the Holy Ghost should Abide with his Apostles for ever That is with them and their Successors the Doctors and Pastors of his Church For they were not in their own Persons to abide for ever with the Church to Teach and Guide her And John 16. 13. He says That the same Divine Spirit should Teach them all Truth In respect of whose continual abode with the Church to Teach her in matters of Faith and Religion All Truth St. Paul stiles her 1 Tim. 3. 15. The Pillar and ground of Truth But Protestant Teachers say that the Church of Christ Hath been Corrupted That the Gates of Hell that is the Devil and his Instruments Have prevail'd against her and have fill'd her with Pernicious Errors and Superstitions for above these thousand years That the Holy Ghost hath not taught her All Truth but hath given place to the Devil permitting him to replenish her with Errors and Superstitions to the ruine and loss of Infinite Christian Souls That She is not the Pillar and ground of Truth But the receptacle and sink of falshood And thus they directly contradict the Word of God about this prime and most important Article of the Truth and Incorruption of the Church of Christ in matters of Faith and Religion And yet Protestants rather believe Them than the clear Word of God so much doth draw and blind the Love of Novelty and Liberty But they will say we leave not the Word of God to follow the Teaching of Men But to follow the right meaning of the Word of God deliver'd unto Us by our Teachers I answer First Have you just cause to think that these your Teachers who have neither Unity nor Sanctity nor Antiquity nor the Gift of Miracles nor any true Calling and sending from God do rather deliver unto you the right meaning of the Word of God than the Antient Fathers General Councils and ever Visible Church of Christ guided by the Holy Ghost I believe not I Answer Secondly That you are mistaken For you leave the Word of God to follow the Interpretation of your Teachers Which Interpretation is not Gods Word but their Word their Conceit their Doctrine and Explication of Gods Word To follow which you leave as I have shew'd the express Word of God. And therefore most true it is that you leave the Word of God to follow the Doctrines of Men If your Teachers be men Thirdly I answer That if Affection did not make your Judgements miscarry you might easily see that the Doctrine of your Teachers being so directly contrary to the VVord of God cannot be the meaning thereof For God in his Sacred VVord Ordain'd to instruct and not to delude us and in his profound Mysteries doth not use to speak one thing and to mean the clean contrary To say that the Eucharist is his Body and to mean That it is not his Body but a Figure of it To say that men are justify'd by Works and not by Faith only And to mean that they are not justify'd by Works but by Faith only For this manner of dealing is fitter for a Jugler than for God And if the same be once allow'd of what foolish wicked damnable Heresie can there be that may not be thus defended by Scripture Or what Articles of the Christian Faith may be firmly prov'd out of the Word of God if wilfull head-strong Presumptions Teachers may in this sort Explicate Delude and Contradict the clear plain and Literal Sense thereof If any one desire to see more places of Gods word contradicted in this manner by Protestant Teachers let him look in the Industrious Collation of Doctor Smith formerly Bishop of Calcedon and he shall there find demonstrated to his Eye that these men by their new Doctrine do oppose the express VVord of God in above two hundred Points of Religion now Controverted betwixt the Catholicks and them So far off they are from Teaching the Pure VVord of God as they make their Credulous Followers believe And so wide their Doctrine is from being the True Light of the Gospel as they usually stile it VVhereas in very deed it is only their own new Interpretation of the Gospel not the Gospel it self As is evident by the multitude of Sects which are amongst them Some being Lutherans others Swinglians others Anabaptists others Calvinists others new Arians others Quakers some Puritans some Arminians some Parliamentary Protestants and the like VVhich could not happen if all their Teachers indeed did follow the VVord of God that being but one and not their several Explications and Interpretations of it VVhence it doth clearly appear that the state of Protestants is most dangerous Because in those Points of Doctrine in which they differ from the Old Religion instead of following the VVord of God they meerly follow the VVord of Men. Question VI. Whether God hath left to Christian People any sure Rule of Faith any certain Guide in matters of Religion any Infallible Interpreter of his Word TO discover to Protestants the true Root of their Division into so many Sects I demand of them whether they have any certain Rule of Faith or no That is whether they have any sure and un-erring Guide to Direct them in matters of Faith to the right meaning of the VVord of God Any Infallible Proposer of their Articles of Faith Any un-erring Director in the profound Mysteries of the Christian Religion and in the practice of the Worship of God If they have none of these How can their Faith be certain If it be uncertain doubtful wavering as indeed it is for want of a sure Rule to guide it by With what Prudence may Christian People hazard their Souls therein If Protestants have any certain Rule of Faith why do not the Learned of their Churches make use thereof to agree and attone the Controversies which are among them That they are divided into such several Branches as I a little before nam'd cannot be deny'd That they jar and contend about weighty Points of Religion is manifest For they differ about Predestination the Cause of Sin the Redemption of Christ his Descending into Hell his Ascension up to Heaven and sitting at the Right-hand of God his Equality with his Father the Baptizing of Infants the Real Presence of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist Church Government Ceremonies and like Which to be weighty matters and such as wring the Conscience beside the Nature it self of these things is clearly shew'd by the Reluctation of our English Non-conformists But to avoid the Disgrace of uncertainty in Matters of Faith some Protestants will say that they want not a Sure Rule to square out their Faith by For the Scripture to them is a certain and Infallible Guide But to manifest how defective this Answer is I demand whether the Scripture of it self or Interpreted be a sure Rule of Faith If of it self without the help of an Interpreter it be such a Rule Why have not all that read it
particular all the Articles of Faith which the Learned Pastors of the Church believe yet they are bound under the Penalty of Eternal Damnation not to deny wittingly any one of them nor to doubt stubbornly of the truth of them nor to believe wittingly the contrary for he that so doth falleth thereby into the damning Crime of Heresie Which ever includes an Election or Culling out of certain Articles out of the Doctrine of the Church which are imbraced for true and a Rejection of the rest as Doubtful False or Erronious Which presumptuous discarding of Divine Verities revealed by Christ to his Apostles for the direction of Mankind to Eternal Happiness and by them laid up in the Treasury of the Church as a Sacred Depositum 1 Tim. 6. 20. under the sure Custody of the Holy Ghost is no less than High-Treason against Christ our Saviour in regard that it raises a most pernicious Rebellion in his Spiritual Kingdom bringing part thereof again under the Tyranny of the Devil It frustrates the full Operation of his Passion extinguishes the true and right Worship of God despoils Christian People of Divine Faith and thereby of the true means of Salvation It deprives the Saints of due Honour defrauds the Faithful departed of necessary Relief It robbs Heaven of Souls and inriches Hell with innumerable unwary and most unhappy People For which respects it is rightly stiled one of the greatest Sins and of the loudest crying Crimes that is Although I say the Unlearned of the Church are not bound to believe explicitly all Her Sacred Verities yet they are bound not to deny any one of them wittingly even as they are not bound to know all that is in the Sacred Scripture yet they are bound not to deny any thing therein contain'd though it be never so small a thing because all is warranted by the Authority of God which is of equal Force and Worth of equal Truth both in great and in small things which therefore are of equal Certainty it being as far from God to lie and deceive in small things as in great And therefore prudent Men in Matters of Faith and Religion seek no farther than whether this or that be warranted by Gods Authority or no which they learn by the Teaching of the Church guided by the Holy Ghost for there is no other sure and infallible Means on Earth to direct us in the obscure Misteries of Faith about which anew God now reveals nothing but leaves us to the Teaching of his Church guided as I said by the Holy Ghost which makes all Discreet Christians to submit so humbly their Judgements to the Church and to relie so securely upon her Authority God himself assuring them that She is the Pillar and Ground of Truth 1 Tim. 3. 15. The Second Truth is That the Subjects of the Church of Christ are not bound either to know or believe certain disputable Points of Divinity not defin'd by the Church which are controverted among the Learned The pernicious Falshood inferred out of these Truths is That Christian People who are not Learned are not bound under hazard of their Souls to believe those Articles of Faith taught by the the True and Catholick Church of Christ which false Prophets which Heretical Men reputed Learned do question deny and dispute against As though the Bad Proud Rebellious and Ungodly proceeding of these Men were a sufficient Warrant unto others to doubt of the Truth of Gods revealed Verities to mangle and believe by halves his Sacred Religion to disobey their Lawful Prelates to deprive their Souls of the fruitful use of Christs Divine Sacraments to contemn the Doctrine and to forsake the Communion of the Church Which is manifestly absurd and untrue being contrary both to Reason and Scripture as I have shewed Which teach that Christian People in the profound Mysteries of the Christian Religion are bound to be guided by those Doctors and Pastors Act. 20. which God hath placed in his Church and authorised to Teach Direct and Guide them And that they are likewise most deeply obliged to beware of and to shun false Prophets and Heretical Teachers and not to heap to themselves new Masters with itching Ears leaving the Truth of the Pillar of Truth the Church of the Living God and turning to Fables that is either to their own Self-conceits or to the Self-conceits of others which in the Mysteries of the Christian Religion when they swerve from the Doctrine of the Church are no truer than Fables though they be gilded over with the fair Title of the true Light of the Gospel and therefore the Faith of those who are guided by such Conceiters is never Divine never the Gift of God never available to Salvation For the clear understanding of which Assertion Note First That most true it is that God hath revealed many profound Misteries and Divine Verities for Men to believe to be thereby directed fittingly what to hold and to practise for the obtaining of ever-during Happiness Note Secondly That it is also most true that Man of himself without the Aid of Coelestial Grace is not able to believe these Verities fittingly and suitably to his Supernatural End. Note Thirdly That God cannot stir up and draw men by this his Heavenly Grace to believe these Verities unless they be proposed to be believ'd without all mixture of Falshood for if any Falshood be packt in among them and proposed with them for a Divine Truth revealed by God he cannot draw men by his Grace to believe them thus mingled and proposed with Falshood as is manifest because he cannot induce men to believe any Falshood at all And therefore whosoever doth thrust in among some Divine Verities any false Doctrine contrary to that which God hath revealed proposing the same to be believed as a Divine Truth and therein stubbornly contradicting the Teaching of the Church he debars God from co-opperating with his Grace and from drawing People to believe with Divine Faith the Doctrine so mixt and proposed Note Fourthly That Gods revealed Verities will fall out to be of no utility at all to Mankind but rather a Trap to ruine them unless there be some sure un-erring and infallible Proposer of them who doth propose them to Gods People without any mixture of Falshood at all in such sort that he doth not propose any thing as an Article revealed by God which is not so or which is false and contrary to that which God hath indeed reveal'd And therefore that God may draw men by the special aid of his Grace to believe with Divine Faith his revealed Misteries and Verities he must cause them to be proposed to men sincerely and without all mixture of Falshood He I say must cause them to be so proposed because no man of himself without the continual guidance and assistance of the Holy Ghost is able always so to propose them All then that will have Divine Faith must be guided by Gods Proposer of Divine Doctrine and
believe as he doth teach For if they follow any contrary Proposer who does mingle Truth with Falshood contrary to the Doctrine of the right Proposer their Faith cannot be Divine nor avail them to Salvation If any one ask who is Gods un-erring Proposer of Divine Verities I answer now as I answer'd before no other but the Ordinary Doctors and Pastors of the ever visible and Catholick Church of Christ which Doctors and Pastors among other things propose as a Divine and certain Truth that out of the Communion of the True and Catholick Church no Salvation can be had out of whose Communion those most certainly do live who are separated from the Chair of St. Peter and profess Riligions by it condemned And therefore those which esteem themselves secure by believing only those general Points of the Christian Religion which are not controverted betwixt the Learned of the Protestant and of the Roman Church are greatly deceived they being not only destitute of Divine Faith but also very far off from performing the Duty of good Christians as may sufficiently appear by what is said And therefore this their Conceit serves to little else but to bring them to Hell with a quiet and unfrighted Conscience Fourthly Out of the Grounds laid a sufficient Reason doth appear of the Doctrine of the Ancient Fathers who constantly taught that out of the Catholick Church there is no Salvation which Catholick Church they esteemed to be no other than that which is joyned in Communion with the Chair of St. Peter Hear a word or two out of those ancient Worthies St. Athanasius in his Creed approved of and received by the whole Church speaketh thus Whosoever will be saved before all things it is needful that he hold the Catholick Faith the which unless one keep entire and inviolate without all doubt he shall perish eternally St. Cyprian De Simpl. Prelat And St. Augustin De Simbol l. 4. c. 10. saith If any one be found without the Church he shall be an Alien from the Children of God neither shall he have God for his Father who would not have the Church for his Mother The same St. Augustin speaking of Emeritus a Donatist and a Bishop saith Serm. de gestis cum Emerito He cannot have Salvation but in the Catholick Church out of the Church he may have all but Salvation He may have Honour he may have the Sacrament he may sing Alleluja he may answer Amen he may hold the Gospel he may both have and preach Faith in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost but Salvation he can no where have saving in the Catholick Church Where note that Bishop Emeritus being a Donatist was not so much separated from the Roman Church as Protestants are And yet this Learned Father and great Light of Gods Church esteemed him to be out of the Catholick Church and out of the State of Salvation In vain then do Protestants confide that they are within the Catholick Church they being farther separated from the same than this Bishop was St. Fulgentius De Fid. ad Pet. c. 39. saith Most firmly hold and in no sort doubt that each Heretick or Schismatick Baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost if he be not restored to the Catholick Church how great Alms soever he give yea though he should shed his Blood for the Name of Christ yet he cannot be saved Thus these Holy and Learned Fathers with whom in this Point agree the rest Fifthly It appears by the Grounds aforesaid that there can be but only one saving Faith and Religion in the World because there can be but only one Doctrine of Faith that is wholly true and free from all mixture of Falshood for all other Doctrines of Faith must of necessity be mixed and stain'd with some Falshood more or less according as they do more or less differ from and contradict that one Divine Doctrine of Faith which is wholly true as is manifest And therefore God cannot draw men to believe any of them with Divine Faith required of necessity to Salvation And so no Religion whose Doctrine of Faith is mixed with Falshood is truly and really a saving Religion how much soever it be adorned by the seducing Teachers or the seduced Followers thereof with the gay Title of the pure Light of the Gospel Sixthly It appears how just cause all Protestants have to return with speed to the Roman Church in which they may assuredly be saved even by the Judgement of the most Learned among them as hereafter shall appear because it is more than probable that the Protestant Profession is not a saving Religion in regard that the Doctrine of Faith which it imbraceth is not nor cannot be wholly true but really and certainly is mixed with much Falshood 1. Because in divers weighty Points of Faith it directly contradicts the express Word of God as I before have shewed 2. Because this Doctrine of Faith is not directed by any sure Rule of Faith by any Infallible Interpreter of the Scriptures by any Un-erring Judge of Controversies nor proposed by any sure and Infallible Proposer 3. Because Protestants are divided into several Branches or Sects which greatly differ and are contrary one to another in divers weighty Points of Faith as I before have noted And 4. Because Protestants hold that all Churches are subject to erring yea and have erred in their Doctrine of Faith. What assurance then have they that Theirs doth not err none at all But to come now to the principal Point intended in this Question I affirm that out of the Grounds laid which Christianly cannot be deny'd it clearly follows that according to the main Tenet and Ground of the Protestant Religion Jesus the Son of the Virgin Mary was not the true Messias promised in the Old Testament nor the true Saviour of the World. This monstrous Falshood and detestable Blasphemy I say doth clearly and inevitably follow out of the chief and Fundamental Ground of the Protestant Religion For if the Church which Jesus founded came to erre in her Doctrine of Faith in the Ages after the Apostles and to be corrupted with many pernicious Falshoods and Superstitions as Protestant Teachers affirm the Promises of God concerning the Messias made so seriously to the Patriarchs of the Old Testament cannot possibly be verified of Jesus and consequently he was not the true Messias the true Christ and Saviour of the World for of the true Messias these Promises must be verified most certainly in regard that God cannot be false of his Word Thus then he promised to Abraham Gen. 12. 3. In thee shall all the Kindreds of the Earth be blessed Gen. 18 18. In him Abraham are to be blessed all the Nations of the Earth To Isaac Gen. 26. 4. In thy Seed shall be blessed all the Nations of the Earth To Jacob Gen. 28. 14. In thee and in thy Seed all the Tribes of the
Controversies about Faith and Religion now in question amongst Christian People which few I know have leisure or means fewer Capacity to look throughly unto or ability to distinguish always Light from Darkness Truth from Falsehood in them But my Endeavour is to stir you up to a serious consideration of certain general Heads and undenyable Truths which this little Treatise doth present unto you easie to be conceiv'd yet powerful to lay open even to mean Understandings the assured Light of the True Gospel of Christ and the absolute necessity of admitting some sure and un-erring Interpreter of God's Word by him ordained and enabled to deliver the right meaning thereof unto us in all Ages but especially when Controversies about Faith and Religion are raised which Interpreter being once admitted of and agreed upon all other Controversies about points of Belief will quickly be at an end Peace will be restored again to Christians and nothing will remain for the securing of Souls conjoin'd together in the Communion of Saints but a studious care to decline from Evil and to do Good and Industriously to imitate the Blessed Life of Christ But further yet to facilitate this affair be pleased to distinguish in the Belief of Catholicks whom I often call Papists to condescend to the Style of Protestants so terming them for adhering in Religion to the Pope in Latine Papa this word signifying Father as the common Spiritual Father of Christians and supreme Pastor of the Flock of Christ be pleased I say to distinguish in the Belief of Catholicks Divine Faith from Humane Their Articles of Faith from Humane Stories which many distinguishing not and thereupon perswading themselves that Catholicks with equal certainty and obligation believe the one and the other that is their Articles of Faith and the Humane Stories which relate the Lives Actions and Miracles of certain Saints and finding some of these to be very strange and to savour in their conceit of fraudulent Fictions take this to be a sufficient Warrant for them to contemn Papistry as a foolish ungrounded and fabulous Religion and to repute Papists indiscreetly credulous and plainly to be led in darkness and blindness But these do much mistake for the truth is that although all Catholicks be strictly bound to believe those points of Doctrine which their Church doth propose for Articles of Faith contained in the written word of God or in the perpetual Tradition of the Church or deduced by General Councils or by the Pastors of the Church out of God's Word when Heresies are condemned yet they are not bound to believe the Relations of particular Authors concerning the Actions and Miracles of Saints or other like things farther then discreet Prudence and Christian Piety doth lead them every Man being at liberty to weigh the worth and honesty of the Relator and the probability of the thing related and then to believe or not to believe as Reason and Piety shall dictate unto him Yet not forgetting that God is admirable in his Saints That His Wisdom Power Justice Mercy and Sweetness in Governing the World and in contriving and ordering the Affairs of Man's Salvation is far above the reach of our weak Understanding That frequently there is less danger in believing too much than in believing too little and that there are some as strange things related in the Holy Scriptures at which Atheists do stumble as are in the approved Histories of the Church Neither do Catholicks believe these Stories and their Articles of Faith with one and the same certainty for these Stories they believe meerly with Humane Faith for the Authority of the Relators who may Err mistake or deceive But their Articles of Faith they believe with Divine Faith for God's Authority speaking in his Word and by the ordinary Doctors and Pastors of his Church being bound under pain of forfeiting the Name of Catholicks and of incurring damnable Sin not to disbelieve wittingly any one of these Articles all of them being Divine Verities warranted for Truth by the Holy Ghost who continually guideth and directeth the Church in her Doctrine of Faith as is hereafter shewed out of Gods Word And so by disbelieving stubbornly the Articles of Faith which the Church professeth Heresie is incurred which is not incurred by disbelieving her Stories Furthermore if hereafter I affirm not for want of Charity but forced by unanswerable Arguments drawn from the word of God that the Followers of the Protestant Religion so dying are not sav'd take me to speak of those who culpably prefer this Religion before the Catholick or culpably dye therein being thereby destitute of that Faith and Charity which is of necessity required to Salvation and not of those who being truly Baptiz'd and brought up among Protestants have excusable Ignorance of the Catholick Faith and Church by reason either of their tender Years or of their weak Capacities or else of their mean and rude Education for such are secret Members of the Catholick Church and therefore if they depart this Life cloathed with those Garments of Christ with which he adorned them in the Sacrament of Baptism not having fallen into mortal Sin they shall certainly inherit the Kingdom of Heaven In which happiness none shall be Sharers that pass out of this Life destitute of Divine Faith which is the Gift of God of which more hereafter or defiled with Mortal Sin which is so called because it destroys the supernatural life of the Soul received by Regeneration in Baptism consisting in Divine Faith and other Celestial Virtues but especially in Sanctifying Grace and divine Charity without which Divine Charity nothing doth avail to Salvation as the Apostle teaches 1 Cor. 1. 13. Lastly because divers Protestant Teachers endeavour to make their Followers believe That the Fathers of the Primitive Church were Protestants seeking thereby to Illustrate the Protestant Religion that the greatness and boldness of this Imposture pardon the Word for I know not how otherwise to express truly the dealing of these Men may clearly appear I humbly intreat all understanding Protestants which know it not to take notice That those ancient Worthies and Lights of the Church of Christ were either Monks or Founders of Monastical Discipline or at least Approvers and Praisers of the same St. Anthony was a Monk and St. Athanasius his Praiser St. Basil the Great a Monk and the Founder of a Monastical Institute which in the Eastern part of the World is yet practised St. Gregory the Divine was a Monk St. Chrysostom a Monk St. Hierom a Monk the Great St. Augustine the Founder of a Monastical course of Life St. Martin a Monk St. Benedict a Monk and Founder of the Famous Order of Benedictine Monks which does yet flourish in the Western Church St. Gregory the Great was a Monk and by the Labours of Fourty Monks did first plant Christianity amongst the English Let any Man judge how likely or how true it is that these men were Protestants Secondly take notice that
the Protestant Profession be Christ's True Religion and the Pure Light of his Gospel but hath ever made use to effect this admirable work of his Power and Mercy of the Blind and Superstitious Religion of the Papists That God for the space of above a thousand years in the Conversion of Heathen Nations and their Kings hath ever made use of Papistry is evident out of the Histories of former times which relates the Conversion of Nations Yea even in these latter times in which since the rising of the Protestant Religion the Faith of Christ hath been infinitely spread in the East and West-Indies and in divers vast Islands of the Sea amongst Heathen and Barbarous Nations God hath utterly neglected the True Religion and the pure Light of the Gospel that is the Protestant Religion And hath made use only of Papistry to make these Nations Blessed in Christ Now is not this a very likely thing if Papistry be a False and Protestancy the True Religion As likely certainly it is as that the Sea doth burn as that the Sun is dark and Snow black For to speak plain English If Protestancy be Gods Religion and Papistry the Devils in regard that God cannot in very deed be Author of both these Religions they being opposite and contrary one to the other How can God neglect the Protestant Religion and make use of Papistry to spread the Faith of his Son over the World to make thereby the Nations of the Earth Blessed in him Nay how can they be made Blessed in Christ by the help of the Devils Religion How can it become the Wisdom and Goodness of God to neglect his own Religion and to spread increase and exalt the Devils To neglect the True Light of the Gospel and to delude the Nations of the Earth with the Superstitions of Papistry Who then is so short and dim sighted that he doth not see that even from hence is most clearly prov'd that the Protestant Profession is not Gods Religion is not the Pure Light of the Gospel ordain'd by God to give Light to the Gentiles and to make them Blessed in Christ But a late and new Invention suggested by the Enemy of God to destroy in these Northern parts of the World that Religion which God made use of heretofore to root out Him and his Idolatrous Worship and to make these Nations Blessed in his Son I conclude then this Question with this Syllogism That is Gods Religion and the True Gospel and Doctrine of Christ which is Preached over the World to spread therein the Name and Faith of Christ for a Testimony to all Nations But Papistry and not Protestancy is so Preach'd over the World Ergo Papistry and not Protestancy is Gods Religion and the True Gospel and Doctrine of Christ The Major is certain and clear out of the Words of Christ Matth. 24. above-related The Minor is certain and also clear out of the Histories of former Times and also of this present Age. The conclusion follows well And so it rests demonstrated that the Holy Catholick Roman Faith Nick-nam'd Papistry is Gods Religion and the True Gospel of Christ Which will appear yet more clearly out of the Questions following Question V. Whether it be not a very inconsiderate thing and full of danger to prefer in matters of Faith and Religion the Teaching of Men before the Word of God ALthough the Arguments of the precedent Questions be firm and strong and sufficient to make Considerate Protestants to look about them yet many of them will be little mov'd therewith because they are possess'd with a strong imagination that Their Religion is grounded upon the word of God is squar'd out thereby and wholly or at least very much cleans'd from the Doctrines of men To free them from which false and dangerous Conceit and Perswasion I here demand Whether it be not a thing of great Inconsideration and of no small danger to prefer in matters of Faith and Religion the Teaching of Men the Doctrine of This or That Preacher before the Word of God Yea in effect to hazard and pawn ones Soul that the Teaching of these or those new Masters is truer and rather to be follow'd than the express word of God it self This will seem to Protestants a strange demand because they esteem Papists not a little culpable for relying too much upon the Doctrines of Men And therefore they will here bid me take my self by the Nose Nevertheless whatsoever they imagine I will easily here free Papists and prove them guilty of preferring the Doctrines of Men before the express Word of God. That Papists are not guilty of this Crime is clear enough First Because no Text of the Word of God taken in its proper Sense and as the Antient Fathers the general Councels the ever visible Catholick Church of Christ did take it doth directly contradict any Article held by the Roman Church For example no Text doth say that we are not justify'd by Faith and Good-Works That Works of Grace done in the state of Grace are not Meritorious That the Body of Christ is not really in the Holy Eucharist That Lawful Priests have not Power as Gods Instruments to Absolve from Sins rightly Confess'd That no Satisfaction is necessarily requir'd on our Parts That there is no Purgatory That it is not Lawful or Profitable to Pray to Saints to Honour them as Sanctify'd Creatures to respect Reverently their Reliques to have Holy Pictures and Reverently to regard them for the Love of Christ or his Saints and the like No Text I say of the Word of God doth expresly condemn These and the like Articles believ'd by Catholicks Though many make expresly for them as Catholick Divines do shew Secondly Although all True Catholicks do Humbly and Obediently believe as the Church Teaches And thereupon do firmly imbrace divers Articles propos'd by Her which are not in express Terms found in the Scriptures Yet in these very Points they do not believe the Doctrines of men or prefer the Doctrines of men before the express Word of God or hazard their Souls that the Teaching of Their Pastors is truer or rather to be follow'd than the Word of God But in these particular Articles they rely upon the Authority of God and believe the Word of God speaking in and by his Church which will not be hard to shew For the Office of Preaching the Word of God by Christ committed to his Apostles dy'd not with them but continu'd with their Successors And so the Preaching of their Successors was the Preaching of the Word of God not only in the first Age after the Apostles but in all succeeding Ages the Holy Ghost Ever abiding with them John 14. And Teaching them all Truth in matters of Faith John 16. Moreover in the Ages after the Apostles not only those who had Skill and Means to Read the Scriptures But those also who could not Read them might believe in Christ and might be Saved by him And consequently
they might have true Faith in him Which they could not have but by Believing the Word of God The Apostle saying Rom. 10. Faith is by Hearing and Hearing is by the Word of Christ Whilst such then Heard and Believ'd The Doctrine of the Church that is the Teaching of the Doctors and Pastors of the Church they Heard and Believ'd the Word of God The same do Papists now Futhermore it cannot be doubted but that the Gospel and Voice of Christ is the Word of God and that those which hear these hear the Word of God. But the Preaching and Teaching of the Doctors and Pastors of the Church of Christ is the Gospel and Voice of Christ Ergo c. This is clear out of Matth. 24. where Christ says This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be Preach'd in the whole World for a Testimony to all Nations and then shall come the Consummation For who do Preach this Gospel in all Ages till the end of the World but the Doctors and Pastors of the Church Their Preaching then is the Gospel of Christ and consequently the Word of God. Christ likewise says John 10. speaking of his Sheep which he is to gather out of the Gentiles even till the end of the World Other Sheep I have which are not of this Fold that is of the Flock of the Jews Them also I must bring and they shall hear my Voice Christ did not nor doth not Preach to the Gentiles to gather his Sheep from amongst them in all Ages by his own Corporal Voice But by the Voice and Teaching of the Pastors of his Church Their Voice then is his Voice and consequently the Word of God. Which is yet further shew'd out of Luke 10. where Christ says to his Pastors and Teachers He that heareth you heareth me Wherefore while Papists do hear the Teaching of the Doctors and Pastors of the Church lineally succeeding the Apostles they hear the Word of God the Gospel of Christ the Voice of Christ yea Christ himself And therefore they cannot be justly said to believe in matters of Faith the Doctrines of men Or to hazard their Souls upon the Doctrines of men But upon the Authority of God speaking in and by that Church which his continual assistance maketh to be The Pillar and ground of Truth 1 Tim. 3. But the Case is not so with Protestants For they do not only rely and hazard their Souls upon the Doctrines of Men But they also prefer the Doctrines of men before the express Word of God. For in divers most weighty Points of Religion they leave not only the Antient Fathers the General Councils and the ever visible and Catholick Church of Christ but even the Word of God it self to follow the Teaching of their new Masters This will seem at first a strange or rather a very Injurious and Contumelious Imputation But let us make it plain by some examples The Word of God says James 2. 24. Do you see that a man is justify'd by Works and not by Faith only But Protestant Teachers say that a man is justify'd Not by Works but by Faith only Mark how directly they contradict the Word of God. For that says By Works and not by Faith only And these do Protestants believe rather than the express Word of God in the weighty point of Justification On which their Salvation depends which is not obtain'd but by the true manner of Justification Secondly The Word of God says Luke 1. 6. That the Parents of John the Baptist Were both Just before God walking in all the Commandments and Justifications of our Lord without blame Whence it clearly follows that this Holy Couple kept all Gods Commandments For he that breaks them doth not Walk in them without blame The Word of God likewise says 1 John 5. 3. This is the Charity of God that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not heavy But Protestant Teachers generally affirm that the Commandments of God are Impossible are such as no man can keep are Insupportable And confequently they must say that no man is bound to keep them For no man is bound to do more than he is able By which Doctrine they do not only loose the Bridle to all Vice and make God more Indiscreet and more Tyrannical than any other Commander in the World But They also flatly contradict the word of God Which not only shews that some men have kept the Commandments but also expresly affirms that they are not Heavy And yet Protestants rather believe these than the Word of God in this most weighty point But Note well what follows against these Teachers out of the Word of God 1 John 2. 4. Which there says He who saith he knows God and does not keep his Commandments is a Lyer and the Truth is not in him But Protestant Teachers affirm that they rightly know God but do not nor cannot keep his Commandments Ergo They are Lyars Our Saviour Instituting the Holy Eucharist says Luke 22. 19. This is my Body which is given for you But English Ministers generally say That the Eucharist is not Christ's Body which was given for us that is his True Body But a Figure or remembrance of it Christ says My Body which is given for you That is my True Body For his True Body was given for Us suffer'd for Us and not a Figure or Remembrance thereof But these new Teachers say Not his True Body not that which was given for Vs that suffer'd for Vs But a Figure of it which the Word of God no where Teaches And thus they flatly contradict the Word of God in this most important Article of Faith On the right Belief and Use of which Salvations depends as is manifest out of the 6 St. Joh. and out of the 11. of the 1 of Corinthians And yet These our English Protestants believe rather than the Word of God though it expresly says That the Eucharist is the Body of Christ The Flesh of Christ He himself saying John 6. 51. The Bread which I will give is my Flesh for the Life of the World. 4ly Daniâ—l 2. 44. The VVord of God says In the days of those Kingdoms the God of Heaven will raise up a Kingdom that is the Church of Christ that shall not be dissipated for ever And his Kingdom shall not be deliver'd to another people And it shall break in pieces and shall consume all these Kingdoms and it shall stand for ever Of which Church of Christ speaking again c. 7. He saith His Power is an Eternal Power that shall not be taken away and his Kingdom that shall not be corrupted Conformable to which clear Prophecy of Daniel concerning the Perpetuity and Incorruption of the Kingdom and Church of the Messias Christ speaking of his Church Matth. 16. says And the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against her That is The Power of the Devil and false Doctrines by which men are seduc'd and brought to Hell. John 14. 16. He says That
Damnation even by Gods Ordination to be of that Religion which their Supream Temporal Magistrate will have them And so where such a Supream Magistrate is a Catholick that is a Papist according to the Stile and Language of Protestants his Subjects are bound to be Papists if so be he will have it Where he is a Lutheran they are bound to be Lutherans where he is a Calvinist they are bound to be Calvinists where he is an Anabaptist Quaker Arrian or Nestorian they are bound to be of the same Profession if their Prince will have it so and that even by Gods Ordination if those Protestants say true who will have every Temporal Prince to be within his own Dominions Supream Director Leader and Guide in matters of Faith and Religion even by the Ordination of God than the which what can be more Absurd yea more Impious and Blasphemous for this doth make God far worse than the Devil in regard that the Devil can but only intice and solicite People to follow false Religions but here God is made to tye and oblige them even under pain of Damnation to imbrace and practise false and Heretical Religions when seduced Princes or Supream Temporal Magistrates will have it so Where note by the way The late hard and harsh Dealing of some English Protestants toward their Catholick Neighbours whom they termed Traytors often vex'd and afflicted and esteemed worthy of all Punishments because they would not believe and practise that Faith and Religion for True and Divine which it hath pleased this Commonwealth to Frame not out of the Holy Scriptures Antient Fathers General Councils and Perpetual Tradition of the Church but out of the Doctrine of Luther Melancthon Suinglius Peter Martyr Calvin and the like who in their Rising Calling Proceeding were as like Arius Pelagius Nestorius and other former Hereticks as one Egg is like another which I say it hath pleased this Commonwealth to frame and to propose though Catholicks cannot so do without incurring the high Offence of God and certain Peril of their own Souls because they are perswaded in their own Consciences that to imbrace or profess the Protestant Religion is a damnable Sin in regard that the Profession thereof is the Profession of a False Religion which is ever damnable to the Conscious Professor and the denial of the True that is of the only Right and Saving Faith of Christ which Catholicks hold to be no other than the Antient and commonly received Faith of the Christian World not rashly and upon slight but after serious Consideration and upon firm and sure Grounds as every judicious man may easily perceive at least in part out of that which this little Treatise doth present him Hard then and much to be pity'd was the late Condition of English Catholicks who either truly and really must have been Traytors to Christ and ruine their own Souls or else they must have exposed themselves to be reputed by their Mis-inform'd Neighbours Refractory Disobedient Unsure and Trecherous to their Prince a thing to all good Catholicks most Hateful most Detestable and must have run the Hazard to loose their Goods and Liberties and have laid open to the Malice of Spiteful Neighbours to the Spleen of Furious Protestants to the Railing of Slanderous Predicants to the base Vexation of Pursevants and to the Depilations of Promoters and of other Under Officers To these Miseries I say Innocent Catholicks have been exposed till it hath pleased God to raise up a good Josiah our Gracious Soveraign James the Second to Protect them and to extend his bountiful Favour toward them But to spin out the Thread begun if it be contrary both to Scripture and Reason so to enslave Religion to the Check of Temporal Lords that Subjects must believe as it shall please them to appoint We must admit that Supream Power to Guide and Direct in Matters of Faith doth immediately reside in certain Spiritual Rulers Prelates and Magistrates even by the peculiar Ordination of God. Which being so I demand of Protestants whether this Power by Gods Ordination resideth in one or many This I say I demand of Protestants in regard that of the right knowledge of this Point doth depend the right knowledge of the True Gospel and Religion of Christ which we cannot learn but of those Doctors and Pastors whom God doth send and Authorise to Teach What then will Protestants answer to this Question what will they answer Much no doubt but not much to the purpose because they are not yet agreed among themselves about this Point for the Lutherans will have this Power to reside in their Teachers but the Calvinists in theirs The Anabaptists will have it reside in their Congregation but the Quakers in theirs The English Protestants will have it reside in their Bishops and Parliaments but the Puritans will have it to be in their Consistorian Elders And so none of these can make a satisfying Answer to my Question all of them disagreeing as they do and no one Sect of them having better Grounds out of Gods Word than the rest For I demand First In whom did this Power reside the last five hundred years before Luther If it were then in any Protestant Doctors let them be named and let it be shewed out of good Records whether they were Lutherans or Calvinists But if no such Doctors can de named as certainly they cannot because there were none such and that this Power did then reside in other Teachers how came any sort of Protestant Doctors to have this Power afterwards here nothing can be said for Protestants that may not as rightfully be said for Arians Nestorians or any other Hereticks whatsoever Secondly I demand Whether this Power reside in one or in many If in one who this one among Protestants is If in many who these many are and whether they have any visible Head among them or no to whom all the rest are bound to stoop and to submit their Judgements in the Decision of Controversies about Faith and Religion If they have no such Head what Hope of Vnity in Faith and of Vniformity is there in the Service and Worship of God certainly none at all as evident Experience doth teach by the Example of the Lutherans and Calvinists and of other Protestants And so while Protestants refuse one Supream Spiritual Head authorised and enabled by the continual Assistance of the Holy Ghost clearly promised in the Word of God to direct them in Faith and in the right Worship of God without danger of mis-leading and deluding them they refuse in very Deed not only Unity in Faith and Conformity in the Service of God but the true means of Salvation also which Christ our Saviour hath ordained for them within the Communion of his Catholick Church Out of whose happy Communion they will not acknowledge themselves to be nor see the Danger they are in till it be too late Because willing without searching seriously into the matter they repute
Reformations about which they themselves cannot yet agree Which being so to Demonstrate clearly that this prime Ground of the Protestant Religion and general Tenet of all Protestant Teachers doth directly lead yea inevitably force if it be throughly looked into and searched to the bottom to the denyal of Christ and all Christianity I lay for my First Ground That without Faith in Jesus Christ no Man can be saved This is not only the Belief of all that wear and deserve the Noble Title of a Christian but certain also out of the Word of God. Act. 4. 12. There is not Salvation in any other for neither is there any other Name under Heaven given to Men to wit but the Name of Jesus wherein we must be saved Mark 16. 16 But he that shall not believe namely the Gospel and Religion of Christ shall be condemned Heb. 11. 6 Without Faith it is impossible to please God. Rom. 5. 1 Being therefore justified by Faith let us have Peace toward God by our Lord Jesus Christ By whom also we have access through Faith to his Grace This Ground then is certain and cannot be denied by any Christian For my Second Ground I lay That this Faith in Jesus Christ which by God's Ordination is of necessity required to Salvation is not a mere Natural Faith or Humane Credulity which Men may have by their own natural Forces without the help of God's special Grace such as is the Faith of Heathens of Jews and Turks and such indeed as is the Faith of all Hereticks But it is a Divine and Supernatural thing which Men acquire and attain to by the special Aid of God by the help of Divine Grace and therefore this Faith is called and truly is The gift of God. This ground is certain first out of the Word of God which clearly teacheth That saving Faith is the gift of God Phil. 1. 29. To you it is given for Christ not only to Believe in him but also to Suffer for him Eph. 2. 8. By Grace you are saved through Faith and that not of your selves for it is the gift of God Not of Works that no Man may glory Joh. 6. 44. No Man can come unto me that is believe in me for our first step toward Christ is Faith unless the Father that sent me draw him And Verse 65. Therefore did I say to you that no Man can come to me unless it be given him of my Father Joh. 15. 5. I am the Vine you the Branches he that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth much fruit for without me you can do nothing Namely appertaining to Salvation and therefore not believe as is requisite to Life Everlasting without the help of Christ that is of Divine Grace by Christ merited and purchased for us These places are clear Secondly This ground is strongly proved by Reason For the end of Man being to enjoy Supernatural Glory that is the clear Vision of God in his blessed Kingdom The means to obtain this high and divine End must be suitable to it that is Divine and Supernatural For who will say that Man of himself and by his own forces without the Aid and special Favour of God is able to make himself fit and proportionate to be associated to the Saints to the Angels to Christ to God in Eternal Glory Who will say that of himself he is able to cleanse his Soul from the stains and filth of Sin and to put upon her a Wedding Garment a Golden and Resplendent Vesture suitable to the Banquet and Banqueters of Heaven The special Operation then of Divine Grace must Purifie and Embellish the Soul of Man and Attire her in Holy and Divine Virtues that so she may be fit to be the Consort of God in the fruition of his Eternal Glory And so Faith which is one of these Virtues and the very Ground and Foundation of the rest must be Divine and Supernatural and spring in Man from the help of God's Grace and be Adorned and Dignified by it that so there may be a fit proportion betwixt the Root and the Tree the Seed and the Fruit the Egg and the Bird a Christian Life and the Glory of Heaven Whosoever will deny this ground must not only forsake the clear Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures and go against the light of Reason but he must also fall into the Pelagian Heresie condemned by the Church of Christ Twelve Hundred Years ago Which held That the Gospel of Christ being proposed by his Preachers Men of themselves without any further help of Divine Grace are able to believe the same and to do all therein required to Life Everlasting Which proud phansy of Pelagius St. Hierom S. Augustine and especially the Bishops of Rome by the invincible force of God's Word did crush confound and beat to the ground My third Ground is That as God cannot be the Author of a Lye of false Doctrine of a false Faith of a false Religion That is of a Religion and Doctrine of Faith that is mixed with Falshood and is partly true and partly false So he neither doth neither can stir up and draw Men by his special Grace Aid and Operation to believe those Religions or Doctrines of Faith which are so mixed with Falshood This seems to be evident even by the light of Reason for as it is the proper work of the Devil to mix Religions and to pollute them with Falshood So it is his continual and studious endeavour to stir up and induce Men by proposing some pleasing and delectable thing or other to believe and embrace the same that so he may deprive them of Divine Faith which is the Gift of God and bring them assuredly to Everlasting Damnation Neither let any one be so simple as to imagine That the Devil is only the Author of those Religions which are wholly False For scarcely is there any Religion in the World that doth teach no Truth at all And therefore it is sufficient to prove a Religion to be the work of the Devil if there be any Falshood in it at all as S. Paul doth seem to teach 1 Tim. 4. 1. where foretelling the rising of the Manichean Heresie which long did Pester the Church of God he call's the Doctrine thereof the Doctrine of Devils Notwithstanding that those Hereticks with some Falshoods did teach many Truths even as all Hereticks do who nevertheless are the Instruments of the Devil to seduce and destroy Souls Wherefore whosoever do culpably Believe and Follow Religions or Doctrines of Faith partly True partly False do never believe the same with Divine Faith which is the Gift of God though they esteem the Religion which they follow to be the best of all others yea to be the pure Light of the Gospel of Christ But their Faith is ever a meer Humane Credulity such as is the Faith of all Mis-believers which can never bring them to Eternal Happiness how laudably soever they live because without
certain it is that God hath ever preserv'd in the World a True Divine and Illustrious Religion in which Men may be Sav'd if they will. For Christ did not Light up a Candle to put it under a Bushel Mat. 5. And so certain it is that the Protestant Religion which is Erected upon so bad a Foundation as the Erring of the Church is is neither good nor sufficient to Salvation Question XIII If the Church of Christ did Err from the True Light of the Gospel for so many Ages could be find none fit in so many hundred years to restore the same till Luther falling out with the Pope and breaking his Vow of Chastity began to Teach a New Religion tending to Liberty and Looseness TO make way for my next demand I must again repeat that Protestants Believe and Teach that the Church of Christ quickly fell from that Purity of Doctrine which he and his Apostles deliver'd unto her And that shortly after their times her Pastors and Doctors by Humane Inventions and Traditions Obscur'd the true and sincere Light of the Gospel And obtruded upon their Followers many gross Errors about Faith many vain and hurtful Superstitions in the practice of Religion and about the Worship of God. In which she continu'd still increasing them for 1400 1200. or at least a thousand years And from which she ought long ago to have been cleans'd but was not through the Ambition Negligence or gross Ignorance of her Pastors Who living in Blindness themselves lead their Followers in Blindness as Protestants imagine Who therefore call this long tract of time in which they esteem the Church to have Err'd the time of Blindness But how Blindly may partly appear by that which I have already said partly by this That those Articles of the Old Religion which these men account Errors are the prime parts of the Religion of Christ which tend to good Life to nourish Piety and to inflame Devotion and which he ordain'd to Animate Help Curb and Cure our sluggish weak and frail Nature and to bring his People to live in the Fear of God to walk in his Holy Commandments to live according to Conscience to abstain from Evil and to do Good To Crucifie the Flesh and the bad Desires thereof Gal. 5. 24. And in a Word to imitate studiously his own Blessed Life and the Lives and Actions of his Holy Apostles and other prime Saints who Forsook all to follow him Mat. 19. 27. Such are those Articles of the Old Religion which bind under pain of Damnation to the necessity of keeping the Commandments of God by abstaining from Mortal Sins such as are Murder Fornication Theft in a notable quantity Perjury and the like by which property they are broken to the necessity of Fasting as the Church Commands Of Confessing all grievous sins Sacramentally to a Lawful and Authoriz'd Priest Of doing Pennance for them in this Life or of Suffering severe Punishment in the next Of restoring other mens Goods unlawfully gotten or possess'd and to the necessity of obeying the Church and all other Lawful Superiours in things appertaining to their Power Such also are those Articles which Teach the merit of good Works proceeding of Grace and done in the state of Grace and the excellency of the Evangelical Councils of Christ of perpetual Poverty Chastity and Obedience practic'd in the Church of Christ even since the Apostles times by innumerable Holy Men and Women All which Articles and divers others connex'd with these are the things which Protestant Teachers repute Errors and dislike in the Old Religion as restraining too much from the Liberty of the Gospel that is to speak plain English from the Liberty of the Flesh from Venus and Bacchus Which Liberty is chiefly intrench'd upon by the Roman Church in that she will not admit any to the high and Heavenly Function of Priesthood who will not Voluntarily Geld themselves for the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 19. 12. By Vowing perpetual Chastity which point indeed doth chiefly sting many Protestant Teachers and doth incite them to rage so furiously and to stand out so Rebelliously as they do against this their True and Antient Mother though divers of the more Learned amongst them do it with some Reluctation of Conscience which tells them that Chastity is a Decent dignifying and excellent Ornament of Christian Priests and which therefore not Obscurely foretells them that the short solace which a Wife in this Life affords them is likely to cost them in the next the Eternal loss of their Souls But to come to the matter and question here intended If the Church of Christ did Err from the true Light of his Gospel so many Ages and imbrace so many gross and dangerous Superstitions as She is accus'd to have done I demand of Prudent and Considerate Protestants how it could become the Wisdom Goodness and Mercy of God first to drive off and defer the Cleansing and Reforming of his Church so many hundred years to the great Dishonour of Himself and of his Blessed Son and to the loss of Infinite Souls and then after so long a tract of time to make choice of such Instruments as Protestants imagine he did to restore again to the World the true Light of his Gospel Could he find none fit to take in hand and to bring to effect this Needful Merciful and Holy Reformation till Martin Luther a Cholerick and Bold Austine-Fryer Incens'd with Anger because the Preaching of certain Indulgences granted by the Pope was committed to the Dominican-Fryers and not to his Order fell out with the Pope cast away his Religious Weed brake his Vow of Chastity which he had long kept Married a Nun Consecrated to God and plung'd himself into a Carnal course of Life Could God I say find none fit neither amongst the Fathers of the Primitive Church nor amongst the Saints and Sages of the next thousand years to be the Actors of so Needful a Reformation till the Love of Carnal Liberty made Luther and his Brood shew themselves to the World There liv'd in those times St. Basil the Great St. Hierome St. Ambrose St. Augustine St. Gregory the Great Venerable Bode St. Bernard St. Anselme St. Thomas of Aquin St. Bonaventure beside Innumerable others all excellent Men for Learning Wisdom Sanctity and all so Devoted to God that He had them all at his command And yet among all these could he find none so fit to be his Instruments in the Divine Work of Reforming his Church and of restoring again to the World the true Light of his Gospel as Luther and his Associates Who dares Pawn his Soul hereon Especially if he consider that these Men were not only destitute of Excellent Sanctity of Life which those usually have who are Gods peculiar Instruments in the effecting of any such kind of work but were also branded with all the Marks of False Prophets of Perfidious Hereticks as Learned Protestants cannot but know Insomuch that it is not possible
affirm That those Protestants which deny Papistry to be a saving Religion and hold that Papists are not saved are neither of the best Learned nor of the Wisest sort For if they were Learned they would easily gather out of the Doctrine of the Scriptures and the Histories of the Christian Church that to deny Papistry to be a saving Religion is to deny Christ in effect as I have before shewed And if they were discreet and wise they would not so rashly condemn to the pit of Hell the whole Christian World together with their Fore-fathers for so many hundreds of years in which Papistry reigned over the World without any firm ground or urgent reason at all Unless their own mistaking and ignorance must be reputed a firm ground For setting these aside by which their mis-informed and mis-guided Zeal doth take Papistry to be that which it is not what can they bring firm and solid to prove that Papistry is not a saving Religion Will they say that Papists are ignorant of or do not rely upon a certain special Faith by which they esteem themselves to be the Elect of God and to be Cock-sure of Salvation Be it so Neither did the Prophets nor the Apostles nor the Ancient Fathers rely upon this special Faith as is evident by their Lives For they applied themselves to Holy Works to much Prayer to frequent Fasting to great Austerity and Mortification seeking by these means to make sure their Vocation 2 Pet. 1. 10. and really working their Salvation in fear and trembling as the Apostle adviseth Philip. 2. 12. For all which Labour Care and Austerity this special Faith is a Supersedeas as is manifest by the Lives and Actions of those which rely thereon Wherefore if for want of this Sin-nourishing special Faith Papists do perish both Patriarchs Prophets Apostles and the Ancient Fathers yea all the Saints and Holy Servants of God which lived from Adam's time to Luther must perish with them For none of these were acquainted with or relyed upon this special Faith. Otherwise there would have been clear and manifest mention thereof in the Holy Scriptures in which the Holy Ghost not once or twice but most frequently would have inculcated the same if it had been so needful that without it Men could not be saved But seeing that in all his Divine Word he hath made no clear mention thereof Papists cannot be in danger for not relying thereon But rather those which relye thereon are in manifest danger of Eternal Perdition because in so weighty a business as their Everlasting Happiness is they forsaking the received Doctrine of the Christian World in the point of Jurisdiction rely upon a meer chimerical Fiction of their own as at their death they will find What then will these Zealous Precisians exclude Papists from Heaven because they commit Idolatry But this foul and foolish Crime Papists do no where commit but in these Mens mistaking Brains as is evident to all that know what Papists believe But Papists they will say do Err in divers points of Religion and therefore they cannot be saved But do not all Churches Err in these Mens conceipt Are not all subject to Erring Let them then either yield that Erring Religions are saving or else let them boldly teach That Jesus Christ hath not provided the World of any means of Salvation seeing he hath not established therein as these Men imagine any Religion that is not Erring By all which it is clear that in these parts of the World none do doubt but that Papistry is a Saving Religion saving a few unlearned Precisians who doubt of this but very indiscreetly as I have shewed But on the contrary all the Papists in the World who are far more in number than the Protestants are and really far excel them in Learning do not doubt whether the Protestant Religion be Saving or no but most firmly hold upon sure and undeceiving Grounds that it is not and that therefore no Man can be Saved precisely by the help of this Religion Which makes so many understanding Men and Women that know it right well forsake it notwithstanding that it is so easie and so pleasiing to Flesh and Blood and to imbrace Papistry far less agreeable to their Sensual Appetites with so great hazard of their Quiet Preferments Liberty and Goods Which certainly they would never do but to secure their Souls Which security if the Protestant Religion were able to afford no Man of Wit here in England would forsake the same to become a Catholick But no such security is to be found in this Religion but rather certain danger of Eternal Perdition as all do find that throughly search into it Neither are Papists for thus Censuring of the Protestant Religion to be esteemed less charitable then those Protestants which brand not Papistry with so hard a Censure For the Case of Papists and Protestants in this Affair is not alike Because Protestants in believing are at liberty according to their own Positions in regard That as they do not hold that there is upon Earth any Un-erring Church whose teaching all are bound to follow under pain of Damnanation So they do not esteem themselves bound to believe strictly the teaching of any Church or to think that Errors in Points of Faith do indanger Salvation But Papists are not at the like liberty because they believing that the Catholick Church which is no other than that Church which being spread over the World is joined in Communion to the Chair of Peter cannot Err in her Doctrine of Faith by reason of the continual assistance of the Holy Ghost do esteem themselves bound to believe as she teaches And therefore because this Church guided by the Holy Ghost and directed by the Holy Scriptures doth teach that there is but One Faith Ephes 4. but One Fold Joh. 10. That Christian People are bound under pain of Damnation to Obey their Lawful Prelates Heb. 13. And to hear the Voice of the Church Matth. 18. And to listen to the Ordinary Pastors thereof Luk. 10. And that they are in like sort bound to beware of false Prophets that is false Expounders of God's Word to avoid Heretical Teachers such as their Church hath declared Protestant Teachers to be For these and the like respects Catholicks do resolutely hold if they be such as understand their own Religion that by the help precisely of the Protestant Religion no Man can be saved Which they hold not for want of Charity but for Obedience to the Word of God and to the True and Catholick Church of Christ Let not then Protestants blame Catholicks for believing as they do seeing the word of God and so great Authority doth force them thereunto But rather let them blame themselves for following new Teachers contrary to the Doctrine of the Scriptures and for dis-uniting themselves from the True and Catholick Church of Christ out of whose Communion there is No Salvation as our Creeds do teach By all which
THE APPENDIX Whether the Apostles were Protestants or no. PRotestants generally conceive and believe that Jesus Christ and his Apostles Preached and planted in the World the Protestant Religion even the very self-same that Protestants now believe and practice and that they were really Protestants not in Name but in their Belief and Practice And that they instituted their Disciples and Followers that is the first Christians in the self-same Liberty of Gospel which Protestants now follow and charged them that with all Care and Diligence they should deliver this sweet and easie Religion which is so pleasing to Flesh and Blood to those who were to succeed them that so for ever it might be continued in the World for the Salvation of Mankind Thus I say do Protestants generally conceive and upon the Truth of this Conceipt they hazard their Souls notwithstanding that they are not agreed nor cannot yet agree among themselves which makes the matter very strange and the conceipt wholly improbable whether the Apostles in their Belief and Practice of Religion were Lutherans or Anabaptists or Swinglians or Calvinists or New Arians or Quakers or Arminians or Parliamentary Pretestants for each of these sorts or Branches of Protestants lay Claim to the Apostles and the Learned of each sort do bear their Followers in hand That the Doctrine which they Teach is the pure Light of the Gospel even the self-same that the Blessed Apostles Believed Taught and practised and of this they are all certain alike And so the conceipt of Saxony Denmark Sweden is that the Apostles were Lutherans The Conceipt of some of the Cantons of Switzerland is that they were Swinglians The Conceipt of many in Moravia and in Holland is that they were Anabaptists The Conceipt of Geneva of Scotland of Puritans of England and of some parts of Germany is that they were Calvinists The Conceipt of divers in England and Holland is that they were Quakers And the Conceipt of the Protestant Church of England is that the Apostles were of the same Belief and practised the same Worship of God that by Act of Parliament is here settled and established But to speak the Truth as it is impossible that the Apostles should be of all these Beliefs so it is more than probable that they were of none of them but rather that all these Beliefs are meer conjectural Conceipts of new Teachers who are wholly uncertain of what Belief the Apostles were For if they were certain that the Apostles were of some one of these Beliefs they would all doubtless be of the same But the Learned of the Protestants being indeed altogether uncertain and really ignorant of the Faith and Practise of the Apostles by guessing thereat so near as they can they have divided themselves into so many Branches and into so many contrary Faiths and practises each of them having nothing but his own conjecture to lead him to the true Light of the Gospel and to the right Religion of the Apostles But notwithstanding that Protestants do thus differ about Religion and are uncertain of the Faith and practice of the Apostles Yet they will not forsooth have it deny'd but that the Apostles were Protestants and that they planted in the World the Protestant Religion And so it must be supposed that they Taught That we are justified by Faith only That we have not Free-will in the works of Grace That our best Works are impure and stained with Sin That we do not merit by them either Increase of Grace or Glory That by Faith in Christ we are freed from the Yoke of the Law which is such as no man can keep and therefore Christ having fulfilled it for us our breach thereof doth neither wound the Conscience nor endanger the Soul. Moreover according to this supposed Doctrine of the Apostles we are not bound to confess our Sins to the Priests of God's Church or to do pennance for them no Works of ours being truly satisfactory Neither is Sin punished any where after this Life but in Hell and therefore we need not fear any purging Flames Christ having paid for all Furthermore we are not bound in Conscience to Fast or to abstain from Flesh upon certain days according as the Church doth appoint this being contrary to the Liberty of the Gospel It is likewise vain foolish superstitious to endeavour to gain Heaven by Prayer Fasting Alms-deeds by a Holy and mortified Life or to Vow Poverty Chastity and Obedience or to esteem perpetual Virginity Consecrated to God better more noble and more pleasing to God than Marriage Again according to the same supposed Apostolical Doctrine the Church of Christ is subject to Erring in her Doctrine of Faith and therefore we are not tyed to believe as she Teaches further than we esteem her Doctrine to agree with the written Word for to be so tyed is against the Liberty of the Gospel Against which Liberty also it is that Bishops and Priests should be tyed to live Chaste and Single Lives Lastly all sorts of Protestants saving Lutherans esteem the Apostles to have believed and taught that the Eucharist is not the true Body and Blood of Christ but a Figure or Remembrance thereof And so they consequently hold that Christ left no true and proper Sacrifice to be daily offered in his Church nor no true Priest-hood which cannot subsist without a true Sacrifice This is the Conceipt of Protestants in general real or pretended Real it may be of the ignorant and simple but pretended only I believe by the Understanding and Learned For these cannot but know that if the Apostles indeed had been Protestants and really had Preached spread and settled amongst the Nations of the Earth to which they Preached in Asia Europe and Africa the Protestant Religion which is so easie and so pleasing to Flesh and Blood that the same had continued infallibly at least for some while in the following Ages and that it could not possibly morally speaking so upon the sudden have been cast aside and extinguished in all places at once but that there would have remained illustrious Memory thereof at least in some of the primordial Churches in some of the Countries Provinces or Cities where the Apostles Preached This I think no understanding man will deny 1. Because the first Christians were zealous Followers and Imitators of the Doctrine and manners of the Apostles of whom they had a high esteem as also of their Doctrine which they knew the Apostles had confirmed by many true and Divine Miracles 2. Because they were very careful of their own Salvation as is evident by their admirable Constancy in suffering Losses Tribulations Torments yea terrible Deaths in the cruel and bloody Persecutions raised against them by the Roman Emperours for the space almost of Three Hundred Years How then is it likely if thus they suffer'd to save their Souls that they would wilfully cast them away by forsaking the true Religion of Christ which his Blessed Apostles had planted and so firmly
these Ancient and most Learned Fathers were great Praisers and Practisers of austere and penitential works consisting in frequent Prayer in much watching in severe fasting in hard lodgings in course and spare Dyet in wearing of Hair-cloth and the like They lived single Lives Many of them bestow'd their Wealth upon the Poor and other Pious Uses and professed Voluntary Poverty following therein the counsel of Christ given Matth. 19. 21. and they not only allowed of but also most highly extolled the observing of perpetual Chastity and Virginity preferring the same far above Matrimony Were not these men then strange Protestants Thirdly Take notice that these Ancient Worthies even by the Confession of all Protestants were Men of excellent Wits of excellent Learning If then they had found in the word of God as Protestants say they find that only Faith does Justifie That Good Works are not meritorious That in Works of Grace Men have not Free-will That they are not able to keep the Commandments That it is not in the power of Man or Woman to live perpetually chaste That Virginity is not more pleasing to God than Matrimony That to give all to the Poor to Fast Pray and watch much and to undergo other Austerities and mortifications of the Body doth not profit and inrich the Soul That there is no Purgatory no Pennance to be done no satisfaction to be made for Sin no punishment to be inflicted upon the Faithful for them after this Life If I say the ancient Fathers had found these and the like Doctrines of Protestants in the Scriptures and why should they not have found them there if there they had been they being so Wise so Learned and so industrious Searchers of the Word of God as they were If there I say they had found these things and had believed them as Protestants do they would have lived as Protestants do for why should they not If these pleasing Doctrines which are light and easie to Flesh and Blood and the sweet Liberty of the new Gospel had as feelingly pierced and as strongly possessed the Hearts of those Antients as it did and doth the Breasts and Bowels of Luther Zwinglius Bucer Peter Martyr Calvin Beza and their Followers the Teachers of the Protestant Religion they would without all doubt with these have preferred Pleasures before Pennance Feasting before Fasting the delights of the Conjugal Life before the continent and single And in a word Riches Honours Pleasures before the labours and smart of a penitential and mortified Life before voluntary poverty and the vexing Attire of Hair-cloth or else they had been mad had they believed as most Protestants do that such Exercises as these are needless fruitless yea and superstitious Toys But the Truth is that those ancient and shining Lamps of Wisdom and Sanctity did not believe as Protestants do and therefore they liv'd not as they do for they were otherwise instructed in the School of Christ they read and learned another Lesson in his Divine Gospel even the same that Papists now do and therefore they instituted their Lives as they did and were in very deed as much Protestants as the Pope and his Priests and Fryers now are and no more most certainly unless we will have them to have been Sots and Mad-men If a douzen Protestant Ministers now should consociate themselves together and shaking off the Delights of the World should apply themselves fervently to much Prayer Fasting Watching lying on hard Couches wearing of Hair-cloth and such other austerities of Body and forbearing to marry should highly extol the single Life perpetual Chastity and should exhort young Maidens Noble Gentlewomen Princes Daughters to the perpetual keeping of their Virginity and Consecrating of it to God would they be held for sincere and well-grounded Protestants I think not Nay would they not presently be suspected for Papists No doubt but they would the institute of their Life plainly breathing Papistry and wholly swerving from the Belief and practise of Learned Protestants Let not then my Noble and dear Countrymen the misreports of some of your Teachers so far prevail with you as to make you believe the better to keep and quiet you in Protestantism that the Fathers of the primitive Church were Protestants For certainly those Blessed Servants of Christ were as far from being Protestants as the most zealous of your Teachers are from being Papists yea from being Monks or Fryers and from instituting their Lives as those Ancients did If then you truly prize the Learning and Sanctity of the Primitive Church and Christians become of that Belief which their Lives and Practices do Preach unto you If you think them saved be not so hardy as to seek a new way to Heaven for the safety of your Souls is of greater moment then so to be exposed to hazard being there can be but one saving Faith as my Tenth Question will make plain unto you Eternal Glory is not easily to be set upon the Dice when you may take a secure way to it Become then of the Communion of that Church in which the Fathers lived and dyed that therein seconding your Belief with a Virtuous Life you may assuredly attain to everlasting Happiness which I cordially wishing unto you shall infinitely rejoice if these my Questions which I now leave to your perusal shall further or occasion your return to that Religion which assuredly leadeth thither As most certainly they will Gods Holy Grace concurring if you will but attentively and with impartial Eyes read them and not be shuffled off with frivilous Answers or rest satisfyed untill you see my Arguments solidly refuted which you will never see if you look well to their Fingers who shall undertake the answering of them And so beseeching God to prosper your Reading and Meditation to his own Glory and the Salvation of your Souls I remain unfeignedly A Well-wisher of Your Eternal Felicity T. K. THE CONTENTS Question 1. WHere was the Protestant Religion believ'd and practis'd the last Five Hundred Years before Luther Page 1. Question 2. If Luther was not the first Teacher of the Protestant Religion to whom did he immediately succeed in the Office of Teaching the same Where also is treated of the Mission of Protestant Teachers p. 4. Question 3. If the Protestant Religion be truly Catholick when was it spread over the World and what Heathen Nations hath it Converted to Christ p. 11. Question 4. What likelihood there is that to bring to pass and effect the great and merciful Work of the Conversion of the Nations of the Earth and of their Kings to Christ God hath never yet made use of the True Religion of Christ and of the pure Light of the Gospel p. 12. Question 5. Whether it be not a very inconsiderable thing and full of danger to prefer in matters of Faith and Religion the Teaching of Men before the Word of God p. 16. Question 6. Whether God hath left to Christian People any sure Rule of Faith
they must not budge from Luther in Geneva from Calvin in England from the Belief Establish'd by Parliament Which if they do presently they are urg'd and sometimes born down by Church Authority Presently excellent and pithy Sentences extolling Church Authority and shewing the Necessity thereof are Alleadg'd Magnify'd urg'd in Sermons in Books out of the Scripture out of Tertullian St. Cyprian Lirinensis and other Fathers Notwithstanding that these very Sentences through the sides of these poor Ignorants do deadly stab the Hearts of those which alleadge them for disobeying that very Church Authority which these Sentences speak of and commend But with what Equity if I may be so bold as to ask with what Security of Conscience do these Authoriz'd Teachers proceed against these Zealous Ignorants for following that Belief which they gather out of the Word of God put into their Hands by these their Teachers and force them to follow another which by the very Rules and Tenets of these men they cannot but esteem Superstitious May they not justly say If the Scripture only be the Rule of Faith why do ye not permit us to believe what we find therein If it be easie to be understood why do you punish us for holding that Doctrine which we gather out of it If it be not easie why do you put it into our Hands If we are not bound to believe in Points of Faith any thing that is not expresly in the Scripture why will ye force us to believe and practice that which there we find not If Church Authority is to be rejected why do you interpose yours If it be a Butchering of Consciences to force men to Believe as the Church doth Teach Why do you force us to Believe as you Teach If you contemn the Authority of the â—ver Visible Church why do you force us to Reverence and to stoop to yours What signes do you shew what Miracles do you work to demonstrate unto us that your Church Authority is rather to be Follow'd rather to be Obey'd than the Church Authority of the Antient Fathers of the General Councels of the ever Visible Church of Christ If Church Authority be to be Follow'd be to be Reverenc'd be to be Obey'd Restore Us to that which Hoary Autiquity which Succession of Prelates which Consent of Nations which Excellent Sanctity which Manifest Miracles do commend unto Us. If it is to be rejected leave us to Gods Word and force not our Consciences against that Light which shineth unto us in Reading the same Thus may these misled People now complain against those who having drawn them out of the Bosom of the Catholick Church do now endeavour to Inthrawl them to themselves But much more terrible I fear will be the Bill of Complaint which one day they are likely to put up at the Chancery Bar of Heaven if a speedy and serious Course be not taken to restore these misled Souls again to the secure feeding of their Mother Church Which God of his Mercy bring to pass for the Eternal Happiness both of Them and their Leaders Question VII If God hath left no sure and un-erring Interpreter of his Word in Matters of Faith How can it be defended That the Holy Scriptures are not Unprofitable and even Pernicious to Mankind PErchance some Protestants not able to give a satisfying Answer to my Question about the Interpreter of the Scriptures will affirm That God hath not ordained any certain Interpreter of those his Sacred Oracles but hath left them to the scanning and guess of all Readers whatsoever But then I demand How it can be defended that these Divine Books are not hurtful yea and even pernicious to Mankind For evident it is that they may be taken in divers and opposite Senses Yea evident it is that they are de facto so taken by several Learned Men. Who following no surer Interpreter than the strength of their own Wit and Learning do gather out of them contrary Faiths and Religions and several worships of God Of which some of necessity must be false and hurtful to all that follow them for False Religions are ever hurtful yea plainly pernicious to those which follow them as more clearly hereafter shall appear And indeed three things are questionable about the Holy Scriptures which without the help of an un-erring Interpreter authorized and enabled by God himself to guide us to the Truth about them can never be rightly and fittingly decided The first is Which Books are Canonical and truly the Word of God And which are not The second is Which Translation is good right authentical and which is not The third is Which is the true and right meaning of the Holy Ghost in this or that Text or Sentence of Scripture touching upon some point of Faith About the sense whereof the Learned do contend Which being so divers People perswaded in their Consciences that the Scriptures are Divine Books and really the Word of God And that by believing them rightly and by following that Religion which they teach they may obtain Life Everlasting Will earnestly endeavour to search out the true meaning of them Which they being not able every where to find by their own natural Forces without the help of a sure Interpreter directed by the Holy Ghost They will pick out divers false Senses yea and Religions out of the Scriptures by mistaking their right meaning Which they will repute the true meaning of them being not tyed to any Interpreter and will defend Tooth and Nail to the assured Perdition of their own Souls and theirs whom they draw after them and to the raising of several Factions endless Contentions and bloody Broils amongst Christian People as we see fallen out since the rising of Luther For each of those who thus search the Scriptures without regarding any Infallible Interpreter will easily perswade himself that is the right meaning of the Holy Ghost which he hath lighted upon and that the true Light of the Gospel which shineth to him in reading and scanning the Word of God and that therefore it standeth him upon if he will not betray the Truth and lose his own Soul to stick firmly thereunto and to strive even to death to maintain the same Yea sometimes such Searchers of God's Word esteem themselves bound in Conscience to bandy with all the force they can against those who seek to Ruine what they would Raise From which manner of perswasions have proceeded not only great varieties of Religions and great Animosity in the defence of them but all the furious Garboils also and bloody Contentions about Religion which now for above these Hundred Years have miserably turmoil'd the Christian World and yet are likely further to turmoil it unless Christian Princes open their Eyes to behold the true Root of these Dissentions and how absolutely necessary it is to admit of some one Infallible and Un-erring Interpreter of God's Word authorized and enabled by the Holy Ghost to deliver the true Sense thereof
the Old Religion to be such so Vile Absurd and Superstitious as the false Tongues and Pens of divers of their Teachers who like to those of Isaias 28. 15. make Lying their Hope and are protected with Lying depaint it to be that so with more tranquility of mind they may enjoy the Liberty of their New Religion esteeming the Absurdities reported of the Old to warrant them sufficiently not only not to look after the same but also utterly to hate and detest it Yet in a Business of so great importance as is the Salvation or Damnation of their Souls they might remember that one Tale is good till another be heard and the rather for respect to their Noble Progenitors and to the numerous Troops of Blessed Souls now reigning with Christ in Glory which have liv'd and dy'd in the Old Religion But seeing that neither the Wisdom and Sanctity of these nor the earnest Cries of Catholicks now living who continually avouch that Protestants are mis-informed mistake mis-construe mis-understand the Tenets and Practises of the Catholick Religion can move them to make a serious Scarch into Religion Catholicks must comfort themselves to think that howsoever their Religion is here dis-esteem'd yet the Haters Impugners and Oppressors thereof will be of another mind at the Judgement Seat of Christ when their great Account must be made when Pleasures Riches Honours will be past when Obedience to Christ and his Church when a Holy and Mortify'd Life will be priz'd and when the Glorious Troops of Holy Doctors and Pastors and of innumerable other blessed Men and Women will stand up in Judgement with great constancy against all that have neglected vilified contemned derided their Authority Teaching Practice Examples as many of the New Gospellers usually do Question IX Whether the Way to Salvation be narrow or no IN the Ninth Place I demand of Considerate Protestants whether the Way to Salvation be narrow or no If this happy Tract be not indeed a narrow Way Why did Christ with a kind of Admiration say Math. 7. 14. How narrow is the Gate and straight the Way that leadeth to Life and how few there are that find it Was he deceived or did he intend to deceive us if neither because in very Truth this Way to Flesh and Blood is narrow and not to be kept and travelled without much Labour great Difficulty and frequent Mortification both of the Body by crucifying the Flesh and the Concupiscences thereof Gal. 5. 24. and also of the Mind by subjecting the Will to the Laws of Charity 1 Cor. 13. and by bringing the Understanding into Captivity for Obedience to Christ in believing as the Apostles and their Successors do teach 2 Cor. 10. 5. without suffering much for the Love of God for the Practice of Virtue for the avoiding of sin and for the Profession of our Faith if a storm of Persecution arise If I say for These and such like respects the Tract of Salvation be indeed a narrow way as the Blessed Son of God affirms who best knew this matter How may any Protestant Prudently perswade himself that the Protestant Religion is really this hard and narrow way seeing that it is one of the easiest Religions in the World one of the widest and broadest ways For what greater ease and freedom in Religion can there be than to be ty'd to no sharpness and Mortification of Body And to be at liberty in Mind to believe in matters of Religion what we think best our selves VVhich liberty most certainly all Protestants have by the very Tenets and Principles of their Religion which freeth them from being bound in their own Conceit to Believe as the Church Teaches And takes from them in the same manner the yoke of Fasting of Confession of Pennance Freeth them from all necessity of doing good VVorks to be Sav'd Yea and of keeping the Commandments of God as most Protestants hold And Teacheth them to esteem themselves justify'd from Sin and secur'd from all pain in the next Life and sure of Salvation by only Faith by Believing only and stedfastly that the Lord hath dy'd for them and pay'd the shot of their Sins That this is so not only their express Doctrine but even also the Lives of Protestants especially of their Teachers and Ring-leaders do evidently convince And therefore seeing that no doubt can be made but that the Protestant is a most easie Religion and exceedingly pleasing to Flesh and Blood There can no doubt also be made but that it is not that narrow way of which our Saviour did speak which leadeth to Salvation But rather the broad way which leadeth to ever-lasting Perdition VVhat satisfying Answer to this Protestants may make I see not And therefore such of them as truly desire to secure their Souls and to avoid everlasting misery may do well and wisely to return whilst they have time to that Religion wherein their Fore-fathers for the space almost of a thousand years were Sav'd And wherein also they may be Sav'd if they will even by the grant of their own Learned men as hereafter shall appear which Religion if they will practice exactly they shall find it indeed to be a Narrow-way to Flesh and Blood Yet sweet and easie to Minds elevated by Grace and inflam'd with the Love of Heaven Question X. How it can be defended that Jesus was the True Messiah promis'd in the Old Testament if the Church which he Founded err'd so many Ages in her Doctrine of Faith. IT is a certain undoubted and undenyable Truth and not to be question'd amongst Christians that Jesus the Son of the Virgin Mary is the true Messias the True Christ promis'd in the Old Testament the Omnipotent Son of God Truly God Truly Man and the true and sole Redeemer of the World. This I say is a most certain Truth and not doubted of by any but wicked Miscreants Yet to discover the Nature of the Protestant Religion and to shew clearly to my Dear Countrymen whether it tendeth that thereby if they will they may receive the less hurt by it I must crave leave to demand how this prime and Fundamental Truth of Christianity can be defended and maintain'd against Atheists Turks and Jews if we admit for a Truth that That Church which Jesus founded and which his Apostles planted in the World hath grievously and perniciously err'd in her Doctrine of Faith and in the practice of the Worship of God for many Hundred years Yea almost even since the times of the Apostles That the Church of Jesus hath so Erred is the Main Prime and Fundamental Ground of the Protestant Religion as is well * The Homily against the Perils of Idolatry p. 57. known For upon This as upon a sure Foundation Protestant Teachers have raised all their New Buildings Upon this as upon a sufficient Cause they have forsaken the Old Religion of the Christian World pretending it to be Erroneous Superstitious Idolatrous and have undertaken their various and discordant
Divine Faith that is the Gift of God no Man can be saved according to the settled Ordination and Providence of God as I before have clearly shewed out of his Word Out of this Doctrine which is most True doth appear First The Reason of the Doctrine of Christ deliver'd Matt. 7. where he declares That false Prophets that is false Expounders of the Word of God in Matters of Faith do destroy Souls like as Wolves do destroy Sheep and that it is as impossible that thei Followers should acquire by their Teaching Divine Faith and True Sanctity as it is impossible that Thorns should bring out Grapes or Thistles Figgs The same Doctrine is taught by the Apostle who affirms That Hereticks are Subverted Tit. 3. And Subvert the Faith of others 2 Tim. 2. 18. That they make Shipwrack about Faith 1 Tim. 1. 19. That they depart from the Faith 1 Tim. 4. 1. That they are Reprobate about Faith 2 Tim. 3. 8. and the like Which mischief they fall into themselves and bring upon their Followers though they Err but in one Article of Faith as Himenaeus and Philetus did 2 Tim. 2. 18. And as Arius did at the first denying the Equality of the Father and the Son. But Note here That the Apostle in the places cited doth not mean that Heretical Teachers do so Subvert and Ruine the Faith of their Followers that they leave them no Faith at all but that they Subvert their Divine Faith which is the Gift of God wholly overthrowing that though they leave them store of Humane Faith to which seduced People firmly sticking yea sometimes even to Fetters and Death do reap thereby nothing at all but Temporal Commodities and Vain-glory purchased with the Eternal loss of their Souls Secondly Doth appear out of the same Doctrine the great Obligation that Christian People have to keep themselves within the Bosom of the True and Catholick Church of Christ Because that this Church being continually assisted by Christ himself Matth. 28. 20. And taught all Truth by the Holy Ghost John 16. 13. doth propose unto her Followers in her Doctrine of Faith nothing but Truth whereby their Faith doth easily come to be Divine and the Gift of God his Heavenly Grace Co-operating with them It doth also appear how deeply they are obliged to take heed of and to shun and avoid False Prophets False and Heretical Expounders of God's Word which run of their own accord not being sent authorized or allowed of by the Ordinary Doctors and Pastors of the Ever Visible and Catholick Church of Christ And how wary they ought to be not to have itching Ears after new Masters 2 Tim. 4. 3. Or greedily to hearken to their Novelties in Matters of Faith which upon the reckoning will be found to be no better than Fables that is than the Fictitious and Self-inventions of Mens Brains Though these busie Teachers palliate them with specious terms and bear their Hearers in Hand That these their new devices are the Pure Light of the Gospel For by forsaking the Doctrine of the Church the Spiritual Mother and Mistress of all Nations and as the Apostle terms her 1 Tim. 3. 15. The Pillar and Ground of Truth and following such New Teachers they make Shipwrack of their Divine Faith and run themselves assuredly upon the Rock of Perdition Thirdly It appears how dangerously those are deceived who think they have Faith enough to Salvation if they believe those Points of the Christian Religion about which both Catholicks and Protestants agree esteeming themselves not obliged to believe any of those Articles about which the Learned of these two Religions do differ and contend As though Christian People were not obliged under pain of Damnation to beware of False Prophets Matth. 7. To shun Heretical Teachers Tit. 3. To obey their Lawful Prelates and to be subject unto them in Matters of Faith and Religion Heb. 13. To hear those Teachers whom Christ doth send Luk. 10. To hear and obey the Voice of his Church if they will not be held to be in as ill Case as Publicans and Ethnicks are Matth. 18. Or as though they were not bound to know the right means by which they are to be Justified cleansed from Sin and Saved to Believe rightly and to Receive worthily the great Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ 1 Cor. 11. Joh. 6. And as though they were not obliged under the same Penalty to believe and profess the True Gospel the True Faith and Religion of Christ and to Serve and Worship God rightly Seeing those which believe not his Gospel that is the whole Summ of Divine Doctrine taught by his Apostles Apostles and by their Successors the Ordinary Doctors and Pastors of his Church are to be Damned Mark 16. As those also are Which deny Christ before Men Matth. 10. 33. Which Crime all commit who deny themselves to be of the True Religion as is manifest by the Example of St. Peter who denying only that he was a Follower of Christ and of his Company was reputed to deny Christ even as those will be who culpably profess a False Religion For such by their very Fact deny the True and themselves to be of the Communion thereof and of the Company and Society of the True Followers Disciples and Servants of Christ whereby at his Judgement-seat they will be reputed to have forsaken and denied him But to open this Point a little more because many even of the better sort are brought thereby into no small danger of Perdition this their Conceit is not grounded upon any clear Text of Gods Word or upon the Authority of any Vnerring Church but meerly upon a Mistake of their own by which out of one or two Truths they infer a pernicious Falshood upon which while they trust they trust to a broken Staff which at their last Leap will let them fall into the deep Ditch of Perdition if before their Death they cast it not away The first Truth is that the Illiterate Simple Unlearned of the True and Catholick Church of Christ are not bound to know and expresly believe that is with Faith explicit as Divines speak all the Articles of Faith which the Learned Doctors and Pastors of this Church do know and believe But such do satisfie the Precept of Faith if they believe with Faith explicit the prime and more celebrated Articles and Misteries of the Christian Religion contained in the Creed or solemnized by the Church which appertain to the right knowledge of the Trinity Incarnation Passion and Resurrection of Christ and which concern the Redemption Justification Sanctification and Glorification of Man so that they believe the rest with Faith implicit that is so that they believe as the Church believes being ever ready in Heart and Affection to submit their Judgements in matters of Faith and Religion to the Judgement of the Church and to believe as She shall teach But yet although such are not bound to believe expresly and in
for them to give a proper and True Definition of an Heretick but therein they must involve and inclose Luther Calvin Zwinglius and such other prime Founders of the Protestant Religion How improbable then a thing is it that God among so many Wise Learned and Holy Men as flourish'd in his Church in the long tract of above a thousand years could not find any fit to be by him particularly imploy'd for the restoring of the True Light of his Heavenly Religion to the World again if it were lost till Luther and his carnal and jarring Off-spring appear'd And how slenderly do Protestants provide for the safety of their Souls who hazzard them upon so manifest a Falshood as this Question XIV Whether God by Miracles can draw and incline men to believe a false Religion or no Where it is shewed that God by Miracles did draw our Fore-Fathers at their first Conversion to Christanity to believe Papistry MY Fourteenth Demand is Whether God by Miracles can move and draw Men to believe a false Religion or no Or thus whether Men may safely and without danger of their Souls esteem that Religion False VVicked Pernicious and worthy to be hated and persecuted to believe which God doth stir up and induce men even by Miracles as by curing the Lame Blind and the like I think no understanding Protestant will be so ill advised as to affirm this for he that should so do should utter a manifest Blasphemy tending to the denial of God and of all Christianity For he that draws men to believe false Religions cannot be a good Spirit but a Bad cannot be God but the Devil as is manifest or the Devils Agent God being infinitely VVise Good and True and a zealous Hater of all Falshood Moreover what certainty can we have of the Truth of the Scriptures of the Doctrine of Moses and of Christ or that Christ was the true Messias and Saviour of the VVorld if God by Miracles may draw and induce men to the imbracing of a false Religion Far then be it from all true Christian Breasts to hold so great a Blasphemy as this and therefore let me lay for a sure and uncontroulable Ground that God by Miracles cannot draw men to imbrace a false or bad Religion and that therefore that Religion to believe which God by Miracles doth stir up and induce is not Bad Superstitious and False but true Holy and Divine yea wholly True and the only Saving Faith of Christ because there can be but only one Faith but only one Religion in the VVorld that is intirely True and truly Saving as I before have shewed This Ground being agreed upon which Christianly cannot be denied I propose to all prudent and considerate Protestants this Syllogism That Religion to believe which God by Miracles doth stir up and draw is wholly True Divine and Saving But God by Miracles doth stir up and draw men to believe Papistry Ergo Papistry is wholly true Divine and Saving yea it is the only Saving Faith of Christ The Major is clear and certain out of the Ground laid The Minor I could prove by the Testimony of innumerable grave Authors and by relating the Conversion of divers Heathen Nations to Christ brought to pass in former Ages and also in our Times But omitting these to avoid Prolixity I will only insist upon the Conversion of our own Nation to Christ which was effected a thousand years ago by forty Holy Monks sent hither by Gregory the Great then Bishop of Rome St. Austin the first Arch-Bishop of Canterbury being the Cheif of them who converted our Fore-fathers not to the Protestant Faith which then was not so much as thought of in the VVorld but to Papistry for what Religion should the Pope send in and Monks bring in but Papistry This is manifest by the Churches Altars Abbeys Monasteries Nunneries which our first Christians built By the Names which they imposed upon Churches and upon sundry Days of the Year as Christmas Ash-Wednesday Palm-Sunday By the Crosses which they every where erected By the Pictures wherewith they adorned their Altars and the Glass Windows of their Churches By their perpetual Subjection to the Pope and the Paying of the Peter-pence unto him from the Time of King Inas even to Henry the Eighth Yea This is so evident that even the most earnest of the Protestants cannot deny it Bale Cent. 1. Fol. 3. saith That Austin was sent from Gregory to season the English Saxons with the Popish Faith. Doctor Fulk Confu of Purg. pag. 333. for this cause tearms our Conversion to Christ our Perversion Danaeus Resp ad disput Bellar. Part 1. pag. 780. Terms the same The Inebriation of the VVhore of Babilon Mr. Ascham Apol. pro caena pag. 33. Calls St. Austin who brought our Fore-fathers from worshipping the Devil to worship Christ The Overthrower of true Religion and the Establisher of Popish Doctrine Mr. Harrison in his Description of Britanniae set before Hollinshead in plain terms confesses That Austin came and brought in Popery Bale in Catalog cent 14. pag. 117. saith That Austin by his Interpreters taught our People the Papistical Faith. The same is clear out of the Magdeburgians Luke Osiander and others who shew that scarcely there is a Ceremony now used by Papists that was not then brought in by St. Austin And so there can no doubt be made but that our Fore-fathers by their first Converters were made Papists and that that Faith in Christ to which God by his Grace did draw them was Papistry It rests then to prove that to this Faith God did convert and draw our Fore-fathers even by Miracles VVhich Point being well and firmly proved no prudent man will deny but that Papistry is truly and really a Holy and a Divine Religion yea the true Light of the Gospel and the only Saving Faith of Christ as my former Syllogism doth demonstrate That God then by Miracles did incline and draw our Fore-fathers to believe and imbrace that Faith and Religion which Austin taught that is Papistry is testified first by Venerable Bede a Holy Grave and Learned Author who living near the Time of our Conversion while things were yet fresh in Memory and writing out of the assured Records of the whole Business then extant and to no meaner a Person than a King is not likely to have erred through ignorance or to have feigned This wise then and Holy man in his first Book C. 26. speaketh thus But when the King himself being much delighted with the Purity of their Life namely of Augustin and his Associates and the Example of their Godly Conversation as also with their sweet Promises which to be true they proved by working many Miracles did believe and were Baptized there began more and more daily to resort unto their Sermons and renouncing the Rites of their old Gentility to joyn themselves by Faith to the Vnity of the Holy Church of Christ Thus in this place Bede Who in his Second