for her own Authority It cannot I say be any thing else because the thing they are proving is That She alone is the One Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church And were it any thing else they would never discover it to us because they would thereby give us an unanswerable Argument against what they would prove her to be for if they will shew us any other Church or Churches by the Testimony whereof Her Authority may be proved we are thereby enabled to prove She is not the Only true Church out of which there is no Salvation What then can this Testimony be Is it that of the First and purest Ages of the Church before POPERY was brought forth Not so to be sure for POPERY was they say from the beginning and glorieth of her Antiquity above all things Is it the Testimony of all others in the World that profess Christianity It cannot be for all these if not of her Communion are Hereticks and in a state of Damnation for denying her Authority and were it possible for them to witness that to be which they deny to be yet is their Testimony invalid because they confess themselves Fallible and this point of Faith cannot stand upon a fallible Testimony By this 't is very clear to me that the Testimony of the Catholick Church of Christ if it be produced for the Authority of the Church of ROME can be nothing else but the Church of ROME's own Word and I never doubted but she hath a good word for her self any more than I doubt lest it should be thought a good proof of her Authority I have heard again much talk of Universal Tradition among ROMAM CATHOLICKS but if they alledg this for their Church's Authority they give us only the same thing again in other Words Universal Tradition can be nothing else but the Testimony of the Universal Church and that must be the Church of ROME and so we are not advanced one step farther than we were before The Credit we are to give unto Universal Tradition depends on the Authority of the ROMAN Church which we have not yet sound but are enquiring after If Fathers and Councils be brought in to Witness this Authority all the noise they make will prove but the Voice of the ROMAN Church crying her self up for the great Diana of the World and thundring Anathema to all that will not fall down and worship her Will she abide by the Testimony of either Father or Council if they speak not what she has taught them or against what she holds Or shall they be allow'd to over rule the Oral and Practical Tradition of the present Church of ROME Are Councils of any Credit more than the POPE's Confirmation gives them And are single Fathers of more Credit than they If not we have yet no more but her own Word for her own Authority If they bring us SCRIPTURE to prove this Authority I must say that as we reverence Fathers and Councils so we adore with Tertullian the fulness of the SCRIPTURE neither can we desire any better Proof than its Testimony Yet when I consider how these men use the SCRIPTURE I am at a stand to think how they can in good earnest produce it as a Witness in this matter for after they have said almost all the ill they can of it calling it imperfect insufficient obscure unsens'd they seem to ridicule both it and us when they bring it forth thus disabled for a Witness Do not they tell us again and again that both the Canon and the Sense of SCRIPTURE depend as to us on the Authority and Interpretation of their Church And can its Testimony then possibly amount to any more than that Church's bare Word Do not they deny us a Iudgment of Discretion whereby we should discern for ourselves whether it speak fór or against their Church's Authority And will they yet produce it to convince us of the Authority by which alone we are both to receive and understand it It cannot be produced to convince us in our Iudgment for we are not allow'd any use of our Iudgment in the Case It must be only to convince themselves that we are Hereticks and I dare say that may be done without the Scripture as well as with it whilst their Church must give the Sense of it But because they know we magnify it they will produce it tho I cannot see to what other end than to persuade us to take heed of trusting too much to it or thinking it worth any thing after it hath shew'd us the true Church It must be believ'd no longer than it is authorized to speak by that Authority which is to be proved by it so that by shewing us that Authority it loseth all its own Authority for ever For this saith Stapleton that God hath commanded us to believe the Church we do not hang our Faith on the Authority of the Church as upon the proper and sole cause of this Belief but partly on manifest Scriptures by which we are remitted to the teaching of the Church partly on the Creed c. This then is the end of producing the Scripture that we may be convinced by it that we are no longer to learn of it after we are once brought by it to the knowledg of the Church's Authority but thenceforward are to depend wholly upon the teaching of the Church unto which it remits us All the use then that we have of the Scripture is to be guided by it to the Church of ROME tho it cannot do so much for us neither but as that Church guides it and having thank'd it for its kindness we are then to bid it good Night Now seeing manifest Scriptures are promised us to guide us to the ROMAN Church I think it reasonable to expect that they produce such Scriptures as are more manifest to us than their Church's Authority which is to be proved by them seeing it is by their Evidence I am to be convinced of that which as yet is unevident to me Neither ought the Sense of these manifest Scriptures depend upon the Interpretation or Authority of that Church the Authority whereof they are brought to prove as a thing to me not yet evident for so I shall be still but where I was before and instead of manifest Scriptures be shuffled off with the Church's bare Word I mean with such Interpretations of Scripture as I have no reason to receive but by that Authority whereof I am yet at least in doubt Now that there are indeed no such manifest Scriptures I am reasonably well assured before-hand I have read the Scripture over and over and find not the least mention therein made of this Authority of the ROMAN Church The POPE of ROME or his Supremacy is never once named from the beginning of the Bible to the end nor can I meet with one Syllable touching either the Infallibility or Iurisdiction of Him or his Councils or of any kind of Subjection due to
believe but this one Point for when once this great Gobbet is swallow'd down the Passage will be so well open'd that all other Points of Faith either go down with it or will slip after it without the least straining or grutching The Authority of God himself speaking in Scripture will be of no farther consideration to us for that we must suppose to be included in the Authority of our Mother the Church And whatsoever we shall thence-forward perceive to be the Will of our Mother we must without all scruple conclude it to be also the Will of our Father The Representer hath lately told us that tho the Scripture which is the Word of our Heavenly Father may be the Law yet the Mother the Roman Church is the Iudg. Having learn'd from her the sense of the Scripture we are obliged to submit to this and never presume on our own private Sentiments however seemingly grounded on Reason and Scripture to believe or preach any new Doctrine opposite to the Belief of the Church And there 's reason for this if it be true which he elsewhere tells us That a Man may very easily frame as many Creeds as he pleases and make Christ and his Apostles speak what shall be most agreeable to his humour and suit best with his Interest and find plain proofs for all he means in Scripture the truth whereof as of all other Points of Doctrine stands as he saith upon the same Foundation of the Churches Tradition which if it fail in one leaves no security in any This is indeed to advance the Church to the very top-branch of all Authority and to make the holy Scripture as very a Nose of Wax and as Leaden a Rule as any of that Church ever thought it seeing a Man may form and work it into Creeds of all fashions and find plain proofs in it for any odd Humour or carnal and Worldly Interest This then as far as I can learn by him is the only way for me to be a thorow Papist and a good Catholick I must lay aside my Reason and the Scripture and heed no more what either of these tell me only I must have my Ear open to the Voice of the Church and be wholly at her teaching and command and I shall be safe enough Upon the most serious consideration of the Character which the Papist is pleas'd to give us of himself I cannot find what it is for which they of that Church are so severely bent against us Protestants save only that we will not like tame Animals without any understanding of our own learn to come and go at a whistle or trot on the Road as we are driven and stoop to take on our Backs whatever Load it shall please the Roman Church to lay upon us confessing her to have absolute and uncontroulable Authority over our Faith. The standing out against the Catholick Church makes Men Hereticks and without erring against this no Man is guilty of Heresy said the Iesuit Fisher in his Answer to certain Questions propounded to him by King Iames I. This then is the only Heresy to disown the Authority of the Roman for that he calls the Catholick Church Again saith he One fundamental Error of the Protestants is their denying the Primacy of St. Peter and his Successors the Foundation which Christ laid of his Church necessary for the perpetual Government thereof And again He that forsakes the Church puts himself into a dead and damnable State and may have all things besides Salvation and Eternal Life Bellarmine speaks out and tells us very plainly No Man can tho he would be subject to Christ and communicate with the Celestial Church that is not subject to the Pope If then we believe this Authority of the Roman Church we believe all and if we believe not this we believe nothing at all in the Papists account or to any better purpose than to our own Damnation So that without this Belief our Faith shall never pass for an entire Faith and when we once believe this it shall never be any more question'd whether it be entire or no. Now it seems a very hard matter to believe this great Point of Faith till very good Reasons be given us for it and yet it should seem the want of such Reasons will not excuse us from being Hereticks and in a State of Damnation no not tho we be never so ready to believe it when we shall have Reasons given us for it For he is an Heretick we are told who thinks any thing against the Definition of the Church yet stands so affected that he will think the contrary if he be convinced by Arguments or if the matter be propounded to him by a Learned Man. And on the contrary if we do believe this we can hardly be Hereticks whatever Errors we believe or this Belief draws us into For if a Rustick saith Cardinal Tolet believe his Bishop about the Articles of Faith teaching him some Heretical Doctrine he merits by believing altho it be an Error So weighty a Point is this of believing the Authority of the Roman Church and grounding our entire Faith upon it that I perceive I am concern'd above all things to examine it throughly and this I shall have fitter opportunity to do now I am come to the second thing propounded SECT II. Hitherto I have been considering what ground I have to hope for Salvation as I am a Protestant and of the Church of England I am now in the next place to enquire Whether I can find any Reason to believe that the Church of Rome can put me into a more hopeful Way to it should I turn Papist and be of her Communion Now seeing I have already found that the great Reason why we are held uncapable of Salvation as now we are is this That we have no entire Faith and the Defect in our Faith is this That we believe not all the Articles of the Roman Faith and that which makes it necessary for us to believe all those Articles is the Authority of the Catholick that is as they interpret the Roman Church to declare and define what things are necessary to the Salvation of Christians I perceive I have no more to do for my full Satisfaction in the present Inquiry but to consider what Reason I can have for the owning and submitting to this Authority And to discern this I think this Method fittest to be taken I will inquire into three things I. What things are implied in that Submission to this Authority which is required of me II. What the Grounds and Reasons are whereon this Authority is founded and which should perswade me to submit III. Where this Authority may be found and to whom I must submit And this is all I think that I need to do for I can never think fit to submit my Faith and Conscience and to trust my Salvation to an Authority which either requires of me such things as are
have the least Zeal for God's Honour I am verily oerswaded that the good Language they bestow upon the Scripture hath kept more out of their Church than ever their Arguments yet won I will not now take notice of those too well known Encomiums bestow'd upon it by some of their Communion calling it a Nose of Wax a Leaden Rule a dead Letter unsens'd Characters and I am ashamed to say what more I shall only observe what is ordinarily taught us and endeavour'd with much Art to be prov'd by their best most modest and generally approved Authors as That the Scripture is not Necessary that it hath no Authority as to us but from the Church that it is an imperfect an insufficient Rule that it is an obscure Book and finally a very dangerous one to be read by the People I know very well That the Representer and others of them tell us That the Papist believes it damnable in any one to think speak or to do any thing irreverently towards the Scripture and that he holds it in the highest Veneration of all Men living I know also that most of them even whilst they are industriously proving all that I but now said do yet labour to mollify and sweeten their own harsh Expressions which they know must needs grate the Ears of all pious Persons I am also verily perswaded that many Papists have a very venerable esteem for the Scripture and are not a little troubled to hear it reproachfully used And yet I cannot see that highest Veneration for it or that they speak not very irreverently of it who speak no worse of it than the Representer himself hath taught them viz. That it is not fit to be read generally of all without License tho he gives this very good reason for it Lest they should no longer acknowledg the Authority of the Roman Church or in his own words No Authority left by Christ to which they are to submit As tho Men might be taught by the Scripture to be disobedient to any Authority which Christ hath set up in his Church I cannot see any great Veneration he hath to the Scripture in saying They allow a restraint upon the reading of the Scriptures for the preventing of a blind ignorant Presumption or the casting of the Holy to Dogs or Pearls to Swine such too is his respect for Christians That he hath no other assurance that they are the Word of God but by the Authority and Canon of the Church That almost every Text of the Bible and even those that concern the most essential and fundamental Points of the Christian Religion may be interpreted several ways and made to signify things contrary to one another That it is altogether silent without discovering which of all those Senses is that intended by the Holy Ghost and leading to Truth and which are erroneous and Antichristian That a Man may frame as many Creeds as he pleases and make Christ and his Apostles speak what shall be most agreeable to his Humour and suit best with his Interest and find plain Proofs for all That it alone can be no Rule of Faith to any private or particular Person Certainly they who talk of the Scripture at this rate have not the highest Veneration for it of all Men living They that say and labour to prove that the Scripture is not necessary may well be supposed to think that the Church of God might do well enough without it And tho to lessen the Odiousness of this Assertion they are forced to confess it is a Lie without the help of some such mental Reservation as this So that God could not if he pleas'd preserve his Truth among Men some other way than by writing it yet doth not this speak in them the like Veneration for the Scripture as Protestants have who down-rightly affirm it to be necessary And it must needs sound ill to say That the All-wise God hath been very careful to leave and preserve in his Church an unnecessary thing Yea 't is altogether as absurd to say the Scripture is not necessary because God could if it had seem'd good to him have preserv'd his Church and Faith without it As it would be to say that Plowing and Sowing or Eating and Drinking are not necessary because God could if he pleas'd make the Ground bring forth without the one and preserve Man's Life without the other Nor can it be imagin'd that any Man upon this account only would venture to say and attempt to prove the Scripture not to be necessary in a sense wherein no Man ever affirm'd it if he were not so zealously bent upon lessening the Esteem which we have for it that he will chuse rather to say nothing to the purpose and dispute against no Body than to be silent and say nothing that sounds ill of it and that he thinks it needful for the ends of his Church so to do In like manner when they contend that the Authority of the Scripture is from the Church which is the thing whereof at every turn they are forward enough to mind us they are forced again to make some Abatements to make it seem a Truth 'T is true they say that consider'd in it self alone it hath its Authority from God whereby they can mean no more but that God is the Author of it but in relation to us it hath its Authority from the Church Now I would fain know what any Man can understand properly by the Authority of the Scripture but its relation to us or the Power it hath to command our Faith in it and Obedience to it as the Word of God. And if it have all this Power from the Church as is confidently affirm'd then tho it self be of God yet all its Authority is from the Church and it must needs be true which was said by one of them That it is of no more Authority than Livy or Aesop ' s Fables without the Churches Declaration Thus is the Authority of God's Word made to depend upon the Authority of Men and all our Faith is no more but humane Faith resting upon humane Testimony And if the Authority which it hath to oblige us be from the Church I would know by what Authority it doth oblige the Church it is not sure by any Authority from Her for then I see no reason why the Church may not chuse whether she will receive it or no whilst yet I think that it is only by the Authority of the Scripture that she can pretend to be a Church and to have any Authority at all However this I am sure of that they who say the Scripture is to be receiv'd for the Churches Sake have not so high a Veneration either for it or the Author of it as they who say it is to be receiv'd for God's Sake And in the next place whether we who say the Scripture is a perfect and sufficient Rule of Faith and Manners containing all things necessary to Salvation or they
who say 't is but a partial and imperfect Rule We who say 't is plain and easy to be understood in all things necessary or They who say 't is dark and obscure unable to inform and resolve Learners Doubters and Inquirers and that even in Essentials and Fundamentals of Religion Finally Whether We who say it ought to be read and studied of all Men Or They who say it is not needful yea dangerous to be read of all have the higher Veneration for the Holy Scripture is no hard matter to determine if to commend a thing may be said to be more Honour to it than to disparage it And tho here again they use some Art and Colour to set off such ill-favour'd Sayings as well as they can yet serves this to no other end in my Mind but to make them more Ugly and Odious They deny not for all this they say the Perfection Sufficiency or Plainness of the Scripture nor that it may be read by the People What then is it they say They affirm that it contains all necessary Truths either Explicitly or at least Virtually for some Truths it declares expresly and yet so as the Church alone must give the Sense and for all the rest it plainly if the same Church may here also give the Sense sends us to the Church to learn them Now I cannot for my Heart imagine what all this can signify but only a desire to lessen the Scripture's Authority as plausibly as they can To me it seems very plain that they make the Scripture just nothing and the Church all in all I think it here again well deserves my Consideration That the SCRIPTURE is very copious in declaring and repeating too over and over again many necessary Points of Faith and Duty and not only necessary things but many other things also it largely teacheth which are by all granted to be of less moment and necessity to the Salvation of Men and all this it doth in as plain Words and Phrases as can be used And hence I find it very hard for me to believe that the HOLY GHOST by whose Inspiration it was Written should do all this for our Instruction and that in a Book written on purpose to make us wise unto Salvation and by himself declared able so to do and yet omit many things of greatest necessity to that end never so much as once no not in any obscure manner pointing out to us that Church to whose Authority we must resort and submit This were to leave us a Treasure closely lock'd up and not to tell us where we may find the Key that can let us in to it and so we are neither the Wiser nor the Richer for it Whatsoever the PAPISTS are pleas'd to alledg for their speaking thus of the Word of the Blessed God I confess I cannot think any better of their Religion for it Let us say what we will in Commendation of holy SCRIPTURE they will be sure to find something to say against it lest I suppose it should be thought we can at any time speak Truth And when we charge them for speaking dishonourably of the SCRIPTURE they so interpret their Words as they seem to say the same that we did and which they blamed us for What can be their meaning in this but either to make the World believe that we are in an Error tho when they come to Apologize for themselves they are forced to confess it a Truth or that their Religion necessarily requires it of them in its Vindication to vilify the SCRIPTURE tho by saying such things of it as they acknowledge cannot be true unless interpreted so as to speak our Sense They must therefore in this deal either very disingenuously with us or very injuriously with the holy SCRIPTURE For my part I cannot believe that Men professing the Christian Faith and owning the SCRIPTURE to be the Word of GOD could ever be persuaded to speak so as but seemingly to vilify or disparage it if their Doctrines could be any other way defended Their Religion I say must need it or they too little consult the Honour of their Religion in needlesly uttering such Speeches as stand in need of a very great measure of Charity to think them less than Blasphemy Fourthly If any PROTESTANT dares venture thus far towards the Church of ROME the next thing he has to do is to resolve not to believe one Word that GOD speaks without that Church's leave I am confident that there are not many of our Lay-PAPISTS that think themselves to be under this Obligation and that if they were sensible of it they would make haste to break loose from it But for my own part I see not how I can enter into their Communion but I must draw it upon my self And this I think would be to advance the ROMAN Church to as great a height in my esteem as they in her who are most zealous for her Infallibility can desire What more would they have than that GOD himself where they confess he speaks should stand to their Church's Courtesy whether or no he should be believed I know it will be said They never disallow'd any man to believe GOD. But because all men cannot understand GOD speaking in the SCRIPTURE the Church is appointed by Him to be his Interpreter This I hear and to me it sounds not well That GOD should speak to Men things necessary for all to know and which he commands all to learn and believe upon pain of eternal Damnation and yet not speak so intelligibly as they may understand Him. Certainly he that made the Tongue and gave man Understanding can speak if he please as Intelligibly as the Church which cannot Speak or Understand at all without his Help and Teaching And considering his Infinite Goodness and Impartiality till he shall tell me so himself I know not how to believe that he hath so much more respect to the Honour of the ROMAN Church than to the Salvation of Mankind that he would so deliver things belonging to Salvation that no Man can be able to understand and be the better for them but he that resorts to that Church as God's sole Interpreter And if indeed she be so it must follow that we cannot believe one Word that God speaks without her leave For therefore is she made God's Interpreter because otherwise we cannot understand his Word and I am sure what we cannot understand we cannot believe 'T is the Sense they say and not the Letter is God's Word and this Sense is in the Church's Breast and of Her alone we must learn it and therefore till She give us leave we cannot believe it no not so much as that JESUS is the CHRIST altho till we believe this we cannot believe that he hath a Church and therefore cannot believe She is His Interpreter I will not now inquire into the Reasons Why this Church which is God's sole Interpreter takes so excellent a Course to make her
Liberius when through fear himself hâ—â— forgot he had any such thing and consented with the Arrians to the Condemnation of that holy Father St. Hierom seems not to have had any thoughts of the POPES's Supremacy when he said That whereever there is a Bishop whether at great ROME or petty Eugubium he is of the same Merit and Priesthood Neither did either he or St. Austin seem to have had a just esteem for the Church of ROME's Authority when they preferred that of the Eastern Church before it in receiving the Epistle to the Hebrews into the Canon of SCRIPTURE Above all what must I think of their Great Saint P. Gregory the First who called the Title of UNIVERSAL BISHOP a new Title which none of his Predecessors ever used a name of Vanity a Profane Name wicked and not to be uttered yea a Blasphemous saying that whosoever desired it shew'd himself to be the forerunner of Antichrist If I must believe this great POPE and SAINT I know well enough what to think of most of his Successors in the Infallible Chair If I must not believe Him why must I believe those who succeeded him Had not He and They one and the same Authority as POPES of ROME Believe both I cannot and disbelieving either as all PAPISTS no less than I must disbelieve the one I am no better than a Heretick and uncapable of Salvation Farther yet I find that the African Council but now mention'd did alledg for it self the Sixth Canon of the First General Council held at NICE which is this Let the old Custom be kept through Aegypt Lybia and Pentapolis so that the Bishop of ALEXANDRIA have power over all these because the Bishop of ROME hath also the like Custom By this Canon these two Bishops seem to be made equal in Power In the Fourth General Council held at Calcedon and Ninth Canon it is ordered That if any Bishop or Clerk have a Controversie with the Metropolitan of that Province they have recourse to the Primate of the Diocese or certainly to the See of the Royal City of Constantinople that the business may be ended there This Council seems hereby to make the Bishop of Constantinople equal to the Bishop of Rome and this it did notwithstanding great opposition made against it by P. Leo the First So that I must involve in the same Censure of Condemnation some of the most Famous General Councils that ever were This I am apt to think a very daring matter and not rashly to be attempted I have indeed been taught by our Blessed JESUS that God will not forgive us if we do not forgive our Brethren but I do not remember where he hath taught me that God will not SAVE us except we believe that no man but a PAPIST can be SAVED II. I have now consider'd sâ—â—â—e of the many Difficulties I am to struggle with before I can get through to the Church of ROME And truly they seem to me whatever men of more strength and courage may think little less than Insuperable And yet after all this if I may be convinced that the Authority of the ROMAN Church hath sufficient grounds of Scripture and Reason to support it I must confess no Difficulty in my way ought to dishearten me from breaking through it But then again if I must believe that there is such an uncontrollable Power in the Church in some One Church in the ROMAN Church by name yea in the Bishop of that Church and if I must so believe this that I must not leave in my Soul any room at all for the least Charitable thought of any man's Salvation who believes it not I think it no less than needful that I have the Clearest and most undeniable Evidence in the World for what I believe lest the Sentence of Condemnation should recoil upon my self for my Temerity and Uncharitableness Indeed if this Church may be allow'd to bear witness to its own Authority and such a Testimony be sufficient I cannot want it The Council of TRENT hath more than once call'd her the Mother and Mistriss of all Churches So Infallible in her Iudgment and Directions so Absolute in her Dominion and Command she must be that Her sole Authority must be warrant enough and nothing else any warrant without it for all things that belong to Christian Religion Whosoever saith Becanus in his Compendium in matters of Faith and Religion followeth the true Church of Christ which he there proveth to be the Roman Church only cannot err about Faith and Religion seeing the true Church of Christ is Infallible And this we are told continually as this Iesuit doth say that this is the shortest Compendium of all Controversies This then being to support the whole Fabrick of POPERY had need to stand on firm ground This ground I would now fain discover Why then must we believe that the ROMAN Church hath this Sovereign Authority in Religion I must confess my self one of those sturdy Hereticks that cannot believe without Reason When I hear that Church telling me she is Infallible and hath all Power over all other Churches I cannot believe it till I have some better reason for it than this That She must be all that which She is pleased to say of her self and therefore must be Infallible and Omnipotent too if She say it And I am a little troubled to say that this is all I can get out of her for my satisfaction lest even PROTESTANTS should think I say incredible things of her and that I have no other design but to make all the Learned Men of her Communion seem ridiculous in talking to us as to Children always childishly But it is not in my power to make their Arguments better than they are nor Civil in me to teach them what to say and I am sure my Temporal Interest cannot at this time tempt me to oversee the strength of their Reasons The very best Reasons I have yet met with with how much Artifice and Sophistry soever they are dress'd up amount to no more nor better in my opinion than her own honest Word that is her own Authority and Infallibility for proof of her Authority and Infallibility and therefore I must either believe them both before I can believe them even whilst I am enquiring for a reason why I should believe them or I must not believe them at all nor with her consent be saved The Missionaries tell us they are willing to undergo any Pains or Difficulty to rescue us from damning Error and whilst they proceed in this Method I have cause to believe them for I am confident to prove their Church hath this Authority they contend for is as great a Difficulty as they can meet with If they should here offer us what is so much talk'd of by them the Testimony of the Universal Church there is nothing more plain than that they do but Mock us For this can be nothing else but the Church of ROME's Testimony
either from all Christians I cannot so much as find there that ever there was any Bishop of ROME or that there should be any there afterwards much less that all Christians are to own that Bishop for their Head and Christ's Vicar And finding nothing of all this I must needs wonder how manifest Scriptures should be produced to prove this Supreme Authority over all Churches And yet if there be such an Authority and if it be so necessary for all Christians to believe it and submit unto it I cannot but think that it ought to have been as manifestly declared in Scripture as any other point whatsoever St. Peter in whom this Authority is said to have been first setled saith not a word of it in his Epistles St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans who should in all reason have been best acquainted with it says nothing at all of it To the Civil Magistrate which the Church of ROME makes to be much inferior to the Church in Authority they both teach us our Duty and strange it is if they knew of any such thing that they should not as plainly instruct us in our Duty to the POPE or Church of ROME wherein our Salvation the main thing they were to take care for is so deeply concern'd But what are these manifest Scriptures at length I find our Blessed Saviour saying to St. Peter Matt. 16. 18. Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it And I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven c. but I find not that all this whatever it may signify was manifestly said to the Bishops of ROME The plain and obvious Sense saith Bellarmin of these words is that we may understand the Primary of the whole Church to be promised to Saint Peter under two Metaphors And yet by all the Light that he is able to afford me I cannot discern in these words whatever was promised to St. Peter the Supremacy much less the Monarchy of the Bishop of ROME over all Churches And it is no wonder if a Protestant Heretick be so blind when such eminent Persons as Origen St. Austin St. Hilary Ambrose Chrysostome and Cyril could no more see it than I as the learned Cardinal himself there confesseth Nay here 's not a word to assure us that this Rock must needs be a Monarch invested with a Supremacy of Power over the whole Church or that this Monarch must needs be the Bishop of ROME or that the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against the ROMAN Church for all this we must be beholden to that Church's own Word or we shall never find it in this place I find again that Christ commanded St. Peter Joh. 21. 16. to feed his Sheep and his Lambs as indeed it is the Duty of all Pastors of the Church to do and both St. Peter 1 Pet 5. 2. and St. Paul Acts 20. 28. tell us as much and so much the apter am I to doubt whether the POPE be so much as a good Pastor of Christ's Sheep or no seeing he takes so little care to Feed and so much to Fleece them I am sure I read of no more but one chief Shepherd and Bishop of Souls which St. Peter tells us is Christ JESUS himself 1 Pet. 2. 25. The Apostles were all Shepherds under Him but where is this manifest Scripture to shew that St. Peter was made Head-Shepherd with Commission to Feed and Rule too not only the Sheep but the Shepherds also But especially where is the Commission given to the Bishops of ROME successively for ever to govern the whole Flock of Christ with Soveraign Authority Feed the whole I am sure he neither doth nor can Many great and wonderful things as Bellarmin tells us are said of St. Peter in the Holy Scripture and very deservedly for he was a very great and eminent Apostle But the Scripture never saith That he was a great Monarch nor that he was Bishop of ROME nor that he had a Throne or but a Chair there and least of all that this Imaginary Monarchy was to descend unto the next Bishop of ROME and to his Successors for ever and that St. Iohn who long out-lived St. Peter became thereby subject to some of those Bishops which did not well suit with the Dignity of an Apostle I read those words of St. Paul 1 Cor. 12. 21. The head cannot say to the feet I have no need of you But that the POPE is the Head and all Christians Kings as well as others the Feet I may possibly read in some such Iesuit as Bellarmin but I am sure I shall never read it in the Scripture Many more such parcels of Scripture as these they give us but after the most serious perusal of them all I profess I cannot find any thing like manifest Scripture for the Authority of the ROMAN Church And therefore it seems yet as plain to me as that Two and Three make Five that the bare Word of that Church without any kind of solid Proof is all that she hath to shew for her Authority She says great things of her self and talks sometimes of Scripture but much more of Fathers and Councils and Universal Tradition and indeed every thing that 's Venerable but when all is spell'd and put together 't is but the Oral and Practical Tradition of the present Church that is her own very confident Asseveration If we have a little Scripture for Fashion's sake we must take it as she hath taught it to speak in her own Vulgar Latin which the Council of TRENT was even then pleas'd to make the only Authentick Translation when it was confessedly very faulty and hath been since that divers times corrected And then we must take it in her own Sense too tho we know not well where we may be sure to find it Her private Doctors she will not allow us to trust for it nor indeed do we find them any better agreed about it than others are only they have for the most part either the Modesty or Cunning to refer all to the Iudgment of Mother Church could they but tell us where to find it for she is loath once for all in some publick Comment or Exposition of the Scripture to tell us what it is If we may be allow'd to hear the Testimony of the Fathers she must stand at their Elbows and prompt them what to say we must have them in her own approved Editions and if they have been at School long enough in the Vatican or some Religious House 't is probable they were reasonably well instructed in her own Language before they were allow'd to go abroad again However ere they pass the Press an Expurgatory Index can teach them either to Speak or to be Silent as she thinks most seasonable Councils may be heard but only such as have his Holiness's stamp upon them and how we can understand them any better
Reason he denies that any Reasons can convince me because 't is plain they cannot convince me before I have judged of them and this I must do by my private Iudgment or by nothing for I have no other But here I am told We are allow'd to make use of our Reason to find out the true Church which may Infallibly guide us into all saving Truth All that is required of us is this that when we have once found this true Church we presume no longer to judg for our selves but captivate our Reason to the Infallible Iudgment of the Church This is something and yet it seems but extorted from them to make a little more plausible what to me seems one of the greatest pieces of Folly in the World I mean the attempt of convincing men by Reason who must not be allow'd to judg of the Reasons whereby they must be convinced I find Reason by a Traditionary Papist compared to a dim-sighted Man who used his Reason to find a trusty Friend to lead him in the Twilight and then reli'd on his Guidance rationally without using his own Reason at all about the way it self Thus are we allow'd Reason to find out the Church of ROME our sure Friend to guide us and on whose Guidance we must rationally Rely after we have captivated our Reason to her and for her sake have resolved to use it no more But now if this Reason which is to direct us to our Guide be such a dimsighted thing and as we heard before Hoodwink'd too so that whilst we follow it we can have no more hope than only that we may possibly stumble into the Catholick Church who will secure us that we shall not in this Twilight mistake a treacherous Enemy for a trusty Friend and then what shall we gain by our rational Reliance on him A dimsighted Man in the Twilight may easily mistake one thing for another else should he not much need a trusty Guide and why he may not mistake his Guide as well as his Way I do not yet know But that I may be satisfied how much I gain by this liberal Concession to use my Reason and private Iudgment in inquiring after the true Church I will a little consider how the PAPIST is wont to talk with me when he would persuade me to take his Church for my only sure Guide First he tells me There is but one true Faith and then that this Faith must be held entirely next that this entire Faith is nowhere to be found but in the true Church After this he begins again and tells me Christ hath a Church upon Earth That there is but one true Church That out of it there is no Salvation and lastly That the ROMAN Church and no other is that one true Church out of which there is no Salvation And till we have found that it is so he will give us leave to judg for our selves And I would thank him for this kindness if he would allow me to enjoy the benefit of it and to make any use of it otherwise it will look but like a Mockery I desire therefore some clear convincing Evidence That the ROMAN Church is the only true Church He cannot to this purpose produce the Consent of all Christians for two parts in three deny it Therefore he gives me a great many Marks or Signs sometimes more sometimes fewer whereby the only true Church must be known from others and spends a great many words in shewing me how they agree to the ROMAN Church and no other That wherein I would next have same Satisfaction is supposing that all his Marks agree to the ROMAN Church and no other how I may know that these are indeed the certain and incommunicable Marks and Proprieties of the only true Church To prove this he betakes himself to the HOLY SCRIPTURE and brings me thence some Texts whereby he says they are clearly proved to be so I now with a very hearty and sincere desire to learn the Truth and with all diligent use of such helps as I can come by read and consider all these Texts and cannot discern in them any Evidenee at all of the thing which they are brought to prove and therefore think it reasonable yet to call for some clearer proof But now when 't is come to this I presently find that his liberal Concession to make use of my Reason and private Iudgment to find out the true Church amounts to no more than I at first suspected that is just nothing For here he retires to his Principle of PORERY That I being a private Person ought not to judg for my self what is the Sense of those Texts of Scripture but must submit my Reason and Iudgment to the Iudgment of the Church yea even before I have found the Church and without any dispute receive the Sense of Scripture from her alone Thus he recals at once all that he had allow'd and undoes again whatsoever he had been adoing to persuade me to his Communion He was giving me Reasons which might convince me in my Iudgment and these at length resolve all into the Authority of the Scripture and yet of this Testimony of the Scripture I must not Iudg and therefore by it I cannot be convinced of any thing but this that the Church of ROME is resolved to be Mistress of all Christians and thinks it enough to convince us that she is so if whilst she sets some of her Sons to hold us up in empty talk of Scripture and Reason to no purpose she step out from behind the Curtain saying Believe it I am she Now I cannot possibly see whatever others may do for I keep yet to my Protestant Principles of Judging for no man but my self how I can embrace POPERY upon any conviction from PAPISTS and I fear I must either take it without any Reason for it or not at all If I cannot know the ROMAN Church to be the only true Church but by the Testimony of the SCRIPTURE and if I cannot understand the Testimony of the SCRIPTURE till I receive the true Sense of it from the ROMAN Church and if I cannot take that for the true Sense of it upon Her Declaration of it so to be unless moved by her Authority I must be persuaded to do the most unreasonable thing in the World to my thinking to believe a Church to be the only true Church for her own Authority which I yet know no more than I do her to be the true Church which it is all along supposed I do not know at all This I think not only unreasonable but impossible I must needs confess my self very hard to be persuaded of the tender goodness of that Mother who lest her Children should get hurt by the dimness of their sight will needs pull out their Eyes and keep them in her Pocket till she has taught them to use them better I am very loath to part with my Reason how dimsighted soever because