are That every one may see clearly whither or no what I hold as a Tenet of Religion is not found among them but is a meer superstruction Will you refuse to a considerable Person who thinks certainly he has seen in the Law Book a Law which justifies the Action for which he is condemn'd to Die Will you I say refuse him a publick sight of that Book to justifie your Sentence against him but notwithstanding the murmur of the People upon your refusal of his demand suspecting him Innocent savagely cast him If not do not condemn us who hold for certainty Transubstantiation to be so Fundamental that no Christian of the first three Ages would have deny'd it A Subsect Other Proofs that we agree in Faith with those of the first three Ages I Ask our Adversary did those Christians living then believe as a Fundamental point that they were the true Church planted by CHRIST and continued from the Apostles or not If not then they could not say in their Creed I believe in the Holy Catholick Church If they did believe it I ask again upon what ground was truth warranted to them for three hundred Years and not to the Church till the end of the World Was not Gods promise of Infallibility to his Church made to it as well to the end of the World as for the first three hundred Years Isaiah 59. v. 21. This is my Covenant with them saith the Lord my Spirit which is upon thee to wit the Church and my Words which I have put in thy Mouth shall not depart out of thy Mouth nor out of the Mouth of thy Seed nor out of the Mouth of thy Seeds Seed saith the Lord from henceforth and forever And to the Ephes 4. cap. v. 11 12 13 14. And he gave some Apostles some Prophets and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints c. till we all come in the unity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God c. That we henceforth be no more Children tost too and fro and carried about with every Wind of Doctrine by the slight of Men. If he avow the Church fail'd not in Fundamental Truths I wonder how he can allow Luther and Calvin's Reforming the Church with so much Fire Sword and Confusion for a matter that did not impede Salvation If they Reform'd Her in Fundamentals then She perish'd which is against the Infallible promise of CHRIST If you say they did not Reform it as it lay pure in the Souls of some chosen tho' unknown to others but in the publick Pastors and Teachers who were reprehensible for their grievous Deviations then say I where was the visible Church to which Men should have recourse for the hearing of the Word and receiving of the Sacraments Isaiah cap. 2. v. 3. A second Proof and Reason is drawn from that it seems morally impossible that in the begining of the fourth Age if he will have the fall of Religion then the Pastors should propose a number of new Tenets to be believ'd and perswade the People that they had heard them from their Fathers of the third Age not one individual Person in the mean time remembring that he heard them from his Is it credible that not only one Parish or Nation but all Countries who liv'd afore in the Union of the Catholick Church should of a sudden have permitted themselves to be cheated into this perswasion or rather bewitch'd since not one was found for many Ages to have gainsaid it or reclaimed against it Since this then is Morally impossible conclude that these Tenets of R. Catholicks which our adversary calls novelties were the old tenets of the three first Centuries A third reason 't is remark'd that God never permitted any notable Error to rise up in his Church but alwayes stirred up at the same time some man or men to speak and write against it and mov'd the whole Church to joyn with them to destroy it So Athanasius rose up against Arius Cyrillus Alexandrinus against Nestorius Augustin against Pelagius All back'd by the whole Church for the total overthrowing of those Errors Now if the Mass be an Error it is a most damnable one an Idolatry insupportable to give Divine Worship to the Host if it be only a piece of Bread Yet after this Error was broach'd in Gregory the Great 's time in the sixth or seventh Age as Protestants imagin what University or private Man spoke against it then or three hundred Years after It s true about four hundred Years after Berengarius inveighed against it but being better inform'd and by a torrent of Arguments for its Truth overwhelm'd he Recanted and Dyed Penitent Consult then Reason and not Passion and you will see that R. Catholicks have made no superstructurs on the Faith of the first three Ages SECT II. Formal Protestants are Hereticks I Advance to his assertion in which he affirms that we cannot say without Ignorance Calumny and Injustice that a Protestant is an Heretick First I agree with him that an Heretick is he who denyes viz. pertinaciously an Article of Faith or a revealed Verity Next I ask him by what principle he proves that a Protestant does not deny an Article of Faith or a reveal'd Truth I suppose he will Answer because a Protestant believes the CREED and the Holy Scripture I ask him further if a Preacher now of their Congregation should vent a Doctrine not Orthodox and should pertinaciously maintain it against his Brethren as a Truth according to his best Judgment reveal'd in Scripture By what principle will he convince him to be an Heretick He 'l tell you he believes the three Creeds and the whole Scripture and therefore he believes this his dogme because the thinks he finds it in Scripture Is he an Heretick because he will not submit his Judgement to his particular Brethren He is known to be as Learn'd as they and of as good a Life as they If you say this Man can't be proven to be an Heretick that is against the Scripture Tit. 3. v. 10. bidding us to shun an Heretick and consequently he may be proven to be one If you say he is an Heretick because he will not submit his Judgement not only to particulars but neither to the whole Congregation or the Church of which he was a Member and therefore is justly condemn'd by Her according to Isai 54. v. 17. Every Tongue that rises up against thee in Iudgment thou shall condemn this is the Inheritance of the Lords Servants I conclude without Ignorance Calumny or Injustice that the Protestant Luther the Protestant Calvin c. were Hereticks because they would not submit their Judgment to the whole Church of which they were Members afore they were Excommunicated for their self Opinions Again this proposition a Protestant is not an Heretick either is an Act of Faith or Science or Opinion If you say it is an Act of Faith 〈◊〉 then say I 't is false
to find a Pastor for instruction or the receiving of a Sacrament in necessity And did not the chief Pastors expose themselves and so became Martyrs the first thirty three all one after another 2. If it be an Errable Church Visible or Invisible 't is as good as no Church to Christians for what I have said and shall say hereafter If a particular Church or Parish Pastor and People should be all the Week dispers'd here and there about their business would they be said to be an Invisible Church all the Week and onely Visible when they meet on Sunday Is it not enough that they can find one another on Week dayes in a necessity But truly 't is not enough to make a true Church Visible or Invisible if they have not among them true Doctrine as might full out in Protestants supposition of the Churches fallibility To show we can't prove the Infallibility of the Church from St. Pauls saying the Church is the Pilla rand Ground of Truth 1 Timot. 3. v. 15. He explains that passage thus The Church is the Pillar of Truth saies he because the providence of God will not permit all her Children to fall and Err but will always stirr up some to oppose Superstition Idolatry and Error Answer Either those who will always oppose Error and Superstition will be Members of the R. Church or not If they be Members of Her She will always oppose Error as when my Hand Writes I am said to Write and since we know our Saviour has foretold Iohn 14. v. 16. and c. 16. v. 13. That he will always direct Her by his Spirit of Truth 't will be impossible for Her by a consequential Impotency to Err. Likewise 't is impossible to compose a perpetual direction of the Spirit of God with Error If these Opposers of Error are a Church a part I ask whether that Church as distinct from the Roman be Fallible or Infallible If Infallible we have what we demand viz. That the teaching Church of God is Infallible If Fallible then the Church in as much as she opposes Herself to Error may Err which is absurd The Inference is proven thus In as much as she is distinct from the Roman Church she opposes Error and in as much as she is distinct from the Roman Church she is Fallible or may Err. Then in as much as she is distinct from the R. Church she opposing Error may Err. SECT IV 'T is not necessary the Infallibility of the Church be defin'd in a General Council yet it is in General Councils defin'd by a practical definition TO that he asks us in what General Council is defined the Infallibility of General Councils I Answer Asking him mutually first in what Parliament or Act of Parliament is it found declar'd that a Parliament hath a Power to make Acts oblidging the People If he thinks this Question Impertinent and that it would be Impertinent for a Parliament or an Assembly of Men if they were not otherways impowr'd to Assemble and make an Act by which they will have all to submit and acknowledge that they have a Power to oblige the People I desire him to Reason the same way of the Infallibity of a General Council and know that it has not ' its Infallibility from its saying we are Infallible but from God who has been pleas'd to declare it to us by Apostolical Tradition and in the Holy Scriptures also to those who read them with the Light which they have received from the Church of CHRIST As a Parliament then is fore-impowr'd to make Acts and acknowledg'd as such by the People afore they set themselves to make any so is the General Council acknowledged by all the Faithful to have a promise from God of not Erring in their Declaration of an Article of Faith afore they set themselves to declare it or by their Explication of a Truth to take away the Cloud that hindred us to see it I Ans Secondly that it is defin'd in all General approv'd Councils as much as it was necessary by a practical definition or their excercis'd power issu'd out by them in their oblidging Decrees always submissively receiv'd by the Faithful If you say some have refused to receive them my answer is they ceas'd from that time to be number'd among the Faithful Does not a King sufficiently declare himself to be King when he uses the Authority of a King in raising Armies and disbanding them calling a Parliament adjurning proroging or disolving it at his pleasure At last our Adversary brings a strong piece viz. that the General Councils are so farr from pretending to be Infallible Judges of controversial debates that in a set form of prayer appointed to be said atter every Council they pray that God would spare their Ignorance and pardon their Errors Ans I can't light upon this prayer Shall I come as good speed in seeking it as I did with Maximian the Arian Bishop He quots de ordin Cele Con. I desire him to write the Title of the Book at length or rather tell me at the end of what Council this prayer is found Since it is to be said after every Council would not the Council of Trent have it This Council which hath set down things so exactly would it have omitted this But now these Errors are either in matters given out to the People for Articles of Faith or not If not they make nothing against us If these Errors be in matters of Faith I ask are they invincible Errors or vincible if they are Invincible they are not Sinful and so need no pardon If they are vincible it is either by their diligence in using more means to discover the Truth or by an extraordinary assistance of God For this extraordinary assistance it is not in their power to have it and depends only of God For the other if they find themselves not to have us'd all necessary means let them use those they have omitted afore they publish their Decrees for what a simplicity and Impudence would it be to continue in the Error I can avoid and ask pardon for it and so having done what lay in them they will not stand guilty afore God nor in a need of pardon Rather say if some passage be found which may seem to have that sence that in the fore discussion of questions some fear themselves to have been too much wedded as is Natural to Man to their own Opinion these desire God to spare their Ignorance not having upheld their Opinion out of Malice and pardon their fault in this that they were not it may be so humble and deferent to others as they should have been If you say provincial Councils anatematize those who reject their decisions as well as General Councils and so no Argument can be taken from thence for the General Council's Infallibility I Answer Provincial Councils anathematize c. absolutly as the General Councils do I deny conditionally and with submission to
is impossible say they what perfection can be had if all our Actions be Sins Are Sins and perfections Synonima's Can I command my self to think that that man who is confessedly acknowledged to be composed of iniquity and to do nothing but abomination from Morning till Evening lives innocently like an Anchoret an Austere and Godly Life How can Protestant Doctrine give them a deeper fear of Hell if in that same that they fear Hell they believe and see clearly that they cannot be saved Because who fears has not assurance which is the portionâ— of every just Man since he is not just unless he believe that his Sins are remitted by the Merits of Christ And must every man to whom the Gospel is Preached believe this How many then believe a lye Or what reason have you to believe it more then any other to whom the Gospel is Preached Because you find your self to walk more Cautiously then Romanists But how do you walk more cautiously then we Since if you avoid one damnable Sin you necessarily fall into another seeing you cannot do any thing with all the assistance of the Grace of Christ which is not an abomination in the sight of God This is a cold comfort to Protestants and all this sad Doctrine comes from that great Protestant Principle Baptism does not take away Original sin So that as a poysoned Fountain runs nothing but poysonous Water the Soul of Man still remaining corrupted with Original Sin brings forth nothing but corruption How will Souls so foul enter Heaven Protestants smile if from this passage Matth. 12. v. 33. Some Sins shall neither be forgiven in this World nor in the World to come we silly Romanists infer that since no Sin is forgiven in Hell or Heaven there must be a third place in the other World call 't as you please in the which some Sins may be forgiven But may not we rather laughout at the fancy of Men who acknowledging themselves to be all broken out with the runing sores of Original Actual Sin think with an imaginary cloaking of themselves with the Justice of Christ above all is hidden filth they shall enter Heaven as 〈◊〉 as a Plague Person under a disguise enters a 〈◊〉 Hospital â—â—e Master of the Hospital may be deceived I 〈◊〉 but God who hath said that nothing which â—â—s shall enter Heaven Rev. cap. 21. v. 27. â—ot be deluded SECT V. â—he Churches not permitting all Parts of the Scripture indifferently to be read by all is Justified And her high sentiment of this word of God declared MAny stumble at the Churches not permitting indifferently all those who only understand the holy Scriptures in a vulgar Tongue to read them But without reason this is first the great veneration the Church has for the Word of God not to submit his high Mysteries to the Interpretation of every Ignorant Creature while upon all occasions they read it with as little respect as if it were a Romance or a play Book and give their verdict of its meaning the Prophet Malachy in the mean time cap. 2. v. 7. sayes the lips of the Priest shall keep knowledge and the Law they shall require of his Mouth Secondly The Church deals with her Children as Christ dealt with his Apostles John 16. v. 12. and St. Paul with the Corinthians 1 Cor. 3 v. 2. Christ did not propose to them all the strong truths while they were week in Vertue I have said he many other things to tell you which you are not able to bear at present Iohn 16.12 And St. Paul gave the Corinthians Milk not then stronger Food saying to them that they were not yet able 1 Cor. 3. v. 2. Wise Parents at a great Table do not let their Children take what they please but give them of Meats presented what they know to be fit for their weak Stomach So the Church allows the learned to feed themselves with the Holy Scripture she gives of the same Table to the unlearned by their Pastors and Teachers what is fittest for them lest having the whole Bible in their hands especially without the Notes for the better understanding of it they wrong themselves as those who as St. Peter 2 Pet. 3. v. 16. speaks wrested some passages of St. Paul as also the other Scriptures to their own destruction Destruction Implyes more then mistakes in Indifferent matters Would it not startle an Ignorant to hear afore the Passage is explained what God said to the Prophet Isaiah cap. 6. v. 10. Blind the heart of the People c. Lest perhaps they may see with their Eyes and be converted Would an Infinite Goodness says an Ignorant command a Prophet to do so Would it not amaze the same to read in the first of Hosea v. 1. That God commanded him to take a Whore and take to himself Children of Whoredom Is it possible sayes the Ignorant that Sanctity it self should speak so With what surprizing passages will an Ignorant Carnal Man meet with in the Canticles Respect then the Holy Ghost in the Conduct of the Church and do not think that her Children who do not nor cannot read the Scriptures live in ignorance Lukewarmness Indifferency without relishing Heavenly things without true Devotion more then Abraham Isaac and Iacob who had the same want but were Instructed to the Piety we read of by the Tradition from others as our unlearn'd are by the Labours of our Pastors and Preachers who not being diverted from their Book and Prayer by the necessary care of providing for Wife and Children Meditate at leasure the Holy Bible and study how they may best deliver to the People the Truths they find there both necessary to Salvation and conducing to Persection And this aboundantly suffices unless you will exclude also among Protestants all those who cannot read from Devotion as if God had design'd only great Wits for Heaven Add to all this that if the Scripture put into every private Mans hand and being understood by him according to his best Judgement be to him a sufficient Rule of Faith which without doubt would breed as much confusion in the Church as the Law Book Interpreted by every private Man without Obligation to submit to the Kings Judges would do in the Kingdom what need have you of Ministers more then Quakers If every one be thus capable to understand the Word why is he not capable to Preach it And if he be capable to Preach it to others or stirr them up to the Faith of Justifying Grace why is he not capable to give also the Sacrament or the Sign of it receiv'd If you say that God has ordained Bishops or Presbyters to Govern the Church I answer 't is not Civily but in Doctrine what will this Government in our case serve for but to make them Hypocrites since they must then believe outwardly what the Minister Teaches and inwardly what their own light perswades them often contrary to the Ministers perswasion When we