superfluities A second reason He addes taken from the office of the Church after the Apostles which is not to make new Articles of faith but onely to consigne and deliver those which she hath received Thus Dr Stapleton Briefly their meaning is ours is the same that the whole Militant Church that is all the members of it cannot possibly erre either in the whole faith or any necessary article of it For such an errour must needs dis-unite all the members from Christ the Head and so dissolue the Body and leaue him no Church which is impossible Christ ever hath had and ever shall haue a true Church on earth now a true Church is all one with a Church not erring in the foundation By these reasonable restrictions of this infallibility they giue us a faire and certaine interpretation of all those promises which our Lord hath made unto his Church for his assistance Such promises are intended not to any particular Persons or Churches but onely to the Church Catholique and they are to be extended not to every parcell or particularity of truth but onely to points of faith or fundamentall Thus we are to understand those passages g Joh. 16. 13. John 14. 16. See the judicious Author of the Answ to Fishers Relation of his 3. Confer p. 49. The spirit shall lead you into all truth and shall abide with you for ever Though that promise was directly and primarily made to the Apostles who had the Spirits guidance in a more high and absolute manner then any since them yet it was made to them for the be hoofe of the Church and is verified i◠the Church Universall But all truth 〈◊〉 not simply all but all of some kinde T◠be led into all truths is to know and beleeve them And who is so simple as to be ignorant that there are many millions of truthes in Nature History Divinitie whereof the Church is simply ignorant How many truthes lie unrevealed in the infinite treasurie of Gods wisdome where with the * Deut. 29. 29. 1 Cor. 13. 12. Church is not acquainted How many obscure texts of Scripture which she understands not How many Schoole questions which she hath not and happily cannot determine And for matters of fact it is apparant and h Bellar. l. 2. de Conc. cap 8. §. Respondeo Quidam granted that the Church may erre So then the truth it selfe enforceth us to understand by all truthes not simply all not all which God can possibly reveale but all appertaining to the substance of faith all truth absolutely necessary to salvation That other promise of Christs being with his i Mat. 28 20. unto the end of the world is properly meant as some k Auth. de vocat Gent. lib. 2. cap. 2. Ecce ego vobiscum i. e. nolite de vestra infirmitate trepidare sed de mea potestate confidere qui vos usque ad consummationem saeculi in omni hoc opere non derelinquam praestiturus ut nullâ sevientium crudelitate superemini In mea enim potestate praedicabitis per me fiet ut inter contradicentes interfurentes Abrahae filii de lapidibus suscitentur Ancients truly giue the sence of his comfortable aide and assistance supporting the weakenes of his Apostles and their Successors in their ministery or in their preaching of Christ But it may well be also applyed as it is by l Leo Serm. 10. de Nativ cap. 5. Idem Salvator noster est super coelorum altitudines victor mortis ascendens usque ad consummationem soeculi univer sam Ecclesiam nō relinquens others to the Church Universall which is ever in such manner assisted by the good Spirit that it never totally failes or falls off from Christ For it is so firmely m Math. 16. 18. founded on the Rock that is on Christ n 1 Cor. 3. 11. the onely foundation that the gates of hell whether by temptation or persecution shall not prevaile against it Not prevaile so far as to sever it from the foundation or cleerly to undermine or o Bernard Serm. 79. in Cant. Non deficit genus Christianum nec fides de terra nec charitas de Eccles -que fundata est super petram Petra a. est Christus Bellarmin de Eccles lib. 3. cap. 13. Quòd Ecclesia non possit deficere ostenditur primùm ex Scripturis Math. 16. Super hanc petram aedificabo Ecclesiam overthrow it The Church may erre and dangerously too but every errour destroyes not the Church The whole Church cannot so erre as to be destroyed For then our Lords promise here of her stable edification should be of no value Lastly that prayer of our Saviour for S. Peter p Luke 22. 32. that his faith might not faile in the native sence of the place regarded onely S. Peters person for whom our Lord prayed and obtained perseverance in the grace of God against the strong temptation which was to winnow him above the rest Yet is it very well referred by q Aqu. 2. 2. q. 2. A. 6. ad 3. Ecclesiae Universalis sides non potest deficere Domino dicente Luc. 22. Ego pro te rogavi Petre ut non deficiat fides tua Aquinas to the whole Church which is never so far forsaken by Christ that it should utterly forsake and fall off from him But the faith of the Church cannot be totally corrupted in the Essentialls of it or abolished yet may it be foulely infected with many vile and unworthy additions though not with direct repugnancies In these promises then there is no foundation to support that very vaine and vaste pretension of the Church of Rome who challenges to her selfe an absolute and universall infallibility in all her proposalls For neither do these promises principally respect the Church of Rome and more then the Church of Corinth Ephesus or the like any further or longer then such parts do cleaue and consent to the whole bodie and Spouse of Christ nor hath the Church Universall the like assurance from Christ that she shall not erre in unnecessary additions as she hath for her not erring in taking away from the faith what is fundamentall and necessarie It s comfort enough for the Church that the Lord in mercy will secure her from all capitall dangers and conserve her on earth against all enemies but she may not hope to triumph over all sinne and error till she be in heaven Hay and stubble and such unprofitable stuffe laid on the roofe destroyes not the house whilst the maine pillars are standing on the foundation The Giant in Gath 2. Sam. 21. 20. was a true man though much deformed with superfluous fingers and toes but if one loose any vitall part he is a man no longer There is not so much danger in adding superfluities as in detracting what is essentiall and necessarie That the Church shall never be rob'd of any truth necessarie to the being of
the best learned Romanists and by Antiquity The Mistakers exceptions to the contrary answered As also his expections against the confession of the Church of England The conclusion IN humane Sciences the great Philosopher hath taught us a Analyt Poster lib. 1. c. 2. to distinguish betweene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 principles and conclusions The first principles are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Maximes so cleare by their owne light that they can not be proved nor denyed or doubted of by any man that understands the Termes wherein they are propounded In the bosome as it were of these principles lurke innumerable conclusions which must be deduced and drawne out by the helpe of Discourse some of them issuing out immediately and evidently others obscurely and by a long circuit of consequences and are either certaine or onely probable according as they approach nearer to the principle or are further off removed In like manner that there be diverse degrees of truthes and errors in Religion which necessarily must be distinguished is a thing acknowledged by all learned men even in the Church of Rome expect our Mistaker will have himselfe excepted b 2. 2. qu. 2. art 5. in Corp. Dicendum quòd fidei objectum perse est id per quod homo beatus efficitur Per accidens aut secundariò se habent ad objectum fidei omnia quae in sacra Scriptura continentur sicut quòd Abraham habuit Aquinas having divided the object of faith into that which is so by it selfe that which is by accident and secundarily defines the First to be that whereby a man is made blessed and saved the Latter that which is revealed whatsoever it be as that Abraham had two sonnes and David was the sonne of Iesse c. c Dialog part 1. lib. 2. cap. 2. Occham sets downe three differences of verities to be beleeved Some touching God and Christ whereon principally depends our Salvation Non direct è sed indirect è quodammodo ad salutem humani generis pertinere noscuntur as the doctrines of the Trinity Incarnation c. Some whereon our salvation depends not so principally or directly as the Histories of Scripture Of the third sort such as are not revealed but either agree with that which is revealed or follow manifestly of it Melchior d Canus Locor lib. 12. cap. 11. init Quaedam sunt Catholicae veritates quae ita ad fidem pertinent ut his sublatis fides quoque ipsa tollatur Quas nos usu frequenti non solum Catholicas sed fidei veritates appellavimus Aliae veritates sunt etiam ipsae Catholicae universales nempe quas universa Ecclesia tenet quibus licet eversis fides quatitur sed non evertitur tamen Atque in hujusmodi veritatum contrariis erroribus dixi fidem obscurari non extingui infirmari non perite Has ego nunquam sidei veritates censui vocandas quamvis doctrinae Christianae veritates sint Canus iterum lib. 12. cap. 3. ad fin Praeter articulos fidei omnia quae in sacris literis assumuntur tametsi non sunt fidei nec Theologiae praecipua capita sed his ex accidenti conjuncta quasi principia secundaria accipit tamen ea Theologus non aliter ac Philosophus principia per se nota sine medio aut ratione Haec enim quasi naturalis arque insira est in animis fidelium notio ut quicquid ab Apostolis scriptum traditúmque est verum esse sentiant Vide Staplet Espenc alios suprácitatos Canus to the same purpose There be some Catholique verities which doe so pertaine to faith that these being taken away the faith it selfe must be taken away also And these by common use we call not onely Catholique but Verities of Faith also There are other verities which be Catholique also and universal namely such as the whole Church holdeth which yet being over throwne the faith is shaken indeed but not overturned And in the errours which are contrary to such truths as these the faith is obscured not extinguished weakened not perished These may be called verities of Christian doctrine but not of faith Briefly it is the common and constant doctrine of e Mag. 3. d. 25. Aquin. 2. 2. qu. 2. art 5. ibi DD. Schoolemen and f Tolet. Navarr Sayr Filiucius Reginaldus caeteri Casuists that have written of the nature of heresie and the measure of Catholique faith that there is a certain measure and quantity of faith without which none can be saved but every thing revealed belongs not to this measure It is enough to beleeve some things by a Virtuall faith or by a Generall as it were a Negatiue faith whereby they are not denyed or contradicted and in some things men may be ignorant or erre in them without danger of their salvation All this evidently confirmes that most necessary and most usefull distinction betweene fundamentall and not fundamentall doctrines which our Mistaker here with so great noyse and so little reason cryes downe By Fundamentall doctrines we meane such Catholique verities as principally and essentially pertaine to the faith such as properly constitute a Church and are necessary in ordinary course to be distinctly beleeved by every Christian that will be saved Other points of truth are called not-fundamentall because they are not of such absolute necessity and doe not primarily belong to the Vnity of faith or to the Essence of a Church or to the Salvation of a Christian Such as for their subtilty and profoundnesse are disputable in themselves and happily by plaine Scripture indeterminable Such finally as may admit an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a non liquet both ignorance if it be not affected and errour if it proceed not from negligence or wilfullnes without perill It is true whatsoever is revealed in Scripture or propounded by the Church out of Scripture is in some sence fundamentall in regard of the divine authority of God and his word by which it is recommended that is such as may not be denyed or contradicted without infidelity such as every Christian is bound with humility and reverence to beleeve whensoever the knowledge thereof is offered to him But in regard of the matter and moment of things revealed and of their use to us though all be revealed alike yet not all under the like penalty We are told by Cardinall g De Eccles lib. 3. cap. 14. §. Quinto Multa sunt de fide quae non sunt absolutè necessaria ad salutem Sane credere historias U. T. Bellarmine that many things are de fide to be beleeved which are not absolutely necessary to salvation The knowledge or faith of Christs passion is necessary not so that of his Genealogy Fundamentall therefore properly is that which Christians are obliged to beleeve by an expresse and actuall faith In other points that faith which the Cardinall
h Replique liur 1. chap. 10. Perron calls the faith of adherence or non-repugnance may suffice to wit an humble preparation of minde to beleeve all or any thing revealed in Scripture when it is sufficiently cleared By which virtuall faith an erring person may beleeve the truth contrary to his owne error inasmuch as he yeelds his assent implicitely to that Scripture which containes the truth and overthrowes his errour though yet he understand it not This maine distinction of doctrines whereof we speak hath expresse ground in the Scriptures of the N. Testament Therein the Church of Christ is often called i 1. Tim. 3. 15. 1. Pet. 2. 5. Heb. 3. 5. 6. the Spirituall house of God The foundation of this house is either reall personall or dogmaticall and doctrinall The Reall foundation is k 1. Cor. 3. 11. Eph. 2. 20. Christ the Dogmaticall are l Matt. 16. 16. 18. Heb. 6. 1. those grand and capitall doctrines which make up our faith in Christ that is that m Tit. 1. 4. common faith which is n 2 Pet. 1. 1. alike precious in all beeing one and the same in the highest Apostle and the meanest beleever which the Apostle o Heb. 5. 12. elsewhere calls the first principles of the oracles of God and the p 2. Tim. â— 13. forme of sound words These hold the place of the common foundation in which all Christians must be grounded The materialls laid upon this foundation whether they be sound or unsound are named by S. Paul q 1. Cor. 3. 12. super structions which are conclusions either in truth or in appearance deducible from those principles Concerning all which superstructures the generall rule is that the more neere they are to the foundation of so much greater importance be the truthes and so much more perilous be the errors as againe the further they are removed off the lesse necessary doth the knowledge of such verities prove to be and the swarving from the truth lesse dangerous It is cleere then that some points are fundamentall others not so But here all Protestants are defied by the Mistaker not onely particulars but in corps their Colledges Universities all or any of them dared to give him in a list or Catalogue of fundamentall points So high a Challenge in a subject of this nature might better have beseemed his betters some Cardinall rather then a * See Char. Mist pag. 1. Cavallier It seems the man thinks excellently of his owne learning and judgement and that conceit fills him with this courage But his strength is not answerable They that have tried it say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The prudent Vlysses in r Iliad ss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Et ad Ther 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer gave good counsell to some busie persons that were forward to meddle in matters beyond their Spheere the Mistaker stands in neede of it and may do well to follow it By fundamentall points of faith for of them alone the Mistaker expresly speakes in this discourse we understand as hath been noted not the necessarie duties of Charity which are comprehended in the Decalogue nor the necessarie acts of hope contained in the Lords prayer there beeing the same object both of our prayers and of our hope though both these vertues of Charity and Hope are fundamentally necessary to the salvation of Christians but we meane those Prime and Capitall doctrines of our Religion which make up the holy Catholique and Apostolique faith once for all delivered to the Saints which faith is the same which Jude 3. the Church received from the Apostles the Apostles from Christ Christ from God as Tertullian speakes that faith which essentially constitutes a true Church and a true Christian These fundamentalls are all contained in the rule of faith which rule being cleerely but diffusedly set downe in the Scriptures hath been afterwards summed up and contracted into the Apostles Creed either by the Apostles themselves or by the Church of their times from them This Creed taken in a Catholique sence that is as it was further opened and explaned in some parts by occasion of emergent Heresies in the other Catholique Creeds of Nice Constantinople Ephesus Chalcedon and Athanasius is said generally by the Schoolemen and Fathers to comprehend a perfect Catalogue of fundamentall truths and to imply a full rejection of fundamentall heresies and hath beene received by Orthodox Christians of all ages and places as an absolute summary of the Christian faith For proof wherof we will first argue ad hominem and teach the Mistaker how to esteeme of his Creed out of his own Masters whom he will not distrust or gainsay Begin with the a Concil Trident Sess 3. Symbolum Apostolorum est principium illud in quo omnes qui fidem Christi profitentur necessariò conveniunt ac fundamentum Ecclesiae firmum ac unicum Councell of Trent The Apostles Creed is that principle wherein all that professe the faith of Christ do necessarily agree that being the firme and onely foundation of the Church The b Catec Trident pag. 13. ac 14. Apostoli hanc Christianae fidei ac spei formulam composuerunt veritatis summa ac fundamentum primò ac necessariò omnibus credendum Catechisme of Trent to the same pupose The Apostles composed this profession of Christian faith and hope as a summary and foundation of that truth which is necessarily to be beleived of all c Azor. par 1. lib. 8. cap. 5. Symbolum Apostoâ—orum est brevis fidei complexio ac summa omniuÌ„ credendorum veluti nota quaedam signum quo Christiani homines ab impiis infidelibus qui vel nullam vel non rectam Christi fidem profitentur discernendi ac internoscendi sunt Huic Symbolo addâ—ta sunt alia duo Nicaenum Athanasianum ad uberiorem explicationem fidei Azorius This Creed briefly comprehends the faith and all things to be beleived is as it were a signe or cognisance whereby Christian men are differenced from the ungodly and misbeleivers who have either no faith at all or hold not the right faith To this the other Creeds of Nice and Athanasius were added onely for further explanation d Jacob. Gordon Hunt Controv 2. cap. 10. num 10. Regula fidei continetur expressè in Symbolo Apostolorum in quo continentur omnia prima fundamenta fidei Neque enim adeò obliviosi fuerunt Apostoli post acceptum Spiritum S. ut in Symbolo fidei quod omnibus credendum tradiderunt praetermittereÌ„t primum praecipuum fidei fundamentum Huntley a Scottish Iesuite The rule of faith is expressely contained in the Apostles Creed wherein are contained all the prime foundations of faith For the Apostles were not so forgetfull as to omit any fundamentall point in that Creed which they delivered to be beleived by all Christians e Greg. de Val. in 2. 2. disp 1.
troisiesme iour le sens de ces mots il est assis à la dextre de son Pere il ne scroit damné pour cela Le simple se peut sauuer auec moindre cognoissance que celuy qui ne peut estre tenu pour tel C'est assez au simple de voir comme nous anons dit vne cognoissance du Symbole suffisante pour la diriger ◠sa derniere fin Au lieu que le Curé le Prelat qui ont charge d'instruite les autres sontobligez desçauoir distinctement tous les Articles du Symbole qui plus est de le pouuoir expliquer au peuple Learned judge may suffice For conclusion of this discourse concerning Fundamentalls I will propound to the consideration and censure of the judicious these thoughts following It seemes fundamentall to the faith and for the salvation of every member of the Church that he acknowledge beleeue all such points of faith as wherof he may be sufficiently convinced that they belong to the doctrine of Jesus Christ For he that being sufficiently convinced doth oppose is obstinate an Heretique and finally such a one as excludes himselfe out of heaven whereinto no wilfull sinner can enter Now that a man may be sufficiently convinced there are three things required 1. Cleare revelation 2. Sufficient proposition 3. Capacity and understanding to apprehend what is reveiled and propounded 1 Revelation from God is required for we are not bound to beleeue any thing as Gods word which God hath not declared to be his word and that in such cleare manner as may convince a reasonable man that it is from God For want of this not onely the Church before Christ but even Christs owne Disciples are excused from being guilty of any damnable errour though they beleeved not the death resurrection or ascension of our Lord as it is plaine they did not Marc. 16. 11. 13. Luk. 24. 11. Ioh. 20. 9. Marc. 9. 10. But now that these things are so clearely reveiled in Scripture he were no Christian that should deny them 2. Sufficient proposition of reveiled truths is required before a man can be convinced For if they be not propounded to me in respect of me it is all one as if they were not reveiled This proposition includeth 2 things 1. that the points be perspicuously laid open in themselves for want of this Apollos beleeved not some points of the faith till he was further informed Acts 18. 25. 2. that the said points be so fully and forcibly laid open as may serve to remove reasonable doubts to the contrary and to satisfie a teachable minde against the principles in which he hath beene bred to the contrary For want of this the Apostles believed not the resurrection when yet they were plainely told of it See Luke 9. 44. 45. and Mar. 9. 10. compared with Marc. 8. 31. 32. Note here 1 This proposition of reveiled truths is not as the Mistaker saith by the infallible determination of Pope or Church but by whatsoever meanes a man may be convinced in conscience of divine revelation If a Preacher doe cleare any point of faith to his Hearers if a private Christian doe make it appeare to his neighbour that any conclusion or point of faith is delivered by divine revelation of Gods word if a man himselfe without any other teacher by reading the Scriptures or hearing them read be convinced of the truth of any such conclusion this is a sufficient proposition to prove him that gain sayeth any such truth to be an Heretique and obstinate opposer of the faith Such a one may be truly said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 condemned by his owne conscience v. g. He that should read in Scriptures Now is Christ risen from the dead 1. Cor. 15. 20. or The word was made flesh Ioh. 1. and yet should deny Christs Resurrection or Incarnation he were an Heretique without any determination or sentence of the Church And such Heretiques there were many in the Primitiue Church fore any Councell was celebrated and long before any Pope pretended to Infallibility 2 Note A man may be truly thought thus convicted not onely when his Conscience doth expressely beare witnesse to the truth but when virtually it doth so and would expressely doe it if it were not choked or blinded by some unruly and unmortified lust in the will For if a man make himselfe a slave to ambition covetousnesse vaineglory prejudice c. these untamed passions will not onely draw the man to professe what he thinketh not but to thinke what he would dis-avow if in synceritie he sought the truth And in this case the difference is not great betweene him that is wilfully blinde 24. qu. 3. §. 28. Haereticus est and him that knowingly gainsayeth the truth 3 Note A man may be sufficiently convinced either in foro exteriori or in foro interiori In the former he is convinced who by an orderly proceeding of the Church is censured and condemned and such a one ad omnem effectum juris and in the esteeme of the said Church is to be reputed an heretique though perhaps the Censure be erroneous He that is convicted in the later kinde is an Heretique before God though no authority of the Church have detected or proceeded against him And this conviction onely is necessary to prove one an Heretique excluded from Heaven 3. There is required capacity or ability of wit and reason to apprehend that which is cleerly revealed and sufficiently proposed For want of this not onely fooles and mad men are excused but those who are of weaker capacity or lesse knowledge may be excused from beleiving of those things which they cannot apprehend as the Apostles are by Christ Ioh. 16. 12. But where there is no such impediment as hath been said the revealed will or word of God is sufficiently propounded there he that opposeth is cōvinced of error he who is thus convinced is an Heretique and Heresie is a worke of the flesh which excludeth from heaven Gal. 5. 20. 21. And hence it followeth that it is fundamentall to a Christians faith and necessary for his salvation that he beleive all reveiled truths of God whereof he may be convinced that they are from God The cavills of the Mistaker against the Church of England and her Articles in this matter are easily answered When the Church of England had orderly reformed her selfe she was loudly accused by the Romane faction of Heresie and Schisme as it hath been in later ages the cunning custome of Rome to blast and disgrace all them that dared to oppose any of her corrupt opinions or usages Wherefore to cleare her innocency Shee published to the world a Declaration of her judgement in matters of Religion which we call her Confession Wherin her aime was not in any curious method to deliver a Systeme of Divinity but plainly without fraud or artifice to set downe first the positive
and vehement spirit yet before his death being tempered by milde Melancthon that honour of Germany did d Admon Neustad de libro Concord cap. 6. pag. 236. much relent remit of his rigor against Zuinglius and began to approue the good counsells of peace And among the Lutherans all are not of the same intractable disposition As they in Polonia for instance e Vide Corpus Confess ibi Poloniae Consensum where the followers of Luther Calvin haue long liued together in a faire and brotherly concord communion notwithstanding their severall opinions which they still retaine Since then our discords are of no higher degree wee say as f Prudent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 § vlt. concordia laesa est Sed defensa fide quin concordia sospes Germanam comitata Fidem sua vulnera ridet Prudentius a Christian Poet of the vnity of his times It hath beene a little violated but is defended by Faith her sister in whose company being safely come off shee laugheth at her wounds as being easily curable Charity mistaken Cap. 6. FVrthermore the Protestants are properly Heretiques at least if not Insidells Heretiques because they reiect and disobey the indgement of the Catholique Church For it is not the matter or quality of the doctrine But the pride of the man who prefers his owne opinioâ—s before the decrees of the Church that properly makes the Horetique The Heretiques recounted by St Austine Epiphanius and Philastrius in their Catalogues were condemned not so much for their errours which were many of them not very materiall as for their contempt of the Church S. Cyprian and the Donatists differed not in the matter of their errour but the obstinary of the Donatists their disobediencs to the Church made them to bee condemned for Heretiques when St Cyprian was absolued because the Church in his time had not declared her selfe And in like manner the Novatians were condemned on the same grounds Answere Sect. 4. OF the nature of Heresy The Church may declare convince an Heresy but cannot make any Doctrine Hereticall properly vnlesse it be such in the matter of it The words Heresy and Heretique very ambiguous How commonly vsed by the Auncients Of their Catalogues of Heretiques St Cyptian though erring in the point of Rebaptization justly absolued from Sohisme and Heresy The Donatists guilty of both And the Novatians of Schisme BVt though wee doe agree in the substance of Religion with all true Christian Catholiques in the world yet all this cannot winne vs the Charitable opinion of our Mistaker For notwithstanding all this he beleeues vs to be not only Heretiques but no better in effect then Infidells And hee giues his reason which he saies strikes at the roote and vnanswerably convinces His custome is to giue vs only words it is well that he offers vs reason which we shall be ever willing to heare and consider of His reason then First wee are Heretiques because in many opinions wee disobey the Church and Heresy properly consists not in the matter or quality of the false doctrine beleeued but in the pride of him that maintaines it in contempt of the Church Our faith then is defectiue because wee beleeue not all that is commaunded by the Church But 2. which is worse we haue no true faith at all no not of those things which we truly beleeue For though we firmely assent to many truths yet we doe not beleeue them vpon the only true and infallible motiue or vpon the right ground which is the revelation of God and the proposition of his Catholique Church The faith which relies not on this ground is not any true faith but only an humane opinion or perswasion Answ If wee did not dissent in some opinions from the present Romane Church wee could not agree with the Church truly Catholique But the Mistaker after his fashion is ever begging what will never bee granted or proved that his Roman Church is all one with the Catholique What Optatus said of the Donatists who arrogated to themselues alone Optat. lib. 3. the name and priviledges of the Church exclusiuely to all others the same say wee of the Popes part Vestra pars quasi Ecclesia est sed Catholica non est Their Church is truly so called in some sort being a corrupt member of the Catholique but the Catholique Church it is not The Catholique Church is carefull to ground all her declarations in matters of faith vpon the divine authority of Gods written word And therefore whosoeuer wilfully opposeth a iudgement so well grounded is iustly esteem'd an Heretique not properly because he disobeyes the Church but because hee yeelds not to Scripture sufficiently ' propounded or cleared vnto him So saith a August de Gen. ad lit lib. 7. cap. 9. Omnes Haeretici Scripturas Catholicas legunt nec ob aliud sunt Haeretioi nisi quòd eas non rectè intelligentes suas falsas opiniones contra earum veritatem pervicaciter asserunt IdeÌ„ habet Epist 222. St Austin and b Hier. in Galat. cap. 5. Haereticus est quicunque aliter Scripturam intelligit quaÌ„ sensus Spiritûs S flagitat licèt de Ecclesiâ non recesserit St Hierome expresly The best c Divinae Scripturae integra firma regula verita tis Dist 37. c. Relatum Bellarm. de verb. Dei lib. 1. c. 2. Sacra Scriptura regula credendi certissima tutissimâ—que est Gers de exam doctrin par 2. consid 1. Oper. part 1. pag. 541. Scriptura nobis tradita est tanquà m regula sufficiens infallibilis pro regimine totius Ecclesiastici corporis vsque in finem cui se non conformans alia doctrina vel abjicienda est vt haereticalis vel vt suspecta impertinens ad religionem prorsus est habenda learned in the Church of Rome confesse that the Scripture was giuen as a sufficient and infallible rule for the government of the whole Church so as any doctrine not conformable therevnto must either bee rejected as hereticall or suspected as impertinent to religion It is confessed also that the Church d Almain in 3. D. 25. q. 1. Resolutio Occham est quòd nec tota Ecclesia nec concilium generale nec summus Pontifex potest facere Articulum quod non fuit Articulus Sed in dubijs propositionibus potest Ecclesia determinare an sint Catholicae Tamen sic determinando non facit quod sint Catholicae quùm prius essent antè Ecclesiae determinationem Sic etiam Turrecremata Adrianus apud Can. lib. 12. cap. 8. Sâ—tus in 1. D. 11. q. 1. in fine In nova Haeresi veritas prius erat de side etsi non ita declarata Bonavent in 1. D. 11. A. r. q. 1. ad fin Haereâ—â—â— multa quae erant implicita fidej nostrae compulerunt explicare hath no power to make any Article of faith or to adde any thing to the doctrine of faith Her
duty is only to e Bâ—larm lib. 2. de Concil cap. 12. Concilia quùm definiunt non faciunti liquid esse in fallibilis veritatis sed declarant Gers de err circ praecâ—â— Non occides part oper 1. pag. 406. vlt. edit Papa vel generale Comlium determinando de fide nihil faciunt aliud nisi declarare talia esse fide Canus lib. 2. cap. 7. Ingenuè fatemur non esse nunc novas revâ—â—tiones expectandas five à summo Pontifice five à Concilio five a Ecclesiâ totâ Vide Th. 2. 2. q. 1. A. 10. ad 1. explaine and declare the truth according to Scripture and from thence to draw all her conclusions f Aquin. 2. 2. q. 1. A. â— in corp For the Articles of the faith cannot encrease in substance bâ—â— onely in explication Hence it followes that all necessary or fundamentall truth is contained in Scripture which is the rule according to which the Church is to judge of g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist lib. 1 de Anim. truth and errour Her declaration is only to fetch out that truth which is in the Scripture her exposition of the Text must not be an addition to it It is a faulty and erronious declaration which in stead of declaring giues another See the learned Answere to Fishers Relation of his 3. Confer pag. 9. and a contrary sense Neither is any doctrine necessary or true because the Church declares it such but because it is such in it selfe by warrant of Scripture If the Church walke not by this rule h Mag. 1. D. 11. lit C. Qui pretergreditur fidei regulam non incedit in via sed recedit à viâ Quod volumus Sanctum est Ticonius Donatista apud S. Aug. cont Epist Parmen lib. 2. c. 13. she is out of her way And in this by-way never any Church hath wandred so farre as the Church of Rome which hath defined or declared very many things to be fundamentall Truths or Heresies which are nothing lesse following herein no other rule but her owne fantasy As in Truth so in Heresy the Church may declare what is Heresy shee may convince and censure it but still according to her Rule the Scripture Neither is any doctrine Hereticall because it opposeth the definition of the i Alph. à Castro lib. 1. adv Haeres cap. 8. Ecclesia sâ—â— definitione non facit talem assertionem esse Haeresim cùm eâ—amsi ipsa non definivisset esset Haeresis Sed id efficit Ecclesia vt nobis per suam Censuram pate at illud esse Haeresim ibid. Ideò dicitur veritas aliqua Catholica quia à Deo in Scripturis revelata est è contra Church but because it opposes that Scripture on which the Church grounds her definition The doctrines of Arrius Macedoâ—ius Nestorius Eutyches were in themselues Hereticall even before they were solemnely condemned in the 4 generall Councells But saith the Mistaker the Heresier mentioned by Philastrius Epiphanius and S. Austin in their Catalogues were many of them errours in themselues of no greaâ— moment or importance yet they were alâ— esteemed Heresies because they were helâ— in disobedience to the Church So likewise the errour of rebaptization was for the matter of it the very same in S. Cyprian and in the Donatists yet the Donatists were accounted Heretiques for despising the iudgement of the Catholique Church and S. Cyprian not so because hee conserved himselfe within the amity and communion of the Church Therefore properly and formally he is an Heretique that contradicts the definitions of the Church Answ In all ages almost the imputation of Heresy hath beene too too frequent and familiar among Christians and in this age aboue all wherein Christendome is so miserably broken into numberlesse fragments and pieces It is a thing purely impossible for the learnedst man in the World exactly to recount all the severall Sects and subdivisions of Christians or such as pretend to Christianity And every Sect hath some Zelotes so passionately in loue with their owne Opinions that they condemne all others differing from them to be Hereticall So there liues not a Christian on earth who in the judgement of many others is not an Heretique I speake not this in favour of any Heretique or Heresy justly so called ancient or new But surely as this imputation is a grievous crime where it is true so it is no lesse grievous a calumny if it bee vngrounded And it is good counsell which k Cont. Haeres lib. 3. lib. 1. cap. 7. Qui tà m leviter de Haeresi pronunciant saepè fit vt suâ ipsorum feriantur sagittâ incidantque in eam foveam quam alijs parabant Alphonsus à Castro giues let them consider who pronounce so easily of Heresy how easy it is for themselues to erre Very good advise though Alphensus himselfe makes very little vse of it and forgets it too often As all Truth is not of equall moment or necessity so al errors are not of the same malignity and danger Every Heresy is an error but l Aug. de Haeres in praef Non omnis error Haeresis est quamvis omnis Haeresis errore aliquo c. Jd. alibi Errare postium Haereticus esse nolo Bellar. lib. 3. de Euchar. cap 8. §. Ac primum Haeresis est cuius contraria est veritas fidei à Deo revelata each error is not Heresy What Heresy is properly or what it is that makes an Heretique is a thing either meerely impossible or extreamely difficult to define in the opinion of m Quid faciat Haereticum regulari quadam definitione comprehendi sicut ego existimo aut omnino non potest aut difficilimè potest Id. vbi suprà Sâ— Austine who promised and n In fine libri ad Quodvultdeum intended a treatise purposely of this matter buâ— his death or other thoughts prevented him But it is most evident that those o Bellar. de Script in Philastrio Observandum est multa a Philastrio inter Haereses numerari quae verè Haereses non sunt Dion Pctau Animad in Epiphan initio de Inscript operis Haeresis nomen latissimè ab Epiphanio vsurpatur nec ad Theologorum normam vocabuli istius vsus exigendâ—â— est ancient writers in their Catalogues and elsewhere doe not vse the words Heresy or Heretique in their exact oâ— proper notion but in a very large anâ— generall signification not distinguishing betweene Heresy and errour Whatsoever opinion they conceived to bee contrary to the common or approved opinion of Christians that they called as Heresy because it differed from the received opinion not because it opposed any formall definition of the Church This may appeare by many circumstances 1 St Austin was desired by his Frienâ— Quodvultdeus to set downe all p Praefat. lib. de Haer. ad Quodv Petis exponi omnia omninâ— quibus à veritate dissentiunt opinions of Heretiques differing from
praesumunt Hoâ—â—â— Dei apud nos est sed illi hoc arbitrantur honorem diuinitatis esse quod credunt Inofficiosi sunt sed illis hoc est summum Religionis officum Impij sunt sed hoc putant veram esse pretatem Errant ergo sed boâ—â— animo errant non odio sed affectu Dei honorare se Dominum atqâ—â— aâ—are credentes Quanmuis non habeant rectam fidem illi tamen 〈◊〉 perfectam aestimant Dei Charitatem Qualiter pro hoc ipso falsae opnionis errore in die judicij puniendi sunt nullus potest scire nisi Index Saluian an ancient Bishop of Marseilles are very remarkeable concerning some Arrian Heretiques of whom he speakes thus The tradition of their Teachers and the doctrine which they haue learned is to them as it were a Law they beleeue as they haue beene instructed They are Heretiques then but not wittingly Briefly they are Heretiques in our judgement but not in their owne For they esteeme themselues so good Catholiques that they defame vs with the title of Heresie Such therefore as They are to vs such are Wee to them We know assuredly that they are iniurious to the Diuine Generation of the Sonne of God because they say He is inferiour to his Father They contrarily thinke vs iniurious to the Father because we beleeue the Sonne to be equall to Him The truth is on our side but they presume it is on theirs Our opinion truly honours God but they suppose their opinion to be more honourable to Him They are indeed vndutifull to God but this they esteeme a great dutie of Religion They are impious but this they thinke to be true piety They erre then but they erre with a good minde not out of any hatred to God but with affection to him thinking to honour hereby and loue the Lord. Although they haue not the right Faith yet they imagine their opinion to be perfect Charitie towards God How they shall bee punished in the last day of judgement for this error of their false opinion the Iudge alone knowes 3. In the Society of such Professors there is at least there may be true Baptisme administred and rightly for the substance of it And where true Baptisme may be rightly administred there is the Couenant of Saluation in Christ setled and established because the Seale of the Couenant is there allowed And euery Society in which is the Couenant of Grace is a Church of Christ Againe where true Baptisme is there by the Confession of the Romanists euery one by Vertue of that Baptisme if himselfe doe not ponere obieem is made a member of the Church and of Christ an Heyre of heauen And hence it followeth that Children baptized in that Church are regenerated because they doe not ponere obicem And hence againe that that Societie is a Church of Christ and his Spouse which bringeth forth Children vnto God 4. The people of the ten Tribes after their defection notwithstanding their grosse corruptions and Idolatrie yet because they professed by Circumcision and otherwise to honour the true Iehouah they remained still a true Church though a very imperfect and impure Church and were therefore called the i Rom. 9. 25 26. 1 King 16. 2. people of God the beloued of God the Children of the liuing God and God was called the k 1 Kin. 18. 36. c. 20. 28. God of Israel and said to be among them being also euer readie to direct and counsell them by his true l 2 Kin. 5. 8. 1. 16. 1 Kin. 22. 5 7. Prophets and lastly the Kings of Israel are often said to doe euill in the eyes of God that is as it may bee probably expounded in that place whereupon God did as yet looke with the eyes of his mercy as vpon his Church Though in regard of their halting betweene God and Baal they were said to be without m 2 Chron 15. 3. the true God without Priests and Law that is without that pure and comfortable worship of God which his Priests according to his Law ought to haue performed And it seemes by S. Paul that a Christian seruing the true God after a false and deuised manner may be at once both 1 Cor. 5. 11. a Brother and an Idolater And forignorances yea or errours of the vnderstanding though very grosse and perhaps by some thought to be fundamentall it seemes true Faith may be lodged in the same minde together with them The Faith of Rahab in o Heb. 11. 31. commended who surely had no great knowledge of the Messiah to commend her After our Lord had long conuersed with his Disciples and instructed them yet did they not beleeue p Matth. 20. 21. Act. 1. 6. his Kingdome to be spirituall nor q Matth. 16. 22. S. Peter the necessitie of his Passion though immediately before he had made that goodly Confession on which the Church is founded The Christians of Ephesus knew not r Act. 19. 2. whether then were an Holy Ghost or no and many thousand Christian Iewes s Act. 21. 20. did both beleeue the Gospell yet were zealous for the old legall Ceremonies which were by Christ fulfilled and abolished A learned t Synesius apud Phot. Myriobibl cod 26. man anciently was made a Bishop of the Catholique Church though he did professedly doubt of the last Resurrection of our Bodies The Authors of this opinion are oâ— age and abilitie enough to speake for it and themselues The Reader may be pleased to approue or reiect it as he shall finde cause No doubt the errors of Poperie and those other of Vbiquitie Consubstantiation and the like are errours grosse and palpable yet not such as presently and absolutely cut off all that professe and beleeue them from the Catholique Church and all hope of Saluation especially if withall they professe resolutely and heartily to beleeue in Iesus Christ and to obey him according to his word so farre as they can vnderstand it or can be taught it For howsoeuer some skilfull Disputant by Logicall deduction may from those opinions inferre some consequences damnable and destructiue to the Faith yet the erring persons many times doe not see or beleeue that any such consequences follow clearly from their opinions nay they doe happily so farre abhorre them and are so well disposed towards truth that rather then admit any such dangerous consequents they would readily renounce and rectifie their opinions But I finde my selfe digressing I returne and proceed By all this it is manifest that S. Cyprian agreed with the Donatists onely in a part of their errour but not wholly nor in their chiefest errours nor in their faction and obstinacy which made them guiltie of Schisme and Heresie S. Cyprian was a peaceable and modest man dissented from others in his judgement but without any breach of Charity condemned no man much lesse any Church for the contrary Opinion He beleeued his owne Opinion to be true
Catholique Church is spread and diffused over the Earth among all Nations and may not be inclosed within any one or other society or communion of men whatsoever Wherein he doth as clearely oppose our Romanists who inclose all Catholiques and Christians within the Popes communion as he did the ancient Donatists It is not then resisting the voice or definitue sentence of the Church which makes an Heretique but an obstinate standing out against evident Scripture sufficiently cleared vnto him And the Scripture may then be said to be sufficiently cleared when it is so opened that a good and teachable minde louing and seeking truth cannot gainsay it For some froward and obstinate persons will not bee convicted by any evidence of truth whatsoever And if the authority of a Councell or of some Church doe interpose in this conviction the obstinacy of Gainsayers is the greater because there is the greater reason to perswade them And if any Church doe vpon such conviction excommunicate or condemne any refractary Gainsayer hee standeth guilty of obstinacy and so of Heresy in foro exteriori and for such is to be reputed by the members of the same Church But it is possible such a sentence may bee erronious either because the opinion condemned is no Heresy or error against the Faith in it selfe considered or because the party so condemned is not sufficiently convinced in his vnderstanding not clouded with prejudice ambition vaineglory or the like passion that it is an errour As these Donatists so the Novatians also were Schismatiques for disobeying the publique determination of the Catholique Church in the same Generall Councell of Nice In the first Ages before that Councell the Church was very rigorous in her Discipline Shee vtterly refused as wee haue before observed to admit vnto her Peace and communion f Vide Canones Concil Eliberini Tertull. de pudic Cypr. Epist ad Antonian passim some kindes of sinnners as Idolaters Apostates Murtherers Adulrers and the like though they had done many yeares penance and though they were in their last extremity thinking fit to leaue them to the mercy of God alone and to make their peace with him by inward repentance Afterwards Shee saw it convenient to bee more mild and mercifull in her censures and accordingly declared her selfe in the Great g Nic. Concil Can. 11. 12. 13. 14. Councell allowing to all sinners the hope and comfort of her absolution when they had made her satisfaction by their humility and penance according to her Canons The h Albaspin Sacr. Observ lib. 2. cap. 21. Novatians stubbornely opposed this publike resolution pretending that the judgement and practise of former Agesought not to be altered that this releasing of severe Discipline would open a gap to vice and licentiousnesse that the Church had no power to reconcile or receiue into her society such enormious Sinners though penitent that if she did she was polluted by their communion And vpon these pretences they breake out into a formall Schisme and separation Before the Nicene Councell many good Catholique Bishops were of the same opinion with the Donatists that the Baptisme of Heretiques was ineffectuall and with the Novatians that the Church ought not to absolue some grievous Sinners These errours therefore if they had gone no farther were not in themselues Hereticall especially in the proper and most heavy or bitter sense of that word neither was it in the Churches intention or in her power to make them such by her Declaration Her intention was to silence all disputes and to settle peace and vnity in her governement to which all wise and peaceable men submitted whatsoever their opinion was And those factious people for their vnreasonable and vncharitable opposition were very justly branded for Schismatiques Now for vs the Mistaker nor his Masters will never proue that wee oppose either any Declaration of the Catholique Church or any fundamentall or other truth of Scripture and therefore he doth vniustly charge vs either with Schisme or Heresy Charity mistaken Chap. 6. AGaine the onely right ground and true infallible motiue of faith by which it is produced and on which it relyes is the revelation of God and the proposition of his Church He therefore who beleeues not every particular Article of Catholique doctrine which is revealed and propounded by Almighty God and his Church which Church is absolutely infallible in all her proposalls doth not assent to any one even of those which he beleeues by true faith because he assents not upon the onely true and infallible motiue An assent not grounded on this is no supernaturall divine faith but an humane persuasion or suspicion or opinion And such is the beleefe or faith of Turkes Iewes Moores and all Heretiques and particularly of the Protestants Answer Sect. 5. DIvine revelation the principall motiue last object into which faith supernaturall is resolved The testimony ministery of the Church is of great use for the begetting of faith But the Church hath not an authority unlimited and absolutely infallible in all her doctrines as some Romanists pretend Others of them reasonably and fairely limit the Churches infallibility The Church Vniversall infallible in fundamentall doctrines Not so in points of lesser moment The Mistaker cannot say what he meanes by the Church where of he sayes so much Of the Church represented in generall Councells of which we speak and thinke more honorably then doe our Adversaries Yet we thinke them not absolutely infallible Of the Pope whom they call the Church virtuall How his flatterers speak of his authoritie No Roman Catholique can be assured of his infallibilitie which is at the most and best but problematicall by their owne principles Answer FAith is said to be divine and supernaturall I in regard of the author or efficient cause of the habit and act of divine infused faith which is the speciall grace of God preparing inabling and assisting the soule to beleive For a 1 Cor. 12. 3. 4. faith is the gift of God alone 2. In regard of the object or things beleeved which are b Phil. 1. 29. c. aboue the reach and comprehension of meere nature or reason 3. In regard of the formall reason or principall ground on which faith chiefly relies into which it is finally resolved which is divine revelation or the authority of God who is the first truth If it faile in any of these it is no divine or supernaturall faith Of the two first respects there is no controversie For the 3d that the formall object or reason of faith the chiefe motiue the first and farthest principle into which it resolues is onely divine revelation is a truth denied by some of the c Scotus Durand Gabriel apud Can. loc lib. 2. cap. 8. Schoole indeed some other d Vide passim apud Eckium Pighium Hosium Turrianum Costerum nequiter contumeliosè dicta in S. Scripturas unwise and unwary writers against Luther but yet
confessed by the most and best learned of the c Th. 1. p. q. 1. art 8. ad 2. Innititur fides nostra revelationi Prophetis Apostolis factae Can. loc Theol. lib. 2. c. 8. Nec si nobis aditum praebet Ecclesia protinus ibi acquiescendum est sed ultrà oportet progredi solidâ Dei veritate niti Staplet princs doctr lib. 8. cap. 20. Apostolorum prophetarum immediatè revelata sides in solum revelatorem Deum ultimò resolvebatur eum solum pro formali objecto habuit in eum solum tanquam supremam atque ultimam credendi causam desinebat sistebat Ergò reliquae totius Ecdesiae fides idem formale objectum habet Becanus Sum. 3. p. cap. 8. quaest 8. Conclus 3. Assensus fidei formaliter resolvitur in primam veritatem revelantem Atque hîc sistitur Aegid de Coninck de Actib supernat disp 9. dub 5. concl 4. Id in quod nostra fides tanquam objectum formale ultimò resolvitur five objectum formale propter quod credimus non solùm articulos fidei esse veros sed etiam eos esse à Deo revelatos est testimonium primae veritatis Roman Doctors And that this revelation for all necessarie points is f Basil M. de judicio Det five proaem in Ethic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanas Orat. contr Gentes initio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyrill Hierosol Catech 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodoret. Dial. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hilar. lib. 2. ad Constant August laudat Imp. fidem tantùm secundùm ea quae scripta sunt desiderantem Vinc. Lirin cap. 2. perfectus Scripturarum canon ad omnia satis supérque sufficit Et iterum Commonit 2. cap. 1. Th. 2. 2. qu. 1. A. 10. ad 1. In doctrina Christi Apostolorum veritas fidei est sufficienter explicata Idem disp de fide art 10. ad 11. Successoribus Apostolorum non credimus nisi in quantum nobis annuntiant ea quae illi in Scripturis reliquerunt Durand Praefat. in Sent. S. Scriptura mensuram fidei exprimit Scot. in Prol. Sent. qu. 3. Theologia nostra non est nisi de his quae continentur in Scriptura de his quae possunt elici ex ipsis Gers de examin doctr p. 2. con 1. nihil audendum diecre de divinis nisi quae nobis à Scriptura Sacra tradita sunt sufficiently and g Basil Regul brevior cap. 267. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aug. de doctr Chr. lib. 2. cap. 9. In his quae apertè posita sunt in Scriptura inveniuntur illa omnia quae continent fidem mor ésque vivendi Bellar. lib. 4. de verb. non Script cap. 11. §. His notatis Dico illa omnia scripta esse ab Apostolis quae sunt omnibus necessaria Et Iterum §. vltimò Loquitur Augustinus loco praedicto de illis dogmatibus quae sunt necessaria omnibus simpliciter clearely made in the Scriptures either in expresse termes or by manifest deduction is the constant Doctrine of Antiquity even till the latter times If the whole object of faith be thus contained in Scripture then surely no new doctrines or revelations without or beside Scripture may be admitted neither is the proposition of any Church or any person in matters of faith to be beleeved further then it may be maintained or warranted by Scripture Our faith then is safe enough which builds on this firme ground and relyes on this solid h Iren. lib. 3. cap. 1. Scriptura fundamentum est columna fidei nostrae Eph. 2. 20. foundation Now for the Church she that is the mother of all Christians hath two dugs saith i Aug. in Ep. Johan tract 3 init Est mater Ecclesia ubera ejus duo Testamenta Scripturarum divinarum S. Austine which are the Old and New Testament out of these she feeds and giues milke to all her children That Church or any particular which delivers onely what she hath received and propounds not her owne traditions in stead of Gods Commandements we are ready in all things to heare and reverently to submit our selues to Gods truth delivered by it We doe not depriue the Church of that prerogatiue office which Christ hath given it k Rom. 10. 17. Faith comes by hearing the word of God and the ministery of the Church is necessary in ordinary course for the begetting of faith But the force and validitie of that ministery is different according as the Church may be taken either for the Prime Church or for the Present The Prime Church I call that which included Christ and his Apostles who had immediate revelation from heaven The voyce testimony of this Church is simply divine and infallible and the word of God from them is of like validity written or delivered The testimony of the present Church though it be not the last resolution of our faith yet it is the first externall motiue to it It is the l Hooker lib. 2. §. 7. key or m Gretser Defens de verb. lib. 4. c. 4. col 1581. prima janua See the learned Answ to Fishers Relat. of his 3. Confer pag. 24. doore which lets men in to the knowledge of divine mysteries It workes very powerfully and probably as the highest humane testimony 1. Upon infidels to winne them unto a reverent opinion of that faith and those Scriptures which they see so many wise learned and devout men in the Church constantly to esteeme as the very truth and word of God 2. Upon Novices weaklings and doubters in the faith to instruct and confirme them till they may acquaint themselues with and understand the Scriptures which the Church delivers as the word of God 3. Upon all within the Church to prepare induce and perswade the minde as an outward means to imbrace the faith to read and beleeue the Scriptures But the faith of a Christian findes not in all this any sure ground whereon finally to rest or settle it selfe till it arise to greater assurance then the present Church alone can giue Humane authority consent and proofe may produce an humane or acquired faith and infallibly in some sort assure the minde of the truth of that which is so witnessed but the assent of divine faith is absolutely divine which requires an object and motiue so infallibly true as that it neither hath nor n Cui non potest subesse falsum can possibly admit of any mixture of errour or falshood And infallible in this sence is onely that testimony which is absolutely divine Now our Adversaries yeeld that the testimony of the present Church is not absolutely divine It is not simply but in a manner divine saith o Staplet Relect contr 4. qu. 3. A. 1. Vox Ecclesiae est suo modo divina one not meerly divine nor meerly humane but as it were in the middle saith p Becan 3. p. Summ. cap. 8. qu. 8. §. 8. nec
purè divina nec purè humana sed quasi media another In truth and to speake properly an humane testimony saith a q Aegid de Conick disp 9. dub 5 Conc. 2. Quantumvis Ecclesia dirigatur infallibili Sp. S. assistentiâ atque ita ejus testimoniū nitatur suo modo authoritate divinâ atque ab ea firmitatem accipiat tamen non est verè propriè testimonium sive verbum revelatio Dei sed propriè est testimonium humanum Ergò illud nequit esse objectum formale fidei Theologieae consequenter haec nequit in illud tanquam in suum objectum ultimò resolvi third who thereupon well inferres that therefore the voyce of the Church cannot be the formall object of divine faith or that where-into it is lastly resolved The Church then is onely the first inducer to beleeue and the watchman that holdeth out the light in open view and presenteth the shining beams thereof to all that haue eyes to discerne it but the principall motiue and last object of beliefe is the divine authority of Scripture it selfe And that Scripture is of divine authority the beleever sees by that glorious beame of divine light which shines in r Bellarmin de verbo Dei li. 1. c. 2. Certissimas divinas esse Scripturas quae Propheticis Apostolicis literis continentur nec humana inventa sed divina oracula continere testis est ipsa Scriptura O. rig de Princip l. 4. c. 1. Quòd ipsae divinae Scripturae sint divinitùs inspiratae ex ipsis divinis Scriptuis is ostendemus Salv. Massil l. 3. de Gubern mox a◠initio Alia omnia id est humana dicta argumentis ac testibus egent Dei autem sermo ipse sibi testis est quia necesse est quicquió incorrupta veritas loquitur incorruptum sit testimonium veritatis Scripture by many internall arguments found in the letter it selfe though found by the helpe and direction of the Church without and of grace within Herein the Church leades but the Scripture resolues The Ministery of the Church as a Candlestick presents and holds out the light but this supposed there is in the Scripture it selfe * 2 Pet. 1. 19. light sufficient which though blinde * 1 Cor. 2. 14 sensuall mindes see not yet the eye of reason cleared by grace and assisted by the many motiues which the Church useth for enforcing of her instructions may discover to be divine descended from the father fountaine of light To this light the Church addes nothing at all but onely points at it directs us to it disposes and prepares us for it introduces it as the dawning of the morning doth the cleare Sunshine So farre as any Church walks in this light and carries it with her we may safely follow her if she bring a divine word for her warrant she must be beleeved But if her propositions or doctrines be meerely voluntary her owne and not according to that word there Es 8. 20. is no light in them neither can her authority make such doctrines proper objects of divine faith An Object how sensible soever it be in it selfe yet it doth not actually moue the Sense unlesse it be conveyed applyed to it by some Meane So here God hath appointed an ordinary outward meanes to present and propound divine verities to our faith and this ordinary means wee grant is the Church to which wee willingly attribute these two excellent uses in that imployment 1. of a witnesse testifying the authority and sence of the Scriptures unto us 2. of Gods instrument by whose ministery in preaching and expounding the Scriptures the Holy Ghost begets a divine faith in us But in that assent which wee yeeld unto the mysteries propounded and delivered by the Church though the Church be one cause to wit inductiue or preparatiue s Gretser Append. 2. ad lib. 3. Bellar. de verb. D. Col. 1514. principaliter Scripturis fidem habemus propter divinā revelationem at ob Ecclesiae authoritatem non aliter quā ut ob conditionem sine qua non Et infra Sacris litetis assensum prae bemus primariò ob divinam revelationem secundariò ob Ecclesiae testimonium without which men ordinarily do not beleeue yet it is not the principall or finall upon which wee lastly depend The chiefe principle or ground on which faith rests and for which it firmly assents unto those truths which the Church propounds is divine revelation made in the Scripture Nothing lesse then this nothing but this can erect or qualifie an act of t Becan Sum. tract de fide ca. 1. q. 2. §. 9. Assensus qui nititur authoritate Ecclesiae non est assensus fidei Theologicae sen divinae sed alterius inferioris ordinis super naturall faith which must be absolutely undoubted and certaine and without this faith is but opinion or persuasion or at the most an acquired humane beliefe This power in the Church to instruct her children in the faith according to Scripture which is her ground and rule from which she may not depart we willingly admit But we cannot yeeld that the present Church hath an absolute or unlimited authority to propound what she pleases or an infallible assistance in all her propositions which is our Mistakers meaning and the new doctrine of some of his Masters Who teach 1. that the authority of the Church is absolute not depending on Scripture but on which the Scripture it selfe and so our whole faith depends The words of u Bellar. de effect Sacram. lib. 2. cap. 25. §. tertium testimonium Bellarmine are remarkable If saith he we take away the authority of the present Church of Rome and of the Trent Councell the decrees of all other ancient Councels the whole Christian faith may be questioned as doubtfull For the strength of all doctrines and of all Councels depends upon the authority of the present Church And elsewhere againe to the same purpose lest the former words might seeme to haue fallen from his pen unawares w Bellar. de Eccl. mil. lib. 3. cap. 10. §. Adhaec necesse est The Scriptures Traditions and all doctrines whatsoever depend on the testimony of the Church he means that of Rome without which all are wholly uncertaine Here 's a plaine principle of Atheisme For if this be true all the faith we haue of God of our Redeemer of the Scripture of any thing in Religion is all but an ungrounded and uncertaine opinion unlesse the Church confirme it And as the Idols of old Rome could not be consecrated or deified but by consent of the Senate who tooke upon thē 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. x Chrys in 2. ad Cor. hom 26 in Moral Et Tertul. Apolog cap. 5. Nisi homini Deus placuerit Deus non erit Chrysostome merily speakes to make gods by most voyces So here it seemes our true God and
Recogn p. 11. Bellarmine at last following the common opinion of the o In Th. p. 3. qu. 52. Aâ—z Schooles These jarres concerne not the Church of England which takes the words as they are in the Creed and beleives them without further dispute and in the sence of p Aug. Epist 99. Ancients As also She doth in that other Article of the Catholique Church It remaines then notwithstanding all this feeble opposition very probable according to the judgement of Antiquity and even of the Roman D Drs that the Creed is the perfect Summary of those fundamentall truths wherein consists the Unity of Faith and of the Catholique Church the Articles wherof all Christians ordinarily are bound expresly to beleeve and distinctly to know for their salvation I say such explicite faith and actuall knowledge is necessary to Christians ordinarily for I meedle not with the extraordinary dispensation of Gods mercies which is a secret reserved to the Lord himselfe And I say men are bound to it by necessity that is necessitate praecepti but happily not so necessitate medij vel finis For as the q De explicitè necessario credendis vide quae scripserunt Sylv. in Sum. ver Fides Azor. Instit moral par 1. l. 8. c. 6. Tolet. Instruct Sacerd lib 4. c. 2. Greg. de Val. in 2. 2. disp 1. q. 2. punc 3. 4. 5. Bâ—nnes in 2. 2. q. 2. a. 8 Becaâ— in sum pur 3. c. 12. Filiuo de casib tract 2. 2. cap. 1. 2. Putean in 2. 2. q. 2. 〈◊〉 â— 3. dub 4. Aegyd Connick disp 14. dub 9. 10. DD. communiter in 3. d. 25. in 2. 2. q. 1. a. 7. Casiâ—ists and Schoolemen doe well and truly observe in this dispute of necessary and fundamentall truths both Truths Persons must be wisely distinguished That truth may be necessary in one sense which is not so in another and fundamentall in some persons in certaine respects which is not so to some others 1. Every thing fundamentall is not alike neare to the foundation nor of equall primenes in the faith Among the fundamentalls of the Creed some are radicall and primary others like branches issuing or descending from them as a Paris Tract de fide cap. 2. Communiter credendorum quae usualiter Articuli fidei vocantur alia sunt ut radices primitivae fundamenta primaria alia sunt ut rami descendentes Parisiensis or as b Th. 2. 2. q. 1. a. 7. in Corp. Omnes Articuli implicitè coÌ„tinentur in aliquibus primis credibilibus sc ut credatur Deus esse providentiam habere circa hominum salutem Aquinas there are certaine prime principles of faith in the bosome whereof all other Articles lie wrapped or folded up Such is that of S. Paul c Heb. 11. 6. He that comes to God must beleeve that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that seeke him but especially that most important and most d Joh. 17. 3. 20. 31. Matth. 16. 16. 17. Act. 4. 12. 8. 37. 16. 31. Rom. 10. 9. 10. 1. Cor. 3. 11. 12. 3. 1. Joh. 2. 22. 4. 2. 15. 5. 1. 5. 2. Pet. 2. 1. fundamentall of all Articles in the Church that Iesus Christ the sonne of God and the sonne of Mary is the onely Saviour of the world These are so absolutely necessary to all Christians for attaining the end of our faith that is the salvation of our soules that a Christian may loose himselfe not onely by a positive erring in them or denying of them but by a pure ignorance or nescience or not knowing of them e Dom. Bannes in 2. 2. q. 2. arr 8. Illa quae sunt necessaria necessitate finis si desint nobis etiam sine culpa nostra non excusabuÌ„t nos ab aeterna morte quamvis non fuerit in potestate nostra illa assequi quemadmoduÌ„ etiam si non sit nisi unicum remedium ut ali quis fugiat mortem corporalem tale reremediuÌ„ ignoretur ab infirmo et medico sine dubio peribit homo ille The Roman DDrs themselves say that Invincible ignorance cannot here excuse from ever lasting death even as if there were one onely remedy whereby a sicke man could be recovered from corporall death suppose the Patient and the Physitian both were ignorant of it the man must perish as well not knowing it as if being brought unto him he had refused it 2. Againe of Persons some are invincibly disabled from faith and knowledge through want of capacity f Pet. de Allinco in quaest vesperiarum Sicut ad legis Christi habitualeÌ„ fideÌ„ omnis viator obligatur sine ulla exceptione fic ab ejus actuali fide nullus excusatur nisi solâ incapacitate Parvulos autem et furiosos caeterisque passionibus mente captos seu aliâ naturali impossibilitate prohibitos incapaces voco et si non simpliciter tameÌ„ secunduÌ„ quid â—â— dum his defectibus laborant as Infants Naturalls and distracted Persons or through want of meanes of instruction which may be saved but God only knows how Others have capacity meanes but in very different degrees and accordingly they differ in that measure of faith and knowledge that is necessarily required in them More knowledge is necessary in g Aegid de Conninck disp 14. dub 10. Hominum sunt tres classes majores medii infimi qui hic distinguendi Similiter Puteanus in 2. 2 q. 2. art 3. d. ult â—lii Bishops and Priests to whom is committed the goverment of the Church and the cure of soules then in vulgar Laickes amongst whom in them of the rudest and meanest sort if there be a studious care of holines and obedience in their life which is ever supposed as most necessary the knowledge of those maine Artiles concerning our Saviours Incarnation Passion Resurrection c. which are purposely to that end celebrated by the Church in her Festivities as many h Almain in 3. d. 26. Minores tenentur explicitè credere Articulis por festivitates solennes celebratis ut Ecclesia celebrat FestuÌ„ de Nativitatc-sic Durand Bonavent Alii in eum loc Sylv. ver Fides §. 6. Azor. lib. 8. ca. 6. §. 2º quaeritur Filiucius de Casib tract 22. c. 1. §. Dices Aliique piurimi Le Card. de Richelieu Instruct du Chrestien Leçon premiere Gen'est pas chose necessaire que celuy qui ignorera quelques vns des Articles de foy ne puisse aucunes fois faire son salut mais il est besoin qu'il ait vne cognoissance de ces Articles suffisante pour le diriger à sa derniere fin Si quelque vn ignoroit la Communion des Saincts la descente de nostre Seigneur aux Limbes que sa passion ait esté soubs Pilate qu'il ait este au Sepulchre le temps auquel il est resuscité sçauoir est le
difference betweene a Schisme from them and a Reformation of our selues And it is one thing to leaue the communion of the Church of Rome another to leaue communicating with her in her errors Whosoeuer professes himselfe to forsake the communion of any one member of the body of Christ must confesse himselfe consequently to forsake the whole And therefore her communion we forsake not no more then the Body of Christ whereof we acknowledge the Church of Rome a member though corrupted And this cleares vs from the imputation of Schisme whose property it is witnesse the o August de Vnit. Ecc les cap. 13. Periisse dicunt de caetero mundo Ecclesiam in parte Donati in solâ AphricaÌ„ remansisse See more of them below Donatists and p Hieron aduers Luciferian initio Dialogi Afferebant Luciferiani vniuersum mundum esse diaboli vt jam familiare est eis dicere factum de Ecclesiá lupanar Et mox Vestra Ecclesia Catholicos alloquens Anti-Christi magis Synagoga quà m Christi Ecclesia debet nuncupari Luciferians to cut off from the Body of Christ and the hope of Saluation the Church from which it separates And if any zelotes amongst vs haue proceeded to heauier censures their zeale may be excused but their Charity and wisedome cannot be justified Vnlesse happily they intended not the Church but the Court of Rome which two if any Romane Catholique cannot well distinguish let him read the French Doctor Peter Charron in his third Veritie q Charr Verit. troisiesme Ch. 14. §. Mais les Schismatiques Il faut prudemment distinguer entre l' Eglise Romaine la Court Romaine Ceste Court demeure se couure se nourrit dedans ceste Eglise ainsi que le ver dedans la pomme comme aussi est elle née de sa gresse de son abondance C'est contrè la Court Romaine què Sainct Bernard en tant de lieux autres Anciens ont crié escrit where he likens the Court of Rome in that Church to a worme in an apple and confesses all the maladies and miseries in the one to flow from the other But to forsake the errours of that Church and not to joyne with her in those practises which we account erroneous we are enforced by necessity r Aug. de â—apt contr Donat. lib. 1. cap. 4. 5. Alia causa est corum qui in istos Haereticos imprudentèr incurrunt ipsam esse Christi Ecclesiam existimantes alia corum qui nouerunt non esse Catholicam For though in themselues they be not damnable to them which beleeue as they professe yet for vs to professe to auow by oath as the Church of Rome injoynes what we beleeue not were without question damnable And they with their errours by the grace of God might go to heauen when we for our hypocrisy and dissimulation without repentance should certainly be condemned to hell It is the doctrine of the Romane Schoole that veniall sinnes to him that commits them not of subreption or a suddain motion but of presumption that the matter is not of moment change their kinde become mortall The like may be said of their errours To him who in simplicity of heart beleeues and practiseth them withall feareth God worketh righteousnes to him they shall proue veniall Such an one shall by the mercy of God either be deliuered from them or saued with them But he that against faith and conscience shall goe along with the streame to professe and practise them because they are but little ones his case is dangerous and without repentance desperate We hope and thinke very well of all those holy and deuout soules which in former ages liued died in the Church of Rome For though they died in many sinfull errours yet because they did it ignorantly through unbeleefe s Cypr. Epist 63. Pam. num 13. Si quis de antecessoribus nostris vel ignorantèr vel simpliciter non hoc obseruauit tenuit quod nos Dominus facere exemplo magisterio suo docuit potest simplicitau ejus de indulgentiâ Domini venia concedi nobis verò non poterit ignosci qui nunc à Domino admoniti instructi sumus not knowing them to be either errors or sins and repenting in generall for all their vnknowne trespasses we doubt not but they obtained pardon of all their ignorances For it were an vnreasonable incongruity to imagine that the God of mercy should not be as ready to pardon errours of vnderstanding as wilfull impieties Nay our Charity reaches further to all those at this day who in simplicity of heart beleeue the Romane Religion and professe it But we vnderstand onely those who either haue not sufficient meanes to finde the truth or else such as after the vse of the best meanes they can haue all things considered finde not sufficient motiues to conuince their conscience that they are in errour But they that haue vnderstanding and meanes to discouer their errour and neglect to vse them wee dare not flatter them with so easie a censure And much lesse them that dare professe the Religion of the Church of Rome when they doe not beleeue it or onely beleeue it because some carnall or worldly respect doth blinde or misleade their vnderstanding Wherefore to that demand of our Romanists If we beleeue their Religion to be a safe way to heauen why doe we not follow it We answer we beleeue it safe that is by Gods great mercy not damnable to some such as beleeue what they professe but we beleeue it not safe but very dangerous if not certainly damnable to such as professe it when they beleeue or if their hearts were vpright and not peruersly obstinate might beleeue the contrary The Iesuires and Dominicans hold different opinions touching predetermination and the immaculate conception of the blessed Virgin Yet so that the Iesuite holds the Dominicans way safe that is his error not damnable and the Dominicans hold the same of the Iesuites Yet neither of them with good consequence can presse the other to beleeue his opinion because by his owne confession it is no damnable errour For as the Dominicans might vrge the Iesuites after this manner so the Iesuites might returne it vpon the Dominicans and so the Argument being common to both either it must conclude for both and so both parts of a contradiction must be true or else which is most certaine and euident it concludes for neither And if for neither of them against the other then by the like reason it is vaine for Papists to vse it against Protestants All false opinions are not damnable errours to them that beleeue them yet may they be so manifestly false that there can be no wisedome in beleeuing them If one should beleeue that twice two were not foure all would confesse he held no damnable errour But if the same man should thinke all men bound in conscience
to be of his opinion and vrge them as the Romanists doe vs that by their owne confession there were no danger in his way and therefore in wisedome they were to follow it who would not laugh at his ridiculous folly So if they haue no better ground of their beleefe then their Aduersaries charitable judgement of their errours they will be so farre from conuincing their Aduersaries of lacke of wisedome that themselues cannot escape the imputation of folly By all this it is euident that although we confesse the Church of Rome to be in some sence a true Church and her errours to some men not damnable yet for vs who are conuinced in conscience that she erres in many things a necessity lyes vpon vs euen vnder paine of damnation to forsake her in those errours Which is not so much a forsaking of her as a purging of our selues To cleanse some part of the Church from vile abuses is not to goe out of the Church If a Monastery should reforme it selfe and reduce into practise ancient good discipline when others would not in this case could it with reason bee charged with Schisme from others or with Apostacy from its rule and order Or as in a Society of men vniuersally infected with some disease they that should free themselues from the common disease could not be therefore said to separate from the Society So neither can the Reformed Churches especially ours of England be truly accused for making a Schisme from the Church seeing all they did was to reforme themselues yet with resolution to continue in communion as much as in them lay euen with those parts of the Church that would not doe so Indeed if they of Rome could first make it appeare by any sound proofe either that the Church was pure and needed no Reformation or that it is all one to leaue the communion of the Church and to cease communicating with some Churches in their errours or lastly that it is all one to forsake the Church of Rome and to forsake the obedience to that Church as it is now required then the crime of Schisme might with some colour be laid to our charge But all these are groundlesse assumptions talk'd of very freely and commonly but such as neuer will be proued by any one Argument of validity In summe wee can neuer be joyned with Rome in such corruptions as make her Popish But wee were neuer disjoyned from her in those maine essentiall truthes which giue her the name and effence of a Church Whereof if the Mistaker doubt he may be better informed by some late Roman Catholique writers of milder judgement and temper One of t Examen pacifique de la doctrine des Huguenots à Caen. 1590. France who hath purposely in a large Treatise proued as He beleeues the Hugonots Catholiques of that Kingdome to be all of the same Church and Religion because of the truths agreed vpon by both And another of our owne u Syllabus aliquot Synodorum Colloquiorum Doctorum pro pace Ecclesie Aureliae 1628. Countrey as it is said who hath lately published a large Catalogue of learned Authors both Papists and Protestants who are all of the same minde But he is perswaded it seemes that Protestants among themselues are not of the same Church and Religion For he sayes their differences are many and materiall Luther with his followers Schlusselburgius Grawerus Hunnius and their like doe rigorously curse and condemne the Zuinglians Caluinists And some of their harsh censures to this purpose he transcribes out of Brierly who with a curious and I doubt a malicious diligence hath raked vp their intemperate speeches For answer first the Protestants especially we of the Church of England acknowledge not any factious names of Lutherans Zuinglians or Caluinists with which we are injuriously nick-named by our Aduersaries as of old good Orthodox Christians were called a Phot. cod 280. in Excerptis Eulogi◠ad fin libri Cornelians and b Act. Conciliab Ephes in Epist legat Schismat ad suos in Epheso pag. 287. edit Bin. 1618. Cyrillians by the seditious followers of Nouatus and Nestorius With Pacianus wee professe Christian is our name and Catholique our Surname We esteeme of Luther Zuinglius and Caluin as worthy men but we esteeme them not worthy to bee Lords or Authors of our Faith or to lead our vnderstandings captiue Both themselues were farre from affecting such diuine honour and we farre from bestowing it We remember who said of Christ Heare Him not heare them and therefore though these mens reasons may gaine our assent their Testimony is at the best but probable Wee beleeue not what they say but what they proue Much lesse can we endure being once baptized into the name of Christ to be marked with the name of any man as with a note of our seruitude Gregory c Nyssen contr Apollinar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nyssen makes a sore complaint of his times The great and venerable name of CHRISTIAN saith he is neglected men profanely diuide themselues into humane appellations And hee laments the miserable ambition of many Sectaries who surname themselues from their grand Seducers His Brother d Basil in Ps 48. S. Basil giues instance in the Marcionites and Valentinians c Optar lib. 3. Optatus in the Donatists So might wee in them that call themselues Franciscanes Dominicanes Thomists Scotists Iesuites c. To all these we say with f Epiphan haer 70. in fin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiphanius The holy Spouse of Christ beares onely her Husbands name And for vs as the same g Idem haer 42. Epiphanius and h Nazianz. orat 31. in fin Nazianzene speake Though we reuerence S. Peter and S. Paul yet we are neither Petrians nor Paulians but Christians Our reason is that which we read in i Lact. lib. 4. cap. 30. Christiani esse desierunt qui Christi nomine omisso humana externa vocabula induerunt Lactantius They are no Christians who seeke after forraine titles And therefore we disclaime the name of Caluinists we owe no seruice we haue no dependance vpon Caluin or any other man as Doctor or Master of our Faith We owe him and the rest of the first Reformers many thankes for their painfull labours which shall remaine of honourable account in all posterity We cannot blesse God sufficiently for such Instruments of his glory Yet we doe not idolize their Persons or adore their dictates and opinions as if they were diuine Oracles as the Romish zelotes doe with their Pope This were not to shake of our old seruitude but to exchange it and for one infallible Pope to set vp many Thankes be to God among the many Idols which we haue cast off this Idoll of humane authority is one which hath robbed God of much glory That Doctor who hath the command of our conscience hath his chaire in heauen We take vp no opinions vpon the credit of
but beleeued not that it was necessarie and therefore did not proceed rashly and peremptorily to censure others but left them to their libertie and finally he had a teachable and tractable minde willing to alter his Opinion if hee had seene reason and to yeeld to Truth if it had beene cleared vnto him or if hee had liued to heare the judgement of the Nicene Fathers And this good disposition kept him from falling further into such errours as the pride and obstinacy of the Donatists plunged them For contrarily the Donatists whilest they suriously contended for one false Opiniō fell by degrees into many more and worse Such as were these doctrines of theirs That u Aug. Ep. 167. De Bap. tismo dicere solent tunc esse verum Baptismum Christi cum ab homine justo datur vide evnd de vnit Ecclesiae cap. 21. the efficacy of Sacraments depends on the dignity of the Minister that being no true Baptisme which is not giuen by a just man That w Aug. cont Epist Parmen lib. 3. Passim the Church ought not to tolerate evill persons in her communion That communion with such persons pollutes and prophanes the Church and makes it no Church That therefore x Aug. de Haer. ad Quodvultd cap. 69. Donatistae pertinaci dissensione in Haeresin Schisma verterunt tanquam Ecclesia Christi propter crimina Caeciliani seu vera seu quod magis judicibus apparuit falsa de toto terrarum orbe penerit vbi futura promissa est atque in Africa Donati parte remanserit in aliis rerrarum partibus quasi contagione communionis extincta all the Churches of the World were perished because they communicated with Caecilianus Bishop of Carthage whom they accused y Vide Gesta purgationis Faelicis Opt. lib. 1. falsely too to haue beene ordained by such as were Traditors or had giuen vp the Bible to bee burn't in times of persecution Consequently z Aug. de vnit Eccl. cap. 13. perijsse dicunt de caetero mundo Ecclesiam in parte Donati in sola Africâ remansisse ibi mox totus mundus inquiunt apostatavit nos autem in Ecclesia remansimus iterum suam paucitatem commendare conantur in sanctis Ecclesiae multitudinem toto orbe diffusam blasphemare non cessant that the Church remained only with them in the part of Donatus and that themselues were the only Christians Now to omit the rest this last errour was in the matter and nature of it properly Hereticall against that Article of the Creed wherein we professe to beleeue the holy Catholique Church For by limiting the Church only to such as were of their owne communion in Africa Rome or elsewhere excluding all others they denied the Church to be Catholique And when they were pressed with this absurdity by the Catholiques for a shift they divised a new and vaine interpretation of the Word Catholique saying that the Church was called Catholique a Aug. Ep. 48. ad Vincentium Acutum aliquid videris dicere cùm Catholicae nomen non ex totius orbis communione interpretaris sed ex observatione omnium praeceptorum divinorum omnium Sacramentorum Brevic. Collat. cum Donatistis die 3. cap. 2. Donatistae responderunt non Catholicum nomen ex Vniversitate gentium sed ex plenitudine Sacramentorum institutum Et Gaudentius Donatista Coll. 3. cap. 102. Hoc est Catholicum nomen quod Sacramentis plenum est quod perfectum quod immaculatum not because it is spred over the whole World or to import the Vniversality of Nations but because their Church retained all the Sacraments and observed all Gods Commandements and was perfect and unspotted This perverse confining of the Catholique Church was the principall Heresy of the Donatists which the Catholique Writers Optatus St Austin and others did most of all detest and oppose in them And in their disputations of this point they convince their Adversaries not by any authority or definitions of the Church as our Mistaker pretends but by testimonies of Scripture as hath beene obserued before b Aug. Collat Carth 3. cap. 187. Sola divina testimonia ad Ecclesiam demonstrandam sufficient mox Sola divina loquatue authoritas sola Dei Scriptura cui vtrique subdimur in medium proferatur Et ib. cap. 155. volumus optamus negotium Ecclesiae non nisi divinis eloquijs terminare Id. de vnit Eccl. cap. 3. Non audiamus haec dico haec dicis sed audiamus Haec dicit Dominus sunt libri Dominici ibi quaeramus Ecclesiam ibi discutiamus causam nostram Auferantur illa de medio quae adversus nos invicem non ex divinis Canonicis Libris sed aliunde recitamus fic passim and every where summon them to the judgement of Scripture alone St Austin purposely debates this matter with them in his Treatise de unitate Ecclesiae and therein professes almost in each page that he will waue all other reasons or arguments and confute them only by Scriptures And that not by Scriptures c Aug. de vnit Eccl. cap. 5. Illa interim sunt seponenda quae in Scripturis obscurè sunt posita figurarum velaminibus involuta secundum nos secundum illos possunt interpretari anted iam praedico propono vt quaecunque aperta manifesta eligamus mox Prorsus quae alicuius interpretationis indigent seponamus vide c. 24. darke or doubtfull but so d Aug. ib. c. 19. Aliquid proferte quod non contra vos veriùs interpretetur quod interprete omninò non egeat Sicut non eget interprete in semine tuo benedicentur omnes Sicut non eget interprete terra tua orbis terrarum Sicut non eget cap. 20. Nullo interprete indigent Canonicarum Scripturarum testimonia quae commendant Ecclesiam in totius orbis communione Et cap. 25. Ostendant Donatistae aliqua manifesta de Canonicis libris testimonia cap. 4. notissimis apertissimis testimonijs contradicunt cap. 15. Manifestissimis testimonijs asservimus Ecclesiam toto orbe diffusam cleare that they need not to be expounded so full and expresse that they cannot be avoided or eluded Briefly such as the Donatists could not resist without wilfull e Aug. vbi supra cap. 1. De Scripturis sanctisita sunt omnia prolata probata vt ea negare non possit nisi qui illarum Scripturarum inimicum se esse profitetur ib cap. 7. Quis tam surdus tà m demens tà m mente caecus vt his tam evidentibus testimonijs obloquatur Sed ad manifestiora veniamus ib. cap. 11. Istae divinae voces de vniversa Ecclesia ita manifestae sunt vt contra eas nisi Haereticè animosa perversitate caeco furore latrare non possint malice and blindnesse Now the point which hee proues by so many cleare and full Scriptures is this that the
Hallier and Aurelius in two severall Volumes By them the Author of the Sponge is accused of q Idem Aurelius in libri sui titulo Hallier in Admon ad Lect. p 8. 9. 16. 24. lying ignorance and heresie of prophane scurrilitie of blasphemy and impiety of furious filthy and devillish rayling of unsufferable arrogance c. It were easy to note * The like may be seene in Bzovius and Cavellus their Abbetters about Scotus and Thomas See also Harwartus Chanceler of Bavaria his booke against Bzovius in defence of Lewis of Bavaria against the base lying slanders aspersions cast upon that Emp. by Bzovius more such examples of this Roman Charity if it were worth the while to looke after them The Protestants may well comfort themselves when they suffer under these sharpe tongues which so cruelly lash one another Now further that the Unity of Faith is not impeached nor any discord in Religion induced betweene learned men the ignorant vulgar people although they differ much in the measure of their knowledge and in the manner of their assent to divine verities it will be easily yeelded to the Mistaker And I do not thinke any learned Protestant will denie the great use of that distinction which hath ground in reason and nature betweene explicite and implicite faith for which he contends if it be rightly interpreted and all faith of what kind soever directed upon the proper Object which is holy Scripture and not the Church The best advised of his owne Catholique r Bannes in 2. 2. q. 2. art 8. §. Ultima sententia Tolet. Instruct Sacerd. lib. 4. c. 2. n. 9. ibi Victorellus annot ult Aquin. 2. 2. q. 2. Art 5. in Corp. Divines yeeld that there are some points necessary to be knowne of all sorts necessitate medii in which points implicite faith doth not suffice but expresse particular knowledge is to be joyned to the assent of faith in all them that will be saved This granted we will yeeld that in other s espencaeus in 2. Tim. c. 3. dig 17. p. 119. edit Paris 1564. Alia certè credibilia implicitè in animi praeparatione credant populares quatenus parati sunt credere quicquid Scriptura continet explicitè credituri quum quid eis constiterit in fidei doctrina tradi contineri in secundariis inquam credendis sive in iis quae fidei objecta per accidens vocantur In subtilibus item considerationibus In istis fides simplicium velata atque implicita valeat sufficiátque In iis autem quae fidei per se sunt objecta per quae nimirum homines justi beatÃque fiunt quales sunt superbenedictae Trinitatis incarnation isque Dominicae articuli definitâ opus est adultis explicitâ fide nec sufficeret decantata hodie per Catholicos carbonarii fides matters of great difficulty and not of such absolute necessity a generall infolded or virtuall beleife may suffice to some persons who either want capacity or meanes of better instruction so as they diligently and conscionaby endevour to encrease their knowledge not affecting ignorance and withall carry an humble preparation of mind to beleive distinctly and particularly any truth when it is cleered unto them out of the word of God In this case that of S. Augustin t Contra Epist Fundam cap. 4. is most true not the vivacity or quicknesse of understanding but the simplicity of beleiving doth make the common sort of people most safe In some sence the faith of the best learned Clerkes in the world may truly be said to be an implicite faith For though the assent of faith be more certaine if it be possible then that of sence or science or demonstration because it rests on divine Authority which cannot possibly deceive yet is it also an assent inevident and obscure both in regard of the object which are things u Heb. 11. 1. that do not appeare and in respect of the subject the eye of faith in this state of mortality being dimme and apprehending heavenly things as through w 1. Cor. 13. 12. a glasse darkly Our faith is not yet x 2. Cor. 5. 7. 1. Pet. 1. 8. sight or vision till we be in our heavenly Country And therefore though any faithfull man may apprehend the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the revelation of God in Scripture that the Mysteries of our Religion the Trinity the Hypostaticall union and the like are divine and true yet no faithfull man can fully comprehend the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the reason or manner how these Mysteries are true Here y Orig. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 1. proaem Sancti Apostoli fidem Christi praedicantes quae cunque necessaria omnibus credentibus crediderunt manifestissimè tradiderunt rationem assertionum relinquentes inquitendam De aliis dixerunt quidem quia sint quomodo autem aut undè sint siluerunt Cyrill Hieros Catech. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodoret. de provid lib. 10. sub fin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faith for beares all curious and bold inquisitions and requires not any distinct knowledge but sits downe involved in an humble and devout ignorance leaving these secrets only to God The things which we dislike in the doctrine of implicite faith as it is delivered by some Roman D Drs are specially two 1. They teach that implicite faith alone and of it selfe may suffice to salvation without any distinct knowledge or explicite faith of any Article in the Creed This is the doctrine of many a Parisiensis Altisiodorensis Summa Rosella fi fides adhibenda fit BanniÌ„ in 2. 2. qu. 2. A. 8. §. Secundâ sententiâ Richardus Mediavill Soto Vega apud Lorin in Act. 10. 2. learned Writers in the Church of Rome if others do them no wrong who hold that it is not necessary to beleive any Article of the faith expressely no not in this time of grace after the cleere publication of the Gospell but that it is enough to beleive all which the Church beleeves So as if a man be demanded whether Christ were borne of a virgine or whether God be one and three in Persons he may answere I cannot tell but I beleive all that the Church beleives and this faith may justifie and save him The modell of this faith is that confession of the Catholique Collier so much memorated and applauded by b Hofius Pighius Staphylus and his Translator Stapleton them as a very good faith and the safest way of beleiveing yea more safe then the meditation and exercise of the Scripture 2. They make this implicite faith to rest it selfe not on the Scripture the onely foundation and rule of faith but on the Church still meaning by the Church not the Church Catholique or any sound member of it but onely the Church of Rome that is the Pope assisted with some few of his Cardinalls and Prelats Wherein the Church of Rome manifestly aimes
answer but that these two Sacraments by reason of their dignity are specially so called which is all one to say that there are onely two principall Sacraments and many inferiours which is the very thing which is said by the Huguenots in other termes They say there are but two properly and we say there are but two principally Againe we say there are many inferiour Sacraments and they yeeld it if the name Sacrament be taken in a generall signification For Calvin saith that Order is a Sacrament and Melancthon sayes the same and moreover addes Penance Briefly they grant there are seven but not onely seven and in truth none of the ancient Fathers have ever found this number of seven 3. For the two principall Sacraments p Azor. par 1. l 10. 8. cap. 5. §. Praetereà dices Cur inter Articulos fidei non recenserur venerabile Eucharistiae Sacramentum Baptismi Respondeo cum S. Thomâ 2. 2. q. 1. a. 8. aâ— 6. Richardo 3. d. 25. a. 1. qu. 1 ad 4. eos articulos contineri includi in articulo fidei quo credimus unam sanctam Ecclesiam sanctorum Communionem remissionem peccaâ—orum nam per Sacramenta peccata remittuntur à Deo Azorius propounds his objection Why is not the Sacrament of the Eucharist and of Baptisme reckoned among the Articles of our faith and thus answers it out of Aquinas and others The two Sacraments are implied in the articles where we professe to beleive the holy Catholique Church the communion of Saints and the remission of sinnes The Creed of Nice expresses Baptisme by name I confesse one Baptisme for the remission of sinnes And the Eucharist being a seale of that holy Union which we have with Christ our Head by his Spirit and faith and with the Saints his members by Charity is evidently included in the Communion of Saints To the 3. we grant good works to be necessary in ordinary course to salvation and that a reward is due unto them not for any dignity in them or us but by divine dignation and by Gods free and gracious promise The faith which justifies is ever fruitfull of such good works a living a working faith But no wise man will put any confidence in the goodnesse of any works he will rather wholly cast himselfe on the mercies of God who for Christs sake accepts of our weake obedience pardons our sins Manes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and crownes us with happinesse This is properly the justifying of a sinner and this we beleive when we professe to beleeve the remission of sinnes wherein with the Scripture and all Antiquity we place our Iustification To the 4. The Creed is a rule of positive truths not a rejection of errors but onely by consequent or implication He that beleives aright in the Lord Almighty beleives all his creatures in themselves to be good and all his institutions to be holy and therefore cannot beleive either any meates to be in their nature polluted or marriage in any persons to be profane Many of the old heretiques who beleived so were men marveilously abused by the Father of lies especially the Manichees who had in them much more of the Infidell then of the Christian if they were not rather madmen according to the name of their Founder then Infidels Yet to do them no wrong it seemes by a Aug. de Mcrib Eccl. Manich lib. 2. c. 18. Hic non dubito vos esse clamaturos invidiámque facturos castitatem perfectam vos vehe menter coÌ„mendare atque laudare non tamen nuptias prohibere quaÌ„doquidem Auditores vestri quorum apud vos secundus est gradus ducere atque habere non prohibentur uxores Id. Epist 74. Auditores qui appellantur apud eos carnibus vescuntur agros colunt fi voluerint uxores habent quorum nihil faciunt qui vocantut Electi S. August they did not forbid meates or marriage as absolutely impure or to all onely their choice Elect ones must abstaine the other vulgar their Auditors were left at their liberty The Mistaker desires passionately to free his Church from this Manicheisme and if he can do it we desire not to finde her guilty But if She be not why is single life called Chastity and commended as an eminent degree of sanctimony why is marriage said to be in compatible with b Innocentius Papa dist 82. can Proposuisti Neque eos fas sit ad officia Sacra admitti qui exercent vel cum uxore carnale consortium quia scriptum est Sancti estote quoniam sanctus sum dixit Dominus holinesse or with c Id. ibid. Qui in carne sunt Deo placere non possunt Gods favour nay counted a d Pelagius Papa dist 61. can Catinensis Hominem qui necuxorem habeat nec liberos nec aliquod crimen canonibus inimicumeligi suadeas crime nay a e Bell. de Clericis cap. 19. §. Jam vero Non â—olum conjugium sacerdotum quod sacrilegium est non conjugium sed etiam Sanctorum matrimonium sine pollutione quâdam turpitudine non exercetur sacriledge worse then f Coster Enchirid. cap. de Coelib Sacerdos si forâ—itetur aut domi concubinam alat tamet si gravi sacrilegio se obstringat graviùs tamen peccat si contrahat matrimonium whoredome And for meates why is abstinence from flesh counted a perfect Christian fast yea holy and meritorious and why is he that eates flesh in Lent punished with a more grievous penance then he that commonly blasphemes the name of God or defiles his neighbours bed or abuses himselfe by drunkenesse or others by railing slandering c. To the 5. The Church of England questions not the sence of those Articles Shee takes them in the old Catholique sence and the words are so plaine they beare their meaning before them Men abounding with wit and idlenesse may seeke knotts in a bull rush and cast a mist over the most cleare truths It is by the RomaÌ„ Doctors that they are questioned who can neither agree with us nor with themselves g Contr. 5. q. 5. A. 1. Stapleton affirmes the Scripture is silent that Christ descended into hell and that there is a Catholique and an Apostolique Church h 4. de Christo c. 6. 12. Scripturae passim hoc docent Bellarmine on the contrary is resolute that the Article of the descent is every where in Scripture and i 2. 2. q. 1. A. 9. ad 1. Thomas grants as much for the whole Creed Then for the sence of that Article k Thom. p. 3. q. 52. A. 2. in Corp. Some hold Christ descended really into hell l Durand in 3. d. 22. q. 3. Others virtually onely and by effects And by Hell some understand the lowest pilt or the place of the damned as m 4. de Christo cap. 16. Bellarmine at first others the Limbus Patrum as n