his part if we neglect not so great Salvation The chief Texts for the Churches supreme Teaching and consequently Judging and determining Power when any controversies of Faith arise by Commission from Christ the Head-spring of all Spiritual Jurisdiction are these and such like Mat. 28. 18 19. Go ye make Disciples of all Nations teaching them io observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you And that this Authoritative Teaching is performed by the Pastors of the Church as his Delegates and Representing his Person is plain from that of St. Luke He that heareth you heareth me and he Chap. 10. 16. Mat. 14. 18. that despiseth you despiseth me Again Whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven And again He Ephes 4. 11 12 13 c. gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ 'till we all come to the unity of the Faith and be not tossed too and fro with wind of every Doctrine What more express And yet if it may be the Churches Infallibility in the delivery of the Law of Christ is taught us in plainer terms as namely in Ch. 14. 26. those Promises in St. John The Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my Name he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you When the Spirit of Truth Joh. 16. 13. S. Matt. ch 28. 19. is come he will guide you in to all Truth And those in St. Matthew Teach them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you and behold I am with you always even to the end of the World And that in the 16 1 Tim. 3. 15. Chap. Vpon this rock will I build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Such a Church as this thus founded thus assisted thus guided cannot possibly teach damnable Haeresies or dangerous Errors but must needs be the Pillar and ground of Truth as that glorious Vessel of Election the great Apostle of the Gentiles doth assure us And therefore we may securely rely upon her word to do it also so much concerns us that not to hear and obey is no less then under pain of damnation and that too from no obscure Texts He that 1 Epist 4. 6. knoweth God heareth us saith St. John and he that heareth us not is not of God and by this we know the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Errour And that famous place Dic Ecclesiae Matt. 18. 17. Tell it to the Church and if he neglect to hear the Church let him be to thee as an Heathen and a Publican Persons doubtless in no fit case for Heaven I 'll name but one more out of St. Mark Go ye into all the World Mark 16. 16. and Preach the Gospel unto every Creature And what then He that believeth not shall be damned Plain and sad places these are to all Unbelievers and Incorrigible Hereticks But especially to these last who receiving these Scriptures for the Word of God do notwithstanding not only not hear the Church Obediently in her delivery of the Gospel but with obstinacy and pride of heart presume to teach the Church and will needs force upon her a new Creed which was never taught by Christ nor handed to us from the Apostles How can such as these escape the punishment threatned in the above-mentioned Sentences Their account must needs be heavy and the light they had will only serve to augment their guilt And I cannot omit for a Testimony of these and such like Texts against Protestants that being so express and unavoidable for the Churches Authority and Obedience to her in their first Editions of their English Bibles after their defection from the Church of Rome for Church they translated Congregation least common understandings should discover how they were withdrawn from their Ancient Faith by new Doctrines and Expositions so expresly contrary to the Word of God 'Till afterwards when by divers Artifices these Teachers perceived they had bred in their Followers a strong aversion from the Church of Rome and that they were sufficiently confirmed in their Errours the word Congregation in the later Translation was turn'd into Church that from the evidence of such Texts they might gain some credit to their usurp'd power set up against the pre-existent Authority of the whole Christian World Neither is it without reason that Christ hath set up in his Church such a supreme Judicature when to deny this Power to those whom he hath appointed for ever to be Governours of his Kingdom on Earth is doubtless to advance the Jewish Synagogue above the Christian Church their Sanedrim or Great Council whesein the High-Priest was supreme Judge in all doubts Deut. 17. and questions about the Law having such absolute Authority in giving Sentence that no man could appeal but was bound to obey under pain of death And yet that was but a temporary Pedagogy delivered by Moses a faithful Servant of the House of God in Types and Shadows prefiguring and leading to Evangelical Perfection whose Ministration is far more glorious endowed with more transcendent and admirable Priviledges foretold by the Prophets and in plenitude of time fulfill'd revealed and established in Person by the Eternal Son of God Lord of all things upon better Promises to continue for ever Secondly Christ our Lord having so dearly purchas'd a peculiar People and furnish'd his Church with all means necessary to the Salvation of mankind if we deny such Authority in her namely Infallibility to witness and when circumstances require to determine by a finally decisive unerring Sentence what these means are they cannot be effectual to the end for which they were with so much Sweat and Blood Instituted to continue for ever being otherwise according to the ordinary method of Divine Providence impossible to be known with an assured certainty and by consequence also to be put in practice Neither indeed could it be truly said that Christ hath provided in his Church all things necessary for our Salvation without this Authority when amongst things necessary that questionless seems to be most so by which we can only come to a certain knowledge of all the rest Thirdly seeing God hath made his Church a Proponent and Witness of his Truth in all Ages for 1 ch 8. that of the Acts Ye shall be witnesses to me both in Jerusalem and all Judaea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the Earth As to the substance of it belongs not only to the Apostles but to their Successors in the Office of making Jesus Christ and his Law known to the Worlds end the unanimous consent of the Catholick Church must needs be an undoubted testimony of revealed Verities seeing it
been delivered by Vniversal Tradition from the Apostles to us for the Infallible and undoubted Word of God The third Motive That the Protestant Church of England is involv'd in the guilt of Schism and Heresie which crimes are inconsistent with Salvation SECT I. The nature of Schism and Heresie declared from Scripture and the ancient Fathers TO make good this Motive of my Conversion my first task shall be to lay open the nature of Heresie and Schism from Sacred Scripture and the ancient Fathers of the Church Secondly I shall make it appear that the English Church is highly guilty of those sins by its seperation from the Doctrine and Discipline of the Roman Church its Catholick Mother Thirdly I shall discover the weakness and insufficiency of those Allegations which are commonly produced to maintain the Protestants Separation to be lawful The Church of Christ is the highest Tribunal on earth a Judicature of Eternal life and death from whose living voice we receive our Faith and the grounds of it as is said and proved before Whom whosoever will not hear in her definitive Sentence in Spiritual matters Is to be accounted as a Heathen Mat. 18. 18. or a Publican by the judgment and determination of our Blessed Saviour Hence arises an indispensable necessity to Believe as the Church Believes Explicitly or Implicitly so that the Faith of the Cardinal and Collier there being no difference in men as Believers but all equally ignorant as such must be the same as to the substance under pain of damnation And as to seperate from her life-giving Communion is formal Schism so to recede from her Doctrine in points of Faith with obstinacy is flat Heresie Let therefore Schismaticks never so much pretend Sanctity or Hereticks Truth from hence they may easily be discover'd to be those false Prophets whom our Blessed Saviour forewarns us of coming to us in Mat. 7. 15. sheeps-clothing but inwardly are ravenous Wolves To be those whom St. Paul describes to his Auditors telling them Among your selves shall be men speaking perverse things to draw Act. 20. 29 30. away Disciples after them not sparing the flock To be those whom St. Peter deciphers There shall be lying 1 Pet. 2. 1. Masters who shall bring in Sects of perdition and denying the Lord that bought them pulling upon themselves speedy destruction To be those Antichrists St. John speaks of They 1 Joh. 2. 18 19. went out from us because they were not of us for if they had been of us they had remained with us but by this they are manifest not to be of us To be those whom St. Jude calls Raging waves of the Sea foaming ver 13 â—â— 19. out their own shame wandring Stars for whom the storm of darkness is reserved for ever These are they who seperate themselves sensual not having the Spirit Or as elsewhere 2 Tim. 3. 5. Having indeed a form of godliness t denying the power thereof And therefore St. Paul earnestly desires the Faithful to be of one heart and of one mind and that in most moving and soul-melting expressions I beseech you Brethren 1 Cor. 1. 10. says he by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same things that there be no Schisms amongst you but ye be perfectly of the same mind and of the same judgment Neither is he less pathetical in this point to the Ephesians I the prisoner Ephes 4. 2 3 c. of the Lord beseech you to be careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace One Body one Spirit one Hope one Lord one Faith one Baptism And that this unity might be preserved in the Church He gave some Apostles some Prophets â—er 11 12. others to be Evangelists others Pastors and Doctors for the perfecting the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edification of the body of Christ 'till we all meet in the unity of Faith and be not toss'd and carried about with the wind of every Doctrine And no less earnestly does he desire the Romans to stand upon their guard against all Separatists and false Christians I beseech Rom. 16. you Brethren says he observe them who make dissentions and scandals amongst you contrary to the Doctrine which you have received and void them for such men serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own lusts and by kind Speeches and fair words seduce the hearts of the simple And being an important point tells also the Thessalonians If any one obey not our word accompany not with such a one that he may be confounded And in his Instructions to Titus Bishop of 2 Thess 3. 14 Crete A man that is an Heretick after the first and second admonition avoid knowing that such a one is subverted and finneth being condemned by his own judgment Yea St. Paul thunders out excommunication against the very Angels themselves if they should offer to pervert the Tradition of Faith by that famous place so much urged against Hereticks If we or an Angel from Heaven Gallat 1. 8 9. preach unto you any other Gospel then what ye have received let him be accursed Upon which words Vincentius Lyrinensis thus descants Ne forsitan perfunctorie c. Lest it should seem to be the superficial effusion Commo ca. 12 13. of humane passion and not the decree of Divine reason he doth inculcate and strike it home with the pondrous force of a reiterated insinuation as we have pronounced so I say again If any preach unto you but what ye have received let him be accursed This indeed is a sure Rule of Faith amongst Catholicks viz. Oral Tradition of the Church upon which grounding our selves for what is revealed our Faith is one and the same throughout the whole World without any change or alteration which Hereticks forsaking are tost about as the Apostle saith with the wind of every Doctrine deceiving and being deceived ever learning and never coming to the knowledge of the Truth From all which appears First That Church-Communion consists in unity of Faith and Worship under the same Rule and Government of Divine Institution there being no other way to bring many into the Integrity of a mystical Body Secondly That when Schisms arise in this body by men of perverse minds to break Church-unity or Heresies to pervert Church doctrine the Apostles to prevent such contagious evils have instructed true Believers to know Schismaticks who become such by separating themselves from the Communion of the Church whereof formerly they were Members and erecting new Churches or Congregations and to discern Hereticks who become such in teaching Doctrines contrary to the Faith delivered to the Saints by Apostolical Tradition of which that Church being the only Preserver of necessity must be the sole Judge of the other And thirdly when such were obstinately contumaceous in breaking unity and corrupting Faith they did cast them out of the Church by Excommunication That
in delivering such to Satan others might learn not to Blaspheme And after that direful Sentence though they did profess the Name of Christ they were never esteemed as Members of the Catholick Church but as Heathens Mat. 18. and Publicans 'till they were restored upon repentance Answerable to which is the constant Doctrine of Antiquity contain'd in the Fathers as a cloud of Witnesses not to darken but clear up Truth if it be not yet bright enough to discover Heresie and Schisme to us St. Irenaeus notably describes Church-unity in these words Hanc fidem c. This Faith L. 1. adv haec c. 3. as aforesaid the Church scatter'd over the face of the Earth doth carefully keep as dwelling in one House Believes alike as having one soul and one heart Preaches and delivers to her Children alike as having one mouth For though in the World are different Languages yet the vertue of Tradition is one and the same And neither the Churches which are founded in Germany do believe otherwise and teach otherwise by Tradition nor those who are in Iberia nor those in the East nor those in Egypt but as the Sun is one and the same in the whole World so the Light of the Gospel shines every where and enlightens all men with the same beams who will come to the knowledge of the Truth And neither he who among Church Governours is powerful in Speech preaches otherwise then these for none's above his Master nor he who is less Floquent will diminish Tradition For Faith being one and the same neither he who is large in his explications adds nor he who is brief takes away What can be more express for the unity of Faith and the ground of of it Tradition And St. Cyprian is no less clear for unity of Government Ecclesiae L. de vni Eecl unitatem c. Whosoever keeps not the unity of the Church doth he think he holds the Faith who disobeys the Church who forsakes the Chair of Peter upon which the Church is founded doth he believe that he 's in the Church Can a Protestant read this and not see his own Condemnation This hath been the Original not only of theirs but of the Heresies and Schisms in all Ages Neque enim S. Cypri Epist 55. ad Corne. aliundo Haereses obortae sunt neque nata sunt Schismata c. For Heresies and Schisms says the same glorious Saint and Martyr have sprung from no other head but that the Priest of God is not obeyed nor one Priest for the present in the Church and Christs Vicar is not thought on Whom if all Christians obeyed according to the command of God no man would rend the unity of the Church by Schism nor pleasing his own fancy and swelling with full sails of pride by himself out of the communion of the Church would shipwrack his Faith on the rock of Heresie What is Schism saith St. Austin but a Separate communon of such who Cont. Gresco Gram. are united in the same Faith and Worship with the Catholick Church But Heresie is a diverse belief from the Faith of the Church So that Schism properly is oppos'd to Charity because 't is a breach of Unity Heresie properly is oppos'd to Verity because 't is a corruption of Faith To which Schism does so fatally dispose that that of St. Hierom is no less than an Oracle Nullum Schismae est quod Super illud Titi 3. Haereticum hominem c. non sibi aliquam Haeresins confingat ut recte ab Ecclesiâ rescessisse videcatur There 's no Schism which doth not invent some Heresie to justify its separation from the Church Which is not to be taken so rigorously that every one who errs in a point of Faith is presently to be censur'd for an Heretick For one may hold what is Heresy and yet not be an Heretick as St. Cyprian holding the invalidity of Baptism given by Hereticks pertinacy being essential to make an Heretick after the Churches declaration in the point Which is manifest by that of St. Austin against the Donaetists Haeresis semper pertinaciam adjunctam L. 4. cont Donat. ca. 16. habet c. Heresie is always joyned with pertinacy which consists in this that any one knowingly and witingly holds any point against the Catholick Faith and neglecting the Authority of the Church makes choice of his own Opinion and persists in it Grant some body believes of Christ what Photinus believ'd being perswaded 't is the Catholick Faith I do not pronounce him yet an Heretick except the Catholick Doctrine being manifested to him he had rather resist Faith and choose to adhere to his own Tenet And therefore the same Holy Father says of himself Errare possum Haereticus esse non volo Though I may err I will be no Heretick Because in all points of Faith he had a mind prepared to submit his private judgment to the publick Sentence of the Church By which means it came to pass that St. Cyprian holding a material Heresie was absolved and those who adhered to his judgment after the Churches determination to the contrary were condemn'd for Hereticks Whereupon Vincentius Lyrinensis breaks forth into exclamation O rerum mira conversio c. Cont. Haer. ca. 11. O wonderful change of things the Authors of the same Opinion are Catholicks but the Followers are adjudged Hereticks The Masters are absolved the Disciples are condemned Writers of such Books shall be Sons of the Kingdom but Hell shall receive the Maintainers of them For who doubts but most B. Cyprian that Light of all Saints and Bishops and Martyrs to reign with Christ in everlasting glory Or who on the contrary is so Sacrilegious as to deny but that the Donatists and such like Diseases of Religion who by the Authority of that Council boast that Rebaptization is lawful shall burn for ever with the Devil in Hell fire Thus the Holy Fathers believ'd and taught And therefore we find St. Hierom in his Exposition of the Creed submitting himself and Writings to Damasus the then Bishop of Rome as supreme Pastor of the Universal Church Haec est Fides Papa Beaptissime c. This is the Ad Dame Papam in fine Faith most Blessed Pope which we have learn'd in the Catholick Church in which if any thing be deliver'd not with sufficient skill and circumspection we desire you to correct it who professes the Faith and Chair of Peter But if this our Confession be approved by your Apostolical Sentence whosoever will find fault with me will prove himself ignorant or malevolent or also no Catholick not me an Heretick And Optatus concludes the Donatists Contra Parmeno l. 3. not to be Members of the true Church because they were not in communion with Syricius who was then Pope of Rome Neither is St. Austin less positive in determining who are Schismaticks Ille est Epist 171. in vera Ecclesia c. He is in the