perpetually pure and uncorrupted in her doctrine we cannot say We cannot say it in the Cardinal's sense for if we speak of pure and uncorrupted doctrine he meanes it of such a priviledge and freedome from Errour as the Church of Rome challenges which is not necessary to the preservation of the Catholike Church and Faith or if we speak of the Catholick Church he takes it as most visibly appearing in the chief Pastors and their adherents binding that priviledge and freedom to that succession or those that are chief in it Whereas we grant the Catholike Church wholly according to all the Pastors and Members of it shall not be infected with any destructive or dangerous Errours but that purity of saving Doctrine shall be preserved in it Yet not bound as a Priviledge to any one Church as to the Roman or to those that are for Number most and for Place chief in the Church but that in some part or other of the Catholike Church and by some Pastors it shall be preserved and propagated They that dreame of a Church alwayes so gloriously visible and so apparently holding out Purity of Doctrine and Saving Truth as the Romanists doe to the end all men may readily finde out the true Church and easily come to the knowledge of that Truth do not consider that God doth somtimes for the sins of Christians turning his grace into wantonnesse make his Word precious as 1 Sam. 3. and his saving Truth not to be found without difficulty and diligent search after it We see the Fathers interpreted that promise the Gates of Hell shall not of the not failing of the Church never of the not erring of it and we see by experience the contrary As for example the Millenary belief and the excommunicating of Infants both which the Church of Rome acknowledge errours did as generally prevail in the Catholike Church as any error of their New Faith can be said which they boast often to be the general belief and doctrine of the whole Church We say then The Gates of Hell cannot prevaile to the overthrowing of the Fundamental saving Faith or to the corrupting and extinguishing of the Purity of saving Doctrine absolutely through the Catholike Church but may prevaile very farre and generally over the visible face of the Church Catholike viz. as it shews it self in the parts of it all particular Churches holding the Foundation For these considered as above according to their more visible and conspicuous appearance in those that are chiefest in them for place and most for number 〈◊〉 lose the purity of Saving Do 〈…〉 though holding the Foundation admit of the Superstructions of hay stubble and worse Errors in belief and practice And though Hell-Gates may prevaile very farre and generally by Superstructures yet are they such at least in some particular Churches as the foundation may bear Such as may still be convinced by the Doctrine of Saving Truth preserved still in the Church For the Pastors voice as was said above cap. 12. will be so heard alwaies in the Church that the strange voice of false Teachers and false Doctrines may be discerned and will by them that have eares to hear and their senses exercised to put a difference between good and evill true and false Now the Romish Church with which we had to doe had not preserved the Faith entire without mixture of many Errours and Superstitions had not kept the foundation clear from such burthensome and dangerous Superstructures yet has the fundamentall Faith in expresse termes been delivered downe in that Church and such saving knowledge as was sufficient to discern the Foundation from the Superstructures the true and ancient Faith from the new erroneous Belief the true Pastors voice from the strange Doctrines of unwritten Traditions To follow that voice to cast off those Superstructures to contend for the Faith once delivered and clear it from adventitiall errours that was our duty and the work of our Reformation And thus far against their generall plausible Pretences Now to some Triall of their particular Doctrines of Belief and Practice which we have cast off as erroneous and superstitious For the way of Triall The Affirmative in those Doctrines being theirs it lies upon them to prove the Doctrines affirmed by them to be true and Catholike by such Rules as are allowable The Rules admitted by both sides though not in equal rank are Scripture and consent of Antiquity gathered by the Writings of the Fathers and the Acts of ancient Councils We say they cannot by these make good what they affirm but shew that both make against them CHAP. XXI Of the Tryall of Doctrines by Scripture FIrst for Scripture Whatsoever is revealed in that Scripture which both sides admit as Canonical is likewise admitted by both sides as of divine Authority But such Scripture is not acknowledged by them as a sufficient Rule for the triall and judging of the controverted points therefore they are necessitated to fly to Tradition not that which delivers down to us the sense of any Scripture by the consent of all Ages of the Church but to unwritten Traditions which deliver Doctrines of Beliefe and Practise that have not footing in Scriptures This I note because they are ready to abuse the unwary by urging sometimes the former sort to make them swallow unwritten Traditions upon the same pretence For the former sort we grant as appears by the points of Christianity not controverted between us because these points as they are grounded on Scripture so are they brought down to us by the profession and tradition of all Ages as the confessed sense of those Scriptures on which they are grounded and this not derogatory to the sufficiency of Scripture But to their other sort of Traditions viz. unwritten on which they generally ground their Doctrines rejected by us we cannot admit as any ground of Faith or Worship such Traditions being uncertain not possibly to be proved Apostolical but received upon the Testimony of their present Church and indeed generally inconsistent with Scripture Yet are we to note that in all the controverted points they pretend Scripture and alledge several places in every point yea in those points which they themselves confess as most of the controverted points are by the most ingenuous Romanists confessed to have no ground or footing in Scripture To let passe the want of candor and plain dealing in this we must observe First that their labouring to pretend Scripture for every Doctrine is a tacite acknowledgement that doctrines of Faith and Religion should have their ground there For instance Invocation of Saints they acknowledge not used in the Old Testament yea and give us reason for it because the souls of the Patriarchs were not then in heaven and so not to be Invocated yet doe they alledge very many places for it out of the Old Testament to make a shew of Scripture So for the New Testament They acknowledge Invocation of Saints departed was not commanded or taught
doctrines were of the multa which Christ had to say and Tert. de praescript c. 5. tels us Hereticks alledged the Apostles delivered some things openly to all some things secretly to a few the very thing the Papists say and they proved it suth he by St. Pauls saying to Timothy Custodi depositum St. Iraen l 3. c. 2. shews Hereticks alledged the scriptures were obscure not to be understood by those that know not Tradition alledging for it that of St. Paul 1 Cor. 2. we speak wisdome c. Terp in his Book de resur tels us Hereticks cannot stand if you binde them de solis Scripturis quaestiones suas sistere to be judged by the Scriptures alone and in the same book calls all Hereticks Lucifugas scripturarum such as fly the light of the scripture And now we must say in the last place their usual objection of Hereticks alwaies alledging Scriptures and shunning Tradition is most vain as appeares by the former Testimonies As for their alledging scripture it made for the dignity and sufficiency of scripture Hereticks well knowing the Authority Scripture had in the Church and therefore that it was in vain to use other proofs without it and so the Romanists are necessitated as was said above Chap. 21. to pretend it for the proving of those points which they know and sometimes confesse are not grounded on scripture As for Hereticks shunning Tradition it is most true they carefully shunned that Tradition which delivered down the sense of scripture in the points of Faith through all Ages of the Church for to shun that was to shun the evidence and light of scripture But as for unwritten Traditions such as we and the Romanists contend about they shelter themselves under the darknesse of them made great advantage as we saw by pretence of them alledging the very same reasons and places of scripture for them as the Romanists do and so we leave them both well agreed in this point CHAP. XXV The evidence of Antiquitie in the point NOw for the evidence of Antiquity Though we are to speake more generally to that trial by the Fathers afterward yet here in brief to this particular point There is scarce one Father but we bring him expresly witnessing as we affirm the fulnesse and sufficiency of scripture in all things necessary Bell. in l. 4. c. 11. sets down very many of them and admits them for the sayings of those Fathers how then does hee decline them 1. One of his General answers and it is what others answer to that the Fathers speake of omnia omnibus necessaria to be contained in scripture This the expresse testimonies of those Fathers have extorted from him which is no little prejudice to their cause who equal tradition to the written Word and plead the necessity of what is conveyed to us thereby for if all things necessary for all be contained in Scripture then surely the doctrines and faith delivered in unwritten Traditions are not necessary for all They indeed that have given up their belief to all the dictates of that Church are consequently necessitated to believe them but we may be good Christians and yet not believe them because not written and not necessary it seemeth to all That which they can pretend to say here is that such unwritten Traditions become necessary to be believed upon the proposall of the Church and to be by all believed to whom they are sufficiently propounded or made known Indeed of Scripture we grant All things there revealed become upon sufficient proposal of them necessary to be believed as true yet not all to be believed as necessary in themselves to salvation But of unwritten Traditions we cannot say Men are bound to believe them as true upon the proposall of their Church unlesse they can demonstrate the testimony of their Church to be Infallible or that she propounds them upon full Catholike or Universal Tradition and consent of all Ages which they cannot doe Much lesse can we say Men are bound upon the proposal of their Church to believe them as containing things necessary in themselves to salvation unlesse they can prove the contents of those Traditions to be so which is impossible or that their Church can make new Articles of Faith or those things necessary to be believed to salvation which were not so in themselves before This the sober and moderate Romanist must and will deny 2. He shifteth off their Testimonies by restraining them to the particular thing there spoken of as if they onely meant the scripture was full to that point onely When as indeed upon occasion of some particular point which they were proving they speak in general of the sufficiency of Scripture saying it contains all things necessary Therefore to take away these and all such shifts which they bring to restraine what the Fathers spoke generally We shew they spoke so generally of the sufficiency of Scripture that they left no room for unwritten Traditions to come into the rule of Faith This we shew unanswerably by the Fathers alledged above chap. 23. arguing negatively as Tertul. sometimes Non est scriâ—tum therefore not to be received and speaking exclusively to all things not written as that we must not say or teach any thing of faith praeterquam quod scriptum est saith Saint Augustine lib. 3. contra Lit Petil. Sine his Testibus saith St. Chrysost and citra Scipturam in Psal 95. and absque authoritate testimonio Scripturae saith St. Hier. in 1. cap. Hag. and Quicquid extra Scripturam est cùm non sit ex fide peccatum est Basil in Regulis Eth. Such exclusive words praeterquà m sinè citrà absque extrà they use against admitting of unwritten Tradition for a Rule of Faith which words and speeches are not any way to be eluded That they bring many sayings out of the Fathers for Tradition it is true and Bellarmine boasts in the number but to what purpose when they do but beat the aire strike us not For they either meane the Scripture it self or Evangelical Doctrine contained in and delivered to the Church by the written Word to which the name of Tradition is often given by the more ancient Fathers Iraen Tertul. Cyprian or else they mean the forme of Doctrine and Belief delivered downe in the Church which though they often call Tradition yet is it written and contained in Scripture and is but the explication of it or the Traditive sense nothing to the unwritten Traditions we speak of or else by unwritten Tradition as they often mention that too they imply things of Practise and Rites and Festivals or Fasts and the like not matters of Faith necessary to Salvation And among these some Fathers avouch such for Apostolical Traditions which the Romanists will not allow as standing at Prayer between Easter and Whitsontide and every Lords day and the Trine immersion in Baptism In a word where the Fathers say the Apostles left some things to us unwritten let the
by the Apostles or in their time yea and give us reasons why it was not published at first because say Eckius Copus Salmeron It had been unseasonable and dangerous for Jew and Gentile at first to have heard it lest they might think the Christians set forth and worshipped many Gods or that the Apostles were ambitious of having such honour done them after their death It is then acknowledged not to have been so much as taught in that first Age and yet will they again when they come to maintain it make the world believe it was also written then and bring many places of the New Testament for a seeming proof of it So of Image-worship Purgatory Indulgences and most of their Sacraments the more ingenuous among them acknowledge as our Authors have gathered their Testimonies they have not ground in Scripture and indeed if they truly had why should the Romanist so earnestly contend for unwritten Traditions to hold them by yet must Scripture be alledged for them all by every Controversie-writer Which consequently as was observed does acknowledge that Doctrines of Faith and Religion should be grounded there Secondly that the necessity they have of resting upon unwritten Traditions equalized in Authority to the written Word of God is a plain confession they cannot stand by the undoubted Word of God nor have any certaine ground of their New faith which rests upon pretended unwritten Traditions and these you must take upon the word of their own Church Thirdly that the same necessity of resting upon unwritten Traditions forces them to lay upon Scripture Imputations of Imperfection and Insufficiency of darknesse and obscurity very unbeseeming the Testament of God written by the dictate of Gods Spirit and left us as a signification of his will and a Rule for the direction of his Church Let us then take leave a little more largely to speake to these two points of the sufficient perfection of this written Rule then of the sufficient perspicuity of it The one casts off the necessity of their unwritten Tradition the other the pretence of their Infallible Judge or Interpreter And upon these indeed rests the whole frame of the New Roman faith and therefore worthy of all other points to be a little insisted on CHAP. XXII Sufficient perfection of the Scripture as a Rule FIrst then of the sufficient perfection of Scripture which we say containes all things of themselves necessary to be believed or done to salvation All such things we say it contains not expresly and in so many words but either so or as deducible thence by evident and sufficient consequence The Romanists are forced to grant that the Scripture contains plainly the prima credibilia as some of them expresse it the first and chiefe points of belief or those that are simpliciter necessaria and omnia omnibus necessaria as Bell. expresses it lib. 4. cap. 1. but they also say that there are many other things necessary in belief and practise to salvation not there contained or thence deduced therefore they adde Traditions to make a supply CHAP. XXIII Of Traditions which we allow FOr Tradition We allow 1. That Universal Tradition which brings down Scripture unto us through the consent of all Ages for that Tradition is supposed in the reception of the Scripture But we say the Scripture contains all material objects of Faith necessary to Salvation i.e. all things that had been necessary for Christians to believe and doe for Salvation though there had been no Scripture Secondly we allow that kind of Tradition which brings down the sense of Scripture to us through all Ages of the Church So the Creed may be called a Tradition and other Catholike Declarations of the Church bringing downe the sense of Scripture in any point of Faith Now as the Scripture does suppose the former Tradition so this kind supposes the Scriptures for its ground delivering nothing but what is contained in them and neither of these sorts derogatory to the sufficiency of them Thirdly we allow some Traditions that bring down matters of practise touching Order Ceremony Usages in the Church as of Fasts or Festivals or Rites about Sacraments and the like But such if they be not contained in the Scripture so neither are they within the limits of the question which concerns necessaries to salvation such we deny those to be and such things as are necessary to believe to salvation we deny to come down to us by unwritten Tradition and what Traditions the Romanists pretend for the controverted points we deny that they contain such things necessary or to have been delivered down in all Ages and therefore can be no ground for necessary faith whether we consider the matter of them or the uncertainty of them Our Arguments briefly are I. Such as shew the Scriptures sufficient for Salvation as Joh. 5. ver 39. for in them ye think ye have salvation Where our Saviour supposes they thought true in it or else his reason had not been good for because they might have Salvation by them i. e. know all things necessary to it therefore he bids them search the Scriptures and they should find they testified of him So 2 Tim. 3.15 expresly they are able to make wise unto salvation c. They have two shifts here 1. That Scripture is profitable to that end for that word Profitable the Romanists lay hold on because the Apostle saith there All Scripture is profitable for doctrine c. and so say they is every book profitable to that end though not sufficient and so they will have the whole Scripture but partially profitable But we answer Sufficiencie belongs to the whole Scripture though in proportion also to every Book And the other expressions of the Apostle there shew this to be onely a shift For he said before that Scriptures are able to make wise to salvation can that be said to be able to make a man wise to such a purpose and onely to doe it in part and imperfectly teaching him onely some knowledges to that purpose Also he saith after ver 17. by the Scripture The man of God is throughly furnished or perfected to every good work i.e. to Doctrine Instruction c. such as he spoke of before which must needs imply a sufficiencie to that end 2. Their other shift is That the Scripture is said to doe this because it contains many things plainly in it self and shews from whence we may have the rest i.e. from their Church We answer Had it shewn us that which it does not yet could not this shift be reasonable here For so the Law might have been said to make us perfect because it shews us Christ and was a School-master to him Gal. 3. and John Baptist might have been said to have perfected his Disciples by shewing them Christ II. Such Arguments as forbid and exclude all Additions to the Scripture and so imply the perfection and sufficiency of it and condemne their super-added Traditions as Deut. 4.2 and
Romanists shew us if they can among all the particulars the Fathers speak of as so left us any point of Faith necessary to salvation Indeed some of the more antient Fathers mention one which with some consent they held a point of Faith and received by Tradition viz. the Millenary belief but that was not a meer unwritten Tradition but rather a Traditive sense of Scripture Rev. 20. and that a mistaken one and by the Romanists rejected who know the Fathers were deceived in that Tradition by Papias and we know the Romanists are deceived or may very well in theirs But let them shew as I said in all the Testimonies of the Fathers one of their necessary points of Faith among those particulars which the Fathers have mentioned with any consent as delivered by unwritten Tradition which seeing they cannot doe all their boasting of Antiquity in this point is vaine they meet onely with the Name of unwritten Tradition not the Thing CHAP. XXVI Of the Perspicuity and Interpretation of Scripture THus much of the Sufficiency of Scripture Now of the Perspicuity and Interpretation of it Scripture being the Rule of Faith must in all reason be both sufficiently perfect as wee have heard and also sufficiently clear and perspicuous as we shall see Their pretence of obscurity and difficulty in Scripture such as they fasten on it serves them to two purposes To keep people from Reading it and to set up an Infallible Interpreter of the sense of it or visible Judge of all controversies arising Bellar. handles this businesse in lib. 3. de verbo dei and proposes two questions neither of them stated aright His first Sintne Scripturae sacrae per se facillimae apertissimae an verò interpretatione indigeant cap. 1. His second An ab uno visibili communi judice Scripturae interpretatio petenda sit an uniuscujusque Arbitrio relinquenda Whereas we neither say the Scripture needs no Interpretation nor do we leave it to every mans pleasure or judgement But we acknowledge there are many hard places and obscure passages which need Interpretation yet is there not such a general obscurity in Scripture but that private persons may read it with profit which both Scripture it self and all the Fathers exhort the people to because what is necessary to life and faith is for the most part plainly set down therefore it is called A light to our feet and paths Psal 119. and to make wise the simple Psal 19.7 and Saint Peter bids Christians attend to the word of Prophecie as a light shining in a dark place 2 Epist. 1.19 Bell. answers to such places that the Scripture is a light when it is understood And this is as much as if he had said a light is a light if it be seen For a light if it be not put in a dark Lanthorn or under a Bushel as the Church of Rome serves the Scripture to hide it from the people will shew it self so will the Scripture being a light and a light shining as S. Peter said Certainly it was the intent and duty of all the Apostles so to speak and so to write as to be understood And St. Peter notes but some places in Saint Pauls Epistles hard to be understood which the unlearned and unstable wrest 2 Epist c. 3. Sure then those that are not so but come with minds and endeavours answerable may read with profit seeing his Epistles are for the most part not hard to be understood That which they reply here comes to this that those Churches to which the Apostle wrote were instructed aforehand by word of mouth and so might more easily understand what was written after We grant they were praeinstructed and that it made them more fit to understand what was written but as they had it so Christian people want it not now and albeit their praeinstruction might prepare them to a more easie understanding of passages relating to some particulars concerning things not necessary to salvation as was that of Antichrist 2 Thes 2. Of which we may be ignorant and of which the Church of Rome is ignorant notwithstanding all her Traditions yet fâ—r things necessary delivered in the Apostles writings of which the question proceeds our people have as fitting and sufficient means to understand as they had For seeing their praeinstruction was the first preaching of the Gospel to them the laying of the foundation the delivering chiefly of things necessary for them to know unto salvation I hope we are not destitute of such fore-instruction to fit us for profitable reading of the scriptures we are taught the principles of Christian Religion the Catholike Faith into which we and all Christians are baptized besides we have the help of the Gospels and all other writings of Gods Word and therefore why may not our Christian people so premstructed understand Saint Pauls Epistles in all necessary points as well and profitably as the people to whom they were written Againe take the Scripture as a Rule of direction it argues that it must be cleare and plaine in what it is to direct us in All men give such Rules as neere as they can evident and cleare and shall we deny it to the best of Rules the Rule of Gods making and giving the Rule of greatest concernment to us Bell. could say when he meant to give Scripture its due lib. 1. cap. 2. that it was Regula credendi tutissima certissima And againe because it was a Rule therefore it must be nota certa which indeed is very good reason both for the knowing of it to be our Rule and for the evidence of it in those things it is to direct us in In regard of which things it was necessary a Christian should have sufficient evidence as in the harder places of Scripture he has his exercise to set an edge upon his endeavours and keep him humble And these very reasons we finde given by the Fathers for the obscurity we meet with in Scripture that it is not such as to deter any from reading for the Fathers frequently exhort all unto it but to stirre up the more diligence in searching the Scriptures and to keep down Pride and selfe-conceit that people should not trust too much to their own understanding but have cause to repair upon all occasions to their Guides and Pastors whose mouthes preserve knowledge now as the Priests did under the Law As therefore we said Scripture was a sufficiently perfect rule of all things necessary to salvation containing them expresly or deducibly so we say it is a sufficiently cleare Rule not onely in regard of what it delivers expresly but in regard of all necessary truths deducible because they may sufficiently by evident and cleare consequence be deduced thence This clearnesse then which we attribute to Scripture does not exclude Interpretation or the skill and industry of the Guides of the Church for the deducing of many necessary divine Truths All things necessary we say are there contained
preservation of Truth and purity in doctrine in such a degree was necessary for the continuance and propagation of the Church Else what could Eliah have said if he had been challenged to shew Professors at that time within the Kingdome of Israel or after if they that held the true worship in King Ahaz his time had been challenged to shew them in the Church of Israel or Judah for as to his point of preservation of necessary Truth and due worship there is no difference betwixt Jewish and Christian Church the continuance of Gods Church being as necessary before Christ as after But we may see how the Romanists are fain to plead for their Faith and Religion by the uncertain Records of History rather than by the known and confessed Writings of the Prophets and Apostles yea to hang all upon a negative Argument from the Records of History rather than to rest upon that which is positively affirmed in Scripture For thus runs their Argument We doe not see this or that doctrine professed in all Ages therefore it cannot be Apostolical whereas it is farre more safe to argue This Doctrine or Religion we see is Apostolical plainly delivered in Scripture therefore it was professed in all Ages professed I say though not alwaies so numerously and openly as they expect nor so fully as is by Protestants in all points asserted yet at least so professed as was necessary to the preservation of saving Tr 〈…〉 and continuance of the Church Their negative Argument is farre more forcible against themselves their Doctrines being Affirmatives and they bound to shew them professed in all Ages Whereas our difference from them being in the Negative of what they erroneously affirm must needs suppose the Errors in being before there could be any Protestors against them and render it a vain challenge to shew Protestants as Protestants in all Ages when as many Ages passed before the Errors got head against which they protested And for those Ages in which the Errors prevailed what if Histories have not recorded what if Historians that wrote then did not so much as know those who were free from such Errors which is very possible when Eliah knew not of any in his time and yet there were 7000 what then becomes of their Faith that make this their chief plea against Protestants But if by Professors in all Ages they mean such as dissented complained of the prevailing Errors though it be impossible there should be such in all Ages simply because those errors were not at all for many Ages yet such are found as we said in all Ages after the Error appeared and how many more suppose we to have been which are not recorded or to have written against arising Errors in that Church whose Writings are not come down to us The Church of England when it pleased God more openly to discover the Errors and to touch the spirits and consciences of Men did accordingly cast them off only the Church of Rome would neither acknowledge them to be such nor amend any thing but having for many Ages challenged Universall Jurisdiction over all other Churches and prided her self as the only Catholick Church and Infallible Guide she did withall render her self altogether incorrigible without hope of reformation and amendment CHAP. III. How they and we are said to differ in Essentials SOme Exceptions they make against this that hath been said 1. From the expression used by some Protestants that we and the Church of Rome differ in Essentials thence I have heard some of them make this fallacious argument If differ in Essentials then have the Protestants made a new Church essentially differing from that which was Answ The fallacy is in the word Essentials which is taken either properly for Doctrines of Faith belonging to the constitution of the Essence or beeing of a Church or improperly for such as endanger it working to the dissolution of it tending to the corruption destruction of the Essence and beeing of a Church In this latter sense the Doctrines of Error and Superstition wherein they differ from us are termed Essentials being no light matters as those of Rites and Ceremony but such as concern the Essence or being of a Church not constitutivè indeed and in the affirmative i. e. not such as are to be held and asserted by every Church but destructivè rather and in the negative that is such as are to be denied and avoided by every Church as it tenders its own beeing and preservation Even as a man that is in company with infected persons is concerned as he tenders his life to avoid the contagion or to free himself from it if tainted So still the difference of this Church from what it was under the Papacy is as of the same body once infected now sound once diseased now recovered The Church of the Galatians was farre gone in the way of the Mosaical Law to the endangering of the Gospel insomuch that Saint Paul saith in a manner they were removed to another Gospel Gal. 1.6 and that he was afraid of them cap. 4.11 The Churches of Pergamus and Thyatiâ—a were so far corrupted that Satan is said to have his seat there Rev. 2.13 and those that taught the doctrine of Balaam and those that held the doctrine of the Nicolaitans v. 14 15. And Jezabel was suffered to teach in Thyatira and to seduce the servants of God ver 20. Now when these Churches were reformed the seducing Teachers and false doctrines cast out were they New Churches set up or could those that still adhered to the Law or new Gospel in Galatia or to the false doctrines in Pergamus and Thyatira challenge the reformed party of Novelty so was it with this Church before and after the Reformation having parted with nothing that belonged to the beeing of a Church or to the Faith once delivered but onely cast out those false doctrines that had so generally prevailed in it while it was in communion with the Roman Church 2. They object We cast not off Errors or Superstitions but the true Catholick Faith Answ Indeed it concerns them to make the World believe if they can that their New Faith was alwaies Catholick and that we for denying it are Hereticks But the clearing of this belongs to the examination of the particular doctrines CHAP. IV. Particular Churches may reform Especially when a General Councel cannot be expected 3. THey ask what Authority we had to reform the Church and tell us we should have expected the determination of a General Councel and not been Judges in our own Cause Ans We took not upon us to reform the Church but had a necessity and duty upon us to reform our selves Neither did we undertake to impose upon other Churches but purge our own And as we were a party in the cause so was the Pope and his faction and as we would not have been Judges in this cause could we had a competent Judge so was not he with his faction fit
unto them use Motives and Arguments to perswade their Religion and the Authority of the Church of Rome But if they suffer themselves to be perswaded to embrace that Authority upon such Reasons and Motives they must then resigne up their Reason and Judgement wholly Thus have they leave to use their sight in finding out that Church but when they have found it then they must follow it blindfold or looke but one way that way onely that that she directs and take all upon trust of her Infallible guidance They will say they commend the Definitions of the Church to the judgement and consciences of the people alleadging Reasons and Testimonies from the Scriptures and Fathers and this in order to better perswasion so far it is well But then their Reason and Judgement is absolutely bound to look that way onely and to see nothing against the definition of the Church No though she defines it is not against Chirsts institution to allow the people the Sacrament but in one kind or that it is lawfull to adore Images as she has done in her Council of Trent A man had as good spare his labour in using his Reason and Judgement to examine their proofs as having done all to be absolutely concluded and bound up Which no question goes very hard with many of their more learned Men who see more reason and evidence against than for what they are bound by the Church to believe and practice and so are ground between the Definition of their Church and the Judgement of their Conscience as between the upper and nether Milstone Hence that conscionable cunning of the Belgick Inquisitours who in their Index Expurgatorius 1571. confesse when they meet with the Antients speaking otherwise than their Church quovis commente they use any shift to remedy it We read how it fared with some Divines in the Council of Trent Who while their Articles were under deliberation undefined honestly proposing their doubts and arguments against the coÌ„mon sense of the prevailing party were cryed out on as Lutherans and some of them not suffered to speak more were sent away so free was that Council What shall we think now after the definitions are made but that mens Consciences judgements tongues are bound up not to doubt think or modestly propound any thing against them without the note of Heresie and danger of the Inquisition But see we what follows upon their Concessions To finde out the Church they allow as we heard the use of Reason and Judgement Now that must be by examining her marks and seeing a chief marke of the Church is Sanctitas doctrinae as Bellar. and others doe truly acknowledge it implyes a judging of all her Doctrines before a Man can truly know by the purity of them that this is the Church Again when the Church is found out yet still the question remains whether it be Infallible there also must the use of Reason and Judgment be allowed for no reason it should be taken upon her own word that she is the onely Infallible guide Therefore Bellarmine was enforced to say though untruly that the Infallibility of the Romish Church Councils and Popes stands upon apertas promissiones Of this at large below Chap. 27. naming Act. 15. Visum est Spiritui sancto nobis and Luk. 22. Rogavi pro te ut non deficiat fides lib. 3. de verbo Dei cap. 14. Now if these places and all other they bring to that purpose be acknowledged so plain that it is easie for any man using his Reason and Judgment to see this priviledge of the Roman Church in them when as indeed no reasonable consequence can draw it out of them who cannot but justly say the places of Scripture we bring against their Errours are more open and plain to him that will duly use his Reason and Judgement CHAP. XII Of knowing the Church by the marks of Eminencie Perpetuity c. CArdinal Perron in his first book cap. 5. and 6. against the Kings Letter seems to cut the businesse shorter and to leave men the use of Reason and Judgement in knowing the Church not by examining her Doctrines but by considering her external and more sensible marks such as are easie and proportionable to every mans capacity viz. Eminencie Amplitude Perpetuity or Succession and the like And when the Church is known by these then a man is to know by her the sense of places of Scripture which need interpretation But what he saith for this easie discovery of the out of Scripture A City on an Hill cannot be hid Mat. 5. was spoken by our Saviour of the Apostles and their preaching of the Gospel and if applyed to the Church it does not prove she can alwaies be known by these marks Nor does St. Austin's application of that Scripture to the knowing of the Church in his time imply the Church shall alwaies be so Not so now when it stands divided by East and West the Eastern Church challenging these marks as well as the Western Unlesse it come short of the Romish Church in Eminencie of outward splendor when as it is more Christian like to continue under pressures so many yeares the Romish Church may be eminent for pomp and have more of the world in it but the Greek Church is eminent for sufferings and has had more of the Crosse Now seeing the Greek Church which has these marks is in the Roman account heretical and the Roman Church likewise condemned by the Greek how shall a man know which of these to joyn to but by examining their Doctrine and judging of it The Cardinals similitude of a Testator â—ordaining one to be the Interpreter of his Testament that has a name common to others and therefore assigning marks to know him by so clear that they need no Interpreter cleares not the businesse For did ever any hear of an Executor or Interpreter of a Testament markt out by his gray head or antiquity by tallnesse of stature amplitude or eminencie of person or estate when his proper name and habitation would readily and sufficiently distinguish him from all others So had God markt out unto us in his Testament that Church which should in all Ages be the infallible Interpreter of his Will by the name Roman and place of habitation and in stead of a City built on a Hill the Scripture so oft repeated by the Cardinal said a City built on seven Hills there needed no more to doe but submit Reason and Judgement to all which that Church commanded But seeing he has not done it no not when occasion of mentioning such a priviledge had any such belonged to that Church I meane when St. Paul wrote to the Romans it is plain he has left us to know his Church by her Doctrine agreeable to his Word for so must we hear the voice of the Sheepherd especially when Churches of several Communions may challenge the former markes the Greek as well as the Roman Now what hath
Church Secondly we have Evidence against the Roman faith by that which we meet with in the Fathers appliable to some points of it 1. Sometimes we meet with the Name indeed which the Romish point bears but not the Thing as for example in some few Fathers there is mention of a purging fire after this life but neither doe they agree upon the same thing among themselves nor any of their conceits with that thing the Romanists call Purgatory So we meet with the name of Oblation and Sacrifice in the Eucharist but in senses we admit of not the Roman thing of a proper Sacrifice So we meet with prayers for the dead which indeed was the doctrine and practice of the firster Ages but it was not for relief of any Souls in a supposed purgatory to which the Romish doctrine and practice of praying for the dead is bound So for private confession we allow it in the sense and way the Antient Church did perswade and sometimes practice it not as imposed and practised by the Roman 2. Sometimes we meet with phrases in the Fathers favouring some Romish doctrine but then we shew by argument and reason from the same Fathers that those phrases doe not speak indeed the Romish sense As for Transubstantiation many hyperbolicall expressions many speeches founding the change and Transelementation of the Bread but we shew they could not mean a substantial change because we finde them use like phrases of the change of a Man in regeneration of Water in Baptism of Oyle in the Chrism after consecration in all which no substantial change or conversion Also because many of the Fathers in plain terms acknowledge This is my Body to be a figurative speech and because it is clearly evinced out of them that indeed they held the Bread remained in substance after consecration One instance whereof we had above in this Chap in their answer to the Eutychians Another we may have from their saying our bodies to be nourished by the Body of Christ and to receive increase by it Bellarmine here acknowledges an hyperbolical improper speech and that they meant our bodies ex contactu corporis Christi did receive a disposition to immortality a figurative speech indeed taking the body of Christ sacramentally and speaking of it what the sacramental element does indeed for our bodies are indeed nourished and receive increase by the Elements and this implies necessarily the substantial remaining of them But for Bellarmine his explication it is too impertinent as if receiving a disposition to immortality could satisfie their saying that our bodies are nourished and receive increase which we finde to be real upon the receiving the Elements as well as any other Bread or Wine and to say they receive that disposition ex contactu corporis Christi is to say Christs body is touched by ours when as this manner of the Romish real presence enforces them to say Christs body in the Sacrament is impalpable and cannot be touched or felt Let me adde here how Cardinal Perron in his Letter to Master Casaubon waving as it were Transubstantiation layes the whole Importance of the Sacrament on the real presence viz our Communion or substantial Union to the Body of Christ citing S. Cyrill who calls it the Knot of our Vnion with God Observe first that Transubstantiation it seems is not necessary to this importance of the Sacrament our Union with Christ see we if their real presence which divided from Transubstantiation must needs fall in with the Lutheran Consubstantiation will be necessary to it It is true that the importance of the Sacrament is our Union with Christ and for that Union we acknowledge there must be a real presence of Christs body to those it is united to in the Sacrament and so a real presence or Communication of the Body of Christ we hold and a real Union but as this Union is spiritual so is the Presence too yet real yea most real as when our Saviour said My flesh is meat indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 6. it was really so did really nourish yet spiritually Now secondly would I know how such a real presence as they contend for viz a corporal carnal or contradistinct to spiritual can be necessary to the importance of the Sacrament for that real presence being the bodily communication of Christs body as it is not the thing of the Sacrament or the importance of it viz our Union with Christ for all unworthy receivers have that bodily communication of his body into their mouthes and stomacks so cannot it be any help to or pledge and assurance of our substantial and true Union with Christ for their real presence communicates his body to our bodies without any sense and feeling nay against sense and so cannot be any pledge or sacramental confirmation to us of receiving him spiritually also it conveyes his body through the mouth without any real eating and so cannot be any representation or assurance of our spiritual eating Lastly it makes his body stay a while in the stomack without any union or incorporation and so cannot make any way to the working or assuring our reall Union with Christ our nourishing by his body and blood Of such importance is their real presence or bodily communication that it makes for nothing but to destroy the Sacrament and to take away the real eating of the Sacramental bread the real incorporation of it into our bodies the real nourishment received by it all which are necessary in the Sacrament to testifie and help our spiritual eating of Christs body our nourishing by it our Union with him which is the importance of the Sacrament And this of our spiritual eating and union is well set out by the Fathers that have written upon John 6. especially by S. Augustine yea and well expressed by the Councel of Florence Hujus Sacramenti effectus or as the Cardinal the importance of this Sacrament quem in anima operatur dignè sumentis est adunatio hominis ad Christum The effect of this Sacrament which it works upon the soul of the worthy Receiver is the uniting of a man to Christ and this I hope is a spiritual communication and then further Omnem effectum quem materialis cibus potus quoad vitam agunt corporalem hoc Idem quoad vitam spiritualem hoc Sacramentum operatur Every effect which material meat and drink hath as to the bodily life the same doth this Sacrament work as to the spiritual life What Protestant could have spoken better to set out the spiritual communication of Christs body and blood our incorporation into him union with him signified and wrought by the sacramental communication incorporation and nourishment of the Elements Again we oppose in some points the deeds of the Fathers against their phrases Phrases may be carelesly at first or figuratively spoken and may in time be altered and corrupted but deeds remain in History and deeds upon controversie speak the judgment indeed
of the persons interessed such we alledge As for example against those many Eulogies and high expressions which the Father 's used to the magnifying of the Church of Rome and S. Peters Chair abused now to prove that this Infallibility Vniversal Jurisdiction and exorbitant power challenged by the Bishop of Rome was acknowledged by Antiquity we bring deeds and those upon contestation as the standing out of Polycrates and all the Asian Bishops against the sentence of Pope Victor also in the contestation between S. Cyprian and Pope Stephen it is easily seen that Cyprian by all those speeches he had used to the magnifying of the Roman See and many they alledge out of him meant nothing lesse than to ascribe to that See what of late Ages they have challenged So in the contestation between the Roman See and the African Bishops among whom S. Augustine was one and one that used to speak sometimes very high of the Roman Church in the business of Appeals we see their judgement by their deeds We see also by this how that which is spoken by the Fathers may prove but uncertainly and unwarily spoken when it comes to the Trial and farre short of that the Church of Rome would have us believe they meant For it cannot be denied but the Fathers often speak with a Latitude and apply things to the present advantage As when they had to doe with Heresies newly sprung up they usually opposed the eminency of the Church of Rome as then indeed it was eminent both for succession and doctrine setting it out with glorious Titles or when the Fastern Bishops needed relief for the West enjoyed peace for the most part of the four first Centuries when the East was much troubled and applied themselves to Rome for help as Athanasius Chrysostome and others that their cause might be judged in the West by the Pope and his Councel when they could have no justice in the East no mervail if by such applications the Church and Bishop of Rome gained many high Titles and acknowledgments from such distressed persons and their Wel-wishers But when it came to a contestation with Rome it self as in the cases above-mentioned wherein Cyprian Augustine and others were engaged at several times it is plainly seen that those Testimonies which Cyprian Augustine and others had given in so high a strain meant not what they seemed at first sight to attest or what the Cardinal and other Romish writers bring them for Now they must acknowledge this used sometimes by the Fathers to apply their speech to the present advantage not indeed contradicting what they meant but moderating what before they spake more unwarily for the Cardinal observes the like of them l. 4. c. 3. That before the Arrians arose the Interpretation of that place of the Rock Mat. 16. run upon the person of Peter but afterwards the Fathers finding the advantage of the place against the Arrians interpreted it of the Confession which Peter made that Christ was the Son of the living God to this purpose he there And it comes all to this The Fathers before spake unwarily but afterward spake as they saw they had reason Yet thus it fared in this great point of Romes greatness for which they pretend the Fathers Therefore to conclude the second point the Romanists have the shadow the shell the name the phrase many times but we carry the substance shew the thing the sense the judgement the deeds of Antiquity 3. Sometimes we meet with beginnings of opinions and practises in the compasse of the first four Ages which the Church of Rome did after form into a fixt belief and practice but it was not so then Then indeed the seeds were scattered out of the which by degrees sprang some of this forbidden fruit which the Roman Church now holds forth As for Example The opinion of a purging fire was then but in the wandring conceits of some few as above insinuated in this Chap. and which is to be further noted those few into whose conceits it first entred were of the Greek Fathers yet so little did it prevail in that Church that to this day it is not improved into a doctrine or belief of the Church among the Greeks Which shews it rested but in the conceit of some particular men So for the point of Invocation we finde beginning given to that practice in the fourth Century by Rhetorical Apostrophe's used in their Orations for the Dead by the excesse of devotion and honour that some were carried with towards the blessed Martyrs breaking out sometimes into compellations of them and uttering their desires to them as if they had been present Here we have a private practice begun by some few not grounded upon any doctrine of the Church And long time after it was ere it crept into the Letanies or publick offices of the Church So in the point of the half-Communion we meet with some private practice some receiving the bread only in a case of necessity but publickly it was ever administred in both kindes and also privately where and when it could And many express declarations we meet with against receiving it in one kinde and when it was received so it was held an imperfect and not full Communion This is most plain in Antiquity for above 1000 years And now whoever will examine well the flourish of Card Perroun in his first book cap. 18. where running through all the points of Romish faith and practice he affirms the antient Church to have held and practised so will no question finde that what is there alledged falls short of proving the doctrine or practise of the ancient Church and that the Card. often gives us the Name without the Thing or the Phrase without the Romish sense or some private opinion for the doctrine of the Church or some beginning practise for an established one or a private practice for the practice of the Church Besides there is no consent of Fathers given in that Chapter upon any point CHAP. XXXI Card Perrons two Rules for knowing who and what is Catholick according to Antiquity ANd here it will not be amisse to take a view of two of his Rules or Observations which in his Letter to Mr. Casaubon he gives us to shew what is required to make a man or Church Catholick now according to the doctrines and practises of the antient Church By which I cannot see how himself or his Church can stand or challenge the name of Cathelick He there saith in his second observation That any should passe for Catholick it is needful they be conformable to the integrity of the belief of the Fathers i.e. to believe all things they believed according to that degree they believed them in viz to believe as necessary to salvation the things they believed to be so and as profitable to salvation the things they believed to be so and as not repugnant to salvation what they held so This is one of his Rules Here are strict