do good profitable as our Saviour saith Mat. 25.21 well done good and faithfull servant because thou hast been faithfull over a few things 〈◊〉 place thee over many things enter 〈…〉 the joy of thy Master And the 〈…〉 servant cast ye into utter darkness 〈…〉 if all Protestants be unprofitable 〈…〉 they must expect the sequele there 〈…〉 darknesse that is damnation § 4. Thirdly many Protestant Ministers teach and the people ordinarily believe that Catholiques hold that there is nothing required to the remission of sins but only to confesse them to a Priest and the businesse is done Whereas indeed they teach that not only Confession to a Priest but also Contrition and sorrow for their sinnes which is all that Protestants require as also Satisfaction for the temporall punishment due to sin is requisite and so make it a matter of far greater paine than the Protestants do who reproach it for the easinesse thereof Now all these parts of Penance are plainly expressed in Scripture our Saviour saith to the Priests whose sinnes ye shall forgive they are forgiven and whose sinnes ye shall retain they are retained Joh. 20.23 and S. James bids us confesse our sins one to another Jam. 5.16 and if to another to whom but to him that hath power to forgive The Jewes did object against our Saviour as Protestants do now against Priests saying who can forgive sinnes but God only Mark 2.7 which error of theirs to confute he miraculously cured the man sick of the Palsie That ye may know the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sinnes as our Saviour faith to them which had been no crossing of their erroneous conceipt as the word But doth intimate it was unlesse he had pardoned him as man with Commission from God and not as God immediate for otherwise he should have said why I am God and so I pardon him but he did it as man doubtlesse with delegation from God as another Evangelist expresseth it saying that the multitude glorified God which had given such power to men Mat. 9.8 Nor need the simplest Protestants wonder that men should forgive sinnes seeing Catholiques teach that they do it not by their own power but by power given them from God to whom it belongs originally and by his own power to forgive sins and to them but derivatively and ministerially from him So it is said that God only doth wondrous things Psal 72.18 and yet we read in Scripture of many men that wrought Miracles 3 Kings 8.39 So it is said that God only knowes the hearts of men 4 Kings 5.16 and yet we read of others that knew the secrets of the heart Nor can this forgivenesse of sinnes the power whereof God hath given to men be interpreted of power only to declare forgivenesse as Protestants would have it for this a child or an Infidell may do aswell as any other they may tell them that if they repent God will forgive them nor needed such a power as this onely be ushered by Christ by breathing on them and saying Receive the Holy Ghost Joh. 20.22 nor by these words As my Father sent me so I send you for surely his Father sent him to do more than barely to declare and tell them they were forgiven if they repented and our Saviour should have changed the form of his words and not have said whose sinnes ye remit they are remitted but whose sins ye remit they were remitted before by God And that this power should be given only to the Apostles if it be taken for absolute power of forgivenesse as some Protestants affirme is unreasonable For seeing the reason and use of it which is to reconcile God and man together after mans offending him by sin will remain to the worlds end therefore to the worlds end is committed to them the Ministry of reconciliation 2 Cor. 5.18 19.20 For this power of forgiving sinnes was not given to the Apostles as a particular priviledge wherewith to dignifie their persons above other Priests but for the use and benefit of Christs Church which will alwaies in this world stand in need thereof therefore doth he in their Successors alwaies continue the power § 5. As for Satisfaction which Protestants are taught to believe is needlesse it is plaine in Scripture as first that after the sin is pardoned which is in regard of our reconciliation to God and freedome from eternall punishment yet there remaines a lyablenesse to temporall punishment as appears in David whom after he had repented and God pardoned his sinnes yet he punished one sin with the death of his child another with three daies pestilence 2 King 12.13.14 24.10 12 13. Nor can this punishment be only for admonition not of justice seeing the Text saith it was because he had made the enemies of God to blaspheme Moses and Aaron died both in Gods favour yet were punished with death before they entred into the land of Canaan for their offence at Meribah now where death is the punishment it cannot be intended for their admonition and amendment in time to come but as a scourge for their offences And the Psalmist saith plainely Thou forgavest their sins and didst punish their inventions Psal 98.8 If he forgave them why did he punish them If he did punish them how did he forgive them He forgave the eternall punishment and inflicted the temporall Also the Apostle saith whom ye forgive any thing I forgive also for if I forgave any thing to whom I forgaue it for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ 2. Cor. 2.10 Which words cannot concerne the remission of the fault seeing that was pardoned before by the parties great sorrow mentioned in the 7. verse but must be meant of the temporall punishment which was imposed in the name of Christ This truth Calvin doth not deny nor Beza upon this place who saith that the abatement of this rigour was afterwards called Indulgence And wherefore I wonder do Protestants when they would divert some present or near approaching danger fast and pray and preach and give almes when yet by their contrition they think their sinnes forgiven if they did not hope by these meanes to prevent or remove their temporall evills which in their prayers they confesse to be inflicted for their sinnes Thus doth the force of reason drive them to the practise of that which out of opposition to the Church of Rome in their doctrine they contradict And though Christs satisfaction was sufficient for all the punishment due to our sinnes yet if he hath appointed that we shall also satisfie as knowing it in his wisedome a thing most meet who shall gainsay it His praiers also and his obedience was sufficient to obtain heaven for us shall we therefore neither pray nor obey You will say we shall because we are commanded so also are we commanded to satisfie as the Prophet Daniel saith Redeem thy sinnes with almes and thine iniquities with mercy towards the poore
the Sea of Peter De Baptis cont Don. lib. 2. c. 1. c. that is the rock which the gates of hell do not overcome Nor do the Protestants deny the antiquity of the Church of Rome but only some of them deny S. Peter to have been Bishop there or indeed ever to have been there in person which I count a fancy not worth the confuting and they may with as much truth and more reason deny King William the Conquerour to have been King of England or so much as to have been in England seeing there is much more and more noble testimony of that than of this The main thing that they deny is the Antiquity of the doctrine of the Church of Rome for they say the Primitive Fathers taught the Protestant Doctrine and not that which the Church of Rome now teacheth Which I found to be false by the examination of particulars all which if I should here set down I should swell this intended little Treatise into a huge Volume It shall suffice me therefore to give a scant map of the Churches doctrine in the Primitive times and the testimony of some Fathers of the first five hundred yeares of every severall age some in the proof of some of the present Catholique doctrines most strongly opposed by Protestants referring him that is desirous of larger proof to the painefull volumes of Coccius and Gualterus Noting first two things by the way The former that it is not necessary that Catholiques should give this proof For it is sufficient that they are in possession of this faith and that they all say they received it from their Ancestors and they from theirs and so upward to the first beginning of Christian Religion and that the Protestant cannot by any sufficient testimony of Fathers or histories prove the contrary a thing which the Protestants no doubt would highly boast of if they were able to performe it in their owne behalf The latter is that many Protestants do confesse that the antient Fathers did hold many points of belief of the present Roman Church Whitguift Archbishop of Canterbury saith and that without exception of the very first times * Defence against Cartwright p. 472. 473. almost all the Bishops and Writers of the Greek Church and Latine also for the most part were spotted with the doctrines of free will of merit of invocation of Saints and such like And the like is affirmed by many others in many other points as is largely shewed by the book entituled The Protestants Apologie for the Roman Church Against which the Protestants have nothing to say but that which is worse than nothing to wit that they were the spots and blemishes of the Fathers And who I pray are they that undertake to correct Magnificat as we say and like Goliah to defie the whole hoast of Israel But they say that a dwarf standing upon a Giants shoulders may see further than the Giant can and so they by perusing the Fathers may see further than the Fathers could Further perhaps they may in some cases but never contrary they cannot by their help see that to be black which they saw to be white that to be false which they saw to be true § 2. Let us then take a view of the Roman Doctrines as they were held in the dayes of S. Augustine and the foure first generall Councells which were held between the yeares 315. and 457. to which first foure Councells some Protestants seem to give much honour and to subscribe to their Decrees but they do but seeme In those times the Church believed the true and reall presence and the eating with the mouth of the Body of Christ in the Sacrament as Zuinglius the Prince of the Sacramentarians acknowledges in these words a lib. de vera falsa relig cap. de Eucharist From the time of S. Augustine the opinion of corporall flesh had already get the mastery And in this quality she b Chrys in 1. Cor. HoÌ„ 24 adored the Eucharist with outward gestures and adoration as the true and proper body of Christ. The Church then believed the Body of Christ to be in the Sacrament c Cyril Alex ep ad Caesar Pat. even besides the time that it was in use and for this cause kept it after Consecration for d Cypr. de laps domestical Communions e Euseb hist l. 7. to give to sick f Amb. de obit Sayr to carry upon the Sea g Euseb hist l. 5. to send into far Provinces She then believed h Paulin. in vita Ambr. Tertul. ad uxâ—c 55. Basil Ep. ad Caes Pat. that Communion under both kinds was not necessary for the sufficiency of participation but that all the body and all the blood was taken in either kind And for this cause in domesticall Communions in Communions for children for sick persons by Sea and at the houre of death it was distributed under one kind onely In those times the Church believed i Cyp. ad Coecil ep 63 that the Eucharist was a true full and entire Sacrifice not onely Eucharisticall but k Euseb de vita Const l. 4. propitiatory and offered it as well for the living l Chrys in 1 Cor. hom 41. as the dead The faithfull and devout people of the Church in those times made pilgrimages to m Basil in 40. Martyr the bodies of the Martyrs n Ambr. de vid. prayed to the Martyrs to pray to God for them o Aug. in Psa 63. 88. celebrated their Feasts p Hier. ad Marcell Ep. 17. reverenced their Reliques in all honourable formes And when they had received help from God by the intercession of the said Martyrs q Theod. de Grac. aff l. 8. they hung up in the Temples and upon the Altars erected to their memory Images of those parts of their bodies that had been healed The Church of those times held r Basil de sanct Spir. the Apostolicall Traditions to be equall to the Apostolicall Writings and held for Apostolicall Traditions all that the Church of Rome now imbraceth under that title She also offered prayers for the a Tertul. de Mon. Aug. de verb. Ap. dead both publike and private to the end to procure for them ease and rest and held this custome as a thing b Aug. de cura pro mort necessary for the refreshing of their soules The Church then held the c Hier. ad Marcel Ep. 54. fast of the forty daies of Lent for a custome not free but necessary and of Apostolicall Tradition And out of the time of Pentecost fasted all the Fridaies of the years in memory of the death of Christ except Christmasse day fell on a Friday d Epiph. in compend which she excepted as an Apostolicall Tradition That Church held e Epiph. cont Apostol Haeres 51. marriage after the vow of Virginity to be a sinne and reputed f Chrys ad Theod.
so much as Couell the Protestant in his Answer to Burgesse pag. 138. saith No man can deny but that God after the death of his Son manifested his power to the amazement of the world in this contemptible sign being the instrument of many Miracles Concerning the neglect of Confession we read divers Miracles in S. Bedes History l. 5. c. 14. S. Francis and S. Dominick preached against the Albigenses who denied Purgatory Prayer for the dead Confession Extreme Vnction the Popes authority Indulgences Images Ceremonies Traditions with many other and are by the Protestants claimed for their Predecessors in the Protestant Faith and wrought many Miracles whereof one of S. Francis is most notable to this purpose and is recorded by Mathew Paris an approved Author amongst Protestants who thus relates it pag. 319. The fifteenth day before his death there appeared wounds in his hands freshly bleeding such as appeared in the Saviour of the world hanging on the Crosse Also his right side appeared so open and bloody that the inward parts of his heart were to be discerned whereupon there repaired to him great store of people amongst whom the Cardinalls themselves demanded of him what this sight imported to whom he said This sight is therefore shewed in me to them to whom I preached the mystery of the Crosse that you may believe in him who for the salvation of the world suffered upon the Crosse these wounds that you see and that ye may know me to be the servant of him whom I preached c. And to the end that you may without doubt persevere in this constancy of faith these wounds which you see in me so open and bloody shall immediately after I am dead be whole and close like to my other flesh Afterwards he yeelded up his soule to his Creator without all anguish or pain of body and being dead there remained no marks of his foresaid wounds Lastly for confirmation of the Reall Presence it is reported that in a town called Knobloch in the year 1510. one Paul Forme a Sacrilegious person went secretly into the Church by night brake the Pyx and stole from thence two consecrated Hosts one of which he sold to a Jew who in disdainfull malice said If thou be the God of Christians manifest thy selfe and thereupon pierced the Sacrament with his dagger whereupon blood did miraculously flow forth This Miracle was so publique and evident that 38. were thereupon apprehended and burned in the Marquisate of Brandenburg and all other Jewes banished out of the said Territory And this is reported for credible not onely by a Surius in Chron. Pontanus l. 5. rerum memorab Catholique but by b Ioan. Manlius loc Com p. 87. Osiander Epit. cent 16. c. 14. p. 28. fine Protestant writers If I should undertake to set down all the Miracles that have been done in the Catholique Church I might say as S. Iohn did of our Saviours doings that if they were all written the whole world could not contain the books Ioh. 21.25 To all which Protestants answer as the Blasphemous Iewes did to our Saviour that they were done by the Devill To whom Catholiques cannot give that answer our Saviour did If I by Belzebub cast out Devills by whom do your children cast them out Mat. 12.27 For your children cast out none And truly I believe that they that do thus accuse the Miracles done by so many holy Catholique men and women would have done the same to our Saviour if they had lived in his daies For Miracles being the last and highest proof of other things can have no proof for themselves but the evidence of sense to them that see them and their testimony and report to others But if as Protestants say the Miracles of Catholiques were done by the Devill how were they Miracles For the Devill can do none though he can do wonders if they were Miracles how were they done by the Devill Now that they were Miracles many Protestants do grant and therefore Chillingworth their Paragon doth also confess that they are done by God whence any reasonable man would infer that his next word would be the profession of himself a Roman Catholique in which Church God works Miracles the last and highest motive of belief But instead hereof O the accursed power of the devill he belcheth forth the most blasphemous speech against God that ever struck the tender sense of a pious eare and saith a In the preface of his book fine that it seemes most strange to him that God in his justice should permit some true Miracles to be wrought to delude them who have forged so many to delude the world As if God the Father of truth would set his seal which is Miracles to confirme falshood to delude the soules of men into sin and so change titles with the Devill and be the father of lies and deceiver of mankind Than which what can be imagined more hellish More true and pious was the saying of Nicodemus and appliable to our workers of Miracles we know that thou art a teacher come from God for no man could do these miracles that thou dost except God were with him John 3.2 But wee may take up the complaint of the Prophet Esay who hath believed our report and to whom is the arme of the Lord revealed Esay 53.1 Protestants will not believe these things and in matter of proof Catholiques can goe no further our Saviour himself did not so that now nothing remaines but for God to touch their hearts with his grace and to move them to believe that which they have most reason to think to be his word which God of his great mercy grant And if they consider it they shall find it the most unreasonable thing in the world to deny Miracles in the Roman Church for that there are and shall be Miracles in the world no prudent man I suppose will deny at least for the conversion of the people Yea we read of many Miracles done in the Church of the Jewes amongst those that were of the true faith and therefore were not intended for conversion but for confirmation or to some other end And why may it not be so in the Church of the Christians Now Protestants or any other Christians doe not so much as pretend to Miracles therfore they that are are amongst Roman Catholiques Indeed I have read of Calvin that for the credit of his new doctrine he would make shew to the people of doing a Miracle and hired one that was sick to counterfeit himselfe dead who when Calvin should speak certain words was to rise up as it were from the dead but he not stirring nor answering at his cue they looked and found him dead indeed b Capcavil in chronicis Pontificum Leodiensium But on the other side the sonne of Calvin being bit by a mad dog and his father not able to cure him he was sent to S. Hubert in Ardenne where the body of that
whose images they are yet this positive ordinance supposed the law of nature also binds men to worship and adore it with reference to God imagined to sit thereon This ever hath been and is the opinion and practise of all the world except it be of those who under the shew of grace have extinguished the light of nature and yet even these in their humane practises doe the same things as if Christ and his Saints were the only men that after death or in absence were incapable of honour It is well known that the Kings and Queenes of England are honoured by uncovering of the head in all places where they are but supposed to be present and when they are dead untill their funeralls are solemnized there is the same respect exhibited to their Images as to themselves And what Puritane lover is there that will not in the ardour of his affection kisse lay in his bosome and talk to not only the picture which doth more immediately and directly represent a person than any thing else but even the handkercher glove or letter which are but reliques of her whom he desires in marriage And is it lesse Idolatry to doe these things to mortall men than to immortall Saints though there be as much difference observed in the degree of honour as there is between the dignity of the persons Surely if they consider it duely they will find that they must either leave their religion in this point or their manners and civility in all points seeing either both or neither are Idolatry § 3. Secondly they teach the people and the people ordinarily believe that Catholiques think to be saved by their good workes and that without being beholding to Christ For they make an opposition between these two assertions wee are saved by Christs merits And we are saved by our own merits Hence they believe that Catholiques are the proudest and most ungratefull to God of all people in the world But this doctrine is misliked amongst them because it is misunderstood For Catholiques hold that no work is meritorious with God of its owne nature but to make the same meritorious many graces are required First the grace of adoption in Baptisme whereby soules are supernaturally beautified by participation of the divine nature whence a triple dignity redounds to works One from God the Father who in respect of adoption regards good works as the works of his children Another from God the holy Ghost dwelling in us by whom good works are honoured as by the principall author of them so that he rather then wee doth the works Thirdly they receive dignity from God the Sonne whose members we are made by grace which grace he by his merits purchased for us so that the works we doe are reputed not so much ours or his as the work of a particular member is attributed principally to the head Secondly there is required grace prevenient whereby God stirres up mens hearts to pious workes and grace adjuvant to assist us in the performancee of the works making our free-will produce works that are supernaturall and above the reach of meer man Thirdly there is required the grace of mercifull indulgence in not using us in the rigour of his justice for God might require the good works we doe as his own by many titles as by the title of justice being the works of his servants and bondmen by the title of religion as being the works of his creatures by the title of gratitude as being the works of persons infinitely obliged to him by which titles if God did exact upon works with uttermost rigour no goodnesse would be left in them to be offered for meriting of heaven But his infinite benignity remitting this rigour moved thereunto through the merits of Christ is content that wee make use of our good works for the purchasing of glory and doth not exact them as wholely due by all his titles The fourth is the favour of Gods liberall promise by which he obligeth himselfe to reward the good works of his children according to the measure of their goodnesse without which the most excellent works of Saints could not establish an obligation on him And finally there is required the grace of perseverance without which no man is crowned And so far are Catholiques from boasting or trusting in their merits that the Councell of Trent Sess 6. Can. 16. faith God forbid that a Christian should either boast or trust in himself and not in our Lord whose goodnesse is so great towards all men as that those things which are his gifts he will have to be our merits To be worthy of a thing to deserve or merit it signifie all one and that by our works we deserve and are worthy of heaven is the frequent phrase of Scripture The workeman is worthy of his hire saith our Saviour Luke 10.7 And S. Paul That you may be counted worthy of the Kingdome of God for which also ye suffer 2. Thes 1.5 And again That you may walk worthy of God in all things pleasing fructifying in all Good works Colos 1.10 And our Saviour They shall walk with me in white for they are worthy Revel 3.4 And againe Come ye blessed of my Father possesse the kingdome c. for I was hungry and ye gave me meat c. Math. 25.34 alledging these as the cause why God received them into everlasting habitations with plenty of other places to this purpose As for the most frequently objected place of Luc. 17.10 when you have done all those things that are commanded you say we are unprofitable servants we have done that which was our duty to do According to S. Ambrose lib. 8. in Luc. Christ commands hereby to acknowledge what we are of our selves to wit unprofitable not what we are by his grace for that is profitable according to the Apostle 2 Tim. 2.21 If any man therefore shall cleanse himselfe from these he shall be a vessell unto honour sanctified and profitable to our Lord prepared to every good work according to S. Augustine Serm. 3. de verb. Dom. we may be said to be unprofitable servants because in doing all that is commanded we do but our duty we are Gods servants and slaves and owe him all nor could we look for reward had he not voluntarily covenanted with us And to this base and poor condition of ours for the preservation of our humility Christ in these words sends back our thoughts which hinders not but that supposing Gods bountifull promise and covenant we may through his grace truly merit and expect reward himself saying Mat. 20.14 Didst thou not covenant with me for a penny take that which is thine own and go thy way S. Chrysostome observes that Christ saith not you are unprofitable servants but bids them to say they are willing us thereby after our good deeds to think humbly lest they be corrupted with pride for that otherwise they only that work evill are by God accounted unprofitable but they that