nice untill the Bishops had therto giuen their assent nor would he take vpon him to iudge of Ecclesiastical causes saying God hath ordained you Bishops and hath giuen you povver to iudge of yourselues by meanes vvherof vve yeeld ourselues to your iudgment So Crispinus in his book of the estate of the Church pag. 99. and Zozomen hist l. c. 10. post med sets down these popish vvords of Constantin Mihi vero non est fas cum homo sim ciusmodi
that they can be saued by Protestancy Q. I see you are of opinion that no Protestant at all can be saued Vvhat Can none of them haue inuincible ignorance Is there so cleer and obuious an euidence of the Roman Catholik being the true Church that none can pretend nor plead ignorance of that truth A. That out of the true Church there is no saluation is a maxim of Faith wherin the holy Fathers agree That the same Church is so visible and preferable before all others that euen the most stupid may as easily see it as a Citty vpon a mountain and therfore are commanded to repair to it is manifest in Scripture That the Roman Catholik hath those cleer marks of Gods fauor which persuade the most scrupulous it is the true Church of God hath bin in the 4. Chapter demonstrated by us and appeareth by those supernatural signs of miracles sanctity conuersion of Nations to Christianity c. which shine in it and haue set it out so gloriously in all ages and places of the world since the preaching of the Apostles That in England there is any corner or person wherin common sense can be so burried or curiosity so dead as to be ignorant of these things and others deliuered by tradition from age to age and year to year is not credible But in case there be any Protestant so neer a beast as not to reflect vpon any thing he sees or heareth of his own or of our Religion his Baptisme will saue him if he did not loose by a mortal sin the grace which he receiued in and by that Sacrament And this is all the comfort I can giue my Protestant friends whose saluation I more heartily wish than those do who delude them with larger opinions Q. This is but very cold comfort Vvill not God grant to som poor ignorant Protestant an act of contrition at least in the last hour A. I think not But if he doth to any it is to som of those stupid Creatures I last spoke of As for others who haue wit and wayes to consider and reflect vpon those doubts which occurr to themselues or are raised in them by the discourse of others their obstinacy or affected ignorance in not listening or inquiring into a matter so important and so easily resolued makes them incapable of so great a fauor as an act of contrition And as for those ernest or bigot Protestants they are in greatest danger of any and furthest from contrition because hauing a cleerer Knowledge of their own religion and spending much time in the meditation therof they must needs haue great doubts if they do not stifle them in their first birth by diuerting their thoughts to more pleasing obiects and by auoyding all occasions of discoursing of protestancy as commonly they do especialy when they perceiue there is any likelihood of laying open the weakness of its principles and the wickedness of the first Reformers Besides an act of contrition inuolues Faith hope and charity and these Protestants not hauing Faith but rather an auersion against hearing of it are not in a disposition fit for contrition which is the greatest grace God doth to his most eminent seruants and the Saints of his own Church Q. Methinks this is very hard I can not as yet comprehend why a deuout Protestant may not be capable of an act of contrition Is protestancy so abominable in the sight of God that he will not turn his mercifull eye towards Protestants Is it wors than other great sins which God doth pardon Is it heresy And if it be may not an heretik haue an act of contrition Is the malice of heresy so great as to exclude Gods mercy A. Vvithout doubt Heresy is the greatest of sins and yet excludes not Gods mercy but an Heretiks conuersion precedes contrition this not being compatible vvith heresy I vvill briefly tell you vvherin consists the malice of heresy and leaue yourself to iudge vvhether protestancy be Heresy The malice of Heresy consists in the contempt of Gods veracity And Gods veracity consists in an infinit inclination to truth An infinit inclination to truth is not consistent vvith a permission of falsood credibly fathered and fastned upon him that permits it if he can easily hinder the same Now the malice of heresy consists in hauing so mean an opinion of Gods veracity or of his inclination to truth that he vvould permit a Church so credibly pretending to be his own as the Roman Catholik doth by its miracles its sanctity its conuersion of Nations to Christianity and other supernatural marks to impose upon the vvorld in his name for so many ages false doctrin for true vvheras it vvas in his power euery moment of all that time to discouer and declare the cheat and disown the doctrin And yet he did not either That our miracles father our doctrin upon God is easily proued for though the first Protestant Reformers and their successors cry out against som of our miracles as false yet they are forc't to confess som of them are true and vve joyn with them in censuring false miracles as such and punish them who feign them as Malefactors Against our conuersion of Nations to Christianity a confessed mark of the true Church they haue nothing to say and as litle against the succession and sanctity of our Doctrin and Doctors Notwithstanding this credible and indeed conuincing appearance of our miracles and of the Roman Catholik Church being the true one commissioned by God to instruct his people yet the Protestants will not belieue it nor submit their iudgments to so authentik an authority nor hearken to the Diuine voice manifesting itself by the cleerest signs and euidence that is consistent with the freedom merit and obscurity of Christian Faith Vvhether this obstinacy be not heresy let the Protestants themselues iudge and examin whether to slight the testimony and signs of such a Church be not a contempt of Gods veracity as supposing he can permit falsood to be so plausibly fatherd upon him as wee see the Roman Catholik doctrin hath bin for so many ages and throughout all parts of the world CHAP. VII OF THE MINISTERY OF THE Church and of the nullity of that of England AS it is necessary that Gods Church should haue visible signs wherby it may be discerned from all heretical Congregations so it is acknowledged that in the same there is a Ministery caracterised with such publik ceremonies and authentik testimonies that there can be no danger of counterfeiting a mission or vocation so sacred In the Christian Church the Ministers are called Bishops and Priests Both are consecrated by a real imposition of Episcopal hands and other ceremonies which haue bin practised in the Church euer since the Apostles from whom by a continual succession the Episcopal caracter must descend and be proued otherwise no credit is to be giuen to any persons claiming to be Bishops of whose ordination Priestood dependeth It was the misfortune of the
Protestant Reformations that the Authors therof were not Bishops and by consequence could not transmit either that caracter or that of Priestood to their successors as they did their doctrin This defect they endeuored to supply by persuading such as belieued them that no indelible caracter or visible ceremony of imposition of Episcopal hands was necessary for a Minister of the Ghospel And euen the Church of England was necessitaded to approue of this desperat doctrin in the 25. of its 39. articles of Religion because it was then well Knowen the Consecrators of her first Bishops were no real Bishops though they were called so for reason of state One is that the constitution of English Parliaments requiring Bishops as one of the three estates of the Kingdom and their votes being a considerable addition to the soueraigns authority of which alone their nomination dependeth Q. Elizabeth in this particular of Episcopacy went against the principles of other Reformations and would needs Keep vp the name of Bishops in her Church But it happened very cross to her design that none of the Catholik Bishops of England no others were then there liuing would lay hands upon or consecrate any of those new ones which she named to that dignity See the cōmission and dispensation in Doctor Bramhall the Protestant Bishop of Derry his vindication of the Episcopacy of England See the statut 8. Eliz. 1. Therfore she was forc't to issue forth a second commission for that purpose and therin to dispense by virtue of her supreme spiritual iurisdiction vvith the very state and condition of the Consecrators And this power and practise hauing bin publikly excepted against by Catholik Authors in print as null and ridiculous it was confirmed and declared by Act of Parliament 8. Eliz. 1. that whatsoeuer had bin don untill then in making of Bishops Archbishops c. by the Queens commission under the great seal of England should stand as ualid whether the Consecrators were Bishops or no Bishops any person or persons vvhatsoeuer hauing bin declared capable of giuing that caracter to any other prouided they were authorised therunto by her Maiesties commission under the great seal This occasioned great disputes between Doctor Haiding and Doctor Iuel one of the first Protestant Bishops Doctor Haiding in his printed bookes desired Mr Iuel to name the Bishop that consecrated him Parker and the rest of Queen Elizabeths first Bishops and was content to submit to Iuel and own the validity of his and the other protestant Bishops consecration if he would name Parkers Consecrator A man would think this was no such intricat matter nor strong argument if euer Parker had bin consecrated by a Bishop And yet Iuel hauing bin thus prouoked by his insulting Aduersary could neuer name Parkers Consecrator of whose consecration depended that of the rest nor produce Registers of that consecration when Harding called for them though som 50. years after appear'd in print a very formal Register of Parkers consecration copied forsooth out of Records Kept in Lauander at Lambeth The unseasonable appearance of this new found Register occasioned much laughter and new disputes which haue continued vntill these times And indeed it can not well enter into any considering mens heads that Parker Iuel and the first protestant Bishops who were called by Catholiks no Bishops in print for want of a right Consecrater and challenged to name the Bishops that consecrated them or Parker their aduersaries setting their stress vpon that only argument would not take the pains to see and search their Registers of Lambeth for a Bishops name that imported them so much to name if any such Bishop had euer bin or any such Records had bin then extant Besides sure their memories were not so short as not to remember without the help of Registers and Records the name of a man that their Successors pretended fifty years after the time of answering was past had made Parker a Bishop but fiue years before they were askt the question with so much ceremony and solemnity For Hardings book and Iuells answer were printed an 1565. or therabouts An other thing made the prelatik Clergies caracter absolutly null And that was the Form which they used in the consecration of their Bishops and Priests This Form was iudged essentialy defectiue because not one word therof did express or mention the caracter pretended to be giuen therby And though the Church of England for neer one hundred years had defended and practised this Form yet at length they were forc't to submit to their Aduersaries exceptions and reasons against it and to change and correct the Form as wee directed in the bookes we writ against the same Vpon the Kings restauration they printed their Ritual and therin you may see the words Bishop and Priest added vnto the Form of their consecrations which or their equiualent are absolutly necessary and yet nothing like them was in the old Forms and former editions This humility of theirs is to be commended though it be to no purpose seing the change made not them who went before it Bishops and though their late reformed Form be valid yet when pronounced by men that are not Bishops it works no effect nor giues any caracter either of Priestood or Episcopacy to themselues or their Successors And none of the Protestant Clergy hath bin consecrated by a true Bishop since the change of their old Form Let the Protestant Layty now reflect vpon the caracter and conscience of their Clergy as being men who take vpon themselues the administration of Sacraments absolution from sins spiritual jurisdiction and all functions belonging to true Bishops and Priests though themselues can not but know there is no probable ground to belieue they are such I say nothing of the reuenues they are possessed of vpon the account of being Churchmen but I can not be so uncharitable as not to aduertise my Countreymen of the danger they are in and of the damnation which will follow if by timely repentance and a generous resolution they do not withdraw themselues from the direction of such Teachers and from the Ministery of such a Clergy Vvhat can they answer to the obiection we borrow from the statut 8. Eliz. Can they imagin that the Queen would dispense with the state and condition of the Consecraters if they had had the Episcopal caracter Vvhat need was there of a dispensation with their state and condition if they were real Bishops Vvhy should the Parlament confirm this dispensation and enact by law that whatsoeuer was don by this commission of the Queens should be valid whether the Consecraters were Bishops or not the words are by any person or persons vvhatsoeuer All that my Countreymen can say is that they haue an Act of Parliament for the caracter of their Clergy and for the saluation of their souls Vvhat that will auail them in the other world I wish they did consider Surely they can not but know that such Acts will
be no excuse before that dreadfull Iudge who takes no other euidence but that of our own conscience This only we must consult in matters of Eternity and not think that a Clergy or Religion established by a temporal law is lawfull though it should be called legal by an Act of Parlament Q. Sir I haue seen the Registers of Lambeth you would haue me suspect as forged I assure you I see no sign of forgery in them And as for Bishop Iuels not answering Doctor Harding demand concerning the first Protestant Bishops and particularly Parkers Consecrator perhaps he thought it an idle question and underualued so weak an obiection A. Forged Registers are often the most formal all counterfeit ware standing in need of being set forth with great artifice Vve haue seen Registers and Records of publik Courts of Iudicature so artificialy changed and corrupted that nothing but their not being produced many years before when they were called for could conclude the forgery Doctor Harding called for the Registers of the first protestant Bishops Consecration as well as for the Consecraters name Neither did B. Iuel contemn this demand as you imagin He went as far in the answer as he durst He answered 1. that the first protestant Bishops in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths reign were consecrated in due form by Archbishop Parker their Metropolitan But being again pressed by Harding to name Parkers Consecrator he put off that impertinent question wherof the whole controuersy and the credit of the Church of England depended by a wild digression and long discourse of the ancient Bishops being consecrated without aquainting the Pope But sure Mr Iuel might aquaint Doctor Harding with the name of him who consecrated Parker as well as he named Parker for Consecrator of the other Bishops and certainly would if Parker himself had bin realy consecrated by a Bishop If you do not belieue my relation read Doctor Hargings bookes against Iuel and Iuels own Apology for the Church of England where they treat of this particular Q. Gentlemen I would to God you did agree among yourselues and not break the Layties heads with your disputes You haue put so many doubts into mine that I can hardly belieue any thing On both sides you seem to bee honest and learned men therfore I think my best way is to continue in the Church of England and trust in God that I shall not be damn'd for not being of that of Rome untill I be better satisfied that the points wherin it differs from ours are necessary for saluation And this requiring longer time the particulars being so many than I am like to liue t' is not credible God would oblige me or any other illiterat person to spend our dayes rather in controuersies than in prayer and good works and in the end be as litle satisfied with ourselues as our and your Clergy are with one an other Yourselues grant that implicit Faith is sufficient for such ignorant people as I am that Faith I am sure I haue for I do belieue all that God reuealed though I do not know what it is he reuealed or whether he hath apointed the Church of Rome rather than that of England to instruct the world and inform us of his reuelations And truly I belieue a man may be saued without troubling himself to know which of them it is that God hath apointed for our instruction prouided we be redy to be members therof when that shall be made cleer to us by better arguments than I am able to inquire after A. This is so dangerous doctrin that I iudge it worth my pains to shew yet further the obligation the most illiterat men haue to search after the true Church and how easiâ—y they may find it out by visible signs and how you may without any help but that of common sense be satisfied of the truth of euery particular point of doctrin wherin Roman Catholiks differ from Protestants And all this in the space of less than two houres time Q. Nay Sir if you perform your undertaking I deserue to be damn'd for all Eeternity if I will nor hear you for so short a time as two hours I pray Sir proceed CHAP. VIII HOVV EVERY ILLITERAT PERSON may easily and in the space of two houres find out the true Church and the truth of euery point of doctrin controuerted betvveen Catholiks and Protestants VVHen the people of Israel were most diuided in matters of Religion 3. Reg. 8. the Prophet Elias made a motion to them of cleering the truth by that famous dogmatical Miracle of burning an Ox upon the Altar without kindling the fire under it This cleer and compendious way was hugely approued of by the multitude as suting best with their capacities for they needed not learning to dispute their eyes were sufficient Iudges and they had so much common sense as to know that God would not permit a falsood to be confirmd by a miracle in so publik a trial wherin his Veracity was so particularly concerned The Prophets therfore of Baal durst not refuse so fair an offer as Elias made in their presence and I hope the Protestant Clergy will be ashamed to refuse mine Let us not delude the people with school subtilities or obscure texts of scripture If the Church of England or Scotland or any other reformed one be the true Church and its doctrin the true doctrin let that be tried by miracles I shall try ours of Rome by that test I challenge then all the Bishops and Ministers of the Church of England and all others of the Reformation or all the Protestants of the world to work or mention any one miracle euer yet wrought by any Protestant to confirm any one point of doctrin wherin they differ from the Roman Catholik Gentlemen summon your Sinods search into all histories profane and sacred set your heads together and produce at least som probable testimony of as much as one miracle to grace your Reformations And if you can not find undoubted miracles at least shew som thing that lookes like a miracle som thing that may be mistaken for one wherof the falsood or fraud hath not bin as yet discoured such as you say many of ours are Perhaps you will pretend that your Protestants are not so easily foold with false miracles as our Roman Catholiks But this must be a gift and priuilege of your priuat spirit for the Spaniards Italians and French are not by nature so dull as our Northen Protestants and are as loath to be cheated out of their moneys by Masses Miracles Pilgrimages and other pretexts of deuotion as you are And yet they belieue such Miracles as haue bin motiues for the Popes or people to Canonize our Saints and those also wherby Heathens and heretiks haue bin conuerted to our Religion Q. I doubt not Sir but that the Catholiks are as unlikely and loath to be imposed vpon as Protestants therfore I would fain heare som of those undeniable miracles
you pretend to haue in your Church and for confirmation of the doctrin wherin you differ from us But I pray let them be Miracles like those of Christ for I will not belieue any others I giue you this caution for feare you should trouble me with Mother Iulianas fits and one Finaghtyes triks wherwith he deluded the common people heer in England and Ireland where that mans Miracles as I heare are mightily cryed up A. Sir you haue reason to expect I should relate unto you Miracles like those of Christ seing himself hath sayd Iohn 14.22 Luther to 7. l. de Iudaeis c. fol. 210. A Deo didicimus accepimê° aeternum verbuÌ„ veritatem Dei hactenus mille quingentio annis miraculis signis confessam confirmatam he that belieueth in me the vvorks that I do he shall do and greater Vvhich words not only Luther the first Protestant Reformer but your English Bibles edit 1576. in the marginal notes referr to the vvhole body of the Church in vvhom this virtue doth shine for euer Though I must confess both Luther and our English Protestant writers contradict themselues again in this particular as all men must who maintain errors and say when we press them to relate som of their Miracles that Miracles are now superfluous and therfore none wrought in the Church But I shall deal so impartialy with Protestants in this matter that I will not mention any miracle for confirmation of the Roman Catholik Church and doctrin which the best Protestant writers themselues do not confess to be miracles though others of them attribute the working therof to the power of Beelzebub as the obstinat Iewes did of Christs and that for no other reason but because the miracles were wrought by Papists and to confirm Popery As for Finaghtyes miracles I made it my buisness to inquire after them and him also and do find that so soon as he began to work his miracles the Popish Archbishop of Tuam in Ireland who was his Ordinary questioned him for that presumption and finding him both ignorant and obstinat he forbid him the further tempting of God and scandalizing the Church by his foolish attempts But the mans zeal or vanity preuailing more vpon his Spirit than his Superiors commands he continued his ridiculous course and therupon was commanded out of the Archbishops Prouince After that vigilant Prelats death Finaghty lurking for som time in other places came into England and from thence returned to Dublin where he playd the fool with breathing and beating the Deuil in good ernest one Stanton an other mad Priest of his Countrey printed many of his rash attempts for great miracles Finaghty after that his manner of exorcisms had hin examind and found to be different from those of the Church and his dispossessing of Deuils to be without any visible marke or sign of the Deuils possession or at least departure was silenc't by the Clergy of Dublin and commanded out of that Province From thence he went to his own Conaght and falling again to his old miracles he was by the Popish Bishop of Elfin depriued of his general Vicarship and that extraordinary respect forgot which the simplicity of the people had offered to his supposed sanctity by vvhom now he is much slighted My charity inclineth me to belieue that his greatest fault was folly and that he was more cheated by the Deuil than so simple a man could design to cheat others I haue bin more diffuse upon this subiect than you may think it deserues because the world may be satisfied None suspects the truth of miracles nor corrects the foolish Pretenders of working them more than we Roman Catholiks it being one of the greatest cares of our Bishops and Pastors to preuent such impostures and to punish the Impostors And this hath bin the continual practise of our Church euer since the beginning of Christianity Q. You haue giuen me great satisfaction by your relation and opinion of Finaghty and his miracles If they had not bin so soon and sesonably condemn'd by his own party I should suspect that all your other miracles reported in Legends and Saints liues were of the same nature But now I see that miracles which were neuer contradicted or suspected by yourselues are credible I pray therfore relate those which you say are confessed or allowed of by the learned Protestants and yet confirm your doctrin in opposition to theirs SECT I. THE CONVERSION OF THE Heathen Kings and Nations from Paganism to Christianity and Popery is an euident miracle and mark of the truth of the Roman Catholik Church and doctrin in opposition to that of all Protestant Reformations It s continuance euen from the Apostles to this present demonstrated as also the impossibility of its pretended insensible change THe greatest of all miracles it being the end for which they haue bin wrought and the Christian Church instituted is the conuersion of the Heathen Kings and Nations to Christianity If therfore it be proued that all the Heathen Kings and Nations which haue bin conuerted from Paganism to Christianity were conuerted to no other but to that Christianity which Protestants call Popery and that the sayd conuersions were performed by knowen Papists and confessed miracles our Aduersaries must acknowledge that the Roman Catholik Church and it alone is the true Church of God otherwise it will follow that Christ instituted his Church to no purpose and that his design and desire of the conuersion of Nations and sauing their souls came to nothing Nay it will follow that Christ is not the Messias to vvhose doctrin and Church as the Scriptures and Prophets foretell all Nations shall flovv and their Kings Minister the multitude of the seas shall be conuerted the Iles shall vvayt for and the Heathens be its inheritance and the end of the earth its possession All this the Protestants themselues confess to be prophecied of the true Christian Church as you may see in their marginal notes upon the English Bible edit 1576. in Esay 60. vers ult And in Daniel 2. vers 45. This argument made so great impression upon many of the most learned Protestant writers who had resolued not to be Papists that som of them turned Iewes others Atheists others Turks as Bernardin Ochin Sebastian Castalio Dauid George Adam Neuserus Allemanus and others Q. Sir though I doubt not of your sincere dealing yet I must not take upon your single credit that learned Protestants could turn Turks and Iewes vpon the score you mention A. Sir I hope you will belieue themselues Read Bernardin Ochins Preface to his Dialogues wherin you will find these words vvhen I did consider hovv Christ by his povver vvisdom and goodness had founded and established his Church c. and again discerned hovv the same vvas utterly ouerthrovvn I could not but vvonder and being desirous to knovv the cause I found there had bin Popes From this conceit of the Popes preuailing against Christs Church