common reason and cannot but command the Assent of every sanctified Mind That such Men are most likely to have the Meaning of Gods Spirit which walk according to Gods Spirit and seek not their own Gain Glory or pleasure but Christs Glory his Will and peoples Good and such again are most likely to use greatest sincerity in delivering the Truth which they know without partiality or respect of persons Again men are bound caeteris paribus to Believe them best and Obey them most of whose skil and sincerity in dispensing the Mysteries of faith they have had most comfortable and spiritual Experience For the Article of Gods providence binds us hereto and wils us to reverence our Fathers in Christ either such as by his Word first begot faith or nourished it in us more then others Thus much concerning this point I have thought good to insert in this place because the true and sincere Practise of Obedience according to that measure of Truth or Belief which men have though but imperfect is the excellentest Means for attaining the clear sight of Divine Truth and that perfect Measure of sanctifying Belief which in this life can be looked for as shall God willing afterwards appear CAP. X. Wherein this Conditional Belief differeth from the Romans implicite Faith That the one is the other not subordinate to Gods Word or Rule of Faith 1 AS this Opinion of conditional Assent unto Divine Truthes not absolutely known for such holds the Mean betwixt the two Extreams or contrary Errours above mentioned So is this conditional Assent it self a Mean betwixt that absolute Belief which all acknowledge to be necessarie in some principal Points of Christian Faith and that implicit Belief which the Romish Church exacts in all points whatsoever Our Assent unto many Articles of Faith is actually and expresly absolute The implicit Belief of the Romanists is but potentially or rather vertually and implicitely absolute This conditional Belief hitherto mentioned not so much as potentially much lesse implicitely or virtually absolute That properly is Believed by an implicite Faith which is not actually and expresly Assented unto in the particular but yet is so essentially and immediately contained in some general Article or Point of Faith absolutely or expresly Believed that this Particular likewise is Assented unto in grosse whilest we Assent to it and may be as absolutely as expresly and distinctly Assented unto as the General when it is once explicated and unfolded In this Sense we say the Conclusion is implicitely contained in the Premisses the Corollarie in the Theorem or the immediate Consequent in his necessarie Antecedent For he that grants One of these absolutely must upon the same terms grant the Other at the first proposal of it unto him But this conditional or reservative Belief may be of such Points as are not certainly and infallibly contained in any Principle of Faith absolutely expresly actually or infallibly acknowledged much lesse so essentually and immediately contained in any that a man cannot absolutely grant it but he must absolutely Believe them And albeit off-times they may be infallibly deduced from known undoubted Principles of Faith yet is not the deduction so immediate as can be made clear and evident to all Capacities at least not at the first sight without any further increase of Knowledge in Spiritual Matters And before the deduction be made as evivident and apprehended asinfallible as are the general Articles whence they are deduced the Particulars deduced from them may not be so infallibly and absolutely Believed as the Generals are The Papists besides their Explicit Belief of some few main Points demand an Implicit Belief of as many Particulars as the Church shall propose so as whatsoever the Church shall propose with them once proposed admits no conditional Belief all must be Absolute albeit the parties Believing cannot discern any necessary or probable deduction of the particulars from general Points absolutely and expresly believed It is enough that they know them to be proposed by the Church For once Believing Whatsoever the Church saith is most Infallible which is the main Article of Roman Faith no man can denie any particular proposed by it to be infallible more then he can deny the Conclusion for certain after he hath granted the Premisses for such Consequently to these Positions they make the Visible Church the Rule and Mistresse of mens Faith as they speak For albeit a man at this present think otherwise of many Points of greatest Moment then the Church or Pope doth or though he think not at all of many things which they in time may propose unto him yet after they have proposed either a contrarie Opinion to that which his Conscience tels him is Gods Word or a new and strange Position which he never thought of he must without more ado Believe both absolutely and expresly and so finally retract extend enlarge abridge direct and frame his Faith according to that Rule or Standard which they shall set him Hence God willing shal appear the Madness of some great Schollers among them who holding the Church to be such a Rule of Faith would perswade us if we would be so simple that their last Resolution of Faith is not into the Churches Authoritie but into the Scripture For nothing can be resolved beyond it rule to make the Churches authority such an absolute authentick unquestionable rule of faith as the Papists do and withal to seek the resolution of any point of faith further then it or to derive it from Scripture doth argue such a medley of Folly Impietie as if some gullish Gentleman desirous to prove the Antiquitie of his House should draw his Pedigree from Adams great Grandfather and yet hold the Records of Moses for most undoubted and true which affirm Adam to have been the first Progenitour of all Mankind Whether they seek to resolve their Faith into the Scriptures acknowledged by us and them or into other Unwritten Revelations pretended for Divine Truths their Folly will still appear the same so long as they hold that impious and blasphemous Opinion making the Churches Authoritie such a Rule of Faith as hath been said Their Injuries and Contumelies unto Gods written Oracles as hath heretofore been intimated are especially Two First they deny them to be any intire Rule for the number of Precepts Secondly they make those very Precepts which are acknowledged for Divine insufficient for the establishment of true Faith unto themselves without the Churches Authority We acknowledge them every way sufficient for the Edification of Christs Church in Faith and Manners and consequently both to our Positions and the Truth we teach that all Matters of Faith must be finally resolved into these Divine written Verities which for this reason we acknowledge the only Infallible Rule of Faith The Meaning of which Assertion is here to be further explicated that so the Truth may be maintained against their Objections CAP. XI In what Sense we
of our selves And again the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets 2 And yet both these Rules concern the greatest Scholars and most skilful Interpreters in some degree as well as the meanest For none is so absolutely good none so far exceeds another but in part may be exceeded by him Nor doth this Christian Modesty which the Scripture thus teacheth bind any Christian soul or ingenuous mind to such absolute servility as the Objection must inforce upon all if it prove ought For there is no ingenuous man especially of meaner gifts but will in heart and conscience acknowledge many both Ancient and modern for far more excellent Scholars then himself and yet be fully perswaded in Conscience that in sundry particulars he hath the Truth on his side which they oppugne and the true sense of Gods Spirit in some points wherein they have erred or were ignorant For neither wil an indefinite Proposition in matters whose revelation depends upon the free Wil and Liberty of Gods Spirit and are in respect of us contingent infer every particular nor will one or sew particulars in any point infer an Universal Proposition or such as we call vera ut plurimum true for the most part Now to say believe that such a man is a better Scholar and of far more excellent gifts is but indefinite not infinite for the extent of his Scholarship or gifts beyond mine Wherefore it wil not hence follow that he is a better Scholar or interpreter in this albeit he be so in many or in most other particulars much lesse will it follow that I am a better Scholar or interpreter then he because I am better seen in this one or few particulars The Consequence or Corollary of which two Assertions is again as evident I may without breach of Modesty think I have the Truth on my side in sundry particulars against him that is far better seen in Scriptures and other Sciences then my self For albeit he were much better seen in both then he is yet are his gifts measured as well as mine although God hath given him a greater measure of such gifts then me Wherefore as I would willingly yield unto him in infinite others so may I safely dissent from him in this or ââ¦r particulars that are contained in the small measure of Gods gifts upon me without any just censure of Arrogancy or breach of Modesty for entring the lists of Comparison with him absolutely For now we are to be compared but in this one or few Cases not according to the whole measure of Gods gifts in us which I acknowledge far greater in him and reverence him as my Superiour for them And as I acknowledge him absolutely for my better so is he in these particulars in some sort to yield Superiority unto me Christian Modesty teacheth every man not to be hasty or rash in gain-saying the Doctrine of the Ancient or other men of Worth but rather binds him to diligence in examination of the Truth to use deliberation in gain-saying the Opinions of men better learned then himself But Christianity it self binds all Christians not to believe mens Authority against their own Consciences nor to admit of their Doctrines for Rules of Faith be they never so excellent unlesse they can discern them to be the Doctrine of that great Prophet Cui DEUS non admetitur Spiritum He cannot fail in any thing and whatsoever He saith or what his SPIRIT shall witnesse to my Spirit to have proceeded from Him I am bound to Believe But for men to whom God gives his Spirit but in measure albeit in great measure because I cannot know the particulars unto which it extends I neither may absolutely refuse nor absolutely admit their doctrines for true until I see perfectly how they agree with or disagree from his Doctrine of whose Fulnesse we have all received And even the Truth of their Writings to whom he hath given his gifts in great measure I am to examin by their Consonancy unto that small measure of his undoubted gifts in my self so far as they concern my self or others committed to my charge And in the confidence of Gods Promises for the increase of Faith and Grace to all such as use them aright every Christian in sobriety of spirit may by the Principles of Faith planted by Gods singer in his heart examin the Sentences and Decrees of the wisest men on earth to approve them if he can discern them for true to confute them if false to suspend his judgement and limit the terms of his disobedience unto them if doubtful and finally to admit or reject them according to the degrees of their Probability or Improbability which he upon sober diligent and unpartial search directed and continued in reverence of Gods Word and sincere love of Truth shall find in them 3 All the Arguments which they can heap up from the Variety of Opinions amongst the learned albeit they could make a Catalogue of Confusion in this kind as long as the tower of Babel was high can only prove thus much That no man especially no man indued with the gift of interpreting may rely upon any other mans Opinions Expositions or Decrees without further examination of them but only upon the Scripture it self which never varieth from it self nor from the Truth for this cause to be admitted as the only Infallible Rule of all Divine Truths whereunto every man must conform his Belief and Perswasions For even this Variety of Opinions about the particular Sense or Meaning of this Canon of Truth amongst such as joyntly acknowledge the Infallibility of it in general is a sufficient Reason to disclaim any mans Authority for the Rule of Faith seeing Experience shews such Variety and Partiality in them and the general Foundation of Faith held by all thus dissenting binds every man to Believe that the Scripture is not subject to any of these Inconveniences This undoubted certainty of it when it is rightly understood and perceived should incourage all to seek out the right Sense and Meaning of it which once found is by all mens consent the surest foundation of Faith for by our Adversaries consent it is the Ground of the Churches Faith and where they cannot presently attain unto it to suspend their judgements and not to follow mens Authorities but onely in Particulars whose Generals are contained in Scripture lest they may lead them against the true Sense and Meaning of it And if men generally should have no other Ground but mans Authority or Believe this or that to be the Meaning of Scripture because such a man or companie of men doth tell him so besides his wronging of Gods Spirit herein he should also wrong many other men oft-times far better learned and skilfull in Scriptures more dear in the sight of God and better acquainted with his Spirit then are they on whose Authoritie he relies Every one to whom God hath given a wise heart and Power in Scripture might
much grieved at the Trent Councels impietie but now I wonder at these grave Fathers folly that would trouble themselves with prescribing so many Canons or overseeing so large a Catechisme when as the beginning of Protagoras Book one or two words altered might have comprehended the entire confession of such mens faith as rely upon their Fatherhoods The Atheist thus began his Book De dijs non haââo quod decam utrum sint necne Concerning the Gods or their being I can say nothing A private Roman Catholick might render an entire account of his faith in termes as brief De Christo Christiana fide non habeo quod dicam utrum sint necne Whether there be a Christ or Christian Religion be but a Politick Fable I have nothing to say peremptorily yea or no the Church or Councel can determine whom in this and all other points wherin God is a party I will absolutely believe whilest I live if at my death I find they teach amâe let the devil and they if there be a devil decide the controversie Yet this conceit or conditional Belief of Christ and Christianity conceived from the former serves as a ground colour for disposing mens souls to take the sable dye of Hell wherewith the second main stream of Romish impietie will deeply infect all such as drink of it For once believing Gods Word from the Churches testimony this absolute submission of their consciences to embrace that sence it shall suggest sublimates them from refined Heathinisme or Gentilisme to diabolisme or symbolizing with infernal spirits whose chiefest solace consists in acting greatest villanies or wresting the meaning of Gods written Lawes to his dishonour For just proof of which imputation we are to prevent what as we late intimated might in favour of their opinion be replied to our former instance of light and colours 9 Some perhaps well affected would be resolved why as he that sees colours by the sun sees not only the sun but colours with it so he that believes the Scriptures by relying upon the Church should not believe the Church onely but the Scriptures too commended by it The doubt could hardly be resolved if according to our adversaries Tenent the Churches declarations did confirm our faith by illustrating the Canon of Scriptures or making particular truths contained in it inherently more perspicuous as if they were in themselves but potentially credible and made actually such by the Churches Testimony which is the first and Principal Credible in such sort as colours become actually visible by illumination of the principal and prime visible But herein the grounds of Romish doctrine and the instance brought by Sacroboscus to illustrate it are quite contrary For the light of the Sun though most necessary unto sight is yet necessary onely in respect of the object or for making colours actually visible which made such or sufficiently illuminated are instantly perceived without further intermediation of any other light then the internal light of the Organ in discerning colours alwayes rather hindered then helped by circumfusion of light external For this reason it is that men in a pit or cave may at noon day see the starres which are invisible to such as are in the open air not that they are more illuminated to the one then the other but because plentie of light doth hinder the Organ or eye-sight of the one Generally all objects either actually visible in themselves or sufficiently illuminated are better perceived in darknesse then in the light But so our Adversaries will not grant that after the Church hath sufficiently proposed the whole Canon to be Gods Word the distinct meaning of every part is more clear and facile to all private spirits by how much they lesse participate of the visible Churches further illustration For quite contrary to the former instance the Churches testimony or declaration is onely necessary or available to right belief in respect not of the object to be believed Scriptures but of the party believing For as hath been observed no man in their judgement can believe Gods Word or the right meaning of it but by believing the Church and all belief is inherent in the believer Yea this undoubted Belief of the Churches authority is that which in Bellarmine and Sacroboscus's judgement makes a Roman Catholicks belief of Scriptures or divine truths taught by them much better then a Protestants If otherwise the Churches declaration or testimony could without the belief of it infallibility which is inherent in the subject believing make Scriptures credible as the light doth colours visible in themselves a Protestant that knew their Churches meaning might as truely believe them as a Roman Catholick albeit he did not absolutely believe the Church but onely use her help for their Orthodoxal interpretation as he doth ordinary Expositors or as many do the benefit of the Sun for seeing colours which never think whether colours may be seen without it or no. For though it be certain that they cannot yet this opinion is meerly accidental to their sight and if a man should be so wilfull as to maintain the contrary it would argue only blindness of mind none of his bodily sight Nor should distrust of the Romish Churches authority ought diminish our Belief of any divine Truth were her declarations requisite in respect of the object to be believed not in respect of the subject believing 10 Hence ariseth that difference which plainly resolves the former doubt For seeing the Sun makes colours actually visible by adding vertue or lustre to them we may rightly say we see colours as truely as the light by which we see them For though without the benefit of it they cannot be seen yet are they not seen by seeing it or by relying upon it testimony of them Again because the use of light is onely necessarie in respect of the object or for presenting colours to the eye after once they be sufficiently illuminated or presented every creature endued with sight can immediately discern each from other without any further help or benefit of external light then the general whereby they become all alike actually visible at the same instant The Suns light then is the true cause why colours are seen but no cause of our distinguishing one from another being seen or made actuallie visible by it For of all sensible objects sufficiently proposed the sensitive faculty though seated in a private person is the sole immediat supreme Judge and relies not upon any others more publick verdict of them On the contrary because the Romanists supposed firm belief of Scriptures or their true meaning ariseth only from his undoubted belief of the Churches veracicie which is in the believer as in it subject not from any increase of inherent credibilitie or perspicuitie thence propagated to the Scriptures Hence it is that consequently to his positions most repugnant to all truth he thinks after the Church hath sufficiently avouched the Scriptures divine truth in general we
force of assimilating them unto the paterns of godly and religious mens Souls represented herein yea even of transforming them into the similitude of that Image wherein they were first created The Idaeas of Sanctity and Righteousnesse contained in this Spiritual Glasse are the causes of our Edification in good life and Vertue as the Idaea or Platform in the Artificers head is the cause of the Material House that is builded by it SECT II. Of Experiments and Observations External answerable to the rules of Scripture CAP. VII Containing the Topick whence such Observations must be drawn 1 IF the Books of some Ancient rare Author who had written in sundry Arts should be found in this Age all bearing the Authors name and other commendable Titles prefixed a reasonable man would soon be perswaded that they were His whose name they bore but sooner if he had any positive arguments to perswade himself or their Antiquitie or if they were commended to him by the authoritie or report of men in this case credible But besides all these if every man according to his Experience or Skill in those Arts and Faculties which this Ancient writer handles should upon due examination of his Conclusions or discourse find resolution in such points as he had alwayes wavered in before or be instructed in matters of his Profession or observation whereof he was formerly ignorant this would much strengthen his Assent unto the former reports or traditions concerning their Author or unto the due praises and Titles prefixed to his Works albeit he that made this trial could not prove the same truth so fully to another nor cause him to Believe it so firmly as he himself doth unlesse he could induce him to examine his writings by like Experiments in some Facultie wherein the examiner had some though lesse Skill And yet after the like trial made he that had formerly doubted would Believe these works to be the supposed Authors and subscribe unto the Titles and commendations prefixed not so much for the Formers Report or Authoritie as from his own Experience Now we have more certain Experiments to prove that the Scriptures are the word of God then we can have to prove any mens works to be their supposed Authors for one Author in any Age may be as good as another He perhaps better of whom we have heard lesse We could in the former case only certainly Believe that the Author whosoever was an excellent Scholler but we could not be so certain that it was none other but he whose Name it did bear For there may be many Aristotles and many Platoes many Excelllent men in every Profession yet but One God that is All in All whose Works we suppose the Scriptures are which upon strict examination will evince him alone to have been their Author 2 The meanes then of establishing our Assent unto any part of Scripture must be from Experiments and Observations agreeable to the rules in Scripture For when we see the reason and manner of sundrie events either related by others or experienced in our selves which otherwise we could never have reached unto by any Natural Skill or generally when we see any effects or concurrence of things which cannot be ascribed to any but a Supernatural Cause and yet they fully agreeing to the Oracles of Scriptures or Articles of Belief This is a sure Pledge unto us that he who is the Author of Truth and gives being unto all things was the Author of Scriptures 3 Such Events and Experiments are divers and according to their diversities may work more or lesse on divers dispositions Some may find more of one sort some of another none all Some again may be more induced to Believe the truth of Scriptures from one sort of Experiments some from others Those observations are alwayes best for every man which are most incident to his Vocation With some varietie of these observations or Experiments we are in the next place to acquaint divers Readers CAP. VIII That Heathenish Fables ought not to Prejudice divine Truth 1 NOthing more usual to men wise enough in their generation then for the varietie or multitude of false reports concerning any Subject to discredit All that are extant of the same And all inclination unto diffidence or distrust is not alwayes to be misliked but onely when it swayes too far or extends is self beyond the limits of its proper Circumference that is matters of Bargain or secular Commerce As this diffident temper is most common in the cunning managers of such affaires so the first degree or propension to it were not much amiss in them did they not Transcendere à genere ad genus that is were not their Mistrust commonly too generally rigid and stiff For most men of great dealings in the world finding many slipperie companions hold it no sin to be at the least suspitious of all Others being often cozened by such as have had the name and reputation of Honest men begin to doubt whether there be any such thing indeed as that which men call Honestie and from this doubting about the real nature of Honestie in the Abstract they resolve undoubtedly That if any man in these dayes do not dâ⦠ill with others it is onely for want of sit opportunitie to do himself any great good But as Facilitie in yielding Assent unless it be moderated by discretion is an infallible Consequent of too great simplicitie and layes a man open to abuse and wrong in matters of this life so General Mistrust is the certain forerunner of Insidelity and makes a man apt enough to cozen himself without a tempter in matters of the life to come though otherwise this is the very disposition which the great Tempter works most upon who for this reason when any notable truth of greater moment fals out labours by all means to fil the world with reports of like events but such as upon examination he foresees wil prove false for he knows well that the Belief of most pregnant truths may be this means be much impaired as honest men are usually mistrusted when the world is full of knaves And to speak the Truth It is but a very short Cut betwixt general and rigid Mistrust in worldly dealings and Infidelity in spiritual matters which indeed is but a kind of diffidence or mistrust and he that from the experience of often cozenage comes once to this point That he will trust none in worldly affairs but upon strong securitie or legal assurance may easily be transported by the varietie or multitude of reports in spiritual matters notoriously false to Believe nothing but upon the sure pledge and Evidence of his own Sense or natural Reason This is one main fountain of Atheism of which God willing in the Article of the Godhead In this place I onely desire to give the Reader notice of Satans Policy and to advertise him withall that as there is a kind of Ingenuous Simplicity which if it match with sobâieâie and serious
now not to be such but Necessarie and good So as not only the Obedience is to be thought good but the very Action wherein Obedience is seen though before Indifferent is now inherently good and the Omission of it would be in it self Evil and not by Consequent only For Obedience either is or causeth a new Form or Essential Difference which doth as it were sublimate the outward Action to an higher Nature and Quality then it was capable of before For the same Reason may this goodnesse of Obedience and the due Consideration of Harms which may follow its Refusal make such Actions as before had been Evil for us out of private Resolutions to have undertaken not to be any more Evil but Good The Difficultie only is what private Doubts or Dislikes may be countervailed by publick Authoritie or what certain Rule may be given when they may and when they may not 8 General Rules in this Case are very hard to be given because the Circumstances may be many and divers The Authority may be greater or lesse so may their Dislike that are to perform Obedience be of the things enjoyned The Injunction likewise may be more or lesse Peremptorie Sometimes it may seem to resemble rather an Advice then absolute Command sometimes rather to Adjure then Command Sometimes the Parties in Authority may be of lesse and the parties of whom Obedience is exacted of greater Reach and deeper Insight in those matters whereunto Obedience is enjoyned according to the Diversitie of the Subject of Obedience which sometime may be such wherein men of Experience or Practice are to be most Believed wherein Concurrence of Judgements and Multitude of Voices may argue more Truth Sometimes the Subject of Obedience may be matters of abstruse Speculation wherein one man of profound Judgement is more to be Believed then five hundred but of ordinarie Capacitie For as things Visible but far Distant so matters of abstruse Speculation cannot be discerned by multitude of Eyes but by clearnesse of Sight and as he that could discern ships in the Carthaginian from the Lilibaean haven saw more then all Xerxes Armie could in like Distance so doth it oft fall out that some one profound Judicious Contemplator sees clearly that Truth which all the Wits of the same Age had not been able without him to discover Such men may sin in obeying Authority whereunto others in yeelding Obedience sin not because they can discern the Unlawfulnesse of the Command it self better than others But unlesse a man can justly plead this or some other like peculiar Reason or Priviledge it is a very suspitious and dangerous Case to Disobey lawfull Authority whether Spiritual or Temporal in such matters as he thinks others of his own Rank may with safe Conscience Obey or in such matters whereunto he sees many men by his own Confession of great Judgement and Integrity of Life yeelding Obedience with alacritie For if thus he think of them he cannot but suspect himself and his Perswasions of Error nay he cannot be otherwise perswaded but that the Commandment or publick Injunction of Authority is not absolutely against Gods Commandment for so it could not be Obeyed with safe Conscience by men of Skil and Integrity And this I take to be the safest general Rule that can be given in this Case Not to consider the particular Matters enjoyned with such of their Circumstances or Consequences as we out of our private Imaginations conceive or fear so much as the general Form of publick Injunction as it indistinctly concerns All. If we can truly discern the Law or publike Act it self to be against Gods Law and such as will lay a Necessitie upon us of transgressing Gods Commandements if we yeeld Obedience to particulars enjoyned by it Our Apostles have already answered for us It is better to Obey God then Men. Christ had commanded them to preach the Gospel The Priests and other Governours forbid them to preach Christ Here was a Contradiction in the Lawes themselves But GOD Commands us to Obey the Powers ordained by him and their Commandements are particular Branches of Gods General Commandements for this purpose and he that Disobeyeth them Disobeyeth God unlesse their Commandements be contrary to some other of Gods Commandements And it is a Course as preposterous as dangerous to Disobey Authority because we dislike the things Commanded by it in respect of our selves or upon some Perswasion peculiar to us not common to All. For seeing Obedience is Gods expresse Commandement yea seeing We can no more Obey than Love God whom we have not seen but by obeying our Superiours whom we have seen True Spiritual Obedience were it rightly planted in our hearts would bind us rather to like Well of the things Commanded for Authorities sake than to Disobey Authority for the private dislike of them Both our Disobedience to the one and Dislike of the other are unwarrantable unlesse we can truly derive them from some formal Contradiction or Opposition betwixt the publick or general Injunction of Superiours and expresse Law of the most High 9 It will be replied That albeit the general Form of publick Injunction be not absolutely Unlawful nor the things enjoyned for this reason essentially or necessarily Evil yet are these most Unexpedient and may be grand Occasions of great Evil. He that is thus Perswaded might as far as became his Place disswade any Publike Act concerning such Matters and yet withall was bound to consider whether the Want of such an Act might not Occasion as great Evils as he fears may follow the Practise of such Obedience as it commands or whether other might not as probably foresee some equivalent âood which he sees not But after such Acts are publickly made and Obedience duely demanded he that denies it upon fear onely of some Evil that may follow doth give great Occasion to others of Committing that Evil which he himself by this Refusal certainly Commits he opens the gap to that Capital Mischief of publike Societies Anarchie and Disobedience In Doubts of this Nature it will abundantly suffice to make sincere Protestation in the sight of God or if need require before Men that we undertake not such Actions upon any private liking of the things enjoyned but onely upon sincere respect of performing Obedience to Superiours whom God hath appointed to make Lawes for Us but not Us to appoint them what Lawes they should make nor to Judge of their Equity being made save onely where the Form of the Commandement is contrary to some of Gods Commandements so as the particulars enjoyned become therby essentially and necessarily Evil. In such Case the Lawes of Superiours are already Judged and Condemned by Gods Law by which whilest they stand Uncondemned they shall condemn us for Disobedience both to Gods Lawes and Them albeit we stand in Doubt whether that which they enjoyn would not be most unlawfull for us to do if we were left unto our Private Choyce
consequence as Inferiour Ministers may If they could but duly consider and unpartially esteem the Goodnesse which accompanies Obedience which is better then sacrifice and the evil of Disobedience which is as the Sin of Witchcraft these two laid together would be more then equivalent to any evil that Lay-men or Inferiours usually conceive in such Actions as they deny Obedience in unto their Pastors Nay in this unbelieving Age wherein it is more to be Complemental then Religious it is thought an answer good enough so it be complementally performed unto their Pastors We would do as you Advise or Injoyn us in Christs Name if we certainly knew that it were Christs Will or agreeable to Gods Word Whereas in truth in giving such Answers when neither they certainly know nor are careful to learn whether their Advise be contrary to Gods Word or no they sin directly against Christian Faith advancing their own Humours above Gods Word which commands Obedience unto Pastors preferring the Liberty of their unruly Wils before the safety of their Consciences And it is preposterous to plead Ignorance of Gods Will before them whose Instructions therein they are bound duly to Hear and hearing to Obey until they can light on better or find them false upon serious and due examination that is They must Obey them not absolutely and irrevocably but with Limitation and Caution And questionlesse if men did infallibly Believe or absolutely from their hearts Obey that which they undoubtedly know to be Gods Will they would never make question but that for which they have Presumptions that it is part of Gods Will or that which is commended unto them for his Will by such as he hath appointed to be Messengers of the same should be conditionally Believed and without caution Obeyed especially when it is delivered solemnly upon deliberation and premeditation or out of that place whence he hath appointed them to learn his Wil. Did not Priests as the Proverb is forget that ever they were Clerks or such as take themselves for great proficients that they were sometimes Novices in the School of Christ they might remember how they came unto that absolute and infallible Belief of those Christian Principles by which they hope for Salvation by entertaining this conditional Belief which we speak of and by yielding like Obedience unto Divine Truths now fully but at the first imperfectly known for such And albeit such general Articles of Christian Faith as are necessary for all to Believe neither increase nor diminish their Number yet if we descend unto the Diversity of mens Estates and Callings and Difference of Time and Place Christian Faith receiveth perpetual increase not only in its proper Strength or as we say by way of Intention but in extent also unto many particulars either directly contained though not so easie to be discerned as essential parts under the former general Principles or else annexed unto them collaterally as limbs or borders Besides all Christian Duties or Matters of Practise are not promiscuously fir for every Time or Place but must be severally proportioned to their diversitie Again the same duties I mean of the same kind must be performed in different measure according to the different exigence of Time Place Persons or other Occurrents In all these and many more respects is this conditional Assent and Obedience unto Pastors most necessary And ere men can retain stedfastly that which is best they must make triall of all or many things of different kinds and yet trial of Spiritual Medicines without Spiritual Physitians prescripts is so much more dangerous to ordinary mens Souls then like trial of Physick-conclusions is to their Bodies by how much such men are more ignorant of the state of their Souls then of their Bodies The necessity and use of what hath been delivered concerning Obedience in general will appear in sundry points to be discust hereafter In respect of which especially of that point concerning the manner how we may know the Sense of Scriptures and that concerning the nature of Christians Faith some further unfolding of this Conditional Assent and Obedience will be likewise necessary CAP. IX Of the Nature Use Conditions or Properties of Conditional Assent or Obedience 1 THe first step in the way to Life is from this Infallible Ground of Nature Whatsoever God hath revealed concerning Matters of Mans Salvation is most True and by all means to be Obeyed This Principle All Men absolutely capable of Reason acknowledging a God do Believe and from their absolute Belief hereof they yield a conditional Obedience and Reverence unto those Books which we call Scripture From the trial of whose Truth we rise a step or degree higher and undoubtedly acknowledge Certain General Principles contained in Scripture without whose Belief no man ordinarily can be saved for the Oracles of God or Divine Revelations and unto them we yeeld absolute Obedience This second step brings men within the Lists or Borders of Christianitie where no Christian man is to set up his Rest Even the meanest that bears that Name once come to years of discretion or capable of Instruction must hold on his Progresse still thus resolving with himself Though I must be as a Child for Innocencie yet not in knowledge of Gods Will A shame it were I should alwayes be a Babe in that Profession which of All is onely Necessary a ãâã should accustome my self to Milk for this were to nourish unexpert ãâã in the Word of Righteousnesse A Christian I was from my Cradle and now as ãâã a Christian as a Man but strong Meat is fit for them that are of Age which have or should have their Wââs exercised through long ãâã to â⦠ãâã Good from Evil Not the fundamentall Principles of Christian Religion onely without which none can be saved not be that hath professed Christiâ⦠but an hour These are Grounds which once surely laiâ must as the Apostle speaketh be left that we may be led on to perfection not always haâmering upon the foundation of Repentance from ââad works of Faith towards God or of ãâã of Laying on of hands of the Resurrection from the dead and of eternall judgement but seaking to Build upon these whatsoever is bââating present times or seasons ãâã may make our Eleââion sure And thâr who laid the former foundations ãâã ãâã heart seek yet my farther Edification in many Points of whose Truth ãâã Conscience as yet hath no such firm Perswasion or lively taste as it now hath of the former but is so affected towards these later as it was to the other before better acquaintance with them Should I for this Reason forthwith deny Obedence to my Instructors or withdraw Assent from matters proposed by them God forbid For he hath Comman ' ed all not exâepting me to Obey their Overseers in the Lord Must we Obey them whilest they Plant and may we Disobey them whilest they Water how then can I expect that God should give Increase unto
by meer Natural precepts For we suppose what afterwards wil manifest it self that all Truths necessary for men to Believe have a distinct relish from all falshood or other unnecessary or superfluous Truths and may be known by their fruit so men wil be careful to preserve the Sincerity of their Spiritual Taste 4 Gods written Word then is the only pure Fountain and Rule of Faith yet not such immediately unto all as it is written but the Learned or Spiritual Instructors only whose Hearts and Consciences must be ruled by it as in all other spiritual duties so especially as they are Instructors in this That they may not commend any Truths or principles of faith unto the illiterate but such as are expresly contained in Gods written Word or at least are in substance the self same with these written Truths If the Unlearned through Gods just Judgement absolutely admit of other principles and equalize them with these such shal lead them into Errour and pervert their faith If they doubt of any mans Doctrine whether it be truly Spiritual or consonant to the foundation of faith they may appeal to Scriptures as they shal be expounded to them by others Finally they are tied to no visible Company of men whom they must under pain of damnation follow but for their Souls Health they may trie every Spiritual Physitian If they wil be Humorous they may but at their own peril both for Temporal Punishment in this life and for Eternal in the life to come 5 For conclusion the Scripture according to our doctrine and the general Consent of Reformed Churches is the only Infallible rule of faith in both respects or conditions of a Perfect Rule First in that it contains all the principles of faith and points of salvation So that no Visible Church on earth may commend any doctrine to others as a doctrine of Faith unlesse it be commended to them for such by the Scriptures by which every ones doctrine that acknowledgeth God for his Lord must be examined as by a Law uncontrollable Secondly in that these principles of faith are plainly perspicuously and distinctly set down to the Capacities of all that faithfully follow their practical rules most plain most perspicuous and easie to all capable of any rule or reason So that this Sacred Canon needs no Associate no Addition of any Authoritie as equally infallible nor more perspicuous then it self to supply what it wants only the Ministery of men skilful and industrious in the search or Exposition of it is to be supposed And all these be they never so excellent and wel conversant in them are unto Scriptures but as the ordinary Expositors of Classick and Authentick Books are unto the chief Authors or Inventors of the science contained in them Supposing that the first Authors were men of extraordinary and infallible skil and their Expositors as they usually are but of ordinary Capacity or Experience in those faculties 6 Finally the Books of Scriptures are to be reputed a more absolute Rule for all Matters of Faith and Divine Mysteries then any Books or Writings of men are for natural sciences or secular professions as in sundrie other Respects so in This that they give as more facile so more infallible directions for finding out their true Sense and Meaning then any other Writings do or Writers could have done who though present could not be so fully Assistant but cannot so much as affoord their presence to their Expositours in the search of Truths rather professed then fully conceived much lesse infallibly taught by them whereas the Spirit of Truth which first did dictate is every where present alwayes Assistant to such as seriously and sincerely seek the Truth contained in these Divine Oracles conducting them from Knowledge to Knowledge both by all such Means as Artists have for increasing their skil and by other Means extraordinary such as none in any other Faculty can have nor any may hope for in the Search of Scriptures but only such as Delight in and Meditate upon them Day and Night SECT II. That the pretended Obscurity of Scriptures is no just Exception why they should not be acknowledged the absolute Rule of Faith which is the Mother-Objection of the Romanist CAP. XII How far it may be granted the Scriptures are Obscure with some Premonitions for the right state of the Question 1 IT is first to be supposed that these Scriptures for whose Soveraignty over our Souls we plead against the pretended Authority of the Romish Church were given by God for the Instruction of all succeeding Ages for all sorts of Men in every Age for all Degrees or divers Measures of his other Gifts in all several sorts or Conditions of Men. This diversitie of Ages and Conditions of Men in several Callings who so wel considers may at the first sight easily discover our Adversaries Willingnesse to wrangle in this point whose usual practise as if they meant to cast a Mist before the weak-sighted Readers eyes is to pick out here and there some places of Scriptures more Hard and difficult then Necessary or requisite to be understood of Every man perhaps of Any man in this Age. The Knowledge of all or any of which notwithstanding those that live after us though otherwise peradventure men of far meaner gifts then many in this present Age shall not therefore need to give for lost or desperate when they shall be called unto this Search For God hath appointed as for every thing else so for the Revelation of his Word certain and peculiar Times and Seasons Daniel though full of the Spirit of Prophecie and one that during the Reign of Nebuchadnezzar and Balthasar his son had as it were continually travelled of Revelations concerning the Estate of Gods Church and the affairs of forrain Kingdoms for many generations to come yet knew not the approaching Time of his peoples deliverance from Captivity until the first year of Darius son of Ahashuerosh And this he learned by Books even in the first year of his Raign I Daniel understood by Books the number of the years whereof the Lord had spoken unto Jeremiah the Prophet that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolation of Jerusalem And of his own Revelation he saith And Daniel was commanded to shut up his words and seal up his book unto the end of the Time or as some read unto the appointed Time and then many shall run to and fro and Knowledge shall be increased For at the Time appointed as he intimates in the words following others though no Prophets were to know more of this Prophecy then the Prophet did himself Then I heard it but I understood it not then said I O my Lord what shall be the end of these things And he said Go thy way Daniel for the words are closed up and sealed till the end of the Time 2 The Prophets of later Ages did see Revelations of matters which had been hid from the Ancient
III. That The continual practise of Hereticks in urging Scriptures to establish Heresie and the diversity of opinions amongst the Learned about the Sense of Them is no just Exception why They should not be acknowledged as the Sole Entire and Compleat Rule of Faith OUt of the former Discourse their other Objections are almost answered already and they be especially Two The first If the Scriptures be plain and easie how comes it to passe that there should be such Contentions amongst the Learned about them Or whence is it that every Heretick is so forward to urge Scriptures for his Opinion even to the Death The Second lies as it were in the womb of this as this did in the former's and drawn out in its proper shape is thus There can be no certain Means of taking up controversies or contentions in the Church but only by admitting an Infallible Authority for deciding all controversies viva voce seeing the Scripture is alwayes made a party on all sides in such contentions 2 In the former Objection they indict the Scriptures as the Principal in the later our Church as an Abetter of such Quarrels and Contentions as it breeds For our Church we shall answer in the next for Gods Word in this present Section CAP. XIX Containing the true State of the Question with the Adversaries General Objections against the Truth 1 IT cannot be denied that alwayes there have been and alwayes will continue Contentions amongst learned men in Points of Faith or Doctrine or about the true Sence or Meaning of Scriptures in these other Cases For thus much these Scriptures themselves do plainly witnesse Oporâ⦠esse haereses For there must be Heresies even among you that they which are approved among you might be known But the Question is not whether there have been now are or alwayes shall continue many Contentions about the Sense of Scripture but First Whether the Scriptures have not plainly set down the original Causes and nurses of such Contentions and the Means how to avoid them so men will be ruled by them most plain for this purpose or Secondly Whether not submitting their wils desires and affections unto these plain and perspicuous Rules of life this supposed Infallible Rule of the Romish Church can prevent remove or compose all such Contentions according to the Truth and cause men stedfastly hold the Unity of Faith in the Bond of Peace 3 The Causes of Contentions about the Sence of Scriptures are the very same with the fore-mentioned which made the Scriptures unto sundry seem Obscure or the same which make men to mistake their true Sence and Meaning For even these Wars and Contentions whereof we speak specially these arise from Lusts which sight in our members â we lust and have not we envy and have indignation and cannot obtain we fight and war and got nothing not the Truth which we seek because we ask it not Do not such as contends most about the true Sence ask it most doth not every Heretick the earnester he is professe that he prayes for the Truth so much the more servently yea but such men receive not that which they so earnestly ask because they ask it amisse They desire skill in Scripture to advance their own Conceits and maintain their foolish and carnal Affections otherwise asking they should have and seeking they should find especially the true Sence and Meaning of Gods Word which must instruct us how to frame all our other Petitions unto God aright 4 These and infinite like places we acknowledge plainly declaring the Causes of Contentions and as many more some of which shall be here and there inserted directing us how to avoid all occasions of striâe and debate Both which if we observe Contentions will quickly cease Which those not observed must increase as a just punishment of Truth neglected coââ¦icted or low esteemed notwithstanding the best indeavours of any Authority upon earth imaginable to the contrary 5 But some perhaps will demand Is there no use of Humane Authority in this Case yes As for the begetting of true and lively Faith we supose the live-voice of an Ordinary Ministery as the Organ whereby the written Word must be conveyed to our Spirits so for retaining the Unity of this Faith in the Bond of Peace for suppressing or preventing all Occasions of Schismes Heresies or Contentions we acknowledge the necessary Use of a Lawfull Magistracie yet no infallibilitie in either The proper end and use of Both is to espouse mens Souls with an indissoluble knot of Love and Loyaltie unto the written Word the only Infallible Rule of that Faith whereby they live The One by unfolding the generall Points or Maximes of Christian Faith The other by constraining them at least to a civil Practise of undoubted Principles acknowledged by all and inhibiting such Courses as the Moral Precepts of this Canon have defected for Causes and Nurses of Contention Our Adversaries whether out of wilfull malice or oversight or out of both according to the diversities of their tempers have taken occasion to traduce our Churches Doctrine as if it admitted no Means for preventing or composing Contentions but onely the bare letter of Scripture Whereas we all teach that the written Word is the onely Means Infallible not the onely Means Simplie for effecting Both. Nor doth it skill how necessary either Ministerial Expositions or Juridical Decisions be for bringing us unto or retaining us in the Unitie of the Truth professed for not Necessity of Means but Infallibility of Direction is the proper unseparable Condition of the Rule of Faith And seeing Gods Word only endures for ever and therefore onely is Infallible it must be the Sole Rule of Faith how many or how necessary soever the Means be that must bring us to the true Knowledge of it 6 Valentian and Saero-boscus think it all One to acknowledge no Ecclesiasticall Authority or use of Ministerie and not to acknowledge an Infallibility in Both. But this is a Position devoid both of Sense and Reason For As our Senses though of themselves onely capable of particular and Material Objects subject to change and contingencie are the necessary and onely ordinary Means whereby our Intellective Facultie is brought to apprehend Universal and immaterial Principles whose Truth is necessary everlasting and immutable So may the Ministery and Magistracie though both in themselves fallible and obnoxious to Errors be the necessary and onely ordinary Means whereby we are brought as it were by a sensible Induction to the infallible Acknowledgement of the supernatural divine eternal Truths which are the proper Object of the illuminated or spiritual as immaterial and universal Principles are of the natural understanding which shall God willing be declared hereafter In this place I onely thought good to forewarn the Reader of this Hiatus in our Adversaries Collections whereunto the blind and ignorant English Papist led by such blinded forraign Guides as Valentian and Sacro-âosâââ who either
circumstances of the time were such as required an extraordinary Medicine which whilst we administer without mixture of like Ingredients or not upon the same Occasions we may chance to poyson both our selves and our Patients Others of us again are so much accustomed to politick Observation that we commonly make no other trial of Divine Truths then by some such forinsecal form of proceeding as is used in secular Inquisitions wherein determinations go by calculation of most Voices But unlesse the Lord did suffer us to have plausible shews and goodly inducements in the worlds sight for Believing that which is contrary unto Truth our Faith should not be sincere nor as an Armour of proof to resist all temptations seeing there is no man almost but is apt by Nature to follow a multitude to do that which publick Laws have judged evil much more to think or Believe as most men or men most esteemed do On the contrary if we look into our Calling Not many wise men after the flesh not many noble are chosen of God Such as are His ought to be like Him in this that they see not as men not as Natural men be they never so many see nor judge not as they judge 7 The stay whereupon they as in all other Difficulties so especially in this Trial of Spirits must rely is his Providence which in time wil bring the Truth to light and daily diffuseth the odour of life able were not our Senses dull or prepossessed with the fragrant Smel of earthly Pleasures to lead us to that invisible Truth which in this life we must follow not by View but by Faith Yet not by Faith if we take the Jesuites for our Guides who in this present Controversie play false Huntsmen alwayes seeking to bring us from the Prints of Gods Providence unto the Pathes and foot-steps of Men that have corrupted their wayes casting the form of secular Proceeding before our eyes so to withdraw us from following him who hath sweetned the 21 wherein we breath with the words of Eternal Life If men would be so mad as to frame their lives according to their Doctrine Hell it self could not wish a more Devilish Means to make men Christians in conceit and At heists or Infideis in heart And yet besides the Impiety of all other kinds of Heresies or Infidelities that are or have been this of theirs is the most palpably absurd and most contradictory to the Rules of Reason and Principles of Arts received by all For if the Arguments they bring against us conclude any thing at all they conclude as much against all Certainty of secular or natural Sciences 8 And because whether purposely or as meer Instruments managed by Satan to what use they know not they still labour to make civil Modesty but a mask for Infidelity rightly judging though to a wrong end ingenuous Humility and mens lowly conceipts of their own worth the fittest disposition whence utter distrust of Gods Favour towards such poor Creatures as men so minded deem themselves can be wrought and if once wrought and deeply planted in soft minds or humble hearts the only sure Foundation whence they can hope to raise their Blind Implicit Faith It shall not be amiss whilst we prosecute the second Branch of their immoderate Folly last mentioned to discover withall and partly dissolve The Snares which they have set for the Simple and Ingenuous CAP. XXV How far upon what terms or grounds we may with Modesty dissent from the Ancient or others of more excellent Gifts then our selves That our Adversaries Arguments impeach as much the Certainty of Human Sciences as of private Spirits 1 LEt it be granted that many Places of great Moment are diversely expounded by learned men what will hence follow That not the greatest Schollars in reformed Churches can be as sure of their true Sense and Meaning as the Pope Not unlesse you first can make it evident that Learning or Subtility of wit is the only Means whereby the true sense of Scriptures can be found out And this being proved you must assure us that the Pope is alwayes better learned then others otherwise he may fail as wel as they Or if you admit not Learning for the only Means of distinguishing Doctrines as indeed it is not yet must you secure the world that the Pope hath all those other good Qualifications whose want caused the learned to erre Or if you require neither one nor other of these you must prove that the best Gifts of God the peculiar Attribute of whose Glory is to be no Respecter of persons are infallibly entailed to a certain succession of men without all respect of Learning Wit or Honesty Lastly you must prove that the Holy Ghost was a Private Spirit and might erre when he said The Lord giveth Grace to the Humble Or the Law of the Lord Wisdom unto the Simple And that our Saviours words Ventus spirat ubi vult did not import as he meant that his Spirit might enlighten whom he pleased For if all these and that Deus cujus vult miseretur be true who can hinder Him or His Spirit to open the eyes of some less learned to behold clearly the true Sense and Meaning of that Scripture wherein many excellent Writers have either erred or been overseen or who can hinder God if these places be true to reveal his Will to little ones and keep it secret from the wise and mighty because it is his pleasure so to do and that for this end that men should learn to rely upon his Mercy and Providence not upon the Authority or Skill of Men. Or who can hinder his Omnipotency even in this Age to make his Power seen in our Weaknesse If this his Power be not limited now then may he stil both reveal the true Sense and Meaning of his Word in some points unto men of lesse Capacity in others and furnish them with ability too for demonstrating by Evidence of Argument and surest Grounds of Reason unto others that this sense must needs be the true sense and that all other Interpretations given of the same places by men otherwise excellent for their Learning and Skill in Scripture cannot stand with those Principles of Christian Faith which all sorts of Believers stedfastly Believe Must such a man or those to whom God reveals the Truth by his Ministry doubt of the Evidence of the Truth revealed and mistrust Gods Word because others as learned or more learned then either he that hath the Truth revealed unto him first or they that take it from him are of another mind He must verily by this Objection For a Jesuite would say Why should he not think others as likely to have the Spirit as himself Let him esteem of them as far better Scholars and men indued with as great or greater Measure of Gods Spirit then himself for so the Scripture teacheth us not to be wise in our own conceipt but to think better of others then
Believe their Infallibilitie most infallibly it could be no Rule of Faith but might be rejected till we see it evidently proved whereas they contend it should be the Rule of Faith unto all and by their own confession a main Article of their Creed but according to their Positions as we shall hereafter prove the onely Article of Christian Faith How destitute these their Assertions are of all Grounds of Reason or Rules of Nature hath been made evident There remain onely Two Pillars possibly imaginable for supporting this pretended Infallibilitie Tradition and Scripture Against Tradition all the Arguments they can heap against the Certainty of Scriptures stand good as shall hereafter God willing be shewed That no Argument can be drawn from Scripture to their succour albeit the later Jesuites have earnestly sought to scrape a many for better then Scrapings are not the very best they bring we are now to prove 7 That our Belief of Scriptures Truth and their true Sense by what Means soever we attain thereto must be infallible Both agree The Means that must infalliblie ascertain or prove their Divine Truth and true Meaning unto us say our Adversaries is the Churches Infallibilitie which likewise must be infallibly Beleeved otherwise it could not be the Rule of Faith or Belief infallible It shall suffice here once for all to admonish the Reader That as often as we mention Belief of Scriptures or the Churches infallibility in this Dispute we mean not any kind of Belief but that only which is infallible so likewise whiles we mention the Means or Proofs of either we understand onely Means or Proofs infallible whereon Faith may immediately relie as upon a Rule most sure and certain In all these we demand nothing but what our Adversaries most willingly grant From their grant we argue thus 8 If either the Scriptures can thus ascertain or prove the Churches Infalibilitie or It the infallible Truth of Scriptures to our Souls we must of necessity either Believe the one of these before the other The Churches Infalibility before Scriptures or Scriptures before It or both together without all prioritie of Belief or praeexistent knowledge of the one whence the Belief or knowledge of the other must spring The members of the Division are in the Proposal actually two but in the Disquisition will prove three To begin with the first 9 If they say we must believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God before we ãâã believe ãâã ãâã ãâã of their Church they overthrow their own and est ablish ãâã Postions For thus they make the Scripture a Rule of our Faith at the least In this one Article of the Catholick Churches Infallibilitie which by this Assertion we may and ought infallibly to believe because the Scriptures which we first infallibly believe do teach and prove it Hence private men should be taught by the Holy Ghost first to believe the Truth of Scriptures and for it the Churches Infallibilitie Wherefore the Scripture must be the immediate Rule of their Belief in the Article of the Churches Infallibility which to them is the generall Rule of Faith and so by consequence the Scriptures which to us are onely the Rule of Earth must be more then so to them even the Rule of their Rule of Faith But if the Scriptures may be the immediate and insallible Rule of their Belief in this one Article of the Churches Infallibility what reason possibly can be imagined why they should not be the infallible and immediate Rule of their Faith in all other parts or Articles of their Creed For I call Heaven and Earth Men and Angels to witnesse bââ¦xt ours and the Romish Church whether the Articles of Christs Incarnation his Death his Passion his Burial his Resurrection his Aseension his Intercession for us the Resurrection of the dead and Life everlasting c. be not to any mans Capacitie in the World much more plainly set down in sundry places of Scripture then the Infallibilitie of the present Romish Church in these words Peter feed my sheep Peter to thee ãâã give the ââ¦s of Heaven Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and us or in any place her sonnes can challenge for it Wherefore if the Holy Ghost teach us this Article of the Churches Infallibilitie immediately without the Churches infallible Authoritie which as we now suppose must be proved from the Scriptures first infallibly Believed then questionlesse he may and will immediately teach us the other Articles of our Creed and whatsoever necessary to Salvation which are more plainly and perspicuously set down in Scriptures without the help or assistance of the Churches infallible Authority which it is supposed to teach by places more doubtfull 10 Or if our Adversaries will hold it no Absurdity to say that the Holy Ghost may teach us the true Sense and Meaning of the fore-mentioned places of Scripture which seem to make for the Infallibility of the Romish Church as Petre pasce oves c. immediately without the help or assistance of the Churches Infallibilitie which is here the lesson supposed to be taught and refers all other Points of Faith or matters of Doctrine unto the Churches teaching immediately they are bound in Reason to shew a Scripture for this Assertion And besides they must perforce make the same comparison betwixt the Holy Ghosts immediate teaching and the Church or Popes immediat teaching which our Saviour Christ made between the Holy Ghosts extraordinary teaching which was to ensue his Glorification and his own immediate teaching before his Passion and as soon as the Holy Ghost hath once taught us the Meaning of these places which make for the Churches Infallibilitie that may be applied unto him in respect of the Popes Supereminencie in teaching which our Saviour Christ spake of himself and his own personall Instructions in the dayes of his Humility in respect of that ãâã âed Comforters Illuminations to be bestowed in abundant measure upon his Apostles immediately upon his Ascention For thus by their Assertions that Holy Comforter after that Lesson once taught Tues Petrâ⦠should take his leave of faithfull hearts in the same termes our Saviour there did of his Disciples I tell you the Truth it is expedient for you that I go away For if I go not away the Comforter that Infallible Teacher on whose Authority your Souls must rest will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you and again I have many things to say unto you but ye cannot hear âoem now howâeit when He is come that hath the Spirit of Truth your infallible Teacher whose Tongue while he speaks ex Cathedra I must attend he will lead you unto all Truth for he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear be shall speak he shall glorifie me for he shall receive of me and shew it unto you These words I say might be
The âesuits unwillingnesse to acknowledge the Churches proposal for the True Cause of his faith Of differences and agreements about the final Resolution of faith either amongst the adversaries themselves or betwixt us and them 464 27 That the Churches proposal is the true immediate and prime cause of all absolute Belief my Romanist can have concerning any determinate divine revelation 468 28 Discovering either the grosse ignorance or notorious craft of the Iesuite in denying his faith is finally resolved into the Churches veracitie or infallibility that possibly it cannot be resolved into any branch of the First Truth 471 29 What manner of causal dependance Romish belief hath on the Church that the Romanist truely and properly believes the Church onely not God or his Word 478 30 Declaring how the first main ground of Romish faith leads directly unto Atheisâ the second unto preposterous Heathenism or Idolatry 484 31 Proving the last assertion or generally the imputations laid upon the Papacie by that authority the âesuites expreslie give unto the Pope in matters of particular Fact as in the Canonizing of Saints 495 32 What danger by this blasphemous doctrine may accrew to Christian States that of all heresies blasphemies or idolatries which have been since the world began or can be imagined ãâã Christ come to judgement this Apostasie of the Iesuites is the most abominable and conââ¦ous against the blessed Trinity 499 BLASPHEMOUS POSITIONS OF JESUITES And other Later ROMANISTS Concerning the Authority of their CHURCH The Third Book of Comments upon the CREED SECT I. Containing the Assertions of the Romish Church whence her threefold Blasphemy springs HAving in the former dispute clearly acquitted as well Gods Word for breeding as our Church from nursing Contentions Schisms and Heresies we may in this by course of common equity more freely accuse their injurious calumniators And because our purpose is not to charge them with forgery of any particular though grossest Heresies or Blasphemies though most hideous but for erecting an Intire Frame capacious of all Villanies imaginable far surpassing the Hugest Mathematical Form human fancy could have conceived of such matters but only from inspection of this real and material patern which by degrees insensible hath grown up with the Mysterie of Iniquity as the Bark doth with the Tree Such inconsiderate passionate speeches as heat of contention in personal quarrels hath extracted from some one or few of their private Writers shall not be produced to give evidence against the Church their Mother whose trial shall be as far as may be by her Peers either by her own publick determinations in this controversie or joynt consent of her authorized best approved Advocates in opening the Title or unfolding the contents of that Prerogative which they challenge for her 2 Our accusations are grounded upon their Positions before set down when we explicated the differences betwixt us The Position in brief is This That the infallible authority of the present Church is the most sure most safe undoubted rule in all doubts or controversies of faith or in all points concerning the Oracles of God by which we may certainly know both without which we cannot possibly know either which are the Oracles of God which not or what is the true sense and meaning of such as are received for his Oracles whether written or unwritten 3 The extent of divine Oracles or number of Canonical books hath been as our Adversaries pretend very questionable amongst the Ancient though such of the Fathers as for their skil in antiquity were in all unpartial judgments most competent Judges in this cause were altogether for us against the Romanists and such as were for their opinion were but for it upon an errour as thinking the Jews had acknowledged all those books of the old Testament for Canonical Scripture which the Churches wherein they lived received for such or that the Christian Church did acknowledg all for Canonical which they allowed to be publickly read Safe it was our adversaries cannot deny for the Ancient to dissent one from another in this question or to suspend their assent till new probabilities might sway them one way or other No reasons have been produced since sufficient to move any ingenious mind unto more peremptory resolutions yet doth the Councel of Trent bind all to an absolute acknowledgement of those Books for Canonical which by their own confession were rejected by S. Hierom and other Fathers If any shall not receive the whole Books with all their parts usually read in the Church and as they are extant in the old vulgar for sacred and Canonical Let him be accursed So are all by the same decree that wil not acknowledg such unwritten traditions as the Romish Church pretends to have come from Christ and his Apostles for divine and of authority equal with the written word 4 So generally is this opinion received so fully believed in that Church That many of her Sons even whilest they write against us forgetting with whom they have to deal take it as granted That the Scriptures cannot be known to be Gods word but by the Infallible authority of the present Church And from this supposition as from a truth sufficiently known though never proved they labour in the next place to infer That without submission of our faith to the Churches publick spirit we cannot infallibly distinguish the orthodoxal or divine sense of Gods Oracles whether written or unwritten from heretical or human 5 Should we admit written Traditions and the Church withal as absolute Judge to determin which are Apostolical which not little would it boot us to question with them about their meaning For when the point should come to trial we might be sure to have the very words framed to whatsoever sense should be most favourable for justifying Romish practises And even of Gods written Oracles whose words or characters as he in his wisdom hath provided cannot now be altered by an Index Expurgatorius at their pleasure That such a sense as shall be most serviceable for their Turn may as time shall minister occasion be more commodiously gathered the Trent Fathers immediately after the former decree for establishing unwritten Traditions and amplifying the extent of divine written Oracles have in great wisdom authorized the old and vulgar translation of the whole Canon Which though it were not purposely framed to maintain Popery as some of our writers say they have as frivolously as maliciously objected yet certainly as well the escapes and errors of those unskilful or ill-furnished interpreters as the negligence of transcribers or other defects incident to that work from the simplicitie of most ancient the injuries or calamities of insuing times were amongst others as the first heads or petty springs of that raging sloud of impiety which had well nigh drowned the whole Christian world in perdition by continually receiving into its chanel once thus wrought the dregs and filth of every other error under heaven
the true Papists are wise enough to slip the third or last so as it shall not pinch them and have a trick withall to make the First yeeld what way they please who are resolved to follow what way soever it shall please the Popes Authority whereunto their souls indeed are onely tied to lead them But of such as ever had or hope to have any tast or relish of Gods Spirit if any should resolve absolutely to believe his interpretation of any place of Scripture contrary to that life-working sence which must be in every heart endued with hope of seeing God that mans disloyalty towards God and his Holy Spirit is as impudent as if a poor subject should replie unto his Prince commanding him in expresse termes to do thus or so I will not believe your words have any such meaning as they naturally import but a contrary such as one of my fellow-servants hath already acquainted me withall whatsoever you say I know your meaning is I should believe him in all things concerning your will and pleasure and whatsoever he shall enjoyn that will I do 8 That neither the Church can prove the Scriptures nor the Scriptures the Churches Authoritie was proved in the fourth Section of the former Book That such as hold this damnable Doctrine against which we dispute do not at all believe God speaking in the Scriptures shall be evinced in the third Section of this The present inconvenience which now will they nill they we are to wrest from their resolutions of faith is That in deed and conscience they either acknowledge no Authoritie in the Church or Scriptures or else greater in the Church then in Scriptures CAP. III. Inferring the general conclusion proposed in the Title of this Section from Bellarmines Resolution of faith 1 ASwell to occasion the learned Readers further consideration of their ill-grounded and worse builded faith as for deducing thence the proposed inconvenience it will not be amisse to propose Bellarmines resolution of a Roman Catholicks faith One especial Objection of our Writers as he frameth it is That Faith if depending on the Churches judgement is grounded but upon the word of man a weake foundation for such an Edifice that the Scripture was given by the Spirit of God and must therefore be understood by the same not by the Churches Spirit Hereunto Bellarmine answereth The word of the Church ãâã of the Councel or the Pope speaking ex Cathedra is not the bare word of man He means no word obnoxious to errour but in some sort the Word of God in as much as it is uttered by the assistance and Government of the Holy Ghost I adde saith he that Hereticks are they which indeed do lean upon a brokenreed For we must know that a proposition of Faith must be concluded in this or the like Sâllogisme Whatsoever God hath revealed in Scripture is true but God hath revealed this or that in Scriptures Ergo this or that is true The first proposition in this Syllogisme is certain amongst all the second likewise amongst Catholicks is most firm as being supported by the testimonie of the Church Councel or Pope of whose immunity from possibilitie of erring we have expresse promises in the Scriptures as It hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost and us I have prayed for thee thy faith should not fail But amongst Hereticks the second or minor proposition is grounded onely on conjecture or judgement of a private Spirit which usually seems but is not good Whence seeing the conclusion must follow the weaker part it necessarily followes that all the faith of Hereticks such in his language are all that will not relie upon the Church is but conjectural and uncertain 2 A dreadfull imputation could it be as substantially proved as it is confidently avouched And the consequence of his resolution generally held by all his fellows is of no lesse importance then this That no man can be infallibly assured either of the truth or true sence of any particular proposition in the whole Canon of Scriptures received by us and them unlesse he have the Churches Authority for confirmation of both For unto us that onely which the Church avoucheth is certain and unfallible that sence of it which the Church gives onely sound if we speak of any particular or determinate truths 3 How certain and unfallible Assent unto all or any Scriptures may be wrought in mens hearts without any infallible teacher already hath been and hereafter shal be God willing in more particular sort exemplified In this place it stood the Jesuite upon to have given a better solution to the doubt objected which he is so far from unloosing that he rather knits it faster as shal appear if the Reader wil first cal to mind That for the establishing of firm and undoubted assent to any truth proposed it skils not how infallible the truth in it self or the proposer be unlesse they whose Relief or Assent is demanded be as infallibly perswaded of this Infallibility in the truth or the proposer In this respect our adversaries plead their immunity from errour as an Article necessary to be infallibly Believed for confirmation of Gods Word alwayes most infallible as all grant in it self but not so as they affirm to us until it be avouched by Infallible authority 4 Herein they concur with us Both with the truth That if we believe it only as probable that God spake all those words which we acknowledge to be most infallible because his our belief notwithstanding is not infallible but probable or conjectural For as a man may have bad desires of things essentially good so may he have uncertain perswasions of truthes in themselves most certain It is not therefore the supposed Infallibility of the Church or Pope howsoever but infallibly apprehended and believed that must strengthen our faith which otherwise as is pretended would be but conjectural And by the former principle acknowledged as wel by them as us it necessarily follows that if we be only probably not infallibly perswaded the Pope or Church cannot erre our assent unto the minor proposition i. unto any determinate part of Gods Word is only probable not Infallible For by the Jesuites Doctrine we cannot be certainly perswaded that God spake this or that but by the Churches testimony The immediate consequence of which two assertions compared together is we cannot be more certain that God hath spoken this or that then we are of the Churches Infallibility If then we be only probably not infallibly perswaded that the Church is infallible our Belief of the minor proposition that is of any determinate truth which men suppose God hath spoken must be only probable or conjectural not infallible Consequently to these collections the learned Papists generaly hold that the Churches Infallibility must be absolutely and infallibly believed as you heard before out of Canus Bellarmin and Valentian otherwise as Bellarmin would infer our Belief of the Minor in any
Syllogismâ⦠wherein a Proposition of Faith is Concluded can be but Conjectural 5 The proposed inconvenience we may drive from this difficulty How the Papists themselves can attain to the infallible belief of the Churches infallible authority The Church they think hath a publick spirit and publick spirits they know are infallible hence they may perswade themselves the Church is infallible only upon the same terms they believe it hath a publick spirit if their belief of this later be but conjectural their assent unto the former can be no better Seeing then they must of necessity grant for this is the principal mark they aim at that all must infallibly believe the Church hath a publick spirit the difficulty removes to this point how this infallible perswasion is or may be wrought in them Either it must be grounded upon Scriptures or not avouched unto them and wrought in their hearts it must be either by a publick or private spirit Let us examin all the parts of this division 6 First if private mens infallible perswasion of the Churches publick or Authentick spirit be not grounded upon Scriptures acknowledged by us and them the Churches Authority without all controversie is much greater then the authority of Scriptures if it by this assertion can be any and the Churches not all in all For unto that which men cannot know whether it be true or false they cannot be bound to yield absolute or immediate obedience unto that authority which they absolutely believe as infallible they are bound to yield infallible assent and absolute obedience directly in it self and for it self But by this supposition men cannot know Scriptures infallibly without the Churches authority and yet they must infallibly believe the Churches authority without Scriptures The Scriptures authority therefore is either lesse then the Churches or none at all 7 But be it supposed that private mens infallible Belief of the Churches publick spirit is grounded upon Scriptures acknowledged by us and urged by them to this purpose as upon these it seemeth good to the Holy Ghost and us I have prayed for thee thy faith should not fail The question whereunto we demand an answer is whether this infallible Belief of the Churches authority grounded upon these places must be wrought in mens hearts by a private or publick spirit If by a private spirit only Bellarmin believed the Churches publick spirit or those Scriptures truth or true meaning whereon he grounds it He and all other Papists such as he was when he delivered this Doctrine neither Bishops nor Cardinals are subject to the same inconveniences which he hath condemned us for as Hereticks For all private spirits by his positions are abnoxious to errour unsufficient to plant any infallible perswasion in matters of faith yet such is this article of the Churches Authentick spirit of which unlesse men be so perswaded infallibly perswaded they cannot be of the minor proposition in any Syllogism wherein a point of faith is concluded and uncertain of the minor they cannot be certain of the conclusion which as Bellarmin rightly observes alwayes follows the weaker part The infallible conclusion therefore of Bellarmin's resolution is unlesse private men may have publick spirits to warrant the truth of Scriptures and the Churches infallibility thereon grounded they cannot truely believe any conclusion of faith It remains then we inquire what inconvenience wil follow if they admit private men to be partakers of publick spirits 8 Diversity of such spirits they acknowledge not If therefore private mens Infallible Assent unto the truth or true sense of those particular Scriptures whence they seek to prove their Churches Infallibility must be planted by a publick spirit planted it must be by the same spirit which guides and guiding makes the Church and Pope authentick and infallible both in their proposal of Scriptures and declaration of Scriptures sence Seeing this spirit is one and the same if it can make the Church or Pope infallible in all why may it not make all private men by this supposition partakers of it alike infallible at the least in the right understanding of those places which warrant the Churches Infallibility or publick spirit For our adversaries I hope wil easily grant that the Churches publick and Authentick spirit must be most infallibly Believed because so expresly taught in those Scriptures cited by Bellarmin to this purpose If this publick or Authentick spirit can work such infallible apprehension of those places true meaning in private hearts why not in all others as necessary for them to know that is in all necessary to salvation And if thus it do why are we bound to believe the Pope more then the Pope us we being partakers of a publick and infallible spirit as wel as he 9 Or if they hold it no absurdâty to say we must believe two or three places It seemeth good to the Holy Ghost and us Peter feed my sheep by a publick and authentick spirit teaching us from these to rely upon the Pope in all other parts of Gods Word because as it must be supposed we have but a private spirit for their assurance by this supposition the Popes authority in respect of us must have the same excesse of superiority unto Scriptures that a publick spirit hath unto a private or the Pope who believeth all Scriptures by a publick spirit hath unto a private man This publick spirit whereof they vaunt is the same which did inspire the Scriptures to Atoses the Prophets and Apostles and must by this position be the Pope or Churches immediate Agent for establishing this inviolable league of absolute allegeance with mens souls unto them but of none so absolute to their Creator and Redeemer and the rest of whose written laws and eternal decrees must be communicated unto them by a private spirit and subscribed unto with this condition If the Pope shal witnesse them to be his laws or to have this or that meaning 10 Nor can our adversaries deny the truth of this subsequent collection If it were possible for the Pope in matters controversed to teach contrary to Gods Word we were bound to follow him For they themselves argue thus If the Pope could erre in matters of Faith Faith might perish from the Earth all Christians bound to erre because bound to obey him This proves that our Assent to any Scriptures besides those which teach the Popes authority cannot in it self be perfect and absolute but subject to this condition if the Pope be infallible And even of those places which as they pretend witnesse him to be such there yet remains a further difficulty These the Pope believes not because they are confirmed to him by his predecessor but directly and immediately by his publick spirit But may private men believe them so too No. For these especially and the Churches infallibility contained in them are by all our adversaries consent propositions of Faith in respect of us and need by their doctrine the proposal or
Nations as they imagine Christ doth the Pope over every Christian soul thorowout the whole world What spirit then may we think did possesse Bellarmine when he avouched that the Church and Common-weals are different in this case let us hear the difference The Church Catholick must be one by communion with one head so must the âieg people of every Monarch be one by subordination to one Soveraign whether resident amongst them or far absent Why may not Christ then though absent be that onely supreme head whence universally the Church receiveth unitie or why may not he rule in it though dispersed thorow many Nations as effectually by his Angels and ordinary Ministers of the Gospel as the Pope doth by his Nuncios fallible Legates or other inferiour Prelates 7 But though reason and Scripture fail them yet Councels Histories and Traditions may be mustered to their aid These are the first Springs of these many Waters whereon the great Whore sits From what History therefore do they believe the Pope is Peters Successor from historie Canonical or divine no Secular Monkish or Ecclesiastical at the best upon which the best faith that can be founded is but humane and their profeââed villany in putting in and out whatsoever they please into what writing soever Gods word only excepted makes it more then doubtful whether many ancient Writers did ever intimate any such estimate of the Romish Church as is now fathered upon them or rather this foul iniquity late revealed whilest some have been taken in the manner hath been long time concealed as a mysterie of the Romish state Put they believe not this succession from expresse written history but from Tradition partly From Tradition of whom Of men what men Men obnoxious to errour and parties in this present controversie yet neither partial nor erroneous while they speak ex Cathedra saith the Jesuit But who shall assure us what they have spoken ex Cathedra concerning this point The Councels What Councels Councels assembled by the Pope Councels of men for the most part as ill qualified as carnally minded and so palpably carried away with faction that to attribute any divine authority unto them were to blaspheme the holy Spirit Councels which the Papists them elves acknowledge not of sufficient authority unlesse they follow the Popes instructions from whom likewise they must receive their approbation The Pope must assure us the Councel which perhaps elected him rejecting a Competitor every way more sufficient doth not erre But that the Pope is lawfully elected that so elected he cannot erre in this assertion who shal assure us he himself or his Predecessors This then is the last resolution of our saith if it rely us on the Church 8 We must absolutely believe every Pope in his own cause First that he himself is secondly that all his Predecessours up to S. Peter were infallible When as many of them within these few hundred years late past by their own followers confession were such as whatsoever must derive its pedegree from them may justly be suspected to have first descended from the father of lies such as not speaking ex Cathedra were so far from the esteem of absolute infallibility that such as knew them best did trust them least in matters of secular commodity and if they were found unfaithful in the wicked Mammon who will trust them in the true Not Papists themselves unlesse they speake ex Cathedra Then belike our Saviour did not foresee this exception from his general rule or Judas by this knack might have proved himself or any other knave as faithful a Pastor as S. Peter 9 But if a Pope shall teach ex Cathedra that he is Peters lawful successor and therefore of divine infallible authority in expounding all the former places we must notwithstanding our Saviours Caveat believe him Why Because it must be supposed he hath divine testimony for this assertion As what either divine history divine tradition or divine revelation Divine history they disclaim nor can impudency it self pretend it It may be he hath the perpetual traditions of his predecessors But here again we demand what divine assurance they can bring forth that every Pope from S. Peter downwards did give expresse cathedral testimony to this perpetual succession in like authority Suppose what no Jesuite dare avouch unlesse he first consult his superiours whether he must not of necessity say so for maintenance of the Popes dignity that this assertion had been expresly conveyed from S. Peter to the present Pope without interruption yet if any one of them did receive it from his predecessour having it but as a private man or upon his honesty he might erre in delivering it to his successor so might the third bâhâvâng iâ him For no belief can be more certain then its proââ¦ject or immediate ground If That be fallible the belief must needs be uncertain obnoxious to errour and at the best human No better is the Popes testimony unlesse given ex Cathedra and no better is the ground of his own belief of what his Predecessours told him unlesse they told it him so speaking Wherefore though this present Pope should teach ex Cathedra viva voce that he is Peters lawful successor yet unlesse he can prove that none of his predecessours did ever neglect so to avouch the same truth it is evident that he speaks more then he can possibly know by any divine testimony either of history or unwritten tradition It is evident again he binds us to believe that by divine faith which he cannot possibly know himself but only by faith humane For the only ground of his assertion is this supposed perpetual tradition and this is but humane unlesle it be perpetually delivered ex Cathedra Nor is there any other means possibly under the sun nay either in heaven or earth for to know matters of this nature forepast but either the testimony of others that have gone before us who either were themselves or took their relations upon trust from such as were present when the things related were acted or else by revelation from him who was before all times and is a present spectatour an eye witnesse of every action 10 Our knowledge of matters forepast by the former means though Popes themselves be the relators unlesse their relation be cathedral as hath been proved are but humane and fallible Things known by immediate revelation from God are most certain because the immediate Relator is most infallible Doth the Pope by this means know what his Predecessors or S. Peter thought concerning this perpetual succession or generally all matters concerning this point long since forepast He may as easily tell us what any of his successors shall do or say an hundred years hence And thus much if this present Pope will undertake the Christian people then living may safely believe what the Pope then being shall say of this or both of their predecessours But to believe man
much as is intimated in the words following was their inordinate desire of having an earthly King that might rule the nation with an iron rod. â When Jesus therefore perceived by their forwardnesse to professe the former truth that they would come and take him to make him a King he departed again into a mountain himself alone for the same cause no doubt which the Evanâelist speciâ⦠the former place But Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew them all and had no need that any should testifie of man He knew such as upon these glimpses of his glory were presently so stifly set to believe in him upon hopes of being fed with dainties or mighty protection against the Heathen would be as violently âeât against him even to crucifie him for a seducer âtter they had discovered his constant endeavours to bring them both by life and doctrine unto conformity with his cross mortification humility contempt of the world patience in affliction with other like qualities despiseable in the worlds eyes yet main principles in his school and elementary grounds of salvation so his country-men of Nazareth sodainly admiring the gratâous words which proceeded out of his mouth after he begun to upbraid them with unthankfulness as speedily attempt to throw him headlong from the top of the hill whereon their City was built By this it may appear that of the âewish people in ancient times some did sin in being backward others in an immature forwardnesse to believe prophetical doctrines But the fountains or first heads whence these swift motions of life were depraved in the one was inordinate assection or intrinsick habitual corruption the root whence such deadnesse was derived into the actions of the other was hardnesse of heart precedent neglect of Gods word and ignorance of his wayes thence ensuing Which presupposed the parties so affected did not amisâe in not believing the true Prophets without examination but in not abandoning such dispositions as disenabled them for believing all parts of truth proposed with constancy and vniformity making them fit instruments to be wrought upon by seducers Hence saith our Saviour I come in my fathers name and ye receive me not if another shall come in his own name him will ye receive How can ye believe which receive honour one of another and seek not the honââr that cometh of God alone Nor Prophetical nor Aposâolical nor Messiacal much lesse could Papal authority make them believe the doctrine of life intirely and sincerely whilest their hearts were hardned whose hardnesse though might easily have been mollisied by laying Moses law unto them while they were young and tender 4 It is a rule as profitable for our own information in many points as for âââutâtion of the adversary that The commendation of necessary meâns is alwayes included in the commendation of the end which how good or excellent soever it be our desires of it are preposterous all earnest endeavours to attain it turbulent unlesse first addressed with proportionable alacrity to follow the means that must produce it Sober spirits alwayes bound their hopes of accomplishing the one by perfect survey of their interest in the other as minds truly liberal determine future expences by exact calculation of their present revenews Even in businesses of greatest importance though requiring speediest expedition a wise man will moderate his pace according to the quality of the ground whereon he goes otherwise the more haste may cause worse speed The Jews were as we are bound to believe truths proposed without delay but both for this reason most strictly bound to a continual uniformity of practising divine precepts already known without dispensing with this or that particular though offensive to our present disposition without indulgence to this or that special time without all priviledge sought from the pleasure or displeasure of men Both bound so to frame our lives and conversations as to be instantly able to discern the truth proposed not by relying upon their authority that propose it but for it self or from a full and lively though a quick and speedy apprehension of immediate homogeneal consonancy between the external and the internal word For if any part of Gods word truly dwel in us though secret it may be and silent of it self yet wil it Eccho in our hearts whilst the like reverberates in our ears from the live-voice of the Ministery Thus had the Jews hearts been truly set to Moses law had their souls delighted in the practise of it as in their food they had resounded to the Prophets call as a string though untouched and unable to begin motion of it self wil yet raise it self to an unison voice or as the fowls of heaven answer with like language to others of their own kind that have better occasion to begin the cry In this sense are Christs sheep said to hear his voice and follow him not every one that can counterfeit his or his Prophets Call 5 The issue of all that hath been said is that none within the prâcincts of these times whereof we now treat from the Law given unto the Gospel were bound to believe Gods messengers without examination of their doctrine by the precedent written word Only this difference there was such as had rightly framed their hearts to it did make this trial of Prophetical doctrines as it were by a present taste which others could not without interposition of time to work an alteration in their distempered affections For this reason do the Prophets alwayes annex Mosaical precepts of repentance to their predictions of future events as knowing that if their hearts to whom they spake were turned to God their sight should forthwith be restored clearly to discern the truth For further manifestation of the same conclusion it appears sufficiently from sundry discourses in the former book that Israels incredulity unto their Prophets was finally to be resolved into their neglect their imperfect or partial observance of Moses precepts Wherefore not the live-voice of them whose words in themselves were most infallible and are by the approbation of time with other conspicuous documents of Gods peculiar providence preserving them in divine estimation so long become an undoubted rule of life unto us but the written word before confirmed by signs and wonders sealed by the events of times present and precedent was the infallible rule whereby the prophetical admonitions of every age were to be tried and examined 6 The words of the best while they spake them were not of like authority as now written they are unto us nor were they admitted into the Caâon but upon just proof of their divine authority That one speech which Fsay uttered was an Axiom so well known as might bring all the rest to be examined before admission To the Law and to the Tescimony if they speaâ not according to this word it is because there is no light in them For Gods Wil already known and
it self would rather have held the Negative For if we believe as the Papists generally instruct us that we our selves all private spirits may erre in every perswaâon of faith but the Church which onely is assisted by a publick spirit cannot possibly teach amisle in any We must upon terms as peremptory and in equal degree believe every particular point of faith because the Church so teacheth us not because we certainly apprehend the truth of it in itself For we may erre but this publick spirit cannot And consequently we must infallibly believe these propositions â Christ is the Redeemer of the world not Mahomet â There is a Trinity of persons in the divine nature for this reason only that the Church commends them unto us for divine revelations seeing by their arguments brought to disprove the sufficiency of Scriptures or certainty of private spirits no other means possible is left us Nay were they true we should be only certain that without the Churches proposal we stil must be most uncertain in these and all other points because the sons are perpetually obnoxious to errour from which the mother is everlastingly priviledged The same propositions and conclusions we might conditionally believe to be absolutely authentick upon supposal they were Gods word but that they are his word or revelations truly divine we cannot firmly believe but only by firm adherence to the Churches infallible authority as was in the second Section deduced out of the Adversaries principles Hence it follows that every particular proposition of Faith hath such a proper causal dependance upon the Churches proposal as the conclusion hath upon the premisses or any particular upon it universal Thus much Sacroboscus grants 3 Suppose God should speak unto us face to face what reason had we absolutely and infallibly to believe him but because we know his words to be infallible his infallibility then should be the proper cause of our belief For the same reason seeing he doth not speak unto us face to face as he did to Moses but as our adversaries say reveals his will obscurely so as the Revealer is not manifested unto us but his meaning is by the visible Church which is to us in stead of Prophets Apostles and Christ himself and all the several manners God used to speak unto the world before he spake to it by his only son this Panthea's infallibility must be the true and proper cause of our Belief And Valentian himself thinks that Sarah and others of the old world to whom God spake in private either by the mouth of Angels his son or holy spirit or by what means soever did not sin against the doctrine of saith or through unbelief when they did not believe Gods promises They did herein unadvisedly not unbelievingly Why not unbelievingly because the visible Church did not propose these promises unto them 4 If not to believe the visible Churches proposals be that which makes distrust or dissidence to Gods promises infidelity then to believe them is the true cause of believing Gods promises or if Sarah and others did as Valentian faith unadvisedly or imprudently in not assenting to divine truths proposed by Angels surely they had done only prudently and advisedly in assenting to them their assent had not been truly and properly belief So that by this assertion the Churches proposal hath the very remonstrative note and character of the immediat and prime cause whereby we believe and know matters of saith For whatsoever else can concur without this our aslent to divine truths proposed is not true Catholick belief but firmly believing this infallibility we cannot erre in any other point of faith 5 This truth Valentian elsewhere could not dissemble howsoever in his prosessed resolution of Faith he sought to cover it by change of apparel Investing the Churches proposal only with the title of a Condition requisite and yet withal so dislonant is falsity to it self making it the Reason of believing divine Revelations If a reason it be why we should believe them need must it sway any reasonable minde to embrace their truth And whatsoever inclines our minds to the embracement of any truth is the proper efficient cause of belif or assent unto the same Yea Efficiency or Causality it self doth Formally consist in this inclination of the minde Nor is it possible this proposal of the Church should move our minds to imbrace divine Revelations by any other means then by believing it And Belief it self being an inclination or motion of the mind our minds must first be moved by the Churches proposal ere it can move them at all to assent unto other divine truths Again Valentian grants that the orthodoxal or catechistical answer to this interrogation Why do you believe the doctrine of the Trinity to be a divine revelation is because the Church proposeth it to me for such He that admits this answer for sound and Catholick and yet denies the Churches proposal to be the true and proper cause of his Belief in the former point hath smothered doubtlesse the light of nature by admitting too much artificial subtilty into his brains For if a man should ask why do you believe there is a fire in yonder house and answer were made Because I see the smoak go out of the Chimney should the party thus answering in good earnest peremptorily deny the sight of the smoak to be the cause of his Belief there was a fire he deserved very wel to have either his tongue scorched with the one or his eys put out with the other Albeit if we speak of the things themselves not of his Belief concerning them the fire was the true cause of the smoak not the smoak of the fire But whatsoever it be Cause Condition Circumstance or Effect that truly satissieth this demand Why do you believe this or that it is a true and proper cause of our belief though not of the thing believed If then we admit the Churches proposal to be but a condition annexed to divine revelations yet if it be an infallible medium or mean or as our adversaries all agree The only mean infallible whereby we can rightly believe this or that to be a divine revelation it is the true and only infallible cause of our Belief That speech of Valentian which to any ordinary mans capacity includes as much as we now say was before alledged That Scripture which is commended and expounded unto us by the Church is eo ipso even for this reason most authentick and clear He could not more emphatically have expressed the Churches proposal to be the true and prime cause why particular or determinate divine revelations become so credible unto us His Second Sacrobosâus hath many speeches to be inserted hereafter to the same effect Amongst others where Dâ Whittaker objects that the principal cause of faith is by Papists ascribed unto the Church he denies it only thus far What we believe for the Churches proposal we
jointly believe for God speaking either in his written word or by tradition Yet if a man should have asked him why he did or how possibly he could infallibly believe that God did speak all the words either contained in the Bible or in their traditions he must have given either a womans answer because God spake them or this because our holy mother the Church doth say so For elsewhere he plainly avows the Books of Canonical Scripture need not be believed without the Churches proposal whose infallible authority was sufficiently known before one tittle of the New Testament was written and were to be acknowledged though it had never been he plainly confesseth withal that he could not believe the Scriptures taught some principal Articles of faith most firmly believed by him unless the Churches authority did thereto move him against the light of natural reason Now if for the Churches proposal he believe that which otherwise to believe he had no reason at all but rather strong inducements to the contrary as stedfastly as any other truth the Churches infallibility must be the true and only cause both why he believes the mystery proposed and distrusts the natural dictates of his conscience to the contrary In sine he doth not believe there is a Trinity for in that Article is his instance because God hath said it but he believes that God hath said it because his infallible Mother the Church doth teach it This is the misery of miseries that these Apostates should so bewitch the World as to make it think they believe the Church because God speaks by it when it is evident they do not believe God but for the Churches testimony well content to pretend his authority that her own may seem more Soveraign Thus make they their superstitious groundless magical Faith but as a wrench to wrest that principle of nature Whatsoever God saith is true to countenance any villany they can imagin as wil better appear hereafter But first the Reader must be content to be informed that by some of their Tenents the same Divine revelations may be asâented unto by the Habit either of âheologie or of Faith both which are most certain but herein diâferent That tâe former is discursive and resembles science properly so called the later not so but rather like unto that habit or faculty by which we perceive the truth of general Maxims or unto our bodily sight which sees divers visibles all immediately not one after or by another Whilst some of them dispute against the certainty of private spirits their arguments suppose Divine revelations must be believed by the Habit of Theologie which is as a sword to oââend us Whiles we assault them and urge the unstability of their resolutions they slie unto the non disâursive Habit of faith infused as their best buckler to ward such blows as the Habit of Theologie cannot bear off 6 Not here to dispute either how truly or pertinently they deny âaith infused to be a discursive habit the Logical Reader need not I hope my adâonition to observe that faith or belief whether habitual or actual unlesse discursive cannot possibly be resolved into any preexistent Maxim or principle From which grant this Emolument wil arise unto our cause that the Churches authority cannot be proved by any divine revelation or portion of Scripture seeing it is an Article of Faith and must be believed âodâm intuââu with that Scripture or part of Gods Word whether written or unwritten that teacheth it as light and colours are perceived by one and the same intuition in the same instant And by this assertion we could not so properly say We beleeue the divine revelation because we believe the Church nor do we see colours because we see the light but We may truly say that the objects of our faith divine revelations are therefore actually credible or worthy of belief because the infallible Church doth illustrate or propose them as the light doth make colours though invisible by night visible by day This similitude of the light and colours is not mine but Sacroboscus's whom in the point in hand I most mention because Doctor Whitakers Objections against their Churches Doctrine as it hath been delivered by Bellarmine and other late Controversers hath enforced him clearly to unfold what Bellarmine Stapleton and Valentian left unexpressed but is implicitely included in all their Writings But ere we come to examine the full inconveniences of their opinions I must request the Reader to observe that as oft as they mention Râsolution of faith they mean the discursive habit of Theologie For all resolution of Belief or knowledge essentially includes discourse And Bellarmine directly makes Sacroboscus expressely avoucheth the Churches authority the medius terminus or true cause whence determinate conclusions of faith are gathered From which and other equivalent assertions acknowledged by all the Romanists this day living it will appear that Valentian was either very ignorant himself or presumed he had to deal with very ignorant Adversaries when he denied that the last resolution of Catholick faith was into the Churches authority which comes next in place to be examined CAP. XXVIII Discovering either the grosse ignorance or notorious craft of the Jesuite in denying his Faith is finally resolved into the Churches veracity or infallibility That possibly it cannot be resolved into any branch of the First Truth 1 IT were a foolish question as Cajetan saith Valentian hath well observed if one should ask another why he believes the First Truth revealing For the Assent of Faith is finally resolved into the First Truth It may be Cajetan was better minded towards Truth it self first or secondary then this Jesuite was which used his authority to colour his former rotten position That the Churches proposal by their doctrine is not the cause of faith but our former distinction between belief it self and it object often confounded or between Gods Word indefinitely and determinately taken if well observed will evince this last reason to be as foolish as the former assertion was false No man saith he can give any reason besides the infallibility of the Revealer why he beleeves a divine Revelation It is true no man can give nor would any ask why we believe that which we are fully perswaded is a divine Revelation But yet a reason by their positions must be given why we believe either this or that truth any particular or determinate portion of Scripture to be a divine Revelation Wherefore seeing Christian Faith is alwayes of desinite and particular propositions or conclusions and as Bellarmine saith and all the Papists must say these cannot be known but by the Church As her infallible proposal is the true and proper cause why we believe them to be infalliblie true because the onely cause whereby we can believe them to be divine revelations so must it be the essential principle into which our Assent or Belief of any particular or determinate
be certaine whether ever there had been such an Emperour as they plead succession from or at least how far his Dominions extended or where they lay This manner of plea in secular controversies would be a mean to defeat him that made it For albeit the Christian World did acknowledge there had been such an Emperour and that many parts of Europe of right belonged unto his lawfull heir Yet if it were otherwise unknown what parts these were or who this heir should be no Judge would be so mad as finally to determine of either upon such motives Or if the Plaintiffe could by such courses as the World knows oft prevail in judgement or other gracious respects effect his purpose he were worse then mad that could think the finall resolution of his right were into the Emperours last Will and Testament which by his own confession no man knows besides himself and not rather into his own presumed fidelitie or the Judges apparant partiality So in this Controversie whatsoever the Pope may pretend from Christ all in the end comes to his own authority which we may safely believe herein to be most infallible that it will never prove partiall against it self or define ought to his Holinesse disadvantage 10 Here again it shall not be amisse to admonish younger Students of another gull which the Jesuite would put upon us to make their Churches Doctrin seem lesse abominable in this point lest you should think they did equalize the authority of the Church with divine revelations Valentian would perswade you it were no part of the formal object of faith It is true indeed that the Churches authority by their Doctrine is not comprehended in the object of Belief whilest it onely proposeth other Articles to be believed No more is the Sun comprehended under the objects of our actual sight whilest we behold colours or other visibles by the vertue of it But yet as it could not make colours or other things become more visible unto us unlesse it self were the first and principal visible that is unlesse it might be seen more clearly then those things which we see by it so we would direct our sight unto it so would it be impossible the Churches infallible proposal could make a Roman Catholicks Belief of Scriptures or their Orthodoxal sence the stronger unlesse it were the first and principal credible or primary object of his Beliefe or that which must be most clearly most certainly and more stedfastly believed so as all other Articles besides must be believed by the belief or credibility of it This is most evident out of Sacroboscus and Bellarmines resolution or explication of that point how the Churches proposal confirmes a Roman Catholicks belief To give this Doctrine of their Churches infallibility the right title according to the truth it is not an Article of Catholick Belief but a Catholick Axiom of Antichristian unbelief which from the necessary consequences of their assertions more strictly to be examined will easily appear CAP. XXIX What manner of casual dependance Romish Belief hath on the Church that the Romanist truely and properly believes the Church onely not God or his Word 1 THe two main assertions of our Adversaries whence our intended conclusion must be proved are these often mentioned heretofore First that we cannot be infallibly perswaded of the truth of Scriptures but by the Churches proposal Secondly that without the same we cannot be infallibly perswaded of the true sence or meaning of these Scriptures which that Church and we both believe to be Gods Word How we should know the Scriptures to be Gods Word is a Probleme in Divinity which in their judgement cannot be assoiled without admission of Traditions or divine unwritten verities of whose extent and meaning the Church must be infallible Judge It is necessary to salvation saith Bellarmine that we know there be some books divine which questionlesse cannot by any means be known by Scriptures For albeit the Scripture say that the Books of the Prophets or Apostles are divine yet this I shall not certainly believe unlesse I first believe that Scripture which saith thus is divine For so we may read every where in Mahomets Alcoran that the Alcoran it self was sent from heaven but we beliefe it not Therefore this necessary point that some Scripture is divine cannot sufficiently be gathered out of Scriptures alone Consequently seeing faith must rely upon Gods Word unlesse we have Gods word unwritten we can have no faith His meaning is we cannot know the Scriptures to be divine but by Traditions and what Traditions are divine what not we cannot know but by the present visible Church as was expresly taught by the same Authour before And the final resolution of our believing what God hath said or not said must be the Churches Authority To this collection Sacroboscus thus farre accords Some Catholicks rejected divers Canonical Books without any danger and if they had wanted the Churches proposal for others as well as them they might without sin have doubted of the whole Canon This he thinks consonant to that of Saint Austin I would not believe the Gospel unlesse the Churches authority did thereto move me He addes that we of reformed Churches making the visible Churches authority in defining points of faith unsufficient might disclaim all without any greater sin or danger to our souls then we incurre by disobeying some parts of Scripture to wit the Apocryphal books canonized by the Romish Church The Reader I hope observes by these passages How Bellarmine ascribes that to Tradition which is peculiar to Gods providence Sacroboscus that to blind belief which belongs unto the holy Spirit working faith unto the former points by the ordinary observation of Gods Providence and Experiments answerable to the rules of Scriptures 2 Consequently to the Trent Councels Decree concerning the second assertion Bellarmine thus collects It is necessary not onely to be able to read Scriptures but to understand them but the Scripture is often so ambiguous and intruate that it cannot be understood without the exposition of some that cannot erre therefore it alone is not sufficient Examples there be many For the equality of the divine persons the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son as from one joynt original Original sin Christs descension into Hel and many like may indeed be deduced out of Scriptures but not so plainly as to end Controversies with contentious spirits if we should produce onely testimonies of Scriptures And we are to note there be two things in Scripture the Characters or the written words and the sence included in them The Character is as the sheath but the sence is the very sword of the spirit Of the first of these two all are partakers for whosoever knowes the Character may read the Scripture but of the sence all men are not capable nor can we in many places be certain of it unlesse Tradition be assistant It is an offer worth the taking
labouring in vain to see the Truth of Divine revelations without it as much in vain as if a man should strive to see colours without light For this is Sacroboscus instance Besides the habit of faith seated in the understanding and the supernatural concourse of the Holy Spirit due to all endued with the babit of faith but necessary in respect of the subject or party two things more are requisite on the behalf of the object of which if either be wanting the facultie can never perform it proper function Of these two the one is that the proposition to be believed be revealed by God the other that there be a sufficient proposal made to us that God hath revealed it For an unsufficient proposal of any object is as none as may appear by the example of light which proposeth colours to be seen For when the light is weak or scant we cannot discern Colours not that we want a visible object but because we want light sufficient to illuminate the object or the space betwixt us and it He adds withall such as disclaim the Churches Authority and are content with this That Truths of faith are revealed by God in his Word and hence promise themselves the supernatural concourse of the Holy Ghost for producing acts of faith are destitute of a sufficient proposer and their presumption such as if a man should perswade himself because he hath Colours before his eyes and God ready to afford his ordinary concourse as oft as he is disposed to exercise his visive faculty he should be able to see them without light For saith this Jesuite the Prophets are dead Apostles dead Christ gone to heaven and instead of all Prophets Apostles or himself hath left us his Church Nor is it to be expected that God will every where upon all occasions supply the want of the external proposals by the abundance of internal illuminations as he did to our first parent or Saint Paul who had his Gospel neither from man nor by man but by the revelation of Jesus Christ For those are priviledges 6 The calumnie intended in this last instance hath often heretofore been prevented We never denied either the necessity or suffâiciencie of the Churches proposal as an external mean we account no other of that rank and nature is or could be either more necessary or more sufficient Saint Paul we grant had an extraordinary priviledge and yet for his private information had the truth proposed unto him by Ananias though the gifts of his publick Ministery were immediately from God Both the measure of his faith and manner of attaining it were unusual but his faith it self once attained no otherwise independent of any external proposal then ours is and all Christians must be We should have been more beholden to this professor had he distinctly told us what it is in their language to have a sufficient proposer albeit this we may gather from his words late cited and these following The Sectaries take upon them to correct the Churches sentence as oft as they list and then they oppose Christ to the Church as if the Church did propose one thing and Christ teach another If they admitted any Church as a sufficient proposer they were bound to conforme their opinions to it in all things As you heard before out of Bellarmine That the Popes Decrees may not be examined whether consonant or contrary to Gods Word or the foundations of faith already laid in our hearts and out of Canus That we must believe the Church absolutely without its or ands Thus believing we have Gods Word sufficiently proposed without this belief or acknowledgement of such authority in the Church we have no sufficient proposal of it but strive as foolishly to hear God speak as if we sought to see Colours without the light 7 It appears I hope as clearly to the Reader as to me that the Churches testimony or authority by our Adversaries Doctrine benefits none but such as stedfastly and absolutely believe it in all things But he that so believes it may by it easily believe all other points as he that can perfectly see the light may see Colours by it Want of this radical belief in us makes our faith in their opinion so unstable or rather blind and dead Yet can I hardly perswadâ my self all of them will grant the Church addes any inherent or participated splendor to divine revelations whereby they become perspicuous in themselves as Colours are made visible by irradiation of the Sun Thus much notwithstanding all of them I know willingly would subscribe unto A Protestant can neither of himself be infallibly perswaded of the Truth of Scriptures or other conclusions of faith nor doth he absolutely believe any others that are infallible in their determinations but a Roman Catholick albeit by his private spirit he cannot infallibly believe them yet he infalliby believes the Church which cannot erre in belief All then that a Papist hath more then a Protestant is this his Belief of the Church if once he doubt of this he is where he was Which in plain termes is as much as to say â He believes the Church concerning Scriptures not Scriptures That this is the true interpretation of their Tenent may easily be gathered from their own writings For Bellarmine expressely contends and all of them suppose that saying of Saint Austin Non crederem Evangelio nisime commoveret Ecclesiae authoritas I would not believe the Gospel unlesse the Churches authority did thereto move me to be true as well after faith is produced whilest it continues as whiles it is in planting Now if a man should say Non crederem Francisco nisi me commoveret Petri fiâelitas I would not trust Frances but for Peters word this speech resolved into it natural or proper sence is aequivalent unto this I do not trust Frances but Peter that gives his word for him And in case Peter should prove false or be distrusted by him that took his word for Frances as yet not believed but for Peters sake the creditor could have no hold of either Thus if Bellarmine and his fellows be as they would seem to make S. Austin minded not to believe the Gospel but for the Churches authority or proposal of it let them speak plainly and properly not in parables or metaphors and so we shall know their meaning to be That they indeed believe not the Scriptures but the Church or the Church truly and really the Scriptures onely by extrinsecal denomination 8 Nor can they reply either consequently to Sacrobos us instance or their general Tenents that as he which sees colours by the light truly sees colours not the light onely so he that believes Scriptures by the Churches infallible proposal believes not the Churches proposal onely but Scriptures as truely and properly The diversity of reason in these two consequences ariseth from the diverse manner of seeing colours by the Suns light and believing
on Him Accidents have a kind of existence peculiar to themselves yet cannot so properly be said to exist as their subjects on whom they have such double dependance Nor can the Moon so truely say my beauty is my own as may the Sun which lends light and splendor to this his sister as it were upon condition she never use it but in his sight For the same reason That for which we believe another thing is alwaies more truely more really and more properly believed then that which is believed for it if the one belief necessarily depend upon the other Tam in facto esse quam in sieri from the first beginning to the latter end For of beliefs thus mutually affected the one is real and radical the other nominal or at the most by participation only real This consequence is unsound Intellective knowledge depends on sensitive therfore sensitive is of these two the surer The reason is because intellective knowledge depends on sensitive onely in the acquisition not after it is acquired But this inference is most undoubted We believe the conclusion for the premisses therefore we believe the premisses the better because belief of the conclusion absolutely depends upon the premisses during the whole continuance of it This is the great Philosophers Rule and a branch of the former Axiom And some justly question whether in Scholastick proprietie of speech we can truely say there is a belief of the conclusion distinct from the belief of the premisses or rather the belief of the premisses is by extrinsical denomination attributed unto the conclusion This latter opinion at least in many Syllogismes is the truer most necessarily true in all wherein the conclusion is a particular essentially subordinate to an universal of truth unquestionable As be that infallibly believes every man is a reasonable creature infallibly believes Socrates is such Nor can we say there be two distinct beliefs one of the universal another of this particular for he that sayeth All excepteth âone If Socrates then make one in the Catalogue of men he that formerly knew all knew him to be a reasonable Creature all he had to learn was what was meant by this name Socrates a man or a beast After he knows him to be a man in knowing him to be a reasonable creature he knows no more then he did before in that uniuersal Every man is a reasonable creature The like consequence holds as firm in our present argument He that believes this universal Whatsoever the Church proposeth concerning Scriptures is most true hath no more to learn but onely what particulars the Church proposeth These being known we cannot imagine there should be two distinct Beliefs one of the Churches general infallibilitie another of the particular truths or points of faith contained in the Scripture proposed by it For as in the former case so in this He that from the Churches proposal believes or knowes this particular The Book of Revelations was from God receives no increase of former belief For before he believed all the Church did propose and therefore this particular Because one of all 4 The truth of this Conclusion may again from a main principle of Romish Faith be thus demonstrated Whatsoever unwritten traditions the Church shall propose though yet unheard of or unpossible otherwise to be known then onely by the Churches asseveration all Romanists are bound as certainly to believe as devoutly to embrace as any truths contained in the written word acknowledged by us the Jews and them for divine Now if either from their own experience the joynt consent of sincere antiquitie or testimony of Gods spirit speaking to thâm in private or what means soever else possible or imaginable they gave any absolute credence unto the written word or matters containd in it besides that they give unto the Churches general veracitie the Scriptures by addition of this credence were it great or little arising from these grounds peculiâr to them must needs be morefirmly believed and embraced then such unwritten traditions as are in themselves suspicious uncapable of other Credit then what they borrow from the Church For in respect of the Churches proposal which is one and the same alike peremptory in both Scriptures and traditions of what kind soever must be equally believed And if such traditions as can have no assurance besides the Churches testimony must be as well believed as Scriptures or Divine truths contained in them the former conclusion is evidently necessary That they neither believe the Scriptures nor the truths contained in them but the Churches proposal of them onely For the least belief of any Divine Truth added to belief of the Churches proposal which equally concerns written and unwritten verities would dissolve the former equality But that by the Trent Councel may not be dissolved Therefore our adversaries in deed and verity believe no Scriptures nor Divine written Truth but the Churches proposal onely concerning them And Sacrobosous bewrays his readâness to believe the Church as absolutely as my Châistian can do God or Christ though no ãâã of the New-Testament were extant Foâ âhat the Church cannot erre was an ââ¦led by God proposed by the Church â⦠by the thâ faithful before any part of the New âestament was written Now he that without ãâã Dâctrines of Jesus Christ would believe the Doctrines of faith as sirmly as with it believes not the Gospel which now he hath but their authorities onely upon which though we had it not he would as absolute rely for all matters of Doctrine supposed to be contained in it 5 Of further to illustrate the truth of our conclusion with this Jesuites former comparison which hath best illustrated the Romish Churches Tenent That Church in respect of the Canon of Scriptures or any part thereof is as the light is to colours As no colour can be seen of us but by the light so by his Doctrine neither the Canon of Scriptures or any part thereof can be known without the Churches testimony Again as removal of light presently makes us lose the sight of colours so doubt or denial of the Churches authority dâprives us of all true and stedfast belief concerning Gods Word or any matter contained in it God as they plead hath revealed his will obseurely and unto a distinct or clear apprehension of what is obscurely revealed the visible Churches declaration is no less necessary then light to discernment of colours The Reason is one in both and is this As the actual visibility of colours wholly depends upon the light as well for existence as duration so by Jesuitical Doctrine True belief of Scriptures wholly depends on the visible Churches Declaration as well during the whole continuance as the first producing of it By the same reason as we gather that light in it self is more visible then colours seeing by it alone colours become actually visible so will it necessarily follow that the Churches Declaration that is the Popes priviledge for not
Christ hath given him Wherefore in his judgement care and diligence are necessary to the Pope not so as if he could not define aright or rightly use his authority without them but that he doth not sin himself whilest he defines an infallible truth for others to believe Hereto may be added that albeit a diligent care were necessarily required for the infallibility of the Popes decisions yet the same faith which bindes us to believe he decides the controversie infallibly âindes us also to believe that he used as much diligence as was requisite As for example in like case If God should promise that the next year should be a plentiful year of corn we would conceive he promised withall good and seasonable weather and whatsoever else necessary for effecting of his promise as Canus well notes But Valentians last conclusion is that no sure arguments can be brought why we should think study or diligence are necessary for the right use of the Popes authority so far as it concerns other mens faith that must rely upon it Rely upon it they must whether he determin ex tempore or upon deliberation and for ought I can see whether he give his sentence drunk or sober raving or in his right mind so he have the wit to charge all upon pain of damnation to believe it But what if some forrainer should of set purpose send a dead-mans water to trie this grand-Physitians skil could he without either care or diligence in examining their testimonies or special Revelation from above which in such businesses Valentian disclaims discover their knavery Or would his prognostication of life and health redeem the party deceased from the land of death as some say Pope Gregory by his prayers did Trajan These and many like questions might here be made which fall not within the reach of Valentians answers hitherto recited and yet these must abundantly suffice for resolution of all doubts concerning the Canonizing of Saints or approbation of Religious Orders in which business likewise we must believe the Pope cannot erre Let the Reader pause a while look on their madness and laugh his fil at their apish drunkenness in this argument that when his mirth hath found a vent and his heart is wel setled he may with a sober unpartial stedfast eye behold the Mystery of this iniquitie CAP. XXXII What danger by this blasphemous Doctrine may accrew to Christian States that of all heresies blasphemies or idolatries which have been since the world began or can be imagined till Christ come to judgement this Apostasie of the Jesuites is the most abominable and contumelious against the blessed Trinity 1 WHat the consequences of these positions may be none can doubt No less they are then I have said a resigning up of mens souls and consciences into the Popes hands a consecration of hearts minds and bodies to work any mischief imaginable at his appointment For what if the Pope upon the relation of Ravilliacks stubbornness they would say constancy in his torture or Catesbyes praying to the Virgin Mary at his death should Canonize both for Saints and enjoyn the Christian world so to honour them Every bloody Assasinate would pray unto the one for good success in acting his blood-thirsty designs on Princes bodies And if it should please the Pope so to determine all men should stand bound to give such solemn worship as by their Doctrin is due to Sacred reliques unto that bloody knife which hath been sheathed in Ravilliacks Soveraigns breast Every deep dissembling Polititian or ambitious cholerick discontented spirit would burn incense saltpeter sulphur and brimstone to the others image in hope of better speed in undermining states 2 If any Jesuite or other brazen faced favorer of their Order or this doctrin should here reply This dreamer casts doubts beyond the Moon for is there any likelihood his Holiness wil ever Canonize such wicked Imps for Saints I must answer him as Tully did Rullus utterly disclaiming all purpose of doing such wrong unto the Roman state as his Petition unto it once granted might enable him to effect and from my soul I wish every Christian Prince every Princes Councellor would take that grave Senators words for his motto Primum nescio deinde timeo posiremo non committam ut vestro beneficio potius quam nostro consilio salvi esse possimus First whether the Pope would Canonize such miscreants for Saints or no is more then we know Secondly his former practises minister so just cause of fear to Christian states that it stands them upon rather in wisdom to prevent his power of doing then rely upon his fidelity for not doing them some inestimable mischief by putting this practise in execution if opportunity serve and abilitie be left him thereby to strengthen his faction Did not his Legate into France upon notice of the Parisian Massacre bestow his Holinesses best blessing Cum plenitudine potestatis With absolute and plenarie power derived from himself upon the notorious assasinate Boydon chief Ring-leader of that immane and Wolvish Massacre committed at Lyons begun without any warrant of publick authority onely at this hellish miscreants instigation desirous to follow or rather out-go his Superiours in cruelty Was not that villany it self authorized from Rome where it found such extraordinary approbation Never did that City rejoyce so much in memory of Christs birth or Saint Peters as at the hearing of this more then Herodian butchery of so many thousands noble-minded gentlemen with other Innocents and Saints of God So full was this Legates heart of joy hence conceived that after he came into France out of the abundance of it his mouth did sound the praises of the bloody actors and contrivers of this shameful Tragedy Etiam cum delectu verborum With such choice and affected words as caused them blush to hear him that had not been ashamed to act the villany And as if this excellent exploit had been effected by vertue of the holy Catholick Church the Popes Petition to the French King was that the Trent Councel might upon that good success begin to be of force in France and be thus sealed with blood Yet can any man doubt whether this Church would authorize murther or Canonize Assasinates for her own advantage Publickly suppose she would not yet if the Popes Decrees when they expresly binde all must as Valentian contends be beleived by all upon such terms as he annexeth no question but if he give any special injunction to the Order of Jesuites or such as they shal adjudge fit Associates to whom these secrets may be imparted it shal be as devoutly entertained by them whom it concerns as if it were universal If charged they be under pain of damnation secretly to worship this or that damned villain it wil be held a formal denial of Faith either not to perform what is enjoyned or to bewray what they perform We may wel suppose the Jesuites and others of their
of their vanity dispose our minds to embrace the stability of Gods Word with greater stedfastnesse We know the vertue and benefit of the Sun not so much by looking upon it self continually or directly as by the variety of other objects or colours all pleasant with it to the eye but altogether invisible or indistinguishable without it so for mine part I must professe that such historical narrations poetical fictions or other conceits of Heathens as they themselves knew little use of nor should I have done had I been as they were being compared with this heavenly light of Gods Word did much affect me even in my best and most retired meditations of sacred mysteries their observation as it were tied my soul by a new knot or fest more surely unto that truth which I knew before to be in it self most sure most infallible Yea even in points wherein my heart unto my seeming was best established it much did nourish augment and strengthen belief already planted to observe the perfect consonancie of profane with sacred Writers or the occasions of their dissonancie to be evidently such as Scriptures specifie that of many events wondred at by their Heathenish relators no tolerable reason could be given but such as are subordinate to the never-failing rules of Scripture And whosoever will may I presume observe by Experiment the truth of what I say There is no motive unto belief so weak or feeble but may be very available for quelling temptations of some kind or other either in speculation or practise oft-times such as are absolutely more weak or feeble more effectuall for expelling some peculiar distrust or presumption then others farre more forcible and strong for vanquishing temptations of another kinde in nature most grievous Many half students half gallants are often tempted either to distrust the commendations of this Eden which we are set to dress or distaste the food of life that grows within it from delights suggested by prophane books wherewith commonly they are first acquainted and hence much affect the knowledge their Authors profer as likely to Deifie them in the worlds eies Our proneness to be thus perswaded is a witness of our first parents transgression and these suggestions as reliques of Satans baits whereby he wrought their bain But what is the remedy not to tread in any heathenish soil lest these serpents sting us rather the best medicine for this malady would be a confection of that very flesh wherein such deadly poyson lodged Other arguments may more perswade the judicious or such as in some measure have tasted the fruits of the spirit But none the curious artist better then such as are gathered from his esteemed Authors Even such as are in faith most strong of zeal most ardent should not much mispend their time in comparing the degenerate fictions or historical relations of times ancient or modern with the everlasting truth For though this method could not add much encrease either to their faith or zeal yet would it doubtless much avail for working placid and milde affections The very pencilmen of sacred writ themselves were taught patience and instructed in the waies of Gods providence by their experience of such events as the course of time is never barren of not alwaies related by Canonical Authors nor immediately testified by the spirit but oft times believed upon a moral certainty or such a resolution of circumstances concurrent into the first cause or disposer of all affairs as we might make of modern accidents were we otherwise partakers of the spirit or would we mind heavenly matters as much as earthly Generally two points I have observed not much for ought I know if handled at all by any writer albeit their fruit and use would fully recompence the best pains of any one mans life-time though wholly spent in their discussion whose want in my mind hath been the bane of true devotion in most ages The first is an equivalencie of means in the wisedome of God so proportioned to the diversity of times as no age could have better then the present howsoever they may affect the extraordinary signs and wonders of former generations Of this argument here and there as occasion shall serve in this work elsewhere at large if God permit The second is an equivalencie of Errors Hypocrisie Infidelity and Idolatry all which vary rather their shape then substance in most men through ages nations and professions the ignorance of God remaining for the most part the same his attributes as much though in another kind transformed by many in outward profession joyned with the true Church as in times past by the Heathen The truth of which assertion with the original causes of the error and means to prevent it are discussed at large in the article of the God-head Many likewise for ought their conscience because not rightly examined will witness to the contrary are strongly perswaded they love Christ with heart and soul and so detest as well the open blasphemy or professed hatred which the Jew as the secret enmity the Jesuit or other infamous Hereticks bear against him when as oft times the onely ground of their love to him is their spite to some or all of these as they are deciphered to them in odious shape the onely original of their despite to these the very dregs of Jewish Popish or other Heretical humours in themselves by some light tincture of that truth which they outwardly profess exasperated to more bitter enmity against them with whose internal temper they best agree then otherwise they could conceive as admission to place of credit or authority makes base minds conscious of their own forepast villanies more rigid censurers of others misdemeanors or cruel persecutors of such malefactors as themselves in action have been and in heart yet are were all occasions and opportunities the same then any moderate or sincere man in life and action could be Of the original of this disease with the crisis and remedy as also the tryal of faith inherent in the articles concerning Christ and remission of sins From the manner of Jerusalems progress to her first destruction and discovery of the Jews natural temper the principal subject of my subcisive or vacant hours from these meditations and other necessary imployments of my calling I have observed the original as well of most states as mens miscariages professing true religion to have been from presumption of Gods favour before dangers approach and distrust of his mercy after calamities seiz upon them The root of both these misperswasions to be ignorance or error in the doctrin of Gods providence whose true knowledge if I may so speak is the fertil womb of all sacred moral truths the onely rule of rectifying mens wils perswasions and affections in all consultations or practises private or publick Unto this purpose much would it avail to be resolved whether all things fall out by fatal necessity or some contingently how fate and contingency if compatible each
145 CAP. 33. A brief direction for preventing scruples and resolving doubts concerning particular sentences or passages in the Canon of Scripture 148 CAP. 34. Concluding the first Book with some brief admonition to the Reader 149 The Second Book How far the ministery of Men is necessary for planting Christian Faith and retaining the unity of it planted SECT I. What obedience is due to Gods Word what to his Messengers Pag. 154 CAP. 1. The sum of the Romanists exceptions against the Scriptures 155 CAP. 2. The former objection as far as it concerns illiterate and Lay-men retorted and answered 156 CAP. 3. The general heads of Agreements or differences betwixt us and the Papists in this argument 162 CAP. 4. Of the two contrary extremities the one in excesse proper to the Papists transferring all obedience from Scriptures to the Church the other in defect proper to the Anti-papist defrauding the Church of all spiritual authority That there is some peculiar obedience due unto the Clergie 165 CAP. 5 Of the diversitie of humane actions the Original of their lawfulnesse unlawfulnesse or indifferencie which without question belong to the proper subject of Obedience which not 168 CAP. 6. That sincere obedience unto lawful authority makes sundry actions lawful and good which without it would be altogether unlawful and evil pag. 170 CAP. 7. That the Apostles rule Whatsoever is not of faith is Sin doth no way prejudice the former resolution What actions are properly said to be not of faith In what case or subject doubt or scruple make them such 177 CAP. 8. That such as most pretend liberty of conscience from our Apostles rule do most transgresse it with general directions for squaring our actions unto it or other rules of faith That by it the flock stands bound to such conditional assent as was mentioned Chap. 4. 185 CAP. 9. Of the nature use conditions or properties of conditional assent or obedience 189 CAP. 10. Wherein this conditional belief differeth from the Romans implicit faith That the one is the other not subordinate to Gods Word or Rule of faith 196 CAP. 11. In what sence we hold the Scriptures to to be The Rule of Faith 198 SECT II. That the pretended obscurity of Scriptures is no just exception why they should not be acknowledged the Absolute Rule of Faith which is the Mother-objection of the Romanist 201 CAP. 12. How far it may be granted the Scriptures are obscure with some premonitions for the right state of the question 201 CAP. 13. The true state of the question about the Scriptures obscuritie or perspicuity unto what men and for what causes they are obscure 206 CAP. 14. How men must be qualified ere they can understand Scriptures aright that the Pope is not so qualified 210 CAP. 15. The Romanists objections against the Scriptures for being obscure do more directly impeach their first Authour and his Messengers their Pen-men then us and the cause in hand 220 CAP. 16. That all the pretences of Scriptures obscurity are but mists and vapours arising from the corruption of the flesh and may by the pure light of Scriptures rightly applied easily be dispelled 223 CAP. 17. That the Mosaical writings were a most perfect rule plain and easie to the ancient Israelites 229 CAP. 18. Concluding this controversie about the obscurity of Scriptures according to the state proposed with the testimony of Saint Paul 233 SECT III. That the continuall practise of Hereticks in urging Scriptures for to establish Heresie and the diversity of opinions amongst the learned about the sence of them is no just exception why they should not be acknowledged as the sole entire and compleat Rule of Faith 235 CAP. 19. Containing the true state of the question with the adversaries generall objections against the truth 236 CAP. 20. That the former objections and all of like kind drawn from the cunning practise of Hereticks in colouring false opinions by Scriptures are most pregnant to confirm ours and most forcible to confute the adversaries doctrine 239 CAP. 21. The pretended excellencie of the supposed Roman rule for composing controversies impeached by the frequencie of Heresies in the Primitive Church and the imperfection of that union whereof since that time they so much boast Page 242 CAP. 22. That our Adversaries objections do not so much infringe as their practise confirms the sufficiencie of Scriptures for composing the greatest controversies in Religion 247 CAP. 23. The sufficiencie of Scriptures for final determination of controversies in Religion proved by our Saviours and his Apostles authority and practise 254 CAP. 24. That all their objections drawn from dissentions amongst the learned or the uncertainty of private spirits either conclude nothing of what they intend against us or else more then they mean or at the least dare avouch against Gods Prophets and faithfull people of old 260 CAP. 25. How farre upon what termes or grounds we may with modesty dissent from the Ancient or others of more excellent gifts than our selves That our adversaries arguments impeach as much the certainty of human sciences as of private spirits 266 SECT IIII. The last of the three main Objections before proposed which was concerning our supposed defective means for composing controversies or retaining the unity of faith fully answered and retorted That the Roman faith hath no foundation 271 CAP. 26. Containing the true state of the question or a comparison betwixt the Romish Church and ours for their means of preventing or composing controversies 272 CAP. 27. That the Romish Church hath most need of some excellent means for taking up of contentions because it necessarily breeds so many and so grievous 275 CAP. 28. Of two sences in which the excellencie of the Romish Churches pretended means for retaining the unity of faith can onely possibly be defended the one from the former discourse proved apparently false the other in it self as palpably ridiculous 278 CAP. 29. That their arguments drawn from conveniencie of reason or pretended correspondencie between Civil and Ecclesiastical Regiment do prejudice themselves not us 282 CAP. 30. That the finall triall of this controversie must be by Scriptures that the Jesuites and modern Papists fierce oppugning all certainty of private spirits in discerning the divine truth of Scriptures or their true sence hath made the Church their mother utterly uncapable of any Plea by Scriptures for establishing her pretended infallibility 285 CAP. 31. The insufficiencie of the Roman Rule of faith for effecting what it aims at albeit we grant all they demand in this controversie The ridiculous use thereof amongst such as acknowledge it The sufficiencie of Scriptures for composing all contentions further illustrated 297 CAP. 32. Brieflie collecting the summe of the second Book 306 THE ETERNAL TRUTH OF SCRIPTURES AND CHRISTIAN BELIEF thereon wholly Depending manifested by its own LIGHT The first Book of Comments upon the Creed First Generall Part. SECT I. I believe in God the Father c. IF in any at all most of
Wisdom more admirable in the other his Justice the same in Both. Yet a Roman would reply If Pompey had so grievously offended why should He not have born the whole burden of His sins So he should had either be alone offended or the Romans suffered him to have lived a Private Life but if they will associate themselves as members to their natural Head and professe their service and Allegeance unto Him that stood as prosâribed by the Court of Heaven Gods quarrel with the whole Faction is most Just All of them are guiltie of their Generals Sins All liable to the Plagues and Punishments due thereto Yet besides that Pompeys intolerable Presumption and Proph ãâã according to the usual Course of Gods Justice might propagate his Destinie unto such of his Adherents as had been free from any actual wrong done to the Jews or contempt of their God and Religion in particular a great many of his Chief Followers had polluted themselves with the like Sin in Jerusalem For as Josephus tels us Pompey went not into the Most Holy Place alone but accompanied with a Multitude All of them no doubt had sinned presumptuously against the Admonitions and Threathings of Gods Priests and this peoples curse it seems did follow them whither they themselves durst not for as the same writer testifies No other calamity in that war did grieve the Nation so much as this Polluting of their Temple 5 Whatsoever Tullies or other Politick Romans conceipt of this people in his time was many amongst the Romans as well as in most other Nations had without question either observed the like Fatal mischances of such as vexed them or else had felt some good in observing their Laws whose persons unknown they hated In one or both which respects these Jews stood upon better termes with their Conquerors then any other Captives did And unlesse it had been a received Opinion amongst other Romans that this had been A People Favoured of the Divine Powers why should ãâã have objected their late Conquest by Pompey to prove the contrary And me think ãâã it might have moved him and others so much devoted to the Roman Gods before to have thought these Jews did serve a better God then they knew any after they had seen their own state utterly ruined without all hope of recoverie and their gods either unwilling or unable as ãâã doubtfully complains to redresse those miseries and calamities of which they should at least have given them warning when as Hierusalems ãâã which Pompey had demolished were according to this peoples Hope from which no power on earth could deject them being supported by the â⦠Promise of their God Reedified within twentie years and they â⦠with great Priviledges for their good Service performed to Caesar For chiefly by their means became He Lord of Egypt the first and surest ground oâ bâ good successe in Africk as Josephus out of the publick Decrees and â⦠of Roman Writers boldly avoucheth challenging the Heathen to â⦠him or his Testimonies if they could Though this they easily â⦠have done if he had cited them amisse because the Originals were then every where Extant 6 The former testimonies alledged out of Tully whose works we have so well agreeing with Josephus who it seems had never read them will not suffer any ingenious man to suspect the truth of that which the same Josephus cites out of Strabo the Cappadocian whose works are lost The Jews saith he have crept into most Cities nor can a man almost name any place in the inhabited world where they once get footing but they hold possession Egypt Cyrene and many other nations have admitted their Rites and in liew of them nurse huge multitude of Jews using their own Domestick Law Besides that a great part of Alexandria is assigned to their use there be Colonies of this Nation throughout Egypt which enjoy Magistrates of their own for determining all controversies of right and wrong in such sort and form as is used in Absolute States Saint Augustin hath the same observation out of Seneca's Books concerning Superstition which this Reverend Father had perused though with divers others of that famous Philosophers works now lost 7 What Strabo had observed of these Jews in Syllas and Seneca in his time is intimated by Tullie in fewer words You know well saith he unto his adversary what a great faction it is how closely they hand together what sway they bear in assemblies But how great soever the number of this people was at Rome they durst not have been so bold in the Mistresse-city of the world unlesse their Patrons there had been many And it seems by Tullies conclusion in the fore-mentioned place that the bare unkindnesse offered by Flaccus to this Nation was worse taken at Rome then the wrongs and violence which he was accused to have done to sundry other people The gold saith he for which Flaccus was accused is in the Treasurie you charge him not with theft but onely seek to make him odious your speech is turned from the Judges and directed to the Company CAP. XX. Tacitus Objections against the Jews resuted by their palpable grosnesse and more competent Testimony of other Heathen writers 1 VNto this their powerfulnesse in perswading other Nations to renounce their own and imbrace their Laws and Religion Tacitus ascribes the increase of these Jews estate albeit he maliciously attributes this attractive force unto the Impietie of their Laws as if by Sympathie they had wrought most upon wicked and depraved natures Put wherein did their Impietie consist What we Romans esteem Sacred they account Profane what is polluted to us is lawful to them This argues that either the Roman religion oâ Theirs was Superst tious and profane and he like a true Patriot and right Romanist Ioath to suspect that Religion wherein his Forefathers had prospered so well charges the contrarie Orthodoxal with superstitious Impiety Most true it was that the Jews of his time were a wicked people but every way of the Loosing ââand their strength which had been long in gathering was sodainly broke by Titus and their wonted means of encrease by addition of Proselytes quite cut off For after the Temples destruction Nullus ad amissas that ãâã opâs From the first day of our Saviours Ministerial Function they did not win half so many Gentiles to Judaism as our Saviour and his Disciples did Jews unto Christianitie Tacitus then spake not of such Jews as lived in his time when their strength and greatnesse was in the Wane but of their Ancestors during the time of the Second Temple Nor was it that which was most wicked indeed in this people or their predecessors as their particular opposition or contrarietie unto divine truths but rather what was onely good in them as their Constancie in their Religion and stedfast Profession of Abrahams Faith common to them and the Christians which was the ground of this Politicks
Infallibility wherewith they hale most silly souâ⦠to them were too far spread before the Trent councel too commodious to bâ called in on a sodain Had they then begun to deny the Authority of this Booâ though then pronouncing their mothers wo more openly then any Prophecies of old had done the ensuing desolations of the Jews every child ãâã have caught hold on this string that this Church as they suppose alwayââ the same never obnoxious to any errour had in former time acknowledgeed it for Authentick and divine albeit no question but many of them sincâ have wish'd from their hearts that their forefathers had used the same as Seraiah did Jeremiahs books which he wrote against Babylon Jer. 51. that botâ it and all memory of it had been drowned in the Bottom of the deepest seâ and a milstone thrown upon it by Gods Angel that it never might rise up again to interrupt their whorish mothers beastly pleasures by discovering her filthy nakedness daily more and more For conclusion of this point for this present That this and other Canonical books had been long preserved or rather imprisoned by the Romish Church in darkness and ignorance until the Almightie gave his voice and caused them to speak in every tongue throughout these parts of the world doth no more argue her to have been the true and Catholick Church then Moses Education in Pharaohs Court during the time of his Infancie or Nonage doth argue the Egyptian Courtiers to have been Gods chosen People CAP. XXXIII A brief direction for preventing Scruples and resolving doubts concerning particular Sentences or passages in the Canon of Scripture UNto the second demand How we know this or that Sentence in any Foâ⦠of Canonical Scripture to have been from God Not inserted by man Some perhaps would say this must be known by the Spirit Which indeed is the Briefest Answer that can be given but such as would require a long Apologie for its Truth or at least a large Explication in what Sense it were true if any man durst be so bold as to reply upon it Consequently to our former Principles we may Answer That our full and undoubted Assent unto some Principal Parts doth bind us unto the Whole Frame of Scriptures ãâã you will say we Believe such special parts from undoubted Experience ãâã their Truth in our hearts and without This our Belief of them could not be ãâã stedfast how then shall we stedfastly believe those parts of whose divâ⦠truth we have no such Experiments for of every Sentence in Scripture wâ⦠suppose few or none can have any Yet even unto those parts whereof we have no Experiments in particular we do adhere by our Former Faith because ouâ⦠Souls and Consciences are as it were tied and fastned unto other Parts wherâ⦠with they are conjoyned as the pinning nailing of two plain bodies in somâ⦠few parts doth make them stick close together in all so as the one cannot bâ⦠pulled from the other in any part whilest their fastning holds It will be rââ¦plied that this Similitude would hold together if one part of Canonical Scripture were so firmly or naturally united to another as the divers portions ãâã one and the same continuate or Solid Body are but seeing it is evident ãâã so they are not who can warrant the contrarie but that a Sentence or Peâ⦠od perhaps a whole Page might have been Foisted into the Canon by some Scribe or other Here we must retire unto our First Hold or Principles of Faith For if we sted fastly Believe from Experiments or otherwise that some principal parts of Scripture have come from God and that the same are sure Pledges for mans good the only means of his Salvation this Doctrine or Experience of Gods Providence once fully established will establish our Faith and Assent unto other parts of his Word whereof should we take them alone we could have no such Experiments For he that knoweth God or his Providence aright knows this withall that he will not suffer us to be tempted above our strength And once having had Experience of his Mercies past we cannot without Injurie to his Divine Majestie but in Confidence of it Believe and Hope that his All-seeing Wisdom and Almightie Power will still maugre the spight of Death Hell Satan and their Agents preserve his Sacred Word sincere without admixture of any profane false or humane Inventions that might overthrow or pervert our Faith begun Hereto we may refer all former Documents of His Care and Providence in preserving the Canon of our Faith from the Tyrannie of such as sought utterly to deface it and the Treachery of others who sought to corrupt it And it ought to be no little motive unto us thus to think when we see Austin Gregory and other of the Ancient writers either maimed or mangled or purged of their best Bloud where they make against the Romish Church or else her untruths fathered upon Them by her shamelesse sons in places where they are silent for her and yet this Sacred Volume untouched and uncorrupt by any violence offered to it by that Church only it hath lost its natural Beautie and Complexion by long durance in that homely and vulgar Prison whereunto they have confined it 2 But as from these and like Documents of Gods Care and Providence in preserving it and of His Love and Favour towards us we conceive Faith and sure Hope that he will not suffer us to be tempted with doubts of this nature above our strength so must we be as far from tempting Him by these or like unnecessary unseasonable curious Demands How should we know This or That Clause or Sentence if we should find them alone to be Gods word Why might not an Heretick of malice have forged or a Scribe through negligence altered them It should suffice that they have been commended to us not alone but accompanied with such Oracles as we have already Entertained for Divine And if any Doubt shall happen to arise we must rely upon that Oracle of whose truth every true Christian hath and all that would be such may have sure Trial. Deus cum tentatione simul vires dabit God with the Temptation will give Issue yea Joyful Issue to such Temptations as he suffers to be suggested by Others Not unto such as we thrust our selves into by our needless Curiosity When we are called unto the search of truth by Satan or his Instruments Objections against it the Lord will give us better reasons for our own or others Satisfactions then yet we know of or should be able to find but by the conduct of his untempted Providence CAP. XXXIV Concluding the First Book with some Brief Admonition to the Reader TO conclude this Treatise as it was begun The greater the Reward proposed to the faithful Practise or the Punishment threatned to the Neglect of these divine Oracles the greater is the Madnesse of many men in our time who in contemplative
Studies whose Principal End is delight can under go long toyl and great pains never attaining to exact Knowledge but by Believing their Instructors and taking many Theoremes and Conclusions upon Trust before they can make Infallible Trial of their Truth and yet in matters of their Salvation which cannot be exactly Known but only Believed in this life and whose Belief must be got by Practise not by Discourse demand Evidence of Truth and infallible Demonstration before they will vouchsafe to Believe or adventure their pains on their Practise and finally so Demean themselves in speech and resolution as if God Almightie should think himself highly graced and our Saviour his Son much beholden to them that they should Deign to be his Scholars sooner then Mahomets or Machiavels But we that are his Messengers must not debase His Word nor Disparage our Calling by Wooing them upon such Terms or professing to shew them the Truth before they be willing to learn it One first Principle whereof is this That such as will seek may find starting holes enough to run out of Christs Fold and escape his Mercies profered in his Church And as many reasons are daily brought sufficient to perswade a Right-disposed understanding of the Truth of Scriptures so no Argument can be found of force enough to convince a Froward Will or perswade perverse Affections These are they which make a many altogether uncapable of any Moral most of all of any Divine Truth and must be laid aside at the first Entrance into the School of Christ and continually kept under by the Rod of his Judgements and Terrours of that Dreadful Day Unto such as account these Consequents lesse dreadful or their dread lesse probable then that they should for a time at least lay aside all Perversitie of will or Humour of Contradiction to make sure trial of those divine Oracles for their Good we can apply no other Medicine but that of Saint John He that is Filthy let him be Filthy still Rev. 22. 11. 2. Thus much of general Inducements to Belief In the Observation and Use of all these and others of what kind soever we must implore the Assistance of Gods Spirit who only worketh True and lively Faith but ordinarily by these or like means These Scriptures are as the Rule or Method prescribing us our Diet and Order of life these Experiments joyned with it are as Nutriment and the Spirit of God digesteth all to our Health and Strength Without It all other means or matters of best Observation are but as good Meat to weak or corrupt Stomacks With It every Experiment of our own or others Estate taken according to the rules of Scriptures doth nourish and strengthen Faith and preserve our spiritual Health Many in our dayes uncessantly blame their Brethrens Backwardnesse to Entertain the Spirit or rely upon it only being more Blame-worthy themselves for being too forward in Believing Every Spirit and seeking to discern Canonical from Apocryphal Scriptures by the Spirit and again to Trie True from False Spirits by the Scriptures without serious Observation and setled Examination of Experiments answerable unto sacred Rules Such mens fervent Zeal unto the Letter of the Gospel is like an hot Stomach accustomed to light meats which increase Appetite more then Strength and fill the body rather with bad Humors then good Bloud 3 The Spirit no doubt speaks often unto us when we attend not but we must not presume to understand His Suggestions by His immediate Voice or Presence only by His Fruits and the inward Testimony of an appeased Conscience which he alone can work must we know him He that seeks as â Ignatius Ignatius Loyola taught his sons to discern Him without more ado by his manner of breathing may instead of him be troubled with an unwelcome Guest alwayes ready to invite himself where he sees preparation made for his Better and one I am perswaded that hath learned more kinds of Salutations then Loyola knew of able to fill empty Breasts or shallow Heads unsetled in Truth with such pleasant mild and gentle Blasts as are apt to breed strong perswasions of more then Angelical Inspirations 4 God grant the carriage of ensuing Times may argue these Admonitions needlesse which further to prosecute in respect of times late past and now present could not be unseasonable but thus much by the way must now suffice me purposed hereafter if God permit to Treat of the Trial of Spirits and certain apprehension of inherent Faith about the general means of whose production and establishment the Question most controversed in these days âs Whether beside the Testification of Gods Spirit which as all agree must by these late mentioned or other means work Faith in our hearts the Testimony or authority of others besides our selves be necessary either for ascertaining our Apprehension of the Spirit thus working or for assuring the truth of Experiments wrought by it in our Souls or if no other besides the testimony of Gods Spirit and our own Conscience be necessary either after their Sentence given or whilest they give it How far the Authoritie or Ministery of men is necessary or behoveful either for bringing us acquainted with the Spirit of God or for the assistance and direction of our Conscience in giving right Sentence of the Truth or true meaning of Gods word Of these questions and others subordinate to them we are to dispute at large in the Books following How far the Ministry of Men is Necessary for PLANTING True Christian Faith and retaining the Unity of It PLANTED The Second Book of Comments upon the CREED AS in the first Intention so after some Prosecution of this long work my purpose was to refer the full Examination of the Romish Churches pretended Authoritie in matters Spiritual unto the Article of the Catholick Church Which with those three others of the Holy Ghost Communion of Saints and forgivenesse of Sins for more exact Methods sake and continuation of matters in nature and sacred writ most united I have reserved for the last place in this Frame of Christian Belief annexing the Articles of the Bodies resurrection and Everlasting life unto that of Final Judgement whereon these Two have most Immediate and most direct Dependance 2 But after the Platform was cast and matter for Structure prepared upon evident discovery of the Jesuites Treachery in setting up the Pope as a secret Competitor with the Blessed Trinity for Absolute Soveraignty over mens Souls and for this purpose continually plotting to have the Doctrine of their Churches Infallibilitie planted as low and deep as the very first and Fundamental Principles of Belief albeit in laying the former Foundations I had come to ground firm enough if free from undermining to bear all I meant to build upon it I was notwithstanding in this place constrained to Bare the whole Foundation and all about it unto the very Rock on whose strength it stands lest this late dismal Invention concerning the Popes
doth the Pope challenge to himself the gift of Prophecie but only of legal Decisions which are no otherwise written then many write and contain no deeper nor more Supernatural Matter then many may invent most of them usually penned in a base and barbarous Logick Phrase his Stile at the best is not peculiar his Character easie to be counterfeited by any man that can pen a Proclamation or frame an Instrument in Civil Courts 7 To recollect what hath been said First seeing God is more to be Believed then Men secondly seeing we have better Arguments to perswade the People that these Scriptures daily read in our Church are Gods own Words then the Priests and Jesuites have that the Tidings which they bring from beyond Sea are the Popes or Churches Decrees or Sentence we may and ought Teach them to relie immediately upon Gods Word preached or read unto them as the surest and most Infallible Rule of Faith the most lively most effectual and most forcible Means of their Salvation Or if the Jesuites will teach them to Believe the Popes Decrees given ex Cathedra or the Churches Opinion indefinitely taken Fide divina by Infallible Faith but the Jesuites or Priests Expositions or Translations of them only Conditionally and with this Limitation If so they be the Pope or Churches Decrees we may in like sort with far greater Reason teach the People to Believe the Scriptures or the Word of God absolutely and our Translations or Expositions of it but Conditionally or with Limitation so far as they are Consonant to the Word of God Seeing it is as probable that we may expound Gods Word as rightly and sincerely as the other can the Church or Popes Edicts we have better Reason to exact this conditional Obedience and Assent in the Vertue and Authoritie of Gods Word which we make the Rule of Faith then they can have to exact the like Obedience by Vertue of the Pope or Churches Edict which is to them the Mistresse of Faith For it is more certain to any man living that Gods Word is most Infallibly True then that the Pope cannot Erre Wherefore if the Absolute Belief of the Popes Infallibilitie and Conditional Belief of the Jesuites or Priests his Messengers Fidelitie or Skill be sufficient to Salvation much more may the Absolute Belief or Assent unto the Infallibility of Gods Word and such Conditional and limited Belief of his Ministers Fidelitie be sufficient for the Salvation of his People who as hath been proved cannot be more certain that the Romish Church saith This or That then we can be of Gods Word For they never hear the Church or Pope speak but in Jesuites or Priests Mouthes And although they knew he said just so as those say yet may a man doubt in Modestie whether the Popes Words be alwayes Infallible but of the Infallibilitie of Gods Word can no man doubt 8 And Here I cannot but much wonder at the preposterous courses of these Romanists who holding an Implicite Faith of Believing as the Church Believes in many Points to be sufficient unto Salvation will yet fasten this implicite Faith upon the present Church of Rome and not refer it rather unto that Church as it was under S. Peters Jurisdiction and Government For if Universalitie be as they contend a sure Note of undoubted Truth then must it needs be more undoubtedly True that S. Peter could not Erre in Matters of Faith then that this present Romish Pope and his Cardinals cannot so Erre For all Papists hold this as True of S. Peter as of this present Pope and all Protestants hold it True of S. Peter not in the present Pope and so did all the Fathers without controversie hold it most True that S. Peter did not teach amisse in his Apostolical Writings So that Universalitie is much greater for S. Peter then for this Pope that now is or the next that shall be 9 For these Reasons fully consonant to their own Positions all Papists me-thinks in Reason should make the same Difference in their Estimate of S. Peter and later Popes which a French Cardinal as the Tradition is at Durham once made betwixt S. Cuthbert and venerable Bede Abeit S. Cuthbert was accounted the greater Saint amongst them whose greater Benefactour he had been in which respect they brought the Cardinal first unto S. Cuthberts Tomb yet because he knew him not so well but only by their Report he praies very warily Sancte Cuthberte si Sanctus es or a pro me But afterwards brought unto Bedes Tomb then in the Consistory because he had been Famous in Forrain Nations from the Commendations of lesse partial Antiquitie he fell to his prayers without Ifs and And 's Vener abilis Beda quia tu Sanctus es or a pro me 10 Proprotional to this Caution in this French-mans Prayers should every modern Papist limit his Belief of the present Popes Infallibilitie in respect of S. Peters And say thus in his heart As for S. Peter I know he Believed and Taught aright And I beseech God I may Believe as he Believed and that my Soul may come whither his is gone as for this present Pope if he believe as S. Peter did be likely to follow him in LIfe and Death I pray God I may Believe as he Believes and do as he Teacheth but otherwise believe me I would be very loath to pin my Belief upon his Sleeve lest happily he run Headlong to Hell to that which should have drawn me up to Heaven For in this Life I walk by Faith and by Faith I must ascend Thither if I ever come There and therefore I dare not fasten my Belief upon any Man whom I would be loath to follow in his Course of Life But most surely might this Implicite Faith be fastned upon Gods written Word contained in the Writings of Moses the Prophets Apostles and Evangelists We know O Lord that Thou hast Taught them All Truth that is Necessary for thy Church to know And our Adversaries confess that thy Word uttered by Them rightly understood is the most sure Rule of Faith for by This they seek to establish the Infallibilitie of the Church and Pope They themselves speak aright by their own Confession where they speak consonantly unto it Wherefore the safest Course for us must be to search out the True Sense and Meaning of it which is as easie for us as them to find as in the Processe of these Meditations God willing shall appear 11 Unto the main Objection concerning the Means of knowing Scripture to be Scripture we have partly answered or rather prevented it in the first Treatise and throughout this whole intended discourse we shall God willing explicate the former general Means or Motives as also bring other peculiar Inducements for the establishing of True Faith unto the particular Articles in this Creed contained For the present Difficultie concerning the Rule of Illiterate Lay-mens Faith or such as understand not those Languages in which
hold the Scriptures to be the Rule of Faith 1 WHen we affirm that the Scriptures are the only infallible Rule in matters of Faith and Christian Obedience we understand such a Rule in those matters as Aristotles Organon may be said of Logick supposing it were sound and free from all suspicion of Errour in every point and contained in it all the general and undoubted Principles from which all true Forms of Argumentation must be deduced and into which all must be finally Resolved To illustrate this Truth by a known Practise Our younger Students are bound to yield their absolute Assent unto Aristotles Authoritie in matters of Logick but not unto any Interpreter that shall pretend it save only when he shall make evident unto them that this was Aristotles Meaning And while they so only and no otherwise yield their Assent they yield it wholly and immediately unto Aristotle not to the Interpreter although by his Means they came to know Aristotles Meaning which once known without any further confirmation of other Testimonie or Authoritie commands their Obedience and Assent But ere they can fully Assent unto this great Master or throughly perceive his Meaning they must conditionally Assent unto their private Tutors or other Expositors and take his Sense and Meaning upon their Trust and Credit In like manner say we in all Matters Doctrines or Controversies of Faith and Christian Obedience we are bound to yield our Assent directly absolutely and finally unto the Authoritie of Scriptures only not unto any Doctor Expositor or other whosoever he be that shall pretend Authoritie out of Scripture over our Faith save only when he shall make it clear and evident unto us that his Opinion is the true Meaning of the Scripture And thus yielding our absolute Assent unto the Truth explained by him we yield it not to him but unto the Author of Truth whose Words we hold to be Infallible in whose Mouthes soever and once known to be His words they need not the Testimonie or Authority of him that did bring us to the true Knowledge of them And before we be brought to see their Truth with our own eyes and feel it by our sense by the effects or experiments of it upon our own Souls we are to limit our Assent and Obedience as it is set down before according to the Probabilities or unpartial Inducements which we have of the Expositors Skill and Sincerity in dispensing Divine Mysteries And these Motives or Inducements which we have of his Skill and Sincerity must be framed according to the Rules or Precepts of Scripture not according to our Affections or Humours we may not think him most to be Believed that is in highest Place or hath the greatest stroke in other Affairs For as the Faith of Christ so must our Perswasion of the faithful Dispensers or skilful Seeds-men of Faith be had without respect of persons 2 If we yield Assent or Obedience unto any Expositor or other otherwise then upon these Conditions and Limitations then as we said before whilest we yielded absolute Obedience unto his doctrine that perswaded us to true Belief because we perceived that which he spake to be the Word of God we did not yield it unto him but unto Gods Word delivered and made known unto us by him so here again by the same Reason only inverted it will evidently follow that if we Believe any mans Doctrines or Decisions to be the Word of God because he speaks it or because we hold his Words to be infallible we do not truly and properly Believe the Word of God suppose his doctrine were the Word of God but his Words and Infallibilitie onely Hence again it follows that if we yield the same absolute and undoubted Assent unto his Authoritie which we would do unto Gods Word immediately known in it self and for it self or relie upon his Infallibility in expounding Gods Word as fully as he doth upon the Word which it is supposed he knows immediately in it self and for it self by doing thus we rob God of his Honour giving that unto Man which is only due to Him For the Infallibility of this Teacher hath the same Proportion to all that thus absolutely Believe him as the Infallibilitie of the Godhead hath unto him his Words the same Proportion to all other mens Faith that Gods Word hath unto his Gods Word is the Rule of his and his Words must be the Rule of all other mens Faith Or to speak more properly God must be a God only to him and he a God to all other men 3 Here it will be demanded how men altogether Illiterate can examin any Doctrine by Scriptures If they cannot Read them how shall they Examin any thing by them not examining the Points of Faith by them how can they be said to be the Rule of their Faith In such a Sense as Aristotles Works supposing them only Authentick and all his Opposites counterfeits or new-fangles may be said to be the Rule of Blind-mens Logick for albeit they cannot read his works yet are they capable of his general and undoubted rules seeing they have as well as other men a natural faculty of discerning Truth from Falshood and can distinguish betwixt rules derived from the pure Fountain of Truth in that kind and Precepts drawn from conjectural erroneous and corrupt Surmises of shallow Brains if both be distinctly proposed unto them And the rules of Truth once fully apprehended and embraced serve as a Touchstone to discern all Consequences and Conclusions which shall be suggested unto them by others so as they wil admit of nothing for sound true Logick but what may be resolved into the former or some other Principles which they can perspicuously and immediately discern to have been drawn from the Fountain of Truth by the same natural Facultie or Ability by which they did discern the former for the faculty will still be like affected with all Principles of like Nature Use and Perspicuity In like sort must the first and general Principles of Faith be derived from Scriptures the only pure fountain of Supernatural Truths unto all illiterate hearts by the Ministery of the learned For Hearts though Illiterate once illuminated by Gods Spirit are as apt to discern Spiritual Principles from falshood or carnal Conjectures as the natural Man is to discern natural Truths from Errours of the same kind And these general and fundamental Principles of Faith engrafted in their hearts serve as infallible rules for discerning the Consonancie or Dissonancie of such Particulars as shal be suggested unto them as shal God willing hereafter be declared nor may they without Injury to Gods Spirit or inward Grace admit any other precepts into the same rank or society with these but either upon evident and distinct deduction from them or sure Experiments of their like Spiritual fruit and Use for the amendment of Life and procuring that peace of Conscience which no Natural Man can conceive much lesse can it be caused
of Scriptures unto some and Facility and Perspicuity unto others of like Profession cannot justly impeach them of greater Obscurity then befits the infallible rule as wel of theirs as of all other mens Faith in their several Vocations For as mens Callings are divers and Gods Gifts to men in their divers Callings in nature and qualitie different so likewise is the Measure of his like gifts to men in the same calling not one and the same To some he gives more Knowledge to others lesse yet all he commands not to presume above that which is Written and every man to limit his desires of knowing that which is Written by the distinct Measure of Gods Gifts in himself not to affect or presume of such skil as they have unto whom God hath given a greater Talent And besides this that the Scripture is the inexhaustible store-house âhence all men have their several Measures of Divine Knowledge as wel he that hath most as he that hath least even in this again it is a perfect rule that it commands all sapere idque ad sobrietatem to be wise according to that Measure of Knowledge which God hath given them and not to seek to know at least not to say why should I not know as much as any other of any Profession For this were Pride and Arrogancie the fatal enemies of all true Christian Knowledge if so his Gifts be lesse then others And for the avoidance of these main Obstacles of Christian Knowledge or true Interpretation of Scriptures the Scripture hath commanded every man to think better of others than of himself and not to be wise in his own conceit 12 From the former General will follow this Particular Albeit some Parts of Scripture be very obscure unto some the same perspicuous unto other Ministers or Preachers of the Word yet may the whole Canon be the infallible Rule of Faith unto both according to the diverse Measure of their Gifts rightly and unpartially taken If the one either fail in the Exposition of sundrie Places which the other rightly expounds or cannot apprehend so much in them as the other doth he is in Sobriety of Spirit bound to acknowledge his own Infirmitie and content himself with that knowledge which is contained within the Measure of Gods Gifts bestowed upon himself and this again he is to take by the same Rule So that the Scriptures are a perfect Rule to both to all for Direction in the search of Divine Knowledge for limitation of mens desires whiles they seek it or Conceit of what they have gotten That they do not so thorowly instruct or furnish some as others though all men of God for exact performance of their Ministerial function can be no argument of their Insufficiencie to make all such in their Place and Order competently Wise unto Salvation more than it would be to prove Eâclides Elements or other more absolute Mathematical Work an insufficient and imperfect Rule for instructing Surveyours or other Practical Mathematicians whose skill lies onely in measuring Triangles Circles or other plain or solid Bodies because containing many Questions of higher Nature and greater Difficultie as of the Circles Quadrature of Lines or Numbers Surd or Asymmetral well befitting the exercise of speculatorie learned Mathematical Wits CAP. XIII The true state of the Question about the Scriptures Obscurity or Perspicuity unto what Men and for what Causes they are Obscure 1 THe Question then must be Whether the Scriptures be an absolute Rule of Christian Faith and Manners to every Man in his Vocation and Order according to the Measure of Gods Gifts bestowed upon him We affirm It is such to all None are so cunning none so excellent or expert in Divine Mysteries but must take it for a Rule beyond whose Bounds they may not passe from which they daily may learn more none so sillie but may thence learn enough for their Salvation so they will be Ruled by it And yet even of those Points which are perspicuously set down to the diverse Capacities of Men in the same or several Professions the Question is not Whether any can fully comprehend their intire Meaning Certain it is In this life they cannot But neither will our Adversaries I hope avouch that the infallible Authoritie of their Church can make us so comprehend the full meaning of Mysteries contained either in Scriptures or her pretended unwritten Traditions Of Scriptures the best learned Christian may say wth the Heathen Socrates Hoc unum scio me nihil scire I know this one thing that I know nothing Nothing as I should or as fully as I then shall when I shall know as I am known for in this life we know but in part and we propâ⦠in part 2 Lastly even in respect of Places though containing Points of Salvation onely thus imperfectly known though as perspicuous and clear as can be required the Rule of Faith should be the Question is not whether they be very Obscure and Difficult unto some or unto the Major part of Mankind if we consider them as they are or may be not as they should or might be that is if we consider them as disobedient to the Truth known or carelesse to amend their lives by this light of Scripture For unto all such as hate it this very light it self proves an occasion of falling Nor could any thing be more plainly or perspicuously set down in any other Rule of Faith imaginable than this very Point we now handle is in Scriptures to wit that such Parts of them as contain matters necessary to Salvation are most easie to some most hard to others And albeit they might through the Iniquity of Mankind prove difficult to all or impossible to be understood of most now living living as for the most part we do yet were this Difficultie or Impossibilitie of understanding them aright upon these Suppositions no hindrance at all why they should not be a complete Rule of Faith to all no just reason for admitting any infallible Authority besides theirs 3 For of such as admit any Authority equivalent to theirs it must be further demanded whether the Infallibilitie of it can take away that Blindnesse of heart which by Gods just Judgement lights upon all such as detain the knowledge of God or his sacred Word in Unrighteousnesse If for their sins God punish them with this spiritual darknesse in discerning his Will revealed in his written Word no other infallible Authority as we suppose can take away those scales from their eyes which hinder their sight in the means of their Salvation If men have been called to this Light and prefer Darknesse before it either they must receive sight and direction from it again or continue still in ignorance and the shadow of death but doth God look up all or most mens eyes in such darknesse No for this blindnesse by our Doctrine befals onely such as have deserved it by the forementioned sins which once removed by Repentance the
commonly received for Divine in such Points as contradict not their Affections or tempt them not to become partial Judges of evil thoughts that we are to reverence and obey Gods Word manifested to our Consciences though by their Ministery we deny not But that such wicked Monsters of Mankind as many of their Popes have been may be should so conceive and discern all the Principles and Grounds of Faith be so familiarly intimate with the Holy Spirit that their Decrees in matters which concern their own Pomp and Glory in matters whose loss would breed their Temporal Ruine should be held for the infâllible Oracles of God the only Rule of Faith for all other Christians to rely upon continually thus to deny the infallible presence or illumination of Gods Spirit to all faithful and godly men throughout the world and to appropriate it to a succession of such sons of Belial as their own Writers picture out unto us in their Legends of Popes lives is a Blaspemy against the Godhead I pray God it prove not so against the Holy Ghost of such huge and ugly shape that I much marvail how it could possibly creep into any Jesuites pen being scarce able I think to get out of the wide vast gaping mouth of Hel it self in whose intrails it was conceived Was it more in heat of Passion perhaps to say that the Devil was a Familiar of the Son of God then to teach it as an Article of Faith that the Holy and Eternal Spirit is a perpetual Associate an infallible Assistant or familiar Companion of Satans First-born of Conjurers Inchanters or incarnate Devils was it so horrible and infamous a Crime in Simon Maguâ to offer to buy the Gifts of the Holy Ghost is it lesse sin in such as he was Conjurers Sorcerers to seek after as great or greater spiritual Prerogatives as great as S. Peter had by the same Means that he did Is it no sin for the Jesuites to beg this as a Postulatum or main Axiom of Faith that whatsoever the Pope such a Pope as hath gotten his triple Crown and spiritual Power by Simony shal decree ex Cathedra should be esteemed and reverenced as the Dictates of the Holy Ghost Did that old Magus want wit to insert this Condition to his request that whomsoever he should lay his hands upon ex Cathedra he might receive the Holy Ghost Might not S. Peter have conferred this extraordinary Gift as wel upon him as he did his Infallibility upon the Pope Simon did not desire the Monopoly of bestowing the Holy Ghost but could have been content to have shared with others in this Prerogative Give me also this power But his Brother in wickednesse the Romish Levi of what spirit soever he be must have this Prerogative alone that whatsoever he shal speak must be the Oracle of the Holy Spirit Is it more to have the Holy Ghost attend on Simon Magus hands but not on them alone then to have him tied only unto the Popes Tongue or Pen The spiritual Prerogative which he sought and that which the Pope usurps are on the Popes part at least equal The Manner or Means of seeking them in both alike the same For we hear in the corner of the world wherein we live that your Elections of men into Peters Chair do not go gratis I confesse I do not believe the Corruption of your Clergy so firmly as I do the Articles of my Creed because I have not expresse Warrant for it out of this Sacred Canon which I make the Rule of my Faith but ere you can make us Believe the Popes Infallibility as an Article of Faith you must make evident Proof to the contrary you must make it clear by Testimony from above that neither any State of Italy or forrain Prince doth make request or suit unto your Cardinals that his Kinsman his Country-man or Favourite may be elected Pope before another We have far greater reason to believe that such Offers are both made and taken then to think that if a forrain Prince or domestick Potentate should offer a Cardinal some thousands of Ducates for his voice he would answer like one that would be Peters Successour in sincerity Thy mony perish with thee that thinkest the Gift of the Holy Ghost can be bought with money 7 Yet if the Cardinal take any gift upon this Condition or respect any Princes favour in such Election his and the parties sin soliciting him hereto is altogether as great as Simons was For the request is in effect thus much Let such a man have this Prerogative that on whomsoever he shall lay his Curse to whomsoever he shall impart his Blessing the one shal be accursed the other blessed from above whatsoever he shal determin in any Controversie shal be the Dictate of the Holy Ghost And he that yields his voice upon such conditions doth take upon him to bestow that upon the Pope which S. Peter denied to Simon Magus The Pope thus chosen doth usurp that as bestowed upon him which Simon Magus did seek his Practise and Profession is continually as villanous as Simons desires were when he sought after this his Blessings are no better then Simons Charms 8 It is no marvail if the Jesuites be so eager in this Argument or the politick Papists so forward to disclaim the Scriptures for the Rule of Christian Faith For if men should so esteem of them in heart and deed those few Rules out of them already alledged would quickly descry the Pope and Clergy of Rome I mean their Cardinals and States-men to be of all others the most incompetent Judges either of Scripture-sense or Controversies in Religion thence depending Or were the Use of Scriptures freely permitted to their Laicks without the Glosses and false representations of the Jesuites Priests or Fryers they might quickly see that the silliest Soul among them might sooner be partaker of the Life-working sense then their great States-men can be if so they would frame their lives according to the known Rules thereof better then such great ones do For Sillinesse or simplicity of Wit or understanding doth not so much hinder as Singlenesse of Heart or Sincerity of Conscience further men in the search of Truth necessary âo their own Salvation That Promise of our Saviour Habenti dabitur hath its proper place and peculiar force in this Point Whosoever he be that yields Sincere Obedience unto the least part of Gods Word known to him shal be given greater Knowledge And of such is the Prophets Speech most true They shall be all Taught of God from the greatest to the least As wel the mean Schollers and silliest souls as the greatest and wisest Doctors For with great worldly Wisdom there is always great Pride the greatest Adversary to true and sanctified Christian Knowledge and the best sort of Secular Learning puffeth up All the skil which men so minded can attain unto iâ Heavenly matters is
and truly religious Writers in the best and flourishing ages of the Church have been as Copious and Industrious in citing Authorities of Scriptures for their Opinions as Hereticks this Argument proves nothing against us why we may not be Orthodoxes and true Catholicks as well as Hereticks That this hath been the practise of Hereticks we acknowledge and having received this their Blow we can return their own weapons upon them with greater probabilitie of better speed 2 It hath been the practise of sundry Hereticks never of any Orthodox to refuse their triall by Scripture and flee unto Traditions It hath been the continual practise of most monstrous and blasphemous Impostors of false Messiahs and such as oppose themselves against Christ of Mahomet and such like to plead the infallible Assistance of the Holy Ghost and a Supream Authority over others without subjection to any triall either by Scripture or other Means If most of them have failed in getting so many stedfast followers as the Pope now hath and for many yeers hath had it is most likely this was either because their Heresies were more open and more easie to be descried or they lesse cunning in countenancing them by Scriptures Antiquitie or other plausible showes of Custom Tradition or the like For we all know that Antichrists greatnesse must grow by the multitude of his resolute followers that God shall send them be they never so many strong delusions that they should beleeve lies that his coming is by the working of Satham who can urge Scripture as cunningly to maintain Falshood as any Heretick and by all power and signes and lying wonders So that it will be hard to discover or prevent his coming unlesse men be very cunning and expert in these Scriptures the Rule of Truth the onely Light whereby all falshood must be discovered 3 That they may once for all know how little we fear their force we will set our Bodies so as they shall not misse them and prepare our selves to take the full strength and Dint of all their strokes The Hereticks of old time say they have urged Scriptures for their Doctrine vehemently and copiously we will give them better hold and help them to presse this Point a little harder They did urge Scriptures most cunningly most subtilly and hereby deceived many yea almost staggered the very Elect. What if they did so would Pharaohs Enchanters have obstupisied most of the Israelite beside Moses and Aaron but did their cunning jugling prejudice the truth of Moses Miracles or did he neglect to manifest the Power of God for fear lest he should be censured for such a one as they were onely more cuning in his Craft Their wicked cunning served as a foyl so to set forth his heavenly skill as the Enchanters themselves could not but see the Finger of God in his working herein more ingenuous then the modern Jesuites who in so clear a Point as this we now dispute after so many foyls as they have taken will not acknowledge the force of that Scripture in themselves Magnaest veritas praevalet The Reason is because they will not come into the open Court to trie their Skill before unpartiall Judges 4 The Devil we all know did urge the Scripture to our Saviour with great skill and dexterity Had he been the onely follower or first founder of this practise or the first of all we had read of we should have been untill we had found some better example and warrant for it as much afraid to have imitated him herein as that scrupulous Monk was to wear his Hood because he thought the Devil had been the first that ever had worn one being usually painted in that habit when he came to tempt our Saviour Christ and that Story he thought in all likelie-hood to be as Ancient as the first Hood But with what Weapon did our Saviour vanquish Sathan that had set upon him with Scripture did he charge him sub poena anathematis to be silent or did he crave the Churches peace under pain of greater penalties or did he appeal unto the infallible Authority or Supream Tribunal of the Jewish Church did he except against him for using an unlawful Heretical weaponâ can you deny that he foyled him with these very weapons wherewith we now contend that all Hereticks Sathans followers are to be assaulted and repulsed ere they can be lawfully foyled and quite overthrown And here I would beseech all sâber-minded Christians even as they love our Saviour Christ âhe chief Captain of the Lords Host the Authour and finisher of our Faith and as they hate Sathan himself the Head and Prince of all Gods Christs and our enemies to consider these subsequent Reasons well and weigh'd is Instance in the quiet calm and setled motions of their hearts 5 If Sathan can thus teach Hereticks and other his like wicked Instruments such great skill and cunning in Scriptures as they can thereby countenance Errours and deceive others with a shew of Godlinesse why should we not hold it as a principall Article of our Faith that Christ Jesus is able to instruct his chosen Immediately in the true Sense and Meaning of the same Scriptures so as they may hereby grow skilful enough to retain such as love the Truth in the knowledge of Truth and defend themselves and others against the oppositions of Hereticks although they bring their Arguments out of Scripture For First we know and believe that Christ is stronger then Sathan for he hath bound that strong man Secondly that he is better skilled in Scripture for after his first enterance into his Prophetical or Sacerdotal Function he put him hereby to flight and at his Passion â threw him out of his hold Sathans strength since that time hath been lesse and Christs Power greater so that in his strength we may be stronger then all Sathans followers Thirdly we know that the Scripture is in it self much more favourable unto Truth then unto Falshood and caeteris paribus far more apt to confirm true Religion and instruct in Points of Faith then to establish Heresie or fill the World with Errours onely the sons of Darknesse have been wiser in their generation then such as should be or in some measure are the sons of Light And if Hereticks may seem to have had the better sometimes of the Orthodox in trying Controversies by Scripture this doubtlesse was for no other reason but onely this Their alacritie and industrie in searching Scriptures for maintenance of Errours was greater then the others for establishment and confirmation of the Truth otherwise as we said before the Truth is more consonant to the puritie and integrity of Sacred Writ then any Falshood though never so fair in shew can be And Christ Jesus is more powerful and more skilfull more able and more willing to assist and strengthen such as follow him then Sathan is to enable his wicked Instruments Seeing then by these Scriptures he hath crushed
These Hereticks some of you I imagin would say albeit they might pretend Scriptures for the Rule of Faith yet would not be ruled by Scriptures when they were evidently brought against them For your evidence of Scripture to prove these Points there mentioned we know them well enough for some of them you professe Tradition only CAP. XXII That our Adversaries Objections do not so much infringe as their Practise confirms the Sufficiency of Scriptures for composing the greatest Controversies in Religion 1 BUt suppose many Hereticks your selves for example will not submit their minds unto the Evidence of Scripture what Remedy who can help it Their Condemnation is just and Vengeance is Gods he will repay Man it behooveth to see evidently that they contemn or abuse Scripture before he adventure to iinflict Punishment upon them for it lest otherwise he become an intruder into the Almighties Tribunal But if the Evidence of Scripture will not what else shall recall such from Errour 2 Besides the former general Allegations let us see what more can be said why the Scriptures may not be the most effectual and infallible Rule that can be imagined to guide men in the way of Truth The Authority saith Valentian ordained by God for determining all Questions of Faith is without all question most apt to discern and prevent all Errours contrary to Faith Why may not the Authority of Scripture be accounted such The Scripture saith be is so framed yet was it God that framed it as Experience may also teach us that of it self alone it is so far from being a fit Rule for avoiding all Errours that by the secret judgement of God it is a stumbling Block and as a Snare to the feet of the unwise so that such as will rely upon it alone may soon trip or trâââ awry 3 The Reader must lay the Blame where it is due if these indefatigable mouthes of blasphemies reiterating the like absurd Impieties so oft enforce me often to oppose the same or like Answers to them Such an Occasion as Gods Creatures were of Idolatry the Scriptures we grant may be of Heresie For of Gods good Creatures wherewith the idolatrous Heathen polluted themselves the wise man speaks in that place whereto Valentian alludes And such an Occasion should this infallible Way of the Romish Church pretended for avoiding be of breeding Heresies were it any of Gods Wayes of which the wise son of Syrach saith indefinitely They are stumbling Blocks to the wicked so was the Way of Life the Gospel it self even whilest proposed and avouched by S. Peter and S. Paul The Question then must be For what Cause the Scriptures are a Snare to some mens feet because they admit and embrace them for their Rule of Life If thus either Valentians Ghost or any Jesuite now alive dare avouch I say no more then the Archangel said to Satan The Lord rebuke thee Only unto the unwise and wilfully wicked because Such the Mediator and Saviour of the world Salus ipsa Salvation it Self was a Stone of offence and unto all such not Scripture nor any of Gods Wayes serves as a Rule to save but to condemn them 4 This is the Article then upon which the Jesuite must once again be examined whether unto such as are by Gods just Judgements decreed to Destruction and given over by his Holy Spirit to believe Lies and follow lying Traditions or Fables of mans invention the Popes infallible Authority can be a Rule of Life or saving Faith If it can then we will grant it to be a more infallible Rule then Scripture because able to controul Gods immutable Decree if it cannot as none without open and presumptuous Blasphemy will say it can then is it no more effectual for to reclaim men from Errours then the Scriptures are nor doth it any wayes supply their want If they will not believe Moses and the Prophets saith our Saviour neither will they be perswaded though one were raised from the dead why So Because God hath decreed this Word as the onely Means of Salvation to such as have been partakers of it and such as refuse this are given over by his Spirit to the Stubbornnesse of their own hearts shall then the Popes Infallibility make such believe By what Means Are his words more effectual then the Words of Life Are his Buls able to withstand the Decrees of the Almighty Or are his Curses to the disobedient more terrible then the everlasting Woes pronounced by our Saviour Christ and his Prophets more piercing then the Relation of Hell-pains by a messenger from the dead By your Churches continual Practise I should guesse this would be your reply for there is no other left that the Pope can constrain men to subscribe to his Decrees by Fire and Sword This might command their Hands or Tongues but not their Minds For the Jesuites would teach such as feared the smart of their fleshly members to cosen their Conscience for saving their Bodies with this distinction Juravi linguâ mentem injuratam gero And if fire and sword be the best Weapons of spiritual Warfare or unrelenting Persecutions the ensigns of infallible Authority then the greater Tyrants may be alwayes the more infallible Teachers But these Weapons by your best writers consent ye may not use against any but such as are already admitted into Christs Fold Quae foris sunt judicabit Deus Such as are without God will judge The Pope may such as are within in what manner for what Cause he please not liable to any account whether in so doing he do right or wrong Let the fruits of our Practise then witnesse whether what is by you objected to us for using our Saviours language may not by fit Analogie be verified of your selves in this point whether We or Ye be the men of whom our Saviour gave the world warning when he told Of false Prophets outwardly appearing in sheeps clothing being inwardly ravening Wolves Unto such as are by us won to the Gospel we grant that Christian Liberty after which before their Conversion we promised Your Factors abroad as in the Indies or Japan appear to men in sheeps cloathing making fair promises of the glorious Gospel of Christ and the Liberty of the Son of God but inwardly as in Italy Spain or generally within your own Folds are ravening Wolves Or to sit you with an Emblem essentially parallel to your nature and custome ye are ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã inversi Men abroad and Wolves at your own home For whiles you seek to convert an Alien you magnifie the Doctrine of the Gospel your speech is fair your whistle pleasant and your feeding sweet and good if ye mention the Popes Authority it is moderately and urged in that stile ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Peter feed my lambs but when ye have once drawn these lambs within your hurdles ye change your note and turn into your proper shape then you cry with
brest He may by his own followers Consession be as incorrigible for bad Life and Manners as infallible for matters of Doctrine Seeing then their supposed Rule cannot remove those Impediments which detain the Jews with other Infidels and Hereticks from the Truth can it make men Believe aright whilest They remain If it can it is of greater force then either our Saviours Authority or skil in Scriptures Neither of which not all his travels and best endeavours here on earth though infinitely surpassing any pains the Pope is willing to take could instruct the Jews in the Doctrine of Faith whilest their carnal Affections remained in strength How can ye Believe saith he who spake as never man spake and had wrought those Works none other could which receive honour one of another and seek not the honour that cometh ãâã God alone 14 To conclude then If the Infidelity of the Jews be any just exception why Scriptures cannot be the perfect Rule of Faith this Exception will disinable the Roman Churches infallible Authoritie for being such a Rule But if the general Error of the Jews in the very main Foundation of Religion be no just Exception why either the Scripture according to us or the Churches Authority according to them should not be the Rule of Faith then cannot the Errors of Hereticks or varietie of Opinions about the sense and Meaning of particular places of lesse moment impeach the sufficiencie of Scripture for performing all that is required by either Partie in their supposed absolute Rule For it shall God willing be made evident in due place that the self same Affections onely different in degree sometimes not so much which caused the Jews Insidelitie in our Saviours time are the onely roots and fountains of Heresies and Dissentions throughout all Ages 15 And as elsewhere is already proved wheresoever the habitual Affection for degree and qualitie is the Heresie or Insidelitie is likewise the same even in such as hold contrary Opinions and would perhaps maintain their contrarietie unto death for as many strongly perswaded of their Belief in Christ shall go for Infidels in that last day so may such as think themselves Orthodoxes be tainted with the contrarie Heresie which they impugne if subject to the same Affections which did breed it But for us to account such as make profession of Christianitie Insidels or such as subscribe to Orthodoxal Doctrine Hereticks would be injurious and unlawfull not because the former Assertion indesinitely taken is not warrantable but because no man can precisely discern the Indentitie of inward Affection save he alone that knoweth the secrets of all hearts Thus all the Blasts of vain Doctrine they can oppose unto the Truth we maintain do in the issue fasten the roots of Faith once rightly planted howsoever they may shake the timerous or faint-hearted Christian or cause the weak in Faith not cleaving to Scripture as their onely infallible Rule and sure Supporter dangerously to reel and stagger But though they fall yet Gods Word shall never fail to approve it self a most perfect Rule besides others in these Two respects First in that none can fail in that course which it prescribes or fall away from Faith but by such means as the Jew hath done the true Causes of whose Apostacie and incredulitie it hath expresly foretold and fully registred to Posterity Secondly because such as it doth not no other Rule Means or Authority possible either in the earth or in the region below the earth shall ever win to true Christian Faith CAP. XXIII The Suffficiencie of Scriptures for Final Determination of Controversies in Religion proved by our Saviours and his Apostles Authority and Practise 1 NOr will They be ruled by an Angel from Heaven That will not obey the live Voice of the Son of God whose Miracles whilest he lived here on earth joyned with his Doctrine we will suppose were of as much force if the Jesuite will grant no more as the Popes Proposal of Scriptures to beget Faith or convince gain-sayers of Truth The Jews were of diverse Opinions about his Doctrine Some said he was a good man Others said No but he deceiveth the People he gives them a Rule as you heard before how to discern it If any man will do his will he shall know of the Doctrine c. This contents them not albeit he had done many and good works amongst them sufficient to have manifested his Divine Authority unto such as had never heard of Moses or a Messias to come Nay they go about to kill him for those works which bare Testimonie of his Worth and as they thought had Warrant of Scripture for so doing because he did them on the Sabbath day Here Christ is of one Opinion the Jews of another concerning the Sense of Scripture Who shall judge or by what Rule must their contrary Doctrine be tried By Christs infallible Authoritie they admit it not By extraordinary and miraculous Works they persecute him for his Miracles already wrought for their peoples good Doth Christ here leave them because destitute of a Rule to recall them If he had none how shall the Pope by his own challenge but his Vicar have any to convince his Adversaries It Christ submit his Divine Doctrine to any other Rule how dare the Pope deny submission of his to the same What Rule then was left Onely the Scripture which both ãâã acknowledge They pretend Moses Law concerning Sabbath-breach why he should die unto their false interpretation of this our Saviour opposed the true meaning of another Mosaical Scripture Moses forbad Murther as well as Sabbath-day-breaking and yet they seek to kill Christ only for Fealing a man upon the Sabbath-day so forgetfull are they of the One and so partially addicted to the Other But how shall they know that to make a man whole upon the Sabbath was not to break it and violate Moses Law This our Saviour makes evident unto them by exposition of that Law and their own Custom which continued from the first promulgation was a good interpretation of it Moses saith our Saviour gave unto you Circumcision not because it is of Moses but of the Fathers and ye on the Sabbath-day circumcise a man If a man on the Sabbath-day receive Circumcision that the Law of Moses should not be broken be ye angrie with me because I have made a man every whit whole ãâã the Sabbath-day Judge not according to the appearance but judge righteous judgement Thus was Scripture applied to their Conscience the last and finall Rule by which they stand or fall and is alwayes a Light either bringing men to see their own Salvation or putting out their wonted sight in token of their Condemnation to utter darknesse And Christs last words in that Controversie Judge not according to the appearance are likewise a written Rule of Scripture so absolute a Rule is this Sacred Word of God by our Saviours consent and practise both to inform the
such as dissented from your Church as a âopting or pruning to cause ours flourish and hath at length set the Israel of God at libertie from Aegyptian Slavery 3 But supposing this violent Course upon great exigence of circumstances either in the Matter Manner or Times of Contentions to be both lawfull and expedient yet could not the ordinarie Practise of it be more effectuall to restrain men from contradicting then it might be to enforce them to oppugne the Truth It might according to the diverse dispositions of such as manage it be a Means one way or other alike forcible either to retain men in Heresie Idolatrie and Infidelitie or in the Unitie of true and livelie Faith albeit Fear alone may make men perfect Hereticks or Infidels but not inwardly or sincerely Faithfull 4 And as for our Church albeit she search not so narrowly into the secrets of every mans conscience nor be so tyrannically jealous of every Word that might be ill interpreted nor so outragiously cruel in punishing known dissention from her or discovered Errour yet God be praised she hath Pauls Sword as well as yours which our Magistrate bears not in vain but can unsheath it when need requires against such as are open and evident abetters of Contentions unlesse perhaps you will except that it hath not been so much exercised in cutting you off from amongst us who are the Ringleaders of all division debate and Trouble in our Church as it might be according to your Doctrine If in the Practise of this coactive Authoritie over contentious Spirits there be any fault God amend it for in our Churches Doctrine concerning this Point there is none and God grant our Magistrates may Practise as our faithfull Pastors teach whose Doctrine is that this External as well as the Internal Power is given for Edification not for destruction and must be directed by the same Rule that the Use and Practise of it must be limited by the End that the End of it is by Injunction of things Good and Prohibition of Evil to proportion mens Actions and Conversations to the Rule of Faith and Law of God that so every member of the Common-wealth thus wrought and fashioned by the coactive Power may be more easily transformed into a member of Christ as being more apt and pliable for the Word of Life to work upon Nor are we so precisely wedded to any determinate course for quelling or preventing contentious Schismes or Heresies but we may admit what other soever time shall detect more effectual for attaining the former End unto which our love is such as will not suffer us dislike any Means allied to it though having affinitie with your Church Part of whose external discipline we are not ashamed to use unto good because by you abused to bad and wicked Purposes But for your Churches Practise in the use of your best Means for avoiding all Contentions you plead no Infallibilitie therein you may fail as well as we and the Question now is about our Doctrine 5 Out of that which hath been said our Means for punishing such as we know to be contentious appears as good as yours whose use so far as we like it is as free for us as for your selves let us now see whether we have Means as good or as infallible as yours to discerne who are contentious 6 For the Popes Infallibilitie whether it be any or no we are anone to enquire and we may not in this place give you leave to prejudice our Church with the supposal of it Nor do your selves make this discretion of contenâous Spirits any essential part thereof 7 None of you that I have read doth attribute any Prophetical Spirit to the Pope in this Case as if he could descrie the storms of Contentions which might cause shipwrack of Faith before they arise as far off as Eâ⦠did the Rain when it first began to gather into a cloud like a mans hand The excellencie of his Infallibilitie by your own Positions if I mistake not consists in the decisions of Controversies brought unto him not in the discovery or finding out of such as breed Contention But doth he vouch safe to decide all Controversies that arise in his Dominions albeit brought unto him Vix vacat exiguis rebus adesse Jovi The exercise of this Dominus Deus vester plenarie Power is much like the use of the Heathen Gods upon the old Roman Stage Nec Deus intersit nisi nodus vindice dignus Inciderit Unlesse it be to loose some Gordian knot The Popes decision is not eas'ly got And where it is got it goes no farther then to the just and infallible censure of the Opinion it self in punishing the Authors or abetters of adjudged Heresies or Schismes he may erre as well as we because herein he goes but by the Information of private men who neither are so absoluteây Holy but they may prove partial nor so Wise and skilfull alwayes but they may erre in their Information especially where it goes successively from ear to ear and from one Countrey Dialect to another as drink from vessel to vessel always losing some part of its proper and native Sapor so that it may relish otherwise to his Holinesse mouth then it did at the first setting abroach by the Authour 8 And seeing the best Means to avoid Contention is the just punishment of them that causelesly cause them your Churches Authority being herein so much more obnoxious to Errour and Misinformation as her Diocesse is larger lesse uniforme or more remote is liable to many Exceptions from which such little ones as she out of her greatnesse contemns are free Nor is the Question as you bear the simple in hand betwixt Publick and Private Spirits but between your private men and ours as whether yours can better discâââ who are contentious thorowout your vast Precincts then ours who are such amongst us at home That no man should dissent from the Doctrine of the Catholick Church you all agree Some of you dissent from it as most of their fellows think who yet will not professe but rather seek to cloak their dissent either with colours of Consonance or pretended reasons of no Repugnance unto Catholick Tenents Catharinus will defend the Councel of Trent and yet hold Certainty of Salvation Soto and Bellarmin reprove him but how could either of them discern whether Catharinus had the true Meaning of the Trent Councel or not Catharinus I take it had a Suffrage in making those Decrees whereof neither Soto nor Bellarmin were allowed much lesse Authentick Interpreters for the Popes Bull confirming that Councel prohibits all private Interpretations of it yet hath not the Pope or any Publick Authoritie since that time condemned Catharinus for this dissention How knew Maldonate that Jansenius Hesselius and others which deny that Christs Words in the sixth of John are to be understood of Sacramental eating did varie from the received Doctrine of your Church and jump
challenge another as free and absolute as himself for his Tributarie or Vassal and traduce him for a seditious member of Christendome because he would not compose the Quarrel thus injuriously sought with the surrender of his Crown and Dignitie 3 Princes may conclude a Peace for civil and free commerce of their People though professing sundry Religions and they and their Clergie might perhaps procure a mitigation of some other Points now much in Controversie but Though all others might yet This admits no terms of parly for any possible Reconcilement The natural Separation of this Island from those Countries wherein this Doctrine is professed shall serve as an everlasting Emblem of the Inhabitants divided hearts at least in this Point of Religion and let them O Lord be cut off speedily from amongst us and their Posterity transported hence never to enjoy again the least good thing this Land affords let no print of their Memory be extant so much as in a tree or stone within our Coast or let their Names by such as remain here after them be never mentioned or alwayes to their endlesse shame who living here amongst us will not imprint these or like Wishes in their hearts and daily mention them in their Prayers Littora littoribus contraria fluctibus undas Imprecor arma armis pugnent ipsique nepotes Which words though uttered in another case applied to this sound thus much to all wel-affected English or Brittish ears Let our and for ain Coasts joyn battel in the Main Ere this foul blasphemy Great Brittain ever stain Where never let it come but floating in a floud Of ours our nephews and their childrens childrens bloud 4 The Leaven of the Pharisees whereof our Saviour willed his Disciples to beware was sweet Bread in respect of this pestiferous Dough whose poison is so diffused througout the whole Body and Masse of Romish Religion as it hath polluted every parcel therein and makes even those particular Points to be damnable in modern Papists which in the Ancient holding them from other Grounds were pardonable Such as held a kind of Purgatorie or third Place after this life Evangelical Counsels Invocation of Saints or the like because they thought the Scripture taught them were deceived in these particular Scriptures but yet reserved their faithful Allegiance to Gods Word in general Nay even those particular Errours and mistakings of the sense of Scriptures were witnesses and pledges of their Obedience unto the Scripture or Word of God when they therefore Believed them because they were immediately perswaded in Conscience that the Scriptures the Rule of their Conscience did teach them But while you hold the same Opinions not because you are perswaded in Conscience immediately ruled by Scripture that they are contained in Scripture but because the Church which as ye suppose cannot erre doth teach them or to speak more plainly whiles you your selves either Believe or teach others to Believe them or the Scriptures concerning them because the Church whose Authoritie in this and all other Cases you acknowledge for the infallible Rule of your Faith commands you so to do you hereby openly renounce your own and sollicit the the people to alienate their Allegiance from God and his Word and the passing over or yielding up of stedfast and absolute Assent unto any particular Point in your Religion upon these Grounds is as evident a witnesse of high Treason committed against GOD by the partie thus believing a swearing of that Fealtie or Allegiance to a pretended Vicegerent or Deputy which is only due to the Prince himself would be in a natural and sworn subject Wherefore the supposed Infallibility of your Church is no such excellent Means of taking up all Controversies if your meaning be in the former sense proposed For it is so far from taking up all that it puts an Imposibility of having any betwixt you and as taken up unlesse you abjure it quite for it makes all the rest of your Opinions deadly to such as stedfastly Believe it or for it them 5 Your meaning then must be That this Infallibility of your Church would be an excellent Means for taking up all Controversies if all men would subscribe unto it Indeed I must confesse there would soon be an end of all or rather no controversies should ever be begun if every man would resolve with himself not to dissent from others but let them hold what they list he would hold the very same or if all men would bind themselves to abide some one Mans or a Major part of some few or more determinate persons Determinations without more ado In this case one might say of his Judge He shall determin for me and another might reply nay but for my Opinion the third might say He shall judge as I will have him and the fourth reply or rather as I will and yet never a one dissent from other but all agree All of them might have the Judges Sentence at as absolute command as the Shepheard had the Weather For every one might have him determin as he pleased because all of them were fully resolved to be pleased with whatsoever he should determin If you dream of such an Unitie in Faith or such a manner of composing Contentions it must be further disputed whether this were not an open Dissention or solemn Compact for moving a general Apostasie from the true Faith And they that labour for such an Union in points of Faith and Salvation do in effect solicite the whole Christian world to run hand in hand but head-long into open Insidelitie lest perhaps by breaking companies some might slide into Schisms and Heresies Should the Ramists and Aristotelians or generally all the Professors of Secular Arts and Sciences in our Universities bind themselves under penaltie of Expulsion or by solemn Vow never to swerve from the Bedle of beggers or John-a-dogs his determinations and resolutions in any point of Logick Philosophie or Metaphysicks would this be a sweet match to take up all Controversies or Contentions between Colledge and Colledge in our Schools were this so excellent a way to retain the Unitie of the Truth and skill in those Faculties or rather the only readie way to make all bond-slaves to Errour Ignorance and Falshood And yet might we with more safety delegate greater Authority in these cases to every one then we may to any living in matters of Faith and Religion over which or over our selves in respect of which we have no lawful Power or Authority For this and other Reasons should we be more afraid to subscribe unto any mortal mans Authority as unto a Judge most absolute and infallible whose decrees we may not resist from whose Sentence we may not appeal in matters of Faith then to refer our seves wholly unto the sole Judgement of the meerest natural Fool living in matters of secular Learning and natural Knowledge For besides the danger hence accrewing to our selves GOD our Creator Christ our Redeemer and the Holy
sinister Pretences or humorous though strong Perswasions of Conscience counselling us to the contrary our Punishment in this life is just whose present smart should teach us to beware of far more grievous in the life to come But whether offend or swerve more from the Rules of Scripture prescribed for their several Christian Carriage Superiours in commanding wrongfully or Inferiours in disobeying just commands cannot oft-times if we speak of particular Actions be infallibly known in this life but must be referred unto that day of Final Judgement The dread of which should in the mean time inforce every Superiour daily to consult his own Heart and strictly to examine his Conscience whether it be not likely then to give Evidence against him for imposing too heavy burthens upon his Inferiours And so must every Inferiour again use the like diligence in the daily examination of his Conscience whether it be likely or no to convince him before the Judge of quick and dead of Disobedience to such as he had set in Authority over him or of such sinister Pretences for using the Libertie of Conscience as Conscience it self never sought after but were suggested onely by Humour Popularitie or other Desires whose maintenance have either inforced him to obey Man against God or not to obey Man commanding for God 4 Our Partialitie it is towards our selves or rather to our sensual delights or pleasures that makes us so ignorant in all things which concern our Weal For would we truly and unpartiallie Judge our selves we should not be judged Not the best experienced Justice in this Land can by examining ordinarie Malefactors discern what issue their Cause shall have before an unpartiall Judge better then we by this strict pre-examination might foresee what finall Sentence were prepared for us good or bad according to the diversitie of our Actions and Course of Life To this end hath Christ left every mans Conscience in full Authoritie during his absence to examine reprove convince and sentence the desires of his own heart of which would we daily in sobriety of Spirit and fear of his last Judgement ask counsel and patiently expect Gods Providence we should by this ordinary Means discern who commanded aright who otherwise as clearly as others heretofore have done by Means most extraordinary For even the most extraordinary miracles did ascertain the Ancient of Divine Truth and confirme them in the practise of Christian Obedience not immediately as part of their Rule of Faith whereon finally to relie but by enforcing them to look into their own Souls and Consciences in which Truth was already written if they had urged it to confession If our examination without Miracles were as strict our Beliefe would be as firm Spiritual Governours commands as Christian-like and Inferiours Obedience in all points as sincere as was theirs 5 For Conclusion I would give the Christian Reader a present Antidote against all the poisonous inchantments of Romish Sorcerers The Medicine is very brief and easie onely to think every morning next his heart or at other seasonable hours That there is a Divine Providence in this life to guide us and after this life ended a fearful judgement to passe upon all such as here abjuring the Guidance of it follow either the Wayes of flesh and blood in breeding or of carnal Wisdom in composing strife and dissention about matters Spiritual He that will seriously ruminate on these matters in his vacant well composed thoughts calling the Adversaries Arguments home to the Point which they must touch ere they can wound us let me have onely his dying curse in recompence of all my pains if any Difficulty any Jesuite or other learned Papist either hitherto hath or ever shall be able to bring do trouble his mind Whatsoever can be brought either to countenance their unchristian Doctrine or disparage our Orthodoxal Assertions either presuppose a secret denial of Gods peculiar Providence and inward calling of men or else proceed from want of consideration that there is a final Judgement wherein all Controversies must be taken up all Contentious and rebellious Spirits punisht according to their deserts Indeed if the Authors or Abetters of Schisme and Heresie might escape for ever unpunished or Christian Modestie and Humilitie be perpetually over-born by Impudencie Scurrilitie and violent Insolencie the Inconveniences objected by the Romanists might as much trouble us as the wickeds thriving did the Heathen that knew not God nor his Providence But whilest we acknowledge him and It the best Arguments our Antagonists bring wil appear as improbable as they are impious TO THE RIGHT REVEREND Father in God and my Honourable Lord WILLIAM By Divine Providence Lord Bishop of DURHAM Grace and Peace be multiplied RIght Reverend Father the sweet refreshing your Honourable Favours did yield to such of my labours as hitherto enjoy the light when a suddain uncomfortable blast had sorely nipt them in the very setting makes these last gatherings of that spring seek that comfortable warmth under your benigne Protection which the unconstant frowning season would hardly afford them in their growth Besides these and other my personal Obligements that Famous and worthy Founder of this Attick Bee-hive of whose sweetness would God I had been as capable as I have been long partaker had never allotted any Cell therein for me or other Countryman of mine but with particular relation to that seat of dignity which he sometimes did ââ¦r Lordship now doth and to the encrease of Gods gloâ⦠good of his Church long may enjoy Seeing this our â⦠Foster-Father is now ignorant of his childrens deâ⦠and knows not me it shall be my comfort to have â⦠honourable successors witnesses of my care and industry to fulfil his godly desire whose religious soul in his life time as his written Laws do testifie did detest nothing more then idleness in the Ministry specially in his adopted-Sons The matters I here present unto your Lordships and the worlds view are sometimes in themselves so harsh and hard to be concocted as he that would strive to make them toothsome unto nice tastes should put himself to excessive pains unless his judgement be much riper his wit readier his invention pleasanter his opportunities better and his leisure greater then mine are But it is one and the same point of judgement not to require exact Mathematical proofs in discourses of mortality or a smooth facile Rhetorical stile in Logical or Scholastick conflicts And as by the Statutes of that Society wherein I live I am bound to avoid barbarisme so my particular inclination moves me in controversies especially to approve his choise that said Fortia mallem quam formosa If any professed enemy to the truth we teach will answer me from point to point or attempt not as their custom now is onely in scoffing sort but seriously to avert those unsupportable but deserved imputations I lay upon the foundation of his Religion I shall I trust be able to answer him the better by
their Churches absolute priviledge from all error and That other of Christs real presence in the Sacrament by Transubstantiation It cannot again but add much to our grief and indignation if we call to mind how when the chief Governor and publick authority of this land were for them subscription was not urged upon such violent and bloudy terms unto any articles of their Religion as unto that of Real presence The mystery of which iniquity cannot better be resolved then into the powerful and deceitful working of Satan thus delighting to despight our Lord and Saviour by seducing his professed subjects unto the highest and most desperate kind of rebellion he could imagine upon the least occasions and shallowest reasons For such is their madness in that other point as hath been shewed in this Not one inconvenience they can object to our opinion but may be demonstrated against theirs not any fruits of Godliness they can pretend but our doctrine more directly brings forth then theirs could though we did admit it for true For to what other purpose such a Presence as they imagin should serve them save only to countenance those desperate idolatrous practices and Litourgies of Satan touched by the way in some parts of these discourses is inexplicable as shall be shewed more at large without depriving that heavenly mystery of any solemnity or devotion due unto it in the unfolding of that controversie Yours in Christ Jesus THOMAS JACKSON A Table of the Several Sections and Chapters in the Book following SECTION I. CAP. I. Containing the Assertions of the Romish Church whence her three-fold Blaspemie springs Page 309 SECT II. The first branch of Romish Blasphemie in preferring Human authority before Divine 315 2. Bellarmines replie to the main Objection joyntly urged by all Reformed Churches against the Romish the Equivocation which he sought in the Objection apparently found in his Replie 316 3. Inferring the general conclusion proposed in the Title of this Section from Bellarmins resolution of faith 319 4 Containing a further resolution of the Romish faith necessarily inferring the authority of the Roman Church to be of greater authority then Gods word absolutely not only in respect of us 324 5 That in obeying the Romish Churches Decrees we do not obey Gods word as well as them but them alone in contempt of Gods principal Lawes 327 6 Propounding what possibly can be said on our adversaries behalf for avoiding the force of the former Arguments shewing withall the special points that lie upon them to prove as principally whether their Belief of the Churches authority can be resolved into any Divine testimony 339 7 That neither our Saviours Prayers for the not failing of Peters faith Luke 22. 32. nor his commending his sheep unto his feeding Joh. 21. 15. prove any Supremacy in Peter over the Church from which the authority of the Pope can with probability be derived 31 8 That Christ not S. Peter is the Rock spoken of Matth. 16. 18. That the Jesuites exposition of that place demonstrateth the Pope to be The great Antichrist 347 9 That the Romanists Belief of the Churches infallible authority cannot be resolved into any Testimony better then Human whence the main Conclusion immediately follows That the Romanist in obeying the Church-decrees without examination of them by Gods word prefers mans Lawes before Gods 365 10 In what sence the Jesuites may truly denie They Believe the words of man better then the words of God In what sence again our Writers truly charge them with this Blasphemie 373 SECT III. 11 What restraint precepts for obedience unto the Priests of the Law though seeming most universal for their form did necessarily admit How universal Propositions of Scriptures are to be limited 376 12 The authority of the Sanhedrim not so universal or absolute amongst the Jewes as the Papists make it but was to be limited by the former Rules 385 13 That our Saviours injunction of obedience to the Scribes and Pharisees though most universal for the form is to be limited by the former Rules that without open blasphemie it cannot be extended to countenance the Romish cause that by it we may limit other places brought by them for the Popes transcendent universal authority 391 14 What it would disadvantage the Romish Church to denie the infallibility of the Synagogue 398 15 That justly it may be presumed the Iewish Church never had any absolute infallibility in proposing or determining Articles of Faith because in our Saviours time it did so grievously erre in the Fundamental point of salvation 400 16 That Moses had no such absolute authority as is now ascribed unto the Pope that the manner of his attaining to such as he had excludes all besides our Saviour from just challenge of the like 405 CAP. 17. That the Churches authority was no part of the rule of Faith unto the people after Moses death That by Experiments answerable unto the precepts and predictions the faithful without relying upon the Priests infallible proposals were as certain both of the divine truth and true meaning of the law as their forefathers had been that lived with Moses and saw his miracles Page 411 18 That the societie or visible company of Prophets had no such absolute authority as the Romish Church usurps 417 19 That the Church representative amongst the Jews was for the most part the most corrupt judge of matters belonging to God and the reason why it was so 422 20 That the Soveraignty given by Jesuites to the Pope is greater then our Saviours was 427 21 Confirming the truth delivered in the former Chapter from the very Law given by Moses for discerning the great Prophet further exemplifying the use and force of miracles for begetting faith The manner of trying prophesies Of the similitude betwixt Christ and Moses 434 22 That the method used by the great Prophet himself after his resurrection for planting faith was such as we teach The excesse of Antichrists exaltation above Christ The Diametral opposition betwixt the Spirit of God and the spirit of the Papacie 449 23 That the authority attributed to the present Pope and the Romish rule of faith were altogether unknown unto S. Peter the opposition betwixt S. Peters and his pretended successors doctrine 452 24 That S. Paul submitted his doctrine to examination by the Word before written That his doctrine dissposition and practise were quite contrary to the Romanists in this argument 456 25 A brief tast of our Adversaries blasphemous and Atheistical assertions in this argument from some instances of two of their greatest Doctors Bellarmin and Valentian That if faith cannot be perfect without the solemn testification of that Church the raritie of such testifications will cause infidelitie 460 SECT IIII. Containing the third branch of Romish Blasphemie or the last degree of great Antichrists exaltation utterly overthrowing the whole foundation of Christian Religion preposterously inverting both Law and Gospel to Gods dishonour and advancement of Sathans Kingdom 464 26
is essentially subordinate CAP. IV. Containing a further Resolution of Romish faith necessarily inferring the authority of the Romish Church to be of greater authority then Gods Word absolutely not only in respect of us IF we rack the former syllogism a little farther and stretch it out in every joynt to its ful length we may quickly make it confesse our proposed conclusion and somewhat more The Syllogism was thus What soever God hath spoken is most true But God hath spoken and caused to be written all those words contained in the Canon of Scriptures acknowledged by opposite religions of these times Therefore these words are most true The certainty of the Minor depends as our adversaries wil have it upon the present Romish Churches Insallibility which hath commended unto us these Books for Gods Word Be it then granted for disputations sake that we cannot know any part of Gods Word much lesse the just bounds extent or limits of all his words supposed to be revealed for our good but by the Romish Church The Spiritual Sense or true meaning of al most or many parts of these determinate Volums and visible Characters as yet is undeterminate and uncertain whereas all ponts of belief must be grounded on the determinate and certain sence of some part of Gods Word revealed for our adversaries acknowledg all points of Faith should be resolved into the First Truth Hence if we descend to any particular or determinate conclusion of Faith it must be gathered in his Syllogism Whatsoever the Church teacheth concerning the determinate and true sence of Scriptures whereon points of Faith are grounded is most trââ But the Church teacheth thus and thus for example That her own authority is infallibly taught by the Holy Ghost in these words Peter feed my sheep Peter I have prayed for thee that thy faith should not fail ergo this sence and meaning of these words is most true And as true as it is must the sence likewise of every proposition or part of Scripture by this Church expounded or declared be accounted 2 The Major proposition of this Syllogism is as undoubted amongst the Roman Catholicks as the Major of the former was unto all Christians but as yet the Minor The Church doth give this or that sence of this or that determinate place may be as uncertain indeed as they would make our belief unto the Minor proposition in the general Syllogism before it be confirmed by the Churches authority For how can we be certain that the Church doth teach al those particulars which the Jesuites propose unto us we have Books indeed which go under the name of the Trent Councel but how shall we know that this Councel was lawfully assembled that some Canons have not been foisted in by private Spirits that the Councel left not some unwritten tradition for explicating their decrees after another fashion then the Jesuites do who shall assure us in these or like doubts The present Church All of us cannot repair to Rome such as can when they come thither cannot be sure to hear the true Church speak ex Cathedra If the Pope send his Writs to assure us what Critick so cunning as to assure us whether they be authentick or counterfeit Finally for all that can be imagined in this case only the Major of the Catholick syllogism indefinitely taken is certain and consequently no particular or definite conclusion of Faith can be certain to a Romanist because there are no possible means of ascertaining the Minor What the true Church doth infallibly define unto his Conscience 3 Or if they wil hold such conclusions as are ordinarily gathered from the Trent Councel or the Popes decisions as infallible points of faith they make their authority to be far greater then the infallibility of Gods written word yea more infallible then the Deity This Collection they would deny unlesse it followed from their own premisses These for example That a conclusion of faith cannot be gathered unless the minor God did say this or that determinately be first made certain But from the Pope or Churches infallibility conclusions of faith may be gathered albeit the minor be not certain de Fide For who can make a Jesuites report of the Popes Decrees or an Historical relation of the Trent Councel certain de fide as certain as an Article of faith And yet the Doctrine of the Trent Councel and Popes Decrees must be held de fide upon pain of damnation albeit men take them only from a Priests mouth or upon a Jesuites faith and credit 4 This is the madnesse of that Antichristian Synagogue that acknowledgeth Gods Word for most infallible and the Scriptures which we have for his word if it self be infallible For it tels us they are such yet wil not have collections or conclusions with equal probability deduced thence so firmly believed by private men as the collections or conclusions which are gathered from the Churches Infallibility An implicit faith of particulars grounded upon the Churches general infallibility so men stedfastly believe it may suffice But implicit faith of particulars grounded only upon our general Belief of Gods infallibility providence or written word sufficeth not This proves the authority of the Church to be above the athority of Scriptures or the Deity absolutely considered not only in respect of us that is all besides the Pope and his Cardinals For that is of more authority absolutely not only in respect of us which upon equal notice or knowledge is to be better believed more esteemed or obeyed but such is the authority of the Church in respect of the divine authority such is the authority of the Popes Decrees in respect of Gods Word For the Minor proposition in both the former Syllogisms being alike uncertain the conclusion must be more certain in that Syllogism whose major relies upon the Popes infallibility then in the other whose Major was grounded upon the infallibility of the Deity 6 Briefly to collect the sum of all The authority of the Church is greater then the authority of Scriptures both in respect of Faith and Christian Obedience In respect of Faith because we are bound to believe the Churches decisions read or explicated unto us by the Popes messenger though a Sir John Lack-latin without any appeal but no part of Scripture acknowledged by us and them we may believe without appeal or submission of our interpretation to the Church albeit the true sence and meaning of it seem never so plain unto private consciences in whom Gods Spirit worketh Faith The same argument is most firm and evident in respect of Obedience 6 That authority over us is alwayes greatest unto which we are to yield most immediate most strict and absolute obedience but by the Romish Churches Doctrine we are to yield supream and most absolute obedience to the Church more supream and absolute then unto Gods word therefore the authority of the Church is greater over us The Major is out of controversie seeing
they become their chief accusers That opinion which at first brought in neglect of the Chalice and as the Trent Councel presumed would have warranted them in making this decree doth most condemn them for the measure of their iniquity could not have been so fully accomplished unlesse they had held a transubstantiation of the wine into Christs bloud 19 What part of Scripture can we presume they wil spare that dare thus countermand the most principal of all Gods Commandments what reckoning may we think they make of our Saviour Christ that adventure thus shamefully to disanul and cancel his last wil and testament defrauding almost the whole Christian World of half their Lord and Masters royal allowance partly without any shew of Scriptures either to restrain or otherwise interpret these Soveraign precepts partly upon such idle and frivolous allegations as may further witnesse their sleight estimate of Gods Word save only so far as it may be wrested to serve their turns 20 But grant the places there alledged by the Councel did so mitigate either the form of the institution or the peremptory manner of our Saviours speeches in the sixth of John as to make it disputable in unpartial judgments whether they did plainly injoyn any necessity of communicating under both kinds the former decree notwithstanding would manifestly infer an usurpation of Soveraignty over Gods word quite contrary to the general Analogie of faith reason and conscience by all which in cases doubtful and for the speculative form of truth disputable with equal probability affirmatively or negatively we are taught to frame our choice when we come to practise according to the difference of the matter or of consequences which may ensue more dreadful one way then the other alwayes to prefer either a greater good before a lesse or a lesse evil before a greater though both equally probable Suppose then these two contradictory propositions The denial of the Cup is a mutilation of Christs last will and testament the denial of the Cup is no mutilation of Christs last will and Testament were for their speculative probabilities in just examination equipendent yet the doctrine of faith delivered in Scripture reason and conscience without contradiction instructs us that to alter abrogate or mutilate the son of Gods last Will and Testament is a most grievous most horrible most dreadful sin but to permit the use of the Chalice hath no suspition of any the least evil in it Had the Trent Fathers thus done they had done no worse then our Saviour then his Apostles then the Primitive Church by their own confession did This excesse of evil without all hope of any the least compensative good to follow upon the denial should have swaied them to that practise which was infinitely more safe as not accompanied with any possibility or shew of danger although the speculative probability of any divine precept necessarily injoyning the use of the cup had been none Thus peremptorily to adventure upon consequences so fearful whereto no contrary fear could in reason impel nor hopes any way comparable allure them thus imperiously to deprive the whole Christian World of a good in their valuation testified by their humble supplications and frequent embassages to that Councel so inestimable without any other good possible to redound unto the deniers save only usurpation of Lordly Dominion over Christs heritage plainly evinceth that the Church is of far greater authority with them then GODS Word either written in the Sacred Canon or their hearts then all his Laws either ingrafted by nature or positive and Supernatural For 21 Admit this Church representative had been fully perswaded in conscience rightly examined and immediately ruled by Scripture that the former decree did not prejudice the institution use or end of this Sacrament yet most Christians earnest desire of the Cup so publickly testified could not suffer them to sleep in ignorance of that great scandal the denial of it needs must give to most inferiour particular Churches Wherefore the rule of charity that moved the Father of the Gentiles to that serious protestation If meat offend my brother I will eat no flesh while the world standeth that I may not offend my brother should in all equity divine or humane have wrought these Prelates hearts to like profession If want of their spiritual drink offend so many Congregations and such a multitude of our brethren we will rather not use our lawful authority acknowledged by all then usurp any that may be offensive or suspicious unto others though apparantly just unto our selves for they could not be more fully perswaded this decree was just then Saint Paul was that all meats were lawful to him 22 But may we think these Prelates had no scruple of conscience whether the very form of this decree were not against our Saviours expresse command Bibite ex hoc omnes drink ye all of this For mine own part whiles I call to mind what else-where I have observed that the Jews were never so peremptory in their despightful censures of our Saviours doctrine nor so outragiously bent against his person as when their hearts were touched in part with his miracles or in some degree illuminated with the truth he taught The Councels extraordinary forwardnesse to terrifie all Contravenaries of this decree makes me suspect they were too conscious of their own shallow pretended proofs to elude Gods word whose light and perspicuity in this point had exasperated their hardned hearts and weak-sighted faith to be so outragious in the very beginning of that session as if they had meant to stifle their consciences and choak the truth lest these happily might crosse their proceedings or controul their purposes if this cause should once have come to sober and deliberate debatement For as theeves oftentimes seek to avoid apprehension by crying loudest Turn the Thief so these wolves hoped wel to smother their guilt and prevent al notice taking of their impiety by their grievo us exclamations against others monstrous impious opinions in this point interdicting all upon penalty of the causes following ere they had determined ought to teach preach or believe otherwise then they meant to determin 23 Yet though the Councel accurse all that hold communication under both kinds as a necessary doctrine it doth not absolutely inhibit all use of the Chalice but leaves it free unto their Lord the Pope to grant it upon what Conditions he please either unto private men or whole Nations Upon what conditions then may we presume wil it please his Holinesse for to grant it upon any better then Satan tendred all the Kingdomes of the Earth unto our Saviour For this fained servant of Christ a true Gehazi repining at his Lord and Masters simplicity that could refuse so fair a profer made after Satan in all haste saying in his heart I wil surely take somewhat of him though my Master spared him and pretending a message in his name to whom all power was
possible more to deny this truth in effect or consequence more to oppugn the whole edifice of our faith then by planting another Rock another Foundation without communication wherewith none can be supported by the former against the gates of hell 15 But perhaps we mistake or malign the Romanist in charging him with shufling in another foundation besides Christ in that sense the Apostle denies any other â Foundation can be laid We rather by too much pressing them with that Axiom of his make him contradict himself for else-where he saith We are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets 16 I wil not here dispute whether S. Paul in that place mean we are built upon the persons of the Prophets and Apostles they being placed nearer the rock or main Foundation it self then we or rather upon the main Foundation which both the Prophets and the Apostles joyntly had laid beâ⦠which no other can be laid Christ crucified and glorified For he is both the Foundation which wholly supporteth and the corner stone which only câ⦠pleth the whole building in which he is the Highest and the Lowest first laid in humility for the disobedient to fall upon but now exalted unto greatest glory to fall upon them And as the Apostle cals his own scars the Marks of Christ because inflicted for Christs sake so may he call Christ the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles because the only end whereto both Prophetical and Apostolical laws were directed was to lay this sure Foundation 17 But granting what they take for granted The Apostle did mean we were builded upon the Prophets and Apostles as upon a second foundation or first row of stones next in order unto the rock do they make Peter a rock or foundation only in this sense If they do not he could not be the Rock on which the Church is built If they do let them give us the right hand of fellowship for we accuse them not for making him such a Foundation as the other Apostles were but such as it is evident they were not yea such in deed and substance as Christ only is and should be acknowledged by all the faithful For in what sense is Christ said to be the Foundation Because he is the head of his Church both for supporting and directing it Was not Peter such in respect even of his fellow Apostles Bellarmin can assign no disserence betwixt them but in these very tearms All of them he confesseth had oecumenical jurisdiction but not in such sort as Peter had all were infallible because Apostles and Ambassadours but not after the same manner he was yea Peter was their head on whom they did depend so did not he on them This makes Peter the corner stone that coupleth the building Which doubtlesse was Christs peculiar whileit he lived on earth not communicated unto Peter as they acknowledg until his resurrection or ascension That they tell us then they make but one primary Foundation and therefore none such as Christ is as if they should say they admit no more such Popes as Pius primus was because there hath never been nor ever shall be any Pope Pius the First but he for to make Peter such a Primate is to make him a foundation or head of the same rank and order that Christ was only his inferiour as successor in time or to use their words a foundation in Christs place So Bellarmin â expresly avoucheth where proving Peters Supremacy or Lordship from his name he thus infers Peter only was known by Christs own name of Ceââas or Rock tribute in which he is set out unto us as often as by any other whatsoever yea this is the peculiar attribute in which he is set out unto us as the foundation and head of the Câ⦠ãâã Christ communicating this unto Peter would have ãâã sâ⦠world that he meant to make Peter the foundation and head of the Church ãâã own place Why doth Christ cease to be the Foundation in becoming the head stone in the corner or do they to avoid open suspition of Antichristianism acknowledge him come in the flesh but gone again to make room for Peter and his successours Certainly were the Apostle to gather the meaning of Bellarmins speeches his inference would be thus In that he saith a New Head is come in his place he abrogates the formers Authority as he was Ambassadour between God and man nor is it now as the Testament given by Moses was in the Prophets time ready to expire but already expired by actual succession of another unto whom Christ the first visible head or foundation did at his advancement to higher dignity seal the same Commission he had from his father for transacting all affairs concerning the state of his visible Church 18 But doth the space between heaven and earth more exceed Romes distance from the utmost ends of the world then he to whom all power was given in heaven and earth doth the present Pope in amplitude of spiritual jurisdiction Whence is it else that Christs regiment cannot so fully and immediately extend it self unto his Church militant wheresoever scattered upon the face of the earth as the Popes may to the East and West Indies from either of which he cannot receive certain information how his instructions sent thither succeed with his flock under a years space at the least Every Pope in his time is a rock a foundation an head in Christs absence from the earth Might not every one of them in like sort admit a Pope a Vicar general an absolute fellow Monarch from whom in these remote countries there should be no more appeals to Rome then are from Rome to Christs throne of Majestie If we speak not of that Majestie which he there enjoyes but of that authority which he sometimes had or we can imagin he could have in regiment of his Church were he now visibly present in the flesh it is evident that Saint Peter and his successours may by our adversaries doctrine be more properly instiled compeers to Christ then the best man living besides unto the worst of them For it must be thought that Christ in his absence ratifies all their decrees without exception as we may not question them more then we might Christs own were he visibly resident in his Church Yet was the authority of Christs other Apostles so mightily overtopped by Peters Supremacy that they could not be infallible or oecumenical without his approbation If they were Peter was not such an head to them as his successors are to theirs even to all Bishops or inferiour Ministers throughout the world If they were not the Pope if he will be Peters Successours should make Bishops or Cardinals at least Eleven oecumenical Pastors of authority infallible though with such dependency on his plenary power as Christs other Apostles had on Peters Or let them resolve us in other fundamental difficulties which their doctrine ministers 19
adversary or accuser he himself bearing the name of adversary likewise in his âitle ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a second foundation in shew subordinate in deed and consequence quite contrary to that which the Prophets and Apostles have laid eternally priviledged if we may believe his followers from those spurnings of men from which the pretious stone of Sion was not exempted 22 To collect the sum of late Romanists comments upon their Churches supposed fundamental Charter Their confession of Christ come in the flesh and made head stone in the corner though conceived in form of words Orthodoxal enough proves only this but this abundantly to all the world that the Pope their supream head sits in the Temple of God whose circumference in respect of men who cannot search other mens hearts is defined by this Confession Their attributing the title of Rock or Fundamental supportance of that spiritual house unto this head proclaims unto all the world that he sits as God in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is God For the Hebrew ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã equivalent to the Syâiac ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in that sence they take it as assording such impregnable supportance or fortification against the powers of hell world or flesh is oftner by their own vulgar latin rendred Deus then Petra or Rupes which it directly signifies because considered with these circumstances or effects it is rather a glorious Title of the Godhead or Derty it self then a particular attribute taken from some divine propriety communicable to Gods servants in the Abstract 23 Lastly unto me their common exposition of Christs speeches unto S. Peter suggest this argument more then demonstrative that the Papacy is lead by the spirit of great Antichrist in that no doctrine of Devils can more directly contradict or more shamefully deny the vertue and power of Christ come in the flesh nor more peremptorily disanul or cancel his promise there made unto his Church then Jesuitical comments upon it do Christs promise was a promise of life and saving health a full assurance of eternal happinesse to all that should be truly built upon that Rock which Peter confessed or which they say Peter was They make the tenure of this glorious covenant to be no more but this that Peters successours and such as will build their faith upon them speaking ex Cathedra as upon Rocks invincible shall be indefectible in points of Christian faith and manners howsoever even these Rocks themselves may be for life and conversation as wicked as Annas or Caiphas or other blinded guides of the Jewish Synagogue that crucified our Saviour 24 Thus by a pretended successive perpetuity of Peters Faith they utterly abolish that lively Faith whereby he confessed Christ which is alway included as a necessary condition without which none can be capable of that glorious promise but with it all are made immediate heirs of salvation Or to speak more plainly none may expect the least portion of Peters blessing without Peters Faith nor can that be in any but such as are born of God Everyone saith S. John that is born of God over cometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith And again who is he that overcometh the world but he which Believeth what Peter had confessed that Jesus is the Son of God And our Saviour himself to whom his father had given power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to all given him by his father tels us that this Life Eternal must grow from that root of Faith which first did branch in Peters mouth but must be so planted as it grew in him in every heart endued with sure hope much more in all such as âay challenge to such preheminency or Prerogative of Faith or Hope as Peter had This is life eternal that they may know Thee saith Christ speaking of his Father to be the Only Very God and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ so then God manifested in the flesh was the Rock of salvation whereupon the Church is built he that rightly knows and so believes this truth hath life eternal dwelling in him 25 But shall such a Faith as may be severed from Charity shall such a knowledge of Christ as may be in them to whom Christ shall say Depart from me I never knew you I say not make any so impregnable a Rock but so fasten any to that Rock so impregnable as the gates of hell shall not be able to dispossesse him of eternal life Whiles we produce the late cited or other testimonies alike pregnant to condemn the Pontificians for denying Justification only by Faith they think themselves fully acquitted with this solution that our assurance of salvation relies not upon Faith as alone but as it is the Foundation of Charity and accompanied with other Christian vertues We never taught us shall be shewed in that controversie that Faith unlesse thus attended could with true confidence plead our cause before God which yet though thus attended It only pleads But here our adversaries must be contented to take their payment in their own coin For if no man can be justified or made heir of salvation it is unpossible any should be a lively stone or living member much lesse a supream head or sure foundation of that spiritual house alwayes victorious over death and hell without a Faith so appointed as in the former case they require without a Faith as clearly testifying Christ dwelling in men by works flowing from it as their edification upon him by an Orthodoxal form of words Whosoever is destitute of a faith thus bearing fruit unto salvation is so far from being a Rock or sure foundation for others to build upon that he himself if we may believe our Saviour Mat. 7. 26. builds all his hopes upon the Sand Whosoever heareth these my words and doth them not shall be likened unto a foolish man which hath builded his house upon the sand and the rain fell and the flouds came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell and the fall thereof was great Not every one therefore that saith unto our Saviour as Peter did thou art Christ the son of the living God but he that expresseth his faith and hope by works answerable to Christs conversation in the flesh and his Fathers will shall enter into the kingdom of heaven because he only is built upon that Rock which the floud-gates of hell cannot undermine or overthrow For whosoever saith our Saviour heareth of me these words and doth the same I will liken him to a wise man which builded his house on a rock And the rain fell and the flouds came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not for it was grounded upon a Rock 26 Let the Jesuite either produce any Heresie broached since our Saviours Incarnation or frame a conceit of any but Logically possible before his coming unto
dayes they were to undertake what the Priests appointed and to obey his advice at least by cautelous obedience untill the event did prove the truth But neither was this certain manifestation of Gods will so absolutely promised unto the Priests but not living according unto the direction of Gods Law he might fail in his Oracles Nor was this peoples Prerogative above others without all limit that if they lived no better then others did they should as often as they asked counsel of God infallibly know whether the answer were from him or no albeit there were no defect in the Priest For this reason the Lord answered not Saul when he asked Counsel of him neither by dreams nor by visions nor by Urim nor by the Prophets for Saul was now cast off by God not willing to vouchsafe an answer unto his demands which argues that the revelation made to the Priests was also manifested to the party solemnly and in sincerity of heart proposing the questions whereof he desired to be resolved 5 That the Priest had no such priviledge or absolute promise of Gods infallible presence as the Pope challengeth is apparant from the law of temperance prescribed And the Lord spake unto Aaron saying thou shalt not drink wine nor strong drink thou nor thy sons with thee when ye come into the Tabernacle of the congregation lest ye die This is an ordinance for ever throughout your generations that ye may put difference between the holy and unholy and between the clean and unclean and that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes the Lord had commanded thee by the hand of Moses If these Priests themselves were unholy and unclean they could not infallibly discern between the holy and unholy between the clean and unclean if they lived not according to this they could not teach the children of Israel the rest of Gods expresse lawes much lesse could they infallibly manifest unto them his will in all doubts and controversies But the Pope so absolute is his Prerogative which the Jesuites attribute unto him must be thought to be infallibly assisted by the Holy Spirit albeit he lead a most unhallowed unclean polluted life 6 But for the promise made unto Levi and his seed God himself by his Prophet Malachy most expresly interprets the meaning of it And now O ye Priests this commandement is for you if ye will not hear it nor consider it in your heart to give glory unto my Name saith the Lord of hosts I will even send a curse upon you and will curse your blessings yea and I have cursed them already because ye do not consider it in your heart behold I will corrupt your seed and ââst dung upon your faces even the dung of your solemn feasts and you shall be like unto it and ye shall know that I have sent this commandement unto you that my covenant which I made unto Levi might stand saith the Lord of hosts My covenant was with him of life and peace and I gave him fear and be feared me and was afraid before my Name the law of truth was in his mouth and there was no iniquitie found in his lips he walked with me in peace and equitie and diâ turn many from iniquity for the Priests lips shall preserve knowledge and theysââll ãâã thâ law at his mouth As if he had said Such Priests I have had in former times and such might your praises from my mouth and your estimation with men have been had you framed your lives according to the Rules which my servant Moses had set you But were these Priests against whom he here speaks infallible in their doctrine still because Gods promise was so ample unto Levi If they were not why doth Bellarmin bring this place to prove the Popes infallible Authority in teaching divine truths If they were why doth the Lord complain in the words immediately following But ye are gone out of the way ye have caused many to fall by the law ye have broken the covenant of Levi saith the Lord of hosts Therefore have I made you also to be despised and vile before all the people because you keep not my wayes but have been partiall in the law 7 This place alone though many others might be brought clearly evinceth Gods promise unto Levi and his posterity during the time of their priesthood to have been Conditional not Absolute And as Gods promise of Infallibility was unto him and his seed such was the Obedience due to them and their Authority not absolute but conditional and where the precepts may seem universal yet are they to be limitted oft-times by the Condition of the Priests life 8 But sundrie Propositions there be in Scriptures for their Form Universal which are also absolutely true in their proper subject whose full extent or limits not withstanding are not always Evident Whence many mistake in stretching them too far others seeing them fail in some particulars which seem comprehended under the universality of their forme suspect the absolutenesse of their truth and account them rather morally probable or conditionally true then necessary and certain yet are they most absolutely necessary and certain onely their universality is to be limited by their proper subjects This is a common difficulty in all Arts though lesse apparent in the Mathematicks or Metaphysicks or other like abstract contemplative Sciences But in Philosophie as well natural as moral many general rules there be most true and evident to such as know the nature or quality either of the subject or matter whereunto they are applied or of these particulars whence the induction was gathered and yet are obscure and doubtfull unto others who mark the universality of their form not so well acquainted with the nature of those subjects in which their truth is principally and most evidently seen not so able to discern the Identitie or Diversity the proportion or disproportion which other subjects may have with the former but of the triall of rules in Arts if God permit elsewhere I will now instance in Scripture onely what proposition could be for the form more universal what precept conceived in words more general then that of sanctifying the Sabbath In it thou halt do no manner of work ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Non facies ullum opus The Scribes and Pharisees putting a Religion in the letter of the Law as the Jesuites now do when it may make for their advantage did conclude from the generalitie of this precept that our Saviour brake the Sabbath when he healed the sick upon it Their pretences if we respect the universalitie of the Proposition only were far more probable then the Papist can pick any for their purpose Yet Jewish still in that they considered not the end of the Sabbath which might have limited the universal form of the precept and restrained it unto some kind of works onely for not all but onely all those works which were
for after a long and various deliberation used by the Councel Caiaphas who now sate as chief being the High-Priest pronounced that sentence where unto almost all at the least the major part agreed It is expedient that one die for the people and that the whole nation perish not upon which speech the Evangelist forthwith addes This he spake not of himself but being High-Priest for that yeer he prophesied Whence it follows faith Canus that our Prelates lives and actions may perhaps be contrary to our Lord Jesus but their judicial decrees or sentences such as are confirmed by the Pope who must be president in their Councels as Caiaphas was shall prove true and profitable unto Christians as instituted by God for the peoples good yea they shall proceed from the Holy Ghost for the reason which we have learned of the Evangelist to wit because such as give them are Prelates of Christs Church And this is all I have to say unto the second Argument 12 It is easie indeed for them thus to answer to whom it is most easie and most usual to blaspheme That the Popes aswell as Caiapha's prophecies may in the Event prove true and profitable to Christs Church we do not doubt because unto such as love God or are beloved of him all things even Sathans malice that had suborned Caiâphas and his brethren against Christ and his members turn to the best But he that had taken this High-Priest whilest he uttered this sentence for an infallible Prophet of the Lord had been bound in conscience to have done so to our Saviour at his as the people did to Baals Priests at Elias's instigation If our adversaries will permit us to interpret the Trent Councels Decrees as the faithfull of those times did Caâaâbus prophecie we will subscribe unto them without delay It is expedient we grant and profitable with all unto the Church that there should be such Decrees whereby the faith of others might be tried But as it was not lawfull for the people to imbrue their hands in Christs bloud though the greatest benefit that ever befell the world was by his death so neither is it safe to admit the Trent Canons though a wonderfull blessing of God they should be set forth because they so clearly testifie the truth of his word concerning Antichrist Canus said more in this then was needfull according to his supposed principles in his answer to the next argument But God who ruled the mouth of Caiâphas and made him speak the truth when he intended nothing lesse dââ also direct Canusâs pen to vent what upon better consideration he would have concealed Yet herein he wrote but out of the abundance of his own and most of his fellows hearts who hold that the Priests and ãâã ââre onely in a matter of Fact not in any point of Faith when they ãâã Christ For conclusion of this consider with me Christian Reader how great cause we have to thank our gracious God that the sâât of ãâã or âabble of Predicants were not founded in our Saviours daveâ for thâ⦠doubââe the Devil had picked a traitor out of that crue whose impudenâ sophistical Apologies for open Blasphemie and unrelenting perseverance ãâã traitârous plots might have outfaced the world that the delivering of Chriâ⦠into his enemies hands had been no âuch sin as Jâ⦠testified it waâ⦠his pânitent speech and desperate end CAP. XIV What it would disadvantage the Romish Churâh to âeny the infallââ¦lity of the Synagngue THat any visible company of men before our Saviour Christs time dâ⦠challenge such absoluâe authority over mens faith as the Pore doth would be very hard for them to prove and no question but the high-Pâ⦠and ââ¦ers amongst the Jews did oftentimes challenge more then they had If the Rom mist should say that they had no such infallible authority in deciding all controversies as their Church now challengeth the assertion would be as improbable in it self as incongruous to their positions For unto any indifferent man such Infalliâilitie in the Watch-Tower of Sion mâ⦠quisite during the time of the Law then since thâ promulgation of the Gospel âe it granted the points to be expresly believed of the anâ ent people were but few yet even such of them as were most necessary to salvation were more enigmatically and mystically set down then any in the new Testament aâe and the measure of Gods Spirit upon every sort of men the vulgar especially in thâse times much lesse For this câuse God raised uâ Prophets to instruct them whose authority though it was not such as the Roman Church now challengeth but given to supply the ignorance and negligence of the Church representative in those dayes yet much greater thân is ordinarily required in the light of the Gospel by which as the doctrine of salvation is become most conspicuous in it self so is the illumination â⦠Gods Spirit more plentifull then before it had been And since the Prophets have been so clearly expounded by the Apostles and the harmony of the two Testaments so distinctly heard the ordinary Testâ⦠of âesuââ⦠ãâã to the spirit of Propheâie Allowing then these infinite ods on our pârts that enjoy the labours of former ages with the ordinary preaching of the Gospel an infallible oecumenical authority is much ãâã needfull now then it was in the Law 2 Or if our adversaries will be so wayward as to deny the like infallibility to have been requisite in the ancient Jewish Church they shall hereby thwart evidently themselves disanull their chief title and utterly disclaim the main plea hitherto used for their own infallibilitie Foâ⦠them do uâge Gods promises made unto that Church to prove aâ⦠of ãâã a like authority in theirs And if these promises made to the Jews admit any distinction condition or limitation whereby tâ⦠absolute infallibilitie as they suppose it may be impaired then may all the promises made or supposed to be made unto their Church admit the same or like But besides the weakning of their title by debarring themselves of this plea drawn from the example of the ancient Jewish Church no man that reads their writings can be ignorant that all their chief and principal arguments wherewith they carry away most simple souls and importune such as almost neither fear God nor man to give sentence for them and their Church against us are drawn from these or the like Topicks unlesse God had ordained one supreme Judge or infallible Authority that might decide all controversies in matters of faith viva vâce he had not sufficiently provided for his Church yea which were most absurd he had left it in worse estate then civil Estates are for ordinary matters for they besides their written Laws have Judges to determine all cases or controversies arising And seeing that Monarchical Government is of all others the best and in any wise mans judgement most available for avoiding all dissention and keeping the unity of
which might have prevented this plague surely in reading Gods law and continuall meditation thereon for this gives wisdom to the simple Men in this case should have asked counsel of their own heart for there is no man more faithful unto thee then It for a mans mind is some times more accustomed to shew more thenseven Watchmen that sit above in an high Tower And aboue all this pray to the â⦠High that he will direct thy way in truth Had they thus done without partialitie to their corrupt affections or without all respect of persons in which Christian faith cannot be had Moses law had been a lantern unto their feet for the discerning of true Prophets and those discerned had been a light unto latter Ages for discerning the true Messias 6 The evidence of this truth not without cause so often inculcated will better appear if we consider how most prophetical predictions of particular alterations were but determinations of Mosaical generalities out of which they grow as branches out of the stock As for example the Lord told Moses before his death and he gave it to Israel for a Song to be copied out by all That when they went a whoring after the Gods of a strange laââ forsaking him he would forsake them and hide his face from them After Ihoia labs death Zechartah his son seeing the Princes of Iudah leaving the house of the Lord to serve Groves and Idols albeit he were moved as the Text saith by the Spirit of God yet onely applies Moses generall prediction to the present times Thus saith God Why transgresse re ye the commandement of the Lord Surely ye shall not prosper because he have forsaken the Lord he also will forsake you Saint Paul himself useth his own advise not the Lords authority in such points as were not evidently contained in Moses law Unto the married command not I but the Lord Let not the wife depart from her husband for so Moses had expresly commanded But to the Remnant I speak not the Lord If any brother have a wife that believeth not if she be content to dwell with him let him not forsake her And again concerning Virgins I have no commandement of the Lord but I give mine advice as one that hath obtained mercie of the Lord to be faithfull This was his judgement and as he thought warranted by the Spirit of God yet he prescribes it not as a general rule of faith to all but rather leaves every man to be ruled by his conscience and the Analogie of Moses law So likewise though God use an extraordinary revelation to instruct Saint Peter in the free use of meats forbidden by Moses yet he perswades him it by manifesting the true meaning of another clause of the same law for what he uttered upon this instruction and the Experiment answerable thereto was but a further specification of what Moses had said I perceive of a truth saith Saint Peter Acts 10. 34. that God is no accepter of persons Moses had said Deut. 10. 17. The Lord your God is God of Gods and Lord of Lords a great God mighty and terrible which accepteth no persons nor taketh reward who doth right unto the fatherlesse and widow and loveth the stranger giving him food and raiment 7 These passages sufficiently informe us that the extraordinary spirit wherewith the Apostles themselves were above the measure of Gods former messengers inspired oft-times onely made the Stems whether of the Tree of Life or of Knowledge planted by Moses to blow and flourish in them by little and little after the manner of natural growth it did not alwayes bring forth new ones in an instant as the earth did at the first creation Much more usually did prophefies during the standing of the first Temple spring out of Mosaical predictions If we compare his writings with latter prophe âies not long before the Babylonish captivity though he had departed this life before their fathers entred into the land of Promise yet he speaks unto this last generation as an intelligencer from a far Countrey that great preparation was made against them but who should be the executioners or managers of mischief intended he leaves that to such Prophets as the Lord should raise them up for the present Jeremie and Ezechiel upon his admonition following his direction are sent by God as it were to scowre the coast to descrie when the Navie comes for what Coast it is bound and how near at hand Here had the people faithfully examined their hearts by Moses law whether not guilty of such sins as deserved the plagues threatned by him they had quickly assented unto Moses writings and the Prophets words For as consciousnesse of their sins in general might cause them fear some plague or other indefinitely threatned by their Law-giver whose writings they best believed so might the diligent observation of their particular transgressions and their progresse in them have taught them to presage the determinate manner of their plagues and punishments foretold by the present Prophet For God in his usuall course of justice so suites his punishments to the most acâustomary habits or predominant sins as unto men religiously observant of Times and Seasons the growth and processe of the one will give a certain Crisis of the other Besides Every age hath peculiar signes subordinate to the general predictions of good or evil foretold by Gods messengers whereby the faithfull learn to know the day of their visitation and as Solomon saith to hide themselves in latâbââlo altissimi from the plague if not by their hearty repentance godly prayers and religious endeavours to prevent it And because we in this age are not so well acquainted with the particular Signes of former Times wherein true Prophets lived it is hard for any living now though easie to all the faithfull then to give any certain or particular rule how the truth of their prophesies might have been at least probably known before the event did finally and absolutely approve them Would to God we could discern the Signes of Times present and the Lord of his infinite mercie give us grace to know the day of our visitation But of this argument elsewhere by Gods assistance It shall suffice in the next place to shew that our Saviours Doctrine was by the same means to be discerned CAP. XX. That the Soveraignty given by Jesuites to the Pope is greater then our Saviours was 1 IT is a Rule in Divinity whatsoever can rightly be conceived as an absolute perfection hath Reall Existence in the Almightie From this notion of the Deitie swimming in the brains of such as in heart and deed make the Pope their Lord and God do the parties thus affected usually take whatsoever power might possibly be delegated by God to any as actually granted unto his holinesse And thus I imagine some Jesuite or other when he shall bethink himself will except against our disputes in this present case Deny
immediately sent from Heaven not made by multiplication of such bread as they might have bought of ordinary Bakers Nor doth our Saviour seek to win them by out-vying Moses in multitude or magnificence of his miracles but by alluring them to taste and prove his heavenly doctrine For The Experiments that give us the seal and assurance of lively faith must of necessety he within us even in our hearts and in our souls and these are they Had this people without miracles been dicto audiens as they were enjoyned by Moses in that they took him for a Prophet they might in short time have known what Peter confessed Verba vitae aeternae habes Thou hast the words of eternal life whose sweetness once inwardly tasted was much more then all the miracles that could be wrought without his hearers or upon them But of such works these proud Jews never dreamed as not knowing the Scriptures nor the vertue of their Messias who as the Prophets had soretold was to preach the Gospel unto the poor to comfort such as mourned in Sion to whom no miracles could be more welcome then such as he did for what could be more acceptable to the blind then restitution of sight to the lame then right use of his limbs what more grateful message could be uttered to the deaf then Ephata to have his ears opened what to the dumb then unâying of the tongue what to the possessed then to be freed from the tyrannie of Satan or his Ministers Finally as the Evangelist notes he did all things well and unto the best contentment possible of every afflicted soul far above the exigence or significations of their peculiar necessities but further beyond their expectation In every work he shewed his willingnesse in all his power to ease and refresh all that were weary and heavy laden but unto such as thought themselves so whole and sound as no way to need his Physick rather desirous to feed their curious fancies with superfluous or unnecessary wonders he was not willing to give satisfaction by turning Gods graces into wantonnesse or vain ostentation of his power or skil Another especial occasion of this peoples stumbling at this stone elect and pretious was their not considering that many of Moses greatest wonders were types partly of those glorious miracles which Messiah was to work secretly by his spirit manifested only to the âearts and consciences in whom they were wrought partly of that his glory and power which was outwardly revealed to his Disciples and might so have been to more had they not stumbled as the Proverb is in the very Entry and so departed from him in despair bred from a foolish prejudice that no great good could be expected from a Nazarite of parentage birth and education so mean CAP. XXI Confirming the truth delivered in the former Chapter from the very law given by Moses for discerning the great Prophet further exemplifying the use and force of miracles for begetting faith The manner of trying Prophesies of the similitude betwixt Christ and Moses 1 AS well for farther discovery of Romish blasphemy as ratification of our former assertion let us view with diligence that place of Moses wherein such strict obedience and attention to the Messias doctrine is enjoyned as no where else such as no other may exact without incurring the curse there threatned to the disobedient The Lord thy God will raise thee up a Prophet like unto me from among you even of thy brethren unto him ye shall hearken According to all that thou desiredst the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly when thou saidst Let me hear the voice of my Lord God no more nor see this great fire any more that I die not And the Lord said unto me they have well spoken I will raise them up a Prophet from among their Brethren like unto thee and will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him And whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my Name I will require it of him This prophesie by joynt consent of best interpreters as well modern as ancient Pontificians as Protestants may be truly and literally applied to other Prophets whether of the old or new Testament according to that measure of the spirit they had from him of whose fulnesse all as well such as in time went before him as those that came after him had received grace for grace True it is if we rightly value the strict propriety of every word or clause in the whole context what all historical circumstances put together import or the ful extent of S. Peters paraphrase on the last sentence it cannot be exactly fitted unto any but Christ unto whom only the whole discourse is as fully commensurable as a well made garment to the body that wears it yet is this no impediment why the same rule taken according to some literal circumstances might not usually serve for certain discretion of true Prophets from false as we use to notifie lesser but indefinite quantities of things by the known parts of some greater measure commensurable if we take the whole to substances of a larger size 2 Evident it is out of the literal meaning of this law acknowledged by all that Israel was strictly bound to hearken unto such Prophets as God at any time should raise them up though with most attention and greatest reverence to hear The Prince of Prophets But the question is upon what tearms or how far they were bound to hear all Absolutely and at first proposal of their doctrines without examination of them by the written law So might he that could have set the best leg foremost and stept up soonest into Moses chair have kept the rest of his profession in aw by thundering out Anathema's thence as the Pope doth from S. Peters to all gain-sayers priest or people By what rule then were true Prophets to be distinguished from false By miracles These were means of times effectual but as was intimated more usual for enforcing men to an acknowledgement of the truth in general then for trying particular controversies by amongst true professors in respect of whom they were subordinate to that rule given by Moses in the words immediately following But the Prophet that shall presume to speak a word in any Name which I have not commanded him to speak or that speaketh in the name of other Gods even the same Prophet shall die And if thou think in thine heart How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken When a Prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord if the thing follow not nor come to passe that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken but the Prophet hath spoken it presumptuously thou shalt not therefore be afraid of him 3 Before this or any other part of the law was written somewhat in proportion answerable to
did his words give life unto his greatest works his Divinations were to his Miracles as his humane soul was to his body And no question but the conception of their Faith that heard him preach was as immediately from those words of eternal life which issued from his mouth as ours is from the Word preached by his Messengers To what other use then could miracles serve save onely to breed a praeviall admiration and make entrance for them into his hearers hearts though his bodily presence at all times was not yet were his usuall works in themselves truly glorious more then apt to dispell that veil of prejudice commonly taken against the meannesse of his person birth or parentage had it been meerly naturall not occasioned through wilfull neglect of extraordinary means precedent and stubborn opposition to present grace most plentifully offered His raising others from death to life was more then sufficient to remove that offence the people took at that speech If I were lift up from the earth I should draw all men unto me To which they answered We have heard out of the Law that the Christ bideth forever and how sayest thou that the Son of Man must be lift up Who is that Son of Man 18 To conclude then his distinct and arbitrary foretelling Events of every sort any Prophet had mentioned many of them not producible but by extraordinary miracles withall including divine testifications of farre greater glory ascribed to him then Moses or any Prophet ever challenged was The demonstrative Rule according to Moses prediction whereunto all visible signes and sensible miracles should have been resolved by their spectators as known effects lead contemplators unto the first and immediate causes on which their Truth and Being depends That Encomium This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Hear him with the like given by John Baptist Behold the Lambe of God that taketh away the sins of the world unto all such as took him for a true Prophet did more distinctly point out the similitude peculiar to Him with Moses expressed in the forecited place of Deuteronomy literally though not so plainly as most Readers would without direction observe it seeing even interpreters most followed either neglect the words themselves in which it is directly contained or wrest their meaning Unto him shall ye hearken according to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly Their request then was Talk thââ with us and we will hear but let not God talk with us lest we die Here the whole multitude bound themselves to hear the word of the Lord not immediately from his mouth but by Moses For whiles the people stood afar off he onely drew neer to the darknesse where God was This their request and resolution else-where more fully expressed the Lord highly commended I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken unto thee they have well said all that they have spoken Oh that there were such an heart in them to fear me and to keep all my commandements alway that it might go well with them and with their children for ever If we observe that increment the literal sence of the same words may receive by succession of time or as they respect the Body not the Type both which they jointly signifie the best reason can be given of Gods approving the former petition and Israels peculiar disposition at that time above others will be this That as posterity in rejecting Samuel rejected Christ or God the second Person in Trinity so here the Fathers in requesting Moses might be their spokesman unto God requested that Great Prophet ordained to be the Author of a better Covenant even that promised womans seed their brother according to the flesh to be Mediator betwixt God and them to secure them from such dreadfull flames as they had seen so they would hearken as then they promised unto his words as unto the words of God himself esteeming him as the Apostle saith so farre above Moses As he that builds the house is above the house And in the Emphasis of that speech Whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name I will require it of him purposely resumed by Moses with these threats annexed as if he had not sufficiently expressed his mind in the like precedent Unto â him ye shall hearken The same difference between Moses and the Great Prophet then meant is included which the Apostle in another place expresseth He that despiseth Moses Law dieth without mercy under two or three witnesses Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye he shall be worthy which treadeth under foot the Son of God and counteth the blood of the Testament as an unholy thing Untill the soveraignty of the Law and Prophets did determin that Encomium of Moses did bear date There arose not a Prophet siââe in Israel like unto Moses whom the Lord knâw face to face but vanished upon the Criers voice when the Kingdom of heaven began to appear The Israelites to whom both promises were made did far exceed all other nations in that they had a Law most absolute given by Moses yet to be bettered by an Everlasting Covenant the Former being as an earnest penny given in hand to assure them of the Latter In respect of Both the name of a Soothsayer or Sorcerer was not to be heard in Israel as in the nations which knew not God much lesse expected a Mediator in whom the spirit of life should dwell as plentifully as splendor doth in the body of the Sun from whose fulnesse ere he visibly came into the world other Prophets were illuminated as those lights which rule the night are by that great light which God hath appointed to rule the day at whose approach the Prince of darknesse with his followers were to avoid the Hemisphere wherein they had raigned In the mean time the testimonies of the Law and Prophesies served as a light or candle to minish the terrors of the night Even Moses himself and all that followed him were but as messengers sent from God to sollicit his people to reserve their alleageance free from all commerce or compact with Familiar spirits until the Prince of glory came in person 19 Thus without censure of their opinion that otherwise think or teach albeit the continuance of Prophets amongst this people were a mean to prevent all occasions of consulting sorcerers or witches yet the chief ground of Moses disswasion from such practises according to the literall connexion of these words The nations which thou shalt possesse hearken unto those that regard the times and unto sorcerers as for thee the Lord the God hath not suffered thee so with those following hitherto expounded The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet was the consideration of their late mighty deliverance by Moses the excellencie of
met them as live-like as they themselves were Was he to them a Prophet mighty in word and deed and yet not able to perform what he had constantly spoken But what was the chief matter of their just reproof That they had not believed his words nor given due credence to his works Dull no doubt they had been in not esteeming better of both unwise in not learning more of Him that taught as never man taught but as in them he teacheth us most dul and most unwise even Fools and slow of heart in not believing all that the Prophets had spoken Ought not Christ to have suffered these things as if he had said Is it possible your ignorance in them should be grosse as not to know that Christ was thus to suffer and so to enter into his glory 2 You wil say perchance they did not wel in giving so little attention and credit to the Prophets whose light should have led them unto Christ but now that they have light on him in person without their help only by his seeking them shall not he who was the end and scope of all prophetical writings teach them all He will but not by relying only upon his infallible authority This Edifice of Faith must be framed upon the Foundation laid by the Prophets For this reason happily our Saviour would not bewray himself to be their infallible teacher until he had made them by evidence of Scripture by true sense and feeling of his spirit believe and know the truth which he taught to be infallible He had opened their hearts by opening the Scriptures unto them before their eyes were open to discern his person for he began at Moses and at all the Prophets and interpreted unto them in all the Scriptures the things which were written of him Stedfast Belief then of any mans authority must spring out of the solid Experience of his skil and truth of his doctrine These two disciples might now resolve their hearts that this was he who John said should baptize with the holy Ghost and with fire when by the working of his spirit their hearts aid burn within them whiles he talked with them and opened the Scriptures unto them Though before they had received John Baptists witnesse of the truth as a Tie or Fest to stay their fleeting Faith yet now they would not receive the record of man there is another that beareth witnesse of him the spirit of truth which hath imprinted his doctrine in their hearts 3 Would the Pope who challengeth Christs place on earth amongst his living members and requires we should believe his words as wel as these Disciples did Christs but expound those Scriptures unto us which Christ did to them with like evidence and efficacy could he make our hearts thus burn within by opening the secret mysteries of our salvation we would take him for Christs Vicar and believe indeed he were infallibly assisted by the Holy Spirit But seeing he and his followers invert our Saviours method by calling the certainty of both Testaments in question telling us we cannot know them to be Gods word unlesse it shal please this Roman God to give his word for them or confirm their truth seeing this his pretended confirmation is not by manifesting the mysteries of our salvation so distinctly and clearly as Christ did unto these Disciples nor by affording us the true sense and feeling of the spirit in such ardent manner as they enjoyed it and yet accurseth us if we believe not his words as wel as they did their Redeemers we may hence take a perfect measure of that mouth of Blasphemies spoken of by S. John according to all the three dimensions contained in the three assertions prefixed to the beginning of this Section Nor can the reader imagin either any other forepassed like unto it or yet to come likely to prove more abominable if it shal but please him to survey the length and breadth of it but especially the profundity 4 The length of it I make That assertion The Pope must be as well believed as either Christ was whilst he lived on earth or his Apostles after his glorification The breadth His absolute authority must be for extent as large and ample as Christs should be were he on earth again or as that commission he gave unto his Disciples Go Preach the Gospel to every creature his directions must go forth throughout all the earth and his words unto the ends of the world The depth is much greater then the space between heaven and hell For if you would draw a line from the Zenith to the Nadir through the Center it would scarce be a gag long enough for this monstrous mouth so wide as hell cannot conceive a greater The depth I gather partly from the excesse of Christs worth either arising from his personal union with the Godhead his sanctity of life and conversation or from his Hyperprophetical Spirit and abundant miracles For look how much he exceeds any but meer man in all these by so much doth the Pope though supposed as not obnoxious to any crime make his authority and favour with God greater then Christs which is the Semidiameter of this Mouth of Blaspemies The other part equal hereunto in quantity but for the quality more tainted with the dregs of Hell ariseth from that opposition the Popes spirit hath unto Christ or from the luxury and beastly manners of the Papacy erected by Satan as it were of purpose to pollute the world with monstrous sins and to derogate as much from mankind as true Christianity doth advance it finally to make the Christian world as much more wicked as Christs Disciples Apostles and faithful followers are better then the heathen Nor doth the Pope exact Belief only without miracles or manifestation of a prophetical spirit but contrary to all notions of good and evil common to Christians and Heathens and as it were in despight of the Prophesies that have deciphered him for Antichrist What heathen Philosopher could with patience have endured to hear that a dissolute luxurious tyrant could not though in matters of this life give wrong sentence out of the seat of Justice The Jesuites teach it as an Article of faith that the Pope albeit a dissolute and ungracious tyrant Mankinds reproach the disgrace of Christianity cannot possibly give an erroneous sentence ex Cathedra no not in mysteries of religion But as if it were a small thing thus impudently to contradict nature and grieve the souls of ingenuous men unlesse they also grieve their God seeking as it were to crosse his spirit by holding opinions not only contradictory but most contrary to his sacred rules they importune the Christian world with tumultuous clamours to take that which the spirit hath given as the demonstrative Character of great Antichrist the old serpents chief confederate for the infallible cognisance of Christs Vicar the very signet of his beloved Spouse Nor wil they I know
though friendly admonished cease henceforth to urge their outworn arguments drawn from antiquity universality from that reverence and allegiance which most Kingdoms of Europe have for these thousand years and more born to the See of Rome or from the bloudy victories over all other inferiour Churches or private spirits that have oppugned her These or like allegations in their judgement abundantly prove their Church to be Christs best beloved the Pope to be his Deputy or rather his corrival here on earth whose words sound as the word of God and not of Man albeit the spirit hath plainly foretold that the beast which had his power from the Dragon and should open his mouth unto blasphemies against God to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven should have power given withall to make war with the Saints and to overcome them yea over every kindred tongue and nation so as all that dwell upon the earth should worship hint whose names were not written in the Book of life of the Lamb which was slain from the beginning of the world 5 To the Jesuites brags that no visible Church since the world began did either spread it self so far or flourish so long as theirs hath done I only oppose that of our Saviour Ex tuo ipsius ore judicabere serve nequam Thine own confession shall condemn thee thou bond-slave of Satan For if the Romish Hierarchy be or hath been in the worlds eye the most potent and flourishing that ever was This description of the Beasts power cannot agree so wel to any as unto it Nor doth the Scripture any where intimate the true Church militant should dominere over all Nations or be so triumphantly victorious as they boast theirs hath been To think the Antichrist whom they expect should in three years space subdue as many Nations as have been tributary to the See of Rome is a conceit that justifies the Jew as well in his credulity of things to come which are impossible as in his hypocritical partiality towards his present estate which he never suspects of Apostasie Unto this observation the Reader may adde other like descriptions of this scarlet Whore all so fitly agreeing to the Papacy as he that will not acknowledge it for the Kingdom of great Antichrist hath great reason to suspect his heart that if he had lived with our Saviour he would scarce have taken him for his Messias nor can the Jesuites bring any better reasons why the Pope should not be the Antichrist then the Jews did why Christ should not be the great Prophet Yet this I say not to discourage such as doubt whether the Pope be that Man of sin or to bring them out of love with their belief which may be sound without expresse or actual acknowledgement of this truth not as yet revealed unto them as those two Disciples no doubt were neither hypocrites nor infidels albeit they mistrusted the report of Christs resurrection for they were farther from approving the practises of the Jews against him then from actual acknowledgement of it If any man thus doubt whether the Pope be Antichrist so he do not approve his hatred and war against Gods Saints or his other devilish practises Gods peace be upon him and in good time I trust his eyes shal be enlightned to see the truth in this particular as those two Disciples did in the Article of the resurrection 6 Seeing we have proved the Popes authority so far to exceed Christ it may seem needlesse to compare it with the Apostles Yet lest any Jesuite should except that their authority might be greater after their Masters glorification then his was before let us a while examin what they assumed unto themselves what they gave unto the Scriptures before extant CAP. XXIII That the authority attributed to the present Pope and the Romish rule of faith were altogether unknown unto Saint Peter the opposition betwixt Saint Peters and his pretended Successors doctrine 1 TO begin with S. Peter the first supposed to be enstalled in this See of Rome It may be presumed that this Supremacy over his fellow Apostles were it any was in his life time whiles his miracles were fresh and the extraordinary efficacy of his Ministery daily manifested as wel known amongst the faithful as the Popes now amongst Roman Catholicks If necessary it had been to acknowledge him or his successors as a second Rock or foundation the commendation of this doctrine unto posterity had been most requisite at the time he wrote his second Epistle as knowing then the time was at hand he should lay down his Tabernacle when he endeavoured his auditors might have remembrance of his former doctrine to make their calling and election sure If ever there had been a fit season for notifying the necessity of the See Apostolicks infallibility all the circumstances of this place witnesse this was it If any they to whom he wrote were most bound to obey it Their faith had been planted by him his present intent and purpose was more and more to confirm them in the truth wherein they were in some measure established And being thus mindful wil he not make choice of means most effectual to prevent Heresie or Apostasie What are these then absolute reposal in his and his Successors infallibility Had this been the best rule of faith he knew his fault were inexcusable for not prescribing it to such is most willingly would have used it His personal testimony and authority was I confess as great as any mortal mans could be with his own eyes he had beheld the Majesty of our Lord Christ whom he preached unto them If any trust there be in humane senses this Saint of God could not possibly be deceived If any credence to be given unto miracles or sanctity of life his flock might rest assured he would not deceive his works so witnesse the sincerity of his doctrine or if his eye were not in these his auditors judgements sufficient witnesses of this truth he further assures them when his Lord received of God the Father honour and glory there came such a voice unto him from the excellent glory This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased And this voice saith he we heard when it came from heaven being not a far off but with him in the mount If S. Peters seat or chair had been as the Pole-star whereto our Belief as the Mariners needle should be directed lest we float we know not whither in the Ocean of opinions were the Bosome of the visible Church the safest harbour our souls in all storms of temptation could thrust into this Apostle was either an unskilful Pilot or an uncharitable man that would not before his death instruct them in this course for the eternal safety of their souls whose bodily lives he might have commanded to have saved his own Had perpetual succession in his See or Apostolical tradition never interrupted been such an
Ariadna's thread as now it is thought to guide us through the Labyrinth of errors Such was S. Peters love to truth that he would have so fastned it to all faithful hearts as none should ever have failed to follow it in following which he could not erre Doubtlesse had any such conceit lodged in his breast this discourse had drawn it out his usual form of exhortation had been too mild his ordinary stile too low This doctrine had been proclaimed to all the world with Anathema's as loud and terrible as the Canons of any Papistical Councel report 2 But he followed no such deceitful Fables when he opened unto them the power and coming of Christ whose Majesty as he had seen with his own eyes so would he have others to see him too But by what light By Scriptures What Scriptures Peter feed my sheep Nay but by the Light of Prophesie That is a Light indeed in it self but unto private spirits it is no better saith Valentian then a light put under a bushel unlesse the visible Church do hold it out Where did the visible Church keep residence in those dayes In S. Peter I trow How chances it then he saith not fix your eyes on mine that have seen the glory of the Lord and the Prophets light shal shine unto you If by his commendation and proposal it were to shine he had said better thus Ye do well in that you give heed unto me as to your only infallible teacher that must confirm you in the truth of Prophetical Writings and cause them shine in your hearts but now he saith 2 Pet 1. 19. Ye do well in that ye take beed unto the Prophets as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day-star arise in your hearts This light of Prophets illuminated the eyes of Peters faith albeit with his bodily eyes he had seen Christs glory For speaking comparatively of that testimony which he had heard in the Mount he adds We have also a surer word of the Prophets That the Lord hath been glorified in the Mount his Auditors were to take upon his Credit and Authority nor could he make them to see this particular as he himself had done but that Christ Jesus whom he saw glorified in the Mount was the Lord of Glory he had ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a surer testimony then his bodily sense the light of Prophets This then was the commendations of his flock that they looked upon it which shined as wel unto them as him to all without respect of persons that take heed unto it able to bring them not to acknowledg Peters infallibility but to the day-star it self whole light would further ascertain them even of the truth the Prophets and the Apostles taught For Christ is in a peculiar manner the first and the last in the edifice of faith the lowest and the highest stone in the corner refused by the master builders or visible pillars of the Jewish Church their faith was not grounded up on the Prophets whose words they knew not and not knowing them they knew not him but unto such as raise their faith by this ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the true square and line Chist is both the Fundamental Rock which supporteth and the chief corner stone that binds the whole house of God and preserves it from clefts and ruptures 3 But lest his followers might look amisse upon this prophetical light rightly esteemed in the general S. Peter thought it necessary to advertise them not to content themselves with every interpretation or accustomary acknowledgment of their truth grounded on others relations reports or skill in expounding them or multitude of voices that way swaying This had been as if a man that hath eyes of his own should believe there was a Moon or stars because a great many of his honest neighbours had told him so A thousand witnesses in such a case as this were but private testimonies in respect of that distinct knowledge which every one may have that list That the Lord should preserve light in Coshen when darknesse had covered the whole face of Egypt besides seems unto me lesse strange but more sensibly true then before whilest I consider how in this age wherein the light of his countenance hath so clearly shined throughout those parts of Europe whence the Gospel came to us Ingolstade should still sit in darknesse environed with the shadow of death That her great professor Valentian born I take it within these fourscore years should grope at noon day as if he had been brought forth in the very midnight of Popery or died welnigh three hundred years ago Scarce Scotus himself not Ockam questionlesse though shut up in a prison where no light of any expositor had ever come could have made a more dunstical collection of the Apostles words then he hath done Saint Peter meant one of these Three First that there can be no certain or probable way of expounding Scriptures by our proper wit or industry or Secondly that one or other place of Scripture cannot be rightly expounded by human wit or industry but so compared they rightly may or Thirdly that the Scriptures cannot certainly and infallibly be expounded every where without the sentence of some other common infallible authority which in this respect is to be held as judge of faith in the Church The Apostle he infers did not mean the first or second ergo the third So as the force and wisdom of the Apostolical admonition is this No man by his private industry or study howsoever imploied either he thought not of the holy Ghosts direction or assistance or did not except it no not by any search of Scripture it self can certainly and infallibly understand the doctrine of Scriptures in controversies of which S. Peter in that place speaks not one word but it is necessary he learn this of some other publick authority in the church by which the Holy Ghost speaks publickly and teacheth all His reason follows more dunsticall then the collection it self For the Apostle straight subjoyns As the holy men of God did speak in Scriptures not by human authority but divine so likewise cannot the Scriptures be possibly understood by any human or private industry of this or that man but by some other authority likewise divine by which the holy spirit which is the Author of Scriptures may be likewise the most certain interpreter of Scriptures 4 Had another read thus much unto me and bid me read the Author or his works wherein it was found I should presently have named either Erasmus Moriae Encomium Frishlins Priscianus Vapulans or some such like Comedian disposed in merriment to pen some old Dunces part Cannot the Sun of righteousnesse infuse his heavenly influence by the immediate operation of his spirit or doth his influence want force without conjunction with this blazing Comet or falling star Was it not the authority of this spirit which made S. Peter himself to
Aristotles forge so the fire be out of us when we come into the Sanctuary But just in this manner doth the Mimical Jesuite reply to the former truth I demand saith he whether the Doctour would approve this consequence Paul preaching to the Athenians confirmed his Doctrine with the testimony of the Poet Aratus and the Athenians had done well if they had sought whether Aratus had said so or no therefore all Doctrines must be judged by Poets But what if the Beraeans practise considered alone or as Jesuites do Scriptures onely Mathematically do not necessarily inferre thus much The Learned Doctors charitable mind would not suffer him to suspect any publick Professor of Divinity as Sacroboscus was could be so ignorant in Scriptures as not to consider besides the different esteem of Prophets and Poets amongst the Jews what Saint Paul had Acts 26 22. expressely said I obtained help of God and continue unto this day witnessing both unto small and great saying none other things then those which the Prophets and Moses did say should come Unlesse he could have proved Christs resurrection and other Articles of Christian faith out of Moses and the Prophets the Jews exceptions against him had been just For they were bound to resist all Doctrines dissonant to their ancient Ordinances especially the abolishment of Rites and Ceremonies which Paul laboured most knowing the Law-giver meant they should continue no longer then to the alteration of the Priesthood but in whose maintenance his adversaries should have spent their bloud whiles ignorant they were without default of the truth Paul taught as not sufficiently proved from the same Authority by which their lawes were established Nor was any Apostle either for his miracles or other pledges of the Spirit that he could communicate unto others to be so absolutely believed in all things during his life time as Moses and the Prophets writings For seeing the gift of miracles was bestowed on hypocrites or such as might fall from any gifts or graces of the spirit they had though the spectatours might believe the particular conclusions to whose confirmation the miracles were fitted yet was it not safe without examination absolutely to relie upon him in all things that had spoken a divine truth once or twice In that he might be an hypocrite or a dissembler for ought others without evidence of his upright conversation and perpetuall consonance to his former Doctrine could know he might abuse his purchased reputation to abet some dangerous errour Nor do our Adversaries though too too credulous in this kind think themselves bound to believe revelations made to another much lesse to think that he which is once partaker of the Spirit should for ever be infallible Upon these supporters the forementioned Doctors reason which the Jesuite abuseth to establish the Churches Authority stands sirme and sound I absolutely believe all to be truâ⦠that âod saith because he saith it nor do I seek any other reason but I dare not as ãâã so much unto man lest I make him equall to God for God alone and he in whom the Godhead dwelleth bodily is immutably just and holy Many others have continued holy and righteous according to their measure untill the end but who could be certain of this besides themselves no not they themselves alwayes And albeit a man that never was in the state of grace may oft-times deliver that Doctrine which is infallible yet were it to say no worse a grievous tempting of God to rely upon his Doctrine as absolutely infallible unlesse we know him besides his skill or learning to be alwayes in such a state Though both his life and death be most religious his Doctrine must approve it self to the present Age and Gods providence must commend it to posterity Nor did our Saviour though in life immutably holy and for Doctrine most infallible assume so much unto himself before his Ascension as the Jesuites give to the Pope For he submitted his Doctrine to Moses and the Prophets writings And seeing the Jesuites make lesse account of Him then the Jews did of Moses it is no marvell if they be more violently miscaried with envious or contemptuous hatred of the Divine truth it self then the Jews were against our Saviour or his Doctrine These even when they could not answer his reasons drawn from Scriptures received though most offensive to their distemperate humour were ashamed to call Moses and the Prophets Authority in question or to demand how do ye know God spake by them Must not the Churches infallibility herein assure you And if it teach you to discerne Gods Word from mans must it not likewise teach you to distinguish the divine sence of it from humane This is a strain of Atheisme which could never find harbour in any professing the knowledge of the true God before the brood of Antichrist grew so flush as to seek the recovery of that battail against Gods Saints on Earth which Lucifer their Father and his followers lost against Michael and his holy Angels in Heaven CAP. XXV A brief taste of our Adversaries blasphemous and Atheistical assertions in this argument from some instances of two of their greatest Doctours Bellarmin and Valentian That if faith cannot be perfect without the solemne testification of that Church the rarity of such testifications will cause infidelity 1 FOr a further competent testimonie of blasphemies in this kind where-with we charge the Church of Rome let the Reader judge by these two instances following whether the Christian world have not sucked the deadliest poison that could evaporate from the infernal lake through Bellarmines and Valentians pens Valentian as if he meant to out-flout the Apostle for prohibiting all besides the great Pastor Christ Jesus for being Lords over mens faith will have an infallible authority which may sit as Judge and Mistresse of all Controversies of faith and this to be not the authoritie of one or two men deceased not peculiar to such as in times past have uttered the divine truth either by mouth or pen and commended it unto posterity but an authority continuing in force and strength amongst the faithfull thorowout all ages able persptcuously and openly to give sentence in all Controversies of Faith Yet as these Embassadours of God deceased cannot be Judges shall they therefore have no Say at all in deciding conroversies of faith You may not think a Jesuite would take Jesus Name in vain he will never for shame exclude his Master for having at least a finger in the government of the Church Why what is his office or what is the use of his authority registred by his Apostles and Evangelists Not so little as you would ween For his speeches amongst others that in their life time have infallibly taught divine truths by mouth or pen may be consulted as a witnesse or written law in cases of faith but after a certain sort and manner either to speak the truth or somewhat thereto not impertinent
as shall be declared in due place The place he means is where he disputes whether the Pope be bound to consult other authority besides his own or use any means to search the truth before he passe sentence ex cathâdra that is before he charge the whole Christian World to believe his decision This he thinks expedient but so far forth onely as if it please his Holinesse to enjoyn the belief of some particular point upon the whole World all must believe that he hath consulted Scripture and Antiquity as far as was requisit for that point as you shall after hear 2 That in such Controversies he includes The means of knowing Scriptures to be the Word of God is evident out of his own words in the fore-cited place For the knowledge of Scriptures he would have to be an especial point of faith yet such as cannot be proved by Scripture but by this living and speaking authority as he expressely contends in the eleventh paragraph of the same question His conclusion is If it be necessary there should be some authority though humane yet by divine assistance infallible to sit as Mistresse and Judge in all controversies of faith and not to be appropriated to any deceased as is already proved it remains that it be alwayes living in the Church alwayes present amongst the faithfull by succession he means of Popes Thus you see the present Pope must be Judge and Christ and his Apostles must be brought in as witnesses And yet whether there were such a Christ as Saint Matthew Mark Luke and John tell us there was or whether the Gospels which go under their names be Apocryphal and that of Bartholomews onely Canonical we cannot know but by the Popes testimony so that in the end he is the onely Judge and onely witnesse both of Christ the Apostles and their writings yea of all divine truths at least assisted with his Bishops and Cardinals Which Bellarmine though otherwise a great deal more wary then Valentian hath plainly uttered Unlesse saith he it were for the authority of the present Church of Rome he means the Trent Councel the whole Christian faith might be called in question so might all the Acts and Decrees of former Councels his reason was because we cannot know these Antiquities but onely by Tradition and historical relation which are not able to produce divine firme infallible faith 3 Thus whilest this great Clerk would dig a pit for the blind for he could not hope I think this block should stumble any that hath eyes in his head he is fallen into the middest of it himself by seeking to undermine us he hath smothered himself and buried the cause he was to maintain For if without the Trent Councels testification we cannot by divine faith believe the Scriptures or former Councels to be of Divine authority How can such as were born within these thirty yeers believe that Councel it seât which ended above fourty years ago Few this day living were Auditors of the Cardinals and Bishops decisions there assembled not hearing them their saith must needs be grounded upon hear-sayes Again if it be true the Scriptures cannot be known to be divine but by the Authority of the present viâible Church If this Church do not viva voââ confirme all Christians in this fundamental truth their faith cannot be divine but hu mane What the Pope or his Cardinals think of these points is more then any living knows unlesâe they hear them speak and then it may be a great question whether they speak as they think Pope Alexander the sixths decisions should have been negative like the fools bolt in the Psalm Tâerâ is no God No Christ No Gospel for so his meaning might have been interpreted as they say dreams are by contraries seeing he never spake as he thought Lastly if the Trent Councel were so necessary for the confirmation of Scriptures and other Orthodoxal writings how detestable was your Clergies backwardnesse to affoord the Christian World this spiritual comfort For whether fear it were the Popes Authority should be curbed on meer sloth and neglect of matters divine that did detain them their shifts to put the Emperour off the Reader may sufficiently conjecture from Sepul veda at that time Chronicler to the Emperour in his Epistle to Cardinal Contârââ one of the Popes Legates in that Councel That my intermissâân of writing and silence in that question concerning the Correction of the âear hath ãâã so long I wish the fault had laid in my slouth or forgetfulneââ that I might have been hence ocâasioned to acknowledge and depreccate the blanââ rather then as noâ I freely must impute the true cause to the negligence of your Romanâ Priests whom I perceive to wax cold and to think of nothing lesse then of calling the Councel with hopâ whereof as heretâfore I was excited so now ââspair hath made me dull For I see well that such as are most bound to have a ââgilant care oâ the Churches publick welfare and not to foreslow any opportunity of increasing her dignity never so much as mention the Councel at this time as necâssary as alwayes usefull but when Christians either are alâcaay or are likâ⦠be at viriance In one word never but then when there is sure hope it may bâ⦠hindeâed by their discord For when peace gets it turn and all is quiet not ãâã word of the Councel So as what they aime at by these unseasonable ãâã is so manifest as will not suffer the slon est capacity to live in doubt or sââpition 4 This great Learned Antiquaries Learned advice in ââ¦âile sent to the same Cardinall then imployed by the â⦠cel was not to suffer matters Decreed in any former â⦠assembled together to be disputed or called in question Sufferance hereof was in his judgement no lesle prejudicial to the State Ecclesiastick then unto the temporal it would be to permit malefactors traverse the equity of publick Lawes established and known after sufficient proof or confession made of Capital offences committed against them The marginal quotations of the Trent Councel compared with this grave admonition which had antiquitie-customes Canonical as the Authour urgeth to give it Countenance may serve as a perfect Index for our instruction with what prejudice the Bishops there assembled came to determine by whose manuduction or set rules they drew their supposed inerrable lines of life Now it is impossible any determination that takes it force from multitude of voyces should be either in it self more certain or more forcible to perswade others then are the motives or inducements that swayed the suffragants so to determine and these in this case could by Bellarmines reason be but historical perswasions or presumptions For no Jesuite I think will say these Bishops had the Popes sentence ex Cathedra to assure them before-hand what Councels had been lawfully called and fully confirmed or whether all the ancient Canons they afterwards reestablished were already as authentick and
Without the help or ministerie of man We maintain as wel as they God is not a father to such as will not acknowledge the Church for their Mother Notwithstanding thus we conceive and speak of the Church indefinitely taken not consined to any determinate place not appropriated to any individual or singularized persons Now to verifie an indefinite speech or proposition the truth of any one particular sufficeth As he that should say Socrates by man was taught his learning doth not mean the specifical nature or whole Mankind but that Socrates as others had one man or other at the first to instruct him The same Dialect we use when we say Every one that truly cals God father receives instructions from the Church his Mother that is from some in the Church lawfully ordained for planting faith unto whom such Filial Obedience as elsewhere we have spoken of is due The difference likewise between the Romanists and us hath partly been discussed before In brief it is thus We hold this Ministery of the Church is a necessary condition or mean precedent for bringing us to the Infallible Truth or true sense of Gods word yet no infallible Rule whereon finally or absolutely we must rely either for discerning divine Revelations or their true meaning But as those resentââances of colours which we term Species visibiles are not seen themselves though necessary for the sight of real colours so this Minisiery of the Church alâ⦠in it self not infallible is yet necessarily required for our right apprehension ãâã the Divine Truth which in it self alone is most infallible yea as infallible to us as it was â to the Apostles or Prophets after it be rightly apprehended The difference is in the manner of apprehending or conceiving it They conceived it immediately without the Ministery or instruction of man so cannot we This difference elsewhere I have thus resembled As trees and plants now growing up by the ordinary husbandry of man from seeds precedent are of the same kind and quality with such as vvere immediately created by the hand of God so is the immediate ground of ours the Prophets and Apostles Faith the same Albeit theirs was immediately planted by the finger of God ours propagated from their seed Sown and cherished by the daily industry of faithful Ministers 3 Neither in the substance of this assertion nor manner of the explication do we much differ if ought from Canus in his second book where he taxeth Scotus Durand and others for affirming the last resolution of our faith was to be made into the veracity or infallibility of the Church The Apostles and Prophets saith he resolved their faith into truth and authority divine Therefore we must not resolve our faith into the humane authority of the Church For the faith is the same and must have the same Formal Reason For better confirmation of which assertion he adds this reason Things incident to the object of any habit by accident do not alter the formal reason of the object Now that the Articles of faith should be proposed by these or these men is meerly accidental wherefore seeing the Apostles and Prophets did assent unto the Articles of faith because God revealed them the reason of our assent must be the same Lastly he concludes that the Churches authority miracles or the like are only such precedent conditions or means for begetting faith as sensitive knowledge exhortations or advise of Masters are for bringing us to certain knowledge in demonstrative faculties Had either this great Divine spoken consequently to this doctrine in his 5th Book or would the Jesuites avouch no more then here he doth vve should be glad to give them the right hand of fellowship in this point But they go all a wrong way unto the truth or would to God any way to the truth or not directly to overthrow it Catharinus though in a manner ours in that question about the certainty of salvation saith more perhaps then they meant whom Canus late taxed Avouching as Bellarmin cites his opinion that divine faith could not be certain and infallible unlesse it were of an object approved by the Church Whence would follow what Bellarmin there infers that the Apostles and Prophets should not have been certain of their Revelations immediately sent from God until the Church had approved them which is a doctrine wel deserving a sharper censure then Bellarmin bestows on Cathirinus Albeit to speak the truth Bellarmin was no fit man to censure though the other most worthy to be severely censured Catharinus might have replied that the Prophets and Apostles at least our Saviour in whom Bellarmin instanceth vvere the true Church as wel as they make the Pope Nor can Valentia's with other late âesuites opinions by any pretence or thew hardly Bellarmins own be cleared from the same inconveniences he objects to Catharinus as will appear upon better examination to be made hereafter CAP. XXVII That the Churches Proposal is the true immediate and prime cause of all obsolute belief any Romanist can have concerning any determinate divine Revelation 1 WHereas Valentian and as he sayes Caietan deny the Churches infallible proposal to be the cause why we believe divine Revelations This speech of his is Equivocal and in the equivocation of it I think Valentian sought to hide the truth The ambiguity or Fallacy is the same which was disclosed in Bellarmins reply unto us objecting that Pontificians make the Churches authority greater then Scriptures In this place as in that the word of God or divine revelations may be taken either indefinitely for whatsoever God shall be supposed to speak or for those particular Scriptures or Revela tions which we suppose he hath already revealed and spoken Or Valentian may speak of the object of our belief not of belief it self If we take his meaning in the former sense what he faith is most true For the Churches infallibility is no cause why we believe that to be true vvhich vve suppose God hath revealed nor did vve ever charge them with this assertion This is an Axiom of nature presupposed in all Religions yet of which none ever knew to make so great secular use as the Romish Church doth But if we speak of that Canon of Scripture which vve have or any things contained in it all which vve and our adversaries joyntly suppose to have come from God the only cause vvhy vve do or can rightly believe them is by Jesuitical doctrine the Churches infallibility that commends them unto us 2 If that Church which Valentian holds so infallible should have said unto him totidem verbis you must believe the books of Maccabees are canonical even for this reason that your holy Catholick Mother tels you so he durst not but have believed as wel the reason as the matter proposed To wit That these Books were Canonical because the Church had enjoyned him so to think albeit his private conscience left to Gods grace and
proposition must finally be resolved Every conclusion of faith as is before observed out of Bellarmine must be gathered in this or like Syllogisme Whatsoever God or the first Truth saith is most true But God said all those words which Moses the Prophets and the Evangelists wrote Therefore all these are most true The Major in this Syllogisme is an Axiom of Nature acknowledged by Turks and Infidels nor can Christian faith be resolved into it as into a Principle proper to it self The Minor say our Adversaries must be ascertained unto us by the Churches authority and so ascertained becomes the first and main principle of faith as Christian whence all other particular or determinate conclusions are thus gathered Whatsoever the Church proposeth to us for a divine Revelation is most certainly such But the Church proposeth the Books of Moses and the Prophets finally the whole volumes of the old and new Testament with all their parts as they are extant in the vulgar Roman Edition for divine revelations Therefore we must infallibly believe they are such So likewise must we believe that to be the true and proper meaning of every sentence in them contained which the Church to whom it belongs to judge of their sence shall tender unto us 2 For better manifestation of the Truth we now teach the young Reader must here be advised of a Twofold Resolution One of the things or matters believed or known into their first parts or Elements Another of our Belief or perswasions concerning them into their first Causes or motives In the one the most general or remotest cause In the other the most immediate or next cause alwayes terminates the resolution The one imitates the other inverts the order of composition so as what is first in the one is last in the other because that which is first intended or resolved upon by him that casteth the plot is last effected by the executioner or manual composer In the former sence we say mixt bodies are lastly resolved into their first Elements houses into stones timber and other ingredients particular truths into general maximes conclusions into their immediate premisses all absurdities into some breach of the rule of contradiction Consonantly to this interpretation of final resolution The First Verity or divine infallibility is that into which all Faith is lastly resolved For as we said before this is the first step in the progresse of true Belief the lowest Foundation whereon any Religion Christian Jewish Mahometan or Ethnick can be built And it is an undoubted Axiom quod primum est in generatione est ultimum in resolutione when we resolve any thing into the parts whereof it is compounded we end in the undoing or unfolding it where nature begun in the composition or making of it But he that would attempt to compose it again or frame the like aright would terminate all his thoughts or purposes by the end or use which is farthest from actual accomplishment Thus the Architect frames stones and timber and layes the first foundation according to the platform he carries in his head and that he casts proportionably to the most commodious or pleasant habitation which though last effected determines all cogitations or resolutions precedent Hence if we take this ultima resolutio as we alwayes take these termes when we resolve our own perswasions that is for a resolution of all doubts or demands concerning the subject whereof we treat A Roman Catholicks faith must according to his Principles finally be resolved into the Churches infallibility For this is the immediate ground or first cause of any particular or determinate point of Christian faith and the immediate cause is alwayes that into which our perswasions concerning the effect is finally resolved seeing it onely can fully satisfie all demands doubts or questions concerning it As for example if you ask why men or other terrestrial Creatures breath when fishes do not to say they have lungs and fishes none doth not fully satisfie all demands or doubts concerning this Subject For it may justly further be demanded what necessity there was the one should have lungs rather then the other If here it be answered that men and other perfect terrestrial creatures are so full of fervent blood that without a cooler their own heat would quickly choak them and in this regard the God of nature who did not make them ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or give them life in vain to be presently extinct did with it give them lungs by whose respiration their naturall temper should be continued This answer doth fully satisfie all demands concerning the former effect For no man of sense would further question why life should be preserved whose preservation immediately depends upon respiration or exercise of the lungs and is therefore the immediate cause of both and that whereunto all our perswasions concerning the former subject are lastly resolved Or if it should be demanded why onely man of all other creatures hath power to laugh to say he were indued with reason doth not resolve us for a Philosophical wit would further question Why should reasonable substances have this foolish faculty rather then others A good Philosopher would perswade us the spirits which serve for instruments to the rational part are more nimble and subtle and so more apt to produce this motion then the spirits of any other creatures are But this I must professe resolves not me for how nimble or subtle soever they be unlesse man had other corporeal Organs for this motion the spirits alone could not produce it and all organical parts are framed for the operation or exercise of the faculty as their proper end Whence he that would finally resolve the former Problem must assigne the true final cause why reasonable substances more then others should stand in need of this motion Now seeing unto reason onely it is proper to forecast danger and procure sorrow and contristation of heart by preconceit of what yet is not but perhaps may be it was requisite that our mortality through reason obnoxious to this inconvenience should be able to correct this contristant motion by the contrary and have a faculty to conceive such pleasant objects as might dilate the heart and spirits that as man hurts his body by conceited sorrow whereto no other Creature is subject so he might heal it again by a kind of pleasance whereof he alone is capable 3 Answerable to this latter acception of final resolution if you demand a Roman Catholick why he believes there is a Trinity there shall be a resurrection or life everlasting his answer would be because God or the First Verity hath said so but this doth not fully satisfie for we might further question him as he doth us why do you believe that God did say so Here it sufficeth not to say This truth is expresly taught in Canonical Scriptures for the doubt whereby he hopes to stagger us most is this Why do you believe
that here he maks That the sence of Scriptures is the sword of the spirit This is as much as we contend that the sence of the Scripture is the Scripture Whence the inference is immediately necessary That if the Romish Church bind us to believe or absolutely practise ought contrary to the true sence and meaning of Scriptures with the like devotion we do Gods expresse undoubted commandements she prefers her own authority above Gods Word and makes us acknowledge that allegiance unto her which we owe unto the spirit For suppose we had as yet no full assurance of the spirit for the contradictory sence to that given by the Church we were in Christian duty to expect Gods providence and invoke the spirits assistance for manifestation of the truth from all possibility whereof we desperately exclude our selves if we believe one mans testimony of the spirit as absolutely and irrevocably as we would do the manifest immediate testimony of the spirit yet Sacroboscus acknowledgeth he believes the mysterie of the Trinity as it is taught by their Church onely for the Churches authority and yet this he believes as absolutely as he doth yea as he could believe any other divine Revelation though extraordinarily made unto himself 3 In both parts of Belief above mentioned the causal dependance of our faith upon the Churches proposals may be imagined three wayes either whilest it is in planting or after it is planted or from the first beginning of it to it full groweth or from it first entrance into our hearts untill our departure out of this world How far and in what sort the Ministery of men in the Church is available for planting faith hath been declared heretofore Either for the planting or supporting it the skill or authority of the teacher reaches no further then to quicken or strengthen our internal tast or apprehension of the divine truth revealed in Scriptures or to raise or tune our spirits as Musick did Elishahs the better to perceive the efficacy of Gods spirit imprinting the stamp of those divine Revelations in our Hearts whose Characters are in our Brains The present Churches proposals in respect of our Belief is but as the Samaritan womans report was unto the men of Sichar Many saith the Evangelist believed in him for the saying of the woman which testified he hath told me all things that ever I did But this Beliefe was as none in respect of that which they conceive immediately from his own words For they said unto the woman Now we believe not because of thy saying for we have heard him our selves and know that this is indeed The Christ. The ãâã saith Job trieth the words as the mouth tasteth meats Consonant hereto is our Churches doctrine that as our bodily mouthes taste and trie meats immediately without interposition of any other mans sense or jugement of them so must the ears of our souls trie and discern divine truths without relying on other mens proposals or reports of their rellish No external means whatsoever can in either case have any use but only either for working a right disposition in the Organ whereby trial is made or by occasioning the exercise of the faculty rightly disposed How essentially faith by our adversaries doctrine depends upon the Churches authority is evident out of the former discourses that this dependance is perpetual is as manifest in that they make it the judge and rule of faith such an indefectible rule and so authentick a Judge as in all points must be followed and may not be so far examined either by Gods written law or rules of nature whether it contradict not it self or them 4 It remains we examin the particular manner of this dependance or what the Churches infallibility doth or can perform either to him that believes or to the object of his belief whence a Roman Catholicks faith should become more firm or certain then other mans It must enlighten either his soul that it may see or divine revelations that they may be seen more clearly otherwise he can exceed others only in blind Belief The cunningest Sophister in that school strictly examined upon these points wil bewray that monstrous Blasphemy which some shallow brains have hitherto hoped to cover We have the same Scriptures they have and peruse them in all the languages they do What is it then can hinder either them from manifesting or us from discerning their Truth or true meaning manifested Do we want the Churches proposal we demand how their present Church it self can better discern them then ours may what testimony of antiquity have they which we have not But it may be we want spectacles to read them our Church hath but the eyes of private men which cannot see without a publick light Their Churches eyes are Cat-like able so to illustrate the objects of Christian faith as to make them clear and perspicuous to it self though dark and invisible unto us Suppose they could Yet Cats-eyes benefit not by-standers a whit for seeing colours in darkness albeit able themselves to see them without any other light then their own The visible Church saith the Jesuite is able to discern all divine truth by her infallible publick spirit How knows he this certainly without an infallible publick spirit perhaps as men see Cats-eyes shine in the dark when their own do not Let him believe so But what doth this belief advantage him or other private spirits for the clear distinct or perfect sight of what the Church proposeth Doth the proposal make divine Truths more perspicuous in themselves Why then are they not alike perspicuous to all that hear read or know the Churches testimonie of them Sacroboscus hath said all that possibly can be said on their behalf in this difficultie The Sectaries albeit they should use the authoritie of the true Church yet cannot have any true belief of the truth revealed If the use of it be as free to them as to Catholicks what debars them from this benefit They do not acknowledge the sufficiencie of the Churches proposal And as a necessary proof or medium is not sufficient to the attaining of science unless a man use and acknowledge it formally as necessary so for establishing true faith it sufficeth not that the Church sufficiently proposeth the points to be believed or avoweth them by that infallible authority wherewith Christ hath enabled her to declare both what books contain Doctrines Divine and what is the true sense of places controversed in them but it is further necessary that we formally use this proposal as sufficient and embrace it as infallible 5 The reason then why a Roman Catholick rightly believes the Truth or true meaning of Scriptures when a Protestant that knows the Churches testimonie as well as he rests in both points uncertain is because the Catholick infallibly believes the Churches authority to be infallible whereof the Protestant otherwise perswaded reaps no benefit by it but continues still in darkness
cannot infalliblie distinguish the true sence and meaning of one place from another but must herein also rely upon the Churches testimony and onely believe that sence to be repugnant that consonant to the analogie of faith which she shall tender albeit our private consciences be never so well informed by other Scriptures to the contrary The truth then of our former conclusion is hence easily manifested For seeing they hold both the Scriptures and their distinct sence to be obscure and unable to ascertain themselves unlesse the Church adde perspicuitie or facilitie of communicating their meaning to private spirits such after the Churches proposal cannot possibly discern them any better or more directly in themselves then they did before but must wholy rely upon their Prelates as if these were the onely watchmen in the Tower of Gods Church that could by vertue of their place discern all divine truth Others must believe there is an omnipotent God which hath given his Law a Mediator of the new Testament but what the meaning either of Law or Gospel is they may not presume otherwise to determine then weak sights do of things they see confusedly a farre off whose particular distance or difference they must take onely upon other mens report that have seen them distinctly and at hand 11 To illustrate these deductions with the former similitude of the prime and secondary visibles Let us suppose for disputations sake that the Sun which illuminates colours by its light were further indued as we are with sense and reason able to judge of all the differences between them which it can manifest to us and hence challenge to be a Pope or infallible proposer of colours This supposition the Canonist hath made lesse improbable For Deus fecit duo luminaria God made two lights that is by his interpretation the Pope and the Emperour Or if you please to mitigate the harshnesse of it let the Man in the Moon whom we may not imagine speechlesse be supposed the Sun or Pope of colours his Mercurie or Nuncio As the Papists say we cannot know Scriptures to be Scriptures but by the infallible proposal of the Church so it is evident we cannot see any colour at all unlesse illuminated or proposed by the Suns light But after by it we see them suppose we should take upon us to discourse of their nature or determine of their distinct properties as now we do and the Sun or Pope of colours by himself or his Nuncio should take us up as Duke Humphrey did the blind man restored to sight which he never had lost Yea who taught you to distinguish colours were you not quite blind but now as yet you cannot discern any colours without my publick light and yet will you presume to define their properties and distinguish their natures against my definitive sentence known Must not he that enables you to see them enable you to distinguish them seen Must you not wholly rely upon my authority whether this be white or that black If a man upon these Motives should absolutely believe the Suns determinations renouncing the judgement of his private senses could he truely say that he either knew this colour to be white or that black or another green Rather were he not bound to say I neither know white from black nor black from blew nor blew from green but I know that to be white which the Sun the onely infallible Judge of colours saith is white that onely to be black that blew and that green which he shall determine so to be I may think indeed that the snow is white or coals black but with submission to the Suns determination 12 And yet as you have heard at large out of the Trent Councel and best Apologies can be made for it the Church must be the infallible Judge of all Scripture sence and must absolutely be believed without all appeal to Scriptures not conditionally as she shall accord with them The conclusion hence issuing is most infallible and on their parts most inevitable Whosoever absolutely acknowledgeth this authority in the Church or Consistory and yeelds such obedience unto it in all determinations concerning the Canon of Scriptures doth not believe either this or that determinate proposition of faith or any definite meaning of Gods Word The best resolution he can make of his faith is this I believe that to be the meaning of every place which the Church shall define to be the meaning which is all one as if he had said I do not believe the Scriptures or their meaning but I believe the Churches decision and sentence concerning them He that believes not the Church saith Canus but with this limitation if it give sentence according unto Scriptures doth not believe the Church but the Scriptures By the same reason it followes most directly he that believes not the true sence and meaning of Scriptures but with this reservation if the Church so think or determine doth not believe them but the Church onely For as the Schoolmen say Ubi unum propter aliud ibi unum tantum He that serves God onely because he would be rich doth not serve God but his riches albeit he performe the outward acts of obedience Or if we love a man onely for his affinity with another whom we dearly love we truely and properly love but the one the other onely by way of reflexion or denomination in such a sence as we say a man appears by his proxie that is his proxie appears not he In like sort believing the sence of Scriptures onely from the supposed authentick declaration of the Church or because we believe it we infalliblie believe the Church alone not the Scriptures but onely by an extrinsecal denomination 13 Yet as a man may from some reasons lesse probable have an opinion of what he certainly knowes by motives more sound or as we may love one in some competent measure for his owne sake and yet affect him more entirely for anothers whom we most dearly love so may an absolute Papist in some moral sort believe the Scriptures for themselves or hold their authodoxal sence as probable to his private judgement albeit he believe them most for the Churches sake and that sence best which it commends But this his belief of the Church being by their doctrine more then moral or conditional doth quite overthrow all moral or probable belief he can possiblie have from what ground soever of Scriptures themselves For as I said before the Church shall determine ought contrary to his preconceived opinion the more probable or strong it was the more it encreaseth his doubt and makes his contrary resolution more desperate yea more damnable if habitual because ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã extreamly contrary to the doctrine of faith Bellarmins prescription in this case is just as if a Physitian or Surgeon should seek to case the pain by ending of the Patients dayes Lest a man should sin against his conscience this
suffice to have waded thus far in these unpleasant passages for discovering the enemies weaknesse in his new Fortifications or Repalliations rather of such breaches as our ancient Worthies have made in their imaginary Rock of strength Now as my soul and conscience in the sight of God and his holy Angels can assure me these imputations of blasphemy sorcerie and preposterous Idolatry I have laid upon this fundamental point of Romish faith aâe most true though much lesse exaggerated then it deserves so again I must confesse it hath in some sort over gone against my conscience publickly to discipher or display her abominations For my little experience of this present ages temper too well instructs me what great offence is oft-times hereby given to men as weak in faith as strong in their perswasions of it to flatter themselves in their hypocrisie or make them seem unto themselves men rightly religious or throughly sanctified whilest they measure their love to true religion by their hatred unto this doctrine of Devils or compare themselves with Priests and Jesuites as they are painted out in their native colours by eloquent and learned Pastors But his iniquitie be upon his own head that thus perverts my labours undertaken for his good unto his harm For unto a quite contrary purpose have I set forth this survey of Romish blasphemie in a larger volume then first I meant it even to stir up my self and every Professor of true Religion unto serious amendment of our lives to hold fast our faith by holding up hands pure from bribery and corruption by lifting up hearts and mindes void of all guile and hypocrisie ardently zealous of every good work unto the Lord our God continually lest such swarms of Caterpillars and Locusts as have chosen Beelzebub for their God devour this land Mortis modus morte pejor To think such should be the instruments of our wo will unto most of us I know far surpasse all conceit of any other wo it self or misery that in this life can befall us And yet whilest I consider what God hath done of old to Israel his first-born and Judah his own inheritance the overplus of our ingratitude towards him for all his goodnesse especially our wilfull continual abusing these dayes of peace more and more sweet and gracious then Jerusalem it self the vision of peace did ever see so long together without interruption I am and have been as my publick meditations can testifie for these few yeers of my ministerie possessed with continuall dread lest the Lord in justice enlarge his threatnings denounced against Judah upon this Land Fearfull was that message unto Hierusalem I will bring the most wicked of the Heathen and they shall possesse their houses but more terrible is our doom if this sentence be gone out against us I will plague you by the wickedst amongst the Christians by men more cruel proud and insolent then Babylonian Turk or Infidel or any other enemie of Christs Church hath been or could be unlesse Christians or Jesuites in name or shew they were meer Antichristians or Bariesus in heart and affection Such titles we readily give and willingly hear given unto Loyolaes infamous brood But if our wayes shall continually prove as odious unto our God as these termes impârt that Societie is unto us what have we done Surely tied our bodies to the stake of justice by the wickednesse of our hands and proud imaginations of our polluted hearts whiles our tongues in the mean while have set our cruel executioners hearts on fire more grievously to torment to consume and devour us 11 But though likelihood of their prevailing against us be without our repentance great and their cruelty if they should prevail more then likely to be most violent yet this their hope it cannot be long Tu quoque Crudelis Babylon dabis impia poenas Et rerum instaâiles experiâre viâes The Lord in due time will turn again the captivity of his people and the now living may live to see these sons of Babel rewarded as they have long sought to serve us Their shamelesse Apologies for aequivocation and this old charm of Templum Domini which like unluckie birds alwayes flocking or frogs croaking against ill weather they have resumed of late with joint importunate cries albeit with these they bewitch the simple and choak the worldling or careless liver that accounts all serious thoughts of Religion his greatest trouble sound unto hearts setled in grace or mindes illuminated with the spirit of truth but as the last cracklings of Lucifers candle sometimes shining in the Roman Lanterne as the morning-star or an Angel of light but now so far spent and sunk within the socket that it recovers it wonted brightness but by flashes nor can his nostrils that is able with the least breath of his displeasure from heaven in a moment to blow it out any long time endure the smell Even so O Father for thy Son Christ Jesus sake even so O Christ for thine Elect and Chosens sake impose a period to our grievous sins against thee and our enemies malice against us infatuate their policies enfeeble their strength and prevent them in their Devillish purposes that seek to prevent thee in thy judgements by setting the World in combustion before thy coming Amen The continuation of matters prosecuted in the first BOOK THe ingenious Reader I trust rests fully satisfied that for planting true and lively Faith in every private Christians heart Experiments answerable to the Rules of Scripture without absolute dependanâe upon any external Rule thereto equivalent are sufficient the assistance of the Holy Spirit whose necessity for the right apprehension of aivine truths revealed the Romanist nor doth nor dare denie being supposed That Valentians heart did tell him thus much and secretly check him for his ridiculous curiosity to make way unto his Circular resolution of Faith * before refuted his diffident speeches immediately thereto annexed upon consciousnesse no doubt of it insufficiencie will give the Reader though partiall just cause of suspition If a man saith he be yet further questioned seeing as well the divine Revelations as the Churches infallible Proposal are obscure and inevident what should impel him to enter into such a Labyrinth of Obscurities as to imbrace the doctrine of Faith by the former Method to wit Believing the Revelation for the Churches Proposal as for a condition unto Relief requisite and the Churches Proposal again for the Revelation being the cause of his Belief then let him come unto the second processe or method and expound the reasons and clearer motives whereby he was and every discreet man may be induced to imbrace Faith though of it self inevident and obscure Thus do they traduce the Grace of God as if there were no difference betwixt mid-day-light and mid-night-darknesse as if the dawning of that Day-star in our hearts or light of Prophets our Apostle speaks of 2 Pet. 1. 19. were not a mean betwixt that more
then demonstrative Evidence of divine Truths which glorified Saints enjoy and obseurity or Jewish Blindness The particular manner how Gods Spirit works lively Faith by such Experiments as ââ¦tly I did and hereafter must acquaint him withall the Reader I hope will gather of his own accord out of the discourses following concerning the nature of Christian Faith and the Principal Objects thereof whereunto my Meditations are now add ãâã my long durance in this unpleasant subject having bred in my soul a more eagâr thâ⦠after these well springs of life FINIS Though the Observant Reader may serve himself well of the Contents of every Chapter and the Table of Texts of Scripture as also of the Titles of every Page and Marginal Briefs yet for his further advantage is made this ensuing Table To which every Reader may adde what he pleases space being left The Figure signifies the Page M. the Margin A THe sin of Aaron extenuated by Jews pag. 38 Abrahams faith and Jews stubbornness 132 The sin of Abiram aggravated 410 The Authors Aboadment 507 His prayer 508 Apparitions of Heathen Gods 34 c. Actions humane distinguished 168 Actions not of faith 177 to 184 See Doubts Not of Faith Obedience The same ill Action may be less of faith in the confident then in the scrupler 184 Best method to square our actions to the rule of faith 185 Adrians severity against the Jews 111 112 c. Acosta's zeal for Popes supremacy 314 Adam did eat not doubting yet condemned 185 Adoration of the Hoast dangerous to mens souls 328 Council of Trents decree for adoration 329 m. To Adore a creature wherein the divel lurks Vasques thinks lawful if one direct not Worship to him 329 Saracens Adore a stone and a star 107 Adoration of a dead dog deliberated if not done 501 m. Ahabs Prophets 418 Elijahs and Michaiahs Prophesies abused by Polititians 1b Albigenses and Picards persecuted by the Provost Stenelda who wrote to S. Bernard about them 245 c. Alexander the great General to Solomon say the Turks 46 Ancient times not to be measured by latter and why 37 to 42 How we may dissent from the Ancient 266 267 268 Angels sent to gather the elect how meant 101 Angels got Israel miraculous victories 35 Androgyni Platonis 56 Different Ages divers events 309 c. We mistrust Antiquity why 37. c. Alphon. the great got great honor being prisoner 61 Antoninies Army relieved with water 78 Arnuphis the sorcerer by the Heathen said to do it ibid. Arabians cruelty to the Jews Ambassadors 77 Antichrists exaltation first degree 315 c. Second degree of it 375 c. Third degree 464 c. Excesse of His exaltation 449 c. Antichrist may in formall termes confesse Christ 355 Antichrists spirit ib. Antichristianisme not contradictory to Christianity but contrary 355 Romish religion So. ib. 360 Antichrist a Judas a secret underminer 373 The Great Antichrist 347 c. 374. Antidote against Romish enchanting sorcery 307 Apothegmes Crantzius 139. Carafa's 505. P. Leo's ib. Assent conditional 189 c. It differs from implicit faith 196 Four things considerable for guiding our Assent to truth proposed 191 Assent See belief and faith Atheists credulous in their kind though mistrustfull of Scripture 37 Atheists rare in old time 38 Authorit as docentis how it is a ground unto unevident Assent 2 3 Authority Divine is ground of faith infallible 7 Authority of Jewish Church after Moses his death 411 c. Authority see Pope Sanedrim Universall Aristotles Rule for Poets To have a true History for ground 27 Aristotle confounds the Causes 54 He leads us not to the First Cause or last end ergo imperfect ib. B BAal See Prophets Beclzebub might cast out devils upon designe as Cheaters lose 436 Baptisme with water and the holy Ghost Typified by the pillar of cloud and of fire 447 Babels building transformed by Poets into the Giants war 56 Roma Babel rediviva 244 245 Bassina's vision 4â Belief is an assent without plain evidence 2 3 Belief how increased in strength and certainty 4 5 6 Objects of Belief distinguished 5 Belief of Gods Word though but conditionall what it effects and requires 8 9 Belief of Scriptures how to be confirmed by experiments in our selves 140 to 145 Belief of known Oracles confirmed in S. Peter by experiment 140 Belief of God wrought in Naaman by experiment onely 141 See experiment Belief of principal parts of Scripture ties our faith to the rest 148 c. Belief of Scripture to be got by practise not by Discourse 150 Belief must be wrought by the Spirit though by means 150 See Faith Conditional Belief the nature use conditions properties of it 189 Pronenesse to Believe when and in whom good or ill 419 Romish Belief meerly Humane 365 c. He that Believes the Romish Churches Authority as some teach it Believes no Article of Christian faith 464 He that Believes the Pope absolutely without all examination believes nor Christ nor his Gospel 494 Such Belief emboldens the Believer to villany ib. Romish Belief on the Church not on God 478 c. Bellarmin cited Bellarmins Catholick fyllogisme and resolution of faith 319 c. Bellarmins strange position if the Pope call evil good Papists must believe it 322. m. Bellarmins Put-off about Ahabs 400 prophets 418 Bellarmin confesses that nor Pope nor Councils can judge of scripture translated into modern Languages 157 St. Bernard against Rodulphus a vile Monk who preach't it was lawfull to spoil the Jewes to maintain the Holy war 117 Blasphemie Romish 309 c. 315 c. Blasphemy preferring Human Authority before Divine 316 Mouth of Blasphemy 450 502 More Blasphemy Romish 460 499 507 C CAnonical Books of the Old Testament to be known by the Jew 146 Of the New now confirmed 147 Trent Canon about Canonical Books 310 c. Cansuizing vide Saints Canus cited Caxus See Romish Writers in letter R. Cajetan and Cassander desired Reformation 276 Cardinall Carafa's blessing to the people 505 French Cardinals addresse to St. Cuthbert at Durham 160 Carbarinus defends the Council of Trent yet holds certainty of salvation 274 Ex Cathedra hard to know when the Pope speaks of it 404 Characters of sacred Writings 13 Charles Martel his martial Act. 110 c. Christian Religion confirmed by the ceasing of Oracles 30 c. Christ why so little spoken of by Heathen Writers 113 Christian Expeditions to recover Jewry bring evil upon the Jews 116 The Christian Cause and Cause called Catholick 155 Similitude betwixt Christ and Moses 434 c. Christs predictions and discovery of secrets prove him to be God and the Messiah 441 Church our Church in Romish as gold in drosse 245 m Comparison between our Church and the Romish for means of ending Controversies 272 c. The Church of Rome most needs means to end and take up Controversies 275 c. Jewish Church Representative a corrupt Judge in matters of God 422
c. He hath not God for his Father that hath not the Church his Mother 465 Churches proposal the Cause of Romish faith 467 The Church the Church see Templum Domini Church see Infallibility Belief The Enthusiasts Circle 150 Circle dolus circulatorius 291 to 293 508 Sacrebosco in a Circle 294 297. see Valentian Coaliers Circle 242 Coaliers Catechisme 292 Conditional see Assent faith belief obedience Cassius his sacriledge at Jerusalem and pilling the Jews punished 67 Crassus his sacriledge at Jerusalem the cause of his destruction 65 66 Crassus his overthrow and sin misapplied ib. Crassus his sinne pointed out in his punishment 66 67 Young Crassus and Old their Ominous stumble as they came out of the Temple at Hierapolis 65. c. St. Cyprian sinned not deadly in contradicting Pope Stephen sayes Bellarmin 313 m. Cup confessed by the Trent Council usuall of old yet forbid by it 330 c. and that upon a Text fore strained 332 c. Cup essentiall 335. Pope may grant it 338 m. A Queen poisoned in the Cup Greg. Tours 330 Council of Trent cited D DAlilah by Poets made Scylla 48 Day of the Lord not limited to one day 100 102 Deliverance from Popery like that from Egypt 138 Divine Authority ground of faith 7 Dialogue of Protestant and Papist 485 Dialogue of Catech. and Consistory 489 Differences dissensions amongst Learned See Scripture Disobedience see Obedience Deucalions flood 50 c. Divels believe how 3 Doctrine Christs doctr tried by Moses his and the Prophets Popes must not be so no not by Christs 428 Belief of Christs Doctrine without triall by Moses c. had been not belief but blindness 429 Christs Doctrine is to Moses his c. as the Conclusion is to the premisses 430 S. Peter proves his doctrine by Moses and the Prophets 453 S. Paul lets his doctrine be examined 456 So doth Christ 428 All doctrine to be tried by scripture 458 Doctrine of Infallibility dangerous to States 499 507 worst of all errors heresies blasphemies ib. in Canonizing Saints dangerous 501 danger from Gods wrath 502 more of the danger of that doctrine 503 This doctrine inverts the Frame of Christian Religion ib. Doubts may arise from extending unduly the meaning of scripture 179 One may in some Case obey or disobey not without doubt yet without sin 180 Every doubt is not sufficient to deny obedience 186 The Text He that doubts c. expounded 179 180 Adam condemned for eating though he doubted not about it 185 One may sin doubting of the Popes or Churches power yet not sin in examining it whilest he doubts says Bell. 313 m. 458 m. 420 Dreams of them in particular 27 c. Wickedness worldliness policie caused defect of Gods warning men by Dreams 29 Bassinas Dream 41 Dreams usual amongst the Patriarchs c. 28 yea to eminent persons and others perhaps that knew not the true God 29 Strabo says Moses taught chastity requisite in those that expected direction from God in Dreams 29 E EDition vulgar part Lucians part S. Jeroms part Theodotions the heretick saies Bellarmine 300 See translation Ecclesiastick writers of the first age why so silent of the wonders of that age 98 99 End he that commends the end commends the necessary means is a rule 420 Eleazar presents a Golden beam to Crassus 66 Emicho wastes the Jews and kils twelve thousand of them 116 Enthusiasme dangerous 150 c. England Jews calamities there 120 c. See Jews Euphrates compounded of Hu prath 56 Evidence excluded from belief 2 Evidence drowns belief 2 Evidence excluded from the thing directly believed not from things united to it 2 Exceptions See objections and universal Experiments of Scripture-truth in our selves how to be found 140 to 145 how to be framed in our selves 144 Experience confirmed S. Peter in the truth of a known Oracle 140 Experiments fruitful and powerful in hearts prepared 142 c. Experiments uneffectual in hearts indisposed why 143 c. Experiments of scripture truth small in our dayes and why so 145 Script as rule of dyet Experiments as nutriment Gods spirit as the digestive 150 c. Experiments confirm faith 408 411 428 433 508 Experience of evil threatned begets hope of good promised 415 F FAbius Ursinus his Oration 50â Fables resembling truths Helicon Bââr Cadmus Moses Scylla Dâlâla Nâobe Lots wâ⦠47 c. 59 Fathers how they used the authority of the Church 243 Faith to beget it in children parents instructions be necessary 411 412 413 Faith confirmed how See experiments Jeremies Faith confirmed by seeing Gods threats fulfilled 416 Gideons Faith confirmed 414 To settle and ripen Faith a rule 421 See rule Christ risen revived his disciples Faith by what Moses and Prophets had foretold of him 449 Not of Faith three meanings of that text or phrase 177 to 184 The universality of it limited 178 See Actions see doubts The doubt and disobeying may be not of Faith as well as the positive action 179 Omission may be not of faith as well as commission 185 Implicate Faith Romish differs from conditional Belief 196 Popish writers make the Church mistress of mâns Faith 197 Roman rule of Faith unsufficient 297 to 305 Of Romish Faith the first main ground ââ¦ds to Atheism second to Heathenism c. 484 c. Resolution of Faith by Valentian 292 464 c. He resolves Faith into the Churches authority not into the first verity 471 472 c. Not into Gods veracity or truth of his word 478 c. Resolution of Faith two fold 472 Foundation what a Foundation the Papists make Christ 356 G GIdeons faith confirmed 414 Gersons caveat to the Pope about Canonizing of Saints 501 Godesaealchus a dutch priest perswades the King of Hungary to kill the Jews 117 Greek letters and inventions taken from the Hebrew 57 Great day of the Lord not to be limited to one day 100 102 Gyants frequent in Moses's daies 35 c. Gyants about mount Vesuvius 101 Gods patience to the Iews a mercy to the Gentiles 80 c. Gods mercy and justice exemplified in the Iews 91 Gods justice and wisdom in the Iews calamity 133 His proceedings against them even to this day most just and most wise ib. Gods favours to Ancient Iews paralleld with the the like to the Gentiles 135 c Gods judgements why not so signal now as in former times 137 Gods providence in the reformation from Popery remarkable 138 c Gods providence how little observed 143 c Gods providence in making the Papists to acknowledge the Apocalyps for Canonical 148 Gods providence in preserving clauses of scripture 149 Gods Spirit not to be discerned but by his fruits 150 H HAnnahs faith confirmed by experiment 142 c Of Hannah more 143 Harmony of sacred Writers 17 c Henry 3. cruel to the Iews 123 Henry 8. by prosopopaeia brought in 372 Heathen objections against the Iews all prevented by Iewish Writers 78 c Hereticks urge scripture 235
Light For the like reasons were the Scriptures to the Jews as to our Forefathers they had for a long time been as a sealed Book See chap. 13. parag 3 4 5. a Lib. 1. cap. 34. â Thus muâ⦠ãâã gâ⦠eth de ãâã Theol. â⦠cap â⦠ãâã Ad â⦠omnes ãâã ãâã the docââruââ â⦠adâò anâcli âââloâum mihi aâârueât oppoââââ ãâã quod ãâã de tenâ⦠mâa labâfaâtareâur ãâã âa Paulâ Apoââoli ââ¦iptom illud Licet nos ânt Angelus c. Gal ââ v. 8. Cââsequently heâeunto he proveth the last Resolution of Faith not to be into the Vââaâââ or Infallibility of the Church taxing Scoââs Gabriâl and Durâââ as the margin telleth us But his â⦠gââ¦d against all saââh as male the Churches ââ¦lity the Rule of â⦠shall be âhewed God â⦠Lib. â Sect. â See l. 2. Cap. 10. The First Breach beâwixt us The Second * Our Agreement concerning the Necessity of Ministerial Function for the planting of Faith The points of Difference betwixt us about the Prerâgative of Pastors and the mannes of their begâttiâg Faith in others Other ââ¦âchcs of the for ãâã Diâferences ãâã Romaââ¦s ãâã Our Churches Assertions cântradictory to the fââmer * The sâst âââtremitie held by the Papisââ â The second held by the Anti-papists * Rom. 13. â Luke 10. 16. â Joh. ãâã 23. Vâdââ¦lâ 1 cap. 12. â 1 Pet. 5. 2 3. â Acts 20. 28 29. * 1 Pet. 5. 5. â â Peâ⦠Pure ãâã Mâââ * The Rule of private Resolutions in matters apprehended as meerly Evil In what Case some matters apprehended as meerly evil may be undertaken with less danger then others which are partly apprehended as Evil partly as Good The chief point of Difficults ââ¦ing the ãâã of Obedience * Abraham non solum non est culpatus crudelitatis crimine verum etiam laudabus est nomine pietatis quod voluit filium nequaquam sceleratè sed obedienter occidere Aug. de civit Dei lib. 1. Cap. 21. Spontaneus metus execrabils Deo jubente Landabilis Aug. contra Faust Man l. 22. c. 73. â Abrahams Obedience made that Action which without it had been worse then Murther to be better then Sacrifice How far the former Instance serveth to infer the Conclusion proposed * Some Obedience may after that evil which appears in some Actions because any Obedience though in the lowest degree doth make Actions which without it were indifferent to be truly good To give precise Rules what Actions may of evil become good by Obedience is very difficult â A certain Rule when Authority may be disâeyed without whole of ãâã ãâã is alwaâes more ãâã then Saâe Aâis 4. 19. â In viâiâm ducit culpae âuga si caret arâe As we may not do evil that good may ensue so may we not omit any good lest evil might happen thereon and yet Obedience by all mens consent is good Thus from an unnecessary fear of the former men fall into the later which is but a Siyler Sin by denying Obedience which in it self is good for fear lest they should give occasion of evil â Thus much S. Aust in taketh as granted by all For he bringeth in these words following to infer a Conclusion denied by his Adversary Vir justus si fortè sub rege homine etiam sacrilego militet rectè potest illo jubente bellare civicae pacis ordinâm servaÌs Cui quod jubetur vel non esse contra Dei praecepâum cârtum est vel utrum sit certum non est ita ut forrasse term regem faciat iniquitas imperandi innocentem autem militem ostendat ordo serviendi Aug. l. 22. contra Faustum Manichâ⦠cap. 75. * What hath been spoken of Authority in general applied to Spiritual Authority * Rom. 14. 23. * Three divers Meanings of this phrase not of Faith The first Meaning The second Meaning * â The effects of such Scrupulosities as our Apostles Rule universally understood would necessarily breed are contrary to the Analogic of Faith â Deniall of Obedience upon Scruple yea even the scruple or doubt it self may be not of Faith as well as the positive Action of whose Lawfulnesse they doubt whence the Objection which many draw from the Apostles Rule is most forcible against themselves * Verse ãâã See 1 Cor. 8. ãâ¦ã Râm 14. 15. 1 ãâã 8. 13. 1 ãâã 9. 15. * 2 ãâã 6. 21 22 23 24 c. â * Acts 10. 13. â This Phrase includeth a Contrariery âr Opposition unto Faith as ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and many like Phrases as usual in the Hebrew Dialect as the ãâã compounds immitis immisericors c â The former Interpretation necessarily followeth from Grounds of Divinitie acknowledged by all a How Sââuples or Douât of what â⦠conâur to ãâã âur Aâ⦠Sinful b As when the Evil ãâã is greater thân any Gââd that can be ââped * Malum non malâ Hoc itaque de uno ãâã genere non edendo ubi a liorum tanâa copia subjâcebaâ âam leve praecepâuÌ ad observanduÌ tam ãâã ad memoria ââ¦nendum ââi pâ⦠nondum voluntaâi câpidâtas resiste âat quod de poena traâsgressionis postea subsecuâuÌ est tanto majore injustiâa violaâuÌ est qâ⦠saciliââe possit obsâ⦠ãâã Aug. de âiv Dei lib. 14. cap. 12. * This is a Point which I am âeâswadâd ãâã have ãâ¦ã then had been ãâã as not considering that our Apostles Rule might be violated as well by the Omission of some Actions ãâã by the ãâã of others or that the same Offence might be given to weak and tender Consciences by emboldning them to deây â⦠ãâã was given in our Apostles time by emboldning them to eat of things suspected for unlawful Nor can we dâubt bââ many iâ ãâã time have made Scruple of matters injoyned by lawful Authority only from the Example of others whom they â⦠* * Hard to determin what Degrees of fear lost we should âyobeyng ans Law â⦠boy Gods I aâât immediately ought â⦠ill fear of disobeying Mans Laws whose Authority in general is from Gods â Sometimes by disobeying Man 's In unctious we may dâ⦠Gods Laws both meâ⦠and immediately That the Goodnesse of Obedience by our Apostles Rule whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin ought to move men unto such conditional Assent and Obedience unto their Pastors as hath been mentioned â * Four Points to be considered for the rectifying or right framing of our Assent unto Truths proposed â 2 Cor. 4. 2. â 2 Cor. 2 17. What ãâã Faith is * A Speech well beseeming the servants of the great Whore That the Faith of modern Papists cannot be resolved into the Scriptures or the first Truth * In what Sense the Scriptures may be said the Rule of mens Faith altogether illiterate ãâã scriptu The Prerogative of Scriptures in respect of Faith above all other Rules in respect of Arts or Sciences * Dan. 9. 2. â Dan 12. 4. The Question concerning
have used as Josephus Aââsâa complains l. 5. de prââaranda Ind. Salute cap. 7. De sancta vero Ecclesia articulus à vulgaribus catechistis fere omittitur ââusam ãâã ãâã nor quòd in mysteriis Fidei explicandis non tam Symboli Apostolici seriem sequantur quà m usitatam ââ¦ââstâibutionem articulorum fidei in septem ad divinitatem pertinentes toridem ad hââanitatem c. â John ãâã was converted by this Method as he himself expresly witnesseth in his Epistle to his Country-men whom he well hoped to win by his labours in this kind the best use he knew of the Popes Authority was such as is incident to ordinary âagistraââ whether Civil or Ecclesiastick only to constrain the Jews to read his Book as our Laws bind Papists to hear Sermons and for this purpose he intreats the Cardinal unto whom he dedicated his labours to solicite thus much at the Popes hands â⦠ut Ecclesia authoritatem habeat discernendi verba Dei à verbis hominum sensum Dei ab humano sensu non hâ⦠Canus lib. 5. cap. 5. post medium Quod si aliam authoritatem praeter scripturam necesse est esse infallibilem Quae doceat id quod in fide est maximum nempe scripturae ipsius doctrinam esse in universum divinam profecto est insania sane editions have insamia but falsly as I think non credere illam ipsam authoritatem infallibiliter item docere quâ ãâã sântântia ãâã jusmodi divinae doctrinae Valentianus loco saepius citato paragrapho 5. * John 5. 44. Joh. 7. 12 verse 17. John 7. 22. Deut. 1. v. 16 17. Joh. 5. ver 41. * Qui ficti potest ut quae doctrina tam ãâã ab hominibus adulteratur ut in pattâ⦠in ominum eâ rorum advaâ⦠eadem siâ accâmmodaâissnia apposiâssiââque reââ¦a ad âeijcââ dum omnes omnino ãâã Non maris hoc ãâã stare potest quaÌ si quis diceret illud esse accommodatissimum remedââm ad ãâã vidân sum ex quo accideret omnes cacutire quicunque âiârent caci Valentian loco âaepius citat pâragr 6. â Non est mitum si Pelagi ani dicta nostra in sensus quos volunt deâoâquere conantur quando de Scriptur is sanctis non ubi obscure aliquid dictum est sed ubi clara aporta sunt testimonia id sacere conâuâ verunt more quidem ââ¦run etiam ââ¦tum Augustin li. 2. de Nupt. concupise cap 31. This was the place which Valentian as waâ⦠in the ââ¦ter of this ãâã ãâã prove the Insufficiency of Scriptures for composing Controversies would have observed The Reader I doubt not will â⦠shaâe ââ¦th or ââth that either could not or would not see hoâ easily these men would have wrested the Trent Council â⦠Rule they can imagine ãâã restraining such evident perversnesse we acknowledge the necessity of a lawfull Magistratie â⦠in this or like doth to way argue an absolute Infallibility in determining all Cases of Controversies * Gal. 5. 26. â 1 Pet. 2. 12. â Rom. 12. 2. â And good reason the poorest Creature living should tender the eternal Welfare of his Soul as much as the Pope doth the transitory health of his Body â Vide lib. 1. cap. 10. par 2. * The Popes drift in permitting his âaitie to lock into the Holy Scriptures and behold the Majesty of God speaking in them a matter heretofore held as dangerous for them as for the Israelites in time past to have approached the Holy Mount is just like the Devils in carrying our Saviour into a high Mountain to shew him all the Kingâ⦠of the earth and the glory of them The condition annexed to the Popes Donative is the self same with that the Devil adâed ãâã his profer All these will I give unto thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me For none may enjoy Scriptures but with double acknowledgement of absolute Homage unto the Pope as the sole and supreme Judge of all Controversies concerning them ãâã whom all Right unto the Means of their Salvation must be derived Which kind of Worship is altogether as deââgâuory to Gods ââ¦as that which Sathan demanded of our Saviour or any other Idolatry that is or hath been as shall God willing hereâ⦠appear â * Gal 1 v 8. From this place Valentian after his ãâã manner would force an Argument to prove the necessity of a perpetuall infallible Authority to denounce viva voce the like Anathema's against Hereticks Whereas S. Pauls words if we consider all Circumstances do exclude any such infallible Authority or Judge of his Meaning or other Scripture by which he supposed all other Doctrines should be examined And as a learned Papist well observes upon these words of S. Paul to Timothy The scriptures are able to make thee wise unto salvation 2 Tim. 3. 15. The Scriptures which he had learned to wit the Old Testament might perform the same to him in his absence which S. Paul had done in his presence as he saith sine schola Simonis as we may adde ââ¦ne schola Papae without the Popes cursing or blessing Vide Sasbout in 2. ad Timoth. cap. 3. That there is no danger can come by reading Scriptures for which the scriptures have not present remedy * Rom. 12. 3. a 1 ãâã 2. 1. b Gal. ãâã ãâã c ãâã ãâã 16. 4. 5. d Wherein our Adversaries Proofs come short of what they aim at * Partiality either unto our own or others Opinion is the only cause of Contention amongst men and Dissention from the Truth even amongst such as a knowledge the Scripture for their Rule of Faith for it is one thing to say they make it another indeed to make it or use it as the Rule of Faith in their Practise or Course of Life Whence our Adversaries Objections drawn ãâã Contentions amongst reformed Churches are easily answered For these are not occasioned by relying upon the Scripture but because sundry in reformed Churches do in Deed as the Papists both in Deed and Word disclaim it for the Rule of Faith Wherein their Conclusions over-reach â These Seducing Spirits hopes were not so desperate as to make them leave their womed trade even in Saint Cyprians time Spiritus insinceri vagi qui postea quam terrenis vitiis immersi sunt à vigore coelesti terreno contagio recesserunt ãâã desmunt perditi perdere depravati errorem pravitatis insundere Hoâ poetae daemonas vocant Socrates inâ⦠se regi ad arbitrium damonis predicabat Hi ergo spiritus sub statuis atque imaginibus consecratis delite ãâã Hâ ãâã suo vatum pectora inspirant extorum fibras animant avium volatus gubernant sortes regunt oracula efficituâ salsa veris semper involvunt nam fallentur fallunt vitam turbant ãâã inquietant ãâã quod Idola Diâââosunt Thus he spake of his own experience as he adds nec aliud his ârudium est
whether the Pope alone speaking ex Cathedra be the Church for that he was to dispute of afterwards and he and all his fellows do and must acknowledge it as shall in due place be shewed That in this place he grants the communication of that Spirit by which the Scriptures were written unto private men doth not argue any agreement with us but rather his disagreement from sâme of Eis own profession who urge the necessity of the Churches Proposal so much and so far that not Gods Prophets or others to whom his Word was ââ¦dinarily revealed could without it be certain Vide Bellar. lib. 3. de justif cap. 3. * The Papists Assertions whence the proposed Conclusion is gathered â⦠The general Points of Difficultie how either the Church can ascertain the Divine Truth of Scripture unto us or the Scripture the Churches infallible Authority â â John 16. 7. ¶ Verse 12. * ãâã Valenâ⦠cap. 22. Valentians attempted Evasion out of the inchanted Circle of Roman Faith resuted * Ut breviter quae susius disputata sunt de resolutione fidei colligamus placet modum tradere quo quis de fide inteârogatus debeat respondere Igitur siquis rogetur v. g Quare credat Deum esse trinum unum distinguat utrum viz. firmiter infallibiliter id credat vel de causa ob quam acceptaverat eam fidem Si primum respondeat qui a Deus revelavit Si rursus interrogetur unde cognoscat Deum revelasse respondeat se quidem non nosse id clare credere tamen eadem side infallibiliter id quidem non ob aliam revelationem bene tamen ob infallibilem propositionem Ecclesiae tanquam ob conditionem ad id credendum requisitam Si rursus unde cognoscat propositionem Ecclesiae esse infallibilem similiter dicat se claââ non nosse credere tamen fide infallibili ob revelationem Scripturae testimonium perhibentis Ecclesiae cui revelationi non credit ob aliam revelationem sed ob seipsam quamvis ad hoc ipsum opus sit Ecclesiae propositione ut conditione requisita Valent. tom 3. in Aquinat Disp 1. quaest 1. punct 1. Sect. 10. â Neque in sic respondeÌdo erit aliquis vitiosus circulus Tum quia reveâatio propter quam dicitur credi infallibilitas propositianis propasitio ob quam dicitur credi revelatio non habent unum idem objectum sed aliud aliud Objectum n. propositionis est ipsa revelatio objection autem revelationis est ipsa veââ¦redita ut Deum esse trinum unum aut propositionem Ecclesiae esse infallibilem Tum quia cum ex revelatione redditur ratio credendi propositionem reditur per causam revelatio enim est causa assensus fidei cum autem ex propositione Ecclesiae redditur ratio credendi revelationem ratio redditur non per causum credendi sed per conditionem ad id requisitam ita vitatur vitiasus circulus solum reditur ratio connexotum vicissim ex ipsismet connexis sub diversatione id quod omnino licet Valent. ibid. * In matters of Knowledge or Belief Reason and Curse are Synonymal and every Cause in ãâã goes before the Effect And even when we demonstrate the Cause by its proper Effect the Effect must needs be first known to us seeing it is the reason or Cause of our knowing the Cause though no Cause of the real Cause it self â Sacrobosous intangled in the former circle and caught in his own share â Sed quaeris num quando quis credit ali quid propter authoritatem Ecclesiae necessariaÌ sit priâââ¦pore vel saltem natura formaliter explicite credat ipsam Ecclesiam esse infallibilis authoritatis quemadmodum ãâã ãâã conclusion propter Praâ⦠necesse est ut prius assentiamur ipsis praemistis Respondeo id minime ãâã ââ¦rium nam actus fidei ferâ⦠in suem objectum modo simplici ut visus in suum itaque sicut visus per spe ãâã albi v. g vider album non videndo ipsam speciem sic potest quis per Ecclesiae authoritatem credere ita ut ãâã prius formaliter explicite credat Ecclesiae Authoritatem Christophorus à Sacrobosco Dubliniensis è Societ Jesu ãâã 128 139. A good examiner may know this fellow to be a Jesuite by his Answer so full stuft with mental Reservations ãâã Evasions and ambiguities First he will not resolve us whether men ordinarily must Believe the Church before Scriptures ãâã a man may Believe the Scriptures although he do not first Believe the Church explicitè or formally And in the very next ãâã be impertinently adds that Believing the Scriptures we cannot but implicite and vertually Believe the Church Which ar ãâã that the Scriptures must be Believed before the Church But say we could not Believe the one but âe must upon equal termes ãâã the other this proves that neither could be any infallible or effectual Means of Believing the other For there is no man â⦠twice 4 make 8 but knows as well twice 2 make 4 yet is neither a Means of knowing the other for both are immediately ãâã of themselves This shews the impertinency of their Answer that matter they know not what as if the knowledge of points of ãâã did resemble habitum principiorum rather then habitum conclusionis If so they do then cannot the Churches Infal ãâã being by their Positions a point of Faith be any Means of knowing the Scriptures to be Drvine which is a main point of faith * This ãâã of his doth very well illustrate our former â⦠Chapâ 12 concerning the Use of an ordinary â⦠And the Visible Church may â⦠the shapes and resemâ⦠are called visible being indeed by naâ⦠and are visible only by external demonstratââ⦠as much as they present colours to ãâã sight â⦠visible Were they really visible being received into our eyes they would hinder â⦠of all colours so doth this admission of a real â⦠in the Church exclude all infallible Belief of â⦠* Jisdem serè argumeÌtis efficitur neque solam traditioneÌ viâ⦠vocis eorum qui olim vita desuncti sunt esse judicem sufficientem fidei quae valeat per ãâã fine alia aliqua insallibili ac praeââ¦te authoritate omnes oââ¦ino definite fidei quaeâ⦠Nam ãâã ãâã sicut de an thoritate iâsius ãâã neceâ⦠ãâã per aliquam aliâ⦠au hâritatem conâ⦠iââ etiam ãâã authâ⦠traditionis siâ⦠quoâ revocetur in dubium Non enim traditio loquitur etiam ipsa clarè perspicuè de sese ut neque ipsa scriptura Deinde cum traditio scriptis ferè doctorum orthodoxorum in Ecclesia conservetur quaestiones ac dubia moveri possunt de ãâã illius sicut dubitatur saepe de sensu mente doctorum Valentianus Tom. 3. Disp 1. quaest 1. de objecto sidei punct 7. Sect. 12. * The politick Sophisines of the Papists in their Councels
ãâã and Valenrian hath use the like speeches The Romish rack of conscience Lest they might in any doubt go against their conscience they are taught to Believe That whatsoever the Pope shall command is good and cannot hurt the Conscience See the next Annotation out of Bellaââ¦in * Respoundeo verbum Ecclesiae id est Conciliâ vel Pontificis docentis ex Cathedia non esse omnino verbum hominis id est verbum errori obnoxium sed aliquo modo verbum Dei id est prolatum gubeânante assistente spiritu sancto imo dico Haereticos esse qui revera nitantur baculo arundineo Sciendum est enim propositionem fidei concludi tali Syllogismo Quicquid Deus revelavit in Scripturis est verum hoc Deus revelavit in Scripturis ergo hoc est verum Ex propositionibus hujus Syllogismi prima certa est apud omnes secunda apud Catholicos est etiam ââ¦ima nititur enim testimonio Ecclesiae Concilij vel Pontificis de quibus habemus in Scripturis apertas promissiones ââod errare non possint Actorum 15. Visum est Spiritui Sancto nobis Et Luc. 22. Rogavi pro te ut non deficiat fides ãâã At apud Haereticos nititur solis conjecturis vel judicio proprij spiritus qui plerumque videtur bonus est malus Et cum conclusio sequatur debiliorem partem sit necessariò ut tota fides Haereticoâum sit conjecturalis incerta Bellar ãâã ãâã Dei interpret lib. 3. cap. 10. resp ad 15. arg a Bellarmins Catholick Syllogisine wherein all Conclusions of Faith must be gathered â Acts 15. ver 28. â Luke 22. ver 32. â Cap. 1. The ãâã ââ¦ulty in then opinion whence our our former conclusion may be deduced * Sâ volunt Pontishcem in rebus alioqui omnino controversis id est non satis expresse in Ecclesia compertis ac determinatis definite posse ut personam publicam errorem re ipsa contra fidem erraut ipsi in side gravissimè Posset enim into teneretur tunc Ecclesia universa Pontificem de re controversa docentem ac nondum haeresi manifestè notatum pro Pastore suo agnolcere atque adeo ipsum omnino audite ãâã sieret ut si tunc errare possit Ecclesia etiam universa possit immo teneretur erraâe Valeitiam Tem. 3. de object Fid. Disp 1. Quaest 1. Puâct ãâã Paragraph 41. Bellarmin from the same grounds Collects that the Pope cannot err in matters of manners â Vide Librum 2. Cap. 30. Paragraph 14. Nam sides Catholica docet omnem virtutem esse bonam omne vitium esse malum si autem Papa erraâet pracipiendo vitia vel prohibendo virtutes teneretur Fedesia credere vitia essa bona ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã virtutes malas nisi vellet contra conscientiam peccare Tenetur enim ââ¦bus dubiis Ecclesia acquiescerè judicio sumâ⦠sacere quod ille praecipit non sacere quod ille prohibet ac ne forte contra conscientiam â⦠bonum esse quod ille praecipit ãâã quod ille prohibet Bellarmin Lib. 4. de Roman Pâ⦠Cap. 5. Wherein the Papists make the Popes authority greater then Gods Jâ⦠39. ãâã âhâs 5. 21 1 Jâhn 4. 1. The grosse impiety of the Romish Church in binding men to believe negatives without any tolerable exposition of those Scriptures which seem to contradict her decrees in matters damnable to adventure upon without Evidence of truth on her part â⦠whereâ⦠mens â⦠fâr â⦠with ãâã ââ¦damnable because contrary to the Doctrine of Faith And yet to enforce a Belief upon our selves that Christ ãâã there present without warrant of Scripture is more damnable for this were to affect ignorance for cloaking Idolatry See l. 2. ãâã 7. * Vasquez in part 3. Thomae Tom. 1 Disput â⦠Cap. 5. Num. 33. Tom. 2. disp 209. cap. 4. Num. 41. â The known Experiments of such Creatures arising from corruption of their consecrated Hoast have enforced the School-men to invent new Miracles how they should come there Some think per creationem novae materiae primae others that the quantity of the late deceased consecrated hoast Supplet locum materiae primae which as Pererius thinks is the greatest of all the nine miracles about Transubstantiation See Pererius disput 16. in 6. Chap. John Suarez Metaphys Disput 20. Sect 5. Num. 13. § Siquis dixerit in sancto Eucharistiae Sacramento Christum unigenitum Dei filium non esse cultu â⦠externo adorandum atque ideo nec ãâã peculiari Celebritate venerandum neque in processionibus â⦠laudabilem universalem Ecclesiae sanctae ritum consuetudinem solemniter circumgestandum vel non pubâ⦠populo proponendum ãâã adoratores esse Idololatias Anathemâ sit Concil Tâ⦠Sess 13. Can. 6. â⦠decree of the Trent Councel for communicating in one kind against the expresse Commandment of Christ the practise â⦠and the Primitive Church â Sâ⦠21. cap. 2. â â⦠autem sub Aâ⦠secta vivenâââ quia â⦠st ut ad ãâã ãâã vâ⦠dâ alio ãâã Reges comâ⦠de alio populus âiâor vârenâm in calice illo posâit de quo â⦠communicatura erat Quo illa ãâã â⦠de parte Diaboli Quid cântraâ aâ⦠Haeretici respondebunt â⦠Nos vero Trinitatem in una aequalitate paâiter omnipotentia â⦠biâ ãâã in nomine Patris Filij Spiritus Sancti veri incorruptibilis Dei nihil nos nocââiâ Greg. Tuâân Hist Lab. ãâã Num. 31. * Concil ãâã Sâââ 21. Cap. 1. Itaque sancta ipsa Synodus ãâã Spiritus Sanctâ⦠qui spiritus est sapientiâ⦠intellectus spiritus ãâã pictatis edocta atque ipsius Ecclesiae judicium coâsuâtudinem secuta declarat ac docet Nullo divino praecepto Laicos Clericos non conficientes obligati ad Euchaâ⦠entum sub utraque specie sumendum neque ullo pactò salva fide dubitari posse quin illis alterius ãâã â⦠ad â⦠ad salutem sufficiat Nam etsi Christus Dominus in ultima caena venerabile hoc Sacramentum in panis vici speciebus instituit Apostolis tradidit non tamen illa institutio traditio eò tendunt ut omnes Christi fideles statuâo ãâã ad utâââ que speciem accipiendam astringantur Sed neque ex sermone illo apud Johan 6. recte colligitur utriâ⦠Domino praeceptum esse utcunque juxta varias sanctorum Patrum Doctorum interpretationes Nan que qui dixit Nisi manducaveritis carnem âilij hominis biberitis ejus sanguinem non habebiâââ ãâã ân vobis dixit quoque Siquis manducaverit ex hoc pane vivet in aeternum Et qui dixit Qui manducat ââam â⦠habet vitam aeternam dixit etiam Panis quem ego dabo âaro mea est proâ⦠Qui manducat meam carnem bibit meum sanguinem in me maner ego in illo dixit ââ¦
our assent or belief strengthned Now it is evident to reason that God is infinitely wise and therefore cannot be deceived whence necessarily it followeth that he knoweth and can tell us the truth Again it is evident that God is most just and true and therefore will not deceive us but will tell us the truth if he professe so Again we cannot conceive of God aright but we must conceive of him as omnipotent and full of power and consequently such an one as needs not in policie or jealousie of our emulating him in knowledge to tell us otherwise then he knows And therefore Aristotle reprehends the Poets for saying that the Gods did envie Men knowledge His resolution is in English to this effect That Poets should the Gods belie More like than Gods should Men envie 3 And if the Heathen were of opinion that the Gods did not envie Men knowledge then must they needs believe that if they taught them any they would teach them true knowledge Wherefore this must be laid down as a certain ground That whatsoever God teacheth us is most true Nor is there any admitting there were a God but would assent unto this But here is the difficultie How can we be assured that God doth teach us any of these things Or how shall we know that this we call Scripture is the Word of God If our apprehension of this ground be sure our faith is firm and absolute if our apprehension hereof be doubtful our faith must needs be unstable or at the best but conditional 4 Let us first therefore look what this conditional assent or belief doth binde us unto Although many that firmly beleeve whatsoever God saith is true either do not acknowledge or do not firmly believe that these Scriptures are the Word of God yet thus much in all sense and reason any natural man will grant there be great presumptions and probabilities why they should be taken for the Word of God And he that doth acknowledge but thus much doth by this acknowledgement binde himself to reverence them above all humane writings For all men naturally know that if they be Gods Word they are worthie all possible reverence Wherefore if a man suppose it only as probable that they are or know nothing to the contrarie why they may not be Gods Word he is bound to reverence and esteem them above all words or writings of man As for example If any Subject in this land should receive Letters concerning some lawful and indifferent request from any other his equal or fellow subject whom he had great reason well to respect suppose he certainly knew that they were such a mans Letters and no counterfeit yet if he should receive Letters in his Majesties name containing the same or other as reasonable request although he knew not so certainly that these were his Majesties Letters as that the others were some well-respected Subjects yet is he in dutie bound to use them with greater respect and reverence than the former The bare presumption and probabilitie that they were the Kings Letters doth binde him to enquire further whether they were his Letters or no nor were his fault excusable if he should shew any signe of disloyaltie or irreverence towards them until he knew that they were not such as their Title or superscription did import 5 He that hath but the same probabilitie that the Scriptures contain in them Gods own words as that Livie his Histories contain the Roman affairs must needs esteem of them infinitely above all humane works And This fruit hypothetical or supposed Belief may bring forth even in the unregenerate or natural man And what hath been said of reverence to the Scriptures upon this supposal is also most true of mans actions If men do but believe it as probable that the Scriptures are the Word of God this belief will procure many good moral actions and much amendment of life though not such spiritual perfection as God in his Word requireth And the reason of this assertion is evident For we see daily that men undertake actions of great difficultie and danger not so much according to the probabilitie of attaining some good as according to the greatness of that good which possibly may be attained So we see many that might live in ease at home with certaintie of moderate gains to undertake voyages to the West or East Indies only upon this resolution That if it be their luck or lot to be rich there they may have enough although the adventure be subject to great dangers and obnoxious to infinite casualties And many there be that will not usually lay out a penny but upon very fair ground of some gain or saving thrift who yet will be well content to venture a Crown or an Angel in a Lotterie where there may be some possibilitie though no probabilitie of obtaining twentie or thirtie pounds These and infinite other examples obvious to dailie experience may serve as a perfect induction of our general assertion That the meer possibilitie of obtaining some great and extraordinary good is of greater moment in sââying ââ¦ctions then certainty of accomplishing pettie desires or greatest probabilities of purchasing ordinarie commodities or delights To deduce then out of this general the particular we intended In the Scripture are promised to all such as love God and do his will far greater blessings then humane knowledge could ever have conceived The like is true in avoiding dangers â⦠undertake matters of more difficultie and charges to prevent ãâã ãâã mischances which may insue then they would do to escape some imminent but ordinarie danger or to release themselves from some smaller harms that alreadie have befallen them Could men consider these things seriously and account of them but as probable what is there in this life which in any reason they should not venture for the obtaining of so great a good Were men but probably perswaded that there were as the Scriptures and the Articles of our Belief tell us a life everlasting full laden with all the fruits of true life joy peace and all choisest pleasures without any annoyance how could they not be most readie and willing to spend this whole transitorie life whose dayes are but few and most of them evil full fraught with grief and distress in the service of God who would thus reward them Yea how could they not be desirous to lay down this life it self upon hope of obtaining such a life For this life compared to that to come hath not the proportion of a Farthing to whole Millions of Gold or all the treasures in this World Nor is the case herein like unto that of adventures or Lotterie where a man may venture his life or goods if he list but if he do not none calleth him to an account for not doing it But in the Scriptures everlasting torments grief and perpetual horror are threatned to all such as frame not their lives according to Gods will in them revealed
CHAP. III. Of general incitements to search the truth of Scriptures or Christian belief 1 WE may hence clearly see how inexcusable even in the judgement of flesh and blood all men are that either by hearing or reading have any accesse unto the Gospel and do not use the best endeavours of their natural wit if God as yet have touched their hearts with no better grace to search out the truth thereof For seeing in the Scriptures are proposed to every mans choice everlasting life or everlasting death what extream madness is it for men to enter into any course of life or to undertake any matter of moment which may exact their chief imployments before they have diligently looked to the main chance before they have tried the utmost of their wits and others best advise to know the tenour of their own estate We see daily what great pains men of no small account do take in the studie of Alchymie spending their spirits and most of their substance in trying conclusions and searching out the truth of those things for which they have but weak grounds of Philosophie or reason onely the conceit of the good they aim at which is rather possible then probable for them to attain inforceth a kinde of hope and encourageth them to go forward 2 To speak nothing of the good the Scripture promiseth the very conceit of eternal death me thinks should move either the Chymicks which spend much gold only upon hope of getting more or any other man whatsoever to spend all the treasure whatsoever either this their Art or all other could yeeld to secure themselves from such horrible torments as the Scriptures threaten to their Contemners or negligent Hearers And why should not all men then in reason bestow most time and pains in searching the truth of those things which concern their souls estate whose securitie in all reason they should purchase with the highest hopes and utmost aim of all other travails in this life Here then as I said the full height of mans Iniquity and his inexcusable Madness is most plainly discovered that having these two motives which in natural reason do sway all Humane Actions offering themselves to encourage him in searching the Scriptures yet notwithstanding most men bestow less labor in them then in other ordinary Studies First if we compare the good they set before us as a recompence and reward of our travails it is beyond all comparison greater then the scope of any other Trade or Science For here is a double Infinity of solid Good First they promise Joy two wayes Infinite both in Degree and Continuance Secondly they threaten unto their Contemners despisers death torments doubly infinite both in Degree and Continuance Now if the probabilities of the truth of Scriptures were far less than is usually found in other studies or Humane hopes yet could this in Humane reason be no reason why we should labour less in them than in other affairs seeing the incomparable excess of the good they promise doth abundantly recompence this But if the Probability of the truth of Scripture be in natural reason equal to the probabilities which men usually take for their grounds in many greatest attempts then certainly not to bestow as great pains and travail in trying the truth of their promises as in any other Human attempts or affairs doth argue infinite Madness Ask we the Chymick what reason he hath to toil so much in the study of Paracelsus or other intricate Writers of his Faculty the like we may say of any Physitians their answer as you may reade in their writings is this Many Philosophers in former ages have laboured much in this study and have set down good rules of their experiments who as is probable would never have taken such pains upon no ground And verily this tradition or the authority they give to their Writers is their chief motive For I think few of their Ancient Authors have bequeathed to their successors any Gold made by this Art thereby to encourage them If then tradition consent of time or approbation of Authors or relation of experiments be an especial inducement for men to adventure their charge pains and travel in this Faculty as in all other affairs without all controversie the Scriptures in all these motives have an especial Prerogative above all other faculties or sciences albeit humane reason were admitted judge For the Authority of Gods Church is far more general then the consent of any Writers in any one faculty whatsoever The consent of time likewise is greater For no Age since Christs time in these civil parts of the World but by the report of other Writers as well as Christians hath yeelded obedience unto Scriptures as the Word of God Men of most excellent spirits and learning in every Age have addicted their studies unto this truth About the time of our Saviours coming Curious Arts and other civil disciplines did most flourish The Grecians sought after Wisdom and secular Philosophy with the like the Romans after Policy State knowledge and discipline of war all the World almost above others those places wherein Christianity was first planted was then set upon Curious Arts yet we see how the study and search of Scriptures in short time did prove as Aarons Rod amongst the Magitians Serpents It hath devoured all and brought them to acknowledge Allegiance unto it using the help of best secular Arts as it were Nutriment for the growth of Christianity and expelling the rest as Excrements out of the Church Nor can the Atheist name any Age wherein the Heathen had an Oliver to oppugn our profession but we had a Rowland to defend it If they had a Porphyrie or Celsus to oppose Philosophy against it we had an Origen a Man by their own confession of the most rare wit and hope for Philosophy then living to forsake Philosophy and follow Christianity It was not despair which made him and many other excellent Scholars Christians but the sure hope which they found in this profession made them contemn all other hopes and cleave to it with their hearts and souls albeit their souls should for so doing be violently separated from their bodies This trial I am perswaded few of their greatest Philosophers would have endured but they had the Potentates of the World as readie to applaud them as to disgrace the Christians and yet the Christians multiplyed as the Israelites did by oppression in Egypt How resolute they were if we may not be believed bearing witness of our own profession let Pliny testifie in whose judgement Constancie and Resolution was the onely crime in our Profession deserving punishment And for this cause he took want of resolution in such as had been accused before him under the name of Christians as a sufficient Argument that they were not Christians in deed or heart For such as he had been enformed could not be inforced to any such idolatrous practise as he perswaded these men unto
concerning this Point That happily may be yet Objected which hath alwayes bred greatest Scruple for yeelding Obedience in doubtfull Cases For our Apostle saith Whatsoever is not of faith is sin But whilest men Obey Spiritual Governours in those particulars for which they shew no Scripture This Obedience is not of faith for Faith is alwayes Ruled by the Word Ergo this Obedience is sinfull even in this respect alone that it hath not the Word for its Warrant but much more if we doubt whether the things enjoyned be Good or Bad for Doubting breeds Condemnation as our Apostle in the same place gathereth He that Doubteth is condemned if he eat because he eateth not of faith 2 Unto the former part of this Objection the Answer is easie and brief Seeing Gods Word Commands Obedience in general unto Spiritual Pastors and that in most expresse termes It doth warrant our Obedience in particulars which are not forbidden by the same Word But for clearing of the later Objection because this place of Saint Paul is as often urged to as little purpose as any other in the whole Book of God besides it shall not be amisse to consider First in what Sense it is true Whatsoever is not of faith is sin Secondly what manner of Doâbt it is that makes a thing to be not of faith in that sense which our Apostle means 3 A thing may be said to be of Faith three wayes First strictly and properly That is said to be ex Fide of faith which is an Act or exercise of the Habit or Vertue of faith as to beleeve in God in Christ or to Assent unto any Article in the Creed In this Sense no man I think doth urge this place of our Apostle Whatsoever is not of faith is sin For then all Deeds of Charity should be sinfull seeing they are no Acts or exercises of the Habit of Faith but of Charity which is a distinct Habit from Faith according to best Divines nor can we properly say that such works flow from Faith as the fruit doth from the root seeing Charitie is no branch of faith but a Coaeval stemme of infused sanctifying Grace the common Root to both Such Acts then may be said to be of Faith onely because the Doctrine of Faith enjoyns them and the Habit or Vertue of Faith inclines the Soul unto them and moves Charity unto the exercise of them And this is the second Sense or Meaning of the speech ex fide of faith that is those things are said to be of faith or to proceed from faith which are commanded by the Doctrine of faith or unto which we are inclined or moved by the Habit or Vertue of Faith But neither is it alwayes true Whatsoever is not of faith in this sense is sinne For so no Recreation no Merriment not Eating and Drinking with many other Works both of Reason and Nature generally nothing meerly Indifferent could be truly of faith at the least at this or that Time How then are not all these sinfull seeing they are not of faith in none of the former Senses being neither Acts of Faith nor enjoyned by the Doctrine of Faith This necessarily enforceth us to seek a third Signification of the former words 4 Thirdly then that is said to be not of Faith whatsoever is not warrantable by the Doctrine of faith whatsoever Conscience or the Vertue of faith being consultâ⦠countenance or allow but rather disswade And in this Sense all that may be said to be ex file of faith whatsoever is warrantable by the Doctrine of Faith whatsoever Faith Conscience or the Law of Reason and Nature can approve or allow of either Absolutely or at that Present whilest they are undertaken albeit they do not enjoyn them or impell us unto them at the least for that Season As for example If a man free from necessary Imployments of his Calling should ride half a score of miles to be merry with his honest friend this were neither an act of faith nor an exercise enjoynea by faith and yet truely of faith in our Apostles Sense and no way Sinfull because warrantable by the Doctrine of faith Neither Faith nor Conscience nor Law of Nature would condemn him for so doing But if his dearest Friend lay on his Death-bed and did expect some comfort by his Presence his Absence upon such light Occasions would be sinfull because it could not be of Faith Neither the doctrine of Faith nor the Law of Reason could countenance such an Action Such resolutions may properly be said Not of Faith because they cannot proceed but from some Inclination or disposition opposite to the Habit of true Faith and the dictates of Natural well disposed much more of sanctified Conscience Suppose some mans Conscience were so scrupulous as to doubt whether he might ride so farre to be merrie with his friend when he had no urgent Occasions to withdraw him and another so confident and fully persvvaded in his mind as to make no question whether he should meet his friend in a Plaguie house or when his own Father lay a dying The Question is whether of these two doth sinne the more or if both do not sin whether of them is freed from sin and by what means The former as is supposed doubts of the Action and yet doth it the other doth the like but worse and doubteth not If that Journey which in it self is Lawfull supposing the former Case becomes unlawfull to the one because he doubts it is Unlawfull then may the others confident Perswasion make his expedition Lavvfull unto him although in it self supposing the Case above mentioned it were Unlawfull For who can give any Reason why Confidence of Perswasion may not as well legitimate what otherwise is Unlawfull as Doubt or Scruple illegitimate that which otherwise were Lawfull and Warrantable So that according to these Grounds the former party above mentioned should Sin not the Later And our Apostles Speeches unlesse they admit some restraint will infer thus much I Know and am Perswaded through the Lord Jesus that there is nothing Unclean of it self but unto him that Jâageth ãâã anything to be unclean to him it is unclean And again This man esteemeth one day above another day another man counteth every day alike let every man be fully persuadââ¦d in his Mind as if he added and then there is no danger And yet if we should but consult natural reason who could deny that he that made an idle Journey whereby he might endanger his own or neglect his Fathers life did ân most grievously albeit he were most fully Perswaded to the contrary yea the stronger his Perswasion were the greater his Sin On the contrary he that should undertake the like Journey having no serious Occasions to withdraw him if the Truth be rightly scanned did not Sin at all unlesse perhaps in Doubting whether he Sinned or no. For every Doubt of what we do doth not make our Action sinful
or not of Faith which is now to be discussed 5 If that Speech of our Apostle He that doubteth is condemned if he eat were to be universally understood of all Doubts or all Actions we should never have an End of Doubting nor any Beginning of many good and most necessary Works This very Persuasion were it throughly and generally planted in all mens Hearts were enough to bring all States to utter Anarchie and to set the whole World in combustion For what Enterprise is there of greater moment but divers Men will be of divers Minds concerning the Lawfulnesse or Unlawfulnesse of it Who could not by this Exception excuse himself from performance of necessary Allegeance or Service If the Kings Majestie should wage Warre against the Spaniard he that were addicted to their Religion might reply I should be as willing as another to do my King and Countrey any Service but I Doubt whether I may afford him my goods to the hurt and dammage of Roman Catholicks the Cause I am afraid is most Unlawfull and will bring Gods Plague upon this Land therefore I may not hazard my Life in it nor adventure to shed the innocent bloud of our Holy Mother the Churches Children The like might a Lutheran say if War should fall out betwixt our State and the Saxons or if with some other reformed Churches the like might be said by most in our Land Finally there would be continuall Distraction in the mannaging of all publick Affairs But such scrupulous demurs in Civil Matters are either seldom made or quickly answered by the Temporall Sword And are they lesse dangerous in Cases as little doubtfull wherein the Consequents feared are of no lesse moment when they are given to the chief Mannagers of our spiritual Warfare in times wherein Disobedience threatens dissolution of Christs Armie that must fight his Battels against Sathan and the Man of Sin Is the Authoritie of Binding and Loosing Opening and Shutting the Kingdom of Heaven lesse than the Authority of Life and Death or the disposing Powers of Temporal Goods What should be the Reason then that every Scruple should be held sufficient to denie Obedience in matters of greatest Consequence unto Spiritual more than Temporal Authoritie Out of doubt that Rule of Saint Paul doth no more Warrant the one than the other The true Reason is most men fear Temporal Censures more than either Gods or His an ordinary Goal more than Hell and had rather be Door-keepers in great Mens Houses than glorified Saints in Heaven but of this hereafter To proceed then with our Apostles Rule Were it universally to be understood it would bring all Christian Souls into such perpetual miserable inextricable Perplexities as they should alwayes live in suspence and scarce Resolve upon any thing For his Rule holds as true in the Omission of what should be done as in the Commission of what we think should not be done Suppose then thy Pastor Commands thee to Obey in this or that Particular which he verily thinks either necessary to be undertaken by all Christiane at all or most times or else most Expedient for thy Souls health the setting forth of Gods Glory or the Good of others at this present But thou art contrary-minded and doubtest whether thou mayest do it Lawfully or no. Why because thou hast no Warrant for it out of Scripture or because he brings no necessary Reasons why thou shouldest do it but bare Probabilities which cannot oversway that Doubt which thou hast framed unto thy Conscience But he can shew thee expresse Commandment out of Scripture that thou shouldest Obey Him Thou wilt say in things Lawful only This he avoucheth to be such Thou deniest it He can shew thee again expresse words of Scripture that thou shouldest not be wise in thine own conceit but be willing to learn of thy Pastor Who is the Messenger of the Lord of hostes at whose mouth thou shouldest seek the Law and on whom as our Apostle saith thou dost depend Tell me then first by what Place of Scripture thy Disobedience in this particular can be Warranted How canst thou chuse but Doubt whether thy denial of Obedience be of Faith or no seeing Gods Word Commands thee in general tearms to Obey and no where wils thee to Disobey in this particular Or if thou thinkest thou hast some general Warrant for Disobedience because thou supposest this particular to be Unlawful yet how canst thou but doubt whether thou hast learned the Precepts of Christian Modestie as thou shouldest Whether thou hast learned to deny thy Self and thy Assections whether thou hast learned to reverence thy Pastor as Gods Messenger not taking any offence at his Person Finally whether thou hast abandoned all such delights and desires as usually are the Grounds of false Perswasion and Impediments of sincere Obedience If thou canst not be fully and truly resolved in these then must thou doubt whether thou wilt or no whether thy doubt or scruple it self be of Faith or Conscience or of Humour only And if thou canst not but doubt herein then maist thou assure thy self that thy denial of Obedience is not of Faith and therefore Sinful if the Apostles Rule as thou supposest were universally true that whosoever doth any thing of whose Lawfulnesse he doubts doth Sin because he doth it not of Faith But I dare not deny but that sundry of Christs Flock may sometimes either deny or perform Obedience unto their Pastors not without doubt or scruple whether they should do so or no and yet not Sin in either In performing Obedience they Sin not unlesse the doubt be very great or probable and the Evil which they conceive in the Action Extraordinary Again in denying Obedience they Sin not albeit they doubt whether they should do so or no if the Evil which upon mature deliberation and serious forecast they much suspect be Extraordinary such as cannot be recompensed by the Goodnesse which appears in the Act of Obedience nor in the Fruits of the Action it self which their Pastor proposeth as a Motive to undertake it According to those Grounds must our Apostles speech be limited He that Doubteth is Condemned if he eat because he eateth not of Faith 6 What then Is every man that eateth any thing which he Doubts whether it were better for him not to eat straight Condemned God forbid He that hath such a tender Infants squeamish Conscience as to think thus had need to have a very ancient grave wise and moderate Stomack and it were sit he never came at any Feast or Table furnished with varietie of dishes 7 But for a direct Answer to our Apostles Speech It must be granted â that they of whom he speaks did Sin in eating when they Doubted For if they had been as fully perswaded in their Minds as the Apostle himself and sunchie others of their Brethren were they had not Sinned in eating the self same meat yet for all this they sinned not in
Bellarmine prove that Law was Obscure to him which as he himself confesseth had given Light unto his eyes If it were not why did he pray to God to understand it Then I perceive the Jesuites drift in this present Controversie is to establish a Rule of Faith so easie and infallible as might direct in all the wayes of Truth without Prayer to God or any help from Heaven Such a one it seems they desire as all might understand at the first sight though living as luxuriously as their Popes or minding worldly matters as much as their Cardinals Nili velint nimium esse âaeci unlesse they would as Valentian speaks desire to be Blinde 5 Surely more blind then Beetles must they be that can suffer themselves to be perswaded that ever God or Christ would have a Rule for mans direction in the Mysteries of Salvation so plain and easie as he should not need to be beholden to his Maker and Redeemer for the true and perfect understanding of it This is a Wisdom and Gift which cometh onely from above and must be daily and earnestly sought for at the hands of God who we may rest assured will be alwayes more ready to grant our Petitions herein with lesse changes then the Pope to give his Decisions in a doubtfull Case âad David ask a this Wisdom of him that sate in Moses Chair we might suspect the Pope might be sued unto But Davids God is our God his Lord our Christ our Redeemer and hath spoken more plainly unto us then unto David who yet by his meditations on Gods written Laws added Light to Moses Writings as later Prophets have done to his All which in respect of the Gospels Brightnesse are but as Lights shining in dark places yet even the least conspicuous amongst them Such as will give manifest evidence against us to our eternal Condemnation if we seek this Wisdom from any others then Christs his Prophets and Apostles Doctrine by any other Means or Mediatourship then David did his From Gods Law written by Moses 6 Let us now see what Valentian can say unto the fore-cited Testimonie and to that other like unto it We have also a most sure word of the Prophets to the which ye do well that yee take heed as unto a Light that shineth in a ââ¦k place untill the day dawn and the day-Star ariseth in your hearts It is true saith the Doctor the word of God is a Light and this Light is clear and illuminates the eyes But it must be considered how it comes to enlighten our eyes Do you su pos that it effects this in as much as every man doth comprehend it within the ãâã of his private wit or industry as it were in a little bushell Nothing lesse But â⦠it as it is placed in the Authority of the Catholick Church as in a Candlestick where it may give Light to all that are in the house For we shall shew saith he â⦠place that this Authoritie of the Church is the living Judge and Mistresse of ââ¦th ãâã therefore is it necessary that she should carrie this Light which is contâ⦠Holy Wâit and shew it unto all that associate themselves to her and remain â⦠bosome although they be unlearned men and such as are not able by themselves to behold this Light as it is contained in the Scriptures as in a Lanthorn 7 He that could find in his heart to spend his groat or go a mile to see a Camel dance a Jigge let him but lay his finger on his mouth that he spoil not the Pageant with immoderate laughing and he may without any further cost or pains be partaker of as prettie a Sport to see a grand demure School-Divine laying aside his wonted habit of Metaphysical Proof turned Doctour Similitude on a suddain and swaggering it in the Metaphorical Cut. For what one joynt or strain is there in this long laborious vast Similitude that doth any way encline unto the least semblance of Truth or can be drawn to illustrate any such Meaning as this man intended or any way to break the force of our Writers Arguments drawn from the forecited places For first what Semblance is there between a private mans Interpretation or Comprehension of Scripture-sence and the putting of a Light or Candle under a Bushel For what though some one some few or more such men will apprehend this or that to be the full Meaning of some controversed place in Scripture I am by our Churches Doctrine no more bound to Believe them then I am to Believe the Pope of Rome whom I never saw nor knew I am bound to Believe neither of them more then if they should tell me that the whole Light of that candle which shines alike to all were onely comprehended in their eyes For by our Doctrine I may behold the same Light of Scriptures which they do as freely as they Judge of it by mine own eyes and Sense as well as they not onely submit my Sense and judgement unto theirs But if we should as this âesuite would have us permit the judgement of all Scripture-sence wholly and irrevocably unto the Pope and his Cardinals as if their Consistorie were the compleat Hemisphere or rather the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã sphere the whole sphere wherein this heavenly Lamp doth shine then indeed we should see no more of its Light then we could of a Candle put under a Bushell or locked up in some close Room In which Case we might Believe others that it did shine there still but whether it did so or no we could not Judge by our own eyes And in like manner would this Doctor perswade us that we should judge of this Light of Scriptures onely by the Testimonie or Authoritie of such as see it shine in the Consistorie at Rome not with our own eyes Had the Lord permitted but one grain of good wit to have remained in this Bushel of Bran not Impudencie in grain could without Plushing have offered to accuse our Church for hiding the Light of Scriptures under a Bushell when as we contend the free Use of it should be permitted to the whole Congregation But he disputeth of the Light as Blind men may of Colours He lived at Ingolstade and the Light of Gods Word was at Rome lockt up within the compasse of the Consistorie so that he could not see to make his comparison of it Secondly what Proportion is there between the Churches Authority such Authority as he claims for his Church and a Candlestick Let the Consistory be supposed the Candlestick wherein the word of God doth shine as a Light or Candle Doth it indeed shine there unto whom To all that will associate themselves to that Church Come then let every man exhort his Neighbour to repair to the Mountain of the Lord. Shall we there immediately see the Truth of Scriptures clearly and distinctly with our own eyes because the Pope or Trent-Councel holds out unto us the Books
of Canonical Scripture May private Spirits discern their true Sence in matters of Faith as clearly as if they were a Light indeed to thee Oh no you quite mistake his meaning in making such Collections Let Valentian explicate himself in the end of this fourth Paragraph 8 After the Church hath once gathered any Opinion out of Scriptures and thereupon opposeth the Scripture thus understood by it according to the Apostolical Tradition unto contrary Errours It is extream Impiety and wickedness to desire any more either concerning the Authority or Interpretation of that parcel of Scripture under what Pretence soever of Difficulty Obscurity or the like To that Scripture I pray mark his words wel which is commended and expounded unto us by the Authority of the Church that Scripture now ea jam even for this Reason hoc ipso is most Authentick and shines most splendently mojt clearly like a Light videlicet as we have formerly expounded put upon a Candlestick Nay in good sooth just like a Candlestick put upon a Light or Candle For in this Countrey wherein we live we see the Candlestick by vertue of the Light not the Light by means or vertue of the Candlestick And yet if your Church be the Candlestick as you suppose and the Scripture the Light as you expresly acknowledge we must by your Doctrine discern the Light of Scriptures only by the Commendation Explication or Illumination of your Church the Candlestick And this Illumination is only her bare Asseveration for Scriptures she seldom expounds but only by Negatives or Anathemas The best Correction that can be made of this untoward crooked unwieldly Similitude would be this whereas this Doctor supposeth the Pope to be the Church and saith further necesse est ut lumen illud si dei quod in divinis literis splendet praeser at Ecclesia Let him put lucem for lumen and so the Pope being by his Assertion the Church may be truly called Lucifer And then as when Cloth shrinks in the wetting men shape their Garments accordingly making sometimes a Jerkin of that which was intended for a Jacket so out of this unhandsome ill-spun similitude which was marred in the making we may frame a shorter which wil hold exceeding wel on this fashion Even as Satan being the Prince of Darknesse doth to mens seeming transform him self into an Angel of Light Just so doth the Roman Lucifer being by Valentians Confession but the Candlestick labour to transform him self into the Light it self and would be taken for such a Light or Candle as should make the very Light of Heaven it self Gods Word to shine most splendently and clearly by the glorious Beams of his Majestical Infallibility once cast upon it For otherwise unlesse the Supernatural Glory of his Infallibility do infuse Light or adde fresh Lustre to this Light or Lantern of Truth the Candlestick naturally gives no increase of perspicuity to the Light or Candle Which wil shine as clear in a private Mans hands so he wil take the pains to hold it as in a Publick Candlestick But that which I would have the serious Reader to observe especially is this Speech of his Scripture as once commended unto us or expounded by the Churches Authority becomes thereby most Authentick and shines most clearly and most splendently For this same Doctor if a Doctor may be said the same affirming and denying the same in the beginning of that Dispute would gladly shuffle so as he should not be taken with that Trick which wil discredit their Cause for ever and descry their villanous Blasphemy in this Doctrine of their Churches Authority There he would perswade us that he doth not allow of this Speech I believe this or that to be a Divine Revelation because the Church doth tell me so or of this the Church is the Cause why I believe the Divine Revelations whereas this Speech of his Quae Scriptura per Authoritatem doth infer the Authority of the Church to be the very principal and immediate Cause of our Assent unto Scriptures 9 Secondly I would have the sober Christian Reader to observe what an unhallowed and unchristian Conceit it is to admit the Scriptures for a Lantern and yet to affirm that Christians cannot behold the Light therein contained but only as the Church of Rome doth hold it out what is this else but to call the People from the marvailous Light of the Gospel unto the fearful Lightnings of the Law And to make the Pope that Mediator which the People implicitely did request when they desired that Moses might speak to them not God If we be in Christ then are we not called into Mount Sinai to burning Fire Blindnesse Darknesse and Tempests this Light of the Gospel is not environed with a fearful Cloud or Smoak threatning Destruction if we should go up into the Mount to hear the Lord himself speak we have an Advocate with the Father and need not look for a Moses to go up for us while we stand trembling a far off For as our Apostle tels us Heb. 12. 22. We are come unto the Mount Sion and to the City of the living God the celestial Jerusalem and to the company of innumerable Angels and to the congregation of the first-born which are written in heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the Spirits of just and perfect men and to Jesus the Mediator of the new Testament and to the bloud of sprinkling that speaketh better things then that of Abel What is the Consequence or Effect of this our Calling Our Apostle makes this Inference verse 25. See therefore that ye despise not him that speaketh Whom did he mean The Pope or Cardinals But they would be but of like Authority as Moses was but he that Speaketh untous is of far greater For so our Apostle collects See that ye despise nât him that speaketh for if they escape not which refused him that spake on Earth much more shall we not escape if we turn away from him which speaketh from Heaven The Israelites I suppose had despised Moses if they had admitted any other infallible Teacher besides him whilest he was alive or believed any other as wel as his Writings after his death but only so far forth as they could discern their Words to be consonant unto his If Moses Writings were to these Jews a plain Rule of Faith then much more must Christs Word registred by his Apostles and Evangelists by the Rule of Faith unto us That Moses Doctrine was their Rule of Faith a Rule most plain and easie these places following abundantly testifie CAP. XVII That the Mosaical Writings were a most perfect Rule plain and easie to the Ancient Israelites 1 SO perfect Directions had Moses left for Posterities perpetual instruction that a great Prophet in later Ages desirous to bring Gods people into the right Paths which their Fathers had forsaken and for this purpose professing to impart to them whatsoever he had