Credo Ecclesiam Sanctam Catholicam I beleeue the holy Catholike Church THE Authoritie Vniuersalitie and Visibilitie of the CHVRCH handled and discussed By EDWARD CHALONER Dr. in Diuinitie and Principall of ALBAN Hall in OXFORD LONDON Printed by William Stansby and are to bee sold in Pauls Church-yard at the signe of the Gray-Hound 1625. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE WILLIAM Earle of PEMBROKE Lord HERBERT of Cardiffe Lord Par and Rosse of Kendall Lord Marmion and Saint Qâ—intin c. Lord Chamberlaine of his MAIESTIES Houshold Lord Warden of the Stanneries Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter Chancellor of the Vniuersitie of Oxford And one of his Maiesties most Honorable Priuie Councell MY LORD THe first assault which was euer made vpon mankind appeared in the shape of a question for in that manner did the Serpent sett vpon Eue and the victorie then purchased hath euer since animated the Viperous brood of that arch-enemie to encounter the Church of God with the same engin Aristotles positiue formes of disputing sute not so well with their distempered materials as those of Socrates which conclude in Questions As it was at the building of Babel so is it now in Babylon their confounded language serues onely to aske and demand not to reply For what are the cryes of Rome which more frequently walke the streets and fill them with lowder clamours then those of London other then these Whereupon doe you lastly ground your beliefe How doe you know the Scriptures to be the Word of God Where was your Church in all ages If the Church of Rome professe not the same faith which anciently it did when did it alter or varie from her first integritie Argumentations of other natures are forbidden the Laytie vnder paine of curse this kinde onely of disputing by Questions is dispensed vnto the rudest by the prouerb which saith An Ideot may propound more in an houre then the learnedst in a Kingdome can resolue in a yeere Hauing therefore discoursed vpon these subiects partly in some Lectures had in a famous Metropolitan Church of this Kingdome where for a time abiding I aduentured to thrust in my Sickle into the Haruest of more worthy Labourers partly in my seuerall attendances vpon our late Soueraigne of happy Memorie and his Gracious Maiestie now being I presume in humble acknowledgment of your noble fauours conferred vpon me to present these my poore endeauours to your honourable protection beseeching your Lordship to passe a fauourable construction vpon my boldnesse and to accept of them as from him who is and alwayes will remayne Your Lordships humbly deuoted ED. CHALONER The Contents of the first Part of this Booke SECT I. THe Preface and partition of the ensuing subiect pag. 1. SECT II. What act of Faith is implyed in this Article of the Church and the errours of Romish Interpreters touching the same pag. 3. SECT III. The Romanists distractions touching the Church set downe in eight Gradations SECT IIII. The palpable abuse offered the Laytie by obtruding the Church vnto them as their soueraigne Iudge displayed by the present practice of the Iesuites pag. 26. SECT V. The obiections out of the Scriptures touching the Churches infallibilitie answered pag. 30. SECT VI. The obiection drawne from the question how wee may know the authoritie sense puritie and perfection of the Scriptures handled and resolued pag. 36. SECT VII The new sleights and deuices which the Iesuites vse in enforcing these arguments touching the Church and the Scriptures pag. 51. The Contents of the second Part. SECT I. THe first way whereby one may know the Church to bee Catholike or Vniuersall pag. 71. SECT II. The second way whereby one may know the Church to be Catholike or Vniuersall Together with an Application of the same to the present question of these times touching the existency of our Church in all Ages pag. 83. Errata Page 58. The â— which is in lin 7. ought to be in lin 14. ibid. lin 12. for obligation r. Religion ibid. lin 14. for but search r. but by search pag. 91. lin 19. for The fift r. The sixt Credo Ecclesiam Sanctam Catholicam I beleeue the holy Catholike Church SECT I. The Preface and partition of the ensuing subject THis parcell of the Creed how compendious soeuer it seems in wordes yet is it in signification so ample that if the Iesuites Comment exceedes not the Text this alone is an abridgement of Diuinitie this a Catechisme sufficient to engrosse the Layties whole studie and beliefe It is not a matter of small consequence to them which oppose names to things and triumph in the naked sounds of Church and Catholike whether you apparell the sense in any other furniture of Language then this they cannot reply as Demosthenes did to Aeschines wheÌ„ being vpbrayded with the improper vse of a word hee answered that the fortunes of Greece consisted not therein No in hoc sit a sum fortunae Romae in these Sillables the fortunes of Rome are entrench'd not the seuen Hils whereon shee is seated not her extended Wals whose auncient Tracts are almost enâ—omb'd with Age not her Castle of Saint Angelo are halfe so relied vpon by her as this single Article For why Shee hopes the Church will serue her for a Cittadle or Towre of defence Holynesse will colour her title and Catholicke will from all quarters furnish her with a voluminous Armie of ancient and experienced souldiers Howsoeuer therefore I am not able to vndertake this subiect either with that power or skill as those which haue preceded me in the same yet because as Rome was not built in a day so neither can shee bee surueied in an houre or as shee is the Beast with seuen heads and ten hornes resembling Hydra which as soone as Hercules had smitten off one head maintained the fight with another so there may remaine after those greater labours of others something for vs of succeeding times and ages to meete withall Be it as it will I shall not thinke my paines mispent if whilest others haue pared off an head my weaker strookes force her but so far as to shrinke in a horne But to leaue Prefaces and come to the handling of the point The words now read vnto you containing in them a matter of Faith and Beliefe doe present two thinges to our consideration Viz. 1. First the act of Faith in these words tacitely implied I beleeue 2. Secondly the obiect of this Faith the Church pourtraited and described by two properties Viz. 1. Sanctitie in that it is called Holy 2. Vnjuersalitie in that it is stiled Catholicke SECT II. What act of Faith is implied in this Article of the Church and the errours of Romish interpreters touching the same COncerning the acte of this faith I beleeue though it be not prefixed to the beginning of this Article as neither to the rest which follow it yet is it to be vnderstood the former I beleeue which precedes the Article of
the holy Ghost communicating it selfe to this and the subsequent and that chiefely for two reasons The one to teach vs that the principall obiect of our faith is God himselfe considered in vnitie of Essence and Trinitie of persons and therefore to each of the persons there is either a Beleeue prefixed or the Particle in set before to shew that on them we are to build the certaintie and assurance of our hope but as for these Articles of the Church the forgiuenesse of sinnes the Resurrection of the body and the like they being creatures are but the secondarie obiects of our Faith not to be trusted vpon immediately in themselues but onely vnder God and through God and therefore haue not a Credo a Beleeue a part to themselues but prefixt to one of the persons I beleeue in the holy Ghost The other to set out and diuide by this meanes vnto euery of the persons an appropriate and speciall worke For as God the father hath Creation in the Articles attributed vnto him and the Sonne Redemptionem merito Redemption by the merit of his Death and Passion vnto him so the holy Ghost by the Beleeue which is prefixt to his Article and is in part of sense to be conuei'd vnto the following hath the application of our redemption Virtute efficacia by his vertue and efficacie appropriated vnto him also to wit The sanctifying of the holy Catholicke Church the vniting of the members in a communion with their head the infusion of iustifying faith which apprehends the remission of sinnes the quickning of the dead in the Resurrection and the conferring of life both vitam gratiae the life of Grace and vitam gloriae the life of glorie in the world to come So then the act of faith I beleeue which belongs to this Article of the Church is to bee fetch'd and deriued from the preceding Article of the holy Ghost And yet because it descends not in the same forme and garbe of sense altogether which it beares there but something altered and transfigured the question will be what act it properly imports in this place towards his obiect the holy Catholicke Church For the better resoluing whereof we must necessarily call to minde that ancient distinction of Saint Austens and the Schoolemen touching Credere to beleeue That there is 1. Credere in aliquem to beleeue and put ones trust confidence in one 2. Credere alicui to beleeue or giue credit to one 3. Credere aliquem to beleeue that one is in being or to beleeue that one is after this or that manner in being The first of these which is Credere in aliquem to beleeue in one doth virtually indeed include the other two for one cannot beleeue in one but he must presuppose that hee is and that hee is to be credited but yet the proper obiect of it is bonum a thing as it is good and the formall act which it exerciseth is chiefly an act of the will whereas the rest haue rather for their obiect verum a thing as it is true and the act which they exercise appertaines onely to the vnderstanding but with this difference that when I say credo alicui I giue credit to ones saying the act of faith hath relation to his obiect as to obiectum formale a kind of principle for whose sake and cause I beleeue but when I say Credo aliquem I beleeue that one is in being the act of faith hath relation here to his obiect as onely to obiectum materiale or quod as the Schoolemen speake a conclusion which it beleeues and not as to the motiue or inducement for which it beleeues Now to bring this home to the marke The Church of Rome and we doe agree that the beleeue which is prefixt to the Article of the holy Ghost doth not communicate it selfe with the restriction caused by the Particle in to this Article of the Church and the rest which follow it for that were to beleeue in them and then no difference should be made betweene the Creator and the Creatures but simply and without addition and the question is what act it now exerciseth whether such an one as whereby our faith hath relation to the Catholicke Church as onely to a materiall obiect or bare conclusion which it beleeues by reason wherof we may say Credo Ecclesiam I beleeue that there is a Catholicke Church or moreouer such as whereby our faith may reflect vpon the Church as a formall obiect cause and principle for whose sake it yeelds credit and assent to all other things so that thereby though not expresly yet tacitly is implied Credo Ecclesiae I yeeld faith beliefe To the Catholicke Church The Iesuites howsoeuer they would palliate the matter and make shew that the Church is onely a condition and not a formall cause of our beliefe yet others of them speake more plainely what the rest ayme at For Scotus and Biel to whom Canus ioynes Durand doe teach that our faith is last resolued into the authoritie of the Church and Stapleton yet more punctually affirmes that this Article of the Church is inserted into the Creede Tanquam medium credendi alia omnia as the onely meanes whereby we beleeue all other things importing thus much Credo illa omnia quae Deus per Ecclesiam me docet I beleeue all those things which God teacheth me by the Church Whereby we may easily collect that the Papists by this Credo Ecclesiam I beleeue that there is a Church doe vnderstand also Credo Ecclesiae I yeeld faith and beliefe to the Church We for our parts doe reuerence the name and testimonie of the Church we acknowledge it to bee of all humane the greatest wee confesse moreouer that the Catholicke Church in the whole neuer hath erred nor euer shall erre in fundamentall points the prouidence of God sustayning it In regard whereof it hath the promise of our Sauiour that the gates of Hell shall not preuaile against it that the spirit shall lead it into all truth and it is called by the Apostle the pillar of truth as who would say that it retayneth a sauing profession of heauenly truth and vpholdeth the same against all the stratagems of Satan and his complices But that it is not either in it selfe or in this place to be taken for the formall cause of our beliefe that is the foundation of our faith vpon whose credit and authoritie wee are wholy to depend I shall by these following reasons drawen out of the Creed it selfe easily make apparant First by the Grammaticall construction of this Credo I beleeue which when it imports to yeeld credit or assent to a thing is not ioyned with an Accusatiue case as here in the Creede but with a Datiue whereas wee say not Credo Ecclesiae but Credo Ecclesiam to shew that the Creede in this place implies veritatem in essendo a beliefe of the Churches being and not veritatem in significando
a beliefe of the Churches saying Stapleton notwithstanding would faine find an cuasion from this argument saying that to yeeld beliefe to the affirmations of the Church is the Theologicall sense of the Creede though it bee not the Grammaticall much like as Bellarmine who endeauouring to proue Purgatorie from these words of Christ Matth. 12. It shall not be forgiuen him neither in this world nor in the world to come Confesseth in the end that it followes not indeed according to the rules of Logicke but onely according to the rule of Prudence as if forsooth the Arts were contradictorie to Diuinitie and not subordinate vnto it and that one might not iustly suspect something to bee amisse in that house where the Mistresse and her hand maides are at variance Secondly I argue from the word Catholicke in the Creede which by the Tridentine Catechismes owne confession signifying the Flocke as well as the Pastors and excluding no time no persons nor any condition of men is not possible to be seene nor capable to be heard nor able to bee consulted with and therefore according to the sense which the Church beleeues in this place it is absurd to conceiue that these words Credo Ecclesiam I beleeue that there is a Church should bee equiualent to these Credo Ecclesiae I yeeld faith and beliefe to the Church But for breuities sake omitting other proofes as more behoofull for those which write large Tracts than for my selfe who desire to obserue as neere as I can the lawes of Catechising my third reason shall bee drawen from the word Church which being by the Papists inuolued with so many contrarieties and contradictions from it I thus argue That which is to be the foundation of my faith and to which I am to yeeld assent in all things that must be a thing certainely knowne and determined what it is It is not sufficient to be acquainted with the word but wee must also vnderstand the thing for faith is not verball but reall neither are we conueied to heauen by bare sounds as by Magicke spels but by truths and verities which are couched vnder them But according to the Papists owne assertions this Church which they here would make to be the foundation of their faith and to which say they we are to yeeld assent in all things is not to them a thing as yet certainely knowne and determined what it is which by these Gradations following I shall demonstrate SECT III. The Romanists distractions touching the Church set downe in eight Gradations THe Church is deuided by some of the Popish Doctors into the Church 1. Essentially which they make to be the Conuocation of all that beleeue in Christ 2. Representatiue which they say are either the Bishops assembled in a generall Councell as most doe affirme or the Colledge of Cardinals as Siluester Prierias imagines 3. Virtually which they conceiue to be the Pope The first Gradation 1. NOw graunt the Church to be such a Pillar of truth that who so heares it cannot erre yet First it is not determined by Popish writers which is that Church to whose Oracles and definitiue sentence we are to listen 1. The Glosse vpon Gratians Decrees which containe the Popes owne lawes and constitutions asking the question what Church it is to be meant off when it is said that the Church cannot erre answeres that it is to be meant not of the Pope but of the Congregation of the faithful that is the Church Essentially 2. But this opinion of the Church is generally by almost all the Papists reiected for being the iudge of Controuersies and consequently the foundation of our faith the reasons are First because such a multitude dispersed farre and wide throughout the face of the earth cannot be so marshalled as to haue their opinions calculated Secondly because the greater part of these are Lay-people whose apprehensions oftentimes reach not vnto the matters controuerted Lastly because there is no promise made either to the flocke or to the Pastors and doctors of the Church that a greater part of them shal not erre but only that all of them shal not erre Wherefore though the whole Church in this sense cannot erre errore personali with a personall error yet Bellarmine in his fourth Booke De Rom. Pont. and fourth Chapter tels vs that we must seeke out for one that cannot erre errore iudicali with a iudiciall errour Some therefore of the Papists are of opinion that the Church in this sense as it is taken for the iudge of controuersies and foundation of faith is the Church representatiue in a generall Councell of Bishops no matter whether with the Pope or without him because the Pope say they though he be the head of all Christians and all Churches in seuerall yet is he not of all the Church assembled in a Councell togeather And of this opinion besides those which Bellarmine reckons vp as Cardinalis Cameracensis Ioh. Gerson Iacobus Almanus Nic. Cusanus Panormitanus Cardinalis Florentinus and Abulensis we may ioyne Ocham Driedo the Bishops assembled in the generall Councels of Constance and Basill and in a word the Vniuersitie of Paris as Coriolanus in his Preface to the Councels Praelud 5. doth confesse 3. But many of the later Papists and especially the Iesuites perceiuing that the former opinion touching the Authoritie of a generall Councell aboue the Pope howsoeuer the contrarie bee not yet determined doth indeed ouerthrow the verie faith of the Popes Primacie and finding as they say no promise made to a generall Councell without the Pope for that the Church is to be built vpon the rocke and not the rocke vpon the Church they doe concurre that the Church whose definitiue sentence wee are bound to beleeue is nothing else but the Church virtually that is the Pope whereby they delude and impose vpon the world more than euer for whilst they boast of the Church their Mother they meane and intend nothing else thereby but onely the Pope their father The second Gradation BVt secondly graunt for the Church at the Iesuites request that it be the Pope vpon which we are to relie yet is it not agreed vpon by them for the manner whether it bee the Pope alone or whether the Pope in an assembly of the Church representatiue and again whether this Church representatiue be the Colledge of Cardinals or whether a generall Councell 1. For no meane Writers amongst them doe hold that the Pope may erre if hee define without a generall Councell as besides many of the Parisiens Alphonsus a Castro and Pope Adrian the sixth doe auerre that we may see not onely priuate men but also Popes themselues to haue suspected the Papall authoritie in this point And here though Bellarmine vaunts that all Catholickes doe conspire in this that when the Pope defines any thing in a generall Councell hee is then out of danger of erring either in faith or generall
precepts touching manners yet it is not decided say Canonists of whom this generall Councell is to consist For as it is generally defined it imports an assembly of Bishops or holy Fathers met together out of all quarters of the earth But Bellarmine in his first Booke De Concil 17. Cap. saith that such a generall Councell neuer was nor possibly can bee since in the first generall Councell there were present but two Priests out of Italy one Bishop out of France one out of Spaine and one out of Africa In the second and third there were none out of the West and in the fourth onely the Legate of Leo which deliuered the consent of the other Bishops of Spaine France and Italy who had before sent the same in Writing vnto the Pope forth of their owne Prouinces And on the contrarie in Councels celebrated in the West few Easterne Bishops haue bin found What then thinkes the Cardinall best to bee done Why he tels vs it is enough if it be published and made knowne to all the greater Christian Prouinces neither matters it say Canus Turrecremata and Gregorie de Valentia that all bee Cited much lesse that all doe Come sufficient it is saith Bellarmine if no Bishop be excluded if out of the greater part of Christian Prouinces some doe appeare and if the foure chiefe Patriarchs which are besides the Bishop of Rome bee present either by themselues or by their substitutes though hee thinkes that this Condition bee not very necessarie at this day considering they are either Heretikes or Schismatikes So that here they commit mayne Contradictions For first they make a Councell to be generall and to represent the whole Church and yet to consist oftentimes of fewer Bishops than a Nationall and those for substance but of one Angle of the World onely the rest either not cited or not expected Secondly they iudge it sufficient for the Patriarchs which are absent to depute others in their roome the which was also practised by their Bishops at Trent and yet as Valentia and others well dispute in the Case of the Popes Legates the assistance of the holy Ghost is a thing personall and cannot bee delegated vnto another Wherefore to salue all sores with one playster Valentia and Turrecremata doe affirme that considering those difficulties the Popes owne authoritie it being vniuersall is capable to make a particular Councell to bee Vniuersall as it hath done in some of the Roman But see then a third contradiction no lesse misse-shapen than the former ascends the Stage for whereas Bellarmine in his first booke de Concil and fifteenth Chapter and others and endeuour to proue jure diuino by the Law of God that Bishops onely haue deciding voyces in a generall Councell and that the promise of deliuering the truth is made to them onely as being the sole Pastors of the Church they confesse notwithstanding in their writings and declare by the practise of the Tridentine Councell that Cardinalls Abbots and Generalls of Orders haue voyces there though not ordinarie and by right yet by priuiledge and custome whence it followes that either the Church hath that prerogatiue to assigne and appoint whom the holy Ghost shall assist or else that a major part in a Councell may bee made vp by those to whom the holy Ghost hath past no promise that they shall not erre 2. These absurdities therefore considered some of the Church of Rome doe abase that high esteeme which for a long time was conceaued of generall Councells making either their first originall to bee but humane as Albertus Pighius or their vse not absolutely necessarie as Bellarmine and others Hence it is that a second sort contracting the face of the Church into a lesser modell doe teach that the Church here disputed of to bee the Iudge of Controuersies is the Pope in the Church represented not by Bishops in a Councell but by the Colledge of Cardinalls in the Consistorie which opinion is recited by Greg. de Valentia in his Disputations vpon Thomas 3. But because the Colledge of Cardinalls seemes too compendious a walke wherein to impale the greatnesse of the Pope and a generall Councell too vncertaine a path to tread therefore the greater cry rings this peale that the Church wee talke of is the Pope himselfe whether with a Councell or without a Councell whether with the Cardinalls or without them as in the next Gradation shall appeare The third Gradation BVt thirdly grant for the manner that it bee the Pope himselfe which is this Church whether with a Councell or without a Councell whether with Cardinalls or without them yet is it not determined for the time when it is the Pope 1. For some teach that it is the Pope at all times in that hee cannot possibly be an Hereticke or publish a falshood and of this opinion is Albertus Pighius in his fourth booke de Hierarch eccles cap. 8. 2. But others hold that it is the Pope then onely when hee publisheth a doctrine vnder this condition to bee beleeued by the whole Church as an Article of Faith and of this opinion is Bellarmine himselfe and by his account Thom. Aquinas Waldensis Ioannes de Turrecremata Driedo Caietan Hosius Eckius Ioannes a Louaine Petrus a Soto Melchior Canus besides Valentia Becanus and the whole fraternitie of Iesuites The fourth Gradation BVt fourthly grant for the time because haec est communissima opinio this is the most common opinion of all Catholicks saith Bellarmine that the Church is then the Pope when hee propounds a doctrine to bee beleeued by all men as an article of Faith yet is it not sufficiently resolued by them for the matters what matters they must bee in resoluing whereof his proposition is infallible 1. For you haue beene hitherto made beleeue that whensoeuer hee buckles himselfe to define any thing to bee beleeued as an Article of Faith that then hee is in his Chaire and then hee cannot erre and amongst other points in which they say that wee are to beleeue assuredly that the Pope cannot erre Bellarmine and Greg. de Valentia reckon vp the Canonization of Saints to be one and that the Pope is the successor of Peter to bee another 2. But on the other side it is first confest by Bellarmine and as hee saith by all Catholickes that the Pope may erre euen with a generall Councell at his elbow in matters of fact which depend vpon information and the testimonies of men and such is the question touching the legitimacie of the Pope confest to bee by Bellarmine And because the Canonization of Saints is of the same nature Valentia confesseth that the Popes infallibilitie therein is not so altogether deliuered by the Church and Canus in his fifth booke de locis theolog chap. 5. saith that it is not certaine de fide as a matter of faith neither will hee
election shall bee actually void although inthronization protraction of time and adoration of the Cardinalls haue established him in the See Secondly if the person elected by the Cardinalls bee not of the masculine gender as not a few of their owne writers doe affirme to haue beene sometimes experimented Thirdly if the partie chosen Pope were neuer truly baptized and of this by their Tenents one can neuer be assured For the Papists doe make the Sacraments to depend vpon the intention of the Priests and therefore Bellarmine in his third booke de Iustif. and eight chapter disputing against Ambrosius Catharinus concerning the certaintie of grace Neque potest quis esse certus certitudine fidei se percipere verum sacramentum cum sacramentum sine intentione ministri non conficiatur intentionem alterius nemo videre potest that is no man can by the certaintie of Faith be assured that he receiues the true Sacrament seeing that the Sacrament without the intention of the Priest is not made and the intention of another doth no man see To these Ioh. de Turrecremata addes that the Pope is deposed by God euen for mentall heresie which we know is a thing not liable to the sense Whereby wee may behold into what laborinths the Papists doe cast themselues by proiecting their faith vpon the Pope For if he haue intruded vpon the Papacie by Simonie or be of the wrong Sexe or that the Priest at his baptisme owing his parents a spight or his wits being a wooll-gathering intended not to baptise him nay put the case that hee bee rightly baptised yet if the Bishop which conferred priest-hood vpon him or those which baptised or ordayned that Bishop missed their right intention or farther if any of his predecessor Popes which either made Lawes for the forme and manner of electing the Pope or created so many Cardinalls as might make a major or exclusiue part in the election of succeeding Popes fayled by reason of the forenamed Cases or lastly according to Turrecremata if being truly elected hee chance to fall into mentall heresie then is not such a man by their owne positions true Bishop of Rome that supposed Bishop of Rome not lawfull Pope that Pope hath not the spirit of infallibilitie annext vnto him and yet this may happen nay by some it is proued to haue happened and yet the Church neuer the wiser For howsoeuer Franciscus Longus in his late Summes of the Councells finding that their faith must needes stagger which depend altogether vpon the infallibilitie of the Pope if it may not bee certainly knowne who is true and lawfull Pope makes this assertion De fide est dicere hunc numero Papam viz. Gregorium XV. esse verum successorem Petri Christi Vicarium that is That it is an article of faith to say this very Pope in particular to wit Gregorie the fifteenth is the true successor of Peter and Vicar of Christ yet by his leaue I should hardly graunt that priuiledge to a priuateman which is not due to a Generall Councell and the Pope himselfe or thinke it equitie to impose any thing vpon men to be beleeued as an article of faith concerning which the Doctors of the Church and the Bishops of Rome themselues may erre and be deceiued Now who knowes not that Pope Stephen the sixt in a Councell of Bishops did disanull the acts of Formosus his predecessor and commanded those which had beene ordayned by him to bee reordayned againe as not acknowledging him for a true and lawfull Pope Againe how Iohn the ninth disanulled the acts of Stephen the sixth and approued the acts of Formosus yet farther how Sergius the third re-established the acts of Stephen and made void the acts of Formosus and by consequence those of Iohn both which notwithstanding all succeeding Popes haue receiued as right and vndoubted successors of Peter in the Papall Throne Nor doth Bellarmine otherwise defend these errors of the Popes then by saying that they erred in quaestione facti non iuris in a question of fact not of right and concludes that the chiefe question was whether Formosus were lawfull Pope or no in which kinde of questions saith he we denie not but the Popes may erre and that Stephen Sergius erred indeed In like manner did not Iohn the three and twentieth sit fiue yeeres as Bishop of Rome and moreouer in that ranke which is esteemed by the Iesuites to bee the right Line yet Bellarmine tells vs that hee was not a certaine and vndoubted Pope and therefore not needfull to bee defended considering that there were three at the same time neither could it be easily decided amongst so many learned Patrones which each of them had whether of them was legitimate And if it bee true which the Cardinall tells vs in another place disputing the deposing of this Iohn that dubius Papa habetur pro non Papa a doubtfull Pope is held for no Pope surely of whose election wee may any way doubt his decisions wee may iustly feare and the validitie of his pardons prouidently suspect SECT IIII. The palpable abuse offered the Laytie by obtruding the Church vnto them as their soueraigne Iudge displayed by the present practice of the Iesuites NOw by this which hath beene alreadie spoken touching the Church and the Pope may appeare what sophistrie is currant in the Romish pale and what legerdemayne is practised in popish markets whilest one thing is shewed and another sold the Title of the Church being vsed but as a clowd wherein they carrie poore people whilest the mysterie of iniquitie more couertly workes which being reuealed it will appeare that a lay-papist whose faith is lapt vp in the implicite beliefe of the Church being defined will proue no better than a creature that beleeues hee knowes not what and credits it hee knowes not why resembling somewhat the patient which receiued this precipe of his physician Si vis sanari de morbo nescio quali Accipias herbam qualem sed nescio vel quam Ponas nescio vbi sanabere nescio quande To make this the more palpable and euident to the sense I will wade a little into the practicall part of this doctrine and shew to what miserable shifts the learnedst of the Romish side are driuen by vndertaking the defence of the Churches preeminency in matters of faith Imagine therefore a poore papist thus tormented in his conscience I am saith hee enioyned by my Confessor to ground my faith and beliefe vpon the authoritie of the Church Now woe is mee what shall I doe Our Masters which should bee lights to the blinde and informe vs which is that Church whereon we are to depend they are distracted in their opinions one saith a Generall Councell although without the Pope another a Councell and the Pope together a third that it is the Pope alone and surely there is but one Truth besides which can there possibly be in so
important a businesse as this is hope of saluation Yes will Bellarmine resolue you for though it be hereticall not to beleeue the Church in grosse yet is it not hereticall to mistake the acception of the Church which is in effect to beleeue a false Church for examples sake To take a Generall Councell without the Pope for the infallible Church inasmuch as wee see saith hee these tolerated by the Church which defend that opinion although it be erronious and next to heresie But alas replyes the poore man now that I am come so farre by your instructions as to know that the Pope is the Church which is a great deale farther than many of my ghostly Fathers are come yet because I perceiue a dissention amongst you and that you which hold this Tenent are not agreed when and in what matters it is that the Pope cannot erre I finde my conscience but a little eased by your resolution No matter for the Popes erring or not erring will Bellarmine answer for all Catholikes saith he doe accord in this that the Pope whether he may erre or no is yet to be heard with all obedience But what comfort will the man obiect can this be to me that liue haply in England or Spaine farre remote from Rome It is the present Pope you say vpon whose iudgement I am to depend whom I am neither able to heare neither doth your Cardinalship thinke it necessarie that hee should be a preacher to be heard Tush saith Bellarmine it is not materiall that you heare the Pope when as there bee Preachers in your owne Parish who may informe you But faith the man there is no promise made that whatsoeuer my Parochian teaches mee is forth with the true and vndoubted doctrine of the Church considering that he may erre and be deceiued Nor haue you will Bellarmine tell you more assurance of the Popes word if you and your whole Nation should trauaile to Rome to heare his resolution For asmuch as when he teacheth not the whole Church he is in as much possibilitie to erre as Innocent the eighth was when hee permitted the Norwegians to celebrate the Eucharist without wine What then is to bee done Greg. de Valentia in his third tome vpon Thom. 1. Disp makes this answer That if you finde but an Episcopall Synod or the consent of diuers Diuines onely affirming such a doctrine to be the sentence of the Church you are bound to beleeue it though it bee a lye But is it not a sinne will the man reply to beleeue a lye Gabriel Biel and Tolet the Iesuite to the end that we may see how both ancient and later Papists haue beene forced to the same streights will answere that if one heare his Bishop or Prelate preach contrarie to the Faith thinking that it is so beleeued by the Church such an one shall not onely not sinne but also in beleeuing that falshood shall commit an act meritorious It is no maruaile then if the Romanists boast so much of Visibilitie considering that their faith is built fiue stories high the Layties beliefe vpon his Pastor the Pastors vpon the common opinion of neighbour Diuines or an Episcopall Synod that Episcopall Synod vpon the Church the Church vpon the Pope and the Pope vpon Christ Wherin how skilfull Artizans soeuer the Iesuites are in other Trades I know not surely in architecture they shew but little skil hauing not prouided any thing to supply the roome of the Pope in the vacancie so that for a yeare and more sometimes the vpper stories must like Esops Towers bee seene to hang in the aire For howsoeuer those which hold the supreame authoritie to bee subiectiuely and formally in the Church and instrumentally onely in the Pope may supply the place of the dead Pope with a generall Councell yet the Iesuites and others which with open cry now adayes condemne this opinion as false and next to heresie may be challenged of more folly then hee which built his house vpon the sand SECT V. The obiections out of the Scriptures touching the Churches infallibilitie answered WHat now remaines but that we answer those arguments wheron our aduersaries seem to ground this supposed power of the Church in challenging absolute beliefe to what she affirmes The first rank of arguments containes such places of Scripture as concerne the priuiledges of the Church in generall As 1. Tim. 3. 15. That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to conuerse in the house of God which is the Church of the liuing God the piller and ground of truth I answer that the Church here mention'd is not that Church which the Papists make to be the Iudge of Controuersies that is either the Church representatiue which is a generall Councell or the Church virtuall which they imagine to be the Pope but the Church essentiall in whole or part which is the congregation of all faith full beleeuers and therefore not to the purpose For the Papists themselues doe discharge it in this sense from the office of defining because in part it is fallible and in whole it is avast bodie composed of parts farre asunder and wanting a speaker And that the Church in this place is so taken besides the confession of Bellarmine who acknowledgeth it the very circumstances of the place doe carrie it for Saint Paul tells Timothie here that hee wrote this Epistle vnto him that hee might know how to conuerse or behaue himselfe in the house of God which hee expounding to bee the Church it must on necessitie bee construed of the Church essentiall as consisting of the faithfull in grosse vnlesse one should be so absurd as to say that Saint Paul deliuered directions vnto Timothie in this Epistle how he should conuerse in a generall Councell whereof there were none in three hundred yeeres after or else which is more absurd how he should behaue himselfe discreetly and with circumspection in the Popes belly So Matth. 18. 16. And if hee will not heare them tell the Church and if hee will not heare the Church let him bee to thee as the Heathen and the Publican I answer that here be three degrees of admonitions and reproofes set downe by our Sauiour in case that one brother trespasse against another Viz. First corripiendus amore he is to bee reproued with loue verse 15. goe and rebuke him betweene thee and him alone Secondly corripiendus pudore hee is to bee reproued with shame verse 16. if hee will not heare thee ioyne with thee besides one or two Thirdly corripiendus timore he is to be reproued with feare verse 17. if hee will not heare them tell the Church So that I willingly grant this honour to haue beene here giuen by our Sauiour to his Church that the last resort and appeale vpon earth should be made vnto it but you must remember withall how farre this present case will besteed you
of the priuiledge of trafficke which the King thereof tenders to our countrimen in this case if the Relators credit bee suspitious it were dangerous to build vpon his report because here he is the principall and only cause vpon whose sole affirmation we can finally rest In like manner if two persons onely bee present at the death of a friend and depose that in this or that manner he bestowed legacies in this case if they be of doubtfull repute it will be hard to determine positiuely what is the truth because that here they are the principall and onely witnesses and there are no other authentike proofes whereby their depositions may be examined But where the Propounder is onely the instrument by whose meanes wee are brought to see proofes of an higher nature and by whose ministerie arguments of greater importance doe display themselues as if the Trauailer shall bring letters of Credence vnder the Hand Seale of the Prince confirming his Relation or if the persons present at the death of their friend shall besides their owne testimonie produce a formall will subscribed by the hands of lawfull witnesses and strengthened by an authentike seale here the possibilitie of erring in the Propounder takes not away the certaintie of the things propounded by him because in this case the same may be supplyed by other more sufficient demonstrations vpon which as the principall causes of our beliefe wee may finally rest Now to apply this to the Church I say that if the Church were the principall or onely Cause for whose authoritie our faith doth finally assent to the mysteries propounded by her then and vpon this supposition it were to be acknowledged that if the Church might erre and that her testimonie were not infallible the assured truth of things so assented vnto could not bee attayned by vs. But wee say that in working an vndoubted assent vnto the mysteries propounded and deliuered vnto vs the Church though it bee one cause to wit an inductiue or preparatiue yet is it not the onely no nor the principall or finall vpon which wee lastly depend The principall and finall causes for whose sake we firmely beleeue those truths which the Church propounds vnto vs touching the Scriptures are two The one the Word of God it selfe with the properties notes and characters aboue mentioned imprinted in the letter thereof which serue as the hand-writing and Deed of the great Maker produced by the Church in confirmation of what shee vtters The other the inward testimonie of Gods Spirit enlightning the eyes of our vnderstanding to discerne the Scriptures by those notes and perswading vs what we discerne stedfastly to beleeue seruing as a seale which confirmes to the consciences of the Elect the Deed to bee lawfull and authentike The former which is the Word it selfe and the notes thereof cannot bee denyed by an ingenious Papist to bee there found for howsoeuer some of them by a iust iudgement of God for being iniurious to the Scriptures in branding them with obscuritie imperfection c. haue beene so blinded by the Prince of darknesse that setting aside the iudgement of the Church no reason to them hath appeared wherefore Aesops Fables should not as well as the Scriptures themselues bee thought Canonicall yet others as Bellarmine Greg. de Valentia Gretser c. doe acknowledge these distinguishing notes to be in their kinde argumentatiue and to shine in them as the excellency of the Doctrine concord efficacie and the like whereby may be verified of the whole Booke of God what the Officers sent by the Pharisies and Priests said of our Sauiour Ioh. 7. Neuer man spake like this man Nor is the later which is the inward testimonie of the Spirit denyed by the learneder sort of Papists to possesse another chief place in the discouerie of the Scriptures For although in popular aire they seeme to vent the contrarie yet when they are called to giue a more sober account in writing they vtter the same in effect which we doe The Church saith Stapleton by reason of her ministerie and mastership receiued of God doth make vs to beleeue but yet the formall reason wherefore we beleeue is not the Church but God speaking within vs. Againe The minde of a faithfull beleeuer saith hee doth rest in the iudgement but not by the iudgement of the Church but by the inward grace of the holy Spirit So Gregorie de Valentia The infallible proposition of the Church saith he is as obscure to vs as any other article of faith whatsoeuer alleadging out of Canus That if a man should aske wherefore he beleeues the Trinitie he should answer incommodiously in saying because the Church doth infallibly propose it And Canus giues the reason Because the last resolution of faith saith he is not into the testimonie of the Church but into a more inward efficient cause that is into God inwardly mouing vs to beleeue If therefore addes Becanus you be asked wherefore you beleeue that God reuealed such a thing and you answere that you beleeue it for the authoritie of the Church it is not the assent of a theologicall faith but of some other faith of an inferiour ranke Many more testimonies might bee added it being a firme position amongst the Schoolemen that principles of faith such as the Scriptures are cannot bee beleeued as they ought to bee but by infused faith But I will conclude where I began with our Countriman Stapleton because he layes downe the very fundamentall reason vpon which this Doctrine is grounded There is the same faith saith hee in the rest of the whole Church which is in the Prophets Apostles and all those who are immediately taught of God They haue one and the same formall reason of their act of beleeuing But the faith of the Apostles and Prophets which was by immediate reuelation was lastly resolued into God alone the Reuealer and did end and rest vpon him onely as the supreme and last cause of beleeuing therefore the faith of the rest of the whole Church hath the same formall obiect These foundations being laid it shall not be hard to shape distinct answeres to the seuerall questions aboue propounded To the first if the testimonie of the Church bee not infallible how shall wee vndoubtedly knowe the Scriptures to bee the Word of God I answere that wee may know them to bee so partly by the light of the Word that is the diuine notes and characters therein imprinted and partly by the enlightning and perswading grace of Gods Spirit enabling vs to see and mouing vs to beleeue what wee see Now on the contrarie I demand of them If one cannot bee assured of the certaintie of the Scriptures propounded by the Church vnlesse the proposition of the Church bee infallible how the lay Papists in this Land doe know any article of faith to be infallibly true considering that few or none of them euer heard the voyce of that Church which they
to presse vs to shew not onely our affirmatiues as before but also our negatiues iust in so many vowells and consonants in the Bible as we expresse them whereas not onely consequences drawn from thence are sufficient for that purpose but also this one thing not to bee contayned in the Scriptures either directly or by consequence is in effect all one as to bee no article of faith In a word if to these and the like mountebanke affronts wee answer them not according to their minde they furnish their Schollers with premeditated speeches and scoffes to say that they brought vs to that plunge as to vse these wordes that is to say and it is so by consequence and to say that a Coach is also a consequence because it followeth the Horses This method of disputing was inuented first by Gontier a French Iesuite polisht by Veronus sometimes one of the same Order practised by Arnoldus the Confessor in most of his late bickerings approued by the Prelates of France assembled at Burdeaux An. 1621. as also at Rome and by sundrie Vniuersities commended by the Pope and the Societie newly erected at Rome by the Bull of Gregorie the fifteenth for the Conuersion of Heretikes intituled The holy congregation of the propagation of the faith and so farre admired that this Veronus hath in imitation of that Roman societie procured letters Patents for the establishing of a French Congregation of Missionaries as hee termes them cull'd out of all Orders and Vniuersities who dispersing themselues throughout the Kingdome shall after the Sermon ended by this method alone so blanke the Ministers of the Reformed side that within foure or fiue yeeres he doubts not but to conuert all within that Kingdome to the Roman faith To bee short this method hath trauailed most parts of Christendome being translated into seuerall languages and as out-landish toyes cannot long want a Merchant to transport them hither so this hath beene lately taught to speake English and applyed to the articles of our Church as before it was to the Articles of the French reformed wherein such confidence is put that Veronus vnder-takes to make a Cobler able thereby to put the learnedst Minister of France to a non plus though he deale so fauourably with him as to allow him the Geneua Bible or what translation else hee best likes to boote It seemes a Coblers disputations are thought good enough to beget a Colliars faith which to effect in the cōmon people is the Iesuites greatest ambition It needes not bee doubted but that this method may as easily if not with more aduantage to vs be retorted vpon our aduersaries and that it is no difficult taske to beate them with their owne weapons But it shall not be amisse to obserue from these new inuented shifts of the Iesuites into what a straight they are brought that they dare not enter the lists but vpon most vniust and vnreasonable conditions They bid vs to demonstrate that by sensible euidence and reason which themselues confesse cannot bee rightly apprehended without faith which is as much as if one should bid his fellow to see with his Nose or smell with his Eyes They require the meanest of our side to proue that which is not absolutely requisite for euery man to know They challenge vs to shew and threaten their pupils with thunder-bolts if they see In a word they are contented to venture a disputation prouided wee forbeare therein the vse of Consequences or Reason as if Poperie could no longer subsist vnlesse the reasonable soule should resigne her office and men could bee perswaded to turne either beasts mad-men or fooles And hitherto haue I treated of the act of faith implyed in this article which at the first appearing no bigger then a mans hand grew at length like Elias clowd so great that it well-nigh ouer-shadowed my whole text and I was drench'd therein ere I could arriue at Iesrael But now I hope the threatning storme is ouer-past and the obiect of this faith the holy Catholike Church like the Citie of God discouers it selfe to your view vpon whose description I purpose God willing to aduenture in that which followeth Credo Ecclesiam Sanctam Catholicam I beleeue the holy Catholike Church The second Part. SECT I. The first way whereby one may know the Church to bee Catholike or Vniuersall HAuing in the former part treated of that act of Faith which is implyed and intimated in this present Article the course and order of the wordes leade me vnto the obiect of that act the Church whose definitions being many and those not a little controuersed I shall content my selfe with that description of it which is insinuated in the Creed that it is a societie of men professing the Faith called out of the world for so doth the word Ecclesia imply and qualified with two attributes or properties Holinesse and Vniuersalitie Concerning the first of these which is Holinesse I purpose not to insist long vpon it at this present sufficient it is that it is called Holy in three respects Viz. 1. First in respect of the Righteousnesse and Holinesse of Christ imputed which may be termed sanctitas imputata an imputed sanctitie 2. Secondly in respect of those degrees of sanctification wherewith it is endowed in this life which may be termed sanctitas inchoata an holinesse begun here and consummated in the world to come 3. Thirdly in respect of the rule and law by which it is directed to serue God with holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of our life which therefore may bee termed sanctitas imperata an holinesse commanded and inioyned The second propertie of the Church is Catholike concerning which two things may bee deduced out of the Creed modus essendi the manner of its so being and modus cognoscendi the manner of knowing it to bee so Modus essendi the manner of the Church Catholikes being cannot better bee exprest then by the word Catholike it selfe For Catholike implyes that the Christian Church is no peculiar copt and shut vp within the Land of Canaan or the Territories of Iacob no tenure intayled to the Heires of Abraham according to the flesh or Lease expiring with the death and funerall of our Sauiour such as was the Church and Synagogue of the Iewes but generall and vniuersall and that in three respects Viz. 1. First in respect of place because it is diffused and dispersed through all Lands and Countries as it is written Reuel 5. Thou hast redeemed vs with thy bloud out of euery kindred and tongue and people and nation Not that the Church is to be in all Prouinces of the world simul semel at one and the same time but as Bellarmin in his fourth booke de Ecclesia and seuenth chapter gathers out of Driedo it sufficeth that it haue beene or hereafter bee in all Lands and Nations at least successiuè successiuely one after another 2. Secondly in respect of the persons because it
excludes no sort or condition of men There is neither Iew nor Greeke there is neither Bond nor Free there is neither Male nor Female for yee are all one in Christ Iesus saith the Apostle Gal. 3. 3. Thirdly in respect of time because it shall neuer cease nor faile but continue in one place or other vntill the last day according to that promise of our Sauiour that hee would be with vs alwayes euen vnto the end of the world Matth. 28. Thus you see modum essendi the manner of the Church Catholikes being but modus cognoscendi the manner of knowing it is more questionable for on it depends that great question of our dayes wherein the Iesuites so triumph concerning the perpetuitie and visibilitie of our Church in all Ages For our better progresse wherein wee are to note that a thing may bee knowne two manner of wayes Viz. 1. The one a priori that is by arguments drawne from causes or principles which force an assent to a thing though as yet one sees not the truth of the same by experience Thus from that principle in Philosophie that heauie things tend downewards to the center I know that a plummet of lead would fall to the center of the earth if no thicke or grosse body interposed it selfe although I neuer saw any conclusion or practice of the fame Thus from that principle in Diuinitie that there is a resurrection of the body I beleeue that who euer lye buried in their Sepulchres shall rise againe although mine eyes were neuer witnesses of any such resurrection 2. The other a posteriori that is by arguments drawn from the effects to the cause or by grounding ones knowledge and certaintie vpon the sense of an experiment as when one beleeues that the fire is hot because hee feeles it burne or that the Sea is salt because he tastes it brinish Both these haue their vses being rightly and with due circumspection applyed but they are not alwayes and in all subiects alike demonstratiue and therefore the question will bee which of them the Creed requires for the procuring of a firme beliefe and assent to this article of the Catholike Church I must confesse that arguments a posteriori that is from testimonies of men pointing out by name the Professors and vpholders of any Religion in all Ages is a great motiue and inducement to perswade that such a Religion is Catholike that is vniuersall in respect of place persons and time and that the Church professing such a Religion is of the like amplitude and antiquitie But yet this is not that modus cognoscendi that manner of knowing the true Church to be Catholike which is proper to the Creed or by which Faith cleaues vnto it and beleeues it as an article of saluation that manner of knowing it to be so is onely a priori by diuine principles that is by Gods promises made vnto it in the Scriptures where wee reade that of Christs Kingdome there shall be no end Psal 2. that the gates of hell shall not preuaile against it Matth. 16. and that our Sauiour will continue with vs vnto the end Math. 28. these are the pedigrees of Christs Church by these it proues it selfe to be of an ancient stemme that it had noble Progenitors he which playes the Herald and points out the seuerall descents of her sonnes with their lots and portions in all Ages he may somewhat illustrate the Church Catholike he cannot strengthen or confirme it hee may bee a Thomas Didimus which will not beleeue vnlesse hee sees hee cannot bee any of those blessed of our Sauiour which see not and yet beleeue Ioh. 20. Now that the Catholicisme of the Church that is the vniuersalitie duration and perpetuitie thereof so farre as it enters the Creed is to bee knowne onely a priori by the promises made in the Scriptures vnto it and not a posteriori that is by instances shewing the visible Professors of the same in all Ages I shall not neede to trauaile farther then the Creed it selfe to make it good My first reason shall be drawne from the condition of the Church Catholike as it is an article of our Creed and as we say I beleeue the Catholike Church From whence I thus argue Whatsoeuer wee are to beleeue as an article of the Creed the same must bee endowed with these foure conditions The first that the proofe of it be perfect for otherwise if it prooue but in part it cannot suffice for an article of faith The second that the ground vpon which it depends be some diuine and infallible principle for otherwise it may create an opinion in one but it cannot beget a faith Thirdly that all those who are bound to beleeue it be capable of the manner of prouing it as Valentia requires in these cases And lastly that it bee not the obiect of sense For Faith saith the Apostle to the Hebrewes chap. 11. is the euidence of things not seene and Thom. Aquin. 2◠2◠q. 1. saith plainly vt fidei obiectum sit aliquod visum fieri non potest it cannot bee that the obiect of faith should bee any thing seene But the proofe of the vniuersalitie of the Church which is a posteriori by the seuerall visible Professors of the same first is no perfect proofe for it depends vpon the testimonie of Doctors whereof in some ages few haue written and those which haue written haue not written of all points so that their consent in diuers Articles is rather charitably presumed than certainely knowne Secondly it is no proofe depending vpon diuine and infallible principles but vpon the testimonie and credit of men who may erre and bee deceiued Thirdly it is not a proofe of which all men are capeable for it consists partly of the voluminous writings of Historians partly of the immense dictates of the Fathers partly of the perplexe and inextricable subtilties of the Schoole-men to which few haue time and meanes all not capacitie to attaine Lastly by demonstrating the vniuersality and perpetuitie of the Church from the visibilitie of it it makes the Church as Catholicke to bee the obiect of the sense and so by consequence makes it to bee no Article of Faith My second reason shal be drawen from the nature of the Church Catholick in it selfe and the incapability of it to be subiect to arguments a posteriori that is of sense visibility it being not properly or if properly yet not alwaies snfficiently visible for this purpose Forthe better vnderstāding wherof we must premise some distinctions touching the Church Catholicke The Catholicke Church may bee considered either in respect of its 1. Matter of which it is composed which are men 2. Forme In respect of its Matter so it may be taken either according to its full Latitude and extent excluding no time no places nor any condition of men or in a limited sense in respect of its parts and those considered not together but seuerally with relation to their proper
times and places In respect of its forme so likewise it hath sundrie considerations for the forme of it is Either 1. Internall which is the misticall vnion which the members thereof haue with Christ and through Christ one with another which vnion is wrought by faith 2. Externall which is the vniformity the parts haue one to another in the profession of the truth and the right administration of the Sacraments which truth and right administration wee say must be if not in all points whatsoeuer yet at least in all points fundamentall and necessarie to saluation Now to bring this home to my argument the Church Catholick of these foure wayes that it may be considered is not visible at all three wayes and the fourth it is not alwayes so clearely visible as that the visibilitie should serue for a note whereby to come to the knowledge of the vniuersalitie and perpetuitie of the Church It is not visible at all First in respect of its matter taken in the full Latitude thereof excluding no times no places nor any condition of men In which sense by the Tridentine catechismes owne confession it is taken in the Creed For nothing is visible which is not present I may remember times past or read of men absent or coniecture things to come but I can see onely those things which are present Secondly it is not visible at all in respect of its inward forme which is the misticall vnion of the members with Christ and one another wrought by faith for this is rooted in the heart and the heart of man God onely seeth Thirdly not in respect of its outward forme which as it enters the Creed is not onely an outward profession of a Doctrine or Discipline but a profession of the same vnder the notion of truth and that the Church in this sense is inuisible Gregorie de Valentia confesseth in his 3. Tom. vpon Thomas and 1. disput and Bellarmine in his 3. booke de Eccles and 15. chap. where he saith In Ecclesia aliquid videri aliquid credi videmus eum caelum hominum qui est Ecclesia sed quod isle caetus sit ipsa vera Christi Ecclesia non videmus sed credimus That is in the Church something is beleeued and something seene wee see that companie of men which is the Church but that this company is the true Church wee doe not see it but beleeue it Againe the Church considered in her most fauourable sense for the Papists that is according to her matter which are men and that againe in a limitted acception not as shee is taken in her Latitude and extent for the whole but in respect of her parts onely with reference to their proper times and places yet in this sense I say is not so cleerely visible at all times as to haue her visibilitie to serue for a note whereby to know it to be Catholicke and vniuersal For Not a sufficiens ac propria ad dignoscendum Ecclesiam omnino necesse est vt sit omni hominum generi atque conditioni accommodatum it is Gregorie de Valentia's own rule in the place aboue cited q. 1. punct 7. § 15. that is that for a sufficient and proper note to know the Church it is necessarie that the note bee fit for all sorts and conditions of men and that all men bee qualified and capable to discerne the Church by it But the Church euen in this sense by his owne confession in the 16. § is sometimes so tost with the flouds of error schismes and persecutions that to the vnskilfull and such as cannot prudently weigh the reasons of times and circumstances it is hard to bee knowne so that by consequence the Visibilitie of it is not alwaies so apparant vnto all sorts of men as to serue for a note or proofe of the Church as Catholicke To make our argument yet more pregnant let vs but aske where the Church was in the time that the Arrian heresie ouerspread and hee will tell you out of Hierom that the ship of it was almost sunke and out of Hilarie that it was then non in tectis exteriori pompa querenda sed potius in carceribus speluncis not to be sought for in buildings or outward pompe but in Prisons and Caues Aske Turrecremata and others where the Church was in the passion of our Sauiour and they will tell you that it remayned only in the Virgin Marie which they say is signified in the Church of Rome by the putting out of all the Tapers saue one onely in the celebration of the passion Nay Bellarmine though hee oppugnes this opinion of Turrecremata's the most hee can yet he is contented to concurre with Abulensis in this that howsoeuer the Apostles might beleeue yet he thinkes that the Virgin Mary onely had fidem explicitam an explicite beliefe of Christs resurrection without which the Apostle saith that our faith is vaine we are yet in our sinnes 1. Cor. 15. Now grant that the Apostles beleeued as well as Marie yet if their beliefe was but implicit their profession could not be visible idem est non esse non apparere it is all one not to bee and not to appeare in this case Nay aske Bellarmine but how the Church shall be in the dayes of Antichrist and he will answer in his third booke de Rom. Pont. and seuenth chap. that it is certaine the persecution then shall bee so great that all publike ceremonies of Religion and Sacrifices shall cease How vniustly then doe the Papists deale with vs in this question touching modum cognoscendi the manner of knowing the Church to bee Catholike that is vniuersall and perpetuall by tying vs to proue it a posteriori instancing who were the Professors who the Pastors what their Names where they abode in all Ages as if ignorance of a thing were a Cause sufficient to make it not to be or Gods promise were not a gage strong enough for such an incredulous generation as theirs is vnlesse there were Registers to shew how and in what manner he kept his word Certainly if God in his wisedome had thought these kinde of proofes necessarie for his Church hee would haue erected an Office and Officers for the purpose now hee hath giuen vs indeed his Royall promise that it shall be so but no promise hath he giuen that there shall be Scribes in all Ages to commit to writing the names and persons of those by whom it came to be so If therefore a Papist should in this manner question me Where was your Church before Luther or what Professors of your doctrine were there or what assemblies of men professing the same faith that you doe euer since the time of our Sauiour vntill this present I would thus answere him out of the Creed That the Church of which I am a member was before Luther that there were assemblies of men professing the same faith that I doe and that
euer since the time of our Sauiour vnto this present I doe beleeue with the same faith and vpon the same grounds that I beleeue the Catholike Church because I beleeue our Church of England to be a member of the Catholike and this I beleeue a priori that is for the promise sake made in the Scriptures that it shall bee so But where our Church was before Luther or who were the Professors of it euer since the time of our blessed Sauiour vntill this present is no part of my Creed There is not a syllable in it which inuites me to proceed that way Doe I say I beleeue the vniuersalitie of Christs Church and must my foundation be such onely as can breed in me but an opinion or naked hope doe I begin in Faith and with the Galathians must I end in the flesh that is with sense Doe I build with one hand a Church Catholike which cannot bee seene and with the other must I draw it in a Map or point it out to the eye Nay set the Church as Catholike aside and consider it but in her parts which consideration of it belongs not to the Creed yet in this sense also is the Church at sometimes so obscured that by our Aduersaries owne confession none but the prudent and wise are able to discerne it The Church is I confesse compared in the Reuelation to a woman clothed with the Sunne in Isaiah to a Citie built vpon an Hill and by the Fathers to the Moone the Sunne the Moone and a Hill are things most easie to be discerned yet we know this Sunne may be obscured with a Clowd an Hill may be hid with a mist and the Moone as Saint Austen in his 119. Epist alluding to the Church obserueth hath her wanes and eclipses in the time of her peregrination SECT II. The second way whereby one may know the Church to be Catholike or Vniuersall IF any should mistake me and thinke that pressing so earnestly the preeminencie of knowing the Church to be Catholike and Vniuersall a priori that is from the promises made vnto it in the Scriptures we doe suspect our proofs a posteriori from the Professors of our Religion in all Ages to be either none or weake let them know that we want not those who haue scored out varietie of sufficient paths to proceed this way also which howsoeuer they bee not like the testimonie of our Sauiour to beget a faith yet are they like the testimonie of the Samaritan woman to induce a credulitie For not to tyre you with large discourses which were to exceed my limits onely for satisfaction herein to the reasonable and impartiall Hearer let vs take along with vs these few considerations 1. The first that we are to distinguish betweene our affirmatiues that is such things as are purely affirmed by vs and our negatiues such as in whole or in part we denie betweene which there is a great difference to be made in all sciences For affirmatiue propositions onely are the proper parts and ingredients of a discipline Negatiues are admitted say Logicians not so much by way of Precept as of Cautell and of Commentaries to vindicate the other from misconstruction 2. The second that such affirmatiues of ours as are established by our Church of England at least such as concerne the foundation of faith haue beene in all ages professed by the Church of Rome it selfe For explication whereof we are to obserue that the Popes Arithmetick which he vseth in calculating the articles of faith is not substraction but addition what wee purely affirme the Popish writers for the most part doe affirme the same the difference is that they affirme somewhat more then wee doe They denie not so much that our affirmations are truth as that they say we affirme not all the truth wherevpon they vsually stile vs in their writings Negatiuists For example sake Wee agree on both sides the Scriptures to be the Rule of Faith the Bookes of the old Testament written in Hebrew to bee Canonicall that we are iustified by Faith that God hath made two receptacles for mens soules after death Heauen and Hell that God may bee worshipped in spirit without an Image that wee are to pray vnto God by Christ that there be two Sacraments that Christ is really receaued in the Lords Supper that Christ made one oblation of himselfe vpon the Crosse for the redemption propitiation and satisfaction for the sinnes of the whole world In a word where they take the Negatiue part as in with-holding the Cup from the Laytie forbidding the administration of the Sacraments in the vulgar tongue and restrayning the marriage of Priests yet euen in these they condescend vnto vs for the lawfulnesse of the things in themselues and in respect of the Law of God and oppose them onely in regard of their necessitie and conueniencie and for that the Church of Rome hath otherwise ordayned But see our affirmations content them not To the Scriptures they adde and equalize vnwritten Traditions To the Hebrew Canon the Apocrypha To Faith in the act of Iustification Workes To Heauen and Hell Purgatorie Limbus Patrum and Limbus Puerorum To the worship of God in spirit Images To prayer to God by Christ inuocation and intercession of Saints To Baptisme and the Lords Supper fiue other Sacraments To the realitie of Christ in the Sacrament his corporall presence To the sacrifice of Christ vpon the Crosse the sacrifice in the Masse with other like and these we denie 3. The third that our affirmations by the iudgement of the Church of Rome haue beene in all ages deemed sufficient to saluation so that our Negatiues take not away any doctrine the explicit beliefe whereof is absolutely necessarie For first in regard of knowledge the Schoolemen hold that much lesse is needfull to bee explicitly beleeued then what is contayned in our affirmations For whereas wee entertayne and embrace amongst our affirmatiue articles not onely the doctrine of the three Creedes but also sundrie other assertions as may appeare by the booke of Articles and Homilies established in our Church Albertus Magnus on the contrarie with Bonauenture Richardus and Durandus thinke that so much onely of the Creed is necessarie as the Church solemnizeth in her holidayes Thomas Aquinas Scotus Gabriel Biel and Pope Adrian the sixth which goe farther thinke it needfull to beleeue but the whole Creed and Alexander ab Hales which goes farthest thinkes that one need but adde to the Apostolicall Creed the Nicen and Athanasian to make a compleat beleeuer quanquam hoc nimis durum videtur though this seemes too hard an imposition saith Gregorie de Valentia in his third Tom. vpon Thom. 1. disp although one wade no farther therein then the proper sense and haue no great distinct knowledge of the matters Nay Bellarmine is so confident in this point that he sticks not to say that the Apostles themselues neuer vsed to preach openly
sufficient meanes of Calling besides to supply the Pastors negligence and default as first profitable parcells of Gods Word read in the Church and the whole bodie of the Scriptures at hand which though it were in Latine yet many might vnderstand it and this our Sauiour pointed at when hee brings in Abraham in the Parable thus speaking to the rich man touching his brethren habent Mosen Prophetas they haue Moses and the Prophets Secondly The Writings and Commentaries of the Fathers to whose interpretations their Councells binde them to adhere and out of whom diuers of the Papists both ancient and moderne doe confesse as you haue heard that many of the chiefe articles of Poperie were not for a long time brought into the Church nor beleeued Thirdly Schoolemen and others of their owne side which taught publikely in their Vniuersities our very doctrine not I confesse so entirely as they should but some in one point others in another whereby there was both pregnant meanes to know the truth and strong reasons to thinke at least the doctrines so controuerted and diuersly resolued to be in the Popish sense at most no article of faith Lastly there were no Councells generally receaued by all and not excepted at by some which so expresly deliuered the grounds and Tenets of Poperie as now they are vntill the Councell of Trent So then who can denie that they were ours by Calling ours by Ordination by institution and admission ours and why should any doubt but that some were by practice and obedience ours surely God which called Iob amongst the Heathen and the Queene of the South by the bare report of Solomon would not suffer this Calling to be stil in vaine the Ordination to be wholly vnprofitable or that Admission in baptisme to be alwayes frustrate that is to be the sauour of death vnto death and in none the sauour of life vnto life For if sheepe in a pasture where venemous herbes are mixt with wholsome can by the instinct of nature make choise of that which is proper for them and abstaine from the contrarie what maruaile is it if the flocke of Christ who know the voyce of the true Shepheard from the voyce of strangers should by the guidance of Gods assisting Spirit doe the same Who can denie that God hath his Temple where Antichrist hath his Throne seeing Antichrist as the Apostle tells vs is to sit in it or that some of Gods people may bee in Babylon seeing such are warned by the Spirit to come out of her and it were in vaine to command a man to depart a place if he were not there Now if any shall thinke these motiues and considerations of ours especially touching the last sixe hundred yeeres not to be altogether so exact as the Papists require who challenge vs to produce the names of such visible Protestants in all ages as professed the same entire doctrine in all respects that we doe I answere first that it is not our hold that the Church neuer erreth or discordeth from it selfe in minoribus in matters of lesse moment and therefore it is sufficient for vs to shew who professed our faith entirely in majoribus that is such points as of themselues are fundamentall Secondly we say that whereas wee finde a twofold state of the Church in the Apocalypse the one before the loosing of Satan whilest the old Dragon was shut vp in the bottomlesse pit for a thousand yeeres the other after his loosing when the Deuill was to be let free to goe and deceiue the Nations not in one pettie Hamlet but in the foure quarters of the earth that is as Saint Austen expounds it vnder the reigne and tyrannie of Antichrist We are not bound to giue so strict a reckoning and account of our Professors vnder the second state of the Church as vnder the first The reason is because the Church in her first estate was glorious to behold appearing like a Woman clothed with the Sunne But in the latter shee was to be vnder the thraldome of Antichrist and our Aduersaries themselues tell vs that then wee are not to enquire for visible Professors of the true faith or for the publike exercise of Religion so Suarez Bellarmine and others In a word then was the time that the Church was to flee into the wildernesse as was foretold Reuel 12. Now to expect multitudes of people frequent cities pompous splendor affluence of foode and prouision in a wildernesse were extreame madnesse this were to suppose a wildernesse to be no wildernesse In Deserts there may be assemblies of men but they are rare there may be foode but we know it is but little and such happily as is but absolutely necessarie for the life of man and there may be buildings edifices but through the thickets of trees and shades of leaues hardly to bee discerned And so did it fare with the Church vnder the tyrannie of Antichrist There were some alwayes of it but few there were assemblies but not so euident to the eye of the world and there was the foode of the Word and Sacraments but not so plentifull nor euery where so pure as before times But who would thinke that the Iesuites were all this while but in iest and that they are conscious to themselues that the taske which they require to bee performed on our part is not fesable on their owne For let mee but question them from their owne grounds whether the entire articles of faith which the Church of Rome now holds are found mentioned by Writers in all ages The Cardinall and others of the Iesuites ingeniously confesse they were not and namely Indulgences the Churches treasurie the Popes canonizing of Saints c. onely they answer that it followes not that they were not beleeued because they are not mentioned Bee it so but if their articles of faith be not mentioned how will they make it appeare by the testimonies of writers in all ages as they vndertake to doe that such Tenets were from the time of the blessed Apostles held without interruption Bellarmine therefore answeres that the concurrent testimonies of some Writers of greatest note affirming such a Doctrine to haue beene professed beleeued by the Church in all ages none gaine-saying it will serue the turne But here besides that they stand not to their first bargaine which was to produce the testimonies of Writers in all ages I demand of what ages they meane that their writers shall bee to whose concurrent iudgement they will adhere if of the primatiue Church we accept the offer but this will little aduantage them for neither are many points of difference betweene vs and them mentioned by those writers as aboue was specified much lesse affirmed to bee Apostolicall Traditions neither are those which are mentioned allowed of in that sense which they deliuer If the writers of the after Church and namely the Schoolemen let them heare Gregorie de Valentia's owne
For he saith not absolutely whatsoeuer thy brother shall say or beleeue but if thy brother shall offend or trespasse against thee which make the most wee can is but quaestio facti non iuris that is a matter of fact not of faith it is onely touching some personall and perticular iniuries in deciding whereof the Papists themselues denie not but the Church may erre See aboue Grad 4. So Matth. 23. 2. Vpon the chaire of Moses haue sitten the Scribes and the Pharisees all things therfore whatsoeuer they shall say vnto you obserue ye and doe ye I answere that these words whatsoeuer they shall say vnto you are either to be taken conditionally that is with this prouise that they speake the truth otherwise not and then aduantageth it nothing the Papists cause or else absolutely and then our Sauiour should contradict himselfe who reproued the errors of the Scribes and Pharises Math. 5. and forewarned his Disciples to take heed of their leauen Matth. 16. 6. Besides all precepts concerne the time present or future now Bellarmine himselfe confesseth that the high-Priests Councels of the Iewes were at this present lyable to errour nay farther that it was prophesied that they should erre and denie Christ Isa 6. Dan. 9. and therefore this could bee no such absolute precept of obedience as the Papists imagine especialy to those which now liued when by their owne acknowledgement such as possest the Chaire of Moses might erre and be deceiued Other places are alleadged by our Aduersaries which because they run rather in the plurall number with vos you arguing a democracie or aristocracie in the Church then with te thee implying a Monarchie which to maintaine the Iesuites bend all their forces and for that they are to bee vnderstood primarily totally and absolutely of the Apostles secondarily partially and conditionally only of other pastors as Iohn 16. The spirit of truth shall leade you into all truth and Luke 10. Hee which heareth you heareth mee therefore the weight and load is laid vpon such particular promises as our Sauiour is thought to haue made vnto Peter in the Gospells Where to omit that of our Sauiour to Peter Luke 22. 32. I haue prayed for thee that thy faith faile not for which the Cardinall cannot produce one ancient father Popes excepted to proue that our Sauiour intended therein any speciall benefit to Peters Successors saue onely to his personall faith as also that which he spake vnto him Iohn 21. 15 Feede my Sheepe which of a precept they would willingly change into a promise contrarie to the rules of Grammer or Logicke as if Saint Peter had made Popes of the inferior pastors of the Church and their Successors when he bad them in like manner Feede the flocke of Christ forasmuch as Christs word is the same in his owne mouth and in the mouthes of his Apostles The maine foundation whereon at length they pitch is that of our Sauiours to Saint Peter Matth. 16. 18. And I say vnto thee that thou art Peter and vpon this rocke will I build my Church and the gates of hell shall not preuaile against it In which words they let not a tittle fall to the ground without admiration Our Sauiour say they speaks not as at other times Simon thou sonne of Ionas this was his vulgar stile he brought with him frō home and it was of his fathers bequeathing nor as otherwhile hee did by the sirname imposed by himselfe pronouncing it barely without an Emphasis onely Peter and no more but making as it were a preface to some new dignitie which he purposed to bestow vpon him I say vnto thee thou art Peter as who would say thou art a rocke and vpon thee that rock I will build my Church To giue more colour to this interpretation they will vs to take notice how our Sauiour spake not in the Greeke but in the Syriack language in which Cephas the name of Peter is the same in termination sound and sense that Peter is implying both of them a rocke This is a faire glosse if they were Masters of Languages and had commission to set forth new Calepines But first how chance that the Apostles which were better seene in the Syriacke Tongue it being their naturall dialect than you can be vnderstood not this elegancie but did afterwards quarrel about precedency not knowing that their Master had before past his promise thereof vnto Saint Peter How comes it that the Fathers pickt not out your sense who liued neerer the times of the Apostles as S. Austen Chrisostom Hilarie Basill Ambrose and others by this rocke vnderstood not Peter but either his confession or Christ whom hee confessed seeing this knowledge of the Church how by Scripture it is built vpon Peter was as behoofull for them as for vs. But secondly what if our Sauiour foreseeing that this Rocke would be lapis offendiculi a stone of offence and that some supposing Peter to bee it would at the sight thereof no lesse then at Gorgons head be stupified and turned into stones hath in the Greeke edition of Saint Matthewes Gospell which themselues deny not to be authenticall distinguished between the one the other by a threefold Gramatical difference then we cannot without contempt offered to Grammarians admit it or at least the sirrop of blind obedience swallow it downe Now our Sauiour saith not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou art Peter and vpon thee Peter or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou art a rock and vpon thee that rock I will build my Church but with a triple mutation and alteration in the construction first of the Person thou Peter in the second and that rocke in the third secondly of the gender 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the masculine and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the feminine thirdly of the sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which by the iudgement of the most iudicious Grecians signifies vsually but a single stone and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which implies a Rocke so that as our Sauiour in another place tels vs that God can of stones raise vp children vnto Abraham in like manner hee doth now by a nominall Metamorphosis conuert a Sonne of Abraham into a stone and a stone of his building too yet he doth not by this Charter so inlarge his shoulders as to serue for a rocke whereon to support his whole building Say farther hee did make him a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a deriuatiue or denominatiue from that rocke and so as the Fathers sometimes vsed the word by a Metonymie terme him a ministeriall rocke by which he built his Church yet did hee not by this make him the principall rock on which he built it Grant againe that hee was taught that amongst the ministeriall rocks he should be Petra primaria a prime rocke yet was he not made Petra solitaria the only rock In a word he might be admonished by this name to be Petra deuotione a rocke for deuotion and zeale in
man faith also by consequence that Socrates is a substance that he is a liuing creature and that hee is reasonable because Man contaynes all these things in his nature So the Scripture saying that Christ hath a body saith by consequence that according to his humane condition he is finite and being finite hath a limited and bounded existencie and therefore cannot bee in many places at the same instant For arte in this is grounded vpon nature and in nature the immediate cause implyes the effect the species the genus the subject the properties the whole the parts one contrarie remooues the other so that these Maximes of Philosophie are but dilated verities being before contractedly contayned in the Letter and adde not any thing to the Scriptures fulnesse but onely are displayed by the vnderstanding facultie as the species and formes of an obiect are by a perspectiue glasse multiplyed and made more visible 3. If we presse them with the force and necessitie of our consequence they bid them demand of vs whether we cannot erre in the deducing of a Consequence if we say we cannot then to tell vs that we oppugne a doctrine of our owne which determineth that the Church may erre and if wee say wee may then they will them to aske vs how wee can build an article of faith vpon a Consequence which by our owne confession is fallible To which wee say first that a posse ad esse non valet argumentum from a possibilitie of erring to an actuall erring an argument will not follow Againe the necessitie of a Consequence depends not vpon the person of him which deduceth it but vpon the intrinsecall vnion and reall affinitie betweene the termes of the Antecedent and Consequent But lastly because they presse vs to shew how we can assure our selues that in this or that particular Consequence we doe not erre considering that there is no subiect wherein we do not acknowledge that we may erre Let me aske them againe how any of them can assure themselues that they know the meaning of the Church in any one article of faith considering that there is none of them in particular the Pope in his chaire excepted which may not by their owne Tenets mistake a word or misse-conceiue the Churches meaning Sure if this reason were of force wee should for the same Cause take away all certaintie of knowledge which comes by the sense which was the error of the Academikes and Pirrhonians For what sense is there which at sometimes by reason of the Medium Organ or Object is not lyable to erre and be deceiued But as Nature which Philosophers say is not defectiue in things necessarie hath for the remedying of these inconueniences endowed man with reason common notions and principles whereby hee is able to iudge of the due site habitude and disposition of things so the God of Nature which is also the God of Grace and knowes the necessitie of his children giues vnto them besides that portion of reason common notions and principles aboue-mentioned the spirit also of discretion for the spirituall man iudgeth all things 1. Cor. 2. So Saint Iohn These things haue I written vnto you concerning them that seduce you but the anointing which you haue receiued of him teacheth you all things 1. Ioh. 2. 26. 4. If the Consequence bee so euident that they cannot for shame denie it then they counsell them to aske vs where the Scripture saith in expresse termes that whatsoeuer followeth by euident and necessarie consequence from her Pages is an article of faith Where they hope to choake vs with an equiuocall acception of the word article For an article of faith is sometimes taken strictly for one of those verities which so neerly touch the foundation of faith that a man cannot be saued vnlesse he expresly know and beleeue it sometimes largely for any Catholike truth whatsoeuer If they take it in the former sense they fight with their owne shadowes for which of our men euer said that whatsoeuer followeth from the Scriptures by euident and necessarie consequence is in such manner and sense an article of faith But if they take it in the latter sense wee need not runne farre for Texts to proue that such consequences are articles of faith and require according to the nature of the subiect and euidence of the deduction a beliefe either explicit or implicit of them because that conclusions as I shewed before lye hid in their principles as a kernell in the shell and that consequences are materially in their premises and being in them are to be esteemed part of them and therefore he which is bound to an absolute beliefe of the one is bound also at least conditionally that is vpon the appearance of the euidence of the consequence to beleeue the other 5. If wee dispute syllogistically they bid them tell vs that not the Scriptures but Aristotle prescribes rules for syllogismes and that Aristotles rules cannot binde the faith As though syllogisticke formes were principall causes of the truth of things and not onely instruments whereby the Truth which was before and might otherwise by naturall Logick and the strength of the common apprehension be perceiued is made somewhat the more easie and apparant For many Conclusions follow necessarily in regard of the matter which are vicious in regard of the forme Galen inuented a fourth figure which others reiect And therefore wee build no more vpon Aristotle in matters of faith then an house is built vpon the Carpenters Hammer Square or Rule which are neither whole nor part of the building though otherwise they conduce thereunto as instruments 6. If wee stop their mouthes either with manifest Texts of Scripture or pregnant consequences then they bid them demand of vs Who shal be iudge Which is a peece of Sophistrie beyond the Deuils who being taken tardie by our Sauiour in misse-quoting places of Scripture forgot to aske the question Who shal be iudge This cauill is squint-eyed and lookes three wayes at once If we say the Holy Ghost then they vpbraid vs with flying to priuate spirits and making our selues Iudges in our owne cause If we say the Scriptures they reply that the Scriptures are not sufficient to execute the place being mute and wanting a voyce to declare which amongst many senses is their owne and if we say the Church then they conceiue the victorie to runne on their side and think we haue granted them their Conclusion But what if we make neither the one nor the other sitting alone to be this Iudge but acknowledge a Concurrency though not equall in all of them and that Concurrency though not to the enacting of the sentence as it is considered in se in it selfe yet to the publication of it quoad nos as it hath reference to vs What then shall become of these sequells And so it is indeed For howsoeuer we make one supreme Iudge in this high Court of Veritie yet wee doe not imagine
to the people much lesse propounded as common articles of faith other things then the articles of the Apostles Creed the ten Commandements and some few of the Sacraments because saith he these are simply necessarie and profitable for all men the rest besides such as that a man may be saued without them Secondly for practice they grant that one may attayne saluation without the performance of such duties as wee refuse to vnder-goe For if one beleeues no more then what is written in the Scriptures hee beleeues as Bellarmine confesseth as much as is necessarie and profitable vnto all men If one worships God without an Image they denie not but that this worship is acceptable If one pray immediatly vnto Christ repeates the Lords prayer they will not say that his deuotion is fruitlesse If one performe the best works he can which wee also require and stand not vpon the point of merit but onely vpon the mercy of God as we doe they iudge it to bee not onely profitable but also commend it as most secure Now what would a man require more of a Christian then to beleeue well pray well liue well and die well The fourth consideration is that those points of theirs whereof we hold the Negatiue were not receaued as articles of faith nor the contrarie iudged hereticall by the Church of Rome for many hundred yeeres after Christ For that Church could not iudge vs to be enemies of her faith or oppugners of that foundation whereon shee was built which first by our Aduersaries owne confessions held all those things which the Apostles vsed to preach openly and which were necessarie and profitable for all men to be contayned in the Scriptures 2. Which vntill the time of Saint Hierome and Austen had not receaued the Apocrypha bookes to be Canonicall nor in many Ages as well after as before wanted learned writers to oppose their authoritie 3. Which sawe not that latine vulgar edition of the Bible which shee now equalizeth with the originalls before the time of Saint Hierome nor established it in such manner that men might not call the wordes of it into question and doubt vntill the Councel of Trent 4. Which made not those Heretikes which denie the Pope to haue infallible iudgement or to bee aboue a Generall Councell 5. Wherein Purgatorie for a time was not knowne and not for a long time after resolued which way it concerned saluation either in regard of the persons thereby to be purged to wit the damned iustest or onely the middle sort or in regard of the ends and effects which it hath whether to satisfie Gods iustice and to punish sinne past or by correcting the soules of the dead in such wise as temporall paines are wont to doe to diminish and take away the affections of sinne yet remayning 6. Wherein Popish Indulgences for many ages were not knowne nor any one instance giuen of the Popes dispencing them for a thousand yeeres after Christ 7. Which worshipped not Images nor euer approued the Image of God to be lawfully made 8. Wherein there was no Law which inioyned the worshipping of Saints and whereas it is forbidden in the Church of Rome publickely to worship an vncanonized Saint the first Pope which they euer read to haue canonized a Saint was Leo. the third who liued eight hundred yeres after our Sauiour 9. Wherin the Church admmitted no prayer into her publicke Liturgie for the release of soules from the paines of purgatorie but only for their acquital absolution at Gods tribunal as the formes of praier for the dead exprest in the Popish Lyturgie vnto this day do sufficiently testify 10. Wherein the marriage of Priests was held not to be forbidden iure diuino by the Law of God but was allowed and permitted to bee practised 11. Wherein the number of seuen Sacraments was not by any writer once mentioned but where they are purposely handled by the Fathers there are mentioned but two Baptisme and the Lords Supper 12. Wherein Transubstantiation was neither named nor made an article of Faith vntill the Councell of Laterane 13. Which a thousand yeares after Christ and more defined the sacrifice in the Eucharist to bee onely a memoriall and representation of our Sauiours sacrifice vpon the Crosse 14. Which administred the Cup to the Laitie 15. Which celebrated diuine seruice in the vulgar tongue which the people vnderstood 16. And lastly Wherein the Priests receaued not the Eucharist alone but together with the people The fift consideration is that if wee were for the first ages after our Sauiour in possession as well of our Negatiues as of our Affirmatiues it concernes our aduersaries to shew when they dispossessed vs and what prescription they haue against vs for by their owne law they which at the first are no heretickes in their beliefe are presumed to be none vntill they can bee conuinced to bee such semel bonus semper praesumitur esse bonus Now because it is a necessarie condition required by the Iesuites to an Article of faith that it be lawfully propounded by the Church and it is not fully resolued amongst our Aduersaries themselues when the Church openeth her mouth to define and propound but in a generall Councell we require of them in answer to Greg. de Valentia's own challenge to shew when those doctrines of theirs which wee denie were in such manner ratified and confirmed and when to hold the contrarie became damnable and hereticall And this wee challenge them that they doe according to the lawes prescribed by themselues whereof the first is that the Councells alleadged by them be generall for particular by their owne consents may erre the second that those generall bee receaued for lawfull and not either reiected as was the Constantinopolitan against Photius and the second Nicen which established Images this by that of Franckford the other by the Lateran vnder Pope Iohn Anno Dom. 879. or be doubtfull for as Bellarmine saith of the Pope that dubius Papa habetur pro non Papa a doubtfull Pope is held for no Pope so wee may by the same reason say of Councells that doubtfull ones are held for none The third which is Bellarmines own rule that neither such disputations as are premitted nor such reasons as are added nor such things as are brought for explication and illustration sake but onely the naked decrees themselues bee counted de fide of faith and not all those neither but such onely as are propounded tanquam de fide as it were of faith as when they say that they explaine the Catholicke faith or that they are to be counted for Heretickes which thinke the contrarie or that they pronounce an anathema and exclude such from the Church as thinke the contrarie For when they vse none of these phrases it is not certaine saith hee