of deputation which were drawn vp agreed vpon at the Synode of Vitré in the year 1617. to be obserued by the Prouinces when they were to send deputies to the Nationall Synode is yet more positiue it runns in these termes We promise before God to submit to all that shall be concluded and resolved in your holy Assembly and to obey execute it with all our power being perswaded as we are that God will preside in it and conduct you by his holy Spirit into all truth and equity by the rule of his Word Here the point is not the receauâ—ng of the resolution of a Synode after hauing discern'd that it hath ordain'd according to the Scripture but here is a submission made unto it euen before the assembling of it and this is done by reason they are perswaded that the holy spirit will preside in it If this perswasion be grounded vpon a humane presumption can one in conscience promise before God to submitt to all which shall be resolued and concluded and to obey execute it to the utmost of ones power And if this perswasion be grounded vpon an assured beleef of that assistance the holy Ghost affordeth the Church in her Finall ordinances the Catholiques themselues require no more of them Thus the proceedings of our Aduersariers doe manifest that they concurr with vs in the necessity of a Supreme Authority without which there can neuer be a Finall decision of any doubt in Religion and although when they cast of the yoke of Obedience they denied that the faithfull were obliged to resigne their iudgment vp to that of the Church yet the necessity of settling some order among themselues hath forced them in processe of time to acknowledg what their first engagement had moued them to contradict Nay they haue gone much farther in the National Synode held at Sainte Foy in the year 1578. There was some ouerture made of a reconcilement with the Lutherans by means of a forme of profession of Faith general and common to all the Churches which was proposed to be concerted and drawn vp The Churches of this Kingdome were inuited to depute vnto an Assembly to be held for that purpose virtuous persons approued and authorised by all the forenamed Churches with an ample Procuration TO TREAT AGREE VPON AND DECIDE ALL POINTS OF DOCTRINE and other matters concerning the vnion Vpon this proposition the resolution of the Synode of Sainte Foy was agreed vpon in these termes The National Synode of this Kingdome after having giuen God thanks for such an ouerture and commended the care and diligence as well as the good counsels of the fore-mentioned persons conuoked APPROVING THE REMEDIES THEY HAVE SVGGESTED viz principally that of framing a new Confession of Faith and giuing power to some certaine persons to compose it hath ordained that in case the copie of that aboue-named Confession of Faith shall be sent time enough it shall be examined in euery Prouinciall Synode or after some other manner according to the conueniency of each Prouince and in the mean time hath deputed four Ministers the best experienced in affairs of that nature to whome expresse order hath bin giuen to render themselves vpon the places and at the day with letters and ample Procurations of all the Ministers and ancient Deputies of the Prouinces of this Kingdome together with those of the Viscount of Turene to doe all things aboue mentioned and euen in case that MEANS COVLD NOT BE FOVND TO EXAMINE THE SAYD CONFESSION BY ALL THE PROVINCES it is referr'd to their prudence and sound iudgment to agree and CONCLVDE all the points which shall be brought into deliberation as well FOR THE DOCTRINE as for any other matter concerning the benefit vnion and quiet of all the Churches This in fine is the result of that feigned tendernesse of Conscience in the Ministers of the Pretended-Reformed Religion How often haue they reproached to us as a weakenesse that Submission we professe to the iudgment and Decrees of the Church which is say they but a company of men subiect to Error and yet they being assembled themselues in a Body at a Nationall Synode which represented all the Pretended-Reformed Churches of France haue nor scrupuled to leaue their Faith to the Arbitration of four persons with so Absolute a Resignation of their Iudgments that they transferr'd vpon them a full power to change the very Confession it self which they propose euen to this day to all Christian people as a Confession of Faith which containeth nothing but the pure Word of God and for which in presenting it to our Kings they haue said that an infinite number of people were ready to shed their blood I leaue the prudent Reader to make his reflections vpon the Decree of this Synode and will conclude in few words my explication of the perswasions tenents of the Catholique Church The sonne of God hauing bin pleased that his Church should remaine one and be solidly built vpon this Vnity hath instituted founded the Primacy of S t Peter to maintaine and cement it whereupoÌ„we acknowledgethe same Primacy in the Successors of the Prince of the Apostles vnto whome vpon that title we owe that Submission Obedience which the holy Councells Fathers haue taught and inioyn'd the faithfull As for those points which are so vsually disputed in the Schooles although the Ministers doe coÌ„tinually alledge them to asperse and render that Authority odious it is to little purpose to mention them in this discourse since they are not points of Catholique Faith It is sufficient here to confesse a Head established by God which will freely be accorded by all such as affect Vnion Concord of Christian Fraternity Ecclesiasticall Vnanimity And certaine it is that if the Founders of the Pretended Reformation had loued Vnity in the Church they would neuer haue abolished Episcopall Gouernement which we finde established by IESVS-CHRIST himself and which we see impower'd authorised euen in the dayes of the Apostles nor would they haue despised the Authority of S. Peter's seate which hath so solid a foundation in the Ghospel and so euident a continuation in Ecclesiasticall Tradition they would rather haue zealously maintain'd Episcopall Iurisdiction which setleth preserueth Vnion in particular Churches and the Primacy of S. Peter's Chaire which is the common center of all Catholique VnioÌ„ This is the exposition of the Catholique Doctrine wherein to tye my self to what is most important in it I haue declined some questions which the Pretended-Reformers themselues doe not account a legitimate motiue for a Breach or Separation and I may hope that those of their Communion who shall examine fairely with Christian equity all the parts and consequences of this Treatise will by the reading thereof be better disposed to accept and acquiescevnto those proofs vpoÌ„ which the Faith of the Church is established and will at least auowe that many of our Controuersies may be decided by a
with CHRIST IESVS which is not to be found any where else It is easy for them to vnderstand that his Body is giuen vs to assure vs that we partake in his Sacrifice and in his Death They distinguish cleerly these two manners necessary to vnite vs to CHRIST IESVS the one is by taking his proper Flesh the other by receauing his Spirit the first thereof is granted vs as a pledge and security of the second but by reason things can not be explicated in the opinions held by our Aduersaries though on the other side they can not disauowe them we can not choose but conclude that their Error hath cast them into a manifest Contradiction I haue often wondred why they did not deliuer and explaine their Doctrine in a more familiar and simple manner Why haue they not persisted in saying without so many artifices that CHRIST IESVS hauing shed his blood for vs had represented to vs this effusion by giuing vs two distinct signes of his Body and his Blood and that he had bin pleased to giue to these two signes the names of the thing it self and that these sacred Symbols were pledges and securities of our partaking the fruite of his death and that we were nourished spiritually by the virtue of his Body and Blood after hauing strayned so hard to proue that the signes receaue the name of the thing it self and that for this reason the signe of the Body may be call'd the Body the whole frame of this Doctrine did oblige them naturally to settle and rest there And to render these signes efficatious it would serue sufficiently to haue the grace of our Redemption annexed to them or rather according to their principles that it were confirmed to vs in them They needed not to haue troubled themselues so much as they haue done to gett vs to conceaue that we receaue the very Body of our Sauiour to this end only viz to assure vs that we partake of the Grace of his Death These Pretended-Reformers did content themselues with hauing in the water of Baptisme a signe of the Blood which cleanseth vs and they neuer thought of saying that we receaue the Substance it self of our Sauiour's Blood to ascertaine us that the virtue thereof is therein diffused vpon vs. If they had argued and concluded so in the matter of the Eucharist their Doctrine would haue bin easier and lesse incombered with Contradictions But they who inuent and innouate can not say all they haue a minde to they encounter apparent verities and establish'd maximes which disapoint them and oblige them to restrayne their own conceptions The Arians would haue wisht not to haue bin obliged to qualify our Sauiour with the name of God and his only Sonne The Nestorians did admit but with great constraint a kinde of Unity of Persons in CHRIST JESVS which we finde in their writings The Pelagians who denyed Originall sin would as willingly haue reiected the ministring the Sacramēt of Baptisme to Infants in order to the remission of sin by which meanes they would haue bin deliuered from that argument the Catholiques drew from this practise to proue Originall sin But as I come from obseruing they who finde a thing firmely established haue not the boldnes or rather impudence to ouerthrow all at once Let the Caluinists auowe ingenuously the truth they would haue bin very willing to haue acknowleged in the Eucharist the Body of IESVS-CHRIST meerly Figuratiuely and the partaking only of his spirit in effect setting a side those big words of partaking of his proper Substance and many others which import a Reall Presence and doe but intricate perplexe them It would haue suted better to their mindes not to haue confessed any other Communion with CHRIST JESVS in the Lord's-Supper then such an one as is imparted in Preaching the Word and in Baptisme without telling vs as they doe that in the Eucharist CHRIST is receaued Intierly and elsewhere only in Part. But though this was their wish and inclination yet the powerfulnes of the termes resisted their profession of it our Sauiour hauing affirmed so positiuely of the Eucharist This is my Body This is my Blood which he never said of any other thing nor in any other occasion And what appearence of rendring that common to all the actions of a Christian which his expresse word hath annexed specially to one particular Sacrament Besides the whole order of the diuine counsels the connexion of the holy mysteries of the doctrine and intention of CHRIST IESVS in his last supper the words themselues which he vsed and the impression they naturally make in the minds of the faithfull all these suggest nothing but images and notions of Reality and for this reason our Aduersaries haue bin faine to finde out some words the sound whereof at least might raise some confused idea of this Reality When a man fastens himself either intirely vnto Faith as the Catholiques doe or absolutely rest on humane Reason as the Infidels doe one may establish firme consequences and make as it were an vniforme draught or designe of Doctrine but when one will frame a compound of them both together one is driuen to say somewhat more then he would willingly doe and in the persuite to fall into opinions the apparent Contradictions whereof manifestly discouer their Falsities This is the case of the Pretended-Reformers and God hath permitted their deluding themselues in this manner to facilitate their returne to the Vnity of the Catholique doctrine For since their own experience conuinceth them that they must speake as we doe to speake the language of truth ought they not to iudge they must thinke as we doe to vnderstand it right If they obserue in their own beleefe some things that can haue no sense but in ours is not this sufficient to conuince them that the Truth is not intire compleate but in our Church And those loose parts of Catholique doctrine which are scattered here and there in their Catechisme but would as one may say faine be reunited to their whole body ought not they perswade them to seeke in the Com̄union of the Church the full intire explication of the Mysterie of the Eucharist They would certainly be brought to it did not humane reasonings trouble perplex their Faith which is too much adhering to their senses But now after hauing represented to them what benefit they may draw from the exposition of their Doctrine let vs proceed and end the explaining of our own Since it was convenient as hath bin obserued before that our senses should discerne nothing in this mystery of Faith it was requisit there should be no alteratiō as to their obiect in the Bread Wine of the Eucharist Whereupon by reason that the same species continue as our obiect and we feele the same effects in the Sacrament as were sensible before the Consecration we ought not to wonder if some times and in some certain sense it is express'd by the
which comprehend the expresse Doctrine of the Councel of Trent they would forbeare to obiect to vs that we injure the Mediation of CHRIST IESVS and that we inuoke Saints adore Images in a manner peculiar to God himself It is granted by reason that in some sense Inuocation Adoration and the name of Mediator are competent only to God and CHRIST JESVS that it is easy by a perverse vse of those termes to traduce our Doctrine and render it odious but if they are ingenuously receiued in that sense we haue exhibited these obiections loose all their force and if there remayne in the minds of the Pretended Reformers any lesse important difficultyes naturall equity and syncerity will oblige them to auowe themselues satisfy'd in the principall exceptions Besides this there is nothing more vniust then to charge the Church with the stating of all piety in this devotion to Saints since as we haue already euinced the Councel of Trent iudgeth it sufficient to informe and teach Catholiques that this practise is Good Vsefull without advancing it further so that the Churches intent is to condemn such as reiect this practise either by Contempt or Misconstruction and the Church is obliged to condemn them by reason that she ought not to indure the condemning of salutary and usefull practises nor that a Doctrine which all Antiquity hath authorised should be reiected by the Nouellists Doctors The matter of iustification will manifest yet a greater light how many difficulties may be avoyded by a syncere exposition of our opinions Those who are never so little acquainted with the history of the Pretended Reformation can not be ignorant that those who were the first Authors of it did propose this Article to all the world as the principall and as it were the most essentiall ground of their separation so that this seemes the most necessary point to be rightly understood First we beleeve that our sinns are forgiuen freely by the divine mercy for JESVS-CHRIST'S sake these are the expresse termes of the Councel of Trent which addeth further that we are said to be iustified freely because none of those things which precede our iustification either our faith or our works can merit this grace And by reason the holy scripture explains to us the remission of our sinns expressing it some times by saying that God couers them and others that he takes them quite away and effaceth them by the grace of the holy Ghost which renders vs new creatures we conceiue that we are to combine all these expressions to forme a compleate Idea or notion of the iustification of a sinner we doe therefore beleeue that our sinns are not only couered but intirely effaced by the blood of CHRIST IESVS and by the grace by which we are regenerated and this perswasion is so farr from detracting from that image we ought to frame of the merit of that blood as quite contrary it indeareth and eleuateth the value of it for by this meanes the righteousnes of Christ is not simply imputed but actually imparted to the faithfull by the operation of the holy Ghost in so much as they are not only imputed but euen rendered righteous by the grace of Christ. If our righteousnes were only in the sight of man it would not be the operation of the holy Ghost it must then be iustice euen before God since it is God himself who produceth it in vs by an effusion of his charity vpon our harts It is notwithstanding but too true that the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and we all offend in many things Wherefore albeit our righteousnes be a true one by the infusion of Charity yet is it no perfect one by reason of the combat between it our concupiscence so that the sighing and sorrowing of a soule repenting her sinns performes the most necessary duty of Christian righteousnes which obligeth vs to confesse with S. Augustin that our righteousnes in this life consists rather in the remission of our sinns then in the perfection of our virtues Wherefore as to the point of Merit imputed to our workes the Catholique Church teacheth that Eternall life ought to be proposed to the children of God both as a Grace mercifully promised by the meanes of our Sauior IESVS CHRIST and as a Reward which is faithfully rendred to their good workes and to their deserts in virtue of that promise these are the expresse termes of the Councel of Trent but least the pride of humane nature should be flattered by the opinion of a persuming Merit the same Councel determineth that all the worth and value of Christian good workes is deriued from that sanctifying grace which is freely conferr'd vpon vs in the name of CHRIST JESVS and that is an effect of the continuall influence of that diuine head vpon his depending members True it is indeed that the exhortations the promises the menaces and reproaches of the Gospel doe declare sufficiently that we are to worke our saluation by the motion actings of our own wills concurring with the Grace of God which assists vs but it is a fixt principle that free will can performe nothing in order to Eternall beatitude but by the same degrees it is moued and eleuated by the holy Ghost Whereupon the Church knowing that it is the holy spirit which worketh in vs by his Grace all the good we doe she ought to rest perswaded that the good workes of the faithfull are very acceptable to God of great estimation in his sight and she doth rightfully vse the terme of Merit concurrently with all Christian Antiquity cheefly to signify the value dignity of our workes which we performe by the motion of his Grace But by reason all their sanctity is deriued from God who workes them in vs the same Church hath receiued from the Councel of Trent as the Doctrine of the Catholique Faith this saying of S. August that God crowns his own Gifts when he crowns the Merits of his seruants We intreate all such as loue truth peace to be pleased to read the whole context of the Councel of Trent's words that they once be disabused and deliuered from those wrong impressions which are suggested to them of our Docctrine Notwithstanding we discerne cleerly say the fathers of that Councel that the holy scriptures esteeme so much Good woorks that IESVS-CHRIST himself promiseth that a cupp of cold water giuen a poor body shall not want its reward and that the Apostle declareth that a moment of light payne suffered in this world shall produce an Eternall weight of glory yet God forbid that a Christian should trust glory in himself and not in our Lord whose goodness towards Man is so aboundant that he allowes his own Guifts to them to be accounted their Merits This Doctrine is spread through the whole Councel which teacheth in an other session that we who are not sufficient to doe
of the part they had in that oblation so CHRIST IESVS hauing made himself our Offering did intend we should really eate the flesh of this Sacrifice to the end this actual communication of that adorable flesh should remayne a perpetual testimony to euery one of vs in particular that it was for our sakes he assumed and for vs he sacrificed his mortal flesh and blood God had forbiden the Iews to eate of the Sacrifice which was à Sin-Offering with intent to teach them that true expiation of crimes was not obteyned in the Law nor by the blood of beasts All the poeple stood as it were interdicted by this restraint not being capable to partake actually of the remission of sinns Now for the quite contrary reason it was requisit that the Body of our Sauiour the true Host offer'd vp for sin should be eaten by the faithful in order to the teaching them by this true eating that the forgiuenes of sinns was accomplished in the New Testament God did likewise forbid the people of the Iews the eating of blood and one of the reasons of this restraynt was that the blood is giuen for the expiation of our soules Quite contrary our Sauiour proposeth the drinking of his Blood because it is shed for the remission of sinns So that the eating of the Flesh drinking the Blood of the Sonne of God at the holy table is as Reall as Grace the expiation of sinns and the participation of the Sacrifice of CHRIST IESVS is actual and effectiue in the New Alliance Notwithstanding which truth by reason he intended to exercise our Faith in this Mystery and at the same time to deliuer vs from the horror of eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood in their own kinds it was fit and convenient to exhibite them unto us couered under an other species But if these considerations did oblige him to ordaine our eating the Flesh of our Offring in a different manner from that of the Iews yet he ought not in that respect to depriue vs of the Reality and the Substance of it It is apparent therefore that to accomplish the figures of the old Law and to putt vs in actual possession of that Victime offred for our sinns CHRIST IESVS did designe the giving vs Realy truly his Body and Blood which point is so euident that our Aduersaries themselues desire we should be perswaded they haue the same beleefe as we professe since they doe continually presse vrge to vs their not denying the true and Real participation of the Body and Blood of CHRIST in the Eucharist which pretence of theirs we will examine in the sequent discourse where we conceave it will be proper to expose their sentiments after hauing fully explicated the beleefe of the Church In the meane tyme we may conclude that if the faire and natural signification of the words vsed by the sonne of God compelleth them to graunt that his expresse intention was to giue Really his Flesh when he said This is my body they ought not to wonder that we can not consent to the vnderstanding these words as spoken meerly in a figuratiue sense And surely the sonne of God who was so carefull to explaine to his Apostles what he taught vnder the vailes of parables and figures hauing said nothing in this point to explaine himself further seemes cleerly to haue left these words in their natural signification I know that our Aduersaries pretend that the matter it self explains sufficiently the meaning because say they it is cleer that what he exposeth is but Bread and Wyne but the cloude of this argument vanisheth when we reflect that he who speaketh is of an Authority which ought to ouerrule our senses hath an Omnipotēce transcending all nature It is no harder for the sonne of God to effect his body's presence in the Eucharist saying This is my body then to cure a woman of her infirmity by saying Woman thou art freed from thy infirmity or to preserue the Centurion's sonne by saying Thy sonne liueth or in fine to effect the forgiuenes of the sinns of the bed-rid paralytique by uttering only Thy sinns are forgiuen thee We hauing therefore no reason to trouble our selues how CHRIST will effect what he saith we fix our beleefe precisely on his words He who makes whatsoeuer he willeth by his words effecteth whatsoeuer he saith and it was much easier for the sonne of God to force the laws of nature to verify his word then it is for vs to conforme our vnderstandings vnto such violent strayn'd interpretations as destroy all the laws of discourse The laws of language and discourse tell vs that the signe which naturally representeth doth very often take the name of the thing it self because it is natural to it to recall the idea or image of it into the mind The same hapens to signes by institution but then it is vpon condition that they be receiued and acknowledged for signes and that the parties be accustomed to them But that in instituting a signe which of it self hath no rapport to the thing as for example a peece of bread to signify the body of a man one should giue it that name without explaining of it and before agreement made concerning it as JESVS-CHRIST our Lord did in the last supper is a thing vnhear'd of and whereof we finde no example in holy scripture and I might say none in humane language Whereupon the Pretending Reformers themselues doe not so fixe vpon the figuratiue sense which they ascribe to the words of CHRIST JESVS as not to acknowledge at the same time that when he vttered those words he intended to giue vs Truly his Body and his Blood After hauing proposed the sense of the Church touching these words This is my body it is fitt to exhibite her perswasion concerning the words which CHRIST did adioyne vnto them Doe this in remembrance of me It is euident that the intention of the sonne of God was to oblige vs by these words vnto a retention and remembrance of the death he had suffered for our redemption and S. Paul concludeth out of these very words that we announce the death of our Lord in this mystery we must not then perswade our selues that this remembrance of the death of our Lord excludeth the Reall presence of his Body but quite contrary if we consider rightly what we haue here explicated we shall discerne cleerly that this Commemoration is grounded vpon the Reall presence for in the same manner as the Iews eating of the Peace-Offerings did reflect that they had bin offer'd vp for them so we eating the Flesh of CHRIST JESVS our Victime are bound to remember that he suffered death for vs. It is therefore the very same Flesh eaten by the faithfull which not only reuiueth in vs the memory of his immolation but doth besides confirme to vs that verity And we are so farr from hauing reason to say that
preuent all scandal They haue concluded by this regulation that both kindes were not essentiall to the Communion by the institution of CHRIST for otherwise they would haue bin bound absolutely to refuse the Sacrament to such as were not able to receaue it compleat and not to giue it them in a manner contrary to that CHRIST JESVS had commanded and in that case their disability would haue sufficiently excused them But our Aduersaries haue conceaued that such a rigour would be excessiue if they did not allow at least one of the Species to such as were not capable to receaue the other and since this condescendence hath no ground in the Scripture they must needs confesse with vs that the words whereby CHRIST IESVS hath proposed to vs the two Species are liable to some interpretation and that the right vnderstanding of them ought to be declared by the Authority of the Church But it might seeme that this Article of their Discipline which is of the Synode of Poytiers held 1560 had bin reformed by the Synode of Vertueil assembled in the year 1567 where it is said that the company is not of opinion the Bread should be giuen to those who would not receaue the Cupp These two Synodes neuerthelesse are not at all opposite to one another that of Vertueil speaketh of those who Will not receaue the Cupp and that of Poytiers of such as Can not take it And indeed notwithstanding the Synode of Vertueil that Article remaineth in their Discipline nay more hath bin approued by a Synode later then that of Vertueil namely by the Synode of Rochelle in 1571 where the Article was renewed and putt into that state which it now remaineth in But supposing the Synodes of the Pretended-Reformers had differr'd varied in their opinions that would serue only to manifest that the matter in question is not a point of Faith but of that kind which the Church may order dispose of according to their own principles There remaineth now nothing but to expose what the Catholiques hold touching the Word of God concerning the Authority of the Church CHRIST IESVS hauing lay'd the foundation of his Church vpon the Preaching of his Disciples the Vnwritten Word was the first guide rule of Christianity when the writings of the New Testament were adioyned to them the former Word did not for all that loose its Authority which causeth vs to accept with the same veneration all that was taught by the Apostles be it by writing or by word of mouth according to what S. Paul himself hath expresly inioyned And the certain proofe that a Doctrine comes from the Apostles is its being accepted and embraced by all Christian Churches whilst its beginning can not be pointed mark'd out We can not choose but receaue all that is establish'd in this manner with the submission due to the Diuine Authority and we are confident that such persons of the Pretended-Reformed Religion as are not very obstinate haue the same perswasion in the bottome of their harts it being impossible to beleeue that a Doctrine setled and receaued from the beginning of the Church can flow from any other spring then that of the Apostles Wherefore our Adversaries ought not to wonder that we being zealously carefull to inherit all that our Fathers haue left vs doe conserue the Deposite of Tradition as well as that of the Scriptures The Church being ordained by God to be the Depositary of the Scripture of Tradition we receaue from her hands the Canonicall Scriptures and we beleeue whateuer our Aduersaries say that it is principally the Church's Authority that determineth vs to reuerence as Diuine writt the song of Salomon which hath so few sensible markes of Propheticall inspiration and likewise the Epistle of S. Iames which Luther reiected and that of S. Iude which might be suspected by reason of some Apocriphall bookes cited in it in fine there can be no motiue but that Authority to perswade the receauing the whole body of the holy Scriptures which Christians accept as Diuine euen before the reading hath wrougt any feeling of the Spirit of God in those bookes Being then inseparably bound as we are to the Authority of the Church by meanes of the Scriptures which we receaue from her hand we are taught also by her Tradition and by the help of Tradition the true sense of the Scriptures So that the Church professeth to say nothing meerly of her self and likewise that she inventeth nothing new in her Doctrine that she doth but follow and declare the Diuine Reuelation by the interiour direction of the holy spirit which is giuen her for her Teacher That the holy Ghost expresseth himself by the Church the dispute raised about the Ceremonies of the Law euen in the time of the Apostles doth euidence and their Acts haue directed all succeeding ages by the manner that first contest was decided by what Authority all following differences are to be determined so that whensoeuer any dispute happens to deuide the faithfull the Church will interpose her Authority and the Pastours assembled will say after the Apostles It hath seemed good to the Holy Spirit and vs. And when the Church hath pronounced and determined her children will be taught not to examine a new the Articles resolued vpon but that they are bound to accept with all submission the Church's Decisions And in this methode we follow S. Paul and Silas who deliuered to the faithfull the first iudgment of the Apostles and were so farr from allowing a new discussion of what had bin decided as they trauell'd through the townes teaching to obserue the ordinances of the Apostles In this manner the children of God acquiesce in the iudgment of the Church beleeuing that by her mouth they hear the Oracle of the Holy Ghost and it is vpon the ground of this perswasion that after hauing profess'd in the Creed I beleeue in the Holy Ghost we ioine next to it The Holy Catholique Church by which protestation we oblige our selues to acknowledge an Infallible and Perpetuall Verity in the Catholique Church since the same Church which we beleeue perseuering throughout all ages would cease to be a Church if it left to teach the Truth reuealed by God so that such as apprehend least she should abuse her power by introducing Falsities haue little Faith in him by whose hand she is held and conducted And if our Aduersaries would consider discusse these matters in a fairer and more humane manner they would be forced to auowe that the Catholique Church is so farre from affecting to render herself Mistresse of her Faith as her Aduersaries charge her that quite contrary she hath laboured with all her power to binde her self and to exclude all means of In̄ouation since she doth not only submitt to the holy Scriptures but to banish for euer all Arbitrary interpretatiōs which would make the conceipts of men passe for Scripture declareth herself obliged