are fundamentall others not that is some points are to be believed explicitely and distinctly others not and more points are to bee believed explicitely by some than by others as I have shewed before speaking of points necessary to salvation But in regard of the formall object and motive for which we believe namely the truth of God revealing it by his Church there is no distinction of points of faith we being equally bound to believe all that is sufficiently proposed unto us as revealed by God whether the matter be great or small and whether the points be fundamentall in their matter or no yet they are proposed unto us by the same authority therefore we are bound equally with the same firmenesse of faith to believe every one as any one For example the Creed of the Apostles containes divers fundamentall points as the Diety Trinity of Persons Incarnation Passion and Resurrection of our Saviour it containes also some points for their matter and nature in themselves not fundamentall as under what judge he suffered that he was buried and the circumstance of time when he rose againe to wit the third day Now whosoever knowes these to be contained in the Apostles Creed is bound to believe them as firmely as the other and the denyall of any one of them is a fundamentall and damnable errour a giving of God the lie For the nature of faith doth not arise from the greatnesse or smalnesse of the thing believed for then there should be as many different faiths as there are points to be believed but from the motive for which a man believes which is Gods revelation testified by the Church which being alike for all objects it is manifest that they that in things equally revealed by God do grant one thing and deny another do forsake the very formall motive of faith Gods revelation and so have no true divine faith at all § 7. Moreover if the Churches infallibility be tied to a certain matter in Religion then it is meet we should know that first that so we may accordingly apply our belief if it be fundamentall then without doubt to imbrace it if not to exercise our liberty and believe it so far as we see cause but then we must know the matter wherein she is infallible distinctly and particularly as also infallibly or else we may mistake and believe when we need not and disbelieve when we ought not Now from whence shall we have this knowledge God hath no where revealed it and it ought to have been revealed together with the Commission given to the Church to teach or else shee might have deceived us before the caution came but the Church it selfe hath told us no such matter we have no such Tradition therefore we must have this most fundamentall point of all the rest which is to know what is fundamentall and what not either by inspiration or by the strength of reason both which are ridiculous or by some authority coequall to the Churches and yet not hers which is most absurd And in this businesse the Protestants seemed unto me to deal as obscurely and deceiptfully as did once Richard the second King of England who in a return to peace betwixt him and his subjects granted pardon to all except fifteen but would not declare what their names were but if at any time he had a mind out of some new displeasure to cut off any man he would say he was one of the fifteen whom he excepted from the benefit of his pardon In like manner the Protestants say we will believe the Church in all points but those that are not fundamentall not expressing what they are and when they have a wanton disposition to deny their belief to something that the Church hath declared they shelter their denyall under the protection of this unlimited distinction and say it is a point not fundamentall And if on the other side they find it for their advantage to close with other Churches they say they are all one Church with them because forsooth they agree in they know not what that is in their inexplicable fundamentalls § 8. But Chillingworth hath undertaken to give us though not a catalogue yet a description as he supposes by which we may discern between fundamentalls not fundamentalls or circumstantialls as he calls them pag. 137. sect 20. The former being such as are revealed by God and commanded to be preached to all and beleived by all The later such as though God hath revealed them yet the Pastors of the Church are not bound under paine of damnation particularly to teach them unto all and the people may securely be ignorant of them And this is even the same obscurity in more words for what is to be preached to all and believed by all and what the Pastors may forbear to preach and the people may be ignorant of especially seeing the same degree of ignorance is not secure to all people alike but receives infinite variety according to their meanes of knowledge is as undeterminable as what is fundamentall and what not But suppose the Pastors doe preach more than they are bound to preach and reveal that truth which if it had not been revealed the people might safely have been ignorant of may they be ignorant or unbelieving now it is revealed to them If they be then they deny that very authority upon which they believed the most fundamentall points which is the ground of all belief and by consequence deny the whole faith From whence wee may see that the Pastors teaching is not to be stinted by the things the people ought necessarily to believe but the peoples necessity of believing ought to be enlarged according to the measure of the Pastors preaching The Church is not confined to the teaching of fundamentalls only for the matter but whatsoever shee teacheth is fundamentall for the forme and motive of beliefe The circumstantialls are as he confesseth revealed by God to the Church and if the Church reveal them to the people the people must either believe them or deny to believe God And though common people and others also may safely be ignorant before they have been instructed yet they may not be so after nor hath God confined the Pastors instructing of the people to any certain matter to fundamentalls only for Christ bids his Apostles teach all nations to observe all things whatsoever he commanded them Matth. 28.20 And though common people may safely be ignorant of many things yet they must not be unbelieving of any thing but by an implicite faith at the least believe all that the Church believes by adhering and resigning themselves to her being prepared to believe explicitly what and when shee shall declare it to them Which faith is originally and fundamentally built upon the Word of God not as written but as delivered by the Tradition of the Church successively from the Apostles upon the authority whereof we believe that both Scriptures and all other Articles of
examine the matter and being infallibly assisted by the Spirit of truth which our Saviour promised should be with his Apostles to the end of the world that is with the Church their Successor which was to continue to the worlds end shee declares what is true and what is false as agreeing with or disagreeing from that doctrine which shee hath received from her Fore-fathers the Prophets and Apostles upon whom shee is built as S. Paul saith built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Ephes 2.20 For as in a building there is not the least stone which rests not upon the foundation so in the doctrine of the Catholique Church there is not the least point which is not grounded on or contained in that which was delivered by the Apostles For example in the principles of every Science are contained divers truths which may be drawn out of them by many severall conclusions one following another These conclusions were truths in themselves before though they did not so appear to us till wee saw the connexion they had with the premises and how they were contained in them And by the many severall conclusions so drawn the truth of those principles doth more shew it selfe but doth not receive any change in it selfe thereby even so in the prime principles of our faith revealed immediately by God and delivered to the Church are contained al truths that any way belong to our faith but it was not necessary that the Church should manifest all these at their first meeting in Councell but only so much in every severall Councell as should concerne the present occasion of their meeting which is some particular heresie or heresies then sprung up and so more according to the successive growth of heresies which when shee hath done shee cannot be charged with creating of a new faith or altering of the old but shee doth only out of old grounds and premises draw such conclusions as may serve to destroy new heresies and shew them to be contrary to the ancient faith In this manner the Church hath grown and increased in knowledge by degrees and shall still do so to the end of the world And as the sun spreads the raies of his light more and more betwixt morning and noon and his beames display themselves in a valley or some roome of a house where they did not before without any change of light in the sun himselfe So may the Church spread the light of her faith shewing such or such a point to be a divine truth which before was not known to be so or which though it were a divine truth in it selfe yet it was not so to us for want of sufficient proposall that is of the Churches wherein the Church resembles our Blessed Saviour her Lord and Spouse who though he never received the least increase of grace and knowledge from the first moment of his being conceived yet the Scripture saith He grew in wisdome and age and in favour with God and men Luc. 2.52 to wit because he shewed it more and more in his words and actions This also further appeares by the method which Catholique Fathers and Doctors observe in and out of Councells in proving and defining points of faith namely by having recourse to the authority of Gods Word conteined both in Scripture and Tradition and to the belief and practise of the Church in searching whereof the Holy Church joynes humane industry with Gods grace and assistance For when any question or doubt of faith ariseth particular Doctors severally dispute and write thereof then if further cause require the Holy Church assembles her Pastors and Doctors together in a generall Councell to examine and discusse the matter more fully as in that first Councell of the Apostles whereof the Scripture saith The Apostles and Elders assembled together to consider of this word Acts 15.6 The Pastors being thus come together and having the presence of our Saviour and his Holy Spirit according to his promise amongst them out of Scripture and Traditions joyning therewith the consent of holy Fathers and Doctors of foregoing times she doth infallibly resolve and determine the matter not as new but as ancient orthodox and derived from her forefathers making that which was ever in it selfe a divine truth so to appeare to us that now wee may no more make question thereof So that from hence it appeares that the Church makes no new Articles of faith such as then may be said to have their beginning but only explications and collections out of the old which were delivered to the Apostles and by them to us And though the Church doe thus grow in the knowledge of points of faith yet this is no newnesse of faith but a maintenance of the old with a kind of increase by way of explicating that which was involved cleering that which was obscure defining that which was undefined obliging men to believe more firmly and explicitly that which before they were not bound so to believe That is only to be called a new faith which is contrary to that which was held before or hath no connexion with it and when we cease to believe that which we believed before this indeed is change of faith the other is but encrease And if this encrease of faith by the declaration of Councells may be called a change and innovation of faith there is no Heretique but may challenge antiquity to himselfe and put novelty on the score of the Church For he may say such a thing for example that the Sonne is of the same substance with the Father was not held de fide a matter of faith before the Councell of Nice therefore it is new That Baptisme administred by Heretiques is good baptisme was not held as a matter of faith before the daies of S. Cyprian therefore it is new And the Heretique may say that he believes only that which was believed before such or such a Councell which he please for the case is alike in all and therefore he believes the antient Faith By which way of arguing he may renounce the decrees of all Councells as Novelties and maintaine many Heresies as the antient Faith Yea by this absurdity a man may deny divers Books of the Scripture as the Epistle to the Hebrewes the second Epistle of S. Peter the Epistle of S. Iames of S. Iude and the Apocalyps with some others because they were not admitted for Canonicall untill 300. or 400. yeares after they were written Yet when they were declared to be Canonicall there was no change of faith in the Church thereby for the believing of these Books was involved in this revealed Article I believe in God and the believing of them to be Canonicall was involved in this revealed Article I believe the holy Catholike Church onely hereby was an increase of the materiall object of our faith to us not in it selfe we being bound upon the declaration of the Church to believe that thing firmely and without dispute
though the Apostles their hearers be departed out of this life yet there still remaines a meanes in the world by which all men may assuredly know what the Apostles preached and the primitive Church received of them seeing the Church to the worlds end must be built on the Apostles and beleive nothing as matter of Faith besides that which was delivered of them as S. Paul saith Ephes 2.20 and are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ being the chiefe corner stone CHAP. II. Of the meanes to know which is the Word of God And that all the Protestants Arguments to prove that the Scripture and it onely is the Word of God are insufficient And that the generall Tradition of the Catholike Church is the only assured proof thereof § 1. THese things being supposed the chief difficulty to my seeming consisted in this how we might certainly know now adaies so many ages after the Apostles death what all necessary points that they taught and preached the Protestants said that this was to be found in the Scriptures which were written by them but this did not satisfie my doubt for supposing the Scriptures to be the word of God delivered by the Apostles and others inspired by him yet I wanted some sufficient witnesse or proofe to assure me so much for of my selfe I could not find it The bare word of the Protestants I saw I had no reason to take because they confesse that they may erre and I in this matter not being able to discover whether they did erre or no relying upon a fallible guide must alwaies remaine in uncertainty and fear I observed moreover that although in most of their assertions they might upon examination prove false yet in saying that the Church might erre and taking themselves for the Church they had said most true finding that they indeed had erred in this most important Particular of declareing what is the word of God and what not the Lutherans affirming much lesse for the word of God then the Calvinists and the Church of England doth § 2. Now of necessity one of these sorts of Protestants must erre and that most dangerously the one by beleiving that to be the word of God which is not but the invention of men and perhaps false and foolish Praefat. in Epist Iac. in Edi◠levens as Luther said of S. Iames his Epistle or the other by renouncing that which is indeed the Word of God and so not believing what God himself hath spoken Their Authority being by themselves in their evident disagreement thus broken I descended to consider the reasons by them alledged to induce men to believe that the Scriptures are the Word of God which in general I apprehended to be insufficient because they did not lead the Protestants themselves to an agreement in the quantity thereof But I further weighed them particularly the principall whereof are these § 3. First they say the Scriptures are knowne to be divine by their owne light shining in them Cal. lib. 1. Inst cap. 7. Sect. 2. infine Even as sweet and bitter are knowne by the tast white and blacke by the sight which assertion to me seemed very absurd I confesse indeed much of the Scripture is but the amplification of the Morall Law which is a knowledge engrafted in man by nature by the light whereof we may see that it is true but this proves it not to be the Word of God For though all truth be from God as he is the prime verity and so may be called in some sense his Word yet by the Word of God in this case is meant truth revealed by God immediately unto the pen-men thereof and though we find much thereof to be true as agreeing with the engrafted principles of reason yet this proveth not that it was revealed immediately and extraordinarily which is the circumstance that makes it the Word of God in the sense of those that dispute about it As for the historical parts both of the Old and New Testament the institution of Sacraments with the like they have no affinity with the in-born principles of reason and are therefore not knowne to be so much as true by any light they carry with them much lesse to be extraordinarily revealed by God and so to be his Word Besides if it could be discerned what were the Word of God and what not by the resplendent light thereof as easily as the light is knowne from darknesse as some of them say how could there be so much dissention about the parts thereof as it is knowne there is the Calvinists seeing more to be the Word of God then the Lutherans do and lesse then the Catholikes and yet if it shew it selfe by its owne light the Turks may see it as well as any of them And heere I observed that many had blinded themselves with looking on the light and could not see so far as to discern between corporall and spirituall light but because the Prophet David saith Thy word is a lanterne unto my feet and a light unto my paths Psal 118.105 they conceived the Scripture was as easily discerned by its own light as the Sun True it is that every corporall light that doth enlighten the eye of the body must be evident in it selfe and originally cleer but not so every truth that doth illustrate mens understanding The reason is because the eye of the body cannot by things seen inferre and conclude things that are hidden but can only apprehend what doth directly and immediately shew it selfe but mans understanding apprehends not only what shewes it selfe but by things knowne inferres and breeds in it selfe the knowledge of things hidden Hence though things shewing themselves directly and by their own light be prime principles of the understanding and the meanes to know other things yet also things hidden in themselves being formerly known by the light of authority may thereby become lights that is meanes to encrease our knowledge of hidden things So that speaking of spirituall and intellectuall lights it is false that all lights that enlighten mans understanding to know other things are evident in themselves yea some secondary principles and lights there are which must be shewed by a superiour light before they become lights themselves In which kind is the Scripture being a light only to the faithfull because known by the Churches Tradition to be from the Apostles by the Apostles authority confirmed by miracles to be of God by Gods supreme verity who cannot deceive nor be deceived to be the truth Moreover this conceipt of theirs doth utterly extinguish faith and beleife of the word of God for every thing is so far forth the object of faith that it is not seen as S. Paul saith Faith is the argument of things not seen Hebr. 11.1 In Evang. Ioan. Tract 40. and S. Augustine What is faith but to believe that which thou dost not see If therefore they do see it they cannot properly
be said to believe it but to know it and if so what excellency what vertue what merit what pious affection towards God to believe that which they see plainely before their eyes A bold presumption also it is in them to claime a cleerer degree of knowledge then the Apostles had for they did but see through a glasse darkely 1 Corinth 13.12 but these men are convicted of the divine truth of the things they believe Fran White Orthodoxe p. 107. by the lustre and resplendent verity of the matter of Scripture which is a priviledge which whosoever hath equalls the blessed Saints in heaven whose happinesse it is to see what we believe especially seeing one point of the Doctrine Protestants pretend to see is the mysterie of the Blessed Trinity the true light resplendent veritie wherof no man can see manifestly out of the state of Blisse § 4. Secondly they pretend to know the Scriptures to be the Word of God by the * Whites Reply p. 16.30.68 Feild Appendix pag. 34. Cal. Inst l. 1. c. 7. majestie of the matter and purity of the Doctrine but I conceived that though some mysteries of the Scripture carry a majesty in them in respect of naturall reason and an elevation above it as of the B. Trinity yet other matters of Scripture seem unto reason ridiculous as the Serpents talking with Eve and Balaams Asse reproving of his master with many others Nor could the purity of the doctrine convince me seeing we know that many learned and godly men have written very holily whose writings are not therefore accounted the word of God Besides there are many historicall parts of the Scripture which do not at all touch upon purity therefore cannot be discerned by it Againe they affirme that the Scripture may be knowne by the stile but I considered that God hath no proper stile or phrase of his owne but can at his pleasure al stiles that he did vse the pens of those whom it pleased him to inspire couching his heavenly conceipts under their usuall language and ability of expression whence issueth so great difference of stiles as is on all sides acknowledged amongst sacred Writers and that God did only guide them in the truth they wrote not in the stile for then all their stiles in likelihood should have been alike Indeed God hath an eternal increated manner of speaking which is the production of the eternall word by which the blessed do discern him from all other speakers by the evidence of blissefull learning but no created manner of speaking no not his speaking inwardly to the soule is so proper to God as that it can be knowne to be his speaking by the meer sound of the voice or by the stile without especiall revelation or some consequent miraculous effect § 5. Thirdly the * VVhites Reply p. 19. Harmony of the Scriptures is alledged by some as an argument to prove them to be the Word of God But though this Harmony appeare in divers things yet it is most certaine that there are very many seeming contradictions many of which are but probably answered by Commentaetors by assuming some things without proofe because otherwise they must admit contradictions some places are not fully answered but the Fathers were forced to fly from literall to allegoricall senses as appeares particularly in the foure first Chapters of Genesis the Genealogy of our Saviour and in the reconciling of the Chronologies of the Kings And seeing no man is infallibly sure that all the answers used to reconcile the seeming contradictions of Scriptures are true no man can be assured by the evidence of the thing that there is this perfect harmony in them nor consequently that they are thereby knowne to be the Word of God Moreover if we were infallibly assured that there were this perfect harmony in the Scriptures yet this to me seemed not a sufficient proofe that they are the Word of God because there is no reason forbids me to believe that it may not be also found in the writings of some men yea I make no question but it is to be found and that with lesse seeming contradiction then is in the Scripture yet no man accounts that this proves their writings to be the Word of God Neither as I saw could these pretences before mentioned be laid hold on by the unlearned multitude an innumerable company whereof cannot read at all and when they heare them read if they were asked would say that they see not this light this majestie stile and harmony which their learned men talk of nor do they know what it meanes nor that a tittle of it is the word of God but only because they are told so Indeed S. Peter saith in the behalf of the old Testament 2 Pet. 1.21 That holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost But we are as uncertaine by any thing in the words themselves that S. Peter said this as of all the rest that is altogether § 6. So that I could not find that there was any more then probable arguments to be drawn from the Scriptures themselves to prove them to be the word of God For that which is the word of God and the rule of faith must be certaine not only in some parts but in every part and particle book chapter and line thereof which is impossible to be knowne by the light and evidence of the sense and doctrine seeing many places even by * Field of the Church lib. 4. cap. 15. VVhites Reply p. 35 Protestants confessions are darke obscure and full of difficulties and how can that be knowne to be the Word of God by the light thereof when the light thereof is not knowne As uselesse also to their purpose is the majestie purity stile harmomony or any the like for we believe it to be harmonious because it is the Word of God not to be the Word of God because it is harmonious which wee doe not infallibly see So that upon these considerations I saw no evident certainty out of the Scriptures that they were the Word of God but that they are believed to be such without being seen upon some other Word of God more cleerly appearing to be the Word of God and lesse liable to corruption then the Scriptures are assuring us so much and that is the Tradition of the Church according to the saying of S. Augustine * Aug. contra Epist fundament c. 5. I would not believe the Gospell unlesse the Authority of the Catholike Church did move me To which Hooker one of the learnedest men that ever the Protestant party could boast of agreeth saying * Eccl. Pol. lib. 1. sec 14 p. 36. Of things necessary the very chiefest is to know what books we are bound to esteem holy which point is confessed impossible for the Scripture it self to teach * Ibid. l. 2 sec 4.102 for if any one book of Scripture did give testimony to all yet
propagated it But the Church having in it the property of heat which as Philosophers say is to gather together things that are of the same nature and separate things that are of different natures includes all that are of the same faith and admitteth no other § 3. I therefore conceived according to the judgement of the most learned the Church to be a society of those that God hath called to salvation by the profession of the true faith the sincere adminstration of the Sacraments and the adherence to lawfull Pastors Which description of the Church is so fitted and proportioned to her that it resembles the nest of the Halcion which as Plutarch saith is of such a just and exact size for the measure of her body that it can serve for no other bird either greater or lesse Then for the meaning of the word Catholique the Protestants say that that Church is Catholique which holdeth the true faith which though it be not spread universally over the world yet it ought to be so say they and therefore it is Catholique By which they leave men in a labyrinth of finding out the true faith in all the particulars thereof which as they say must guide a man to the Church that is truely Catholique which being the object of the understanding is much more difficult to find out than that which is the object of the sense as is its being Catholique And therefore it seemed to me as proposterous as to set the cart before the horse to prove a Church Catholique because it is true whereas it should be proved true because it is Catholique Beside the name Catholique is not a name of belief only but of communion also else antiquity would not have refused that title to those which were not separated from the belief but only from the communion of the Church S. Aug. Ep. 50. nor would they have affirmed that out of the Catholique Church the faith and Sacraments may he had but not salvation So that Catholique imports thus much both the vast extension of doctrine to persons and places different and the union of all those places and persons in Communion Therefore allbeit the Protestants should hold the same belief that the ancient Church did yet if they did not communicate with the same ancient Church which by succession of Pastors and People is derived down to this present time I could not see how they could with justice assume to themselves the title of Catholiques CHAP. VI. Of the Infallibility of the Church § 1. NOw that the Catholique Church which society of Christians soever it be of which we shall deliberate hereafter is the only faithfull and true witnesse of the matter of Gods Word to tell us what it is and what is not it the only true interpreter of the meaning of Gods word and the last and finall judge of all controversies that may arise in matters of Religion and that shee is not onely true but that shee cannot be otherwise seeing shee is infallible I was perswaded to believe by many reasons In the alleadging of which I will avoid the accusation of Protestants of the circular disputation of Catholiques saying they believe the Scripture because the Church saies it is so and the Church because the Scripture bids them do so First then without dependence on the Scripture I conceived the Catholique Church to be infallible in her Traditions in that which she declareth to us concerning the doctrine of Christ and the Apostles and that even in the very nature of her testimony and tradition For Tradition being a full report of what was evident to sense namely what doctrines the Apostles taught what Scripture they wrote it is impossible it should be false Worlds of men cannot be universally deceived in matters evident to sense as are the things men heare and see and not being so it is impossible they should either negligently suffer it or maliciously agree to deceive others being so many in number so distant in place so different in affections conditions and interests Wherefore it is impossible that what is delivered by full Catholique Tradition from the Apostles should be by the deliverers first devised as Tertullian saith Tert. de praesc cap. 28. That which is found one and the same amongst many is not an error but a Tradition Yet supposing universall Tradition as it is meerly humane be in its nature fallible yet the Tradition of the Catholique Church is by God himselfe preserved from error which is thus demonstrated God being infinitely good and ardently desiring the salvation of mankind cannot permit the meanes which should convey the Apostles doctrine to posterity by the belief whereof men must be saved to be poisoned with damnable error to the destruction of their salvation now the onely meanes to convey this doctrine is the Tradition of the Catholique Church Tert. de Praes cap. 21. as Tertullian saith what the Apostles taught I will prescribe ought no other wayes to be proved than by those Churches which the Apostles founded All other means as I have shewed you before are insufficient and if this Tradition of the Church should be insufficient also by reason of its liablenesse unto error then were there no certainty at all of the truth of Christian Religion no not so much as that there was such a man as Jesus Christ but all men would be left to grope in the wandring uncertainty of their owne imaginations which for God to suffer cannot fall under any prudent mans belief § 2. Secondly that which bindeth men to believe a thing to be Gods Word God cannot suffer to delude men into error whereby for their devotion unto his truth they may fall into damnation now Catholique Tradition from the Apostles is that which bindes men to believe the same to be the Word of God and that because it is thereby sufficiently proposed the World affording no higher nor surer proposall so that either this must be infallible or else God hath left us to the guidance of our own weak understandings the weaknesse of which conceit I shewed even now and all Christians to that confusion which all different opinions yet reputed the Word of God by them that hold them may produce § 3. Thirdly God being the Prime Verity he cannot so much as connive at falshood whereby he becomes accessory of deceiving them who simply readily and religiously believe what they have just reason to think to be his Word but there is most just and sufficient reason to believe that the doctrine delivered by full and perpetuall Tradition from hand to hand even from the Apostles is undoubtedly their doctrine and the Word of God therefore he cannot suffer Catholique Tradition to be falsified Nor can as I conceive any prudent man imagine that God having sent his Son into the world to teach men the way to heaven every moment of whose life was made notable by doing or suffering somthing to that end should suffer the efficacy and
being once evident to the world are by the worlds full report declared unto us which is a morall infallibility So that if we have not a Metaphysicall or Mathematicall infallibility of the truth of Miracles yet we have a Physicall and morall infallibilitie as much as we have of any thing we either hear or see Nor doth this Physicall evidence take away the merit of faith because this evidence not being altogether and in the highest degree infallible in it self for our senses may somtimes be deceived it is not sufficient to conquer the naturall obscurity darknesse and seeming falshood of things to be believed upon the testimony of those miracles For the mystery of the Trinity of the Incarnation Reall presence and the like seem as far above the reach of reason as any Miracle can seem evident to sense hence when faith is proposed by Miracles there ariseth a conflict betwixt the seeming evidence of the Miracles and the seeming falshood and darknesse of Catholique Doctrine against which obscurity a man cannot get the victory by the sole evidence of miracles except he be inwardly assisted by the light of Gods Spirit moving him by pious affection to cleave to the Doctrine which is by so cleer testimony proved to be his Word Even as a man shut up in a chamber with two lights whereof the one makes the wall seem white the other blew cannot be firmly assured what colour it is untill day-light enter and obscuring both those lights discover the truth so a man looking upon Christian Doctrines by the light of miracles done to prove them will be moved to judge them to be truth but looking upon them through the evidence of their seeming impossibilities unto reason they will seem false nor will he be able firmly to resolve for the side of faith untill the light of divine grace enter into his heart making him prefer through pious reverence to God the so-proposed authority of his Word before the seeming impossibility to mans reason CHAP. VII That Catholique Tradition is the onely firm foundation and motive to induce us to beleeve that the Apostles received their doctrine from Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ from God the Father And what are the meanes by which this doctrine is derived downe to us § 1. AS Catholique Tradition is infallible in it self so is it most necessary for us there being no other certaine testimony to any prudent man no firme ground or motive to believe that the Primitive Church received her doctrine from the Apostles the Apostles from Christ Christ from God nor no way to bring it downe from those times to these but only the Tradition of the Church For we may observe three properties of the doctrine of faith to be true to be revealed of God to be preached and delivered by the Apostles The highest ground by which a man is persuaded that his faith is true is the authority of God speaking and revealing it the highest proof by which a man is assured that his faith is revealed is the authority of Christ and his Apostles who delivered the same as descending from God but the highest ground that moveth a man to believe that his faith was preached by the Apostles is the perpetuall Tradition of the Church succeeding the Apostles unto this day assuring him so much according to the saying of * De praescr c. 21. 37. Tertullian who maketh this ladder of belief in this sort what I believe I received from the present Church the present from the Primitive the Primitive Church from the Apostles the Apostles from Christ Christ from God and God the prime verity from no other fountaine different from his own infallible knowledge So that he that cleaveth not to the present Church firmely believing the Tradition thereof as being come down by succession is not so much as on the lowest step of the ladder that leads unto God the revealer of saving truth successive Tradition unwritten being the last and finall ground whereon we believe that the points of our belief came from the Apostles which may be proved by these arguments § 2. First if the maine points of faith be to be believed to come from the Apostles because they are written in Scriptures and the Scriptures are believed to be the Word of God upon the report of universall Tradition then our belief that the things which we believe come from the Apostles and from God resteth upon the Tradition of the Church but it is most certaine that the Scriptures cannot be proved to have been delivered unto the Church by the Apostles but by the perpetuall Tradition unwritten conserved in the Church succeeding the Apostles all the other waies by which the Protestants endeavour to prove the Scripture to be the word of God being vaine and insufficient as I have proved before Secondly common and unlearned people which comprehend the greatest part of Christians may have true faith yet they cannot have it grounded on the Scripture for they can neither understand nor read it or if read it yet but in a vulgar language of the truth of whose translation they are not assured therefore must rely upon the testimony of the present Church that that which they believe is the Word of God Thirdly if all the maine and substantiall points of Christian faith must be believed before we can securely read and truly understand the holy Scripture than they are believed not upon Scripture but upon Tradition going before Scripture and that it is so is manifest because true faith is not built but upon Scripture truly understood according to the right sense thereof nor can we understand the Scripture aright unlesse we first know the main Articles of Faith which all are bound expresly to believe by which as by a rule we must regulate our selves in the interpretation of the Scripture otherwise without being setled in the rule of faith by Tradition men are apt to fall into grievous errors even against the main articles of the faith as of the Blessed Trinity and Incarnation of the Son of God as experience doth sufficiently testifie so that reading and interpreting Scripture doth not make men Christians but supposeth them to be made so by Tradition at least for the main points such as every one is bound expresly to know Fourthly they to whom the Apostles wrote and delivered the Scripture were already converted to Christianity and instructed in all necessary points of faith and in the common practises of Christianity and so by what they knew by Tradition could easily interpret what was written but otherwise might easily have failed in the mainest points as some forsaking Tradition did for example the Arrians who were confuted by the Catholiques not by bare Scripture for of that the Arrians had plenty but as it was interpreted by Tradition Therefore none can be supposed to understand the Scripture aright so to know the true word and will of God but by being such as they were to whom the Apostles
to be reputed a matter of faith which is not formally and expresly to be proved by the Word of God either written or unwritten and delivered by full Ecclesiasticall Tradition and seeing the Protestants doe not nor can pretend to this Tradition nor yet can prove their tenets by Scripture in expresse and evident termes but such as themselves confesse to receive probable solutions it must hence necessarily follow that their doctrines are false without foundation and to be rejected by every Christian § 6. Lastly whereas Protestants object that the Pharisees are reproved by Christ for the observation of Traditions it is altogether impertinent for the Scripture doth not say that their Traditions were derived by succession from Moses the first deliverer of their law nor did the Pharisees pretend to it but they were Traditions of their owne whereof some were frivolous and superstitious some impious some pious The frivolous and superstitious were their washing of hands pots dishes the like supposing that otherwise they might have some spirituall impurity in them which our Saviour confutes saying There is nothing without a man entring into him which can defile him Mark 7.15 The impious were such as whereby they violated the commandements of God under the pretence of observing their Traditions as when they allowed a man under pretence of giving something to the Church to neglect his duty to his parents Mar. 7.11 Neither of these kinds is the Catholike Church guilty of Of their pious we have an example in their paying Tithes of mint a very small herb which was a Tradition of their owne not commanded in their law yet this our Saviour approves and binds them to it saying this you ought to have done Luc. 11.42 And it is worth the observation that the thing most of all objected against our Saviour was the written word and Tradition of God by Moses about keeping the Sabbath day as appeares in all the Evangelists from which precept not by Tradition unwritten but by logicall inferences of their owne they concluded that our Saviour brake the Sabbath by healing or doing some small labour thereon So that the Pharisaicall Traditions were not pretended to be doctrines unwritten derived from the first deliverer of their religion but doctrines concluded from the Scripture by the rules of Logick and reason as they conceived according to the present manner of the Protestants CHAP. VIII That the Church is infallible in whatsoever she proposeth as the Word of God written or unwritten whether of great or small consequence That to doubt of any one point is to destroy the foundation of faith And that Protestants distinction between points fundamentall and non-fundamentall is ridiculous and deceiptfull § 1. HAving thus found out that the Church was shee from whom I was to receive assurance what is the word of God and that otherwise it was impossible for me to know it and that shee could not mistake nor erre in her directions I conceived then that I was bound to believe all that shee propounded to me as the word of God whether it were written or not written writing being no testimony of the truth of any thing seeing it may be false as well as speaking and that to doubt of any thing was to call all into question and to dissolve the whole nature of divine faith For to believe hath a threefold signification in speech first it is taken for knowledge as where our Saviour saith Thomas because thou hast seen me thou believest John 20.29 to wit that I am risen now he that sees one knowes so much Secondly for opinion which is an assent begot by probable reason so men delivering their opinions use to say I believe thus or thus Thirdly and most properly for an assent unto such things as doe not appear but are assented unto by a firm reliance on the truth of him that reports them as S. Paul saith Faith is the argument of things not seen Heb 11.1 And this reliance on an Author such as cannot deceive or be deceived at least in those things which he propounds unto us to be believed must beget in us an equall belief of things that have humane possibility or probability on their side and of things that are clean against it the matter propounded makes no matter nor yet the manner of propounding it is the Author and our apprehension of him that controles all opposition By this do we believe the inexplicable mystery of the Trinity the Incarnation of God the Mother-hood and yet Virginity of the B. Virgin Mother with many others with as much ease as we believe that Noah had three sons or that S. Peter had neither silver nor gold and by this do we believe the latter with as much strength and firmnesse as the former For he that believes a thing because such an one sayes it who he believes cannot lie must believe all that he sayes and that with the same firmnesse because the reason of his belief still remaines namely the inerrability of the speaker But if he apply his belief according to the probability of the thing spoken and no further then he doth not believe because of the truth of the speaker but of the thing spoken which he must gather from probabilities of reason wherein he doth not believe the thing for the truth sake of the speakers testimony but for the likelihood thereof which he finds by the measure of his own understanding which is not to believe the other but himselfe and the other no more than he would do the arrantest lyer in the world yea the Devill himself that is so far as he by his reason conceives that he speakes the truth Which reason of his if it be infallible he doth not believe the thing properly but he knowes it if it be but probable he believes it not properly but hath an opinion of it and no more assurance than of other humane reports whose authors have no security from error which as they may be true so they may also be false And thus to believe is not to believe by divine and infallible faith but by humane and fallible and so it cancells divine supernaturall faith the first in order of the three theologicall vertues without which no man can be saved § 3. So that all the place that reason hath in the government of our faith is this to lead us to believe that testimony which cannot deceive us and for the particular objects of beliefe to take them upon trust of that testimony without checking at them whatsoever they be and though they be bones to Philosophy yet make them milke to faith and not as Heretiques doe make us demand a reason of every particular point of faith which if it square not to their apprehensions they cashiere This is not faith but fancy For to rely upon a humane basis such as reason is will not support such a mighty statue as divine faith And to use Chillingworths own similitude Water will not rise
faith were delivered to them by the Apostles to the Apostles by Christ to Christ by God the fountain of all truth CHAP. IX That there is and ever shall be a visible Church upon earth And that this Church is one holy Catholique and Apostolique § 1. NOw considering all that hath been said before the summe whereof is this That we have no meanes to know certainly the doctrines of the Apostles but only the Tradition of the Church and that that Tradition is and ought to be infallible hence I conceived that this consequence was necessary that there should be and is alwaies a visible Church in the world to whose Traditions men might cleave and that this Church is one universall Apostolicall Holy First there is alwaies a true Church of Christ in the world for if there be no meanes for men to know that Scriptures and all other Articles came from Christ and his Apostles and so consequently from God but the Tradition of the Church then there must needs be in all ages a Church receiving and delivering these Traditions else men in some age since Christ should have been destitute of the ordinary meanes of salvation because they had no meanes to know assuredly the doctrines of Christianity without assured faith whereof no man can be saved And although a false Church may deliver the true Word of God as it is contained in the Scripture and the Creed yea even a Jew or Heathen may do so for this is but casuall yet none but a true Church can deliver the Word of God with assurance to the receiver that the text is incorrupt thereby binding him to the belief thereof Now it is necessary that men have the true Scripture not only casually but they must be sure the Text thereof be uncorrupt therefore there must be a true unerring Church whose authority is so aut hentique that it is a sufficient warrant for men to believe the doctrine shee delivers to come from the Apostles Secondly this Church must be alwaies visible and conspicuous For the Traditions of the Church must ever be famous and most notoriously known in the world that a Christian may truly say with S. Augustine De utilit Cred. c. 14. I believe nothing but the consent of Nations and Countries and most celebrious fame Now if the Church were at any time invisible or very secret and hidden then could not her Traditions be famously known nor could men that were willing to submit themselves to her directions know where to find her out of whose communion they cannot attain salvation Thirdly this Church is Apostolicall that is derived from the Apostolicall Sea by the succession of Bishops and Pastors for else how can we be assured that we have the Apostles doctrine It must be one generation that must certifie another and if there should be any interruption in that time all might be lost and changed And how could the Tradition of Christian Doctrine be notoriously Apostolicall if the Church delivering the same hath not a manifest and conspicuous pedigree and derivation from the Apostles Which is a convincing argument used by S. Augustine Epist 48. circa med How doe we trust out of the divine writings that we have manifestly received Christ if we have not also from thence manifestly received his Church The Church that hath a lineall succession of Bishops from the Apostles famous and illustrious whereof not one hath been opposite in Religion to his immediate predecessor proves evidently that this Church hath the Doctrine of the Apostles For as in the rank of three hundred stones ranged in order if no two stones be found in that line of different colour then if the first be white the second is white and so the rest unto the last even so if there be a succession of three hundred Bishops all of the same Religion if the first have the Religion of the Apostles and S. Peter the second hath and so the rest even unto the last Fourthly this Church is one that is all the Pastors and Preachers deliver and consequently all her Disciples and children believe one and the same Faith For if the Preachers and Pastors of the Church disagree about matters which they preach as necessary points of Faith they lose all their credit and authority for who will believe witnesses on their own words if they disagree in their testimony Fifthly I infer that this Church is universall spread over all Nations that she may be said to be every where morally speaking that is according to common humane account by which a thing diffused over a great part of the world and famously knowne is said to be every where In this manner the Apostle said that the faith of the Romans was renowned in the whole world Rom. 1.12 that so the whole world may take notice of her as of a worthy and credible witnesse of Christian Tradition howsoever her outward glory and splendour peace and tranquillity in some places and at some times be more or lesse eclipsed and shee be not alwaies in all places at once And the reason of this perpetuall visible universality is because the Tradition of the Church is the sole ordinary meanes of faith toward the Word of God This Tradition therefore must be so delivered as that it may be known to all men seeing God will have all men without exception of any nation to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth 1. Tim. 2.4 which they cannot do unlesse the Church be so diffused in the world that all known nations may take notice of her And Gods will that all men should be saved though it be but an antecedent will as Schoolemen call it yet it inferreth two things which some Protestants deny first the salvation of all men secondly the meanes of their salvation In respect of the meanes the will of God is absolute that all men in some sort or other have sufficient meanes of salvation In respect of the end to wit the salvation of all men the will of God is not absolute but as Schoolemen say virtually conditionall that is God hath a will that all men be saved as much as lies in him if the course of his providence be not intercepted and men will cooperate with his grace And the reason why some Nations hear not the Gospell and Word of God is not the defect of his Church but the want of working in the naturall causes to discover such Countries which defect God will not ever miraculously supply But if the Church were invisible to the world and hoarded up her Religion to her selfe either not daring or not willing to professe and preach the same unto others Nations may be knowne and yet the Word of God not known to them If therefore this Church should be hidden for a long time mens souls should perish not through defect in the naturall causes but only through the hiddennesse obscurity and wretchednesse of the supernaturall meanes to wit of the Church not
endewed with so much zeal and courage as to professe her Religion and to propagate it in the world which cannot be Therefore it is impossible that the true Church should not be ever universall and famously known Sixthly this Church is holy both in life and Doctrine Holy for life shining in all admirable sanctity the rayes whereof do overcome the hearts of the beholders such as the Holy Apostles gave example of as of poverty chastitie obedience charity in undergoing all forms of labour and danger for the safety of soules patience invincible in the rough handling of themselves by wonderfull fastings and all kind of austerities fortitude heroicall in suffering martyrdome not onely with patience but with joy though given them in all the most hideous shapes that mans imagination steeled with malice could invent And although this kind of sanctity does not shine in all the members of the Church but in the more eminent professors and principally in the Pastors yet if this kind of sanctity together with Miracles were wanting she could not be so sufficient a witnesse to Infidells who ordinarily are not won to the affection and admiration of Christianity but by beholding such wonders of power and sanctity in the Professors thereof Holy shee is also for doctrine in regard her traditions are divine and holy without commixture of error for if the Church could deliver any one or few errors intermingled with many truths her Traditions even of the truth were questionable and could not be believed upon her word Even as if we admit in Scripture any error in smaller matters we cannot be sure of its infallibility in matters of greatest moment as he that shall say Gods written word is false or uncertaine when it tells him that S. Paul left his cloake at Troas may also say with as much reason that it is false or uncertain when it tells him that Christ was borne of the Virgin Mary Even so he that grants that some part of Traditions or the Word of God unwritten may be false inferrs by consequence that every part thereof may be so and that because we have no antecedent ground or touch-stone to try Traditions by but they must be believed for their own sakes being therein more fundamentall than the Scripures which are not known to be Apostolicall but by Tradition whereas perpetuall Tradition is knowne to come from the Apostles by its own light for what can be more evident then that that is from the Apostles which is delivered as Apostolicall by perpetuall succession of Priests and people affirming and believing the same § 2. But against this truth that if the Church may erre in one thing neither wee nor shee can be sure that shee speakes truth in any thing Chillingworth makes these in my judgement impertinent interrogations A Judge may possibly erre in Judgement can he therefore never have assurance that he hath judged right A travayler may possibly mistake his way must I therefore be doubtfull whether I am in the right way from my hall to my chamber pag. 117. sect 106. In which he weakly falls into comparison betwixt matters which are the object of the sense or of the understanding and of faith which in this case have no proportion betwixt them For the doctrines of faith as they are of faith being altogether and all equally without the reach of our knowledge we have no way to attaine to but by the help of others whom we must absolutely believe and if we know that they may deliver that which is false to us wee can never be sure that any thing they deliver to us is not false unlesse we had some superiour rule to try and examine their Traditions by which certainly we have not Nor can the Church it selfe if shee may erre in the delivery of one thing be sure that shee doth not erre in every thing because shee hath no infallible rule to examine her doctrines by out of her selfe who if shee be assisted by the Holy Ghost cannot erre in any thing if not for ought shee knowes shee doth in all things Now that the Church is assisted by God and that mans reason cannot be the highest judge to whom the last appeal is made in matters of faith which descend from God I have shewed before As for a humane Judge as he may erre through ignorance wilfulnesse or negligence which to conceive of the Church is absurd yea blasphemous shee having Christ for her Head and the Holy Ghost for her Spirit so he cannot bee more certaine of the truth of his judgement than his reason can make him which will not reach to an absolute infallibility And as a travayler may mistake his way in one journey so he may in another if he have no more certainty nor better guide of the one way than of the other which is the Churches case in propounding and believing matters of faith revealed to her by God which like the Circumference from the Center are all equally distant from our knowledge and the Church hath an equall Prerogative of infallibility by the guidance of the Holy Ghost in all who therefore can erre in nothing or in all things which she saith she so receives and delivers Yet Chillingworth saith that his consequences are as like the other as an egge to an egge or milk to milk but more truly they are as like as an egge to an oyster or milk to ink § 3. And lest any Protestant who honours the Scriptures much with his lips though he be far removed with his heart should think that I am injurious to the Scripture in saying that Tradition is more fundamentall than Scripture it selfe I desire him to take notice that Tradition and Scripture according to different comparisons are equall and superior the one to the other Compare them in respect of certainty of truth they are equall both being the Word of God the one written the other unwritten and so both infinitely certain Compare them in respect of depth of sublimity and variety of doctrine the Scripture is far superiour to Tradition Tradition being plaine and easie doctrine concerning the common capitall and practicall Articles of Christianity whereas the Scripture is full of high hidden senses and furnished with great variety of examples discourses and all manner of learning Compare them in respect of antiquity and evidence of being the Apostles the Scripture is inferiour to Tradition in time and knowledge and cannot be proved directly to be the Apostles and therefore Gods but by Tradition As Philosophy is more perfect than Logicke and Rhetoricke than Grammar in respect of high and excellent knowledge yet Logicke is more prime originall and fundamentall than Philosophy Grammar than Rhetorique without the rules and principles whereof they cannot be learned Even so Tradition is more prime and originall than Scripture though Scripture in respect of depth and sublimity of discourse be more excellent then Tradition CHAP. X. That the Roman is that one holy Catholique
and Apostolique Church THese premises considered I look'd round about to see amongst al the societies of the world professing the name of Christ to which of them the title and dignity of the Church might most justly be applyed and I found that the Roman Church that is the multitude of Christians spred over the face of the known world adhering to the doctrine of the Church of Rome is the One Holy Catholique and Apostolique Church The vulgar objection against the title of Catholique Roman that is say they universall and yet but particular seemed very childish the one title being applyed in regard of the doctrine and the extent thereof which is universall the other of the discipline and the fountaine and head thereof which is particular from the Bishop of Rome For the word Catholique is taken three waies to wit formally causally and participatively Formally the universall Church only that is to say the society of all the true particular Churches united in one selfesame Communion is called Catholique Causally the Roman Church is called Catholique for as much as shee infuseth universality into all the whole body of the Catholique Church For to constitute universality there must be two things one that may be instead of matter thereto to wit the multitude and the other instead of form thereto to wit unity for a multitude without unity doe not properly make universality Take away vnity from the multitude saith S. Augustine and it is a tumult De verb. Dom. sceundum Luc. Serm. 26. but bring in unity and it is a people Therefore the Roman Church which as the center and beginning of the Ecclesiasticall Communion infuseth unity which is the forme of universality into the Catholique Church may be called Catholique causally though in her own being shee be particular Even as the chief Captaine of an army on whom all the inferiour Captaines Officers and common Souldiers have their dependency and with whom they hold correspondency is called The Generall though he be but one particular man because it is he that by the relation that all others have to him gives unity to the whole body of the Army And thirdly particular Churches are called Catholique participatively because they agree and participate in doctrine and Communion with the Catholique Church § 2. Now I was induced to believe that the Roman Church is the only true Catholike Church by these ensuing reasons First God being the Prime Verity revealing truth cannot suffer the knowledg of saving doctrine to be impossible but it is impossible if it be hidden or if a false meanes of knowledge thereof be so drest with the marks of the true as that the true become undiscernable from it And if the Roman be not the true Catholique Church and Tradition then the true Catholique Church and Tradition is hidden and a false Church hath the marks of the true so cleerly that no other can with any colour pretend to be Catholique rather than it that is to have doctrine delivered from the Apostles by whole worlds of Christian Fathers to whole worlds of Christian children Hence either there is no meanes left assuredly to know the saving truth or else it must be inward teaching by immediate revelation without any externall infallible meanes or the Scripture known to be the Word of God and truly interpreted by the light and evidence of the things or by the force of naturall reason the vanity and falshood whereof I have already shewed for knowledge of supernaturall truth by the light and lustre of the doctrine is proper to the Church triumphant inward assurance without an externall infallible ground is proper unto Prophets and the first publishers of Religion Hence it may be concluded that if God be the Prime Verity teaching Christian Religion darkely without making men see the light of things believed and mediatly by some externall infallible meanes upon which inward assurance must rely then he must ever conserve the Catholique Church and Tradition visible and conspicuous that the same may be by sensible marks discerned And if any object that the senses of men in this search may be deceived through naturall invincible fallibility of their organs and so be no ground of faith that is altogether infallible I answer that evidence had by sense being but the private sense of one man is not ordinarily fallible but when the same is also publique generall that is when a whole world of men concur with him then his evidence is altogether infallible Besides seeing God will not teach men immediatly but will have them cleave to an externall infallible means and to find out this means by the sensible evidence of the thing he is in a manner bound by the perfection of his veracity to assist mens senses with his providence that therein they be not deceived when they use such diligence as men ordinarily use that they be not deceived by their senses Now what greater evidence can one have that he is not deceived in this matter of sense that the Roman doctrine is the Catholique that is doctrine delivered from the Apostles by worlds of Christian Ancestors unanimous amongst themselves in all matters of faith what greater assurance I say can one have that herein he sees aright than a whole world of men professing to see the same that he doth And surely this was the meaning of God by the Prophet Esay when speaking of the Church of Christ he calls it a direct way so that fools cannot erre therein Esa 35.8 which cannot be but by following a world of Ancestors going before them in the same Tract Otherwise it is not only possible for fools but even for them that seem to be wisest to erre yea in this case it is impossible to be otherwise And if it be further objected that I believe the Catholique Church is an Article of Faith and Faith is the argument of things not seen I answer an Article of Faith may be visible according to the substance of the thing and yet invisible according to the manner it is believed in the Creed The third Article He suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried according to the substance of the thing was evident to sense and seen of the Jewes and is now believed of their posterity but according to the manner that it is believed in the Creed to wit that herein the Word of God by his Prophets was fulfilled and that it was done for the salvation of man in this manner this visible Article is invisible and so it is believed in the Creed In like manner that there is in the world a Catholike Church and that the Romane is this Catholique Church Pagans Jewes and Heretiques if they shut not their eyes against the light do clearly behold but that herein the Word of God concerning the perpetuall amplitude of his Church is accomplished that this is an effect of Gods varacity to the end that the meanes to learn saving truth may not be hidden this is a
thing invisible and according to this notion the Catholique Church is proposed in the Creed Secondly propositions of Faith must be invisible according to the Predicate or thing believed but not alwaies according to the Subject or thing whereof we believe some other thing The things the Apostles believed of Christ to wit that he was the Son of God the Saviour of the world were things invisible but the subject and person of whom they did believe these things was visible to them yea God did of purpose by his Prophets foretell certain tokens whereby that subject might by sense be seen and discerned from all other that might pretend the name of Christ or else his comming into the world to teach the truth had been to little purpose In this sort the Predicate or thing believed in this Article the Holy Catholique Church to wit Holy is invisible but the Subject to wit the Catholique Church which we affirme and believe to be holy in her doctrine is visible and conspicuous to all Yea God hath of purpose foretold signes tokens whereby shee may by sense be cleerly discerned from all other that may pretend to the title of Catholique For were not this subject the Holy Catholique Church which we believe to be holy and infallible in her teaching visible and discernable from all other that pretend to that title of what use were it to believe that there is such an infallible teaching Church in the world hidden we know not where like a Candle under a Bushell or a needle in a bottle of hey § 3. Secondly if there must be alwaies in the world as was proved before one holy Catholique and Apostolique Church that is a Church delivering doctrines uniformly thereby making them credible universally thereby making them famously known to mankind holily so making them certain and such as that on them we may securely rely Apostolically so making them flow in the channel of a never-interrupted succession of Bisbops from the Apostles then this Church must be either the Roman or the Protestant or some other opposite to both Protestants cannot say a Church opposite to both for then they should be condemned in their own judgement and be bound to conforme themselves to that Church which can be no other but the Grecian a Church holding as many doctrines which the Protestants dislike as the Church of Rome as might easily be proved if need were It is further manifest that the Protestants are not this One Holy Catholique and Apostolique Church since their revolt and separation from the Church of Rome because in that very act of separation they did extinguish all these titles for they changed the doctrines they once held they forsook the body whereof they were Members brake off from the stock of that tree whereof they were branches neither in their departure did they joyne themselves with any other Church different from the Roman professing the particular Protestant doctrines so that they made a new Church of their own not agreeing in all points of faith with any that went before neither have they which have come after them as there are very many Sects risen out of the first Protestant agreed with them And therefore there is none or the Roman is the One Holy Catholique and Apostolique Church § 4. Thirdly the Protestants had the Holy Scripture from the Holy Catholique and Apostolique Church otherwise they cannot be sure that they are the true Scriptures of the Apostles because the testimony and Tradition of any other Church is fallible and may deceive them And if it may for ought they know it hath seeing they lived not in the Apostles daies thereby to make themselves certain thereof and so they will be altogether uncertain of that which they make the only object of their faith Luther cont Anab To. 7. German Ien fol. 169. whitaker de Eccles l. 3. p. 369. Now it is most certain that they had the Scriptures from the Roman Church acknowledged by Luther himselfe and also by Doctor Whitaker only they took the wicked boldnesse to cancell some parts thereof therefore they must either acknowledge that they are not sure that the Scripture is the Word of God or that the Church of Rome from whom they received it is the true Church And if the true Church hath delivered the true Text of Scripture then hath she also together with the true Text delivered the true Apostolicall sense because the Apostles themselves did not deliver to her the bare Text but with it the true sense to be delivered perpetually to posterity not by making a large and entire comment of all difficult places but by delivering with the Text the sense also about the maine and principall points So that they who by Tradition receive from the Apostles the true Text must together with it receive the true sense Now principal * Chemnit exam Cont. Trid. p. 1. fol. 74. Doctor Bancroft in the Survey p. 379. Protestants affirme the former saying No man doubteth but the Primitive Church received from the Apostles and Apostolicall men not only the Text of Scripture but also the right and native sense Which is agreeable to the Doctrine of the * Vincentius Lyrinens cap. 2. Fathers that from the Apostles together with the Text descends the line of Apostolicall interpretation squared according to the Ecclesiasticall and Catholique sense Whereupon * Aug. de util cred c. 14. S. Augustine affirms the later that they that deliver the Text of Christs Gospell must also deliver the Exposition saying that he would sooner refuse to believe Christ than learn any thing concerning him but of those by whom he was brought to believe Christ For they that can deliver by uniform Tradition a false sense may also deliver a false Text as received from the Apostles their freedome from or liablenesse to error in both being equall If therefore the Church of Rome have delivered the true Text then she hath also delivered and preserved the true sense or else we are sure of neither and so she only is the true holy Catholique and Apostolique Church or else there is none § 5. Fourthly it is granted by Protestants that the Romane Church was once the true Church and it cannot be proved that she hath changed her doctrine since the Apostles time therefore she is still the same true Church And that she hath not changed her Doctrine is thus proved the Doctrines that have continued for divers ages in the Christian Church and no time of their beginning can be assigned must needs be Doctrines descending from the Apostles and unchanged and such are the Doctrines of the Church of Rome Than the Doctrines of the Romane Church which Protestants reject have been universally received for many hundreds of years is by many learned Protestants confessed Perkins saith * Expos of the Creed p. 307. 400. during the space of nine hundred years the Popish Heresie hath spread it selfe over the whole world and
third mark of the Church And of the vanity of Protestants supposition that the true Church is sometimes invisible That Protestant Churches have not alwaies been visible § 1. The third mark we will seek the true Church by is Visibility which was foretold by the Prophet Esay 2.2 Micah 4.1 It shall come to passe in the last daies that the mountaine of the Lords house shall be established in the top of the mountaines and shall be exalted above the hills and all nations shall flow unto it Also Ezek. 37.28 The nations shall know that I am the sanctifier of Israel when my sanctification shall be in the middle of them for ever And S. Augustine resembles it according to the saying of our Saviour Matth. 5.14 A city placed on a hil that cannot be hid And he hath placed his tabernacle in the sun Psal 18.6 that is in open view c. his tabernacle his Church is placed in the Sun not in the night but in the day Tom. 9. in Epist Jo. Tract 2. And further saith of the Church that e Cont. Petil. l. 2. c. 104. she hath this most certain marke that she cannot be hid she is then known to all Nations the sect of Donatus is unknown to many Nations that then cannot be she To the children of the Church it is appointed by Christ that for the redresse of their grievances they tell the Church Mat. 81.17 which were a delusion unlesse the Church were alwaies visible who did also forewarn us against all obscure congregations saying If therefore they shall say unto you behold he is in the desert go you not forth behold he is in secret places believe it not Mat. 24.26 Now according to these assurances I found that the Roman Church was alwaies and eminently visible but the Protestant never eminent and for the most part not visible at all Concerning the visibility of the Church of Rome it is proved before by those testimonies which shew the antiquity perpetuall continuance thereof which cannot be proved but with the granting of her visibility Nor have I found the Protestants denying it the thing being so visible that it leaves no place for objections But they think to wipe out this mark by saying that it is not necessary to a true Church to be alwaies visible but others disliking that assertion by reason of the absurdity thereof do affirme to counterpoize the Roman that the Protestant Church hath been alwaies visible § 2. And first they that hold that the Church hath been invisible and that therefore visibility is not a certain mark of the Church indeavour to prove it by the example of the Church of the Jewes in the daies of Elias 3 King 19.10.18 who complained that the Prophets were slaine and he only was left alive and God answered that there were left seven thousand that had not bowed the knee to Baal To which objection I found the answer of Catholiques very true namely that this complaint of Elias was uttered with relation to the Kingdome of Israel onely wherein Elias then was and was persecuted by King Ahab but in the Kingdome of Judah the Church did florish and was sufficiently known to him and all men under the reigns of Asa and Joshaphat 3 Kings 22.41 who reigned in Judah when Achab reigned in Israel As what time the number of true believers was so great 2 Chron. 17.14 15 16 17 18 19. that the men of war only did amount to many hundred thousands And whereas M. Meade makes reply to this answer saying that the Church was invisible in the Kingdome of Iudah also in the daies of Manasses because it is said 2 Chron. 33. that Manasses set up Idolatry committed all impiety and caused Judah and Jerusalem to erre I answer that this comes short of a proof for though the Kings example in all cases though never so bad have a mighty influence on the people yet this proves not but that the Kingdome or an eminent part or at least a visible part both of Priests and people was still untainted even as it was in the daies of the persecution of Antiochus against the Jewes who set up the Abomination of desolation the Idoll of Olympick Jupiter in the Temple and compelled men to worship it Besides if it were as he would have it the case is much different between a very short time of the invisibility of the Church of the Jewes for we read in the same Chapter that Manasses quickly repented and amended all and the invisibility of the Protestant Church which by their own confessions was above a thousand years Also the comparison between the Church of the Jewes and Christians is not equall the New Testament being established in better promises Heb. 8.6 and therefore that may be incident to the one which is not to the other Moreover if there had been this totall eclipse it had relation but to the Nation of the Jewes only besides which were many other faithfull people in all ages as appears by the examples of Melchizedek Job c. in the Old Testament and in the New of Cornelius and the Eunuch to the Queen of Candace amongst which the Church might be visible though amongst the Jewes invisible § 3. Others I have heard say that by Catholikes own confession in the daies of Antichrist the Church shall be invisible But I never have read any Catholique that said so yet on the contrary I have found Protestants affirm a Bullinger in Apoc. 20. Fulk against Rhē in Thes 2. sect 5. the visibility of the Church and that universally even all the daies of Antichrist which makes against themselves if they account the Pope Antichrist as most of them do and themselves the Church Yet Doctor White contrary to his brethren saith that b F. VVhites Reply p. 61. lin 15. 26. in time of persecution the true Church may be reputed an impious Sect by the multitude and so not be known by the notion of true and holy nor can her truth be discerned by sense and common reason To which I answer that as there are four properties of Church-doctrine so there are foure notions of the Church The first is to bee Mistresse of saving truth and according to this notion the Church is invisible to the naturall understanding both of men and Angells for God only and his Blessed see our Religion to be the truth The second is to be Mistresse of Doctrine truly revealed by secret inspiration according to this notion ordinarily speaking the Church is invisible to almost all men that are or ever were the Apostles and Prophets only excepted The third to be Mistresse of the Doctrine which Christ and his Apostles by their preaching and miracles planted in the world according to this notion the Church was visible to the first and Primitive times but now is not The fourth is to be Mistresse of Catholique doctrine that is of Doctrine delivered received by full Tradition and profession all the
one Tyrant over their consciences so they called the Church of Rome to another the Church of England there must needs arise varieties of Sects in Religion according to the various conceipt and apprehension of people even out of the very nature of this their Doctrine which is the ground-work for all the rest and is the most exercised in those who are most conversant in the reading of Scriptures to wit the Puritans and Sectaries And in the many differences that are amongst them they call no Generall Councells nor indeed can they by way of authority no Sect acknowledging it self subject to anothers Jurisdiction if it be under another temporall Governour but constitutes a Church by it selfe absolute and independent And in the variety of Sects in any one Kingdome or Government neither party believing it self justly subject to another in matter of conscience But supposing themselves alwayes in the truth they think they are bound to maintain that truth with the hazzard of their lives and to oppose their lawfull Soveraignes in the defence thereof and whensoever they have power they put it in execution and turn Rebells for Gods sake As we see many have done heretofore and the English are many of them now in the accursed act Nor can the men under whose conduct the people do this hope for more calme obedience from them longer than by force they are subdued to it unlesse they give them that in possession which now they have in hope and for which they have all been united in their service to wit Liberty of Conscience to every particular person to be of what Religion soever he shall make to himself out of the Bible free independent on the jurisdiction of any other And with very good reason for seeing they have all shaken off Christs yoke why should any man put a yoke upon another mans conscience and oblige him to believe or do or suffer that which is against his Word of God Thus as their Religion is divisible according to their severall senses of the Scripture so Kingdomes are divisible according to their Religions So that there must still be division either in Religion or in War for the defence thereof Yea so accurately doth Heresie teach to run division that it is meerly by accident that any two Protestants are of the same Religion in any one point for seeing they do not oblige themselves to agree in any one Principle but only the letter of the Scripture and refer the interpretation to themselves as Chillingworth Preface fine saith Let all men believe the Scripture and that only indeavour to believe it in the true sense and require no more of others it is but by the constitution of their brains and the grain of their fancie running the same way that brings any two of them to an union in the same belief concerning any point of Religion which constitution as it was accidentall in their generation so it is daily changeable by age education and many other occurrences and so also as uncertain for the future as accidentall at the present Thus all tends to division amongst them through the nature of their doctrines and the method of knowing and preserving them And this division of theirs in doctrine and opinion is the reason why when I mention the belief of Protestants I usually say some Protestants because they are not all of a mind scarce in any one point wherein they differ from Catholiques And some of them are so silly as to think that if they themselves doe not believe such a point no Protestant else doth supposing all Protestancy included in their owne brests which indeed is nothing so only they have reason according to their principles to believe as they do that that which every particular man holds is the true Protestancy and ought to be a rule to all the world beside § 2. The Catholique Roman Church hath in it the propriety of heat and doth congregare homogenea gather together things of the same kind and disgregare heterogenea separate things that are of different natures casting out of her Communion all sorts of Heretiques And on the contrary the Protestant Religion hath the property of cold which is congregare heterogenea to gather together things of different natures enfoulding under her name a miscellane of Religions freezing them altogether and withall making them so brittle that every chance breakes them into smaller sects and sub-divisions which in the end will be the destruction of the whole as it hath been of all foregoing heresies And this truth Sir Edwin Sandys a learned Protestant In his Relation of Religion of the Western parts confesseth saying The Papists have the Pope as a common father adviser and conductor to reconcile their jarres to decide their differences to draw their Religion by consent of Councells unto unity c. whereas on the other side Protestants are like severed or rather scattered troupes each drawing adverse way without any meanes to pacifie their quarrells no Patriarch one or more to have a common superintendency or care of their Churches for correspondency and unity no ordinary way to assemble a generall Councell on their part the only hope remaining ever to asswage their contentions Of which seeing there is no hope the sword must be the Umpire Which if it should in England prevaile on the Puritane or Roundheads side as they now stile them which God forbid I think I may without rashnesse say that it falls out by the just judgement of God that they that cast out the Catholique Religion and Catholique Bishops their predecessors upon pretence of the Reformation of Errors which they discovered as they said by the pure word of God are upon the same pretences cast out themselves and are forced to say with Adonibezek in the first of the book of Judges As I have done so God hath rewarded me So true a rule it is that he that practises disobedience to his superiours teaches it to his inferiours § 3. But the Protestants say that they do not differ from one another in fundamentalls no not from the Catholiques so much at unity with all the world do they professe to be The impertinency of their distinction of fundamentalls and unfundamentalls I have before discovered and little reason have they to use it in this case For to my apprehension all their differences are in fundamentalls yea all that they believe they account fundamentall For the Church of England saith in her sixth Article That whatsoever is not read in Scripture nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any ma that it should be believed as an Article of Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation as nothing but what may be proved by the Scripture is by her accounted necessary to salvation which is the same with fundamentall so I suppose that all that can be proved by the Scripture is necessary to salvation even in their own opinion for I think they will not say
but that it is necessary and fundamentall to believe God in all that he saith whether the matter be great or small now Protestants professing to believe nothing necessarily but what may be proved by the Scripture and their differences being in the things which they believe it followes that their differences are in things which are proved by Scripture that are the pure Word of God and the meaning of the Holy Ghost as they use to speak and therefore must needs be in the severall opinions of them that hold them fundamentall and necessary to salvation To instance in some particulars of their disagreement for to speak of all were to enter into a Labyrinth First concerning Scripture it selfe I think they will grant it is a fundamentall point I am sure their learned Hooker doth so Eccles Pol. lib. 1. sect 14. who saith Of things necessary the very chief is to know what books we are bound to esteem holy and as sure I am that in this there is great disagreement for the Lutherans do deny besides those books of the Old Testament which the Calvinists also deny * Châ—mnit exam conc Trid. part 1. pag. 55. also Enchyrid p. 63. the second Epistle of S. Peter the second and third Epistle of S. John the Epistle to the Hebrewes of S. James of S. Jude and the Revelation all which the Calvinists and the Church of England do undoubtedly believe to be the Word of God And if they disagree about their prime Principle how can agreement be expected in the things that they derive from thence Secondly concerning their translation of Scriptures in the truth whereof consists the truth of Gods Word to those that understand it not but as it is translated very great are the disagreements and bitter the reprehensions between Luther and Zuinglius between Calvin and Molineus between Beza and Castalio between legall Protestants and Puritans of England each party condemning the others translation I will instance chiefly in the English The Ministers of Lincoln Diocesse in a book delivered to King James being an abridgement of their grievances say pag. 11.13.14 that the English translation of the Bible is a translation that takes away from the text that addes to the text and that sometimes to the changing or obscuring the meaning of the holy Ghost And Broughton the great Linguist in his Advertisement of Corruptions tels the Bishops that their publique translations of Scripture into English is such as that it perverts the text of the old Testament in 848 places and that it causeth millions of millions to reject the new Testament and to run into eternall flames And yet the translators of the Bible and the Bishops were of another mind or else surely they would not have commended it to the use of the people And what a wofull condition were the people in who must be guided by such a Bible in which either there was certaine falshood or they were not certaine that it was the truth Secondly the Reall presence of Christs body in the Eucharist by consubstantiation and to the bodily mouth of the receiver is affirmed by the Lutherans but denyed by the Calvinists Thirdly that Christ descended into Hell which is an article of the Creed is affirmed by Hill in a Treatise of that subject by Nowell and by many Protestants but is denyed by Carleil in a book written to that purpose and commonly by all Puritans Fourthly Evangelicall Councells are affirmed by Hooker Eccles Pol. l. 3. sect 8. p. 140. but are denyed by Perkins Reformed Cath. p. 241. and most of the Church of England Fiftly concerning the head of the Church or the supreame governour in causes Ecclesiasticall which one would think a fundamentall matter the Church of England holds that the King or Queen when the Kingdome is governed by a Woman is the head thereof but the Church of Helvetia saith f Harmony of Consess p. 308. forward we acknowledge no other head of the Church but Christ and that he hath no deputy on earth and many there are in England of the same opinion who are not afraid to say so now though it be by law a capitall offence Sixtly the government of the Church by Bishops one would think were a fundamentall point for it is affirmed to be jure divino by divine law by many Protestants in England and particularly Bishop Hall wrote a book a few yeares since to that purpose and yet this is denyed by a great party in England as the Bishops by woefull experience do know A hundred other differences might be named in the maintenance whereof books have been written one against another one side holding with the Catholiques so that there is scarce any point of Catholique doctrine but is maintained by some or other Protestants amongst them all almost the whole Catholique doctrine If therefore they differ from the Church of Rome they differ from one another And that their differences are not light but about most important matters in their own opinions being about matters as they conceive revealed in the word of God to which all men are bound to adhere even their persuit of those differences doth plainly demonstrate which stretcheth to the g Luth. con art Louan Thes 27. condemning of one another for Heretiques h Osiander â—pit Eccl. hist cont 16 par altera p. 805. and banishing each other from their severall territories i Hospi hist Sacrament par alt fol. 393. 395. 397. 398. forbidding the reading of each others books imprisoning of their persons and finally breaking into open Arms one against another are not al these tragical particulars to our infinite grief now acted on the stage of England the chief pretence is Religion And surely they are guilty of extreme folly that will fight to the fundamentall overthrow of themselves families for ought they know of the whole Kingdome for matters which they hold not-fundamentall § 4. But the Protestants think to wipe off this staine of disagreement by retorting it upon the Catholiques accusing them of as great disagreement as is amongst themselves which when I considered I found altogether impertinent For amongst Catholiques there are two sorts of points some defined by the Church in a Generall Councell and so infallibly certain others not defined In the former they all exactly agree in the later each man follows the direction of his particular reason Like to this there are amongst Protestants certaine Articles as they call them which are agreed upon in each severall dominion of Protestants which are set down in their Harmony of confessions concerning which first it is to be noted that there is great disagreement in generall betwixt their Churches they never meeting all together in any one Councell to determine any one thing so that they are not united in any one point by consent Then in particular dominions the decrees that they publish are not firmely believed by all under those dominions but are accounted as
understood word by word by every one of the vulgar assistants neither doth the end of the publike Service require it As for those Sects that use no Liturgie at all but in their Church-meetings do only make an extemporall prayer before after Sermon as the custome is now for the most part in England that the people may pray with them they do as they ought in using the vulgar tongue Catholiques if they used such exercise no doubt would do it in like manner § 2. As for the comfort more plentifull edification of the understanding which some few want in that they do not so perfectly understand all the particulars of divine Service it may by other means abundantly be supplied without turning the publike Liturgie into innumerable vulgar languages which would bring great confusion into the Christian Church For first the Church could not be able to judge of the Liturgie of every country when differences arose about the translation thereof and so divers errors heresies might creep into particular countries and the whole Church never able to take notice thereof Secondly particular countries could not be certain that they had the parts of the Scripture used in the Liturgie truly translated for they can have no other assured proof thereof than the Churches approbation nor can she approve what she her self doth not understand Thirdly if there were as many translations of the Liturgie as there be severall languages in the world it could not be avoided but that some would in many places be ridiculous incongruous and full of mistaking to the great prejudice of souls especially in languages that have no great extent nor many learned men that naturally speak them Fourthly the Liturgie must of necessity be often changed together with the language which doth much alter in every age as is very well knowne Fifthly in the same country by reason of different dialects some provinces understand not one another and in the Island of Japonia as some write there is one language for men another for women one language for Gentlemen another for rusticks into what language then should the Liturgie of Japonia be translated So that it is cleer that the inconveniences of divine Service translated in all vulgar languages are insuperable the commodity is but to the most ignorant part and that but in part and to be recompenced by other means and is so by prayer books and other instructions in abundance in the vulgar tongue In so much that I dare boldly say for I have been an eye-witnesse that in the cities of Paris and Rome there is five times as much preaching and ten times as much catechising of youth and ignorant people as is in London so that blindnesse ignorance to Catholiques is ignorantly blindly objected Lastly we cannot imagine that if S. Paul had intended that which the Protestants labour to enforce out of the above-named chapter to the Corinthians that both he and his fellow Apostles would have practised the contrary at the writing thereof and all their lives after for we doe not find that they or any after them did use any Liturgie but in one of the learned languages which though they were vulgar to some people in those times yet but to a small part in comparison of all the nations of the world amongst whom they celebrated Masse § 3. As for private prayer the Catholique Church permits all men whether out of the Churches or in them to pray in what language they please yea the Pater the Ave and the Creed are commanded by divers Councells to be learned in the vulgar tongue and divers bookes of prayers in the vulgar tongue are published and used in all Catholique Countries Yet those Catholiques that do pray or sing Psalmes in Latin which they doe not understand either by choice or obligation are not to be condemned For either they understand the prayer in the whole masse thereof as the PATER NOSTER for example though they know not perhaps whether PATER signifie our and NOSTER father or the contrary yet saying this prayer with due devotion and knowing that it is our Lords prayer which they can very well repeat in their mother tongue no man I suppose can be so absurd to think this prayer is not acceptable to God though the pious thoughts be not measured geometrically to the words Or else they understand only more generally that such or such a prayer or Psalme for example MISERERE is a Psalme full of penitent affections and this they say with much inward sorrow and contrition for their sinnes and who can deny that this pious affection is pleasing to God though the thoughts and words doe not mathematically correspond the one to the other I am sure the Apostle approved the like saying in the 17. verse of the forementioned chapter Thou verily givest thanks well And to conclude he doth absolutely allow it in the 28. verse saying But if there be no interpreter let him keepe silence in the Church and let him speak to God and himselfe And in this matter as well as the rest the Protestants also may keep silence unlesse they could speak more to the purpose § 4. These points all other I examined with diligence and found that Protestants ordinarily did not truly apprehend many of the Catholique doctrines nor justly oppose any of them But I have only touched these few particulars to let the unlearned Protestant Reader see that the Catholique doctrines are not such monstrous things as they ordinarily conceive them but rather that it is monstrous in them not to believe them And to awaken the further diligence of all Protestants to search into the truth of all points so far as they are able either by themselves or others if they will not at the first cast themselves upon the infallibility of the Church which I conceive I have sufficiently proved in the former part of this Treatise and is the shortest and surest way and to read the Bookes of Catholiques set forth to this purpose not to exercise an implicite faith to the Protestant Religion and even against the rule of it to their hurt seeing they will not yet do it to the Catholique Religion to their advantage In which Catholique books they shall find all the Pleas for Protestancy all their objections against Catholique doctrine answered with that learning and solidity with that cleernesse and fullnesse that were not faith also required which is the gift of God only to the apprehension of those things which the Church teaches it were impossible in my judgement impossible I say that any reasonable man should continue in his judgement a Protestant Yet many there are I fear who though they be in belief and judgement Catholiques yet in outward profession are Protestants Who like the inferiour spheares which are moved one way by the PRIMUM MOBILE and a contrary way by their owne peculiar motion So they are moved to believe the Catholique verities by the influence of
God upon their soules but to remain in the Protestant Communion by the private instigations of flesh and blood Who wanting the seasoning of Charity doe warp and shrink from that to which their judgement hath joyned them Whose faith like bullion though it be good metall in it selfe yet wanting the stamp of of Catholique Communion and obedience is not currant in the Kingdome of heaven nor will serve in their journey to defray them thither But they according to the condition of all weak minds accounting the Present evill as losse of goods friends and the like the most intolerable desire to avoid that and put to adventure the ensuing And so while they saile through the troublesome Sea of this life unskilfull of steerage in a storme do strike and split their soules upon the flats of fear and rocks of presumption forgetfull of that dreadfull threatning of our Saviour He that shall deny mee before men shall be denyed before the Angells of God Luc. 12.9 Now to the diligence of examination before mentioned for those that are not yet convinced in their judgements a Protestant is bound by Chillingworths owne rule who though he say that for as much as there is no infallible guide and that therefore a man must follow the choice of his own reason in what he doth believe and that God will be contented with that be it more or lesse true or false being as much as he can attain to yet addes withall that a man must imploy his uttermost endeavours to the finding out of the truth And who is it amongst the Protestants that hath done that Who hath spent all his spare time much lesse who hath spared all the time he could to this enquiry I think no Protestants conscience can acquit him in this case and if not he must not think to quiet himselfe by saying that to the best of his understanding the Protestant Religion seemes true if he have not imployed all his endeavours to find whether it be so or no which cannot be unlesse with King Philip of Macedon he keep one ear for the party accused hee equally heare both sides Wherefore devesting themselves of all prejudice and prepossessed opinions like white paper wherein there is nothing written let them addresse themselves with all their spare time yea they ought to make spare time rather than to want it to a sad and serious consideration of the great businesse of Religion the truth whereof who so gaines though with the losse of all temporall felicity doth highly improve his estate considering that as our Saviour saith what will it profit a man to gain the whole world and to lose his owne soule Math. 16.16 And let no man defer this most important affaire and put it off to the later end of his life which how soon it will happen the youngest know not as if the Kingdome of heaven were like a market cheapest at the later end of the day or that because nature hath placed the seat of his memory in the hindermost part of his head therefore he may defer the remembrance of God and of comming to him by the path of true Religion to the hindermost part of his life But as God himselfe saith while it is called to day harden not your hearts Psal 94.8 lest his delay pull upon himselfe the forsaking of God and steel his forehead to the perpetuall refusall of his mercifull invitation and so he and especially the Citty of London which hath been purpled with the blood of so many martyrs hear the complaint and curse of our Saviour sounding in his eare O Jerusalem Jerusalem which killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent to thee how often would I have gathered thy children as the hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and you would not behold your habitation shall be left unto you desolate Math. 23.37 CHAP. XXII Of the foolish deceitfull and absurd proceedings and behaviour of Protestants in matter of Religion And of the vanity and injustice of their pretext of conscience for their separation from the Roman Church § 1. HE that will apply himself to this inquest as I have done shall find that the objections of Protestants against Catholique Doctrines are very weak and sleight they are but paper-pellets and make more noise than hurt the workes also that they raise for their owne defence are as weak and easily dismantled I found that their objections were answered again and again which a later writer would take no notice of but retrive the first arguments and urge them as fresh as if they had never been urged before or at least had never been answered forgetting to make reply to the Catholique Answers which was indeed because they could not do it And in their writings I found much abuse of all Authors even from the Bible it self to the Authors of latest times either misalledging the words â—or misconstruing the meaning or urging that for their purpose which was indeed to no purpose § 2. Particularly for their mistranslating of Scripture wherein they grievously accuse one another as I shewed before I will alledge two or three places of a great many for a tast wherein their unfaithfulnesse is apparent as first that notable depravation of their Master Luther which I have mentioned before in adding the word only where the Apostle saith that a man is justified by faith without the works of the Law Rom. 3.28 Also where the Apostle saith give diligence by good works to make your calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 the English Bibles leave out these words by good works and yet Beza in his notes upon the place acknowledges these words to be in almost all the antient Greek Copies Also in the same Chapter fifteenth Verse these words are read according to the originall I will do my diligence also you to have often after my decease that you may have a remembrance of these things shewing thereby that he would pray for them after he was dead as S. Chrysostome expounds it saying Rejoyce ever you blessed Apostles in our Lord without intermission pray for us fulfill your promises for ô Blessed Peter thou cryest out speaking thus I will do my diligence after my coming to make mention of you 2 Pet. 1.10 Now the English Bibles read this place thus Moreover I will indeavour that you may be able after my decease to have these things alwaies in remembrance corrupting the sense and making it signifie only that he would indeavour that they should remember those things when he was dead whereas he saith that he would indeavour after he was dead that they should remember those things and thereby it proves that he prayed for them after be was dead a Doctrine which many Protestants will not allow Also in the first Epistle to the Corinthians Chap. 11. v. 27. where the Apostle saith whosoever shall eat this bread or drink the cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and bloud of the Lord the
from the just owners thereof not purchased but stolne Here you shall see a Church that hath continued without interruption since the first planting thereof that hath kept perpetuall Term without Vacation that in all the rough tempests of this worlds persecution hath still rid out the storme and though by the tyranny of heathen and heretiques millions of her children did fall it was but like the morning deaw watering thereby the seeds of grace which themselves had sowne and when they calmly bled it was but oyle to the Apostles lamps whose bright flames may yet serve to light posterity to heaven And as the enemies of the city of Rome were wont to weep to see it on fire because it would afterwards be fairer built so the devill though he caused it yet did mourne to see the Church of Rome on fire in her Martyrs which was ever repaired by a greater encrease of converts who constantly kept the faith till they lost themselves in keeping it like Naboth who kept his possession with the losse of his blood There you shall see Churches like Castor and Pollux rising and setting by turnes sometimes alive sometimes dead with such huge great gaps between the times of their subsisting that for any succour they could have from them millions of soules might in the interim have dropt into hell And as the Moabites when they saw the waters look ruddy thought they had been mingled with blood when it was but the reflexion of the morning sun beames on them so when they suffered any thing they called it persecution for their obedience to God when it was indeed but the effect of justice on them for their Rebellion against Gods deputies Ecclesiasticall and civill the high Priest and the Prince and instead of giving them increase as persecution hath alwaies done to the Church it did with the aid of their inward discords utterly extingnish them Who have had none but have made many Martyrs reviving even in these later present times the antient copies of cruelty against Catholikes blindly believing that by killing Gods servants they do God service Whose meek spirits have paid as large a tribute of patience unto heaven and sufferance to the world as any that went before them and have proved in themselves the truth of the Spouses saying in the Canticles ch 5. v. 10. My beloved is white and ruddy being blanch'd with the whitenesse of innocence guled with the blood of martyrdom the fury of whose malice and persecution hath pursued many even through the gates of death adding prophanation to their cruelty by disturbing the dead bodies and silent urnes of Saints departed A poor revenge and foolish which doth more expresse their hatred than satisfie it and shewes that their malice doth more afflict their owne minds before it is executed than it can doe their enemies bodies in the execution So eager so importunate is sinne ever to its owne shame § 2. Here you shall see a Church that hath alwaies been in view whom neither fear nor coynesse hath made to hide her head and whose admired beauty hath invited all men to her chast embraces and like Medusaes head hath turned them to stones of this living building by the admiration of her surpassing beauty There you shall see Churches such which is very strange as were never seen or very seldome keeping such unkind and retired state that men like Diogenes who went about Athens with a candle and a lanterne at noone day to seek an honest man must doe so about the world to find them out and in the mean time perish for want of spirituall aid who never had any beauty riches or rarity amongst them but only Giges his ring whereby they did for the most part walk invisible The English Proverb saith that where God hath his Church the devill hath his Chappell and so he hath alwaies had in Heretiques who in regard of place have been mingled with Catholiques but that the devill should have all the Church and God not so much as the Chappell as they pretend is most incredible § 3. Here you shall see a Church like the city of Jerusalem that is at unity within it selfe and like the wals of Byzantium so closely united that they seem to be all but one entire stone And as God spake of old By the mouth of his Prophets Luc. 1.70 intimating that though they were many Prophets yet they had all but one mouth in regard of the unity and agreement of their sayings so speakes he now by the mouth of the Priests in the Catholique Church A body having Christ for the head from whom as the Apostle saith the whole body being fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplies according to the effectuall working in the measure of every part makes encrease of the body to the edifying of it selfe in love Whose powerfull union like the Bundle of Arrowes presented by the Emperour Saladine to his sonnes as the Embleme of united strength cannot be broken by the assault of any force which like the floating Ilands or the stone Tyrrhenus being unbroken floats still aloft and keepes her head above the main when others like clods of earth rent from the Jland or broken in pieces of that stone sink to the bottom and perish There you shall see Churches stand like the stones in some high waies to measure their length a mile asunder from each other And as the Cameleon changes it self into all colours except white So they wander through all the forms of opinions that fancy can imagine saving only truth Which need no externall disasters to try their strength no forraine enemies to attempt their destruction For like the Serpents teeth sown by Cadmus or the eternally-hating brethren Eteocles and Polynices they with mutuall cruelties destroy each other Here a Church that for the admirable effects of her unity deserves the name of that pretious stone which for the rarity thereof is called Vnity There such as for the variety and deformity wherewith they are possessed may be termed Legion § 4. Here you shall see a Church that religiously triumphs over all Christian Kings and Kingdomes of the world making them the Trophees of her spirituall victories and conversions whose powerfull influence hath cast a charme upon the fierce and lionly natures of barbarous Princes and hath not only made the Lion and the lamb to live together as was foretold by the Prophet but hath turned the Lions into Lambs Alexander the great being asked if hee would run at the Olympick games said I could be content so I might run with Kings Here then may be exercised a vertuous ambition and truly worthy of the majesty of the most excellent King of England who if he will honour the Church and himselfe to run this way shall run with almost all Kings of the Christian world both his owne and other Kings predecessors and that at the true Olympick exercises the exercises of heaven There you shall see
higher then the fountain from whence it springs if therefore particular reason be the governour of our faith which reason is a humane and fallible thing it cannot rise to nor support a divine faith But divine faith is that which God requires of us in the businesse of Religion and that which is not such is none And it is convenient that as God ordained man to a supernaturall end namely the blissefull vision of himselfe which is a thing far above all excellencies of nature so he should bring him to this blisse by believing things above the reach of reason which in man is his nature and to beget this faith by Miracles his owne acts which are above the power of nature and by the testimony of those that do those supernaturall acts to whom if he have given his deeds it cannot be doubted but he hath given his word of any part whereof to make any doubt is to call the credit of all into question the house of Faith being like some artificiall buildings whereof if you pull out one pin you loosen the whole frame So if a man disbelieve any one point delivered him by the Catholique Church he unjoynts the whole frame of faith and virtually denies it all and that because they have all the same height of proof to wit the testimony of the Church which if she can lie in one thing she may for ought wee know in another and so in all and thus bring a man to doubt of all and then to denie all And that those men that doe denie some one point of Catholique Tradition though unwritten doe not denie all is not for that they have any faith but out of secular ends and deceiptfull reason § 4. Indeed some Protestants grant that if Tradition be universall and perfectly Catholique it doth oblige to the belief thereof but not otherwise by which universall Tradition they meane such as never any one gainsaid But if such onely are to be called Catholique Traditions there is scarce any thing left for Christians to believe and indeed to that passe have many brought it for some have denied the distinction of Persons in the Trinity others the Divinity of our Saviour others his humanity others the Deity of the Holy Ghost and a hundred more now if no Tradition be to be called Catholique but such as was never denied by any one or some number of Christians then a man may deny the fore-mentioned and many other points and Articles of faith because their Tradition hath not been so universall but that some have denied it yea some books of the Scripture it self were not universally received till about four hundred years after Christ By Catholique or universall Tradition then must be understood that which the Catholique Church hath alwaies taught not which all Christians for then we must look for Tradition in the mouths of Heretiques whose property it is to deny some Tradition or other under pretence that it is opposite to Scripture And if any have taught contrary the Catholique Church hath condemned them for Heretiques which is a sufficient proof that untill such Hereticall Spirits opposed some one or more Traditions of the Church they were universally believed As for example the Doctrine of Christs consubstantiality or being of the same substance with the Father no reasonable man will deny but that it was generally believed in the Church before the daies of the Arch-heretique Arrius and that the Councel of Nice condemning of him was a sufficient proof that the doctrine he opposed was the universall Tradition of the Church by force whereof he was overthrowne and not by Scripture only there being no place of Scripture so plaine but he would give some answer to it and likewise alledge plenty of Scripture in the proof of his own Heresie while he took upon him to interpret it himself forfaking the traditionall sense thereof and would receive no answer to it And if Arrius his denyall of that point of Faith will make it universall for place or the doctrine it self new and so universall for time as some in other instances do alledge because it was then first declared by reason of that opposition then it may be lawfull under the same pretence for men to deny all the Traditions of the Church all the decrees of Generall Councells of the Church and to revive all the Heresies that were in the Church § 5. Moreover to attribute conditionall infallibility to the Church and not absolute in all that she delivers * Chillingworth pag. 118. Pet. Martyr loc Com. clas 4. c 4. sect 21. Confess Helvet c. 17. as some Protestants doe making her infallible onely while she followes the Scripture and Vniversall Tradition is to give her no more priviledge than to a child or fool who are also infallible while they affirm nothing but what is agreeable to Scripture and universall Tradition But if we know not Scripture nor Tradition but by the Churches direction how shall we know in her exposition of Scripture and deciding of controversies that she doth erre unlesse we know it from her also seeing her authority in the one is as good as in the other and by those reasons that we may deny the truth of the one we may deny the other And if she say she have expounded Scripture truly and decided controversies aright by the rule of Scripture and Tradition who shall gainesay her Can any man be so foolish as to think his word is of more credit than the whole Churches Or that his reason is better then hers Or that if she may erre from her rule he may not do so also And if their infallibilities be both of the same strength who in his right mind would not believe millions affirming the same thing rather than one or some few affirming the contrary If there were a rule so plaine and clear that all men understood it and none could pervert it then there were no need of a judge or directer but if the rule be obscure or liable to misinterpretation as all words are let them be expressed never so plainly then it is meet that there should not onely be a Judge but that this Judge should be infallible seeing the businesse concerns the salvation of mankind and not be subject to the petty after-examinations of proud and discontented people as if one or more of them did know the meaning of the rule better than the Judge when that Judge is the universall Church And that which these men affirm in this matter amounts to this wise Maxime That the Church is infallible while she is infallible and so is the Devill § 6. Frivolous then and without foundation is that late started distinction of points fundamentall and not fundamentall and the assertion built thereon That the Church may erre in the one and not in the other and so by consequence we are not bound to believe her in all things Indeed in regard of the materiall object or thing to be believed some points