and after much enquiry it was evident to me they could not afford to Impartial Judgments any solid and real satisfaction For the main Pillar of the Protestant Religion being to make the Scripture the sole Rule of Faith I finding by clear conviction this foundation to be without Solidity how could I in Reason or Conscience stand firm to that Church which I saw built on so unstable a bottom And indeed were Protestants able to perform what they promise that is to resolve all Controversies of Faith by Sacred Scripture we should be so far from being true Christians the best of men that we were worse than Beasts if we should refuse to be judg'd thereby Wherefore it is a wrongful Imputation in them to bear the World in hand that we have not a due veneration of those Sacred Oracles of Divine Truth when our reverence and respect to them is in reality more than theirs our Canon more general our Expositions more elaborate humble and submissive and our Assent unchangeable to whatsoever the Church declares to be revealed by them or is contain'd in them evidently by necessary consequence They in the interim only believing by a Spirit with a strange presumption what they please saying and unsaying in Civil Wars among themselves as well as against us whom they call the common enemy what they think is for their present advantage to serve their turn on all occasions And while we necessarily urge to all Christians the Authority of the Church as the Pillar and ground of Truth we are so far from intending any diminution of their just esteem that if they can produce but one single place of Scripture evidently containing the contrary to what we believe Conclamatum est The controversy is at an end we will confess we are in the wrong and for this Miracle for 't will be no less when ever it is done yield the whole cause unto them But 'till then let thâ—m cease to traduce us as Non-Veneraâ—ers of Sacred Writ because we will not receive it for what God did never intend it and leave it to his Church And against the evidence of our own Eyes and long experience acknowledge it to have conditions fit and requisite for the plain and Infallible instruction of all Christians of the whole Law of Christ and final decision of all Controversies For that Scripture by it self cannot perform those necessary Offices in the Church will manifestly be made to appear in the following Sections But first I shall shew that herein they agree with other Hereticks and Dissent from the Antient Church as well as from Us in this main fundamental of their Religion SECT II. Hereticks from the beginning were accustomed to Appeal to Scripture as the sole Rule of Faith whereby they would be judg'd in opposition to the Traditionary Doctrine and Sense of the Catholick Church THat whatsoever is purely of Divine Faith depends necessary on the Word of God is sound Doctrine but that all Supernatural Verities revealed to the Church are so written in the received Canon as none can misunderstand them is a most dangerous position yet the Anchora Sacra and chief refuge of old condemned Hereticks as well as of our modern Adversaries who groundiug their novel Opinions upon Texts of Scripture as interpreted by their own private Reason do at last make them Heretical by choosing pertinaciously to adhere to them against the Sense and Judgement of the Church A sad Case this that with the Waters of Life they should suck in Eternal Death into their Souls But alas Thus they turn Remedies into Diseases and blind their Eyes with the Heavenly Light of the Word becoming so much the more incorrigible because they perswade themselves even against evidence if seeing they would see that they have Divine Authority for their Doctrines The Arians in the Controversy between them and Catholicks about the Divinity of Christ would admit nothing but Scripture as St. Austin testifies bringing in Maximus an Arian Bishop thus disputing with him If you produce any thing Cont Max. l. 1. Init. out of the Divine Scriptures which are cemmon to all of necessity we must give ear unto it But these words which are without Scripture in no Case are received by us The direct Language of Protestants who in this however are perfect Arians The Macedonians impugning the Divinity of the Holy Ghost rejected the Gloria Patri Filio Spiritui Sancto whereby the Church professes her belief of a Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Divine Essence because not contained in Holy Writ Witness St. Basil They Li. de Sp. S. c. 25 26. the Macedonians cease not to brag up and down that the Glorification of God with the Holy Ghost wants Testimony wants Scripture Thus they then and thus Protestants now in points controverted between them and us But hear the same Holy Fathers answer Verily against The Church then in â—hâ—r Doxology us'd Cum Spiritu Sancto as El Spiritui Sancto that they say the Preposition cum Spiritu Sancto to want Testimony nor to be extant in Scripture we reply thus If nothing else be received without the Scripture neither truly let this be received by us without Scripture let us also receive this among many other For I think it Apostolical to adhere to the unwritten Traditions You see we need not new words to condemn the Protestants who will never be able to give any rational satisfaction why they receive some things not in Scripture only upon the score of Church-Tradition and yet refuse other alike commended to them by the same Authority In all reason they deserve an equal reception and so they must become Catholicks Euryches the Arch-Heretick denyed Christ to be perfect man as well as perfect God and for his defence appealed to Scripture Ergo a S. Scripturâ—s 〈…〉 saith he have vet learned from the Sacred Scrâ—ptures of two Natures To whom it was replyed Neither have we been Concit Chalced. Act. 1. taught the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from Sacred Writ Which must needs put him to a bashful silence the verity of Christ's Humane Nature being as fully deliver'd in Scripture as his Divine though not in such express terms as they required And therefore both either to be necessarily receiv'd or rejected by them But Protestants certainly have far less to say for themselves who with the Eutychians receiving the term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not found in Scripture yet deny the Corporal presence of Christ in the Blessed Eucharist by a real though Invisible Change of the Visible Elements when My Flesh is Meat indeed and my Blood is Drink Joh. 6. 51. 55. indeed And again The Bread that I will give is my Flesh which I will give for the Life of the World And the most Sacred words of Institution This is my Body This is my Plood are plain and express terms as any Doctrine can be delivered unto our capacity The Pelagians to
submission to the Churches Decrees in things necessary to Salvation and likewise in vertue of the same Principle as in all equity they extend it withdraw their obedience from the Secular Magistrate in his necessary commands as he Judges for the publick good 'till it be made out to them that they are in the present matter though not taken out of the Holy Scriptures yet agreeable unto them doubtless all Government and Order is brought to nothing and their Edicts and Laws will be evacuated as often as the pride or prejudice or passion or Interest of Subjects shall think them not warrantable from Holy Writ Neither could such sad effects be hindred from daily breaking out to the Worlds disquiet were they not curb'd in with fear of present punishment For when they who are thus taught think themselves secure from the lash their deeds sufficiently evidence what Temporal Magistrates are to expect from their hands But to stick close to the Church which they have forsaken If they think they have kept firm ground enough for Church Authority to stand upon by inserting these words In things necessary to Salvation thereby implying that though her Decrees in things necessary to Salvation have no strength or Authority 'till it may be declared not by her self for she hath already made her declaration that they are taken out of the Holy Scriptures yet in things not necessary and indifferent her Authority is absolute and independent on such a declaration with an obligation of obedience fâ—om Believers If this I say be their meaning to keep up Church-Authority it will not do the business but is only to put a Reed in Christs hand instead of a Royal-Scepter and to allow his Church a Mock-power onely in Spiritual matters as will easily appear to any one considering the end for which our Lord and Saviour set up a Government in his Church For having founded and furnish'd his Church with plentiful means for the Salvation of mankind and instituted a Government therein to conserve and apply those means that they might be effectual for the foresaid end and purpose Church-Governours cannot possibly make a sufficient application as Co-workers with God by his appointment in the great work of our Salvation if their Power extended it self absolutely to things indifferent without which we may be saved and in those things necessary to Salvation can ordain things 'till a Declaration from God knows whom and when makes it good and valid For they tell us not by whom or when this Declaration must be made in such Cases but inveloping their conceit in general words only deliver that what Oecumenical Synods ordain in things necessary to Salvation have no strength nor Authority 'till it may be declared that they are taken out of the Holy Scriptures Is this Doctrine consistent with the end of Church-Government Would not those Superiours be invested with a goodly power who can without dispute bind their Subjects hands from scratching their own Faces but have no obliging Authority to hinder them from thrusting a Sword into their Bowels or striking a Dagger to their Heart Hath Christ given some Apostles Prophets and some Evangelists and Ephes 4. some Pastors to feed and govern his Church for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ 'till we all come into the unity of the Faith and yet what points they teach as necessary to Salvation have no strength nor Authoriry 'till their Disciples and Learners of them shall declare that they are taken out of Holy Scriptures Would God exact of Church-Governours an account of their Subjects Souls committed to their Charge threatning to require their Blood at their Hands if any perish Acts 20. 26 27. through their negligence and yet not invest them with an Authority essentially requisite for the sufficient discharge of so dreadful a duty What says St. Paul to this point Heb. 13. 17. Obey them that have the Rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your Souls as they that must give an account for them Now comes the English Protestant Church with a Paraphrase and teaches Obey them that have the rule over you who watch for your Souls because they must give an account of them and submit your selves to their commands and order in things indifferent and not necessary not in what they teach and ordain as without which Salvation cannot be had for such Decrees have no strength nor Authority 'till it may be declared that they are taken out of the Holy Scriptures Can any Conscientious or Rational man possibly perswade himself that this is the Apostles meaning Thirdly the English Protestants teach That the Church hath power to Decree Rites and Ceremonies and Authority in Controversies of Faith Had they stopt here and stood to it they had soon return'd to their Catholick Mother But forsooth it is with this Provisoe That she ordain not any thing that is contrary to Gods word nor expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another But never tells us who shall be this Judge to determine when her Decrees and Orders are contrary to the Word of God or not or when she gives the true sense of Scripture according to the Analogy of Faith so that one place be not repugnant to another And so leaves us in a maze for our Salvation They had denyed the Catholick Church Representative to be an Infallible Witness of the Truths of Jesus Christ and Authoritative Interpreter of Scripture to guide Believers in the true sense of it and so it would have been too a notorious Inquisition to have assum'd it to their Conventicles wherefore having taken away the Pillar and ground of Truth the Churches Authority or Infallibility they laid no other sure foundation nor set up any other determinate Column to uphold Religion but leaves it in uncertainties to certain ruine Well fare the Churches under St. Paul's care and governance who had receiv'd a Power not for destruction but edification and could do nothing against the Truth but 〈◊〉 10. 8. for it The English Protestant Church can do nothing for the Truth but against it has no Power at all for edification but only for destruction Neither indeed might she exercise her new assum'd Jurisdiction without destroying her self when she could not be builded up but by pulling down to patch up a Fabrick out of the ruines For the Composers of her Articles did very well perceive if they admitted the Church to be the Authoriz'd Visible Judge of the Sense of Sripture by the Rule of Tradition shining bright in the practice of the whole Christian World and immemorial possession of such points they contradicted it was not possible to escape the Sentence of condemnation but in the Controversy giving a decisive power only to the dead Letter of Scripture the refuge of old condemned Hereticks they feared no Anathema while themselves were Interpreters And having the supreme Magistrate on
Traditionary points may be involved in those Texts So that we may safely argue thus far from such expositions they held such Tenets or else they would not have applyed those places for the confirmation of such Doctrines though such Doctrines cannot manifestly be concluded from those places And therefore when Protestants rationally show that some Texts so applyed by the Fathers may admit their Interpretations yea sometimes perhaps with greater probability they must not think they then carry the cause against Them and Us in those points This indeed is enough for Catholicks to do in all Controversies of Faith against Protestants who depend wholly upon Scripture as explicated by Wit and private Reason or Spirit for their Religion But it is no concluding argument against some Ancients for their over-credulity as I may say in relying on such Texts for some points now denyed by Protestants or against the present Church of Rome as relying upon them when that the Fathers neither did nor doth the Church of Rome now only rely upon such Texts for those particular points nor yet upon Scripture for any point of Faith at all but as handed and fensed to us by Tradition But to conclude this point seing Scripture thus manifestly descends to us by a lower degree of Tradition than Christian Doctrine and being received for the Word of God upon the credit of Tradition by Protestants themselves we cannot enough wonder at their unreasonable prevarication in taking the Churches word for the whole Rule of their Belief and yet refusing to rely upon her credit for any one Article of Faith in acknowledging her Authority Infallible in the delivery of the Letter and yet denying to believe her Tradition for the Ssense nor will be perswaded to conform to her in those points and practices which are handed to us by her attestation with far greater evidence of credibility And this being clear to me could I any longer continue a Protestant Had I not all the reason in the world to become a Catholick The second ground of the first Motive viz. The Authority or Infallibility of the Church in determining all Controversies concerning Faith and defining what is of Faith and what not when call'd in question SECT VI. An Introductive Discourse concerning the Judiciary Power of the Church YEt notwithstanding this certainty of Tradition handing from Age to Age the Evangelical Law with so much evidence unreasonable men have arose of perverse minds questioning and contradicting the Truths of Jesus Christ Insomuch that hardly yea perhaps not any one fundamental point of Christianity but hath been controverted in some Age or other Wherefore as Tradition is a constant Rule so the Wisdom and Goodness of Almighty God hath provided in his Church an Authoritative Judge to give Sentence by the guidance of the said Rule if there happen to be contentions about matters of Faith among Believers For unless in such cases an Authoritative Judge be allowed to give a definitive Sentence from which there is no appeal by the contending Parties for the decision of such Controversies Authoritatively assuring us what Doctrines were taught by Christ and his Apostles if denyed and what not when falsly pretended Actum est de fide unitate Faith and Church-unity must necessarily be destroyed and all Religion lost in a Chaos of disagreeing judgments without any probability of reconcilement A supreme and unerring Judicature being then absolutely necessary for the ordering and preserving of the Church in all things essential to Salvation how little satisfaction and that not without just cause I received in this point from the English Protestants who indeed grant a Judge but one wholly Inefficacious to this purpose yea impossible to reconcile Dissenting Litigants as the super-abundant experience of above sixteen hundred years for all Hereticks fly to the dead Letter of Scripture for their refuge hath sufficiently evidenc'd I shall make hereafter appear in the examination of their Rule and Judge and for the present endeavour to demonstrate how all Christians ought to be contented and acquiess as I did in what the Church of Rome teaches and the Catholick Church always hath and doth practice on such occasions Now what the Catholick Church teacheth and always hath delivered in this point is briefly this That all Divine Truths taught by Christ and his Apostles necessary to Salvation whether Traditionary only or also Written are deposited in the Church as a Witness to attest them and as a Judge Divinely assisted to Interpret and give an Authorative Sentence if their be any Controversy about them which all Christians are obliged to believe and follow under pain of Damnation A Doctrine brought down to us from the Apostolical Times by a more visible practice and unquestionable Tradition than the Scriptures themselves which yet the Protestants receive for the Word of God upon the same Authority What concerns the Church as a Sacred Depository of all Revealed Truths written and unwritten hath already been manifested in the precedent Discourse And that the Spouse of Christ is an Authoritative Judge or Infallible Guide to determine all Controversies of Faith among her Children that they may know with security what to believe and follow according to their Duty I hope shall be made no less evident in the following Sections SECT VII That there is a Supreme Visible Judge to decide Controversies in matters of Religion Instituted by Christ Infallible in all points of Faith to which as such all Christians are obliged to a submission of Judgment under pain of Damnation is here made apparent from Scripture And some further Reasons also given TO acknowledge a visible Judge to interpret and apply Laws in Controversial matters is so conform to common Sense and Reason and so confirmed by the experience and practice of the whole World in all kinds of Governments that to deny such a Power from God in his Church is in effect to say That Jesus Christ the Wisdom of the Father hath not so well provided for the regulating and preservation of his Kingdom and peculiar People purchased with his own most precious Blood in order to their eternal Good and Happiness as meer men subject to manifold weaknesses and Passions do by the common Light of Nature and ordinary Principles of Prudence and Discretion provide for the well-being of Families and Commonwealths in Temporal matters A Position unavoidably drawing after it so many strange and to say no worse dangerous consequences that they will be here better lamented than infisted upon But because Protestants whom I have forsaken fly to Scripture as the only Infallible Judge in all Controversial matters of Faith thither I shall bring them first to be tryed and show them out of those Sacred Oracles of Divine Truth which they acknowledge what ample and most abundantly satisfactory provision the Wisdom and Goodness of Almighty God hath made and left in his Church to bring us securely to the certain knowledge of his revealed will nothing being wanting on
his part if we neglect not so great Salvation The chief Texts for the Churches supreme Teaching and consequently Judging and determining Power when any controversies of Faith arise by Commission from Christ the Head-spring of all Spiritual Jurisdiction are these and such like Mat. 28. 18 19. Go ye make Disciples of all Nations teaching them io observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you And that this Authoritative Teaching is performed by the Pastors of the Church as his Delegates and Representing his Person is plain from that of St. Luke He that heareth you heareth me and he Chap. 10. 16. Mat. 14. 18. that despiseth you despiseth me Again Whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven And again He Ephes 4. 11 12 13 c. gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ 'till we all come to the unity of the Faith and be not tossed too and fro with wind of every Doctrine What more express And yet if it may be the Churches Infallibility in the delivery of the Law of Christ is taught us in plainer terms as namely in Ch. 14. 26. those Promises in St. John The Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my Name he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you When the Spirit of Truth Joh. 16. 13. S. Matt. ch 28. 19. is come he will guide you in to all Truth And those in St. Matthew Teach them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you and behold I am with you always even to the end of the World And that in the 16 1 Tim. 3. 15. Chap. Vpon this rock will I build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Such a Church as this thus founded thus assisted thus guided cannot possibly teach damnable Haeresies or dangerous Errors but must needs be the Pillar and ground of Truth as that glorious Vessel of Election the great Apostle of the Gentiles doth assure us And therefore we may securely rely upon her word to do it also so much concerns us that not to hear and obey is no less then under pain of damnation and that too from no obscure Texts He that 1 Epist 4. 6. knoweth God heareth us saith St. John and he that heareth us not is not of God and by this we know the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Errour And that famous place Dic Ecclesiae Matt. 18. 17. Tell it to the Church and if he neglect to hear the Church let him be to thee as an Heathen and a Publican Persons doubtless in no fit case for Heaven I 'll name but one more out of St. Mark Go ye into all the World Mark 16. 16. and Preach the Gospel unto every Creature And what then He that believeth not shall be damned Plain and sad places these are to all Unbelievers and Incorrigible Hereticks But especially to these last who receiving these Scriptures for the Word of God do notwithstanding not only not hear the Church Obediently in her delivery of the Gospel but with obstinacy and pride of heart presume to teach the Church and will needs force upon her a new Creed which was never taught by Christ nor handed to us from the Apostles How can such as these escape the punishment threatned in the above-mentioned Sentences Their account must needs be heavy and the light they had will only serve to augment their guilt And I cannot omit for a Testimony of these and such like Texts against Protestants that being so express and unavoidable for the Churches Authority and Obedience to her in their first Editions of their English Bibles after their defection from the Church of Rome for Church they translated Congregation least common understandings should discover how they were withdrawn from their Ancient Faith by new Doctrines and Expositions so expresly contrary to the Word of God 'Till afterwards when by divers Artifices these Teachers perceived they had bred in their Followers a strong aversion from the Church of Rome and that they were sufficiently confirmed in their Errours the word Congregation in the later Translation was turn'd into Church that from the evidence of such Texts they might gain some credit to their usurp'd power set up against the pre-existent Authority of the whole Christian World Neither is it without reason that Christ hath set up in his Church such a supreme Judicature when to deny this Power to those whom he hath appointed for ever to be Governours of his Kingdom on Earth is doubtless to advance the Jewish Synagogue above the Christian Church their Sanedrim or Great Council whesein the High-Priest was supreme Judge in all doubts Deut. 17. and questions about the Law having such absolute Authority in giving Sentence that no man could appeal but was bound to obey under pain of death And yet that was but a temporary Pedagogy delivered by Moses a faithful Servant of the House of God in Types and Shadows prefiguring and leading to Evangelical Perfection whose Ministration is far more glorious endowed with more transcendent and admirable Priviledges foretold by the Prophets and in plenitude of time fulfill'd revealed and established in Person by the Eternal Son of God Lord of all things upon better Promises to continue for ever Secondly Christ our Lord having so dearly purchas'd a peculiar People and furnish'd his Church with all means necessary to the Salvation of mankind if we deny such Authority in her namely Infallibility to witness and when circumstances require to determine by a finally decisive unerring Sentence what these means are they cannot be effectual to the end for which they were with so much Sweat and Blood Instituted to continue for ever being otherwise according to the ordinary method of Divine Providence impossible to be known with an assured certainty and by consequence also to be put in practice Neither indeed could it be truly said that Christ hath provided in his Church all things necessary for our Salvation without this Authority when amongst things necessary that questionless seems to be most so by which we can only come to a certain knowledge of all the rest Thirdly seeing God hath made his Church a Proponent and Witness of his Truth in all Ages for 1 ch 8. that of the Acts Ye shall be witnesses to me both in Jerusalem and all Judaea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the Earth As to the substance of it belongs not only to the Apostles but to their Successors in the Office of making Jesus Christ and his Law known to the Worlds end the unanimous consent of the Catholick Church must needs be an undoubted testimony of revealed Verities seeing it
contradicts the Justice Goodness and Veracity of God to authorize any to be a witness of his Truth that might lye and deceive the World in their attestation And methinks it concerns as well English Protestants as Us to maintain the Catholick Church for an Infallible Witness seeing at this distance from the Preaching of Christ and his Apostles they as well as we have no other Infallible assurance then her Testimony whereby to know either which are the undoubtd Books of Scripture or what the true meaning of them And thus that Religion which Protestants pretend to be contain'd in only Scripture must rejecting Church Authority necessarily float in an Ocean of incertainties and we miserably be left in the mysts of conjectures among dead Letters with the twi-light of natural reason to search out Faith and the Eternal Salvation of our Souls Lastly the fore-quoted Texts being so express for the Church to have a Power from Christ to oblige all men under pain of Damnation to believe and submit to her Proposals as to Faith God hath also endowed her with Infallibility in bringing to our knowledge revealed Verities seeing otherwise such a Power in the Church and a correspondent obligation in her Children would not bear an equal proportion And therefore these two are inseparably link'd together a Power to bind to Believe and Infallibility in the Obliger Christ assisting his Church with his Holy Spirit to guide her Infallibly into all Truth because he hath invested her with a Power to bind to believe and giving her a Power of obliging to believe because he hath made her Infallible in such Proposals It seeming most conformable to the Divine Goodness and Providence that such an externe proponant of Faith should be established as might afford no just cause to suspect whither it be true or no which is proposed and in all reason no greater assurance can be desired then to have an absolute certainty that that Authority cannot err in points of Faith to whom we must in such Proposals captivate our Wills and Understandings For this is but to assent upon undoubted evidence then which nothing is more agreeable to mans nature Neither is it rational to believe that God who is essential Reason and Wisdom ruling all his Creatures according to the several Dispositions Imprinted in them would impose such a Duty on Discoursive Entities upon other terms Blessed be God who hath so carefully provided for us in giving us a Law which is the only means to Salvation and also an authorized guide to direct us in the certain knowledge of it namely the Catholick which cannot possibly lead us into errour as hath been formerly shewn Thus certainly these Scriptures witnessing the Churches Authority are agreeable to reason now let us see what further light can be added to them from the Writings and universal practice of Antiquity SECT VIII The Churches Authority or Infallibility taught and asserted by the Ancient Fathers IF I should produce what Antiquity affords us on this Subject I should rather transcribe Books than Passages so Copious and Industrious have the Fathers been on all occasions to press a point so necessary S. Athana coni Aria S. Hier. S. Aug. Pole St. Cyp. de vnit Ecc. Tert. c. especially in their Polemical Discourses against Hereticks to vindicate their dear Mother the Church in her Just Rights and Priviledges against all Rebellious contradictors of her Authority And thither I refer such as desire more ample satisfaction for the present I shall content my self with some few choice places and they are these We must believe saith Irenaeus â— l. cont hae ca. 49. those Priests that are in the Church those that have a Succession from the Apostles who together with the Episcopal Power according to the good pleasure of the Father have received the certain gift of Truth We must not believe saith the English Protestant Church those who in their Episcopal Chaires have had an un-interrupted Succession from the Apostles seek not for the Law of God from their Lips for they are fallen from the Truth yea General Councils can err and have erred in Art 21. of the 39. their Definitions having no certain gist of Truth by Divine assistance Thus they flatly contradicting good Irenaeus and Ancient Doctrine Now whom shall we believe The old Saint or the new Protestant Give him a little more Audience for he proceeds thus The Church Cap. 62. l. praed shall be under no mans judgement for to the Church all things are known in which is the perfect Faith of the Father and of all the Dispensations of Christ and firm knowledge of the Holy Ghost who teacheth all Truth But say he what he will Protestants will assume a Power to judge and condemn her of no less gross and damnable Errours then Idolatry and Superstition to justify that thing they call the Reformed Church Though it were no difficult matter for them to perceive the Injustice of such Proceedings when the same Saint goes on and tells them and us That it is easie to receive the Truth from Gods Church seeing the Apostles have most fully deposited in her as in a rich store-house all things belonging to Truth For what if there should arise any contention of some small questions ought we not to have recourse to the most Ancient Churches and from them receive what is certain and clear concerning the present question Thus far he And if this course is to be taken in small questions doubtless much more in matters of high concern as many points are now controverted between Us and Protestants In such to be left to our own private conjectures and Interpretations would be most unsafe and unreasonable And had Protestants taken the course here prescribed by the Saint for the inquisition of Truth when they first raised questions about Religion as in such cases all Christians ought to do could ever such a thing as the Protestant Church have had a beeing or existence For 't is as visible as the Sun that there was no pre-existent form of Faith in the whole Christian World according to which they modeliz'd their Religion in England and with whom they communicated when they divided from the Church of Rome their Catholick Mother If great St. Austin was not little in esteem with our modern Hereticks they might receive full satisfaction from him in this point if they would Impartially peruse his Writings against the Donatists and other Enemies of the Churches Faith and Unity That of his is very remarkable against Crescontius Though saith he there cannot be produced Lib. 1. cap. 33. from Scriptures any examples of such a thing yet the Truth of the same Scriptures is held of us in this matter when we do that which pleaseth the whole Church which the Authority of the same Scriptures commendeth that because the Holy Scriptures cannot deceive us whosoever feareth to be deceived with the obscurity of this question let him require the judgment of
their side to prohibite Catholicks to speak for themselves in any publick defence it was easie to delude vulgar apprehensions with this plausible Sophism The Papists refuse to be try'd by the Word of God Which things whosoever layes together and seriously ponders as I did cannot but discover that the English Protestant Reformers did not receive a Rule of Faith from the Catholick Church which had been the Square of Christian belief in all Ages and is to continue so for ever but invented or rather assumed from their Predecessors the Ancient Hereticks a Rule of Faith for the Church they were setting up whereby they thought their new Doctrines might with most likelihood be maintain'd and found no better expedient then by denying an authoriz'd Visible Judge to pronounce a definitive Sentence in Controversies of Faith that so they might keep in possession of what they had usurped by eternally wrangling about the right But that we may come to some issue by bringing them out of a mysterious may be declared to stand to something in this main Principle of Religion admit that the written word were the sole and perfect Rule of Faith it being impossible for dead Letters of themselves to rectify things applicable to them for that end and purpose they must needs acknowledge some animated Judge to perform this Office among Christians by applying the Rule to all particulars Now they having denyed the Church this right and so cast off her living voice and Authority in plain terms though insisting in generals they assign no other determinate Interpreter yet must have recourse to Reason or Revelation for besides these three I know not any I say they must either let private Reason make this declaration and Judge of the true sense of Scripture by her innate Light or flie to Revelation and Pretend that the Holy Ghost Infallibly declares by a Divine Light his meaning to them This later way of Divine Inspiration is laid claim to by the Calvinistical party and those strange broods of other English Sectaries who have nothing but Scripture and the Spirit of God in their mouths upon whom in a most Prodigious manner they Father all their Blasphemies to the shame of Christians But it is rejected by all Protestants in any degree rational as meerly Fanatical and invincibly convicted of Imposture by the manifest contradictions of several pretenders to the Spirit of God For can the Holy Ghost reveal to the Calvinists that the Government of the Church by Presbytery hath a Divine right from Scripture and by the same Divine Unction teach the Independents that it is against the written Word c. Private reason therefore is only left them to resolve their Faith into and rely upon in their inquiring after and belief of Supernatural Truths and those sublime Mysteries to the knowledge of which nature hath not sufficient Light to advance her self by her sole native powers beside those mists of passion or prejudice or Education or Interest to which we are daily lyable and which must needs make this way more dark and difficult in order to eternal Happiness However they must take to it unless they will openly recant what they have publickly approved For though at first they kept secret this grand mystery of their State-Religion yet at last great Patrons of the English Protestant Church have with Authority and much applause inthron'd Mr. Chilling worth c. private Reason as a sole Queen and Mistress in the Churches Chair to direct and interpret the Holy Scriptures and from them to give a final Sentence what are the Truths of God revealed to us Without which Sentence or Declaration the Churches Decrees in things necessary to Salvation have no strength at all or obligation Nor then neither as these Rationalists explain it upon the score of Authority but Reason only But how unreasonably and without ground I doubt not to make appear in the following Sections SECT IV. That the Holy Scriptures are not the sole and perfect Rule of Faith TO evidence the groundlessness of this main foundation of the English Protestant Church as declar'd and explicated in the precedent Section with full satisfaction I conceive it lyes upon me principally to make three things good against them First That Scripture is not the sole and perfect Rule of Faith Secondly That it is not nor can be the Judge of Controversies in Religion Which is the common Tenet of modern Hereticks And thirdly That admitting it for a Rule of Faith as in part it is private Reason is not the Interpreter and Judge of the true sense thereof for every Christian to rely upon for his Salvation In clearing the first point I need not labour much having already by convincing arguments establish'd in the 4th and 5th Sections of the first Motive the Catholick Rule of Faith Universal Tradition whither I desire my Reader to return for satisfaction And which standing firm the Protestants Rule of Scripture only must needs be as well a ruin'd as ruinous Principle and fall to nothing Yet that discourse being more general I shall here descend to some particulars to make it visible to very ordinary Capacities that Scripture doth not contain fully all things necessary to Salvation nor is clearly evident without dispute in all points necessary therein contain'd and consequently cannot be the sole and compleat Rule of Faith wanting those two most necessary conditions belonging to it First I say not full and comprehending all points necessary to Salvation of mankind For I demand of them whether it be not a fundamental point of Faith to believe the Holy Scriptures to be the Word of God and yet Mr. Hooker one of the most Judicious Writers of the English Protestants acknowledges this cannot be grounded upon Scripture Of all points saith Hooker's Ecc. Polit l. 2. â—â— I remember he the most necessary to be believ'd is that the Scriptures are the Word of God which is confest impossible for them to prove And proceeding makes a demonstration of it against the Puritans How then themselves being Judges can the Holy Scriptures being a compleat Rule of Faith not comprehending what is most necessary to be believ'd by every Christian If they say this Objection is not pertinent because whosoever makes the written word of God the sole and sufficient Rule of Faith must necessarily pre-suppose the belief of Scripture founded upon some other Principle I reply 't is impertinent to say so because the necessity of a pre-supposition of some fundamental point is a sufficient conviction that the Rule they have chosen cannot be compleat and perfect as they would have it Especially if it be confider'd that the fundamental point pre-suppos'd independent on Scripture but Scripture depending on it must needs be the ground quoad nos to us of all things believ'd in it Which ground or antecedent Principle upon which they as well as we build their belief of such Scriptures to be the undoubted Word of God being the universal
Tradition and Authority of the Church not they but this can only truly and rationally be asserted for a compleat and perfect Rule comprehending all things necessary to Salvation handing them down from the Apostles themselves to us now living as the revealed Truths of Jesus Christ and believed as such by all respective Ages upon that tenure Among which Truths so attested That such Writings are the undoubted Word os God is a Principal one and believed because so attested But all other Traditionary Doctrines of Faith having the same convincing proof that they came from Heaven whatever of them were occasionally committed to Writing afterwards by the Apostles are still to be believ'd upon the same account viz. Tradition and Church Authority the certainty of Scripture as well for the Sense as Letter depending thereon Again I demand of English Protestants by what Authority they condemn the Anabaptists to be Hereticks whether by Scripture or Tradition If they say by Scripture they must give me leave to tell that St. Austin with the primitive Christians were of another mind who tells them very plainly That Consuetudo Matris Ecclesiae c. The L. 4. cont Donat. custom of the Church our Mother in Baprizing Children is in no sort to be despis'd nor by any means thought superfluous nor at all to be believ'd except it was an Apostolical Tradition But if they value not Antiquity and presume the Fathers were but School-Boys to them in the understanding of Sacred Writ let them produce any one Text for Infant-Baptism so clearly proving it that the Contradictors must be unavoidably convinc'd and left confounded without any shadow of reply before thoroughly knowing and expert Judges in such Controversies and will confess the Fathers were but dull and heavy men compar'd to their quicker and more deep-sighted judgements in diving into the sense of Scripture and rest satisfy'd that upon the score of only Scripture Anabaptists may be condemned In his Reply Fisher for Hereticks I remember Bishop Land much presses that place in the Acts to be convincing for Infant Baptism Repent and be Baptiz'd Act. 2. 38 39. every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the promise is unto you and to your Children Yet not without the help of Tradition enlightning and exalting it to that force and efficacy But Dr. Hammond In his Ans to 6. Quaeres a great Scripturist and Defender of the Protestant Church confesses it is not at all concluding for it Without more ado the Truth is did not Church-Tradition shining bright in universal practice decide the controversy they could not satisfactorily answer those Texts of Scripture wherewith the Anabaptists confront those other produced by them nor justly enroll them in the black Book of Hereticks Does not this manifestly destroy their main foundation of Scripture to be the only and sufficient Rule of Faith Besides it is not an Heretical practice to Re-baptize those who have been Baptiz'd by Hereticks observing the true form of Baptism Can they evince it for such by any Scripture St. Austin tells them That custom which was opposed to Cyprian L. 2. de Bap. cont Donat. ca. 7 l. 5. c. 23. is to be believ'd to have taken its rise from the Tradition of the Apostles and that he believ'd it for such Moreover the form of Baptism is not expresly deliver'd in Holy Writ nor the number of the Sacraments nor yet the word Sacrament in the Scripture apply'd at all to those they acknowledge for such at least generally necessary to Salvation But for all these we are beholding to the practice and Tradition of the Church This is not all for farther yet let them show any precept in Scripture for the Abolishing of the Jewish Sabbath and observation of the Lords day in its stead A point doubtless necessary for Christians however as applyed to multitudes in Church-Communion Here also they are forc'd to leave Scripture and betake themselves to Tradition for the condemnation of the Sabbaterians Moreover would they willingly part with the Apostles Creed the Observation of Lent which their In his Sermon upon Lent Bishop Andrews contends to be Apostolical and see all Christian Festivals trampled under the prophane Feet of furious Fanaticks with most Ep. 118. ad Janua insolent madness as St. Austin calls it Yet they are all gone if Scripture must hold them up without Tradition In a word the greatest Champions of the English Protestant Church in these later years especially perceiving by sad experience the Vnder Sectaries who were Spawn'd from them to endanger and at last for a time wholly to destroy their new form of Belief and Worship by vertue of this Principle of Only-Scripture do now betake themselves to the Sword and Buckler of Tradition to defend and justify themselves against their Treacherous Brethren And thus although they fly to our Rule of Faith Vniversal Tradition for conviction of their Adversaries in some points by themselves accounted necessary yet they will needs have the Holy Scriptures to be the only and perfect Rule of Faith Doubtless it had been more safe and ingenuous to have acknowledg'd with the Ancient Fathers Traditionary Doctrines as well as the Holy Scriptures to compleat the Rule of Christian belief but contradicting Antiquity by contracting the Rule of Faith into Scripture alone they have likewise contradicted themselves the inevitable Fate of all Truthopposers Secondly The Holy Scriptures are not clearly evident without dispute in all points necessary contain'd in them and consequently no compleat nor certain Rule of themselves as the common experience of all Ages makes good Can any say the Consubstantiality of the Son of God with the Father is in evident or express terms in Sacred Scripture Yea or so contained in it by inevitable consequence as to destroy all probability in the Texts brought for the contrary by Contradictors Then certainly the Arians who had as subtil Heads and able Brains as any Protestants to understand the Logick of their Adversaries were mad men to appeal from Councils and Tradition to the written Word They knew very well that without the Tradition and practice of the Church delivering the sense of Scripture they could handsomly enough evade the force of all Arguments might be rais'd from the bare and dead words of Scripture though stretch'd upon the Tenters of most rigorous Criticism Yea they doubted not but there were Texts for them more evidently asserting the Inferiority of the Son and appropriating the Divine nature to the Father only which was the ground of their confidence in appealing to the written Word to be tryed thereby without Tradition And yet the Protestants condemn the Arians for Hereticks and justly too But how they can do it rationally upon their own Principles I confess surpasses my understanding True it is add to Scripture the Tradition of the Church and the Authoritative Sentence of an approved General Council so interpreting it and the case is clear but these
in the storm of a blind zeal against the Church of Rome split themselves against another rock never caring for perpetual succession and visibility to make them Catholick confidently assert that the Church of Christ was over-spread with the infernal darkness of Superstition and Idolatry that it wholly ceas'd to be a true Church for a thousand years and upwards more or less for they cannot agree among themselves about the determinate time which gave this fatal period to Christianity 'till by their blessed Reformation the glorious light of the Gospel did dawn a-new unto the World and with the ruines of the Whore of Babylon hopeful Children to cast such durt in their Mothers face they did beautify the revived Spouse of Jesus Christ Wherein they wholly agree with the Donatists of old who after their separation from the Catholick Church thought they could not defend themselves from Schism and Heresie unless they would maintain that the Universal Church was totally perish'd and shrunk into their new-born Conventicle which hath in it the the mixture of thus much Truth that no separation from an acknowledged true Church can be justifyable But this is wonderful that those very men who pretend so much veneration of Sacred Scripture as to make it the sole and adequate Rule of Christian belief should notwithstanding to free their own Religion from Schism and Heresie affirm the Church of Christ to have perish'd totally for so many Ages the contrary to which is so plainly contain'd in those Sacred Oracles Our Blessed Saviour says That he Met. 16. 18. will build his Church upon a rock so that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it The Angel says Of his Luke 1. Kingdom there shall be no end Can possibly Jesus Christ be with the Mat. 28. 20. Governours of his Church to the Worlds end to direct them by his special assistance to pretect them by his irresistable Power and yet the Devil so far prevail over his beloved Heritage as to ruine it Can he make good his promise of leading Joh. 14. 26. 16. v. 13. them into all Truth and yet suffer his Church to be corrupted with damnable errors and practices as totally to perish St. Paul says God hath placed in his Church some Apostles Ephes 4. 11 c. some Prophets others Evangelists and Doctors for the perfecting of the Saints that we might be one and the same faith and not toss'd and carried about with the wind of every Doctrine And that the Church is the Pillar and ground of Truth These 1 Tim 3. 15. are plain express Texts for the Churches Indefectibility needing no Interpreter as St. Austin saith De Vnit Eccl. c 16. in the like case of evident places out of Scripture for the universality of the Church against obscure Texts objected by the Donatists And yet this generation of men will palpably pervert plain Texts of Scripture rather then confess a guilt in separating themselves from their Catholick Mother Perkins a great Champion of the Reformed Religion saith expressy Exposit of the Creed pa. 226. That during the space of 900. years the Popish Heresie had spread it self over the whole Wold Calvin affirms That the Church of Instit l. 4. c. 18. Rome made all the Kings and People of the Earth drunk with the cup of her abomination from the first to the last Bennet Norton says The whole Christian World knows that before Luther Treat of the Church p. 145. all Churches were overwhelm'd with more then Cymerian darkness Bibliander a Lutheran is very positive That without all question from In Orat. ad Princ Germa the time of Gregory the Great the Pope is Antichrist who with his abominations hath made drunk all Kings and People from the highest to the lowest Yet Simon Voyon affirms no less Catal. Doct. Ep. ad Lect. confidently That when Boniface was installed then was that universal Apostacy from the Faith foretold by St. Paul And to name no more Chamierus saith That Apostacy averted the whole body from Christ Consider well these expressions and then tell me if any thing can be more contrary to Sacred Scripture Lay them close together that the opposition may more visibly appear The Church is builded upon a rock and the gates of Hell shall never prevail against it Of his Kingdom there shall be no end I will send you the Spirit of Truth who shall lead you into all Truth The Church is the Pillar and ground of Truth Thus teaches Scripture Now these new Pastors tell us That Heresie which is the strongest bar of Hell gates overspread the whole Christian World That all Churches were overwhelmed with more than Cymerian darkness That there was an universal Apostacy from the Faith That Apostacy averted the whole body from Christ Are not these Doctrines directly contrary to each other Now which shall we believe For both we cannot 'till contradictions be both true Are not these rare men to make Apostles Yet before I part with them I will ask them one question in St. Austin's words wherewith he expostulates the same case with the Donatists In Scripturis didicimus Ep. 166. ad Donat. Christum c. In the Scriptures we have learned Christ in the Scriptures we have come to the knowledge of the Church These Scriptures are common to us both why do we not from them keep as well the same Church as the same Christ And afterwards If for the verity of the Scriptures ye believe in Christ whom ye read of and see not wherefere do ye deny the Church which ye both read and see A Church which the same Father assures you The Prophets have In Psal 30. L. de vti cred c. 7 8 c. more plainly spoken of then Christ himself to prevent mistakes in a matter of so great moment A Church which the Scriptures assure you shall as militant continue in a visible succession to the end of the World as triumphant world without end After this one Catholick and Apostolick Church was founded in the World and began to spread it self into all corners the Members of it were called Christians to distinguish them from all not professing Christ But when some of themselves arose teaching perverse things to draw away Disciples after them and so separating from the Church whereof once they were Members erected new Communions then those Christians who stood firm adhering fast to the Church and Doctrine establish'd by Christ and his Apostles were called Catholicks to distinguish them from such false Christians who had separated themselves into Schismatical or Heretical Congregations Which if the Protestants would consider aright they would never argue thus incongruously The Roman Church is not the Catholick Church because it comprehends not Us and others in her Communion who are Christians when Catholicism in its genuine notion denotes an Universal Communion of true Believers continuing in the Faith and Worship first deliver'd to the Saints in
c is damnable and the sin of Schism which surpasseth all other crimes This is so home and punctual that to quote any more will be superfluous neido I see admitting the Holy Fathers Authority what can rationally or satisfactorily be reply'd by our Adversaries But thirdly the Church is Catholique respectu hominum saluandorum in respect that as many as are saved are called to be Members of it Therefore 't is said Acts the 2. v. 47. That there were added to the Church dayly such as should be saved And St. Paul tells us Quos praedestinavit Rom. 8. 30. hos est vocavit c. Whom God has predestinated to Grace and Glory from all eternity those he in time calls out of the World into the Congregation of the Faithful which is the proper notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Original from whence comes the word Ecclesia that in the Communion of his Catholick Church they may make their calling and election sure by working out their election with fear and trembling Testimonies of the Fathers in all Ages are very copious to this purpose View a few of many The Holy Catholick Church says L. 14. Moral ca. 2. St. Gregory the great teaches that none can be saved except within her affirming that none can be saved in any-wise who are without her Whosoever Ep. 152. ad Donat. says St. Austin shall be separated from this Catholick Church how laudibly soever he thinks he lives by this only wickedness in that he 's divided from the unity of Christ he shall not have life but the wrath of God abideth on him And again Being Do vnit Eccl. c. 19. out of the Church and divided from the collection of unity and bond of charity thou shouldst be punish'd with eternal fire though burn'd alive for the Name of Christ St. Fulgentius his Schollar hath the fame l. de fide ad Petrum ca. 37 38. St. Cyprian's words are little different Do they De vn c. Eccl. think says he Christ is amongst them when they are assembled out of the Church of Christ No though they were drawn to torments and execution for the confession of the Name of Christ yet this pollution is not wash'd away no not with blood this inexpiable and inexcusable crime of Schism is not purged away even by death it self Which is no more then what they have learn'd from the great Doctor of the Gentiles when he says Though 1 Cor 13. 1 2 3. I give all my substance to maintain the poor and though I give my body to be burn'd and have not charity it will profit me nothing And the reason is because 't is a sacrifice without charity which Schism destroyeth For charity saith St. Austin no man transports out of the Church Are not these loud Alarms in the ears of Protestants and all other Separatists to awaken them from their present Lethargy and make them sensible of their sad condition Can they hear these terrible accents and yet continue to deceive themselves with the specious Name of Reformed Christians While they are divided from the Communion of the Catholick Church can their morally good Lives their civil Conversation their formal Piety without the power thereof their Saint-like zeal which in the preciser sort dazels the eyes of common People who think all is gold that glisters Can any or all of these save their precious and immortal Souls No they cannot For out of the Catholick Church saith the same St. Austin Epist 48. cont Donat c. they may have Faith they may have Sacraments they may have Scriptures they may live laudably they may do good works they may suffer death it self for the Name of Christ all this they may do and have but out of the Church Salvation they cannot have Thus the Ancient Church always taught and we with them And this all Hereticks and Schismaticks will sadly find true without repentance But God of his mercy make it work effectually on them as it did on me to bring them into the bosom of the Catholick Church I will close up this discourse with that famous place of St. Austin Multa L. cont Ep Fund ca. 4. sunt quae in Ecclesiae Catholicae gremio me justissimè teneant Tenet consensio populorum gentium tenet auctoritas miraculis inchoata spe nutrita charitate aucta Vetustate firmata tenet ab ipsa sede Petri Apostoli cui pascendas oves suas post resurrectionem Dominus commendavit usque ad praesentem Episcopatum successio sacerdotum tenet postremo ipsum Catholicae nomen quod non fine causa inter tà m multas haereses sic ista Ecclesia sola obtinuit ut cum omnes haeretici se Catholicos dici velint quaerenti tamen peregrino alicui ubi ad Catholicam conveniatur nullus haereticorum vel basilicam suam vel domum audeat ostendere Ista ergo tot tantaque Christiani nominis charissima vincula recte hominem tenent credentem in Ecclesia Catholica etiam si propter nostrae intelligentiae tarditatem vel vitae meritum veritas nondum se apertissime ostendat Apud vos autem ubi nihil horum est quod me invitet ac teneat sola personat veritatis pollicitatio Which is to this effect That the consent of Nations an Authority set up with Miracles nourish'd with Hope increas'd by Charity establish'd by Antiquity the uninterrupted succession of Priests in the Chair of Peter the Apostle to the present Bishop and lastly the very name of Catholick most justly kept him in the Catholick Church while only the empty name of Truth did keep a noise and ratling among Schismaticks wholly destitute of all these arguments to work upon a rational understanding And let any man who desires sincerely to follow Truth and save his Soul judge whether these motives which kept St. Austin in the bosome of the Catholick Church after his Conversion ought not to convert him to become a Member of the same Church and keep him in it SECT VI. Wherein the Protestants Plea of pretended Errors in the Church of Rome to justify their Separation is refuted BUt they object further that the Church not only may but did err in points of Faith and Worship and that they separated not from the Church of Rome but from her Errors and Corruptions that they might not communicate with her in her sins But certainly whoever impartially considers what has been said in the precedent and some other Sections concerning the Churches Indefectibility can never think it possible that such gross errors and corruptions could invade the Church to her utter ruine The Church of Christ which is the pillar and ground of Truth and could not be so was she her self lyable to error in points of Faith hath always been more Faithful in keeping the Depositum of the Gospel intrusted to her inviolate and unspotted from all blemishes of corruption which unreasonable men that is Schismaticks and
If we will confess the Truth we cannot but testify this concerning us Gospellers that no men in the whole World are more given to Whoredoms Vsury Circumventions and Deceits then our selves Bishop Andrews perhaps the greatest Scholar that ever England bred of Sehismatick and in whom was some relish of Catholick Piety in his Sermon upon Bring forth Mat. 3. 8. fruits worthy of repentance hath words to this effect We have taken away Auricular Confession and instead thereof brought in Auricular Profession Our Religion is good at In and In we are all for hearing Sermons for taking in but we bring forth nothing no fruits I am sure worthy of repentance And in his Sermon upon um jejunatis c. When Mat. 6. 16. ye fast be not as the Hypocrites c. he speaks after this manner The Romanists will needs have us to be those locusts St. John saw coming out of the Apoc. 9. 2. bottomless pit to plague the earth Now the locusts are devouring Creatures all belly and truely while we are such enemies to religious fasting I know not how to answer their accusation So that the words made use of by our Blessed Saviour against the wicked Servant in the Parable Luke the 19 22. Ex ore tuo te judico Out of thy own mouth I will judge thee may fuly be applyed to the Protestant Church accused to be false at the bar of Justice Ex ore tuorum judicaberis What need we further proof or witness when thy dearest Sons and greatest Patrons do give in evidence for thy condemnation Neither could it possibly be otherwise where ever their new Faith took possession For the affections of the will which are the feet of the Soul walking after the light of the understanding the eye thereof their practice of necessity must be answerable to their Doctrines The first wheel of a Clock gives motion to all the rest The effect cannot but follow the nature of its cause Do men gather grapes of S Mat. 7. 16 S. James 3. 11. thorns or figs of thistles Can a poisonous fountain send forth wholesome streams When the Protestant Reform condemns it for Superstition to forsake all sensual contentments to follow Christ and account it abominable Will-worship to live in perpetual Virginity that we may in a holy vacancy from all earthly eneumbrances mind only the things of God could it be but the Love of the World Luxury and Carnality would take deeper rooting in the hearts of men so poisoned and bring forth fruit of that nature more abundantly while manur'd with such Dung-hill Doctrines When they with much vehemency preach down Merit of good works which they condemn because either they do not or will not understand in what sense the Church holds it as derogatory to Christs sufferings was it possible but a general decay of Piety should follow among them and good works in a maner be confin'd among Catholicks who believe that a cup Mat. 10. 41 42. of cold water given to the meanest of the houshold of Faith for Christs 2 Tim. 4. 7. sake shall not loose its reward and a Crown of Justice shall be rendred by the just Judge to all who fight the good fight of Faith with perseverance And well had it been for poor England if the current of the Protestant Gospel had stopt in the omission only of good works for then the streams which make glad the City of our God might more easily have return'd into their wonted channel but their self-interested Religion hath swallowed plentifully what the Piety of Catholick Ages had devoted to the perpetual Service of the most high God When they so labour to disgrace Church-Tradition and bring it in contempt that in the Interpretation of Sacred Scripture private reason may be admitted for the Judge of Faith do they not inevitably open a passage to an everlasting deluge of Heresie and Schism in the Church Can this be denyed after the miseries of so much experience In vertue of such a Principle must not men necessarily become lovers of themselves high-minded proud blasphemous disobedient 2 Tim. 3. 1 c. to Spiritual Superiors resisting the Truth reprobate concerning the Faith ever learning and never coming to the knowledge of the Truth The very Hereticks St. Paul forewarns us of that we may shun them For says he From such turn away I would not here willingly be too tedious Only good Reader give me leave to tell thee that there are other deadly fruits naturally springing from this fatal tree of Reformation as disobedience to Magistrates Tumults Seditions Rebellions Bloodshed Murders Assassinations Rapins over-turnings of Kingdoms changings of Governments and all those miseries which accompany the worst of evils a Civil War the dregs of which cup of Gods displeasure our poor Island hath so deeply drank of that reeling and staggering up and down she knew not where to stand or fix 'till at length she happily pitch'd upon her true and right Basis for Temporal Power Charles the II. our Dread Soveraign all necessarily flowing from Principles of the Protestant Religion A certain Argument that it cannot come from God who is the God of Order and not of Confusion For their new Faith being brought into the World and propagated by disobedience to the Church of Rome and casting off her Ecclesiastical Authority when they had thus shrunk up the sinews or rather quite broke in pieces the reins of spiritual Government establish'd by Jesus Christ to continue for ever it was not possible the secular Magistrate could long stand firm though guarded with the Sword But if he would not suffer his subjects so minded to do what ever seems good in their own eyes and cast Religion into a mould they fancy most agreeable to Scripture and the purity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ they would this gap once made in the hedge of Government gather head and when ever they found it feasible take up arms against him as a destroyer of Christian Liberty a violator of their Consciences an Antichristian and Bloody Tyrant a Persecutor of Gods Saints and if they thrive in the attempt take all Power into their own hands and make themselves Lords and Masters as well of their Soveraign as of their Brethren For it could not be rationally thought that men would long suffer a Religion to be impos'd upon them by a Secular Prince and his Councellors who themselves had contradicted in points of Faith the Authority of the Church and consent and practice of the whole Christian World And whether the transactions and strange revolutions in our Native Country during the Civil War and subsequent usurpation do not make this Truth a History let the World judge And that the same hath been attempted or really effected in what ever places the Protestant zeal took any considerable footing the Chronicles of other Nations are sad Witnesses Thus false Prophets and false Doctrines whatever the pretences be may be known by their
that what she teaches as of Faith she so received from the Age immediately foregoing and so from Age to Age from Millions of Sons to their Fathers up to the Apostles and the Sacred Mouth of Christ himself From Church-Tradition thus explain'd briefly may be drawn those Positions First that the Doctrine taught by Christ and his Apostles comprises all points necessary to salvation Secondly That all such points taught by Christ and his Apostles have been continued in the Church from believing Fathers to their Children by an un-interrupted succession without Diminution or Addition and shall so continue for ever Which involves these two Propositions that nothing comes to us upon the tenure of Faith but what is of Tradition Yea though contain'd in Scripture seing we only are ascertain'd what Books the Apostles wrote and what is the true sense of them by Tradition And that there are no new points of Faith in the Christian Church quoad Substantiam as to the substance of what is reveal'd the present Church only believing what it received from precedent Ages Which assertion whosoever opposes contradicts not me but the Sublime Angelical Doctor St. Thomas expresly teaching that in Doctrina Christi Apostolorum c. 22ae 1 q. ar 10. ad 1am 2am Et in 1a par q. 32. ar 4. corp In the Doctrin of Christ and his Apostles the Truth of Faith is sufficiently unfolded but because perverse men pervert the Doctrin of the Apostles and other Doctrines and Scriptures to their own Destruction as is said in the 2 Ep. of St. Peter and the last Chap. Therefore the explication of Faith was necessary against arising Errors in after-times not containing another Faith but the same more clear'd Thirdly That this universal Tradition or handing of Christian Doctrin by oral Teaching and visible practice of the Christian World is and was the constant Rule of Faith as well after as before the Scriptures were written and received by the Church The first Thesis or Position though it hath been deny'd by some Hereticks as namely the Montanists yet is not controverted between us and Protestants The proof lies upon the second which being demonstrated the third will follow of it self and cannot be deny'd with show of Reason SECT III. The clearness and certainty of Tradition in delivering Matters of Faith NO other externe prudential evidence or assurance in matters of Divine Faith whose efficient Cause is Divine Grace is necessarily requir'd then a Moral certainty that what is propos'd to be believ'd as of Faith is the very same Doctrin which was taught by Christ and his Apostles Which assurance neither is nor can be had among Protestants who build their new Church upon their own confused and unsteady Interpretations of Scripture But is manifestly to be found in that Communion of Christians viz. the Church of Rome which grounds its Faith as to such evidence upon Universal Tradition a Principle not well lyable to Error and therefore cannot rationally be expected to fail those who relie upon it As I shall endeavour to demonstrate thus Christian Religion is supernatural descending from Heaven to us by Revelation that is such a one as is not to be learn'd but from Almighty God and his Missioners namely from Christ and his Apostles and so successively from them brought down to us by Church-Profession Wherefore the Apostles being Commissionated by him to whom was given all Power in Heaven and Earth to this end and purpose deliver'd to the World wholly and entirely the Law of Jesus Christ making so long stay in those places principally in which by mutual consent they had chosen to plant the Gospel 'till by often inculcation it was written in their hearts and by practice so confirm'd and clear'd to their Judgments that rationally they could not mistake or doubt concerning any points so deliver'd all things being by this means sufficiently provided for the constituting and governing of the Church Now though the Apostles were many yet being all taught by the same Master impowered by the same Commission and guided by the same Spirit in all parts of the World did bring up their Disciples in the belief and practice of the same Doctrin and Discipline to continue for ever so that all particulaâ— Churches though of different Nationâ— and Languages founded by several Instructers and so far distant from one another yet did harmoniously meet in the unity of Faith in all points Traditionary whatsoever Neither could it be otherwise they only believing what was taught them by the Apostles and these only teaching them what they receiv'd from Christ and were Infallibly directed in by the extraordinary assistance of the Holy Ghost Amongst which Apostolical Doctrines one main Article was That there should be in all Ages to the Worlds end an Vniversal Visible Body of Pastors and People term'd a Catholick Church Divinely assisted and authoriz'd to preserve teach and hand down to Posterity without Error all Truths necessary to Salvation This Catholick Church thus founded practis'd and taught their Children what they received from the Apostles condemning by her Authorative Rule of Tradition all such for Hereticks and Shismaticks who taught any contrary Doctrines and divided from them By this easie method all Critical Disputations about points of Faith were cut off having only to inquire what had been taught and practis'd from the beginning and to receive all Doctrines witnessed for such by the voice of the 1 Tim. 3. 15. present Church The Pillar and ground of Truth and consequently Infallible in her Attestation Who leave this Rule must needs be obnoxious to Error but how those who stick close to so safe a Principle should fail is morally inconceivable For such Traditionary Doctrines abstracting from Authority cannot loose but gather strength by time because the multitude of Believers increafing and delivering to their Children all points of Faith as they received them the Tradition becomes more famous and universal carrying along with it a greater evidence of Truth and moral Impossibility to be deceiv'd Unless we will say that the Mystical Body of Christ so diffus'd and numerous can forget to day what they believ'd and acted yesterday and so ignorantly mistake or knowingly conspire together to teach their Children to receive any Doctrines as originally proceeding from Christ and his Apostles which yet they never had from their immediate Fore-fathers upon that tenure Questionless that such a Body of Christians should be wrought upon wilfully to damn their own and others Souls by attempting to gull the World to their faces in a business of no less then Eternal Interest or that in things of so high a nature so visible so easily contradicted they should prevail to introduce the belief of a noon-day Lye is surely to be rank'd in a high degree of Impossibility And whososever sees it not as such I know not whether all the Hellibore in Anticyra will cure him For where can one pick a hole in the everlasting coat of universal
relying we have only a firm and rational belief of revealed Verities constant and immoveable among all the changes of Sects and Hereticks True it is in every act of Faith there is use of Reason whether it be referred to the Authority of God revealing or the Church proposing For we captivate our understanding to the obedience of Faith because we judge nothing more reasonable than to believe God and we securely rely upon his Church whom he hath promis'd to assist with Infallibility in such proposals But shall we say therefore that Reason is the prime intrinsical Motive of Faith and into which it finally is resolv'd Nothing less For this discourse and approbation of Reason are but necessarily previous and antecedent to our deliberate and rational acts of Faith the acts themselves are acts of the understanding not discoursing but purely assenting Which assent is not for Reasons sake but for Authority Were the last resolution into the judgment of private Reason Faith could not be Divine or Supernatural Reason indeed produces an act of Faith as well in Catholicks as Protestants but with a vast difference For a Protestant believes such a Truth to be from God relying upon his Reason only that it is revealed and this assent is not rational because his ground is deceitful But in a Catholick Reason acts only so far in points of belief as to bring him to Authority declaring such Truths to be sufficiently revealed by Almighty God which he cannot with any reason suspect to be Fallible in such declarations I believe this says a Protestant because my Reason tells me it is revealed and will allow no other judge of this Revelation I believe this says a Catholick because an Infallible Authority assures me iâ— is revealed and my Reason tells me there is no other sufficient ground or evidence for Divine Faith and therefore give up my private judgment to the Church And which of these Principles is more safe and rational let Reason judge Thirdly I demand of these Rationalists whether there be any such thing as Heresy in the World and what it is Oportet esse Haereses 1 Cor. 11. 19. c. There must be Heresies St. Paul hath said it and that 's sufficient And as for what it is 't is well known the Church hath always taught That Heresie is the voluntary Election of some private opinion contradicting the Doctrine of the Church And that he is to be accounted an Heretick who neglecting the Churches Authority with a stubborn mind defends wicked opinions But if we should admit their new definition That Heresie is to contradict any fundamental point expresly contain'd in Scripture In my poor judgment according to such a definition there 's no such thing as Heresie or Hereticks but both Arians Anabaptists Fanaticks c. are as good Catholicks as any Christians of the World For if private Reason be the only judge of the true Sense of Scripture for every one to rely upon these and all other condemned Hereticks the Montanists excepted relying upon the written Word as interpreted by Reason with sober enquiry and real endeavours to find out Truth cannot justly be so reputed The Arians have so much Reason and Scripture too in the bare Letter on their side that take away the Churches Infallibility and universal Tradition interpreting and delivering to us the true sense of it the Controversy would never be decided All places would swarm with Nestorians Eutychians Anti-trinitarians Barengarians Anabaptists c. neither could we condemn them if this Principle be good for doing their duty in following Scripture as the Light of their own private Reason or Spirit dictates to them Let them not say that these and such like are justly condemn'd for contradicting express Scripture against their knowledge and the judgment of their own Reason For they must remember first that themselves do not condemn the Anabaptists upon only Scripture grounds Secondly that it hath been demonstrated that all fundamental points are not so express in Scripture as they imagine And thirdly that 't is most uncharitable to say That all those whom they condemn for Hereticks do against their own knowledge and Conscience contradict the express Word of God and run headlong to hell with their eyes open Can we possibly imagine that among so many Millions of Arians there was not one single person had any Conscience It cannot be denyed but that many Hereticks have and do live Vertuously in the Eyes of the World For who knows not That Satan sometimes transforms himself into an Angel of Light And while they profess and protest that if it was once made apparent to them that their Tenets are against the Word of God they would not one minute persist in them we judge it uncharitable to affirm that notwithstanding the protestations of their sincerity and real though misguided zeal they all wilfully sin against the Light and knowledge of their Consciences We Catholicks indeed assert That sufficient evidences of credibility are produced by us to convince them of their Heretical opinions and dangerous state without Repentance But withall we say That God in his just Judgments which are inscrutable suffers them through strong delusions to believe Lyes in that the Light of Truth is veiled from their Eyes by passion or prejudice or worldly Interest while they so continue and we pray for them in hope that the Father of infinite Mercies will in his good time discover Truth unto them and bring them home unto his Church But for these Rationalists to damn all those whom they esteem Hereticks as contradictors of the Word of God against their Conscience and knowledge is a censure most unreasonable and little beseeming such whose lives are not so Gospel-like but that many Sectaries who differ from them in fundamentals may justly be reputed at least as conscientious and in charity cannot be thought otherwise All which duely consider'd plainly proves that they must either change their Judge of Controversy in points of Faith or give us some new Rule to discover Heresy And withall that if they will stick close to this Principle they must maintain that all the General Councils of the Church even that celebrated by the Apostles themselves were meer tyrannical Usurpations in obliging all Christians to believe and practice according to their Decrees whatever their private Reason could say to the contrary Fourthly in vain and to no purpose hath Jesus Christ instituted Authoritative Overseers and Governours in his Church For the perfecting Eph. 4. 11 12 c. the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the Edification of the Body of Christ till we all come in the unity of Faith c. If every one must acknowledge no visible Authority upon Earth to have any obliging power over him in Doctrines appertaining to God but be his own Teacher in all points of Faith according to the Dictates of private Reason Fifthly If every one be sent to Scripture to compose a Creed for himself
of Divine Authority And how in after Ages to this present the Truth of Christian Belief was attested to all men by signs from Heaven more or less wrought in the Catholick Church by her Professors is manifest by the undoubted Records and Histories of the whole Christian World Yea our Adversaries themselves who are Magdebu Centuria no friends to Miracles have distinctly set down and asserted manifold wonders wrought successively in the Church for 1300 Ages after Christ and why they should not as well believe the Miracles of the 14th Century and upwards wrought in the same Church related by as credible Authors as the former with as much evidence of certainty no man can imagine but that they were resolved Miracles should cease before their Church had a Beeing in the World lest they should justly be thought to introduce a false Religien having not the voice of Divine Miracles to attest it Wonderful The frequent use of Miracles was afforded to the the first Promulgators of the Gospel to give give it rooting and afterwards for increase and no sooner comes their Religion up but down goes Miracles to gain credit to It. As the Fathers must loose their Authority and begin to be erroneous when they manifestly assert what condemns their Doctrine So Miracles also must be put to silence and witness no longer to the Truth because they will not speak for their Religion And indeed themselves being wholly destitute of Miracles to confirm their new Faith and confessing they had been so long continued in the Roman Catholick Church they were necessitated if they would be obstinate in their way though against all evidence of Authority to deny any such to be now wrought in her least thereby they should confess that she only is the true Church of Christ But that the strength of this Motive may the better appear I shall in the further prosecution of it first declare wherein consists the nature of true Miracles Secondly I shall set down the causes why God is pleas'd to work such signs and wonders in and by his Church And thirdly I shall cull out among infinite some special Miracles which relate to our present Controversies being no less then so many Seals from Heaven stamp'd upon them in Divine Characters as visible evidences of Truth on the Catholicks side And those who assert the contrary do as it were deny God's attestation who can neither deceive nor be deceived SECT III. Wherein the nature of true Miracles consists is declared A True Miracle is an effect beside the ordinary course of the whole Creation and so above the Power of any Created entity visible or invisible Man or Angel Deus solus qui sacit mirabilia magna 't is God alone who worketh such wonders being the products of no less then Omnipotency it self For the order of the Universe in the concatenation of Causes and Effects being set a going by the Infinite Wisdom and Goodness of our great Creator the first mover not by necessity of nature but as a most free Agent according to the good pleasure of his will when it seems good unto him he can act besides this appointed course of nature either by producing the effects of secondary causes without their concurrence as by restoring sick and maimed persons to their perfect health and soundness in a moment by a word or as we read in the Acts Acts 3. 7. ca. 4. 30. ca. 5. 3. ca. 19 11 12 c. of the Apostles by Aprons and Handkerchiefs and such like things which having first touch'd the Bodies of his Saints are applyed to the parties ill-affected for their recovery Yea Act. 5. 15 16. the very shadow of St. Peter did cure many sick and infirm persons who were expos'd in the Streets lying in their Beds as he pass'd by Or else by restraining and curbing in the innate vertue of secondary causes from producing such effects to which by nature they are determin'd necessarily in the present circumstances as when the furious flames did not consume the three Dan. 3. 22 c. Children in the fiery furnace yea not so much as the smell of fire took hold on their Garments And as when the Sun was darkn'd at our Blessed Saviours passion the Moon being in opposition to it in its natural course Or else by producing some effects beyond the activity of created Agents to which second causes though strain'd to the utmost with their united forces cannot extend themselves as causing two bodies at the same time to be in the same place as when our Blessed Saviour came into his Disciples through the doors shut or raising the dead to life again as Lazarus was by our Blessed Saviour Notwithstanding our Souls being clouded with ignorance so that we apprehend not the utmost energetical vertue of created causes many things which are effected by a power secret and unknown to us are accounted by us though falsly truely Miraculous which indeed are either but Phantaâ—mes and meer deceptions Vide S. Tho. 22 ae q. 178. a. 2 in corp that is things not really done but only seem so Or if really produced and not in appearance only they are done by the application of natural causes though indiscernable to dim-eyed reason Vera mira truly wonderful to us because effected by a secret vertue But not Vere Miracula not true Miracles in their nature created causes producing them in the hand of quick-sighted strenuous and nimble Agents Of which sort are all those wonderful things which Magicians and Witches bring to pass by the Power and assistance of the Devil Such as the Aegyptian Magi wrought to harden Pharaoh's heart that he might not think Moses was sent from God or did by a Divine Power work true 2 Thess 2. 9 c. Miracles to confirm his Mission And Antichrist will come in great Power and signs and lying wonders according to the operation of Satan not true Miracles the only and peculiar work of Omnipotency Antichristi De Civ Dei l. 20. c. 19. opera possunt dici esse signa mendacii c. The works of Antichrist says St. Austin may be câ—ll'd lying wonders either because he shall deceive mens senses by Phantasms seeming to do what indeed he does not or if they be true Prodigies yet they shall draw men to believe a lye For they shall give credit to that man of sin as if he brought them to pass by a Divine Joh. 14 12. Power though only are effected by natural causes unknown to them Now though all things are alike easie to Omnipotency and so no Miracle properly greater then another 1 p q. cv a. 8. corp as having eye to the Power producing such effects Yet as more or less exceeding the faculty of created causes and looking that way they are truely said to be more or less Miraculous according to that of our Blessed Saviour Who believes in me the works that I do he shall do also and greater than