to God to whom only they are naked and in the light especially considering that they themselves have by Gods particular goodnesse escaped that danger whereby Gods purpose seems to have been to teach them mercy in the School of Experience But these were things almost above my wishes much more above my hopes when I first embraced Catholique Religion I was then so far from forsaking a church because it was persecuted that it was persecution I fled to persecution suffered with most admirable patience and joyfulnesse it was persecution that invited me to become a Catholique for this I relinquished present fortunes and all hopes of future this made me esteem the losse of my naturall Country hindred and most dear friends a great gain and preferment Lastly for this I can without murmuring hear my self stiled a desertor of my Religion because it was persecuted even when I embrac'd a Religion which was persecuted by that very church that complained of the injustice of persecution and when she complained so yet persecuted Catholiques 3. Therefore rejoycing and glorying in such a happy crime as inconstancy and in so unreasonable an imputation as forsaking truth for persecution and neglecting such unreasonable accusers I will as I ought turn my self to the blessed Author of this change and confessing unto him in the language of the same S. Augustine Soliloq c. 33. Gratias tibi ago illuminator liberator meus quoniam illuminasti me cognovi te Serò novi te Veritas antiqua serò novi te Veritas aeterna i. e. I give thee thanks O God my enlightener and deliverer for thou hast enlightned me and I have known thee It was late before I knew thee O Antient Truth it was late before I knew thee O Eternall Truth I will pray unto him in the words of the same S. Ambrose de Penit. l. 2. c. 8. Serva Domine munus tuum Custodi donum quod contulisti ettam refugienti i. e. Preserve O Lord thine own free-grace keep that gift of thine which thou hast been pleased to confer upon me that even fled from thee and was a long time unwilling to receive it Amen FINIS AN APPENDIX WHEREIN Certain misconstructions of this Book published by some Protestants especially by I. P. Author of the Preface before the L. Falklands Discourse touching Infallibility are cleared And likewise the grounds of that Discourse examined CHAP. I. A briefe Recapitulation of the designe and contents of the whole Book 1. DEar Catholique Reader◠though this book was commanded by the unworthy Author to addresse it self especially to Protestants to whom the account therein is given yet since not only it but whatsoever shall be said by others to its prejudice as it can scarce be avoided but that writings of such a nature will find either Contradictors or at least severe Interpreters may perhaps fall into thy hands and though but for novelties sake be perused by thee I judged requisite in this re-impression to bespeak thy candour and charity both in perusing it and whatsoever thou shalt read or hear concerning it 2. To dispose thee therefore to exhibit not to the authors person but his cause which is thine also as thou art a Catholique the effects of such candour and charity thou art earnestly entreated to take into thy consideration that the Authors design was not to publish a book of Controversies nor to venditate any particular opinion of his own in any point now in debate between Catholikes and Protestants but to perform an act of obedience And being in his own intention then ready to take his farewell of the world in conformity to the command of others to leave as it were a Yestamentary legacy to all Christians therein satisfying Catholiques that his Union with them was not an effect of interest or any suddain humor of discontent or inconstancy but the fruit of as much advisednesse and reason as he was capable of and tacitly inviting Protestants if his proceedings could approve themselves to them by his example and Method to get a vievv of truth disintangled and unclouded from preconceived unjust prejudices and out of love to that truth and most necessary care of their own safety in heart at least to forsake the dwelling which they might feel begin to shake and tremble under their feet 3. Whosoever therefore shall vouchsafe to read this Book if he will give a right judgment of it must let the Authors meaning be the spirit of it and then he will look upon it and consider it as Tabulam Votivam in which is represented the Authors safety and happinesse procured by a ship wrack and his liberty effected by a captivity and by suffering his hands and feet to be restrained by chaines never by Gods grace to be cast off In a word he will there for the time be a witnesse and Auditor to one that ha's been perswaded simply and ingenuously to tell a homely but most true story of the fortunes which happened to him in a strange countrey discovering by what unexpected means and with what unseen snares Divine Catholique Truth Gods mercifull providence so disposing it did unawares most happily entangle arrest and fasten him in the Catholike Church at a time when of all others he least apprehended a captivity from that Coast. 4. The instruments employed by God to effect this Captivity were especially these two 1. The conversation of a worthy prudent and learned friend namely Doctor H. Holden Doctor of the faculty of Paris And 2. the perusall of a little book entituled Reigle Generale de la foy Catholique written in French by Mons. Francois Veron Doctor of Divinity and Pastor of the Catholike Congregation at Charenton These two proceeding in all points almost upon the same grounds and in the same order in a short time effected that Conviction in me which many volumes of Catholique Controvertists formerly used and a world of Verball disputes had in vain attempted 5. In brief the method and proceeding by which these two successefully effected their charitable designs upon me was this I was at that time more then in their opinion for they said it was in their certain knowledge out of the Church and according to mine own perswasion in at least a faileable and fallible Church a Church that could pretend to no authority over my conscience as a Christian but meerly over my externall actions and profession as an Englishman And withall such a Church as in the then present circumstances was become very languishing and in a very doubtfull condition for subsistence Herupon I became sollicitous upon an imagined supposition of her future defaillance how to make the least imprudent choice among all other separated Congregations and Sects in case I should really be put upon such a necessity 6. Being full of these thoughts and vexed to the heart both at my self and all other Sectartes that I was become so hard to be pleased and that none of them could represent themselves to me with
Exomologesis OR A Faithfull Narration OF The Occasion and Motives of the Conversion unto Catholike Vnity OF HUGH-PAULIN DE CRESSY Lately Deane of Laghlin c. in Ireland and Prebend of Windsore in England Now a second time printed With Additions and Explications by the same Author who now calls himself B. Serenus Cressy Religious Priest of the holy Order of S. Benedict in the Convent of S. Gregory in Doway Luc. cap. 22. vers 32. Tu aliquando conversus confirma fratres A PARIS Chez Jean Billaine Rue S. Jacques à l'Ensigne S. Augustin MDCLIII To the Honourable Walter Montagu Esquire Sir IN this happy retrayt of a voluntary banishment from the world which by Gods goodnesse I have made choice of one principall designe of my thoughts is not to think of the world yet this cannot justifie nor excuse me if I should endeavour or be willing to forget such a Person as you and one to whom I have so great obligations Indeed I should not comply with this my Vocation if I did not oftentimes remember you To think of you to write to you or converse with you are not worldly businesses they may become and cannot but be advantagious even in matter of spirit to the most abstracted persons for what will such an object represent to them but a true esteem of heaven gracefully set off by an heroicall contempt of earth and this exemplified to the best advantage by one who in the middest of the greatest affluence of all worldly contentments in the strength of his age and vigor of capacity when he was most disposed and inabled to tast whatever was gustfull in them yet had the succesfull courage to despise and renounce them And which is more admirable one that still maintains a fearlesnesse of their skill to recall his liking of them since out of pure charity to God and his distressed servants he dares yet live in sight of them a stranger to them one that with himself consecrates all his own riches to God and onely interesses himself in the wealth of others to the end that he may procure supplies for those that want and to inrich those who by supplying such wants can be perswaded to purchase eternall treasures To you SIR therfore I addresse my self willing to take any even this poor occasion by a very mean Present to testifie to the world my cordial affectionate esteem of you my thankfull acknowledgment of your great goodnesse and charity towards me expressed by a considerable pension without any intercession of friends voluntarily offered and out of your own prison and straitnesse freely sent me immediately after my Conversion though a meer stranger to you yet sufficiently recommended by relinquishing of Friends Estate and Country for that Religion's sake which before had made the same conquest over you And since expressed by many testimonies of your friendly benignity and confidence I take leave therefore to present unto you this Book as it is now a second time published The subject of it is the story of my uncertainties and wandrings and in conclusion my fix'd establishment in the same solid foundation of Truth with you which gained â—e first the happinesse of your affection And I pretend in this second publication to a further entrance into the same affection not for any worth of the Treatise but onely for the testimony that I of mine own accord give publikely of my declining to consider mine own fame or esteem with men in a matter that respects though only the circumstances of divine Truth Since the ground why I renew the impression is to signifie that I detest to maintain with a perverse constancy even the smallest phrases or words which I could suspect might be obnoxious to offence or misconstruction I cannot call it a Book of Controversies though the essentiall points of Catholike Religion be asserted in it or if of Controversies it is principally against those that unnecessarily multiply them Whatsoever it is a poor Present it is God knowes and yet even in that respect lesse unacceptable to you who despise riches and more becoming me whose profession is poverty I pretend to no reward or if any I am content that your pardon should be my reward Yet I must recall my words I do indeed humbly expect and beg a great reward no lesse then the richest kind of Almes Prayers and the best of that best sort of Almes your prayers mine for you have been alwayes due since I knew you and God willing shall be most faithfully paid at Gods holy Altar for I am in truth of heart Paris 21. Octob. 1652. SIR Your Servant in our Lord most affectionately devoted B. SERENUS CRESSY To the Right Reverend Fathers the Fathers DD. Religious of the Holy Order of the Carthusians in the English Convent at Newport in Flanders Right R. R. Fathers SInce it was the eminent sanctity of your Order in vaine endeavoured with greater care by you to be hid from the observation of the world then by others their hypocrisie which contributed much to put me in a condition of writing a discourse of this nature And since it was by the command and for the satisfaction of certain Superiours of your Order likewise that contrary to my Resolution I adventured upon this work and lastly since it was by the advice and encouragement of certain of your Fathers Religious that I took the confidence to publish it being written therefore in strict justice it ought to return and addresse it self thither from whence in so many respects it took its originall But whereas the language made it uncapable either of the censure or apology of those persons who had the greatest and immediate influence upon it and besides though it had been Translated it would not have procured that effect which I infinitely desire Therefore it may seem that meer necessity hath cast upon you this trouble and charity Though the truth is seeing the almost only argument of this Book is to maintain Catholike Unity against the sacriledge of Schisme there could scarce be chosen fitter Patrons for it ' then such persons who are the true successors of those Innocent Martyrs with the effusion of whose blood both Catholike Unity expired in England and that Sacrilegious Tyrant K. Henry 8. dedicated his accursed Idol of Schisme an act which alone may be able to rectifie the judgments of the seducing seduced World for can any man think otherwise but that Catholike Unity is a daughter of heaven whose Victimes have been the lives of persons so only heavenly in their conversationâ— and how could that infernall monster of Schisme prove her â—rigâ—nall better then by being the designe of that Prince â—â— abandoned to all impiety as that he made choice to establish this his darling by sacriledge and murder Saeriledge most palpably against his conscience since in that regard be always continued a Catholique and murder of a most studied beyonâ—sness being committed upoÌ„ persons so innocentâ— that they
least pretence of any charge of sedition or Treason But for this only crime of being of that heavenly Vocation to which the Spirit of God had called and the sacred authority of the Church had exalted them And for a conscionable discharge of that calling they were arraigned condemned drag'd to the place of execution there ignominiously hang'd among thieves and murderers and their half-living bodies most inhumanely quartered and exposed to the sun and weather 2. This crime was the more inexcuseable because committed by Englishmen who though violent enough in their passion when it is provoked yet are apt in a short time to relent and by English Protestants a Sect pretending above ordinary to moderation and clemency But the truth is the Calvinisticall Spirit ha's been working in that state and government ever since the beginning of Q. Elizabeths reign for the Calvinists were the Councellors that first suggested those cruelties which their descendents have since eagerly pursued and acted by the hands of others till their so long projected designs succeeding they might have the pleasure to glut themselves with Christian bloud even to vomiting as they have of late done 3. Now that this is no false character of that Calvinisticall Spirit besides many wofull experiences in other countreyes our great Presbyterian contrivers and managers of the late war have given severall testimonies irrefragable who whensoever they were pressed with want of treasure knowing the complexion and temper of their own faction in London how delightfull a spectacle of bloud would be had no readier ways to extort supplies of money from them then by feasting and regaling them with the cruell execution of a Catholique Priest or shedding the bloud of their own Archbishop or of some other considerable Royaltist I beseech almighty God that when the time shall come that he will make inquisition for bloud he would sever the innocent from the guilty and not impute to the whole Nation the cruelty of that one bloudy Faction there CHAP. VI. The Authors sadnesse for the sins and miseries of his countrey What remedies and lenitives he found for this sorrow 1. A Sad meditation on such arguments as these was the exercise of my thoughts at my departure out of England and a good while after during my first abode in France And though God be thankedâ— I could not accuse my self of having contributed any thing directly or otherwise then all other sinners before Almighty God doe to the present desolations of my poore beloved countrey and there ought to have contented my selfe with an entire resignation of the whole matter into the hands of a most mercifull however infinitely provoked God praying for the peace of that Ierusalem without unnecessary afflicting mine own soule Yet I willingly deceived my selfe into a kind of pleasure of greiving with this false beliefe that in such circumstances to do any thing but grieve were to renounce not onely humanity but likewise that duty which the Law of Christ obliged me to performe in the behalfe of his Church 2. But time and better instruction from spirituall Persons especially Catholiques whose councels in matters of practises in such cases I thought it not unlawfull to hearken to did at length reduce my minde into a more calme temper toward the tranquility I was much advanc'd by an obstinate resolution not only not to be inquisitive after newes good or bad but to avoyd those conversations where I might be in danger of such a mortification and withall by employing my time and thoughts in that charge which I had undertaken and in mine own private studies CHAP. VII A Scruple suggested to my minde viz. To the Communion of what Church I should adhere upon supposition that the Church of England should faile 1. NOt long after this there was I know not how suggested to my understanding a thought which I could not at pleasure silence and which interrupted much my extreame eagernesse of reading it was this A supposition being made that it should please Almighty God to put a period to the Church and Ecclesiasticall government in England to what Churches Communion I should then adjoyne my selfe 2. It was not any reason I had to dispayre of the Kings condition that occasioned such an inquiry for at this time he was in a state to dispute upon even termes the victory with his enemies nor any jealousie of the truth of the English Religion But knowing that the English Church considered as distinct not only from the Roman but from all other Sects in separation likewise from it was not nor ever pretended to be either indefectible or infallible Nay more considering that the Ecclesiasticall government in England depended absolutely upon the firmnesse or weaknesse of the Kings authority there by whose absolute power only and according to whose interests it was framed at first And perceiving but too well that for many yeares there had been a powerfull malicious contriving faction of Calvinists equally enemies to Monarchy and Episcopall Government as they have given proofe to the full and which had intruded themselves and were generally incorporated both into the inferiour Cleargy Universities chiefe Bourgeosies and places of Judicature whose designe received from their forefathers it had been to omit no occasion to ruine both the civill and Ecclesiasticall State whereto the whole Kingdome of Scotland would be sure to give their brotherly assistance Lastly being assured that the maine thing and to me the most considerable advantage which the English Church had above all others pretending to a Reformation namely a succession and authority of Bishops and other Ecclesiasticall Orders received from the Roman Church was never confidently and generally taught in England to be of divine right and by consequence tooke no firme rooting in the consciences of English subjects Upon which ground I easily foresaw that though perhaps many would adventure far to support the Reall authority yet if ever the title of Episcopall Jurisdiction should be separated from the Rights of the King there would but very few appeare that would hazard their fortunes or lives for that which though they preferred infinitely before the Presbyterian Tyranny yet they had never been taught that it was an essentiall condition of a Church Yea on the contrary they had seen both King and Cleargy and generally the whole Kingdome looke upon the Calvinist and Lutheran Churches as brethren of the same Religion in substantialls sending Bishops and other Ecclesiastiques to sit with them in their Synods maintaining their quarrells commending their principall Authors harbouring releeving and preferring their exiles In a word upon the title of Brotherhood assisting them with treasure and forces in their Rebellions 3. Upon such grounds as these considering the unsure foundation of the English Church I thought it not unreasonable to spend some thoughts upon that enquiry viz. To what Churches Communion I should adjoyne my selfe upon supposition that the English Church should come to sayle I thought my self the rather obliged to pursue
such a provisionary enquiry because I remembred that M. Hooker one of the most learned judicious writers that ever that Church had upon such grounds as are before mentioned especially having an eye unto the sacrilegious spirit of Calvinisme his great and almost Propheticall prudence for Prudentia est quaedam divinatio Corn. Nep. in vit Pompou Attice In those very bookes which he wrote to defend the Church said that the English Church was in probability a Church not to continue above fourescore yeares at most Hooker Eccl. Pol. lib. 5. Sect. 79. CHAP. VIII A Reflection upon severall Sects And first upon the Socinians 1. NOw in pursuing this inquiry it scarce entred into my thoughts to admit into debate the Roman Church because the maine foundation thereof namely infallibility I verily beleeved I could powerfully arm'd with Mr. Chillingworths reason evidently and demonstratively destroy 2. Of Sects in separation from the Catholique Church those which I thought most considerable and therefore represented them to my understanding to examine which of them would best approve it selfe to my choyce were 1. the Lutheran 2. the Calvinist 3. the Socinian For as for those fanaticall Sects of Auabaptists Famulists c. they being only confused troops of ignorant dreaming spirits which hitherto have never been able to convert one Parish or Village entirely to themselves and the very dregs of all other Sects where those that were discontented or craised in their understanding ordinarily setled I could not obtaine from my selfe the patience to examine seriously their grounds or to put it to the question whether I should adjoyne my selfe unto them or no. Adde hereto that I could not hitherto understand all their grounds distinctly by reason that I could never meet with any of their writings so obscure they are and afraid of the light 3. Concerning the other three Sects the temper and morallity of the Socinians was much more agreeable to mee then that of the other two But their inexcusable boldnesse of trampling under foot all authority of Fathers and Councells and their licentious introducing blasphemous and long-since-buried Heresies against the fundamentall Mysteries of Faith was to me intollerable Besides neither France nor Italy being able to afford me bookes of Socinian doctrines I was forced to content my selfe with that curiosity which I had had a few yeares before in England where such bookes were but too frequent notwithstanding the care of the late Archbishop of Cant. to hinder the importing them at which time I read over almost all the considerable treatises of that Sect both of controversy and exposition of Scripture The effect of which my curiosity was only an esteeme of the excellency of their naturall parts both for the subtilty and clearnesse of disputation and an acknowledgment that though their principles were of all others most fallacious and their peculiar distinctive doctrines most horrible and intollerable to Christian eares yet they were far more constant to such their principles and lesse incumbred with difficulties and contradictions then the other two In a word that the frame of their building was with all its deformity more uniforme then that of other Hâ—retiques of these times as strong as a building could be that had no better foundation then the moving sand of naturall reason Whereas the other two Sects of Calvinists and Lutherans to whom I had some jealousie that the English Protestants might be joyned relying principally indeed upon private interpretation of Scripture but challenging likewise the suffâ—ages of the Ancient Fathers especially in some doctrines of meere Tradition as Baptising of Infants c. by reason of the inequality in the foundation the building could not choose but have many rents and declinations in the walls some parts continuing stable and others sinking by reason of the yeilding of the Foundation which difformities and inequalities the Socinans avoyded This was all the change that the reading of those Haereticall blasphemies wrought in me none of their subtile wrestings and Chymicall extractions of new sences from fundamentall Texts of Scripture prevailing against the constant universall authority of Gods Church interpreting the same Texts 4. I conceive it unnecessary if not very inconvenient to set downe here the exceptions I had against the severall peculiar doctrines proper to the Socinians for feare lest by undertaking to confute I should endanger to distill the infectious poyson of them in a countrey where God be blessed they are utterly unknowne remembring how subtilly and maliciously the Schollars of Sibrandus Lubbertus in Holland are reported to have abnsed their unwary Master for they having an extreame itch of reading one of the most pernicious Treatises of Socinus which was forbidden to be dispersed knew no better a meanes to satisfy their unlawfull and dangerous curiosity then by perswading their credâ—lous Master that it was expected from his eminent abilities to confute so pernicious a booke which he having as he thought sufficiently performed they further told him that it would be injustice and a kind of confession of guilt to publish his confutation without the adversaries Text and by that meanes they made their Master a sower of Haeresy for every one almost bought up the booke for Socinus his sake only scarce any vouchsafing to cast their eyes upon the heavy unskillful confutation 5. Thus I make but a small stay upon the Socinians on whom I looked rather with pitty then resentment Considering withall that they were the almost only Sect which made profession against violence and active disobedience condemning warre absolutely and upon whatsoever pretences Notwithstanding observing that one essentiall marke of that Sect was resolutely to hold no opinion but in every Synod to give leave to the questioning or altering of whatsoever Articles of Faith had been before decided I found that seemingly calm and quiet spirit of theirs lesse alluring because from their owne peculiar complexion and grounds I thus Argued Who can tell whether if they encrease in numbers and power they may not thinke fit to begin with the alteration of that doctrine For I have known when even the Calvinists in Holland and the Puritans in England being in low estate have preached liberty of Prophesying pretended only to desire a freedome of injoying their Consciences in particular promising never to molest any others As by their first published writings and by severall Remonstrances and Petitions by Q. Eliz. to K. Iames in the beginning of hisreigne and to Parliaments in those times And yet the same men being afterwards become numerous powerfull enough to gaine the effect of their Petitions by force never yet allowed any moderate qualification or tolleration to any other CHAP. IX Reflection upon the Calvinists and Lutheran Churches Their first disadvantage in comparison with the English Church 1. HAving passed with so much speed the Socinian Churches I fixed my thoughts more seriously upon the Lutherans and Calvinists to the end to resolve my selfe whether those points of doctrine discipline or
us this observation Aliquando autem ficut audimus saith he nonnulli â—x â—ipâ—â—â— volentes sibi Gotthos conciliare That is Time was as we are informed that some of them desirous to gaine favour with the Goths when they began to be powerfull said that they beleived the same things in substance with them but the authority of their ancestors confutes them for neither is Donatus affirmed to have so believed of whose party they doe willingly boast themselves to be This passage of S. Augustin might likewise have been thus interpreted In the yeare M. DC XXXI when the King of Sweden King of the Goths had made a formidable progresse in Germany A Synod of Calvinists at Charenton in France thought it fit â—â— admit into their Communion the Lutherans saying that they agreed with them in all substantiall points of Religion But herein they contradict their ancesters who renounced that communion and particularly Calvin of whose party they boast themselves to be affirmed constantly that the Lutheran absurdities touching Consubstantiation were greater then of the Catholiques about Transubstantiation CHAP. XV. The scandalous personall-qualities of Luther and Calvin 1. A Fifth and which for brevities sake shall be the last discouragement forbidding my communicating with the Lutheran and Calvinist Churches was taken from the Personall qualities of Luther and Calvin the founders of those Churches Our Saviour admonisheth us to judge of true or false Prophets by their fruits not that Orthodox teachers may not sometimes live wicked lives and Haeretiques laudably But that those who take upon them to be Prophets that is persons extraordinarily raised up in Gods Church to publish new doctrines or to reforme generall abuses such men in their lives will signifie the spirit by which they are moved God never sending such Prophets but that he indowes them with a more then ordinary measure of his spirit both of wisdome and Holinesse On the contrary sometime or other discovering the Hypocrisie of those who falsely pretend to his Mission 2. Now to judge of these two great Reformers by their fruits I would not build so much nor be directed by reports of their adversaires that is the Calvinist writers concerning Luther nor the Lutherans or Hierom Bolsce concerning Calvin The Characters and pictures that themselves have made of themselves will shew them so unlike those whose authority and doctrine they pretended to assume namely Christ and his Apostles that they will rather appeare like persons that had agreed to divide between them the whole Stock of Sin Luther taking for his share carnall sinns as lust gluttony and all manner of intemperance and Calvin appropriating to himselfe the sins of the spirit Pride envy malice contention c. 3. First for Luther this testimony he gives of himselfe in Epist. ad Galat. c v. 14. before he was reformed that being in the Monastery he 〈◊〉 stened his flesh with watching fasting and prayer that he reverenced the Pope with great respect for conscience sake that he observed chastiry obedience poverty this I did sayth be with a simple heart a good zeale and for the glory of God fearefully apprehending the last day of judgement and from my heart thirsting after salvation This character he gives of himselfe remembring the time that he was a Catholique But being turn'd a Reformer what a strange reformation doth he confesse that that change made in him he could not for beare to tell the world such new doctrines as these Luther in Proverb cap 31. v. 9. There is nothing in the world sweeter and more desirable then the love of a woman if a man can atteine to the enjoyment of it id Tom. 7. in Ep. ad Wolfg. fol 505. And againe If a man resolve to want a woman let him put off the name of a man and put on the nature of an Angell or Spirit id in Ep. ad Phil. fol. 334. and 345. And againe I burne with a mighty flame of my untamed flesh I which ought to be fervent in Spirit burne in the lust of the flesh c. Againe These last eight dayes now past I can neither write nor pray nor study being vexed partly with the tentations of the flesh partly with other troubles c. But saith he it is sufficient for me that I know the riches of the glory of God and the Lambe which takes away the sinnes of the world Sinne cannot seperate us from him although we should commit fornication or murder even a thousand times a day Sleydan a very affectionate Schollar of his Hist lib. 3. fol. 9. reports that he himselfe acknowledged his profession not to be of lifcor manners but of doctrine And lib. 2. fol. 22. that he wished that he were removed from the Office of preaching because his manners and life did not answer his Profession Now being reduced to this foule condition he forgetting his old Catholique Monkish remedies of watching fasting and prayer and having before renounced his vow of Chastity and cast away his Religious habit Luth. Tom. 2. in Colloq Lat. gave free scope to his lust and privately and O horrible incestuously married Katherine Borrhe a vow'd frofessed Nun an act that even he himselfe was ashamed of and had remorse for Then to give us a taste of what satisfaction he found even in his beliefe of his new doctrines let us heare the report of Joaunes Mathesius a Lutheran Orat. Germ. 12. de Luth. Antonius Musa the Parish Priest of Roclits saith he recounted to me that on a time he heartily hemoaned himselfe to Doctor Luther that he himselfe could not believe what he preached to others and that Doctor Luther answered Praise and thankes be to God that this happens also to others for I had thought it had hapned only to me Now who cannot but admire the admirable Providence of God by which this pretended Apostle was thus constreined to discover himselfe to the world in such a shape as if he had intended to fright all men from hearkning to such a monster so abandoned to all filthinesse such an Apostate and that against his conscience not only from Faith but even humanity I forbeare to let him publish his other vices of drunkennesse gluttony scurtility c. for he hath left none of his good parts undiscovered in the world But one thing I cannot omit a passage not to be parallel'd in any story excepting onely his fellow-reformer Zuinglius namely that he should not be able to for beare to tell the world as if some body had exercised him and forced him to confesse that the arguments which moved him to leave Masse Luther in lib. de Missa privaâ—â were suggested to him immediately and visibly by the Devill himselfe And all this described with such particular circumstances as if he had taken care that men should not ascribe it to his dreames or to his Melancholly or frenzy in a word as if he had been concern'd in honour to tell who was his Master a Master that he himselfe
sayd he was very well and frequently acquainted with having eaten more then one measure of salt with him the Devill sleeping with him oftner then his wife Katherine Such mercy and goodnesse and care hath almighty God had over his Church to open the mouth of the beast and by such a miracle to discover the true Author of Schisme 4. Then for Calvin Conrad Schlussâ—iburgâ— in Theolog. Calvin lib. 1. fol 72. and cap. 12. 4. not to take advantage of the Character given him by a learned Protestant which will represent him so steyned even with fleshly lusts also in a degree beyond Luther lusts so horrible and unnaturall that I cannot obtaine from my selfe permission to defile this paper with transcribing his words and not to repeat his forementioned seditious bloody positions befitting rather the Alcoran then writings of Christian Institutions or Commentaries to omit likewise any blasphemous Doctrines by which in immediate consequence he destroyes the Mistery of the Blessed Trinity the Justice and Sanctity of Almighty God making him formally the Author of sinne The only reading of his bookes against his adversaries and particularly against Cassander and Castalio will acquaint any man with what a spirit he was possessed and agitated a spirit that suggested to him words to expresse the utmost extremity of Pride Envie and Malice that a humane soule can be capable of Certainly if that be true as it is blasphemy to question it which the spirit of God tells us That into an uncleane soule the spirit of discipline will not enter and againe That God reveales his mysteries to the humble and meeke it was not without a great care that God had of this part of the world that he suffered those two great Teachers of Schisme to discover in themselves all manner of uncleannesse both of the flesh and of the spirit as if on purpose to the end that the same persons while they were presenting to the world the cup of their poysonous doctrine should likewise at the same time give warning that that could be no other then poyson which proceeded from such hearts full of all uncleanness the gall of bitternisse For mine own part I confesse I had not the courage to follow him who profess'd that he followed the Devill and described himselfe an attendant befitting such a leader Neither could I be mistaken to such a point as to thinke that there was any resemblance between the Spirit of Christ and that of Calvin Though the Devill can sometime transforme himselfe into an Angell of light and by that means circumvent those whose sinnes have deserved that God should give leave to such an efficacy of errour Yet here the Devill used not so much cunning he appeares like himselfe with his naturall uglinesse and horrour and his Ministers weare his livery However I am sure it is impossible that Christ should transforme himselfe into an Angell of darknesse Vitium simulari non potest virtus potest CHAP. XVI The Authors unquietnesse not being able to communicate with Calvinists c. Reflection upon the severall Easterne Churches 1. HAving proceeded thus far in my search of a Church and finding after an unpartiall disquisition that among all the Sects in the Westerne parts of the world seperated from the Roman Church I could not finde any Congregation unto the Communion of which I could without hypocrisy adhere if that Church wherein I had been bred should come to fayle a supposition not only possible but as the case began to be e're this time even very probable I fell into a great perplexity of minde so great that I could not perceive any cure for it no not though God should blesse the King of England so far as to give him an entire victory over his enemies and a power to restore that Church to its former lustre For I now plainly perceived that hitherto my title of being a Christian and a member of Gods Church all my interests and hopes of blessednesse depended upon a Church that never did pretend either to indefectibility infallibility or authority obliging any other then only those that live in her Communionâ— and those not in conscience but only upon penalty of being deprived of certaine priviledgess and preferments belonging to English subjects upon a Church that never pretended to declare or decide Articles of Faith any other then some few negative ones against the Roman Church or to fulminate Auathemas against whosoever submitted not to her decisions as the Ancient Church was wont to doe lastly upon a Church that as God knowes it appeares now manifestly hath no surer foundation than the prosperity of the King and continuance of his civill authority 2. To gaine some ease to my minde I applyed my self to a re-examination of the prejudices I had against the other Reformed Churches None of which I could clearly take away and particularly concerning the want of a lawfull succession of Pastors I assured my selfe it was not possible to be defended or excused nothing that I could invent my selfe or learne from others having any shew of the least probability or deserving to be confuted 3. When this succeeded not I travelled in my minde over the Easterne Countryes for still I was prepossessed that the maine ground of the Roman Religion namely the infallibility of that Church was as demonstratively confutable as any absurdity in Mathematiques and therefore though in the particular points of differences I approached as near unto its belief as Monsieur Grotius or Monsieur de la Millitiere Yet that maine foundation being as I thought ruinous it was to no purpose to trouble my selfe with any debate concerning that Church But as ill successe I had in the East now as before nearer home For of those Churches the Maronites I found were in Communion and beliefe agreeing with the Roman Church The Abissiues were a schismaticall Church divided both from the rest of the Easterne and Westerne Churches now almost twelve hundred yeares since namely upon the anathematizing of the Eutychian Heresie the like may be said of the Nestorians Iacobites and other Haereticall Churches in the Easterne Countryes As for the Graecian Churches they brought almost all the same difficulties that the Roman Church did For almost in all points wherein the English Church differed from the Roman they agreed with it in the Article of the Procession of the Holy Ghost the English agreed with the Roman against them and their assuming equall authority with the Pope was apparently an usurpation CHAP. XVII Necessity of the Authors examining the grounds of the Roman Church Severall advantages acknowledged to be in that Church 1. THus like Noah's Dovo wearying my selfe in flying up and down and finding â—â— rest for the soale of my foot I was at last forced to returne into the Arke seeing what ever became of the English Church I Now found reason enough not to thinke my selfe safe enough in it Yet it was a good while before I got any sight of the Arke
they could settle themselves according to the frame of the Apostolicall Churches with the same orders Liturgies customes c. as apparently were in the Ancient times universally while some writers lived who might have seene the Apostles themselves If not as it is most evident that not I aske whether those Churches were so setled by the free liberty and fancy of the Apostles so as it had been no great matter though they had ordered them any other way or whether by the expresse command of Christ either immediately or by the intervention of his Holy Spirit By the latter way no doubt and by consequence some thing necessary for the frame of the Church because commanded by Christ is not conteined in the Evangelists neither severally nor together no nor in union with all the other Evangelicall writings 5. Againe our Saviour in his life-naturall among them told his Disciples that he had many things to tell them but he would not tell them then because as yet they were not able to beare them But when the Paraclete the Spirit of truth came they should then be fully instructed Now will any man say that all these many things were unnecessary no certainly on the contrary they were of such extraordinary great moment that the Apostles themselves could not then beare them Or were these so weighty things written in the Gospells where our Saviour sayes he would not discover them If not there can it appeare that S. Luke had a designe to set them all downe in the booke of the Acts where his principall designe was to write some passages especially of S. Pauls Travells onely and that during the time that himselfe was a witnesse Lastly for as for the Revelation that being nothing but obscure Allegory or Prophecy needs not therefore to be enquired of about this matter is it likely that a few Haeretiques broaching certaine errours which caused the writing of almost all the Epistles should light so fortunately for us as to give the Apostles occasion in consuting them to publish all those many things which our Saviour would not tell them in his life time Credat Iudaeus CHAP. XIV Answer to the Texts produced by Mr. Chillingworth out of the Gospells of S. John and S. Luke 1. AS for those passages produced by Mr. Chillingworth out of the Gospells and as he thought fully to his purpose and first to that taken out of the conclusion of S. Iohns Gospell where it is said these things were written that ye might believe in the Sonne of God and that believing ye might have life Besides the former demonstrations that S. Iohn writ onely of our Saviours life and death and even therein omitted many things of extreame moment which are mentioned by the other Evangelists and all things revealed after Christs Ascension by the Comforter which were far from being unnecessary And besides the so necessary distinction of things necessary in respect of the object and subject so oft apply'd before I answer particularly to the phrase of this quotation that it does not prove that these things alone are sufficient for such an effect but onely that these are some of the principall ones necessary For it is ordinary in Scripture to ascribe the effect of a concatenation of causes to some more especiall ones alone either thereby to shew the extraordinary vertue and necessity of them above the rest or to imply that such vertues cannot be at least in perfection alone but are alwaies accompanyed with the rest So our Saviour Mat. cap 5. promises Beatitude to each single Christian vertue which indeed is the effect of them all meeting together And so that speech of S. Paul Rom. 10. is to be understood If thou shalt confesse with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved And againe Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved Indeed nothing is more ordinary in Scripture then such Phrases I will therefore absteine from an unnecessary multiplication of such passages concluding this with two like expressions of the same Evangelist the first in the same Gospell This is eternall life that they may know thee the onely true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent The other out of his first Epistle which may with as good reason prove it self alone even without the Gospell to be sufficient instruction to salvation These things we write unto you that your joy may be full 2. To the double quotation of S. Luke in the Prefaces to his Gospell and the History of the Acts of the Apostles both in effect saying the same thing namely that in his Gospell he he had written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of all things that Jesus did or taught it is already answered And besides that this speech is hyperbolicall appeares not onely from S. Iohns Gospell which relating both the facts and speeches of our Saviour speakes notwithstanding but very briefly and of a very few things mentioned by S. Luke or any other Evangelist but likewise from another passage of the same S. Luke immediately following the quotation out of the Acts where he sayes that during the forty dayes that our Saviour remained on earth from his Resurrection to his Ascension he appeared to them and instructed them in the things concerning the Kingdome of God very few of which instructions are mentioned by S. Luke CHAP. XV. An answer to twelve Questions of Mr. Chillingworth in pursuance of the former Quotations 1. AS concerning the twelve Questions which I said before cap. 26. that Mr. Chillingworth adjoyned to these Quotations to the end to presse the force of them more efficaciously as thinking them unanswerable which notwithstanding I found nothing at all difficult I will according to my promise set them downe in order and adjoyne to each an answer 2. To the 1. Question therefore viz. Whether S. Luke did not undertake the very same thing which he sayes many had taken in hand I answer Yes To the 2. Whether this were not to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among Christians I answer likewise Yes But then I must adde not all those things but the principall and the principall onely among those which concerned our Saviour in Person while he lived on earth till his Ascension as all the Evangelists expresly say for a further proof whereof I adde this It will not surely be denyed but that among the Mysteries of Christianity that of Pentecost holdes a principall place at which time was the Sealing as it were of the Apostles Commission by the Holy Ghost visibly descending and enabling them to performe that for which our Saviour was borne preached prayed wrought miracles dyed rose againe and was glorified that is the promulgation and propagation of the Evangelicall law as the Jewish Pentecost was appointed to commemorate the Promulgation of the Mosaicall law Surely then this Mystery is a principall one
whether that authority which is indeed supreme be not unappealable from and necessarily to be submitted to by all particular subordinate persons To say such persons have no authority to be Guides is to contradict expresse Scripture And to say that there can be a subordination of authority without one that is supreme Or that that which is indeed supreme may by particulars persons or churches be opposed or so much as appealed from is to contradict not onely what is assumed but evident reason and all order 3. Where it is said That no Church is fit to be a Guide in Fundamentalls but only a Church of one denomination as Greek Roman Abyssine c. For otherwise no man can possibly know which is the true Church but only by a pre-examination of the doctrines and that were not to be guided by the Church to the true doctrine but by the true doctrine to the Church I answer That a Catholique Church there is as we profess in the Creed and that this Catholique Church is visible and easily to be designed plainly distinquishable from new Sects and innovating congregations and that this body representatively united is the supreme authority on earth and that every particular Church or member of this Catholique Church as such is a sufficient guide to those that live in her Communion As concerning his phrase a Church of one denomination I grant that God ha's not apparently obliged himself to confine his Promises to any particular Dioecose Province or Nation no not perhaps even to Rome it self Only this may certainly be affirmed that the Catholique Church shall by vertue of Christs promises continue to the worlds end a visible Church teaching all substantiall doctrines of Christianity guided by a lawfull succession of Pastors under one visible Head which visible Head ha's hitherto for above sixteen Centuries been the Bishop of Rome and that is a fair presumption that it will be so to Christs second coming for I know nothing but a generall earthquake there and swallowing up of that place that is likely to hinder such a succession since it ha's already abidden all variety of oppositions and tempests when the whole power of the Roman and infernall Empire sought to extinguish it and when all sorts of Heretiques and Schismatiques sought to undermine it But I shall speak more of this when I come to the last conclusion concerning the perpetuall visibility of the Church 4. In the fourth place to his first proofe that no Church of one denomination can be an infallible guide in fundamentalls because if so then she should be infallible in non-fundamentalls also I answer that even by Mr. Chillingworth's own confession it does not follow that if Christ hath promised to preserve his church from all errour in fundamentalls that therefore by vertue of that promise she should be exempted from all errour whatsoever and the reason given by Mr. Chillingworth is worth the marking The Church sayes he may erre and yet the gates of hell not prevaile against her for seeing you Catholiques do and must grant that a particular Church may hold some errour and yet be still a true member of the Church Why may not the universall Church bold the same errour and yet remain the universall Church unlesse every the least errour be one of the gates of hell 5. And indeed many Catholique Writers there are who upon the same grounds with Mr. Chillingworth extend the promise of the holy Spirits assistance to the church not to all inconsiderable circumstantiall doctrines but substantiall and traditionary only And for a further proof we may add that there are some Fathers of great antiquity and authority who hold whether justly and truly or no I debate not but they hold that there are reall differences between the four Evangelists in some circumstances of no considerable moment related by them and by consequence there must of necessity in their opinion be an errour such as it is in some one of them at lâ—ast The which inconsiderable differences whether reall or imaginary there being an exact demonstrable agreement amongst them all in points of Doctrine do rather in S. Chrysostomes judgement in Mat. Hom. 1 establish then invalidate or any way prejudice the divine infallibility of their writings since thereby it is apparent sayes he that they did not compose them by consent and conspiracy for then they would have been scrupulously punctuall in all even the smallest circumstances but in the ingenuous simplicity and sincerity of their hearts In like manner S. Hierome tells us that in his time some learned Catholiques were of opinion that the Apostles and Evangelists in the New Testament quoted some passages of the old Testament and the Septuagint meerly out of their memory not looking into the books themselves and that by that means their memory failing their quotations were not exactly true yet notwithstanding those Fathers were far from questioning the authority or infallibility of any one of the Evangelists as concerning any substantiall doctrine contained in any of their Gospells c. So likewise in the Latin Translation of the Bible there are not only differences of senses from Originalls Hebrew or Greek now extant not only great and uncertain variety of reading in the antient Latin Copies but likewise as the Protestants brag very great diversity between the Impressions published by the Authority of Pope Sixtus Quintus and Clemens Octavus since the Councell of Trent wherein notwithstanding they are mistaken for though Sixtus Quintus had design'd an Impression and prepared a Bull for the authorizing of it yet God took him away before he effected his intent thereby as it were signifying that it was his pleasure to take away from Heretiques all seeming advantages against his Church But though this had been as the Protestants imagine surely a more corrected reimpression does not imply that the Church wanted the true Scripture since none of such differences are of such considerable moment as to cause any uncertainty in points of Doctrine For I conceive it was never heard that any errour was grounded meerly upon a various reading of any Text of Scripture But to proceed certain it is that there were much greater differences between the antient Italica and other Latin Translations of the antient Church and this of S. Hierome as likewise yet greater between the Septuagint and the Hebrew and yet neither do the Apostles refuse to quote some passages out of the Septuagint wherein the Translation is manifestly faulty however in a matter inconsiderable neither will any Catholique affirm that the promise of the holy Spirits assistance did fail the antient Church although it only made use of a Translation of the Scripture very imperfect if compared with S. Hieromes no not though upon such differences of reading it were possible to ground doctrines which might be circumstantially erroneous It is true such doctrines would be of no considerable moment but however they might be erroneous yet without any prejudice to Christs
most perfect will of God by which in time there is made a perfect denudation mortification and annihilation of a mans own private will and a suffering ones self to be inacted and moved immediately by Almighty God and at last a contemplation of the divine essence without any medium without all help of grosser imaginary forms an absorption of all operations called by them a divine idlenesse whereby the soul reposeth securely and with unspeakable pleasure in the bosome of her heavenly Bridegroom I speak not now of strange effects outward and respecting the body as Elevations Extasies c. which though admired at by others yet are neglected and even pray'd against by spirituall persons themselves 6. Now to prove that these are neither dreams of ignorant souls nor sublime extravagances of soaring spirits we may consider that 1. The greatest understandings that many of the last ages have brought forth as S. Bernard S. Thomas Aquinas S. Bonaventure and I. Picus Count of Mirandula c. have all written uniformly upon the same subject and have shewed clearly that what they wrote was not meer speculation but comprehended practised and felt by them 2. That even the meanest capacities have arrived to the perfection of contemplation as S. Isidore a plain husband-man in Spain S. Teresa S. Catherine of Siena and of Genoa silly ignorant women that unparallel'd young Heremite Gregorio Lopez Insomuch as whosoever shal with a true resignation pure intention enter into this life of the Spirit though his understanding be not able to give him entertainment for meditation yea though he be not able to help himself with reading others yet if being informed of the necessary points of Catholike Faith he humbly constantly move his wil to frame cordially acts of love and resignation c. to God even such a man or woman shall not fail to arrive it may be to a higher degree of union then the most learned and skilfull Doctors even to that perfection of which S. Paul speaks Crucifigor cum Christo vivo jaem non ego sed vivit in me Christus i. e. I am crucified with Christ and I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me 3. To the end to be secure of delusions it is observeable that whereas in other Sects â—â—â—re are certain counterfeitings of such a mysticall familiarity with God joyned with strange motions and effects as awong the Anabaptists Famulists Quakers Ranvers c. strange examples whereof in the last age we may read in Florimundus Raemundus yet now daily out-done by those Sects in England as at Malton in Yorkshire London and other places where they abound yet such illuminations discover their black Author in that the persons are far from being cleansed of their carnall lusts pride malice c. and the design appeares commonly to be the troubling the world with some new pretended Revelation and Reformation c. Whereas among spirituall persons in the Catholique Church the inseparable qualification for contemplation is a deep humility a most tender charity and love of Catholique unity 4. Lest a suspition should arise that this mysticall Theology and doctrine of contemplation should be an invention of Religious Orders to magnifie themselves in the worlds opinion as having means to a neerer approach to Almighty God then the rest of the world We may consider both that the same rules for substance are found in the writings of the antient Fathers as S. Dâ—onisius Aroopagita S Augustine S. Basil Joannes Cassianus S. Hierome c. and that even those most active Fathers and Bishops of the church have notwithstanding attained to a great perfection of contemplation yea that in this last age there have not appeared any more perfect therein then those two famous Bishops viz. B. Francis de Sales Bishop of Geneva and S. Charles Barromée that most unwearied sollicitous Arch-Bishop of Milan and Cardinal and Antonio de Roias a Spanish secular Priest Though withall it cannot be denyed but that a retreat and disengagement from the world solitude silence and other austerities be very powerfull and effectuall dispositions thereto But concerning Mysticall Theology I shall refer those that desire further information to the writings of Thaulerus Harphius Rusbrochius the Bishop of Geneva S. Teresa and many others Particularly the severall Treatises as yet Manuscripts of that late very sublime contemplatiue F. Augustine Baker a Monke of our English Congregation of the Holy Order of S. BENET The yet imperfect sum of whose methodicall instructions concerning Internall Prayer having happily met withall at Rome I found my self pressed to hasten my reconcilement to the Church because I thirsted to become capable of practising those heavenly instructions And afterward in France but especially in my passage through Cambray having seen many more of the same Authors writings the Spirit of which did eminently shew it selfe in the lives of those excellently devout and perfectly religious Benedictine Dames there and being by them informed which within a few dayes mine own eyes assured me of that the same doctrine was received and practised by their Fathers at Doway I presently contrary to all my former resolutions to dispose my selfe only among strangers in a religious life determined to fix my self at Doway I forbore in the former Impression to mention this Author among the rest because I thought his books were confin'd to Cambray where they were written or to his own Convent at Dowvy But being since assured that they were largely dispersed even among the secular Clergy I could not without ingratitude now omit his name and I hope that e're long a ful account of his spiritual instructions concerning the severall Degrees of Internall Prayer shal be happily communicated to the world methodically digested authoritatively published to the glory of God great advancement of devout souls in his divine love 7. For my present purpose it will suffice that by that short enquiry I made I satisfied my self that in no other Congregation but the Catholique Church only were to be found either rules in writing or living directors for a true spirituall life in any comparison approaching to those before named Insomuch as I have often wondred why Protestants would not at least borrow and transcribe such writings for their own use and practise and all that I could say for answer to my self was 1. That according to that saying of the Fathers Spiritus sanctus non est extra Ecclesiam i. e. The Holy Spirit resides not any where out of the Church that is disperses not his extraordinary favours and sublimer gifts any where else 2. Because Protestant Religion c. renouncing all Evangelicall Counsells of perfection as voluntary poverty chastity c. and their avarice having swallowed all the revenews which nourished men in a solitary life of meditation and contemplation they both want such effectuall helps thereto and dare not for fear of being censured as half-Catholiques commend or practise the means proper and conducing to it
and the present Governors who profess Independency an absolute freedom of Conscience are yet by a secret transition of some dregs of Calvinistical pollution become severe Executioners of their cruelty against us By that means destroying the foundation of their own Religion and rendring themselves obnoxions to be censured by neighbouring Princes and States as persons of no faith or constancy even to their own Principles But however it is to be hoped that care will be taken that the Presbyterian banner shall never be displayed amongst you lest their little fingers prove hereafter more heavy to all their opposors then the Prelatical loynes were formerly And I cannot but congratulate unto Scotland their late procured liberty from this more then Scilician Tyranny of Kirkism 6. If those now exauctorated now dispossessed Presbiterian Spirits would hearken to the advise of one that truly wishes so well to their souls that he would willingly sacrifice his life for their good I would desire them to consider how palpably beyond all other Sects their condition is most miserable and evidently accursed both by God and man For their Dominion and Tyranny never lasts longer then during the times of sediâ—ions and secret rebellious practises Then indeed secular ambitious spirits having great use and need of them to whisper treasons sow discontents inflame revenge and under a shew of zeal root all charity obedience and peacefulness out of the consciences of the people do suffer them to rage Whilst these plots are agirating so long they have leave given them to domineer over the souls of men and to set up their abhorrid Tribunals But when once their secular lords see themselves settled by their practises then nothing is so contemptible as a Calvinistical Minister witness Geneva where they have no influence upon the State and witness Holland where the whole Body of their wretched Ministery are not allowed one single voice in their Government nor the meanest Artisan scarce willing to cast away a daughter upon them 7. Filii hominum usquequo gravi corde ut quid diligitis vanitatem quaeritis mendatium O my beloved Countrymen How long will you remain of such stupified insensible blinde hearts Do not you perceive that it is meer emptiness that you graspe and a palpable lie that you so busily seek whilst renouncing Christs Authority you follow the conduct of your own Reason and Spirit Are you not now become like the men of Sodom struck with blindness yet perswaded that you are the onely Seers You cross and justle one another in the way knocking at all doors but the right How impossible is it that this blindness this eternal wandring should be cured but by the Opobalsamum of Catholick Faith and Obedience to the only spouse of Christ the Church Your eyes are not the onely Organs but your ears must be used for the learning of the true way Faith comes by hearing not studying or disputing and the persons to be heard are those that are sent that have a Mission sealed by Christ and delivered successively from his Apostles and by their Successors If you would hear you would beleeve And if you would beleeve you could not be divided But you will read and study and dispute and the fruit thereof is not faith but science falsely so called which puffs you up with a vain opinion of knowledge and tempts you to study and dispute without end Now if you really beleev'd the Scriptures which you read you would hear the Church that is the onely safe Interpreter of them He that hears you hears me sayes our Saviour to and concerning his Apostles and their Successors Christians must be hearers of their Teachers to the end of the world What infinite numbers of mis-lead souls have continually deceived themselves into eternal perdition and all of them with the Bible in their hands and perhaps in their heads and memories And this not for want of reading or disputing but of hearing and beleeving 8. This is the true and proper Difference indeed between a Catholick and a Mis-beleever The Bible is a Rule to them both but the sense of the Bible is conveyed several ways to them Hereticks receive it by the eyes they deliver it themselves to themselves by which means every one being a Teacher independent of another Christ has no Schollers among them so that every Reader creating a sense proper to his own tast and disposition they all agree onely in possessing the outward bark but the true sense escapes them Whereas a Catholick receives both the Bible and the sense of the Bible from the Church and Teachers appointed in Her So that he has the same assurance of the senseâ—â—â— of the Bible it self then which a greater certainty cannot be given even Protestants themselvs being Judges By this means it comes to pass that as it is impossible that Hereticks should agree any other way then in faction So it is impossible that Catholicks should differ in points of belief as it is impossible that Protestants should be humble who trust none nâ—r rely on any but their own wit and judgment they being their own only Authority So it is impossible that Catholicks should in this regard be proud whose wit and judgment is to renounce their own judgment and to depose their own wit and to captivate both to the obedience of Faith which comes by hearing Christ speak to them by his Church Lastly as it is impossible that Hereticks who follow private Reason which of all others by a general acknowledgment is the blindest Guide should not with their blind Guide fall into the Pit so it is impossible that Catholicks if their works be answerable to their faith should not with the Church that teaches them attain the glory which Christ has purchased for his Elect. 9. Do not I beseech you my dear friends look upon this Characteristical difference between Catholicks and Hereticks as a new device of our own brain but as an Ensigne set up by the Fathers of the Church yea by the Holy Ghost himself speaking by his Choisest Organ St. John the Evangelist Ep. 1 Chap. 4. Ipsi de mundo sunt ideo de mundo loquuntur c. They are of the World therefore they speak of the World and the World hears them we are of God He that hath known God heareth us Hereby know we the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error The Apostle in the beginning of the Chapter had warned the Brethren of the multitude of Antichrists that is Hereticks that were shortly to infest the Church and to preserve themselves from their poyson he advises them to try the Spirits that they might discern the true from the false Now to enable them for this Tryal he gives this mark of distinction They saith he that is the false Spirits are of the world and they speak of the world and the world heareth them Their great Master and Arch-Apostle is the world that is worldly lust which as he said before were