no doubt to be made but that it would generally obtain But when Mens Inclinations and Circumstances are so various nothing is more manifest than that the receiving or rejecting Truth is a thing too uncertain to be made an infallible Note of it When it is argued on behalf of Christianity that so many thousands were on the suddain converted to the Faith the force of such an Argument does not lie in the bare prevalency of the Doctrine but in its prevalency when placed in such Circumstances as it at the first preaching of the Gospel was and when Men of mean birth and education as has already been observed did without force or fraud on the suddain make so many proselytes to a Religion which was so directly contrary to those Opinions to which the World had been so long accustomed a Religion which was likely to bring such great Inconveniences upon those who embraced it This indeed was very remarkable and could be ascribed to nothing but the Power of Truth which was only able to bring about so wonderful an Effect In a word Men being oftner guided by Fancy Prejudice and Interest than by Reason makes them more capable of Error than of Truth and when they have once received it not only unwilling to part with it but zealous to propagate it as much as they can The Agreeableness of any Doctrine to their wicked Lusts and Affections is most likely to win upon them The craft and cunning of those who lie in wait to deceive may 〈◊〉 easily mislead unstable Minds into gross Mistakes before they are aware 〈…〉 Force the enjoyment of present Preferment or the hopes of it may make them profess what they do not believe to be true and then seek for Reasons to defend it Since then there are so many things beside Truth which may induce Men to admit any Doctrine the bare admitting of it tho never so universally can be no Note of the Truth of that or of the Church that teaches it God has endued us with a capacity of finding out Truth but at the same time he has made us fallible Creatures and liable to be imposed upon so that it stands us in hand to be aware how we are deceived and the more care we take in a concern of this Nature the more we discover our own Sincerity and Zeal for Truth But let there be never such clear Discoveries thereof it is in our power wilfully to shut our Eyes against them nay when we have adhered to Truth for some time we may be tempted either wholly to forsake it or to intermingle gross Errors with it So that it is as improper to conclude the prevalency of any Doctrine to be an Argument of the Truth of it or of the Church that professeth it as that any Cause is just because successful Such is God's infinite Wisdom and Goodness that as he does oftentimes bless with unexpected Success an honest and just Design and they who are sagacious in tracing the Footsteps of Providence do easily discover it so does he likewise frequently exert his Power after an extraordinary manner for the propagation of Truth But on the other hand as he often permits an unjust Design to prevail and prosper so likewise does he suffer Error to multiply and increase And when he does at any time exert his Power after an extraordinary manner for the propagation of Truth he still deals with Men as with Rational Creatures so that such his Power may be resisted nay may be so far resisted as may make him punish with Infatuation such their Resistance as he served the Pharisees upon the account of their Obstinacy whose Eyes he blinded and whose Heart he hardned John 12.40 41. that they should not see with their Eyes nor understand with their Heart and be converted And as happened to those whom the Apostle makes mention of whom because they received not the love of Truth that they might be saved 2 Thess 2.10 11. God sent strong Delusions that they might believe a Lie. Since therefore such is the Temper and Constitution of Mankind as to be daily subject to Errors and to be liable by the just Judgment of God to be at last hardened in them nothing can with any certainty be determined concerning the Truth of any Church from the Prevalency of any Doctrine professed in it 3. Plain Matter of Fact shews the Insufficiency of this Note For the Histories of all Ages make it evident what an influence Error has often had upon Mens Minds and that altho Truth may have happened sometimes to have prevailed yet that it has been as often refused and gross and most impious Opinions preferr'd before it How soon were our first Parents when their Minds were in their greatest strength and vigor and not as yet biassed by any Misapprehensions of things Gen. 3.5 6. by the cunning Artifices of Satan tempted to believe a Lie After which first and grand Mistake how did their whole Stock degenerate when every Imagination of Man's Heart being evil Gen. 6.5 6. it repented the Lord that he had made Man on the Earth Afterward God chose to himself out of the rest of the World a peculiar People and to secure them against the Idolatry and Superstition of those who dwelt near them he gave them particular Statutes which by Threats and Promises and mighty Wonders which he wrought for them he obliged them to observe Yet how soon did they forget God and turned after Idols So that in the time of Ahab according to God's own account there were but 7000 who had not bowed unto Baal If the Efficacy of the Doctrine had been a Note of the true Church I do not see why the Priests of Baal had not as much reason at that time to have insisted upon it as the Romish Priests can have now At our Saviour's coming the Pharisees had infected the whole Nation with their Traditions and so obstinately did they adhere to them that notwithstanding the many Miracles which our Saviour had wrought for them notwithstanding the Holiness of his Life and Conversation few believed on him according to the Prophesy of Isaiah made mention Joh. 12.38 Lord who hath believed our Report of which our Saviour himself complains John 5.43 I am come in my Father's Name And ye receive me not if another shall come in his own Name him ye will receive And in the 11th of St. Matthew ver 20 c. he does most severely upbraid the Cities wherein most of his mighty Works were done because they repented not And does openly declare that it would be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of Judgment than for them If any Doctrine was likely to have been efficacious one would have thought the Doctrine of our Saviour when taught by himself had been so and yet we find that no Prophet was ever less respected than he was even among his own Country-men The same thing happened likewise to St.
Cardinal clearly distinguished between these two Notions his Reader might easily have seen how far the Light of Prophecy may be said to be a Mark by which to know the True Church viz. so far as to do Him and his Cause no manner of Service For in the latter Sense it may be admitted to be such a Mark inasmuch as the accomplishment of those Prophecies which concerned Christ shew'd that Jesus was He and that his Doctrine was of God. But then this Light of Prophecy comes no other way to be a Mark of the True Church than as 't is an Argument or if you will call it so a Mark of that Doctrine the Profession whereof makes the Church So that when we have made the best we can of this Note the Church is still to be known by the Religion it professeth tho that Religion is known to be Divine as by other Arguments and Testimonies so also by the accomplishment of Prophecies And yet even here we must be something cautious in laying down the fulfilling of Predictions as an Argument to prove the Truth of Christianity For there are some Prophecies both in the Old and New Testament that in part have been and will in time be fully accomplished by such Persons whose Doctrine we are by no means to follow For Antichrist was foretold as well as Christ and when he comes and fulfils all that has been said concerning him so long before the accomplishment of those Predictions is a Mark upon him not that we should receive but that we should reject him and his Doctrine So that 't is not barely the fulfilling of Prophecies but of such Prophecies only as described the Characters of that Person whom we were bound to hearken to and to obey in all Things that is an Argument of True Doctrine And in this Sense we are not unwilling to admit the Light of Prophecy to be a Mark of the True Church tho it be a very improper way of speaking Since the Doctrine it self which is demonstrated to be a Divine Doctrine comes to be the proper Note of the Church and the Light of Prophecy is left to be one of those Arguments by which the Doctrine is demonstrated to be Divine But this way of marking for the Church is very uncomfortable to the Cardinal's Friends because it will force them to acknowledg that 't is not the Church that makes the Religion but the Religion that makes the Church He therefore finding no advantage to his Cause by this Notion of Prophetick Light wholly insists upon the former and makes the Gift of foretelling things to come to be one Note of the Church and doubts not but to shew it in his own and will not allow it to be in any other So that these two Things must come under Examination I. Whether it be a Note of the Church II. If it be Whether he has sufficiently proved that they of the Roman Church have it and no others I. Whether it be a Note of the True Church The Cardinal offers to prove that it is by three Arguments huddled up together which being distinguished are these 1. That as Christ promised the Gift of Miracles so he also promised the Gift of Prophecy to the Church 2. That none knows Future Contingencies but God only 3. That it is a certain Note of False Doctrine if a Prophet foretells any thing and it does not come to pass Let us now see what all this will amount to 1. Christ promised the Gift of Prophecy to the Church no less than the Gift of Miracles To which it might be sufficient to say that as Miracles notwithstanding such a Promise are no Note of the Church so neither is Prophecy such a Note meerly because it was also promised And there is the same Reason for the one as there is for the other for neither the one nor the other was promised to last always in the Church And we have been told sufficiently that the Notes of the Church according to Bellarmin himself must be Characters that are inseparable from it Now the place by him produced is so far from proving that the Gift of Prophecy should flourish in every Age that there are pregnant Intimations in it of the contrary He refers us to the Prediction of Joel applied by St. Peter to the Church Joel ii 18. Acts ii 16. And because he refers us to it thither we will go and not as he does take Things for granted which ought to be discoursed but bring forth the Text and see what Argument it will afford The Apostles as the Chapter shews spake with Tongues to the amazement of all the Strangers that heard them But the Unbelieving Jews mocked and said they were Drunk Upon which Peter lightly passing by that absurd Reproach told them that this was that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel And it shall come to pass in the last Days saith God I will pour out of my Spirit upon all Flesh and your Sons and your Daughters shall Prophesy and your young Men shall see Visions and your old Men c. And again I will pour out in those Days of my Spirit and they shall Prophesy Now tho Prophecy in the strict Sense signifies foretelling Things to come yet it is here put for Supernatural Gifts in General and particularly for speaking Divine Things by Inspiration and likewise for speaking with new Tongues which is undeniably evident from hence that the Apostle's speaking of the wonderful Things of God in Tongues they had never learn'd was by St. Peter affirm'd to be foretold in this Prediction of Joel So that the Cardinal ought to have been very much afraid to make what was promised in Joel a Note of the Church for by this means he has made it unavoidably necessary for those of his Communion the Young Men and the Old Men c. to speak with Tongues by Inspiration which is in effect to unchurch his own Party And therefore I imagin his Followers will not follow him in this nor advance the Promise in Joel into a Note of the Church but will rather say that the fulfilling of it in the first Age of the Church was a Testimony to the Truth of Christianity and that the Prediction of Joel was accomplished tho the same extraordinary Gifts were not continued in every Age afterward 2. He says That none knows Future Contingencies but God only which if it should prove that a Church is there where the Gift of Prophecy is yet it does not prove that there is no Church where that Gift is not unless it be an inseparable Mark of the Church to have all those future Events made known to one or other in it which God only knows Our Saviour said of that Day and Hour when Himself should come to judg the World no Man knoweth but the Father only Does it therefore follow that God must have revealed it to one or other in the Church If because God only knows Future Contingencies
us return to our Lord 's Original the Evangelical Beginning the Apostolical Tradition And hence let the Reason of our Act arise from whence Order and the Beginning arose If therefore Christ alone is to be heard we ought not to regard what another before us thought fit to be done but what Christ who is before all first did For we ought not to follow the Custom of Man but the Truth of God since God himself speaks thus by the Prophet Isaiah In vain do they worship me teaching the Commandments and Doctrines of Men. Which very Words our Lord again repeats in the Gospel Ye reject the Commandments of God that ye may establish your own Tradition Thus S. Cyprian †Epist lxiii ad Caecilium fratrem lxxiv. ad Pompeium Ed. Oxon. With whom Tertullian ‖ L. de Veland Virg. c. 1. whom he was wont to call his Master agrees in many memorable Sayings No body can prescribe against the Truth neither Space of Times nor the Patronages of Persons nor the Priviledg of Countries From which things indeed Custom having gotten a Beginning by Ignorance or Simplicity and being grown strong by Succession pleads against Truth But our Lord Christ calls himself the TRVTH not CVSTOM Nor doth Novelty so much confute Heresy as Truth Whatsoever is against Truth that will be Heresy even old Custom Truth doth not stand * L. de Anima c. xxviii in need of old Custom to make it be believed nor doth Heresy fear the Charge of Novelty That which is plainly false is made generous by Antiquity For why should I not call that false whose Proof is false Why should I believe Pythagoras who tells Lies that he may be believed I omit all the rest having said enough to shew that if Antiquity it self be to be credited we ought not to depend upon Antiquity alone but seek for ancient Truth Which leads me to the second thing I undertook to shew that the present Church of Rome vainly pretends to true Antiquity i.e. to ancient Truth II. The Antiquity of a Church doth not consist in the Antiquity of the Place where it is seated For a new Worship may come into an ancient Place of Worship as the new Altar of Ahaz was introduced into the Temple at Jerusalem where he sacrificed to the Gods of Damascus 2 King. xvi 2 Chron. xxviii 23 Nor doth it consist meerly in the Antiquity of its Founders For the Apostles founded many Churches which had all the same Title to Antiquity in this regard and yet continued not such Churches as they left them but decayed some of them so fast that what Truth and Goodness remained among them was ready to dye even before all the Apostles were dead Rev. iii. 2. But it 's true Antiquity consists in the Preservation of the ancient Truth entire and uncorrupted which it received from the Apostles and which made it at first to be a Church Those things are truly ancient which persist in the same State after a long Tract of Time wherein they were at their beginning For if they have suffered any Change in that which belongs to their Being and Constitution they have lost their Antiquity and become another thing than they were at the first Now to know this we must enquire into the Nature of the thing it self and understand for instance what it is that makes a Society to be the Church of God. And all agree it is the Christian Truth In which if it have suffered Alteration that is doth not hold the same Christian Doctrine it did at the beginning but hath introduced Errors and Lies under the pretence of ancient Truth it is not the same Church it was at first and therefore hath not that Mark of true Antiquity which will prove it to be such as it pretends Now that this is the Case of the present Church of Rome is evident by that Alteration they have made in the ancient Creed Unto which they have added as many more Articles as there were at the first and thereby made such a Change in their Church for a Change is made by adding as well as taking away as makes it not to be the same ancient Church which the Apostles founded at the beginning This Charge they have no way to avoid nor can by any other means maintain that they are such an ancient Church as Christ and his Apostles setled but by this Ratiocination as Bellarmin calls it That in all great Changes of Religion these six things may be ever shewn 1. The Author of that Change. 2. The new Doctrine that was brought in 3. The Time when it began 4. The Place where 5. Who opposed it 6. And who joyned themselves to it None of which can be shewn in the Church of Rome since the Apostles times and therefore there hath been no Change at all made in it but it remains the same it was at first without any Alteration Which is a reasoning built upon grounds so notoriously false that it scarce deserves the Name of a poor Piece of Sophistry 1. For first it is contrary to all History and Experience which shews us there have been great Changes the Authors and the Beginnings c. of which cannot now be known Though no Man can doubt there hath been an Alteration made For the Body Spiritual and Civil too is like the Body Natural In which as there are some Diseases which make such a violent and sudden Assault that one may say at what moment they began So there are other which grow so insensibly and by such slow Degrees that none can tell when the first Alteration was made and by what Accident from a good Habit of Body to a bad Thus we are sure a Man is in a deep Consumption when we see him worn away to Skin and Bone though no body can tell the precise time when nor by what means nor where and in what Company his Blood began to be tainted And thus we are sure there is a Gangrene as St Paul calls Heresy when we see it corrode the Body of the Church though it crept in so secretly at the first and so indiscernably that it was not suspected nor can alway be traced to its first Occasion and Original No the Tares in the Field which is another Example whereby our Lord himself illustrates this matter had taken root before they were espied for they were sown in the Night while Men slept and could take no notice of it so that all that could be known was this that his Enemy had done it That is the Tares were not from our Saviour nor were first sown but were of a later and quite different Original But by what particular Instrument the Enemy sowed them at what hour of the Night by what hand and when did not appear for the matter was carried so secretly and in the dark that the Servants who knew of the sowing of the good Seed in the Field wondred to see the bad and ask'd
first five hundred Years after Christ to refer us to the last five hundred Which is to confess the Novelty of their most beloved Doctrines And consequently to quit this Note of Antiquity as in Truth he plainly doth in that Book where being pressed with this Argument That no such Power was claimed in the first Times of the Church he answers ‖ Ib. cap. 3. p. 69. That he hath not right Conceptions of the Church of Christ who admits nothing but what he reads expresly written or done in the ancient Church For the Church of later time hath Power not only to explain and declare but constitute and command those things which belong to Faith and Manners Which is as much as to say they need not trouble themselves about Antiquity for they can make Articles of Faith now which were not heard of in the Beginning 2. We have often also told them by what steps Images crept into the Church For they remained at first only in private Houses for Ornament or for Commemoration and not uncensured There being above 300 Years past before they came into any Church and then not without Opposition and for this end only to be of an Historical use to remind People of things past Which improved in 300 Years more to a Rhetorical use as we may call it to stir up Devotion in the People For which purpose Gregory the Great fancied they were profitable and tho he by no means allowed them to be worshipped yet he thought the People might look upon them and worship God before them And this looking upon them to help Devotion was improved in the time of the second Nicene Council into a downright worshipping of them which would not pass in these Western Parts for good Doctrine And when at last we know and have told them by what steps this new Worship advanced hither and grew to a greater Degree of Religious Respect than that Nicene Council admitted the most zealous Defenders of it could not agree about it nor do they know what to make of it to this day We could tell them of other things that are much newer for it is but a little more than 100 Years since unwritten Traditions were decreed to be a part of the Rule of Faith that is of the Word of God. But this is sufficient to shew that they vainly boast of Antiquity which is only ancient Error and some of it not very ancient neither As for ancient Truth that 's on our side whom they most injuriously accuse of following Novelties III. For the Religion of the Church of England by Law established is the true Primitive Christianity In nothing New unless it be in rejecting all that Novelty which hath been brought into the Church But they are the Cause of that for if they had not introduced new Articles we should not have had occcasion for such Articles of Religion as condemn them Which cannot indeed be old because the Doctrines they condemn are new tho the Principle upon which we condemn them is as old as Christianity we esteeming all to be new which was not from the Beginning For as for our positive Doctrine Polydore himself hath given a true Account of it and makes it the Reason why the Sect called Evangelick as he speaks increased so marvelously in a short time because they affirmed that no Law was to be received which appertains to the Salvation of Souls but that which Christ or the Apostles had given * L. viii cap. 4. de rerum Inventoribus And who dare say that this is a new Religion which is as old as Christ and his Apostles With whom whosoever agree they are truly ancient Churches tho of no longer standing than Yesterday As they that disagree with them are New tho they can run up their Pedigree to the very Apostles Thus Tertulian †L. de praescript c. xxxii discourses with whose Words something contracted I shall conclude As the Doctrine of a Church when it is divers from or contrary unto that of the Apostles shews it not to be an Apostolick Church tho it pretend to be founded by an Apostle So those Churches that cannot produce any of the Apostles or Apostolical Men for their Founders being much later and newly constituted yet conspiring in the same Faith are nevertheless to be accounted Apostolick Churches because of the CONSANGVINITY OF DOCTRINE THE END LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard 1687. The Third Note of the CHURCH EXAMINED VIZ DURATION Tertia Nota est Duratio diuturna nec unquam interrupta Bellarm L. iv c. vi IMPRIMATUR Apr. 30. 1687. GVIL. NEEDHAM HOW far the Church of God is beholden to the Industry of some Learned Men in the Church of Rome for the Notes they give of a Church is not my Business at present to examine But those of the Reformed Religion must acknowledg themselves obliged to them for so frankly quitting those Characters which are essential to every true Church and for taking up with such as either apparently belong not to their Church or belong to other Churches as well as theirs or lastly such as may be found in a false Church as well as a true This might easily be proved against them through the fifteen Notes which are offered by them to the World But I shall content my self to give an Instance of it in the Note of Duration which is made by them a necessary Mark of the true Church In Prosecution of which I shall consider I. What is to be understood by the Term Duration II. How far Duration may be said to be a Note of the true Church III. Whether the Church of Rome hath a sufficient Title to this Character § I. Duration according to Bellarmin is the continuance of a Church throughout all Times without Interruption and he adds that the Catholick Church is so called not only because it always hath been but also because it always will be So that this Duration doth include in it these three Things 1. The Being of a Church from the Beginning 2. The Continuance of that Church to the End. 3. The Continuance of that Church from the Beginning to the End without Interruption Let us now see how he applies it to the Case It 's evident saith he that our Church hath continued from the beginning of the World hitherto Or if we speak of the State of the New Testament it hath endured from Christ to this Year 1557. The Year when he wrote this But for all his Beginning its evident there is no Proof of what he affirms and his Assertion is very insufficient 1. That he takes it for granted that his Church and the Christian Church are one and the same and that there is no other true Church but his It 's evident our Church c. 2. That he has omitted two main Branches of his Duration viz. That part of it which was to the end of the World which is
meerly Unity that is a Mark of the true Church but Unity in the true Faith nor is Unity the Mark of a pure Church unless it be upon Terms of Obedience to God of Charity to one another of keeping the Faith unmixed with Errors and Innovations and the Worship of God free from material Defects and forbidden Practices From hence also the Folly of that conceit may be easily discerned that in this divided State of Christendom there must be one Church which is the only Church of Christ exclusively to all the rest that are not in Communion with her Which is as much as to say that because there is not that Unity amongst Christians which there ought to be therefore there is none at all and because they are not united in one Communion therefore they are not united in one Lord one Faith one Baptism That fond Principle now mentioned is advanced by the Romanist for the sake of this Inference that because we grant the Church to be but one and withall acknowledg them to be a true Church therefore we being divided from them can be no true Church our selves That is to say because we acknowledg that they have that one Faith in which all that are united belong to the Church therefore we are out of the Church our selves who have the Unity of that Faith too and moreover the Unity of observing all the Institutions of Christ and the Unity of Catholick Terms of Communion c. which they have not If some part of the Church gives just cause of Offence or if another takes Offence where none is given this is indeed contrary to the Duty of the Members of the Church but not utterly inconsistent with their being Members of it And if St. Paul was in the right when he said If the Foot shall say because I am not the Head I am not of the Body is it therefore not of the Body It will be also true that tho the Foot should say to the Hand thou art not of the Body because thou art not the Foot the Hand would be of the Body for all that As for the Unity of Communion which they boast so much of in the Church of Rome I say 't is an Unity of Communion among themselves but 't is not the Catholick Unity of Communion because the Terms of it are many of them unjust and unlawful whereas we of the Church of England having as much Unity of Communion among our selves as they have this also to say as we have abundantly shewn that the Terms of our Communion are every one of them just and lawful and therefore ours is a Catholick Unity If there are some Protestants that will not communicate with us it is no more our Fault than that the Papists refuse to do so And tho in point of Interest this tends to weaken yet in Controversy it cannot prejudice the common cause of Reformation That part of the West that has left the Church of Rome may labour under Discords that affect their very Communion while she her self does not and yet in the Cause against her they may be all in the Right Where Truth is maintained against a corrupt Church there may yet be Disobedience to Authority overvaluing Questions of no great moment a greater stress laid upon Opinions and Practices than the Cause will bear and this shall be sufficient to break Christian Communion And at the same time gross Errors may be maintained and with one consent imposed upon the World by the other Church and all the while the Differences how weighty soever that happen by the bye may be so over-ruled by Force and Power and the sensible Interests of this World that they shall not affect their Communion with one another But for the Reasons already laid down it were a fond thing to chuse a Church by the Mark of such Unity In short If we would in all Respects keep within the Unity of the Church this must be done by professing true Doctrine by leading good Lives by a charitable Spirit and Behaviour towards all Christians by frequenting Prayers and Sacraments and by submitting to the Authority of our lawful Guides in all things of Indifference and Expedience And then we may be sure that whatever others do we keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace And though the Church after all is not that one Body in all Respects which it ought to be and which it would be if all Men did their Duty yet that we our selves are such Members of that one Body as we ought to be and as all others ought to be likewise Now all this Unity we may keep in the Communion of the Church of England but we cannot keep it all in the Communion of the Roman Church as the Terms thereof now stand But if this Unity be not enough when once the Romanists can prove that Union to the Pope as Head of the Church and Union to the Roman Church in all that she believes and teaches is also necessary to our Being of the Church or even to our maintaining that Unity which ought to be amongst all Christians we will also acknowledg the Pope's Supremacy and believe as the Roman Church believes but not till then THE END LONDON Printed by J. D. for Richard Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1687. The Eighth Note of the CHURCH EXAMINED VIZ Sanctity of Doctrine Octava Nota est Sanctitas Doctrinae Bellar. de Notis Ecclesiae L. iv c. 11. IMPRIMATUR June 4. 1687. Hen. Maurice SEeing the New Covenant is the Charter upon which the Church of Christ is founded and all the Blessings which this Covenant promises are appropriated to that Sacred Society to be in Communion with it is doubtless a matter of vast importance to the Souls of Men and it being so it is not to be imagined but that the blessed Jesus the most concerned and careful Friend of Souls that ever was hath been sufficiently mindful to leave such plain and easy Directions behind him how we may find his Church and satisfy our selves whether we are in Fellowship with it or no as that neither the Learned nor Unlearned may be left in the dark for resolution in such a momentous Enquiry But how much the Church of Rome hath made it her Business to snarl and perplex several Points of Religion which our Saviour left plain and obvious enough to all Capacities is too notorious and in nothing more than in this how to discover and find out the true Church In order to which her most Learned Doctors and particularly Cardinal Bellarmin have given us certain Notes by which as they pretend the true Church may be distinguished by honest and diligent Enquiries from all false Churches whatsoever But how far these Notes are from performing what is promised for 'em hath been sufficiently proved upon a very fair Examination of the Seven first of ' em I proceed therefore to the Eighth viz. Sanctity of
present they are true Churches or which is the same thing whether they have at present the true Notes of true Churches But if I enquire as the Cardinal doth which of all the Churches now extant is the true Catholick Church before I can be fully resolved I must not only be satisfied which of 'em is a true Church at present but also which of them shall always continue so because tho particular Churches may cease to be true Churches yet the Catholick Church cannot it being founded on that promise of our Saviour that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it And therefore before I can be secure of any present Church that it is the true Catholick I must have some certainty not only that it hath not erred for the time past and that it doth not err at present but also that it will not err for the time to come for seeing the true Catholick Church is always to continue if not to err in its profession be a true Note of it it must always be inseparable to it as well for the time to come as for the time past and present And therefore before I can be certain of any Church now extant that it is the only true Catholick Church by this Note of an unerring Profession I ought to have very good assurance that it is inseparable to it not only for the time past and present but also for the time to come But that it is possible for a Church which doth not err now and did not err heretofore to err hereafter the Church of Rome cannot deny because she allows no Church now extant not to err but her self and yet owns that there are many Churches now in being which once did not err and for several Ages continued untainted with Error which yet have erred since and therefore are now no true Churches and therefore seeing that in the Nature of the Thing it is no more impossible that a Church which doth not err now may have erred heretofore and may err again hereafter than that a Church which errs now may not have erred heretofore and may not err again hereafter I cannot conclude of any Church that because it doth not err at present therefore it never hath erred nor ever will. Suppose then that there were only two Churches in the World viz. the Roman and Greek and that the Roman Church at present doth not err and the Greek doth I can from hence no more conclude that not erring is inseparable to the Roman Church than that erring is inseparable to the Greek The Roman Church doth not err now what then neither did the Greek Church err once why then may not the Greek as well be the true Church because once it did not err as the Roman because now it doth not Seeing that not to have erred heretofore and not to err now are only different Respects of the same thing to different Times and that the not erring at one Time doth no more notify the true Church than the not erring at another it is not therefore sufficient to notify either to be the true Church that this Note belonged to it at such or such a time whether it be the time past or the time present seeing one time or other it hath belonged to 'em both but that of the two must be the true Church to which it always belonged and from which it was never seperated But before I can pretend to be certain that it always belonged to the Church of Rome I must have perused the Histories of the Church through all times past to the present Moment But alas those Histories as the Learned of all sides confess are some of 'em so short and imperfect others so partial and insincere and others so repugnant and contradictory to one another that supposing there were some Church now in being that never erred and that Church were the Roman it is next to impossible for me to be certain of it for even in the Histories of the Church of Rome which pretends to be the only unerring Church there are so many at least seeming Contradictions of one Pope and General Council to another that it is impossible for any Man who is not prepossest with a strong Opinion of her Infallibility to pronounce with any degree of certainty that she never erred And methinks 't is something hard that I must seek the true Church by such a Note whereby it will be impossible for me to find it without spending a great part of my Life in laborious researches of Ecclesiastical History wherein after all in seeking after a Church that never erred I doubt I shall but seek for a Needle in a Bottle of Hay But suppose I were so far satisfied of the Roman Church as to believe that it neither hath err'd for the time past nor doth err at the present Before I can be certain that this Note is inseparable to her I must have very good assurance that she will not err for the time to come and by what Argument can you assure me of that Why hath not our Saviour promised that the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against his true Church And doth not this necessarily imply that his true Church shall never err Suppose it doth you ought to consider that I am now enquiring whether the Roman Church be the true Church or no and consequently whether this Promise belong to her or no and therefore as yet neither this nor any other Promise can be a sufficient Evidence to me that this Note of not erring is inseparable to her for the future The Church of Rome cannot deny but that there are several Churches now extant in the World which for several Ages did not err yet now are erroneous and therefore supposing that she hath not erred for these 1600 Years past how can I thence conclude that she will not err hereafter when she her self owns that there are Churches now in being which for 8 or 900 Years did not err and yet have erred ever since And what Reason can you give why it should be more impossible for a Church to err after 1600 Years profession of the Truth than after 900 Wherefore before I can be certain that this Note of not erring is inseparable to any one Church now in being I must have very good assurance not only that she doth not err at present nor ever did but also that she never will. But before I can be certain that she neither doth err nor ever did I must be next to infallible my self and before I can be certain that she never will I must be certain that she is infallible because if her not erring for the future be a Contingency that may or may not be I can never be certain whether it will be or no. But it is impossible I should be sure that she is an infallible Church before I am sure that she is the true Church because if Infallibility be granted to any
others has to pretend that it is the Character of its being a true Church I desire in the second place that these following Particulars may be considered 1. That altho we charge the Church of Rome with many Errors and Mistakes yet we allow it to contain in it a mixture of Truth Now this very mixture of Truth may perhaps be of sufficient force to make Proselytes but then it does not follow but that such Proselytes may likewise have embraced the Errors which are mixed with it as well as the Truth it self The Indians whose Conversion to the Romish Faith I shall speak of afterwards were not so void of Reason but that if they compared the Religion of their Conquerors with their own Worship they might be perswaded to embrace the former rather than adhere still to the latter And altho by this means they were but half converted to the Truth yet it was better that it should be thus than that they should not have been converted at all for by this means they were much nearer the reception of the whole Truth than they were formerly which was a great advantage and therefore we reckon those but an ill sort of Protestants who would rather have Men Turks and Infidels than of the Romish Church But at the same time the Conversion of never so many to Church of Rome is no Argument of its not being a corrupted Church as long as we can prove it to maintain such gross Errors as it does altho accompanied with such a mixture of Truth as may be of great force to bring over such as had before little or no knowledg thereof 2. That the Prevalency of the Doctrine of the Church of Rome can be no Note of its being a true Church because it is so much alter'd from what it formerly was The Doctrine of the Church of Rome was in the beginning of Christianity the same with that which was deliver'd by Christ and his Apostles to the Saints Afterwards new Doctrines insensibly crept into and were received by that Church and at last Matters came to be settled as we now find them in the Council of Trent This has been often cleared by Learned Men and in some of those Discourses which have of late been writ Barrow of the Pope's Suprem Discourse of Transubst Disc concerning the Worship of the blessed Virgin and the Saints Disc of Commun in one kind Vindicat. of the Answ to some late Papers c. some of the new Doctrines have been traced step by step and the manner now they came to be receiv'd set down and in others the Church of Rome has been compared with her self and what was determin'd by the Council of Trent has been shown to be quite another thing from what was held some Ages ago Now it is impossible that things that are different should be the distinguishing Character of that which is always the same Since then I suppose it will be readily granted that the Church of Rome has always been the true Church the Efficacy of its Doctrine can be no Note thereof since in some Ages those Doctrines have prevailed in it which are directly contrary to those which have prevailed in other 3. That the Prevalency of any Doctrine can be no Note of a true Church where those who embrace it are hindred from thoroughly examining it For without a thorough Examination it never can be rightly understood and what Efficacy can it have upon his Mind who does not rightly understand it Now the Church of Rome exacts of the Members of her Communion a tame Submission to and Compliance with whatever she proposeth to their Belief and Practice and by forbidding them the use of the Scriptures she takes from them the use of that Rule whereby they are to judg of the Reasonableness of her Proposals How then can the reception of her Doctrine be a Note of her being a true Church when perhaps not one amongst a thousand of her Members who receeive it is capable of understanding what he is bound to believe 4. That the Prevalency of any Doctrine can be no Note of a true Church where Art and Force are made use of to make it prevail For it is no difficult matter for cunning Deceivers to impose upon unstable Souls and it must be a great courage and constancy of Mind which can make Men for-go Father and Mother Houses and Land c. for the sake of Truth Now that the Church of Rome has taken this course to propagate her Doctrines we may be assured by some of her own Members There are saith Erasmus Erasmus in Annot. in Mat. 23. those who after a new Example make Christians by force but whilst they pretend the Propagation of Religion they do in reality study the Inlargement of Riches and Power Not unlike these are those Monks who inveigle others to take upon them their Order and do use a great deal of cunning to insnare such as are young and unskilful and who neither understand Themselves nor the Nature of true Religion And Stapleton declares very freely Stapleton Epist Dedic de oper Justific Edit Paris 1582. Eo sane loco haereses sunt c. Heresies are come to that pass that their Gordian Knots are not to be dissolved by Art and Industry but by the Sword of Alexander and the Club of Hercules is more fit to subdue them than the Harp of Apollo I might quote several others to the same purpose but the constant Practices of the Inquisition in those places where it is received and the extraordinary Methods which have of late been made use of in a Neighbouring Nation to gain Proselytes do sufficiently shew that the Church of Rome does more depend upon something else than upon the Efficacy of her Doctrine for the making of Converts Which will more fully appear if in the third place we consider the insufficiency of the Cardinal's Arguments which are fetched First From the Scriptures Secondly From what happened in the beginning of the Christian Church Thirdly From the particular Instances which he gives of Conversions wrought by those of the Church of Rome First As to the Scriptures which are quoted Ps 19.7 The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul and Heb. 4.12 For the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged Sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit and of the Joynts and Marrow and is a discerner of the Thoughts and Intents of the Heart It may be answer'd 1. That the latter of these is by several Expositors interpreted of the Son of God and not of his Doctrine 2. That if they are both interpreted of the Efficacy of any Doctrine yet that the Efficacy which is spoken of is wholly internal as we before observ'd and consequently such as cannot be accounted a Note of the true Church For the Note of a Church must be what any one can come to the knowledg of 3. Suppose by these words
followed of Bonaventure who is never to be forgotten for his Devotion to the Virgin. But allowing these Stories to be well attested let us see how the Cardinal proves by them that the Church of Rome has the Gift of Prophecy Why he tells us that these Monasticks were addicted to the Pope Now how much Benedict was addicted to the Pope is not worth Enquiry since his Prophetick Gift will do the Church of Rome no Service now that she is so vastly altered from what she was in Pope Gregory's Days who wrote the Abbot's Life Vindication of Answer to some late Papers p. 72. as has lately been proved beyond possibility of Confutation As for St. Bernard he was certainly very far from being addicted to the Pope who besides his sharp Reproofs of Eugenius De Consider ad Eugen. l. 3. told him in plain Terms that he was not a Lord of the Bishops but one of them So that if his Prophesies too must go for the Credit of that Communion that agrees most with him in Doctrine we shall put hard to get the Prophet on our side by shewing that there was good reason to put him into the Catalogus Testium Veritatis But for St. Francis we are very willing to let the Church of Rome take him and his Prophecy and to make the best of it they can It is so very trifling a Business that the Cardinal 's making use of such Stories to support so magnificent a Pretence as that of Prophetick Light in his Church plainly shews that either he was or ought at least to have been troubled that he had no better He should have remembred the just Exceptions he brought against the Heathen Oracles and since he appealed to the Old Testament for this his Note of the Church he had done well to consider the vast difference between the Predictions of the Prophets there on the one side and not only between those Oracles but these his petty Predictions also on the other And then certainly he would have been ashamed of these Proofs of a Gift of Prophecy amongst those of his own Party which he brings when he would apply this Note to his Church I grant that the Predictions of the Holy Scriptures are not all of a size and tho all the Prophets spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost yet some of their Predictions had incomparably more clear and unquestionable Characters of Divinity upon them than others had And those were the Predictions designed to give Testimony to our Faith of which kind those of the Old Testament made it to be the Word of Prophecy For there we find that divers matters of Fact were foretold many Ages and some of them thousands of Years before the Event that the time when such and such things should happen is described by the Fall of Empires not then begun when the Prophet spake nor to begin for some hundreds of Years after that such Circumstances were at so vast a distance of time foretold that it was impossible for any created Understanding so much as to guess at them so long before they came to pass in a word that the several Things which the Prophets at sundry times foretold concerning Christ met in Jesus and conspired in bearing witness to him the Evidence of that Testimony being unanswerable when all things were laid together For this was the method our Saviour took to confirm his two doubting Disciples He began at Moses and ALL the Prophets Luke xxiv 27. and expounded to them in ALL the Scriptures the things concerning himself Not that there were no illustrious Predictions before Christ but such as were to be fulfilled in him for many there were that received their Accomplishment before Such as that of the Birth of Josias by Name three hundred Years before he was born 1 Kings xiii 2. 2 Kings xxiii 16. Isa xliv 28. xlv 4. Ezra i. 1. and his burning upon the Altar at Bethel the Priests Bones that had offered Incense there And that of restoring the Jews by Cyrus the Persian tho neither he nor the Persian Empire was yet in being no nor the Captivity begun from which he was to release them The fulfilling of such Predictions as these was a sort of Testimony to the Truth of the Prophecies concerning Christ till the time came when the answerableness of the Event should above all things shew that they also were Divine If a Man would make the Gift of Prophecy a Note of the Church and then apply it to his own one would expect that he should bring forth some such Predictions as those of the Scriptures which are beyond all Exception Divine for the carrying on of his purpose But instead of that to bring two or three thin Stories one of which is a Prediction of an Event that was to happen the same Day is to expose a Man's Cause to the contempt of a Heathen if he were here who could out of good Authorities produce more notable Predictions of Sooth-sayers Augurs and Pagan Priests that came to pass 'T is a shame to see what pains the Cardinal took to split St. Bernard's Prediction concerning the Nobleman's turning Monk into six several Prophecies after honest Gofrid could find but two there If this were a place to make Sport it would be no unpleasant work to be a little severe in casting up the Account again But certainly if a Heathen were to read this Twelfth Note of the Cardinal and there find the Gift of Prophecy made a mark of the Society that is united by True Religion as he would guess the Church means he would be apt to think that Christians could produce no better Prophecies than these of Bellarmin's collecting to prove there has been a Prophetick Light in the Church which if it were true of the Catholick Church in all Ages would be no little disparagement to it and being true of the Roman Church is no less a disparagement to that if the Gift of Prophecy be a Note For if the Cardinal had better why did he not produce them I do not by any means deny that some Predictions may be truly Divine which yet are far from having the unquestionable Characters of Divinity upon them One Man may by his skill in those Affairs foresee the loss of a Battel which no Man but himself comprehends the reason of Another may boldly and at all adventure foretell it without reason and pretend a Revelation for it And yet Micaiah in the case of Ahab foretold such a thing by Divine Revelation But then they are not such Predictions as these that will of themselves serve a Man's turn to prove the Gift of Prophecy to be in his Communion In conjunction with others that are unquestionably Divine they may be brought into the Argument but not alone because it is so very difficult to distinguish them from Predictions that are not Divine when they are abstracted from other Considerations I am also as willing to grant that since
Novel Name and disputing that their Religion vvas the truer because they were strengthened and defended by the Authority of Antiquity So vve reade in Arnobius (a) Lib. 2. and in Symmachus (b) Ad Valentin Theodos Arcad. and Prudentius (c) In Agone Romani Martyris and many others vvhom I omit contenting my self vvith St. Austine alone because he gives a most pertinent Answer to this poor Pretence vvhich will as well serve us against the Papists as it did him against the Pagans (d) Quaest ex Vet. Novo Testam ent Q. cxiv Who contended that what they held was true because of its Antiquity As if saith he Antiquity or ancient Custom should carry it against the Truth Thus Murderers Adulterers and all wicked Men may defend their Crimes for they are ancient Practices and began at the beginning of the World. Though from hence they ought rather to understand their Errour because that which is reprehensible and filthy is thereby proved to have been ill begun c. nor can it be made honest and unreprovable by having been done long ago But this is a part of the Devil's Craft and Subtilty as he excellently observes in the same Place who as he invented those false Worships and sprinkled some jugling Tricks to draw Men into them so he took such course that in process of time the Fallacy was commended and the filthy Invention was excused by being derived from Antiquity For by long Custom that began not to seem filthy which was so in it self The irrational Vulgar began to worship Doemons or dead Men who appeared to them as if they had been Gods Which Worship being drawn down into Custom of long Continuance thinks thereby to be defended as if it were the Truth of Reason Whereas the Reason of Truth is not from Custom which is from Antiquity but from God who is proved to be God not by long Continuance or Antiquity but by Eternity Let this be applied to our present Business and it is sufficient to shew that bare Antiquity cannot be a Note of Truth For there are very ancient Errors Which is so evident that it is a Wonder such a Man as Bellarmin was should let this pass the Muster among the Notes he reckons up of the Truth of his Church which he could intend for no more than to make a show not for any substantial Service Of which this is a Demonstration that he had no sooner named ANTIQVITY as the Second Note of the Church but discerning it would stand him in no stead he immediately sets it aside and cunningly slides to another thing with which he endeavours to blend and confound it For thus he argues L. iv de Ecclesia c. v. Without doubt the True Church is ancienter than the False as God was before the Devil And consequently we reade the good Seed was sown first before the Tares But who doth not see that these two things are widely different the one from the other Antiquity and Priority that which is Ancient and that which is First Whatsoever is First is undoubtedly true but whatsoever is Ancient is not always so unless it be of such Antiquity that it be also First There is a double Antiquity therefore one in respect of us the other absolute and in it self This last sort of Antiquity is the same with what is First Unto which we are desirous to go to which we are willing to stand and by which we would be judged By the Rule which Tertullian lays down in several of his Books * L. iv contra Marcion c. 5. Adv. Praxeam c. 2. De praescript c. xxx We would fain bring our Cause and Church to be tryed That is truest which was First that First which was from the Beginning that from the Beginning which was from the Apostles And in like manner that from the Apostles which in the Churches of the Apostles was most Sacred viz. That which they reade in their Holy Writings This is our Antiquity as he speaks in his famous Apology praestructa divinae literaturae †Apologia c. xlvii built before upon the Divine Learning This is the Rule of Faith which came from Christ transmitted to us by his Companions to whom all those who speak other ways will be found to be of later date But to this they of the Church of Rome will by no means agree they do not like to be tryed only by the Holy Scriptures which is the true Antiquity that is undoubtedly First before all other Traditions A very bad Sign this an Infallible Note all is not right among them that they dare not abide by the Scriptures but cry up other Traditions that is boast of what is later not what is first And what is after the First though it could be proved to be of great Antiquity cannot certainly be relied on Because there are Errors and Heresies so ancient that they sprung up presently after the first Truth Mere Antiquity therefore is not a good Proof For though the Devil be not first yet he is of great Antiquity being the old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that ancient Serpent who was a Liar as well as a Murderer from the Beginning And was so crafty as in Process of Time to make use of this Argument to prove he was the Ancient of Days that is God. And if there had not been something else whereby he might have been discovered to be a Serpent who could have contradicted him Or confuted his Doctrine and Worship if they had been to be tried by bare Antiquity Which is a Proof so insufficient that God Himself as ye heard before out of St. Austin is not proved to be God by Antiquity but by Eternity Truth and Error were born so near together that after a long Tract of Time they could not be distinguished merely by their Age. No sooner was Man created but this Serpent by his Subtilty beguiled Eve. And immediately after our Redemption he attempted again to corrupt Mens Minds from the simplicity that is in Christ 2 Cor. xi 3. 1 Thess iii. 5. And accordingly as there was a Church of Christ so there was together therewith a Synagogue of Satan Rev. iii. 9. There were Depths of Satan also and a Mystery of Iniquity which wrought even in the Apostles Days as well as a Mystery of Godliness and the deep things of God. Which wicked Doctrines running down to Posterity made use at length of the Plea of Antiquity to give them Countenance and Support Nor could it be denied tho it was proved to be a mere Deceit For it was refuted by the Fathers in such remarkable Words as these which give a deadly blow to the like Plea of the present Roman Church Custom without Truth is but the Antiquity of Error And there is a short way for Religious and Simple Minds to find out what is Truth For if we return to the Beginning and Original of Divine Tradition Human Error ceases Thither let
obtained of him upon other ther Terms than that those who were conquered by him having left their Idol-worship should embrace the true Krantzius Praef. ad Metrop sincere and eternal Religion of Christ And to engage them to continue firm to it he sometimes took Hostages of them and finding them begin to apostatize which they as often did as they thought themselves able to make head against their Conquerors he was forc'd to set up a kind of Inquisition to keep them in aw which Mezeray tells us lasted in Westphalia till the 15th Century Now when the Swords of victorious Princes as it happened in this case had made way for the preaching of the Gospel when the receiving of it was often made one of the Terms they who were conquered must necessarily submit to the Monks had very easy work what-ever Doctrine they had preached might have been efficacious under such Circumstances So that when there is with the Christian Doctrine a concurrence of many other things which have so strong an influence upon humane Nature 't is hard nay impossible for us to know which of them does the work When different Medicines proper for the same Distemper are administred at the same time 't is not easy to say which of them works the Cure. There is indeed a wonderful Efficacy in the Christian Doctrine but we can never be sure that the Conversion of a Nation is effected by that when Hopes and Fears and outward Force and necessity are in conjunction with it All which is so far from detracting from the honour of our Religion and the Conversions it made in the Primitive Times that it sets iâ— it a better Light and makes it shine the brighter Men were converted then not to a conquering but persecuted Church The Secular Power was against them that preached this holy Doctrine Much might be lost and nothing in this World got by it There were no rewards to encourage Men to receive it but a thousand Difficulties and Dangers to deter them from it And then indeed the Efficacy of the Christian Doctrine was in its greatest lustre it wrought all alone and had nothing to put in with it for a share in the Conquests it made The simplicity of its Preachers cleared them from all suspicion of Fraud The little or no Interest they had in the Government makes it plain that they could not use force and every thing concurred to demonstrate that 't was purely the Efficacy of their Doctrine by which they prevailed But to proceed a little more particularly to answer what the Cardinal has discoursed upon this Subject First I shall endeavour to shew in the general That the Prevalency of any Doctrine can be no Note of a true Church Secondly I shall instance in such particulars as do more particularly affect the Church of Rome in this matter and do make it evident that the Prevalency of the Doctrine professed in that Church is no Note of its being a true Church Thirdly I shall shew the Insufficiency of those Arguments with which the Cardinal endeavours to prove the contrary First That the Prevalency of any Doctrine can be no Note of a true Church will appear if we consider 1. What our Saviour has said in this matter 2. The Nature of Mankind 3. Matter of Fact. 1. Altho our Saviour sufficiently understood how much his Doctrine was likely to prevail in the World yet he is so far from making this to be a Note of his Church that he gives as plain intimations of the Prevalency of Error and does often bid us take care how we are imposed upon on thereby Take heed saith he that no man deceive you for many shall come in my Name Mat. 24.4 5. saying I am Christ and deceive many For there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets Verse 24. and shall shew great Signs and Wonders insomuch that if it were possible they shall deceive the very Elect. When he foretells so general a Defection he cannot be supposed to have thought the prevalency of any Doctrine to have been the Character of his true Disciples He does indeed compare the preaching of his Gospel to a grain of Mustard-seed which is the least of all Seeds hut when it is grown it is the greatest among Herbs unto Leaven which leaveneth the whole Lump unto a Net which gathereth of every kind All which Comparisons do intimate how much his Church would spread far near but not that such its diffusiveness was to be relied upon as a Note whereby to find it for by that Mark it could not then have been found when it was but a little Flock Besides that in the same Chapter he compares likewise the preaching of his Gospel to a Man which sowed good Seed in his Field Verse 24 25 26. but while Men slept his Enemy came and sowed Tares among the Wheat and went his way but when the Blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit then appeared the Tares also In which case if we were to judg by the growth and spreading we might conclude the Tares to have been the best Seed and not sown by an Enemy He compares likewise the Ministers of his Word to the Servants of a certain King sent out by him to call those that were bidden to the Wedding but to no purpose Mat. 22.2 c. for they all made light of it Intimating hereby how possible it is for those who are obstinate not to hearken to the most efficacious Doctrine that can be preached the most passionate and earnest invitations which can be made them And in the Parable of the good Seed some of which fell by the way-side some upon stony places some among Thorns Mat. 13.3 4. and other upon good Ground He does plainly set forth that let any Doctrine be never so good the reception which it finds in the World will be no other than what is agreeable to those Dispositions of mind which it happens to meet with And here also if the Rule had been that that is the true Doctrine which grows fastest and out-tops the other we must have given it for the Thorns which grew up and choaked the good Seed Which leads me to shew 2. From the consideration of the Temper and constitution of Mankind how weak a proof of a true Church the prevalency of any Doctrine is which it teacheth For Mens minds are so uncertain by reason of the Inconstancy of their Circumstances which chiefly influence them that often Truth is shut out where Error finds an easy admission Humane Nature is so weak a thing so apt to take impressions first from this thing then from another that no great heed is to be given to its changes no certain Argument can be drawn from them Such indeed is the Power of Truth that were Mankind freed from their Prejudices against it were their Minds no way byassed by Interest or Passion and at the same time fully instructed concerning it there is
are pleaded to establish them All this upon supposal that all these pretended Miracles were actually true But then Thirdly There is no tolerable ground of Certainty as to matter of Fact of most of those Miracles which the Romanists do make the Glory of their Church The first instance of any Miracle wrought by the Relicks of a Martyr is that Story of the Bones of Babylas That Martyr having been Interr'd in Daphne a Suburb of Antioch when Julian the Apostate came to consult Apollo's Oracle in that place near an hundred Years after this Martyr's Interment he could procure no Answer Upon this the Oracle was conjur'd at least to give a reason of this Silence accordingly it answered Because the Bones of Babylas lay so near his Temple I do not find this Story call'd much into Question by the gravest Authors nor indeed can we much wonder that the Devil should for once give so open a Deference to the Remains of an Holy Man when by one such an Act he hath so effectually emprov'd his Interests and Kingdom to so great an advance of Superstition afterward in all those fond Devotions that have been since pay'd to the Reliques of pretended Saints and all those lew'd Fables of innumerable Miracles acted at their Shrines which probably have been coyn'd upon this first occasion of Babylas There is another Story almost of as ancient a Date and that is of St. Ambrose having by Vision reveal'd to him where the Bones of Gervasius and Protasius the Martyrs lay which he took up and after considerable Miracles wrought such as curing a blind Butcher c. he repos'd the Venerable Reliques under the Altar of a new Church which he had then built and dedicated I am not willing to bring a Question upon this neither as to the truth of it because I find it not rejected by the best Writers as well as told by St. Ambrose himself and the Reason of some Miracles of that time might be in Vindication of the Catholick Faith against the Pestilence of Arianism that rag'd so fiercely at that time Yet there are some Circumstances that render it something suspicious as why that Holy Man should think of not building or dedicating a new Church unless he could be furnish'd with some Reliques There seems a good pretty tang of Superstition in the very Thought and then the bulk of those Bodies when they were found They seem of a Gygantick Race few of which I presume were ever of a Constitution for Martyrdom Invenimus mirae magnitudinis viros duos ut prisca aetas ferebat We found two Men of wonderful bulk such as olden Times were wont to produce * Ambr. Epist ad Marcel Soror l. 7. Certainly the Age of Decius wherein they suffer'd did not produce Men of a much larger size than the Age of Gratian and Valentinian But still let this Story as to matter of Fact be receiv'd as true doubtless it hath been followed in later Ages with thousands of the like kind that have been so prodigiously ridiculous and improbable that several of the considering Writers in the Church of Rome have been asham'd of them have profest their disdain at them and left their Censure upon them as plainly false and impossible Petrus Abbas Cluniacensis had the Wit and Honesty even in the XIIth Age to complain of these Tales Nosti quantum me pigeant falsa in Ecclesiâ Dei Cantica †Petr. Abbas Cluniacens l. 5. Epist 89. c. You know how irksom these false Hymns in the Church of God must needs be to me And a little after in the same Epistle adds Mendacia ad minus 24 Canticum id citato percurrens animo reperi He found at least four and twenty Lies in one Hymn of Benedict Lindanus one of their own Writers cites a Bishop of Lyons saying that he had corrected the Antiphonary Amputatis quae superflua levia falsa blasphema phantastica multa videbantur having cut off many things which seem'd superfluous trivial false blasphemous and fantastical And then adds of his own that if that Bishop had liv'd to see the Missals in his days Deum Immortalem quo ea nomine pingeret Good God by what Name would he have described them * Lindan de Interpretandis Scripturis l. 3. c. 3. Ludovicus Vives another of their own Authors speaks of their Golden Legend quam indigna Divis Hominibus Sanctorum Historia c. How unworthy either of Saints or Men is that History which I know not why they should call the Golden Legend when it was writ by a Man of an Iron Forehead and leaden Vnderstanding †Lud. Viv. In fine lib. 2. de Corrupt Artis We are told also by Melchior Canus that he cannot deny but that even their best Writers especially in describing the Miracles of the Saints have gathered up scattered Rumours and transferred them to Posterity in their Writings herein too much indulging themselves or the ordinary sort of Believers whom they suppos'd not only ready to believe but also vehemently desirous of such Miracles * Quanquam negare non possumus viros aliquando gravissimos c. Melch. Can. Loc. Theol. l. 11. c. 9. And of the Legends he declares he could not to this day meet with one Story that he could allow This was the Opinion and Esteem the wiser Authors in the Church of Rome have left behind them of such Stories as these however Father Cressy in his Church-History in this very Age of ours and in a Nation where there seems no Inclination to such unreasonable Credulity hath thought fit to lick up the Spittle of the idlest Monks and to avow the absurdest of all their Fictions The Centuriators have taken pains for several Centuries both to reckon up the Doctrines which the Church of Rome hath brought in and also in every Age to affix the particular Miracles that are pretended to justify those Doctrines It might create an infinite Nausea in the Reader should I follow that Method or indeed examine those Persons and their Miracles whom the Cardinal hath rang'd in order from the seventh to the sixteenth Age. However 1. as to the Persons whom he makes so famous for Miracles I shall examine one or two to give you a taste of the uncertainty of all the rest And 2. as to the Doctrines because the Cardinal hath instanced in some particularly in Confirmation of Christ's bodily Presence in the Eucharist I shall examine one or two of them too 1. As to the Persons In the twelfth Age (a) Bellarm. de Not. Eccles l. iv c. 14. Romanis Pontificibus addictissim is pluribus Miraculis claruit quam ullus Sanctorum quorum vitae scriptae exstant the Cardinal brings in S. Bernard who as he tells us was the Father of the Monks and most devoutly addicted to the See of Rome that he was famous for more Miracles than any of the Saints whose Lives are at present extant Whereas if we