is Divine unerring revealed Faith. Now the Master and Author of that Doctrine we must believe the Instructor of the Actions we must perform and the promiser and performer of the final Happiness we may hope for is God himself who cannot deceive or be deceiv'd he being the prime Verity Via veritas vita So as Faith is not grounded upon our weak natural Judgment or Ratiocination but upon obedience to the Church Faith is a gift of God a supernatural Quality infused by God into our Souls by which we firmly believe all things revealed to us Without Faith its impossible to please God Heb. 11.6 And He that believed not shall be damned Mark ult v. 16. So as every one ought to know that there is a sovereign and blessed end viz. Eternal Glory then every one ought to love and heartily wish to attain to the same and earnestly seek out for those means and helps prescrib'd and ordain'd by God for the compassing it Then in the first place we must find out Divine Faith which partly proceeds from God as the source and Author thereof as Prima veritas And altho' those things we believe by Faith cannot be known by evident Demonstration yet because they are taught us by supernatural means we are more certain of their truth than of all other things because those things are deliver'd over to us by a more certainly infallible Teacher the Spirit of Truth the Holy Ghost Therefore enter I pray into a serious consideration of the End for which you and all were created viz. The Glory of God and your eternal Happiness and for the knowledge of the means to attain thereunto you may find by the consent of all Christians this cannot be gotten by clear and evident sight nor by human Discourse founded on the Principles of Reason nor by reliance upon Authority meerly human but only by Faith grounded on the Word of God revealing to Men things that are otherwise only known to his infinite Wisdom Now God sure revealed all these things to Jesus Christ and he to his blessed Apostles as he saith Iohn 15.15 All things which I have heard from my Father I have made known to you This partly by word of mouth but principally by the immediate teaching of the Holy Ghost to the end that they should deliver them after to Mankind to be received believed and obeyed over the whole World in perpetuum as it is said Matth. 28.19 Go teach all Nations Sure they did accordingly preach to all Nations as it 's said by St. Mark 16.20 They going forth did preach every where and so planted an universal Christian Company charging them to keep inviolable and to deliver to their Posterity what they have received from them as the first Messengers of the Gospel as St. Paul said to Timothy 2 Tim. 2.2 The things that thou hast heard of many Witnesses the same commit thou to faithful Men who may instruct others Now tho' the blessed Apostles and their Hearers be departed out of this Life yet still there remains a means now in the World by which all men may assuredly know what the Apostles preached and the Primitive Church received of them seeing the Church to the end must be built on the Apostles and believe nothing as matter of Faith beside that which was delivered of them as St. Paul said Ephes. 2.20 Are built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Iesus Christ being the chief Corner Stone Scripture is a Light only to the Faithful because known from the Church's Tradition to be from the Apostles by the Apostles Authority confirmed by Miracles to be of God by God's supreme Verity who cannot deceive nor be deceived to be the truth So Scripture is a Light which must be shewed by a Superiour Light before it become light The Church therefore must guide us to know the truth of Scripture as St. Austin said Contra Epist. fundamenti c. 5. I would not believe the Gospel it self unless the Authority of the Church Catholick did move me The Word that is written tells us that all is not written as St. Paul 2. Thes. 2.15 exhorts us to keep both the written and unwritten saying Stand fast and keep Traditions which you have learned by word or by our Epistle It is manifest that the first Church of God from the Creation until Moses which was about 2000 years had no Word of God but what was unwritten which we call Tradition from hand to hand And we do not read that the Apostles were sent to write but to preach And S. Iohn denies that he had expressed in Writing all that he had to say saying Having more things to write to you I would not by Paper or Ink for I hope that I shall be with you and speak mouth to mouth that your Ioy may be full By which it is evident that the blessed Apostles beside their Writings did preach other things which were wanting to their faith And it 's manifest that what the Apostles did write was but accidental and upon particular occasions See Hooker Eccles. Pol. Lib. 1. Sect. 15. P. 87. For instance the Epistles of St. Peter Iames Iohn and Iude were written against certain Hereticks who misunderstanding St. Paul did teach that Faith only without Works sufficed to Salvation See St. Aug. de fide operib c. 14. And St. Iohn did not preach his Gospel till his last Age which was very long without writing and took occasion to write as St. Ierom de Scriptor Eccles. affirms by reason of the Heresie of Ebionites then broke out The like may be shewed of the rest And take what is worth observation That all Epistles were written to such persons only as were already converted to the Christian Faith therefore were written not so much to instruct as to confirm this Zuinglius also confesseth Tom. 2. lib. de Eccl. fol. 43. By all which its evident that the Apostles and Evangelists did write their Books not by Command of Christ but upon some accidental occasion moving them thereunto and very many were saved before any Scripture and that only by Tradition which was before Scripture for the invention of Printing was not in the World till about 230 years ago and the Bibles that were written being but few by reason of the great labour of writing them and those that were written not purchaseable but by few because of their great price nor legible but by very few because they were not printed but written by hand and sure God by his Providence did and will always preserve his Church from extinction and corruption having warrant for it out of Scripture and no warrant for the preservation of the Text the Church being a thing more easily known than Scripture and consisting of a living Multitude can express it self more plainly by the Mouth and Tradition of the Church Tradition being plain and easie Doctrine concerning the common capital and practical Articles of Christianity but Scripture full of high mysterious and
saved and that they who believed not should be damn'd Math. 28.19 Mark 16.15 O Soveraign and Heavenly Promises Priviledges and Graces of the true Catholick Roman Churches Infallibility Add to this how the Apostles tell us that the Chuch of the living God is the Pillar and ground of truth 1 Tim 3.15 Sure we may securely rely upon her and they assure us that Christ gave his Son Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers for the perfection of the Saints that henceforth we may be no more Children tossed to and fro c. Eph. 4. Are not these plain and wondrous texts of Scripture and cannot you see clearly an infallible assistance promised to the directing and guiding men that they should not be carried about with every wind of false Doctrine by the slght and wiles of men and cunning craftiness whereby some lie in wait for to deceive No other Congregation under the Sun but the Roman Catholick Church can stand up or pretend to these great Priviledges it follows that Protestants are as they aver fallible saying so they tell all the World an Infallible truth and thereupon we may be infallibly assured that they always are failable and fallible And hence it follows whilst Protestants themselve declare they are fallible they can no ways pretend to be the infallible Church of Christ For if the Word of God should have the first place and serve as a basis for the perpetuating of a Church infallible as it is most reasonable I incessantly challenge Ministers to shew but one only Text of Scripture express formal and irreprovable contrary to the Articles of the Roman Catholick Church sure this they could never yet perform for hitherto they have produc'd nothing but Semblances Stories Lyes and Railings for to delude weak inferior Judgments of the giddy Multitude being unable to make them good before considering and learned understanding Men And if a lawful Succession sacred Mission Character and real Consecration of true Pastors be required which is absolutely necessary for the establishment of an Ecclesiastical Hierarchy the Roman Church can shew that from the Apostles hitherward our Popes and other inferior Pastors do all to this day successively follow one another above two hundred and thirty Popes Magna est veritas prevalet If the Authority of Councils be requisite which are the Sinews Mouths and living Oracles of Religion in the Revolution of sixteen Ages all Councils will be found call'd for to confirm the Roman Church confute and condemn her Adversaries If the Interpretations of Holy Doctors who have been the Lights of their times Instruments of the Holy Ghost and Secretaries of the Divinity they all with one accord and consent speak for the Roman Church condemning loudly the Errors and Schism of new Sects If Miracles which were wrought in all Ages and in the sight of all Mankind with so much approbation that they have evicted Confession even from the most Incredulous and Reverence from the most Stupid Millions and unfeigned Miracles were and are daily wrought in confirmation of the verity of the Roman Catholick Religion So as that there is not a Country wherein the Roman Catholick Religion is profess'd which doth not produce Testimonies so prudently and evidently credible of true Super-natural Miracles that to deny them were to destroy all Humane Faith. Did not Simon Magus impiously boast by the Spirit of his private Fancy that he would do wonders as St. Peter did who provok'd by the said Simon Magus did prove that he had the Spirit of God by raising a Child from Death which the other with all his Black Magick Art could not do yet boldly challenging St. Peter to fly from the Capitol to Mount Aventin while he was doing so by the Prayer of St. Peter loe he came tumbling down and brake his Leg whereof he died soon after Even so that false Apostle Calvin for the credit of his new Damn'd Doctrine he would fain make a shew to the People of doing a Miracle hir'd one that was Sick to counterfeit himself Dead who when Calvin should speak certain words was to arise as it were from the Dead but he not stirring was found dead indeed Withall mark how that the Son of Calvin being bitten by a Mad Dog his Father not being able to cure him sent him to St. Hubert in Arden where the Body of that Saint is kept with Veneration and frequent Miracles wrought thereby where he was perfectly made whole whereupon abjur'd his Fathers Sect became a Roman Catholick and lived and died so Yet Protestants object its strange themselves never see any Miracle being so desirous and miracles so frequent as we pretend Herod was also very desirous to see a Miracle but his curiosity excluded him from that favour Men who believe nothing but what they see deserve not to see Miracles because they are obstinate Yet there are few Protestants who do not see Miracles what greater Miracle than that all Catholicks turn not Protestants If the continual Victory over natural and vehement Inclinations doth require a Miracle of super-natural Grace we are as naturally and vehemently inclined to their Religion as we are to our own Liberties and Pleasures What greater Miracle than that Roman Catholick sober and learned Men should be perswaded that their Senses are deceived in the Sacrament of the Altar and that they should suffer death for the Mystery of Transubstantiation There must be effects of super-natural Grace and not of Ignorance or Obstinacy which cannot be laid to our charge seeing we submit our Judgments to every definition of the Roman Church and our very Adversaries know we are learned Men. Sanctity of Life is a super-natural sign and effect of Grace and of the true Church This Sanctity is evident in the Roman Church Not to speak of Antonies Hilarions or Stillitas let 's draw nearer our times and consider the Lives of St. Bernard St. Dominick St. Francis St. Vincent Ferrer St. Francis of Paula St. Charles Barromeus St. Teresa St. Francis Xaverius St. Anthony of Padua and many more who were known Roman Catholicks professing the same Tenets and Obedience to the Pope which we now maintain against pretended Reformation And not to speak only of the Dead let any indifferent Person consider how in all Vocations of both Clergy and Laity we have many Persons eminent in Virtue far above that degree of morality Let our English Protestant be pleased to weigh with himself whether young Ladies of as great Quality Fortunes and Gifts of Nature as England doth afford could forsake their native Country Kindred and Friends contemn all pleasures of the World and themselves by embracing a religious poor and penitent Life in perpetual Inclosure submitting their wills to the Obedience and Humour of a Woman could this I say be performed by so many so continually and with so great alacrity and content of mind without a miraculous and super-natural Grace of the Almighty In my judgment it is a greater Miracle
Truth I say then that it is at once disingenuous dangerous and silly to entertain such blind thoughts I pray God these motives may have a strong influence upon you by the assistance of God's Grace which is never wanting to those that are not wanting to themselves and imprint in your Soul the Character of Truth that you may conquer all oppositions of Vnderstanding or Will which may bar your ready Obedience thereunto First divest your mind of all prepossess'd Opinions and worldly respects in favour of any Sect or in dislike of the true ancient Church so as truly having deposed all obstinate prepossessions of your Iudgment you 'll be easily persuaded that the Roman Church is the true Church wherein only is Salvation to be had Pursue this Quest my Lord suffer not your self to be mis-led by the seducing of flattering blind Guides or Obstinacy Adjourn not this Quest Say not as Felix said to St. Paul Acts 24.25 When I have a convenient season I will call for thee The World expects your happy Return to the Glorious Liberty of the Sons of God. Alexander the Great my Lord being asked if he would run at the Olympick Games said I could be content so I might run with Kings Begin then to exercise a Virtuous Ambition in running after Kings at the Olympick Game for an Eternity of never-ending Glory in the Roman Communion in so doing you may know that you run with two and twenty brave Kings of England that were Saints you run with King Charles II. whose dear Favourite you have been who by the quick-sighted piercing eye of his natural Iudgment said in his Speech That Christ can have but one Church and that the same is the Roman Catholick Church and that Christ left his Power to it even to forgive sins He desired to know How came that Church to lose that Power and by what Authority men separated themselves from it His Majesty answers saying That it was that particular men raised Schism for their own advantage Here my Lord you see the King leaves the heavy guilt of SCHISM at the door of the Protestant Sect. You run with our most Sacred Leige and Sovereign King JAMES II. whom God preserve for many many happy years whose Motto is Let Life and Three Kingdoms lie at stake Before I damn my Soul or true Faith forsake Run with King James I. of ever Renowned Memory who did acknowledge in open Parliament That the Roman Catholick Church is the only Mother-Church of all Churches See Stow pag. 840. Run finally my Lord with all the present Kings in Christendom excep those of Swedeland and Denmark who reign in that Cold Cloudy and Sin-darkned Northern Corner of the World where Heresie is entertained by a company of dull stupid people that will not penetrate Run I pray with the best part of Mankind in all Ages with the wisest Heads of the World for unfeigned Holiness and Learning Run along with these irradiant Pole-Stars and you cannot go astray and it 's an undoubted truth that the Life Example and Heroick Actions of a Prince have usually a greater sway upon the minds of his Subjects than his Laws for the Example of a King is a living Law which secretly over-rules mens minds and bends them to a compliance with it None can deny this but those who have their Iudgments swallowed up by prejudice and whose blind passions have over-run their reason Listen therefore to the Voice of Heaven Apoca. 18.24 Go out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues Schism my Lord and damn'd Heresie to which you pertinaciously adhere are most grievous Plagues from it redeem your precious Soul from forfeiture that has been this long time mortgaged to Death for Sectae non possi debunt Regnum Dei and non est prudentia nec concilium contra Dominum and Sapientis est mutare concilium Make it my Lord your daily Prayer to God to settle you in the right This said my very good Lord begin to put on in the Name of Ever-glorious Iesus a Noble Resolution to shake off those Chains and Bonds of that Monstrous Tyrant Schism which detains you in slavery let the scales of blind misguided Zeal fall from your eyes that you may see to find out a most secure Vnerring Guide in your Iourney towards a happy Eternity I beseech the Father of Lights and Mercy to illuminate your Vnderstanding with Beams of his Saving Grace that you may learn embrace and practise the Faith of Christ which shall be the daily Prayer of me who intreats your Grace to bestow one Grace which is to permit me to bear all my Life-time the Title of your humble Chaplain being always Your most obsequious and faithful Servant I. E. He may be won that longest does resist To pray for your Return I 'll ne'r desist I 'll ne'r despair of any whil'st I see A fruitless Tree may next year fruitful be A WINDING-SHEET FOR THE Schism of England CHAP. I. THe ALMIGHTY as a most Divine Architect rais'd the Fabrick of his Church in this World as a medium to Salvation a Man for not hearing this Church is term'd in St. Matth. 18.18 a Publican or Heathen Protestants segregating themselves and not hearing this Church are in a most lamentable state Sure a natural unity and connection of the Parts among themselves and to the Head is necessary for the conservation of the natural Body Christ promised that there should be Unity in his Church St. Iohn 10.16 They shall be made one Fold and one Pastor This Unity is most requisite in God's Church St. Iohn 17.11 Christ prayed that his Disciples should be one And again 1. Cor. 1.10 I beseech you that you all speak one and the same thing and that there be no Schism among you but that you be perfect in one judgment Protestants denies and flyes from this Unity being divided and subdivided Christ praying Sure his Prayer took effect his People his Flock and Congregation being still one in the bonds of Peace The pretended Reformation have no Unity differing in most essential Points for Salvation therefore no true Church the Roman Catholick Church and no other stands firm and infallible against all the tempests of Apostacy Heresie and Schism and this by her Unity and Uniformity Sure by confession of Protestants the Roman Church was once the true Church according to St. Paul Rom. 1.8 First I thank my Lord through Iesus Christ that your Faith is spoken of throughout the whole World. And again v. 7. To all that be in Rome beloved of God call'd to the Saints Grace to you and Peace Now I say having it once how could they but retain the same Faith still infallibly For no general Council even ever yet condemned her of Error none of the holy Fathers ever wrote against her and by no authority was she to this day reproved of Schism for she left no Church or Company
ever yet she went not forth from any Body or Congregation how could she being infallible in her self 1 Tim. 3.15 she being the House of God which is the Church of the Living God the Pillar and Firmament of Truth if not why should any be esteemed a Heathen and Publican for not hearing her Add to this Christ being the Head of the Church the Holy Ghost the Soul thereof guiding and directing in all truth the Church could not err unless you 'l make Christ and his Spirit an Impostor and a Lyer which is down-right Blasphemy seeing that he prophesied That the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against her viz. Error Falshood Schism or Heresie hence I infer by good illation that any Congregation of People despising Christ forsaking his Church and remaining out of it pertinaciously is guilty absolutely of Apostasie and Schism see St. Luke 10.16 He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me c. Lo the misery of Protestants who are likewise really guilty of Heresie in adhering to so many false opinions and errors of Faith contrary to the generally approved Doctrine of the Church of Christ from which they wilfully and blindly divided themselves breaking of Communion with the ancient one Holy-Catholick Apostolick Roman Church And sure that Church to which Apostacy Schism and Heresy doth agree is a false and erroneous Church and this is the Church of the pretended Reformation The Power of glorious Jesus our Redeemer did marvelously shine in the Empire of his Church which his heavenly Father did put into his hands to build it raise it cement it with his Sacred Blood to illuminate it with his Light nourish it with his Body to make Laws in it establish Sacraments as conveyances of Divine Graces to eternize a most dread and propitiatory Sacrifice to create Pastors and Priests invisibly to rule it by a visible Head a Power never to be shaken even to the Gates of Hell to exercise a Jurisdiction over Souls to bind them unloose them pardon Sins and change Hearts and you may know that this ever blessed Jesus having the source of all power in him did in Divine Providence distribute the same his Divine Power to Popes and Kings constituting the one for Spiritual Government leading to eternal Glory the other for the Temporal and it is his will and pleasure we honour the Character of that his Divine Authority both in the one and the other and not to argue controul or impugn upon idle whimsical Phantasies those heavenly Powers And it is most evident that in all times before Heresie began there has been rendred to Popes Vicegerents of Christ and lawful Successors to St. Peter the Honour they deserved as such and as the sovereign universal visible Pastors under Heaven see the Council of Calcedon in Epist. ad Leonam Papam where the Pope is called Caput omnium Episcoporum totius Christi Ecclesiae Also we confess and acknowledge our Sovereign Liege-Lord and most gra-King IAMES the Second true and absolute Monarch of these his three Kingdoms singularly honouring and obeying him and with most true cordial faithful loyal affection loving him as an animated real Portraiture of the greatness of the Divine Majesty and sure there is no Science more noble nor more advantageous than to honour and obey these two Powers neither can there be any true lasting Felicity but in the accomplishment of the Will of the Almighty the Sovereign Master and Ruler of all On the contrary it is observed in the History of many Ages that dire Vengeance and Wounds from Heaven have fallen signally upon those who have disobeyed these two Powers for the Wind blowing from blasphemous and seditious Mouths returned on their own Heads since it is fit such Impiety and horrid Iniquity should first kill it self with its own Poyson What the Soul is to the Body the same is true Religion to a Kingdom the Body without a Soul signifies nothing even so a Kingdom without true Religion is disjoynted confused and comes to ruin whereas Divine Religion in it self is the Basis and Foundation of all Moral Virtues the ground and support of all just pious Laws the cement that strongly combine all human Society and is the very life of upright impartial Justice and constant Honesty Finally true supernatural Religion is the golden Chain that unites God to Man and Man to his Duty to God and brings down the rich Blessings to poor mortal Sinners on Earth O what a glorious and most happy Kingdom is that where are to be seen as in a clear optick Glass these two most heavenly Objects the King 's most excellent Majesty prostrate on bended knees paying with ravishing Devotion the humble religious Homage of Heart Hands and Knees to the Divine Majesty of Almighty God! As a Member and obedient Child of the visible Church of Christ honouring a visible sepreme head Vicar of Christ and Successor to St. Peter as Universal Pastor of all Pastors And it is a most undoubted truth that Kings are not made by the invention of active ambitious or politick Wits as blind Enthusiasts Dreams neither are they Creatures of the People's making or the Product of a giddy Multitude as the Independents with many other seditious blind persons maintains but they are grounded on the very Law of Nature in high paternal Authority coequal with the World they are founded on the pure Law of right Reason which gives a Dignity and Authority to the First-born over all his Brethren so as Kings are rooted in the Original Laws of Nations as Cicero lib. 3. de legib testifies Omnes antiquae Gentes Regibus paruerunt All the ancient Nations in the World were ruled and governed by Kings They are confirmed by God's unerring Law who instituted Kingly Government over his own chosen People Deut. 17.15 and gave express command for David to be anointed King of Israel 1 Sam. 16.1 Finally Kings are prophetically promised as a very great Blessing to his Church Isa. 49.23 Kings shall be thy Nursing Fathers and Queens shall be thy Nursing Mothers And Plato that Seraphick Philosopher calls Kingly Government the most Divine Government Herodotus who is stiled Pater Historiarum The first Historian among the Heathens calls it The most ancient Government Aristotle the most rational of all Philosophers stiles it The most excellent Government for Monarchical Government is the meer imitation of the Government of Heaven which is by one God 't is the restitution of the Primitive Government in this World which was by one King and it is the meer reflection of the admirable Government of Nature which rules the many Members of the Body by one Soul. Daily experience proves that Ship to be best guided which is steered by one Pylot tho' trimm'd by many Saylors that Army sure is best ordered which is commanded by one General tho' assisted by many inferiour Officers Ergo that Nation is more happy and best governed by one King tho' advised by