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
own Authors 11. The Glory of Miracles These alone were never a Note of the true Church And those extraordinary Gifts which were bestowed at first for the Confirmation of Christianity we think they are ceased long ago But we are forewarned of False Christs and false Prophets Mat. 24.24 which should shew great Signs and Wonders which me-thinks should make a Church very careful how they made any pretension to Miracles But the Church of Rome is resolved to do it and would fain perswade us that there are many great Ones wrought among them to this very Day and as they believe always will be But we know and they will not deny it that many of the Miracles they have talked of are meer Forgeries and Delusions others altogether incredible and but weakly attested and wholly unworthy of the Seriousness and Gravity of the Christian Religion most of them said to be done in Corners and are never to be seen but among themselves When they please to oblige us Protestants with the sight of a few of them they may then deserve to be farther considered till that be done they must give us leave to think that their Church is reduced to great Streights when it shall stand in need of such slight Artifices as these to support it 12. The Light of Prophecy This if they had it can bring no more Advantage to their Cause than the other The Church of God anciently when extraordinary Revelations were more common had not always Prophets in it And when any appeared the Prophet was to be tryed by the Faith of the Church and not the Church by the Predictions of the Prophet And we are still commanded to try the Spirits whether they are of God 1 Joh. 4.1 Because many false Prophets are gone out into the World. 13. The Confession of Adversaries This if the Cardinal's Instances were pertinent would yet be but of little Consequence for if some Protestants have spoken favourably of his Catholicks some of his Catholicks have spoken favourably of Protestants Or if we should be willing to hope well of some of them as we are and they should adjudge us every one to Eternal Damnation as they generally do this would be but an ill sign that their Church must therefore be the truer because it is more Censorious and Uncharitable than Ours 14. The Vnhappy End of the Church's Enemies A wise Man would be something afraid of passing this into a Note before he was himself safe in his Grave For all things come alike to all Eccl. 9.2 there is one Event to the Righteous and to the Wicked Many of the most Zealous Patrons of the Romish Persuasion have met with as Tragical and Unfortunate Ends as the most accursed Heretick that ever was devoured by Vermin or burnt at a Stake 15. Temporal Felicity This may be placed in the same Rank with the former it is altogether as variable and inconstant as that no certain Judgment can be made upon it They are not to learn that the Enemies of their Church have been often successful and that Victory has not always waited upon their Catholick Arms no not in their most Holy Wars when Religion has been the only ground of the Quarrel Thus upon a Review of all the Notes in order as they are mustered up by the great Cardinal it may appear to any unprejudiced Enquirer that he has missed of his Aim For that they are either no Notes of a Church at all or not proper to that of Rome And now after the highest Pretences of an Infallible Church and the absolute Deference and Submission which they say is due unto it any Man that shall seriously consider the Matter must needs wonder they should have no surer means at last to find it out than a few slight and improbable nay some of them very vain false and extravagant Conjectures The Protestants whom they will not allow to be certain of any thing have far better Evidences than these and as good Assurances of the Truth of their Church as can be desired For we think the True Faith True Worship and a Right Administration of the Sacraments do unquestionably make a True Church These the Romanists themselves cannot deny to be the great and necessary Notes and if the Controversy betwixt us come to be determined by these it will soon appear which Communion we ought to prefer We make Profession of the whole Catholick Apostolick Faith as it is contained in the Holy Scriptures and briefly comprized in the three Creeds which is all that was ever received in the Primitive Church They have made large Additions to the Antient Belief and increased the number of the Articles from Twelve to Four and Twenty many of which were not so much as heard of in the First Ages and never made necessary to be believed till above fifteen hundred Years after the Publication of the Gospel We Worship Almighty God and none but him and unto him we Pray in a Language we understand through Jesus Christ our only Mediator in whose Name when we ask we are sure to be heard They have a kind of Worship which they give to Saints and Images which as to all External Acts of Adoration is the very same they pay to God himself and when their Addresses are directed unto Him all their Publick Service is in an unknown Tongue and they set up to themselves many Mediatours of Intercession when they cannot tell whether they hear them but it is most certain that God has never promised to hear them for their Sakes We receive the two Sacraments which Christ ordained in his Church and administer them both in such Manner and Form as he has appointed They without any Divine Authority have made Seven Sacraments and in the Lord's Supper they believe that there is offered up a proper Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Living and the Dead they adore the Elements which they think are Transubstantiated into the Body and Blood of our Saviour and suffer the Laity to communicate but in one kind robbing them of the Cup contrary to the plain Institution and express Command of our Blessed Lord. And since we have the True Faith True Worship and the Sacraments rightly Administred it is evident that we are not deficient in any thing that is necessary to the Constitution of a True Church But They will never be able to prove themselves such a One by the late Additions they have made to the Creed and their many Deviations from the Primitive Rule And yet they will be continually vaunting that they are not only a True Church but the only True Church in the World and upon this Presumption they thunder out their Anathema's upon all Christendom besides and confidently condemn them for a Company of Heretical and Schismatical Conventicles But they cannot justify that rash and uncharitable Sentence nor make good any part of this heavy Charge For we that heartily believe all the Antient Creeds cannot be accused of Heresy neither are we guilty of Schism because we only Reformed those Errors and Corruptions which they had introduced and wanted not sufficient Authority for what was done But if they are still absolutely resolved to stand to the Censure they have passed and allow no True Church upon Earth but their Own it is not Cardinal Bellarmin's Fifteen Notes that will ever prove it FINIS ERRATA Pag. 367. l. 3. for not r. most P. 371. Marg. l. ult for cap. 3. r. 13. LONDON Printed by J. D. for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1687. BOOKS lately printed for Richard Chiswell THE Pillar and Ground of Truth A Treatise shewing that the Roman Church falsly claims to be That Church and the Pillar of That Truth mentioned by St. Paul in his First Epistle to Timothy Chap. 3. Vers 15.4o. The Peoples Right to read the Holy Scripture Asserted 4o. A Short Summary of the Principal Controversies between the Church of England and the Church of Rome being a Vindication of several Protestant Doctrines in Answer to a Late Pamphlet Intituled Protestancy destitute of Scripture Proofs 4o. Two Discourses of Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead An Answer to a late Pamphlet Intituled The Judgment and Doctrine of the Clergy of the Church of England concerning one Special Branch of the King's Prerogative viz. In dispensing with the Penal Laws 4o. A PRIVATE PRAYER to be used in Difficult Times 8o.
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
of Infallibility Church-Authority and resolution of Faith and Judge of Controversies c. p. 119. The Reformation never did decline the Judgment of the Primitive Church for its Justification p. 120 121. Luther and Calvin misrepresented by Cardinal Bellarmine p. 122. The Apostolick Church founded and governed by the Apostles over all the World is the true Standard of the Christian Church ibid. The Scriptures the only Authentick Records of the Apostolick Church and the only certain account we have of the Faith and Doctrine of the most Primitive Church p. 123. Several Doctrines Examined by Antiquity 1. Supremacy not allowed of by the first Council of Nice nor that of Constantinople nor Chalcedon p. 125. 2. Transubstantiation acknowledged by many of the Schoolmen not to have been the Doctrine of the Primitive Church ibid. This Doctrine brought into the Church a little before Berengarius and not throughly understood even then by those who held it p. 126. Berengarius his Recantation and the Gloss upon it p. 127. The Number of the Sacraments not declared to be seven by the Primitive Church nor mentioned by any Author till 1100 Years after Christ ibid. Necessity of Auricular Confession questioned by Learned Men in the times of Peter Lombard p. 128. Purgatory not mentioned by any Antient Writers p. 128 129. Indulgences received very late into the Church ibid. Prayers and Oblations for the Dead an Antient Practice but no Doctrine of the Primitive Church ibid. Prayers in an unknown Tongue never the Practice any where of the Primitive Church ib. Worship of Saints and Angels and of Images of no Antient date in the Church ibid. All these Doctrines of the Roman Church which distinguish it from the Reformed that they were not Doctrines of the Primitive Church is further proved 1. From their Expurgatory Indices p. 130. 2. From the Correcting or rather Corrupting the Fathers and the counterfeiting so many false ones and obtruding Spurious Authors upon the World. p. 131 132. 3. From that little esteem and regard they too often have for Antiquity when ever it makes against them p. 133. 4. From the Determinations and Decrees of the Present Church which are the only things they stick to and which they prefer a thousand times before Antiquity or the whole sence of the Primitive Church The Seventh Note The Union of the Members among themselves and with the Head. UNity no proper Character of a true Church because found upon Societies of different natures and contrary designes p. 137. It is a good mark when 't is a duty as 't is a duty when the terms of Vnion are so ibid. Wherein this Vnity consists according to Bellarmine p. 138. Hereupon three things are endeavoured 1. That the Vnity here offered is no true Note of the Church forasmuch as Vnion with the Pope as Head of the Church hath no Foundation in Scripture Reason or Antiquity p. 140. 1. Scripture p. 141 142 143. 2. No Foundation of it from Reason p. 144 145. 3. Nor any Colour from Antiquity p. 145 to 149. The Cardinals Argument for the necessity of this Vnion from Experience considered p. 149. 2. The Vnion which they pretend to among themselves as Members no certain Note of the Church p. 150. 1. This is no more than what any Society may have as well as the true Church and any other Church as well as the Roman p. 151. 2. As there may be this Vnion out of the true Church so its may not be within it ibid. II. If Vnity were a true Note of the Church yet the Roman Church hath it not which is probably true of the first and most certainly true of the second branch of the Cardinals Vnity p. 152. 1. It is probable that there is not now nor hath been for many Ages any true Pope for the Church to be Vnited to ibid. 2. Neither is there that Vnion in all points of Doctrine amongst the Papists or such a Vnion of their Members as shall prevent the breaking away of some from the Communion of the rest p. 153. Not that wonderful agreement as the Cardinal pretends in the Sacred Writers of their Church nor in the Decrees of their Lawful Councils nor in those of their Popes p. 154. Several Disputes between the Canonists and Schoolmen in many material points of Doctrine between the Thomists the Scotists and Occamists between the Franciscans and Dominicans about the conception of the Blessed Virgin the Jansenists and Molinists p. 155 156. Bellarmin's Answer to all this viz. They differ not in those things that belong to Faith considered p. 156 157. The Cardinals difference between the division of Hereticks from the Church and a division from Heresie considered p. 158. If there be in the Church of Rome a certain rule for ending Controversies viz. The Sentence of the chief Pastor or a definition of a General Council ibid. 1. Why were not these the means of composing those Controversies that carried us away from them ibid. 2. How could those be certain means of composing Controversies concerning which even in their own Church there were the greatest Controversies of all p. 159. This largely shewn from the Learned Launoys Epistle to Nicholas Gatinaeus upon this Question p. 160 161 162 163. III. That that Vnity which is indeed a Note of the Church we Protestants have and that in a much greater degree than they p. 164. The true Grounds and Notions of Church-Vnity represented ibid. 1. Vnity of Submission to one Head our Lord Jesus Christ ibid. 2. Vnity of professing the Common Faith once delivered to to the Saints grounded upon the Authority of Scriptures and summarily expounded in the Antient Creed p. 165. 3. Vnity of Sacraments in the Church ibid. 4. Vnity of Obedience to all Institutions and Laws of Christ p. 165. 5. Vnity of Christian Affection and Brotherly kindness ibid. 6. Vnity of Discipline and Government ibid. 7. Vnity of Communion in the Service and Worship of God. p. 166. Some tho' not all of these necessary to the being of a Church viz. The acknowledgment of our Lord the profession of one Faith and admission into the state of Christian Duties and Priviledges by one Baptism ibid. Those particular Churches which keep Vnity in all these respects better than others do have the mark of Ecclesiastical Vnity in a higher degree than those others have p. 167. The Church of Rome as she holds one Lord one Faith one Baptism is part of the Catholick Church and so far maintains Catholick Vnity ibid. Wherein she departs from Catholick Vnity Purity and Charity shewed in several instances p. 167 168. The Church of England not chargeable on the same account ibid. 168 169. Vnity of Communion in the Church of Rome is Vnity of Communion among themselves but not Catholick Vnity of Communion because the terms of it are many of them unlawful and unjust p. 170. The Contrary to which the true Case of the Church of England ibid. 171. The Conclusion p. 171
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
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
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