Counter-Queries My next Task is to examine his exceptions against my Categorical Answers I shall not contend about words nor much crave excuse for want of accurate expression in that hasty delivery of my Conceptions to comply with your request at that time 1. As to the first he excepts against the term Christianity as dubious to make my Answer acceptable I will insert the Term he desires and say True Christianity But I fear the addition will dispel no mist of doubtfulness if there were any such about the answer For Hereticks alwaies pretend to Truth as much as to Christianity and would be taken for the only true Christians But to satisfy his nice and curious palate I answer as fully as he desires There was is and shall be till the worlds end a Catholick Church that in every age is visible by profession of true Christianity to the persons then living That is to say In all ages God had and will have and preserve some Christians who shall so profess the Truth according to the doctrine of the Gospel that their light of Faith shall shine to the men of their generation respectively But I cannot so easily admit another addition sliely made by the Querist to my Answer viz. in their whole profession Latet anguis in herbâ 1 Cor. 3.12,13 He that professes true Christianity may build hay and stubble upon the foundation and yet not miscarry in his person whilst he holds fast his profession of the saving truth unto the end though he be saved through the fire and loose his superstructure as St. Paul assures us It is not therefore necessary that any person or Church which maintains true Christianity should profess it in such an absolute purity as that water should never be mixed with the wine It is enough that poyson is not admixed with the liquor of life But because I perceive that there is much ambiguity in the termes of the Query for which it deserves to be called Fallacia plurium interrogationum a sophistical trick of asking many things under one word that hath two faces under a hood I will weigh the vvords over again and mould my answer anevv fitted to his explication of the vvord Catholick In common speech Catholick is no more than Universal Just. Mart. dial cum Tryph. Justin Martyr vvho vvith many others of that age believed a particular Resurrection of some that should rise and reign 1000 years before the end of the World calls the last Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Catholick or in plain English Universal Resurrection There is also a Catholick Faith vvhich is common to all Christians and comprises all that is necessary to Salvation And the Church of Christ novv unconfined to any one place or nation but spreading like a fruitful vine her branches throughout the carth is called Catholick that is not National as the old Church of the Jevvs vvas but Universal since the Gospel is preached to all the vvorld indifferently and the voice of the Apostles vvent forth into all the earth and their vvords unto the ends of the habitable vvorld Col. 2.6 Rom. 10.18 It is not to be omitted that in a secondary and borrovved sense the word Catholick is applied to them that hold the true Faith which is common to all Christians and therefore Catholick In this sense not only a particular Church but also a singular person may be called Catholick meaning one that professes the Catholick Faith But the Querist who hath a peculiar language and though he speaks English yet means Italian hath taught me since I first read his Questions and answered them according to the common usage of the words that he meant by the Catholick Church the Representative Church in a full and lawful meeting of the Priests and Pastors to teach the Church diffusive Now according to this sense of the words Catholick Church I do turn my Affirmative Answer into a Negative and say There is not in all ages a visible Catholick Church meaning a general Council lawfull assembled If this be Equivocation you see who teac hes me to be double tongued The exception against my second Answer is that I add the word ordinarily and he supposes that I might mean that some may be saved in extraordinary cases out of the visible Church and therefore he takes my Answer to be Affirmative That some may be saved out of the Catholick Church and this he thinks is contrary to the stream of Antiquity Mage cernit acutum quam aut Aquila out Serpens Epidaurius Horat. If he had not had the malignant disposition rather then the quick-sighted eye of a Serpent he would never have espied a fault in my Answer and fancied an Affirmative sentence in a Negative Proposition For if he had not been forward to cavil he might have easily conceived a very obvious reason of my putting in the word Ordinarily Because we know not how God will deal in judging all out of the pale of the Church and we that live within it are concerned to give an account onely for our selves and for the use of our Light and Talent I said that Ordinarily out of the Catholick Church there is no Salvation This negative which resolves nothing positively concerning Gods extraordinary acting cannot without unjust violence to my words be taken for an affirmative sentence That some may be saved out of the Church And I hope you will excuse if not justify my unwillingness to limit the spirit and mercies of God which blows and shine where God pleases As for Christian Antiquity you know that many antient Doctors have been very favourable in their judgment not only of them who lived by the law of nature in a communion with God when the Covenant of Grace was first ratified with the Hebrew Patriarchs though those worshippers of God were not of the stock of Israel Of this see Is Casaub Exerc 1. ad Card. Baron App. c. 1. but also of them who lived in latter ages in the acknowledgment of one God with a constant observation of Truth and Justice such as were Socrates and Aristides But according to the Querists explication of the Church Catholick I shall now change the shape of my second Answer also and say That Christians may attain salvation out of a Representative Church which he gives to be the meaning of a Catholick Church in the Querie and charges me with sophistry because I will not understand it so The members of a general Council being but few and that not agreed who have right to be so it were hard with Christendom if all who are extra Concilium out of that compass were excluded out of Heaven I add that the Church Catholick may stand and all the members of it may be saved without a Church Representative Now because all that he says is but beating the Air and very impertinent to his design of making a Convert which is the thing aimed at I add a Proposition which though
Canonical Scripture The Catholick Church being quickly after enlarged and spred through many regions of the earth did together with the Gospel preached receive Copies of the Scriptures which had been communicated by the particular Churches to which they were directed at first unto their neighbour Churches These Scriptures were by all Churches reverenced and preserved as the Grand Charter of their Salvation and the Laws and Records of their Society as the Church was the Kingdome of Christ distinguished from the world The zeal of Christians for their Laws and their knowledg of them which were frequently read in the publick Assemblies according to an * Col. 14.16 Appostolical order to which we must add above all the Providence of Gods watching over the Church for the preservation of Scriptures being more pretious to God than to Man and as pretious to God as the world it self these being well considered may assure us that it was morally impossible that the whole Church of God should be cousened into the reception of any forged Scriptures And if the Church in following ages could not combine together to coyn counterfeit Scriptures then the Church universal could never obtrude any thing upon the world for Canonical Scripture which was not received from the Primitive Church at first But how doth it follow from hence that the Church is an Infallible Judg in this point A creditable witness is not presently an Infallible Judg. A faithful Depositary that keeps Records is not the same thing with an unerring Judg. The Tradition of the Church Universal which hath derived the Holy Scriptures from age to age is not an Act of Judicature The Nation of the Jews is at this day a credible witness of the divine Original and authority of the Old Testament at least at the first plantation of the Church Christian the Jevvish Church did preserve and deliver the Holy Scriptures in tire so much at least as God thought necessary or expedient and if any book vvere lost that by being lost became unnecessary and vvas secured by Gods Providence in the conveyance of his Oracles to Christians Doth it hence follovv that the People of the Jews was a visible Infallible Judg in that point and if so then in all matters of Faith For thus the Papist proceeds If so I require some satisfactory reason says the Querist why the Church should be infallible in this and fallible in other points of Faith c. I have already shewed that the Case is not so as this man imagines therefore I am not bound to give him the satisfaction which he requires Yet for your further information I add this 1. The reception and tradition of Scriptures by the Church is a fact which God orders as expedient for the preservation of Religion 2. The certain number of the Books written by inspiration is not a point of faith necessary for every Christian to know and believe unto Salvation 3. The Catholick Church cannot err in any point of faith necessary to salvation 4. But any particular Church may believe and teach erroneous Doctrine for matter of Faith The Church of Rome which is not the sole keeper of Scripture may and doth err in several points of their Religion and doth impose upon her children uncanonical Books for Scripture and false Doctrines for matters of faith as is evident by the Canons of the Conventicle of Trent And yet it is not in the power of the Church of Rome to abuse the whole Christian world by the imposition of counterfeit Scriptures upon it I shall yet persist in my reflexion upon the Jews that I may shew that the keeping of Scriptures without forgery falsification and corruption is a thing distinct and separable from erring teaching errors The Jews cannot be denied to have been good keepers of the Books even then when they corrupted the Religion enjoyned by the Law written in those Books Never yet was any man so weak as to conclude that the Priests and Rabbies of the Jews were Infallible Judges of the Doctrine concerning the Messias even those who condemned Christ the Son of God to be guilty of blasphemy and worthy of death because they kept the Books of Moses and the Prophets There is now less reason why we should take the present Church of Rome which we evidently see to teach Doctrines and set up a worship as contrary to the Scriptures as darkness is to light to be an infallible Judge of faith upon this account because the Primitive Roman Church in communion with other Churches did hand down to posterity the holy Scriptures without any falsification since the Church of Rome at this day doth both accept and impose upon her own Children and would but cannot upon others Apocryphal Books for Canonical I have now shewed that these Queries are not unanswerable by Protestants adhering to their own principles or Axioms I desire you to consider the result of the whole design Except you allow him at first that the Roman-Church is in propriety of speech the Catholick Church this disquisition can advance you not an hairs-breadth to a better opinion of the Roman Church for a Guide then you had before For after all the clamour made for resolution of these Queries concerning the Catholick Church the main Question stands as it did Whether the Church of Rome at this day be to be subjected unto as an infallible Guide and to be communicated with all other Churches being abandoned and particularly the Church of England whereof you are now a setled member Till this be resolved you that know the frame of our Church and the module of our Religion may stay safely where you are It remains now that I examine his Answer to my conclusive Querie And I shall briefly note what you may by your own reason or experience discover either absurd or false in it He doth not require you to desert the Reformed Church of England for adhering to the Scriptures as the Rule of Faith For the Roman Church doth that as well as the Protestant as he says If this Querist do not pretend to Infallibility and Authority over you he will out of modesty allow you to examine whether Papists do as well that is as fully and firmly adhere to the Scriptures as English Protestants Certainly they do not well own them for a Rule who accuse them of obscurity and imperfection and make it a point of faith that the defectiveness of Scriptures must be supplied with unwritten Traditions And as certain it is that we who maintain the fulness of Scriptures in delivery of all things necessary to salvation and the perspicuity in that delivery and therefore admit of no point of Religion that is a meer stranger unto the Scripture do more closely stick to that Rule then the Papists But because you are free to examine the adherence of Papists to the Scriptures in particulars by comparison with the English Protestants try whether a mangled Eucharist the real Sacrifice of Christ by a Priest
that makes his Maker and eats his God The publick service of God in a forreign and unknown language to the generality of the people that must say Amen to all Pictures of God used in Religious worship the superlative worship of the Virgin Mary Invocation of Saints Purgatory the ease of departed souls by offering of Masses the baptizing of Bels the treasury of superabundant merits of Christ and holy persons c. be as agreeable to the Scriptures as our Liturgy and the 39 Articles agreed on in our Church If you find it otherwise and Papists do not so much as pretend to make Scripture the Rule of these Doctrines and practices what credit can be given to such an impudent boaster But the ground of deserting us he pretends to be this That we will have the sole Rule of faith to be the Scriptures in exclusion of Universal Tradition and the voice of the Catholick Church 1. Suppose the chief Pastors and Doctors of England should dispute in the Schools about the Rule of faith and exclude Tradition and the voice of the Church from that honour which they think due only to the Word of God in Scriptures now since the decease of the Apostles and the unhappy divisions of Christians that make it difficult if not impossible to know assuredly what is delivered by Universal Tradition or taught by the Catholick Church why must you upon that account or any man desert the Church of England where the worship of God through Christ Jesus is celebrated without any mixture of superstition and the means of salvation are offered to you in a sufficient measure for your conduct in the way of truth and peace Let a Papist if he can prove that our making Scriptures the sole Rule of faith makes the communion with our Church unsafe Must you needs run out of our Church as if it were a House visited with the Plague meerly because it relyes only upon the Scriptures for a Religion And if you must do so must you needs then at the next step run into a Roman Assembly that as my Lord Falkland speaks keeps her children from Scripture as a Mother would keep her children from Rats-bane Think of both these because the Gentleman will not be pleased if you desert us but will not come to them He will think himself still a loser if any water go besides his Mill. 2. This calumny thus impudently fastned upon our Church shews this Querist to deive the Devils trade several wayes in tempting by impostures and in falsly accusing the brethren For I challenge any Papist to quote if he can and will cite an Author faithfully and fairly any Article of Religion or Writing of a Bishop or sentence of an Academy wherein we disclaim Universal Tradition or the voice of the Catholick Church For mine own part I do openly profess that if any point in controversie between us and Papists can be proved to have been taught by the Primitive Church as a matter of faith and derived by the voice of the Catholick Church from age to age and this Universal Tradition be â—anifested by as good evidence as is usually produced for the divine original of the Scriptures which we receive for Canonical I will embrace that Doctrine as the Word of God 3. SIR you cannot but know that we constantly reject many of the Popish opinions obtruded upon the Christian world as Novelties which not only want a sufficient warrant from the Scriptures but also cannot be made credible and acceptable by Universal Tradition Such are the Popes Universal Bishoprick or Oecumenical Headship which Pope Gregorie the great called the character of Antichrist the Infallibility of the Church of Rome and many other points of Popish Religion some whereof I recited above and need not repeat We have incessantly required the Advocates for the Papacy to prove the consent and conformity of the present Roman Church in these particulars with the Primitive Church whose voice is the Precentor in the Quire and the first circle in the diffusion of Universal Tradition Thus let due esteem and credit be given to Universal Tradition but you see how little it is in earnest valued by Papists or how far they are from making use of that Rule which they extoi so zealously as you hear thereby to prove the truth of their religion In fine you may apprehend the No-reason to desert the Reformed Church of England therefore because she makes the Holy Scripture the sole Rule of Religion when indeed she knows no other given by God to the Church and looks upon Universal Tradition whensoever it appears fair and full with reverence as being the sense of the Church He proceeds to abate the force of my dissuasive of you from entrance into the Roman Church when the condition of your entrance is the renouncing of your senses reason and charity For the two former though the terms seem hard yet his righour abates nothing of them You must be contented to lose the use of your senses and reason when you become a vassal to Rome To mitigate the severity he tells you this is no more than Scripture and the Protestant Church requires He abuses Scripture in two instances 1. He says was not Lot to deny his senses when he perceived them to be Angels c. I say no and the Scripture doth not say any such thing as this man supposes When God thought fit either to appear himself to the Patriarchs in humane shape clad with flesh in a transitory manner which is generally taken to have been a Praeludium of the words or the Son of God his incarnation or to send Ange is invested with humane bodies the servants of God to whom those heavenly messengers were sent so fitted for converse were not bound to renounce their senses but by their reason and their knowledge of Gods way of entercourse with his choice servants by Angels they were to regulate the notices of the object which their senses represented unto them 2. He cries out How could our Saviour pass through a croud of People and neither be seen heard or felt without a deception of the senses Judg I pray whether it suits with the Faith and Reverence we owe to Chirst the truth it self in his Person Doctrine and Actions to ascribe unto him the deception of the Peoples senses which comes very near to the practise of Magicians and will if admitted diminish the credit of Christs Miracles Our Saviours passage through the multitude so that he escaped their fury and left them in amazement might be wrought many wayes which we are not concerned to imagine and must not determine though we could devise because the Gospel hath not recorded the manner of it But it is rashly and irreverently said to be effected with a deception of the senses But how is Christs action at that time an obligation laid upon Christians to the worlds end to deny their senses in the Eucharist where Christ instituted the material objects of our
Their work is not to convert Pagans from the worship of Devils and dead Idols to serve the true and living God nor to turn Jews and Turks who abhor Idols and therefore are too rationally scandalized by Roman Idolatries and averted from Christianity by that conspicuous Mother of spiritual fornications but to pervert Christians who know and worship the only true God through and with the One Mediator Jesus Christ according to the simplicity of the Gospel and to perswade these to break off communion with all other Christians 2 Pet. 1.1 who have obtained the like precious faith with themselves and to subject their souls to the conduct of Traditionaries and so to become an accession to a potent Sect or Faction in Christendom Indeed the Roman Sectaries are in no small measure more pernicious false Teachers then the Pharisees because they not only evacuate the Authority of the Gospel and corrupt the purity of Christian Religion by novel devices some directly repugnant to Law and Gospel others vainly superstitious and all obtruded under the false title of Traditions but also have introduced into their Religion the most gross Idolatries that ever the Devil did pollute the confederate servants of God withall Apoc. 17. 18. Since then the purple Whore hath made the Kings of the Earth and many Nations drunk with the poysoned Wine of her fornications as St. John being in the Spirit foresaw and foretold and it is the labour of Roman Emissaries to invite Englishmen to drink of her golden Cup St. John's Caution was never more necessary for Christians then now 1 Joh. 5.20 Little Children keep your selves warily from Idols And Christs Admonition concerns us nearly Mat. 16.6 Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees Since Papists are thus manifestly the heirs and successors of the Scribes and Pharisees let all that love their own souls decline the snares of these travellers to make Proselytes lest while they think to find a new way to Heaven which is called Tradition they be made the children of Hell Here indeed we have set one * 2 Tim. 2.26 snare of the Devil before thine eyes the Papists first set it to take Christians captive and set it in secret in chambers whispering in the dark Read Luk. 12.1,2,3 but now what was spoken in the dark and in the closet is brought forth to be examined by the light and I hope that this stratagem of our enemies is defeated by being discovered Apoc. 2.24 2 Cor. 11.13,14 Indeed it is a happy ignorance not at all to know the depths of Satan but since God hath in his wise and just providence let loose Satan amongst us who can transform himself into an Angel of light and transfigures his messengers into the Apostles of Christ who spare no pains to vent his delusions we had need to pray heartily that God will be our Sun to enlighten us with the saving beams of his heavenly truth which shine in his written Word and our shield our shelter our shadow to secure us from the snare of the Fowler Psal 91.1,3,6 from the pestilence that walketh in darkness and the destruction the bold-faced Devil that wasteth at noon-day And that the Christian Reader may be provided of an Antidote against this noysom pestilence and that he may both see and escape the deceit and destruction of this snare is the end of this publication which God make prosperous to his Glory Amen C. G. First SECTION Containing the PAPISTS QUERIES Five Queries propounded in Religion 1. 1. WHether there is not in all ages a visible Catholick Church 2. 2. Whether out of the visible Catholick Church any can attain Salvation 3. 3. Seeing there are now very many Professions amongst Christians which give themselves out to be either the holy Catholick Church or part of it I desire to know by designation which amongst them all is now the holy Catholick Church 4. 4. Whether the Holy Catholick Church so designed can teach her Children any error as matter of Christian Faith either destructive of Salvation or endangering the attaining of it 5. 5. If the said Catholick Church can teach errors as matter of Christian Faith how any Christian can be infallibly certain that She hath not taught some error in determining the Canon of Scripture and in teaching some Book or Books to be the word of God which is not so and then what certainty any one can have that all those Books are Gods word which Gods Church delivers to be his word A Categorical Answer to these Queries is demanded Second Section containing the Divines Answer I. THe Queries answered by propounding others reflecting upon the State of the Jewish Church of God to which God had made as ample promises of its continuance till Shiloh came in humility as he made of the Christian Churches perpetuity till the same Saviour come in glory 1. Whether according to the veracity of Gods promises there were not then to be a Visible Church of the Jewes 2. Seeing the Kingdom and Church of the ten tribes pretended to the truth and service of God as well as the House of David with the Priesthood at Hierusalem and even that Kingdom and Priesthood were sometime infected with gross Idolatry and that publickly set up and erected I desire to know by what designation a Jew that was truly inquisitive of the way and means of Salvation should then discern and discover that Church in which he might find it and out of which he could not since as Christ himself affirms John 4.22 Salvation was then of the Jews 3. Whether the Visible Society of the Jewish Nation that was in covenant with God could not teach her Children any error as matter of Religion that was corruptive of the same and destructive of Salvation 4. If the said Church could teach such errors how any Jew could be infallibly certain that the living Oracles committed to that people were not corrupted or lying legends obstructed under pretence of Holy Scripture 5. If God in that Oeconomie did preserve the Holy Scriptures which were to be the standing Rule of Religion to which private persons were to have recourse for their direction to secure themselves from the seducement of erring Guides Esa 8.20 and 9.16 compared and also the Instrument of publick Authority for reformation of a corrupted Church why may not the Scriptures of the New Testament added to the Oracles of the Old be sufficient to make us wise unto Salvation and to enable them who have their senses exercised therein to discern between good and evil If the Querist can frame a good Answer that might satisfy the conscience of a Jew then mutatis mutandis the same will be an Answer to his own Queries II. Take this Categorical Answer to the said Queries 1. There was is and shall be till the worlds end a Catholick Church that in every age is visible by the profession of Christianity to the persons then living 2. Out of
this Catholick Church ordinarily there is no Salvation 3. That is the Holy Catholick Church which professeth that One Holy Catholick Faith once for all delivered unto the Saints whereof the Holy Scriptures are the Conservative and Rule 4. That Holy Catholick Church teaches no error destructive of Salvation 5. Therefore cannot so long as it continues so abuse the world by imposing false or forged Scriptures upon it Quere further What reason now from hence can be deduced why any rational person should desert the Church of England that adheres to the acknowledged Rule of Faith the Scriptures and enter into the present Church of Rome which at the threshold requires him to renounce his Senses Reason and Charity and obliges him to the belief of a Creed composed a few years ago at Trent which we desire the Papists to prove was the Catholick Faith of the truly antient and Catholick Church Third Section containing the Papists Reply N. 1. A Categorical Answer to the Queries concerning the Jewish Church I Admit the promises of God here mentioned respectively to Jews and Christians A. to 1. Q. To the first I answer affirmatively A. to 2. Q. The Second commits a fallacy of Ignoratio elenchi The Queries about the Christian Church to which these ought to correspond proceed not upon any particular Kingdom no nor upon any particular Church nor on every one or any particular mumber of the Priests or Pastors of the Church but upon the representative Catholick Church in a full and lawful meeting of the chief Pastors to teach the Church diffusive what she is to believe as matter of Faith or to reject as errors in Faith when questions arise about any of them I therefore answer that when any such question arose amongst the Jews they were neither to have their last refuge to the Kings of Israel or Judah nor to the State Magistrates or common people for resolution in what they were to believe but to the lawful High Priest for the time with his High Council or Synod of other chief Priests and Doctors in the Law of Moses And they were to conform their belief to what they defined and taught them so that whatsoever either the Kings or some number of inferior Tribes or some particular Priests taught practised or believed contrary to the Doctrine and definition of this Supreme Spiritual Council was to be held erroneous and those who held forth such erroneous Doctrine pertinaciously or practised publickly contrary to it were to be esteemed in their doctrine Hereticks and in their practise Nonconformists to the True Church or Separatists from it If therefore a Jew in the times mentioned in the Querie should have demanded which was then the True Visible Church wherein Salvation could be acquired the answer must have been That it was the High Priest then being and all these believers who conformed their Faith Practises and Communion to him and his high Council ut supra And all such as stood in opposition against him and division from him were Aliens so long as they continued in that state from the True Church Now if the Querist had proved efficaciously that the High Priest with his fore named Council taught the people either Idolatry the common sin of the Jews or any other breach of Gods Law to be lawful or any error against Gods Revelations to be true or any of his Revelations to be false he had overthrown the whole fabrick of my Queries But seeing this is not yet done by him his Queries are neither an Answer nor any obstruction to mine and therefore they remain in their full vigour against him For notwithstanding all he says in his second Query which is the main force of his instance I have clearly shewed a Jew of those times which was then the True Visible Church out of which Salvation could not be had Now it is impossible to prove any such matter unless he enervate the words of our Saviour Mat. 23.2,3 where he says That whatsoever the Scribes and Pharisees taught who had and did sit in Moses his chair that is succeeded in his Spiritual authority was to be observed and done by all the Jewish people which supposes evidently they could not teach them either error in Faith and Manners as part of Gods word for then he should have commanded to do evil and believe errors so that they were infallible in their teaching till Shiloh came And the reason why they were so infallible says our Saviour was because they sate upon Moses his chair and so governed successively the Church of God faithfully in matter of doctrine as he did in his time Upon the chair of Moses have sate the Scribes and Pharisees All therefore that they shall say unto you Observe and do it And this reason proves not only those that sate then when our Saviour spake these words but that all those who sate before them ever since the time of Moses were infallible in all divine doctrines both of Faith and Manners A. to Q. 3. The third Querie is therefore thus answered That the Jewish Church understood ut supra could not teach any error as matter of Divine Faith or Religion A. to Q. 4. To the fourth Querie I answer That though from the precedent Answers it followes that the Jewish Church by divine direction preserved the Holy Scriptures so entirely that it never rejected any true part of Gods written word nor received into their Canon of Gods written word any Book or Sentence which was not his word yet it followes not thence that every private person should find out every particular point of Religion by particular or express proofs out of that written word alone but that the Authority of the Jewish Church ut supra in matters controverted should interpose it self and determine the controversie Nor do the two Texts quoted in the Querie prove thus much For that Esa 8.20 proves only this that they were neither to have recourse to Soothsayers nor to extraordinary visions but to the Law and Testament when doubts arose Now this is so far from forbidding to have recourse to the present respective Priests and Governors of the Church that the Law and Testament command expresly that recourse is to be had to them in doubtful cases Deut. 17. from the 8 th to the 12 th verse and Malachi 2. from the 4 th to the 8 th In which places the interpretation of the Law is reserved to the Priest and the disobedience to the Priests command declared to be so great a sin that it is to be punished with no less than death And for the Scriptures themselves it was so far from the Ordinance of Moses his Law that every particular or private Believer had license or opportunity or ordinary possibility to peruse them and gather from them by his sole perusal what was and what was not to be believed as private Protestants now do that the Law was only to be read to them once in Seven years Deut. 31.10,11 and
c. will become a false Prophet But suppose you had given a Categorical Answer That it can never obtrude false Scripture c. then you must grant that the Catholick Visible Church is infallible in the delivery of Scripture If so then is there an Infallible Judg upon the earth concerning this point If so I require some satisfactory reason why the Church should be infallible in this and fallible in other points of Faith seeing it is as great absurdity to abuse the world with salse Faith as with false Scriptures Or what authority is there either in Scripture or Antiquity which limits the infallibility of the Church to the sole determination of Scripture Or is it not as pornicious to a Soul to be put in danger of damnation by having a dangerous error taught it by the Church as by having some Books happily less dangerous than that error imposed upon it by the Church To your Conclusion I answer The reason why you are to desert the Protestant English Church is not because it adheres to the Scriptures as a Rule of Faith for the Roman doth that as well as the Protestant but because they will have that the sole Rule in exclusion of Vniversal Tradition and the voice of the Catholick Church Nor is it any reason to refuse to join with the Roman Church because it enjoyns one to renounce his Senses and Reason For it enjoyns this no more than Scripture and the Protestant Church does For was not Lot to deny his Senses when he perceived them to be Angels whom his eyes ears and touch taught him to be living men And how could our Saviour pass through a whole crowd of people and neither be seen beard or felt without a deception of the Senses Now it is far more opposite to humane reason to believe one to be three and three to be one and that in the very self same being without any difference or mutation then to believe bread to be changed into flesh or one body to be in more places a once What you say of breach of Charity is misconceit of our doctrine We censure not the Persons but the Doctrine and that maintained pertinaciously and obstinately Now who does so we cannot absolutely judg and therefore pass no absolute judgment upon particulars And this is so far from breach of Charity that it is only out of Charity that we let Protestants know what danger they are in that they may avoid it whereas otherwise we should be Flatterers and Sycophants in setting them go on securely in the danger we conceive them to be in The Council of Trent composed no new Creed at all but gave a Catalogue of such points to be professed by all those who were to teach in publick Academies before they were admitted to that office As the English Protestants do exact a profession of the 39 Articles of such as she admits to Orders I have nothing to do with the proof of any thing till these Queries be answered by Protestants Fourth Section containing an Examination of the foregoing Reply made by the Romanist which was comprised in a Letter to the Gentleman assaulted Mr. F. M. SIR I Received the Papers which you conveyed unto me by many Ambages on the 12th of April since which time I have been intangled in several businesses that allowed me no leisure to consider the Cavils of the Factors for the Court of Rome who are like the Clients of * Beelzebub the Lord of Flyes 2. Reg. 1,2,3 the Prince of Devils Musca est meus pater clam illum nihil haberi potest Plaut the Idol God of Ekron the Flies not only for their insinuation into secrets but also for their restless importunity who though beaten off from the flesh they would taint and corrupt yet return again But now though enough hath been lately published by eminent persons in our Church to stop the mouths of gainsayers or at least to secure prudent readers from the dangerous practises of those who like Elymas cease not to pervert the streight waies of the Lord Act. 13.10 yet I have taken some spare time to examine what is returned to that Paper which you know Sir I writ in your Dining-room whilst you staid a while for your company to dinner Upon the perusal I find nothing that may render the defence of mine own former writing so difficult to me as it may be tedious to you For you will see that Oracle of Solomon verified Prov. 17.14 The beginner of strife is like one that opens a passage to waters As waters let in at a small breach quickly spread to a deluge so you may observe how contentions about Religion begun by admission of a few questions swell to Volumes that cloy or tire rather then instruct readers except they be such lovers of Truth as to seek it with patience But least my silence might give some occasion to the Adversarie of triumphing over our Church whereas indeed neither the validity of our cause or profession nor the credit of our Church depends on so weak a Basis as the acting of one of the meanest of her Children I shall endeavour to repair this breach and to retrench these bitter waters of Romish contentions against the Truth into their own channels And that you may not be affrighted with the very bulk of my Reply I shall not enlarge my discourse to disprove every particular which these Papers may tempt me to contradict but make short animadversions upon whatever occurs and appears material to our present Queries My first Querie ministers no occasion of dispute The second in which he rightly apprehends the main force of my instance against his Queries to lie is attacked by him confidently with such weapons as I may safely trust you to judge of their validity And indeed you that are assaulted in the possession of the truth of Christian Religion conveyed unto you by the light of Gods Word in the Scripture which is held forth by a Ministerie that doth not pretend to Infallibility but professeth legitimate Authority to instruct all under their charge in the Doctrine of the Gospel must be Judge in the Court of your own conscience whether the Roman Questionist or I speak that which is agreeable to the common Rules of Truth And your Reason assisted with the blessing of God the Father of Lights who freely and liberally gives wisdom sufficient to salvation unto all that with humility meekness and resolution of obedience implore his holy Spirit of understanding must be permitted to be your Guide in discovering the True Church from the False and may as well and safely be allowed to distinguish the wholesome Doctrine from the corrupt and noxious since this may be easier and sooner discerned by the agreeableness of any Doctrine to the sence of Scripture in which all things necessary are plain then the truth of a Church can be discovered by those Notes commonly given by the Papists which are uncertain variable difficult to
without Scripture to support it Tradition is too weak to hold up faith Thus it appears that the Rule of faith can be but one and it must be common to all as the * Tit. 1.3 Jud. v. 3. faith and salvation are common and it must have the unmoveable certainty of a Rock for man to build on And this firmness you may call if you please Infallibility for this property of God who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 1.2 Heb. 5.18 can neither be deceived nor deceive is communicated to his Word which is the Truth it self and therefore the Rule of faith But the term Infallible is a Scholastical Novelty which neither Scripture nor the ancient Fathers used to attribute unto the Church but now it makes such a noise in the world with the incessant ringing of Papists that it stupifies many mens senses and understandings But the Means of faith are manifold which where God himself by his Spirit manages them are effectual to beget a saving faith though many of them are far short of Infallibility though Papists in their confused way of talking require Infallibility in the Ground Rule and Means of Faith equally 2. Again Pray note his unprosperous fraud in the abatement of the Scriptures perfection and all sufficiency to teach us the whole mystery of godliness without setting us to seek out elsewhere for a remnant of faith or an unwritten Word For he confesses the Scriptures to be a profitable but a partial Rule which contains many of the most important points of Religion clearly and expresly enough to satisfie any capacity but wilful pertinacy and for the rest which are not thus expressed it refers us to the Church and the Governors thereof c. For certain the Monarchy of the Pope and the Infallibility of the Church of Rome are the fundamental stones of the Romish Religion and if they could be proved true are of the most importance to the ease of conscience and the peace of Christendom in that sluggish and servile way wherein Papists would lead us and therefore it is no wonder that Papists who are true to their interest contend earnestly for these that are such points as being once admitted they facilitate the reception of all other Doctriens whatsoever Now let the Papists shew these two clearly expressed in Scripture or shew us a good reason why the Apostle should have a greater mind to tell the after Ages of the Church of his Cloak and Parchments then to inform them of those points which according to their opinion are necessary to preserve the Church in peace especially then and there when St. Paul had it in his design to recount all the grounds motives and means of Christians keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace Read Eph. 4.3 to 14. and yet hath left out the Headship of the Pope and the Magistery of the Infallible Guide the Roman Church What reason imaginable can be given why Christ and his Apostles should not have an equal kindness for all the important points of Religion and an equal care to conserve their memory by writing or indeed what need was there of writing any thing at all of particular points when one Reference of us to the Church for all would have served the turn would not one precept written of Ask the Church that is the governors of it or instead of Search the Scriptures Inquire for the universal Tradition of Christendome have been convenient and sufficient for our satisfaction in all points as well as in some Ah how palpable is the folly of vain and proud man when he opposes the wisdom of God But when I seriously consider what this man writes of the Scriptures referring us for the rest of our Faith to the Church or universal Tradition I cannot but wonder at his confidence of your credulity if you were bound to take his word who offers no proof of what he affirms But we shall justly conclude him to bely the Scripture till he or some body for him produce some place of Scripture which expressely referrs us for some important points of Religion unwritten to the oral teaching of the Church or to the universal Tradition of Christendom If this Querist be asked the Question Where hath Scripture made the partition of the Faith into the Word of God written and the word unwritten and set up a Christian to stand as the Angel in St. John's vision stood with the right foot on the Sea and the left foot on the land Apoc. 10.10 with one foot on the unstable waters of Tradition and the other fixed on the firm ground of Scripture he must be as mute as the man without the wedding garment was But after all this pray observe how irreconcileable this mans allowance of Scripture to be a Rule clear enough for many weighty points of Religion is with his Conclusion That the sole Rule general for all persons and all points of Religion is universal Tradition 3. Whereas he spends time to oppose a Christians receiving and knowing what he is to believe what not by his sole perusal of Gods written word he fights not against any assertion of ours but against his own Jackstraw we advise Christians to make use of faithful guides as well as the light and to learn the use of the Rule by conferring with spiritual builders that can inform them in the application of it and not to neglect any meanes which God offers them for their conduct in the way of truth 4. The common Objections against the dignity and efficacy of Scripture which Papists repeat usque ad nauseam to the Scandal of Christianity and the advancement of Atheism are abundantly answered by the Champians of our Religion to which I would refer you if I did not know you able to discover their impertinency and impiety together But I will put you in mind that the unlearned Protestants if they depend upon the credit of others what are the words of Scripture when the Laick that cannot read hears the Minister that doth and may ask his neighbour that can read whether the Minister read right and the ignorant may ask the learned and the weak Christian may ask the strong and all men by some means or other may be satisfyed of the words of Scripture being faithfully delivered unto them are in no worse condition then unlearned Papists who depend upon the credit of surly and very often silly Priests or interested Bishops for knowing what is the universal Tradition of Christendome 5. As to the learned whom the Querist takes into consideration I pray observe whether the Scholars of both the opposite sides do not dissent as much about the universal Tradition of the points in dispute as about the sense of Scriptures urged on either side If so as you will be sure to find it then upon the same ground which this man layes as sufficient for the removal of Scripture from being a rule Tradition also must be cashiered Remember
it be not a direct Answer to his Question yet it shall strangle or stifle his intended Conclusion in the conception and it is this A Man may be a member of Christs body which we now call the Catholick Church and be in the Ark out of which there is no Salvation though he be not in communion with the chief Governors of the Roman Synagogue Let him deny this if he dare make an open forfeiture of his charity Let him disprove it if he can There was a visible Church and Salvation attained in it before there was a stone laid at Rome of a spiritual Temple for Jerusalem was the mother and Mistress of all Churches and not Rome as the Father of lies teaches Papists to say and swear and it may be so again when Babylon the great the City seated on seven hills is fallen as a milstone cast into the bottom of the Sea In the mean time the old position of Dr. Jo. Reynolds is worthy of Remembrance The Roman Church is neither the Catholick Church nor a sound member of the Catholick Church Read the Bul. of P. Pius 4. which enjoyns all Clergy-men and all in Religious Orders to swear to the new Creed whereof this is one Article I acknowledge the Holy Catholick and Apostolick Roman Church the Mother and Mistress of all Churches My Answer to his third Querie is very magisterially but ridiculoussy censured by him to have nothing of a Categorical Answer The Proposition is for certain Categorical because it is not hypothetical Let the Question and the Return be compared and this will appear defective in nothing necessary to an Answer The demand is this I desire to know by designation which amongst them all which pretend to be the Catholick Church or a part of it is now the Catholick Church The Answer runs thus That is the Holy Catholick Church which professeth that one Holy Catholick Faith once for all delivered to the Saints c. ut supra He says I give no designation of any particular profession or professions of Christians That is to say if I mistake not his meaning I do not name Protestants or Papists the Church of England or of Rome or of Greece or of Germany Indeed if I had so done I had then given an Answer that could not satisfie any rational man For no Church denominated from the place of habitation which way of distinction of Churches is usual in Scripture or from some bond of union which is not general to all Christendom can properly and truly be called the Catholick that is the Universal Church But I that was at liberty to design it as well as I could did give a significant Character of the Catholick Church taken from its proper office and action The Querist says I tell what the holy Catholick Church is Very good But I do not design which of so many several professions in the world is now the Catholick Church Now if he expect that I should play the fool and say that a particular Church is properly the Catholick Church I hope you will not be offended if I do not satisfie his expectation And when I have designed the Church Universal so that a man may understand what it is I think with the same labour I have told him which is it because the Church Universal is but one as he that tels what the Sun is designs which is the Sun because there are not many Suns And because the Church is a collective body that is one by aggregation of similar parts each of which lesser Societies is called a Church I have given him a Mark whereby he may know whether any particular Society be a member of that Body since the one faith runs through the one body and is the life of that body and of every limb of it But my fault is that I design one obscure thing by another that is equally obscure I will mend my fault if I do not justifie my self from having committed one I confess all spiritual things are obscure to men that are meerly carnal or natural but where the Gospel shines if it be attended unto it brings light with it whereby we may discern things that differ For judging or discerning of a true Church from a false we must first know in some measure what is Truth Mat. 7.16,17,18 For if we must discern a good tree from a bad by the fruit as our Saviour directs us to do then we must first know what is good and bad in fruit and then consider what fruit the tree bears and from thence give a judgement of the tree This is the method which we must take in the enquiring for a true Church Till we know what is Truth and that is * Thy scil Gods Law is the Truth Psal 119.142 Gods Word is the Truth Joh. 17.17 the Faith once delivered to the Saints we cannot know what Church brings forth good or bad fruit Profession of faith is bearing of fruit The goodness of this fruit is Truth that is agreeableness to the Word of God It is therefore necessary that we know the Truth before we can know a Church to be true Now though the Truth or the holy Catholick Faith may be under doubt and debate yet hat God set it up in the Scriptures so conspicuously 2 Cor. 4.3 that if the Gospel be hid it is hid to them that perish Therefore I added to the Character of the Church by which I designed it to be known that is the profession of faith the means whereby we may know what the faith is which being professed is the sole certain mark of a true Church For the marks of the Church which Romanists commonly give are separable from the Truth and if they be taken singly without truth are false and treacherous indices whereas the true faith of it self is a sure note of a true Church And I pointed at Scripture which is the Rule of faith on purpose in mine Answer that I might not be thought to send a man to look for a thing in the dark without a light And now Sir do you judge whether I have deserved blame by my designation of the Catholick Church by professing the Catholick Faith But to make mine Answer both applicable to the Question and also useful to you I shall a little explicate and enlarge my sence It is presumed that the enquiry after a Church is made by a Christian that may be distracted in the variety of visible Societies differing one from another but every one equally pretending to be a Church but his distraction is the greater because of all Societies only the Roman Synagogue doth challenge to her self to be the Ark out of which there is no salvation There are three Reasons which may move Christians to enquire for a Church or a visible Society of Christians 1. That they may serve God and offer up the spiritual sacrifices of praise and prayer by Christ Jesus Heb. 13.15 1 Pet.
2.5 2 Pet. 3.18 2. That they may grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ 3. That they may joyn with Gods people and keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace by communicating together in Gods holy Ordinances To compass these ends a Christian is not concerned to enquire where the Catholick Church is for it is confessedly diffused through the Nations but so spread by Gods dispensation of the light that the Sun of righteousness doth not at one time arise to all parts of the world Besides the Candlestick is moveable from any place and the Kingdom of God may be transferred from one Nation to another Apoc. 2.5 neither hath God by any the least indication of his will and pleasure encouraged any portion of mankind or part of the world to promise to themselves a perpetual establishment of the Church in that place and in that successive body of men which at some time hath been or is now irradiated with the Gospel It is therefore not at all material to trouble our selves with delineations of the Catholick Church which hath no set or certain limits of extent That which concerns us to know is what Church pretending to be a member of the Church Universal for no men but Papists that can admit contradictions into their Creed will speak such non-sense with deliberation as that is when they call a particular society of Christians combined under one-Bishop the Universal Church is fit and safe to be communicated withal that we must reap the benefits of a Christian Congregation Therefore the Question is now whether the Church wherein I was born and baptized and by Gods Providence am seated under its government or another different society of Christians which invite me to their communion be such a company as I may safely joyn with them in all publick offices of Religion For if it be I am bound to communicate with that Church as being a member of the Body of Christ the unity of which Body I am bound to maintain The Truth therefore of the doctrine taught the integrity and purity of the divine worship celebrated and the way of administring Ecclesiastical power must be examined by some Rule and known to be agreeable to the Gospel of Christ before a Christians conscience can be satisfied of the necessity of communion with that Church upon this account because it is a member of a Church Catholick Since then it is the custome to call any publick society of Christians that are compacted together by a frame of political government into one body a Church that particular Church is a member of the Catholick which holds that Faith the profession whereof constitutes the Church Catholick He that sleights this Designation would have dealt kindly with us if he had discovered unto us a better way or a clearer Light by which we might find the Church and discover a true Church from a vain pertender Till he or some other do that office for us we think it best to seek for a Church if we were now to seek by looking for the light of truth in it which alwaies shines in the house of God And because truth and peace are both the legacies of Christ bequeathed unto the Church we may do well to try what society of Christians doth follow peace and edification of the Body of Christ If the Church of Rome that sets up Images of God which are the teachers of lies in their Temples and by her Anathemaes makes divisions in Christendome be tryed by those two marks I leave the event to any one that will impartially pronounce sentence according to the evidence of fact in the whole bulk of their doctrines and Devotions and in their publick Government My fourth Answer hath the same fate with the former to be called not Categorical I must learn new Logick as well as new Theologie to understand this Gentleman But it is charged with defect because it reflects not upon the whole Question and takes no notice of the tail wherein the sting of the Scorpion lies I confess mine Answer comes short in that particular because I did not apprehend then the last clause of his question to be of any moment For I thought it enough that the Church Catholick is secured from any error that is destructive of Salvation But because I am now informed that the main force of the Querie lies in this Whether the Holy Church so designed can teach any error as matter of Faith endangering of Salvation I now make a return to that part as well as to the former and indeed to the whole Question 1. Errors that endanger Salvation do not alwaies destroy it 2. God hath promised to preserve his Church from destruction but not from danger 3. All errors when they are discovered are to be rejected 4. No doctrines offered by any Church to her Children are to be received without examination 5. The Catholick Church as it signifies the whole Body of Christendome is too big to be a teacher that may be consulted and hearkened unto 6. The Church in this mans sense and explication that is an Assembly of chief Pastors in Council may touch errors endangering Salvation Arianism hath been taught in as large Assemblies of chief Pastors as the true Faith hath been 7. But because it is the design of this man that we should take the Roman Church for the Catholick I stick not to say that the Roman Church teaches her children errors that endanger the attaining of Salvation 5. My fift Answer is excepted against for the interposition of these words so long as it continues so which looks like a condition and seem to suppose that the Catholick Church can cease to be so The words are â—…pable of another construction viz. The Holy Catholick Church so long as it continues sacured from teaching destructive errors cannot even for that reason abuse the world with forged Scriptures This was then my meaning who had no intention that my last Answer should contradict my first Let us now see what he draws from my Answer if it were Categorical and how rational his inference is For now we are come to the bottom of his project â— And he thinks he hath catched us so fast in his trap that either we must give him the Cause or be condemned out of our own mouths If mine Answer be says this new fashioned Logician that the Church can never ohtrude false Scripture c. then you must grant that the Catholick visible Church is infallible in the dolivery if Scripture If so then is there an infallible Judge upon the earth concerning this point How rash this inference is and how incoherent the conclusion with the premises a few words will serve to discover It is acknowledged on both sides that the primitive Church which received the Scriptures was not and because Gods spirit guided and governed the Church in this important business could not be abused and mistaken in the receiving of