visible p. 63 64. Rome not always the principal Seat of the Church p. 63. Avignon was for 70 Years where the Pope and the whole Court recided ibid. Several Popes Hereticks p. 64. Two Popes at once contending for the Chair and this for above 40 Years together and at one time 3 Popes p. 64. The Church of Rome compared with it self in reference to several Doctrines p. 65. What the Church of Rome now holds and what the Church of Rome hath held ibid. Her being the Mother-Church and the Pope being Christ's Vicar ibid. Concerning the Apocryphal Books ibid. Scripture and Tradition p. 66. Scripture in unknown Tongues ibid. Merit p. 67. Indulgences ibid. Purgatory p. 68. Prayers in an unknown Tongue ibid. Praying to Saints p. 68 69. Image-worship p. 69. Sacraments the Number of them ibid. Transubstantiation p. 70. Communion in one kind ibid. Solitary Masses p. 70 71. Auricular Confession p. 71. Extream Vnction ibid. Priests Marriage ibid. In all these Particulars Rome is not now what it hath been The Fourth Note Amplitude or Multitude and Variety of Believers THE Scriptures first gave us the Notion of a Church p. 73. A true Christian Church professes the true Christian Faith. p. 74. Instead of this the Church of Rome have invented several Notes and Characters of a Church which are not to be met with or are not plainly delivered in Scripture ibid. Of which this Amplitude or Multitude c. is one ibid. What Bellarmine understands by this Note p. 75. In Answer to him I. It is shewed this cannot be a Note of the true Church ibid. 1. Whether you consider the Members thereof under either the Notion of a great Multitude or 2. a great Multitude of Believers ibid. Satan's Kingdom more numerous than the Kingdom of Christ. ibid. The Worshippers of Mahomet exceed the Members of Christ's true Church in number since the Romanists make themselves the only Catholicks p. 76. The Kingdom of Christ not to be distinguished from the Kingdom of Antichrist by this Note ibid. This Note therefore no true Character of a Church p. 77. The several Places of Scripture whence Bellarmine pretends he fetches this Note of his ibid. This is so far from being a Note of the Church that it is no more than the variable State and Condition of it p. 78. This acknowledged by the Cardinal himself in his Explication of this Note ibid. The present State of the Church not to be compared with what it shall be before the End of the World. p. 79. Many plain Prophecies brought for the Proof of this ibid. The Cardinal's Citation of Vincentius Lirinensis for the confirming this Note considered p. 80 81. II. Supposing this to be a true Note of the Catholick Church it doth not advantage the Church of Rome as to that her pretention of being the true Catholick Church ibid. 82 to 85. III. Supposing again this Note to be true it doth the Reformed Churches a very great Service in demonstrating them to be true Parts of the Catholick Church p. 85. This demonstrated by two Arguments p. 86 87. 1. That in the first Ages of Christianity the Catholick Church then was more ours than now it is the Romanists p. 86. That there is a great Agreement between the antient Church of Rome and the present Church of England ibid. This is evident by comparing the Doctrine and Worship of each together ibid. 2. That upon computation the Churches subject to the Roman See exceed not the Reformed Churches in Amplitude or Multitude of Members p. 87 to 91. The Conclusion p. 92. The Fifth Note Succession of BISHOPS IN Examination of this Note Three Things are inquired into I. How far this Note may be necessary to any Church p. 94. True and Lawful Pastors necessary to the Constitution of the Church and this Pastoral Power Originally from Christ ibid. Power of Ordination entrusted with Bishops the chief Governors of the Church and ordinary Successors of the Apostles p. 94 95. The Government of the Church of England by Bishops and its Succession not interrupted in the Reformation ibid. 1. Obs Tho Succession of Bishops be necessary to the compleat constitution of a Church yet it may be doubted whether it is indispensable to the very being of it so as to unchurch every place that wants these 2. Obs It is not necessary for every Church which firmly presumes upon this Lawful and Orderly Succession even from the Apostles should be able to produce the Records of its conveyance thro' every Age and in every single Person by whom it hath past p. 95. The Antients contented themselves in delivering down to us the Succession of Bishops in the greater Sees and Mother-Cities As of Rome Alexandria Antioch Jerusalem c. ibid. 3. Obs Some irregularities and uncanonical proceedings in times of great Schisms or publick Disturbance have been interpreted for no interruption of this Authentical Succession p. 97. II. How far the Succession of Bishops may be granted to the Church of Rome p. 98. Little left upon Record of many of the first Bishops in the Church of Rome excepting their bare Names ibid. If Heresie breaks the Succession this is chargeable upon the Church of Rome p. 99. If Schismatical Intrusions can dissolve the order of Succession this chargeable likewise on the Bishops of that Church viz. Felix the 2. and Vigilius ibid. 1. The Case of the Roman Succession extreamly changed since the first time p. 101. No Supremacy to be found in the Church of Rome for more than the first 500 Years p. 101 102. 2. The Church of Rome not very favourable to the Order of Bishops ibid. The Divine Right of Episcopacy disputed in the Council of Trent ibid. 3. Their Catechism makes this no distinct Order but only a different degree of the same Priesthood p. 103. III. How insufficient a proof this will afford them of any great advantage ibid. 1. Succession is no sufficient evidence of the Truth of the Doctrine of any Church p. 104 105. 2. An unintterrupted Succession of Bishops is no warrantable ground of the Claim of Superiority over another Church which hath not so clear evidences thereof p. 105 106. The Cardinals Testimonies out of St. Augustine Irenaeus Tertullian and Epiphanius examined p. 107 108. His Inference from these citations about Succession considered p. 109 110. The Conclusion The Sixth Note Agreement in Doctrine with the Primitive Church THis is acknowledged a True Mark of a Church p. 113. The Infallibility of the present Church is to be laid aside till it be first known whether it agrees with the Primitive Church or not p. 114. The True Chuch only to be discovered by the True Faith. p. 115. Those matters of Faith in Controversie betwixt us are to be determined by the Doctrines and Practices of the Primitive Church p. 116. The Church of Rome waving Particular Controversies that may be made plain and evident to most capacities delights rather to run out into General Controversies
omitting Personal Contests but inserting whatsoever concerns the common Cause of Protestants or defends the Church of England with an exact Table of Contents and an Addition of some genuine Pieces of Mr. Chillingworth's never before Printed viz. against the Infallibility of the Roman Church Transubstantiation Tradition c. And an Account of what moved the Author to turn Papist with his Confutation of the said Motives An Historical Treatise written by an AUTHOR of the Communion of the CHVRCH of ROME touching TRANSVBSTANTIATION Wherein is made appear That according to the Principles of THAT CHVRCH This Doctrine cannot be an Article of Faith. 40. The Protestant's Companion Or an Impartial Survey and Comparison of the Protestant Religion as by Law established with the main Doctrines of Popery Wherein is shewed that Popery is contrary to Scripture Primitive Fathers and Councils and that proved from Holy Writ the Writings of the Ancient Fathers for several hundred Years and the Confession of the most Learned Papists themselves 40. The Pillar and Ground of Truth A Treatise shewing that the Roman Church falsly claims to be That Church and the Pillar of That Truth mentioned by S. Paul in his first Epistle to Timothy Chap. 3. Vers 15. 4o. The Peoples Right to read the Holy Scripture Asserted 4o. A Short Summary of the principal Controversies between the Church of England and the Church of Rome being a Vindication of several Protestant Doctrines in Answer to a Late Pamphlet Intituled Protestancy destitute of Scripture Proofs 4o. An Answer to a Late Pamphlet Intituled The Judgment and Doctrine of the Clergy of the Church of England concerning one Special Branch of the King's Prerogative viz. In dispensing with the Penal Laws 4o. A Discourse of the Holy Eucharist in the two great Points of the Real Presence and the Adoration of the Host in Answer to the Two Discourses lately Printed at Oxford on this Subject To which is perfixed a Large Historical Preface relating to the same Argument Two Discourses Of Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead The Fifteen Notes of the Church as laid down by Cardinal Bellarmin examined and confuted 4o. With a Table of the Contents Preparation for Death Being a Letter sent to a young Gentlewoman in France in a dangerous Distemper of which she died By W. W. 12o. The Difference between the Church of England and the Church of Rome in opposition to a late Book Intituled An Agreement between the Church of England and Church of Rome A PRIVATE PRAYER to be used in Difficult Times A True Account of a Conference held about Religion at London Sept. 29 1687 between A. Pulton Jesuit and Tho. Tenison D. D. as also of that which led to it and followed after it 4o. The Vindication of A. Cressener Schoolmaster in Long-Acre from the Aspersions of A. Pulton Jesuit Schoolmaster in the Savoy together with some Account of his Discourse with Mr. Meredith A Discourse shewing that Protestants are on the safer Side notwithstanding the uncharitable Judgment of their Adversaries and that Their Religion is the surest Way to Heaven 4o. Six Conferences concerning the Eucharist wherein is shewed that the Doctrine of Transubstantiation overthrows the Proofs of Christian Religion A Discourse concerning the pretended Sacrament of Extreme Vnction with an account of the Occasions and Beginnings of it in the Western Church In Three Parts With a Letter to the Vindicator of the Bishop of Condom The Pamphlet entituled Speculum Ecclesiasticum or an Ecclesiastical Prospective-Glass considered in its False Reasonings and Quotations There are added by way of Preface two further Answers the First to the Defender of the Speculum the Second to the Half-sheet against the Six Conferences A Second Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England against the new Exceptions of Mons de Meaux late Bishop of Condom and his Vindicator The FIRST PART In which the Account that has been given of the Bishop of Meaux's Exposition is fully Vindicated the Distinction of Old and New Popery Historically asserted and the Doctrine of the Church of Rome in Point of Image-worship more particularly considered 40. The Incurable Scepticism of the Church of Rome By the Author of the Six Conferences concerning the Eucharist 40. Mr. Pulton Considered in his Sincerity Reasonings Authorities Or a Just Answer to what he hath hitherto Published in his True Account his True and full Account of a Conference c. His Remarks and in them his pretended Confutation of what he calls Dr. T 's Rule of Faith. By Tho. Tenison D. D. A Full View of the Doctrines and Practices of the Antient Church relating to the Eucharist wholly different from those of the Present Roman Church and inconsistent with the belief of Transubstantiation Being a sufficient Confutation of CONSENSVS VETERVM NVBES TESTIVM and other Late Collections of the Fathers pretending to the Contrary 40. A BRIEF DISCOURSE Concerning the NOTES OF THE CHURCH With some REFLECTIONS on Cardinal BELLARMIN's Notes LICENSED April 6. 1687. JO. BATTELY LONDON Printed for Ric. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXVII PAge 11. l. 15. for Character r. Charter and p. 14. l. 8. r. Charter p. 16. l. 12. after Ancient and Apostolick Church add Which is the same with his second Note concerning Antiquity which must refer to the Antiquity of its Doctrine for an Ancient Church tho founded many years since if it have innovated in Doctrine cannot plead Antiquity and a Church founded but yesterday which professes the Ancient Faith may p. 18. l. 6. f. first r. fifth p. 22. l. 14. f. now r. more A BRIEF DISCOURSE Concerning the Notes of the CHURCH c. IF Cardinal Bellarmin had not told us That this is a most profitable Controversie Controv. T. 2. L. 4 de Notis Ecclesiae I should very much have wondered at that pains which he and so many other of their great Divines have taken to find out the Notes of the Church For is not the Catholick Church visible And if we can see which is this Church what need we guess at it by marks and signs and that by such marks and signs too as are matter of dispute themselves Cannot we distinguish between the Christian Church and a Turkish Mosque or Jewish Synagogue or Pagan Temple Cannot we without all this ado distinguish a Christian from a Turk or a Jew or a Pagan And it will be as easie to find out a Christian Church as it is to find out Christians for a Christian Church is nothing else but a Society of Christians united under Christian Pastors for the Worship of Christ and where ever we find such a Society as this there is a Christian Church and all such particular or National Churches all the World over make up the whole Christian Church or the Universal Church of Christ But this will not do the Cardinal's business Though the Christian Church is visible enough yet not such a Church as he
Reform'd They call us the Reformed therefore we are Reformed is as good an Argument as we call them Catholicks therefore they are Catholicks In this Sense are those Words of St. Austin cited by Bellarmine Contr. Epist Fundam c. 4. to be understood That should a Stranger happen in any City to enquire even of an Heretick where he might go to a Catholick Church the Heretick would not dare to send him to his own House or Oratory Not that that Heretick did believe that those that there were call'd Catholicks did hold the true Catholick Doctrine for then he could not have believ'd his own but looking upon it as a bare name of Distinction he directed him to that Assembly of Christians that were so called St. Austin seems here to suppose a Case as if a Traveller entring into a City where both Popish and Reform'd Churches were allowed and should chance to meet a Protestant and of him enquire the way to a Catholick Church and he direct him to a Popish one or a Papist and of him enquire the way to a Reform'd Church and he direct him to a Protestant one It would not therefore follow that either the one or the other did believe either Church to answer and correspond with its Name that the Popish was Catholick or the Protestant Reformed but that they were Words of vulgar use whereby they might be known from one another but not the true Church from the false IIII. It does not follow that because the Name of Catholick in that time when it was for the most part in conjunction with the Catholick Faith was a sure Note of a true Church it must always be so even when the Name and Thing are parted It was not long before the Christian Church became miserably torn and rent asunder divided into many and some very great Bodies all pretending to Catholicism By what Mark now is the Catholick Church to be known Not by the Name surely when all Parties laid claim to it and the grossest Hereticks such as the Manichaeans themselves as St. Austin tells us who had the least to shew for it coveted and gloried in it Have never any Hereticks or Scismaticks been styled Catholicks Nor ever any Orthodox styl'd Hereticks The Greek Church is call'd Catholick and yet the Church of Rome will have her an Heretical one The Donatists appropriated to themselves that ample Title and yet St. Austin thought them no better than Shcismaticks The Arrians call'd themselves Catholicks and the Orthodox Homousians and Athanasians but neither the one was the more nor the other the less Catholick for what they were call'd Truth is always the same and the Nature of things remains unalterable let Men fix on them what Names they please By this Rule then is the true Church to be known not because it bears the Name of Catholick for that a Church may do and yet be guilty of Schism and Heresie but because it professes the true Faith and then tho it be in name Heretick it is in reality Catholick This is Lactantius's Rule to discern the true Church by the true Religion That Church alone Instir lib. 4. c. ult Sola Catholica est quae verum cultum retinet says he is Catholick that retains the true Worship of God. And St. Austin in his Disputes with the Donatists where the true Church was appeals to the Scripture as the only Infallible Judg Non audiamus haec dico haec dicis sed audiamus haec dicit Dominus c. Ibi quaeramus Ecclesiam Epist 166. de unit Eccl. c. 2. Amongst many others to this purpose he hath these Words I say this and thou sayest that but thus saith the Lord. 5. Again does it follow that because the being called after the Names of particular Men in that Age when all so call'd were for the most part corrupt in the Faith was a sure Brand of Schismaticks and Hereticks it must ever be so May not Names and Titles be unjustly and maliciously impos'd If the Churches of the Reformed must go for Hereticks and Scismaticks meerly because they are distinguish'd by the Names of those Men that were the first and most eminent Instruments in that blessed Work as of Lutherans Calvinists Zuinglians the like Is there not the same Reason that the several Orders in the Church of Rome that go under the Names of their particular Founders as the Benedictines Franciscans Dominicans Jansenists and Molinists and others be esteemed so too If there be any Difference the advantage of Reason is on our Side since the Reformed assume not those Names to themselves and tho they deservedly honour the Memories of those Men and with thankful Hearts embrace the Reformation God was pleas'd by their Ministry to make in the Church yet do they by no means affect to be call'd after their Names They own no Name but Christian or Catholick when it signifies Persons adhering to the true Catholick Faith The others are Nick-names fasten'd on them by their Adversaries out of Scorn or Malice to represent them to the World as far as they are able as so many Schismaticks from the Catholick Church and as having other Leaders than Christ and his Apostles But those in the Church of Rome that are denominated from their particular Founders give themselves those Appellations seem to prefer them before that truly Catholick one of Christian which while with some neglect they leave to the Common People they glory and pride themselves in the other so that if this Note of an Heretick is valid it turns with great Force against themselves who are really guilty of it and not against us whom they will make guilty of it but are not III. The Church of Rome having egregiously corrupted the Catholick Faith or Religion neither is nor deserves the Name of a Catholick Church Whether she is guilty of this or no will be best seen by comparing her Doctrine in several Points with that delivered by Christ and left upon Record by his holy Apostles for tho the Church of Rome will not allow the Scriptures to be the whole and a perfect Rule of Faith and Manners yet they acknowledg them to be the Word of God and granting that they must acknowledg that all those Doctrines and Practices that are forbidden by them are Corruptions and Depravations of it Let us then bring their Faith to the Touchstone How readest thou The Scripture says See Discourse of the Object of Religious Worship 1685. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Mat. 4.10 Which Words evidently appropriate all kinds and all degrees of Religious Worship unto God they being an answer to the Devil's Temptation who requir'd but the lowest Degree the Devil acknowledging that the right he had of disposing of the Kingdoms of the World to be only derivative not natural they were delivered to me At the same time confessed himself not to be the Supream God and consequently cannot be suppos'd
consistent with the Pains and Fire of Purgatory which Bellarmin tells us is hotter than Hell it self is past my Apprehension The Chuch of Rome says that Souls are to continue in Purgatory till they have made full satisfaction for their Sins and are throughly purged from them and that whoever says that there is no Debt of temporal Punishment to be pay'd either in this World or in Purgatory before they can be admitted into Heaven is accursed Concil Trid. Sess 6. Can. 30. The Church of Rome says the Cup is not to be administred to the Laity and gives many reasons for it lest the Blood of Christ should be spilt lest the Wine kept for the Sick should fret lest Wine may not always be had or lest some may not be able to bear the smell or taste of it Whether these are sufficient Reasons or no the Council of Trent enjoyns all to believe them so under an Anathema Concil Trid. Sess 21. Can. 1. 2. The Council of Constance acknowledges that our Saviour instituted the Sacrament in both kinds and that it so continued in the Church of Rome many Centuries and yet with a Notwithstanding to both these it sacrilegiously robs the People of the Cup. Concil Const Sess 13. The Church of Rome says that the Bread and Wine in the Eucharist by the Priests pronouncing these Words Hoc est corpus meum is transubstantiated into the natural Body and Blood of Christ the Species or Accidents only of the Bread and Wine remaining and hath made it an Article to be believed by all under an Anathema Concil Trid. Sess 13. de Real Praes c. 1. Cornel. a Lapide tells us that it was the Opinion of some of their grave Divines that this Change is made after so powerful and effectual manner that if Christ had not been incarnated before the force of this Charm would have incarnated him and cloath'd him with Human Nature The Church of Rome says that in the Sacrifice of the Mass Christ is offered as often as that is celebrated and that tho' therein he be unbloodily offer'd yet is it a true propitiatory Sacrifice for the Sins both of the Living and Dead Concil Trid. Sess 22. Cap. 1. And declares the Person accursed that denies any part of this Ibid. In all these Particulars you see and several other might be instanc'd in the Faith and Doctrine of the Church of Rome bears a manifest repugnance to the Gospel of Christ Now if the Holy Scripture may be allow'd so much as to be a Rule of Faith and Manners in those things it particularly treats of the Church of Rome contradicting that Rule in those things must be condemned for a Corrupter of the Christian Faith or Doctrine And having thus made it evident that she holds not the true Catholick Faith 't is as evident that she is not and consequently deserves not to be called a Catholick Church THE END LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard 1687. The Second Note of the CHURCH EXAMINED VIZ. ANTIQUITY Secunda Nota est ANTIQVITAS Bellar. L. iv c. v. de Notis Ecclesiae IMPRIMATUR Apr. 5. 1687. JO. BATTELY IT is a shrewd sign that a Church is in an ill Case when the most learned and witty Defenders of it commend it to the World by such Marks and Characters whereby they say it may be known as are neither proper to it alone nor in Truth belong to it But more truly and evidently belong to them whom they oppose That this is the Case of the present Church of Rome in that Famous Note of ANTIQUITY which Bellarmin and others make a Mark of the true Church I will clearly and distinctly demonstrate by shewing these three Things I. That the Plea of bare Antiquity is not proper to the Church but common to it with other Societies of false Religion II. That true Antiquity is not on the side of the present Roman Church But III. That it is truly on Ours I. It is confessed by all even by them who make Antiquity a Mark of the Church that the Notes of a Thing must be proper to that of which they are a Note and not common to it with other Things Which quite destroys this Note of Antiquity upon a double Account First Because that which is proper to a Thing is inseparable from it and did ever belong to it since it had a Being and can at no Time without the destruction of its Being be absent from it This every Fresh-Man in Learning knows and by that may know that Antiquity is not a Note proper to the Church because it did not always belong to the Church For there was a Time when the Church was New. Which was objected to it by the Adversaries of our Religion and the Defenders of the Church answered the very same to them then that we do to the Romanists now as will appear in the second Thing I have to observe Secondly That other Societies have laid claim to this Note and it could not be denied them and therefore 't is not a proper Note whereby the true Church may be certainly known being common to it with others that are not of the Church 1. For first the Samaritans claimed it against the Jews as appears from the Womans Discourse with our Saviour Joh. iv 20. Our Fathers worshipped in this Mountain c. They had done so for many Ages before they worshipped in Jerusalem For here God appeared unto Abraham who here also built an Altar when he came first out of Chaldea Gen. xii 6 7. Here Jacob likewise built an Altar when he came out of Mesopotamia Gen. xxxiii 20. Here there was a Sanctuary in the Days of Joshua who gave his last Charge to Israel and made a Covenant with them in this Place Chap. xxiv 25 26. Here the Patriarchs were buried v. 32. Nay here-abouts was Shiloh Judg. xxi 19. where by the order of Joshua the Tabernacle and the Ark of God were setled long before it was brought to Jerusalem Josh xviii 1 2. which was all this time in the Hands of the Jebusites To which Plea the Jews could not make an Answer but by maintaining this Principle That not the Antiquity of Place but the Authority of God's Precept was to be their direction in this Case And God it appeared by the Holy Books had chosen Jerusalem to place his Name there 2. Thus the Jews themselves argued against Christ that he did not follow the Tradition of the Elders which had been derived to them from ancient times Mark vii 1 c. and against Christians whom they called the Sect of the Nazarens Acts xxiv 5. as much as to say Hereticks newly sprung up from Jesus of Nazareth 3. And thus the Pagans argued against them both particularly against the Christians saying to St. Paul at Athens May we know what this New Doctrine whereof thou speakest is Acts xvii 19. And in after-times calling it a Novel Religion a
more evidently proved to be no true Catholicks than those of the Roman Communion may in all those Articles of Faith which are peculiar to themselves For as to Points of mere Belief how much more than the Apostles Creed can they shew us to have been received always every where and by all Christians But as for that large Addition of Tridentine Articles annexed to that Creed by P. Pius the 4th no unbiassed Person can believe they have ever done any thing like proving that any of them have been received always and much less every where and by all those whom themselves own for Catholick Christians 4. By this Note of a Catholick no Society of Christians can bid so fair for Catholicism as the Reformed Churches but especially the Church of England whose avowed Principle it is to receive nothing as an Article of Faith but what is contained in the holy Scriptures Artic. 6. or may be proved thereby Nor doth she embrace any one Doctrine as an Article of Faith but what is clearly expressed in those Books of whose Canonicalness there never was the least Dispute in the Primitive Church Secondly I proceed to shew that if we should acknowledg this to be a true Note of the Catholick Church instead of enabling the Church of Rome to make good her Pretension of so being it will destroy it And instead of doing Disservice to the Reformed Churches it will do them excellent Service and be a certain Argument of their being true Parts of the Catholick Church And 1. I will shew that it will not at all Advantage the Church of Rome as to that her Pretension and therefore can do us no Prejudice The Cardinal proves 1. That his Church began to fructify throughout the World in the Days of the Apostles from these Words of St. Paul Col. 1.6 The Truth of the Gospel is come unto you as it is in all the World and bringeth forth Fruit as it doth also in you c. But what is this to his Church Is the Gospel's bringing forth Fruit in all the World the same thing with the Church of Rome's so doing 2. He adds the Authority of several Fathers for this Church's being spread in their Time all over the then known World but gives us none of their Sayings except St. Prosper's The first Father he cites is St. Irenaeus in the 3d Chapter of his Book Edit Paris p. 53. But the Father here only saith That this Faith which he sums up immediately before and is but the chief part of the Apostle's Creed the Church disseminated throughout the World diligently preserves as if it were confined but to one House But how doth this concern the Church of Rome Which is not once mentioned with others here particularly named except we could be made to believe that wheresoever the Word Church is found that Church is still to be understood Next he cites Tertullian adversùs Judaeos Edit Rig. p. 189. and having search'd that Book these or none are the Words he means viz. Those Words of David are to be understood of the Apostle's their Sound is gone forth in all the Earth and their Words unto the End of the World For in whom have all Nations believed but in Christ who is now come The Parthians Medes Elamites and those that inhabit Mesopotamia Armenia Phrygia Cappadocia Pontus Asia and Pamphilia Egypt Africa and beyond Cyrene the Romans and Jews now in Jerusalem and other Nations as now of the Getuli and Moors all Spain divers Countries of the Gauls and those of the Britains which the Romans could never conquer are subject to Christ c. But I again ask What is all this to the Church of Rome more than to any other particular Church belonging to any one of the many Nations of which that of the Romans is one and two whole Quarters of the World here mentioned His third Father is St. Cyprian Edit Oxon. p. 10◠in his Book de Vnitate Ecclesiae But here is nothing he could fancy to be for his purpose except these Words The Church is one which by its Fruitfulness is extended into a Multitude As there are many Rays of the Sun and but one Light c. So the Church of our Lord which being filled with Light sends forth her Beams through the whole World is but one Light which is diffused every-where But though this be said of the Catholick Church is here the least Intimation that the Church of Rome is this Catholick Church After St. Cyprian follow several of the later Fathers their Books being only directed to But the narrow room I am confined to will not permit me to examine them nor need we look any farther to be satisfied how this greatest Man of the Roman Church condescended to the most shameful impertinence in citing Scripture and Fathers for the doing her Service But we must not overlook St. Prosper's Verses in his Book de Ingratis viz. Sedes Roma Petri quae Pastoralis Honoris Facta Caput Mundo quicquid non possidet Armis Relligione tenet i. e. Rome the Seat of Peter being made the Head of Pastoral Honour in the World whatsoever Country she possesseth not by her Arms she holds by her Religion But considering how early this Father lived viz. about the beginning of the Fifth Century he could mean no more than this That the Church of Rome the most Honourable of all other by means of that Cities being the ancient Seat of the Emperors keeps still possession of those places by the Religion they received from Her over which she hath lost Her Old Dominion And what is this but another plain Instance of most idle quoting of Ancient Authors Not to reflect upon Fetching Arguments from Poetical Flourishes But not to stand to consider how Ample the Roman Church was in the times of those Fathers nothing is more evident than that that part of Christendom she took up was but a small Spot of Ground compared with the Space those Churches filled which tho they held Communion with Her were distinct Churches from Her and owned no Subjection to Her. And it was about or above an Hundred Years after the youngest of those Fathers that the Pope was inverted by that Execrable Wretch Phocas a Blessed Title in the mean time with the Primacy over all Churches And Gregory the Great who died in the Beginning of the Sixth Century not only sharply inveighed against John Patriarch of Constantinople and his Successor Cyriacus for assuming to themselves the Title of Vniversal Bishops though there was no appearance of their designing any thing more thereby than an Addition of Honour not of Power to that Patriarchate but also called those who should affect such a Haughty Title Greg. Epist 37. 70. lib. 11. Ep. 30. l. 4. the Forerunners of Antichrist And as these Bishops taking this Title was a Demonstration that they acknowledged not the least Subjection to the Bishops of Rome so Pope Gregory's calling
venture their Cause to any other Sentence but that of Scripture which had so plainly decided for them and was indeed the most proper to be appealed to yet the greatest number and the most learned of the Protestant Writers have never declined the Judgment of the Primitive Church but next to the inspired Writings of the Apostles have always esteemed and been willing to be determined by it And we are well assured that the Ancient Church even the Roman it self as well as the whole Christian besides is in all material Points on the Protestant side and a perfect Stranger if not an utter Enemy to those new Articles of Faith and Corruptions of Doctrine which have been since brought into the Western Church and which we have for that Reason protested against because they were unknown and contrary to the Faith and Doctrine of the Primitive Church It would too much exceed the set Limits of this Paper to make this out so fully as might easily be done by going through the chiefest Points of Difference between us Bellarmine in his Discourse upon this Note goes wholly off from it and chuses rather to pursue Luther and Calvin and some other worthy Reformers through all the Paths of Calumny and Slander but I shall not follow him to take him off from those false and injurious Representations he hath made of their Doctrines If any Body has the curiosity to see the Art of Misrepresenting in its greatest perfection let him but read that Chapter but if he will see it as perfectly shamed and exposed let him read Bishop Morton's long and learned Answer to it * Apologia Catholica p. 61. to p. 278. We are examining the Doctrines and finding out the Marks of the Church and not of particular Men and had Calvin or others taught any such Doctrines as are very falsly there laid to their Charge I know none had been concerned in them but themselves and no Church could have been prejudiced by them any farther than it had received them I shall therefore keep more close to Bellarmine's Note tho not to his Method upon it and I assure a late Adviser †Advice to the â—onfuter of Belâ—â—mine 't is not the design of confuting him but setting Men right in the way to the True Religion and the True Church when others are so busy to draw them off by false Marks and Pretences which is the cause of this Vndertaking I confess it would be too prolix as Bellarmine says to produce all the Testimonies of the Ancients thereby to shew what was the Doctrine of the Primitive Church in every particular Point controverted between us I shall therefore offer only some plain and brief Remarks by which the sense of the Primitive Church may be undeniably known in most of the Controversies and by which it will appear what was the Doctrine of the Church then and how contrary that of the Church of Rome is now to it And here I should first begin with the most Primitive that is with the Apostolick Church which truly and only deserves the Title of being Mother and Mistress of all Christian Churches that ever were or shall be in the World it is as vain as arrogant for any later and particular Church to assume that to it self which is but a Sister-Church at most and younger than some of the rest and tho more fine and proud yet not half so honest and uncorrupt This Apostolick Church which was founded and governed by the Apostles over all the World is the true Standard of the Christian Church and as in revealed Religion That which is first is true according to Tertullian's * Id verum quod prius id prius quod ab initio ab initio quod ab Apostolis Tertul. de praescript l. 4. Axiom because it comes nearest to the first pure Fountain of Revelation so as he adds That is first which is from the Beginning and from the Apostles We should first then examine what was the Faith and Doctrine of the Apostolick Church the greatest and almost only account of which we have in their own Canonical Writings which are received and allowed as such by the whole Christian Church and in these our Adversaries find so little of their own late and new Doctrines that they cannot but own that these are insufficient to authorise and establish most of them without the Authority of the present Church and without the help of unwritten Traditions When we produce Scripture against our Adversaries we then produce the only Authentick Records of the Apostolick Church and the only certain account we have of the Faith and Doctrine of the most Primitive Church let them object therefore never so much against Scripture as a Rule of Faith yet whilst it contains the only sure Testimony of what was taught and believed by the first Christian Church so far as any of these Doctrines are not in Scripture so far they cannot appear to be the Doctrine of the Apostolick Church and whilst we hold all that Faith and all those Doctrines that are contained in Scripture we hold all that can be known to be so in the most pure and most Primitive Church and whatsoever they have added to Scripture which they will needs have to be but an imperfect Rule of Faith they have added so far as can be known to the Doctrine of the Apostolick Church for if Scripture be not the only Rule of that yet it is the only Historical Account we have of it But I shall not at present deal with them out of Scripture tho as it is only a Record and Evidence of the Apostolical Faith they will count this but a Trick I know to draw them into a Scripture Dispute which they are mighty averse to and which they design to avoid by an Appeal from that to the Primitive Church we will go on therefore with our Note as they I suppose mean and understand it and that we may not be too troublesom to them with Scripture and the Apostolick Writings we will go several Ages lower even down to those Times wherein the Church was in its glorious State under the first Christian Emperors and whether their Doctrines or ours were most agreable to those of this Primitive Church Let us now come briefly to enquire in some particular Instances and by some few short Remarks and Observations And First Was any such thing as their pretended Supremacy then allowed of when in the first general Council at Nice * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conc. Nicen. Can. 6. There was a limited Power assigned to the Bishop of Rome as there was to the other Metropolitans of Alexandria and Antioch who were to keep their Bounds set them by antient Custom which is utterly inconsistent with an Universal Supremacy over the whole Church by a Divine Right as is since pretended and claimed contrary to all Antiquity For the next General Council appoints the Bishop of Constantinople to have Prerogatives of Honour
should find the true Church by the direction of Scripture For since according to this Note that can be no true Church which doth not unerringly profess all necessary Doctrines of Faith and Manners when I have found a Church which professes all such necessary Doctrines as are in Scripture I cannot be secure that it is a true Church supposing there are other necessary Doctrines out of Scripture viz. in the unwritten Traditions because then the profession of these will be altogether as necessary to its being a true Church as the profession of those All that the Scripture can satisfy me in is only this whether such a Church profess all the necessary Doctrines in Scripture but if there are any necessary Doctrines out of Scripture it 's certain that the profession of them is as necessary to the being of the true Church as the profession of those that are in it And therefore before I can be certain that it is the true Church I must be fully satisfied that it professeth both which I can never be unless I have some other Rule to go by besides this of Scripture 2dly The Church of Rome teaches that the Scripture is no sufficient Rule in respect of clearness the Sense of it being so obscurely exprest that we can never be certain what it is without the Interpretation of the true Church Which if true it 's utterly impossible for one who is out of the true Church ever to find it by the direction of Scripture For according to this Note that only is the true Church which doth not err in its Profession at least in any necessary Point either as to Doctrines of Faith or Doctrines of Manners But before I can know whether any Church doth not err in its Profession I must be certainly informed what the true Profession is or what are those Doctrines of Faith and Manners of which this true Profession consists as to which the Scripture can never certainly inform me if it be not sufficiently clear For if I can never be certain what the true sense of Scripture is without the Interpretation of the true Church How is it possible that while I am out of the true Church I should ever be certain of its Sense as to all the particular Doctrines which the true Profession of Religion contains So that according to this Principle the Scripture is so far from being a sufficient Rule to one that is out of the true Church that it is perfectly useless to him in his Enquiry after it for either it can certainly direct him to the true Church or it cannot if it can it must be sufficiently clear to inform him of its own Sense without the Interpretation of the true Church concerning all those Doctrines of Faith and Manners whereof the unerring Profession of the true Church is composed and if so this Principle of the Roman Church is erroneous if it be not to what purpose doth it serve unless it be to lead him into an endless Maze of Uncertainties wherein the further he wanders the more he will lose himself So that if a Man hath had the misfortune to be born and bred out of the true Church in an Heretical or Schismatical Communion and is enquiring his way in by this Note of an unerring Profession he hath no other Rule to instruct and inform him what this unerring Profession is but only that of Scripture which according to the Principles of the Church of Rome is insufficient for his Purpose How then is it possible he should ever be certain that he hath found the true Church when the only Rule he hath whereby to enquire what that unerring Profession is whereby he is to seek it is utterly insufficient to resolve him Thirdly The Church of Rome resolves all Certainty as to matters of Faith into the Authority of the true Church and indeed this is the fundamental Principle of Popery viz. That the only ground of Certainty as to matters of Faith is the Authority of the present true Church teaching and proposing ' em Till such time therefore as we have found the true Church and do believe upon the Authority of its teaching we can never have any true Certainty of the matters which we are to believe And yet before we can be certain that we have found the true Church by this Note of an unerring Profession we must have very good certainty as to all matters of Faith for we can never be certain upon the Authority of any Church that what we believe is true till such time as we are certain that it is the true Church nor can we ever be certain that it is the true Church until we are certain that it doth not err in its Profession or which is the same thing that all the matters of Faith which it teaches and professes are true So that the certainty of our Faith after we have found the true Church and do believe upon its Authority must depend upon the certainty of our Faith while we were seeking it and did believe without its Authority Because before we can believe with any certainty upon the Authority of any Church we must be certain that it is the true Church but we can never be certain that it is the true Church till we are first certain that its Profession is true as to all the matters of Faith contained in it To make the matter more plain I will briefly represent it in a short Dialogue between a Protestant and a Papist Protest You tell me I can never be certain as to matters of Faith unless I believe upon the Authority of the true Church Pap. I do so and upon the Truth of this Proposition all my Religion is founded Protest But I beseech you May I be certain as to matters of Faith if I believe upon the Authority of any Church tho I am not certain whether it be the true Church or no Pap. To what Purpose do you ask this Question Protest Because if I may then in believing upon the Authority of the Church of England which you say is a false Church I shall be as certain as to matters of Faith as you who believe on the Authority of the Church of Rome which you say is the only true Church Pap. Why then I tell you you can never be certain as to matters of Faith in believing upon the Authority of any Church unless you are certain it is the true Church upon whose Authority you believe ' em Protest Why so Pap. Because it is not the Authority of a Church merely that is the true ground of Certainty but the Authority of the true Church otherwise the Authority of all Churches true or false would be equally a true ground of Certainty And therefore you can never be certain that the Authority of that Church upon which you believe is a true ground of Certainty unless you are first certain that it is the true Church Protest I do allow your Reason But then pray
the New Law of Faith. We read nothing throughout the whole Jewish State that may make us suppose that any of the Prophets after the Death of Moses tho they were sometimes endu'd with the Power of doing this or that Miracle that they ever taught any new Doctrine which had not been deliver'd by Moses or which they undertook to confirm by any Miracle It is true they sometimes wrought a Miracle as a Credential for themselves and their own Character to shew that they were Prophets sent from God. But then the whole Errand of their Commission was to explain Moses's Law to awaken Men to a stricter Conformity to what they had so provokingly violated to denounce heavy Judgments upon their Disobedience to speak encouraging things to a distress'd and persecuted Church and in a Word to fore-tell the Events of future Ages and particularly point out the Days of the Messiah and Revolutions of Christianity Again we find that under the Dispensation of the Gospel the Miracles which our Saviour and his Apostles wrought were to warrant the whole new Oeconomy And tho one main thing the Apostles were empowr'd for was to bear Testimony to the Resurrection of their Master yet was this chiefly as the whole frame of the Gospel depended wholly upon the Truth and Evidence of this great Event because if it were not as fully made out that he rose again as that he dy'd their Preaching had been vain and their Attempts to abolish the Law and Constitution of Moses had been an unwarrantable Usurpation Nor do we find that tho in a following Age or two the Church was probably bless'd with those miraculous Powers till the Gospel was diffusively enough propagated yet do we not find that they wrought any one Miracle for the establishment of any one particular Doctrine much less any Doctrine that had not been delivered by the Apostles before them nor enter'd into the Substance and Fundamentals of the Gospel Which leads to the next thing viz. Secondly That many of those Doctrines which these Miracles are alledg'd in Confirmation of are so far from being expresly asserted or warranted in the Holy Scriptures that they rather bear a direct Contrariety E. g. The Doctrine of Transubstantiation upon which is superstructed the Adoration of the Host which Adoration supposing the Doctrine of Transubstantiation not to be fundamentally true is by the Confession of several of their own Authors down-right Idolatry Again the Doctrine of worshipping Images we cannot but think to be against the express Law of God. The Doctrine of praying to Saints departed seems immediately to intrench upon the Office of the Holy Jesus as he is our alone Mediator and gives to the Creature incommunicable Attributes of the Creator as Omniscience and Omnipresence And to name no more the Doctrine of Purgatory with its appendent Doctrines about Indulgences Satisfaction and the like they seem to alter the whole Scheme of the Gospel-Institution by taking off from the infiniteness of Divine Mercy and sufficiency of Christ's Satisfaction Now these are the Doctrines wherein the Glory of the Roman Miracles have been generally concern'd So long therefore as we think we have so much in the Holy Scriptures in bar against the Doctrines themselves we cannot but think we have most just prejudices against the Miracles by which the truth of these Doctrines are advanced or supported We are directed by the Apostle to prove all things and to hold fast that which is good 1 Thess v. 21. And not to believe every Spirit but to try the Spirits whether they be of God 1 Joh. iv 1. By the Spirits doubtless must be meant no other than those that pretended to Prophesying to Revelations and to the Power of some Miracles Now it is very true in that first Age wherein this Apostle wrote among the diversity of Gifts there was this of discerning of Spirits that adorn'd some Men 1 Cor. xii 10. It is not probable that the Apostle caution'd these against false Spirits for they were empowr'd to discern them But the Warning belongs to the whole Rank of Christians as appears by the plain Rule he gives to try them by Ver. 2. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God every Spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh is of God c. This seems to point at a sort of Gnosticks in that Age that would be allegorizing the whole History of our Saviour's Life and Death and Resurrection and make it no real thing but purely Mystical and Figurative Whoever therefore would pretend to the Gift of Prophecy or Miracle and yet deliver this kind of Divinity he must be rejected notwithstanding all the shew he might make So in proportion still are we warranted to try the Sprits to judge of any Powers of Miracle that are produc'd in Confirmation of a Doctrine that may intrench upon the great Offices of the Blessed Jesus or look new and forreign to those Revelations which himself and his Apostles have deliver'd to us as the sum and upshot of Christianity Tho we saith the Apostle or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed Gal. i. 8. Tho we the Apostles that are vested with so visible a Power of Miracles nay tho an Angel from Heaven and certainly if an Angel should come he might be capable of doing things beyond the order or course of Nature as to us at least as hath been often seen by what Devils have perform'd tho such an one should be propagating other Doctrines and that by all the most powerful Methods that such spiritual Beings are capable of using they are to be held accursed Our Saviour gives the Caution to all his Followers in every Age That there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets and shall shew great Signs and Wonders insomuch that if it were possible they shall deceive the very Elect. Behold I have told you before Matth. xxiv 24 25. I shall only add the great Criterion of Miracles in the old Testament Deut. xiii 1 2 3. If there arise among you a Prophet or a Dreamer of Dreams and giveth thee a Sign or Wonder and the Sign or the Wonder come to pass whereof he spake unto thee saying Let us go after other Gods which thou hast not known and let us serve them thou shalt not hearken to the Words of that Prophet or that Dreamer of Dreams for the Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your Heart and with all your Soul. So long therefore as the Doctrines which these sort of Miracles are brought to confirm are in dispute betwixt us and after all the impartial Enquiry we can make we think that several of them do war directly against the received Doctrines of our Faith this Glory of Miracles is vainly urg'd to us as a Note of the true Church when we are warn'd even against Miracles themselves where they
69. which I presume is the best that his Friend Bellarmine could direct him to and which hath nothing further in it than a pretty high Flight which several of the Fathers would take when they mention the Holy Sacrament and what may be well enough defended by those that reject Transubstantiation to the uttermost The Cardinal gives us another Miracle from Paschasius de Corpore Dom. c. 14. which our late learned Reasoner is very fond of too ‖ Consens Veterum p. 97. The Story is of a certain Godly Priest that was in great dis-tress to see with his bodily Eyes the Shape of him whom he certainly believ'd actually present under the Species of Bread and Wine At length he obtain'd what he so long desir'd and beheld the Body of Christ in Human Shape but in the Figure of a Child which he had also most vehemently desired Now as to this beside the Authority of the Book out of which this is taken let us consider to what purpose this Miracle was wrought or the Story of it told in this place The Cardinal is upon the Proof of Christ's Bodily Presence in the Sacrament and this Bodily Presence is so receiv'd by those of the Roman Communion that they believe that very Body which was slain upon the Cross was buried was rais'd again and went up into Heaven that that very numerical Body is substantially and intirely under the Species of Bread and Wine the Substance of which is perfectly vanish'd Let me therefore ask Mr. Sclater of Putney because his Friend the Cardinal cannot now answer for himself Did our Blessed Saviour die an Infant and rise again an Infant and does he now sit at the Right Hand of God in the Figure of a Child or in his Infant-state If not and I hope he will say it is blasphemous to think so how then did this Godly Presbyter see the Body of Christ as he supposed it transubstantiated under the Species of Bread and Wine The Substance of the Bread and Wine was gone into that Body that had been crucified What! was there Transubstantiation upon Transubstantiation and the proper Body of our Saviour gone into the Substance of a Child's Body It may be this made him in love with those Liturgies he quotes †Consens Veterum p. 28. wherein the Priest is blessing God for vouchsafing by him to change the immaculate Body of Christ and his precious Blood c. To change it into what perhaps from that of a grown Man to that of a Child or Infant Well but the Cardinal is something more wary in the Story than the venturesom Gentleman of Putney For he tells us the Priest had desir'd to see him in this Shape If so and if he was thus far indulg'd what kind of Argument is this for Transubstantiation What Conviction is this that the very self-same Body that hung upon the Cross and is at the right Hand of God is brought down under the Species of Bread and Wine But the Author adds in Bellarmin That it pleaseth God to work Miracles upon a twofold account sometimes to confirm the doubting and sometimes for the Consolation of those that fervently love him * Bellarm. de Saer Euchar. ubi supr This we are to suppose then was not to confirm the Godly Priest in his Faith he needed not that but to give him great Consolation But what Are we to suppose so Godly a Presbyter as this was to be more ravish'd in the view of his Saviour under the shape of a smiling playing Babe than in that very Form wherein he finish'd the great work of our Salvation upon the Cross and wherein he is now triumphing Above in the Accomplishment of what he undertook Let him believe it that can make the Doctrine of Transubstantiation the Reason of his Conversion from the Church of England to that of Rome and can strengthen his Faith in it more firmly from some Rabbinical Prophecies and such a Story as this is †Consensus Veter p. 21 22. and so on and p. 97. I would have examined a Third Story of St. Anthony of Padua but I find this done so learnedly and so effectually to my Hands by a most ingenious Pen (a) Reflections on the Rom. Devotions p. 326 327 c. that I had rather refer the Reader thither than needlesly swell the bulk of this Note Considering therefore how little likelihood of Truth there is in many Stories of this kind or where as to matter of Fact some of them may have been possibly true yet how reasonably they may be accounted the Tricks and Impostures of Evil Spirits I cannot but close this Head with an Expression of St. Austin to the Donatists upon the same Pretensions they had to Miracles August de Vnitate Eccles c. 16. Removentur ista vel figmenta mendacium hominum vel portenta fallacium spirituum Away with these either Fictions of Lying Men or Illusions of deceiving Spirits For certainly they are neither the Note nor can be the Glory of any true Church And therefore III. Lastly We of the Reform'd Religion as we do not pretend to the working of Miracles in our Age so if we did we could pretend to prove nothing by them but what hath been already sufficiently prov'd by the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles We most humbly and thankfully adore the great Condescentions of Divine Grace that hath been pleas'd in his first planting of Christianity so fully and so unquestionably to confirm all the necessary Articles of our Belief with such strong and convincing Miracles The Report of these Miracles we most firmly believe We do without the least haesitancy own the Almighty Power of God in them and entirely embrace all that Faith which they were design'd to confirm and establish We know of no other Doctrines that we have any Obligation to receive than what are deliver'd to us in the Holy Scriptures and so effectually seal'd to us We have nothing new to put off or back with the pretence of Miracles but are always ready to reject both the Doctrines when they are propos'd and the Miracles when they are offer'd in Defence of them We have no need to follow cunningly devis'd Fables since we have a more sure Word of Prophecy to which by God's Grace we will take heed And therefore all Miracles at this time of the Day are superfluous to us for if the Doctrine be not propos'd to us before-hand in the written Word ten thousand Miracles could not warrant it if it be to be found there they may save the trouble of a Miracle because that Word of God hath been sufficiently confirm'd in that Way already This Word of God is the sure Rule of our Faith the great Character of our Hopes and if the hearty Belief of this and humble Conformity of Life to it will not secure us at last we are contented to lose all the Rewards which this Gospel hath made us to expect And therefore
Constance and Trent that 't was the ancient Practice For the Doctrine of Transubstantiation See a Treatise of Transubstantiation by one in the Communion of the Church of Rome Printed 1687. one of the Communion of the Church of Rome hath given us an Account lately he proves from many Doctors of the Church of Rome that it is not ancient viz. from Peter Lombard from Suarez Scotus the Bishop of Cambray Cardinal Cusanus Erasmus Alphonsus à Castro Tonstall and Cassander And that 't is not taught in the holy Scriptures he proves from the Testimonies of Scotus Ockam Gabriel Biel and Cardinal Cajetan and after all that it was not the Doctrine of the Fathers of the Church It would have been very fit I should here have made an end having considered every thing which the Cardinal hath offered as to this Note of the Church But there is a late Writer I will not call him Author hath taken the Confidence to produce the Testimony of the Jewish Writers in behalf of the Church of Rome Mr. Sclater's Consenf Vet. and which is most surprising of all he quotes the Rabbins in Defence of the Doctrine of Transubstantiation which they are as far from asserting as he is from understanding them The Cardinal was too learned and modest to attempt any thing of this Nature but this Gentleman advanceth higher than he thought fit to do What he offers speaks nothing so lowdly as the Writers Effrontery and Ignorance not to say something worse Tho he thought fit to desert his Mother the Church of England yet it little became him to fly in her Face and suborn a Rout of Jews against her His Discourse is so weak that I shall bestow very little time and pains about it I shall however say something to it that he may not think any Part of his Pamphlet unanswered and do heartily wish him Repentance for his Folly and that he may learn Modesty for the future And for my better proceeding in this matter I shall do these things First I will briefly shew the true use and value of the Testimony of Jews as to the Christian Religion Secondly I shall shew the gross Ignorance not to say Dishonesty of this Writer in this Matter Thirdly I shall prove that the Jewish Writers are so far from serving the Church of Rome that they bear witness against it and that also in this very matter of Transubstantiation First I shall consider how far the Testimony of the Jews is useful to Christianity And several such there are that serve the common Christianity 1. The Jews as to matter of Fact confess that there was such a Man as Jesus that he wrought wonderful Works They do in their Talmud and elsewhere mention several of those Names which are mentioned in the New Testament and are there mentioned to have been at the same time in which they are placed there This is an useful Testimony and serves the common Christianity and saves us the labour in our Books against the Jews of proving these Matters of Fact. 2. They are also good Witnesses as to the Number of the Canonical Books of the Old Testament which were deposited in their Hands This is owned by Cardinal Cajetan who affirms that this is one Advantage we receive from the Obstinacy of the Jews Cajetan in Rom. xi v. 11. that tho they believe not in Christ themselves yet they approve the Books of the Old Testament and therefore those Books cannot be supposed to have been invented by the Christians to have served their turn This Testimony of theirs serves indeed the common Christianity but is so far from serving the Church of Rome that it is a good Evidence against the Council of Trent who have receiv'd those Books for Canonical which the Jews never received into the Canon of Scripture 3. They are good Witnesses of the Promise of a Messias which is reckoned among the Fundamental Articles of the Jewish Faith. And this is an other Advantage that Christians receive as Cajetan well observes in the Place mentioned before from the Obstinacy of the Jews Abravenel C. Fidei c. 1. They agree that such a Promise was made and that therefore it cannot be supposed either a Forgery of the Christians or a vain Belief peculiar only to them 4. They are good Witnesses where they interpret those Texts of the Old Testament of the Messias which belong to that matter and which are by the Writers of the New Testament applied to that purpose And the more ancient Jews do thus The Chaldee Paraphrasts and other of the more ancient Jewish Doctors do apply those Texts to him which the Christians also understand to be spoken of him Of which were it not too great a Digression it would be easy to produce very many Proofs This serves the common Christianity greatly and in our Disputes against the Jews affords us very great Advantages 5. Nor do I deny but that some of the Catholick Doctrines of the Christian Religion I mean such as have been always believed from the first Beginning of Christianity may receive some Confirmation from the Writings of the most antient Jewish Doctors But to produce them as Witnesses as this Writer does to a Doctrine never received by the antient Church is the most extravagant thing imaginable Secondly I shall shew the gross Ignorance not to say Dishonesty of this Writer in this matter His Author from whom he borrows all his Rabbinical Learning is Galatinus He tells if we will believe him that he was always accounted a very learned Man Preface to Consens Veterum It would have been more to his purpose to have vouched for his Honesty After this he falls into a Fit of Devotion he is of a sudden transported with Admiration that the Hebrew Writers long before Christ's time take Mr. Sclater's word for that should have such Notions But the Wind bloweth were it listeth c. He might have staid till he had been sure of the matter of Fact and then 't would have been time enough to admire at it But the Reader is to know that Mr. Sclater was mightily inclined to believe in this matter with the Church of Rome or else Galatinus could never by his Arguments have prevailed upon him This appears from his own Words after he had drawn up his Evidence from Galatinus P. 27. he tells his Reader that Galatinus thought and I 'le assure you 't is hard to say what a Jew that professeth himself a Convert to the Church of Rome does really think these Prophecies and Interpretations he might have called them Dreams and Figments argumentative not only against the Jews but a Confirmation also of the Christian Religion against all Hereticks c. But if you ask Mr. Sclater what confirms him in this Belief you 'le find him not hard to believe I am confirmed says he by the Title-page of his Book Of so great force is the Title-page of Galatinus his Book with Mr. Sclater of
own Authors 11. The Glory of Miracles These alone were never a Note of the true Church And those extraordinary Gifts which were bestowed at first for the Confirmation of Christianity we think they are ceased long ago But we are forewarned of False Christs and false Prophets Mat. 24.24 which should shew great Signs and Wonders which me-thinks should make a Church very careful how they made any pretension to Miracles But the Church of Rome is resolved to do it and would fain perswade us that there are many great Ones wrought among them to this very Day and as they believe always will be But we know and they will not deny it that many of the Miracles they have talked of are meer Forgeries and Delusions others altogether incredible and but weakly attested and wholly unworthy of the Seriousness and Gravity of the Christian Religion most of them said to be done in Corners and are never to be seen but among themselves When they please to oblige us Protestants with the sight of a few of them they may then deserve to be farther considered till that be done they must give us leave to think that their Church is reduced to great Streights when it shall stand in need of such slight Artifices as these to support it 12. The Light of Prophecy This if they had it can bring no more Advantage to their Cause than the other The Church of God anciently when extraordinary Revelations were more common had not always Prophets in it And when any appeared the Prophet was to be tryed by the Faith of the Church and not the Church by the Predictions of the Prophet And we are still commanded to try the Spirits whether they are of God 1 Joh. 4.1 Because many false Prophets are gone out into the World. 13. The Confession of Adversaries This if the Cardinal's Instances were pertinent would yet be but of little Consequence for if some Protestants have spoken favourably of his Catholicks some of his Catholicks have spoken favourably of Protestants Or if we should be willing to hope well of some of them as we are and they should adjudge us every one to Eternal Damnation as they generally do this would be but an ill sign that their Church must therefore be the truer because it is more Censorious and Uncharitable than Ours 14. The Vnhappy End of the Church's Enemies A wise Man would be something afraid of passing this into a Note before he was himself safe in his Grave For all things come alike to all Eccl. 9.2 there is one Event to the Righteous and to the Wicked Many of the most Zealous Patrons of the Romish Persuasion have met with as Tragical and Unfortunate Ends as the most accursed Heretick that ever was devoured by Vermin or burnt at a Stake 15. Temporal Felicity This may be placed in the same Rank with the former it is altogether as variable and inconstant as that no certain Judgment can be made upon it They are not to learn that the Enemies of their Church have been often successful and that Victory has not always waited upon their Catholick Arms no not in their most Holy Wars when Religion has been the only ground of the Quarrel Thus upon a Review of all the Notes in order as they are mustered up by the great Cardinal it may appear to any unprejudiced Enquirer that he has missed of his Aim For that they are either no Notes of a Church at all or not proper to that of Rome And now after the highest Pretences of an Infallible Church and the absolute Deference and Submission which they say is due unto it any Man that shall seriously consider the Matter must needs wonder they should have no surer means at last to find it out than a few slight and improbable nay some of them very vain false and extravagant Conjectures The Protestants whom they will not allow to be certain of any thing have far better Evidences than these and as good Assurances of the Truth of their Church as can be desired For we think the True Faith True Worship and a Right Administration of the Sacraments do unquestionably make a True Church These the Romanists themselves cannot deny to be the great and necessary Notes and if the Controversy betwixt us come to be determined by these it will soon appear which Communion we ought to prefer We make Profession of the whole Catholick Apostolick Faith as it is contained in the Holy Scriptures and briefly comprized in the three Creeds which is all that was ever received in the Primitive Church They have made large Additions to the Antient Belief and increased the number of the Articles from Twelve to Four and Twenty many of which were not so much as heard of in the First Ages and never made necessary to be believed till above fifteen hundred Years after the Publication of the Gospel We Worship Almighty God and none but him and unto him we Pray in a Language we understand through Jesus Christ our only Mediator in whose Name when we ask we are sure to be heard They have a kind of Worship which they give to Saints and Images which as to all External Acts of Adoration is the very same they pay to God himself and when their Addresses are directed unto Him all their Publick Service is in an unknown Tongue and they set up to themselves many Mediatours of Intercession when they cannot tell whether they hear them but it is most certain that God has never promised to hear them for their Sakes We receive the two Sacraments which Christ ordained in his Church and administer them both in such Manner and Form as he has appointed They without any Divine Authority have made Seven Sacraments and in the Lord's Supper they believe that there is offered up a proper Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Living and the Dead they adore the Elements which they think are Transubstantiated into the Body and Blood of our Saviour and suffer the Laity to communicate but in one kind robbing them of the Cup contrary to the plain Institution and express Command of our Blessed Lord. And since we have the True Faith True Worship and the Sacraments rightly Administred it is evident that we are not deficient in any thing that is necessary to the Constitution of a True Church But They will never be able to prove themselves such a One by the late Additions they have made to the Creed and their many Deviations from the Primitive Rule And yet they will be continually vaunting that they are not only a True Church but the only True Church in the World and upon this Presumption they thunder out their Anathema's upon all Christendom besides and confidently condemn them for a Company of Heretical and Schismatical Conventicles But they cannot justify that rash and uncharitable Sentence nor make good any part of this heavy Charge For we that heartily believe all the Antient Creeds cannot be accused of Heresy neither are we guilty of Schism because we only Reformed those Errors and Corruptions which they had introduced and wanted not sufficient Authority for what was done But if they are still absolutely resolved to stand to the Censure they have passed and allow no True Church upon Earth but their Own it is not Cardinal Bellarmin's Fifteen Notes that will ever prove it FINIS ERRATA Pag. 367. l. 3. for not r. most P. 371. Marg. l. ult for cap. 3. r. 13. LONDON Printed by J. D. for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1687. BOOKS lately printed for Richard Chiswell THE Pillar and Ground of Truth A Treatise shewing that the Roman Church falsly claims to be That Church and the Pillar of That Truth mentioned by St. Paul in his First Epistle to Timothy Chap. 3. Vers 15.4o. The Peoples Right to read the Holy Scripture Asserted 4o. A Short Summary of the Principal Controversies between the Church of England and the Church of Rome being a Vindication of several Protestant Doctrines in Answer to a Late Pamphlet Intituled Protestancy destitute of Scripture Proofs 4o. Two Discourses of Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead An Answer to a late Pamphlet Intituled The Judgment and Doctrine of the Clergy of the Church of England concerning one Special Branch of the King's Prerogative viz. In dispensing with the Penal Laws 4o. A PRIVATE PRAYER to be used in Difficult Times 8o.
172. The Eighth Note Sanctity of Doctrine THat this Note as well as the others is far from performing what is promised for it by the Cardinal is sufficiently made evident by four Particulars p. 173. I. What is here meant by Sanctity of Doctrine p. 174. Tho' that is the best and purest Church which hath the least of Error and Corruption in its Doctrine and Discipline yet that which is the best is not the only true Church p. 157. II. That Sanctity of Doctrine i.e. a pure profession of true Religion without any mixture of Error is no true Note or Character whereby a man may distinguish the true Church from all false Churches p. 176. That this can be no true Note of the true Church made evidently appear from the consideration of those necessary Properties of all true Notes by which Things are to be known and distinguished p. 177. These are Four. 1. Every true Note ought to be common to all of the same kind with the thing which it notifies p. 177 to 180. 2. Every true Note ought to be proper and peculiar to that kind of things of which it is a Note and not common to Things of another kind p. 181. 3. Every true Note ought to be more known than the Thing which it notifies p. 182 183. 4. Every true Note ought to be inseparable to the Thing which it notifies p. 184 to 188. III. In what sense this may be a Note of the true Church p. 189. That is a true Church which professes all the Essential Articles of Christian Faith and receives all the Essential parts of Christian Worship and Discipline p. 190. The Church of England willing to be tried by this p. 192. IV. According to the Principles of the Church of Rome the true Church is not to be found by this Note in which soever of the two Senses we understand it ibid. This clearly made out in Four Particulars 1. The Church of Rome decryes mens private judgment of Discretion as utterly insufficient to make any certain distinction of Truth from Falshood in matters of Religion p. 194. 2. Shee allows no sufficient Rule without the true Church to guide and direct our private Judgment of Discretion p. 195. Which is the true Church not to be resolved by Principles of Nature but those of Revelation p. 196. No other Rule while we are out of the Church to direct us in this Enquiry but only that of Scripture ibid. This the Church of Rome tells us is insufficient and that for two Reasons 1. Because the Scripture is not full enough as to all Doctrines of Faith and Manners And therefore there are certain unwritten Traditions in the Church of equal Authority with it by which its defects are supplied p. 197. 2. Because it is not clear enough the Sense of it being so obscurely expressed that we can never be certain what it is without the interpretation of the true Church p. 198. These considered and answered 3. The Church of Rome resolves all certainty as to matters of Faith into the Authority of the true Church which indeed is the Fundamental Principle of Popery p. 199. A short Dialogue upon this Argument between a Papist and Protestant p. 200 to 202. 4. The Church of Rome gives Authority to the true Church to impose upon us a necessity of believing such Things as before they were not obliged to believe p. 203. to the End. The Ninth Note Efficacy of Doctrine BY Efficacy of Doctrine Two Things understood Either 1. The power which the Word of God hath in the hearts of particular men to dispose them to believe aright and to live well Or 2 That Success which it hath in drawing Multitudes outwardly to profess and embrace it p. 209. The first too inward and the second which is that which the Cardinal understands by it too uncertain a thing to be a Note of a True Church ibid. Many other things besides Efficacy of Doctrine which have and may convert whole Nations to the Christian Religion such as hopes and fears outward force necessity p. 210. An Instance hereof in the Conversions wrought by Charles the Great p. 211. The difference between such Conversions and those which were made in the first Ages of the Church p. 212. In answer to the Cardinal upon this Note Three things laid down I. That the prevalency of any Doctrine can be no Note of a True Church p. 213. This appears 1. From what our Saviour hath said in this matter ibid. 214. 2. From the Consideration of the Temper and Constitution of Mankind p. 215. to 217. 3. From plain matter of Fact. p. 218 219. Error hath such an influence often up n mens minds that they have rejected Truth and preferred the most gross and impious Opinions before it ibid. This apparent from the Histories of all Ages ibid. More particularly in the Case of Arianism p. 219. And in that of Mahomitanism p. 220. The Conversions wrought by those if the Greek Church whom the Church of Rome accounts Hereti ks p. 221. The Efficacy of the Reformed Doctrine ibid. II. That the Prevalency of the Doctrine professed in the Church of Rome is no Note of its being a True Church p. 222. And that for these reasons 1. Because of that great mixture of Errors which there is with the Truth which it professes p. 223. 2. Because the Doctrine of the Church of Rome is so much altered from what it formerly was ibid. 3. Because it hinders those who embrace it from throughly examining it p. 224. 4. Because Art and Force have sometimes been made use of to make it prevail p. 225. III. The Arguments the Cardinal makes use of to prove this to be a Note of the True Church proved to be Insufficient p. 226. 1. His Arguments from the Scriptures considered ibid. 2. His Arguments from the prevalency of the Christian Doctrine in the beginning of the Church examined p. 227. 3. His Arguments from the particular Instances which he gives of Conversions wrought by those of the Church of Rome reflected on p. 227. I. The Conversion of the English by Austin the Monk considered p. 228. Four Things alledged in answer to it ibid. 2. The Conversion of the People of Franconia by Kilianus replied to p. 228 229. 3. The Conversion of a great part of Germany by Vinofrid otherwise called Boniface considered ibid. The Conversion of the Vandals of the Danes of the Bulgarians Slavonians c. Ascribed to other Causes than the naked Efficacy of the Christian Doctrine ibid. The Barbarous Cruelties that were used by the Spaniards in the Conversion of the Indians p. 230. The Instance of Heraclius the Emperors Letter to Dagobert King of France concerning the method he made use of for the Conversion of the Jews p. 231. The Conclusion The Tenth Note Holiness of LIFE IN this Argument it is shewn I. What the Notion of Holiness is p. 233. Holiness is of Two kinds 1. Holiness of Calling and Dedication What
us return to our Lord 's Original the Evangelical Beginning the Apostolical Tradition And hence let the Reason of our Act arise from whence Order and the Beginning arose If therefore Christ alone is to be heard we ought not to regard what another before us thought fit to be done but what Christ who is before all first did For we ought not to follow the Custom of Man but the Truth of God since God himself speaks thus by the Prophet Isaiah In vain do they worship me teaching the Commandments and Doctrines of Men. Which very Words our Lord again repeats in the Gospel Ye reject the Commandments of God that ye may establish your own Tradition Thus S. Cyprian †Epist lxiii ad Caecilium fratrem lxxiv. ad Pompeium Ed. Oxon. With whom Tertullian ‖ L. de Veland Virg. c. 1. whom he was wont to call his Master agrees in many memorable Sayings No body can prescribe against the Truth neither Space of Times nor the Patronages of Persons nor the Priviledg of Countries From which things indeed Custom having gotten a Beginning by Ignorance or Simplicity and being grown strong by Succession pleads against Truth But our Lord Christ calls himself the TRVTH not CVSTOM Nor doth Novelty so much confute Heresy as Truth Whatsoever is against Truth that will be Heresy even old Custom Truth doth not stand * L. de Anima c. xxviii in need of old Custom to make it be believed nor doth Heresy fear the Charge of Novelty That which is plainly false is made generous by Antiquity For why should I not call that false whose Proof is false Why should I believe Pythagoras who tells Lies that he may be believed I omit all the rest having said enough to shew that if Antiquity it self be to be credited we ought not to depend upon Antiquity alone but seek for ancient Truth Which leads me to the second thing I undertook to shew that the present Church of Rome vainly pretends to true Antiquity i.e. to ancient Truth II. The Antiquity of a Church doth not consist in the Antiquity of the Place where it is seated For a new Worship may come into an ancient Place of Worship as the new Altar of Ahaz was introduced into the Temple at Jerusalem where he sacrificed to the Gods of Damascus 2 King. xvi 2 Chron. xxviii 23 Nor doth it consist meerly in the Antiquity of its Founders For the Apostles founded many Churches which had all the same Title to Antiquity in this regard and yet continued not such Churches as they left them but decayed some of them so fast that what Truth and Goodness remained among them was ready to dye even before all the Apostles were dead Rev. iii. 2. But it 's true Antiquity consists in the Preservation of the ancient Truth entire and uncorrupted which it received from the Apostles and which made it at first to be a Church Those things are truly ancient which persist in the same State after a long Tract of Time wherein they were at their beginning For if they have suffered any Change in that which belongs to their Being and Constitution they have lost their Antiquity and become another thing than they were at the first Now to know this we must enquire into the Nature of the thing it self and understand for instance what it is that makes a Society to be the Church of God. And all agree it is the Christian Truth In which if it have suffered Alteration that is doth not hold the same Christian Doctrine it did at the beginning but hath introduced Errors and Lies under the pretence of ancient Truth it is not the same Church it was at first and therefore hath not that Mark of true Antiquity which will prove it to be such as it pretends Now that this is the Case of the present Church of Rome is evident by that Alteration they have made in the ancient Creed Unto which they have added as many more Articles as there were at the first and thereby made such a Change in their Church for a Change is made by adding as well as taking away as makes it not to be the same ancient Church which the Apostles founded at the beginning This Charge they have no way to avoid nor can by any other means maintain that they are such an ancient Church as Christ and his Apostles setled but by this Ratiocination as Bellarmin calls it That in all great Changes of Religion these six things may be ever shewn 1. The Author of that Change. 2. The new Doctrine that was brought in 3. The Time when it began 4. The Place where 5. Who opposed it 6. And who joyned themselves to it None of which can be shewn in the Church of Rome since the Apostles times and therefore there hath been no Change at all made in it but it remains the same it was at first without any Alteration Which is a reasoning built upon grounds so notoriously false that it scarce deserves the Name of a poor Piece of Sophistry 1. For first it is contrary to all History and Experience which shews us there have been great Changes the Authors and the Beginnings c. of which cannot now be known Though no Man can doubt there hath been an Alteration made For the Body Spiritual and Civil too is like the Body Natural In which as there are some Diseases which make such a violent and sudden Assault that one may say at what moment they began So there are other which grow so insensibly and by such slow Degrees that none can tell when the first Alteration was made and by what Accident from a good Habit of Body to a bad Thus we are sure a Man is in a deep Consumption when we see him worn away to Skin and Bone though no body can tell the precise time when nor by what means nor where and in what Company his Blood began to be tainted And thus we are sure there is a Gangrene as St Paul calls Heresy when we see it corrode the Body of the Church though it crept in so secretly at the first and so indiscernably that it was not suspected nor can alway be traced to its first Occasion and Original No the Tares in the Field which is another Example whereby our Lord himself illustrates this matter had taken root before they were espied for they were sown in the Night while Men slept and could take no notice of it so that all that could be known was this that his Enemy had done it That is the Tares were not from our Saviour nor were first sown but were of a later and quite different Original But by what particular Instrument the Enemy sowed them at what hour of the Night by what hand and when did not appear for the matter was carried so secretly and in the dark that the Servants who knew of the sowing of the good Seed in the Field wondred to see the bad and ask'd
often fallacious way of arguing however popular and that needs less Trouble in Examination from Persons to things whereas these will continue the same but they are changeable 1. But then it may be observed of the Roman Succession that the case seems so extremely chang'd since the first Times So great an Alteration there is in the Persons and in the Office to which the Succession is now come that it can hardly be look'd on as the continuation of the same The Episcopal Power is all that we can find for some hundred of years laid claim to and our Note is only concerned in it tho in some few single Acts it began by degrees to be stretch'd so as to put other Bishops upon their Guard and Protestations as in the case of Appeals by the Africans Yet were all Bishops owned to have an equal share in that all to be of like Power and Authority all alike Successors of the Apostles whether at Rome or in the meanest City as in the known Testimonies in St. Cyprian and St. Jerom c. But the Papal Power now challenged and exercised is so vastly and widely different from Episcopacy that scarce any Propriety of Speech can bring them under the same Name But to come to matter of Fact. Notwithstanding the high Elogiums given by the Antients on particular occasions to the Roman Church or Bishops and the very bold Efforts and very lofty Aspirings of some of these yet he must have other Eyes or other Spectacles than we can procure who can espy any thing like the Supremacy and Authority claim'd by the present Papacy in the Principles or Practice of the Church for more than five hundred Years which as hath been observed could not but have been as discernable in all the Histories of those Times as the Reference to the power of our Kings and manner of our Government must be in our own History 2. Farther indeed there seems no great Reason for them to be much concerned at the Succession of Bishops that are not very favourable to the very Order We know what great Opposition in their Council of Trent the Divine Right of Episcopacy met with from the chief Favourites of that See when the Determination was so strongly pressed by others De Pont. Rom. l. 1. c. 8 9. l. 4. c. 24. And the Author of these Notes is pleated to determine the Government of the Church not to be chiefly in the Bishops but properly and intirely Monarchical in the Pope only and that he derives his Power immediately from Christ But the Bishops have theirs from him as to Jurisdiction which is Government 3. Moreover they have the less reason to except against any Churches for the want of this Apostolical Order when their very Catechism that multiplies Orders with much less Distinction of Office makes this no distinct Order but only a different Degree of the same Priesthood the supreme Order in their Church ascending only gradually from that of a common Presbyter to that of Bishops Arch-Bishops Patriarchs and the Pope himself Some of the intermediate we know admit no distinct Ordination Nay the pretended plenary Power of the Pope hath sometimes by particular Delegation empowered mitred Abbots but meer Presbyters to supply the Place of two of the Bishops if but one be present even in Ordination it self and that of a Bishop as Bellarmine in this very Note yields Many other Instances might be given of their endeavours to advance the first as it were on purpose to fence off the danger of a Rival To what use else should serve so many Priviledges and Exemptions long complained of Their chief Rise hath been upon the Depression of Bishops and robbing them of their ordinary Power So quite opposite is the true case from the Jelousies of some about this Primitive Order 4. Also they will have little cause to glory much in this pretended uninterrupted Succession when they consider how many Nullities according to their own Principles may dissolve and separate the closest Connexion thereof For besides confused Tumultuary and Simoniacal Promotions from which their own Writers will scarce free some of them That one Principle of the Intention of the Priest being necessary to the Effect of any Sacrament had need make them fearful of relying too much upon it For in case this were once wanting in some of the principal Sources through so long a Tract of time variety of Circumstances and different Temper of Persons which many will think no hard matter to suppose however can never be certainly proved otherwise by this Rule they cannot be secure of any Order yea scarce of any true Christian among them So I proceed to the Third Inquiry How insufficient a Proof this will afford them of any Great Advantage Inquiry 3. Indeed Bellarmin himself seems so Just as in part to yield this in his Answer to the Fourth Objection about this Note He says an Argument may be brought that there the Church is not where there is not this Succession but it cannot thence necessarily be gathered that there the Church is wheresoever this Succession is So that it seems no positive Proof with him Wherefore he thinks fit to exclude the Eastern Churches or break their Succession upon pretences of Heresy 1. For First This Succession is no sufficient Evividence of the Truth of the Doctrine of any Church Indeed were Tradition so infallible a Conveyance of Truth as some Men that talk of nothing below Demonstration would vouch Were it impossible for any new Opinion to creep into the Church Were it necessary that Men must believe to Day as they did Yesterday and so in short as it were at one Leap up to the very Apostles and that the passage of sixteen hundred years were able to make as little Alterations in the Memorials or Evidences of what Doctrines or Rules of Practice were first delivered by word of Mouth as the last Nights sleep does of what pass'd the Day before Then every Church of Apostolical Foundation and such were all then Planted had been and would still continue as Infallible as the Church of Rome thinks her self and we should not have had any dispute about their Tenets nor any such Exceptions against their Succession What Security theirs hath from the Defections which others are charged with or have been found liable to what Evidence may be produc'd that any Church or Company of Men in the Church may not add in process of Time some Doctrines and Usages very prejudicial to the Common Faith once delivered to the Saints And that the Resolution of our Faith is only with safety to be made into the Perpetuity and Infallibility of the Roman Church alone by it self or its Dependants we are yet to seek And much wonder that the Ancients in all their Disputes with Hereticks and Schismaticks should take so great a compass to confute their Adversaries from Scripture Reason and other Authorities beside what the See of Rome afforded and not with our
into the Doctrines of the Primitive Church which will have as many Inconveniences in it I fear as they are apt to object against searching to this end into the Scriptures so he must examine all the particular Doctrines that are controverted between both Churches to see which are most agreeable to the Faith of the Primitive for he cannot know this in the Lump and by the Gross and to tell him as they sometimes do that 't is impossible for their Church to have departed from the Faith of the Primitive and that the present Age could not alter from the Doctrine of the foregoing and so upward this is not to make the Primitive Faith a Note of the present Church but to prevent all enquiry about this Note and to make it wholly useless and insignificant He that will therefore make use of this Mark to know the true Church by must be supposed and allowed to inquire into the Doctrine of the Primitive Church about all those particular Controversies and Matters of Faith that are in difference between us and must not have his Enquiry stopt and precluded by any general Pretences of the Infallibility either of Oral Tradition or of the present Church but must freely and impartially examin the particular Doctrines that are controverted that so he may bring every one of them to the Touchstone of the Primitive Faith and try whether they are agreable to the same or no and according as he finds this that is whatsoever Church he finds to hold the same Doctrine with the Primitive in all the particular Points of difference That he must conclude to be the true Church from this Note given of it Our Adversaries do not usually care to enter into particular Points of Controversy wherein they are very sensible they shall be sooner foiled and bafled and therefore they generally wave those which are capable of being made more plain and evident to most Mens Capacities and they chuse rather to dispute and wrangle about more general and intricate Matters in which there is some more room to cavil and to amuse and perplex themselves and others with seeming Difficulties so that tho particular Controversies may be made very plain and it appears often in them as clear almost as the Light on which side the Truth is as Whether Prayers ought to be in a known Tongue Whether the Communion ought to be in both kinds Whether the Scriptures are to be read by the People and the like yet to avoid those and to prevent the Disadvantage of such manifest and particular Points they carry the Dispute off to other things and run into the general Controversies of Infallibility and Church-Authority and Resolution of Faith and a Judg in Controversies and the like and here they think there is more room for Cavil and Sophistry and they can hereby lead Men if not into Scepticism and Doubtfulness yet into a Maze and Labyrinth where they shall not so easily get out Which way of theirs seems to me just as if a Person in a plain Controversy about Weight or Measure which were otherwise easy to be determined should to avoid that think fit to run into the perplext Dispute What was the true Standard of Weights and Measures or everlastingly wrangle about that Question Whether Matter consisted of Divisible or Indivisible Parts and because he could raise Difficulties here and keep up a long and intricate Controversy about those Matters would not be brought to yield that a Pound was heavier than an Ounce or an Ell longer than an Inch. I cannot but think that some of our particular Controversies may be almost as clearly decided as those two and that the running into some general ones is as remote and sophistical as the other We must therefore according to this Note of the Church not be foreprized or prevented with any general and more perplext Dispute but we must fairly examine all the particular Doctrines of the Church and see whether they are agreeable with those of the Primitive Church or no before we can find out the true Church at present not that the true Church we are to look for is confined to any particular Place or Country but like a great Homogenial Body every Part of which is of the fame nature with the Whole wherever the true Primitive Faith is profest in all the Parts of it there is a True Church and all particular Churches being united together in the same Bond of Faith do make up the Catholick Church over all the World. If there were but one Particular Church upon the whole Earth that did profess this True Faith that alone might be called the Catholick Church because that alone had that Catholick Faith which did properly make and constitute the True Church But this Faith being common to a great many Particular Churches this makes them to be all true and all Catholick as to Faith but as to Place 't is ridiculous to call any one Catholick and as absurd as to call a Part the Whole in that sense no Church is Catholick in the other every Church is that holds the Whole Christian Faith We are not therefore to seek for any Particular Church that shall usurp to it self the Name of Catholick in exclusion to all others but for any Church that maintains the true Catholick Faith profest by the Primitive which upon that account is a True Church and acknowledged so by this Mark which is here given of it To find out such a one and to distinguish it from others we must very carefully enquire into all the particular Doctrines and Points of Faith which are held by it and see whether they are agreeable to the Faith and Doctrine of the Primitive Church and according to this Method and saving to our selves all the forementioned Advantages of it we are very willing to have the Difference adjusted between us and the Church of Rome and to have it decided by this Note whether we or they are the True Church that is whether we or they in all Matters of Controversy between us do most agree with the Doctrine of the Primitive Church And here is a very large scope offered to me and what has taken up a great many Volumes on both sides so that to most People Scripture one would think should be a shorter and an easier and therefore a better way to know the True Church by but since our Adversaries are not willing to leave the Case to that we are ready to accept of the Primitive Church to be Judg between us and as has been often offered before by Bishop Jewel and others we shall be very willing to stand to its award and decision for however some few Divines of the Reformation before they were so well acquainted with Antiquity and when they could not so well distinguish what was genuine from what was spurious and corrupted by your Church were at first especially more jealous and distrustful than they need to have been of it and unwilling to
Doctrine Which I doubt not to make appear performs as little as either of the former In order to which I shall endeavour to shew I. What the Cardinal means by Sanctity of Doctrine II. That according to his Notion of it Sanctity of Doctrine is no certain Note of the true Church III. In what Sense it is a certain Note by which any honest Enquirer may distinguish a true Church from a false one IV. That neither in this nor the Cardinal's Notion of it the true Church can be found by any honest Enquirer according to the Principles of the Church of Rome I. What it is that the Cardinal here means by Sanctity of Doctrine To which in short I answer That which he means by it is the Profession of the true Religion both as to Doctrine of Faith and Doctrine of Manners without any mixture of Error For so he explains himself The true Church is not only Catholick and Apostolick and One but also Holy according to the Constantinopolitan Creed but its evident the Church is said to be Holy because its Profession is Holy containing nothing false as to Doctrine of Faith nothing unjust as to Doctrine of Manners And a little after By this Note saith he it 's evident that no Church but ours is a true Church because there is no Sect either of Pagans or Philosophers or Jews or Turks or Hereticks which doth not contain some Errors that have been exploded and are manifestly contrary to right Reason By which it 's evident that he excludes all sorts of Errors from that Profession of Religion which he here sets up as a Mark of the true Church And therefore after he had given a brief Enumeration of the Errors of all other Sects as well of Pagans and Jews and Mahometans as of Christians He thus concludes But as for our Catholick Church it teaches no Error no Turpitude nothing against Reason no not excepting Transubstantiation though many things above Reason therefore she alone is absolutely Holy and to her alone appertains what we say in our Creed I believe the Holy Church In which Words he expresly points and directs us to his Catholick Church by this Mark or Note That it teaches no Error c. By which it is evident that Sanctity of Doctrine in the Cardinal's Sense consists in an unerring profession of the true Religion without any so much as the least intermixture of Error Now tho it is certain that that is the best and purest Church which hath the least of Error and Corruption in its Doctrine and Discipline yet it is as certain that that which is the best Church is not the only true Church For the only true Church is the Catholick Church which consists of a great many particular Churches whereof some are more and some less pure from Error and Corruption and yet all of 'em true Churches For all particular Bodies and Societies of Christians that are true parts of the Catholick Church are true Churches as being Homogenious Parts of the Catholick Church and consequently partaking of the same common Nature with it But when we are discoursing of the Notes of the true Church that which we mean by 'em is such certain Marks and Characters by which an honest Enquirer may distinguish such Societies of Christians as are the true Churches of which the true Catholick Church consists from such as are not and therefore that can be no true Note of the true Church which doth not distinguish it from all false Churches and whose contrary is consistent with the being of a true Church I proceed therefore II. To shew that Sanctity of Doctrine according to Bellarmin's Sense of it that is a pure profession of true Religion without any intermixture of Error is no true Note or Mark or Character by which any honest Enquirer can certainly distinguish the true Church from all false Churches And this I doubt not will evidently appear if we consider what are the necessary Properties of all true Notes by which things are to be known and distinguished and they are these four 1. Every true Note ought to be common to all of the same kind with the thing which it notifies 2. It ought to be proper and peculiar to that kind of Thing of which it is a Note and not common to Things of another kind 3. It ought to be more known than the Thing which it notifies 4. It ought to be inseparable to it The three last of which Bellarmin himself owns to be necessary Properties of every true Note Cap. 2. though the first he did not think meet to take notice of for a Reason best known to himself if therefore this Note according to Bellarmine's sense of it hath neither of these Properties belonging to it it can be no true Note of the true Church and that none of 'em do belong to it I doubt not but I shall make it evidently appear 1. First Every true Note ought to be common to all of the same kind with the thing which it notifies Thus every true Note of a true Man for instance ought to be common to all human kind and so every true Note of every wise Man ought to be common to all wise Men and by the same Rule every true Note of the true Church ought to be common to all true Churches For seeing the true Church is nothing else but only a Collection of all true Churches whatsoever is a certain Note of the true Church must necessarily belong to all true Churches in the World. And indeed since the end of our enquiry after the true Church is that we may communicate with it and since we can no otherwise communicate with the true Church but by communicating with some particular Church that is a true part of it the proper use of the Notes of the true Church is to direct our Enquirers whether this or that Church be a true part of it or which is the same thing whether by communicating with this or that particular Church we do communicate with the true Catholick Church And therefore unless the Notes of the true Catholick Church are such as do appertain to all true Churches they can never give us any certain direction in what Church we may communicate with the true Catholick Church for seeing we can communicate with the true Catholick Church in none but a true Church no Note can give us any certain direction where to communicate with the Catholick Church but what directs us to a true Church and no Note can certainly direct us to a true Church but what belongs to all true Churches If therefore not to err in its Profession be a certain Note whereby to find the true Catholick Church it must necessarily belong to all true Churches and consequently that can be no true Church which in any instance whatsoever errs in its Profession and indeed seeing all the true Churches in the World are only so many simular parts of the true Catholick Church and the
they are we can never be certain whether any one Church in the World doth profess 'em or no for how can we know whether or no a Church professes we know not what And unless we certainly know that these Principles are true we can never be certain whether that be a true Church which professes 'em for seeing it is the profession of the true Principles of Religion that makes a true Church it is impossible for us to know whether any Church be a true Church till we know whether the Principles it professes are true So that before a Man can be secure that he hath found the true Church by this Note he must be certain either that every thing it professes is true or at least that the main and fundamental Principles of its Profession are true Neither of which he can be certain of according to the Principles of the Church of Rome For First She decries Mens private Judgment of Discretion as utterly insufficient to make any certain distinction of Truth from Falshood in matters of Religion Secondly She allows no sufficient Rule without the true Church to guide and direct our private Judgment of Discretion Thirdly She resolves all Certainty as to matters of Faith into the Authority of the true Church Fourthly She authorizes the true Church to impose upon us an absolute necessity of believing such Things as before were not necessary to be believed First The Church of Rome decries Men's private Judgment of Discretion as utterly insufficient to make any certain distinction of Truth from Falshood in matters of Religion Seeing we are to seek the true Church by Notes our certainty that we have found it must wholly depend upon our certainty that we have found in it the Notes of the true Church but tho there is no one thing in the World of which we are more concerned to be certain than that we have found the true Church and are in Communion with it because no less than our Eternal Salvation depends upon it yet it is only our own private Judgment of Discretion that by applying the Notes of the true Church can ascertain us in this Point For while we are in quest of the true Church we have no other way to find it but by carrying the Notes of it along with us and by examining and judging by our own private Discretion which Church these Notes do belong to either our private Discretion is sufficient to assertain us in this Matter or it is not if it be not we can never be certain which is the true Church if it be it must be sufficient to assertain us in all other necessary Points of Religion because one of the Notes by which we are to seek the true Church and that a principal one too is Sanctity of Doctrine or an unerring profession of the true Religion at least in all necessary points But before we can be certain which Church this Note belongs to we must be throughly satisfied in our own private Discretion what this unerring Profession is which we can never be till we are certain of the Truth of all the Particulars of it and when we are certain of this we are certain at least as to all necessary points of true Religion which must all be included in every unerring Profession of it So that before we can be certain of any Church that it is the true Church we must be certain that it doth not err in its profession and before we can be certain of this we must be certain of the Truth of all those particular Doctrines whereof its Profession is composed and of this we have as yet no other way to be certain but only by our own private Judgment of Discretion because till we have found the true Church its impossible we should conduct our selves by its Authority and in the absence of the true Churches Authority we have nothing to conduct us but our own private Discretion either this our private Discretion therefore is sufficient to assertain us of the Truth of all the particular Doctrines whereof an unerring Profession of Religion is composed or it is not if it be it must be sufficient to assertain us as to all necessary points of Religion if it be not as the Church of Rome affirms it is not it is impossible we should ever be certain that we have found the true Church again either therefore the Church of Rome must allow that certainty in all at least in all necessary Points of Religion is attainable by the free and honest use of our own private Judgment of Discretion which as I shall shew by and by she can never allow without undermining her own Foundations or she must leave Men hovering in eternal Uncertainty as to one of the most necessary Points of Religion viz. which is the true Church Secondly The Church of Rome allows no sufficient Rule without the true Church to guide and direct our private Judgment of Discretion Seeing the Constitution of the true Church is not natural but entirely founded upon Divine Institution this Question Which is the true Church is not to be resolved by Principles of Nature but by Principles of Revelation and therefore without some revealed Rule which is every way sufficient to guide and direct our private Discretion we shall never be able to find out which is the true Church because without such a Rule we have nothing but the Principles of Nature to go by which in this Enquiry are utterly insufficient to direct us But while we are out of the Church we have no other revealed Rule to direct us in our Enquiry after it but only that of Scripture for as for Tradition the Church of Rome teaches that the true Church is the sole Conservator of it and that tho it be a part of Divine Revelation yet no Man is obliged any farther to believe it than the true Church hath defined and declared it And seeing I can have ho certainty what is a true Tradition till such time as I am got into the true Church How can Tradition be a Rule of Faith to me while I am out of it Or How can that be the Rule of my Faith whilst I am in quest of the true Church which I have no other Obligation to believe but only the true Churches Authority Whilst therefore I am out of the true Church the only Rule I have to go by in my Enquiries after it is Scripture And this the Church of Rome tells me is insufficient both because it is not full enough and because it is not clear enough Which if true I can never be certain I have found the true Church by this Note of an unerring Profession 1st She teaches that the Scripture is not full enough as not containing in it all necessary Doctrines of Faith and Manners but that there are certain unwritten Traditions in the Church of equal Authority with it by which its defects are supplied And if so How is it possible I
obtained of him upon other ther Terms than that those who were conquered by him having left their Idol-worship should embrace the true Krantzius Praef. ad Metrop sincere and eternal Religion of Christ And to engage them to continue firm to it he sometimes took Hostages of them and finding them begin to apostatize which they as often did as they thought themselves able to make head against their Conquerors he was forc'd to set up a kind of Inquisition to keep them in aw which Mezeray tells us lasted in Westphalia till the 15th Century Now when the Swords of victorious Princes as it happened in this case had made way for the preaching of the Gospel when the receiving of it was often made one of the Terms they who were conquered must necessarily submit to the Monks had very easy work what-ever Doctrine they had preached might have been efficacious under such Circumstances So that when there is with the Christian Doctrine a concurrence of many other things which have so strong an influence upon humane Nature 't is hard nay impossible for us to know which of them does the work When different Medicines proper for the same Distemper are administred at the same time 't is not easy to say which of them works the Cure. There is indeed a wonderful Efficacy in the Christian Doctrine but we can never be sure that the Conversion of a Nation is effected by that when Hopes and Fears and outward Force and necessity are in conjunction with it All which is so far from detracting from the honour of our Religion and the Conversions it made in the Primitive Times that it sets iâ— it a better Light and makes it shine the brighter Men were converted then not to a conquering but persecuted Church The Secular Power was against them that preached this holy Doctrine Much might be lost and nothing in this World got by it There were no rewards to encourage Men to receive it but a thousand Difficulties and Dangers to deter them from it And then indeed the Efficacy of the Christian Doctrine was in its greatest lustre it wrought all alone and had nothing to put in with it for a share in the Conquests it made The simplicity of its Preachers cleared them from all suspicion of Fraud The little or no Interest they had in the Government makes it plain that they could not use force and every thing concurred to demonstrate that 't was purely the Efficacy of their Doctrine by which they prevailed But to proceed a little more particularly to answer what the Cardinal has discoursed upon this Subject First I shall endeavour to shew in the general That the Prevalency of any Doctrine can be no Note of a true Church Secondly I shall instance in such particulars as do more particularly affect the Church of Rome in this matter and do make it evident that the Prevalency of the Doctrine professed in that Church is no Note of its being a true Church Thirdly I shall shew the Insufficiency of those Arguments with which the Cardinal endeavours to prove the contrary First That the Prevalency of any Doctrine can be no Note of a true Church will appear if we consider 1. What our Saviour has said in this matter 2. The Nature of Mankind 3. Matter of Fact. 1. Altho our Saviour sufficiently understood how much his Doctrine was likely to prevail in the World yet he is so far from making this to be a Note of his Church that he gives as plain intimations of the Prevalency of Error and does often bid us take care how we are imposed upon on thereby Take heed saith he that no man deceive you for many shall come in my Name Mat. 24.4 5. saying I am Christ and deceive many For there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets Verse 24. and shall shew great Signs and Wonders insomuch that if it were possible they shall deceive the very Elect. When he foretells so general a Defection he cannot be supposed to have thought the prevalency of any Doctrine to have been the Character of his true Disciples He does indeed compare the preaching of his Gospel to a grain of Mustard-seed which is the least of all Seeds hut when it is grown it is the greatest among Herbs unto Leaven which leaveneth the whole Lump unto a Net which gathereth of every kind All which Comparisons do intimate how much his Church would spread far near but not that such its diffusiveness was to be relied upon as a Note whereby to find it for by that Mark it could not then have been found when it was but a little Flock Besides that in the same Chapter he compares likewise the preaching of his Gospel to a Man which sowed good Seed in his Field Verse 24 25 26. but while Men slept his Enemy came and sowed Tares among the Wheat and went his way but when the Blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit then appeared the Tares also In which case if we were to judg by the growth and spreading we might conclude the Tares to have been the best Seed and not sown by an Enemy He compares likewise the Ministers of his Word to the Servants of a certain King sent out by him to call those that were bidden to the Wedding but to no purpose Mat. 22.2 c. for they all made light of it Intimating hereby how possible it is for those who are obstinate not to hearken to the most efficacious Doctrine that can be preached the most passionate and earnest invitations which can be made them And in the Parable of the good Seed some of which fell by the way-side some upon stony places some among Thorns Mat. 13.3 4. and other upon good Ground He does plainly set forth that let any Doctrine be never so good the reception which it finds in the World will be no other than what is agreeable to those Dispositions of mind which it happens to meet with And here also if the Rule had been that that is the true Doctrine which grows fastest and out-tops the other we must have given it for the Thorns which grew up and choaked the good Seed Which leads me to shew 2. From the consideration of the Temper and constitution of Mankind how weak a proof of a true Church the prevalency of any Doctrine is which it teacheth For Mens minds are so uncertain by reason of the Inconstancy of their Circumstances which chiefly influence them that often Truth is shut out where Error finds an easy admission Humane Nature is so weak a thing so apt to take impressions first from this thing then from another that no great heed is to be given to its changes no certain Argument can be drawn from them Such indeed is the Power of Truth that were Mankind freed from their Prejudices against it were their Minds no way byassed by Interest or Passion and at the same time fully instructed concerning it there is
no doubt to be made but that it would generally obtain But when Mens Inclinations and Circumstances are so various nothing is more manifest than that the receiving or rejecting Truth is a thing too uncertain to be made an infallible Note of it When it is argued on behalf of Christianity that so many thousands were on the suddain converted to the Faith the force of such an Argument does not lie in the bare prevalency of the Doctrine but in its prevalency when placed in such Circumstances as it at the first preaching of the Gospel was and when Men of mean birth and education as has already been observed did without force or fraud on the suddain make so many proselytes to a Religion which was so directly contrary to those Opinions to which the World had been so long accustomed a Religion which was likely to bring such great Inconveniences upon those who embraced it This indeed was very remarkable and could be ascribed to nothing but the Power of Truth which was only able to bring about so wonderful an Effect In a word Men being oftner guided by Fancy Prejudice and Interest than by Reason makes them more capable of Error than of Truth and when they have once received it not only unwilling to part with it but zealous to propagate it as much as they can The Agreeableness of any Doctrine to their wicked Lusts and Affections is most likely to win upon them The craft and cunning of those who lie in wait to deceive may 〈◊〉 easily mislead unstable Minds into gross Mistakes before they are aware 〈…〉 Force the enjoyment of present Preferment or the hopes of it may make them profess what they do not believe to be true and then seek for Reasons to defend it Since then there are so many things beside Truth which may induce Men to admit any Doctrine the bare admitting of it tho never so universally can be no Note of the Truth of that or of the Church that teaches it God has endued us with a capacity of finding out Truth but at the same time he has made us fallible Creatures and liable to be imposed upon so that it stands us in hand to be aware how we are deceived and the more care we take in a concern of this Nature the more we discover our own Sincerity and Zeal for Truth But let there be never such clear Discoveries thereof it is in our power wilfully to shut our Eyes against them nay when we have adhered to Truth for some time we may be tempted either wholly to forsake it or to intermingle gross Errors with it So that it is as improper to conclude the prevalency of any Doctrine to be an Argument of the Truth of it or of the Church that professeth it as that any Cause is just because successful Such is God's infinite Wisdom and Goodness that as he does oftentimes bless with unexpected Success an honest and just Design and they who are sagacious in tracing the Footsteps of Providence do easily discover it so does he likewise frequently exert his Power after an extraordinary manner for the propagation of Truth But on the other hand as he often permits an unjust Design to prevail and prosper so likewise does he suffer Error to multiply and increase And when he does at any time exert his Power after an extraordinary manner for the propagation of Truth he still deals with Men as with Rational Creatures so that such his Power may be resisted nay may be so far resisted as may make him punish with Infatuation such their Resistance as he served the Pharisees upon the account of their Obstinacy whose Eyes he blinded and whose Heart he hardned John 12.40 41. that they should not see with their Eyes nor understand with their Heart and be converted And as happened to those whom the Apostle makes mention of whom because they received not the love of Truth that they might be saved 2 Thess 2.10 11. God sent strong Delusions that they might believe a Lie. Since therefore such is the Temper and Constitution of Mankind as to be daily subject to Errors and to be liable by the just Judgment of God to be at last hardened in them nothing can with any certainty be determined concerning the Truth of any Church from the Prevalency of any Doctrine professed in it 3. Plain Matter of Fact shews the Insufficiency of this Note For the Histories of all Ages make it evident what an influence Error has often had upon Mens Minds and that altho Truth may have happened sometimes to have prevailed yet that it has been as often refused and gross and most impious Opinions preferr'd before it How soon were our first Parents when their Minds were in their greatest strength and vigor and not as yet biassed by any Misapprehensions of things Gen. 3.5 6. by the cunning Artifices of Satan tempted to believe a Lie After which first and grand Mistake how did their whole Stock degenerate when every Imagination of Man's Heart being evil Gen. 6.5 6. it repented the Lord that he had made Man on the Earth Afterward God chose to himself out of the rest of the World a peculiar People and to secure them against the Idolatry and Superstition of those who dwelt near them he gave them particular Statutes which by Threats and Promises and mighty Wonders which he wrought for them he obliged them to observe Yet how soon did they forget God and turned after Idols So that in the time of Ahab according to God's own account there were but 7000 who had not bowed unto Baal If the Efficacy of the Doctrine had been a Note of the true Church I do not see why the Priests of Baal had not as much reason at that time to have insisted upon it as the Romish Priests can have now At our Saviour's coming the Pharisees had infected the whole Nation with their Traditions and so obstinately did they adhere to them that notwithstanding the many Miracles which our Saviour had wrought for them notwithstanding the Holiness of his Life and Conversation few believed on him according to the Prophesy of Isaiah made mention Joh. 12.38 Lord who hath believed our Report of which our Saviour himself complains John 5.43 I am come in my Father's Name And ye receive me not if another shall come in his own Name him ye will receive And in the 11th of St. Matthew ver 20 c. he does most severely upbraid the Cities wherein most of his mighty Works were done because they repented not And does openly declare that it would be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of Judgment than for them If any Doctrine was likely to have been efficacious one would have thought the Doctrine of our Saviour when taught by himself had been so and yet we find that no Prophet was ever less respected than he was even among his own Country-men The same thing happened likewise to St.
since Matters stand thus with us the Cardinal shew'd himself either a very perverse Disputer or was dropt asleep when he makes Luther in vain attempting to restore a drown'd Man to Life or when he tells a much lewder Story of Calvin out of Bolsec Bellarm. de Notis Eccles l. iv c. 14. He represents him as hiring a poor Man to feign himself Dead that so he might have the Reputation of an Holy and Glorious Prophet of God. The poor Man takes the Hire feigns himself dead Calvin comes to him prays over him and then takes him by the Hand commands him once and again in the face of a great Assembly in the Name of God to rise but the poor Wretch was beyond the reach of his Voice for he was dead indeed and all this Pageantry of his by the severe Judgment of God turned into sad earnest This he tells and much more at length with most particular Circumstances and yet in the very next Paragraph but one after this Story * Bellarm. ubi supr Respondet Calvinus in praefat Institut alii Nos injuriam eis facere quòd ab eis Miracula exigimus cum ipsi Doctrinam antiquam innumeris Miraculis ab Apostolis Martyribus confirmatam praedicent the Cardinal himself quotes Calvin and others of the Reformation pleading in Defence of themselves That their Adversaries do not deal fairly with them to call for Miracles from them when they publish no other than the ANCIENT Doctrine confirmed by innumerable Miracles of old by the Apostles and Martyrs What! Do they openly declare that they neither pretend to Miracles nor need them in Confirmation of that Doctrine which they preach because so Ancient and so well confirm'd already by innumerable Miracles wrought by Apostles and Martyrs themselves and yet shall it be threapt upon them that they betake themselves to such little Arts of hiring poor Wretches to dissemble their Death that these may have the Vain-Glory of raising them Either the Cardinal should not have told this Tale or he should not have reported the Answer which Calvin and others have offer'd in Defence of themselves To Conclude We are so assur'd of the whole sum of our Faith that it is what our Blessed Lord and his Apostles have delivered to us and we so firmly believe the Truth of those Miracles which they wrought to support and justify it that we esteem it perfectly needless and superfluous to pretend to them now Nay let me add that we cannot but think that our very Contempt of those Miracles which the late fabulous Ages have vended in the World confirms us more effectually in the Belief of those which the first Publishers of the Gospel wrought Because it seems the great Artifice of that Father of Lies when he saw he could not at first either defeat the Power of those Miracles by imitating them himself or suppress the notioe and conveyance of them to the World he would by an after-Game in a more lazy and stupid Age advance some Wonders of his own framing some of them very absurd and ridiculous all of them very remarkable for their Superstition and so bring the thinking and considering Man to suspect that if those Miracles have the same Foundation and were carryed on with the same Designs as those by which Christ and his Apostles confirm'd Christianity that then they may be all equally subject to Dispute and Question And it is well for those Countries where these Miracles are most boasted of and seemingly believ'd if they don't find a very sensible growth of Atheism and Irreligion amongst them THE END The Reader is requested to correct among some few others of more easy Observation these following Mistakes PAg. 250. L. 10. Marg. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 P. 251. l. 19. r. Antoninus P. 256. l. 30. r. the Change. P. 258. l. 8. r. Prophecy P. 260. l. 4. Marg. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L 5. Marg. r. mir L. 8. Marg. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 P. 261. l. 18. r. Impostors P. 262. l. 2. Marg. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. 3. Marg. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. 4. Marg. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. 5. Marg. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. 7. Marg. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. 9. Marg. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 P. 263. l. 20. r. written P. 273. l. 24. Marg. r. eradicantur P. 276. l. 11. r. Tharasius LONDON Printed by J. D. for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1687. The Twelfth Note of the CHURCH EXAMINED VIZ The LIGHT of PROPHECY Duodecima Nota est Lumen Propheticum Bellarm. L. iv c. 15. de Notis Ecclesiae IMPRIMATUR July 8. 1687. Guil. Needham BY the Light of Prophecy two Things may be meant 1. That Divine Revelation whereby a Man is enabled to foretell that such or such contingent Events will certainly come to pass In which Sense altho they may be said to have the Light of Prophecy who are instructed what Events another hath foretold and to whom it doth appear also that God hath communicated the certain knowledg of those Events to him yet in common Speech the Light of Prophecy as it signifies the Revelation of Future Events is usually restrained to the Person to whom such Revelation was immediately made For he only is called a Prophet who makes known to others those Future Events the knowledg whereof himself had received not from any other Man but from God i. e. who himself spake as he was moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. i. 21. Or 2. The Testimony that is given by the fulfilling of Prophecies to some Doctrine that was designed to be confirmed by it And thus the Christian Religion was demonstrated to be the True Religion by the Light of Prophecy since whatever the Prophets from the beginning of the World had foretold concerning Christ by the fulfilling of which he should be known was all exactly accomplish'd in our Lord Jesus and in the material Circumstances of that Alteration which he made in the State of Religion And in this Sense we find the Phrase used in the Scriptures particularly by St. Peter We have also a more sure Word of Prophecy Vers 19. to which ye do well that ye take heed as unto a Light that shineth in a dark Place until the Day dawn and the Day-star arise in your Hearts Where it is evident that St. Peter speaks of that Testimony which was given to the Christian Religion by the accomplishment of Prophecies supposing it to be so clear and strong a Testimony that it would remove all Doubts if any remained concerning the Divine Authority of the Gospel The Light of Prophecy in the former Sense is the knowledg of future Contingencies communicated to the Prophets the Light of Prophecy in the latter Sense is that Testimony which by the accomplishment of their Predictions is given to others long after for the Confirmation of their Faith. Had the
prosperous Life hath an honourable Death and Burial for I saw says Solomon the Wicked buried (h) Eccles 8.10 that is as Cardinal Cajetan expounds the Words in such a pompous Sepulchre as transmits an honourable Memory of them to Posterity I grant that the Notes of Divine Vengeance are in some Mens Deaths fairly legible But then as I have before observed from God's Judgments against this or that Person nothing can be concluded against that Church of which they are Members 2. Besides these general Declarations the Scripture further assures us by a particular Instance that a true Church may be without this Mark and that the Enemies of the true Church may have it Thus the Church of Israel was without it and the uncircumcised Philistins had it when the High Priest fell backward and brake his Neck and his two Sons Hophni and Phineas with thirty thousand of the Israelites fell in one day by the Sword of the Philistins (i) 1 Sam. 3. Again when Zedekiah the Defender of the true Church was taken his Nobles slaughtered his Sons slain before his Eyes his Eyes then put out and he carried Captive to Babylon and put in Prison till the day of his Death If this was then a Note of the Church the Babylonians were the only true Church of God for their Enemies had then the most unhappy Ends So contrary is this Note to what we find in Scipture Secondly Nor is it less repugnant to daily Observation and the History of foregoing Ages For 1. All the World can testify that the same kind of Death happens to Men of different yea of opposite Churches That as dies the Christian so dies the Jew as dies the Catholick so dies the Heretick That the Protestant and Papist lie down ALIKE in the Dust to use Job's Phrase (k) Job 21.26 That as they often agree in their Deaths who while they lived were of different Churches so they often widely differ who were united in the same One hath a natural another a violent Death one falls by the Hand of God another by the Hand of his Neighbour one goes off gently in a Calm another is hurried away in a Storm one lives out the Term of Nature another is cut off in the midst of his Days one dies leisurely another is snatched away suddenly one finds a Grave in the Earth another in the Sea another finds none at all but is exposed as a Prey to Beasts and Birds This is so obvious that it is needless to produce Instances for the Confirmation of it 2. Whosoever has any Acquaintance with the History of the Christian Church knows that for several of the first Ages at least the best Men had generally the worst Deaths That the Apostles of our blessed Lord were set forth as a Spectacle to the World suffered the Deaths of the basest Malefactors that St. Peter and St. Andrew were crucified St. James the Just stoned and his Brains knocked out with a Club St. Bartholomew flead alive That not one of the Apostles can be named who did not end his Life by an unnatural Death except only St. John who escaped it by Miracle for he was cast into a Cauldron of boiling Oil. That the first Bishops their Successors followed them in the like Tragical Deaths That St. Clemens Bishop of Rome was thrown into the Bottom of the Sea St. Simeon Bishop of Jerusalem crucified St. Ignatius Bishop of Antioch exposed to the Lions St. Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna burnt at a Stake Yea that the Christians for the most part for three hundred Years together met with the most horrid Deaths One was torn in pieces by wild Beasts another was roasted on a Spit another was broiled on a Gridiron another had his Flesh scraped off to the Bones with sharp Shells and Salt and Vinegar poured into his green Wounds and for one of their bloody Persecutors an hundred Christians may be found who died a terrible Death These were the happy Ends that the first and best Christians were blessed with happy indeed if we respect the Cause for which they died and the blessed Reward they were crowned with but none ever more unhappy in the Eye of the World. As they had been of all Men the most miserable had they had Hope in this Life only so if this Note be true their Hope could not have reached beyond it 3. Nor is this Note more repugnant to Scripture and Experience than it is to Reason One prime fundamental Principle of Reason is That Contradictions cannot be true or that the same thing cannot be and not be This we are as sure of as that we our selves are or that any thing else is whatsoever therefore it be from whence it plainly follows that Contradictions may be true we are as sure that it is false and therefore that the Note now under consideration is so because if it be true the most palpable Contradictions will be true also Of those many that offer themselves I shall mention a few As 1. That that was a false Church which was most certainly the true Church For if the burning alive of Valens the Arian Emperor was a certain Sign that the Arian Faith is false the burning alive of many of the first Christians is as certain a Note that the Primitive Faith is false If it follows that Manichaeus was a damnable Heretick because he was flead alive must we not conclude that St. Bartholomew was as bad and by consequence all the holy Apostles because he suffered the same kind of Death 2. That a Church remaining the same without any Change in Doctrine Worship or Discipline may be to day a false Church to morrow the only true Church So the Church of Israel was a false one when the High Priest fell backward and brake his Neck within a few days after when the Hand of the Lord was against the Philistines and they were smitten with a foul Disease of which they miserably died it was a true Church again Thus the Church of Rome in the Year 1656 when a dreadful Pestilence for that is one of Bellarmin's unhappy Ends swept away three hundred thousands in three Months time in the Kingdom of Naples and made great havock at Rome and Genoa †Athanas Kircheri Scrutin Physico-Med Contag Luis quae dicitur Pestis P. 426. was a false Church but in the Year 1665 when the like dreadful Pestilence raged in London it became a true Church again Yea 3. That there is no one Church in the World but by this Note it may be and it may not be the true Church because the Opposers and the Defenders of any one and the same Church may have both of them unhappy and both of them happy Ends. Now as the Opposers have unhappy Ends it is a true Church as the Defenders have unhappy Ends it is by the fourth thing premised a false one Again as the Opposers have an happy End it is a false Church as the Defenders have
from being dazled at the Sight that they were no more affected than if I had looked on a Piece of Green Silk But I doubt he will censure them very hardly for it and think they are a sort of malignant Cavaleerish Eyes I can't help that but whatever Eyes they be since I have been able to hold them open so long against the glaring imaginary Splendor of These These Triumphant NOTES I will venture to draw out the whole Train once more and give a little Remark upon every one of them as they pass by 1. The Name of Catholick This is a Note which may be easily usurped by every bold Pretender but till it can be proved that it is joyned with the Profession of the true Faith the Name alone is nothing but an empty and insignificant Sound 2. Antiquity I shall not here mention the Antiquity of some Errors nor that there were many Churches in the World before there was any at Rome but will freely confess that that had been ancient enough if it had preserved that Doctrine in its Purity which it received at the first But it is well known that the Additions she has made unto that concerning Infallibility Images Purgatory and the like cannot be pretended to be of Antient and Apostolical Tradition Nay many of their present Tenents were never declared necessary till the last Age and the Church of Rome as it is now constituted can be esteemed no older than the Council of Trent that is about fourty Years younger than the Reformation 3. Duration By this the Cardinal would perswade us that his true Church has been from the Beginning and shall continue to the End of Christianity The first we deny the second can never be proved till the Day of Judgment We are sure the Church of Rome has been changed already from what it was and we hope and believe that it will be changed again from what it is And then what would become of the Duration they boast of if they should ever reform themselves from those Errors and Abuses which have crept in among them as has been often attempted and a long time most earnestly desired by many of the best and most impartial of their own Communion So that granting this to be a Note it would make against them both ways For what is past we know what Alterations have been made by them and they can never be secured against others that may happen hereafter 4. Amplitude or Multitude and Variety of Believers This can by no means be made a Note of the Church for the time was once that Christ's Flock was a little Flock Acts 1.15 and the number of the Names together were but about an hundred and twenty And afterwards the Arrian Heresy had almost overspread the Face of Christendom insomuch that the whole World was thought to be against Athanasius and Athanasius against the whole World. Or should we let it pass for a Note they could gain but little by it For they are infinitely exceeded in Multitude not only by Heathens and Mahometans but by Christians of other Denominations 5. Succession of Bishops How far this may be necessary to the Being of a Church I need not dispute But the uninterrupted Succession they of Rome are wont to glory in is manifestly false For besides the long Vacances that have sometimes happened and the many Schisms they have had when two or more have pretended to the Papacy and no Man could determine who had the Right which must make it dubious the confessed Hereticks that have possessed themselves of the Infallible Chair must quite cut off at least interrupt the Succession Or if they have it notwithstanding this or any other Objection that might be made We of the Church of England can plead the same 6. Agreement in Doctrine with the Primitive Church This is a good Note indeed if they mean the truly Primitive Church for that agreed with the Scripture and Doctrine of the Apostles But then I hope they will not have the Confidence to affirm that their Prayers in an Unknown Tongue their Half-Communion their Adoration of the Host and many other things which they now receive are agreeable to the Practice and Belief of that Primitive Church 7. The Vnion of the Members among themselves and with the Head. Of this they are continually making their Brags but the many and violent Contentions that have often been betwixt the several Pretenders to the Papal Dignity and the endless Feuds and Animosities that are kept up amongst them about many Controverted Points do sufficiently declare that their Church has been rent and torn with Factions and Intestine Divisions as much as any other Society Or if they were as firmly Vnited as they pretend it is no more than other Combinations of Men have been in known and wicked Errors 8. Sanctity of Doctrine For they generally assert as the Cardinal does here that the Roman Church maintains nothing that is False either in Matter of Faith or Manners If they were able to prove this there might be some Reason indeed that their Church should be esteemed the Mother and Mistress of all Churches as she has been wont of late to stile her self But since the Power of deposing Princes has been openly assumed and frequently practised and never yet condemned by any either Pope or Council since the Doctrine of Aequivocation and many other absurd and impious Opinions are taught by their Casuists and made use of by their Confessors in directing the Consciences of their Penitents and since these and many more very dangerous Errors do not only escape without a Censure but are approved of and incouraged by their Governours I do not see how they and their Church can possibly be excused from the Guilt of them 9. The Efficacy of Doctrine Here we are told of the wonderful Success they have had in the Propagation of their Faith and the Conversions that have been made of whole Nations And supposing it were as they say yet Heresy and Infidelity has often had as great and swift a Progress in the World as any that their Doctrine can boast of and considering the Pravity and Corruption of Human Nature it is not strange that the most gross and pernicious Errors should be more readily received and spread themselves faster than the most divine and sacred Truths 10. Holiness of Life This is indeed the most real Commendation of a Christian and I will not go about to rob them of the Glory of it But then it cannot be denied but meet Philosophers and some of the Antient and many of those whom they account Modern Hereticks have been of a very strict and unblamable Conversation and divers of their Popes and other Ecclesiasticks of the greatest Eminency of Place have been very infamous for all sorts of Wickedness and Debauchery and their very Religious Orders have been often complained of for the neglect of their Discipline and loosness of their Lives as is abundantly testified by their