discerne Therefore we may safely conclude that this doctrine ought to be delivered unto us originally by God himselfe For after the first branch which is of withdrawing our affections from sensible goods although out of naturall principles that doctrine is to be collected yet that is not a sufficient meanes to settle mankind in generall in the beliefe of it For the discourse that proveth it is such an abstracted one as very few are capable of it being that it requireth both a mature age to be able to reason so before which time many dye and likewise strong and vigorous powers of the understanding which we see more doe want then are endowed withall And besides of those that have both yeares and capacity to wield such thoughts there are so few that are not in a manner forced away from such interior recollections by their particular vocations and the naturall necessities they are obliged unto as to beate it out by themselves is not a sufficient meanes to serve mankind in this case And to thinke that those few who haveing great partes may with much labour have attained to the knowledge thereof should instruct others that are simpler and are taken up by other imployments and courses of life were very irrationall since no man be he never so wise is such but may be deceived and then how can it be expected that another man should without sensible demonstration beleive his single word in a matter so contrary to sense and wherein he must forgoe so great contentments and present utility And for the other branch which is in the instructing mankinde concerning the right object that he is to know and love to be happy that is altogether out of the reach of any man whatsoever by himselfe to discover and therefore much lesse can he in his owne name instruct others therein And if any man should goe about to doe so and to introduce a new doctrine of faith not formerly heard of drawing the arguments for confirmation thereof onely out of his owne ratiocination and discourse that alone were enough to convince him of falshood since he should thereby undertake to know what were impossible for him of himselfe to attaine to the knowledge of Therefore it is necessary that the author of the doctrine we must believe the instructor of the actiōs we must performe and the promiser of the happinesse we may hope for be God himselfe who onely knoweth of himselfe what is sayd in matters of these natures who onely is neither liable to be deceived nor can deceive others as being the prime verity it selfe But because the weaknesse of our intellectuall nature is such whiles we remaine here in our earthly habitations imprisonned in our houses of clay as we cannot lift up our heavy and drousie eyes and steddily fixe our dimme fight upon the dazeling and indeed invisible Deity nor entertain an immediate communication with him like the children of Israel who desired that Moses not God might speak unto them it was necessary that God himselfe should descend to some corporal substance that might bee more familiar and lesse dazeling unto us And none was so convenient as humane nature to the end that he might not onely converse freely and familiarly with us and so in a gentle and a sweet manner teach us what wee should doe but also preach unto us by his example and himselfe bee our leader in the way that he instructed us to take The conclusion then of this discourse is that it was necessary Christ God and man should come into the world to teach us what to beleive and what to do 10. The tenth conclusion shall be that those unto whom Christ did immediatly preach this faith and unto whom he gave commission to preach it unto others and spread it through the world after hee ascended to heaven ought to be believed as firmly as hee himselfe The reason of this assertion is that their doctrin though it be delivered by secondary mouthes yet it proceedeth from the same fountain which is God himselfe that is the prime verity and cannot deceive nor be deceived But all the difficulty herein is to know who had this immediate commission from Christ by what seal we should discern it to have been no forged one The solution of this ariseth out of the same argument which proveth that Christ himself was God and that the doctrine he taught was true and divine which is the miracles and wonders he did exceeding the power of nature and that could be effected by none but by God himselfe for he being truth it selfe cannot by any action immediatly proceeding from him witnesse and confirm a falsehood In like manner the Apostles doing such admirable works and miracles as neither by nature nor by art magick could be brought to passe that must necessarily inferre God himselfe cooperated with them to justifie what they said it is evident that their doctrine which was not their own but received from Christ must bee true and Divine 11. The eleventh conclusion shall bee that this faith thus taught by Christ and propagated by the Apostles and necessary to mankind to believe as well that part of it which is written as the whole which is not dependeth intrinsecally upon the testimony of the Catholick Church which is ordained to conserve and deliver it from age to age By which Catholike Church I mean the congregation of the faithfull that is spread throughtout the whole world for we have proved before that the way to the true faith ought to bee open and plain to all men of all abilities and in all ages that have a desire to embrace it and this cannot be but either by the immediate preaching of Christ or else by the information either in writing or by word of mouth of them that learned it from him and their delivering it over to others and so from hand to hand untill any particular time you will pitch upon But from Christs own mouth none could have it but those who lived in the age when he did therefore there remaineth no other mens to have it derived down to after ages then by this delivery over from hand to hand of the whole congregation of fathers or elders dispersed throughout the world to the whole congregation of sonnes or youngers which course of deducing faith from Christ wee call tradition so that this conclusion proveth that the Church is the conserver both of the whole doctrine of faith necessary for salvation and likewise of the divine writ dictated by the Holy Ghost and written by the Prophets Evangelists and Apostles which we are also bound to believe And the same assent that we are to give to the truth of Scriptures that is to say that the Scriptures wee have are true Scriptures the very same we are to give to other articles of faith proposed unto us by the Church for they alike depend of the same authority which is the veracity of the Church proposing and delivering them unto
side all other Christian Churches among us that pretend reformation having no certaine and common rule of faith but every particular man governing himselfe in this matter by the collections of his owne braine and by his owne private understanding and interpretation of Scripture which onely he acknowledgeth as the entire rule of faith it must consequently follow that according to the variety of their tempers and judgements there must bee a variety and difference of their opinions and beliefes which difference of temper happening for the most part betweene every two men that are it likewise followeth scarce any two should in all particulars of their opinions agree together And accordingly wee see by experience that scarce any two authors out of the Roman Church that have written of matters of faith have agreed in their tenets but rather have dissented in fundamentall doctrine and have inveighed against one another in their writings with great vehemence bittesnes Whereas on the other side the Doctors of the Roman Church in al times in all places and of all tempers have agreed unanimously in all matters of faith although in the mean time severall of them have in divers other points great debates against one another and pursue them with much sharpnesse which strongly confirmeth the ground upon which we frame this observation But to insist a little further upon this materiall and important consideration it is evident that the proceeding of the reformers openeth the gate to all dissension schisme irreverence pride of understanding heresie ruine of Christian Religion for to justifie the new births of their rebellious braines the first stroake of their pen must be to lay a taint of ignorance error upon the whole current of ancient fathers and Doctors of the Church and generall Councells and to blast their authority which is so precisely contrary to their doctrine whose names and records ought to be sacred with posterity Which when they have done to settle a constant and like beliefe in all men they give no generall and certaine rule but leaving every man to the dictamens of his owne private judgement according to the severall tempers and circumstances as wee said before that sway every single man in particular there must result which we see by experience as great a variety of opinions as those are different And lastly since they quarrell at Catholickes beliefe in those points where they differ from them because they captivate their understandings with reverence to what the Church proposeth and teacheth and thereby admit into their beliefe articles which may seeme absurd to common sense they may as well with presumptuous hands graspe at and seeke to pluck up the very foundations of Christian Religion as namely the Doctrine of the Trinity and of the incarnation of Christ and of the resurrection and state of life of the future world since there are greater seeming contradictions in them especially in the two first then in those mysteries the reformers cavill at In the next place we may consider that as infallibility is pretended by the Roman Church alone so it is apparently entayled upon it for we have proved that no meanes or circumstance either morall naturall or supernaturall is wanting in it to beget infallibility in matters of faith Whereas on the other side from the reformers owne position we inferre by consequence that their doctrine cannot be hoped even by themselves to be infallible and therefore they that shall submitt their understanding to their conduct though they believe without controversy all they say must needs even by reason of what is taught them floate alwaies in a great deale of incertitude and anxious apprehension and feare of error For they looking upon the Church but with pure humane consideratiōs and as an ordinary company of men will have it lyable to mistaking according to the naturall imbecillity of mens witts and understandings and of humane passions and negligence and other such defects and weaknesses which every man is by nature subject unto Against which they produce no antidote to preserve and secure themselves from the infection taint they lay upon the Church For if they will have the conferences of severall passages of Scripture to be that which must give light in the severall controverted obscurities what eminency have these few late reformers shewne either in knowledge of tongues insight into antiquity profoundnesse in sciences and perfection and sanctity of life which hath not shined admirably more not to taxe them here of the contrary in multitudes of the adverse party And none will deny but these are the likelyest meanes to gaine a right intelligence of the true and deepe sence of Scriptures And besides we may observe that the reason why they deny the severall articles wherein they differ from the Catholicke Church is because it teacheth a doctrine which is repugnant to sence and of hard digestion to philosophy both which are uncompetent judges of divine and supernaturall truths And whosoever steereth by their compasse cannot hope for infallibility in a matter that transcendeth their reach Thirdly we may consider that the universality of the Church in regard of place which is necessary to the end that all mankind may have sufficient meanes to gaine knowledge of the true faith can be attributed to none but to the Roman Catholick Church which onely is diffused throughout the whold world whereas all others are circled in with narrow limits of particular provinces And even within them the professors scarce agree among themselves in any point of doctrine but in opposing the Roman Church And yet further besides this want of vniversality in regard of place the Religion taught by the reformers hath yet a greater restriction then that for even in its own nature it is not for all sorts of persons and for all capacities whereas the true saving faith to bring men to beatitude ought to be obvious to all mankind and open as well to the simple as to the learned For since they lay the Scriptures as the first and highest principle from whence they deduce all to that ought to be believed And that in all arts and sciences the primary and fundamentall principles therof ought to bee throughly known by them that aspire to the perfect knowledge of those sciences it followeth that one must have an exact knowledge of the learned tongues to examine punctually the true sense of the Scriptures and that one must bee perfectly versed in logick to bee able to reason solidly and to deduce true consequences from certaine principles for want of which we find by experience that great controversies arise daily among the learnedst men which would not bee if the force of consequences were of their owne nature easily discernable and one must be throughly skilled in naturall philosophy and Metaphysickes since unto appearing contradictions in subjects of those sciences they reduce most of their arguments against the supernaturall truths that Catholickes believe And lastly one must be indowed with
life for sanctitie and neer union with God and contempt of worldly and transitory things raised above the pitch of nature and morality we may conclude the holy Ghost inhabiteth not there for every agent produceth effects proportionable to the dignity of it and the excellency of any cause shineth eminently in the noblenesse of its effects Now that this gift of the holy Ghost is to remaine with the Church as long as the Church remaineth to illuminate it with the spirit of truth and to give it a supernaturall and divine unction will appear manifestly upon consideration of the cause why the holy Ghost was to be given at the first which remaineth alwaies the same and therefore the same effect must alwaies follow and accordingly Christ promised his Church upon his ascending into heaven that he would alwaies remaine with them untill the end of the world to wit by this holy spirit for he was then at the point of withdrawing his corporeall presence from them 15. Our next conclusion shall be that this Church or congregation of men spread over the world conserving and delivering the faith of Christ from hand to hand is even in its owne nature perpetuall in time and cannot faile as long as mankind remaineth in the world This needeth no further proofe then that which we have already made which is derived from the necessity of supernaturall faith to bring mankind to the end it was created for and that there is no meanes to deliver this faith to mankind in the ages after Christ but by the tradition of the Church and therefore as long as mankind lasteth this meanes must be continued Yet in this way of reasoning that I use we are to examine our conclusions as well by the genuine and orderly causes that beget them and by their owne particular principles as to assent unto them for the necessity that we see in them in regard of the end that they are referred unto And when we haue retrived those and evidently discerned their force it giveth an admirable content and satisfaction to the understanding Thus then as philosophers conclude that it is impossible any whole species or kind of beasts should ever be utterly exterminated and destroyed that is diffused up and downe over the whole face of the earth because the amplitude of the universe is greater then the variety of causes can be from which such a generall and entire corruption must proceed In like manner we may confidently conclude that it is impossible any depraved affections should so universally prevaile and so absolutely raigne in mens mindes throughout the whole world as would be requisite to extirpate and roote out a doctrine universally spread over it all that was at the first taught and confirmed with such seales of truth as the miracles that Christ and the apostles wrought that in its selfe is so pure and agreeable to the seedes that every man findeth sowed even by nature in his owne soule that worketh such admirable effects as the reformation of manners in mankind that withdraweth mens affections from humane and worldly contentments and carrieth them with a sweet violence to intellectuall objects and to hopes of immortality and happinesse in another life that prescribeth lawes for happy living even in this world to all men of what condition soever either publicke or private as working a moderation in mens affections to the commodities and goods of this life which else in nature is apt to blind mens mindes and is the cause of all mischiefs and evills and lastly that is delivered over from hand to hand from worlds of fathers to worlds of sonnes with such care and exactnesse as greater cannot be imagined and as it is requisite to the importance of that affaire which is infinitely beyond all others as on which the salvation and damnation of mankind wholly dependeth Now unto these rationall considerations let us adde the promise which Christ made to his Church that the gates of hell should not prevaile against it and I thinke we have sufficiently maintained that the Church of Christ in which the true doctrine of Christ is conserved can never faile but must infallibly continue unto the worlds end Thus having proved that a supernatural doctrine is necessary to bring mankind to beatitude that Christ taught this doctrine that from him the Church received it and is the sacrary in which it is conserved that this Church cannot erre in the tradition of this doctrine that besides the infallibility of it this Church is perpetuall It remaineth now that we close up this discourse by applying all these premises unto the question in hand which is where we shall find out this infallible Church that by it we may gaine the knowledge of the true saith of Christ whereby we are to be saved 16. For this end our sixteenth and last conclusion shall be that the congregation of men spread over the world joyning in communion with the Church of Rome is the true Catholike Church in which is conserved and taught the true saving faith of Christ The truth of this conclusion will without bringing any new proofes appeare evidently by reflecting upon what we have said and onely examining whether the Romane Church be such a one as we have determined the true Church of Christ must be or whether the notes which we may inferre out of our discourse to belong inseparably to the true Church may not rather with more reason be acknowledged of some other then of that in communion with the see of Rome This point after these grounds layed requireth no very subtill disquisition but is discernable even by the weakest sights and therefore this way of arguing appeareth to me most satisfactory and contentfull when taking the whole body of the question into survey and beginning with the first and remotest considerations of it we drive the difficulties still before us and pursuing of them orderly at every steppe we establish a solid principle and so become secure of the truth and certainty of all we leave behind us which course although it may at the first fight appear to be a great way about and looking but superficially upon the matter we may seeme to meete with difficulties which concerne not our question yet in the effect we shall perceive it is the most summary method of handling any controversie and the onely meanes to be secured of the truth of what we conclude and that will recompence the precedent difficulties by making the conclusion which is the knot of the affair plaine easie and open I say then first that unity of doctrine in matters of faith is inseparable from the Roman Church and can never be found in any other it onely having a precise and determinate rule of faith For it hath believed in every age all that hath bin plainly and positively taught unto it by their Fathers as the doctrine of faith derived from Christ and admitteth no other article whatsoever as an article of faith Whereas on the other
And by thus doing he is in a manner transformed into God so that he can neither think nor understand nor love nor remember any thing but God and of God and if he chanceth at any time to see either himselfe or any creature he seeth them not as they are in themselves but onely as they are in God Nor doth any share of his love rest in them but all of it passeth through them to God and resteth in him And this knowledge of truth alwaies rendreth a soul truely humble and maketh it severe to it selfe without ever judging others whereas worldly wisedome swelleth a soule with pride vanity and empty winde Take this then for the foundation of all spirituall doctrine that if you desire to arrive to the true knowledge service familiarity and full possession of God Almighty you must necessarily devest your heart of all sensible love not onely of all persons whatsoever but of all creatures whatsoever that so you may with a pure and entire heart and with all the powers of your soule apply your selfe freely without all doublenesse care and solicitude to your Creatour casting your selfe in all occasions with a full confidence upon his single providence CHAP. VII In what manner ones heart is to be recollected within ones selfe IT is very truely said in the book of the Spirit and the Soule Cap. 21. that to ascend up to God is to enter into ones selfe For without all doubt he who turning his operations inwards pierceth through himselfe and goeth beyond himselfe is really and truely raised up to God Wee must therefore have a care to recollect our heart from the dispersions and distractions of this world and to recall it to those joyes it will find within it selfe that so it may in time be enabled to keepe it selfe steady in the light of divine contemplation For the life and rest of our heart consisteth in fixing it by earnest desires upon the love of God and in tasting the sweetnesse of those consolations which with a liberall hand hee giveth to those who love him And the reason is obvious why we are so frequently frustrated of the experimentall enjoying of this happines and are not able to tast and savour it in the full sweetnesse of it For whiles our soule effuseth it selfe upon exterior objects and is choaked with the sollicitude of transitory things shee entreth not into her selfe by the setting before her eyes those solid considerations which her memory ought alwaies to be stored withall whilst she is pestered and overclouded with the images of creatures she returneth not into her selfe by the superiour part of her understanding into which no such object can have admittance and whiles shee is intangl'd with concupiscences she is hindred from reverting into her self by vehement desires of that interior sweetnesse and spirituall joy which belongeth onely to a purified and enflamed soule so lying groaning among these present materiall and fading objects she is not able to turne her selfe inwards and discerne the image of God that is formed there It is therefore absolutely necessary for him who aymeth at this noble and high pitch that with profound humility and yet withall with entire confidence he raise himselfe above himselfe and above the whole machine of creared beings by the abnegation of them all saying thus to himselfe he whom my heart hath chosen from among all things whom it seeketh above all things and whom it loveth and desireth beyond all things is not to be knowne by my senses nor comprised by my imagination but is above all that is Sensible above all that is Intelligble he is not perceptible to any faculty of mine but yet he is such as I may desire and love him with all the powers and faculties of my soule he is not representable by any shape yet I may thirst after him with the most enflamed affections that can be raised within mee nor can he be prised or valued neere his worth by all I can say or thinke of him and yet my heart if it be cleane from all drossie affections can seise upon him and unite it selfe to him by excesses of love For he is beautifull and delightfull infinitely beyond all things in the world is of infinite goodnesse perfection And then after such like discourses and considerations his soule entereth yet deeper into it selfe and raiseth it selfe yet higher above it selfe and looseth it selfe as I may say in the divine mist of incomprehensible light And this manner of ascending even to the aenigmaticall beholding of the most holy Trinity in Jesus Christ is by so much the more enflamed and vehement by how much those operations which carry the soule upwards are more interiour and is by so much the more profitable raiseth one so much higher as the love one soareth with is more vigorous and fervent For in spirituall operations the measure of their height and excellency is their interiournesse and recollectednesse from all outward dissipation Therefore you must not give over or sit you down to rest till you have gotten some tast as it were an earnest-penny of that fulnesse which will hereafter swell you up and till you have obtained some first fruits of that heavenly sweetnesse which will hereafter please beyond all measure the spirituall palate of your soule nor must you slacken your pace in running after that divine odour you begin to have the wind of till you come to see the God of Gods in Sion For you must settle this as a fundamentall rule in the progression of the soule and in the adhesion and union to God within you that you must never retire nor repose till you have obtained what you ayme at Consider those who travell up a mountaine and apply to your case what happeneth unto them If a soule engulfe her selfe by concupiscence among those things that slide along beneath her she presently loseth her way in a labyrinth of infinite distractions and of oblique and crooked waies and is as it were divided from her selfe and is torne into as many peeces as there are severall objects that she is glewed unto by her desires And from hence proceedeth the instability of mens actions without any fixednesse upon the resolutions they had once taken their toylsome running without arriving to the end of the course and their perpetuall labour without any rest But if a soule doe raise her selfe by divine affections and love from what is beneath her and would entangle her in a multitude of distractions and forsaking all creatures without her do recollect her selfe within her selfe unto that one immutable all-sufficient good whereof she will find the image within her selfe and doe learne to dwell and converse alwaies with it and doe cleave inseparably to it by enflamed desires and affections such a one will encrease daily in strength and perfection proportionably to the knowledge and desire that lifteth her up to that one supreame immutable good Till she herselfe become at the last
it and we swallow the purest streames like men in a dropsie who the more they drink are still the greedier of more Therefore to have this greedinesse of knowing satisfied and to exercise the powers of our soul in the pure and abstracted contemplation of truth and in the sincere fruition of spirituall objects we must have patience untill she arrive unto an other state of life wherein being separated from all corporall feces impediments and contradictions she may wholly give her selfe up to that which is her naturall operation and from whence resulteth her true and perfect delight Besides even they who have attained to the greatest blessings both inward and outward that this world can afford yet are farr from being compleatly happy for that state admitteth no mixture of the contrary which who was ever yet free from were his fortune never so specious The very fear of loosing them that must alwaies necessarily accompany those blessings is such a spoonefull of gall to make their whole draught bitter as that alone must needs take off the edge and vigour of the contentment that else they might injoy How little can any man relish the objects of delight which with never so great affluence beset him round about when he knoweth a sharpe and heavy sword hangeth by a slender thred over his head and at length must fall and ever after sever him from them A little distemper an accidentall feaver an ill mingled draught such a one as the miracle of witt and learning Lucretius met withall is enough to turne the brains of the wisest man that is and in a few houres to blot out all those notions he hath been in all his life labouring to possesse himselfe of and to render him of a more abject and despicable condition then the meanest wretch living that hath but the common use of reason The Genius that presideth over human affaires delighteth in perpetuall changes and variation of mens fortunes so that he who late sat enthroned in greatest dignitie is all of a sudden precipitated head-long unto a condition most opposit thereunto he that but yesterday had all his joyes enlarged and swelled up to their full height by the communication of a perfect and entire freind without which can there be any true joy hath to day lost the comfort of all that the world can afford him by the irrecoverable losse of that one freind In a word death growing dayly upon him and incroaching upon his outworkes and by houres reducing him into a narrower circle at length seizeth upon himselfe and maketh an eternall divorce betweene him and what was dearest to him here 3. Our next consideration then shall be to discover what will result out of our swift passage through this vale of miseries and what impressions we shall carry with us out of this pilgrimage since we cannot suspect it is a journy assigned us in vain being the ordinary and naturall course prescribed by the wise author of nature to all mankinde and the inevitable through-fare for every man in particular Therefore to proceed on in this method our third conclusion shall be that whatsoever judgement the soul once frameth in this life that judgement and that affection will perpetually remain in the soul unlesse some contrary impression be made in it to blot it out which only hath power to expell any former one For judgements and affections are caused in a man by the impression that the objects make in his soul and all that any agent aymeth at in any operation whatsoever be it never so forcible in action is but to produce a resemblance of it selfe in the subject it worketh upon and therefore it excludeth nothing that it findeth formerly there which in our case is the soul unlesse it be some such impression as is incompatible with what it intendeth to effect there or that the subject is not large enough both to retain the old and receive the new in which case the first must be blotted out to make room for the latter But of judgements and affections none are incompatible to one another but those that are directly opposite to one another by contradiction Therefore only such have power to expell one another and all that are not such are immediatly united to the very substance of the soul which having an infinite capacity it can never bee filled by any limited objects whatsoever so that they alwaies reside in the soul although they doe not at all times appear in outward act which proceedeth from hence that new and other images are by the fantasie represented to the soul and she seemeth to busy herselfe onely about what she findeth there which being but one distinct Image at a time for corporall organs have limited comprehensions and are quickly filled with corporal species she thereupon seemeth to exercise but one judgement or but one affection at a time But as soon as the soul shall bee released out of the body which is like a darke prison to wall it in then she will at one and the same instant actually know and love all those things she knew and loved in the body with only this difference that her knowledge will then be much more distinct and perfect and her affections much more vehement then they were in this life by reason that her conjunction here with resistant matter was a burthen and a clogge unto her and hindered the activity and force of her operations The difference of these states may in some measure be illustrated by a grosse and materiall example Represent unto your selfe a man walled up in a dark tower that is so close as no ayre nor light can come into it excepting only at one little hole and that hole too affordeth no clear and free passage to the sight but hath a thick and muddy glasse before it Now if this man would look upon any of the objects that are about this tower he must get them to be placed over against the hole unto which he must lay his eye and then he can discerne but one at a time and that but dimly neither and if he will see several bodies it must be by so many several iterated acts as they are in number But suppose some Earthquake or exterior violence to break a sunder and throw down to the ground the wals of this tower leaving the man untouched and unhurt then at one instant and with one cast of his eyes he beholdeth distinctly clearly and at ease all those several objects that with so much labour and time he took but a mistaking survey of before 4. The fourth consideration shall bee that after the first instant wherein the soul is separated from the body she is then in her nature no longer subject or liable to any new impression mutation or change whatsoever For that which should cause any such effect must be either a material or a spirituall agent But a material one cannot work upon it for that requireth quantity in the patient whereby it may
to be extinguished in it although in some particulars by the immersion in matter and the terrene habitation it dwelleth in some soule may be drawne or rather wrested to a contrary byas unto that which originally nature implanted in it Now the primary originall naturall appetence of mans soule is the love of truth which it vehemently desireth and is alwayes unquiet and ardent in the search of it upon what occasion soever and is never appeased and at ease untill she have found it out which she no sooner hath done but the violence she was in is calmed she is contented and she setleth her selfe to repose as having arrived to her center and naturall place of rest wherein she continueth enjoying the purchase she hath made untill some new occasion of disquisition stir her up againe in which she useth the same industry and eagernesse as before And thus we plainly see that the acquisition of truth is that which the soule in every action naturlaly aymeth at as fire doth to ascend detesteth falsehood as flames suffer violence to be reverberated downewards Therefore although any particular man may have his senses or fantasie so depraved as to take imperfect and maymed impressions of outward objects or the powers of his understanding so weake as to make preposterous and disorderly collections out of them or his judgement so misguided by preoccupation of any affection or particular end as he may in himselfe be deceived and feed his soule with falsehood insteede of truth or else that finister respects and interests or sordide apprehensions of commodity to himselfe meeting with a soule so disposed and wrought upon by the sensuall passions tyrannising over it as to cause him to swallow those bayter may make him employ the faculties of his understanding and the powers of his soule contrary unto their naturall inclination to the maintaining of a lye and industriously to deceive others yet it is impossible that all mankind or such a multitude of men as containe in them all the variety of dispositions and affections incident to the nature of man and that are dispersed throughout the world so as they can have no communion together whereby they might infect one another nor can have finister ends common alike to them all which should invite them to conspire together to forge a falsehood it is impossible I say that such a company of men should so degenerate from their owne nature which is to love truth as they should of themselves invent a lye and that in so important a matter as faith is and concurre to deceive the world of men that should come after them in things of such nature as their deceipt must of necessity damne for all eternity both themselves and all them that shall receive that lye from them and take it upon their credit without which unanimous conspiracy of one whole age of men throughout all the world we proved in our last conclusion that no false proposition could be admitted into the Church as an article of faith In a word this generall defection of all mankind from truth is more impossible then that all one entire element or any primigeniall nature should absolutely perish or loose its original propriety as for all the fire in the world to be corrupted and forsake his heat levity so consequently to have no more fire in nature all which followeth of what is said above And thus I conceive I have made good the assertion that hath begotten all this discourse upon the thirteenth head which is that faith conserved in the Catholick Church and delivered by perpetuall succession and generall tradition is more certaine and more infallible then any naturall science whatsoever for naturall sciences being grounded upon the indefectibility of the natures of those things from whence those sciences are collected and faith depending upon the indefectibility of human nature which is infinitely more noble then they and whose forme is elevated beyond the reach of matter whereas theirs is comprehended and shutt up within the wombe of matter and which is indeed the end and period of all their natures and of all the whole materiall world it followeth of consequence that faith must be lesse subject to contingency and lesse liable to error then naturall sciences are And they being universall infallible and certaine faith must be so too and more if more may be But this is not enough our disquisition must not rest here We must not content our selves in this divine affaire and supernaturall doctrine with a certitude depending only upon naturall causes The wisdome of God proportioneth out congruent meanes to bring on every thing to their proper end and according to the nobility of the effect that he will have produced he ordaineth equivalent noble causes Therefore mans obtaining beatitude being the highest end that any creature can arrive unto and altogether supernaturall it requireth supernaturall causes to bring us to that end and a supernaturall infallibility to secure us in that journey We must not onely have a supernaturall way to travell in which is faith but also a supernaturall assurance of the right way unto the discovery of which all that we have already said doth necessarily conduce for Gods providence that disposeth all things sweetly will not in any generall affaire introduce into the material world any supernaturall effect untill the naturall causes be first disposed fittingly to cooperate on their partes and then he never faileth of his As for example when a naturall creature is to be produced into being the father and the mother must both concurre in contributing all that is in their power to the generation of a child and yet we are sure the soule to be produced hath no dependence of them yet notwithstanding without their precedentaction no new soule would be but when the matter is fittingly disposed in the mothers wombe he never misseth creating of a soule in that body which is not so able an effect and as much requiring the omnipotency of God as the creating of nothing all the materiall world and yet we may say that the matter when it is arrived to its last disposition for the reception of such a forme may in a manner claime that miraculous action depending of his omnipotency since for mankind he created the rest of the materiall world and therefore there ought to be as certaine and necessary causes for the productiō of man as there are for the production of other materiall things which we see doe seldome misse in any when the matter is fitly disposed for the reception of their severall formes And so in like manner we may rationally conclude that in this high and supernaturall businesse of delivering over from hand to hand a supernaturall doctrine to bring mankind to the end it was created for he will first have all the naturall causes fittingly disposed for the secure and infallible performance of that worke and then that he will adde and infuse into them some supernatural gift
of heate into a pot of water that is symply applyed unto it but if that pot be set in a vessell of Snow or Ice and so be held over the fire it driveth into the center the cold of the Snow formerly diffused without and in a very short space turneth that water into Ice which else might have stayed there long enough without congealing in like manner they who being rooted in Charity approach to that divine Sunne doe flourish and bring forth excellent and oftentimes supernaturall fruites of devotion fervour and sanctitie but those who have depraved affections so invironing the roots of their hearts as that the soyle of Charity cannot introduce her nourishing sappe into them and whose soules are compassed in with the Ice of sensuality and carnall cogitations if they come within the beames of this holy Sunne or within the heate of this sanctifying fire they doe but wither away the sooner and their hearts grow dayly more and more to be Ice till at length like that of Pharaoh amidst the wondrous workes of the lord happy to others they become miseerable and stony And againe we see that those who having addicted themselves wholly to such a course of seraphicall life and that being alwaies vehemently intent to the love and contemplation of the prime verity and that having no other object for their actions or thoughts doe thereby as we may reasonably conceive approach nearest to God allmighty and draw immediately from him who is the fountaine of light and truth strongest emanations and cleerest influences to illustrate their understanding and inflame their affections those persons I say have ever beene most earnest in the maintenance of those points of the Roman doctrine which are most repugnant to sense as in particular of that of the reall presence of Christs body in the blessed Sacrament unto which all other sacraments and acts of faith and devotion are reduced and adore them with greatest reverence and are inflamed with ferventest devotion unto them And therefore we may conclude that this confidence religiousnesse and fervour proceedeth from hence that these men and such among them as cannot be suspected for simplicity ignorance or sinister ends are thus confirmed in this faith and are thus set on fire with this devotion more vigorously and vehemently then ordinary secular men by the immediate working and inspiration of the holy Ghost from whose streames it is likely they drinke purer and clearer waters and nearer the well head then other men of a more worldly and vulgar conversation And it were not agreeable to the goodnesse of God to permitt those persons that most affectionatly seeke him and who for his sake out of pure devotion and desire of contemplating truth doe abridge themselves of all other worldly contentments to have their understanding worse blinded with false doctrine then other men that seeke him more coldly and care lesse for him and to have their wills more depraved then theirs with erroneous and false devotion as of necessity it would follow theirs were if the doctrine that the Catholicke Church professeth were not true and the holy Ghost resided not in it to worke those effects Now on the contrary part let us make a short inquiry whether it be probable that the late pretended reformers have beene illuminated by God in an extraordinary manner to discover truth which they say hath for many ages lyen hidd Surely if any such thing were they would have expressed in their manner of life by some extraordinary sanctity and excellent actions and supernaturall wisdome that extraordinary communication which they would perswade us they had with the divinity For as by a radiant beame of light shining in at the chinke of a window we know assuredly the Sunne beateth upon it although we see not his body so likewise there should have broken out from them some admirable and excellent effect whereby we might rest confident that the divine Sunn illuminated their understanding inflamed their Wil. Moyses when he came downe from the mountaine where he so long conversed with God expressed even by the luster glittering from his face that it was not an ordinary or naturall light which had shined unto him the Apostles when they were replenished with the holy Ghost received immediately the gift of tongues and a cleere intelligence of all the Scriptures whereby they made cleere unto the auditors the obscurest passages of them and continually wrought miracles And all those that ever since them have introduced the Gospell into any Countrey where formerly it was not received have still had their commission authorised by the same seales and shall our late particular Reformers be credited in their pretended vocation and in their new doctrine that shaketh the very foundations of the faith that hath beene by the whole Christian world for so many ages believed and delivered over from hand to hand when as nothing appeareth in them supernaturall and proceeding from a divine cause This Madame is as much as I shall trouble your Ladyship withall upon this occasion which indeede is much more then at the first I intended or could have suspected my pen would have stolne from me The substance of all which may be summed up and reduced to this following short question namely whether in the election of the faith whereby you hope to be saved you will be guided by the unanimous consent of the wisest the learned'st and the piousest men of the whole world that have beene instructed in what they believe by men of the like quality living in the age before them and so from age to age untill the Apostles and Christ and that in this manner have derived from the fountaine both a perfect and full knowledge of all that ought to be believed and likewise a right understanding and interpretation of the Scriptures as farr as concerneth faith the true sence of which so farr is also delivered over by the same tradition Or whether you will assent unto the new and wrested interpretations of places of Scripture made by late men that rely meerely upon their single judgement and witt too slight a barke to sayle in through so immense an Ocean and whose chiefe leaders for human respects and sinister ends not to say worse of them made a desperate defection from the other maine body since which time no two of them have agreed in doctrine and among whom it is impossible your Ladyships great judgement and strong understanding should find any solid stay to rely securely upon and to quiet all those rationall doubts that your perceiving witt suggesteth unto you And here Madame I shall make an end having sincerely and as succinctly and plainely as I can delivered you the chiefe considerations that in this affaire turned the scale of the ballance with me which in good faith I have done with all the simplicity and ingenuity that I can expresse my sense with being not at all warmed with any passion or partiality nor raised out of my even pitch