great Benefice to another not at all considering that if they were true Pastours they should feed Gods Sheep that is go preach in remote places of the world amongst Pagans that know not God as the Apostles did and as Catholick Priests do to this day and as all must do that follow the examples and commands left by Christ or else they cannot be of his sending by which we have very great reason to suspect all these new teachers that lie at home at ease and pleasure and are so far from taking the toil and pains of converting Pagans This is too truly proved by many that dye and never have either Sacraments nor any other comfort from them in their agony of Death that many of them will not stir to a poor person that lies a dying because they cannot receive a golden Recompence Again in the Catholick Church there be many thousands of her Members that are Royally and Nobly Born to great Possessions that quit them all to serve God in strict courses of Religion as Fasting Watching Praying giving Almes and many other bodily Mortifications in Religious Houses where nothing but the Service of God is exalted The vast difference of the two Churches practice Now I would fain know from whence the doing of so much good doth proceed but from the inspiration of God and for to finde one now of any other Religion nobly born or of mean quality to forsake an Estate for the Service of God in their way would be such a miracle as was yet never heard of amongst them nor never will be but on the contrary all people of all conditions take their full career in doing what they please themselves for they will not hear the Church nor Fast nor Pray nor receive the Sacrament but when their fancy pleases and so are let run in a negligent state never to give an account for their sinful actions to the Church at all as God commands we should and so by tis means the flood-gate of all evil is opened for all manner of people to plunge themselves over head ad ears in misery and utter calamity I could enlarge my self in showing the vast difference in many other practices as the beauty and ornaments of Catholick Churches when others are like Barnes in comparison of them the Reverence and Devotion of the Catholick people in them who on their knees adore God whilst others sit at ease some gazing and some asleep with many other practices of the like kinde but this may and will suffice for all those that desire to entertain truth and to minde the salvation of their souls to show clearly which is Gods Church and which is not so that which the Prophet Isaiah foretold is here made good that the Church of God should be a plain way and a direct way so that fools could not erre therein so that all those that itnend at the last day to be separated from the goats must now in this life graze with Gods Sheep that is they must enter into communion with his Catholick Church whereof Christ Jesus is the Head The Conents of the Chapters Chapter 1. Proving the Blessed Sacrament page 1 Chap. 2. Proving Confession to a Priest page 11 Chap. 3. Proving Purgatory page 16 Chap. 4. Proving that none went to Heaven before Christ dyed page 25 Chap. 5. Proving that Angels and Saints know our actions on earth page 31 Chap. 6. Proving it lawful to pray to them page 39 Chap. 7. Proving it lawful to worship them page 52 Chap. 8. Proving the lawfulness of Images page 59 Chap. 9. Proving Free-will in Man to do good page 67 Chap. 10. Proving Good Works to be Meritorious page 76 Chap. 11. Proving that Gods Church cannot Erre page 84 Chap. 12. Proving the Churches Authority in Remission of Sins page 91 Chap. 13. Proving the Churches Vniversality page 98 Chap. 14. Proving the lawfulnesse of Fasting page 108 Chap. 15. Proving the difficulty of understanding Scripture page 114 Chap. 16. Proving the necessity of the Churches Service in one Tongue in all Kingdoms page 126 Chap. 17. Shewing in general the vast difference of both Churches page 137 FINIS
Interpreter he would never have caused Saint Paul in his Epistle to command us to obey our Pastours whom he hath placed to rule over us and saith he Submit your selves Heb. 13.17 for they watch for your sols and shall give an account for you It is a wonder that this Text iâ— not blotted out by all self-conceiteâ— people or that they do not deny it to be good Scripture as they do many other places for if as St. Paul saith here we must obey our Pastours that is those that teach the true Faith of Gods Church why then we must forsake our own fancies in expounding hard places of Scripture because God hath given it in their charge to do that and put us into their charge too to be guided by them for saith the Text Submit to them and how do we that when we scorn them and submit to none but our own will quite contrary to Gods holy word which one day will be the onely witness against such kinde of men and since Saint Paul tells us that they watch over our souls and shall give an account for us who is it but those that are blinde doth not see that we are bound in conscience to submit to their judgements But the common peevish objection by many people is shall I pin my faith upon any mans sleeve or cannot I know and understand the Bible my self it is plain enough and thus poor souls are miserably cheated by the subtilty of Satan for this snare catches thousands for it is the very same that caught our first Parents for he made them believe that they should be as wise as God Gen. 3. ver 5. to know good and evil and so he leads these kinde of men to their desruction by telling them they may be as wise as their Pastors if they read the Bible they shall know the meaning as well as they and so these hellish suggestions passeth currant with them for the spirit that telleth them the meaning of all for the Devil well knoweth that if he possesseth any with self-conceit he has done his work And now I have discovered this great abuse that is put upon many men I will prosecute the remedy and declare what we is best to be taken to know those hard places in Scripture and the true sense of them First we are to renounce our own judgements which may easily deceive us and resign our selves to Gods Church which cannot for since we are sure that God ever had in the world a Visible Church and that this Church cannot not erre as I have proved before because the Holy Ghost is the guider of it what better way can any man possibly devise then by submitting his Faith to Gods Church for if we do so we do what God commands us and then we discharge our duty which if they that are in the visible Government of it teach us any thing that they ought not to do they shall answer it it to God and not we for we are in their charge and they must give an account for us as St. Paul before tell us and let any man in reason judge if there were no command for it by God whether it be not more secure to stand to the uniform judgement of one hundred thousand grave Doctors in Gods Church which all agree in one exposition of the Bible now and with all that hath gone before that were of the same Church then with their own private spirit or to relye upon those that cannot agree amongst themselves but ar ein continual contest one with another And for our further assurance and security we shall have by resigning our selves to the Church we are to consider that as Gods Church is guarded by his power from the Gates of Hell ever having any power over it so we as Members of it can never fall from our Faith as long as we are so resigned for till then we are continually wavering and unconstant in our mindes as too many by experience findes it true but when we are so settled we have perfect freedom to serve God in that second principle of Christian Religion which is good works I shall onely add one thing to all serious peoples considerations that is why there is so many sorts of Bibles amongst Protestants and all Sectaries and what their design is in it as for example some have all the Books of Scripture and some leave out the Apocraphy as they call it some have Contents to their Chapters and some have not and every translation differs in a thousand places at the least and the reason of it is clear to those that are not willing to be cheated in their souls because every Translator makes them dance after his Pipe that is the Bible he translates shall be sure to favour his pernicious opinions and being taxed with it they all cry the meaning is the same but I would demand of those presumptuous persons how they dare to alter the Scripture either by adding or diminishing since there is a curse pronounced against them that do Rev. 22. v. 18 19. by God himself for since we are all surek that the first Bible that we had for our instruction Deut. 4. v. 2. was writ by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost is it not a high presumption for any man to vary from that and then pretend that the meaning is the same when many times the altering of one Letter mars the sense of a whole Sentence much more when they alter a word nay Sentences themselves to work their own designs as if what God ordained at first had need to be corrected by their wisdoms by which it doth appear that if every Heretick could have his will he would trust out of Scripture all places that make against his principles and yet it would with them be as good Scripture as any and then to interpret that by their own private spirits must needs bring strange confusion both in the knowing which is the true word of God and what the meaning of it is If we consult with holy David we shall finde that he apprehended more difficulty in knowing the word of God then these kinde of men do who saith Give me understanding Psal 119. v. 34. O God and I will search thy Law sure he was as wise as any that pretend so much of the Spirit and yet he would not so much as search into those Mysteries without particular assistance from God So we read that the Eunuch which was a man of great authority under the Queen of Candice and so consequently of great knowledge yet when Saint Philip the Apostle asked him whether he understood what he read out of Isaiah concerning Christ he answered How can I Acts 8.30 31. except some man should guide me and then Philip whose charge it was declared the meaning to him by which we may see that he though a great man was not so presumptuous to interpret Scripture of himself as many do
now and yet might as well have pretended the spirit as they since we see he was so well given as to go so far from his own Countrey to worship God in Jerusalem and to read the Bible in his going home In like manner our Saviour meeting with two of his Disciples going to Emaus Luke 24. v. 27 45. after his Resurrection it is said he expounded to them all the Scriptures and when they were altogether he appeared to them and opened their understandings that they might know the Scriptures from whence we may justly gather that if his Disciples and Apostles which were so conversant with Christ in his life-time were so ignorant of Scripture as not to know the meaning of the Prophets which foretold his Resurrection the third day and other Mysteries of his Death and sufferings what ignorance then have we or at least we ought to think so that never had those large means that the Apostles had but such is the miserable state of these unhappy times that many think themselves more wise and more holy then the Apostles were or then the whole Church of God is now and I think in time they will like Lucifer suppose themselves equal to God himself Thus having sufficiently proved the difficulty of understanding the Scripture with the danger of expounding it to our own private sense together with what course to follow in knowing the true meaning which is by adhering to Gods holy Church I will conclude with that saying of Saint Augustine Augustin l. 1. cont Crescon Then do we hold saith he the verity of the Scriptures when we do that which now seemeth good to the Universal Church which the authority of Scripture themselves do commend so that forasmuch as the holy Scripture cannot deceive whosoever then is afraid to be deceived with the obscurity of questions let him therein ask counsel of the same Church which the holy Scripture most certainly and evidently pointeth and sheweth unto us Chap. 16. Proving the necessity of the Churches Divine Servince to be said in the Latine Tongue or in one Language in all places of the world where it is exercised contrary to Protestants Opinion DId all Christians follows the counsel of our Blessed Saviour in his commanding us to submit and adhere to Gods Church there would not be such quarrellings in our mindes nor bad speeches from our mouths against her holy Institutions which though sometimes have not an apparent rise from Scripture yet are ordained in the Church by the instinct of the Holy Ghost who as I said is alwayes with her to direct her in all her proposals to us concerning our Salvation and as we may reasonably think that as God hath committed to her charge the dispensation of the holy Sacraments to us and other high qualities so he hath invested her with power to Ordain Constitute and Decree any thing that may be to the good and benefit of the same Church which Decrees and Constitutions we are bound to observe and without any difficulty in Conscience may so long as it is not against Gods word but rather agreeable to the same amongst which things that are thus constituted by the Church this of the Latine Service is one which I shall prove to be somewhat agreeable to Scripture and altogether to Reason and the practice of the Church of God in all Ages First we will observe something pertinent to this in Saint Lukes Gospel wheere he declares Luke 1. v. 10. that when Zacharias the Priest was offering and praying to God in the Temple for himself and all the people that the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of his offering Incense by which it appears that they knew not what he said nor understood any thing of it which is now the main objection against us in this point by our Adversaries but to satisfie these people we are to take notice that the publick or common Service of Gods Church being compos'd of Sucrifice Prayers and Thanksgivings is therefore chiefly designed for the honour and glory of God as being every day offered up to him by the Priests and not for the edification of the people so much by understanding it as by the benefit they receive and partake of being present at it for when the Priest saith the service of the Church he offers it to God for himself 1 Cor. 14 v. 2. Heb 5. v. 1.2 3. for the people present for the whole Church or for any other necessities of people that are absent so that it matters not whether they understand him or no since they have as much benefit of his Prayers as if they did for if they heard him not speak a word it were the same thing so long as God both hears him and understands him to whom it is offered and designed for in Sacrifice Prayer and Thanksgiving the Priests spak to God and not to the people for example when any man lies sick or in distress at home he sends to the Church to be prayed for by the Minister and Congregation now shall we think because he hears nor understands not those which pray for him that he hath no benefit by their prayers this were absurd to think for then we should be never the better for our Saviours Intercession to his heavenly Father for us whom we understand not nor know when nor for what he intercedes to him and yet we all receive much good by it and so we do in the Priestâ— saying the Divine Service who representeth the place of our Saviour on earth to mediate for us and we are assured that the effectual servent prayers of a righteous man prevaileth much James 5. v. 16. whether we hear and understand them or no but yet to discover the folly of those that impugne this practise they may please to take notice that the Latine tongue is not so much unknown or understood as it is thought it is for if there was any need to understand the Service as I have proved there is not there be many thousands of our Church and others that understand the Latine Tongue and those people that do not are so well instructed by the Church that with the instruction and the custom of hearing Mass they know when to kneel and when to stand when to pray and when to give thanks when to do reverence and when not besides most of the Service they have in their English Books and may know any part of the rest when they will if there were any need as there is none so that it is not said in Latine because the common people should not understand it as Hereticks falsly report but for a great necessity and convenience in the Church as I shall suddenly prove but first it is observable that though the common people in England read th Bible in English yet they understand not half of it nor which is worse are never made to understand it yet Protestants will say they must