unto us and to guide us in Matters of Faith and Religion if ever they mean to repress justly the Irreligious boldness of Fanatical Interpreters and to see Peace again restored to the Christian World. Which Root of Dissention is no other thing than that liberty to Read and Interpret the Holy Scriptures which the Protestant Religion instilleth into Men while it denieth the Infallibility of the Church admitteth of no certain and un-erring Judge of Controversies to whose definitive Sentence all are bound to submit and maketh the written Word of God of it self without an Interpreter the sole Rule of Faith by which all Men ought to square out their Belief and Religion By all which it appeareth to be manifest That according to the Grounds and Tenets of the Protestant Religion the Sacred word of God is not only unprofitable but even hurtful and pernicious to Mankind for want of a Sure Interpreter appointed by God to guide us in Faith and Religion to the right Sense and Meaning thereof As beside the Reasons given the manifold Examples of divers unfortunate Men do convince who by over-boldly searching into the Bible have either crack'd their Brains or fallen into despair or turned Jews Turks or Atheists or imbraced absurd and ridiculous Opinions for what made Hacket formerly Naylor and others lately to give themselves out for New Christs What made so many false Prophets and Prophetesses appear in the late Confusions of England Or what occasion'd then so many Sacriledges Barbarities and Cruelties but too much poring into and medling with the Bible Question VIII Whether the State of the Great Family City Kingdom Commonwealth Army of Jesus Christ that is of his Church do require a Supream Spiritual Head or no ALL understanding Protestants will easily grant that no Family City Kingdom Commonwealth Army or Navy can be fittingly and rightly ordered and govern'd without some Head or Supream Magistrate to whom Subjects may have recourse and from whom they may receive Directions as need shall require Which being so I demand of Protestants whether the State in Earth of the Great Family City Kingdom Commonwealth Army of Jesus Christ that is his Church doth of necessity require for the fit Uniform and peaceable Government thereof a Supream Head a Supream Spiritual Magistrate to whom the Subjects thereof may have Recourse and from whom they may re-receive Directions in matters of Faith and Religion as need shall require To deny the Necessity of such a Supream Magistrate for the fit Government of the Church of Christ consisting of Men yea of so many several Nations differing in Laws Customs Affections Empire and the like is manifestly against Reason And to affirm that although such a Magistrate be extreamly needful for the due Government of His Church yet he neglected to provide Her of any such is to accuse him of want of Wit and Discretion for there was never yet amongst Civil People so simple a Founder of a Commonwealth or so simple a Law-maker that ordained no Supream Power in his Commonwealth no Interpreter of his Law no Judge to decide and end Controversies Christ then being Founder of the best Commonwealth that ever was and maker of the best Law that Mankind ever received it can be no less than Blasphemy to affirm that he left this his Noble Common-wealth without a Supream Magistrate to whom his People might have recourse and his Divine and Evangelical Law containing so many obscure Verities so many profound Mysteries without an Interpreter without a Judge to decide and end Controversies Moreover If Christ hath ordained no such Supream Magistrate Head or Guide of his Church in things Spiritual appertaining to Faith and Religion it seems to follow clearly and manifestly that every man is at liberty to believe what he list and to practise what Worship of God he thinks best What Unity then in Faith what Uniformity in the Worship of the Divinity can there be in the Church of Christ Or what sure means have Christian People to know who be right and who Heretical Believers Or to discern their true Prelates whom they are bound to obey Heb. 13. 17. from False Prophets from Heretical Teachers whom they are to shun under pain of Damnation Matth. 7. Tit. 3. Yea How can any man be proved to be a false Teacher if there be not some known true Teacher If no man hath Power and Authority from God to direct the Faith of others If no man be bound and obliged by Christ to Believe or to Teach as an other would have him how can any man be justly esteemed to Believe or Teach amiss Or why should he be reputed to Believe or Teach amiss if he be not bound to limit and square out his Faith and Teaching by the Judgement and Discretion of some other Wherefore either we must say that the Church of Christ is not to be obeyed that false Prophets are not to be avoided that no man doth Believe or Teach amiss so long as he Believes and Teaches well in his own Judgement and that no man is or can be in respect of Men an Heretick or a false Prophet All which is contrary to the Word of God and plainly overthroweth all Christianity or else we must affirm as the certain Truth is that God hath ordained and appointed some to teach and to direct others what they ought to Believe and Practise to obtain Life everlasting and others to be taught and guided What will Protestants to this Will they deny all possibility of Vnity and of Order in the Church and Family of Christ or else will they grant as Reason and as the Truth requires that God hath ordained some visible Ministerial Head some Supream Spiritual Magistrate in his Church to whom all may have Recourse in the Affairs of Religion and by whom all are bound to be directed in Points of Faith and in the Practise of his Divine Worship If this they grant I demand which is this Head this Spiritual Magistrate and in whom doth reside this Supream Spiritual Power and Authority Doth it reside in Supream Spiritual or in Supream Temporal Magistrates If in Supream Temporal doth it reside in one or in many If in one who is this Supream Temporal Magistrate Who hath Power and Authority even by Gods Ordination to direct the whole World all the Nations of the Earth in matters of Faith and in the Practise of Gods Worship And how is this proved out of the Word of God If this Supream Power reside not in any one Supream Temporal Magistrate Doth it by Gods Ordination reside in many that is in the Supream Temporal Magistracy of each Common-wealth in such sort that the Supream Temporal Magistrate Prince or King of each Commonwealth or Kingdom hath Power and Authority from God to direct the Subjects thereof in Faith and to appoint them what Religion they shall follow what Worship of God they shall practise If so then the Subjects of each Commonwealth are bound under Pain of
and certain Guide in matters of Religion any Infallible Interpreter of his Word p. 24. Question 7. If God hath left no sure and un-erring Interpreter of his Word in matters of Faith how can it be defended that the Holy Scriptures are not unprofitable and even pernicious to Mankind p. 30. Question 8. Whether the State of the great Family City Kingdom and Commonwealth Army of Jesus Christ that is of his Church doth require a Supreme Spiritual Head or no p. 33. Question 9. Whether the way to Salvation be narrow or no p. 40. Question 10. How it can be defended that Jesus was the true Messiah promised in the Old Testament if the Church which he Founded erred so many Ages in her Doctrine of Faith p. 42. Question 11. Did the Church of Christ Err heretofore because Christ could not preserve her from Erring or because he would not p. 63. Question 12. If the Church of Christ did Err for so many Ages How can it be defended that God is truly Good and doth truly desire the Salvation of Mankind p. 65. Question 13. If the Church of Christ did Err from the true Light of the Gospel so many Ages could he find none fit in so many Hundred Years to restore the same till Luther falling out with the Pope and breaking his Vow of Chastity began to teach a new Religion tending to Liberty and Looseness p. 69. Question 14. Whether God by Miracles can draw and incline men to believe a false Religion or no Where it is shew'd that Cod by Miracles did draw our Fore-Fathers at their first Conversion to Christianity to believe Papistry p. 74. Question 15. Out of which Religion the Elect of Christ are to be gather'd at the day of Judgement p. 80. Question 16. Whether Protestants or Catholicks do take the sure way to Eternal Happiness Where it is shewed that Papistry by the Judgement of all Learned Protestants is a saving Religion and consequently a securer way p. 87. An Appendix Whether the Apostles were Protestants or no p. 95. Question I. Where was the Protestant Religion Believ'd and Practis'd the last five hundred years before Luther First I Demand of Protestants where in what Countries Provinces or Cities was the Protestant Church and Religion Extant and Practis'd the last five hundred years immediately before Luther's Revolt from the Roman Church Which he began in the year 1517 First To say that Christ for those five hundred years had no True Church no Saving Faith and Religion upon Earth is flatly against Daniel 2. 44. foretelling that the Kingdom that is the Church of Christ should stand for ever and c. 7. v. 14. That it should Never be Corrupted And against Christ himself assuring us Matth. 16. 18. That the Gates of Hell should never prevail against his Church Moreover out of this Answer it follows that Christ was not the Saviour of the World. For if the World had no means of Salvation from him for those five hundred years Such means it had not from him the next five hundred years which passed before these Which being granted it will be hard if not impossible to prove either by Scripture or Reason that for the space of the next five hundred years which reach up to the times of the Apostles the World from Christ had any true means of Salvation And so by this Answer he will be wholly excluded from being the Saviour of the World as hereafter more clearly shall appear Secondly No understanding Protestant will deny that the World was full of Christians before Luther began his new Preaching or that they then had believ'd and re-cited the CREED of the Apostles If then a Christian in those times had been press'd by a Jew Turk or any other Infidel to deny that Article of his Creed I believe a Holy Catholick Church a Communion of Saints Whether might he with a safe Conscience have deny'd it or no If safely he might have deny'd this Article safely also he might have deny'd the rest In regard that all these Articles so far forth as they are the Object of Faith are of equal Truth and Certainty as is manifest For if one of them be false what certainty is there of the rest But if he might not without damnable Sin and the high offence of God have deny'd this Article as doubtless he might not then this Article as well as the rest is a Divine Truth which we ought to believe with firm and Divine Faith And consequently there was extant in the World before Luther's rising a Catholick Church and a Communion of Saints That is a common union or conjunction of Sanctify'd People in that Church Otherwise Christian People could not so strictly have been oblig'd to believe that Article For they cannot be oblig'd to believe a Falsehood Christ then in the Ages immediatly before Luther began to Preach and institute the Protestant Church and Religion had on Earth a Catholick Church and a Sanctify'd People therein united together in Faith and Religion and in the participation of his Divine Benefits Which being so What will Protestants Answer to my Question Will they grant as the Truth is that although the Protestant Church and Religion were no where extant and in practice the last five hundred years before Luther Yet Christ had then and in all former Ages a saving Faith and Religion But then I must tell them first That if the Protestant Religion and Church were not then the Catholick Church and saving Religion of Christ it cannot prudently be thought or possibly prov'd to be so now But rather all Discreet and Judicious People must hold it to be a new Invention such as the Arrian or the Nestorian Profession was Secondly I must tell them that That Religion which before Luther's Innovation was a Saving Religion is still a Saving Religion For why should it not it being the same that it was Which being granted the Protestant Profession cannot be a Saving Religion Because there cannot be two Saving Religions extant at the same time opposite and contrary one to another as hereafter more clearly shall appear in regard that one of them must of necessity be a false Religion and proceed as from the prime Suggestor and Author not from God but from the enemy of mankind Who will never invent and set a foot a Religion apt to save men in Thirdly I must tell them that if in all Ages before Luther's time Christ on Earth had a Holy Church and a Saving Religion as most certainly he had The first Protestants did very ill in forsaking her Communion and in raising against Her such Factions and Tumults meerly for Liberty sake as they have done For this breaking off was not to secure their Souls whatsoever they pretended to have some colour of their doing but to enjoy more Carnal Liberty than the long settled Discipline of that Holy Church could bear and allow And as ill do They who still maintain the same breach and impugne the same Holy
they must not budge from Luther in Geneva from Calvin in England from the Belief Establish'd by Parliament Which if they do presently they are urg'd and sometimes born down by Church Authority Presently excellent and pithy Sentences extolling Church Authority and shewing the Necessity thereof are Alleadg'd Magnify'd urg'd in Sermons in Books out of the Scripture out of Tertullian St. Cyprian Lirinensis and other Fathers Notwithstanding that these very Sentences through the sides of these poor Ignorants do deadly stab the Hearts of those which alleadge them for disobeying that very Church Authority which these Sentences speak of and commend But with what Equity if I may be so bold as to ask with what Security of Conscience do these Authoriz'd Teachers proceed against these Zealous Ignorants for following that Belief which they gather out of the Word of God put into their Hands by these their Teachers and force them to follow another which by the very Rules and Tenets of these men they cannot but esteem Superstitious May they not justly say If the Scripture only be the Rule of Faith why do ye not permit us to believe what we find therein If it be easie to be understood why do you punish us for holding that Doctrine which we gather out of it If it be not easie why do you put it into our Hands If we are not bound to believe in Points of Faith any thing that is not expresly in the Scripture why will ye force us to believe and practice that which there we find not If Church Authority is to be rejected why do you interpose yours If it be a Butchering of Consciences to force men to Believe as the Church doth Teach Why do you force us to Believe as you Teach If you contemn the Authority of the â—ver Visible Church why do you force us to Reverence and to stoop to yours What signes do you shew what Miracles do you work to demonstrate unto us that your Church Authority is rather to be Follow'd rather to be Obey'd than the Church Authority of the Antient Fathers of the General Councels of the ever Visible Church of Christ If Church Authority be to be Follow'd be to be Reverenc'd be to be Obey'd Restore Us to that which Hoary Autiquity which Succession of Prelates which Consent of Nations which Excellent Sanctity which Manifest Miracles do commend unto Us. If it is to be rejected leave us to Gods Word and force not our Consciences against that Light which shineth unto us in Reading the same Thus may these misled People now complain against those who having drawn them out of the Bosom of the Catholick Church do now endeavour to Inthrawl them to themselves But much more terrible I fear will be the Bill of Complaint which one day they are likely to put up at the Chancery Bar of Heaven if a speedy and serious Course be not taken to restore these misled Souls again to the secure feeding of their Mother Church Which God of his Mercy bring to pass for the Eternal Happiness both of Them and their Leaders Question VII If God hath left no sure and un-erring Interpreter of his Word in Matters of Faith How can it be defended That the Holy Scriptures are not Unprofitable and even Pernicious to Mankind PErchance some Protestants not able to give a satisfying Answer to my Question about the Interpreter of the Scriptures will affirm That God hath not ordained any certain Interpreter of those his Sacred Oracles but hath left them to the scanning and guess of all Readers whatsoever But then I demand How it can be defended that these Divine Books are not hurtful yea and even pernicious to Mankind For evident it is that they may be taken in divers and opposite Senses Yea evident it is that they are de facto so taken by several Learned Men. Who following no surer Interpreter than the strength of their own Wit and Learning do gather out of them contrary Faiths and Religions and several worships of God Of which some of necessity must be false and hurtful to all that follow them for False Religions are ever hurtful yea plainly pernicious to those which follow them as more clearly hereafter shall appear And indeed three things are questionable about the Holy Scriptures which without the help of an un-erring Interpreter authorized and enabled by God himself to guide us to the Truth about them can never be rightly and fittingly decided The first is Which Books are Canonical and truly the Word of God And which are not The second is Which Translation is good right authentical and which is not The third is Which is the true and right meaning of the Holy Ghost in this or that Text or Sentence of Scripture touching upon some point of Faith About the sense whereof the Learned do contend Which being so divers People perswaded in their Consciences that the Scriptures are Divine Books and really the Word of God And that by believing them rightly and by following that Religion which they teach they may obtain Life Everlasting Will earnestly endeavour to search out the true meaning of them Which they being not able every where to find by their own natural Forces without the help of a sure Interpreter directed by the Holy Ghost They will pick out divers false Senses yea and Religions out of the Scriptures by mistaking their right meaning Which they will repute the true meaning of them being not tyed to any Interpreter and will defend Tooth and Nail to the assured Perdition of their own Souls and theirs whom they draw after them and to the raising of several Factions endless Contentions and bloody Broils amongst Christian People as we see fallen out since the rising of Luther For each of those who thus search the Scriptures without regarding any Infallible Interpreter will easily perswade himself that is the right meaning of the Holy Ghost which he hath lighted upon and that the true Light of the Gospel which shineth to him in reading and scanning the Word of God and that therefore it standeth him upon if he will not betray the Truth and lose his own Soul to stick firmly thereunto and to strive even to death to maintain the same Yea sometimes such Searchers of God's Word esteem themselves bound in Conscience to bandy with all the force they can against those who seek to Ruine what they would Raise From which manner of perswasions have proceeded not only great varieties of Religions and great Animosity in the defence of them but all the furious Garboils also and bloody Contentions about Religion which now for above these Hundred Years have miserably turmoil'd the Christian World and yet are likely further to turmoil it unless Christian Princes open their Eyes to behold the true Root of these Dissentions and how absolutely necessary it is to admit of some one Infallible and Un-erring Interpreter of God's Word authorized and enabled by the Holy Ghost to deliver the true Sense thereof
believe as he doth teach For if they follow any contrary Proposer who does mingle Truth with Falshood contrary to the Doctrine of the right Proposer their Faith cannot be Divine nor avail them to Salvation If any one ask who is Gods un-erring Proposer of Divine Verities I answer now as I answer'd before no other but the Ordinary Doctors and Pastors of the ever visible and Catholick Church of Christ which Doctors and Pastors among other things propose as a Divine and certain Truth that out of the Communion of the True and Catholick Church no Salvation can be had out of whose Communion those most certainly do live who are separated from the Chair of St. Peter and profess Riligions by it condemned And therefore those which esteem themselves secure by believing only those general Points of the Christian Religion which are not controverted betwixt the Learned of the Protestant and of the Roman Church are greatly deceived they being not only destitute of Divine Faith but also very far off from performing the Duty of good Christians as may sufficiently appear by what is said And therefore this their Conceit serves to little else but to bring them to Hell with a quiet and unfrighted Conscience Fourthly Out of the Grounds laid a sufficient Reason doth appear of the Doctrine of the Ancient Fathers who constantly taught that out of the Catholick Church there is no Salvation which Catholick Church they esteemed to be no other than that which is joyned in Communion with the Chair of St. Peter Hear a word or two out of those ancient Worthies St. Athanasius in his Creed approved of and received by the whole Church speaketh thus Whosoever will be saved before all things it is needful that he hold the Catholick Faith the which unless one keep entire and inviolate without all doubt he shall perish eternally St. Cyprian De Simpl. Prelat And St. Augustin De Simbol l. 4. c. 10. saith If any one be found without the Church he shall be an Alien from the Children of God neither shall he have God for his Father who would not have the Church for his Mother The same St. Augustin speaking of Emeritus a Donatist and a Bishop saith Serm. de gestis cum Emerito He cannot have Salvation but in the Catholick Church out of the Church he may have all but Salvation He may have Honour he may have the Sacrament he may sing Alleluja he may answer Amen he may hold the Gospel he may both have and preach Faith in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost but Salvation he can no where have saving in the Catholick Church Where note that Bishop Emeritus being a Donatist was not so much separated from the Roman Church as Protestants are And yet this Learned Father and great Light of Gods Church esteemed him to be out of the Catholick Church and out of the State of Salvation In vain then do Protestants confide that they are within the Catholick Church they being farther separated from the same than this Bishop was St. Fulgentius De Fid. ad Pet. c. 39. saith Most firmly hold and in no sort doubt that each Heretick or Schismatick Baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost if he be not restored to the Catholick Church how great Alms soever he give yea though he should shed his Blood for the Name of Christ yet he cannot be saved Thus these Holy and Learned Fathers with whom in this Point agree the rest Fifthly It appears by the Grounds aforesaid that there can be but only one saving Faith and Religion in the World because there can be but only one Doctrine of Faith that is wholly true and free from all mixture of Falshood for all other Doctrines of Faith must of necessity be mixed and stain'd with some Falshood more or less according as they do more or less differ from and contradict that one Divine Doctrine of Faith which is wholly true as is manifest And therefore God cannot draw men to believe any of them with Divine Faith required of necessity to Salvation And so no Religion whose Doctrine of Faith is mixed with Falshood is truly and really a saving Religion how much soever it be adorned by the seducing Teachers or the seduced Followers thereof with the gay Title of the pure Light of the Gospel Sixthly It appears how just cause all Protestants have to return with speed to the Roman Church in which they may assuredly be saved even by the Judgement of the most Learned among them as hereafter shall appear because it is more than probable that the Protestant Profession is not a saving Religion in regard that the Doctrine of Faith which it imbraceth is not nor cannot be wholly true but really and certainly is mixed with much Falshood 1. Because in divers weighty Points of Faith it directly contradicts the express Word of God as I before have shewed 2. Because this Doctrine of Faith is not directed by any sure Rule of Faith by any Infallible Interpreter of the Scriptures by any Un-erring Judge of Controversies nor proposed by any sure and Infallible Proposer 3. Because Protestants are divided into several Branches or Sects which greatly differ and are contrary one to another in divers weighty Points of Faith as I before have noted And 4. Because Protestants hold that all Churches are subject to erring yea and have erred in their Doctrine of Faith. What assurance then have they that Theirs doth not err none at all But to come now to the principal Point intended in this Question I affirm that out of the Grounds laid which Christianly cannot be deny'd it clearly follows that according to the main Tenet and Ground of the Protestant Religion Jesus the Son of the Virgin Mary was not the true Messias promised in the Old Testament nor the true Saviour of the World. This monstrous Falshood and detestable Blasphemy I say doth clearly and inevitably follow out of the chief and Fundamental Ground of the Protestant Religion For if the Church which Jesus founded came to erre in her Doctrine of Faith in the Ages after the Apostles and to be corrupted with many pernicious Falshoods and Superstitions as Protestant Teachers affirm the Promises of God concerning the Messias made so seriously to the Patriarchs of the Old Testament cannot possibly be verified of Jesus and consequently he was not the true Messias the true Christ and Saviour of the World for of the true Messias these Promises must be verified most certainly in regard that God cannot be false of his Word Thus then he promised to Abraham Gen. 12. 3. In thee shall all the Kindreds of the Earth be blessed Gen. 18 18. In him Abraham are to be blessed all the Nations of the Earth To Isaac Gen. 26. 4. In thy Seed shall be blessed all the Nations of the Earth To Jacob Gen. 28. 14. In thee and in thy Seed all the Tribes of the
the Protestant Profession be Christ's True Religion and the Pure Light of his Gospel but hath ever made use to effect this admirable work of his Power and Mercy of the Blind and Superstitious Religion of the Papists That God for the space of above a thousand years in the Conversion of Heathen Nations and their Kings hath ever made use of Papistry is evident out of the Histories of former times which relates the Conversion of Nations Yea even in these latter times in which since the rising of the Protestant Religion the Faith of Christ hath been infinitely spread in the East and West-Indies and in divers vast Islands of the Sea amongst Heathen and Barbarous Nations God hath utterly neglected the True Religion and the pure Light of the Gospel that is the Protestant Religion And hath made use only of Papistry to make these Nations Blessed in Christ Now is not this a very likely thing if Papistry be a False and Protestancy the True Religion As likely certainly it is as that the Sea doth burn as that the Sun is dark and Snow black For to speak plain English If Protestancy be Gods Religion and Papistry the Devils in regard that God cannot in very deed be Author of both these Religions they being opposite and contrary one to the other How can God neglect the Protestant Religion and make use of Papistry to spread the Faith of his Son over the World to make thereby the Nations of the Earth Blessed in him Nay how can they be made Blessed in Christ by the help of the Devils Religion How can it become the Wisdom and Goodness of God to neglect his own Religion and to spread increase and exalt the Devils To neglect the True Light of the Gospel and to delude the Nations of the Earth with the Superstitions of Papistry Who then is so short and dim sighted that he doth not see that even from hence is most clearly prov'd that the Protestant Profession is not Gods Religion is not the Pure Light of the Gospel ordain'd by God to give Light to the Gentiles and to make them Blessed in Christ But a late and new Invention suggested by the Enemy of God to destroy in these Northern parts of the World that Religion which God made use of heretofore to root out Him and his Idolatrous Worship and to make these Nations Blessed in his Son I conclude then this Question with this Syllogism That is Gods Religion and the True Gospel and Doctrine of Christ which is Preached over the World to spread therein the Name and Faith of Christ for a Testimony to all Nations But Papistry and not Protestancy is so Preach'd over the World Ergo Papistry and not Protestancy is Gods Religion and the True Gospel and Doctrine of Christ The Major is certain and clear out of the Words of Christ Matth. 24. above-related The Minor is certain and also clear out of the Histories of former Times and also of this present Age. The conclusion follows well And so it rests demonstrated that the Holy Catholick Roman Faith Nick-nam'd Papistry is Gods Religion and the True Gospel of Christ Which will appear yet more clearly out of the Questions following Question V. Whether it be not a very inconsiderate thing and full of danger to prefer in matters of Faith and Religion the Teaching of Men before the Word of God ALthough the Arguments of the precedent Questions be firm and strong and sufficient to make Considerate Protestants to look about them yet many of them will be little mov'd therewith because they are possess'd with a strong imagination that Their Religion is grounded upon the word of God is squar'd out thereby and wholly or at least very much cleans'd from the Doctrines of men To free them from which false and dangerous Conceit and Perswasion I here demand Whether it be not a thing of great Inconsideration and of no small danger to prefer in matters of Faith and Religion the Teaching of Men the Doctrine of This or That Preacher before the Word of God Yea in effect to hazard and pawn ones Soul that the Teaching of these or those new Masters is truer and rather to be follow'd than the express word of God it self This will seem to Protestants a strange demand because they esteem Papists not a little culpable for relying too much upon the Doctrines of Men And therefore they will here bid me take my self by the Nose Nevertheless whatsoever they imagine I will easily here free Papists and prove them guilty of preferring the Doctrines of Men before the express Word of God. That Papists are not guilty of this Crime is clear enough First Because no Text of the Word of God taken in its proper Sense and as the Antient Fathers the general Councels the ever visible Catholick Church of Christ did take it doth directly contradict any Article held by the Roman Church For example no Text doth say that we are not justify'd by Faith and Good-Works That Works of Grace done in the state of Grace are not Meritorious That the Body of Christ is not really in the Holy Eucharist That Lawful Priests have not Power as Gods Instruments to Absolve from Sins rightly Confess'd That no Satisfaction is necessarily requir'd on our Parts That there is no Purgatory That it is not Lawful or Profitable to Pray to Saints to Honour them as Sanctify'd Creatures to respect Reverently their Reliques to have Holy Pictures and Reverently to regard them for the Love of Christ or his Saints and the like No Text I say of the Word of God doth expresly condemn These and the like Articles believ'd by Catholicks Though many make expresly for them as Catholick Divines do shew Secondly Although all True Catholicks do Humbly and Obediently believe as the Church Teaches And thereupon do firmly imbrace divers Articles propos'd by Her which are not in express Terms found in the Scriptures Yet in these very Points they do not believe the Doctrines of men or prefer the Doctrines of men before the express Word of God or hazard their Souls that the Teaching of Their Pastors is truer or rather to be follow'd than the Word of God But in these particular Articles they rely upon the Authority of God and believe the Word of God speaking in and by his Church which will not be hard to shew For the Office of Preaching the Word of God by Christ committed to his Apostles dy'd not with them but continu'd with their Successors And so the Preaching of their Successors was the Preaching of the Word of God not only in the first Age after the Apostles but in all succeeding Ages the Holy Ghost Ever abiding with them John 14. And Teaching them all Truth in matters of Faith John 16. Moreover in the Ages after the Apostles not only those who had Skill and Means to Read the Scriptures But those also who could not Read them might believe in Christ and might be Saved by him And consequently
the Holy Ghost should Abide with his Apostles for ever That is with them and their Successors the Doctors and Pastors of his Church For they were not in their own Persons to abide for ever with the Church to Teach and Guide her And John 16. 13. He says That the same Divine Spirit should Teach them all Truth In respect of whose continual abode with the Church to Teach her in matters of Faith and Religion All Truth St. Paul stiles her 1 Tim. 3. 15. The Pillar and ground of Truth But Protestant Teachers say that the Church of Christ Hath been Corrupted That the Gates of Hell that is the Devil and his Instruments Have prevail'd against her and have fill'd her with Pernicious Errors and Superstitions for above these thousand years That the Holy Ghost hath not taught her All Truth but hath given place to the Devil permitting him to replenish her with Errors and Superstitions to the ruine and loss of Infinite Christian Souls That She is not the Pillar and ground of Truth But the receptacle and sink of falshood And thus they directly contradict the Word of God about this prime and most important Article of the Truth and Incorruption of the Church of Christ in matters of Faith and Religion And yet Protestants rather believe Them than the clear Word of God so much doth draw and blind the Love of Novelty and Liberty But they will say we leave not the Word of God to follow the Teaching of Men But to follow the right meaning of the Word of God deliver'd unto Us by our Teachers I answer First Have you just cause to think that these your Teachers who have neither Unity nor Sanctity nor Antiquity nor the Gift of Miracles nor any true Calling and sending from God do rather deliver unto you the right meaning of the Word of God than the Antient Fathers General Councils and ever Visible Church of Christ guided by the Holy Ghost I believe not I Answer Secondly That you are mistaken For you leave the Word of God to follow the Interpretation of your Teachers Which Interpretation is not Gods Word but their Word their Conceit their Doctrine and Explication of Gods Word To follow which you leave as I have shew'd the express Word of God. And therefore most true it is that you leave the Word of God to follow the Doctrines of Men If your Teachers be men Thirdly I answer That if Affection did not make your Judgements miscarry you might easily see that the Doctrine of your Teachers being so directly contrary to the VVord of God cannot be the meaning thereof For God in his Sacred VVord Ordain'd to instruct and not to delude us and in his profound Mysteries doth not use to speak one thing and to mean the clean contrary To say that the Eucharist is his Body and to mean That it is not his Body but a Figure of it To say that men are justify'd by Works and not by Faith only And to mean that they are not justify'd by Works but by Faith only For this manner of dealing is fitter for a Jugler than for God And if the same be once allow'd of what foolish wicked damnable Heresie can there be that may not be thus defended by Scripture Or what Articles of the Christian Faith may be firmly prov'd out of the Word of God if wilfull head-strong Presumptions Teachers may in this sort Explicate Delude and Contradict the clear plain and Literal Sense thereof If any one desire to see more places of Gods word contradicted in this manner by Protestant Teachers let him look in the Industrious Collation of Doctor Smith formerly Bishop of Calcedon and he shall there find demonstrated to his Eye that these men by their new Doctrine do oppose the express VVord of God in above two hundred Points of Religion now Controverted betwixt the Catholicks and them So far off they are from Teaching the Pure VVord of God as they make their Credulous Followers believe And so wide their Doctrine is from being the True Light of the Gospel as they usually stile it VVhereas in very deed it is only their own new Interpretation of the Gospel not the Gospel it self As is evident by the multitude of Sects which are amongst them Some being Lutherans others Swinglians others Anabaptists others Calvinists others new Arians others Quakers some Puritans some Arminians some Parliamentary Protestants and the like VVhich could not happen if all their Teachers indeed did follow the VVord of God that being but one and not their several Explications and Interpretations of it VVhence it doth clearly appear that the state of Protestants is most dangerous Because in those Points of Doctrine in which they differ from the Old Religion instead of following the VVord of God they meerly follow the VVord of Men. Question VI. Whether God hath left to Christian People any sure Rule of Faith any certain Guide in matters of Religion any Infallible Interpreter of his Word TO discover to Protestants the true Root of their Division into so many Sects I demand of them whether they have any certain Rule of Faith or no That is whether they have any sure and un-erring Guide to Direct them in matters of Faith to the right meaning of the VVord of God Any Infallible Proposer of their Articles of Faith Any un-erring Director in the profound Mysteries of the Christian Religion and in the practice of the Worship of God If they have none of these How can their Faith be certain If it be uncertain doubtful wavering as indeed it is for want of a sure Rule to guide it by With what Prudence may Christian People hazard their Souls therein If Protestants have any certain Rule of Faith why do not the Learned of their Churches make use thereof to agree and attone the Controversies which are among them That they are divided into such several Branches as I a little before nam'd cannot be deny'd That they jar and contend about weighty Points of Religion is manifest For they differ about Predestination the Cause of Sin the Redemption of Christ his Descending into Hell his Ascension up to Heaven and sitting at the Right-hand of God his Equality with his Father the Baptizing of Infants the Real Presence of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist Church Government Ceremonies and like Which to be weighty matters and such as wring the Conscience beside the Nature it self of these things is clearly shew'd by the Reluctation of our English Non-conformists But to avoid the Disgrace of uncertainty in Matters of Faith some Protestants will say that they want not a Sure Rule to square out their Faith by For the Scripture to them is a certain and Infallible Guide But to manifest how defective this Answer is I demand whether the Scripture of it self or Interpreted be a sure Rule of Faith If of it self without the help of an Interpreter it be such a Rule Why have not all that read it
one and the same Faith Why do not all believe the self same Articles and Divine Verities if the Scripture it self clearly and distinctly propose them to all Where the Rule is certain all that is measur'd by it is Uniform and of the same quantity As is manifest by a Pound by a Quart by an Ell by a Bushel and the like And therefore if the Scripture of it self without the help of any Interpreter be unto Men a sure Rule a certain and stinted measure of Faith it doth to all that Read or Hear it measure shape and square out one and the same Belief one and the same Religion one and the same Worship of God. But this is evidently false Ergo evidently also false it is that the Scripture of it self without the help of an Interpreter is a sure Rule and Guide in matters of Faith. For what is more manifest then that several Readers left to the guidance of the Scripture it self and not tyed to any Interpreter do gather out of it several and opposite Faiths and Religions though they use all Humane Diligences to understand them rightly and be never so Learn'd never so well skill'd in the Greek and Hebrew Tongues This is evident by the several branches of Protestants before-nam'd Who all take the Scripture it self as they say and pretend for their Guide and Director in matters of Faith and Religion And yet they differ and contend so infinitely as they do Which differing and contending we must not conceive to spring in them meerly from Malice and the Spirit of Contention But rather from the Obscurity of the Scripture and the depth and profundity of the Mysteries therein contain'd In which our weak understandings may easily mistake and may easily be deluded by the Devil if we want the help of a sure and Infallible Interpreter This I think understanding Protestants will not deny And therefore if they will have the Scripture to be a Sure Rule to direct their Faith and Religion by will they nill they they must admit of and adjoyn to the Scripture a sure un-erring and Infallible Interpreter thereof But such an one it is impossible for them to find unless they will leave the Protestant and return to the Catholick Faith again For seeing they reject the Interpretation of Fathers of Councels of the Ordinary Doctors and Pastors of the Church And hold that the Church of Christ may err yea and hath shamfully and perniciously err'd for above these thousand years where will they find an Vn-erring Interpreter of the Scripture Or in whom hath God plac'd this high most necessary and most important Office If he hath not placed it in the Doctors and Pastors of his Church which he hath ordain'd to Perfect his People and to keep them from wavering in matters of Faith Ephes 4. And which the Holy Ghost hath plac'd in the Flock of Christ Act. 20. To govern the Church of God Hath he placed it in the Temporal Magistrates of Kingdoms and Common-wealths Or in some one Temporal Magistrate to whom God hath committed the Teaching and directing of all Nations If God hath not placed this most needful Office in General Councels consisting of the Learned Sages and Prelates of the Church hath he plac'd it in the Parliaments of England consisting for the most part of unlearned Lay-men I think no Sober Protestant will say so Neither will any Vnderstanding Protestant I think fly here to the private Spirit And make thereby every Crack-brain'd Scripturist an Infallible Interpreter of Gods Word For if hither he fly not only a Quaker an Anabaptist a Presbyterian but a Taylor also a Button-maker Weaver or Cobler will make his Party good with any Doctor the Protestants have and dart Text for Text with him for whole Hours together without loosing one Inch of ground Till Church Authority the deadly Weapon of the Papists be urg'd against him By urging which against these Fanatick People Protestant Prelates do not a little or sleightly Wound themselves they being as blame-worthy indeed if not much more for resisting the Authority of the Catholick Church of Christ as these are for resisting the Authority of the Church of England Nevertheless I approve not but detest the Male-peart boldness of these and the like Ignorants Who transgressing the bounds to them prescrib'd and entring upon to their own Perdition the smoaking mount of the Holy Scriptures Exod. 19. wherein God doth speak to Moses and Aaron and deliver his Sacred Oracles to be by them made known to his People dare take upon them to interpret the same and to search into and Sense the Profound Mysteries of God wickedly betrampling with their Impure Feet and Polluting with their base Conceits those pure but deep Fountains of Heavenly Verities It being their Duty to Learn and not to Teach Yet I cannot but pitty their Mislead Zeal Which if it were steer'd by the True Church of Christ would Inrich their Souls with the precious Jewels of many Christian Virtues whereas now it is likely to be the utter ruine of them Neither can I but greatly blame those who to draw these weak and unwary People off and to seperate them from the Breast of the Catholick Church At which they were securely nourish'd with the Milk of Celestial Doctrine Meat befiting their state and Weakness did put the Bible into their Prophane Hands inviting them to the Gospel to the Pure Light and Liberty of the Gospel And assuring them that those Sacred Volumes were easie to be understood and that in them they were to seek for the Truth of Gods Religion as being ordain'd by him for the Reading and Instruction of all And to facilitate this desir'd separation those New Teachers spar'd not to Disgrace with all Art and Cunning the Rank and Dignity of the Prelates of the Church and to Vilify Church-Authority Proclaiming it to be Tyrannical And that to urge men to believe as the Church doth Teach was no less than plain Butchering of Consciences But when these New Masters had effected what they sought and by the help of Temporal Power had brought Multitudes of People under their Command Then presently they stept into the place of the Antient Prelates Took their Authority upon them and in matters of Faith and Religion would have all to dance after their Pipe all to believe not what they themselves Learn'd out of the Book of God but what these men thought fit to propose That Book now being too hard for Vulgar People for the Unlearn'd sort Who now must stand below and not ascend and enter upon that obscure and smoking Mountain But must hear Moses and Aaron must hear Authoriz'd Teachers must obey the voice of the Church viz. Of Saxony of Geneva of England and must follow in Saxony one Faith in Geneva another in England another Now they must learn the Law of God from the mouth of Teachers allow'd of by the Commonwealth and be ty'd to believe what they propose And therefore in Saxony
Damnation even by Gods Ordination to be of that Religion which their Supream Temporal Magistrate will have them And so where such a Supream Magistrate is a Catholick that is a Papist according to the Stile and Language of Protestants his Subjects are bound to be Papists if so be he will have it Where he is a Lutheran they are bound to be Lutherans where he is a Calvinist they are bound to be Calvinists where he is an Anabaptist Quaker Arrian or Nestorian they are bound to be of the same Profession if their Prince will have it so and that even by Gods Ordination if those Protestants say true who will have every Temporal Prince to be within his own Dominions Supream Director Leader and Guide in matters of Faith and Religion even by the Ordination of God than the which what can be more Absurd yea more Impious and Blasphemous for this doth make God far worse than the Devil in regard that the Devil can but only intice and solicite People to follow false Religions but here God is made to tye and oblige them even under pain of Damnation to imbrace and practise false and Heretical Religions when seduced Princes or Supream Temporal Magistrates will have it so Where note by the way The late hard and harsh Dealing of some English Protestants toward their Catholick Neighbours whom they termed Traytors often vex'd and afflicted and esteemed worthy of all Punishments because they would not believe and practise that Faith and Religion for True and Divine which it hath pleased this Commonwealth to Frame not out of the Holy Scriptures Antient Fathers General Councils and Perpetual Tradition of the Church but out of the Doctrine of Luther Melancthon Suinglius Peter Martyr Calvin and the like who in their Rising Calling Proceeding were as like Arius Pelagius Nestorius and other former Hereticks as one Egg is like another which I say it hath pleased this Commonwealth to frame and to propose though Catholicks cannot so do without incurring the high Offence of God and certain Peril of their own Souls because they are perswaded in their own Consciences that to imbrace or profess the Protestant Religion is a damnable Sin in regard that the Profession thereof is the Profession of a False Religion which is ever damnable to the Conscious Professor and the denial of the True that is of the only Right and Saving Faith of Christ which Catholicks hold to be no other than the Antient and commonly received Faith of the Christian World not rashly and upon slight but after serious Consideration and upon firm and sure Grounds as every judicious man may easily perceive at least in part out of that which this little Treatise doth present him Hard then and much to be pity'd was the late Condition of English Catholicks who either truly and really must have been Traytors to Christ and ruine their own Souls or else they must have exposed themselves to be reputed by their Mis-inform'd Neighbours Refractory Disobedient Unsure and Trecherous to their Prince a thing to all good Catholicks most Hateful most Detestable and must have run the Hazard to loose their Goods and Liberties and have laid open to the Malice of Spiteful Neighbours to the Spleen of Furious Protestants to the Railing of Slanderous Predicants to the base Vexation of Pursevants and to the Depilations of Promoters and of other Under Officers To these Miseries I say Innocent Catholicks have been exposed till it hath pleased God to raise up a good Josiah our Gracious Soveraign James the Second to Protect them and to extend his bountiful Favour toward them But to spin out the Thread begun if it be contrary both to Scripture and Reason so to enslave Religion to the Check of Temporal Lords that Subjects must believe as it shall please them to appoint We must admit that Supream Power to Guide and Direct in Matters of Faith doth immediately reside in certain Spiritual Rulers Prelates and Magistrates even by the peculiar Ordination of God. Which being so I demand of Protestants whether this Power by Gods Ordination resideth in one or many This I say I demand of Protestants in regard that of the right knowledge of this Point doth depend the right knowledge of the True Gospel and Religion of Christ which we cannot learn but of those Doctors and Pastors whom God doth send and Authorise to Teach What then will Protestants answer to this Question what will they answer Much no doubt but not much to the purpose because they are not yet agreed among themselves about this Point for the Lutherans will have this Power to reside in their Teachers but the Calvinists in theirs The Anabaptists will have it reside in their Congregation but the Quakers in theirs The English Protestants will have it reside in their Bishops and Parliaments but the Puritans will have it to be in their Consistorian Elders And so none of these can make a satisfying Answer to my Question all of them disagreeing as they do and no one Sect of them having better Grounds out of Gods Word than the rest For I demand First In whom did this Power reside the last five hundred years before Luther If it were then in any Protestant Doctors let them be named and let it be shewed out of good Records whether they were Lutherans or Calvinists But if no such Doctors can de named as certainly they cannot because there were none such and that this Power did then reside in other Teachers how came any sort of Protestant Doctors to have this Power afterwards here nothing can be said for Protestants that may not as rightfully be said for Arians Nestorians or any other Hereticks whatsoever Secondly I demand Whether this Power reside in one or in many If in one who this one among Protestants is If in many who these many are and whether they have any visible Head among them or no to whom all the rest are bound to stoop and to submit their Judgements in the Decision of Controversies about Faith and Religion If they have no such Head what Hope of Vnity in Faith and of Vniformity is there in the Service and Worship of God certainly none at all as evident Experience doth teach by the Example of the Lutherans and Calvinists and of other Protestants And so while Protestants refuse one Supream Spiritual Head authorised and enabled by the continual Assistance of the Holy Ghost clearly promised in the Word of God to direct them in Faith and in the right Worship of God without danger of mis-leading and deluding them they refuse in very Deed not only Unity in Faith and Conformity in the Service of God but the true means of Salvation also which Christ our Saviour hath ordained for them within the Communion of his Catholick Church Out of whose happy Communion they will not acknowledge themselves to be nor see the Danger they are in till it be too late Because willing without searching seriously into the matter they repute
affirm That those Protestants which deny Papistry to be a saving Religion and hold that Papists are not saved are neither of the best Learned nor of the Wisest sort For if they were Learned they would easily gather out of the Doctrine of the Scriptures and the Histories of the Christian Church that to deny Papistry to be a saving Religion is to deny Christ in effect as I have before shewed And if they were discreet and wise they would not so rashly condemn to the pit of Hell the whole Christian World together with their Fore-fathers for so many hundreds of years in which Papistry reigned over the World without any firm ground or urgent reason at all Unless their own mistaking and ignorance must be reputed a firm ground For setting these aside by which their mis-informed and mis-guided Zeal doth take Papistry to be that which it is not what can they bring firm and solid to prove that Papistry is not a saving Religion Will they say that Papists are ignorant of or do not rely upon a certain special Faith by which they esteem themselves to be the Elect of God and to be Cock-sure of Salvation Be it so Neither did the Prophets nor the Apostles nor the Ancient Fathers rely upon this special Faith as is evident by their Lives For they applied themselves to Holy Works to much Prayer to frequent Fasting to great Austerity and Mortification seeking by these means to make sure their Vocation 2 Pet. 1. 10. and really working their Salvation in fear and trembling as the Apostle adviseth Philip. 2. 12. For all which Labour Care and Austerity this special Faith is a Supersedeas as is manifest by the Lives and Actions of those which rely thereon Wherefore if for want of this Sin-nourishing special Faith Papists do perish both Patriarchs Prophets Apostles and the Ancient Fathers yea all the Saints and Holy Servants of God which lived from Adam's time to Luther must perish with them For none of these were acquainted with or relyed upon this special Faith. Otherwise there would have been clear and manifest mention thereof in the Holy Scriptures in which the Holy Ghost not once or twice but most frequently would have inculcated the same if it had been so needful that without it Men could not be saved But seeing that in all his Divine Word he hath made no clear mention thereof Papists cannot be in danger for not relying thereon But rather those which relye thereon are in manifest danger of Eternal Perdition because in so weighty a business as their Everlasting Happiness is they forsaking the received Doctrine of the Christian World in the point of Jurisdiction rely upon a meer chimerical Fiction of their own as at their death they will find What then will these Zealous Precisians exclude Papists from Heaven because they commit Idolatry But this foul and foolish Crime Papists do no where commit but in these Mens mistaking Brains as is evident to all that know what Papists believe But Papists they will say do Err in divers points of Religion and therefore they cannot be saved But do not all Churches Err in these Mens conceipt Are not all subject to Erring Let them then either yield that Erring Religions are saving or else let them boldly teach That Jesus Christ hath not provided the World of any means of Salvation seeing he hath not established therein as these Men imagine any Religion that is not Erring By all which it is clear that in these parts of the World none do doubt but that Papistry is a Saving Religion saving a few unlearned Precisians who doubt of this but very indiscreetly as I have shewed But on the contrary all the Papists in the World who are far more in number than the Protestants are and really far excel them in Learning do not doubt whether the Protestant Religion be Saving or no but most firmly hold upon sure and undeceiving Grounds that it is not and that therefore no Man can be Saved precisely by the help of this Religion Which makes so many understanding Men and Women that know it right well forsake it notwithstanding that it is so easie and so pleasiing to Flesh and Blood and to imbrace Papistry far less agreeable to their Sensual Appetites with so great hazard of their Quiet Preferments Liberty and Goods Which certainly they would never do but to secure their Souls Which security if the Protestant Religion were able to afford no Man of Wit here in England would forsake the same to become a Catholick But no such security is to be found in this Religion but rather certain danger of Eternal Perdition as all do find that throughly search into it Neither are Papists for thus Censuring of the Protestant Religion to be esteemed less charitable then those Protestants which brand not Papistry with so hard a Censure For the Case of Papists and Protestants in this Affair is not alike Because Protestants in believing are at liberty according to their own Positions in regard That as they do not hold that there is upon Earth any Un-erring Church whose teaching all are bound to follow under pain of Damnanation So they do not esteem themselves bound to believe strictly the teaching of any Church or to think that Errors in Points of Faith do indanger Salvation But Papists are not at the like liberty because they believing that the Catholick Church which is no other than that Church which being spread over the World is joined in Communion to the Chair of Peter cannot Err in her Doctrine of Faith by reason of the continual assistance of the Holy Ghost do esteem themselves bound to believe as she teaches And therefore because this Church guided by the Holy Ghost and directed by the Holy Scriptures doth teach that there is but One Faith Ephes 4. but One Fold Joh. 10. That Christian People are bound under pain of Damnation to Obey their Lawful Prelates Heb. 13. And to hear the Voice of the Church Matth. 18. And to listen to the Ordinary Pastors thereof Luk. 10. And that they are in like sort bound to beware of false Prophets that is false Expounders of God's Word to avoid Heretical Teachers such as their Church hath declared Protestant Teachers to be For these and the like respects Catholicks do resolutely hold if they be such as understand their own Religion that by the help precisely of the Protestant Religion no Man can be saved Which they hold not for want of Charity but for Obedience to the Word of God and to the True and Catholick Church of Christ Let not then Protestants blame Catholicks for believing as they do seeing the word of God and so great Authority doth force them thereunto But rather let them blame themselves for following new Teachers contrary to the Doctrine of the Scriptures and for dis-uniting themselves from the True and Catholick Church of Christ out of whose Communion there is No Salvation as our Creeds do teach By all which
these Ancient and most Learned Fathers were great Praisers and Practisers of austere and penitential works consisting in frequent Prayer in much watching in severe fasting in hard lodgings in course and spare Dyet in wearing of Hair-cloth and the like They lived single Lives Many of them bestow'd their Wealth upon the Poor and other Pious Uses and professed Voluntary Poverty following therein the counsel of Christ given Matth. 19. 21. and they not only allowed of but also most highly extolled the observing of perpetual Chastity and Virginity preferring the same far above Matrimony Were not these men then strange Protestants Thirdly Take notice that these Ancient Worthies even by the Confession of all Protestants were Men of excellent Wits of excellent Learning If then they had found in the word of God as Protestants say they find that only Faith does Justifie That Good Works are not meritorious That in Works of Grace Men have not Free-will That they are not able to keep the Commandments That it is not in the power of Man or Woman to live perpetually chaste That Virginity is not more pleasing to God than Matrimony That to give all to the Poor to Fast Pray and watch much and to undergo other Austerities and mortifications of the Body doth not profit and inrich the Soul That there is no Purgatory no Pennance to be done no satisfaction to be made for Sin no punishment to be inflicted upon the Faithful for them after this Life If I say the ancient Fathers had found these and the like Doctrines of Protestants in the Scriptures and why should they not have found them there if there they had been they being so Wise so Learned and so industrious Searchers of the Word of God as they were If there I say they had found these things and had believed them as Protestants do they would have lived as Protestants do for why should they not If these pleasing Doctrines which are light and easie to Flesh and Blood and the sweet Liberty of the new Gospel had as feelingly pierced and as strongly possessed the Hearts of those Antients as it did and doth the Breasts and Bowels of Luther Zwinglius Bucer Peter Martyr Calvin Beza and their Followers the Teachers of the Protestant Religion they would without all doubt with these have preferred Pleasures before Pennance Feasting before Fasting the delights of the Conjugal Life before the continent and single And in a word Riches Honours Pleasures before the labours and smart of a penitential and mortified Life before voluntary poverty and the vexing Attire of Hair-cloth or else they had been mad had they believed as most Protestants do that such Exercises as these are needless fruitless yea and superstitious Toys But the Truth is that those ancient and shining Lamps of Wisdom and Sanctity did not believe as Protestants do and therefore they liv'd not as they do for they were otherwise instructed in the School of Christ they read and learned another Lesson in his Divine Gospel even the same that Papists now do and therefore they instituted their Lives as they did and were in very deed as much Protestants as the Pope and his Priests and Fryers now are and no more most certainly unless we will have them to have been Sots and Mad-men If a douzen Protestant Ministers now should consociate themselves together and shaking off the Delights of the World should apply themselves fervently to much Prayer Fasting Watching lying on hard Couches wearing of Hair-cloth and such other austerities of Body and forbearing to marry should highly extol the single Life perpetual Chastity and should exhort young Maidens Noble Gentlewomen Princes Daughters to the perpetual keeping of their Virginity and Consecrating of it to God would they be held for sincere and well-grounded Protestants I think not Nay would they not presently be suspected for Papists No doubt but they would the institute of their Life plainly breathing Papistry and wholly swerving from the Belief and practise of Learned Protestants Let not then my Noble and dear Countrymen the misreports of some of your Teachers so far prevail with you as to make you believe the better to keep and quiet you in Protestantism that the Fathers of the primitive Church were Protestants For certainly those Blessed Servants of Christ were as far from being Protestants as the most zealous of your Teachers are from being Papists yea from being Monks or Fryers and from instituting their Lives as those Ancients did If then you truly prize the Learning and Sanctity of the Primitive Church and Christians become of that Belief which their Lives and Practices do Preach unto you If you think them saved be not so hardy as to seek a new way to Heaven for the safety of your Souls is of greater moment then so to be exposed to hazard being there can be but one saving Faith as my Tenth Question will make plain unto you Eternal Glory is not easily to be set upon the Dice when you may take a secure way to it Become then of the Communion of that Church in which the Fathers lived and dyed that therein seconding your Belief with a Virtuous Life you may assuredly attain to everlasting Happiness which I cordially wishing unto you shall infinitely rejoice if these my Questions which I now leave to your perusal shall further or occasion your return to that Religion which assuredly leadeth thither As most certainly they will Gods Holy Grace concurring if you will but attentively and with impartial Eyes read them and not be shuffled off with frivilous Answers or rest satisfyed untill you see my Arguments solidly refuted which you will never see if you look well to their Fingers who shall undertake the answering of them And so beseeching God to prosper your Reading and Meditation to his own Glory and the Salvation of your Souls I remain unfeignedly A Well-wisher of Your Eternal Felicity T. K. THE CONTENTS Question 1. WHere was the Protestant Religion believ'd and practis'd the last Five Hundred Years before Luther Page 1. Question 2. If Luther was not the first Teacher of the Protestant Religion to whom did he immediately succeed in the Office of Teaching the same Where also is treated of the Mission of Protestant Teachers p. 4. Question 3. If the Protestant Religion be truly Catholick when was it spread over the World and what Heathen Nations hath it Converted to Christ p. 11. Question 4. What likelihood there is that to bring to pass and effect the great and merciful Work of the Conversion of the Nations of the Earth and of their Kings to Christ God hath never yet made use of the True Religion of Christ and of the pure Light of the Gospel p. 12. Question 5. Whether it be not a very inconsiderable thing and full of danger to prefer in matters of Faith and Religion the Teaching of Men before the Word of God p. 16. Question 6. Whether God hath left to Christian People any sure Rule of Faith