divers prudent and religious Counsellors And even Nature gives us a Hieroglyphick hereof in the Bees whose sweet Commonwealth is ordered by one King See Georg. lib. 4. Quemadmodum mirantur omnes circumstant fremitu denso stipantque frequentes They all follow and obey like little nimble Courtiers their little King c. All this considered will not a good Judgment see that to go about to oppose any of these two Powers is to do that which St. Austin said To suffer ones self to run into a folly which hasten'd into the height of Insolency and Madness and in the end find nothing but an Ocean of Disturbances and unavoidable Perdition and Ruin. God bless King IAMES our most gracious Pole-Star no sooner His Royal Brother King Charles the Second of ever glorious Memory died but he publickly went to hear Mass confiding in the mercy of ever blessed Jesus who for him doubtless will all Safety and Prosperity provide O Prodigie never to be duly pondered for which he is through all the World praised and admired Magna est Veritas praevalet We must not meddle with things Sacred but with due reverence we must not confound the true Churches Spiritual Authority with the Regal Civil and Temporal both being distinct in Office and severally given and appointed by the Almighty they are like the two Arms of his Divine Power employed by him and distributed to their several Uses the one exercising the meer Spiritual and Persuasive Power the other the Corporal and Coercive Power the one holding the Pastoral-directing and Soul-corrective Staff the other swaying the Royal and All-subjecting Scepter the one unsheathing the Spiritual Sword cutting off by Authority Disobedient Schismatical or Heretical Sinners from the communion of the faithful Flock and from eternal Life the other brandishing the Kingly Sword cutting off the Lives of the Offenders of established just Laws and even as God holds this World in his hands that the vast Sea and firm Land may not mix together but observe their just bounds lest they should come to another Chaos So he will not have those two sovereign distinct Dignities be blinded into one least Confusion and inevitable Ruine should follow Sure since King Henry the Eighth revolted from the Monarchical Spiritual Power of Christ's Church nothing to this day followed but confusion misery disasters in this brave Kingdom of England by degrees ascending to height of unheard-of Iniquity and Tyranny as to cut off the best of Kings Charles the First assuredly those miscreant Hell-hounds that murdered him would not stick to murder even Divinity This is the woful Catastrophe of disjoyning the Spiritual from Kingly and Monarchical Government Now I must say this much of the Roman Catholick Church that according to St. Paul Rom. 1. was and is yet and will continue in perpetuum famous for Faith Religion Sacrifice and Sacraments throughout the Universe for the sound of her Doctrine hath been heard every where and her Fame to the utmost Parts of the World so as it is the same to say Roman as Catholick or Vniversal whereas there where the Roman Eagles Wings did never spread the Roman Faith did reaching down to all Ages and spreading over all Kingdoms for who can view Christianity in its extent but must consider how all Kingdoms and Nations were by Roman Emissaries converted to the true ancient Faith of Iesus we need not make any further Enquiries but embrace and walk confidently in those plain Paths in which Fools cannot err following the foot-steps of the true Flock and the heavenly good Pastor where alone Sanctity Verity and all Virtues inerrability infallibility and perpetuity are found for when where or how she ever err'd or fail'd no Authentick Author have yet related no faithful candid Writer recorded nor have any of those watchful Luminaries and Sentinels whom God hath placed in his Church ever given the least alarm of Innovations gotten into the same only Schismaticks and Hereticks combining conspiring and reviling and in vain CHAP. II. Of the CHURCH THe Church of Christ is one Society or Company of Men link'd and combin'd together in one and the same profession of Christian Faith Religion Sacrifice and use of Sacraments under lawful Pastors and under one supreme visible Head Pastor or conservator of Peace Union and Verity This is a true notion or definition of the Church established by Christ and propagated by the blessed Apostles here the true nature essence and constitution of a Church is manifested and doth truly distinguish it from all Hereticks and Schismaticks vain Pretences whatsoever for they are apparently excluded from Christ's Church and she appears glorious without spot wrinkle or any such thing she is described in holy Writ by the Emblems of a City orderly govern'd by one chief supreme Governour or of an Army govern'd by that Military Discipline that requires subjection to one Generalissimo the King had placed over it of the Body each Member in due subjection to its visible Head on Earth and the Pope in point of Government rul'd by his invisible Head in the highest Heaven Hence it followeth by order of good consequence that Divine Faith and Belief wherein consisteth as well the ground and foundation of our eternal welfare as also the Fruit and entire Utility of Christ's coming into this World is to be had in the Church made plain by the Prophet Esay 45. he foreshewed the wonderful Providence of God in providing for Christians so manifest a way of Direction for their Faith and Religion as that the most simple and unlearned Man in the World should not be able but out of wilfulness to go astray therein his words directed to the Gentiles are these Take comfort and fear not behold your God shall come and save you then shall the Eyes of the Blind be opened and the Ears of the Deaf shall be restored and there shall be a Path and way and it shall be called The holy way and it shall be to you a direct way as Fools shall not be able to err therein Sure the plain and direct way mentioned by Esay wherein no simple or ignorant Men can err is the general Body of Christ's visible Church upon Earth planted by his Apostles throughout all Nations and Countries and continuing by Succession unto the World's end in which Church who remaineth and believeth all things taught therein cannot at all fall into any Error of Faith for that this Church is guided by Christ's Spirit and therefore in no ways subject or within the compass of Error For which cause St. Paul ultimo calls it The Pillar and Firmament of Truth And the same Church is so conspicuous and evidently manifest that it is more easie to find it out than it is to see the Sun or Moon when it shineth brightest at Noon or to behold the greatest Hill or Mountain in the World and for more declaration of this it 's to be noted That in the time from Christ's ascension until the 13
th year of Nero's Region who first of the Roman Emperours began open Persecution against Christians and put to death St. Peter and St. Paul In this time I say of Toleration under the Roman Empire which continued the space of 36 years the blessed Apostles and Disciples had preached one uniform Gospel and Faith throughout all the World as may appear by their Acts recorded and by the peculiar Testimony of St. Paul to the Romans Rom. 1. which thing being most miraculously done by the Divine Power and Virtue of Christ Bishops Pastors and Governours being ordained in every Country and Church for guiding and directing the same by themselves and their Successors in perpetuum this I say being once brought to pass then the blessed Apostles for preventing of new false Doctrines that might afterward arise most earnestly exhorted and with all vehemency called upon the people to stand fast in the Doctrine Documents and Traditions then received to hold firmly the Faith and Doctrine already delivered as a Depositum or Treasure committed to them to be safely kept till the last day And above all other things they forewarned them to beware of new fangled Teachers whom they called Hereticks who should break from the Unity of the Universal Body already made and knit together and should devise new Glosses Expositions and Interpretations of Scripture bringing in new Sences Doctrines Opinions and damnable Divisions to the utter renting of Christ's Church Kingdom City already builded and all this to the perdition of infinite Souls Hence it is that St. Paul Tim. 1. pronounceth peremptorily of a contentious and heretical Man that he is damned by the testimony of his own Judgment or Conscience for that he abandoned the common direct publick way which all Men might see devising particular Paths and pernicious Turnings to himself and the ancient Fathers of the Primitive Church disputing against the same kind of People defended always that their Error was of Malice and wilful Blindness and not at all of Ignorance for they will not behold the plain direct sure safe unerring and infallible way among Christians wherein no man can err tho' never so simple but only of blind wilful and obstinate malice Yet by promises of Christ himself in the Gospel we are absolutely ascertained that the same visible Congegation Body Common-wealth Church Kingdom and Government which was established by Christ and propagated by the blessed Apostles shall endure and continue by Succession of Followers in perpetuum and that no new Teacher of later Doctrines dissenting from the first shall ever prevail against it albeit divers Errors and Heresies have sprung up and made great blustering and disturbance for a time yet have they been repress'd and condemn'd by the same Church and her visible Pastors and Doctors in the end For Example-sake in the first Age there arose up certain seditious fellows among the Iews as Simon Magus Nicolaus Cerinthus Ebion Meander c. that were Hereticks against these stood in defence St. Peter who broke the Neck and Black Art of Simon Magus even by his Prayer And after him St. Martialis St. Dionysius Areopagita St. Ignatius Policarpus and others In the second Age rose up Basilides Cerdon Marchion Valentinus Tacianus Apelles Montanus and divers others against these stood in battel Iustin Martyr Dionysius Bishop of Corinth St. Ireneus Clemens Alexandrinus Tertullian with many others their equals And so all along downward from Age to Age unto cursed Luther's days whatsoever Heresie or new false Opinions hath been raised contrary to the general consent of Christ's universal Church it hath been check'd controul'd silenc'd and condemn'd by vigilant Pastors and Doctors chief Governours of the same Body by general Assemblies and Councils gathered from time to time as occasion serv'd in all Parts of the World Whereby it 's evidently most manifest that he who relieth upon this general consent of Christ's Church and the judgment thereof cannot err in matters of Belief but walketh in that sure secure and infallible Path wherein 't is said in Isaiah 35.8 That a very Fool cannot go amiss Hence one may be persuaded of the Churches perspicuity and infallibility in her Traditions and Doctrines through God's Divine Providence which did and will always preserve it from corruption having a warrant for it out of Scripture Isa. 59.21 My Spirit which is upon thee and the words which I have put into thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy Seed nor out of the mouth of thy Seed's Seed from henceforth for ever And St. Austin said Ep. 118. That to dispute against a living multitude of the whole Church is insolent madness And to say she may err through ignorance wilfulness or negligence is most absurd and blasphemous she having Christ for her Head and the holy Ghost for her Guide and Spirit who was sent by our Saviour to teach it all Truth wherefore to tax that heavenly Government with errors in Faith is either to tax the holy Ghost with them or to blaspheme against Christ our blessed Redeemer by saying He has not kept his word and promise in sending the holy Ghost to teach his Church all truth for ever King IAMES in a publick Speech made in his Parliament acknowledged the Church of Rome to be our Mother-Church saying I acknowledge the Church of Rome to be our Mother-Church This you may find in Stow pag. 840. Sure the Sacred Blood of his glorious Mother Queen Mary the ever blessed Martyr ran in the Veins of this her Royal Son King Iames who would do wonderful things in favour of the Roman Catholick Church if it were not for the black contriving of the Gun-powder Plot by the Matchevilian Policy of crooked Cicil only for to hinder King Iames from favouring the Church of Christ Sanguis mantirum semen Ecclesiae See Osburn Sure there is no other certain Testimony to any prudent considering Man no firm Ground or Motive to believe that the Primitive Church received her Doctrine from the blessed Apostles these from Christ Christ from God the Father nor any way to bring it down from those times to these our days but only the Tradition of the Church from hand to hand For we may observe three properties of the Doctrine of Divine Faith to be true to be revealed of God to be preached and delivered by the Apostles The highest ground by which a Man is perswaded that his Faith is true is the Authority of God speaking and revealing it the highest proof by which a Man is assured that his Faith is revealed is the Authority of Christ and his blessed Apostles who delivered the same as descending from God but the highest ground that moveth a Man to believe that his Faith was preached by the blessed Apostles is the perpetual constant Tradition of the Church succeeding the blessed Apostles unto this day assuring him so much according to the saying of Tertul. depraes c. 21. 37. who made his Ladder
ever yet she went not forth from any Body or Congregation how could she being infallible in her self 1 Tim. 3.15 she being the House of God which is the Church of the Living God the Pillar and Firmament of Truth if not why should any be esteemed a Heathen and Publican for not hearing her Add to this Christ being the Head of the Church the Holy Ghost the Soul thereof guiding and directing in all truth the Church could not err unless you 'l make Christ and his Spirit an Impostor and a Lyer which is down-right Blasphemy seeing that he prophesied That the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against her viz. Error Falshood Schism or Heresie hence I infer by good illation that any Congregation of People despising Christ forsaking his Church and remaining out of it pertinaciously is guilty absolutely of Apostasie and Schism see St. Luke 10.16 He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me c. Lo the misery of Protestants who are likewise really guilty of Heresie in adhering to so many false opinions and errors of Faith contrary to the generally approved Doctrine of the Church of Christ from which they wilfully and blindly divided themselves breaking of Communion with the ancient one Holy-Catholick Apostolick Roman Church And sure that Church to which Apostacy Schism and Heresy doth agree is a false and erroneous Church and this is the Church of the pretended Reformation The Power of glorious Jesus our Redeemer did marvelously shine in the Empire of his Church which his heavenly Father did put into his hands to build it raise it cement it with his Sacred Blood to illuminate it with his Light nourish it with his Body to make Laws in it establish Sacraments as conveyances of Divine Graces to eternize a most dread and propitiatory Sacrifice to create Pastors and Priests invisibly to rule it by a visible Head a Power never to be shaken even to the Gates of Hell to exercise a Jurisdiction over Souls to bind them unloose them pardon Sins and change Hearts and you may know that this ever blessed Jesus having the source of all power in him did in Divine Providence distribute the same his Divine Power to Popes and Kings constituting the one for Spiritual Government leading to eternal Glory the other for the Temporal and it is his will and pleasure we honour the Character of that his Divine Authority both in the one and the other and not to argue controul or impugn upon idle whimsical Phantasies those heavenly Powers And it is most evident that in all times before Heresie began there has been rendred to Popes Vicegerents of Christ and lawful Successors to St. Peter the Honour they deserved as such and as the sovereign universal visible Pastors under Heaven see the Council of Calcedon in Epist. ad Leonam Papam where the Pope is called Caput omnium Episcoporum totius Christi Ecclesiae Also we confess and acknowledge our Sovereign Liege-Lord and most gra-King IAMES the Second true and absolute Monarch of these his three Kingdoms singularly honouring and obeying him and with most true cordial faithful loyal affection loving him as an animated real Portraiture of the greatness of the Divine Majesty and sure there is no Science more noble nor more advantageous than to honour and obey these two Powers neither can there be any true lasting Felicity but in the accomplishment of the Will of the Almighty the Sovereign Master and Ruler of all On the contrary it is observed in the History of many Ages that dire Vengeance and Wounds from Heaven have fallen signally upon those who have disobeyed these two Powers for the Wind blowing from blasphemous and seditious Mouths returned on their own Heads since it is fit such Impiety and horrid Iniquity should first kill it self with its own Poyson What the Soul is to the Body the same is true Religion to a Kingdom the Body without a Soul signifies nothing even so a Kingdom without true Religion is disjoynted confused and comes to ruin whereas Divine Religion in it self is the Basis and Foundation of all Moral Virtues the ground and support of all just pious Laws the cement that strongly combine all human Society and is the very life of upright impartial Justice and constant Honesty Finally true supernatural Religion is the golden Chain that unites God to Man and Man to his Duty to God and brings down the rich Blessings to poor mortal Sinners on Earth O what a glorious and most happy Kingdom is that where are to be seen as in a clear optick Glass these two most heavenly Objects the King 's most excellent Majesty prostrate on bended knees paying with ravishing Devotion the humble religious Homage of Heart Hands and Knees to the Divine Majesty of Almighty God! As a Member and obedient Child of the visible Church of Christ honouring a visible sepreme head Vicar of Christ and Successor to St. Peter as Universal Pastor of all Pastors And it is a most undoubted truth that Kings are not made by the invention of active ambitious or politick Wits as blind Enthusiasts Dreams neither are they Creatures of the People's making or the Product of a giddy Multitude as the Independents with many other seditious blind persons maintains but they are grounded on the very Law of Nature in high paternal Authority coequal with the World they are founded on the pure Law of right Reason which gives a Dignity and Authority to the First-born over all his Brethren so as Kings are rooted in the Original Laws of Nations as Cicero lib. 3. de legib testifies Omnes antiquae Gentes Regibus paruerunt All the ancient Nations in the World were ruled and governed by Kings They are confirmed by God's unerring Law who instituted Kingly Government over his own chosen People Deut. 17.15 and gave express command for David to be anointed King of Israel 1 Sam. 16.1 Finally Kings are prophetically promised as a very great Blessing to his Church Isa. 49.23 Kings shall be thy Nursing Fathers and Queens shall be thy Nursing Mothers And Plato that Seraphick Philosopher calls Kingly Government the most Divine Government Herodotus who is stiled Pater Historiarum The first Historian among the Heathens calls it The most ancient Government Aristotle the most rational of all Philosophers stiles it The most excellent Government for Monarchical Government is the meer imitation of the Government of Heaven which is by one God 't is the restitution of the Primitive Government in this World which was by one King and it is the meer reflection of the admirable Government of Nature which rules the many Members of the Body by one Soul. Daily experience proves that Ship to be best guided which is steered by one Pylot tho' trimm'd by many Saylors that Army sure is best ordered which is commanded by one General tho' assisted by many inferiour Officers Ergo that Nation is more happy and best governed by one King tho' advised by
de Eucharistia And was adored with outward Gestures as the true Body of Christ in Concil Ephes. in Epist. and Nestor in Concil Nicaen c. 14. To give prime Honour and supreme to St. Peter Bishop of the first See as Universal Pastor and Vicegerent of Christ Concil Nicaen c. 15. Concil Chalced. Act. 4. 16. constit c. 5. To pray to Saints that they may intercede for us in Concil Chalced. Act. 11. Prayers for the Dead offered publickly and privately in St. Augustin's time August de cura pro mortuis In those days the Church held the Fast of Forty days of Lent as Apostolical Tradition St. Hier. ad Marcel Ep. 54. Fridays likewise Confession and priestly Absolution St. August Homil. 49. saith The Keys given to the Church is to some purpose sure We must not frustrate the words of Christ. So St. Basil Tertullian St. Clement c. And thus of all other Points in Controversy we may find Reason Authority Practice and uninterrupted Custom in all Ages as Napier in his Treatise on the Revelations pag. 145. confesseth saying After 300 years the Emperour Constantine subdued all Christian Churches to Pope Silvester from which time till these our days the Pope and his Clergy hath possess'd the outward and visible Church Protestants employment being not at all to convert Heathens but to pervert those already converted Tertul. praescr c. 42. And we may find in the Writings of Roman Catholick Authors Orthodox Fathers that the Doctrine now held by Protestants were condemned as Heretical in those Persons that then held them For Example The Protestant hold that the Church may err so did the Donatists who were condemned by St. Augustin Potestants deny unwritten Tradition and urge Scripture only so did the Arrians and were condemned by St. Augustin and Epiphanius Protestants teach that Priests may marry so did Vigilantius and condemned by St. Hierom contr Vigilant c. 1. Protestants deny Prayers for the Dead so did Arrius condemned by St. August haer 53. and St. Epiphan haer 75. Protestants deny invocation of Saints so did Vigilantius for which he was condemned by St. Hierom contra Vigilant c. 3. Protestants deny the Real Presence so did the Capernaits and Berengarius who reclaimed and did Penance Protestants deny confession of Sins to a Priest so the Novatian Hereticks did reproved and condemned by St. Ambros. lib. de penitent c. 7. So did the Montanists condemned by St. Hierom Epist. ad Marcel 54. I leave off an addition of many other Points which makes really the new-moulded Protestant Sect appear but a meer frippery or hodge-podge of old condemned Heresies Hence you may understand that the Doctrine of the Roman Church is this day as it was 1600 years ago still one Holy Catholick Apostolick and Unchang'd grounded on such a solid unshaken Foundation that it is never to be brought down by the Gates of Hell i. e. Heresie Schism Apostacy Wranglings foolish Fopperies Lyings Railings c. Now Sir if you are sufficiently toss'd and wearied out with variety of Disputes and desire to put an end to them now follow the guide and direction of the Roman Catholick Church in Faith Religion Sacraments Sacrifice and Doctrine all which are derived from Christ himself to his blessed Apostles from the Apostles down to us and is to continue in the same heavenly Channel of Succession unto the end of the World Which Roman Catholick Church hath obtain'd supreme Authority from the Apostolick See by a wonderous succession of Bishops by the judgment of the People by the gravity and authority of Councils and lastly by the Majesty of Miracles And not to submit to this Divine Authority sure is the height of Impiety and precipitant Arrogancy and not to Dotages of particular idle Intruders Now as Rebellion is the bane of Civil Government in Kingdoms and Peace and Concord the preservation of the same so is Schism Division and diversity of Faith the ruin and calamity of the Church and Unity Peace and Uniformity the special Blessing of God therein and in the Church above all Commonwealths because it is in all points a Monarchy tending every way to Unity there being but one God one Christ one Church one Faith one Hope one Head one Body one Baptism Christ's Church is a Society of those that God hath called to Salvation by the profession of the true Faith Religion dread Sacrifice the sincere Administration of Sacraments and the adherence to a lawful Pastor as Head which Description is so fitted and proportioned to the Church that it resembles the Nest of the Halcyon which according to Plutarch is of such a just and exact size for the measure of her Body that it can serve no other Bird either greater or lesser Since Christianity is a Doctrine of Faith a Doctrine whereof all Men are capable of and since the high virtue of Faith is in the humility of our Understanding and the merit thereof in the ready obedience to embrace it what madness it is for any Man to tire out his Soul to wast away his Spirits in tracing out all the thorny Paths of the main Controversies of these our backsliding days wherein to err is easie and dangerous what through the malice of Authors abusing him what through Sophistry beguiling him what through blind Passion and Prejudice transporting him and not rather betake himself to the right way of Truth whereunto Christ Reason Nature and Experience do all give witness and that is to associate himself to that Church established by Christ whereunto the custody of a heavenly and supernatural Truth hath been from Heaven it self committed to weigh and find out discreetly which is the true Church to receive it chearfully and discreetly without doubt or discussion whatsoever it delivers without any farther inquisition she having the warrant that he that hears her hears Christ and whosoever hears her not hath no better place with God than a Publican and Pagan And what folly is it now to receive Scriptures upon the credit of her Authority and not to receive the interpretation of them upon her Authority and Credit also Sure if God should not always protect his Church from Error and yet peremptorily commanding Men upon pain of Damnation to obey her always then had he made very slender provision for the Salvation of Mankind which conceit concerning God would render us very ungratefully impious These Considerations or Motives may very easily perswade Persons of Reason and Piety to embrace and maintain that which they know to be the Religion of their Fore-fathers before her Adversaries had a Name her Doctrine having had a very long continuance which cannot easily be supposed in the present possessors to be a Design since they have received it down from so many Ages and it is not likely that all Ages should have the same purposes or that the same Doctrine should serve the several different ends of divers Ages relying upon the Grounds to wit that Truth is more ancient than Falshood
is Divine unerring revealed Faith. Now the Master and Author of that Doctrine we must believe the Instructor of the Actions we must perform and the promiser and performer of the final Happiness we may hope for is God himself who cannot deceive or be deceiv'd he being the prime Verity Via veritas vita So as Faith is not grounded upon our weak natural Judgment or Ratiocination but upon obedience to the Church Faith is a gift of God a supernatural Quality infused by God into our Souls by which we firmly believe all things revealed to us Without Faith its impossible to please God Heb. 11.6 And He that believed not shall be damned Mark ult v. 16. So as every one ought to know that there is a sovereign and blessed end viz. Eternal Glory then every one ought to love and heartily wish to attain to the same and earnestly seek out for those means and helps prescrib'd and ordain'd by God for the compassing it Then in the first place we must find out Divine Faith which partly proceeds from God as the source and Author thereof as Prima veritas And altho' those things we believe by Faith cannot be known by evident Demonstration yet because they are taught us by supernatural means we are more certain of their truth than of all other things because those things are deliver'd over to us by a more certainly infallible Teacher the Spirit of Truth the Holy Ghost Therefore enter I pray into a serious consideration of the End for which you and all were created viz. The Glory of God and your eternal Happiness and for the knowledge of the means to attain thereunto you may find by the consent of all Christians this cannot be gotten by clear and evident sight nor by human Discourse founded on the Principles of Reason nor by reliance upon Authority meerly human but only by Faith grounded on the Word of God revealing to Men things that are otherwise only known to his infinite Wisdom Now God sure revealed all these things to Jesus Christ and he to his blessed Apostles as he saith Iohn 15.15 All things which I have heard from my Father I have made known to you This partly by word of mouth but principally by the immediate teaching of the Holy Ghost to the end that they should deliver them after to Mankind to be received believed and obeyed over the whole World in perpetuum as it is said Matth. 28.19 Go teach all Nations Sure they did accordingly preach to all Nations as it 's said by St. Mark 16.20 They going forth did preach every where and so planted an universal Christian Company charging them to keep inviolable and to deliver to their Posterity what they have received from them as the first Messengers of the Gospel as St. Paul said to Timothy 2 Tim. 2.2 The things that thou hast heard of many Witnesses the same commit thou to faithful Men who may instruct others Now tho' the blessed Apostles and their Hearers be departed out of this Life yet still there remains a means now in the World by which all men may assuredly know what the Apostles preached and the Primitive Church received of them seeing the Church to the end must be built on the Apostles and believe nothing as matter of Faith beside that which was delivered of them as St. Paul said Ephes. 2.20 Are built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Iesus Christ being the chief Corner Stone Scripture is a Light only to the Faithful because known from the Church's Tradition to be from the Apostles by the Apostles Authority confirmed by Miracles to be of God by God's supreme Verity who cannot deceive nor be deceived to be the truth So Scripture is a Light which must be shewed by a Superiour Light before it become light The Church therefore must guide us to know the truth of Scripture as St. Austin said Contra Epist. fundamenti c. 5. I would not believe the Gospel it self unless the Authority of the Church Catholick did move me The Word that is written tells us that all is not written as St. Paul 2. Thes. 2.15 exhorts us to keep both the written and unwritten saying Stand fast and keep Traditions which you have learned by word or by our Epistle It is manifest that the first Church of God from the Creation until Moses which was about 2000 years had no Word of God but what was unwritten which we call Tradition from hand to hand And we do not read that the Apostles were sent to write but to preach And S. Iohn denies that he had expressed in Writing all that he had to say saying Having more things to write to you I would not by Paper or Ink for I hope that I shall be with you and speak mouth to mouth that your Ioy may be full By which it is evident that the blessed Apostles beside their Writings did preach other things which were wanting to their faith And it 's manifest that what the Apostles did write was but accidental and upon particular occasions See Hooker Eccles. Pol. Lib. 1. Sect. 15. P. 87. For instance the Epistles of St. Peter Iames Iohn and Iude were written against certain Hereticks who misunderstanding St. Paul did teach that Faith only without Works sufficed to Salvation See St. Aug. de fide operib c. 14. And St. Iohn did not preach his Gospel till his last Age which was very long without writing and took occasion to write as St. Ierom de Scriptor Eccles. affirms by reason of the Heresie of Ebionites then broke out The like may be shewed of the rest And take what is worth observation That all Epistles were written to such persons only as were already converted to the Christian Faith therefore were written not so much to instruct as to confirm this Zuinglius also confesseth Tom. 2. lib. de Eccl. fol. 43. By all which its evident that the Apostles and Evangelists did write their Books not by Command of Christ but upon some accidental occasion moving them thereunto and very many were saved before any Scripture and that only by Tradition which was before Scripture for the invention of Printing was not in the World till about 230 years ago and the Bibles that were written being but few by reason of the great labour of writing them and those that were written not purchaseable but by few because of their great price nor legible but by very few because they were not printed but written by hand and sure God by his Providence did and will always preserve his Church from extinction and corruption having warrant for it out of Scripture and no warrant for the preservation of the Text the Church being a thing more easily known than Scripture and consisting of a living Multitude can express it self more plainly by the Mouth and Tradition of the Church Tradition being plain and easie Doctrine concerning the common capital and practical Articles of Christianity but Scripture full of high mysterious and
hidden sences furnished with variety of Parables Examples Histories Revelations Figures Allegories so as it cannot be proved directly to be the word of God but by Tradition The Christians of the Primitive Age on pain of Damnation held nothing of Faith but what they received from Christ and his blessed Apostles for Moral and Apostolical Tradition without written Scripture or written Books was the means of planting and conserving Christian Religion see St. Paul Galat. 21.8 Altho' we or an Angel from Heaven preach to you besides that which we have preached to you he be Anathema And again 2 Thes. 15. Therefore Brethren stand ye fast and hold ye the Traditions which ye have learned whether by Word or by our Epistle Sure Apostolical Tradition is the sure Guide by which we may infallibly be assur'd what Doctrin for Salvation Christ and his blessed Apostles left many years before any thing was written or printed CHAP. IV. The Scripture of Protestants decry'd FIrst I say that all Sectaries tho' never so many and opposite one to another have ever risen and have still pretended to Scripture nay the Devil urged his Temptation with a scriptum est Matth. 4. And so many frequently deprave the Scriptures to their own perdition 2 Pet. 3. I decline not Scripture but allow admit and embrace it as containing that irrefragable Doctrine which eminent Persons in the Church of God penn'd even a thousand years before Printing was invented Scripture is a good Instrument to draw Men from Paganism to Chistianity but not Protestants to the Catholick Faith. When the Christian explicit Articles of Faith prepared and delivered to us by our Primitive Pastors according as they had received them from Christ the prime Inventor were rashly annull'd taken away and rejected by Sectaries and the Bible put into all hands for to search and find out by our own skill the Results and Principles of Religion implicitly couch'd in the Bible is not this extream Madness and Tyranny to Souls Is it not a tyrannous Cheat and an Abuse hardly to be parallell'd to put Men to seek for a thing with a fore-imprinted prejudice of that they go about to find and seek for Faith with a prejudice against Faith With such-like prejudice do the English People read the Bible being afore-hand advised by their Reformers fully to believe that the Catholick Mass is abomination the Real Presence a late invention the Merit of Good Works a Dream fasting and mortification of sensual Appetites folly and madness the indifferency of Man's Free Will to Good or Evil an Error the making a Vow a Chimera restitution or satisfaction of Injuries done a prejudicial Mistake all Expiation of our Sins an inexpiable Crime honour to blessed Saints Idolatry Sacrifice Altars and the whole Priesthood of Christ Prophaneness the conscionable practice of Sobriety Justice and Piety necessary to Eternal Life detestable Popery for God's sake what good can accrew to the drooping Soul of an Heretick by reading of Scripture with these Prejudices these Diabolical Anticipations these Antichristian Preconceptions these meer Obstructions to all Faith Grace and Salvation Yet thus forewarn'd and prepossess'd all Sectaries read the Scripture no sound or solid Fruit arising thence to their Souls but hardness of Heart Pride Schism sencelesness of God's Judgments desperateness in all Sin and Injustice Sure the Scripture do little or no good but as it is presented by the Church and received with her Interpretation and practised in her Bosom The Ark of God so long as it was upheld by the Priests comforted and sanctified them but look'd into or touch'd by others destroy'd them nor was it to them an Ark of Salvation but an Offence and occasion of Fall Therefore it was a heavenly Caution that which we received by a Voice from Heaven Act. 10. Things that God hath sanctified do not make common We see Scripture takes up Figures Allegories Parables c. wherein are inclosed Truths of a differing strain to what the Letter relates which will cause an obscurity almost invincible even to Church-men singularly assisted and inspired It is therefore but madness to undertake Labour and Hazard for naught The Law and Government of the Messias differs from the Law of Moses in this That one was committed to Paper but the Doctrine of Jesus should be written in the Heart and Entrails of his Church He is a God that writes on the Paper of the Heart unto Eternity indelible Tenets The Law of Christ is written not with Ink but with the Spirit of the Living God not in Tables of Stone but in fleshly Tables of the Heart promising to animate the Body of his Church with his own Spirit which should lead them into all Truth so as in very truth Scripture of the New Testament was drawn by the Rule of our traditional Doctrine and explicit Faith and not our explicit Faith gathered out of them neither was ever any General Council called together to teach the Church her Doctrine but upon the rising of Heresies judging by the Rule of Tradition declared against Heretical Innovations Here I infer how they are bereaved of Human Understanding that do not see palpably that a pretended Church which begun by breach of Promises to God by Sacrileges and Impurities of Apostates by general Revolt against Kings against Divine and Human Laws by the filth and ordure of the Carrion and caitive Flesh by the dissolution of good Manners by Blood Furies and Confusion could not come and take its source from the Divine Spirit yet they boldly say they find Scripture of their side Ah lamentable Illusion To whom did the Scripture send them but to the Priests and lawful Pastors What said the Scripture unto them but that they ought to keep the Traditions and obey Prelates That they must not trust to their own judgment but captivate it in matters of Faith and that it was better to believe with holy Simplicity than question with a proud Curiosity And it 's observable how the poor deluded People in England after using their Bible now above a hundred years how they have a Church without Apostolical Preachers these without Character Mission Priesthood or Divine Jurisdiction Sheep without true Pastors faithful without Churches Christians without Sacraments Temples without Altars Altars without Sacrifices Religion without form or fashion a Law without Obedience a Faith without Works and Grace yet they all peruse Scripture and all is but that they overthrow themselves by these Scripture ways by which they seek to establish themselves for if we ought not to believe any thing but that which is written in what place of their Bible will they find that the revealed positive and affirmative Principles of our Church must be denied and abrogated In what place will they shew that these words Hoc est Corpus meum must be understood figuratively not really In what place will they find that Sunday must be kept holy and not Saturday Where will they find that there are but two
saved and that they who believed not should be damn'd Math. 28.19 Mark 16.15 O Soveraign and Heavenly Promises Priviledges and Graces of the true Catholick Roman Churches Infallibility Add to this how the Apostles tell us that the Chuch of the living God is the Pillar and ground of truth 1 Tim 3.15 Sure we may securely rely upon her and they assure us that Christ gave his Son Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers for the perfection of the Saints that henceforth we may be no more Children tossed to and fro c. Eph. 4. Are not these plain and wondrous texts of Scripture and cannot you see clearly an infallible assistance promised to the directing and guiding men that they should not be carried about with every wind of false Doctrine by the slght and wiles of men and cunning craftiness whereby some lie in wait for to deceive No other Congregation under the Sun but the Roman Catholick Church can stand up or pretend to these great Priviledges it follows that Protestants are as they aver fallible saying so they tell all the World an Infallible truth and thereupon we may be infallibly assured that they always are failable and fallible And hence it follows whilst Protestants themselve declare they are fallible they can no ways pretend to be the infallible Church of Christ For if the Word of God should have the first place and serve as a basis for the perpetuating of a Church infallible as it is most reasonable I incessantly challenge Ministers to shew but one only Text of Scripture express formal and irreprovable contrary to the Articles of the Roman Catholick Church sure this they could never yet perform for hitherto they have produc'd nothing but Semblances Stories Lyes and Railings for to delude weak inferior Judgments of the giddy Multitude being unable to make them good before considering and learned understanding Men And if a lawful Succession sacred Mission Character and real Consecration of true Pastors be required which is absolutely necessary for the establishment of an Ecclesiastical Hierarchy the Roman Church can shew that from the Apostles hitherward our Popes and other inferior Pastors do all to this day successively follow one another above two hundred and thirty Popes Magna est veritas prevalet If the Authority of Councils be requisite which are the Sinews Mouths and living Oracles of Religion in the Revolution of sixteen Ages all Councils will be found call'd for to confirm the Roman Church confute and condemn her Adversaries If the Interpretations of Holy Doctors who have been the Lights of their times Instruments of the Holy Ghost and Secretaries of the Divinity they all with one accord and consent speak for the Roman Church condemning loudly the Errors and Schism of new Sects If Miracles which were wrought in all Ages and in the sight of all Mankind with so much approbation that they have evicted Confession even from the most Incredulous and Reverence from the most Stupid Millions and unfeigned Miracles were and are daily wrought in confirmation of the verity of the Roman Catholick Religion So as that there is not a Country wherein the Roman Catholick Religion is profess'd which doth not produce Testimonies so prudently and evidently credible of true Super-natural Miracles that to deny them were to destroy all Humane Faith. Did not Simon Magus impiously boast by the Spirit of his private Fancy that he would do wonders as St. Peter did who provok'd by the said Simon Magus did prove that he had the Spirit of God by raising a Child from Death which the other with all his Black Magick Art could not do yet boldly challenging St. Peter to fly from the Capitol to Mount Aventin while he was doing so by the Prayer of St. Peter loe he came tumbling down and brake his Leg whereof he died soon after Even so that false Apostle Calvin for the credit of his new Damn'd Doctrine he would fain make a shew to the People of doing a Miracle hir'd one that was Sick to counterfeit himself Dead who when Calvin should speak certain words was to arise as it were from the Dead but he not stirring was found dead indeed Withall mark how that the Son of Calvin being bitten by a Mad Dog his Father not being able to cure him sent him to St. Hubert in Arden where the Body of that Saint is kept with Veneration and frequent Miracles wrought thereby where he was perfectly made whole whereupon abjur'd his Fathers Sect became a Roman Catholick and lived and died so Yet Protestants object its strange themselves never see any Miracle being so desirous and miracles so frequent as we pretend Herod was also very desirous to see a Miracle but his curiosity excluded him from that favour Men who believe nothing but what they see deserve not to see Miracles because they are obstinate Yet there are few Protestants who do not see Miracles what greater Miracle than that all Catholicks turn not Protestants If the continual Victory over natural and vehement Inclinations doth require a Miracle of super-natural Grace we are as naturally and vehemently inclined to their Religion as we are to our own Liberties and Pleasures What greater Miracle than that Roman Catholick sober and learned Men should be perswaded that their Senses are deceived in the Sacrament of the Altar and that they should suffer death for the Mystery of Transubstantiation There must be effects of super-natural Grace and not of Ignorance or Obstinacy which cannot be laid to our charge seeing we submit our Judgments to every definition of the Roman Church and our very Adversaries know we are learned Men. Sanctity of Life is a super-natural sign and effect of Grace and of the true Church This Sanctity is evident in the Roman Church Not to speak of Antonies Hilarions or Stillitas let 's draw nearer our times and consider the Lives of St. Bernard St. Dominick St. Francis St. Vincent Ferrer St. Francis of Paula St. Charles Barromeus St. Teresa St. Francis Xaverius St. Anthony of Padua and many more who were known Roman Catholicks professing the same Tenets and Obedience to the Pope which we now maintain against pretended Reformation And not to speak only of the Dead let any indifferent Person consider how in all Vocations of both Clergy and Laity we have many Persons eminent in Virtue far above that degree of morality Let our English Protestant be pleased to weigh with himself whether young Ladies of as great Quality Fortunes and Gifts of Nature as England doth afford could forsake their native Country Kindred and Friends contemn all pleasures of the World and themselves by embracing a religious poor and penitent Life in perpetual Inclosure submitting their wills to the Obedience and Humour of a Woman could this I say be performed by so many so continually and with so great alacrity and content of mind without a miraculous and super-natural Grace of the Almighty In my judgment it is a greater Miracle
Truth I say then that it is at once disingenuous dangerous and silly to entertain such blind thoughts I pray God these motives may have a strong influence upon you by the assistance of God's Grace which is never wanting to those that are not wanting to themselves and imprint in your Soul the Character of Truth that you may conquer all oppositions of Vnderstanding or Will which may bar your ready Obedience thereunto First divest your mind of all prepossess'd Opinions and worldly respects in favour of any Sect or in dislike of the true ancient Church so as truly having deposed all obstinate prepossessions of your Iudgment you 'll be easily persuaded that the Roman Church is the true Church wherein only is Salvation to be had Pursue this Quest my Lord suffer not your self to be mis-led by the seducing of flattering blind Guides or Obstinacy Adjourn not this Quest Say not as Felix said to St. Paul Acts 24.25 When I have a convenient season I will call for thee The World expects your happy Return to the Glorious Liberty of the Sons of God. Alexander the Great my Lord being asked if he would run at the Olympick Games said I could be content so I might run with Kings Begin then to exercise a Virtuous Ambition in running after Kings at the Olympick Game for an Eternity of never-ending Glory in the Roman Communion in so doing you may know that you run with two and twenty brave Kings of England that were Saints you run with King Charles II. whose dear Favourite you have been who by the quick-sighted piercing eye of his natural Iudgment said in his Speech That Christ can have but one Church and that the same is the Roman Catholick Church and that Christ left his Power to it even to forgive sins He desired to know How came that Church to lose that Power and by what Authority men separated themselves from it His Majesty answers saying That it was that particular men raised Schism for their own advantage Here my Lord you see the King leaves the heavy guilt of SCHISM at the door of the Protestant Sect. You run with our most Sacred Leige and Sovereign King JAMES II. whom God preserve for many many happy years whose Motto is Let Life and Three Kingdoms lie at stake Before I damn my Soul or true Faith forsake Run with King James I. of ever Renowned Memory who did acknowledge in open Parliament That the Roman Catholick Church is the only Mother-Church of all Churches See Stow pag. 840. Run finally my Lord with all the present Kings in Christendom excep those of Swedeland and Denmark who reign in that Cold Cloudy and Sin-darkned Northern Corner of the World where Heresie is entertained by a company of dull stupid people that will not penetrate Run I pray with the best part of Mankind in all Ages with the wisest Heads of the World for unfeigned Holiness and Learning Run along with these irradiant Pole-Stars and you cannot go astray and it 's an undoubted truth that the Life Example and Heroick Actions of a Prince have usually a greater sway upon the minds of his Subjects than his Laws for the Example of a King is a living Law which secretly over-rules mens minds and bends them to a compliance with it None can deny this but those who have their Iudgments swallowed up by prejudice and whose blind passions have over-run their reason Listen therefore to the Voice of Heaven Apoca. 18.24 Go out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues Schism my Lord and damn'd Heresie to which you pertinaciously adhere are most grievous Plagues from it redeem your precious Soul from forfeiture that has been this long time mortgaged to Death for Sectae non possi debunt Regnum Dei and non est prudentia nec concilium contra Dominum and Sapientis est mutare concilium Make it my Lord your daily Prayer to God to settle you in the right This said my very good Lord begin to put on in the Name of Ever-glorious Iesus a Noble Resolution to shake off those Chains and Bonds of that Monstrous Tyrant Schism which detains you in slavery let the scales of blind misguided Zeal fall from your eyes that you may see to find out a most secure Vnerring Guide in your Iourney towards a happy Eternity I beseech the Father of Lights and Mercy to illuminate your Vnderstanding with Beams of his Saving Grace that you may learn embrace and practise the Faith of Christ which shall be the daily Prayer of me who intreats your Grace to bestow one Grace which is to permit me to bear all my Life-time the Title of your humble Chaplain being always Your most obsequious and faithful Servant I. E. He may be won that longest does resist To pray for your Return I 'll ne'r desist I 'll ne'r despair of any whil'st I see A fruitless Tree may next year fruitful be A WINDING-SHEET FOR THE Schism of England CHAP. I. THe ALMIGHTY as a most Divine Architect rais'd the Fabrick of his Church in this World as a medium to Salvation a Man for not hearing this Church is term'd in St. Matth. 18.18 a Publican or Heathen Protestants segregating themselves and not hearing this Church are in a most lamentable state Sure a natural unity and connection of the Parts among themselves and to the Head is necessary for the conservation of the natural Body Christ promised that there should be Unity in his Church St. Iohn 10.16 They shall be made one Fold and one Pastor This Unity is most requisite in God's Church St. Iohn 17.11 Christ prayed that his Disciples should be one And again 1. Cor. 1.10 I beseech you that you all speak one and the same thing and that there be no Schism among you but that you be perfect in one judgment Protestants denies and flyes from this Unity being divided and subdivided Christ praying Sure his Prayer took effect his People his Flock and Congregation being still one in the bonds of Peace The pretended Reformation have no Unity differing in most essential Points for Salvation therefore no true Church the Roman Catholick Church and no other stands firm and infallible against all the tempests of Apostacy Heresie and Schism and this by her Unity and Uniformity Sure by confession of Protestants the Roman Church was once the true Church according to St. Paul Rom. 1.8 First I thank my Lord through Iesus Christ that your Faith is spoken of throughout the whole World. And again v. 7. To all that be in Rome beloved of God call'd to the Saints Grace to you and Peace Now I say having it once how could they but retain the same Faith still infallibly For no general Council even ever yet condemned her of Error none of the holy Fathers ever wrote against her and by no authority was she to this day reproved of Schism for she left no Church or Company