the Holy War And there he takes notice how the Christians being then about Antioch with a small number and those in great dispair and a very languishing Condition for want of necessary Provisions and the Enemy at hand with a potent numerous Army and when they were in this distress it was at length seasonably revealed to some Body where the Holy Lance was which was brought into the Field in the nick of time and carried before the Souldiers and three Holy Men appeared in the Clouds fighting for them and by this means they unexpectedly got an entire Victory with the slaughter of an hundred thousand of the Turks I will not question the Truth of any part of the Story but let any Man consider the various Successes of that War and that it was concluded to the advantage of the Infidels who remained Masters of all at last after so much Blood and Treasure expended and so many of the bravest Spirits of Europe thrown away upon those tedious and fruitless Expeditions and he will be apt to suspect that here the Cardinal did manifestly prevaricate and that he had a real design to betray his own Church and give up the Cause to Mahomet After this he boasts of a notable Victory over the Albigenses where a hundred thousand of the Hereticks were totally routed by his Catholicks that were not the tenth part of their number It is true the Histories of those times do generally mention a very great Overthrow given those poor People in a Battel by a very inconsiderable handful of Men under the Command or Simon Mountfort and that Peter King of Arragon who came to their Assistance was slain on the Place and Raymond Earl of Thoulouse forced to fly And upon this occasion to strengthen the Cardinal's Argument as much as is possible I think it will not be amiss to call to mind some other of their glorious Victories over these Albigenses These we must know were a sort of Hereticks that were spread far and near and had a long time infected the Church See Usher de Christ Eccl. Success Scat. cap. 10. Sect. 23 24. c. some say they had continued ever since the days of the Apostles Pope Innocent the Third very desirous to find a Remedy for this Inveterate Evil appoints divers eminent Preachers to go into the parts where they were thought to be the most numerous and teach nothing there but the pure Doctrine of the Church of Rome and endeavour by this means to convince them of their supposed Errors But this way not succeeding the Hereticks remaining obstinate still notwithstanding the Diligence of the Missionaries he bethinks himself of a more effectual Expedient Since Perswasions will not prevail he is resolved to try whether Terror and Force may not have a greater Power of Conviction than Argument Therefore he publishes a Crusado against the Hereticks as had been formerly done against the Infidels in the East and sets forth his Bull of Plenary Indulgence to all that should engage in this Sacred Militia and makes them as sure of Heaven as those were that should be sent on his Errand to the Holy Land. Upon this extraordinary encouragement great Multitudes flock together from all parts and full of Zeal and Rage they march on and perform many notable Exploits to the Eternal Honour of themselves and him that put them on that pious Work. In one City they put threescore thousand to the Sword sparing neither Sex nor Age. And when the tender-hearted Souldiers found there were some Catholicks in the Place they desire to know whether these might not be admitted to Quarter The Pope's Legat that was attending the Action commands them to make no Distinction for fear a Heretick might escape under that pretence And he excuses the Severity of the Order with a Scripture Expression The Lord knoweth who are His. This beginning was enough to strike Terror into all that heard it and then they go on valiantly still doing great Execution wherever they come Whenever any Town or Castle was surrender'd it was always upon these Articles they that would be converted had their Lives they that refused were Hanged or Burnt After they had proceeded a while in this manner Simon Mountfort a stout Zealot is by common consent chosen General of the Pilgrims for so they were called and appointed Commander in chief for this new kind of Holy War with a Promise of the Government of what had already been or should happen hereafter to be taken from the Hereticks He armed with a sufficient Power quickly forces Raimund of Tholouse out of his Dominions The poor ejected Prince flyes to the great Lateran Council for Relief they as if the question had been about a Matter of Faith suffer the Debate to come before them and depriving Raimund constitute Simon E. of Tholouse Raimund hereupon retires into Spain Simon 's new Subjects suddenly revolt and force him to go himself and send his Wife to several Courts to beg such Supplies as might be sufficient to reduce them to Obedience But before that could be done he is crushed to pieces with a great Stone out of an Engine as he lay before Tholouse Soon after his Younger Son Guy is likewise slain at another Town Almaric the Elder and Heir to his Father highly inraged with these Misfortunes that fell so thick upon his Family swears desperately that he would never remove the Seige till he was Master of the Place But notwithstanding this insolent Bravado he is constrained to go away in a Disgrace aggravated with the Guilt of a presumptious foolish Oath Before this Raimund was returned and entered again upon his Legal Inheritance and died at last in Possession of it and left the Sucession to his Son when Almaric was fain to wander up and down the World earnestly entreating all that pleased to pitty his Condition to afford him some Succours that he might be enabled to endeavour the Recovery of what had been lately usurped by his Father And now upon a Review of the Successes on both Sides thus far the Hereticks seem clearly to have the Advantage And for what followed after this it is an Argument of the particular care the Divine Providence has always had in the preservation of those distressed Albigenses that could never be destroyed by the many potent Combinations that have been made against them and the violent Persecutions they have endured within these last five hundred Years but in spight of all the Malice of their Enemies the Remains of them at this Day are enough to exercise the Valour of another Mountfort if any unhappy Age should chance to produce one For his Catholick Victories in Switzerland and the Low-Countries if the Cardinal had been pleased to acquaint us what they were perhaps they might be easily ballanced However for ought I can learn the Protestant Cantons are in as good Condition as the other I am sure the Confederate Provinces of the Netherlands are grown a very rich and
we of more than 200 Certainly the Argument from Succession here is much stronger the nearer it comes to the Original from which all the Authority and Virtue in the following are derived the Water may be supposed clearer and more natural the nearer to the Fountain-Head There is at least some danger from every Remove or Change made I am apt to think they themselves will hardly suppose they have a better Argument from Succession than those had 1200 or more Years since For if it be good now be sure it was so then But it will not follow alternately if then good it must hold so still The Case may be presum'd much different in the Succession of Ecclesiastical Dignities and Secular in this latter it may be suppos'd the Title gathers still more strength by the length of its Continuance is more confirm'd by long Possession many super induct Obligations but was it may be weakest in its Beginnings as in most particular Governments now when of a meer Human Original so far as we may with due Modesty and Reverence look that way But Spiritual Power in whomsoever where Legitimate can only descend at first from an immediate Divine Commission and that we may suppose gains nothing by passing through Human Hands and Infirmities being most strong and powerful in its first rise Indeed did the Cardinal only argue for a Temporal and Ecclesiastical Monarchy and would he be content to begin it after Pope Gregory the First and then to rise by degrees for a while Succession appears to me the best Argument they have However it is much easier to shew fair Evidences of the unaltered conveyance of the same Truth from one to another when it hath gone through so few Hands and that the eldest bears its Date but a very few Centuries of as Irenaeus expresly in the place cited l. 3. c. 3. and Epiphanius Hom. 27. Carpocrat p. 104. than it can be when they are multiplied to the present number and the Foot-steps of its continued Passage are almost worn out through so long a tract of Time and numerous cross Accidents Yet to give them their due the eminent Zeal of several of their first Bishops that Sealed to the Custody of the true Faith with their Blood being still as it were in view of their Persecutors their general Constancy thereto in which so many wavered or fell in the time of the Arian Persecution the Relief and Refuge they then and after afforded to such as suffered in that or like Causes as well as the Prerogative of their Place in the Imperial City and the current Tradition of their Churches first Foundation by the joint Labours of those chief Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul these gave them great credit in those Ages and while they used their Power so well every one was ready to enlarge it and to flee thither for Sanctuary when oppress'd In which case Men are very apt to speak bountifully of their Patrons And no marvel if they single out sometimes so venerable a Name and Authority to oppose and even to bear down the impertinent Obstinacy and peevish Presumption of every new upstart Schismatick or Heretick that would dictate to us strange and unheard-of Principles and unchurch all before or beside themselves and must begin the Date of it from themselves For thus most of the Citations mention'd are plainly levell'd And in such a Case we should judg the arguing sufficient still to silence such an insolent Boaster though we should begin the Succession no sooner than the time they ended and when we own Religion began to decline in some parts but sure not to expire Nay I could add though we should rise no higher than the Reformation it self as late as it was and how contemptuously soever they are pleased sometimes to speak of the happy Instruments thereof An extraordinary Providence also seems to have attended the Preservation of them so long under the Arian Gothick Kings and a strange temporal Felicity in being still Gainers in the end by all the Invasions and Calamities incident to so many Changes of Government by which most beside were Losers But I should think if they consulted Scripture Reason and Experience of former Examples with present sensible Observation more than any fancied Schemes and Models of their own what they would judg best to have done They might think it not unlikely at least be more willing to stand to the tryal whether it be not so that upon so long a continued and still growing accession of Wealth and Greatness to their Church many and great Corruptions might creep in which we charge them with and have only removed by the Reformation without turning them or our Ancestors out of the Church before or our selves since If the Favours they have so long enjoyed make them more industrious and cautious in the Examination of themselves to reform whatever they can find amiss and to be more charitably helpful and beneficial to others they will be far better employed than in grasping at still more Power and justifying all that they teach or do by the oft to us unaccountable Successes of Providence which the worst Causes have fled to for shelter and the worst Men when they had nothing else to plead God Almighty give us all Grace entirely to devote all our Studies and Labours to the Service of our Great Master and the best and most certain Benefit of his Church in the Furtherance of Sound Faith and Universal Holiness of Life in all true Piety Probity Charity and Peaceable Communion among all that in every place call on the Name of the Lord theirs and ours Which will afford us a far more comfortable Reckoning at the great Day of Account than to busie our selves in thrusting all beside out of the Church here and pronouncing Condemnation against them for hereafter or on the other side in carrying on still unaccountable Prejudices and endless Separations The God of Wisdom Truth and Peace will I hope at length give us a right Understanding in all Things THE END LONDON Printed by J. D. for Richard Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1687. The Sixth Note of the CHURCH EXAMINED VIZ Agreement in Doctrine with the Primitive Church Sexta Nota est Conspiratio in Doctrinâ cum Ecclesiâ Antiquâ Bellar. L. iv c. 9. de Notis Ecclesiae IMPRIMATUR May 19. 1687. Guil. Needham VVEE are very willing to own this for a true Mark of the Church its Agreeing with the Doctrine of the Primitive Church and we are so far from confuting Bellarmin for his giving of it that we do not doubt but he has hereby confuted himself and the whole Cause of the Roman Church for if we may be allowed to go back to the Primitive Church and to examine the Doctrine and Belief of that in order to find out what is the true Church at present then the pretended Infallibility of the present Church and the Necessity of receiving and believing all
an unerring Profession But till I am certain one way or t'other whether she be the true Church or no I can never be certain whether her Profession be true or false till I am certain that she is the true Church there are some Articles in her Profession of which as her own Doctors confess I cannot be certain that they are true and till I am certain that she is not the true Church I can never be certain that any one Article in her Profession is false and if I cannot be certain whether she errs in her Profession or no till I am certain whether she be the true Church or no to what purpose should I enquire whether or no she be the true Church by this Note of an unerring Profession If supposing her to be the true Church she hath Authority from God to oblige me upon pain of Damnation to believe to Day that which I was not obliged to believe Yesterday to what end do I enquire whether those things which she commands me to believe are true or false If she be the true Church as for all I yet know she may be I am sure what ever she commands me to believe must be true and therefore till I am certain that she is not the true Church I can never be certain that any thing she commands me to believe is false For how can I be certain that any one thing she imposes is false when for all I yet know she is the true Church which the God of Truth who can neither impose himself nor authorize any other to impose on me that which is false hath authorized to impose it and if till I am certain that she is not the true Church I can never be certain that any thing she imposes is false How can I ever be cartain by this Note of an unerring Profession whether she be the true Church or no For if any thing she professes or imposes be false by this Note she cannot be the true Church but whether any thing she professes be false or no I can never be certain till I am first certain whether she is or is not the true Church THE END ERRATA IN the Seventh Note Pag. 137. the first cum Capite in the Title is to be blotted out P. 147. line 17. for Arian r. Asian P. 148. l. 6. f. Complaint r. Complement LONDON Printed by J. D. for Richard Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1687. The Ninth Note of the CHURCH EXAMINED VIZ The Efficacy of the Doctrine Nona Nota est Efficacia Doctrinae Bellarm. L. iv c. 12. de Notis Ecclesiae IMPRIMATUR June 8. 1687. Jo. Battely BY Efficacy of Doctrine must be meant either that power which the Word of God has in the Minds of Particular Men to dispose them to believe aright and to live well or else that success which it has in drawing Multitudes outwardly to profess and embrace it The former of these is too inward a thing to be the Note of a true Church No Man being able to know what the Word of God has done in anothers Heart but instead of that apt rather to be deceived in what it has done in his own The Second which must be that the Cardinal means can as little be a Note by reason of its Uncertainty and if we cannot be sure of the Note we shall be less so of that which we are to find out by it If indeed there were nothing which could or did move Men to relinquish Heathenism Judaism or Turcism for our Religion but the pure Efficacy of the Christian Doctrine it would be a very good Note of the excellence of the Doctrine it self but according to the Cardinal 's own Principles it could be no Note that that were the true Church which preached it since he will not allow the sincere preaching of Truth to signify any thing Lib. iv 2. And we shall have much less reason to rely on this Note if we consider how many other things there are besides the Efficacy of the Christian Doctrine which have and may convert whole Nations to it Let us therefore at present grant in general the matter of Fact to be true that such Conversions as the Cardinal speaks of were made by the Church of Rome yet how shall we know that they were made purely by the Efficacy of its Doctrine and that no other means such as Force c. were used Is it enough that he tells us so The Bishop of Meaux tells us that in the late great Conversion in France not one of the Persons converted suffered Violence either in his Person or Goods That they were so far from suffering Torments Pastoral Letter p. 3 4. that they had not so much as heard them mentioned and that he heard other Bishops affirm the same Now if those Reverend Prelats were out as most people think they were in a matter of Fact of which they might be Eye-witnesses why may not the learned Cardinal be so too in his Relation of Conversions made so many hundred years since If he be out his Note falls to the ground and if it cannot be made plainly to appear to us that he was not out his Note as far as it is founded upon those Histories which he produces wants that certainty which should give us satisfaction Historians who wrote in those obscure times and were perhaps themselves Converters being most of them Monks might vain-gloriously ascribe much to the Efficacy of their own Doctrine and the Centuriators themselves whom he so often quotes might not be very curious to search or accurate to relate the chief motives of their Conversions because they wrote before the Cardinal had made Efficacy of Doctrine a Note of the true Church and little dream't what odd use some Men would make of their History But notwithstanding these Neglects and Disadvantages I do not doubt but that if we look'd back into the Writers of those Times nay even into the Centuriators themselves we should find some other things besides Efficacy of Doctrine concurring to the Conversions which were then wrought An instance whereof to pass by at present the particular examination of those mentioned by the Cardinal we have in those Converons wrought by Charles the Great to whose victorious Arms they were more to be ascribed than to any thing else besides For not to mention that the Clergy were not then in any great capacity of doing much by the Efficacy of their Doctrine the Bishops being so ignorant that they were to be commanded to understand the Lord's Prayer and could hardly be brought to make some few exhortations to the People but instead of that turned Souldiers to shew that they were willing to do somewhat towards the propagating their Religion such was the Zeal of that Prince rather to defend and increase the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Mezeray in the Life of Charles the Great than to inlarge his own Empire that Peace could never be