do or no if he can make it out by any means that St. Augustine hath prejudged us so many hundred years ago it must needs be a fatal blow to the Church of England and this he endeavours to do by giving us St. Augustines Judgment in all or most of the particulars Controverted but how truly you shall see in the sequel St. Augustine saith he tells us plainly that the Church was built upon Peter in the first of his Retract Cap. 21. Yet in this very first place St. Augustine he knows retracts it and saith plainly by the Rock may be meant the Person whom he confessed it was not said to him Tues Petra sed tues Petrus Petra autem erat Christus quem confessus Simon Thou art the Rock but thou art Peter for the Rock was Christ whom Peter confessed and though in the following words he leaves it to the choice of the Reader to take which Interpretation he pleaseth yet by retracting of the former it appears he adhered to the latter As is made more probable by another passage of the same Father in a Sermon de verb. Dom. Serm. 13. Non me super te Petre sed te super me I am not built upon thee Peter but thou upon me and therefore in this point Pighius condemns that Father as inconstant to himself St. Augustine acknowledged the Popes Supremacy but not that unlimited Supremacy that is now challenged consisting in a Superiority over Councils jurisdiction over Kings in being Judg of all Controversies for St. Augustine himself denyed Appeals to Rome St. Augustine saith he taught the Assumption of our Blessed Lady her freedom from Original sin her vowed Chastity But in that Book de Sancta Virginit he refers us to I find mention only of her vowed Chastity which is no matter of Controversie but nothing of her freedom from Original sin and 't is well known that Opinion of the Virgins freedom from Original sin is of a later birth it being unknown in St. Bernards time nothing determined of it till the Council of Basil 1431. St. Augustine saith that the Authority of the Catholick Church is of more efficacy than the word it self and we are of his Judgment too if he be rightly understood that the Authority of the Church is of more efficacy to some in some respect to move Pagans and Infidels St. Augustine tells us 't is an Heretical thing to insist only upon Scripture and so say we we know Reason must be used to convince Heathen and Tradition to convince Hereticks St. Augustine saith that the Church cannot Err so say we if we understand by the Church the Church Universal with this limitation in Fundamentals St. Augustine The Church of Christ is Universal and so say we St. Augustine tells us that the Church Catholick must be Visible so say we St. Augustine teacheth that there are Seven Sacrament that 's false St. Augustine no where speaks of that just number neither was it ever determined till the Council of Florence nor heard of before Peter Lombard St. Augustine saith he believed Transubstantiation in effect but not in terms how does he know St. Augustine believed it in effect when he does not express so much in his terms St. Augustine teacheth us that the Sacrament is to be adored but in all the places he refers us to I can find nothing to that purpose but only upon Psalm xcvii where he hath these words Nemo carnem illam manducet nisi prius adoraverit let no man Eat that Flesh unless he first adores which I hope no good Christian will refuse to do Christ no Question ought to be adored in our approaches to that Sacrament and the Sacrament it self is venerable with all due respects to be handled and received Not to trouble my self nor you with examining all the Points of Divinity he gives us St. Augustines judgment on if St. Augustine taught the Eucharist to be a Sacrifice Confession of sins to a Priest That Orders ought not to be conferr'd but by a Bishop That 't is an Error to affirm a Bishop and a Priest to be a like in Dignity If he maintained Freewill Justification by Works That men are made Righteous by Works For that was St. Augustines Notion of Justification If he taught that good Works do Merit in some kind the difference betwixt Venial and Mortal sins Prescribed days of Fasting If he commends Monastical life The Learned of the Church of England will give their suffrage to St. Augustine in all these particulars and not betray their cause neither So you see we have received no great damage by this reference yet But if we turn over St. Augustine again and enquire out his judgment concerning the Innovations and new Doctrines maintained in the Roman Church we shall see that these Appellants themselves are condemned by St. Augustines Sentence The present Church of Rome maintains Worshipping of Images St. Augustine condemned it in his 119. Epist ad Jan. saying nulla imago ejus coli debet c. no Image of God ought to be Worshipped but that which is the same with himself and in his Book de moribus Ecclesiae Cap. 34. he hath these words Do not follow the rout of ignorant people which in the true Religion are Superstitious I know many Worshippers of Sepulchres and Pictures And upon Psalm cxii he hath a long Discourse to shew how dangerous the use of such Images is The present Church of Rome maintains that the Scriptures are imperfect and obscure in matters of Faith and good Life St. Augustine teacheth the contrary in his Book de Doctr. Christiana in those things which are plainly delivered in the Scripture are found all things which concern Faith and good Life The present Church denies the Scripture to be Judg of any Controversie St. Collat. Carthag 3. Cap. 187. Augustine summons the Donatists to the Judgment of Scripture alone in that Controversie in one place he saith the Divine Testimonies alone are sufficient to demonstrate the Church Let Divine Authority alone speak let Scripture alone be produced to which both of us owe submission And in his Book de Unitate Ecclesiae he saith Non audiamus haec dico haec dicis sed audiamus haec dicit Dominus c. Let us not hear this I say and this thou sayest but let us hear this the Lord saith There are the Lords Books let us there seek for the Church let us there discuss our cause let those things be laid aside which we produce one against another not out of the Divine Canonical Books The present Roman Church forbids people Reading of the Scripture St. Augustine exhorts his Auditors all to Read the Scriptures upon Psalm xxxiii Read the Scriptures saith he therefore God would have them written that we might be comforted The present Church of Rome hath taken away the Cup from the people in the Sacrament St. Augustine saith all the people must receive it if they will have life Quaest 57.
Presbyters in his own Diocess To Metropolitans the Judgment of differences amongst Bishops To Patriarchs the Judgment of Metropolitans And to General Councils the Judgment of Patriarchs And therefore for all this great flourish made by this Doctor in numbring so many Appellants and Complainants to the Pope I believe I am able to demonstrate out of the Records of Antiquity that the Pope of Rome was not ever acknowledged the Judg of all Controversies Polycarpus was a blessed Martyr and a Disciple of St. John the Evangelist and he did not acknowledg the Pope nor the Roman Church to be the Judg of all Controversies for be refused to conform to the Judgment of the Roman Church in the observation of Easter Polycrates assembled with the Asian Bishops in a Synod did not acknowledg the Roman Church to be Judg of all Controversies For they stood in defiance with Pope Victor and his Excommunication about that Observation Eusab lib. 5. cap. 23.24 St. Cyprian was a Holy Martyr and stand Canonized for a Saint in the Roman Church and he did not acknowledg the Roman Church to be Judg of all Controversies For he did abrogate Appeals to Rome in the Cause of Fortunatus and Faelicissimus and with a Council of Eighty Bishops concluded contrary to the Roman Church in the business of Rebaptization Epist 55. Ad Cornel. as Bellarmine himself acknowledgeth lib. 4. de Rom. Pont. St. Augustine was the Monarch of the Fathers and so illustrious for Learning and Piety that he is chosen by the Doctor to be Umpire in the difference yet he did not acknowledg the Roman Church to be Judg of all Controversies For he in two Councils with the African Bishops viz. The _____ and the first Council of Carthage denyed Appeals to Rome in some cases It is true indeed St. Augustine in his 162. Epistle does give us an account of the Judgment given by Melchiades Bishop of Rome in the Controversie betwixt Donatus and Caecilianus and does very highly extol and magnifie the Sentence of Melchiades as indeed it deserved to be But withal he tells us that Melchiades did not assume to himself alone Authority of Judging in that Case but had many Bishops of Italy and France joyned with him Insomuch when Donatus refusing to stand to the Judgment of Melchiades and his Collegue Bishops endeavoured to asperse and defame Melchiades St. Augustine excuseth him from all Arrogance and Usurpation three ways First by declaring that they made him a Judg of that Controversie who Appealed unto him and by their Prayers Sollicited him to give Sentence in it Judicem illi eum fecerunt c. they made him a Judg. Secondly That the Emperour Constantine referred it to him who being petitioned sent other Bishops as Judges to sit with him and to determine what they found just in the matter Thirdly They knew they might have Appealed to a General Council where if these Judges had been convinced to have Judged amiss their Sentence might have been reversed and the Judges themselves Judged again This Testimony is full enough to evince that neither St. Augustine nor the Age wherein he lived acknowledged the Roman Church the Judg of all Controversies St. Jerom was a Mirror of Learning and as is pretended a great assertor of the Popes Supremacy yet he did not acknowledg the Church off Rome to be Judg of all Controversies For in a great difference betwixt the Oriental Churches and the Roman Church in Point Doctrinal he cast off the Judgment of the Roman Church and followed the Oriental In St. Jeroms time the Epistle of St. Paul to the Hebrews was not received into the Canon of the Scripture by the Roman Church but by the Eastern Churches it was Now if the Roman Church had been acknowledged by him the Judg of all Controversies he would not he durst not have varied from her But he saith expresly Quod si Latina Consuetudo c. Although the Latin Church doth not admit of the Epistle as Canonical we notwithstanding saith he do receive it What need I add any more If the Fathers acknowledged the Roman Church the Judg of all Controversies why did they take so much pains in confuting Heresies by Scripture by Tradition when they might have ended all by Appealing all to the Judgment of the Roman Church In vain are so many means used for the compassing of that which might be done by fewer And does not this Doctor himself tell us in Cap. 8. at the very beginning of many Heresies the Fathers suppressed by Tradition alone without the interposition of the Judgment of the Roman Church By this saith he Eusebius acknowledgeth Tertullian to have repressed the Marcionites Irenaeus the Valentinians St. Cyprian the Novatians Epiphanius the Apostolicks St. Jerom the Helvidians St. Augustine the Donatists Athanasius the Arrians How then in the mean time was the Roman Church the Judg of all Controversies and why may not Heresies still be suppressed that way Now for the General Council which this Author names too as favourers of this Jurisdiction in the Roman Chruch 'T is a very fond thing for any man to imagine that they should contribute any thing to this assertion when by so doing they had nulled their own Authority and Power It is well known that General Councils were the highest Tribunals in the Church that they gave Sentence in the weightiest Controversies that they suppressed Heresies deposed Bishops Patriarchs yea even Popes of Rome and that the Popes of Rome themselves for many years at their Inauguration swore to observe the Canons of the General Councils Now thus I argue if the Judgment of many Differences and Controversies did in a peculiar manner belong to General Councils how is the Roman Church Judg of all Controversies If there did not why were they assembled and by what Authority did they these things before specified The fourth way of ending all Controversies is by both Parties agreeing upon the same mark whereby the thing in Contestation may be found out And so saith he Cap. 28. the Church of Rome is proved to be a true Church by the very same mark which both Catholick and Protestants agree upon to be the mark of Christs Church And if this be all the Doctor would have who denies it But I pray if that mark agreed upon on both sides be of force to prove the Church of Rome to be a true Church Is it of none to prove the Church of England to be so too if found there How comes this common mark to signifie so fully when applyed to Roman Church and to be as a Mute and non-significant when applyed to the Church of England 'T is strange to see how in this Chapter he shuffles plays fast and loose now gives now takes away again He begins with a designation of that mark of the Church which he saith all agree upon And that is Holiness which he takes in a new Notion for a Faithful Preaching of the Word and Administration of
in Levit. The present Church of Rome maintains Transubstantiation St. Augustine denies it in his Book against Adimantus he hath these words The Lord doubted not to say this is my Body when he gave a sign of his Body And in a Sermon upon Psalm xcviii he hath these words Non hoc corpus c. You are not about to Eat that Body which you see nor Drink that Bloud which is poured out by my Crucifiers I have commended unto you a Sacrament which being Spiritually understood shall quicken you and although it be necessary to celebrate it visibly yet it ought to be understood invisibly it were an easie matter for a man meanly versed in St. Augustine to instance in many more particulars wherein that Father varies from the judgment of the present Roman Church As concerning the number of the Sacraments the Virgin Maries Immaculate Conception Prayers in an unknown Tongue Purgatory Invocation of Saints c. But I am weary and troublesom and so shall put a Period to this part desiring you now to judg impartially whether we be cast in our cause by St. Augustines Sentence or no. The third way he pretends to end all Controversies is by the known and ever acknowledged Tribunal and Seat of Judgment provided in that behalf and so Protestants are cast in their own Cause again by Judiciary way of proceeding by the highest Judicature in Causes Ecclesiastical the Church of Rome Arguments are not so plentiful with the Doctor as he makes shew of when he is forced to make use of this new Topick viz. to prove the Roman Church to be the whole Catholick Church by the judgment of the Roman Church If I bear witness of my self saith Christ my witness is not true John v. 31. Nemo qui de seipso fert testimonium fide dignus est propter suspicionem de nimio sui ipsius amore Euthym. No body that bears witness of himself is worthy to be believed because every man is suspected to love himself too well And therefore whatsoever others may this Argument is not like to sway much with rational men 't is a poor thing of so great a Clerk who hath so good a Cause as he conceives and all learning of his side to use such pittiful begging of the Question Whether the Church of Rome be the Judg of all Controversies is one thing in question And to Appeal to his Church as Judg before he hath proved her to be so is a piece of Sophistry But this he makes us believe he hath done before in part Cap. 1. and now he will do it more fully by Scriptures Fathers Greek and Latin the practice of all Ages Nations Tongues and People and the confession of her very Adversaries If he can do as much as he promiseth let him be Anathema Maranatha that shall not conform his judgment to the Roman Church but if these be all Ostentations Rhodomontadoes to amaze his Reader and charm his Proselytes into a Circle of ignorance Hath not every wise man cause to suspect that Cause that needs such Arts to underprop it Two things there are I suppose the Doctor is obliged to do to make this undertaking good First to prove that the Roman Church is provided and ordained by God the Judg of all Controversies and so that she is lawfully possest of this Office Secondly That de facto she was ever acknowledged so to be For the first he seems to do it by these Scriptures God erected a standing Judicature for all Controversies among the Jews Deut. xvii 8 9. He foretels that at Christs coming his House should be established on the top of the mountains Isay ii 2. and all Nations should flow unto it Christ commands to hear the Church Matth. xviii and foretels that he will take the Kingdom of God from the Jews and give it to another Nation i. e. the Romans Matth. xxi 43. St. Paul tells us he hath given some Apostles c. Ephes iv 11. But these being all impertinent and miserably wrested I shall not wast time and paper in answering them and truly unless the Doctor had had more pertinent Texts to have proved the Question he should have done well to have waved this kind of proof especially seeing the Church of Rome hath not always claimed by this Title of Divine Right when the contest was betwixt the Romans and Africans about Appeals Zozimus Bonifacius and Celestinus the then Popes of Rome did not urge Divine Law for their claim of receiving Appeals out of Africa but the Decrees of the Nicene Council whereby it appears that then they thought not that this Jurisdiction belonged to them by Divine Right Yet this failing if he can prove the matter of Fact it will be somthing this is the Strength and Bulwark of the Cause and this he seems to manage with more dexterity for very numerous he is in Quotation of Fathers and very Rhetorical in persuading but his Authorities if you observe them are most of them impertinent he produceth the testimonies of the Fathers in great numbers to prove that the Pope of Rome was St. Peters Successor had magnificent Titles given him was call'd a Catholick Bishop and Bishop of the Catholick Church That the Roman Church was in Ancient times very highly accounted of that the Roman Faith was called the Catholick Faith Only in the fixth Division Pag. 234. He seems to come home to the Question for there he gives us a just Catalogue of oppressed Bishops that made complaints to the Pope of Rome and of some Holy Fathers that made their addresses to him upon some other occasions which seem to argue that he was then acknowledged the Judg of all Controversies This at first makes a great noise like the ratling of Hail upon a House top but soon falls to the Ground The Pope of Rome may be considered in a threefold capacity First of a Bishop over a particular Diocess and so there belonged to him as to other Bishops a Judgment of Jurisdiction over his own Clergy Secondly of a Patriarch in which respect there belong'd to him Authority to hear complaints of Bishops against their Metropolitans and determine all differences amongst Metropolitans under his Patriarchate Thirdly of the Prime Patriarch of the Catholick Church without whose concurrence the meaner Patriarchs could do nothing in the weighty and important affairs of the Church to whom the Cognizance of some things belonged above other Patriarchs by the Canons of the Council of Sardis and to whom singular honour was done and some extraordinary Priviledges granted as Bishop of the Imperial City as the Fathers of the Council of Chalcedon said in all which respects Complaints and Appeals might be made to the Pope of Rome and yet it does not follow that he was ever acknowledg'd the Judg of all Controversies For 't is evident notwithstanding all the Priviledges of the Pope of Rome that yet there was reserved to every Bishop the Judgment of all differences amongst
the Sacraments wherein all Scriptures Catholicks Protestants agree and yet in the very next place he undertakes to prove that faithful Preaching of Word and Administration of the Sacraments whereof this Holiness consists are no marks of the Church and this he doth by two or three Arguments Pag. 256. which if used against the fifteen marks of Bellarmines assigning would pare them all out of Roman Scutchions Now fearing he had done somthing he could not answer he comes to salve all by a new distinction of Holiness Holiness saith he may be taken two ways Pag. 267. First For an Universal purity of Doctrine and true Preaching of the Word as 't is opposite to all errors in every Dogmatical and Essential Point Secondly For a particular discerning Holiness whereby the true Preaching of the Word is opposite to all palpable and gross absurdities repugnant to the very Principles of Nature Rules of Faith and express Texts of Scripture What the meaning of this distinction is I confess I understand not nor I believe he himself if he were injoy'd to make it intelligible and justifie it by the Rules of Art I believe it would cost him more pains than the writing of his Book After he hath told us of this miraculous distinction which no man knows to what purpose he advanceth to the great works viz. To prove the Roman Church to be a True Church by those marks which are no marks We will consider saith he on our side what Doctrine it is which the Roman Catholicks do Preach and on the other side what Doctrine it is which the Protestants maintain and comparing both together observe whether of the two Preach more sincerely or faithfully For the Catholicks saith he they prescribe a strict way by Confessing of sins doing Pennance Restitution for wrong done set-times of Fasting c. But the Protestants the clean contrary If the Protestants taught all things he would make the world believe they do they were very monsters of men not fit to live in the World But we that know what we Preach as well as he proclaim to the world that we Preach Confession of sins doing Pennance Restitution for wrong done Mortification Set-times of Fasting contempt of the World Self-denyal Chastity Virginal Vidual Marital and all other things necessary to be believed and done for Salvation What if some Sectarian Zelots amongst us teach the contrary How does this concern the Church of England who in Justice stands not bound to maintain or answer for all the wild and mad opinions of them that separate from her And therefore 't is not fair dealing in this Doctor to make the world believe we hold all things contrary to sound Doctrine much worse to father upon the Church of England all the loose furious spurious Principles of all that stand in opposition to Rome What have we to do with the intemperate speeches of Luther or the new Divinity of the Lemanical Dictator who follow none but Christ and the Primitive Catholick Church But grant that the Church of England should not Preach the Doctrine of Christ so sincerely as the Roman Church does how does it follow upon this that the Church of Rome is the only True Church and the Church of England none 'T is a Rule in Logick that magis minùs non variant speciem that more or less Intention or Remission does not vary or diversifie the kind If the Church of England do Preach Christs Doctrine so sincerely as to Preach it sufficiently for mans Salvation all things necessary for mans Salvation though the Roman Church Preach it more excellently The Church of England may be a True Church still For there are degrees of the sincere Preaching and profession of Christs Doctrine One consisting in a freedom from all errours and that is not necessarily required to the being of a Church Another consisting in a freedom from all pertinacious error And 't is this last we make a note of the Church a sincerity free from all pertinacious error and in this degree of sincerity the Church of England does profess to Preach Christs Doctrine and by so doing is a True Church The second Mark that Protestants make of the True Church is the lawful Administration of the Sacraments whereby he undertakes in Cap. 30. to prove the Church of England to be no True Church At first he Scoptically mentions it calling it an Ear-mark although as wise and as learned a man as himself Alexander Ales made it so in good earnest At last he himself makes use of it to prove the Church of England to be no True Church viz. because the Church of England neither administers all the Sacraments which are Seven nor holds it necessary all should be administred nor acknowledgeth all to be Sacraments which is contrary to express Text of Scripture and the Word of God A high degree of contumacy and perversness if True and enough to stigmatize us to all Ages But if the Church of England allow all to be Sacraments that are so and the number of Seven Sacraments in that sence the Ancient Church call'd them so though amongst them two more chief and generally necessary to Salvation What degree of Heresie is this For the word Sacrament we know it is an Ecclesiastical word and in the power of the Church to impose upon what holy Signs or Ceremonies she pleaseth And if the Antient Church have thought it fitting to call those Holy Actions mention'd in the the Scripture with that name as Confirmation Holy Orders Matrimony c. we oppose it not we commend the moderation of Melancthon who thinks this no just matter of quarrel But 't is well known that the word Sacrament was used two ways by the Antients First largely for any Holy secret or sign of any Holy secret So Tertullian calls Christianity it self a Sacrament lib. 4. contra Marcion and in his Fifth Book speaking of Abrahams Sons he calls them Sacramenta figuram the Sacraments of figures and in his Book against the Jews he calls the Hatchet of Eliah Sacramentum ligni the Sacrament of the wood Somtimes strictly for a Holy secret Symbolically signifying and Sealing some Spiritual Grace and Ordained by Christ for that purpose And so they esteem'd Baptism and the Eucharist Sacraments in a more excellent manner But to go no further than the words of the Doctor p. 287. where he defines a Sacrament to be a visible sign of an invisible Grace Divinely Instituted for our Sanctification How will the Doctor by this Definition prove all the Seven to be True Proper Sacraments when Five of them want Divine Institution or matter and form Essential to Sacraments To instance in Confirmation they acknowledg themselves there is no command of Christ for it but only the Example of the Apostles The matter they say of this Sacrament is Holy Chrism Confect and made of Oyl Olive and Balm Consecrated by a Bishop the Form is the words of the Bishop I sign thee with the