things as Marks of Distinction only without any further Design of lessening their Natures and Qualities by them p. 31. 4. It does not follow that because the Name Catholick in that time when it was for the most part conjoined with the Catholick Faith was a sure Note of a true Church it must always be so even when the Name and the Thing are parted p. 32. The worst of Hereticks laid claim to it p. 33. The Rule to know the True Church by proved from Lactantius and St. Austin ibid. 5. It doth not follow that because the being called after the Names of particular Men in that Age when all so called were for the most part corrupt in the Faith was a sure Hand of Schismaticks and Hereticks that it must always be so p. 33 34. III. The Church of Rome having egregiously corrupted the Catholick Faith or Religion neither is nor deserves the Name of a Catholick Church p. 34. This justified by comparing her Doctrine in several Points with that delivered by Christ and his Apostles p. 35. For Instance that Angels and Saints are to be prayed unto and worshipped this contrary to Scripture ibid. The worshipping of Images contrary to the second Commandment which they make the same with the first p. 36. The Scripture commands all Persons indifferently to read the Scriptures the Church of Rome allows not this Liberty to the Laity but upon License ibid The Scriptures forbid Prayers in an unknown Tongue and the Church of Rome enjoins such and no other p. 37. Purgatory contrary to Scripture ibid. The denying the Cup to the Laity contrary to the express Instistitution of our Saviour p. 38. The Scripture saith that the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament even after Consecration is Bread and Wine the Church of Rome says the Bread and Wine is Transubstantiated into the natural Body and Blood of Christ. p. 39. The Propitiatory Sacrifice of the Mass according to the Scripture derogatory to Christ's own Priestly Oblation whereby he once offered himself a compleat Sacrifice of Expiation p. 40. In all these Particulars the Church of Rome a Corrupter of the Christian Faith and Doctrine and consequently deserves not the name of Catholick ibid The Second Note ANTIQUITY THis Mark and Character of a true Church is not proper to the Church of Rome alone nor in truth doth it belong to it To prove this three things are here offered I. That the Plea of bare Antiquity is not proper to the Church but common to it with other Societies of false Religion p. 41. The Notes of a thing must be proper to that of which they are a Note and not common to it with other things p. 42. 1. Because what is proper to a thing is inseparable from it and did ever belong to it since it had a being and can at no time be absent from it ibid. 2. Other Societies have laid claim to this Note and it could not be denied them and therefore no proper Note of a Church ibid. This shews that bare Antiquity cannot be a Note of Truth p. 44. Antiquity and Priority widely different p. 45. A twofold Antiquity one in respect of us the other absolute and in it self ibid. The Church of Rome will not be tried only by the Scriptures which is the true Antiquity p. 46. Error almost as ancient as Truth for which reason several wicked Doctrines running down to Posterity have made use of the plea of Antiquity to give them countenance and support p. 47. II. The present Church of Rome vainly pretends to true Antiquity i.e. to ancient Truth p. 48. Wherein true Antiquity doth consist ibid. The present Church of Rome not ancient by reason of that alteration they have made in the ancient Creed p. 49. Cardinal Bellarmin's Ratiocination against this charge consisting of 6 things to be observed in all Changes of Religion none of which he says can be shewn in the Church of Rome since the Apostles time ibid. His reasoning built upon very false grounds this considered and largely answered in four Particulars p. 50. 1. As being contrary to all History and Experience there having been great Changes in Religion the Authors and the beginnings c. of which cannot be known p. 50. 2. Neither do the Examples they alledg for this their reasoning serve to no other purpose but to shew the falseness of it as in the case of the Nestorian and Arrian Heresies p. 51. 3. Supposing them true they would uphold the greatest Impieties ibid. The Heathen Gods and their Oracles supported by this Argument p. 52. 4. The Roman Church it self an instance of this there being an acknowledg'd change in it and yet they cannot tell who first began it viz. Communion in one kind ibid. Two instances out of Polydore Virgil when and by whom they were brought into the Church of Rome p. 53. 1. Their grand Article of Faith the Papal Authority brought in by Victor and carried on by the following Bishops ibid. The present Definitions of the Catholick Church and the Power of the Pope to depose Kings not challenged till Gregory VII i.e. 1000 Years after Christ ibid. 2. It is known when Images crept into the Church p. 55. A little more than 100 Years since unwritten Traditions were decreed to be a part of the Rule of Faith i. e. of the Word of God. ibid. III. That the Religion of the Church of England by Law established is the true Primitive Christianity p. 56. The Third Note DURATION THree things are here considered I. What is to be understood by the term Duration p. 58. Duration includes 3 things 1. A Being of a Church from the beginning p. 58 2. The continuance of that Church to the end p. 58 3. The continuance of that Church from the beginning to the end without interruption p. 58 Bellarmine's Application of the first of these to the Church of Rome yet deficient in the latter Branches p. 59. II. How far Duration is a Note of the true Church p. 59. This is no Note by which a true Church is to be found out or distinguished from the false ib. For four Reasons 1. The nature of the thing will not permit that it should be a Note p. 60. 2. That cannot be a Note of the true Church which doth not inseparably belong to the Church in all seasons and cases p. 61. 3. That which is a Note must be proper to the thing which it is the Note of and not common to other things as well as that p. 61 62. Common to false Churches as well as true ibid. 4. If it be a Note of a true Church then those could not be true Churches which have not not had that Duration ib. This unchurches the 7 Churches of Asia p. 62 63. III. The Church of Rome hath no just and sufficient title to this Character p. 63. This proved as to 1. Place 2. Persons 3. Order 4. Doctrine these being the things by which a Church doth exist and is made
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
172. The Eighth Note Sanctity of Doctrine THat this Note as well as the others is far from performing what is promised for it by the Cardinal is sufficiently made evident by four Particulars p. 173. I. What is here meant by Sanctity of Doctrine p. 174. Tho' that is the best and purest Church which hath the least of Error and Corruption in its Doctrine and Discipline yet that which is the best is not the only true Church p. 157. II. That Sanctity of Doctrine i.e. a pure profession of true Religion without any mixture of Error is no true Note or Character whereby a man may distinguish the true Church from all false Churches p. 176. That this can be no true Note of the true Church made evidently appear from the consideration of those necessary Properties of all true Notes by which Things are to be known and distinguished p. 177. These are Four. 1. Every true Note ought to be common to all of the same kind with the thing which it notifies p. 177 to 180. 2. Every true Note ought to be proper and peculiar to that kind of things of which it is a Note and not common to Things of another kind p. 181. 3. Every true Note ought to be more known than the Thing which it notifies p. 182 183. 4. Every true Note ought to be inseparable to the Thing which it notifies p. 184 to 188. III. In what sense this may be a Note of the true Church p. 189. That is a true Church which professes all the Essential Articles of Christian Faith and receives all the Essential parts of Christian Worship and Discipline p. 190. The Church of England willing to be tried by this p. 192. IV. According to the Principles of the Church of Rome the true Church is not to be found by this Note in which soever of the two Senses we understand it ibid. This clearly made out in Four Particulars 1. The Church of Rome decryes mens private judgment of Discretion as utterly insufficient to make any certain distinction of Truth from Falshood in matters of Religion p. 194. 2. Shee allows no sufficient Rule without the true Church to guide and direct our private Judgment of Discretion p. 195. Which is the true Church not to be resolved by Principles of Nature but those of Revelation p. 196. No other Rule while we are out of the Church to direct us in this Enquiry but only that of Scripture ibid. This the Church of Rome tells us is insufficient and that for two Reasons 1. Because the Scripture is not full enough as to all Doctrines of Faith and Manners And therefore there are certain unwritten Traditions in the Church of equal Authority with it by which its defects are supplied p. 197. 2. Because it is not clear enough the Sense of it being so obscurely expressed that we can never be certain what it is without the interpretation of the true Church p. 198. These considered and answered 3. The Church of Rome resolves all certainty as to matters of Faith into the Authority of the true Church which indeed is the Fundamental Principle of Popery p. 199. A short Dialogue upon this Argument between a Papist and Protestant p. 200 to 202. 4. The Church of Rome gives Authority to the true Church to impose upon us a necessity of believing such Things as before they were not obliged to believe p. 203. to the End. The Ninth Note Efficacy of Doctrine BY Efficacy of Doctrine Two Things understood Either 1. The power which the Word of God hath in the hearts of particular men to dispose them to believe aright and to live well Or 2 That Success which it hath in drawing Multitudes outwardly to profess and embrace it p. 209. The first too inward and the second which is that which the Cardinal understands by it too uncertain a thing to be a Note of a True Church ibid. Many other things besides Efficacy of Doctrine which have and may convert whole Nations to the Christian Religion such as hopes and fears outward force necessity p. 210. An Instance hereof in the Conversions wrought by Charles the Great p. 211. The difference between such Conversions and those which were made in the first Ages of the Church p. 212. In answer to the Cardinal upon this Note Three things laid down I. That the prevalency of any Doctrine can be no Note of a True Church p. 213. This appears 1. From what our Saviour hath said in this matter ibid. 214. 2. From the Consideration of the Temper and Constitution of Mankind p. 215. to 217. 3. From plain matter of Fact. p. 218 219. Error hath such an influence often up n mens minds that they have rejected Truth and preferred the most gross and impious Opinions before it ibid. This apparent from the Histories of all Ages ibid. More particularly in the Case of Arianism p. 219. And in that of Mahomitanism p. 220. The Conversions wrought by those if the Greek Church whom the Church of Rome accounts Hereti ks p. 221. The Efficacy of the Reformed Doctrine ibid. II. That the Prevalency of the Doctrine professed in the Church of Rome is no Note of its being a True Church p. 222. And that for these reasons 1. Because of that great mixture of Errors which there is with the Truth which it professes p. 223. 2. Because the Doctrine of the Church of Rome is so much altered from what it formerly was ibid. 3. Because it hinders those who embrace it from throughly examining it p. 224. 4. Because Art and Force have sometimes been made use of to make it prevail p. 225. III. The Arguments the Cardinal makes use of to prove this to be a Note of the True Church proved to be Insufficient p. 226. 1. His Arguments from the Scriptures considered ibid. 2. His Arguments from the prevalency of the Christian Doctrine in the beginning of the Church examined p. 227. 3. His Arguments from the particular Instances which he gives of Conversions wrought by those of the Church of Rome reflected on p. 227. I. The Conversion of the English by Austin the Monk considered p. 228. Four Things alledged in answer to it ibid. 2. The Conversion of the People of Franconia by Kilianus replied to p. 228 229. 3. The Conversion of a great part of Germany by Vinofrid otherwise called Boniface considered ibid. The Conversion of the Vandals of the Danes of the Bulgarians Slavonians c. Ascribed to other Causes than the naked Efficacy of the Christian Doctrine ibid. The Barbarous Cruelties that were used by the Spaniards in the Conversion of the Indians p. 230. The Instance of Heraclius the Emperors Letter to Dagobert King of France concerning the method he made use of for the Conversion of the Jews p. 231. The Conclusion The Tenth Note Holiness of LIFE IN this Argument it is shewn I. What the Notion of Holiness is p. 233. Holiness is of Two kinds 1. Holiness of Calling and Dedication What
omitting Personal Contests but inserting whatsoever concerns the common Cause of Protestants or defends the Church of England with an exact Table of Contents and an Addition of some genuine Pieces of Mr. Chillingworth's never before Printed viz. against the Infallibility of the Roman Church Transubstantiation Tradition c. And an Account of what moved the Author to turn Papist with his Confutation of the said Motives An Historical Treatise written by an AUTHOR of the Communion of the CHVRCH of ROME touching TRANSVBSTANTIATION Wherein is made appear That according to the Principles of THAT CHVRCH This Doctrine cannot be an Article of Faith. 40. The Protestant's Companion Or an Impartial Survey and Comparison of the Protestant Religion as by Law established with the main Doctrines of Popery Wherein is shewed that Popery is contrary to Scripture Primitive Fathers and Councils and that proved from Holy Writ the Writings of the Ancient Fathers for several hundred Years and the Confession of the most Learned Papists themselves 40. The Pillar and Ground of Truth A Treatise shewing that the Roman Church falsly claims to be That Church and the Pillar of That Truth mentioned by S. Paul in his first Epistle to Timothy Chap. 3. Vers 15. 4o. The Peoples Right to read the Holy Scripture Asserted 4o. A Short Summary of the principal Controversies between the Church of England and the Church of Rome being a Vindication of several Protestant Doctrines in Answer to a Late Pamphlet Intituled Protestancy destitute of Scripture Proofs 4o. An Answer to a Late Pamphlet Intituled The Judgment and Doctrine of the Clergy of the Church of England concerning one Special Branch of the King's Prerogative viz. In dispensing with the Penal Laws 4o. A Discourse of the Holy Eucharist in the two great Points of the Real Presence and the Adoration of the Host in Answer to the Two Discourses lately Printed at Oxford on this Subject To which is perfixed a Large Historical Preface relating to the same Argument Two Discourses Of Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead The Fifteen Notes of the Church as laid down by Cardinal Bellarmin examined and confuted 4o. With a Table of the Contents Preparation for Death Being a Letter sent to a young Gentlewoman in France in a dangerous Distemper of which she died By W. W. 12o. The Difference between the Church of England and the Church of Rome in opposition to a late Book Intituled An Agreement between the Church of England and Church of Rome A PRIVATE PRAYER to be used in Difficult Times A True Account of a Conference held about Religion at London Sept. 29 1687 between A. Pulton Jesuit and Tho. Tenison D. D. as also of that which led to it and followed after it 4o. The Vindication of A. Cressener Schoolmaster in Long-Acre from the Aspersions of A. Pulton Jesuit Schoolmaster in the Savoy together with some Account of his Discourse with Mr. Meredith A Discourse shewing that Protestants are on the safer Side notwithstanding the uncharitable Judgment of their Adversaries and that Their Religion is the surest Way to Heaven 4o. Six Conferences concerning the Eucharist wherein is shewed that the Doctrine of Transubstantiation overthrows the Proofs of Christian Religion A Discourse concerning the pretended Sacrament of Extreme Vnction with an account of the Occasions and Beginnings of it in the Western Church In Three Parts With a Letter to the Vindicator of the Bishop of Condom The Pamphlet entituled Speculum Ecclesiasticum or an Ecclesiastical Prospective-Glass considered in its False Reasonings and Quotations There are added by way of Preface two further Answers the First to the Defender of the Speculum the Second to the Half-sheet against the Six Conferences A Second Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England against the new Exceptions of Mons de Meaux late Bishop of Condom and his Vindicator The FIRST PART In which the Account that has been given of the Bishop of Meaux's Exposition is fully Vindicated the Distinction of Old and New Popery Historically asserted and the Doctrine of the Church of Rome in Point of Image-worship more particularly considered 40. The Incurable Scepticism of the Church of Rome By the Author of the Six Conferences concerning the Eucharist 40. Mr. Pulton Considered in his Sincerity Reasonings Authorities Or a Just Answer to what he hath hitherto Published in his True Account his True and full Account of a Conference c. His Remarks and in them his pretended Confutation of what he calls Dr. T 's Rule of Faith. By Tho. Tenison D. D. A Full View of the Doctrines and Practices of the Antient Church relating to the Eucharist wholly different from those of the Present Roman Church and inconsistent with the belief of Transubstantiation Being a sufficient Confutation of CONSENSVS VETERVM NVBES TESTIVM and other Late Collections of the Fathers pretending to the Contrary 40. A BRIEF DISCOURSE Concerning the NOTES OF THE CHURCH With some REFLECTIONS on Cardinal BELLARMIN's Notes LICENSED April 6. 1687. JO. BATTELY LONDON Printed for Ric. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXVII PAge 11. l. 15. for Character r. Charter and p. 14. l. 8. r. Charter p. 16. l. 12. after Ancient and Apostolick Church add Which is the same with his second Note concerning Antiquity which must refer to the Antiquity of its Doctrine for an Ancient Church tho founded many years since if it have innovated in Doctrine cannot plead Antiquity and a Church founded but yesterday which professes the Ancient Faith may p. 18. l. 6. f. first r. fifth p. 22. l. 14. f. now r. more A BRIEF DISCOURSE Concerning the Notes of the CHURCH c. IF Cardinal Bellarmin had not told us That this is a most profitable Controversie Controv. T. 2. L. 4 de Notis Ecclesiae I should very much have wondered at that pains which he and so many other of their great Divines have taken to find out the Notes of the Church For is not the Catholick Church visible And if we can see which is this Church what need we guess at it by marks and signs and that by such marks and signs too as are matter of dispute themselves Cannot we distinguish between the Christian Church and a Turkish Mosque or Jewish Synagogue or Pagan Temple Cannot we without all this ado distinguish a Christian from a Turk or a Jew or a Pagan And it will be as easie to find out a Christian Church as it is to find out Christians for a Christian Church is nothing else but a Society of Christians united under Christian Pastors for the Worship of Christ and where ever we find such a Society as this there is a Christian Church and all such particular or National Churches all the World over make up the whole Christian Church or the Universal Church of Christ But this will not do the Cardinal's business Though the Christian Church is visible enough yet not such a Church as he
wants For since there are a great many Christian Churches in the World as the Greek the Armenian the Abyssine the Roman Church he would find out which of these Churches is the Catholick Church which after all their shuffles they can never make any better sense of than which of the Parts is the Whole Since there are many unhappy disputes among Christians the use of Notes is to find out an Infallible Church which must by an indisputable authority dictate to all other Churches what they must believe and what they must practise and to bring all other Churches into subjection they must find out a Church out of whose Communion there is no pardon of sin no Eternal life to be had That is in short the use of Notes is to prove the Church of Rome to be the only Catholick Church the only Infallible Oracle of Faith and final Judg of Controversies and that the promises of Pardon of Sin and Eternal Life are made only to the Church of Rome and to those other Churches which are in subjection to her Thus Bellarmine unriddles this matter that the usefulness of this Inquiry after the Notes of the true Church is because in the true Church only there is the true Faith the true remission of sins the true hope of eternal salvation Omnes enim â—onfitentur in solâ verâ Ecclesia esse veram fidem veram peccatorum remissionem veram spem salutis aeternâ Bell. de Notis Eccl. cap. 1. which is certainly true that all this is to be had only in the true Church of Christ For there can be no true Church without the true Faith and no remission of sins nor hope of salvation out of the true Church But then all the Churches in the World which profess the true faith of Christ are such true Churches But this will not do the business neither for it is not enough to know that every true Church professes the true Faith but we must find out such a Church as cannot err in the Faith and has authority to correct the Faith of all other Churches and we must allow the pardon of sin and eternal life to be had in no other Church but this which is the only thing which can make such a Church the Mistress of all other Churches and this Church must be the Church of Rome or else the Cardinal is undone with all his Notes and Marks of the Church The observing this gives us the true state of this Controversie which is not what it is which makes a Church a true Church which is necessary for all Christians to know that they may take care that nothing be wanting in their Communion which is essential to a true Church which is the only use of Notes that I know of but the dispute is how among all the divisions of Christendom we may find out that only true Church which is the Mistress of all other Churches the only Infallible Guide in Matters of Faith and to which alone the promises of pardon and salvation are made and by some Notes and Characters of such a Church to prove that the Church of Rome is that Church The first of these is what the Protestants intend in those Notes they give of the true Church to show what it is which is essential to the being and constitution of a Christian Church for that and none else is a true Church which has all things essential to a true Church The second is what the Papists intend by their Notes of a Church to prove that the Church of Rome is the only true Church and some brief remarks upon both these ways will abundantly serve for an Introduction to a more particular examination of Cardinal Bellarmin's Notes of the Church which is the only design of these Papers It is no wonder that Papists and Protestants differ so much about the Notes of the true Church since the questions which each of them intend to answer by their several Notes so vastly differ When you ask a Protestant What are the Notes of a true Church He answers to that question What it is which is essential to a true Church or what it is which makes a Church a true Church that is What a true Church is And examines the truth of his Church by the essential marks and properties of a Church When you ask a Papist for Notes of a true Church he answers to that question Which is a true Church and thinks to point you out to a true Church by some external marks and signs without ever inquiring what it is which is essential to a Church and this he must of necessity do according to his principles for he can know nothing of Religion till he has found the Church from which he must learn every thing else Let us consider then which of these is most reasonable First To begin with the Protestant way of finding out the Church by the essential properties of a true Church Such as the profession of the true Christian Faith and the Christian Sacraments rightly and duly administred by persons rightly ordained according to the Institution of our Saviour and the Apostolical practise This is essential to a true Church for there can be no true Christian Church without the true Christian Faith and Christian Sacraments which cannot be rightly administred but by Church-Officers rightly and duly Ordained The Regular Exercise of Discipline is not necessary to the being of the Church but to the purity and good government of it This is the sum of what the Protestants alledg for the Notes of the true Church and these are as infallible Notes of a true Church as Humane Nature is of a man for they are the Essential Principles of it By this every man may know whether he be a Member of a true Church or not for where this is there is a true Church where this is not there is no true Church whatever other marks of a Church there be And I know no other use of Notes but to find out what we seek for In answer to such Notes as these Cardinal Bellarmin objects Three things 1. That Notes whereby we will distinguish things must not be common to other things but proper and peculiar to that of which it is a Note As if you would describe a man to me whom I never saw so as that I may know him when I meet him it is not enough to say that he has two Hands or two Eyes c. because this is common to all Men. And this he says is the Fault of these Notes for as for the sincere Preaching of the Truth or the Profession of the true Christian Faith this is common to all Sects at least in their own Opinion and the same may be said of the Sacraments All Sects and Professions of Christians either have the true Faith and Sacraments or at least think that they have so and therefore these marks cannot visibly distinguish the true Church from any other Sect of
of Christ Now so far as Bellarmin's Notes belong to every true particular Church so far we allow them and let the Church of Rome make the best of them She can for we doubt not to make our claim to them as good and much better than hers but he has named very few such the 6th the Agreement and Consent in Doctrine with the Ancient and Apostolick Church and the 8th the Holiness of its Doctrine are the cheif if not the only Notes of this nature and these we will stand and fall by many of his other are not properly the Notes of a true Church any otherwise than as they are Testimonies of the truth of common Christianity which is professed by all true Churches and if they are Notes of the Church so every true particular Church has a share in them Such as his 9th the efficacy of Doctrine The 10th the Holiness of the lives of the first Authors and Fathers of our Religion and I suppose the Holiness of Christ and his Apostles give Testimony to the truth of common Christianity and therefore to all Churches who profess the common Faith once delivered to the Saints The 11th the Glory of Miracles which also proves the truth of Christian Religion and I hope a little better than Popish Miracles do Transubstantiation The 12th is the Spirit of Prophesy which as far as it is a good Note belongs to the Religion not to the Church Other Notes he assigns which I doubt will prove no Notes at all as 13 14 15. because they are not always true and at best uncertain His third and fourth Notes are not Notes of a Church but God's Promises made to his Church as of a long Duration that it shall never fail and Amplitude or Extent and multitude of Believers These Promises we believe God will fulfil to his Church but they can be no Notes which is the true Church For the first of these can never be a Note till the day of Judgment That Church which shall never be destroyed is the true Church but a bare long continuance is no Mark of a true Church for an Apostatical Church may continue by the patience and forbearance of God many hundred Years and be destroyed at last and then this Argument of a long Duration is confuted And as for Amplitude and Extent that is not to distinguish one Christian Church from another that the most numerous Church should be the truest but to distinguish the Christian Church from all other Religions and then I doubt this Prophecy has not received its just Accomplishment yet for tho we take in all the Christian Churches in the World and not exclude the greatest part of them as the Church of Rome does yet they bear but a small proportion to the rest of the World. And now there are but three of his fifteen Notes of the Church left The first concerning the Name Catholick which makes every Church a Catholick Church which will call it self so Tho Catholick does not declare what a Church is but in what Communion it is and is no Note of a true Church unless it be first proved that they are true Churches which are in Communion with each other For if three parts in four of all the Churches in the World were very corrupt and degenerate in Faith and Worship and were in one Communion this would be the most Catholick Communion as Catholick signifies the most general and universal but yet the fourth part which is sincere would be the best and truest Church and the Catholick Church as that signifies the Communion of all Orthodox and Pure Churches His first Note is the Succession of Bishops in the Church of Rome from the Apostles till now This is a Note of the Roman Church and the Succession of Bishops in the Greek Church is as good a Note of the Greek Church And any Churches which have been later planted who have Bishops in Succession from any of the Apostles or Apostolical Bishops by this Note are as good Churches as they So that this is a Note common to all true Churches and therefore can do the Church of Rome no Service His seventh Note indeed is home to his purpose That that is the only true Church which is united to the Bishop of Rome as to its Head. If he could prove this it must do his business without any other Notes but that will be examined hereafter But it is like the Confidence of a Jesuit to make that the Note of the Church which is the chief Subject of the Dispute The Sum is this There can be no Notes of a true Church but what belong to all true Churches for tho there is but one Catholick Church yet there are a great many true particular Churches which make up this Catholick Church as homogeneal Parts which have all the same Nature But now very few of the Cardinal's Notes belong to all true Churches and those which do so signifie nothing to his purpose because they are common to more Churches than the Church of Rome And as for the Catholick Church that is known only by particular Churches for it is nothing else but the Union of all true Churches in Faith and Worship and one Communion as far as distinct Churches at a great distance from each other are capable of it And therefore there is no other way to know which is the Catholick Church but by knowing all the true Churches in the World which either are in actual Communion with one another or are in a Disposition for it whenever occasion is offered For it is impossible that all true Christian Churches all the World over should ever joyn in any visible and external Acts of Communion and therefore tho we know and believe that there is a Catholick Church because we are assured that all true Churches in the World are but one Church the one Body and Spouse of Christ yet it is next to impossible to know all the Parts of the Catholick Church without which we cannot know the whole Catholick Church because we cannot know all the particular true Churches all the World over Nor indeed is there any need we should For we may certainly know which is a truly Catholick Church without knowing the whole Catholick Church For every Church which professes the true Catholick Faith and imposes only Catholick Terms of Communion and is ready out of the Principles of Brotherly Love and Charity that cement of Catholick Communion to communicate with all Churches and to receive all Churches to her Communion upon these Terms is a truly Catholick Church which shews how ridiculous it is to make the Catholick Church our first Inquiry and to pretend to give Notes to find out the true Catholick Church by before we know what a true Particular Church is But the Mystery of this will appear more in what follows 3dly For another Mystery of finding the true Church by Notes is to pick out of all the Christian Churches in the World
Reform'd They call us the Reformed therefore we are Reformed is as good an Argument as we call them Catholicks therefore they are Catholicks In this Sense are those Words of St. Austin cited by Bellarmine Contr. Epist Fundam c. 4. to be understood That should a Stranger happen in any City to enquire even of an Heretick where he might go to a Catholick Church the Heretick would not dare to send him to his own House or Oratory Not that that Heretick did believe that those that there were call'd Catholicks did hold the true Catholick Doctrine for then he could not have believ'd his own but looking upon it as a bare name of Distinction he directed him to that Assembly of Christians that were so called St. Austin seems here to suppose a Case as if a Traveller entring into a City where both Popish and Reform'd Churches were allowed and should chance to meet a Protestant and of him enquire the way to a Catholick Church and he direct him to a Popish one or a Papist and of him enquire the way to a Reform'd Church and he direct him to a Protestant one It would not therefore follow that either the one or the other did believe either Church to answer and correspond with its Name that the Popish was Catholick or the Protestant Reformed but that they were Words of vulgar use whereby they might be known from one another but not the true Church from the false IIII. It does not follow that because the Name of Catholick in that time when it was for the most part in conjunction with the Catholick Faith was a sure Note of a true Church it must always be so even when the Name and Thing are parted It was not long before the Christian Church became miserably torn and rent asunder divided into many and some very great Bodies all pretending to Catholicism By what Mark now is the Catholick Church to be known Not by the Name surely when all Parties laid claim to it and the grossest Hereticks such as the Manichaeans themselves as St. Austin tells us who had the least to shew for it coveted and gloried in it Have never any Hereticks or Scismaticks been styled Catholicks Nor ever any Orthodox styl'd Hereticks The Greek Church is call'd Catholick and yet the Church of Rome will have her an Heretical one The Donatists appropriated to themselves that ample Title and yet St. Austin thought them no better than Shcismaticks The Arrians call'd themselves Catholicks and the Orthodox Homousians and Athanasians but neither the one was the more nor the other the less Catholick for what they were call'd Truth is always the same and the Nature of things remains unalterable let Men fix on them what Names they please By this Rule then is the true Church to be known not because it bears the Name of Catholick for that a Church may do and yet be guilty of Schism and Heresie but because it professes the true Faith and then tho it be in name Heretick it is in reality Catholick This is Lactantius's Rule to discern the true Church by the true Religion That Church alone Instir lib. 4. c. ult Sola Catholica est quae verum cultum retinet says he is Catholick that retains the true Worship of God. And St. Austin in his Disputes with the Donatists where the true Church was appeals to the Scripture as the only Infallible Judg Non audiamus haec dico haec dicis sed audiamus haec dicit Dominus c. Ibi quaeramus Ecclesiam Epist 166. de unit Eccl. c. 2. Amongst many others to this purpose he hath these Words I say this and thou sayest that but thus saith the Lord. 5. Again does it follow that because the being called after the Names of particular Men in that Age when all so call'd were for the most part corrupt in the Faith was a sure Brand of Schismaticks and Hereticks it must ever be so May not Names and Titles be unjustly and maliciously impos'd If the Churches of the Reformed must go for Hereticks and Scismaticks meerly because they are distinguish'd by the Names of those Men that were the first and most eminent Instruments in that blessed Work as of Lutherans Calvinists Zuinglians the like Is there not the same Reason that the several Orders in the Church of Rome that go under the Names of their particular Founders as the Benedictines Franciscans Dominicans Jansenists and Molinists and others be esteemed so too If there be any Difference the advantage of Reason is on our Side since the Reformed assume not those Names to themselves and tho they deservedly honour the Memories of those Men and with thankful Hearts embrace the Reformation God was pleas'd by their Ministry to make in the Church yet do they by no means affect to be call'd after their Names They own no Name but Christian or Catholick when it signifies Persons adhering to the true Catholick Faith The others are Nick-names fasten'd on them by their Adversaries out of Scorn or Malice to represent them to the World as far as they are able as so many Schismaticks from the Catholick Church and as having other Leaders than Christ and his Apostles But those in the Church of Rome that are denominated from their particular Founders give themselves those Appellations seem to prefer them before that truly Catholick one of Christian which while with some neglect they leave to the Common People they glory and pride themselves in the other so that if this Note of an Heretick is valid it turns with great Force against themselves who are really guilty of it and not against us whom they will make guilty of it but are not III. The Church of Rome having egregiously corrupted the Catholick Faith or Religion neither is nor deserves the Name of a Catholick Church Whether she is guilty of this or no will be best seen by comparing her Doctrine in several Points with that delivered by Christ and left upon Record by his holy Apostles for tho the Church of Rome will not allow the Scriptures to be the whole and a perfect Rule of Faith and Manners yet they acknowledg them to be the Word of God and granting that they must acknowledg that all those Doctrines and Practices that are forbidden by them are Corruptions and Depravations of it Let us then bring their Faith to the Touchstone How readest thou The Scripture says See Discourse of the Object of Religious Worship 1685. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Mat. 4.10 Which Words evidently appropriate all kinds and all degrees of Religious Worship unto God they being an answer to the Devil's Temptation who requir'd but the lowest Degree the Devil acknowledging that the right he had of disposing of the Kingdoms of the World to be only derivative not natural they were delivered to me At the same time confessed himself not to be the Supream God and consequently cannot be suppos'd
consistent with the Pains and Fire of Purgatory which Bellarmin tells us is hotter than Hell it self is past my Apprehension The Chuch of Rome says that Souls are to continue in Purgatory till they have made full satisfaction for their Sins and are throughly purged from them and that whoever says that there is no Debt of temporal Punishment to be pay'd either in this World or in Purgatory before they can be admitted into Heaven is accursed Concil Trid. Sess 6. Can. 30. The Church of Rome says the Cup is not to be administred to the Laity and gives many reasons for it lest the Blood of Christ should be spilt lest the Wine kept for the Sick should fret lest Wine may not always be had or lest some may not be able to bear the smell or taste of it Whether these are sufficient Reasons or no the Council of Trent enjoyns all to believe them so under an Anathema Concil Trid. Sess 21. Can. 1. 2. The Council of Constance acknowledges that our Saviour instituted the Sacrament in both kinds and that it so continued in the Church of Rome many Centuries and yet with a Notwithstanding to both these it sacrilegiously robs the People of the Cup. Concil Const Sess 13. The Church of Rome says that the Bread and Wine in the Eucharist by the Priests pronouncing these Words Hoc est corpus meum is transubstantiated into the natural Body and Blood of Christ the Species or Accidents only of the Bread and Wine remaining and hath made it an Article to be believed by all under an Anathema Concil Trid. Sess 13. de Real Praes c. 1. Cornel. a Lapide tells us that it was the Opinion of some of their grave Divines that this Change is made after so powerful and effectual manner that if Christ had not been incarnated before the force of this Charm would have incarnated him and cloath'd him with Human Nature The Church of Rome says that in the Sacrifice of the Mass Christ is offered as often as that is celebrated and that tho' therein he be unbloodily offer'd yet is it a true propitiatory Sacrifice for the Sins both of the Living and Dead Concil Trid. Sess 22. Cap. 1. And declares the Person accursed that denies any part of this Ibid. In all these Particulars you see and several other might be instanc'd in the Faith and Doctrine of the Church of Rome bears a manifest repugnance to the Gospel of Christ Now if the Holy Scripture may be allow'd so much as to be a Rule of Faith and Manners in those things it particularly treats of the Church of Rome contradicting that Rule in those things must be condemned for a Corrupter of the Christian Faith or Doctrine And having thus made it evident that she holds not the true Catholick Faith 't is as evident that she is not and consequently deserves not to be called a Catholick Church THE END LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard 1687. The Second Note of the CHURCH EXAMINED VIZ. ANTIQUITY Secunda Nota est ANTIQVITAS Bellar. L. iv c. v. de Notis Ecclesiae IMPRIMATUR Apr. 5. 1687. JO. BATTELY IT is a shrewd sign that a Church is in an ill Case when the most learned and witty Defenders of it commend it to the World by such Marks and Characters whereby they say it may be known as are neither proper to it alone nor in Truth belong to it But more truly and evidently belong to them whom they oppose That this is the Case of the present Church of Rome in that Famous Note of ANTIQUITY which Bellarmin and others make a Mark of the true Church I will clearly and distinctly demonstrate by shewing these three Things I. That the Plea of bare Antiquity is not proper to the Church but common to it with other Societies of false Religion II. That true Antiquity is not on the side of the present Roman Church But III. That it is truly on Ours I. It is confessed by all even by them who make Antiquity a Mark of the Church that the Notes of a Thing must be proper to that of which they are a Note and not common to it with other Things Which quite destroys this Note of Antiquity upon a double Account First Because that which is proper to a Thing is inseparable from it and did ever belong to it since it had a Being and can at no Time without the destruction of its Being be absent from it This every Fresh-Man in Learning knows and by that may know that Antiquity is not a Note proper to the Church because it did not always belong to the Church For there was a Time when the Church was New. Which was objected to it by the Adversaries of our Religion and the Defenders of the Church answered the very same to them then that we do to the Romanists now as will appear in the second Thing I have to observe Secondly That other Societies have laid claim to this Note and it could not be denied them and therefore 't is not a proper Note whereby the true Church may be certainly known being common to it with others that are not of the Church 1. For first the Samaritans claimed it against the Jews as appears from the Womans Discourse with our Saviour Joh. iv 20. Our Fathers worshipped in this Mountain c. They had done so for many Ages before they worshipped in Jerusalem For here God appeared unto Abraham who here also built an Altar when he came first out of Chaldea Gen. xii 6 7. Here Jacob likewise built an Altar when he came out of Mesopotamia Gen. xxxiii 20. Here there was a Sanctuary in the Days of Joshua who gave his last Charge to Israel and made a Covenant with them in this Place Chap. xxiv 25 26. Here the Patriarchs were buried v. 32. Nay here-abouts was Shiloh Judg. xxi 19. where by the order of Joshua the Tabernacle and the Ark of God were setled long before it was brought to Jerusalem Josh xviii 1 2. which was all this time in the Hands of the Jebusites To which Plea the Jews could not make an Answer but by maintaining this Principle That not the Antiquity of Place but the Authority of God's Precept was to be their direction in this Case And God it appeared by the Holy Books had chosen Jerusalem to place his Name there 2. Thus the Jews themselves argued against Christ that he did not follow the Tradition of the Elders which had been derived to them from ancient times Mark vii 1 c. and against Christians whom they called the Sect of the Nazarens Acts xxiv 5. as much as to say Hereticks newly sprung up from Jesus of Nazareth 3. And thus the Pagans argued against them both particularly against the Christians saying to St. Paul at Athens May we know what this New Doctrine whereof thou speakest is Acts xvii 19. And in after-times calling it a Novel Religion a
true Catholick Church is only the whole of all those simuular parts or all true Churches together whatsoever the Catholick Church is besides its being the whole all the true Churches must be of which it doth consist and consequently if that be unerring these must be so also for how is it possible that the whole which consists of all the parts should be unerring unless all the parts are unerring if therefore not to err in its Profession be a true Note of the true Church all true Churches must necessarily partake of it and consequently all those must be false Churches which profess any Error than which there is scarce any Proposition in Religion more notoriously false 'T is true whatsoever Church errs in any Fundamental Article of Religion doth thereby cease from being a true Church because those Articles are the very Foundations upon which every true Church stands and therefore when any Church removes them or any of them it must necessarily sink from the very being of a true Church into a false and heretical Communion but there are many Errors which do not at all touch or in the least affect the Fundamentals of Religion and these a true Church may possibly profess and yet maintain her Foundations firm and unshaken and so long as a Church professes all those Truths which are necessary to the being of a true Church it is so far a true Church tho together with that it should profess contrary to some other Truths which are not necessary to the being of a true Church for how can its professing any Error which doth not contradict any Truth which is necessary to the being of a true Church make it cease to be a true Church or how can that be a false Church upon the account of its Profession which professes all those Truths which are necessary to the founding and constituting a true Church If the profession of every Error in Religion be sufficient to destroy the verity of a Church then the profession of every Truth must be necessary to found it because every true Church being founded upon Truth there is no Error can destroy it but what takes away the Truth which founds and therefore unless it be founded upon the Profession of every Truth it cannot be destroyed by the Profession of every Error and consequently none can be true Churches but such as profess every true Proposition in Religion which being admitted the Profession of every true Church must contain almost as many Articles as it self doth contain Communicants And indeed if none can be true Churches but such as profess no Errors no two Churches whatsoever can differ in any Opinion tho never so inconsiderable but one of the two must be a false Church because where-ever there is a difference in Opinion there must be an Error on one side or other as for instance There was a very early difference in Opinion between the Eastern and Western Churches about the time of the Celebration of Easter in which if either of them were in the right to be sure the other must be erroneous and if neither both Did then the erring Church continue a true Church or no notwithstanding its Error if it did then a true Church may err in its Profession and yet be a true Church still if it did not then both were false Churches because tho each believed that the other err'd yet for a great while they mutually owned each other for true Churches in which if every Error destroys the verity of a Church they both of 'em err'd and thereupon both cease to be true Churches And if we enquire into the Church of Rome which now pretends to be the only true Church in the World we shall find that in several instances it professes now quite contrary to what it profest heretofore Vid. Note 3d p. 65. Either therefore the Profession of some Errors is consistent with the being of a true Church or the Roman Church must either have been a false Church heretofore or be a false Church now and seeing the Roman Church now consists of several Churches some of which profess contrary to one another as particularly in that celebrated Question Whether the Pope be Superiour to a General Council or a General Council to the Pope it 's certain that if either of 'em are in the right there must be an erroneous Profession on one side or other And if the Roman Church err in any of its parts how can it be unerring in the whole which is nothing but all the parts together for if she allow any Church to be a true Church or part of the true Church which professes any Error she errs herself supposing an unerring Profession to be a true Note of the true Church and consequently is herself a false Church if she doth not then in receiving Churches which differ in their Profession she receives into her Communion some that are no true Churches which I doubt will go as far towards the unchurching her as the Profession of most Errors whatsoever In short therefore if not to err in its Profession in any matter be a Note of the true Church all true Churches must necessarily partake of it and consequently none can be true Churches which in any point whatsoever profess erroneously which as I have proved is utterly false and which if it were true would perhaps as much damnify the Church of Rome in the Opinion of any sober and honest Enquirer as any one Church now extant in the World. 2. Secondly Every true Note ought to be proper and peculiar to that kind of things of which it is a Note and not common to things of another kind otherwise it is impossible that it should truly distinguish the one from the other But this Note of not erring in its Profession is not peculiar to true Churches for seeing there may be a Schism without any Error in Faith or Heresy we must either allow Schismatical Societies of Christians to be true Churches which the Church of Rome to be sure will never admit or that it is by no means peculiar to true Churches not to err in their Faith. That which may be common to Schismatical Communions with the true Church cannot be peculiar to the true Church supposing Schismatical Communions not to be the true Church or the true parts of the true Church but the Cardinal himself owns that there have been Schisms which did not err in their Faith and yet were without the true Church for so in his forecited Cap. 2. There may be Doctrine pure saith he from all Error in a false Church for so pure Schismaticks as heretofore the Luciferians and Donatists had in the beginning very sound Doctrine among 'em and yet were without the true Church Where by the way it 's evident the good Man had quite forgot that Sanctity of Doctrine was hereafter to be one of his Notes of the true Church for if as he tells us in this very Chapter the Notes of
the true Church are such as are proper and peculiar to it it 's plain that his Memory fail'd him either when he made Sanctity of Doctrine to be one of these Notes or when he allowed this Note to be common to false Churches with the true Seeing therefore there have been Communities of Christians in the World which have not err'd in their Faith and yet were neither the true Church nor any true parts of it and seeing what hath been may be again how is it possible for any honest Enquirer after the true Church to find any one Church in the World to which this Note of not erring is proper and peculiar The Catholicks did not err in their Faith the Donatists and Luciferians did not err in theirs how then is it possible to discover by this Note of not erring in Faith which of the three were the true Church seeing that that can be no true Note of the true Church which is not peculiar to it and that not erring in Faith was common to 'em both 3. Thirdly Every true Note ought to be more known than the thing which it notifies for how can we know a thing by that which is as unknown to us as the thing it self If therefore not to err in any point whatsoever be a true Note of the true Church the truth of every Article comprized in the Profession of that which is the true Church must be more known than that it is the true Church which considering how very large and extensive the publick Professions of Churches now are cannot be supposed without making the true Church to be one of the darkest and obscurest things in the World. For besides that according to the Principle of the Cardinal and his Church it is the true Church only can fully instruct a Man in the truth of all those Points of which the unerring Profession of the true Church consists and therefore a Man must have found the true Church and been instructed by it before he can be certain that those Points are all true of which more hereafter Besides which I say it is to be considered that there are sundry Doctrines now professed by most Churches of which ordinary Capacities can make no certain Judgment I confess if the publick Professions of the Churches now in being were confined to the Fundamental Articles of Religion it were an easy matter for an ordinary Enquirer to satisfy himself concerning the truth of 'em because whatsoever is fundamental is so plainly revealed that probity of Mind together with sound Intellectuals are the only Accomplishments that are requisite to Mens attainment of the knowledg of it but seeing the generality of the publick Professions of Churches do together with such Doctrines as are fundamental comprehend such as are not yea and sometimes such as are very remote from Fundamentals and seeing many of these are not so plainly revealed but that pro and con they are involved with such difficulties as have perplexed even the most learned and judicious Enquirers to satisfy one's self fully that such Professions as these are in all points true without the least intermixture of Error requires great Sagacity as well as Probity of Mind For there is scarce any one Church now extant in the World but what professes some Doctrines which in some other Churches are hotly controverted and opposed and seeing there are sundry Churches in the World which in sundry Points profess contrary to one another and there are scarce any two Churches which in all Points are agreed it is certain that a great part of 'em must in one Point or other be erroneous and seeing the Church of Rome doth in several Articles differ from all other Churches in the World either she by this Note must be a false Church or there is no true Church in the World but her self Now in the midst of such a vast multiplicity of Professions how is it possible for an ordinary Enquirer to conclude with any certainty which of 'em is true and which false especially considering that as to some of the Points in which they differ there are such fair probabilities pro and con as are sufficient to suspend any modest Judgment from determining it self one way or other And that others of 'em depend upon such Scholastical Niceties and are defended and opposed by such subtile and metaphysical Reasonings such critical Senses of Texts and ambiguous Accounts of Ecclesiastical Antiquity as that scarce one Man in a thousand is capable of making any certain judgment concerning them If therefore before I can conclude that this or that is a true Church it must be more known and evident to me that it doth not err in any Point whatsoever than that it is a true Church doubtless to determine which is the true Church is one of the most obscure and difficult Points in the World and I must be a very learned and judicious Divine before I can modestly pretend to have found it To what a miserable uncertainty then are Mankind abandoned when 't is as much as their Souls are worth to be in the true Church and yet are left to seek it by such an intricate Note as this whereby scarce one Man in a thousand is capable of finding it 4. And Lastly Every true Note ought to be inseparable to the Thing which it notifies for there is nothing can notify or make known a Thing without which the Thing may be what it is and if that which is the Note of it may be separated from it it may be the very same Thing which it is tho it hath not that Note If therefore this Note of an unerring Profession be not inseparable from the true Church it may be the true Church tho it be not unerring in its Profession Wherefore before I can be certain that any Church which pretends to be the true Church is the true Church I must be certain that this Note of not erring is inseparable to it But before I can be certain that this Note is inseparable to any one Church now extant I must be certain not only that it doth not err now which as I have shewed above the generality of Men can never be but also that it never hath erred nor ever will for as the Cardinal hath stated the matter the thing of which we are to enquire is not which of the Churches now extant are true Churches or parts of the Catholick Church but which of 'em are the true Catholick Church If we were only to enquire which of 'em are true parts of the Catholick Church all that we had to do was to satisfy our selves which of 'em at present have the true Notes of a true part of the Catholick Church but as for particular Churches it is agreed of all hands that they may be true parts of the Catholick Church at one time and yet not be so at another so that as to particular Churches all that I need to enquire is only this Whether at
Church it is agreed of all sides that it is only to the true Church And therefore I must be certain which is the true Church before I can be ascertained which Church is infallible Seeing therefore that every true Note is inseparable to the Thing which it notifies before I can be certain that I have found the true Church which Christ hath promised to continue to the end of the World by this Note of not erring I must have very good assurance not only that my Church doth not err at present but also that not to err is always inseparable to it both for the time past and the time to come Seeing therefore there is no one Church now in being of which we can be rationally assured as to this matter the necessary Consequence is that by this Note no Man can certainly discover which is the true Church And now having proved that according to the true Properties of the Notes of the true Church this of Sanctity of Doctrine as Bellarmin explains it is no true Note for an honest Enquirer to seek the true Church by I proceed III. To enquire in what Sense this is a true Note of the true Church In short if by Sanctity of Doctrine we understand professing all the necessary and essential Articles of Christian Faith and admitting all the essential parts of Christian Worship and Discipline this wherever it is is a certain Note of a true Church for nothing can be a certain Note of a true Church but what is essential to it as a true Church for whatsoever is accidental to it is separable from it and whatsoever is separable from it it may have or not have and yet be a true Church notwithstanding that therefore which doth not appertain to it as it is a true Church may appertain to a false Church as well as a true But to say that that is not a true Church which hath all the essentials of a true Church is a downright Contradiction If therefore we would have such Notes of a true Church as we may certainly depend upon we must fetch 'em from the Essence of a true Church and consequently we must first state what a true Church is before we can be certain what are the true Notes of it Now what it is that is necessary to constitute a true Christian Church may be easily collected by considering what is necessary to make a true Christian for a true Christian Church is nothing but a Society of true Christians And seeing that Christianity consists of Doctrines of Faith and Laws of Worship and Discipline he only is a true Christian that owns and receives Christianity in all these parts of it that is who acknowledges all the Essentials of true Christian Faith Worship and Discipline And consequently that must be a true Christian Church or Society of true Christians which professes all the Essential Articles of Christian Faith and receives all the Essential parts of Christian Worship and Discipline whereever therefore I find a Religious Society of Men professing all the necessary Doctrines of true Christian Faith worshiping the one God through the one Mediator communicating in the true Christian Sacraments and submitting to the true Christian Discipline duly administred by true Christian Pastors and Governours there I am certain I have found a true Church if that be a true Church which hath all the Essentials that constitute a true Church Wherefore before we can know whether this or that be a true Church we must be rightly imformed what a true Church is and before we can state what a true Church is we must learn what the true Faith and Worship and Discipline is because these are the Essential Ingredients of which a true Church is composed And when we have learn'd what these are by them we may certainly discover whether this or that be a true Church or no. If therefore by Sanctity of Doctrine we understand the publick profession and admission of all the Essentials of Christian Faith Worship and Discipline it is not only a certain Note of a true Church but the only certain Note of it because there can be no certain Note of a true Church but what is Essential to it and there is nothing Essential to it but what this Note comprehends Where-ever this is there is the entire Essence of a true Church and if there were but one Church upon Earth that had it that would be the only true Church in the World and if there were ten thousand Churches agreeing in it there would be ten thousand true Churches So that whereas all other Notes are separable from a true Church and consequently may direct us to a false Church instead of a true this is no more separable from it than a true Man is from the Human Nature And if I had found a Church that hath in it all the other Notes of Bellarmin excepting this I should still be to seek for a true Church as on the contrary if I had found a Church that wants all the rest but this I should nevertheless sit down fully satisfied of its Truth and seek no further And thus I have given a brief Account in what Sense Sanctity of Doctrine is a certain Note of the true Church and by this our Church is willing to be tryed by any honest and ingenuous Enquirer whose Business it is to seek for Truth and not for Gain and Preferment and if upon Examination he cannot find in it as I am sure he may if he examine fairly all the Essentials of that Faith and Worship and Discipline which the Scripture teaches and the Primitive Ages profess'd and embraced in God's Name let him seek farther abroad but if after he hath missed of it in the Church of England he should happen to find it in the Church of Rome imports him as much as his Soul is worth to enquire into one Point more viz. whether he sought it by his Reason or by his Interest And now I proceed IV. And Lastly To shew That according to the Principles of the Church of Rome the true Church is not to be found by this Note in which-soever of the two Senses we understand it for if by Sanctity of Doctrine we mean with Bellarmin an unerring profession of the Truth without any the least intermixture of Error before we can be certain we have found thē true Church by it we must be very well assured concerning the profession of that Church which we take to be the true Church that it is in all particulars true without any the least Ingredient of Error Or if by Sanctity of Doctrine we only mean the profession of all the Essentials of Christian Faith Worship and Discipline before we can be certain that we have found the true Church by it we must be very well assured not only that there are such Essential Principles and what they are but also that they are true for unless we certainly know that there are such Principles and what
they are we can never be certain whether any one Church in the World doth profess 'em or no for how can we know whether or no a Church professes we know not what And unless we certainly know that these Principles are true we can never be certain whether that be a true Church which professes 'em for seeing it is the profession of the true Principles of Religion that makes a true Church it is impossible for us to know whether any Church be a true Church till we know whether the Principles it professes are true So that before a Man can be secure that he hath found the true Church by this Note he must be certain either that every thing it professes is true or at least that the main and fundamental Principles of its Profession are true Neither of which he can be certain of according to the Principles of the Church of Rome For First She decries Mens private Judgment of Discretion as utterly insufficient to make any certain distinction of Truth from Falshood in matters of Religion Secondly She allows no sufficient Rule without the true Church to guide and direct our private Judgment of Discretion Thirdly She resolves all Certainty as to matters of Faith into the Authority of the true Church Fourthly She authorizes the true Church to impose upon us an absolute necessity of believing such Things as before were not necessary to be believed First The Church of Rome decries Men's private Judgment of Discretion as utterly insufficient to make any certain distinction of Truth from Falshood in matters of Religion Seeing we are to seek the true Church by Notes our certainty that we have found it must wholly depend upon our certainty that we have found in it the Notes of the true Church but tho there is no one thing in the World of which we are more concerned to be certain than that we have found the true Church and are in Communion with it because no less than our Eternal Salvation depends upon it yet it is only our own private Judgment of Discretion that by applying the Notes of the true Church can ascertain us in this Point For while we are in quest of the true Church we have no other way to find it but by carrying the Notes of it along with us and by examining and judging by our own private Discretion which Church these Notes do belong to either our private Discretion is sufficient to assertain us in this Matter or it is not if it be not we can never be certain which is the true Church if it be it must be sufficient to assertain us in all other necessary Points of Religion because one of the Notes by which we are to seek the true Church and that a principal one too is Sanctity of Doctrine or an unerring profession of the true Religion at least in all necessary points But before we can be certain which Church this Note belongs to we must be throughly satisfied in our own private Discretion what this unerring Profession is which we can never be till we are certain of the Truth of all the Particulars of it and when we are certain of this we are certain at least as to all necessary points of true Religion which must all be included in every unerring Profession of it So that before we can be certain of any Church that it is the true Church we must be certain that it doth not err in its profession and before we can be certain of this we must be certain of the Truth of all those particular Doctrines whereof its Profession is composed and of this we have as yet no other way to be certain but only by our own private Judgment of Discretion because till we have found the true Church its impossible we should conduct our selves by its Authority and in the absence of the true Churches Authority we have nothing to conduct us but our own private Discretion either this our private Discretion therefore is sufficient to assertain us of the Truth of all the particular Doctrines whereof an unerring Profession of Religion is composed or it is not if it be it must be sufficient to assertain us as to all necessary points of Religion if it be not as the Church of Rome affirms it is not it is impossible we should ever be certain that we have found the true Church again either therefore the Church of Rome must allow that certainty in all at least in all necessary Points of Religion is attainable by the free and honest use of our own private Judgment of Discretion which as I shall shew by and by she can never allow without undermining her own Foundations or she must leave Men hovering in eternal Uncertainty as to one of the most necessary Points of Religion viz. which is the true Church Secondly The Church of Rome allows no sufficient Rule without the true Church to guide and direct our private Judgment of Discretion Seeing the Constitution of the true Church is not natural but entirely founded upon Divine Institution this Question Which is the true Church is not to be resolved by Principles of Nature but by Principles of Revelation and therefore without some revealed Rule which is every way sufficient to guide and direct our private Discretion we shall never be able to find out which is the true Church because without such a Rule we have nothing but the Principles of Nature to go by which in this Enquiry are utterly insufficient to direct us But while we are out of the Church we have no other revealed Rule to direct us in our Enquiry after it but only that of Scripture for as for Tradition the Church of Rome teaches that the true Church is the sole Conservator of it and that tho it be a part of Divine Revelation yet no Man is obliged any farther to believe it than the true Church hath defined and declared it And seeing I can have ho certainty what is a true Tradition till such time as I am got into the true Church How can Tradition be a Rule of Faith to me while I am out of it Or How can that be the Rule of my Faith whilst I am in quest of the true Church which I have no other Obligation to believe but only the true Churches Authority Whilst therefore I am out of the true Church the only Rule I have to go by in my Enquiries after it is Scripture And this the Church of Rome tells me is insufficient both because it is not full enough and because it is not clear enough Which if true I can never be certain I have found the true Church by this Note of an unerring Profession 1st She teaches that the Scripture is not full enough as not containing in it all necessary Doctrines of Faith and Manners but that there are certain unwritten Traditions in the Church of equal Authority with it by which its defects are supplied And if so How is it possible I
should find the true Church by the direction of Scripture For since according to this Note that can be no true Church which doth not unerringly profess all necessary Doctrines of Faith and Manners when I have found a Church which professes all such necessary Doctrines as are in Scripture I cannot be secure that it is a true Church supposing there are other necessary Doctrines out of Scripture viz. in the unwritten Traditions because then the profession of these will be altogether as necessary to its being a true Church as the profession of those All that the Scripture can satisfy me in is only this whether such a Church profess all the necessary Doctrines in Scripture but if there are any necessary Doctrines out of Scripture it 's certain that the profession of them is as necessary to the being of the true Church as the profession of those that are in it And therefore before I can be certain that it is the true Church I must be fully satisfied that it professeth both which I can never be unless I have some other Rule to go by besides this of Scripture 2dly The Church of Rome teaches that the Scripture is no sufficient Rule in respect of clearness the Sense of it being so obscurely exprest that we can never be certain what it is without the Interpretation of the true Church Which if true it 's utterly impossible for one who is out of the true Church ever to find it by the direction of Scripture For according to this Note that only is the true Church which doth not err in its Profession at least in any necessary Point either as to Doctrines of Faith or Doctrines of Manners But before I can know whether any Church doth not err in its Profession I must be certainly informed what the true Profession is or what are those Doctrines of Faith and Manners of which this true Profession consists as to which the Scripture can never certainly inform me if it be not sufficiently clear For if I can never be certain what the true sense of Scripture is without the Interpretation of the true Church How is it possible that while I am out of the true Church I should ever be certain of its Sense as to all the particular Doctrines which the true Profession of Religion contains So that according to this Principle the Scripture is so far from being a sufficient Rule to one that is out of the true Church that it is perfectly useless to him in his Enquiry after it for either it can certainly direct him to the true Church or it cannot if it can it must be sufficiently clear to inform him of its own Sense without the Interpretation of the true Church concerning all those Doctrines of Faith and Manners whereof the unerring Profession of the true Church is composed and if so this Principle of the Roman Church is erroneous if it be not to what purpose doth it serve unless it be to lead him into an endless Maze of Uncertainties wherein the further he wanders the more he will lose himself So that if a Man hath had the misfortune to be born and bred out of the true Church in an Heretical or Schismatical Communion and is enquiring his way in by this Note of an unerring Profession he hath no other Rule to instruct and inform him what this unerring Profession is but only that of Scripture which according to the Principles of the Church of Rome is insufficient for his Purpose How then is it possible he should ever be certain that he hath found the true Church when the only Rule he hath whereby to enquire what that unerring Profession is whereby he is to seek it is utterly insufficient to resolve him Thirdly The Church of Rome resolves all Certainty as to matters of Faith into the Authority of the true Church and indeed this is the fundamental Principle of Popery viz. That the only ground of Certainty as to matters of Faith is the Authority of the present true Church teaching and proposing ' em Till such time therefore as we have found the true Church and do believe upon the Authority of its teaching we can never have any true Certainty of the matters which we are to believe And yet before we can be certain that we have found the true Church by this Note of an unerring Profession we must have very good certainty as to all matters of Faith for we can never be certain upon the Authority of any Church that what we believe is true till such time as we are certain that it is the true Church nor can we ever be certain that it is the true Church until we are certain that it doth not err in its Profession or which is the same thing that all the matters of Faith which it teaches and professes are true So that the certainty of our Faith after we have found the true Church and do believe upon its Authority must depend upon the certainty of our Faith while we were seeking it and did believe without its Authority Because before we can believe with any certainty upon the Authority of any Church we must be certain that it is the true Church but we can never be certain that it is the true Church till we are first certain that its Profession is true as to all the matters of Faith contained in it To make the matter more plain I will briefly represent it in a short Dialogue between a Protestant and a Papist Protest You tell me I can never be certain as to matters of Faith unless I believe upon the Authority of the true Church Pap. I do so and upon the Truth of this Proposition all my Religion is founded Protest But I beseech you May I be certain as to matters of Faith if I believe upon the Authority of any Church tho I am not certain whether it be the true Church or no Pap. To what Purpose do you ask this Question Protest Because if I may then in believing upon the Authority of the Church of England which you say is a false Church I shall be as certain as to matters of Faith as you who believe on the Authority of the Church of Rome which you say is the only true Church Pap. Why then I tell you you can never be certain as to matters of Faith in believing upon the Authority of any Church unless you are certain it is the true Church upon whose Authority you believe ' em Protest Why so Pap. Because it is not the Authority of a Church merely that is the true ground of Certainty but the Authority of the true Church otherwise the Authority of all Churches true or false would be equally a true ground of Certainty And therefore you can never be certain that the Authority of that Church upon which you believe is a true ground of Certainty unless you are first certain that it is the true Church Protest I do allow your Reason But then pray
how shall I be certain that it is the true Church Pap. Why this you must examine by certain Notes of the true Church whereof one and that a principal one is Sanctity of Doctrine or an unerring Profession of the true Religion Protest But Good Sir can I not be certain that it is the true Church till I am first certain that it doth not err in its Profession Pap. No. Protest Why then I must be certain of the Truth of all those matters of Faith whereof its Profession consists before I can be certain that it is the true Church Pap. You must so Protest But pray how shall I If that be true which you told me just now viz. That there is no true ground of Certainty but the Authority of the true Church For how is it possible I should ever be truly certain when as yet I know no true ground of Certainty Pap. Why have you not the Authority of the true Church Protest But as yet I am not certain that the Church upon whose Authority you would have me believe is the true Church and till I am certain of this with what Certainty can I depend upon her Authority Would you have me be certain that whatsoever she professes is true upon her own bare Word and Authority before I am certain that she is the true Church If so why may I not as well believe any other Church to be the true Church seeing there is no other Church but what will pass its Word for the Truth of its own Profession as well as yours If not you must allow me to have some other ground of Certainty as to Matters of Faith besides the Authority of the true Church For before I can securely rely upon the Authority of any Church as the true ground of Certainty I must be certain that it is the true Church and my Certainty that she is the true Church must depend upon my Certainty of the Truth of all those Matters of Faith comprised in her Profession So that before I am certain of the Truth of her Profession it is too soon for me to rely upon her Authority as the only ground of Certainty and when I am certain of it it is too late because I am certain already Fourthly And Lastly The Church of Rome gives Authority to the true Church to impose upon Mens Minds a necessity of believing such things as before they were not obliged to believe For she makes the Church's Authority not only a concurrent motive of Faith but the very formal reason of it so that we are not only obliged to believe what the Church declares but we are therefore obliged to believe it because she declares it 'T is true some of the Roman Doctors tell us that the Church hath no power to make new Articles of Faith but only that seeing there some old Truths in Scripture and the unwritten Tradition of the Church which the Church hath not yet declared and which therefore Men are not yet obliged to believe the Church hath Authority when ever she thinks meet to declare 'em and thereby to oblige Men under pain of Damnation to believe 'em but others of 'em and particularly Cardinal Bellarmin de Potest Sum. Pontif. tell us That the Church of later Time not only hath power to explain and declare but also to Constitute and Command those Things which belong to Faith. And indeed the difference between declaring and constituting or making an Article of Faith is only Verbal For an Article of Faith is a Truth that is necessary to be believed And therefore if the Church by declaring a Truth which was not necessary to be believed makes it necessary to be believed it thereby makes that Truth an Article of Faith which was not an Article of Faith. And so to declare and to make is the very same thing But in this they are all agreed that the true Church hath power to make those things necessary to be believed which were not so before And if this be true no Man can ever be certain by this Note of an unerring Profession that he hath found the true Church For before I can be certain of any Church as for instance the Roman that it is the true Church I must be certain that that Church's Profession is true but when I proceed to examine the particular Articles of it as I must do before I can be certain of the Truth of the whole I shall find there are several of them of the Truth of which in the opinion of several even of her own Doctors I have no sufficient ground to be certain either in Scripture or Tradition which while I am seeking the true Church are the only Rule I have whereby to examine them as particularly Transubstantiation Seven Sacraments Necessity of Auricular Confession Roman Purgatory and Indulgences Vid. Note the Sixth pag. 125. c. And if these Roman Doctors pretend to be certain of them upon no other Reason but because their Church which they are sure is the true Church hath declared them How shall I be certain of them who am but an Enquirer whether it be the true Church or no And therefore as yet cannot be supposed to be sure that it is for without her Declaration they themselves confess I have no sufficient ground to be certain of the Truth of them And till I am sure she is the true Church her Declarations are no ground of Certainty to me And as I cannot be certain that these Articles are true till I am sure that the Church which declare them is the true Church so supposing that the true Church hath power to impose upon me a necessity of believing such Things as before I was not obliged to believe I cannot be certain that they are false because no Authority can be supposed to have a right to impose upon Men such a necessity of believing but what is infallible and cannot impose what is false on them unless it be supposed that Men may be rightfully obliged to believe what is false If therefore the Roman Church be the true Church as for all I yet know it may then for all I yet know it hath Authority from God to impose upon me a necessity of believing whatever she declares and consequently for all I yet know she is Infallible But as for my self I know that I am a fallible Creature and therefore whatsoever Infallibility declares to me must certainly be true whatsoever Probabilities yea or seeming Demonstrations I may have against it how then can I be certain that any Article is false which is declared to me by a Church that for all I yet know is Infallible if it be Infallible I am sure that whatever it declares is true And if it be the true Church it must be Infallible Supposing that the true Church hath Authority to impose new Necessities of believing but whether it be the true Church or no is the Thing I am now enquiring by this Note of
an unerring Profession But till I am certain one way or t'other whether she be the true Church or no I can never be certain whether her Profession be true or false till I am certain that she is the true Church there are some Articles in her Profession of which as her own Doctors confess I cannot be certain that they are true and till I am certain that she is not the true Church I can never be certain that any one Article in her Profession is false and if I cannot be certain whether she errs in her Profession or no till I am certain whether she be the true Church or no to what purpose should I enquire whether or no she be the true Church by this Note of an unerring Profession If supposing her to be the true Church she hath Authority from God to oblige me upon pain of Damnation to believe to Day that which I was not obliged to believe Yesterday to what end do I enquire whether those things which she commands me to believe are true or false If she be the true Church as for all I yet know she may be I am sure what ever she commands me to believe must be true and therefore till I am certain that she is not the true Church I can never be certain that any thing she commands me to believe is false For how can I be certain that any one thing she imposes is false when for all I yet know she is the true Church which the God of Truth who can neither impose himself nor authorize any other to impose on me that which is false hath authorized to impose it and if till I am certain that she is not the true Church I can never be certain that any thing she imposes is false How can I ever be cartain by this Note of an unerring Profession whether she be the true Church or no For if any thing she professes or imposes be false by this Note she cannot be the true Church but whether any thing she professes be false or no I can never be certain till I am first certain whether she is or is not the true Church THE END ERRATA IN the Seventh Note Pag. 137. the first cum Capite in the Title is to be blotted out P. 147. line 17. for Arian r. Asian P. 148. l. 6. f. Complaint r. Complement LONDON Printed by J. D. for Richard Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1687. The Ninth Note of the CHURCH EXAMINED VIZ The Efficacy of the Doctrine Nona Nota est Efficacia Doctrinae Bellarm. L. iv c. 12. de Notis Ecclesiae IMPRIMATUR June 8. 1687. Jo. Battely BY Efficacy of Doctrine must be meant either that power which the Word of God has in the Minds of Particular Men to dispose them to believe aright and to live well or else that success which it has in drawing Multitudes outwardly to profess and embrace it The former of these is too inward a thing to be the Note of a true Church No Man being able to know what the Word of God has done in anothers Heart but instead of that apt rather to be deceived in what it has done in his own The Second which must be that the Cardinal means can as little be a Note by reason of its Uncertainty and if we cannot be sure of the Note we shall be less so of that which we are to find out by it If indeed there were nothing which could or did move Men to relinquish Heathenism Judaism or Turcism for our Religion but the pure Efficacy of the Christian Doctrine it would be a very good Note of the excellence of the Doctrine it self but according to the Cardinal 's own Principles it could be no Note that that were the true Church which preached it since he will not allow the sincere preaching of Truth to signify any thing Lib. iv 2. And we shall have much less reason to rely on this Note if we consider how many other things there are besides the Efficacy of the Christian Doctrine which have and may convert whole Nations to it Let us therefore at present grant in general the matter of Fact to be true that such Conversions as the Cardinal speaks of were made by the Church of Rome yet how shall we know that they were made purely by the Efficacy of its Doctrine and that no other means such as Force c. were used Is it enough that he tells us so The Bishop of Meaux tells us that in the late great Conversion in France not one of the Persons converted suffered Violence either in his Person or Goods That they were so far from suffering Torments Pastoral Letter p. 3 4. that they had not so much as heard them mentioned and that he heard other Bishops affirm the same Now if those Reverend Prelats were out as most people think they were in a matter of Fact of which they might be Eye-witnesses why may not the learned Cardinal be so too in his Relation of Conversions made so many hundred years since If he be out his Note falls to the ground and if it cannot be made plainly to appear to us that he was not out his Note as far as it is founded upon those Histories which he produces wants that certainty which should give us satisfaction Historians who wrote in those obscure times and were perhaps themselves Converters being most of them Monks might vain-gloriously ascribe much to the Efficacy of their own Doctrine and the Centuriators themselves whom he so often quotes might not be very curious to search or accurate to relate the chief motives of their Conversions because they wrote before the Cardinal had made Efficacy of Doctrine a Note of the true Church and little dream't what odd use some Men would make of their History But notwithstanding these Neglects and Disadvantages I do not doubt but that if we look'd back into the Writers of those Times nay even into the Centuriators themselves we should find some other things besides Efficacy of Doctrine concurring to the Conversions which were then wrought An instance whereof to pass by at present the particular examination of those mentioned by the Cardinal we have in those Converons wrought by Charles the Great to whose victorious Arms they were more to be ascribed than to any thing else besides For not to mention that the Clergy were not then in any great capacity of doing much by the Efficacy of their Doctrine the Bishops being so ignorant that they were to be commanded to understand the Lord's Prayer and could hardly be brought to make some few exhortations to the People but instead of that turned Souldiers to shew that they were willing to do somewhat towards the propagating their Religion such was the Zeal of that Prince rather to defend and increase the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Mezeray in the Life of Charles the Great than to inlarge his own Empire that Peace could never be
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
it follows that the Church must know them too by Revelation from him then it follows also that the Church must know all things that are to happen hereafter because it is God only that can communicate such Knowledg If he meant that those who have any degree of it must necessarily belong to the Church because God only can give it neither is this true as I shall presently shew Nor if it were could the Gift of foretelling some Things be for this Reason a Note of the Church unless also the want of this Gift should be a demonstration against any Communion that it is not a True Church which I am sure can never be proved from hence that none but God can bestow it 3. He adds that in Deut. 18. it is laid down for a Note of False Doctrine If a Prophet foretells any thing and it does not come to pass Now First This Argument is very impertinent unless as lying Prophecy is said to be a Note of False Doctrine so False Doctrine be also supposed a Note of a False Church which is a very dangerous Supposition to a Church that had rather be tried by any other Note than that of the Truth of her Doctrine for it seems if we can clearly prove by any Good Argument that she professeth False Doctrine it follows without more to do that she is no True Church But Secondly It is not said in the place cited by the Cardinal that False Prophecy is a Note of False Doctrine but that 't is a Note or rather an Argument that the Prophet had no Commission from God to say that such an Event should come to pass Nor does it follow from hence that the False Prophet must needs be a Heretick unless it be impossible for a Catholick or an Orthodox Professor to tell a Lye which I think no Man will be so hardy as to say Thirdly Much less is it said that a Prophet's foretelling rightly a future contingent Event is a Note of True Doctrine which had been necessary to make True Prophecy a Note of the True Church Nay on the other Hand there is express Caution given not long before against being seduced into Idolatry by true Predictions If there arise among you a Prophet or a Dreamer of Dreams and giveth thee a Sign or a Wonder and the Sign or the Wonder comes to pass whereof he spake unto hee saying Deut. xiii 1 2 3. Let us go after other Gods Thou shalt not hearken unto the Words of that Prophet For the Lord your God proveth you c. Which shews the Confidence of the Cardinal in pronouncing so peremptorily that there have been no true Predictions amongst Heathens and Hereticks unless perhaps for a Testimony to our Faith. For this Warning plainly supposed that such Predictions there would be not to confirm Believers in the Truth but to prove their Constancy under a Temptation to Error They must indeed be False Prophets as that signifies False Teachers who should endeavour to gain Authority to Impious Doctrines and to Idolatrous Practices by appealing to the Truth of their own Predictions But yet they were to be True Prophets in respect of the Events which they would foretell And therefore to pretend that Heathens and Hereticks never foretold any Contingency which came to pass but when Providence designed a farther Testimony to confirm us in the Faith is to speak gently a wretched Mistake And there is no more Difficulty in this Point than whether we are to believe God or Bellarmin But if there had been no true Prophecies amongst Heathens besides those which were designed for a Testimony to the Christian Faith yet even these are a manifest Argument that the Gift of Prophecy is no certain Note of the Church nay they prove it more evidently than any other Prophecies could do because those Predictions surely have the most unquestionable Truth which were made for a Testimony to True Doctrine Of which kind that there had been several amongst the Gentiles seems very probable from those Remains thereof which we meet with in Virgil and Tacitus Eclog. 4. De Divin â— Not to insist upon that famous Acrostic of Sybilla Erythraea in Lactantius and Eusebius which it is certain that Cicero had seen Apol. 2. Strom. l. 6. Ep. 49. Qu. 2. De Civit. Dei lib. 18. c. 47. nor what Justin Martyr and Clemens Alexandrinus say of the Books of Hystaspes I shall only note what St. Austin says of this Master viz. That Christ was not foretold in Israel only but in other Nations also And that Predictions concerning Christ may be met with in the Books of those who are Strangers to Israel and that it is not incongruous to believe that this Mystery was revealed to Men of other Nations Which Things saith he may be mentioned as Advantages on our side over and above what is necessary Now will any Man say that these Predictions did less shew a Prophetic Light amongst the Gentiles because they were true With what Conscience therefore could Bellarmin shuffle off those famous Predictions of Balaam a Heathen Soothsayer Numb xxiv 15 c. concerning Christ to which he adds those of the Sybills by saying that they were a Testimony to our Faith As if the Argument were not so much the stronger that the Gift of True Prophecy is not confined within the Communion of the Church Surely he could not be ignorant that the Old Testament it self is called the Word of Prophecy 2 Pet. i. 19. and that the main Predictions thereof were for a Testimony to confirm us in the Faith. But by the same reason that he strikes off the true Predictions of Heathens from being an Instance of Prophetick Light because forsooth they were for the Confirmation of our Faith he must also set aside the best Evidence of Prophetick Light within the Communion of the Church the Predictions whereof were no less but more than any others for a Testimony to our Faith. As to the Oracles of Apollo which he does well to reject from being True Prophecies we need not to offer them for the disparagement of this Note of Prophetick Light since they might be deceitful and yet the Light of Prophecy neither be always in the Church nor never amongst those that are out of it But when he tells us That Hereticks are deceived as often as they would foretell any thing and that this appears from the False Prophets in the Old Testament it is a pitiful thing that such a Man should think it enough to prove a Conclusion so general by a particular Instance He refers us to 1 Kings 22. where we find that Ahab's Prophets spake by a Lying Spirit But does this prove that Hereticks never prophecy truly There were some False Prophets amongst the Ten Tribes upon their Revolt therefore there never were any True Ones How came it then to pass that there were so many of the Lord's Prophets amongst them 1 King. xviii 4. that at one time
an happy End it is a true one Thus for Example the Church of England is both a true Church and a false Queen Elizabeth lived and died happily the Spaniards her and its great Enemies in 88 died unfortunately therefore it is the only true Church King Charles the First of Blessed Memory had an unhappy End the Usurper died quietly in his Bed therefore it is a false Church I bring the Church of England only for an Instance the same is as true of the Church of Rome and I doubt not of any other Division of Christians of what Denomination soever And is not this now a fine Note to find out the true Church by when no false Church can be found that will not by it be the only true one and on the contrary no true Church can be mention'd that will not be a false one Yea which is more when that which is indeed the only true Church the Church Catholick will by this Note be no Church for not only its Enemies but its Friends too do often die unfortunately and its Enemies as well as its Friends have frequently such Deaths as in the Eye of the World are most happy 4. Whereas it is a Contradiction to say That the only true Church can be more than one if this Note stand good it will be many so many different Churches as there are in the World so many only true Churches will there be one only excepted So when a Pope dies miserably as all the World knows the Popes have frequently done then every Church in the World the Roman only excepted is the only true Church because the Pope is an Adversary to every one of them and this as appeared by the third thing premised is made by Bellarmin the Note of the only true Church Yea 5. Those very Protestant Churches which Bellarmin design'd to mark out for false will by this Note be true Churches and that which he would conclude the only true Church will be a false one 1. The Lutherans and Calvinists he says are not true Churches because Luther and Calvin died miserably that they so died I shall presently shew is false But be it true what follows If Luther died miserably then the Calvinists are the true Church If Calvin died miserably then the Lutherans are the true Church for Luther and Calvin opposed each other as well as both of them the Church of Rome 2. That the Church of Rome that he would make to be the only true Church will by this Note be concluded a false one I shall shew in speaking to the next Head and therefore now pass it I think by this time not only the Vanity but the Falshood of this Note is sufficiently manifest III. Let us now suppose it a Note of the true Church and see who will have the best on 't The advantage will lye so clearly on the Protestant side that the Romanists themselves will be found to confess it I grant That those horrid Deaths which have by the Church of Rome been inflicted upon those who have opposed her Errors are a Mark by which she is made as visible as her City seated upon the seven Hills those who have thus died are more than can be numbered and their Deaths were many of them both for Nature and Circumstances the most monstrous But this I trow does not mark her out for the Spouse of Christ but for that Woman that is drunken with the Blood of the Saints and with the Blood of the Martyrs of Jesus She is not therefore I think ambitious of this Mark but would rather hide it tho it is so deeply branded upon her that she will never be able to rub it out If therefore these be set aside which I am confident the Church of Rome is very willing they should be and would be glad if all Histories were burnt too in which their Burnings are left on Record let us see whether Church the Roman or the Protestant hath the fairest Plea to this Note This will be soon determin'd by comparing the Deaths of their Prime Members and Zealous Champions and then considering on which side we find the greater number of such as are unnatural and not common to Men. 1. For the Protestants The chief Assertors of the Protestant Interest are either their Bishops and other eminent Pastors and Teachers or those Secular Princes who have under God been the great Defenders and Protectors of the Protestant Faith. As for their Bishops and other eminent Pastors and Teachers they are without number who have died the most happy Deaths such as Jewel Whitaker Vsher Hall Morton Jackson Melancthon Bucer Musculus Zanchy Farellus Beza Vrsinus Grynaeus c. whose Deaths were not only placid and pious but attended with those lively Hopes of a Blessed Immortality as recommended their Religion to its Adversaries But it is not so much my business to tell you whose Deaths were happy as out of that number to select those that were unhappy And I think we may take it for granted that the number of these is very small in that their profess'd Adversary who labour'd to make the most of every thing against them hath mention'd no more than Five viz. Luther Zuinglius Oecolampadius Carolostadius and Calvin Now suppose it true That all these died as miserably as Bellarmin would have the World believe yet what are five to that numberless number who have had the most auspicious Deaths Will not the Argument for the Truth of their Church from those that died happily as much exceed that against it from those that died miserably as the number of the one exceeds that of the other So that if the true Church be concluded by this Argument it is ten thousand to one but the Protestant Church is the only true Church But what shall we say if the Deaths of all but one of these five be misrepresented And what he says of that one and two of the other if it were true be no Argument of an unappy Death Whether it be so or no I shall now briefly examin He begins with Luther He says the Cardinal died suddenly for whereas in the Evening he was merry and in Health and had provoked all that were present to Laughter by his Jests the same Night he was found dead (l) Lutherus morte repentina sublatus est nam cum vesperi opiparam caenam sumpsisset laetus sanus facetiis â—itis omnes ad risum provocasset eadem nocte mortuus est Bellarm. Grant this were true A sudden Death is not always and to all Persons unhappy But suppose it were it ill becomes a Papist to object it since it is no more than what hath been the Lot of many of their Popes For so died Pope Nicholas III (m) Ubi idem Pontifex cibi ac potus continentissimus subita tamen morte correptus c. Plat. in Vit. Nic. III. and Pope Clemens VI (n) Vergente hoc eodem anno Clemens cum
own Authors 11. The Glory of Miracles These alone were never a Note of the true Church And those extraordinary Gifts which were bestowed at first for the Confirmation of Christianity we think they are ceased long ago But we are forewarned of False Christs and false Prophets Mat. 24.24 which should shew great Signs and Wonders which me-thinks should make a Church very careful how they made any pretension to Miracles But the Church of Rome is resolved to do it and would fain perswade us that there are many great Ones wrought among them to this very Day and as they believe always will be But we know and they will not deny it that many of the Miracles they have talked of are meer Forgeries and Delusions others altogether incredible and but weakly attested and wholly unworthy of the Seriousness and Gravity of the Christian Religion most of them said to be done in Corners and are never to be seen but among themselves When they please to oblige us Protestants with the sight of a few of them they may then deserve to be farther considered till that be done they must give us leave to think that their Church is reduced to great Streights when it shall stand in need of such slight Artifices as these to support it 12. The Light of Prophecy This if they had it can bring no more Advantage to their Cause than the other The Church of God anciently when extraordinary Revelations were more common had not always Prophets in it And when any appeared the Prophet was to be tryed by the Faith of the Church and not the Church by the Predictions of the Prophet And we are still commanded to try the Spirits whether they are of God 1 Joh. 4.1 Because many false Prophets are gone out into the World. 13. The Confession of Adversaries This if the Cardinal's Instances were pertinent would yet be but of little Consequence for if some Protestants have spoken favourably of his Catholicks some of his Catholicks have spoken favourably of Protestants Or if we should be willing to hope well of some of them as we are and they should adjudge us every one to Eternal Damnation as they generally do this would be but an ill sign that their Church must therefore be the truer because it is more Censorious and Uncharitable than Ours 14. The Vnhappy End of the Church's Enemies A wise Man would be something afraid of passing this into a Note before he was himself safe in his Grave For all things come alike to all Eccl. 9.2 there is one Event to the Righteous and to the Wicked Many of the most Zealous Patrons of the Romish Persuasion have met with as Tragical and Unfortunate Ends as the most accursed Heretick that ever was devoured by Vermin or burnt at a Stake 15. Temporal Felicity This may be placed in the same Rank with the former it is altogether as variable and inconstant as that no certain Judgment can be made upon it They are not to learn that the Enemies of their Church have been often successful and that Victory has not always waited upon their Catholick Arms no not in their most Holy Wars when Religion has been the only ground of the Quarrel Thus upon a Review of all the Notes in order as they are mustered up by the great Cardinal it may appear to any unprejudiced Enquirer that he has missed of his Aim For that they are either no Notes of a Church at all or not proper to that of Rome And now after the highest Pretences of an Infallible Church and the absolute Deference and Submission which they say is due unto it any Man that shall seriously consider the Matter must needs wonder they should have no surer means at last to find it out than a few slight and improbable nay some of them very vain false and extravagant Conjectures The Protestants whom they will not allow to be certain of any thing have far better Evidences than these and as good Assurances of the Truth of their Church as can be desired For we think the True Faith True Worship and a Right Administration of the Sacraments do unquestionably make a True Church These the Romanists themselves cannot deny to be the great and necessary Notes and if the Controversy betwixt us come to be determined by these it will soon appear which Communion we ought to prefer We make Profession of the whole Catholick Apostolick Faith as it is contained in the Holy Scriptures and briefly comprized in the three Creeds which is all that was ever received in the Primitive Church They have made large Additions to the Antient Belief and increased the number of the Articles from Twelve to Four and Twenty many of which were not so much as heard of in the First Ages and never made necessary to be believed till above fifteen hundred Years after the Publication of the Gospel We Worship Almighty God and none but him and unto him we Pray in a Language we understand through Jesus Christ our only Mediator in whose Name when we ask we are sure to be heard They have a kind of Worship which they give to Saints and Images which as to all External Acts of Adoration is the very same they pay to God himself and when their Addresses are directed unto Him all their Publick Service is in an unknown Tongue and they set up to themselves many Mediatours of Intercession when they cannot tell whether they hear them but it is most certain that God has never promised to hear them for their Sakes We receive the two Sacraments which Christ ordained in his Church and administer them both in such Manner and Form as he has appointed They without any Divine Authority have made Seven Sacraments and in the Lord's Supper they believe that there is offered up a proper Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Living and the Dead they adore the Elements which they think are Transubstantiated into the Body and Blood of our Saviour and suffer the Laity to communicate but in one kind robbing them of the Cup contrary to the plain Institution and express Command of our Blessed Lord. And since we have the True Faith True Worship and the Sacraments rightly Administred it is evident that we are not deficient in any thing that is necessary to the Constitution of a True Church But They will never be able to prove themselves such a One by the late Additions they have made to the Creed and their many Deviations from the Primitive Rule And yet they will be continually vaunting that they are not only a True Church but the only True Church in the World and upon this Presumption they thunder out their Anathema's upon all Christendom besides and confidently condemn them for a Company of Heretical and Schismatical Conventicles But they cannot justify that rash and uncharitable Sentence nor make good any part of this heavy Charge For we that heartily believe all the Antient Creeds cannot be accused of Heresy neither are we guilty of Schism because we only Reformed those Errors and Corruptions which they had introduced and wanted not sufficient Authority for what was done But if they are still absolutely resolved to stand to the Censure they have passed and allow no True Church upon Earth but their Own it is not Cardinal Bellarmin's Fifteen Notes that will ever prove it FINIS ERRATA Pag. 367. l. 3. for not r. most P. 371. Marg. l. ult for cap. 3. r. 13. LONDON Printed by J. D. for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1687. BOOKS lately printed for Richard Chiswell THE Pillar and Ground of Truth A Treatise shewing that the Roman Church falsly claims to be That Church and the Pillar of That Truth mentioned by St. Paul in his First Epistle to Timothy Chap. 3. Vers 15.4o. The Peoples Right to read the Holy Scripture Asserted 4o. A Short Summary of the Principal Controversies between the Church of England and the Church of Rome being a Vindication of several Protestant Doctrines in Answer to a Late Pamphlet Intituled Protestancy destitute of Scripture Proofs 4o. Two Discourses of Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead An Answer to a late Pamphlet Intituled The Judgment and Doctrine of the Clergy of the Church of England concerning one Special Branch of the King's Prerogative viz. In dispensing with the Penal Laws 4o. A PRIVATE PRAYER to be used in Difficult Times 8o.
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
69. which I presume is the best that his Friend Bellarmine could direct him to and which hath nothing further in it than a pretty high Flight which several of the Fathers would take when they mention the Holy Sacrament and what may be well enough defended by those that reject Transubstantiation to the uttermost The Cardinal gives us another Miracle from Paschasius de Corpore Dom. c. 14. which our late learned Reasoner is very fond of too ‖ Consens Veterum p. 97. The Story is of a certain Godly Priest that was in great dis-tress to see with his bodily Eyes the Shape of him whom he certainly believ'd actually present under the Species of Bread and Wine At length he obtain'd what he so long desir'd and beheld the Body of Christ in Human Shape but in the Figure of a Child which he had also most vehemently desired Now as to this beside the Authority of the Book out of which this is taken let us consider to what purpose this Miracle was wrought or the Story of it told in this place The Cardinal is upon the Proof of Christ's Bodily Presence in the Sacrament and this Bodily Presence is so receiv'd by those of the Roman Communion that they believe that very Body which was slain upon the Cross was buried was rais'd again and went up into Heaven that that very numerical Body is substantially and intirely under the Species of Bread and Wine the Substance of which is perfectly vanish'd Let me therefore ask Mr. Sclater of Putney because his Friend the Cardinal cannot now answer for himself Did our Blessed Saviour die an Infant and rise again an Infant and does he now sit at the Right Hand of God in the Figure of a Child or in his Infant-state If not and I hope he will say it is blasphemous to think so how then did this Godly Presbyter see the Body of Christ as he supposed it transubstantiated under the Species of Bread and Wine The Substance of the Bread and Wine was gone into that Body that had been crucified What! was there Transubstantiation upon Transubstantiation and the proper Body of our Saviour gone into the Substance of a Child's Body It may be this made him in love with those Liturgies he quotes †Consens Veterum p. 28. wherein the Priest is blessing God for vouchsafing by him to change the immaculate Body of Christ and his precious Blood c. To change it into what perhaps from that of a grown Man to that of a Child or Infant Well but the Cardinal is something more wary in the Story than the venturesom Gentleman of Putney For he tells us the Priest had desir'd to see him in this Shape If so and if he was thus far indulg'd what kind of Argument is this for Transubstantiation What Conviction is this that the very self-same Body that hung upon the Cross and is at the right Hand of God is brought down under the Species of Bread and Wine But the Author adds in Bellarmin That it pleaseth God to work Miracles upon a twofold account sometimes to confirm the doubting and sometimes for the Consolation of those that fervently love him * Bellarm. de Saer Euchar. ubi supr This we are to suppose then was not to confirm the Godly Priest in his Faith he needed not that but to give him great Consolation But what Are we to suppose so Godly a Presbyter as this was to be more ravish'd in the view of his Saviour under the shape of a smiling playing Babe than in that very Form wherein he finish'd the great work of our Salvation upon the Cross and wherein he is now triumphing Above in the Accomplishment of what he undertook Let him believe it that can make the Doctrine of Transubstantiation the Reason of his Conversion from the Church of England to that of Rome and can strengthen his Faith in it more firmly from some Rabbinical Prophecies and such a Story as this is †Consensus Veter p. 21 22. and so on and p. 97. I would have examined a Third Story of St. Anthony of Padua but I find this done so learnedly and so effectually to my Hands by a most ingenious Pen (a) Reflections on the Rom. Devotions p. 326 327 c. that I had rather refer the Reader thither than needlesly swell the bulk of this Note Considering therefore how little likelihood of Truth there is in many Stories of this kind or where as to matter of Fact some of them may have been possibly true yet how reasonably they may be accounted the Tricks and Impostures of Evil Spirits I cannot but close this Head with an Expression of St. Austin to the Donatists upon the same Pretensions they had to Miracles August de Vnitate Eccles c. 16. Removentur ista vel figmenta mendacium hominum vel portenta fallacium spirituum Away with these either Fictions of Lying Men or Illusions of deceiving Spirits For certainly they are neither the Note nor can be the Glory of any true Church And therefore III. Lastly We of the Reform'd Religion as we do not pretend to the working of Miracles in our Age so if we did we could pretend to prove nothing by them but what hath been already sufficiently prov'd by the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles We most humbly and thankfully adore the great Condescentions of Divine Grace that hath been pleas'd in his first planting of Christianity so fully and so unquestionably to confirm all the necessary Articles of our Belief with such strong and convincing Miracles The Report of these Miracles we most firmly believe We do without the least haesitancy own the Almighty Power of God in them and entirely embrace all that Faith which they were design'd to confirm and establish We know of no other Doctrines that we have any Obligation to receive than what are deliver'd to us in the Holy Scriptures and so effectually seal'd to us We have nothing new to put off or back with the pretence of Miracles but are always ready to reject both the Doctrines when they are propos'd and the Miracles when they are offer'd in Defence of them We have no need to follow cunningly devis'd Fables since we have a more sure Word of Prophecy to which by God's Grace we will take heed And therefore all Miracles at this time of the Day are superfluous to us for if the Doctrine be not propos'd to us before-hand in the written Word ten thousand Miracles could not warrant it if it be to be found there they may save the trouble of a Miracle because that Word of God hath been sufficiently confirm'd in that Way already This Word of God is the sure Rule of our Faith the great Character of our Hopes and if the hearty Belief of this and humble Conformity of Life to it will not secure us at last we are contented to lose all the Rewards which this Gospel hath made us to expect And therefore