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
Sexes dedicated to God Religious Ceremonies and all sorts of enticements to love heaven and follow good life So that the Antiquity the Protestant pretends to is of wanting wilfully those means of helping soules which the primitive Church wanted by the Violence of Persecution and the Antiquity meaned by Catholicks is of being like the Ancient Church in all things that promote vertue inwardly and outwardly The ninth Shuffle Of the Word Tradition TO Antiquity hangs Tradition that is the receiving of Doctrine and Customes from the Ancient Church The which Catholicks place in this that it is derived fom the Apostles to us by the continuall and immediate delivery of one Age to another the sons continuing their Fathers both beliefe and conversation in Christian life and treading the same paths of Salvation This was a bit of too soure a digestion for Protestants being not able to shew any Masters from whome they had received theire beliefe Yet a Tradition they must have not to be openly convinced of having forged their doctrine Some of them therefore sayed they received their doctrine by the Tradition of the Bible made unto them by the Churches continuing since the Apostles time Wherein you see an open equivocating in the word of Tradition Catholicks taking it for the delivery of doctrine that is of sense and meaning the Protestants for the delivery of a mute book or killing letter Others call Tradition the Testimony of the Fathers of all Ages and so att least divert the Question Turning the proof of Religion which is plaine and easie to every ordinary understanding into a business of learning and long study in which though they be worstted yet the People cannot see it nor descry theire falshood The tenth Shuffle Of the word Really TO descend from the Universality or defence of their whole Religiō to speciall articles of it wee shall finde them there like themselves As for example those who beare an outward respect to the Fathers finding them concurring so thick to testify Christes Body to bee in the Holy Eucharist will see me to say the same and use the word of Christ being Really and verily and truely in the Sacrament and that they onely question the manner how he is there which is lawfull amongst Catholicks to do So that you cannot almost distinguish them from Catholicks Vntil you come to explicatiō There the Catholick sayeth that Christes Body is in the sacrament as the substance of Bread was in the thing which before wee called Bread and now is no more but turned into that body wich was hanged on the Cross by an entitative and reall mutation The Protestant wil tell you that it is stil Bread and naturally and entitatively the same thing wich it was before consecration but that by faith which is a real actiō it is Christes true body to us How to justify these words that by Faith it is Christes true body is impossible unless they wil have us believe by faith what they tell us is false Therefore others say it is an assurāce of Christs Body as a bond is of mony Peradventure of enjoying Christe in Heaven But how different both senses bee from the Catholick which they seek to be thought theirs and from the natural meaning of the words every mā cā see So that the manner of being Christes Body which they question signifies whether it bee truely there or no but onely by a false apprehension they call Faith The eleventh Suffle Of the Word Sacrifice The like is of the word Sacrifice and Altar and such other In which the Catholick position makes these words proper and that the Mass is as or more properly signified by the word sacrifice as the sacrifice of the old law That there is a true and real separatiō of the body of our Saviour from his bloud and more proper to the names then nature can make which can not make a true body when the bloud is separated nor true bloud whē the body is left out wich in this sacramēt is performed and nevertheless Christe entire and untouched But a Protestāt wil tel you that whē the Holy offering is called a sacrifice it is meaned a sacrifice of praise or thanks giving that is in reality no sacrifice but an outward ceremony of praise or thāks giving others that it is a resemblāce or represētatiō of a sacrifice to wit of that of the holy Cross so that you see the differēce of the two significatiōs is no less thē whē by the same word as of Christes one means Christs Person another a Crucifix or the picture of Christe The twelfth Shuffle Of the Word Priesthood In consequēce and conformity to this they abuse the Word of Priesthood For finding al Antiquity gloriously full of this name they must also use it and finding St. Paul had too expressely taught us that a Priest was a publick Officer ordained to offer to God giftes and sacrifices and that he ought to be legitimately called to the office and that Catholiks take Priesthood in this meaning And how on the other side themselves had taken out of the Church all solemn offerings and sacrifice the business of a Priest and nevertheless shame on one side and ambition on the other egged them on to call themselves Priests they were forced to corrupt the Word sacrifice first as is declared to come to the name Priesthood So that Priesthood in the Protestant meaning is an officer chosen to sing Psalmes in the sight of the People The which how different it is from the Catholick explication of being the publick Officer of the eternall sacrifice is too plain to be declared Onely I must add that who takes ordination with the intention onely to become the chief or high singer of the Parish receiveth not Priesthood as it is meaned and used in the Catholick Church The thirteenth Shuffle Of the word Faith THe abuse of this name Faith must not bee omitted which Catholicks taking for a perswasion of such truths as are necessary to bring us to good life and salvation which perswasion wee settle upon Christes doctrine delivered unto us by Tradition of the Church The which meaning is cleare in the Apostle who expresseth himself to speak of faith that works by Charity The first Protestants took the word Faith as excluding Charity and cryed downe good works as improfitable the latter ashamed of this as destroying good life and plainly contrary to the whole designe of Scripture and Fathers took it for the same faith that Catholicks do but would have it have force precisely out of its being a persuasion and the working to follow to no effect but as a hanger on without any End whereas Catholicks make the persuasion to bee chiefly or wholly to breed Charity which is the true cause of salvation But the presbiterian party and the plainer dealing Protestants have quite changed and destroyed faith saying faith is a Persuasion that the believer must have that hee in Person is one of the
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
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
CONTROVERSY LOGICKE Or The Methode to come to truth in debates of Religion Written by THOMAS WHITE GENTLEMAN ANNO 1659. THE INTRODUCTION MR. John Biddle who is represented to me as one of the most learned and most rationall among the enemies of the Roman Church wrote a booke wherein he declared what opinion he had framed to himselfe out of Scripture concerning the blessed Trinity And that not out of Scripture alone but also out of the Fathers of the first three Centuries smoothly skipping ouer according to the vsuall actiuity of a Protestant Doctor aboue a thousand yeares att a leaue By which proceeding he pretendeth that neither the Caluinist nor any other who sticketh to pure Scripture nay not the Protestant himselfe who extendeth his authority to the Fathers of the first three hundred yeares and no further haue any law or right to censure him seeing he maintaineth all the Principles of both these sortes of persons and offereth to justify out of them by disputation whatsoever he hath written Excepting which two pretended authorities namely of Scripture and of the Fathers of the first three Centuries both of them privately interpreted there is nothing but meere willfulnesse to move any of the fore-mentioned persons to believe firmely any conclusion of faith and Religion or to censure rationally any who hold the contrary opinions This man not withstanding his so conformable plea and the maine position of liberty of Prophecying which is the Basis of all those who refuse the judgment of a speaking Church wee see detained prisoner by publike authority and his booke burned by the hand of the publike Executioner This begott in me as I conceive it did the like in sundry others a desire and curiosity of speaking with him Which not being able to compasse by my slender power My next worke was to reade his booke After which I must not deny him this commendation that supposing the principle of every mans choosing his Religion out of Scripture Grammatically intrepreted at is the manner of all those who recede from the authority of tradition he proceedeth very rationally and consequently Neither do I imagine that any of his persecutors is able to give a satisfactory answere to what he hath written And this hath bin confirmed in me since I have vnderstood that some have sett out workes against him which haue not afforded the discreeter part even of their owne followers the content they expected from them And that others have attempted to do the like but have bin soo discreete as to suppresse their endeavours vpon their finding the successe did not correspond to their wishes This hath made the booke be esteemed exceeding dangerous to Christian Religion by those who thought they have no rule to know what is solide and what is not in Matters of Religion yet are by the force of custome and consent of the greatest part of the Christian name detained from renouncing the God-head of the whole Trynity as esteeming it the maine foundation for a materiall point of Christian beliefe and that which hath brought forth during to many ages those heroyke actions and noble effects wherewith the Christian world is enriched aboue the neglected times of Paganisme Now this consideration or rather experiment as it conuinced clearly that disputations betweene all such as adhere solely to Scripture are for the most part meerely vaine and fruitlesse for witty men will neuer commit too great a folly as to maintaine by Scripture what is palpably and vngloseably against it so it made me reflect that euen the disputations which we Catholikes do vse against Protestants are seldome and onely by accident profitable And by farther rumination my thoughts sprunge out the ensuing treabise I may not conclude this preamble without reflecting vpon Mr. Biddles appeale to the Fathers of the first three Ages which exclusion of those of the following Ages Not because it is his but because it is common to him and to the Protestants and euer to the learnedest Caluinists as may be seene in the workes of Chamier and Daille Truly to my thinking it is a most ridiculous and vnreasonable proposition For I would faine know how it can fall into the braines of any indifferently discoursine man to doubt whiter the Fathers of the fourth Age did not know what the Fathers of the former Ages held better then we can discouer it out of their writings that remaine to vs Then more of them were extant Neither was there any cauils or att least very few which of them were trew which suppositions The stile the phrase the circumstances the practises of the times wherein those Fathers wrote were then better vnderstood And which is the chiefe ô fall there were yet wittnesses aliue who either had knowne them or att least knew others that had knowne them and had conuersed with them so that by being acquainted with the opinions of the men they could not doubt of the sense and interpretation of such hard passages as by inaduertence naturall euen to the most diligent and most wary writers could not chose but sometimes fall from their pennes These were the aduantages of the 4.th Age ouer this wherein we now liue And consequently if we can aske the 4.th Age what it was that these fathers held and may haue their assured answere to our question There can be no comparison betweene that euidence and what we can guesse att out of those scrappes and remnants of darke expressions which in many cases must be the subject of our enquiry if we examine their writinges I will giue you for an example this booke of Maister Biddle that hath occasioned the following discourse Reade the testimomyes he alleageth they will seeme to you the very contexture of the treatises out of which he hath drawne them so large in some places so continuedly page after page whereas generally our Protestant citations are bur of a line or two spoken vpon the by whiles the Authors discourse concerneth an other businesse And yet neuer the lesse nothing can be more manifest then that the doctrine he pretendeth to abett by those testimonies was not the opinion of the fathers he alleageth for it The councill of Nice called the Great that is the Vniuersall Christian world with open mouth and one consent condemning the Arrians of nouelty And St. Athanasius so many times vpbraiding them to their faces that their progenitors were onely Caïphas and Artemas and such like and that their Clergy men were faine to learne how to professe their faith and how to speake a certaine token of their hauing bin formerly taught the contrary The like in effect is in all other controuersies betweene Protestants and vs for in any of them the 4.th Age doth testify that the doctrine it holdeth is descended from their fore-Fathers and is in quiet possession of beliefe in the Church and that the opiniō they dispute against is a nouuelty they do thereby declare the doctrine of the precedent age more efficaciously then any testimonies
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
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
or false But whether side is the more probable or plausible purely in relation to Scripture Clearely he who in any point will proceede according to conscience and prudence in this way of arguing is obliged to consider all that is contained in the whole Scripture concerning that point Weighing what he putteth in each side of the ballance with the best judgement God affordeth him that so he may judiciously pronounce sentence For the doing of which he ought to consider not onely the number of places that concerne his purpose but their qualities also and be able to compare those one with an other Now this is so hard a taske that the learnedst and ablest man a live may despaire of ever being able to effect it For how can he or any Man with reason persuade himselfe that either he or any other hath ever produced or ever can produce out of Scripture all that may from thence be alledged for any point in controversy since our Saviour himself hath given us a cleare example that arguments may be drawne and those efficacious ones from Texts where we least dreame of any such sense As when disputing against the Sadduces he made this argument God is God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob But he is not God of nothing Therefore Abraham Isaac and Jacob shall rise againe or do remaine in soule hoping for their body and resurrection who can be confident of saying or knowing all that is in Scripture concerning any point when the proofes of truths may lye in such unlikely places Surely it must be either a great ignorance or a great temerity to undertake it And therefore we may conclude that it is impossible we should ever arrive so farre in this way of search as to know really what is more or lesse probable out of Scripture But all that we may hope to attaine unto is onely to be able to judge what is more or lesse probable out of those places which well our selves do know or att most out of those places which the Authors we have seene do bring And so it is evident that they who relye on Scripture or rather that professe to do so do not in truth relye upon it but upon their owne or their Teachers diligence whom they suppose to know the whole latitude of Scripture-proofe Which is not onely false but impossible for any man to do The fourteenth REFLEXION On the Arguments drawne out of the Fathers THe second nest of Authority out of which Arguments take wing Is the copious library of Fathers Wherein it is to be considered that whether Catholike or Protestant be to argue the Text he alledgeth hath a double remove from the conclusion he would prove For whereas in allegations of Scripture both sides agree that what it sayth is certainly true and so all the difficulty consisteth in knowing what is true meaning of the place alledged it is otherwise allegations of Fathers For in them there arise two questions The one whether that which the argugent pretendeth be the Fathers opinion the other whether that which the Father sayth be true after it is agreed to be his opinion For neither Catholike nor Protestant doth agree to all things that one or two Fathers may hold But indeed Protestants do defie them all And Catholikes require an universality in them to make them infallible So that if either Catholike or Protestant be the Arguer he ought to settle before-hand with his adversary that such a Father or Fathers as he intendeth to produce be of unquestionable authority between them Or else not to meddle with them for it were but labour lost and breath cast away The Protestants use to make two comparisons in Fathers The one in Age or Antiquity the other in learning or reputation As for the former they insist much upon the three first Ages supposing them to be purer then the rest In doing of which it is evident that their ayme is to reject all For when they list and that it concerneth them they will tell you that the impurity of doctrin began as soon as the Apostles were dead Now if by this Impurity they meane damnable errors then by saying so they evacuate all the authority of Fathers For they allow it no further then as it pleaseth every disputant or Minister to declare the point controverted to bee or not to bee a damnable error And thus even the three first Ages are blowne away with the rest But if the point in Controversy be no damnable error then the Fathers authority importeth litle erring being but of small consequence in such Matters as do not concerne salvation and there being no obligation upon a Christian to know unnecessary truths In a word If the Church can erre and hath erred these thousand yeares it is but courtesy to say she did not so in the former six hundred And so in truth the Fathers have no authority att all But if it can not erre nor hath erred Then the Fathers of the latter Ages own as good wittnesses as those of the former so they be induced with Universality The other comparison or distinction that Protestants use to make of the Fathers concerning their learning and reputation is as little to the purpose as that of their Antiquity For we do not cite Fathers as Doctors whose opinion is no better then the reason they bring for it but as wittnesses whose authority consisteth in a grave and moderate knowledge of what is believed and practised by the Church in the ages respectively wherein they lived And out of this it followeth that for wittnessing of Christian faith no one Father is to be preferred before an other It is true in some sense the testimony of a more antient Father may be sayd to be preferred before a more moderne one because the formall witnessing of it is of more neerenesse to Christ and of longer durance towards us But in regard of learning No Father hath more authority nor is more to be valued then an other for what concerneth faith though in other respects it be very considerable For a lesse learned Father is as credible a wittnesse as the learnedst of what is the present practise and beliefe of Christians so he have learning sufficient to warrant his understanding and knowing so much And in reality any Father whose authority carrieth us beyond the apparent memory of mankind att present living is as good as the best for declaring the faith of the Church in the time he lived in Which because it received its doctrine by entaile from age to age every Fathers testimony in such Matters of faith is firme and irrefragable To conclude therefore The Catholike maketh no difference of the quality of Fathers nor much of their Antiquity but admitteth all so they come with universality The Protestant though he will a little simper att it yet in Conclusion he rejecteth all setting his owne judgement which he calleth Scripture for high Umpire of what in them is right what wrong Therefore
them ought to be as certaine as any demonstration can be Then lett him consider that 40. yeares study may be employed without arriving by the force of such study to demonstration sufficient to assure a man of all points necessary as the hundred yeares debate betweene Catholicks and Protestants without being one foote further advanced then the first day doth amply make manifest The conclusion then is evident for as much as concerneth the students part that 40. yeares study doth noth necessarily make a man a Divine Now lett us turne to the other side and consider a childe of a dozen yeares old never putt to Schoole further then in the Church to be taught in a Catechisticall way the summe of Christian doctrine and to know that it is to be held because it is descended from Christ by the perpetuall handing it from age to age in the whole Catholike Church And lett us enquire whether this child be a Divine or no If the question be of the matter He knoweth what is sufficient for him to bring him to heaven to breede in him the love of God and obedience to the Church set by God to direct us in doing our duties for the attaining eternall salvation Againe this childe hath that ground for his beliefe which is more certaine then any demonstration in Euclide or Archimedes Why then should we doubt but that this boy hath all that is necessary for the being a Divine and much more then the long studied pretender to divinity can shew for himselfe One may object that he doth not penetrate the force of succession which is the foundation upon which his divinity is built But whether that be or no this is certaine that he holdeth it upon that rule and Principle And if we should oblige a science or any kind of certitude to understand throughly all its principles we must take away all sciences but Metaphysikes and blotte out of Logike the distinction of sciences subalternative and subalternated and deny Geometry and Arithmetike to be sciences because the most of Mathematicians do not understand nor teach the force of those Maximes by which a syllogisme necessitateth our assent Peradventure some may reply that divinity properly signifyeth a science drawne out of articles of faith either alone or joined with certainties of Philosophy And that this boy can not pretend to such a science To this we answere that speaking rigorously in the use and phrase of the Schoole Theology or divinity signifyeth indeed such a quality as the objecter sayth But in ancient writers it is also taken for the knowledge of faith And that when we speake of a boys being a Divine wee meane it in this latter sense Neverthelesse if the comparison be made in the former sense of the science of divinity which is properly such and which neither of them hath the boy is neerer to it then this Doctor For as it is true that he who knoweth never a demonstration in Euclide can not be called a Geometrician though he have learned the Axiomes and Petitions and definitions premised before the demonstrations so neither is he a Divine that knoweth onely faith yet to continue the same comparison as he who acknowledgeth the definitions and other prerequisite truths is neerer being a Geometrician then he who doubteth of them so the boy who believeth all the articles of Christian faith which he already knoweth and hath the rule by which to be certaine of any other when they are proposed to him is neerer being a Divine then he who calleth himselfe a Divine because for 40. yeares together he hath doubted and disputed of the Principles of divinity which must be agreed unto before divinity it selfe can be so much as commenced And out of this may easily be understood how great a cheate and imposture is put upon well-meaning people when such teachers are termed Divines and passe for Doctors who truly are but petty sophisters and wranglers in that noble and holy science The twentieth REFLEXION On the Civilities to be used in treating of Controversies BUt it is no easy Matter to allay a passion once raysed One objection cannot be so soone quelled as an other boyleth up and breaketh forth And so the same men presse that be their Masters learned or ignorant however they are good morall men and that civility att least is due to them and that they ought to be treated with honour and respect Farre be it from me to deny it For civility is a duty betweene man and man upon the score of manhood not upon any spirituall account and therefore every one who maketh not himselfe unworthy is the object of it But least out of generall sayings there should grow mistakes in particular it is fit we should a little unfold the common Axiome The name of Civility cometh from that of a Citty because both first and most generally the sweetenesse of behaviour expressed in this terme is seene and practised in Citties It extendeth it selfe no further then to conversation those vertues which beare a man to goodnesses of more serious considerations purchasing to themselves nobler denominations It consisteth of two parts The one negative to prevent offence the other positive to afford content and satisfaction It dwelleth as most vertues do betweene two contrary vices being infested with rudenesse below and with flattery above Its matter is both in Action and in wordes Rusticity is in action boysterous in wordes offensive Adulation is in action Apish in wordes hyperbolicall and lying Now Civility in all actions bewareth giving offence and is prompt to any convenient service In wordes as farre as it can it taketh no notice of others defects and giveth the true poise to their perfections And human actions are so ordered by God and Nature that there are very few which lye not open to reprehension on some side or other and none but may deserve to be commēded for something so that it is in the power of a judicious man to commend or to discommend with truth the actions of any man whatsoever And much more the actions of those persons unto whom a great variety both of actions and of qualities must necessarily appertaine Prudence therefore ought to govern Civility as it doth other vertues and instruct a man when and how farre in particular circumstances any Action is to be blamed or commended And as it governeth the language that belongeth to civility so it ought to do the like in the action relating to it which are apt to fall into excesse or defect unlesse the bridle of Prudence do guide them to march in the streight middle path Out of all which it is apparent to the discreet Reader that the moderation of Civility is a taske hard enough to describe and many times disputable both sides how farre the duty of it obligeth To apply this doctrine to our particular use we must adde one little note with it that the civility exhibited may be in respect of the present action or quality out
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
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
us to follow them doe demolish the fences and bullwarckes of the same Christianity and good life But all they who deserve the name of heretikes do agree to charge the Church of Christ with corruption and adultery and do deny in her both infallibility to know Christs doctrine and power to governe And consequently they destroy externall unity and the essence of it Which as it is not formally to ruine good life so it is more then to breake downe her outworkes since it entrencheth upon the very substance in common and leaveth no meanes but meere chance and hazard to come to the knowledge of Christs law and consequently to eternall salvation Whence we may understand what this name Popery signyfyeth to witt An affection or resolution to maintaine faith and good life and the causes of conserving them There are divers other points controverted betweene Catholikes and Sectaries But they are such as for the most part require no explication but a flatt denyall As when they accuse us to have deprived the Laiety of halfe the Communion we deny it For besides that the generall practise of Christians hath bin from the beginning to give the sacrament sometimes in one kinde ometimes in both the Church hath alwayes believed that the entire communion was perfectly administred in either We likewise deny that ever the Church held the necessity of communicating Infants The Popes personall infallibility that Indulgences can draw soules out of Purgatory that Prayers ought of necessity be in an unknowne tongue to though we may thinke it fitting in some circumstances that the publike service for reverence and Majesty be so performed that faith is not to be kept with Heretikes that the Pope can dispense with the subjection to Princes And many such other Tenets which are injuriously imposed upon Catholikes by Sectaries and are flatly denyed by us and therefore require no further explication or discourse about them A Sampler of Protestants Shuffling in there Disputes of Religion COntroversy Logick or the art of discoursing in matter of Religion between those who profess the Law of Christe can not be complete unless as Aristotle made a Book of fallacies to avoide cavills in his Organe or instrument of science so wee also discover the common fallacies used in controversies Not all but the chiefest and most ordinarily in this business This then is the scope of my present work For which the first note I make is that owre Ancients have taught us and by experience wee daylie finde that Heresie is in a manner as soon overthrowne as layed open falshood like turpitude being ashamed of nakedness Therefore 't is falshoods game to vest it self like an Angel of light in the skin of the lamb and to seeme to weare the Robes of truth I mean by words like those of the Catholick party to delude the simplicity of the Innocent and welwishing People And now must it be our theame to unvaile theire Shufflings The first Shuffle Of the Word Scripture And first If we aske them what they rely upon they braggingly answer on Gods word upbraiding Catholicks to rely upon men when they fly to the churches witness but if we press thē to declare what they meā by Gods word to wit the Book of the Bible or the meaning of it they are forced to answer the sense for even beasts can convince them that wee have the Book as well as they Marching on another step and pressing to know by what instruments or means they have the sense there is no subterfuge from confessing it is by reading and their owne judging or thinking the sense of the Scripture is that which they affirme though all Catholicks affirm the contrary And although even in this they are cosened following for the most part the explication of their preacher Yet I press not that for they know not that they do so But I conclude see what you meane when you say you rely upon Scripture or Gods word to wit that you rely upon your owne opinion or guessing that this is Gods word So that this glorious profession of relying upon Gods word is in substance and reality to rely upon the opinion or guessing of a Cobler or Tinker or some house-wife when the answerers are such or at most of a Minister who for his owne interest is bound to maintaine this is the meaning of Gods word The second Shuffle Of Generall Councils SOme Protestants are so bold as to profess they wil stand to Generall Councils Now a General Council in the language of Catholicks is a general meeting of the Christian World by the Bishops and Deputies of it to testify the Doctrine of the Christian Church And is accounted inerrable in such determinations and therefore to have power to command the faith of Christians and to cast out of the Church al who do not yield to such their determinations and agreements and by consequence to have a supreme Authority in the Church in matters of faith The Protestants loath to leave the shadow though they care not for the substance use the name but to no effect For the intention being to manifest the Doctrine of the Christian World They first agree not upon the notion of what a Council is Requiring sometimes that al Bishops should bee present sometimes that all Patriarks though known to bee professed Hereticks and under the Turk sometimes objecting want of liberty and mainly that they decide not by disputation out of onely scripture or that they taught false Doctrine So that to the Protestant a Council signifies an indefinite and uncertaine when and what it is meeting of men going upon the scripture Which as it is before declared signifies every cobler or Ministers fancie which hath no authority to binde men to believe and is to bee judged by the Doctrine or agreement in faith with the Protestants The third Shuffle Of the consent of Fathers THe consent of the Fathers or Doctours of Christians before oure age and controversies beares so Venerable an aspect as that few Hereticks dare at least before honest understanding Christians give it flatly the lye Therefore the discreeter part of Protestants acknowledg it yet with a salve that they were all men and might bee deceived which in effect is to say that it is no convincing or binding Authority as Catholicks hold it to bee nay to bee a stronger authority then that of Councils as being the judgement of the Catholick Church or the learned part of it which is al one as to faith The Protestant first at one clap cutts of a thousand or 13. hundred yeares nay some 15. hundred The one saying S. Gregory the great was the last Father and first Papistrie the more ordinary course being to acknowledg onely the Fathers of the Persecution time before Constantine finding Popery as they call it to publick afterwards some pressing that ever since the decease of the Apostles the Church hath been corrupted So that they neither give any authority to the consent of Fathers nor
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