unto us and to guide us in Matters of Faith and Religion if ever they mean to repress justly the Irreligious boldness of Fanatical Interpreters and to see Peace again restored to the Christian World. Which Root of Dissention is no other thing than that liberty to Read and Interpret the Holy Scriptures which the Protestant Religion instilleth into Men while it denieth the Infallibility of the Church admitteth of no certain and un-erring Judge of Controversies to whose definitive Sentence all are bound to submit and maketh the written Word of God of it self without an Interpreter the sole Rule of Faith by which all Men ought to square out their Belief and Religion By all which it appeareth to be manifest That according to the Grounds and Tenets of the Protestant Religion the Sacred word of God is not only unprofitable but even hurtful and pernicious to Mankind for want of a Sure Interpreter appointed by God to guide us in Faith and Religion to the right Sense and Meaning thereof As beside the Reasons given the manifold Examples of divers unfortunate Men do convince who by over-boldly searching into the Bible have either crack'd their Brains or fallen into despair or turned Jews Turks or Atheists or imbraced absurd and ridiculous Opinions for what made Hacket formerly Naylor and others lately to give themselves out for New Christs What made so many false Prophets and Prophetesses appear in the late Confusions of England Or what occasion'd then so many Sacriledges Barbarities and Cruelties but too much poring into and medling with the Bible Question VIII Whether the State of the Great Family City Kingdom Commonwealth Army of Jesus Christ that is of his Church do require a Supream Spiritual Head or no ALL understanding Protestants will easily grant that no Family City Kingdom Commonwealth Army or Navy can be fittingly and rightly ordered and govern'd without some Head or Supream Magistrate to whom Subjects may have recourse and from whom they may receive Directions as need shall require Which being so I demand of Protestants whether the State in Earth of the Great Family City Kingdom Commonwealth Army of Jesus Christ that is his Church doth of necessity require for the fit Uniform and peaceable Government thereof a Supream Head a Supream Spiritual Magistrate to whom the Subjects thereof may have Recourse and from whom they may re-receive Directions in matters of Faith and Religion as need shall require To deny the Necessity of such a Supream Magistrate for the fit Government of the Church of Christ consisting of Men yea of so many several Nations differing in Laws Customs Affections Empire and the like is manifestly against Reason And to affirm that although such a Magistrate be extreamly needful for the due Government of His Church yet he neglected to provide Her of any such is to accuse him of want of Wit and Discretion for there was never yet amongst Civil People so simple a Founder of a Commonwealth or so simple a Law-maker that ordained no Supream Power in his Commonwealth no Interpreter of his Law no Judge to decide and end Controversies Christ then being Founder of the best Commonwealth that ever was and maker of the best Law that Mankind ever received it can be no less than Blasphemy to affirm that he left this his Noble Common-wealth without a Supream Magistrate to whom his People might have recourse and his Divine and Evangelical Law containing so many obscure Verities so many profound Mysteries without an Interpreter without a Judge to decide and end Controversies Moreover If Christ hath ordained no such Supream Magistrate Head or Guide of his Church in things Spiritual appertaining to Faith and Religion it seems to follow clearly and manifestly that every man is at liberty to believe what he list and to practise what Worship of God he thinks best What Unity then in Faith what Uniformity in the Worship of the Divinity can there be in the Church of Christ Or what sure means have Christian People to know who be right and who Heretical Believers Or to discern their true Prelates whom they are bound to obey Heb. 13. 17. from False Prophets from Heretical Teachers whom they are to shun under pain of Damnation Matth. 7. Tit. 3. Yea How can any man be proved to be a false Teacher if there be not some known true Teacher If no man hath Power and Authority from God to direct the Faith of others If no man be bound and obliged by Christ to Believe or to Teach as an other would have him how can any man be justly esteemed to Believe or Teach amiss Or why should he be reputed to Believe or Teach amiss if he be not bound to limit and square out his Faith and Teaching by the Judgement and Discretion of some other Wherefore either we must say that the Church of Christ is not to be obeyed that false Prophets are not to be avoided that no man doth Believe or Teach amiss so long as he Believes and Teaches well in his own Judgement and that no man is or can be in respect of Men an Heretick or a false Prophet All which is contrary to the Word of God and plainly overthroweth all Christianity or else we must affirm as the certain Truth is that God hath ordained and appointed some to teach and to direct others what they ought to Believe and Practise to obtain Life everlasting and others to be taught and guided What will Protestants to this Will they deny all possibility of Vnity and of Order in the Church and Family of Christ or else will they grant as Reason and as the Truth requires that God hath ordained some visible Ministerial Head some Supream Spiritual Magistrate in his Church to whom all may have Recourse in the Affairs of Religion and by whom all are bound to be directed in Points of Faith and in the Practise of his Divine Worship If this they grant I demand which is this Head this Spiritual Magistrate and in whom doth reside this Supream Spiritual Power and Authority Doth it reside in Supream Spiritual or in Supream Temporal Magistrates If in Supream Temporal doth it reside in one or in many If in one who is this Supream Temporal Magistrate Who hath Power and Authority even by Gods Ordination to direct the whole World all the Nations of the Earth in matters of Faith and in the Practise of Gods Worship And how is this proved out of the Word of God If this Supream Power reside not in any one Supream Temporal Magistrate Doth it by Gods Ordination reside in many that is in the Supream Temporal Magistracy of each Common-wealth in such sort that the Supream Temporal Magistrate Prince or King of each Commonwealth or Kingdom hath Power and Authority from God to direct the Subjects thereof in Faith and to appoint them what Religion they shall follow what Worship of God they shall practise If so then the Subjects of each Commonwealth are bound under Pain of
the Protestant Profession be Christ's True Religion and the Pure Light of his Gospel but hath ever made use to effect this admirable work of his Power and Mercy of the Blind and Superstitious Religion of the Papists That God for the space of above a thousand years in the Conversion of Heathen Nations and their Kings hath ever made use of Papistry is evident out of the Histories of former times which relates the Conversion of Nations Yea even in these latter times in which since the rising of the Protestant Religion the Faith of Christ hath been infinitely spread in the East and West-Indies and in divers vast Islands of the Sea amongst Heathen and Barbarous Nations God hath utterly neglected the True Religion and the pure Light of the Gospel that is the Protestant Religion And hath made use only of Papistry to make these Nations Blessed in Christ Now is not this a very likely thing if Papistry be a False and Protestancy the True Religion As likely certainly it is as that the Sea doth burn as that the Sun is dark and Snow black For to speak plain English If Protestancy be Gods Religion and Papistry the Devils in regard that God cannot in very deed be Author of both these Religions they being opposite and contrary one to the other How can God neglect the Protestant Religion and make use of Papistry to spread the Faith of his Son over the World to make thereby the Nations of the Earth Blessed in him Nay how can they be made Blessed in Christ by the help of the Devils Religion How can it become the Wisdom and Goodness of God to neglect his own Religion and to spread increase and exalt the Devils To neglect the True Light of the Gospel and to delude the Nations of the Earth with the Superstitions of Papistry Who then is so short and dim sighted that he doth not see that even from hence is most clearly prov'd that the Protestant Profession is not Gods Religion is not the Pure Light of the Gospel ordain'd by God to give Light to the Gentiles and to make them Blessed in Christ But a late and new Invention suggested by the Enemy of God to destroy in these Northern parts of the World that Religion which God made use of heretofore to root out Him and his Idolatrous Worship and to make these Nations Blessed in his Son I conclude then this Question with this Syllogism That is Gods Religion and the True Gospel and Doctrine of Christ which is Preached over the World to spread therein the Name and Faith of Christ for a Testimony to all Nations But Papistry and not Protestancy is so Preach'd over the World Ergo Papistry and not Protestancy is Gods Religion and the True Gospel and Doctrine of Christ The Major is certain and clear out of the Words of Christ Matth. 24. above-related The Minor is certain and also clear out of the Histories of former Times and also of this present Age. The conclusion follows well And so it rests demonstrated that the Holy Catholick Roman Faith Nick-nam'd Papistry is Gods Religion and the True Gospel of Christ Which will appear yet more clearly out of the Questions following Question V. Whether it be not a very inconsiderate thing and full of danger to prefer in matters of Faith and Religion the Teaching of Men before the Word of God ALthough the Arguments of the precedent Questions be firm and strong and sufficient to make Considerate Protestants to look about them yet many of them will be little mov'd therewith because they are possess'd with a strong imagination that Their Religion is grounded upon the word of God is squar'd out thereby and wholly or at least very much cleans'd from the Doctrines of men To free them from which false and dangerous Conceit and Perswasion I here demand Whether it be not a thing of great Inconsideration and of no small danger to prefer in matters of Faith and Religion the Teaching of Men the Doctrine of This or That Preacher before the Word of God Yea in effect to hazard and pawn ones Soul that the Teaching of these or those new Masters is truer and rather to be follow'd than the express word of God it self This will seem to Protestants a strange demand because they esteem Papists not a little culpable for relying too much upon the Doctrines of Men And therefore they will here bid me take my self by the Nose Nevertheless whatsoever they imagine I will easily here free Papists and prove them guilty of preferring the Doctrines of Men before the express Word of God. That Papists are not guilty of this Crime is clear enough First Because no Text of the Word of God taken in its proper Sense and as the Antient Fathers the general Councels the ever visible Catholick Church of Christ did take it doth directly contradict any Article held by the Roman Church For example no Text doth say that we are not justify'd by Faith and Good-Works That Works of Grace done in the state of Grace are not Meritorious That the Body of Christ is not really in the Holy Eucharist That Lawful Priests have not Power as Gods Instruments to Absolve from Sins rightly Confess'd That no Satisfaction is necessarily requir'd on our Parts That there is no Purgatory That it is not Lawful or Profitable to Pray to Saints to Honour them as Sanctify'd Creatures to respect Reverently their Reliques to have Holy Pictures and Reverently to regard them for the Love of Christ or his Saints and the like No Text I say of the Word of God doth expresly condemn These and the like Articles believ'd by Catholicks Though many make expresly for them as Catholick Divines do shew Secondly Although all True Catholicks do Humbly and Obediently believe as the Church Teaches And thereupon do firmly imbrace divers Articles propos'd by Her which are not in express Terms found in the Scriptures Yet in these very Points they do not believe the Doctrines of men or prefer the Doctrines of men before the express Word of God or hazard their Souls that the Teaching of Their Pastors is truer or rather to be follow'd than the Word of God But in these particular Articles they rely upon the Authority of God and believe the Word of God speaking in and by his Church which will not be hard to shew For the Office of Preaching the Word of God by Christ committed to his Apostles dy'd not with them but continu'd with their Successors And so the Preaching of their Successors was the Preaching of the Word of God not only in the first Age after the Apostles but in all succeeding Ages the Holy Ghost Ever abiding with them John 14. And Teaching them all Truth in matters of Faith John 16. Moreover in the Ages after the Apostles not only those who had Skill and Means to Read the Scriptures But those also who could not Read them might believe in Christ and might be Saved by him And consequently
Controversies about Faith and Religion now in question amongst Christian People which few I know have leisure or means fewer Capacity to look throughly unto or ability to distinguish always Light from Darkness Truth from Falsehood in them But my Endeavour is to stir you up to a serious consideration of certain general Heads and undenyable Truths which this little Treatise doth present unto you easie to be conceiv'd yet powerful to lay open even to mean Understandings the assured Light of the True Gospel of Christ and the absolute necessity of admitting some sure and un-erring Interpreter of God's Word by him ordained and enabled to deliver the right meaning thereof unto us in all Ages but especially when Controversies about Faith and Religion are raised which Interpreter being once admitted of and agreed upon all other Controversies about points of Belief will quickly be at an end Peace will be restored again to Christians and nothing will remain for the securing of Souls conjoin'd together in the Communion of Saints but a studious care to decline from Evil and to do Good and Industriously to imitate the Blessed Life of Christ But further yet to facilitate this affair be pleased to distinguish in the Belief of Catholicks whom I often call Papists to condescend to the Style of Protestants so terming them for adhering in Religion to the Pope in Latine Papa this word signifying Father as the common Spiritual Father of Christians and supreme Pastor of the Flock of Christ be pleased I say to distinguish in the Belief of Catholicks Divine Faith from Humane Their Articles of Faith from Humane Stories which many distinguishing not and thereupon perswading themselves that Catholicks with equal certainty and obligation believe the one and the other that is their Articles of Faith and the Humane Stories which relate the Lives Actions and Miracles of certain Saints and finding some of these to be very strange and to savour in their conceit of fraudulent Fictions take this to be a sufficient Warrant for them to contemn Papistry as a foolish ungrounded and fabulous Religion and to repute Papists indiscreetly credulous and plainly to be led in darkness and blindness But these do much mistake for the truth is that although all Catholicks be strictly bound to believe those points of Doctrine which their Church doth propose for Articles of Faith contained in the written word of God or in the perpetual Tradition of the Church or deduced by General Councils or by the Pastors of the Church out of God's Word when Heresies are condemned yet they are not bound to believe the Relations of particular Authors concerning the Actions and Miracles of Saints or other like things farther then discreet Prudence and Christian Piety doth lead them every Man being at liberty to weigh the worth and honesty of the Relator and the probability of the thing related and then to believe or not to believe as Reason and Piety shall dictate unto him Yet not forgetting that God is admirable in his Saints That His Wisdom Power Justice Mercy and Sweetness in Governing the World and in contriving and ordering the Affairs of Man's Salvation is far above the reach of our weak Understanding That frequently there is less danger in believing too much than in believing too little and that there are some as strange things related in the Holy Scriptures at which Atheists do stumble as are in the approved Histories of the Church Neither do Catholicks believe these Stories and their Articles of Faith with one and the same certainty for these Stories they believe meerly with Humane Faith for the Authority of the Relators who may Err mistake or deceive But their Articles of Faith they believe with Divine Faith for God's Authority speaking in his Word and by the ordinary Doctors and Pastors of his Church being bound under pain of forfeiting the Name of Catholicks and of incurring damnable Sin not to disbelieve wittingly any one of these Articles all of them being Divine Verities warranted for Truth by the Holy Ghost who continually guideth and directeth the Church in her Doctrine of Faith as is hereafter shewed out of Gods Word And so by disbelieving stubbornly the Articles of Faith which the Church professeth Heresie is incurred which is not incurred by disbelieving her Stories Furthermore if hereafter I affirm not for want of Charity but forced by unanswerable Arguments drawn from the word of God that the Followers of the Protestant Religion so dying are not sav'd take me to speak of those who culpably prefer this Religion before the Catholick or culpably dye therein being thereby destitute of that Faith and Charity which is of necessity required to Salvation and not of those who being truly Baptiz'd and brought up among Protestants have excusable Ignorance of the Catholick Faith and Church by reason either of their tender Years or of their weak Capacities or else of their mean and rude Education for such are secret Members of the Catholick Church and therefore if they depart this Life cloathed with those Garments of Christ with which he adorned them in the Sacrament of Baptism not having fallen into mortal Sin they shall certainly inherit the Kingdom of Heaven In which happiness none shall be Sharers that pass out of this Life destitute of Divine Faith which is the Gift of God of which more hereafter or defiled with Mortal Sin which is so called because it destroys the supernatural life of the Soul received by Regeneration in Baptism consisting in Divine Faith and other Celestial Virtues but especially in Sanctifying Grace and divine Charity without which Divine Charity nothing doth avail to Salvation as the Apostle teaches 1 Cor. 1. 13. Lastly because divers Protestant Teachers endeavour to make their Followers believe That the Fathers of the Primitive Church were Protestants seeking thereby to Illustrate the Protestant Religion that the greatness and boldness of this Imposture pardon the Word for I know not how otherwise to express truly the dealing of these Men may clearly appear I humbly intreat all understanding Protestants which know it not to take notice That those ancient Worthies and Lights of the Church of Christ were either Monks or Founders of Monastical Discipline or at least Approvers and Praisers of the same St. Anthony was a Monk and St. Athanasius his Praiser St. Basil the Great a Monk and the Founder of a Monastical Institute which in the Eastern part of the World is yet practised St. Gregory the Divine was a Monk St. Chrysostom a Monk St. Hierom a Monk the Great St. Augustine the Founder of a Monastical course of Life St. Martin a Monk St. Benedict a Monk and Founder of the Famous Order of Benedictine Monks which does yet flourish in the Western Church St. Gregory the Great was a Monk and by the Labours of Fourty Monks did first plant Christianity amongst the English Let any Man judge how likely or how true it is that these men were Protestants Secondly take notice that
Church and saving Faith of Christ Following New Inventions in Religion tending to Liberty Of which they can never be groundedly secure that they are sufficient to Salvation as this little Treatise doth make too too manifest Some Protestants perchance being loath to grant that their Church and Religion had no Being at all upon Earth for the last five hundred years before Luther And yet not able to nominate with any colour of Truth where their Church then was and where their Religion was believ'd and practis'd there being no Record or foot-step of these things extant in the World will affirm that for many Ages before â—â—ther their Church lay hidden under Papistry But how do they know this Doth the word of God teach any such thing If the Papists which then liv'd did not know of any such thing or that there was any such Church How do the Protestants that now live know it Certainly this saying is too too Childish and fitter for Idiots or Mad-men to make then for men of Judgement For thereby Anabaptists Quakers new Arrians or any other foolish Hereticks whatsoever may pretend that their Churches and Religions were ever extant in all former Ages and ever in practice in the World even since the times of the Apostles Than the which what can be more ridiculous My first Question then cannot be so Answer'd by Protestants as may satisfy the Consciences of Prudent men But let us pass to the next Question II. If Luther was not the first Teacher of the Protestant Religion to whom did he immediately succeed in the Office of Teaching the same Where also is treated of the Mission of the Protestant Teachers IF Luther was not the first Teacher of the Protestant Religion to whom did he immediately succeed in the Office of Teaching the same If in this Office he did not succeed to any other Doctor who had the same before as most certainly he did not for no such former Teacher of the Protestant Religion can be nam'd then clear it is that Luther was the first Teacher of the Protestant Faith and Religion Further then I demand Who set him a work to Teach as he did God Or the Enemy of God and Man Not God most certainly 1. Because nothing can be said to justify the new Teaching of Luther which may not be said to justify the new Teaching of Arius or of Nestorius or of the Anabaptists and Quakers or of any other false Prophet and Heretick that ever was Let Tryal be made and this will be found to be most true For by the self-same ways by which Luther can prove himself to come from God any Heretick may prove himself to come from God. Will Luther say that he had a private Instinct from God That he saw there was great need to Reform the Doctrine of the Church That the People and Princes who follow'd him gave him Calling and the like The self-same might Arius have said the self-same may the Quakers and Anabaptists say and the self-same may any False Teacher say that can get People to follow him 2. Because it is certain that Luther had no Calling or Mission from God at all Without Calling and Mission from whom no man may take upon him the Office of Preaching and of Pasturing the People of God as is clear out of his Holy Word Rom. 10. 15. Heb. 5. 4. For he came not from God either by Ordinary or by Extraordinary Mission And so he had no sending from him at all For God doth use no other sorts of sending because no other are fit to distinguish the True Preachers of God from the False Prophets of the Devil For Calling and Mission from Temporal Magistrates from the Common People or pretended from private Instincts are agreeable and common to False Prophets and Heretical Teachers And some of these for want of better when they are urg'd they ever pretend But Ordinary or Extraordinary Mission they are never able to shew Extraordinary Mission God doth use when he sendeth any one to make notable Mutation about Religion But then to assure the World that those whom He doth so send do come indeed from him he doth ever furnish them with the Gift of Heavenly Miracles Which Gift is as it were His Broad-Seal set to their Commission Whereby they are easily distinguish'd from False Prophets and Heretical Teachers By this manner of Mission God sent Moses and Aaron and Christ and his Apostles to make those Mutations and Additions about Religion which they made furnishing them with the Gift of Miracles as is plain out of his Sacred Word Which Gift was so necessary even to the Blessed Son of God himself notwithstanding the great Sanctity of his Life and Excellency of his Doctrine The plain Predictions of the Holy Prophets and the weighty Testimony of St. John the Baptist that he affirmeth John 15. 24. That if he had not done amongst the Jews Works that no other had done they should not have sinned In refusing Him for their Messias Must Luther then his Life and Doctrine being such as it was be receiv'd as sent from God by Extraordinary Mission to make so great a change in Religion as he did without any Miracles at all Who will think so but inconsiderate blind or mad-men But Note here by the way a thing worth the observing That those whom God doth send by Extraordinary Mission do never exclaim against the Church of God and the Ordinary Pastors thereof which were before their time as though they had err'd in matters of Faith and abus'd and mis-led the People of God as appears by the 23 d. of St. Matthew But this is ever the Property of Heretical Teachers rais'd up by the Devil to seduce Souls who always pretend to Teach the Church and People of God better than they were taught before And thereupon they cry out that the Church and her Pastors had Grievously Err'd Till they forsooth came and discover'd the True Light of the Gospel But how False and Fond the proceeding of such men is will appear by that which follows in the sequel of this Treatise By Ordinary Mission God doth send those who immediately or in the time of Succession mediately succeed by due Consecration and Authorizing in the Office of governing in things Spiritual and Pasturing the People of God to them who were sent from him by Extraordinary Mission In this manner the Priests of the Law of Moses succeeding Aaron by Generation Consecration and Authorizing had Ordinary Mission from God during the time that That Law was in force And in like manner the Pastors and Doctors of the Law of Grace succeeding to the Apostles by due Consecration and Authorizing have Ordinary Mission from God during the time that this Law is to be in force Which is even till the Day of Judgement Which succeed I say to the Apostles by due Consecration and Authorizing that is by that Consecration and Authorizing which Christ ordain'd to confer Divine and Spiritual Power to
his Pastors For this Power being a Divine and Supernatural thing a participation of the Power of Christ and of Force and Efficacy to Bind and Loose Souls to Cleanse them from Sin and to Sanctifie them no Mortal man though never so eminent in Temporal Magistracy is able to invent and ordain Means to give and impart the same And therefore strange and audacious was their attempt who in the time of Edward the VI. invented a New Form to Consecrate Arch-Bishops Bishops and Priests and to Endue them with Divine and Spiritual Power But into this Errour they fell by the singular Providence of God that thereby Infinite Sacriledges and Abuses of the Blessed Sacrament might be avoided Which would have happen'd in This Kingdom if Protestant Bishops and Ministers had been True Priests indeed Out of this Doctrine which is most True it clearly followeth that neither Luther nor any other Protestant Teacher whatsoever had or hath any True Calling or Mission from God at all For manifest it is that none of these Teachers had Extraordinary Mission from God For they could never yet shew his Broad-Seal which is the Gift of Miracles And as manifest it is that they have not Ordinary Mission from him For they cannot possibly extend the Line of their Succession beyond Luther's time or Nominate any Rank of Pastors reaching up to the Apostles Times to whom these men do succeed in the Office of Teaching the Protestant Religion Dangerous then is the state of all Protestants because really and in very deed they want True Pastors sent from God. But some will say that the Case of English Protestants is not so bad because they have Bishops who have Ordination from the Church of Rome I answer First That these their Bishops have indeed a certain shaddow of Ordination but not the thing it self because in their Ordination the same Matter and Form is not us'd by which Priestly Power is confer'd in the Roman Church But that which was Invented in the days of Edward the VI. and Ratify'd in the time of Queen Elizabeth by which Divine Power cannot be given Secondly I answer that if these English Prelates were truly Bishops and Priests indeed yet this could nothing avail them or their Followers Because this is not sufficient to True Mission from God in regard that over and above this true Faculty and Authorizing from the Ordinary Pastors of the Roman Church to Teach and Pasture the People of Christ Succession of Truth in Dogmatical Points is of necessity requir'd to Ordinary Mission from God. Which Faculty and Authorizing our English Bishops wanting they should thereby be destitute of all True Mission from God although they were indeed True Bishops as it befell the Arian and Nestorian Bishops and Priests Which having True Ordination and being Truly Bishops and Priests were notwithstanding destitute of all True Mission from God being thereof depriv'd by God and his Church in regard of their Rebellion against the Church and of the false Heretical Doctrine which they Taught For Christ would have it to be in the Power of the Pastors of his Church to deprive False Teachers of all Authority to Teach and to expel them out of his Flock that they might not ruine the Souls of his People Thirdly I answer That Protestant Pastors cannot have True Mission from the Roman Church though she would bestow it upon them Which she would never do unless they will become Catholicks and will undertake the Teaching and Re-planting of the Catholick Religion Gods Grace and the care of their own Salvation and of the Salvation of those numerous Flocks of People which follow them drawing them to enterprise so Heroical and Divine a work Which point I shew thus Either the Pastors of the Roman Church or the Pastors of the Protestant Church are False Prophets False Teachers False Explicators of the Word of God and of the Mysteries of Christ This is evident for they cannot be both Orthodoxal Teachers seeing they contradict one the other about many of the Principal Articles of the Christian Religion If the Pastors of the Roman Church be False Prophets and Heretical Teachers They have no Mission from God themselves being by him prohibited to Teach as all False Prophets are How then can they impart true and Divine Mission to others But if the Pastors of the Protestant Church be False Prophets falsely Teaching and Expounding the word of God and the Religion and Mysteries of Christ then They are wholly incapable of True Mission God himself prohibiting them to Teach because False Doctrine in matters of Faith doth tend to the ruine of Souls as is clear out of the Word of God Matth. 7. 15. And so the Roman Church if she would cannot give Protestant Bishops and Ministers True Mission and sending from God. Out of the Doctrine deliver'd in this Question which is solid and true it clearly followeth that the Protestant Religion is not truly Apostolick that is descending from the Apostles and the same that they Believ'd and Taught Though it pleases the Teachers thereof so to stile it to make it the more acceptable to their followers Even as bitter Pills are sometimes Gilt with Gold that they may the more easily be swallow'd The reason is that this Religion doth not descend from the Apostles by a continual Line of Doctors and Pastors one succeeding the other in the Office of Teaching and practising the Protestant Religion which reacheth through all Ages even up to the Apostles If any Protestant will answer to this that they esteem not their Religion Apostolick because it descendeth from the Apostles by such a Line of Succession But because it is shap'd out according to the Model of the Religion of the Apostles express'd in the Word of God so near as the Founders and Shapers thereof could guess I reply first that I will then grant that the Protestant Religion may be stil'd Apostolick in this sense when all Protestants shall be agreed among themselves which Sect of theirs is best shap'd out according to the Model of the Apostles Religion express'd in the word of God and cometh nearest to the Purity thereof That is whether the Lutherans or the Swinglians or the Calvinists or the Anabaptists or the Quakers or the new Arians or the Parliamentary Protestants or the Puritans have shap'd out their Religion best and nearest to the Purity of the Apostles times But as they will never be agreed of this the best rule to guide them in the work of shaping out Religion being but the private guess of this or that Sect-Master or Sect So I shall never be tyed to grant their Religion to be Apostolick Secondly I answer that according to this manner of proceeding every Heretick will prove his new Devices in Religion to be Apostolick If he himself may be Judge and may have leave to Sense and Expound the Scriptures as his own Guess and Conceit shall lead him Which absurd Liberty being deny'd to Protestants they can never
prove even in this Sense their Religion to be Apostolick Question III. If the Protestant Religion be Truly Catholick When was it spread over the World and what Heathen Nations hath it Converted to Christ IF the Protestant Religion be truly Catholick as the Teachers thereof do stile it it is now and in former Ages must have been spread over the World. For Christ as Daniel foretold c. 2. Was to grow into a Mountain that is into a Church which is his Mystical Body that was to fill the whole Earth And as the Royal Prophet Sung Psal 2. He was to have the Gentiles for his Inheritance and the ends of the Earth for his Possession The Christians also of all Ages were bound to believe a Catholick Church according to the Creed of the Apostles as I before shew'd Which being so if Protestants have been this Catholick Church and their Religion the most common and Vniversal Religion believ'd over the World They must have spread themselves and their Religion over the World by Converting Heathen Nations to Christ according to the clear Promises of God made to the Patriarchs that in their Seed that is in Christ all the Nations of the Earth should be Blessed Which Promises you shall find in my tenth Question and according to the words of Christ Matth. 24. saying This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be Preached in the whole World for a Testiomny to all Nations And then shall come the Consummation That is the end of the World. Now then I demand of Protestants what Heathen Nations in this and in former Ages they have Converted to the Belief and Practice of their Religion and have thereby spread the same over the World as the True Catholick Faith of Christ ought to be spread If they cannot truly name any such Nations as indeed they cannot unless they will feigne Let them confess as the certain Truth is that their Religion is neither Truly Catholick but so term'd to delude the simple nor the true Faith of Christ by which in him the Nations of the Earth are to be Blessed Let each Prudent Protestant who truly seeks Salvation thoroughly weigh this Point Question IV. What likelihood there is that to bring to pass and effect the great and Merciful work of the Conversion of the Nations of the Earth and of their Kings to Christ God hath never yet made use of the True Religion of Christ and of the Pure Light of his Gospel IT is certain out of the Word of God alledg'd in the last Question that Christ was to have the Gentiles for his Inheritance and the ends of the Earth for his Possession as the Royal Prophet foretold Psal 2. 8. That is He was to destroy false Religions and the Worship of False Gods and of the Devil through the World and to introduce his own Divine and most Holy Religion and the True Worship of one God amongst the Nations of the Earth Thereby to bring unto them the Blessing Promised Gen. c. 12. c. 22. c. 26. c. 28. and Psal 71. 2ly It is also certain that Christ was to enter upon this his Inheritance and to begin the ruine of Idolatry and the Conversion of the Gentiles by the Preaching of his Apostles within some few years after his Ascension As is clear out of the Commission which he gave them Matth. 28. saying Go Teach all Nations and out of the words of St. Paul Act. 13. saying to the Jews To you it behoov'd us first to speak the Word of God But because you repel it and judge your selves unworthy of Eternal Life behold we turn to the Gentiles for so our Lord commanded us I have put thee to be the Light of the Gentiles that thou mayest be Salvation unto the utmost of the Earth Isaias 49. Thirdly It is certain that although the Conversion of the Gentiles was to be begun by the Apostles yet it was not to be compleatly finish'd by them but was to be continued by their Successors the Doctors and Pastors of the Church Ephes 4. 12. And not to be accomplish'd till toward the end of the World as is clear out of Gods word Matth. 24. Where our Saviour being ask'd a Sign of his coming to Judgement and of the end of the World gave the compleat Preaching of his Gospel to all Nations for a sign thereof saying This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be Preached in the whole World for a Testimony to all Nations and then shall come the Consummation This also is manifest out of Isaias by whom God foretold the conversion of the Kings of the Earth to Christ his Son and their lowly subjection to his Church saying v. 7. c. 49. Kings shall see and Princes shall arise and Adore for the Lords sake And again Kings shall be thy Nursing Fathers and Queens thy Nurses With Countenance cast down toward the ground they shall Adore thee and they shall lick the Dust of thy feet And c. 60. Thy Gates shall be open continually day and night they shall not be shut that the strength of the Gentiles may be brought to thee and their Kings may be brought For the Nation and the Kingdom that shall not serve thee shall perish And a little after speaking again of the Church of Christ gather'd out of the Gentiles he says For that thou wast forsaken viz. in the time of the Law of Moses and hated and there was none that pass'd by thee I will make thee to be the pride of Worlds a joy unto Generation and Generation And thou shalt suck the milk of the Gentiles And thou shalt be Nursed with the Teats of Kings Out of which clear Prophesies it seems to be manifest that the chief Conversion of the Gentiles was to be effected long after the times of the Apostles When the Roman Empire the strength then of the Gentiles in the time of Constantine the Great And in the following Ages the Kings and Princes of Spain France England Scotland Ireland Denmark Norway Swedeland Poland Hungary and of other Countries were Converted to the Faith of Christ and wonderfully Honour'd and Inrich'd his Church as the Laws of exemption which they made or receiv'd the Edifices which they Built and Bishopricks and Monasteries which they Founded and Endowed do abundantly testify For in the Apostles days and some Ages after was rather fulfill'd the Prediction of Christ foretelling Luke 21. That his Disciples and Servants should be Hated before Kings and Presidents and should be Despis'd Persecuted and Kill'd by them Which things being so I demand of Prudent and Considerate Protestants what probability there is that to bring to pass the Divine and Merciful work of the Conversion of the Nations of the Earth and of their Kings to the Chaste and Holy Faith of Christ and to the Worship of the true God from the Impure Service of False Gods and detestable Worship of the Devil God hath never made use of the True Religion of Christ and of the Pure Light of his Gospel if
they might have true Faith in him Which they could not have but by Believing the Word of God The Apostle saying Rom. 10. Faith is by Hearing and Hearing is by the Word of Christ Whilst such then Heard and Believ'd The Doctrine of the Church that is the Teaching of the Doctors and Pastors of the Church they Heard and Believ'd the Word of God The same do Papists now Futhermore it cannot be doubted but that the Gospel and Voice of Christ is the Word of God and that those which hear these hear the Word of God. But the Preaching and Teaching of the Doctors and Pastors of the Church of Christ is the Gospel and Voice of Christ Ergo c. This is clear out of Matth. 24. where Christ says This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be Preach'd in the whole World for a Testimony to all Nations and then shall come the Consummation For who do Preach this Gospel in all Ages till the end of the World but the Doctors and Pastors of the Church Their Preaching then is the Gospel of Christ and consequently the Word of God. Christ likewise says John 10. speaking of his Sheep which he is to gather out of the Gentiles even till the end of the World Other Sheep I have which are not of this Fold that is of the Flock of the Jews Them also I must bring and they shall hear my Voice Christ did not nor doth not Preach to the Gentiles to gather his Sheep from amongst them in all Ages by his own Corporal Voice But by the Voice and Teaching of the Pastors of his Church Their Voice then is his Voice and consequently the Word of God. Which is yet further shew'd out of Luke 10. where Christ says to his Pastors and Teachers He that heareth you heareth me Wherefore while Papists do hear the Teaching of the Doctors and Pastors of the Church lineally succeeding the Apostles they hear the Word of God the Gospel of Christ the Voice of Christ yea Christ himself And therefore they cannot be justly said to believe in matters of Faith the Doctrines of men Or to hazard their Souls upon the Doctrines of men But upon the Authority of God speaking in and by that Church which his continual assistance maketh to be The Pillar and ground of Truth 1 Tim. 3. But the Case is not so with Protestants For they do not only rely and hazard their Souls upon the Doctrines of Men But they also prefer the Doctrines of men before the express Word of God. For in divers most weighty Points of Religion they leave not only the Antient Fathers the General Councils and the ever visible and Catholick Church of Christ but even the Word of God it self to follow the Teaching of their new Masters This will seem at first a strange or rather a very Injurious and Contumelious Imputation But let us make it plain by some examples The Word of God says James 2. 24. Do you see that a man is justify'd by Works and not by Faith only But Protestant Teachers say that a man is justify'd Not by Works but by Faith only Mark how directly they contradict the Word of God. For that says By Works and not by Faith only And these do Protestants believe rather than the express Word of God in the weighty point of Justification On which their Salvation depends which is not obtain'd but by the true manner of Justification Secondly The Word of God says Luke 1. 6. That the Parents of John the Baptist Were both Just before God walking in all the Commandments and Justifications of our Lord without blame Whence it clearly follows that this Holy Couple kept all Gods Commandments For he that breaks them doth not Walk in them without blame The Word of God likewise says 1 John 5. 3. This is the Charity of God that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not heavy But Protestant Teachers generally affirm that the Commandments of God are Impossible are such as no man can keep are Insupportable And confequently they must say that no man is bound to keep them For no man is bound to do more than he is able By which Doctrine they do not only loose the Bridle to all Vice and make God more Indiscreet and more Tyrannical than any other Commander in the World But They also flatly contradict the word of God Which not only shews that some men have kept the Commandments but also expresly affirms that they are not Heavy And yet Protestants rather believe these than the Word of God in this most weighty point But Note well what follows against these Teachers out of the Word of God 1 John 2. 4. Which there says He who saith he knows God and does not keep his Commandments is a Lyer and the Truth is not in him But Protestant Teachers affirm that they rightly know God but do not nor cannot keep his Commandments Ergo They are Lyars Our Saviour Instituting the Holy Eucharist says Luke 22. 19. This is my Body which is given for you But English Ministers generally say That the Eucharist is not Christ's Body which was given for us that is his True Body But a Figure or remembrance of it Christ says My Body which is given for you That is my True Body For his True Body was given for Us suffer'd for Us and not a Figure or Remembrance thereof But these new Teachers say Not his True Body not that which was given for Vs that suffer'd for Vs But a Figure of it which the Word of God no where Teaches And thus they flatly contradict the Word of God in this most important Article of Faith On the right Belief and Use of which Salvations depends as is manifest out of the 6 St. Joh. and out of the 11. of the 1 of Corinthians And yet These our English Protestants believe rather than the Word of God though it expresly says That the Eucharist is the Body of Christ The Flesh of Christ He himself saying John 6. 51. The Bread which I will give is my Flesh for the Life of the World. 4ly Daniâ—l 2. 44. The VVord of God says In the days of those Kingdoms the God of Heaven will raise up a Kingdom that is the Church of Christ that shall not be dissipated for ever And his Kingdom shall not be deliver'd to another people And it shall break in pieces and shall consume all these Kingdoms and it shall stand for ever Of which Church of Christ speaking again c. 7. He saith His Power is an Eternal Power that shall not be taken away and his Kingdom that shall not be corrupted Conformable to which clear Prophecy of Daniel concerning the Perpetuity and Incorruption of the Kingdom and Church of the Messias Christ speaking of his Church Matth. 16. says And the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against her That is The Power of the Devil and false Doctrines by which men are seduc'd and brought to Hell. John 14. 16. He says That
the Holy Ghost should Abide with his Apostles for ever That is with them and their Successors the Doctors and Pastors of his Church For they were not in their own Persons to abide for ever with the Church to Teach and Guide her And John 16. 13. He says That the same Divine Spirit should Teach them all Truth In respect of whose continual abode with the Church to Teach her in matters of Faith and Religion All Truth St. Paul stiles her 1 Tim. 3. 15. The Pillar and ground of Truth But Protestant Teachers say that the Church of Christ Hath been Corrupted That the Gates of Hell that is the Devil and his Instruments Have prevail'd against her and have fill'd her with Pernicious Errors and Superstitions for above these thousand years That the Holy Ghost hath not taught her All Truth but hath given place to the Devil permitting him to replenish her with Errors and Superstitions to the ruine and loss of Infinite Christian Souls That She is not the Pillar and ground of Truth But the receptacle and sink of falshood And thus they directly contradict the Word of God about this prime and most important Article of the Truth and Incorruption of the Church of Christ in matters of Faith and Religion And yet Protestants rather believe Them than the clear Word of God so much doth draw and blind the Love of Novelty and Liberty But they will say we leave not the Word of God to follow the Teaching of Men But to follow the right meaning of the Word of God deliver'd unto Us by our Teachers I answer First Have you just cause to think that these your Teachers who have neither Unity nor Sanctity nor Antiquity nor the Gift of Miracles nor any true Calling and sending from God do rather deliver unto you the right meaning of the Word of God than the Antient Fathers General Councils and ever Visible Church of Christ guided by the Holy Ghost I believe not I Answer Secondly That you are mistaken For you leave the Word of God to follow the Interpretation of your Teachers Which Interpretation is not Gods Word but their Word their Conceit their Doctrine and Explication of Gods Word To follow which you leave as I have shew'd the express Word of God. And therefore most true it is that you leave the Word of God to follow the Doctrines of Men If your Teachers be men Thirdly I answer That if Affection did not make your Judgements miscarry you might easily see that the Doctrine of your Teachers being so directly contrary to the VVord of God cannot be the meaning thereof For God in his Sacred VVord Ordain'd to instruct and not to delude us and in his profound Mysteries doth not use to speak one thing and to mean the clean contrary To say that the Eucharist is his Body and to mean That it is not his Body but a Figure of it To say that men are justify'd by Works and not by Faith only And to mean that they are not justify'd by Works but by Faith only For this manner of dealing is fitter for a Jugler than for God And if the same be once allow'd of what foolish wicked damnable Heresie can there be that may not be thus defended by Scripture Or what Articles of the Christian Faith may be firmly prov'd out of the Word of God if wilfull head-strong Presumptions Teachers may in this sort Explicate Delude and Contradict the clear plain and Literal Sense thereof If any one desire to see more places of Gods word contradicted in this manner by Protestant Teachers let him look in the Industrious Collation of Doctor Smith formerly Bishop of Calcedon and he shall there find demonstrated to his Eye that these men by their new Doctrine do oppose the express VVord of God in above two hundred Points of Religion now Controverted betwixt the Catholicks and them So far off they are from Teaching the Pure VVord of God as they make their Credulous Followers believe And so wide their Doctrine is from being the True Light of the Gospel as they usually stile it VVhereas in very deed it is only their own new Interpretation of the Gospel not the Gospel it self As is evident by the multitude of Sects which are amongst them Some being Lutherans others Swinglians others Anabaptists others Calvinists others new Arians others Quakers some Puritans some Arminians some Parliamentary Protestants and the like VVhich could not happen if all their Teachers indeed did follow the VVord of God that being but one and not their several Explications and Interpretations of it VVhence it doth clearly appear that the state of Protestants is most dangerous Because in those Points of Doctrine in which they differ from the Old Religion instead of following the VVord of God they meerly follow the VVord of Men. Question VI. Whether God hath left to Christian People any sure Rule of Faith any certain Guide in matters of Religion any Infallible Interpreter of his Word TO discover to Protestants the true Root of their Division into so many Sects I demand of them whether they have any certain Rule of Faith or no That is whether they have any sure and un-erring Guide to Direct them in matters of Faith to the right meaning of the VVord of God Any Infallible Proposer of their Articles of Faith Any un-erring Director in the profound Mysteries of the Christian Religion and in the practice of the Worship of God If they have none of these How can their Faith be certain If it be uncertain doubtful wavering as indeed it is for want of a sure Rule to guide it by With what Prudence may Christian People hazard their Souls therein If Protestants have any certain Rule of Faith why do not the Learned of their Churches make use thereof to agree and attone the Controversies which are among them That they are divided into such several Branches as I a little before nam'd cannot be deny'd That they jar and contend about weighty Points of Religion is manifest For they differ about Predestination the Cause of Sin the Redemption of Christ his Descending into Hell his Ascension up to Heaven and sitting at the Right-hand of God his Equality with his Father the Baptizing of Infants the Real Presence of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist Church Government Ceremonies and like Which to be weighty matters and such as wring the Conscience beside the Nature it self of these things is clearly shew'd by the Reluctation of our English Non-conformists But to avoid the Disgrace of uncertainty in Matters of Faith some Protestants will say that they want not a Sure Rule to square out their Faith by For the Scripture to them is a certain and Infallible Guide But to manifest how defective this Answer is I demand whether the Scripture of it self or Interpreted be a sure Rule of Faith If of it self without the help of an Interpreter it be such a Rule Why have not all that read it
one and the same Faith Why do not all believe the self same Articles and Divine Verities if the Scripture it self clearly and distinctly propose them to all Where the Rule is certain all that is measur'd by it is Uniform and of the same quantity As is manifest by a Pound by a Quart by an Ell by a Bushel and the like And therefore if the Scripture of it self without the help of any Interpreter be unto Men a sure Rule a certain and stinted measure of Faith it doth to all that Read or Hear it measure shape and square out one and the same Belief one and the same Religion one and the same Worship of God. But this is evidently false Ergo evidently also false it is that the Scripture of it self without the help of an Interpreter is a sure Rule and Guide in matters of Faith. For what is more manifest then that several Readers left to the guidance of the Scripture it self and not tyed to any Interpreter do gather out of it several and opposite Faiths and Religions though they use all Humane Diligences to understand them rightly and be never so Learn'd never so well skill'd in the Greek and Hebrew Tongues This is evident by the several branches of Protestants before-nam'd Who all take the Scripture it self as they say and pretend for their Guide and Director in matters of Faith and Religion And yet they differ and contend so infinitely as they do Which differing and contending we must not conceive to spring in them meerly from Malice and the Spirit of Contention But rather from the Obscurity of the Scripture and the depth and profundity of the Mysteries therein contain'd In which our weak understandings may easily mistake and may easily be deluded by the Devil if we want the help of a sure and Infallible Interpreter This I think understanding Protestants will not deny And therefore if they will have the Scripture to be a Sure Rule to direct their Faith and Religion by will they nill they they must admit of and adjoyn to the Scripture a sure un-erring and Infallible Interpreter thereof But such an one it is impossible for them to find unless they will leave the Protestant and return to the Catholick Faith again For seeing they reject the Interpretation of Fathers of Councels of the Ordinary Doctors and Pastors of the Church And hold that the Church of Christ may err yea and hath shamfully and perniciously err'd for above these thousand years where will they find an Vn-erring Interpreter of the Scripture Or in whom hath God plac'd this high most necessary and most important Office If he hath not placed it in the Doctors and Pastors of his Church which he hath ordain'd to Perfect his People and to keep them from wavering in matters of Faith Ephes 4. And which the Holy Ghost hath plac'd in the Flock of Christ Act. 20. To govern the Church of God Hath he placed it in the Temporal Magistrates of Kingdoms and Common-wealths Or in some one Temporal Magistrate to whom God hath committed the Teaching and directing of all Nations If God hath not placed this most needful Office in General Councels consisting of the Learned Sages and Prelates of the Church hath he plac'd it in the Parliaments of England consisting for the most part of unlearned Lay-men I think no Sober Protestant will say so Neither will any Vnderstanding Protestant I think fly here to the private Spirit And make thereby every Crack-brain'd Scripturist an Infallible Interpreter of Gods Word For if hither he fly not only a Quaker an Anabaptist a Presbyterian but a Taylor also a Button-maker Weaver or Cobler will make his Party good with any Doctor the Protestants have and dart Text for Text with him for whole Hours together without loosing one Inch of ground Till Church Authority the deadly Weapon of the Papists be urg'd against him By urging which against these Fanatick People Protestant Prelates do not a little or sleightly Wound themselves they being as blame-worthy indeed if not much more for resisting the Authority of the Catholick Church of Christ as these are for resisting the Authority of the Church of England Nevertheless I approve not but detest the Male-peart boldness of these and the like Ignorants Who transgressing the bounds to them prescrib'd and entring upon to their own Perdition the smoaking mount of the Holy Scriptures Exod. 19. wherein God doth speak to Moses and Aaron and deliver his Sacred Oracles to be by them made known to his People dare take upon them to interpret the same and to search into and Sense the Profound Mysteries of God wickedly betrampling with their Impure Feet and Polluting with their base Conceits those pure but deep Fountains of Heavenly Verities It being their Duty to Learn and not to Teach Yet I cannot but pitty their Mislead Zeal Which if it were steer'd by the True Church of Christ would Inrich their Souls with the precious Jewels of many Christian Virtues whereas now it is likely to be the utter ruine of them Neither can I but greatly blame those who to draw these weak and unwary People off and to seperate them from the Breast of the Catholick Church At which they were securely nourish'd with the Milk of Celestial Doctrine Meat befiting their state and Weakness did put the Bible into their Prophane Hands inviting them to the Gospel to the Pure Light and Liberty of the Gospel And assuring them that those Sacred Volumes were easie to be understood and that in them they were to seek for the Truth of Gods Religion as being ordain'd by him for the Reading and Instruction of all And to facilitate this desir'd separation those New Teachers spar'd not to Disgrace with all Art and Cunning the Rank and Dignity of the Prelates of the Church and to Vilify Church-Authority Proclaiming it to be Tyrannical And that to urge men to believe as the Church doth Teach was no less than plain Butchering of Consciences But when these New Masters had effected what they sought and by the help of Temporal Power had brought Multitudes of People under their Command Then presently they stept into the place of the Antient Prelates Took their Authority upon them and in matters of Faith and Religion would have all to dance after their Pipe all to believe not what they themselves Learn'd out of the Book of God but what these men thought fit to propose That Book now being too hard for Vulgar People for the Unlearn'd sort Who now must stand below and not ascend and enter upon that obscure and smoking Mountain But must hear Moses and Aaron must hear Authoriz'd Teachers must obey the voice of the Church viz. Of Saxony of Geneva of England and must follow in Saxony one Faith in Geneva another in England another Now they must learn the Law of God from the mouth of Teachers allow'd of by the Commonwealth and be ty'd to believe what they propose And therefore in Saxony
they must not budge from Luther in Geneva from Calvin in England from the Belief Establish'd by Parliament Which if they do presently they are urg'd and sometimes born down by Church Authority Presently excellent and pithy Sentences extolling Church Authority and shewing the Necessity thereof are Alleadg'd Magnify'd urg'd in Sermons in Books out of the Scripture out of Tertullian St. Cyprian Lirinensis and other Fathers Notwithstanding that these very Sentences through the sides of these poor Ignorants do deadly stab the Hearts of those which alleadge them for disobeying that very Church Authority which these Sentences speak of and commend But with what Equity if I may be so bold as to ask with what Security of Conscience do these Authoriz'd Teachers proceed against these Zealous Ignorants for following that Belief which they gather out of the Word of God put into their Hands by these their Teachers and force them to follow another which by the very Rules and Tenets of these men they cannot but esteem Superstitious May they not justly say If the Scripture only be the Rule of Faith why do ye not permit us to believe what we find therein If it be easie to be understood why do you punish us for holding that Doctrine which we gather out of it If it be not easie why do you put it into our Hands If we are not bound to believe in Points of Faith any thing that is not expresly in the Scripture why will ye force us to believe and practice that which there we find not If Church Authority is to be rejected why do you interpose yours If it be a Butchering of Consciences to force men to Believe as the Church doth Teach Why do you force us to Believe as you Teach If you contemn the Authority of the â—ver Visible Church why do you force us to Reverence and to stoop to yours What signes do you shew what Miracles do you work to demonstrate unto us that your Church Authority is rather to be Follow'd rather to be Obey'd than the Church Authority of the Antient Fathers of the General Councels of the ever Visible Church of Christ If Church Authority be to be Follow'd be to be Reverenc'd be to be Obey'd Restore Us to that which Hoary Autiquity which Succession of Prelates which Consent of Nations which Excellent Sanctity which Manifest Miracles do commend unto Us. If it is to be rejected leave us to Gods Word and force not our Consciences against that Light which shineth unto us in Reading the same Thus may these misled People now complain against those who having drawn them out of the Bosom of the Catholick Church do now endeavour to Inthrawl them to themselves But much more terrible I fear will be the Bill of Complaint which one day they are likely to put up at the Chancery Bar of Heaven if a speedy and serious Course be not taken to restore these misled Souls again to the secure feeding of their Mother Church Which God of his Mercy bring to pass for the Eternal Happiness both of Them and their Leaders Question VII If God hath left no sure and un-erring Interpreter of his Word in Matters of Faith How can it be defended That the Holy Scriptures are not Unprofitable and even Pernicious to Mankind PErchance some Protestants not able to give a satisfying Answer to my Question about the Interpreter of the Scriptures will affirm That God hath not ordained any certain Interpreter of those his Sacred Oracles but hath left them to the scanning and guess of all Readers whatsoever But then I demand How it can be defended that these Divine Books are not hurtful yea and even pernicious to Mankind For evident it is that they may be taken in divers and opposite Senses Yea evident it is that they are de facto so taken by several Learned Men. Who following no surer Interpreter than the strength of their own Wit and Learning do gather out of them contrary Faiths and Religions and several worships of God Of which some of necessity must be false and hurtful to all that follow them for False Religions are ever hurtful yea plainly pernicious to those which follow them as more clearly hereafter shall appear And indeed three things are questionable about the Holy Scriptures which without the help of an un-erring Interpreter authorized and enabled by God himself to guide us to the Truth about them can never be rightly and fittingly decided The first is Which Books are Canonical and truly the Word of God And which are not The second is Which Translation is good right authentical and which is not The third is Which is the true and right meaning of the Holy Ghost in this or that Text or Sentence of Scripture touching upon some point of Faith About the sense whereof the Learned do contend Which being so divers People perswaded in their Consciences that the Scriptures are Divine Books and really the Word of God And that by believing them rightly and by following that Religion which they teach they may obtain Life Everlasting Will earnestly endeavour to search out the true meaning of them Which they being not able every where to find by their own natural Forces without the help of a sure Interpreter directed by the Holy Ghost They will pick out divers false Senses yea and Religions out of the Scriptures by mistaking their right meaning Which they will repute the true meaning of them being not tyed to any Interpreter and will defend Tooth and Nail to the assured Perdition of their own Souls and theirs whom they draw after them and to the raising of several Factions endless Contentions and bloody Broils amongst Christian People as we see fallen out since the rising of Luther For each of those who thus search the Scriptures without regarding any Infallible Interpreter will easily perswade himself that is the right meaning of the Holy Ghost which he hath lighted upon and that the true Light of the Gospel which shineth to him in reading and scanning the Word of God and that therefore it standeth him upon if he will not betray the Truth and lose his own Soul to stick firmly thereunto and to strive even to death to maintain the same Yea sometimes such Searchers of God's Word esteem themselves bound in Conscience to bandy with all the force they can against those who seek to Ruine what they would Raise From which manner of perswasions have proceeded not only great varieties of Religions and great Animosity in the defence of them but all the furious Garboils also and bloody Contentions about Religion which now for above these Hundred Years have miserably turmoil'd the Christian World and yet are likely further to turmoil it unless Christian Princes open their Eyes to behold the true Root of these Dissentions and how absolutely necessary it is to admit of some one Infallible and Un-erring Interpreter of God's Word authorized and enabled by the Holy Ghost to deliver the true Sense thereof
believe as he doth teach For if they follow any contrary Proposer who does mingle Truth with Falshood contrary to the Doctrine of the right Proposer their Faith cannot be Divine nor avail them to Salvation If any one ask who is Gods un-erring Proposer of Divine Verities I answer now as I answer'd before no other but the Ordinary Doctors and Pastors of the ever visible and Catholick Church of Christ which Doctors and Pastors among other things propose as a Divine and certain Truth that out of the Communion of the True and Catholick Church no Salvation can be had out of whose Communion those most certainly do live who are separated from the Chair of St. Peter and profess Riligions by it condemned And therefore those which esteem themselves secure by believing only those general Points of the Christian Religion which are not controverted betwixt the Learned of the Protestant and of the Roman Church are greatly deceived they being not only destitute of Divine Faith but also very far off from performing the Duty of good Christians as may sufficiently appear by what is said And therefore this their Conceit serves to little else but to bring them to Hell with a quiet and unfrighted Conscience Fourthly Out of the Grounds laid a sufficient Reason doth appear of the Doctrine of the Ancient Fathers who constantly taught that out of the Catholick Church there is no Salvation which Catholick Church they esteemed to be no other than that which is joyned in Communion with the Chair of St. Peter Hear a word or two out of those ancient Worthies St. Athanasius in his Creed approved of and received by the whole Church speaketh thus Whosoever will be saved before all things it is needful that he hold the Catholick Faith the which unless one keep entire and inviolate without all doubt he shall perish eternally St. Cyprian De Simpl. Prelat And St. Augustin De Simbol l. 4. c. 10. saith If any one be found without the Church he shall be an Alien from the Children of God neither shall he have God for his Father who would not have the Church for his Mother The same St. Augustin speaking of Emeritus a Donatist and a Bishop saith Serm. de gestis cum Emerito He cannot have Salvation but in the Catholick Church out of the Church he may have all but Salvation He may have Honour he may have the Sacrament he may sing Alleluja he may answer Amen he may hold the Gospel he may both have and preach Faith in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost but Salvation he can no where have saving in the Catholick Church Where note that Bishop Emeritus being a Donatist was not so much separated from the Roman Church as Protestants are And yet this Learned Father and great Light of Gods Church esteemed him to be out of the Catholick Church and out of the State of Salvation In vain then do Protestants confide that they are within the Catholick Church they being farther separated from the same than this Bishop was St. Fulgentius De Fid. ad Pet. c. 39. saith Most firmly hold and in no sort doubt that each Heretick or Schismatick Baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost if he be not restored to the Catholick Church how great Alms soever he give yea though he should shed his Blood for the Name of Christ yet he cannot be saved Thus these Holy and Learned Fathers with whom in this Point agree the rest Fifthly It appears by the Grounds aforesaid that there can be but only one saving Faith and Religion in the World because there can be but only one Doctrine of Faith that is wholly true and free from all mixture of Falshood for all other Doctrines of Faith must of necessity be mixed and stain'd with some Falshood more or less according as they do more or less differ from and contradict that one Divine Doctrine of Faith which is wholly true as is manifest And therefore God cannot draw men to believe any of them with Divine Faith required of necessity to Salvation And so no Religion whose Doctrine of Faith is mixed with Falshood is truly and really a saving Religion how much soever it be adorned by the seducing Teachers or the seduced Followers thereof with the gay Title of the pure Light of the Gospel Sixthly It appears how just cause all Protestants have to return with speed to the Roman Church in which they may assuredly be saved even by the Judgement of the most Learned among them as hereafter shall appear because it is more than probable that the Protestant Profession is not a saving Religion in regard that the Doctrine of Faith which it imbraceth is not nor cannot be wholly true but really and certainly is mixed with much Falshood 1. Because in divers weighty Points of Faith it directly contradicts the express Word of God as I before have shewed 2. Because this Doctrine of Faith is not directed by any sure Rule of Faith by any Infallible Interpreter of the Scriptures by any Un-erring Judge of Controversies nor proposed by any sure and Infallible Proposer 3. Because Protestants are divided into several Branches or Sects which greatly differ and are contrary one to another in divers weighty Points of Faith as I before have noted And 4. Because Protestants hold that all Churches are subject to erring yea and have erred in their Doctrine of Faith. What assurance then have they that Theirs doth not err none at all But to come now to the principal Point intended in this Question I affirm that out of the Grounds laid which Christianly cannot be deny'd it clearly follows that according to the main Tenet and Ground of the Protestant Religion Jesus the Son of the Virgin Mary was not the true Messias promised in the Old Testament nor the true Saviour of the World. This monstrous Falshood and detestable Blasphemy I say doth clearly and inevitably follow out of the chief and Fundamental Ground of the Protestant Religion For if the Church which Jesus founded came to erre in her Doctrine of Faith in the Ages after the Apostles and to be corrupted with many pernicious Falshoods and Superstitions as Protestant Teachers affirm the Promises of God concerning the Messias made so seriously to the Patriarchs of the Old Testament cannot possibly be verified of Jesus and consequently he was not the true Messias the true Christ and Saviour of the World for of the true Messias these Promises must be verified most certainly in regard that God cannot be false of his Word Thus then he promised to Abraham Gen. 12. 3. In thee shall all the Kindreds of the Earth be blessed Gen. 18 18. In him Abraham are to be blessed all the Nations of the Earth To Isaac Gen. 26. 4. In thy Seed shall be blessed all the Nations of the Earth To Jacob Gen. 28. 14. In thee and in thy Seed all the Tribes of the
and the ruine and destruction of Infinite Souls For the Devil would never go about to seduce the Church and to Pollute her Doctrine with Errours and Superstitions but to do Mischief and to bring Souls to Perdition Wherefore seeing that it could not redound either to the Glory of God or the good of Men that Christ should Found an Erring Church it is a very gross Errour to hold that he did And those who so think do greatly mistake and exceedingly wrong the Wisdom and Goodness of our Saviour as will more clearly appear by the next Question Question XII If the Church of Christ did Err for so many Ages How can it be Defended that God is Truly good and doth Truly desire the Salvation of Mankind TWelfthly If it be true that the Church of Christ for so many Ages hath Err'd in her Doctrine of Faith Imbracing as it were with both her Arms and instilling into her Followers many Pernicious Errors many gross Superstitions Notwithstanding that Christ her Spouse and Saviour Promis'd Math. 16. That the Gates of Hell should never prevail against her That the Holy Ghost should Abide with her Pastors for ever St. John cap. 14. and should Teach them all Truth Joh. 16. That he himself would be with them All days even till the End of the World Mat. 28. And notwithstanding that God Promis'd that His Spirit and Word should never depart from this Church Isaias 59. That she should Stand for ever Daniel 2. And should Never be Corrupted Daniel 7. Being indeed the Pillar and ground of Truth As the Apostle affirms 1 Tim. 3. If I say the Doctrine of Protestant Teachers about the Erring of the Church of Christ being so contrary to the Word of God as it is be true I demand of Prudent and Understanding Protestants how it can be defended that God is truly Good hath a Fatherly care of Men doth truly Love them and tender their Spiritual good and hath a true desire of their Eternal Salvation Seeing that whereas he doth freely permit the Devil to fill the World with False and Wicked Religions with Abominable and Detestable Worships to bring Men assuredly to everlasting Damnation He himself though he could most easily do it doth not continue maintain and uphold in the World in all Ages so much as one True Religion so much as one Holy and Divine Worship to bring them to Salvation No not after that his Blessed Son made Man by Infinite Humility by Innumerable Labours undergone for his sake by shedding his most Precious Blood had endeavour'd to appease his Indignation to mitigate his Wrath and to Molify his Heart and to gain and purchase Love and Mercy for them What Christian Breast can believe so monstrous a thing as this Or who can Harbour so base a Thought of the the Wisdom Goodness Sweetness and Mercy of God Or how come Discreet and Understanding Protestants to swallow so gtoss an Absurdity as this If the Tenet of Protestant Teachers touching the Erring of the Church be true how is that true which Christ says John 3. 16. That God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that every one that believeth in him perish not but may have Life everlasting For God sent not his Son to judge that is to Damn the World but that the World may be Sav'd by him Or that which St. Paul says 1 Tim. 2. 4. God will have all men Sav'd and come to the knowledge of the Truth How I say are these Divine Assertions true if to bring Men to Salvation God doth not ever preserve a True Religion in the World Doth not ever uphold the Truth of his Gospel For by False Religions no man can be Saved in regard that the Devil and not God is the Author and Suggestor of False Religions by which he intends the Damnation of Men and not their Salvation as is manifest Yea he neither can neither will induce men to invent a Religion able and fit to Save men in Mark this well and also Note that our Saviour in the Sentence alleadg'd by the word World doth not mean that only Age in which He and his Apostles liv'd nor those Men only which then liv'd But all following Ages and all that were to live even till the day of Doom All which God would have to come to the knowledge of the Truth namely of his Divine Gospel And to save them all he sent his Blessed Son into the World. And therefore we must of necessity grant that he provideth the People of all Ages of a True and Illustrious Religion by which they may be Sav'd And that he ever preserves in all Ages the Truth of his Gospel of which the Apostle speaks in the Sentence alleadg'd that so men may come to the knowledge thereof For if the true Gospel of Christ be not extant in all Ages how hath God a true Will and desire that the People of all Ages should come to the knowledge thereof Neither is it sufficient that it be extant in the BIBLE for all to come to the knowledge thereof For all cannot read the Bible neither can those which are skill'd in Reading thence pick out the true Gospel without the help of a True Interpreter as I before have shew'd But it must be ever extant in the Doctrine and Teaching of the Ordinary Doctors and Pastors of the Church whom others are bound to Hear and Obey Luke 10. Heb. 13. And of whom they are to learn Divine Faith which is gotten by Hearing Rom. 10. which is clear out of Matth. 24. where Christ expresly foretells that his True Gospel viz. the same that he Taught should be Preached to all Nations even till the end of the World as I have before Noted And therefore the True Gospel must not lurk in the Bible but be ever extant in the Preaching of the Church Out of that which hath been spoken in this Question who doth not see that the Prime and Fundamental Article of the Protestant Religion doth not only extreamly Disgrace the Wisdom Goodness and Mercy of God and extenuate the Merits of Christ but doth also tend to the Denial of all Christianity to the utter neglect of God Yea and to plain Atheism it self For who will think that the Son of God really Dy'd for Mankind if he gain'd so little for them Or that there is a God that doth truly Love Men and tender their Good if he be so mindless of them and of their Eternal Happiness and Salvation The tending then of the Protestant Religion so much to the Disgrace of Christ and of God doth clearly shew who was the first suggestor of it Wherefore how certain it is that there is a God who is Infinitely Wise Good and Merciful and who doth truly Love Mankind and tender their Eternal Good And how certain it is that Christ the Son of God Died for us took a most Provident course for our Salvation and that his Merits are of inestimable worth So
affirm That those Protestants which deny Papistry to be a saving Religion and hold that Papists are not saved are neither of the best Learned nor of the Wisest sort For if they were Learned they would easily gather out of the Doctrine of the Scriptures and the Histories of the Christian Church that to deny Papistry to be a saving Religion is to deny Christ in effect as I have before shewed And if they were discreet and wise they would not so rashly condemn to the pit of Hell the whole Christian World together with their Fore-fathers for so many hundreds of years in which Papistry reigned over the World without any firm ground or urgent reason at all Unless their own mistaking and ignorance must be reputed a firm ground For setting these aside by which their mis-informed and mis-guided Zeal doth take Papistry to be that which it is not what can they bring firm and solid to prove that Papistry is not a saving Religion Will they say that Papists are ignorant of or do not rely upon a certain special Faith by which they esteem themselves to be the Elect of God and to be Cock-sure of Salvation Be it so Neither did the Prophets nor the Apostles nor the Ancient Fathers rely upon this special Faith as is evident by their Lives For they applied themselves to Holy Works to much Prayer to frequent Fasting to great Austerity and Mortification seeking by these means to make sure their Vocation 2 Pet. 1. 10. and really working their Salvation in fear and trembling as the Apostle adviseth Philip. 2. 12. For all which Labour Care and Austerity this special Faith is a Supersedeas as is manifest by the Lives and Actions of those which rely thereon Wherefore if for want of this Sin-nourishing special Faith Papists do perish both Patriarchs Prophets Apostles and the Ancient Fathers yea all the Saints and Holy Servants of God which lived from Adam's time to Luther must perish with them For none of these were acquainted with or relyed upon this special Faith. Otherwise there would have been clear and manifest mention thereof in the Holy Scriptures in which the Holy Ghost not once or twice but most frequently would have inculcated the same if it had been so needful that without it Men could not be saved But seeing that in all his Divine Word he hath made no clear mention thereof Papists cannot be in danger for not relying thereon But rather those which relye thereon are in manifest danger of Eternal Perdition because in so weighty a business as their Everlasting Happiness is they forsaking the received Doctrine of the Christian World in the point of Jurisdiction rely upon a meer chimerical Fiction of their own as at their death they will find What then will these Zealous Precisians exclude Papists from Heaven because they commit Idolatry But this foul and foolish Crime Papists do no where commit but in these Mens mistaking Brains as is evident to all that know what Papists believe But Papists they will say do Err in divers points of Religion and therefore they cannot be saved But do not all Churches Err in these Mens conceipt Are not all subject to Erring Let them then either yield that Erring Religions are saving or else let them boldly teach That Jesus Christ hath not provided the World of any means of Salvation seeing he hath not established therein as these Men imagine any Religion that is not Erring By all which it is clear that in these parts of the World none do doubt but that Papistry is a Saving Religion saving a few unlearned Precisians who doubt of this but very indiscreetly as I have shewed But on the contrary all the Papists in the World who are far more in number than the Protestants are and really far excel them in Learning do not doubt whether the Protestant Religion be Saving or no but most firmly hold upon sure and undeceiving Grounds that it is not and that therefore no Man can be Saved precisely by the help of this Religion Which makes so many understanding Men and Women that know it right well forsake it notwithstanding that it is so easie and so pleasiing to Flesh and Blood and to imbrace Papistry far less agreeable to their Sensual Appetites with so great hazard of their Quiet Preferments Liberty and Goods Which certainly they would never do but to secure their Souls Which security if the Protestant Religion were able to afford no Man of Wit here in England would forsake the same to become a Catholick But no such security is to be found in this Religion but rather certain danger of Eternal Perdition as all do find that throughly search into it Neither are Papists for thus Censuring of the Protestant Religion to be esteemed less charitable then those Protestants which brand not Papistry with so hard a Censure For the Case of Papists and Protestants in this Affair is not alike Because Protestants in believing are at liberty according to their own Positions in regard That as they do not hold that there is upon Earth any Un-erring Church whose teaching all are bound to follow under pain of Damnanation So they do not esteem themselves bound to believe strictly the teaching of any Church or to think that Errors in Points of Faith do indanger Salvation But Papists are not at the like liberty because they believing that the Catholick Church which is no other than that Church which being spread over the World is joined in Communion to the Chair of Peter cannot Err in her Doctrine of Faith by reason of the continual assistance of the Holy Ghost do esteem themselves bound to believe as she teaches And therefore because this Church guided by the Holy Ghost and directed by the Holy Scriptures doth teach that there is but One Faith Ephes 4. but One Fold Joh. 10. That Christian People are bound under pain of Damnation to Obey their Lawful Prelates Heb. 13. And to hear the Voice of the Church Matth. 18. And to listen to the Ordinary Pastors thereof Luk. 10. And that they are in like sort bound to beware of false Prophets that is false Expounders of God's Word to avoid Heretical Teachers such as their Church hath declared Protestant Teachers to be For these and the like respects Catholicks do resolutely hold if they be such as understand their own Religion that by the help precisely of the Protestant Religion no Man can be saved Which they hold not for want of Charity but for Obedience to the Word of God and to the True and Catholick Church of Christ Let not then Protestants blame Catholicks for believing as they do seeing the word of God and so great Authority doth force them thereunto But rather let them blame themselves for following new Teachers contrary to the Doctrine of the Scriptures and for dis-uniting themselves from the True and Catholick Church of Christ out of whose Communion there is No Salvation as our Creeds do teach By all which
it sees to be clear that the Old Religion of the Christian World called Papistry wherein assuredly our Forefathers were Saved is far a surer way to Eternal Happiness then the New and Protestant Profession is in regard that all Learned Men agree both Protestants and Papists that Papistry is a Saving Religion Whereas all Learned Papists who are far the greater and the Learneder number upon sure grounds affirm That no Man can be Saved by the help of the Protestant Religion Which being so I demand first with what security of Conscience do Protestants hate revile tread under foot and persecute the Old Religion seeing it is a secure way to Salvation even by the Judgment of all Learned Protestants May any Man without offending God persecute the Children of God and seek to ruine that Religion by which the Holy Ghost doth Sanctifie and Save Souls Can this be accounted Charity towards God Charity towards our Neighbour Nay seeing that Protestants cannot deny but that it is far the securer and surer way to Eternal Happiness to live and dye Papists than to live and dye Protestants with what Christian Piety do Persecuting Protestants afflict Catholicks for taking in the great Affair of Salvation the surer and securer way Secondly I demand what Light of Reason what Duty towards God what Charity toward themselves doth lead Protestants not to take the surer way for their own Salvation they having so just cause to doubt that their New Protestant Profession is not secure Do they not know that many Learned Catholicks have indured Imprisonments Fetters Tortures Cruel Butchering of their Bodies and loss of their Lives rather than they would hazard their Souls in the Protestant Religion Do they not see that many Prudent understanding Generous and Noble Catholicks did suffer disgrace indured Vexations sustained the Abridging of their Liberties and loss of their Goods rather than they would hazard their Souls among them Moreover do they not see how little Unity in Doctrine how little Sanctity of Life how small Resemblance of the holy Life and Virtues of Christ and of his Apostles how little immitation of the Antient Fathers there is in the Teachers and prime Professors of the Protestant Religion Do they not know how great a decay of Humility of Charity of Chastity of Sobriety of Neighbourhood of Justice of Fidelity of Conseience the Protestant Belief hath brought into the World Do they not know that false Teachers are known by their Fruits And that there is but One Truth All this they know and see and therefore if they will but consult with reason and not be lead by fancy or blinded by affection they cannot but judge that to live and dye in the New and Protestant Religion is far less secure for their Souls then to live and dye in the Old and Catholick Faith And consequently they cannot but know that the tender care which they are bound to have of their own Souls and of the Eternal Salvation of them doth put upon them a great obligation to become Catholicks and to return to the Faith of their Fore-fathers so to secure those their most precious Jewels which in their New Profession can never be truly secured as the Doctrine of this little Treatise doth clearly demonstrate But rather they lye exposed most certainly to the misery of Eternal Perdition whereas in the Catholick Profession they may certainly secure them by the Judgement not only of the whole Catholick Church of Christ but also of all Learned Protestants To the Arguments which support the strength of this Treatise I could add others not of Inferior force to demonstrate the Happiness of Catholicks the Unhappiness and danger of Protestants arising from their Faith and Religion But that which hath been said is abundantly sufficient to give Light to all who willingly will not be blind And therefore I here end my present endeavours for Truth and Peace To which if any Protestant will frame an Answer I require of him First that he abstain from Railing Secondly That he abstain from Feigning and from helping his Cause by Impostures Thirdly That by vain Impertinencies and Retorical Digressions he seek not to lose and to dazle the Eyes of Weak and less Judicious Readers Fourthly That he make not vain Flourishes by Citing some broken or mistaken Sentences out of the Antient Fathers against me For I will not allow him to meddle with them but upon two conditions The one is that he shall Tye himself and his Church to stand to the Arbitriment of those clear Lights of the Church of Christ in points Controverted betwixt Catholicks and Protestants For if he will not be stinted by them why should I The other is that he shall allow the Ordinary Doctors and Pastors of the present Catholick Church to be of equal Authority with those Antient VVorthies in matters appertaining to Faith not in matters Historical For those Antients are better VVitnesses of what the Apostles Taught and Practic'd than those which now live can be But yet they are not surer Interpreters of Gods VVord in matters of Faith nor surer Explicators and Proposers of the Articles of the same Faith than the present Doctors and Pastors of the Church are This may seem to some a Paradox and yet it is no more then what the Rules of True Theology do warrant me to affirm For those Antient Doctors were not sure Guides in matters of Religion by the strength of their own VVits or Excellency of their Learning but by the assistance of the Holy Ghost which necessary assistance in explaining and proposing Articles of Faith the Ordinary Doctors and Pastors of the present Church have equally with them For Christ did not Promise that the Gates of Hell should not prevail against his Church that the Holy Ghost should abide with the Apostles and their Successors and Teach them all Truth for four and five hundred years Or for the time of the Primitive Church but even for ever And therefore the ordinary Doctors and Pastors of all Ages are equally assisted by the Holy Ghost and equally free from erring in mattters of Faith. Fifthly I require That my Antagonist assail me with no other Weapons than what the Light of Reason and the express Text of Gods Word will furnish him withal The express Text I say of God's Word for I will not allow him to Interpret Or accept of his Interpretation against the Interpretation of the Antient Fathers of the General Councels of the ever Visible Church of Christ unless he can prove by manifest Miracles that God hath sent him into the World to read us a new Divinity and to Interpret his Divine Word otherwise than his Antient Pastors have done Which things if he cannot perform let him in silence attend to his own Salvation and making use of that Knowledge which he may learn out of this Treatise let him timely return to the Roman Church out of whose Communion most certainly he will never be able to obtain Salvation FINIS
THE APPENDIX Whether the Apostles were Protestants or no. PRotestants generally conceive and believe that Jesus Christ and his Apostles Preached and planted in the World the Protestant Religion even the very self-same that Protestants now believe and practice and that they were really Protestants not in Name but in their Belief and Practice And that they instituted their Disciples and Followers that is the first Christians in the self-same Liberty of Gospel which Protestants now follow and charged them that with all Care and Diligence they should deliver this sweet and easie Religion which is so pleasing to Flesh and Blood to those who were to succeed them that so for ever it might be continued in the World for the Salvation of Mankind Thus I say do Protestants generally conceive and upon the Truth of this Conceipt they hazard their Souls notwithstanding that they are not agreed nor cannot yet agree among themselves which makes the matter very strange and the conceipt wholly improbable whether the Apostles in their Belief and Practice of Religion were Lutherans or Anabaptists or Swinglians or Calvinists or New Arians or Quakers or Arminians or Parliamentary Pretestants for each of these sorts or Branches of Protestants lay Claim to the Apostles and the Learned of each sort do bear their Followers in hand That the Doctrine which they Teach is the pure Light of the Gospel even the self-same that the Blessed Apostles Believed Taught and practised and of this they are all certain alike And so the conceipt of Saxony Denmark Sweden is that the Apostles were Lutherans The Conceipt of some of the Cantons of Switzerland is that they were Swinglians The Conceipt of many in Moravia and in Holland is that they were Anabaptists The Conceipt of Geneva of Scotland of Puritans of England and of some parts of Germany is that they were Calvinists The Conceipt of divers in England and Holland is that they were Quakers And the Conceipt of the Protestant Church of England is that the Apostles were of the same Belief and practised the same Worship of God that by Act of Parliament is here settled and established But to speak the Truth as it is impossible that the Apostles should be of all these Beliefs so it is more than probable that they were of none of them but rather that all these Beliefs are meer conjectural Conceipts of new Teachers who are wholly uncertain of what Belief the Apostles were For if they were certain that the Apostles were of some one of these Beliefs they would all doubtless be of the same But the Learned of the Protestants being indeed altogether uncertain and really ignorant of the Faith and Practise of the Apostles by guessing thereat so near as they can they have divided themselves into so many Branches and into so many contrary Faiths and practises each of them having nothing but his own conjecture to lead him to the true Light of the Gospel and to the right Religion of the Apostles But notwithstanding that Protestants do thus differ about Religion and are uncertain of the Faith and practice of the Apostles Yet they will not forsooth have it deny'd but that the Apostles were Protestants and that they planted in the World the Protestant Religion And so it must be supposed that they Taught That we are justified by Faith only That we have not Free-will in the works of Grace That our best Works are impure and stained with Sin That we do not merit by them either Increase of Grace or Glory That by Faith in Christ we are freed from the Yoke of the Law which is such as no man can keep and therefore Christ having fulfilled it for us our breach thereof doth neither wound the Conscience nor endanger the Soul. Moreover according to this supposed Doctrine of the Apostles we are not bound to confess our Sins to the Priests of God's Church or to do pennance for them no Works of ours being truly satisfactory Neither is Sin punished any where after this Life but in Hell and therefore we need not fear any purging Flames Christ having paid for all Furthermore we are not bound in Conscience to Fast or to abstain from Flesh upon certain days according as the Church doth appoint this being contrary to the Liberty of the Gospel It is likewise vain foolish superstitious to endeavour to gain Heaven by Prayer Fasting Alms-deeds by a Holy and mortified Life or to Vow Poverty Chastity and Obedience or to esteem perpetual Virginity Consecrated to God better more noble and more pleasing to God than Marriage Again according to the same supposed Apostolical Doctrine the Church of Christ is subject to Erring in her Doctrine of Faith and therefore we are not tyed to believe as she Teaches further than we esteem her Doctrine to agree with the written Word for to be so tyed is against the Liberty of the Gospel Against which Liberty also it is that Bishops and Priests should be tyed to live Chaste and Single Lives Lastly all sorts of Protestants saving Lutherans esteem the Apostles to have believed and taught that the Eucharist is not the true Body and Blood of Christ but a Figure or Remembrance thereof And so they consequently hold that Christ left no true and proper Sacrifice to be daily offered in his Church nor no true Priest-hood which cannot subsist without a true Sacrifice This is the Conceipt of Protestants in general real or pretended Real it may be of the ignorant and simple but pretended only I believe by the Understanding and Learned For these cannot but know that if the Apostles indeed had been Protestants and really had Preached spread and settled amongst the Nations of the Earth to which they Preached in Asia Europe and Africa the Protestant Religion which is so easie and so pleasing to Flesh and Blood that the same had continued infallibly at least for some while in the following Ages and that it could not possibly morally speaking so upon the sudden have been cast aside and extinguished in all places at once but that there would have remained illustrious Memory thereof at least in some of the primordial Churches in some of the Countries Provinces or Cities where the Apostles Preached This I think no understanding man will deny 1. Because the first Christians were zealous Followers and Imitators of the Doctrine and manners of the Apostles of whom they had a high esteem as also of their Doctrine which they knew the Apostles had confirmed by many true and Divine Miracles 2. Because they were very careful of their own Salvation as is evident by their admirable Constancy in suffering Losses Tribulations Torments yea terrible Deaths in the cruel and bloody Persecutions raised against them by the Roman Emperours for the space almost of Three Hundred Years How then is it likely if thus they suffer'd to save their Souls that they would wilfully cast them away by forsaking the true Religion of Christ which his Blessed Apostles had planted and so firmly
settled amongst them to follow another of their own inventing Especially seeing that living so near the time of our Saviour and of his Apostles they could not be ignorant what Religion He and They had Taught and Planted Did they more esteem of the Religion of Christ than of all their Worldly Contents and prefer the Profession thereof before their own Lives and yet did they wittingly and willingly abandon and forsake it not for the good and safety but even to the certain perdition of their Souls Who will so judge but mis-led and blinded Souls 3. Because such a change as this in the Religion of Christ which is the Heart and Marrow of his Church is directly contrary to the predictions of the Prophets and Promises of Christ himself For Daniel foretold cap. 2. and cap. 7. That the Kingdom that is the Church of Christ should stand for ever and should never be corrupted Isaias foretold cap. 59. that the Word and Spirit of God should never depart from the mouth that is from the teaching of the Church Christ promised Mat. 16. that the Gates of Hell should never prevail against his Church that the Holy Ghost should abide with his Apostles for ever that is with them and their Successors even to the end of the World Joh. cap. 14. and should teach them all truth John cap. 16. All which had been false if the Protestant Religion planted by Christ and his Apostles by the Folly and Wickedness of the Successors of the same Apostles had been rejected and abandoned as Protestants imagine and Papistry brought in instead thereof 5. The impossibility of such a change is clearly shewed and plainly convinced out of the natural Inclination and common custom of all Societies of men which is as evident experience doth teach rather to descend then ascend rather to fall than to rise rather to slide to looseness and to more liberty than to aspire to more strictness and to greater Sanctity unless the special Grace of God do stay them and incite and stir them up which must not be here admitted of because God by his Grace doth not use to draw men from the pure Light of the Gospel to embrace false and erroneous Doctrine and to follow superstitious and Idolatrous practises as Protestants imagine Christians to have been drawn in the primitive Church And therefore it cannot be deny'd with any colour of Truth but that good Discipline Conscientious Dealing virtuous courses strictness of Life and the practice of Godly Actions do rather decay by tract of time than get ground and increase in all Communities and Societies of Men And on the contrary Liberty Ease Idleness Sensuality do ever rather increase than decay and vanish away of themselves as evident experience doth teach For as the Poet saith tendimus in vetitum semper cupimusque negata We tend toward things forbidden still and covet things denyed This is manifest First by the decay of good Order of honest and upright dealing in Commonwealths which hath caused so many new Laws so many new Orders and Statutes to have been made Decreed and Enacted by Supream Authority to repress the bad and vicious Inclinations of men 2. By the decay of Ecclesiastical Discipline from time to time in the Church of Christ which hath occasioned the Pious Endeavours of so many Zealous and Apostolical Preachers of so many Holy Biships of so many Godly Emperours Kings and Princes to reform and restore the same by the help of General of National of Provincial Councils 3. By that which hath happened to most of the Religious Orders of the Catholick Church For although these Holy Congregations have ever begun with great Zeal and Fervour and have been furnished with special Helps to continue the same yet through Humane Frailty by tract of time they have so fallen off that Reformation hath often been needful 4. In Cities in Colledges in particular Families Reformation is often and vigilancy of Superiours is ever needful Yea who is it though never so Saintly though never so well inclin'd and accustomed to Virtue that finds not that his Inclinations have ever need of repressing and his Manners often of Refining 5. The same appeareth evidently in all the Nations of the Earth which hitherto have been Converted to Christ which ever by degrees fall from their first Fervour Zeal and Devotion of which we have a clear example in the Word of God Rev. 2. 4. I have against thee saith Christ to the Bishop and Church of Ephesus a few things because thou hast left thy first charity Be mindful therefore from whence thou art fallen and do pennance and do thy first Works c. If Pennance was needful so quickly if even in the times of the Apostles Charity Zeal Fervour Sanctity decayed among Christian people how much more afterwards in the Ages following How then is it so much as probable yea rather how is it not altogether improbable and even incredible that the Christians of the Primitive Church through all the World of themselves of their own accord without any Warrant from Christ and his Apostles but rather contrary to His and their Doctrine and Practice without any good to themselves yea even contrary to the Eternal Good and safety of their Souls did cast aside fall from abandon the easie belly-pleasing and sweet liberty of the Protestant Gospel to embrace and practice the hard harsh austere and mortifying Discipline of Papistry In such sort that neglecting the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles and the example of their Lives yet fresh in memory amongst them they fell to believe contrary thereunto as Protestants imagine that we are justifyed not by Faith only but by Faith Hope Charity and other Divine Virtues that we have Free-will in the Works of Grace that Works of Grace done in the state of Grace do truly merit the increase of Grace and of Glory That we are bound under pain of Damnation to keep the Commandments of God by abstaining from all great and mortal Sins such as are the Profession of false Religions the denyal of the Truth Perjury Murder Fornication Theft in a notable quantity Cousenage Vsury and the like that we are able to keep them by the help of Divine Grace of which God for the merits of our Saviour doth measure to every Man a sufficient quantity That we are bound under pain of Damnation to Confess all our mortal Sins so far forth as with reasonable Diligence we can call to mind to some lawful Priest or other That we are bound under the same Penalty to restore all Goods and Lands unlawfully gotten to Fast and to abstain from Flesh as the Church appointeth and commandeth That ordinarily when our Sins are forgiven God doth reserve some Temporal Pain or Punishment for which if we get it not released in this Life by Prayer Fasting Alms-deeds and other holy laborious and penitential works we shall suffer terribly in the purging Fire of the next That to Vow perpetual Poverty Chastity