his part if we neglect not so great Salvation The chief Texts for the Churches supreme Teaching and consequently Judging and determining Power when any controversies of Faith arise by Commission from Christ the Head-spring of all Spiritual Jurisdiction are these and such like Mat. 28. 18 19. Go ye make Disciples of all Nations teaching them io observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you And that this Authoritative Teaching is performed by the Pastors of the Church as his Delegates and Representing his Person is plain from that of St. Luke He that heareth you heareth me and he Chap. 10. 16. Mat. 14. 18. that despiseth you despiseth me Again Whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven And again He Ephes 4. 11 12 13 c. gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ 'till we all come to the unity of the Faith and be not tossed too and fro with wind of every Doctrine What more express And yet if it may be the Churches Infallibility in the delivery of the Law of Christ is taught us in plainer terms as namely in Ch. 14. 26. those Promises in St. John The Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my Name he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you When the Spirit of Truth Joh. 16. 13. S. Matt. ch 28. 19. is come he will guide you in to all Truth And those in St. Matthew Teach them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you and behold I am with you always even to the end of the World And that in the 16 1 Tim. 3. 15. Chap. Vpon this rock will I build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Such a Church as this thus founded thus assisted thus guided cannot possibly teach damnable Haeresies or dangerous Errors but must needs be the Pillar and ground of Truth as that glorious Vessel of Election the great Apostle of the Gentiles doth assure us And therefore we may securely rely upon her word to do it also so much concerns us that not to hear and obey is no less then under pain of damnation and that too from no obscure Texts He that 1 Epist 4. 6. knoweth God heareth us saith St. John and he that heareth us not is not of God and by this we know the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Errour And that famous place Dic Ecclesiae Matt. 18. 17. Tell it to the Church and if he neglect to hear the Church let him be to thee as an Heathen and a Publican Persons doubtless in no fit case for Heaven I 'll name but one more out of St. Mark Go ye into all the World Mark 16. 16. and Preach the Gospel unto every Creature And what then He that believeth not shall be damned Plain and sad places these are to all Unbelievers and Incorrigible Hereticks But especially to these last who receiving these Scriptures for the Word of God do notwithstanding not only not hear the Church Obediently in her delivery of the Gospel but with obstinacy and pride of heart presume to teach the Church and will needs force upon her a new Creed which was never taught by Christ nor handed to us from the Apostles How can such as these escape the punishment threatned in the above-mentioned Sentences Their account must needs be heavy and the light they had will only serve to augment their guilt And I cannot omit for a Testimony of these and such like Texts against Protestants that being so express and unavoidable for the Churches Authority and Obedience to her in their first Editions of their English Bibles after their defection from the Church of Rome for Church they translated Congregation least common understandings should discover how they were withdrawn from their Ancient Faith by new Doctrines and Expositions so expresly contrary to the Word of God 'Till afterwards when by divers Artifices these Teachers perceived they had bred in their Followers a strong aversion from the Church of Rome and that they were sufficiently confirmed in their Errours the word Congregation in the later Translation was turn'd into Church that from the evidence of such Texts they might gain some credit to their usurp'd power set up against the pre-existent Authority of the whole Christian World Neither is it without reason that Christ hath set up in his Church such a supreme Judicature when to deny this Power to those whom he hath appointed for ever to be Governours of his Kingdom on Earth is doubtless to advance the Jewish Synagogue above the Christian Church their Sanedrim or Great Council whesein the High-Priest was supreme Judge in all doubts Deut. 17. and questions about the Law having such absolute Authority in giving Sentence that no man could appeal but was bound to obey under pain of death And yet that was but a temporary Pedagogy delivered by Moses a faithful Servant of the House of God in Types and Shadows prefiguring and leading to Evangelical Perfection whose Ministration is far more glorious endowed with more transcendent and admirable Priviledges foretold by the Prophets and in plenitude of time fulfill'd revealed and established in Person by the Eternal Son of God Lord of all things upon better Promises to continue for ever Secondly Christ our Lord having so dearly purchas'd a peculiar People and furnish'd his Church with all means necessary to the Salvation of mankind if we deny such Authority in her namely Infallibility to witness and when circumstances require to determine by a finally decisive unerring Sentence what these means are they cannot be effectual to the end for which they were with so much Sweat and Blood Instituted to continue for ever being otherwise according to the ordinary method of Divine Providence impossible to be known with an assured certainty and by consequence also to be put in practice Neither indeed could it be truly said that Christ hath provided in his Church all things necessary for our Salvation without this Authority when amongst things necessary that questionless seems to be most so by which we can only come to a certain knowledge of all the rest Thirdly seeing God hath made his Church a Proponent and Witness of his Truth in all Ages for 1 ch 8. that of the Acts Ye shall be witnesses to me both in Jerusalem and all Judaea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the Earth As to the substance of it belongs not only to the Apostles but to their Successors in the Office of making Jesus Christ and his Law known to the Worlds end the unanimous consent of the Catholick Church must needs be an undoubted testimony of revealed Verities seeing it
name no more and only such as Protestants themselves repute Hereticks those Arch-Enemies of the Doctrine of Grace so abundantly delivered in Sacred Writ yet fly thither also to set up Nature against it as St. Austin who best knew relates of them in these words Let us say they the L. de Nat. Grat. 39. Pelagians believe what we read what we read not let us believe unlawful to maintain Thus Scripture was their Sword and Buckler against the definitions of the Church whereby they were condemned neither could they so escape the brand of Heresie And Protestants taking up the same Weapons in the same manner to uphold themselves against the Faith and practice of all Ages by treading in the steps of such Predecessors shew sufficiently of what Generation and Spirit they are and seem justly involv'd in the same condemnation Thus having made good the first thing I promis'd in this Section namely that the common course of Hereticks is to have recourse to sole Scripture and to urge it as Interpreted by themselves against the Churches sense and judgment to speak any thing of the second to wit the different Faith and Practice of the Christian World would be but actum agere a superfluous labour being so largely before declared Sect. 5. of Trad. and the two last Sections of the Churches Authority in the handing of Tradition and the Infallibility or Authority of the Church and thither I refer the Courteous Reader Only for the present give me leave to say that I carefully comparing both these together found manifest different Rules of Faith without any possibility of reconcilement old and new Hereticks appealing to Scripture and resolute to be tryed by nothing else without any visible Judge to interpret them The Ancient Fathers and present Catholicks asserting the word of God whether written or unwritten as delivered to us by the universal Tradition of the Church and declared by her voice in approved General Councils to be the only sufficient and sure foundation of Christian belief I found that if these built their Faith on solid and safe Principles as it appeared to me they did the other must needs rely on an uncertain and groundless foundation for their Religion and having a desire to be numbred with the Saints not Hereticks of old I found I could not be so except I did relinquish Protestancy and unite my self to the Roman Church of the same belief and practice with Primitive Christians SECT III. A declaration of the English Protestants Doctrine how and why they make Scripture the only Rule of Faith FOr the clearer handling of this point and prevention of all mistakes I shall faithfully deliver what the Protestant Church of England teaches Principally in this main fundamental of her Religion and not injure it or her to the best of my judgment by any Observations made thereon First she teaches That Holy Scripture doth explicitly contain all things necessary to Salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an Article of Faith or be thought requisite and necessary to Salvation This the Composers of her Articles do teach and this they must teach who will make the written Word an entire Rule of Faith that is comprehending all points necessary to Salvation Now in all reason to satisfy those whom they would perswade to be of this belief it ought to be made evident that the Apostles in their Writings did intend plainly and perfectly to comprize whatsoever is necessary to be believ'd and practis'd by all Christians and deposited them in the Church as a complete Rule of Faith for the tryal of all Doctrines she also receiving it for such and practising accordingly in all Ages Which once done their position is then a most clear and rational inference But this being impossible for them to prove because contradicted by the Faith and practice of the Primitive Church which could not be ignorant of all Apostolical Doctrines and Constitutions and also of present Catholicks receiving them from her by an uninterrupted visible Tradition must needs be a false and most dangerous Principle though laid for the foundation of their Religion Secondly for a further ground-work she teaches That General Councils may and have erred even in things appertaining to God That is in matters of Faith as well as of Fact as her own Expositions more freely express her meaning A Doctrine the first Reformers would never have given place in the foundation of their Spiritural building even for their own sakes but that it was not possible their new Fabrick of Faith could stand for any considerable time without fall of the Churches Authority Were not they then sit men to be credited if General Councils may err But that which follows Wherefore things ordained by them as necessary unto Salvation have neither strength nor Authority unless it may be declared that they be taken explicitely out of Holy Scriptures Is the very quintessence of Anarchy and Rebellion so destructive of all Government though an Engine made only to batter down the Church that were it put in practice as here taught confusion would cover the face of the earth and the World would run quickly back into its first Chaos For if things ordained by General Councils have neither strength nor Authority unless it may be declared that it is made out to every private Judgment that they are taken out of the Holy Scriptures I demand by whom this may be or must be declared Now let it be considered that Church Governours are instituted by Jesus Christ having the Keys of so wonderful and transcendent power committed to their hands That whatsoever they Mat. 18. 18. shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever they shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven With a promise from Christ That where they meet in his Name he will be in the midst of them and ver 19. that he will be always with them to the Mat. 28. 20. Worlds end And that the Holy Spirit shall guide them into all Truth Joh. 16. 13. I say let this be consider'd and if the Decrees of such a Tribunal ordaining concerning points of Faith and proposing them to all Christians to be believ'd as the revealed will of God by his word from Heaven and necessary to Salvation have no strength nor Authority 'till it may be further declared that they are taken out of Holy Scriptures those that require this condition to make them obligatory cannot possibly give any reasonable satisfaction to this demand unless they find out such a Judge who is fitter and in all probability more likely not to err or deceive us in teaching what are revealed Truths But how impossible this is to be done any one of an ordinary understanding may without much study determine Yet while they are in vain attempting it if men should take their word as too many have already in denying
THE PRODIGAL Return'd HOME OR THE MOTIVES OF THE CONVERSION TO THE Catholick Faith OF E. L. Master of ARTS In the University of Cambridge Et tu conversus confirma fratres tuos Luc. 22. 32. Printed Anno Domini 1684. THE PREFACE TO THE Protestant Reader WHensoever it pleases the Almighty Goodness to enlighten with the glorious beams of Divine Truth those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death in so powerful a manner as that forsaking the perplexed labyrinth of Errors they betake themselves for repose and safety into the bosome of the Catholick Church 't is Satan's policy by his Agents to make the World believe that the motives of their Conversion were but weak and carnal least others should follow their example Herein I have been as deeply censur'd as others to whom God has vouchsafed the like extraordinary mercy Yet truly whatever calumnies have hereupon been cast upon me by some who have imbitter'd Spirits and Hearts swoln with rancour against the Catholick Church as much as concerns my self I should for many reasons bave contentedly sat down in silence rejoycing in the testimony of a good Conscience if the good of those upon whom my conversion may have most influence had not in charity oblig'd me to refuse no pains that might afford them help or satisfaction in a business of the highest nature and concernment This was the pressing consideration which at last prevailed with me to give these Motives of my Conversion a publick beeing and common air to breath in that their own eyes might be Judges what just cause I had to change my Religion and how much reason there is for them to follow me Of which I conceive great hopes when to me it seems impossible for any prudential man who seriously enters into the consideration of the grounds of Christian belief with a Soul wholly divested of all prejudices and self-interests whatsoever earnestly imploring the Divine assistance and direction I say it seems to me impossible for any prudential man in these circumstances not at last to discover the truth of the Catholick Religion and acknowledge the Church of Rome to be the only high-road to Heaven and Happiness he will hear a Divine voice whispering Jerim 16. 16. to him This is the old path walk in it and thou shalt find rest unto thy Soul Thus by Gods blessing I sought and this rest at last I found and never found it 'till after much pains and study after many Prayers and Tears after many Fastings and Watchings after many tossings and turnings after many sad delays and expostulations after many conflicts and agonies in Spirit my resolutions by the powerful workings of Grace on my Soul breaking through all difficulties did effectually bring me into the arms of the Roman Church In which I saw no reason to suspect any delusion when my most serious reflections pass d judgment on it seeing this happy change was not wrought in me by any humane persuasion but the God of Truth did by his immediate inspirations begin this work of mercy on my Soul when having no thoughts at all of becoming a Roman Catholick and finding much bitterness in the ways of sin and worldly vanities I was earnestly seeking of God what course I might best take how to please him and save my precious and immortal Soul But to prevent all fear of Enthusiasm pretended illuminations and false lights wherewith many poor Souls in our Nation are so miserably misled God who is as well essential Reason as Goodness did not only move my Will but also rationally convince my Understanding that all Communions professing Christ beside the Roman were more or less erroneous and she only the true Catholick Church according to the constant notion of Antiquity out of which ordinarily Salvation was not to be expected And therefore I must flie to her as to the saving Ark that I might not perish in the deluge of my sins So then this change in me was not a passionate distortion of an interessed will pushing forward the blind understanding to fix suddenly and adhere pertinaciously to more then the light of reason did clear up to the eye of the Soul but undoubtedly mutatio dexterae Excelsi the work of God wrought in my heart by convincing arguments as the following Motives do sufficiently evidence Nor could it be to satisfy the inclinations of sensual nature when I was to forsake my Relations my Friends my Temporal Revenues and Preferments and all worldly contentments to take up my Cross and follow Jesus by contempt of the world in the perpetual practice of self-denyal and mortification And happy is he who had rather have a Cross with Christ than a Crown without him Thus the Father of Mercies was graciously pleas'd by an efficacious call to bring his Prodigal Son Home For his Church is his House where he dwells among his Saints on earth with his special presence to govern and provide for them all things conducing to their happiness From which houshold of Faith I was an Alien while I was a Member of the Protestant Church which stands dis joynted from Catholick Unity by a Schism too notorious to be justified And until we like true Penitents return unto our Mother Church which made us Christians we like Prodigals feeding on ratling Husks of formal Devotion without any substantial nourishment to our Souls miserably mispend our precious time on which inevitably depends Eternity And this shall suffice by way of Preface for an Introduction The door is open enter and view well the Motives and the eternal Sun of righteousness who is the true Light of the World open thine eyes to see and guide thy feet into the way of Peace Yet before the Lecture I thought good to advise whosoever shall peruse these Papers that bere is not to be expected that variety of Arguments which may be found in more Judicious Controvertists but a true Narrative of what principal Motives prevail'd with me to forsake Protestanism and yield my self into the Arms of our Mother Church And yet methinks they are sufficient to convince the ablest Heads if they have but hearts resolved to yield to Truth I must likewise tell thee good Reader that these Motives had long since seen the light if some accidental occasions had not retarded their birth into the World However though they lost their choicest season of publication which is when such Conversions are most fresh in memory yet 't was thought fit by persons as well judicious as zealous that they should by no means live any longer in obscurity but be set upon a Candlestick in the House of God to give light to others and I did acquiesae in their judgment and was content to have them publish'd for the common good Read them Impartially consider them Seriously and practice Faithfully what God shall inspire into thy Soul And remember in thy Devotions Thine in Jesus Christ E. L. The first Motive containing the grounds of the Catholick Faith Sect.
among the Gentiles and they should Sacrifice in every place and Chap. 1. 11. a Pure Offering should be offer'd to his Name a new form of Worship prescrib'd a new form of Government erected new Sacraments instituted new Precepts deliver'd Councels super-added agreeable to the Evangelical Law And in a word a Catholick Church founded to continue for ever This Church of Christ as it is one body so likewise it was of one heart and of one mind while Apostolical purity remain'd unspotted The Professors were all united in the same Faith Worship and Government holding close to Church-Tradition the Pillar and ground of Truth without any rent or Schism Till among Act. 20. 29. 30. themselves arose Wolves in Sheeps-cloathing not sparing the Flock teaching perverse things to draw away Disciples after them That is who set up a Congregation of Christians separated from the Communion of that Church which was founded by Christ and his Apostles And so by this means unity being destroy'd and Faith perverted Heresie shut up the gate of Heaven against false Christians as Infidelity did against Unbelievers A sad case this yet not so much to be wondred at seing the Apostle tells us Opportet esse Haereses There must 1 Cor. 11. 19. be Heresies for the Tryal of others and greater glory of the Truth And therefore the true Church hath in all Ages been more or less vex'd with them But never more then in these last and perillous days which since Luther's Apostacy from the Church of Rome have produc'd such an innumerable brood of New Gospels and Sects all pretending to believe and practice those Doctrines and that Worship which were taught by Christ and his Apostles and to be the only true Church of God or at least the purest Members of it Now it being acknowledg'd on all hands that they only are the true Church who believe and observe all points taught by Christ and his Apostles necessary to Salvation and 't is impossible contrary Beliefs and Worships should be all true and come from the Fountain of Truth Christ Jesus those whom a more serious desire and care of their Eternal Good may excite to seek for satisfaction in so important a business shall upon diligent inquisition by the blessing of God find that the chief externe grounds or evidence ordain'd by Christ for the guiding us in the knowledge of what was taught and left by him to be believ'd and practis'd to the Worlds end and consequently also for discerning which is the true Church among so many Pretenders are those according to which the Church of Rome regulates her Faith and Worship namely Universal Tradition and the Authority of the present Church as shall hereafter be made manifest And the farther they search into the Rule of the Protestant Religion that is sole Scripture interpreted by private Reason or Spirit exclusively to Tradition and Church Authority the more they will see such unsteady Maxims are destructive to Faith and manifestly leading to endless Divisions and Errors in matters of Religion This Conviction I had in examining the Fundamentals of the Roman and Protestant Religion and therefore am not to be blam'd for the Change I made and to my understanding whosoever searches as I did will easily receive the same satisfaction SECT II. A Preparatory Discourse to Church-Tradition and what it is THo' whosoever examines aright the Motives of Christian belief cannot rationally but become a Catholick that is find evidence how he may come to the certain knowledge of what Christ and his Apostles taught the World yet Faith is not grounded on Reason but Authority and that no less then Divine which excludes all possibility of Errour Whatever it is that brings men to know what they must believe Faith hath for its formal Object Divine Revelation into which it finally is resolv'd So that we believe nothing as of Faith but what is revealed and because it is revealed by Essential Verity who can neither deceive nor be deceived Catholicks then believe by Divine Faith Truths only revealed by Almighty God wherein Protestants agree with us But Catholicks believe the same Truths as they are ascertained declar'd and handled down to us by the Testimony of the Church wherein Protestants are defective the difference thefore between us in Faith arises chiefly from hence in that we use not the same externe Medium to convey unto our understandings the knowledge of what Truths are revealed and what not For could we once agree about this latter we should soon be of one Heart and of one mind in all points of Faith especially when once this Medium is proved to be infallible As to this Medium therefore Catholicks regulate their Faith by the Rule or Standard of Tradition and Church-Authority as the externe Proponent of Faith a Proponent also evidenced to them by the same Rule to be Infallible and thus they safely rely on the Testimony of Tradition and Church Authority in Declaring and Expounding both the Sense of Scripture and all other Christian Misteries necessary to Salvation Whilst on the contrary Protestants relying on the sole express Texts of Scripture interpreted by private Reason or Spirit as their only Rule and Guide in matters of Faith become unsteady in their Belief obnoxious to dangerous Errors and divided amongst themselves into endless Sects and Factions But because a more clear understanding of this matter in some sort depends on a right notion of Tradition we shall here define it in the sense it is usually understood by Catholick Divines Tradition then is the delivery of that Doctrine which was taught by Christ and his Apostles from hand to hand descending as such from Fathers to their Children making up the body of the Faithful This is the true notion of Tradition among us Catholicks and it matters not whether it be call'd Divine Apostolical or Universal being only the same thing exprest by divers adjuncts For it is call'd Divine because Christ our Lord as well true God as true man is the Spring-head of it It is call'd Apostolical because the Apostles immediately receiv'd from him things so deliver'd and Preach'd them to all Nations And Universal because Attested by the Catholick Church of all Ages to have been handed to her as originally proceeding from Christ and his Apostles And to prevent all mistakes let Protestants take notice that the Church of Rome sends not her Children only to search for what is Divine or Apostolical Tradition in matters of Faith and Discipline out of the Writings of the Fathers or other Libraries of Books fill'd with dead Words which are subject to various Interpretations by Critical heads without any hope of Agreement and can have no Authority dependent on Tradition though upon this account she has infinite advantage against all other Communions in the World to justify her Faith and practice in any unbyass'd Judgments But sends them to a visible living Oracle Oral Tradition that is the voice of the present Church attesting
that what she teaches as of Faith she so received from the Age immediately foregoing and so from Age to Age from Millions of Sons to their Fathers up to the Apostles and the Sacred Mouth of Christ himself From Church-Tradition thus explain'd briefly may be drawn those Positions First that the Doctrine taught by Christ and his Apostles comprises all points necessary to salvation Secondly That all such points taught by Christ and his Apostles have been continued in the Church from believing Fathers to their Children by an un-interrupted succession without Diminution or Addition and shall so continue for ever Which involves these two Propositions that nothing comes to us upon the tenure of Faith but what is of Tradition Yea though contain'd in Scripture seing we only are ascertain'd what Books the Apostles wrote and what is the true sense of them by Tradition And that there are no new points of Faith in the Christian Church quoad Substantiam as to the substance of what is reveal'd the present Church only believing what it received from precedent Ages Which assertion whosoever opposes contradicts not me but the Sublime Angelical Doctor St. Thomas expresly teaching that in Doctrina Christi Apostolorum c. 22ae 1 q. ar 10. ad 1am 2am Et in 1a par q. 32. ar 4. corp In the Doctrin of Christ and his Apostles the Truth of Faith is sufficiently unfolded but because perverse men pervert the Doctrin of the Apostles and other Doctrines and Scriptures to their own Destruction as is said in the 2 Ep. of St. Peter and the last Chap. Therefore the explication of Faith was necessary against arising Errors in after-times not containing another Faith but the same more clear'd Thirdly That this universal Tradition or handing of Christian Doctrin by oral Teaching and visible practice of the Christian World is and was the constant Rule of Faith as well after as before the Scriptures were written and received by the Church The first Thesis or Position though it hath been deny'd by some Hereticks as namely the Montanists yet is not controverted between us and Protestants The proof lies upon the second which being demonstrated the third will follow of it self and cannot be deny'd with show of Reason SECT III. The clearness and certainty of Tradition in delivering Matters of Faith NO other externe prudential evidence or assurance in matters of Divine Faith whose efficient Cause is Divine Grace is necessarily requir'd then a Moral certainty that what is propos'd to be believ'd as of Faith is the very same Doctrin which was taught by Christ and his Apostles Which assurance neither is nor can be had among Protestants who build their new Church upon their own confused and unsteady Interpretations of Scripture But is manifestly to be found in that Communion of Christians viz. the Church of Rome which grounds its Faith as to such evidence upon Universal Tradition a Principle not well lyable to Error and therefore cannot rationally be expected to fail those who relie upon it As I shall endeavour to demonstrate thus Christian Religion is supernatural descending from Heaven to us by Revelation that is such a one as is not to be learn'd but from Almighty God and his Missioners namely from Christ and his Apostles and so successively from them brought down to us by Church-Profession Wherefore the Apostles being Commissionated by him to whom was given all Power in Heaven and Earth to this end and purpose deliver'd to the World wholly and entirely the Law of Jesus Christ making so long stay in those places principally in which by mutual consent they had chosen to plant the Gospel 'till by often inculcation it was written in their hearts and by practice so confirm'd and clear'd to their Judgments that rationally they could not mistake or doubt concerning any points so deliver'd all things being by this means sufficiently provided for the constituting and governing of the Church Now though the Apostles were many yet being all taught by the same Master impowered by the same Commission and guided by the same Spirit in all parts of the World did bring up their Disciples in the belief and practice of the same Doctrin and Discipline to continue for ever so that all particulaâ— Churches though of different Nationâ— and Languages founded by several Instructers and so far distant from one another yet did harmoniously meet in the unity of Faith in all points Traditionary whatsoever Neither could it be otherwise they only believing what was taught them by the Apostles and these only teaching them what they receiv'd from Christ and were Infallibly directed in by the extraordinary assistance of the Holy Ghost Amongst which Apostolical Doctrines one main Article was That there should be in all Ages to the Worlds end an Vniversal Visible Body of Pastors and People term'd a Catholick Church Divinely assisted and authoriz'd to preserve teach and hand down to Posterity without Error all Truths necessary to Salvation This Catholick Church thus founded practis'd and taught their Children what they received from the Apostles condemning by her Authorative Rule of Tradition all such for Hereticks and Shismaticks who taught any contrary Doctrines and divided from them By this easie method all Critical Disputations about points of Faith were cut off having only to inquire what had been taught and practis'd from the beginning and to receive all Doctrines witnessed for such by the voice of the 1 Tim. 3. 15. present Church The Pillar and ground of Truth and consequently Infallible in her Attestation Who leave this Rule must needs be obnoxious to Error but how those who stick close to so safe a Principle should fail is morally inconceivable For such Traditionary Doctrines abstracting from Authority cannot loose but gather strength by time because the multitude of Believers increafing and delivering to their Children all points of Faith as they received them the Tradition becomes more famous and universal carrying along with it a greater evidence of Truth and moral Impossibility to be deceiv'd Unless we will say that the Mystical Body of Christ so diffus'd and numerous can forget to day what they believ'd and acted yesterday and so ignorantly mistake or knowingly conspire together to teach their Children to receive any Doctrines as originally proceeding from Christ and his Apostles which yet they never had from their immediate Fore-fathers upon that tenure Questionless that such a Body of Christians should be wrought upon wilfully to damn their own and others Souls by attempting to gull the World to their faces in a business of no less then Eternal Interest or that in things of so high a nature so visible so easily contradicted they should prevail to introduce the belief of a noon-day Lye is surely to be rank'd in a high degree of Impossibility And whososever sees it not as such I know not whether all the Hellibore in Anticyra will cure him For where can one pick a hole in the everlasting coat of universal
for Catholicks Did not Tertullian depend upon Tradition for his Faith when he professeth * Lib. de Praesc c. 21 What I believe I received from the present Church the present Church from the Primitive That from the Apostles the Apostles from Christ. The Arrians indeed as the Protestants now appeal'd to Scripture for a sole Rule and Judge of their Faith seeing their condemnation as Protestants do likewise inevitably and evident by the practice and Tradition of the present Church But what did St. Athanasius that great Bullwark of Catholick belief reply to this Even the very same which the Church of Rome now takes up against her Adversaries * Lib. de Decr. Sym. Nic. cont Arianos Behold we have prov'd the Succession of our Doctrine deliver'd from hand to hand by Fathers to Sons but as for you new Jews and Children of Caiphas but as for you Protestants what Progenitors can you show of your Speeches Had he not held Tradition for the Rule of Christian belief could he have produced this as a satisfactory answer to their appeal to a Scripture-Tryal and a sufficient demonstration of Catholick Faith They who hear St Austin saying * Cont. Ep. Fund c. 5. I would not believe the Gospel were it not that the Authority of the Church mov'd me to it What think they Was he for Protestants or us for sole Scripture or for Tradition too in his Controversy More ample satisfaction may be had if desired from Vincentius Lyrinensis in whose words we may tell a Protestant * Faith is that which thou hast Cont. haer ca. 27. received not that which thou hast devis'd a thing not of private usurpation as their Exposition of Scripture are but of publick Tradition Quotations might be infinite but these may suffice to let the World see that Antiquity was of the same belief with the present Church of Rome in this point And Protestants by contradicting Her contradict the Fathers also SECT V. Tradition asserted against Protestants by Scripture and the notable Advantages that way of delivery hath above Writing IF the Testimony of the Fathers will not suffice we shall bring Scripture it self in defence of Tradition And truly to me it seems wonderful that Protestants professing to believe all things contained in the Scriptures should deny Tradition to have any thing to do with their Faith to which those Sacred Oracles bear so great witness The places are not few and full some of them I shall produce as translated in their own Bibles The first is that famous Anathema of St. Paul's upon the occasion of some false Teachers troubling the Church of Galatia with Doctrines contrary to 1 Ch. ver 3 9. Tradition * If we or an Angel from Heaven Preach any other Gospel unto you then what ye have received let him be accursed Would they have one more express Let them mind well his exhortation to the Thessalonians * Therefore Brethren stand fast and Eph. cap. 2. v. 15. hold the Traditions ye have been taught whether by word or our Epistle The same point he presses home to the first Bishop of Ephesus writing in his first Epistle to him * O Chap. 6. v. 20 21. Timothy keep that which is committed to thy trust avoiding prophane and vain bablings and oppositions of Science falsely so called which some professing have erred concerning the Faith Which Deposition of Faith he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his second Epistle renewing the same charge Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me Chap. 1. v. 13. in Faith and Love which is in Christ Jesus Inculcated also in the Verse following That good thing v. 14. which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us And again in the 3d. Chapter he presses it as the only Antidote against the Infection of new-poisonous Doctrines scatter'd by Seducers Chap 3. v. 13 14. Continue in the things that thou hast learned and hast been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them And with no less care and charge recommendeth it to Posterity in the 2d Chapter of the same Epistle The things that thou hast heard of me among many Witnesses commit thou to Faithful men who shall be able to teach others also From which Texts and such like the Fathers collect three things First That there are Traditions unwritten Rom. 16. Phillip 4. 12. Judes Ep. 3d. ver 1 Tim. 3. 15. as well as the written Word deposited in the Church which is the Pillar and ground of Truth Secondly That such Traditions belong equally to Christian Doctrine and alike to be credited aad observed Written and unwritten being but accidental differences of the word of God substracting or adding nothing essential to the formal Object of Faith which is Divine Revelation Thirdly That Traditionary Doctrines being termed a Depositum by St. Basil ut habetur Hist Trip l. 7. c. 39. Vinc. Ler. c. 26. c. the Apostle and so from him frequently call'd Depositum Fidei and the Governours of the Church in Timothy constituted the sacred Depositarii and Keepers of it makes it uncapable of any adition or diminution and consequently excluding the expectation of any other points necessary to be revealed the nature of a Depositum requiring it should be kept unalterable in the hands of those to whom it is committed And therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 applyed to false Teachers by the same Apostle is directly opposed to this Depositum And the Church collected in General Councils when truth and peace requires it makes no new Articles of Faith but all her endeavours are that revealed Truths whether written or unwritten deliver'd from the beginning may be defended conserved illustrated and explicated against arising Heresies that would pervert them To which a fourth may be added That the Apostle writing to Churches fully constituted still refers them in his Epistles to Tradition for the trial of all Doctrines those sacred lines delivering no new point of Faith but only in as much as Doctrinal in things necessary explicating according t◠present circumstances and confirming what had been taught by word and practice Protestants indeed will owne no such things from these Texts but In 2 Epist ad Thess c. 2. 15. St. Chrysostom tells us * Hinc perspicuum est c. From hence it is apparent that the Apostles have not deliver'd all things by Epistle but also many things without writing Now both those and these deserve equally to be believ'd 'T is a Tradition what would you more Thus he and Theophilact comments thereupon almost in the same words And from the 2d ver of the 11th chap. of the 1st Epist. to the Corinthians * Now I praise you Brethren that you remember me in all things and keep the Ordinances ficut tradidi vobis as I delivered them unto you Not only inferrs the same Doctrine but likewise uses the self-same phrase Ex hoc loco
Bullwark for the Catholick Faith against Cent. 4. Ep. ad ori Episc the Arrians is no less express and punctual to our purpose Sicut B. Petrus Apostles c. As Blessed Peter was chief of the Apostles so the Roman Church consecrated in his Name by our Lords institution was first and Head of the rest and all great Churches and Assemblies of Bishops should have recourse to her as to the Mother Church and Supreme I have put these too together because Popes which cannot derogate from their Authority our Adversaries having nothing justly to say against them St. Irenaeus surely was no Protestant in this point affirming The most ancient known Church to all men L. 3. cont haer c. 13. founded and establish'd at Rome by the two most famous Apostles Peter and Paul brought down by succession of Bishops to his time to be that Church to which by reason of its more powerful principality every Church that is all the Faithful over the World ought to resort Tertullian calls St. Peter The Rock of the Church and the Bishop In praeser c. 22 36. of Rome the High Priest and Bishop of Bishops Origen is clear When says he the chief charge of feeding Christs sheep was given to Peter and the In ca. 6. Ep. ad Roma Church founded upon him c. There was required of him the confession of no Virtue but Charity Relating to that place in the 21 of St. John's Gospel where is described when and how our Blessed Saviour invested him with this Supreme Pastorship and Jurisdiction We saith St. Cyprian as the Epist ad Ju mouth of the Church hold Peter the Head and Root of the Church But that famous place elsewhere is more full and convincing The enemy perceiving De vnit Eccles his Idols to be forsaken and his Temples to be deserted by the multitude of Believers invented a new deceit to gull the unwary by the name of Christian raising Heresies and Schismes to corrupt Verity and subvert Faith This is O Brethren because we have not recourse to the Origen nor seek to the Head Which if we would consider and examine there would need no long Treatise nor many arguments to find out the Truth Our Lord said to Peter Thou art Peter and upon this rock will I build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it And again after resurrection saying As my Father sent me so send I you c. Yet to John 20. 21 c. manifest unity he constituted one Chair and by his Authority he dispos'd the Origen of that Vnity to begin from oneâ— The rest of the Apostles were that which Peter was the Primacy was given to Peter that the Church of Christ might appear to be one and one Chair Here are couch'd many things remarkable First That all Hereticks and Schismaticks are not true Members of the Catholick Church but meer nominal Christians Secondly that Heresie and Schism in their own nature are as damning sins as flat Idolatry being Satan's new-invented snareâ— to catch poor Souls and his utmost endeavours to keep up his tottering Kingdom after the promulgation of the Gospel to all Nations Thirdly That unwary Souls are only taken by these ginns of the Enemy who have not recourse to the Visible Head of the Church in communion with whom Truth is only to be found Fourthly That St. Peter is this visible Head of the Church constituted by Christ himself first by Promise afterwards by Commission The Promise Thou art Peter and Mat. a6 upon this rock will I build my Church unto thee will I give the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven The Commission Feed my Lambs feed my Joh. 21. Sheep Being words spoken to St. Peter and no other Apostle Fifthly To prevent an Objection that they were all Apostles as well as Peter and therefore equal in Authority he grants they were equal in the Apostleship as much as concerns an illimited Power and Commission to Preach the Gospel to all Nations and so they were all foundations of the Church But St. Peter in a more peculiar and eminent manner was a rock on which the Church was founded in as much as he was made their Head and supreme Pastor of the Faithful To whom St. Hierom wholly accords affirming That although all the Apostles were alike in Apostleship yet Christ for the better keeping of Vnity L. 1. adv Jouin. c. 14. and Truth would have one to be Head of them all that a Head being once constituted occasion of Schism might be taken away Neither is he less punctual in asserting the Bishop of Rome to succeed Peter in this Primacy writing thus to Pope Damasus Ego Beatudini tuae id est Cathedrae Petri communione consocior Ep. 57 58. c. I am joyn'd in Communion with your Holiness that is the Chair of Peter I know the Church is built upon that rock whosoever eates the Lamb out of his Family is a Prophane person Whosoever is not in Noah ' s Ark perishes in the flood Ask St. Austin his Faith in this Tract 56. in Joha point and he tells us The Primacy among the Apostles by special grace is pre-eminent in St. Peter And elsewhere he calls St. Peter The Head Ep. 86. of the Apostles the Gate-keeper of Heaven and the foundation of the Church And what he believ'd concerning the Power of his Successors is evident by these words Sedenti Ep. 162. in Cathedra Romanae Ecclesiae c. The whole Christian World in the transmarine and remotest parts of the Earth is subject to him who sits in the Chair of the Roman Church St. Gregory also assures us that he knows no Bishop but is subject to the See Apostolick And that the care and Principality of the Church L. 4. Epist 32. Ep. ad Maurit hath been committed to St. Peter the Prince of the Apostles and yet he is not called Vniversal Apostle That is as if there was no other Apostle but He. Thus vindicating the supreme jurisdiction and Primacy of the Roman Bishop as St Peter's Successor against John the proud Patriarch of Constantinople arrogating to himself the Title of Universal Bishop in a sense contrary to the Doctrine and practice of the Catholick Church To cite more at large would be tedious but to these might be added the Epistle of St. Marcellus Pope and Martyr to the Bishops of the Province of Antioch concerning the Primacy of the Chair of Rome Leo the great Ser. 3. Anniu Assump Ser. 2. in Nat. S. Petri. Epist 89. S. Athana Ep. ad Faelicem S. Ambr. in ca. 2. ad Galatas l. 6. ad Lucam c 2. S. Epipha haer 51. S. Chrysost Hom. 55. in Matt. Optatus Milevit l. 2. cont Parm. Fulgentius de Incar gratia c. 11. Prosp l. 2. de Voca Gentium ca. 6. Euseb Ep. 3. Campaniae c. And many others but these may suffice This harmony
the Ancient Church Now the places a Sacred Writ by which the Ancient Fathers usually prove their Belief in this point are principally two our Saviours Mat. 16. 18. words to St. Peter I say unto thee thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it And I will give unto thee the Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven c. The other John the 21. 15 16 17. verses Jesus said to Simon Peter Simon Son of Jona lovest thou me more then these He said unto him yea Lord thou knowest that I love thee He said unto him feed my Lambs He said to him the second time Simon Son of Jona lovest thou me He said to him yea Lord thou knowest that I love thee He said to him again feed my Lambs Hee saith to him the third time Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me Peter was sorry that he said unto him the third time lovest thou me and said unto him Lord thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee Jesus said unto him feed my Sheep These I say are the principal Scriptures which the Ancient Fathers make use of to prove St. Peters supreme Jurisdiction in Gods Church and his Successors the Bishops of Rome as may be seen by most of the Testimonies before alleadged and might be shown by many more I shall produce but two or three Ecce clavis regni caelestis c. Behold Peter received the Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven power of binding and loosing is given to him The care and government of the whole Church is committed to him Are L. 4. Ep. Ep. 32. St. Gregory's words relating to these Texts and vindicating the Primacy of St. Peter and his Successors the Popes of Rome as may be seen at large in his Epistle to the Emperor Maritius Petra dicitur Petrus c. Peter Ser. 47. is called a rock saith St. Ambrose because as a stone immoveable he bears up the compacted body of the whole Christian Fabrick Though 't is not denyed but the Ancient Fathers sometimes take this rock to be St. Peter's Faith whereof he had then newly made confession however more unanimously they expound this Rock to be St. Peter's Person as Head and Pastor of all the Faithful But never understood it of St. Peter's Faith as separated from his person So the Rhemish Testament Madonate c. upon the place do assure us As for the Text in St. John hear Dr 〈◊〉 S. Jâ—â—â—â— Eusebius Emissenus expound it Our Lord first committed his Lambs and then his Sheep to Peter because he made him not only a Pastor but the Pastor of Pastors He 's therefore the Pastor of all for besides Lambs and Sheep there 's nothing in the Church And though Protestants will not see it yet St. Gregory says 'T is plain to all that read the Gospel that from our Lords own mouth the charge of the whole Church was deliver'd to Peter Prince of the Apostles Insomuch that as Maldonate hath observ'd upon the place there was never any Father Greek or Latine who ever understood or expounded it in a contrary sense So then Scripture-grounds the Ancient Fathers had for their belief in this point Upon which Scriptures notwithstanding they did not rely as barely consider'd in themselves but as so expounded by the universal Practice and Tradition of the Church the only Infallible Interpreter of the written Word and unerring Rule of Catholick Faith Which being apply'd to these Sacred Texts make them speak clearly our belief to any Impartial understanding and therefore considering the Fathers Faith and practice they could not be lyable from them to other Interpretations Of which this is a manifest Argument in that they first of all began to expound them otherwise who deny St. Peter's and the Pope's Supremacy Which yet they cannot do without much injury to the Sacred Texts upon their own grounds For if abstracted from Church-tradition and practice they be with all their circumstances impartially weighed in the ballance of reason they very much declare a peculiar power intrusted to St. Peter in the Oeconomy of the Church not at all imparted to the rest of the Apostles For here 's a promise of the Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven made to St. Peter alone though the rest were present I will give unto thee the Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind c. And this singular promise is usher'd in with singular circumstances all relating solely to St. Peter For upon our Saviours interrogation Peter making an express Confession of his Faith in these words Thou art Christ the Son of the living God our Lord gives him in particular a solemn Benediction saying Blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jona and I say unto thee thou art Peter Et supra hanc Petram alluding to his name the very name our Blessed Saviour gave him when he chose him to be an Apostle and 't is remarkable that 1 Joh. 42. having immediately before called him Simon he now calls him Peter which signifies a Rock of which no reason can well be given but that the allusion to this name of his by the next words might let him and the rest understand that he was the person design'd upon whom as upon a Rock the Church should be founded in a peculiar manner and upon this Rock will I build my Church And then follows I will give unto thee the Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven c. Now put them together and sum them up Blessed art thou Simon I say unto thee thou art Peter Et super hanc Petram I will build my Church I will give unto thee the Keyes c. Doubtless all these particularities concerning Peter and none else of the Apostles though all were present must in all reason amount to thus much That St Peter was to be invested with some eminent Authority over all the rest And as St. Peter had good grounds from these particularizing circumstances solely relating to himself upon so solemn a promise to believe and expect that it would be fullfill'd when the time design'd for it by Divine Wisdom was fully come by the collation of some extraordinary power peculiar to himself Joh. 21. So we find in the other fore-quoted Texts that Truth it self was as good as his word expresly and by name intrusting to St. Peter the Charge and Government of the Universal Church by a Commission repeated thrice for the greater certainty that the promise before made was hereby fullfill'd and withall to leave a greater impression in his mind of the dignity and difficulty of the Supreme Office and Pastorship wherewith he only now actually was invested 'T is frivolous to say they are but admonitory expressions to mind St. Peter of his duty in doing the work of an Apostle when the words carry as much in their face an Authoritative Commission as Go teach all Nations spoken elsewhere to all the Apostles
Let them give any convincing reason why Feed my Lambs Feed my Sheep spoken by the fountain of all Jurisdiction to an Apostle should not be an Authoritative Commission as well as Go teach all Nations Matt. 28 Besides had they only been admonitory words to excite St. Peter to the work of his Apostleship they would have been as necessary to have been spoken to all the rest as to him who were equally Apostles with him and therefore not now minded of their duty because afterwards they were all to receive power from above by the descent of the Holy Ghost upon them for the performance of that great and glorious work So then being a Commission and only given to St. Peter it must necessarily follow that he was thereby invested with some Spiritual Authority which the other Apostles had not though all Apostles And the question put to St. Peter by our Blessed Saviour immediately before the words of his Commission have no small influence to prove a Superiority of Power to be instated upon Him above the rest For being asked Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me more than these Those words of command Feed my Lambs Feed my Sheep do not correspond nor are at all emphatical as what follows relates to them if thereby no Authority more or above the rest was not imparted to him as a reward of his extraordinary affection in that he loved our Lord and Saviour more then the rest of the Apostles Moreover in short as St. Peter did profess his Faith before the rest when this supreme Authority was promiss'd to him so now our Saviour would have him profess his love especially above the rest when he conferr'd upon him this Jurisdiction Thus if these places be expounded according to the light of present circumstances in all reason Scripture makes for a Supremacy in Peter above the rest of the Apostles And as hath been shown the Ancient Fathers from these Texts unanimously assert That the Church was in a special manner founded on St. Peter in being constituted Vniversal Head and Pastor of it To which if we add the voice of the present Church attesting it to be a Universal Tradition handed to her as such from Age to Age the unerring Rule of Catholick Faith it amounts to an Infallible certainty and puts the question out of all question and further dispute And how unsafe it is and dangerous to forsake the direct Texts of Scripture the the constant interpretations of the Ancient Fathers and the consent of the whole Christian World in matters of the highest concernment and to rely upon the bare Authority of private and new invented glosses of a few interessed and confessedly Fallible Doctors or our own more vain presumptions let any sober-minded man be judge And whether the Protestant Church of England in separating from her Catholick Mother the Church of Rome can possibly be upheld from falling into formal and notorious Schism leaning only on such unstable grounds The fourth Motive That the many Miracles God hath ben pleased to work in the Roman Catholick Church and still continues to do more or less and in no other Communion divided from her are manifest proofs that she 's the true Church And those Miracles which in a special manner regard some Doctrines denyed by Protestants to come from God are Divine Testimonies that the said Doctrines are as well Heavenly Truths as others taught by the Church are confess'd to be so SECT I. A Preliminary Discourse IT being manifest by what hath been discuss'd in the precedent Motive that the Protestant Church of England is undeniably guilty of Heresie and Schism in a high manner by their wilful separation from the Church of Rome in Faith and Government and thereupon the universality and perpetual visibility of the true Church by a never interrupted Succession of Believers teaching and practising the same Faith and Worship from the Apostles to these present days have been in some sort handled as points co-incident and con-natural I shall not make any large discourse of them severally though they did not a little contribute to my Conversion but contract their strength into one Syllogism and so proceed to show what efficacy Miracles wrought in the Catholick Church for visible confirmation of her Faith and Worship to come from Heaven ought to have upon our Adversaries to reduce them to the bosom of that Chuch they have forsaken The Argument runs thus The true Church of Christ hath Universality perpetual visibility and Succession of Pastors and People from Christ and his Apostles to this time and so to continue to the Worlds end inseparably annexed to it But no Schismatical or Heretical Communion of Christians can possibly be universal or have a perpetual visibility and Succession of Believers in those points which constitute them a distinct Communion from the Catholick Church of which they were Members before their separation Therefore no Schismatical or Heretical Communion of Christians can be the true Church of Christ That the Minor or second proposition belongs to the Protestant Church of England is manifest from the former Motive where 't was evidenced to be Schismatical and Heretical which once prov'd concerning any Communion of Christians 't is implicatory in ipsis terminis to say that 't is or can be universal visibly Successive from Christ and his Apostles to this time being all one as to assert That it was founded by Christ and his Apostles and yet began afterwards by a voluntary separation from the true Church so founded which is the Essence of Schism and that they were a Congregation Believing Ordaining Preaching and Administring Sacraments before they had a Beeing in the World That is they were and were not at the same time The Major or first Proposition is manifested from Scriptures and Fathers briefly thus From St. Matthew Behold I am Mat. 28. 20. with you always even to the end of Word From St. Luke He shall reign Luk. 1. 33 in the house of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdom there shall be no end From St. John The Comforter the St. John 14. 16 17. Spirit of Truth shall abide with you forever From the promise of God All Nations shall flow unto it From Isa 2. 2. the Commission of Christ Go teach Mat. 28. all Nations Which clearly demonstrate the Church of Christ from its first foundation to be Catholick both in respect of Time and Place This also is the Doctrine of the Fathers 'T is only the Catholick L. 1. ca. ult Church hath the true Worship and Service of God saith Lactantius Let Praefa in l. â—â—â—â—ar the Doctrine of the Church be kept saith Origen which is deliver'd from the Apostles by order of succession and remains in the Church to this very day See more in Iren. l. 1 c. 3. St. Aug. Ser. 131. 181. de Temp. de Vnit Eccl. c. 2. Tert. contra Judaeos For the perpetual visibility of the true Church in an
un-interrupted Succession of lawful Pastors and true Doctrine Scripture is very copious I shall name a few A City seated on a Hill cannot be hid The Mat. 5. 14. Is 2. 2. Psal 18. mountain of the house of our Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains In sole posuit tabernaculum suum Isa 59. 21. My Spirit which is thee and my words which I have put into thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy Seed for ever All Dan. 7. 13 14. Nations Tribes and Tongues shall serve him his power is an eternal power that shall not be taken away and his kingdom shall not be corrupted Thou art Peter and upon this Mat. 16. Rock will I build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Christ gave some Apostles some Eph. 4. 11 c. Prophets some Evangelists some Pastors some Doctors for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edification of the Body of Christ c. 'Till we all meet in the unity of Faith and be not as Children toss'd about with the wind of every Doctrine See more in Esa 62 Ezek. 37. Matt. 5. 15. c. From which and such like places this Major Proposition is evident As also from Antiquity We must seek for Truth among whom the Succession L. 4. de hae c. 45. of the Church from the Apostles and the Purity of Doctrine is maintain'd in its Integrity So St. Iraeneus What I believe says Tertullian I received L. de praesc c. 37. from the present Church the present Church from the Primitive that from the Apostles the Apostles from Christ. And St. Austin tells us That the succession of Priests from the Contr. Ep. Fund c. 4. very seat of Peter to the present Bishop held him in the Church Which if it shall not continue here on earth to the end of the World to whom did our Lord say Behold I am with you alwayes to the Worlds end It is easier L. 3. de Bapt. cont Donat. saith St. Chrysost that the Sun should be extingush'd then the Church should be obscured Concerning which St. De utilit cred c. 7. Austin assures us The Prophets have spoken more plainly and manifestly then of Christ himself And therefore 't is no wonder the same Saint affirms That the Church hath this most certain mark that it cannot be hid Cont. Petil. c. 104. And certainly it is not hid except to those that are lost the Children of perdition who seeing will not see and hearing will not understand Who shut their eyes against a light set upon a Candlestick and are so blind as not to see so great a mountani as the Catholick Church As the same Father complains of the Hereticks of his days From which premisses thus prov'd it invincibly follows that the Protestant L. 3. cont Parm. and all other Heretical and Schismatical Churches being wholly destitute of these inseparable badges or marks of the true Church viz. Universality perpetual visibility by an uninterrupted Succession of Pastors and People from Christ and his Apostles to this time cannot possibly be the true Church Whose builder and preserver is God All which manifestly belonging to the Church of Rome and those in Communion with her by most undoubted Records of all Ages it likewise as inevitably follows that this Church of Rome only is the true Catholick Church and all other Communions but false Worshippers Thus briefly of these indubitable marks of the true Church from Sacred Scripture so much made use of by the Ancient Fathers to reduce the Hereticks and Schismaticks of their times to the Catholick unity that I may not too long detain you from beholding Miracles wrought by God in his Holy Church for the confirmation of our Faith SECT II. That Miracles were vouchsafed always to the True Church SUch is the Sublimity and Purity of Christian Doctrine so sublime in respect of knowledge so pure in respect of practice that if there was nothing else to witness that it came from Heaven they of themselves are sufficient evidences that the Author of it can be no less then of incomprehensible Wisdom and infinite Holiness Notwithstanding as God was pleas'd by wonderful Signs and frequent Miracles to set his Seaâ— to attest the truth of it that it might find entertainment from contradictors so in after Ages in opposition not only to all false Religions who deny Christ and maintain their Worship to be right but also to many seduced Christians who pretend to have among them the Purity of this Doctrine the same infinite Goodness hath more or less continued Miracles in his Church that we may see with our eyes what we ought to believe with our hearts and not be deceived by false Teachers This Heavenly Testimony God vouchsafed to the Jewish Worship whilst it was in force and therefore cannot in reason be denyed to the Christian Church being in every respect a Ministration much more Divine and Glorious and no less standing in need of such a Priviledge Moses brought forth the Children of Exod. Israel from the house of bondage in signs and wonders and mighty deeds The Sun stood still at the Prayer of Jos 10. Joshua and went back 15 degrees Isa 38. at the earnest request of Hezekiah The bones of Elizeus the Prophet rais'd a dead man to life The constant cure Joh. 5. 3 c. of Lame and Diseased persons in the Pool of Bethesda immediately after the motion of the water by an Angel was a standing Miracle c. All which with many more were evident Testimonies of the Divine presence among them that the Creator and Governour of Heaven and Earth was their God in a special manner and they his peculiar Church and People To which might be added their many Prophets of extraordinary Power and Sanctity not only miraculous in their predictions but sometimes mighty in signs and deeds Though 't is observable that St. John the Baptist though more then a Prophet then whom none greater was born of women yet did no Miracle to attest his Mission Doubtless not without some singular cause perhaps because the Jewish Synagogue was then expiring and giving place to the Christian Church as a Handmaid to her Mistress or glimmering twi-light to the Sun arising in beams of Glory The most remarkable Miracles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ are left unto his Church by the Evangelists in the History of his Life and Death That we might believe and believing have Life Eternal by him After the Holy Apostles had received Power from above by descent of the Holy Ghost upon them to fit them for the great work of converting all Nations to Christianity what wonders and signs were frequently wrought by them in the first planting of the Gospel are made famous and wellknown to us Acts. in their Acts related by St. Luke
of Divine Authority And how in after Ages to this present the Truth of Christian Belief was attested to all men by signs from Heaven more or less wrought in the Catholick Church by her Professors is manifest by the undoubted Records and Histories of the whole Christian World Yea our Adversaries themselves who are Magdebu Centuria no friends to Miracles have distinctly set down and asserted manifold wonders wrought successively in the Church for 1300 Ages after Christ and why they should not as well believe the Miracles of the 14th Century and upwards wrought in the same Church related by as credible Authors as the former with as much evidence of certainty no man can imagine but that they were resolved Miracles should cease before their Church had a Beeing in the World lest they should justly be thought to introduce a false Religien having not the voice of Divine Miracles to attest it Wonderful The frequent use of Miracles was afforded to the the first Promulgators of the Gospel to give give it rooting and afterwards for increase and no sooner comes their Religion up but down goes Miracles to gain credit to It. As the Fathers must loose their Authority and begin to be erroneous when they manifestly assert what condemns their Doctrine So Miracles also must be put to silence and witness no longer to the Truth because they will not speak for their Religion And indeed themselves being wholly destitute of Miracles to confirm their new Faith and confessing they had been so long continued in the Roman Catholick Church they were necessitated if they would be obstinate in their way though against all evidence of Authority to deny any such to be now wrought in her least thereby they should confess that she only is the true Church of Christ But that the strength of this Motive may the better appear I shall in the further prosecution of it first declare wherein consists the nature of true Miracles Secondly I shall set down the causes why God is pleas'd to work such signs and wonders in and by his Church And thirdly I shall cull out among infinite some special Miracles which relate to our present Controversies being no less then so many Seals from Heaven stamp'd upon them in Divine Characters as visible evidences of Truth on the Catholicks side And those who assert the contrary do as it were deny God's attestation who can neither deceive nor be deceived SECT III. Wherein the nature of true Miracles consists is declared A True Miracle is an effect beside the ordinary course of the whole Creation and so above the Power of any Created entity visible or invisible Man or Angel Deus solus qui sacit mirabilia magna 't is God alone who worketh such wonders being the products of no less then Omnipotency it self For the order of the Universe in the concatenation of Causes and Effects being set a going by the Infinite Wisdom and Goodness of our great Creator the first mover not by necessity of nature but as a most free Agent according to the good pleasure of his will when it seems good unto him he can act besides this appointed course of nature either by producing the effects of secondary causes without their concurrence as by restoring sick and maimed persons to their perfect health and soundness in a moment by a word or as we read in the Acts Acts 3. 7. ca. 4. 30. ca. 5. 3. ca. 19 11 12 c. of the Apostles by Aprons and Handkerchiefs and such like things which having first touch'd the Bodies of his Saints are applyed to the parties ill-affected for their recovery Yea Act. 5. 15 16. the very shadow of St. Peter did cure many sick and infirm persons who were expos'd in the Streets lying in their Beds as he pass'd by Or else by restraining and curbing in the innate vertue of secondary causes from producing such effects to which by nature they are determin'd necessarily in the present circumstances as when the furious flames did not consume the three Dan. 3. 22 c. Children in the fiery furnace yea not so much as the smell of fire took hold on their Garments And as when the Sun was darkn'd at our Blessed Saviours passion the Moon being in opposition to it in its natural course Or else by producing some effects beyond the activity of created Agents to which second causes though strain'd to the utmost with their united forces cannot extend themselves as causing two bodies at the same time to be in the same place as when our Blessed Saviour came into his Disciples through the doors shut or raising the dead to life again as Lazarus was by our Blessed Saviour Notwithstanding our Souls being clouded with ignorance so that we apprehend not the utmost energetical vertue of created causes many things which are effected by a power secret and unknown to us are accounted by us though falsly truely Miraculous which indeed are either but Phantaâ—mes and meer deceptions Vide S. Tho. 22 ae q. 178. a. 2 in corp that is things not really done but only seem so Or if really produced and not in appearance only they are done by the application of natural causes though indiscernable to dim-eyed reason Vera mira truly wonderful to us because effected by a secret vertue But not Vere Miracula not true Miracles in their nature created causes producing them in the hand of quick-sighted strenuous and nimble Agents Of which sort are all those wonderful things which Magicians and Witches bring to pass by the Power and assistance of the Devil Such as the Aegyptian Magi wrought to harden Pharaoh's heart that he might not think Moses was sent from God or did by a Divine Power work true 2 Thess 2. 9 c. Miracles to confirm his Mission And Antichrist will come in great Power and signs and lying wonders according to the operation of Satan not true Miracles the only and peculiar work of Omnipotency Antichristi De Civ Dei l. 20. c. 19. opera possunt dici esse signa mendacii c. The works of Antichrist says St. Austin may be câ—ll'd lying wonders either because he shall deceive mens senses by Phantasms seeming to do what indeed he does not or if they be true Prodigies yet they shall draw men to believe a lye For they shall give credit to that man of sin as if he brought them to pass by a Divine Joh. 14 12. Power though only are effected by natural causes unknown to them Now though all things are alike easie to Omnipotency and so no Miracle properly greater then another 1 p q. cv a. 8. corp as having eye to the Power producing such effects Yet as more or less exceeding the faculty of created causes and looking that way they are truely said to be more or less Miraculous according to that of our Blessed Saviour Who believes in me the works that I do he shall do also and greater than
these shall he do And therefore Miracles by St. Thomas are marshall'd into three Heads or Classes First those which wholly exceed the power of created Causes in the very substance of the effect As the Sun standing still at the Prayer of Joshua going back at the request of Hezekiah A mortal body to be glorified as in the transfiguration of our Blessed Saviour Transubstantiation in the most holy and dreadful Sacrifice of the Mass Which are the greatest of Miracles and in no sort produceable by the utmost Powers of created nature Secondly such which transcend the faculty of nature yet not if we have an eye to the thing it self that 's done but the qualification of the subject in whom 't is done or effected That is natural causes can produce the substance of the Miracle but never in the present circumstances As to give sight to the blind or raise the dead to life And does in daily vital productions but not to one dead As Lazarus and Tabitha were And can give sight but not to one blind As he who was born so cured Joh. 9. by our Lord and Saviour However these being Miraculous only in respect of the subject wherein such effects are brought to pass yet are altogether above the vertue of secondary causes and so as true Miracles as those of the first Classis The third and lowest sort are those which exceed the faculty of Nature neither according to the substance of the effect or subject wherein they are produced but only according to the manner and order of their production As when persons not incurably sick or lame in the hands of Artists with an ordinary concurrence of the supremest cause are suddenly restor'd to health and soundness without the help of Physick Chyrurgery or the usual proceedings in such cases And so the Apostles speaking with divers tongues which are attainable by time and industry in subjects capable of such perfections yet in them was miraculous in that they being ignorant were suddenly endowed with such extraordinary knowledge and eloquence to the amazement and confusion of their enemies Of which sort are also sudden Thunders and Lightnings Winds and Storms when second and immediate causes are not so big with such effects as to be deliver'd of them but rather in all probability promising the contrary to the best sighted understandings in such matters Now such miracles as these though always produced by a divine power when Holy persons are the Instruments yet may and sometimes are when God permits wrought by Magick and compact with the Devil who can so improve natural causes as on a suddain to bring forth such effects Which being possible to Omnipoteny and consequently not true Miracles in a strict and proper acceptation but in a large sense so call'd from the wonderful manner of their production if the Catholick Church had no other but such to attest her Doctrine to come from Heaven they could not simply of themselves be sufficient evidences of the Truth of Christian Religion and that the Workers of them are sent by God However such wonderful effects when they Manifestly tend to destroy the kingdom of Satan invincibly prove their origen to be from the Author of Holiness And therefore 't is not difficult to discover when these wonders are effected by a Divine Power and assistance and when by the help of the Devil Namely when either the Sanctity of the person is such as is no way lyable to be suspected to have any dealing with the Powers of Darkness Or if this be wanting when the Purity of the Doctrine as a glorious ray beaming from the Sun of righteousness is such that a confirmation thereof in such a manner cannot rationally be thought but to come from Heaven Or when God is pleas'd besides these inferior wonders to work also such Miracles by the same person or others professing the same Faith which cannot really be produced by any but himself Of which his true Church was never destitute and no other Communion could ever boast or justly challenge SECT IV. Some reasons of Gods proceeding in this manner WHen the infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness of God is pleas'd to work Miracles in his Church ordinarily the Instruments he makes use of to produce such effects are persons eminent for Sanctity Yet not so as that we ought to make the number or greatness of their Miracles the rule to judge of the degrees of their Holiness Yea 't is not an Infallible argument to conclude such an one to be a Saint for the grace of working Miracles being conferr'd upon the true Church principally for the edification of others a person not justified and so not righteous in the sight of God may be a wonder-working Instrument to save his Brethren and yet himself become a Reprobate Of which we need no more evident testimony then from the mouth of those Pleaders in St. Matthew Lord have not we Prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name Ch 7 22 c. cast out Devils and in thy Name wrought many Miracles And yet they receive this dreadful Answer I know ye not depart from me ye workers of Iniquity The cause whereof St. Austin gives us Admonet nos Lib. 83. Quaesti 79. qu. Dominos c. Our Lord puts us in mind that we may understand wicked men also to do some Miracles which Saints cannot do Therefore they are not granted to all Saints least the weak should be deceived with a most pernicious errour supposing greater gifts to be in such deeds than in works of righteousness by which we purchase eternal life Now God confers this grace and wonderful power on his Church First for the confirmation of the Christian Faith as his visible Seal set to it that 't is true and came from Heaven as the only means to bring us thither and ought to be entertain'd as such by all who desire to save their precious Souls This is manifest from the Promise of our Blessed Saviour to his Church Mark 16. 17. These sings shall follow those that believe in my Name they shall cast out Devils they shall speak with new Tongues they shall take up Serpents and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them they shall lay their hands upon the Sick and they shall Recover This is the Promise See the performance in the 20 ver And they went and Preached every where our Lord co-operating and confirming the Word with signs following For so the Eyes of their Auditors might tell them the Doctrine they heard was from God and no humane invention and therefore inexcusable incredulous As in the 16 verse Whosoever Believes and is Baptiz'd shall be saved but who believes not shall be damned Hence it is that Signs are said to be for Unbelievers that by such evidences of Truth they may be Converted and all the ends of the Earth see the Salvation of our God And this way of Divine attestation the wisdom of God hath thought good to
use as most proportionably to our present capacity and consequently most likely to produce the effect for which 't is intended For Truth entring into the the closet of our Soul through he port of our Senses as by the innate light of the understanding with an ordinary concurrence of the prime cause man can attain to some degree of the knowledge of God by natural effects and is utterly inexcusable if he does not So to induce us to the belief of things wholly supernatural and unattainable but by Divine Revelation he 's pleas'd sometimes by extraordinary and supernatural effects namely Miracles to work upon our Senses that we might believe and be saved or we rendred inexcusable when unbelief shall be laid to our charge And therefore 't is said 〈◊〉 believes not Mar. 16. 16. are condemned already As having nothing to say for themselves in that they so wilfully shut their eyes in Sun-shine that they might not see and be converted And our Blessed Joh. 15. 22 c. Saviour says elsewhere If I had not done those works among them which none other hath done they had not sinn'd but now they have no excuse for their sin But as Miracles are to beget Faith where 't is not so the next use of them is to give strength and growth to it where 't is already planted least at any time we should have a heart of Infidelity to depart from the Truth received either by flat Apostacy which more rarely happens or by Schism and Heresie which are Satan's commonest snares wherein he catches unwary Souls to their destruction What can they say for themselves to whom in so much Heavenly Light the Cross becomes a stumbling-block so as to fall away from their stability or once fallen if they will not rise again and be recall'd into the bosom of the Catholick Church by the voice of such wonderful works crying aloud after them even sufficient to engrave Faith in a rocky-hearted Jew and introduce belief into very Infidels From whence appears the absurdness of that Protestant Thesis That all Miracles are now ceased in the Church For besides indubitable testimonies from clouds of Witnesses enough to satisfy any rational man these causes yet continuing viz. Infidelity Heresie and Schism God will also still continue the same supernatural effects to beget or confirm supernatural Faith in the Souls of men But why they are not so frequent as in the first planting of the Gospel this may be one reason in that the true Church being manifested to the World by those Miracles which more or less in every Age are wrought in her Communion and her 's only entitle her justly to all the rest confirming the same Faith which others cannot claim by the like evidence For the principal end of Miracles being for the confirmation of true Faith taught by Christ and his Apostles to the World either to give it birth or growth if God did vouchsafe to work in the same manner such wonderful Signs and Prodigies by any persons in other Communions than his Catholick Church they could not be sufficient Testimonies from Heaven of Divine Truth but be instrumental likewise to set a lustre on deeds of Darkness and harden poor seduced Souls in erroneous Worship Neither had the Ancient Apologists for the Christian Faith rationally made use of Miracles as a convincing argument of the Truth thereof if Infidels or others could have produced justly the like evidences to give Testimony to their false Religion See Heb. 2. ver 3 4. St. Joh. 5. 36. ch 7. 31. ch 9. 30. ch 10. 28. ch 15. 22 24. Hence St. Gregory Quia carnales adhuc c. Hom. 2. in Evan. Because the Disciples being yet carnal could not understand his mysterious words he proceeds to a Miracle a blind man receives his sight before their eyes that who understood not the words of Divine Mystery Heavenly deeds might work Faith in them Thirdly God works Miracles in his Church to manifest the extraordinary Sanctity of some persons to whom he 's pleas'd to vouchsafe a special Honour and thereby proposes as singular examples for others to imitate in their glorious walkings And this is done either while they are living or after death by their Sacred Relicks and Intercession and sometimes in both they are alike glorified by him who only works Miracles whomsoever he makes choice of for the Instruments Which no false Worshipers in the World can challenge to their Profession Yet that such have been and are still wrought by Saints in the Communion of the Roman Catholick Church there are as good proofs to evidence it to the World as that there was such a man as Henry the 8th once King of England Which certainty none pretend to deny And though Protestants cannot lay claim to any true Miracles for the confirmation of their Faith and practice yet how fain they would have their new Religion so attested is manifest in that they greedily catch at shaddows and interpret any thing that 's somewhat strange and not ordinary as the singular actings of God in their behalf Or if any among them observe some austerities in the contempt of worldly Pleasures and Contentments which is so frequent among Catholicks presently this is a Sanctity without parallel and by the wind of vain-glory is puffed up to the Prodigious greatness of a wonder And I confess if all rare things are Miraculous this among them may justly be so accounted To these I might add the manifestation of the power of his Godhead and the riches of his Goodness towards his Church by such extraordinary workings beside the course of universal nature to make up the number of his Elect and consummate them in Glory But these last are not proper to my present purpose and the former related reasons are those for which God is pleased principally to work Miracles in the true Church and ought to be operative upon rational Souls to bring them to the knowledge and the embracing of the Truth SECT V. Some undoubted and most famous Miracles relating to the present Controversies between Us and Protestants ST Austin having related some De Civi Dei l. 22. c. 8. Miracles wrought upon Devotes at St. Stephens Shrine by his special intercession whereof himself was an eye-witness affirms That if he should record all that he knew to have been done in those Territories he must fill Books And so might I too with much more reason if I should set down but the tenth of those which concern the present Controversies between Protestants and Us having confin'd my self to no less limits then the Christian World affording innumerable Miracles the truth of which cannot justly be question'd because deliver'd to our knowledge with as much certainty as matters of fact are capable of However I shall be brief and only select out some few which I conceiv'd most convincing to Souls yet hardned with unbelief And had wholly spar'd this labour but that I know particulars are prâ—ssing
and powerful being fallen unhappily among Gospellers who besides other evidences of Truth will not believe except they see signs and wonders to attest our Faith And which is far worse as the Scribes and Pharisees Mat. 12. 38. demanded of our Blessed Saviour A sign from Heaven to witness he was sent from God when a Miracle just now wrought before their eyes was yet warm So this evil generation while they are surrounded with the Heavenly light of Miracles wrought in the Church yet seeing will not see and ask of us a sign from Heaven to confirm our Doctrine Which that we are not destitute of I hope what follows will give them satisfaction I begin with the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar which our Adversaries call our Idol being it self the greatest of Miracles or rather a concourse of many in a most wonderful and mysterious manner and therefore hath been attested oftentimes by others to confirm our Faith in a point so far transcending the comprehension of our intellectual powers And were so operative Circa an 1050. among other Arguments one Berengarius the first that ever denyed the real presence of Christ in the blessed Eucharist that he recanted and abjured his Heresie to believe as formerly he had done the undoubted Doctrine of all Ages St. Bernard saying Mass in the In vita Ber. c. 2. ca. 3. Cathedrall at Millain in a great Assembly they presented to him a Woman who had been a long time vexed with a Devil earnestly requesting his help with a strong belief that God would free her by his Intercession Being overcome with their intreaties and the miserable Object proceeding in the Sacrifice as oft as the Sacred Host was to be signed he turning towards the woman made also as often the sign of the Holy Cross upon her Which how ill the unclean Spirit could endure he quickly discover'd by more lamentably tormenting the poor wretch The Holy man having now finish'd the Lords Prayer iâ— the Canon makes a fiercer on-se upon the Enemy for putting the most Sacred Body of our Lord and Saviour upon the Paten and holding it over the womans head said Vnclean Spirit thy judge is present a Power above thee is present resist now if thou canst he 's present who being ready to suffer for our Salvation said now shall the Prince of this World be cast forth This is that Sacred Body which was assumed of the Blessed Virgn that Body which was nail'd unto the Cross which was laid in the Grave which rose from Death which in the sight of his Disciples ascended into Heaven Wherefore in the dreadful Name of this Majesty I command thee thou Malicious Spirit to depart out of this hand-maid of God and presume not hereafter to touch her Whereupon the unclean Spirit playing the Devil indeed by exceedingly tormenting her because his time was short in rage and fury left his habitation as soon as the Pax was given after the Saints return unto the Altar And she being so miraculously recover'd gave thanks to the Almighty goodness and beholding the happy Instrument of her deliverance cast her self humbly at his feet Thus our most merciful and powerful God was pleased to reward the Faith of his People to magnify his Servant in their sight and manifest his invisible Deity under the visible species by this wonderful effect And truly methinks those very words spoken by so great a Saint and confirm'd by so evident a Miracle if well consider'd and laid to heart could not but as well dispossess the Sacramentarian Hereticks of their Devil of Unbelief concerning this dreadful mystery of our Holy Faith as they did that Woman of the unclean Spirit wherewith she had been so long vexed A Miracle no less famous then evident for it follows in the Author Fugato diabolo ingens per Ecclesiam tollitur murmur c. The Vita S. Ber woman being dispossess'd the Church ecchoed with sounds of joy old and young bless God sor't and what was done at Millian is noised abroad through all Italy At Brussels in Flanders some Jews Ann. Ch. 1442. having stollen the Consecrated Hosts out of the Tabernacle of St. Catharine's Chappel on Good-Friday following with intention in despite of our Blessed Saviour to put to death again as much as lay in their Power the Lord of Life stabbed the Sacred Hosts with Pen-knives and Bodkins from which wounds miraculously issued out drops of Blood to their great astonishment and confusion At which being horribly amazed and terrifyed with the apprehension of some present judgment to fall upon them not daring to touch the Sacred Hosts they sent for one Catharine formerly a Jew now a Christian and confessing to her what they had done and what had hapned desired her to take away the Consecrated Hosts and keep the whole business secret from the Christians She promised but troubled in Conscience at the horror of the Fact carrying with her the Blessed Hosts revealed it to the Clergy of the City Whereupon after a full tryal and examination the said Jews were condemned to be Burnt for this most execrable Impiety and Executed accordingly Part of which miraculous Hosts being kept in the aforesaid Chappel and part in the great Church of St. Gudile in the said City God was pleased to work many Miracles upon such persons who resorted thither out of special Devotion to the said wonderful Hosts the blind recovering their sight the sick their health the lame their Limbs leaving their Crutches behind them as monuments of Gods extraordinary mercy by Gods means vouchsafed unto them Of all which there 's no reason to doubt being attested by Witnesses beyond all exception and thereupon approv'd by authoriz'd persons were committed to the publick Records of those places for the confirmation of the Churches belief in the mysteries of that most wonderful Sacrament so much Blasphemed by Jews and Hereticks Pontianus relates That one Paul L. 5 de Mirahil Form having stollen two Consecrated Hosts sold one of them to the Jews who out of malice and contempt stabbed it saying If thou be the God of the Christians manifest thy self Whereupon to their confusion and confirmation of our holy Faith Blood miraculously issued out of the dreadful Host. Which being discover'd thirty eight of them were Burnt at Knoblock in Brandenburg and all the rest banish'd out of that Marquesate L. de locis Com. p. 87. Epist 116. for this horrible Fact As 't is recorded also by John Mandevil a Protestant and Osiander a Lutheran I cannot but relate what Thomas Waldensis our Country man relates he was an eye-witness of in St. Paul's Tom. 2. de Sacr. ca. 63. Church in London Where one of Wickliff ' s Disciples who renewed the Heresie of Berengarius in these parts being commanded by the Archbishop of Canterbury to acknowledge the real Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament and adore him he refusing said A Spider deserv'd more veneration than the Eucharist
the Apostle of the Saxons and his Converts in some few External Rites which afterward in tract of time they generally receiv'd and in the interim acknowledg'd to be worthy of acceptation while the fresh wounds of deeply-resented injuries were the greatest cause of non-conformity One more I cannot pass over in silence because I conceive it such as may much conduce to the conviction and conversion of our Adversaries 'T is to be found in the Life of St. Bernard to this effect In the part of France about Thoulouze L. 3. c. 5. one Henry an Apostate Monk by deceitful words perverting the Souls of many with Heretical Doctrines prevail'd so far that every where thereabouts the Grace of Baptism was denyed Prayers and Oblations for the dead were mock'd at Invocation of Saints derided Excommunications of Priests Pilgrimages of the Faithful building of Churches Consecration of Oyl and Chrisme and all Ecclesiastical Constitutions were despis'd Our cause in England St. Bernard being intreated by the Catholicks sadly lamenting to see so many poor Souls seduced to follow an Apostate as if he had been an Apostle was conquer'd by their Prayers and came thither to hinder the further spreading of so contagious an evil and to try his skill on the infected Where Preaching with wonderful demonstration of Spirit as well as admirable Eloquence he in a short time instructed the Ignorant strengthned the Weak recall'd the Wanderers restored the Subverted put to sil nce the Perverters God confirming his Doctrine with signs following I shall relate but one so home and evident that Cap. 6. l. 3. praed 't is enough to convert and confound all Contradictors During these his travails in the work of an Evangelist being come to the City of Sarlet the Sermon ended they brought to the Servant of God Bread to be blest and distributed among the Faithful as is the custom in Catholick Churches Which he blessing in the Name of God with his hand elevated making the sign of the Cross said By this ye shall know that the Doctrine which we Preach is true and the things which Hereticks would perswade you to are false if your Sick tasting this Bread shall be recover'd A venerable Bishop present fearing the tryal said They shall be healed if they take it believing To whom the Holy man replyed in a full belief of the event I say not so but such as tast it shall be healed and thereby know us to be truly sent of God Whereupon a great company of Diseased persons tasting of the said Bread forthwith recover'd Praying God for such singular manifestations of his Truth and Goodness And the Fame thereof spread round about Now what more express Testimony by Deeds can be given from Heaven for Prayer for the Dead and Mosses for them Invocation of Saints Consecration of Chrisme c. which were then opposed by those Hereticks and now denyed by the Protestants their Successors in false Doctrine against the conviction of Miracles from Heaven And now I have done with this Motive only give me leave to say that if Protestants could produce the like Miracles to attest their Faith and practice they would make the World ring with the noise of them in every place and crying Victory set up their triumphant Banners with this or some such like Inscription or Motto God with us against the Roman Church And then add some such Invective as this in their Popular Sermons See what hard-hearted Wretches the Papists are who wholly given over to a reprobate sense will not acknowledge our Doctrines to be glorious and revealed Truths of Jesus Christ which he hath witnessed for such to the whole World by the thundring voice of Divine Miracles The fifth Motive That the eminent Sanctity taught and practis'd in the Roman Catholick Church not to be found in any Heretical Communions divided from her is a manifest mark that she only is the true Church of Christ SECT I. An Introduction FRom works of Wonder we pass to works of Piety to point out to us the true Church of God which though less admired yet are far more precious as being that Divine Seed the Fruit whereof is eternal Glory For we Spiritual Travellers cannot come to rest our selves in the Heavenly Jerusalem but by walking perseverantly in the path of Holiness Now this Holiness is not to be had but in the true Church whose attribute is not only Catholick but also Holy as we profess in the Creed and distinguishable by it in the Effects from all different Communions whatsoever who though they may cloak their deformity with Angelical appearances yet in reality are Synagogues of Satan having a form of Godliness and denying the power thereof And the truth is though by sad experience I found that the Protestant Church especially that part of it which I judg'd more pure in Doctrine could not lay claim to much Sanctity still crying down the Puritans for meer Hypocrites whose zeal in their way did shine far brighter to dazle vulgar eyes yet such prejudice I had conceiv'd against the Church of Rome by my education in a contrary Religion that I thought her really Antichristian and Holiness to have no more agreement with Her then light with darkness or Christ with Belial So that after the Divine Goodness by strowing Thorns in my indirect ways had made me sensible what a bitter thing it is to forsake Him the Fountain of living Waters for broken Cisterns and had put me upon a serious Inquisition to find out Truth and Holiness to follow Them it was no less wonder then satisfaction to me to meet with such heavenly Doctrine and such holiness of Life in the Roman Catholick Church and no other Communion divided from Her And I plainly discover'd that Protestant Leaders could not detain their followers in Schism and Heresie but by keeping them in ignorance of the right Faith and Worship of the Roman Church and laying to her charge such Doctrines and Practices which are not justly imputable unto Her Yet this Motive was set more home to my heart when my eyes were made happy spectators of some of that innumerable Company of her Members who in the continual exercise of most sublime Spirituality live more like Angels then men though in mortal Bodies But most of all when our Lord was pleased so to shine upon me with the extraordinary light of his countenance as to bless my weak endeavours in following though afar off those Stars of the first Magnitude beautisying his Heaven on Earth in their glorious courses And truly I have from hence such a strong persuasion of Truth to be in the Church of Rome wrought in my Soul that was there no other Motive to confirm me in the Catholick Religion my heart very much deceives me if I should not upon this score rather forgo my life then forsake my present Faith to become a Protestant Thus by the grace of God this wrought on me and that it may work on others I thus
what they are taught and what they profess be eye-witnesses of the Angelical Lives of thousands of Holy persons to their admiration and confusion also if they will not be moved to repentance by such examples And methinks the most understanding Protestatents who acknowledge for glorious Saints many who live and die in the Roman Arms when a Protestant Saint was never heard of and notwithstanding will not tread in their Holy Steps do sufficiently condemn their own practice and in effect say We know the way to Heaven but will not take it SECT III. A further prosecution of this Motive from the new Doctrines and profane Practices of Heretical Communions NO man can be ignorant that the Religion of Protestants doth disclaim against the practice of this super-eminent Sanctity and condemns it in Catholicks as meer Superstition and Will-worship Forgetting or not regarding that 't was first councel'd by our Blessed Saviour Preach'd unto the World by his Apostles and practis'd in all Ages of the Church Indeed for Protestants to have commended it and yet not to follow it was too gross an absurdity to gull the World withall and would have given too palpable a lye to the godly name of Reformation They were resolv'd therefore to enlarge the narrow way to Heaven thus straitned for more security in a business of highest concern by abolishing the glory of Christianity under the pretence of Christian liberty And they easily perswaded themselves that a sense-pleasing Religion back'd by the Secular Power as it was in England by King Henry in its first Introduction and advanced by Temporal Interest in impoverishing the Church to enrich greedy Courtiers would over-ballance in Carnal minds the strict Austerities of Catholick Purity Or to make the best construction of this strange piece of Reformation on the Clergy's part who had a hand in the business when they saw nothing would quench the Avarice of the sensual King but the Revenues devoted for ever to the maintenance of extraordinary Devotion they thought it policy not to withstand his will but to flatter him by palliating the matter with specious colours Especially when they considered that the Rich Bishopricks and Cathedral Preferments might be the better preserved when this auri sacrae fames in the Great ones who were sharers with his Majesty in these Spoils of the Church could not but be appeased by engrossing to themselves so many Rich and Sumptuous Monasteries and Religious Houses the Glory and Envy of our Nation For I am perswaded the Clergy in this change were not all well pleased in this particular And I remember a remarkable saying of Doctor Jackson a Protestant of no mean note sadly complaining in these words or to this effect If three persons in the Sacred Trinity had been as great an eye-soar to us as three Monasteries in every Shire we should have been as well reformed Atheists as reformed Christians But whatever were the Motives of several Interests in erecting a Religion founded on State-policy this is most certain that the Substantial practice of eminent Sanctity was banish'd out of England at the same time with the Catholick Faith Neither was the birth of the Protestant Church in England the death only of super-eminent Holiness but its malevolent influence did cool the fire of true Devotion in all sorts of Christians who gave it any entertainment For no sooner had this tree of Reformation took rooting in our Land but it spread it self into arms and boughs on every side plentifully yielding the bitter Fruits of Dissoluteness Uncharitableness Oppression Envyings Back-bitings Strifes Ignorance of necessary Truths Curiosity in knowledge vain and frothy disputes staggrings in Faith Spiritual Pride contempt of Ecclesiastical Authority Irreligion Profaneness Sacriledge Abuse of Holy things casting off the Sacraments Blasphemies Atheism and in short whatsoever is contrary to true Godliness and Evangelical Precepts of Jesus Christ So bad a tree could not bring forth better Fruits wheresoever once it took sure rooting so notorious and visible to the World that the Arch-reformers themselves could not but confess it and to their shame and conviction have left it upon record to Posterity 'T is fit Luther the first Founder of this new Faith should have the precedency in delivering his Verdict Give him Audience while he tells us that Mundus ex hac Doctrina c. The World by this Doctrine Conâ— 2. Daw. 1. Adventus daily becomes worse Now seven devils are entred into every one who formerly were only possess'd with one Whole troops of Devils now get into mens hearts that in this so glorious light of the Gospel they are more covetous more crafty more unjust more inhumane more stubborn then formerly they were in Popery And observe it that he confesses those evils did proceed from his new Doctrine not occasionally but as the natural fruit of it And if ever he spoke Truth after his Apostacy here we have 't For they that consider what an innundation of evils broke in upon a great part of the Christian World upon his breaking from the Catholick Church and Preaching a new Gospel first in Germany may very well think that now Apoc. 20. 1 2. was the time come For unchaining Satan and Hell was broke loose to torment us mortals here on earth Witness Calvin In exiguo illorum numero c. Amongst the small number of them who have forsaken Popish In c. 11. Dani. v. 34 Idolatry the greatest part of them are full of Perfidiousness and Treacheries They outwardly profess a notable Zeal but if examined inwardly you will find them abounding in deceits Neither indeed could a false Faith bring forth any other but a counterfeit Holiness For these are those Hypocrites whom our Blessed Saviour speaks of That are ravenous Wolves Mat. 7. in Sheaps cloathing that cleanse Mat. 23. 25. the outside of the cup and platter leaving the inside full of rapine and uncleanness Or Like whited Sepulchers ver 27. which appear beautiful to men but within are stuff'd with dead mens bones and putrefaction These are those Reprobates concerning the Faith fore-told by the Apostle Having 2 Tim. 3. 5 c. a form of godliness denying the Power thereof Those Saints of the highest elevation in their own conceits whom St. Jude calls Clouds ver 12. without water darkening only the splendor of the Gospel not making it fruitful in good works by any refreshing influences of real Piety Which the same Calvin discern'd so clearly through these clouds that Comm. in 2. Pet. 2. 1. he confesses Vix eorum decimus c. Hardly the tythe of those who gave their name to the Gospel that is who left the Church of Rome to be of their Religion did it for any other end then to wallow in wantonness more freely without restraint Andreas Musculus affords us likewise as ample a testimony extracted from him by evidence of Truth against his will Quod si veritatem L. de noviss die c.
Fruits Mat. 7. 16 17. the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or mark our Blessed Saviour refers us to in such Cases From all which it appears That the general Piety and singular Sanctity taught and practis'd in the Church of Rome proceeds from the Author of all Holiness and that their tree of Reformation could never take rooting or influence from Heaven which brings forth such evil fruits upon the earth The Conclusion ANd now 't is high time to indulge my Pen which I little thought when first set to Paper would have laboured so long in this employment However I shall not repent of my pains though so much exceeding the limits of my intentions in the Essay if any poor wandring Soul receive hereby the least light to guide her towards the Mansions of Blessed Eternity and so prove instrumental for her Salvation This is my aim and hopes also and yet though they should become wholly unsuccessful I shall rest satisfied in that I have used the best of my endeavours towards my Countries good in matters of the highest importance and especially the Spiritual profit of my dear Protestant Friends and Relations whom the more I love since this happy change wrought in me the less perhaps am I beloved of them Amongst whom some I know for certain who have so alienated their hearts meerly for Religions sake as to return me hatred for my good will But I do and shall betake my self unto Prayer for such Objects of pity and compassion with a hopeful perswasion that they will be Converted as well as more moderate tempers seeing all things are alike equal to an Omnipotent goodness and experience tells us that the most violent Protestants have sometimes become the most zealous Catholicks By the mighty working of him who is able to Phil. â—21 subdue all things unto himself 'T is true the Case with Catholicks in England is sad by reason of those oppressive Laws which are in force against them and doubtless is the cause why some forsake us for the love of the World and do not actually unite themselves to the true Church In a word Temporal Advantages Worldly Interests and Prosterity standing on the Protestants side Persecution and present Sufferings on ours renders the Conversion or at least the Profession of the Faith to many ineffectual Let one be convinc'd and he replyes What shall I do with my Wife and Children Would you have me ruine my Estate and Fortune O miserable England where Truth is oppressed And O unhappy those who yeild so cowardly in the time of Tryal and Temptation Had the primitive Christians been thus minded the Catholick Faith long since had been buried in oblivion and such glorious Saints as Martyrs had never been known What is Time to Eternity What are Friends and Relations to the everlasting Society of Saints and Angels What are Worldly Advantages to Heavenly Riches Shall we not endure a momentary Cross for an Eternal Crown Is it not the high commendation of Moses the Faithful Servant of God That he chose rather Affliction with the People Heb. 11. 25. of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Know we not That he who loveth Father or Mat. 10. 37. Mother or Son or Daughter better than Christ is not worthy of him Alas What will it profit a man to Mat. 16. 26. gain the whole World and lose his own Soul Or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul Certainly whoever lays this sadly to heart cannot but cry out with that devout Saint Deus meus omnia Malem Crucem cum Christo quam Coronam cum mundo Whatsoever I lose I 'll not not part with my Saviour he 's all in all I had rather have him with a Cross than a Crown without him This is indeed an Heroick resolution becoming a Christian and answerable to the nobleness of our Religion which appears in nothing more then the contempt of this World and this resolution is agreeable to the Purity of our Holy Faith This is the Promise we solemnly made to God at our Baptism in the presence of the Church Militant and Triumphant why will we become Renegadoes from our Colours Why will we not couragiously fight the good fight of Faith under the glorious Standard of Christ against all the enemies of our Salvation Whatsoever we part withall for God's fake we shall not be loosers by it He will superabundantly reward us who hath promised Mat 19. 29. That whosoever leaveth Houses Brethren or Sisters or Father or Mother or Wife or Childâ—en or Lands for his Names sake shall receive a hundred fold here and hereafter inherit everlasting Life Believe me dear Country men 't is very true I know the first by happy experience If spiritual riches as St. L. 3. in Mat. ca 19. Hierom expounds it and comforts pass for payment and wait for the latter in Gods good time But alas things Spirital are little operative 'till we have a gust and feeling of them which cannot be without some progress in Spirituality and things eternal are further off and seldom apprehended with fixed thoughts while Worldly contents and advantages being present and visible work strongly on us to win and fetter our affections to them And therefore many of us living more by sense then faith or reason are willing to possess our Souls with patience in sufferings for Christ and expectation of that far more exceeding weight of glory which they work for us We think it intolerable to part with any Temporal Possessions for an Heavenly Inheritance And so procrastinating our receptition into the Catholick Church from time to time refer all to Gods Mercy and a Death-bed repentance A sad case this yet too common among us A case wherein I might have perish'd eternally had not the infinite goodness and extraordinary favour of God vouchsafed unto me with patience and long sufferance at last loosed my bonds and fetters and brought me into the bosom of his Catholick Church setting my feet at liberty to walk in the path of Holiness to ever-blessed Eternity The Psal 113. snare is broken and my Soul is delivered And blessed be the God of Psal 107. my Salvation My heart is fixed O God my heart is fixed I will sing and Psal 115. give praise I will now pay my vows in the presence of his Saints and call upon the name of the Lord. I will offer to God the sacrifice of Thanksgiving and praise his Name while I have my Beeing All creatures in Heaven and Earth bless God for me Psal 102. and bless God with me Praise thou the Lord O my Soul Amen Amen Soli Deo Gloria FINIS