their side to prohibite Catholicks to speak for themselves in any publick defence it was easie to delude vulgar apprehensions with this plausible Sophism The Papists refuse to be try'd by the Word of God Which things whosoever layes together and seriously ponders as I did cannot but discover that the English Protestant Reformers did not receive a Rule of Faith from the Catholick Church which had been the Square of Christian belief in all Ages and is to continue so for ever but invented or rather assumed from their Predecessors the Ancient Hereticks a Rule of Faith for the Church they were setting up whereby they thought their new Doctrines might with most likelihood be maintain'd and found no better expedient then by denying an authoriz'd Visible Judge to pronounce a definitive Sentence in Controversies of Faith that so they might keep in possession of what they had usurped by eternally wrangling about the right But that we may come to some issue by bringing them out of a mysterious may be declared to stand to something in this main Principle of Religion admit that the written word were the sole and perfect Rule of Faith it being impossible for dead Letters of themselves to rectify things applicable to them for that end and purpose they must needs acknowledge some animated Judge to perform this Office among Christians by applying the Rule to all particulars Now they having denyed the Church this right and so cast off her living voice and Authority in plain terms though insisting in generals they assign no other determinate Interpreter yet must have recourse to Reason or Revelation for besides these three I know not any I say they must either let private Reason make this declaration and Judge of the true sense of Scripture by her innate Light or flie to Revelation and Pretend that the Holy Ghost Infallibly declares by a Divine Light his meaning to them This later way of Divine Inspiration is laid claim to by the Calvinistical party and those strange broods of other English Sectaries who have nothing but Scripture and the Spirit of God in their mouths upon whom in a most Prodigious manner they Father all their Blasphemies to the shame of Christians But it is rejected by all Protestants in any degree rational as meerly Fanatical and invincibly convicted of Imposture by the manifest contradictions of several pretenders to the Spirit of God For can the Holy Ghost reveal to the Calvinists that the Government of the Church by Presbytery hath a Divine right from Scripture and by the same Divine Unction teach the Independents that it is against the written Word c. Private reason therefore is only left them to resolve their Faith into and rely upon in their inquiring after and belief of Supernatural Truths and those sublime Mysteries to the knowledge of which nature hath not sufficient Light to advance her self by her sole native powers beside those mists of passion or prejudice or Education or Interest to which we are daily lyable and which must needs make this way more dark and difficult in order to eternal Happiness However they must take to it unless they will openly recant what they have publickly approved For though at first they kept secret this grand mystery of their State-Religion yet at last great Patrons of the English Protestant Church have with Authority and much applause inthron'd Mr. Chilling worth c. private Reason as a sole Queen and Mistress in the Churches Chair to direct and interpret the Holy Scriptures and from them to give a final Sentence what are the Truths of God revealed to us Without which Sentence or Declaration the Churches Decrees in things necessary to Salvation have no strength at all or obligation Nor then neither as these Rationalists explain it upon the score of Authority but Reason only But how unreasonably and without ground I doubt not to make appear in the following Sections SECT IV. That the Holy Scriptures are not the sole and perfect Rule of Faith TO evidence the groundlessness of this main foundation of the English Protestant Church as declar'd and explicated in the precedent Section with full satisfaction I conceive it lyes upon me principally to make three things good against them First That Scripture is not the sole and perfect Rule of Faith Secondly That it is not nor can be the Judge of Controversies in Religion Which is the common Tenet of modern Hereticks And thirdly That admitting it for a Rule of Faith as in part it is private Reason is not the Interpreter and Judge of the true sense thereof for every Christian to rely upon for his Salvation In clearing the first point I need not labour much having already by convincing arguments establish'd in the 4th and 5th Sections of the first Motive the Catholick Rule of Faith Universal Tradition whither I desire my Reader to return for satisfaction And which standing firm the Protestants Rule of Scripture only must needs be as well a ruin'd as ruinous Principle and fall to nothing Yet that discourse being more general I shall here descend to some particulars to make it visible to very ordinary Capacities that Scripture doth not contain fully all things necessary to Salvation nor is clearly evident without dispute in all points necessary therein contain'd and consequently cannot be the sole and compleat Rule of Faith wanting those two most necessary conditions belonging to it First I say not full and comprehending all points necessary to Salvation of mankind For I demand of them whether it be not a fundamental point of Faith to believe the Holy Scriptures to be the Word of God and yet Mr. Hooker one of the most Judicious Writers of the English Protestants acknowledges this cannot be grounded upon Scripture Of all points saith Hooker's Ecc. Polit l. 2. â—â— I remember he the most necessary to be believ'd is that the Scriptures are the Word of God which is confest impossible for them to prove And proceeding makes a demonstration of it against the Puritans How then themselves being Judges can the Holy Scriptures being a compleat Rule of Faith not comprehending what is most necessary to be believ'd by every Christian If they say this Objection is not pertinent because whosoever makes the written word of God the sole and sufficient Rule of Faith must necessarily pre-suppose the belief of Scripture founded upon some other Principle I reply 't is impertinent to say so because the necessity of a pre-supposition of some fundamental point is a sufficient conviction that the Rule they have chosen cannot be compleat and perfect as they would have it Especially if it be confider'd that the fundamental point pre-suppos'd independent on Scripture but Scripture depending on it must needs be the ground quoad nos to us of all things believ'd in it Which ground or antecedent Principle upon which they as well as we build their belief of such Scriptures to be the undoubted Word of God being the universal
among the Gentiles and they should Sacrifice in every place and Chap. 1. 11. a Pure Offering should be offer'd to his Name a new form of Worship prescrib'd a new form of Government erected new Sacraments instituted new Precepts deliver'd Councels super-added agreeable to the Evangelical Law And in a word a Catholick Church founded to continue for ever This Church of Christ as it is one body so likewise it was of one heart and of one mind while Apostolical purity remain'd unspotted The Professors were all united in the same Faith Worship and Government holding close to Church-Tradition the Pillar and ground of Truth without any rent or Schism Till among Act. 20. 29. 30. themselves arose Wolves in Sheeps-cloathing not sparing the Flock teaching perverse things to draw away Disciples after them That is who set up a Congregation of Christians separated from the Communion of that Church which was founded by Christ and his Apostles And so by this means unity being destroy'd and Faith perverted Heresie shut up the gate of Heaven against false Christians as Infidelity did against Unbelievers A sad case this yet not so much to be wondred at seing the Apostle tells us Opportet esse Haereses There must 1 Cor. 11. 19. be Heresies for the Tryal of others and greater glory of the Truth And therefore the true Church hath in all Ages been more or less vex'd with them But never more then in these last and perillous days which since Luther's Apostacy from the Church of Rome have produc'd such an innumerable brood of New Gospels and Sects all pretending to believe and practice those Doctrines and that Worship which were taught by Christ and his Apostles and to be the only true Church of God or at least the purest Members of it Now it being acknowledg'd on all hands that they only are the true Church who believe and observe all points taught by Christ and his Apostles necessary to Salvation and 't is impossible contrary Beliefs and Worships should be all true and come from the Fountain of Truth Christ Jesus those whom a more serious desire and care of their Eternal Good may excite to seek for satisfaction in so important a business shall upon diligent inquisition by the blessing of God find that the chief externe grounds or evidence ordain'd by Christ for the guiding us in the knowledge of what was taught and left by him to be believ'd and practis'd to the Worlds end and consequently also for discerning which is the true Church among so many Pretenders are those according to which the Church of Rome regulates her Faith and Worship namely Universal Tradition and the Authority of the present Church as shall hereafter be made manifest And the farther they search into the Rule of the Protestant Religion that is sole Scripture interpreted by private Reason or Spirit exclusively to Tradition and Church Authority the more they will see such unsteady Maxims are destructive to Faith and manifestly leading to endless Divisions and Errors in matters of Religion This Conviction I had in examining the Fundamentals of the Roman and Protestant Religion and therefore am not to be blam'd for the Change I made and to my understanding whosoever searches as I did will easily receive the same satisfaction SECT II. A Preparatory Discourse to Church-Tradition and what it is THo' whosoever examines aright the Motives of Christian belief cannot rationally but become a Catholick that is find evidence how he may come to the certain knowledge of what Christ and his Apostles taught the World yet Faith is not grounded on Reason but Authority and that no less then Divine which excludes all possibility of Errour Whatever it is that brings men to know what they must believe Faith hath for its formal Object Divine Revelation into which it finally is resolv'd So that we believe nothing as of Faith but what is revealed and because it is revealed by Essential Verity who can neither deceive nor be deceived Catholicks then believe by Divine Faith Truths only revealed by Almighty God wherein Protestants agree with us But Catholicks believe the same Truths as they are ascertained declar'd and handled down to us by the Testimony of the Church wherein Protestants are defective the difference thefore between us in Faith arises chiefly from hence in that we use not the same externe Medium to convey unto our understandings the knowledge of what Truths are revealed and what not For could we once agree about this latter we should soon be of one Heart and of one mind in all points of Faith especially when once this Medium is proved to be infallible As to this Medium therefore Catholicks regulate their Faith by the Rule or Standard of Tradition and Church-Authority as the externe Proponent of Faith a Proponent also evidenced to them by the same Rule to be Infallible and thus they safely rely on the Testimony of Tradition and Church Authority in Declaring and Expounding both the Sense of Scripture and all other Christian Misteries necessary to Salvation Whilst on the contrary Protestants relying on the sole express Texts of Scripture interpreted by private Reason or Spirit as their only Rule and Guide in matters of Faith become unsteady in their Belief obnoxious to dangerous Errors and divided amongst themselves into endless Sects and Factions But because a more clear understanding of this matter in some sort depends on a right notion of Tradition we shall here define it in the sense it is usually understood by Catholick Divines Tradition then is the delivery of that Doctrine which was taught by Christ and his Apostles from hand to hand descending as such from Fathers to their Children making up the body of the Faithful This is the true notion of Tradition among us Catholicks and it matters not whether it be call'd Divine Apostolical or Universal being only the same thing exprest by divers adjuncts For it is call'd Divine because Christ our Lord as well true God as true man is the Spring-head of it It is call'd Apostolical because the Apostles immediately receiv'd from him things so deliver'd and Preach'd them to all Nations And Universal because Attested by the Catholick Church of all Ages to have been handed to her as originally proceeding from Christ and his Apostles And to prevent all mistakes let Protestants take notice that the Church of Rome sends not her Children only to search for what is Divine or Apostolical Tradition in matters of Faith and Discipline out of the Writings of the Fathers or other Libraries of Books fill'd with dead Words which are subject to various Interpretations by Critical heads without any hope of Agreement and can have no Authority dependent on Tradition though upon this account she has infinite advantage against all other Communions in the World to justify her Faith and practice in any unbyass'd Judgments But sends them to a visible living Oracle Oral Tradition that is the voice of the present Church attesting
name no more and only such as Protestants themselves repute Hereticks those Arch-Enemies of the Doctrine of Grace so abundantly delivered in Sacred Writ yet fly thither also to set up Nature against it as St. Austin who best knew relates of them in these words Let us say they the L. de Nat. Grat. 39. Pelagians believe what we read what we read not let us believe unlawful to maintain Thus Scripture was their Sword and Buckler against the definitions of the Church whereby they were condemned neither could they so escape the brand of Heresie And Protestants taking up the same Weapons in the same manner to uphold themselves against the Faith and practice of all Ages by treading in the steps of such Predecessors shew sufficiently of what Generation and Spirit they are and seem justly involv'd in the same condemnation Thus having made good the first thing I promis'd in this Section namely that the common course of Hereticks is to have recourse to sole Scripture and to urge it as Interpreted by themselves against the Churches sense and judgment to speak any thing of the second to wit the different Faith and Practice of the Christian World would be but actum agere a superfluous labour being so largely before declared Sect. 5. of Trad. and the two last Sections of the Churches Authority in the handing of Tradition and the Infallibility or Authority of the Church and thither I refer the Courteous Reader Only for the present give me leave to say that I carefully comparing both these together found manifest different Rules of Faith without any possibility of reconcilement old and new Hereticks appealing to Scripture and resolute to be tryed by nothing else without any visible Judge to interpret them The Ancient Fathers and present Catholicks asserting the word of God whether written or unwritten as delivered to us by the universal Tradition of the Church and declared by her voice in approved General Councils to be the only sufficient and sure foundation of Christian belief I found that if these built their Faith on solid and safe Principles as it appeared to me they did the other must needs rely on an uncertain and groundless foundation for their Religion and having a desire to be numbred with the Saints not Hereticks of old I found I could not be so except I did relinquish Protestancy and unite my self to the Roman Church of the same belief and practice with Primitive Christians SECT III. A declaration of the English Protestants Doctrine how and why they make Scripture the only Rule of Faith FOr the clearer handling of this point and prevention of all mistakes I shall faithfully deliver what the Protestant Church of England teaches Principally in this main fundamental of her Religion and not injure it or her to the best of my judgment by any Observations made thereon First she teaches That Holy Scripture doth explicitly contain all things necessary to Salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an Article of Faith or be thought requisite and necessary to Salvation This the Composers of her Articles do teach and this they must teach who will make the written Word an entire Rule of Faith that is comprehending all points necessary to Salvation Now in all reason to satisfy those whom they would perswade to be of this belief it ought to be made evident that the Apostles in their Writings did intend plainly and perfectly to comprize whatsoever is necessary to be believ'd and practis'd by all Christians and deposited them in the Church as a complete Rule of Faith for the tryal of all Doctrines she also receiving it for such and practising accordingly in all Ages Which once done their position is then a most clear and rational inference But this being impossible for them to prove because contradicted by the Faith and practice of the Primitive Church which could not be ignorant of all Apostolical Doctrines and Constitutions and also of present Catholicks receiving them from her by an uninterrupted visible Tradition must needs be a false and most dangerous Principle though laid for the foundation of their Religion Secondly for a further ground-work she teaches That General Councils may and have erred even in things appertaining to God That is in matters of Faith as well as of Fact as her own Expositions more freely express her meaning A Doctrine the first Reformers would never have given place in the foundation of their Spiritural building even for their own sakes but that it was not possible their new Fabrick of Faith could stand for any considerable time without fall of the Churches Authority Were not they then sit men to be credited if General Councils may err But that which follows Wherefore things ordained by them as necessary unto Salvation have neither strength nor Authority unless it may be declared that they be taken explicitely out of Holy Scriptures Is the very quintessence of Anarchy and Rebellion so destructive of all Government though an Engine made only to batter down the Church that were it put in practice as here taught confusion would cover the face of the earth and the World would run quickly back into its first Chaos For if things ordained by General Councils have neither strength nor Authority unless it may be declared that it is made out to every private Judgment that they are taken out of the Holy Scriptures I demand by whom this may be or must be declared Now let it be considered that Church Governours are instituted by Jesus Christ having the Keys of so wonderful and transcendent power committed to their hands That whatsoever they Mat. 18. 18. shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever they shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven With a promise from Christ That where they meet in his Name he will be in the midst of them and ver 19. that he will be always with them to the Mat. 28. 20. Worlds end And that the Holy Spirit shall guide them into all Truth Joh. 16. 13. I say let this be consider'd and if the Decrees of such a Tribunal ordaining concerning points of Faith and proposing them to all Christians to be believ'd as the revealed will of God by his word from Heaven and necessary to Salvation have no strength nor Authority 'till it may be further declared that they are taken out of Holy Scriptures those that require this condition to make them obligatory cannot possibly give any reasonable satisfaction to this demand unless they find out such a Judge who is fitter and in all probability more likely not to err or deceive us in teaching what are revealed Truths But how impossible this is to be done any one of an ordinary understanding may without much study determine Yet while they are in vain attempting it if men should take their word as too many have already in denying
relying we have only a firm and rational belief of revealed Verities constant and immoveable among all the changes of Sects and Hereticks True it is in every act of Faith there is use of Reason whether it be referred to the Authority of God revealing or the Church proposing For we captivate our understanding to the obedience of Faith because we judge nothing more reasonable than to believe God and we securely rely upon his Church whom he hath promis'd to assist with Infallibility in such proposals But shall we say therefore that Reason is the prime intrinsical Motive of Faith and into which it finally is resolv'd Nothing less For this discourse and approbation of Reason are but necessarily previous and antecedent to our deliberate and rational acts of Faith the acts themselves are acts of the understanding not discoursing but purely assenting Which assent is not for Reasons sake but for Authority Were the last resolution into the judgment of private Reason Faith could not be Divine or Supernatural Reason indeed produces an act of Faith as well in Catholicks as Protestants but with a vast difference For a Protestant believes such a Truth to be from God relying upon his Reason only that it is revealed and this assent is not rational because his ground is deceitful But in a Catholick Reason acts only so far in points of belief as to bring him to Authority declaring such Truths to be sufficiently revealed by Almighty God which he cannot with any reason suspect to be Fallible in such declarations I believe this says a Protestant because my Reason tells me it is revealed and will allow no other judge of this Revelation I believe this says a Catholick because an Infallible Authority assures me iâ— is revealed and my Reason tells me there is no other sufficient ground or evidence for Divine Faith and therefore give up my private judgment to the Church And which of these Principles is more safe and rational let Reason judge Thirdly I demand of these Rationalists whether there be any such thing as Heresy in the World and what it is Oportet esse Haereses 1 Cor. 11. 19. c. There must be Heresies St. Paul hath said it and that 's sufficient And as for what it is 't is well known the Church hath always taught That Heresie is the voluntary Election of some private opinion contradicting the Doctrine of the Church And that he is to be accounted an Heretick who neglecting the Churches Authority with a stubborn mind defends wicked opinions But if we should admit their new definition That Heresie is to contradict any fundamental point expresly contain'd in Scripture In my poor judgment according to such a definition there 's no such thing as Heresie or Hereticks but both Arians Anabaptists Fanaticks c. are as good Catholicks as any Christians of the World For if private Reason be the only judge of the true Sense of Scripture for every one to rely upon these and all other condemned Hereticks the Montanists excepted relying upon the written Word as interpreted by Reason with sober enquiry and real endeavours to find out Truth cannot justly be so reputed The Arians have so much Reason and Scripture too in the bare Letter on their side that take away the Churches Infallibility and universal Tradition interpreting and delivering to us the true sense of it the Controversy would never be decided All places would swarm with Nestorians Eutychians Anti-trinitarians Barengarians Anabaptists c. neither could we condemn them if this Principle be good for doing their duty in following Scripture as the Light of their own private Reason or Spirit dictates to them Let them not say that these and such like are justly condemn'd for contradicting express Scripture against their knowledge and the judgment of their own Reason For they must remember first that themselves do not condemn the Anabaptists upon only Scripture grounds Secondly that it hath been demonstrated that all fundamental points are not so express in Scripture as they imagine And thirdly that 't is most uncharitable to say That all those whom they condemn for Hereticks do against their own knowledge and Conscience contradict the express Word of God and run headlong to hell with their eyes open Can we possibly imagine that among so many Millions of Arians there was not one single person had any Conscience It cannot be denyed but that many Hereticks have and do live Vertuously in the Eyes of the World For who knows not That Satan sometimes transforms himself into an Angel of Light And while they profess and protest that if it was once made apparent to them that their Tenets are against the Word of God they would not one minute persist in them we judge it uncharitable to affirm that notwithstanding the protestations of their sincerity and real though misguided zeal they all wilfully sin against the Light and knowledge of their Consciences We Catholicks indeed assert That sufficient evidences of credibility are produced by us to convince them of their Heretical opinions and dangerous state without Repentance But withall we say That God in his just Judgments which are inscrutable suffers them through strong delusions to believe Lyes in that the Light of Truth is veiled from their Eyes by passion or prejudice or worldly Interest while they so continue and we pray for them in hope that the Father of infinite Mercies will in his good time discover Truth unto them and bring them home unto his Church But for these Rationalists to damn all those whom they esteem Hereticks as contradictors of the Word of God against their Conscience and knowledge is a censure most unreasonable and little beseeming such whose lives are not so Gospel-like but that many Sectaries who differ from them in fundamentals may justly be reputed at least as conscientious and in charity cannot be thought otherwise All which duely consider'd plainly proves that they must either change their Judge of Controversy in points of Faith or give us some new Rule to discover Heresy And withall that if they will stick close to this Principle they must maintain that all the General Councils of the Church even that celebrated by the Apostles themselves were meer tyrannical Usurpations in obliging all Christians to believe and practice according to their Decrees whatever their private Reason could say to the contrary Fourthly in vain and to no purpose hath Jesus Christ instituted Authoritative Overseers and Governours in his Church For the perfecting Eph. 4. 11 12 c. the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the Edification of the Body of Christ till we all come in the unity of Faith c. If every one must acknowledge no visible Authority upon Earth to have any obliging power over him in Doctrines appertaining to God but be his own Teacher in all points of Faith according to the Dictates of private Reason Fifthly If every one be sent to Scripture to compose a Creed for himself
in the storm of a blind zeal against the Church of Rome split themselves against another rock never caring for perpetual succession and visibility to make them Catholick confidently assert that the Church of Christ was over-spread with the infernal darkness of Superstition and Idolatry that it wholly ceas'd to be a true Church for a thousand years and upwards more or less for they cannot agree among themselves about the determinate time which gave this fatal period to Christianity 'till by their blessed Reformation the glorious light of the Gospel did dawn a-new unto the World and with the ruines of the Whore of Babylon hopeful Children to cast such durt in their Mothers face they did beautify the revived Spouse of Jesus Christ Wherein they wholly agree with the Donatists of old who after their separation from the Catholick Church thought they could not defend themselves from Schism and Heresie unless they would maintain that the Universal Church was totally perish'd and shrunk into their new-born Conventicle which hath in it the the mixture of thus much Truth that no separation from an acknowledged true Church can be justifyable But this is wonderful that those very men who pretend so much veneration of Sacred Scripture as to make it the sole and adequate Rule of Christian belief should notwithstanding to free their own Religion from Schism and Heresie affirm the Church of Christ to have perish'd totally for so many Ages the contrary to which is so plainly contain'd in those Sacred Oracles Our Blessed Saviour says That he Met. 16. 18. will build his Church upon a rock so that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it The Angel says Of his Luke 1. Kingdom there shall be no end Can possibly Jesus Christ be with the Mat. 28. 20. Governours of his Church to the Worlds end to direct them by his special assistance to pretect them by his irresistable Power and yet the Devil so far prevail over his beloved Heritage as to ruine it Can he make good his promise of leading Joh. 14. 26. 16. v. 13. them into all Truth and yet suffer his Church to be corrupted with damnable errors and practices as totally to perish St. Paul says God hath placed in his Church some Apostles Ephes 4. 11 c. some Prophets others Evangelists and Doctors for the perfecting of the Saints that we might be one and the same faith and not toss'd and carried about with the wind of every Doctrine And that the Church is the Pillar and ground of Truth These 1 Tim 3. 15. are plain express Texts for the Churches Indefectibility needing no Interpreter as St. Austin saith De Vnit Eccl. c 16. in the like case of evident places out of Scripture for the universality of the Church against obscure Texts objected by the Donatists And yet this generation of men will palpably pervert plain Texts of Scripture rather then confess a guilt in separating themselves from their Catholick Mother Perkins a great Champion of the Reformed Religion saith expressy Exposit of the Creed pa. 226. That during the space of 900. years the Popish Heresie had spread it self over the whole Wold Calvin affirms That the Church of Instit l. 4. c. 18. Rome made all the Kings and People of the Earth drunk with the cup of her abomination from the first to the last Bennet Norton says The whole Christian World knows that before Luther Treat of the Church p. 145. all Churches were overwhelm'd with more then Cymerian darkness Bibliander a Lutheran is very positive That without all question from In Orat. ad Princ Germa the time of Gregory the Great the Pope is Antichrist who with his abominations hath made drunk all Kings and People from the highest to the lowest Yet Simon Voyon affirms no less Catal. Doct. Ep. ad Lect. confidently That when Boniface was installed then was that universal Apostacy from the Faith foretold by St. Paul And to name no more Chamierus saith That Apostacy averted the whole body from Christ Consider well these expressions and then tell me if any thing can be more contrary to Sacred Scripture Lay them close together that the opposition may more visibly appear The Church is builded upon a rock and the gates of Hell shall never prevail against it Of his Kingdom there shall be no end I will send you the Spirit of Truth who shall lead you into all Truth The Church is the Pillar and ground of Truth Thus teaches Scripture Now these new Pastors tell us That Heresie which is the strongest bar of Hell gates overspread the whole Christian World That all Churches were overwhelmed with more than Cymerian darkness That there was an universal Apostacy from the Faith That Apostacy averted the whole body from Christ Are not these Doctrines directly contrary to each other Now which shall we believe For both we cannot 'till contradictions be both true Are not these rare men to make Apostles Yet before I part with them I will ask them one question in St. Austin's words wherewith he expostulates the same case with the Donatists In Scripturis didicimus Ep. 166. ad Donat. Christum c. In the Scriptures we have learned Christ in the Scriptures we have come to the knowledge of the Church These Scriptures are common to us both why do we not from them keep as well the same Church as the same Christ And afterwards If for the verity of the Scriptures ye believe in Christ whom ye read of and see not wherefere do ye deny the Church which ye both read and see A Church which the same Father assures you The Prophets have In Psal 30. L. de vti cred c. 7 8 c. more plainly spoken of then Christ himself to prevent mistakes in a matter of so great moment A Church which the Scriptures assure you shall as militant continue in a visible succession to the end of the World as triumphant world without end After this one Catholick and Apostolick Church was founded in the World and began to spread it self into all corners the Members of it were called Christians to distinguish them from all not professing Christ But when some of themselves arose teaching perverse things to draw away Disciples after them and so separating from the Church whereof once they were Members erected new Communions then those Christians who stood firm adhering fast to the Church and Doctrine establish'd by Christ and his Apostles were called Catholicks to distinguish them from such false Christians who had separated themselves into Schismatical or Heretical Congregations Which if the Protestants would consider aright they would never argue thus incongruously The Roman Church is not the Catholick Church because it comprehends not Us and others in her Communion who are Christians when Catholicism in its genuine notion denotes an Universal Communion of true Believers continuing in the Faith and Worship first deliver'd to the Saints in
that what she teaches as of Faith she so received from the Age immediately foregoing and so from Age to Age from Millions of Sons to their Fathers up to the Apostles and the Sacred Mouth of Christ himself From Church-Tradition thus explain'd briefly may be drawn those Positions First that the Doctrine taught by Christ and his Apostles comprises all points necessary to salvation Secondly That all such points taught by Christ and his Apostles have been continued in the Church from believing Fathers to their Children by an un-interrupted succession without Diminution or Addition and shall so continue for ever Which involves these two Propositions that nothing comes to us upon the tenure of Faith but what is of Tradition Yea though contain'd in Scripture seing we only are ascertain'd what Books the Apostles wrote and what is the true sense of them by Tradition And that there are no new points of Faith in the Christian Church quoad Substantiam as to the substance of what is reveal'd the present Church only believing what it received from precedent Ages Which assertion whosoever opposes contradicts not me but the Sublime Angelical Doctor St. Thomas expresly teaching that in Doctrina Christi Apostolorum c. 22ae 1 q. ar 10. ad 1am 2am Et in 1a par q. 32. ar 4. corp In the Doctrin of Christ and his Apostles the Truth of Faith is sufficiently unfolded but because perverse men pervert the Doctrin of the Apostles and other Doctrines and Scriptures to their own Destruction as is said in the 2 Ep. of St. Peter and the last Chap. Therefore the explication of Faith was necessary against arising Errors in after-times not containing another Faith but the same more clear'd Thirdly That this universal Tradition or handing of Christian Doctrin by oral Teaching and visible practice of the Christian World is and was the constant Rule of Faith as well after as before the Scriptures were written and received by the Church The first Thesis or Position though it hath been deny'd by some Hereticks as namely the Montanists yet is not controverted between us and Protestants The proof lies upon the second which being demonstrated the third will follow of it self and cannot be deny'd with show of Reason SECT III. The clearness and certainty of Tradition in delivering Matters of Faith NO other externe prudential evidence or assurance in matters of Divine Faith whose efficient Cause is Divine Grace is necessarily requir'd then a Moral certainty that what is propos'd to be believ'd as of Faith is the very same Doctrin which was taught by Christ and his Apostles Which assurance neither is nor can be had among Protestants who build their new Church upon their own confused and unsteady Interpretations of Scripture But is manifestly to be found in that Communion of Christians viz. the Church of Rome which grounds its Faith as to such evidence upon Universal Tradition a Principle not well lyable to Error and therefore cannot rationally be expected to fail those who relie upon it As I shall endeavour to demonstrate thus Christian Religion is supernatural descending from Heaven to us by Revelation that is such a one as is not to be learn'd but from Almighty God and his Missioners namely from Christ and his Apostles and so successively from them brought down to us by Church-Profession Wherefore the Apostles being Commissionated by him to whom was given all Power in Heaven and Earth to this end and purpose deliver'd to the World wholly and entirely the Law of Jesus Christ making so long stay in those places principally in which by mutual consent they had chosen to plant the Gospel 'till by often inculcation it was written in their hearts and by practice so confirm'd and clear'd to their Judgments that rationally they could not mistake or doubt concerning any points so deliver'd all things being by this means sufficiently provided for the constituting and governing of the Church Now though the Apostles were many yet being all taught by the same Master impowered by the same Commission and guided by the same Spirit in all parts of the World did bring up their Disciples in the belief and practice of the same Doctrin and Discipline to continue for ever so that all particulaâ— Churches though of different Nationâ— and Languages founded by several Instructers and so far distant from one another yet did harmoniously meet in the unity of Faith in all points Traditionary whatsoever Neither could it be otherwise they only believing what was taught them by the Apostles and these only teaching them what they receiv'd from Christ and were Infallibly directed in by the extraordinary assistance of the Holy Ghost Amongst which Apostolical Doctrines one main Article was That there should be in all Ages to the Worlds end an Vniversal Visible Body of Pastors and People term'd a Catholick Church Divinely assisted and authoriz'd to preserve teach and hand down to Posterity without Error all Truths necessary to Salvation This Catholick Church thus founded practis'd and taught their Children what they received from the Apostles condemning by her Authorative Rule of Tradition all such for Hereticks and Shismaticks who taught any contrary Doctrines and divided from them By this easie method all Critical Disputations about points of Faith were cut off having only to inquire what had been taught and practis'd from the beginning and to receive all Doctrines witnessed for such by the voice of the 1 Tim. 3. 15. present Church The Pillar and ground of Truth and consequently Infallible in her Attestation Who leave this Rule must needs be obnoxious to Error but how those who stick close to so safe a Principle should fail is morally inconceivable For such Traditionary Doctrines abstracting from Authority cannot loose but gather strength by time because the multitude of Believers increafing and delivering to their Children all points of Faith as they received them the Tradition becomes more famous and universal carrying along with it a greater evidence of Truth and moral Impossibility to be deceiv'd Unless we will say that the Mystical Body of Christ so diffus'd and numerous can forget to day what they believ'd and acted yesterday and so ignorantly mistake or knowingly conspire together to teach their Children to receive any Doctrines as originally proceeding from Christ and his Apostles which yet they never had from their immediate Fore-fathers upon that tenure Questionless that such a Body of Christians should be wrought upon wilfully to damn their own and others Souls by attempting to gull the World to their faces in a business of no less then Eternal Interest or that in things of so high a nature so visible so easily contradicted they should prevail to introduce the belief of a noon-day Lye is surely to be rank'd in a high degree of Impossibility And whososever sees it not as such I know not whether all the Hellibore in Anticyra will cure him For where can one pick a hole in the everlasting coat of universal
contradicts the Justice Goodness and Veracity of God to authorize any to be a witness of his Truth that might lye and deceive the World in their attestation And methinks it concerns as well English Protestants as Us to maintain the Catholick Church for an Infallible Witness seeing at this distance from the Preaching of Christ and his Apostles they as well as we have no other Infallible assurance then her Testimony whereby to know either which are the undoubtd Books of Scripture or what the true meaning of them And thus that Religion which Protestants pretend to be contain'd in only Scripture must rejecting Church Authority necessarily float in an Ocean of incertainties and we miserably be left in the mysts of conjectures among dead Letters with the twi-light of natural reason to search out Faith and the Eternal Salvation of our Souls Lastly the fore-quoted Texts being so express for the Church to have a Power from Christ to oblige all men under pain of Damnation to believe and submit to her Proposals as to Faith God hath also endowed her with Infallibility in bringing to our knowledge revealed Verities seeing otherwise such a Power in the Church and a correspondent obligation in her Children would not bear an equal proportion And therefore these two are inseparably link'd together a Power to bind to Believe and Infallibility in the Obliger Christ assisting his Church with his Holy Spirit to guide her Infallibly into all Truth because he hath invested her with a Power to bind to believe and giving her a Power of obliging to believe because he hath made her Infallible in such Proposals It seeming most conformable to the Divine Goodness and Providence that such an externe proponant of Faith should be established as might afford no just cause to suspect whither it be true or no which is proposed and in all reason no greater assurance can be desired then to have an absolute certainty that that Authority cannot err in points of Faith to whom we must in such Proposals captivate our Wills and Understandings For this is but to assent upon undoubted evidence then which nothing is more agreeable to mans nature Neither is it rational to believe that God who is essential Reason and Wisdom ruling all his Creatures according to the several Dispositions Imprinted in them would impose such a Duty on Discoursive Entities upon other terms Blessed be God who hath so carefully provided for us in giving us a Law which is the only means to Salvation and also an authorized guide to direct us in the certain knowledge of it namely the Catholick which cannot possibly lead us into errour as hath been formerly shewn Thus certainly these Scriptures witnessing the Churches Authority are agreeable to reason now let us see what further light can be added to them from the Writings and universal practice of Antiquity SECT VIII The Churches Authority or Infallibility taught and asserted by the Ancient Fathers IF I should produce what Antiquity affords us on this Subject I should rather transcribe Books than Passages so Copious and Industrious have the Fathers been on all occasions to press a point so necessary S. Athana coni Aria S. Hier. S. Aug. Pole St. Cyp. de vnit Ecc. Tert. c. especially in their Polemical Discourses against Hereticks to vindicate their dear Mother the Church in her Just Rights and Priviledges against all Rebellious contradictors of her Authority And thither I refer such as desire more ample satisfaction for the present I shall content my self with some few choice places and they are these We must believe saith Irenaeus â— l. cont hae ca. 49. those Priests that are in the Church those that have a Succession from the Apostles who together with the Episcopal Power according to the good pleasure of the Father have received the certain gift of Truth We must not believe saith the English Protestant Church those who in their Episcopal Chaires have had an un-interrupted Succession from the Apostles seek not for the Law of God from their Lips for they are fallen from the Truth yea General Councils can err and have erred in Art 21. of the 39. their Definitions having no certain gist of Truth by Divine assistance Thus they flatly contradicting good Irenaeus and Ancient Doctrine Now whom shall we believe The old Saint or the new Protestant Give him a little more Audience for he proceeds thus The Church Cap. 62. l. praed shall be under no mans judgement for to the Church all things are known in which is the perfect Faith of the Father and of all the Dispensations of Christ and firm knowledge of the Holy Ghost who teacheth all Truth But say he what he will Protestants will assume a Power to judge and condemn her of no less gross and damnable Errours then Idolatry and Superstition to justify that thing they call the Reformed Church Though it were no difficult matter for them to perceive the Injustice of such Proceedings when the same Saint goes on and tells them and us That it is easie to receive the Truth from Gods Church seeing the Apostles have most fully deposited in her as in a rich store-house all things belonging to Truth For what if there should arise any contention of some small questions ought we not to have recourse to the most Ancient Churches and from them receive what is certain and clear concerning the present question Thus far he And if this course is to be taken in small questions doubtless much more in matters of high concern as many points are now controverted between Us and Protestants In such to be left to our own private conjectures and Interpretations would be most unsafe and unreasonable And had Protestants taken the course here prescribed by the Saint for the inquisition of Truth when they first raised questions about Religion as in such cases all Christians ought to do could ever such a thing as the Protestant Church have had a beeing or existence For 't is as visible as the Sun that there was no pre-existent form of Faith in the whole Christian World according to which they modeliz'd their Religion in England and with whom they communicated when they divided from the Church of Rome their Catholick Mother If great St. Austin was not little in esteem with our modern Hereticks they might receive full satisfaction from him in this point if they would Impartially peruse his Writings against the Donatists and other Enemies of the Churches Faith and Unity That of his is very remarkable against Crescontius Though saith he there cannot be produced Lib. 1. cap. 33. from Scriptures any examples of such a thing yet the Truth of the same Scriptures is held of us in this matter when we do that which pleaseth the whole Church which the Authority of the same Scriptures commendeth that because the Holy Scriptures cannot deceive us whosoever feareth to be deceived with the obscurity of this question let him require the judgment of
Infallibility of all such Councils in Councils in Decrees of Faith And indeed abstracting from the Institution of Christ and Apostolical practice it is so notoriously unreasonable a thing and destructive of all Government to deny Occumenical Synods to be the fiâ—â—est Judges in such matters that few or no Hereticks ever had the confidence absolutely to disclaim against the Authority of such Assemblies as Tyrannically assuming a Power over other mens Consciences in things not appertaining to them but acknowledging their Authority still causelesly pick'd quarrells either about their Calling or Convening or Proceeding or Confirming or Receiving pretending them to be Defective some way or other to justify their Disobedience to their Decrees And doubtless as fittest so if they were not lawful Judges in all spiritual matters by Commission from Christ the Supreme Head of his mystical Body and necessary when made so by present circumstances the Apostles themselves when Controversies arose in the Infant-Church among Believers about some legal Observances would not have taken this course to define those matters Neither would they have prefix'd to their Decrees a Visum est Spiritui Act. 15. sancto nobis and so justly father those determinations upon the Holy Ghost had they not been Divine Sanctions though made by men yet according to the appointment and will of God infallibly assisting their endeavours Neither would the Universal Church in after-Ages have on the same occasions insisted in their steps or presumed in the same authoritative stile to attribute their Meetings and Decisions to the Holy Spirit A Power as Divine withal so necessary that no other way could with so much efficacy and satisfaction preserve declare or explicate the Faith once delivered to the Saints extirpate Heresies maintain Peace and Unity in the Church strengthen the Nerves of Ecclesiastical Authority reform Clergy and Laity and depress the Enemies of the name of Christ our Lord and Saviour Insomuch that Hooker a very learned Protestant pleads strongly for Submission and Obedience to Decrees of General Councels telling those that are otherwise In the Pres to his â—ccl Politic. minded That the way of Peace they have not known going against the dictates of Nature Reason and Holy Writ And as I remember gives instance in the first Councel celebrated by the Apostles the pattern of what were to follow whose Decrees put to silence all former doubts and disputations every Christian obeying without the least scruple to be misled by them and with all readiness as if God himself had spoken to them And questionless the Divine Providence thus order'd that this main point of the Authority of Councels should as well be delivered to the World by Apostolical Practice as Precept that with greater evidence they might know whom and what to follow when questions about Christian Doctrine did arise and that after the definitive Sentence of that supreme Judicature all wranglings were to cease and they had then nothing to do but to obey In the Centuries immediately succeeding though Satans Missioners were spreading false Doctrines to corrupt the Faith and Perturb the Peace of the Church yet no Oecumenical Synods could be celebrated by reason of those General Persecutions which hal'd the Christians to their Martyrdom as far and wide as the vast Roman Empire had Arms to do it And indeed all that while the Blood of those Noble Armies of Glorious Martyrs spoke as lov'd and as Powerfully for the Faith of Christ as the Decrees of living Confessors could have done supplying as it were in that extraordinary manner what these had a constant Power and will also to perform but no convenience to put in execution However they met as well as they could and took the best course those sad times would permit to kill Soul-destroying Heresies and keep true Faith and unity alive in the Christian Church Afterwards in the time of Constantine that Great and Glorious Emperour the first publick Nursing Father of his Catholick Mother when Arianism had Instill'd its Poison into the Veins of many Christian Bishop or Antichristian rather and so diffus'd its Contagion into a great part of the Body of the Church by denying the Divinity of the Son of God the first Oecumenical and most Famous Synod was Celebrated at Nicaea in Bythinia Ann. Ch. 327. to provide an Antidote against his Venemous Infection where after most mature deliberation and debate the Consubstantiality of the Son of God with the Eternal Father was defin'd and declar'd by the Council to be of Faith against the Arch-Heretick Arius and all his followers And the prime end for which General Councils were instituted and endowed with this supreme Judiciary power being for the preservation of the Catholick Faith by the Authoritative condemnation of incroaching Heresies the next Oecumenical Synod celebrated at Constantinople against Macedonius and Ann. Ch. 381. whom he had taught contrary to the Doctrine of the Church to deny the Divinity of the Holy Ghost the third Person in the Sacred Trinity Ann. Ch. 431. The next at Ephesus where Nestorius the Patriarch of Constantinople with his Adherents were Condemned for distracting Christ into two Persons And the fourth at Chalcedon against the Eutychians for contracting Christ into one Nature Ann. Ch. 451. And so others in following Ages to our present times were called on emergent occasions to determine and declaring to all Christians what was to be believed as sufficiently reveal'd by Almighty God and the like practice will be to the Worlds end when the necessities of the Church require it Yet not as making new Substantial Creeds or precise Articles of Faith not before in beeing for that would require new Revelations of God's Will which Catholicks pretend not to acknowledging Christ to be a perfect Law-giver by himself and his Apostles but only declaring and explicating what already is revealed when call'd in question For the definitive Sentence of a General Council in a matter of Faith includes and presupposes an universal Tradition of that Doctrine and is but a publick Authoratative and more explicite declaration of what hath been taught by Christ and his Apostles and what the Church holds upon that tenure when any Contradictors endeavour to rob us of our Holy Faith For Catholick Faith always is the same although the Evidence and verbal Notions of that Faith are not always alike nor is it material so they be but sound and agreeable to Tradition yea sometimes words never before in Ecclesiastical use are accepted by General Councils into the Churches language to express her immutable Faith as circumstances then require for the more efficacious redress of present evils and preventing all mistakes of that nature for the future even in the earnest understandings For by this means Catholicks knowing assuredly what to hold and stick close to in points controverted could not be circumvented by the subtile insinuations and wily expressions of Hereticks whereby they lie in wait to deceive the unwary and insensibly
and after much enquiry it was evident to me they could not afford to Impartial Judgments any solid and real satisfaction For the main Pillar of the Protestant Religion being to make the Scripture the sole Rule of Faith I finding by clear conviction this foundation to be without Solidity how could I in Reason or Conscience stand firm to that Church which I saw built on so unstable a bottom And indeed were Protestants able to perform what they promise that is to resolve all Controversies of Faith by Sacred Scripture we should be so far from being true Christians the best of men that we were worse than Beasts if we should refuse to be judg'd thereby Wherefore it is a wrongful Imputation in them to bear the World in hand that we have not a due veneration of those Sacred Oracles of Divine Truth when our reverence and respect to them is in reality more than theirs our Canon more general our Expositions more elaborate humble and submissive and our Assent unchangeable to whatsoever the Church declares to be revealed by them or is contain'd in them evidently by necessary consequence They in the interim only believing by a Spirit with a strange presumption what they please saying and unsaying in Civil Wars among themselves as well as against us whom they call the common enemy what they think is for their present advantage to serve their turn on all occasions And while we necessarily urge to all Christians the Authority of the Church as the Pillar and ground of Truth we are so far from intending any diminution of their just esteem that if they can produce but one single place of Scripture evidently containing the contrary to what we believe Conclamatum est The controversy is at an end we will confess we are in the wrong and for this Miracle for 't will be no less when ever it is done yield the whole cause unto them But 'till then let thâ—m cease to traduce us as Non-Veneraâ—ers of Sacred Writ because we will not receive it for what God did never intend it and leave it to his Church And against the evidence of our own Eyes and long experience acknowledge it to have conditions fit and requisite for the plain and Infallible instruction of all Christians of the whole Law of Christ and final decision of all Controversies For that Scripture by it self cannot perform those necessary Offices in the Church will manifestly be made to appear in the following Sections But first I shall shew that herein they agree with other Hereticks and Dissent from the Antient Church as well as from Us in this main fundamental of their Religion SECT II. Hereticks from the beginning were accustomed to Appeal to Scripture as the sole Rule of Faith whereby they would be judg'd in opposition to the Traditionary Doctrine and Sense of the Catholick Church THat whatsoever is purely of Divine Faith depends necessary on the Word of God is sound Doctrine but that all Supernatural Verities revealed to the Church are so written in the received Canon as none can misunderstand them is a most dangerous position yet the Anchora Sacra and chief refuge of old condemned Hereticks as well as of our modern Adversaries who groundiug their novel Opinions upon Texts of Scripture as interpreted by their own private Reason do at last make them Heretical by choosing pertinaciously to adhere to them against the Sense and Judgement of the Church A sad Case this that with the Waters of Life they should suck in Eternal Death into their Souls But alas Thus they turn Remedies into Diseases and blind their Eyes with the Heavenly Light of the Word becoming so much the more incorrigible because they perswade themselves even against evidence if seeing they would see that they have Divine Authority for their Doctrines The Arians in the Controversy between them and Catholicks about the Divinity of Christ would admit nothing but Scripture as St. Austin testifies bringing in Maximus an Arian Bishop thus disputing with him If you produce any thing Cont Max. l. 1. Init. out of the Divine Scriptures which are cemmon to all of necessity we must give ear unto it But these words which are without Scripture in no Case are received by us The direct Language of Protestants who in this however are perfect Arians The Macedonians impugning the Divinity of the Holy Ghost rejected the Gloria Patri Filio Spiritui Sancto whereby the Church professes her belief of a Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Divine Essence because not contained in Holy Writ Witness St. Basil They Li. de Sp. S. c. 25 26. the Macedonians cease not to brag up and down that the Glorification of God with the Holy Ghost wants Testimony wants Scripture Thus they then and thus Protestants now in points controverted between them and us But hear the same Holy Fathers answer Verily against The Church then in â—hâ—r Doxology us'd Cum Spiritu Sancto as El Spiritui Sancto that they say the Preposition cum Spiritu Sancto to want Testimony nor to be extant in Scripture we reply thus If nothing else be received without the Scripture neither truly let this be received by us without Scripture let us also receive this among many other For I think it Apostolical to adhere to the unwritten Traditions You see we need not new words to condemn the Protestants who will never be able to give any rational satisfaction why they receive some things not in Scripture only upon the score of Church-Tradition and yet refuse other alike commended to them by the same Authority In all reason they deserve an equal reception and so they must become Catholicks Euryches the Arch-Heretick denyed Christ to be perfect man as well as perfect God and for his defence appealed to Scripture Ergo a S. Scripturâ—s 〈…〉 saith he have vet learned from the Sacred Scrâ—ptures of two Natures To whom it was replyed Neither have we been Concit Chalced. Act. 1. taught the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from Sacred Writ Which must needs put him to a bashful silence the verity of Christ's Humane Nature being as fully deliver'd in Scripture as his Divine though not in such express terms as they required And therefore both either to be necessarily receiv'd or rejected by them But Protestants certainly have far less to say for themselves who with the Eutychians receiving the term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not found in Scripture yet deny the Corporal presence of Christ in the Blessed Eucharist by a real though Invisible Change of the Visible Elements when My Flesh is Meat indeed and my Blood is Drink Joh. 6. 51. 55. indeed And again The Bread that I will give is my Flesh which I will give for the Life of the World And the most Sacred words of Institution This is my Body This is my Plood are plain and express terms as any Doctrine can be delivered unto our capacity The Pelagians to
Ecclesia vera neminem latere potest S. Aug de vnit Eccl. cap. 14. our and his Apostles 't is to continue by a non-interrupted visible succession of Pastors and People to the Worlds end Which is no less express in Scripture than the former Take it from the mouth of an Angel And of his Kingdom there shall Luke 1. 18 be no end Or if that be not sufficient from the Sacred Lips of Truth Mat. 16. 18. it self Vpon this rock will I build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it What but for a time No not so But behold Mat. 28. 20. I am with you always even to the Worlds end This universality is as essential to make the Church Catholick as the former and hereby 't is not only distinguish'd from the Jewish Worship which being Ceremonial and Typical was but to continue for a time and to vanish when the Sun of Righteousness appeared But also from all Shismatical and Heretical Communions of false Christians who separating themselves from this Catholick Church thus founded to continue for ever do erect new Congregations distinct from it Which new-born Communions whatever were their pretences to separate from the old though professing the name of Christ Catholicks did never account any more true Members of Christs Mystical Body or part of the Universal Church as now Protestants pretend to be since their separation then either Jews or Heathens who never acknowledged Christ to their Saviour Witness St. Irenaeus We must obey I. 4 contr Haer. ca. 13 those Priests that are in the Church those that have a succession from the Apostles c. And all the rest who have departed from the original succession where ever they be assembled are to be look'd upon as Hereticks or Schismaticks and all these fall from the Truth Witness St. Austin whom some Epist 48. contr Dom. call the Tongue of the Church and certainly he speaks her Doctrine when he tells the Donatists You are with us in Baptism in the Creed and in the other Sacraments of our Lord but in the Spirit of Vnity and finally in the Catholick Church you are not with us And therefore he says confidently with us elsewhere Let him adore Idols saith the Devil he 's mine let him remain in the superstition of the Jews he 's mine let him quit Vnity and pass over to This or That or any Heresie he 's mine And no wonder seeing that corruptio optimi est pessima Nothing is so bad as the greatest good corrupted For though extensive Judaism and Paganism involve a far greater number of damnable errors yet intensive more malignity is often couch'd in Schism and Heresy by reason of their exceeding perverseness and obstinacy being sins against the greater light and means of grace to come to the acknowledgement of truth Now the Protestants finding themselves wholly at a loss in this particular it being impossible for them to shew a visible succession of their Doctrine and Government in Pastors and People from Christ and his Apostles to this present Age which is a sufficient evidence they neither are the true Church nor any part of it they will by no means allow the word Catholick in the Creed to be understood of a un-interrupted visible succession of Christian Belief and Worship in external Communion as Antiquity interprets it but referring it to Doctrine S. Aug. Ep. 48. only will needs have it sufficient to be true Members of the Catholick Church to profess the name of Christ and believe some Articles always taught and acknowledged though of a distinct Communion wholly and in many points of a different belief from the perpetually visible Church And think they have done enough to prove their Church Universal in respect of time because the Church of Rome from whom they separated did never fail nor cease to be a true Church though as these men pretend much corrupted Which to my apprehension is as much as to say that they who are of different Faiths in a different Communion are notwithstanding of the same Faith in the same Communion and parts separated from the Body yet actually continue Members of it And that a Commonwealth of ten years old may justly maintain themselves to be of a thousand years standing because Monarchy which they cast out to set up their new Common-wealth was of such continuance by a visible succession and agrees with them in some common Principles of Reason and Government Who can resolve these riddles Are not these pretty props to uphold the new Protestant Church to be of the Ancient Catholick Faith Strange Can men of Reason satisfy their Consciences in what concerns eternal Salvation What is the Catholick Church but a Congregation of Believers united in Faith and Worship And yet to hem these men in Jerusalem must not be as a City at unity with it self but a body composed of Antipathies and Contradictions Let them speak ingenuously will not this way of arguing make Arrians and Donatists or any old condemned Hereticks to be Members of the Catholick Church as well as Protestants The Arrians did deny but one point of Catholick belief and were cast out And shall the Protestants who deny many be kept in and reputed Members Shall that absolve the Protestants which condemns the Arrians For 't is not denying this or that but any point of the Catholick Faith with pertinacy whatever it be though Heresies may be more or less malignant and dangerous that casts us out of the true Church and makes us cease to be actual Members of it Besides can they as a Protestant Communion have a perpetual visible succession from the Apostles and yet begin to appear first in the World in the days of King Henry the viii 100 years since and somewhat more Is it any thing to their purpose to produce a visible Congregation of Believers in a never-interrupted succession of the same Faith with them in sueh point wherein they agree with the Catholick Church when such points are not those which constitute them a Protestant Church but those wherein they differ from us If they will with any shew of reason defend their Protestant Faith as such to have universality of time from the Apostles they must produce a visible Body of Christians in Church-Communion professing those points wherein they differ from the Roman Church and for which they separated from her and condemning those points and practices in her which they now do Otherwise to talk of a perpetual succession of the Protestant Religion in a Communion from the Apostles to their present Pastors is no better then a sick mans dream or any airy Vtopia without any real beeing or existence Now the Puritan-Protestants and many other Sects either not well considering the grounds why the most Learned of the Reformation defend the Church of Rome to be a true Church and perpetually visible or else plainly seeing the impossibility of rationally maintaining their deductions thereon depending
Hereticks have endeavoured by all means possible to introduce thereby to defile the Virgin-purity of Christ's Spouse contending so earnestly for the Faith once deliver'd to the Saints that in this Holy quarrel she was ever very liberal of her dearest blood willing rather to undergo the greatest tortures then it should suffer in the least manner Yea so vigilant and eagle-ey'd hath she been hitherto in the discharge of this important duty that no Authority Learning or Sanctity of any person whatsoever could introduce the least innovotion in Religion without vigorous opposition and condemnation As is evident in Origen and Tertullian those wonders of their times to name no more being a thing so obvious in Church History See Vincentius Lyrin ca. 23 24. Moreover all points of Christian belief being taught and establish'd in the Church by Christ and his Apostles and as such conveyed down to us ever since that time by Universal Tradition and for the most part most visible practice as the Sacrifice of the Mass Prayer for the Dead Invocation of Saints c. 'T is altogether impossible the Church should fall into such damnable errors as are imputed to her by our Adversaries except so many millions of Christians of different Nations and Languages scatter'd over the face of the whole earth should to no purpose in some Age conspire together to teach the World a palpable lye in direct opposition to what they had received and in matters whereon depend no less then the eternal Salvation of themselves and Posterity a thing inconceivable to humane reason But impossibilities clouded in plausible terms shall be asserted for truths before some men will confess themselves Schismaticks in separating from the Roman Church and Infallibility must err before they be condemn'd as erroneus who yet confess themselves Fallible But let us suppose though it be not true that the Church was lyable to errors in matters of Faith can these men who accuse her to be erroneous assure us that they err not in the accusation For being by their own confessions Fallible that is not certain whether what they affirm be true or no unless they can evidence that those are errors indeed which they lay to the Churches charge no man can rationally believe them seeing the publick judgment and attestation of the Church to the contrary is incomparably of far greater Authority and will overpoise whatever amounts to less then demonstration And in all Justice the right ought to be thought on the Governouts side ' til the revolters from them by producing causes sufficient to justify the withdrawing of their obedience make the contrary undeniably clear to every eye They are the accusing Party the Church defends her right without a definitive Sentence can be no decision What Judge will they therefore stand to in this Controversy We know they ought to submit to the judgment and determination of the present Church her voice being as it were the voice of God in declaring what is of Faith or not and cannot but wonder that they will not also acknowledge it when our Blessed Saviour says plainly of Luke 10. 16. Church Governours He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and who despiseth me despiseth him that sent me And 1 Thess 4. 8. St. Paul He that despiseth these things despiseth not man but God who hath also given to us of his Holy Spirit But because by her they already are convicted and condemned and therefore refuse to stand to her determination as Hereticks and Schismaticks have done in all Ages will they refer it to Antiquity and let the Ancient Fathers give the Sentence This they cannot rationally refuse neither in word to make a flourish do some of the most Learned of the Protestants but only pretend to reform the present Church that they may conform to Antiquity and undertake to rectify the Church of Rome in points wherein she hath forsaken her primitive purity But they are at great variance and in disorder amongst one another in that they cannot agree when Religion began to be adulterated and when these errors crept into the Church For being no less then damnable errors as they pretend in things practical and daily in use by so great a Body and therefore notoriously visible and speaking aloud their original seeing they can assign no certain time a task impossible as we have before shewn when first they were brought into the Church 't is an undeniable argument that they are not innovations but of Apostolical practice and institution According to that famous Rule of St. Austin Quod ubique ab Ecclesia Catholica observatum est c. Whatever the Catholick Church observes in all places if we find it to have been instituted by no General ouncil we must believe it to have come from the Apostles themselves to us by Tradition Some of them allow the Spouse of Christ to continue in her Virgin purity for the first five or six hundred years 'till the time of Gregory the great that glorious Saint and Pope so affectionate to our Countrey and justly called our Apostle Others think this confession too liberal and will have the Mystery of Iniquity to begin sooner which is true if understood of Apostates from the Church not of the Church Apostatizing and so with them this defection from the Faith by the mixture of Antichristian Doctrines and practices must invade the Church immediately upon the first 300 years after Christ or thereabouts some maintaining this others that Pope to be the Antichrist every one fancying a time which they conceited most advantageous for their purpose For after tryal finding that the Fathers of the first 600 years could not be admitted Judges in the Controversy without a manifest condemnation of themselves they warily retreated within the first 300 years of Christ which being times of hot and bloody persecution more or less and little then written by the Fathers of the Church they thought nothing considerable could be produced against them within those Ages for their condemnation in the present Controversies not then started or what was upon record might easily some way or other be evaded So that they will have the light of their new Gospel to be tryed only by dark times as to the decision of the present points like Litigants who will admit only of such Witnesses who can say little or nothing to the cause in hand and by all means will have those debarr'd to speak who can give sufficient evidence against them For no rational cause possibly can be given why they should assign 6 or 5 or 300 years after Christ for the beginning of the Apostacy from the Faith as if Christ should just then forget his promise of pâ—rpâ—tual assistance and guidance of his Church into all Truth or else not be able to perform it more then any other time but only they were resolv'd whâ—â— they found those Doctrines and practices to be evidently asserted by the ancient Fathers which they
un-interrupted Succession of lawful Pastors and true Doctrine Scripture is very copious I shall name a few A City seated on a Hill cannot be hid The Mat. 5. 14. Is 2. 2. Psal 18. mountain of the house of our Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains In sole posuit tabernaculum suum Isa 59. 21. My Spirit which is thee and my words which I have put into thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy Seed for ever All Dan. 7. 13 14. Nations Tribes and Tongues shall serve him his power is an eternal power that shall not be taken away and his kingdom shall not be corrupted Thou art Peter and upon this Mat. 16. Rock will I build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Christ gave some Apostles some Eph. 4. 11 c. Prophets some Evangelists some Pastors some Doctors for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edification of the Body of Christ c. 'Till we all meet in the unity of Faith and be not as Children toss'd about with the wind of every Doctrine See more in Esa 62 Ezek. 37. Matt. 5. 15. c. From which and such like places this Major Proposition is evident As also from Antiquity We must seek for Truth among whom the Succession L. 4. de hae c. 45. of the Church from the Apostles and the Purity of Doctrine is maintain'd in its Integrity So St. Iraeneus What I believe says Tertullian I received L. de praesc c. 37. from the present Church the present Church from the Primitive that from the Apostles the Apostles from Christ. And St. Austin tells us That the succession of Priests from the Contr. Ep. Fund c. 4. very seat of Peter to the present Bishop held him in the Church Which if it shall not continue here on earth to the end of the World to whom did our Lord say Behold I am with you alwayes to the Worlds end It is easier L. 3. de Bapt. cont Donat. saith St. Chrysost that the Sun should be extingush'd then the Church should be obscured Concerning which St. De utilit cred c. 7. Austin assures us The Prophets have spoken more plainly and manifestly then of Christ himself And therefore 't is no wonder the same Saint affirms That the Church hath this most certain mark that it cannot be hid Cont. Petil. c. 104. And certainly it is not hid except to those that are lost the Children of perdition who seeing will not see and hearing will not understand Who shut their eyes against a light set upon a Candlestick and are so blind as not to see so great a mountani as the Catholick Church As the same Father complains of the Hereticks of his days From which premisses thus prov'd it invincibly follows that the Protestant L. 3. cont Parm. and all other Heretical and Schismatical Churches being wholly destitute of these inseparable badges or marks of the true Church viz. Universality perpetual visibility by an uninterrupted Succession of Pastors and People from Christ and his Apostles to this time cannot possibly be the true Church Whose builder and preserver is God All which manifestly belonging to the Church of Rome and those in Communion with her by most undoubted Records of all Ages it likewise as inevitably follows that this Church of Rome only is the true Catholick Church and all other Communions but false Worshippers Thus briefly of these indubitable marks of the true Church from Sacred Scripture so much made use of by the Ancient Fathers to reduce the Hereticks and Schismaticks of their times to the Catholick unity that I may not too long detain you from beholding Miracles wrought by God in his Holy Church for the confirmation of our Faith SECT II. That Miracles were vouchsafed always to the True Church SUch is the Sublimity and Purity of Christian Doctrine so sublime in respect of knowledge so pure in respect of practice that if there was nothing else to witness that it came from Heaven they of themselves are sufficient evidences that the Author of it can be no less then of incomprehensible Wisdom and infinite Holiness Notwithstanding as God was pleas'd by wonderful Signs and frequent Miracles to set his Seaâ— to attest the truth of it that it might find entertainment from contradictors so in after Ages in opposition not only to all false Religions who deny Christ and maintain their Worship to be right but also to many seduced Christians who pretend to have among them the Purity of this Doctrine the same infinite Goodness hath more or less continued Miracles in his Church that we may see with our eyes what we ought to believe with our hearts and not be deceived by false Teachers This Heavenly Testimony God vouchsafed to the Jewish Worship whilst it was in force and therefore cannot in reason be denyed to the Christian Church being in every respect a Ministration much more Divine and Glorious and no less standing in need of such a Priviledge Moses brought forth the Children of Exod. Israel from the house of bondage in signs and wonders and mighty deeds The Sun stood still at the Prayer of Jos 10. Joshua and went back 15 degrees Isa 38. at the earnest request of Hezekiah The bones of Elizeus the Prophet rais'd a dead man to life The constant cure Joh. 5. 3 c. of Lame and Diseased persons in the Pool of Bethesda immediately after the motion of the water by an Angel was a standing Miracle c. All which with many more were evident Testimonies of the Divine presence among them that the Creator and Governour of Heaven and Earth was their God in a special manner and they his peculiar Church and People To which might be added their many Prophets of extraordinary Power and Sanctity not only miraculous in their predictions but sometimes mighty in signs and deeds Though 't is observable that St. John the Baptist though more then a Prophet then whom none greater was born of women yet did no Miracle to attest his Mission Doubtless not without some singular cause perhaps because the Jewish Synagogue was then expiring and giving place to the Christian Church as a Handmaid to her Mistress or glimmering twi-light to the Sun arising in beams of Glory The most remarkable Miracles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ are left unto his Church by the Evangelists in the History of his Life and Death That we might believe and believing have Life Eternal by him After the Holy Apostles had received Power from above by descent of the Holy Ghost upon them to fit them for the great work of converting all Nations to Christianity what wonders and signs were frequently wrought by them in the first planting of the Gospel are made famous and wellknown to us Acts. in their Acts related by St. Luke
And forthwith from the roof descended a monstruous Spider to his Blaspemous Lips which the standers by could hardly keep from running into his mouth which had spit worse Venom against our Saviour Who desire further satisfaction in this particular let them consult Paschasius de corp Sang. Christi Algerus de Sacramentis Among the more Ancient St. Cyprian de lapsis Prosper de praedict part 4. cap. 6. S. Greg. l. 2. Dialog Petrus Diaconus in vita S. Gregorii As for the Catholick practice in having recourse to the intercession of Saints glorified and veneration of their Sacred Reliques Antiquity and all Ages abound with unquestionable Miracles as so many Seals set upon them by the hand of God for their approbation St. Austin relates De Civit. dei l. 22. c. 8. Epist 103. Ser. 31 32 33. many the certain knowledge of some of them being conveyed to his Soul through the windows of his own eyes the rest famous and of undoubted verity See also Greg. Turon l. 1. de gloria Martyr Barotom 5. an 416. Niceph. l. 4. Hist Eccl. ca. 9. Theod. Ser. de donis collatis intercessione Martyrum One or two will not tire the Reader There was one Martial a chief man his rank Aged and much abominating S. Aug. l. 22. de Civ c. 8. the Christian Faith Who being dangerously sick and much importun'd with the Prayers and Tears of his Daughter and Son in Law who were Christians to be Baptiz'd refus'd and in sullen indignation thrust them from him His Son in Law thought good to go to St. Stephen ' s Memory or Shrine and Pray there earnestly for his Conversion Which performing with great devotion in sighs and tears and so departing from the Altar took some Flowers and at night laid them at his Fathers Head He took his rest and behold before morning cryes out to send for the Bishop who then by chance was with me at Hippo and understanding he was absent desired his Priests to come to him They came he confesses his Faith in Christ and was Baptiz'd among the wonders and joy of them all And afterwards as long as he liv'd for he liv'd not long after he still had in his mouth Christ receive my Spirit which were the last words of Blessed Stephen when Martyr'd by the Jews God was pleased to reveal by a Vision to St. Ambrose where the Bodies of the Holy Martyrs Gervasius and Protasius lay buried and 'till then uncorrupted in a place not well befitting those Sacred Reliques Their Graves are open'd their Bodies taken up and while they are carried in solemn Procession to be honourably Inter'd in the Cathedral of that City many possess'd with unclean Spirits were perfectly cured and a certain Citizen well known to all the Inhabitants who had been blind many years hearing the noise ask'd the cause of their present Jubilee Being told it he leap'd for joy and desired to be led to the Bodies whither being come he begg'd to be admitted to touch with his Handkerchief the Bier made Holy with those Sacred Reliques He did so and applyed it to his Eyes and forthwith recover'd his sight to his exceeding great joy and admiration of them all giving glory to God for vouchsafing such Honour to his Saints St. Austin mentions this also in his 9th Book of Confess chap. 7. and de Vnit Eccl. c. 10. St. Ambr. Epist. 85. ad Sororem Ser. 91. Whole Volumes might be writ of undoubted Relations of this nature and yet Protestants will not believe but follow prophane Vigilantius says St. Austin and the Catholick Church what they can to the contrary For the confirmation of Purgatory I shall insert one or two Miraculous Relations out of Venerable Bede whom I have made choice of because our Countryman and as of great Learning so of singular Integrity which other circumstances concurring in him render his History most unquestinable I give you not all nor always his words but am Faithful to his sense and meaning A noble young man by name Imma L. 4. Hist ca. 22. in a battel between Ecgfrid King of North-humber and Edilred King of Mercia being left for dead among the slà in at last reviv'd and seeking help was taken by the Enemy and carried to their Governour before whom counterfeiting himself a Countrey Fellow that brought Provision to the Army care was taken for him and beginning to gather strength command was given to fetter him with Chains that he might not escape by night but by no means could he be bound seeing no sooner were they gone who bound him but the Chains loosed of themselves For he had a Brother by Name Tunna a Priest and Abbot who hearing he was slain in the battel came to seek his Body and finding one very like it carryed that away for the Body of his Brother to his Monastery where he honourably interr'd it and took care that many Masses should be said for the Absolution of his Soul By reason whereof none could bind him but forthwith he was loosed The noble man whose Prisoner he was began to wonder and suspecting Magick demanded of him the cause thereof Who answered I have a Brother who is a Priest and I know he supposing me to be dead says Mass often for me as if I was in another life where my Soul might be loosed from pains by his intercessions This pass'd on and being perfectly recover'd he sold him to another but what kind of bonds soever were put upon him they were all loosed but most commonly after the third hour when Masses are usually celebrated All which he relating to his Brother after his Redemption his conjectures were found to be real Truths And many hearing these things from the foresaid man were inflamed with Faith and Devotion to Pray to give Alms or offer to our Lord Sacrifices of the Oblation for the deliverauce of their deceased Friends For they understood that the saving Sacrifice was prevalent for the everlasting redemption of Soul and Body This History I had from some who heard it from the person himself on whom this Miracle was wrought and therefore have inserted it for an undoubted Truth The other is in the 13th chap. of his 5th Book of the foresaid History whereof I shall only take so much as I conceive opposite to our present purpose In these days a notable Miracle to be equall'd to those of old happ'ned For to stir up the living from a Spiritual death a certain man by name Drithelm dead for some time was raised again to his Natural life and related many things which he had seen worthy to be remembred An Housholder he was in the County of North-humber living Religiously with his Family Whom sickness seising on and encreasing dayly at last agonizing died in the beginning of the night But reviving about break of day and sitting up suddenly the weeping Watchers fled away for fear his Wife only whom love had fixed though trembling and quaking stay'd behind Whom