the Church which the Holy Scriptures without any ambiguity do demonstrate To the end that because the Scripture cannot deceive us whosoever is afraid to be deceived by the obscurity of any question may have recourse to the Churches judgment concerning it which Church the Holy Scriptures demonstrate without any ambiguity Two things are suitable to our present purpose which are clear from hence First that though we may sometimes doubt what is Truth yet we can never doubt which is the true Church demonstrated to us by the Scriptures upon whose judgment while we rely we are secure from holding any thing contrary to the written Word commending to us her Authority Secondly That though the Scriptures are Infallible and cannot deceive us yet if we will not deceive our selves and kill our Souls by the dead Letter without the quickning sense we must believe what the Church believes submitting our private reason to her publick Interpretation For else let Hereticks never so much boast of Scripture for them we may tell them in the words of the same Saint This ye Cont. Faust l. 32. c. 19. seem to do that Scriptures may loose all Authority while every one may allow or disallow what his own mind suggests to him out of them That is may not subject his Faith to the Authority of Scripture but subject Scripture to his Faith It being indeed the property of all Hereticks not to take sense from but to bring sense to those Sacred Oracles forcing them by manifest distortions or dark conjectures to speak in defence of their prejudicated Tenets and so make nothing of Scripture while they seem to value nothing else Now what remedy against this intolerable abuse of the Word of God and everlastingly-quarrelproducing evil but that of Origen Quoties c. As often as they Hereticks Ho. in Mat. Praef. l. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bring forth Canonical Scriptures which no Christian but believes and assents to they seem to say Behold the word of Truth is in our Houses but we must not believe them nor depart from the Primitive Ecclesiastical Tradition nor believe otherwise then as the Churches of God by succession have deliver'd to us And to put them to silence with that of L. de Praes p. 19. Tertullian We must not appeal to Scriptures neither is the controversy to be setled upon them in which either there will be no victory at all or very uncertain Yea there is no good got by disputing out of Texts of Scripture that is as interpretable by private reason and play'd upon by wit but either to make a man sick or mad But that is only to be believed for for Truth which in nothing disagrees from the Tradition of the Church Thus he fully agreeing with Origen in the fore-quoted place And I cannot omit here what the glorious Bishop of Hippo hath so apposite for our present purpose to his Catechumens The Holy Church the Church which is one the true S. Aust de Symb. lib. 1. v. 6. Church the Catholick Church fights against all Heresies She may be resisted but cannot be conquer'd All Heresies have gone out of her as unprofitable branches cut off from the Vine see Protestants your Original but she remains in her Root in her Charity The gates of Hell shall not prevail against her Nor that to Honoratus when therefore we see God standing for us and so much fruit and proficiency doubt we to repose our L. de util Cred. c. 17. selves in the bosom of that Church which from the Apostolical Chair by Successions of Bishops Hereticks on all sides barking in vain against her hath obtain'd Supremacy of Power To whom not to give the chief is truly either the highest Impiety or harebrain Arrogance Thus the Fathers always brought Believers to the Church for a firm foundation in tottering times there they cast Anchor and fix'd themselves amidst the storms of Controversies and Contentions rais'd by unreasonable men with the wind of strange Doctrines lest they should make Shipwrack of their Holy Faith this still they prest upon all Christians in doubts of Disputations the Church the Church believe the Church the Pillar and ground of Truth the Sacred Depository of revealed Verities the rich Store-house of all things belonging to Salvation protected by Christ to the Worlds end endowed with the certain gift of Truth by the special guidance of the Holy Ghost founded upon a Rock that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against her Which is nothing else but what they had learn'd and received from Scripture and Tradition A Truth so convincing that it extorted from Dr. Field a great Patron of the English Protestants In his Book of the Church words to this effect Controversies are now a days grown to that height and so numerous and intricate that few have time to discuss and search into them thoroughly for satisfaction fewer wit and abilities to do it as such a business of concernment require that no security remains but to fly into the arms of the Church and acquiess in her judgments and definitions But from words let us proceed to deeds from the Doctrine to the practice of Antiquity SECT IX The aforesaid Authority of the Church cleared and demonstrated by the constant practice of all Ages IF we cast our eyes through the whole Christian World not a Popish Priest in the exercise of his Spiritual Jurisdiction but is in some sort a practical proof of this Authoritative Power wherewith the Church is invested by Jesus Christ Yet residing more eminently and with larger extent in Bishops the supreme Order of the Clergy made Overseers of their respective Flocks by the Holy Ghost it appears more gloriously visible in the Decrees and Acts of General Councils the highest Ecclesiastical Tribunal determining all emergent Controversies in Spiritual matters with Anathemae's against all Contradictors whatsoever And Catholicks in all Ages acknowledging their Sacred and obliging Authority paid most inviolably the just Tribute of Obedience to their Decisions with submission of their private Judgments and Opinions however rational before they seem'd unto them So that what points soever were once declared to be of Faith by lawful and approved Councils those who persisted in the contrary Doctrines where accounted Hereticks and being justly Excommunicated for such incorrigible obstinacy shunn'd by all the Faithful as no better than Heathens and Publicans Now I cannot think that English Protestants will say though such Decrees issued out from General Councils yet it was by an usurped Power not of Right and so though such exact obedience was paid by Christians to them yet it was in their own prejudice and not of duty or obligation though truely in deeds they assert it because they pretend much veneration to the first four General Councils and Bishop Montague one of the Learnedest In his Appello ad Casa men they ever had proceeds so far as to defend against his more zealous Brethren of Romes ruine the
Ecclesia vera neminem latere potest S. Aug de vnit Eccl. cap. 14. our and his Apostles 't is to continue by a non-interrupted visible succession of Pastors and People to the Worlds end Which is no less express in Scripture than the former Take it from the mouth of an Angel And of his Kingdom there shall Luke 1. 18 be no end Or if that be not sufficient from the Sacred Lips of Truth Mat. 16. 18. it self Vpon this rock will I build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it What but for a time No not so But behold Mat. 28. 20. I am with you always even to the Worlds end This universality is as essential to make the Church Catholick as the former and hereby 't is not only distinguish'd from the Jewish Worship which being Ceremonial and Typical was but to continue for a time and to vanish when the Sun of Righteousness appeared But also from all Shismatical and Heretical Communions of false Christians who separating themselves from this Catholick Church thus founded to continue for ever do erect new Congregations distinct from it Which new-born Communions whatever were their pretences to separate from the old though professing the name of Christ Catholicks did never account any more true Members of Christs Mystical Body or part of the Universal Church as now Protestants pretend to be since their separation then either Jews or Heathens who never acknowledged Christ to their Saviour Witness St. Irenaeus We must obey I. 4 contr Haer. ca. 13 those Priests that are in the Church those that have a succession from the Apostles c. And all the rest who have departed from the original succession where ever they be assembled are to be look'd upon as Hereticks or Schismaticks and all these fall from the Truth Witness St. Austin whom some Epist 48. contr Dom. call the Tongue of the Church and certainly he speaks her Doctrine when he tells the Donatists You are with us in Baptism in the Creed and in the other Sacraments of our Lord but in the Spirit of Vnity and finally in the Catholick Church you are not with us And therefore he says confidently with us elsewhere Let him adore Idols saith the Devil he 's mine let him remain in the superstition of the Jews he 's mine let him quit Vnity and pass over to This or That or any Heresie he 's mine And no wonder seeing that corruptio optimi est pessima Nothing is so bad as the greatest good corrupted For though extensive Judaism and Paganism involve a far greater number of damnable errors yet intensive more malignity is often couch'd in Schism and Heresy by reason of their exceeding perverseness and obstinacy being sins against the greater light and means of grace to come to the acknowledgement of truth Now the Protestants finding themselves wholly at a loss in this particular it being impossible for them to shew a visible succession of their Doctrine and Government in Pastors and People from Christ and his Apostles to this present Age which is a sufficient evidence they neither are the true Church nor any part of it they will by no means allow the word Catholick in the Creed to be understood of a un-interrupted visible succession of Christian Belief and Worship in external Communion as Antiquity interprets it but referring it to Doctrine S. Aug. Ep. 48. only will needs have it sufficient to be true Members of the Catholick Church to profess the name of Christ and believe some Articles always taught and acknowledged though of a distinct Communion wholly and in many points of a different belief from the perpetually visible Church And think they have done enough to prove their Church Universal in respect of time because the Church of Rome from whom they separated did never fail nor cease to be a true Church though as these men pretend much corrupted Which to my apprehension is as much as to say that they who are of different Faiths in a different Communion are notwithstanding of the same Faith in the same Communion and parts separated from the Body yet actually continue Members of it And that a Commonwealth of ten years old may justly maintain themselves to be of a thousand years standing because Monarchy which they cast out to set up their new Common-wealth was of such continuance by a visible succession and agrees with them in some common Principles of Reason and Government Who can resolve these riddles Are not these pretty props to uphold the new Protestant Church to be of the Ancient Catholick Faith Strange Can men of Reason satisfy their Consciences in what concerns eternal Salvation What is the Catholick Church but a Congregation of Believers united in Faith and Worship And yet to hem these men in Jerusalem must not be as a City at unity with it self but a body composed of Antipathies and Contradictions Let them speak ingenuously will not this way of arguing make Arrians and Donatists or any old condemned Hereticks to be Members of the Catholick Church as well as Protestants The Arrians did deny but one point of Catholick belief and were cast out And shall the Protestants who deny many be kept in and reputed Members Shall that absolve the Protestants which condemns the Arrians For 't is not denying this or that but any point of the Catholick Faith with pertinacy whatever it be though Heresies may be more or less malignant and dangerous that casts us out of the true Church and makes us cease to be actual Members of it Besides can they as a Protestant Communion have a perpetual visible succession from the Apostles and yet begin to appear first in the World in the days of King Henry the viii 100 years since and somewhat more Is it any thing to their purpose to produce a visible Congregation of Believers in a never-interrupted succession of the same Faith with them in sueh point wherein they agree with the Catholick Church when such points are not those which constitute them a Protestant Church but those wherein they differ from us If they will with any shew of reason defend their Protestant Faith as such to have universality of time from the Apostles they must produce a visible Body of Christians in Church-Communion professing those points wherein they differ from the Roman Church and for which they separated from her and condemning those points and practices in her which they now do Otherwise to talk of a perpetual succession of the Protestant Religion in a Communion from the Apostles to their present Pastors is no better then a sick mans dream or any airy Vtopia without any real beeing or existence Now the Puritan-Protestants and many other Sects either not well considering the grounds why the most Learned of the Reformation defend the Church of Rome to be a true Church and perpetually visible or else plainly seeing the impossibility of rationally maintaining their deductions thereon depending
un-interrupted Succession of lawful Pastors and true Doctrine Scripture is very copious I shall name a few A City seated on a Hill cannot be hid The Mat. 5. 14. Is 2. 2. Psal 18. mountain of the house of our Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains In sole posuit tabernaculum suum Isa 59. 21. My Spirit which is thee and my words which I have put into thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy Seed for ever All Dan. 7. 13 14. Nations Tribes and Tongues shall serve him his power is an eternal power that shall not be taken away and his kingdom shall not be corrupted Thou art Peter and upon this Mat. 16. Rock will I build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Christ gave some Apostles some Eph. 4. 11 c. Prophets some Evangelists some Pastors some Doctors for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edification of the Body of Christ c. 'Till we all meet in the unity of Faith and be not as Children toss'd about with the wind of every Doctrine See more in Esa 62 Ezek. 37. Matt. 5. 15. c. From which and such like places this Major Proposition is evident As also from Antiquity We must seek for Truth among whom the Succession L. 4. de hae c. 45. of the Church from the Apostles and the Purity of Doctrine is maintain'd in its Integrity So St. Iraeneus What I believe says Tertullian I received L. de praesc c. 37. from the present Church the present Church from the Primitive that from the Apostles the Apostles from Christ. And St. Austin tells us That the succession of Priests from the Contr. Ep. Fund c. 4. very seat of Peter to the present Bishop held him in the Church Which if it shall not continue here on earth to the end of the World to whom did our Lord say Behold I am with you alwayes to the Worlds end It is easier L. 3. de Bapt. cont Donat. saith St. Chrysost that the Sun should be extingush'd then the Church should be obscured Concerning which St. De utilit cred c. 7. Austin assures us The Prophets have spoken more plainly and manifestly then of Christ himself And therefore 't is no wonder the same Saint affirms That the Church hath this most certain mark that it cannot be hid Cont. Petil. c. 104. And certainly it is not hid except to those that are lost the Children of perdition who seeing will not see and hearing will not understand Who shut their eyes against a light set upon a Candlestick and are so blind as not to see so great a mountani as the Catholick Church As the same Father complains of the Hereticks of his days From which premisses thus prov'd it invincibly follows that the Protestant L. 3. cont Parm. and all other Heretical and Schismatical Churches being wholly destitute of these inseparable badges or marks of the true Church viz. Universality perpetual visibility by an uninterrupted Succession of Pastors and People from Christ and his Apostles to this time cannot possibly be the true Church Whose builder and preserver is God All which manifestly belonging to the Church of Rome and those in Communion with her by most undoubted Records of all Ages it likewise as inevitably follows that this Church of Rome only is the true Catholick Church and all other Communions but false Worshippers Thus briefly of these indubitable marks of the true Church from Sacred Scripture so much made use of by the Ancient Fathers to reduce the Hereticks and Schismaticks of their times to the Catholick unity that I may not too long detain you from beholding Miracles wrought by God in his Holy Church for the confirmation of our Faith SECT II. That Miracles were vouchsafed always to the True Church SUch is the Sublimity and Purity of Christian Doctrine so sublime in respect of knowledge so pure in respect of practice that if there was nothing else to witness that it came from Heaven they of themselves are sufficient evidences that the Author of it can be no less then of incomprehensible Wisdom and infinite Holiness Notwithstanding as God was pleas'd by wonderful Signs and frequent Miracles to set his Seaâ— to attest the truth of it that it might find entertainment from contradictors so in after Ages in opposition not only to all false Religions who deny Christ and maintain their Worship to be right but also to many seduced Christians who pretend to have among them the Purity of this Doctrine the same infinite Goodness hath more or less continued Miracles in his Church that we may see with our eyes what we ought to believe with our hearts and not be deceived by false Teachers This Heavenly Testimony God vouchsafed to the Jewish Worship whilst it was in force and therefore cannot in reason be denyed to the Christian Church being in every respect a Ministration much more Divine and Glorious and no less standing in need of such a Priviledge Moses brought forth the Children of Exod. Israel from the house of bondage in signs and wonders and mighty deeds The Sun stood still at the Prayer of Jos 10. Joshua and went back 15 degrees Isa 38. at the earnest request of Hezekiah The bones of Elizeus the Prophet rais'd a dead man to life The constant cure Joh. 5. 3 c. of Lame and Diseased persons in the Pool of Bethesda immediately after the motion of the water by an Angel was a standing Miracle c. All which with many more were evident Testimonies of the Divine presence among them that the Creator and Governour of Heaven and Earth was their God in a special manner and they his peculiar Church and People To which might be added their many Prophets of extraordinary Power and Sanctity not only miraculous in their predictions but sometimes mighty in signs and deeds Though 't is observable that St. John the Baptist though more then a Prophet then whom none greater was born of women yet did no Miracle to attest his Mission Doubtless not without some singular cause perhaps because the Jewish Synagogue was then expiring and giving place to the Christian Church as a Handmaid to her Mistress or glimmering twi-light to the Sun arising in beams of Glory The most remarkable Miracles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ are left unto his Church by the Evangelists in the History of his Life and Death That we might believe and believing have Life Eternal by him After the Holy Apostles had received Power from above by descent of the Holy Ghost upon them to fit them for the great work of converting all Nations to Christianity what wonders and signs were frequently wrought by them in the first planting of the Gospel are made famous and wellknown to us Acts. in their Acts related by St. Luke
that what she teaches as of Faith she so received from the Age immediately foregoing and so from Age to Age from Millions of Sons to their Fathers up to the Apostles and the Sacred Mouth of Christ himself From Church-Tradition thus explain'd briefly may be drawn those Positions First that the Doctrine taught by Christ and his Apostles comprises all points necessary to salvation Secondly That all such points taught by Christ and his Apostles have been continued in the Church from believing Fathers to their Children by an un-interrupted succession without Diminution or Addition and shall so continue for ever Which involves these two Propositions that nothing comes to us upon the tenure of Faith but what is of Tradition Yea though contain'd in Scripture seing we only are ascertain'd what Books the Apostles wrote and what is the true sense of them by Tradition And that there are no new points of Faith in the Christian Church quoad Substantiam as to the substance of what is reveal'd the present Church only believing what it received from precedent Ages Which assertion whosoever opposes contradicts not me but the Sublime Angelical Doctor St. Thomas expresly teaching that in Doctrina Christi Apostolorum c. 22ae 1 q. ar 10. ad 1am 2am Et in 1a par q. 32. ar 4. corp In the Doctrin of Christ and his Apostles the Truth of Faith is sufficiently unfolded but because perverse men pervert the Doctrin of the Apostles and other Doctrines and Scriptures to their own Destruction as is said in the 2 Ep. of St. Peter and the last Chap. Therefore the explication of Faith was necessary against arising Errors in after-times not containing another Faith but the same more clear'd Thirdly That this universal Tradition or handing of Christian Doctrin by oral Teaching and visible practice of the Christian World is and was the constant Rule of Faith as well after as before the Scriptures were written and received by the Church The first Thesis or Position though it hath been deny'd by some Hereticks as namely the Montanists yet is not controverted between us and Protestants The proof lies upon the second which being demonstrated the third will follow of it self and cannot be deny'd with show of Reason SECT III. The clearness and certainty of Tradition in delivering Matters of Faith NO other externe prudential evidence or assurance in matters of Divine Faith whose efficient Cause is Divine Grace is necessarily requir'd then a Moral certainty that what is propos'd to be believ'd as of Faith is the very same Doctrin which was taught by Christ and his Apostles Which assurance neither is nor can be had among Protestants who build their new Church upon their own confused and unsteady Interpretations of Scripture But is manifestly to be found in that Communion of Christians viz. the Church of Rome which grounds its Faith as to such evidence upon Universal Tradition a Principle not well lyable to Error and therefore cannot rationally be expected to fail those who relie upon it As I shall endeavour to demonstrate thus Christian Religion is supernatural descending from Heaven to us by Revelation that is such a one as is not to be learn'd but from Almighty God and his Missioners namely from Christ and his Apostles and so successively from them brought down to us by Church-Profession Wherefore the Apostles being Commissionated by him to whom was given all Power in Heaven and Earth to this end and purpose deliver'd to the World wholly and entirely the Law of Jesus Christ making so long stay in those places principally in which by mutual consent they had chosen to plant the Gospel 'till by often inculcation it was written in their hearts and by practice so confirm'd and clear'd to their Judgments that rationally they could not mistake or doubt concerning any points so deliver'd all things being by this means sufficiently provided for the constituting and governing of the Church Now though the Apostles were many yet being all taught by the same Master impowered by the same Commission and guided by the same Spirit in all parts of the World did bring up their Disciples in the belief and practice of the same Doctrin and Discipline to continue for ever so that all particulaâ— Churches though of different Nationâ— and Languages founded by several Instructers and so far distant from one another yet did harmoniously meet in the unity of Faith in all points Traditionary whatsoever Neither could it be otherwise they only believing what was taught them by the Apostles and these only teaching them what they receiv'd from Christ and were Infallibly directed in by the extraordinary assistance of the Holy Ghost Amongst which Apostolical Doctrines one main Article was That there should be in all Ages to the Worlds end an Vniversal Visible Body of Pastors and People term'd a Catholick Church Divinely assisted and authoriz'd to preserve teach and hand down to Posterity without Error all Truths necessary to Salvation This Catholick Church thus founded practis'd and taught their Children what they received from the Apostles condemning by her Authorative Rule of Tradition all such for Hereticks and Shismaticks who taught any contrary Doctrines and divided from them By this easie method all Critical Disputations about points of Faith were cut off having only to inquire what had been taught and practis'd from the beginning and to receive all Doctrines witnessed for such by the voice of the 1 Tim. 3. 15. present Church The Pillar and ground of Truth and consequently Infallible in her Attestation Who leave this Rule must needs be obnoxious to Error but how those who stick close to so safe a Principle should fail is morally inconceivable For such Traditionary Doctrines abstracting from Authority cannot loose but gather strength by time because the multitude of Believers increafing and delivering to their Children all points of Faith as they received them the Tradition becomes more famous and universal carrying along with it a greater evidence of Truth and moral Impossibility to be deceiv'd Unless we will say that the Mystical Body of Christ so diffus'd and numerous can forget to day what they believ'd and acted yesterday and so ignorantly mistake or knowingly conspire together to teach their Children to receive any Doctrines as originally proceeding from Christ and his Apostles which yet they never had from their immediate Fore-fathers upon that tenure Questionless that such a Body of Christians should be wrought upon wilfully to damn their own and others Souls by attempting to gull the World to their faces in a business of no less then Eternal Interest or that in things of so high a nature so visible so easily contradicted they should prevail to introduce the belief of a noon-day Lye is surely to be rank'd in a high degree of Impossibility And whososever sees it not as such I know not whether all the Hellibore in Anticyra will cure him For where can one pick a hole in the everlasting coat of universal
Traditionary points may be involved in those Texts So that we may safely argue thus far from such expositions they held such Tenets or else they would not have applyed those places for the confirmation of such Doctrines though such Doctrines cannot manifestly be concluded from those places And therefore when Protestants rationally show that some Texts so applyed by the Fathers may admit their Interpretations yea sometimes perhaps with greater probability they must not think they then carry the cause against Them and Us in those points This indeed is enough for Catholicks to do in all Controversies of Faith against Protestants who depend wholly upon Scripture as explicated by Wit and private Reason or Spirit for their Religion But it is no concluding argument against some Ancients for their over-credulity as I may say in relying on such Texts for some points now denyed by Protestants or against the present Church of Rome as relying upon them when that the Fathers neither did nor doth the Church of Rome now only rely upon such Texts for those particular points nor yet upon Scripture for any point of Faith at all but as handed and fensed to us by Tradition But to conclude this point seing Scripture thus manifestly descends to us by a lower degree of Tradition than Christian Doctrine and being received for the Word of God upon the credit of Tradition by Protestants themselves we cannot enough wonder at their unreasonable prevarication in taking the Churches word for the whole Rule of their Belief and yet refusing to rely upon her credit for any one Article of Faith in acknowledging her Authority Infallible in the delivery of the Letter and yet denying to believe her Tradition for the Ssense nor will be perswaded to conform to her in those points and practices which are handed to us by her attestation with far greater evidence of credibility And this being clear to me could I any longer continue a Protestant Had I not all the reason in the world to become a Catholick The second ground of the first Motive viz. The Authority or Infallibility of the Church in determining all Controversies concerning Faith and defining what is of Faith and what not when call'd in question SECT VI. An Introductive Discourse concerning the Judiciary Power of the Church YEt notwithstanding this certainty of Tradition handing from Age to Age the Evangelical Law with so much evidence unreasonable men have arose of perverse minds questioning and contradicting the Truths of Jesus Christ Insomuch that hardly yea perhaps not any one fundamental point of Christianity but hath been controverted in some Age or other Wherefore as Tradition is a constant Rule so the Wisdom and Goodness of Almighty God hath provided in his Church an Authoritative Judge to give Sentence by the guidance of the said Rule if there happen to be contentions about matters of Faith among Believers For unless in such cases an Authoritative Judge be allowed to give a definitive Sentence from which there is no appeal by the contending Parties for the decision of such Controversies Authoritatively assuring us what Doctrines were taught by Christ and his Apostles if denyed and what not when falsly pretended Actum est de fide unitate Faith and Church-unity must necessarily be destroyed and all Religion lost in a Chaos of disagreeing judgments without any probability of reconcilement A supreme and unerring Judicature being then absolutely necessary for the ordering and preserving of the Church in all things essential to Salvation how little satisfaction and that not without just cause I received in this point from the English Protestants who indeed grant a Judge but one wholly Inefficacious to this purpose yea impossible to reconcile Dissenting Litigants as the super-abundant experience of above sixteen hundred years for all Hereticks fly to the dead Letter of Scripture for their refuge hath sufficiently evidenc'd I shall make hereafter appear in the examination of their Rule and Judge and for the present endeavour to demonstrate how all Christians ought to be contented and acquiess as I did in what the Church of Rome teaches and the Catholick Church always hath and doth practice on such occasions Now what the Catholick Church teacheth and always hath delivered in this point is briefly this That all Divine Truths taught by Christ and his Apostles necessary to Salvation whether Traditionary only or also Written are deposited in the Church as a Witness to attest them and as a Judge Divinely assisted to Interpret and give an Authorative Sentence if their be any Controversy about them which all Christians are obliged to believe and follow under pain of Damnation A Doctrine brought down to us from the Apostolical Times by a more visible practice and unquestionable Tradition than the Scriptures themselves which yet the Protestants receive for the Word of God upon the same Authority What concerns the Church as a Sacred Depository of all Revealed Truths written and unwritten hath already been manifested in the precedent Discourse And that the Spouse of Christ is an Authoritative Judge or Infallible Guide to determine all Controversies of Faith among her Children that they may know with security what to believe and follow according to their Duty I hope shall be made no less evident in the following Sections SECT VII That there is a Supreme Visible Judge to decide Controversies in matters of Religion Instituted by Christ Infallible in all points of Faith to which as such all Christians are obliged to a submission of Judgment under pain of Damnation is here made apparent from Scripture And some further Reasons also given TO acknowledge a visible Judge to interpret and apply Laws in Controversial matters is so conform to common Sense and Reason and so confirmed by the experience and practice of the whole World in all kinds of Governments that to deny such a Power from God in his Church is in effect to say That Jesus Christ the Wisdom of the Father hath not so well provided for the regulating and preservation of his Kingdom and peculiar People purchased with his own most precious Blood in order to their eternal Good and Happiness as meer men subject to manifold weaknesses and Passions do by the common Light of Nature and ordinary Principles of Prudence and Discretion provide for the well-being of Families and Commonwealths in Temporal matters A Position unavoidably drawing after it so many strange and to say no worse dangerous consequences that they will be here better lamented than infisted upon But because Protestants whom I have forsaken fly to Scripture as the only Infallible Judge in all Controversial matters of Faith thither I shall bring them first to be tryed and show them out of those Sacred Oracles of Divine Truth which they acknowledge what ample and most abundantly satisfactory provision the Wisdom and Goodness of Almighty God hath made and left in his Church to bring us securely to the certain knowledge of his revealed will nothing being wanting on
contradicts the Justice Goodness and Veracity of God to authorize any to be a witness of his Truth that might lye and deceive the World in their attestation And methinks it concerns as well English Protestants as Us to maintain the Catholick Church for an Infallible Witness seeing at this distance from the Preaching of Christ and his Apostles they as well as we have no other Infallible assurance then her Testimony whereby to know either which are the undoubtd Books of Scripture or what the true meaning of them And thus that Religion which Protestants pretend to be contain'd in only Scripture must rejecting Church Authority necessarily float in an Ocean of incertainties and we miserably be left in the mysts of conjectures among dead Letters with the twi-light of natural reason to search out Faith and the Eternal Salvation of our Souls Lastly the fore-quoted Texts being so express for the Church to have a Power from Christ to oblige all men under pain of Damnation to believe and submit to her Proposals as to Faith God hath also endowed her with Infallibility in bringing to our knowledge revealed Verities seeing otherwise such a Power in the Church and a correspondent obligation in her Children would not bear an equal proportion And therefore these two are inseparably link'd together a Power to bind to Believe and Infallibility in the Obliger Christ assisting his Church with his Holy Spirit to guide her Infallibly into all Truth because he hath invested her with a Power to bind to believe and giving her a Power of obliging to believe because he hath made her Infallible in such Proposals It seeming most conformable to the Divine Goodness and Providence that such an externe proponant of Faith should be established as might afford no just cause to suspect whither it be true or no which is proposed and in all reason no greater assurance can be desired then to have an absolute certainty that that Authority cannot err in points of Faith to whom we must in such Proposals captivate our Wills and Understandings For this is but to assent upon undoubted evidence then which nothing is more agreeable to mans nature Neither is it rational to believe that God who is essential Reason and Wisdom ruling all his Creatures according to the several Dispositions Imprinted in them would impose such a Duty on Discoursive Entities upon other terms Blessed be God who hath so carefully provided for us in giving us a Law which is the only means to Salvation and also an authorized guide to direct us in the certain knowledge of it namely the Catholick which cannot possibly lead us into errour as hath been formerly shewn Thus certainly these Scriptures witnessing the Churches Authority are agreeable to reason now let us see what further light can be added to them from the Writings and universal practice of Antiquity SECT VIII The Churches Authority or Infallibility taught and asserted by the Ancient Fathers IF I should produce what Antiquity affords us on this Subject I should rather transcribe Books than Passages so Copious and Industrious have the Fathers been on all occasions to press a point so necessary S. Athana coni Aria S. Hier. S. Aug. Pole St. Cyp. de vnit Ecc. Tert. c. especially in their Polemical Discourses against Hereticks to vindicate their dear Mother the Church in her Just Rights and Priviledges against all Rebellious contradictors of her Authority And thither I refer such as desire more ample satisfaction for the present I shall content my self with some few choice places and they are these We must believe saith Irenaeus â— l. cont hae ca. 49. those Priests that are in the Church those that have a Succession from the Apostles who together with the Episcopal Power according to the good pleasure of the Father have received the certain gift of Truth We must not believe saith the English Protestant Church those who in their Episcopal Chaires have had an un-interrupted Succession from the Apostles seek not for the Law of God from their Lips for they are fallen from the Truth yea General Councils can err and have erred in Art 21. of the 39. their Definitions having no certain gist of Truth by Divine assistance Thus they flatly contradicting good Irenaeus and Ancient Doctrine Now whom shall we believe The old Saint or the new Protestant Give him a little more Audience for he proceeds thus The Church Cap. 62. l. praed shall be under no mans judgement for to the Church all things are known in which is the perfect Faith of the Father and of all the Dispensations of Christ and firm knowledge of the Holy Ghost who teacheth all Truth But say he what he will Protestants will assume a Power to judge and condemn her of no less gross and damnable Errours then Idolatry and Superstition to justify that thing they call the Reformed Church Though it were no difficult matter for them to perceive the Injustice of such Proceedings when the same Saint goes on and tells them and us That it is easie to receive the Truth from Gods Church seeing the Apostles have most fully deposited in her as in a rich store-house all things belonging to Truth For what if there should arise any contention of some small questions ought we not to have recourse to the most Ancient Churches and from them receive what is certain and clear concerning the present question Thus far he And if this course is to be taken in small questions doubtless much more in matters of high concern as many points are now controverted between Us and Protestants In such to be left to our own private conjectures and Interpretations would be most unsafe and unreasonable And had Protestants taken the course here prescribed by the Saint for the inquisition of Truth when they first raised questions about Religion as in such cases all Christians ought to do could ever such a thing as the Protestant Church have had a beeing or existence For 't is as visible as the Sun that there was no pre-existent form of Faith in the whole Christian World according to which they modeliz'd their Religion in England and with whom they communicated when they divided from the Church of Rome their Catholick Mother If great St. Austin was not little in esteem with our modern Hereticks they might receive full satisfaction from him in this point if they would Impartially peruse his Writings against the Donatists and other Enemies of the Churches Faith and Unity That of his is very remarkable against Crescontius Though saith he there cannot be produced Lib. 1. cap. 33. from Scriptures any examples of such a thing yet the Truth of the same Scriptures is held of us in this matter when we do that which pleaseth the whole Church which the Authority of the same Scriptures commendeth that because the Holy Scriptures cannot deceive us whosoever feareth to be deceived with the obscurity of this question let him require the judgment of
of Faith no General approved Synods did ever make contrary Decrees so that when any are shown opposite in words they may with sufficient satisfaction be reconciled and manifested to agree in the Catholick sense of Doctrine therein contain'd For could there be really contrary Decrees in points of Catholick Faith determin'd General Councils confirm'd by the Pope and received by the Church that would be eternally false and most unreasonable which is ratified for a most manifest Truth and most agreeable to right reason by universal Church-practice namely That all those who will not he accounted Hereticks must conform themselves to the Deerees of Oecumenical Synods And are the words of Vincentius Lyrynensis in his Admonitory against Prophane Novelties a Discourse as express for us as if it were now ex professo writ against Protestants in this controversy But not to be tedious I will close up these Testimonies so pregnant for the Infallibility of the Church declaring her Faith by Oecumenical Synods with the most famous Speech of St. Gregory the Great Sicut Sancti Lib. 1. Ep. 24 ad Pat. Constan Alexan. Evangelii c. I confess my self to receive and venerate the four Councils as the four Books of the Holy Gospel And then names them yet not with any intention to exclude the like esteem of the fifth being the second Ann. Ch. 553. General Council at Constantinople which afterwards he specifies and were all the General Councils celebrated before his happy Government of the universal Church Neither will the Protestants be ever able to give any satisfactory reason why they do not give the same veneration and acceptance to all approv'd Oecumenical Synods and in particular to that of Trent being confirmed by the same visible Head and received by the Body of the same Catholick Church And to make this more evident I will make a brief parallel of the Protestants Case with the Arians by them confess'd to be Hereticks by which I think will easily be discover'd that they can say nothing to justify themselves against that Council but will be as good and strong for the Arians against the Nicene Fathers their tryals being alike upon their disturbance of the Peace of the Church with new Doctrines and their condemnation alike by the same Authority If they say the Council of Trent was not a lawful General Council did not the Arians pretend the same against the Nicene Synod and all Hereticks take up the same Plea against the Councils by whom they were condemned If they say true they did so but They without cause We justly Let them give us a demonstration of this and we are satisfied and nothing else can carry it in this controversy Did not the Arians repute the Novatians Hereticks being condemned by a Council though not General And yet refus'd themselves to stand to the Nicene Synod though Oecumenical Why The Novatians say the Arians complain without cause We justly Did not the Nestorians and Eutychians abhor the the Arians as justly anathematiz'd by the Nicene Fathers and yet these refuse to obey the Decrees of the Chalcedon Council those of the Constantinopolitan Why The Arians contradicted without cause say the Nestorians and Eutychians but we justly In a word 't is a plea common to all condemned Hereticks with Protestants and if they would speak fully amounts to thus much We will receive no Councils farther then they agree with us and will never acknowledge or submit to any as lawful that condemn our Doctine For when they they have a long time hunted up and down for excuses this in reality is the only and justest cause they have of their disobedience If they appeal from the Council to the Scriptures as in their Opinion standing for them did not the Arians do the same And I dare be bold to say with far more probability then Protestants can pretend to in many points controverted between Them and Us. If they say they never had a fair hearing before Sentence was pass'd against them and that they were condemn'd by their Enemies being Judges in their own cause Did not or might not the Arians and any other Hereticks pretend the same against the respective Councils by which they were condemned And 't is all one as if some Rebels stubbornly refusing to answer for themselves in a just Tryal according to the establish'd Laws of the Kingdom which they have transgressed should after Sentence pronounc'd complain of Illegal proceedings as not being heard for themselves and having no reason to plead where the Party offended was their Judge by his Commissioners This is the parallel And seriously for my own part in the most Impartial examination of it I cannot see any possible evasion for the Protestants but that in all Doctrines of Faith wherein they contradict the present Church of Rome they are as notorious Hereticks by the decisions of the Council of Trent as the Arians for denying the Divinity of Christ by the Authoratative Sentence of the Nicene Fathers And to conclude this Section and Motive after all these express Texts of Scripture for the Churches Authority and Obedience unto her under pain of damnation with the sense of them so brought down to us by the Writings of Antiquity and Church-practice of her jurisdiction which is an evidence that all contrary Interpretations are false and spurious for any blinded with Interest or Passion to venture his eternal Salvation upon a May be otherwise or a probable argument deduced from Scripture leaning on the weak crutches of private reason or a particular Fallible Congregation is a strange and dangerous presumption For in Fine the Authority of the Catholick Church in such matters is of more weight than ten thousand Arguments of private Reason It being a thing manifest to judicious men that there is no place for Ifs and And 's where there can be no evidence brought against a point of Doctrine which the highest Tribunal upon earth had already Decreed and propos'd to be believ'd by all Christians as sufficiently revealed by Almighty God The second Motive That the English Protestant Church making Scripture the only sufficient Rule of Faith without any Visible Judge to Interpret and give the Sense of it Authoritatively to Christians stands on a most uncertain and groundless Foundation SECT I. An Introduction to the following Discourse THus having by the Grace and Blessing of God on my endeavours in the inquisition of Truth found sure Principles whereon to build Faith and Religion in the Roman Church and no where else nothing remained but notwithstanding all interposed difficulties to betake my self to that Communion wherein rationally that is upon Infallible grounds I was perswaded Truth only was to be found and Salvation ordinarily to be expected However that I might give the Religion I had profess'd so long a full hearing to the best of my abilities and understanding before I shak'd hands with it I diligently examin'd the grounds of the Protestant Church and Doctrine which too few do
in delivering such to Satan others might learn not to Blaspheme And after that direful Sentence though they did profess the Name of Christ they were never esteemed as Members of the Catholick Church but as Heathens Mat. 18. and Publicans 'till they were restored upon repentance Answerable to which is the constant Doctrine of Antiquity contain'd in the Fathers as a cloud of Witnesses not to darken but clear up Truth if it be not yet bright enough to discover Heresie and Schisme to us St. Irenaeus notably describes Church-unity in these words Hanc fidem c. This Faith L. 1. adv haec c. 3. as aforesaid the Church scatter'd over the face of the Earth doth carefully keep as dwelling in one House Believes alike as having one soul and one heart Preaches and delivers to her Children alike as having one mouth For though in the World are different Languages yet the vertue of Tradition is one and the same And neither the Churches which are founded in Germany do believe otherwise and teach otherwise by Tradition nor those who are in Iberia nor those in the East nor those in Egypt but as the Sun is one and the same in the whole World so the Light of the Gospel shines every where and enlightens all men with the same beams who will come to the knowledge of the Truth And neither he who among Church Governours is powerful in Speech preaches otherwise then these for none's above his Master nor he who is less Floquent will diminish Tradition For Faith being one and the same neither he who is large in his explications adds nor he who is brief takes away What can be more express for the unity of Faith and the ground of of it Tradition And St. Cyprian is no less clear for unity of Government Ecclesiae L. de vni Eecl unitatem c. Whosoever keeps not the unity of the Church doth he think he holds the Faith who disobeys the Church who forsakes the Chair of Peter upon which the Church is founded doth he believe that he 's in the Church Can a Protestant read this and not see his own Condemnation This hath been the Original not only of theirs but of the Heresies and Schisms in all Ages Neque enim S. Cypri Epist 55. ad Corne. aliundo Haereses obortae sunt neque nata sunt Schismata c. For Heresies and Schisms says the same glorious Saint and Martyr have sprung from no other head but that the Priest of God is not obeyed nor one Priest for the present in the Church and Christs Vicar is not thought on Whom if all Christians obeyed according to the command of God no man would rend the unity of the Church by Schism nor pleasing his own fancy and swelling with full sails of pride by himself out of the communion of the Church would shipwrack his Faith on the rock of Heresie What is Schism saith St. Austin but a Separate communon of such who Cont. Gresco Gram. are united in the same Faith and Worship with the Catholick Church But Heresie is a diverse belief from the Faith of the Church So that Schism properly is oppos'd to Charity because 't is a breach of Unity Heresie properly is oppos'd to Verity because 't is a corruption of Faith To which Schism does so fatally dispose that that of St. Hierom is no less than an Oracle Nullum Schismae est quod Super illud Titi 3. Haereticum hominem c. non sibi aliquam Haeresins confingat ut recte ab Ecclesiâ rescessisse videcatur There 's no Schism which doth not invent some Heresie to justify its separation from the Church Which is not to be taken so rigorously that every one who errs in a point of Faith is presently to be censur'd for an Heretick For one may hold what is Heresy and yet not be an Heretick as St. Cyprian holding the invalidity of Baptism given by Hereticks pertinacy being essential to make an Heretick after the Churches declaration in the point Which is manifest by that of St. Austin against the Donaetists Haeresis semper pertinaciam adjunctam L. 4. cont Donat. ca. 16. habet c. Heresie is always joyned with pertinacy which consists in this that any one knowingly and witingly holds any point against the Catholick Faith and neglecting the Authority of the Church makes choice of his own Opinion and persists in it Grant some body believes of Christ what Photinus believ'd being perswaded 't is the Catholick Faith I do not pronounce him yet an Heretick except the Catholick Doctrine being manifested to him he had rather resist Faith and choose to adhere to his own Tenet And therefore the same Holy Father says of himself Errare possum Haereticus esse non volo Though I may err I will be no Heretick Because in all points of Faith he had a mind prepared to submit his private judgment to the publick Sentence of the Church By which means it came to pass that St. Cyprian holding a material Heresie was absolved and those who adhered to his judgment after the Churches determination to the contrary were condemn'd for Hereticks Whereupon Vincentius Lyrinensis breaks forth into exclamation O rerum mira conversio c. Cont. Haer. ca. 11. O wonderful change of things the Authors of the same Opinion are Catholicks but the Followers are adjudged Hereticks The Masters are absolved the Disciples are condemned Writers of such Books shall be Sons of the Kingdom but Hell shall receive the Maintainers of them For who doubts but most B. Cyprian that Light of all Saints and Bishops and Martyrs to reign with Christ in everlasting glory Or who on the contrary is so Sacrilegious as to deny but that the Donatists and such like Diseases of Religion who by the Authority of that Council boast that Rebaptization is lawful shall burn for ever with the Devil in Hell fire Thus the Holy Fathers believ'd and taught And therefore we find St. Hierom in his Exposition of the Creed submitting himself and Writings to Damasus the then Bishop of Rome as supreme Pastor of the Universal Church Haec est Fides Papa Beaptissime c. This is the Ad Dame Papam in fine Faith most Blessed Pope which we have learn'd in the Catholick Church in which if any thing be deliver'd not with sufficient skill and circumspection we desire you to correct it who professes the Faith and Chair of Peter But if this our Confession be approved by your Apostolical Sentence whosoever will find fault with me will prove himself ignorant or malevolent or also no Catholick not me an Heretick And Optatus concludes the Donatists Contra Parmeno l. 3. not to be Members of the true Church because they were not in communion with Syricius who was then Pope of Rome Neither is St. Austin less positive in determining who are Schismaticks Ille est Epist 171. in vera Ecclesia c. He is in the
in the storm of a blind zeal against the Church of Rome split themselves against another rock never caring for perpetual succession and visibility to make them Catholick confidently assert that the Church of Christ was over-spread with the infernal darkness of Superstition and Idolatry that it wholly ceas'd to be a true Church for a thousand years and upwards more or less for they cannot agree among themselves about the determinate time which gave this fatal period to Christianity 'till by their blessed Reformation the glorious light of the Gospel did dawn a-new unto the World and with the ruines of the Whore of Babylon hopeful Children to cast such durt in their Mothers face they did beautify the revived Spouse of Jesus Christ Wherein they wholly agree with the Donatists of old who after their separation from the Catholick Church thought they could not defend themselves from Schism and Heresie unless they would maintain that the Universal Church was totally perish'd and shrunk into their new-born Conventicle which hath in it the the mixture of thus much Truth that no separation from an acknowledged true Church can be justifyable But this is wonderful that those very men who pretend so much veneration of Sacred Scripture as to make it the sole and adequate Rule of Christian belief should notwithstanding to free their own Religion from Schism and Heresie affirm the Church of Christ to have perish'd totally for so many Ages the contrary to which is so plainly contain'd in those Sacred Oracles Our Blessed Saviour says That he Met. 16. 18. will build his Church upon a rock so that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it The Angel says Of his Luke 1. Kingdom there shall be no end Can possibly Jesus Christ be with the Mat. 28. 20. Governours of his Church to the Worlds end to direct them by his special assistance to pretect them by his irresistable Power and yet the Devil so far prevail over his beloved Heritage as to ruine it Can he make good his promise of leading Joh. 14. 26. 16. v. 13. them into all Truth and yet suffer his Church to be corrupted with damnable errors and practices as totally to perish St. Paul says God hath placed in his Church some Apostles Ephes 4. 11 c. some Prophets others Evangelists and Doctors for the perfecting of the Saints that we might be one and the same faith and not toss'd and carried about with the wind of every Doctrine And that the Church is the Pillar and ground of Truth These 1 Tim 3. 15. are plain express Texts for the Churches Indefectibility needing no Interpreter as St. Austin saith De Vnit Eccl. c 16. in the like case of evident places out of Scripture for the universality of the Church against obscure Texts objected by the Donatists And yet this generation of men will palpably pervert plain Texts of Scripture rather then confess a guilt in separating themselves from their Catholick Mother Perkins a great Champion of the Reformed Religion saith expressy Exposit of the Creed pa. 226. That during the space of 900. years the Popish Heresie had spread it self over the whole Wold Calvin affirms That the Church of Instit l. 4. c. 18. Rome made all the Kings and People of the Earth drunk with the cup of her abomination from the first to the last Bennet Norton says The whole Christian World knows that before Luther Treat of the Church p. 145. all Churches were overwhelm'd with more then Cymerian darkness Bibliander a Lutheran is very positive That without all question from In Orat. ad Princ Germa the time of Gregory the Great the Pope is Antichrist who with his abominations hath made drunk all Kings and People from the highest to the lowest Yet Simon Voyon affirms no less Catal. Doct. Ep. ad Lect. confidently That when Boniface was installed then was that universal Apostacy from the Faith foretold by St. Paul And to name no more Chamierus saith That Apostacy averted the whole body from Christ Consider well these expressions and then tell me if any thing can be more contrary to Sacred Scripture Lay them close together that the opposition may more visibly appear The Church is builded upon a rock and the gates of Hell shall never prevail against it Of his Kingdom there shall be no end I will send you the Spirit of Truth who shall lead you into all Truth The Church is the Pillar and ground of Truth Thus teaches Scripture Now these new Pastors tell us That Heresie which is the strongest bar of Hell gates overspread the whole Christian World That all Churches were overwhelmed with more than Cymerian darkness That there was an universal Apostacy from the Faith That Apostacy averted the whole body from Christ Are not these Doctrines directly contrary to each other Now which shall we believe For both we cannot 'till contradictions be both true Are not these rare men to make Apostles Yet before I part with them I will ask them one question in St. Austin's words wherewith he expostulates the same case with the Donatists In Scripturis didicimus Ep. 166. ad Donat. Christum c. In the Scriptures we have learned Christ in the Scriptures we have come to the knowledge of the Church These Scriptures are common to us both why do we not from them keep as well the same Church as the same Christ And afterwards If for the verity of the Scriptures ye believe in Christ whom ye read of and see not wherefere do ye deny the Church which ye both read and see A Church which the same Father assures you The Prophets have In Psal 30. L. de vti cred c. 7 8 c. more plainly spoken of then Christ himself to prevent mistakes in a matter of so great moment A Church which the Scriptures assure you shall as militant continue in a visible succession to the end of the World as triumphant world without end After this one Catholick and Apostolick Church was founded in the World and began to spread it self into all corners the Members of it were called Christians to distinguish them from all not professing Christ But when some of themselves arose teaching perverse things to draw away Disciples after them and so separating from the Church whereof once they were Members erected new Communions then those Christians who stood firm adhering fast to the Church and Doctrine establish'd by Christ and his Apostles were called Catholicks to distinguish them from such false Christians who had separated themselves into Schismatical or Heretical Congregations Which if the Protestants would consider aright they would never argue thus incongruously The Roman Church is not the Catholick Church because it comprehends not Us and others in her Communion who are Christians when Catholicism in its genuine notion denotes an Universal Communion of true Believers continuing in the Faith and Worship first deliver'd to the Saints in
Let them give any convincing reason why Feed my Lambs Feed my Sheep spoken by the fountain of all Jurisdiction to an Apostle should not be an Authoritative Commission as well as Go teach all Nations Matt. 28 Besides had they only been admonitory words to excite St. Peter to the work of his Apostleship they would have been as necessary to have been spoken to all the rest as to him who were equally Apostles with him and therefore not now minded of their duty because afterwards they were all to receive power from above by the descent of the Holy Ghost upon them for the performance of that great and glorious work So then being a Commission and only given to St. Peter it must necessarily follow that he was thereby invested with some Spiritual Authority which the other Apostles had not though all Apostles And the question put to St. Peter by our Blessed Saviour immediately before the words of his Commission have no small influence to prove a Superiority of Power to be instated upon Him above the rest For being asked Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me more than these Those words of command Feed my Lambs Feed my Sheep do not correspond nor are at all emphatical as what follows relates to them if thereby no Authority more or above the rest was not imparted to him as a reward of his extraordinary affection in that he loved our Lord and Saviour more then the rest of the Apostles Moreover in short as St. Peter did profess his Faith before the rest when this supreme Authority was promiss'd to him so now our Saviour would have him profess his love especially above the rest when he conferr'd upon him this Jurisdiction Thus if these places be expounded according to the light of present circumstances in all reason Scripture makes for a Supremacy in Peter above the rest of the Apostles And as hath been shown the Ancient Fathers from these Texts unanimously assert That the Church was in a special manner founded on St. Peter in being constituted Vniversal Head and Pastor of it To which if we add the voice of the present Church attesting it to be a Universal Tradition handed to her as such from Age to Age the unerring Rule of Catholick Faith it amounts to an Infallible certainty and puts the question out of all question and further dispute And how unsafe it is and dangerous to forsake the direct Texts of Scripture the the constant interpretations of the Ancient Fathers and the consent of the whole Christian World in matters of the highest concernment and to rely upon the bare Authority of private and new invented glosses of a few interessed and confessedly Fallible Doctors or our own more vain presumptions let any sober-minded man be judge And whether the Protestant Church of England in separating from her Catholick Mother the Church of Rome can possibly be upheld from falling into formal and notorious Schism leaning only on such unstable grounds The fourth Motive That the many Miracles God hath ben pleased to work in the Roman Catholick Church and still continues to do more or less and in no other Communion divided from her are manifest proofs that she 's the true Church And those Miracles which in a special manner regard some Doctrines denyed by Protestants to come from God are Divine Testimonies that the said Doctrines are as well Heavenly Truths as others taught by the Church are confess'd to be so SECT I. A Preliminary Discourse IT being manifest by what hath been discuss'd in the precedent Motive that the Protestant Church of England is undeniably guilty of Heresie and Schism in a high manner by their wilful separation from the Church of Rome in Faith and Government and thereupon the universality and perpetual visibility of the true Church by a never interrupted Succession of Believers teaching and practising the same Faith and Worship from the Apostles to these present days have been in some sort handled as points co-incident and con-natural I shall not make any large discourse of them severally though they did not a little contribute to my Conversion but contract their strength into one Syllogism and so proceed to show what efficacy Miracles wrought in the Catholick Church for visible confirmation of her Faith and Worship to come from Heaven ought to have upon our Adversaries to reduce them to the bosom of that Chuch they have forsaken The Argument runs thus The true Church of Christ hath Universality perpetual visibility and Succession of Pastors and People from Christ and his Apostles to this time and so to continue to the Worlds end inseparably annexed to it But no Schismatical or Heretical Communion of Christians can possibly be universal or have a perpetual visibility and Succession of Believers in those points which constitute them a distinct Communion from the Catholick Church of which they were Members before their separation Therefore no Schismatical or Heretical Communion of Christians can be the true Church of Christ That the Minor or second proposition belongs to the Protestant Church of England is manifest from the former Motive where 't was evidenced to be Schismatical and Heretical which once prov'd concerning any Communion of Christians 't is implicatory in ipsis terminis to say that 't is or can be universal visibly Successive from Christ and his Apostles to this time being all one as to assert That it was founded by Christ and his Apostles and yet began afterwards by a voluntary separation from the true Church so founded which is the Essence of Schism and that they were a Congregation Believing Ordaining Preaching and Administring Sacraments before they had a Beeing in the World That is they were and were not at the same time The Major or first Proposition is manifested from Scriptures and Fathers briefly thus From St. Matthew Behold I am Mat. 28. 20. with you always even to the end of Word From St. Luke He shall reign Luk. 1. 33 in the house of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdom there shall be no end From St. John The Comforter the St. John 14. 16 17. Spirit of Truth shall abide with you forever From the promise of God All Nations shall flow unto it From Isa 2. 2. the Commission of Christ Go teach Mat. 28. all Nations Which clearly demonstrate the Church of Christ from its first foundation to be Catholick both in respect of Time and Place This also is the Doctrine of the Fathers 'T is only the Catholick L. 1. ca. ult Church hath the true Worship and Service of God saith Lactantius Let Praefa in l. â—â—â—â—ar the Doctrine of the Church be kept saith Origen which is deliver'd from the Apostles by order of succession and remains in the Church to this very day See more in Iren. l. 1 c. 3. St. Aug. Ser. 131. 181. de Temp. de Vnit Eccl. c. 2. Tert. contra Judaeos For the perpetual visibility of the true Church in an
these shall he do And therefore Miracles by St. Thomas are marshall'd into three Heads or Classes First those which wholly exceed the power of created Causes in the very substance of the effect As the Sun standing still at the Prayer of Joshua going back at the request of Hezekiah A mortal body to be glorified as in the transfiguration of our Blessed Saviour Transubstantiation in the most holy and dreadful Sacrifice of the Mass Which are the greatest of Miracles and in no sort produceable by the utmost Powers of created nature Secondly such which transcend the faculty of nature yet not if we have an eye to the thing it self that 's done but the qualification of the subject in whom 't is done or effected That is natural causes can produce the substance of the Miracle but never in the present circumstances As to give sight to the blind or raise the dead to life And does in daily vital productions but not to one dead As Lazarus and Tabitha were And can give sight but not to one blind As he who was born so cured Joh. 9. by our Lord and Saviour However these being Miraculous only in respect of the subject wherein such effects are brought to pass yet are altogether above the vertue of secondary causes and so as true Miracles as those of the first Classis The third and lowest sort are those which exceed the faculty of Nature neither according to the substance of the effect or subject wherein they are produced but only according to the manner and order of their production As when persons not incurably sick or lame in the hands of Artists with an ordinary concurrence of the supremest cause are suddenly restor'd to health and soundness without the help of Physick Chyrurgery or the usual proceedings in such cases And so the Apostles speaking with divers tongues which are attainable by time and industry in subjects capable of such perfections yet in them was miraculous in that they being ignorant were suddenly endowed with such extraordinary knowledge and eloquence to the amazement and confusion of their enemies Of which sort are also sudden Thunders and Lightnings Winds and Storms when second and immediate causes are not so big with such effects as to be deliver'd of them but rather in all probability promising the contrary to the best sighted understandings in such matters Now such miracles as these though always produced by a divine power when Holy persons are the Instruments yet may and sometimes are when God permits wrought by Magick and compact with the Devil who can so improve natural causes as on a suddain to bring forth such effects Which being possible to Omnipoteny and consequently not true Miracles in a strict and proper acceptation but in a large sense so call'd from the wonderful manner of their production if the Catholick Church had no other but such to attest her Doctrine to come from Heaven they could not simply of themselves be sufficient evidences of the Truth of Christian Religion and that the Workers of them are sent by God However such wonderful effects when they Manifestly tend to destroy the kingdom of Satan invincibly prove their origen to be from the Author of Holiness And therefore 't is not difficult to discover when these wonders are effected by a Divine Power and assistance and when by the help of the Devil Namely when either the Sanctity of the person is such as is no way lyable to be suspected to have any dealing with the Powers of Darkness Or if this be wanting when the Purity of the Doctrine as a glorious ray beaming from the Sun of righteousness is such that a confirmation thereof in such a manner cannot rationally be thought but to come from Heaven Or when God is pleas'd besides these inferior wonders to work also such Miracles by the same person or others professing the same Faith which cannot really be produced by any but himself Of which his true Church was never destitute and no other Communion could ever boast or justly challenge SECT IV. Some reasons of Gods proceeding in this manner WHen the infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness of God is pleas'd to work Miracles in his Church ordinarily the Instruments he makes use of to produce such effects are persons eminent for Sanctity Yet not so as that we ought to make the number or greatness of their Miracles the rule to judge of the degrees of their Holiness Yea 't is not an Infallible argument to conclude such an one to be a Saint for the grace of working Miracles being conferr'd upon the true Church principally for the edification of others a person not justified and so not righteous in the sight of God may be a wonder-working Instrument to save his Brethren and yet himself become a Reprobate Of which we need no more evident testimony then from the mouth of those Pleaders in St. Matthew Lord have not we Prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name Ch 7 22 c. cast out Devils and in thy Name wrought many Miracles And yet they receive this dreadful Answer I know ye not depart from me ye workers of Iniquity The cause whereof St. Austin gives us Admonet nos Lib. 83. Quaesti 79. qu. Dominos c. Our Lord puts us in mind that we may understand wicked men also to do some Miracles which Saints cannot do Therefore they are not granted to all Saints least the weak should be deceived with a most pernicious errour supposing greater gifts to be in such deeds than in works of righteousness by which we purchase eternal life Now God confers this grace and wonderful power on his Church First for the confirmation of the Christian Faith as his visible Seal set to it that 't is true and came from Heaven as the only means to bring us thither and ought to be entertain'd as such by all who desire to save their precious Souls This is manifest from the Promise of our Blessed Saviour to his Church Mark 16. 17. These sings shall follow those that believe in my Name they shall cast out Devils they shall speak with new Tongues they shall take up Serpents and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them they shall lay their hands upon the Sick and they shall Recover This is the Promise See the performance in the 20 ver And they went and Preached every where our Lord co-operating and confirming the Word with signs following For so the Eyes of their Auditors might tell them the Doctrine they heard was from God and no humane invention and therefore inexcusable incredulous As in the 16 verse Whosoever Believes and is Baptiz'd shall be saved but who believes not shall be damned Hence it is that Signs are said to be for Unbelievers that by such evidences of Truth they may be Converted and all the ends of the Earth see the Salvation of our God And this way of Divine attestation the wisdom of God hath thought good to
the Apostle of the Saxons and his Converts in some few External Rites which afterward in tract of time they generally receiv'd and in the interim acknowledg'd to be worthy of acceptation while the fresh wounds of deeply-resented injuries were the greatest cause of non-conformity One more I cannot pass over in silence because I conceive it such as may much conduce to the conviction and conversion of our Adversaries 'T is to be found in the Life of St. Bernard to this effect In the part of France about Thoulouze L. 3. c. 5. one Henry an Apostate Monk by deceitful words perverting the Souls of many with Heretical Doctrines prevail'd so far that every where thereabouts the Grace of Baptism was denyed Prayers and Oblations for the dead were mock'd at Invocation of Saints derided Excommunications of Priests Pilgrimages of the Faithful building of Churches Consecration of Oyl and Chrisme and all Ecclesiastical Constitutions were despis'd Our cause in England St. Bernard being intreated by the Catholicks sadly lamenting to see so many poor Souls seduced to follow an Apostate as if he had been an Apostle was conquer'd by their Prayers and came thither to hinder the further spreading of so contagious an evil and to try his skill on the infected Where Preaching with wonderful demonstration of Spirit as well as admirable Eloquence he in a short time instructed the Ignorant strengthned the Weak recall'd the Wanderers restored the Subverted put to sil nce the Perverters God confirming his Doctrine with signs following I shall relate but one so home and evident that Cap. 6. l. 3. praed 't is enough to convert and confound all Contradictors During these his travails in the work of an Evangelist being come to the City of Sarlet the Sermon ended they brought to the Servant of God Bread to be blest and distributed among the Faithful as is the custom in Catholick Churches Which he blessing in the Name of God with his hand elevated making the sign of the Cross said By this ye shall know that the Doctrine which we Preach is true and the things which Hereticks would perswade you to are false if your Sick tasting this Bread shall be recover'd A venerable Bishop present fearing the tryal said They shall be healed if they take it believing To whom the Holy man replyed in a full belief of the event I say not so but such as tast it shall be healed and thereby know us to be truly sent of God Whereupon a great company of Diseased persons tasting of the said Bread forthwith recover'd Praying God for such singular manifestations of his Truth and Goodness And the Fame thereof spread round about Now what more express Testimony by Deeds can be given from Heaven for Prayer for the Dead and Mosses for them Invocation of Saints Consecration of Chrisme c. which were then opposed by those Hereticks and now denyed by the Protestants their Successors in false Doctrine against the conviction of Miracles from Heaven And now I have done with this Motive only give me leave to say that if Protestants could produce the like Miracles to attest their Faith and practice they would make the World ring with the noise of them in every place and crying Victory set up their triumphant Banners with this or some such like Inscription or Motto God with us against the Roman Church And then add some such Invective as this in their Popular Sermons See what hard-hearted Wretches the Papists are who wholly given over to a reprobate sense will not acknowledge our Doctrines to be glorious and revealed Truths of Jesus Christ which he hath witnessed for such to the whole World by the thundring voice of Divine Miracles The fifth Motive That the eminent Sanctity taught and practis'd in the Roman Catholick Church not to be found in any Heretical Communions divided from her is a manifest mark that she only is the true Church of Christ SECT I. An Introduction FRom works of Wonder we pass to works of Piety to point out to us the true Church of God which though less admired yet are far more precious as being that Divine Seed the Fruit whereof is eternal Glory For we Spiritual Travellers cannot come to rest our selves in the Heavenly Jerusalem but by walking perseverantly in the path of Holiness Now this Holiness is not to be had but in the true Church whose attribute is not only Catholick but also Holy as we profess in the Creed and distinguishable by it in the Effects from all different Communions whatsoever who though they may cloak their deformity with Angelical appearances yet in reality are Synagogues of Satan having a form of Godliness and denying the power thereof And the truth is though by sad experience I found that the Protestant Church especially that part of it which I judg'd more pure in Doctrine could not lay claim to much Sanctity still crying down the Puritans for meer Hypocrites whose zeal in their way did shine far brighter to dazle vulgar eyes yet such prejudice I had conceiv'd against the Church of Rome by my education in a contrary Religion that I thought her really Antichristian and Holiness to have no more agreement with Her then light with darkness or Christ with Belial So that after the Divine Goodness by strowing Thorns in my indirect ways had made me sensible what a bitter thing it is to forsake Him the Fountain of living Waters for broken Cisterns and had put me upon a serious Inquisition to find out Truth and Holiness to follow Them it was no less wonder then satisfaction to me to meet with such heavenly Doctrine and such holiness of Life in the Roman Catholick Church and no other Communion divided from Her And I plainly discover'd that Protestant Leaders could not detain their followers in Schism and Heresie but by keeping them in ignorance of the right Faith and Worship of the Roman Church and laying to her charge such Doctrines and Practices which are not justly imputable unto Her Yet this Motive was set more home to my heart when my eyes were made happy spectators of some of that innumerable Company of her Members who in the continual exercise of most sublime Spirituality live more like Angels then men though in mortal Bodies But most of all when our Lord was pleased so to shine upon me with the extraordinary light of his countenance as to bless my weak endeavours in following though afar off those Stars of the first Magnitude beautisying his Heaven on Earth in their glorious courses And truly I have from hence such a strong persuasion of Truth to be in the Church of Rome wrought in my Soul that was there no other Motive to confirm me in the Catholick Religion my heart very much deceives me if I should not upon this score rather forgo my life then forsake my present Faith to become a Protestant Thus by the grace of God this wrought on me and that it may work on others I thus
THE PRODIGAL Return'd HOME OR THE MOTIVES OF THE CONVERSION TO THE Catholick Faith OF E. L. Master of ARTS In the University of Cambridge Et tu conversus confirma fratres tuos Luc. 22. 32. Printed Anno Domini 1684. THE PREFACE TO THE Protestant Reader WHensoever it pleases the Almighty Goodness to enlighten with the glorious beams of Divine Truth those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death in so powerful a manner as that forsaking the perplexed labyrinth of Errors they betake themselves for repose and safety into the bosome of the Catholick Church 't is Satan's policy by his Agents to make the World believe that the motives of their Conversion were but weak and carnal least others should follow their example Herein I have been as deeply censur'd as others to whom God has vouchsafed the like extraordinary mercy Yet truly whatever calumnies have hereupon been cast upon me by some who have imbitter'd Spirits and Hearts swoln with rancour against the Catholick Church as much as concerns my self I should for many reasons bave contentedly sat down in silence rejoycing in the testimony of a good Conscience if the good of those upon whom my conversion may have most influence had not in charity oblig'd me to refuse no pains that might afford them help or satisfaction in a business of the highest nature and concernment This was the pressing consideration which at last prevailed with me to give these Motives of my Conversion a publick beeing and common air to breath in that their own eyes might be Judges what just cause I had to change my Religion and how much reason there is for them to follow me Of which I conceive great hopes when to me it seems impossible for any prudential man who seriously enters into the consideration of the grounds of Christian belief with a Soul wholly divested of all prejudices and self-interests whatsoever earnestly imploring the Divine assistance and direction I say it seems to me impossible for any prudential man in these circumstances not at last to discover the truth of the Catholick Religion and acknowledge the Church of Rome to be the only high-road to Heaven and Happiness he will hear a Divine voice whispering Jerim 16. 16. to him This is the old path walk in it and thou shalt find rest unto thy Soul Thus by Gods blessing I sought and this rest at last I found and never found it 'till after much pains and study after many Prayers and Tears after many Fastings and Watchings after many tossings and turnings after many sad delays and expostulations after many conflicts and agonies in Spirit my resolutions by the powerful workings of Grace on my Soul breaking through all difficulties did effectually bring me into the arms of the Roman Church In which I saw no reason to suspect any delusion when my most serious reflections pass d judgment on it seeing this happy change was not wrought in me by any humane persuasion but the God of Truth did by his immediate inspirations begin this work of mercy on my Soul when having no thoughts at all of becoming a Roman Catholick and finding much bitterness in the ways of sin and worldly vanities I was earnestly seeking of God what course I might best take how to please him and save my precious and immortal Soul But to prevent all fear of Enthusiasm pretended illuminations and false lights wherewith many poor Souls in our Nation are so miserably misled God who is as well essential Reason as Goodness did not only move my Will but also rationally convince my Understanding that all Communions professing Christ beside the Roman were more or less erroneous and she only the true Catholick Church according to the constant notion of Antiquity out of which ordinarily Salvation was not to be expected And therefore I must flie to her as to the saving Ark that I might not perish in the deluge of my sins So then this change in me was not a passionate distortion of an interessed will pushing forward the blind understanding to fix suddenly and adhere pertinaciously to more then the light of reason did clear up to the eye of the Soul but undoubtedly mutatio dexterae Excelsi the work of God wrought in my heart by convincing arguments as the following Motives do sufficiently evidence Nor could it be to satisfy the inclinations of sensual nature when I was to forsake my Relations my Friends my Temporal Revenues and Preferments and all worldly contentments to take up my Cross and follow Jesus by contempt of the world in the perpetual practice of self-denyal and mortification And happy is he who had rather have a Cross with Christ than a Crown without him Thus the Father of Mercies was graciously pleas'd by an efficacious call to bring his Prodigal Son Home For his Church is his House where he dwells among his Saints on earth with his special presence to govern and provide for them all things conducing to their happiness From which houshold of Faith I was an Alien while I was a Member of the Protestant Church which stands dis joynted from Catholick Unity by a Schism too notorious to be justified And until we like true Penitents return unto our Mother Church which made us Christians we like Prodigals feeding on ratling Husks of formal Devotion without any substantial nourishment to our Souls miserably mispend our precious time on which inevitably depends Eternity And this shall suffice by way of Preface for an Introduction The door is open enter and view well the Motives and the eternal Sun of righteousness who is the true Light of the World open thine eyes to see and guide thy feet into the way of Peace Yet before the Lecture I thought good to advise whosoever shall peruse these Papers that bere is not to be expected that variety of Arguments which may be found in more Judicious Controvertists but a true Narrative of what principal Motives prevail'd with me to forsake Protestanism and yield my self into the Arms of our Mother Church And yet methinks they are sufficient to convince the ablest Heads if they have but hearts resolved to yield to Truth I must likewise tell thee good Reader that these Motives had long since seen the light if some accidental occasions had not retarded their birth into the World However though they lost their choicest season of publication which is when such Conversions are most fresh in memory yet 't was thought fit by persons as well judicious as zealous that they should by no means live any longer in obscurity but be set upon a Candlestick in the House of God to give light to others and I did acquiesae in their judgment and was content to have them publish'd for the common good Read them Impartially consider them Seriously and practice Faithfully what God shall inspire into thy Soul And remember in thy Devotions Thine in Jesus Christ E. L. The first Motive containing the grounds of the Catholick Faith Sect.
among the Gentiles and they should Sacrifice in every place and Chap. 1. 11. a Pure Offering should be offer'd to his Name a new form of Worship prescrib'd a new form of Government erected new Sacraments instituted new Precepts deliver'd Councels super-added agreeable to the Evangelical Law And in a word a Catholick Church founded to continue for ever This Church of Christ as it is one body so likewise it was of one heart and of one mind while Apostolical purity remain'd unspotted The Professors were all united in the same Faith Worship and Government holding close to Church-Tradition the Pillar and ground of Truth without any rent or Schism Till among Act. 20. 29. 30. themselves arose Wolves in Sheeps-cloathing not sparing the Flock teaching perverse things to draw away Disciples after them That is who set up a Congregation of Christians separated from the Communion of that Church which was founded by Christ and his Apostles And so by this means unity being destroy'd and Faith perverted Heresie shut up the gate of Heaven against false Christians as Infidelity did against Unbelievers A sad case this yet not so much to be wondred at seing the Apostle tells us Opportet esse Haereses There must 1 Cor. 11. 19. be Heresies for the Tryal of others and greater glory of the Truth And therefore the true Church hath in all Ages been more or less vex'd with them But never more then in these last and perillous days which since Luther's Apostacy from the Church of Rome have produc'd such an innumerable brood of New Gospels and Sects all pretending to believe and practice those Doctrines and that Worship which were taught by Christ and his Apostles and to be the only true Church of God or at least the purest Members of it Now it being acknowledg'd on all hands that they only are the true Church who believe and observe all points taught by Christ and his Apostles necessary to Salvation and 't is impossible contrary Beliefs and Worships should be all true and come from the Fountain of Truth Christ Jesus those whom a more serious desire and care of their Eternal Good may excite to seek for satisfaction in so important a business shall upon diligent inquisition by the blessing of God find that the chief externe grounds or evidence ordain'd by Christ for the guiding us in the knowledge of what was taught and left by him to be believ'd and practis'd to the Worlds end and consequently also for discerning which is the true Church among so many Pretenders are those according to which the Church of Rome regulates her Faith and Worship namely Universal Tradition and the Authority of the present Church as shall hereafter be made manifest And the farther they search into the Rule of the Protestant Religion that is sole Scripture interpreted by private Reason or Spirit exclusively to Tradition and Church Authority the more they will see such unsteady Maxims are destructive to Faith and manifestly leading to endless Divisions and Errors in matters of Religion This Conviction I had in examining the Fundamentals of the Roman and Protestant Religion and therefore am not to be blam'd for the Change I made and to my understanding whosoever searches as I did will easily receive the same satisfaction SECT II. A Preparatory Discourse to Church-Tradition and what it is THo' whosoever examines aright the Motives of Christian belief cannot rationally but become a Catholick that is find evidence how he may come to the certain knowledge of what Christ and his Apostles taught the World yet Faith is not grounded on Reason but Authority and that no less then Divine which excludes all possibility of Errour Whatever it is that brings men to know what they must believe Faith hath for its formal Object Divine Revelation into which it finally is resolv'd So that we believe nothing as of Faith but what is revealed and because it is revealed by Essential Verity who can neither deceive nor be deceived Catholicks then believe by Divine Faith Truths only revealed by Almighty God wherein Protestants agree with us But Catholicks believe the same Truths as they are ascertained declar'd and handled down to us by the Testimony of the Church wherein Protestants are defective the difference thefore between us in Faith arises chiefly from hence in that we use not the same externe Medium to convey unto our understandings the knowledge of what Truths are revealed and what not For could we once agree about this latter we should soon be of one Heart and of one mind in all points of Faith especially when once this Medium is proved to be infallible As to this Medium therefore Catholicks regulate their Faith by the Rule or Standard of Tradition and Church-Authority as the externe Proponent of Faith a Proponent also evidenced to them by the same Rule to be Infallible and thus they safely rely on the Testimony of Tradition and Church Authority in Declaring and Expounding both the Sense of Scripture and all other Christian Misteries necessary to Salvation Whilst on the contrary Protestants relying on the sole express Texts of Scripture interpreted by private Reason or Spirit as their only Rule and Guide in matters of Faith become unsteady in their Belief obnoxious to dangerous Errors and divided amongst themselves into endless Sects and Factions But because a more clear understanding of this matter in some sort depends on a right notion of Tradition we shall here define it in the sense it is usually understood by Catholick Divines Tradition then is the delivery of that Doctrine which was taught by Christ and his Apostles from hand to hand descending as such from Fathers to their Children making up the body of the Faithful This is the true notion of Tradition among us Catholicks and it matters not whether it be call'd Divine Apostolical or Universal being only the same thing exprest by divers adjuncts For it is call'd Divine because Christ our Lord as well true God as true man is the Spring-head of it It is call'd Apostolical because the Apostles immediately receiv'd from him things so deliver'd and Preach'd them to all Nations And Universal because Attested by the Catholick Church of all Ages to have been handed to her as originally proceeding from Christ and his Apostles And to prevent all mistakes let Protestants take notice that the Church of Rome sends not her Children only to search for what is Divine or Apostolical Tradition in matters of Faith and Discipline out of the Writings of the Fathers or other Libraries of Books fill'd with dead Words which are subject to various Interpretations by Critical heads without any hope of Agreement and can have no Authority dependent on Tradition though upon this account she has infinite advantage against all other Communions in the World to justify her Faith and practice in any unbyass'd Judgments But sends them to a visible living Oracle Oral Tradition that is the voice of the present Church attesting
to have fail'd in this particular must needs acknowledge this point concerning the Rule of Faith to be Apostolical Secondly They do not consider that seing it cannot be deny'd but Tradition was at first the usual means of Planting and Conserving the Law of Christ the greater part of the World being converted before the Scriptures were written and receiv'd by the Church so that when any false Teachers did arise they of necessity had recourse to Tradition whether they had been so Taught and not to Scripture whether it was so written being impossible to Rule before it had a Beeing I say this being undenyably evident they will never be able to give a rational account to Intelligent persons why an immutable Faith should have a mutable Rule and a standing Edifice should have a moving Foundation If they think to salve this soar by saying Tradition was necessary 'till the written word took place they will never be able to prove that all things at first delivered necessary for the Salvation of the World were afterwards committed to writing by the Apostles And yet 'till this be done satisfactorily who sees not the insufficiency of this assertion But then Thirdly if they could prove that the whole Law of Christ necessary to Salvation at first Traditionarily convey'd was afterwards entirely committed to writting by Infallible Inspiration and deposited in the Church They do not consider that were it so as most certainly they will be never able to prove yet it is necessary Tradition should be the Rule of Faith as well after as before the reception of such a Canon it being impossible for Scripture by its self to perform what Tradition did without it in the beginning For dead words being capable of endless controversy because lyable to various Interpretations Hereticks will either shrowd themselves under the Umbrage of obscure Passages in Sacred Writ or darken plain places with Metaphors or Clouds of witty Criticisms so that no evident Conviction can be had or possibility to hold up Church-unity in Faith and Government except the controverted Doctrines be brought for their tryal to the Touch-stone of Oral Tradition which with the same unerring voice delivers Scripture and the true sense of it to the Houshold of Faith in all Ages And therefore it is Lih de Praescript c 19. S. Irenae cont haeres St. Aug. eont Ep. Fund Vinc. Lyri in Com. that we find Tertullian and other Ancients affirming That no good can be done with Hereticks by disputing out Scripture to reduce them to Truth And if we will not take their word our own experience is an evidence beyond all exception Lastly they do not consider that as in Natural Sciences there are some Prima Principia fundamental Axioms which need no proof into which all Conclusions rightly from them deduced are reducible So in supernatural Revelations there must be some self-evident Principle a Rule of Faith into which points of Faith are resolvable having it self no need of further probation as to such evidence Or else we run in a circle not having any satisfactory ground upon which we may without any more ado rely for the Truth of what we believe Now Scripture is not nor can be such a Principle it depending manifestly as Protestants themselves acknowledge on Tradition by which we only come certainly to know and accept it for the Word of God and so is the Rule of Scripture as well as of other necessary points and consequently the ground or evidence of what we believe upon Scripture-Authority Which yet is not to be understood as if Tradition made the Word of God Infallible but that thereby we are rationally assured what is Scripture and the true sense of it which otherwise is subject to perpetual quarrells of Dissenting minds For my part I see not how Protestants can answer this Argument for they acknowledging Tradition to be the Rule of Scripture and contending for Scripture to be the Rule of Faith Tradition must necessarily be the prime Rule that is the Rule of their Rule and antecedent ground of their foundation And so by unavoidable consequence all their Faith is built upon the credit of Tradition See it clear by a parallel We Catholicks rely upon the Church for points of Faith will Protestants therefore say that we rely not upon Tradition For in relying upon the Church we rely also upon what the Church relyes which in all points of Faith is Tradition We rely upon the Church immediately as an Infallible Guide we rely upon Tradition as an extern Evidence 'T is easily applicable to Protestants receiving the Scriptures upon the credit of Tradition Who while they shun it as a stone of Offence fall upon it as a Rock of Foundation And truly 'till they show us some other self-evident Principle which can assure us what Doctrines Christ and his Apostles taught the World we must believe and maintain Universal Tradition to be the Fundamental Rule of Faith to the Christian Church in the sense hitherto explain'd Thus they might be satisfied with reason in this controversy but because they pretend to be mov'd more with the Authority of the Fathers than our Arguments they shall hear them speak and truly one would think plain enough to their condemnation Witness St. Iraeneus an Anti-Protestant certainly while he teaches * Lib. 3. cont Haer. c. 4. What if the Apostles had not left us Scriptures ought we not to have followed the Rule of Tradition which they delivered to those to whom they committed the Churches Which is not to be understood as if because they have left Scriptures the order of Tradition is by them evacuated but that revealed Truths depending on Tradition only are as Divine and certain as if no Scriptures had been left unto the Church by the Apostles Or else we make the Saint while he is showing the excellent use and necessity of Church-Tradition so Incongruous as to say there is no need of it at all But Arguments might be spar'd when the following instance of Nations believing by Tradition only without Scripture makes his meaning evident Before him in the front of the second Age B. Ignatius St. Johns Disciple Exhorted the Churches to hold themselves inseparably to the Tradition of the * Hist Eccl. l. 3. c. 35. Apostles as Eusebius testifies Had the Rule of Faith been only Scripture as Protestants contend could he have given such advice Yea it inevitably implyes Tradition to be the sure ground to rely upon for Christian Doctrines Doth Origen assert Scripture or Tradition for a Rule while he teaches * In Tract 27. in c 23. S. Matt That in our understanding Scripture we must not depart from the first Ecclesiastical Tradition nor believe otherwise then as the Church of God hath by Succession deliver'd to us And elsewhere he tells us That only is to be believed * In Praef. lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Truth which in nothing disagrees from the Tradition of the Church What more full
for Catholicks Did not Tertullian depend upon Tradition for his Faith when he professeth * Lib. de Praesc c. 21 What I believe I received from the present Church the present Church from the Primitive That from the Apostles the Apostles from Christ. The Arrians indeed as the Protestants now appeal'd to Scripture for a sole Rule and Judge of their Faith seeing their condemnation as Protestants do likewise inevitably and evident by the practice and Tradition of the present Church But what did St. Athanasius that great Bullwark of Catholick belief reply to this Even the very same which the Church of Rome now takes up against her Adversaries * Lib. de Decr. Sym. Nic. cont Arianos Behold we have prov'd the Succession of our Doctrine deliver'd from hand to hand by Fathers to Sons but as for you new Jews and Children of Caiphas but as for you Protestants what Progenitors can you show of your Speeches Had he not held Tradition for the Rule of Christian belief could he have produced this as a satisfactory answer to their appeal to a Scripture-Tryal and a sufficient demonstration of Catholick Faith They who hear St Austin saying * Cont. Ep. Fund c. 5. I would not believe the Gospel were it not that the Authority of the Church mov'd me to it What think they Was he for Protestants or us for sole Scripture or for Tradition too in his Controversy More ample satisfaction may be had if desired from Vincentius Lyrinensis in whose words we may tell a Protestant * Faith is that which thou hast Cont. haer ca. 27. received not that which thou hast devis'd a thing not of private usurpation as their Exposition of Scripture are but of publick Tradition Quotations might be infinite but these may suffice to let the World see that Antiquity was of the same belief with the present Church of Rome in this point And Protestants by contradicting Her contradict the Fathers also SECT V. Tradition asserted against Protestants by Scripture and the notable Advantages that way of delivery hath above Writing IF the Testimony of the Fathers will not suffice we shall bring Scripture it self in defence of Tradition And truly to me it seems wonderful that Protestants professing to believe all things contained in the Scriptures should deny Tradition to have any thing to do with their Faith to which those Sacred Oracles bear so great witness The places are not few and full some of them I shall produce as translated in their own Bibles The first is that famous Anathema of St. Paul's upon the occasion of some false Teachers troubling the Church of Galatia with Doctrines contrary to 1 Ch. ver 3 9. Tradition * If we or an Angel from Heaven Preach any other Gospel unto you then what ye have received let him be accursed Would they have one more express Let them mind well his exhortation to the Thessalonians * Therefore Brethren stand fast and Eph. cap. 2. v. 15. hold the Traditions ye have been taught whether by word or our Epistle The same point he presses home to the first Bishop of Ephesus writing in his first Epistle to him * O Chap. 6. v. 20 21. Timothy keep that which is committed to thy trust avoiding prophane and vain bablings and oppositions of Science falsely so called which some professing have erred concerning the Faith Which Deposition of Faith he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his second Epistle renewing the same charge Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me Chap. 1. v. 13. in Faith and Love which is in Christ Jesus Inculcated also in the Verse following That good thing v. 14. which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us And again in the 3d. Chapter he presses it as the only Antidote against the Infection of new-poisonous Doctrines scatter'd by Seducers Chap 3. v. 13 14. Continue in the things that thou hast learned and hast been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them And with no less care and charge recommendeth it to Posterity in the 2d Chapter of the same Epistle The things that thou hast heard of me among many Witnesses commit thou to Faithful men who shall be able to teach others also From which Texts and such like the Fathers collect three things First That there are Traditions unwritten Rom. 16. Phillip 4. 12. Judes Ep. 3d. ver 1 Tim. 3. 15. as well as the written Word deposited in the Church which is the Pillar and ground of Truth Secondly That such Traditions belong equally to Christian Doctrine and alike to be credited aad observed Written and unwritten being but accidental differences of the word of God substracting or adding nothing essential to the formal Object of Faith which is Divine Revelation Thirdly That Traditionary Doctrines being termed a Depositum by St. Basil ut habetur Hist Trip l. 7. c. 39. Vinc. Ler. c. 26. c. the Apostle and so from him frequently call'd Depositum Fidei and the Governours of the Church in Timothy constituted the sacred Depositarii and Keepers of it makes it uncapable of any adition or diminution and consequently excluding the expectation of any other points necessary to be revealed the nature of a Depositum requiring it should be kept unalterable in the hands of those to whom it is committed And therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 applyed to false Teachers by the same Apostle is directly opposed to this Depositum And the Church collected in General Councils when truth and peace requires it makes no new Articles of Faith but all her endeavours are that revealed Truths whether written or unwritten deliver'd from the beginning may be defended conserved illustrated and explicated against arising Heresies that would pervert them To which a fourth may be added That the Apostle writing to Churches fully constituted still refers them in his Epistles to Tradition for the trial of all Doctrines those sacred lines delivering no new point of Faith but only in as much as Doctrinal in things necessary explicating according t◠present circumstances and confirming what had been taught by word and practice Protestants indeed will owne no such things from these Texts but In 2 Epist ad Thess c. 2. 15. St. Chrysostom tells us * Hinc perspicuum est c. From hence it is apparent that the Apostles have not deliver'd all things by Epistle but also many things without writing Now both those and these deserve equally to be believ'd 'T is a Tradition what would you more Thus he and Theophilact comments thereupon almost in the same words And from the 2d ver of the 11th chap. of the 1st Epist. to the Corinthians * Now I praise you Brethren that you remember me in all things and keep the Ordinances ficut tradidi vobis as I delivered them unto you Not only inferrs the same Doctrine but likewise uses the self-same phrase Ex hoc loco
his part if we neglect not so great Salvation The chief Texts for the Churches supreme Teaching and consequently Judging and determining Power when any controversies of Faith arise by Commission from Christ the Head-spring of all Spiritual Jurisdiction are these and such like Mat. 28. 18 19. Go ye make Disciples of all Nations teaching them io observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you And that this Authoritative Teaching is performed by the Pastors of the Church as his Delegates and Representing his Person is plain from that of St. Luke He that heareth you heareth me and he Chap. 10. 16. Mat. 14. 18. that despiseth you despiseth me Again Whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven And again He Ephes 4. 11 12 13 c. gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ 'till we all come to the unity of the Faith and be not tossed too and fro with wind of every Doctrine What more express And yet if it may be the Churches Infallibility in the delivery of the Law of Christ is taught us in plainer terms as namely in Ch. 14. 26. those Promises in St. John The Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my Name he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you When the Spirit of Truth Joh. 16. 13. S. Matt. ch 28. 19. is come he will guide you in to all Truth And those in St. Matthew Teach them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you and behold I am with you always even to the end of the World And that in the 16 1 Tim. 3. 15. Chap. Vpon this rock will I build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Such a Church as this thus founded thus assisted thus guided cannot possibly teach damnable Haeresies or dangerous Errors but must needs be the Pillar and ground of Truth as that glorious Vessel of Election the great Apostle of the Gentiles doth assure us And therefore we may securely rely upon her word to do it also so much concerns us that not to hear and obey is no less then under pain of damnation and that too from no obscure Texts He that 1 Epist 4. 6. knoweth God heareth us saith St. John and he that heareth us not is not of God and by this we know the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Errour And that famous place Dic Ecclesiae Matt. 18. 17. Tell it to the Church and if he neglect to hear the Church let him be to thee as an Heathen and a Publican Persons doubtless in no fit case for Heaven I 'll name but one more out of St. Mark Go ye into all the World Mark 16. 16. and Preach the Gospel unto every Creature And what then He that believeth not shall be damned Plain and sad places these are to all Unbelievers and Incorrigible Hereticks But especially to these last who receiving these Scriptures for the Word of God do notwithstanding not only not hear the Church Obediently in her delivery of the Gospel but with obstinacy and pride of heart presume to teach the Church and will needs force upon her a new Creed which was never taught by Christ nor handed to us from the Apostles How can such as these escape the punishment threatned in the above-mentioned Sentences Their account must needs be heavy and the light they had will only serve to augment their guilt And I cannot omit for a Testimony of these and such like Texts against Protestants that being so express and unavoidable for the Churches Authority and Obedience to her in their first Editions of their English Bibles after their defection from the Church of Rome for Church they translated Congregation least common understandings should discover how they were withdrawn from their Ancient Faith by new Doctrines and Expositions so expresly contrary to the Word of God 'Till afterwards when by divers Artifices these Teachers perceived they had bred in their Followers a strong aversion from the Church of Rome and that they were sufficiently confirmed in their Errours the word Congregation in the later Translation was turn'd into Church that from the evidence of such Texts they might gain some credit to their usurp'd power set up against the pre-existent Authority of the whole Christian World Neither is it without reason that Christ hath set up in his Church such a supreme Judicature when to deny this Power to those whom he hath appointed for ever to be Governours of his Kingdom on Earth is doubtless to advance the Jewish Synagogue above the Christian Church their Sanedrim or Great Council whesein the High-Priest was supreme Judge in all doubts Deut. 17. and questions about the Law having such absolute Authority in giving Sentence that no man could appeal but was bound to obey under pain of death And yet that was but a temporary Pedagogy delivered by Moses a faithful Servant of the House of God in Types and Shadows prefiguring and leading to Evangelical Perfection whose Ministration is far more glorious endowed with more transcendent and admirable Priviledges foretold by the Prophets and in plenitude of time fulfill'd revealed and established in Person by the Eternal Son of God Lord of all things upon better Promises to continue for ever Secondly Christ our Lord having so dearly purchas'd a peculiar People and furnish'd his Church with all means necessary to the Salvation of mankind if we deny such Authority in her namely Infallibility to witness and when circumstances require to determine by a finally decisive unerring Sentence what these means are they cannot be effectual to the end for which they were with so much Sweat and Blood Instituted to continue for ever being otherwise according to the ordinary method of Divine Providence impossible to be known with an assured certainty and by consequence also to be put in practice Neither indeed could it be truly said that Christ hath provided in his Church all things necessary for our Salvation without this Authority when amongst things necessary that questionless seems to be most so by which we can only come to a certain knowledge of all the rest Thirdly seeing God hath made his Church a Proponent and Witness of his Truth in all Ages for 1 ch 8. that of the Acts Ye shall be witnesses to me both in Jerusalem and all Judaea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the Earth As to the substance of it belongs not only to the Apostles but to their Successors in the Office of making Jesus Christ and his Law known to the Worlds end the unanimous consent of the Catholick Church must needs be an undoubted testimony of revealed Verities seeing it
and after much enquiry it was evident to me they could not afford to Impartial Judgments any solid and real satisfaction For the main Pillar of the Protestant Religion being to make the Scripture the sole Rule of Faith I finding by clear conviction this foundation to be without Solidity how could I in Reason or Conscience stand firm to that Church which I saw built on so unstable a bottom And indeed were Protestants able to perform what they promise that is to resolve all Controversies of Faith by Sacred Scripture we should be so far from being true Christians the best of men that we were worse than Beasts if we should refuse to be judg'd thereby Wherefore it is a wrongful Imputation in them to bear the World in hand that we have not a due veneration of those Sacred Oracles of Divine Truth when our reverence and respect to them is in reality more than theirs our Canon more general our Expositions more elaborate humble and submissive and our Assent unchangeable to whatsoever the Church declares to be revealed by them or is contain'd in them evidently by necessary consequence They in the interim only believing by a Spirit with a strange presumption what they please saying and unsaying in Civil Wars among themselves as well as against us whom they call the common enemy what they think is for their present advantage to serve their turn on all occasions And while we necessarily urge to all Christians the Authority of the Church as the Pillar and ground of Truth we are so far from intending any diminution of their just esteem that if they can produce but one single place of Scripture evidently containing the contrary to what we believe Conclamatum est The controversy is at an end we will confess we are in the wrong and for this Miracle for 't will be no less when ever it is done yield the whole cause unto them But 'till then let thâ—m cease to traduce us as Non-Veneraâ—ers of Sacred Writ because we will not receive it for what God did never intend it and leave it to his Church And against the evidence of our own Eyes and long experience acknowledge it to have conditions fit and requisite for the plain and Infallible instruction of all Christians of the whole Law of Christ and final decision of all Controversies For that Scripture by it self cannot perform those necessary Offices in the Church will manifestly be made to appear in the following Sections But first I shall shew that herein they agree with other Hereticks and Dissent from the Antient Church as well as from Us in this main fundamental of their Religion SECT II. Hereticks from the beginning were accustomed to Appeal to Scripture as the sole Rule of Faith whereby they would be judg'd in opposition to the Traditionary Doctrine and Sense of the Catholick Church THat whatsoever is purely of Divine Faith depends necessary on the Word of God is sound Doctrine but that all Supernatural Verities revealed to the Church are so written in the received Canon as none can misunderstand them is a most dangerous position yet the Anchora Sacra and chief refuge of old condemned Hereticks as well as of our modern Adversaries who groundiug their novel Opinions upon Texts of Scripture as interpreted by their own private Reason do at last make them Heretical by choosing pertinaciously to adhere to them against the Sense and Judgement of the Church A sad Case this that with the Waters of Life they should suck in Eternal Death into their Souls But alas Thus they turn Remedies into Diseases and blind their Eyes with the Heavenly Light of the Word becoming so much the more incorrigible because they perswade themselves even against evidence if seeing they would see that they have Divine Authority for their Doctrines The Arians in the Controversy between them and Catholicks about the Divinity of Christ would admit nothing but Scripture as St. Austin testifies bringing in Maximus an Arian Bishop thus disputing with him If you produce any thing Cont Max. l. 1. Init. out of the Divine Scriptures which are cemmon to all of necessity we must give ear unto it But these words which are without Scripture in no Case are received by us The direct Language of Protestants who in this however are perfect Arians The Macedonians impugning the Divinity of the Holy Ghost rejected the Gloria Patri Filio Spiritui Sancto whereby the Church professes her belief of a Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Divine Essence because not contained in Holy Writ Witness St. Basil They Li. de Sp. S. c. 25 26. the Macedonians cease not to brag up and down that the Glorification of God with the Holy Ghost wants Testimony wants Scripture Thus they then and thus Protestants now in points controverted between them and us But hear the same Holy Fathers answer Verily against The Church then in â—hâ—r Doxology us'd Cum Spiritu Sancto as El Spiritui Sancto that they say the Preposition cum Spiritu Sancto to want Testimony nor to be extant in Scripture we reply thus If nothing else be received without the Scripture neither truly let this be received by us without Scripture let us also receive this among many other For I think it Apostolical to adhere to the unwritten Traditions You see we need not new words to condemn the Protestants who will never be able to give any rational satisfaction why they receive some things not in Scripture only upon the score of Church-Tradition and yet refuse other alike commended to them by the same Authority In all reason they deserve an equal reception and so they must become Catholicks Euryches the Arch-Heretick denyed Christ to be perfect man as well as perfect God and for his defence appealed to Scripture Ergo a S. Scripturâ—s 〈…〉 saith he have vet learned from the Sacred Scrâ—ptures of two Natures To whom it was replyed Neither have we been Concit Chalced. Act. 1. taught the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from Sacred Writ Which must needs put him to a bashful silence the verity of Christ's Humane Nature being as fully deliver'd in Scripture as his Divine though not in such express terms as they required And therefore both either to be necessarily receiv'd or rejected by them But Protestants certainly have far less to say for themselves who with the Eutychians receiving the term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not found in Scripture yet deny the Corporal presence of Christ in the Blessed Eucharist by a real though Invisible Change of the Visible Elements when My Flesh is Meat indeed and my Blood is Drink Joh. 6. 51. 55. indeed And again The Bread that I will give is my Flesh which I will give for the Life of the World And the most Sacred words of Institution This is my Body This is my Plood are plain and express terms as any Doctrine can be delivered unto our capacity The Pelagians to
submission to the Churches Decrees in things necessary to Salvation and likewise in vertue of the same Principle as in all equity they extend it withdraw their obedience from the Secular Magistrate in his necessary commands as he Judges for the publick good 'till it be made out to them that they are in the present matter though not taken out of the Holy Scriptures yet agreeable unto them doubtless all Government and Order is brought to nothing and their Edicts and Laws will be evacuated as often as the pride or prejudice or passion or Interest of Subjects shall think them not warrantable from Holy Writ Neither could such sad effects be hindred from daily breaking out to the Worlds disquiet were they not curb'd in with fear of present punishment For when they who are thus taught think themselves secure from the lash their deeds sufficiently evidence what Temporal Magistrates are to expect from their hands But to stick close to the Church which they have forsaken If they think they have kept firm ground enough for Church Authority to stand upon by inserting these words In things necessary to Salvation thereby implying that though her Decrees in things necessary to Salvation have no strength or Authority 'till it may be declared not by her self for she hath already made her declaration that they are taken out of the Holy Scriptures yet in things not necessary and indifferent her Authority is absolute and independent on such a declaration with an obligation of obedience fâ—om Believers If this I say be their meaning to keep up Church-Authority it will not do the business but is only to put a Reed in Christs hand instead of a Royal-Scepter and to allow his Church a Mock-power onely in Spiritual matters as will easily appear to any one considering the end for which our Lord and Saviour set up a Government in his Church For having founded and furnish'd his Church with plentiful means for the Salvation of mankind and instituted a Government therein to conserve and apply those means that they might be effectual for the foresaid end and purpose Church-Governours cannot possibly make a sufficient application as Co-workers with God by his appointment in the great work of our Salvation if their Power extended it self absolutely to things indifferent without which we may be saved and in those things necessary to Salvation can ordain things 'till a Declaration from God knows whom and when makes it good and valid For they tell us not by whom or when this Declaration must be made in such Cases but inveloping their conceit in general words only deliver that what Oecumenical Synods ordain in things necessary to Salvation have no strength nor Authority 'till it may be declared that they are taken out of the Holy Scriptures Is this Doctrine consistent with the end of Church-Government Would not those Superiours be invested with a goodly power who can without dispute bind their Subjects hands from scratching their own Faces but have no obliging Authority to hinder them from thrusting a Sword into their Bowels or striking a Dagger to their Heart Hath Christ given some Apostles Prophets and some Evangelists and Ephes 4. some Pastors to feed and govern his Church for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ 'till we all come into the unity of the Faith and yet what points they teach as necessary to Salvation have no strength nor Authoriry 'till their Disciples and Learners of them shall declare that they are taken out of Holy Scriptures Would God exact of Church-Governours an account of their Subjects Souls committed to their Charge threatning to require their Blood at their Hands if any perish Acts 20. 26 27. through their negligence and yet not invest them with an Authority essentially requisite for the sufficient discharge of so dreadful a duty What says St. Paul to this point Heb. 13. 17. Obey them that have the Rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your Souls as they that must give an account for them Now comes the English Protestant Church with a Paraphrase and teaches Obey them that have the rule over you who watch for your Souls because they must give an account of them and submit your selves to their commands and order in things indifferent and not necessary not in what they teach and ordain as without which Salvation cannot be had for such Decrees have no strength nor Authority 'till it may be declared that they are taken out of the Holy Scriptures Can any Conscientious or Rational man possibly perswade himself that this is the Apostles meaning Thirdly the English Protestants teach That the Church hath power to Decree Rites and Ceremonies and Authority in Controversies of Faith Had they stopt here and stood to it they had soon return'd to their Catholick Mother But forsooth it is with this Provisoe That she ordain not any thing that is contrary to Gods word nor expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another But never tells us who shall be this Judge to determine when her Decrees and Orders are contrary to the Word of God or not or when she gives the true sense of Scripture according to the Analogy of Faith so that one place be not repugnant to another And so leaves us in a maze for our Salvation They had denyed the Catholick Church Representative to be an Infallible Witness of the Truths of Jesus Christ and Authoritative Interpreter of Scripture to guide Believers in the true sense of it and so it would have been too a notorious Inquisition to have assum'd it to their Conventicles wherefore having taken away the Pillar and ground of Truth the Churches Authority or Infallibility they laid no other sure foundation nor set up any other determinate Column to uphold Religion but leaves it in uncertainties to certain ruine Well fare the Churches under St. Paul's care and governance who had receiv'd a Power not for destruction but edification and could do nothing against the Truth but 〈◊〉 10. 8. for it The English Protestant Church can do nothing for the Truth but against it has no Power at all for edification but only for destruction Neither indeed might she exercise her new assum'd Jurisdiction without destroying her self when she could not be builded up but by pulling down to patch up a Fabrick out of the ruines For the Composers of her Articles did very well perceive if they admitted the Church to be the Authoriz'd Visible Judge of the Sense of Sripture by the Rule of Tradition shining bright in the practice of the whole Christian World and immemorial possession of such points they contradicted it was not possible to escape the Sentence of condemnation but in the Controversy giving a decisive power only to the dead Letter of Scripture the refuge of old condemned Hereticks they feared no Anathema while themselves were Interpreters And having the supreme Magistrate on
their side to prohibite Catholicks to speak for themselves in any publick defence it was easie to delude vulgar apprehensions with this plausible Sophism The Papists refuse to be try'd by the Word of God Which things whosoever layes together and seriously ponders as I did cannot but discover that the English Protestant Reformers did not receive a Rule of Faith from the Catholick Church which had been the Square of Christian belief in all Ages and is to continue so for ever but invented or rather assumed from their Predecessors the Ancient Hereticks a Rule of Faith for the Church they were setting up whereby they thought their new Doctrines might with most likelihood be maintain'd and found no better expedient then by denying an authoriz'd Visible Judge to pronounce a definitive Sentence in Controversies of Faith that so they might keep in possession of what they had usurped by eternally wrangling about the right But that we may come to some issue by bringing them out of a mysterious may be declared to stand to something in this main Principle of Religion admit that the written word were the sole and perfect Rule of Faith it being impossible for dead Letters of themselves to rectify things applicable to them for that end and purpose they must needs acknowledge some animated Judge to perform this Office among Christians by applying the Rule to all particulars Now they having denyed the Church this right and so cast off her living voice and Authority in plain terms though insisting in generals they assign no other determinate Interpreter yet must have recourse to Reason or Revelation for besides these three I know not any I say they must either let private Reason make this declaration and Judge of the true sense of Scripture by her innate Light or flie to Revelation and Pretend that the Holy Ghost Infallibly declares by a Divine Light his meaning to them This later way of Divine Inspiration is laid claim to by the Calvinistical party and those strange broods of other English Sectaries who have nothing but Scripture and the Spirit of God in their mouths upon whom in a most Prodigious manner they Father all their Blasphemies to the shame of Christians But it is rejected by all Protestants in any degree rational as meerly Fanatical and invincibly convicted of Imposture by the manifest contradictions of several pretenders to the Spirit of God For can the Holy Ghost reveal to the Calvinists that the Government of the Church by Presbytery hath a Divine right from Scripture and by the same Divine Unction teach the Independents that it is against the written Word c. Private reason therefore is only left them to resolve their Faith into and rely upon in their inquiring after and belief of Supernatural Truths and those sublime Mysteries to the knowledge of which nature hath not sufficient Light to advance her self by her sole native powers beside those mists of passion or prejudice or Education or Interest to which we are daily lyable and which must needs make this way more dark and difficult in order to eternal Happiness However they must take to it unless they will openly recant what they have publickly approved For though at first they kept secret this grand mystery of their State-Religion yet at last great Patrons of the English Protestant Church have with Authority and much applause inthron'd Mr. Chilling worth c. private Reason as a sole Queen and Mistress in the Churches Chair to direct and interpret the Holy Scriptures and from them to give a final Sentence what are the Truths of God revealed to us Without which Sentence or Declaration the Churches Decrees in things necessary to Salvation have no strength at all or obligation Nor then neither as these Rationalists explain it upon the score of Authority but Reason only But how unreasonably and without ground I doubt not to make appear in the following Sections SECT IV. That the Holy Scriptures are not the sole and perfect Rule of Faith TO evidence the groundlessness of this main foundation of the English Protestant Church as declar'd and explicated in the precedent Section with full satisfaction I conceive it lyes upon me principally to make three things good against them First That Scripture is not the sole and perfect Rule of Faith Secondly That it is not nor can be the Judge of Controversies in Religion Which is the common Tenet of modern Hereticks And thirdly That admitting it for a Rule of Faith as in part it is private Reason is not the Interpreter and Judge of the true sense thereof for every Christian to rely upon for his Salvation In clearing the first point I need not labour much having already by convincing arguments establish'd in the 4th and 5th Sections of the first Motive the Catholick Rule of Faith Universal Tradition whither I desire my Reader to return for satisfaction And which standing firm the Protestants Rule of Scripture only must needs be as well a ruin'd as ruinous Principle and fall to nothing Yet that discourse being more general I shall here descend to some particulars to make it visible to very ordinary Capacities that Scripture doth not contain fully all things necessary to Salvation nor is clearly evident without dispute in all points necessary therein contain'd and consequently cannot be the sole and compleat Rule of Faith wanting those two most necessary conditions belonging to it First I say not full and comprehending all points necessary to Salvation of mankind For I demand of them whether it be not a fundamental point of Faith to believe the Holy Scriptures to be the Word of God and yet Mr. Hooker one of the most Judicious Writers of the English Protestants acknowledges this cannot be grounded upon Scripture Of all points saith Hooker's Ecc. Polit l. 2. â—â— I remember he the most necessary to be believ'd is that the Scriptures are the Word of God which is confest impossible for them to prove And proceeding makes a demonstration of it against the Puritans How then themselves being Judges can the Holy Scriptures being a compleat Rule of Faith not comprehending what is most necessary to be believ'd by every Christian If they say this Objection is not pertinent because whosoever makes the written word of God the sole and sufficient Rule of Faith must necessarily pre-suppose the belief of Scripture founded upon some other Principle I reply 't is impertinent to say so because the necessity of a pre-supposition of some fundamental point is a sufficient conviction that the Rule they have chosen cannot be compleat and perfect as they would have it Especially if it be confider'd that the fundamental point pre-suppos'd independent on Scripture but Scripture depending on it must needs be the ground quoad nos to us of all things believ'd in it Which ground or antecedent Principle upon which they as well as we build their belief of such Scriptures to be the undoubted Word of God being the universal
Tradition and Authority of the Church not they but this can only truly and rationally be asserted for a compleat and perfect Rule comprehending all things necessary to Salvation handing them down from the Apostles themselves to us now living as the revealed Truths of Jesus Christ and believed as such by all respective Ages upon that tenure Among which Truths so attested That such Writings are the undoubted Word os God is a Principal one and believed because so attested But all other Traditionary Doctrines of Faith having the same convincing proof that they came from Heaven whatever of them were occasionally committed to Writing afterwards by the Apostles are still to be believ'd upon the same account viz. Tradition and Church Authority the certainty of Scripture as well for the Sense as Letter depending thereon Again I demand of English Protestants by what Authority they condemn the Anabaptists to be Hereticks whether by Scripture or Tradition If they say by Scripture they must give me leave to tell that St. Austin with the primitive Christians were of another mind who tells them very plainly That Consuetudo Matris Ecclesiae c. The L. 4. cont Donat. custom of the Church our Mother in Baprizing Children is in no sort to be despis'd nor by any means thought superfluous nor at all to be believ'd except it was an Apostolical Tradition But if they value not Antiquity and presume the Fathers were but School-Boys to them in the understanding of Sacred Writ let them produce any one Text for Infant-Baptism so clearly proving it that the Contradictors must be unavoidably convinc'd and left confounded without any shadow of reply before thoroughly knowing and expert Judges in such Controversies and will confess the Fathers were but dull and heavy men compar'd to their quicker and more deep-sighted judgements in diving into the sense of Scripture and rest satisfy'd that upon the score of only Scripture Anabaptists may be condemned In his Reply Fisher for Hereticks I remember Bishop Land much presses that place in the Acts to be convincing for Infant Baptism Repent and be Baptiz'd Act. 2. 38 39. every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the promise is unto you and to your Children Yet not without the help of Tradition enlightning and exalting it to that force and efficacy But Dr. Hammond In his Ans to 6. Quaeres a great Scripturist and Defender of the Protestant Church confesses it is not at all concluding for it Without more ado the Truth is did not Church-Tradition shining bright in universal practice decide the controversy they could not satisfactorily answer those Texts of Scripture wherewith the Anabaptists confront those other produced by them nor justly enroll them in the black Book of Hereticks Does not this manifestly destroy their main foundation of Scripture to be the only and sufficient Rule of Faith Besides it is not an Heretical practice to Re-baptize those who have been Baptiz'd by Hereticks observing the true form of Baptism Can they evince it for such by any Scripture St. Austin tells them That custom which was opposed to Cyprian L. 2. de Bap. cont Donat. ca. 7 l. 5. c. 23. is to be believ'd to have taken its rise from the Tradition of the Apostles and that he believ'd it for such Moreover the form of Baptism is not expresly deliver'd in Holy Writ nor the number of the Sacraments nor yet the word Sacrament in the Scripture apply'd at all to those they acknowledge for such at least generally necessary to Salvation But for all these we are beholding to the practice and Tradition of the Church This is not all for farther yet let them show any precept in Scripture for the Abolishing of the Jewish Sabbath and observation of the Lords day in its stead A point doubtless necessary for Christians however as applyed to multitudes in Church-Communion Here also they are forc'd to leave Scripture and betake themselves to Tradition for the condemnation of the Sabbaterians Moreover would they willingly part with the Apostles Creed the Observation of Lent which their In his Sermon upon Lent Bishop Andrews contends to be Apostolical and see all Christian Festivals trampled under the prophane Feet of furious Fanaticks with most Ep. 118. ad Janua insolent madness as St. Austin calls it Yet they are all gone if Scripture must hold them up without Tradition In a word the greatest Champions of the English Protestant Church in these later years especially perceiving by sad experience the Vnder Sectaries who were Spawn'd from them to endanger and at last for a time wholly to destroy their new form of Belief and Worship by vertue of this Principle of Only-Scripture do now betake themselves to the Sword and Buckler of Tradition to defend and justify themselves against their Treacherous Brethren And thus although they fly to our Rule of Faith Vniversal Tradition for conviction of their Adversaries in some points by themselves accounted necessary yet they will needs have the Holy Scriptures to be the only and perfect Rule of Faith Doubtless it had been more safe and ingenuous to have acknowledg'd with the Ancient Fathers Traditionary Doctrines as well as the Holy Scriptures to compleat the Rule of Christian belief but contradicting Antiquity by contracting the Rule of Faith into Scripture alone they have likewise contradicted themselves the inevitable Fate of all Truthopposers Secondly The Holy Scriptures are not clearly evident without dispute in all points necessary contain'd in them and consequently no compleat nor certain Rule of themselves as the common experience of all Ages makes good Can any say the Consubstantiality of the Son of God with the Father is in evident or express terms in Sacred Scripture Yea or so contained in it by inevitable consequence as to destroy all probability in the Texts brought for the contrary by Contradictors Then certainly the Arians who had as subtil Heads and able Brains as any Protestants to understand the Logick of their Adversaries were mad men to appeal from Councils and Tradition to the written Word They knew very well that without the Tradition and practice of the Church delivering the sense of Scripture they could handsomly enough evade the force of all Arguments might be rais'd from the bare and dead words of Scripture though stretch'd upon the Tenters of most rigorous Criticism Yea they doubted not but there were Texts for them more evidently asserting the Inferiority of the Son and appropriating the Divine nature to the Father only which was the ground of their confidence in appealing to the written Word to be tryed thereby without Tradition And yet the Protestants condemn the Arians for Hereticks and justly too But how they can do it rationally upon their own Principles I confess surpasses my understanding True it is add to Scripture the Tradition of the Church and the Authoritative Sentence of an approved General Council so interpreting it and the case is clear but these
been manifested in the precedent Section And for further confirmation I here ask whether Hoc est Copus meum Hic est Sanguis meus be not plain words without any Ambiguity in their Grammatical construction We Catholicks indeed taught by the universal Tradition and practice of the Church doubt not of the Sense of them But can Lutherans Calvinists and English Protestants maintain their meaning to be clear and perspicuous among whom above fourty several Interpretations some flatly repugnant to each other are found about them Can such variety and contrariety proceed but from obscurity Either from that or else some of them must wilfully contradict Scripture and resist the Holy Ghost by maintaining a dangerous Doctrine against their own knowledge and Conscience But who those are I leave them to wrangle upon their own grounds eternally among themselves In the interim I 'm sure upon Catholick Principles they all stand unanswerably convicted of wilfull Heresie Besides Christ's real descent into Hell is an Article of Faith yet the Calvinists deny it against Scripture Acts 2. v. 27 and 31. as plain Acts 2. 27 31. in our judgment and so think the English Protestants also as the Apostles Creed They bring no other Scripture for their Negative but flatly deny this place to be evident and concluding Now what must be done to end this Controversy in a fundamental point The clearest Text Scripture affords is already produced to give them satisfaction 't is unsuccessful and they raise clouds of new invented Interpretations to hide it from their own and others eyes Can Scripture now judge and conclude this Controversy Moreover the Lutherans and English Protestants agree with Catholicks in asserting the necessity of Baptism to Salvation grounding themselves on that of St. John Except Joh. 3. 5. a man be born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God The Calvinists hold the contrary and by no means will allow Water there mention'd to be taken literally for natural Water but drink it all up with a dry Metaphor How can they convince them if Scripture alone be judge If with us they urge them with the consent of Fathers Universal Tradition and practice of the Church so interpreting these words of our Blessed Saviour the Controversy is at an end Or if Calvinists will be yet contending they can speak nothing Solid or Rational in their own defence To all which may be added that judicious and accute Observation of an able Controvertist That though Apology for Tradit p. 137. one intent and end of writing St. John ' s Gospel was to show the Godhead of Christ which the Arians afterwards denyed yet the design prov'd so unsuccessful that never any Heresie was more powerful and spreading than that which oppos'd the Truth intended by his Book So he yea and it is most certain the Arians at this day do make more use of that Gospel than any other part of Scripture to beat down the Divinity of the Son of God A manifest argument that Scripture was never intended by the Author of those Sacred Oracles for the final decision of controverted points but for something else proper and agreeable to the nature of dead writings However we make no question but all Catholick Doctrines are contain'd in the Bible by Rational deductions with infinite advantage above what our Adversaries can produce for their defence upon the same grounds as hath been made to appear by able Controvertists before any Impartial and understanding Judges More need not be said in a matter condemned by the common sense and experience of the whole World SECT VI. That private Reason in Controversies of Faith is not the Interpreter and Judge of the true Sense of Scripture for every Christian to rely upon for his Salvation SOme English Protestants of Critical Heads to qualifie the absurdance of the former Thesis still holding close to the written Word for a compleatly sufficient Rule of Faith make private Reason the Interpreter and Judge for every Christian A Principle which though it may seem plausible and gain followers because it makes every one Sui juris independent and his own Master a thing so desirable and sweet to flesh and blood yet no less than the other doth it contradict the whole Christian World always teaching Vt Scripturas ipsas sic Scripturarum sensum pure imperturbate solum ad nos Traditionis alneo deferri That the pure and uncorrupted sense of the Scripture doth depend upon Tradition as well as the Scriptures themselves And accounting it a giddy Spirit of Heretical rashness Scripturae interpretationem ex proprio ingenio petere To refuse to give ear to the voice of the Church and give ear to the Whisperings of private Reason which is so exterminating a Principle and destructive of Religion that it doth not ruine this or that or some few Catholick Truths but like a general deluge with an irresistable torrent sweeps away the Church it self by overthrowing the unity in Faith the Life and Soul and Essence of it 'T is a subject would afford a large field of Discourse but I shall content my self with brevity and I hope others also Whosoever shall desire more ample satisfaction I refer him to the Exomologesis of Mr. Cressy where 't is solidly confuted in answer to Mr. Chillingworth the great Patron and first publick Assertor of it with approbation The principal Arguments which convinc'd me for I was one of those very unreasonable Rationalists when I was a Protestant and with which I rest fully satisfied are these following First if private reason be the only Interpreter and Judge of Scripture for every Christian I desire those who are minded to give a satisfactory Answer to those places of Sacred Writ which in my poor judgement cannot stand with their position St. Peter teacheth us 2 Pet. 1. 19 20 c. That no Prophecy of the Scripture is of private Interpretation but Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy-Ghost That is as the Sacred Pen-men of Gods Word writ by Inspiration of the Holy-Ghost being his publick Instruments to reveal the Divine Verities to the World so those Sacred Oracles are not to be interpreted Authorative by the private Reason and Will of men but their true sense and meaning if call'd in question is to be received from the Governours Concilium Trid. Ses 4. of the Church whom God has authoriz'd to declare his will unto his People Of which he gives a convincing reason in his 3d. Chap. telling 2 Pet. 3. 15 16 17. us That in his dear Brother Paul's Epistles are some things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures unto their own destruction This is not compatible to the definitive Sentence of a Judge in any Controversy which must be so clear and perspicuous that the most unlearned or refractory cannot doubt or mistake after pronunciation Neither
is this difficulty in matters of no moment but in points necessary where Souls do perish through misbelief We find in the Acts of the Apostles that Philip the Deacon drawing near to the Chariot of the devout Eunuch and hearing him read Act 8. 30 31 c. the Prophet Isaias said Vnderstandest thou what thou readest And he said how can I except some man guide me He had not learn'd the Principle of their Rationalists to bid the Holy man spare his pains of Exposition or if he would be doing that he was not bound to believe one word he spoke for Truth 'till his own reason made it Authentick For this wild Doctrine frees every man in matters of Eternity from all Authority of humane Teachers though of Divine Institution so that be we Jews or Heathens or in what Church soever we have been Baptiz'd we must stand to no Creed believe no Catechism or abridgement of points necessary though confirm'd by the practice of the whole Christian World rely on no Instructors but believe and practice the quite contrary if our private reason judges it to be contain'd in Sacred Scripture Doubtless if his judgment had been preposess'd with this proud arrogant Principle Philip had preach'd in vain nor had he believ'd unto Salvation but would have dismiss'd the Evangelist with some such words as these I have a desire to save my Soul and therefore have given you a hearing but all this is nothing yet to me I will search the Scriptures farther to see what I must believe and when I have made my Creed I will send for You to Baptize me Which plainly contradicts the method of saving instruction deliver'd by the great Doctor of the Gentiles in that famous Climax How shall they call Rom. 10. 14 15. on him in whom they have not believ'd And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard And how shall they hear without a Preacher A Preacher with Mission and Commission from Jesus Christ But no place is more convincing than that 1 Tim. 3. 15. to Timothy The Church is the Pillar and ground of Truth And if the Church how then must every one build upon his private Reason for the true sense of Scripture in all things necessary to Salvation St. Paul was an Apostle of Jesus Christ whose Missioners then are those who teach the contrary Lastly I desire them to reconcile this Article of our Ancient Creed I believe the Holy Catholick Church with their novel Doctrine The Caetholick Church hath nothing to do with my Faith I believe my own Reason and nothing else in giving the true sense of Scripture to me For my part it being clear to me from the written Word that the Church hath a promise of Infallibility in matters of Faith That there is a command from Christ laid upon every one to hear her voice under pain of damnation and that otherwise the above named Article would not have been inserted into the Apostles Creed as a fundamental point I could see no safety or certainty in matters of eternal Interest but by wholly renouncing my most weak deceitful self and delivering up my self entirely into the hands of the Catholick Church to be taught by her what I must Believe and Do to be saved Nor found I any thing more reasonable then to captivate my understanding to the obedience of Faith when the God of reason doth require it at our hands Secondly to make every one an Interpreter and Judge of the true sense of Holy Scripture for himself unappealably by Reason seems evidently to me to deprive us of the only rational and solid means which is required to produce a well grounded Faith of Supernatural Verities in the Soul of man Which thus I manifest Supernatural Faith being an assent of the understanding to things revealed meerly for the Authority of the Relator without any farther dispute when once we have an assurance that God hath revealed them two things must necessarily concurre in all mediate productions to beget this act firmly and rationally in any Soul namely Ist Divine Revelation of things to be believ'd which is the formal Object of Faith into which it is ultimately resolv'd And 2dly A certain knowledge or moral evidence that such are revealed by the mediation or intervention of which the understanding elevated by Grace proceeds to the foresaid assent Now suppose there were no Objects of Supernatural and Divine Faith but what are contain'd in the written Word 't is not the bare and naked Letter but Scripture rightly understood that is the Word of God and of Infallible verity except therefore we have some Medium or means to convey assuredly to our understanding the true sense of Scripture our Faith cannot but halt and totter when we cannot rationally afford a firm assent to such a thing as revealed and have just cause to suspect whither we rightly understand that Scripture which contains the Revelation And certainly this cause of suspition will be ever just while private reason is the Interpreter and Judge of Holy Writ when abundant experience tells us nothing is more Fallible nothing more deceitful nothing sooner bribed with pride or passion or prejudice or education or interest to make words speak what never the Author intended by them Insomuch that hardly any fundamental point delivered in Scripture but hath been called in question and still is by too many protesting withall their sincerity and endeavours to attain to the true sense of Scripture by the light of their own Reason to which they appeal as their Judge and Protector in those wilful and irrational proceedings Neither indeed have Heresies arose in the Church but from Scripture misinterpreted by private reason as the * Non aliunde natae sunt haeredes nisi quod Scripturae bene intelliguntur non benè St. Aug. Tract 18 in Jeab Er de Gen. ad Lit. l. 7 ca. 9. Non ob aliud siunt haeretici nisi quod Scripturas non recte intelligentes suas Falsas opiniones contra earum veritatem pertinaciter asserunt alii passiom S. Ambr. in Titi. Vincentius Lyrin ca. 36. S. Irenaeus l. 1. c. 1. S. Hier. ad ca. 23. Isaiae S. Hilar. in lib. ad Constantinum Origenes Hom. 31. in Exodum c. Fathers and Church-history sufficiently testify Alas poor Souls that have such a guide to carry the Light which must direct them to eternal Happiness If they make their Light Darkness how great is that Darkness When their guide misleads them what remedy is there left to recall them into the path which leads to Heaven The Catholick Church indeed is inriched with so great a priviledge by Christ our Saviour that she cannot err in things necessary to Salvation as hath been manifested in the precedent Motive by Reason Fathers Councils Scripture Tradition and practice of the Christian World Whom we may as undoubtedly believe in delivering to us the true sense of Scripture as the Letter and upon whom
c is damnable and the sin of Schism which surpasseth all other crimes This is so home and punctual that to quote any more will be superfluous neido I see admitting the Holy Fathers Authority what can rationally or satisfactorily be reply'd by our Adversaries But thirdly the Church is Catholique respectu hominum saluandorum in respect that as many as are saved are called to be Members of it Therefore 't is said Acts the 2. v. 47. That there were added to the Church dayly such as should be saved And St. Paul tells us Quos praedestinavit Rom. 8. 30. hos est vocavit c. Whom God has predestinated to Grace and Glory from all eternity those he in time calls out of the World into the Congregation of the Faithful which is the proper notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Original from whence comes the word Ecclesia that in the Communion of his Catholick Church they may make their calling and election sure by working out their election with fear and trembling Testimonies of the Fathers in all Ages are very copious to this purpose View a few of many The Holy Catholick Church says L. 14. Moral ca. 2. St. Gregory the great teaches that none can be saved except within her affirming that none can be saved in any-wise who are without her Whosoever Ep. 152. ad Donat. says St. Austin shall be separated from this Catholick Church how laudibly soever he thinks he lives by this only wickedness in that he 's divided from the unity of Christ he shall not have life but the wrath of God abideth on him And again Being Do vnit Eccl. c. 19. out of the Church and divided from the collection of unity and bond of charity thou shouldst be punish'd with eternal fire though burn'd alive for the Name of Christ St. Fulgentius his Schollar hath the fame l. de fide ad Petrum ca. 37 38. St. Cyprian's words are little different Do they De vn c. Eccl. think says he Christ is amongst them when they are assembled out of the Church of Christ No though they were drawn to torments and execution for the confession of the Name of Christ yet this pollution is not wash'd away no not with blood this inexpiable and inexcusable crime of Schism is not purged away even by death it self Which is no more then what they have learn'd from the great Doctor of the Gentiles when he says Though 1 Cor 13. 1 2 3. I give all my substance to maintain the poor and though I give my body to be burn'd and have not charity it will profit me nothing And the reason is because 't is a sacrifice without charity which Schism destroyeth For charity saith St. Austin no man transports out of the Church Are not these loud Alarms in the ears of Protestants and all other Separatists to awaken them from their present Lethargy and make them sensible of their sad condition Can they hear these terrible accents and yet continue to deceive themselves with the specious Name of Reformed Christians While they are divided from the Communion of the Catholick Church can their morally good Lives their civil Conversation their formal Piety without the power thereof their Saint-like zeal which in the preciser sort dazels the eyes of common People who think all is gold that glisters Can any or all of these save their precious and immortal Souls No they cannot For out of the Catholick Church saith the same St. Austin Epist 48. cont Donat c. they may have Faith they may have Sacraments they may have Scriptures they may live laudably they may do good works they may suffer death it self for the Name of Christ all this they may do and have but out of the Church Salvation they cannot have Thus the Ancient Church always taught and we with them And this all Hereticks and Schismaticks will sadly find true without repentance But God of his mercy make it work effectually on them as it did on me to bring them into the bosom of the Catholick Church I will close up this discourse with that famous place of St. Austin Multa L. cont Ep Fund ca. 4. sunt quae in Ecclesiae Catholicae gremio me justissimè teneant Tenet consensio populorum gentium tenet auctoritas miraculis inchoata spe nutrita charitate aucta Vetustate firmata tenet ab ipsa sede Petri Apostoli cui pascendas oves suas post resurrectionem Dominus commendavit usque ad praesentem Episcopatum successio sacerdotum tenet postremo ipsum Catholicae nomen quod non fine causa inter tà m multas haereses sic ista Ecclesia sola obtinuit ut cum omnes haeretici se Catholicos dici velint quaerenti tamen peregrino alicui ubi ad Catholicam conveniatur nullus haereticorum vel basilicam suam vel domum audeat ostendere Ista ergo tot tantaque Christiani nominis charissima vincula recte hominem tenent credentem in Ecclesia Catholica etiam si propter nostrae intelligentiae tarditatem vel vitae meritum veritas nondum se apertissime ostendat Apud vos autem ubi nihil horum est quod me invitet ac teneat sola personat veritatis pollicitatio Which is to this effect That the consent of Nations an Authority set up with Miracles nourish'd with Hope increas'd by Charity establish'd by Antiquity the uninterrupted succession of Priests in the Chair of Peter the Apostle to the present Bishop and lastly the very name of Catholick most justly kept him in the Catholick Church while only the empty name of Truth did keep a noise and ratling among Schismaticks wholly destitute of all these arguments to work upon a rational understanding And let any man who desires sincerely to follow Truth and save his Soul judge whether these motives which kept St. Austin in the bosome of the Catholick Church after his Conversion ought not to convert him to become a Member of the same Church and keep him in it SECT VI. Wherein the Protestants Plea of pretended Errors in the Church of Rome to justify their Separation is refuted BUt they object further that the Church not only may but did err in points of Faith and Worship and that they separated not from the Church of Rome but from her Errors and Corruptions that they might not communicate with her in her sins But certainly whoever impartially considers what has been said in the precedent and some other Sections concerning the Churches Indefectibility can never think it possible that such gross errors and corruptions could invade the Church to her utter ruine The Church of Christ which is the pillar and ground of Truth and could not be so was she her self lyable to error in points of Faith hath always been more Faithful in keeping the Depositum of the Gospel intrusted to her inviolate and unspotted from all blemishes of corruption which unreasonable men that is Schismaticks and
Hereticks have endeavoured by all means possible to introduce thereby to defile the Virgin-purity of Christ's Spouse contending so earnestly for the Faith once deliver'd to the Saints that in this Holy quarrel she was ever very liberal of her dearest blood willing rather to undergo the greatest tortures then it should suffer in the least manner Yea so vigilant and eagle-ey'd hath she been hitherto in the discharge of this important duty that no Authority Learning or Sanctity of any person whatsoever could introduce the least innovotion in Religion without vigorous opposition and condemnation As is evident in Origen and Tertullian those wonders of their times to name no more being a thing so obvious in Church History See Vincentius Lyrin ca. 23 24. Moreover all points of Christian belief being taught and establish'd in the Church by Christ and his Apostles and as such conveyed down to us ever since that time by Universal Tradition and for the most part most visible practice as the Sacrifice of the Mass Prayer for the Dead Invocation of Saints c. 'T is altogether impossible the Church should fall into such damnable errors as are imputed to her by our Adversaries except so many millions of Christians of different Nations and Languages scatter'd over the face of the whole earth should to no purpose in some Age conspire together to teach the World a palpable lye in direct opposition to what they had received and in matters whereon depend no less then the eternal Salvation of themselves and Posterity a thing inconceivable to humane reason But impossibilities clouded in plausible terms shall be asserted for truths before some men will confess themselves Schismaticks in separating from the Roman Church and Infallibility must err before they be condemn'd as erroneus who yet confess themselves Fallible But let us suppose though it be not true that the Church was lyable to errors in matters of Faith can these men who accuse her to be erroneous assure us that they err not in the accusation For being by their own confessions Fallible that is not certain whether what they affirm be true or no unless they can evidence that those are errors indeed which they lay to the Churches charge no man can rationally believe them seeing the publick judgment and attestation of the Church to the contrary is incomparably of far greater Authority and will overpoise whatever amounts to less then demonstration And in all Justice the right ought to be thought on the Governouts side ' til the revolters from them by producing causes sufficient to justify the withdrawing of their obedience make the contrary undeniably clear to every eye They are the accusing Party the Church defends her right without a definitive Sentence can be no decision What Judge will they therefore stand to in this Controversy We know they ought to submit to the judgment and determination of the present Church her voice being as it were the voice of God in declaring what is of Faith or not and cannot but wonder that they will not also acknowledge it when our Blessed Saviour says plainly of Luke 10. 16. Church Governours He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and who despiseth me despiseth him that sent me And 1 Thess 4. 8. St. Paul He that despiseth these things despiseth not man but God who hath also given to us of his Holy Spirit But because by her they already are convicted and condemned and therefore refuse to stand to her determination as Hereticks and Schismaticks have done in all Ages will they refer it to Antiquity and let the Ancient Fathers give the Sentence This they cannot rationally refuse neither in word to make a flourish do some of the most Learned of the Protestants but only pretend to reform the present Church that they may conform to Antiquity and undertake to rectify the Church of Rome in points wherein she hath forsaken her primitive purity But they are at great variance and in disorder amongst one another in that they cannot agree when Religion began to be adulterated and when these errors crept into the Church For being no less then damnable errors as they pretend in things practical and daily in use by so great a Body and therefore notoriously visible and speaking aloud their original seeing they can assign no certain time a task impossible as we have before shewn when first they were brought into the Church 't is an undeniable argument that they are not innovations but of Apostolical practice and institution According to that famous Rule of St. Austin Quod ubique ab Ecclesia Catholica observatum est c. Whatever the Catholick Church observes in all places if we find it to have been instituted by no General ouncil we must believe it to have come from the Apostles themselves to us by Tradition Some of them allow the Spouse of Christ to continue in her Virgin purity for the first five or six hundred years 'till the time of Gregory the great that glorious Saint and Pope so affectionate to our Countrey and justly called our Apostle Others think this confession too liberal and will have the Mystery of Iniquity to begin sooner which is true if understood of Apostates from the Church not of the Church Apostatizing and so with them this defection from the Faith by the mixture of Antichristian Doctrines and practices must invade the Church immediately upon the first 300 years after Christ or thereabouts some maintaining this others that Pope to be the Antichrist every one fancying a time which they conceited most advantageous for their purpose For after tryal finding that the Fathers of the first 600 years could not be admitted Judges in the Controversy without a manifest condemnation of themselves they warily retreated within the first 300 years of Christ which being times of hot and bloody persecution more or less and little then written by the Fathers of the Church they thought nothing considerable could be produced against them within those Ages for their condemnation in the present Controversies not then started or what was upon record might easily some way or other be evaded So that they will have the light of their new Gospel to be tryed only by dark times as to the decision of the present points like Litigants who will admit only of such Witnesses who can say little or nothing to the cause in hand and by all means will have those debarr'd to speak who can give sufficient evidence against them For no rational cause possibly can be given why they should assign 6 or 5 or 300 years after Christ for the beginning of the Apostacy from the Faith as if Christ should just then forget his promise of pâ—rpâ—tual assistance and guidance of his Church into all Truth or else not be able to perform it more then any other time but only they were resolv'd whâ—â— they found those Doctrines and practices to be evidently asserted by the ancient Fathers which they
condemn as Erroneous and Idolatrous they would determine That to be the time when the Church grew rotten and corrupted And so after all their seeming veneration of Antiquity the Ancient Fathers shall not be any Rule whereby to judge of their Faith and Worship but their Faith and Worship shall be a Rule whereby to judge when the Fathers are or are not erroneous A sure way I confess for a new Religion But they cannot escape so neither without condemnation that even by their own confessions so impossible it is for those who contradict Truth not to contradict themselves also and to confute themselves while they oppose her For take the first 5 or 600 years after Christ to be the limiâ—s of primitive Purity and 't is manifest from their own Champions that what they call errors as just causes of their separation from the Church of Rome are Catholick Verities 'T is true saith Whitaker what Cont. 2. q. 5. c. 7. Calvin and the Centurists have written that the Ancient Church did err in many things as touching Limbo Free-will Merit of Works c. I confess saith Tulk Hierom Riot Brist pag. 36. Austin Ambrose c. hold the Invocation of Saints Most of the Fathers saith Kemnitius Exam. Con. Trid. p. 3. p. 2000 did not dispute but avouch that the Souls of Martyrs heard the Petitions of those who Prayed to them they went to the Monuments of Martyrs and invocated Martyrs by Name As long as we stand to Councils and De Noto Col 1559. Fathers we shall remain always in the same Errors So Peter Martyr Which words being indefinite may as well involve the Councils and Fathers of the first 300 years their utmost refuge in Antiquity as after Ages But Whitguift an English Protestant Defen p. 473. Bishop put it out of all doubâ— for he affirms That all the Bishops and Learned Writers of the Greek and Latin Church too for the most part wrre spotted with the Doctrines of Free-will Merit Invocation of Saints It was a custom saith Calvin 1300 years ago to Pray for the Dead Inst l. 3. c. 5. para 10. But all of that time I confess were carried away into Error Which computed from the time he writ must of necessity adulterate the Church in the days of her pre-acknowledg'd Purity And Dudidius plainly acknowledges to his Brother Beza That if it be true Apud Bezam Ep. 1 which the Fathers have profess'd with mutual consent 't is altogether on the Papists side What can we desire more as to the judgment of Antiquity for our justification Thus these men while they pretend only to forsake errors and reform Religion by cloathing the the Church a new with the snowy garments of primitive purity confess unawares enough to condemn themselves out of their own mouths and flatly give the lye to what they produce for their justification They flee to Antiquity to absolve them from error and yet accuse the same Antiquity as erroneous But while they thus condemn the whole Church Councils and Ancient Fathers of errors certainly they could not intend that their own single words should be of any Authority or deserve to be credited by rational men Who desires more satisfaction in this particular I refer him to that most excellent Treatise call'd The Protestants Apology for the Catholick Faith which in an argument ad hominem is unanswerable and plainly demonstrates that Protestants must upon their own grounds either become Catholicks or else confess that their Faith and practice is not the Faith and Practice of the Ancient Church With whom to consent is notwithstanding the Plea of these men to defend their separation from the Church of Rome their Catholick Mother not to be Schismatical Some therefore seeing their Church not only to totter but wholly to fall while it pretends to stand on the legs of Antiquity have with greater zeal though with less reason invented another way to justify their Schism and will have no Authority at all attributed to the Fathers and Councils the constant practice and Tradition of the Church for decision of the present Controversies but affirm all things to be uncertain upon that score though never so plainly and unanimously asserted and the Sacred Scripture independent on them must be sole judge and give the decisive Sentence by it self Which position if made speak out says thus much that since the Apostles days there 's not one sufficient witness of what they taught the World to believe and practice as Christ instructed them but that the Doctrine of the Church is to be brought to the touchstone of Scripture by every one in particular and after examination to be accounted counterfeit or true accepted or refused as fancy and private reason shall determine For after these magnificent pretences of their great veneration of Sacred Scripture and deferring all to it this is the up-shot and their Faith is finally resolv'd into no safer Principle A Position so wholly destructive of the certainty of Christian belief so inconsistent with the majestick gravity of Religion such a never dying Hydra of Schisms and Heresies that I know not what can make a surer way for Atheism to triumph over the ruines of Christianity And had our Fore-Fathers been of this judgment and practice doubtless before this time the Cross of Christ had not been the glory but contempt of Nations Besides methinks they cannot but see that while they flee to to Scripture as sole Judge in these Controversies and deny all Church Tradition and Attestation they thereby take away those Sacred Oracles of Divine Truth also when 't is confess'd by all who can pretend any right to reason that there 's no possible way for us to know undoubtedly what is the Word of God or not but by the Tradition of the Church Moreover if the written Word must be sole Judge seeing the Scriptures themselves send them to the Church obliging them to stand to her determination in such Cases as is manifest by what hath been said are they not confounded upon their own grounds and must obey the Churches decisive Sentence in all Controversies of Faith or else deny to stand to Scripture In such inextricable waves do they miserably loose themselves who obstinately defend so bad a cause But if notwithstanding these Paralogisms and self-contradictions the Scriptures must still be sole Judge in the present controverted points and they will have them to speak for them against us except it be so convincingly that the Propositions by the very connexion of terms cannot be denyed without some implicancy they are in as bad a case as they were before For if the places produced are justly lyable to various interpretations can they think it reasonable that their private glosses should be preferred before the publick judgment of the Church to whom we owe the Scriptures themselves and from whom we ought to receive as well the sense of Scripture when 't is controverted as we do the
Letter I know in their popular discourses they make fine flourishes and after a long combat with pretended monstruous errors of the Church of Rome they clap their wings and crow triumphantly upon their own dunghill demanding of their deluded Auditory whether the Church of Rome or Scripture is to be believ'd This is their custom but 't is not the question For let them produce but one sentence out of those Sacred Oracles of Truth that in express terms contradicts the Doctrine of the Church of Rome in any one controverted point for which they pretend just cause of separation and it would be something to the purpose but who can imagine that Catholicks who have taught the Protestants that the Scripture is God's word should themselves in express and positive terms deny the Doctrine of it And therefore seeing the question is if Scripture alone was to deside the Controversies whether the sense and meaning of the Holy Ghost in those Sacred Writings is to be taken upon the credit of Ecclesiastical Tradition or new-born interpretations of some few private men certainly none except much oversway'd by passion or interest can prefer the bare conjectures and probabilities of those Interpreters before the evidence of such Authority Especially the Scriptures themselves witnessing That things in them 2 Pet. 3. 15 16 17. difficult to be understood are wrested by the unlearned and unstable to their own destruction And the experience of all Ages making it evident that the Interpretation of Scriptures by private Spirits in a sense contrary to the attestation and practice of the Church hath been the very source and fountain of all Heresies And in such cases there 's no possible way to be secured from seduction and falling into errors but by firmly adhering to the Doctrine and Tradition of the Church Sine ego sive quis alius c. If I or any other saith Vincentius Lyrinensis will discover the frauds of new-born Hereticks and shunning their snares abide sound and firm in the right belief he must by the help of God fortify his Faith with a double bullwark first the Authority of Divine Law and then the Tradition of the Catholick Church For Sacred Scriptures being lyable to such variety of Interpretions that almost so many men so many minds Novatian Photinus Sabellius Donatus Arius Apollinaris Belagius Nestorius Lutherans Calvinists Protestants Anabaptists Independents Fanaticks c. every one pretending the Scriptures to stand for them according to their several glosses and expositions of necessity to shun the Labyrinths of so many errors we must follow the line of Apostolical Writings as handed to us by the sense and Tradition of the Catholick Church And yet if we should exclude the universal Tradition of the Church with the undoubted Testimonies of Councils and Fathers of all Ages by which Protestants stand convicted of Schism and Heresie beyond all rational contradiction from having any thing to do in the decision of these Controversies granting all that they desire let bare words of Scripture be taken according to the exactest Criticisms of private reason in the judgement of Learned and Un-interessed men and even upon that score those Sacred Oracles of Divine Truth will cast it clearly on the Catholicks side against our Adversaries And if they cannot be convinced from them to be Heretical in all material points of Faith wherein they differ from us yet as much as concerns the formal part of Schism and Heresie they stand thereby as manifestly guilty of those hainous sins as ever any one who separated from the Churches Doctrine and Communion yea and by Protestants themselves condemn'd for Hereticks But never any place hath been produced by them from the Scriptures against the Church in the present Controversies as to evidence her in any one point erroneous But Catholicks have sufficiently shown that by such endeavours they have troubled those waters of Life with the mud of their corrupted fancies and by injurious distortions forced them to speak what never the Holy Ghost intended What remains therefore but that Protestants acknowledging themselves to be a Congregation Fallible and subject to error in points of Faith confess also that they never afforded a more pregnant demonstration of their Fallibility than in assering the Catholick Church to have erred whereby their separation from her Doctrine and Communion might be justified SECT IV. Wherein the Protestants Plea that the Popes Universal Pastorship in an Usurpation crept into the Church and therefore might and ought to be forsaken without Schism is refuted YEt another Plea they have that the Popes Universal Authority and Primacy over the Church is a meer Usurpation and Tyrannical and consequently to oppose and expel the exercise of such a Power out of England or where ever else 't is introduced cannot be a Schism but a Godly Reformntion by reducing the Government of the Church to its primitive institution as founded by Christ and his Apostles These are fine specious words and will be found nothing else in their due examination For it being of Faith in the Catholick Church that a Primacy or Supreme Jurifdiction in Ecclesiastical matters over the Universal Body of Christianity in St. Peter and his Successors the Bishops of Rome is of Divine Institution and maintain'd by her as so taught and practic'd in all Ages yea and the Popes being in peaceable possession of such an Authority in England for about 1000 years by confession of Protestants themselves being a thing not to be denyed as notoriously evident from unquestionable Records in Church affairs to deny such an Authority to be lawful and thereupon to withdraw their obedience from such a Government without any more adoe declares them Schismaticks unless first by rigorous demonstration they prove it to be a meer usurpation For 't is not abus'd Scripture much less other Testimonies either justly suspected or wrested to their purpose that can weigh any thing against the selfproof of so long a continued possession the like to which cannot be shown by any Authority upon Earth to fortify their right against opposers I say nothing but rigorous demonstration will serve their turn in this case which no prescription can evacuate But when the Papal Authority was first cast out of England God knows they were thinking on other matters Lust and Self-interest had quite blinded the eye of reason in King Henry the 8th and his flatterers resolving first upon the fact and then endeavouring to maintain it just and lawful But with such weak Arguments as may be strong proofs to induce all un-interested Souls to believe the contrary though indeed the strength of our evidence against them needs no help from the feebleness of their defences However thus liberal they are to us against their wills No cause actually working can but produce effects correspondent to the nature of its activity No man can deny this but he must deny his reason If therefore the Pope's Supremacy over the Universal Church was introduced by Tyranny and
Bullwark for the Catholick Faith against Cent. 4. Ep. ad ori Episc the Arrians is no less express and punctual to our purpose Sicut B. Petrus Apostles c. As Blessed Peter was chief of the Apostles so the Roman Church consecrated in his Name by our Lords institution was first and Head of the rest and all great Churches and Assemblies of Bishops should have recourse to her as to the Mother Church and Supreme I have put these too together because Popes which cannot derogate from their Authority our Adversaries having nothing justly to say against them St. Irenaeus surely was no Protestant in this point affirming The most ancient known Church to all men L. 3. cont haer c. 13. founded and establish'd at Rome by the two most famous Apostles Peter and Paul brought down by succession of Bishops to his time to be that Church to which by reason of its more powerful principality every Church that is all the Faithful over the World ought to resort Tertullian calls St. Peter The Rock of the Church and the Bishop In praeser c. 22 36. of Rome the High Priest and Bishop of Bishops Origen is clear When says he the chief charge of feeding Christs sheep was given to Peter and the In ca. 6. Ep. ad Roma Church founded upon him c. There was required of him the confession of no Virtue but Charity Relating to that place in the 21 of St. John's Gospel where is described when and how our Blessed Saviour invested him with this Supreme Pastorship and Jurisdiction We saith St. Cyprian as the Epist ad Ju mouth of the Church hold Peter the Head and Root of the Church But that famous place elsewhere is more full and convincing The enemy perceiving De vnit Eccles his Idols to be forsaken and his Temples to be deserted by the multitude of Believers invented a new deceit to gull the unwary by the name of Christian raising Heresies and Schismes to corrupt Verity and subvert Faith This is O Brethren because we have not recourse to the Origen nor seek to the Head Which if we would consider and examine there would need no long Treatise nor many arguments to find out the Truth Our Lord said to Peter Thou art Peter and upon this rock will I build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it And again after resurrection saying As my Father sent me so send I you c. Yet to John 20. 21 c. manifest unity he constituted one Chair and by his Authority he dispos'd the Origen of that Vnity to begin from oneâ— The rest of the Apostles were that which Peter was the Primacy was given to Peter that the Church of Christ might appear to be one and one Chair Here are couch'd many things remarkable First That all Hereticks and Schismaticks are not true Members of the Catholick Church but meer nominal Christians Secondly that Heresie and Schism in their own nature are as damning sins as flat Idolatry being Satan's new-invented snareâ— to catch poor Souls and his utmost endeavours to keep up his tottering Kingdom after the promulgation of the Gospel to all Nations Thirdly That unwary Souls are only taken by these ginns of the Enemy who have not recourse to the Visible Head of the Church in communion with whom Truth is only to be found Fourthly That St. Peter is this visible Head of the Church constituted by Christ himself first by Promise afterwards by Commission The Promise Thou art Peter and Mat. a6 upon this rock will I build my Church unto thee will I give the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven The Commission Feed my Lambs feed my Joh. 21. Sheep Being words spoken to St. Peter and no other Apostle Fifthly To prevent an Objection that they were all Apostles as well as Peter and therefore equal in Authority he grants they were equal in the Apostleship as much as concerns an illimited Power and Commission to Preach the Gospel to all Nations and so they were all foundations of the Church But St. Peter in a more peculiar and eminent manner was a rock on which the Church was founded in as much as he was made their Head and supreme Pastor of the Faithful To whom St. Hierom wholly accords affirming That although all the Apostles were alike in Apostleship yet Christ for the better keeping of Vnity L. 1. adv Jouin. c. 14. and Truth would have one to be Head of them all that a Head being once constituted occasion of Schism might be taken away Neither is he less punctual in asserting the Bishop of Rome to succeed Peter in this Primacy writing thus to Pope Damasus Ego Beatudini tuae id est Cathedrae Petri communione consocior Ep. 57 58. c. I am joyn'd in Communion with your Holiness that is the Chair of Peter I know the Church is built upon that rock whosoever eates the Lamb out of his Family is a Prophane person Whosoever is not in Noah ' s Ark perishes in the flood Ask St. Austin his Faith in this Tract 56. in Joha point and he tells us The Primacy among the Apostles by special grace is pre-eminent in St. Peter And elsewhere he calls St. Peter The Head Ep. 86. of the Apostles the Gate-keeper of Heaven and the foundation of the Church And what he believ'd concerning the Power of his Successors is evident by these words Sedenti Ep. 162. in Cathedra Romanae Ecclesiae c. The whole Christian World in the transmarine and remotest parts of the Earth is subject to him who sits in the Chair of the Roman Church St. Gregory also assures us that he knows no Bishop but is subject to the See Apostolick And that the care and Principality of the Church L. 4. Epist 32. Ep. ad Maurit hath been committed to St. Peter the Prince of the Apostles and yet he is not called Vniversal Apostle That is as if there was no other Apostle but He. Thus vindicating the supreme jurisdiction and Primacy of the Roman Bishop as St Peter's Successor against John the proud Patriarch of Constantinople arrogating to himself the Title of Universal Bishop in a sense contrary to the Doctrine and practice of the Catholick Church To cite more at large would be tedious but to these might be added the Epistle of St. Marcellus Pope and Martyr to the Bishops of the Province of Antioch concerning the Primacy of the Chair of Rome Leo the great Ser. 3. Anniu Assump Ser. 2. in Nat. S. Petri. Epist 89. S. Athana Ep. ad Faelicem S. Ambr. in ca. 2. ad Galatas l. 6. ad Lucam c 2. S. Epipha haer 51. S. Chrysost Hom. 55. in Matt. Optatus Milevit l. 2. cont Parm. Fulgentius de Incar gratia c. 11. Prosp l. 2. de Voca Gentium ca. 6. Euseb Ep. 3. Campaniae c. And many others but these may suffice This harmony
of Divine Authority And how in after Ages to this present the Truth of Christian Belief was attested to all men by signs from Heaven more or less wrought in the Catholick Church by her Professors is manifest by the undoubted Records and Histories of the whole Christian World Yea our Adversaries themselves who are Magdebu Centuria no friends to Miracles have distinctly set down and asserted manifold wonders wrought successively in the Church for 1300 Ages after Christ and why they should not as well believe the Miracles of the 14th Century and upwards wrought in the same Church related by as credible Authors as the former with as much evidence of certainty no man can imagine but that they were resolved Miracles should cease before their Church had a Beeing in the World lest they should justly be thought to introduce a false Religien having not the voice of Divine Miracles to attest it Wonderful The frequent use of Miracles was afforded to the the first Promulgators of the Gospel to give give it rooting and afterwards for increase and no sooner comes their Religion up but down goes Miracles to gain credit to It. As the Fathers must loose their Authority and begin to be erroneous when they manifestly assert what condemns their Doctrine So Miracles also must be put to silence and witness no longer to the Truth because they will not speak for their Religion And indeed themselves being wholly destitute of Miracles to confirm their new Faith and confessing they had been so long continued in the Roman Catholick Church they were necessitated if they would be obstinate in their way though against all evidence of Authority to deny any such to be now wrought in her least thereby they should confess that she only is the true Church of Christ But that the strength of this Motive may the better appear I shall in the further prosecution of it first declare wherein consists the nature of true Miracles Secondly I shall set down the causes why God is pleas'd to work such signs and wonders in and by his Church And thirdly I shall cull out among infinite some special Miracles which relate to our present Controversies being no less then so many Seals from Heaven stamp'd upon them in Divine Characters as visible evidences of Truth on the Catholicks side And those who assert the contrary do as it were deny God's attestation who can neither deceive nor be deceived SECT III. Wherein the nature of true Miracles consists is declared A True Miracle is an effect beside the ordinary course of the whole Creation and so above the Power of any Created entity visible or invisible Man or Angel Deus solus qui sacit mirabilia magna 't is God alone who worketh such wonders being the products of no less then Omnipotency it self For the order of the Universe in the concatenation of Causes and Effects being set a going by the Infinite Wisdom and Goodness of our great Creator the first mover not by necessity of nature but as a most free Agent according to the good pleasure of his will when it seems good unto him he can act besides this appointed course of nature either by producing the effects of secondary causes without their concurrence as by restoring sick and maimed persons to their perfect health and soundness in a moment by a word or as we read in the Acts Acts 3. 7. ca. 4. 30. ca. 5. 3. ca. 19 11 12 c. of the Apostles by Aprons and Handkerchiefs and such like things which having first touch'd the Bodies of his Saints are applyed to the parties ill-affected for their recovery Yea Act. 5. 15 16. the very shadow of St. Peter did cure many sick and infirm persons who were expos'd in the Streets lying in their Beds as he pass'd by Or else by restraining and curbing in the innate vertue of secondary causes from producing such effects to which by nature they are determin'd necessarily in the present circumstances as when the furious flames did not consume the three Dan. 3. 22 c. Children in the fiery furnace yea not so much as the smell of fire took hold on their Garments And as when the Sun was darkn'd at our Blessed Saviours passion the Moon being in opposition to it in its natural course Or else by producing some effects beyond the activity of created Agents to which second causes though strain'd to the utmost with their united forces cannot extend themselves as causing two bodies at the same time to be in the same place as when our Blessed Saviour came into his Disciples through the doors shut or raising the dead to life again as Lazarus was by our Blessed Saviour Notwithstanding our Souls being clouded with ignorance so that we apprehend not the utmost energetical vertue of created causes many things which are effected by a power secret and unknown to us are accounted by us though falsly truely Miraculous which indeed are either but Phantaâ—mes and meer deceptions Vide S. Tho. 22 ae q. 178. a. 2 in corp that is things not really done but only seem so Or if really produced and not in appearance only they are done by the application of natural causes though indiscernable to dim-eyed reason Vera mira truly wonderful to us because effected by a secret vertue But not Vere Miracula not true Miracles in their nature created causes producing them in the hand of quick-sighted strenuous and nimble Agents Of which sort are all those wonderful things which Magicians and Witches bring to pass by the Power and assistance of the Devil Such as the Aegyptian Magi wrought to harden Pharaoh's heart that he might not think Moses was sent from God or did by a Divine Power work true 2 Thess 2. 9 c. Miracles to confirm his Mission And Antichrist will come in great Power and signs and lying wonders according to the operation of Satan not true Miracles the only and peculiar work of Omnipotency Antichristi De Civ Dei l. 20. c. 19. opera possunt dici esse signa mendacii c. The works of Antichrist says St. Austin may be câ—ll'd lying wonders either because he shall deceive mens senses by Phantasms seeming to do what indeed he does not or if they be true Prodigies yet they shall draw men to believe a lye For they shall give credit to that man of sin as if he brought them to pass by a Divine Joh. 14 12. Power though only are effected by natural causes unknown to them Now though all things are alike easie to Omnipotency and so no Miracle properly greater then another 1 p q. cv a. 8. corp as having eye to the Power producing such effects Yet as more or less exceeding the faculty of created causes and looking that way they are truely said to be more or less Miraculous according to that of our Blessed Saviour Who believes in me the works that I do he shall do also and greater than
use as most proportionably to our present capacity and consequently most likely to produce the effect for which 't is intended For Truth entring into the the closet of our Soul through he port of our Senses as by the innate light of the understanding with an ordinary concurrence of the prime cause man can attain to some degree of the knowledge of God by natural effects and is utterly inexcusable if he does not So to induce us to the belief of things wholly supernatural and unattainable but by Divine Revelation he 's pleas'd sometimes by extraordinary and supernatural effects namely Miracles to work upon our Senses that we might believe and be saved or we rendred inexcusable when unbelief shall be laid to our charge And therefore 't is said 〈◊〉 believes not Mar. 16. 16. are condemned already As having nothing to say for themselves in that they so wilfully shut their eyes in Sun-shine that they might not see and be converted And our Blessed Joh. 15. 22 c. Saviour says elsewhere If I had not done those works among them which none other hath done they had not sinn'd but now they have no excuse for their sin But as Miracles are to beget Faith where 't is not so the next use of them is to give strength and growth to it where 't is already planted least at any time we should have a heart of Infidelity to depart from the Truth received either by flat Apostacy which more rarely happens or by Schism and Heresie which are Satan's commonest snares wherein he catches unwary Souls to their destruction What can they say for themselves to whom in so much Heavenly Light the Cross becomes a stumbling-block so as to fall away from their stability or once fallen if they will not rise again and be recall'd into the bosom of the Catholick Church by the voice of such wonderful works crying aloud after them even sufficient to engrave Faith in a rocky-hearted Jew and introduce belief into very Infidels From whence appears the absurdness of that Protestant Thesis That all Miracles are now ceased in the Church For besides indubitable testimonies from clouds of Witnesses enough to satisfy any rational man these causes yet continuing viz. Infidelity Heresie and Schism God will also still continue the same supernatural effects to beget or confirm supernatural Faith in the Souls of men But why they are not so frequent as in the first planting of the Gospel this may be one reason in that the true Church being manifested to the World by those Miracles which more or less in every Age are wrought in her Communion and her 's only entitle her justly to all the rest confirming the same Faith which others cannot claim by the like evidence For the principal end of Miracles being for the confirmation of true Faith taught by Christ and his Apostles to the World either to give it birth or growth if God did vouchsafe to work in the same manner such wonderful Signs and Prodigies by any persons in other Communions than his Catholick Church they could not be sufficient Testimonies from Heaven of Divine Truth but be instrumental likewise to set a lustre on deeds of Darkness and harden poor seduced Souls in erroneous Worship Neither had the Ancient Apologists for the Christian Faith rationally made use of Miracles as a convincing argument of the Truth thereof if Infidels or others could have produced justly the like evidences to give Testimony to their false Religion See Heb. 2. ver 3 4. St. Joh. 5. 36. ch 7. 31. ch 9. 30. ch 10. 28. ch 15. 22 24. Hence St. Gregory Quia carnales adhuc c. Hom. 2. in Evan. Because the Disciples being yet carnal could not understand his mysterious words he proceeds to a Miracle a blind man receives his sight before their eyes that who understood not the words of Divine Mystery Heavenly deeds might work Faith in them Thirdly God works Miracles in his Church to manifest the extraordinary Sanctity of some persons to whom he 's pleas'd to vouchsafe a special Honour and thereby proposes as singular examples for others to imitate in their glorious walkings And this is done either while they are living or after death by their Sacred Relicks and Intercession and sometimes in both they are alike glorified by him who only works Miracles whomsoever he makes choice of for the Instruments Which no false Worshipers in the World can challenge to their Profession Yet that such have been and are still wrought by Saints in the Communion of the Roman Catholick Church there are as good proofs to evidence it to the World as that there was such a man as Henry the 8th once King of England Which certainty none pretend to deny And though Protestants cannot lay claim to any true Miracles for the confirmation of their Faith and practice yet how fain they would have their new Religion so attested is manifest in that they greedily catch at shaddows and interpret any thing that 's somewhat strange and not ordinary as the singular actings of God in their behalf Or if any among them observe some austerities in the contempt of worldly Pleasures and Contentments which is so frequent among Catholicks presently this is a Sanctity without parallel and by the wind of vain-glory is puffed up to the Prodigious greatness of a wonder And I confess if all rare things are Miraculous this among them may justly be so accounted To these I might add the manifestation of the power of his Godhead and the riches of his Goodness towards his Church by such extraordinary workings beside the course of universal nature to make up the number of his Elect and consummate them in Glory But these last are not proper to my present purpose and the former related reasons are those for which God is pleased principally to work Miracles in the true Church and ought to be operative upon rational Souls to bring them to the knowledge and the embracing of the Truth SECT V. Some undoubted and most famous Miracles relating to the present Controversies between Us and Protestants ST Austin having related some De Civi Dei l. 22. c. 8. Miracles wrought upon Devotes at St. Stephens Shrine by his special intercession whereof himself was an eye-witness affirms That if he should record all that he knew to have been done in those Territories he must fill Books And so might I too with much more reason if I should set down but the tenth of those which concern the present Controversies between Protestants and Us having confin'd my self to no less limits then the Christian World affording innumerable Miracles the truth of which cannot justly be question'd because deliver'd to our knowledge with as much certainty as matters of fact are capable of However I shall be brief and only select out some few which I conceiv'd most convincing to Souls yet hardned with unbelief And had wholly spar'd this labour but that I know particulars are prâ—ssing
what they are taught and what they profess be eye-witnesses of the Angelical Lives of thousands of Holy persons to their admiration and confusion also if they will not be moved to repentance by such examples And methinks the most understanding Protestatents who acknowledge for glorious Saints many who live and die in the Roman Arms when a Protestant Saint was never heard of and notwithstanding will not tread in their Holy Steps do sufficiently condemn their own practice and in effect say We know the way to Heaven but will not take it SECT III. A further prosecution of this Motive from the new Doctrines and profane Practices of Heretical Communions NO man can be ignorant that the Religion of Protestants doth disclaim against the practice of this super-eminent Sanctity and condemns it in Catholicks as meer Superstition and Will-worship Forgetting or not regarding that 't was first councel'd by our Blessed Saviour Preach'd unto the World by his Apostles and practis'd in all Ages of the Church Indeed for Protestants to have commended it and yet not to follow it was too gross an absurdity to gull the World withall and would have given too palpable a lye to the godly name of Reformation They were resolv'd therefore to enlarge the narrow way to Heaven thus straitned for more security in a business of highest concern by abolishing the glory of Christianity under the pretence of Christian liberty And they easily perswaded themselves that a sense-pleasing Religion back'd by the Secular Power as it was in England by King Henry in its first Introduction and advanced by Temporal Interest in impoverishing the Church to enrich greedy Courtiers would over-ballance in Carnal minds the strict Austerities of Catholick Purity Or to make the best construction of this strange piece of Reformation on the Clergy's part who had a hand in the business when they saw nothing would quench the Avarice of the sensual King but the Revenues devoted for ever to the maintenance of extraordinary Devotion they thought it policy not to withstand his will but to flatter him by palliating the matter with specious colours Especially when they considered that the Rich Bishopricks and Cathedral Preferments might be the better preserved when this auri sacrae fames in the Great ones who were sharers with his Majesty in these Spoils of the Church could not but be appeased by engrossing to themselves so many Rich and Sumptuous Monasteries and Religious Houses the Glory and Envy of our Nation For I am perswaded the Clergy in this change were not all well pleased in this particular And I remember a remarkable saying of Doctor Jackson a Protestant of no mean note sadly complaining in these words or to this effect If three persons in the Sacred Trinity had been as great an eye-soar to us as three Monasteries in every Shire we should have been as well reformed Atheists as reformed Christians But whatever were the Motives of several Interests in erecting a Religion founded on State-policy this is most certain that the Substantial practice of eminent Sanctity was banish'd out of England at the same time with the Catholick Faith Neither was the birth of the Protestant Church in England the death only of super-eminent Holiness but its malevolent influence did cool the fire of true Devotion in all sorts of Christians who gave it any entertainment For no sooner had this tree of Reformation took rooting in our Land but it spread it self into arms and boughs on every side plentifully yielding the bitter Fruits of Dissoluteness Uncharitableness Oppression Envyings Back-bitings Strifes Ignorance of necessary Truths Curiosity in knowledge vain and frothy disputes staggrings in Faith Spiritual Pride contempt of Ecclesiastical Authority Irreligion Profaneness Sacriledge Abuse of Holy things casting off the Sacraments Blasphemies Atheism and in short whatsoever is contrary to true Godliness and Evangelical Precepts of Jesus Christ So bad a tree could not bring forth better Fruits wheresoever once it took sure rooting so notorious and visible to the World that the Arch-reformers themselves could not but confess it and to their shame and conviction have left it upon record to Posterity 'T is fit Luther the first Founder of this new Faith should have the precedency in delivering his Verdict Give him Audience while he tells us that Mundus ex hac Doctrina c. The World by this Doctrine Conâ— 2. Daw. 1. Adventus daily becomes worse Now seven devils are entred into every one who formerly were only possess'd with one Whole troops of Devils now get into mens hearts that in this so glorious light of the Gospel they are more covetous more crafty more unjust more inhumane more stubborn then formerly they were in Popery And observe it that he confesses those evils did proceed from his new Doctrine not occasionally but as the natural fruit of it And if ever he spoke Truth after his Apostacy here we have 't For they that consider what an innundation of evils broke in upon a great part of the Christian World upon his breaking from the Catholick Church and Preaching a new Gospel first in Germany may very well think that now Apoc. 20. 1 2. was the time come For unchaining Satan and Hell was broke loose to torment us mortals here on earth Witness Calvin In exiguo illorum numero c. Amongst the small number of them who have forsaken Popish In c. 11. Dani. v. 34 Idolatry the greatest part of them are full of Perfidiousness and Treacheries They outwardly profess a notable Zeal but if examined inwardly you will find them abounding in deceits Neither indeed could a false Faith bring forth any other but a counterfeit Holiness For these are those Hypocrites whom our Blessed Saviour speaks of That are ravenous Wolves Mat. 7. in Sheaps cloathing that cleanse Mat. 23. 25. the outside of the cup and platter leaving the inside full of rapine and uncleanness Or Like whited Sepulchers ver 27. which appear beautiful to men but within are stuff'd with dead mens bones and putrefaction These are those Reprobates concerning the Faith fore-told by the Apostle Having 2 Tim. 3. 5 c. a form of godliness denying the Power thereof Those Saints of the highest elevation in their own conceits whom St. Jude calls Clouds ver 12. without water darkening only the splendor of the Gospel not making it fruitful in good works by any refreshing influences of real Piety Which the same Calvin discern'd so clearly through these clouds that Comm. in 2. Pet. 2. 1. he confesses Vix eorum decimus c. Hardly the tythe of those who gave their name to the Gospel that is who left the Church of Rome to be of their Religion did it for any other end then to wallow in wantonness more freely without restraint Andreas Musculus affords us likewise as ample a testimony extracted from him by evidence of Truth against his will Quod si veritatem L. de noviss die c.
If we will confess the Truth we cannot but testify this concerning us Gospellers that no men in the whole World are more given to Whoredoms Vsury Circumventions and Deceits then our selves Bishop Andrews perhaps the greatest Scholar that ever England bred of Sehismatick and in whom was some relish of Catholick Piety in his Sermon upon Bring forth Mat. 3. 8. fruits worthy of repentance hath words to this effect We have taken away Auricular Confession and instead thereof brought in Auricular Profession Our Religion is good at In and In we are all for hearing Sermons for taking in but we bring forth nothing no fruits I am sure worthy of repentance And in his Sermon upon um jejunatis c. When Mat. 6. 16. ye fast be not as the Hypocrites c. he speaks after this manner The Romanists will needs have us to be those locusts St. John saw coming out of the Apoc. 9. 2. bottomless pit to plague the earth Now the locusts are devouring Creatures all belly and truely while we are such enemies to religious fasting I know not how to answer their accusation So that the words made use of by our Blessed Saviour against the wicked Servant in the Parable Luke the 19 22. Ex ore tuo te judico Out of thy own mouth I will judge thee may fuly be applyed to the Protestant Church accused to be false at the bar of Justice Ex ore tuorum judicaberis What need we further proof or witness when thy dearest Sons and greatest Patrons do give in evidence for thy condemnation Neither could it possibly be otherwise where ever their new Faith took possession For the affections of the will which are the feet of the Soul walking after the light of the understanding the eye thereof their practice of necessity must be answerable to their Doctrines The first wheel of a Clock gives motion to all the rest The effect cannot but follow the nature of its cause Do men gather grapes of S Mat. 7. 16 S. James 3. 11. thorns or figs of thistles Can a poisonous fountain send forth wholesome streams When the Protestant Reform condemns it for Superstition to forsake all sensual contentments to follow Christ and account it abominable Will-worship to live in perpetual Virginity that we may in a holy vacancy from all earthly eneumbrances mind only the things of God could it be but the Love of the World Luxury and Carnality would take deeper rooting in the hearts of men so poisoned and bring forth fruit of that nature more abundantly while manur'd with such Dung-hill Doctrines When they with much vehemency preach down Merit of good works which they condemn because either they do not or will not understand in what sense the Church holds it as derogatory to Christs sufferings was it possible but a general decay of Piety should follow among them and good works in a maner be confin'd among Catholicks who believe that a cup Mat. 10. 41 42. of cold water given to the meanest of the houshold of Faith for Christs 2 Tim. 4. 7. sake shall not loose its reward and a Crown of Justice shall be rendred by the just Judge to all who fight the good fight of Faith with perseverance And well had it been for poor England if the current of the Protestant Gospel had stopt in the omission only of good works for then the streams which make glad the City of our God might more easily have return'd into their wonted channel but their self-interested Religion hath swallowed plentifully what the Piety of Catholick Ages had devoted to the perpetual Service of the most high God When they so labour to disgrace Church-Tradition and bring it in contempt that in the Interpretation of Sacred Scripture private reason may be admitted for the Judge of Faith do they not inevitably open a passage to an everlasting deluge of Heresie and Schism in the Church Can this be denyed after the miseries of so much experience In vertue of such a Principle must not men necessarily become lovers of themselves high-minded proud blasphemous disobedient 2 Tim. 3. 1 c. to Spiritual Superiors resisting the Truth reprobate concerning the Faith ever learning and never coming to the knowledge of the Truth The very Hereticks St. Paul forewarns us of that we may shun them For says he From such turn away I would not here willingly be too tedious Only good Reader give me leave to tell thee that there are other deadly fruits naturally springing from this fatal tree of Reformation as disobedience to Magistrates Tumults Seditions Rebellions Bloodshed Murders Assassinations Rapins over-turnings of Kingdoms changings of Governments and all those miseries which accompany the worst of evils a Civil War the dregs of which cup of Gods displeasure our poor Island hath so deeply drank of that reeling and staggering up and down she knew not where to stand or fix 'till at length she happily pitch'd upon her true and right Basis for Temporal Power Charles the II. our Dread Soveraign all necessarily flowing from Principles of the Protestant Religion A certain Argument that it cannot come from God who is the God of Order and not of Confusion For their new Faith being brought into the World and propagated by disobedience to the Church of Rome and casting off her Ecclesiastical Authority when they had thus shrunk up the sinews or rather quite broke in pieces the reins of spiritual Government establish'd by Jesus Christ to continue for ever it was not possible the secular Magistrate could long stand firm though guarded with the Sword But if he would not suffer his subjects so minded to do what ever seems good in their own eyes and cast Religion into a mould they fancy most agreeable to Scripture and the purity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ they would this gap once made in the hedge of Government gather head and when ever they found it feasible take up arms against him as a destroyer of Christian Liberty a violator of their Consciences an Antichristian and Bloody Tyrant a Persecutor of Gods Saints and if they thrive in the attempt take all Power into their own hands and make themselves Lords and Masters as well of their Soveraign as of their Brethren For it could not be rationally thought that men would long suffer a Religion to be impos'd upon them by a Secular Prince and his Councellors who themselves had contradicted in points of Faith the Authority of the Church and consent and practice of the whole Christian World And whether the transactions and strange revolutions in our Native Country during the Civil War and subsequent usurpation do not make this Truth a History let the World judge And that the same hath been attempted or really effected in what ever places the Protestant zeal took any considerable footing the Chronicles of other Nations are sad Witnesses Thus false Prophets and false Doctrines whatever the pretences be may be known by their