the rest If therefore Protestants are in the wrong we are certainly in the right as far as we are opposite to them And besides since that all the positive Proofs that can be brought for the infallible Authority of Church-Teachers express also in what Church they are by evident Marks not to be found but in our Catholic Church it follows if the Protestants be in the wrong as to that Principle we are certainly in the right as to each Point of our Religion taught us by an unerring Interpreter Preserv f. 80. This that the Protestant Faith is uncertain may signifie two things First That the Objects of our Faith are uncertain and cannot be proved by certain Reasons Secondly That our Persuasion is wavering Answ f. 7. Besides the two mention'd it fignfies a Third thing also to wit That whatever Reasons there may be for a thing he who believes it hath not for the Motive of his Belief those certain Reasons There are for Example certain Reasons whereon to ground a Faith in Jesus Christ yet he that believes in Christ meerly because his Mother or a Minister hath taught him so to do hath a very uncertain and no Divine Faith. Defence f. 18. What can be the Gentleman's meaning I cannot conceive unless it be this That because Protestants take the Reason of their Faith from Scripture and not from the Church of Rome that therefore they can have no certain or Divine Faith which if it be I pity him if it be not I must desire him to explain himself Answer The honest Footman is grown very tender-hearted But is not this very plain that altho' there be very good Reasons for the belief of an Article of Christian Religion yet one that should believe it on the account of some silly Motive only such as I cited would have no Divine Faith But how can this be applied to Protestants who take the Reasons of their Faith from Scripture This I had shewed Fol. 6. but the Footman passes it by with this Answer only I shall say nothing to that Harangue so often Answered by our Divines It seems he had forgot those Answers or was conscious of their weakness Thus I discoursed there The Catholics prove that an uncertain or wavering Faith is no Divine Faith which the Protestants can never have of any one Article of their Religion because they never can have a certain one 'T is easily proved because they cannot have an act of Faith of any one Article till their Rule of Faith proposes it i. e. till they know certainly by their private Reading and Judgment what the Scriptures teach of it not by some one Text or two but by comparing all the Texts that treat of that Subject for the Sense of a single Text for Examp. My Father is greater than I cannot be had but by expounding it by other Texts on the same Subject Till a Protestant then hath a certain knowledge First that he hath all the Books of Holy Writ Secondly that all those he owns for such were really written by inspired Pens Thirdly that he hath a true and sound Translation in case he understood not the Original Languages and in case he doth a true Copy not altered by the Error or Malice of our Forefathers Fourthly since the Letter kills that he understands the true Meaning and Sense of each Text which relates to the Object of his Act of Faith Fifthly that he remember them all so as comparing them to see which be the clearer that must expound the obscurer and what is the true result of them all for any one which he understands not or hath forgotten may possibly be that one that must expound the rest he cannot have one Act of Faith. Now Catholics say this is impossible to most if not to all Protestants who are in each of these Points to Judge for themselves and not to submit to any Authority where a Doubt arises therefore few or no Protestants can in their whole Life-time frame one Act of Divine Faith concerning any one Mystery not that Scripture is not a very certain Rule but because they have chosen an useless because impossible and uncertain way of applying it Preservat ib. We believe the Apostles Creed and whatever is contained in the Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles This is all we believe and I hope they will not say these things are uncertain Answer They are very certain but not to any Protestant whose Rule of Faith considering the Method he applies it by cannot make him certain of any one Article But the pleasant Answer which Justifies Turk Jew and Gentile For this is a Rule of Faith most sufficient according to Dr. Sherlock and a good Plea We believe all that God hath revealed and nothing else is not all that he hath revealed certain Here lies the Doctor 's gross Mistake that no one is an Heretic for not believing that what God hath revealed is true 't is impossible to fall into so mad an Heresie But Heretics are such for not believing him to have revealed what in effect he hath tho' he hath given sufficient Methods to come to the knowledge of it if they would use them Defence Do Jews Turks and Gentiles believe all that is contained in the Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles Answer No Sir nor you neither If they believed all that God hath revealed as they pretend they would believe all that is delivered in the Bible which you pretend but upon as little ground What they think in their Judgment God hath revealed they believe what they think he hath not revealed they disbelieve that 's their Rule of Faith and 't is yours your own private Judgments being on both hands your Guides and not any Authority Established by Almighty God. Preservat f. 81. If these things which are believed by those who take their Faith from the Bible interpreted by their own final Sense be not built upon certain Reasons their Infallible Church can have no certainty of the Christian Faith. Answer Even this is most notoriously false since she is not Infallible by any Light of her own but by the Guidance of the Spirit of Truth Were not the Apostles when they had once acknowledged Christ to be the Son of God certain of all he revealed to them before he had given them certain Reasons for it It were a blind Impiety to think so Defence f. 19. Was there in that Case of the Apostles a certain Faith without a certain Reason An infallible Man must know things as they are or else he is mistaken Answer The Footman is very dull here and cannot distinguish between a certain Reason moving me to believe him that speaks and a certain Reason in the things that are delivered moving me to believe them This Second Dr. Sherlock requires saying That if these things which are believed be not built upon certain Reasons the Infallible Church seeing not any such Reasons can have no certainty of the Christian Faith. An
Name not found in Scripture which so displeased the Arians heretofore and Calvin of late not by making any new Article of Faith but more clearly delivering what was ever believed by the Apostles and all Catholics from their time to this so that still we own Sanctae Scripturae sufficienter Continent omnem scientiam Necessariam Scotus Q. 2. prologi Viatori That Holy Scripture contain all that is necessary to a Christian to know in this life and with Bellarmin Non est de fide nisi quod Deus per Apostolos aut Prophetas revelavit aut quod evidenter inde deducitur That nothing is of Faith but what Christ revealed by the Prophets or Apostles or what is Evidently deduced from it The Church being only our Guide to the understanding of the true and full sense of Scripture This Pope Celestin owned to the General Council of Ephesus Agendum nunc est ut Labore Ep. 7. Communi Credita per Apostolorum successione detenta servemus That the whole work of the Church representative is only to Conserve by a clear Exposition of it what the Church diffusive retained in a continual Succession as first taught by the holy Apostles and so continually by their Successors This is all the Council of Trent pretended unto For Councils says an Eminent Member of it have the assisting presence of the Holy Ghost only to declare those Articles infallibly true which Christ from the beginning revealed And Secondly When Errors and Abuses arise to a growth to gather infallibly from what hath been revealed those Truths which all Christians are bound to believe and to follow in Faith and Manners Ad Extirpandos errores abusus infallibiliter etiam ex revelatis Colligere populo Christiano credenda Vega. usurpanda in fide moribus Then continues the same They are gathered in the Name of Christ when they declare only such things as were revealed by Christ and brought down to us in the Holy Scripture or certain Apostolical Traditions The Apostles themselves used no other Method and St. Paul as Infallible as he was owned That he presumed Rom. 15. to teach only what he had from Christ to which witness was born by Miracles Non Audio aliquid loqui eorum quae Per me non efficit Christus in veritate signorum And this infallible Certainty we allow to the Church only in such things as She declares necessary to be known and believed in order to our Salvation not in impertinent or indifferent things For we say still with Tertullian Nobis curiositate non opus est post Christum inquisitione post Evangelium We seek not curiously into any thing but what is clearly revealed but what was taught when the Gospel was first preached Our Church then hath not power to make new Articles of Faith nor ever pretended to it but is a mere yet infallible Witness to the anciently revealed ones In Her Name Tertullian declares Ibidem Nobis nihil licet ex nostro arbitrio inducere Apostolos Domini habemus Authores qui nec ipsi quidquam de suo arbitrio elegerunt quod inducerent We can bring in nothing of our choice the Apostles are the Authors of what we teach who themselves taught nothing of themselves Christ promised to be with them and their Successors Mat. 28. till the end of the World only in order to the declaring of these things which he himself revealed and taught especially in those forty days betwixt his Resurrection and Omnia quaecunque mandavi vobis Et loquens de regno dei Ascension when he taught them all that concerned the Kingdom of God on Earth his Church The infallibility of the Church being thus Expounded and such is that which Catholics believe and are guided by I cannot conceive how any Christian can object any thing against it who believes that what God revealed must necessarily be true and that Christ and the Holy Ghost be infallible I proceed then to prove that God hath revealed the Catholic Church should ever be guided by his holy Spirit and ever follow that Guide and never fall into any Error in Faith and to do it most convincingly against all Sectaries I will prove it by the Texts of Holy Scripture such as their very Bible offers and this not by two or three which would suffice but by a number and that I may not seem to give my own sense to those Texts I will join to them the Exposition of the Holy Fathers given in all Ages according to the sense of the Catholic Church By the Catholic Church I mean not only the Church of all Ages but the whole Church of any Ages and consequently the Catholic Church of this Age for it is the same Church there being but One as all our Creed teaches us I say as the Jews did yield a full belief to God and his Servant Moyses to God as the author of their Faith and to Moyses as the Exod. 14. Crediderunt domino Moysi servo ejus Propounder and Witness of it so each Catholic in any Age believes God and the Church of his Age that Church being Causa Exemplaris the Pattern and Exposition of his Faith. That this Church is an infallible Witness to all that Christ did teach is evident from the Commands laid upon us by the Prophets by Christ our Lord by the Apostles to receive with an entire submission all that it delivers for it is inconsistent with Gods infinite Veracity that he should oblige us to believe an Error Almighty God by Isay teaches us that all Nations shall resort unto Her as a Judge Adding Every Isay 2. 3. 54. 7. 60. 12. Ezech. 44. tongue resisting thee in judgment thou shalt condemn and the Nation and Kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish The plain reason for it is given by Ezekiel where God promises that when Controversies arise he will decide by his Churches Verdict They shall stand in judgment and shall judge according to my Judgment Hence St. Augustin looking upon the judgment of the Church as certainly that of God declares the only reason why St. Cyprian though in an Error yet was no Heretic to be because his Error was not yet Condemned Nondum plenario Concilio decisus l. 1. c. 18. de Bapt. Certissimam fidem ibid. c. 9. c. 4. Nolle primasdare vel sumae impietatis est vel praecipitis arrogantiae De util Gred. c. 17. Donec plenario rotiqs orbis Concilio quod saluberrime sentiebatur etiam remotis dubitationibus firmaretur Habere Jam non potest Deus Patrem qui Ecclesiam non habet Matrem c. Neque enim vivere foris possunt cum Domus Dei una sit Et nemini salus esse nisi in Ecclesiä possit Cypr. de Unit. by the Churches Representative a General Council That a most firm belief is to be yielded to such Decisions and that Not to submit to the Church is the
separatur Cypr. de Unit. Eccles that consequently who ever forsakes her and adheres to an Adulteress any Heretical or Scismatical Congregation looses all right to the Promises made to the Church So certain was St. Gregory Nazianzen that this Si nunc vel ante suscepti sunt qui Apollinaris placita sectantur hoc ostendant nos aquiescemus Perspicuum enim Erit eos ut rectae Doctrinae assentientes susceptos fuisse nec enim se res aliter habere potest 〈◊〉 hoc consequuti sunt Church could never admit any Heretics into her Communion That as zealous an opposer as he was to the Apollinarists he owned he would acquiesce to them if they could prove they had ever been received into the Catholic Churches Communion which would be an undoubted proof that they were fallen into no Heresie And in that case it could not be otherwise but that they did assent to truth St. Athanasius owned this Rule so infallible that he conceived no other Arguments ought to be used against Heretics but this which alone Epist ad Cledon Tantummodo ad ea respondendum est quod ipsum per se sufficit ea Ecclesiae Orthodoxae noti esse nec Majores nostros it a sensisse Epist ad Epist Epist Corim. is sufficient that their Opinion was not the Doctrin of the Orthodex Church that our Ancestors were of another perswasion But what debate can there be of this truth amongst Christians after so plain a decision of Christs own Divine Mouth Matt. 16. 18. The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against her having first assured Peter that he was a Rock unmoveable and that on that Rock he would build his Church On Peter then and his Successors not on their Shoulders indeed as a Protestant Divine very briskly proved but on their personal unmoveable Faith this Church is ever to be built whence all holy Fathers have ever derived the Infallibility of Doctrin promised to the Church Let the great Patriarch of Alexandria S. Cyril be an Instance of it Tâ—â—s Sirname Petram opinor per agnominationem nihil aliud quam inconcussam firmissimam discipuli fidem vocavit in quâ Ecclesiâ Christi ita fundata firmata esset ut non laberetur esset inexpugnabilis inferorum portis in perpetuum manens Cyril in Dial. ad Prin. l. 4. of Rock says he is the unmoveable and most firm Faith of this Disciple on which the Church of Christ should be so founded and setled that it should prove impregnable to the Gates of Hell lasting for ever And that all might know that 't is the virtue of the Holy Ghost by whose Infallibility in Guiding the Church remains Infallible in being Guided our Saviour informs his Apostles of it and us by them Joh. 14. 16. He my Father will give you another Paraclite that may abide with you for ever and consequently with their Successors as a Land given to one for ever by force thereof belongs to his Heirs the Spirit of Truth whom the World knows not St. Ambrose who observed no such Promise made to particular Men reading Scripture had hence reason to conclude Let no Man make the Law the measure of his Faith but report it to Nemo fidem suam intra mensuram legis includat sed ad Ecclesiam conferat in quâ septiformis Spiritus gratia relucet uam Princeps ille Sacerdotum fulgore supernae divinitatis illuminat Lib. 7. c. 11. in Luc. the Church in which the Grace of the seven-fold Spirit shines whom that Prince of the Priests doth enlighten with Rays of the Divinity from above Hence Origen concuded That the Son of God as the Scriptures teach us is the Soul of the Body of Lib. 6. contra Gels Christ which is the Church of Christ That the Word of God by a wonderful Virtue moves together all the Members of his Church And can it enter into a Christians thought that a Body guided by the Holy Ghost moved by Christ shall ever go astray But Tertullian represents with a most sensible Energy the weakness of those who can harbor the least suspicion of it The Holy Ghost says he to this intent was sent by Christ to this end was asked of the Father that he should be the Teacher of Truth Did this Steward of God neglect his Office Did this Vicar of Christ permit the Church to believe to teach otherwise than Christ himself Preached by his Apostles St. Paul did not believe it possible when he called the Church not only the House of God but also the Pillar of Truth I omit here those plain Texts of Scripture to be found so frequently in it by which Christ declares this Churches Perpetuity only minding you Sir of that Saying of one of the most famous and Learned Primates of this Kingdom ' T is the same in the Church to Err and to Perish Idem est errare perire Ecclesiam Hanc sacrilegam vanitatem evertit Evangelica veritas Prophetarum atque SS Patrum non violanda authoritas Lanfranc contr Bereng Wherefore since the latter cannot happen if God in revealing cannot Err we may conclude with him that to say it can Err is a Sacrilegious Vanity which the Authority of the Prophets of the Gospels of the Fathers utterly reproves That what Promises were made to the Apostles for the Support and Continuance of the Church are made good to their Successors the lawful Pastors Reason it self evidently makes out God not withdrawing the Means whilst he designs the End. And St. Augustin expresses it fully in these words Commenting on those of the Royal Prophet For thy Fathers Children are born to thee The Apostles did beget thee they were sent they Preached they were thy Fathers but Genuerunt te Apostoli ipsi missi sunt ipsi praedicatores ipsi patres sed numquid nobiscum ipsi semper esse potuerunt Ergo eorum discessu deserta est Ecclesia Absit pro Apostolis nati sunt tibi filii constituti sunt Episcopi c. Aug. in Psal 44. could they remain for ever with us Was then the Church deserted by their departure God forbid For thy Fathers Children were born to thee Bishops were Constituted Think not thy self abandon'd because thou seest not Peter thou seest not Paul Out of thy Issue Fathers are given thee Hence in his Dispute he wonder'd at the sensless Position of Gaudentius Lib. 2. c. 8. contra Gauden the Donatist teaching that the Church had Perished and yet owning their Congregation to be the true Church since Donatus could not be a Father in the true Church had he not been a Son thereof had she Perished before he laid the Foundation of his Schismatical Body Against the same Heretics and the Schismatics of these Days he is as plain on the Psal 103. What mean some says he in the Name of the Church who abandoning me murmur against Quid est quod nescio qui recedentes a me
of Faith and a new Religion or at least Phanatick-like by Enthusiasms and new marvelous Revelations make new additions to our Faith so that we may have daily a different one their Votaries like a blind Herd being driven now to one Opinion then to another yet still supposing themselves infallibly right all this is a monstruous misrepresentation without one word of truth but men who themselves follow a lawless fancy and loose liberty must thus disfigure that admirable Guide which God hath left us otherwise they would soon be without any followers this account I shall deliver here of the infallible Guide which Catholics follow the Church of God will I am sure represent her in very different because in her true proper Colours Our Guide then is the Catholic Church either diffusive in its whole extent or representative in its Head and Bishops the Pope and a General Council for as in the State here in England we have a Common Law and a Statute Law the first not compiled by any one Lawgiver but delivered by all the Judges and Sages of the Law and preserved in all Courts and the daily use of the whole Kingdom the second delivered particularly by the Kingdoms Great Representative in its Head and Members the King and lawfully convened Parliaments So in the Church there is a general Faith first received from Christ and his Apostles and preserved by all Bishops in their respective Diocesses and in the mind and actions of each faithful Believer in the whole Catholic Church and when any difficulty arises by the opposition of new Heresies then the Church Representative the Pope and a General Council or Synod of the ablest and Holiest Bishops of the Catholic Church deliver their Sentence in favour of the ancient Truth ever followed in the Church which Decisions or Canons are like our Statute Law only declaring and applying to particular instances the Common Law or Belief of the Church We hold that this general Faith received from the Apostles and preserved in all the Members of the Catholic Church explained upon occasion by the Church Representative is infallibly true and this is all the infallibility the Catholic Church pretends unto neither the whole Church nor any person or persons in it are held to possess any intrinsick infallibility which we own to be proper to God alone Nay no man in this present state or condition of life as our Divines observe can be in himself impeccable or infallible all are of themselves subject to Error Scotus in 2. diff 2 3. Q. as well as to sin and whatever God doth in favour of his Church doth no more alter her defectibility than a strong man lifting up a great weight with a Child takes away the natural weakness of the Child which remains still the same though the weight not moveable to the Child be in effect drawn or lifted up Hence Rufinus observes that we do not say in our Creed I believe in the Holy Catholic Church as we say I believe in God the Father In Jesus Christ In the Holy Ghost By that Preposition that syllable in we separate the Creator from his Creatures Divine help from In Symb. art Eccless S. Cat. Hac prepositionis syllaba Creator a Creaturis secernitur divina humanis separantur Humane means but we say of these humane means appointed by Almighty God that although they be fallible and exposed to error in their own nature yet by Gods appointment and Grace they will prove infallible as to us and certainly lead to the knowledge of truth We do not say that they cannot of themselves deceive us but that God according to his promise directing them by his infallible Spirit it cannot possibly happen that they should deceive us If then says S. Thomas our Creed as many understand it teaches us to believe in the Catholic Church this is the sence of it That is to say our Faith leans on the Holy Ghost and the meaning of these words are I believe in the Holy Ghost who sanctifies the Hoc est intelligendum secundum quod fides nostra refertur in Spiritum sanctum Sanctificantem Ecclesiam holy Church and Guides her When God revealed to St. Paul that he should come to Rome and die there or to St. Peter that being grown old he should be Crucified were either of them immortal the one till he came to Rome the other till he became old not the least they were as srail as before as exposed to Diseases within as capable of being wounded and that mortally yet in a true sense they were immortal for that time because that by reason of the Revelation and protection of God it was impossible they should die before they came the one to Rome the other to old Age according to the Revelation Thus should God reveal to a Traveller in a wild Wilderness full of wild Beasts and beset by Thieves that he should pass certainly unhurt and not fall he nor those who follow him into the Hands of these or Claws of those this man would remain as weak as ignorant of the ways as exposed to danger as before yet would prove an infallible Guide to those who would follow him So supposing which I shall presently prove that God hath promised to the Catholic Church that his holy Spirit should guide her in all truth that she shall follow that true Guide and ever avoid falling into Error though each Member of the Church remain as fallible as weak as subject to Error as before yet it evidently follows that this Church will infallibly avoid all Errors never lead any of her followers into it and this is all we mean by the Churches infallibility A thing when thus rightly understood as clear as evident as certain as that God's Revelation cannot prove false as that the Holy Ghost and Christ himself who remains with the Teachers of this Church be in themselves infallible We do not expect any new Revelations or Lights we do not admit any new Article of Faith though where a doubt arises the Church hath infallibly power to declare what hath been revealed by Christ to the Apostles and Preached by them which perchance some part of the Church might have had a less clear understanding thereof and though when the sense of Scripture appears doubtful to some this Church can explain infallibly what the true sense and meaning is and deliver more explicitly what is implyed in the Word of Scripture for example if some doubts whether in the Mystery of our Lords Supper there be a true Change of the substance of Bread into that of the Body of our Lord. This Holy Church can declare that these plain words This is my Body do declare it and to avoid further mistake may give a new clearer Name to the old Mystery so revealed by Christ and Preached by the Apostles calling it Transubstantiation as She calls the Mystery of God one in Nature and three in Persons Holy Trinity a
love his King and pay Allegiance to him alone therefore no Reason can justifie the love of a Man for his Wife or of a Child for his Father St. Augustin drew from that very Text the contrary Conclusion he takes off all blame from Abraham who is said in Genesis to Q. 61. in Gen. have Adored or Worshipped the People of the Land because 't is observable says the Holy Doctor That in the Commandment 't is not said thou shalt Worship God alone as it is said and him alone thou shalt serve which in Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for such a service of Latria is given to God alone Defence f. 12. What a delicate piece of Sophistry is here The Commandment is to serve God only which service we must of necessity understand to be that which is Divine but Worship is so Therefore the Text is plain against the Worship of any other but God. Answ All that is plain in this Answer is that men necessarily want a Guide in the interpreting of Scripture and that an infallible one also for such is the pride of some men that even an ignorant Foot-man as you see thinks he understands the Bible better than the Holiest and most Learned of Doctors S. Augustin and what reason teaches of the Service of God better than the most enlightened Patriarchs Abraham Worships men S. Augustin declares that the Commandment hath nothing against it there being an inferior Worship which is far below Divine Service but the Protestant Doctor teaches his Footman to aver that all Worship so he should have said to have spoken sense is Divine that the Text is plain against the Worship of any other but God. How likely is it they shall by their own judgment and reason understand the Bible who cannot construe right the Commandments no not the first of them and if Dr. Sherlock and his Footman understand right the first Commandment St. Augustin did not Do you not blush Sir to License the boldness of such ignorant Pride Preservative f. 26. Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven Image Is so express a Law against Image-Worship that no reason must be admitted for it Answ f. 6. What if you be told that the Jews may perhaps have had a Command of making no graven Image c. yet this being a positive Law and not renewed in the Gospel doth not oblige us will this Reason be admitted of No no reason and yet you have no other reason for passing by as Express a Law of Sanctifying Saturday What if it be rejoyn'd that only the making to themselves by private Authority making that to be which is not a Statue for Example which of its nature is the representation of a Man or a Calf to be to them a true God an Idol to adore it which divine Worship thus misapplyed is forbidden Cannot this Reason be heard No then Belezeel by Gods direction and Command making several likenesses of things on Earth below and in Heaven above Salomon placing such in the Temple sinned against the first Commandment for the making of such is as distinctly forbidden as the Adoring So if a Law thus says Thou shalt not carry any Arms thou shalt not strike the carrying of Arms would be as directly against the Law as the striking so do all Painters and Carvers and all our London Merchants that hang out a Sign-post The truth is what sense they put on any Text is the express Law against which no reason must be heard so they challenge to themselves that infallibility which they so sturdily deny to the Church of God. Defence f. 13 14. 'T is held on all hands that the keeping of the Seventh day was Figurative and so abolished at the death of Christ but as far as it was Moral namely that a Seventh Day should be kept that still remains Besides Christ and his Apostles were Authors of this change Christ as he rose on that day so he usually did appear on that day to his Disciples and Scripture maintains the Celebration of it by the constant practice of the Apostles Acts 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 21. Answ We have four untruths in very few lines The first that 't is agreed on all hands that the keeping of the Seventh day was Figurative all that understand Scripture right say the contrary to wit that it was not a meer Shadow of a thing to come as Figurative speaks but a Memory of the past and never to be forgotten benefit of the Creation from the work whereof God rested on that day and says Moses blessed the seventh day 'T is a second Untruth then that the Moral part of it was only the keeping a seventh day and that Christ our Lord altered it 'T is an untruth that Christ our Lord usually appeared on that day to his Apostles for Acts 1. 3. S. Luke assuresus he appeared every day to them Perdies quadraginta apparens Eis Act. 1. 3. Act. 2. 7. Salutatio mea manu Pauli 1 Cor. 16. 21. How St. Pauls meeting at Troas with many in the participation of the Sacraments and disputing till Midnight it being the Eve of his departure or his subscribing his Epistle with his own Hands for these are the two Texts produced is a Proof that the Scripture maintains the constant practice of the Apostles of keeping Sunday Holy I leave it to you Sir to make out the truth of it Defence f. 14. 'T is sufficient with Catholics to submit to an infallible Guide and that too if he declares as the Council of Constance did Concerning the Eucharist that notwithstanding our Lord did Institute it in both kinds and the Apostles so celebrated it yet now it should not be so But for us Protestants we cannot think that any Reason can be sufficient to lay aside an Express Text. Answ The meaning of these words as they lay here is to persuade the Readers that the Council of Constance did own that Christ did Institute or order that the Sacrament should be taken by all in both kinds and that in the Apostles time it was ever so taken yet that by the Church Authority it was ordered it should hereafter be otherwise If the Honest Footman means not so and would not have all to believe so there is no sense at all in this his Inference That Protestants cannot think that any reason can be sufficient to lay aside an express Text. But in this sense 't is a most outragious Calumny and though a Footman's ignorance may be excused yet with what face Sir can you pretend to judge of Books and License them if you are in the same gross Error or if wilfully and wittingly you License such impudent Slanders against the whole Churches Representative what Libels and Lampoons are you not qualified and disposed to License These Decreta Concil Cons Dec. 4. are the words of the Council Although Christ did Institute this Venerable Sacrament after Supper and did administer it to his Disciples under both the
not to be Punished is to declare they value not Gods Love and Grace like Children but meerly fear the Lash like Slaves and all Catholics look on such a Disposition excluding positively all regard to Gods Grace and Love as incapable of receiving forgiveness of Sins Christ hath made Atonement for our Sins but his Blood is to be applied by Baptism and in case of Relapse by perfect Contrition or Penitential Works during Life or Punishment after Death before all Pain due to Sin be remitted thus applied it frees us from the whole Curse of the Law. No Suffering or Punishment is the Death of the Soul as Dr. Sherlock supposes but only the privation of Gods Grace which is her Life and which is enjoyed through Christ as much in Purgatory as by penitent Saints on Earth in their penitential Sufferings and the mercy of our Lord appears as much in purging his Members from all Stains of the least sin by the Fire of Purgatory as here by the toilsom Labors of a penitential Life such as his dearest Servants were ever purified by St. Paul never taught that all things that are not seen or of another World are Eternal or else God would be Eternally Judging and so never Rewarding his Servants or Punishing his Enemies so that Dr. Sherlock's Demonstration hath not so much as the least appearance of a seeming Reason Having thus represented our Faith I conclude with S. Augustin Enchirid. c. 10. against Dr. Sherlock It cannot be denied but that the Souls of the Dead are relieved by the Piety and Devotion of their living Friends as often as the Sacrifice of our Mediator is offered or Alms-deeds are done in the Church for them but these things do bring profit only to those who in their Life-time did merit to receive profit by the like after Death For there is a certain State of Life neither so good that it needeth not these Helps after Death nor so evil but that it may be helped by the same I have already Answered in the first Section all those Calumnies which are repeated here concerning the Blessed Saints Intercessions for us Our Doctrin directly opposite to the slanderous Misrepresentations here offered is 1. We look on the Prayers of Saints as meerly humble Supplications for we hold that Christ only standeth our Mediator challenging he alone in Justice and by his own Merits to be heard in favor of us 2. We conceive Charity to be at least as proper to and inseparable from the Seraphical Souls of Saints as from any of Gods Servants on Earth and as much inclining them to Pray for their Fellow-Members of Christ's Mystical Body engaged here below in Miseries and Dangers 3. We never required the Prayers of Saints to render God good and merciful but only when joyned with our Prayers to render these a fitter Object of Gods Mercy and to reconcile the Effects thereof to his Wisdom and Justice 4. Whatever pity the Saints may have on us we look on it as on a small Stâ—â—lâ—e situâ—â—e Drop compared to the Ocean of Gods infinite Mercy of which that very Pity and the Intercession of Saints is a free Gift to us given with all other Blessings together with and as an Effect of his greatest Gift to wit his Eternal Son with whom in whom and by whom he hath given us all things This Faith of ours doth I conceive most evidently expose the shameless Calumnies which Dr. Sherlock hath disfigured her by Thirty Misrepresentations and Calumnies offered by Dr. Sherlock in his Third and Fourth Sections and some of his Phanatical Principles NEver did Man speak more without Book without Truth and without any respect to Shame or Conscience this Preservative deserving more the Fate of defamatory Libels than those two which he prises and recommends Fol. 78. No Provincial Letters Jesuite Morals burnt by the Hangman Narrative of the Minister Oats contains more Lies and Calumnies against the Persons of Catholics than the Minister Sherlock's Preservative against their Religion the latter is infinitely more Impudent because he accuses with an equally shameless Scurrility not single Persons but most Princes Bishops Universities Kingdoms of the Christian World and all the General Councils to boot I do own and will maintain it That no man ever Lyed in Print with more Confidence ever was so deafned by Passion to all the Reproaches of Conscience and Honor And had not a long Custom of saying any thing in the Pulpit tho' never so monstrously false that could render Catholic Religion odious or ridicule it by disfiguring it dictated to his peevish Distemper this Second Part of his Preservative it would not I conceive have been possible that all the Gall that can drop from a Christians Pen should in one Pamphlet have heaped so many and so defamatory Calumnies Take the following Instances 1. The Catholics by unwritten Traditions that make up a part Fol. 73 74 75. of their Rule of Faith mean such things as may be concealed from the knowledge of the World for 1500 Years never heard of before in the Church of God kept very privately and secretly for several Ages and totally unwritten By Tradition we mean a Revelation received from God by the Apostles conveighed by the continual teaching and preaching of Lawful Pastors strengthned by the visible practice of Christian Churches found in the Books of succeeding Fathers and Historians though not in Canonical Scripture which St. Paul recommended 1 Tim. 6. 2 Thes 2. de Sp. S. c. 27. Ipsam fidei praedicationem ad nudum nomen Contrahemus to Timothy faithfully to be kept as a depositum And commanded the Thessalonians to observe which if it be laid by says St. Basil We shall retain of the Preaching of the Faith but an empty Name and which is delivered to us as Preached by the Apostles by the same means and with the same security at least as the Letter of the Gospel is conveighed to us as written by them 2. They teach several External Observances to be much more Fol. 79. pleasing to God and therefore much better in themselves than true Gospel Obedience Moral or Evangelical virtues that they supply the want of true virtue Compensate for sin and make men great Saints We teach that Gods inherent Grace only Sanctifies us and that whatever External observance void of Evangelical virtue is a sinful Hypocrisie and only can make one a greater sinner 3. They teach that when a Priest Absolves men that forsake Fol. 81 82. not their sins God must confirm the Sentence of his Minister and therefore they are Absolved and need not fear whence they believe that God can be reconciled to sinners whilst they remain in their sins And therefore they must believe that God hath given power to his Priests to Absolve those whom he could not Absolve himself We teach that to receive Absolution without a real forsaking of our sins in lieu of forgivness of them adds a hainous Sacrilege 4.