many matters occurred not in condemning the Lutheran opinions where all did agree with an exquisite Unity And see him p. 324 326. Concerning the Fathers unanimous Votes of the 2. and 6. Canons of the 13. Sess touching Transubstantiation and Adoration See p. 799. 803 their General Agreement and Consent touching Purgatory Invocation of Saints Veneration of Images p. 544 554 738. ' Touching the Masse its being a propitiatory sacrifice c. p. 324 325 519. touching the lawfulness and sufficiency of communicating only in one kind p. 348. Touching the necessity of Sacramental Confession for mortal sin p. 783 747 678 679. ' touching the lawfulness of the Vow of Continency an universal capacity of the Gift of Chastity and injunction of Priests Celibacy It were easie to add more The 3d that without such a testimony if any consider that the things defined §. 36. n. 10. of which here is question were most of them common practices then used by all these Prelates before they were assembled in Trent in their several Dioceses and so for many hundred years formerly and that the question in the Council to be decided was whether such practices lawful As for instance whether Communion only in one kind sufficient and lawful whether Adoration of Christs Body in the Eucharist as corporally present lawful whether offering the sacrifice of the Masse the Body and Blood of Christ corporally present for the living and the dead lawful whether a Relative-Veneration of Images Prayer to Saints Prayer for the dead as betterable thereby in their present condition before the day of Judgment be lawful I omit the speculative controversies concerning Justification Faith Works Merit Worke of supererogation Grace and Free-will Certainty of salvation Now by the Moderate as it were compounded and laid aside the catholick-Catholick-doctrine being of late better understood by the reformed Whether the three Monastick Vows as also the injunction of Celibacy to the Priest lawful whether Sacramental confession to the Priest by those falling into mortal sin after their regeneration not only lawful but necessary I say seeing that the question in the Council in opposition to the new Lutheran doctrines was whether these things lawful which were then and in many former Generations daily practised Protestants not denying it what need of force of new mandates from Rome of hiring Suffrages creating more titular Bishops Oaths of obedience to the Pope which is only of Canonical obedience ‖ See Bell. de Concil 1. l. 21. and this Oath administred at their Consecration without any relation to the Council to procure a prevalent Vote or that the Prelats should in the Council establish those things several of which are found in their Missals and Breviaries as the Sacrifice of the Masse Adoration of Christs Corporal Presence in the Eucharist Invocation of Saints Prayer for the dead in the sence above-named But yet if these Fathers of the Council decided these things in such a manner by compulsion how came the many more absent Fathers of the Western Churches and of France with the rest so freely and voluntarily to accept them But if it be said that though such things were generally believed and practised before yet now the Fathers by Art and violence were brought to advance them into matters of Faith I ask concerning many of these points what faith required save that they are lawful beneficial c which lawfulness all those that practised them before who were the most if not all must also believe before or else practised them against Conscience and which Lawfulness Protestants denying had by this fallen under the condemnation of this Council had it voted nothing more or besides it Lastly What former Council had there been in the Church though never so free that for the matters called in question and decided in it had not in like manner required Assent from the Church's Subjects to their Definitions The 4th That though the Protestant Bishops trespassing in some points of their Reformation §. 36. n. 11. against former free Occidental Councils of which see below § 50. n. 2. therefore either upon the account of Heresie or of Schism forfeiting their Right needed not to be admitted into this Council yet had they been received and that not only to plead their cause but also to a decisive Vote in the Council yet the small number of them some Protestant Churches also having no Bishops had been inconsiderable in respect of the rest and so the determination of things would still have gone the same way And indeed they were admitted to plead their Cause both by a safe Conduct granted and when they came no violence offered But I cannot say on the other side that no violence was offered to the Council and that within three weeks after their coming by the very Princes that sent them who on a sudden appeared in Arms against the Emperor and by their near approach dispersed this Assembly at Trent after they had secretly withdrawn from thence their Divines But had their coming been serious and their stay longer what could they have said here that they had not formerly written and that the Council in these Writings had not perused Or by what Arts could they have disswaded as they desired ‖ Soave p. 642. this Venerable Assembly from taking for their Rule and Guides in the Exposition of Scriptures the Apostolical Traditions former Councils and Fathers by which they were cast Further Suppose all things had been regulated in this Council not by Personal Consent but by the Equal Votes of the Western Nations though this is contrary to the usual manner and never practised save only in two late Councils after Anno Dom. 1400. Constance and Basil and liable to many Inconveniences of which see Considerations on the Council of Trent § 72. yet if these Votes were truly adjusted and proportioned according to the several Magnitude of the Countries and the Multitude of the Bishops in them the Protestants also would by this way have been as much over-numbred and over-born which they well saw and therefore never motioned it ‖ But motioned this That after their party first allowed with the rest a decisive Vote Soave p. 642. yet the Decisions in the Council should not be made by plurality of voices but that the more sound Opinions should be preferred i. e. those Opinions that were regulated by the Word of God they are Soave's words ‖ Ibid. not mine And motioned yet a second thing ‖ Soave Ibid That if a Concord in Religion could not be concluded in the Council then the Conditions of Passau and Ausburge might remain inviolable Now these were a Toleration of all Sects that every one might follow what Religion pleased him best See Soave 378 393. And after this motioned a third ‖ See Soave p. 369. That the body of the whole Western Clergy being now divided into Plaintiffes the Protestant Clergy and Defendants the Catholick Clergy and it not
Grecian opinions are since but what they were when first the Reformation was made Now Jeremias his declaration was not long after the beginning of the Reformation and Cyril's above 50. years after his 2ly Concerning the newness of Cyril's opinions the words of Knowles ibid are considerable who there saith That he was a reverent and learned man and that he desired to reform many errors and to enlighten much of the blindness of his Church So that it seems he was a Reformer in the Greek Church as these others were in the Western which also appears from the complaints and persecution against him more than against his Predecessors by the Agents of the Roman Church upon this pretence Knowles ibid. And he is said †Spondan A. D. 1638. Franc. à S. Clarâ system fidei p. 528. at last for certain crimes objected to him and among others charged with innovations in Religion by the Greeks to have been imprisoned and shortly after executed and another Cyril ab Iberia formerly rejected to have been repossessed of his Chair But 3ly How contrary soever Cyril's opinions are to those of Jeremias yet the same testimonies above-named †§. 158. n 2. 165 162. that shew Jeremias's to be the doctrines of the Greek Church shew Cyril's whoever had new reformed him not to be so But 4ly Indeed his declaration though it seems purposely moulded according to the Calvinists expressions is very short and sparing general and unclear extending to few points and waving the rest and forbearing there to mention any one point save that of the procession of the holy Gho t wherein the Greeks differ from the reformed as surely in some they do and again those points therein in which Cyril seems more clearly to contradict both Jeremias's and the Roman tenents namely the denying of Purgatory and of Transubstantiation if therein he intend to deny all sorts of Purgatory though not by five and all transmutation of the Elements in the Eucharist are unquestionably singular and not owned by the Greeks as is shewed before and as is witnessed also by some reformed †§. 167 169. c. out of the common relations of the Grecian opinions and practâ—ces 5ly If Cyril or any other Patriarch of Constantinople should entertain any reformed and new opinions diverse from his predecessors whilst such a one is not followed in them by the rest of the Church These are to be stiled not its doctrines but his own and it is not denied that Patriarchs as well as others may be heretical for in several ages some have been so But 6ly If the rest of the Greek Church should also have concurred with Cyril in such innovation then will this only follow that it is true of the Greek Church as of the Protestant that they also have reformed from the whole Catholick Church 1. from the former as well Greek Church as Latine and so this fact of theirs will prove no just plea for the Protestant practice if a departure from the Church Catholick bâ— Schism but only the enlargment of the same guilt to another Church THE FOURTH DISCOURSE Containing the SOCINIANS Apology for the believing and teaching his Doctrine against former Church-Definitions and present Church-Authority upon the Protestant's Grounds Divided into Five CONFERENCES The I. CONFERENCE The Socinian's Protestant-Plea for his not holding any thing contrary to the Holy Scriptures § 2. 1st THat he believes all contained in the Scriptures to be God's Word and therefore implicitely believes those truths against which he errs Ib. 2. That also he useth his best indeavours to find the true sence of Scriptures and that more is not required of him from God for his faith or salvation than doing his best endeavours for attaining it § 3. 3. That as for an explicite faith required of some points necessary he is sufficiently assured that this point concerning the Sons consubstantiality with the Father as to the affirmative is not so from the Protestant's affirming all necessaries to be clear in Scripture even to the unlearned which this in the affirmative is not to him § 4. 4. That several express and plain Scriptures do perswade him that the negative if either is necessary to be believed and that from the clearness of Scriptures he hath as much certainty in this point as Protestants can have from them in some other held against the common expressions of the former times of the Church § 6 8. 5. That for the right understanding of Scriptures either he may be certain of a just industry used or else that Protestants in asserting that the Scriptures are plain only to the industrious and then that none are certain when they have used a just industry thus must still remain also uncertain in their faith as not knowing whether some defect in this their industry causeth them not to mistake the Scriptures 6. Lastly That none have used more diligence in the search of Scripture than the Socinians as appears by their writings addicting themselves wholly to this Word of God and not suffering themselves to be any way by ass'd by any other humane either modern or ancient authority § 5. Digress Where the Protestant's and Socinian's pretended certainty of the sence of Scripture apprehended by them and made the ground of their faith against the sence of the same Scripture declared by the major part of the Church is examined § 9. The II. CONFERENCE His Plea for his not holding any thing contrary to the unanimous sence of the Catholick Church so far as this can justly oblige § 13. 1st THat an unanimous consent of the whole Catholick Church in all ages such as the Protestants require for the proving of a point of faith to be necessary can never be shewed concerning this point of Consubstantiality § 13. And that the consent to such a doctrine of the major part is no argument sufficient since the Protestants deny the like consent valid for several other points § 14. 2. That supposing an unanimous consent of the Church Catholick of all ages in this point yet from hence a Christian hath no security of the truth thereof according to Protestant Principles if this point whether way soever held be a non-necessary for that in such it is said the whole Church may err § 15. 3. That this Article's being in the affirmative put in the Creed proves it not as to the affirmative a necessary § 16. 1st Because not originally in the Creed but added by a Council to which Creed if one Council may add so may another of equal authority in any age and whatever restrain the made by a former Council 2. Because several Articles of the later Creeds are affirmed by Protestants not necessary to be believed but upon a previous conviction that they are divine revelation § 16. 4. Lastly That though the whole Church delivers for truth in any point the contrary to that he holds he is not obliged to resign his judgment to hers except conditionally and
Church-Governours in it whose judgments can be had to be sufficient though some lesser party continue to contradict I think several Controversies that are yet agitated will appear formerly decided and the Church's Peace not so difficult to be setled For in the Church Catholick within this last thousand years have been assembled many Councils so General as the times permitted and as the Callers thereof could procure and these her Councils have made many Definitions contrary to the Protestant Doctrines and yet she hath not hitherto though importuned by several pretending Demonstrators of the contrary to these Definitions assembled her self in any other Synod equal to the former to recall such Councils or their acts such a tacit admission being all that the Archbishop requires ‖ See before §. 327. Nay when later Councils have been called from time to time yet in these she hath altered nothing concerning those Definitions in the former Nay a much major part at least of the Church Catholick have also out of Councils in their publick VVritings Doctrines and Practises not only not contradicted but owned the Legality of these Councils and the truth of their Decrees Now may we not hence conclude that the whole Church Catholick I mean whose judgment we can procure hath in such a sence as is necessary admitted and accepted them And that nothing hath been or is brought in that she takes for a demonstration to the contrary to what she hath defined And here may we not conclude that according to the Archbishop's sence these fore-past and so long unquestioned Councils are to be esteemed infallible Or if this we may not presume what hopes have we left of ever knowing the Church Catholick's mind her acceptation or non-acceptation of any thing or of enjoying at all as to Necessaries this her infallible Guidance promised us by Protestants in stead of that of her Council's VVe have waited now above 400 years since the Conciliar determination of Transubstantiation no Council equal to those which passed it hath been assembled by the Church Catholick to retract it I ask Hath not the Church then already sufficiently accepted it though some in some times have offered to her their seeming demonstrations against it In the expectation of new domonstrations of a new Assembly such as shall be called by the whole Church Catholick and not by the Pope and of a Council more full and compleat than any former for a thousand years have been wherein the Cophtites Melahites Armenians Abyssines Russians c are to have a part I ask what shall poor Christians do for a Guide that may secure them at least in Fundamentals If first The most supream Guides that they have and have had and such acceptation of their Acts as hath been may not be securely relied on and then such an infallible Guide as is promised them instead thereof can never be had Unless these Divines also will here retreat and make use of the Answer that is mentioned before § 8. viz. that nothing at all that is or can come into controversie is necessary to be decided § 39 But If the past Councils need an acceptation of the whole Catholick Church to render them infallible more than the acceptation that is fore-mentioned what must it be 1st Must it be that of another Council assembled by the Church For such thing the Archbishop mentions But how shall we know again of this Council whether the Church Catholick sufficiently accepts it And what if it accepts this no more amply than the former Or are there any such new Evidences or Demonstrations now discoverable in matter of Faith that are not as liable to be mistaken in one Council as in another in a later as in a former If you say Yes Because a Demonstration in the Archbishop's sence ‖ is such as being proposed to any man and understood the mind cannot chuse but inwardly assent unto it I answer Such a Definition suits not with Theological but Mathematical Demonstrations such as this that twice two makes four for what or how few Theological Truths are they that all in their right wits and understanding the Terms immediatly assent to when proposed Or what Judge in these matters can promise such Evidence as that none having the use of Reason shall deny his Sentence Lastly As to one Council's accepting of another where can we stay if we may not in the first For will not this second Council be rendred as uncertain to us for it's Definitions and as liable to Appeals upon other new Evidences and Demonstrations pretended against it as the former was For when in it's Definition against these false ones that are already examined it corroborates the former yet this hinders not but that some other Evidences may be produced against it and against the same Definition that may be true Or 2ly Must it be such an acceptation of the whole Catholick Church out of Council that no person or at least Church contradicts such former Council This also is unreasonable For some not only Persons but Churches and these very considerable I mean in comparison of some other Churches though not in respect of the main Body of the Catholick Profession may stand condemned of Heresie and Schism by some former Council and therefore do become uncapable of any right now either of Voting in or accepting of a future Council I mean in such a manner as that their Vote and acceptation are any way necessary to the validity thereof Or such Persons or Churches if not condemned of former Heresie yet may be by the much greater and more considerable part of the present Council for some new Doctrine of theirs against the former traditive Faith of the Church either suspended from sitting and voting with them or admitted to vote as in a thing perhaps not so clear in former tradition yet when they are in the number of Suffrages much inferior in this case neither their contrary Vote in the Council nor their non-acceptation of it afterward are of any effect as to the annulling of the Acts of such Councils Otherwise no new Tenent can be condemned by the Church if those who hold it being a considerable number will not concur to vote or to accept the condemnation thereof Some Arrian Bishops never accepted the Council of Nice nor now the Socinians Unless therefore the former acceptation of the Church Catholick though perhaps deficient in some persons or also Churches may suffice to render or declare the judgment of that Council infallible who can be assured but that this Nicen Council erred in a point Fundamental if the Deity of our Saviour may be thought such The Church Catholick's acknowledged Infallibility in Fundamentals and her acceptation of Councils may not be obstructed with such unactuable Circumstances as that these can never in any particular come to be known This for the Archbishop § 40 Again thus Dr. Field ‖ l. 4. c. 2. concerning the present Catholick Church in any one Age As
will premise some undeniable truths which speak the Authority of Church Governors the obedience due thereunto the condition of Schism and the danger and guilt of it The first is that the Church of Christ is a Society or Company under a Regiment discipline Government and the members constituting that Society are either persons taught guided governed or persons teaching guideing governing and this in order to preserve all in unity and to advance every member of this visible Society to an effectual and real participation of Grace and Vnion with Christ the Head and therefore and upon no less account is obedience due unto them Eph. 4.11 12 13 16 and Heb. 13.17 and he that will not hear the Church to be as a Heathen and Publican Mat. 16. c. Thus he And thus clear-sighted men are in the case where they are to require obedience but not so where to yield it This said of the Schism of Presbyters departing from their Bishops the same Dr. Hammond saith ‖ Of Schism c. 3. of the Schism of Bishops departing from their Metropolitans and of Metropolitans from their Primats or Patriarchs Now to go on If then for example the Presbyter is bound upon such a guilt to obey his Bishop then the subjects of both the Presbyter and the Bishop when these two dissent are tied to adhere to the Bishop not to the Presbyter i.e. to obey him whom the other if he continued in his duty ought also to obey and sic de caeteris These subordinations therefore known Christians also cannot but know in the division of Church-Governors distinct in dignity still those to whom their obedience is thus fastned 2. Next §. 25. n. 1. In a Body or Court consisting of many of an equal rank as Councils the supreme Ecclesiastical Judge do in which body in all or most causes or decisions may and usually do happen some dissenters that here it is necessary for rending the decrees of such complex bodies effectual that at least the much major part thereof joyned with the prime Apostolick See conclude the whole the traditionary practice of the most universally allowed Councils from the beginning of Christianity as likewise the same practice in all Civil Courts of the same composition doth sufficiently put this out of dispute if any thing can be so See what is said of this Disc 1. § 31 36 38. Where if it be further demanded for legitimating the Acts of such a Council or also for the sufficient acceptation by the Church Catholick of such act or definition what proportion this major part whether defining in Council or accepting out of it is to bear in respect of the minor or how much to exceed it I know not what better director herein we can have than the former custom of the Catholick Church and the example and pattern of the primitive times Nor what greater justification the proceedings of later Councils can receive herein than the same practice as theirs is appearing in those ancient Councils that are universally allowed If then we stay here a litle to review the proceedings §. 25. n. 2. of the first Councils and think the later times may safely steer according to their course Looking into the first Council of Nice we find in Hilarius ‖ De Syncdis no less then eighty Bishops before this Council was assembled mentioned to have disallowed the reception of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See also what Bishops Arius pretended to have sided with him in his Letter to Euseb Nicomed written some years before the Nicene Council ‖ Apud Epiph Haer. 69. Theodoret. l. 1. c. 5. and in the Council also ⋆ seventeen Bishops some of note at the first to have dissented from the rest and after the Council * Arianism in the Eastern parts to have grown in a small time to a much greater bulk supporting their cause with several unwary expressions of former Ecclesiastical Writers as Justin Martyr Irenaeus Tertullian Clemens Alexand. Origen ‖ See Pelavins in Epiph. Her 69. before a stricter discussion of this controversie Yet was this no diminution to the strength of the Nicene decree or to a valid acceptation thereof both being done by a much greater part of the Church Again in the third General Council of Ephesus §. 25. n. 3. we find John the Patriarch of Antioch with his Oriental Bishops above thirty favouring Nestorianism and opposing the decrees of the rest of that Council yet did not the other part of that Council forbear to define Anti-Nestorianism without and against them and also to excommunicate them for their non-conformity to the major part nor did the Christian world cease to account the acts of this Council valid without the acceptation thereof by this Patriarch and his party these acts being justified by the much greater part of the Church Catholick joyned with the Roman Patriarch Neither supposing that this Patriarch and his Bishops and their Successors had continued to this day as too many ever since in those parts do and as they did for some time to oppose this decree could it have rescued Nestorianism from being justly reputed an Heresie though this party was so considerable as that the Emperour retarded the Execution of the Councils censures upon them till that in the year next ensuing the Patriarch and most of the rest were regained to a peaceable submission to the Church Catholick and her doctrine Come we to the fourth General Council of Chalcedon §. 25. n. 4. Two years before it in a question concerning our Lord's consisting of and in two natures distinct not only before but after their union in one person the prevalent party in a Council of above 120 Bishops had defined the contrary tanquam de fide For which also they pretended the doctrine of the Fathers Athanasius Cyril Alexand. and Gregory Nazianz. Concerning which Fathers you may find Eutyches ‖ In Concil Constantinop apud Conc Chalc. act 1. pleading thus for himself Vae mihi si sanctos Patres anathematizavero And Dioscorus thus ‖ Conc. Chalc Actione prima Ego testimonium habeo sanctorum Patrum Athanasii Gregorii Cyrilli in multis locis quia non oportet dicere post adunationem duas naturas sed unam naturam Dei verbi incarnatam Ego cum Patribus ejicior Ego defendo Patrum dogmata non transgredior in aliquo horum testimonia non simpliciter neque transitoriè sed in libris habeo Thus Dioscorus in the Council of Chalcedon and we find the subscription of 96 Bishops either deluded or forced as they complained afterward ‖ V. Conc. Chalc. Act. 1 4. to Dioscorus his definition in that former Council But the great Council of Chalcedon notwithstanding such an opposition defined the contrary doctrine as of faith and deposed the chief Actors in this former Council amongst which were the Patriarchs of Antioch and Alexandria And to the greater authority of this Council all the rest save
extare unde ea quatenus omnino ad salutem est necessarium cognosci indubitatò possit At nihil tale extare praeter sacras literas Nam si dicas Ecclesiam esse unde ea cognitio semper peti possit primum statuendum tibi erit Deum etiam decrevisse ut Ecclesia vera falsa enim ad eam rem inepta est semper usque ad mundi finem extet Sed ut Ecclesia vera extet à quâ omnes salutaris vâ—ritâ—tis notitiam indubitatè pevere queant requiritur ut homines complures coetum aliquem qui in omnium â—oulos incurrat constituant At non est quod quis certam aliquam Ecclesiam hoc privilegio a Deo donatam esse contendat ut fide excidere nequeat Deinde non posse Ecclesiam veram certo cognosci nisi prius cognoscatur quae sit salutaris Christi doctrina praeterea indipsum saltem debuisse alicubi in sacris literis clarè ac perspicuè scriptum extaâ—e debere ab Ecclesia peti omnia quae ad salutem scitu sunt necessaria quaenam ea sit Ecclesia ac unde debeat cognosci clare describi ne quis in câ cognoscenda facile errare posset Nam si quippiam scriptu fuisset necessarium hoc sane fuisset sine quo reliqua omnia quae cripta sunt nihil aut parum admodum prodessent Denique eam Ecclesiam quam isti Pontificii perpetuo extitisse volunt constare multis in rebus atque adeo in iis quoquâ— quâ— ad salutem sunt necessariae gravissime errare Things usually pleaded by Mr. Chillingw and his followers but whether borrowed from these I can say nothing ‖ See below § 47. n. Thus the Socinians lay the platform of their Religion and when the Protestants for confuting their errour urge Fathers and Church-authority against them they reply That they have learnt this from them to receive nothing besides Scripture and to neglect the Fathers ‖ See Simlerus de Filio Dei S. Spiritu Prafat Mean-while Appeals of the Fathers in Controversies of Religion to the trial of the Holy Scriptures I acknowledge frequent and that also somtimes waving Church-authority ‖ See S. Austin contra Maximinum l. 3. c. 14. but never made in opposition to it former or present Their great humility which also kept them Orthodox hindred them from presuming this and had any of them done it posterity would not have stiled him a Father The second thing is §. 40. n. 2. that as to the sufficiency or intirenesse of the Scriptures 2 for the containing all those points of faith that are simply necessary of all persons to be believed for attaining salvation Roman Catholicks deny it not but only deny such a clearness of Scripture in some of those as Christians cannot mistake or pervert Catholicks contend indeed that there are several things necessary to be believed by Christians according as the Church out of Apostolical Tradition hath or shall declare and propose them as touching the Government of the Church several Functions of the Clergy Administration of the Sacraments and some other sacred Ceremonies and particularly concerning the Canon of the Scriptures which are not contained in the Scriptures at least as to the clear mention therein of all those appertinents which yet have bin ever observed in the Church And touching the obligation of believing and due observing of several of these Traditions as descending from the Apostles learned Protestants also agree with them ‖ See Dr. Field of the Church l. 4. c. 20. Dr. Tailor Episcopacy asserted § 19. Reasons of the University of Oxford against the Covenant 1647. p. 9. and in particular concerning the believing of the Canon of Scripture though it be a thing not contained in Scripture See Mr. Chillingworths Concession p. 55. ‖ See also p. 114 where he saith That when Protestants affirm against Papists that Scripture is a perfect Rule of faith their meaning is not that by Scripture all things absolutely may be proved which are to be believed For it can never be proved by Scripture to a Gain-sayer that there is a God or that the Book called Scripture is the Word of God For he that will deny these Assertions when they are spoken will believe them never a whit the more because you can shew them written But their meaning is that the Scripture to them that presuppose it divine and a Rule of faith as Papists and Protestants do containes all the material objects of faith is a compleat and total and not only an imperfect and a partial Rule Where in saying all material objects of faith he means only all other after these he names presupposed and pre-believed But though I say Catholicks maintain several Credends that are not expressed in Scriptures necessary to be believed and observed by Christians after the Churches Proposal of them as Tradition Apostolical amongst which the Canon of Scripture Yet they willingly concede that all such points of faith as are simply necessary for attaining salvation and as ought explicitly by all men to be known in order thereto either raâ—ione medii or pracepti as the doctrines collected in the three Creeds the common Precepts of manners and of the more necessary Sacraments c. are contained in the Scriptures contained therein either in the Conclusion it self or in the principles from whence it is necessarily deduced ‖ Bellarmin de verbo Dei non scripto lib 4. cap. 11. Illa omnia scippta sunt ab Apostolis quae sunt omnibus simpliciter necessaria ad salutem Stapleton Relect Princip Doctrinae fidei Controver 5. q. 5. art 1 Doctrinam fidei ab omnibus fingulis explicitè credendam omnem aut ferè omnem scripto commendarunt Apostoli The main and substantial Points of our faith saith F. Fisher in Bishop White pag 12. are believed to be â—postolical because they are written in cripture S. Thom 22. q. 1. art 9. primus ad primum art 10. ad primum In Doctrina Christi Apostolorum he means câ—pâ—a weritas fidei est sufficienter explicata sed quia pervesi homines Scripturas peâ—vertunt ideo necessaria fuit temporibus proceâ—encibus explicatio fides contra insurgentes errores Therefore the Church from time to time defining any thing concerning such points defines it out of the Revelations made in Scripture And the chief Tradition the necessity and benefit of which is pretended by the Church is not the delivering of any additional doctrines descended from the Apostles times extra Scripturas i. e. such as have not their foundation at least in Scripture but is the preserving and delivering of the primitive sence and Church-explication of that which is written in the Scriptures but many times not there written so clearly which traditive sence of the Church you may find made use of against Arianisme in the first Council of Nice ‖ See Theod. Hist l. 1 c. 8. Or
* A Government constituted by God founded and compacted in a due subordination to keep all its members in the unity of Faith from being tossed too and fro with several Doctrines Eph. 4.11 13 14 16. And * perpetually to the worlds end assisted with the Paraclet sent from our ascended Lord to give them into all truth Jo. 14.16 26. * which Governors who so resisteth is in this rendred self-condemned Tit. 3.11 Lastly * S. Peter entitled to some special presidence over this whole Church by those Texts Tu es Petrus super hanc Petram Mat. 16. and Rogavi pro te ut non deficiat fides tua Tu confirma fratres Luk. 12.2.32 and Passe oves meas Jo. 21.10 compared with Gal. 2.7 Where thus S. Paul The Gospel of the Vncircumcision was committed to me as to Peter saith he relating to the Pasce in S. John was committed the Gospel of the Circumcision where it is observable also that then was the Circumcision the whole flock of Christ when it was committed to Peter St. Peters Commission over Christs sheep being ordinary given by our Lord here on Earth who also had the honour of the first converting and admitting of the Gentiles into this fold ‖ Act. 10 34-11 2-15 7 St. Paul's over the Gentiles extraordinary given by our Lord from Heaven ‖ Act. 9 6.-22.17.21 And this Commission manifested to the Apostles by a supereminent Grace of converting Soules and of Miracles that was bestowed upon him Gal. 2.8.9 Like to that more eminently given to St. Peter as may be seen in Act. 9.40 and 20.10 Act. 5.15 and 19.12 5.5 and 13 11-2.41.4.4 and Rom. 15 17 18 19. compared And that which is said Gal. 2. That the Apostles saw the Gospel of the Circumcision committed to Peter argues they saw it committed to Peter in some such special or superintendent manner as not also to them § 68 Again If we look upon the constitution and temper and manner of practice of this Church in the primitive times From the very first we find it acting as St. Paul directed Arch-bishop Titus c. 2.15 Cum omni imperio ut nemo contemnat Severely ejecting and delivering to Satan after some admonition those that were heterodox and heretical ‖ 1 Tim. 1.20 Th. 3 11.-1.11 In matter of controversy a Council called and the stile of it Visum est Spiritui Sancto nobis and Nobis collectis in unum ‖ Act. 15.25.28 And if here it be said that the infallible Apostles had some hand therein yet if we look lower we find still the same authority maintained and exercised by the Catholick Church of latter ages and espâ—cially by that of the 4 th age when flour shing under the patronage of the secular power now become Christian if fully enjoyed as also the present doth in these Western parts the free exercise of its Laws and Discipline § 69 In all these times then 1 st We find the unquestioned Church Catholick of those dayes firmly joyned with and adhering to that which was then ordinarily stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the See Apostolick and St. Peters chaire and with the Bishop called his Successor as if Matt. 16.18 and Luke 22.23 were a prophecy thereof though some other of the greatest Patriarchs stood not so firm but that the Catholick Church in those dayes relinquished and cut them off We find the same Church when any opposition of its Doctrines happened as it was then exercised with the highest controversies that ever troubled the Church taking very much authority upon it self assembling it self in a General Body making new definitions as necessity required anathematizing all dissenters inserting as it saw meet for the more explicit knowledge of them by all its subjects some of its decisions in the Churches Creeds which were by it much enlarged from what they were formerly We find it declaring this also in the Creed concerning it self and enjoyning it to be believed by all Christians that the Catholick Church continues always Holy Apostolical preserving their Rules Traditions and Doctrines and One indivisa in se united in its saith and Communion and divisa ab omnibus aliis distinct from all others whom she declares Hereticall or Schismatical § 70 2. Again we find it by such definitions put in the Creed and Belief of them exacted sufficiently declaring also 2. that it held it self to be I say not proving that it was against which only peâ—haps misunderstanding his adversary Mr. Stillingfleet disputes ‖ p. 558. infallible or actually unerring in them Thus much is clear I say concerning the Catholick Church and her General Councills of those times that they held themselves infallible in the things they defined and if the testimony and veracity of the Catholick Church or her united Governours in what she then professed as of other things so of herself can obtain no belief with some protestants either from the witness that Church-Tradition grounded at first on miracles or that the Scriptures or some other sufficient evidence in point of reason ‖ See before §. 8. which Mr. Stillingfleet ‖ p. 559. is contented with gives to it of which see below § 87. c. Yet Protestants must grant that the present Catholick Church which or where ever it is should it profess it self infallible errs now only the same errour which the ancient Church-Catholick did before it And if here it be thought that this may qualify some thing concerning the former Church that by this way it declared not it self infallible universally but only in those things it defined so I say neither doth the Church-Catholick of the present age profess her self infallible save in her Definitions Nor requires she of her definitions any other belief than the ancient Church did of hers Nor matters it whether this certainty of the truth of her definitions ariseth from the evidence of the former Revelation and Tradition of such points defined or from our Lords promise that in her definitions she shall not err See before § 10. To proceed § 71 3. We find it * declaring those Hereticks who opposed any of those definitions and expelling them from the Catholick Communion most strict by Synodical and Communicatory Letters in preserving in all points once defined the Vnity of the Catholick Faith and most carefully separating from any person suspected of any Heterodoxness or division from it * Proceeding in its censures not only against some private persons but against Churches against Bishops against Patriarchs themselves yet such as then also failed not to pretend a dutiful continuance in the Faith of former ages and appealed to the former short Creeds and Confessions of Faith Such authority the Church Fallible or infallible then presumed to use cum omni imperio and punishing all contempt § 72 If we look next on the two present Bodies or combinations of Churches that flourish at this day in that part of the world 2. The Face of
easily perswade persons of much reason and more piety to retain that which they know to have been the Religion of their Fore-fathers which had actual possession and seizure of mens understandings before the opposite profession had a name These are first It s Doctrine's having had a long continuance and possession of the Church which therefore cannot easily be supposed in the present Professors to be a design for covetous ambitious and other unlawful ends of which yet Protestants frequently accuse them since they have received it from so many ages and it is not likely that all ages should have the same purposes or that the same doctrine should serve the several ends of diverse ages It s long prescription which is such a prejudice as cannot with many arguments be retrench'd as relying upon these grounds that truth is more ancient than falshood that God would not for so many ages forsake his Church and leave her in an error I add not in such gross errors as are imputed especially not in Idolatry so manifold in respect of the Eucharist of the Cross of Angels and Saints of Relicks of Images c. Again The beauty and splendour of that Church their pompous service in a friendlier expression their service full of religious Ceremony and external Veneration The stateliness and solemnity of the Hierarchy their name of Catholick which they suppose and claim as their own due and to concern no other Sect of Christians The Antiquity of many of their Doctrines the continual succession of their Bishops their immediate derivation from the Apostles their title to succeed St. Peter and in this regard chiefly honoured and submitted to by Antiquity the supposal and pretence of his personal prerogatives much spoken of by the Fathers the flattering expressions of minor Bishops in modester language the honourable expressions concerning this Church from many eminent Bishops of other inferior Sees which by being old Records have obtained Credibility The multitude and variety of people which are of their perswasion apparent consent with some elder Ages in many matters doctrinal the advantage which is derived to them by entertaining some personal opinions of Fathers which they with infinite clamours cry up to be a doctrine of the Church of that time or trulier thus entertaining the Doctrine of the Church of the ancient times which Protestants cry down as only the personal opinions of the Fathers The great consent of one part with another in that which most of them affirm to be de fide the great differences which are commenced among their adversaries abusing the liberty of prophecying unto a very great licentiousness their happiness of being instruments in converting diverse Nations the advantage of Monarchical Goverment the benefit of which they daily do enjoy the piety and the austerity of their Religious Orders of men and women the single life of their Priests and Bishops the Riches of their Church the severity of their fasts and their exteriour observances the great Reputation of their Bishops for Faith and Sanctity the known holiness of some of those persons whose Institutes the Religious persons pretend to imitate their Miracles false or true substantial or imaginary or trulier several of which though none affirms all or perhaps the most of those pretended are confirmed by such clear Testimonies as if any Faith may be had to any humane Testimony or to any History they cannot be false or imaginary The casualties and accidents that have hapned to their adversaries the oblique acts and indirect proceedings of some of those who departed from them and among many other things the names of Heretick and Schismatick which they with infinit pertinacy fasten upon all that disagree from them or trulier which this Church with a venerable and paternal authority and correction as the Catholick Church in all ages hath done and none other Church in this age except this presumeth to do pronounceth on all others who depart from her Faith or Communion as also in former ages the same names have been fastned on all those who have so departed On Berengarius Wicliff Waldeneses c. These Persuasives Dr. Taylor hath there collected As inducing persons of much reason and more piety to retain the Religion of â—heir Fore-fathers Now let any if they can gather out of him â—he counter-perswasives that over-poise these and may induce â—ersons of much reason and equal piety to renounce the Religion of their Fore-fathers and harkning to some Negative Arguments â—rom Scripture or for some points perhaps also from the Writers of the three first ages commit themselves to the conduct of the new Reformers at the first a few of the lowest ranck of Clergy lying under the Ecclesiastical censures assisted against their spiritual Superiours by some secular powers when both they and these were Subjects as to the judgement of all Spiritual matters to that Ecclesiastical Hierarchy which they opposed Now to confirm what hath been said above §. 82. n. 2. In the last place I will set you down some passages of S. Austine representing the Catholick Church 1. as an united and distinct Body 2. easily discernable from Sects 3. and where Scriptures are controverted to be obeyed and adhered to 4. though this not always for any other present reason or proof given us of what she holds save only that of her Authority which passages of this the most eminent Father of the Church I also seriously commend to his Meditation who is in an humble quest after this Guide 1st Concerning the Catholick Church That it where any division is made from Superiours as was made by the Donatists from a General Council is only one of these Churches and not both St. Austine ‖ De Baptismo l. 1 c. 10. mentions this proposition as agreed on both by the Donatists and Catholicks Vnam oportet esse Ecclesâ—am †Cap 10. and Vna est Ecclesia quaeeunque illa sit de quâ dictum est ‖ Cantic 6. c. Vna est columba mea una est matri suae nec possunt tot esse Ecclesiae quot Schismata ‖ De Baptismo 1. 1. c. 11. And so he allows the Donatists arguing Si nostra est Ecclesia Christi non est Ecclesia Christi vestra Communio This Tenent of theirs he passeth for truth and only opposeth this other that theirs and not that from which they separated was it and there proveth the contrary viz. That the Anti-Donatist was that una Ecclesia quae sola Catholica nominatur and that the Donatist was Communio a suâ unitate separata ‖ Ib. Cap. 10. 2. Again Concerning this one Catholick Church that it is easie to be known and discerned from others §. 82. n. 3. he saith in his book De unitate Ecclesiae against the same Donatists ‖ Cap. 20. Non est obscura quaestio in quâ vos fallunt quos ipse Dominus praedixit futuros atque dicturos Ecce hic est Christus
ecce illic ecce in deserto quasi ubi non est frequentia multitudinis ecce in cubiculis quasi in secretis traditionibus atque doctrinis Habetis Ecclesiam ubique diffundi crescere usque ad messem Habetis Civitatem de quâ ipse qui eam condidit ait non potest Civitas abscondi super montem posita Ipsa est ergo quae non in aliquâ parte terrarum sed ubique notissima est And Contra Cresconium l. 1. c. 33. He iterates the same Si autem dubitas quod Ecclesiam quae per omnes gentes numero sitate copiocissimâ dilatatur haec S. Scriptura commendat multis manifestissimis testimoniis ex eâdem authoritate the Scriptures prolatis onerabo where he that will say this Father speaks of the Church Catholicks only as it was in his not as it is to be in all times must also interpret those Scriptures from which he proves it to speak of his or some times only not of all which is absurd and would have voided S. Austine's arguing used against the Donatists then as well as any others now who might have replyed to him that these Texts were verified of some but not of their times And indeed they did urge that S. Austine's sence of them in application to the Church failed in the Arrian times and upon this See in his 48 Epistle his vindicating them to be verified of it in all times And it seems all reason that in the Scripture's describing that Church to whose bosome and Communion all people were for ever to resort the marks to know it by should be Universal and no more demonstrate to Christians the Church of one age than of another no more that in S. Austines times than that in ours to whose Faith and Communion Christians have in all times a like duty to conform and whose judgement a like necessity to consult Though it is willingly granted that such Properties admit of several degrees nor is it necessary either for its multitude extent or eminency that the Church should alway enjoy them in an equal proportion 3 ly Concerning our duty of crediting §. 82. n. 4. and adhering to the Church's testimony and judgement in matters controverted and obscure he thus discourseth ‖ Contra Cresconium l. 1. c. 33. against the Donatists who pleaded nothing in Scriptures could be shewed clear against them Proinde quamvis hujus rei certe de Scripturis Canonicis non proferatur exemplum earundem tamen Scripturarum etiam in hac re a nobis tenetur veritas cum hoc facimus quod universae placuit Ecclesiae quam ipsarum Scripturarum commendat authoritas ut quoniam Sancta Scriptura fallere non potest quisquis falli metuit hujus obscuritate quaestionis eandem Ecclesiam de illâ consulat quam sine ullâ ambiguitate Sancta Scriptura demonstrat Again De Vnitate Ecclesiae c. 19. Hoc saith he aperte atque evidenter i.e. in the Scripture nec ego lego nec tu Nunc vero cum in Scripturis non inveniamus c puto si aliquis sapiens extitisset cui Dominus Jesus Christus testimonium perhibet that we should be directed by his judgment Et de hac quaestione consuleretur a nobis nullo modo dubitare deberemus id facere quod ille dixisset ne non tam ipsi quam Domino Jesu Christo cujus testimonio condemnatur repugnare judicaremur Perhibet autem testimonium Christus Ecclesiae suae 4. Lastly Concerning the benefit in adhering to §. 82. n. 5. and relying on the Church authority or testimony before that proved to us which yet she delivers to us he discourseth thus in his Book De utilitate Crerendi i.e. credendi Ecclesiae ‖ cap. 13. written not long after his Conversion to a former acquaintance ' qui irridebat as he saith ‖ Retract 1. l. c. 14. Catholicae fidei disciplinam qua juberentur credere homines non autem quid esset verum certissima ratione docerentur Recte saith he Catholicae disciplinae majestate institutum est ut accedentibus ad Religionem fides i.e. adhibenda anthoritati ecclesiae persuadiatur ante omnia and c. 10. Sed inquis nonne erat melius rationem mihi reddere ut quocunque ea me duceret sine ulla sequerer temeritate Erat fortasse sed cum res tantasit ut Deus tibi ratione cognoscendus sit omnesne putas idoneos esse percipiendis rationbus quibus ad divinam intelligentiam mens ducitur humana an plures an paucos ais existimo Quid Paucos caeteris ergo hominibus qui ingenio tam sereno praediti non sunt negandam Religionem putas If not such must receive this their Religion not from Reason but authority And c. 16. Authoritate decipi miserum est miserius non moveri Si Dei providentia non praesidet rebus humanis nihil est de Religione satagendum Non est desperandum ab eodem ipso Deo authoritatem aliquam constitutam qua velut gradu incerto innitentes attolamur in Deum Haec autem authoritas seposita ratione qua sincerâ intelligere it diximo difficilimum stultis est dupliciter nos movet partim miraculis paâ—â—â—â—â—quentium multitudine And c. 8. He thus exhorts his scepties Friend Honoratus seduced by the Manicheans Si jam satis jactatus videris sequere viam Catholicae Disciplinae quae ab ipso Christo per Apostolos ad nos usque manavit abhinc ad posteros manatura est Those who can humble their reason so far as to embrace this holy Counsil through the abundant providence of God will find no great difficulty in discerning their right Guides and chusing the true Religion CHAP. VII Whether the Church of England doth not require assent to her Articles of Religion Several Canons in her Synods seeming to require it § 83. n. 1. The complaint of the Presbyterians concerning it § 83. n. 4. The Doctrine of her Divines § 84. n. 1. Where concerning the just importance of Negative Articles § 84. n. 1. and 85. n. 2. and concerning conditional assent § 84. n. 4. and 85. n. 10. That to some of the 39 Articles assent is due and ought to be required § 85. n. 1. That the Roman Church doth not require assent to all the Canons of her Councills as to points Fundamental i. e. of any of which a Christian nescient cannot be saved § 85. n. 4. That obedience either of assent or non-contradiction if required by the Church of England to all the 39. Articles seems contrary to the Laws of the Church and to the Protestant Principles § 85. n. 11. AFter this view of the 2. present opposit Churches §. 83. n. 1. which of them more resembles the ancient Catholick the latter whereof the Protestant Churches seem to build the defence of the Reformation and the Vindication of their liberty from former Church-laws upon the denial of any such obedience
or teacheth none of these Articles so he do not teach or profess the contrary but spend his discourses on other subjects See now whether there may not be some reason for that which is observed before § 84. n. 3. concerning the Arch-bishop Obs 2 2 ly Concerning those other Articles of which it is said that they are no new positive Articles of the Protestant Faith but only negations §. 85. n. 2. and refurations of new Roman assertions and additions You may note concerning them 1 st In General that Negatives may be Scripture-truths revealed therein matter of our Faith and as necessary to be believed as Bishop Bramhall granteth ‖ Reply to Chalced p. 227. when known to be revealed as any affirmative and possitive Articles are and the most Fundamental Articles may be as well negatively as affirmatively proposed and seeing that the one necessarily implies and inferrs the other as one is ratione medii necessary to Salvation so is the other So the negative Articles in the Nicen or Athanasian Creed Pater non creatus a nullo genitus non tres â—atres Filius non factus Filius unus non conversione divinitatis in carnem aut confusione Substantiarum are Articles of as necessary belief as the positives and indeed the same with them the same with Pater unus Pater eternus Filius genitus Filius ex duabus naturis consistens And they as much Hereticks that affirm any of these negatives as that deny the affirmative 2 ly Concerning the Negatives in the 39. Articles of the Church of England if they be well considered you may find that they are both in the Articles pretended to be Scripture and revealed truths and that all or most of them are equivalent to affirmatives and as new and positive on the one side as the Roman Articles which they contradict are pretended on the other and the Protestants Confession of Faith supposing him obliged to believe these Negatives as large and as particular on the one side as the Roman or Tridentine is on the other as to the maine Controversies that are bandied between the two Churches and these not only privatively but positively opposite For no difference can be made in the thing but only in the expression between a negative and positive Article where the negative implies and is equivalent to the affirmative of its contrary as it is where the contraries are immediate and the one of them is necessarily put wherever the other denied As God being granted a substance He that denies him to be a corporeal substance in this he affirmes him to be a Spiritual and so those that deny here something which others affirme in this must needs affirme somthing which the others deny and the negative may be as we please changed into another positive and he who had before the positive shall have now the negative side He that denies any Soules after this life to go into any temporal purgatory affirms them to go into Bliss or Pain Eternal and he that affirms Purgatory denies this So he that denies a Transubstantiation in the Eucharist affirmes the Substance of the Symboles to remain there and so e contra Hence he that hath 39. Articles of his Faith whereof 30. are in the expression negative 9. positive hath in matters wherein the one contrary being excluded the other is admitted as it is in most of these Articles of Religion that are in debate no fewer positive Articles of his Faith than he who hath 39. expresly positive and again he who hath 39 positive cannot but have 39. Negative also and e contra only a negative confession argues a former contest And as Faith so Heresie is conversant in either And here also note that it is one thing for a Church meerly to exclude from or omit in her Articles or confessions of Faith those points which another Church defineth i. e not to tye her Subjects to believe them and another thing to tye her Subjects to believe the Negatives of them or not to believe them Which is indeed a defining one way as much as the other Church doth the other way For Example 'T is one thing not to tye her subjects to believe or hold the Roman Doctrine concerning Purgatory Pardons Images Transubstantiation Invocation of Saints c. and another thing to tye her subjects to believe or hold that the Romish Doctrines concerning Purgatory c. are vainly invented or grounded on no warrant of Scripture but rather repugnant to the Word of God as it is in the 22. Article Ecclesiae Anglic. Neither can the Church of Rome be here more justly questioned in her not leaving points in Universals only and their former indifferency but new-stating Purgatory Transubstantiation c. than the Reformed for their new-stating the contrary to these Which to make more perspicuous §. 85. n. 3. It is to be noted that of those who seem in their Theological Positions to affirm lesâ— and so to make fewer Articles of their Faith than some others do there are two sorts 1. Either such as peremptorily deny the truth of those additionals which the other affirm 2. Or such as do suspend their judgement concerning such additionals neither affirming nor denying them for truths only denying that the others as yet do prove or evidence them to be so Now though it may be said of these later that indeed they do not make so many Articles of Faith or new definitions as the other do and so also that they seem much more safe and modest in the paucity of their Credends because they who neither affirm nor deny a Tenent cannot err in it yet the former who deny as far and as peremptorily every new point as the other affirm it these can free themselves from no curiosity tyranny liableness to errour c. wherein they pretend the other to transgress nor can plead any safety in their Doctrine viz. in their not erring because not determining but do ingage every whit as far in such points as their adversaries do one in holding and endeavouring to prove such a thing a truth the other in holding and endeavouring to prove it an error And this is the case of the Church of England which suspends not her judgment in those new points which the Roman defines nor denies them onely to be proved or clear in the Scripture but denies them as Errors and things contrary to Scripture So Purgatory Adoration of Images and Reliques Invocation of Saints Indulgences are declared repugnant to Gods Word Art 22. Works of Supereorgation Art 14. Publick Prayer or Ministery of the Sacraments in a Tongue not understood by the People Art 24. Denying of the Cup to the People Art 30. Sacrifice of the Mass Art 31. Transubstantiation Art 28. Now he that believes Transubstantiation for Example to be contrary to Scripture makes the contrary to Transubstantiation to be Scripture and so to be also a point of his Faith if Scripture be so and hence the
consenting shall never err in necessaries And then in the last place if perhaps some smaller number of them do dissent from the rest since the Catholick Church is alwayes but one and is a Government at peace within it self and constituted in a due subordination of its members in respect of one another and also in respect of the whole here also it rationally follows that the greater and more dignified body of this Clergy in any division of some members from it must be of these two that Guide whom Christians are obliged to follow and the lesser and inferior part obliged to conform to and therefore this of the two the Guide unerring See before Disc 2. § 23. c. Disc 1. § 18. Here then ariseth a sufficient certainty in reason from the principles conceded by Protestants of the unerring of a lawfully general Council in necessaries without shewing the Decree of any Council for it § 89 3ly Setting aside any declaration of Scripture in this matter of infallibility and supposing the Gospel had not been writ yet both the Teachers of the Gospel for ever in their general Council at least must have been infallible in necessaries else from whom or by what other means no Scriptures being exstant could people have learnt the way to salvation And also this their infallible guidance must have been made sufficiently credible to the world by the tradition constantly descending from the testimony of our Lord and his Apostles who confirmed this their first testimony by Miracles else the Christian would have been no rational Religion By which testimony also it was that those first Teachers substituted by the Apostles had full credit with and did beget infallible and saving faith in their Gentile-Auditors before that the Holy Scriptures were delivered unto these Gentiles and therefore it appears that these Teachers might have been also to this day with sufficient certainty relyed on in their propagating and preserving the Christian faith among their Converts had there been no Scriptures at all to have taught the same things with them and to have born witness to their Doctrine Neither may it rationally be said that the Church's possession of these Scriptures hath disinherited them of any part of that Authority and belief which it is agreed that they might have challenged had there been no Scripture but that the present Church ought still in the same manner to be believed by her children to be infallible in all necessary truth as the Apostles were believed to be so by those who heard them and only from sufficiently credible witnesses had heard of but had not seen any of their miracles And then supposing first this their infallibility in necessaries to be thus made credible to us by sufficient evidence in point of reason †See Stillingf p. 559. we are to believe them also when in their Councils they tell us that they are infallible in all necessaries if this be a truth necessary to be known upon this account because they tell us so As he that once believes that whatever is said in Gods Word is true is to believe also that Gods Word is true because this Word saith so Here then you see that there would have been a sufficient certainty or assurance to Christians descending by Tradition of their being truly and infallibly guided by the Substitutes of our Lord to the end of the world without the decree of any Council presupposed and had there been no holy Scriptures extant The same infallible guidance therefore is now had and known sufficiently from them though we putting also the Scriptures § 90 4ly By primitive Tradition the Catholick Church in her General Councils hath alwayes thought her self authorized to define matters of faith upon Anathema to dissenters and to put them as thought fit in the Church's Creeds with an obligation laid on all to believe them Now either this will imply the infallibility of these Councils as they conceived in such points or if this be thought to argue something less let but the same priviledge still be continued to the present Church Catholick in her Councils and the same obedience yielded by her subjects to her present definitions and a sufficient certainty hereof granted viz. that such authority she hath and such duty they owe and any further extent of infallibility I suppose will not be claimed Here again we see that tradition in the practice of Councils without any their Decree shews a sufficient certainty of such an infallibility of Councils as is challenged Thus much in answer to this first Query Where the taking this for a Principle of Catholicks that none can have a sufficient certainty of any thing either from Scripture or Church-Tradition grounded at first on Miracles antecedent to the Church's authority defining it in a general Council causeth in some Protestants much misarguing in this and several other points But now if we return a like Query upon themselves who profess also a sufficient certainty in their faith even of those points that are in controversie or it sufficeth if they profess so much concerning any one such point and ask whence they have such certainty I see not what rationally they can reply For 1st They cannot build such a certainty on any Church-authority since they deny any infallibility or sufficient certainty as to such points in the Declarations or Doctrines of this Authority even in the supremest Collection thereof the Councils General present or past Nor yet 2ly on the Scriptures because the true sence of them in these points is not only disputed which is here urged by them as sufficient to null a certainty but by the much major part of Christendom and that after the Protestants manifesting to the world all the grounds of their persuasion said to be clear against their new pretensions But 3ly Since the Gospel was dispersed in the world by Christs Substitutes and Ministers and a multitude of souls saved thereby before the penning or publishing of the New Testament or Gospel-Scriptures and therefore possibly might in the same manner have continued to have been dispersed to the end of the world or for a much longer time then it was so this Query will still sorer press them what certainty in such a case they I mean the world learning their faith from Teachers without Scripture could have had of their faith Or whence Or whether no certainty in such case to be had § 91 2ly Again it is asked ‖ See Archb Lawd p. 228 239 Stillingf p. 515 516 513. from whence General Councils should derive this their infallibility Because 1st The divine promises of infallibility if made to any are made only to the diffusive Body of the Catholick Church Neither can she bequeath or delegate this infallibility to her assignes in a General Council if no such power of devolution be contained in the original Grant nor it can be shewed that the maker of the promises did either appoint a General Council to represent the
Poenitentiam Et 7 Extremae Vctionis oleum Of which see below § 181. Resp ad 9. sect 172 For these many differences of the Greek as well as the Roman from the Reformed Churches it is that Mason being to prove a case of necessity for the ordaining of Protestant Ministers beyond Seas only by Presbyters in § 23. on that subject argues thus These Ministers could not receive Ordination from the Popish Churches because of the abomination of their sacrificing Priesthood and because these would ordain none but in a Popish manner to a Popish Priesthood c. And neither saith he by the same reason could they obtain Ordination from the Greek Church For Bellarmine denyeth it to be a Church because they were lawfully convicted in three full Councils of Heresie and especially of the Heresie about the proceeding of the holy Ghost which to be a manifest Heresie saith Bellarmine both the Lutherans and the Calvinists do confess Wherefore seeing no Church as Mason goeth on will give Orders but only to such persons as approve their doctrine therefore they could not with a safe conscience seek to the Greek Church whose doctrine they justly misliked And being thus excluded from the Greek and the Latine from the East and the West no Bishops being as yet turned Protestants to ordain what shouâ—d be done It was the duty of the Magistrates not to suffer false Prophâ—ts and to plant godly Preachers in their plaâ—es But whence shouâ—d tâ—â—y have them the Bishops were so faâ— fâ—om yielding Ordinaâ—â—o◠〈…〉 tolerable manner that they persecuted such as sought thâ—◠〈…〉 Wherefore it must either be devolved unto Presbyters 〈…〉 â—ad already dâ—sâ—rted eur former Church-Commuâ—â—◠〈◊〉 the Church of God must suffer most laâ—entable ruine and desolation 〈◊〉 Anâ— was not this a case of necessâ—ty thus Mason well â—eeing the Reâ—ormation as much destitute of any relief or countenance from the Greek Church as from the Roman § 173 And now by the two Relations of Sands and Ross both Protestants we may see how much truth the assertion of Cardinal Perron in his Reply to King James Observation 3. c. 22 hath in it who there undertakes to make good That these doctrines or customs are common to the Western Church with the Oriental and Meridional upon which Doctrines therefore the Pope's Supremacy may be gathered to have had no influence Namely Transubstantiation of bread into the Body of Christ Adoration of the Eucharist Oblation of the Sacrifice of the Mass as a propitiatory Sacrifice for the living and the dead Prayer to Saints Veneration of Reliques and Images prayer for the dead Confession Sacramental and Auricular Lent Vows Celibacy of Religious Interdiction of Priests to marry after having taken Orders Seven Sacraments using in Divine Service the original Tongue not understood by the vulgar The same doctrine of Freewil and Justification § 174 To Perron add Grotius his judgement in the Preface to his Votum pro pace where giving account of the success of his former Studies he saith Ii qui secesserant the reformed ut factum suum tuerentur asserebant validè doctrinam Ecclesiae ejus quae cum sede principe cohaeserat esse corruptam per multas haeraeses idololatriam Id mihi causas dedit inquirendi in dogmata ejus Ecclesiae legendi libros utrinque scriptos legendi eriam quae scripta crant de praelenti statu ac doctrinâ Ecclesiae ejus quae est in Graeciâ earum quae per Asiam Aegyptum ei cohaeserunt Inveni in Oriente eadem esse dogmata quae essent in Occidenti Conciliis Vniversalibus definita de Regiminee Ecclesiae exceptis cum Papâ Controversiis i.e. about his authority de Sacramentorum perpetuis Ritibus sententias consonantes Therefore the Pope easily indulged the Russian Greek Churches who are subject to the King of Poland when they reconciled themselves to the Roman Church and submitted to his Supremacy to continue all their former Grecian Rites and Ceremonies and the same he permitteth also to the Greek Church in Rome § 175 This of the modern Greek Church which now hath two Patriarchs undependent of one another one residing at Constantinople and another at Hierusalem to which later the Greeks in and about Palestine do adhere Now with the Greek Church are joyned in Religion and Communion * the Russian Churches excepting those under the King of Poland joyned to the Roman * the Inhabitants of Georgia or Iberia and * the Melchites of Syria called so by other Sectaries because they adhere to the Council of Chalcedon i. e. as the other reported it to the Imperial Faction To whom also I may join the Maronites conforming in their Liturgy and most of the Ceremonies of their Religion to the Greek Church but in their Communion now joyned to the Roman Of these the Maronites Georgians have two independent Patriarchs of their own set up without any conciliar authority acting therein the one residing in a Monastery in Mount Sinai the other in a Monastery in Mount Libanus The Metropolitan of the Russians also hath of late cast off his subjection to the Patriarch of Constantinople and stands absolute Only the Melchites of Syria continue their subjection still to the Patriarch of Antioch translated to Damascus Antioch now ruined Now if inquiry be made after the judgment or practice in the points forementioned of the other Churches or Sects §. 176. n 1. in the Eastern parts of the world 1. Here 1st If we should admit some variation or disparity of all these Churches from the rest as to several of these points yet cannot these reasonably be put in the scale to counterballance the Greek and Latine Church shewed already to be united therein Especially since these I mean the remotest Eastern and Southern Churches and chiefly those comprehended within the Patriarchate of Alexandria with which also the Ethiopian or Abyssin Church hath alwayes run the same course being a constant adherent to it were the first part of Christianity that was over-born with the Power of Mahomet that great false Prophet and open opposer of our Lord Christ and his Kingdom and so the first wherein the Christian Doctrine and discipline learning and good manners were oppressed relaxed and corrupted these miserable Churches falling under the Mahometan bondage in the seventh Century suffering first the Arabian or Sarazen and then the Scythian or Turkish tyranny whereas the Greek meanwhile was respited from it till about the 14th Against these Churches also there want not some other prejudices both for that several of them have causlesly departed from the obedience of their former Patriarchs and have set up new ones in their stead And yet more for that they have made a recession also from the former allowed General Councils some of them by maintaining Nestorianism and others Eutychianism contrary to them and as the Greek Church stands divided from the Roman in the procession of the holy Ghost so these again from the
saith he They think him subject to error as all other Bishops are So do Roman Catholicks too 3ly They deny that he hath any power to dispose the Principalities and Kingdoms of the world or depose Kings The Pope's having lawful power to depose Kings is no article of faith in the Roman-Catholick Church 4ly They acknowledge all our righteousness to be imperfect and that it is not safe to trust thereunto but to the meer mercy and goodness of God And the Roman Catholick doctrine is That in many things we offend all that though some may be yet most of the good works of the regenerate are not free from mixture of venial sin or some imperfection that none certain except by extraordinary Divine Revelation of his Justification or as the Protestants had rather call it Sanctification and for this the Cardinal 's Tutissimum est c. is very famous But do no Protestants presume further 5ly They admit not the merit of congruence condignity nor works of supererogation And 6ly They teach not the doctrine of satisfactions as the Romanists do The Doctrine of the Roman Church rightly understood concerning these points is neither contradicted by the Eastern Churches nor by some sober Protestants but indeed much misrelated by Dr. Field l. 3. p. 58 7ly They believe not Purgatory neither pray to deliver men out of temporal punishments I suppose he means or sufferings after this life It is true they believe no purgatory-fire but that they hold some temporal sufferings from which they are freeable by prayer made for them See before § 192. and Sir Edw. Sandy's testimony § 167. And enough confessed in this matter even by Dr. Field l. 3. p. 59. if I rightly understand him 8ly They reject the doctrine of the Romanists touching indulgences and pardons The same is returned to this as to the fifth and sixth 9ly They believe not that there are seven Sacraments This is questioned only for Confirmation Extreme Vnction and see these maintained by Jeremias the Patriarch and many other Authors as to the Greek Church †Resp 1. c. 7. See Goars Eucholog concerning confirmation p. 366. Concerning Extreme Vnction their Officium Sancti Olei p. 408 432. In other Eastern Churches Chrysm or holy Oyl is so used at least for Baptism as it is in the Greek Church and in some Churches also to sick or dying persons ‖ Thom. a Jesu p. 361 398. 387. 10ly They omit many Ceremonies in Baptism which the Roman Church useth as spittle c. Nor doth the Roman Church hold it necessary that they should use the same 11ly They have no private Masses It is accidâ—ntal in the Roman Church that any Masses are private i. e. that the Priest communicates alone and happens only because others are not prepared to receive with the Priest not because they are prohibited and if any faulty herein it is the people or other Clergy that attend the Mass without communicating not the Priest in offering the daily Christian Sacrifice and himself at least participating thereof the Greeks never communicating alone celebrate seldomer viz. only on Festivals on those dayes only one of them all the rest attending him and this in the same Church but once so that their more compleatness in one thing is accompanied with some deficiency in another Lastly the Church of Rome wisheth that no Masses at all were private i. e. where the Priest officiating finds no fellow-Communicants but is loth to purchase this at such a loss as some others do viz. the omission of her frequent and dayly or also hourly intercessions with God for all necessities by this most acceptable sacrifice offered to him by the fervent devotion of so many of her Priests 12ly They minister the Communion in both kinds to all Communicants Of this see what is said before § 163. The Church of Rome holds it not necessary but only lawful and expedient as the times are to do otherwise and also indulgeth receiving in both kinds to several of her Communion 13. They believe not Transubstantiation nor the new real sacrificing of Christ In the Eucharist is affirmed by the Roman Church only a Sacrifice commemorative of that of the Cross and this effective only in the virtue and merit of that Of the Eastern Church's Tenent concerning Christ's corporal presence in the Eucharist and consequently of their use of this Sacrifice agreeing with the Roman Church and contrary to the Reformed See before § 158. n. 2. § 160. 14. They have the Divine Service in the vulgar tongue Some Eastern Churches have so the most have not The Divine Service is celebrated in the corrupt Chaldee or Syriack amongst the Maronites Cophthites Nestorians Assyrians or Jacobites Indians and in the Greek among the Melchites and Georgians the vulgar to all these being Arabick or to some more Easterly the Persian tongue and in the ancient and pure Greek still among the Grecians as it is in the Latine among the Latines where those who speak the vulgar Greek do understand little of it See Brerewood's Enquiries p. 9. 12. 61. 192. 196. only in the East the Armenians in the North the Moscovites and some other Sclavonians in the South the Abyssines people most ignorant of the learned languages have it in their vulgar and in this have only what the Church of Rome maintaineth lawful and easily indulgeth to several Nations of its Communion as it did long ago to the Sclavonians by Pope John 8. and now of late to the Chineses by Pope Paul 5. at the request of the Jesuites 15. Their Priests are married and though they permit them not to marry a second wife without special dispensation yet if any do they do not void nor dissolve the marriage To this see what is said before § 164. with them men married may receive Orders after Orders received none may marry 16. They make no image of God Nor any among the Latines with the same intention as other images viz. thereby to resemble the figure or nature of God such an image verum Idolum constitueret saith Bellarmine †De Imag. l. 2. c. 8. Only this is by many held lawful an holy History in a Table and that to represent to some mens eyes what hath been seen by other men's as the sitting of the antient of days in Daniel c. 7. or the descent of the holy Ghost in Mat. c. 3. That is not to shew what these persons are but how they have appeared where is no danger of mistake by it what they are as also incorporeal Angels are innocently represented winged boyes 17. They have no Massy images but pictures only But they give the same relative veneration to sacred pictures which Protestants omit to mention as the Latines to their images though some Latines also do forbear the use of embossed images 18. They think that properly God only is to be invocated and howsoever they have a kind of invocation of Saints yet they think that God
true That the Church of England blindeth men to peace to her determinations reserving to men the liberty of their judgments on pain of excommunication if they violate that peace For it is plain on the one side where a Church pretends infallibility the excommunication is directed against the persons for refusing to give internal assent to what she defines But where a Church doth not pretend to that the excommunication respects wholly that overt Act whereby the Churches peace is broken And if a Church be bound to look to her own peace no doubt she hath power to excommunicate such as openly violate the bonds of it which is only an act of caution in a Church to preserve her selfe in unity but where it is given out that the Church is infallible the excommunication must be so much the more unreasonable because it is against those internal acts of the minde over which the Church as such hath no direct power And p. 55. he quotes these words out of Bp. Bramhall †Schism guarded p. 192. To the same sence We do not suffer any man to reject the 39. Articles of the Church of England at his pleasure yet neither do we look upon them as essentials of saving faith or legacies of Christ and his Apostles but in a mean as pious opinions fitted for the presâ—rvation of unity neither do we oblige any man to believe them but only not to contradict them By which we see what vast difference there is between those things which are required by the Church of England in order to peace and those which are imposed by the Church of Rome c. Lastly thus Mr. Chillingworth †p. 200. of the just authority of Councils and Synods beyond which the Protestant Synods or Convocations pretend not The Fathers of the Church saith he in after times i. e. after the Apostles might have just cause to declare their judgment touching the sence of some general Articles of the Creed but to oblige others to receive their declarations under pain of damnation what warrant they had I know not He that can shew either that the Church of all ages was to have this authority or that it continued in the Church for some ages and then expired He that can shew either of these things let him for my part I cannot Yet I willingly confess the judgment of a Council though not infallible is yet so far directive and obliging that without apparent reason to the contrary it may be sin to reject it at least not to afford it an outward submission for publick peace sake Thus much as the Protestant Synods seem contented with so I allow Again p. 375. He saith Any thing besides Scripture and the plain irrefragable indubitable consequences of it Well may Protestants hold it as matter of opinion but as matter of faith and religion neither can they with coherence to their own grounds believe it themselves nor require the belief of it of others without most high and most schismatical presumption Thus he now I suppose that either no Ptotestant Church or Synod will stile the Son 's coequall God-head with the Father a plain irrefragable indubitable Scripture or consequence thereof about which is and hath been so much contest or with as much reason they may call whatever points they please such however controverted and then what is said here signifies nothing § 36 Prot. Be not mistaken I pray especially concerning the Church of England For though she for several points imposed formerly by the tyranny of the Roman Church hath granted liberty of opinion or at least freed her subjects from obligation to believe so in them as the Church formerly required yet as to exclusion of your doctrin she professeth firmly to believe the 3. Creeds and concerning the additions made in the two latter Creeds to the first Dr. Hammond †Of Fundamentals p. 90. acknowledgeth That they being thus settled by the universal Church were and still are in all reason without disputing to be received and imbraced by the Protestant Church and every meek member thereof with that reverence that is due to Apostolick truthes with that thankfulness which is our meet tribute to those sacred Champions for their seasonable and provident propugning our faith with such timely and necessary application to practice that the Holy Ghost speaking to us now under the times of the New Testament by the Governors of the Christian Churches Christs mediate successors in the Prophetick Pastoral Episcopal Office as he had formerly spoken by the Prophets of the Old Testament sent immediately by him may finde a cheerfull audience and receive all uniform submission from us Thus Dr. Hammond of the Church of England's assent to the 3. Creeds She assenteth also to the definitions of the 4 first General Councils And the Act 1. Eliz. †cap. 1. declares Heresie that which hath been adjudged so by them now in the definitions of these first 4. General Counclls your tenent hath received a mortal wound †But lastly the 4th Canon in the English Synod held 1640. †Can. 4. particularly stiles Socinianism a most damnable and cursed Heresie and contrary to the Articles of Religion established in the Church of England and orders that any convicted of it be excommunicated and not absolved but upon his repentance and abjuration Now further than this namely excommunication upon conviction No other Church I suppose hath or can proceed against your Heresie It being received as a common axiom in the Canon Law that Ecclesia non judicat de occultis And cogitationis poenam nemo patitur And Ob peccatum mere internum Ecclesiastica censura ferri non potest And in all Churches every one of what internal perswasion soever continues externally at least a member thereof till the Churches censures do exclude him § 37 Soc. The Church of England alloweth assenteth to and teacheth what she judgeth evident in the Scripture for so she ought what she believes or assenteth to I look not after but what she enjoynes Now I yeeld all that obedience in this point that she requires from me and so I presume she will acknowledge me a dutiful Son Prot. what obedience when as you deny one of her chiefest and most fundamental doctrins Soc. If I mistake not her principles she requires of me no internal belief or assent to any of her doctrins but only 1st silence or non-contradiction †See Disc 3 § 84. n. 2. n. 4. or 2ly a conditional belief i. e. whenever I shall be convinced of the truth thereof Now in both these I most readily obey her For the 1st I have strictly observed it kept my opinion to my self unless this my discourse with you hath been a breach of it but then I was at least a dutiful subject of this Church at the beginning of our discourse and for the 2d whether actual conviction or sufficient proposal be made the condition of my assent or submission of
not so plain in Scripture but that a General Council as to the major part of them the highest Authority by which the Church Catholick can direct us at least if not in their sence universally accepted for this Exception is put in by the more moderate ‖ See Disc 1. §. 32. c. may mistake in them so far as that the unlearned have even for these Necessaries no security to rely on their judgment I must tell you saith Mr. Chillingworth to F. Knot ‖ p. 150. you are too bold in taking that which no man grants you that the Church is an infallible Director in Fundamentals or Necessaries Now this also he was considering his Engagement forced to say and gives the reason that made him say so I suppose for satisfying his own Party rather than his Adversary in the words following For saith he if she were so then must we not only learn Fundamentals of her but also learn of her what is fundamental and take all for fundamental which she delivers to be such And what harm in it say I if you did But this he well saw would have destroyed the Reformation which was contrary to the Doctrines which the publick Director that was then in being delivered But. if these Necessaries at the last are not so few or so plain in Scripture but that the judgment of the Church-Guides even when met in their supreamest Consults may err in them will he allow us then to follow some other's judgment that is in these points fallible If so why not to follow theirs still But if not so whose judgment will he direct us to that shall less err than these Guides or that shall certainly not err in the undrstanding of these plain Scriptures wherein these Guides mistake Methinks he should * forbear here to name to us our own Judgment even when we unlearned too and yet none else can he name And * much more forbear here to alledge Passion Faction Interest c as great Blinders of this publick judgment unless he could first shew the private not at all or less liable to them which corrupters of a clear understanding seem indeed more incident to persons of a lower rank and that have much relation to and dependance on others and therefore what more common than for avoiding those to make Appeals from inferior to a more general judgment as expecting in the most general the most impartial dealing And what private person can we produce thot doth not range himself with some party and that hath not in matters controverted a strong secular Interest for one side to be truth rather than the other according to the Church and State he lives in § 43 But 3ly As it is necessary that God some way or other do clearly reveal to all even the unlearned using their due Industry that which he requires necessarily to be believed by them so it is not consequent at all that God should do this as to every thing necessary in the Scriptures First Because God cannot be said to have been deficient in a competent revelation of Necessaries to all men if he hath left as indeed he hath sufficient evidence and clearness in the Scriptures that are first generally agreed on to be his Word to every man rightly using his private judgment or common reason as to one point only viz. this That it is his divine Will that private men for all those Scriptures the sence whereof is any way dubicus or controverted should constanâ—ly be guided by and adhere to the judgment of those spiritual Superiors that he hath set over them and in any division of these should still hold to the Superiors among these Superiors according to the Subordinations by him established amongst them For thus we see after a Christian's private judgment or common reason used only in one point for all other points private judgment is now discharged and in stead thereof obedience to Authority takes place so far as its stating of any point thinks fit to restrain therein other mens Liberty of Opinion The testimony of which Church-authority as a thing clearly demonstrated and ratified by the Scriptures S. Austin in more difficult matters of Controversie often appealed to See Disc 3. § 82. n. 4. Puto saith he si aliquis Sapiens extitisset cui Dominus Jesus Christus testimonium perhibet that we should be directed by his judgment de hac quaestione consuleretur à nobis nullo modo dubitare deberemus id facere quod ille dixisset ne non tam ipsi quam Domino Jesu Christo cujus testimonio commendatur repugnare judicaremur Perhibet autem testimonium Christus Ecclesiae suae And by this which is so often retorted by Protestants that Catholicks also are forced to allow to Christians the necessary use of their private Judgment will be verified only in this one point The Choice or the discerning of their Guide whereas the Protestants make it necessary for all Points and who sees not a vast difference between these two for the hazard which a Christian incurs therein 1 The being in all controverted matters of Religion and sence of Scriptures meerly cast upon his own reason and skill to steer himself aright therein And 2 The being left to it only in one matter and that one as Catholicks contend in the Scriptures very clear after which examined and judged by him all the rest wherein he may want a resolution are without his further solicitude to be judged for him by another So there is a great difference when a person falls sick between his being left to the use of his private judgment in making choice of a Physitian according to certain Rules prescribed unto him by a wise and experienced man in that behalf and then this once done submitting himself afterward to this Physitian in all things that he shall prescribe for his cure and between this sick person's undertaking by Hippocrates his Aphorisms or other Physick Books to prescribe all particular Remedies to himself upon this reasoning that if his private judgment serves for directing in the one making choice of a Physitian why not in all the other fit Medicines for his Disease Which Argument is only good where all the Objects about which our judgment is exercised are equally easie and clear to it And therefore unconsequently seems that Question to be asked ‖ Stillingf R. Ac. p. 7. If the Scripture may and must decide one Point that of the Church why may it not as well all the rest If the Scripture be not in all other Points equally clear and not-mistakable This then is one way of sufficient Revelation besides Mr Chillingworth's way I mean that of all necessary Truths being clearly revealed in Scripture viz. a sufficient Revelation of one point in Scripture concerning that Guide from whom we may securely learn all the other points not clear to us in Scripture § 44 2 ly Because God besides and before the New-Testament Scriptures left
these doctrines sufficiently revealed to the then-appointed Ecclesiastical Guides from whom both the present people and the future successors of these Guides both were and might rationally know they were to learn them and so had there bin no Scriptures might by meer Tradition have learned them sufficiently to this day for their Salvation This is a second way then of sufficient Revelation besides or without that in Scripture viz. All necessary Truth since the penning of the Scriptures only so manifested clearly to and so delivered clearly by the Church-Guides as they were manifested to them before Scripture 3ly Because as all the Christian Doctrines might before so the true meaning of some part of the same Scripture might after the writing allo of the New-Testament-Scriptures have bin clearly enough delivered by Tradition and by the first Scripture-Expositors to the Christian people that were then and so to Posterity though mean-while the Letter of such Scripture doth not so necessarily enforce this traditive sence as not to be possibly or somtimes probably capable of another This is a third way of sufficient Revelation viz. by the clear descending Tradition of the sence of those Scriptures which are in their Letter ambiguous § 45 But 4 ly Supposing it needful that all such Necessaries must be clearly revealed in the Letter of Scripture yet is this sufficient to save God's proceedings from tyranny if that they be with sufficient clearness revealed therein to the Church Guides alone and to the Learned that diligently read and compare the Scriptures together and use the helps of the comparings and comments of others and if that the illiterate people be remitted by God in all ages to learn these Necessaries from their Guides This is a fourth way of sufficient Revelation of Necessaries i. e. a revelation of them in Scripture such as must be clear to the Church-Guides in stead of that other revelation there of Mr. Chillingworth's such as must be clear to all To I answer §. 46. n. 1. that where the sence of the Scripture is ambiguous R. to β. and in Controversie which sence and not the Letter only is God's Word here their Guide to know this true sence of Scripture cannot be this by all allowed infallible Scripture which Protestants pretend but must be either the Church's judgment which they say is fallible or their own which all reasonable men I should think will say is more fallible To γ. See many of their Questions solved R. to γ. Disc 3. § 86. and concerning our understanding the sence of the Church's Definition better than the sence of Scriptures See below § 48. c. To δ. 1st It is not necessary §. 46. n. 2. R. to δ. that God should direct Christians in this matter by the Scriptures since they were sufficiently directed herein also before the Scriptures I mean before the writing of those of the New-Testament and since they might be sufficiently assured from those who were sent by our Lord to teach them Christianity in this point also that they were sent to teach them But 2ly It is maintained that God in the Scriptures hath done this §. 46. n. 3. and * hath told us ‖ Eph. 4.11 c. That he hath set these Guides in the Church for the edifying and perfecting thereof and for this in particular that the Church should not be tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine with which Winds of contrary Doctrines the Subjects of the Church as Experience shews from age to age would have bin grievously shaken and dissipated but that these Governors from time to time by stating her Doctrines have preserved her Children from it And * hath told us again ‖ 2 Pet. 3.16 That the unlearned wrest some of the Scriptures that are plain it seems to the Learned in that these wresters are the unlearned to their own damnation therefore these are such Scriptures also as speak concerning Necessaries And * hath therefore given us a charge to obey these guides to whom is committed the Care of our Souls and to follow their faith ‖ Heb. 13.7 17. * And declared that he that heareth them heareth him ‖ Luke 10. add that he will be with them to the end of the world especicially when gaehered together ‖ Mat. 18.17 20. and would have the refractory to them excommunicated ‖ Mat. 18.17 And accordingly to this Warrant in Scripture and out of it in primitive Tradition the Church-Guides from age to age have met together setled the Churchches Doctrines exacted Conformity excommunicated Dissenters c Next to ε. Where they say That God foreseeing §. 47. n. 1. that Divisions would happen among these Guides R. to ε. would have told us in the Scriptures which in such case among the several Parties of them we ought always to follow and adhere to As that we should adhere to the Church of Rome to the Vicar of Christ to the most General Councils and in dissenting Votes to the Major part thereof c. To which purpose are those words of Mr. Chillingworth ‖ p. 61. If our Saviour the King of Heaven had intended that all Controversies in Religion should be by some visible Judge finally determined who can doubt but in plain terms he would have expressed himself about this matter He would have said plainly The Bishop of Rome I have appointed to decide all emergent Controversies For that our Saviour designed the Bishop of Rome I add or a General Counci to this Office and yet would not say so nor cause it to be written ad rei memoriam by any of the Evangelists or Apostles so much as once but leave it to be drawn out of uncertain Principles by 13 or 14. more uncertain Consequences He that can believe it let him And p. 104. He saith It would have been infinitely beneficial to the Church perhaps as much as all the rest of the Bible that in some Book of Scripture which was to be undoubtedly received this one Proposition had been set down in terms The Bishops of Rome with their Adherents shall always be the Guides of Faith c. And p. 171. he argues thus Seeing God doth nothing in vain and seeing it had been in vain to appoint a Judge of Controversies and not to tell us so plainly who it is and seeing lastly he hath not told us plainly no not at all who it is is it not evident he hath appointed none See the same thing urged by Mr. Stillingfleet Rat. Account p. 465. And see all this as it were translated only out of the Socinian Books before § 40. n. 1. To this 1st I answer §. 47. n. 2. That negative argning from Scripture 1. such as this a thing of so great concernment to all Christians if it were true would have bin clearly expressed in the Scripture but this is not found clearly expressed rherein therefore it is not true as