necessary to Salvation but dare not positively exclude the others from being a kind of particular Sacraments And seeing the Scripture mentions not the number either of three or seven why should not the voice and constant practice of the Church be heard before particular clamours As to the matter of the Eucharist if People would but once take a right notion of what we mean by a Real Presence and rightly understand what we mean by the Terms Corporal and Spiritual we should not have such large Volumns Written by those who pretend to believe all that Christ has said And in our disputes about the Church The Church and it's Authority what perpetual mistakes are their committed for want of considering what we mean by the Roman Catholic Church and by her Infallibility In a word §. 17. The Rule of Faith. would People take notice that we affirm the Total and only Rule of Catholic Faith to which all are obliged under pain of Heresie and Excommunication to be Divine Revelation delivered to the Prophets and Apostles and proposed by the Catholic Church in her General received Councils or by her universal Practice as an Article of Catholic Faith and that if either this Divine Revelation to the Prophets and Apostles or this proposal by the universal Church be wanting to a Tenet it ceases to be an Article or Doctrin of Faith Protestants will not distinguish betwixt faith and private opinions tho' it may be a truth which it would be temerarious to deny would they I say take notice of this and then examin what are those Doctrins which we hold to have been thus taught and proposed we should not only find our Controversie brought into a narrow Room but all the odious Characters of Popery and the Calumnies that are thrown upon us with the ill consequences of fears and jealousies c. would be removed and we might hope for Peace and Unity Whereas by the methods by which we see Disputes now carried on But prolong disputes upon unnecessaries one would think our Adversaries had no other end in all their Controversial Books or Sermons but to cry down Popery at any rate least they should suffer prejudice by it's increase which they are conscious it would do if what is of Faith were separated in all their Discourses from Inferior Truths or probable opinions And because I am not willing to prolong disputes §. 18. Which the Vindicator resolves to decline I do here declare that if the Defender do hereafter medle with such points as those which are not of necessary Faith I shall not think my self obliged to answer him tho' after that he may perhaps boast how he had the last word But if he please to answer any thing positively to those Doctrins acknowledged by all Catholics to be of Faith or to the Arguments I have brought in the XXIII and and XXIV Articles to prove the Church in Communion with the Bishop of Rome to be the true Orthodox Catholic Church and that the voice of the Church in every Age is the best way to know what is Apostolical Tradition upon finishing which two last disputes all our Controversie would be ended he shall have a fair hearing But I may be bold to foretel without pretending to be a Prophet that nothing of all this will be done and that if he vouchsafe an Answer he will as to the first either still fly to the private Tenets and Practices of Particulars or Misrepresent our Doctrin and as to the others either fob my Arguments off with such an Answer as he thinks is sufficient against Monsieur Arnauld's Perpetuity Desence Pref. pag. 11. that is calling it a Logical subtilty which wants only Diogenes 's Demonstration to expose it's Sophistry A pretty quirk indeed were the case parallel or that it could be made out as clearly that the Church has erred as it could be shewn that Diogenes moved but what is the Point in Question must be always supposed as certain in our Defenders Logic or else he will send us to his beloved friends Monsieur Daille or Monsieur Claude as he has upon the like occasions or lastly endeavor to expose us by some contemptible Raillery as he has done the Bishop of Meaux to the Defenders own confusion amongst thinking Men. For It is not enough to Men of Sense to speak contemptibly of solid Arguments excellent Discourses or persons of known integrity Monsieur Arnauld 's Perpetuity of the Faith and the just Prejudices against the Calvinists will not loose their esteem amongst the Learned and Judicious because our Defender tels us they have been out-done by Huguenots neither will the Bishop of Meaux's credit be any ways impaired or his Exposition less esteemed because the Defender and such as he have endeavored to traduce him and make the World believe him to be Insincere or ignorant But such things as these are now a-days put upon the World without a blush and they who are this day ingenious Learned and honest Men shall be to morrow time-servers block-heads and knaves if they chance but to cast a favorable look towards Popery and hated abhorred and oppressed with injurles if they forsake their Errors to embrace the Truth even by those who pretend that Conscience ought not to be forced I must conclude this Preface with begging pardon of my Readers for the length of this work which will I fear deter some from the perusal of it but I hope they who are desirous to search for the True Faith which is but one amongst so many and without which it is impossible to please God will not think it much to spend a little time for their satisfaction which if they do I hope it will open their Eyes and they will see how much they have been hitherto kept in ignorance by those who pretend to be their guides but shew themselves by their Writing either to be blind or which is worse malitious For if they know our Doctrins and yet Misrepresent them to their People they must be convinced of Malice and if they know them not we are ready to inform them if they think we palliate or pervert our Doctrins to gain Proselites it shews how little they understand our Tenets For when they see us ready to lose our Estates our Liberties and our Lives rather than renounce one title of our Faith how can a reasonable Man be persuaded we would renounce it all to gain a Proselite who the very first time he should see us Practise contrary to our Doctrins would be sure to return and expose our Villany BEcause the Defender has been pleased to ask this Question in the close of his Discourse page 84. Where are the Vnsincere dealings the Falsifications the Authors Miscited or Misapplied I thought it might not be amiss to refer the Reader to some of them as they are detected in this following Treatise And tho' the Defender had not the sincerity to acknowledge them yet I dare
of all Churches for a 1000 Years have any weight If the clear Writings of antient Fathers long before our Contest have any force if Scripture it self both old and new when thus interpreted be of any moment we must necessarily conclude that Jesus Christ gave his Disciples truly really and substantially his Body and Blood under the appearance of Bread and Wine in the Sacrament Had we not such clear proofs from Antiquity yet certainly the Consent of the much major and superior part of Christians for this last 600 Years would be sufficient to any reasonable mind who would but consider that if it had not been taught by Jesus Christ those persons who introduced it and those who followed them would have been guilty of Idolatry as the Test and some Protestants now accuse us to be and by consequence the whole Church which taught and practised it during that time would have erred in Fundamentals and taught a damnable Doctrin destructive of Salvation contrary to the Promise of Jesus Christ that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against her But when we find that the Council of Lateran and those others in Berengarius's time were so far from pretending that they introduced a new Doctrin excogitated by themselves or invented by some of their learned Predecessors that they freely and fully declared that it had been delivered to them as a Doctrin taught by Christ and his Apostles that their predecessors in their several respective Countries had taught them the same and practised it that all their Historians and antient Writers had confirmed it when we consider also how impossible it is that if the figurative presence had been once the established Doctrin of the Church the Doctrin of the real presence could have gained such credit that all Christians in all Countries should consent to it and commit manifest Idolatry wilfully against their former belief no one of the Many Learned Pious and Couragious Bishops who were vigilant in opposing the smallest growing Errors ever speaking of this as an erroneous Doctrin or as a novelty I say when we consider all these things which have been so fully and so often proved that nothing but Impudence can deny them how can we have the least Difficulty in believing this Doctrin to be that of Jesus Christ or his words not to be literally true Thus much for our Grounds I come now to shew the weakness of my Opponents Arguments against them and our Doctrin SECT 3. Objections answered BEfore I begin to answer my Adversaries Objections §. 73. I must desire my Reader to consider that Catholics are in Possession of this Belief of the real and substantial presence of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament and that Protestants who would throw us out of Possession are the aggressors Now as a Possessor of an estate time out of mind is not condemned if he proceed upon a supposition that the Deed of gift by which his Ancestors first possessed that estate was good In like manner must it be with us We believe that Jesus Christ pronouncing those words This is my Body Catholics being in Possession are the Defenders Protestants the Aggressors changed the Bread into his Body we received this belief from our predecessors and they from theirs we therefore who are in Possession and are to defend our right cannot be condemned if we suppose our Belief to be true But as on the other hand an Aggressor is not to be heard if he only suppose the Deed of gift to be void and argue from thence that the Possession is unlawful So ought it also to be with them who oppose us If they only suppose our Blessed Savior did not change the Bread into his Body by those words this is my Body and argue merely upon that supposition they ought not to be heard They are to prove he did not make that change Protestants must therefore bring clear and undeniable proofs against our Possession and not only to suppose it They are to prove his words cannot possibly be taken in a literal Sense and not only that they may be taken figuratively They are to prove that we are obliged to take the words in a figurative sense and not only to shew they they may lead us to it Our Possession is a manifest proof against their supposition and we need no more This being considered let us now weigh my Adversaries Arguments Arguments from Scripture answered And first those from Scripture His first Argument is reduced by himself to this Syllogism If the Relative This in that Proposition This is my Body belong to the Bread so that the meaning is This Bread is my Body §. 74. First objection From the words of the Institute then it must be understood figuratively or 't is plainly absurd and impossible But the Relative This in that Proposition This is my Body does belong to the Bread forasmuch as Christ took Bread and blessed Bread and gave Bread to his Disciples and therefore said of Bread This is my Body Therefore That Proposition This is my Body must be understood figuratively or t is plainly absurd and Impossible The Major or first Proposition he tels us is our common Concession In answer to which I say Answered If he understand the Major in Luthers sense as Bellarmin and Gratian do whom he cites for it that is that the word This in that Proposition This is my Body should so signify Bread that the meaning of it is This truly wheaten Bread remaining such is also truly the Body of Christ I grant it for as I told him before from the Cardinal it implies a contradiction for it cannot possibly be that one thing should not be changed and yet should be another because it would be that thing and not that thing But if he mean by his Major that the word This in that Proposition This is my Body has such a reference to Bread that the meaning is This Bread is my Body that is this substance of Bread which I take in my hands I do by these words change into the substance of my Body I deny it neither is it our common Concession for in that sense it is neither an absurdity nor impossibility to understand the Proposition literally So that you see Luther will have no change and will yet have the words to be understood literally and we call that an absurdity Catholics admit of a change and so understand them literally which is far from being either impossible or absurd We argue that the Proposition in Luthers sense admitting of no change is false absurd and impossible unless it be taken figuratively But in our own fense admitting a change is true and genuine and need not be taken figuratively His Minor or second Proposition he tels us is Bellarmins own grant nay what he contends for Is this Learned Cardinal then so great a Blockhead as to maintain that the words ought to be taken literally and yet at the same time to
this Note another which I desire the Defender to take notice of that that Act of Parliament tho' it ordained Communion under both kinds unless in cases of necessity yet was so moderate as not to condemn thereby the usage of any Church out of the Kings Majesties Dominions Which moderation had he been endowed with he would not have expressed such detestation of the Doctrin nor passed so severe a Sentence against the Catholic Church for the Practice PART III. ART XXIII Of the Written and Vnwritten Word THe Defender having so ingenuously confessed §. 103. Expos Doct. Ch. of England pag. 75.76 that the Vnwritten Word or Tradition as to that Gospel which our Blessed Saviour preached was the first Rule of Christians that this and the written Word are not two different Rules but as to all necessary matters of Faith one and the same and the unwritten Word was so far from losing its Authority by the addition of the written that it was indeed the more firmly established by it And having acknowledged for himself and his Church that they are ready to embrace any Tradition though not contained in the written Word provided that they can be assured it comes from the Apostles or that it can be made appear to have been received by All Churches in All Ages How to know Apostolic Tradition I thought it necessary to propose a certain means by which we might come to know what had been thus delivered and that grounded upon the very nature of Tradition But this the Defender now opposes and I shall endeavour to make clear In order to which we are to consider First §. 104. I. The nature of Tradition in this case Divine Truths surpass the reach of Human reason as to the thing it self that we speak here of Divine Truths which surpass the reach of human Reason revealed to the Apostles which Truths the Apostles were obliged to teach to the Faithful then living without addition or diminution and the Faithful then living were also tyed under the same Obligation to deliver the same Divine Truths in like manner without addition diminution or alteration to their Successors and they to theirs in every Age. 2ly II. They were taught by the Apostles to all Countries These Truths were to be taught in all Countries and Kingdoms by the Apostles and their Successors and not only taught but practised So that what one Country or Nation learned from one Apostle the same was another to learn from another and a third from a third a fourth from a fourth c. 3ly III. And they wre obliged to deliver them to their Posterity without any Eslential alterations The obligation of delivering these Truths without addition diminution or alteration was and is the strictest that can possibly be imagined viz. the forefeiture of eternal Happiness and the incurring of eternal Torments So that whoever should undertake to teach his own Invention for a revealed Truth or to deny a known revealed Truth because it ws not agreeable to his Fancy or Interest and taught others to do the same could not but know that he did not perform his Obligation and therefore justly incurred that penalty 4ly IV. There must be Heresies But if such Men did arise as there must be Heresies who would not rely upon what had been taught them but proud and conceited of their own abilities would form to themselves new Notions of things and rely upon their own Wit or Judgment even to contradict those delivered Truths A connivance at them is damnable or interpose others not delivered A silent Connivance in Pastors and Teachers in that case suffering their Flock to be seduced would be a Crime not much inferïor to that of the Seducers and would deserve no less a punishment 5ly V. This Age must necessarily know what was taught in the last It is absolutely impossible that any thing can be taught in this Age contrary to what had been delivered in the immediate foregoing Age but that this Age must necessarily know it to be an Innovation And therefore it is absolutely impossible to make a whole Age believe they had not been taught a Doctrin as a delivered Truth when their Fathers of the immediately preceding Age had actually taught them that it was delivered 6ly It being thus manifest VI. Error cannot spread it self insensibly that it would be absolutely impossible for an Error against a delivered Truth to spread it self over the Face of the World without being perceived by them to whom that Truth had been delivered so is it absolutely inconsistent with the nature of Man to think that such an universal Deluge of wickedness and delusion should happen that all Pastors and People of whole Christendom should in any one Age combine together to deceive the next Age and either deliver to them an Error as a delivered Truth or make a delivered Truth pass for an Error when they could not but know that the doing of it must necessarily be a Sin which unrepented of would bring Damnation and that no Repentance could be without making a just satisfaction 7ly VII From hence I conclude that if in any one Age we find all Christians agreeing that such a particular Doctrin or practice was delivered to them as coming from the Apostls it must necessarily follow that the Age next preceding that All persons would never combine to damn their own Souls by renouncing what they had been taught did also believe it to be a Truth so delivered because no reason can be given nor cause assigned why the Pastors and People of so many different Countries and Interests otherwise sollicitous for their Salvation should all combine together to damn their own and their Posterities Souls and deliver that as a Tradition to their Successors which they had not received from their Predecessors 8ly From hence I also conclude VIII The pres ent Church in every age is the best judge of what is universal Tradition that the present Church in every Age is the best Judge of what is universal Tradition and what not and that the way to know her Judgment is to regard the uniform voice of her Pastors and People either declared to us by the most universal Councils that Age can afford or by her universal practice 9ly Moreover IX This Church is secured from error by Gods Promise besides this moral Impossibility that the whole Church in any one Age should conspire to teach a Doctrin as traditionary which they had not been taught by Tradition we have further the Promise of Almighty God that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against his Church that he will send the Holy Ghost the Comforter who shall remain with her Pastors and Teachers to the end of the World and teach them all Truth that these Pastors and Teachers shall be our Guides lest we should be led away with every Wind of Doctrin and several other the like Promises So that 10th
X. And Lastly I say Tho' it were possible according to Nature that all Mankind should at once be so forgetful of their Happiness as to combine to damn themselves and their Posterity by teaching what they had not been taught yet has Gods Promise of being always with his Church secured her from falling into such a damnable State and therefore we may securely rely upon her Testimony and particular persons or Churches are obliged to submit to her Sentence and not to contradict those Doctrins upon a suppolal as our Expositor does That they are so far from being the Doctrin of the Apostles Expos Dect Ch. of Engl. pag. 76. or of all Churches and in all Ages that they are periwaded they are many of them directly contrary to the written Word Having thus explicated the progress of Truth §. 105. and shewn what natural means God has established to secure us in the knowledge of it and how impossible it is for the whole Church in any Age to deviate from it The nature of Error with the rise and progress of it it will not be amiss in few words to shew also the rise and progress of Error and by what Arts it is usually propagated which-will be the ready way to detect it And in order to this we may reflect 1. I. All Error against Faith is of a later date then Faith. That an Error in Faith is Twofold either affirmative or negative A negative is a denyal of a Truth which had been revealed and propagated over the whole World An affirmative is an Affirmation of a falsehood for a revealed Truth when it had not been so revealed nor propagated from whence it necessarily follows That all Error against Faith is of a later date than Faith it self and being such can never tho' it pretend to it shew an uninterrupted Tradition from those to whom revealed Truths had been first committed 2. II. Truth is so amiable in it self that if Error did not endeavor to cloath it self in its Dress no persons would embrace it but it is impossible for Error so to counterfeit Truth but that there must be some Essential difference Error cannot imitate Truth in all things some characteristical note by which the one may be fully distinguished from the other 3. These Errors being as I said either the forsaking of a known Truth delivered to that Age by the foregoing or an introducing of a Novelty which had not been Delivered It manifestly follows that amongst all the pretences which Error can make for it self it can never at its first rise challenge to have been delivered by the immediate foregoing Age Error at its first rise can never pretend an uninterrupted Tradition but must take a leap to some forgotten time and pretend the immediate foregoing age to have been deceived and either through negligence to have forgotten what had been taught to their Predecessors or for want of Vigilance to have suffered Errors to creep into her by degrees till they spread over the face of the whole World. The letter of Scripture suffering various Interpretations IV. An uniterrupted Tradition is the distinguishing note betwixt Truth and Error it is plain that Error may pretend to Scripture the antient Fathers being likewise dead and not able to vindicate themselves their writings may be wrested and Error may make use of them to back it self Reason too being byassed by Interest Education Passion Society c. may be led away and form specious Arguments for what is false Fancy also may be led astray and as experience tells us may pretend new lights which like the ignis fatuus leads men into error Tradition only rests secure and Error can never plead for that without pretending some interruption Thus tho' the Arians Pretended Scripture the writings of the Fathers of the first Age Reason and it may be a fancied Light within them yet could they not pretend to an uninterrupted Tradition because that Age in which they first begun to teach withstood them and they themselves accused that and the foregoing Age of Error It is then the distinguishing note of Error V. Error always accuses the Church in the preceding age to cry out against Tradition or the Unwritten word and her plea is always as I said either the Foregetfulness of the preceding Ages or their want of Vigilance and thereupon she dares never stand to the Judgment of that present Age in which she Begins to appear but appeals forsooth to the purer times next the Apostles to the fountain head to the written Word to some dark expressions of the Fathers of the first Ages or the like VI. But the Constitution of the Church the Nature of the Doctrins of Christ and her Ceremonies condemn this Plea. as thinking her self secure because she can give some plausible reasons for her Tenets But if we examin her plea we shall find it groundless For if we consider the constitution of the Church of Christ and the nature of the Doctrine which she teaches we must necessarily Conclude that it is impossible for her either to be so Negligent as to forget the Essential Truths delivered to her or so Careless as to suffer destructive Errors to spread themselves insensibly The Constitution of the Church is such VII that there are Vigilant Pastors and Teachers set over the whole flock by Almighty God who are obliged to watch over their people let they should be led away into Error and have had the promise of the same Omnipotent God that he will be with them to the end of the World teaching them All Truth and by consequence securing them from Destructive Errors So. that tho' it were possible by the course of Natural causes that all the Pastors and Teachers in the World should in some one Age or other forget to teach a delivered Truth or be so negligent as to suffer an Error to creep in by degrees and spread it self from Country to Country or from Age to Age till some more vigilant persons should arise to reestablish Truth or detect falsehood Yet if we consider the promises of Almighty God and the Vigilance he has over his Church we may securely rely upon him that he will never suffer his Church to be thus prevailed against nor such an Universal Negligence or Lethargy to predominate in her Moreover even her Speculative Doctrins are so mixed with Practical Ceremonies which represent them to the Vulgar and instruct even the meanest capacities in the obstrusest Doctrins that it seems even impossible for any to make an alteration in her Doctrin without abrogating her Ceremonies or changing her constant practices And it must needs appear to any considering man even abstracting from the aforesaid promises of Almighty God that it is impossible that any Age should forget to practise what the preceding Age had taught them or cast off universally her received Ceremonies and neither Pastors nor people speak against such Innovations These
Christiantiy But that if these or any of them should meet in a National Church the Religion established by Law may justly Excommunicate and cut them all off as Schismatics seeing there may be a Schism from a particular Church How Extravagant such a Doctrin as this is I leave to the Judicious Reader to consider And return to the Defenders Argument He tells us §. 111. that the Church of Rome cannot pass for Catholic unless we can prove either first there was no other Christian Church in the world be sides those in Communion with her or secondly that all other Christian Churches have in all ages professed just the Same Faith and continued just the Same Worship as she hath done I wish he had explicated himself a little clearer and not kept himself in such Universals as is that of a Christian Church For by a Christian Church may be understood any Assembly of Christians By the Catholic Church we mean All Orthodox Christian Churches united tho' professing known and condemned Heresies as wel as an Orthodox Church maintaing the Purity of Faith and Worship If therefore to prove a Church to be truly Catholic he think us obliged to prove there was never any other Assembly but those in Communion with that Church that ever professed the name of Christ or were called Christians or that ever held a different Faith or way of Worship from what she held he must either expect we should say there never was any Heresy amongst those who professed to believe in Christ nor any Error in their Worship but that all Christian Churches held together in Necessaries to Savlation which is manifestly false or else that Heresy and Schism do not hinder persons from being Members of the Catholic Church But this we cannot do unless we will open a Gate for all even lawfully condemned Heresies to enter into the Catholic Church for I suppose he will not deny but some have been justly cut off by Her And tell the world plainly that the Arians or any other Heresy may as well claim a title to the Catholic Church as any other body of Christians tho' Orthodox in their belief And if this be his meaning it follows that no person or Church whatever can be lawfully cut off from the Catholic Church so long as they turn not Apostats and deny their Christianity All which is absurd in an eminent degree But if he mean only this that to prove a Church to be truly Catholic we must shew there never was any Orthodox Church in the world but what was a Member of that Church and that all Orthodox Churches in all Ages professed just the same Faith and continued just the Same Essential Worship that she did we will joyn Issue with him and doubt not but to be able to satisfy any unbyassed judgment that the Roman Catholic Church can Alone challenge this Prerogative All Orthodox Churches in the World communicated with the Church of Rome and we dare affirm there never was any Orthodox Christian Church in the world but what communicated with the Bishop of Rome And that all other Churches in the world that were Orthodox professed just the same Faith as to all the Essential Points of it and practised the very same Essential Worship which shew now does That this later acceptation of the Catholic Church is what ought to be embraced will appear to any man who considers that when we speak of the Catholic Church we speak of that Church which has all the other marks of the True Church of Christ joyned with that Vniversality viz. Vnity without Schisms and Divisions Sanctity without Errors Heresies or damnable Doctrins and an Uninterrupted Succession from the Apostles They therefore who have been justly cut off from being members of the Church of Christ or have unlawfully Separated themselves from her Communion cannot justly pretend to be Member of the true Catholi Church no more than they who have been Lawfully Condemned for teaching Erroneous Doctrins in matters of Faith or Manners or those who like Corah and his companions set up an Altar against an Altar and chalenge to themselves a Function like that of Aarons without being lawfully called thereto To prove therefore this Truth §. 112. That Church alone which is in Communion with the Bishop of Rome is the the true Catholic Church proved that that Church alone which is in Communion with the Bishop of Rome is this true Catholic Church I must desire my Reader to consider 1. That when Jesus Christ sent his Apostles to Preach the Gospel he told them that they who did not believe should be condemned but they who did believe and were baptised should be saved 2. That these Believers were called Christians that is Members of the Church or Kingdom of Christ which Church or Kingdom was to be spread over the face of the whole world to continue till the end of the same to preserve the Doctrins delivered to her to be one and therefore free from Schisms Holy and therefore secured from Heresy and damnable Doctrins All which we express in our Creed I believe one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church But seeing the Scripture tells us there must be Heresies and Divisions which as they are destructive of Vnity and Sanctity the marks of his true Church so are they also impediments to Salvation and therefore must be avoided and seeing this Church must be free from them she must have a power given her from Christ to separate those who are Heretics or Schismatics from the Orthodox Christians and cut them off from being Members of her Communion 3. That this Orthodox Church having once lawfully cut off such or such Heretical or Schismatical persons or Assemblies they could not pretend to be Members of her Communion so long as they maintained those Errors or refused to pay a due Obedience and therefore if during their Separation other Heresies or Schisms should bud out the Orthodox Church was not obliged to call in the assistance of those formerly condemned Assemblies to help her to cut off or condemn the second nor those first and second Assemblies to help her to condemn a third a fourth or a fifth But as she Alone had Authority to cut off the first Heretics or Schismatics so had she also Alone the same Authority to cut off the second and third and in a word all other succeeding Assemblies who either thus opposed the Truths delivered to her or refused to pay her a due obedience 4. These things thus considered it necessarily follows that in after Ages that Church alone can challenge the Title of being truly One Holy Catholic and Apostolic which in one word we call Catholic or the true Orthodox Church of Christ which has from Age to Age cut off Arising Errors That Church alone can be called truly the Catholic Church which has in all ages condemned arising Errors and was never condemned her self condemned proud Schismatics and Excommunicated obstinate Heretics and
Hell should not prevail Others shewed it from the nature of Truth and Error and the impossibility that an Universal Tradition could fail especially when God had promised Isa 59.20 21. that the words he would put into their Mouths should not depart out of their Mouths nor out of the Mouth of their Seed nor out of the Mouth of their Seeds Seed from henceforth and for ever Others again as the Protestant Apology And shew the truth of our Doctrins from Protestants own Concessions proved the innocence and Antiquity of our Doctrin from the Testimony of Learned Protestants themselves of whom one held one Article and another another from whence they hoped at least to make our Doctrins be looked upon as less offensive But Protestants finding it a very difficult task to elude such strong Reasons as have and might be brought for the necessary and unerrable Authority of the Church §. 5. But Protestants fly to particular disputes and in them to the particular Tenets of Schoolmen still as if they were uneasie by all means endeavored to shuffle off such Arguments as would make short work of the business and flew out at every loop-hole to particular Disputes and the private Opinions of the Schools where they knew they could enlarge and talk so long that Years might pass before they could be silenced during which time they hoped the Readers as well as Writers would be tired and by that means they might get their ends And whereas Catholics all along desired them to inform themselves first what the Church held to be of necessary Faith before they entred into Dispute or Writ against us and thereupon to take their Doctrins from the Councils and Universally received Practices And at the last to down-right railing and not from Private Doctors or actions of particulars it was impossible to obtain of them to do it with calmeness but when ever any Argument pinched they fell to railing and began to blacken our Faith to misrepresent our Doctrins Caluminate our Practices and Ridicule our Ceremonies And as the World go's now he that could Rail the most being looked upon as having the better end of the Staff and Calumnies sinking deeper into the Memories of the Vulgar than solid Reasons Catholics grew by degrees to be looked upon as bad as Devils and their Doctrins as the Dictates of Hell it self Hence it was §. 6. Therefore a plain Exposition of our Doctrin was thought necessary that others again thought it necessary to deliver our Doctrin according to the Genuin and approved Sense of our Councils and abstracting from the private Disputes of School-men insist only upon those Doctrins which were universally and necessarily received Neither was the Bishop of Condom the first or only Man that did it Verron had preceded him in France and in the beginning of Queen Marys Days an Exposition was Published here in England much what of the same Nature tho' in a different Method To these I might add the Catechism of the Council of Trent and many others Published in every Country So 2 Tim. 4. that we may justly say we are now fallen into such like times as those which were foretold by St. Paul in which People will not endure sound Doctrin but having itching Ears after Novelties choose to themselves Teachers according to their own Desires Only this is our comfort that we have not been wanting in our Duty we have Preached the Word of God we have been instant in Season and out of Season we have reproved we have rebuked we have exhorted with all long-suffering and Doctrin but they have turned away their Ears from the Truth and believed Fables We have used all the means we can to calm the minds of People that being United in one Faith we might prove our selves to be the followers of Christ but hitherto all has been ineffectual through the ignorance of some whose credulity made them believe every Cry against Popery and the malice of others whose interest prompted them to defame us The Truth of which will appear more clearly §. 7. A Brief account of the Religion of our Ancestors from the first Conversion of this Nation till H. the 8ths Schism whilst I give a brief account of our Controversies in general and of that betwixt the Defender and me in particular In order to which I hope it will not be looked upon as too tedious if we cast an Eye backwards upon the Religion of our Ancestors It is not denyed by our Adversaries Catholic Religion early Established in our Nation but that the Christian Religion took very early Root in this Nation and some Remains of it were found when St. Augustin the Benedictin Monk was sent hither by St. Gregory the Great to reduce the Pagan Idolaters to the Faith of Christ St. Bede who Writes the History of his coming tells us there was carried before him a Banner with the Effigies of Christ upon the Cross and that he came in with a Procession Singing the Litanies c. He tells us also that notwithstanding the long want of intercourse with Rome and the Members of that Communion occasioned by great Oppressions and Persecutions during the Reign of Pagan Kings yet had there not many Errors crept into this Christian part of the Nation for St. Augustin only found two Customs amongst them which he could not Tollerate St. Augustin and the Brittans agree in all things but keeping Easter and some Ceremonies about Baptism the one their keeping Easter at a wrong time with the Quarto-decimani and the other some Errors in the Ceremonies of Administring Baptism these two he earnestly sollicited them to amend but they were obstinate and would not suffer any Reformation in those two Points till God was pleased to Testifie his Mission and the Authority he came with by the Authentic Seal of Miracles Our Adversaries also do most of them acknowledge that when St. Augustin came into England he taught most if not all the same Doctrins the Roman Catholic Church now Teaches and introduced those Practices which they now are pleased to call Superstitions But these Doctrins and Practices were either then Taught and exercised by the British Christians also or they were not If they were not taught by them certainly we should not have found them so easily submit to such Practices and Tenets as our Adversaries call plain and down-right Superstitions and Idolatries and if they were then taught also by the Brittish Christians they were certainly of a much longer standing than St. Augustins time and our Adversaries who pretend the reason why they separate from the Church of Rome is because she has introduced Novelties in matters of Faith may be from thence convinced of the Antiquity of those Doctrins they now call Novelties and must either grant they were introduced by the first Preachers of the Gospel here or shew evidently some other time before St. Augustin when this Church embraced them This Faith and these