propagated it But the Church having in it the property of heat which as Philosophers say is to gather together things that are of the same nature and separate things that are of different natures includes all that are of the same faith and admitteth no other § 3. I therefore conceived according to the judgement of the most learned the Church to be a society of those that God hath called to salvation by the profession of the true faith the sincere adminstration of the Sacraments and the adherence to lawfull Pastors Which description of the Church is so fitted and proportioned to her that it resembles the nest of the Halcion which as Plutarch saith is of such a just and exact size for the measure of her body that it can serve for no other bird either greater or lesse Then for the meaning of the word Catholique the Protestants say that that Church is Catholique which holdeth the true faith which though it be not spread universally over the world yet it ought to be so say they and therefore it is Catholique By which they leave men in a labyrinth of finding out the true faith in all the particulars thereof which as they say must guide a man to the Church that is truely Catholique which being the object of the understanding is much more difficult to find out than that which is the object of the sense as is its being Catholique And therefore it seemed to me as proposterous as to set the cart before the horse to prove a Church Catholique because it is true whereas it should be proved true because it is Catholique Beside the name Catholique is not a name of belief only but of communion also else antiquity would not have refused that title to those which were not separated from the belief but only from the communion of the Church S. Aug. Ep. 50. nor would they have affirmed that out of the Catholique Church the faith and Sacraments may he had but not salvation So that Catholique imports thus much both the vast extension of doctrine to persons and places different and the union of all those places and persons in Communion Therefore allbeit the Protestants should hold the same belief that the ancient Church did yet if they did not communicate with the same ancient Church which by succession of Pastors and People is derived down to this present time I could not see how they could with justice assume to themselves the title of Catholiques CHAP. VI. Of the Infallibility of the Church § 1. NOw that the Catholique Church which society of Christians soever it be of which we shall deliberate hereafter is the only faithfull and true witnesse of the matter of Gods Word to tell us what it is and what is not it the only true interpreter of the meaning of Gods word and the last and finall judge of all controversies that may arise in matters of Religion and that shee is not onely true but that shee cannot be otherwise seeing shee is infallible I was perswaded to believe by many reasons In the alleadging of which I will avoid the accusation of Protestants of the circular disputation of Catholiques saying they believe the Scripture because the Church saies it is so and the Church because the Scripture bids them do so First then without dependence on the Scripture I conceived the Catholique Church to be infallible in her Traditions in that which she declareth to us concerning the doctrine of Christ and the Apostles and that even in the very nature of her testimony and tradition For Tradition being a full report of what was evident to sense namely what doctrines the Apostles taught what Scripture they wrote it is impossible it should be false Worlds of men cannot be universally deceived in matters evident to sense as are the things men heare and see and not being so it is impossible they should either negligently suffer it or maliciously agree to deceive others being so many in number so distant in place so different in affections conditions and interests Wherefore it is impossible that what is delivered by full Catholique Tradition from the Apostles should be by the deliverers first devised as Tertullian saith Tert. de praesc cap. 28. That which is found one and the same amongst many is not an error but a Tradition Yet supposing universall Tradition as it is meerly humane be in its nature fallible yet the Tradition of the Catholique Church is by God himselfe preserved from error which is thus demonstrated God being infinitely good and ardently desiring the salvation of mankind cannot permit the meanes which should convey the Apostles doctrine to posterity by the belief whereof men must be saved to be poisoned with damnable error to the destruction of their salvation now the onely meanes to convey this doctrine is the Tradition of the Catholique Church Tert. de Praes cap. 21. as Tertullian saith what the Apostles taught I will prescribe ought no other wayes to be proved than by those Churches which the Apostles founded All other means as I have shewed you before are insufficient and if this Tradition of the Church should be insufficient also by reason of its liablenesse unto error then were there no certainty at all of the truth of Christian Religion no not so much as that there was such a man as Jesus Christ but all men would be left to grope in the wandring uncertainty of their owne imaginations which for God to suffer cannot fall under any prudent mans belief § 2. Secondly that which bindeth men to believe a thing to be Gods Word God cannot suffer to delude men into error whereby for their devotion unto his truth they may fall into damnation now Catholique Tradition from the Apostles is that which bindes men to believe the same to be the Word of God and that because it is thereby sufficiently proposed the World affording no higher nor surer proposall so that either this must be infallible or else God hath left us to the guidance of our own weak understandings the weaknesse of which conceit I shewed even now and all Christians to that confusion which all different opinions yet reputed the Word of God by them that hold them may produce § 3. Thirdly God being the Prime Verity he cannot so much as connive at falshood whereby he becomes accessory of deceiving them who simply readily and religiously believe what they have just reason to think to be his Word but there is most just and sufficient reason to believe that the doctrine delivered by full and perpetuall Tradition from hand to hand even from the Apostles is undoubtedly their doctrine and the Word of God therefore he cannot suffer Catholique Tradition to be falsified Nor can as I conceive any prudent man imagine that God having sent his Son into the world to teach men the way to heaven every moment of whose life was made notable by doing or suffering somthing to that end should suffer the efficacy and
endewed with so much zeal and courage as to professe her Religion and to propagate it in the world which cannot be Therefore it is impossible that the true Church should not be ever universall and famously known Sixthly this Church is holy both in life and Doctrine Holy for life shining in all admirable sanctity the rayes whereof do overcome the hearts of the beholders such as the Holy Apostles gave example of as of poverty chastitie obedience charity in undergoing all forms of labour and danger for the safety of soules patience invincible in the rough handling of themselves by wonderfull fastings and all kind of austerities fortitude heroicall in suffering martyrdome not onely with patience but with joy though given them in all the most hideous shapes that mans imagination steeled with malice could invent And although this kind of sanctity does not shine in all the members of the Church but in the more eminent professors and principally in the Pastors yet if this kind of sanctity together with Miracles were wanting she could not be so sufficient a witnesse to Infidells who ordinarily are not won to the affection and admiration of Christianity but by beholding such wonders of power and sanctity in the Professors thereof Holy shee is also for doctrine in regard her traditions are divine and holy without commixture of error for if the Church could deliver any one or few errors intermingled with many truths her Traditions even of the truth were questionable and could not be believed upon her word Even as if we admit in Scripture any error in smaller matters we cannot be sure of its infallibility in matters of greatest moment as he that shall say Gods written word is false or uncertaine when it tells him that S. Paul left his cloake at Troas may also say with as much reason that it is false or uncertain when it tells him that Christ was borne of the Virgin Mary Even so he that grants that some part of Traditions or the Word of God unwritten may be false inferrs by consequence that every part thereof may be so and that because we have no antecedent ground or touch-stone to try Traditions by but they must be believed for their own sakes being therein more fundamentall than the Scripures which are not known to be Apostolicall but by Tradition whereas perpetuall Tradition is knowne to come from the Apostles by its own light for what can be more evident then that that is from the Apostles which is delivered as Apostolicall by perpetuall succession of Priests and people affirming and believing the same § 2. But against this truth that if the Church may erre in one thing neither wee nor shee can be sure that shee speakes truth in any thing Chillingworth makes these in my judgement impertinent interrogations A Judge may possibly erre in Judgement can he therefore never have assurance that he hath judged right A travayler may possibly mistake his way must I therefore be doubtfull whether I am in the right way from my hall to my chamber pag. 117. sect 106. In which he weakly falls into comparison betwixt matters which are the object of the sense or of the understanding and of faith which in this case have no proportion betwixt them For the doctrines of faith as they are of faith being altogether and all equally without the reach of our knowledge we have no way to attaine to but by the help of others whom we must absolutely believe and if we know that they may deliver that which is false to us wee can never be sure that any thing they deliver to us is not false unlesse we had some superiour rule to try and examine their Traditions by which certainly we have not Nor can the Church it selfe if shee may erre in the delivery of one thing be sure that shee doth not erre in every thing because shee hath no infallible rule to examine her doctrines by out of her selfe who if shee be assisted by the Holy Ghost cannot erre in any thing if not for ought shee knowes shee doth in all things Now that the Church is assisted by God and that mans reason cannot be the highest judge to whom the last appeal is made in matters of faith which descend from God I have shewed before As for a humane Judge as he may erre through ignorance wilfulnesse or negligence which to conceive of the Church is absurd yea blasphemous shee having Christ for her Head and the Holy Ghost for her Spirit so he cannot bee more certaine of the truth of his judgement than his reason can make him which will not reach to an absolute infallibility And as a travayler may mistake his way in one journey so he may in another if he have no more certainty nor better guide of the one way than of the other which is the Churches case in propounding and believing matters of faith revealed to her by God which like the Circumference from the Center are all equally distant from our knowledge and the Church hath an equall Prerogative of infallibility by the guidance of the Holy Ghost in all who therefore can erre in nothing or in all things which she saith she so receives and delivers Yet Chillingworth saith that his consequences are as like the other as an egge to an egge or milk to milk but more truly they are as like as an egge to an oyster or milk to ink § 3. And lest any Protestant who honours the Scriptures much with his lips though he be far removed with his heart should think that I am injurious to the Scripture in saying that Tradition is more fundamentall than Scripture it selfe I desire him to take notice that Tradition and Scripture according to different comparisons are equall and superior the one to the other Compare them in respect of certainty of truth they are equall both being the Word of God the one written the other unwritten and so both infinitely certain Compare them in respect of depth of sublimity and variety of doctrine the Scripture is far superiour to Tradition Tradition being plaine and easie doctrine concerning the common capitall and practicall Articles of Christianity whereas the Scripture is full of high hidden senses and furnished with great variety of examples discourses and all manner of learning Compare them in respect of antiquity and evidence of being the Apostles the Scripture is inferiour to Tradition in time and knowledge and cannot be proved directly to be the Apostles and therefore Gods but by Tradition As Philosophy is more perfect than Logicke and Rhetoricke than Grammar in respect of high and excellent knowledge yet Logicke is more prime originall and fundamentall than Philosophy Grammar than Rhetorique without the rules and principles whereof they cannot be learned Even so Tradition is more prime and originall than Scripture though Scripture in respect of depth and sublimity of discourse be more excellent then Tradition CHAP. X. That the Roman is that one holy Catholique
thing invisible and according to this notion the Catholique Church is proposed in the Creed Secondly propositions of Faith must be invisible according to the Predicate or thing believed but not alwaies according to the Subject or thing whereof we believe some other thing The things the Apostles believed of Christ to wit that he was the Son of God the Saviour of the world were things invisible but the subject and person of whom they did believe these things was visible to them yea God did of purpose by his Prophets foretell certain tokens whereby that subject might by sense be seen and discerned from all other that might pretend the name of Christ or else his comming into the world to teach the truth had been to little purpose In this sort the Predicate or thing believed in this Article the Holy Catholique Church to wit Holy is invisible but the Subject to wit the Catholique Church which we affirme and believe to be holy in her doctrine is visible and conspicuous to all Yea God hath of purpose foretold signes tokens whereby shee may by sense be cleerly discerned from all other that may pretend to the title of Catholique For were not this subject the Holy Catholique Church which we believe to be holy and infallible in her teaching visible and discernable from all other that pretend to that title of what use were it to believe that there is such an infallible teaching Church in the world hidden we know not where like a Candle under a Bushell or a needle in a bottle of hey § 3. Secondly if there must be alwaies in the world as was proved before one holy Catholique and Apostolique Church that is a Church delivering doctrines uniformly thereby making them credible universally thereby making them famously known to mankind holily so making them certain and such as that on them we may securely rely Apostolically so making them flow in the channel of a never-interrupted succession of Bisbops from the Apostles then this Church must be either the Roman or the Protestant or some other opposite to both Protestants cannot say a Church opposite to both for then they should be condemned in their own judgement and be bound to conforme themselves to that Church which can be no other but the Grecian a Church holding as many doctrines which the Protestants dislike as the Church of Rome as might easily be proved if need were It is further manifest that the Protestants are not this One Holy Catholique and Apostolique Church since their revolt and separation from the Church of Rome because in that very act of separation they did extinguish all these titles for they changed the doctrines they once held they forsook the body whereof they were Members brake off from the stock of that tree whereof they were branches neither in their departure did they joyne themselves with any other Church different from the Roman professing the particular Protestant doctrines so that they made a new Church of their own not agreeing in all points of faith with any that went before neither have they which have come after them as there are very many Sects risen out of the first Protestant agreed with them And therefore there is none or the Roman is the One Holy Catholique and Apostolique Church § 4. Thirdly the Protestants had the Holy Scripture from the Holy Catholique and Apostolique Church otherwise they cannot be sure that they are the true Scriptures of the Apostles because the testimony and Tradition of any other Church is fallible and may deceive them And if it may for ought they know it hath seeing they lived not in the Apostles daies thereby to make themselves certain thereof and so they will be altogether uncertain of that which they make the only object of their faith Luther cont Anab To. 7. German Ien fol. 169. whitaker de Eccles l. 3. p. 369. Now it is most certain that they had the Scriptures from the Roman Church acknowledged by Luther himselfe and also by Doctor Whitaker only they took the wicked boldnesse to cancell some parts thereof therefore they must either acknowledge that they are not sure that the Scripture is the Word of God or that the Church of Rome from whom they received it is the true Church And if the true Church hath delivered the true Text of Scripture then hath she also together with the true Text delivered the true Apostolicall sense because the Apostles themselves did not deliver to her the bare Text but with it the true sense to be delivered perpetually to posterity not by making a large and entire comment of all difficult places but by delivering with the Text the sense also about the maine and principall points So that they who by Tradition receive from the Apostles the true Text must together with it receive the true sense Now principal * Chemnit exam Cont. Trid. p. 1. fol. 74. Doctor Bancroft in the Survey p. 379. Protestants affirme the former saying No man doubteth but the Primitive Church received from the Apostles and Apostolicall men not only the Text of Scripture but also the right and native sense Which is agreeable to the Doctrine of the * Vincentius Lyrinens cap. 2. Fathers that from the Apostles together with the Text descends the line of Apostolicall interpretation squared according to the Ecclesiasticall and Catholique sense Whereupon * Aug. de util cred c. 14. S. Augustine affirms the later that they that deliver the Text of Christs Gospell must also deliver the Exposition saying that he would sooner refuse to believe Christ than learn any thing concerning him but of those by whom he was brought to believe Christ For they that can deliver by uniform Tradition a false sense may also deliver a false Text as received from the Apostles their freedome from or liablenesse to error in both being equall If therefore the Church of Rome have delivered the true Text then she hath also delivered and preserved the true sense or else we are sure of neither and so she only is the true holy Catholique and Apostolique Church or else there is none § 5. Fourthly it is granted by Protestants that the Romane Church was once the true Church and it cannot be proved that she hath changed her doctrine since the Apostles time therefore she is still the same true Church And that she hath not changed her Doctrine is thus proved the Doctrines that have continued for divers ages in the Christian Church and no time of their beginning can be assigned must needs be Doctrines descending from the Apostles and unchanged and such are the Doctrines of the Church of Rome Than the Doctrines of the Romane Church which Protestants reject have been universally received for many hundreds of years is by many learned Protestants confessed Perkins saith * Expos of the Creed p. 307. 400. during the space of nine hundred years the Popish Heresie hath spread it selfe over the whole world and
of two thousand years had no word of God but that which was unwritten which we call Tradition the Church of the Jewes had Scripture but with it Tradition as the prayer of Elias concerning raine Jam. 5.15 The contention of the Archangel S. Michael and the Devill about the body of Moses Jude v. 9. with others and of the Scripture both Old and New many books are lost as many Parables and Verses of Salomon 3 King 3.32 with many other books and S. Paul wrote an Epistle to the Laodiceans Col. 4.16 and another to the Corinthians which are not extant 1 Cor. 5.9 And seeing we have not the whole Canon of the Scripture how can we be sure that that part which we have conteineth all that we are bound to believe and do we do not read that the Apostles were sent to write but to preach and S. John denies that he had expressed in writing all that he had to say Having more things to write unto you saith he I would not by paper and inke for I hope that I shall be with you and speake mouth to mouth that your joy may be full Now that these things that the Apostles did not write but teach by word of mouth were matters also of weight and belonging to Faith S. Paul assures us in these words Night and day more abundantly praying that we may see your face and may accomplish those things that want of your faith 1 Thes 3.10 By which it is evident that the Apostles besides their writings did preach other things which were wanting to their faith § 10. Nor did the Apostles surely intend to write all points of faith for if they had it is probable that they all together or some one of them would have done it purposely punctually and methodically and declared so much unto the world But we know the contrary to wit that they did not write all by their own confession and that which they did write was but accidentall and upon particular occasions as Hooker affirmes Eccles Pol. l. 1. sect 15. p. 37. The severall Books of Scripture are written upon severall occasions and particular purpose which occasions if they had not happened it is most likely that they had not written that which they did For instance the Epistles of S. Peter James John and Jude were written against certain Heretikes who mis-understanding S. Paul did thereupon teach That faith onely without works sufficed to salvation of which very point S. Augustine saith Because this opinion was then begun De fide operibus c. 14. other Apostolicall Epistles of Peter John James Jude do chiefly direct their intentions against it that they might strongly confirm Faith without works to profit nothing S. John also did preach the Gospell till his last age which was very long without writing any Scripture and took occasion to write as S. Ierome affirmes by reason of the heresie of the Ebionites De Scriptoribus Eccles which then brake out The like might be shewed of all the rest And lastly which is worth the observation all the Epistles are written to such persons onely as were already converted to the Christian Faith therefore they were written not so much to instruct Tom. 2. l. de Eccles fol. 43. as to confirme as Zuinglius also confesseth § 11. By all which it is evident so far as we can see that the Apostles and Evangelists did write their books not by any command from Christ but upon some accidentall occasion moving them thereunto Wherein one and the same matter is often repeated as in S. Pauls Epistle to the Romans and to the Galatians and also in all the Evangelists and many other things are omitted as a world of works which our Saviour did as S. John testifieth 2. John 21.25 and which the Apostles did also the small book of their Acts being too little to expresse all their actions and also the things which S. Paul ordained in the Church of the Corinthians 1 Cor. 11.34 by which it is manifest that they neither intended any compleat Ecclesiasticall history nor body of divinity containing all matters of faith and practice So that it did neither appear to me that the Scripture contained all the doctrine of salvation that the Apostles taught nor yet any of it because I could not see by the directions that Protestants gave me whether the Scripture were the Word of God or no. CHAP. III. Of the insufficiency of the Protestants meanes to find out the true sense of the Scriptures And of the absurdity of their assertion that all points necessary to salvation are clear and manifest § 1. AS to know the letter of the Scripture so to know the meaning thereof I found a matter of great difficulty agreeable to S. Peter who saith speaking of S. Pauls Epistles 2 Pet. 3.16 In which are certain things hard to be understood which the unlearned and unstable deprave as also the rest of the Scriptures to their own damnation But * Falke Con. Rhē Test in 2 Pet. cap. 3. Morton Apol. part 1. lib. 1. cap. 19. VVhitaker contro◠2. q. 5. c. 7. p. 513. Protestants to avoid their dependence on the Church for the interpretation thereof say that all things necessity to salvation are easie to be understood even by the most unlearned Reader But they never yet expressed what points were necessary to salvation and what not nor have given any rule by by which it might be found out but have left themselves the liberty of adding to or substracting from that title what and whensoever they pleased And who seeth not that with this device they may exclude if they please almost all the points of Christian belief and practise § 2. Wonderfull confusion I found herein for here the understanding of the most unlearned Reader is made the size of things necessary to salvation and if it be a measure unto all men then the most learned Clerk is bound to believe no more than the most unlearned peasant that can but read and the most unlearned need not the help of the learned for the understanding of things necessary but can find them out by his own reading So that you must take the arrantest dunce in their Church that can read and after he hath diligently perused the Bible and prayed for understanding therein that which he understands must be accounted necessary to salvation and no more Surely me thinks they are to blame that have not for the greater credit and cleernesse of their cause made this tryall upon some silly fellow and from his mouth have set downe their points necessary to salvation But by this it appears that they are willing to draw the matters necessary to salvation for their great ease into a very narrow compasse and make the same measure serve the silliest clown and the greatest Clerk which is uncomly And coming closer to the matter I have known some affirm which I believe is the opinion of very many that to believe
being once evident to the world are by the worlds full report declared unto us which is a morall infallibility So that if we have not a Metaphysicall or Mathematicall infallibility of the truth of Miracles yet we have a Physicall and morall infallibilitie as much as we have of any thing we either hear or see Nor doth this Physicall evidence take away the merit of faith because this evidence not being altogether and in the highest degree infallible in it self for our senses may somtimes be deceived it is not sufficient to conquer the naturall obscurity darknesse and seeming falshood of things to be believed upon the testimony of those miracles For the mystery of the Trinity of the Incarnation Reall presence and the like seem as far above the reach of reason as any Miracle can seem evident to sense hence when faith is proposed by Miracles there ariseth a conflict betwixt the seeming evidence of the Miracles and the seeming falshood and darknesse of Catholique Doctrine against which obscurity a man cannot get the victory by the sole evidence of miracles except he be inwardly assisted by the light of Gods Spirit moving him by pious affection to cleave to the Doctrine which is by so cleer testimony proved to be his Word Even as a man shut up in a chamber with two lights whereof the one makes the wall seem white the other blew cannot be firmly assured what colour it is untill day-light enter and obscuring both those lights discover the truth so a man looking upon Christian Doctrines by the light of miracles done to prove them will be moved to judge them to be truth but looking upon them through the evidence of their seeming impossibilities unto reason they will seem false nor will he be able firmly to resolve for the side of faith untill the light of divine grace enter into his heart making him prefer through pious reverence to God the so-proposed authority of his Word before the seeming impossibility to mans reason CHAP. VII That Catholique Tradition is the onely firm foundation and motive to induce us to beleeve that the Apostles received their doctrine from Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ from God the Father And what are the meanes by which this doctrine is derived downe to us § 1. AS Catholique Tradition is infallible in it self so is it most necessary for us there being no other certaine testimony to any prudent man no firme ground or motive to believe that the Primitive Church received her doctrine from the Apostles the Apostles from Christ Christ from God nor no way to bring it downe from those times to these but only the Tradition of the Church For we may observe three properties of the doctrine of faith to be true to be revealed of God to be preached and delivered by the Apostles The highest ground by which a man is persuaded that his faith is true is the authority of God speaking and revealing it the highest proof by which a man is assured that his faith is revealed is the authority of Christ and his Apostles who delivered the same as descending from God but the highest ground that moveth a man to believe that his faith was preached by the Apostles is the perpetuall Tradition of the Church succeeding the Apostles unto this day assuring him so much according to the saying of * De praescr c. 21. 37. Tertullian who maketh this ladder of belief in this sort what I believe I received from the present Church the present from the Primitive the Primitive Church from the Apostles the Apostles from Christ Christ from God and God the prime verity from no other fountaine different from his own infallible knowledge So that he that cleaveth not to the present Church firmely believing the Tradition thereof as being come down by succession is not so much as on the lowest step of the ladder that leads unto God the revealer of saving truth successive Tradition unwritten being the last and finall ground whereon we believe that the points of our belief came from the Apostles which may be proved by these arguments § 2. First if the maine points of faith be to be believed to come from the Apostles because they are written in Scriptures and the Scriptures are believed to be the Word of God upon the report of universall Tradition then our belief that the things which we believe come from the Apostles and from God resteth upon the Tradition of the Church but it is most certaine that the Scriptures cannot be proved to have been delivered unto the Church by the Apostles but by the perpetuall Tradition unwritten conserved in the Church succeeding the Apostles all the other waies by which the Protestants endeavour to prove the Scripture to be the word of God being vaine and insufficient as I have proved before Secondly common and unlearned people which comprehend the greatest part of Christians may have true faith yet they cannot have it grounded on the Scripture for they can neither understand nor read it or if read it yet but in a vulgar language of the truth of whose translation they are not assured therefore must rely upon the testimony of the present Church that that which they believe is the Word of God Thirdly if all the maine and substantiall points of Christian faith must be believed before we can securely read and truly understand the holy Scripture than they are believed not upon Scripture but upon Tradition going before Scripture and that it is so is manifest because true faith is not built but upon Scripture truly understood according to the right sense thereof nor can we understand the Scripture aright unlesse we first know the main Articles of Faith which all are bound expresly to believe by which as by a rule we must regulate our selves in the interpretation of the Scripture otherwise without being setled in the rule of faith by Tradition men are apt to fall into grievous errors even against the main articles of the faith as of the Blessed Trinity and Incarnation of the Son of God as experience doth sufficiently testifie so that reading and interpreting Scripture doth not make men Christians but supposeth them to be made so by Tradition at least for the main points such as every one is bound expresly to know Fourthly they to whom the Apostles wrote and delivered the Scripture were already converted to Christianity and instructed in all necessary points of faith and in the common practises of Christianity and so by what they knew by Tradition could easily interpret what was written but otherwise might easily have failed in the mainest points as some forsaking Tradition did for example the Arrians who were confuted by the Catholiques not by bare Scripture for of that the Arrians had plenty but as it was interpreted by Tradition Therefore none can be supposed to understand the Scripture aright so to know the true word and will of God but by being such as they were to whom the Apostles
delivered the Scripture that is first instructed by Tradition Otherwise they may easily erre in some chiefe articles of Faith any of which to erre in is damnable And I would faine know whether any understanding Protestant doth believe that if a Bible were given to a heathen or to one borne amongst themselves supposing he had not been trained up by Catechisme and other traditionall instruction whether I say he could out of that extract as points cleerly expressed therein the thirty nine Articles of the Church of England or the book called the Harmony of Confessions which is the profession of the faith of most of the Protestants of the world Lastly we cannot with modesty say that we are more able to understand Scripture than were our fore-fathers the ancient Doctors of the Church but they thought themselves unable to interpret Scripture by conference of places or such like humane means without the light of Christian Doctrine before-hand knowne and firmly believed upon the Tradition of the Church witnesse * Ruf. Eccl. hist l. 2. c 9. S. Basil S. Gregory Nazianzene and * Orig. tract in Mat. 29. c. 23. Origen who thus writeth In our understanding of Scriptures we must not depart from the first Ecclesiasticall Tradition nor believe otherwise but as the Church of God hath by succession delivered to us therefore no man is able to interpret Scripture without the light and assistance of Christian faith afore-hand received by the voice of the Church delivering what shee received from her ancestors Dangerously and high boldnesse then it is for men of this age so to presume on their owne interpretations of Scripture gotten by humane meanes as to make them over-ballance a thousand * Luther de capt Babil Tom. 2. VVittenberg p. 344. Cyprians Augustines Churches and Traditions § 3. From all which I observed that the Protestants do not well understand that place of Scripture so frequently urged by them against Tradition where S. Paul saith to Timothy Thou hast known the holy Scriptures from thy childhood which are able to instruct thee or make thee wise unto salvation Inferring from hence that the Scriptures are able to make all men wise unto salvation whereas this was spoken with relation to Timothy only and to such as agree with him in the cause for which this saying is true in him that is such as were aforehand instructed by Tradition and did firmly believe all substantiall Doctrines of faith and know the necessary practises of Christian Discipline even as what God said to Abraham I am thy protector and thy exceeding great reward Gen. 15.1 is not appliable to all men absolutely but only to all men that were of the same qualification that is faithfull and devout as he was Moreover the Apostle in that place speaketh only of the Scriptures of the Old Testament for the New was not written in the infancy of Timothy nor some of it at this very time that these words were written and these Scriptures he affirmes also to instruct Timothy not by themselves alone but by faith which is in Christ Jesus that is joyned with the doctrine of the Christian faith which Timothy had heard and believed on the voice of Tradition And the following words of the Apostle are with equall confidence insisted on All Scripture inspired of God is profitable to teach c. is very unprofitable for their purpose seeing that profitable can by no means be stretcht to signifie sufficient as they would have it and that for every man but particularly for him that is HOMO DEI a man of God that is one already instructed by Tradition in all the main points of Christian faith and godly life such an one as Timothy was Thus indeed the Scriptures may be granted sufficient joyned with Tradition but not alone And whereas there are some places of the Fathers alledged by Protestants to prove the Scriptures to be clear in all substantiall points they are to be understood as the Apostles words are with reference to such men who have been before instructed by Tradition even as they that hear Aristotle explicate himself by word of mouth may easily understand his books of nature which are very hard to be understood of them that never heard his explication either from his own mouth or by Tradition from his Schollers § 4. Whereas some Protestants say that the difficult places of Scripture are unfolded a VVootton triall of the Romish c. p. 88. l. â—9 by Scripture and the rules of Logick b Field p. 281. lin 20. and by other things beside Scripture evident in the light of nature it seems to me very incongruous First because the rule of faith must be for the capacity of the unlearned as well as the learned and unlearned men cannot be sure of the infolded sense of the Scripture by Logicall deductions Secondly the Scripture it self sends us to supply her wants not to the rules of Logick but unto Tradition saying Hold the Traditions which ye have received by word or our Epistle 2 Thes 2.15 It sendeth us to the Church the pillar and ground of truth 1 Tim. 3.15 which whosoever doth not heare is as a Heathen and a Publican Matth. 18.17 It did the same to the Jewes who had the Scriptures also saying Remember the old dayes think upon every generation ask thy father and he will declare unto thee the elders and they will tell thee Deut. 32.7 The same do the Fathers as I shall shew hereafter § 5. And whereas it is further objected that the Fathers disputed negatively from the Scripture against Heretiques thus Doctrine is not cleerly delivered in Scripture therefore it is not to be received as a matter of Faith we must know that the Fathers proceeded upon this supposition that was known to all and granted by the Heretiques themselves namely that the Doctrines they disputed against were not the Traditions of the Church and in this case they required the testimony of Scripture Yea more the Fathers did not onely require places of Scripture from the Heretiques by way of deduction and Logicall inference for to such all ancient Heretiques and Protestants now pretend wherewith they delude ignorant people but they required of them to shew their Doctrine in Scripture saith Irenaeus expresly and in termes and to prove it not by texts * Aug. de unitat Eccles cap. 5. which require sharpnesse of wit in the Auditors to judge who doth more probably interpret them not by places which require an interpreter one to make Logicall inferences upon the text but by places plaine manifest cleere which leave no place to contrary exposition and that no Sophistry can wrest them to other sense to the end that controversies which concern the salvation of soules be defined by Gods formall Word and not by deductions from it by rules of Logicke And even by this way of the Fathers arguing negatively from the Scripture the Protestant Religion is quite overthrowne for seeing nothing is
not prove it shewes the interruption of their succession and while they affirm it shewes that they believe their succession and calling insufficient unlesse they derive it from the Church of Rome thereby acknowledging the Church of Rome the true Church which they in their Doctrine and dependence have forsaken and there can be no reason to forsake the true Church upon what pretence soever For the errors of the Church of Rome are but supposed and their Reformation neither is but supposed they being infallibily sure of nothing since they hold their Church may erre and so for ought ought they certainly know it did in accu and forsaking the Church of Rome and in their own imaginary amendment and instead of Christ have chosen Barrabas And what can be more inconsiderate than to forsake the true Church by their own confession upon pretences of whose truth they are by their own confession also uncertain For he that confesseth he may erre in that wherin he may erre being an object of the understanding not of the sense cannot be sure that he doth not erre And so they are altogether at a losse and a ground not infallibly no nor prudently sure of the least tittle they affirm They cannot be infallibly sure because they may erre as themselves confesse they cannot be prudently sure seeing there is a hundred voyces and judgements of men for the Roman Church to one for any Protestant Church They had therefore done much more wisely to have followed the admonition of S. Paul to Timothy DEPOSITUM CUSTODI keep that which is committed to thy charge 1. Tim. 6.20 and what is that saith Vincentius Lirinensis He answereth Comomnit advers haer c. 27. It is that which thou art trusted with not that which is found out by thee that which thou hast received not which thou hast devised a thing not of wit that is of thine own fancy but of learning that is which thou hast learnt not of private usurpation but of publique Tradition a thing brought to thee not brought forth by thee wherein thou oughtest to be not the Author but the keeper not a Master but a Scholler not a leader but a follower § 2. As for their assertion who say that Roman Catholiques and Protestants are all one Church it is both false foolish False it is because the differing in any one point of faith proposed by the Church makes one party not to be of the true Church it is certain that the Church of Rome and England differ in many Doth not the Church of England account the four grand Heretiques who were condemned in the first four Generall Councells to be out of the Church and not one with her that condemned them and they held each of them but some one or very few points different from the Church of Rome So that either they must confesse themselves also not to be one with the Roman Church or else that all Hretiques are of it which is absurd and contrarie to the mind of d De fide Symbolo c. 10. S. Augustine who saith that neither Heretiques nor Schismatiques are of the Church If Protestants say that they that were condemned in those Councells did indeed hold Heresies and so were not the Church but their own are truths and amendments of the Doctrine of the Church I answer so did those Heretiques also say yea and prove it by Scriptures and Fathers in their own sense and did believe their Doctrines to be the pure Word of God as confidently as any Protestants in the world do theirs who cannot say more for themselves than they did and they were some of them as numerous and as learned as Protestants are nor was there more authority against them than against the Protestants which is The Catholique Roman Church guided by the Spirit of God and the Word of God written unwritten Moreover they were the parties accused so are the Protestants it is not fit therefore that they should be the Judges If they say that they also accuse the Church of Rome of errors and therefore it is not fit that she should be Judge I answer some body must if ever we will have an end of controversie and then whether the whole society of Christians or some one or few men for so all Heresies began and so did the Protestant Religion in one Luther let any indifferent man judge Moreover God hath made the Church the Judge saying tell the Church and that is the Church of Rome as those Protestants must grant who say they are one with it and that it was the Church when they revolted from her And to consider the matter according to reason seen in the practise of all societies and bodies whether Ecclesiasticalll or Civill if any one or few members break the law and rule of the whole who shall judge whether it be well or ill done Surely either the head or the head and whole representative body together And this was the proceeding against Luther and the Protestants in a Generall Councell by which they were condemned and cast out of the Church Which judgement if it be not sufficient but that the condemned party justifying himself by his own bare affirmation or interpretation of the Law according to his own particular fancy contrary to the whole body whereof he is or was a member may be admitted what Heretique or Rebell will ever be found guilty or will not in despite of all mankind be accounted a true Christian and loyall subject and the soundest member of the whole body Secondly it is both poore and absurd for Protestants to seeke for shelter and countenance under that Church which they have abandoned disgraced and cruelly wounded though to their owne destruction thereby also abusively perswading many people to keep still in the Protestant Church while they think they are of the Roman they being as their new Masters teach them both but one Church § 3. But Catholiques whose consent it is very fit should be taken in this matter acknowledge no such union of Churches betwixt themselves and Protestants for Catholiques doe not allow their Ordination and Consecration of Bishops and Priests for good which appeares in that if a Priest of the Roman Church revolt to the Protestant party he is allowed by them to be a lawfull Priest but not so if a Protestant Minister returne to the Roman Church Also some Protestants grant that Roman Catholiques may be saved in their Religion but Catholiques doe not grant the like to Protestants which they would doe surely if they thought they were all one Church Besides the denying to communicate with each other is a proof that in the opinion of both they are not all one Church And whereas Protestants magnifie their own charity in this kind conceit of theirs and accuse Catholiques of the want therof it is very idle for the controversie about the meanes of salvation and the Church wherein it is to be had is not to be determined by
for many hundred years an universall Apostacy over-spread the whole face of the earth so that our Protestant Church was not then visible to the world Fulk saith * Treatise ag Stapleton Martiall p. 25. the Pope hath blinded the world these many hundred years some say 900. some 1000. some 1200. And * On the Revelat. p 64. Napier saith The Antichristian and Papisticall reign began about the year three hundred and sixteen after Christ which is now above 1300. years ago raigning universally without debateable contradiction Gods true Church abiding certainly hidden and latent Secondly Protestants cannot tell the time when the Church of Rome began to change and swerve from the Apostolicall doctrine therefore doubtlesse she hath never changed her faith Now that doctrines universally received although they be not written are Doctrines derived from the Apostles is affirmed by * De Baptis lib. 5. c. 23. S. Augustine and allowed by * D. sence p. 351. 352. D. Whitguift Archbishop of Canterbury who in his book against Puritanes citing divers Protestants as concurring in opinion with him saith whatsoever opinions are not knowne to have begun since the Apostles time the same are not new or secundary but received their originall from the Apostles But because this principle of Christian divinity brings in as Cartwright the Puritan there alledged speaks all Popery in the judgement of all men I will further demonstrate it though of it selfe it be cleer enough Christ by his Spirit being still present with his Church cannot permit errors in Faith so to creep into the Church as that by the very principles of Christianity they become unreformable but if errors so creep into the Church as that their beginning cannot be knowne and their progresse become universall then do they so enter and prevaile that by the principles of Christianity they are past reformation and that because whosoever undertakes to reform them is to be condemned as an Heretique for he that will undertake to reform Doctrines universally received by the Church opposeth himself against the whole Church and is therefore by a knowne and received Principle of Christianity and Christs owne precept to be accounted as a Heathen and a Publican Mat. 18.17 Epist 118. And as S. Augustine saith To dispute against the whole Church is insolent madnesse For the Church by Christ is appointed the Judge and corrector of all others as our Saviour saith Tell the Church and therefore is not to be judged nor corrected by any he that hath the high presumption to doe so presently pulls on himself the censure of a Heathen And justly too for like the Giants amongst the Poets who waged war against the Gods he doth not only oppose the present Church but the Church of all ages even the Apostles themselves and who is sufficient for these things And he begins a new course of Christianity seeking to overthrow that Doctrine which is universally received and cannot be proved by any Tradition of Ancestors to be otherwise planted in the world than by the Apostles themselves through the power of innumerable miracles Wherefore these Doctrines if they be errors are errors whose reformation no man by the principles of Christianity ought to attempt And seeing it is impossible there should be any such errors the Principle of S. Augustine stands firm That Doctrines received universally in the Church without any known beginning are truly Apostolicall and of this kind are the Roman Doctrines from which Protestants have revolted But some Protestants object that the errors of the Pharisees were universally received in the Jewish Church yet reformed by our Saviour To which may be answered that Protestants out of their desire to make Catholiques seem like the Pharisees make themselves seem as if they did not any whit understand the Gospell For the Traditions of the Pharisees were not universall Traditions but certaine practises of piety invented by themselves and deducted by their skill from Scripture whereby they would seem singularly religions and not as other men Secondly Christ Jesus proving himselfe to be true God might reforme errors universally received and the Church of the Jewes falling erect a new Church of Christians as he did which is not lawfull for any one else to doe For Christian Religion must continue to the worlds end by vertue of the first Tradition thereof and must never be interrupted without extraordinary and propheticall beginning by immediate revelation and Miracles If therefore errors be delivered by the full consent of Christian Tradition they are irreformable Again some Protestants say that one may oppose the whole Church and confute her errors by Scripture not be as an Heathen or Heretique for not every one that opposeth the Church is to be accounted an Heathen Whites Reply p. 136. but only such as inordinately and without just cause oppose it And who I pray shall judge of the justnesse of the cause By this doctrine every man is made an examiner and judge of the whole Church hellish confusion brought in thereby For if against the sentence of perpetual universal Tradition a private man may without the guilt of heresie pretend Scripture and stand obstinately therein though the Church do give seeming and appearing answers as some of them confesse to his Scripture yet condemne her answers saying they are sophisticall as some of them do what can be more disorderly or what is Hereticall obstinacy if this be not Wherefore S. Augustine saith absolutely Epist 48. it is impossible men should have just cause to depart from impugn the whole Christian Church And why but because it is a ruled case in Christianity he that heareth not the Church is an Heretike Yet notwithstanding this the Protestants doe charge the Church of Rome DE FACTO to have falne into errors and to have changed her faith and that because points of doctrine undefined about which Doctors have disputed and held different opinions have been afterwards defined by the Church so that it was not lawfull for any after that to make doubt thereof the Church by this meanes hath held in later ages that to be DE FIDE a matter of faith which the former ages did not and so say they hath changed the faith and believes and delivers more than shee received from the Apostles But this I found to be no change of faith but only a declaration of some point explicitly which was implicitly and involvedly believed before For all the Articles of faith were immediately re-revealed by Christ to his Apostles and by them againe delivered to their posterity so that since there have been no new and particular revelations but the first being laid up in the treasury of the Church for which cause S. Paul calls it a depositum a stock or pawn other truths have been deduced from thence as occasion hath required For when any one endeavours to corrupt the doctrine delivered by the Apostles the Church calls her Pastors and Doctors to
which before perhaps we were not so obliged to doe § 6. A fifth argument moving me to believe that the Roman Church is the Catholique was this That doctrine which hath been delivered by Tradition as the doctrine of our Ancestors without any opposition made by any known Catholique Fathers and Doctors and if any did oppose the doctrine he was censured of Novelty and after admonition if he persisted therein was condemned of Heresie such doctrine is derived from the Apostles and unchanged and such is the doctrine of the Roman Church 'T is true indeed that divers points of the Roman doctrine have been opposed as by Arrius Pelagius Berengarius Waldo Wickliffe Husse and many others but these were not accounted orthodox Fathers but were taxed of Novelty and innovation and for such are delivered to us by Tradition and history of the times wherein they lived And it cannot be prudenty imagined that if the Church of Rome had like these men attempted to change the doctrine of the Apostles there should be no Tradition of it no historicall narration of it but that all the good and true Catholiques should be asleep to this great businesse of defending the flock from Wolves or which is more absurd should against their knowledge and conscience suffer damnable errors to steal in to the destruction of themselves and all the world that should succeed them Now the opposition of the Church in the forementioned manner is so far from obscuring the Churches doctrine that it makes it far more famous and illustrious and apparently Apostolicall even as the sun strugling with a misty morning breaking through it appears more beautifully glorious and unconquerable And this Doctor Feild a learned Protestant confesseth when a doctrine is in any age constantly delivered as a matter of faith Field of the Church l. 4. c. 14 and as received from ancestors in such sort as the contradictors thereof were in the beginning noted for novelty and if they persisted in contradiction in the end charged with heresy it is impossible but such a doctrine should come by succession from the Apostles But Protestants think it sufficient that they find as they say the Roman doctrine contradicted in the writings of orthodox Fathers though their opposition was not noted by antiquity nor by the fame of Tradition delivered to posterity But this answer leaves no meanes to common people to know certainly the perpetuall Tradition of Gods Church which is the guide of their faith but by reading and examining the Fathers which to them is impossible Besides if that some few obscure and hard passages out of the Fathers may suffice to call the Tradition of the Church into question then there is nothing so cleerly and unanimously delivered by Tradition but may fall under a new examination seeing nothing is or can be writ so plainely especially where there is very much also written but that some obscure and oblique passages may be raked out to make shew of a contradiction and if this counterpart may have the title of antiquity set over it what Heresie will want its defence out of the Fathers What Tradition was more constantly delivered by the Christian Fathers and Doctors than our Saviours Consubstantiality with his Father Yet the new Arrians as we may see in Bellarmine bring divers testimonies out of the antient Fathers Lib. 2. de Christ c. 19. to prove that in this point they contradicted themselves and one another In like manner doe the Protestants now bring some obscure places out of the Fathers in the defence of their heresies which yet in a true sense doe import no such thing but being a little obscure they more easily wrest them to their corrupted meaning But on the contrary the Fathers are abundant and cleer in those places which maintaine the Catholique doctrines and none of the Fathers of those times did accuse other of error in those points which if they had thought them so there is no doubt they would For wee cannot imagine the true believers of those times lesse vigilant than of these and we see now that no man can broach an error against faith but presently he hath abundant opposition and further questioning if the cause require Therefore it is apparent that Protestants when they alledge the Fathers as contradicting themselves and one another in the Catholique Doctrines of those times either mis-alledge their words or mistake their meaning For if those contradictions were reall why did not antiquity note them as it noted their differences about smaller disputable matters S. Hierome and Epiphanius took pains to note the errors of Origen yet amongst them all they did not note any which the Church of Rome now holds though his writings be full thereof If the sentences of the Fathers be true in the sense that Protestants alledge them why did not some charge them for maintaining the contrary Romane Doctrines a thousand times more frequently mentioned in their writings And on the other side if the Romane Doctrines were true why did not some tax them for maintaining of Protestantisme doubtlesse they would if they had understood them in the sense that Protestants now do It is manifest therefore that they that lived in those times who were therefore better able to understand their meanings than the Protestants that are sprung up so many hundred yeares after did not conceive that the Fathers maintained the Protestant doctrines in their writings for if they had they would quickly have been reproved seeing the current of Christian Religion even of those times was agreeable to the present Roman for as * Napier On the Revelat p. 191. also Cent. Mag. cent 2. c. 4. col 55. Napier saith during even the second and third ages the true temple of God and light of the Gospell was obscured by the Roman Antichrist himself And according to * Treatise of Antichrist lib. 2. c. 2. p. 25. Downeham the generall defection of the visible Church fore-told 2 Thess 2. began to work in the Apostles time § 7. On the contrary wee find in the writings of the Orthodox Fathers that the Doctrines which Protestants now hold were condemned as hereticall in those persons that then held them and they were not therein opposed by any other Orthodox Fathers For example the Protestants hold that the Church may erre so did the Donatists for which they are frequently reproved by * S. Augustine Passim cont Donat. Protestants deny unwritten Traditions urge Scripture only so did the Arrians and are condemned for it by * Epiphan Her 75. Aug. cont Maximin l. 1. c. 2. ult S. Epiphanius and S. Augustine Protestants teach that Priests may marrie so did Vigilantius and for it is condemned by * Cont. Vigilant c. 1. S. Hierome Protestants deny prayer for the dead so did Arrius for which he is condemned by * Aug. haer 53. Epiphan har 75. S. Augustine and S. Epiphanius Protestants deny invocations of Saints so did Vigilantius
for which he is condemned by S. * Hier. cont Vigil c. 3. Hierome Protestants deny reverence to Images so did Xenaias for which he is rereproved by * Hist lib. 16. c. 27. Nicephorus in these words Xenaias first O audacious soule and impudent mouth vomited forth that speech that the Images of Christ and those who have pleased him are not to be worshipped Protestants deny the reall presence so did the Capernaites who were saith * In Psal 54. 55. S. Augustine the first Heretiques that denied the reall presence and that Judas was the first suborner and maintainer of this heresie Protestants deny confession of sinnes to a Priest so did the Novatian Heretiques for which they are reproved by * Lib. de poenit c. 7. S. Ambrose So did the Montanists and are reproved by Saint * Hieron Epist ad Marcell 54. Hierome Protestants say that a man is justified by faith only so did the Pseudo-Apostles for which they are condemned by S. * De fide oper c. 14. Augustine I might increase this Catalogue by the addition of many other and make the new Protestant Religion appear but a frippery of old Heresies but these shall suffice From all which it appears that the Fathers held the same faith with the present Romane Church and that there was no opposition of Fathers against Fathers nor of any one Father against himself at least in matters of faith but that they all held the unity of the faith that they that held the contrary were by them condemned of Heresie that in bringing any places out of the Fathers to confirm their Heresies they did misinterpret them as the Protestants now do that therefore the Doctrine of the Romane Church is Apostolicall and unchanged and therefore she is the true Church CHAP. XI That the true Church may be knowne by evident marks and that such markes agree only to the Roman Church And first of Vniversality the first mark of the Church § 1. IN further pursuit of the true Church I addressed my self by the marks thereof to find it out For I accounted it vaine to try by the Scripture whether the particular doctrines of Protestants were the doctrines of the Apostles unlesse I could find their Church to be the true Church by the marks of the true Church set down in Scripture For either the Scripure can clear all controversies or it canntot if it cannot there will be no end of controversie amongst them that rely only on Scripture if it can then surely it can clear this most important one which is the true Church by the marks thereof and if so it is fit that that should be determined in the first place on which all the rest depends Ep. dedic as Doctor Feild acknowledgeth And whereas some Protestants make the truth of the doctrine to be the onely mark of the Church it is preposterous being the declaration of a thing obscure or pretended to be so by a thing more obscure in as much as to know the truth of the doctrine in all the particular instances is harder than to know the society of the Church And it is necessary to know the truth of doctrine in all the particulars before we can thereby know the true Church because if she erre in any one point of faith she thereby falls from the title of the true Church Now who is he that can boast to know the integrity of the doctrine of the Church in all the particular controversies against every society that holds the contrary by infallible proofs of Scripture and invincible answers to all their objections If any could do this who knowes not that ignorant and unlearned people of whose salvation notwithstanding God hath the same care as of the learned and to whom the marks of the Church should be equally common since they are equally obliged to obey her are not capable of this examination Cont. Ep. Fund c. 4. For the rest of the people saith S. Augustine it is not the quicknesse of understanding but the simplicity of belief that secure them Therefore it is manifest that they must have other marks to know the Church by than that of her Doctrine namely marks proportionable to their capacity to wit externall and sensible marks as eminency antiquity perpetuity with the like even as children and ignorant people must have externall and sensible marks and other than the essentiall forme of a man to know and discern a man from other living creatures Else how could S. Paul say God hath made in the Church Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Doctors to the end we should be no more little children blown about with every wind of doctrine Ephes chap. 4. ver 11. if hee had not given us other marks to know the Church than the purity of the Doctrine Besides purity of Doctrine being the essentiall form of the Church cannot be a mark of it because they are commonly repugnant and incompatible conditions For the mark doth commonly demonstrate the thing to the sense and the essentiall form doth shew it to the understanding the mark designes the thing in existence the essentiall forme designes it in essence the mark shewes where the thing is the essentiall form teaches what it is the mark is sooner known than the thing and contrariwise the thing is sooner known than the essentiall form of the thing 1 Phys c. 1. for the thing defined as Aristotle saith is known before the definition A Mark then must have three conditions The first is to be more known then the thing since it is that which makes the thing to be known The second that the thing be never found without it The third that it be never found without the thing either alone if it be a totall mark or with its fellowes if it be a mark in part According to these conditions I found divers Marks set down in Scripture appliable only to the Church of Rome § 2. Of which the first is to be Catholique that is universall which was fore-told by the Prophet Esay saying All Nations shall flow unto it Esay 2.2 And by the Psalmist that it should have the Heathen for its inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for its possession Psal 2.2 And by our Saviour saying This Gospell of the Kingdome shall be preached in all the world for a witnesse to all Nations and then shall the end come And that repentance and remission of sinnes should be preached in his Name amongst all Nations beginning at Jerusalem Mat. 24.14 Luc. 24.47 Therefore to distinguish Christs true Church from all Hereticall Sects the Apostles in their Creed and the antient Fathers in their Writings have given her the Sirname of Catholique a name ever insisted upon by the Fathers against Heretiques no lesse than now And that the Roman Church is this Catholique Church dispersed over the whole world is manifest to all those that have either read the histories of the world or
English translates it thus whosoever shall eat this bread and drink the cup of the Lord unworthily putting and for or thereby making the Apostle speak of the receiving of the bread and wine unworthily in an united sense whereas he speakes of them in a divided sense Thus in very many places do they deal with the Scripture like the Elephant when he goes to drink who troubles the cleer water with his feet because he will not see the deformity of his face So they trouble and defile the sense of Scripture either in words or exposition because they would not see the deformity of their Errors Many falsifications also and corruptions of Catholique Authors by the Protestant writers I have met with as where they speaking something by way of supposition they alledge them as if they speak it positively and absolutely where they bring the objections of Heretiques they alledge them as speaking the words in their owne names where they relate with reprehension the sayings of wicked men they alledge them as saying those words themselves which is as if they should charge S. Mathew himselfe with the words of the Pharisees against our Saviour Behold a glutton and a drinker of wine Math. 11.19 But I will not be particular in this matter because many that have been guilty in this case have been called to a strict account by their Catholique answerers And when they are pressed by Catholiques with plaine and direct proofes O what serpentine wriglings and windings to escape the assaulters doe they make O what perverse ridiculous contradictory answers and evasions do some of them make in which they doe at once shew both much wit and much folly for fooles could not speak as they doe and wise men would not In so much that a Answer to a Jesuites challenge chapt of limb Patrum Bishop Vsher Primat of Armagh a very learned man to avoid the confession of Christs descent into hell according to the Article of the Creed in the plaine sense thereof doth so turn it and winde it that he makes the sense of the words He descended into hell to be He ascended into heaven to such pittifull refuges doth the weaknesse of a bad cause drive them And thus they that have the most learning amongst them being by unhappy accident bred up in an erroneous Religion and thereby presuming it to be true do bend all the endeavours of their learning to the maintenance of their errors and the obscuring of the truth which learning if it were directed to the right end might by just title claime a place in the first file of desert even like a torch which turned downward is extinguished with that wax which held upward would make it bright and glorious But though their learning were a hundred times doubled yet as Aarons serpent devoured the Magicians serpents Exod. 7.12 so the wisedome of God which is in his Church will confound the sensuall wisdome of all her opposers seeing there is no wisdome nor prudence nor councell against God Prov. 21.30 § 3. I further observed that the arguments of Protestants for themselves were very fallacious most frequently in that which the Logicians call FALLACIA CONSEqUENCIA which is when the consequence is not justly inferred for example they argue thus the Sacrament is called a figure of Christs body therefore it is not his true and reall body which is a false Consequence for it may be both even as Christ is called a figure of the substance of his father Heb. 1.3 and yet is also the same substance Christ saith come unto me therefore we may go to no body else which is false for we may go to him and others also The Apostle saith that we are Justified by faith therefore say they not by works whereas we are justified by both We must confesse our sinnes to God therefore not to a Priest whereas wee must do both Christ is the head of the Church therefore the Pope is not whereas both are in severall capacities The like might be said in many others by which kind of arguing unlearned people are exceedingly deluded think that while one thing must be done that must be done only the veine of that word only invented by Luther in the matter of justification by faith running through the whole body of their Religion § 4. Moreover I found this contradiction amongst the Patrons of Protestancy that some of them reject the Fathers and accuse them of being infected with the errors which prevailed in their times and what were their errors even all that they taught contrary to their Protestant doctrines so making themselves the rule to judge the Fathers by and not the Fathers which any wise man would think more fit a rule to themselves who no doubt knew the Scriptures also and what was agreable or contrary to them better than they Protestants being herein like carpenters who wear their rule at their backs casting behind them neglecting those that should guide their belief But other Protestants ashamed of this insolency pretend for the credit of their cause that the Fathers are altogether on their side and then with much labour hunt out some obscure passages most liable to be wrested and triumph therein as if they had found a demonstration which when they are sifted either they make nothing for them or else quite against them who in this case are like to a man ready to be drowned who to save himselfe will catch hold on a naked sword with which he cuts his fingers So Protestants sunk into the despaire of their cause think to save themselves by that which serves but to encrease their overthrow They pretend also to answer many plaes of the Fathers alledged by Catholiques and to give their words a Protestant meaning and thereby run the Fathers into manifest contradiction of themselves in regard that the Fathers have but some oblique passages which seem and but seem to make for them as whoever spake so exactly nay who can possibly speak so exactly as that his words may not be made to seem different from his meaning but they have whole Bookes Sermons Tractates and a world of dispersed places of purpose in the maintenance of Catholique truths And though they say that the Fathers taught Protestant doctrine and they give a Protestant sense though very incongruous to many of the places of the Fathers alledged by Catholiques yet they dare not use those words and Phrases of the Fathers as of the Masse the Altar the Sacrifice concerning reall presence prayers to Saints and for the dead merits satisfaction and Purgatory with the like in their prayers Sermons and books which if they speak Protestant Doctrine in the true sense of the Fathers as they say they do why do they not with the sense make use of the words and speeches also I can conceive no other reason but for fear the peoples understandings not so fraught with prejudice nor acquainted with their uncouth evasions should carry them