We see no ground why any one should believe any Doctrine with a stedfast and Divine Faith which is not bottom'd on the Written Word for then his Faith must be built on the Testimony of the Church as Divine and Infallibe or else his Faith cannot be Divine But it is impossible to prove it to be Divine and Infallible but by the Written Word and therefore as it is not reasonable that he should believe the Written Word by such a Divine Testimony of the Church so if any particular Doctrine may be received on the Authority of the Church without the Written Word then all Articles of Faith may and so there would be no need of the Written Word 4. The Faith of Christians doth no otherwise stand upon the Foundation of the Churches Tradition than as it delivers down to us the Books of Scripture but we acknowledg the general Sense of the Chrstian Church to be a very great help for understanding the true sense of Scripture and we do not reject any thing so delivered but what is all this to the Church of Rome But this is still the way of true Representing XVI Of Councils 1. WE are glad to find so good a Resolution as seems to be expressed in these words viz. That he is obliged to believe nothing besides that which Christ taught and his Apostles and if any thing contrary to this should be defined and commanded to be believed even by Ten Thousand Councils he believes it damnable in any one to receive it and by such Decrees to make Additions to his Creed This seems to be a very good Saying and it is pity any thing else should overthrow it But here lies the Misrepresenting he will believe what Christ and his Apostles taught from the Definitions of Councils and so all this goodly Fabrick falls to nothing for it is but as if one should say If Aristotle should falsly deliver Plato's sense I will never believe him but I am resolved to take Plato's sense only from Aristotle's Words So here he first declares he will take the Faith of Christ from the Church and then he saith if the Church Representative should contradict the Faith of Christ he would never believe it 2. We dispute not with them the Right and Necessity of General Councils upon great occasions if they be truly so rightfully called lawfully assembled and fairly managed which have been and may be of great use to the Christian World for setling the Faith healing the Breaches of Christendom and reforming abuses And we farther say that the Decrees of such Councils ought to be submitted to where they proceed upon certain Grounds of Faith and not upon unwritten Traditions Which was the fatal stumbling at the Threshold in the Council of Trent and was not to be recovered afterwards for their setting up Traditions equally with the Written Word made it easie for them to define and as easie for all others to reject their Definitions in case there had not been so many other Objections against the Proceedings of that Council And so all our Dispute concerning this matter is taken off from the general Notion and runs into the particular Debate concerning the Qualifications and Proceedings of some which were called Free General Councils but were neither General nor Free and therefore could not deliver the sense of the Catholick Church which our Author requires them to do XVII Of Infallibility in the Church 1. HE doth not pretend this belongs to the Pastors and Prelates of his Church who may fall he saith into Heresie and Schism but that the whole Church is secured by Divine Promises from all Error and Danger of Prevarication which he proves from the Promises of the New Testament Mat. 16. 18 28. 20. John 14. 16 26. But however the former seems to take away Infallibility from the Guides of the Church yet that this is to be understood of them separately appears by what follows 2. The like Assistance of the Holy Ghost he believes to be in all General Councils which is the Church Representative by which they are specially protected from all error in all definitions and declarations in matters of Faith Now here are two sorts of Infallibility tacked to one another by vertue of these general Promises which ought more distinctly to be considered 1. To preserve Christs Church so as it shall never cease to be a Church is one thing to preserve it from all Error is another The former answers the End of Christs Promises as to the Duration of the Church and the latter is not implied in them 2. The promise of teaching them all Truth Joh. 16. 13. is not made to the whole Church but to the Apostles And their case was so peculiar and extraordinary that there can be no just inference from the assistance promised to them of what the Church should enjoy in all Ages 3. If the diffusive Church have no infallible Assistance promised then no infallible Assistance can from thence be proved for the Church Representative so that some particular Promises to the Guides of the Church as assembled together are necessary to prove the Infallibility of Councils 4. It by no means proves following Councils to be Infallible because the Apostles said Acts 15. 28. It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us Our Author doth not doubt but the same may be prefixed to all determinations in point of Faith resolved on by any General Council lawfully assembled since that time or to be held to the Worlds end But what Reason he had for not doubting in this matter I cannot see the Assistance he saith being to extend as far as the Promise But shall Assistance imply Infallibility Then there must be good store as long as the Promises of Divine Grace hold good But this Assistance of Councils is very different from the Assistance of Grace for the Church may subsist without Councils but cannot without Grace What General Council was there from the meeting Acts 15. to the Council of Nice Were not Christs Promises fulfilled to his Church all that time when it encreased in all parts against the most violent Opposition 5. No Parity of Reason from the Jewish Church can be sufficient Proof for Infallibility in the Christian. But our Author argues thus If Gods special Assistance was never wanting to the Church of the Jews so as to let it fail in the Truth of its Doctrine or its Authority Why should not he believe the same of the Church of Christ which is built on better Promises What special Assistance was it which Israel had when it is said that for a long time Israel had been without the true God and without a teaching Priest and without Law And as to Judah was there no failing in point of Doctrine in our Saviours time It is true they had the Law intire and that was all that was good among them for their Teachers had corrupted themselves and the People and
THE DOCTRINES AND PRACTICES OF THE Church of Rome TRULY REPRESENTED In Answer to a Book Intituled A Papist Misrepresented and Represented c. LONDON Printed for W. Rogers at the Sun over against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet 1686. The Doctrine and Practices of the Church of Rome truly represented c. An Answer to the Introduction THE Introduction consists of two parts I. A general Complaint of the Papists being Misrepresented among us II. An account of the Method he hath taken to clear them from these Misrepresentations I. As to the First Whether it be just or not must be examin'd in the several Particulars But here we must consider whether it serves the End it is designed for in this place which is to gain the Reader 's good Opinion of their Innocency Not meerly because they complain so much of being injured but because the best Men in all Times have been Misrepresented as he proves at large in this Introduction from several Examples of the Old and New Testament but especially of Christ and his Apostles and the Primitive Christians But it is observable that when Bp. Jewel began his excellent Apology for the Church of England with a Complaint much of the same Nature and produced the very same Examples his Adversary would by no means allow it to have any Force being as he called it Exordium Commune which might be used on both sides and therefore could be proper to neither And altho it be reasonable only for those to complain of being Misrepresented who having Truth on their side do notwithstanding suffer under the Imputation of Error yet it is possible for those who are very much mistaken to complain of being misrepresented and while they go about to remove the Misrepresentations of others to make new Ones of their own And as the best Men and the best Things have been Misrepresented so other Men have been as apt to complain of it and the worst things are as much Misrepresented when they are made to appear not so bad as they are For Evil is as truly Misrepresented under the appearance of Good as Good under the appearance of Evil and it is hard to determine whether hath done the greater Mischief So that if the Father of Lies be the Author of Misrepresenting as the Introduction begins we must have a care of him both ways For when he tried this Black Art in Paradise as our Author speaks it was both by misrepresenting the Command and the Danger of transgressing it He did not only make the Command appear otherwise than it was but he did very much lessen the Punishment of Disobedience and by that means deluded our first Parents into that Sin and Misery under which their Posterity still suffers Which ought to be a caution to them how dangerous it is to break the Law of God under the fairest Colour and Pretences and that they should not be easily imposed upon by false Glosses and plausible Representations though made by such as therein pretend to be Angels of Light But although the Father of Lies be the Author of Misrepresenting yet we have no reason to think but that if he were to plead his own Cause to Mankind he would very much complain of being Misrepresented by them and even in this respect when they make him the Father of those Lies which are their own Inventions And can that be a certain Argument of Truth which may as well be used by the Father of Lies And the great Instruments he hath made use of in deceiving and corrupting Mankind have been as forward as any to complain of being Misrepresented The true Reason is Because no great Evil can prevail in the World unless it be represented otherwise than it is and all Men are not competent Judges of the Colours of Good and Evil therefore when the Designs of those who go about to deceive begin to be laid open they then betake themselves to the fairest Representations they can make of themselves and hope that many will not see through their Pretences If I had a mind to follow our Author's Method I could make as long a Deduction of Instances of this kind But I shall content my self with some few Examples of those who are allowed on both sides to have been guilty of great Errors and Corruptions The Arrians pleaded they were Misreprented when they were taken for Enemies to Christ's Divinity for all that they contended for was only such a Moment of Time as would make good the Relation between Father and Son The Pelagians with great Success for some time and even at Rome complained that they were very much Misrepresented as Enemies to God's Grace whereas they owned and asserted the manifold Grace of God and were only Enemies to Mens Idelness and Neglect of their Duties The Nestorians gave out that they never intended to make two Persons in Christ as their Adversaries charged them but all their design was to avoid Blasphemy in calling the Blessed Virgin the Mother of God and whatever went beyond this was their Adversaries Misrepresentations and not their own Opinions The Eutychians thought themselves very hardly dealt with for saying there was but one Nature in Christ they did not mean thereby as they said to destroy the Properties of the Humane Nature but only to assert that its Subsistence was swallowed up by the Divine and of all Persons those have no Reason to blame them who suppose the Properties of one Substance may be united to another Even the Gentile Idolaters when they were charged by the Christians that they Worshipped Stocks and Stones complained they were Misrepresented for they were not such Ideots to take things for Gods which had neither Life nor Sense nor Motion in them And when they were charged with worshipping other Gods as they did the Supream they desired their Sense might not be taken from common Prejudices or vulgar Practices but from the Doctrine of their Philosophers and they owned a Soveraign Worship due to him that was Chief and a subordinate and Relative to some Coelestial Beings whom they made Application to as Mediators between him and them Must all these Complaints now be taken for granted what then becomes of the Reputation of General Councils or the Primitive Christians But as if it were enough to be Accused none would be Innocent so none would be Guilty if it were enough to complain of being Misrepresented Therefore in all Complaints of this Nature it is necessary to come to Particulars and to examine with Care and Diligence the Matters complained of and then to give Judgment in the Case I am glad to find our Author professing so much Sincerity and Truth without Passion and I do assure him I shall follow what he Professes For the Cause of our Church is such as needs neither Tricks nor Passion to defend it and therefore I shall endeavour to state the Matters in Difference with all the clearness and calmness that may be and I shall keep close to
Durandus but in that of Clement the 8th it is put in more largely and as authentically as if it had been always there And is not this the way to reform the Worship of Images To come now to our Author's Reflections on the Misrepresentation he saith hath been made as to this Point 1. A Papist represented believes it damnable to worship Stocks and Stones for Gods to pray to Pictures or Images of Christ the Virgin Mary or any other Saints These Expressions are capable of a double sense and therefore this is not fair Representing 1. To worship Stocks or Stones for Gods may signify two things 1. To believe the very Stocks and Stones to be Gods And this we do not charge them with 2. To give to Images made of Wood and Stone the Worship due only to God and so by construction of the Fact to make them Gods by giving them Divine Worship And if they will clear themselves of this they must either prove that external Adoration is no part of Divine Worship notwithstanding the Scripture makes it so and all the rest of Mankind look upon it as such even Jews Turks and Infidels or that their external Adoration hath no respect to the Images which is contrary to the Council of Trent or that Divine Worship being due to the Being Represented it may be likewise given to the Image And how then could the Gnosticks be condemned for giving Divine Worship to the Image of Christ which Bellarmine confesses and is affirmed by Irenaeus Epiphanius S. Augustin and Damascen 2. To pray to Images of Christ or the blessed Virgin may likewise be taken in two senses 1. To pray to them so as to expect to be heard by the meer Images and so we do not charge them with it 2. To pray to them so as to expect to be rather heard by themselves for praying to them by their Images And if this be not so to what end are the Prayers made in the Consecration of Images for those that shall pray before them To what purpose do so many go in long Pilgrimages to certain Images if they do not hope to be better heard for praying there But he goes on 2. He keeps them by him indeed to keep in his mind the memory of the things represented by them And is this all in good Truth We will never quarrel with them if this be true Representing No that he dares not say But 3. He is taught to use them p. 2. But how by casting his Eye upon the Pictures or Images and thence to raise his heart to the Prototypes And is this all yet No. But 4. He finds a double conveniency in the use of them 1. They represent at one glance and Men may easily make good Reflections as upon the sight of a Death's Head or old Time painted with his Forelock Hour-glass and Syth And will he undertake that Images shall be used in Churches for no other End Was the Picture of old Time ever Consecrated or placed upon the Altar or elsewhere that it might be worshipped as the Roman Catechism speaks of their Images 2. They cure Distractions for they call back his wandring Thoughts to the right Object What is this Right Object the Image or the Person represented And that must be either a Creature or God himself If it be a Creature doth not this imply that it is made a Right Object of Worship If God himself how doth an Image cure our Distraction in the Worship of an Infinite Invisible Being when the very Image is most apt to distract our thoughts by drawing them down from his Divine and Adorable Perfections to the gross and mean Representations of an Image But are we yet come to the utmost use of them No. But 5. He cannot but love honour and respect the Images themselves for the sake of those they represent Will this content them And will he promise to go no further It is hard to part upon Terms of meer Respect and Decent Regard where there is no encroachment upon Divine Worship And here we are at a stand But he goes further 6. And so he is come at last to veneration before Images And is this all Dares he deny veneration to Images When the Council of Trent hath determined it Eisque venerationem impartiendam What is this veneration before Images only Bellarmine hath a Chapter on purpose to prove that true and proper Worship is to be given to Images And was he a Misrepresenter Suarez saith It is an Article of Faith that Worship is to be given to them But if the Veneration be only before them why are they Consecrated and set up in Places proper for Adoration But 7. To satisfy any one that he is far from making Gods of his Images he is ready to break them into a thousand pieces What a Consecrated Image Dares he take a Crucifix from the Altar and tear it in pieces This doth not look like the Love Honour and Respect he mentioned before not to name Veneration And I am afraid this is a strain beyond true Representing Yet at length he hath found some pretty Parallels for the veneration of Images themselves and so we are come at last to the main Point But this is not directly owned yet in the way of his Representing it is fairly insinuated by his Parallels 1. A Christian loves and honours his Neighbour because he bears the Image of God in his Soul But doth he therefore take him and set him before him when he kneels at his Devotion to raise his Mind and cure his Distractions Would he set him upon the Altar and burn Incense before him because of the Image of God in him Is there no difference between the Object of Christian Love and of Divine Worship Nor between a Spiritual Invisible Divine Image in the Souls of Men and a Material and Corporeal Representation 2. We may kiss and esteem the Bible because it contains and represents to Us God's Word But when we kiss and esteem the Bible we remember the Second Commandment is in it and we dare not break his Law when we pretend to honour his Word But we think there is some difference between Reverence and Respect to the Bible and falling down before an Image The Circumstances of the one declare it to be meer Respect and a Religious Decency and if the other be not external Adoration we know not what it is 3. A good Preacher is loved because he minds Men of their Duty But what should we say to him that should therefore kneel down and say his Prayers and burn Candles and Incense before him out of a respect to his good Doctrine Did S. Peter or S. Paul like this when Men would have worshipped them A good Preacher would tell them of their Duty as they did and take Men off from the Worship of any Creature animate or inanimate and direct them to worship God alone who made Heaven and Earth II. Of Worshipping Saints FOr the
innumerable Titles she claims the utmost Duty of every Christian as a proper Homage to her Greatness What can be said more of the Son of God in our Nature In the Book it self she is said to be Queen of Angels Patroness of the Church Advocate of Sinners that the Power of Mary in the Kingdom of Jesus is suitable to her Maternity and other Priviledges of Grace and therefore by it she justly claims a Servitude from all pure Creatures But wherein doth this special Devotion to her consist He names several Particulars 1. In having an inward cordial and passionate value of the Maternity of Mary and all other Excellencies proper to and inseparable from the Mother of God 2. In External Acts of Worship of eminent Servitude towards her by reason of the Amplitude of her Power in the Empire of Jesus And can we imagine these should go no farther than a poor Ora pro Nobis He instances in these External Acts of her Worship 1. Frequent visiting holy Places dedicated to her Honour And are not those her Temples then which Bellarmin confesses to be a peculiar part of the Worship due to God And the Distinction of Basilicae cannot hold here because he believes the Assumption of the B. Virgin and he will not pretend to her Honour is only for Discrimination 2. A special Reverence towards Images representing her Person 3. Performing some daily Devotions containing her Praises congratulating her Excellency or imploring her Mediation and by oft calling upon the Sacred Name of holy Mary c. 3. In having a firm and unshaken Confidence in her Patronage amidst the greatest of our inward Conflicts and outward Tribulations through a strong Judgment of her eminent Power within the Empire of Jesus grounded upon the singular Prerogative of her Divine Maternity I have not Patience to transcribe more but refer the Reader to the Book it self only the eighth Particular of special Devotion is so remarkable that it ought not to be passed over viz. Entring a solemn Covenant with Holy Mary to be for ever her Servant Client and Devote under some special Rule Society or Form of Life and thereby dedicating our Persons Concerns Actions and all the Moments and Events of our Life to Jesus under the Protection of his Divine Mother choosing her to be our Adoptive Mother Patroness and Advocate and entrusting her with what we are have do or hope in Life Death and through all Eternity And is all this no more than an Ora pro Nobis And it follows Put your self wholly under her Protection What a pitiful thing was the old Collyridian Cake in comparison of these special Acts of Devotion to her But there are some extraordinary strains of Devotion afterwards which it is pity to pass over As I will ever observe thee as my Soveraign Lady Adoptive Mother and most powerful Patroness relying on thy Bowels of Mercy in all my Wants Petitions and Tribulations of Body and Mind Could any thing greater be said to the Eternal Son of God And in the Praise Vers. Open my Lips O Mother of Jesus Resp. And my Soul shall speak forth thy Praise Vers. Divine Lady be intent to my Aid Resp. Graciously make haste to help me Vers. Glory be to Iesus and Mary Resp. As it was is and ever shall be Then follows the eighth Psalm applied thus to her Mary Mother of Jesus how wonderful is thy Name even unto the Ends of the Earth All Magnificence be given to Mary and let her be exalted above the Stars and Angels Reign on high as Queen of Seraphims and Saints and be thou crowned with Honour and Glory c. Glory be to Jesus and Mary c. In the next Page follows a Cantique in imitation of the Te Deum Let us praise thee O Mother of Jesus Let us acknowledge thee our Soveraign Lady Let Men and Angels give Honour to thee the first conceived of all pure Creatures c. I think I need mention no more only three things I shall observe 1. That this is now printed Permissis Superiorum and we thank them for the seasonableness of it in helping us in true Representing what their allowed Doctrines and Practices are 2. That this is published English that our People as well as theirs may be convinced how far we have been from unjust charging them as to such things as these 3. That at the same time they plead for keeping the Bible out of the hands of the People wherein their Discretion is so far to be commended since the Scripture and this new Scheme of Devotion can never stand together There being not one word in the Bible towards it but very much against it and the Psalms and Hymns must be burlesqu'd to found that way But what saith our Author to their Rosaries wherein there are ten Ave Maries to one Pater noster which is accounted a special piece Devotion and great things are said of the Effects of it by Alanus de Rupe and many others 1. As to the Ave Maries he saith there is no more Dishonour to God in reciting the Angelical Salutation than in the first pronouncing it by the Angel Gabriel and Elizabeth But it may not be altogether so pertinent But doth he really think they said the whole Ave Maria as it is used among them Did the Angel and Elizabeth say Sancta Maria Mater Dei 〈◊〉 or a pro nobis peccatoribus nunc in hora mortis nostrae If not to what purpose are they mentioned here 2. As to the Repetition that he saith is no more an idle Superstition than David ' s repeating the same words 26 times in the 136 Psalm But what is this to the Question why more Supplications to the Blessed Virgin than to Christ And not one word of Answer is given to it But Alanus de Rupe answers it roundly Because the Blessed Virgin is our Mediatrix to Christ the Mother of Mercy and the special Patroness of Sinners This is indeed true representing IV. Of paying Divine Worship to Reliques FOR the right understanding this Controversy we are to consider 1. That there is a due Veneration to the Bodies of Saints and Martyrs allowed on both sides and there is an undue Worship of them which is disowned on both sides The due Veneration is a Religious Decency to be observed towards them which lies in avoiding any thing like Contempt or Dishonour to them and using all such Testimonies of Respect and Decency which becomes the Remains of Excellent Persons provided we are satisfied of their Sincerity without having recourse to Divine Omnipotency to prove them which Ferrandus the Jesuit runs so much to to prove the Truth of many Reliques worshipped in the Church of Rome in many places at once But that it is possible to exeeed in the Worship of true Reliques even Bellarmin confesseth who says that God took away the Body of Moses lest the People should give
the Sacrament than they and we verily believe there is as great and remarkable Instances of true Charity among those of the Church of England as among any People in the World XXXII Of MIRACLES 1. OUR Author saith He is not obliged to believe any one Miracle besides what is in Scripture 2. He sees no Reason to doubt the truth of many Miracles which are attested by great numbers of Eye-witnesses examined by Authority and found upon Record with all the Formalities due to such a Process Now how can these two things stand together Is not a Man obliged to believe a thing so well proved And if his other Arguments prove any thing it is that he is bound to believe them For he thinks there is as much Reason to believe Miracles still as in the time of the old or new Law If he can make this out I see no reason why he should not be as well obliged to believe them now as well as those recorded in Scripture But I can see nothing like a proof of this And all Persons of Judgment in their own Church do grant there is a great difference between the Necessity of Miracles for the first establishing a Religion and afterwards This is not only asserted by Tostatus Erasmus Stella Andradius and several others formerly but the very late French Author I have several times mentioned saith it in express Terms And he confesses the great Impostures of modern Miracles which he saith ought to be severely punished and that none but Women and weak People think themselves bound to believe them And he cannot understand what they are good for Not to convert Hereticks because not done among them Not to prove there are no corruptions or errors among them which is a thing incredible with much more to that purpose and so concludes with Monsieur Paschal That if they have no other use we ought not to be amused with them But Christ promised that his Apostles should do greater Miracles than himself had done And what then Must therefore S. Francis or S. Dominic or S. Rosa do as great as the Apostles had done What Consequence can be drawn from the Apostles times to latter Ages We do not dispute God's Omnipotency or say his hand is shoâ—tned but we must not from thence infer that every thing which is called a Miracle is truely so or make use of God's Power to justify the most incredible stories Which is a way will serve as well for a false as a true Religion and Mahomet might run to Gods Omnipotency for cleaving the Moon in two pieces as well as others for removing a House over the Seas or any thing of a like nature But he saith their Miracles are not more ridiculous and absurd than some in the Old Testament Which I utterly deny but I shall not run out into the examination of this Parallel by shewing how very different the Nature Design and Authority of the Miracles he mentions is from those which are believed in the Roman Church And it had been but fitting as he set down the Miracles of the Old Testament so to have mentioned those of the Roman Church which were to vye with them but this he was willing to forbear for certain good Reasons If most of poor Man's Impossibles be none to God as he concludes yet every thing is not presently true which is not impossible and by this way of Arguing there can be nothing objected against the most absurd and idle Fictions of the Golden Legend which all Men of Understanding among themselves not only reject for want of Authority but of Credibility XXXIII Of Holy Water THE Misrepresenter charges him with approving superstitious uses of inanimate things and attributing wonderful effects to them as Holy-Water Candles Oyl Bread c. In Answer our Author 1. declares That the Papist truely represented utterly disapproves all sorts of Superstition But if he had designed to have represented truely he ought to have told us what he meant by Superstition and whether any Man who observes the Commands of the Church can be guilty of it 2. He saith That these things are particularly deputed by the Prayers and Blessing of the Priest to certain uses for God's Glory and the Spiritual and Corporal Good of Christians This is somewhat too general But Marsilius Columna Archbishop of Salerno who hath taken most pains in this matter sums them up 1. As to Spiritual they are Seven 1. To fright Devils 2. To remit Venial sins 3. To cure Distractions 4. To elevate the Mind 5. To dispose it for Devotion 6. To obtain Grace 7. To prepare for the Sacrament 2. As to Corporal 1. To cure Barrenness 2. To multiply Goods 3. To procure Health 4. To purge the Air from pestilential Vapours And now as our Author saith What Superstition in the use of it He names several things of God's own appointing to Parallel it as the Waters of Jealousy the Shew-bread the Tables of Stone but the first was miraculous the other had no such effects that we ever heard of Elisha's Salt for sweetning the Water was undoubtedly a Miracle Is the Holy Water so As to the liver of the Fish for expelling the Devil in the Book of Tobit he knows the Book is not owned for Canonical by us and this very place is produced as an Argument against it there being no Ground from Scripture to attribute the Power of expelling Devils to the Liver of a Fish either naturally or symbolically Vallesius offers at the only probable account of it that it must be a Divine Power given to it which the Angel Raphael did not discover and yet it is somewhat hard to conceive how this Liver should have such a power to drive away any kind of Devil as it is there expressed unless by a Devil there no more be meant than some violent Disease which the Jews generally believed to arise from the possession of evil Spirits But however here is an Angel supposed who made this known to Tobit but we find not Raphael to discover the virtue of Holy Water against Devils As to Christs using Clay to open the eyes of the blind it is very improperly applied unless the same miraculous Power be supposed in it which was in Christ himself And so is the Apostles laying on of hands and using Oyl for miraculous cures unless the same Gift of Miracles be in every Priest which consecrates Holy Water which was in the Apostles And Bellarmine himself confesses That no infallible effect doth follow the use of Holy Water because there is no Promise of God in the case but only the Prayers of the Church But these are sufficient to sanctifie the Water saith our Author And to what end For all the spiritual and corporeal benefits before-mentioned Is no Promise of God necessary for such purposes as those How can any Church in the World dispose of Gods Power without his Will It may appoint significant and decent