shunned not to declare the whole Counsel of God professeth that he had said no other things than those which Moses and the Prophets did say should come I quickly concluded that the only mark of the true Church is to be taken from this Fountain That the Church is built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles and the chief Corner-stone is Jesus Christ And I found that Augustine that glorious Light of Antiquity did agree with me writing Contr. Ma. Arian l. 3. Neither will I alledge the Nicene Chuncil to your prejudice nor ought you to alledge the Council of Ariminum to mine Let us not make use of Writings partial to the one or to the other Party but of the holy Scriptures that are impartial Judges of both and compare Cause with Cause Matter with Matter and Reason with Reason And elsewhere writing against Donatus There namely in the Scriptures let us seek for the True Church there let us discuss the point Being now fully confirmed in this general Principle I began to enquire narrowly into the Purity of particular Churches and upon enquiry found that none do so exactly agree with the Scriptures as the Reformed Churches Wherefore I firmly resolved with my self to forsake the Roman Idolatry and associate my self to the Protestants which I accordingly performed in France and having renounced the Romish Superstitions I adjoyned my self to the Reformed Church as being the true Church of Christ which I shall now shortly evince by the following Arguments That is the true Church which 1. Vindicates and maintains the Authority of the Scriptures 2. Teacheth Doctrine agreeable to the Scriptures 3. Because I will not be so Scripturary as to neglect the Testimony of the Fathers and Councils Which agrees also with the Testimony of Ancient Fathers and Councils But the Reformed Church is such Therefore the Reformed is the true Church As for the first the Reformed Church maintains the Authority of the Scriptures against the Papists who affirm That the Scriptures have no Authority as to us at least but from the Church Which distinction was found out by Bellarmine namely that the Authority of the Scripture considered in it self doth not depend upon the Church but only in respect of us But how frivolous is this distinction For all Authority is Relative and therefore it cannot be considered without a relation to us And moreover the Supposition is false that the Scriptures Authority as to us depends upon the Church But before I come to overthrow this Assertion it will not be amiss to observe that the reason which induceth the Papists to defend it is evidently this They know not how to answer the Protestants Arguments from Scripture without wresting the sense and therefore hold that the sense of the Scriptures depends upon the interpretation of the Church which obligeth them to desend that the Authority of the Scriptures depends also upon the Church being that without the Churches Tradition we can have no certainty of the Scriptures themselves nor of their sense In this they imitate exactly the Ancient Hereticks of whom Tertullian says When the Hereticks are confuted from the Scriptures they presently begin to accuse the Scriptures as if they were not of sufficient Authority or were otherwise written than they are cited by the Orthodox and of which there is no certainty without Tradition Where you may see an exact Portraicture of the Modern Papists But to return to our purpose we assert That the Scriptures Authority doth no way depend upon the Authority of the Church but of the Holy Ghost only speaking internally in our hearts and externally in the Scriptures because he is their Author 2 Tim. 3.16 2 Pet. 1.21 and therefore he alone can give them their Authority And as Christ seeks a Testimony from none besides the Father so neither doth his Word need any other which he hath left upon Earth instead of his own Person And as it were very absurd to affirm that the Authority of the Kings Proclamation depends upon the Cryer or a Rule upon the thing ruled or that the Sun borrows his light from his own Orb or Vortex so it is no less ridiculous to affirm that the Authority of the Scriptures depends upon the Church The Church is the Candlestick the Word of God is the Candle Revel 1.20 Luk. 8.16 Now as a Candlestick contributes nothing to the light of the Candle so neither doth the Church to the Authority of the Scriptures We reject not the Ministerial Testimony of the Church in this affair because thereby we come to the knowledge of the Scriptures as the Samaritans came to the knowledge of Christ by the Samaritan Womans Testimony which nevertheless was not the reason or ground of their Faith but the Instrument only The Papists object that the Church is called the Pillar and Ground of Truth 1 Tim. 3.15 And from hence they conclude that the Authority of the Scriptures as to us depends entirely upon the Church But to pass Camero's observation that these words belong to the sixteenth verse where there is a Copulative Particle which otherwise were useless and that the Apostle first compares the Church to a House and then teacheth us what is the chief Pillar of that House viz. God manifest in the Flesh For a House cannot be called a Pillar but a Pillar is in a House In this place Paul means not an Architectonical Pillar that sustains the Authority of the Scriptures but a Political to which the Fdicts of the Supreme Governour are affixed Nor is Bellarmines Exception against this distinction of any weight that the Church may be as well called a Bibliotheck as a Pillar in this sense For we affirm that the Church doth not only keep these Books but also teach and publish the Contents thereof and expose them to the view of the people So then the Testimony of the Church may be one Motive to induce us to believe the Divine Authority of the Scriptures but cannot beget in our minds a firm and certain perswasion of it which is the work of the Holy Ghost only whom God joyns with his Word Isa 59.21 My Spirit which is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth c. Augustine speaks well to this purpose in his Confessions But how shall I know that these are thy words Moses said so indeed but Moses is gone and if he were present and should speak Hebrew I could not understand him but if he spoke Latin and I understood him how could I be certain that he spoke the truth The Truth it self which is neither Greck Latin Hebrew nor Barbarian without any sound of the tongue or noise of Syllables would say unto me inwardly in the Cabinet of my heart he speaketh truth You see Christian Readers how Augustine was perswaded of the Divinity of the Scriptures not by the Authority of the Church nor of Moses and the Prophets but by the Internal Truth
from a custom frequent among them in the Celecration of this Sacrament The reason why they affirm it is because they hold that Infants departing without Baptism cannot be saved but go into the Limbus Infantum a kind of Hole prepared to put Children into where they suffer paenam damni but not paenam seasus that is they are deprived of the Beatifick Vision of God though they are not under any sensible torment If then their Election which is unchangeable and their being under the Covenant of Grace which belongeth to them as well as to their Parents be not sufficient to save them because they were not baptized surely Baptism which maketh them capable to demand Heaven must by a physical vertue work those Graces whereby they may attain unto Salvation 2. They hold that none can be saved without the Bosom of the Church and that none can be reputed Members of the Church except such as have been baptized Moreover their Custom is to admit of the Baptism of Women providing the Form be observed in case of necessity which shews how absolutely necessary they esteem Baptism unto Salvation Having proved the Charge I shall demonstrate the Errour And first it is as certain That all Infants departing without Baptism are not deprived of the beatifick Vision as that David was saved who after death was to go to his Child that died without Circumcision 1 Sam. 12.18 23. in place whereof Baptism succeeded as appears from Coll. 2.11 12. And as certain as that the promise of Eternal Life doth belong to Infants which Argument is of the same force against the Anabaptists that deny the Seal to Infants to whom the promise belongs for which reason Peter did willingly confer Baptism upon some Converts Act. 2.38 39 as against the Papsts that deny Eternal Life to Children dying without Baptism although they be under the promise and Covenant of Grace for he that is under the Covenant of Grace or the Promises is in Christ and he that is in Christ will certainly be saved Therefore Children being under the Covenant of Grace and the Promise of Life will certainly be saved Acts 2.39 Eph. 2.12 But they object this Scripture Except a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Joh. 3. â— whence they conclude that none can be saved without Baptism But I answer that nothing else is meant by this water and spirit but the holy Ghost himself who is compared to water because he washeth away our sins There is another expression like unto this in Mat. 3.11 He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire that is the Holy Ghost shall purge you as fire doth Gold seven times refined So that these Expressions are Metaphorical and Figurative Virgil hath the like expression Pateris libamus auro We drink out of Cups and Gold that is out of Golden Cups so to be baptized with the Spirit and with fire is nothing else but to be baptized with a fiery Spirit and the same way are Christ's words concerning water and spirit to be understood wherefore what he saith here figuratively by way of Hendiadis he expressed in the third Verse in proper words except a man be born again he can not see the Kingdom of God So that it clearly appears from Christs own exposition that here is understood spiritual Regeneration and not the external washing with water in Baptism 2. We utterly deny that Baptism by women is valid and not to be reiterated They can only alledge the example of Zipporah that Circumcised her Son whence they argue that a Woman may as lawfully Baptize as Circumcise I shall not give the answer that is usual amongst some Divines viz. that Zipporah sinned in so doing for God never blesseth men for any sin as such but he did bless Moses for this action of Zipporah But I answer thus that Circumcision in the Old Testament was indifferently administred by any person by reason it was not so strictly joyned with the Ministerial Office of Preaching as Baptism is in the New Testament Go and teach all Nations baptizing them c. Mat. 28.19 So that now it is unlawful for any to administer Baptism but such as are ordained for the Ministery Now we shall proceed to speak of the other Sacrament without regarding the rest of their five Sacraments that have no ground in the Scriptures nor the Fathers which is the Lords Supper According to sound Doctrine the Lords Supper is nothing else but a visible sign of an invisible Grace wherein by receiving of Bread and Wine is signified our receiving of the Body and Blood of Christ as a Seal of the Covenant of Crace tending to our Salvation We deny not that the Body and Blood of Christ is really present in this holy Sacrament but we deny 1. That it is corporally present because it is circumscriptive and in Heaven and therefore cannot be every where 2. We deny that the Lords Supper is a Sacrifice for the Living and the Dead which point I shall chiefly insist upon As to the first the Papists do very much urge their Transubstantiation by which they understand nothing else but the Corporal presence of the Body and Blood of our Saviour under the appearance and accidents of Bread and Wine imagining that the substance of the Bread and Wine is turned to the first nothing out of which it was created and the accidents only do remain which affect our senses of sight feeling and taste The falshood and absurdity of this imagination I thus demonstrate 1. Neither the Word nor the thing is to be found in Scripture for after the Consecration it is called the Bread of which we are partakers 1 Cor. 10.17 Now if the Bread were annihilated how could we be partakers of it And moreover no Papist will allow that it be called Bread after Consecration which yet we see the Scripture doth 2. The Word it self is new and was never heard of before the Lateran Council when Berengarius was forced to recant the Truth and fall into a most abominable Errour namely that Christs Body is bruised by the Teeth and let down into the Belly c. 3. The Word is no way adapted to the thing yea Creation may be as well called Annihilation as this may be called Transubstantiation for Transubstantiation is nothing else but a mutation or turning of one substance into another as in Cana of Galilee Wine was turned into Water but the Papists say that in this case one substance is not turned into another but that the one namely the Bread and Wine is annihilated and the other namely the Body and Blood of Christ is induced under the appearance and accidents of Bread and Wine although they have a thousand distinctions here about the introducing of the Body and Blood of Christ under these accidents which I shall pass over so that it ought rather to be called an Annihilation of one substance and Introduction
besides that when the Object is present to the Understanding the Will is necessarily determined by the last practical judgment of the understanding to imbrace or reject the object like as if Straw and Fire come together there must needs a Flame be kindled I say besides this it 's impossible for any man to alter the Prescience and Decree of God which is one of the things requisite to action for the Counsel of God stands and he will do all his pleasure All things requisite to Judas his betraying of Christ being present viz. the last practical judgment of his understanding the receiving of the Money c. and the Eternal Counsel of God designing that Christ should be delivered into the hands of men suffer death and rise again the third day it was impossible for him not to act Therefore the Reformed Churches do excellently define Free-will A faculty of acting freely without compulsion or physical determination to one thing For the Will cannot be forced to any elicite or internal act nor is it capable of a physical or natural necessity determining it to one thing as Fire is determined to burn But it is not free from the determination of the Divine Decree and the last practical judgment of the understanding nor in the unregenerate from sin to which it is in general necessarily determined by its Original depravation although it hath a freedom to chuse this or that special sin So that in the unregenerate man it is free only to will nor can he by his own strength perform any action spiritually good Of our selves as of our selves we cannot think a good thought 2 Cor. 3.5 much less do a good action by nature We are dead in sin Eph. 2.1 without God in the world Eph. 2.3 and every imagination of our heart is only evil continually Gen. 6.5 And the best actions that the unregenerate can do are really evil because they do not proceed from Faith and whatsoever is not of Faith is sin Rom. 14.23 So that as from a total privation there is no returning to the habit but by an Infinite Power so from sin which is a privation of that rectitude which ought to be in our faculties and actions there is no returning to righteousness except God do quicken us from the Dead and say to us as unto Lazarus Lazarus arise Joh. 11.43 and cause the Sun of Righteousness to arise in the dark Horizon of our hearts saying as in the first Creation Let there be light Gen. 1. And truly seeing Regeneration according to Scripture phrase is a new Creation Create in me a clean heart Psa 51. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works Eph. 2.10 In Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Vncircumcision but the New Creature Gal. 6.15 it cannot be the work of less than an Infinite Power whereby God worketh in us both to will and to do of his good preasure Phil. 2.13 So that Augustine did rightly affirm that the good works of the Heathen were but glistering sins They may indeed act something that is morally good by the general influence of Divine Providence yet they can act nothingthat is truly good in a Theological sense because they want Faith to purifie their hearts nor do they aim at the glory of God for they do not shun this or that sin simply because it is a sin but from a vain-glorious desire of Reputation among the people Hence it followeth that Justification and Sanctification are not ours but Gods so that when God conferreth Glory upon those that are Justified and Sanctified he may with good reason be said to Crown with this reward his own gifts and not our works As for Justification of which we intend to speak first it is twofold active and passive for it may be considered either in respect of God that justifieth or of Man that is justified In the former consideration it is nothing else but an act of God whereby he absolves the sinner and reputes him righteous for the Merits and satisfaction of Christ Hence God is said to justifie the ungodly Rom. 4.5 by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ Rom. 3.24 So that God in justifying maketh no physical change in the sinner as the Papists say who would have the Justification of God to be of the same nature with Transubstantiation whereby one thing is changed into another that is that God in Justifying doth not proceed as a Judge pronouncing one at the Bar Innocent but as it were by a physical immutation making a righteous man out of an unrighteous even as Christ turned water into Wine Bellarmine Becan and other Jesuits have laboured much in the proof of this Assertion but without any success They produce nothing from Scripture but what is to be referred to Sanctification not Justification And thus they commit the fallacy of ignoratio Elenchi and as for their Arguments drawn from Reason they are so unreasonable that they do not deserve a Refutation Their chief Argument is taken from the Word it self for say they to Justifie according to the Etimology of the word is nothing else but to make just or righteous being it is compounded of justus and facio as well as to Sanctifie is to make not to pronounce holy c. Therefore to justifie cannot import the absolution of a sinner who is really unrighteous but the making of him righteous But they hereby shew themselves to be no better Gramarians than they are Divines for the sense of a word in matters of Faith is not to be taken out of Calepine but from the Word of God which is the Rule of our Faith Now it is manifest and hath been demonstrated by many that Justification is every where in the Scriptures taken in a law-Law-sense Thus Solomon He that justifieth the ungodly and condemneth the righteous are both an abomination unto the Lord. Here the justifying of the unrighteous is opposed to the condemning of the righteous and so in all other places of Scripture Moreover if this were the meaning of the word Justifie then there would be no difference between Justification and Sanctification which nevertheless is evident from Rev. 22.11 He that is righteous let him be righteous still and he that is holy let him be holy still Also Rom. 8.30 Whom he justified them he also glorified where under the word Glorifie is comprehended Sanctification which is begun Glory even as Glory is consummate Sanctification Lastly This Composition with the Verb Facio doth not always import an internal change as appears from the Song of the Blessed Virgin My Soul doth magnifie the Lord. Now let them set their heads together and prove that the Blessed Virgin by magnifying the Lord did cause any internal change in him and we shall also allow that God by justifying us doth make an internal change in us Ante leves vero pascentur in aethere cervi Hitherto of Active Justification Now we shall come to
THE TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST EXPOSED To the View of all SOBER CHRISTIANS from the Word of GOD Sound Reason AND THE Ancient FATHERS By JAMES SALGADO a Spaniard a Converted Priest London Printed by T. B. for the Author 1681. To the Right Honourable HENEAGE Earl of Nottingham Lord Chancellour of England THis most Important Affair which concerns the Conversion of a Man to God cannot better be offered to any Person than to one that manages the greatest Affairs of a Mighty Monarch to the Glory of his God to the Credit and Interest of his Prince to the Honour and Repute of the Nation to the gladding of the hearts of all good Subjects therein and the Terrour of Offenders to his own Immortal praise here and Immortal Felicity hereafter with universal steady unshaken Loyalty Justice and Integrity It is to speak in short most agreeable for one that is the Quintessence of all Excellencies both Divine and Humane The boldness which I have to present this Book to your Honour doth not only bid me hope for Excuse but also promise my self that your Honour will receive it according to your wonted Noble and Generous Condescention being your Poor Offerer tenders it with the Profoundest Reverence and Respects imaginable I humbly pray your Lordship to take both my Self and Book to your Honours Protection and it shall be my daily Prayers to Almighty God to take under his Especial Charge your Honours Person and under his Especial Conduct all your Honours Actions so that both may be acceptable to his Divine Majesty and his Majesty of Great Britain and to all true English Spirits being My Lord Your Honours most obedient Servant JAMES SALGADO THE TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST c. IT was not without Reason that the Fathers compared the Church to the Ark of Noah because that as none that were out of the Ark could escape destruction by the Flood so none that are without the Bosom of the Church can escape Everlasting Damnation for those that are no Members of the Church cannot partake of her peculiar Priviledges such as Vocation Justification Sanctification c. without which it 's impossible to attain Eternal Life And as any Member cut off from the Body is thereby deprived of Life Sense and Motion because it is no more united to nor influenced from the Head even so those that are cut off from the Church are thereby deprived of Eternal Life because they are not united unto Christ who is the Head of the Church and therefore want that influence of his Spirit which is the Author of all Spiritual Life For this reason David affirms that the Heathen knew not the Laws of God even because they were not in the Communion of Israel to which the Church was confined under the Old Testament Psa 147.19 20. The Apostle Paul writing to the Ephesians doth yet further confirm this Assertion At that time you were without Christ being Aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and Strangers from the Covenant of Promise having no hope and without God in the world Eph. 2.12 Namely because they were not in the Bosom of the Church they were therefore excluded from the Communion of Christ who is the faithful Husband of the Church his only Spouse as he himself affirms Cant. 6.1 My Dove my Vndefiled is but one But when the Fathers used this similitude they meant the Universal Church whose beginning Augustine deriveth from Abel and deduceth the continuation thereof even to the end of the World Therefore it is not this or that Church in this or that part of the World that can be called Catholick in this sense but that Church which was which is and which is to come and comprehends the Triumphant as well as the Militant And if that be properly Catholick which hath been always and every where believed by all Vincent Lirinensis contra profanas novitates then that is the Catholick Church which hath and will be always found in all Nations for the thing ruled cannot be narrower than the Rule and Faith cannot be found but in believers I don't deny that there are many particular Assemblies and many Provincial or National Churches and some of these purer than others but none of these Assemblies or Churches can be called Catholick taking the word strictly because they are only parts or members constituting one general body and therefore cannot be called universal without a plain contradiction unless you would give to the Hand or Foot the name of the whole body Hence it follows that the Roman Church being but a particular Church supposing that it were Orthodox which yet we utterly deny cannot claim unto it self alone exclusively to other Churches that profess Christ the Title of Catholick I confess I am not so rigid as to exclude the Roman Church and her Followers from the Latitude of the Universal Church because besides that men living in that Communion but in the simplicity of their heart professing God and his Christ and sincerely endeavouring to work out their Salvation although in many points they neither understand the thing it self nor the manner of the thing because of an invincible ignorance may attain unto eternal life for God is no respecter of persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him Act. 10.34 35. I say besides this the Popish Church may be called a Church in a Physical though not in a Moral sense even rs an Adulterous Wife doth not lose the name of a Wife although she lose the name of an honest Wife But because the Court of Rome will have their Church to consist in the Pope or Council or both I shall evince their Church so taken to be fallible erroneous and false And although the Church in this sense be but representative yet seeing all the rest do depend upon her as infallible and have nothing left them but a blind obedience taking the denomination of the whole from the principal part I rightly affirm that the Roman Church is false uncatholick yea and no Church at all The Papists not contented to pronounce all Churches without their Communion Hereticks and Schismaticks and therefore without any hope of Salvation have moreover asserted that their own Church is infallible and void of all Errour A great Assertion indeed and which is not only false in it self but also is one great reason why other Churches dissenting from her cannot joyn into one Body nor hold Communion with her For besides that no particular Church such as the Roman is can be called infallible it necessitates them after the manner of the Athenians to worship they know not what and erect an Altar to the unknown God It is in vain to dispute concerning the property or priviledge of any thing while they that attribute these priviledges to it have no certain knowledge of the thing it self Therefore in vain do they assert that their Church is infallible while they cannot determine when or where this Church is