Imprimatur Feb. 13. 1689. Carolus Alston R. P. D. Hen. Episc Lond. Ã sacris Protestant Certainty Or A Short TREATISE Shewing how a PROTESTANT May be well Assured of the ARTICLES OF HIS FAITH Let every Man be fully Assured in his own Mind Rom. 14.5 LONDON Printed for Henry Mortlock at the Phoenix in St. Pauls Church-yard and at the White-Hart in Westminster-Hall 1689. Protestant Certainty Or a short TREATISE Shewing how a PROTESTANT May be assured of the Articles of his FAITH ALthough I doubt not but every real Christian is well perswaded in his own Mind of the Truth of that Evangelical Doctrine taught by our Blessed Saviour and his Holy Apostles which is indispensibly to be believed in order to his Salvation Yet seeing that in these times there is abroad so great a paroxism and fermentation of Dispute about the Certainty of Faith and the means whereby it my be attained and such endeavours used by some Men to unsettle us therein It will be our Wisdom to recollect and consider well of the Grounds which we have gone upon that we may be the better able to hold fast the form of sound of Words that which is good our Faith and Confidence and our Profession of it without wavering unto the End. According as we are Exhorted 1 Thess 5.21 2 Tim. 1.13 Heb. 3.6.10.23 By firmness of Assent and constancy of Profession notwithstanding all the force and fraud whereby we are or may be assaulted And this the rather because our Faith is Precious and a Treasure the keeping whereof is of infinite Concernment to our Souls and because we have been forewarned by Christ and his Apostles that there should come Wolves in Sheeps Cloathing false Prophets pretending infallible Revelation from God false Apostles pretending Mission and Commission from Christ False Teachers bringing in privily damnable Heresies Men of corrupt Minds resisting the Truth Reprobates concerning the Faith and of this sort are they that creep into Houses and lead Captive silly Women laden with Sins led away with divers Lusts ever learning and never able to come unto the knowledg of the Truth Matth. 7.15 Ch. 24.3.6 8. Against such Men we have seen many worthy and learned Champions of the Truth enter the Lists being raised up by God to be helpers of our Faith and to contend earnestly for that Faith which was once delivered unto the Saints And although their Antagonists have used all the slights of cunning Wrestlers stripping and oiling themselves by superficial and slippery Representations like false Arms that their Adversaries might not know where to have them where to assault them or where to fasten their hold upon them and Proteus like transforming themselves into all Shapes that if possible they might twist themselves out of their Gripe and Grasp yet have they been so effectually handled by them that one would think that were they capable of any impressions from truth or shame they would either have come over or at least have given over before this time Both sides in making their appeals to the Readers do seem to allow us a judgment of discerning both the cause and their defence at least for our own private Safety and Satisfaction But yet they will be understood with this difference The one will allow you to use your Eyes until you have chosen their Side but then you must resign them lest you should chance to see whither they lead you but the other exhort you to keep your Eyes still in your Heads and to make the best use of them you can for your own satisfaction and security that you are fairly dealt withal and not betrayed into Error and Perdition which is certainly the most ingenuous Method of the two and most becoming a good Cause and a good Conscience The Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles is that Faith which all Christians make Profession to believe and they question not but it is the Word of God and therefore infallibly true seeing God is Truth it self and cannot lye But it is much Controverted whether this Doctrine be all contained in the Holy Scriptures or some of it transmitted to these times by oral Tradition or by some other way And seeing we Protestants do profess that all the Articles of our present Faith are contained in the Holy Scriptures as the Doctrine taught by Christ and his Holy Apostles let us sit down and calmly consider with our selves what assurance we have of these and then come to take into consideration those other Articles which are offered to us some other way In both which Inquiries we may receive much Assistance from what hath been publickly offered to us by the Writings of excellent and Learned Men. And I think if we can make out to our selves but these two things we shall have a good Certainty of the Truth of what we believe as all may who have the use of Reason I and will make use of it as they ought 1. That the Holy Scriptures are the Word of God revealed by him and committed to Writing by the infallible Guidance of the Holy-Ghost and contain the Doctrine of Christ his Holy Prophets and Apostles 2. That all the Articles of Faith which we Protestants do believe and profess are recorded in the Holy Scriptures as taught by Christ his Holy Prophets and Apostles and there contained either in express Words or in Principle from which they may be firmly deduced and concluded But before we come to consider these Particulars I shall observe two or three things for our more clear Proceeding and distinguish 1. Between the kinds of Certainty There is a certainty of the thing or Object which is here in the Doctrine believed or the Fides qua creditur and consists in its immutable Truth founded on God's Immutable Verity There is also a Certainty of the Person or Subject which is the firmness of the assent given unto that certain Doctrine of Faith on cogent Arguments and exists in the Person of him that Believes As for Instance That Jesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners is a Truth certain in it self even before we hear of it But it is not certain unto us till we do know it certainly to be true This last is called Subjective Certainty and this it is which we are now chiefly inquiring after 2. Distinguish between this subjective Certainty or the Certainty of the Assent and the Kind of the Assent given The Assent for its kind may be an Assent of divine Faith caused by a divine Testimony and yet this Faith will have more or less Certainty in it according to the greater or less Certainty which we have of the Divine Testimony that the matter of it is true and that God doth testifie it 3. We must distinguish also between the Certainty or assurance given to another rational Man by discoursive Argument and that further Certainty which every faithful Soul hath particularly within it self For the Arguments causing them are differing and shall be considered
apart Now we assent unto all the Articles of our Faith by a Divine Faith and this Faith is firm and certain subjective But the Romanists pretend to give an infallible subjective Certainty of them and so by out-bidding us invite Men over into their Communion And it is to be considered whether our subjective Certainty be sufficient for saving Faith or an infallible subjective Certainty be required to it As for our parts we do not at all doubt but that God will infallibly in the event bring all his Elect unto true Faith and by it unto Salvation though he do not make them all infallibly perswaded of it in this Life A Subjective Certainty of what we believe is sufficient for adhering unto Jesus Christ and Obedience the Fruit thereof and for our own Comfort and therefore to bring us to Salvation without being infallibly certain Subjective of all the things which we do believe And one cannot readily give an account why any Men should so covet to be infallibly certain of their Belief and yet in the mean while take up and content themselves with a conjectural Certainty or certainty of Hope only concerning their own Salvation unless it were because it is the Interest of some Men to have others fully perswaded of their Doctrines of Purgatory Superogation Infallibility c. that so they may lead them by a blind Belief and Obedience to what they please but to keep them in the mean while uncertain of their Salvation that they may the more willingly take off their Masses Merits and Pardons and such like Commodities in barter for their Earthly Gold and Silver But let us come now to consider the first Proposition and how we are assured of it which is That the Holy Scriptures are the Word of God revealed by Him and committed to Writing by the infallible Guidance of the Holy-Ghost and contain the Doctrine of Christ and of his Holy Prophets and Apostles And that we may take our Rise a little backward That there is a God and he infallible in Knowledge and Veracity and that he Created Man after his own Image are Truths which the World hath been so long in quiet Possession of that I think I may take them for granted at least for the present and then it is a thing most agreeable to the Wisdom Goodness and Justice of God to believe that seeing God doth expect that Man should know worship and obey him according as Man's dependence on him and the Preparations which he hath laid in for it in the Fabrick and Furniture of his Nature do require and it seems necessary that he should have made some sufficient Promulgation of his Will and Pleasure unto Man as a perfect and certain Rule of his Faith and Practice according to which he may take an account of him hereafter For which purpose the natural Reason of Man in this corrupt Estate is not a sufficient Rule as woful Experience teacheth and therefore it was necessary that God should make some further Revelation of his Mind unto us to clear up and correct our natural Notions and to discover what further he doth require us to believe and do in order to Salvation And for the certainty of such Rule it is very consentaneous to the Wisdom of God in this shortness of Man's Life and multitude of the Persons concerned to commit such Rule to Writing rather than to intrust it to the conveyance of oral Tradition which all just and wise Law-givers have found it necessary to decline But however a revealed Rule there must be and there is nothing in the World which can with any Reason or Probability lay claim to it but only the Holy Scriptures and this they do accordingly For we often find them challenging to themselves this Prerogative Thus saith the Lord and I the Lord have spoken it Jesus answered and said and he taught the People saying and all Scripture is given by divine Inspiration Holy Men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost For tho' all the Books of Scripture were not then written when the Apostles wrote that yet all the necessary Articles of Faith were and many more Which claim had it not been a true one it would certainly have been the greatest Forgery Usurpation and Blasphemy against God himself that is Imaginable and then we might have rationally expected that the great and good God would have been so Jealous of his own Honour and Man's Salvation as in all this time by some signal Act of his Providence to disown it and discover the Imposture But since he hath not done any such thing but on the contrary hath made it his Work by his wonderful Providence to maintain and preserve it for so many Hundreds of Years and accompanied the Preaching of it for the Conversion of Souls unto himself and the Reformation of the World of Mankind What else can be thought but that he thereby owns it to be his Certainly such a Proof as this concerning any Man's Book would be a violent Presumption that he were the true Author of it and he would be thought a very unreasonable Man who should but call it into question But we have greater Certainty than this for the Matters contained in the Holy Scriptures I mean the Heavenliness of the Matter the Majesty of the Stile the Harmony of the Parts the Consent of the several Writers the design of the whole to lay Man low and to advance God's Glory in Man's Salvation These and such like Beams of divine Light are so agreeable to the Notion of God written in our Hearts that both of them do plainly appear to have been written by the same Finger of God and the one to confirm explain and perfect the other Which Heavenly Characters and claim have been owned and admitted and the certainty of the Holy Scriptures being the Word of God revealed by him and penned by the infallible direction of the Holy Ghost been thereupon believed and attested by all the Churches of Christ in all Ages notwithstanding other differences that were and are among them unanimoully by so many wise holy and learned Men in a matter which was of infinite concernment to them to be well assured of and wherein they could neither have any design nor opportunity of combining together for the deceiving of others Now this unanimous Testimony of the Church although it be but a humane Testimony and not infallible yet being corroborated by the aforesaid Considerations it is sufficient to give any reasonable Man a satisfaction and an assurance that the Holy Scriptures were revealed by God and penned by his infallible Guidance as great as any other matter of Fact and this is such can at this distance by humane testimony be capable of yea and a far greater For there is no Effect wrought by any Man that can verge forth so many Rays from the nature of the Act or thing done pointing at and singling out its Cause and owning its Original but that it
might have been done by some other Man So that I might fold up what hath been said into this form of Argument That which pretending to be revealed by God and penned by his Assistance hath been owned by his special Providence and which having manifest Characters of of Divinity shining in it hath been owned believed and attested by all the Churches of Christ in all Ages as the Word of God revealed by him and penned by the infallible guidance of the Holy Ghost and containing the Doctrine of Christ and his Holy Prophets and Apostles That is the Word of God revealed by him and penned by the infallible Guidance of the Holy Ghost and doth contain the Doctrine of Christ and his Holy Prophets and Apostles But the Holy Scripture pretending to be revealed by God and penned by his Assistance hath been owned by his special Providence and having manifest Characters of Divinity shining in it hath been owned believed and attested by all the Churches of Christ in all Ages as the Word of God revealed by him penned by the infallible Guidance of the Holy Ghost and containing in it the Doctrine of Christ and his Holy Prophets and Apostles Therefore the Holy Scripture is the Word of God revealed by him and penned by the infaillible guidance of the Holy-Ghost and doth contain in it the Doctrine of Christ and his Holy Prophets and Apostles And if all Men would be brought to have such a certainty as these Arguments are in themselves apt to produce in well disposed Minds they must needs think themselves under the highest obligations to provide for the Salvation of their Souls by following the Directions prescribed in the Holy Scriptures in order thereunto And for the number of Canonical Books in Scripture we have the like uniform Testimony of the Churches of Christ in all Ages ever since the Epistle to the Hebrews was received by the Latin Church and the Apocalypse by the Greek Church Which two Books do not add any Article of Faith necessary to Salvation which was not contained in those other Books which were before that time universally received But every faithful Soul hath a far greater Certainty of the Holy Scriptures being the word of God than hath been hitherto mentioned which I shall shew when I have considered the second Proposition which is this That all the Articles of Faith which we Protestants do believe and profess are recorded in the Holy Scriptures as taught by Christ and his Holy Prophets and Apostles and there contained either in express Words or in Principle from which they may be firmly deduced and concluded Now having such an assurance as I have shewn above that the Holy Scriptures are the Word of God we have built the Articles of our Faith upon this Rock and shall be ready to receive any more which we can be convinced to be contained in it but no other till we have good assurance that they have been revealed from God some other way For divine Faith must be founded on a divine Testimony But for the better clarifying of our Thoughts and Apprehensions in this our second Inquiry it will not be amiss for us to distinguish 1. Of the Assent given to those Articles which must be alway an Assent of divine Faith but a divine Faith is sometimes Explicit and express when we do actually apprehend and conceive of the Proposition which we assent unto whether it be expresly laid down in Scripture or we plainly see it to be deduced from what is there laid down But sometimes it is implicite and vertual only as when we assent unto some general Proposition actually apprehended though we do not distinctly consider the particulars included in it and in like manner when we assent unto some Principle laid down in Holy Scriptures though we do not actually apprehend those other Truths which have a necessary consequential Dependance on it we are said to believe these latter also implicitly and as it were in semine because we do expresly believe that which implies or infers them For instance when I assent unto this General God knows the Hearts of all Men I do implicitly assent unto this God knows my Heart though perhaps I may not have as yet particularly assented unto it And so when I assent unto this that Christ was true Man I do vertually assent unto this that Christ had a reasonable Soul because it may be firmly inferred from the former though I have not yet actually inferred it or assented to it 2. Of the necessity of such assent which is diverse according to the diverse Nature and import of the matters to be believed Some are necessary to be believed and done necessitate medii or else we shall never be Saved Some things are necessary necessitate Praecepti only that is without the Belief and doing whereof we sin For the first sort they are such things without the believing and doing whereof God has determined never to save a Man for both our Salvation and also the means and terms of it depend wholly upon God's Good-will and Pleasure and therefore we must take our Measures of such Necessity from God's revealed Will only And from that we learn that God has afforded greater Discoveries of things to be believed in some Ages than in others and given greater abilities and advantages to some Men than to others and acordingly doth require more things to be believed and more explicit Faith of them from some Men than from others unto which by his Providence he will bring them and not save them without such a belief of such Truths And as for the latter sort if they be necessary to be expresly and explicitly believed though we sin if we do not so believe them being sufficiently propounded unto us and we having abilities to apprehend them yet upon a sincere Repentance the Non-belief of them shall not prejudice our Salvation But in many things if we do but use our best endeavours to attain the knowledge of them having a readiness to believe and obey whatsoever we can get a particular Knowledge of to be the Will of God such an implicit Faith and readiness will be accepted for the Deed as if we had expresly believed them Now for such things are necessary to be explicitly believed by all Men with a Divine Faith or else they cannot be saved They are not many and are all contained in the Scriptures and may be clearly learned from thence by any ordinary Capacity The Ancients made account they were all comprised in the Apostles Creed the Lords Prayer and the ten Commandments and Bellarmine himself confesses that they are all contained in the Scriptures omnia sunt scripta quae sunt omnibus necessaria Lib. 4. De verbo Dei non scripto cap. 11. And that they are so will be evident to any one that will examine the Particulars And therefore they may be clearly learnt from thence and we may be as much assured of them as of any thing which we
read or hear And as for those other Matters which are further necessary for some Men to their Salvation they are also contained in the Holy Scriptures for else they were not propounded sufficiently to beget a divine Faith for there is no where else a divine Testimony to be found and then they could not be necessary for their Salvation And then for such things as are necessary to be believed only because else we Sin they also must needs be sufficiently proposed in the Holy Scriptures so as that using our best endeavours we may be sufficiently assured from thence of their Truth and divine Authority otherwise they would not be Obligatory But we may and do attain to such assurance by a diligent use of the means which God hath appointed and is wont to bless for that purpose viz. By the due and diligent reading and hearing of the Word with Prayer to God for the direction of his Holy Spirit by comparing of Scripture with Scripture and with the Analogy of Faith and particularly with those necessary Truths whereof we are already convinced and the rest of God's Image in our Souls and by consulting with others especially Ministers who were ordained by God to be the helpers of our Faith and by the Conscientious practising of what we have already attained to the knowledge of By these means used according to the abilities which God hath given all Men may be assured of all such Matters as are needful for Faith and Godliness but some Men may receive a greater Satisfaction and Confirmation therein who are able to search and add the concurrent Exposition of the ancient Orthodox Churches of Christ and the Fathers of the Primitive times agreeing among themselves and with the Holy Scriptures Would Men but make use of such means as these and embrace the Truth when it offers it self in the use of them none would wrest some obscure passages of Scripture to their own Destruction there being other places plain enough from which they might learn the Truth and their own Duty were they but truly humble and desirous to know it Nor would others have any pretence to keep the Scriptures from the People because of their obscurity But we may well suppose that those who do so do it rather because the Scriptures are too plain and express against their corrupt Doctrines and Practices What else should make them so unwilling to trust the People with the second Commandment and hide all the rest of the Scriptures even their very Pater noster in the dark Lanthorn of an unknown Tongue And here I do not expect to be asked how the common People can become assured that they see or hear that they are Letters and Words which they see and hear and words of such a Language and Signification because such mincing would be accounted triffling Altho' to dis-believe ones Senses is no new thing in the Pyrrhonian Philosophy But if we be asked how such People can be assured that their English Bibles agree with the Greek and Hebrew from which they have been Translated We hope our Neighbours will let us know the Secret how themselves are ascertained that what their Priest tells them in English by word of Mouth is agreeable I say not to the Originals but to their Latin Bible or that there is any true authentick Copy of it extant in the World and that the Popes have done correcting and altering its infallibility or confuting their own and how they are certain that it is true which the Priest tells them was done or said at Rome by some-body he knows not who nor when which yet he requires them to believe And then we may use the same or a better Method and hope they will not charge us with Uncertainty But in the mean while if we can have but a moderate Certainty from Sense Reason and humane Testimony concerning such things as these which serve only to propound and hand the object to our Faculties we shall then be better able to assure our selves of the Truth contained in the Letter and learn from whom it came by looking into it than by laying hold on the hand that brings it And for the Certainty which we have concerning the matters of our Faith though we dare not pretend to any subjective Infallibility yet it is as great a Certainty as God was pleased to allow the Church of the Jews before our Saviour's coming which was sufficient in its self both as to proposal of the Object and the Medium inducing Assent to have wrought Divine Faith in them and to have saved them We read that our Saviour sent them to the Scriptures and when they sought for signs from Heaven He did peremptorily reject them No sign shall be given them And when the rich Man in Hell desired on behalf of his Kinsmen on Earth that Lazarus might be sent to testifie to them what Lazarus saw and himself felt Our Saviour puts words into Abraham's Mouth to check his Error Luk. 16.29 They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them and then adds If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the Dead Yea though himself spake by an infallible Spirit and wrought so many Miracles yet he saith to the Jews If ye believe not his Writings how shall ye believe my Words Joh. 5.47 Agreeable unto which St. Peter tells us 2 Pet. 1.19 That the word of Prophecy is more sure than the Voice which came from Heaven which he had heard for indeed the Glory which accompanied that did so astonish him that he knew not what himself said Mark 9.6 And those who heard the Voice from Heaven in answer to our Saviour's Prayer John 12.29 were so far from being edified or convinced by it that some of them said It Thundered And therefore let us content our selves with the Certainty which God hath given us by his written Word especially having the Types enucleated and Prophecies fulfilled by Christ's Appearing and the Law of God Expounded by our Saviour's Doctrine and having better Assistances for the understanding of the Scriptures than ever the Jewish Church enjoyed And thus much of the Certainty which we have of our Faith from such Considerations as may pass in Argument between Man and Man which I do aver to be abundantly sufficient for any prudent Man to act upon who I am sure would upon less certain Grounds think himself bound to make more hazardous Attempts if he were in but half the danger of losing his Life that he is now in of losing his Soul to all Eternity and therefore it affords a Man a sufficient external Motive of a prudent Belief and Ground to follow it with his utmost Endeavours And therefore if Men be not wrought upon hereby the fault will be found to be in themselves alone And if any shall blame this Certainty as insufficient we may reasonably expect from them that they do not require us to believe any Doctrines
is there that a suspected and accused Party 's own Word should be admitted as his sufficient Justification Especially in things known to be false by Sense and Reason and contrary to Holy Scripture and therein contrary to that far mor general certain and impartial Tradition for the Scriptures being the Word of God. The as for the Infallibility of this Delivery we know that there is no such Attribute as Infallibility belonging to any Creature or its actings although it be impossible in sensu Composito for any one to err or deceive while he thinks and speaks the Truth and therefore all Mans Infallibility consists in his Faculties being guided infallible by the Infallible God and by Him kept from Error and so far and so long as he is so he can neither deceive nor be deceived Yet even then he is fallible in himself But now that God ever did or will ever so guide any Man we must come to know it either by his Promise to do it or his Testimony that he has done it or by the Testimony and Tradition of others concerning it As for his Promise 'T is very true that our Blessed Saviour did Promise to his Holy Apostles and Disciples That his Spirit should guide them in all Truth John 16.13 i. e. Those Truths which he had taught them vers 14 15. And that by enabling them to remember them John 14.26 And also into Truth concerning things to come for so it follows in verse 13. And that the Holy Ghost should dwell in them Chap. 14.17 Now if this Guidance be understood of Infallible and as promised to all Christ's Disciples and all their Successors in their common Faith it will prove that all true Christians are infallible which perhaps will be thought too much Or if promised only to all the Apostles and all their Successors in the Ministry of the Gospel this also will prove too much for the Romanists purpose But the truth is that though the Promise be to be applied to all the Apostles and Disciples and all their Successors yet not to all in the same extent of Guidance for then all their Successors must have the Spirit of Prophecy and the afore-knowledge of things to come which is not pretended by any to be true and common Experience shews the contrary The assistance therefore and guidance promised relates diversly to those to whom the Promise was made 1. As to all holy Disciples in all Ages whom the Holy Ghost doth sanctifie it guides them by infallibly bringing them to believe all Truths necessary to be believed by them in order to their Salvation so that they shall not fail to believe them who are therefore said to be led by the Spirit Rom. 8.14 And to be the Sons of God and to have the Spirit dwelling in them Rom. 8.9 John 14.17 But yet they are not subjective infallible in their Faculties or Act of Believing but only as guided by the Holy Spirit 2. As to all the Holy Apostles and divers others Holy Disciples of that Age the Guidance promised is to instruct and enable them infallibly to know remember and Preach unto others the whole Counsel of God taught by our Saviour for Mans Salvation and to confirm that Assistance in Teaching by miraculous Works and to some of them infallibly to pen is also and unto some to fortel things to come 3. And as to all the Successors of the Apostles in the office of the Ministry and Preaching of the Gospel whether single or conjoyned the Guidance of the Holy Ghost promised is not immediate constant or subjective infallible but is only so far forth as by its Pastoral Gifts and Graces it enables them to discover and deliver those Truths which it hath inspired others in that first Age infallibly to record in the Holy Scripture and which it now intends by their Ministry to work the Hearts of all who shall be Saved to give a true divine Faith unto and by it to bring them infallibly to Salvation For which Purpose Christ hath promised to be with them alway even to the end of the World Matth. 28.20 assisting them by Gifts protecting their Persons and blessing their Labours and that the true doctrine of Faith which St. Peter had professed and should both Preach and Pen by infallible Assistance should never fail to be Preached and Believed nor his personal Belief of it wholly fail but continue to eternal Life and that the Gates of Hell should not be able to prevail against his Church but that there should always be on Earth a faithful People professing the Gospel Truth and worshiping God in the Spirit But for any Infallibility that such Successors have in giving the meaning of Scripture we cannot find that Christ ever promised it much less to any particular Church or Pastor above all the rest And indeed some interpretations of Scripture which those have given us who pretend most to Infallibility are so evidently false and vain not to say prophane that they have thereby sufficiently convinced us of the Vanity of their own Pretensions And as for that appropriating Claim which is laid to it by the particular Church of Rome and those of its Communion there are many shrewd and violent Presumptions in prejudice of it As 1. That the Assertors of it are not yet agreed in what Ensuring-Office to lodge their Infallibility whether in the Bishop or in a General Council or both or in oral Tradition and it may well seem strange to us that those who as is now pretended did formerly make so much use of it should forget in what Cabinet they laid up so precious a Jewel or forget to deliver the Keys of it to ther Successors which alone if ever they had it may sufficiently shew how possible it is for a Tradition to miscarry 2. It is also vilely suspicious that they so keep up their Traditions in their Sleeve for either they cannot or will not ever give out a perfect Catalogue of their traditional Doctrines which as they tells us are kept up in reserve with wise Men perfectioribus in occulto tradita Which truly has an evil appearance as if they did purposely conceal the just number of them that so they might forge some upon occasion to serve a turn when there should be need of a new Article to promote the interest of that Church in some present juncture of affairs though we would willingly be so Charitable as to hope it is not so 3. But how shall we ever be able to overcome the so many Contradictions which have happened between Pope and Pope yea the Pope and himself between Council and Council pila minantia pilis we cannot see how such Contradictions can be consistent with a Spirit of Infallibility and in the mean while what a scandalous diversion was it to the World to see two or three Popes at once thundring out Anathema's and tilting their Infallibilities at one another and a Council at last putting them all in a