to be Holy when it teaches Truth and Holiness So is the Universal Church Holy and so is every Member in its Communion Since that which makes it a Member in its Communion is its agreement with the whole in Doctrines taught by it both regarding Faith and Manners And from hence it follows that to ascribe Error and Corruption to any Church which is acknowledged a Member of the Catholic Church and for such pretended Errors to break off Communion with it is to do the same to the Universal Church and consequently to contradict an Article of Faith Now that this is the condition of the English-Church is manifest For since all Christians are under pain of damnation obliged to live in Communion with the Universal Church by being obedient to it's Laws and Governors as also to believe that this Universal Church is at this day extant where can an English Protestant hope to find this Church if not in the Roman Communion In the Greek-Church he will find the same Doctrine which in the Roman he calls dangerous Errours as besides the confession hereof by several Protestant Authors formerly hath been of late beyond all gainsaying evidenced by the indefatigable industry of Monsieur Arnaud in his two late Replies to Claude a Calvinist Minister from the Authentick Testimonials and Declarations both of several late Synods and of many Ecclesiastical Persons of eminency both in the present Greek and other Eastern Churches And besides these he will find other Doctrins which we all condemn as Heresies Then for pretended Corruptions in practice the same practices which he stiles Superstitious and Idolatrous principally touching the Blessed Sacrament he will find in the Greek Church far more distastful to him And as for other Eastern Sects besides the same Practises he will find himself obliged if in Communion with any of them to assent to Ancient Universally condemned Heresies Nestorianism Eutychianism Monothelitism c. §. 26. Prot. But no doubt God hath his Elect Servants among them all who are truly Orthodox as we are with whom we may be said to be united in Spirit Cath. Truly Sir this is a meer pittiful dream to talk of Communion in spirit with hidden Christians to you invisible as you are also to them This renders all the Discourses of the Holy Fathers touching the Churches Visibility and Unity utterly impertinent Yea this evacuates the Predictions of all Gods ancient Prophets foretelling the Extent Glory and Victories of the Kingdom of the Messias and it makes void the Promises of our Saviour touching his Church What meaning therefore can you frame to your self when you say You acknowledg a perpetually existent Catholic Church and a necessity imposed on all Christians to live in her Communion §. 27. Pr. We acknowledg our selves in Communion with all Christian Societies as far as they teach Truth and practise according to Christs Law Cath. So you may be said to communicate with Iews Turks and Insidels for some Truths are taught by all these and some of their practises are lawful But is this such a Communion as the Church Catholic anciently or as the First four General Councils required It is manifest that at the time of your first Separation there was not one Society of Christians in the world to whose Profession of Faith you would subscribe in whose Religious Worship you would joyn and by whose Laws you would be governed So that all Christians then living and visible in the World were to you as Heathens and Publicans and you the very same to them Were your first Reformers in Communion with them Certainly you will not say that the Roman Grecian and Oriental Churches though they will not deny but you teach some Truths and sometimes practise virtues do live in your Communion that is That Persons mutually excommunicating one another do at the same time live in one Communion or that Pastors live in Communion with those who renounce Obedience to them and abhorr the Faith taught by them §. 28. P. Why Sir would you have us allow such a way of Communion as you seem to understand to Societies which we firmly believe do teach damnable Errours and enjoyn Idolatrous or Superstitious Practises Cath. No Sir by no means But since there is on earth a visibly holy Catholic Church placed as a City upon a Hill with which you must under pain of damnation communicate in such a manner as Christians did in the time of the first four General Councils I adjure you not to rest where you now are in Schism from all visible Churches preceding your Separation but to find Her out and having found her out to depose an overweening conceit of your own abilities to censure and condemn her Doctrines and with Christian Humility to submit your self entirely to her Guidance by which means you will be sure to find rest of mind §. 29. Prot. This seems to me a task too hard to be undertaken Cath. That which makes it seem so hard to you is perhaps a secret whisper of Nature and self-love telling you that this may expose you to many worldly disadvantages or if not this a strong prejudice by education deeply imprinted in your mind against the Roman Church the condemning and reviling of which is the subject of most Books you read and of most of the discourses and Sermons you hear I name the Roman Church because I am perswaded that if you should happen to entertain any Doubts of the security of the Grounds of Protestant Religion it would not be the Grecian nor any of the other Oriental Churches whose Religion you would put in the scales against it but only the Roman from whence you had your Christianity your Church her subsistence and within the Limits and Iurisdiction of whose Patriarch you live Do I not judg aright Prot. Yes §. 30. Cath. Then Sir though at present you should have no doubts of any Doctrines taught by your Church or rather in it for your self will not allow her the Title of an authentic Teacher neither does she challenge it yet since you have voluntarily fixed your self in such a Church which not pretending to an infallible direction from God cannot with any shew of reason tell you that you are bound in conscience to believe any one of her Doctrines nor that it is a sin for you to leave her Communion and to chuse that of any other Society which you may like better for then all Christians should as well as you be obliged to joyn themselves to the English Church only Endeavour I beseech you with a mind as disinteressed as may be to hearken to what may be alledged for the Right which the Roman Church has to challeng your Obedience so as that the refusal of such Obedience would be an heinous Sin For this Right indeed She challenges and She alone No other ancient Church hath and no par ticular Sect doth or can pretend to it Prot. I am content §. 31. Cath. First then consider that
✚ I. Question WHY ARE YOU A CATHOLIC The ANSWER follows II. Question BUT WHY ARE YOU A PROTESTANT An ANSWER Attempted in vain 1 Pet. 3. 15. Be ready always to give an Answer to every man that asketh you a Reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and reverence Writen by the Reverend Father S. C. Monk of the Holy Order of St. Benedict and of the English Congregation LONDON Printed in the Year MDCLXXXVI ✚ TO THE Christian Reader IT was in Obedience to the desire of an Honourable Friend that this following Discourse was written that it was confined to such narrow lounds and that it is now Published He thought it requisite that such Catholics as are not at leasure to read Volums of Controversies should be instructed how to give a rational Account to Modern Sectaries why they are Catholics and he thought also that to justifie such their Profession a long Discourse would not be necessary This occasioned the following Answer to the Question proposed in the Title which Answer if rational and satisfactory will prevent or rather determine all other particular Questions about Religion the debating of which furnishes the world with Books to fill great Libraries But what fate soever shall befal this Answer in the esteem of Readers certain it is that the method of it is unquestionably useful by which is shewed that the Controversie about the Church is first of all to be seriously debated because what Party soever shall be able to give convincing Proofs that their Church is the same or a true Member of the same Church which we believe in the Creed shall thereby evince that all accusations laid against her are false and groundless and all separation from her damnable And on the other side it will be to no purpose to examine the Tenets of a Church already prejudged to be a false Church that is to want the inseparable Marks of a true Church signifyed by these words in our Creeds One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church denoting Unity of Faith Sanctity of Discipline Universality and uninterrupted Succession of Teachers and Governors from the Apostles to be necessary Signs of a true Church Now for as much as regards the following Discourse if any one shall think fit to undertake a Reply to it he may please to take notice that unless he intend to make quarrels useless and endless the only proper Reply will be his Answer to another like Question which he may suppose to be proposed to him by a Catholic viz. How can a Protestant think himself safe in a Congregation which never was incorporated in any Church whatsoever existent before the pretended Reformation This Question if seriously and rationally resolved and especially if the Resolution of it be justifyed by Authorities of by us all approved Antient Catholic Doctors it will then only be esteemed of considerable force against this following Answer to the Question Why are you a Catholic Now in this renewed Impression the Author thought expedient that such a Second Question should be proposed as by a Catholic to a Protestant demanding reciprocally of him Why are you a Protestant To which Question an Answer is framed the most suitable to Protestants grounds that the Author could devise He is not ignorant that this fashion of writing Controversies Dialogue-wise is oft obnoxious to exceptions and not unjust suspicions of partiality and prevarication For indeed we sometimes see Dialogues in which the Authors who may make their pretended Adversaries to speak as they themselves please do put foolish Answers into their mouths and then laugh at them presuming thereby to have gained a Victory But such a poor shift as this the Author protests against The allegations against the Roman Church brought in by the Protestant are in the Authors opinion the most considerable that are to be found among Protestant Controvertists which allegations he is permitted also to deliver in a Stile for its sharpness becoming a Protestant now a la Mode True it is the Author could not possibly make him answer pertinently and directly to the Question But whose fault is that No such Answer with tolerable satisfaction as far as the Author could inform himself could be found in rerum natura Now if any Protestant Reader shall dislike the Author's introducing his Protestant sometimes relenting or convinced that some Catholic Doctrines are too oft falsly and maliciously represented by Adversaries the Authours excuse must be that he having according to his conscience demonstrated so much his duty was to shew his Adversary a rational honest man that is such a one as will be satisfyed with reason and indeed with no other is he willing to treat However if this do not content the Reader he may do well to frame a better Protestant Answer to the general Question Why are you a Protestant But except such his Answer be indeed precisely pertinent and proper to the clearing his Church from the Charge of Schism either by shewing that she is indeed a true Member incorporated into the Body of the Catholic Church believed in our Common Creed Or that she is innocent and not chargeable with Schism though she be not yea abhors to be so incorporated he would do much better to save his labour No other Answer can be pertinent No excursions into Invectives against any other Church or Churches will be at all to the purpose Except therefore the pretended Answer be qualifyed as hath been said he must give the present Author leave to protest against it as no Answer at all notwithstanding which Protestation the Protestant may and probably will take leave to think and proclaim it unanswerable Now the rather to invite him to undertake such a just though unusual and hitherto unpractised a Task the Author does here freely acknowledg that was a principal end of his Writing and Publishing this Discourse for the truth is the World has been too long and too much abused with impertinencies and malicious Buffoâ—ries to the perverting of Souls encrease of Atheism and shame of our Nation Another considerable Motive also of composing this short Discourse was a desire in the Author to take occasion to deliver briefly the Catholic Church's Doctrines as they are in themselves and freed from the curious fancies of School-men and misprision of Sectaries to the Glory of God and the good of Souls ✚ Why are you a CATHOLIC A DIALOGUE BETWEEN A PROTESTANT AND A CATHOLIC §. 1. Protestant WHY are you a Catholic Catholic Because I am a Christian and by the Rule of Christian Faith the Apostles Creed am obliged to believe the holy Catholic Church Prot. Did not you believe that Article before you was a Catholic Cath. I thought indeed at that time that I had believed it but I have found since that I only thought so Prot. It seems then you do not think that I believe this Article as well as you Cath. I am sure that by vertue of this Article you are not obliged to be
abilities or blind passion against all Guides establish'd in Gods Church if Divine Revelation consent of Antiquity manifest Reason and even experience by outward Sensation may be fit to guide me I must not be a Protestant I must of necessity be a Roman Catholic For Divine Revelation interpreted also by consent of Fathers and Councils informs me that Christ hath established on Earth a visible Church which is one holy and Catholic the common Mother and only authentick Teacher of all Christians that this Church shall remain such to the end of the World and that whosoever is not a true faithful Member of this Church is thereby cut off from the Mystical Body of Christ and shall be eternally separated from Him Again evident Reason shews that no Person or Society can be esteemed a Member of any Church any other way than by believing its Doctrines and being subject to its Laws and Government In the third place the testimony of our Senses assures us that not any of our Modern Sects do assent to the Doctrines or are governed by the Laws of any Church at all and consequently not of the Catholic Church which had a being at their first pretended Reformation therefore upon these grounds it evidently follows that all the said Sects are manifestly guilty of Schism Moreover since the Roman is that Church of which the first Reformers once were Members and by reforming made a separation from it and since the same Church does constantly profess the same Doctrines which were once held by the Universal Body of Orthodox Christians and again since there is not any visible Church upon earth to which all marks of the true Church assigned in Scripture and by the Holy Fathers can be so applied and whereto the Antient Prophecies and the Promises of Christ have been so perfectly accomplished as the Roman it will evidently follow that the present Roman Catholic Church ought to be acknowledged that one Holy Catholic Church which we confess in the Apostles Creed and by consequence whatsoever Doctrines in opposition to the Faith professed in this Church are taught by Protestants they are thereby without any particular discussion legitimately prejudged to be formal Heresies Now Heresie and Schism being by all even by Hereticks and Schismaticks themselves acknowledged most dreadfully wasting Crimes of which I cannot possibly be guilty whilst I adhere to the Roman Catholic Church nor avoid the guilt of them by forsaking its Communion I conceive I have without any necessity of engaging in particular Disputes given you rational Grounds enabling me to afford a sufficient Answer to the Question first proposed by you viz. Why are you a Catholic §. 40. And for a conclusion Sir give me leave to tell you that it will be utterly in vain for you to atempt the avoiding of the stigmata brands of Heresie and Schism by entring into an endless Dispute about particular Controversies to be stated out of Books For till you be able to shew a present Visible Orthodox Church the Governors and Teachers whereof are derived by a continual Succession from the Apostles which Church in all those Points for which you have separated from the Roman teaches as you do and either governs you or is governed by you Till this I say be done your busying your self about particular Disputes will never produce to you Peace of mind but rather encrease in you Pride and Malice against others Your first most necessary Care therefore must be to establish your self in such a Church as can oblige you to believe her for by no other way can you nor your Teachers avoid Self-condemnation as manifest Innovators There are certain illustrious marks assigned by the holy Scriptures and Fathers to distinguish the true Catholic Church from Congregations of Hereticks and Schismaticks such are Unity Succession Universality Converting of Nations Miracles c. And these are such marks as are perceptible by the meanest capacities to the end that none should be excused if they mistake the Church Now not one of these so visible marks belongs to you and not one but belongs to the Roman Catholic Church §. 41. When you are urged to shew some signs or marks which might invite any to joyn with you all you can say is That you teach truth and that you duly administer the Sacraments that is you would prove your selves to be a true Church because you say you are a true Church for not the marks but the essence of a Church consists in teaching Truth c. But marks of his Church easily observable by all men were appointed by God to lead the Simple as well as the Learned to discover that Church which only teacheth Truth and duly administers his Sacraments Not any such marks do you pretend to shew And as for this your miscalled single Mark the Unlearned cannot possibly judg whether you do indeed teach Truth c. and the Learned must have spent their whole lives before they can be in a capacity to judg And though they should be so unhappy as to suffer themselves to be convinced that you do teach Truth c. yet till you can further demonstrate that you are not guilty of Schism but that you communicate with that one holy Catholic Church which you believe in the Creed it would notwithstanding all the truth pretended to be taught by you be a damnable sin in them to communicate with you These things considered since I am confident it is impossible for you to clear this point I believe you will find an insuperable difficulty to prepare according to the method observed here a tolerable general answer sufficient to vindicate your Church in case I should by way of exchange propose to you this Question Why are you a Protestant Prot. Judg not Sir too hastily Perhaps at our next meeting you will hear more than you now expect In the mean time I thank you for your Charity And God willing I will seriously reflect on what hath been said Cath. Farewel Sir and if you think good cast your eyes upon this little bundel of Citations out of several ancient Holy Fathers of the Church who will tell you that upon the very same grounds which have been here discoursed on they were good Christians and Catholics Prot. If they tell me so I shall not easily contemn what they tell me Farewel ✚ ¶ TESTIMONIES of HOLY FATHERS regarding The Substance of the foregoing DISCOURSE §. 1. Of the Churches prepetual Existence Visibility c. OBscurius dixerunt Prophetaeâ—de Christo quam de Ecclesia Puto propterea The Prophets have spoken more obscurely concerning Christ than concerning the Church The reason hereof I conceive to be because they foresaw in Spirit that men would make divisions and parties and that they would not much dispute about Christ himself but that they would raise great contentions about the Church Therefore that was more plainly foretold and more openly prophecyed concerning which greater contentions would in succeeding times
require Belief of them we cannot assent to them without rendring our selves guilty of apparent contradicting Scripture generally in them all and no less than the heynous Crimes of Superstition and Idolatry in several of them Cath. I do not much wonder to hear from you so a cruel a Censure of our Catholic Belief Yea perhaps I should my self joyn with you in the like if I should take a prospect of the Church by the same false Light that I perceive you have done Prot. Why Sir from whence should I receive Light to discover what you teach but from our Controvertists §. 52. Cath. I did not at all doubt from whence that which you call Light came And therefore permit me to tell you that if you frame your judgment touching the Faith of Catholics by what you find commonly in Controvertists you will condemn you know not what nor whom Prot. This is strange Do none of our Controvertists understand what your Church teaches §. 53. Cath. What and how much they understand I cannot define But this I may with confidence say that generally judging of your Controvertists not a twentieth part of one of their Volumes contains an examination of the necessary Faith of the Church which Faith notwithstanding is pretended to be confuted in every Page Prot. Notwithstanding what you say yet your Controvertists also in answering our Books do take on them to defend whatsoever ours oppose as the Doctrines of your Church Cath. It is too true indeed of some of them who deserve much to be blamed for giving thereby occasion to our Adversaries to multiply unnecessary Debates by a partial esteem of their own private adopted Opinions of their peculiar Interpretations of the Churches Doctrines their probable Additions to them and Inferences from them all which they are desirous should pass for Points of Catholic Faith Besides this several Schoolmen there are whose end of Writing being to boast their Wit and Subtilty who will penetrate into all things no Mysteries shall be incomprehensible to their Philosophy and who think it a great Mastery to advance Positions bordering on the very brink of Heresie Speculative or Moral and then by some nice Distinction to prove them if not Orthodox at least not deserving the utmost Censures And of these mens rashness Protestants oft-times take advantage and zealously oppose them as if the Church were obliged to make good their aery Speculations §. 54. Prot. What Expedient then do you propose to me by which I may be certainly informed of your Churches Doctrines Cath. The way is plain easie and short if you will look before you and not wilfully go out of it Prot. I pray you put me into that way Cath. The way is to examine candidly and seriously the Churches own Decisions only which if you do you will find how little she is concern'd in the accusations you lay against her Prot. If this prove true surely our Modern Controvertists have a dreadful Account to make to God who seem studiously to design the widening of the breaches amongst Christians Cath. That what I say is true I dare take the confidence to make your self the Iudge And this I undertake to demonstrate through all the controverted Points before mentioned by you not by disputing alledging Proofs or answering Objections but only by representing to you in a simple manner the pure naked Doctrine of the Church in relation to all these Points Prot. I am likewise sufficiently averse from clamorous Disputes which commonly are only Prizes of a quick Fancie or voluble tongue and fomentors of unruly Passions Therefore I expect what you intend to say §. 55. Cath. Before I begin I have a few Requests in my judgment not unreasonable to make to you The first is 1. That having supposed that upon a true or false Belief Eternity of Happiness or Misery depends you would force your Imagination to put your self in that state in which your first Reformers really were immediately before they broke from the Churches Obedience and Communion and supposing that you were earnestly tempted by them also to forsake it by adhering to a New-begun Society never heard of in the world before upon a pretence that the Church in which you live and which you as yet esteem to be the true Catholic Church teaches most pernicious Errours Superstitions and Idolatrous practices Of the Justice of which pretence your Tempters now declared Enemies will needs be the Iudges Prot. This I will endeavour to perform §. 56. 2. Cath. My Second Request is That you will acknowledge that the Doctrines of Catholic Faith once decided by the Church are to be understood in the plain literal Sence and in the latitude of the Churches expression And by consequence that when they are severally restrained to different particular Senses by interpretation of Catholic writers such Interpretations are not necessarily to be admitted by you And much less are other Doctrins by inference drawn from them to be esteemed Points of Catholic Faith but only Opinions of particular Divines which do not oblige to Assent Prot. This ought in reason to be acknowleged §. 57. 3. Cath. My third and last Request is That when your Tempters shall tell you that the Catholic Church teaches Dostrins contrary to Scripture you would acknowledge that unless such a pretended Contrariety can be evidently demonstrated to you you ought not for that cause to forsake the Churches Communion For undoubtedly where her Doctrines seem only probably contrary to some Text of Scripture her Authority is such as to oblige you to belive that her Sence ought to be preferred before that of her Enemies who are desstitute of all Authority And it would be madness to transgress the necessary Duty of peaceful Obedience and of avoiding Schism upon a probable hope of finding some Truths elsewhere Prot. Reason requires that this also be granted §. 58. Cath. These concessions therefore being presupposed give me leave to put you in mind of what you said at the entrance into this our Discourse viz. That this may be with full assurance asserted that you cannot assent to any of those Doctrines taught by the Roman Church and rejected by your Party without rendering your self guilty of apparent contradicting Scripture Prot. I remember this well but how will you disprove me Cath. If this Perswasion of yours were well grounded it would be not only in vain but unlawful for me to seek to withdraw you from it But being on the other side assured that what you say is apparent is only so in a false appearance to your mind prepossessed I hope I may without vanity promise to demonstrate to you that you only think an this without Ground that you are assured Prot. You make large Promises to your self which I believe will have small effect upon me Cath. Sir Truth and a Good intention make me confident that Divine Grace which is Omnipotent will accompany them Whereas therefore you say That Roman Doctrines are apparently or evidently contrary
to Scripture I desire you to take into consideration that the same Roman Church at the same time both proposed the Belief of those Doctrins to your first Reformers and also gave them the Scriptures testifying that they were the infallible Word of God Therefore certainly it was far from being evident to her that her Doctrines did evidently contradict Divine Revelation Now you will not surely deny but that in the Catholic Church there are men as learned and those in a far greater number than among Protestants Men I say who also make the Scriptures their principal study and have published almost innumerable Commentaries on them again Men of whom a great number live sequestred from the world in an assiduous Practice of Spiritual Prayer and therefore not likely to have their judgments perverted by worldly interests Yet not any one of these does see or but suspect that the Faith they profess is contradicted by Gods Word on the contrary they invincibly demonstrate that the Church has been as the only Depository of Scripture so likewise of the true Sence of it How comes then that to be evident to you which is invisible to them Which way went the Spirit of God from the whole Church to inhabite a debauched incestuous Fryer or a stigmatized Pichard upon whose credit doubtless you have taken up your Evidence If they could have shewed you in Scripture such passages as these The Pope is not the Supream Bishop and Visible Head of the Church Bread by Sanctification does not become the Body of Christ We ought not to confess our sins to Priests Purgatory is a meer humane invention It is an injury to Christ to desire Saints but none to desire Sinners to pray for us c. Such sayings indeed as these might have justifyed your charge against the Church that she contradicts Scripture But where are such sayings to be found except it be in the Heretical Writings of your Reformers On the contrary some Points contradictory to those are found litterally contained in Scripture and to elude them you are foced to have recourse to figurative sences and the rest are conveyed to us by the same Authority by which we receive the Scripture it self Yea by the Holy Fathers justified as consonant to Scripture and however I suppose you will not say that silence is equivolent to express contradiction The utmost that you can say is that perhaps you can produce now and then some scattered Texts of Scripture from which you can make a shew of arguing against some Tenets of the Catholic Church But what will that avail you since Probability as hath been said will not excuse you for omitting a necessary duty of Obedience and incurring the horible guilt of Schism Where now do you see an evidence that the Church contradicts Scripture Prot. I shall be better enabled to give a resolution in this Point when according to your promise you shall have given me an account of the necessary Doctrines of your Church in the points controverted between us §. 60. Cath. That Promise I will now with Gods assistance discharge through all the Points mentioned by you in the beginning And first as touching the two first Points viz. 1. The Churches Authority 2. The Popes Universal Iurisdiction c. enough hath been said in our former discourse Yet for your further satisfaction I will enlarge my self a little more Take therefore into your consideration that it is a Fundamental Truth agreed on by all Catholics That the only Objects of Catholic Faith are such Divine Truths as are revealed in Gods Word and also proposed to all by the Catholic Church to be believed by Divine Faith Now this general Ground being presupposed in case any Controversies should arise touching the sence of any Divine Truths revealed it is unquestionably necessary that some Means should be appointed by God to determine such controversies and to prevent a dissipation of his Church by Heresies and Schisms And what other Mean can be imagined efficacious hereto then what hath been taught and practised even from the Apostles time and this declared by the Council of Trent That no man trusting to his own prudence or skill shall presume to interpret Holy Scripture in matters of Faith or Manners pertaining to edification of Christian Doctrine wresting it to his own sences against that sence which our Holy Mother the Church doth or hath held to whom it belongs to judg of the true sence and interpretation of Holy Scriptures or also against the unanimous consent of the Fathers This is that which the Roman Catholic Church teaches concerning her Authority of interpreting controverted Texts of Scripture No more then this is any Catholic obliged to believe Now I leave it to your conscience whether you can think it a sufficient Ground for you to break from her Communion upon this quarrel because she judges more fit that the judgment of the whole Body of Teachers and Governors appointed by God in her should prevail against your single judgment or that of a few Apostat-Ministers Especially considering the Promises made by our Lord to his Apostles and their lawful Successors that his Spirit should remain with them and direct them into all Truth till the end of the world so as that the gates of Hell that is say the Fathers Heresies should never prevail against them Prot. I see it is in vain to contradict this §. 61. Cath. Let us next proceed to what the Church has determined touching the Priviledges and Authority of the Prime Pastor the Bishop of Rome Thus then we read in the Confession of Faith collected by the Pope himself out of the Council of Trent I acknowledg the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Roman Church to be the Mother and Mistress of all Churches and I promise true Obedience to the Bishops of Rome Successor of St. Peter Prince of the Apostles and Vicar of Iesus Christ. Here the See Apostolic being acknowledged the Mother and Mistress of all Churches and the Pope Vicar of Christ his universal Iurisdiction is therein acknowledged which Jurisdiction or Authority we are not to suppose to be arbitrary and unlimitted but as we read in a Canon of the Council of Florence consented to by the Emperor Patriark and other Bishops of Greece to be exercised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. after the manner as is also contained in the Gests of Oecumenical Councils and Sacred Canons And such a Primacy invested with Authority as this the General Council of Chalcedon admitted by Protestants does acknowledg in him which is also attested by Tradition and practice from the beginning §. 62. Now the necessity of such a standing Authority in Gods Church is thus grounded The absolutely Supream Ecclesiastical Authority against which can lye no Appeal is confessedly residing in a lawful General Council by which all Debates whatsoever may be determined all necessary Laws enacted c. But it being a matter of infinite difficulty especially since the division of
remitted and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained As likewise to the Precept to Saint Iames Confess your sins one to another Which Texts have been alwayes interpreted by the Holy Fathers in the same sense The universal Practice likewise of the Iewish Synagogue conformable hereto adds a considerable weight to induce us to a perswasion that it is by Divine Institution For how can it be imagined that by any humane invention a Duty so burthensom to flesh and blood and to our Natural Pride could have been introduced generally into the Church without sparing the awfull Majesty of Kings and Modesty of Queens by an unarmed Ecclesiastical Power the Pope himself also owing such Submission to a simple Priest §. 79. The ground of the necessity of this Sacrament is because those who by Baptism having submitted themselves to the Churches Authority afterwards do violate the Laws of the Gospel ought to undergo the judgment of the same Church in the Tribunal of Penance where she exercises the Power given her of remitting and retaining sins Now such judgment is esteemed as given by Iesus Christ himself by whom and in whose place his Priests are appointed Iudges It is this invisible High Priest who after Confession Sorrow and Satisfaction interiourly absolves the Penitent whilst the Priest exercises the exteriour Ministery as a Subordinate Iudge without whose concurrence Sins shall not be remitted §. 80. As for Satisfactions imposed after Confessions they according to the Churches expression regard only Temporal Pains due to our Sins She does not teach that we can satisfie God for the guilt even of Venial Sins or for Eternal Pains Moreover she declares that these Satisfactions are accepted of God through the Merits of Christ and that they do no way obscure the benefit of Christs death For Christ by his death has so satisfied for our sins that it is Gods pleasure his satisfaction should not produce its full effects till it be by us particularly applyed in the use of his Sacraments and works worthy of Penance to which Works his Merits being linked and not otherwise our Satisfactions will be accepted by him through his pure Grace and Mercy The Lutherans who seem so only to rely on Christs Passion for the remission of their Sins doubt not yet to profess that a previous Faith is necessary thereto for such as are come to the age of discretion and Baptism for Infants The difference then between us is that they pretend to be justified by a Dead Faith and we by a Living Now therefore advise with your self whether you would forsake Gods Church rather then submit your self to a Duty without which that eminent Priviledge given by our Lord to his Ministers for the general good of his people of remitting Sins becomes vain and of no effect Prot. I will seriously think on this and now expect what you will say concerning the other Articles 9. Of Indulgences §. 81. Cath. I will if you think good in the next place treat of the Point touching Indulgences by reason of its affinity to the former Prot. I leave the Method to your own choice Cath. Concerning Indulgences then the Church hath thus delivered her sense Since the Power of giving Indulgences hath been bestowed on the Church by Iesus Christ and that She hath made use of this Power divinely left her from antient times the Holy Synod teaches and commends the use of Indulgences as very beneficial to all Christian people and approved by the Authority of other Holy Synods and that they ought to be retained in the Church And denounceth Anathema against those who assert that they are unprofitable or deny that there is a Power of giving them in the Church Notwithstanding the Synod admonishes that the granting of them be done with great moderation according to the ancient and approved Custome of the Church for fear least by two great a remisness Ecclesiastical Discipline be weakned Thus we are taught by the Church And certain it is that there is not any Point of Catholic Faith which taken simply according to the Churches own expression is more evident as to the Truth of it and less offensive as to the use then is this touching Indulgences Yet after all there is not any one Point so embroyled by Controvertists disputing for and against Inferences and Interpretations made by several Schoolmen which have occasioned most horrible Scandals by abuses committed in Practise This having been the first occasion of Luthers revolting and Schism §. 82. Now forasmuch as regards the proper necessary sence of this Canon those very Schoolmen who advance the virtue of Indulgences much beyond what will be allowed by many very learned Catholics yet do acknowledge that the Church by her Decision obliges us to believe as of Faith only this viz. That only such a Power of conferring Indulgences has been left by our Lord to his Church as from ancient times has been practised and approved by former Synods intending those that are usually cited to that purpose as the first of Nicea Can. 11. of Neocaesare Can. 3. of Laodicea Can. 1. and 2. the Fourth of Carthage Cap. 75. and of Agdes Can. 6. in all which Synods we only find this that it was always lawful and usual for Bishops to remit to their Penitents some part of those Canonical Penances which were inflicted for certain crimes in case the life and laudable conversation of the Penitent did seem to deserve so great a favour or if by such indulgence they thought requisite to encourage weaker Christians in times of Persecution to suffer for the Faith Hence appears that whatsoever beyond this we read in the Catholic Writers as thouching the remission of any pane due to Sin in the judgment of God or after death in Purgatory or touching certain clauses in the Bulls of some Popes or touching the Churches Treasure consisting of the Merit of Christ alone as some or of the Merits of Saints joyned to those of Christ as others conceive c. not any of these are necessary Points of Catholic Faith Thus in effect the Catholic Church requires no more to be assented to but what is taught and practised by every Congregation of Christians upon Earth All Sects even Fanatics and Quakers denounce Censures against Delinquents Must all those Censures alwayes have their full effect Is no mercy to be extended to humble contrite Penitents Shall no difference be made between Sinners converted and those that are remorsless This is contrary to humane Nature and the practise of all mankind Therefore surely you would not forsake the Catholic Church for allowing that which all Christians esteem necessary §. 83. Prot. If this were all that the Roman Church teaches concerning Indulgences they are much to blame who condemn her But the general Practise therein contradicts you Do we not see the virtue of Indulgences extended to the other world Do we not see in the tenor of promulgated Plenary Indulgences all Sinners promised
fruition of Glory promised them so that all things remain in suspence until the coming of our Saviour to Iudgment Now this so tedious suspension and anxious expectation of an Object vehemently desired must needs be more grievous then a short suffering in Purgatory where probably such a delayed expectation makes the principal torment and where perhaps the sufferings of many less imperfect Souls may be less tormenting than some pains suffered in this life Yet because Calvin will not call this his fancied place Purgatory he is Orthodox and the Church only erroneous He is Orthodox teaching in a manner the very same Doctrine taught by the Church and yet men can have the conscience to forsake the Church that they may learn her Doctrine abroad in a Shismatioal Congregation Prot. Such partiality truly I cannot approve Cath. These are the Catholic Doctrines mentioned by you as evidently contradicting Scripture and invented to promote Ambition and Avarice in the Catholic Clergy And besides these other Points of Controversie there are which though not charged with such an imputation yet are esteemed by you of moment sufficient to drive you out of Gods Church Do you think good that we should take notice of these also Prot. Yes 14. Of Celibacy of Priests §. 104. Cath. The first then that I will mention shall be the Churches Ordinance touching Celibacy of Priests It is confessed by us that this is only an Ecclesiastical Constitution It is also confessed by the most eminent among you that if your Clergy would submit to such a Constitution Ecclesiastical affairs would be better ordered If they say that all men have not the Gift of Continence they may be told that in case any one of them wants this Gift why does he intrude himself into the Office of a Spiritual Pastor Who compels him thereto Yet withall the same person in his younger days had the Gift of Continence whilst he enjoyned a subsistence by a Fellowship in the University Does then his Approaching to the Altar expel that Gift or does Ordination make a wife necessary in these latter days only whereas never any former Christian Church not in Greece it self would permit any person after made a Priest to marry Even those very Councils forbad this which permitted marryed men to receive Priesthood If therefore there be among them a want of this Gift of Continence it is their own fault generally speaking they want it because they are unwilling to enjoy it and will not make use of Prayer Reading Abstinence Solitude and other means proper to continue it And will you Sir leave Gods Church because those whom God hath appointed to take care of your soul have not neither desire to have Wives Prot. Go on to the next Point 15. Of abstinence from flesh enjoyned in Fasting §. 105. Cath. As not in the former Constitution so neither in this by which the Church commands Abstinence from flesh on days of Fasting can you have any pretention to impute to our Church as we may to yours that she favors carnal affections In the former her Clergy imposed on themselves alone the burden of renouncing all even otherwise lawful satisfactions to the flesh And for this you who are nothing concern'd will be angry and forsake a Church because Mortification is practiced by the Pastors in it In this latter Ordinance she indeed I mean her Clergy restrain in some measure the appetites of the Layty but they do not in the mean time favour themselves If it were not good for our Souls to abate the intemperance of our Bodies Ecclesiastics would not afflict themselves by practising it And if it be good Laicks are too blame to find fault with it §. 106. However I cannot judge you so unreasonable as to joyn with your hot-headed Controvertists and Preachers who for these two Ordinances sake impute to our Church the teaching of the Doctrine of Devils in forbiding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats since it is manifest that these Heretics of whom Saint Paul prophesied and which appeared shortly after in the Church uttterly condemned Marriage in all as an abomination in it self and taught that all Creatures having life are composed of particles of the evil Deity and therefore to be had in execration Now Sir can you observe any affinity between these Doctrines and those of the Catholic Church teaching that Marriage is honourable in all who are called to it but yet that Virginity especially in persons consecrated to God is better And again that all Gods creatures are good and to be received with thanksgiving but yet on some few days when we are for the good of our Souls to subdue our carnal Lusts fermenting in our Bodies it is expedient to abstain from some more nourishing meats though otherwise in themselves lawful and good Prot. I am sufficiently perswaded Saint Paul never intended you in that Prophesie And now Sir it will not be necessary you should trouble your self about any other Points debated among us None of which as neither indeed the two last being of such moment as to oblige any one to break from any Churches Communion at all Since all the Doubts concerning them consist in this Whether a single Christian may safely judg himself wiser and holyer then the Church Cath. God Almighty establish in your heart a love of his Truth and Peace And now for a farewel give me leave to add a few considerations touching the general argument of both our Discourses Prot. I give it willingly §. 107. Cath. Then Sir you may remember how at our last meeting I told you that it was the common artifice of your Controvertists when they are charged with Schism to delay the examination of that most important Point till the Greek Calends that is till all other particular Controversies be debated to their satisfaction which will never be But now I must alter the expression and tell you it is not so much a voluntary artifice as pure necessity that put them and you upon that unreasonable Method §. 108. When a Catholic is examined why he is so an Answer is readily suggested to him that it concerns the safety of his Soul to be a member of that Church which from his Creed he learns to be Holy and Catholic and that the Roman is such having all the Marks by which the only true Church is characterized in Scripture He answers directly to the Question without comparing particular Tenents of his Church with those of other divided Congregations which requires much Study and learning beyond the ability of ordinary Catholics whereas the most simple are unquestionably perswaded of the Authority of their Church and that keeps them safe in it against all the captious Objections of Sectaries endeavouring to shake their Faith in particular Doctrines the justifying of which they leave to their Teachers and Governors §. 109. But a Protestant being examined Why for example he is Member of the Church of England it never enters into his
wilfully misinterpret Scripture to their own destruction especially in Points Fundamental which are so clearly set down in Scripture that no sober Enquirer can be mistaken in them Cath. Well Sir I have at present done asking Questions and now better enabled by what you have said will endeavor to give you a fuller Answer to the Question you proposed in the begining viz. Why are you a Catholick §. 11. First then Sir I am a Catholick because I believe that Christ the Author and Finisher of our Faith is infinitely both good wise and omnipotent His goodness inclined him to come down into this world to save mankind by establishing a Church upon earth which should remain till the end of the world and in which the way to Heaven should be so taught as not only the Wise and Learned but the Poor Simple and Ignorant also should by Faith and Obedience be made partakers of Eternal Happiness Now his goodness having designed this his wisdom enabled him to appoint ways and means proper to effect that his blessed Design and omnipotence to make those means successful § 12. The general efficacious means to accomplish this are first The revealing his whole will to his Church which we acknowledg to be sufficiently done in Holy Scripture as to all points absolutely necessary to Salvation though in all those points not so clearly to every one that without a Teacher their sense may not be mistaken Neither doth Scripture make an express discernment of what points are necessary And secondly The assisting of this his Church with fidelity and a constant performance of her duty in declaring all necessary Divine Truth manifested to her to her Subjects with a command that all Christians should obey and submit to what she shall teach or enjoyn them God having thus revealed his whole Will to his one Catholic Church it necessarily and evidently follows 1. That Ignorance or Error in any Points of Christian Doctrine necessary to Salvation is damnable 2. That a Seperation from this one Church is damnable also upon what pretence soever the separation be made §. 13. Now to avoid eternal Misery thus threatned by Error or Schism only one of these two ways is possible 1. By ones own light to penetrate into all Mysteries so as to be most firmly assured of a right understanding of all necessary verities revealed by God in Holy Scriptures 2. Or out of a distrust of our own abilities to submit our Reason and internal Assent to Authority The former of these ways all Sects divided from the Roman Church and among themselves do uniformly take being forced hereto by denying any visible Society of men to have any authority obliging the Consciences of their Subjects and by conseqence they have all if any an equal Title that is indeed equally none at all to challenge belief one as well as another neither can they rationally without deserting their common Ground condemn or excommunicate one another The latter way we Catholics only take and as we think prudently and surely §. 14. For Sir I beseech you to consider what a busy laborious task you have undertaken by being a Protestant of what Sect among them soever you are Before you can promise to your self any rest of mind in the Peculiar Fundamental Doctrines of your Sect your Conscience must satisfy you that you have not embraced a Religion by hazard but after a diligent sincere and effectual examination of all the Reasons and arguments not only of Catholicks submitting to Authority but also of other Sectaries who proceeding your way of interpreting Scripture by a private light do condemn your Doctrines or whose Doctrines you condemn To be able to do all this how many Volums of Controversy are you obliged to read and examine Besides this it will be absolutely necessary that you be perfectly studyed in all the Books of Scripture with the best Commentaries on them both Ancient and Modern since you ground your Religion upon a sense of Scripture which perhaps not any of them will allow and then in equity you are to examine their reasons for it Now what one mans age will suffice for all this business though but in one or two Points controverted and though the party were learned and had never so much leasure What then shall ignorant persons do who yet make up the greatest number of Christians What shall Trades-men and Day-Labourers do who can scarce allow from their necessary Vocations any time at all dayly even to say their Prayers yet it concerns all these upon the venture of Eternal Happiness or Misery not to forsake or embrace a Religion without a sufficient Examination made by themselves of the grounds of it since they are told and believe it that they must trust to themselves only because no external Authority upon Earth can require from them a submission of their judgment inasmuch as according to their general fundamental Positions no Authority is infallible §. 15. Now whereas you said That all Fundamental Doctrines of Christianity are so clearly set down in Scripture that no sober Enquirer can be mistaken in them If this were true yet since neither the Scripture nor you your selves do clearly express which and how many Doctrines are fundamental every tittle of Scriptures must be read and examined by every one of you for fear a necessary Doctrine should chance to escape you But to demonstrate the groundlesness of that your Assertion I desire you to reflect on the prodigious multiplicity of Sects swarming in this age all which ground their Belief upon pretended clear Texts of Scripture alone you will then scarce find one Article of Christian Faith exempted from their Disputes There are not wanting who deny the Mistery of the Holy Trinity the Divinity and Incarnation of our Lord the Divine Personality of the Holy Ghost Some absolutely deny Freewill whilst others exalt the power of it so high as to affirm Divine Grace unnecessary to its best Operations Some affirm our Nature to be so incurably polluted by Original Sin as that all the best actions of the Regenerate are Mortal Sins Others will acknowledge no Original Sin at all Some affirm Baptism necessary to Salvation even of Infants Others reject Infant-Baptism and Calvinists assert that Infants without Baptism are sanctified by their Parents faith and that some Infants dying though baptized may be damned Some believe mans Soul to be mortal and that it perisheth with the Body not having any Knowledg or Sentiment after death Some confine God to a determinate place in Heaven and also deny his Prescience of future Contingents Lastly some deny an Eternity of torments in Hell Surely you will not deny most of these to be contrary to Fundamental Doctrines of our Faith yet all who maintain these Tenets and all Sectaries who contradict them do ground themselves upon express Scripture which to you seems so clear You cannot be more confident that you have light on the true sence of Scripture than they of a
contrary sense and only self-love and selfe-esteem determine both the one and the other Can it then be prudence in any man to hazard Eternity upon his own sence of Scripture the half of which perhaps he never read Commonly a Text or two concludes every point controverted when perhaps there are twenty Texts unconsidered by the Person which would rectify the sence he gave to the former Is that Guide to be trusted which has seduced such infinite Multitudes opposing calumniating and hating one another All Mankind may be witness that this Private Light hath hitherto never been able to confute or undecieve one Sect. In a word is it not in effect an injurious blaspheming of the Goodness Wisdom and Omnipotence of God to affirm that he has obliged under penalty of damnation all Christians to unity of Faith in all necessary Doctrines and also that he hath promised to conserve his Church in this Unity to the end of the world and on the other side to affirm withal that the only Means appointed by him to produce this Unity should be a certain Means of destroying Unity and which if made use of by all Christians the gates of Hell would be too strong for him so that there would scarce be left a Church upon earth §. 16. Truly Sir I do not know through what Spectacles you look upon this principle of Protestancy which hath been indeed the constant Principle of all Ancient-Herities But to me it appears most horribly gastly and only fit to be acknowledged the invention of Lucifer the foul Spirit of Pride and contention who presents to unwary Christians once more this fruit of the Tree of the knowledg of good and evil to be aspired to by our own endeavors and contrary to Gods appointment Since therefore as hath been said there are but those two ways to arrive at the knowleg of Divine Mysteries contained in Scripture yet so contained as that the Texts in which they are contained are subject to be miss-understood viz. First A man 's own private Reason And Secondly Authority of Superiors by Gods appointment placed in his Church All the Reason I have enforces me to chuse this latter way because thereby I shall avoid inconstancy otherwise unavoidable as I am taught by St. Paul who sayes Eph. 4. 11 12 c. That therefore God placed in his Church Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers for the edification of the Body of Christ a Succession of which is to last till we all meet in the Unity of Faith c. This Almighty God did says he To the end we should not be like children wavering and carried about with every wind of Doctrine through the wickedness of men and cunning of such as would circumvent us with errour the only remedy whereof in the Apostles judgment is submission to Authority To which submission also I am obliged by an express command of God Obedite praepositis vestris c. Heb. 13. 17. Obey them that are set over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account And Reason thus divinely enlightned obliging me to submit to Authority I should renounce the same Reason utterly if I should not prefer that Society which by an evident Succession from the foresaid Apostles and Pastors makes the best claim thereto yea which alone claims an Authority obliging the Conscience and that is the Catholics Church the Authority whereof is evidently the greatest in the world For though all divided Sects preume to contend with her for Truth of Doctrines challenging that to themselves yet there is not any one of them which dares assume to themselves that eminence of Authority which manifestly appears in her And you may know this Catholio Church from others because it only challengeth an universal and absolute not conditional Obedience and you may know the Sons of it by their professing to give to the Churches Authority such Obedience §. 17. Now Sir consider how agreeable to Gods goodness and wisdom how suitable to humane capacities how helpful to mens necessities is this way of grounding our Faith on Gods Word as interpreted by the Catholic Church The far greatest part of Christians are too weak to maintain Disputes yet God loves the Poor and Ignorant at least as well as he does the Rich and Learned and takes care to bring them to Happiness without Learning sharpness of wit curiosity and study of knowledg Consequently he has chalked out a way to Heaven in which the Ignorant and Simple may walk securely And in what other way can these walk but in that of obedience to Authority This doubtless is that way foretold by the Prophet Isa. 35. 8. saying in Christs Kingdom There shall be a high way and it shall be called a holy way No polluted person shall pass through it This shall be to Christians a streight way so that Fools shall not err in it Now have Sectaries found out this streight way in which Fools cannot err Sectaries I say who have framed a confused Labyrinth in which there are a thousand cross paths and windings where every one wanders as it were with a dark Lanthorn in his hand and either stumbles into or phantastically chuses such a path as at the present pleases him best and leaves it also when he thinks good not taking direction from any other or not much caring for such directions By this means we see how that not only Fools and Ignorant but even the most Judicious amongst Sectaries following their own light do walk all their lives in quite contrary ways yet all believing that God by the Scripture directs them §. 18. Manifest therefore it is that Gods way being only one holy streight High-way not any Sectaries but all and only Catholics have been by Almighty God brought into it In as much as they distrusting the dim Light of their own Reason for discerning the Verities of Faith contested borrow the Churches Light thus exercising Christian Humility in not presuming upon their own Abilities and Christian Obedience in submitting to the Guidance of those Teachers and Governors whom God hath placed over them and who are to give an account of their souls These Heavenly Virtues are and have always been equally practised by both Ignorant Catholics out of necessity and by the most Learned out of Duty Yea those glorious Lights of Gods Church the holy Fathers and ancient Doctors though they were Fathers and Doctors to others yet to the Church herself they were humble Children and Disciples learning only from her and teaching others only what they had learnt from her This surely is a streight High-way and a Holy way too and whil'st the most Simple among Catholicks walk in this way they have an incomparable advantage in light above the most Learned of those which trust to their private light For they are guided by all the lights that is by the whole Body of those which God hath constituted Teachers in his Church in all ages and