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
and certain Guide in matters of Religion any Infallible Interpreter of his Word p. 24. Question 7. 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 p. 30. Question 8. Whether the State of the great Family City Kingdom and Commonwealth Army of Jesus Christ that is of his Church doth require a Supreme Spiritual Head or no p. 33. Question 9. Whether the way to Salvation be narrow or no p. 40. Question 10. How it can be defended that Jesus was the true Messiah promised in the Old Testament if the Church which he Founded erred so many Ages in her Doctrine of Faith p. 42. Question 11. Did the Church of Christ Err heretofore because Christ could not preserve her from Erring or because he would not p. 63. Question 12. 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 p. 65. Question 13. If the Church of Christ did Err from the true Light of the Gospel so many Ages could he find none fit in so many Hundred Years to restore the same till Luther falling out with the Pope and breaking his Vow of Chastity began to teach a new Religion tending to Liberty and Looseness p. 69. Question 14. Whether God by Miracles can draw and incline men to believe a false Religion or no Where it is shew'd that Cod by Miracles did draw our Fore-Fathers at their first Conversion to Christianity to believe Papistry p. 74. Question 15. Out of which Religion the Elect of Christ are to be gather'd at the day of Judgement p. 80. Question 16. Whether Protestants or Catholicks do take the sure way to Eternal Happiness Where it is shewed that Papistry by the Judgement of all Learned Protestants is a saving Religion and consequently a securer way p. 87. An Appendix Whether the Apostles were Protestants or no p. 95. Question I. Where was the Protestant Religion Believ'd and Practis'd the last five hundred years before Luther First I Demand of Protestants where in what Countries Provinces or Cities was the Protestant Church and Religion Extant and Practis'd the last five hundred years immediately before Luther's Revolt from the Roman Church Which he began in the year 1517 First To say that Christ for those five hundred years had no True Church no Saving Faith and Religion upon Earth is flatly against Daniel 2. 44. foretelling that the Kingdom that is the Church of Christ should stand for ever and c. 7. v. 14. That it should Never be Corrupted And against Christ himself assuring us Matth. 16. 18. That the Gates of Hell should never prevail against his Church Moreover out of this Answer it follows that Christ was not the Saviour of the World. For if the World had no means of Salvation from him for those five hundred years Such means it had not from him the next five hundred years which passed before these Which being granted it will be hard if not impossible to prove either by Scripture or Reason that for the space of the next five hundred years which reach up to the times of the Apostles the World from Christ had any true means of Salvation And so by this Answer he will be wholly excluded from being the Saviour of the World as hereafter more clearly shall appear Secondly No understanding Protestant will deny that the World was full of Christians before Luther began his new Preaching or that they then had believ'd and re-cited the CREED of the Apostles If then a Christian in those times had been press'd by a Jew Turk or any other Infidel to deny that Article of his Creed I believe a Holy Catholick Church a Communion of Saints Whether might he with a safe Conscience have deny'd it or no If safely he might have deny'd this Article safely also he might have deny'd the rest In regard that all these Articles so far forth as they are the Object of Faith are of equal Truth and Certainty as is manifest For if one of them be false what certainty is there of the rest But if he might not without damnable Sin and the high offence of God have deny'd this Article as doubtless he might not then this Article as well as the rest is a Divine Truth which we ought to believe with firm and Divine Faith And consequently there was extant in the World before Luther's rising a Catholick Church and a Communion of Saints That is a common union or conjunction of Sanctify'd People in that Church Otherwise Christian People could not so strictly have been oblig'd to believe that Article For they cannot be oblig'd to believe a Falsehood Christ then in the Ages immediatly before Luther began to Preach and institute the Protestant Church and Religion had on Earth a Catholick Church and a Sanctify'd People therein united together in Faith and Religion and in the participation of his Divine Benefits Which being so What will Protestants Answer to my Question Will they grant as the Truth is that although the Protestant Church and Religion were no where extant and in practice the last five hundred years before Luther Yet Christ had then and in all former Ages a saving Faith and Religion But then I must tell them first That if the Protestant Religion and Church were not then the Catholick Church and saving Religion of Christ it cannot prudently be thought or possibly prov'd to be so now But rather all Discreet and Judicious People must hold it to be a new Invention such as the Arrian or the Nestorian Profession was Secondly I must tell them that That Religion which before Luther's Innovation was a Saving Religion is still a Saving Religion For why should it not it being the same that it was Which being granted the Protestant Profession cannot be a Saving Religion Because there cannot be two Saving Religions extant at the same time opposite and contrary one to another as hereafter more clearly shall appear in regard that one of them must of necessity be a false Religion and proceed as from the prime Suggestor and Author not from God but from the enemy of mankind Who will never invent and set a foot a Religion apt to save men in Thirdly I must tell them that if in all Ages before Luther's time Christ on Earth had a Holy Church and a Saving Religion as most certainly he had The first Protestants did very ill in forsaking her Communion and in raising against Her such Factions and Tumults meerly for Liberty sake as they have done For this breaking off was not to secure their Souls whatsoever they pretended to have some colour of their doing but to enjoy more Carnal Liberty than the long settled Discipline of that Holy Church could bear and allow And as ill do They who still maintain the same breach and impugne the same Holy
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
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 Old Religion to be such so Vile Absurd and Superstitious as the false Tongues and Pens of divers of their Teachers who like to those of Isaias 28. 15. make Lying their Hope and are protected with Lying depaint it to be that so with more tranquility of mind they may enjoy the Liberty of their New Religion esteeming the Absurdities reported of the Old to warrant them sufficiently not only not to look after the same but also utterly to hate and detest it Yet in a Business of so great importance as is the Salvation or Damnation of their Souls they might remember that one Tale is good till another be heard and the rather for respect to their Noble Progenitors and to the numerous Troops of Blessed Souls now reigning with Christ in Glory which have liv'd and dy'd in the Old Religion But seeing that neither the Wisdom and Sanctity of these nor the earnest Cries of Catholicks now living who continually avouch that Protestants are mis-informed mistake mis-construe mis-understand the Tenets and Practises of the Catholick Religion can move them to make a serious Scarch into Religion Catholicks must comfort themselves to think that howsoever their Religion is here dis-esteem'd yet the Haters Impugners and Oppressors thereof will be of another mind at the Judgement Seat of Christ when their great Account must be made when Pleasures Riches Honours will be past when Obedience to Christ and his Church when a Holy and Mortify'd Life will be priz'd and when the Glorious Troops of Holy Doctors and Pastors and of innumerable other blessed Men and Women will stand up in Judgement with great constancy against all that have neglected vilified contemned derided their Authority Teaching Practice Examples as many of the New Gospellers usually do Question IX Whether the Way to Salvation be narrow or no IN the Ninth Place I demand of Considerate Protestants whether the Way to Salvation be narrow or no If this happy Tract be not indeed a narrow Way Why did Christ with a kind of Admiration say Math. 7. 14. How narrow is the Gate and straight the Way that leadeth to Life and how few there are that find it Was he deceived or did he intend to deceive us if neither because in very Truth this Way to Flesh and Blood is narrow and not to be kept and travelled without much Labour great Difficulty and frequent Mortification both of the Body by crucifying the Flesh and the Concupiscences thereof Gal. 5. 24. and also of the Mind by subjecting the Will to the Laws of Charity 1 Cor. 13. and by bringing the Understanding into Captivity for Obedience to Christ in believing as the Apostles and their Successors do teach 2 Cor. 10. 5. without suffering much for the Love of God for the Practice of Virtue for the avoiding of sin and for the Profession of our Faith if a storm of Persecution arise If I say for These and such like respects the Tract of Salvation be indeed a narrow way as the Blessed Son of God affirms who best knew this matter How may any Protestant Prudently perswade himself that the Protestant Religion is really this hard and narrow way seeing that it is one of the easiest Religions in the World one of the widest and broadest ways For what greater ease and freedom in Religion can there be than to be ty'd to no sharpness and Mortification of Body And to be at liberty in Mind to believe in matters of Religion what we think best our selves VVhich liberty most certainly all Protestants have by the very Tenets and Principles of their Religion which freeth them from being bound in their own Conceit to Believe as the Church Teaches And takes from them in the same manner the yoke of Fasting of Confession of Pennance Freeth them from all necessity of doing good VVorks to be Sav'd Yea and of keeping the Commandments of God as most Protestants hold And Teacheth them to esteem themselves justify'd from Sin and secur'd from all pain in the next Life and sure of Salvation by only Faith by Believing only and stedfastly that the Lord hath dy'd for them and pay'd the shot of their Sins That this is so not only their express Doctrine but even also the Lives of Protestants especially of their Teachers and Ring-leaders do evidently convince And therefore seeing that no doubt can be made but that the Protestant is a most easie Religion and exceedingly pleasing to Flesh and Blood There can no doubt also be made but that it is not that narrow way of which our Saviour did speak which leadeth to Salvation But rather the broad way which leadeth to ever-lasting Perdition VVhat satisfying Answer to this Protestants may make I see not And therefore such of them as truly desire to secure their Souls and to avoid everlasting misery may do well and wisely to return whilst they have time to that Religion wherein their Fore-fathers for the space almost of a thousand years were Sav'd And wherein also they may be Sav'd if they will even by the grant of their own Learned men as hereafter shall appear which Religion if they will practice exactly they shall find it indeed to be a Narrow-way to Flesh and Blood Yet sweet and easie to Minds elevated by Grace and inflam'd with the Love of Heaven Question X. How it can be defended that Jesus was the True Messiah promis'd in the Old Testament if the Church which he Founded err'd so many Ages in her Doctrine of Faith. IT is a certain undoubted and undenyable Truth and not to be question'd amongst Christians that Jesus the Son of the Virgin Mary is the true Messias the True Christ promis'd in the Old Testament the Omnipotent Son of God Truly God Truly Man and the true and sole Redeemer of the World. This I say is a most certain Truth and not doubted of by any but wicked Miscreants Yet to discover the Nature of the Protestant Religion and to shew clearly to my Dear Countrymen whether it tendeth that thereby if they will they may receive the less hurt by it I must crave leave to demand how this prime and Fundamental Truth of Christianity can be defended and maintain'd against Atheists Turks and Jews if we admit for a Truth that That Church which Jesus founded and which his Apostles planted in the World hath grievously and perniciously err'd in her Doctrine of Faith and in the practice of the Worship of God for many Hundred years Yea almost even since the times of the Apostles That the Church of Jesus hath so Erred is the Main Prime and Fundamental Ground of the Protestant Religion as is well * The Homily against the Perils of Idolatry p. 57. known For upon This as upon a sure Foundation Protestant Teachers have raised all their New Buildings Upon this as upon a sufficient Cause they have forsaken the Old Religion of the Christian World pretending it to be Erroneous Superstitious Idolatrous and have undertaken their various and discordant
Earth shall be blessed That is in Christ in the true Messias as the Apostle does interpret Gal. 3. 6. Of whom also the Royal Prophet sang Psal 17. 7. All the Tribes of the Earth shall be blessed in him all Nations shall magnifie him Now then out of these places of Holy Writ it seems clear First That according to Gods often re-iterated Promise all the Nations of the Earth are truly to be Blessed in the Messias the Hopeful Seed of the Patriarchs Secondly It seems clear that this so Solemnly Promis'd Blessing was not chiefly to consist in Earthly Temporal Transitory Riches and Happiness but in Heavenly Spiritual Eternal Thirdly It seems clear that the Nations of the Earth are to obtain this Blessing by Receiving Believing Practising that Religion and Worship of God which the Messias was to institute and to introduce amongst them by the Teaching of his Doctors and Pastors See Ephes 4. 12. Fourthly It seems clear that the Religion of the True Messias is not to be introduc'd amongst the Nations of the Earth in one Year or in one Age But by degrees and by the Labours and Charitable Endeavours of many Ages Because the same is not to be brought in by Force but by Fair Means Not by the Soldiers Sword but by the Teachers Word Not by Violent Compulsion but by Gentle Perswasion such as the Apostles and Apostolical Teachers have ever us'd Going saith our Sweet Saviour Teach all Nations Matth. 28. And therefore this must needs be a work of long continuance the Nations of the Earth being so many as they are so dispers'd over the whole World and dis-joyn'd one from another by Mountains and Seas so Barbarous so Drench'd in Sin inur'd to Carnal and Brutish Customs And the Religion of the Messias being so Holy and Profound as Gods Religion must be Yea this Divine Work of notifying the Messias to all the Nations of the Earth and of Converting them or at least part of each of them to him is to endure and last even till the end of the World as is manifest out of our Saviours Words before alleadg'd out of the 24 of Matth. See the place and weigh it well Fifthly It is certain out of the grounds before laid that the Nations of the Earth cannot believe the Religion of the Messias availably to Salvation and gain thereby the Promis'd Blessing without the help of Divine Grace That is unless by the special working and Aid of God they be effectually mov'd stir'd up and drawn to forsake their Old and Blind Traditions their False and Idolatrous Worships their Beastly and Abominable Manners to imbrace and practice Religiously the Holy Difficil and deep Religion of the Messias believing the same with such and so Divine a Faith as really is the Gift of God without which no man can be Sav'd Sixthly It is also certain out of the same grounds that God by his Grace and special Aid cannot stir up and effectually draw the Nations of the Earth to Receive Believe and and Practice the Religion of the Messias unless it be wholly true Unless I say it be wholly True wholly Pure from Errors and Superstitions For if with such stuff it be mix'd corrupted defil'd and made displeasing to God and hurtful to the Soul of Man it is impossible that God by his Aid and Grace should induce and draw Men to Believe it As the very Light of Reason doth Teach Note This well And therefore as the Work of the Conversion of Nations to the Messias that they may be made Blessed in him must continue in all Ages even till the end of the World So most certainly the True Messias must ever preserve in the World even till the end thereof a Holy and Divine Religion a Doctrine of Faith intirely and wholly True intirely and wholly Pure from Errours and Superstitions that so the Blessed Majesty of Heaven by his Divine and Powerful Grace may draw the Nations of the Earth to Believe this his Religion and to practice it Religiously that thereby they may become Blessed in Him. All this is clear and manifest out of the Word of God the Light of Reason and the grounds laid But Jesus for above these thousand twelve hundred or fourteen hundred years hath not had any Religion spread over the World among the Nations of the Earth and Preach'd unto them to make them Blessed in Him which hath been wholly True and Pure from Errors and Superstitions if Protestant Teachers say true and do not most dangerously mistake to the Perdition of themselves and their Followers Ergo Jesus is not the true Messias the True Christ and Saviour of the World according to the General Tenet of all Protestant Teachers and the main ground of the Protestant Religion For the True Messias must of necessity have such a Religion in all Ages that thereby the Nations of the Earth may be Blessed in him As I have clearly deduc'd and shew'd But Jesus according to the Doctrine of Protestants hath not had such a Religion scarcely since the Apostles times And therefore the Nations of the Earth have not been Blessed in Him And consequently if their Divinity be good he is not the True Messias The Nations of the Earth I say for above these twelve hundred years have not been Blessed in Jesus by believing in him for want of a True Religion though very many of them within this space of time have been Converted to him by the Roman Church by the Labours and Industry of Papists both in Europe Asia Africa and the New-found World Neither are they ever likely to be Blessed in Him For if already he hath not taken order to preserve a True Divine and Pure Religion among them to bring unto them the Promis'd Blessing that is to Sanctify and Save them He is never likely to do it For he is not likely to be wiser or better or more Powerful hereafter than he hath been heretofore Neither is he likely to come into the World again to found a new Church and Religion and to establish it better then He did his first for the Salvation of Mankind Out of all which it follows clearly and manifestly that according to the Doctrine and fundamental ground of the Protestant Religion which is that the Church of Jesus for many hundred years hath shamefully and perniciously err'd in her Doctrine of Faith and in the True Worship of God it follows I say out of this Assertion clearly and manifestly that Jesus was not nor is not the True Messias the True Christ and Saviour of the World. Behold here the true depth of the Protestant Religion and whether it directly leads if it 's search'd to the bottom And doubt not but that the Bird is naught that lays so bad an Egg. What will Protestants answer here to struggle out of these narrow straits Will they say that although Jesus had not for so many hundred years any Visible True Religion yet he had an Invisible True Religion by
which the Nations of the Earth were made Blessed But then I demand 1st With what Spectacles do these men who thus Answer see this Invisible Religion Or how do they know there was any such in the World What Text of the Bible what History makes mention thereof 2ly Who were the Preachers of this Invisible Religion Who the Followers What Nations receiv'd it What Sacraments had it What Divine Service or Worship of God In what Churches was it practic'd or Caves or Desarts How did the Followers thereof know one another What Candles did they use at their Meetings all being Invisible amongst them 3ly What Foolish Heretick may not by thus Answering maintain that his Devises were ever extant though Invisibly and that the Nations of the Earth by them have been Blessed yet Invisibly This Answer then being too too Absurd and Ridiculous Will other Protestants hope to evade by saying That although the Faith of the Roman Church grew by degrees to be full of Errors and Superstitions yet the Nations of the Earth were Sav'd thereby and thereby were made truly Blessed in Jesus But then I demand first whether the Faith of the Roman Church be truly Holy truly pleasing to God and profitable to Man or no If it be not how could God draw Men by his Heavenly Grace to believe it But if it be why did Protestants at the first revolt from it Or how durst they lately Persecute it May they securely Persecute and seek to ruine that Religion by which for so many hundred years the Nations of the Earth have been made Blessed in Jesus I believe not Secondly I demand by what Text of Scripture or light of Reason will Protestants maintain that God by his Grace and special operation can draw men to believe a false and Superstitious Religion A Religion that had so great need of Reforming that the World was to be turn'd up-side down and Infinite Tumults and Bloody Broils to be set a foot rather than not to undertake it If God can draw men by his Grace can move and stir them up to imbrace and believe Errors and Superstitions or Religions that are Erronious and Superstitious how is he not in this respect as bad as the Devil Or upon what firm ground can we maintain that the Religion of Moses the Religion of Jesus was Pure and Holy By saying and proving that God was the Author of these Religions That proves nothing if God by his Grace can draw men to believe Errors and Superstitions Thirdly I demand If Jesus was the true Messias and that God did intend to draw the Nations of the Earth to believe in him and to make them Blessed by him was he not able to provide himself of a True Holy and Divine Religion to which with his Honour he might draw them But must he needs make use of a False Blind Superstitious one to the extream Disgrace of himself These Answers then being Absurd and far from satisfying Prudent men To maintain that Jesus is the True Messias and that the Promises of God made to the Patriarchs have been really fulfill'd in him Will considerate Protestants grant and acknowledge that he hath ever had in all Ages a Divine Religion wholly True and truly Saving spread over the World to bring to the Nations thereof the promis'd Blessing If this they will do they shall do like Good Christians But then they must name a Divine Pure and Illustrious Religion different and distinct from Papistry which hath Converted the Nations of the Earth to Jesus and in all Ages hath made them Blessed in him Which is impossible for them to do Or else they must acknowledge and grant that Papistry is a Divine Religion is wholly true is the True Light of the Gospel of Christ is his only Saving Faith and abundantly apt and able to bring to the Nations of the Earth the Promis'd Blessing all which is most true as I hope they will grant rather then deny that Jesus was the True Messias and Saviour of the World as some Protestants have done to the assured damnation of their Souls Being by this Argument choak'd and not able to find any satisying Answer thereunto unless they would yield that Papistry is a Holy and Saving Religion and the true Light of the Gospel of Christ Which they being unwilling to yield unto either for shame or for their extream hatred thereof turn'd either Jews Turks or Atheists and so made sure their Eternal Damnation But our Protestants I hope will be Wiser and will rather return to the Faith of their Noble Progenitors in which they may assuredly be Sav'd than run into so great madness and thereby perish Eternally Question XI Did the Church of Christ err heretofore because Christ could not preserve her from erring or because he would not MY Eleventh Demand of Protestants is if the Church of Christ hath err'd as they say in her Doctrine of Faith from whence proceeded this her erring Did this happen because Christ could not keep her from erring or because he would not If he could not how is he God How is he Omnipotent How is it True that he had All Power given him both in Heaven and Earth Mat. 28. 18. If Christ could enable his Apostles to Preach his Religion over the World without danger of erring and of deluding the Nations of the Earth why could he not also Enable their Successors the Ordinary Doctors and Pastors of his Church to Teach and continue the same Religion in all succeeding Ages without danger of erring and of misleading his People If God could direct men to write his Holy Scriptures without danger of erring why can he not direct men to explicate the same Holy Scriptures in all Ages without danger of erring in matters of Faith Well then Protestants must say that Christ could have preserv'd his Church in all Ages from danger of erring in her Doctrine of Faith but would not But why would he not Did the Increase of his own Credit and Glory move him to this neglect or the good of Mankind Not the Increase of his own Credit For what Credit Honour Glory could acrew and arise to him by the erring of his Church Doth this commend his Workmanship in Founding her His Wisdom Goodness Power in Governing her I think not Nay could it become the Wisdom of a Discreet man to take so great Pains and to suffer so Painful and Ignominious a Death as Christ did for the Founding of an Erring Church which should Delude and Mislead the World Would any Honest Protestant if he had the like Power that Christ had have Founded so miserable a Church as they esteem Christ to have Founded I believe not Was it then the good of Mankind that invited Christ to Constitute an erring Church Truly no. For no good can come to men by such a Church but rather much harm yea infinite mischief As endless Discord Broils Contentions Bloody Encounters uncertainty in matters of Faith contempt of all Religion
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
certain it is that God hath ever preserv'd in the World a True Divine and Illustrious Religion in which Men may be Sav'd if they will. For Christ did not Light up a Candle to put it under a Bushel Mat. 5. And so certain it is that the Protestant Religion which is Erected upon so bad a Foundation as the Erring of the Church is is neither good nor sufficient to Salvation Question XIII If the Church of Christ did Err from the True Light of the Gospel for so many Ages could be find none fit in so many hundred years to restore the same till Luther falling out with the Pope and breaking his Vow of Chastity began to Teach a New Religion tending to Liberty and Looseness TO make way for my next demand I must again repeat that Protestants Believe and Teach that the Church of Christ quickly fell from that Purity of Doctrine which he and his Apostles deliver'd unto her And that shortly after their times her Pastors and Doctors by Humane Inventions and Traditions Obscur'd the true and sincere Light of the Gospel And obtruded upon their Followers many gross Errors about Faith many vain and hurtful Superstitions in the practice of Religion and about the Worship of God. In which she continu'd still increasing them for 1400 1200. or at least a thousand years And from which she ought long ago to have been cleans'd but was not through the Ambition Negligence or gross Ignorance of her Pastors Who living in Blindness themselves lead their Followers in Blindness as Protestants imagine Who therefore call this long tract of time in which they esteem the Church to have Err'd the time of Blindness But how Blindly may partly appear by that which I have already said partly by this That those Articles of the Old Religion which these men account Errors are the prime parts of the Religion of Christ which tend to good Life to nourish Piety and to inflame Devotion and which he ordain'd to Animate Help Curb and Cure our sluggish weak and frail Nature and to bring his People to live in the Fear of God to walk in his Holy Commandments to live according to Conscience to abstain from Evil and to do Good To Crucifie the Flesh and the bad Desires thereof Gal. 5. 24. And in a Word to imitate studiously his own Blessed Life and the Lives and Actions of his Holy Apostles and other prime Saints who Forsook all to follow him Mat. 19. 27. Such are those Articles of the Old Religion which bind under pain of Damnation to the necessity of keeping the Commandments of God by abstaining from Mortal Sins such as are Murder Fornication Theft in a notable quantity Perjury and the like by which property they are broken to the necessity of Fasting as the Church Commands Of Confessing all grievous sins Sacramentally to a Lawful and Authoriz'd Priest Of doing Pennance for them in this Life or of Suffering severe Punishment in the next Of restoring other mens Goods unlawfully gotten or possess'd and to the necessity of obeying the Church and all other Lawful Superiours in things appertaining to their Power Such also are those Articles which Teach the merit of good Works proceeding of Grace and done in the state of Grace and the excellency of the Evangelical Councils of Christ of perpetual Poverty Chastity and Obedience practic'd in the Church of Christ even since the Apostles times by innumerable Holy Men and Women All which Articles and divers others connex'd with these are the things which Protestant Teachers repute Errors and dislike in the Old Religion as restraining too much from the Liberty of the Gospel that is to speak plain English from the Liberty of the Flesh from Venus and Bacchus Which Liberty is chiefly intrench'd upon by the Roman Church in that she will not admit any to the high and Heavenly Function of Priesthood who will not Voluntarily Geld themselves for the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 19. 12. By Vowing perpetual Chastity which point indeed doth chiefly sting many Protestant Teachers and doth incite them to rage so furiously and to stand out so Rebelliously as they do against this their True and Antient Mother though divers of the more Learned amongst them do it with some Reluctation of Conscience which tells them that Chastity is a Decent dignifying and excellent Ornament of Christian Priests and which therefore not Obscurely foretells them that the short solace which a Wife in this Life affords them is likely to cost them in the next the Eternal loss of their Souls But to come to the matter and question here intended If the Church of Christ did Err from the true Light of his Gospel so many Ages and imbrace so many gross and dangerous Superstitions as She is accus'd to have done I demand of Prudent and Considerate Protestants how it could become the Wisdom Goodness and Mercy of God first to drive off and defer the Cleansing and Reforming of his Church so many hundred years to the great Dishonour of Himself and of his Blessed Son and to the loss of Infinite Souls and then after so long a tract of time to make choice of such Instruments as Protestants imagine he did to restore again to the World the true Light of his Gospel Could he find none fit to take in hand and to bring to effect this Needful Merciful and Holy Reformation till Martin Luther a Cholerick and Bold Austine-Fryer Incens'd with Anger because the Preaching of certain Indulgences granted by the Pope was committed to the Dominican-Fryers and not to his Order fell out with the Pope cast away his Religious Weed brake his Vow of Chastity which he had long kept Married a Nun Consecrated to God and plung'd himself into a Carnal course of Life Could God I say find none fit neither amongst the Fathers of the Primitive Church nor amongst the Saints and Sages of the next thousand years to be the Actors of so Needful a Reformation till the Love of Carnal Liberty made Luther and his Brood shew themselves to the World There liv'd in those times St. Basil the Great St. Hierome St. Ambrose St. Augustine St. Gregory the Great Venerable Bode St. Bernard St. Anselme St. Thomas of Aquin St. Bonaventure beside Innumerable others all excellent Men for Learning Wisdom Sanctity and all so Devoted to God that He had them all at his command And yet among all these could he find none so fit to be his Instruments in the Divine Work of Reforming his Church and of restoring again to the World the true Light of his Gospel as Luther and his Associates Who dares Pawn his Soul hereon Especially if he consider that these Men were not only destitute of Excellent Sanctity of Life which those usually have who are Gods peculiar Instruments in the effecting of any such kind of work but were also branded with all the Marks of False Prophets of Perfidious Hereticks as Learned Protestants cannot but know Insomuch that it is not possible
for them to give a proper and True Definition of an Heretick but therein they must involve and inclose Luther Calvin Zwinglius and such other prime Founders of the Protestant Religion How improbable then a thing is it that God among so many Wise Learned and Holy Men as flourish'd in his Church in the long tract of above a thousand years could not find any fit to be by him particularly imploy'd for the restoring of the True Light of his Heavenly Religion to the World again if it were lost till Luther and his carnal and jarring Off-spring appear'd And how slenderly do Protestants provide for the safety of their Souls who hazzard them upon so manifest a Falshood as this Question XIV Whether God by Miracles can draw and incline men to believe a false Religion or no Where it is shewed that God by Miracles did draw our Fore-Fathers at their first Conversion to Christanity to believe Papistry MY Fourteenth Demand is Whether God by Miracles can move and draw Men to believe a false Religion or no Or thus whether Men may safely and without danger of their Souls esteem that Religion False VVicked Pernicious and worthy to be hated and persecuted to believe which God doth stir up and induce men even by Miracles as by curing the Lame Blind and the like I think no understanding Protestant will be so ill advised as to affirm this for he that should so do should utter a manifest Blasphemy tending to the denial of God and of all Christianity For he that draws men to believe false Religions cannot be a good Spirit but a Bad cannot be God but the Devil as is manifest or the Devils Agent God being infinitely VVise Good and True and a zealous Hater of all Falshood Moreover what certainty can we have of the Truth of the Scriptures of the Doctrine of Moses and of Christ or that Christ was the true Messias and Saviour of the VVorld if God by Miracles may draw and induce men to the imbracing of a false Religion Far then be it from all true Christian Breasts to hold so great a Blasphemy as this and therefore let me lay for a sure and uncontroulable Ground that God by Miracles cannot draw men to imbrace a false or bad Religion and that therefore that Religion to believe which God by Miracles doth stir up and induce is not Bad Superstitious and False but true Holy and Divine yea wholly True and the only Saving Faith of Christ because there can be but only one Faith but only one Religion in the VVorld that is intirely True and truly Saving as I before have shewed This Ground being agreed upon which Christianly cannot be denied I propose to all prudent and considerate Protestants this Syllogism That Religion to believe which God by Miracles doth stir up and draw is wholly True Divine and Saving But God by Miracles doth stir up and draw men to believe Papistry Ergo Papistry is wholly true Divine and Saving yea it is the only Saving Faith of Christ The Major is clear and certain out of the Ground laid The Minor I could prove by the Testimony of innumerable grave Authors and by relating the Conversion of divers Heathen Nations to Christ brought to pass in former Ages and also in our Times But omitting these to avoid Prolixity I will only insist upon the Conversion of our own Nation to Christ which was effected a thousand years ago by forty Holy Monks sent hither by Gregory the Great then Bishop of Rome St. Austin the first Arch-Bishop of Canterbury being the Cheif of them who converted our Fore-fathers not to the Protestant Faith which then was not so much as thought of in the VVorld but to Papistry for what Religion should the Pope send in and Monks bring in but Papistry This is manifest by the Churches Altars Abbeys Monasteries Nunneries which our first Christians built By the Names which they imposed upon Churches and upon sundry Days of the Year as Christmas Ash-Wednesday Palm-Sunday By the Crosses which they every where erected By the Pictures wherewith they adorned their Altars and the Glass Windows of their Churches By their perpetual Subjection to the Pope and the Paying of the Peter-pence unto him from the Time of King Inas even to Henry the Eighth Yea This is so evident that even the most earnest of the Protestants cannot deny it Bale Cent. 1. Fol. 3. saith That Austin was sent from Gregory to season the English Saxons with the Popish Faith. Doctor Fulk Confu of Purg. pag. 333. for this cause tearms our Conversion to Christ our Perversion Danaeus Resp ad disput Bellar. Part 1. pag. 780. Terms the same The Inebriation of the VVhore of Babilon Mr. Ascham Apol. pro caena pag. 33. Calls St. Austin who brought our Fore-fathers from worshipping the Devil to worship Christ The Overthrower of true Religion and the Establisher of Popish Doctrine Mr. Harrison in his Description of Britanniae set before Hollinshead in plain terms confesses That Austin came and brought in Popery Bale in Catalog cent 14. pag. 117. saith That Austin by his Interpreters taught our People the Papistical Faith. The same is clear out of the Magdeburgians Luke Osiander and others who shew that scarcely there is a Ceremony now used by Papists that was not then brought in by St. Austin And so there can no doubt be made but that our Fore-fathers by their first Converters were made Papists and that that Faith in Christ to which God by his Grace did draw them was Papistry It rests then to prove that to this Faith God did convert and draw our Fore-fathers even by Miracles VVhich Point being well and firmly proved no prudent man will deny but that Papistry is truly and really a Holy and a Divine Religion yea the true Light of the Gospel and the only Saving Faith of Christ as my former Syllogism doth demonstrate That God then by Miracles did incline and draw our Fore-fathers to believe and imbrace that Faith and Religion which Austin taught that is Papistry is testified first by Venerable Bede a Holy Grave and Learned Author who living near the Time of our Conversion while things were yet fresh in Memory and writing out of the assured Records of the whole Business then extant and to no meaner a Person than a King is not likely to have erred through ignorance or to have feigned This wise then and Holy man in his first Book C. 26. speaketh thus But when the King himself being much delighted with the Purity of their Life namely of Augustin and his Associates and the Example of their Godly Conversation as also with their sweet Promises which to be true they proved by working many Miracles did believe and were Baptized there began more and more daily to resort unto their Sermons and renouncing the Rites of their old Gentility to joyn themselves by Faith to the Vnity of the Holy Church of Christ Thus in this place Bede Who in his Second
Church Which hitherto have been the Converters of Heathen Nations Certainly none at all And as little solid hope can Protestants have that they shall one day be gathered together by the Holy Angels and placed amongst the Elect of God For certain it is that the Elect of God are to be gathered out of the Professors of the True Faith and Religion of Christ which is but one as I have already shewed and as the Apostle affirms Ephes 4. 5. One Faith one Baptism one God and out of his True Church and Fold Which also is but one as he himself doth teach John 10. 16. And other Sheep I have that are not of this Fold Them also I must bring and they shall hear my voice And there shall be made one Fold and one Pastor Out of which words note First That Christ speaking of his Church as she was to be after the Conjunction of the Jews and Gentiles together in one Faith assures us that she should be One Fold namely under one Visible Head one Jurisdiction one Government having one Faith one Worship of God one Communion one means of Sanctification for the Flock of this Fold Note Secondly That by this One Pastor that was to be made after Christ spake these words may well be meant not only Christ himself who was then the Good Pastor ver 11. and was not so made after this time but some other Supreme Ministerial Pastor made by Christ after the speaking of these words to preserve Unity in his Church and fittingly to govern her under himself Which was no other but blessed Peter made Supreme Pastor of the Flock of Christ John 21. which Office he left to his Successors Thirdly note That the Voice of the Church of Christ preaching in all Ages to the Nations of the Earth to bring them to his Fold is the Voice of Christ by his own acknowledgement And they saith he shall hear my Voice According to that of Luk. 10. 16. He that heareth you heareth me And so Christ hath hitherto preached and doth yet preach to the Gentiles not by his own Corporal and Personal Voice but by the Voice of his Apostles and of their Successors the Ordinary Doctors and Pastors of his Church Whose Voice is his Voice because by him they are sent to teach and by him in their teaching are Guided And in like manner the sound of the Apostles doth yet go forth into all the Earth Psal 18. Rom. 10. And must go forth even till the day of Doom for a Testimony to all Nations Matth. 24. 14. Now then seeing that the Elect of God are to be gathered out of all the World and out of the Fold and Flock of Christ And that Christ verily and really hath but one Fold one Church one Faith one Flock and one Supreme Pastor under himself to guide fittingly this large Fold this great and numerous Flock spread over the VVorld And seeing also that the Protestants are neither spread over the VVorld that the Elect of God may be gathered out of them nor united to that Flock nor participants of that Faith which is spread over the VVorld nor within that Fold that is One nor under the Government and Feeding of that one Supreme Pastor of whom Christ speaketh Deplorable for the present is their Case most dangerous their State vain their Labour and fruitless their Hope And so it will ever be until they return to this Flock and Pastor again VVhich return how safely in Conscience and prudently they may make my next Question will declare Question XVI Whether Protestants or Catholicks do take the surer way to Eternal Happiness Where it is shewed That Papistry by the judgement of all Learned Protestants is a Saving Religion and consequently the securer way THe Doctrine delivered to Christian People concerning Heaven and Hell doth teach the one to be a place of such unspeakable Happiness And the other of such inexplicable Misery that no discreet Man among them will stick to say if he be asked that every Man and VVoman doth stand most deeply obliged out of their Duty to God and the natural Love they owe to themselves to take the surer way when doubt is made to gain the one and to avoid the other To take I say the surer way when doubt is made about the ways which are said to lead to Heaven or to bring to Hell. Amongst which ways two are of chief esteem the Catholick and the Protestant the Old and the New Religion Both which are said to be sure ways to Heaven yet both are doubted of The Old is doubted of among Christians only by a few of the Protestant Party who are neither of the best Learned amongst them nor of the most discreet For Learned Protestants generally hold that the Old Religion that is Papistry is a Saving Religion and a secure way to Heaven and that those which live and dye therein may be saved Here this witnessed by their own Pens and first by Doctor Covel in his defence of Mr. Hooker's Books of Ecclesiastical Polity Published by Authority Where he teacheth this at large saying Page 77. We affirm them of the Church of Rome to be part of the Church of Christ and that those which live and dye in that Church may notwithstanding be saved The same is taught by Doctor Field in his Third Book of the Church cap. 46. pag. 182. saying We doubt not but the Church in which the Bishop of Rome with more then Lucifer-like Pride exalted himself was notwithstanding the True Church of God And that it held a saving Profession of truth in Christ and by force thereof did Convert many from Errour And by Doctor Some in his defence against Penry pag. 182. saying In the Judgement of all Learned Men and all Reformed Churches there is in Popery a Church a Ministry a True Christ And pag. 176. If you think saith he that all the Popish sort which died in the Popish Church are damned you think absurdly and dissent from the Judgement of Learned Protestants Thus these Prime and Learned Protestants to whom I could add many more of later date but that it is needless in regard that all moderate Protestants do grant that Papists may be saved Yea this is the common Tenet of all Learned Protestants and of all Reformed Churches as you have heard out of Doctor Somes And not without cause in regard that Learned Protestants see well enough that if this they should deny they should not only very rashly and without any sure ground condemn to Hell all their Fore-fathers and the rest of the Christian World for above a Thousand Years before Luther not being well able to save from this Censure the Antient Fathers and innumerable other Learned Men and Holy Saints but should also lay open a fair way to plain Atheism to the utter denial of Christ and of God as my Tenth Eleventh and Twelfth Questions do very clearly demonstrate And therefore I may without danger of slander
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
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
at all And as for the Scriptures as from thence we may easily gather that the Apostles were Papists So we find not there the least Sign that they were Protestants For if as Reason dictates we will judge of their Faith by their practice we cannot admit that in Faith they were like the Protestants seeing that in their practice they were plainly Papists For they lived perpetually Chaste yea and if ever any other they also Guelded themselves for the Kingdom of Heaven by a Vow of perpetual chastity according to the Counsel of our Saviour given Matth. 19. 12. They forsook all to follow Christ and to attain to perfection according also to the Counsel of Christ given Matth. 19. 21. as Saint Peter doth confidently profess Matth. 19. 27. whereby they practised both Poverty and Obedience Poverty in forsaking all Obedience in following Christ wherein they were so exact that they doubted not at his appointment to leave both Country and Friends and to expose both themselves and their Lives to infinite Labours and Hazards while they enterprized the Conversion of the Gentiles from their carnal and inveterate Idolatry to the Holy and Divine Religion of Christ And therefore we may truly say that the Apostles were Religious Men even such as are in the Catholick Church practising Poverty Chastity and Obedience and imitating thereby in an excellent manner their Blessed Master who was so poor that he had not whereon to repose his Head Luke 9. 58. So Chaste and so great a Friend of Chastity that even he would be born of a Virgin and so Obedient as he was Man to his Heavenly Father that he gave his Life at his appointment for the Redemption and Salvation of Mankind Philip. 2. 8. By the practices of which excellent Virtues this Blessed Lord laid the Foundation of the Regular or Religious Life consisting chiefly in the profession and due observance of perpetual Poverty Chastity and Obedience so much practiced afterwards in his Church For from him as from the Original Fountain the same hath hitherto flowed and doth yet flow with so full a Stream in his true and Catholick Church For the Vowing of these things had never been of so high esteem and of so frequent use among the Ancient and Learned Fathers and the choicest pieces of Christian Sanctity had it not been the nearest imitation of the Holy and mortified Life of Christ and of the practice of the Apostles of John the Baptist of Elias To which practice of the Apostles if we add their frequent Praying Act. 2. 42. Act. 12. 5. Act. 10. 9. and their often Watching and much Fasting Act. 14. 22. 2 Cor. 6. 5. 2 Cor. 11. 27. it will manifestly appear that they were as far from being Protestants as Monks and Fryers now are These things being wholly out of use amongst Protestants and not only contrary to the Liberty of their new Gospel but even fruitless vain superstious toys according to the Tenets and Principles thereof By all which it seems to be manifestly Convinced that the Apostles of our Saviour were not Protestants but rather truly and really Papists both in their Belief and practice their outward practice shewing their inward Belief according to that of our Saviour Out of the abundance of the Heart the mouth speaketh Mat. 12. 34. But if any Protestants will be yet so wilful that he will maintain against manifest Reason that the Protestant Religion was in the times of the Apostles though afterwards it appeared not in the World till Luther reviv'd it I must tell him that this doth not only prove that the Protestant Religion is not the true Religion of Christ which must ever be extant in the World for the Salvation of Souls but further also it shews that it is a very vile and naughty Religion seeing the whole Christian World did so soon forsake and cast it aside notwithstanding that it is so easie and so pleasing to the Carnal Appetites of men And so Protestants cannot reap much true comfort by imagining that their Religion was in the times of the Apostles seeing all the Antient Saints and Learned Fathers yea even the whole Christian World thought it not worth the regarding Books Printed and sold by Nathaniel Thompson at the Entrance into the Old Spring-Garden near Charing-Cross A Manual of Controversies clearly demonstrating the Truth of Catholick Religion By Texts of Holy Scripture Councils of all Ages Fathers of the first 500 years Common Sense and Reason And fully Answering the principal Objections of Protestants and all other Sectaries Price bound 1. s. 6. d. A Manual of Devout Prayers Fitted for all Persons and Occasions To which is added the Rosary Latine and English Prayers to the Blessed Virgin Mary c. The Prayers of St. Bridget and other most devout Prayers upon several occasions never before published With a Catholick Kalender for the year of our Lord 1686. A most excellent way of Hearing Mass with profit and Devotion Containing the whole Mass in Latine and English with divers choice select Prayers before and after Confession and Communion And an Examen of Conscience To which is added the Rosary of our Blessed Lady Prayers to the Blessed Virgin Mary the Prayers of St. Bridget c. And several other most Devout Prayers to our Blessed Redeemer Also the Vespers or Even-Song in Latine and English as it is Sung in all Catholick Churches Newly Corrected A Collection of 86. Loyal Poems all of them Written upon the two late Plots viz. The horrid Salamanca Plot in 1678. and the present Fanatical Conspiracy in 1683. To which is added Advice to the Carver Written on the Death of the â—ate Lord Stafford With several Poems on Their Majesties Coronation never before published The second Edition Collected by N. T. Price Bound 2 s. A choice Collection of 180 Loyal Songs all of them written since the two lâ—te Plots c. Intermixt with some new Love Songs With a Table to find every Song To which is added the Musical Notes to each Song The third Editâ—â—n with many Additions Price 2 s. The Lawyer Out-law'd or a brief Answer to Mr. Hunt's Defence of the Charter With some useful Remarks on the Commons proceedings in the last Parliament at Westminster in a Letter to a Friend Price 6 d. Janua Scientiarum Or a Compendious Introduction to Geography Chronology Government History Philosophy and all gentile sorts of LITERATURE Price Bound 1 s. 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A Net for the Fishers of Men being the same which Christ gave to his Apostles Wherein the points controverted betwixt Catholicks and all Sectaries are briefly vindicated by way of Dilemma By two Gentlemen Converts price 4 d An Explanation of the Holy Ornaments and Ceremonies which the Priest uses at Mass price 2 d. A Sermon Preach'd before the King and Queen in their Majestie 's Chappel at St. Jame's on Sunday Octob. 24. 1686. By the Reverend Father Dom. W. Marsh Monk of the Holy Order of St. Benedict Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty Published by his Majesties Command price 6 d. A Sermon Preach'd before their Majestie 's in their Chappel at St. Jamee's the 25th Sunday after Pentcost Nov. 17. 1686. By John Dormer of the Society of Jesus price 6 d. A Sermon Preach'd before their Majesties in their Chappel at St. James's the 2 d Sunday in Advent Dec. 6. 1686. By John Dormer of the Society of Jesus price 6 d. 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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