and plausible an appearance of true miracles to confirm any false doctrin as we see in the Roman Catholik Church Therfore if the miracles of the Roman Catholik Church be not true Gods infinit veracity as also his goodness and prouidence may be questioned This may be explained to the vulgar sort by a similitude Suppose there were in som shire or town of England or Scotland a company of men acting in the Kings name as his priuy or great Councell with all the formes and formalities therof as a Lord Chancellor or Commissioner Tresurer Secretaries members of Parliament Clerks c. and that a considerable part of the Nation obeyed their orders and commands as men authorised by the King who is not ignorant of these publik proceedings and by consequence can not be rationaly thought auerse but rather seem to approue of them especialy if he be able without danger of disturbance to hinder and humble this pretended Councell by declaring them to be but a counterfeit Assembly of Cheats and Rebells and by punishing them accordingly A King I say that might hinder such a counterfeit Parliament or Councell from abusing himself and his subiects by so seeming a legal authority and yet would not can not be thought to haue any truth goodness or iustice because by his conniuance at those impostures which he might haue discouerd without trouble or inconueniencies he doth countenance and confirm that Councell as commissioned by himself This may be easily and aptly applied to the Roman Catholik Church which is inuested with so many miraculous marks of Gods authority and therfore doth act by a warant so seemingly Diuine that Gods bare permission of such a cheat as Protestants suppose the Roman Catholik Church to be would conclude his want of prouidence goodness and veracity and by consequence there can be no excuse or rational hopes of saluation for Protestants or any others that will not submit their iudgment to a Church and doctrin so publikly commissioned and confirmed by Gods great seal Miracles as yet shall more particularly appeare in the ensuing sections SECT I. VVHETHER THE CREDIBLE and constant report there is of true miracles vvrought in the Roman Catholik Church be a sufficient euidence to conuict of damnable obstinacy and heresy such as stight them or vvill not heare of them Q. Is it then vpon this ground of not belieuing the Roman Catholik miracles which are recounted by the ancient Fathers or others Roman Catholiks say that we Protestants are obstinat heretiks and that such of vs as dye not members of your Church are damned Is not this a foolish and vncharitable opinion A. One of the grounds of that censure is the Definition of Heresy which is an error in the understanding and obstinacy in the vvill against any truth or authority that is sufficienly proposed as Diuine Now the great appearance and moral euidence there is of the Roman Catholik Church together with its tradition doth sufficiently propose or declare its doctrine and authority to be Diuine For though it be not demonstratiuely euident that the Roman Catholik miracles are true miracles nor that its tradition and testimony is infallible yet it is moraly euident and by consequence sufficiently euident that its doctrin is Diuine and that God is Author of the same it being confirmed by such Miracles and that by them he doth authorise that Church as Princes do their officers by letters patents under their great seale Miracles being the great seale wherwith Gods Ministery and doctrin is made authentik Q. Vvhat is moral euidence of a miracle A. Moral euidence of a miracle is so credible and so constant a report therof that to deny or doubt of the fact reported argues imprudence in the dissenter and renders his caution of not belieuing both rash and ridiculous because it destroyes at least all historical and human Faith Q. May not a man belieue History and rely vpon human authority though he belieues not the stories of the most authentik Roman Catholik miracles A. No if he discourseth consequently and according to the rules of reason wherof one principal is that the same cause produceth the same effects and the same authority the same assent or belief If therfore the same ancient Fathers or Authors vpon whose testimony or tradition you rely for belieuing a miracle of Christian religion in genral or of the Trinity or Incarnation in particular recount the like miracles of Transubstantiation prayer to Saints or Purgatory you are rash and irrational in contemning that same authority which you credited in as difficult a subiect and as much aboue your comprehension for you ought to belieue both the miracles and mysteries or neither Q. Is moral euidence of true miracles sufficient to conuict of damnable obstinacy and heresy all such as slight that euidence and will not examin the grounds and effects therof A. Yes The reason is 1. because they are a sufficient euidence that the doctrin confirmed by them is Diuine 2. because Christs miracles were only moraly not demonstratiuely euident as miracles for if they had bin demonstratiuely euident as such none of the Iewes could deny them to be Diuine or could think they were wrought by the power of Beelzebub And though it was but moraly euident that Christs miracles were true miracles yet that moral euidence was sufficient to conuict the incredulous Iewes of damnable obstinacy and heresy Q. I desire to Know what it is you call damnable obstinacy A. Damnable obstinacy is a setled resolution of remaining in your own opinion of religion or a neglect of inquiring into the grounds of any other notwithstanding the prudent doubts you haue or would haue had if you had not bin carless of being saued in the way wherin you haue bin educated or made choice of Q. I do agree with you that if one doubts of the truth of his own religion he will be damnd unless he inquires into it or som other untill he doth what he can to be satisfied but I can not be persuaded that a man is bound to doubt of that religion wherin he hath bin bred because he heares of miracles wrought in an other unless his own be so absurd or inconsequent that he must doubt of its truth whether he will or no. A. There are two sorts of doubts 1. is a doubt which occurrs to ourselues by our own observation 2. is a doubt not started by ourselues but by som other more learned in matters of religion and as much to be credited and as litle to be suspected of hauing any design but our saluation in our change of opinion as he whom we most confide in Doubts of our own obseruation are very ordinary being grounded vpon the most obuious occurrences as a publik change of Religion either vpon the score of conscience or interest this last is as suspicious euen to the dullest comprehensions as the other is edifying Not only the change into a thriuing religion but constancy in a persecuted one doth
reuelation But how is it possible that scrupulous and acute Wits or Doubters can assent to Gods reuealing the articles of Christianity or to any truth with greater assurance then there is appearance and euidence of the same Is not euidence and assurance or certainty the same thing in our intellectual assents At least are they not so connected with one an other that they can not be separated or one be greater then the other A. Any thing which is uery reasonable must be possible because reason can not lead to or approue of an impossibility How possible and feasible it is to assent with infallible assurance and the greatest certainty for so we must assent in matters of Faith with only moral euidence is cleer in the scriptures especialy Iohn 20. where Christ our Sauior reprehended St Thomas for not belieuing with the assurance and certainty of Diuine Faith the mystery of the Resurrection though he had but moral euidence for it the testimony of the Apostles not as yet confirmed in grace Christ also Marc. ult reproacht with obstinacy and incredulity against Faith the Apostles themselues for not being content with that sole moral euidence of the Resurrection which they had from the testimony of the three Maries and the two Disciples of Emaus And certainly Christ would not find fault with St Thomas or the Apostles for not doing an impossibility It s possible therfore to belieue by an assent of Faith with more assurance and certainty then there is appearance of the truth or euidence of the Reuelation I confess it is uery difficult to shew how this is don But if wee distinguish the assurance or certainty we haue of truth by seing the truth in itself from the assurance or certainty we haue therof by putting our trust in an other or relying upon his knowledge and integrity we shall find this point much more easy then hitherto hath appeard to most both Diuines and Philosophers The assurance and certainty of our intellectual assents which is produced by the sight either intellectual or sensual of the Truth itself inuolues cleer euidence therof But the assurance and certainty of the Truth which is an effect of the Trust and esteem we haue of an others Veracity integrity power and wisdom is so farr from including a cleer sight or euidence of the truth that it excludes it For Trust is no more consistent with our exacting the possession sight or cleer euidence of that vvherwith vve trust an other than it is vvith doubts cautions and suspitions of his integrity or power Vpon this notion and the true nature of Trust excluding sight or cleer euidence of the thing trusted is grounded that saying I le trust such a man no further than I see him that is I vvill not trust him at all This supposed We may easily comprehend how its possible to belieue or to assent by an act of our Christian Faith with more assurance then appearance or euidence either of the truth or of the Diuine Reuelation Because to belieue or to assent by an act of our Christian Faith is to trust God for his reuelation as well as for the truth reuealed for we belieue God did reueal the mystery and so we must trust him for the reuelation also But if we see the reuelation euidently applied to the mystery reuealed we can not trust him for either seing the truth of the mystery is inseparable and necessarily connected with Gods reuelation therof and we can not trust God for the truth of one of two things that vve know are necessarily connected unless vve trust him for both Therfore if the reuelation be cleerly euident to us by Tradition vve can not trust God for it nor for the truth of the mystery we know is necessarily connected therwith Hence doth follow 1. that seing vve can not trust God for the truth of the mystery reuealed unless vve trust him also for the reuelation vve can not belieue either or any thing the Catholik Church proposeth as matter of Faith if vve exact for that belief conclusiue and cleer euidence that God reuealed the same It followeth 2. That by exacting cleer or conclusiue euidence of the Reuelation to belieue the mystery or matter proposed by the Church we do not only mistrust Gods veracity and goodness but preferr the vvord and veracity of euery honest man before his as it is proposed to us by the Church For vvhen vve heare any honest man speak though vvee do not see the truth of his vvords nor any thing else necessarily connected vvith that truth yet vve belieue him and take his bare vvord for our assent and assurance of the truth But vve will not take Gods word deliuered to us by the Church unless vve see his reuelation which is necessarily connected with the truth of the mystery proposed And in this consists most of the obstinacy and malice of Heresy It followeth 3. That the obstinacy of Heresy is not alwayes grounded upon the passion or inclination of men to sensual pleasures and those nices which Christian Faith shocks and condemns but takes its rise also from the difficulty we find in assenting to any thing without euidence or in trusting euen God for the truth of things vvhich seem to be unlikely Christs Resurrection vvas a thing much desired by Saint Thomas and the Apostles and by consequence they vvere willing enough to belieue it And yet because they thought it an unlikely matter St Thomas vvould not belieue the other Apostles nor these the Disciples of Emaus and the three Maries vvhen they assured them Christ vvas resuscitated And this is the reason why there haue bin so many speculatiue heresies as that of the Arrians against Christs consubstantiality and that of the Greekes against the procession of the holy Ghost c. True it is that the Lutheran and other modern Heresies haue their principal source from sensual pleasures and lendness of life yet no liberty is more bewitching then that of opining euen in speculation and therfore the Church hath bin troubled with confuting many speculatiue heresies in former ages I conclude this Appendix with this aduertisment that many mistakes among Controuersors are occasioned by their not being vvell grounded in School Diuinity especialy in that part of it which treates of the Nature of Faith and Heresy Som confound the Motiues of Faith vvith the Motiues of Credibility as they do the euidence of these vvith that of the Diuine Reuelation and the euidence of this with that of our obligation to belieue it and fancy that the Authors who pretend to demonstrat Christianity or the truth of the Roman Catholik Religion intend to demonstrat God reuealed those mysteries and doctrin vvheras they go no further than to endeauor to demonstrat the reasonableness and obligation of belieuing the same by the euidence of the Motiues of credibility Some of late as Fisher Rushworth and others in England haue attempted to demonstrat or cleerly conclude the euidence of the Diuine reuelation by the certainty of the human Tradition of the Church and therupon ground the certainty of Diuine Faith As their zeal is to be commended so they are to be aduertised that the certainty of Faith must be supernatural and by consequence must haue a higher and more infallible Motiue than the euidence of human Tradition grounded upon that of our senses as all Diuines confess and euen these modern Authors seem to grant I heare a bold Spaniard went further and pretends that Christian Faith is science because the reuelation is euidently concluded from the Motiues of credibility Miracles c. and because St Paul sayes Scio cui credidi certus sum This is but a Spanish conceit Perhaps Saint Paul in his rapt to the third Heauen might haue euidence of the Diuine Reuelation But vve heare of no others that went so far to find out that knowledge I see there are Escobars and Dianas in speculatiue Theology as vvell as in Moral and I think speculatiue errors are more dangerous than large cases of conscience because these carry a certain horror and discredit a long vvith them but erroneous speculations if new seem to vulgar comprehensions especialy of the weaker sex to sauor of wit and many would fain seem witty upon any score euen in matters of Faith wherin the greatest wits must submit to authority and be commanded by the vvill piously affected and supernaturaly assisted to belieue more than we see or comprehend Yet the Spaniard is consequent enough in his error by saying Faith is science For if it be euident that whatsoeuer God reuealed is true and it be euident that God reuealed the Trinity or Transubstantiation it must needs be euident and by consequence Science that these mysteries are true and therfore no man who penetrats these termes can deny their Truth For my part I wish this opinion were true it would be a great ease to all Catholiks vvho find much difficulty in belieuing the articles of Faith So that the Authors and Abettors of Traditionary euidence haue this aduantage of their Aduersaries that we desire they may haue the better of us in this Dispute and if they haue not it must be want of Reason on their side not any preiudice or obstinacy on ours But vve haue this aduantage of them that we may with more ease conuince heretiks euen the wittiest of heresy and obstinacy than they can because its easier to demonstrat or euidently conclude that a man is bound to bilieue God reuealed a mystery of Faith than it is to demonstrat or euidently conclude he did actualy reueale it as it is easier to proue you are bound to belieue this man is your Father than that realy he is so And if we conclude euidently the first we convince the wittiest Diffenters or Disputers in the world of heresy and obstinacy if they do not submit their iudgments and belief to that of the Church
A SOVERAIGN REMEDY AGAINST ATHEISM and Heresy FITTED FOR THE VVIT and vvant of the British Nations BY M. THOMAS ANDERTON aliás BARTON PVBLISHED AFTER HIS DEATH and Dedicated to the Lady Frances Hamilton By her humble Chaplin E. G. An. 1672. TO THE MOST ILLVSTRIOVS LADY THE LADY FRANCES HAMILTON MADAM England your natiue soil once so much celebrated throughout all Christendom for an Istand of Saints and Angels is novv censured euen by its ovvn Parliament as a Nursery of Atheism and Heresy and therfore that great Representatiue of the Nation is no less solicitous for a cure than sensible of a disease so dangerous and destructiue not only to the soul but to the body politik of the Commonvvealth And yet either our misfortune or their mistake hath renderd all remedies hitherto ineffectual This Treatise MADAM composed by Mr. Thomas Barton vvhose Vvit must be admired so long as there vvill be any in the vvorld vvas found vvith his Geometry in Holland vvhere he had designed to print both and bestovvd upon me by one that understood not the English language nor the ualue of his Present In my iudgment 't is one of the best Antidotes against the spiritual plagues vvervvith England is infected I publish it under your Lad ps patronage and beg pardon for doing so vvithout your Knovvledge because you are not only a perfect Pattern of that ancient Faith and Virtue vvhich it asserts but a particular Instance and a conuincing Proof that Heresy and Atheism haue not so vvholly changed the nature of old England but that euen novv it produceth Angels I Knovv MADAM these Truths vvill offend your modesty and Humility your greatest care being to conceal your natural and supernatural Gifts and to eclipse to the eyes of men your spiritual exercises and deuotion feigning to be as vvell pleased vvith the vvorld as the vvorld is vvith you But that vvhich hath exalted you aboue the vvorld and I hope vvrit your name in the book of life is your extraordinary Charity You are not in the list of those vvho hope to be saued by charitable indiscretions No MADAM Prudence directs your almes as vvell as your other actiōs Humor hath no share in your distributions Vanity no influence upon your liberality partiality no suffrage in the choice of the poor you relieue You stretch your piety to the support of merit vvheresoeuer it is iniured by Fortune and to the defence of Virtue oppressed by persecution And though you do it vvith so great caution as to disguise supernatural Charity vvith that noble ayr of generosity so natural and peculiar to your self yet your deuout design is discouered and your revvard before God as vvell as the relieued persons obligation to you infinitly multiplied Pardon me MADAM if I trespass upon your Reseruedness and choose rather to incurr your Lad ps displeasure than concurr to preiudice Mankind by depriuing it of so great an encouragement to Virtue as the Knovvledge of your perfections I speak MADAM of those hidden in your soul not of those vvhich shine outvvardly and can not be concealed as your matchless beauty and charming graces These MADAM are but fading and fallacious Ornaments that set out Mortality in a deluding dress vvith gay and liuely colours vvhich a litle tyme vvill deface the sad fate of the greatest beautyes as vvell as of the fairest flovvers I need not inculcat this Truth to your Ladp. t is so deeply printed in your soul that others are odious to you if they but touch upon any of those rare qualities vvhervvith Nature by straining its povver to the utmost hath made you a Miracle of itself and plac't you in the vvorld as a Model not to be imitated much less paralelled but to be admired euen by those most emulous and enuious of your ovvn sex vvhich fancy themselues ought to be adored by ours But that vvhich most surpriseth the vvorld is that so enuied a Miracle of Nature as your Ladp. could neuer yet be censured or obserued of hauing any Kind of inclination to be admired or applauded This is a Miracle of Gods grace and an effect of that natural modesty and eminent honor vvherby you alvvayes haue preserued your unspotted reputation in the tvvo most dangerous Courts of Christendom to both vvhich you are in this particular the best example as in all other things the greatest Ornament This auersion to your ovvn praises is the only reason vvhy I dare not mention the great Antiquity and high Alliance of your illustrious Family the most proper and usual Ingredient in all Dedicatories I should uenture though to say somthing of your acute VVit profound iudgment agreable humor gracefull utterance becomming behauior and discreet conduct but that these are abuious and obserued by all the VVorld and particularly by the greatest Court and best Iudge therof vvhich giues your Lad p this Character That you are an exact English Beauty naturaly adorned vvith all the graces of France and an abridgment of the purest perfections of both Nations But because euen this authentik and undeniable Testimony is not gratefull to your Ladp. and that it is impossible to speak any truth of you vvithout commending and offending you I am forc't to cut off a long Panegyrik of your deserued praises and conclude vvith this one vvhich I hope vvill not be offensiue that you are the only person vvho thinks you are unvvorthy of that litle I haue sayd heer or that can command me to say no more but that I am vvith all reality and respect MADAM Your Lad ps most obedient and most humble seruant E. G. THE PREFACE WIth no less humility than charity I will propose my thoughts concerning the Atheism and Heresy of our Countrey hoping that if my sense differs from that of others I shall not be blamed for offering and submitting my opinion to better iudgments I shall endeauor to ground mine upon Scripture and reason Scripture compares Heresy to that crafty serpent which deceiued our Mother Eue with the curiosity of Knowing the cause and reasons of Gods reuelations persuading her that human vnderstandings ought not be satisfied with any thing less than cleer euidence as if it were beneath men to submit to authority Vvhen our curiosity and pride preuails with us to contemn the testimony and tradition of the Church and to preferr our priuat opinions before the publik doctrin and practise therof and that we are obstinat in that way we becom heretiks and in progress of time Atheists So filth and corruption becoms first a creeping serpent and afterwards a flying Dragon For as this Vermin is engendred by the heat of the sun in marish grounds and dirty sinks so Heresy and Atheism haue their first being from the influence which heate of passion height of pride and sensual pleasures haue vpon vicious souls These wallowing in the mire of sin and sucking up its venom beget the priuat spirit which is a serpent that with hissing whispers infects the brain by asking
the help of the body and if it can act independently of the help of the body it may exist also without help of the same and so the soul is proued to be immortal or not to dye with the body by its acting in the body contrary to the dictamen or appearence of our senses Q. Methinks this argument only proues that the soul may act and by consequence exist independently of the body for som ryme but proueth not that it may exist for euer independently of the body and the immortality of the soul is not euery existen â—ce but an euerlasting existence independent of the boby A. True it is that the immortality of the soul is an euerlasting existence without necessity of the bodyes help or support and as true it is that reason as soon as the soul knowes it self doth direct it to desire and endeauour its own happiness which â—nuolues not only a perpetuity of existence but an euerlasting felicity in the same existence That reasons cleerest act after the soul knowes its own existence is to direct and inspire into the soul a desire and endeauours of its own happiness is manifest not only by that regret and remorse of conscience which men feel when they deuiat from the direction or dictamen of reason but also by the loue which men bear to themselues which loue being confessed to be most euidently rational can not but be directed by the cleerest principle of reason Vvherfore this desire of the souls happiness being directed by the cleerest principle of reason can not be pretended to be a dreame or delusion vnless you will maintain that the cleerest reason is the greatest folly and by consequence destroy the fundamental ground of all human discourse and rational endeauours If therfore the souls desire of euerlasting happiness be grounded vpon so cleer a principle of reason this if it be not folly must haue a real obiect wherunto we are directed and wherwith we may be satisfied without any possibility of mistake and if so 't is as demonstrable that the soul is immortal as it is that the most rational desires and endeauours are not manifest follies and that the fundamental and experimental principles of reason can not be false or fallacious But if any one will be so mad as to grant that the first and fundamental principles of human reason are false and fallacious besides that herin he reflects vpon Gods wisdom goodness and gouernment wherwith such a supposition is not compatible he must grant that there are som other contrary fundamental principles true in opposition wherunto ours are false and fallacious Let him therfore produce them and maintain that it is reasonable in lieu of honoring our parents to hate them in lieu of desiring our happiness to wish our misery c. and if he can not produce any others besides these he can not think it reasonnable we should credit these or feare our selues can be misled so long as we stick close to our own principles of reason and follow that light which shines and euery man sees in certain actions necessarily and naturally assented vnto and therfore common to all mankind CHAP. III. OF THE VVORSHIP OF GOD and the sacrifice due to him Q. Seing you haue proued that there is a God and that the soul is immortal I would willingly know how God ought to be worshipt A. God being the Author of all good Mr Beacoz a learned ProtestaÌ„t in his Tratise intituled the reliâ—ues of Rome edit 1560. f. 344 saith the Mass vvas begotten conceiued and born anone after the Apostles tyme if all be true that Historiographers vvrite Sebastianus Francus an other learned Protestant in his Epistle for abrâ—gating all â—he Canon lavv sayth imâ—â—diatly after the Apostles all things vvere turnd vpside dovvn c. The Lords supper vvas trans formed into a sacrifice Mr Ascham in his Apology for the Lords supper p. 31. doth acknovvledge that no beginning of this change can be chevved The ancieÌ„t rathers call the Mass the visible sacrifice the true sacrifice the dayly sacrifice the sacrifice according to the order of Melchisedech the sacrifice of the body and bloud of Christ the sacrifice of the Altar the sacrifice of the Church and the sacrifice of the nevv Testament See St Ignatius the Apostles Scholar in his Epistle to the Church of Smirna St Irenaeus l. 4. c. 32. of vvhom the Centurists say that he speakes very in comodiously vvhen he sayes that Christ tanght a nevv oblation vvhich the Church receiuing from the Apostles doth offer to God in all the vvorld See Cent. c. 4. col 63. and Cent. 2. cap. 10. col 167. they affirm St Ignatius his vvords to bee dangerous and quasi errorum semina See also Terrul ad scapul cap. 2. Origen in numer hom 23. St Cyprian lib. 2. 3. vers fin St Ambrlib 5. Ep. 33. Missam facere coepit c. St Leo Ep. 81. ad Dioscor St August term 91. de Temp. lib. 9. Confess cap. 12. in Enchird cap. 110. c. Sayes that the Sacrifice of our price vvas offerd for his mother Monica being dead and that it is not to be doubted but that the souls of the dead are relieued vvhen for them is offered the sacrifice of our Mediator c. the only beginning and cause of our existence the end and hopes of our happiness it is fit we exhibit vnto him the greatest honor we can not only euery one in particular by an inward submission of our souls acknowledging his infinit excellencies and our own nothing and imperfections but also by an outward offering or oblation of som visible thing that ought to be consumed or changed therby to own Gods infinit power and Dominion ouer his creatures and consecrated to his Diuine maiesty by a solemn ceremony and publik Minister This way of worship is called a Sacrifice and the publik Minister who offers it is called a Priest It hath bin practised since the beginning of the world as appeareth in the sacrifices of Abel Noe Melchisedech Abraham Isaac Iacob Iob. and others in the law of nature and in the written law of Moyses great part therof is nothing but rules and ceremonies concerning the manner of sacrificing and the habit and method which the Priest ought to obserue in performing that publik ministery Q. Vvhat is the sacrifice of the Christians or of the law of grace A. It is the sacrifice of Christs body and bloud offerd for the liuing and for the dead vnder the species or appearence of bread and wine and is commonly called the Mass Q. Is not the sacrifice of Christs body and bloud as it was offerd vpon the Cross the proper sacrifice of Christians or of the Catholik Church A. It is the most excellent sacrifice that euer was offered nay all other sacrifices in the law of nature of Moyses and of grace did and do deriue their virtue and efficaciousness from the sacrifice of the Cross but because