Predestinate and shall bee saved by this persuasion through the merits of Christe without any regard to his works and life Of which sense seeing there is no revelation there can be no relying upon the word of God for any such effect and so it is cleare these people have nothing like Faith the former Protestants having at least the Carcase but renounce the soule life and being of it A bundle of divers Shuffles If wee should as thus pass over all the points controverted between Catholiks and all that have separated thēselfs from the Catholick Church we should finde very few freely disputed but that either they calōniate the Catholick position or counterfeyt it As concerning images and Saints they pretend we worship them as Gods As for mariage they report we disallow it For the merits of Christe they say wee rely not upon them because we understand them otherwise then they do For the Catholick Church understands that Christe by his life and passion procured the Establishment of the Holy Church the preaching of the Gospel over the whole earth a settled meanes to continue and encrease what he by himself and his Apostles begun a seed and root of good life plāted by the sending of the Holy Ghost to remaine in the Church for ever a Government of Bishops and Doctours for ever sacraments to bee Vniversally administred Extraordinary Examples of Heroick vertues in Martyrs Confessours Monks and Nunnes and in a Word al that was necessary to bring the Vniversality of Mankinde to heavenly bliss and these meanes to be derived to single Persons according to Gods all good providence and the connatural suite of causes The protestant understands that Christe in his private prayer spake to his Father in particular for every one of the predestinate to save him for his and his passions sake and so infer that the beliefe that he is one of those for whome Christe specially prayed is that which must apply the grace granted by Christs eternal Father to his soule and thinkes the Catholick relyes not upon Christs merits because he doth it not so sillily as he does In penance the Catholick holdeth it a sacrament in forme of a judgment in which the penitent is absolved or condemned according to his desert The Protestant holdeth onely as it were a complement of ones acknowledging himself a sinner and asking of mercy and that the preacher without farther ceremony absolve him Those who believe not the mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation nevertheless use the words of one God and three Persons and profess that though they hold the son and Holy Ghost to be creatures yet that they are to be called each of them God and likewise though some hold Christe to have no other nature then of a Man yet that he is justly called God for his greate perfections and Vnity in Charity with God It were superfluous to multiply more examples to shew how it is not the zeal of truth but either ignorance in them who do not understand the true difference betwixt the Catholick Church and its deserters or malice in them who disguise either theire owne tenets or those of the Catholick party God prosper the labours of those who seek Vnity and by his sweet conduct bring all who profess the name of Christe into perfect concord in one flock by the Vnity in faith and charity PAg. 3. l. 16. Leap p. 6. l. 8.50 l. 18. so p. 7. l. 4. with l. 7. even l. 27. of all p. 13. l. 6. too weak to p. 14. l. 14. of coming p. 17. l. 22. a quality p. 18. l. 7. to p. 21. l. 1. to p. 21 l. 1. to p. 22 l. 23. observe p. 23. l. 7. same manner l. 9. Godliness p. 27. l. 23. and 4. one then it p. 30. l. 6. hynde p. 52. l. 1. bee turned p. 58. l. 3. cultivated p. 59. l. 5. byassed p. 51. l. 27. different p. 74. l. 7. preaching p. 66. l. 18. cure drunkeness p. 69. l. 23. bring the p. 70. l. 9. God as solidly p. 72. l. 15. Conicks p. 74. l. 18. obstructed p. 76. l. 10. be forced p. 82. l. 22. before to bee for p. 87. l. 4. proceedeth upon l. 2.5 long p. 88. l. 24. solve p 89. l. 7. imparity p. 92. l. 8. and contradict p. 93. l. 8. offer p. 103. l. 22. overweened p. 104. l. 21. runne p. 105. l. 8. see l. 13. carry p. 107. l. 19. condescendences p. 109. l. 10. to see p. 117. l. 17. of allegations p. 119. l. 22. are as good p. 122. l. 25. Coelibate p. 128. l. 10. Angles l. 17. upon can l. 28. excused neither p. 131. l. 25. who as soone l. 26. think that p. 133. l. 9. not for l. loath p. 136. l. 21. which is out p. 140. l. 12. persecution p. 142. l. 15. certainty p. 146. l 4. of death and of l. 13. best when p. 148. l. 24. solue it p. 152. l. 16. importeth p. 153. l. 13. Abyssine p. 154. l. 9. singing and p. 157. l. 16. are so close l. 19. is so p. 158. l. 21 of such talkers p. 159. l. 12. else p. 160. l 24. exalted p. 163. l. 6. though their p. 164. l. 14. which praise p. 169. l. 14. heapes p. 170. l. 5. a Corus p. 182. l. 25. just indifference p. 184. l. 4. on it p. 189. l. 2◠capable of p. 190. l. 18. default p. 195. l. 18. with p. 1 6. l. 11. inure us p. 197. l. 10.11 toward theire teachers what adhesion to p. 198. l. 23.24 profess there p. 203. l. 21. cultivatour p. 206. l. 14. long as l. 201. l. 20. the fall p. 202. l. 25. tongue though
and serious apprehension of the future life and of the goods of it But that sense prevayleth in him above reason Now that the Catholike faith hath all the advantages upon which wise men do use to adventure their lives estates and honors wil easily and clearly appeare if the right way be taken to shew it the authority of the Church being so farre beyond all wittnesses used in judgments and all probabilities men use to rely upon in warre and in marchandising that there is no comparison betweene them And the objections which Heretikes use to bring to hinder their clients from embracing the Catholike faith are for the most part but authorities of the nature of those we have discoursed of before Which in such abundance of writings as are in Scripture and in the Fathers cannot faile of being easily mett with by those who purposely seeke them there being in them so many sayings delivered upon the by whiles the Author is attentive to some other question or in circumstances not well knowne to us In fine such difficulties as is impossible to be avoided in much speaking and that neither convince the Authors minde nor much lesse the verity of the question debated The Arguments which are drawne from reason for the proofe or disproofe of particular points are chiefly about Mysteries difficult in nature against which Heretikes use to frame the ordinary obvious objections As against the blessed Trinity how the same thing can be one and three against the Incarnation how the same person can be God and Man and against the Holy Eucharist how can Christes body be divided like a homogeneall body or be at the same time in different places such kind of arguments Universally are hard to be answered because neither the propounder nor the auditory have usually Philosophy enough to understand the solution and sometimes the answerer himselfe falleth short For not every Catholike nor yet every Catholike disputant is necessarily a great Philosopher At the least if the Catholike disputant suspecteth his adversaries subtility in questions of this nature he ought either to bee provided for him or abstaine from disputing or professe himselfe no Master in such speculations and so rather wave them with his owne disparagement then attempt them with the dishonour of the cause In other points the objections against Catholike Truths are generally very triviall ones As against the Popes authority that there cannot be more heads or foundations then one and that Christ is that one Against satisfaction for sinnes that Christ satisfyed sufficiently for all mankinde Against praying to Saints that there is but one Mediatour or that Saints have no eares and therefore can not heare And the like which are pittifull pulpit-bables to fill the mouths of weake persons as soone as with one of these they have troubled some simple persō that themselves are fitt to dispute with the Pope of Rome Such toyes are obvious against any thing And an exercised disputant can not be ignorant of the answeres to them though he may soone be weary of the employement in answering them and ashamed of having suffered himselfe to be drawne unto it As for arguments from reason to proove Catholike Truths They may have as much strength as the disputant is capable of For no argument is so strong but that if it be shott from a weake hand it may prove wholly blunt and impenetrant And therefore I leave the Catholike disputant to his owne discretion in this part Which will tell him that he ought not to engage himselfe in it unlesse he be assured both that his dart is a good one and that he hath the dexterity to ayme it right and the strength to throw it home Out of this short survey of the nature of arguments a good Logician will easily discerne that it is meere losse of time to fall on disputing with one who is not able or will not so much as professe to bring a demonstration for what he intendeth to prove It being indeed to no more purpose then the tossing of balls in a tennis court So that the reason why wee answer or att least ought to answere Hereticks arguments is because they thinke them demonstrative which are not for want of sufficiency in Logick and wee make oppositions which are not demonstrative because they are not able to judge what a demonstration is for to please them with apples whose stomachs loaht strong food The sixteenth REFLEXION On the Qualities requisite in the Auditory that is present att the Disputation HAving said thus much of the disputants It is reasonable to say a word or two of the Auditory Those then before whom you are to dispute are either favorable to you or cōtrary or indifferent And because these qualities arise either out of the understanding or out of the will we will take a survey of these two faculties To begin with the understanding It is cleare that in order to that nothing rendereth a man unfitt to be at such a disputation but incapacity And this is either naturall or for want of study and art or by custome The incapacity of nature is helped by much explication and so is that which proceedeth from want of study with this difference that natural incapacity is taken away by explicating the particular Matter in hand which is tolerable because it doth not draw the disputation out of its owne boundes But when the incapacity is through want of study It is because the disputation supposeth some principles whereof the Auditory is ignorant And these are of two kindes The one Logicall the other Theological The first happeneth chiefely in the use of disputation As if the Auditory be ignorant of the forme that ought to be used in disputing and so wil have the disputant play the defendants part or contrariwise the defendant act the disputants part or desireth that instead of rigorous forme they fall on discoursing or preaching at large Likewise if he be ignorant of the right use of distinction And so either hindereth the defendant from distinguishing when it is necessary he should or permitteth it him when there are not truly two senses in the wordes the disputant speaketh But the defendant by adding some wordes of his owne seemeth to finde two senses where indeed there is but one As for example If the disputant should assume that it is the nature of a man to have two legges And the answerer should distinguish allowing it to be the nature of white men but not of blacke men or the nature of Europeans but not Africans Now if this be allowed the disputant is wronged For taking his rise from this that to have two legges is the nature of a Man hee might prove that Africans have two legs because they are men So for want of Logcik in the respondent and in the Auditory the defendant is not allowed to take the nature of Man in common but is confined to the nature of an European and so is putt beside his argument The second
word Father But as it is a substance â—ove it is not well expressed by either â—f these names but by the common â—ame of an Holy Spirit or Ghost made proper by want of a proper expression And this is that wee meane when we â—ay there are in God three Persons Faâ—her Sonne and Holy Ghost This indivisible thing we call God â—nd professe that he made time and in or with the beginning of time all other â—hings Whether spirituall and indivisible or bodily and subject to division and corruption or mortality Among the rest and as the principall of these Creatures which we know by our sense and conversation he made Man that is one man and one woman Hee made them such that by the corruption they were subject unto they should not be extinguished like the other Creatures sett round about them but should remaine spirituall things capable seeing him and of eternall happinesse These two he created in such state that reason was in them more powerfull then sense And could with ease have kept them from all unreasonable actions and from the unhappy effects of them had not the Envy of an other Intellectuall creature whom we call the Divell seduced the woman and by her meanes made the man also eate of fruits which they were fore-warned would bring them death and misery By this meanes disorder being brought into the two first men both in body and soule all their progeny became vicious every child drawing from his parents disorderly inclinations which avert him from the love and care of true Blisse and which strengthned by custome and opinion were able to carry the whole masse of Mankinde to eternall infelicity the just and deserved punishment of this default and its evill consequents This slavery of Man kinde to sinne was so strong that God Almighty was forced to lett great raines destroy it all reserving by his mercy onely 8. persons to people the world a new making the world it selfe much lesse distractive or inveighing with the pleasures of it by making it fuller of miseries And after a while againe he was forced to pitch upon one man and his seede neglecting the rest to conserve in them though weakely by lawes and speciall government the seedes of vertue often strengthening them by extraordinary meanes and encreasing their knowledge Yet for all that vertue faded much in them This people he governed first in Republike afterwardes in Royalty and lastly by Priests untill notwithstanding all his care and their science the people was growne into an extremity of perversenesse Then he came to the last remedy and taking or as it were grafting into his owne substance the nature of Man became the teacher and example to Man-kinde of all vertuous actions and good life And because mans nature was grafted by its noblest part that is by his Meus or roote of understanding to which God as a substance knowledge hath proportion It is rightly delivered unto us that the sonne of God tooke flesh upon him to be our guide and rule and not the Father or Holy Ghost though they both of them are inseparably in him So God who by his Ministers had hitherto instructed mankinde by Allegories and similitudes proportionable to their carnall imbecillity Now in his owne person opened the way to heaven in as plaine termes as mans nature is capable of teaching to abstract our selves from the love of creatures and to adhere to him by love of future blisse of our soules Having compleated the course of his teaching by word and example and having shewed us how to beare not feare the miseries of this world even death it selfe he thought good to give us a scantling of our future blisse of body being raised to life the third day after his death and during 40. days shewing us a new Nature which our bodies are to obtaine in the last resurrection if so we deserve it During his abode upon earth he chose certain believers called Apostles and under them did sett a number of disciples gave them authority to preach and practised them in it even during his owne life but ordered them more especially towards his departure how they should behave themselves in the conversion of Jewes and Gentils and how they should governe the people they converted and brought to his beliefe After this he left them ascending in their sight above the cloudes And after 10. dayes according to his promise he so replenished them with faith and charity that he made them fitt Executors of his commands and instruments of building the Church he intended to spread over all nations He gave them fervour of heart knowledge of tongues and power of miracles together with discretion to use all to the end for which he designed them This Church being to consist of all man-kinde as one Body-Politike He thought fitt to sett universall rules of certaine externall actions and practises common to all by and in which they should communicate together and know one another And the maine scope of this instruction being to bring Men to the honour and service of God He made likewise for the principall of our eternall actioÌ„s one to be a publike testimony and recognisance that God is the sole Author of good to us and absolute Master of Life and death of Being and of Not-Being Such a ceremony is called a Sacrifice This he did immediatly before his death taking bread and wine and after imposition of his handes or blessing them he assured us that the thing he then gave was that very body which was to be wounded and that very Bloud which was to be shed for us And so against all prejudice of sense wee believe that the substances of bread and wine were changed really into the substance of this body and bloud notwithstanding that the Natures that is all the operations and resemblances of bread and wine do remaine as before This he commanded his Apostles to doe and by mediation of this sacrifice or obtestation or highest Prayer to obtaine for the quicke and the dead what ever is fitt to be impetrated for them He commanded also that doing this we should remember or rather commemorate that is offer in a human phrase to Gods remembrance his death and passion For as it is a true sacrifice by the reall and locall parting of his body and blood so this being done under the shapes of bread and wine becometh a figure and allegory of the reall and blondy separation of them made upon the holy Crosse This sacrifice performed which convenient ceremonies we usually call the Masse This incorporation of all Christians into the body of Christ by participation of this sacrifice is the highest motive of love to Christ and to one another that can fall into mans heart and therefore hath ever been a symbol or token of peace among Christians and is esteemed the Mystery or sacrament of Charity But because Christian life consisteth of seven vertues three Theologicall and foure Cardinall Christ delivered other six