defects of the Scripture and make things unwritten to become matters of Faith. Which is such an unbounded Prerogative that we may have a new Faith as often as they please to pretend a Tradition for it though they cannot prove it For we must rest in the authority of the present Church which affirms it and that against the very Scripture it self which tells us it is able to make a Man of God perfect and against the testimony of the Universal Church which I have shown forbids the producing of any other Faith but that which was evidently delivered by the Apostles there 3. We cannot allow the Church an Infallible authority that is such an assistance in her Doctrines and proposals that she cannot err in any thing she defines In Controversies indeed arising about matters of Faith we own and reverence the authority of the Church (t) Artic. XX. so as not to contest the publique judgement but to prefer it before our own private conceits in doubtful things But as it ought to proceed in its determinations by the Rule of Gods word So we think it possible it may mistake in the application of this Rule and therefore we do not blindly resign our selves to its authority without all regard to the Holy Scriptures unto which the Church ought to have a respect in all its determinations No that 's another proud pretence of the present Roman Church that they cannot mistake in their definitions and therefore we must submit unto them without examination From whence this intollerable mischief hath insued that it hath made them both insensible of their errors and careless to seek any cure of them nay utterly incapable of a remedy For as one of our own Divines excellently speaks (u) Dr. Petter's Answer to Charity mistaken Sect. 5. whose words those are this conceit of their Infallibility is to them both a sufficient reason for that which is most unreasonable and a sufficient answer to that which is most unanswerable To this they retreat upon all occasions when they are not able to maintain their ground they have no other way to defend their errors when they are plainly set before their eyes but to tell us confidently they cannot err Which is a very strange boldness for we demonstrate in manay instances that they have erred erred most grosly particularly in this that they have added new Articles to the old Creed to be believed under pain of Damnation and added a new Canon of Scripture to the Old Testament against the clearest evidence in the Records of the Universal Church that the Books they have newly received were never acknowledged for Canonical Scripture If by the Church indeed they would understand the Church truly Catholique the whole Body of Christ in all times places and ages and if by matters of Faith they would understand those grand Articles which I have mentioned in the first part of this Discourse and if by being Infallible they would understand not an absolute impossibility of erring which humane nature is not capable of but not actual error there are none of us make any question but the Church is Infallible That is the whole Church hath not erred nor shall not err in the whole Faith or in any necessary part thereof for such error would cut Men off from Christ the head and so leave him no Church at all which is impossible It hath been the very scope of first my Discourse to show that the Church hath always kept the great fundamental truths of our Religion and not erred in them but transmitted them down to us whole and undefiled till the Church of Rome in the Council of Trent corrupted the Faith by their errors which they have mixed with it For to a particular Church such as that of Rome is we cannot allow this priviledge of not erring because we know they have erred even in fundamental Truths and thereby ceased to be Churches Witness those glorious Churches to which Christ himself sent his Letters by S. John the Apostle These Prerogatives therefore not belonging to any Church every one must be content with those two Offices before mentioned which are sufficient First The Office of a Witness testifying the authority of the Holy Scriptures unto its members Secondly of Gods instrument by whose Ministry in opening expounding and urging the Holy Scriptures the Holy Ghost begets a divine Faith in us And by performing these Offices it supports and continues and propagates the Truth and so may be called the Pillar and Ground thereof The meaning of which I shall now distinctly set before the Readers eyes that I may give a short account of the fourth and last thing propounded in the beginning IV. How the Church may appropriate to it self this Title 1. First Every Church and every person in it especially the Bishops and Pastors are the Pillar and Ground of Truth officio by Duty and Office whereby they are obliged to keep maintain and uphold the Truth This always was and always will be incumbent on them which is sufficient to fill up the sense of such attributes as these which do not always note performance of Duty but only obligation to it As when our Saviour saith to his Disciples Ye are the salt of the Earth it doth not signifie that they were necessarily so for he supposes immediately the salt might lose its savour but that they ought to be so and if they were not so would be good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot Matth. V. 13. 2. But Secondly The first Churches of Christ in the Apostles times were actu effectu actually and effectually the Pillar of Truth that is they faithfully discharg'd this Office and perform'd their Duty constantly maintaining the Truth as it is in Christ in its purity and simplicity For the Apostles were a part of those Churches whom God led into all Truth which they taught sincerely and intirely while they lived and do at this day instruct us in the Holy Scriptures in the whole Truth necessary to our Salvation 3. But we cannot say the same of all succeeding Churches that they did faithfully perform this office though in duty they also were bound so to do No some of them were so far from being Pillars of the Truth that they let it fall to the ground We have strange instances of it with which I shall not fill these Papers in the History of the Church which show us that if we take not heed to our selves and the Doctrine that is delivered to us we have no security that we or any other particular Church shall continue firm and stedfast supporters of the Truth For Pillars themselves may decay and if they be not well lookt after will go to ruin and fall to the Earth 4. Even this very Church of Ephesus which was a Pillar and Ground of Truth while Timothy presided in it afterward began before all the Apostles were dead to remit its first love and zeal for
he that can say but a little doth take away or make it less Which is such a plain declaration that the Creed contains the whole Apostolical Tradition or Faith for they are the same in his Language and the only Catholique Doctrine that if we were at this day to contrive words on purpose for the asserting this Truth we could not invent any more full or express than these Which show us that this Faith is sufficient not only for the ignorant the Catechumens and beginners in Religion but for the most improved in Christian knowledge for those that instructed and ruled the Church who had no Authority to preach or impose any other belief This is a thing that runs through his whole Book for he repeats it again in fewer words in the latter end of the next Chapter that the true Church hath but that one and the same Faith before mentioned throughout the whole World. Which in the 19th Chapter he calls the Rule of Truth by which all error was discovered for holding this rule though they speak very various and many things we easily evince that they have deviated from the Truth And again in the third Book (g) L. III. Chap. 3. he hath recourse to the same Rule of Truth unto which whosoever will hearken may see what is the tradition of the Apostles manifested in the whole World in every Church Where he saith they were able to tell what Bishops were settled by the Apostles and their Successors untill his time who neither taught nor thought of any thing like to the dotages of the Hereticks of those days And because it would have been too long to reckon up all the Churches he instances in the Church of Rome to which all had occasion to go upon some business or other because it was the Imperial City by whose Bishop he saith that Tradition and that Preaching or Doctrine of Truth which was from the Apostles in the Church is come to us and is a most full proof that one and the same life giving faith which was from the Apostles in the Church is conferred to this time and delivered in Truth The very same which Polycarp wrote to the Philippians mark these words which they of the present Roman Church are wont to conceal that they may make the World believe Irenaeus thought the Tradition of the Apostles that is the Christian Faith was to be sought only in their Church and which was in the Church of Ephesus founded by Paul and having John continuing in it till the time of Trajan which Church is a true witness of the Tradition of the Apostles And that there may be no mistake about this Tradition L. III. Cap. 4. he repeats it again in the next Chapter and informs us in very remarkable words it was nothing else but the Doctrine contained in the Creed Since these things are so plain we ought not to seek further among others for truth which we may easily find in the Church For the Apostles left most fully in it as in a rich Repository all things that belong to truth So that every one who will may take from thence the Water of Life c. out of the Holy Scriptures he means as appears by what follows And suppose the Apostles had not left us the Scriptures shall we not follow the Order of the Tradition or Rule of Faith which they delivered to those unto whom they committed the Churches To which Ordination many barbarous Nations who believe on Christ assent having the Doctrine of Salvation without Paper and Ink written by the Spirit in their Heart and diligently preserving the ANCIENT TRADITION believing in one God the maker of Heaven and Earth and of all things which are therein by Christ Jesus the Son of God Who out of his most eminent love to his Creature vouchsafed to be born of the Virgin uniting Man to God by himself and suffering under Pontius Pilate and rising again and being illustriously received in glory shall come again the Saviour of those that are saved and the Judge of those that are judged Sending into eternal fire the misshapers of Truth and the contemners of his Father and of his coming Those that have believed this Faith without Letters we in our Language call barbarous but as to their opinion and custom and conversation they please God because of their Faith by which they are most wise living in all Righteousness Chastity and Wisdom Vnto whom if any one should speak in their Language those things which Hereticks have invented they would presently stop their ears and run away not induring to hear the blasphemy Thus by that OLD TRADITION of the Apostles viz. the Creed they do not so much as admit into their thoughts the portentous talk of those Hereticks in his days These things I have thought fit to set down the more largely because they are an evident demonstration what the OLD TRADITION of the Apostles is which is nothing else but that summary of Christian Truth contained in the Creed unto which they would suffer no other Tradition to be added but contented themselves with this as fully sufficient and by this judged of all other things that pretended to come from the Apostles and were every where so well instructed in this that in those Churches which as yet had not received the Apostolical Writings the Holy Scriptures of the N. T. they had this Doctrine as the contents of those Scriptures and were thought most wise being wise enough to salvation in this faith alone without any other But because this is such a very important Truth I shall take a little more pains to set down the sense of the Church in all Ages concerning it that the Reader may be satisfied there is no other Truth but this alone which is absolutely necessary to his Salvation Which they sometime comprehend in fewer words but never add any one article beyond those in the Creed If we had the Letters of Ignatius intire and sincere we should be able to tell what he took for Truth immediately after the Apostles were dead And thus much is evident from them as they now are that they or he who contrived the Epistle to the Philippians under his name for it is not thought to be his took this to be the Doctrine of that Second Age when after the mention of the Doctrine of the Trinity and that the Son of God was truly made Man truly born and truly crucified dead and rose again not seemingly not in appearance only but in Truth they make him conclude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that believes these things as they are and were really done is a blessed Man. Which is an undoubted testimony they took this Creed to be sufficient to salvation which Ignatius in an unquestioned Epistle of his to the Church of Smyrna calls the unmoveable Faith wherein he blessed God they were perfected or knit together mentioning no other Articles but those before named Polycarp also in the same
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any thing that was different or contrary to it Both these they acknowledge to be prohibited in those words No man shall bring in another Faith than that at Nice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is contrary or opposite or different or diverse or strange from the true Faith. Where it is remarkable a different another Faith is acknowledged to be forbidden as well as a contrary Nay they acknowledge that none but a General Council could make so much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 another explication of the Articles of that Creed though not different from it In the Creed of the Apostles that is there are some things contained implicitely as Thomas Aquinas you heard speaks and being virtually there either in the Letter or the sence may be drawn from thence by evident consequence such as the Deity of Christ his two Natures the Catholique Church which was included in those words I believe the holy Church as this Article is exprest in the old Roman Creed and the like and yet such an explication these Fathers confessed could by no Man no assembly of Men less than an Oecumenical Council be lawfully made and imposed upon the Church For which they quote Aquinas whom †Ib. p. 163. they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that there never was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an explication of the Creed but in an Oecumenical Council and he speaks of any Creed whatsoever which was common in the Church And therefore in conclusion they absolutely deny that the Latine Church had added any thing to the Creed For the Nicene and the Constantinopolitan Creed are both one So that the one being read the other is understood For though they differ in words they agree in sense and in truth And the like they affirm of all other Creeds and thereby answer the objection that they had added a word to the Creed about the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son which is true they confessed with respect to the words but not with respect to the sense For still the Creed remains 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Ib. p. 170. one and the same though it differ in the words And therefore it follows it was not properly an addition but one and the same thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the exposition of the very self same thing All which I have set down thus largely to show that thus far therefore all things continued as they had done from the beginning that is notwithstanding the new Opinions there were in the Church there was no new Creed made no new Article added to the Creed nothing but what had been so at the first made necessary to Salvation Which is the last thing I observe that till the conclusion of the Council of Trent that is till a little more than an hundred years ago there were no other Creeds but those which we confess and believe in this Church which are the Apostles Creed expounded not inlarged by any new Articles But then indeed Pope Pius IV. in pursuance of the Councils Order framed another Confession of Faith consisting of no less than XII new Articles added to the old never heard of in any Creed throughout the whole Church till this time And it must be called and esteemed a New Faith and it makes that to be a New Church which falsly calls it self the Ancient Catholique Apostolique Church of Christ For it is none of these neither Ancient nor Catholique nor Apostolique but New Roman Tridentine Church derived I mean from the Roman Bishops at Trent It will be fit I think to set down this New Creed that the Reader may compare it with those I have shown were hitherto the intire Faith of the Catholique Church It may be found in several of our Writers but I wish it were in every bodies hand and therefore take the pains to transcribe it for the benefit of those into whose hands this Book shall come Pope PIVS his Creed IN. Believe and profess with a firm Faith all and every thing contained in the Symbol of Faith which the holy Roman Church uses viz. I believe in one God the Father Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth c. to the end of that we call the Nicene Creed After which immediately follow the New Articles in these words The Apostolical and Ecclesiastical Traditions and the rest of the Observations and Constitutions of the same Church I most firmly admit and embrace I also admit or receive the Holy Scripture according to that sense which the holy Mother Church to whom it belongs to judge of the true sense hath held and doth hold nor will I ever understand and interpret it otherwise than according to the unanimous consent of the Fathers I profess also that there are truly and properly Seven Sacraments of the New Law instituted by Jesus Christ our Lord and necessary to the Salvation of mankind though not all of them necessary to every Man viz. Baptism Confirmation the Eucharist Pennance Extreme Vnction Orders and Matrimony and that they confer grace and that of these Baptism Confirmation and Orders cannot be repeated without Sacriledge I likewise receive and admit all the received and approved Rites of the Catholique Church in the solemn Administration of all the above-said Sacraments All and every thing which was defined and declared about Original sin and Justification by the most holy Council of Trent I embrace and receive I profess likewise that in the Mass is offered to God a true proper and propitiatory Sacrifice for the quick and dead and that in the most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist there is truly really and substantially the Body and Blood together with the Soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ and that there is a conversion made of the whole substance of Bread into his Body and of the whole substance of Wine into his Blood which conversion the Catholique Church calls TRANSUBSTANTIATION I confess also that under either kind or species only whole and intire Christ and the true Sacrament is received I constanly hold there is a Purgatory and that the Souls there detained are helpt by the suffrages of the faithful As also that the Saints who Reign together with Christ are to be worshipped and invocated and that they offer Prayers to God for us and that their Reliques are to be venerated I most firmly assert that the Images of Christ and the Mother of God the always-Virgin as also of other Saints are to be had and retained and due honour and veneration to be bestowed on them I affirm also that the power of Indulgences was left by Christ in his Church and that their use is most wholesom to Christian People I acknowledge the holy Catholique and Apostolique Roman Church to be the Mother and Mistress of all Churches and I promise and swear true Obedience to the Bishop of Rome Successor of S. Peter the Prince of Apostles and Vicar of Jesus Christ All the rest also
delivered defined and declared by the sacred Canons and Oecumenical Councils especially by the most holy Synod of Trent I receive and profess without doubt and likewise all things contrary and whatsoever Heresies condemned rejected and anathematized by the Church I in like manner condemn reject and Anathematize This true Catholique Faith without which no Man can be saved which at present I freely profess and truly hold I will most constantly retain and confess intire and inviolable by God's help to my last breath and take care as much as lies in me that it be held taught and preached by my Subjects or those whose care belongs to me in my Office. I the aforesaid N. Promise Vow and Swear So help me God and these holy Gospels This Bull as they call it bears date on the Ides of November 1564. and concludes in the usual manner with threats of the indignation of God and of his blessed Apostles S. Peter and Paul against all that shall inrringe or oppose it And every Reader I suppose discerns that this is not meerly a confession of Faith but likewise a solemn Oath And so the Title of it bears A Bull concerning a form of an Oath of profession of Faith. Which Oath all Ecclesiastical Persons whether Secular or Regular as they distinguish them and all Military Orders are bound to take And it is as easie to observe that this is perfectly New both as an Oath and as a profession of Faith. Never was there any such Creed imposed before or so much as framed much iess tyed upon Men by an Oath For when these Fathers met at Trent and were to make a profession of Faith by rehearsing the Creed which the Roman Church uses (a) Sess III. so the words are they could find none to profess but the Nicene Creed no larger Creed was in use no not there in the Roman Church but these very Men who afterward turned New Creed-makers were forced to be content with that And therefore this new Profession is most impudently pretended to be the true Catholique Faith being in no sense Catholique neither as to place nor time For it was no where used till they made it no not there nor is now every where believed and was not at all believed in any Church for above 1500 Years nor now used in that Church it self when they admit Members into the Catholique Church by Baptism but they are put into a state of Salvation by believing as before the old Nicene Creed alone Which is direct contradiction to their new Creed which they make necessary to Salvation but can never show to be contained implicitely in the old For it is as impossible to draw Water out of a Pumice as to extract out of the Apostles Creed the Doctrine of Transubstantiation Worshipping of Images Seven Sacraments the Traditions and other Constitutions used in the Roman Church Which was never so much as thought to be the Mother and Mistress of all Churches or to have power to impose new Articles upon the whole Church especially such large ones as take in all the definitions of that Council of Trent which they themselves are not agreed to this day how to expound Nor had that Synod if these Articles could have been shown to be contained in the old Creed any power to explain it and declare them according to what they confessed at the Florentine Council being far from a General Council no not of these Western parts of the World. And clearly showed it self to be but a factious Party in the Church by that very Explication which they made of this Article the holy Catholique Church which they thus expound the holy Catholique Apostolique Roman Church the Mother and Mistress of all Churches For it is certain the Apostles could not intend the Roman Church should be comprehended under the Catholique Church any more than every other Church which was then or should be hereafter because it was not in being there was no Roman Church at all when notwithstanding the Church was Catholique And hereby Salvation is impiously confined to the Roman Church alone by making the Catholique Church of no larger extent than that And this against the resolution of their greatest Doctors who think it no matter of Faith to be perswaded that the Apostolique See is fixed to Rome Which Bellarmine (b) L. IV. de Pont. Romano cap. 4. proves from hence because neither Scripture nor Tradition affirm it Nay if Christ had bidden Peter to place his See at Rome he doth not think it would follow that he placed it there immoveably And therefore no Man according to their own sense is bound to believe the Apostolical Church cannot be separated from the Roman which if it should happen and the Apostolick See be removed suppose to Paris the Creed must be altered again and it must run thus I believe the holy Catholique and Apostolique Parisian Church the Mother and Mistress of all Churches In which latter part of the Exposition to this Article they force Men to swear to a downright falshood For if the Roman Church be the Mother of all Churches she must be the Mother of her Grand-mother the Church of Jerusalem And it is no truer that she is the Mistress of all Churches For all Churches were not taught the Faith by her nor do they own her Authority over them But it is time to draw to an end of this matter We in this Church of England have always professed and preserved a true reverence to the IV. first General Councils One or rather two of which hath forbidden under the greatest penalties any Man to produce or compose or offer any other Faith besides that established by the Fathers at Nice which Theodoret (c) L. I. Hist Eccla c. 7. L. II. c. 22. L. IV. c. 2. in innumerable places calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Exposition of Faith and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Faith expounded the Apostolical Faith explained And therefore even for this reason alone we cannot receive the Creed of this Council at Trent which is manifestly another Faith added to the Confession of the Nicene Creed which old Creed it is madness as the Greeks at Florence said to think insufficient For it is to think they were all damned for 1500 Years and more who knew nothing beyond this necessary to be believed which no Man in his wits can believe For it is contrary to the very Faith it self which teaches us as Tertullian speaks to believe this in the first place that there is nothing to be believed beyond this And we believe so with the greatest reason because to admit any other Articles of Faith is to make endless Schisms in the Church as to believe contrary Articles is to fall into dangerous Heresies We know not where to stay if we rest not here for by the same Authority that made these more additions may be made continually without end There is therefore no such Authority in the Church that can do this
discourses in that very Book against Manichaeus (q) Cap. XIV contra Epist quam vocant Fundamenti his Letter from whence the fore-named saying I had not believed the Gospel unless the Churches Authority had moved me to it is wont at every turn to be objected to us by those of the Romish perswasion Thou dost nothing but praise what thou believest and deride what I believe Now since I can be even with thee and do the very same praise what I believe and deride what thou believest what is to be done but that we leave and relinquish those who invite us to know things certain and afterwards require us to believe things uncertain let those of the Roman Church mark this and that we follow them who invite us first to believe that which we cannot yet see into that being made stronger in the Faith it self we may come to understand what we believe NOT MEN NOW BUT GOD HIMSELF INWARDLY ESTABLISHING AND ILLUMINATING OUR MIND It is impossible to read this passage and not see that this Father thought our Faith is not ultimately resolved into the Testimony of the Church but by that being invited to believe the Holy Scriptures we are established upon the serious reading of them in the Christian Faith and Knowledge of the Truth by God himself Upon whose Word in the Holy Scripture and not upon Men we bottom our Faith. Upon the Testimony and Authority of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and the Testimony of divine Men inspired by them who by Miracles and Signs and mighty Deeds and a prophetical Spirit proved themselves to be sent of God and have left his Mind and Will upon Record in the Scriptures of Truth Which the Church indeed in all parts of the World hath kept and preserved and faithfully transmitted down to us and now propounds to our Faith but it is not merely what the Church saith that makes us believe but what God himself saith in the Holy Scriptures concerning his Son Jesus Christ and what Jesus Christ saith concerning his rising from the Dead and sending the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles Which being fulfilled evidently proved him to be the Son of God the Saviour of the World and them to be his Apostles and Ministers who declared to Men the true way of Salvation So the Church directs and guides us to the Scriptures of Truth but they resolve and assure our Faith being the very Word of God. The authority of God's Church is the first motive which leads us to esteem the Scriptures but being led thither we find in the matter of them that which gives us full satisfaction by bestowing our pains in reading or hearing and considering the Mysteries contained therein The Church holds out this light to us but it is by this light that we see what is the mind and will of God. To this the Church points us and bids us attend to it for this it disposes and prepares us it leads us by the hand to this as the only sure foundation of our Faith because herein we find God himself speaking to us and moreover by the Ministery of the Church we are assisted in understanding the sence of the Holy Scriptures but they contain in themselves that Divine Authority and Truth whereby we come to a certain Faith. The Church tells us such and such things are true and we find them to be so by examining the Scriptures Which the Beraeans searched daily whether those things were so which the Apostles preached and therefore many of them believed not merely because the Apostles told them they ought so to do but because they found what they said in the Holy Scriptures XVII Act. 11 12. And so far as any Church speaks according to the truth contained therein it is to be believed and followed But if it bring no Divine word for its warrant if it propound other Doctrines which are not there it hath no authority to make such Doctrines the matter of our Faith much less to set up its own authority above the Scriptures as they do who say The Scriptures receive their authority from the Church Which is the Doctrine of no less Men than Baronius and Bellarmine to name no more The former of (r) Ad Annum 53 〈◊〉 X XI which argues that because we receive these Holy Books to be writings of the Apostles and Evangelists and not forged under their Names upon the testimony of the Church therefore all the writings of the New Testament received their authority from the Churches tradition which is fundamentum Scripturarum as he ventures to say the foundation of the Scriptures The other (s) L. 2. de Sacrament C. 25. Tertium is no less positive that if we take away the authority of the present Church and the present Council we call in doubt the whole Christian Faith. For the firmness of all ancient Councils and of all Doctrines depends upon the authority of the present Church This is very presumptuous talk for by the Church they mean themselves and then by the testimony of the Church that is their own testimony they mean such a Divine witness as assures us by its own authority without any other proof Which are the great points of difference between us in this matter For we assert first that the office of leading Men to the Holy Scriptures and so to Faith belongs to every Church as much as to them and secondly that no Church can bring People to Faith by its own testimony and authority but by the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures nor is any Church whatsoever to be heard in matters of Divine Truth further than it can prove its Doctrines by the authority of God's Word and teaches things agreeable thereunto II. Which leads to the Second thing briefly to shew what power and authority the Church cannot pretend unto in matters of Faith. 1. And first it appears by what hath been said that it hath not a Soveraign Absolute Prophetical authority independent upon the Rule of the Holy Scriptures so that we must take whatsoever it saith for true without consulting them This is the ambitious pretence of the great Doctors of the Roman Church who give the Church meaning thereby the present Roman Church an authority over all things not depending on the Scriptures but upon which the Scriptures themselves depend So that without the authority of this Church all truth is doubtful Which is a manifest principle of Infidelity making all Religion stand to the courtesie of a company of Men who in such matters are the least to be trusted of all other Christians that we are acquainted withall 2. The Church hath no authority to propound any Doctrine as necessary to Salvation which is not delivered in the Holy Scriptures but depends solely on the authority of its own Tradition This is another of their ambitious attempts who having arrogated to themselves alone the whole power of the Church make that power so unlimited that it can supply the
The Pillar and Ground of Truth A TREATISE SHEWING That the ROMAN CHVRCH falsly claims to be That CHURCH and the PILLAR of That TRUTH mentioned by S. Paul in his First Epistle to Timothy Chap. III. Vers 15. Which is explained in THREE PARTS Imprimatur JO. BATTELY May 9. 1687. LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in S. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXVII TO THE READER AMONG all the places of Scripture which they of the Church of Rome are wont to alledge for a proof of their pretended Infallibility I find none whereon they more rely than that of S. Paul to Timothy 1 III. 15. That thou may'st know how thou oughtest to behave thy self in the house of God which is the CHURCH of the living God the PILLAR AND GROUND OF THE TRUTH Which place say the Rhemists pincheth the Hereticks wonderfully and so it ever did and therefore they oppose themselves directly against the very letter and confessed sense of the same I have thought it therefore worth my pains to show how unjust this accusation is by opening the plain and evident meaning the literal and confessed sense of those words whereby it will appear that we are far from being Hereticks and that they not we are pinched by this place and that there is no ground at all in it for their Infallibility nor for their vain flourishes that the very Name of CHURCH terrifies us and makes us pale with fear as Campian insolently vapoured (a) Ratio III. and that we not only fear but altogether abhor the word CATHOLIQUE so as to leave it clean out of our Bibles as the fore-named Rhemists (b) Preface to Epistle of S. James most senslesly misrepresent us For as I have proved in the following Book that we not they are the true CATHOLIQVES so there is nothing further from truth I have likewise shown than that the Apostle here speaks with any particular respect to the Church of Rome Which is so far from striking any terror into us when it appropriates to it self the name of CHVRCH that we look upon the pretence to be as ridiculous as the proof is they give us of it Which is the sole Authority of a false S. Ambrose his Commentaries upon this place who thus glosses All the World being God's yet the Church only is his House the Rector or Ruler whereof at this time is DAMASUS Where the Rhemists (c) Annot. in 1 Tim. III. 15. desire us to note How clear a case it was then that the Pope of Rome was not the Governor only of one particular See but of Christ's whole House which is the Universal Church c. And further improve this conceit in these words The Church which is the House of God whose Rector saith S. Ambrose in his time was Damasus and now Gregory the thirteenth and in the Apostles time S. Peter is the Pillar of Truth the establishment of Verity and therefore it cannot err And truly it is worth our noting how clear a Case it is that they were sorely pinched to use their own word again for want of proofs when they betook themselves to such as this For it is hard to think that Men of their education whom we will not despise as they do the Hereticks a little before (d) Annot. in 1 Tim. I. 7. as most ignorant of the Word of God not knowing the very Principles of Divinity should not know that S. Ambrose was not the Author of those Commentaries they being acknowledged by the greatest Men in their Church to be spurious Brats of some other Writer Baronius (e) Annal. Tom. V. ad an 397. n. 38. for instance saith The Exposition of Ambrose upon all Paul 's Epistles began to be wanting in the time of Cassiodorus but being plainly lost it is apparent the work of another Author was foisted in its room And their other great Cardinal Bellarmine confesses as much in several places but in one more fully (f) L. I. de Mitrimonio cap. 17. where he assoils an Objection of Chemnitius who following the rule of the Civil Law (g) Tistem quem quis inducit prose tenetar recipere contra se the witness which any Man produces for himself he is bound to receive against himself quotes this Book as Bellarmine oft had done in a Case of Marriage by this Answer That the Author of these Commentaries is not S. Ambrose as learned Men know and more than that whosoever was the Author he was none ex celebratis patribus of the famous or eminent Fathers And indeed there is great reason for what these and many others of that Church say as I might show out of the Commentaries themselves which contradict the very words of the true S. Ambrose But suppose he had been the Author or these the Work of some celebrated Writer it is a clear case and I desire it may be noted that these Rhemist Annotators were not so knowing as they would be esteemed or not so conscientious as they ought to have been when they gather from these words that Damasus was Ruler over more than his own See even over the Universal Church as S. Peter they say was in the Apostles times For S. Ambrose himself saith in his Book of the Priestly Dignity (h) Tom. IV. de Sacerdotali dignitate cap. 2. which Priests one would think should read that when Christ said Feed my Sheep those Sheep and that Flock not only blessed Peter then received but both he received them with us and with him we all have received them And it is an unusual thing in Ancient Writers to say the same of other Bishops that this Writer doth of Damasus when they mean no more but that they were Rulers of that part of the Catholique Church which was committed to their charge Thus Arsenius for instance writes to Athanasius as he himself hath set down his Letter which begins thus We loving Peace and Unity with the Catholique Church over which thou by the Grace of God dost preside or rule (i) Athan. Tom. 1. Apolog 2. p. 786. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And more than this such great Clerks as they should not have been ignorant being also such lofty Censurers of the Hereticks that Gregory Nazianzene called the Divine whom they read it is to be supposed to learn the principles of Divinity saith S. Cyprian was made not only a Pastor but a Pastor that had the largest dominion (k) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Orat. XVIII p. 281. being set over not the Church of Carthage only or Africa but all the West and almost all the East it self and the North and South unto whom his fame reached But if these things escaped their observation or they studiously concealed them they must have been most ignorant of the word of God as they say the Hereticks are if they did not know that S. Paul saith the same of the Elders of Ephesus that this Writer doth of Damasus
XX. Act. 28. that the Holy Ghost had made them overseers to feed that is to rule and govern the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own Blood. And if they knew this why were they not so honest as to interpret the later by the former for there is no difference between S. Paul's words and the counterfeit S. Ambrose's S. Paul saith the Elders of Ephesus were appointed to rule the Church of God for that 's the office of a Shepherd that feeds the Flock the other saith Damasus was the ruler of God's Church If the Vniversal Church be thereby meant and not his part of it only why should it not be so expounded in the words of S. Paul and then Damasus his title to this office is crackt for there were Rulers then set over the Church Vniversal by the Holy Ghost before he or his Church of Rome perhaps was in being But if S. Paul's words must have a more limited meaning then with what conscience do they give their S. Ambrose's words an unlimited and not restrain them as they must do S. Paul's to the particular See committed to his Government And it was not easie for them to be ignorant that S. Paul in these words to Timothy speaks of the Church of Ephesus and not of Rome and was so far from having any thought of S. Peter whom these Annotators make the Ruler at that time of this House of God that it is evident Timothy was the person who presided in it and was the chief Pillar and Ground of Truth here spoken of as I doubt not I have proved in the insuing Discourse Wherein I have also shewn that other succeeding Bishops in other Churches had the same title nay many persons in the Church that were no Bishops who were far from thinking themselves or being thought by others infallible as these Annotators imagine they must needs be who are the Pillar and establishment of the Truth That 's an inference from these words for which they had no more warrant than they had to intitle S. Ambrose to those Commentaries The Author of which also did so little dream of the Infallibility of the Church when he glossed upon these words that he doth not so much as make the Church the Ground or establishment of the Truth But saith in plain terms Firmamentum as the Vulgar Latine translates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hujus veritatis signa sunt prodigia the establishment of this Truth left in the Church are signs and wonders which the Apostles that is wrought to bring Men to the firm belief of that truth which they preached Which doth not rely therefore upon the credit of the Church but upon the credit of the Apostles and of those Divine Works whereby God bare Witness to them which are recorded in the Holy Scriptures From whence alone we ought to derive our knowledge of the Truth the Apostle here speaks of as is most clearly resolved by S. Cyril of Hierusalem in these memorable words (l) Catech. IV. Sect. de Spirito Saycto Concerning the Divine and Holy Mysteries of the Faith we ought not to deliver any thing though never so small without the Divine Scriptures c. neither shouldst thou believe me barely saying these things to thee unless thou receivest the demonstration of the things published out of the Divine Scriptures For this is the safety or security of our Faith which depends not upon words that we invent but upon the demonstration of the Divine Scriptures In which we hear our Lord Christ himself speaking to us who is more to be believed than the Church For the Church as S. Paul speaks is subject unto Christ they are the words of S. Augustine (m) Tom. VII Coura Crisconium Gram. l. 2. c. 21. and therefore the Church ought not to set her self above Christ so as to think that they who are condemned by him may be baptized but they that are condemned by the Church may not be baptized when he always judges truly but Ecclesiastical Judges being Men are oft-times deceived From them therefore who are fallible we appeal to Him who is infallible and hath delivered his sentence in the Holy Scriptures or from a Church particular we appeal to the Church Catholique nay from the New Church of Rome to the Old. For we are not as they would make the World believe affrighted with the Name of the Church whose judgment we truly honour as will appear in this Treatise while they dishonour it by confining the Church to themselves and then exalting it above the Scriptures of Truth and making its mere Name serve to dazzle the eyes of their own People and to keep them in profound ignorance teaching them (n) 〈…〉 in XII Luke 11. to oppose the Name of a Catholique Man and the Catholique Church as a sufficient answer to all that we most reasonably object against them Thus in their own conceit it is a kind of Gorgon's head which they fansie will immediately stupify us when it is opposed to us but blessed be God we are still in our Wits and understand very well that this is no better than his old Artifice who invented this cheat as S. Cyprian (o) L. de Vnitate Ecclesie speaks of deceiving unwary Souls by the very Title of the Christian Name For just so they now abuse the Name of Church and the name of Catholique and by good words and fine speeches as S. Paul writes XVI Rom. 18. deceive the hearts of the simple Whom I have endeavoured in this small Treatise to undeceive and direct in the way of that TRVTH of which every Church ought to be the Pillar and Ground If any one be not but in stead of the certain constant universally received Christian Truth set up uncertain nay false lately invented and particular conceits of its own it is not to be relied on but rejected though it hath been formerly a Church of never so great Authority Such the Church of Rome once was but now ceases so to be having by taking upon her too much lost that regard which otherwise it might have had in the Christian World. It is not the same Church it was in the Apostles times no nor in the days of Gregory the Great as hath been unanswerably demonstrated by Bp. Morton heretofore (p) Catholique Appeal L. 1. cap. 2. and lately by the Author of the Vindication of the Answer of some late Papers to which there will never be an ingenuous Reply Great and many alterations have been made therein to the manifest prejudice of the Christian Faith of which that Church should have been as well as others a Pillar and Establishment but hath notoriously failed in her duty by inventing another Faith which undermines and endangers that Faith which was once delivered to the Saints Of this I have given so full and so clear an account in these Papers that I fear not to expose them to the examination of them that are of
a contrary mind hoping though they do not convince them of their errors yet they will help to establish the People of our Church in the present Truth Which I doubt not they will see to be the truly Catholique Apostolique Faith which they ought not to part withal but preserve as carefully as they do their life And so the cannot fail to do if they add to Faith Vertue In order to which I have endeavoured to make this Treatise as practical as I could that we may not fall into that grand error of thinking it enough to hold the Truth though we hold it in unrighteousness God of his infinite mercy deliver us all from that damnable delusion and establish our hearts unblameable in Holiness before God even our Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his Saints 1 Thess III. 13. PART I. INTRODUCTION IT is a pious reflection which Clemens Alexandrinus makes upon a saying of Plato that if truth could never have been learnt L. VI. Stromat p. 675. but either from God himself or from his dependents then we who have the testimonies of the Divine Oracles do justly boast that we are taught the truth by the very Son of God. Which he hath revealed unto us so plainly in all things necessary to our Salvation and transmitted unto us so intirely in the Holy Scriptures that it cannot but be a great trouble to all those who love him and his Religion to see such wranglings about it in his Church as if there were no more certainty among us what is truth than there was among the Philosophers The contention about this is so sharp and fierce that while Men seek after Truth they are in danger to lose the very aim and scope of it which is Charity the love of God and of one another This S. Paul determines to be the very drift of the Gospel when he tells Timothy the end of the commandment is charity 1 I. 5. Nay they have raised so many doubts about this matter that poor People are many times to seek for Truth it self even in the clearest light thereof It being some Mens business so to confound their thoughts that they know it not when they see it but are still in great trouble about it even when they have it And where to seek for it is now grown a great question also It is to be found no doubt in the Church but about that there are so many disputes that Men are to seek as much as before if they go to find it there In short there are no words more abused than these two Truth and Church and therefore I hope it will do some service to Souls if for their plain and safe direction in these matters I rescue those words of S. Paul to Timothy 1 III. 15. the Church of the living God the pillar and ground of truth from those false glosses that are put upon them to the great dishonour of our blessed Lord and of his Holy Truth And for that end I shall distinctly treat of these four things First What that truth is of which either the Church or Timothy or both were the Pillar and Ground Secondly What it is to be a Pillar and Ground of the Truth Thirdly Who it is to whom this Office and Honour belongs of being the Pillar and Ground of the Truth or what we mean when we say the Church is intrusted therewith Lastly How it discharges this Office. I. What is the Truth Here we must begin because we must first know what the Truth is before we can know a Society of Men to be the Church which is constituted and made by believing and professing the Truth And this in effect is a resolution of that question which Pilate askt our Saviour but would not stay for an answer What is Truth Which though it be made a great difficulty by those whose interest it is to make things intricate and perplexed yet in my opinion it is very easie to give satisfaction to it and we need not go far neither to seek it For the Apostle himself immediately explains what he means by Truth in the words following and without Controversie great is the mystery of godliness God was manifested in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the World received up into Glory Where we learn two things in general concerning this matter First that the truth here spoken of is that which was formerly a Mystery or Secret which lay hidden for many Ages and Generations in the unknown purpose of God but now is revealed and manifested by the Son of God and his holy Spirit to make Men godly Which is the other thing we learn from thence that the truth which the Apostle intends is the Mystery of Godliness or as he he speaks in the VI. Chapter v. 3. the Doctrine which is according to Godliness And therefore whatsoever doth not tend to better Mens lives by making them do their duties faithfully both towards God and towards Men to some of which the duties that are owing are in this very Epistle called shewing Piety or Godliness v. 4. we are not to reckon it among the truths which were deposited with Timothy to be preferred and upheld in the Church For God did not design by the discovery he made of his Mind and Will in the Gospel merely to enlarge our knowledge but to rectifie our wills and affections by the right information of our minds and by acquainting us with such weighty truths especially such wonderful revelations of his love as cannot but irresistably sway us if we lay them to heart unto his Obedience But that we may not be left to guess at this truth or mystery of Godliness without any certainty he sets down a particular of it and reduces the whole mystery of Godliness to these Six heads I. The principal is this that the eternal Son of God came down from Heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary and was made Man that he might suffer for us and make himself an offering for our sins All this I take to be included in these words God was manifested in the flesh Which cannot be meant of God the Father for it is expressly said in other places that it was Jesus Christ who came in the flesh 1 Joh. IV. 2. and is here declared to be God that is the eternal Son of God the Word made flesh 1 Joh. 14. Which doth not denote merely his being made Man but likewise his suffering for us he taking our flesh on purpose for this very end that therein he might by his Death make an atonement for Sin. And so the very phrase flesh and blood signifies in Scripture as it doth commonly in the Hebrew Writers this weak frail mortal suffering State wherein we are at present into which our blessed Lord put himself when he manifested himself in our flesh So we read expressly II. Hebr. 14. where to
is the keeper and Conservator of all the Holy Scriptures and the Divine Truths contained therein and that by faithful keeping them it upholds and supports the Truth as a Pillar doth the building which rests upon it But this is sufficiently included in what follows Secondly the Church is not only to preserve the Truth but to profess it and to give attestation to it that is to bear witness that this is the Truth of God and this alone which he hath revealed for the Salvation of Mankind By which means it doth not only hold up the Truth but hold it out to others as the Sacred Edict or Decree of God which all are to take notice of and observe And so Thirdly It is by this means to promote and propagate the Truth and not let it fall to the ground as a building doth when the Pillars that supported it are removed In brief As Heretical Churches were the Pillars and Stays of falshood they maintained and defended it they testified to it and indeavour'd to continue it and leave it to Posterity just so is the Church of Christ the Pillar and Ground of Truth it professes the Christian Faith it maintains it as the Truth of God and notwithstanding all the persecutions troubles losses torments whereby its Enemies would shake the constancy of those who maintain the Truth they testifie to it and declare to future Generations that this as S. Peter speaks is the true grace of God wherein we stand This is the first consideration to assure us of the true meaning of these words II. The Second is as strong for plain reason makes it evident that this not the other is the sense of them The Church that is cannot be the very foundation upon which the Truth is built not that which gives it authority and makes it to be Truth for the quite contrary is declared by Truth it self that the Truth is the foundation upon which the Church is built and which makes it to be a Church So S. Paul instructs this very Church of Ephesus who were built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner Stone in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth into an holy Temple in the Lord In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit II. Ephes 18 19 20. It was therefore a Church of Christ because it held the Truth which He and his Apostles taught And so a great number of the Ancient Fathers expound those words of Christ to S. Peter Thou art Peter and upon this Rock i. e. upon the confession of Faith which thou hast made upon that Truth thou hast confest I will build my Church Matth. XVI We can own no Society of Men to be a Church of Christ unless they profess the true Faith of Christ And therefore the true Faith must be known before we can know whether they be a true Church or no who call themselves by that Name and consequently they do not give authority to the Truth but the Truth to them because the Truth must be supposed before they can have any authority Observe the above recited words I beseech you which say the Church is built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets c. i. e. upon the Truth revealed by them in the Gospel It is a Church by holding and believing this for if this be not the thing which makes a company of Men to be a Church of the living God tell me why the Mahometans are not his Church They are a society of Men professing some belief and having some truth and devotion and being governed by Laws as well as we There is no reason why they belong not to the Church of Christ but because they have not the Truth as it is in Christ Therefore the Church doth not make the Truth but the Truth makes the Church the Truth doth not rely upon the Church because it is before the Church which relies upon it Which was the Doctrine of the Church it self in after Ages as it were easie to shew if I intended to write a great Book I will content my self with two Testimonies in ancient times the one is of S. Chrysostome who thus expounds these very words the Church of the living God the Pillar and Ground of Truth Not like that Judaical Temple saith he for this is it which keeps together and contains the Faith and the preaching or Doctrine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the Truth is both the Pillar and the Ground or foundation of the Church The other is S. Austin in his third Book upon the Creed to the Catechumens (c) Tom. IX which begins thus You know this viz. the Creed to be the foundation of the Cathlique Faith upon which the edifice of the Church arose being built by the hands of the Apostles and Prophets And with this of Gabriel Biel in latter Ages (d) L. 3 in sentent Dist 25. Dub. 3. Catholique truths without any approbation of the Church are in the nature of the thing immutable and immutably true and so are to be accounted unchangeably Catholique Which brings to mind another remarkable saying of S. Austin who after he had produced in his first and second Books against Julian the Pelagian the testimonies of XI great Doctors viz. Irenaeus Cyprian Reticius Olympius Hilarius Ambrosius Innocentius where by the way it is observable he mentions the Bishop of Rome only as one of the eminent Bishops not as Head of them all Gregory Nyssen Basil of Caesarea John Chrysostom Hierom makes this reflection upon their consent which he lookt upon as the voyce of the Catholique Church Qui tamen veritati auctoritatem non suo tribuêre consensu c. who notwithstanding did not give authority to the Truth by their consent but received testimony and glory by partaking of the Truth They endeavour indeed to put by such evident conviction as this by a little distinction that though in it self the Church is built upon the Truth yet in respect to us the Truth is built upon the Church Which appears already to be a vain conceit unto those who consider that the Church cannot be the foundation of Truth to us unless we first know it to be the true Church of Christ and indued with this priviledge from God to be the Ground of Truth in this sense which I am now confuting But whence should we know this If it be said from the Truth which it professes then the Church is not the Foundation of the Truth to us for we must know the Truth before we can know that to be the true Church which calls it self the Foundation If we say from the Church then the Church is the Pillar and Ground of it self and we believe it to be the true Church because it says it is Which is so absurd and dangerous that the Mahometans as I said will be as true a Church as any else they may boldly put
in for their share of this priviledge Nay if confidence and power can carry it ingross it wholly to themselves It remains therefore that this is the true sense of the words which I have given The Church keeps the Truth and keeps it up It is the Conservator of it and preserves it from falling to the ground it proclaims it and holds it forth to others it continues the truth in the World and settles it in mens minds but it self is built upon this Truth not the Truth upon it Which derives its authority from God who sent Jesus Christ into the World to teach us his will and gave him power to send his Apostles as he had sent him God bearing them witness with signs and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will. This will be the more plainly laid open if I spend a little time in showing what is here meant by the Church which is commonly thought to be the Pillar and Ground of Truth and was the third thing propounded in the beginning to be explained III. The Church or House of God signifies every where a company of Christians united under their Pastors unto Christ their Head by a sincere Faith and joyned one to another by Brotherly love and communion Where ever we find such a Society of Men and Women there is a Church and all the Societies of this kind throughout the World make up that which we call the Catholique or Vniversal Church the whole body of Christ or Christian Church Of which the Church of Ephesus here spoken of was a part one eminent company of Christians professing the truly Catholique Faith and joyned to Timothy as their chief Pastor for the worship and service of Christ and for to be the Pillar and Ground of Truth as these words must be interpreted if they relate unto the Church They indeed who are now of the Roman Communion understand by the Church only the Pastors of the Church And some of them this Church representative as it may be called that is the whole assembly of Christian Bishops as many as can meet together representing all the Churches under their care But others understand only one Bishop alone the Pope of Rome who is then the Church Virtual in whom all the power of all the Bishops in the World is united But as there are no such notions of the Word Church in Scripture so if they be applied to this place they will appear very wild fancies unto any Man who will soberly consider the scope of it For it is very evident that the Church is here mentioned as distinct from Timothy who was the prime Pastor of it and who is directed how to behave himself in it Therefore if this Church was the Pillar of Truth the whole multitude of Believers at Ephesus united under him and the rest of their Pastors must be lookt upon as having an interest in this great priviledge and honour as well as duty to be the Conservators and Supporters of the Christian Faith which they had received For S. Paul as I said is instructing Timothy how to demean himself in this Society which he calls the House or family of God that is among true Believers in Christ formed into a Society under the Government of their Guides who were to take the greater care that every one in the Church was well taught instructed and ordered because they were the Pillar and Ground of Truth This made S. Paul very solicitous that Timothy should carry himself well and be a good Pastor in that Church of which the Holy Ghost had made him chief Overseer And not knowing when he might have opportunity to see him and give him personal instruction by word of mouth he wrote this Letter to him for his direction that he might fully understand how to discharge this Office. And therefore these words it appears by the verse foregoing v. 14. relate partly to what went before and partly to what follows These things write I unto thee hoping to come unto thee shortly but if I tarry long that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thy self in the House of God which is the Church of the living God the Pillar and Ground of Truth And without controversie great is the mystery of godliness c. Which whole Paragraph is to be understood as if he had said in more words Though I hope shortly to discourse with thee face to face yet not knowing what may hinder and retard my hopes I have sent the above written instructions to thee not to trouble the Church with vain disputations about the rites of the Law and such idle questions as the Jews are apt to raise but to remember as I have said in the beginning of this Letter v. 4 5. of the first Chapter that the end of the Commandment is charity the love of God and of our neighbour This therefore teach them and instruct them also to make prayers supplications and intercession with giving of thanks for all Men for Kings and all that are in authority Chap. II. 1 2 3 4. teach them all likewise how to pray v. 8. and instruct the Bishops and the Deacons and all the rest in their Office and Duty for it is of great concernment that they be well informed because this Church over which thou art set is the very Seat of Truth which is not to be found in any other place but in such a company of Believers Who ought to uphold and defend it when thou art dead and gone and therefore had need be well setled and established in it especially in the great mystery of godliness wherein all Christians agree and about which there is no Controversie That so the Church may never let it go and this Truth may not dye and fall to the Ground when we are laid in our Graves but be delivered to those that come after as the very Oracles of God. Who now is there so blind as not to be able to see that by the Church is meant not merely the supream Governour of the Church which was Timothy but all that company of Christian people under their several Bishops and Teachers who belonged to Ephesus All of which S. Paul left Timothy when he himself went into Macedonia to take care of and to charge that they taught no other Doctrine as you read 1.3 and in this House or Family he was when S. Paul wrote this Epistle to him not in a General Council for there was none in three hundred Year after this time Therefore he doth not speak of the Church Representative as it is called much less of the Church Virtual as they term it that is the Pope For then mark what sence the words will make I have wrote to thee not knowing when I shall see thee how to behave thy self in the Bishop of Rome as if he would have us fancy Timothy in the Popes Belly and himself gravely instructing him how to carry himself with
great circumspection and discretion there I do not love to use such words but there are no other I can find so apt to represent the gross absurdity of their Doctrines who take upon them to give infallible interpretations of Holy Scripture from the Universal Bishop the grand and only Oracle of Christendom as they would have him esteemed or from such Councils as they are pleased to call General and can obtain their approbation You see what godly ones we are like to have if we give up our Faith to them how they will pervert the plain words of God to serve their own interest and wrest them from their natural and easie sence to another which is so forced that there is no Man so rude but would readily discern the absurdness of it if he were permitted to read and did consider the Holy Scripture For their great Cardinal Bellarmine alledges these very words to prove that General Councils confirmed by the Pope cannot err (e) Lib. 2. de Contil. Auctoritate C. 2. Class 2da nay that particular Councils approved by the Pope have the same priviledge (f) Ib. cap. 6. Denique where it is evident to the weakest understanding that the whole company of Christians that were at Ephesus united to their Pastors without which they could not be a Society or Company are the Church here spoken of and therefore are the Pillar and Ground of Truth if this relate to the Church and not merely some particular person in that Church much less a General Council of all the Bishops in the World and least of all one Bishop in whom Timothy could not be said in any sense to be as he is here said to be in that Church which is the Pillar and Ground of Truth viz. in that Church whereof he was the chief Governour which was the Pillar and Ground of Truth in that part of the World. For this is not an Office appropriated to any particular Church but belonging to the Catholique Church and to every single Church as it is a Member of the Whole And here it will be very profitable I think to note these six things for the full explication of this place of Scripture I. The first of them is that which I now mentioned that every particular Church one as well and as much as another is a Pillar and Ground of Truth in that sense which I have declared This is not a prerogative which belongs to some one Church but a priviledge appertaining to the Universal and to every particular as a part of it For if the Church at Ephesus was a Pillar of Truth as S. Paul here affirms then by the same reason the Church of Antioch the Church of Corinth the Church of Rome and the Church of Jerusalem had the same authority For that which made any one of them a Church made the other so viz. the true Faith of Christ there professed and union with their Pastors for the Divine service and therefore that honour or Office which belong'd to one of them must of necessity belong to another because they were but so many members of one and the same Body That is every one of them in their several Countries wherein they were planted had the truth of God committed to them which they were to maintain and support unto the very death and endeavour that every one who was a Stranger to the words of eternal life might by their means know and believe them And accordingly every Church hath contributed unto this and no one Church could ever with any reason pretend to be the sole supporter or defender of the Christian Truth Of which there is this plain demonstration that then the Church is most of all the Pillar and Ground or Buttress as some translate it of Truth when it is assaulted by Heresies and not only beats them off but beats them down and suppresses them Now all Heresies were not quasht and confounded by S. Peter and his Successors in the Church of Rome but by other Apostles and Evangelists and their Successors in other Churches This is demonstrated by a learned Man of the Roman Communion * Joh. Launoii Epist pars Quinta Antonio Varillao p. 35. c. by XII famous instances out of a far greater number S. John for example not Peter or any of his Successors struck down the Nicolaitans S. Paul the Nazarens and Cerinthians S. Luke the Ebionites as he proves out of good Authors particularly Hyginus who relates how the Bishops of other Sees not the Bishops of Rome quasht the Ptolemaites the Noetians and divers other Hereticks as the Synod of Antioch did Paulus Samosatenus (g) Enseb L. VII Eccles Hist c. 22. and the first General Council of Constantinople where Damasus Bishop of Rome was not present either by himself or his Legates did Eunomius and other Hereticks Which leads to the second thing I would have observed II. That every eminent Pastor in the Church who laboured in the word and Doctrine as S. Paul speaks in this Epistle V. 17. had these very titles anciently bestowed upon him of the Pillar and Ground of Truth because the Bishops were the principal Trustees with whom the Faith was deposited as may be observed in the words of Irenaeus before mentioned and many other ancient Writers and in S. Paul's words to Timothy when he bids him to keep the depositum he had committed to him and commit the same to other faithful or trusty persons who should be able to teach it to others 2 Tim. I. 14. II. 2. and because they were principal Instruments in defending the Truth against opposers in propagating the Christian Faith to those who were ignorant of it and in preserving the rest of the Church in the belief of the Truth which they had entertained by their constant instructions and zealous exhortation to hold fast what they had received Nay we shall rarely if at all find any Bishop of Rome called the Pillar and Ground of Truth but several other Bishops are frequently called by this name S. Basil for instance (h) Epist LXII Tom. II. writing of the Bishop of Neocaesarea newly dead bewails his loss very much because he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ornament of the Churches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very words of the Apostle here in this place the Pillar and Ground of Truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a strong and firm establishment of Faith in Christ c. And upon the same occasion writing to the Church of Ancyra (i) Epist LXVII whose Bishop was called Athanasius it appears by some of the foregoing Epistles he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Man is faln who was indeed a Pillar and Ground of the Church And complaining in another Epistle (k) Epist LXX of the miserable estate of their Churches he says among other things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Pillars and Ground of the Truth are dispersed the Bishops he means were banished from their Flocks Which
it self for the sake of it Neither is this meerly the Ecclesiastical Language but the Holy Scripture it self gives those this honourable title who constantly indured tribulation for the Gospel sake though it did not cost them their lives Thus our blessed Lord speaks to the Church of Philadelphia III. Revel 12. Him that overcometh will I make a Pillar in the temple of my God. Which signifies partly that he should be an eminent Instrument of upholding the Church and preserving many in the profession of Christianity by his constancy and firmness in it and partly that he should be so established himself by the grace and power of God that he should never fall according to that of S. Peter 1 V. 10. But the God of all grace who hath called us unto his eternal glory after that ye have suffered a while make you perfect establish strengthen settle you and partly that he should be made in the highest sense a PILLAR that is an Apostolical Man who should be advanced to the most eminent imployment in the Church of teaching and instructing of Governing and Ruling as a principal Pastor in the Temple of God. In one word be an Angel of the Church as he speaks in the beginning of this Letter v. 7. and in all the rest an illustrious Minister and Messenger of God to publish the glad tidings of Salvation to the World. Such the Apostles were whom Theodoret calls the Pillars of the Truth with peculiar respect to their sufferings Behold saith he †Orat. de providentia Tom. IV. p. 441. Peter and John 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the Towers or Bulwarks of Godliness the Pillars of Truth supporting the Structure of the Church being scourged by the Jews but rejoycing and glorying V. Act. 41. that they were counted worthy to suffer shame or to be disgraced for his Name And such like were these victorious Souls as Arethas * Comment in III. Rev. 12. expounds our Saviour's words to this Church For he that conquers saith he the adverse powers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is constituted a Pillar and Ground of the Truth rejoycing himself immutably so he interprets in the temple of my God and establishing others in goodness that they may not fall from their stedfastness IV. Any eminent person also in the Church though not a Martyr is sometime called by this name in Ecclesiastical Writers For instance Jo. Damascen thus addresses himself to Jordanes the Archimandrite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (b) Epist ad euâ—n de Triâ—agio O most Divine Father the Pillar and Ground or stay of Truth Nay thus zealous persons in the Laity especially if they were of great quality contributed to the support of the Faith by supporting these Pillars of it So S. Basil in one of the forenamed Epistles having bewailed the banishment of their Bishops whom he calls the Pillars and Ground of Truth prays Terentius a Count of the Empire to preserve himself safe that they might have some to rest upon God having graciously made him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (c) Epist 345. a support and a prop in all things to us But they of the Clergy more particularly though of the Order below Bishops were lookt upon as having no small share in this Office. For S. Cyril of Alexandria (d) Lib. V. in Esaiam Tom. 2. p. 768. having mentioned Christ as the foundation and believers in him as pretious Stones built upon him unto a holy Temple compares their instructors in the Mysteries of Religion to the most pretious Stones such as those mentioned LIV. Isa 11 12. which God uses some in laying the foundation others as buttresses some for the Gates others for the Walls of the holy City that is the Church that all her Children may be taught of God. V. Nay one of the forenamed great Doctors of the Church warrants me to add that every pious member of the Church in his place and calling hath his share in this great trust For whosoever saith S. Gregory Nyssen (e) Hom. XIV in Cant. Canticorum p 684. is perfected in these two great Commandments to love God and to love his Neighbour he is framed to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Pillar and Ground of Truth according to the language of the Apostle By both these we may become such Pillars as Peter and James and John or if there be any other since them that hath been or shall be worthy of this name And he doth in effect say the same in the place before named (f) De vita Mosis where he observes the Apostle requires others to be Pillars as well as himself when he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. XV. 58. be ye stedfast or stable unmoveable abounding always in the work of the Lord. For he that is thus firmly fixed and setled as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies and diligent in well doing whatsoever trials he hath to shake him he supports Religion he maintains the credit of it in the World he doth great service to the Truth by shewing how good how useful how laborious it makes those that embrace it And I am sure it lies upon every one of us as an indispensable duty to hold fast the Truth and to profess it and practise it and notwithstanding any danger or trouble unto which it may expose us to testifie unto it if need be by constant patient peaceable suffering for Christs sake And he that doth thus is according to his measure though never so mean a person in the Church a Pillar and Ground of Truth And thus Theodoret expounds these words he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the assembly or congregation of those that believe the House of God and the Church and these he saith are the Pillar and support of Truth For being founded upon the Rook they both remain unshaken and preach by their deeds the truth of their Doctrine And Theophylast also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Church is a constitution or an assembly of truth For all things that are done in it are true nothing shadowy as under the Law c. VI. I have but one thing further to add That the more and the better they are who joyn in this work the greater support they give to the Truth First I say the more the greater number there are of those who maintain the truth by preaching writing suffering or well doing and the greater credit they have in the World the stronger Pillars they are and the surer doth the truth seem to be in the eyes of those to whom they represent it Upon which account the Doctrine of S. Paul and Barnabas which he had received by revelation as well as other Apostles yet being communicated to James and Cephas and John who were eminent Pillars and been approved by them received the more strength by their concurrent testimony II. Gal. 2 5 9. And it was still more confirmed by the whole Council of Apostles and Elders at Jerusalem
better from one of their society who calls them brethren than from one that separates from them as mere Strangers and Foreigners with whom they have nothing to do in matters of Religion Would to God this were more seriously practised among us that we would be as forward charitably to reprove Men for their wickedness as we are even to reproach them perhaps uncharitably for their false opinions It might be a means of their cure an effectual remedy for their amendment when piously and prudently administred and a means of bringing those back who are gone astray from us that there may be no divisions among us but we may be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment PART III. How the Church discharges this Office of a Pillar and Ground of Truth WHAT the Psalmist saith concerning Jerusalem or the Church of the Jews which was wont there to assemble is more fully verified in the Christian Church Great and glorious things are spoken of thee O thou city of God LXXXVII Ps 1. This great City S. John saw descending out of Heaven having the glory of God XXI Rev. 10 11. And in the Verse before calls this Church the bride the lambs wife There is a special presence that is of God in it and a special love of the Lord Jesus to it For it is the body of Christ and the fulness of him that fills all things To this S. John saith they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations against this our Saviour promises the gates of hell shall not prevail The pure water of life clear as crystal runs therein here grows the tree of life XXII Rev. 1 2. and it is as it were the paradise and garden of God. Which things show what an honour what an happiness it is to be a Citizen of this Holy Jerusalcm Whosoever they be that by a cordial Faith in Christ and sincere love to him joyn themselves to this Body are made Members of Christ Children of God Companions of Angels and Inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven They are under the protection of the Almighty under the guidance of his Holy Spirit under the care and tender love of that great and glorious Lord who is the Prince of all the kings of the earth and hath all power in heaven as well as earth invested in him For the Church is the house and family of God nay the temple of the living God 2 Cor. VI. 17. for he hath said as it there follows I will dwell in them and walk in them and will be their God and they shall be my people I will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord God Almighty These things are great indeed and exceeding glorious But not content with these priviledges which are as a Royal Diadem and Crown of Glory on the Head of the Church there are those who would adorn her with prouder Titles and set her forth in an adulterous dress and a presumptuous glory making her in a manner equal to her Head the Lord Christ For they have snatcht one of the incommunicable properties of God and fixt it as a Jewel on the top of the Churches Crown telling us that she is an infallible Guide who cannot mislead us That is though she may go astray and play the Harlot in life and practice yet she cannot err nor mistake in her judgment So that if we listen to what she says we shall never wander but always be in the right For the proof of this they first suppose themselves to be the Church of Christ and they alone and then they abuse this place of Holy Scripture to assert this Divine Prerogative to be in his Church that is in themselves But I have exposed the bold folly of these pretences by showing that the Church here spoken of is the Church of Ephesus and that Timothy was the principal Pillar and Ground of Truth in this Church Which doth not signifie I have shown that either the Church or Timothy were the very Foundation of the Christian Faith upon whose credit the Authority the Truth and Certainty of all Religion depends but the Supporters of the Truth who testified maintained upheld and propagated the Faith of Christ For the more full understanding of which I shall briefly show before I proceed to the last thing propounded first what power it is that we herein ascribe to the Church particularly to the Bishops and Governors thereof Secondly what power it cannot pretend unto nor ought to be yielded to any Church or Person whatsoever I. As for the first of these what the power is we allow the Church when we say it upholds maintains and testifies to the Truth it is as much as to enquire of what Authority the Testimony of the Church is how much it ought to weigh with us and how far we ought to yield to it to the Testimony for instance of the present Church of which we are Members for it hath as much Authority as any other when it propounds Truth to us and presses it upon our belief Are we to believe it meerly because the Church saith it In answer to which we affirm that the Testimony of the Church is that whereby we are both informed of the Truth and induced as by the first external motive to Faith in Christ Mr. Hooker calls it the Key as others do the Door which lets us into the knowledge of the great Mystery of Godliness which is preserved in this House of God. If we allow it not this we allow it nothing nor can it or any Person in it be said to be a Pillar and Ground of Truth unless it do something to the bringing us acquainted with the Truth which it propounds and sets before us and testifies to be that which Christ hath left with his Church to be delivered down to all Generations For it conveys the Holy Scriptures to us and calls upon us to consider and study them that therein by the help of the Pastors of the Church to whom this Office I have shown principally belongs we may find all necessary Truths in order to our Salvation Which Testimony being the Testimony of Men that profess Faithfulness Honesty and a good Conscience as the great thing in their Religion is the highest of all humane Testimonies and cannot but work very strongly and powerfully upon Mens minds when Christians are such as they profess to be and as they are it ought to work thus far upon all sorts of Men even upon those who are out of the Church as to incline them to have a reverend regard to that Faith and those Scriptures and to look into them and consider them which they see such multitudes of People and some of them very wise as well as devout constantly esteem as the very Truth of God transmitted to them from his Son by the Apostles who attended on him from his first appearing till he went to Heaven This moved S.
Austin when he was yet in part an Infidel being a Manichee to believe the Gospel according to that famous Discourse of his in answer to the Epistle of Manichaeus which contained in a manner the whole Belief of that party Ego non crederem Evangelio nisi me Ecclesiae Catholicae authoritas commoveret (m) Tom. VI. contra Epistolam Fandamenti Cap. 5. which is to be thus translated according to the Phrase of the Asricans I had not believed the Gospel unless the Authority of the Catholique Church had moved me thereunto For it is evident as hath been shown by our Writers since the beginning of the Reformation * D. Whitakeram de saâ—â—a Scâ—iâ—t Q. 3. cap. 8. he speaks of himself when a Manichee as the words immediately following declare Those whom I obeyed when they said Believe the Gospel why should I not obey when they say Do not believe Manichaeus Which doth not signifie that the credit of the Gospel is founded upon the Churches Authority but that this was the first motive to incline him to look into the Gospel and consider it as a Divine Book which would inform him in the way of Salvation Thus he explains himself in the very foregoing Chapter where setting aside the sincere Wisdom taught in the Church which they would not believe he reckons up abundance of other things which might serve to keep him in the Catholique Church viz. the consent of People and Nations c. and then thus concludes These numerous and great and most dear tyes of the Christian name may very well hold a Man that believes in the Catholique Church although by reason of the slowness of his understanding or the defects of his life the truth do not yet show it self most openly unto him Whereas among the Manichees there were none of these things to invite or to hold him but a bare promise of Truth wherewith they made a noise which if they could have shown so manifestly that it could not be doubted he confesses it was to be preferred before all those things whereby he was held in the Catholique Church Which words are an evident proof that he speaks of the Authority of the Church as only moving and inducing him to believe the Scriptures and to joyn himself to their Society before the TRUTH was manifested to him which he was to sind there in the Scriptures and which he preferred before the Authority of the Church Which he elsewhere tells the Donatists was not to be believed upon its own credit L. de unitate Ecclesie cap. 16. But whether they hold the Church let them not show but from the Canonical Books of the Divine Scriptures for we neither do not say that we ought to be believed because we are in Christ's Church because that Church which we hold was commended to us by Optatus or Ambrose or other innumerable Bishops of our Communion or because it is approved by Councils or because Miracles are every where wrought in it These and such like things are therefore to be approved because they are done in the Catholique Church but it is not therefore manifested to be the Catholique Church because these things are done in it Our Lord Jesus himself when he rose from the dead and offered his Body to be toucht as well as seen by his Disciples lest they should think there was any fallacy in it judged it meet rather to confirm them by the testimonies of the Law and the Prophets and Psalms showing how all things were fulfilled which were predicted And so he commanded his Church saving that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his Name beginning at Hierusalem This he testified was written in the Law the Prophets and Psalms this we hold commended from his Mouth These are the Documents these the Foundations these the strong Grounds of our Cause We read in the Acts of the Apostles of some Believers that they sought the Scriptures daily whether those things were so What Scriptures but the Canonical Books of the Law and the Prophets to which are added the Gospels the Apostolical Epistles the Acts of Apostles and the Revelation of S. John. Search all these and bring forth something manifest whereby ye may demonstrate the Church either to have remained only in Africa or to be to come out of Africa c. This is an illustrious Testimony he thought the Church it self was to be warranted by the Scriptures which did not therefore receive their Authority from the Church but give it all the Authority it hath And after all it was not the Authority of the present Church barely that moved him when he was a Manichee but of the Catholique Church from the beginning Occham * Fr White 's Answer to Fisher's second Conference p. 24. thinks he speaks of the Church in the Apostles times alone which moved him to Believe And others as Gabriel Biel confess he speaks of the Authority of the Church à tempore Christi Apostolorum c. from the time of Christ and of the Apostles down to his days Such Authority cannot but weigh 〈◊〉 much even with those that do not yet believe if 〈…〉 â—eriously pondered but much more with those that are already Christians Whether they be Novices and weaklings who are as yet doubtful in the Faith though in the Church the Testimony and Authority of it ought to confirm and quiet their minds as it did S. Austin's it appears by the place before-named and keep them close to the Christian Society till they may themselves come better acquainted with the Truth and more fully understand the Holy Scriptures which the Church delivers to them and puts into their hands as the Word of God. Or whether they be more grown Christians and indeed all sorts of Persons in the Church who ought to be so far wrought upon even by its Authority as to be perswaded thereby to read constantly to consider and ponder seriously and to practise those plain Lessons faithfully which the Holy Scripture teaches them till it work effectually upon their hearts and purge them so throughly from all bad affections that they may more perfectly understand the Truth Thus much is indisputable for God hath appointed outward means for the conveying Divine Truth to our Belief and this means is ordinarily the Church to which we ascribe these two great things in this business (p) Answer to Charity mistaken Sect. V. First the office of a Witness testifying the Authority of Holy Scripture to us Secondly of an Instrument in Gods Hand to lead us into the understanding of the Scriptures and by its Ministry in preaching and expounding them to beget a Divine Faith in us But further than this we cannot we must not go For the last resolution of our Faith is not into the Testimony of the Church but into the Testimony of God himself which we find recorded in the Holy Scripture delivered by the Church unto us Thus S. Austin most admirably
the Truth II. Rev. 4. and now is utterly subverted and not to be found Which is a demonstration the Apostle did not in these words intend to teach that the Church cannot err but that as I said it is in duty bound by its calling and Office to preserve the Truth pure and intire For he himself foresaw this Church would be haunted with grievous Wolves after his departure Act. XX. 29 30. who no doubt came in Sheeps clothing as they also among themselves did who he foretold would arise speaking perverse things to draw Disciples after them And immediately after he had here called the Church or Timothy the Pillar of Truth he admonishes him in the beginning of the next Chapter IV. 1 2. that there would be an apostasie from the Faith as the Spirit expresly declared For according to what our Saviour predicted there was scarce any Church but the Enemy sowed Tares among the Wheat which very much hindred the growth thereof So we are informed by Hegisippus a very ancient Christian Historian who †Fuâ—b L. III. Eccles Hist c. 32. saith that as soon as the sacred Quire of Apostles were dead and that Generation was gone who had heard the inspired Wisdom with their own ears then begun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Conspiracy or Combination of impious or atheistical error by the deceit of false teachers who make a bare-sac't opposition to the Truth of the Gospel And yet for all this the speech of the Apostle is proper enough For a Church or its Pastor may be the Pillar of Truth in regard of their duty as I have often said though they prove negligent in their Office. Just as the Priest among the Jews was called the messenger of the Lord of Hosts whose lips should so preserve knowledge that the people should seek the Law at his mouth because this was the end of his Office for which he was ordained though at the same time the Prophet complains that they were departed out of the way and caused many to stumble at the Law and had corrupted the Covenant of Levi Mal. II. 7 8. The like we read in other places of the holy Book that the Prophets were not true to their trust but declared the visions of their own heart not the Word of the Lord and lead the people into error and falshood feeding them with lies instead of Truth 5. Further I must observe that there is no promise made to any particular Church that it shall always be a Pillar of Truth no not to the Church of Rome which now so boldly lays claim and that solely to this priviledge But quite contrary there is a terrible threatning to this very Church included in that admonition which this very Apostle gives them Which is sufficient to show that Christ gave no such priviledge to this Church as that it should never err but directly contrary supposed it might err and err even to Apostasie when he bids them take heed lest they were cut off by unbelief as the Jews were from the fellowship of the Saints Read XI Rom. 20 21 22. They speaking of the Jews were broken off by unbelief and thou speaking to the Roman Christians standest by faith Be not high minded but fear hearken to this O ye of the present Roman Church For if God spared not the natural branches take heed lest he also spare not thee Behold the goodness and severity of God on them which fell severity but towards thee goodness if thou continue in his goodness OTHERWISE THOV ALSO SHALT BE CVT OF From whence we may thus argue if God had granted to the Roman Church the priviledge of being a Pillar of Truth infallibly and immutably unto all Generations all these suppositions were vain and these exhortations utterly needless and frivolous for it would have been absolutely impossible it should be cut off and absolutely necessary it should continue And yet the Apostle plainly supposes otherwise and took it for granted it might fail For these two are directly opposite to stand and to fall to continue and to be cut off to be an Everlasting Pillar and to be broken off For it is proper to a Pillar to stand and support but to be cut off as he supposes they might be is to fall to the Ground and not to be able to support ones self much less others Now that they of that Church have gone far towards this condition according to the Apostles supposition by falsifying the Truth of Christ even part of the Apostolical Faith and so have not continued a firm and stedfast Pillar of Truth but maintained and supported dangerous Errors and Heresies is apparent from this alone if there were no more that they limit and confine the Catholique Church to themselves alone and exclude all other Christians from it who will not submit to their Bishop and Decrees The Impiety of which is so great that it is not easie to be expressed for it is in Truth to make the Church not Catholique but Particular How new false sacrilegious scandalous schismatical and heretical this one Article of the Roman Creed is one of our own (x) Bishop Morto .. Bishops hath demonstrated evidently in a Book on purpose to which I refer the Reader which he had reason to call the GRAND IMPOSTURE It would inlarge this Treatise too much beyond my intention or else it would be easie to show both when they began to let Truth fall to the Ground and how they proceeded to fail in their duty and to betray their trust till they quite altered the ancient Catholique Faith in the Council of Trent Which now they cry up as the great Pillar of Truth when it did nothing but lend a lame support to the most notorious falshoods which it established as Doctrines of Faith when they were before but erroneous Opinions in that Church I call it lame because of the numerous flaws that there were both in the constitution and in the proceedings of that Council which make it of no Authority For in the very beginning of it (y) Sess IV. they decreed that no Man should wrest the Scripture to a sense contrary to that which the holy mother-mother-Church i. e. themselves hath held and holds And so established all the Tenents of that Church before they examined them by the Scripture and engaged themselves to contradict their own Decree by wresting the Scriptures to their own sense for the maintenance of what their Church then held All the Bishops likewise there assembled were sworn to support the Papacy of the Roman Church and the Rules of the holy Fathers whereby they were obliged to maintain the Usurpations of that See upon all the Bishops in the World whose Authority was thrown down and thereby the Pillars of the Truth as I have shewn them to be trampled under foot when Boniface was declared Universal Bishop and upon Kings and Princes whom Hildebrand trod under foot yea upon the whole Church over which Pope Leo
exalted himself when he got it declared in the Lateran Council that he was above a General Council and the Universal Church (z) Sess XI being blasphemously called by his flatterers the Spouse of the Church the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah From which very Phrase of Spouse no less Man than Bellarmine (a) L. II. de Concil Auctor c. 17. himself labours to prove the Pope to be absolutely above the Vniversal Church and above a General Council because it is contrary to the Apostle and to the order of Nature that the Wife should be above the Husband This is sufficient to show what we ought to think of the present Roman Church which is so far from being Infallible that it hath erred more than any other Church 6. But though there be no promise either to that or any other particular Church of being preserved from Error yet the Universal Church in some part or other of it we are sure will always be a Pillar and Ground of the whole Truth necessary to Salvation because our Saviour hath promised the gates of hell shall not prevail against it That is the Church shall be perpetual which it cannot be unless it hold the Truth intirely it is joyned to Christ its Head. And thus one of their own Cardinals (b) 〈…〉 de 〈◊〉 L. II. c. 〈◊〉 L. III. 〈◊〉 understood the Infallibility of the Church with which they now make so much noise When we say The Church cannot err in Faith or Manners it must be thus taken according to the Doctrine of the Fathers that God doth so assist his Church to the end of the World that the true Faith shall never fail out of the same For to the World's end there shall be no time wherein some though all shall not have true Faith working by Love. Unto this exposition we heartily submit but that the present Church of Rome or indeed any other particular Church cannot degenerate and depart from the right Faith we can by no means allow but think our selves bound by the most sacred tyes to oppose these arrogant pretences that the Church is Infallible and that they are the Church They are no more the Church than any other company of Men professing the Christian Faith nor so much neither for there are truer Believers than they I have proved also that other Churches have erred and therefore so may they nay they have erred and that so grosly as to be able by no other means to maintain their errors but by pretending they cannot err And therefore let no Man be so forgetful of these things as to trust them to be his Guides fancying they cannot mislead him They have misled those that rely upon them and have led them into a maze or labyrinth in which it is impossible for them to find their way and know what is the Truth For if we should grant them their Church cannot err they are not agreed nor ever will what they mean by the Church Whether the whole body of Christian People which is the new Heresie among them as some of themselves call it or a General Council which the learnedst and best Men among them maintain or the Pope who hath a great many on his side but they cannot agree about the manner of his definition whether alone or in a General Council nor about the time whether at any time or only when he resolves to publish Doctrines as matter of Faith nor about the matter whether all things even matters of fact or only matters of Faith and after all no body can tell when there is a true Pope So that all their Faith falls to the Ground and they cannot be certain of any thing they believe because they cannot be certain of the very Ground and Foundation of their Faith which is their Church These things I have only briefly toucht which are more largely handled in other Books that the Readers may be sensible how happy they are who are freed from these Impostures And that our People may know their duty in this Church of England whereof by the Grace of God they are Members I shall conclude this Treatise with Six Considerations more whereby the whole I hope will be made more useful I. First I desire every one to consider from what I have said that this Church in which we are is certainly as much a Pillar and Ground of Truth as any other nay more than many other Churches For we openly profess and recite twice a day in our own Language that every one may understand it the whole Christian Faith comprised in the Apostles Creed with the explication of some part of this Faith by the Nicene Fathers once every week or more and a more distinct Explication of the same Articles by Athanasius once a month That is we hold and assert and maintain all those things which have always been and are confessed by all Christians the True Ancient Catholique and Apostolique Faith and the Holy Scriptures wherein this Faith is Originally contained And if we knew any thing else to be the mind of God delivered to us from Christ and his Apostles by the Universal Church we are prepared to receive it and did it appear would immediately embrace and propagate it But the Vniversal Church as I have shown hath declared this to be sufficient nay full and perfect and moreover forbidden any other Faith to be either composed or offered to those who would become Christians To all which that I have said in the First Part this memorable saying of Pope Leo (c) Epist ad Pulcheriam Augustam the Great may be added The short and perfect Confession of the Catholique Symbol or Creed it self which is sealed in as many sentences as there were Apostles i. e. XII Articles is so instructed with Caelestial munition or defence that all the opinions of Hereticks with this Sword alone may be cut in pieces II. And therefore Secondly every one of us is bound â—nless we will betray our trust and as we will answer it to our Lord Christ the Author of our Faith to hold fast this Faith to preserve it intire and to defend it not suffering any of it to be lost or any addition to be made to it as if this were not sufficient to Salvation Take fast hold of instruction of those great substantial unquestionable Truths mentioned in the beginning let them not go keep them for they are your life as Solomon speaks of Wisdom IV. Prov. 13. They are the Wisdom of God our Saviour the Rule which the Apostles preached equally among all Nations as Venantius Fortunatus (d) Praefat. in Symbol speaks the comprehension and perfection of our Faith as S. Austin (e) Sâ—rm CXV de Teâ—p or an Ancient Author under his name the Test as I have shown and Mark whereby the Faithful are distinguisht from Unbelievers and Hereticks And having this Note of a Christian you ought neither to seek for nor to admit of any other being indued
with this Wisdom you ought to think your selves wise unto Salvation And not be in the least moved with the bugbear name of Hereticks or the empty noise of Damnation which they of the Church of Rome thunder out against you For they signifie nothing but the wrath-of those who would drive you into the belief of that by frights and terrors into which they cannot draw you by solid proofs and arguments Turn away your Ears both from the one and the other for as the former is an insignificant sound so the latter all their Arguments are but confident Sophistry Which hath been and is at this day so evidently demonstrated by our Writers that they can have no excuse who are deceived by them III. And thus every one is bound to teach his Children diligently instructing and confirming them in these main Points of Christianity that so the Truth may live when we are gone Consider I beseech you what a necessary duty this is How should the Truth be preserved and supported but by those that believe it And how should they believe it who do not understand it And how should they understand it unless they be taught and instructed in it And who so much concerned to instruct their Children as they that brought them into the World Their God-fathers and God-mothers indeed are engaged to see this done but their Parents have a further even a natural obligation to it And therefore ought first of all diligently to inform themselves and by attending to all the means of instruction which they have in this Church to increase in true Christian knowledge that they may be able to teach those who are committed to their care and prepare them to be catechised and further instructed by those whom God hath set over them We are not Pillars and supporters of the Truth but the betrayers of it if we take no care about this Which is one great reason why some have easily forsaken the true Religion here taught and professed and condemned this Church an horrid crime if you seriously weigh the consequents of it by renouncing Communion with it as no part of the Body of Christ Men may be soon perswaded by confident talkers to part with that which they do not understand especially if they apprehend any danger in keeping it or hope to gain by letting it go Why should they hazzard the least hair of their Head for they know not what Nay why should they be at all concerned for it any more than a Man is for the seed that is scattered in the High-way from which he expects no Crop To that you know our blessed Lord compared him that heareth the word of the Kingdom and understandeth it not for then cometh the wicked one and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart Matth. XIII 19. IV. You must endeavour therefore to profit by all such instructions as these and to grow in the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures where God hath revealed his whole mind and will to you and plainly published all those Truths which belong to the great mystery of godliness You ought for instance to take heed how you wantonly and loosely interpret or apply them according to your own sudden or careless fancies that 's a great profanation of the Sacred Books and yet you must not for fear of this be perswaded to throw them out of your hands but rather with the more solemn humble and reverend awe of God upon your Souls ponder and weigh what you read therein especially those things which are plain and evident to every understanding that by the help of them and of those whom God hath set over you to guide and direct your minds you may either inform your understanding in what appears to have difficulty in it or satisfie your selves that it is not necessary you should understand it For they that would drive you from this hold of the Holy Scriptures intend to deceive you and would have you depend on that which is far more uncertain than the meaning of any place of Scripture can be There is no firm ground for us to stand upon but only this which all acknowledge is the very word of God and delivers that which hath been ever accounted the substance of Christian Doctrines in such words as every one may understand them And therefore this is as I have said the very foundation upon which the Church is built Which is the Pillar of Truth as it defends the Truth out of the Scriptures and by the Scriptures against all Hereticks and other opposers and as it establishes and supports it in the hearts of Men by this means that it may be continued to Posterity This must be added for the explication of all that hath been said that the Church and every person in it great or small are Pillars not by themselves but by the Holy Scriptures For we know those things that belong to our Salvation as Irenaeus (g) Adv. Hereses L. III. C. 1. begins his Third Book by no other persons than those by whom the Gospel came to us which then truly they preached but afterwards by the will of God deliverd to us in the Scriptures fundamentum Columnam fidei nostrae futurum to be the FOVNDATION and PILLAR of our Faith. Upon these our Faith rests and relys so that they who take the Scriptures from you take away the Foundation and Pillar of that Truth which is or ought to be taught in the Church and that alone They contain the mind and will of our Lord Christ who himself being the first Foundation and chief Pillar of all Epiphanius (h) Heres LXIX Nâ—m 35. applies these words to him When he saith our Lord is called the door because by him we enter in and the way because by him we walk and the Pillar because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very words of S. Paul in this place the ground or settlement and stay of Truth And in like manner S. Cyril (i) L. III. de Adoral in Sp. Veritate of Alexandria saith the Pillar of a Cloud and the Pillar of Fire each of them represented Christ because first of all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is the Pillar and Ground of Truth and then because he cannot be shaken or disturbed c. which he repeats again upon another occasion speaking of the pillars which supported the Curtains of the Tabernacle Christ is to be understood saith he (k) Ib. Lib. IX in each Pillar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the prop of the Church the Ground of Truth according to the words of Paul. And in the next Book (l) L. X. speaking of the four pillars which supported the Vail before the holy place he saith that Vail was a figure of Christ who was lifted up on high by the preaching of the Evangelists and therefore he saith the four Evangelists were typified by those four pillars being equally eminent and pretious more valuable than Gold and Silver Which
shows that the Ancient Christians lookt upon the Church as the Pillar and Ground of Truth no other ways but as it professes preaches establishes and keeps up the Doctrine of Christ and of his Apostles recorded in the Holy Scriptures unto all which they indifferently apply these words of S. Paul which are thought immediately to speak of the Church which supports the Truth delivered in the Holy Scriptures from Christ and from his Apostles Upon which account the Creed also which is a comprehensive breviary of the great Scripture Doctrines is wont to have the same attribute given to it Particularly by Epiphanius (m) In Exposit fidei Cathol n. 19. who calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Pillar as the Greek word signifies in good Authors or prop of Truth c. our life our hope and the assurance of immortality And by S. Austin (n) De Symbolo ad Catechum L. III. C. 1. who tells the Catechumens in his Exposition of the Creed to them that it is fidei Catholicae fundamentum c. the Foundation of the Catholique Faith upon which the edifice of the Church arose built by the hands of the Apostles and Prophets Which hath made some learned Men (o) Jo. Camer Jac. Capellus refer these words of S. Paul not to what goes before but to the words following making a full stop at God and then beginning a new sentence in this manner The Pillar and Ground of the Truth and without Controversie great is the mystery of godliness c. which reading is countenanced by a Greek Edition of the New Testament at Basil 1540. where the words are so pointed as if the sence were this God incarnate and the great Truths depending thereupon ought to be the very Foundation of the Doctrine thou preachest The Doctrines of the Creed that is are the very Foundation and Pillars of the Christian Faith as the Jews it is known call the great principle of their Religion the Foundation of the Foundation the Pillar of Wisdom as Maimon speaks when he treats of this matter Stick close therefore to the Holy Scriptures and to these Articles of the Faith in the Apostles Creed which are the fundamental truths of Christianity it appears by what I have now said by which the Church maintains and defends the Truth and the Truth upholds the Church and we defend both Hold this fast as the ground of all and likewise lay up the word of God in your heart that it may setle there and take root and bring forth fruit unto Holiness that your end may be everlasting Life Make the Holy Scriptures your Rule and trust to them according to what the Son of Sirach saith of its ancient Books Ecclus XXXIII 3. A Man of understanding trusts in the Law and the Law is faithful to him as an Oracle or as the asking of Vrim That is here he may enquire and have a certain answer which will not deceive him Show your selves such Men of understanding as to enquire no where else And if any Church or Person would have you enquire of them only take that for an undoubted proof they are not to be trusted If they would not guide you by the Holy Scriptures that is by Christ the way as you have seen who hath shown us no where else that we know of what we ought to believe if they would have you follow their ungrounded Traditions whereby they would inlarge your Creed beyond the ancient bounds know that you ought not to follow them nor be led by them For such may soon cease to be the pillars and supporters of the Truth because they leave that whereby they should support it and place themselves whom they call the Church in the stead of it An evident sign they are not what they pretend for the Church it self ought to be demonstrated by the Scriptures So S. Austin (p) L. de Vnitate Ecclesiae cap. XVI tells the Donatists in those known words which are worthy to be preserved in remembrance Setting aside all such things as these which he had said they could likewise alledge let them demonstrate their Church if they can not in the discourses and rumours of the Africans not in the Councils of their Bishops not in the Letters of any disputers whatsoever not in signs and fallacious wonders for we are prepared and rendred cautious against these by the word of the Lord but in the prescript of the Law in the predictions of the Prophets in the Songs of the Psalms in the words of the SHEPHERD himself i. e. Christ in the preachings and labours of the Evangelists that is in all the Canonical authorities of the holy Books Let this be done so as not to gather and relate those things which are obscurely or ambiguously or figuratively spoken there which every one may interpret as he pleases according to his own sense For such things cannot be rightly understood and expounded unless those things which are most clearly spoken be first held by a firm Faith. This is the very sense of the Church of England which teaches all her members first to hold by a firm Faith those things which are clearly revealed in the Holy Scriptures and by them to understand and expound those things that are more obscurely delivered believing nothing to be necessary which is not read therein nor may be proved thereby nor receiving the Doctrines and Decrees of any Church unless it may be declared that they be taken from thence For haec sunt causae nostrae documenta haec fundamenta haec firmamenta as he there speaks you heard before These are the proofs of our Cause these are its foundations these are its supports And therefore as he also speaks in another Chapter of the same Book (q) Cap. III. de Vnitate Ecclesiae which he begins thus Let us not hear such speeches as these These things say I Those things sayest thou but let us hear These things saith the LORD These are certainly Books of the Lord to whose authority we both consent we both believe we both obey There let us seek the Church there let us discuss our Cause And let us not so much as think of looking after any other Articles of Faith but those which were from the beginning which our Church firmly believes in the three Creeds Nice-Creed Athanasius and that commonly called the Apostles (r) Article VIII because they may be proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture For after the Faith confessed and sworn in Baptism as S. Hilary (ſ) Ad Constantium August speaks we ought not quicquam aliud vel ambigere vel innovare either to doubt or innovate any other thing It is absurd that is to doubt whether this be sufficient or to add any other to it as if this were not enough So he interprets it a little after Faith is still inquired after as if there were no Faith already Faith is to be written as if it were not in the
of them to nurse Men up securely in their sins such as the Doctrines of Purgatory of Indulgences of Penances and to name to more of Infallibility which being presumed as an unquestionable Principle is apt to lead Men in the most dangerous errors and the foulest sins without any remedy or possibility of recovery whensoever the Infallible Guide shall propound them This pernicious Doctrine I may add seems also to be deeply rooted in all their minds that an Orthodox Belief will save them For this they make the great business of Christianity to bring Men as they think to such a Faith as appears by this that let Men be never so bad their labour is not bestowed to make them quit their Sins but to bring them to their Belief where for any thing I can see or hear they may quietly enjoy them Nay there are a number of little devices to put them in hope of Heaven without reforming their lives provided they Believe as the Church Believes And in this let me beseech all that read these Papers to take a special care that they do not imitate them Let us be watchful that we do not put a greater Cheat upon our selves than they would do by imagining our selves good Christians meerly because we Zealously oppose the Errors of Popery That we ought to do but not leave the great Thing the amending of our Lives undone For may we not destroy and pull down by a wicked life as much as we build up by contending for the Faith How can others think that we are so much concerned as we seem to be for Truth when we make no use of it but let it lie dead in our minds What pitty is it that their hearts should not love that which is good whose minds are inlightned to discern that which is true That their understandings being convinced their wills should not also be converted It is a lamentable thing to profess that we know God but in our Works deny him This makes us look as if we were of a Faction rather than of the Faithful who oppose others rather as our Enemies than as Christ's as those that differ from us rather than as those that differ from the Truth For if it be the Truth that we Reverence why do we not let it Rule and Govern us Why do we not love to have it nearer to us than in our Brains even in our Hearts and Affections For there is no greater Truth than this that Vngodliness is the worst of Heresies a wicked life the most opposite of all other things to the Christian Faith. Let us never forget therefore that Admonition of the Apostle in the First Chapter of this Epistle to Timothy v. 19. Hold faith and a good conscience which he repeats again in the Third Chapter to the Deacons whom he exhorts to hold the mystery of saith in a pure conscience v. 9. For if we put away a good conscience we may easily make Shipwrack even of our faith Which we have just cause to think is the reason why some have fallen from this truly Apostolick Church of ours Concerning which and concerning whom I may say as Epiphanius (t) Haeres XI 〈◊〉 8. putting this place I have been expounding and some others together makes the Apostle speak to Timothy It is the Church of the living God the pillar and ground of truth which many forsaking are turned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fables and foolish bablings neither understanding what they say nor whereof they affirm FINIS Books lately printed for Richard Chiswell THE History of the Reformation of the Church of England By GILBERT BVRNET D. D. in two Volumes Folio The Moderation of the Church of England in her Reformation in avoiding all undue Compliances with Popery and other sorts of Phanaticism c. by TIMOTHY PVLLER D. D. Octavo A Dissertation concerning the Government of the Ancient Church more particularly of the Encroachments of the Bishops of Rome upon other Sers 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. 4o. 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 A LETTER writ by the last Assembly General of the Clergy of France to the Protestants inviting them to return to their Communion Together with the Methods proposed by them for their Conviction Translated into English and Examined by GILB BVRNET D. D. Octavo The Life of WILLIAM BEDEL D. D. Bishop of Kilmore in Ireland Together with Certain Letters which passed betwixt him and James Waddesworth a late Pensioner of the Holy Inquisition of Sevil in Matter 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 Desence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the CHVRCH of ENGLAND against the EXCEPTIONS of Monsieur de MEAVK late Bishop of Condom and his VINDICATOR Quarto 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 SOME LATE PAPERS concerning the Unity and Authority of the Catholick Church and Reformation of the Church of England Quarto 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. Quarto A CATECHISM explaining the Doctrine and Practices of the Church of Rome with an Answer thereunto By a Protestant of the Church of England Octavo A Papist Represented and not Misrepresented Being an Answer to the First Second Firth and Sixth Sheets of the Second Part of the Popish Representer and for a further Vindication of the CATECHISM truly reprsenting the Doctrine and Practices of the Church of Rome Quarto In 3. Discourses The Lay-Christian's Obligations to read the Holy Scriptures Quarto The Plain Man's Reply to the Catholick Missionaries 24o. 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 shewn 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 Quarto 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 prefixed a large Historical Preface relating to the same Argument Quarto 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. III. Vers 15. Quarto A Brief Discourse concerning the Notes of the Church with some reflections on Cardinal Bellarmin's Fifteen Notes Quarto An Examination of the Cardinal's First Note concerning The Name of Catholick His Second Note Antiquity His Third Note Duration His Fourth Note Amplitude or Multitude and variety of Believers His Fifth Note The Succession of Bishops His Sixth Note Agreement in Doctrine with the Primitive Church His Seventh Note Vnion of the Members among themselves and with the Head The rest will be published Weekly in their Order A Defence of the Confuter of Bellarmin's Second Note of the Church Antiquity against the Cavills of the Adviser Quarto In the Press THE Peoples Right to read the Holy Scriptures asserted In Answer to the 6th 7th 8th 9th and 10th Chapters of the Popish Representer Two Discourses Of Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead Quarto A Short Summary of the Principal Controversies between the Church of England and the Church of Rome Being a Vindication or several Prâ—testant Doctrines in Answer to a late Pamphlet intituled Protestancy destitute of Scripture Proofs FINIS