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-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
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
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. Certain genuine Remains of the Lord Bacon in Arguments Civil Moral Natural c. with a large account of all his Works By Dr. Tho. Tenison 80. Dr. Henry Bagshaw's Discourses on select Texts 80. Mr. Seller's State of the Church in the three first Centuries Dr. Burnet's Account of the Life and Death of the Earl of Rochester 80. Vindication of the Ordinations of the Church of England 80. History of the Rights of Princes in the Disposing of Ecclesiastical Benefices and Church-lands 80. Relation of the present state of the difference between the French King and the Court of Rome to which is added the Pope's Brief to the Assembly of the Clergy and their Protestation published by Dr. Burnet 80. Dr. Cumber's Companion to the Altar 80. Dr. Sherlock's Practical Discourse of Religious Assemblies 80. Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet's Unreasonableness of Separation 80. A Vindication of the Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet in answer to Mr. Baxter and Mr. Lob about Catholick Communion 80. Sir Rob. Filmer's Patriarcha or natural Power of Kings 80. Bishop Wettenball's Method and Order for private Devotion 125. Valentine's Private Devotions 40. Dr. Spencer de Legibus Hebraeorum Ritualibus earum Rationibus fol. Dr. John Lightsoot's Works in English in 2 Vol. fol. Sir Tho. Brown's Vulgar Errors with all the rest of his Works fol. Patris Simonii Disquisitiones Criticae de Variis per diversa Loca Tempora Bibliorum Editionibus Accedunt Castigat Opusc Is Vossii de Sibyllinis Oraculis 40. The Case of Lay-Communion with the Church of England considered 40. Two Letters betwixt Mr. R. Smith and Dr. Hen. Hammond about Christ's Descent into Hell. 80. Dean Stratford's Disswasive from Revenge 80. Dr. Hez Burton's first Volume of Discourses of Purity and Charity of Repentance and of seeking the Kingdom of God. Published by Dean Tillotson 80. Sir Thomas More 's Vtopia newly made English by Dr. Burnet 80. Mr. Seller's Devout Communicant assisted with Rules Meditations Prayers and Anthems 12â— Dr. Towerson of the Sacraments in General Of the Sacrament of Baptism in particular 80. The History of the COVNCIL of TRENT in which besides the Ordinary Acts of the Council are declared many notable Occurrences which hapned in Christendom for 40 Years and particularly the Practices of the COVRT of ROME to hinder the Reformation of Their Errors and to maintain Their Greatness Written by Father Paul of the SERVI To which is added the Life of the Author and the History of the Inquisition Books lately Printed for Richard Chiswell Dr. Burnets History of the Reformation of the Church of England in 2 Vol. Fol. A Collection of Sixteen several Tracts and Discourses Written in the Years from 1678 to 1685. inclusive by Gilbert Burnet D. D. To which are added A Letter written to Dr. Burnet giving an Account of Cardinal Pool's Secret Powers The History of the Powder-Treason with a Vindication of the Proceedings thereupon An Impartial Consideration of the Five Jesuits dying Speeches who were Executed for the Popish Plot 1679. 40. A Dissertation concerning the Government of the Ancient Church more particularly of the Encroachments of the Bishops of Rome upon other Sees By WILLIAM CAVE D. D. Octavo An Answer to Mr. Serjeant's Sure Footing in Christianity concerning the Rule of Faith With some other Discourses By WILLIAM FALKNER D. D. 40. A Vindication of the Ordinations of the Church of England in Answer to a Paper written by one of the Church of Rome to prove the Nullity of our Orders By GILBERT BVRNET D. D. Octavo An Abridgment of the History of the Reformation of the Church of England By GILB BVRNET D. D. Octavo The APOLOGY of the Church of England and an Epistle to one Signior Scipio a Venetian Gentleman concerning the Council of Trent Written both in Latin by the Right Reverend Father in God JOHN JEWEL Lord Bishop of Salisbury Made English by a Person of Quality To which is added The Life of the said Bishop Collected and written by the same Hand Octavo The Life of WILLIAM BEDEL D. D. Bishop of Kilmore in Ireland Together with Certain Letters which passed betwixt him and James Waddefworth a late Pensioner of the Holy Inquisition of Sevil in Matters of Religion concerning the General Motives to the Roman Obedience Octavo The Decree made at ROME the Second of March 1679. condemning some Opinions of the Jesuits and other Casuists Quarto A Discourse concerning the Necessity of Reformation with respect to the Errors and Corruptions of the Church of Rome Quarto First and Second Parts A Discourse concerning the Celebration of Divine Service in an Unknown Tongue Quarto A Papist not Misrepresented by Protestants Being a Reply to the Reflections upon the Answer to A Papist Misrepresented and Represented Quarto An Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England in the several Articles proposed by the late BISHOP of CONDOM in his Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholick Church Quarto A Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England against the Exceptions of Monsieur de Meaux late Bishop of Condom and his Vindicator 40. A CATECHISM explaining the Doctrine and Practices of the Church of Rome With an Answer thereunto By a Protestant of the Church of England 80. A Papist Represented and not Misrepresented being an Answer to the First Second Fifth and Sixth Sheets of the Second Part of the Papist Misrepresented and Represented and for a further Vindication of the CATECHISM truly representing the Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome Quarto The Lay-Christian's Obligation to read the Holy Scriptures Quarto The Plain Man's Reply to the Catholick Missionaries 240. An Answer to THREE PAPERS lately printed concerning the Authority of the Catholick Church in Matters of Faith and the Reformation of the Church of England Quarto A Vindication of the Answer to THREE PAPERS concerning the Unity and Authority of the Catholick Church and the Reformation of the Church of England Quarto Mr. Chillingworth's Book called The Religion of Protestants a safe way to Salvation made more generally useful by
Cardinal Bellarmin's Fourth Note of the Church were as true as we have proved it false And that it would then overthrow instead of establishing the Church of Rome's marvellous Pretence of being The True or Catholick Church THE END Pag. 80. lin 18. read ab omnibus LONDON Printed by J. D. for Richard Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1687. The Fifth Note of the CHURCH EXAMINED VIZ The Succession of Bishop Quinta Nota est Successio Episcoporum in Romanâ Ecclesiacirc ab Apostolis deducta usque ad nos Bellar. L. iv c. viii de Notis Ecclesiae IMPRIMATUR May 9. 1687. JO. BATTELY THE Disputers of the Roman Communion boasting in nothing so much as in the venerable Name of the Catholick Church using all means to appropriate it to themselves exclusivly to any others And it being the most popular Argument they flee to and with which they commonly begin and end all Debates We are concerned faithfully and plainly to examine their Title or Claim to so honourable a Denomination and the many vast Priviledges founded thereupon Among the Notes of the Church in Bellarmin their chief Champion the Fifth in order and it may be not the least Plausible in all his Number is this of the Succession of Bishops the Subject of this short Essay in which three Inquiries may be made 1. How far this Note may be necessary to any Church 2. How far this may be granted to the Roman Church 3. How insufficient a Proof it affords to them of any great Advantage by it In answer to the former Iniquiry 1. Concess 1. it may I presume be generally yielded That to the compleat Constitution of the Church it will be always needful that there be in it True and Lawful Pastors not only for the rightful Administration of God's Word and Sacraments but also for the due and orderly Government thereof and the Dispensation of wholsom Discipline to the Flock committed to their charge requiring all tender Care vigilant Inspection and indulgent Provision from Them And all cheerful and humble Submission and ready Subjection from These Requisites to any Society confirmed by many Precepts and Examples in Scripture We yield this Pastoral Power originally to be from Christ Concess 2. the Head of his Church the chief Bishop and Pastor of his Flock and by him immediately conveyed to the Apostles and from them derived by Imposition of Hands or Ordination to their Successors in the several Churches which they planted and so to be continued by a Regular Succession to the End of the World As may be proved by the several Directions in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus and Examples in the Acts of the Apostles and the following Practice of the Church in all Ages and Places of which we have any Records extant No Man taketh this Honour all himself Heb. 5.4 We grant farther Concess 3. that according to the best Evidence of Scripture-Rule or Example and the constant Practice of Christ's Church the Power of Ordination is entrusted with the Bishops the chief Governours thereof and ordinary Successors of the Apostles unto the End of the World. And we as readily embrace the Canonical Provision of the Constitutions under the name of the Apostles by St. Clemens or the Decree of the ever-renowned first Council of Nice That every Bishop be ordained by three Bishops or two at the least c. All most agreeable to the Doctrine and Practice of the Church of England Such is our Government and Succession not at all interrupted in the Reformation whatever Difficulties it struggled with elsewhere A signal Happiness for which we have Reason ever to bless God and not peevishly to endeavour by wilful schismatical Separations to deprive our selves of that Priviledge which may be the chief Eye-sore to our Adversaries and thereby to furnish them with new and better Arguments than ever yet they found against us If their Succession be good so is ours for sure it is not tyed to one place whether we derive it through them by Augustin the Monk though ordained in France or from or by the British Bishops who had been here several Ages before his Coming and by as Regular a Succession from Apostolical Times without any dependance as they profess or as far as we can find on the See or Bishop of Rome However it may be noted Observ 1. that though this Succession of Bishops be necessary to the compleat Constitution of the Church yet it may well be doubted whether it is indispensable to the very Being of it so as to unchurch every Place that wants these For Baptism alone gives us Admission into the Church and a Title to the Heavenly Inheritance upon the Performance of our Part of the Covenant And although this obliges all Christians to endeavour to provide themselves with lawful Pastors for their constant Supply in all the means of Grace and so to seek them abroad as far as they can where they have them not at home Yet in a supposed case where these may not be had or but upon conditions out of their Power to yield or in the mean time they who suppose Baptism to be valid though in case of necessity administred by any Christian nay according to their Catechism by Jew Infidel or Heretick if he but intend to do what the Church designs hereby must not presently unchurch any Place or exclude all Persons that want this full Provision of all needful Helps and Advantages though some of most immediate Divine Institution What Allowances God may make for great Necessities or almost invincible Difficulties and Prejudices where Men are not wilfully and obstinately wanting to themselves we cannot or must not determine It is not necessary that every Church which may firmly presume upon this lawful and orderly Succession even from the Apostles Observ 2. should be able to produce the Records of its Conveyance through every Age and in every single Person by whom it hath past Few Churches of of long continuance have been so happy as to preserve Authentick Registers of all their Transactions from their first Plantation which must not weaken their Authority or make doubtful the Effect of their Ministrations where no positive Evidence is brought to the contrary The Antients content themselves in delivering down to us the Succession of Bishops in the greater Sees and Mother-Cities not of Rome only but of Alexandria Antioch Jerusalem and others though Bellarmin insinuates the contrary here as is most apparent in Eusebius c. Answ to 3d Object The Eminence of their Place and Power the frequent Resort of other neighbouring Churches to them from whom they were generally derived or as Dependant on their Cities in Civil Administrations which the Ecclesiastical usually followed these and such like Reasons made them more the notice of all about them and their Successions more carefully recorded in Church-Writers Which possibly they might have then done in many of the lesser
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
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
omitting Personal Contests but inserting whatsoever concerns the common Cause of Protestants or defends the Church of England with an exact Table of Contents and an Addition of some genuine Pieces of Mr. Chillingworth's never before Printed viz. against the Infallibility of the Roman Church Transubstantiation Tradition c. And an Account of what moved the Author to turn Papist with his Confutation of the said Motives An Historical Treatise written by an AUTHOR of the Communion of the CHVRCH of ROME touching TRANSVBSTANTIATION Wherein is made appear That according to the Principles of THAT CHVRCH This Doctrine cannot be an Article of Faith. 40. The Protestant's Companion Or an Impartial Survey and Comparison of the Protestant Religion as by Law established with the main Doctrines of Popery Wherein is shewed that Popery is contrary to Scripture Primitive Fathers and Councils and that proved from Holy Writ the Writings of the Ancient Fathers for several hundred Years and the Confession of the most Learned Papists themselves 40. 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 S. 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. 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 Christ Now so far as Bellarmin's Notes belong to every true particular Church so far we allow them and let the Church of Rome make the best of them She can for we doubt not to make our claim to them as good and much better than hers but he has named very few such the 6th the Agreement and Consent in Doctrine with the Ancient and Apostolick Church and the 8th the Holiness of its Doctrine are the cheif if not the only Notes of this nature and these we will stand and fall by many of his other are not properly the Notes of a true Church any otherwise than as they are Testimonies of the truth of common Christianity which is professed by all true Churches and if they are Notes of the Church so every true particular Church has a share in them Such as his 9th the efficacy of Doctrine The 10th the Holiness of the lives of the first Authors and Fathers of our Religion and I suppose the Holiness of Christ and his Apostles give Testimony to the truth of common Christianity and therefore to all Churches who profess the common Faith once delivered to the Saints The 11th the Glory of Miracles which also proves the truth of Christian Religion and I hope a little better than Popish Miracles do Transubstantiation The 12th is the Spirit of Prophesy which as far as it is a good Note belongs to the Religion not to the Church Other Notes he assigns which I doubt will prove no Notes at all as 13 14 15. because they are not always true and at best uncertain His third and fourth Notes are not Notes of a Church but God's Promises made to his Church as of a long Duration that it shall never fail and Amplitude or Extent and multitude of Believers These Promises we believe God will fulfil to his Church but they can be no Notes which is the true Church For the first of these can never be a Note till the day of Judgment That Church which shall never be destroyed is the true Church but a bare long continuance is no Mark of a true Church for an Apostatical Church may continue by the patience and forbearance of God many hundred Years and be destroyed at last and then this Argument of a long Duration is confuted And as for Amplitude and Extent that is not to distinguish one Christian Church from another that the most numerous Church should be the truest but to distinguish the Christian Church from all other Religions and then I doubt this Prophecy has not received its just Accomplishment yet for tho we take in all the Christian Churches in the World and not exclude the greatest part of them as the Church of Rome does yet they bear but a small proportion to the rest of the World. And now there are but three of his fifteen Notes of the Church left The first concerning the Name Catholick which makes every Church a Catholick Church which will call it self so Tho Catholick does not declare what a Church is but in what Communion it is and is no Note of a true Church unless it be first proved that they are true Churches which are in Communion with each other For if three parts in four of all the Churches in the World were very corrupt and degenerate in Faith and Worship and were in one Communion this would be the most Catholick Communion as Catholick signifies the most general and universal but yet the fourth part which is sincere would be the best and truest Church and the Catholick Church as that signifies the Communion of all Orthodox and Pure Churches His first Note is the Succession of Bishops in the Church of Rome from the Apostles till now This is a Note of the Roman Church and the Succession of Bishops in the Greek Church is as good a Note of the Greek Church And any Churches which have been later planted who have Bishops in Succession from any of the Apostles or Apostolical Bishops by this Note are as good Churches as they So that this is a Note common to all true Churches and therefore can do the Church of Rome no Service His seventh Note indeed is home to his purpose That that is the only true Church which is united to the Bishop of Rome as to its Head. If he could prove this it must do his business without any other Notes but that will be examined hereafter But it is like the Confidence of a Jesuit to make that the Note of the Church which is the chief Subject of the Dispute The Sum is this There can be no Notes of a true Church but what belong to all true Churches for tho there is but one Catholick Church yet there are a great many true particular Churches which make up this Catholick Church as homogeneal Parts which have all the same Nature But now very few of the Cardinal's Notes belong to all true Churches and those which do so signifie nothing to his purpose because they are common to more Churches than the Church of Rome And as for the Catholick Church that is known only by particular Churches for it is nothing else but the Union of all true Churches in Faith and Worship and one Communion as far as distinct Churches at a great distance from each other are capable of it And therefore there is no other way to know which is the Catholick Church but by knowing all the true Churches in the World which either are in actual Communion with one another or are in a Disposition for it whenever occasion is offered For it is impossible that all true Christian Churches all the World over should ever joyn in any visible and external Acts of Communion and therefore tho we know and believe that there is a Catholick Church because we are assured that all true Churches in the World are but one Church the one Body and Spouse of Christ yet it is next to impossible to know all the Parts of the Catholick Church without which we cannot know the whole Catholick Church because we cannot know all the particular true Churches all the World over Nor indeed is there any need we should For we may certainly know which is a truly Catholick Church without knowing the whole Catholick Church For every Church which professes the true Catholick Faith and imposes only Catholick Terms of Communion and is ready out of the Principles of Brotherly Love and Charity that cement of Catholick Communion to communicate with all Churches and to receive all Churches to her Communion upon these Terms is a truly Catholick Church which shews how ridiculous it is to make the Catholick Church our first Inquiry and to pretend to give Notes to find out the true Catholick Church by before we know what a true Particular Church is But the Mystery of this will appear more in what follows 3dly For another Mystery of finding the true Church by Notes is to pick out of all the Christian Churches in the World
the extraordinary Direction and Assistance of the Holy Ghost indited and commended to the Care and keeping of all the Churches planted by them as a sure unerring Rule of Faith and Manners Call'd Catholick both as it contains all things in it necessary to Salvation and as it was to be preach'd and publish'd in all times and successively in all places According to Vincent Lirin Rule quod semper quod ubique quod ab omnibus creditum est It set out at Jerusalem but was not to stop there but from thence to spread it self into all parts of the World. The Apostles were first to preach to the lost Sheep of the House of Israel but not to them only Go teach all Nations was our Saviour's Commission to the Apostles and I will give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance and c. was God's promise to our Saviour The Christian Church was not to be confin'd within the Limits of one Nation like that of the Jews within the small Territories of Judaea but to be made up of every Kindred and Tongue and People and Nation Now in the first Ages of Christianity before the main Body of the Church was divided only some few misled and seduc'd People separating from it it being generally true that they that bore the Name of Catholick profest the true Catholick Faith and those that were called after the name of particular Men had deprav'd and corrupted it the very name Catholick became a distinguishing Note of a true Church and to be call'd after the Name of the Author of any Sect the Mark of an Heretical and Scismatical one but yet this was not so much for the Sake of the bare Names as for the things the Tenets and Doctrines signified by them In this Sense are all those Fathers to be understood quoted by Bellarmine and others who seem to lay any stress upon the Name 'T was upon the Account of the true Catholick Faith that in those times did for the most part if not every where accompany and go along with the Name Thus when St. Cyril of Jerusalem advis'd his Catechumens when they should go into any City Cap. 18. Catech. to enquire for the Catholick Church he gave this Reason for it because there the true Catholick Faith is taught and in the same place adds The Church is therefore call'd Catholick because it teaches all those Truths all Men are bound to know in order to Salvation and upon the same Account Pacianus not unfitly said Christian is my Name and Catholick my Sirname Epist ad Sym. pron de nom Cath. by the one I am distinguished from Heathens by the other from Hereticks and Scismaticks because in that Age few or none went by the Name of Catholick but those that were so indeed and profest the true Catholick Faith. And as this is a true Account of the Original of the Name Catholick and the weight that was laid upon it in those early Times so will the Name ever continue to be a sure unerring Note of the Catholick Church whilst it is inseparably conjoyn'd with the Profession of the Catholick Faith Where this is taught and profest there 's a true Church where this fails in part or in whole the Church decays or is lost II. No Argument can be drawn from the bare Name of Catholick to prove a Church to be Catholick This is so clear and evident in it self that it neither needs nor is scarce capable of a proof The Church of Rome is call'd Catholick therefore she is Catholick The Papists are call'd Catholicks therefore they are Catholicks This is such a way of Reasoning that every Man must be asham'd to own but those who have the confidence to say any thing when they are not able to say any thing to the Purpose For 1. The Christian Church was not known by the Name of Catholick at the beginning and therefore it can be no Essential Note of it We find no mention of this Name in the Writings of the New Testament We read That the Disciples were called Christians at Antioch but the name Catholick principally respecting the diffusive Nature of the Church the Church could not properly be so called till the Christian Faith had been more generally and universally preach'd in the World Therefore Pacianus in the fore-quoted Place confesses that the Name Catholick was not us'd in the Church in the Days of the Apostles and from thence some have concluded that the Creed which goes under the Apostles Name having this Denomination of the Church inserted in it Catholick Church was not compos'd by them but by some Holy Bishops of a later standing in the Church yet must it be confess'd that the Name is very ancient and of an early Date it being found in the Oriental Creeds particularly those of Jerusalem and Alexandria and in the Inscriptions of St. James St. Peter St. John and St. Jude's Epistles which are all styl'd General or Catholick Epistles 2. Names are oftentimes arbitrarily and at random and falsly impos'd on Things and therefore nothing can be concluded from them The Church of Sardis had a Name to live but was dead the Church of Laodicea gloried that she was rich but was poor many on Earth are call'd Gods who are but mortal Men Simon Magus was call'd the great Power of God but was a Child of the Devil Mahomet a great Prophet but was an Impostor Diana the great Goddess of the Ephesians but was an Idol our Blessed Saviour foretold that many should come in his Name each saying I am Christ but were Deceivers Thus you see Things and Persons are not always as they are call'd nor do I believe the Papists are willing that their Church should be thought in reality to be according to the signification of some Names that are too liberally bestow'd upon her the Bishop of Rome calls himself Christ's Vicar but others Antichrist the Church of Rome styles her self the Catholick Church but others the Whore of Babylon I do as little justify the fastening such odious Names upon them as approve their arrogating to themselves the other glorious Titles yet this I am pretty well assur'd of that a Man of ordinary Abilities may say as much to prove the Pope Antichrist and the Romish Church an Harlot as the whole Colledg can to justify the pretence of the one to be Christ's Vicar or of the other to be his undefiled Spouse 3. Names are oftentimes impos'd on things and so us'd as Marks of distinction only without any farther design of representing their Natures and Qualities by them thus we call the Romanists Catholicks not that we think they are truly so but in Complement or Irony in complyance with common use or by way of Discrimination from other Christians and in the same respects it may be suppos'd that they call us the Reform'd And if they think this is a good Argument to prove them Catholicks we have the same and 't will hold as strong to prove us
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
as necessary a part as that which was from the Beginning For the Church shall not continue to be as well as it hath been it 's not that Church which Duration is a Note of Again He hath passed by that other Property of his Duration viz. That it has been without Interruption For if the Church of Rome was from the Beginning and hath continued but not without Interruption it wants another Property of Duration which always was is and always will be and was and will and must be such without Interruption according to him § II. How far is Duration a Note of the true Church We grant that there shall always be a Church of Christ upon the Earth and that the Gates of Hell shall never finally prevail against it so as utterly to extinguish and destroy it And this we firmly believe because Christ hath promised and undertaken for it But though this is a Promise and may support the Church under the most doleful Circumstances yet it 's no Note by which the true Church is to be found out and distinguished from the false For besides that this Promise doth belong to the Existence of a Church and not to this or that Church 1. The Nature of the Thing will not permit that it should be a Note For a Promise respects the Time to come but a Note respects the Time present The Thing promised may become a Note when it is actually fulfill'd but till it be fulfill'd it can no more be a Note than the future Time is the present For what a Promise is to the future that is a Note to the present and doth suppose the actual existence of the Thing it is the Note of And thus it is in the present Case God hath promised that he will be with his Church and preserve it to the end of the World but being the period of that Duration is not to be accomplished till the end of the World the World must come to an end before we can know whether the Church pretending to Duration be the true Church Suppose we for once Bellarmin's Church to have continued as he saith for the Space of 1577 Years after our Saviour and that it could be proved to a Demonstration that it so long continued to be the same without Interruption yet the time past is no proof for the time to come and if the World should continue 1577 Years after his time and the Church nevertheless should expire before that Term the Term of 1577 Years past would no more answer this Character of perpetual Duration than if it had endured but seven for as he saith Duration doth contain in it all Times and excludes none And consequently if there was a Time or Case when that Duration was interrupted as I shall shew it was and a Time in which that Church shall cease to be before Time it self shall cease as it may for ought they can say against it then either their Church would not be the true Church or Duration not be the Note of the true Church For that Duration including all Times the future Time can be no more excluded than the Time past or present but since the future is uncapable of Proof the true Church cannot be proved by it nor can Duration be a Note of it I grant indeed that if Duration be a necessary Note of the true Church this may be a Note by which those Churches that once were but are now utterly extinguished may be concluded not the true Church but this Negative Argument will neither be able to shew which is the true Church when there are several pretend to the like Duration nor can be a Note of the true Church for the Reason before given viz. that it respecting the future Succession as well as the past it can be no Note till the time to come becomes present and the whole Period of it be accomplished 2. That cannot be a Note of the true Church which doth not inseparably belong to the Church in all Seasons and Cases for what is an essential Character of a thing belongs to that thing when-ever and where-ever it is And if there be any Season or Case in which that Note belongs not to it that can be no true Note of the thing As for instance the Church in one House or City immediately after our Saviour's Ascension was as much a Church from the first day it was so gathered and had all the Qualifications of a Church as it could have had it been the Church of Bellarmin and been existent 1577. And yet that Primitive Church so constituted wanted this Note of Duration for it then but began to be And if a Person had been to enquire for the true Church by this Character and Token and had been taught that that could be no Church which wanted it he must have gone from the Vpper Room to the Temple and have been not a Christian but a Jew So that we must conclude that either the Church at that time had not all the Marks necessarily belonging to the true Church and so indeed was no Church or else that Duration is not an inseparable Note of the true Church The former Inference is good because that which has not all the Marks essentially belonging to the thing cannot be the thing which they are the Marks of but if that Apostolical Church had all the Marks essentially belonging to a true Church and yet wanted at that time this Mark of Duration then Duration cannot be an essential Note of the true Church which was the second thing inferr'd 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 so Bellarmin saith cap. 2. But now this Note of Duration is common to other things as well as the Church to false Churches as well as the true and so cannot be an essential Mark of the true Church or a Note by which it 's distinguished and to be certainly known from the false Suppose we that a Person that has imbibed this Principle is in quest of the true Church and had been living when Luther appear'd and had before him the Nestorians and Eutychians the Armenians Egyptians and Ethiopians in the East the numerous Church of Greece c. which pretend to a Duration as good and sufficient as that of Rome and the last of which is acknowledged by the Bishop of Bitonto in the Council of Trent to be the Mother of the Latin Orat. Concil Trid. and to which the Latin Church owes what it hath How shall he be able to determine where he shall fix De Verb. Dei l. 2. c. ult For to say as Bellarmine doth that they are Hereticks or Schismaticks and that the Greek Church for Example was lawfully convicted of Heresie and Schism in three full Councils that is De Not. c. 9. §. dico 2do Councils of the Church of Rome will not make them not to
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
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
of Papists is very inconsiderable And besides Denmark Norway Sweden and the Vnited Provinces in all which 't is also the National Religion And besides Germany Switzerland Hungary Transilvania in which are abundance of Protestant Churches as there were lately in the Kingdom of France too and 't will never be forgot by what Methods they have been extirpated Besides all those Countries I say the Protestants have also their Churches in the New World no less without the mixture of Hereticks And these consist of other kind of Believers than those the Romanists boast of in that Quarter For whereas Surius and others have told prodigious Stories of incredible Numbers of them that have been baptized by particular Priests Acosta tho a Jesuit acknowledged that Many of them were driven to Baptism as Beasts to the Water De Procur Ind. Sal. l. 6. c. 3. Ovied Hist Ind. Occid l. 17. c. 4. Benzo Hist Nov. Orb. l. 2. c. 19. And Oviedo saith of Cuba That there was scarcely any one or but extremely few that willingly became Christians And both he and Benzo who were long conversant in those parts say of Cuba and New Spain That they had scarcely any thing belonging to Christianity besides the bare Name of Christians That they only minded the Name they received in Baptism and not long after forgot that too And the former of these makes this no matter of Wonder since he declares their Converters to be no better Christians than these Converts And excellently expostulates with them about the horrible Wickedness of their Lives telling them that would they give the poor Indians good Examples this Method would signify much more towards the making of them good Christians than that Course they took with them And the old Monsieur Arnaud in an Assembly at Paris scoffed at the Jesuits for the Conversion of the Indians calling it a brave warlike Conversion Conversionem bellam bellicosam and telling them that they had converted Gladium oris in os Gladii And whereas the Cardinal in the Words following those last cited makes this flourish that Rome hath Churches in all the four Parts of the World to the East in the Indies to the West in America to the North in Japan to the South in Brasil and the uttermost Part of Africa If his meaning was more than this That there is no Country in all those Parts but what hath Romanists in it it was to say no worse a mere Flourish If he meant no more than so we may dare to affirm as much concerning Protestants But it matters not much whether we can or no since there are infinite Numbers of Christians who though they bear not the Name of Protestants yet agree with them in not being Papists and as was said in all the great Points of the Christian Religion whether of Faith or Practice To pass by the Christians under the Patriarch of Mozall of whom Postellus saith Though they are but few in comparison of what they have been Cosmog p. 69. yet they are many more than us Latines To say nothing neither of the Armenian Christians falsely called Nestorians whose Catholick as they call their Patriarch Otho Frisingensis reports to have under his Obedience above a thousand Bishops See Brerewood 's Enquiries p. 211. last Edit from the Report of his Legats sent to Rome both which vast Bodies of Christians acknowledg no Subjection to the See of Rome I say to pass by these we need not instance in any besides the Greek Church for the foresaid Purpose Which hath had an uninterrupted Succession of Bishops from the Apostles and is of greater Antiquity than the Church of Rome and which hath produced more Fathers than that Church This Church is divided into many Nations as the Hyberians the People of Colchis now Mengrelia the Arabians Chaldaeans Aethiopians Aegyptians Moscovites Bulgarians Sclavonians Albanians Caramanians Walachians Moldavians Graecians c. And we may guess what a huge Disproportion there is in Largeness between all the Greek Churches and those Subject to the Church of Rome by this That the Countries in Europe and Asia which the Moscovites alone inhabit are computed to be near of as great an extent as all Europe besides The Greek Church hath Four Ancient Patriarchs the Constantinopolitan the Alexandrian the Antiochian and the Patriarch of Jerusalem And since the Patriarchate of Constantinople hath been under the Turkish Tyranny there hath been a Fifth Patriarch viz. of Mosco Cyril Patriarch of Alexandria and since of Constantinople Bellarmin's Contemporary saith of the Greek Church dispersed through the foresaid Nations that They are stedfast in the Faith of Christ Ep. 2. ad Vytenbogard inter Ep. praest Vir. p. 399. in Octavo That no Innovation in Matters of Faith is found among them and but only some difference in Ceremonies He acknowledgeth that some of those Nations are not free from Superstition but adds that without detriment of the Faith it is connived at because if can't be remedied in regard of many Difficulties But in those things which belong to the Essence of Faith Perseverantes sunt permanentes they are fixed and unalterable He also writes that Whereas the Oriental Churches seem to be Reproached for their Ignorance Ep. 1. ad eundem ibid. p. 369. Philosophy and other sorts of Learning being gone from thence into other parts since they have been opprest with many Miseries by reason of the Tyranny of the Turk yet they reap no small Advantage hereby because by this Means they are unacquainted with those Pestiferous Questions which at this time infect Mens Ears and with the new Monstrous Portentous Doctrines And 't is plain what Doctrines he chiefly meant He adds that They are content with incompta Fides a plain undrest Faith See the R nd Dean Stillingfleet's Defence of the Greek Church from the Romanists change of Heresy In his Learned Vindication of Arch-Bishop Laud. taught them by the Apostles and their Ancestors and herein they persevere even unto Blood That They keep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 integram the Faith entirely That They see themselves bereft of all their Substance their Children snatch'd from their Embraces and are continually brought into the greatest Tribulations yet it is not grievous to them to suffer these things for the Faith of Christ c. So that the Motto which Minutius Felix made for the Primitive Christians Non magna Loquimur sed Vivimus Great things are not so much Talk'd as Lived by us This Great Prelate whose Fidelity in this Account is unquestionable he being a Person of as fam'd Piety as Learning doth assure us is deserved by these Greek Christians But for all this They must all be doom'd to Hell Torments as effectually as the Church of Rome's Sentence can do it because they will not Truckle under Her and so be made subject to a double Bondage And thus have I sufficiently shewed That it would be for the Interest of the Reformed Churches that
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
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
next to the Bishop of Rome because that was New Rome †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Concil Constantinop Can. 3. so that it was the Imperial City of Rome which gave the Honour of being the first Bishop in the Church and not a Divine Institution or a Succession from St. Peter and when Constantinople by the Emperor's removing thither became the next great City the Bishop partook of the Honour of the City And in the Fourth General Council at Calcedon had for that Reason equal Priviledges conferred upon him with the Bishop of Old Rome ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Concil Calced Can. 28. as the Fathers expresly declare To which I shall add the famous Case of Appeals which was challenged about the Year 418 by Pope Zosimus over the African Church not by Divine Right but by a pretended Ecclesiastical Canon which was found afterwards to be forged and the Power of the Church of Rome to receive Appeals or to judg the Causes of other Churches was fully disowned and disclaimed * Concil Carthag 6. And this with the Exemption of the Churches of Milan Ravenna and Aquileia from the Jurisdiction of the Church of Rome tho they were so near Neighbours to it even in Italy it self is enough to give full Satisfaction to any reasonable Man what a different Opinion the Primitive Church had of the Church of Rome from what it now has of it self concerning an Universal Supremacy and of its being the Mother and Mistress of all Churches The next most peculiar Doctrine of Popery is Transubsiantiation which as it was formerly owned by Valentia (a) De Transub l. 2. c. 7. and Cusanus (b) Exercit. l. 6. Ser. 40. and a great many of the School-men Scotus Durandus and others (c) Vid. Pref. ad Johan Major not to have been the Doctrine of the Primitive Church so it has been lately proved at large by one of their own Communion (d) A Treatise written by an Author of the Church of Rome touching Transubstantiation tho if for that reason it may be thrown out from being an Article of Faith by the Members of the Roman Church they will leave but very few proper to themselves according to the Principle of that Gentleman to wit the making not the present but the Primitive Church a Rule of their Faith which if they will universally follow it will lead them quite out of the Roman Church as well as out of that single Error of it we have such excellent Treatises of late * See Discourse of Transubstantiation Transubstantiation no Doctrine of the Primitive Fathers The Doctrine of the Trinity and Transubstantiation compared 1. par about this which prove it beyond all Exception and beyond all Answer to be no Doctrine of the Primitive Church that I shall add nothing about it but only these two Observations First That it appears not by any Liturgy or Eucharistick Form that was ever used by the Church no not by the Roman Canon it self which is much ancienter than this Doctrine and therefore not so conformed to it That the Church ever used any Prayer to this purpose at the Eucharist that the Substance of the Sacramental Elements should be changed or done away and the Flesh and Blood of Christ substituted instead of them under the Species or Accidents but only that they might be made the Body and Blood of Christ by the Spirits coming down upon them so that it was only a Spiritual and Sacramental not a Substantial Change of them that was ever prayed for or ever believed for if the Church had always had this Faith it would surely have sometimes prayed in it Secondly I observe that in those Times when this Doctrine came first into the Church which was a little before Berengarius it was so new and raw that it was not fully digested nor perfectly understood even by those who then held it as appears by that blundering Recantation which was drawn up for him after the Examination of no less than three Popes and five Synods wherein he is made to say That after Consecration the true Body and Blood of Christ is not only Sacramentally but sensibly and truly handled and broke by the Hands of the Priests and ground by the Teeth of the Faithful †Post Consecrationem verum Corpus Sanguinem Christi sensualitèr non solùm Sacramento sed veritate manibus Sacerdotum tractari frangi fidelium dentibus atteri Grat. de Consec dist 2. cap. This sensible and true handling and breaking and grinding Christ's Body is so strange and dreadful a thing that the Glossator observes this upon it That unless you do understand these Word of Berengarius in a sound sense * Nisi sanè intelligas verba Berengarii in majorem incidas haeresin quam ipse babuit Glos Ib. that is contrary to what the Words signify and mean you will fall into a greater Heresy than that of Berengarius himself by which it appears that this Monster of Transubstantiation as a great Man ‖ Perrone See the excellent Preface to a Discourse on the Holy Eucharist in two great points of their own afterwards calls it was so unformed and mishapen a thing at that time that it was a sign it was then but new come into the World and had need of being farther licked into a better shape If Transubstantiation were then but new those other Doctrines which have issued from it and are its proper Production could not be old such as Adoration of the Sacrament Communion in one kind Solitary Masses and the Proper and Propitiatory Sacrifice of the Mass And therefore I shall not say any thing of them since their Date will be owned to be as late as that of Transubstantiation and tho they may not follow from it yet they cannot be maintained or believed without it so that what has been said against the one takes away the very Foundation of the other As to the Number of the Sacraments tho the Council of Trent has declared this to be exactly Seven and made it an Article of Faith to believe so yet no Man sure will have the confidence to say That this Number was determined by the Primitive Church when they can bring no Author who makes any mention of such a Number till 1100 Years after Christ and Bellarmin thinks it unreasonable we should require them to shew this either in the Scriptures or the Fathers †Non debere adversarios petere ut ostendamus in Scripturis au◠Patribus nomen Septenacii numeri Sacramentorum Bellar. de effect Sacram. l. 2. c. 24. tho if it be an Article of Faith which must be believed upon pain of Damnation there ought to be something to shew for it one would think out of one of them Was the Necessity of Auricular Confession a Doctrine of the Primitive Church when in the time of Peter Lombard he tells us * In his enim etiam docti
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
it was sometimes a Mark of an Orthodox and Catholick Christian to be joyn'd in Communion with the Roman Bishop therefore it must always be so and it can never happen that a Man should be united to the Church and disjoyn'd from the Pope Because St. Hierom referred himself to the Chair of Peter when Damasus sate in it therefore he would have done the same to his Predecessor Liberius after he had communicated with the Arians Of the same kind is the Argument from Optatus Finally because St. Augustin thought that Cecilian had reason to value his Communion with the Roman Church more than the multitude of his Enemies in as much as the Principality of an Apostolical Chair had always flourished there therefore the Bishop of Rome is Head of the Church As if there were no other Apostolical Chair besides that at Rome and as if the Communion of no other Church was to be esteemed when a Bishop meets with unreasonable Opposition but one that is by virtue of her Chair Mistress of all the Rest For what he says out of St. Augustin in Psal contra partem Donati it has had its Answer p. 107. Pope Leo indeed speaks a little more to the Purpose but without any Authority as being a Witness in his own Cause For it was but a few Years before that Zosimus Boniface and Celestin had set up a small pretence to an Universal Headship tho nothing was got by it but a notable Rebuke from the African Fathers whereof St. Augustin was one for introducing a worldly Pride into the Church But no wonder if those Popes that followed still kept their Eye upon that Power which their Predecessors could not as yet compass On the other side it appears by most unquestionable Evidence that the Primitive Fathers knew no greater necessity of being united to the Roman than to any other Catholick or Orthodox Bishop When Pope Victor took upon him to excommunicate the Asian Churches for not observing Easter as the Roman did they were so far from thinking a Union with him as their Head necessary to their being Members of the Catholick Church that they called a Synod of their own reprehended the Pope's Arrogance and resolved to adhere to their own Custom St. Cyprian Firmilian and the Africans did the like in opposition to Pope Stephen Apud Cypr. Ep. 75. p. 228. Ed. Oxon. Firmilian plainly telling him that while he thought to Excommunicate all them from himself he had but excommunicated himself from them In ancient Times there was no shadow of any such Headship in the Pope as of late Ages has been contended for He was treated with no other Titles of Respect than other Bishops were who were called Popes and Vicars of Christ no less than he as he was by them stiled their Colleague and Brother no less than they by him In respect of Presidency over particular Churches his Jurisdiction was confined as well as theirs in respect of the common Care of the whole Church each of them was deemed to have an Authority and a Trust no way inferiour to his All which our Adversaries do full well understand who are but a little conversant in St. Cyprian if they would but speak what they know But because St. Hierom's Complâ—mt to Damasus is insisted upon by the Cardinal let St. Hierom be heard speaking to this very Point so clearly that we cannot desire he should have been more express Where-ever saith he there is a Bishop whether at Rome Hier. ad Evagr. Ep. 85. or at Eugubium or Constantinople or Rhegium or Alexandria or Thanis he is of the same Worth and of the same Priesthood The advantage of Wealth and the disadvantage of Poverty does not make a Bishop to be higher or lower but they are all Successors of the Apostles To conclude this Point Popes have been anciently censured condemned and excommunicated when they were thought to have deserved it Julius was Excommunicated by the Eastern Bishops Sâ—â— Vindic. of Answ To some late Papers p. 6. c. Liberius Anathematized by St. Hilary Vigilius Excommunicated by the Africans Honorius Condemned by the VIth General Council Did these Fathers take the Pope for their Common Head and the Center of Catholick Union Some Popes have been Hereticks as the Romanists themselves cannot deny and therefore time has been when it was so far from being a Note of the Catholick Church to be united to the Pope that it was impossible so to be without separation from the Catholick Church But the Cardinal has a very notable Argument to prove the necessity of this Union viz. Experience since those Churches have withered away that are divided from this Head the Pope Witness the Asiatick and African Churches anciently famous for numerous Councils for learned and holy Men but since their Schism from the Roman Church reduced to obscurity and plunged into gross Ignorance To which it might be enough to answer That although where the Sin is flagrant and beyond controversy there the Calamity that befalls the Offender may without breach of Charity or impious Intrusion into the Councils of Providence be well deemed the effect of God's Justice Yet in a Dispute about Right and Truth to take advantage from the Afflictions of a Man or of a Church and to make them an Argument against the oppressed side is barbarously uncharitable and wicked and becomes none but those who care not by what means they come to their end But not to pry into the Secrets of Divine Providence Might it not have served the Cardinal's turn to assign the Afflictions and Ignorance of those Churches to the Irruptions of their Enemies upon them who at length prevailed and utterly destroyed some of them and to this day hold the rest in Slavery If this be not enough what if one should add that their not uniting themselves to the Pope was indeed one cause of their Misfortunes who had much rather see those ancient and glorious Churches laid wast by Infidels then saved by the united Arms of Christendom to make a vigorous Opposition to his claim of Supremacy However it is not more certain that they were once the most flourishing Churches in Christendom than that when they were so they did not acknowledg this Union to the Bishop of Rome as the Head of the Catholick Church nay that they opposed the Beginnings and Preparations to so unjust a claim and therefore their denying it at present can with no reason be alledged as the cause of their Distress One thing more we have to say to this doughty Argument that if it may be trusted how comes it to pass that we have a contrary experience in Churches nearer home which have not fallen into decay by separating from the Pope We are apt to think that from the Reformation to this day there have been as many Persons eminent both for Piety and Learning in the Church of England as any Age ever produced in any Nation That we are not sunk into gross
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
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
Paul as we read Acts 13.45 and Act. 28.24 c. After Christianity had for above 300 Years been strugling to get ground in the World how strangely did Arianism on the sudden prevail against it One would have thought that after People had for some time been confirmed in the Truth they should not have been easily tempted to embrace so gross an Error But yet such was the Efficacy of this Heresy that as Theodoret relates the Emperour Constantius in a Discourse with Liberius Bishop of Rome urgeth it as an Argument against his Intercession on behalf of Athanasius Pray saith he how big a part of the World are you Theod. lib. 2. Hist Eccl. c. 16. that you alone pretend to stand up for a wicked Man so he called Athanasius and to disturb the Peace of the whole World Which the Bishop was so far from thinking a good Argument that he immediately replied The true Faith loseth nothing by my being alone for there were formerly but three found who resisted the King's Commandment Dan. 3.18 Neither did the same Heresy prevail only at home amongst the Orthodox Christians but was likewise victorious abroad amongst the Idolatrous Nations of which the same Author gives us a notable Instance when he tells us that one Vlphilas a Bishop of great Authority amongst the Goths Theod. lib. 3. c. ult being corrupted by Eudoxius perswaded that whole Nation to embrace it About 300 Years after so general a defection from the true Faith by Arianism the Impostor Mahomet arose Paulus Aemyl l. 2. de gestis Francorum Calvis Chronol ab Ann. 631 ad An. 718. whose Doctrine in the space of an hundred Years over-run a great part both of the East and South and did continue so far to prevail that when Brerewood made the Computation of such as had received it he reckons them to be six parts of thirty into which he supposeth Brerewood's Inquiries c. 14. the whole World to be divided whereas he allots but five parts to the whole number of Christians of what denomination soever As to this Particular the Cardinal urgeth that Mahumetanism is propagated by Force of Arms and not by the Efficacy of its Doctrine In answer to which Assertion besides that the World is not ignorant how little reason the Cardinal had to make this Objection and that Mahomet must have first converted those by his Doctrine whom he afterwards made use of to convert others by Force I shall set down this remarkable Instance whereby it will manifestly appear how much the Mahometan Missionaries even without the assistance of any outward Force may sometimes prove too hard for the Roman Ones Bati King of the Tartars having wasted the Christian Territories returns into Scythia leaving all Europe in a great Consternation Pope Innocent the 4th in the Year 1246 from the Council of Lions sends a company of Religious Men a long Journey to him to exhort him to worship the one living and true God and his only Son Jesus Christ the Saviour of the World and to abstain from shedding Christian Blood. When the Tartar had heard the Pope's Request he promised for five Years not to trouble the Christians Laur. Surii Comment p. 25. But as soon as the Pope's Messengers were gone some Saracens came exhorting the Tartars to embrace the Mahometan Sect rather than Christianity and what they said had such Effect especially upon the Emperour that they embrac'd Mahometanism and keep to it still In this case the two Doctrines had very fair play for the Tartars were prejudic'd on neither side neither could any Force be made use of to compel them to receive one Doctrine more than the other If either had the advantage it was that of the Romish Church for that had got the start but was soon wholly rejected and the other has ever since been embraced Were not those Instances which I have mention'd sufficient to shew what little Judgment can be made of the Truth of any Church from the Reception which its Doctrine has met with in the World I might here add the Conversions wrought by those of the Greek Church whom the Church of Rome accounts Hereticks Frumentius sent by Athanasius converted the Indians Moyses an Alexandrian Monk the Saracens And concerning the Conversion of the Moscovites Paulus Jovius thus speaks Above five hundred Years since says he De Legatione Moscovit the Moscovites worship'd the Heathen Gods Jupiter c. but then were they first initiated in the Christian Rites when the Greek Bishops out of an inconstant temper began to dissent from the Latin Church and it so happened that the Moscovites in the same sense and with a most hearty Belief followed those Religions Rites which they had received from their Greek Teachers I might likewise make mention of the great Efficacy of the Reformed Doctrine which in the space of fifty Years when Bishop Jewel set out the Defence of his Apology notwithstanding the great Opposition which had been made against it had over-run whole Nations Defence of Apol. p. 36. and mightily prevailed even in those Kingdoms where the Princes and Governours were still Popish The distinction which Bellarmin makes that Hereticks do not convert Men to the true Faith Bill de Not. l. 4. c. 12. and that the Goths were cheated into Arianism That they pervert Catholicks is nothing to the purpose For if by Hereticks Men may be converted or cheated into what is false if Catholicks may be so easily perverted then the Effect which any Doctrine has upon Mens Minds can be no Note of their being Members of a true Church who profess it If the Doctrine which they who are converted have received be a true Doctrine this indeed is a good Note of a true Church and we are willing to stand and fall by it but their bare Conversion is no Note at all because as to its being received or not received Error has had the same fate in the World as Truth it self has had And of this the Cardinal himself was enough sensible who having forgot what he had made to be the ninth Note of the Church does repeat in an Oration at the end of his Controversies this Objection of the Reformists How is it possible say they that that Doctrine should not be from God Orat. in Scholis habita edit In. 8o. Ingolst 1593. which in so short time has over-run so many People Provinces and Kingdoms And then makes this Answer If it be lawful to philosophise after this manner we shall have much more reason to wonder why the Alcoran of Mahomet in so great a part of the World has so easily prevailed Having thus in the general shewn that Efficacy of Doctrine can be no Note of a true Church it necessarily follows that the Efficacy of the Doctrine professed in the Church of Rome can be no Note of its being so But yet that I may further shew what little reason that Church of all
was to be understood the visible Prevalency of any Doctrine in the World yet it would make nothing to the Cardinal's purpose For that which in these SS is said to prevail is The Word of God The Law of the Lord i. e. the true Doctrine But we deny the Doctrine of the Church of Rome to be such and therefore these places are not applicable thereunto 4. Were these SS applicable to the Church of Rome as having that true Doctrine which is oftentimes so efficacious yet the Efficacy here expressed could be no Note of the true Church since altho as has already been shewn the true Doctrine does sometimes prevail yet it does not follow that it always should For it may be perverted it may be resisted and Error may meet with a much kinder Reception in the World than it does As for what Bellarmine saith in the second place concerning the Prevalency of the Christian Doctrine in the beginning of the Church we allow it all to be true but we do not think the Church of Rome to be more concerned in it than any other Christian Church whatsoever What then happened does very much confirm the Christian Doctrine in the general but does not at all prove any particular party of Christians to be better than another much less the Church of Rome whose Doctrine altho it was once the same with the Doctrine of the Primitive Church yet what it was in the Cardinal's days and what it is now is quite another thing from what it was then The Primitive Christians converted the Heathens from their Idolatry to worship the true God but the great design of the Catholick Missionaries is to render their Proselytes intirely submissive to the Pope of Rome in all things I might here conclude did not the Cardinal much insist upon the particular Conversions wrought by those of the Church of Rome upon some of which in the third place I shall make some brief Reflections Now as to the Conversion of the English by Augustin the Monk it may be replied 1. That the Centurists out of whom he quotes this and the other Instances do expresly say that Augustin eas Ecclesias magis deformavit quam recte instituit Cent. 6. c. 2. p. 37. 2. That this was not such a general Conversion as seems to be pretended for as has been lately cleared by a very learned Man the Faith was here planted during the Apostles times Dr. Still Origin Britan. c. 1. and in all probability by St. Paul rather than by St. Peter or any one else Besides Bede gives us an account of Germanus Bed. l. 1. c. 17 21. Lupus and Severus coming over hither to reclaim the Britains from the Heresie of Pelagius several Years before the arrival of Augustin Lib. 2. c. 2. Origin Britan. c. 5. p. 357. and that at his coming over several British Bishops met him at Augustinsac and stoutly refused all Submission either to the Church of Rome or to him Lastly altho he might be very instrumental towards the Conversion of the Saxons in Kent yet was he even in that Affair mightily assisted by the Authority of a Christian Queen named Bertha Bed. l. 1. c. 25. and a Christian Bishop named Luidhardus 3 That the Doctrine which Augustin taught Vindicat. of the Answer of some late Papers p. 72 c. being the Doctrine of Gregory the Great is vastly different from what has been since taught in the Church of Rome 4. That Augustin's proud carriage towards the British Bishops and the death of 1200 Monks of Bangor occasioned by their denial of Subjection unto him Bed. l. 2. c. 2. do sufficiently shew of what Temper he was Galfridus Monumet Hist Brit. l. 11. c. 12. 13. and that he thought it lawful to make use of other means besides the Efficacy of his Doctrine to promote what he was sent hither by the Pope about The next Mission which the Cardinal makes mention of is that of Kilianus by Pope Conon who converted the People of Franconia whose chief City was Herbipolis or Wirtzburg Now the account that the Centuriators give of this Kilianus and which makes him not to have had that success in the Conversion of People as is pretended is this viz. That being a Monk and by Nation a Scotish-man Centur. Magdeb Cent. 7. p. 516. and not being able to do any good amongst his own Country-men with his preaching up of new Rites and Ceremonies he passed over into Germany to see what he could do there and finding that at Wirtzburg the Governour Gosbertus gave him but little Encouragement he being one who as those Historians relate did abhor those Popish Ceremonies which Kilianus taught he went to Rome and got the Pope to make him Bishop of that City hoping that at his return thither with greater Authority he should be better received but was soon slain by his own Auditors The third Instance is the Conversion of a great part of Germany by Vinofrid otherwise called Boniface who seem'd a little to mistrust the Efficacy of his Doctrine when he thus wrote Bonif. Ep. 3. That without the Command and Awe of the Prince of the Francks he could not be able to hinder the Pagan Rites and Idol-Sacrileges in Germany and as the Centuriators tell us entred the Country of the Thuringi with an Army Cent. 8. p. 21 22. forcing them to take Refuge in a fortified place and when upon no other terms they were willing to turn Christians but upon their being freed from paying Tenths for the future to the King of Hungary gratified them therein Of the Conversion of the Vandals which he ascribes to the Monks of Corbie hear the account that Albertus Krantzius gives The Vandals says he were a Nation singularly given to the Superstitious Worship of their Idols Lib. 1. c. 1. till by the Arms of the King of Denmark by Sea by those of the Pomeranian on the East and those of other Christian Princes on the South they were forced to become Christian As to the Conversion or the Danes Saxo Gram. Hist Dan. l. 9. p. 158. we are told that Harald being beaten by Regner and having no other hopes Alb. Krantzii Metrop l. 1. c. 19. fled for help to Ludovicus the Emperour then at Mentz who refused to assist him upon any other condition than that of his turning Christian which he and his People accordingly did And as for the Bulgarians Sclavonians c. besides that they were converted by their Neighbour Greeks as well as Italians especially the Bulgarians whose disturbance from some Western Missionaries Photius passionately laments it is not a sign that they were made so subject to the Popes of Rome Ep. 2. as is pretended since as the Centuriators tell us when Pope Nicholas would have obliged the Sclavonians and Polonians Cent. 9. c. 2. col 18. whom Cyrillus and Methodius who converted them had taught to have their publick Service
beginning the Christians at Rome were famous both for their Faith and Manners And no Man that I know of asperseth Linus the first Bishop there who as Platina saith had a mighty Reputation for Sanctity and dy'd a glorious Martyr under Saturninus the Consul But the like may be alledged in favour of the mother-Mother-Church of Hierusalem and of St. James the Bishop of it In the mean while it may be noted that in Rome it being the Imperial City there was a very early affectation of such Superiority as Christ forbad in his Kingdom And St. Hierom at the same time (i) S. Hieron Epist ad Marcellan p. 127. that he takes notice of the right Faith of Rome for then it was contain'd within the limits of the Apostles Creed he reproves that Ambition which had seated it self in Purple on the Seven Hills And this Leaven had before that time swell'd the Contentious Popes Victor and Stephen Secondly It must be further acknowledged that in the later Ages there have been Men of that Communion devoutly inclin'd and of good Morals But this Effect has not had Popery for its Cause but has been derived from Principles common to all Christians And it is from the influence of the first twelve Articles and not of the Additional ones of Trent that such Men have been so pious and so free from blemish In this number are usually put Thaulerus and Savanarola And it appears by their Words that mere Romanism was not the Spring from which their Devotions flow'd There (k) Thauler in Fest de uno aliquo Confess Luc. 11. be many saith Thaulerus who go under the Name of Religious who take great pains in Set-Fasts Vigils Orizons and frequent Confessions For they believe they may be justify'd and sav'd merely by such external Works For Savanarola his Spirit may be discerned by such Discourse as this (l) Compend Revelat. Savan p. 272 273. I never was delighted with such Books as the Revelations of St. Brigid or Abbot Joachim I never read the former and the latter very sparingly The reading of the Old and New Testament pleaseth me so much that for many Years I have used no other Book disgusting as I may say other Writings Not that I despise them but that in comparison of the Scriptures all such sweet things taste to me as bitter Neither Thirdly Have the Reformed so much of the Pharisee as to justify themselves and say that in all their Field there has not been a Tare But the Men have been in fault and not the Cause God be merciful to us Sinners greater Sinners than some others upon one account inasmuch as we offend against clearer Light. Yet it may be here noted that Bellarmin has put into his Catalogue of Sinners Simon Magus Valentine Marcion Montanus and such others as do not at all belong to us and that He and other Romanists mis-represent Luther blackning of him with slanderous Art and then exposing him as a perfect Aethiopian He was indeed a Man of warm Temper and uncourtly Language But besides that he had his Education among Those who so vehemently revil'd him it may be consider'd whether in passing through so very rough a Sea it was not next to impossible for him not to beat the insulting Waves till they foam'd again He had his Infirmities but his are taken notice of whilst more Candour is shew'd to Men of great Name and well nigh equal Heat To omit the fierce Words which pass'd betwixt St. Chrysostom and Epiphanius St. Hierom and Ruffinus it is manifest that Lucifer Bishop of Calaris in Sardinia who was much esteem'd by Pope Liberius and who is called Holy Lucifer according to the style of the time in which he lived wrote Books against his own Emperor Constantius which were one entire Invective And when for instance sake he pleas'd to call him Most Impudent Emperor (m) Luc. Calar Ad Constant pro S. Athan. p. 25. l. 1. Responde Imperator Impudentissime p. 39. Filius Pestilentiae c. p. 102. Qui sis non solum mendax sed Homicida I suppose he had not a better Talent than Luther in the Address of Courts There was therefore something else which sharpned the Tongues and Pens of many against Luther Erasmus tells us That (n) Erasm Ep. ad Albert. Episc Princ. Mogunt Cardin. p. 584 585. he perceiv'd the better any Man was the more he relish'd the Writings of Luther That his very Enemies allow'd him to be a Man of good Life That he seem'd to him to have in his Breast certain eminent Evangelical Sparks That 't was plain that some condemn'd those things in Luther's Writings which in St. Austin's and St. Bernard's Works pass'd for Orthodox and Pious The same Erasmus pointed to the true reasons of this usage of Luther (o) Carion in Cron. Auct a Peuc l. 5. He said he had two Faults He touch'd the Monks Bellies and the Popes Crown There have been much worse Men than Luther in all Parties and particularly in the Roman Church which if Inquisition were made for a Society by the Marks of Holy Life would not above all others be taken hold of And First Thus much may appear from the Complaints of Corruption in the Latin Church made in so many places by so many considerable Persons and with such deep Resentment Many Books have been professedly written upon that Subject such as those of Clemangis of the corrupt state of the Church of Alvarez Pelagius of the Plainct of the Church of Picus Mirandula concerning the Reformation of the Church offer'd to the Fathers of the Council of Lateran and of Petrus de Aliaco Cardinal of Cambray presented by him in the Council of Constance Others have in particular places tho not in an entire work given vent to their Grievances upon the like occasion How black are the Characters which are given of the State of the Latin Church by Baronius (p) Baron Annal. ad Ann. 900. p. 650. ad Ann. 912. N. 8. p. 685. N. 14. p. 689. Ed. Col. by Bellarmin (q) Bellarm. Chronol Ad Ann. 1026. p. 93. de Sacram. l. 1. c. 8. de Gemit Columbae p. 192 208. 209 392. by Genebrard (r) Genebr Chronol Ad Ann. 901. About the Year 900 and so forwards for more than an hundred Years Baronius speaks of Monsters intruded into the Holy See and by the help of Monsters For such were John the Tenth and Theodora who advanc'd him Bellarmin represents the Popes of those Times as degenerating from the Piety of their Predecessors of which some had no very great share And he says that in the West and almost all the World over and especially amongst those who were called the Faithful Faith had failed and that there was no fear of God among them He mentions the Vision of Pachomius the Abbot who it seems saw Monasteries increasing and Piety decreasing And he applys the Vision to his Age and upon that
Obadiah hid an hundred of them There were some False Prophets amongst the Jews were all the Jewish Prophets therefore deceived when they pretended to foretell any thing We find that God charged the Prophets of Hierusalem no less than those of Samaria with Imposture with running before they were sent Jerem. xxiii 14 21 25 c. and prophesying when God had not spoken to them and with prophesying Lyes in his Name and a great deal more to this purpose Therefore by the Cardinal's Logick it appears by the False Prophets in the Old Testament that Catholicks are deceived as often as they would foretell any thing To conclude this Matter since the Cardinal seemed to take a particular delight in proving his Notes of the Church out of the Old Testament I shall leave this one Argument out of the Old Testament against his present Note of Prophetick Light. To make it a Note of the Church it is necessary that there should have been no True Prophecy but in the Church which is notoriously False because Balaam who was but a Heathen Diviner prophesied truly of Christ It is necessary also that this Gift should always have continued in the Church which is alike False because there was no Prophet amongst the Jews between Malachi and Zachary the Father of John the Baptist that is for about 400 Years together And thus much concerning the first Inquiry Whether Prophetick Light be a Note of the Church I come now to the Second II. If it be such a Note Whether the Cardinal hath sufficiently proved that they of the Roman Church have it and no others He pretends to prove that there have been Prophets in the Catholick Church which no Body denies But you must know that the Catholick Church is a Term of Art which these Masters to the Abuse of Names and Words as well as of Things and Persons are resolved shall signify the Roman Church Well let the Roman Church be their Catholick Church with us 't is but the Roman And now that we understand one another How does he prove that there have been Prophets amongst them Why he produces the Prophets of the Old Testament and those that prophesied for 500 Years after Christ Agabus for Instance who is mentioned in the Acts chap. 11 c. Now by this I perceive that it was warily done of the Cardinal and not in course to call his Church the Catholick Church for if he had produced the Prophets of the Old Testament and Agabus with the Prophets of the New to prove that the Roman Church has had Prophets it had look'd so simply that the Cardinal himself could not have born it But this is one of their old Fetches that when they would get any Credit by the Prophets and the Apostles they call themselves the Catholick Church and then because the Prophets and Apostles belonged to the Catholick Church they must belong to them and to no Christians of any Communion but theirs But how I pray comes it to pass that we have less Interest in the Prophets the Apostles and the Primitive Christians than the Roman Church has nay that we have none and they have all One thing I am sure of that if our Doctrines and theirs be severally compared with the Writings of those Renowned Antients it will not be hard to say who are their Children they or we and that they are our Predecessors and Parents and not theirs in all those Points wherein we differ from them And therefore since 't is in behalf of those particulars wherein we have left the Church of Rome that the Prophetic Light of the Old and New Testament is produced as an Argument that the Roman Church has had Prophets we have some reason to think that the Cardinal by producing the Prophets of both Testaments in this Cause has given us a terrible Weapon against himself and by their Prophetick Light discovered that if the Roman Church and ours cannot be parts of the same Church then we who have the Prophets and Apostles with us in the Doctrine we maintain are a True Church exclusively to them and not they to us In the next place we are told of Gregory Thaumaturgus and Anthony and John the Anchoret whose Predictions are related by St. Basil Athanasius and Austin Now Gregory was Bishop of Caesarea Anthony an Aegyptian Monk and John an Anchoret in a certain Wilderness of Aegypt But how all this proves that there have been Prophets in the Roman Church is never to be made out otherwise than by supposing the Greek and the Aegyptian Churches to signify the Roman Church by the same Figure that the Catholick Church and that of Rome are all one The express Testimonies he brings are concerning St. Benedict St. Bernard and St. Francis. St. Benedict told Totila that he should reign nine Years and dye the Tenth which as Gregory saith happened accordingly St. Bernard foretold the Conversion of four unlikely Persons And which was very admirable as Bellarmin affirms when he was desired to pray for the Conversion of a certain Nobleman Fear not says he I shall bury him a perfect Monk in this very place of Claravall Upon which the Cardinal cries out How many Prophecies are there in this one Sentence For that he should one Day be a Monk and persevere therein to the Death and end his Days in a holy sort and that before St. Bernard 's Death and this in Claravall and that he should be buried by St. Bernard 's own Hands are six distinct Prophecies and all of them not without God's singular Providence fulfilled As for St. Francis He admonished the Generals of the Christian Army not to fight upon such a Day with the Saracens for God had revealed to him that upon that Day they would be beaten But they contemning the Admonition of Blessed Francis fought and were overthrown with a miserable Slaughter And many more things of the same kind the Cardinal assures us might be added And if he had none of a better kind than these he ought to have produced his many more and at least given us Number for Weight Now tho I could very willingly give him all his three Stories yet I am loth to be thought so silly as to take every thing of this kind for Gospel which we are told by Bonaventure that wrote the Life of St. Francis or by Gofrid that wrote that part of St. Bernard's Life where the Cardinal finds him a Prophet no nor by Gregory himself in the second Book of his Dialogues concerning the Life and Miracles of Benedict the Abbot The Story of the Blackbird that went off with the Sign of the Cross Dial. lib. 2. cap. 2.4 and that other of the little Black-Boy invisible to all till Benedict saw him that drew away the idle Monk from his Prayers with many more such rank Fables as these are do plainly shew that Pope Gregory had Credulity enough to have lived in the Age of Gofrid or in that which next
's making Jesus Christ the Head of the Church never made it one So far was he from making this a Note of the true Church that he rather makes it a Sign of the contrary Luk. 6.26 Wo unto you says he when all Men shall speak well of you for so did their Fathers to the false Prophets Mat. 5.11 Our Lord calls them Blessed and certainly he speaks not of them that were out of the true Church that are reviled and have all manner of Evil said against them Luk. 6.22 23. He pronounceth them Blessed who are reproached and whose Name is cast out as Evil he bids them rejoyce in that day and be exceeding glad St. Peter reckons the Reproaches for the Name of Christ a Glory and Happiness 1 Pet. 4.14 And Simeon foretold of Jesus that he was set for a Sign which shall be spoken against Luk. 2.34 And we preach Christ crucified 1 Cor. 1.23 unto the Jews a Stumbling-block and unto the Greeks Foolishness says the great Apostle of the Gentiles So far is this Confession of Adversaries from being a Note of a true Church as the Cardinal would make it that the Reproaches and Scoffs of Enemies is no Reflection upon the true Church of Christ The worst of Men do not use to treat the best things well and when these bad Men are Enemies they do no Prejudice with wise Men by their Invectives and Reproaches Qui enim scit illum intelligere potest non nisi aliquid bonum grande à Nerone damnatum Tertull. Apol. Tertullian concludes the Christian Religion good because Nero one of the worst of Men bent his Force against it The Church will want nothing that is required though Jews and Pagans should with one Consent perpetually declaim against her In a word this Confession of Adversaries of what use soever it may be can be no Note for it is contingent and arbitrary and lies at the pleasure of those who are not only out of the Church but Enemies to it and in the Infancy of Christianity the Church was without this Note and if that be allowed to be a true Church this can be no true Note of it II. But if it should be granted that this is a true Note the next Enquiry will be whether or not the Particulars produced by the Cardinal do evince that this Note is peculiar to the Roman Church exclusively to other Christians that are not of her Communion 'T is certain that by the true Church the Notes whereof the Cardinal attempts to give us he means only the Church of Rome V. C. vi C. ix C. xi And what in the Beginning of his Book he calls the true Church he calls afterwards our Church and makes them both one and the same At last it comes to our Catholick Church with him So that this Note of his which he calls the Confession of Enemies must belong peculiarly to the Roman Church or else 't will do him no Service For this is a Rule which the Cardinal hath laid down C. II. that Notes must be proper and not common For says he if I would describe a certain Man to one who knows him not I must not say he is one that hath two Eyes and Hands c. because these are common things and he will never find him by such common Descriptions as these According to this Account we may justly expect that when the Cardinal produceth the Confession of Adversaries in behalf of the Church he should produce Witnesses who speak of that very Church of which he makes this Confession a Note else these Witnesses prove nothing to his purpose If they should chance only to speak some favourable words of Christianity or of some few Christians this will be short of what they are produced for in this Place And what ever good use may be made of their Confession yet 't will not belong peculiarly to the Church of Rome They must speak to the Church of Rome and in her behalf or else the Cardinal had better have spared them They 'l do him no service if they do not make good his Note and that cannot be done if they witness not in behalf of the Roman Church 'T is time now to call the Witnesses and hear what they have to say in behalf of the Church of Rome And here not to invert that Order which the Cardinal hath taken we will begin with the Pagans and see what they have to say in behalf of the Church of Rome The Cardinal begins with Pliny the Second He in his Epistle to the Emperor Trajan gives this Testimony in behalf of Christians viz. that they detested all Vices lived most holily and were blamable on this account only that they were too forward to part with their Lives for their God and they rose up before day to sing praises to Christ But what is all this to the Church of Rome especially as it is now constituted and distinguished from other Christians which are not of her Communion and do not own themselves subject to the Bishop of that Church He speaks well of Christians and we allow that those of the Church of Rome at that time were such We have no quarrel with the Christians of the Roman Church who lived in the days of Trajan Pliny speaks well of them He does so indeed But what does he say Does he say that they worshipped Images or that they adored the Host That they prayed to Saints and made use of several Intercessors That they deserved Favour because they came so near the Pagans in these things He says no such thing He tells us that they lived well and detested Vices that they sang praises to Jesus and were willing to die for God. Did we ever find fault with any of the Church of Rome for their good Lives or the Hymns of Praise which they sing to Christ Have we ever quarrelled with them for detesting Vices or exposing their Lives for the Honour of the true God He commends the Christians that lived then but not for any thing which they either believed or practised which is now a matter of Controversy between us and the present Church of Rome Pliny commends the ancient Christians Be it so Why must this be restrained to the Church of Rome Were there no Christians but what were in Communion with and were subject to the Roman Church He commends the Christians of that Time But will this justify them who afterwards shall call themselves by that Name He commends them for their good Lives their Love to God and Gratitude to their Saviour Will this justify the present Church of Rome Will it serve to defend the Worship of Images or Prayers to the Blessed Virgin and Invocation of Saints Does it appear that there were no Christians in the World but those of the Church of Rome and that that Church was then what it is now What the Cardinal produceth afterwards hath no greater Force than
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
Constance and Trent that 't was the ancient Practice For the Doctrine of Transubstantiation See a Treatise of Transubstantiation by one in the Communion of the Church of Rome Printed 1687. one of the Communion of the Church of Rome hath given us an Account lately he proves from many Doctors of the Church of Rome that it is not ancient viz. from Peter Lombard from Suarez Scotus the Bishop of Cambray Cardinal Cusanus Erasmus Alphonsus à Castro Tonstall and Cassander And that 't is not taught in the holy Scriptures he proves from the Testimonies of Scotus Ockam Gabriel Biel and Cardinal Cajetan and after all that it was not the Doctrine of the Fathers of the Church It would have been very fit I should here have made an end having considered every thing which the Cardinal hath offered as to this Note of the Church But there is a late Writer I will not call him Author hath taken the Confidence to produce the Testimony of the Jewish Writers in behalf of the Church of Rome Mr. Sclater's Consenf Vet. and which is most surprising of all he quotes the Rabbins in Defence of the Doctrine of Transubstantiation which they are as far from asserting as he is from understanding them The Cardinal was too learned and modest to attempt any thing of this Nature but this Gentleman advanceth higher than he thought fit to do What he offers speaks nothing so lowdly as the Writers Effrontery and Ignorance not to say something worse Tho he thought fit to desert his Mother the Church of England yet it little became him to fly in her Face and suborn a Rout of Jews against her His Discourse is so weak that I shall bestow very little time and pains about it I shall however say something to it that he may not think any Part of his Pamphlet unanswered and do heartily wish him Repentance for his Folly and that he may learn Modesty for the future And for my better proceeding in this matter I shall do these things First I will briefly shew the true use and value of the Testimony of Jews as to the Christian Religion Secondly I shall shew the gross Ignorance not to say Dishonesty of this Writer in this Matter Thirdly I shall prove that the Jewish Writers are so far from serving the Church of Rome that they bear witness against it and that also in this very matter of Transubstantiation First I shall consider how far the Testimony of the Jews is useful to Christianity And several such there are that serve the common Christianity 1. The Jews as to matter of Fact confess that there was such a Man as Jesus that he wrought wonderful Works They do in their Talmud and elsewhere mention several of those Names which are mentioned in the New Testament and are there mentioned to have been at the same time in which they are placed there This is an useful Testimony and serves the common Christianity and saves us the labour in our Books against the Jews of proving these Matters of Fact. 2. They are also good Witnesses as to the Number of the Canonical Books of the Old Testament which were deposited in their Hands This is owned by Cardinal Cajetan who affirms that this is one Advantage we receive from the Obstinacy of the Jews Cajetan in Rom. xi v. 11. that tho they believe not in Christ themselves yet they approve the Books of the Old Testament and therefore those Books cannot be supposed to have been invented by the Christians to have served their turn This Testimony of theirs serves indeed the common Christianity but is so far from serving the Church of Rome that it is a good Evidence against the Council of Trent who have receiv'd those Books for Canonical which the Jews never received into the Canon of Scripture 3. They are good Witnesses of the Promise of a Messias which is reckoned among the Fundamental Articles of the Jewish Faith. And this is an other Advantage that Christians receive as Cajetan well observes in the Place mentioned before from the Obstinacy of the Jews Abravenel C. Fidei c. 1. They agree that such a Promise was made and that therefore it cannot be supposed either a Forgery of the Christians or a vain Belief peculiar only to them 4. They are good Witnesses where they interpret those Texts of the Old Testament of the Messias which belong to that matter and which are by the Writers of the New Testament applied to that purpose And the more ancient Jews do thus The Chaldee Paraphrasts and other of the more ancient Jewish Doctors do apply those Texts to him which the Christians also understand to be spoken of him Of which were it not too great a Digression it would be easy to produce very many Proofs This serves the common Christianity greatly and in our Disputes against the Jews affords us very great Advantages 5. Nor do I deny but that some of the Catholick Doctrines of the Christian Religion I mean such as have been always believed from the first Beginning of Christianity may receive some Confirmation from the Writings of the most antient Jewish Doctors But to produce them as Witnesses as this Writer does to a Doctrine never received by the antient Church is the most extravagant thing imaginable Secondly I shall shew the gross Ignorance not to say Dishonesty of this Writer in this matter His Author from whom he borrows all his Rabbinical Learning is Galatinus He tells if we will believe him that he was always accounted a very learned Man Preface to Consens Veterum It would have been more to his purpose to have vouched for his Honesty After this he falls into a Fit of Devotion he is of a sudden transported with Admiration that the Hebrew Writers long before Christ's time take Mr. Sclater's word for that should have such Notions But the Wind bloweth were it listeth c. He might have staid till he had been sure of the matter of Fact and then 't would have been time enough to admire at it But the Reader is to know that Mr. Sclater was mightily inclined to believe in this matter with the Church of Rome or else Galatinus could never by his Arguments have prevailed upon him This appears from his own Words after he had drawn up his Evidence from Galatinus P. 27. he tells his Reader that Galatinus thought and I 'le assure you 't is hard to say what a Jew that professeth himself a Convert to the Church of Rome does really think these Prophecies and Interpretations he might have called them Dreams and Figments argumentative not only against the Jews but a Confirmation also of the Christian Religion against all Hereticks c. But if you ask Mr. Sclater what confirms him in this Belief you 'le find him not hard to believe I am confirmed says he by the Title-page of his Book Of so great force is the Title-page of Galatinus his Book with Mr. Sclater 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
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