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virtue_n	power_n	spiritual_a	temporal_a	1,927	5	9.8031	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27363	The Notes of the church as laid down by Cardinal Bellarmin examined and confuted : with a table of contents.	Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.	1688 (1688)	Wing B1823; ESTC R32229	267,792	461

modern Controvertists make short work in appealing to this last only effectual way of Decision had it then been received and known for so fundamental a Principle of Christianity as is now pretended 2. As this uninterrupted Succession of Bishops where yielded is no sufficient Proof of the Truth of the Doctrine of any Church so neither is it a warrantable Ground of the claim of Superiority over another Church which hath not so clear evidences thereof And if these two fail those we have to deal with they will gain very little by this Note For as the Succession may yea ought to be supposed good when sufficient Proof appears not to the contrary So where there really appears Want of this Succession and need to to fly to other Churches for the Relief thereof yet this charitable Assistance which all ought most freely and willingly to offer or lend to each other does not presently give one the Power over the other for ever after The Apostles themselves seem not to derive their Power over the Churches by them planted so much from the Success of their Labours as from their immediate Divine Commission intimated in the Beginning of their Epistles though the one was a great Endearment and Enforcement to the others and so it ought to be We may suppose sometimes greater Churches converted by the Ministry of the less who were so happy as to receive the Faith before them Younger Churches have many times leapt over the Heads of much Elder and the Inferior having gained some considerable Advancement in a Civil Account have soon arrived at a proportionable Promotion in the Ecclesiastical as particularly the Church of Constantinople And somewhat like may be observed in the Changes of other Cities Superior Bishops are ordained by those over whom they after have some Authority For if not only Priority of Order but also Superiority of Jurisdiction be unalterably entailed upon the Eldest I doubt the Church of Jerusalem which was certainly the Mother-Church must be also the Mistress of all And if that Line be extinct I believe there are many other Branches it must descend to before it come to the Roman Some have disputed whether Britain it self had not a Church as soon And that they should ground a claim from what they will not yield to others sufficient for the same purpose seems very unequal But surely the Designs and Effects of this Spiritual Warfare are not like those usually of the Carnal meerly to inlarge the Dominions of their Leaders and advance the Power of their Governors The Churches conquests consist in the multitude of Souls gained to Christ in the new Plantations or farther Growth and Emprovements of all Christian Graces and Vertues in Mens Winds in fastning some Good and Benefit on them and not in gaining new outward Dependances to our selves any farther than the needful Preservation of Peace and Order in every distinct Dominion What is more smells too strong of Worldly Policy Temporal Gain or Secular Ambition to have any true Place here When Men are more industrious to promote and encourage every where sincere Piety and Probity and less concern'd in the claims of unlimited Soveraignty and Power then may we think true Religion and not other Interest to be the first Mover with them But to consider a little the Cardinal's Testimonies here The Second out of St. Augustin Psalmo contra partem Donati being the fullest and alone pertinent to their purpose I single out Numerate inquit Sacerdotes vel ab ipsa Sede Petri in ordine illa Patrum quis cui successerit videte Ipsa est Petriae quam non vincunt Superbae Inferorum Portae As to the latter part of it where the stress lies we have this Argument that it must be interpreted only as an occasional Allusion that in many places where he purposely expounds that Passage of the Gospel he makes Christ himself confessed by St. Peter to be the Rock on which he built his Church as Retract l. 1.21 Tom. 1. p. 30. and in cap. 21. Sti. Johan Tom. 9. p. 572. Super hanc Petram quam confessus se c. And indeed asserts no more but matter of Fact in a single case that the Seat of St. Peter to which the Donatists when condemned by the African Bishops upon their Appeal to the Emperour were referred was as a Rock which the proud Gates of Hell so he resembles their Presumptions doe not prevail against That is the cause was given against them by the Roman Bishop and others joyn'd with him Where though some Allusion may be made to the Place in the Gospel yet it is not fair to strain an Argument thence against the plain and expresly designed Exposition of if especially among such short Strictures of which that Tract is made up And for the other Testimonies in Irenaeus Tertullian and Epiphanius We acknowledg their Arguments good against upstart Teachers of new Doctrine But they expresly joyn Succession of Doctrine with that of Persons otherwise it had been of no Validity unless by referring their Adversaries who were not much moved by Authority to the evidences of the conveyance of the opposite Opinions to them from the first Originals The other two places in St. Aug. and that of Optatus against the Donatists imply no more to those presumptuous Inclosers of the whole Church within their own narrow Bounds and Beginners of it from themselves than a Challenge for them to shew any thing of the Apostolical Original thereof or after-conveyance like other Churches and particularly the Roman wherein St. Augustin Epist 165 after a Catalogue of the Bishops thereof thus closes In hoc ordine successionis nullus Donatista Episcopus invenitur And in all his Disputes with them lays the charge of the Guilt of their Schism upon the separation from all the Churches dispersed over the World according to Prophetical and Evangelical Declarations No Person or Place to prejudicate to all others it follows in the fore-mentioned ut certa sit spes fidelibus quae non in Homine sed in Domino collocata All which and more to any that consult the References throughout rather confirm our Claim We have as good Evidences and Conveyances as our Adversaries can challenge we pretend not to any new Doctrine But for the main ours are what themselves dare not but own What we reject among them are not only as Additions which none must make to the first Principles of Religion but over and above very dangerous and destructive to the common Faith of both For the Proof of such Doctrines or continuance of it we need no new Miracles or new Authority from Heaven but an orderly conveyance of the old and that we still Thanks be to God retain And truly Bellarmin's Inference from the mentioned Citations will carry in it little or no force but seems rather to incline the contrary way If they says he made so much of the continued Succession of 12 20 or 40 Bishops how much may

himself seems to be sensible of the weakeness of many of them when he acknowledges That the Moderns commonly assign but Four Ibid. and those taken out of the Constantinopolitan Creed where the Church is declared to be One Holy Catholick and Apostolick And these alone without the help of any other fictitious supernumerary Notes are abundantly sufficient to demonstrate that any Church to which they do belong is not certainly a true Church And therefore to gain credit to those he has thought fit to add he tells us they may be some way reduc'd to these Four. But for my part I do not understand how it can possibly be done And not to mention any of the rest I will instance only in this last Note I am about to examine Temporal Felicity which he cautiously restrains to Success in War for ought that I can perceive is not by any means reduceable to any of the Four. It will not evidence the Vnity of the Church for if this Note be allowed then Mahomet the Great Solyman the Magnificent Gustavus Adolphus and divers others were all good Catholicks in their time and instead of One we must have as many Churches as there have been Fortunate and Victorious Princes in the World that have fought for the propagation or defence of the most different Religions Neither is it any better Argument for Sanctity unless to such as can esteem Gain to be Godliness and account Turks and Saracens Holy Men. Much less can Catholicism be proved from it since good Success was never known to attend always upon the same side and the Catholick Church and Universal Empire whatever ambitious Men may dream are never like to be the same thing And least of all can we from hence gather any Church to be Apostolical The Primitive Christians were unacquainted with the Glories of Worldly Triumphs They subdued the Nations but it was with Spiritual Weapons They conquered the remotest parts of the Earth but it was by the Holiness of their Doctrine the Blamelessness of their Lives and the greatness of their Sufferings The Apostles did not march out to convert the World with Crosses on their Breasts and Javelins in their Hands One of them once drew a Sword in his Masters Quarrel but was presently commanded to put it up again with a severe Commination So that I do not see to which of the Four received Notes this of Temporal Felicity can be tolerably reduced I shall therefore examine it as it stands by it self But by the way I cannot but observe how subtilly the Cardinal has endeavoured to secure this Note which he must needs know was very liable to many material Exceptions And at once to prevent them all he tells us roundly That Catholick Princes never adhered unto God heartily but that they most easily triumph'd over their Enemies This he very confidently affirms but without any offer at a Proof But yet this will furnish him with an Evasion that may be always ready For whenever any of those Princes which he calls Catholick shall be shewn to have been unfortunate in their Adventures it may be quickly replied that they did not then heartily adhere unto God. And the contrary may be asserted with equal Assurance and so here is a Controversy started about a Matter of Fact which all the Men upon Earth are never able to decide For the Intentions and inward Dispositions of Mens Minds are discernible to none but the Searcher of Hearts And how then can this be pretended to be a Note by which we should know the true Church when the sole Condition upon which the Evidence of it is made to depend is to us altogether impossible to be known And this alone might be sufficient to evince the vanity of it but yet I shall endeavour to make it appear further by shewing I. That Temporal Felicity cannot be esteemed a Note of the Church II. That the Instances the Cardinal brings do not prove it III. And that there are many Examples of Infidels and Hereticks as he accounts them who have been as prosperous and successful in the World as any of his Catholicks If these things may be severally made out then the Church of Rome is like to get but little Advantage by this fifteenth Note I. And that Temporal Felicity cannot be esteemed a Note of the Church seems evident enough and that principally for these Reasons 1. Because God has no where promised it in all the holy Gospel and it is no better than vain Arrogance and a fond kind of Presumption to make that a Mark of the Church which is neither essential to the Constitution of it nor yet inseparably annexed to it by virtue of any Divine Promise The Jews indeed were encouraged in their Obedience by the Proposal of many Temporal Blessings and if they did faithfully and conscientiously observe the Law they were assur'd of great and miraculous Victories over their Enemies Five of you shall chase an hundred Lev. 26.8 and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight But Christianity which is a more Spiritual Religion that is established upon better Promises and has more full and express Revelations of everlasting Happiness than they had has no ground at all to flatter it self with the foolish Hopes of external Felicities and worldly Glories I cannot find one word in all the New Testament upon which such an idle Imagination can be probably grounded Nay on the contrary Distress and Afflictions seem to be the most ordinary Portion that our blessed Lord has been pleased to allot the best of his Followers in this Life He told his Disciples Joh. 16.33 2 Tim. 3.12 In the World ye shall have Tribulation Yea and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer Persecution The Expressions are plain and many more might be brought to the same purpose And if they could all be warrantably restrained to some certain Persons and Times yet they would afford but a very feeble Argument to prove that Temporal Felicity was a Note of the Church and if any better can be produced it is more than the Cardinal has done His Error in this is very like that of the Jews who anciently did and still do expect a Triumphant Worldly Kingdom in the days of their Messias But they are far the more excusable for as I said they had some Promises of Temporal Blessings and so might have some colour for such a Mistake But it is hard to frame any Apology for one who professes to believe in a Crucified Saviour that shall distinguish his Church by the same Character which they did without the least shew of a Promise to support it It is to be fear'd when he invented this that his eyes might be something dazled with Purple Robes and Red Hats or his Fancy intoxicated with the false Glories of extirpating Hereticks by force of Arms. 2. But be that as it will this Note must fail him again because for several Ages together the