Primacy both in word and in deed If the question be of the Churches infallibility or indeficiency The Scripture will tell us that Christ promised to be with his Preachers for ever Matt. 28. That the gates of hell should not prevaile against his Church Matth. 16. That the Holy Ghost should stay with his Disciples for ever John the 14. That there should be of the Elect at the end of the world Matth. 24. Marke 13. Luke 17. That persecution should not end in the Church untill the coming of Christ Matth. 10. Nay that after the beginning of the Resurrection some shall yet remaine 1. Thess. 4. If the question be of the reall presence that is to say that our saviours body is truly in the blessed Sacrament We shall reade this is my body Matth. 26. Marke 14. This is my body which is given for you Luke 22. This is my body which shall be delivered for you 1. Cor. 11. And in the former Chapter he presseth it Is not the chalice we blesse the participation of the blood of Christ And the bread we breake is it not the participation of our lordes body What can a sincere heart that believeth the Scripture reply to this If the question be of Remission of sinnes in the Church Do we not reade the power of binding and of losing given to men Matth. 18 Of forgiving and of retaining John the 20 We reade that the Apostles received the ministery of Reconciliation the word of Reconciliation 2. Cor. 5. James 5. Confesse your sinnes one to the other Also Matth. 9. The people glorifyed God for having given unto men the power of remitting sinnes If Confirmation that is to say the giving of the Holy Ghost be in question We reade St. John Baptist testifying that he who sent him to baptize in water told him that Christ baptized in the Holy Ghost Marke 1. and John 1. But in John 3. That he who is not new-borne of water and the Holy Ghost cannot enter into the kingdome of heaven And that this was meaned of that descent of the Holy Ghost which is after Baptisme is our Saviours own declaration who in the 1. of the Acts sayth You shall be baptised in the Holy Ghost after not many days Whereof the whole story is told att length in the 2. Chapter And in the 8. the Apostles were sent to Samaria to impart there this giving of the Holy Ghost In the 11. St. Peter remembred in the saying of our saviour in the same sense And in the 15. St. Paul useth the same Ceremony to 12. Persons after they were baptised with the same reflection on Saint John Baptist As for the Sacrament of Order there are two parts in it the Mission and the outward Ceremony Both which are largely expressed in the Consecration of Aaron and of his sonnes Levitic 8. The designation and Mission Matth. 10. Marke 3. Luke 6. and againe 22. when he gave them command to consecrate the blessed Sacrament for the faithfull Luke 10. He designed the 72. Disciples Hebr. 5. The Law is established in generall As also Rom. 10. How shall they preach unlesse they be sent As for the outward Ceremony though we can not doubt but it was performed by our saviour when he sent his Apostles and Disciples Yet we have expressed also in the 20. of St. Iohn where we are told of insufflation with these wordes receive the Holy Ghost In the 13. of the Acts we are told of fasting and of imposition of hands and in is it specifyed that they who were so sent were sent by the Holy Ghost And in the 1. to Tim. 4. We have the imposition of the handes of the Presbytery by Prophecy For Matrimonies being a Sacrament We reade every where that the conjunction of Man and Wife is from God Gen. 2. He brought her to Adam 1. Cor. 11. Neither Man without woman nor woman without man in our Lord Matth. 19. And Marke 10. What God hath coonjoyned let not man separate Nature giveth to all cultiuated Nations to do this with an outward ceremony and therefore surely among those who hold it a speciall action of God it is most fit to be performed by the minister of God Now that sanctification is due to it We reade 1. Cor. 7. The unbelieving man is sanctifyed by the faithfull woman and the unbelieving woman by the faithfull man to wit in their common operation otherwise your children would be uncleane whereas now they are holy Of extreme Unction there is not so frequent mention But most manifest and undenyably obvious We are told in the 6. of St. Marke that the Apostles annointed the sicke with oyle and cured them Ja. 5. Is any man sicke among you Lett him bring in the Priests of the Church and lett them pray over him annointing him with oyle in the name of our lord And the prayer of faith shall save the sicke man and our lord will ease him and if he be in sinne his sinnes shall be forgiven him I doubt not but if what I have already alledged out of Scripture do light into an even soule not byassed by interest or prejudice to the contrary party It will be sufficient to satisfy him fully that the out side and letter of Scripture is clearely on the side of antiquity and of the Catholike Church Yet I can not leave this subject till I have mentioned one point more because it is so much vaunted by our Adversaries though with very litle reason The Catholike Church administreth the holy Eucharist sometimes in one kinde some times in both Protestants alwayes in both kindes The question ariseth which of these practices is favoured by Scripture It is evident that the Scripture speaketh sometimes of receiving both the bread and the cuppe But much oftener of one alone Jo. 6. This is a bread coming downe from heaven that whosoever eateth of it may not dye I am the bread of life which descended from heaven If any one eate of this bread he shall live for ever He that eateth this bread shall live for ever Luke the last he tooke bread and blessed and brake it and gave it to them and their eyes were opened and they knew him and he vanished out of their sight Acts 2. And they were persevering in the doctrine of the Apostles and the communion of breaking of bread and prayer Acts 20. When they were assembled to breake bread So that if we distinguish betweene the time of giving the communion and the time of the Priestes consecration in which the Catholike Church observeth inviolably the doing it in both kindes we shall finde more places in Scripture for communicating in one kinde then for doing it in both But what shall we say to this speech of St. Paul 1. Cor. 11. Therefore whosoever shall eate this bread Or drink this cuppe unworthily he shall be guilty of the body and bloud of our saviour what meaneth this Or but that some even then tooke the one without the oher Else
forced to take mans flesh upon him to teach it us because it was so high and transcendent beyond all that our eyes had ever seene or that our eares had ever heard or that our imaginations had ever conceiued or fancyed that a lesse authority then Gods essentiall verity was not enough to settle our beliefe upon so sublime and so admirable mysteries Now this being so can we imagin that the discussion of ambiguous words in which such incomprehensible mysteries are hidden should be left to the fancyfull changeablenesse of human apprehensions Who seeth not that mans vnderstanding must of necessity alwayes incline the ballance towardes those thinges he useth to be conversant with that he is wont to see to heare and to conceiue Which is in effect directly contrary to the reason of our Saviours coming And accordingly we dayly meete with some that laugh at the doctrine of the real presence of Christes Body in the blessed Sacrament some at the blessed Trinity euery one framing grounds to himselfe according as his fancy driveth him or as the company he cōverseth with draweth him Now if the scanning of ambiguous wordes will not serve to settle the beliefe of Christian doctrine in the hearts of mankinde It is cleare that nothing but Tradition can performe that worke since there remaineth nothing else that can pretend there to And consequently nothing but Tradition can be the meanes to plant and continue Religion in the world Lastly let us looke into the quality of this doctrine And presently it appeareth to us that it ought to comprehend all our actions and consequently ought to precede the very first of them while as yet there is no judgement in us and when we are growne to the ripenesse of judging it ought to Master our very judgement it selfe since the exercising of that is also one of our actions How then can it be supposed that Religion ought to be studied and learned like a science or skill when as it ought to be possessed even then when we begin to study and that our very study ought to be regulated by it The sixth REFLEXION That the Scripture duely read will bring a man to the truth of Religion SEeing it is agreed on by all parties that the Scriptures were written by the same spirit which guided the Apostles in their preaching There can be no doubt but that the doctrines contained in their witings must needes be conformable to what they delivered in their sermons and in other vocall instructions with this difference that there could he no dispute about their meaning in what they preached and catechised by reason of their often inculcating and plaine expressing it Whereas nothing can be more cleare then that in what they have written their sense is oftentimes obscure and very difficult to be discovered and penetrated into And therefore the Scriptures are to be interpreted by the law writtē in the heart of that Church which hath alwayes adhered to the doctrine that from time to time they have received from their predecessours though withall I have no scruple but that if the Scripture be read in such sort as it ought to be it will of it selfe bring the man who so readeth it to the true Religion The conditions that I require for the due reading of Scripture are these First that he have a sincere intention and affection to submitt his owne minde and judgement to the Scriptures and not straine them to his opinion Secondly that he have a sound understanding not apt to be carried away lightly Thirdly that he meddle with no commenter or interpreter that is more cunning then himselfe nor rely upon any thing for the minde and sense of the Scripture but what the Scripture it selfe affordeth him Fourthly that he reade it long and attentively And Lastly that what he understandeth by reading of the Scripture he endeavour to put it in practise and governe his life accordingly For practise doth wonderfully enlighten any Booke which giveth rules in any kind of operation These thinges observed I doubt not but who taketh Scripture for his rule will not faile of becoming a Catholike at the last For both the reason before delivered in the beginning of the reflexion and experience and the instances of doctrines whereof part follow and more might be brought do manifestly declare that this effect must of necessity follow To see what the Scriptures will direct us in order to Catholike doctrine Let us begin with this very question concerning the interpretation of the Scriptures themselves It is planely set downe that it ought not to be by the private spirit Pet. 2. c. 1. That Christ sett in his Church Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors Doctors for the of building his body that the faithfull may not be turned round by every blast of doctrine Ephes. 4. That the Church is the Pillar and strength of our faith These and many more texts he shall find to shew him that the interpretation of Scripture ought to depend on the Church In other places he may reade that the Scripture is usefull for our comfort for preaching and for exhorting c. But not one word of looking in it for our faith unlesse when it selfe is taken into the question That is to say when the question is whether the new Gospell be conformable to the old which is the sole matter of controversy wherein the Scripture that is to say our Saviour in the 5. of St. John and St. Paul in the 17 of the Acts directeth the searching and looking into Scriptures For in both these places this onely was the point they spoke unto If the question be of the Popes supremacy that is to say of St. Peters Primacy among the Apostles For onely so much can belong to Scripture Wee have it expressely in the 10. of St. Mathew Simon the first And so he is counted by the other two Evangelists Whereas the order of the other Apostles is not kept Wee have tribute payed for Christ and for him as a speciall officer Matth. 17. We have him forwardest in the confession of Christ Matt. 16. The Church promised to be built upon him and the keyes in a speciall manner to be delivered to him So that it is not to be wondered att if presently after the tribute was particularly payed for him We have the sheepe of Christ in a speciall wise recommended unto him John the last We have Christs prayer personally for him and a charge given him to confirme the rest Luc. 22. We have him ordering the Church in the election of St. Matthias Acts the first Him first preaching to the Jewes Acts the 2. Him first receiving the Gentiles by Gods speciall order Acts the 10. Acts the 12. the Church praying for him Hee first giveth the Holy Ghost Acts the 8. Acts the 16 he in the Councell is the first that resolveth the question So that if the Scripture be sincerely consulted in this point there is all appareance or rather evidence of St. Peters
Defendant for his answering And accordingly since it is well knowne that nothing but Demonstration can give security of a disputable truth He who in a Disputation of this nature undertaketh to prove an assertion ought first to engage his credit that in his conscience hee esteemeth the argument hee intendeth to propose to be Demonstrative How ever he may apprehend a failing on his part in pressing it either through want of sufficient skill or through the over proportion of his adversaries abilities or through the difficulty of well opening the Matter and making the truth appeare If hee refuse to do this he is to be protested against for a thiefe and a robber as our Saviour himselfe styleth such who hath a designe to abuse his hearers and to draw their soules for some private interest of his owne into eternall damnation And the Auditory is to be contested that such a disputation as the Arguer intendeth is a meere juggle and imposture a brabbling base counterscuffle not fitt for a grave Man to have a share in but a meere scolding losse of time and vexation both to the hearers and to the actours The Respondents taske is not so rigorous It is enough for him to maintaine that his adversary can not convince his Tenet of falsity Hee being for this passage but a defendant not a prover Thus farre for Opponents and Defendants in common But now to apply this to Catholikes and to those who have parted from them Let us begin with considering how their maine difference consisteth in this that the Catholike holdeth his doctrine because it came to him by his fore-fathers from Christ and relyeth upon his fore-fathers for the truth of this The Adversaries Universally do rely upon either Scripture or reason As for reason it is evident that it can not bee a sufficient ground of a doctrine that is held by authority And as for Scripture the Catholike maintaineth it as strongly as they Neither have they it but upon the credit of Catholikes And therefore all the arguments they can bring out of Scripture against Catholikes do beare in their fore-head a prejudice of being either false or att least uncertaine The tienth REFLEXION Of some particulars belonging to Catholikes Others to their Adversaries OUt of these premisses there follow some very considerable differences betweene Catholikes and Protestants in point of Disputation The first is That a Catholike ought not for his owne satisfaction to admitt of any disputation att all in Matters of Religion For he relyeth upon a better ground then any his Adversary can offer to him Namely an infallible and irrefragable Authority Hee taketh reason for an insufficient Judge in controversies of this Nature And against disputing out of Scripture he hath two prejudices The one that he holdeth his faith by the same rule by which hee receiveth the Scripture and therefore if Scripture should proove any thing against his faith which is impossible it would make him believe neither and so would not change him to be of a new Religion but cause him to be of none The other prejudice is That he who argueth out of Scripture proceedeth Texts whose sense is disputable in the words themselves Whereas the Catholike is before-hand assured of the sense as farre as concerneth faith Therefore it were in vaine for him to search in an uncertaine instructer the knowledge of that which he already knoweth certainly Yet further If any Catholike doe admitt Disputation for his owne sake and satisfaction he leaveth being a Catholike For the end of Disputation is to cleare a doubt And therefore where is no doubt there is no neede of disputing Neither can a Catholike have any doubt in any Matter of faith unlesse hee suspecteth his rule Which if he once do he is no longer a Catholike On the other side The Protestant building all his faith upon the ambiguous words of Scripture so loud disputed and eternally disputable must necessarily if he bee a rationall man live in perpetuall doubt For the very oppositiō of so many wise and learned men as affirme that the wordes he alleageth do not signify that which is necessary for his position is sufficient to make any rationall man be in doubt of an exposition of wordes that may beare severall senses which he seeth is so obvious and ordinary a rock of mistaking Therefore a Protestant were not rationall if he should not alwayes demand searching and disputing untill experience shall have taught him there is no End of it or by it Hee must resolve either to be ignorant and to trust or else to dispute without end And in very truth his disputing is to no end For suppose he be the arguent and do convince his adversary yet after all his paines he hath gained no more then onely to perceive that his adversary is a weaker disputant then hee or that peradvēture he was at that time surprised so that when he shall be in his better wittes he may happily be able to salve his arguments And if he be the Defendant and chāce to maintain his positiō yet it followeth not that a better Opponent then he had to deale withall mought not have convinced him So that on neither side there is any security to him because he bringeth no Demonstration but onely the bare appearance of ambiguous wordes There is an other impurity betweene Catholikes and their adversaries in this that if the Catholike be the Opponent he can dispute but of one point namely of the Infalliblity of the Church because his adversary is obliged to no other For take what point you will besides and one may be a perfect Protestant whether he hold it or deny it The authority of Bishops is the maine point of Protestācy by which it is distinguished from all other Sestaries Yet when it is for their turne the French Presbyterians so great enemies to that governmēt of the Church are their deare brethren The Greeks the Lutherans the Socinians the Anabaptistes how many positions do they maintaine different from the Protestants Neverthelesse when it pleaseth a Protestant to make his boasts of the large extent of the Reformed Churches all these are of this communion Nay Nay when he talketh of the Vniversall Church No Arrian Eutychian Nestorian or other Professour of whatsoever damned Heresy that hath a share against Popery is excluded by him from being an Orthodoxe Member of the Catholike Church but all are registred in his Kalendar as Professours of the onely true faith and as witnesses of Christs doctrine So that if a Catholike be to argue he looseth his labour in disputing of any point but of the Infallibility of the Church because he advanceth nothing by having the victory in any other For though he should reduce his adversary to be of his minde in all other articles yet not being so in this too he is as farre as ever from being a Catholike since the not believing of any one article of faith maketh a man no Catholike or which
of which the action formally is considered or else in respect of some other quality of the same person To speake more clearly A Catholike who writeth or disputeth against a Protestant or conferreth with him may deferre to him either in his very argumeÌ„t or in other things not concerning it as he may acknowledge him an eloquent man a good Linguist a subtile Critike or some other commendation belonging to either his understanding or his will Or else that his argument is good or hard to be solved or that his skill in divinity is extraordinary or the like Now as for this last commendation It is evident that it can not be given him without prejudice to the cause the Catholike maintaineth And therefore even if it should prove true which it is impossible it shoud Prudence would advise his adversary to wave taking notice of it as farre as ingenuity will allow him But he needeth not appreheÌ„d being reduced to streights upon this account For Protestant arguments out of authority are easily answered And if some drawne from reason be difficult and intricate it is because that nature upon which the question dependeth is obscure and unknowne not because the Divinity part hath any speciall difficulty in it What the pitch of Divinity is that a Protestant may arrive unto wee have already declared As for other qualities both humanity requireth we should afford them a friendly esteeme of their good parts and the very ayme we have in discoursing with them which is to change their judgements to agree with ours maketh it no small part of our businesse to proceede with a faire and just difference towardes them if we understand how much the will conferreth to incline the judgement and how powerfull courtesy is over the will As for the arguments themselves it is necessary especially in writing which alloweth descending to many particulars to shew that they are but slight ones and that they proceede out of ignorance and that they imply a great distortion in the will of him that maketh them which onely causeth them to be well esteemed of and the like according as there shall be cause It is necessary also to display how the producer of such arguments is not a man to be replyed upon nor hath those qualities which are requisite in a teacher For either his braine is weake or the will of maintaining an evill cause worketh upon him to throw out pittifull and triviall objections instead of framing strong and solide ones which is the worse condition of the two Now with what justice may one give the commendations of an honest man to one that for his owne honour or interest will maintaine a proposition himselfe knoweth to be false especially of that nature that the salvation or damnation of the hearer as well as his owne dependeth on it Were it not better he cheated me of my purse robbed me of my credit tooke away my life then to bring my soule into the hazard of perpetuall damnation How then can hee who doth this bee esteemed an honest man and worthy of such civill testimonyes as shall enable him the more to ensnare poore soules who will rely the more upon him for his receiving such applause He may peradventure defend himselfe by saying that if he seduceth others he is first seduced himselfe and so ignorance excuseth him att least from being malicious and wicked But he mendeth his cause very little by this plea since he who undertaketh to be a Master of others especially in matters of so great consequence and hazard must not be admitted to alledge ignorance for an excuse Why doth he undergoe the office of a teacher if he understandeth not what he undertaketh to teach He who will affirme any thing must first know it Else he is a lyar and if it be in a matter of great prejudice a knave Perhaps he will againe answere for himselfe that there is no meanes to come to certainty in Religion and that therefore he is not more faulty for being a teacher then every one else is that doth the like In saying thus first hee blasphemeth against God as not having provided man-kind of that which farre beyond all other thinges is most necessary to it Secondly he proceedeth very rashly for how doth he know or what demonstration hath he made or can he make that he knoweth all that can be said to the coÌ„trary Thirdly he knoweth with out the least doubt that either himselfe or his very late predecessours did leave the way they were bred in Now if it were but for likelihoods and that there be no certainty in Religion how was it honestly done by the first that made the breach or is now by him who maintaineth it onely upon peradventures But to make it appeare more evident that they who have left the Catholicke Church or that still keepe out of it are unexcusable and to take away their mis-understaÌ„ding of some points wherein their mis-taking of what we believe may seeme to justify in some sort their deserting us I will set downe a short explication of Catholike doctrine as farre as it is controverted by judicious and sensible men on both sides Against which I scarcely believe that any prudent person will thinke it fitt to make an objection unlesse it be out of naturall reason where the Mystery is difficult not for it selfe but because wee understand not nature As he who perfectly understandeth Logick will have no difficulty to believe the Trynity who knoweth the composition of body and soule in Man will easily admitt the Incarnation And who comprehendeth how living Creatures do nourish themselves will not sticke at the Mystery of the Eucharist I pretend not to set downe all For as there is no All of those demonstrations for example which may be made of the natures of a Triangle or of a circle So farre lesse of the dependencies of the Mysteries of our faith which the opposition of Adversaries may make necessary to be known and professed Therefore I content my selfe with those which I apprehend to be the most troublesome among the points in controversy now att present A briefe Explication of Catholik faith in order to moderne Controversies WEe believe that from all Eternity there was a Thing not made by any other but having its being from â—â—selfe without beginning or springing That this thing is unchangeable anâ— immortall Having neither parts noâ— composition and so is perfectly indivisible and spirituall That this same Thing is Substantially and Essentially knowing and loving it selfe And so is a substance knowne a substance knowing and a substance loving the Thing knowne That as a thing knowne it is from which the thing knowing is and as a Thing knowne and knowing it is from which the substance or Thing loving is That as it is a substance knowing or knowledge wee explicate it well by a name taken out of our naturall considerations that is by the word sonne and likewise as it is a substance knowne by the
Sanctifications or Initiations to enter us in the other six vertues Baptisme for faith Confirmation for hope Penance to redresse the wrongs we do to God and to our neigh-bour Matrimony and Extreme-Unction to injure us to temperance and to fortify us against the terrours of death Prudence because it eminently belongeth to commanders received its proper initiation in the installing of Spirituall Gouvernours which are Priests and Bishops Who being more eminent in Science and Charity have power to governe the flocke oâ— Christ And to the end that emulation might not breake unity among them Christ by his owne practise and mouth gave the Primacy to Saint Peter to whose see and successour inferiour Bishops were to have recourse in all publike necessities or dissentions of the Church And who att this day is commonly called the Pope It is incredible how great encrease of devotion and Charity accrueth to Christian people by the reverent administration and faithfull reception of these sacraments What respect and awe towardes to what adhesion their teachers their doctrine what obedience to their directions in fine how great a life to the Church and eminency above such synagogues as are destitute of these holy institutions The Apostles therefore armed with these and the aforesaid powers dispersed themselves into all the quarters of the earth planting this common doctrine and practise through the universe and dying left the inheritance of the same to their successors Who in debates about doctrines and in other dissentions meeting together and finding what the Apostles had left to the Churches they had planted did cast out such as would not conforme themselves to the received Tradition And so Christians were divided The parties cast out being denominated from their Masters or particular doctrines The part adhering to the Apostles Tradition retaining the name of the Apostolike Church Which because it was as it were the whole of Christians was therefore termed Catholike or Universall These Apostles and Disciples left certaine writinges But neither by command nor with designe to deliver in any or all of them a summary of our faith but occasionally teaching what they thought requisite for some certaine place or company which the Holy Ghost intended for the comfort of the Church In which as we professe there is nothing false or uncertaine so we know the unwritten Preaching ought to be the rule of their interpretation att least negatively Neither can we vindicate those bookes from the corruption of transscribers and much lesse of Interpretours whose labours can not pretend to the authority of scripture otherwise then by a knowne conformity to the Originals Tradition therefore became the rule of faith and Councells and Apostolicall Sees became the infallible depositaries of Tradition The other Sees fayling either by the destruction of Christian Religion in those quarters or by a voluntary discession from the rule of faith the Roman See first instructed by the two chiefe Apostles and afterwardes by perpetuall correspondence with all Christian countries and their recourse to it in matters of faith and discipline remained the onely single Church which was able in vertue of perpetuall succession to testify what was the Apostles doctrine Afterwardes Heretikes confounding equivocally the names of Apostolike and Cathlick by an impudence of saying what they list without shew of reason the Catholike party hath been forced for distinction sake to adde to their Church the sirname of Roman Declaring there by that the Roman particular Church is the Head and Mistresse and cause of Vnity to all those Churches that have share in the Catholike By this linke of truth namely of receiving doctrine by succession and by the linke of Vnity in the Roman head of the Church as the Church hath hitherto stood in Persecutions Heresies and Schismes so we are assured it will never faile untill the second coming of Christ but do hope it will encrease into an universall kingdome of his to dure an unknowne extent of Ages designed in the Apocolypse by the number of a thousand yeares in great prosperity and in freedome both from Pagans without and from Heretikes with in and in great aboundance of Charity and good life This being evidently the effect of Christs coming we see that the generall good life of Mankinde which proceedeth from the knowledge of the End to which we are created and from other motives and meanes delivered by Christs doctrine was the great and onely designe for which he tooke flesh that is to be the cause to us of a happy life both in this world and in the next The which having been the main advantage of the State of Paradise or of our nature before corruption It is cleare that Christ hath repaired the fault of Adam by making whole Mankind capable of attaining everlasting blisse unto which before his coming one only family had means to arrive The settling of Mankind in this repaire restored it to such a condition in respect of God that from thenceforth he resolved to bestow his greatest benefits upon it that is eternall felicity Whereas before as long as it was in the state of sinne his decrees were for its Vniversall Damnation By which it is cleare that Christ appeased his Fathers wrath and made him a friend of a foe he had formerly been unto us So that because eternall blisse followeth out of a good life and out of a constant habit or inclination to it as likewise damnation out of the state of a sinnefull inclination formal justification and sanctity do consist in the habit of good life and the state of damnation consisteth in an habituall inclination to sinne Neither the one nor the other in an extrinsecall acceptation or refusall of the Divine Will or its arbitrary Election or dislike which are only the efficient causes from whence proportionably to their natures they depend Further because Man-kinde was not able of it selfe to gett out of the State of sinne and by consequence lay in subjection and slavery to it And seeing that Christ by the explicated meanes and actions did sett it free and gave it power to come out of that subjection and misery he did clearely Redeeme Man-kinde from this servitude of sinne and of sinnes Master the Divell and gave it the liberty wherein it was created att the first And because Christ did this by his death and by the penall actions of his life he is rightly said to have by them payed a ransome for mankind Notwithstanding this generall preparation by which Man-kinde was enabled to well-doing no particular man arriveth to any action of vertue without the speciall providence and benevolence of Almighty God By which by convenient circumstances both externall and internall he prepareth the heart of that man unto whom he is gratious and favourable to receive these common impressions and maketh it good earth fitt for the seede of his eternall cultiuatour who without any respect to former merits planteth faith and charity and all that is good in him meerely of his
there had been no place for that disjunctive Syllable I easily believe that many a pert batchellour will be ready to tell us that he can find wayes to salve all these places of Scripture and many more if they were urged But that cōcerneth not me I enquire onely what the outward face of Scripture is and to what belief it wil leade an honest heart left to its owne strength For if those queinte disputants do encounter with a person that is not enured to the Sophistry they will turn blacke into white make two egges three as the tale goeth of the impertinent forward scholler and bring to passe whatsoever they undertake Therefore it was necessary to impose among the conditions of reading the Bible this for a principall one That they who by Scripture ayme at coming to the truth should admitt of no Interpreter And this because of the danger in lighting upon a false one instead of a true one before one hath groundes to discerne which is a false one and which a true one For the case is very indifferēt betweene a Catholike Interpreter and any other The Catholike knoweth the doctrine of Christ that is to say the sense of the Scripture independently from the words of the Scripture And therefore in substantiall points which concerne Christs doctrine he cannot teach or interpret amisse without swerving from his owne faith But it is evident that every other who hath no rule for his beliefe besides the bare letter and words of Scripture is subject to errour through every passion and prejudice which hiddenly swayeth his heart awry and corrupteth his judgement by pride or other affection So that he may be rightly compared to a rotten cane that being leaned upon will breake and with its splinters wound and gore him that expected support from it The seventh REFLEXION That the reading of the Fathers will bring a man to the truth of Religion And that naturall reason will greatly advance a man thereunto IT seemeth strange to mee that any man who acknowledgeth Scripture should reject the Fathers since he can not renounce them without professing att the same time by so doing that he believeth himselfe to be able with his little witte and generally lesse study and learning to penetrate deeper into the intelligence of Scripture then so many ages eminent for industry sciēce and holynesse could reach unto And all this upon no other pretence but because they were men and consequently liable to erring As if himselfe were not a man but something else so farre beyond comparison with all other men that we ought rather to confide in his ability and honesty then in all mankinde that went before him Which is so unworthy and so intolerable a pride that I admire how any auditory can endure it But to come more closely to the point I say that seeing the Holy Fathers did both receive the prevaching of the Apostles neerer hand then wee do and did hold the truth of Scripture as strongly as we do and did spend much time in the earnest study of it and proceeded therein with as sincere hearts as wee can It may in no wise be doubted but that they had the meanes and the wills of having the true faith and consequently that they had it Therefore what was their universall Tenet in Matters of faith can not bee false nor ought to be rejected Or with any colour of reason be questioned by us as disagreeing with Scripture Besides their writings being large and numerous in which upon severall occasions and in differing circumstances they repeate and inculcate the same thinges by different wordes and expressions it must needes thence follow that their sense and meaning in most things of importance can not choose but be sufficiently explicated So as who ever shall reade them with candour ingenuity and judgement can not possibly doubt of it And accordingly experience hath shewed us that the judicious Protestants who gave themselves to the reading of the Fathers were in judgement neere unto Catholikes in most of their opinions And that which detained them from being absolutely Catholikes was besides the chaines of interest nothing but a secret pride of not submitting themselves to the Tradition of the Church in some particular points in which Tradition was not so cleare to them Though withall I deny not but that a wrong apprehension of some Catholike Tenets presumed upon the explication of some particular Doctors might unhappily contribute to this their obstinacy No doubt then but if any indifferent person not preimbibed with any wrong maxime shall bestow competent paines in reading the Fathers he will infallibly become Catholike Especially if hee take this rule along with him to compare the practise of Protestants with the practise of the Fathers and of the former Church By which he will see that this which they call Reformation hath cut away under pretence of abuses not the abuses but the very thinges themselves in which the abuses were like unskillfull Chirurgians that cut of a leg to cure a small sore in it or like Mahomet who tooke away all use of wine to cure drunkennesse And in the meane while they cavill att petty questions in which they strive to shew that the Church hath erred As for naturall reason No man will expect that it should be an entire meanes of attaining to the knowledge of the supernaturall truths which are contained in Christian Religion But onely that it may be a helpe thereunto by shewing that they are so farre from contradicting reason as indeed nothing can be more conformable to true reason then the whole oeconomy of them is And I dare promise whosoever shall seeke this that if he come unto it armed with true and sound Philosophy he may arrive to a full contentment of his understanding and heart in all that concerneth so noble an enquiry Now since Catholike Religion hath been so intelligibly divulged in the world St. Augustin maketh mention that he found the Mystery of the Trinity in the Platonists Bookes Now if you aske me how this came to passe I answere that God provided in Alexandria a City much addicted to learning one Ammonius Hermias a great Philosopher and a Christian Hee to make Christian Religion more acceptable sought to joyne it with Platonicke Philosophy Which was no hard matter to do Plato having bing been as Numenius sayth of him Moses speaking Greeke that is to say one who having lighted upon the Hebrew learning had sucked much out of it Now this Ammonius finding in Plato the Ideas of Being and of Vnity and of Life and such other ayery notions easy to be wrought upon to what hee designed endeavoured by these to instill into his Schollers the Mystery of the Trinity Which he did with such happy successe that of the three prime wittes of his Schoole the one Origen became so great and eminent a Doctor of the Church as antiquity hath acknowledged him The other two Amelius and Plotinus prooved two Conductours of the
Platonicke Schoole and brought into it the imitation of the Trinity which is found in their discourses and in the writings of their followers So amiable is truth that the very likenesse of it enamoureth the understanding How much more would the substance do so were it rightly pursued and truly discovered Which without question it may be even in this very particular the termes in which this sublime Mystery is delivered being so naturall and the thing it selfe being the connaturall substance of Almighty God that dependeth not upon any chance or free disposition and the intention of revelation being generally to bring us to the knowledge of the thing that is revealed And therefore you will say the wonder is not so great that since Christian Religion was knowne and voyced about in the world these Mysteries should be treated of by Philosophers in their Schooles and writings But if in any of them before the coming of Christ there shoud have sprung out of pure nature the least intimation of any of these supernaturall Mysteries That would be a strong confirmation of what we have here said Certainely if this may be expected from any it must be from Aristotele He being of the onely person amongst the Heathens that hath written with solidity Of him then it is reported that as he lay upon his death-bed considering the miseries that poore man-kinde falleth dayly into through Errors and that it is not in the power of Nature to deliver Man from them hee pronunced this great sentence That Homer had much reason to make the Gods take human shapes upon them to draw by that meanes poore Men out of Errours Behold the Incarnation of the sonne of God ' as so lively grounded as any Christian can speake of it And this by the meere strength of reason And is it possible that now after so glorious publication of the Christian faith through the whole earth there should be found any Christians so unreasonable as to thinke it unreasonable that God should become man to save us from our sinnes which are the true roote of all our miseries The like is of the holy Eucharist Did but men understand so much of Metaphysickes as to know the Nature of their owne growth or augmentation they would find no difficulty in that now by many so disbelieved and decryed though in it selfe so heavenly and needefull a Mystery But ignorance and pride maketh that to be held for absurd which in truth is most conformable to Nature I will adde but one word more upon this occasion for their sakes who are affected with reason and are best satisfyed with discourses built upon that foundation This Principle being supposed that all thinges are governed in the perfectest manner that may be in conformity to the generall rules of nature which Divines use to expresse in these wordes that God ever doth that which is best then presently All the Mysteries of Christian Religion Namely the creation of Man the fall the oeconomy or conduct of the world untill the coming of Christ since Christ the end of the world the last Judgement the Resurrection the severall States of soules before it and of men after it Beatitude Damnation And whatsoever else is in Catholike beliefe as the Doctrine concerning the Church Church-gouvernement the Sacraments and whatsoever else belongeth of necessity to credulity and obedience All these I say will appeare so mainely evident and reasonable that no man of a just capacity and unpassionate mind can take any exception against it Whosoever will employ his time and endeavours in this search and shall begin it with a right understanding of Nature will find with unspeakable comfort and satisfaction to himselfe that what I have here said is true I confesse some paines are required to know these thinges as also there are some necessary to comprehend the demonstrations of Archimedes and the Cronickes of Apollonius Pergeus about which we see so many straine their wittes to understand them for the delight that is in them when they are once mastered And yet the importance ad consequence of them is not comparable to the knowledge of these truths which looked after with a like attention in a due progresse will become as evident as they But wee must not expect to attaine to the depth of all these pointes by onely discoursing of them in familiar conversation for our divertisement and recreation or by reading some treatise of them in such sort as one would do a Romance only for entertainement or passe-time and delight They who are skilled in Geometry or Algebra do well know they never purchased those sciences so cheape Seeing then that this is of so much higher a straine in it selfe and of so farre greater a concernment towardes the governement of their lifes Lett them if they can not be satisfyed with simply believing these truths use industry to finde Masters able to instruct them and employ a competency of labour in pursuite of them The eighth REFLEXION Of conference and Disputation in common AFter the way of reading there offereth it selfe to our consideration that of personall discoursing or Dialogising This may be performed in two Manners The one when hee who is to learne contributeth on his side bearing himselfe with a desire to come to truth and helping it on by acknowledging candidly what seemeth to him true out of his former persuasion and proposing wherein hee findeth difficulty and asking no more then to have that opened unto him which some preoccupation hath obstruted This Manner of treating is called Conference And no doubt but it is a farre shorter and more efficacious way to come to knowledge then reading Provided the teacher be an able Man and Master of his profession For a writer can speake but in common whereas such a teacher knoweth by the answers of his opposer wherein particularly lyeth the difficulty he is to remove and accordingly spareth and contracteth many discourses wihch the writer is forced to deliver att ayme and att hazard Besides the very orall delivery is farre more intelligible and giveth a singular energy to what is so taught The other Manner of Dialogising is when the Auditour standeth upon his guard and yieldeth nothing upon fore-knowledge but will bee coâ—vinced and see evidence for every thing he is to allow And this is properley called Disputation The parties in this are clearely two and no third to moderate the Disputation though oftentimes one be necessary to moderate the Disputants Who otherwise through contention and earnestnesse may bee apt to neglect the rules of DisputatioÌ„ whereof the first or chiefe is that the one meddle not with the others office as long as he holdeth to the rules of Disputation The parties being two a disputaÌ„t and a respondent The first thing the disputant is to doe is to state the question or rather to require of the respondent to do it if it bee necessary That is if he suspecteth the termes of the Thesis to be equivocall Then is he
it is fruitelesse to dispute against a Protestant out of the Fathers unlesse you first settle what proof of Fathers he will admit Neither is it easy for a Protestāt to argue strōgly against a Catholike out of the Fathers For if the Catholike will binde him to it he must bring an universality of them or else the Catholike is not obliged to receive them And how can he go about to do this I understand not I meane in a private disputation where a Matter of three or foure testimonyes are capable of spinning out the whole time that people generally are willing to lend unto such an entertainment Neverthelesse the presumptuous and vaine Sophisters are forward to cry out that all the Fathers are on their side as their Patriarche Iewel begā the tune to them so shamefully that his owne Chaplaine forsooke him for his impudent falshood But concerning this point It is to be noted that although they break avowedly and confessedly from the universall face of antiquity in all Church-practise as in the Liturgies Letanies Masse praying to Saints praying for the dead most of the Sacraments Relikes Altars Pilgrimages Fastings Processions Cochibate of Priests religious men and women and almost all things of that nature yet have they so little ingenuity or rather they are so impudent as before women and ignorant persons to boast themselves Sectators of antiquity and they undertake to prove it by certaine broken ends of Texts concerning some speciall circumstance or nice point in which they have found some dark place in some Father I therefore putt these questions to any juditious person who is curious to heare disputation in Religion Whether in so large a Booke as the Scripture it be possible morally speaknig that there should not be divers hard and obscure passages And then whether an eloquent Sophister may not make use of such places to circumvent and delude weake soules unable to remember or marke the contrary Texts and to judge betweene them Which if he also graunt as he can not choose but do I aske him againe what security he hath or can have that his disputant is not such a one or at least may not be such a one And what I say of Scripture may be with much more force transferred to the workes of the Fathers which are much more ample and besides that may containe errours in them So that in conclusion all disputation out of Fathers is but beating the ayre unlesse the parties be first agreed what Fathers authorities shall be allowed sufficient to decide and terminate their differences Yet after all this the Protestant that is carried away with a beliefe of his disputants abilities will be still apt to reply that at the least it can not be denyed but that he who hath studied the Fathers so well as to be able to make out of them against Catholikes a ranged battaile of such obscure places must needes be an able and a learned Man and therefore he is not to be blamed for following such a guide who hath read so much and is conversant in the Fathers Seeing that they who are unlearned and cannot upon their owne stocke judge of such Matters must rely upon those who have made them their long and serious study To him who shall make such an objection it ought to be represented How meane and pittifull a change it is to fall from the splēdide authority of the whole Church to the obscure authority of a private Doctor be he what he will As also that to retire from the authority of few or but of one were a great imprudence in an unlearned man Who because hee is not able to judge of the quality of Doctors hath reason to adhere to the quantity and number of them Besides in all likelihood this great Doctor especially if he be yong hath not read the Fathers themselves but hath taken out of other Authors that write of controversies such places as he hath found cited in them for his purpose And this argueth but a small Modicum portion of learning though happily he may make a great shew with it among unlearned persons like one who can recite three verses of Homer in a country Schoole The Fifteenth REFLEXION On Arguments drawne from reason for Religion THere remaineth yet to be discoursed of the last kind of arguments that may be employed in disputations of Religion whose store house from whence they may be drawne is reason For the performance whereof lett us consider how Religion is apprehended generally to be a knowledge above nature and to be derived by authority from a source of higher understanding then ours is Yet on the other side It is evident that it can not be planted in us otherwise then that the roote of it must of necessity be in Reason seeing that Reason is our nature Now then the roote and basis of believing is manifestly from this that we are perswaded we ought to believe which importeth as much as that it is reasonable we should believe And therefore the arguments which in Matter of Religion ought chiefely to be managed out of Reason should be in common whether it be Reasonable to believe what is proposed unto us And because no man can doubt whether it be reasonable to believe what God proposeth the whole question is reduced to this point whether it be reasonable to believe what the Church or our fore-fathers deliver unto us as the doctrine which Jesus Christ whose authority no Christian excepteth against did teach and deliver to the world from his eternall Father In which question the affirmative reasons belong onely to Catholikes the negative to all others Here the Catholike disputant hath two wayes to proceede The one is in a manner Metaphysicall and of a rigorous consequence by shewing that this principle of Adhering to our forefathers doctrine in the way that the Catholike Church relyeth upon it could not have been taken up in any middle age but must of necessity have been continued from the beginning And then by proving that if this Principle hath continued from the beginning it is impossible that any errour should have crept into the Church After the doing of which It is as evidently demonstrated that Catholike faith is the sole true Christian faith as that the three Angels of a Triangle are equall to two right Angels or any other verity in Euclide or Archimedes The other way is to assume to prudent morall men that whosoever seeth a like evidence for Religion as he judgeth sufficient to venture his life or his estate or his honour upon and not be excused neither in prudence nor in conscience nor in honor if he doth not embrace it For if he seeth the same advantage in two severall cases and will venture in the one and not in the other It is evident he proceedeth not according to Reason in one of them And in our case whatsoever he may say to justifye himselfe he cannot be excused from making in truth no reall
owne benignity and gratiousnesse This he doth not by immediatly determining the man but by so sweetning the proposals that they overcome his heart and make it determine it selfe according to the will of God For Divinity teacheth that the power of God after it hath given Being unto creatures doth nothing immediatly by it self but all by the mediation of the second causes onely setting them on worke So that if as some Philosophers held and is yet the manner by which many apprehend creatures to work they could worke of themselves and did so without being pushed on by him just the very same things would happen as now they do So that neither Predestination nor Reprobation by being what they are purely in God do bring any change att all in our wills determinations Nor ought there any mention to be made of them further then to shew Gods wisedome and goodnesse who fore-saw and fore-willed and so caused like an universall not like a particular cause all our actions as farre as they are good Onely where something occurreth wherein it is fitting that the course of materiall causes should be moderated and directed above their owne line to the right governement of Man-kinde there the Allmighty goodnesse hath other instruments to performe his will These we call Angels incorporall and spirituall substances The which being created with the beginning of time but not subjected to time were independently of time perfected for their owne Blisse or Misery Those who envyed mans felicity in becoming God remaining in such darkenesse and torments as extremity of willfulnesse causeth in natures of that kinde which are beyond all that we can imagine the purer part of them by adhesion to Gods disposall becoming participant of his sight with an unconceivable blisse and happiness These under his divine Majesty do governe humane actions and their negotiation for Blisse the blessed Party of them being ready to furnish us with all goods as farre as the course of Providence requireth and permitteth The bad being prompt to inflict upon men all harmes of soule and body when ever the hand of Providence doth not hold the reines This each sort of them doth in common and in particular when the ordinary course is to be inverted for the sweeter bringing of Man-kinde to the intended Blisse And such of them as are specially intent to particular persons are used to be called their Guardian Angels if they be good Divels or Accusers if they be wicked Spirits By these wayes and Instruments Christ planted his Church and governeth it and will conserve it as long us this world which was made for it shall continue keeping it free from Errour and in the quality of a Teacher a Commander and a visible Tribunall unto which all may repaire who seeke salvation But when the fore-designed worke shall be finished and the number of our brethren be compleated then shall the world be consumed by fire Mankinde rise and appeare before Christ their Judge and receive their eternall dome and all time and motion be ended and turned into a constant state for all Eternity The good shall receive the full reward of their vertue which in this life is but inchoated in their soules If they went out of their bodies perfect in charity they enjoyed immediatly the sight of God and do assist us now by their prayers as they did living by their merits that is by their good example and profitable labours for their posterity And so wee invocate them and desire God that both their prayers and merits may be beneficiall to us And because we account them Persons highly worthy and in the favour of God we therefore testify so much by keeping their dying-days Festivall for the encouragement of others to imitate them And we beare a respect to their Relikes such as we do to holy instruments as the Bible chalices consecrated oyles and the like And as we kisse the hand of a Prince or the garment of a Prelate intending it as a ceremony of honour to him so we kisse the relikes or pictures of Saints and especially crosses which we take for the pictures of Christ crucifyed making that kissing the ceremony of expressing honour to the Person represented This in the Greeke and Latine expressions is called Adoration which signifyeth kissing That being the most ancient and naturall ceremony of protesting a loving honour And the words reaching in a divers sense and meaning to the thing immediatly touched and to the Person to whom the honour is done It is said that both of them are adored by the same act of adoration but the one materially and corporally the other with the heart and mind Wee submitting our selves to the one as to our better and making the other the meanes by which we expresse it The absolutely wicked confounded and terrifyed by the sight of their Judge will be confined to perpetuall Darkenesse of spirit and gnawing of their conscience and to the anguishes of their raging thoughts and desires for all eternity The middle sort consisting of those who according to the course of all corporall deficient and mortall goods do goe out of this world substantially in Charity and love of God but not without some weakenesses and sickenesses of their soule cannot before they are purged be admitted to the sight of God And so they expect in Darkenesse and griefe that happy change to which the prayers of the living do much avayle them These are the Heads of the Christian profession of that Church which being in the communion of the Church of Rome pretendeth to have received her doctrine from Christ and his Apostles in a perpetuall publike exercise and profession handed downe without interruption to this our presentage And out of which have issued all particular congregations which in their severall seasons separating themselves from her have been denominated by severall Appellations the name of Catholike ever remaining to her inspight of all invasions Divines may finde many more Articles of faith and Heretikes may dayly occasion more and more But all are onely explications of the here proposed doctrine Now the oppositions which Heretikes make against the Catholike Church are onely the breaking downe of all Christianity and good life either in it selfe or in its outworkes As the Socinians by denying the God-head of the the blessed Trinity and of Jesus Christ the Pelagians by denying the fable of Man and the necessity and efficacy of Grace the Puritans or Presbiterians by denying the necessity of good life to justification do destroy the very Essence of Christianity and vertue Divers denying the solemne and holy sacrifice of the Altar which is the highest externe act of our Religious duty to God by cutting of most of the sacraments by rejecting prayers to the saints and angels and all devotion for the dead by abolishing Holy-dayes and publike fasts by pulling downe the pictures of Christ and his saints which our pious ancestors did sett up to renew the memory of their examples and to excite
do acknowledg the thing the Catholicks call the Fathers accepting thereof commonly that is the two latter opinants no considerable part of them and the larger opinion nothing neer the half So that the consent of the Fathers in the sense of the Protestants signifieth nothing but the opniō of some few who have written either nothing or litle and obscurely of the points in cōtroversy The fourth Shuffle Of this Word Catholick Church TO the Catholick Church all plead the Apostles Creed forcing them to the name And Catholiks by this word understand a Church which hath endured from Father to Son from Christs time to ours still teaching the same Doctrine and living under an outward Visible goverment the head of which is in the Church of Rome and is the Pope And so acknowledg and obey a Visible and determinate authority to which recourse for Doctrine may in every moment bee made by looking into theire Catechismes and lives which are publick as those which were made by the order of the Council of Trent and in great ocasions to Generall meetings and in the meane while to the particular Church of Rome But the Protestant by this name pretends to a Church made of all whome they account good Christians which hath no other Rule then of the scripture that is of the fancy of every particular Congregation for their opinions no common goverment no bounds or limits to bee knowne by but such as the particular fancy of the Protestāt shal upō occasiō set to include or exclude whome he pleases So that plainly what they mean by the name of the Catholick Church is no determinate Congregation of men nor can have any influence to govern either faith or behaviour The fifth Shuffle Of consent with the Greeck Church SOme Protestants highly brag of theire communion with the Greek Church or rather of their consent of Doctrine with it for I have not heard of any communion unless with the Patriarch Cyril who for that cause was put out as an Heretik a business though of no consequence now yet for the name of what it hath been anciently of a colourable credit to them Let us therefore see what the Protestant means by this communion or consent Two points there are and onely two of moment of dissension betwixt the Greek and Latine Church The one about the Procession of the Holy Ghost in which the 39. Articles men agree with the Latine Church against the Graecians and yet these are the men who most pretend to the Greek Vnion The other of obedience to the Pope in the which the Greeks freely acknowledg the Popes Primacy which is the stumbling block to the Protestants and confess he were to bee obeyed if he made just commands and onely except against his oppression as they call it and clayming of more then his right And in this which is no matter of faith but of Schisme and if unjust confest if doubtfull suspected rebellion So that this glorious consent they boast of is not in Doctrine or sacraments the life of Christians but in a case of schisme and disobedience which is common to all Hereticks The sixth Shuffle Of Roman Church Nay some of thē being ashamed of their owne orphanage and that they can not name their Father or Mother wil in spite of the Roman Church and her defying them intrude themselves into heroff spring saying shee is substantially a true Church though shee coucheth insufferable errours in her faith which force them not to communicate with her let us therefore see what these meane by this Word the Roman Church Catholicks Meane by the name of Church a Congregation of men joyned with Rome in an obligation of Government for the maintaining faith sacraments and good life taking this obligation to bee that which maketh the mene bound together by it to bee a Church The Protestant takes this obligation to bee an unsufferable Tyranny wil have no rule of faith but such an one as hee can turne which way hee thinkes best for his interest or fancy sacraments and government no other then what hee cannot avoide out of his proposed rule of faith or at most without the shame of the world So that hee meanes nothing that belongs to the making a multitude of men a Church but onely the multitude of men of which a Church may bee made as if a man should call a house or Palace the ruines of one lying in a heape where it was fallen The seventh Shuffle Of the Word Mission THese are some but Generally the Prelatick party engages in deriving themselves by Mission from the Roman Church Lett us see then what they intend by this word Mission The Catholick interpretation is that Mission signifies a command givē to the party sent to deliver a Message to them to whome hee is sent which makes the Apostles question good How can they preach if they are not sent That is if no body deliver them an Errand to carry and God is sayed to put his owne Words in the Mouths of those he sends and Christe when hee sent his Apostles bad them preach or deliver to the world what he had taught them Now because this command or commission is delegated in the Catholick Church by a certaine ceremony which is called ordination or the sacrament of Order The Protestant grew ambitious of this outside and so pretends his first Prelates had an Ordination from the Catholick Bishops whome they had deposed or at least violently cast out from theire sees And this they call to have a Mission from the Roman Church So that they do not as much as pretend to the substance of the thing called truely Mission but to an outside and shadow good enough to serve their turnes who love the Glory of men and seek not after Gods honour The eighth Shuffle Of being like to the Primitive Church Another thing in which they insult over Catholicks is Antiquity the which because it hath a venerable awfulness in it self they specially the Presbyterian party much presume upon professing their Church to be more like the Ancient Christian Church thē the Catholicks is asking whether S. Peter were the Prince of Rome Bishops in such great Pompe had such Courts Altars Churches pictures in such abundance and so richly attired Ceremonies and Sacraments performed with so great magnificence and Order By which we see wherein these men place the Antiquity they pretend to to wit that the Church had not those meanes to draw weak hearts which need the helps of bodily appareances to raise themselves to the conceit of invisible goods Whereas the Catholick pretends to Antiquity and to bee like the primitive times in the substātial means of Christian life as in Church government and power of Bishops their accommodating of the quarrels of the faithfull by the order of the Apostles Performing the mass Baptisme Ordination and other Sacraments with exactness and diligence the Reliques and Holy Burialls having Feasts Fasts Penitential Canons flocks of People of both
is all one a Protestant On the other side If it be the Catholikes share to be the Defendant He is bound to make good many points That is to say all that doctrine which we maintaine to be of faith and to have received by Tradition The Conclusion therefore is that the Catholike hath much to maintaine and little to oppose The Protestant hath great choice of what to oppose and little to maintaine So that his advantage on this hand is very great in regard of disputation Since if he receive a wound in any limb of that great body he is to defend it is a mortall one to his cause And his adversary is invulnerable to him every where but in one pointe The reason of this difference dependeth of the knowne Axiome Bonum ex integrâ causâ Malum ex quolibet defectu The Catholike Party hath a Religion hath an Art and skill of living well and of going to heaven Such a thing must have a body And a body can not consist without many members and parts Every one of which must be defended and made good All other Sects are but deficiencies more or lesse from this rule Those more who cleave fastest to the rule of deficiency that is to say to the rejecting of all that cannot be convinced out of Scripture Those lesse who perceiving the inconveniencies this bringeth upon them do soonest recede in practise from this crooked rule and to contradict their maine ground of all being fallible by forcing their subjects to hold their Tenets that they have no authority for themselves having forsaken the legitimate authority by which the Catholike Church sticketh to Tradition The eleventh REFLEXION Of some particular Caveats for Catholikes THe Catholike defendant having so hard a taske some few notes will be necessary for him As first that he should not ofter to maintaine against arguments drawne out of nature such positions as he is not able to satisfy himselfe in for example against an Arrian or Sabellian lett him not undertake to dispute and argue in reason how the same thing can be one and three unlesse he be first sure that hee understandeth it well and that himselfe resteth satisfyed with reason in that point For it is impossible to give the Auditory satisfaction if he hath it not himselfe Especially if the disputant be subtle and able to manage his Argument The like is of the blessed Sacrament to shew how one body can at the same time be im more places then one In this case therefore the Defendant is to keepe himselfe upon the generall defence that wee believe Mysteries of faith whether we can answere Arguments against them or no That the word of God is able to give us certitude above all demonstration and above all that wee can understand Neither are wee without the example of our Adversaries themselves when we do thus For in this very Mystery of the Eucharist they will tell us that Christ is really and truly present in it But that the Manner how he is there is not understandable In the Trinity and in the Incarnation Protestants do the like acknowledging these Mysteries to be true but withall professing them to be above their understanding Yet this rule is not so peremptory but that by discretion it may admitt exception For our Adversaries are so weake that they ground most of their Axiomes and proofes rather upon confidence wee will not deny them then that themselves are able to make them good So in the Mystery of the Eucharist when they insist upon the Maxime that the same body can not be att the same time in two places If you putt them to proove it you shall finde that their word will be to say that even our owne Doctors confesse it or that experience assureth us of it Whereas experience is no Argument against Gods Omnipotency And as to what private Doctors affirme it is att every Mans pleasure to grant or deny it So that if you understand your Adversaries strength you may non-sute him by putting him to prove what you know he can not But this is a hazard And you are shamed if you faile An other Caveat for our defendant is Not to engage himselfe in a Controversy upon the opinion of one party of Devines Nor undertake to defend against his Adversary a position which some of our owne Devines do oppose and so is rather a question of Scholasticall Divinity then a Controversy of faith To this purpose it is to be noted that some opinions are of a greater latitude then others establishing faith upon that whereof others confine it but to some one part As in the Matter of Infallibility some place it in the Pope some in a generall Councell some in both some in the whole Church which conteineth all these and more Here the cautious Controvertist that hath care of his Safety will be sure to choose that which is most ample and so quitteth himselfe from the trouble and danger of answering Arguments made against the single parts and keepeth himselfe to the strong hold of Christianity wherein all parties agree True it is that if the defendant be putt to declare his position and an Argument do presse him Hee may sometimes be obliged to choose one opinion of Divines before an other or rather is forced to follow that which he is best acquainted with But the rule I give must serve where and when there is place for it And besides the already mentioned advantages that this course giveth It causeth a great narrownesse or brevity in controversies which bringeth the dissenting parties farre neerer to agreement and setleth more stablenesse in Religion by making men dicerne what belongeth to faith and what doth not but is the opinions of particular Doctors The twelfth REFLEXION Of the qualities of some sort of Arguments drawne out of Scripture THe next thing we are to look into Is the quality of the Arguments which are to be used in those Disputations By the precedent discourse it is evident â—hat they are of three kindes Out of Scripture out of Fathers and out of reason To begin with Scripture It is againâ— cleare that arguments may be thence deduced two wayes The one out of the pure force of the wordes The other out of the connexion of the sense and discourse acknowledged â—n the wordes With the conclusion that iâ— to be proved In the former way Arguents either presse the wordes of one single sentence which they bring thinking to make it evident that their assertion is the very meaning of those wordes Or else they bring a conglobation of sundry places of which the one fortifyeth the other so as to make it evident that the plaine sense of wordes so often reiterated cannot choose but be the true meaning of the Scripture To begin with the first branch of the Manner of drawing arguments out of single Texts of Scripture we may divide into two kindes the Texts that are produced for this purpose For they are either such as