endewed with so much zeal and courage as to professe her Religion and to propagate it in the world which cannot be Therefore it is impossible that the true Church should not be ever universall and famously known Sixthly this Church is holy both in life and Doctrine Holy for life shining in all admirable sanctity the rayes whereof do overcome the hearts of the beholders such as the Holy Apostles gave example of as of poverty chastitie obedience charity in undergoing all forms of labour and danger for the safety of soules patience invincible in the rough handling of themselves by wonderfull fastings and all kind of austerities fortitude heroicall in suffering martyrdome not onely with patience but with joy though given them in all the most hideous shapes that mans imagination steeled with malice could invent And although this kind of sanctity does not shine in all the members of the Church but in the more eminent professors and principally in the Pastors yet if this kind of sanctity together with Miracles were wanting she could not be so sufficient a witnesse to Infidells who ordinarily are not won to the affection and admiration of Christianity but by beholding such wonders of power and sanctity in the Professors thereof Holy shee is also for doctrine in regard her traditions are divine and holy without commixture of error for if the Church could deliver any one or few errors intermingled with many truths her Traditions even of the truth were questionable and could not be believed upon her word Even as if we admit in Scripture any error in smaller matters we cannot be sure of its infallibility in matters of greatest moment as he that shall say Gods written word is false or uncertaine when it tells him that S. Paul left his cloake at Troas may also say with as much reason that it is false or uncertain when it tells him that Christ was borne of the Virgin Mary Even so he that grants that some part of Traditions or the Word of God unwritten may be false inferrs by consequence that every part thereof may be so and that because we have no antecedent ground or touch-stone to try Traditions by but they must be believed for their own sakes being therein more fundamentall than the Scripures which are not known to be Apostolicall but by Tradition whereas perpetuall Tradition is knowne to come from the Apostles by its own light for what can be more evident then that that is from the Apostles which is delivered as Apostolicall by perpetuall succession of Priests and people affirming and believing the same § 2. But against this truth that if the Church may erre in one thing neither wee nor shee can be sure that shee speakes truth in any thing Chillingworth makes these in my judgement impertinent interrogations A Judge may possibly erre in Judgement can he therefore never have assurance that he hath judged right A travayler may possibly mistake his way must I therefore be doubtfull whether I am in the right way from my hall to my chamber pag. 117. sect 106. In which he weakly falls into comparison betwixt matters which are the object of the sense or of the understanding and of faith which in this case have no proportion betwixt them For the doctrines of faith as they are of faith being altogether and all equally without the reach of our knowledge we have no way to attaine to but by the help of others whom we must absolutely believe and if we know that they may deliver that which is false to us wee can never be sure that any thing they deliver to us is not false unlesse we had some superiour rule to try and examine their Traditions by which certainly we have not Nor can the Church it selfe if shee may erre in the delivery of one thing be sure that shee doth not erre in every thing because shee hath no infallible rule to examine her doctrines by out of her selfe who if shee be assisted by the Holy Ghost cannot erre in any thing if not for ought shee knowes shee doth in all things Now that the Church is assisted by God and that mans reason cannot be the highest judge to whom the last appeal is made in matters of faith which descend from God I have shewed before As for a humane Judge as he may erre through ignorance wilfulnesse or negligence which to conceive of the Church is absurd yea blasphemous shee having Christ for her Head and the Holy Ghost for her Spirit so he cannot bee more certaine of the truth of his judgement than his reason can make him which will not reach to an absolute infallibility And as a travayler may mistake his way in one journey so he may in another if he have no more certainty nor better guide of the one way than of the other which is the Churches case in propounding and believing matters of faith revealed to her by God which like the Circumference from the Center are all equally distant from our knowledge and the Church hath an equall Prerogative of infallibility by the guidance of the Holy Ghost in all who therefore can erre in nothing or in all things which she saith she so receives and delivers Yet Chillingworth saith that his consequences are as like the other as an egge to an egge or milk to milk but more truly they are as like as an egge to an oyster or milk to ink § 3. And lest any Protestant who honours the Scriptures much with his lips though he be far removed with his heart should think that I am injurious to the Scripture in saying that Tradition is more fundamentall than Scripture it selfe I desire him to take notice that Tradition and Scripture according to different comparisons are equall and superior the one to the other Compare them in respect of certainty of truth they are equall both being the Word of God the one written the other unwritten and so both infinitely certain Compare them in respect of depth of sublimity and variety of doctrine the Scripture is far superiour to Tradition Tradition being plaine and easie doctrine concerning the common capitall and practicall Articles of Christianity whereas the Scripture is full of high hidden senses and furnished with great variety of examples discourses and all manner of learning Compare them in respect of antiquity and evidence of being the Apostles the Scripture is inferiour to Tradition in time and knowledge and cannot be proved directly to be the Apostles and therefore Gods but by Tradition As Philosophy is more perfect than Logicke and Rhetoricke than Grammar in respect of high and excellent knowledge yet Logicke is more prime originall and fundamentall than Philosophy Grammar than Rhetorique without the rules and principles whereof they cannot be learned Even so Tradition is more prime and originall than Scripture though Scripture in respect of depth and sublimity of discourse be more excellent then Tradition CHAP. X. That the Roman is that one holy Catholique
being once evident to the world are by the worlds full report declared unto us which is a morall infallibility So that if we have not a Metaphysicall or Mathematicall infallibility of the truth of Miracles yet we have a Physicall and morall infallibilitie as much as we have of any thing we either hear or see Nor doth this Physicall evidence take away the merit of faith because this evidence not being altogether and in the highest degree infallible in it self for our senses may somtimes be deceived it is not sufficient to conquer the naturall obscurity darknesse and seeming falshood of things to be believed upon the testimony of those miracles For the mystery of the Trinity of the Incarnation Reall presence and the like seem as far above the reach of reason as any Miracle can seem evident to sense hence when faith is proposed by Miracles there ariseth a conflict betwixt the seeming evidence of the Miracles and the seeming falshood and darknesse of Catholique Doctrine against which obscurity a man cannot get the victory by the sole evidence of miracles except he be inwardly assisted by the light of Gods Spirit moving him by pious affection to cleave to the Doctrine which is by so cleer testimony proved to be his Word Even as a man shut up in a chamber with two lights whereof the one makes the wall seem white the other blew cannot be firmly assured what colour it is untill day-light enter and obscuring both those lights discover the truth so a man looking upon Christian Doctrines by the light of miracles done to prove them will be moved to judge them to be truth but looking upon them through the evidence of their seeming impossibilities unto reason they will seem false nor will he be able firmly to resolve for the side of faith untill the light of divine grace enter into his heart making him prefer through pious reverence to God the so-proposed authority of his Word before the seeming impossibility to mans reason CHAP. VII That Catholique Tradition is the onely firm foundation and motive to induce us to beleeve that the Apostles received their doctrine from Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ from God the Father And what are the meanes by which this doctrine is derived downe to us § 1. AS Catholique Tradition is infallible in it self so is it most necessary for us there being no other certaine testimony to any prudent man no firme ground or motive to believe that the Primitive Church received her doctrine from the Apostles the Apostles from Christ Christ from God nor no way to bring it downe from those times to these but only the Tradition of the Church For we may observe three properties of the doctrine of faith to be true to be revealed of God to be preached and delivered by the Apostles The highest ground by which a man is persuaded that his faith is true is the authority of God speaking and revealing it the highest proof by which a man is assured that his faith is revealed is the authority of Christ and his Apostles who delivered the same as descending from God but the highest ground that moveth a man to believe that his faith was preached by the Apostles is the perpetuall Tradition of the Church succeeding the Apostles unto this day assuring him so much according to the saying of * De praescr c. 21. 37. Tertullian who maketh this ladder of belief in this sort what I believe I received from the present Church the present from the Primitive the Primitive Church from the Apostles the Apostles from Christ Christ from God and God the prime verity from no other fountaine different from his own infallible knowledge So that he that cleaveth not to the present Church firmely believing the Tradition thereof as being come down by succession is not so much as on the lowest step of the ladder that leads unto God the revealer of saving truth successive Tradition unwritten being the last and finall ground whereon we believe that the points of our belief came from the Apostles which may be proved by these arguments § 2. First if the maine points of faith be to be believed to come from the Apostles because they are written in Scriptures and the Scriptures are believed to be the Word of God upon the report of universall Tradition then our belief that the things which we believe come from the Apostles and from God resteth upon the Tradition of the Church but it is most certaine that the Scriptures cannot be proved to have been delivered unto the Church by the Apostles but by the perpetuall Tradition unwritten conserved in the Church succeeding the Apostles all the other waies by which the Protestants endeavour to prove the Scripture to be the word of God being vaine and insufficient as I have proved before Secondly common and unlearned people which comprehend the greatest part of Christians may have true faith yet they cannot have it grounded on the Scripture for they can neither understand nor read it or if read it yet but in a vulgar language of the truth of whose translation they are not assured therefore must rely upon the testimony of the present Church that that which they believe is the Word of God Thirdly if all the maine and substantiall points of Christian faith must be believed before we can securely read and truly understand the holy Scripture than they are believed not upon Scripture but upon Tradition going before Scripture and that it is so is manifest because true faith is not built but upon Scripture truly understood according to the right sense thereof nor can we understand the Scripture aright unlesse we first know the main Articles of Faith which all are bound expresly to believe by which as by a rule we must regulate our selves in the interpretation of the Scripture otherwise without being setled in the rule of faith by Tradition men are apt to fall into grievous errors even against the main articles of the faith as of the Blessed Trinity and Incarnation of the Son of God as experience doth sufficiently testifie so that reading and interpreting Scripture doth not make men Christians but supposeth them to be made so by Tradition at least for the main points such as every one is bound expresly to know Fourthly they to whom the Apostles wrote and delivered the Scripture were already converted to Christianity and instructed in all necessary points of faith and in the common practises of Christianity and so by what they knew by Tradition could easily interpret what was written but otherwise might easily have failed in the mainest points as some forsaking Tradition did for example the Arrians who were confuted by the Catholiques not by bare Scripture for of that the Arrians had plenty but as it was interpreted by Tradition Therefore none can be supposed to understand the Scripture aright so to know the true word and will of God but by being such as they were to whom the Apostles
are fundamentall others not that is some points are to be believed explicitely and distinctly others not and more points are to bee believed explicitely by some than by others as I have shewed before speaking of points necessary to salvation But in regard of the formall object and motive for which we believe namely the truth of God revealing it by his Church there is no distinction of points of faith we being equally bound to believe all that is sufficiently proposed unto us as revealed by God whether the matter be great or small and whether the points be fundamentall in their matter or no yet they are proposed unto us by the same authority therefore we are bound equally with the same firmenesse of faith to believe every one as any one For example the Creed of the Apostles containes divers fundamentall points as the Diety Trinity of Persons Incarnation Passion and Resurrection of our Saviour it containes also some points for their matter and nature in themselves not fundamentall as under what judge he suffered that he was buried and the circumstance of time when he rose againe to wit the third day Now whosoever knowes these to be contained in the Apostles Creed is bound to believe them as firmely as the other and the denyall of any one of them is a fundamentall and damnable errour a giving of God the lie For the nature of faith doth not arise from the greatnesse or smalnesse of the thing believed for then there should be as many different faiths as there are points to be believed but from the motive for which a man believes which is Gods revelation testified by the Church which being alike for all objects it is manifest that they that in things equally revealed by God do grant one thing and deny another do forsake the very formall motive of faith Gods revelation and so have no true divine faith at all § 7. Moreover if the Churches infallibility be tied to a certain matter in Religion then it is meet we should know that first that so we may accordingly apply our belief if it be fundamentall then without doubt to imbrace it if not to exercise our liberty and believe it so far as we see cause but then we must know the matter wherein she is infallible distinctly and particularly as also infallibly or else we may mistake and believe when we need not and disbelieve when we ought not Now from whence shall we have this knowledge God hath no where revealed it and it ought to have been revealed together with the Commission given to the Church to teach or else shee might have deceived us before the caution came but the Church it selfe hath told us no such matter we have no such Tradition therefore we must have this most fundamentall point of all the rest which is to know what is fundamentall and what not either by inspiration or by the strength of reason both which are ridiculous or by some authority coequall to the Churches and yet not hers which is most absurd And in this businesse the Protestants seemed unto me to deal as obscurely and deceiptfully as did once Richard the second King of England who in a return to peace betwixt him and his subjects granted pardon to all except fifteen but would not declare what their names were but if at any time he had a mind out of some new displeasure to cut off any man he would say he was one of the fifteen whom he excepted from the benefit of his pardon In like manner the Protestants say we will believe the Church in all points but those that are not fundamentall not expressing what they are and when they have a wanton disposition to deny their belief to something that the Church hath declared they shelter their denyall under the protection of this unlimited distinction and say it is a point not fundamentall And if on the other side they find it for their advantage to close with other Churches they say they are all one Church with them because forsooth they agree in they know not what that is in their inexplicable fundamentalls § 8. But Chillingworth hath undertaken to give us though not a catalogue yet a description as he supposes by which we may discern between fundamentalls not fundamentalls or circumstantialls as he calls them pag. 137. sect 20. The former being such as are revealed by God and commanded to be preached to all and beleived by all The later such as though God hath revealed them yet the Pastors of the Church are not bound under paine of damnation particularly to teach them unto all and the people may securely be ignorant of them And this is even the same obscurity in more words for what is to be preached to all and believed by all and what the Pastors may forbear to preach and the people may be ignorant of especially seeing the same degree of ignorance is not secure to all people alike but receives infinite variety according to their meanes of knowledge is as undeterminable as what is fundamentall and what not But suppose the Pastors doe preach more than they are bound to preach and reveal that truth which if it had not been revealed the people might safely have been ignorant of may they be ignorant or unbelieving now it is revealed to them If they be then they deny that very authority upon which they believed the most fundamentall points which is the ground of all belief and by consequence deny the whole faith From whence wee may see that the Pastors teaching is not to be stinted by the things the people ought necessarily to believe but the peoples necessity of believing ought to be enlarged according to the measure of the Pastors preaching The Church is not confined to the teaching of fundamentalls only for the matter but whatsoever shee teacheth is fundamentall for the forme and motive of beliefe The circumstantialls are as he confesseth revealed by God to the Church and if the Church reveal them to the people the people must either believe them or deny to believe God And though common people and others also may safely be ignorant before they have been instructed yet they may not be so after nor hath God confined the Pastors instructing of the people to any certain matter to fundamentalls only for Christ bids his Apostles teach all nations to observe all things whatsoever he commanded them Matth. 28.20 And though common people may safely be ignorant of many things yet they must not be unbelieving of any thing but by an implicite faith at the least believe all that the Church believes by adhering and resigning themselves to her being prepared to believe explicitly what and when shee shall declare it to them Which faith is originally and fundamentally built upon the Word of God not as written but as delivered by the Tradition of the Church successively from the Apostles upon the authority whereof we believe that both Scriptures and all other Articles of
and Apostolique Church THese premises considered I look'd round about to see amongst al the societies of the world professing the name of Christ to which of them the title and dignity of the Church might most justly be applyed and I found that the Roman Church that is the multitude of Christians spred over the face of the known world adhering to the doctrine of the Church of Rome is the One Holy Catholique and Apostolique Church The vulgar objection against the title of Catholique Roman that is say they universall and yet but particular seemed very childish the one title being applyed in regard of the doctrine and the extent thereof which is universall the other of the discipline and the fountaine and head thereof which is particular from the Bishop of Rome For the word Catholique is taken three waies to wit formally causally and participatively Formally the universall Church only that is to say the society of all the true particular Churches united in one selfesame Communion is called Catholique Causally the Roman Church is called Catholique for as much as shee infuseth universality into all the whole body of the Catholique Church For to constitute universality there must be two things one that may be instead of matter thereto to wit the multitude and the other instead of form thereto to wit unity for a multitude without unity doe not properly make universality Take away vnity from the multitude saith S. Augustine and it is a tumult De verb. Dom. sceundum Luc. Serm. 26. but bring in unity and it is a people Therefore the Roman Church which as the center and beginning of the Ecclesiasticall Communion infuseth unity which is the forme of universality into the Catholique Church may be called Catholique causally though in her own being shee be particular Even as the chief Captaine of an army on whom all the inferiour Captaines Officers and common Souldiers have their dependency and with whom they hold correspondency is called The Generall though he be but one particular man because it is he that by the relation that all others have to him gives unity to the whole body of the Army And thirdly particular Churches are called Catholique participatively because they agree and participate in doctrine and Communion with the Catholique Church § 2. Now I was induced to believe that the Roman Church is the only true Catholike Church by these ensuing reasons First God being the Prime Verity revealing truth cannot suffer the knowledg of saving doctrine to be impossible but it is impossible if it be hidden or if a false meanes of knowledge thereof be so drest with the marks of the true as that the true become undiscernable from it And if the Roman be not the true Catholique Church and Tradition then the true Catholique Church and Tradition is hidden and a false Church hath the marks of the true so cleerly that no other can with any colour pretend to be Catholique rather than it that is to have doctrine delivered from the Apostles by whole worlds of Christian Fathers to whole worlds of Christian children Hence either there is no meanes left assuredly to know the saving truth or else it must be inward teaching by immediate revelation without any externall infallible meanes or the Scripture known to be the Word of God and truly interpreted by the light and evidence of the things or by the force of naturall reason the vanity and falshood whereof I have already shewed for knowledge of supernaturall truth by the light and lustre of the doctrine is proper to the Church triumphant inward assurance without an externall infallible ground is proper unto Prophets and the first publishers of Religion Hence it may be concluded that if God be the Prime Verity teaching Christian Religion darkely without making men see the light of things believed and mediatly by some externall infallible meanes upon which inward assurance must rely then he must ever conserve the Catholique Church and Tradition visible and conspicuous that the same may be by sensible marks discerned And if any object that the senses of men in this search may be deceived through naturall invincible fallibility of their organs and so be no ground of faith that is altogether infallible I answer that evidence had by sense being but the private sense of one man is not ordinarily fallible but when the same is also publique generall that is when a whole world of men concur with him then his evidence is altogether infallible Besides seeing God will not teach men immediatly but will have them cleave to an externall infallible means and to find out this means by the sensible evidence of the thing he is in a manner bound by the perfection of his veracity to assist mens senses with his providence that therein they be not deceived when they use such diligence as men ordinarily use that they be not deceived by their senses Now what greater evidence can one have that he is not deceived in this matter of sense that the Roman doctrine is the Catholique that is doctrine delivered from the Apostles by worlds of Christian Ancestors unanimous amongst themselves in all matters of faith what greater assurance I say can one have that herein he sees aright than a whole world of men professing to see the same that he doth And surely this was the meaning of God by the Prophet Esay when speaking of the Church of Christ he calls it a direct way so that fools cannot erre therein Esa 35.8 which cannot be but by following a world of Ancestors going before them in the same Tract Otherwise it is not only possible for fools but even for them that seem to be wisest to erre yea in this case it is impossible to be otherwise And if it be further objected that I believe the Catholique Church is an Article of Faith and Faith is the argument of things not seen I answer an Article of Faith may be visible according to the substance of the thing and yet invisible according to the manner it is believed in the Creed The third Article He suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried according to the substance of the thing was evident to sense and seen of the Jewes and is now believed of their posterity but according to the manner that it is believed in the Creed to wit that herein the Word of God by his Prophets was fulfilled and that it was done for the salvation of man in this manner this visible Article is invisible and so it is believed in the Creed In like manner that there is in the world a Catholike Church and that the Romane is this Catholique Church Pagans Jewes and Heretiques if they shut not their eyes against the light do clearly behold but that herein the Word of God concerning the perpetuall amplitude of his Church is accomplished that this is an effect of Gods varacity to the end that the meanes to learn saving truth may not be hidden this is a
thing invisible and according to this notion the Catholique Church is proposed in the Creed Secondly propositions of Faith must be invisible according to the Predicate or thing believed but not alwaies according to the Subject or thing whereof we believe some other thing The things the Apostles believed of Christ to wit that he was the Son of God the Saviour of the world were things invisible but the subject and person of whom they did believe these things was visible to them yea God did of purpose by his Prophets foretell certain tokens whereby that subject might by sense be seen and discerned from all other that might pretend the name of Christ or else his comming into the world to teach the truth had been to little purpose In this sort the Predicate or thing believed in this Article the Holy Catholique Church to wit Holy is invisible but the Subject to wit the Catholique Church which we affirme and believe to be holy in her doctrine is visible and conspicuous to all Yea God hath of purpose foretold signes tokens whereby shee may by sense be cleerly discerned from all other that may pretend to the title of Catholique For were not this subject the Holy Catholique Church which we believe to be holy and infallible in her teaching visible and discernable from all other that pretend to that title of what use were it to believe that there is such an infallible teaching Church in the world hidden we know not where like a Candle under a Bushell or a needle in a bottle of hey § 3. Secondly if there must be alwaies in the world as was proved before one holy Catholique and Apostolique Church that is a Church delivering doctrines uniformly thereby making them credible universally thereby making them famously known to mankind holily so making them certain and such as that on them we may securely rely Apostolically so making them flow in the channel of a never-interrupted succession of Bisbops from the Apostles then this Church must be either the Roman or the Protestant or some other opposite to both Protestants cannot say a Church opposite to both for then they should be condemned in their own judgement and be bound to conforme themselves to that Church which can be no other but the Grecian a Church holding as many doctrines which the Protestants dislike as the Church of Rome as might easily be proved if need were It is further manifest that the Protestants are not this One Holy Catholique and Apostolique Church since their revolt and separation from the Church of Rome because in that very act of separation they did extinguish all these titles for they changed the doctrines they once held they forsook the body whereof they were Members brake off from the stock of that tree whereof they were branches neither in their departure did they joyne themselves with any other Church different from the Roman professing the particular Protestant doctrines so that they made a new Church of their own not agreeing in all points of faith with any that went before neither have they which have come after them as there are very many Sects risen out of the first Protestant agreed with them And therefore there is none or the Roman is the One Holy Catholique and Apostolique Church § 4. Thirdly the Protestants had the Holy Scripture from the Holy Catholique and Apostolique Church otherwise they cannot be sure that they are the true Scriptures of the Apostles because the testimony and Tradition of any other Church is fallible and may deceive them And if it may for ought they know it hath seeing they lived not in the Apostles daies thereby to make themselves certain thereof and so they will be altogether uncertain of that which they make the only object of their faith Luther cont Anab To. 7. German Ien fol. 169. whitaker de Eccles l. 3. p. 369. Now it is most certain that they had the Scriptures from the Roman Church acknowledged by Luther himselfe and also by Doctor Whitaker only they took the wicked boldnesse to cancell some parts thereof therefore they must either acknowledge that they are not sure that the Scripture is the Word of God or that the Church of Rome from whom they received it is the true Church And if the true Church hath delivered the true Text of Scripture then hath she also together with the true Text delivered the true Apostolicall sense because the Apostles themselves did not deliver to her the bare Text but with it the true sense to be delivered perpetually to posterity not by making a large and entire comment of all difficult places but by delivering with the Text the sense also about the maine and principall points So that they who by Tradition receive from the Apostles the true Text must together with it receive the true sense Now principal * Chemnit exam Cont. Trid. p. 1. fol. 74. Doctor Bancroft in the Survey p. 379. Protestants affirme the former saying No man doubteth but the Primitive Church received from the Apostles and Apostolicall men not only the Text of Scripture but also the right and native sense Which is agreeable to the Doctrine of the * Vincentius Lyrinens cap. 2. Fathers that from the Apostles together with the Text descends the line of Apostolicall interpretation squared according to the Ecclesiasticall and Catholique sense Whereupon * Aug. de util cred c. 14. S. Augustine affirms the later that they that deliver the Text of Christs Gospell must also deliver the Exposition saying that he would sooner refuse to believe Christ than learn any thing concerning him but of those by whom he was brought to believe Christ For they that can deliver by uniform Tradition a false sense may also deliver a false Text as received from the Apostles their freedome from or liablenesse to error in both being equall If therefore the Church of Rome have delivered the true Text then she hath also delivered and preserved the true sense or else we are sure of neither and so she only is the true holy Catholique and Apostolique Church or else there is none § 5. Fourthly it is granted by Protestants that the Romane Church was once the true Church and it cannot be proved that she hath changed her doctrine since the Apostles time therefore she is still the same true Church And that she hath not changed her Doctrine is thus proved the Doctrines that have continued for divers ages in the Christian Church and no time of their beginning can be assigned must needs be Doctrines descending from the Apostles and unchanged and such are the Doctrines of the Church of Rome Than the Doctrines of the Romane Church which Protestants reject have been universally received for many hundreds of years is by many learned Protestants confessed Perkins saith * Expos of the Creed p. 307. 400. during the space of nine hundred years the Popish Heresie hath spread it selfe over the whole world and
for many hundred years an universall Apostacy over-spread the whole face of the earth so that our Protestant Church was not then visible to the world Fulk saith * Treatise ag Stapleton Martiall p. 25. the Pope hath blinded the world these many hundred years some say 900. some 1000. some 1200. And * On the Revelat. p 64. Napier saith The Antichristian and Papisticall reign began about the year three hundred and sixteen after Christ which is now above 1300. years ago raigning universally without debateable contradiction Gods true Church abiding certainly hidden and latent Secondly Protestants cannot tell the time when the Church of Rome began to change and swerve from the Apostolicall doctrine therefore doubtlesse she hath never changed her faith Now that doctrines universally received although they be not written are Doctrines derived from the Apostles is affirmed by * De Baptis lib. 5. c. 23. S. Augustine and allowed by * D. sence p. 351. 352. D. Whitguift Archbishop of Canterbury who in his book against Puritanes citing divers Protestants as concurring in opinion with him saith whatsoever opinions are not knowne to have begun since the Apostles time the same are not new or secundary but received their originall from the Apostles But because this principle of Christian divinity brings in as Cartwright the Puritan there alledged speaks all Popery in the judgement of all men I will further demonstrate it though of it selfe it be cleer enough Christ by his Spirit being still present with his Church cannot permit errors in Faith so to creep into the Church as that by the very principles of Christianity they become unreformable but if errors so creep into the Church as that their beginning cannot be knowne and their progresse become universall then do they so enter and prevaile that by the principles of Christianity they are past reformation and that because whosoever undertakes to reform them is to be condemned as an Heretique for he that will undertake to reform Doctrines universally received by the Church opposeth himself against the whole Church and is therefore by a knowne and received Principle of Christianity and Christs owne precept to be accounted as a Heathen and a Publican Mat. 18.17 Epist 118. And as S. Augustine saith To dispute against the whole Church is insolent madnesse For the Church by Christ is appointed the Judge and corrector of all others as our Saviour saith Tell the Church and therefore is not to be judged nor corrected by any he that hath the high presumption to doe so presently pulls on himself the censure of a Heathen And justly too for like the Giants amongst the Poets who waged war against the Gods he doth not only oppose the present Church but the Church of all ages even the Apostles themselves and who is sufficient for these things And he begins a new course of Christianity seeking to overthrow that Doctrine which is universally received and cannot be proved by any Tradition of Ancestors to be otherwise planted in the world than by the Apostles themselves through the power of innumerable miracles Wherefore these Doctrines if they be errors are errors whose reformation no man by the principles of Christianity ought to attempt And seeing it is impossible there should be any such errors the Principle of S. Augustine stands firm That Doctrines received universally in the Church without any known beginning are truly Apostolicall and of this kind are the Roman Doctrines from which Protestants have revolted But some Protestants object that the errors of the Pharisees were universally received in the Jewish Church yet reformed by our Saviour To which may be answered that Protestants out of their desire to make Catholiques seem like the Pharisees make themselves seem as if they did not any whit understand the Gospell For the Traditions of the Pharisees were not universall Traditions but certaine practises of piety invented by themselves and deducted by their skill from Scripture whereby they would seem singularly religions and not as other men Secondly Christ Jesus proving himselfe to be true God might reforme errors universally received and the Church of the Jewes falling erect a new Church of Christians as he did which is not lawfull for any one else to doe For Christian Religion must continue to the worlds end by vertue of the first Tradition thereof and must never be interrupted without extraordinary and propheticall beginning by immediate revelation and Miracles If therefore errors be delivered by the full consent of Christian Tradition they are irreformable Again some Protestants say that one may oppose the whole Church and confute her errors by Scripture not be as an Heathen or Heretique for not every one that opposeth the Church is to be accounted an Heathen Whites Reply p. 136. but only such as inordinately and without just cause oppose it And who I pray shall judge of the justnesse of the cause By this doctrine every man is made an examiner and judge of the whole Church hellish confusion brought in thereby For if against the sentence of perpetual universal Tradition a private man may without the guilt of heresie pretend Scripture and stand obstinately therein though the Church do give seeming and appearing answers as some of them confesse to his Scripture yet condemne her answers saying they are sophisticall as some of them do what can be more disorderly or what is Hereticall obstinacy if this be not Wherefore S. Augustine saith absolutely Epist 48. it is impossible men should have just cause to depart from impugn the whole Christian Church And why but because it is a ruled case in Christianity he that heareth not the Church is an Heretike Yet notwithstanding this the Protestants doe charge the Church of Rome DE FACTO to have falne into errors and to have changed her faith and that because points of doctrine undefined about which Doctors have disputed and held different opinions have been afterwards defined by the Church so that it was not lawfull for any after that to make doubt thereof the Church by this meanes hath held in later ages that to be DE FIDE a matter of faith which the former ages did not and so say they hath changed the faith and believes and delivers more than shee received from the Apostles But this I found to be no change of faith but only a declaration of some point explicitly which was implicitly and involvedly believed before For all the Articles of faith were immediately re-revealed by Christ to his Apostles and by them againe delivered to their posterity so that since there have been no new and particular revelations but the first being laid up in the treasury of the Church for which cause S. Paul calls it a depositum a stock or pawn other truths have been deduced from thence as occasion hath required For when any one endeavours to corrupt the doctrine delivered by the Apostles the Church calls her Pastors and Doctors to
for which he is condemned by S. * Hier. cont Vigil c. 3. Hierome Protestants deny reverence to Images so did Xenaias for which he is rereproved by * Hist lib. 16. c. 27. Nicephorus in these words Xenaias first O audacious soule and impudent mouth vomited forth that speech that the Images of Christ and those who have pleased him are not to be worshipped Protestants deny the reall presence so did the Capernaites who were saith * In Psal 54. 55. S. Augustine the first Heretiques that denied the reall presence and that Judas was the first suborner and maintainer of this heresie Protestants deny confession of sinnes to a Priest so did the Novatian Heretiques for which they are reproved by * Lib. de poenit c. 7. S. Ambrose So did the Montanists and are reproved by Saint * Hieron Epist ad Marcell 54. Hierome Protestants say that a man is justified by faith only so did the Pseudo-Apostles for which they are condemned by S. * De fide oper c. 14. Augustine I might increase this Catalogue by the addition of many other and make the new Protestant Religion appear but a frippery of old Heresies but these shall suffice From all which it appears that the Fathers held the same faith with the present Romane Church and that there was no opposition of Fathers against Fathers nor of any one Father against himself at least in matters of faith but that they all held the unity of the faith that they that held the contrary were by them condemned of Heresie that in bringing any places out of the Fathers to confirm their Heresies they did misinterpret them as the Protestants now do that therefore the Doctrine of the Romane Church is Apostolicall and unchanged and therefore she is the true Church CHAP. XI That the true Church may be knowne by evident marks and that such markes agree only to the Roman Church And first of Vniversality the first mark of the Church § 1. IN further pursuit of the true Church I addressed my self by the marks thereof to find it out For I accounted it vaine to try by the Scripture whether the particular doctrines of Protestants were the doctrines of the Apostles unlesse I could find their Church to be the true Church by the marks of the true Church set down in Scripture For either the Scripure can clear all controversies or it canntot if it cannot there will be no end of controversie amongst them that rely only on Scripture if it can then surely it can clear this most important one which is the true Church by the marks thereof and if so it is fit that that should be determined in the first place on which all the rest depends Ep. dedic as Doctor Feild acknowledgeth And whereas some Protestants make the truth of the doctrine to be the onely mark of the Church it is preposterous being the declaration of a thing obscure or pretended to be so by a thing more obscure in as much as to know the truth of the doctrine in all the particular instances is harder than to know the society of the Church And it is necessary to know the truth of doctrine in all the particulars before we can thereby know the true Church because if she erre in any one point of faith she thereby falls from the title of the true Church Now who is he that can boast to know the integrity of the doctrine of the Church in all the particular controversies against every society that holds the contrary by infallible proofs of Scripture and invincible answers to all their objections If any could do this who knowes not that ignorant and unlearned people of whose salvation notwithstanding God hath the same care as of the learned and to whom the marks of the Church should be equally common since they are equally obliged to obey her are not capable of this examination Cont. Ep. Fund c. 4. For the rest of the people saith S. Augustine it is not the quicknesse of understanding but the simplicity of belief that secure them Therefore it is manifest that they must have other marks to know the Church by than that of her Doctrine namely marks proportionable to their capacity to wit externall and sensible marks as eminency antiquity perpetuity with the like even as children and ignorant people must have externall and sensible marks and other than the essentiall forme of a man to know and discern a man from other living creatures Else how could S. Paul say God hath made in the Church Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Doctors to the end we should be no more little children blown about with every wind of doctrine Ephes chap. 4. ver 11. if hee had not given us other marks to know the Church than the purity of the Doctrine Besides purity of Doctrine being the essentiall form of the Church cannot be a mark of it because they are commonly repugnant and incompatible conditions For the mark doth commonly demonstrate the thing to the sense and the essentiall form doth shew it to the understanding the mark designes the thing in existence the essentiall forme designes it in essence the mark shewes where the thing is the essentiall form teaches what it is the mark is sooner known than the thing and contrariwise the thing is sooner known than the essentiall form of the thing 1 Phys c. 1. for the thing defined as Aristotle saith is known before the definition A Mark then must have three conditions The first is to be more known then the thing since it is that which makes the thing to be known The second that the thing be never found without it The third that it be never found without the thing either alone if it be a totall mark or with its fellowes if it be a mark in part According to these conditions I found divers Marks set down in Scripture appliable only to the Church of Rome § 2. Of which the first is to be Catholique that is universall which was fore-told by the Prophet Esay saying All Nations shall flow unto it Esay 2.2 And by the Psalmist that it should have the Heathen for its inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for its possession Psal 2.2 And by our Saviour saying This Gospell of the Kingdome shall be preached in all the world for a witnesse to all Nations and then shall the end come And that repentance and remission of sinnes should be preached in his Name amongst all Nations beginning at Jerusalem Mat. 24.14 Luc. 24.47 Therefore to distinguish Christs true Church from all Hereticall Sects the Apostles in their Creed and the antient Fathers in their Writings have given her the Sirname of Catholique a name ever insisted upon by the Fathers against Heretiques no lesse than now And that the Roman Church is this Catholique Church dispersed over the whole world is manifest to all those that have either read the histories of the world or
adversaries thereof that are under the title of Christian being divided amongst themselves and notorious changers and according to this notion the Church is ever visible and sensible to all men even to her enemies Otherwise there is no ordinary meanes left for men to know what the Apostles taught nor consequently what God by inspiration revealed to them And if she and the light of truth she carries with her should be hidden and lost we must begin again anew from a second fountain of immediate revelation from God and build upon the new planting thereof with Miracles in the world by some new Apostles And if this be absurd then there must ever be in the world a Church visible whose Traditions are famously Catholique and consequently shewing themselves to be the Apostles to all men that will not be obstinate And that the Church shall be universally visible even in the daies of Antichrist may be gathered out of the Scripture Rev. 20.8 For she shall then be every where persecuted which could not be unlesse she were visible and conspicuous even to the wicked And even during the first 300. years after Christ wherein the Church indured incomparably more universall and raging persecutions than ever were yet the a Magd. cent 1 2 3. Fulke cont Stapleton de success Eccl. p. 246. Century-writers and sundry others do take certain and particular notice of the Catholique Bishops and Pastors by name in those very ages of their administration of the Word and Sacraments and their open impugning of Heresies And surely our Lord himself had been which is blasphemy to think of him who is the eternall wisdome of the Father the most imprudent of all Law-makers to have a Law so obscure and exposed to so many suppositions depravations and false expositions whereto the malice of the Heretiques of all ages hath subjected it without leaving a depository to keep it and a judge to interpret it or to leave it to such a keeper and such a judge as should be invisible § 4. Other Protestants I have observed who though they confesse the invisibility of their Church yet professe the being thereof and assigne the place for it to be in the Roman Church mixed like a great deal of ore with a very little pure gold so that it was not discernable But this assignation of their Church seemed to me very unreasonable for either those Protestants did professe their owne faith or they did not if they did then doubtlesse they were visible and the Roman Church would soon have taken notice of them as she did in all ages of such though it were but one man that differed from her If they did not make profession of their faith what wretched sonnes of fear were they that to preserve their temporall security durst not publiquely avow their own Religion but comply in all things with a Religion in their opinion false and impious and dissemblingly do all the externall acts thereof and this all their lives for many generations successively This was not the part of a true Church or of any true member thereof who will surely die rather than deny his Saviour as he doth who believing himselfe to be of the true Religion makes profession of that which he deemes to be false Nor did they fulfill the Prophesie of Esay concerning the true Church which saith I have set watchmen upon thy walls which shall never hold their peace day nor night Esay 62.6 But Doctor Feild hath a new fancy of his owne which I never observed in any but himselfe who saith to this purpose that before the separation of the Protestants from the Church of Rome the Church of Rome it selfe was the Protestant Church and that the Papists were but a faction of the Court of Rome an assertion so grosly false that all the world is a witnesse against it yea even I think all other Protestants themselves and needs no confutation § 5. Others taking all these Pleas for insufficient do affirm that their Church was in being and in sight also in all ages but that through the injury of later times no testimony thereof is now remaining but that all their records through the violence of the Pope and his Clergie have been utterly suppressed Of which vaine conceipt there is no proof at all and if the assertion without proof will serve their turne it may serve also for any other Religion Christian or not Christian who if they please may say the same thing but are never like to be believed by any man of common understanding Besides it thwarteth all experience as appeares by the example of Husse and Wickliffe whose writings are yet extant of Charlemaines pretended Book against Images and Bertrams concerning the Sacrament Also by the decrees of Catholique Councells and the large writings of Catholique Doctors reciting and condemning all opinions contrary to the Roman faith Lastly by the Ecclesiasticall Historiographers of every age who make this the argument of their writings yea even from them the Protestant * Centurists of Magdeburg Cent. Madg. Osiand Ep. Illyricus Catol VVhitak cont Duraeum pag. 276. 469. and others do recite the opinions mentioned and condemned in every age by the Church of Rome of which some were the very same that have since been revived by Protestants So that the Church of Rome hath been so far from extinguishing their records that she hath been the chief recorder of them and their doctrines § 6. The last and most valiant attempt of Protestants is to affirme that as the Church must be allwaies visible so theirs hath been in persons distinct from the Roman Church and thereby invite us to * A Protestants book so entituled look beyond Luther Which barren endeavour of theirs hath been like Peters fishing all night and catching nothing For they whom the Protestants claime for their predecessors were neither of their Religion nor yet alwaies visible there happening huge gaps betwixt them nor can the Protestants by any art or industry bring both ends together First they were not of the same Religion for to be of the same Religion or Church with another imports an agreement in all points of faith for the truth of doctrine being of the essence of the Church whosoever erres in any little thereof he ceaseth to participate of the soule of the Church which is the Spirit of truth and is but a dead member one equivocally and in name but not in truth We see that the Arrians Macedonians and many other Heretiques were accounted and are so by many Protestants not of the Catholique Church for one single error against faith now the Protestants disagreeing in many points not only from one another at this present but from all that went before them and that in points which they believe to be revealed in the Scripture their only rule are neither one Church amongst themselves at this present nor any one of them one with any society that hath gone before In particular the Grecians whom
one Tyrant over their consciences so they called the Church of Rome to another the Church of England there must needs arise varieties of Sects in Religion according to the various conceipt and apprehension of people even out of the very nature of this their Doctrine which is the ground-work for all the rest and is the most exercised in those who are most conversant in the reading of Scriptures to wit the Puritans and Sectaries And in the many differences that are amongst them they call no Generall Councells nor indeed can they by way of authority no Sect acknowledging it self subject to anothers Jurisdiction if it be under another temporall Governour but constitutes a Church by it selfe absolute and independent And in the variety of Sects in any one Kingdome or Government neither party believing it self justly subject to another in matter of conscience But supposing themselves alwayes in the truth they think they are bound to maintain that truth with the hazzard of their lives and to oppose their lawfull Soveraignes in the defence thereof and whensoever they have power they put it in execution and turn Rebells for Gods sake As we see many have done heretofore and the English are many of them now in the accursed act Nor can the men under whose conduct the people do this hope for more calme obedience from them longer than by force they are subdued to it unlesse they give them that in possession which now they have in hope and for which they have all been united in their service to wit Liberty of Conscience to every particular person to be of what Religion soever he shall make to himself out of the Bible free independent on the jurisdiction of any other And with very good reason for seeing they have all shaken off Christs yoke why should any man put a yoke upon another mans conscience and oblige him to believe or do or suffer that which is against his Word of God Thus as their Religion is divisible according to their severall senses of the Scripture so Kingdomes are divisible according to their Religions So that there must still be division either in Religion or in War for the defence thereof Yea so accurately doth Heresie teach to run division that it is meerly by accident that any two Protestants are of the same Religion in any one point for seeing they do not oblige themselves to agree in any one Principle but only the letter of the Scripture and refer the interpretation to themselves as Chillingworth Preface fine saith Let all men believe the Scripture and that only indeavour to believe it in the true sense and require no more of others it is but by the constitution of their brains and the grain of their fancie running the same way that brings any two of them to an union in the same belief concerning any point of Religion which constitution as it was accidentall in their generation so it is daily changeable by age education and many other occurrences and so also as uncertain for the future as accidentall at the present Thus all tends to division amongst them through the nature of their doctrines and the method of knowing and preserving them And this division of theirs in doctrine and opinion is the reason why when I mention the belief of Protestants I usually say some Protestants because they are not all of a mind scarce in any one point wherein they differ from Catholiques And some of them are so silly as to think that if they themselves doe not believe such a point no Protestant else doth supposing all Protestancy included in their owne brests which indeed is nothing so only they have reason according to their principles to believe as they do that that which every particular man holds is the true Protestancy and ought to be a rule to all the world beside § 2. The Catholique Roman Church hath in it the propriety of heat and doth congregare homogenea gather together things of the same kind and disgregare heterogenea separate things that are of different natures casting out of her Communion all sorts of Heretiques And on the contrary the Protestant Religion hath the property of cold which is congregare heterogenea to gather together things of different natures enfoulding under her name a miscellane of Religions freezing them altogether and withall making them so brittle that every chance breakes them into smaller sects and sub-divisions which in the end will be the destruction of the whole as it hath been of all foregoing heresies And this truth Sir Edwin Sandys a learned Protestant In his Relation of Religion of the Western parts confesseth saying The Papists have the Pope as a common father adviser and conductor to reconcile their jarres to decide their differences to draw their Religion by consent of Councells unto unity c. whereas on the other side Protestants are like severed or rather scattered troupes each drawing adverse way without any meanes to pacifie their quarrells no Patriarch one or more to have a common superintendency or care of their Churches for correspondency and unity no ordinary way to assemble a generall Councell on their part the only hope remaining ever to asswage their contentions Of which seeing there is no hope the sword must be the Umpire Which if it should in England prevaile on the Puritane or Roundheads side as they now stile them which God forbid I think I may without rashnesse say that it falls out by the just judgement of God that they that cast out the Catholique Religion and Catholique Bishops their predecessors upon pretence of the Reformation of Errors which they discovered as they said by the pure word of God are upon the same pretences cast out themselves and are forced to say with Adonibezek in the first of the book of Judges As I have done so God hath rewarded me So true a rule it is that he that practises disobedience to his superiours teaches it to his inferiours § 3. But the Protestants say that they do not differ from one another in fundamentalls no not from the Catholiques so much at unity with all the world do they professe to be The impertinency of their distinction of fundamentalls and unfundamentalls I have before discovered and little reason have they to use it in this case For to my apprehension all their differences are in fundamentalls yea all that they believe they account fundamentall For the Church of England saith in her sixth Article That whatsoever is not read in Scripture nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any ma that it should be believed as an Article of Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation as nothing but what may be proved by the Scripture is by her accounted necessary to salvation which is the same with fundamentall so I suppose that all that can be proved by the Scripture is necessary to salvation even in their own opinion for I think they will not say
but that it is necessary and fundamentall to believe God in all that he saith whether the matter be great or small now Protestants professing to believe nothing necessarily but what may be proved by the Scripture and their differences being in the things which they believe it followes that their differences are in things which are proved by Scripture that are the pure Word of God and the meaning of the Holy Ghost as they use to speak and therefore must needs be in the severall opinions of them that hold them fundamentall and necessary to salvation To instance in some particulars of their disagreement for to speak of all were to enter into a Labyrinth First concerning Scripture it selfe I think they will grant it is a fundamentall point I am sure their learned Hooker doth so Eccles Pol. lib. 1. sect 14. who saith Of things necessary the very chief is to know what books we are bound to esteem holy and as sure I am that in this there is great disagreement for the Lutherans do deny besides those books of the Old Testament which the Calvinists also deny * Châ—mnit exam conc Trid. part 1. pag. 55. also Enchyrid p. 63. the second Epistle of S. Peter the second and third Epistle of S. John the Epistle to the Hebrewes of S. James of S. Jude and the Revelation all which the Calvinists and the Church of England do undoubtedly believe to be the Word of God And if they disagree about their prime Principle how can agreement be expected in the things that they derive from thence Secondly concerning their translation of Scriptures in the truth whereof consists the truth of Gods Word to those that understand it not but as it is translated very great are the disagreements and bitter the reprehensions between Luther and Zuinglius between Calvin and Molineus between Beza and Castalio between legall Protestants and Puritans of England each party condemning the others translation I will instance chiefly in the English The Ministers of Lincoln Diocesse in a book delivered to King James being an abridgement of their grievances say pag. 11.13.14 that the English translation of the Bible is a translation that takes away from the text that addes to the text and that sometimes to the changing or obscuring the meaning of the holy Ghost And Broughton the great Linguist in his Advertisement of Corruptions tels the Bishops that their publique translations of Scripture into English is such as that it perverts the text of the old Testament in 848 places and that it causeth millions of millions to reject the new Testament and to run into eternall flames And yet the translators of the Bible and the Bishops were of another mind or else surely they would not have commended it to the use of the people And what a wofull condition were the people in who must be guided by such a Bible in which either there was certaine falshood or they were not certaine that it was the truth Secondly the Reall presence of Christs body in the Eucharist by consubstantiation and to the bodily mouth of the receiver is affirmed by the Lutherans but denyed by the Calvinists Thirdly that Christ descended into Hell which is an article of the Creed is affirmed by Hill in a Treatise of that subject by Nowell and by many Protestants but is denyed by Carleil in a book written to that purpose and commonly by all Puritans Fourthly Evangelicall Councells are affirmed by Hooker Eccles Pol. l. 3. sect 8. p. 140. but are denyed by Perkins Reformed Cath. p. 241. and most of the Church of England Fiftly concerning the head of the Church or the supreame governour in causes Ecclesiasticall which one would think a fundamentall matter the Church of England holds that the King or Queen when the Kingdome is governed by a Woman is the head thereof but the Church of Helvetia saith f Harmony of Consess p. 308. forward we acknowledge no other head of the Church but Christ and that he hath no deputy on earth and many there are in England of the same opinion who are not afraid to say so now though it be by law a capitall offence Sixtly the government of the Church by Bishops one would think were a fundamentall point for it is affirmed to be jure divino by divine law by many Protestants in England and particularly Bishop Hall wrote a book a few yeares since to that purpose and yet this is denyed by a great party in England as the Bishops by woefull experience do know A hundred other differences might be named in the maintenance whereof books have been written one against another one side holding with the Catholiques so that there is scarce any point of Catholique doctrine but is maintained by some or other Protestants amongst them all almost the whole Catholique doctrine If therefore they differ from the Church of Rome they differ from one another And that their differences are not light but about most important matters in their own opinions being about matters as they conceive revealed in the word of God to which all men are bound to adhere even their persuit of those differences doth plainly demonstrate which stretcheth to the g Luth. con art Louan Thes 27. condemning of one another for Heretiques h Osiander â—pit Eccl. hist cont 16 par altera p. 805. and banishing each other from their severall territories i Hospi hist Sacrament par alt fol. 393. 395. 397. 398. forbidding the reading of each others books imprisoning of their persons and finally breaking into open Arms one against another are not al these tragical particulars to our infinite grief now acted on the stage of England the chief pretence is Religion And surely they are guilty of extreme folly that will fight to the fundamentall overthrow of themselves families for ought they know of the whole Kingdome for matters which they hold not-fundamentall § 4. But the Protestants think to wipe off this staine of disagreement by retorting it upon the Catholiques accusing them of as great disagreement as is amongst themselves which when I considered I found altogether impertinent For amongst Catholiques there are two sorts of points some defined by the Church in a Generall Councell and so infallibly certain others not defined In the former they all exactly agree in the later each man follows the direction of his particular reason Like to this there are amongst Protestants certaine Articles as they call them which are agreed upon in each severall dominion of Protestants which are set down in their Harmony of confessions concerning which first it is to be noted that there is great disagreement in generall betwixt their Churches they never meeting all together in any one Councell to determine any one thing so that they are not united in any one point by consent Then in particular dominions the decrees that they publish are not firmely believed by all under those dominions but are accounted as
mentioned by Plutarch which hath a body like a sword but wants a heart they had at least in the opinion of some a shew of strength and sharpnesse but inwardly had no power Spirit or vigour And that all their specious shewes of purity Reformation and Evangelicall truth were but like a shallow brook or plash of water wherein we may discern the Sun or moone and stars with the whole face of heaven as if it were as deep as heaven is high when if we but sound it with our little finger we pierce it through even to the earth So their pretences of the pure Word of God heavenly truth and nothing but the truth as if like Prometheus they had fetch'd it themselves from heaven being fathomed I found no deeper than the shallow conceits of private heads And that like Micol they had sent away David and laid an Image in his place 1 Kings 19. they had renounced the true and living Word of God which is the true sense thereof and laid an image of their owne fancy drest in the same letter in the room thereof and so were though not of Saints and Images which they ought yet worshippers of their owne imaginations which they ought not as being a high Idolatry § 8. These these are the motives which have inclined me to believe that the Church of England and all other Protestant Churches are guilty both of Heresie and Schisme two sinnes of highest nature the one against God the other against our neighbour the one against faith the other against charity by denying their beliefe to doctrines revealed by God the supreme Author and proposed by the Catholique Church the supreme witnesse of divine truth and by rending the seamlesse coat of Christ separating from the Communion of his Church and that as some of their most learned say for things not fundamentall and what can be more imprudent than for an unfundamentall error to commit a fundamentall sinne And such it is to separate from the true Church as the learned amongst them confesse the Church of Rome to be And as the pretended errors for which they did separate they confesse were not fundamentall so for ought they know for they confesse that the judgement of their Church may erre they were no errors at all and so again for ought they know they have not reformed but deformed themselves and are gone out of Gods blessing as we say into the warm Sun What madesse it is to make or continue a separation from a true Church so acknowledged by all Christians upon pretences not accounted true by any but themselves and nor certainly known to be true so much as by themselves And as S. Augustine de unit Eccles c. 3. argues against the Donatists If both sides were true they had no cause to separate and to fly from those whom they had in possession If both false there was no cause of separation that they should fly from those who were no more faulty than themselves If our doctrines are true and theirs false there was no cause of their separation because they ought rather to have amended themselves and continued in unity and if ours are false and theirs true there was no cause of their separation because they ought not to have forsaken the innocent world to whom either they would not or they could not demonstrate their truth Nor can it excuse them to say that such or such things are against their conscience for as much as they ought to regulate their consciences by the Word of God in the mouth of the Church not of themselves otherwise contentious and self-will'd Spirits will never want this plea to separate from the Church and so to serve God with their Will-worship and not to demand of the Church that she make her conscience stoope to a compliance with theirs which is insolent and unreasonable 'T is true that he that doth any thing against his conscience sins so also if he do not that which he is commanded he sins therefore to reconcile this conflict of conscience men may and must though it go against the grain of their private judgement submit themselves by an implicite faith to the Church by believing her to be wiser than themselves and so believing what she saith to be true Otherwise this conscience would be a plea for all disobedience and impiety when wicked men might say that they could not be perswaded in their conscience that the things they were commanded to believe or do were good but rather the contrary were so and therefore they would do them Thus erroneous men may think it lawfull to commit murder or adultery as all Rebells do the one and Familists and Adamites the other And we see that Protestants who make conscience their Plea against the Church of Rome and a ground of Separation will not admit this from others that are under their command The legall Protestants of England would not permit any man under pretence of conscience to refuse the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy but thought all men bound to submit their beliefes therein to them And now the Reformers of the reformed who heretofore complained of it as an Egyptian burden to have any thing imposed on them against their conscience make no scruple to impose upon other mens consciences in their oaths Protestations and Covenants of conspiracy and Rebellion against their lawfull Prince and of believing a Religion not only now in Being but whatsoever hereafter shall be by them contrived nor will they suffer any mans tendernesse of conscience to be a ground for the separation of his obedience So that the separation of all Protestants from the Church of Rome under pretence of conscience as it hath no ground of truth so hath it not either of prudence or justice § 9. And if the Protestants especially the Chilling worthians will be as they pretend the servants of reason and follow her whither she shall guide them I cannot see how they can avoid coming to the Catholique Roman Church For seeing that according to them there is no infallible certainty of the truth of any point of Faith for if there be so it is in their fundamentalls yet seeing they have no infallible knowledge what those fundamentalls are they must needs slide back againe to their former universall uncertainty all the assurance they have in matter of religion can be but probable Now Aristotle the great Master of reason gives this rule of probability That saith he is probable which seems so to all or to the most or to the most wise and amongst them to all or to the most or to the most famous and eminent which rule is so consonant to reason as I think no reasonable creature will deny it Nor can any Protestant except pride and ignorance shut the doore of his confession deny that this rule of probability amongst all sorts of Christians is applyable only to the Roman Catholique Church there having been infinitely more and more wise and learned people
be said to believe it but to know it and if so what excellency what vertue what merit what pious affection towards God to believe that which they see plainely before their eyes A bold presumption also it is in them to claime a cleerer degree of knowledge then the Apostles had for they did but see through a glasse darkely 1 Corinth 13.12 but these men are convicted of the divine truth of the things they believe Fran White Orthodoxe p. 107. by the lustre and resplendent verity of the matter of Scripture which is a priviledge which whosoever hath equalls the blessed Saints in heaven whose happinesse it is to see what we believe especially seeing one point of the Doctrine Protestants pretend to see is the mysterie of the Blessed Trinity the true light resplendent veritie wherof no man can see manifestly out of the state of Blisse § 4. Secondly they pretend to know the Scriptures to be the Word of God by the * Whites Reply p. 16.30.68 Feild Appendix pag. 34. Cal. Inst l. 1. c. 7. majestie of the matter and purity of the Doctrine but I conceived that though some mysteries of the Scripture carry a majesty in them in respect of naturall reason and an elevation above it as of the B. Trinity yet other matters of Scripture seem unto reason ridiculous as the Serpents talking with Eve and Balaams Asse reproving of his master with many others Nor could the purity of the doctrine convince me seeing we know that many learned and godly men have written very holily whose writings are not therefore accounted the word of God Besides there are many historicall parts of the Scripture which do not at all touch upon purity therefore cannot be discerned by it Againe they affirme that the Scripture may be knowne by the stile but I considered that God hath no proper stile or phrase of his owne but can at his pleasure al stiles that he did vse the pens of those whom it pleased him to inspire couching his heavenly conceipts under their usuall language and ability of expression whence issueth so great difference of stiles as is on all sides acknowledged amongst sacred Writers and that God did only guide them in the truth they wrote not in the stile for then all their stiles in likelihood should have been alike Indeed God hath an eternal increated manner of speaking which is the production of the eternall word by which the blessed do discern him from all other speakers by the evidence of blissefull learning but no created manner of speaking no not his speaking inwardly to the soule is so proper to God as that it can be knowne to be his speaking by the meer sound of the voice or by the stile without especiall revelation or some consequent miraculous effect § 5. Thirdly the * VVhites Reply p. 19. Harmony of the Scriptures is alledged by some as an argument to prove them to be the Word of God But though this Harmony appeare in divers things yet it is most certaine that there are very many seeming contradictions many of which are but probably answered by Commentaetors by assuming some things without proofe because otherwise they must admit contradictions some places are not fully answered but the Fathers were forced to fly from literall to allegoricall senses as appeares particularly in the foure first Chapters of Genesis the Genealogy of our Saviour and in the reconciling of the Chronologies of the Kings And seeing no man is infallibly sure that all the answers used to reconcile the seeming contradictions of Scriptures are true no man can be assured by the evidence of the thing that there is this perfect harmony in them nor consequently that they are thereby knowne to be the Word of God Moreover if we were infallibly assured that there were this perfect harmony in the Scriptures yet this to me seemed not a sufficient proofe that they are the Word of God because there is no reason forbids me to believe that it may not be also found in the writings of some men yea I make no question but it is to be found and that with lesse seeming contradiction then is in the Scripture yet no man accounts that this proves their writings to be the Word of God Neither as I saw could these pretences before mentioned be laid hold on by the unlearned multitude an innumerable company whereof cannot read at all and when they heare them read if they were asked would say that they see not this light this majestie stile and harmony which their learned men talk of nor do they know what it meanes nor that a tittle of it is the word of God but only because they are told so Indeed S. Peter saith in the behalf of the old Testament 2 Pet. 1.21 That holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost But we are as uncertaine by any thing in the words themselves that S. Peter said this as of all the rest that is altogether § 6. So that I could not find that there was any more then probable arguments to be drawn from the Scriptures themselves to prove them to be the word of God For that which is the word of God and the rule of faith must be certaine not only in some parts but in every part and particle book chapter and line thereof which is impossible to be knowne by the light and evidence of the sense and doctrine seeing many places even by * Field of the Church lib. 4. cap. 15. VVhites Reply p. 35 Protestants confessions are darke obscure and full of difficulties and how can that be knowne to be the Word of God by the light thereof when the light thereof is not knowne As uselesse also to their purpose is the majestie purity stile harmomony or any the like for we believe it to be harmonious because it is the Word of God not to be the Word of God because it is harmonious which wee doe not infallibly see So that upon these considerations I saw no evident certainty out of the Scriptures that they were the Word of God but that they are believed to be such without being seen upon some other Word of God more cleerly appearing to be the Word of God and lesse liable to corruption then the Scriptures are assuring us so much and that is the Tradition of the Church according to the saying of S. Augustine * Aug. contra Epist fundament c. 5. I would not believe the Gospell unlesse the Authority of the Catholike Church did move me To which Hooker one of the learnedest men that ever the Protestant party could boast of agreeth saying * Eccl. Pol. lib. 1. sec 14 p. 36. Of things necessary the very chiefest is to know what books we are bound to esteem holy which point is confessed impossible for the Scripture it self to teach * Ibid. l. 2 sec 4.102 for if any one book of Scripture did give testimony to all yet
propagated it But the Church having in it the property of heat which as Philosophers say is to gather together things that are of the same nature and separate things that are of different natures includes all that are of the same faith and admitteth no other § 3. I therefore conceived according to the judgement of the most learned the Church to be a society of those that God hath called to salvation by the profession of the true faith the sincere adminstration of the Sacraments and the adherence to lawfull Pastors Which description of the Church is so fitted and proportioned to her that it resembles the nest of the Halcion which as Plutarch saith is of such a just and exact size for the measure of her body that it can serve for no other bird either greater or lesse Then for the meaning of the word Catholique the Protestants say that that Church is Catholique which holdeth the true faith which though it be not spread universally over the world yet it ought to be so say they and therefore it is Catholique By which they leave men in a labyrinth of finding out the true faith in all the particulars thereof which as they say must guide a man to the Church that is truely Catholique which being the object of the understanding is much more difficult to find out than that which is the object of the sense as is its being Catholique And therefore it seemed to me as proposterous as to set the cart before the horse to prove a Church Catholique because it is true whereas it should be proved true because it is Catholique Beside the name Catholique is not a name of belief only but of communion also else antiquity would not have refused that title to those which were not separated from the belief but only from the communion of the Church S. Aug. Ep. 50. nor would they have affirmed that out of the Catholique Church the faith and Sacraments may he had but not salvation So that Catholique imports thus much both the vast extension of doctrine to persons and places different and the union of all those places and persons in Communion Therefore allbeit the Protestants should hold the same belief that the ancient Church did yet if they did not communicate with the same ancient Church which by succession of Pastors and People is derived down to this present time I could not see how they could with justice assume to themselves the title of Catholiques CHAP. VI. Of the Infallibility of the Church § 1. NOw that the Catholique Church which society of Christians soever it be of which we shall deliberate hereafter is the only faithfull and true witnesse of the matter of Gods Word to tell us what it is and what is not it the only true interpreter of the meaning of Gods word and the last and finall judge of all controversies that may arise in matters of Religion and that shee is not onely true but that shee cannot be otherwise seeing shee is infallible I was perswaded to believe by many reasons In the alleadging of which I will avoid the accusation of Protestants of the circular disputation of Catholiques saying they believe the Scripture because the Church saies it is so and the Church because the Scripture bids them do so First then without dependence on the Scripture I conceived the Catholique Church to be infallible in her Traditions in that which she declareth to us concerning the doctrine of Christ and the Apostles and that even in the very nature of her testimony and tradition For Tradition being a full report of what was evident to sense namely what doctrines the Apostles taught what Scripture they wrote it is impossible it should be false Worlds of men cannot be universally deceived in matters evident to sense as are the things men heare and see and not being so it is impossible they should either negligently suffer it or maliciously agree to deceive others being so many in number so distant in place so different in affections conditions and interests Wherefore it is impossible that what is delivered by full Catholique Tradition from the Apostles should be by the deliverers first devised as Tertullian saith Tert. de praesc cap. 28. That which is found one and the same amongst many is not an error but a Tradition Yet supposing universall Tradition as it is meerly humane be in its nature fallible yet the Tradition of the Catholique Church is by God himselfe preserved from error which is thus demonstrated God being infinitely good and ardently desiring the salvation of mankind cannot permit the meanes which should convey the Apostles doctrine to posterity by the belief whereof men must be saved to be poisoned with damnable error to the destruction of their salvation now the onely meanes to convey this doctrine is the Tradition of the Catholique Church Tert. de Praes cap. 21. as Tertullian saith what the Apostles taught I will prescribe ought no other wayes to be proved than by those Churches which the Apostles founded All other means as I have shewed you before are insufficient and if this Tradition of the Church should be insufficient also by reason of its liablenesse unto error then were there no certainty at all of the truth of Christian Religion no not so much as that there was such a man as Jesus Christ but all men would be left to grope in the wandring uncertainty of their owne imaginations which for God to suffer cannot fall under any prudent mans belief § 2. Secondly that which bindeth men to believe a thing to be Gods Word God cannot suffer to delude men into error whereby for their devotion unto his truth they may fall into damnation now Catholique Tradition from the Apostles is that which bindes men to believe the same to be the Word of God and that because it is thereby sufficiently proposed the World affording no higher nor surer proposall so that either this must be infallible or else God hath left us to the guidance of our own weak understandings the weaknesse of which conceit I shewed even now and all Christians to that confusion which all different opinions yet reputed the Word of God by them that hold them may produce § 3. Thirdly God being the Prime Verity he cannot so much as connive at falshood whereby he becomes accessory of deceiving them who simply readily and religiously believe what they have just reason to think to be his Word but there is most just and sufficient reason to believe that the doctrine delivered by full and perpetuall Tradition from hand to hand even from the Apostles is undoubtedly their doctrine and the Word of God therefore he cannot suffer Catholique Tradition to be falsified Nor can as I conceive any prudent man imagine that God having sent his Son into the world to teach men the way to heaven every moment of whose life was made notable by doing or suffering somthing to that end should suffer the efficacy and
to be reputed a matter of faith which is not formally and expresly to be proved by the Word of God either written or unwritten and delivered by full Ecclesiasticall Tradition and seeing the Protestants doe not nor can pretend to this Tradition nor yet can prove their tenets by Scripture in expresse and evident termes but such as themselves confesse to receive probable solutions it must hence necessarily follow that their doctrines are false without foundation and to be rejected by every Christian § 6. Lastly whereas Protestants object that the Pharisees are reproved by Christ for the observation of Traditions it is altogether impertinent for the Scripture doth not say that their Traditions were derived by succession from Moses the first deliverer of their law nor did the Pharisees pretend to it but they were Traditions of their owne whereof some were frivolous and superstitious some impious some pious The frivolous and superstitious were their washing of hands pots dishes the like supposing that otherwise they might have some spirituall impurity in them which our Saviour confutes saying There is nothing without a man entring into him which can defile him Mark 7.15 The impious were such as whereby they violated the commandements of God under the pretence of observing their Traditions as when they allowed a man under pretence of giving something to the Church to neglect his duty to his parents Mar. 7.11 Neither of these kinds is the Catholike Church guilty of Of their pious we have an example in their paying Tithes of mint a very small herb which was a Tradition of their owne not commanded in their law yet this our Saviour approves and binds them to it saying this you ought to have done Luc. 11.42 And it is worth the observation that the thing most of all objected against our Saviour was the written word and Tradition of God by Moses about keeping the Sabbath day as appeares in all the Evangelists from which precept not by Tradition unwritten but by logicall inferences of their owne they concluded that our Saviour brake the Sabbath by healing or doing some small labour thereon So that the Pharisaicall Traditions were not pretended to be doctrines unwritten derived from the first deliverer of their religion but doctrines concluded from the Scripture by the rules of Logick and reason as they conceived according to the present manner of the Protestants CHAP. VIII That the Church is infallible in whatsoever she proposeth as the Word of God written or unwritten whether of great or small consequence That to doubt of any one point is to destroy the foundation of faith And that Protestants distinction between points fundamentall and non-fundamentall is ridiculous and deceiptfull § 1. HAving thus found out that the Church was shee from whom I was to receive assurance what is the word of God and that otherwise it was impossible for me to know it and that shee could not mistake nor erre in her directions I conceived then that I was bound to believe all that shee propounded to me as the word of God whether it were written or not written writing being no testimony of the truth of any thing seeing it may be false as well as speaking and that to doubt of any thing was to call all into question and to dissolve the whole nature of divine faith For to believe hath a threefold signification in speech first it is taken for knowledge as where our Saviour saith Thomas because thou hast seen me thou believest John 20.29 to wit that I am risen now he that sees one knowes so much Secondly for opinion which is an assent begot by probable reason so men delivering their opinions use to say I believe thus or thus Thirdly and most properly for an assent unto such things as doe not appear but are assented unto by a firm reliance on the truth of him that reports them as S. Paul saith Faith is the argument of things not seen Heb 11.1 And this reliance on an Author such as cannot deceive or be deceived at least in those things which he propounds unto us to be believed must beget in us an equall belief of things that have humane possibility or probability on their side and of things that are clean against it the matter propounded makes no matter nor yet the manner of propounding it is the Author and our apprehension of him that controles all opposition By this do we believe the inexplicable mystery of the Trinity the Incarnation of God the Mother-hood and yet Virginity of the B. Virgin Mother with many others with as much ease as we believe that Noah had three sons or that S. Peter had neither silver nor gold and by this do we believe the latter with as much strength and firmnesse as the former For he that believes a thing because such an one sayes it who he believes cannot lie must believe all that he sayes and that with the same firmnesse because the reason of his belief still remaines namely the inerrability of the speaker But if he apply his belief according to the probability of the thing spoken and no further then he doth not believe because of the truth of the speaker but of the thing spoken which he must gather from probabilities of reason wherein he doth not believe the thing for the truth sake of the speakers testimony but for the likelihood thereof which he finds by the measure of his own understanding which is not to believe the other but himselfe and the other no more than he would do the arrantest lyer in the world yea the Devill himself that is so far as he by his reason conceives that he speakes the truth Which reason of his if it be infallible he doth not believe the thing properly but he knowes it if it be but probable he believes it not properly but hath an opinion of it and no more assurance than of other humane reports whose authors have no security from error which as they may be true so they may also be false And thus to believe is not to believe by divine and infallible faith but by humane and fallible and so it cancells divine supernaturall faith the first in order of the three theologicall vertues without which no man can be saved § 3. So that all the place that reason hath in the government of our faith is this to lead us to believe that testimony which cannot deceive us and for the particular objects of beliefe to take them upon trust of that testimony without checking at them whatsoever they be and though they be bones to Philosophy yet make them milke to faith and not as Heretiques doe make us demand a reason of every particular point of faith which if it square not to their apprehensions they cashiere This is not faith but fancy For to rely upon a humane basis such as reason is will not support such a mighty statue as divine faith And to use Chillingworths own similitude Water will not rise
faith were delivered to them by the Apostles to the Apostles by Christ to Christ by God the fountain of all truth CHAP. IX That there is and ever shall be a visible Church upon earth And that this Church is one holy Catholique and Apostolique § 1. NOw considering all that hath been said before the summe whereof is this That we have no meanes to know certainly the doctrines of the Apostles but only the Tradition of the Church and that that Tradition is and ought to be infallible hence I conceived that this consequence was necessary that there should be and is alwaies a visible Church in the world to whose Traditions men might cleave and that this Church is one universall Apostolicall Holy First there is alwaies a true Church of Christ in the world for if there be no meanes for men to know that Scriptures and all other Articles came from Christ and his Apostles and so consequently from God but the Tradition of the Church then there must needs be in all ages a Church receiving and delivering these Traditions else men in some age since Christ should have been destitute of the ordinary meanes of salvation because they had no meanes to know assuredly the doctrines of Christianity without assured faith whereof no man can be saved And although a false Church may deliver the true Word of God as it is contained in the Scripture and the Creed yea even a Jew or Heathen may do so for this is but casuall yet none but a true Church can deliver the Word of God with assurance to the receiver that the text is incorrupt thereby binding him to the belief thereof Now it is necessary that men have the true Scripture not only casually but they must be sure the Text thereof be uncorrupt therefore there must be a true unerring Church whose authority is so aut hentique that it is a sufficient warrant for men to believe the doctrine shee delivers to come from the Apostles Secondly this Church must be alwaies visible and conspicuous For the Traditions of the Church must ever be famous and most notoriously known in the world that a Christian may truly say with S. Augustine De utilit Cred. c. 14. I believe nothing but the consent of Nations and Countries and most celebrious fame Now if the Church were at any time invisible or very secret and hidden then could not her Traditions be famously known nor could men that were willing to submit themselves to her directions know where to find her out of whose communion they cannot attain salvation Thirdly this Church is Apostolicall that is derived from the Apostolicall Sea by the succession of Bishops and Pastors for else how can we be assured that we have the Apostles doctrine It must be one generation that must certifie another and if there should be any interruption in that time all might be lost and changed And how could the Tradition of Christian Doctrine be notoriously Apostolicall if the Church delivering the same hath not a manifest and conspicuous pedigree and derivation from the Apostles Which is a convincing argument used by S. Augustine Epist 48. circa med How doe we trust out of the divine writings that we have manifestly received Christ if we have not also from thence manifestly received his Church The Church that hath a lineall succession of Bishops from the Apostles famous and illustrious whereof not one hath been opposite in Religion to his immediate predecessor proves evidently that this Church hath the Doctrine of the Apostles For as in the rank of three hundred stones ranged in order if no two stones be found in that line of different colour then if the first be white the second is white and so the rest unto the last even so if there be a succession of three hundred Bishops all of the same Religion if the first have the Religion of the Apostles and S. Peter the second hath and so the rest even unto the last Fourthly this Church is one that is all the Pastors and Preachers deliver and consequently all her Disciples and children believe one and the same Faith For if the Preachers and Pastors of the Church disagree about matters which they preach as necessary points of Faith they lose all their credit and authority for who will believe witnesses on their own words if they disagree in their testimony Fifthly I infer that this Church is universall spread over all Nations that she may be said to be every where morally speaking that is according to common humane account by which a thing diffused over a great part of the world and famously knowne is said to be every where In this manner the Apostle said that the faith of the Romans was renowned in the whole world Rom. 1.12 that so the whole world may take notice of her as of a worthy and credible witnesse of Christian Tradition howsoever her outward glory and splendour peace and tranquillity in some places and at some times be more or lesse eclipsed and shee be not alwaies in all places at once And the reason of this perpetuall visible universality is because the Tradition of the Church is the sole ordinary meanes of faith toward the Word of God This Tradition therefore must be so delivered as that it may be known to all men seeing God will have all men without exception of any nation to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth 1. Tim. 2.4 which they cannot do unlesse the Church be so diffused in the world that all known nations may take notice of her And Gods will that all men should be saved though it be but an antecedent will as Schoolemen call it yet it inferreth two things which some Protestants deny first the salvation of all men secondly the meanes of their salvation In respect of the meanes the will of God is absolute that all men in some sort or other have sufficient meanes of salvation In respect of the end to wit the salvation of all men the will of God is not absolute but as Schoolemen say virtually conditionall that is God hath a will that all men be saved as much as lies in him if the course of his providence be not intercepted and men will cooperate with his grace And the reason why some Nations hear not the Gospell and Word of God is not the defect of his Church but the want of working in the naturall causes to discover such Countries which defect God will not ever miraculously supply But if the Church were invisible to the world and hoarded up her Religion to her selfe either not daring or not willing to professe and preach the same unto others Nations may be knowne and yet the Word of God not known to them If therefore this Church should be hidden for a long time mens souls should perish not through defect in the naturall causes but only through the hiddennesse obscurity and wretchednesse of the supernaturall meanes to wit of the Church not
not prove it shewes the interruption of their succession and while they affirm it shewes that they believe their succession and calling insufficient unlesse they derive it from the Church of Rome thereby acknowledging the Church of Rome the true Church which they in their Doctrine and dependence have forsaken and there can be no reason to forsake the true Church upon what pretence soever For the errors of the Church of Rome are but supposed and their Reformation neither is but supposed they being infallibily sure of nothing since they hold their Church may erre and so for ought ought they certainly know it did in accu and forsaking the Church of Rome and in their own imaginary amendment and instead of Christ have chosen Barrabas And what can be more inconsiderate than to forsake the true Church by their own confession upon pretences of whose truth they are by their own confession also uncertain For he that confesseth he may erre in that wherin he may erre being an object of the understanding not of the sense cannot be sure that he doth not erre And so they are altogether at a losse and a ground not infallibly no nor prudently sure of the least tittle they affirm They cannot be infallibly sure because they may erre as themselves confesse they cannot be prudently sure seeing there is a hundred voyces and judgements of men for the Roman Church to one for any Protestant Church They had therefore done much more wisely to have followed the admonition of S. Paul to Timothy DEPOSITUM CUSTODI keep that which is committed to thy charge 1. Tim. 6.20 and what is that saith Vincentius Lirinensis He answereth Comomnit advers haer c. 27. It is that which thou art trusted with not that which is found out by thee that which thou hast received not which thou hast devised a thing not of wit that is of thine own fancy but of learning that is which thou hast learnt not of private usurpation but of publique Tradition a thing brought to thee not brought forth by thee wherein thou oughtest to be not the Author but the keeper not a Master but a Scholler not a leader but a follower § 2. As for their assertion who say that Roman Catholiques and Protestants are all one Church it is both false foolish False it is because the differing in any one point of faith proposed by the Church makes one party not to be of the true Church it is certain that the Church of Rome and England differ in many Doth not the Church of England account the four grand Heretiques who were condemned in the first four Generall Councells to be out of the Church and not one with her that condemned them and they held each of them but some one or very few points different from the Church of Rome So that either they must confesse themselves also not to be one with the Roman Church or else that all Hretiques are of it which is absurd and contrarie to the mind of d De fide Symbolo c. 10. S. Augustine who saith that neither Heretiques nor Schismatiques are of the Church If Protestants say that they that were condemned in those Councells did indeed hold Heresies and so were not the Church but their own are truths and amendments of the Doctrine of the Church I answer so did those Heretiques also say yea and prove it by Scriptures and Fathers in their own sense and did believe their Doctrines to be the pure Word of God as confidently as any Protestants in the world do theirs who cannot say more for themselves than they did and they were some of them as numerous and as learned as Protestants are nor was there more authority against them than against the Protestants which is The Catholique Roman Church guided by the Spirit of God and the Word of God written unwritten Moreover they were the parties accused so are the Protestants it is not fit therefore that they should be the Judges If they say that they also accuse the Church of Rome of errors and therefore it is not fit that she should be Judge I answer some body must if ever we will have an end of controversie and then whether the whole society of Christians or some one or few men for so all Heresies began and so did the Protestant Religion in one Luther let any indifferent man judge Moreover God hath made the Church the Judge saying tell the Church and that is the Church of Rome as those Protestants must grant who say they are one with it and that it was the Church when they revolted from her And to consider the matter according to reason seen in the practise of all societies and bodies whether Ecclesiasticalll or Civill if any one or few members break the law and rule of the whole who shall judge whether it be well or ill done Surely either the head or the head and whole representative body together And this was the proceeding against Luther and the Protestants in a Generall Councell by which they were condemned and cast out of the Church Which judgement if it be not sufficient but that the condemned party justifying himself by his own bare affirmation or interpretation of the Law according to his own particular fancy contrary to the whole body whereof he is or was a member may be admitted what Heretique or Rebell will ever be found guilty or will not in despite of all mankind be accounted a true Christian and loyall subject and the soundest member of the whole body Secondly it is both poore and absurd for Protestants to seeke for shelter and countenance under that Church which they have abandoned disgraced and cruelly wounded though to their owne destruction thereby also abusively perswading many people to keep still in the Protestant Church while they think they are of the Roman they being as their new Masters teach them both but one Church § 3. But Catholiques whose consent it is very fit should be taken in this matter acknowledge no such union of Churches betwixt themselves and Protestants for Catholiques doe not allow their Ordination and Consecration of Bishops and Priests for good which appeares in that if a Priest of the Roman Church revolt to the Protestant party he is allowed by them to be a lawfull Priest but not so if a Protestant Minister returne to the Roman Church Also some Protestants grant that Roman Catholiques may be saved in their Religion but Catholiques doe not grant the like to Protestants which they would doe surely if they thought they were all one Church Besides the denying to communicate with each other is a proof that in the opinion of both they are not all one Church And whereas Protestants magnifie their own charity in this kind conceit of theirs and accuse Catholiques of the want therof it is very idle for the controversie about the meanes of salvation and the Church wherein it is to be had is not to be determined by
understood word by word by every one of the vulgar assistants neither doth the end of the publike Service require it As for those Sects that use no Liturgie at all but in their Church-meetings do only make an extemporall prayer before after Sermon as the custome is now for the most part in England that the people may pray with them they do as they ought in using the vulgar tongue Catholiques if they used such exercise no doubt would do it in like manner § 2. As for the comfort more plentifull edification of the understanding which some few want in that they do not so perfectly understand all the particulars of divine Service it may by other means abundantly be supplied without turning the publike Liturgie into innumerable vulgar languages which would bring great confusion into the Christian Church For first the Church could not be able to judge of the Liturgie of every country when differences arose about the translation thereof and so divers errors heresies might creep into particular countries and the whole Church never able to take notice thereof Secondly particular countries could not be certain that they had the parts of the Scripture used in the Liturgie truly translated for they can have no other assured proof thereof than the Churches approbation nor can she approve what she her self doth not understand Thirdly if there were as many translations of the Liturgie as there be severall languages in the world it could not be avoided but that some would in many places be ridiculous incongruous and full of mistaking to the great prejudice of souls especially in languages that have no great extent nor many learned men that naturally speak them Fourthly the Liturgie must of necessity be often changed together with the language which doth much alter in every age as is very well knowne Fifthly in the same country by reason of different dialects some provinces understand not one another and in the Island of Japonia as some write there is one language for men another for women one language for Gentlemen another for rusticks into what language then should the Liturgie of Japonia be translated So that it is cleer that the inconveniences of divine Service translated in all vulgar languages are insuperable the commodity is but to the most ignorant part and that but in part and to be recompenced by other means and is so by prayer books and other instructions in abundance in the vulgar tongue In so much that I dare boldly say for I have been an eye-witnesse that in the cities of Paris and Rome there is five times as much preaching and ten times as much catechising of youth and ignorant people as is in London so that blindnesse ignorance to Catholiques is ignorantly blindly objected Lastly we cannot imagine that if S. Paul had intended that which the Protestants labour to enforce out of the above-named chapter to the Corinthians that both he and his fellow Apostles would have practised the contrary at the writing thereof and all their lives after for we doe not find that they or any after them did use any Liturgie but in one of the learned languages which though they were vulgar to some people in those times yet but to a small part in comparison of all the nations of the world amongst whom they celebrated Masse § 3. As for private prayer the Catholique Church permits all men whether out of the Churches or in them to pray in what language they please yea the Pater the Ave and the Creed are commanded by divers Councells to be learned in the vulgar tongue and divers bookes of prayers in the vulgar tongue are published and used in all Catholique Countries Yet those Catholiques that do pray or sing Psalmes in Latin which they doe not understand either by choice or obligation are not to be condemned For either they understand the prayer in the whole masse thereof as the PATER NOSTER for example though they know not perhaps whether PATER signifie our and NOSTER father or the contrary yet saying this prayer with due devotion and knowing that it is our Lords prayer which they can very well repeat in their mother tongue no man I suppose can be so absurd to think this prayer is not acceptable to God though the pious thoughts be not measured geometrically to the words Or else they understand only more generally that such or such a prayer or Psalme for example MISERERE is a Psalme full of penitent affections and this they say with much inward sorrow and contrition for their sinnes and who can deny that this pious affection is pleasing to God though the thoughts and words doe not mathematically correspond the one to the other I am sure the Apostle approved the like saying in the 17. verse of the forementioned chapter Thou verily givest thanks well And to conclude he doth absolutely allow it in the 28. verse saying But if there be no interpreter let him keepe silence in the Church and let him speak to God and himselfe And in this matter as well as the rest the Protestants also may keep silence unlesse they could speak more to the purpose § 4. These points all other I examined with diligence and found that Protestants ordinarily did not truly apprehend many of the Catholique doctrines nor justly oppose any of them But I have only touched these few particulars to let the unlearned Protestant Reader see that the Catholique doctrines are not such monstrous things as they ordinarily conceive them but rather that it is monstrous in them not to believe them And to awaken the further diligence of all Protestants to search into the truth of all points so far as they are able either by themselves or others if they will not at the first cast themselves upon the infallibility of the Church which I conceive I have sufficiently proved in the former part of this Treatise and is the shortest and surest way and to read the Bookes of Catholiques set forth to this purpose not to exercise an implicite faith to the Protestant Religion and even against the rule of it to their hurt seeing they will not yet do it to the Catholique Religion to their advantage In which Catholique books they shall find all the Pleas for Protestancy all their objections against Catholique doctrine answered with that learning and solidity with that cleernesse and fullnesse that were not faith also required which is the gift of God only to the apprehension of those things which the Church teaches it were impossible in my judgement impossible I say that any reasonable man should continue in his judgement a Protestant Yet many there are I fear who though they be in belief and judgement Catholiques yet in outward profession are Protestants Who like the inferiour spheares which are moved one way by the PRIMUM MOBILE and a contrary way by their owne peculiar motion So they are moved to believe the Catholique verities by the influence of
God upon their soules but to remain in the Protestant Communion by the private instigations of flesh and blood Who wanting the seasoning of Charity doe warp and shrink from that to which their judgement hath joyned them Whose faith like bullion though it be good metall in it selfe yet wanting the stamp of of Catholique Communion and obedience is not currant in the Kingdome of heaven nor will serve in their journey to defray them thither But they according to the condition of all weak minds accounting the Present evill as losse of goods friends and the like the most intolerable desire to avoid that and put to adventure the ensuing And so while they saile through the troublesome Sea of this life unskilfull of steerage in a storme do strike and split their soules upon the flats of fear and rocks of presumption forgetfull of that dreadfull threatning of our Saviour He that shall deny mee before men shall be denyed before the Angells of God Luc. 12.9 Now to the diligence of examination before mentioned for those that are not yet convinced in their judgements a Protestant is bound by Chillingworths owne rule who though he say that for as much as there is no infallible guide and that therefore a man must follow the choice of his own reason in what he doth believe and that God will be contented with that be it more or lesse true or false being as much as he can attain to yet addes withall that a man must imploy his uttermost endeavours to the finding out of the truth And who is it amongst the Protestants that hath done that Who hath spent all his spare time much lesse who hath spared all the time he could to this enquiry I think no Protestants conscience can acquit him in this case and if not he must not think to quiet himselfe by saying that to the best of his understanding the Protestant Religion seemes true if he have not imployed all his endeavours to find whether it be so or no which cannot be unlesse with King Philip of Macedon he keep one ear for the party accused hee equally heare both sides Wherefore devesting themselves of all prejudice and prepossessed opinions like white paper wherein there is nothing written let them addresse themselves with all their spare time yea they ought to make spare time rather than to want it to a sad and serious consideration of the great businesse of Religion the truth whereof who so gaines though with the losse of all temporall felicity doth highly improve his estate considering that as our Saviour saith what will it profit a man to gain the whole world and to lose his owne soule Math. 16.16 And let no man defer this most important affaire and put it off to the later end of his life which how soon it will happen the youngest know not as if the Kingdome of heaven were like a market cheapest at the later end of the day or that because nature hath placed the seat of his memory in the hindermost part of his head therefore he may defer the remembrance of God and of comming to him by the path of true Religion to the hindermost part of his life But as God himselfe saith while it is called to day harden not your hearts Psal 94.8 lest his delay pull upon himselfe the forsaking of God and steel his forehead to the perpetuall refusall of his mercifull invitation and so he and especially the Citty of London which hath been purpled with the blood of so many martyrs hear the complaint and curse of our Saviour sounding in his eare O Jerusalem Jerusalem which killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent to thee how often would I have gathered thy children as the hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and you would not behold your habitation shall be left unto you desolate Math. 23.37 CHAP. XXII Of the foolish deceitfull and absurd proceedings and behaviour of Protestants in matter of Religion And of the vanity and injustice of their pretext of conscience for their separation from the Roman Church § 1. HE that will apply himself to this inquest as I have done shall find that the objections of Protestants against Catholique Doctrines are very weak and sleight they are but paper-pellets and make more noise than hurt the workes also that they raise for their owne defence are as weak and easily dismantled I found that their objections were answered again and again which a later writer would take no notice of but retrive the first arguments and urge them as fresh as if they had never been urged before or at least had never been answered forgetting to make reply to the Catholique Answers which was indeed because they could not do it And in their writings I found much abuse of all Authors even from the Bible it self to the Authors of latest times either misalledging the words â—or misconstruing the meaning or urging that for their purpose which was indeed to no purpose § 2. Particularly for their mistranslating of Scripture wherein they grievously accuse one another as I shewed before I will alledge two or three places of a great many for a tast wherein their unfaithfulnesse is apparent as first that notable depravation of their Master Luther which I have mentioned before in adding the word only where the Apostle saith that a man is justified by faith without the works of the Law Rom. 3.28 Also where the Apostle saith give diligence by good works to make your calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 the English Bibles leave out these words by good works and yet Beza in his notes upon the place acknowledges these words to be in almost all the antient Greek Copies Also in the same Chapter fifteenth Verse these words are read according to the originall I will do my diligence also you to have often after my decease that you may have a remembrance of these things shewing thereby that he would pray for them after he was dead as S. Chrysostome expounds it saying Rejoyce ever you blessed Apostles in our Lord without intermission pray for us fulfill your promises for ô Blessed Peter thou cryest out speaking thus I will do my diligence after my coming to make mention of you 2 Pet. 1.10 Now the English Bibles read this place thus Moreover I will indeavour that you may be able after my decease to have these things alwaies in remembrance corrupting the sense and making it signifie only that he would indeavour that they should remember those things when he was dead whereas he saith that he would indeavour after he was dead that they should remember those things and thereby it proves that he prayed for them after be was dead a Doctrine which many Protestants will not allow Also in the first Epistle to the Corinthians Chap. 11. v. 27. where the Apostle saith whosoever shall eat this bread or drink the cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and bloud of the Lord the
from the just owners thereof not purchased but stolne Here you shall see a Church that hath continued without interruption since the first planting thereof that hath kept perpetuall Term without Vacation that in all the rough tempests of this worlds persecution hath still rid out the storme and though by the tyranny of heathen and heretiques millions of her children did fall it was but like the morning deaw watering thereby the seeds of grace which themselves had sowne and when they calmly bled it was but oyle to the Apostles lamps whose bright flames may yet serve to light posterity to heaven And as the enemies of the city of Rome were wont to weep to see it on fire because it would afterwards be fairer built so the devill though he caused it yet did mourne to see the Church of Rome on fire in her Martyrs which was ever repaired by a greater encrease of converts who constantly kept the faith till they lost themselves in keeping it like Naboth who kept his possession with the losse of his blood There you shall see Churches like Castor and Pollux rising and setting by turnes sometimes alive sometimes dead with such huge great gaps between the times of their subsisting that for any succour they could have from them millions of soules might in the interim have dropt into hell And as the Moabites when they saw the waters look ruddy thought they had been mingled with blood when it was but the reflexion of the morning sun beames on them so when they suffered any thing they called it persecution for their obedience to God when it was indeed but the effect of justice on them for their Rebellion against Gods deputies Ecclesiasticall and civill the high Priest and the Prince and instead of giving them increase as persecution hath alwaies done to the Church it did with the aid of their inward discords utterly extingnish them Who have had none but have made many Martyrs reviving even in these later present times the antient copies of cruelty against Catholikes blindly believing that by killing Gods servants they do God service Whose meek spirits have paid as large a tribute of patience unto heaven and sufferance to the world as any that went before them and have proved in themselves the truth of the Spouses saying in the Canticles ch 5. v. 10. My beloved is white and ruddy being blanch'd with the whitenesse of innocence guled with the blood of martyrdom the fury of whose malice and persecution hath pursued many even through the gates of death adding prophanation to their cruelty by disturbing the dead bodies and silent urnes of Saints departed A poor revenge and foolish which doth more expresse their hatred than satisfie it and shewes that their malice doth more afflict their owne minds before it is executed than it can doe their enemies bodies in the execution So eager so importunate is sinne ever to its owne shame § 2. Here you shall see a Church that hath alwaies been in view whom neither fear nor coynesse hath made to hide her head and whose admired beauty hath invited all men to her chast embraces and like Medusaes head hath turned them to stones of this living building by the admiration of her surpassing beauty There you shall see Churches such which is very strange as were never seen or very seldome keeping such unkind and retired state that men like Diogenes who went about Athens with a candle and a lanterne at noone day to seek an honest man must doe so about the world to find them out and in the mean time perish for want of spirituall aid who never had any beauty riches or rarity amongst them but only Giges his ring whereby they did for the most part walk invisible The English Proverb saith that where God hath his Church the devill hath his Chappell and so he hath alwaies had in Heretiques who in regard of place have been mingled with Catholiques but that the devill should have all the Church and God not so much as the Chappell as they pretend is most incredible § 3. Here you shall see a Church like the city of Jerusalem that is at unity within it selfe and like the wals of Byzantium so closely united that they seem to be all but one entire stone And as God spake of old By the mouth of his Prophets Luc. 1.70 intimating that though they were many Prophets yet they had all but one mouth in regard of the unity and agreement of their sayings so speakes he now by the mouth of the Priests in the Catholique Church A body having Christ for the head from whom as the Apostle saith the whole body being fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplies according to the effectuall working in the measure of every part makes encrease of the body to the edifying of it selfe in love Whose powerfull union like the Bundle of Arrowes presented by the Emperour Saladine to his sonnes as the Embleme of united strength cannot be broken by the assault of any force which like the floating Ilands or the stone Tyrrhenus being unbroken floats still aloft and keepes her head above the main when others like clods of earth rent from the Jland or broken in pieces of that stone sink to the bottom and perish There you shall see Churches stand like the stones in some high waies to measure their length a mile asunder from each other And as the Cameleon changes it self into all colours except white So they wander through all the forms of opinions that fancy can imagine saving only truth Which need no externall disasters to try their strength no forraine enemies to attempt their destruction For like the Serpents teeth sown by Cadmus or the eternally-hating brethren Eteocles and Polynices they with mutuall cruelties destroy each other Here a Church that for the admirable effects of her unity deserves the name of that pretious stone which for the rarity thereof is called Vnity There such as for the variety and deformity wherewith they are possessed may be termed Legion § 4. Here you shall see a Church that religiously triumphs over all Christian Kings and Kingdomes of the world making them the Trophees of her spirituall victories and conversions whose powerfull influence hath cast a charme upon the fierce and lionly natures of barbarous Princes and hath not only made the Lion and the lamb to live together as was foretold by the Prophet but hath turned the Lions into Lambs Alexander the great being asked if hee would run at the Olympick games said I could be content so I might run with Kings Here then may be exercised a vertuous ambition and truly worthy of the majesty of the most excellent King of England who if he will honour the Church and himselfe to run this way shall run with almost all Kings of the Christian world both his owne and other Kings predecessors and that at the true Olympick exercises the exercises of heaven There you shall see