they should not be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine by the steight of men till they may all come in the unity of the doctrine of faith to the fulness of Christ Jesus Eph. 4. 11. Heb. 13. 7 9. Neither may we say that so also we quit only our own reason to accept another man's for as we are guided by their authority so are they guided not by their own reason only but by former authority till we ascend to the first founders of Christian religion See Ecclus. 8. 9. To the judgment therefore of such visible Doctors and Teachers of the Church we ought to repair to some or other of these nay to some or other external communion of them For the promises of perpetual assistance c are not made to the Church at random or in obscurity and unknown viz. that some man or other on earth either of the Clergy or if not of the Laity shall be an orthodox Christian so far as to be capable of salvation till the end of the world but * to those to whom our Saviour also committed the Keys to whom indeed t is most necessary they being the Shepherds and the rest the flock committed always to their guidance See Matt. 16. 18. compared with 19. 28. 20. compared with 19. 18. 20. compared with 18. * to such a Church †as people might know and repair and make their complaints to Matt. 18. 17. †as is a light of the world set on a Candlestick and shining before men a city set upon a hill that cannot be hid Matt. 5. 14 15 16. never was nor never shall be hid of the perpetual being of which we make confession of our faith in the Apostolical Creed the holy Catholick Church and yet plainer in the Nicene one Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church which who so understands not of an external visible profession and communion as theirs then was may retain the words but not the sence and faith of that Council See this matter more largely discoursed in Succession of Clergy § 2. c. and in Church-government 2. part § 25 26. First therefore in this humble repair to their Judgment where we find all these Doctors of Christianity disagreeing from what we take to be Scripture which holds also in the determinations of any Christian Church whatever so long as we can come to know no other or no better see § 36. we ought in such a case to relinquish our judgment and submit to theirs who also have the same light of Scripture as we and in humility we ought to think more ability to judge of it and who likewise have the promise of indefectibility in truths necessary to salvation Therefore here also the more high and weighty the point is the more firmly ought we to adhere to them trusting to the protection of our Saviour the Head of the Church that in these points especially they shall not all so conjoyned be mistaken And again in smaller points since there is less danger in our erring in them and the more guilt still the smaller they are in our making a schism from or division in the Church for them more humility exercised in obeying no truth of consequence vindicated by contention wisdom perhaps would think it fit to subscribe to the same Guides For as the Apostle said in another case If they are sit to judge the greatest are they not so to judge the smallest matters 1 Cor. 6. 2. And if any thing herein may be indulged to singularity of opinion t is only so far as to make known the reasons that move us to it to the Church or some few therein whom we count men of learning and integrity and void of passion and after this to submit to whatever they who now together with us apprehend all the reasons which sway us shall determin The contrary to which can be only the fruit of self-conceit or obstinacy This if they unanimously deliver any thing to us which we think against Scripture and much more yet ought we to submit to any order of their's tho we do not find it in Scripture if we find nothing in Scripture against it without calling such their sanctions Will-worship and Superstition making sure to use the same charity to the Church which we are obliged-in to private men in whom nihil est damnandum quod ulla ratione bonum esse queat Neither is this assenting to them against our own reason or judgment as we call it going against conscience which conscience is nothing but our judgment and that we call judgment many times nothing but our own and that a slight opinion In not following of which opinion or judgment we are faulty only then where we have no wiser person caeteris paribus nor no established law to guide and direct it Nor is it going against our reason when as nothing is more reasonable than to go against some of our own particular reasonings when we have another stronger reason to the contrary that is the submitting of it to such an authority nothing being more ordinary than for arguments from a Reason to give place to those from an Authority upon which Authority also and not upon Reason is grounded our Faith. See Submiss of Judgment § 2. c. But let me add this for our further contentment that he who not only demands of the Church but takes pains also as all ought to be informed by the Church concerning the proof and evidence of what she requires him to believe shall seldom or never be put to believe that what she saith is truth only from her authority because she saith it but also from his own judgment because she manifests it Obj. But doth not an erring conscience then bind us to follow it tho it be so or may I sometime do a thing which I think unlawful upon another's judgment without sinning Answ. He that is perswaded in conscience that tho he thinks such a thing unlawful yet he ought rather to follow a wiser man's judgment than his own whose judgment saith t is not unlawful cannot absolutely say he is perswaded that it is unlawful And he who thinking such a thing is more likely in reason yet thinketh likewise that he ought rather to obey the Church's judgment than his own reason if he here follows his conscience that is in respect of his own reason he goeth against his conscience as I call it in respect of the submission he thinks he ows to anothers judgment For whilst his judgment prefers another man's judgment before his own this man in following the others must needs also be said to follow his own judgment and consequently his conscience Now he that is not thus perswaded of the duty of submission of his judgment c to wiser men or men authorized to guide his judgment t is true that he sins in doing against his own opinion or conscience so long as he is not so perswaded but then he ought
I can my Conceptions no way swerving that I know of from any general Decree or Tenent of the Church Catholick And First concerning the former of these What or how much Faith is necessary to Christians for the attaining of salvation 1. Faith as it respects Religion or things Divine in general seems to be an assent to the Truth Goodness c of any thing that is God's Word or Divine Revelation And all truths whatsoever revealed by God even every part and parcel of God's word are the object and so many points or articles of our Faith i. e. are not to be denied but believed and assented to immediately when ever we know them or when ever they are sufficiently proposed to us that we might know them to be God's word Amongst these therefore all precepts of Manners are also matters of Faith in as much as they must first be assented to and believed by us to be God's commands lawful good holy just and most fit to be obeyed or else we cannot as we ought obey them And he that should practise them misbelieving them either to be things evil or things in themselves indifferent in the first way would sin in the second would perform a service utterly unacceptable by reason of an error in his faith See Rom. 14. 23. Surely every one of the fundamental rules of good life and action is to be believed to come from God and therefore virtually includes an Article of Faith. Again all necessary deductions and consequents of any part of God's word or of any point or article of faith are also so many points or articles of faith See Discourse of Infallibility § 12. So that the articles of faith taken absolutely are almost infinite for whatever is or necessarily follows that which is divine revelation may equally be believed and so is an object of faith and when it is believed is a point of faith Consequently also all controversies concerning the sense of any part of Scripture are concerning matter of faith taken in this general sense even those concerning Grace and Free-will as well as those about the Blessed Trinity 2. Next concerning the necessity of believing all such points of faith We must say in the first place That it is fundamental and necessary to our salvation That every part of God's word fundamental or not fundamental it matters not supposing that we exercise any operation of our understanding about it be not dissented from but be believed or assented to when we once know and are convinced that it is God's word Else we knowing that it is God's word and not believing or assenting-to it to be truth must plainly make or believe God in some thing to say false which if perhaps it be possible is the greatest heresy subverting the very first principle of faith that God is Truth and so necessarily excludeth from heaven And here also first concerning our knowing a thing to be God's word it must be said That we know or at least ought to know a thing so to be whensoever either so much proof of it is proposed to us by what means soever it comes as actually sways our understanding to give assent to it for which assent it is not necessary that there be demonstration or proof infallible but only generally such probability as turns the ballance of our judgment and out-weighs what may be said for the contrary for where so much evidence is either none can truly deny his assent or cannot without sin deny it or else when so much proof of it is proposed to us as consideration being had of several capacities according to which more things are necessary to be known to some stronger than to some others weaker would certainly sway our understanding if the mind were truly humble and docile and divested of all unmortified passions as addiction to some worldly interest covetousness ambition affectation of vain-glory self-conceit of our own wit and former judgment and of all faultily contracted prejudice and blindness by our education c. which unremovedfirst do obstruct and hinder it from being perswaded In which obstructions of our knowledge in things so necessary there are many several degrees of malignity which it will not be amiss to point at For 1. it is always a greater sin caeteris paribus i. e. the matter of the error being alike obstinately to maintain a known error and to profess a thing against conscience convinced than to have the conscience unconvinced by reason of some lust that hinders it because there is more ignorance of my fault in this latter and ignorance always aliquatenus excuseth another fault even when it cannot excuse it self 2ly In holding the same error not against conscience tho from some culpable cause some may be in very much some in very little fault according to many circumstances which none can exactly weigh to censure them of capacity condition obligation to such duties accidental information c. varying in several persons 3ly The sinfulness of the same man's erring in two things tho both equally unknown to him and neither held against conscience may be very different for the grosser and more pertinacious that their error is the more faulty in it is the erroneous Both 1. because the necessary truth opposed to such error hath more evidence either from Scriptures or from Ecclesiastical exposition thereof which exposition in the greatest matters we must grant either never or seldom errs and to whose direction all single persons are referred whence any ones ignorance in these is much more faulty and wilful And 2ly because such an error is the occasion of some miscarriage in manners so that tho formally he sinned no more in this than in his other errors yet consequentially he sins more in many other things by reason of it than he doth in truth mistaken in some smaller matter And hence 4ly it follows that an error doing great mischief to manners or to the purity of the Faith on which tho this foundation doth not always appear to support them good manners are built can hardly be held without a very guilty ignorance because such points are by God's providence and the Church'es care to all men sufficiently proposed Indeed it is so hard a thing for a man to divest and strip himself of all irregular passion and especially from prejudice contracted by education that an error in some things of less moment even out of some faulty cause is very often incident to men good and honest But when our passion shall grow so high and our interest so violent as to darken the light of truth in matters of moment especially if recommended to us by authority and as it were openly shining in our face in such case there is but little difference between our * denying a thing to be God's word when known to be so and by our own default * not knowing it to be so between knowingly gainsaying truth and wilfully being blind between shutting
not his meer misbelief of that point for which he is accounted an heretick which excludes him from salvation Because perhaps many good Catholicks before the Church'es determination have mis-believed the same point as for example the point of rebaptization as well as he without any danger to their salvation But that which condemns him is that he hath fidem tho divinam yet not operantem per charitatem that he is obstinate and disobedient to the Church'es orders and decrees or if you will that he dis-believes this great Article of Faith which dis-belief is the fountain of his dis-obedience That the Church hath such an Authority committed to her by Christ as that he ought to conform to all her determinations and preserve in every thing the unity of her faith Of the Donatists hereticks thus S. Aug. Gesbacum Emerito Extra Ecclesiam Catholicam potest Emeritus Evangelium tenere potest in nomine Patris Filii Spiritus Sancti fidem habere praedicare sed nusquam nisi in Ecclesia Catholica salutem poterit invenire giving the reason afterward quia charitatem non habet and Ep. 48. ad Vincentium Nobiscum estis in Baptismo in Symbolo in caeteris Dominicis Sacramentis in spiritu autem unitatis vinculo pacis in ipsa denique Catholica Ecclesia nobiscum non estis To Estius and Lugo add a third Layman a Casuist of great reputation Thus he therefore Theolog. moral 2. l. 1. Tract 5. c. Fieri saepe solet ut alii Articuli fidei nostrae puta quae sunt de Deo Uno Trino explicite credantur ante hunc qui est de infallibili Ecclesiae authoritate Quinimo haec Ecclesiae infallibilitas Spiritus Sancti promissione nititur ergo prius oportet credere Spiritum Sanctum adeoque Trinitatem in divinis esse Praeterea constat Beatissimam Virginem Apostolos primosque Christianos fide divina credidisse non ob authoritatem Ecclesiae quae vel fundata non erat v. g. cum S. Petrus credidit Christum esse Filium Dei vivi Mat. 16. vel nondum fidei dogmata definierat Again Formale assentiendi principium seu motivum non est Ecclesiae authoritas Si enim ex te quaeram Cur credas Deum esse incarnatum respondeasque Quia Ecclesia Catholica quae errare non potest ob S. Spiritus assistentiam ita testatur iterum ex te quaeram Unde id scias vel cur credas Ecclesiam non errare vel S. Spiritum ei assistere Quare recte dicit Canus l. 2. de loc Theol. 8. c. post med Si generaliter quaeratur Unde fideli constet ea quae fide tenet esse a Deo revelata non poterit infallibilem Ecclesiae authoritatem adducere quia unum ex revelatis est quod Ecclesia errare non possit Interim non negamus saith he quin resolutio fidei in authoritatem Ecclesiae quatenus Spiritu Sancto regitur fieri possit communiter soleat a sidelibus ipsis qui infallibilem Spiritus Sancti assistentiam ac directionem Ecclesiae promissam certa fide tenent his enim ejus testimonium ac definitio certa regula est ad alios articulos amplectendos Imo talis regula seu norma exurgentibus circa fidem dubiis omnino nobis necessaria est put a ad discernendum Scripturam Canonicam ab Apocrypha traditiones veras a falsis denique credenda a non credendis Sententia Scoti Gabrielis qui in resolutione recurrere videntur ad fidem acquisitam propter authoritatem Ecclesiae quatenus ea est illustris congregatio tot hominum excellentium Exempli causa Credo Deum esse incarnatum quia divinitus revelatum est revelatum autem hoc esse divinitus seu revelationem hanc a Deo profectam esse ideo accepto seu credo fide acquisita quia it a scriptum est in Evangelio S. Johannis cui omnis Ecclesia seu congregatio hominum vitae innocentia sapientia illustrium testimonium assensum praebet Haec sententia inquam si recte explicetur a vero aliena non est Non enim mens est Doctorum illorum quod fidei divinae assensus in fidem acquisitam propter authoritatem Ecclesiae resolvatur tanquam in principium sed tanquam in extrinsecum adjumentum conditionem sine qua non Etenim authoritas illa Ecclesiae non quatenus consideratur ut organum Spiritus Sancti sed ut illustris congregatio hominum prudentum c. est quidem formale principium credendi side humana sed non fide divina Quia fides divina est qua Deo dicenti credimus ob authoritatem veritatem ejus consequenter qui credit propter authoritatem hominum vel simile motivum humanum is fide solum humana credit Accedit quod sicuti ipsemet Scotus Gabriel argumentantur assensus cognoscitivus non possit excedere certitudinem principii quo nititur assen us autem fidei divinae certitudinem infallibilem habet ergo fieri non potest ut assensus fidei divinae tanquam principio nitatur authoritate hominum vel simili motivo humano quippe quod secundum se absolute fallibile est Major autem imo maxima certissima animi adhaesio quam sides divina continet non ex viribus naturae aut humanis persuasionibus provenit sed ab auxilio Spiritus Sancti succurrentis intellectui liberae voluntati nostrae By this it seems that ultima resolutio sidei divinae is in illam certitudinem quam habemus per auxilium Spiritus Sancti c. Hear then his last stating of the point Quod ad formalem de qua nunc agimus fidei resolutionem attinet expeditus ac verus dicendi modus est iste citing Cajetan for it 2. 2. q. 1. a. 1. Quod sides divina ex parte objecti ac motivi formalis resolvatur in auhoritatem Dei revelantis Credo Deum esse incarnatum Credo Ecclesiae item definientis authoritatem infallibilem esse quia prima summa veritas id nobis revelavit But if you ask whence or why he believeth Deum summam veritatem id revelasse he goeth on Deum autem veracem talia nobis revelasse ulterius resolvi vel per fidem i. e. divinam probari non potest nec debet quandoquidem principia resolutionis non probantur sed supponuntur I wonder why he adds not here that the believer hath fidem divinam infallibilem Deum veracem talia revelasse ex auxilio Spiritus S. succurrentis intellectui c. for he saith it before But then if asked again How he knows or believes that this his faith Deum revelasse c is ex auxilio Spiritus Sancti here at least he must have stay'd as at the first principle of Resolution of Faith divine But now that fides which he calls humana and fallible can go on further and give a ground or motive why it believes Deum veracem talia
revelasse or se hanc fidem Deum revelasse habere ex auxilio Spiritus Sancti and this a motive morally infallible namely consensum Ecclesiae or Universal Tradition concerning which he thus goes on Verum in ordine ad nos revelatio divina credibilis acceptabilis fit per extrinseca motiva inter quae unum ex praecipuis merito censetur authoritas consensus Ecclesiae tot saeculis tanto numero hominum clarissimorum florentis But then this evident or morally-infallible motive is not held always necessary neither for the humane inducement to divine faith For he goes on quamvis id non unicum neque simpliciter necessarium motivum est quandoquidem non omnes eodem modo sed alii aliter ad fidem Christi amplectendam moventur His adde Non tantum variis motivis homines ad fidem amplectendam moveri sed etiam alios aliis facilius partim propter majorem internam Spiritus sancti illustrationem impulsionem sicuti not avit Valentia q. 1. p. 4. arg 18. partim propter animi sui simplicitatem quia de opposito errore persuasionem nullam conceperunt Qua ratione pueri apud Catholicos cum ad usum rationis pervenerunt acceptant sidei mysteria tanquam divinitus revelata quia natu majores prudentes quos ipsi norunt ita credere animadvertunt So then if all saving faith must be sides divina infallible that which can rightly be produced to advance sides humana into it is not the authority of Scriptures or of the Church for Qui credit propter authoritatem hominum vel simile motivum humanum is fide solum humana credit but only auxilium Spiritus Sancti succurrentis intellectui c in the stating of this learned Casuist Thus you see by what is quoted here out of Estius Lugo and Layman that the moderate Catholick writers concede divine and salvifical faith where no infallibility of any outward evidence or motive And perhaps it might conduce much more to the prayed-for union of Christ's Church if so many Controvertists on all sides perhaps out of an opinion of necessary zeal to maintain their own cause to the uttermost did not embrace the extreamest opinions by which they give too much cause to their adversaries to remain unsatisfied and to make easie and specious replies being helped also by the more moderate writers of the other side As if they chiefly endeavoured to fright their enemies from any yeilding or hearkning to a peace whilst they hold it still upon higher terms than those the Church Catholick proposeth which hath redounded to the multiplication of many needles controversies From what hath bin said I think we may infer 1. First That it is not necessary to true and saving faith that all the mediums by which we attain to it be infallible That neither an infallible Judg nor a known-infallible argument from the Scriptures or writings of Fathers c. is absolutely necessary to it but that it is sufficient to believe the things revealed by God as revealed by him see § 1. holding whatever is his word to be infallible which is a principle to all men and needs no proof by what weak means soever we attain the knowledge of such revelations whether it be by Scriptures Catechisms read or Parents Pastors instructing yea tho these instructers did not know whether there were any Scriptures as the Eunuch believed without those of the New Testament and how unevident soever their confirmation thereof to us be only if we receive from them whether from the credit we give to their authority or to their argument so much light as together with the inward operation of the Spirit opening the heart to receive and accept of it of which Spirit yet we are not so certainly sensible as to know the proper movings thereof for then this were a motive all-sufficient without Scripture or Teacher doth sway and perswade the understanding and so produceth obedience Which faith tho it is not such for its immediate ground as cui non potest subesse falsum by reason of any humane evidence it hath yet many times it is such as cui non subest dubium of which we doubt no more than we do of a Demonstration by reason of the strong adherence we have to it either from the power of God's Spirit or probability of arguments c. See § 35. c. But neither is this actual non-doubting necessary for there is many times doubting in a true but weak faith see § 46. but this is enough if any thing be so far made probable as that it turns the ballance of our judgment so far as to win our assent nay nothing can be without sin disbelieved which seems generally including here also the argument from authority more probable than another thing tho it have no demonstration Which demonstration or also an infallible proponent that the faith of most men wants see the plain confession as it seems to me of Mr. Knot in his Answer to Mr. Chillingworth 4. cap p. 358. A man may exercise saith he an infallible act of faith tho his immediate instructer or proposer be not infallible because he believes upon a ground which both is believed by him to be infallible and is such indeed to wit the word of God who therefore will not deny his supernatural concourse necessary to every true act of divine faith Otherwise in the ordinary course there would be no means left for the faith and salvation of unlearned persons from whom God exacts no more but that they proceed prudently according to the measure of their several capacities and use such diligence as men ought in a matter of highest moment All Christians of the primitive Church were not present when the Apostles spoke or wrote yea it is not certain that every one of those thousands whom St. Peter converted did hear every sentence he spoke but might believe some by relation of others who stood near And 1. c. p. 64. the same Author saith that a Preacher or Pastor whose testimonies are humane and fallible when they declare to their hearers or subjects that some truth is witnessed by God's word are occasion that those people may produce a true infallible Act of Faith depending immediately upon divine Revelation applied by the said means And if you object saith he That perhaps that humane authority is false and proposes to my understanding Divine revelation when God doth not reveal therefore I cannot upon humane testimony representing or applying Divine revelation exercise an infallible Act of Faith. I answer it is one thing whether by a reflex act I am absolutely certain that I exercise an infallible act of Faith and another whether indeed and in actu exercito I produce such an act Of the former I have said nothing neither makes it to our present purpose Of the latter I affirm that when indeed humane testimony is true tho not certainly known by me to be so and so
9. But only †in those points which she proposeth tanquam de fide or creditu necessaria § 10. Where Concerning the several senses wherein Points are affirmed or denied to be de Fide. § 11. That as only so all divine Revelations or necessary deductions from them are de Fide i. e. the objects and matter of Faith. 12 13. And That the Church can make nothing to be de fide i. e. to be divine Revelation c which was not so always from the Apostolick times § 12. That all divine Revelation or necessary deductions therefrom are not de fide i. e. creditu necessaria § 15. That the Church lawfully may and hath a necessity to make de novo upon rising errors such Points de fide i. e. creditu necessaria which formerly were not so § 16 17. Or as some other of the Catholick writers usually express it only †in Points clearly traditional § 18. Whether and by what marks those Points which are proposed by the Church tanquam de fide or creditu necessaria or which are proposed as constantly traditional are clearly distinguished by her from her other Proposals § 27. Anathema no certain Index thereof § 29. PART 2. Concerning Obedience and submission of private Judgment whether due to the Church supposed not in all her decisions infallible § 30. 1. That no submission of our judgment is due to the Proposal of the Church where we are infallibly certain of the contrary § 33. 2. That no submission is due to an inferiour Person or Court in matters whereof I have doubt when I have a Superiour to repair to for resolution § 34. 3. That submission of judgment is due to the supreme Ecclesiastical Court in any doubting whatever that is short of infallible certainty § 35. Submission of judgment proved 1. From Scripture § 37. 2. From Reason § 38. Where Several Objections and Scruples are resolved § 39. 3. From the testimony of learned Protestants § 44. 4. From the testimony of learned Catholicks § 51. Conclusion § 54. OF INFALLIBILITY PART 1. IT remains that I give you an account touching the other two Queries proposed The First concerning the Infallibilty of the Church Whether this is at all or how far to be allowed The Second concerning Obedience and Submission of private Judgment Whether this be due to the Church supposed not in all her decisions infallible Two Points as they are stated on the one side or the other either leaving us in much anxiety and doubt or in the moveal of this swelled with much pride and self-conceit or leaving us in much tranquillity and peace accompanied with much humility and self-denial Points as they are stated one way seeming much to advance the tender care of the divine Providence over his Church and to plant obedience and unanimity among Christians or as stated another way seeming to proclaim great danger in discovering truth to call for humane wit prudence sagacity and caution and to bequeath Christianity to perpetual strife wars and dissentions And therefore it concerns you to be the more vigilant that affection carry you not on more than reason to the assenting to any Conclusions made in this Discours To take in hand the former of these Concerning the true measure of the extent of the infallibity of the Church by Church I mean the lawful General Representative thereof of which see Church-Government 2. Part § 4. and 24. in the beginning I must confess that I know nothing expresly determined by Councils except what is said Conc. Trident. 4. Sess. Praeterea ad câ—ercenda petulantia ingenia decernit ut nemo suae prudentiae innixus in rebus fidei morum ad aedisicationem doctrinae Christianae pertinentium sacram Scripturam ad suos sensus contorquens contra eum sensum quem tenuit tenet Sancta Mater Ecclesia cujus est judicare de vero sensu interpretatione Scripturarum S. aut etiam contra unanimem consensum Patrum ipsam Scripturam sacram interpretari audeat Neither is there any mention found of the word Infallibility in the Decrees of Trent or any other received Council or yet in the Fathers as F. Veron in his Rule of Faith 4. c. hath observed and therefore saith he let us leave this term to the Schoolmen who know how to use it soberly and content our selves with the terms of the Councils The best is as the exact limits of this Church-infallibility seem no where by the Church to be punctually fixed so they do not in respect of yeilding obedience to the Church seem necessary at all to be known except to such a one as will not submit his judgment to any authority less than infallible of which more anon 1. First it is granted as by all the Catholicks so by the most learned of the Protestants see them quoted in Church-Government 2. Part. § 29. That the Church or the lawful General Representative thereof is infallible in its directions concerning necessaries to Salvation whether in points of pure faith or of practice and manners tho I yeild Mr. Chillingworth denies this see the discussing of his opinion in Church-Government 2. Part. § 26 -3 Part. § 76. without which doing I think he could not have made a thorow Answer to Mr. Knot nor could he have denied those other points which seem to be consequents of this as namely That we must know from the Church also the distinction of Necessaries from others Or must assent to Her in all she proposeth as Necessary That the Defence of any Doctrine the contrary whereof is proposed as necessary against the determination of the Church or lawful General Council is Heresy as being always after such sufficient proposal obstinate That any separation from the external communion of all the visible Church is Schism as being always in her professing and practising all necessaries causless Which Propositions the defence of his cause seems to me to have forced him to disclaim and so also this ground of them That the Church is an infallible Guide in Fundamentals or Necessaries And this infallibility the Church is said to have either from the constant assistance of God's Spirit according to our Saviour's promise at least for such points or also from the Evidence of Tradition much pleaded by some later Catholick Writers But since here by Necessaries may be understood either Doctrines c absolutely necessary to be known explicitely for salvation and that to every one that shall attain salvation for to some perhaps more are required than to others according to their several capacity and means of revelation see Necessary Faith § 10. 11. 16. which may be perhaps only some part of the Creed or else by Necessaries may be understood all other doctrines and rules that are very profitable and conducing thereto The Church being granted by both sides an infallible Guide and Director in Necessaries 1. First it seems most
plenary Tradition or undeniable deduction therefrom it being agreed that all her proposals or decrees are not such A Quaere very necessary to be resolved for those if any such there be who affix obedience of assent only to infallibility and this infallibility again only to such decrees but a Quaere for all others me-thinks not of so much concernment I find the marks of such distinction set down in Bell. de Conc. 2. l. 12. c. thus Quando autem decretum proponatur tanquam de fide facile cognoscitur ex verbis Concilii semper enim dicere solent 1. Se explicare fidem Catholicam 2. vel Haereticos habendos qui contrarium sentiunt vel quod est communissimum dicunt Anathema ab Ecclesia excludunt eos qui contrarium sentiunt What then what if it be only Anathema iis qui contrarium dicunt aut docent Quando autem nihil horum dicunt non est certum rem esse de side Thus Bellarmin But note here that Bellarmin tells us not plainly whether something in Councils is proposed tanquam de side without any Anathema set to it only he doubtingly saith non est certum and those others again who build the Church'es inerrability on Tradition and the evident Consequences thereof tel us not whether some of those Decisions that are enjoyned with Anathema's are not sometimes some of those secondary consequences more doubtful ad quas colligendas studium aliquod scientia requiritur or which are made by the judgment and learning of the Bishops considering texts of Scripture the doctrines of ancient Fathers and modern Doctors c. As indeed t is likely some of them are Anathema's being added so frequently even in smaller matters and in the newest controversies And perhaps it can hardly be shewn by these writers that every Proposition in a General Council that hath an Anathema affixed to it is traditional to such a degree of evidence since some Traditions are much more universal and evident than some others that it amounts to infallibility not from the assistance of the holy Spirit but from the clearnes of Tradition In this distinction therefore of points de fide or necessary credends wherein the Church is infallible exactly from others I think these Authors cannot speak out so clearly because tho some points are of much more certainty and also of much higher concernment than others yet Councils seem not so punctual in severing them by a diversity of expression unless in very few perhaps a thing not possible to be done by them see § 3. See Dr. Holden 1. l. 8. c. acknowledging some such thing In tradenda doctrina Christiana nunquam audivimus Ecclesiam articulorum revelatorum divinarum institutionum catalogum exhibuisse vel composuisse quo separatim cognosci possint hujusmodi sidei divinae dogmata ab omnibus aliis quae vel Ecclesiasticae sint institutionis vel quae centae revelationi divinae haud immediate innitantur atque ideo omnia simul confuse indistincte semper docuisse tradidisse Yet the same Councils may and do require subscription and obedience to all their definitions as they being the supreme and unappealable Judge * authorized by Christ for the peace and unity of the Church to give the law to all men * abundantly assisted by the Spirit of Truth for all Necessaries even the obscurest and most unacquainted doctrines if you can once prove them necessary and besides this if in some other matters of less concernment they be liable to error yet how much less they than private men And therefore their submission of judgment to these remains still most rational as well as obligatory The chief note which I find for the distinction of these points de fide wherein the Church is infallible from other determinations or proposals is the affixing of Anathema's which are the same with Excommunication But 1. first several of these Anathema's if we do rely on their form may require not internal assent as looking meerly at faith but non-contradiction as looking perhaps in some points more at peace many running only si quis dixerit c Anathema sit But if it be said that the Anathema's only that are set upon a Si quis sentiat or credat are the Index of such points de fide for necessary credends then will very few decrees of Councils pass for such for example not above four or five of all those made in the Council of Trent I mean as to this particular Index of Credends viz. Anathema and doubtles many more of the decisions of Councils are contended to be such credends than those that can shew this mark of Anathema fixed expresly to dissentients of which see more in Church-Government 4. Part. § 79. Again this injunction of Non-contradiction or of keeping silence tho it be * such as opposeth the saying that the contrary to the Church'es determination is a truth or that the Church erreth in any such decision much more an open departing for such unnecessary matter for the Church errs in no necessaries from her communion yet perhaps it is not * such as opposeth the making or humbly proposing of any doubt thereof at least in a second convening of the same Authority See I pray you in the denouncing of her Anathema's the great warines of the Council of Trent in 24. sess 7. c. Si quis dixerit Ecclesiam errare cum docuit propter adulterium c Anathema sit noted by Soave in his History of it p. 755. Engl. Ed. to be done because she would not censure * some of the Greek Church who held the contrary opinion as likewise * some of the Fathers as S. Ambrose And surely this Council's affixing Anathema's sometimes to so many Lutheran errors some doubtles of smaller moment as they were gather'd here and there by some persons appointed to that purpose out of Luther's writings because they were opposite to the common doctrines of the Church shews that her Anathema sometimes eyed more the petulancy and contradicting spirit of the Author than the importance of the Tenet and was sent forth more to secure her peace than her faith What should hinder I pray since some questions possibly may arise in the Church undecidable clearly by Tradition and since no doubt of all questions now agitated among the Schoolmen or other Catholicks one side is not traditional for then how could so many Catholicks oppose a thing of such evidence again since it is the Church'es duty to provide for peace and unity among her children as well as faith and truth and lastly since sharp and vehement contests may arise in such new controversies to the great disturbance thereof what should hinder I say that the Church in such cases may not impose silence on both parties or secondly using her best search and going upon such Scriptures and reasons as perhaps some side urgeth declare her judgment and that under some penalty on the opposers and gainsayers
to the utmost corners of the world newly embracing whole nations into her bosom If lastly in all other opposit Churches there be found inward dissensions and contrariety change of opinions uncertainty of resolutions with robbing of Churches rebelling against governors much more experienced since this Author's death in the late Presbyterian wars confusion of Orders invading of Episcopacy c. whereas contrariwise in this Ch. the unity undivided the resolutions unalterable the most heavenly order reaching from the height of all power to the very lowest of all subjection all with admirable harmony beauty and undefective correspondence bending the same way to the effecting of the same work do promise no other than continuance increase and victory let no man doubt to submit himself to this glorious Spouse of God c. This then being accorded to be the true Church of God it followeth that she be reverently obeyed in all things without further disquisition she having the warrant that he that heareth her heareth Christ and whosoever heareth her not hath no better place with God than a publican or pagan And what folly were it to receive the Scriptures upon credit of her authority the authority of that Church that was before Luther's times and not to receive the interpretation of them upon her authority also and credit And if God should not alway protect his Church from error i. e. dangerous to or destructive of salvation and yet peremptorily command men always to obey her then had he made but very slender provision for the salvation of mankind which conceit concerning God whose care of us even in all things touching this transitory life is so plain and eminent were ungrateful and impious And hard were the case and mean had his regard bin of the vulgar people whose wants and difficulties in this life will not permit whose capacity will not suffice to sound the deep and hidden mysteries of Divinity and to search out the truths of intricate controversies if there were not others whose authority they might safely rely on Blessed therefore are they who believe and have not seen the merit of whose religious humility and obedience doth exceed perhaps in honour and acceptance before God the subtil and profound knowledge of many others This is the main course of their perswading at this day c. FINIS Concerning SALVATION possible to be had in a SCHISMATICAL COMMUNION AND Concerning the danger of living in and the necessity of departing from a KNOWN-SCHISMATICAL COMMUNION CONTENTS Tho it be conceded 1. FIrst That the Catholick Church contains in it not many opposit but only one external Communion § 2. 2ly That there is no salvation out of the communion i. e. internal of the Church Catholick 3. Yet Salvation must be allowed to some that are out of the external communion of the Ch. Catholick 4ly That of those who live out of the Catholick and in a schismatical external Communion there are several sorts 1. Those who make such separation who are not salvable without repentance 2. Those who follow such leaders and continue the division upon the same motives and passions not salvable without repentance 3. Those who follow such leaders in simplicity of heart and out of their condition considered invincible ignorance Such seem to be in a salvable condition tho incurring great disadvantages for their salvation § 7. 4. Those who convinced of Schism in such a Church yet rejoyn not themselves to the external communion of the Ch. Catholick tho consenting in all things with her Hindered 1. Either by some respects meerly temporal Such faulty but how highly is hard to determin 2. Or by some considerations and designs meerly spiritual Such less faulty than the other yet seem not wholly justifiable 1. †Whether they continue still in a communion schismatical § 9. n. 1. Which communion seems forbidden both 1. By the Scriptures 2. And by the Injunctions of the Church Catholick § 10. To which all owe obedience § 11. 2. Or †whether they communicate with no Church at all who seem of the two the less unjustifiable § 13. yet not wholly excusable § 14. 5. Those who 1. much doubting the Church they live in to be schismatical yet are not fully convinced thereof Or 2. convinced defer their intended reconcilement till an expected opportunity § 17. That several circumstances considered both these may or may not be culpable A Query What is to be done if the Ch. Catholick require some conformity to doctrines or practices against his conscience or particular judgment who seeks her Communion § 19. Several propositions tending to the solution of this Query § 20. Bishop of Chalcedon in Protest plain Confess 2. c. If Protestants allow not saving Faith Church and Salvation to such as sinfully err in Not-fundamentals sufficiently proposed they shew no more charity to erring Christians than Catholicks do For we allow all to have saving faith to be in the Church in the way of salvation for so much as belongs to faith who hold the fundamental points and invincibly err in not-fundamentals because neither are these sufficiently proposed to them nor they in fault that they are not so proposed 13. c. If they grant not Salvation to such Papists as they count vincibly ignorant of Roman errors but only to such as are invincibly ignorant of them then they have no more charity than we For we grant Church saving Faith and Salvation to such Protestants as are invincibly ignorant of their errors Id. in Survey of L. Derry 8. c. 3. §. in answer to Bishop Bramhal's objecting the Pope's excommunicating of such Churches Neither doth the Roman Church excommunicate all the Christians of Affrick Asia Greece and Russia but only such as vincibly or sinfully err such as are formal or obstinate hereticks or schismaticks For Excommunication is only against obstinacy Si Ecclesiam non audierit sit tibi sicut Ethnicus Publicanus In these Churches there are innumerable who are but credentes haereticis schismaticis because the Catholick faith was never sufficiently preached to them and these the Pope doth not excommunicate Nor doth he exclude formal Hereticks or Schismaticks but Juridically declareth them to be excluded For by their Heresies or Schisms they had already excluded themselves or juridically confirmeth their exclusion begun by themselves S. Aug. Confess 8. l. 2. c. Legebat Victorinus Doctor tot Nobilium Senatorum c sanctam Scripturam omnesque Christianas scripturas investigabat studiosissime perscrutabatur dicebat Simpliciano non palam sed secretius familiarius Noveris me jam esse Christianum Et respondebat ille Non credam nec deputabo inter Christianos nisi in Ecclesia Christi te videro Ille autem irridebat eum dicens Ergo parietes faciunt Christianos Et hoc saepe dicebat Jam se esse Christianum Et Simplicianus illud saepe respondebat saepe ab illo parictum irrisio repetebatur Amicos enim suos
that saying of S. Austin touch such a one Schismatici sunt qui discissionibus iniquis a fraterna charitate discedunt quapropter Schismaticus non pertinet ad Ecclesiam quia Ecclesia diligit proximum See before 2. § c. But if any say That in Schism not any actual breach of charity but the bare want of unity excludes him from heaven as pure want of some knowledge is supposed to do in Infidelity or in some kinds of fundamental Heresy what unity I would know doth he mean Internal But that I hope is conferred in Baptism rightly celebrated to all that do not ponere obicem as t is supposed some here in Schismatical communions do not External therefore But why not Votum for this serve the turn for these as it doth for some others 4. § Which votum in general of being every way united to his fellow-members in the Church which is the body of Christ every good man hath tho every one discerneth not in particular this true Church from all other Sectarists of which without his own fault some may be ignorant And the Father 's so great aggravation of the crime of Schism That such men divide and rend the body of Christ c shews that they speak not of all haply livers in but the makers of Schisms or the continuers thereof upon the same grounds and motives and with the like passions as did the Authors Therefore see S. Austin making much difference amongst the followers of the Donatist-Schism in Affrick and not denying that some of God's wheat might remain amongst those tares De unit Eccl. 20. c. Itaque illis relictis i. e. when discovering them enemies to the Church mox ad Catholicam pacem multi Episcopi Clerici populi redierunt quod antequam facerent in tritico deputabantur Tunc enim non faciebant cum adversus homines i. e. Caecilianus who was falsly accused non adversus Ecclesiam Dei illa eorum contradictio tenebatur Nonnulli etiam bonae voluntatis per carnalem caliginem etiam post confirmatum malignorum i. e. the Donatists furorem in illa dissensione diutius erraverunt tanquam si adhuc mollia conculcarentur frumenta radice viva herbae vigor attereretur etiam ipsa tamen frumenta sua noverat Deus quamvis ut reviviscerent arguenda increpanda Non enim eo modo dictum est Petro Redi post me Satana quomodo dictum est de Juda Unus ex vobis Diabolus est Quidam quoque apertissimae veritati malo studio contradixerunt Illi vero eradicati vel praecisi erant Tunc enim quisque cum pro ipsis operibus etiam veritati apertissime qua redarguitur resistere coeperit praeciditur And Multi tales sunt in Sacramentorum communione cum Ecclesia tamen jam non sunt in Ecclesia c. So in answer to the Donatists Query Utrum generet filios baptismus in parte Donati that if he granted this they might collect that they had a true Church the Father answers de baptism 1. l. 10. c. Una est Ecclesia quae sola Catholica nominatur quicquid suum habet in communionibus diversorum a sua unitate separatis ipsa utique generat non illae Therefore it may have aliquid suum in such communions And Ep. 162. directed to some followers of the heresies of the Donatists he saith thus to them in the beginning thereof Dixit quidem Apostolus Paulus haereticum hominem post unam correptionem devita c. sed qui sententiam suam quamvis falsam atque perversam nulla pertinaci animositate defendant praesertim qui non audacia praesumptionis suae pepererunt sed a seductis atque in errorem lapsis parentibus acceperunt quaerunt autem cauta solicitudine veritatem corrigi parati cum invenerint nequaquam sunt inter haereticos deputandi Tales ergo vos nisi esse crederem c. Nor may any extend those texts Matt. 15. 14. Rom. 14. 15 20. 1 Cor. 8. 11 12. to all any way misled by others For in the first the follower falls into the ditch together with his leader because blind in the same manner as his leader i. e. wilfully not inevitably which is here supposed for which compare Matt. 15. 14. with Matt. 23 15 16. where such blind followers as our Saviour there speaks of become many times also worse than their leaders tho they become so first by occasion of the example of such guides and so fall much deeper also into the ditch than they In the second Rom 14. c. t is to be noted that this brother weak in knowledge who upon occasion of another's act who by reason of his right-informed judgment sinneth not doth amiss perisheth not for that wherein he is weak or for the error of his judgment but for doing a thing contrary to his judgment or conscience tho erroneous drawn on thereunto by seeing another do the like But no such thing happens in this case Tho I here deny not that in such a communion the truly innocent of the guilt of Schism may be in great hazard of their salvation upon other reasons namely by such looser discipline as may be exercised in it or by such erroneous doctrines taught in it as are prejudicial or such omitted to be taught as are some way beneficial to a holy life See Trial of Doctr. § 42. c. 4. A 4th sort are those who educated in a Church Schismatical and afterward fully convinced that it is so yet neglect or think not necessary at all their return to the external communion of the church Catholick mean-while agreeing with her in faith preserving perfect charity and internal communion with her c. And these are either such as only forbear the external communion of the church Catholick yet absent themselves also from all other or such as continue in their former external communion Again both these are either such as are 1. hindred from professing the Church Catholicks external communion and deserting another's for some considerations meerly temporal and these doubtles are blameable in the same kind as those Jo. 12. 42 43. Jo. 7. 13. 5. 44. Matt. 10. 27 28 33 37 c. Jo. 12. 25 26. Gal. 6. 12 14. For as it is our duty to confess Christ so to confess him to the uttermost as in himself so in every truth of his as in himself so in his members and in all things that belong unto him especially in his Body and Spouse the Church And as he that is ashamed of him before men may be peccant in such a degree of shame as that he shall not be acknowledged by him before his Father as a member of his body so he that is ashamed of his Church may be peccant in such a degree of shame as that he shall not at that day be acknowledged by it as a fellow-member of the same body But yet I cannot say that all
and tho the Church can make nothing de fide i. e. to be divine Revelation which was not so always from our Saviour's and the Apostles times yet all divine Revelation is not de fide in another sence i. e. proposed by the Church to Christians as necessary to be believed and thus a proposition may be de fide to day which yesterday was not And those who affirm the Church to be unerrable in all points de fide mean not in all points absolutely which may possibly be derived from some traditional principle of Faith but only in so many of them as she proposeth to Christians tanquam de fide or necessary to be believed whilst very many theological propositions probably deducible from the delivered principles and even mentioned affirmatively in Councils yet are no part of these necessarily injoyned credends To return now to our matter whence we digressed § 11. and to pass from Bellarmin to some other late writers of the Roman Church of the moderatest sort These seeing that some deductions and consequences from revealed and traditional doctrines are neither so immediate and clear nor yet so necessary to be known and the contradictory of them to be confuted as others do assert and derive the Churches inerrability chiefly or only from evidence of Tradition not certainty of reason or extraordinary illumination of the Spirit Whence these also holding the Church'es infallibility in all things which she determineth tanquam de fide do likewise maintain all things determined by her tanquam de fide to be only doctrines traditional or those so evidently deductive as that in substance they are coincident with that which is traditional See Dr. Holden de resol Fid. 1. l. 9. c. I will transcribe you some part Quaedam consecutiones adeo evidenter constant primo intuitu ut nemo sanoe mentis supposita praemissarum veritate possit ullatenus de rei veritate ambigere as there he names this Duas esse in Christo voluntates proved ex duplici natura Christi against the Monothelites Quoecunque autem sub hac ratione conditione declarantur denunciantur ab Ecclesia universa seu a Concilio Generali veram habent divinae fidei seu veritatum revelatarum Catholice traditarum certitudinem c. Aliae sunt consecutiones sequelae quae non adeo manifeste evidenter emicant effulgent quin studium aliquod scientia requiratur c. Hujusmodi autem veritates quarum aliquas vidimus in Conciliis Generalibus definitas supremam illam Catholicam certitudinem quam vi traditionis universae attribuimus articulis fidei habere nequeunt Nullos etenim agnovit Ecclesia divini luminis radios sibi de novo affulgentes quibus veritatibus recenter detectâ—s particularium hominum ratiocinatione quodammodo develatis possit certitudo ab omni prorsus periculo erroris immunis atque fidei revelatis catholice traditis articulis par aequalis succrescere Thus Dr. Holden to whom I may add Mr. Cressy in his Motives approved by several Sorbon-Doctors 33. c. Besides the certain Traditional doctrine of which he speaks before other points of doctrine there are sometimes decided in Councils rather by the judgment and learning of the Bishops considering texts of Scripture wherein such points seem to be included and weighing together the doctrines of ancient Fathers and modern Doctors now such doctrines or decisions many Catholicks conceive are not in so eminent a manner the necessary objects of Christian faith c. Then after If in such Decisions as these latter are there should happen to be any error which yet we may piously believe the assistance of God's H. Spirit promised to the Church will prevent but if this should happen c. And c. 41. And many Catholick writers there are who upon the same grounds with Mr. Chillingworth extend the promise of the holy Spirits assistance to the Church not to all inconsiderable circumstantial doctrines but to substantial and traditionary only Thus he See like things in F. Sancta Clara syst fid 12 13 14. c. -12 c. p. 110. Singula quae in Conciliis tractantur non sunt ejusdem considerationis Illa quae a Theologis hinc inde agitantur ante definitiones examinantur tandem non nisi magno labore rerum consequentiarum subtili trutinatione ex discursu longo perplexo ad Conclusiones statuendas devenitur hujusmodi omnia si tanquam non necessaria errabilia putantur nihil est contra Ecclesiae infallibilitatem And 13. c. p. 147. Cum hac tamen doctrina bene stat proloquium illud Scholasticorum Ecclesiam simpliciter non posse errare in fide licet bene circa fidem seu in appendicibus fidei hoc est ut alii loqui malunt in non-fundamentalibus seu non-necessariis And one such point which he instanceth in tho not as a determination of any Council yet see Concil Lateran 3. Can. which seems somewhat to favour this opinion yet as a common received tenent in some former times is this Papam ex Christi institutione plenissimam habere in universum orbem jurisdictionem temporalem eamque in Imperatores Reges transfudisse adeo ut habeat toti mundo dominari omnia regna disponere 12. c. p. 124. where he quotes many Authors Quod tamen saith he hoc saeculum in Scholis non fert ut satis colligitur ex Suaresio Bellarmino aliis See likewise the Authors quoted in Bellarmin de Roman Pont. 5. l. 5. c. § Argumentum postremum and § Sanctus quoque Bonavent where he names Hugo de S. Victore about 1130. who was one of the first qui temporalem potestatem summâ— Pontisici ex Christi institutione tribuit And is not Stapleton quoted before of the same opinion with these when he saith It is sufficient that the Church be infallible in the substance of faith in public doctrines and things necessary to Salvation as Bellarmin grants some points de fide are not being the end of infallibility given God and Nature as they are not defective in necessaries so neither being superabundant in superfluities c. And doth not St. Austin's Saying so much noted shew him too of the same opinion I will transcribe it somewhat more fully than usual as being very considerable Answering to St. Cyprian's Authority urged against him by the Donatists for rebaptization of such as had bin only baptized by Hereticks amongst other things he goes on de Baptism 2. l. 3. c. Quis autem nesciat sanctam Scripturam c posterioribus Episcoporum literis ita praeponi ut de illa omnino dubitari disceptari non possit utrum verum vel utrum rectum sit quicquid in ea scriptum esse constiterit Episcoporum autem literas quae post confirmatum Canonem scribuntur c. per Concilia licere reprehendi si quid c. ipsa Concilia quae per singulas regiones
invocato Spiritu Sancto aliquid communi consensu statuentes Faciunt argumentum probabile therefore by acquiescence here is not meant only a passive submission to their censure nor yet that of silence only and non-contradiction which in any things of practice sufficeth not for unles one do what they command he cannot be said to acquiesce in their sentence neither may any exteriorly act that to the lawfulnes whereof he doth not inwardly assent See Dr. Holden who holding that in some doctrines of less moment a general Council may possibly err yet exacts obedience notwithstanding to those Decrees we think such de resol fid 1. l. 9. c. Veruntamen quando a Conciliis Generalibus ad evitandum schisma pacem in Ecclesia conservandam definitae fuerint hujusce naturae conditionis veritates he speaks of those in which there is not certitudo ab omni erroris periculo immunis eorum decretis obediendum esse novit unusquisque Ecclesiae Catholicae vere Filius He goes on Quaeret hic forsitan aliquis curiosius an liceat hujusmodi decreta interno saltem mentis actu in dubium revocare Cui respondeo Quod imprudentis superbientis animi indicium esset haec dubitatio aut saltem hujusce dubitationis publica significatio Ad quid enim valet supremi tribunalis judicium c. si cuilibet subdito aeque liberum foret post ultimum denunciatum litis judicium ac antea oppositum censere publice praedicare An discipulus supra magistrum nonne unicuique in sua arte credendum c. See the like in S. Clara's Systema Fid. 20. c. And thus Mr. Cressy c. 33. Such Decisions many Catholicks conceive are not in so eminent a manner the necessary objects of Christian faith because not delivered as of Universal tradition But however an extreme temerity it would be in any particular man to make any doubt of the truth of them and unpardonable disobedience to reject them now in matters of practice not to obey in doing them is to reject them If in such decisions an error should happen since it c it were far better such an error should pass till as St. Austin saith some later Council amended it than that unity should be dissolved for an unnecessary truth Lastly t is commonly said that in a point controverted and not yet determined by any Council a man's private judgment ought to be swayed by the stream or major part of Catholick writers yet are not these fallible The same thing is ordinarily said of submitting our judgment to the Fathers in all things wherein we find the most of them to agree yet are not they liable to error But those of the Church of Rome that submit their judgment to a General Council and cannot prove it to be infallible as doubtless some of the simpler sort cannot do not so many submit to a Council for any thing they know fallible and yet they should offend if do otherwise For such submissions not the pretence of infallibility but the dictates of common Prudence are used and thought suffici Thus much of the Duty of obedience to all the decrees of General Councils tho these Councils be some way fallible wherein I have spoken of the obligation and rationalness of assent to their doctrines in case of our uncertainty of the contrary to be truths But remember that here I do not undertake to determin whether the Church thinking it fit perhaps to leave to her subjects in points of less consequence and such as are speculative more liberty of enjoying their own judgment so that only they disturb not her peace nor make faction hath only in some points of evident and universal tradition and more necessary consequence and practice required the submission of judgment and profession of assent and belief c under the peril of Anathema * where perhaps she expresseth her self in such terms as these Si quis non confitetur non profitetur constanter tenendum firma fide credendum nemo salva fide dubitare debet c And again whether in many other points of less necessity and not so common tradition tho perhaps certain deduction from those which are so she hath for only the preserving of her peace required the obedience and submission only of Non-contradiction and silence or Non-profession of the contrary under Anathema likewise * where she expresseth her self Si quis dixerit the most usual form in her Anathema's without any firmiter tenendum affixed to the contrary truth I meddle not to decide whether in the prohibition of the affirming an error the Church'es intention doth not always involve the profession of the contrary truth or whether all her Anathema's are not set only to points necessary to be believed but some to points fit not to be contradicted some Anathema's for consent some for peace and silence Again I attempt not to resolve here whether under the former of these the requiring of assent she means an internal plenary act of faith which perhaps is not in every man's power at all times faith having a great latitude of strength or weaknes according to the repugnancies of some verisimilities of the contrary running in a man's mind not fully settled and convinced and many times some mixture of unbelief Lord I believe help thou mine unbelief or else whether she means only a submissive endeavour and willingnes to believe and assent to her propositions In these things I can determin nothing neither if I have before argued that we may rationally yeild in such points more than the least of these submissions therefore will I deny that the Church may or doth require only the less as I cannot on the other side affirm that she hath not required the more But surely no more duty needs be paid to avoid her Anathema's than she chargeth us with tho she claim not all her due nor is more if so much necessary to salvation to be believed than she exacteth of us to be believed To conclude this discourse 1. Infallibility of the Church in all necessaries be they clear revelations and points traditional or consequential consequential clearly or not clearly deducted from the former provided that they be necessary to attain salvation for to be known or believed or practised by all Christians is not denied being had either by evidence of Tradition or assistance of the Spirit from the promise of our Saviour who fails not to guide the Church in all such truths for ever that she may in these also for ever securely guide others 2ly likewise at least for the most of these truths namely such as are of universal tradition or natural and immediate consequences thereof not only certitudo objecti but subjecti is granted not only that de facto the Church cannot err in them but that she knows she doth not err in them For it follows not that if the Church may err in something and not know that she
but that such things they practised such things they held and then perhaps this may be a sufficient reason to him to admit them that so the Church of God hath always done or taught before him 6. That he would not repair to them as if he should find every thing now controverted there considered or stated but that for what he shall find there stated at least for the substance of the practice of it as most points of government and practice are tho not for the quatenus or in what respects it is performed that to it he would conform 7. That he would not entertain such a conceit †as if in this search he should find any Church of present being so perfectly to resemble Antiquity as in no point to differ from the general customs thereof for in some all differ none giving the Eucharist to Infants Nor †as if he should not find several Churches in some one thing or other more to resemble the primitive than a Church of a better constitution doth As the Reformed is said to resemble the Primitive times in celebrating the Communion in both kinds and the first or 2d century thereof in not using Images not invocating Saints c. The Roman in the obligation of and obedience to the decrees of the Church and her Councils in prayer for the Dead merit of works penances Church-ceremonies the Christian Sacrifice of the Altar Real presence Reservation for communicating absents domestick Communion in one kind frequent celebration of the Eucharist frequent hours of Prayer and set times of Fasting Confession recommendation of Evangelical counsels vows of Poverty and Celibacy single life of the Clergy But that he would conform to that Church rather which he finds to tread the footsteps of Antiquity in the most points as all do in some or in those of the most moment and consequence especially in those of government and practice which as they are not so easily changed as those of simple belief so do they more concern this search when-as the absolutely necessary points of faith are perhaps sufficiently acknowledged by all those of differing communions Thus much of the Cautions to be used in searching Antiquity Now to go on 3ly He will find one present external visible communion and body of Christians much more than all the rest tho perhaps none in all things agreeing with the doctrines and discipline of Antiquity especially if considered after the settlement of it under Christian Emperors Which things if they be found which discovery presupposeth first his search this I desire may presently be granted that any one hath little reason to bear himself up upon the arms of his own or others newer interpretations of the Sacred text and not-unhandsomly stated theses and subtlely-urged objections against so constant so strong a stream And here also note that if any side rip up the faults and errors of the Fathers and whilst they seem to appeal to them yet as much as they can weaken their authority if they defend their own differing from them much more by shewing that the other side differs from them in something but yet much less than they if the more candid of them at least confess a recession from the Fathers in many points for informing your self in this turn over Calvin's Institutions and see in how many places he ingenuously confesseth the opinion of Antiquity opposit to his decisions 2. lib. 2. c. 4 9. sect compared with 3. l. 11. c. 15. sect 2. l. 14. c. 3. sect 3. l. 3. c. 10. sect 3. l. 4. c. 38. sect 3. l. 5. c. 10. sect 3. l. 22. c. 1. sect 2. l. 3. c. 7. 10. sect where multis saeculis is as high as Chrysostom 4. lib. 4. c. 10. sect 9. cap. 8 9 10. 11 c weakning the authority of Councils 12. c. 8. sect 12. c. 19 20 24 27. sect 18. c. 11. sect 3. l. 3. c. 16. sect 4. l. 17. c. 39. sect 4. l. 13. c. 16 17. sect many of which places I have transcribed in Church-gov 4. part § 100. and if some others of the same side who yet maintain the same opinions with those other of them that appeal to the Fathers do refuse a tryal by the Fathers at all to say nothing that this relisheth of much pride and self-conceit and pride is an ill Reformer this shews that such a side tho not willing to confess it yet is convinced of loosing their cause in this trial by the practice of former Church and that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for this appeal and then the resolution set down before in § 22. is in all reason to take place Again if the contrary party seems on the other side to attribute too much to the Fathers in quoting them in their disputations and conferences as well as the Holy Scriptures and as it were superstitiously treading in their steps in the external forms of Government and in the most inconsiderable ceremonies adhering still to the same expressions which the Fathers used in those points which are now controverted as Merit Satisfaction Supererogation Sacrifice Altar c which the other more willingly change compiling their Body of Divinity out of the Fathers common doctrines as the first beginning of School-Divinity see Peter Lombard was only a design of putting the Fathers tenets in an orderly method This argues that these rather are the true Successors of the doctrines of the Primitive Church and that they are unjustly charged to recede from the Fathers in those points which are controverted and then according to the resolution above § 22. we are to adhere to them For what likelihood is there That he who thinks their testimony makes much for him and much against his adversary will all he can strive to weaken the authority of these Witnesses in shewing their errors in general their contradictions of one against another of the same against himself c. See Daille's Uray usage des Peres and that the other who is conscious that they are more against himself than his adversary should by all means establish their testimony even by holding them in all their joynt-verdicts infallible What probability that they should most declame against the certainty of Church-tradition whose doctrines it most confirmeth For we are to believe this or we for as much as I can apprehend nullify our Saviour's promise and his mission of other teachers and all appeals to the Church c * that there shall be a Church of God in all ages like it self in the former and * that as the Jews might Jo. 5. 39. and the Bereans did Act. 17. 11. find the Old Testament to confirm the doctrine of the Apostles of the New and the Gospel to establish the Law Rom. 3. 31. so the Church's practice shall establish the Gospel and the latter practice thereof the former to the end of the world * that Christ's sheep shall always know his voice and shall not follow