among the Gentiles and they should Sacrifice in every place and Chap. 1. 11. a Pure Offering should be offer'd to his Name a new form of Worship prescrib'd a new form of Government erected new Sacraments instituted new Precepts deliver'd Councels super-added agreeable to the Evangelical Law And in a word a Catholick Church founded to continue for ever This Church of Christ as it is one body so likewise it was of one heart and of one mind while Apostolical purity remain'd unspotted The Professors were all united in the same Faith Worship and Government holding close to Church-Tradition the Pillar and ground of Truth without any rent or Schism Till among Act. 20. 29. 30. themselves arose Wolves in Sheeps-cloathing not sparing the Flock teaching perverse things to draw away Disciples after them That is who set up a Congregation of Christians separated from the Communion of that Church which was founded by Christ and his Apostles And so by this means unity being destroy'd and Faith perverted Heresie shut up the gate of Heaven against false Christians as Infidelity did against Unbelievers A sad case this yet not so much to be wondred at seing the Apostle tells us Opportet esse Haereses There must 1 Cor. 11. 19. be Heresies for the Tryal of others and greater glory of the Truth And therefore the true Church hath in all Ages been more or less vex'd with them But never more then in these last and perillous days which since Luther's Apostacy from the Church of Rome have produc'd such an innumerable brood of New Gospels and Sects all pretending to believe and practice those Doctrines and that Worship which were taught by Christ and his Apostles and to be the only true Church of God or at least the purest Members of it Now it being acknowledg'd on all hands that they only are the true Church who believe and observe all points taught by Christ and his Apostles necessary to Salvation and 't is impossible contrary Beliefs and Worships should be all true and come from the Fountain of Truth Christ Jesus those whom a more serious desire and care of their Eternal Good may excite to seek for satisfaction in so important a business shall upon diligent inquisition by the blessing of God find that the chief externe grounds or evidence ordain'd by Christ for the guiding us in the knowledge of what was taught and left by him to be believ'd and practis'd to the Worlds end and consequently also for discerning which is the true Church among so many Pretenders are those according to which the Church of Rome regulates her Faith and Worship namely Universal Tradition and the Authority of the present Church as shall hereafter be made manifest And the farther they search into the Rule of the Protestant Religion that is sole Scripture interpreted by private Reason or Spirit exclusively to Tradition and Church Authority the more they will see such unsteady Maxims are destructive to Faith and manifestly leading to endless Divisions and Errors in matters of Religion This Conviction I had in examining the Fundamentals of the Roman and Protestant Religion and therefore am not to be blam'd for the Change I made and to my understanding whosoever searches as I did will easily receive the same satisfaction SECT II. A Preparatory Discourse to Church-Tradition and what it is THo' whosoever examines aright the Motives of Christian belief cannot rationally but become a Catholick that is find evidence how he may come to the certain knowledge of what Christ and his Apostles taught the World yet Faith is not grounded on Reason but Authority and that no less then Divine which excludes all possibility of Errour Whatever it is that brings men to know what they must believe Faith hath for its formal Object Divine Revelation into which it finally is resolv'd So that we believe nothing as of Faith but what is revealed and because it is revealed by Essential Verity who can neither deceive nor be deceived Catholicks then believe by Divine Faith Truths only revealed by Almighty God wherein Protestants agree with us But Catholicks believe the same Truths as they are ascertained declar'd and handled down to us by the Testimony of the Church wherein Protestants are defective the difference thefore between us in Faith arises chiefly from hence in that we use not the same externe Medium to convey unto our understandings the knowledge of what Truths are revealed and what not For could we once agree about this latter we should soon be of one Heart and of one mind in all points of Faith especially when once this Medium is proved to be infallible As to this Medium therefore Catholicks regulate their Faith by the Rule or Standard of Tradition and Church-Authority as the externe Proponent of Faith a Proponent also evidenced to them by the same Rule to be Infallible and thus they safely rely on the Testimony of Tradition and Church Authority in Declaring and Expounding both the Sense of Scripture and all other Christian Misteries necessary to Salvation Whilst on the contrary Protestants relying on the sole express Texts of Scripture interpreted by private Reason or Spirit as their only Rule and Guide in matters of Faith become unsteady in their Belief obnoxious to dangerous Errors and divided amongst themselves into endless Sects and Factions But because a more clear understanding of this matter in some sort depends on a right notion of Tradition we shall here define it in the sense it is usually understood by Catholick Divines Tradition then is the delivery of that Doctrine which was taught by Christ and his Apostles from hand to hand descending as such from Fathers to their Children making up the body of the Faithful This is the true notion of Tradition among us Catholicks and it matters not whether it be call'd Divine Apostolical or Universal being only the same thing exprest by divers adjuncts For it is call'd Divine because Christ our Lord as well true God as true man is the Spring-head of it It is call'd Apostolical because the Apostles immediately receiv'd from him things so deliver'd and Preach'd them to all Nations And Universal because Attested by the Catholick Church of all Ages to have been handed to her as originally proceeding from Christ and his Apostles And to prevent all mistakes let Protestants take notice that the Church of Rome sends not her Children only to search for what is Divine or Apostolical Tradition in matters of Faith and Discipline out of the Writings of the Fathers or other Libraries of Books fill'd with dead Words which are subject to various Interpretations by Critical heads without any hope of Agreement and can have no Authority dependent on Tradition though upon this account she has infinite advantage against all other Communions in the World to justify her Faith and practice in any unbyass'd Judgments But sends them to a visible living Oracle Oral Tradition that is the voice of the present Church attesting
relying we have only a firm and rational belief of revealed Verities constant and immoveable among all the changes of Sects and Hereticks True it is in every act of Faith there is use of Reason whether it be referred to the Authority of God revealing or the Church proposing For we captivate our understanding to the obedience of Faith because we judge nothing more reasonable than to believe God and we securely rely upon his Church whom he hath promis'd to assist with Infallibility in such proposals But shall we say therefore that Reason is the prime intrinsical Motive of Faith and into which it finally is resolv'd Nothing less For this discourse and approbation of Reason are but necessarily previous and antecedent to our deliberate and rational acts of Faith the acts themselves are acts of the understanding not discoursing but purely assenting Which assent is not for Reasons sake but for Authority Were the last resolution into the judgment of private Reason Faith could not be Divine or Supernatural Reason indeed produces an act of Faith as well in Catholicks as Protestants but with a vast difference For a Protestant believes such a Truth to be from God relying upon his Reason only that it is revealed and this assent is not rational because his ground is deceitful But in a Catholick Reason acts only so far in points of belief as to bring him to Authority declaring such Truths to be sufficiently revealed by Almighty God which he cannot with any reason suspect to be Fallible in such declarations I believe this says a Protestant because my Reason tells me it is revealed and will allow no other judge of this Revelation I believe this says a Catholick because an Infallible Authority assures me iâ— is revealed and my Reason tells me there is no other sufficient ground or evidence for Divine Faith and therefore give up my private judgment to the Church And which of these Principles is more safe and rational let Reason judge Thirdly I demand of these Rationalists whether there be any such thing as Heresy in the World and what it is Oportet esse Haereses 1 Cor. 11. 19. c. There must be Heresies St. Paul hath said it and that 's sufficient And as for what it is 't is well known the Church hath always taught That Heresie is the voluntary Election of some private opinion contradicting the Doctrine of the Church And that he is to be accounted an Heretick who neglecting the Churches Authority with a stubborn mind defends wicked opinions But if we should admit their new definition That Heresie is to contradict any fundamental point expresly contain'd in Scripture In my poor judgment according to such a definition there 's no such thing as Heresie or Hereticks but both Arians Anabaptists Fanaticks c. are as good Catholicks as any Christians of the World For if private Reason be the only judge of the true Sense of Scripture for every one to rely upon these and all other condemned Hereticks the Montanists excepted relying upon the written Word as interpreted by Reason with sober enquiry and real endeavours to find out Truth cannot justly be so reputed The Arians have so much Reason and Scripture too in the bare Letter on their side that take away the Churches Infallibility and universal Tradition interpreting and delivering to us the true sense of it the Controversy would never be decided All places would swarm with Nestorians Eutychians Anti-trinitarians Barengarians Anabaptists c. neither could we condemn them if this Principle be good for doing their duty in following Scripture as the Light of their own private Reason or Spirit dictates to them Let them not say that these and such like are justly condemn'd for contradicting express Scripture against their knowledge and the judgment of their own Reason For they must remember first that themselves do not condemn the Anabaptists upon only Scripture grounds Secondly that it hath been demonstrated that all fundamental points are not so express in Scripture as they imagine And thirdly that 't is most uncharitable to say That all those whom they condemn for Hereticks do against their own knowledge and Conscience contradict the express Word of God and run headlong to hell with their eyes open Can we possibly imagine that among so many Millions of Arians there was not one single person had any Conscience It cannot be denyed but that many Hereticks have and do live Vertuously in the Eyes of the World For who knows not That Satan sometimes transforms himself into an Angel of Light And while they profess and protest that if it was once made apparent to them that their Tenets are against the Word of God they would not one minute persist in them we judge it uncharitable to affirm that notwithstanding the protestations of their sincerity and real though misguided zeal they all wilfully sin against the Light and knowledge of their Consciences We Catholicks indeed assert That sufficient evidences of credibility are produced by us to convince them of their Heretical opinions and dangerous state without Repentance But withall we say That God in his just Judgments which are inscrutable suffers them through strong delusions to believe Lyes in that the Light of Truth is veiled from their Eyes by passion or prejudice or worldly Interest while they so continue and we pray for them in hope that the Father of infinite Mercies will in his good time discover Truth unto them and bring them home unto his Church But for these Rationalists to damn all those whom they esteem Hereticks as contradictors of the Word of God against their Conscience and knowledge is a censure most unreasonable and little beseeming such whose lives are not so Gospel-like but that many Sectaries who differ from them in fundamentals may justly be reputed at least as conscientious and in charity cannot be thought otherwise All which duely consider'd plainly proves that they must either change their Judge of Controversy in points of Faith or give us some new Rule to discover Heresy And withall that if they will stick close to this Principle they must maintain that all the General Councils of the Church even that celebrated by the Apostles themselves were meer tyrannical Usurpations in obliging all Christians to believe and practice according to their Decrees whatever their private Reason could say to the contrary Fourthly in vain and to no purpose hath Jesus Christ instituted Authoritative Overseers and Governours in his Church For the perfecting Eph. 4. 11 12 c. the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the Edification of the Body of Christ till we all come in the unity of Faith c. If every one must acknowledge no visible Authority upon Earth to have any obliging power over him in Doctrines appertaining to God but be his own Teacher in all points of Faith according to the Dictates of private Reason Fifthly If every one be sent to Scripture to compose a Creed for himself
THE PRODIGAL Return'd HOME OR THE MOTIVES OF THE CONVERSION TO THE Catholick Faith OF E. L. Master of ARTS In the University of Cambridge Et tu conversus confirma fratres tuos Luc. 22. 32. Printed Anno Domini 1684. THE PREFACE TO THE Protestant Reader WHensoever it pleases the Almighty Goodness to enlighten with the glorious beams of Divine Truth those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death in so powerful a manner as that forsaking the perplexed labyrinth of Errors they betake themselves for repose and safety into the bosome of the Catholick Church 't is Satan's policy by his Agents to make the World believe that the motives of their Conversion were but weak and carnal least others should follow their example Herein I have been as deeply censur'd as others to whom God has vouchsafed the like extraordinary mercy Yet truly whatever calumnies have hereupon been cast upon me by some who have imbitter'd Spirits and Hearts swoln with rancour against the Catholick Church as much as concerns my self I should for many reasons bave contentedly sat down in silence rejoycing in the testimony of a good Conscience if the good of those upon whom my conversion may have most influence had not in charity oblig'd me to refuse no pains that might afford them help or satisfaction in a business of the highest nature and concernment This was the pressing consideration which at last prevailed with me to give these Motives of my Conversion a publick beeing and common air to breath in that their own eyes might be Judges what just cause I had to change my Religion and how much reason there is for them to follow me Of which I conceive great hopes when to me it seems impossible for any prudential man who seriously enters into the consideration of the grounds of Christian belief with a Soul wholly divested of all prejudices and self-interests whatsoever earnestly imploring the Divine assistance and direction I say it seems to me impossible for any prudential man in these circumstances not at last to discover the truth of the Catholick Religion and acknowledge the Church of Rome to be the only high-road to Heaven and Happiness he will hear a Divine voice whispering Jerim 16. 16. to him This is the old path walk in it and thou shalt find rest unto thy Soul Thus by Gods blessing I sought and this rest at last I found and never found it 'till after much pains and study after many Prayers and Tears after many Fastings and Watchings after many tossings and turnings after many sad delays and expostulations after many conflicts and agonies in Spirit my resolutions by the powerful workings of Grace on my Soul breaking through all difficulties did effectually bring me into the arms of the Roman Church In which I saw no reason to suspect any delusion when my most serious reflections pass d judgment on it seeing this happy change was not wrought in me by any humane persuasion but the God of Truth did by his immediate inspirations begin this work of mercy on my Soul when having no thoughts at all of becoming a Roman Catholick and finding much bitterness in the ways of sin and worldly vanities I was earnestly seeking of God what course I might best take how to please him and save my precious and immortal Soul But to prevent all fear of Enthusiasm pretended illuminations and false lights wherewith many poor Souls in our Nation are so miserably misled God who is as well essential Reason as Goodness did not only move my Will but also rationally convince my Understanding that all Communions professing Christ beside the Roman were more or less erroneous and she only the true Catholick Church according to the constant notion of Antiquity out of which ordinarily Salvation was not to be expected And therefore I must flie to her as to the saving Ark that I might not perish in the deluge of my sins So then this change in me was not a passionate distortion of an interessed will pushing forward the blind understanding to fix suddenly and adhere pertinaciously to more then the light of reason did clear up to the eye of the Soul but undoubtedly mutatio dexterae Excelsi the work of God wrought in my heart by convincing arguments as the following Motives do sufficiently evidence Nor could it be to satisfy the inclinations of sensual nature when I was to forsake my Relations my Friends my Temporal Revenues and Preferments and all worldly contentments to take up my Cross and follow Jesus by contempt of the world in the perpetual practice of self-denyal and mortification And happy is he who had rather have a Cross with Christ than a Crown without him Thus the Father of Mercies was graciously pleas'd by an efficacious call to bring his Prodigal Son Home For his Church is his House where he dwells among his Saints on earth with his special presence to govern and provide for them all things conducing to their happiness From which houshold of Faith I was an Alien while I was a Member of the Protestant Church which stands dis joynted from Catholick Unity by a Schism too notorious to be justified And until we like true Penitents return unto our Mother Church which made us Christians we like Prodigals feeding on ratling Husks of formal Devotion without any substantial nourishment to our Souls miserably mispend our precious time on which inevitably depends Eternity And this shall suffice by way of Preface for an Introduction The door is open enter and view well the Motives and the eternal Sun of righteousness who is the true Light of the World open thine eyes to see and guide thy feet into the way of Peace Yet before the Lecture I thought good to advise whosoever shall peruse these Papers that bere is not to be expected that variety of Arguments which may be found in more Judicious Controvertists but a true Narrative of what principal Motives prevail'd with me to forsake Protestanism and yield my self into the Arms of our Mother Church And yet methinks they are sufficient to convince the ablest Heads if they have but hearts resolved to yield to Truth I must likewise tell thee good Reader that these Motives had long since seen the light if some accidental occasions had not retarded their birth into the World However though they lost their choicest season of publication which is when such Conversions are most fresh in memory yet 't was thought fit by persons as well judicious as zealous that they should by no means live any longer in obscurity but be set upon a Candlestick in the House of God to give light to others and I did acquiesae in their judgment and was content to have them publish'd for the common good Read them Impartially consider them Seriously and practice Faithfully what God shall inspire into thy Soul And remember in thy Devotions Thine in Jesus Christ E. L. The first Motive containing the grounds of the Catholick Faith Sect.
Tradition to make a way for Error or Heresy to creep in at Does it not shine bright in the visible Practice and Profession of the Church scatter'd over the whole World so continually expos'd to all mens Eyes and Ears that it cannot be conceiv'd how Doctrines so deliver'd should be innovated without discovery and opposition or perish unless with the ruin of Christianity If Protestants considered this aright they could not deny the presence of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Blessed Eucharist by a real change of the Consecrated Elements subjection to the Bishop of Rome as Supreme Head of the Church under Christ Invocation of Saints and Angels the Sacred use of Images Veneration of Reliques private Confession to a Priest Indulgences Extream Unction Purgatory Prayer for the Dead to be Apostolical Doctrines being handed Traditionally to us from Age to Age by an Universal and more Visible Practice than the Scriptures themselves which yet they receive as the Word of God upon the same Authority Neither could they demand of us a farther proof of what carryes along with it in its very face an Evidence of Credibility beyond all Exception Nor ask of us in what secret Repositaries of the Church these Traditions of the Church are preserved when they might in a manner as rationally demand whether it be day when the Sun is in the Meridian of our Horizon In vain therefore do Protestants pretend Innovation in Faith to justify their Separation from the Catholick Church for let them chuse what Age they will this Principle is equally sure rationally evident alike in all And as firmly establish'd now in the attestation of the present Church or in the days of King Henry the Eighth when the Fatal Defection from the Church of Rome in England first began or in the Sixth or Fifth or Fourth Century for they cannot agree about the time aâ— in the very next Age succeeding the Apostles and consequently all Traditionary Doctrines of Faith Taught and Attested by the voice of the presenâ— Church of any Age the self same foâ— substance which were at first deliver'â— to the Saints without Encrease or Diâ—minution Universal Tradition and Innovation in Faith being in a manne◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Incompatible And whaâ— Arguments soever the Protestants produce to the contrary in their Controversal Skirmishes is meerly the playing of Wit against Pure Evidence If any one should seriously endeavour by Elaborate Arguments to perswade us really that there was neveâ— such a man as King Henry the 8th King of England would we not think him Fool or mad-man for his pains Seing that if it were not true millions of persons not only in our own three Kingdoms but in other Nations of Credit and Reputation without any causes sufficient to produce such an effect must conspire to be notorious Lyers And natural reason tells us if the first Reporters had not related it of their own knowledge with undeniable evidence it would never have obtain'd to pass so constantly and uncontroulably as it doth without the least doubt or question And yet thus have Protestants lost the immemorial Possession of their Ancient Faith and misled with meer Sophisms will not believe those points to have been handed to us by Tradition from the Apostles which are attested for such by infinite multitudes of People of several Nations in their respective Ages to this present with a far more transcendent evidence of Credibility than the former instances Notwithstanding such is the blindness of some mens understanding or rather the hardness of their hearts that as the Scripture saith Matth. 13. v. 14. Seeing they will not perceive and hearing they will not understand that they may be healed Though it be a Rule plain certain and expos'd to all mens view in such visible Characters of publick practice that who runs may read as well the Unlearned as the greatest Schollar and upon which the Pope and Peasant depend alike for their Salvation Wherefore to contract this Argument seeing such vast multitudes of several Nations cannot mistake in what hath been a thousand times over and over inculcated unto them clear'd to their Judgments and rooted in their Hearts by continual practice seeing that a World of Believers cannot conspire together to Damn themselves and Cosen their Posterity in matters of the highest moment whereof men are most tender and tenacious seeing mankind cannot give credit and entertainment to any Doctrine to which their daily Religious Worship gives the Lye and cannot be accepted without the destruction of some evident Principle of which they are in present Possession as Divine and Apostolical unless such a Doctrine bring with it a manifest demonstration of Truth which is impossible to be done in any point of Faith controverted between Protestants and Catholicks Seing these are the safe and sure Grounds of Universal Tradition truly methinks whosoever will not acknowledge it for a Rule or Evidence sufficient in points of Faith but desires a more certain or manifest conduct to bring him to the knowledge of what Doctrines Christ and his Apostles taught the World Or who is satisfi'd with less that is with a Rule which may easily deceive him in a business of Eternal Interest seriously such persons seem to me not Impartial Searchers and if ever it please God to clear up their understanding in Divine matters they will confess it SECT IV. Universal Tradition the Churches Rule of Faith in all Ages DId not Protestants of the Church of England pretend to Antiquity as on their side against the Catholicks in this Controversy about the Rule of Faith any farther Discourse of this Subject for the present had not been necessary but because such is their claim I shall take some pains to shew the Injustice of it and let the Reader see that as well in this as other points they who are our Enemies have no Friends of the Fathers to maintain them in their opposition but are equally Contradictors of Them and Us Yet before I shall urge Authority I shall press them with Reason The Apostles having among other necessary points of Christian Faith rooted this Doctrine in their Disciples hearts To believe only what was delivered to them and also guarded it with the thunder and Lightning of Excommunication Gal. 1. 8 9. even against an Angel from Heaven that should presume to teach otherwise because of points necessary what was to be the Rule and ground of all the rest was most carefully to be preserv'd one would think understanding heads could not doubt that the Fathful were to receive and hold their Faith upon the same tenure of Tradition to the Worlds end as attèsted to them by the publick voice of the present Church Yet question'd it is and contradicted also by English Protestants but doubtless they do not consider as they ought First That the Church being in the possession of this Belief upon the tenure of Universal Tradition unless they can demonstrate such a tenure actually
for Catholicks Did not Tertullian depend upon Tradition for his Faith when he professeth * Lib. de Praesc c. 21 What I believe I received from the present Church the present Church from the Primitive That from the Apostles the Apostles from Christ. The Arrians indeed as the Protestants now appeal'd to Scripture for a sole Rule and Judge of their Faith seeing their condemnation as Protestants do likewise inevitably and evident by the practice and Tradition of the present Church But what did St. Athanasius that great Bullwark of Catholick belief reply to this Even the very same which the Church of Rome now takes up against her Adversaries * Lib. de Decr. Sym. Nic. cont Arianos Behold we have prov'd the Succession of our Doctrine deliver'd from hand to hand by Fathers to Sons but as for you new Jews and Children of Caiphas but as for you Protestants what Progenitors can you show of your Speeches Had he not held Tradition for the Rule of Christian belief could he have produced this as a satisfactory answer to their appeal to a Scripture-Tryal and a sufficient demonstration of Catholick Faith They who hear St Austin saying * Cont. Ep. Fund c. 5. I would not believe the Gospel were it not that the Authority of the Church mov'd me to it What think they Was he for Protestants or us for sole Scripture or for Tradition too in his Controversy More ample satisfaction may be had if desired from Vincentius Lyrinensis in whose words we may tell a Protestant * Faith is that which thou hast Cont. haer ca. 27. received not that which thou hast devis'd a thing not of private usurpation as their Exposition of Scripture are but of publick Tradition Quotations might be infinite but these may suffice to let the World see that Antiquity was of the same belief with the present Church of Rome in this point And Protestants by contradicting Her contradict the Fathers also SECT V. Tradition asserted against Protestants by Scripture and the notable Advantages that way of delivery hath above Writing IF the Testimony of the Fathers will not suffice we shall bring Scripture it self in defence of Tradition And truly to me it seems wonderful that Protestants professing to believe all things contained in the Scriptures should deny Tradition to have any thing to do with their Faith to which those Sacred Oracles bear so great witness The places are not few and full some of them I shall produce as translated in their own Bibles The first is that famous Anathema of St. Paul's upon the occasion of some false Teachers troubling the Church of Galatia with Doctrines contrary to 1 Ch. ver 3 9. Tradition * If we or an Angel from Heaven Preach any other Gospel unto you then what ye have received let him be accursed Would they have one more express Let them mind well his exhortation to the Thessalonians * Therefore Brethren stand fast and Eph. cap. 2. v. 15. hold the Traditions ye have been taught whether by word or our Epistle The same point he presses home to the first Bishop of Ephesus writing in his first Epistle to him * O Chap. 6. v. 20 21. Timothy keep that which is committed to thy trust avoiding prophane and vain bablings and oppositions of Science falsely so called which some professing have erred concerning the Faith Which Deposition of Faith he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his second Epistle renewing the same charge Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me Chap. 1. v. 13. in Faith and Love which is in Christ Jesus Inculcated also in the Verse following That good thing v. 14. which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us And again in the 3d. Chapter he presses it as the only Antidote against the Infection of new-poisonous Doctrines scatter'd by Seducers Chap 3. v. 13 14. Continue in the things that thou hast learned and hast been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them And with no less care and charge recommendeth it to Posterity in the 2d Chapter of the same Epistle The things that thou hast heard of me among many Witnesses commit thou to Faithful men who shall be able to teach others also From which Texts and such like the Fathers collect three things First That there are Traditions unwritten Rom. 16. Phillip 4. 12. Judes Ep. 3d. ver 1 Tim. 3. 15. as well as the written Word deposited in the Church which is the Pillar and ground of Truth Secondly That such Traditions belong equally to Christian Doctrine and alike to be credited aad observed Written and unwritten being but accidental differences of the word of God substracting or adding nothing essential to the formal Object of Faith which is Divine Revelation Thirdly That Traditionary Doctrines being termed a Depositum by St. Basil ut habetur Hist Trip l. 7. c. 39. Vinc. Ler. c. 26. c. the Apostle and so from him frequently call'd Depositum Fidei and the Governours of the Church in Timothy constituted the sacred Depositarii and Keepers of it makes it uncapable of any adition or diminution and consequently excluding the expectation of any other points necessary to be revealed the nature of a Depositum requiring it should be kept unalterable in the hands of those to whom it is committed And therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 applyed to false Teachers by the same Apostle is directly opposed to this Depositum And the Church collected in General Councils when truth and peace requires it makes no new Articles of Faith but all her endeavours are that revealed Truths whether written or unwritten deliver'd from the beginning may be defended conserved illustrated and explicated against arising Heresies that would pervert them To which a fourth may be added That the Apostle writing to Churches fully constituted still refers them in his Epistles to Tradition for the trial of all Doctrines those sacred lines delivering no new point of Faith but only in as much as Doctrinal in things necessary explicating according t◠present circumstances and confirming what had been taught by word and practice Protestants indeed will owne no such things from these Texts but In 2 Epist ad Thess c. 2. 15. St. Chrysostom tells us * Hinc perspicuum est c. From hence it is apparent that the Apostles have not deliver'd all things by Epistle but also many things without writing Now both those and these deserve equally to be believ'd 'T is a Tradition what would you more Thus he and Theophilact comments thereupon almost in the same words And from the 2d ver of the 11th chap. of the 1st Epist. to the Corinthians * Now I praise you Brethren that you remember me in all things and keep the Ordinances ficut tradidi vobis as I delivered them unto you Not only inferrs the same Doctrine but likewise uses the self-same phrase Ex hoc loco
Traditionary points may be involved in those Texts So that we may safely argue thus far from such expositions they held such Tenets or else they would not have applyed those places for the confirmation of such Doctrines though such Doctrines cannot manifestly be concluded from those places And therefore when Protestants rationally show that some Texts so applyed by the Fathers may admit their Interpretations yea sometimes perhaps with greater probability they must not think they then carry the cause against Them and Us in those points This indeed is enough for Catholicks to do in all Controversies of Faith against Protestants who depend wholly upon Scripture as explicated by Wit and private Reason or Spirit for their Religion But it is no concluding argument against some Ancients for their over-credulity as I may say in relying on such Texts for some points now denyed by Protestants or against the present Church of Rome as relying upon them when that the Fathers neither did nor doth the Church of Rome now only rely upon such Texts for those particular points nor yet upon Scripture for any point of Faith at all but as handed and fensed to us by Tradition But to conclude this point seing Scripture thus manifestly descends to us by a lower degree of Tradition than Christian Doctrine and being received for the Word of God upon the credit of Tradition by Protestants themselves we cannot enough wonder at their unreasonable prevarication in taking the Churches word for the whole Rule of their Belief and yet refusing to rely upon her credit for any one Article of Faith in acknowledging her Authority Infallible in the delivery of the Letter and yet denying to believe her Tradition for the Ssense nor will be perswaded to conform to her in those points and practices which are handed to us by her attestation with far greater evidence of credibility And this being clear to me could I any longer continue a Protestant Had I not all the reason in the world to become a Catholick The second ground of the first Motive viz. The Authority or Infallibility of the Church in determining all Controversies concerning Faith and defining what is of Faith and what not when call'd in question SECT VI. An Introductive Discourse concerning the Judiciary Power of the Church YEt notwithstanding this certainty of Tradition handing from Age to Age the Evangelical Law with so much evidence unreasonable men have arose of perverse minds questioning and contradicting the Truths of Jesus Christ Insomuch that hardly yea perhaps not any one fundamental point of Christianity but hath been controverted in some Age or other Wherefore as Tradition is a constant Rule so the Wisdom and Goodness of Almighty God hath provided in his Church an Authoritative Judge to give Sentence by the guidance of the said Rule if there happen to be contentions about matters of Faith among Believers For unless in such cases an Authoritative Judge be allowed to give a definitive Sentence from which there is no appeal by the contending Parties for the decision of such Controversies Authoritatively assuring us what Doctrines were taught by Christ and his Apostles if denyed and what not when falsly pretended Actum est de fide unitate Faith and Church-unity must necessarily be destroyed and all Religion lost in a Chaos of disagreeing judgments without any probability of reconcilement A supreme and unerring Judicature being then absolutely necessary for the ordering and preserving of the Church in all things essential to Salvation how little satisfaction and that not without just cause I received in this point from the English Protestants who indeed grant a Judge but one wholly Inefficacious to this purpose yea impossible to reconcile Dissenting Litigants as the super-abundant experience of above sixteen hundred years for all Hereticks fly to the dead Letter of Scripture for their refuge hath sufficiently evidenc'd I shall make hereafter appear in the examination of their Rule and Judge and for the present endeavour to demonstrate how all Christians ought to be contented and acquiess as I did in what the Church of Rome teaches and the Catholick Church always hath and doth practice on such occasions Now what the Catholick Church teacheth and always hath delivered in this point is briefly this That all Divine Truths taught by Christ and his Apostles necessary to Salvation whether Traditionary only or also Written are deposited in the Church as a Witness to attest them and as a Judge Divinely assisted to Interpret and give an Authorative Sentence if their be any Controversy about them which all Christians are obliged to believe and follow under pain of Damnation A Doctrine brought down to us from the Apostolical Times by a more visible practice and unquestionable Tradition than the Scriptures themselves which yet the Protestants receive for the Word of God upon the same Authority What concerns the Church as a Sacred Depository of all Revealed Truths written and unwritten hath already been manifested in the precedent Discourse And that the Spouse of Christ is an Authoritative Judge or Infallible Guide to determine all Controversies of Faith among her Children that they may know with security what to believe and follow according to their Duty I hope shall be made no less evident in the following Sections SECT VII That there is a Supreme Visible Judge to decide Controversies in matters of Religion Instituted by Christ Infallible in all points of Faith to which as such all Christians are obliged to a submission of Judgment under pain of Damnation is here made apparent from Scripture And some further Reasons also given TO acknowledge a visible Judge to interpret and apply Laws in Controversial matters is so conform to common Sense and Reason and so confirmed by the experience and practice of the whole World in all kinds of Governments that to deny such a Power from God in his Church is in effect to say That Jesus Christ the Wisdom of the Father hath not so well provided for the regulating and preservation of his Kingdom and peculiar People purchased with his own most precious Blood in order to their eternal Good and Happiness as meer men subject to manifold weaknesses and Passions do by the common Light of Nature and ordinary Principles of Prudence and Discretion provide for the well-being of Families and Commonwealths in Temporal matters A Position unavoidably drawing after it so many strange and to say no worse dangerous consequences that they will be here better lamented than infisted upon But because Protestants whom I have forsaken fly to Scripture as the only Infallible Judge in all Controversial matters of Faith thither I shall bring them first to be tryed and show them out of those Sacred Oracles of Divine Truth which they acknowledge what ample and most abundantly satisfactory provision the Wisdom and Goodness of Almighty God hath made and left in his Church to bring us securely to the certain knowledge of his revealed will nothing being wanting on
and after much enquiry it was evident to me they could not afford to Impartial Judgments any solid and real satisfaction For the main Pillar of the Protestant Religion being to make the Scripture the sole Rule of Faith I finding by clear conviction this foundation to be without Solidity how could I in Reason or Conscience stand firm to that Church which I saw built on so unstable a bottom And indeed were Protestants able to perform what they promise that is to resolve all Controversies of Faith by Sacred Scripture we should be so far from being true Christians the best of men that we were worse than Beasts if we should refuse to be judg'd thereby Wherefore it is a wrongful Imputation in them to bear the World in hand that we have not a due veneration of those Sacred Oracles of Divine Truth when our reverence and respect to them is in reality more than theirs our Canon more general our Expositions more elaborate humble and submissive and our Assent unchangeable to whatsoever the Church declares to be revealed by them or is contain'd in them evidently by necessary consequence They in the interim only believing by a Spirit with a strange presumption what they please saying and unsaying in Civil Wars among themselves as well as against us whom they call the common enemy what they think is for their present advantage to serve their turn on all occasions And while we necessarily urge to all Christians the Authority of the Church as the Pillar and ground of Truth we are so far from intending any diminution of their just esteem that if they can produce but one single place of Scripture evidently containing the contrary to what we believe Conclamatum est The controversy is at an end we will confess we are in the wrong and for this Miracle for 't will be no less when ever it is done yield the whole cause unto them But 'till then let thâ—m cease to traduce us as Non-Veneraâ—ers of Sacred Writ because we will not receive it for what God did never intend it and leave it to his Church And against the evidence of our own Eyes and long experience acknowledge it to have conditions fit and requisite for the plain and Infallible instruction of all Christians of the whole Law of Christ and final decision of all Controversies For that Scripture by it self cannot perform those necessary Offices in the Church will manifestly be made to appear in the following Sections But first I shall shew that herein they agree with other Hereticks and Dissent from the Antient Church as well as from Us in this main fundamental of their Religion SECT II. Hereticks from the beginning were accustomed to Appeal to Scripture as the sole Rule of Faith whereby they would be judg'd in opposition to the Traditionary Doctrine and Sense of the Catholick Church THat whatsoever is purely of Divine Faith depends necessary on the Word of God is sound Doctrine but that all Supernatural Verities revealed to the Church are so written in the received Canon as none can misunderstand them is a most dangerous position yet the Anchora Sacra and chief refuge of old condemned Hereticks as well as of our modern Adversaries who groundiug their novel Opinions upon Texts of Scripture as interpreted by their own private Reason do at last make them Heretical by choosing pertinaciously to adhere to them against the Sense and Judgement of the Church A sad Case this that with the Waters of Life they should suck in Eternal Death into their Souls But alas Thus they turn Remedies into Diseases and blind their Eyes with the Heavenly Light of the Word becoming so much the more incorrigible because they perswade themselves even against evidence if seeing they would see that they have Divine Authority for their Doctrines The Arians in the Controversy between them and Catholicks about the Divinity of Christ would admit nothing but Scripture as St. Austin testifies bringing in Maximus an Arian Bishop thus disputing with him If you produce any thing Cont Max. l. 1. Init. out of the Divine Scriptures which are cemmon to all of necessity we must give ear unto it But these words which are without Scripture in no Case are received by us The direct Language of Protestants who in this however are perfect Arians The Macedonians impugning the Divinity of the Holy Ghost rejected the Gloria Patri Filio Spiritui Sancto whereby the Church professes her belief of a Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Divine Essence because not contained in Holy Writ Witness St. Basil They Li. de Sp. S. c. 25 26. the Macedonians cease not to brag up and down that the Glorification of God with the Holy Ghost wants Testimony wants Scripture Thus they then and thus Protestants now in points controverted between them and us But hear the same Holy Fathers answer Verily against The Church then in â—hâ—r Doxology us'd Cum Spiritu Sancto as El Spiritui Sancto that they say the Preposition cum Spiritu Sancto to want Testimony nor to be extant in Scripture we reply thus If nothing else be received without the Scripture neither truly let this be received by us without Scripture let us also receive this among many other For I think it Apostolical to adhere to the unwritten Traditions You see we need not new words to condemn the Protestants who will never be able to give any rational satisfaction why they receive some things not in Scripture only upon the score of Church-Tradition and yet refuse other alike commended to them by the same Authority In all reason they deserve an equal reception and so they must become Catholicks Euryches the Arch-Heretick denyed Christ to be perfect man as well as perfect God and for his defence appealed to Scripture Ergo a S. Scripturâ—s 〈…〉 saith he have vet learned from the Sacred Scrâ—ptures of two Natures To whom it was replyed Neither have we been Concit Chalced. Act. 1. taught the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from Sacred Writ Which must needs put him to a bashful silence the verity of Christ's Humane Nature being as fully deliver'd in Scripture as his Divine though not in such express terms as they required And therefore both either to be necessarily receiv'd or rejected by them But Protestants certainly have far less to say for themselves who with the Eutychians receiving the term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not found in Scripture yet deny the Corporal presence of Christ in the Blessed Eucharist by a real though Invisible Change of the Visible Elements when My Flesh is Meat indeed and my Blood is Drink Joh. 6. 51. 55. indeed And again The Bread that I will give is my Flesh which I will give for the Life of the World And the most Sacred words of Institution This is my Body This is my Plood are plain and express terms as any Doctrine can be delivered unto our capacity The Pelagians to
their side to prohibite Catholicks to speak for themselves in any publick defence it was easie to delude vulgar apprehensions with this plausible Sophism The Papists refuse to be try'd by the Word of God Which things whosoever layes together and seriously ponders as I did cannot but discover that the English Protestant Reformers did not receive a Rule of Faith from the Catholick Church which had been the Square of Christian belief in all Ages and is to continue so for ever but invented or rather assumed from their Predecessors the Ancient Hereticks a Rule of Faith for the Church they were setting up whereby they thought their new Doctrines might with most likelihood be maintain'd and found no better expedient then by denying an authoriz'd Visible Judge to pronounce a definitive Sentence in Controversies of Faith that so they might keep in possession of what they had usurped by eternally wrangling about the right But that we may come to some issue by bringing them out of a mysterious may be declared to stand to something in this main Principle of Religion admit that the written word were the sole and perfect Rule of Faith it being impossible for dead Letters of themselves to rectify things applicable to them for that end and purpose they must needs acknowledge some animated Judge to perform this Office among Christians by applying the Rule to all particulars Now they having denyed the Church this right and so cast off her living voice and Authority in plain terms though insisting in generals they assign no other determinate Interpreter yet must have recourse to Reason or Revelation for besides these three I know not any I say they must either let private Reason make this declaration and Judge of the true sense of Scripture by her innate Light or flie to Revelation and Pretend that the Holy Ghost Infallibly declares by a Divine Light his meaning to them This later way of Divine Inspiration is laid claim to by the Calvinistical party and those strange broods of other English Sectaries who have nothing but Scripture and the Spirit of God in their mouths upon whom in a most Prodigious manner they Father all their Blasphemies to the shame of Christians But it is rejected by all Protestants in any degree rational as meerly Fanatical and invincibly convicted of Imposture by the manifest contradictions of several pretenders to the Spirit of God For can the Holy Ghost reveal to the Calvinists that the Government of the Church by Presbytery hath a Divine right from Scripture and by the same Divine Unction teach the Independents that it is against the written Word c. Private reason therefore is only left them to resolve their Faith into and rely upon in their inquiring after and belief of Supernatural Truths and those sublime Mysteries to the knowledge of which nature hath not sufficient Light to advance her self by her sole native powers beside those mists of passion or prejudice or Education or Interest to which we are daily lyable and which must needs make this way more dark and difficult in order to eternal Happiness However they must take to it unless they will openly recant what they have publickly approved For though at first they kept secret this grand mystery of their State-Religion yet at last great Patrons of the English Protestant Church have with Authority and much applause inthron'd Mr. Chilling worth c. private Reason as a sole Queen and Mistress in the Churches Chair to direct and interpret the Holy Scriptures and from them to give a final Sentence what are the Truths of God revealed to us Without which Sentence or Declaration the Churches Decrees in things necessary to Salvation have no strength at all or obligation Nor then neither as these Rationalists explain it upon the score of Authority but Reason only But how unreasonably and without ground I doubt not to make appear in the following Sections SECT IV. That the Holy Scriptures are not the sole and perfect Rule of Faith TO evidence the groundlessness of this main foundation of the English Protestant Church as declar'd and explicated in the precedent Section with full satisfaction I conceive it lyes upon me principally to make three things good against them First That Scripture is not the sole and perfect Rule of Faith Secondly That it is not nor can be the Judge of Controversies in Religion Which is the common Tenet of modern Hereticks And thirdly That admitting it for a Rule of Faith as in part it is private Reason is not the Interpreter and Judge of the true sense thereof for every Christian to rely upon for his Salvation In clearing the first point I need not labour much having already by convincing arguments establish'd in the 4th and 5th Sections of the first Motive the Catholick Rule of Faith Universal Tradition whither I desire my Reader to return for satisfaction And which standing firm the Protestants Rule of Scripture only must needs be as well a ruin'd as ruinous Principle and fall to nothing Yet that discourse being more general I shall here descend to some particulars to make it visible to very ordinary Capacities that Scripture doth not contain fully all things necessary to Salvation nor is clearly evident without dispute in all points necessary therein contain'd and consequently cannot be the sole and compleat Rule of Faith wanting those two most necessary conditions belonging to it First I say not full and comprehending all points necessary to Salvation of mankind For I demand of them whether it be not a fundamental point of Faith to believe the Holy Scriptures to be the Word of God and yet Mr. Hooker one of the most Judicious Writers of the English Protestants acknowledges this cannot be grounded upon Scripture Of all points saith Hooker's Ecc. Polit l. 2. â—â— I remember he the most necessary to be believ'd is that the Scriptures are the Word of God which is confest impossible for them to prove And proceeding makes a demonstration of it against the Puritans How then themselves being Judges can the Holy Scriptures being a compleat Rule of Faith not comprehending what is most necessary to be believ'd by every Christian If they say this Objection is not pertinent because whosoever makes the written word of God the sole and sufficient Rule of Faith must necessarily pre-suppose the belief of Scripture founded upon some other Principle I reply 't is impertinent to say so because the necessity of a pre-supposition of some fundamental point is a sufficient conviction that the Rule they have chosen cannot be compleat and perfect as they would have it Especially if it be confider'd that the fundamental point pre-suppos'd independent on Scripture but Scripture depending on it must needs be the ground quoad nos to us of all things believ'd in it Which ground or antecedent Principle upon which they as well as we build their belief of such Scriptures to be the undoubted Word of God being the universal
the Joh. 1. 29. 34. Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the World I bear record that this is the Son of God Secondly The Testimony of his Divine works and stupendious miracles in these words I have a greater Joh. 5. 36. witness than that of John for the works which the Father hath sent me to finish the same works that I do bear witness of me that the Father hath sent me Thirdly The Testimony of God the Father in the Verse following And the Father v. 37. himself who hath sent me hath born witness of me And that by an audible voice from Heaven at his Baptism in these words This is my beloved Mat. 3. 17. Son in whom I am well pleased As also at his Transfiguration where the same words were spoken with this addition Hear ye Him Which Mat 17. 5. first voice if none of the Jews there present heard as certainly they did not unless in the words following Joh. 5. 37. Neither have ye heard his voice hearing is to be taken for obeying yet to them the Testimony was Authentick who seeing his most Holy Life and many Miracles to attest his Mission could not rationally think he would deceive them with a Lye Now more they could not desire when the force of these invincible arguments or nothing could dint and mollify their rocky hearts to receive the impression of saving Faith However our Blessed Saviour to give them all possible satisfaction makes use of a fourth Topick from the Holy Scriptures ver 39. which he bids them search For in them saith he ye think ye have eternal Life and they are they which testify of me Which Paraphras'd is thus much If ye will not receive the three former Testimonies which are most proper and efficacious to work Faith in your hearts but shut your eyes against Light sufficient to turn the darkness of Sodom and Gomorrah into day yet the Scriptures which ye receive and acknowledge bear such witness of me that if ye did search into them with humble hearts ye could not but be convinc'd of the Truth I preach unto you In them indeed ye think ye have eternal Life but while malice and pride thus blind your eyes ye deceive your selves and make them a killing Letter to your Souls Now let who will apply it the Argument runs thus Our Blessed Saviour having made use of the most powerful means to convince the Jews of their Infidelity and they yet persisting in their Blasphemies at last for their greater confusion made use of an argument from Scripture which they received Therefore Scripture is the sole Judge of Controversies about Religion How this follows I understand not when our Blessed Saviour in the present contest sends them not only to the written Word but uses it as the last and perhaps least evidence of his Divinity and Mission It clearly makes indeed for us Catholicks who as our Blessed Saviour brought St. Johns Testimony against his Advetsaries so do we likewise against the Protestants produce the Ancient Fathers Martyrs and Confessors of all Ages to witness for us in the present Controversies as also the voice of God from Heaven by many Miracles speaking in defence of the Truths which we profess They in this like to obdurate Jews despise these unanswerable evidences which are Motives sufficient to work on Infidels and will admit no Rule nor Judge but the Holy Scriptures to decide the quarrel Thinking as the Jews did to have Eternal Life in them but with that incredulous people likewise deceive themselves do observe the Light of Divine Truth by drawing as it were a vail of private and perverse Interpretations over their Eyes to their eternal Perdition I add moreover that had our Blessed Saviour only appealed to the Prophesies of the Old Testament concerning himself as sufficient to convince the Jews that he was the true Messias so that nothing else was necessary or requisite for the cleaâ—ing of that point yet I see not how this conclusion will follow therefore all necessary points of Faith are so fully and plainly deliver'd to writing in the New Testament under the Law of Grace that there 's no other Rule nor Judge to know and determine how many and what they are when controverted among Christians Yet this must follow or this Text doth them no good for the end they use it as most certainly it does not Which answer likewise takes away all strength from that place in the Asts of the Apostles where the Bereans are commended for searching the Scriptures whether those things were so as St. Paul taught and they believed before they consulted the written Word upon the Authority of their Teacher confirming his Doctrine to be the Word of God by frequent Miracles Upon inquiry indeed it could not but be much satisfaction to them to find so much of the Light of the Gospels involv'd in the Shadows of the Law and the Predictions of the Prophets to be so exactly fulfill'd in the person of Christ and about these it was that St. Paul disputed out of Scripture and for which they search'd after their believing and and so comes not home to the question For that the whole Law of Christ or all Catholick Doctrines necessary to Salvation are plainly contain'd and may satisfactorily be prov'd from Moses and the Prophets I presume our Adversaries will not maintain and so their Argument from hence is at an end To that in the 20th of St. John I answer that the true sense and meaning of those words is this That St. John testifies to the World he hath written a Book of the Life and Death of our Blessed Saviour when the Miracles wrought by him and therein deliver'd did sufficiently evidence him to be the Son of God and the true Messias according to his Doctrine without belief in whose Name they could not be saved And not that all necessary points of Faith were so deliver'd in this Gospel as to be intended by him for a compleat Rule of Belief and Judge of all Controversies in Fundamentalls to the Christian World Neither can any rational man except blinded with Passion or bribed with Interest but perceive this latter Exposition to be forced and the other natural To believe in Christ as the Son of God and Saviour of the World is a fundamental of fundamentals without which Salvation is not to be had But to believe this only is not sufficient nor can be the scope of this Text when 't is certain many necessary points of Christian belief are not contain'd in this Evangelist Who as 't is usual with other Sacred Pen-men of Gods Word ascribes the vertue of that effect to some principal or special causes though but partial which proceeds also from other by a necessary concatenation or connexion to make up the whole and adequate cause of such a product We are said in Scripture to be saved by Hope Rom. 8 24 is it therefore of it self sufficient for
condemn as Erroneous and Idolatrous they would determine That to be the time when the Church grew rotten and corrupted And so after all their seeming veneration of Antiquity the Ancient Fathers shall not be any Rule whereby to judge of their Faith and Worship but their Faith and Worship shall be a Rule whereby to judge when the Fathers are or are not erroneous A sure way I confess for a new Religion But they cannot escape so neither without condemnation that even by their own confessions so impossible it is for those who contradict Truth not to contradict themselves also and to confute themselves while they oppose her For take the first 5 or 600 years after Christ to be the limiâ—s of primitive Purity and 't is manifest from their own Champions that what they call errors as just causes of their separation from the Church of Rome are Catholick Verities 'T is true saith Whitaker what Cont. 2. q. 5. c. 7. Calvin and the Centurists have written that the Ancient Church did err in many things as touching Limbo Free-will Merit of Works c. I confess saith Tulk Hierom Riot Brist pag. 36. Austin Ambrose c. hold the Invocation of Saints Most of the Fathers saith Kemnitius Exam. Con. Trid. p. 3. p. 2000 did not dispute but avouch that the Souls of Martyrs heard the Petitions of those who Prayed to them they went to the Monuments of Martyrs and invocated Martyrs by Name As long as we stand to Councils and De Noto Col 1559. Fathers we shall remain always in the same Errors So Peter Martyr Which words being indefinite may as well involve the Councils and Fathers of the first 300 years their utmost refuge in Antiquity as after Ages But Whitguift an English Protestant Defen p. 473. Bishop put it out of all doubâ— for he affirms That all the Bishops and Learned Writers of the Greek and Latin Church too for the most part wrre spotted with the Doctrines of Free-will Merit Invocation of Saints It was a custom saith Calvin 1300 years ago to Pray for the Dead Inst l. 3. c. 5. para 10. But all of that time I confess were carried away into Error Which computed from the time he writ must of necessity adulterate the Church in the days of her pre-acknowledg'd Purity And Dudidius plainly acknowledges to his Brother Beza That if it be true Apud Bezam Ep. 1 which the Fathers have profess'd with mutual consent 't is altogether on the Papists side What can we desire more as to the judgment of Antiquity for our justification Thus these men while they pretend only to forsake errors and reform Religion by cloathing the the Church a new with the snowy garments of primitive purity confess unawares enough to condemn themselves out of their own mouths and flatly give the lye to what they produce for their justification They flee to Antiquity to absolve them from error and yet accuse the same Antiquity as erroneous But while they thus condemn the whole Church Councils and Ancient Fathers of errors certainly they could not intend that their own single words should be of any Authority or deserve to be credited by rational men Who desires more satisfaction in this particular I refer him to that most excellent Treatise call'd The Protestants Apology for the Catholick Faith which in an argument ad hominem is unanswerable and plainly demonstrates that Protestants must upon their own grounds either become Catholicks or else confess that their Faith and practice is not the Faith and Practice of the Ancient Church With whom to consent is notwithstanding the Plea of these men to defend their separation from the Church of Rome their Catholick Mother not to be Schismatical Some therefore seeing their Church not only to totter but wholly to fall while it pretends to stand on the legs of Antiquity have with greater zeal though with less reason invented another way to justify their Schism and will have no Authority at all attributed to the Fathers and Councils the constant practice and Tradition of the Church for decision of the present Controversies but affirm all things to be uncertain upon that score though never so plainly and unanimously asserted and the Sacred Scripture independent on them must be sole judge and give the decisive Sentence by it self Which position if made speak out says thus much that since the Apostles days there 's not one sufficient witness of what they taught the World to believe and practice as Christ instructed them but that the Doctrine of the Church is to be brought to the touchstone of Scripture by every one in particular and after examination to be accounted counterfeit or true accepted or refused as fancy and private reason shall determine For after these magnificent pretences of their great veneration of Sacred Scripture and deferring all to it this is the up-shot and their Faith is finally resolv'd into no safer Principle A Position so wholly destructive of the certainty of Christian belief so inconsistent with the majestick gravity of Religion such a never dying Hydra of Schisms and Heresies that I know not what can make a surer way for Atheism to triumph over the ruines of Christianity And had our Fore-Fathers been of this judgment and practice doubtless before this time the Cross of Christ had not been the glory but contempt of Nations Besides methinks they cannot but see that while they flee to to Scripture as sole Judge in these Controversies and deny all Church Tradition and Attestation they thereby take away those Sacred Oracles of Divine Truth also when 't is confess'd by all who can pretend any right to reason that there 's no possible way for us to know undoubtedly what is the Word of God or not but by the Tradition of the Church Moreover if the written Word must be sole Judge seeing the Scriptures themselves send them to the Church obliging them to stand to her determination in such Cases as is manifest by what hath been said are they not confounded upon their own grounds and must obey the Churches decisive Sentence in all Controversies of Faith or else deny to stand to Scripture In such inextricable waves do they miserably loose themselves who obstinately defend so bad a cause But if notwithstanding these Paralogisms and self-contradictions the Scriptures must still be sole Judge in the present controverted points and they will have them to speak for them against us except it be so convincingly that the Propositions by the very connexion of terms cannot be denyed without some implicancy they are in as bad a case as they were before For if the places produced are justly lyable to various interpretations can they think it reasonable that their private glosses should be preferred before the publick judgment of the Church to whom we owe the Scriptures themselves and from whom we ought to receive as well the sense of Scripture when 't is controverted as we do the
Letter I know in their popular discourses they make fine flourishes and after a long combat with pretended monstruous errors of the Church of Rome they clap their wings and crow triumphantly upon their own dunghill demanding of their deluded Auditory whether the Church of Rome or Scripture is to be believ'd This is their custom but 't is not the question For let them produce but one sentence out of those Sacred Oracles of Truth that in express terms contradicts the Doctrine of the Church of Rome in any one controverted point for which they pretend just cause of separation and it would be something to the purpose but who can imagine that Catholicks who have taught the Protestants that the Scripture is God's word should themselves in express and positive terms deny the Doctrine of it And therefore seeing the question is if Scripture alone was to deside the Controversies whether the sense and meaning of the Holy Ghost in those Sacred Writings is to be taken upon the credit of Ecclesiastical Tradition or new-born interpretations of some few private men certainly none except much oversway'd by passion or interest can prefer the bare conjectures and probabilities of those Interpreters before the evidence of such Authority Especially the Scriptures themselves witnessing That things in them 2 Pet. 3. 15 16 17. difficult to be understood are wrested by the unlearned and unstable to their own destruction And the experience of all Ages making it evident that the Interpretation of Scriptures by private Spirits in a sense contrary to the attestation and practice of the Church hath been the very source and fountain of all Heresies And in such cases there 's no possible way to be secured from seduction and falling into errors but by firmly adhering to the Doctrine and Tradition of the Church Sine ego sive quis alius c. If I or any other saith Vincentius Lyrinensis will discover the frauds of new-born Hereticks and shunning their snares abide sound and firm in the right belief he must by the help of God fortify his Faith with a double bullwark first the Authority of Divine Law and then the Tradition of the Catholick Church For Sacred Scriptures being lyable to such variety of Interpretions that almost so many men so many minds Novatian Photinus Sabellius Donatus Arius Apollinaris Belagius Nestorius Lutherans Calvinists Protestants Anabaptists Independents Fanaticks c. every one pretending the Scriptures to stand for them according to their several glosses and expositions of necessity to shun the Labyrinths of so many errors we must follow the line of Apostolical Writings as handed to us by the sense and Tradition of the Catholick Church And yet if we should exclude the universal Tradition of the Church with the undoubted Testimonies of Councils and Fathers of all Ages by which Protestants stand convicted of Schism and Heresie beyond all rational contradiction from having any thing to do in the decision of these Controversies granting all that they desire let bare words of Scripture be taken according to the exactest Criticisms of private reason in the judgement of Learned and Un-interessed men and even upon that score those Sacred Oracles of Divine Truth will cast it clearly on the Catholicks side against our Adversaries And if they cannot be convinced from them to be Heretical in all material points of Faith wherein they differ from us yet as much as concerns the formal part of Schism and Heresie they stand thereby as manifestly guilty of those hainous sins as ever any one who separated from the Churches Doctrine and Communion yea and by Protestants themselves condemn'd for Hereticks But never any place hath been produced by them from the Scriptures against the Church in the present Controversies as to evidence her in any one point erroneous But Catholicks have sufficiently shown that by such endeavours they have troubled those waters of Life with the mud of their corrupted fancies and by injurious distortions forced them to speak what never the Holy Ghost intended What remains therefore but that Protestants acknowledging themselves to be a Congregation Fallible and subject to error in points of Faith confess also that they never afforded a more pregnant demonstration of their Fallibility than in assering the Catholick Church to have erred whereby their separation from her Doctrine and Communion might be justified SECT IV. Wherein the Protestants Plea that the Popes Universal Pastorship in an Usurpation crept into the Church and therefore might and ought to be forsaken without Schism is refuted YEt another Plea they have that the Popes Universal Authority and Primacy over the Church is a meer Usurpation and Tyrannical and consequently to oppose and expel the exercise of such a Power out of England or where ever else 't is introduced cannot be a Schism but a Godly Reformntion by reducing the Government of the Church to its primitive institution as founded by Christ and his Apostles These are fine specious words and will be found nothing else in their due examination For it being of Faith in the Catholick Church that a Primacy or Supreme Jurifdiction in Ecclesiastical matters over the Universal Body of Christianity in St. Peter and his Successors the Bishops of Rome is of Divine Institution and maintain'd by her as so taught and practic'd in all Ages yea and the Popes being in peaceable possession of such an Authority in England for about 1000 years by confession of Protestants themselves being a thing not to be denyed as notoriously evident from unquestionable Records in Church affairs to deny such an Authority to be lawful and thereupon to withdraw their obedience from such a Government without any more adoe declares them Schismaticks unless first by rigorous demonstration they prove it to be a meer usurpation For 't is not abus'd Scripture much less other Testimonies either justly suspected or wrested to their purpose that can weigh any thing against the selfproof of so long a continued possession the like to which cannot be shown by any Authority upon Earth to fortify their right against opposers I say nothing but rigorous demonstration will serve their turn in this case which no prescription can evacuate But when the Papal Authority was first cast out of England God knows they were thinking on other matters Lust and Self-interest had quite blinded the eye of reason in King Henry the 8th and his flatterers resolving first upon the fact and then endeavouring to maintain it just and lawful But with such weak Arguments as may be strong proofs to induce all un-interested Souls to believe the contrary though indeed the strength of our evidence against them needs no help from the feebleness of their defences However thus liberal they are to us against their wills No cause actually working can but produce effects correspondent to the nature of its activity No man can deny this but he must deny his reason If therefore the Pope's Supremacy over the Universal Church was introduced by Tyranny and
the Ancient Church Now the places a Sacred Writ by which the Ancient Fathers usually prove their Belief in this point are principally two our Saviours Mat. 16. 18. words to St. Peter I say unto thee thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it And I will give unto thee the Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven c. The other John the 21. 15 16 17. verses Jesus said to Simon Peter Simon Son of Jona lovest thou me more then these He said unto him yea Lord thou knowest that I love thee He said unto him feed my Lambs He said to him the second time Simon Son of Jona lovest thou me He said to him yea Lord thou knowest that I love thee He said to him again feed my Lambs Hee saith to him the third time Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me Peter was sorry that he said unto him the third time lovest thou me and said unto him Lord thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee Jesus said unto him feed my Sheep These I say are the principal Scriptures which the Ancient Fathers make use of to prove St. Peters supreme Jurisdiction in Gods Church and his Successors the Bishops of Rome as may be seen by most of the Testimonies before alleadged and might be shown by many more I shall produce but two or three Ecce clavis regni caelestis c. Behold Peter received the Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven power of binding and loosing is given to him The care and government of the whole Church is committed to him Are L. 4. Ep. Ep. 32. St. Gregory's words relating to these Texts and vindicating the Primacy of St. Peter and his Successors the Popes of Rome as may be seen at large in his Epistle to the Emperor Maritius Petra dicitur Petrus c. Peter Ser. 47. is called a rock saith St. Ambrose because as a stone immoveable he bears up the compacted body of the whole Christian Fabrick Though 't is not denyed but the Ancient Fathers sometimes take this rock to be St. Peter's Faith whereof he had then newly made confession however more unanimously they expound this Rock to be St. Peter's Person as Head and Pastor of all the Faithful But never understood it of St. Peter's Faith as separated from his person So the Rhemish Testament Madonate c. upon the place do assure us As for the Text in St. John hear Dr 〈◊〉 S. Jâ—â—â—â— Eusebius Emissenus expound it Our Lord first committed his Lambs and then his Sheep to Peter because he made him not only a Pastor but the Pastor of Pastors He 's therefore the Pastor of all for besides Lambs and Sheep there 's nothing in the Church And though Protestants will not see it yet St. Gregory says 'T is plain to all that read the Gospel that from our Lords own mouth the charge of the whole Church was deliver'd to Peter Prince of the Apostles Insomuch that as Maldonate hath observ'd upon the place there was never any Father Greek or Latine who ever understood or expounded it in a contrary sense So then Scripture-grounds the Ancient Fathers had for their belief in this point Upon which Scriptures notwithstanding they did not rely as barely consider'd in themselves but as so expounded by the universal Practice and Tradition of the Church the only Infallible Interpreter of the written Word and unerring Rule of Catholick Faith Which being apply'd to these Sacred Texts make them speak clearly our belief to any Impartial understanding and therefore considering the Fathers Faith and practice they could not be lyable from them to other Interpretations Of which this is a manifest Argument in that they first of all began to expound them otherwise who deny St. Peter's and the Pope's Supremacy Which yet they cannot do without much injury to the Sacred Texts upon their own grounds For if abstracted from Church-tradition and practice they be with all their circumstances impartially weighed in the ballance of reason they very much declare a peculiar power intrusted to St. Peter in the Oeconomy of the Church not at all imparted to the rest of the Apostles For here 's a promise of the Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven made to St. Peter alone though the rest were present I will give unto thee the Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind c. And this singular promise is usher'd in with singular circumstances all relating solely to St. Peter For upon our Saviours interrogation Peter making an express Confession of his Faith in these words Thou art Christ the Son of the living God our Lord gives him in particular a solemn Benediction saying Blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jona and I say unto thee thou art Peter Et supra hanc Petram alluding to his name the very name our Blessed Saviour gave him when he chose him to be an Apostle and 't is remarkable that 1 Joh. 42. having immediately before called him Simon he now calls him Peter which signifies a Rock of which no reason can well be given but that the allusion to this name of his by the next words might let him and the rest understand that he was the person design'd upon whom as upon a Rock the Church should be founded in a peculiar manner and upon this Rock will I build my Church And then follows I will give unto thee the Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven c. Now put them together and sum them up Blessed art thou Simon I say unto thee thou art Peter Et super hanc Petram I will build my Church I will give unto thee the Keyes c. Doubtless all these particularities concerning Peter and none else of the Apostles though all were present must in all reason amount to thus much That St Peter was to be invested with some eminent Authority over all the rest And as St. Peter had good grounds from these particularizing circumstances solely relating to himself upon so solemn a promise to believe and expect that it would be fullfill'd when the time design'd for it by Divine Wisdom was fully come by the collation of some extraordinary power peculiar to himself Joh. 21. So we find in the other fore-quoted Texts that Truth it self was as good as his word expresly and by name intrusting to St. Peter the Charge and Government of the Universal Church by a Commission repeated thrice for the greater certainty that the promise before made was hereby fullfill'd and withall to leave a greater impression in his mind of the dignity and difficulty of the Supreme Office and Pastorship wherewith he only now actually was invested 'T is frivolous to say they are but admonitory expressions to mind St. Peter of his duty in doing the work of an Apostle when the words carry as much in their face an Authoritative Commission as Go teach all Nations spoken elsewhere to all the Apostles
Let them give any convincing reason why Feed my Lambs Feed my Sheep spoken by the fountain of all Jurisdiction to an Apostle should not be an Authoritative Commission as well as Go teach all Nations Matt. 28 Besides had they only been admonitory words to excite St. Peter to the work of his Apostleship they would have been as necessary to have been spoken to all the rest as to him who were equally Apostles with him and therefore not now minded of their duty because afterwards they were all to receive power from above by the descent of the Holy Ghost upon them for the performance of that great and glorious work So then being a Commission and only given to St. Peter it must necessarily follow that he was thereby invested with some Spiritual Authority which the other Apostles had not though all Apostles And the question put to St. Peter by our Blessed Saviour immediately before the words of his Commission have no small influence to prove a Superiority of Power to be instated upon Him above the rest For being asked Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me more than these Those words of command Feed my Lambs Feed my Sheep do not correspond nor are at all emphatical as what follows relates to them if thereby no Authority more or above the rest was not imparted to him as a reward of his extraordinary affection in that he loved our Lord and Saviour more then the rest of the Apostles Moreover in short as St. Peter did profess his Faith before the rest when this supreme Authority was promiss'd to him so now our Saviour would have him profess his love especially above the rest when he conferr'd upon him this Jurisdiction Thus if these places be expounded according to the light of present circumstances in all reason Scripture makes for a Supremacy in Peter above the rest of the Apostles And as hath been shown the Ancient Fathers from these Texts unanimously assert That the Church was in a special manner founded on St. Peter in being constituted Vniversal Head and Pastor of it To which if we add the voice of the present Church attesting it to be a Universal Tradition handed to her as such from Age to Age the unerring Rule of Catholick Faith it amounts to an Infallible certainty and puts the question out of all question and further dispute And how unsafe it is and dangerous to forsake the direct Texts of Scripture the the constant interpretations of the Ancient Fathers and the consent of the whole Christian World in matters of the highest concernment and to rely upon the bare Authority of private and new invented glosses of a few interessed and confessedly Fallible Doctors or our own more vain presumptions let any sober-minded man be judge And whether the Protestant Church of England in separating from her Catholick Mother the Church of Rome can possibly be upheld from falling into formal and notorious Schism leaning only on such unstable grounds The fourth Motive That the many Miracles God hath ben pleased to work in the Roman Catholick Church and still continues to do more or less and in no other Communion divided from her are manifest proofs that she 's the true Church And those Miracles which in a special manner regard some Doctrines denyed by Protestants to come from God are Divine Testimonies that the said Doctrines are as well Heavenly Truths as others taught by the Church are confess'd to be so SECT I. A Preliminary Discourse IT being manifest by what hath been discuss'd in the precedent Motive that the Protestant Church of England is undeniably guilty of Heresie and Schism in a high manner by their wilful separation from the Church of Rome in Faith and Government and thereupon the universality and perpetual visibility of the true Church by a never interrupted Succession of Believers teaching and practising the same Faith and Worship from the Apostles to these present days have been in some sort handled as points co-incident and con-natural I shall not make any large discourse of them severally though they did not a little contribute to my Conversion but contract their strength into one Syllogism and so proceed to show what efficacy Miracles wrought in the Catholick Church for visible confirmation of her Faith and Worship to come from Heaven ought to have upon our Adversaries to reduce them to the bosom of that Chuch they have forsaken The Argument runs thus The true Church of Christ hath Universality perpetual visibility and Succession of Pastors and People from Christ and his Apostles to this time and so to continue to the Worlds end inseparably annexed to it But no Schismatical or Heretical Communion of Christians can possibly be universal or have a perpetual visibility and Succession of Believers in those points which constitute them a distinct Communion from the Catholick Church of which they were Members before their separation Therefore no Schismatical or Heretical Communion of Christians can be the true Church of Christ That the Minor or second proposition belongs to the Protestant Church of England is manifest from the former Motive where 't was evidenced to be Schismatical and Heretical which once prov'd concerning any Communion of Christians 't is implicatory in ipsis terminis to say that 't is or can be universal visibly Successive from Christ and his Apostles to this time being all one as to assert That it was founded by Christ and his Apostles and yet began afterwards by a voluntary separation from the true Church so founded which is the Essence of Schism and that they were a Congregation Believing Ordaining Preaching and Administring Sacraments before they had a Beeing in the World That is they were and were not at the same time The Major or first Proposition is manifested from Scriptures and Fathers briefly thus From St. Matthew Behold I am Mat. 28. 20. with you always even to the end of Word From St. Luke He shall reign Luk. 1. 33 in the house of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdom there shall be no end From St. John The Comforter the St. John 14. 16 17. Spirit of Truth shall abide with you forever From the promise of God All Nations shall flow unto it From Isa 2. 2. the Commission of Christ Go teach Mat. 28. all Nations Which clearly demonstrate the Church of Christ from its first foundation to be Catholick both in respect of Time and Place This also is the Doctrine of the Fathers 'T is only the Catholick L. 1. ca. ult Church hath the true Worship and Service of God saith Lactantius Let Praefa in l. â—â—â—â—ar the Doctrine of the Church be kept saith Origen which is deliver'd from the Apostles by order of succession and remains in the Church to this very day See more in Iren. l. 1 c. 3. St. Aug. Ser. 131. 181. de Temp. de Vnit Eccl. c. 2. Tert. contra Judaeos For the perpetual visibility of the true Church in an
of Divine Authority And how in after Ages to this present the Truth of Christian Belief was attested to all men by signs from Heaven more or less wrought in the Catholick Church by her Professors is manifest by the undoubted Records and Histories of the whole Christian World Yea our Adversaries themselves who are Magdebu Centuria no friends to Miracles have distinctly set down and asserted manifold wonders wrought successively in the Church for 1300 Ages after Christ and why they should not as well believe the Miracles of the 14th Century and upwards wrought in the same Church related by as credible Authors as the former with as much evidence of certainty no man can imagine but that they were resolved Miracles should cease before their Church had a Beeing in the World lest they should justly be thought to introduce a false Religien having not the voice of Divine Miracles to attest it Wonderful The frequent use of Miracles was afforded to the the first Promulgators of the Gospel to give give it rooting and afterwards for increase and no sooner comes their Religion up but down goes Miracles to gain credit to It. As the Fathers must loose their Authority and begin to be erroneous when they manifestly assert what condemns their Doctrine So Miracles also must be put to silence and witness no longer to the Truth because they will not speak for their Religion And indeed themselves being wholly destitute of Miracles to confirm their new Faith and confessing they had been so long continued in the Roman Catholick Church they were necessitated if they would be obstinate in their way though against all evidence of Authority to deny any such to be now wrought in her least thereby they should confess that she only is the true Church of Christ But that the strength of this Motive may the better appear I shall in the further prosecution of it first declare wherein consists the nature of true Miracles Secondly I shall set down the causes why God is pleas'd to work such signs and wonders in and by his Church And thirdly I shall cull out among infinite some special Miracles which relate to our present Controversies being no less then so many Seals from Heaven stamp'd upon them in Divine Characters as visible evidences of Truth on the Catholicks side And those who assert the contrary do as it were deny God's attestation who can neither deceive nor be deceived SECT III. Wherein the nature of true Miracles consists is declared A True Miracle is an effect beside the ordinary course of the whole Creation and so above the Power of any Created entity visible or invisible Man or Angel Deus solus qui sacit mirabilia magna 't is God alone who worketh such wonders being the products of no less then Omnipotency it self For the order of the Universe in the concatenation of Causes and Effects being set a going by the Infinite Wisdom and Goodness of our great Creator the first mover not by necessity of nature but as a most free Agent according to the good pleasure of his will when it seems good unto him he can act besides this appointed course of nature either by producing the effects of secondary causes without their concurrence as by restoring sick and maimed persons to their perfect health and soundness in a moment by a word or as we read in the Acts Acts 3. 7. ca. 4. 30. ca. 5. 3. ca. 19 11 12 c. of the Apostles by Aprons and Handkerchiefs and such like things which having first touch'd the Bodies of his Saints are applyed to the parties ill-affected for their recovery Yea Act. 5. 15 16. the very shadow of St. Peter did cure many sick and infirm persons who were expos'd in the Streets lying in their Beds as he pass'd by Or else by restraining and curbing in the innate vertue of secondary causes from producing such effects to which by nature they are determin'd necessarily in the present circumstances as when the furious flames did not consume the three Dan. 3. 22 c. Children in the fiery furnace yea not so much as the smell of fire took hold on their Garments And as when the Sun was darkn'd at our Blessed Saviours passion the Moon being in opposition to it in its natural course Or else by producing some effects beyond the activity of created Agents to which second causes though strain'd to the utmost with their united forces cannot extend themselves as causing two bodies at the same time to be in the same place as when our Blessed Saviour came into his Disciples through the doors shut or raising the dead to life again as Lazarus was by our Blessed Saviour Notwithstanding our Souls being clouded with ignorance so that we apprehend not the utmost energetical vertue of created causes many things which are effected by a power secret and unknown to us are accounted by us though falsly truely Miraculous which indeed are either but Phantaâ—mes and meer deceptions Vide S. Tho. 22 ae q. 178. a. 2 in corp that is things not really done but only seem so Or if really produced and not in appearance only they are done by the application of natural causes though indiscernable to dim-eyed reason Vera mira truly wonderful to us because effected by a secret vertue But not Vere Miracula not true Miracles in their nature created causes producing them in the hand of quick-sighted strenuous and nimble Agents Of which sort are all those wonderful things which Magicians and Witches bring to pass by the Power and assistance of the Devil Such as the Aegyptian Magi wrought to harden Pharaoh's heart that he might not think Moses was sent from God or did by a Divine Power work true 2 Thess 2. 9 c. Miracles to confirm his Mission And Antichrist will come in great Power and signs and lying wonders according to the operation of Satan not true Miracles the only and peculiar work of Omnipotency Antichristi De Civ Dei l. 20. c. 19. opera possunt dici esse signa mendacii c. The works of Antichrist says St. Austin may be câ—ll'd lying wonders either because he shall deceive mens senses by Phantasms seeming to do what indeed he does not or if they be true Prodigies yet they shall draw men to believe a lye For they shall give credit to that man of sin as if he brought them to pass by a Divine Joh. 14 12. Power though only are effected by natural causes unknown to them Now though all things are alike easie to Omnipotency and so no Miracle properly greater then another 1 p q. cv a. 8. corp as having eye to the Power producing such effects Yet as more or less exceeding the faculty of created causes and looking that way they are truely said to be more or less Miraculous according to that of our Blessed Saviour Who believes in me the works that I do he shall do also and greater than
use as most proportionably to our present capacity and consequently most likely to produce the effect for which 't is intended For Truth entring into the the closet of our Soul through he port of our Senses as by the innate light of the understanding with an ordinary concurrence of the prime cause man can attain to some degree of the knowledge of God by natural effects and is utterly inexcusable if he does not So to induce us to the belief of things wholly supernatural and unattainable but by Divine Revelation he 's pleas'd sometimes by extraordinary and supernatural effects namely Miracles to work upon our Senses that we might believe and be saved or we rendred inexcusable when unbelief shall be laid to our charge And therefore 't is said 〈◊〉 believes not Mar. 16. 16. are condemned already As having nothing to say for themselves in that they so wilfully shut their eyes in Sun-shine that they might not see and be converted And our Blessed Joh. 15. 22 c. Saviour says elsewhere If I had not done those works among them which none other hath done they had not sinn'd but now they have no excuse for their sin But as Miracles are to beget Faith where 't is not so the next use of them is to give strength and growth to it where 't is already planted least at any time we should have a heart of Infidelity to depart from the Truth received either by flat Apostacy which more rarely happens or by Schism and Heresie which are Satan's commonest snares wherein he catches unwary Souls to their destruction What can they say for themselves to whom in so much Heavenly Light the Cross becomes a stumbling-block so as to fall away from their stability or once fallen if they will not rise again and be recall'd into the bosom of the Catholick Church by the voice of such wonderful works crying aloud after them even sufficient to engrave Faith in a rocky-hearted Jew and introduce belief into very Infidels From whence appears the absurdness of that Protestant Thesis That all Miracles are now ceased in the Church For besides indubitable testimonies from clouds of Witnesses enough to satisfy any rational man these causes yet continuing viz. Infidelity Heresie and Schism God will also still continue the same supernatural effects to beget or confirm supernatural Faith in the Souls of men But why they are not so frequent as in the first planting of the Gospel this may be one reason in that the true Church being manifested to the World by those Miracles which more or less in every Age are wrought in her Communion and her 's only entitle her justly to all the rest confirming the same Faith which others cannot claim by the like evidence For the principal end of Miracles being for the confirmation of true Faith taught by Christ and his Apostles to the World either to give it birth or growth if God did vouchsafe to work in the same manner such wonderful Signs and Prodigies by any persons in other Communions than his Catholick Church they could not be sufficient Testimonies from Heaven of Divine Truth but be instrumental likewise to set a lustre on deeds of Darkness and harden poor seduced Souls in erroneous Worship Neither had the Ancient Apologists for the Christian Faith rationally made use of Miracles as a convincing argument of the Truth thereof if Infidels or others could have produced justly the like evidences to give Testimony to their false Religion See Heb. 2. ver 3 4. St. Joh. 5. 36. ch 7. 31. ch 9. 30. ch 10. 28. ch 15. 22 24. Hence St. Gregory Quia carnales adhuc c. Hom. 2. in Evan. Because the Disciples being yet carnal could not understand his mysterious words he proceeds to a Miracle a blind man receives his sight before their eyes that who understood not the words of Divine Mystery Heavenly deeds might work Faith in them Thirdly God works Miracles in his Church to manifest the extraordinary Sanctity of some persons to whom he 's pleas'd to vouchsafe a special Honour and thereby proposes as singular examples for others to imitate in their glorious walkings And this is done either while they are living or after death by their Sacred Relicks and Intercession and sometimes in both they are alike glorified by him who only works Miracles whomsoever he makes choice of for the Instruments Which no false Worshipers in the World can challenge to their Profession Yet that such have been and are still wrought by Saints in the Communion of the Roman Catholick Church there are as good proofs to evidence it to the World as that there was such a man as Henry the 8th once King of England Which certainty none pretend to deny And though Protestants cannot lay claim to any true Miracles for the confirmation of their Faith and practice yet how fain they would have their new Religion so attested is manifest in that they greedily catch at shaddows and interpret any thing that 's somewhat strange and not ordinary as the singular actings of God in their behalf Or if any among them observe some austerities in the contempt of worldly Pleasures and Contentments which is so frequent among Catholicks presently this is a Sanctity without parallel and by the wind of vain-glory is puffed up to the Prodigious greatness of a wonder And I confess if all rare things are Miraculous this among them may justly be so accounted To these I might add the manifestation of the power of his Godhead and the riches of his Goodness towards his Church by such extraordinary workings beside the course of universal nature to make up the number of his Elect and consummate them in Glory But these last are not proper to my present purpose and the former related reasons are those for which God is pleased principally to work Miracles in the true Church and ought to be operative upon rational Souls to bring them to the knowledge and the embracing of the Truth SECT V. Some undoubted and most famous Miracles relating to the present Controversies between Us and Protestants ST Austin having related some De Civi Dei l. 22. c. 8. Miracles wrought upon Devotes at St. Stephens Shrine by his special intercession whereof himself was an eye-witness affirms That if he should record all that he knew to have been done in those Territories he must fill Books And so might I too with much more reason if I should set down but the tenth of those which concern the present Controversies between Protestants and Us having confin'd my self to no less limits then the Christian World affording innumerable Miracles the truth of which cannot justly be question'd because deliver'd to our knowledge with as much certainty as matters of fact are capable of However I shall be brief and only select out some few which I conceiv'd most convincing to Souls yet hardned with unbelief And had wholly spar'd this labour but that I know particulars are prâ—ssing
the Apostle of the Saxons and his Converts in some few External Rites which afterward in tract of time they generally receiv'd and in the interim acknowledg'd to be worthy of acceptation while the fresh wounds of deeply-resented injuries were the greatest cause of non-conformity One more I cannot pass over in silence because I conceive it such as may much conduce to the conviction and conversion of our Adversaries 'T is to be found in the Life of St. Bernard to this effect In the part of France about Thoulouze L. 3. c. 5. one Henry an Apostate Monk by deceitful words perverting the Souls of many with Heretical Doctrines prevail'd so far that every where thereabouts the Grace of Baptism was denyed Prayers and Oblations for the dead were mock'd at Invocation of Saints derided Excommunications of Priests Pilgrimages of the Faithful building of Churches Consecration of Oyl and Chrisme and all Ecclesiastical Constitutions were despis'd Our cause in England St. Bernard being intreated by the Catholicks sadly lamenting to see so many poor Souls seduced to follow an Apostate as if he had been an Apostle was conquer'd by their Prayers and came thither to hinder the further spreading of so contagious an evil and to try his skill on the infected Where Preaching with wonderful demonstration of Spirit as well as admirable Eloquence he in a short time instructed the Ignorant strengthned the Weak recall'd the Wanderers restored the Subverted put to sil nce the Perverters God confirming his Doctrine with signs following I shall relate but one so home and evident that Cap. 6. l. 3. praed 't is enough to convert and confound all Contradictors During these his travails in the work of an Evangelist being come to the City of Sarlet the Sermon ended they brought to the Servant of God Bread to be blest and distributed among the Faithful as is the custom in Catholick Churches Which he blessing in the Name of God with his hand elevated making the sign of the Cross said By this ye shall know that the Doctrine which we Preach is true and the things which Hereticks would perswade you to are false if your Sick tasting this Bread shall be recover'd A venerable Bishop present fearing the tryal said They shall be healed if they take it believing To whom the Holy man replyed in a full belief of the event I say not so but such as tast it shall be healed and thereby know us to be truly sent of God Whereupon a great company of Diseased persons tasting of the said Bread forthwith recover'd Praying God for such singular manifestations of his Truth and Goodness And the Fame thereof spread round about Now what more express Testimony by Deeds can be given from Heaven for Prayer for the Dead and Mosses for them Invocation of Saints Consecration of Chrisme c. which were then opposed by those Hereticks and now denyed by the Protestants their Successors in false Doctrine against the conviction of Miracles from Heaven And now I have done with this Motive only give me leave to say that if Protestants could produce the like Miracles to attest their Faith and practice they would make the World ring with the noise of them in every place and crying Victory set up their triumphant Banners with this or some such like Inscription or Motto God with us against the Roman Church And then add some such Invective as this in their Popular Sermons See what hard-hearted Wretches the Papists are who wholly given over to a reprobate sense will not acknowledge our Doctrines to be glorious and revealed Truths of Jesus Christ which he hath witnessed for such to the whole World by the thundring voice of Divine Miracles The fifth Motive That the eminent Sanctity taught and practis'd in the Roman Catholick Church not to be found in any Heretical Communions divided from her is a manifest mark that she only is the true Church of Christ SECT I. An Introduction FRom works of Wonder we pass to works of Piety to point out to us the true Church of God which though less admired yet are far more precious as being that Divine Seed the Fruit whereof is eternal Glory For we Spiritual Travellers cannot come to rest our selves in the Heavenly Jerusalem but by walking perseverantly in the path of Holiness Now this Holiness is not to be had but in the true Church whose attribute is not only Catholick but also Holy as we profess in the Creed and distinguishable by it in the Effects from all different Communions whatsoever who though they may cloak their deformity with Angelical appearances yet in reality are Synagogues of Satan having a form of Godliness and denying the power thereof And the truth is though by sad experience I found that the Protestant Church especially that part of it which I judg'd more pure in Doctrine could not lay claim to much Sanctity still crying down the Puritans for meer Hypocrites whose zeal in their way did shine far brighter to dazle vulgar eyes yet such prejudice I had conceiv'd against the Church of Rome by my education in a contrary Religion that I thought her really Antichristian and Holiness to have no more agreement with Her then light with darkness or Christ with Belial So that after the Divine Goodness by strowing Thorns in my indirect ways had made me sensible what a bitter thing it is to forsake Him the Fountain of living Waters for broken Cisterns and had put me upon a serious Inquisition to find out Truth and Holiness to follow Them it was no less wonder then satisfaction to me to meet with such heavenly Doctrine and such holiness of Life in the Roman Catholick Church and no other Communion divided from Her And I plainly discover'd that Protestant Leaders could not detain their followers in Schism and Heresie but by keeping them in ignorance of the right Faith and Worship of the Roman Church and laying to her charge such Doctrines and Practices which are not justly imputable unto Her Yet this Motive was set more home to my heart when my eyes were made happy spectators of some of that innumerable Company of her Members who in the continual exercise of most sublime Spirituality live more like Angels then men though in mortal Bodies But most of all when our Lord was pleased so to shine upon me with the extraordinary light of his countenance as to bless my weak endeavours in following though afar off those Stars of the first Magnitude beautisying his Heaven on Earth in their glorious courses And truly I have from hence such a strong persuasion of Truth to be in the Church of Rome wrought in my Soul that was there no other Motive to confirm me in the Catholick Religion my heart very much deceives me if I should not upon this score rather forgo my life then forsake my present Faith to become a Protestant Thus by the grace of God this wrought on me and that it may work on others I thus
these shall he do And therefore Miracles by St. Thomas are marshall'd into three Heads or Classes First those which wholly exceed the power of created Causes in the very substance of the effect As the Sun standing still at the Prayer of Joshua going back at the request of Hezekiah A mortal body to be glorified as in the transfiguration of our Blessed Saviour Transubstantiation in the most holy and dreadful Sacrifice of the Mass Which are the greatest of Miracles and in no sort produceable by the utmost Powers of created nature Secondly such which transcend the faculty of nature yet not if we have an eye to the thing it self that 's done but the qualification of the subject in whom 't is done or effected That is natural causes can produce the substance of the Miracle but never in the present circumstances As to give sight to the blind or raise the dead to life And does in daily vital productions but not to one dead As Lazarus and Tabitha were And can give sight but not to one blind As he who was born so cured Joh. 9. by our Lord and Saviour However these being Miraculous only in respect of the subject wherein such effects are brought to pass yet are altogether above the vertue of secondary causes and so as true Miracles as those of the first Classis The third and lowest sort are those which exceed the faculty of Nature neither according to the substance of the effect or subject wherein they are produced but only according to the manner and order of their production As when persons not incurably sick or lame in the hands of Artists with an ordinary concurrence of the supremest cause are suddenly restor'd to health and soundness without the help of Physick Chyrurgery or the usual proceedings in such cases And so the Apostles speaking with divers tongues which are attainable by time and industry in subjects capable of such perfections yet in them was miraculous in that they being ignorant were suddenly endowed with such extraordinary knowledge and eloquence to the amazement and confusion of their enemies Of which sort are also sudden Thunders and Lightnings Winds and Storms when second and immediate causes are not so big with such effects as to be deliver'd of them but rather in all probability promising the contrary to the best sighted understandings in such matters Now such miracles as these though always produced by a divine power when Holy persons are the Instruments yet may and sometimes are when God permits wrought by Magick and compact with the Devil who can so improve natural causes as on a suddain to bring forth such effects Which being possible to Omnipoteny and consequently not true Miracles in a strict and proper acceptation but in a large sense so call'd from the wonderful manner of their production if the Catholick Church had no other but such to attest her Doctrine to come from Heaven they could not simply of themselves be sufficient evidences of the Truth of Christian Religion and that the Workers of them are sent by God However such wonderful effects when they Manifestly tend to destroy the kingdom of Satan invincibly prove their origen to be from the Author of Holiness And therefore 't is not difficult to discover when these wonders are effected by a Divine Power and assistance and when by the help of the Devil Namely when either the Sanctity of the person is such as is no way lyable to be suspected to have any dealing with the Powers of Darkness Or if this be wanting when the Purity of the Doctrine as a glorious ray beaming from the Sun of righteousness is such that a confirmation thereof in such a manner cannot rationally be thought but to come from Heaven Or when God is pleas'd besides these inferior wonders to work also such Miracles by the same person or others professing the same Faith which cannot really be produced by any but himself Of which his true Church was never destitute and no other Communion could ever boast or justly challenge SECT IV. Some reasons of Gods proceeding in this manner WHen the infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness of God is pleas'd to work Miracles in his Church ordinarily the Instruments he makes use of to produce such effects are persons eminent for Sanctity Yet not so as that we ought to make the number or greatness of their Miracles the rule to judge of the degrees of their Holiness Yea 't is not an Infallible argument to conclude such an one to be a Saint for the grace of working Miracles being conferr'd upon the true Church principally for the edification of others a person not justified and so not righteous in the sight of God may be a wonder-working Instrument to save his Brethren and yet himself become a Reprobate Of which we need no more evident testimony then from the mouth of those Pleaders in St. Matthew Lord have not we Prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name Ch 7 22 c. cast out Devils and in thy Name wrought many Miracles And yet they receive this dreadful Answer I know ye not depart from me ye workers of Iniquity The cause whereof St. Austin gives us Admonet nos Lib. 83. Quaesti 79. qu. Dominos c. Our Lord puts us in mind that we may understand wicked men also to do some Miracles which Saints cannot do Therefore they are not granted to all Saints least the weak should be deceived with a most pernicious errour supposing greater gifts to be in such deeds than in works of righteousness by which we purchase eternal life Now God confers this grace and wonderful power on his Church First for the confirmation of the Christian Faith as his visible Seal set to it that 't is true and came from Heaven as the only means to bring us thither and ought to be entertain'd as such by all who desire to save their precious Souls This is manifest from the Promise of our Blessed Saviour to his Church Mark 16. 17. These sings shall follow those that believe in my Name they shall cast out Devils they shall speak with new Tongues they shall take up Serpents and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them they shall lay their hands upon the Sick and they shall Recover This is the Promise See the performance in the 20 ver And they went and Preached every where our Lord co-operating and confirming the Word with signs following For so the Eyes of their Auditors might tell them the Doctrine they heard was from God and no humane invention and therefore inexcusable incredulous As in the 16 verse Whosoever Believes and is Baptiz'd shall be saved but who believes not shall be damned Hence it is that Signs are said to be for Unbelievers that by such evidences of Truth they may be Converted and all the ends of the Earth see the Salvation of our God And this way of Divine attestation the wisdom of God hath thought good to