was truly and infallibly coucht on the sacred leaves of the Bible so assisting and strengthening his Church she becomes in all matters concerning faith powerfull and infallible God is not tyed to this or tother he is free to worke his wonders where when and to whom he pleaseth Neither is there any disproportion betwixt men thus assisted and infallibility it being not necessary for the production of a supernaturall effect that every part of the total cause be supernatural for it is visible to the eye that God frequently makes use of secondary causes in the production of supernaturall effects in that of faith Rom. 10. of hearing and preaching in that of Grace Mat. 18 19 of Elements and words in that of the blind man Jo. 6. of spittle and earth CHAP. 6. Of the possibilitie of keeping the Commandements 1 NOt onely that it is possible to keep the Commandements but also that divers have kept them is a truth so cleerly delivered both in the old and new Testament that there is cause to wonder any can make question thereof In the old Moses speaking of the Commandments sayes Deut. 30. They are not above but very near us in our Mouths in our hearts to doe them Noe Ezekias Josias Josaphat Asa Gen. 6. 4 Kings 18. 2 Paral. 30. 4 Kings 22. 1 Paral. 15 2 Paral. 20. Tob. 2. Iob 1.17 2 Kings 7. 3 Kings 9. Luke 2. Mat. 11.21 Luke 1. Joacham Tobias Job kept them In the New Christ is no lesse plain My yoke is sweet my burden light Simeon St John the Baptist Zacharias Elizabeth the B. Virgin kept them Gods conditional promises to David and his Posterity could be termed no better than Jeers unlesse the commandements were possible To what purpose so much perswasion in Books and Pulpits to live well if the Commandements be impossible is living well any other than keeping of the Commandements It is assuredly as rid culous as impious to tearm him a good liver that steales murthers and commits adultery c. The justness of lawes that inflict severe punishments vpon the breakers of the Commandements are not at all consistent with the impossibility of keeping them Necessity is a good and forcible excuse against the strongest charge The very light of Reason giveth testimonie to the Commandements possibility they being all grounded upon Reason and suited to her bent and inclination The wickedest man alive cannot say with truth that he breaketh any Commandment without some secret check of conscience 2. To alledge that God onely requires mans indeavour is repugnant to Christs express words which are not Mat. 19. If thou wilt come to heaven endeavour to keep but keep the Commandements Many a good endeavour as many a good purpose burns in Hell Heaven being the reward of doing not of endeavouring Besides it is equally unnaturall to endeavour impossibilityes and to desire things unknown Who could Choose but smile to see one leap and skip as ayming to soar fly in the Ayr knowing it to be possible onely for Birds that are fitted with wings and feathers for the purpose Indeed to point at any particular that doth keep the Commandements is hard no man knowing Eccles 9. whether he be worthy of love or hatred But that all in generall may keep them Christ himselfe assures it 2. Tim 2. Willing all to be saved God wills nothing impossible and he that wills the end wills the meanes 3. True it is neither Men nor Angells can love God as he is loveable that 's a perfection God onely is capable of nevertheless it is in the power both of Angells and Men to love God so far forth as the capacity of their condition reacheth which though it be a perfection of a lower degree yeâ— it is sufficient to denominate and render the subject it is in perfect And even this I confess is aâ— effect which Gods grace hathâ— chief hand in but that is no Baâ— for Man having his share to Grace and Nature are not inconsistent yea Grace supporteth nay bettereth Nature they may then joyn and endeavour together as two of unequall strength drawing a boat one draweth more but yet both draw The part Grace acts in the working of salvation is to enlighten the understanding move and enable the Will The part Man acts is to comply with Grace Cor. 6.1 to yield and consent to her good Motions Apocj 3.20 Wherefore salvation is the work not of Grace alone nor of man alone but of Grace and Man joyning hand and heart together St Austin Tom. 10. Serm. 15. de verb. Apost post med speakes truth He that made you without you will not justifie you without you CHAP. 7. Of Religion 1 SUch is the dread of Gods awfull Majesty imprinted in Man that the most bararous people deem it a duty to set apart some time to worship him in the light of reason teaching that a certain return of honour and veneration is due from the effect to its cause whereby to express subjection gratitude and thankfullness and albeit impiety wants not Proselites that rejecting the Deity refuse to do him homage their folly is to be imputed to lack of grace and not oâ— the said light as appeares by readiness observeable in them to suffer for their opinion If thâ— other world yield no Punisher nâ— Rewarder no Hell nor Heaven it is madness to fear and vain prodigality to give away life the chief good and best flower of natures garden 2. This naturall propension to praise and magnify God begets religious acts and Religious acts that great moral vertue called Religion but Religion in a more common acception consists in Beliefe not humane grounded upon Reason but divine relying on the Churches Authoritie and the assistance of the holy Ghost It is the doctrine of Christ delivered by himself in plain and express terms Mar. 16. All power is given to me in heaven and in earth goe ye therefore and preach the Gospell unto all nations hee that believeth shall be saved he that believeth not shall be condemned Jo. 14. I will send unto you the holy Ghost who shall teach you all Truth Christ here speakes to the Apostles the Church giveth power to preach the Gospell to the Apostles the Church promiseth salvation to Believers of the Apostles the Church threatens damnation to unbelievers of the Apostles the Church lastly that there may be no pretence for disobedience he assureth to the Apostles the Church a peculiar assistance of the holy Ghost whose proper effect is to keep power from excess and failing 3. Not a word of or to Reason what colour then for attributing so much to Reason and so little to the Church as to deny Christ to have intrusted her with his Truth as if the Gospell were not Christs truth or Christs impowering the Church to preach the Gospell meant any other thing than to intrust her with his truth Had Reason the preheminence of Belief St Paul would not have subjected Reason unto Belief bidding all
THE RIGHT RELIGION Reviewed and inlarged By L. P. Gent. John 24. No man cometh to the Father but by Me. Ezekiel 13. Woe be to foolish prophets that follow their own spirit they see nothing but vain things and divine lies saying The Lord whereas the Lord hath not sent them Printed at PARIS M.DC.LVIII TO THE CATHOLIKES OF ENGLAND THe old saying Truth purchaseth hatred is verified at this time wherein Truth is grown so loathsome and hatefull that whosoever goes about to tell it indangers displeasure It is strange that any can take distast at that all desire which is to know the truth Truth being the natural pleasing object of the understanding Neverthelesse such is the perverseness and vanity of some that they despise and maligne what ought most of all to be cherisht and loved of whom it is said They preferred darkness before light Joh. 3. Having then undertaken in this small Treatise to declare Gods revealed Truth I should be wanting to my self in so dangerous an enterprize if I did make choice of any other Patronage than yours Renowned Catholikes whose many and glorious sufferings for the said Truth have rankt you in the number of the best and greatest Conquerors Others hold dependence of Fortun you of Grace they surmount force and strength common to beasts you Reason and Will proper to men They overcome vanquish'd men you conquerors themselves their conquest is of others onely yours of others and your selves too In a word all the addition that is to be made to your greatness is a continuance of patience and constancy And this God hath in store and will give conditionally that you ask it heartily He that hath begun a good work in you desires no better than to perfect the same What need you fear your enemies may hurt themselves but want power to wrong you unlesse you will Nay their worst is your best taking away your estates your good names bereaving you of your Liberties your lives those bruta fulmina which render them so formidable begets you a richer and surer possession Heaven and Eternity All the pudder they keep in vexing you is but sowing your seed for you which undoubtedly will grow up to an hundred fold increase Let them hammer cut hew you till they are weary they do no more than carve and fit you for the walls of Heaven And who can justly say he is a loser that changes for better gets much with the losse of little Take a serious view of the B. Saints that passed as you do through a sea of calamites and troubles and are now at rest with God and amongst them all you will not discover one complaining The richnesse and magnificence of their reward hath so fully recompensed their forrows and losses that they wonder at the unwillingnesse and repining of some to part with and at the greedinesse and injustice of others to wrest from that which neither can long keep For the covenant betwixt birth and death stands firm and inviolable as that gives all things this must return all bare and naked This I know is meer folly to hardened Libertines that look not beyond the fading pleasures of this life but not to melting Christians who believe and are assured that Heaven is a Reward a Gole a Crown which are not to be atchieved by sitting still by leading a licentious and inordinate life but by flying evill overcoming temptations doing good and vertuous acts Take heart therefore brave Champions and be not daunted for your greater comfort and incouragement rest assured that God is with you yea marshalls the very field you fight in and when he sees it for your spirituall advantage he will either cause a retreat to sound that you may have a time of breathing in this world or crown you with victory that he may have just cause to reward you in the next Then your persecutors will be at a stand have no more to say to you and your troubles will be at an end your mourning out your cries and sighs cease your grievances heard and redressed your teares dried up the sweat of your browes wiped away and finding your excessive gain unspeakeable joy will seize your hearts and make you glad that you had the grace and courage to suffer for so good and gracious a God For my part I shall ever acknowledge your greatness admire your glory and from your goodness raise to my self a hope that you will dart a ray to quicken and cherish these my indeavours whereby you will add an obligation to my being Your devoted Friend and Servant L. P. To the Reader Good Reader OF many Religions professed in this land severall Writers men of approved integrity and profound learning have so clearly demonstrated that there is onely one true and that the Roman is it that I cannot but impute the ungenerall acknowledging of the same to prejudice or impatience of labor To prejudice in them that have read their works and yet do not believe accordingly To impatience of labor in others that will not bestow the paines to turn over great volumes The best remedy for that sort of men is to implore the Divine Goodness for cleane and unbiass'd hearts without which it is not possible to behold the radiancy of Truth For this J have endeavoured to draw Catholike Belief into a narrow room as a vast world into a small Map to the end that with a little travails much may be discovered Jn pursuance whereof J shew in the first place the end of man in the next the will of God and the means which he hath appointed to attain to this end Then I evince the weakness and vanity of such pretences as divers make to this and other means Lastly the true Church appears in her right colours And for as much as Truth shines brighter by opposition after the manne◠of contraries the mainest Objections of Adversaries are propose◠and solved By all which if Go◠prove to be glorifyed and you rea◠benefit I shall have the return 〈◊〉 desire and wish my aime being 〈◊〉 other than Gods Glory and you◠good THE Right Religion reveiw'd c. CHAP. 1. Of happinesse 1 THE severall knowledges of things within and above the reach of Reason are sufficient Evidences that there is a naturall and a supernaturall state in both which God is the beginning and end of all 2. In the naturall for who is so short-sighted that doth not see that what hath been is at this present existent and visible was not alwayes so That then it could not produce it selfe out of the void state of nothing and by consequence that it needed an active Beginning that never was nothing and ever something whereby to bring nothing to existence and being And who so stupid that doth not feele want or satiety in the possession of whatsoever is created or made Honours expose as Cedars on Hills to the boysterous storms of Envy and malice lift up high to make the fall greater
3. By the first conformity Man comes to the knowledge of God as he is the Author and end of Grace by the second relies upon his mercy and goodnesse that in due time he will grant and give those good things which Christ hath taught us to ask in his prayer in the last he is taken with the beauty of his divine perfections and so in joyes him in a higher and more eminent manner Both Happinesses in this life are imperfect by reason of the glimmering light Man onely hath of God during the same they will be compleated and perfected in the next When Man after a willing complyance with Gods grace in this shall see him not as in a looking glasse 1 Cor. 13. but face to face as he is in himself CHAP. 4. Of the diversities of faiths hopes and charities 1 IT is demonstrable that there are divers sortes of Faiths Hopes and Charities as habituall and Actuall Divine Habituall and Actuall Humane for some believe hope for and love supernaturall things with the same if not more eagernesse and fervency than naturall which Actions suppose as effects their proper and proportioned causes supernatutall qualities naturall not being able in respect of their meaner extract on and dignity to give such noble births Those are called divine because infused by Gods extraordinary power these humane for that they are acquired by the strength of nature 2. The Habituall divine are the supernaturall qualities themselves The Actuall divine are acts of the will of understanding as raised and enabled to a higher pitch by those supernaturall qualities The Habituall humane are the acquired qualities themselves the Actuall humane are acts of the will and understanding as inclined and fitted for act on by those acquired qualities The Habituall and Actuall divine differ further from the Habituall and Actuall humane in their materiall and formall objects as also in the Means whereby those severall objects come to knowledge the materiall of Habituall and actuall divine being revealed Truths the formal Revelation the materiall of habituall and actuall humane unrevealed Truths the formall the light of Reason private reading or information The meanes of habituall and actuall Divine the Tradition of the Church of Habituall and actuall humane the light of Reason private reading or information 3. Now forasmuch as Christianity is a supernaturall building contrived and framed by the wisdome of God to last for ever of which Faith is the foundation Hope the walls and Charity the Roofe and perfection The conformities expressed in the precedent Chapter are to be understood of divine Faith Hope Charity and not of humane because all nature joyn'd gather'd in one is not able to make a Being above Nature And these are the vertues call'd Theological as having God immediatly for object the harmonious Sisters three in number but one in affection none desiring that which displeaseth other Greatness is their essentiall attribute yet Charity excells St. Paul 1 Cor. 13. compares them together extolls them all but in the close gives unto Charity the preheminence And not undeservedly for she is the enlivening soule of Faith and Hope and all the moral vertues both they and these being out of her company as dead bodies without life or motion as to heaven and Eternity CHAP. 5. Of the Churches power and infallibilitie in matters of Faith 1 SUpposing it for granted ' that Christs knowledge of Gods reaveled truth and his power to convey the same to beliefe raised his preaching teaching to the full height and perfection of a Rule of beliefe to the first Christians it cannot in reason be denied he having communicated his said knowledg and power to the Apostles in them to the succeeding Churches as appears by his own words All I have learnt of my father I have made known unto you Joh. 15. As my father sent me so I send you Joh. 20. but she may challeng a like interest and right in respect of after-Christians whence it followeth that all matters of Beliefe as well other points as scripture are to be taken upon her accompt and ciedit and that whatsoever comes upon any other score is to be reputed Apocryphall and no way appertaining to the Obligation of Beleife 2. St Paul declares this truth unto the Ephesians assuring them that they are builded upon no other foundation than the Apostles and Prophets Eph. 2. likewise to the Thessalonians 2. Thes 2. and Timothy 1 Tim 6. bidding them hold the traditions and keep the depositum and again if an Angell from heaven shall Evangelize any other than what I have Evangelized to you let him be accursed Gal. 7. The reason is cleare because the Rule of Beliefe is the Measure of beliefe beyond which there is not any conformity or obedience due from Beliefe 3. The usuall colour for believing more or lesse than the Church alloweth of grounded upon her pretended subjection to Errour is vain inasmuch as that very Christ that stored her with knowledge of Gods revealed truth and with power to convey the same hath also indowed her with inerrability whereby to convey it safely and without danger of miscarrying by arming her proof aginst all the enemies of truth against ignorance Mat. 13. To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven against darknesse Mat. 6. you are the light of the world against Errour and falshood Joh. 14. I will send unto you the spirit of truth to remaine with you for ever Jsaah 62. thou shalt no more be called forsaken against Weaknesse 1. Tim. 3. she is the Pillar and ground of truth Mat. 16. Hell gates shall not prevaile against her To make which good and the worke sure Christ called his eternall father to his aid prayed him and was heard for his reverence Heb. 5. And to prevent and cut off all occasions of imagining that these favours bestowed on the Church were not to survive the Apostles for a continuance in the succeeding Church Christ adds Behold I am with you all dayes to the end of the world Mat. 28. soe as it must be said that either Christ was not of power to keep his Church from straying or that he wanted fidelity to make good his word 4. The certanity divine faith requires to build on is a further Evidence of the Churches infallibility for how is it possible Faith can be certain if the Church that is to ascertain it be uncertain and fallible look on the Churches composure and nature and her strength will appear yet more by reason she is framed and made up of men dispersed and spread over the world who by this meanes being of severall Nations different tempers and interests neither could nor can meet or conspire to Cheat themselves and posterity with a lie That men of themselves are apt to mistake and deceive is from the purpose So the evangelists might have fallen short of performing their taske But as God holding their hands and guiding their pennes his holy word