and Turkes may be saued in eyther of these wayes their errours according to your principles not being remedilessely damnable The fifth Conuiction THis Conuiction ouer throweth the chiefe cause for which you charge our Religion to be damnable sheweth first that the thing for which you would send vs to Hell is the necessary duty of a constant Christian Fayth Secondly that your contrary mutability and leuity is Apostaticall and impious You damne vs to Hell for being faythfull and constant Christians §. 1. 1. YOu often proclame vs to be men wilfully blind sure to fall into the ditch of damnatiō For this your censure of vs you giue this reason because we will not enter into any triall of our Religion with indifference with liberty of iudgement with are solution to doubt of it if vpon examination the grounds of it proue vncertaine or to leaue it if they proue apparantly false my owne experience assures me that herein I do you no wronge but it is very apparent to all men from your ranking doubting of any part of your doctrine among mortall sinnes Thus you And we willingly grant and openly professe that we hold it a mortall sinne to doubt deliberately of any poynt of our fayth But must we be damned in this respect O how doth malignancy against our saluation confound your memory and wit For against doubting in matters of Religion you write most earnestly pag. 195. n. 11. lin 20. which of vs euer taught it was not damnable to deny or doubt of the truth of any thing whereof we eyther know or belieue that God hath reuealed it Thus you Now if it be damnable to doubt of the truth of any thing we belieue to be reuealed of God what an obliuious Creature are you who will haue vs damned for not yielding to do that very thing which you proclame damnable to be done you will haue vs sent to Hell because we ranke doubting of any part of our fayth which we hold reuealed of God among deadly and damnable sinnes and yet your selfe ranke this doubting among deadly and damnable crimes with an earnest tacite detestation of the contrary Doctrine which of vs euer taught it is not damnable 2. Haue you so soone forgot your selfe Are your sayings no sooner out of your pen then out of your memory and head which of vs say you euer taught it is not damnable Euen your selfe good Sir you William Chilling worth teach it is not damnable yea you hold it damnable for any man to ranke doubting of the Religion which he holdes reuealed of God among mortall sinnes which you proue because seing euery man must resolue neuer to commit mortall sinne it followes that he must neuer examine the grounds of his Religion for feare of doubting or if he doe he must resolue that no motiues be they neuer so strong shall moue him to doubt This is your argument vpon which you conclude we are a company of blind inconsidering men louers of the darkenesse and not of light And yet your selfe are so blind so inconsidering and your wits are so dulled and darkened as you do not perceaue that this very argument proueth you all your Biblists to be in the same case we are to wit obstinately blind for you grant that all of you ranke doubting of your Religion among mortall sinnes that is you all teach that it is damnable to doubt of the truth of any thing you belieue to be reuealed of God Hence it followes that seing you must resolue neuer to commit damnable sinne that you must neuer examine the grounds of it at all for feare you should be moued to doubt or if you do you must resolue that no motiues be they neuer so strong shall moue you to doubt You see your argument agaynst vs turneth vpon your selues and proueth you are obstinate and blind and in danger of the Ditch as much as we are 3. And do not you further teach and contend that it is damnable for you to doubt of the Doctrine of Diuels if you belieue it to be Diuine Reuelation Pag. 99. n. 122. l. 22. If by the discourse of the Diuel I be I wil not say conuinced but persuaded though falsely that it is a Diuine Reuelation and shall deny to belieue it I shall be a formal though not a material Heretique For he that belieues any thinge to be a Diuine Reuelation and yet will not belieue it to be true must of necessity belieue that God is false which according to your doctrine is the Formality of an Heretique You who teach that he who will not belieue and he that will doubt will not belieue that thing to be truth which falsely by the persuasion of the Diuel he belieues to be Diuine Reuelation is a formal Heretique and a blasphemous wretch you I say that teach this who will not wonder how you could be so inconsiderate as to make vs damnable because we resolue not to doubt of that doctrine which by the Tradition of so many Christian Ages by our Pastours and Ancestours men renowned for Learning Sanctity Miracles for expelling of Diuels for conuerting of nations hath been deliuered persuaded vnto vs to be reuealed of God That your Protestant VVay to be firme to no Religiō but still in motion and change is damnable §. 2. 4. ABout your selfe and your being vngrounded and vnsetled in matters of Religion thus you write and sincerely professe pag. 278. lin 29. I truly for my part if I did not find in my selfe a loue and desire of all profitable truth if I did not put away idlenesse preiudice and worldly affections and so examine to the bottome all my opinions of Diuine matters being prepared in mind to follow God and God only which way so euer he shall lead me If I did not hope that I eyther do or endeauour to do these thinges certainly I should haue litle hope of obtayning Saluation Here you professe that neither Christian Religion nor any truth thereof hath been as yet firmely rooted or deepely by the fingar of God printed in your heart You declare your soule to be a Blanke noted with no Religion but prepared for any which to you shall seeme of God to wit you are ready to belieue not absolutly but as most probable for the present but resolued neuer to belieue God so firmely as to ranke doubting of what you haue receaued as his word among mortall sinnes 5. That this your practise implyeth doubting of all Christian Religion I proue because you professe to question and examine all your opinions of Diuine matters to make an if or a doubt of the certainty and truth of them all that is you examine them prepared in mind to leaue them all and euery one if vpon trial they seeme to you false But among your opinions of Diuine matters your persuasion that our Christian Scriptures and doctrines are Diuine oracles and Gods word is one for you hold the Diuinity of Scriptures
consequently of the Doctrines contained therein only as an opinion very probable as is hereafter shewed Ergo you question the holy Scripture the Religion and Gospell of Christ you make an if of the truth and certainty thereof You examine it doubtingly with liberty of iudgment prepared in mind to leaue it if perchance you find the grounds thereof apparently false What is this but to be a Nullifidian a man setled in no Religion but doubtfull of all Such an one as they were whome the Apostle checketh terming them men still learning but neuer attayning to the assured knowledge of any thinge Againe Pag. 307. n. 107. you write thus speaking vnto our Maintayner Your eleauenth falshood is that our first reformers ought to haue doubted whether their opinions were certaine which is to say they ought to haue doubted of the certainty of Scripture which in formall and expresse termes contaynes many of these opinions From this testimony I conclude that you doubt of the cetainty of the Scripture You professe to examine and question all your Protestant opinions of Diuine matters to make a doubt of the certainty of them But you contend that some of your Protestant opinions of Diuine matters be such as to make a doubt or question of the certainty of them is to doubt of the certainty of formall and expresse Scripture Ergo your Way and practise of doubting of all your opinions about Diuine matters is doubting euen of the truth of the Christian Scripture and Ghospell of Christ A thinge most impious and execrable as you now suppose yet so fond and forgetfull you are as to say you should haue litle hope of Saluation did you not do it or endeauour to do it 6. In fine your safe Way is a Labyrinth of implicatory and inextricable errours Protestants that are concluded therein are lost in a maze of vncertainties and in an intricate mixture of contrary doctrines being sure to find nothing therein but damnation which way so euer they turne themselues Do they doubt of the truth of their Religion which they belieue to be the Ghospell They are both according to truth and in your doctrine damnable wretches as being formall Heretiques Be they so firme in their Religion as they ranke doubting thereof among deadly sinnes Then they are you say obstinately blind sure to fall into the pit of perdition as much as we are at the least you affoard them litle hope of obtayning Saluation The sixt Conuiction 1. THis Conuiction sheweth that only Roman Catholiques haue sauing fayth which is demonstrated by three Arguments The first Sauing fayth is that without which it is impossible to please God Now fayth which pleaseth Gods must be on the one side certaine and infallible otherwise it is not worthy of God to whose word we owe so firme beliefe that if an Angel from heauen should Euangelize against that we haue receaued as his word he were not to be heard but to be accursed On the other side it must be a free and voluntary assent not enforced by the euidence of the thinge For if the reason of belieuing be euident and such as doth necessitate the Vnderstanding to assent the assent is not pleasing to God because it is not voluntary obedience and submission to his word Roman Catholiques by belieuing the Church to be infallible in all her proposals obtaine a persuasion about Diuine mysteries firme and infallible and yet of voluntary obedience and submission But the Opposers of the Roman Church not only want certainty in truth but also know not which way to challenge infallible certainty without euidence 2. This may be proued by what you write Pag. 329. lin 31. The infallible certainty of a thing which though it be in it selfe yet is not made appeare to vs infallibly certaine to my vnderstanding is an impossibility What is this but to say that fayth of a thing cannot be infallibly certaine except the thinge belieued be made so cleere and apparent that the vnderstanding cannot choose but assent vnto it For what appeares to vs to be infallibly certaine is seen of vs to be infallibly certaine What we see to be infallible certaine we cannot choose but assent that it is so So that a firme grounded beliefe of the truth of thinges not appearing without which it is impossible to please God is by your doctrine to Protestants impossible 3. Moreouer that Protestants cannot haue fayth pleasing to God that is fayth infallibly certayne not grounded on euidence I demonstrate in this sort No man can be assured infallibly of the truth of things not seene nor to him euidently certaine but by the word of an Authour infallibly veracious in all his words deliuered vnto him by a witnesse of infallible truth For if the witnesse or messenger of the word be fallible let the Authour of the word be neuer so infallible our assent to the truth of the thing proposed cannot be infallible Now Protestants haue not the word of God by meanes of a witnesse and messinger infallible For the witnesse proposer and messenger of the word of God is the visible Catholique Church which Protestants hold to be fallible full of false Traditions not free so you say from errour in it selfe damnable and in this sense Fundamentall Wherfore it is demonstratiuely certaine that onely Roman Catholiques who belieue the Church to be infallible can haue Fayth worthy of God Fayth of voluntary submission to Gods word that is fayth of things to them not euidently yet infallibly certayne and consequently they only please God by their belieuing and are saued 4. The second Argument You say pag. 148. lin 16. There is no other reason to belieue the Scripture to be true but onely because it is Gods word so that you cannot belieue the doctrines and myestries reuealed in Scripture to be true more firmely and infallibly then you belieue the Scripture to be Gods word for we must be surer of the proofe then of the thing proued thereby otherwise it is no proofe as you say pag. 37â— n. 59. But your assurance that the Scripture is the word of God is onely human probable and so absolutely fallible For you belieue the bookes which were neuer doubted of in the Church to be Gods word and a perfect rule of fayth onely by the tradition or testimonies of the ancient Churches pag. 63. lin 35. But the ioynt tradition of all the Apostolicall Churches with one mouth and one voyce teaching the same doctrine is onely a very probable argument as you affirme pag. 361. n. 40. Ergo your fayth that Scripture is Gods word consequently of all the mysteries therin reuealed is but human and probable and therefore vnworthy of God being not firmer then the credit we yield to euery morall honest man For to vs his word is probable and credible and to you the word of God is no more 5. Protestants commonely pretend that their fayth
that these Bookes be the word of God resteth finally not vpō the credit of human Tradition but vpon the Scripture onely which shewes it selfe with euident certitude to be diuine and supernaturall truth and so reuealed of God Euen as light is seene by its owne brightnesse and hony is proued to be sweet by the very tast thereof But this point of Protestancy you reiect as fond vaine ridiculous pag. 371. n. 51. and proue it to be such Because if the Bookes of Scripture were euidently certayne if they did with euident certitude demonstrate themselues to be Diuine truth then all men that haue vnderstanding and capacity to apprehend the right sense and sentence of Scripture would belieue them to be true which experience sheweth be otherwise If Protestants answere that such as haue their tast distempered to them hony is bitter so Infidels through preiudice and distemper of passions do not perceaue and tast the Diuinity of the Doctrines of the Scripture Against this the reply is ready and conuincing For they who through distemper of their palate iudge hony to be bitter do not apprehend the true tast of hony but a tast contrary to the true tast thereof which being in their palate they conceaue it to be in the meate But Infidels by their vnderstanding do rightly apprehend and conceaue the true senses of Scripture and the mysteries of fayth deliuered therein more cleerely then many Christians of meane capacity do and yet they do not iudge them to be Diuine truth or truth at all Ergo the very true sense and sentence of Scripture doth not with euident certainty shew it selfe to be Supernaturall truth such as could not be reuealed but of God 6. Finally if the Protestants beliefe of Scripture be grounded vpon sight of the truth thereof this their beliefe is not sauing fayth for Fayth by which men are saued as hath beene sayd is that wherby they submit by voluntary obedience their vnderstanding to Gods word belieuing firmely and assuredly vpon the Authority thereof things in themselues incredible and aboue the reach of human reason But Protestants do not belieue the doctrine of Scripture because it is the word of God but because as they say they see it to be Diuine truth and consequētly the word of God Ergo they haue not the fayth of humble submission to Gods word which is the onely fayth that pleaseth God and by which men are saued 7. The third Argument Protestants haue not fayth of infallible adherence that is fayth worthy of God about the sense and interpretation of Scripture For holding the Churches interpretation to be fallible they pretend to be sure by this rule that what they belieue to them seemes plainely cleerely euidently reuealed and proposed in the Scripture But this rule of assurance is not infallible but very fallible and deceytfull For euen Protestants thēselues contend that many texts and places of Scripture which seeme plaine and cleere are to be vnderstood figuratiuely against the plaine proper and literall sense For example the words of our Lord about the chiefe Sacrament mystery of fayth THIS is My Body This is My BLOVD in their plaine proper and literall sense deliuer and establish Transubstantiation as Protestants grant Hence Protestants that are resolued not to belieue a mystery so high aboue reason seemingly repugnant to sense will by no meanes allow these wordes to be true in their proper and literal sense they will not yield to the plain euidence of the Diuine text Whereupon it is euidently consequent that they cannot be sure about any mystery of fayth by vertue of the sole seeming euidence of the sacred Text. For instance take the most fundamental text of Scripture about the most fundamētal mystery of Christian Religion to wit the Incarnation of the Sonne of God The Word was made flesh How doth this text euidently conuince that the Eternal Word and Sonne of God was made Man truely substantially personally What Protestants say of the word of Christ This is my Body why may not Nestorians affirme about this text The Word was made ffesh that it is not true in a proper plaine and literal sense but metaphorically figuratiuely that God and Man were made one in Christ by affectual vnion as two great friendes are said to be one How can Protestants be themselues assured or how can they proue by the sole euidence of the text that this Nestorian interpretation is false And if their beliefe of the mystery of the Incarnation be not solide and firme grounded on a rule of interpretation infallibly certaine how can they be saued 8. Learned and iudicious Readers may find in your booke a world of laughter about your answering the arguments of Charity Maintayned you do it so vnscholler-like so okerly and vntowardly Let your answere to this argument serue for a patterne Our Maintayner vrgeth D. Potter that if the Church may erre in points of fayth not fundamentall you can neuer be sure of any such point For as you erre about some deceyued by the seeming euidence of the Scripture so you cannot be sure you do not erre about other You answere Pag. 117. n. 160. A pretty Sophisme depending vpon this principle that whosoeuer possibly may erre he can neuer be certaine that he doth not erre A Iudge may possibly erre in iudgment can he therefore neuer be sure he hath iudged aright A Traualler may possibly mistake his way must I therefore be doubtfull whether I am in the right way from my Hall to my chamber Or can our London-Carrier haue no certainty in the middle of the day when he is sober and in his wits that he is in the way to London And a litle after nu 161. whereas our Mayntainer argueth that you cannot be sure it is an errour to make the Church Iudge of Controuersies because you pretend to be sure by the seeming euidence of Scripture but this rule is not infallible so you cānot be sure by the warrant thereof The ground of this Sophisme say you is very like the former viz. that we can be certaine of the falshood of no proposition but those only that are damnable errours But I pray good Sir giue me your opinion of these The snow is balcke the fire is cold M. Knot is Arch-Bishop of Toledo the whole is not greater then a part of the whole that twise two make not foure in your opinion good Sir are these damnable heresies Or because they are not so haue we no certainty of the falshood of them I beseech you Sir consider seriously with what strāge captions you haue gone about to delude your King and your Country if you be conuinced they are so giue glory to God and let the world know it by your deserting that Religion which standes vpon such deceytfull foundations This you write which you could neuer haue written had you been with your London Carrier sober and in your wits You haue proued Gusman de
Alfarache his saying that the Fooles Hospital is of large extent to be most true He can range and reuell within the compasse thereof in a world of sottish extrauagances from hoat to cold from snow to fire from Oxford to London from London to Toledo from Toledo backe againe to King and Country and then fetch a new carriere ouer the whole Vniuerse and euery part thereof to be sure that no part is greater then the whole What is impertinentcy what is deserting the matter and argument in hand if this be not Good Syr be pleased to vnderstand that the Controuersy betwixt D. Potter and our Maintayner is not about all Kind of propositions nor whether snow be blacke or fire cold nor about your not being Arch-Bishop of Canterbury nor about the way from your Hall to your Chamber but about propositions pertayning to Christian faith not euident to sense but only to be knowne by reuelation from heauen Our Maintayner auoucheth that these Diuine truths cannot be knowne assuredly but by the teaching of Gods Church infallible in all her proposals This he proueth not as you feigne by this principle He that may possibly erre can neuer be sure he doth not erre but by this He that may erre and hath some times erred by following some certaine Rule can neuer be sure he doth not erre by following the same rule If a Iudge condemne a man to death wrongfully vpon euidence giuen against him by two witnesses how can he be sure that he doth not condemne another man vniustly if he haue no greater assurance then the deposition of two witnesses not knowne to be of better credit conscience A traueller hath been misguided out of his way by inquiring of the first man he met trusting his direction how can he be sure he is not out of his way by crediting the word of another directour equally vnknowne vnto him This then is the Argument of Charity Maintayned which you durst not encounter but ran about the world in the wild-goose chase to auoyd the force thereof No man can be sure he doth not erre by following a rule which is fallible and deceitfull But to iudge of the sense of the Scripture by the sole seeming euidence of the text is a rule fallible which often fayleth and deceaueth them who rely thereon because many places are not taken in their plain proper literall sense and many texts considered by themselues seeme cleere and plaine which conferred with other texts that seeme to say the contrary become darke and obscure Therefore to discerne the true sense and meaning of Scripture by the sole seeming euidence of some text thereof is a rule fallible Protestāts by the sole direction therof can neuer be sure or infallibly certain about any mystery of faith 10. And I pray you good Sir leaue your wild vagaries come home to the litle closet of your wits hold them close to the matter and then tell vs A Protestant who denyes the wordes of Christ This is my Body to be true in their plain proper and literall sense how can he be sure himselfe or how can he assure others that this text The word was made flesh is to be taken and true in the plain proper and literal sense Do not tell vs that you know the way from your Hall to your chamber that snow is white fyre hoat M. Knot is not Arch-Bishop of Toledo but giue vs an assured rule whereby to know that this text The word was made flesh is literally to be vnderstood in the plain substantial sense the text This is my body ought to be figuratiuely interpreted so that the Body of Christ be taken for but a peece of Bread The meane while I conclude that Protestants seing they haue not any infallible rule to assure them of the sense of Scripture cannot firmely belieue the Mysteries reuealed therein and so they haue not such a persuasion of the truth of Gods word as is worthy of God and pleasing to him nor will they euer obtayne sauing fayth till they ioyne with Roman Catholiques to acknowledge the infallible authority of the visible Catholike Church The seauenth Conuiction BEcause you cannot damne Roman Catholiques for any want of necessary and fundamentall truth you endeauour to procure their damnation and plead earnestly for it in regard they do not endeauour to know all profitable truth In which discourse you prodigiously contradict other assertions of your Booke By the discouery of which damnation will be seene to fall a way from vs vpon your owne head togeather with the cause meritorious thereof the not caring to auoyd vnfundamentall heresies 1. First you contradict your selfe in the same sentence wherby you make your Way plaine and yet impossible to be gone Pag. 221 lin 19. This is a way so plaine as fooles cannot except they will erre from it Because not knowing absolutely all truth nay not all profitable truth not being free from errour but endeuoring to know the truth and obey it and to be free from errour is by this Way made the onely condition of Saluation It is strange you should say that fooles cannot erre from your Way vnlesse they will whereas your selfe being so wise a man haue erred so mightily from your Way no doubt against your will as you are gone a contrary way In the first part of your saying you pronounce your Way to be so plaine as fooles except they will cannot misse of being saued therein but in the second you require so much and so hard conditions of Saluation as you make the same wholy impossible for fooles and ignorant persons and morally impossible euen to the learned'st leaders of your flocke For you require to Saluation that men know not onely all necessary truth but also that they endeauour to know all profitable truth yea absolutely all truth For by vertue of your speach they are bound to endeauour for the knowledge of that truth which in this sentence you say they are not bound to know But the truth you say in this sentence they are not bound to know is not all necessary truth but all profitable truth yea absolutely all truth Ergo your followers are bound as they will be saued though not to know yet to labour endeauour study to know all profitable truth yea absolutely all truth about Diuine matters Which is as much as to say that none can be saued in your way but such as haue studied Diuinity and haue not omitted so much as one question thereof not only about profitable points of that Science but also about vnnecessary and vnprofitable quirks absolutely all What can be imagined more vaine fond and absurd then to bind all men as they will be saued to study and endeauour for the knowledg of all Diuinity and Diuine truth And yet such is your desire to damne vs as you will do it vpon any condition though your selfe and all other Protetestants be damned in our company 2. Secondly you grossely
contradict your selfe whiles your declame against our Religion as extreme dangerous because we do not you say care to auoyd errours not fundamentall which declamations are frequent in your booke particularly Pag. 277. n. 61. lin 29. Neither is there any reason why such a Church should please her selfe too much for retayning fundamentall truths whiles she remaynes so regardlesse of others For though the simple defect of some truths profitable onely and not simply necessary may consist with Saluation yet who is there that can giue her sufficient assurance that the neglect of such truths is not damnable Besides who is there that can put her in sufficient caution that these errours about profitable matters may not according to the vsuall fecundity of errour bring forth others of a higher quality such as are pestilent and pernicious c. Lastly who can say that she hath sufficiently dicharged her duty to God and man by auoyding onely fundamentall Heresies if in the meane tyme she be negligent of others which though they do not destroy Saluation yet obscure and hinder onely not blocke vp the way to it Thus you who seeme as forgetfull of your selfe as he was who is sayd to haue had so little wit as he could not remember his owne name For had you remembred your name to the questions Who can giue such a Church sufficiēt assurance who can put her in sufficient caution Who can say she hath done her duty sufficiently You would haue readily answered I William Chillingworth for you often vndertake for a Church that retaynes all Fundamentall truths to be her surety and giue her assurance of Saluation agaynst all these pretended dangers You say they who belieue all fundamentals belieue all necessaries and so wee must confesse that they may safely expect Saluation except we will say that more is necessary then that which is necessary You say poynts circumstantiall that is not fundamentall be those of which we may be securely ignorant such as euen the Pastours themselues are not bound to know or belieue or not disbelieue them absolutely and alwayes but then only when they do see know them to be deliuered in Scripture as Diuine Reuelations I say when they do so and know and not onely when they may c. Otherwise it should be a damnable sinne in any learned man actually to disbelieue any one particular Historicall verity contayned in Scripture for though he did not know it to be reuealed yet he might haue knowne it had he with diligence perused Scripture You say he that belieues all fundamentals cannot be damned for any errour of fayth You earnestly demand He that belieues all necessary truth how can he possibly fayle of Saluation if his life be answerable to his fayth 3. By these sayings do not you giue men that retayne all fundamentals good cause of too much that is of excessiue pleasure and content by telling them they cannot possibly be damned for any errour in fayth Do not you affoard abundant assurance that neglect to know truths not fundamentall is not damnable there being no obligation to know them or to vse diligence to find them The people and euen the Pastours may securely be ignorant of them yea actually disbelieue them Do not you put such a Church in sufficient caution that errours not Fundamentall cannot bring forth errours pestilent and pernicious that she hath performed her duety to God and man sufficiently vnto Saluation by auoyding Fundamentall Heresies Except you will say more is necessary then that which is necessary that can be which cannot be that is possible which is altogether impossible men are bound to know that which they are not bound to know men are damned for not caring to know that whereof they might be securely ignorant Into this maze of contradictions you are brought by your will to damne vs which is much stronger then your wit 4. Your third Deuise to damne vs it yet more full of strange forgetfulnesse and contradiction of your selfe You suppose that we distinguish Heresies into two kinds some fundamentall some not fundamentall that we hold the first damnable and vtterly destructiue of Saluation and so to be carefully auoyded but that men may be saued in their heresies of the second kind Hence you say we regard not Heresies vnfundamentall we are carelesse and negligent to auoyd them being persuaded that if we hold all fundamentall truth we cannot be damned for any errour or heresy against fayth In regard of this loose doctrine and our negligence consequent thereupon you say we are in great danger of damnation This is your Plea against our Saluation so dull and so voyd of memory as you may seeme to haue forgotten euen the argument of the whole booke of Charity manitayned and of your owne For this distinction of Heresies into two sortes some Fundamentall some not Fundamental is taught by Protestants who by the largenesse laxitie of this doctrine would draw some kind of Heretiques to wit Heretiques not fundamentall within the compasse of the fold of Christ and the number of them that be saued This is the substance of D. Potters whole treatise which our maintayner impugneth Is it not thē prodigious want of memory to charge the Roman Church with this Doctrine and to seeke her damnation because forsooth she doth not care to auoyd Heresies not Fundamentall For our Roman Theology doth not allow the distinction of errours or heresies agaynst fayth into Fundamentall and not Fundamentall in your sense for we hold Heresies damnable and equally damnable as much those that are against Truths profitable only as those that destroy truths simply necessary Hence in the Way of the Roman Church he that knowing Transubstantiation to be proposed as matter of fayth by the definition of the Church shall presume to gaine say it is as full formall and very an Heretique as he who denyes the personall vnion of two Natures Diuine and Human in Christ For the greatnes of the malice of Heresy is not measured by the greatnesse of the matter denyed but by the greatnes of the pride wherby an Heretique preferres his fancies of Scripture before the definition of the Church by the greatnes of that impiety wherby he presumes to reiect that doctrine which he hath so many stronge reasons to belieue to be reuealed of God 5. If you say that Charity maintayned doth suppose that the Roman Church hath some corruptions and errours in fayth not Fundamentall I answere it is impudently in you so to affirme and great vanity to gather your affirmation from these his wordes As for our Churchs corruptions in doctrine I speake vpon the vntrue supposition of our Aduersaries you vpon no better warrant then this say to our Maintayner pag. 274. n. 58. You are so courteous as to suppose corruptions in your doctrine And a little after pag. 275. n. 59. I thanke you for your courteous supposall that your Church may erre And pag. 276. lin 2. You suppose your
of so grosse ignorance and non-sense as this No verily But perchance the matter is this you say that Protestants to whome the Roman Religion appeareth though but probably the safer cannot continue Protestants except they continue fooles Now Protestants by this confession of D. Potter cannot but see apparently the Roman Religion to be the safer Wherfore that this notwithstanding they may continue still Protestants you would make them such fooles as to belieue that though ioyned with a verbe in the Present Tense doth import onely an imaginary not a reall supposition Wherefore if you should say as in effect you do say though the Religion of Protestants be false and damnable yet I will do my best to defend it Protestāts must be such fooles as to take this not as a positiue assertion that their Religion is false damnable in your iudgment but as a Rhetoricall Concession as if you had said Imagine or put case the Religion of Protestants be false and damnable I hope Protestants will be wiser then to be made such fooles by you as to continue in a Religion which cannot be maintayned but by such fopperies as these Your Vanity in contemning the foresayd Argument §. 4. 9. You many times seeme to contemne and scorne the Argument drawne from the confession of Protestants and the former testimony of D. Potter You say we rely vpon his priuate Opinion vpon his vncertaine Charitable hope that his thinking so is no reason we should thinke so except we thinke him infallible that whosoeuer is moued with his argument is so simple c. Wherin you may seeme which happens very seldome to agree with D. Potter who doth much sleight our arguing from the Confession of our Aduersaries page 81. If they haue no better ground of their beleefe then their Aduersaries Charitable iudgment of their errours they will be so farre from conuincing their Aduersaries of lacke of wisedome that themselues cannot escape the imputation of folly 10. Thus the Doctour endeauours to lay the imputation of folly vpon vs for vrging our aduersaries fauourable iudgement of our errours as a good argument that may moue men to imbrace our Religion But in this charging vs with folly his owne lacke of wisedome and consideration may be conuinced by what he writeth some few pages before against zelots for these he condemneth not onely of want of charity but also of lacke of wisedome for iudging so seuerely of our errours as to cut vs of from hope of Saluation Pag. 76. The Roman Churches communion sayth he we forsake not no more then the Body of Christ whereof we acknowledge the Church of Rome a member though corrupted And this cleeres vs from the imputation of Schisme whose property it is to cut of from the Body of Christ and hope of Saluation the Church from which it separates And if any Zelots amongst vs haue proceeded to heauier censures their zeale may be excused but their Charity and Wisedome cannot be iustifyed Thus he From which words I conclude a double truth the one against you the other against D. Potter himselfe The first that this Charitable iudgement about the Saluation of Roman Catholiques because their errours are small and not in themselues damnable is not the priuate opinion of D. Potter but the censure and doome of the whole Protestant english Church condistinct from zelots or Puritans For how can this whole Church be iustified and cleered from the imputation of Schisme by reason of her Charitable iudgement of our errours if this be not the Charitable iudgement of this whole Church but only the opinion of D. Potter and of some other few priuate Protestants Secondly I gather that this iudgement is not onely according to Christian Charity but also according to Christian Wisedome and floweth from the rules and Principles of them both Otherwise what cause or reason hath D. Potter to charge Zelots who iudge not fauourably of our errours with want not only of Charity but also of wisedome Their Charity saith he and Wisedome cannot be iustified If the iudgment of Protestants so fauorable about our errours be of meere Charity not wise not prudent not solidely grounded on truth why may not the wisedome of Zelots who will not consent thereunto be iustified On the other side if the iudgment of Protestants be conforme to Christian wisedome and Diuine truth what wisedome is it in D. Potter to charge vs with folly and want of wisedome for building and relying theron 11. Besides this iugdment of Protestants that we may be saued in our Religion our errours not being damnable if it be voyde of wisdome and not solidly grounded on truth how is it charitable that is how can it proceed from true Christian Charity If fond loue and affection to the saluation of Creatures not guided by the rules of Christian truth be Christian charity then the iudgment of Origen were ful of Christian Charity who extended saluation euen vnto Diuells Wherfore your iudgment that we may be saued because our errours are not damnable cannot be charitable vnlesse it be conforme to the rules and principles of Christian truth and wisdome on which if it be grounded why may we not build and rely theron Why may we not without imputation of folly make this one pillar of our comfort and constancy in the Roman Communion and Fayth 12. Adde hereunto that it is euen ridiculous in D. Potter and other Protestantes of his stampe to brag and boast as they doe that forsooth it is excesse of their Charity and good will to the Roman Church which makes them to iudge so kindly and fauourably of her errours For by their wordes and writings they shew themselues to be voyd of all loue and Charity and to be full of bitter zeale and passion towardes her so farre that though in their conscience they iudge her free from damnable errours yet in their passion they hate abhorre rate and reuile her as if she were the vildest Religion in the world These speaches of D. Potter against her she hath many wayes played the Harlot and in that regard deserued a bill of diuorce from Christ and the detestation of Christians the proud and curst Dame of Rome which takes vpon her to reuell in the house of God Popery is the contagion and plague of the Church These speaches I say euery man will presently perceiue that they are voyd of Charity wordes of contumely and reproach proceeding not from cleere and calme iudgment but from the fuming fornace of passion you produce them as if D. Potter by them did ouerthrow what we haue proued to be his iudgment that our errors be not damnable But in very truth they be only passionate speaches vttered without iudgment reason or discretion yea against his owne iudgment tokens of his mortall auersion from that Church in whome he can finde no mortall or damnable errour It is not then Charity or kind affection or any good will to Roman Catholiks
Saluation is worth to looke most carefully that the cause of his separation be iust and necessary And pag. 200. lin 25. I willingly confesse the iudgment of a Councell though not infallible yet is so far directiue and obliging that without apparent reason of the contrary it may be sinne to reiect it at least not to afford it an outward submission But D. Potter more cleerly and fully affirmeth That Generall Councels are the highest Tribunals which the Church hath vpon earth that their authority is immediatly deriued delegated from Christ that no Christian is exempted from their censures and iurisdiction that their decrees bind all persons to externall obedience and may not be questioned but vpon euident reasons That the belieuers of the Roman Church cannot erre but through Ignorance inuincible §. 2. 3. FOr the title of this Section I argue thus Those errours are vnauoydable and inuincible which cannot be auoyded without damnable sinne But Roman Catholiques cannot auoyd the errous of the Roman Church if she haue any without damnable sinne Therfore their errours if they do erre must of necessity be ignorances inuincible and vnauoydable such as they cannot shake of without damning themselues The Minor or assumption of this argument I proue because Roman Catholiques that be sincere and cordiall belieuers of the doctrine of the Roman Church cannot haue necessary forcing reasons nor euident demonstrations that the Roman Church is in errour This is cleere For if they haue necessary and inforcing reasons and euident demonstrations whereby they are conuicted in conscience that the Roman Church erreth they be now no more Roman Catholiques nor belieuers of the Roman Church but Protestants and her Aduersaries in their iudgment It is therefore impossible that Roman Catholiques so longe as they be sincere and Cordiall belieuers of the Roman Doctrine should haue euident demonstrations that the Roman Church erreth And if the◠haue not euident demonstrations it were damnable for them to forsake her doctrines which Protestants account erroneous nor can they do it without damning their soules Who then doth not see that their erring if they erre is enforced vn auoydable proceeding from ignorance inuincible for which sort of ignorance it is impossible they should be damned 4. You to auoyde the force of this Argument contend that though your reasons are necessary enforcing as cleere as the light at noone yet we are not conuicted by them in conscience not that they want euidence but that we are obstinately peruerse This your shift cauill is easily shewed to be friuolous and false Friuolous because you only say without any proofe that we are obstinately peruerse and if to say it without proofe be inough then the same answere will serue and doth de facto serue euery Heretique euery Sect-maister euery forger of new Monsters for when he findeth himselfe in straytes and not able to bring so much as a probable reason for his new deuised impieties he falleth presently to cry that his Texts of Scripture are as cleere as the sunne his Arguments euident demonstrations that the reason Catholiques neglect and reiect him is not want of euidence in his arguing but that we are wilfully blind obstinately peruerse men that haue eyes to see and will not see giuen ouer to stronge delusions and vnto a reprobate sense And what is this but to change schollership into scolding reasoning into rayling disputing into clamorous and contumelious wrangling wherin he getteth the victory who is the stoufest Stentor and can crye loudest against his Aduersaries You are willfully blind you are obstinately peruerse In which kind of arguing you are very eloquent according to the stile of heretiques quorum doctrina sayth S. Hierome non in sensu sed in multiloquio elamore consistit 5. Secondly it is false because necessary and enforcing reasons or euident demonstrations presented vnto the vnderstanding necessitate the said Vnderstanding and compell the Conscience to assent let the Will be neuer so peruerse The peruersity of Will may make a man deny with his mouth what in Conscience he knoweth to be true it may make him hate impugne knowne truth but it cannot possibly make him not see what by the light of euident demonstration is made cleere to his vnderstanding This I proue by your owne sayings as pag. 370. n. 50. Apparent arguments necessitate the vnderstanding to assent and Pag. 371. n. 81. You contend that Protestants hold not that it is euidently certaine that these bookes in particular are the word of God For say you they are not eyther so fond as to be ignorant nor so vaine as to pretend that all men do assent to it which they would if they were euidently certain or so ridiculous as to imagine that an Indian that had neuer heard of Christ or Christianity reading the Bible in his owne language would without miracle belieue it to be the word of God which yet he could NOT CHOOSE but do if it were euidently certaine Heere you affirme that all men in the world would belieue the Christian Bible to be the word of God yea they could not choose but assent vnto it as vnto Diuine truth if it did shew it selfe to be such with euident certainty And yet there be millions in the world that be obstinately peruerse against the Christian Bible Ergo demonstrations which shew a truth to the vnderstanding with euident certainty necessitate the Vnderstanding to assent though the Will be obstinately peruerse But Catholiques though they vnderstand ponder and consider your pretended euident demonstrations and texts of Scripture as cleere as the sunne can dissent from them rest persuaded in their conscience against your conclusions by pious constancy of fayth Wherefore your Arguments be not euident demonstrations and consequently no man can be moued with them to forsake the Roman Church and her Doctrine of Generall Councels without committing damnable sinne yea they are so farre from being irresistable as they are vaine weake contemptible euen those which you pretend to be so cleere as none can possibly be cleerer as I haue shewed in the former Treatise Cap. 6. Conuict 6. n. 29. That Protestants if they erre cannot be saued by ignorance or generall repentance §. 3. 6. THe first part of the Title that they cannot be saued by ignorance I proue thus Either Protestants haue demonstrations euident certainty that the Roman Church erreth that her definitions which they forsake and keep themselues in opposition against them be false and impious or they haue not If they haue they be not ignorant but full of cleere and manifest certainty about all those points wherein they forsake the Roman Church If they haue not they are indeed in ignorance but in such ignorance as will not saue them but rather make them more damnable to wit in the ignorance of Pride For is it not damnable and execrable Pride for a simple and ignorant man to abandon the Roman Church adorned with
and in particular which be the articles essentially necessary vnto Saluation and you in many places signify that they are innumerable 10. On the Forehead of your Booke you haue printed this sentence of King Iames The number of thinges absolutely necessary to Saluation is not great Wherefore the shortest and speediest way to conclude a general peace and concord in matters of Religion would be to seuer exactly thinges necessary from thinges not necessary and to vse all industry that in necessaries there may be agreement and in thinges not necessary place be left vnto Christian liberty In your Dedicatory you professe that your Booke in a manner is nothing else but a pursuance of and a superstruction vpon this Blessed Doctrine wherwith you adorn'd arm'd the Frontispice thereof This is the flattering of your forhead and your setting a fayre Hypocriticall face of Friendship on this sentence which you hate blaspheme in your heart and in the heart and bosome of your Booke For some few leaues from the beginning you fall to reiect pursue and persecute this your Blessed sentence and your superstruction theron is nothing else but a load of reproaches You say that to seuer exactly thinges necessary from thinges not necessary which that learned Prince esteemeth to be of great vse of great necessity and the shortest way to conclude the generall peace of Christendome about Religion a thinge not only factible but also which may easily speedily be done this I say which your Frontispicial sentence proclaymeth most vsefull and factible the inside of your Booke declareth to be a thing of extreme great difficulty and of extreme little necessity an intricate peece of businesse apparantly vnnecessary of no vse a vaine labour to no purpose Behold your wordes Pag. 23. lin 5. To seuer exactly and punctually these verities the one from the other c. is a businesse of extreme great difficulty and of extreme litle necessity He that shall goe about it shall find an intricate peece of businesse of it and almost impossible that he should be certaine he hath done it when he hath done it And then it is apparently vnnecessary to goe about it because he that belieues all certainly belieues all necessaries And againe ibid. lin 15. And when they had done it it had been to no purpose there being as matters now stand as great necessity of belieuing those truths of Scripture which are not fundamental as those that are These be your wordes by the force of which you knocke on the head the sentence of king Iames nayled on the forehead of your Booke and also giue a deadly stabbe on the heart of poore Protestants and driue out of it all hope of Saluation 11. For you neither do nor can tell them which points of fayth are Fundamentall and necessary to be knowne distinctly of all without the least of which you say it implies contradiction they should be saued How then shall they be sure they haue all Fundamental truth You say he that belieues all certainly belieues all that is necessary And pag. 225. lin 1. to a Protestant requesting of you to know which in particular be fundamental truths you answere It is a vaine question belieue all and you shall be sure to belieue all that is Fundamentall This rule of assurance you repeate almost in the same formal wordes I dare say a thousand times which is craftily couched in equiuocal and ambiguous termes and hath a double sense being in the one false and deceitfull in the other impossible to be kept If belieue all import no more then belieue in general and confusedly all contayned in the Holy Bible to be true your rule is false deceitfull damnable that men by belieuing all shall certainly belieue all necessaries as they ought vnto Saluation For you say Pag. 163. n. 3. Fundamental and essential points be such as are not only plainly reuealed of God and so certaine truths but also commanded to be preach't to all men and to be distinctly belieued of all and so necessary truths And Pag. 194. lin 16. you teach that to the constitution of Fundamental pointes is required that they be First actually reuealed of God Secondly commanded vnder paine of damnation to be particularly knowne I meane knowne to be Diuine reuelations and distinctly to be belieued Wherfore your rule Belieue all in generall and you shall be sure to belieue all Fundamentals sufficiently vnto saluation is by your owne definitions proued false and damnable But if your rule haue this sense Belieue all that is in the Bible explicitly distinctly in particular and then you shall be sure to belieue all necessaries if this I say be your meaning you lay on your Protestants a most heauy burthen a most vnsupportable load a most tyrannicall and impossible command For what you say that the burthen is light and that all Protestants comply with this your command pag. 129. n. 5. that all of them agree with explicite fayth in all those thinges which are plainly and vndoubtedly deliuered in Scripture that is in All that God hath plainly reuealed this I say is ridiculous there being millions of truths plainly vndoubtedly deliuered in Scripture which millions of Protestants neuer heard yea there be I dare say a thousand such truths which your selfe are ignorant off 12. In contradiction of this your inconsiderate assertion you grant pag. 137. lin 5. That there be many truths which in themselues are reuealed plainly inough which yet are not plainly reuealed vnto some Protestantes of excellent vnderstanding nor are belieued of them because they are prepossest with contrary opinions and with preiudices by the strange power of education instilled vnto their mindes How then is it true that Protestantes all of them agree with explicite fayth in all thinges which are plainly reuealed of God How can those Protestantes who disbelieue many truths reuealed in Scripture plainly inough be sure they belieue all fundamentall and necessary truth seing they obserue not your command Belieue all and you shal be sure to belieue all that is fundamentall Who doth or can assure them that among these many points of Fayth reuealed in Scripture plainly inough none be fundamental It is therfore manifest that Protestants except you giue them an exact Catalogue of all your fundamentals which they are bound vnder payne of uamnation distinctly and explicitly to belieue can neuer be sure they belieue all fundamentall truth And it is seely for you when Charity Maintayned vrgeth you for a Catalogue of your Fundamentals to thinke that you may stop his mouth with importuning him for a Catalogue of our Churches Proposals for we say of our Churches Proposals that it is sufficient to belieue them implicitly we do not say they must be belieued of all distinctly and in particular What need then is there of a Catalogue wherin such Proposals are set downe distinctly and in particular Now you affirme of your Fundamentals that
images of Christ crucifyed vsed in the Church with Apostolicall allowance we haue the plaine words of S. Paul Gal. 3.1 O senselesse Galathians who hath be witched you not to obey the Gospel before whose eyes Christ Iesus is painted Crucifyed among you The Greeke word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 liuely set forth in the picture of his Crucifixion so that S. Paul proueth the Galatians were senselesse people that honoring Christ Iesus pictured before their eyes as crucifyed yet did not hope for Saluation by his Crosse and Crucifixion but by Circumcision and the obseruances of the Law This sense being according to the plaine proper and literall sense of the wordes Protestants are bound by the rule of their Religion to admit thereof and cannot without impiety refuse it and expound the place of metaphoricall Painting except they can euidently demonstrate this sense to be false or incongruous against the Apostles intent which they will neuer be able to do 8. If you say that this text at the most proueth the vsing of Images for the representation not honoring of them I answere with the learned M. Montague your Bishop of Chichester that in the vsing of Images for memory sake the honouring of them is necessarily included which he proueth euidently and together affirmes that it is strange that any Christian should be displeased with the Doctrine That respect and honour is to be giuen to Images 9. The Persons of the Trinity we picture not but only the person of Goa the Sonne in the forme and shape of man as personally he was Onely we represent the type wherein God the Father appeared to wit the forme of the Ancient of dayes described Dan. 7. and the type wherein the Holy Ghost appeared the forme of a Doue recorded Math. 3. 10. For Inuocation of Angels we haue the practise and example of holy Iacob Gen. 84.15 The Angell which deliuered me from all euill blesse these Children which text you cannot answere without iugling and changing the Angell into the figure of another substance 11. For the sufficiency of the Sacrament vnder the forme of bread we haue the expresse warrant of our Lord Ioan. 6.59 He that eateth this bread shall liue for euer And for the practise of Communion in one kind for lay men we haue his example Luc. 24.30.31 12. For the adoration of the Sacrament we haue the Scripture in the plaine and proper sense For sayth D. Morton your B. of Durham If the words of Christ be true in a proper and literall sense we must yield vnto Papists the whole cause of Transubstantiation c. the proper adoration of the Sacrament 13. That we prohibite certaine orders of men women to mary is a slander They freely without constraint prohibite themselues whiles by vow they bind their fayth and fidelity vnto Christ to liue single and chast peculiarly consecrated to his seruice Which fayth and fidelity if they violate and make voyd by consequent Mariage as your first reformer the Frier did who married a Nunne we hold their state sacrilegious and damnable which is the expresse doctrine of S. Paul 1. Tim. 5.12 14. The Controuersy which language is fittest and of most edification in Church seruice whether the vulgar which is best knowne in this or that particular country or some learned language Greeke or Latin which be best knowne in the whole Christian Church cannot be determined by Scripture as hath beene already proued So that measuring the way of Saluation euen by the rule of the Bible only the Roman Religion is the plainer and safer Way better warranted euen by expresse texts of Scripture The Ninth Conuiction THe chiefe Fundamental ground of the security Roman Catholiques enioy that they are in the right Way of Saluation according to which if they walke they cannot be damned is the direction of an infallible guide the holy Catholique Church which is no other but the Roman This is conuinced by what your self are forced to grāt as hath been shewed but because this businesse is the maine and the totall I will here repeate some of the passages though very briefly 1. First conuicted by the wordes of S. Paul you grant that the visible Catholique Church is the pillar and ground of truth that is the teacher of all necessary and profittable truth by duty and office yea that she is always in fact the teacher of all truth necessary to Saluation For say you that the true Church alwayes shall be the maintayner and teacher of all necessary truth we grant and must grant For it is of the essence of the Church to be so and any company of men were no more a Church without it then any thing can be a man and not be reasonable Thus you grant that there is and alwayes shall be a Catholique Church which shall not only belieue inwardly and in heart but also teach and a propose without fayle all diuine reuelation necessary to Saluation For it is her very essence to be so Wherefore not only in belieuing but also in teaching and proposing all necessary truth she can no more faile then from her owne being which is indefectible Hence she is and you must grant she is an infallible guide in Fundamentalls Because to shew men the way to heauen by teaching them all reuealed truth that is necessary to bring them thither what is it but to be a guide of men vnto Saluation shewing them the Fundamental doctrines of Christian Religion without which no man is saued 2. Secondly the visible Catholique Church being as you grant she is an infallible teacher or guide in Fundamentalls must of necessity be also infallible in all her proposalls The necessity of this consequence you deny a thousand tymes and almost in euery period of your third Chapter yet you affirme it in expresse termes Pag. 105 n. 139. lin 23. To say that the Church is an infallible guide in Fundamentals were to oblige our selues to find some certain Society of men of whome we might be certain that they neither do nor can erre in Fundamentals nor in declaring what is Fundamental and what is not and consequently to make any Church an infallible guide in Fundamentals would be to make her infallible in all thinges she proposes and requires to be belieued Which truth you proue vnanswerably Pag. 148. n. 36. 3. Thirdly the visible Catholique Church being a guide in Fundamentals that is alwayes a Teacher of all necessary truth is a Church c of one denomination that is some settled certaine Society of Christians knowne and distinguished from other Societies by adhering to such a Bishop This is proued by this Syllogisme wherein both the premises be your owne formall assertions The Church is appointed of God to be the teacher and guide of men in the way of Saluation and so she is able and fit for that office For God would not by his word haue appointed her an office for which she is vnfit and vnable
to perferme it yea you say the Church is not only able to performe the office of guide but also that alwayes in fact she doth exercise the same in teaching all necessary truth But you say pag. 163. lin 9. A Church of one denomination distinguished from all others by adhering to such a Bishop such a determinate Church alone can performe the office of Guide and Directour And Pag. 105. n. 239. lin 30. No Church can possibly be fit to be a guide but only a Church of some certaine denomination as the Greeke the Roman the Ahissine Wherefore the Visible Catholique Church being fit and able to performe the office of Guide and Directour as you grant she is and that it is essentially necessary that she be so she is and of necessity must be a Church of one denomination subiect to one certaine supreme Guide and Bishop 4. From these most certaine truthes by you granted approued and proued it is necessarily and euidently consequent that the Roman Church is the Visible Catholique Church of God an infallible Teacher of all fundamentall and necessary truth yea infallible in all thinges she proposes as matter of fayth This I say is cleerely consequent of the former grants For the visible Church being the Guide Teacher and Directour of men is on the one side a Church of one denomination else she could not performe that office of guide which she doth as you confesse alwayes actually performe On the other side being the Catholique that is the Vniuersall Church she must be spread ouer the face of the earth as the Roman is in Europe Africa Asia America and in many of the particular Kingdomes and Prouinces of these foure quarters of the world So that the wordes of S. Paul to the Romans come to be verified no lesse now then at that time your fayth is renowned and published in the whole world Which vniuersality or vniuersal Vnity agrees to no other Church of one denomination as is manifest Wherefore the Roman Church is the Holy Catholique Church the infallible guide of men in the way of Saluation 5. Hence is concluded the security of Roman Catholiques that they cannot possibly erre about matters of fayth so long as they follow the dogmatical directions and definitions of the Roman Church Contrariwise they who oppose what they know to be proposed by her as matter of fayth erre Heretically damnably and cannot possibly be saued without expresse repentance of their errours The Conclusion 6. THis argument of the assured Saluation of Roman Catholiques and of the assured damnation of all the knowing opposers of their Religion and Church being thus euidently demonstrated for Conclusion I could wish an Ocean of teares of bloud endued with the quality of mollifying hearts as hard as the Adamant for so I might condignely and fruitefully deplore the pittifull state the commiserable condition the vnfortunate thraldome in Errour of many millions in our deare Country caused by mortall auersion from the true Catholique Church which is instilled into their mindes by Heretical education 7. They grant conuicted by the euidence of Gods word that the Catholique Church is the ground and rocke of Truth wheron men may securely rest and rely an infallible Guide and teacher of all Fundamentals consequently of all euen profitable truth about Diuine matters They further acknowledge conuicted by experience and reason that the Church cannot be fit orable to performe the office of guide Directour except it be of one denomination of one obedience subiect to one determinate Bishop as her supreme Pastour and Gouernour They cannot but see with their eyes there is no Church Catholique or vniuersally diffused of one Fayth of one Obedience of one Denomination subiect to one Pastour acknowledged of all of that Religion but the Roman Consequently that there is no Church besides the Roman fit or able to performe the office of Guide and Directour to men that are saued as the true Catholique Church is bound to do and alwayes actually doth These thinges they confesse or see and yet so inflexible is the obstinacy the passion pride against the Roman Church wherwith Education like Medusa's head hath dulled stupifyed and instoned their soules as they contemne her Direction forsakes her Communion hate her Authority scorne her Motherly care of their Saluation running to perdition in the way of their owne fallible and palpably false conceytes fancied to be Scripture 8. Why did our Sauiour make his Church the pillar and ground of truth that is an infallible Teacher of the doctrine of Saluation but that he would haue men to make vse of her teaching As knowing that through a world of errours which carry with them a faire shew of truth they could not attayne to eternal Happinesse without a Visible infallible Guide No doubt when he gaue her the office of Mother he bound vs as we would be his Children and Heyres to loue honour and reuerence Her and to liue alwayes in the lap of her Communion When he gaue her the office of Guide he bound vs to follow her directions as we desire to speed in our iourney to him and to come to see for euer his Blessed face When he gaue her the office of Rocke he obliged vs to build our fayth and hope of Saluation on her Teaching assuring vs that no sublimity of wit vnderstanding no height of perfection be it in our conceite neuer so eleuate can reach to Heauen which is not grounded on the neuer-fayling fortitude of this Rocke 9. They then that haue disioyned themselues from the wombe and lap of this Mother can neuer be so in Gods fauour as to be his Children the Heyres of his glory the fellow heyres with Christ They that follow not the Directions of this euer vn-erring Guide be not in the way towardes him that is Truth and Life but wander in a wildernesse of Errour the issue wherof is eternall Death· They that haue not setled the feete of their Fayth and Affection on this Rocke the sole Rocke of safety in this vast Ocean of dangers what are they but wauing and wauering Babes floating in a sea of vncertainties tossed this way and that way with euery gust of erroneous doctrine 10. For a man not to belieue that our Sauiour did institute his Church to continue for euer the Teacher of all sauing truth the Rocke of Saluation against which the gates of Hell shall neuer preuayle what is this but to stop his eares against the cleer and plaine voyce of his word For a man to say that he gaue the office of Guide to a confused multitude and Chaos of different Religions and Obediences and not to a Church of one denomination which alone is able to performe that office what is it but to open his mouth into blasphemies against his Diuine Wisedome For a man not to see that there is no vniuersally diffused Church in the world of one fayth and obedience all the Professours thereof adhering
vniuersally to one certayne Bishop besides the Roman what is it but in a desperate moode of neglect to shut his eyes against the truth that may saue his soule the cleere euidence whereof shineth ouer the world So that I may say with the Apostle Quomodo nos effugiemus si tantam neglexerimus salutem How shall we escape from being damned if we neglect so great a meanes such an assured way of Saluation 11. A Way so secure to be followed so obuious to be found so cleere to be seene so facile to be gone so hard to be lost In which we haue the succour of so many Sacraments not onely that of Baptismes to put vs in the Way and giue vs Gods Holy Spirit to walke therein but also that of the Bread of life to refresh vs when we faynt that of Chrisme to confirme vs when we are stronge that of Pennance or imposition of Hands to help vs vp when we are fallen that of Holy Oyle to heale vs when we are sicke 12. A Way beaten made plaine by the precedent walking therein of so many former Christian worlds proued to be the sole Way to Heauen by the writings of so many most holy and learned Ancient Fathers sealed and enobled for such with the sacred bloud of innumerable Martyrs confirmed by the perpetuall and vnto this day continued Conuersion of Nations to the Roman Church by the glorious labours of her Apostolical Preachers 13. Finally a Way printed with the foote-stepps of Sanctity of so many millions of admirable pious and Religions Christians who went this Way to Eternall Happines and haue from thence sent vs tidings of their safe arriuall by the testimony of euident miracles and vndoubted apparitions to assure vs we cannot fayle of comming thither if we walke constantly in the Way of the same fayth they professed and in the exercise of the same Christian Vertues they practised FINIS The contents of the Booke the summe of ech of the Nine Conuictions The first Conuiction THe Confession of Protestants that our Religion is a safe Way to Saluation proued against M. Chillingworths falsifications and ignorant explications of D. Potters words § 1.2.3 That the argument drawne from the confession of Protestants is not voluntary and of meere charity but enforced by the principles of Christianity § 4.5 That M. Chillingworth doth expressely teach the errours of Protestants to be damnable in themselues and the Roman Religion to be as safe as it § 6. The second Conuiction Though the false supposition were granted that the Roman Church erreth yet Roman Catholiques caÌ„not be damned for following her errours because they cannot but be excused by ignorance inuincible § 1.2 That Protestants if they erre as certainty they do cannot be saued by Ignorance or General Repentance § 3. M. Chillingworth his impudent falsifying of the Tenet of Charity Maintayned § 4. The third Conuiction The Roman Church holding all fundamentall and necessary truth no man can possibly be damned in her Communion for any errour in fayth so that it is madnesse to leaue it § 1.2 That Protestants cannot possibly be sure they belieue all necessary truth what impossible conditions of Saluation M. Chillingworth layes vpon them § 3. The fourth Conuiction That in M. Chillingworth his Way English Protestantes can be no more saued then Socinians who deny Christ to be God yea no more then Iewes and Turkes with six proofes that he is a Socinian § 1.2 The fifth Conuiction That M. Chillingworth damneth Roman Catholiques for being faithfull and constant Christians § 1. That in his Way Protestants are bound to be still doubtfull and changing the articles of their Religion and that this is damnable § 2. The sixt Conuiction That only Roman Catholiques can haue fayth which pleaseth God and saueth the Belieuer demonstrated by three arguments The seauenth Conuiction M. Chillingworth his vayne contradictious endeauour to damne the Roman Church because forsooth she doth not care to auoyd Heresies not Fundamental that this is the daÌ„nable state of Protesters against her The eight Conuiction M. Chillingworth his instances in some points wherin he pretendes the way of Protestants to be safer then ours proued to be false suppositions idle brags § 1. The Roman Doctrine and practise euen in those instances proued by plaine texts of Scripture § 2. The Ninth Conuiction That the true Catholique Church is infallible in all her Proposals known by subordination to one supreme Bishop that this church caÌ„ be no other theÌ„ the Roman The Conclusion Faults escaped in the Print PAge Line Errour Correction 6. 20. in marg omitted Lib. 3. cont lit Petil. c. 18. 37. 5. inforing inforcing 52. 7. so farre too farre 63. 21. change change 84. 13. your you 88. 2. impudently impudency (a) DeuÌ„ time mandata eius obserua hoc est enim omnis homo Ecclesiastae c. 12. v. 13. Lib 3. contra lâ—t Petil c. 13. (b) Pag. 279. n. 64. (c) Pag. 397. n 18. (d) SaxuÌ„ versat neque proficit hiluÌ„ (e) Pag. 400. n. 28. Cap. 7. n. 2â— (f) Cap. 5. n. 58. lin 8. (g) Cap. 5. n. 26. lin 17. (h) Pag. 404. lin 20. Cap. 7. n. 29. (i) Pag. 76. lin 26. (k) Cap. 5. n. 105. lin 23. (l) Pag. 278 lin 8. cap. 5. n. 61. (m) Cap. 7. n. 29. initio Pag. 77. (n) Pag. 395. l. 3. If this did appeare to persuade any man to continue a Protestant were to persuade him to continue a Foole. (o) Pag. 226. n. 63. (p) Pag. 116. n. 158. in fine (q) Cap. 4. n. 63. lin 22. Excesse of charity may make him ceÌ„sure your errours more fauorably theÌ„ he should do (a) Defence against the reply of Cartwright pag. 47. (r) Cap. 7. n. 26. lin 30. (s) Cap. 6. n. 64. lin 8. (t) Preface n. 11. lin 17. How is it possible any thing should be plainer forbidden then the worship of Angels c. pag. 181. n. 86. Places of scripture against our errours as cleere as the light at noone (u) Cap. 5. n. 86. (k) Praefat de abroganda Missa prinatâ Quoties palpitauit mihi tremulum cor reprehendens obiecit illud fortissimum argumentum Tu solus sapis tot ne erraÌ„t vniuersi Tanta saecula ignorauerunt (l) Pag. 397. n. 17. Answere to the Preface n. 26. in fine (z) Cap. 5. n. 91. lin 19. Cap. 5. n. 87. Cap. 5. n. 58. lin 18. (a) 1. Edit pag. 19. lin 9. (b) Pag. 279. n. 64. lin 8. cap. 5. n. 64. lin 8. (c) Cap. 5. n. 53. (d) Cap. 3. n. 18. infine (e) D. Potter pag. 166. (f) See pag. 380. n. 72. cap. 6. n. 72. (g) In cap. 22. Jsaiae (h) Cap. 6. n. 50. (i) Cap. 6. n. 81. (k) This is auerred also by M. Hooker Eccles Pol. Preface pag. 29. lin 26. An argument necessary and demonstratiue being proposed to ANY MAN vnderstood the mind cannot choose but inwardly assent 2. Edit pag. 20.