hear them tell it to the Church 2. Uninterrupted continuance and Succession This is my Covenant with them saith the Lord my spirit that is upon thee Isa 59.21 and my word which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy Seed nor out of the mouth of thy seeds seed from henceforth and for ever And he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists Ephes 4.11 And some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the ministery for the edifying the body of Christ Till we all come in the unity of faith unto a perfect man c. 3. Unity and Uniformity Now I beseech you brethren that ye all speak the same thing and that there be be no divisions among you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind 1 Cor. 1.10 and in the same Judgment That ye stand fast in one spirit with one mind Phil. 1.27 striving together for the faith of the gospel 4. Holy Fathers and Martyrs General Councils and Synods a High Priest and a Holy Sacrifice Vndoubted Miracles and Divine Sacraments Holy Orders and Religious Colledges Abstinence and Pennance Faith and Obedience Charity and Good Works And in a word fundamental Doctrines Authoritatively impos'd and Vniversally receiv'd throughout the whole Christian World Be not offended Fathers that I speak so largely of their Doctrine for having well examin'd I say again that nere eight parts in ten among Christians agree in those very Articles or most of them which are controverted between your selves and them And these believ'd from the beginning of their Conversions whether in Europe Asia Africa or America Having met with these great inducements to perswade me I had found the true Catholic Church and believing that a visible Body could not subsist without a visible Head I made it my next business to enquire after this Supream Vicegerent or Representative of the whole And indeed methought there was no great difficulty in it I began at the Head I mean Christ Jesus and found 1. That he was a High Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec That he instituted a new Law and gave Commissions to his Apostles to promulgate and interpret it and promised the assistance of his holy Spirit to the end of all Ages Next that of these he appointed one to be Chief I mean St. Peter so reputed and unanimously esteemed by the Fathers in the Eldest times of Christianity the Fathers so understood by many among your selves and not to be disputed without manifest injury and violence to their plain Writings and so received by the whole Catholic Church His Succession for many years deliver'd to us by St. Augustin and brought down even to our present Age and Pope These worthy Fathers are pregnant Arguments of a lawful Authority I wisht you could have shewn me such another in your own Church I next lookt into this Ecclesiastical Government as far as it concern'd me and found that all Points of Faith were determin'd in General Councils which represent the Catholic Church assembled and in which our Saviour promis'd his holy Spirit should ever assist That they were always as General as the Circumstances of Times and Places would permit or the weight of the Matters to be debated required and free and indisputable when secur'd from violence and force that their Decrees were then made with deliberation and according to the received Doctrines of the Apostles and their Successors preserv'd in the Writings of Fathers or constant Apostolical Tradition kept inviolable in the Church And when thus made that they were obligatory to bind our Consciences and conclude our private Reasons I examined further whether this Vicegerent and Successor of St. Peter was received as such in these General Councils or Catholic Church and found his Authority own'd and confirm'd by them and that he was many hundred of years in the peaceable possession of it no man upon Earth pretending a Superiority or if any did that he was thereupon condemn'd as an Intruder or Usurper Hence I concluded as the nature and necessary Laws of Government requir'd that the Pope himself or General Council or Both united could not possibly grant this Supream Authority to any other Mortal Man or Men to hold independently of him or them because this must constitute another Supream independent Head of the same Body which is monstrous or a Head without a Body which is ridiculous or else there would be two distinct Heads and two Bodies which is directly contrary to the Vnity and Essence of Christs Church as frustrating or obstructing the main End and design of Christ that is of preventing Heresies or condemning them when they arise for par in parem non habet Imperium Two equal Sovereign Authorities have no Jurisdiction one over the other Besides this Vicegerent is but a Trustee or Fidei commissarius and can have no greater Power than what is given him by his Principal or Fidei Commissor now this is a personal Trust and cannot be alienated or divided because he holds not this Power in his own right as a Property or in pleno Jure Proprietatis he hath only the administration of it in trust for another So neither can he alienate the Patrimonium Ecclesiae or St. Peters Patrimony all Contracts therefore in these Cases would be fraudulent Tanquam facti de re alienâ and the Grantees become malae fidei possessores or unjust Possessors of what they could not lawfully purchase Lastly all Sovereign Power in the same Government is Indivisible and can only be delegagated in the Executive part for the administration of Justice but accountable still to the Head from whence it derives The Equal priviledges therefore or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 granted to the Patriarck of Constantinople prove nothing against this Supremacy of St. Peters Successor For First They were only honorary in consideration that Constantinople was become the Seat of the Empire Secondly Patriarchal or quatenus Patriarcha but not quatenus Caput Ecclesiae or as Head of the Universal Church And lastly it is particularly exprest in the same Canon that these Honours or Priviledges should be held and enjoy'd post Pontificem Romanum after the Bishop of Rome and it appears de facto that during the Third General Council held at Ephesus and allow'd by Protestants Pope Caelestine the First did by his substitute Cyril authoritatively depose and Excommunicate Nestorius then Patriarch of Constantinople And Pope Victor who lived Anno Dom. 198. Excommunicated the Bishops of Asia for their keeping of Easter contrary to the Institutions of St. Peter and St. Paul tho tolerated therein by St. John Nor could Ambition or Avarice in those days of Persecution move the Supream Heads of the Church to exercise such Jurisdiction for they got little by being Eminent and Conspicuous but Martyrdom and so it hapned to this Pope Victor who died a
you may not believe I have err'd through Popish Affectation I will produce also for my Justification the sound Judgment of your best Reformers Luther tells us I do not deny but that the Bishop of Rome is Resp tred propos hath been and ought to be first of all I believe he is above all other Bishops it is not lawful to deny his Supremacy Melancton the Phaenix of learning says That the Bishop of Rome is above all the Church Epist ad Card. Belay that it is his Office to Judge in Controversies to govern to watch over the Priests to keep all Nations in Conformity and Vnity of Doctrines Somaisius The Pope of Rome hath been without controversie the first Metropolitan of Italy and not only in Italy nor only in the West but in all the World The other Metropolitans have been Chief in their respective Districts but the Pope of Rome Tract ad Sermondum hath been Metropolitan and Primate not only of some particular Diocess but of All. Grotius for whom I have a great respect and think him a very learned Man says the same thing and proves this Supremacy belongs to the Pope de Jure divino Annot. Sup. Nov. Test This also inferr'd from Episcopal Government by Jacob Cartwright Husse Beza and many others Now Fathers you cannot say but these Eminent Protestants were Men of great Learning and that they had searcht and understood Scripture and History as well as your selves and if my Judgment concurs with them in this Point as I profess it doth then have I found that lawful Supream Authority which I searched and where this Authority is there is Infallibility Or if you can shew me Infallibility elsewhere there also I am sure I will believe a sufficient Authority The differences between them I cannot easily discern Infallibility is from God and therefore we believe what is dictated thereby as from God Supream Ecclesiastical Authority is also from God and therefore we obey what it commands us as the Ordinance of God Infallibility concludes our Reasons and binds our Consciences Supream Church Authority binds also our Consciences and Supersedes all private Reason Infallibility is above all humane Authority The highest Church Authority can have no such Authority upon Earth above it Infallibility establisheth and supports Authority Authority declares and makes manifest the Infallibility Infallibility and the Promises of Christ fail when Authority is destroy'd Authority lives not when Infallibility ceaseth In a word were there no Infallibility as I believe there is I would still submit my Reason and regulate my Conscience according to the Decrees of the Supream lawful Ecclesiastical Authority This is my Belief pray blame me not I am humble and have read Scripture and upon my word I am Sincere You may believe otherwise I presume not to Judge you After all this worthy Fathers I must not forget to tell you that I still lay under some Difficulties before I could throughly assent to this Authority now believ'd in the Church of Rome For you had often told me that She had fallen from her Primitive Purity and separated her self from that One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church Answ to Prot. Quaeries p. 10. Declar'd also to be Antichristian and the true Church Latent and Invisible by that famous Napper to King James Brocard Fulk Sebast Francus Hospinian and many others Now good Fathers if She was once a pure and uncorrupted Church I presume She remains so still for give me leave to tell you I do not well see how She can separate from her self for Mr. Chillingworth an Eminent Author among you lookt upon it as a thing ridiculous if not impossible for says he In the Case of the Church of England p. 174. We have not forsaken but only reformed another part of it the Catholic Church which part we our selves are and I suppose you will not go about to perswade us that we have forsaken our selves or our own Communion Nor yet can She separate from the Catholic Church for the same Learned person tells us immediately after And if you urge that we joined our selves to no other part therefore were separated from the whole I say it follows not inasmuch as our selves were a part of it and still continued so and therefore can no more separate from the whole than from our selves But next supposing a part may separate from it self or from the whole pray be plain with me worthy Fathers and tell me where that part or that whole remain'd from whence the Church of Rome separated For Separation first supposes the Existence of the thing from which Separation is made and is a deadly fault and foretold by the Apostles as a mischief which would happen in the last days Remember ye the words which were spoken before of the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ how that they told you that there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly lusts these be they who Separated themselves sensual Jude v. 17 18 19. having not the Spirit Let us confider one another to provoke unto love and to good works Heb. 10.24 not forgetting the assembling our selves together and so much the more Act. 20.30 as ye see the day approaching Also of your selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them Now the Church of Rome was not only visible but a very Eminent Church St. Paul tells us Rom. 1. That her Faith is spoken of throughout the whole World And certainly that pure Church frâ—m which She Separated must needs be by so much the more Eminent as Her Apostacy was notorious which forsook her Tell me therefore where that pure Church remain'd that we may retrieve the true Christian Doctrine If she Separated from her self then besides Mr. Chill answer I add these Contradictions must be reciev'd as Truths The Church of Rome was at the same time Orthodox and Heterodox pure and corrupt sound but yet rotten Or if you can distinguish them shew me the Orthodox Pure and Sound part which was left by the Heterodox corrupt and rotten Church of Rome declare the time when the Separation was made and where both were to be found These are plain Questions and I must have a plain Answer if it can be had If you say She Separated from the Catholic Church then tell me where that Catholic Church remain'd from which She Separated and where She may be found for in good faith Fathers my Salvation is highly concern'd in this Question and I must be satisfied If you tell me She is invisible as others have done you plainly abuse me for I have long since learnt from your selves as a Maxim in Philosophy that de non apparentibus non existentibus eadem est ratio It is the same thing not at all to be as not at all to appear Besides excuse me if I take the word of our Saviour and his Apostles and all the
Aristides St. Augustin Grotius and many excellent Scholars counted it more Madness insolentissimae Insaniae est to contradict the Judgment of All or the Most or the most Wise and of the most wise All or Most or the most Excellent for says one of them as in matter of Fact we ought to believe the most and most proper and credible Witnesses so in matters of Opinion we are obliged to submit to the most and most Excellent Authors Now sure these praestantissimi Auctores are those who write with best Authority and have Commission from the Highest Powers so to do Yet notwithstanding all this I followed my own private Reason in my particular Points until a stronger Reason I mean the joint and common Reason of Mankind and my Conscience too daily dictating that my Judgment in particular Cases might fail that all had not equal strength that God therefore had not left the World without Government nor given us Laws without lawful Judges and Interpreters that these Judges ought to be obeyed These I say and such like considerations interrupted the quiet of my life until at last my united Reason made its last effort and fully and totally convinc'd me that if any such Authority was to be found upon Earth I ought in reason to submit my particular Reasons to it Truly Fathers when upon deliberate counsel I had determin'd to take this most reasonable course Give me leave to tell you that I began to wonder how your selves tho most learned most reasonable and most pious Men could be satisfied under the conduct of your private Reasons if there may be found any legal Supream Judge which might ultimately and Authoritatively guide and direct you Pardon me I do not presume to measure my Reason against the meanest among yours for I question not but yours would err much less than mine but yet lest your own should err at all methinks it were safest and by consequence most reasonable to seek some Authority if any such there be under which you might be secur'd from all Errour at least as far as humane nature is capable of it For my part my Reason and Conscience forc't me to take that method and I resolved either to find that Authority and submit to it or keep to my own Principles how erroneous soever they might be esteem'd by others My first enquiry after this Authority was in the Church of England for tho you had often told me that it was not there yet I was more inclin'd to suspect your Modesty than condemn your want of Prudence in pretending to subsist securely without it But when I had again examined the holy Scriptures together with the best Records and Histories concerning your legal Title to this Supream Jurisdiction I found indeed you had reason and were very ingenuous in disowning what did not of right belong unto you For if the Church of England enjoys this Power by the same Rule and for the same Reasons Holland Denmark Swedeland France Italy and Spain would have the same Title to it as your selves nay perhaps Turks and Pagans But my Reason told me from the sad effects which we daily see that this must needs be most contrary to the Unity of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church I then recollected how you had often told me that the Catholic Church could never Err but that it would always hold the purity of Faith uncorrupt I remember then to have askt of your Reverences where this Catholic Church was to be found and you told me That it was dispers'd all over the Christian World I was troubled that your answer was so wide however I resolved to search and first I enquired in the Roman Church Indeed they assured me that I should there find what I lookt for 'T is true I found them all of one mind in necessaries but when I examin'd their Doctrines I perceived as you had often declar'd that if yours were true their 's was much corrupt or if they dissembled they must needs be under as great a condemnation Among them therefore there could be no part of the Catholic Church Then I went into the Greek Church but found there also the same objections and difficulties In a word I went through the Asian and African Churches the Denmark Swedeland Lutheran and Socinian Churches yet found nothing but Hypocrisie or the true Faith according to your Standard notoriously corrupt I name not Holland because among them I saw such a Medley of Faiths that it look't to me as Babel might have done when God confounded their Language but certainly if the Catholic Doctrine had been practis'd in those parts where I had been Holland surely of any Nation would best have represented the Universal Church But believe me Fathers it must then have quitted its Titles of Unity and Holiness except Vnity can consist with Division or Holiness with the World the Flesh and the Devil At last I return'd to your selves and acquainted you how unsuccessful my Journey had been you still replied that there was undoubtedly a Catholic Church Militant upon Earth and that this Church did also hold the true Faith of Christ uncorrupt but withal that it was not necessary it should be visible quoting at the same time the complaint of Elijah that he only he was left to whom God answered that he had seven Thousand left in Israel unknown to Elijah who had not bent the knee to Baal And that this was a Type of the Christian Church Truly Fathers may it not displease you I began to think that you had trifled with me all this while and pleas'd your selves to send me of an April Errand for to look for a thing which is invisible is a kind of a foolish Message Perceiving that you had not us'd me kindly I resolved to set out once more upon my own strength especially since I believ'd with you that there was an unerring Catholic Church and more than you that this Church was certainly and easily visible This my Belief was also the more confirm'd when I had well consider'd the Story of Elijah for I found that this defection and falling away from the worship of the true God was in Israel only a rebellious Kingdom separated from the chosen Tribe of Judah God knows how like our Case in England but in Jerusalem God had a public Temple a public High Priest and public true Worshippers and so they continued except some little time they were punisht with Captivity until the coming of Christ I made my first step as I had done before into the Church of Rome and indeed I there found all the marks and signs of a true Catholic Church As 1. Universality and Visibility And it shall come to pass in the last days Isa 2.2 that the Mountain of the Lords house shall be established in the top of the Mountains and shall be exalted above the Hills Micah 4.1 And the people shall flow unto her Mat. 18.17 And if he shall neglect to