owne benignity and gratiousnesse This he doth not by immediatly determining the man but by so sweetning the proposals that they overcome his heart and make it determine it selfe according to the will of God For Divinity teacheth that the power of God after it hath given Being unto creatures doth nothing immediatly by it self but all by the mediation of the second causes onely setting them on worke So that if as some Philosophers held and is yet the manner by which many apprehend creatures to work they could worke of themselves and did so without being pushed on by him just the very same things would happen as now they do So that neither Predestination nor Reprobation by being what they are purely in God do bring any change att all in our wills determinations Nor ought there any mention to be made of them further then to shew Gods wisedome and goodnesse who fore-saw and fore-willed and so caused like an universall not like a particular cause all our actions as farre as they are good Onely where something occurreth wherein it is fitting that the course of materiall causes should be moderated and directed above their owne line to the right governement of Man-kinde there the Allmighty goodnesse hath other instruments to performe his will These we call Angels incorporall and spirituall substances The which being created with the beginning of time but not subjected to time were independently of time perfected for their owne Blisse or Misery Those who envyed mans felicity in becoming God remaining in such darkenesse and torments as extremity of willfulnesse causeth in natures of that kinde which are beyond all that we can imagine the purer part of them by adhesion to Gods disposall becoming participant of his sight with an unconceivable blisse and happiness These under his divine Majesty do governe humane actions and their negotiation for Blisse the blessed Party of them being ready to furnish us with all goods as farre as the course of Providence requireth and permitteth The bad being prompt to inflict upon men all harmes of soule and body when ever the hand of Providence doth not hold the reines This each sort of them doth in common and in particular when the ordinary course is to be inverted for the sweeter bringing of Man-kinde to the intended Blisse And such of them as are specially intent to particular persons are used to be called their Guardian Angels if they be good Divels or Accusers if they be wicked Spirits By these wayes and Instruments Christ planted his Church and governeth it and will conserve it as long us this world which was made for it shall continue keeping it free from Errour and in the quality of a Teacher a Commander and a visible Tribunall unto which all may repaire who seeke salvation But when the fore-designed worke shall be finished and the number of our brethren be compleated then shall the world be consumed by fire Mankinde rise and appeare before Christ their Judge and receive their eternall dome and all time and motion be ended and turned into a constant state for all Eternity The good shall receive the full reward of their vertue which in this life is but inchoated in their soules If they went out of their bodies perfect in charity they enjoyed immediatly the sight of God and do assist us now by their prayers as they did living by their merits that is by their good example and profitable labours for their posterity And so wee invocate them and desire God that both their prayers and merits may be beneficiall to us And because we account them Persons highly worthy and in the favour of God we therefore testify so much by keeping their dying-days Festivall for the encouragement of others to imitate them And we beare a respect to their Relikes such as we do to holy instruments as the Bible chalices consecrated oyles and the like And as we kisse the hand of a Prince or the garment of a Prelate intending it as a ceremony of honour to him so we kisse the relikes or pictures of Saints and especially crosses which we take for the pictures of Christ crucifyed making that kissing the ceremony of expressing honour to the Person represented This in the Greeke and Latine expressions is called Adoration which signifyeth kissing That being the most ancient and naturall ceremony of protesting a loving honour And the words reaching in a divers sense and meaning to the thing immediatly touched and to the Person to whom the honour is done It is said that both of them are adored by the same act of adoration but the one materially and corporally the other with the heart and mind Wee submitting our selves to the one as to our better and making the other the meanes by which we expresse it The absolutely wicked confounded and terrifyed by the sight of their Judge will be confined to perpetuall Darkenesse of spirit and gnawing of their conscience and to the anguishes of their raging thoughts and desires for all eternity The middle sort consisting of those who according to the course of all corporall deficient and mortall goods do goe out of this world substantially in Charity and love of God but not without some weakenesses and sickenesses of their soule cannot before they are purged be admitted to the sight of God And so they expect in Darkenesse and griefe that happy change to which the prayers of the living do much avayle them These are the Heads of the Christian profession of that Church which being in the communion of the Church of Rome pretendeth to have received her doctrine from Christ and his Apostles in a perpetuall publike exercise and profession handed downe without interruption to this our presentage And out of which have issued all particular congregations which in their severall seasons separating themselves from her have been denominated by severall Appellations the name of Catholike ever remaining to her inspight of all invasions Divines may finde many more Articles of faith and Heretikes may dayly occasion more and more But all are onely explications of the here proposed doctrine Now the oppositions which Heretikes make against the Catholike Church are onely the breaking downe of all Christianity and good life either in it selfe or in its outworkes As the Socinians by denying the God-head of the the blessed Trinity and of Jesus Christ the Pelagians by denying the fable of Man and the necessity and efficacy of Grace the Puritans or Presbiterians by denying the necessity of good life to justification do destroy the very Essence of Christianity and vertue Divers denying the solemne and holy sacrifice of the Altar which is the highest externe act of our Religious duty to God by cutting of most of the sacraments by rejecting prayers to the saints and angels and all devotion for the dead by abolishing Holy-dayes and publike fasts by pulling downe the pictures of Christ and his saints which our pious ancestors did sett up to renew the memory of their examples and to excite
the action as the action is for the end which must be in Gods commands by which he ordereth vs to eternall life his commanding being the Idea to all actions and this matter being the principall on which he exerciseth that power it is evidently convincing that whether the command be possible or impossible knowne or unknowne if it be not fullfilled the action is not done without which the end can not be obtained And consequently the party becometh damned Not because he did not obey the command but because he did not the action nor followed the way necessary to salvation which if he had done without command it would have saved him for it is in vertue of doing the action that the fullfilling of the command saveth all those whom it doth save and without it none are saved The fourth REFLEXION That Religion is certaine And the meanes to attaine unto it THe case standing thus that either we must do what God hath commanded us in this world or else must suffer his indignation in the next And that there is no excuse for ignorance I neede not urge to any one who is sensible of their soules interest that the knowledge of the law of God ought to be certaine and undoubted both in it selfe and to us That is that every one according to his particular circumstances ought to have a constant and immutable assurance that it is Gods law in which he walketh And that in the Church there are meanes left by our blessed Saviour to secure us of this truth for every one according to his capacity if the execution be conformable to the principles The first part is so cleare that time were spent in vaine to declare it For since the end of our faith and knowledge is the observing in fact and not onely in will the commandements of God with the losse of blisse and incurring eternall damnation if it be not done in effect And since on the other side it is impossible that he who is uncertaine whither he be in the truth or no and hath but a changeable opinion concerning the law of God should constantly and firmely in all his workes performe that law It is evident that such a man is not fit for Christian life but is like one that whilest he holdeth the plough is still looking backe nor can he hope for any thing from God because his faith is wavering and unstable In his practise he can not choose but be carried too and fro with every wind of opinion Now forwardes now backewardes and never steere any constant course towardes heaven and blisse Whereas this rule of good life as is before declared is of a nature that it comprehendeth all our actions the highest and the lowest the first and the last and all that are comprised between these extreams As for the second part of what we have aboue said Namely that God hath left in his Church meanes for all sorts of people to come to this degree of certainty for euery one according to his growth It is of it selfe manifest to all such as have so reverent a conceit of God as to thinke he doth not his works by halfes nor leaveth mankinde for whom he made the world destitute in the chiefe point and in that for which as for his sole end he created man himselfe to witte for bringing him to blisse and eternall happinesse For since mans nature is made in the most excellent part of it to require evidence and that it is so laudable in matters of Geometry Astronomy Physicks Metaphysicks and whatsoever is of great importance not to be satisfyed without evidence and certainty and to ayme at it with all our strength and that truely our understanding were abused if it should be forced to accept of what it doth not clearely see and is not certainly assured of its nature being made to see and its essence being a power of seeing How can any rationall discourser thinke that God hath failed us in this so materiall and principall concernement Certainly no man of judgement can suspect it But to satisfy even hard believers lett vs looke into particulars And presently wee finde that men in respect of knowledge are of two sorts some who by themselves are capable of vnderstanding truths others who live upon trust of the former kind of knowing men Of this latter sort are all they whom we call schollers who at the first do trust their masters till themselves grow up to the ripenesse and ability of knowing and of teaching others And much more all those who arrive not so forward as to be schollers which in some respect or other are the greatest part of mankinde The Physitian trusteth the Pilot when he is at sea the Souldier when he is in an army the baker for his bread and the brewer for his drinke the Gentleman trusteth his husbandman for his corne the Physitian for his health the Lawyer for his suites and every master in his kinde Now in matter of Religion God hath given vs an advantage which is not in any of the trades or sciences necessary to our temporall life For he hath provided us not some one man or some meeting of a dozen or twenty which is a great cōsult in other affaires but he hath given vs a whole world of men to consult withal and that at one meeting Consider how vast the Church is which holdeth communion with the See of Rome All that at once is your warrant You can not imagine they will tell you a lye for they speake to you not in wordes but in their lives and therefore they must be cosened thēselves or else they can not cosē you there you have a fidelity pledged vnto you beyond the certainty that Euclide or Archimedes could afforded you For it is more impossible that so great a part of mankind should live in a cōtinuall hypocrisie and dissembling then that the surest consequences Geometry can make should be false If you seeke skill that Church is full of learned men in all kindes of Sciences that any other can pretend vnto Search but the Book-sellers shoppes and you shall find a hundred Catholike Authors for one of any other Communion thousands continually studying in Colleges and Religious houses whose perpetuall search may justly challenge the probability of knowing truth If you looke after outward piety and the meanes of preseruing and encreasing of learning you shall finde it there in a higher degree then in all the communities of other sects So that if one may rely vpon outward signs there is no comparison betweene any other company of men and that Church And consequently it is beyond all doubt or question vnto what authority a discreete person who can not or will not take the paines to looke himselfe into particular pointes ought to adhere vnder paine of forfeiting his judgement If he be neuer so little conuersant in the learning of the world he must needes be a mad-man if in the way of moderne authority
he followeth any other or so much as misdoubteth there can be any other comparable to this As for the other sort of men who of themselves are able and curious to look into the veins in which the rootes of Religion do runne Lett them but reflect on the change that hath been made in the world since Christian Religion began to flourish that is since Constantines time and since the first 300. yeares after Christ and they may demonstratiuely conclude that seeing the long space of 4. or 5 thousād yeares of nature was not able to produce those great and noble effects which wee evidently see have sprung up so aboundantly in so farre shorter a time the finger of God must necessarily be in this time and that Protestants by rejecting it as Papisticall do confesse plainely that all the great effects of Christian Religion are proper to those whom they terme Papists And seeing that the Ages since the first three after Christ are the whole flourishing time of the Christian Church this their disclayming them will appeare unto any understanding man to be the very renouncing of Christianity it selfe Now if he who pretendeth to knowledge be able to manage humane nature and to see how a freedome of heart from the pleasures and cares of this world is that which bringeth all good to man both in temporall and in spirituall considerations And that this freedome can not be introduced without a settled assurance of the goods of the next world nor that persuasion be wrought by any other meanes then by faith and by the course which Christ tooke for it He will not onely forbeare admiring that the world though fraught with arts in the first 2000. yeares should deserve the just revenge of the deluge-waters But will also discerne that as in the latter 2000. yeares before Christ it had advanced nothing att all So had it endured 4000. yeares more without the light that Christ brought into it it would never have growne better The love of worldly goods exalting arts and civility to a certaine pitch and then by its encrease into immoderation reducing all backe to barbarisme Or at least floating mankinde in a certaine compasse too and fro and never permitting it to grow into any heighth of perfection The fifth REFLEXION How Christian Religion hath been propagated and conserved THe threade of our discourse hath by this time woven vs into the consideration of the meanes where by one may come to the true Religion In which two inquiries occurre vnto vs the one concerning the beginning and first publication of Religion the other concerning the circumstances that belong unto it now in the present age wherein we live As for the former wee hauing our Saviours command to expresse that it ought to be done by preaching and hauing the testimony of all Christians euer since that it was so performed there remaineth no place to question how Christian Religion came first into the hearts of mankinde The Apostles had by Gods speciall gift the knowledge of all languages By this they could speake to all natitions And so it is generally vnderstood they did and that by word of mouth they propagated through all the world that faith which themselues had learned from Jesus Christ But that they carried any bookes about with them or that they did sett the nations they preached vnto on learning those languages in which the scripture was written there is no mention at all Nor is it either probable or possible that they did so it is well knowne that many of the Nations which att that time became Christian had no writing or reading in many ages after And so it is euident that the generall propagation of Christian faith was by vocall preaching and by vocall tradition from father to sonne of the doctrine first planted among them by the Apostles And indeed supposing Nations to be vnlearned it is cleare that there can be no other ordinary way of conueying this necessary discipline to posterity No doubt but the methode of the first institution is in a manner Ideall to the following continuation which is but a kind of repetition of the beginning And so we might justly conclude without any further paines that the conseruation of Religion ought to be likewise effected by original deliuery that is to say by Tradition But the very thing it selfe affordeth vs more light to see evidently the truth of our Conclusion For looking into the nature of that which is to be done we shall see plainly that it is impossible it should be effected by any other way What is it we meane by planting Religion in a Country but that the People of it should haue the knowledge of the way how to goe to Heauen Lett us then examine what signifyeth this word People There are two Notions of it The first is that it signifyeth the men the women and the Children of a common wealth or nation so comprising all the individuals of humane Nature that live in that nation Now of these it is the property of children to believe what is told them without doubting wheter it be true or no or ever judging of the thing proposed As for women a great part of them participateth of the same quality And the most of them are governed by their husbandes esteeming them if they have any worth in them the best of men The third member of this division falleth under the second notion of the word People and single is the whole subject of it for it signifyeth a multitude of men employed in seeking and in attending to their livelihoods and subsistance not looking after learning or applying themselves to study for which the greatest part of them wanteth either leisure or capacity or inclination Now in which sence soever this word is taken I◠appeareth manifestly that Tradition is the necessary and onely meanes to establish faith in the people For the Maxime is well known that he who is not of an art must in what belongeth to that trust those whose particular skill and profession that art is And thus it is euident that the People taken according to the explication giuen must rely vpon an Authority for knowing what is the true Religion and what is not But when we once come to Authority there is no pretence for any but for that of the Catholike Church shee onely can speake authoritatiuely all others speaking from their owne heads and shee onely professing to speake from the mouth of Christ and of his Apostles shee onely hauing had the sense and meaning of the Apostles deliuered to her because shee onely hath continued euer since their times all the rest hauing nothing but dead words and the killing letter deliuered to them whiles for the sense of those wordes they haue no further recourses them to their owne imaginations and discourses In the next place lett us consider what is the knowledge of heaven And our first remarke will tell vs that it is such a knowledge as God himselfe was
Primacy both in word and in deed If the question be of the Churches infallibility or indeficiency The Scripture will tell us that Christ promised to be with his Preachers for ever Matt. 28. That the gates of hell should not prevaile against his Church Matth. 16. That the Holy Ghost should stay with his Disciples for ever John the 14. That there should be of the Elect at the end of the world Matth. 24. Marke 13. Luke 17. That persecution should not end in the Church untill the coming of Christ Matth. 10. Nay that after the beginning of the Resurrection some shall yet remaine 1. Thess. 4. If the question be of the reall presence that is to say that our saviours body is truly in the blessed Sacrament We shall reade this is my body Matth. 26. Marke 14. This is my body which is given for you Luke 22. This is my body which shall be delivered for you 1. Cor. 11. And in the former Chapter he presseth it Is not the chalice we blesse the participation of the blood of Christ And the bread we breake is it not the participation of our lordes body What can a sincere heart that believeth the Scripture reply to this If the question be of Remission of sinnes in the Church Do we not reade the power of binding and of losing given to men Matth. 18 Of forgiving and of retaining John the 20 We reade that the Apostles received the ministery of Reconciliation the word of Reconciliation 2. Cor. 5. James 5. Confesse your sinnes one to the other Also Matth. 9. The people glorifyed God for having given unto men the power of remitting sinnes If Confirmation that is to say the giving of the Holy Ghost be in question We reade St. John Baptist testifying that he who sent him to baptize in water told him that Christ baptized in the Holy Ghost Marke 1. and John 1. But in John 3. That he who is not new-borne of water and the Holy Ghost cannot enter into the kingdome of heaven And that this was meaned of that descent of the Holy Ghost which is after Baptisme is our Saviours own declaration who in the 1. of the Acts sayth You shall be baptised in the Holy Ghost after not many days Whereof the whole story is told att length in the 2. Chapter And in the 8. the Apostles were sent to Samaria to impart there this giving of the Holy Ghost In the 11. St. Peter remembred in the saying of our saviour in the same sense And in the 15. St. Paul useth the same Ceremony to 12. Persons after they were baptised with the same reflection on Saint John Baptist As for the Sacrament of Order there are two parts in it the Mission and the outward Ceremony Both which are largely expressed in the Consecration of Aaron and of his sonnes Levitic 8. The designation and Mission Matth. 10. Marke 3. Luke 6. and againe 22. when he gave them command to consecrate the blessed Sacrament for the faithfull Luke 10. He designed the 72. Disciples Hebr. 5. The Law is established in generall As also Rom. 10. How shall they preach unlesse they be sent As for the outward Ceremony though we can not doubt but it was performed by our saviour when he sent his Apostles and Disciples Yet we have expressed also in the 20. of St. Iohn where we are told of insufflation with these wordes receive the Holy Ghost In the 13. of the Acts we are told of fasting and of imposition of hands and in is it specifyed that they who were so sent were sent by the Holy Ghost And in the 1. to Tim. 4. We have the imposition of the handes of the Presbytery by Prophecy For Matrimonies being a Sacrament We reade every where that the conjunction of Man and Wife is from God Gen. 2. He brought her to Adam 1. Cor. 11. Neither Man without woman nor woman without man in our Lord Matth. 19. And Marke 10. What God hath coonjoyned let not man separate Nature giveth to all cultiuated Nations to do this with an outward ceremony and therefore surely among those who hold it a speciall action of God it is most fit to be performed by the minister of God Now that sanctification is due to it We reade 1. Cor. 7. The unbelieving man is sanctifyed by the faithfull woman and the unbelieving woman by the faithfull man to wit in their common operation otherwise your children would be uncleane whereas now they are holy Of extreme Unction there is not so frequent mention But most manifest and undenyably obvious We are told in the 6. of St. Marke that the Apostles annointed the sicke with oyle and cured them Ja. 5. Is any man sicke among you Lett him bring in the Priests of the Church and lett them pray over him annointing him with oyle in the name of our lord And the prayer of faith shall save the sicke man and our lord will ease him and if he be in sinne his sinnes shall be forgiven him I doubt not but if what I have already alledged out of Scripture do light into an even soule not byassed by interest or prejudice to the contrary party It will be sufficient to satisfy him fully that the out side and letter of Scripture is clearely on the side of antiquity and of the Catholike Church Yet I can not leave this subject till I have mentioned one point more because it is so much vaunted by our Adversaries though with very litle reason The Catholike Church administreth the holy Eucharist sometimes in one kinde some times in both Protestants alwayes in both kindes The question ariseth which of these practices is favoured by Scripture It is evident that the Scripture speaketh sometimes of receiving both the bread and the cuppe But much oftener of one alone Jo. 6. This is a bread coming downe from heaven that whosoever eateth of it may not dye I am the bread of life which descended from heaven If any one eate of this bread he shall live for ever He that eateth this bread shall live for ever Luke the last he tooke bread and blessed and brake it and gave it to them and their eyes were opened and they knew him and he vanished out of their sight Acts 2. And they were persevering in the doctrine of the Apostles and the communion of breaking of bread and prayer Acts 20. When they were assembled to breake bread So that if we distinguish betweene the time of giving the communion and the time of the Priestes consecration in which the Catholike Church observeth inviolably the doing it in both kindes we shall finde more places in Scripture for communicating in one kinde then for doing it in both But what shall we say to this speech of St. Paul 1. Cor. 11. Therefore whosoever shall eate this bread Or drink this cuppe unworthily he shall be guilty of the body and bloud of our saviour what meaneth this Or but that some even then tooke the one without the oher Else
it is fruitelesse to dispute against a Protestant out of the Fathers unlesse you first settle what proof of Fathers he will admit Neither is it easy for a Protestāt to argue strōgly against a Catholike out of the Fathers For if the Catholike will binde him to it he must bring an universality of them or else the Catholike is not obliged to receive them And how can he go about to do this I understand not I meane in a private disputation where a Matter of three or foure testimonyes are capable of spinning out the whole time that people generally are willing to lend unto such an entertainment Neverthelesse the presumptuous and vaine Sophisters are forward to cry out that all the Fathers are on their side as their Patriarche Iewel begā the tune to them so shamefully that his owne Chaplaine forsooke him for his impudent falshood But concerning this point It is to be noted that although they break avowedly and confessedly from the universall face of antiquity in all Church-practise as in the Liturgies Letanies Masse praying to Saints praying for the dead most of the Sacraments Relikes Altars Pilgrimages Fastings Processions Cochibate of Priests religious men and women and almost all things of that nature yet have they so little ingenuity or rather they are so impudent as before women and ignorant persons to boast themselves Sectators of antiquity and they undertake to prove it by certaine broken ends of Texts concerning some speciall circumstance or nice point in which they have found some dark place in some Father I therefore putt these questions to any juditious person who is curious to heare disputation in Religion Whether in so large a Booke as the Scripture it be possible morally speaknig that there should not be divers hard and obscure passages And then whether an eloquent Sophister may not make use of such places to circumvent and delude weake soules unable to remember or marke the contrary Texts and to judge betweene them Which if he also graunt as he can not choose but do I aske him againe what security he hath or can have that his disputant is not such a one or at least may not be such a one And what I say of Scripture may be with much more force transferred to the workes of the Fathers which are much more ample and besides that may containe errours in them So that in conclusion all disputation out of Fathers is but beating the ayre unlesse the parties be first agreed what Fathers authorities shall be allowed sufficient to decide and terminate their differences Yet after all this the Protestant that is carried away with a beliefe of his disputants abilities will be still apt to reply that at the least it can not be denyed but that he who hath studied the Fathers so well as to be able to make out of them against Catholikes a ranged battaile of such obscure places must needes be an able and a learned Man and therefore he is not to be blamed for following such a guide who hath read so much and is conversant in the Fathers Seeing that they who are unlearned and cannot upon their owne stocke judge of such Matters must rely upon those who have made them their long and serious study To him who shall make such an objection it ought to be represented How meane and pittifull a change it is to fall from the splēdide authority of the whole Church to the obscure authority of a private Doctor be he what he will As also that to retire from the authority of few or but of one were a great imprudence in an unlearned man Who because hee is not able to judge of the quality of Doctors hath reason to adhere to the quantity and number of them Besides in all likelihood this great Doctor especially if he be yong hath not read the Fathers themselves but hath taken out of other Authors that write of controversies such places as he hath found cited in them for his purpose And this argueth but a small Modicum portion of learning though happily he may make a great shew with it among unlearned persons like one who can recite three verses of Homer in a country Schoole The Fifteenth REFLEXION On Arguments drawne from reason for Religion THere remaineth yet to be discoursed of the last kind of arguments that may be employed in disputations of Religion whose store house from whence they may be drawne is reason For the performance whereof lett us consider how Religion is apprehended generally to be a knowledge above nature and to be derived by authority from a source of higher understanding then ours is Yet on the other side It is evident that it can not be planted in us otherwise then that the roote of it must of necessity be in Reason seeing that Reason is our nature Now then the roote and basis of believing is manifestly from this that we are perswaded we ought to believe which importeth as much as that it is reasonable we should believe And therefore the arguments which in Matter of Religion ought chiefely to be managed out of Reason should be in common whether it be Reasonable to believe what is proposed unto us And because no man can doubt whether it be reasonable to believe what God proposeth the whole question is reduced to this point whether it be reasonable to believe what the Church or our fore-fathers deliver unto us as the doctrine which Jesus Christ whose authority no Christian excepteth against did teach and deliver to the world from his eternall Father In which question the affirmative reasons belong onely to Catholikes the negative to all others Here the Catholike disputant hath two wayes to proceede The one is in a manner Metaphysicall and of a rigorous consequence by shewing that this principle of Adhering to our forefathers doctrine in the way that the Catholike Church relyeth upon it could not have been taken up in any middle age but must of necessity have been continued from the beginning And then by proving that if this Principle hath continued from the beginning it is impossible that any errour should have crept into the Church After the doing of which It is as evidently demonstrated that Catholike faith is the sole true Christian faith as that the three Angels of a Triangle are equall to two right Angels or any other verity in Euclide or Archimedes The other way is to assume to prudent morall men that whosoever seeth a like evidence for Religion as he judgeth sufficient to venture his life or his estate or his honour upon and not be excused neither in prudence nor in conscience nor in honor if he doth not embrace it For if he seeth the same advantage in two severall cases and will venture in the one and not in the other It is evident he proceedeth not according to Reason in one of them And in our case whatsoever he may say to justifye himselfe he cannot be excused from making in truth no reall
us to follow them doe demolish the fences and bullwarckes of the same Christianity and good life But all they who deserve the name of heretikes do agree to charge the Church of Christ with corruption and adultery and do deny in her both infallibility to know Christs doctrine and power to governe And consequently they destroy externall unity and the essence of it Which as it is not formally to ruine good life so it is more then to breake downe her outworkes since it entrencheth upon the very substance in common and leaveth no meanes but meere chance and hazard to come to the knowledge of Christs law and consequently to eternall salvation Whence we may understand what this name Popery signyfyeth to witt An affection or resolution to maintaine faith and good life and the causes of conserving them There are divers other points controverted betweene Catholikes and Sectaries But they are such as for the most part require no explication but a flatt denyall As when they accuse us to have deprived the Laiety of halfe the Communion we deny it For besides that the generall practise of Christians hath bin from the beginning to give the sacrament sometimes in one kinde ometimes in both the Church hath alwayes believed that the entire communion was perfectly administred in either We likewise deny that ever the Church held the necessity of communicating Infants The Popes personall infallibility that Indulgences can draw soules out of Purgatory that Prayers ought of necessity be in an unknowne tongue to though we may thinke it fitting in some circumstances that the publike service for reverence and Majesty be so performed that faith is not to be kept with Heretikes that the Pope can dispense with the subjection to Princes And many such other Tenets which are injuriously imposed upon Catholikes by Sectaries and are flatly denyed by us and therefore require no further explication or discourse about them A Sampler of Protestants Shuffling in there Disputes of Religion COntroversy Logick or the art of discoursing in matter of Religion between those who profess the Law of Christe can not be complete unless as Aristotle made a Book of fallacies to avoide cavills in his Organe or instrument of science so wee also discover the common fallacies used in controversies Not all but the chiefest and most ordinarily in this business This then is the scope of my present work For which the first note I make is that owre Ancients have taught us and by experience wee daylie finde that Heresie is in a manner as soon overthrowne as layed open falshood like turpitude being ashamed of nakedness Therefore 't is falshoods game to vest it self like an Angel of light in the skin of the lamb and to seeme to weare the Robes of truth I mean by words like those of the Catholick party to delude the simplicity of the Innocent and welwishing People And now must it be our theame to unvaile theire Shufflings The first Shuffle Of the Word Scripture And first If we aske them what they rely upon they braggingly answer on Gods word upbraiding Catholicks to rely upon men when they fly to the churches witness but if we press thē to declare what they meā by Gods word to wit the Book of the Bible or the meaning of it they are forced to answer the sense for even beasts can convince them that wee have the Book as well as they Marching on another step and pressing to know by what instruments or means they have the sense there is no subterfuge from confessing it is by reading and their owne judging or thinking the sense of the Scripture is that which they affirme though all Catholicks affirm the contrary And although even in this they are cosened following for the most part the explication of their preacher Yet I press not that for they know not that they do so But I conclude see what you meane when you say you rely upon Scripture or Gods word to wit that you rely upon your owne opinion or guessing that this is Gods word So that this glorious profession of relying upon Gods word is in substance and reality to rely upon the opinion or guessing of a Cobler or Tinker or some house-wife when the answerers are such or at most of a Minister who for his owne interest is bound to maintaine this is the meaning of Gods word The second Shuffle Of Generall Councils SOme Protestants are so bold as to profess they wil stand to Generall Councils Now a General Council in the language of Catholicks is a general meeting of the Christian World by the Bishops and Deputies of it to testify the Doctrine of the Christian Church And is accounted inerrable in such determinations and therefore to have power to command the faith of Christians and to cast out of the Church al who do not yield to such their determinations and agreements and by consequence to have a supreme Authority in the Church in matters of faith The Protestants loath to leave the shadow though they care not for the substance use the name but to no effect For the intention being to manifest the Doctrine of the Christian World They first agree not upon the notion of what a Council is Requiring sometimes that al Bishops should bee present sometimes that all Patriarks though known to bee professed Hereticks and under the Turk sometimes objecting want of liberty and mainly that they decide not by disputation out of onely scripture or that they taught false Doctrine So that to the Protestant a Council signifies an indefinite and uncertaine when and what it is meeting of men going upon the scripture Which as it is before declared signifies every cobler or Ministers fancie which hath no authority to binde men to believe and is to bee judged by the Doctrine or agreement in faith with the Protestants The third Shuffle Of the consent of Fathers THe consent of the Fathers or Doctours of Christians before oure age and controversies beares so Venerable an aspect as that few Hereticks dare at least before honest understanding Christians give it flatly the lye Therefore the discreeter part of Protestants acknowledg it yet with a salve that they were all men and might bee deceived which in effect is to say that it is no convincing or binding Authority as Catholicks hold it to bee nay to bee a stronger authority then that of Councils as being the judgement of the Catholick Church or the learned part of it which is al one as to faith The Protestant first at one clap cutts of a thousand or 13. hundred yeares nay some 15. hundred The one saying S. Gregory the great was the last Father and first Papistrie the more ordinary course being to acknowledg onely the Fathers of the Persecution time before Constantine finding Popery as they call it to publick afterwards some pressing that ever since the decease of the Apostles the Church hath been corrupted So that they neither give any authority to the consent of Fathers nor