Fruits Mat. 7. 16 17. the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or mark our Blessed Saviour refers us to in such Cases From all which it appears That the general Piety and singular Sanctity taught and practis'd in the Church of Rome proceeds from the Author of all Holiness and that their tree of Reformation could never take rooting or influence from Heaven which brings forth such evil fruits upon the earth The Conclusion ANd now 't is high time to indulge my Pen which I little thought when first set to Paper would have laboured so long in this employment However I shall not repent of my pains though so much exceeding the limits of my intentions in the Essay if any poor wandring Soul receive hereby the least light to guide her towards the Mansions of Blessed Eternity and so prove instrumental for her Salvation This is my aim and hopes also and yet though they should become wholly unsuccessful I shall rest satisfied in that I have used the best of my endeavours towards my Countries good in matters of the highest importance and especially the Spiritual profit of my dear Protestant Friends and Relations whom the more I love since this happy change wrought in me the less perhaps am I beloved of them Amongst whom some I know for certain who have so alienated their hearts meerly for Religions sake as to return me hatred for my good will But I do and shall betake my self unto Prayer for such Objects of pity and compassion with a hopeful perswasion that they will be Converted as well as more moderate tempers seeing all things are alike equal to an Omnipotent goodness and experience tells us that the most violent Protestants have sometimes become the most zealous Catholicks By the mighty working of him who is able to Phil. â—21 subdue all things unto himself 'T is true the Case with Catholicks in England is sad by reason of those oppressive Laws which are in force against them and doubtless is the cause why some forsake us for the love of the World and do not actually unite themselves to the true Church In a word Temporal Advantages Worldly Interests and Prosterity standing on the Protestants side Persecution and present Sufferings on ours renders the Conversion or at least the Profession of the Faith to many ineffectual Let one be convinc'd and he replyes What shall I do with my Wife and Children Would you have me ruine my Estate and Fortune O miserable England where Truth is oppressed And O unhappy those who yeild so cowardly in the time of Tryal and Temptation Had the primitive Christians been thus minded the Catholick Faith long since had been buried in oblivion and such glorious Saints as Martyrs had never been known What is Time to Eternity What are Friends and Relations to the everlasting Society of Saints and Angels What are Worldly Advantages to Heavenly Riches Shall we not endure a momentary Cross for an Eternal Crown Is it not the high commendation of Moses the Faithful Servant of God That he chose rather Affliction with the People Heb. 11. 25. of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Know we not That he who loveth Father or Mat. 10. 37. Mother or Son or Daughter better than Christ is not worthy of him Alas What will it profit a man to Mat. 16. 26. gain the whole World and lose his own Soul Or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul Certainly whoever lays this sadly to heart cannot but cry out with that devout Saint Deus meus omnia Malem Crucem cum Christo quam Coronam cum mundo Whatsoever I lose I 'll not not part with my Saviour he 's all in all I had rather have him with a Cross than a Crown without him This is indeed an Heroick resolution becoming a Christian and answerable to the nobleness of our Religion which appears in nothing more then the contempt of this World and this resolution is agreeable to the Purity of our Holy Faith This is the Promise we solemnly made to God at our Baptism in the presence of the Church Militant and Triumphant why will we become Renegadoes from our Colours Why will we not couragiously fight the good fight of Faith under the glorious Standard of Christ against all the enemies of our Salvation Whatsoever we part withall for God's fake we shall not be loosers by it He will superabundantly reward us who hath promised Mat 19. 29. That whosoever leaveth Houses Brethren or Sisters or Father or Mother or Wife or Childâ—en or Lands for his Names sake shall receive a hundred fold here and hereafter inherit everlasting Life Believe me dear Country men 't is very true I know the first by happy experience If spiritual riches as St. L. 3. in Mat. ca 19. Hierom expounds it and comforts pass for payment and wait for the latter in Gods good time But alas things Spirital are little operative 'till we have a gust and feeling of them which cannot be without some progress in Spirituality and things eternal are further off and seldom apprehended with fixed thoughts while Worldly contents and advantages being present and visible work strongly on us to win and fetter our affections to them And therefore many of us living more by sense then faith or reason are willing to possess our Souls with patience in sufferings for Christ and expectation of that far more exceeding weight of glory which they work for us We think it intolerable to part with any Temporal Possessions for an Heavenly Inheritance And so procrastinating our receptition into the Catholick Church from time to time refer all to Gods Mercy and a Death-bed repentance A sad case this yet too common among us A case wherein I might have perish'd eternally had not the infinite goodness and extraordinary favour of God vouchsafed unto me with patience and long sufferance at last loosed my bonds and fetters and brought me into the bosom of his Catholick Church setting my feet at liberty to walk in the path of Holiness to ever-blessed Eternity The Psal 113. snare is broken and my Soul is delivered And blessed be the God of Psal 107. my Salvation My heart is fixed O God my heart is fixed I will sing and Psal 115. give praise I will now pay my vows in the presence of his Saints and call upon the name of the Lord. I will offer to God the sacrifice of Thanksgiving and praise his Name while I have my Beeing All creatures in Heaven and Earth bless God for me Psal 102. and bless God with me Praise thou the Lord O my Soul Amen Amen Soli Deo Gloria FINIS
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
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
the Church which the Holy Scriptures without any ambiguity do demonstrate To the end that because the Scripture cannot deceive us whosoever is afraid to be deceived by the obscurity of any question may have recourse to the Churches judgment concerning it which Church the Holy Scriptures demonstrate without any ambiguity Two things are suitable to our present purpose which are clear from hence First that though we may sometimes doubt what is Truth yet we can never doubt which is the true Church demonstrated to us by the Scriptures upon whose judgment while we rely we are secure from holding any thing contrary to the written Word commending to us her Authority Secondly That though the Scriptures are Infallible and cannot deceive us yet if we will not deceive our selves and kill our Souls by the dead Letter without the quickning sense we must believe what the Church believes submitting our private reason to her publick Interpretation For else let Hereticks never so much boast of Scripture for them we may tell them in the words of the same Saint This ye Cont. Faust l. 32. c. 19. seem to do that Scriptures may loose all Authority while every one may allow or disallow what his own mind suggests to him out of them That is may not subject his Faith to the Authority of Scripture but subject Scripture to his Faith It being indeed the property of all Hereticks not to take sense from but to bring sense to those Sacred Oracles forcing them by manifest distortions or dark conjectures to speak in defence of their prejudicated Tenets and so make nothing of Scripture while they seem to value nothing else Now what remedy against this intolerable abuse of the Word of God and everlastingly-quarrelproducing evil but that of Origen Quoties c. As often as they Hereticks Ho. in Mat. Praef. l. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bring forth Canonical Scriptures which no Christian but believes and assents to they seem to say Behold the word of Truth is in our Houses but we must not believe them nor depart from the Primitive Ecclesiastical Tradition nor believe otherwise then as the Churches of God by succession have deliver'd to us And to put them to silence with that of L. de Praes p. 19. Tertullian We must not appeal to Scriptures neither is the controversy to be setled upon them in which either there will be no victory at all or very uncertain Yea there is no good got by disputing out of Texts of Scripture that is as interpretable by private reason and play'd upon by wit but either to make a man sick or mad But that is only to be believed for for Truth which in nothing disagrees from the Tradition of the Church Thus he fully agreeing with Origen in the fore-quoted place And I cannot omit here what the glorious Bishop of Hippo hath so apposite for our present purpose to his Catechumens The Holy Church the Church which is one the true S. Aust de Symb. lib. 1. v. 6. Church the Catholick Church fights against all Heresies She may be resisted but cannot be conquer'd All Heresies have gone out of her as unprofitable branches cut off from the Vine see Protestants your Original but she remains in her Root in her Charity The gates of Hell shall not prevail against her Nor that to Honoratus when therefore we see God standing for us and so much fruit and proficiency doubt we to repose our L. de util Cred. c. 17. selves in the bosom of that Church which from the Apostolical Chair by Successions of Bishops Hereticks on all sides barking in vain against her hath obtain'd Supremacy of Power To whom not to give the chief is truly either the highest Impiety or harebrain Arrogance Thus the Fathers always brought Believers to the Church for a firm foundation in tottering times there they cast Anchor and fix'd themselves amidst the storms of Controversies and Contentions rais'd by unreasonable men with the wind of strange Doctrines lest they should make Shipwrack of their Holy Faith this still they prest upon all Christians in doubts of Disputations the Church the Church believe the Church the Pillar and ground of Truth the Sacred Depository of revealed Verities the rich Store-house of all things belonging to Salvation protected by Christ to the Worlds end endowed with the certain gift of Truth by the special guidance of the Holy Ghost founded upon a Rock that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against her Which is nothing else but what they had learn'd and received from Scripture and Tradition A Truth so convincing that it extorted from Dr. Field a great Patron of the English Protestants In his Book of the Church words to this effect Controversies are now a days grown to that height and so numerous and intricate that few have time to discuss and search into them thoroughly for satisfaction fewer wit and abilities to do it as such a business of concernment require that no security remains but to fly into the arms of the Church and acquiess in her judgments and definitions But from words let us proceed to deeds from the Doctrine to the practice of Antiquity SECT IX The aforesaid Authority of the Church cleared and demonstrated by the constant practice of all Ages IF we cast our eyes through the whole Christian World not a Popish Priest in the exercise of his Spiritual Jurisdiction but is in some sort a practical proof of this Authoritative Power wherewith the Church is invested by Jesus Christ Yet residing more eminently and with larger extent in Bishops the supreme Order of the Clergy made Overseers of their respective Flocks by the Holy Ghost it appears more gloriously visible in the Decrees and Acts of General Councils the highest Ecclesiastical Tribunal determining all emergent Controversies in Spiritual matters with Anathemae's against all Contradictors whatsoever And Catholicks in all Ages acknowledging their Sacred and obliging Authority paid most inviolably the just Tribute of Obedience to their Decisions with submission of their private Judgments and Opinions however rational before they seem'd unto them So that what points soever were once declared to be of Faith by lawful and approved Councils those who persisted in the contrary Doctrines where accounted Hereticks and being justly Excommunicated for such incorrigible obstinacy shunn'd by all the Faithful as no better than Heathens and Publicans Now I cannot think that English Protestants will say though such Decrees issued out from General Councils yet it was by an usurped Power not of Right and so though such exact obedience was paid by Christians to them yet it was in their own prejudice and not of duty or obligation though truely in deeds they assert it because they pretend much veneration to the first four General Councils and Bishop Montague one of the Learnedest In his Appello ad Casa men they ever had proceeds so far as to defend against his more zealous Brethren of Romes ruine the
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
is this difficulty in matters of no moment but in points necessary where Souls do perish through misbelief We find in the Acts of the Apostles that Philip the Deacon drawing near to the Chariot of the devout Eunuch and hearing him read Act 8. 30 31 c. the Prophet Isaias said Vnderstandest thou what thou readest And he said how can I except some man guide me He had not learn'd the Principle of their Rationalists to bid the Holy man spare his pains of Exposition or if he would be doing that he was not bound to believe one word he spoke for Truth 'till his own reason made it Authentick For this wild Doctrine frees every man in matters of Eternity from all Authority of humane Teachers though of Divine Institution so that be we Jews or Heathens or in what Church soever we have been Baptiz'd we must stand to no Creed believe no Catechism or abridgement of points necessary though confirm'd by the practice of the whole Christian World rely on no Instructors but believe and practice the quite contrary if our private reason judges it to be contain'd in Sacred Scripture Doubtless if his judgment had been preposess'd with this proud arrogant Principle Philip had preach'd in vain nor had he believ'd unto Salvation but would have dismiss'd the Evangelist with some such words as these I have a desire to save my Soul and therefore have given you a hearing but all this is nothing yet to me I will search the Scriptures farther to see what I must believe and when I have made my Creed I will send for You to Baptize me Which plainly contradicts the method of saving instruction deliver'd by the great Doctor of the Gentiles in that famous Climax How shall they call Rom. 10. 14 15. on him in whom they have not believ'd And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard And how shall they hear without a Preacher A Preacher with Mission and Commission from Jesus Christ But no place is more convincing than that 1 Tim. 3. 15. to Timothy The Church is the Pillar and ground of Truth And if the Church how then must every one build upon his private Reason for the true sense of Scripture in all things necessary to Salvation St. Paul was an Apostle of Jesus Christ whose Missioners then are those who teach the contrary Lastly I desire them to reconcile this Article of our Ancient Creed I believe the Holy Catholick Church with their novel Doctrine The Caetholick Church hath nothing to do with my Faith I believe my own Reason and nothing else in giving the true sense of Scripture to me For my part it being clear to me from the written Word that the Church hath a promise of Infallibility in matters of Faith That there is a command from Christ laid upon every one to hear her voice under pain of damnation and that otherwise the above named Article would not have been inserted into the Apostles Creed as a fundamental point I could see no safety or certainty in matters of eternal Interest but by wholly renouncing my most weak deceitful self and delivering up my self entirely into the hands of the Catholick Church to be taught by her what I must Believe and Do to be saved Nor found I any thing more reasonable then to captivate my understanding to the obedience of Faith when the God of reason doth require it at our hands Secondly to make every one an Interpreter and Judge of the true sense of Holy Scripture for himself unappealably by Reason seems evidently to me to deprive us of the only rational and solid means which is required to produce a well grounded Faith of Supernatural Verities in the Soul of man Which thus I manifest Supernatural Faith being an assent of the understanding to things revealed meerly for the Authority of the Relator without any farther dispute when once we have an assurance that God hath revealed them two things must necessarily concurre in all mediate productions to beget this act firmly and rationally in any Soul namely Ist Divine Revelation of things to be believ'd which is the formal Object of Faith into which it is ultimately resolv'd And 2dly A certain knowledge or moral evidence that such are revealed by the mediation or intervention of which the understanding elevated by Grace proceeds to the foresaid assent Now suppose there were no Objects of Supernatural and Divine Faith but what are contain'd in the written Word 't is not the bare and naked Letter but Scripture rightly understood that is the Word of God and of Infallible verity except therefore we have some Medium or means to convey assuredly to our understanding the true sense of Scripture our Faith cannot but halt and totter when we cannot rationally afford a firm assent to such a thing as revealed and have just cause to suspect whither we rightly understand that Scripture which contains the Revelation And certainly this cause of suspition will be ever just while private reason is the Interpreter and Judge of Holy Writ when abundant experience tells us nothing is more Fallible nothing more deceitful nothing sooner bribed with pride or passion or prejudice or education or interest to make words speak what never the Author intended by them Insomuch that hardly any fundamental point delivered in Scripture but hath been called in question and still is by too many protesting withall their sincerity and endeavours to attain to the true sense of Scripture by the light of their own Reason to which they appeal as their Judge and Protector in those wilful and irrational proceedings Neither indeed have Heresies arose in the Church but from Scripture misinterpreted by private reason as the * Non aliunde natae sunt haeredes nisi quod Scripturae bene intelliguntur non benè St. Aug. Tract 18 in Jeab Er de Gen. ad Lit. l. 7 ca. 9. Non ob aliud siunt haeretici nisi quod Scripturas non recte intelligentes suas Falsas opiniones contra earum veritatem pertinaciter asserunt alii passiom S. Ambr. in Titi. Vincentius Lyrin ca. 36. S. Irenaeus l. 1. c. 1. S. Hier. ad ca. 23. Isaiae S. Hilar. in lib. ad Constantinum Origenes Hom. 31. in Exodum c. Fathers and Church-history sufficiently testify Alas poor Souls that have such a guide to carry the Light which must direct them to eternal Happiness If they make their Light Darkness how great is that Darkness When their guide misleads them what remedy is there left to recall them into the path which leads to Heaven The Catholick Church indeed is inriched with so great a priviledge by Christ our Saviour that she cannot err in things necessary to Salvation as hath been manifested in the precedent Motive by Reason Fathers Councils Scripture Tradition and practice of the Christian World Whom we may as undoubtedly believe in delivering to us the true sense of Scripture as the Letter and upon whom
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
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
Tradition and Authority of the Church not they but this can only truly and rationally be asserted for a compleat and perfect Rule comprehending all things necessary to Salvation handing them down from the Apostles themselves to us now living as the revealed Truths of Jesus Christ and believed as such by all respective Ages upon that tenure Among which Truths so attested That such Writings are the undoubted Word os God is a Principal one and believed because so attested But all other Traditionary Doctrines of Faith having the same convincing proof that they came from Heaven whatever of them were occasionally committed to Writing afterwards by the Apostles are still to be believ'd upon the same account viz. Tradition and Church Authority the certainty of Scripture as well for the Sense as Letter depending thereon Again I demand of English Protestants by what Authority they condemn the Anabaptists to be Hereticks whether by Scripture or Tradition If they say by Scripture they must give me leave to tell that St. Austin with the primitive Christians were of another mind who tells them very plainly That Consuetudo Matris Ecclesiae c. The L. 4. cont Donat. custom of the Church our Mother in Baprizing Children is in no sort to be despis'd nor by any means thought superfluous nor at all to be believ'd except it was an Apostolical Tradition But if they value not Antiquity and presume the Fathers were but School-Boys to them in the understanding of Sacred Writ let them produce any one Text for Infant-Baptism so clearly proving it that the Contradictors must be unavoidably convinc'd and left confounded without any shadow of reply before thoroughly knowing and expert Judges in such Controversies and will confess the Fathers were but dull and heavy men compar'd to their quicker and more deep-sighted judgements in diving into the sense of Scripture and rest satisfy'd that upon the score of only Scripture Anabaptists may be condemned In his Reply Fisher for Hereticks I remember Bishop Land much presses that place in the Acts to be convincing for Infant Baptism Repent and be Baptiz'd Act. 2. 38 39. every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the promise is unto you and to your Children Yet not without the help of Tradition enlightning and exalting it to that force and efficacy But Dr. Hammond In his Ans to 6. Quaeres a great Scripturist and Defender of the Protestant Church confesses it is not at all concluding for it Without more ado the Truth is did not Church-Tradition shining bright in universal practice decide the controversy they could not satisfactorily answer those Texts of Scripture wherewith the Anabaptists confront those other produced by them nor justly enroll them in the black Book of Hereticks Does not this manifestly destroy their main foundation of Scripture to be the only and sufficient Rule of Faith Besides it is not an Heretical practice to Re-baptize those who have been Baptiz'd by Hereticks observing the true form of Baptism Can they evince it for such by any Scripture St. Austin tells them That custom which was opposed to Cyprian L. 2. de Bap. cont Donat. ca. 7 l. 5. c. 23. is to be believ'd to have taken its rise from the Tradition of the Apostles and that he believ'd it for such Moreover the form of Baptism is not expresly deliver'd in Holy Writ nor the number of the Sacraments nor yet the word Sacrament in the Scripture apply'd at all to those they acknowledge for such at least generally necessary to Salvation But for all these we are beholding to the practice and Tradition of the Church This is not all for farther yet let them show any precept in Scripture for the Abolishing of the Jewish Sabbath and observation of the Lords day in its stead A point doubtless necessary for Christians however as applyed to multitudes in Church-Communion Here also they are forc'd to leave Scripture and betake themselves to Tradition for the condemnation of the Sabbaterians Moreover would they willingly part with the Apostles Creed the Observation of Lent which their In his Sermon upon Lent Bishop Andrews contends to be Apostolical and see all Christian Festivals trampled under the prophane Feet of furious Fanaticks with most Ep. 118. ad Janua insolent madness as St. Austin calls it Yet they are all gone if Scripture must hold them up without Tradition In a word the greatest Champions of the English Protestant Church in these later years especially perceiving by sad experience the Vnder Sectaries who were Spawn'd from them to endanger and at last for a time wholly to destroy their new form of Belief and Worship by vertue of this Principle of Only-Scripture do now betake themselves to the Sword and Buckler of Tradition to defend and justify themselves against their Treacherous Brethren And thus although they fly to our Rule of Faith Vniversal Tradition for conviction of their Adversaries in some points by themselves accounted necessary yet they will needs have the Holy Scriptures to be the only and perfect Rule of Faith Doubtless it had been more safe and ingenuous to have acknowledg'd with the Ancient Fathers Traditionary Doctrines as well as the Holy Scriptures to compleat the Rule of Christian belief but contradicting Antiquity by contracting the Rule of Faith into Scripture alone they have likewise contradicted themselves the inevitable Fate of all Truthopposers Secondly The Holy Scriptures are not clearly evident without dispute in all points necessary contain'd in them and consequently no compleat nor certain Rule of themselves as the common experience of all Ages makes good Can any say the Consubstantiality of the Son of God with the Father is in evident or express terms in Sacred Scripture Yea or so contained in it by inevitable consequence as to destroy all probability in the Texts brought for the contrary by Contradictors Then certainly the Arians who had as subtil Heads and able Brains as any Protestants to understand the Logick of their Adversaries were mad men to appeal from Councils and Tradition to the written Word They knew very well that without the Tradition and practice of the Church delivering the sense of Scripture they could handsomly enough evade the force of all Arguments might be rais'd from the bare and dead words of Scripture though stretch'd upon the Tenters of most rigorous Criticism Yea they doubted not but there were Texts for them more evidently asserting the Inferiority of the Son and appropriating the Divine nature to the Father only which was the ground of their confidence in appealing to the written Word to be tryed thereby without Tradition And yet the Protestants condemn the Arians for Hereticks and justly too But how they can do it rationally upon their own Principles I confess surpasses my understanding True it is add to Scripture the Tradition of the Church and the Authoritative Sentence of an approved General Council so interpreting it and the case is clear but these