that he is condemned by Scripture then Scripture alone cannot be our Judge nor does God himself by Scripture alone decide our differences In the mean time without a Judge we are all loose in our Opinions Hence Confusion Fire Sword Church against Church and Dissention among the People to the Destruction of the Nation And what is the business What is the Quarrel They won't submit their Judgment to mine To yours And why should they submit their Judgment more to yours than you to theirs Who thinks himself to be void of wit or not to abound in Judgment quisquis in suo sensu abundat and if it be true that there is no Infallible Visible Judge why may not I hope that God gives me as much of his Divine assistance as to you since I use as much diligence as you to obtain it My LORDS do you see where we are What would the Law Book do in Scotland if your Lordships Wisdoms were not impowered and authorized by his Majesty to determine Causes What Cause does not find an Advocate to make the Law look favourably upon his Clyant Will we make God less wise to keep an Vnion in his Church than Kings to keep an Vnion in their Kingdom A Holy King most earnest to have Justice administred to his People if it were in his Power and he could with his ease enlighten his Judges with Truth in giving their Sentence would he not do it Does not God as earnestly desire as that Holy King that all Men come to the Knowledge of the Truth in matters of Faith if we may believe St. Paul 1 Tim. 2. v. 4. And cannot he if he please without any difficulty enlighten his Church and influence Her with an Infallible assistance in Her Decisions Why then shall we not think he has done so Since he has established Her to Govern us Act 20.28 and subjected us to Her Obedience Matth. 18.17 What do I say shall we not think he has done so Can a Christian rationally doubt yet of it after Christ's saying to Her Who hears you hears me Luc. 10 and after St. Paul's assuring us Eph. 4. that Christ made some Teachers in his Church that we might not waver And who can but waver and be ready to hearken to others who speak with more applause if he Judge his Fore Teachers Fallible in the great and last concern of his Eternity Grant this My LORDS which is evident enough that the Teaching Church of Christ wheresomever She be is Infallible in Her Decisions of Religion and the main Work is done for we will as easily find Her out by Her Marks set down in the Holy Scriptures as the Sun among the Planets in Sole posuit Tabernaculum suum Psal 18. he has made Her as Visible as the Sun What is unreasonable in all this Discourse But if the great Reason of looking strange on us be the imagined difformity of our Religion from the Word of GOD be pleas'd to cast your Wiser Eyes upon this little Book and with your Reason examine impartially the Reasons we bring for the R. Catholick Religion If here and there our Reasons seem to contradict your senses 't is to obey Faith to Her according to St. Paul Rom. 1. v. 5. We owe Obedience and such that we must sometimes captivate our understanding for this performance 2 Corin. 10. v. 5. 'T is true Reason is the Light of Man but Faith is the Light of a Christian To be a Man I must be Rational but moreover I must Believe to have the Title of a Christian God has given us both our Will and our Vnderstanding He will and with all Reason be Honoured by the one aswell as by the other I Honour him with my Will when I Obey his Law I Honour him with my Vnderstanding when I submit to Faith and seek no other evidence than his Word for all I Believe in order to my Salvation As my doing what otherwaies pleases not my Nature because God commands it is a perfect submission of my Will to his command so my Believing what God reveals to me by his Church which otherwaies I don't understand is a perfect submission of my Vnderstanding to his Word A Word worthy of our Adoration God by the force of his Word Created us by the bounty of his Word Redeemed us and by the Submission of our Judgment to his Word revealed to us by his Church expects to Save us Otherwaies not He that Believes not viz. all that he has revealed shall be Damned undoubtedly Mark 16.16 I know My Lords that if a Man find himself convinced to become a Catholick at this time the very fear of being thought to turn upon the account of Gaining or continuing in Favour is no small Stumbling-Block to Persons of Honour But if you have strong Reason on your side what Reasonable Man can wonder Should not they rather wonder to see you Men before in their Opinion so Reasonable now fail and fall from Reason or of so little resolution as to leave an infinite Good for a Good that is so finite so small I mean a conservation of esteem among the Vulgar Of this last I thought good to mind your Lordships in my great Zeal for your Souls and high respect for your Persons coveting to be in Christ MY LORDS Your Lordships most Humble Servant A TABLE Of the CONTENTS Of this BOOK A Preamble Pag. 1 Answer to what is Objected against the R. Catholicks Speculative Divinity p. 2 Answer to what is Objected against R. Catholicks Practical or Moral Divinity p. 4 Protestants cannot be Sav'd even in the Opinion of our Adversary because they don't fulfill what is requir'd by him to Salvation p. 6 Protestants are in a worse condition than those who never heard of Christ p. 9 It is not Lawfull to follow a probable Opinion in matter of Belief p. 11 'T is not a probable Opinion that a Protestant may be Sav'd p. 13 The formal Protestant cannot be Sav'd p. 16 Formal Protestants are Schismaticks p. 22 Other Proofs that we agree in Faith with those of the first three Ages p. 26 Formal Protestants are Hereticks p. 29 St. Augustin 's saying of the mending of a former Council by a posterior sully answered p. 31 Another Objection solv'd p. 35 'T is an Article of Faith that General approved Councils are Infallible p. 36 The Infallibility of a General approv'd Council proven by some other passages of Scripture and our Adversary's explication of them exploded p. 39 'T is not necessary the Infallibility of the Church be defin'd in a General Council yet it is in General Councils defin'd by a practical Definition p. 42 We are sure that the Major Part of an approv'd General Council is Baptiz'd p. 46 The Infallibility of the Church deny'd underminds Christianity p. 47 A Word by way of entry into this matter p. 50 The Intention of the Minister required by the Church in Baptism explained makes appear the nullity of our Adversaries
are That every one may see clearly whither or no what I hold as a Tenet of Religion is not found among them but is a meer superstruction Will you refuse to a considerable Person who thinks certainly he has seen in the Law Book a Law which justifies the Action for which he is condemn'd to Die Will you I say refuse him a publick sight of that Book to justifie your Sentence against him but notwithstanding the murmur of the People upon your refusal of his demand suspecting him Innocent savagely cast him If not do not condemn us who hold for certainty Transubstantiation to be so Fundamental that no Christian of the first three Ages would have deny'd it A Subsect Other Proofs that we agree in Faith with those of the first three Ages I Ask our Adversary did those Christians living then believe as a Fundamental point that they were the true Church planted by CHRIST and continued from the Apostles or not If not then they could not say in their Creed I believe in the Holy Catholick Church If they did believe it I ask again upon what ground was truth warranted to them for three hundred Years and not to the Church till the end of the World Was not Gods promise of Infallibility to his Church made to it as well to the end of the World as for the first three hundred Years Isaiah 59. v. 21. This is my Covenant with them saith the Lord my Spirit which is upon thee to wit the Church and my Words which I have put in thy Mouth shall not depart out of thy Mouth nor out of the Mouth of thy Seed nor out of the Mouth of thy Seeds Seed saith the Lord from henceforth and forever And to the Ephes 4. cap. v. 11 12 13 14. And he gave some Apostles some Prophets and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints c. till we all come in the unity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God c. That we henceforth be no more Children tost too and fro and carried about with every Wind of Doctrine by the slight of Men. If he avow the Church fail'd not in Fundamental Truths I wonder how he can allow Luther and Calvin's Reforming the Church with so much Fire Sword and Confusion for a matter that did not impede Salvation If they Reform'd Her in Fundamentals then She perish'd which is against the Infallible promise of CHRIST If you say they did not Reform it as it lay pure in the Souls of some chosen tho' unknown to others but in the publick Pastors and Teachers who were reprehensible for their grievous Deviations then say I where was the visible Church to which Men should have recourse for the hearing of the Word and receiving of the Sacraments Isaiah cap. 2. v. 3. A second Proof and Reason is drawn from that it seems morally impossible that in the begining of the fourth Age if he will have the fall of Religion then the Pastors should propose a number of new Tenets to be believ'd and perswade the People that they had heard them from their Fathers of the third Age not one individual Person in the mean time remembring that he heard them from his Is it credible that not only one Parish or Nation but all Countries who liv'd afore in the Union of the Catholick Church should of a sudden have permitted themselves to be cheated into this perswasion or rather bewitch'd since not one was found for many Ages to have gainsaid it or reclaimed against it Since this then is Morally impossible conclude that these Tenets of R. Catholicks which our adversary calls novelties were the old tenets of the three first Centuries A third reason 't is remark'd that God never permitted any notable Error to rise up in his Church but alwayes stirred up at the same time some man or men to speak and write against it and mov'd the whole Church to joyn with them to destroy it So Athanasius rose up against Arius Cyrillus Alexandrinus against Nestorius Augustin against Pelagius All back'd by the whole Church for the total overthrowing of those Errors Now if the Mass be an Error it is a most damnable one an Idolatry insupportable to give Divine Worship to the Host if it be only a piece of Bread Yet after this Error was broach'd in Gregory the Great 's time in the sixth or seventh Age as Protestants imagin what University or private Man spoke against it then or three hundred Years after It s true about four hundred Years after Berengarius inveighed against it but being better inform'd and by a torrent of Arguments for its Truth overwhelm'd he Recanted and Dyed Penitent Consult then Reason and not Passion and you will see that R. Catholicks have made no superstructurs on the Faith of the first three Ages SECT II. Formal Protestants are Hereticks I Advance to his assertion in which he affirms that we cannot say without Ignorance Calumny and Injustice that a Protestant is an Heretick First I agree with him that an Heretick is he who denyes viz. pertinaciously an Article of Faith or a revealed Verity Next I ask him by what principle he proves that a Protestant does not deny an Article of Faith or a reveal'd Truth I suppose he will Answer because a Protestant believes the CREED and the Holy Scripture I ask him further if a Preacher now of their Congregation should vent a Doctrine not Orthodox and should pertinaciously maintain it against his Brethren as a Truth according to his best Judgment reveal'd in Scripture By what principle will he convince him to be an Heretick He 'l tell you he believes the three Creeds and the whole Scripture and therefore he believes this his dogme because the thinks he finds it in Scripture Is he an Heretick because he will not submit his Judgement to his particular Brethren He is known to be as Learn'd as they and of as good a Life as they If you say this Man can't be proven to be an Heretick that is against the Scripture Tit. 3. v. 10. bidding us to shun an Heretick and consequently he may be proven to be one If you say he is an Heretick because he will not submit his Judgement not only to particulars but neither to the whole Congregation or the Church of which he was a Member and therefore is justly condemn'd by Her according to Isai 54. v. 17. Every Tongue that rises up against thee in Iudgment thou shall condemn this is the Inheritance of the Lords Servants I conclude without Ignorance Calumny or Injustice that the Protestant Luther the Protestant Calvin c. were Hereticks because they would not submit their Judgment to the whole Church of which they were Members afore they were Excommunicated for their self Opinions Again this proposition a Protestant is not an Heretick either is an Act of Faith or Science or Opinion If you say it is an Act of Faith 〈◊〉 then say I 't is false
not negatively but positively that Protestants may be saved How then does he steer another Course as he terms it than they How is his Method New When he sayes for the most part the Learned Protestants took the negative way of proving Protestancy he as good as avows that a part of them took the positive way and therefore in that his Method is not New 3. He sayes his Method is Infallible in this sense that it contains such Arguments that nothing but meer obstinacy can hinder any understanding to yield to them Answer Is it meer obstinacy that hinders our understanding to yield when we have as clear Scripture for the Infallibility of the Teaching Church as he has for the chief Articles of his Faith as that of the B. Trinity Incarnation and Justification by Faith only See Pag. 38. When we have Apostolical Tradition When we have a strong Reason as this which follows A Reason To prove the necessity of an Infallible Visible Guide IT belongs to the infinite goodness of God and his special Love to Man above all other Creatures not to leave him in an extream perplexity for his Salvation and that unavoidable But if Man be left every one to his own particular Judgment in every particular Article of Faith without an Infallible Visible Guide he can't but be in an extream perplexity for his Salvation and that unavoidable Then God has not left Man without an Infallible Visible Guide I prove the minor because the resolution of our doubts is in matters most obscure and unfindable with certainty by the best of Wits and the sincerest of Consciences as the Mystery of the B. Trinity Incarnation c. Then I can't but be in an extream perplexity whether I am right or wrong in my private discerning what I ought to believe in these matters For shall I presumptuously think I am right in my Opinion of Religion when I see my self opposed by a World of others as witty in their thoughts as I and as Moral in their Actions Or shall I out of Humility leave my Opinion to joyn with another But he without an Infallible Visible Guide can give me no more assurance for his Opinion than I could have given him for mine So I am where I was in a perplexity Whatever way I turn my self I am oppressed with a dreadful and just fear of not hitting upon the right way of Salvation with a just fear of not falling upon the true sense of the H. Scriptures and if I mistake I mistake to my Eternal Damnation If I am right in my Faith since there is only one true Faith all who do not joyn with me are wrong and if one of my Opposers be right I and all who oppose him ate wrong and so thousands sincerely following their own Judgement may be Damned This does not stand with the special Love of God to Man but it belongs to his infinite goodness to give us so sure a Guide that simple People or Fools as the Prophet Isaiah speaks c. 35. as well as the Learned following this Guide may not Err. This Guide is the Teaching Church to which God has given such Testimonies Testimonia tua credibilia facta sunt nimis Psal 92. of its being evidently credible to all that he speaks to Men by Her that the meaner Capacities laying aside Passion and Temporal Interest cannot but see 't is She he will have us hear for our Spiritual Direction The motives of Credibility move my Judgment to bring me to Her but being brought to Her I do not believe for my Judgment but for the Veracity of God who I see speaks by Her As when you bring to me a Man who speaks Divinely of God I carry him Veneration mov'd to it not by your bringing of him but by the worth and gift of God which I discover in the Man So my Judgments bringing me to the Church is a meer mental approximation as your bringing that Divine Man to me or Wood to the Fire is a Physical one both meer conditions sine quibus non having no positive influence on my assent or the effect This Judgment of mine God will have because I must Work like a Man and not like an insensible Agent which is brought as Fire to the Subject it must burn or Work upon 4. He saies that these propositions Protestants may be saved And that they may be saved more easily and with greater security than Romanists are self evident Principles Answer Why then does he so busie himself to prove them Who undertakes to prove that the whole is greater then each part of it Why not because it s a self evident Principle which needs no Proof 5. The Infallibility of the Church tho' it may have some Degree of Probability is not an Artitle of Divine Faith Because faies he it s neither clearly set down in Scripture nor defined by a General Council Answer He must be very Ignorant of Catholick Principles or willing to appear so who does not know that Apostolical Tradition is enough to make to us an Article of Faith without Scripture or the Decree of a General Council Moreover that Infants and Young Children are to be Baptized is the third proposition of the 27. Article of the Church of England Can he prove me that by clear Scripture I am sure he can't Is it not an Article of Faith that 't is unlawful to Rebaptize Where is that set down in clear Scripture 6. Articles of Faith sayes he are those Points which are agreed upon by all true Christians Answer If those points be Articles of Faith which are agreed upon by all true Christians Then that is not an Article of Faith on which all true Christians do not agree Then 't is not an Article of Faith to our Adversary that we are justified by Faith only because some true Christians deny it Yet it is the 11. Article of the 39. of the Church of England Away with those New notions and let us hear the Church Ask for the Old Paths and walk therein and yee shall find rest for your Souls Jerem. 6 v. 16. The Church the Church said Luther to himself in the begining of his decline while Grace was yet strugling with his Nature art thou Wise alone Happy if he had given way to that Motion but yielding more to his Passions of Lust and Pride Grace fo◠him and then his ill Will wholly perverte◠Understanding I wish this Thought may 〈◊〉 our Adversary enter seriously into himself become Wise in time FINIS
of CHARLES the first our Lawful Soveraign I grant the Loyal party now has a Horrour of that deposing Power But it must be confessed the Royal party it self had not that horrour when being of the Church of England they deposed in like manner Queen MARY of Scotland Lawful Heir of that Kingdom Since then the Actions of both the Church of England and Kirk of Scotland or of both the Prelatick and Presbyterian party make our History blush at what they have done in this matter should not either of them be asham'd to cast up so often to the R. Catholick Religion that some of Her Children have Written not with assurance but with a fear that the contrary Opinion was true that there is a deposing Power in the Pope SECT II. Protestants are in a worse condition than those who never heard of CHRIST OUr Antagonist advances an other proof to show that a Protestant can be Sav'd God sayes He illuminates all Men that come into this World Iohn 1. v 8. then he adds are not Protestants Men Answer They are Men and illuminated by God but if they resist this Light which is given them and equivalently tell God as those wicked Men of whom Iob spoke Iob. 21. v. 14. Scientiam viarum tuarum nolumus We will not have the knowledge of thy Wayes They will be found more remote from Heaven then if they had not receiv'd it He urges we R. Catholicks grant that Infidels who have never heard of CHRIST may be Sav'd and inconsequently deny that hope of happiness to Protestants Answer There 's no ill consequence here to deny a capacity of Salvation to him who puts a hinderance to it and to grant it to him who puts none The Infidel who hath never heard of CHRIST doing what lyes in him by living according to the Light of Nature make 's way to Grace But the Protestant who rejects Faith offered to him by God and his Church willingly shuts up the avenue to a further Grace and untill he remove this obstacle by an humble submission of his Judgment to Faith he continues in an impossibility to please GOD. O! but you are uncharitable sayes He to perswade the simple People that a Protestant can't be Sav'd I ask him can a R. Catholick be Sav'd If he saies no where is his Charity for us If he affirms we may then they who according to Protestants are Idolaters may be Sav'd If so whom will you exclude from Heaven But to return to his Objection since he denies Charity to us and we only Faith to him Charity being a greater Vertue then Faith according to St. Paul is not he in this more Uncharitable to us then we to him He goes on do not Protestants believe all Fundamentals contained in the three Creeds and Scripture I Answer First since that there are Fundamentals as condistinguished from Intigrals or not Fundamentals is a Fundamental point with him I ask in what CREED or Book and Chap. of Scripture is this Fundamental contained If he can't find this then that hereafter he speaking with Catholicks may distinguish a Fundamental from an Integral as he calls it Let him take this notion of a Fundamental from us to wit that all things contained in Holy Scripture are Fundamentals in this sense that we are bound to believe them under pain of Damnation when they are sufficiently propos'd to us by the Church as reveal'd by God in the Scripture For to disbelieve God revealing that Christ meâ—t a blind man on the way of Iericho destroyes as much his veracity as to distrust him revealing that his Son became man By this notion of Fundamentals we perfectly distinguish the Faithful foul from a Infidel or Sectarian And therefore it is not given without ground or reason Again when Christ commanded the Gospell to be preached to Men did he command the things only which you call fundamentals to be Preach'd or the whole Gospel if things only you call Fundamentals why were the Apostles so exact to give us the whole Gospel that it 's thought Damnable not only to add but to pair from it If he commanded the whole Gospel to be Preached and consequently to be believ'd how can he be sav'd who refuses to believe the least Integral of it when it 's sufficiently proposd to him as reuealed by God SECT III. It is not Lawfull to follow a probable Opinion in matter of belief NOw I come to his Achiles this dreadful Argument to Romanists this Argument in in his Judgment above the reach of all Rational Solution It runs thus Who Follows a probable Opinion neither sins nor does rashly or Imprudently But who bolds that Protestants may be sav'd followes a probable Opinion Then he neither sins nor does rashly or Imprudently The major saies he is Commonly admitted by Iesuits and others And a probable Opinion is that which Learned Prudent and Pious Men hold But that a Protestant may be sav'd is an Opinion that Learn'd Prudent and Pious Men hold then it is a probable Opinion that Protestants may be sav'd Ans I distinguish the major in matter of Faith on which absolutly depends Salvation he does not Sin who follows a Probable Opinion I deny in other matters I grant If we hold a Priest to Sin and all Judicious Men think we ought to do so in our Principles who makes use in the Baptism of a dying Child of that which is only probably Water having at hand sure Water Because he makes a mortal breach of Charity against his Neighbour exposing the Child's Salvation Am not I damnably Injurious to my self to follow a probable Opinion in matter of Faith without which I cannot be sav'd when I have my choice of taking a sure way am not I bound to be as Charitable to my self in a matter of that consequence as to my Neighbour Again can my understanding tell my Will that she may prudently command him to give a certain and infallible assent super omnia above all that may be said such as the assent of Faith is to an object to command which she is only mov'd by a probable motive what it an Angel come after this assent is made from Heaven and tell me the thing I assented to is false as I fear'd or might have reasonably fear'd 't was having only a probable motive to beleive the contrary Might not he accuse me not only of Imprudence but also of boldness to make my self believe that God said it and so Father upon him as other articles of my Faith this which is found to be false which I might have justly fear'd having only so slender a ground as a probable Opinion is to believe it A Subsect 'T is not a probable Opinion that a Protestant may be sav'd MOreover I deny that it is a probable Opinion that Protestants may be Sav'd First Because the Church has defin'd the contrary which definition excludes all probability from that Opinion Secondly I deny that Learned and Pious Men hold that
Arguments are not fully solv'd by them many of their Learn'd Men must see this as I was told of a Minister in France when I was among the French who when his Wife startl'd by what he uttered in a Discourse said to him after if that be true why do we live as we live He answered Her Que Diable veut tu que je fasse avec toy mes Enfans that is What the Devil wilt thou have me do with Thee and my Children To wit if he Liv'd according to what he thought Thus they seeing the R. Catholick Truth and Teaching Protestancy are formal Protestants who as long as they remain so cannot be Sav'd Many of the material Protestants are it may be much held in their way by the Physical Arguments they frame to themselves against Transubstantiation And this depends much of the notion of a Body which hath been given them in Philosophy For if they have been taught for example that the nature of a Body consists in an actual extension of its parts and that accidents are not distinct from the substances it presently appears to them impossible that the whole Body of CHRIST can be in every the least particle of the Host and there under the sole Accidents of Bread But we Catholicks when we see such notions cannot stand with what the Holy Scripture saies the Holy Fathers unanimously teach and the whole Church hath believed from the Apostles time down to us we condemn them knowing that Reason must captivate it self to Obey Faith not Faith submit her self to Reason Don't think for what I have said that I acknowledge a material Protestant who has no doubt in his Faith secure as to his Salvation no I do not indeed deny but that he may be Sav'd but I do not absolutely say that he will be Sav'd for he seing so great changes in the Protestant Religion since its rise the R. Catholicks alone remaining alwayes the same seeing Preachers who were thought Learn'd and Good-men and who had stood stiff to the Covenant as conform to the Word of God now solemnly renounce it acknowledging they have got a new Light he can't I say well but doubt whether he ought to follow them in this Light or in the Light for which they said before as much as for this And since they changed from the former it may be hereafter they will change from this to a third there being no more infallibility in this then in the former And if he doubt he is bound to enquire and hearing that the R. Catholick Church believes Her self to be infallible in what She delivers of Faith Infallibility if it were true being as confess'd by all a certain means to settle Men in Conscience and secure them from all doubts in matters of Religion he is bound to enquire and try if Romanists have any solid ground to bring for this their Tenet and if he find it good in Charity to himself he 's bound to embrace it Next tho' a material Protestant have no doubt he is not in an equal condition in order to Salvation because if he fall into grievous Sin he has no other Remedy then an Act of Contrition or of Sorrow for it purely for the Love of God he has offended which is not so easily had Whereas the Catholick has frequent Sacramental Confession and by it pardon from God which is clearly intimated to us in Io. 20. chap. v. 23. The Sins which you remit are remitted to them A Protestant may say I believe from that passage it not ill but Lawful to Confess to a Minister of the Church but not that we are bound But weigh then say I the following Words Whose Sins you retain or do not pardon are retained are not pardon'd this can't be understood of Protestants Excommunication for if you don 't or can't pardon with what Authority do you or can you retain Both parts belonging to the Function of the same Ministers of God Also the Excommunication is not a formal retaining of Sin but a thing destinct and a sign of your retaining it posterior to the retaining of it Moreover how can the Priest know which Sin he may remit and which he must retain if you do not Confess them to him And St. Augustin in Confirmation of this Confession sayes in his 49. Hom. of the 50. Hom. Tom. 10. Do Penance as it is practised in the Church and let no Man say occulte ago apud Deum ago I do it secretly in the â—ottom of my Heart Ergo saies he Sine causa dictum est quaecunque Solveritis c. Matth. 16.19 Frusâ—ramus Evangelium frustramus verba Christi did Christ then say that in vain sayes He to the Ministers of the Church Whose Sins ye remit are remitted to them We frustrate the Gospel and make void the Words of Christ Besides many as some Apostats come to have no doubt in the Protestant Religion by a punishment from God Eo quod charitatem veritatis non receperunt ut salvi fierent ideò mittes iâ—lis Deus operat onem Erroris ut credant mendacio saies St. Paul ad Thess 2. cap. 2. v. 10. Because they have not cherish'd oâ— embrac'd the Truth which God out of Love manifested to them that by it they might be Sav'd therefore â—od will send them the Operation of Error to believe â—â—ing He will send i. e. saies St. Augustin L. 2. de Civit. Dei cap. 19. Will permit the Devil to do those things viz. to bring them to believe lying These People conscious to themselves of their tepid or vicious Life in the Religion they were in ought not to ground themselves upon their want of doubt in the way they have taken but to use much humble Prayer to God to enlighten them Here I add something our Adversary saies to justifie himself in a Letter to a Friend Sure I am saies He that a knowing Man as one may have Reason to think me to be in such matters can never resist a known Truth So if I be in an Error 't is not an Error of Will but Iudgement for which God damns no Man provided this Error be invincible as undoubtedly mine is allowing what your prepossession inclines you to believe that I am really mistaken There being an invincible Error but less reflected on that comes from knowledge as well as an other more talked of in the Schools that proceeds from want of knowledge Answer Did not Origen and Tertullian resist a known Truth If not why were they condemned If they did resist it may not you also Were they less knowing than you Or less Vertuous in their Moral Life then you One fault was found in them to wit that they would not submit their Judgement to the Church And this is found in you Tho' God damns no Man for an Error of Judgement He may damm a Man for the Sin to punish which he withdrew his Grace and for want of which Grace this Man sell into that Error
Heavenly Father is perfect sayes our Saviour Matth. 5. v. 48. Not that we may hope to arrive to his Perfection but that we may never rest in the way of Perfection but alwise strive to draw nearer and nearer to him Our Adversary needs not ask in what pain and trouble Religious who are of a timerous Conscience live under the burden of some Rules because they believe that with the Grace of God they can keep them all and feel so much ease in keeping them that many undertake far more than the Rule prescribes Facile equitat quem Gratia Dei portat he Rides at ease who is carried by the Grace of God saies the following of CHRIST But he should ask in what pain Protestants are who think the least Deviation from the Law by an idle word is a grievous Sin and worthy Hell Fire and who believe that with all the Grace of CHRIST they cannot keep themselves from making Damnable breaches of the Law of God In what pain and anxiety of mind ought they to live Those who told our Adversary that their Yoke was bitter had not merited by their negligence to feel that inward Unction of which St. Bernard speaks nor tasted of that Water of which our Saviour to the Samaritan Woman but living in Religion and breathing still after the World as some wicked Israelites not tasting with the Good the sweetness of the Manna Hungred after the Flesh-Pots of Aegypt So suffering within themselves a perpetual Combat between Nature and Grace the one drawing to God and the other to the World no wonder their Burden was not like that of CHRIST Sweet and Light but heavy and unpleasant by their own Fault If the Devel thought to insnare Men by giving way to their inclination of making Vows he may now leave of as being deceived by a sad experience to himself seeing thousands by the daily observation of their Vow gain signal Victories over him especially if he be more gal'd by the eminent Sanctity and Elevation of one far inferiour in nature to him than pleased in the fall of many who despoiled of Grace are not considerable in respect of him But deceiv'd he is not in giving way to the Ministers common Exhortations to the People to keep the Commandement of God by a practical horror of Sin and embracing of Vertue For when on one side the Minister threatens them with a heavy Judgement if they don't live a good Life and on the other tells them 't is impossible to live so and walk in the Commandements of God is not this to distract a Man or cast him loose and after he was wearied himself striving against the Tyde of his corrupted Nature make him yield to the Stream of Sin impossible to bear up against it and so go down-wards Which was in our Adversaries own Words the Enemies sole aim and main design Roman Catholicks have a more rational and worthy thought of the goodness of God Who Wills the end sais the maxime in moral philosophy affords means to attain it God Wills we keep his Commands will he not afford us Grace with which we may and without which we cannot keep them If Men who are wicked give good things to their Children will he refuse the good Spirit to those who ask it of him Luke 11. v. 13. will he leave Men without Grace who have left all for the pure love of him No Roman Catholicks find the Truth of St. Paul's saying God is Faithful and will not suffer us to be Tempted beyond our force 1 Cor. 10. but will make us find advantage in the Temptation and that they can do all in him who comforts them ad Philip. 4. no there is no Sin or Temptation that Grace can not overcome nor Grace necessary for our Salvation which Prayer can not obtain and a Gift of this in some measure is given to all Men need not fear to undertake prudently to do for God he will still out do them By the same proportion that they go out of themselves for his sake he comes upon 'em by his Grace filling their understanding with surprising Lights and their Wills with Flaming Affections so that seing him now in a fairer day and burning with more Affection towards him they covet to do still more and more for the love of him far from thinking it hard to keep their Vows by which it has been favourably given to them to tye themselves more straitly to him But you who are so secure in your wide way of living and make it your study to diminish the Gospel Obligations be pleased to remember that Christ said Math. 7. v. 14. the way that leads to life is narrow and they are but few who find it CHAP. IX A Recapitulation or short Repetion of the Contents in this Book OUr Adversary out of his foregoing discourse imagining or willing seem to imagin that all his weak Fancies are as many Perswasions telling us he will prove this to Perswasion and he has proven that to Conviction concludes Protestants to be most happy because they do not meet with the Obstacles found in Popery to Eternal Salvation And what are those Obstacles Here he makes a kind of Recapitulation of what he had said 1. The R. Faith is so blind sayes he that it believes Decrees of Errable Councils In this place I will set to your view and consideration the passage he brings to prove that our general approved Councils are Errable in St. Austin's Opinion I had not seen it in St. Austin by reason of his wrong Quotation when I answered it pag. 35. by my knowledge of St. Augustins mind from else where St. Austin contra Epist Fundam c. 5. saies for me I would not believe the Gospel if the Authority of the Church did not move me to it to wit the Authority of the then existing R. Church which moved him to believe that Manicheus was not an Apostle of CHRIST as is clear out of his Words in that place Again Epist 118. he saies to controvert or question that which is held by the whole Church a General approved Council is insolent madness and Epist 162. he saies that a General Council is the last Iudgment of the Church Would St. Augustin or any Reasonable Person think that Man insolently mad who in the weighty matter of his Salvation would question and appeal from a Judgment that might be Erronious St. Austin having spoken of the Council of Nice and Arimini disputing with Maximinus an Arian Bishop L. 3. c. 14. Whether CHRIST were of the Substance of GOD the Father He sayes sed nunc nec ego Nicenum neâ— tu debes Ariminense tanquam praejudicaturus proferre concilium Nec ego hujus Authoritate nec iu illius decineris Scripturarum Authoritatibus non quorum cumque propriis sed utriusque communibus testibus res cum re causa cum causa ratio cum ratione concertet That is say But now neither ought I to alledge the Council of