stedfastly concluded with my self as soon as God would grant me an opportunity to associate my self in the Protestant Church and reject the Roman Idolatry Which I accordingly have done and having renounced the Popish Religion have adjoyned my self unto the body of our Saviour Christ Jesus that is unto the true Protestant Church Whose truth I am going to shew now as shortly as I can and that by this argument That Church which doth vindicate the authority of the Scriptures defends the proprieties of them and teacheth according to the Scriptures is a true Church but the Protestant Church doth so The Major is firm and without contradiction The Minor is to be proved which I am endeavouring to do Neither will I be so Scripturary as that I should reject the old Fathers and the Primitive Councils I will alledg them likewise as bearing witness unto truth which cannot be overthrown As to the first The Protestant Church doth vindicate the authority of Scriptures when she denieth the same to depend from the authority of the Church not so much as to us Robert Bellarmin seeing that these who affirmed without any limitation Bell. de V. D. l. 1. c. 46. the Divinity of Scriptures doth depend from the authority of the Church did not speak soberly enough he endeavoured to mollify the Proposition with this distinction viz. that the Scriptures must be considered either in themselves or in respect unto us As they are considered in the first manner they do not depend from the authority of the Church but as they are in the second But as the distinction is vain because every authority is Relative and is not so much to be considered in it self as in respect of the object so likewise the supposition is false viz. That the authority of Scriptures in respect or in relation unto us doth depend from the Church But before I come to the demolishing of this assertion we will consider the reason why Papists say and believe so And indeed I can find no other besides this that they seeing themselves unable for resisting the Arguments of the Protestants which are drawn out of the Scriptures endeavouring to pervert the sense of them asserting that the same dependeth from the interpretation of the Church and so consequently are constrained to affirm that also the authority of Scriptures dependeth from the Church of which Scriptures nor of the right meaning of them nothing can be certain without the Tradition of the Church And by this same they very handsomely tread in the footsteps of the old Hereticks of whom one thus speaks The Hereticks when they come to be argued by the Scriptures they presently fall to the accusing of them as if they could not be from or of a sufficient authority or not so to be understood and of which no certainty can be had without Tradition Here is the true Protraicture of our modern Papists But to the thing it self We deny the authority of Scriptures to depend any way from the authority of the Church but only from the holy Spirit speaking within the Scriptures 2 Pet. 1.21 2 Tim. 3.16 17. by reason he is the author of them and so he doth endue them with an irrefragable authority And as Christ desires no testimony from any besides from the Father so likewise his word which he hath been pleased to leave upon earth instead of his person And as it is very unreasonable that the Kings Proclamation should depend from a Crier or a Rule from a thing that is ruled or that the Sun should borrow its brightness from that Orb or Vortex which it is contained in so it is very disagreeable to affirm that the Scriptures should depend from the authority of the Church The Church is a Candlestick the Word of God is a Candle as our Saviour declareth Luke 8.16 Now as a Candlestick doth contribute nothing at all to the light of the Candle so neither doth the Church to the authority of Scriptures We do not reject the Ministerial Testimony of the Church in that case by reason the Church leads us unto the Gospel as the Samaritan Woman did lead her fellow-citizens to Christ as Austin saith yet for all that none of them can be call'd the cause of our faith but an instrument Yet the Papists do object against us viz. 1 Tim. 3.15 That the Church is call'd the pillar and ground of the truth and from thence they bring in this conclusion that she is the only cause from whom the authority of the Scriptures doth depend But very foolishly because first that I may pass by the Observation of Camero who affirmeth these words to belong unto the 16 verse by reason there is to be found in that verse a Copulative Particle which otherwise should be to no purpose c. the Apostle doth speak of the Church considered as a house and then sheweth which is the chiefest pillar or ground of the same and indeed if we speak reasonably a house cannot be a pillar but a pillar is in a house It is secondly to be observed that by this pillar is not to be understood an Architectonical but a Political one not one that should uphold by its strength the authority of Scriptures but one upon which the Proclamations and Constitutions of the Supreme King are affixed Neither is the exception of Bellarmin against this distinction of any value viz. That by this way the Church may be as well call'd a Library as a Pillar by reason we do affirm that the office of the Church is not only to keep the books as it is of a Library but to expose the Contents of the same to the view of people and to under-teach them in the way of their Superiors will which belongs to a pillar The Church then can be an external Motive unto us that the Scriptures are of divine authority but cannot perswade us unto it by reason it is only the propriety and the business of the holy Ghost whom the Lord joyneth with his word Ps 59.21 when he saith My spirit which is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth c. Austin speaketh very handsomely to that purpose Lib. de Confess speaking of the authority of Scripture But how shall I be perswaded to believe this Moses indeed did say so it is true he said but he is gone and although he should be present and talk Hebrew to me I should not understand what he meant but if he should speak Latin I should understand But by what means should I know that he speaketh truth Therefore inwardly inwardly I say in the Cabinet of my heart not the Greek nor the Hebrew nor the Latin neither the Barbarian truth but he that without the sound of lips or the noise of syllables should tell me he speaketh truth and I should say to this this man You speak truth You may see Christian and impartial Reader how Austin did
THE Romish Priest TURN'D PROTESTANT With the REASONS OF HIS CONVERSION WHEREIN The True Church is Exposed to the View of Christians and Derived out of the Holy Scriptures Sound Reason and the Ancient Fathers Humbly presented to both Houses of Parliament By JAMES SALGADO a Spaniard formerly a Priest of the Order of the Dominicans LONDON Printed for Tho. Cockerill at the Three Legs in the Poultrey over-against the Stocks-Market 1679. To the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal with the Honourable the Commons of England in Parliament Assembled Sirs I Hope you will pardon my boldness because I presume to appear before your faces It is requisite I should give an account of my hope in Christ unto you who are next to the most Illustrious King Charles the II. Defender of the Faith the surest Maintainers of the Protestant Religion And unto whom else should I dedicate a Treatise of the True Church if not to the Parliament where as well the Commonwealth is to be found in the Church as the Church in the Commonwealth Namely There is a new resemblance in your Houses of the old face of Israel which maketh me the bolder as the countenance of Law-givers like that of Moses doth in its lustre go far beyond the rest Nature and Religion have made you of that constitution that you do not only shine for your selves but also spread out your beams for the benefit of others Sirs Be pleas'd to accept of this small token of my due submission and to look upon him with an eye of benevolence who desiring to depend upon your Sanhedrim will always remain Sirs Your most Obedient Servant James Salgado a Spaniard a Converted Priest THE PREFACE TO THE READER THere are so many of this kind of Books put out that one should think This to be superfluous But I was constrain'd to conform my self to the present Age not only for that I might wipe off the Calumnies of the Papists who commonly say That the Roman Priests desert the Roman Church for no other reason than this That they may have liberty to do what they please whereas God knoweth they amongst themselves have a freedom so unbridled that there is almost nothing found there but a great disorder and license and to satisfie the Protestants in the reason of my Conversion and shew to both the parties why I am turn'd a Protestant I composed this Book first in Latin but that my Conversion should be manifest to all yea even to the meanest I caused it to be Translated into English Kind Reader apply these newly-shuffled Cards as I may use the phrase of a Right Reverend Bishop of this Realm for thy own profit May be you will find that in it you never heard before So farewel From one that is desirous of thy Salvation JAMES SALGADO Chr. Ch. Oxon Dec. 26 78. Reverend Sir I Am to give you thanks for the occasion you gave me of acquaintance with the bearer hereof Mr. James Salgado whom I find by his discourse to be a right Spaniard born of a good Family and of very good parts and to have suffered very much by the Inquisition of Spain for embracing the Truth of our Protestant Religion This consideration and the great bounty and charity I saw used by his Countreymen towards ours when found in distress among them makes me think him an object singularly well deserving our common charity and benevolence especially considering how very rare a case it is to see a Clergy-man of his Nation come to us They have been civil to him in this Vniversity and I hope good men will be so to him with you To such as may desire to learn the Spanish or Italian Tongue he may be serviceable having good skill in both but in the former he is eminent as born and bred in Madrid I will presume to beg the continuance of your goodness to him affording him your instruction and commendation to good men there for some employment he may be capable of by which you shall oblige much Reverend Sir Your very affectionate humble Servant Andr. Sall. Courteous Reader I Do believe that the Author of this Book James Salgado was a Romish Priest according to the Order of the Dominicans and that he is now become a true Convert to the Protestant Religion as the ensuing Discourse will further evidence to the intelligent Reader Nic. Lloyd Rector of St. Mary Newington 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE True Church THE ancient Fathers commonly called the Church an Ark of Noah without whose bosom none could be freed from the peril of everlasting damnation as well as none that was out of the Ark could escape the danger of the flood And indeed they did not say it without reason because they knew that to them that were strangers from the Church her priviledges did not belong as Vocation Justification Sanctification the want of which disinables a man from coming to the perfection of the future world and to the enjoyment of it And as those members that are not joyn'd to a human body are destitute of sense and life so they that are rooted out from the Head of the Church which is Christ or have never been inserted into the Olive-tree can expect no spiritual influence which is able to make us the heirs of eternal salvation This was the reason for which David affirmeth That the Heathens did not know the statutes of the Lord namely because they have been without the communion of Israel where the Church was in the Old Testament Because the Lord shewed his Word unto Jacob his Statutes and his Judgments unto Israel and he hath not dealt so with any Nation Psal 147.19 20. therefore they have not known his judgments The Apostle doth ascend higher on this matter when he writing to the Ephesians saith At that time you were without Christ Ephes 2.12 you were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world Namely because they were not in the bosome of the Church and were without that Ark of Noah we spoke of they were also without the Communion of Christ who is a loyal Husband only to one Spouse as it is said in the Canticles My Dove my undefiled is but one Cant. 6.9 But when the Fathers did use this similitude they meant by it the Universal Church whose beginning Austin deriveth from Abel and deduceth the continuation of it until the consummation of the world Therefore no Church which is extant here or there or in any place of the world can go in that signification under a name of an Universal Church but that which was is and shall be and comprehends in its ambit as well the Triumphant as the Militant part And if that be Catholick Vinc. Lirin contra noph novitates according to the Rule of Vincentius Lirinensis in his Book against the prophane novelties Which has been believed always every-where and
as the things extraordinary must not be compared with the things ordinary because the Disciples had not only the matter but also the words from the indictment of the Holy Ghost so the Churches of our later times Gal. 1.8 and 6.21 2 Tim. 3.16 are bound to the Doctrine of Scriptures which are given by Inspiration of God and are not only profitable but sufficient also for all kind of holy instructions which if the Council doth follow there is no doubt but it shall have the assistance of the Holy Ghost 2. When Christ saith the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church he doth not understand any particular Church or their Bishops but the Militant Church dispersed through all the World and that this cannot err in matters fundamental we willingly allow 3. Whence do you know that the Holy Spirit acts a praeses in every Council by reason the Ariminum Synod may have the name of a Council as well as the Nicene 4. Who can satisfie you that the members of a Council do speak according to truth and by the inspiration of God rather than partially or that their Decrees are framed more by the weight of Reason and Scriptures than by the multitude of Votes or that it is not such a Council as the Tridentine was where the Holy Ghost as the Bishop of Fifechurches Episcopus quinque Eccles a member of that Synod saith was brought over from Rome into Trident in the Bags of the Roman Veredary and he staid out longer when the Waters did rise but came sooner after they were fallen so the Holy Spirit was afraid either to be wet or to be drowned 5. At last a Papist should proceed very disorderly if he being asked about the infallibility of a Council from whence he could prove it should betake him to Scripture because we ask them antecedently to the Word of God of this infallibility of the Church by reason it is her Office as well to make a Canon as to give authority to the Scriptures being their assertion is this That the authority of Scripture as to us doth depend on the authority of the Church But that which giveth authority to another thing cannot mutuate his own from it Hence you may see with what difficulties they intricate themselves that place the Church and its infallibility in the Council But neither those have lesser ones that settle the same in the Pope alone Although this sentiment is very foolish and consutes its own self by reason of its absurdity being it places the Church which is a congregation of many in one man yet we shall proceed in our proposition will run on our race For the most part of the Jesuits do hold this sentence and affirm That the Pope like the Pythia of Delphos only by himself may and can frame Decrees and expose them to the belief of the people Be it so that this Infallibility doth reside with the Pope the same difficulties will come again For how will you be perswaded that the Pope hath been Popable because he could be not Baptized He could have occupied the See by force by Simony he could be a Woman as Johanna was and not a man all which if it be present the Pope is no more a Pope Then how can you know that the Pope when he was going to frame his Decretals did use the usual and necessary preparations as Prayers and Fasting for seven days c How that he made them Motu proprio as the Roman Court saith that is by his own Will and not by the perswasion of the Chamber all which if it be deficient the Decretals and Constitutions are of no value nor pronounced out of the Cathedra or Pulpit and so neither binding the Consciences nor Infallible Further By what Argument will you be perswaded that this Infallibility doth not belong as well to the Bishop of Paris or Mantua as to the Bishop of Rome and so that this infallibility is not auferible from the Roman Bishop Gerson de auferibilitatae Pape of whose Auferibility Gerson did write a Treatise all which you must believe if you will take his Decretals for infallible At last how one single man can be infallible in matters of Faith cannot be understood because he hath neither any promise of it nor hath proved himself to be such an one as is clear and manifest by many examples May be you will betake your self to that vulgar distinction of the Pope pronouncing in his Chair or in his Hall out of the Pulpit and without the Pulpit so that he may be call'd Infallible as to the first but not as to the second But you 'll find very little comfort in that same distinction because besides that it cannot be defined how one and the same man should contradict himself without fear or coaction in the same matters likewise the Pope who can deceive being out of the Pulpit should take advice from himself as sitting in it that he might not be mistaken or else the Cardinals if they would have the holy Father to be without blame should bind fast this good old man to the Pulpit with chains as another Prometheus to a Caucasus that he should not stir from this Cathedra and so speak always truth But it is over-true that the holy Popes did err most abominably as pronouncing out of the Pulpit as it is shewn both by Papists and Protestants Platina de vitis Pontificum Romanorum and is to be seen in John in Stephanus in Formosus and others which are to be read of in Platina of the lives of the Roman Popes 2. They cannot tell us what they do understand by this Cathedra or Pulpit for as to a material Pulpit it can contribute nothing to the infallibility of the Pope or else it could flow in as well upon a Herdsman as the Pope if it should work by its Physical and internal virtue And as to a moral Pulpit of which Christ makes mention when he speaketh of the Fulpit of Moses nothing else can be understood by it besides the Holy Scriptures and if the Pope pronounce accordingly to them we will freely obey him 3. The Holy Spirit upon whom as they say the infallibility of the Pope dependeth is not bound to any place but bloweth where he pleaseth Others seeing no security to be found in the former distinction did commence another viz. That the Pope cannot err in matters of Law but he can be deceived in matters of fact But this likewise is a broken Cane and whosoever leaneth his hand upon it will be deceived This distinction was found out by those that are call'd in the Popish Church Jansenists for to heal that wound that was inflicted on them by Alexand the VII by reason of the famous five Articles of Janseniusâ— the Bishop of Ypres but nevertheless it hath nothing of truth in it self For 1. when the Pope pronounceth any thing as to the matters of Faith he doth not only look
upon the person but considers the person as believing so or otherwise and so condemneth him And how a man that cannot err as they say in matters of Law should err in matters of Fact cannot be conceived by reason he having ones Book and being an infallible searcher and interpreter of ones meaning can fall into the question of Fact out of the question of Law and so pronounce that this and no other was the meaning of the Author 2. Because Law maketh a prescription unto a Fact it is not likely that he who cannot err in matters of Law should do so in matters of Fact. 3. Because sometimes out of a Fact ariseth a Law therefore the same question which was before a question of Fact after it is become by long continuance a question of Law may be handled and decided by the Pope infallibly 4. By this way the Pope shall never be able to condemn a Heretick or strike him with a thunder of an Anathema as one that hath a fallible judgment in matters of Fact which shall not be admitted by the Papists 5. That the Pope may err in matters of Law and that most horribly we have shortly shewn the same a little higher So that hence we may perceive how sallibly they believe that place the infallibility in the Pope For the last followeth the third meaning of the Papists viz. That the infallibility of the Church resides in the Pope and Council together But Incidit in scyllam qui vult vitare charybdin Because the same difficulties which were proposed before arise again Besides it will be dubious which of them parties viz. if the Pope unto the Council or the Council unto the Pope doth communicate the infallibility Afterwards if the Pope be absent and be there by his Messengers if they have the same authority he should have if he was present The same they could not have because it is his own formally or else he could grant it as well to all the Bishops of the Council as to his Messengers Moreover it will be very doubtful if those Decretals which were framed in the Popes absence will be infallible and binding the Conscience for if all the Decretals are of no value without the Pope's confirmation it cannot be conceived how that these Constitution made in and by the Council of Trent can be ratified extraconciliariter or without it by reason the Popes infallibility doth not consist as he is separated from the Council but as he is joyned with it Hence then every one that hath not a face of a Wizell may see how the Papists make their business to catch a shadow and affirming their Church to be Infallible doth not know nor cannot agree amongst themselves wherein this Church doth consist and so they do not know how to satisfie their own selves nor others neither although they brag very much of it Projiciunt ampullas sesquipedalia verba I my self remaining yet in the Popish Religion did perceive my self to be entangled by these difficulties and therefore I often considered how to be extricated out of them that so I might praise God in purity and holiness with the freedom of my Conscience And although being in Spain which is my native Country I did hear very much of the Protestant Churches nevertheless I could never meet with any Books written by the Divines of that Communion by reason we are severely forbidden to read them But because I did hear that they found all their Doctrine upon the Scriptures I took a great desire to read the same and to search after the Truth in order to my Salvation Neither do they forbid in Spain as a Countrey religious above the rest of the Papists to read the Holy Bible And after I had made it my business to read the Holy Word of God I met with those words of the Apostle Paul 2 Tim. 3.16 17. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness That the man of God may be perfect thorowly furnished with all good works Here it seemed unto me that the Apostle had drawn a portraicture of a Minister and proposed not only the method of Preaching but also the matter and the off spring of it and so declared by what means a Man of God that is a Minister of Christ might come to a full perfection of learning in order to the Instruction of their souls that should be committed to his care Namely he meant the Holy Scriptures of which he thought they did contain the treasure of the Divine Wisdom when he pronounces them to be able to make one wise unto salvation 2 Tim. 3.15 and expresseth the four fountains of Christian Morality to be contained in them and chargeth not only himself but an Angel likewise with an Anathema Gal. 1.8 Gal. 6.16 Isa 8.20 if he should preach any other Gospel unto us than that he hath preached and pronounceth his blessing upon them that walk according to this rule God himself is willing to reduce his People from them that have familiar spirits and from wizards unto his will and counsel sendeth them to the law and to the testimony and addeth That for them that do not walk according to this word there is no morning that is no life everlasting according to the phrase of the Psalmist when he saith Psal 46.5 God shall help Jerusalem when the morning appeareth that is when the day of our salvation will be approaching This was the reason that John on his Revelation declareth If any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy Apoc. 22.19 God shall take away his part out of the book of life Seeing then that the Apostle Paul did speak so highly in the commendation of Scriptures as a man that hath not shunned to declare all the counsel of God Act. 20.27 Act. 26.22 saying no other things than those which Moses and the Prophets did say should come I concluded presently that there was no other fountain out of which we could derive the true Church but only out of Scriptures by reason we are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Eph. 2.2 Jesus Christ being himself the chief corner-stone And I saw likewise that the Ancient Father Austin L. 3. cont Ma. Arian did not disagree with my opinion when he saith Neither will I alledg the Nicene nor do you alledg the Council of Arimine unto my prejudice Let matter with matter cause with cause reason with reason decert by the authority of the Scriptures which are not belonging only to one party but impartial witnesses of both Contra Donat. There that is in the holy Scriptures as he saith somewhere else Let us search after the true Church and handle our questions But searching more narrowly after the Purity of particular Churches I found none answering so exactly the Scriptures as the Protestant Churches Therefore I
think he could be perswaded of the authority of Scriptures not by the authority of the Church nor by the perswasion of Moses or the Prophets but by the internal truth speaking in his heart Which is the holy Spirit And let them not make an instance against us that every one pretends the holy Spirit by reason pretension maketh no prejudice to truth Neither is the question betwixt us and the Papists as betwixt admitting the authority of the Scripture and denying the same by reason both of us do admit the same and then the question ariseth how or by what way we may be perswaded that these Scriptures which we embrace as divine are not prophane And if we or they answer more agreeably let every impartial Christian be a judg We conclude therefore as this question to be unworthy of a Christian man If the holy Bible be the Word of God so another assertion of a Jesuit Sambar de fide orthodoxa called Sambar to be very foolish viz. that the Protestant Churches have no Scriptures For besides that he defends this proposition for no other end but to escape the strength of the arguments derived out of the Scriptures likewise he confirmeth this proposition by no other medius terminus or reason but because the Protestant Church having no notes of a true Church is false and so she can have no Scripture being the Scriptures dependeth from the Church both in their material and in their formal part Whereas both the argument and its probation is false and they foolishly petunt principium take that for granted which we utterly deny viz. that the Scriptures and their sense doth depend from the authority of the Church as we did touch this point somewhat higher Moreover the Jesuit by this assertion doth shew his desperate cause by reason none of the ancient Fathers did deny the Scriptures to any Heretick as they suppose us to be that they might shew his case plain and Austin saith that the Scriptures are not belonging as proper to one Aug. lib. 3. contr Ma. Arian but that they are common witnesses of both the sides And if we would be so rude we could change the scene and affirm that the Papists themselves have no Scripture as to the formal part because we did plainly shew a little higher their Church not only to be false and erroneous but none at all But being I am not afraid of their arrows which they can take out of the Scriptures I will not deny them the Bible Having thus far secured the Sentiment of the Protestant Churches about the authority of Scriptures I descend to the proprieties of them I affirm therefore the holy Scriptures to be perfect as well touching the perfection of parts as of degrees and thence to be sufficient to our salvation The Law of God is perfect saith David Psal 119. and the sufficiency of it is shown by the Apostle in the forementioned words 2 Tim. 3.16 The accession of the New Testament to the old maketh no prejudice to the perfection and sufficiency of Scriptures because he that declared all the counsel of God spoke nothing other than what Moses did say and the Prophets as we writ before Hence the old Fathers said very well As the New Testament is hidden in the old so the Old Testament is declared in the new neither gradus variat speciem doth a degree change the nature of things that are of the same kind Neither do we dispute with the Papists of this or the other part of Scriptures but of the whole Canon as it is made by the Apostles declared by the ancient Church and enumerated by Hierom. Hierony in prol Gal. They are not therefore to commit a fallacy of division And as we do justly cut off from this perfection and sufficiency of Scriptures the books call'd Apocrypha by reason they contradict themselves and the holy Scripture neither were they found in the Jewish Church unto which were committed the Oracles of God Rom. 3.2 So we reject the distinction of the Papists betwixt the books Protocanonical and Deuterocanonical by reason a Canon cannot be changed And for this reason we do very little esteem Traditiones non scriptas not written Traditions because out of that is written Joh 20.31 2 Tim. 3.15 we may have sufficient instructions for the life-eternal To refer unto these Traditions the several Orders of Fryers and the sheaving of their Crowns the words of Christ John 16.12 I have yet many things to say unto you but you cannot bear them now is a very great folly Because if this was the meaning of Christ he could very easily have called a Barber and commanded the heads of those Disciples to be shaven But may be he could not by reason of their baldness Besides that Monks Hieronimus whose duty was to weep and not to teach as an old Father saith were not shaven for a sign of their honour and pre-eminence but for a sign of their penitence For the last Psal 19.8 Rom. 16.4 the Scriptures are easie to be understood The Commandment of the Lord is pure enlightning the eyes and whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Which could not be if the Scripture was not easie and light We affirm therefore that as those things which are absolutely necessary to salvation are few so they are plainly set down in the Scriptures But as for other questions I do not deny such things to be found in the Scriptures that can afford work enough for a human wit. Namely as one saith The holy volumes are of such a nature Chrysostomus that as well a lamb may wade in it as an Elephant swim Being then that the holy Scriptures are perspicuous as it is evident out of reason testimony and the consent of the ancient Fathers therefore the Protestants proceed very lawfully in attributing judicium discretionis or a judgment of discretion to every true Christian So that every believer by the often reading of the Word of God and by the conferring of one place of Scripture with the other may interpret the Gospel 2 Pet. 1.20 21. because no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation for it came not by the will of man but by the holy Ghost As for the Fathers of the ancient Church and the four Primitive Councils we imbrace them as interpreters of the holy Scriptures yea we affirm likewise that they may bind subordinately to Scriptures our conscience but not force them to the faith ligant non obligant yet we deny whether the Fathers or the Council or the Roman Pope to be a Judg of the Controversies about matters of faith Austin Fatetur Andradius contra Kâ—mnitium Defens Concil Triden l. 2. Bellar. sacra scriptura regula decidendi certissima tutissimaque est Heb. 4.12 but only the Holy Ghost speaking in his Word
or as one saith Christ himself when he speaketh Let Christ judg of this controversie who although he be absene in his person yet is present in his word Hence doth flow that the Scriptures may be justly called a Judg not proclaiming outwardly the sentence but deciding the question as a Law and so it may be called a judex normalis a normal Judg being it is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart We did shew as I believe shortly and clearly that the Protestant Churches do vindicate sufficiently the authority of the holy Scriptures and derogate nothing at all from their adjuncts and proprieties Now I will come to the second part of our argument and shew that the Protestants do teach according to the doctrine of the Holy Ghost contained in the Scriptures I will pass by these common places of Divinity as touching God in his Works Proprieties and Persons by reason the Papists do believe the same as the Protestants except in some preter-fundamental things which we will have better opportunity to speak of somewhat lower Only this I touch at present that Jesuital definition of the Free will is very false and erroneous viz. that it is Facultas qua positis omnibus ad agendum praerequisitis aliquis possit agere non agere A faculty by which all the requisites belonging to the doing of a thing being present a man can nevertheless chuse to do it or no I say it is false because besides that when the object is present the will by the determination of the last practical judgment of our reason embraces the object without any dilation likewise it is impossible that a man should change Gods Decree which is one of the requisits Act. 17.28 Psal 7.6 Isa 4.10 Psal 8.11 putting a man into a performance of this or another kind of an action by reason as God himself cannot change so neither can his Will because he saith himself My counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure and David The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever the thoughts of his heart to all generations After all the requisites to the prodition and betraying of Christ were found in Judas as viz. the determination of his Will by his Reason the taking of the money c. Judas could not chuse but betray Christ by reason the highest requisite was present which is the Will of God and his determination or his hand and his counsel in order unto which the Son of man was of necessity to be delivered into the hands of sinful men Act. 1.28 Luk. 24.7 and be crucified and the third day rise again All which could have been changed if the free-will of Judas had been of that condition our Jesuitical definition speaks of The Protestants therefore are sounder in this case as well as in the rest because they define the free-will thus Arbitrium humanum est facultas agendi libere absque coactione determinatione physica ad unum that is The will of a man is a faculty doing a thing freely without coaction or physical determination to one Because not every necessity taketh away the freedom of our will but only that which is of coaction and of physical necessity for the free will cannot be forced as to its actus elicitos or internal acts but quoad imperatos or external nor can it be determined to one thing only as the fire is determinated to burning Therefore it is not free from the Divine determination nor from the last judgment of the practical reason nor in the unregenerate from sin unto which although it be determined yet considered specifically it hath freedom to make a choice betwixt sin and sin So that in an unregenerated man it is only free to sin neither can a man by the vertue of the same arrive to the doing of any Theological good 1 Cor. 3.5 Col. 2.13 Eph. 2.3 5.14 2.12 Rom. 14.23 For we are not sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God being we are by nature the children of wrath we are dead without God and every imagination of the thought of our heart is only evil continually Gen. 6.5 and from our youth Cap. 8.28 And the best that any unregenerate man seemeth to do is but bad by reason it doth not proceed from faith which qualifieth the work Just then as a privatione totali non datur regressus ad habitum nisi per potentiam infinitam from a total privation can be no returning to a habit unless by the infinite power so likewise from sin which is privatio rectitudinis debitae inesse a want or a privation of the righteousness which ought to be within us there is no returning to justice or righteousness Joh. 11.43 unless God awaken us and speak to our dead hearts Rise up Lazarus unless he commandeth the Sun of Righteousness to rise in our dark hearts as he did in the first Creation Mal. 4. saying Let there be light Gen. 1. And truly because Regeneration according to the phrase of the holy Scriptures is nothing else but a new creation Eph. 2.10 For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works saith Paul and elsewhere In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing Gal. 6.15 nor uncircumcision but a new creature confer Gal. 6.15 cum Col. 3.10 Hence David prays God should create a clean heart in him it cannot be attributed to any else but only to the Infinite power Phil. 2.13 which is in God who worketh in us both to will and to do according to his good pleasure Whatever good works therefore are or were to be found in Heathens are not without reason call'd by Austin August Mat. 5.45 Splendida peccata shining sins I do not deny they may do somewhat good morally by the general influence of the Almighty according to Paul's saying The Gentiles do by nature the things contained in the Law Rom. 2.19 yet they can do no good as it is considered Theologically because they are destitute of faith which purifieth the heart and of a right end of their doing Act. 15 9. which is Gods glory Being they do not absolutely shew this or the t'other sin but for that they may shew themselves before people as Socrates did shun Intemperance for to gain by it vain-glory Hence it floweth that Justification Sanctification and the like are not ours but Gods so that when God confers upon us as justified and sanctified the eternal glory he may be well said August to crown with reward his own gifts and not our merits As to Justification which we first intend to speak of it is twofold active and passive Or else it is to be considered either in respect of God justifying or in respect of the man justified In the first respect it is nothing else but an outward absolution of a sinner and a proclamation made by God of a
one part of his Priesthood which is his sacrifice viz. that there should be no more material sacrifices being the place to which they were bound was deftroyed The Papists do urge the old custom and the expressions of the old fathers who commonly speak about sacrifices but they are very much in them because they understood by the word of a sacrifice nothing else but Sacrificium Eucharisticum a Sacrifice of Thanksgiving which commonly was perform'd at the Lords-Supper which and alms joined together with prayers are a living sacrifice Rom. 12.1 Clem. Alexand l. 7 Stromat De vero cultu l. 6. c. 25. August de C.D. l. 10. c. 4. Psal 110. holy and acceptable to God. Hence Clemens Alexandrinus saith they will not believe that a holy altar is a righteous soul and holy prayer the incense And Lactantius There are two things to be offered a gift and a sacr fice both incorporal the gift is the integrity of mind the sacrifice is prayer and psalms Austin calls our heart an altar our sacrifice humility and praise our fire charity And so Hieronimus Ambrosius and others As to the Priest there is no other but Christ himself because he is a Priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedech and they cannot be Priests Levitical because they are ceased And so I having shewed there is no proper altar no proper Priest nor no proper Hoast besides Christ himself Who is our sacrifice Epiphan lib. 2. â—om 1. Haâ—s our priest our altar I conclude there is no proper oblation extant at this time for the sins of the living and the dead and by consequence no Transubstantiation upon which the sacrifice is builded And here falleth their Purgatory because besides that it is contrary to Scriptures to Reason to the ancient Fathers injurious to the satisfaction and merits of Christ likewise if there be no sacrifice there shall be no Mass and per consequens no money for the delivery of the souls out of Purgatory and so Purgatory must needs fall Here falleth likewise their Doctrine of Concomitancy Gelasius Pontif. Conc. Constant for which sake as their Pope saith they have committed a sacriledg in subducing the Cup from the Lay-man which although the Council of Constance professeth to be contrary to the Primitive institution of Christ and the use of the ancient Church yet notwithstanding all this for some foolish reason as that the hands of some doth shake that some have ugly beards c. it declareth the man to be an Anathema that will not believe it And it is and always hath been a great wonder for me why the same doctrine of Concomitance should not as well serve in the taking away of the bread and using the cup or else in subducing it as well from the Clergy as from the Lay-man why it is an observation and a fulfilling of Law to abstain from one and a sin yea a mortal sin from the t'other There is no Reason nor Scripture for it to be found Therefore the Protestants teach very well as well to the nature as to the integrity of this Sacrament as we may see in their daily practice The rest of the arguments which they have against or for this matter we will as I said refer to the aforementioned Treatise Only I will touch the point of the worshipping of Saints In which the Protestant Church teacheth according to the holy Scriptures and to the ancient Fathers August that Sancti honorandi sunt imitatione non adorandi religione The Saints are to be honoured by Imitation but not adored religiously and that for these true Reasons viz. 1. We cannot believe in Saints Ergo we cannot worship them it is the argument of the Apostle Paul Rom. 10.14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed 2. We are severely forbidden to worship any thing besides God Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God Mat. 4.10 Isaias Aquinas 1. p. q. 57. ar 4. Jer. 17.1 p. q. 12. ar 8. and him only shalt thou serve 3. Because they do not know our thoughts nor our prayers Abraham did not know us and Isaac was ignorant of us From thence saith Thomas Aquinas to know the cogitations of the heart is the property of God and elsewhere Ergo Angeli non cognoscunt secreta cordis therefore Angels know not the secrets of the heart And again Cognoscere singularia cogitata facta hominum non est de perfectione intellectus creati To know particulars and the thoughts and acts of men is not of the perfection of a created understanding This considering Durandus saith 4. p. 463. Si quaeratur an beati cogitatione beata cognoscunt orationes nostras dicendum quâ—d non If the question be whether the blessed Saints in their blessed knowledg do know our prayers It is to be answered they do not according to Austin Aug. in lib. de cur promort c. 15.1 Reg. 8.39 Proinde fatendum est nescire quidem mortuos quid his agatur Furthermore it is to be confessed that the dead know not what is done here because God only knoweth the hearts of all the Children of men seeing then that the Saints do not know our prayers nor our thoughts neither is it unlawful to adore them or worship them But I cannot pass by with silence an answer of a Jesuit Jesuit Anonymus upon this place we produced in our third Reason Abraham doth not know us He answereth that the Saints are said not to know the Israelites as Christ saith to the wicked Non novi vos I do not know you Mat. 7. yet he saith Christ knew them well enough It is an answer I never heard before But this good Socius doth not consider that 1. He contradicts his own opinion of the Fathers in the Old Testament being in limbo patrum where surely they could not be adored nor know our necessities as well as Christ knew theirs to whom he spoke I do not know you 2. When Christ saith I do not know you he means by it the knowledg of approbation that is that he doth not approve them nor their doings as it is plain ex antithesi of knowing one as David saith Psal 1. The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous that is he approveth it But when Abraham is said not to know one it is to be referred to a meer ignorance as we may see it out of the opposition made betwixt Abraham and God But thou O Lord c. So that when God is said not to know a thing it is to be understood he doth not approve it but when men are charged with ignorance it is to be understood properly But having past this Objection I will go on Peter the Apostle a Saint and a holy Man would not admit the worshipping of Cornelius saying I my self also am a man. Act. 10.26 The Angel of whom John knew he was such an one would not admit
the prostration of John but says Worship God. Rev. 19.10 A Heathen Poet could tell that God only should be worshipped when he saith Nec ela sum dixit nec sacro thuris honore Humanum dignare caput Why should we Christians then be so unjust to the Almighty God as to deprive him of his honour The distinction which they use betwixt Latreia and Duleia and Hyperduleia is of no value and I have seen many which sufficiently yea abundantly refuted the same Only I will conclude in this matter that if Papists cannot be accused of formal Idolatry surely they are guilty of material Their exceptions betwixt the coherence of Signum and Signatum and other small exceptions in that kind are vain Every man is an Image of God but I do believe they will not worship every one Having thus far shewen the truth of the Protestant Churches in defending of the holy Scriptures and in conforming their Doctrine to them in the most weighty points I will infer this conclusion that the Protestant Church is a true a faithful and a sincere Church which was to be the conclusion This I will add for the last that namely the Papists seeing they could not prevail with the Protestants in the way of disputing of their Doctrine They questioned the Ministry of the Protestant Clergy saying the same was not lawful But besides that their own Scholasticks Bannes Canus as Bannes Canus and others doth allow that per haeresin potestas ordinandi non amittitur Likewise they shew the contrary by their practise because they do not re-ordain them that are ordained in our Churches as to the substantial part and it is sure enough that a bad Governour or Governours of the Church may send good labourers into the Vineyard of Christ as I will shew by an instance in answer upon the next following argument A Papist once discoursing with me about the Clergy of the Protestants that namely they were unlawful because they were ordained by them that fell off from the Church of Rome and so became Hereticks framed this argument against me viz. That Antichrist can send no servants for Christ But the Roman Pope as the Protestant saith is an Antichrist and he cannot send any servants for Christ It seemed unto me a very strong argument at the first till at last after a little while I answered him thus That Antichrist that hath nothing of Christ in him cannot send servants for Christ I allow but the Roman Pope is such an Antichrist I deny and so do the Protestants because they do not affirm the Pope to be quite without Christ or else he is not an open Antichrist but a hidden one under a Cloak of a Vicar of Christ who distributeth the Offices of his temporal and earthly Court. And that such a one may send good men and willing to serve Christ I have shewed it by an instance which was this When Christ was upon earth and the limits of the Church were within the compass of Canaan the Church was very much corrupted Christ calleth their learning fermentum leaven their lives sepulchra dealbata painted Coffins Paul calleth the High Priest a whited Wall and yet they did send out good Workmen into the Vineyard of the Lord as viz. Joseph Nicodemus and others Thus I stopt the mouth of the Papists and here I will make an end of my book In the mean time I thank the Almighty God for that he hath been pleased to open mine eyes for they see the way of truth and pray him to confirm me in it And wish that every one may reject the way of abomination and be rooted and built up in Christ and stablished in the faith lest he be spoiled by vain deceit Col. 2.7 8. after the tradition of men after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ Surely the Popish Religion as it is considered in it self and so by consequence their Church is nothing else but Babylon Apoc. Exite igitur ex ea popule mi Go out of it my people lest you should be partakers of their sins Imbrace the true Protestant Religion which is pure in her Doctrine holy in her Manners true to God and King to which both who will obey let him be a true Protestant FINIS