The Nullity of the Romish Faith, Treatise · Chapter

The Nullity of the Romish Faith · Treatise · Chapter

p. 193CHAP. 8. Of Miracles, and the motives of credibility.

Sect. 1. BUt we are not yet come to the end of our journey; And although the Arguments urged by Protestants against their resolution of Faith, have probably convinced the consciences of diverse of them, yet have they not stop'd their mouths. We have shewed in the former Chapters, how they have been driven from post to post, and as in a besieged City, when the Walls and Works of it are battered down, they raise new fortifications, so having seen their former pretences batter'd about their eares, some of them have devised one shift more; for finding themselves yet in that ridiculous Circle (of believing the Scripture for the p. 194Churches sake, and the Church for Scriptures sake) notwithstanding all the attempts of their Brethren to get out; Some of them have taken up their rest in the markes of a Church and the motives of credibility.

This (though rejected by former and learneder Papists yet) of late hath been taken up by Turnebull in his T… tragonismus, a discourse about the Object of Faith, and after him by the late Answerer of Bishop Lauds Book, called Lawa's Labyrinth, whose words are these: We prove the Churches Infallibility not by Scripture, but by the motives of Credibility, and signes of the Church, which are these, Sanctity of life, miracles, efficacy, purity, and excellency of Doctrine, fulfilling of Proph…cies, succession of lawfully sent Pastours, Vnity, Antiquity, and the very name of Catholick. Then (saith he) having thus proved the Churches Infallible Authority, and by that received the Scripture, we confirme the same by Scripture, which Scripture▪ proofs are not Prime and Absolute, but onelyonly secondary and ex suppositione, & ad hominem, or ex principiis concessis against Sectaries (a)(a)Chap. 5.This is their plea, concerning which I shall need to say the lesse, because the Book wherein it is revived and urged, called Labyrinthus Cantuariensis, is so solidly and Learnedly Answered by my worthy friend M^r Stillingfleet: Yet having finished this Discourse long before that excellent work came forth, and having twisted it into the method of the present Treatise and designe, I thought not fit wholly to supersede it, whereby the body of the work would be renderd lame and incompleat, but rather to be shorter in it, and as far as I can, to cut off such passages as happily may be coincident with what is said by Mr Stillingfleet in that particular; for I do not desire actum agere.

p. 195§. 2. Answ. 1. Let it be observed, how shamelessely these men abuse their Readers, when they pretend the Infallibility of the Church is solidly demonstrated from Scripture; (and this they generally do:) Here you have reum confit…ntem, they confesse the imbecillity of those Arguments; For (say they) they are but secondary proofs, and Argumenta ad hominem: Now such Arguments are not cogent and concluding in themselves, but onelyonly do conclude against some particular Adversary from his own principles: So they acknowledge that although their Arguments may perswade one that is docible, yet they cannot convince a gainsayer: And the strength of their Argument depends upon the Courtesy of the Protestants.

§. 3. 2. In vaine are these Marks of a Church pleaded for the Infallibility of the Church of Rome, when other Churches have a juster claime to them, and so little colour have the Romanists for their monopoly of them; that upon enquiry it will be found they have no considerable interest in them: This I shall shew in the principall and most important of them. 1. The first in dignity (though not in order) is the glory of Miracles: The most eminent in this kind are confessed to be those which were done by Christ and his Apostles: Those Miracles were done in Confirmation of the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches, not of the Church of Rome, which appeares thus: These Miracles were done in confirmation of the Doctrine delivered in the Scriptures, but the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches is the Doctrine delivered in the Scriptures, and the Doctrine of the present Church of Rome is repugnant thereunto: Ergo, These Miracles were done in confirmation of the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches: The Major our adversaries dare not deny: The Minor hath been undeniably evidenced so much to the conviction of our Adversaries, p. 196that they dare not owne the Scripture for their Judge, and instead of submitting themselves to its sentence, bend their wits to except against the judge, and decline its Tribunall, following that Counsell which was given to Pericles, when he was studying how to give up his accounts to the Athenians, that he should rather study how to give up no account at all: And some of them (whose words are recited in this Treatise) acknowledge the folly of their brethren, who would manage their cause by Scripture Arguments: But whether the Protestant Doctrine hath been solidly evinced from Scripture or not, thus much undoubtedly followes, that if any miracles be pretended against that Doctrine which Christ sealed by his miracles, they are not to be regarded, and the miracles done by Christ &c. are infinitely to be preferred before them. And consequently the glory of Miracles is more ours then theirs.

§. 4. The like I may say secondly, for the efficacy of Doctrine, which they so confidently appropriate to themselves: But if the efficacy of their sword were not greater then that of their Doctrine, the world would quickly see the vanity of that Argument: And how little confidence themselves put in it may be seen by the professed necessity of an Inquisition. Next newes I expect is to hear this Argument pleaded on the behalfe of the Alchoran, I am sure it may upon as good grounds, their religion being much of the same complexion, and the Popish cause being managed most commonly by Mahumetan weapons. But on the contrary let a man consider with himselfe, the miraculous successe of the Protestant Religion in the late Reformation, how strangely, speedily, generally, it diffused it self, in the very same manner as the Gospell did in its first Plantation in the World, notwithstanding the great disadvantages it was to grapple with; the horrible ignorance and perversenesse of the Age, p. 197the mighty power of long custome and inveterate prejudice, the craft of Polititians, the learning of the whole World, the might of Princes and Emperors, the threats, fires, inqu…si…ions of Persecutors, the great offers and multiplied allurements to Apostacy; I say, he that shall review all these things (as they are recorded by the Historians of both parties) will quickly understand to whom this Character belongs.

§. 5. For the purity and excellency of their Doctrine: If their and our Doctrines were to be tried by that test, the controversy would speedily be at an end. The Word of God is the palace and rule of purity, and that Doctrine which hath most of conformity therewith, hath most of purity: Howsoever, it is too grosse a begging of the question, to alledge that for a note and evidence of their Church, which is more doubtfull then the Church it selfe: And for the Sanctity of their Lives, we are heartily glad to hear of it; if the reports were as credible as the newes is good, it would rejoyce our hearts, because their own Authors in severall Ages, have successively acknowledged and bewailed, the horrible and universall wickednesse of their own Church, Clergy, Popes, &c. All stories are full of their monstrous filthinesse, though ordinarily masked under the pretence of externall holinesse. And for the holinesse of their Church of late times, I shall onelyonly say this: Of all men they have least cause to dispute against faith alone, for he that can believe their sanctity had need be a Solifidian, and have ne…ther sence nor reason: But you must know the Church of Rome lives upon her old stock, it is the holinesse of their Ancestors which they intend. Bellarmine is forced to go farre back for his proofs, for he alledgeth the Sanctity of the Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, Antients Fathers as arguments of their Holinesse; so the Church of Rome is all on a sudden grown Orthodox in the doctrine of p. 198imputation, with this proviso, that they allow the imputation of the righteousnesse of their Ancestors to the present Church, but not of their wickednesse, you may as farre as you please even to Adam, nay, if you will, even to theFather of the Praeadamitae, impute to them the Holinesse of their Ancestors, but for the prodigious filthinesse, the Sorce…ies, Adulteries, Murderers, Heresies of their Fathers, and former Bishops, and Popes, that ought not to be imputed to them.

§. 6. And for the other grand Character of consent with Antiquity, which they vaunt so much of, among those, that either have not learning to search into the Antients, or wit to judg of what they read; to say nothing of this, that the hoary head of Antiquity is not to be respected, if it be not found in the way of righteousnesse; evill doctrines or habits, the more Antient, the worse, and the inveteratenesse of a disease, is no commendation to it: He that shall please to look into the Fathers with his own eyes, or peruse the Discourses of our Learned Authors upon this point, such as Rainolds, Iewell, Whitaker, Chamier, Dallaeus, Albertinus, Vsher, Morton, Morney, Rivet, and multitudes more, will soon discover the impudence of this plea; and the fruit of their labours would quickly appeare in the World, but for that piece of their imposture, that as they deny the reading of the Scripture to lay-men, so they forbid the reading of our Protestant Authors to their Scholars, excepting such whose consciences they find to be of a Jesuiticall complexion, and free from the heresy of tendernesse.

§. 7. I know it will be said, that we want diverse of those marks which they have, as Duration, Amplitude, Visible succession, Union among our selves and with the Pope: But al…though the Papists have no colourable pretence to those Characters, among such as will inquire into the verity of their Assertions, and not greedily p. 199swallow down all of them; though in point of duration, divers of the most materiall Doctrines of the present Romish Church are so far from it, that they stand convicted of Novellisme by the confession of their own Authors: And for Amplitude; notwithstanding all their intolerable boasting with the credulous vulgar, the learned know, the Church of Rome containeth not one third part of the Christian World: And for Succession; their own Authors have acknowledged frequent and long interruption, yea even in the Papall See: Yet, if all that might be said upon those points were superseded, If they grant us, or we can prove the former, viz. That the miracles confirme our Doctrine, the Fathers prof…sse our Faith, that the efficacy, purity, and excellency of Doctrine belongs to us, we do not much matter the rest, nor will the Reader who is satisfied in the former, be at all startled at the latter.

§. 8. 3. Consider what rotten Pillars most of these are, upon which the Church of Rome leanes, and you will find, they need no Sampson to pull them down; one of them excepted, which Bellarmine therefore puts in the first place, and that is from the name of Catholick, as being grounded upon that infallible Maxime Conveniunt r…bus nomina saepe suis: That therefore cannot be resisted. onelyonly I blame Bellarmines oversight, that being so hard put to it, to prove the Sanctity of his Church, he did not prove it from the Title of Holinesse given to the head of it: And then here had been a paire of Demonstrations not to be paralleld in all Euclid.

§. 9. And for severall other marks, there is this inexcusable errour in them, that they alledge those notes to prove the Church which are altogether impertinent and ridiculous, if you do not presuppose the Church: so they wisely suppose, what they see they cannot prove: I instance in Duration, Antiquity, Unity, Amplitude, p. 200Succession, against which I thus argue: Either these do prove the being of the Church where ever they are, and the want of a Church where they are absent, or they do not; if they do not, then they are absurdly brought to prove their Church; if you say they do, then where those Characters are found, there is a true Church, and where they are wanting, there is no Church: But neither one, nor the other is true; not the first, for there is not one of those now mentioned but have agreed to Pagans or Hereticks. Who knowes not the Antiquity, Duration, Amplitude, and Unity of the Pagan Religion? All those were the Arguments of the Heathens against the Christians, and the Papists have these arrowes out of their quiver: and to say truth, it is but reasonable, that they that have borrowed so much of their Religion and Worship from the Pagans, should also borrow their Arguments: for you know the accessary followes the princip…ll. the onelyonly wonder is, how those Arguments which were weak and absurd in the Pagans (and so judged and rejected by the Antient Fathers) are become strong in the Papists? But I know a reason for that too. The Pope pretends to a Divinity upon Earth, and consequently he can make weake things strong, and as the Authority of the Romish Church is Infallible, so their Arguments are without all doubt irresistible. VVho knowes not that the Arrian Heresy overspread the World? That the mistery of iniquity which began to work in St Pauls dayes, was not to be finished and destroyed untill Christs second comming? 2 Thes. 2. That there was a time when the whole World wonder'd after the beast.

And for the latter branch, who knowes not that the Christian Church was a true Church when it wanted those Characters, or at least diverse of them, when it was in its infancy, and therefore could not have Duration, when confined to a narrow roome Act. 1. and therefore p. 201had no amplitude? and consequently, these are no necessary marks, nor certain discoveries of the true Church, as the Popish Doctors make their simple Proselytes believe. So succession of Pastors signifies nothing, unlesse you presuppose the truth of the Church, whereof they are Pastors: which forceth their own Authors to confesse, that without true doctrine, there is no true succession: and that a local succession alone without a profession of sound doctrine is no certain note: so Stapleton (a)(a)Etsi absque vera doctrina non sit vera successio:—Et post: Sola loci occupatio non est certa nota, ut carnales Iudaei de suo templo supponebant, sed sanae quoque doctrinae pariter cum loco professio. Relect. con. 1. qu. 4. art. 2.. And Bellarmine ingenuously acknowledgeth, that this argument of Succession is brought by them chiefly to prove, that there is no Church, where there is no succession, from whence it doth not follow (saith he) necessarily, that the Church is there, where succession is (b)(b)Hoc argumentum probat non esse Ecclesiam, ubi non est successio; ex quo tamen non colligitur necessariò ibi esse Ecclesiam, ubi non est successio. lib. 4. de notis Ecclesiae c. 8. §. Dico secundo.: So if this argument should possibly disprove our Church, yet it doth not prove theirs.

§ 10. So for Unity, it is a shoe will fit every foot, and hath been urged by Pagans, (whose great argument against Christianity, was taken from the divisions of Christians, and the unity of Pagans in their Religion;) and the Fathers answered the Pagans, (as we do the Papists) that as the Church of God is one, so the Devil's Babylon is one, as S. Austin expresseth it, and that Unity without Verity is not to be regarded. It was no argument of the verity and infallibility of the Jewish Church, that they were united against Christ: nor was it an evidence that the Church of Corinth, Galatia, and others mentioned in the New Testament were not the true Churches of p. 202Christ, because they were peste'rd with fearful divisions, and worse opinions, then those which are owned by any Divines of the Protestant confession. But if this test were allowed, if things be weighed, they would have little benefit by it. I know there is nothing more familiar with the Romanists, then to possesse silly seduced creatures with an opinion of their unity, and our divisions: I wish the latter were not more evident then the former, God open the eyes, and humble and forgive those, who by causing divisions and offences among us, have laid this stumbling block in their way! It is no wonder, they that cannot examine things, are deceived with words. But if any discreet person look within the vaile, and compare their condition and ours, he will find, Clodius accus at moechos; and that they do, as if a man infected with a leprosy, should reproach one who was troubled with the itch; or as if a man, whose hand was cut off, should quarrel with another for having a scratch on his finger. As for our Churches, I know it is usual for the Papists to charge us with the frantick opinions of Quakers, the desperate heresies of Socinus, and the like; but they would take it ill, if we should charge their Religion with all the Blasphemous, atheistical, heretical opinions of some that have liveed amongst them. Their own consciences tell them, that these, though they are among us, yet they are not of us. He that would judge righteous judgment, must take his aestimate from the publick confessions of the Protestant Churches, (whose Harmony is published and proved to all the world,) and such of our learned Doctors as adhere to it, and there he shall find the diversities of opinion amongst us are onelyonly in some lesser points, happily about government, or other circumstantiall things: but it is most certain, and undeniable, that all of them do hold the head, & agree in all the fundamental points of Religiō. But on the other side, what if there be cloven Tongues p. 203in Protestant Churches? Is Rome a City at unity within it self? How come we then to hear the noise of axes and hammers among the builders of their Temple? 300 differences have been collected out of Bellarmine's words and works, and several of them of greater importance then any of our divisions(a)(a)See Pappus his Contradictiones doctorum Romanae Ecclesiae, and Bishop Hall's Peace of Rome.. It is true they have a pretty knack, when we tell them of their divisions; they say, they are not in things de fide: I see, Duo cùm faciunt idem non est idem. It is a woful division among us between Remonstrants and Contra-remonstrants: but the same difference among them, between Jesuits and Dominicans, that is of no moment. Oh ye foolish Papists! how long will you be bewitched by such silly impostures! how long will you love simplicity? So for that great division among them, about the very foundation of their faith, (which is ten times more weighty then all the Protestant differences put together,) the Pope's Infallibility; they tell you, it is not de fide, although indeed it be their fundamentum fundamentorum, and their whole Religion hangs upon it, at least in the judgment of all the Jesuits, and the far greatest number of the learned Doctors and eminent writers of the Church of Rome of this age. It is confessed by themselves, that they are divided in this great point: so Bellarmine tells you: The second opinion is, that the Pope as Pope may teach heresy; this opinion (saith he) is defended by Nilus, some Parisians, as Gerson, and Almaine, and Alphonsus de Castro, and Adrian the sixth a Pope, in his question of Confirmation. So we have the infallibility of the Pope to assure us, that the Pope hath not Infallibility. And this opinion (saith he) is not properly heretical, for we see the Church doth still tolerate it; yet it is erroneous, and p. 204very near heresy (a)(a)Secunda sententia est, Pontificem etiam ut Pontificem, posse esse haereticum, & docere heresin:—banc opinionem sequitur & tuetur Nilus,—& aliquot Parisienses, & Cerson, & Almain, nec non Alphonsus de Castro,—& Adrianus 6. Papa in quaestione de Confirmatione▪ Et pòst: Haec sententia non est propriè haeretica, nam adhuc videmus ab Ecclesia tolerari, qui illam sententiam sequuntur, tamen videtur omnino erronea, & baerese proxima, De Pontif. lib. 4. c. 2.. I will tell you how near it is, when the Jesuits have throughly leaven'd the world with that opinion, and perfectly destroyed the liberties of the Gallican Churches, and the Pope can do it without raising a commotion in his own kingdome, then you shall find this Embryo perfected, and it is become a compleat heresie. In like manner saith Dr. Holden, speaking of the Pope's Infallibility: We see it is argued on both sides by many most godly and learned Catholicks, both antient and modern, and neither part hath yet been censured, or prohibited, and therefore it is evident, no Catholick is bound to this or that side. By which one instance you may see, how much reason we have to bespeak them, as Christ did the Pharisees, Math. 7.5. Thou Hypocrite, first cast out the Beam out of thine own eye, and then thou shalt see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brothers eye. Thus we see when their pretended signs come to be examined, they are lighter then vanity, as we have seen by this short and transient consideration of the most and weightiest of them.

§ 11. But, although other evidences are pleaded, yet the rest of them come in onelyonly as handmaids to the principal Character of miracles, for here it is that they set up their rest, and so must I too for a season. So the Answerer of Bishop Land: The Church is proved to be infallible the same way that Moses, Christ, and his Apostles were proved to be infallible, and that was by the sanctity of their life, p. 205and the glory of their miracles. The works of Christ did of themselves without Scripture prove Christ to be infallible, Ioh. 5.36. and 10 25, 38. and 14 11. and the Apostles confirmed their words by signes. Mark. 14.19.(a)(a)Chap. 5. of Lawds Labyrinth.. And consequently, the miracles done by the Church of Rome do without Scripture prove her infallibility. This is their last plea, they are now brought to their last legs; if this fail them, they are lost.

§ 12. Ans. 1. If the miracles of Christ, and his Apostles did prove their infallibility in the doctrine they delivered, then they prove the fallibility of the Church of Rome, and their actual error, because they are visibly departed from that doctrine; and if they prove any infallibility, they prove theirs, who adhere to the doctrine of the Scriptures. And so we thank them for this argument.

§ 13. Ans. 2. Although where miracles are true, and many, and evident, and uncontrolled, they give a great stroke to the proof of that doctrine, which is confirmed by them, yet it is false to say, that Christ, or his Apostles did require an absolute submission to, and belief of, every doctrine, upon the bare account of miracles, without any reference to Scripture. And it is most certain, that Christ and his Apostles (notwithstanding their miracles) did prove their doctrines from, and allow their hearers to examine their doctrines by the Scripture. This strikes at the foundation of their argument & plea, and therefore I shall endeavour thoroughly to prove it.

§ 14. 1. This appears from the expresse commands of Christ, and the Apostles to that purpose. In the same place, where Christ bids them believe him for his works sake, he commands them to believe him for the Scriptures sake, Joh. 5.39. Search the Scriptures: And if the former duplicate page p. 200duplicate page p. 201duplicate page p. 202duplicate page p. 203duplicate page p. 204duplicate page p. 205p. 206prove the sufficiency of their argument from miracles, why should not the latter prove the sufficiency of the Protestants argument from Scripture? especially, if you consider, that Christ apparently prefers Scripture arguments before that of miracles: for in that 5. of John, where he ascends gradually from the weakest to the strongest testimonies, he placeth them in this order. First, he urgeth Iohn's testimony, vers. 32. next, the testimony of his miracles, vers. 36. and last, the testimony of Scriptures, v. 39. And this more fully appears from Luke. 16.29. If they hear not Moses, and the prophets, neither will they be perswaded, though one rose from the dead. Upon which words Chrysostome's glosse is full and cogent, (at least to them who pretend to rely upon the Fathers authority, and exactly to maintain their doctrines:) his words are these: That you may see, that the doctrine of the Prophets, (and consequently of the Apostles,) is more to be believed then the preaching of one raised from the dead; consider this, that every one that is dead, is a servant, but what the Scripture speaks, those things the Lord speaks (a)(a)foreign &c. Tom. 5. operum de Lazaro. concione 4.. Whence I thus argue: The authority of the Lord is not onelyonly greater in se, but more credible quoad nos, then the authority of the Servant: This no man living will deny. But the authority of Scriptures is the authority of the Lord, and the authority of the Pope, (adde a Councel to him, if you please) is the authority of a Servant, yea (if you take that in earnest, which is intended onelyonly for a complement) a Servant of Servants: Ergo the Scripture is more to be credited then the Pope, or Church. It was a p. 207good turn for the Pope, that Greg. de Valentia hath assured him, that if the Fathers do at any time talke sawcily, Sua tum constat authoritas Romano Pontifici, i.e. The Pope will keep his authority and infallibility in spight of them: else I am afraid this passage of S. Chrysostomes might have done his Holinesse a discourtesy. And this farther appears from 2 Pet. 1. where you have the question expresly decided; for after the Apostle had confirmed his doctrine from that miraculous appearance of God in the Mount, and that voice from Heaven, he addes, ver. 19. We have a more sure word of Prophecy. The Bereans did not believe S. Paul's in…allibility, barely upon the account of his miracles, (nor are they therefore blamed) but did examine his doctrines by the Scriptures, (and for that they are commended.) Act. 17.11.

§ 15. 2. It was not the will of Christ, that all miracles should be believed, but he would have some miracles rejected: therefore he would not have all miracles in themselves, and for themselves, credited and owned. The Assumption I prove by three arguments.

§ 16. 1. Christ's will was compliant with his Fathers will, and he came to fulfill Gods word, not to destroy it: But this was the express will of God, that all miracles should not be credited. This no man can doubt of, that reads Deut. 13. If there arise among you a Prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign, or a wonder, and the sign or wonder come to passe, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other Gods, —and let us serve them, thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that Prophet, for the Lord your God proveth you. Whence it irrefragably follows, that if it could, without blasphemy, be imagined, that Jesus Christ had delivered such a doctrine as this, Let us go after other Gods, his miracles should have been disowned, and rejected, and therefore miracles of themselves are not to be credited.

p. 208§ 17. 2. Christ and his Apostles have foretold us, that miracles should be done by the teachers of false doctrines: Therefore miracles in themselves are no sufficient evidence of the truth of a doctrine. The Consequence none can deny. The Antecedent (which alone can admit of doubt) is so evident from plain Scriptures, that I need onelyonly recite them. I will mention onelyonly two places: 2 Thes. 2 9. The coming of Antichrist is said to be after the working of Satan with all power, and signs, and lying wonders: and that you may see they are called lying wonders, not so much ratione materiae, (because they are fabulous, and pretended,) as ratione finis, (because brought to confirme a lye,) it is said Apoc. 13.13, 14. That he doth great wonders, so that he maketh fire to come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth, by means of those miracles, which he had power to do. I tell you, the world is well mended with the Church of Rome, that those miracles, which in the Apostles dayes were foretold as a character of Antichristianity, are now become an evidence of Infallibility.

§ 18. 3. That evidence which Christ speaks of, as common to himself and counterfeit-Messiahs, is no sufficient evidence, nor at all to be equall'd with that evidence which is peculiar to the true Messias: But the evidence of miracles Christ speaks of, as common to himself and counterfeit Messiahs. This is plain from Mat. 24. 24. There shall arise false Christs, and false Prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders, that if it were possible, they should deceive the very elect. The Scripture only is the sure foreign: and therefore, what Divines observe of the Spirits testimony, that it is alwaies conjunct with the testimony of conscience, (and therefore it is not said, foreign, but foreign) the like we may discern in this, That where Christ urgeth the argument of miracles, he doth it in conjunction with the Scripture, as we saw in Joh. 5. and p. 209the like we have Joh. 10.25-38. where Christ pleads his works onelyonly as they are done in his Fathers name, that is, not onelyonly as he pretended his Fathers name, (for so did the false Christs Mat. 24.) but he really acted them with his commission, and in conformity to his will and word: So that the Scripture is the only foreign, and not miracles in themselves, as this argument of the Papists falsly supposeth.

§ 19. Ans. 3. If it were admitted, that miracles (and the like may be said of all the rest of their marks of a Church) do prove the verity of a doctrine, yet they do not necessarily prove the Infallibility of him that doth those works, or receives that doctrine. Observe this, for it strikes at the root of this their last pretence. The notes of a man may prove his manhood, but they do not prove his nobility, wisdome, learning: these must be proved aliunde from another head. The Protestant notes of a Church do prove the being and truth of our Church, but not its infallibility; nor would they do it, if the Protestants pretended or desired it, (for mens pretences, or desires do not alter the nature of things,) I say, the notes do prove the Churches verity. But what are the priviledges of that Church so constituted in being, and whether Infallibility be one of them, that is another question, and the resolution of it must be fetched from another Topick: now that this is so, I shall plainly and briefly, and (if I mistake not) undeniably prove. It is granted, that the gift of miracles was not peculiar to the Apostles, but was communicated by God to other Ministers and Christians in the primitive times: either then they must say, that every such Minister and Christian, singly considered, was infallible, (which no man ever yet was so impudent to assert,) or confesse, that miracles are no sufficient evidence of Infallibility. It was enough that miracles did confirme the doctrines delivered, whether by p. 210Apostles, or other Ministers, for the confirmation of our Faith, (though they had been otherwise fallible.) But if they will do that which never man did, viz. assert the infallibility of every such worker of miracles, then not only the Pope & Councels and Catholick Church are infallible, but also Xaverius the Jesuite, (of whose miracles they tell us so many fine stories, though he himself in his Epistles speaks not a syllable of them, and bewailes the want of the gift of Tongues, a miracle (if any) most necessary for the conversion of the Indians, I say, if their own relations of these miracles may be credited) he must be infallible. And so here is another article of the Popish Creed: for besides the Infallibility of the Church, Pope, or Councel, here is the infallibility of the Jesuites: Non equidem invideo, miror magis. Yet farther, if miracles were solid proofs of Infallibility, yet they prove it onelyonly in such persons as do them; Papae nec seritur, nec metitur. Why should the miracles of Gregory of Nazianzen prove the infallibility of the Bishop of Rome? or how come the miracles of the thundring Legion to prove the infallibility of the thundring Church of Rome? or by what Magical art do those miracles, which left poor Bernard (that did them) fallible, passe over to Rome, and render his Holinesse Infallible? The Jewish Church was not therefore infallible, because the Prophets, who wrought miracles amongst them, were thereby proved infallible: (nor do the Papists assert the infallibility of that Church, by vertue of such a priviledge belonging to those Prophets, but onelyonly because of that promise to the High Priest. Deut. 17.) In like manner, if their narrations concerning the miracles of S. Francis, S. Dominick &c., and if it were farther granted, that such miracles did prove their infallibility, yet this would no way prove the Infallibility of the Romish Church in which they were done. so in diverse respects you see the argument fals to the ground.

p. 211§ 20 Ans. 4. Miracles are so far from proving the infallibility of the persons that do them, that they do not so much as prove the verity of doctrines delivered by them. That miracles have been done, (or at least such things, as the strictest observation of common prudence could not distinguish from miracles) by hereticks, yea by pagans, is confessed by the Papists themselves, and evinced by the known examples of Vespasian, (who cured a blind man, as Baronius himself acknowledgeth, and all Historians relate,) and Apollonius Tyanaew, and others. You may see how this troubles Card. Bellarmine, that he is forced to this answer, That the Devil had possessed the eye of that man, that he might seem to cure, when he ceased to hurt: Mutato nomine de te Fabula narratur: For so, whatsoever miracles are done, or pretended by the Papists for confirmation of the doctrines of Devils, (and such are all repugnant to Scripture, and two of their doctrines are particularly so called 1 Tim. 4.1, 2, 3.) may as well be said to be done by the collusion of the Devil. And yet (by the way) this is no blemish to God's providence to permit such miracles, but an act of his wise counsel, and righteous judgment, that those who will not be won by the Word, and those glorious, abundant, and evident miracles done in the confirmation of it, may be hardned by other miracles, which (though far short in number, and commonly lesse notorious for observation, and lesse bebeneficial for use) God permits to be done, and justly may, having forewarn'd the world of such impostures, and forestall'd the minds of men with such clear irradiations of his truth, and such illustrious glory of miracles, that in comparison of them, the following wonders were no more then the glimmering light of a Gloworm to the splendor of the Sun in his Meridian: Of which we have eminent Instances in the wonders of Iannes and Iambres, after Pharaoh had hardned his heart against the word of p. 212God, and his glorious works, and afterward in the wonders of Apollonius Tyanaeus, when men had wickedly rejected the offers of grace by Jesus Christ, and resisted the glorious light of his most excellent doctrine, and inimitable works. To make this more clear, I shall shew it under the hands of the greatest champions of the Romish Church. Estius writes thus: The Fathers and Historians do every where witnesse; (so that here you have a multitude of testimonies in one) that true miracles may be done without the Church by false Prophets. Hereticks, and Schismaticks (a)(a)Passim fatentur Patres, & testantur historiae, fieri vera miracula extra Ecclesiam etiam à Pseudoprophetis, haereticis, & schismaticis. in sentent. lib. 2. distinct. 7. §. 18.: and he quotes among other witnesses Hilary, and Austin, and Gregory the great (a Pope, and therefore infallible in this assertion,) and a little after he doth so positively assert our doctrine, and so strongly batter down the pillar of the Papacy, that if you did not know the Author, you would judg him to be an absolute Protestant in that point: for after he had said, that wonderful works may be done by hereticks, and Devils in confirmation of false doctrine, he addes, but against this dec…it Christ hath forewarned his faithful ones, saying, Do not go forth, do not believe. It is to be noted. that he doth not say, Examine diligently whether they be true miracles; for the principal confirmation of the faithful ought to be the doctrine of the Church of old, confirmed by Christ and his Apostles by undoubted miracles (b)(b)Fieri possunt ab haereticis & Doemonibus etiam in confirmationem falsoe doctrinae mirabilia:—sed contra hujusmodi deceptionem fideles suos praemunivit Christus, dicens, Nolite exire, nolite credere. Notandum enim quòd non dioit, Disquirite diligenter signa, num. vera sint miracula. Nam praecipua confirmatio fidelium esse debet doctrina Ecclesiae, jam olim à Christo & Apostolis per indubitata miracula confirmata. Estius ubi supra §. 19…. And Maldonate (though as seldome p. 213guilty of ingenuity, as most I have read) is forced to confesse, that Hierom. Chrysost. Euthymius, and Theophylact. do prove by many examples, that true miracles may be done by unbelievers, and (saith he) Christ admonisbeth us, that we do not believe false Prophets, even when they work true miracles: So little reason had the Author of Lawd's Labyrinth to call it a strang Paradox, that true miracles may be marks of a false doctrine, and to say, that all Divines confess, that true miracles are not feasible, but by an extraordinary power of God, and that God thereby seales to the truth of a doctrine, chap. 9 sect. 5. and then to run away, as if he had throughly done his work, when you see his bold assertion confuted by more learned persons of his own party. Then again the said Maldonate puts a question, Whether no argument can be drawn from miracles, to prove the truth of a doctrine? and answers, It follows not, that no argument can be drawn from them, but no certain argument (a)(a)Hjeron. Chrys. Euthym. & Theoph. multis exemplis docent eliam per ba…ui…es infideles vera fieri miracula.—Et monet nos Christus, ne falsis Prophetis credamus, vera etiam miracula sacientibus.—Qn. An ergo nullum ad protandam veram doctrinam argumentum ex miraculis sumi possit? Resp. Non sequitur non omnino nullum, sed non necessarium sumi posse. in Mat. 7. 22.Matt 7:22; that is, the argument from miracles is next door to none; it is probable, but not undeniable; it is conjectural, but not certain. And yet these new Doctors dare lay the foundation of all, viz. the Churches infallibility, upon meer conjectures, and probabilities. One would think the Jesuit had borrowed this, as he hath done hundreds of his best passages, out of Calvin, and unadvisedly transcribed it into his commentary. And Andradius, the great defender of the Tridentine faith, is leaven'd with the same heresy: for he saith, S. Augustine contendeth, that sure and certain tokens of the Church are to be p. 214fetched out of the sacred Scriptures, because they are free from all suspition of falsehood: but miracles may be done by the help of the Devil (a)(a)Augustinus contendit Ecclesiae certa atque firma indicia è sacris literis petenda esse, quia ab omni sunt falsitatis suspitione libera. Nam iùm miracula—Daemonum operâ fieri posse dicat—Def. fid. lib. 2. p. 239.. And Gregory de Valentiâ tels us plainly, that miracles of themselves do not beget infallible certainty of the truth of a doctrine and Church, but on the contrary, the true and lawful Church gives us assurance of the truth of miracles, as S. Austin shews (b)(b)Ipsa per se miracula non efficiunt certitudinem infallibilem de vevitate doctrinae, & de Ecclesiá legitimá, sed contrà potius Ecclesia vera & legitima certos nos de veritate miraculorum facit, ut Aug. indicat tom. 3. disp. 1. qu. 1. punct. 4. §. 3.. To conclude this answer, I shall onelyonly adde Bellarmine's words: Before the approbation of the Church, it is not evident, nor certain, by a certainty of faith, concerning any miracle, that it is a true miracle (c)(c)Ante approbationem Ecclesiae non est evidens aut certum certitudine fidei de ullo miraculo, quòd sit verum miraculum. lib. de notis Ecclesiae. c. 14.. And therefore the Churches infallibility cannot be proved by miracles, because it must be presupposed, before these miracles can give us any certainty.

§ 21. Ans. 5. If all the former difficulties were removed, it profits them not; for when a man comes to look into the pieces of their argument from miracles, he shall find such horrible mistakes, and woful impostures, that indeed it makes their cause the worse, and gives prudent men occasion to discern, that these are the Badges of the Antichristian faction, that they are the very signes, and lying wonders foretold 2 Thes. 2. I shall briefly look upon some of the parts of the argument.

1 They alledge for themselves the miracles of Christ, and his Apostles, and the first Fathers, which being done p. 215in confirmation of a doctrine (as repugnant to theirs as Heaven is to Hell) are so far from proving their Infallibility, that they demonstrate their falshood and heresy.

2. They plead all those miracles as testimonies to the present doctrine of the Romish Church, which were done by such, as though they lived in the communion of the Church of Rome, yet did complain of their corruptions, and condemn diverse of their present doctrines: as appears in Bernard, particularly in the great doctrine of Merit.

3. They alledge such miracles, as were done by Papists, in order to the conversion of Heathens to Christianity, which if really done by the cooperation of the divine power, do prove no more but this, That God thereby bare witnesse to the common cause of Christianity, (for confirmation whereof such miracles were done,… and not to their particular opinions, wherein they stand divided from other Christians.

4. They alledge such miracles, as for the generality of them, their own Authors (such of them as have not sacrificed to Impudence) acknowledg to be fictitious and ridiculous. What should I tell you of that known censure of Melchior Canus, concerning the Legends of the Saints, (which are the great treasuries of Popish miracles, and received by the poor besotted Papists with the same veneration, as the four Gospels) That the lives of the Saints were written with lesse integrity and faithfulnesse, then the lives of the Heathen Emperors were written by Heathen authors (a)(a)Dolenter hoc dico,—multò à Laertio severiùs vitas Philosoph… rum scriptaes, quàm à Christianis vitas sanctorum.—Nostri plerique (Scriptores) vel affectibus inserviunt, vel de industriâ quo que multa confingunt, ut eorum me nimirum non soli…m pudeat, sed etiam tae deat. Canus in operibus lib. 11. c. 6. pag. 533.. A dear sentence! it cost him the loss of a Cardinals p. 216Cap. Ag…eeable to this was that of Vives, that the Legends were written by a man of a Brasen forehead, and a Leaden wit. I shall forbear further particulars, for it were endlesse to enumerate all the complaints amongst their own Authors, (in whom there were any relicks of candor and conscience) of the fictions in this kind, and the many notable instances of those impious frauds discovered upon the reformation of Religion, which before that time, were reputed such certain miracles, that it was sufficient to make a man an Heretick to doubt of the truth of them. I shall adde onelyonly this, that our Adversaries could not possibly do a greater spight to Christianity, nor a greater dishonour to those illustrious and unquestionable miracles done by Christ and his Apostles, in the face of all the world, so as their greatest enemies were forced to acknowledge the verity of them, then to compare with them, and equal to them, their fabulous relations concerning some seeming wonders, commonly done in a corner, and by such who served their own interest in them, and whose evidence was so dark, that the truth of them was questioned by their own friends, as you have now heard: as if their design were to make good that passage of one of their holy Fathers, who called the Gospel, Fabula Christi, the fable of Christ, in that known expression, How great riches hath this Fable of Christ procured to us! But if every syllable of what their Fabulists have recorded of their miracles were true, it will stand them in little stead, for the reasons before alledged, and proved. And therefore I conclude, that the miracles pretended, or done by Papists, are no certain and sufficient evidence of their Infallibility, and no solid foundation for their Faith.

§ 22. Ans. 6. To which I shall onelyonly adde this word at parting, that if miracles must passe for arguments, I know no reason, but Protestants have as good a Title to p. 217them as the Church of Rome: For although we do not use to boast of wonders, nor indeed have any need to use that Argument, having such solid evidence and sufficient ground for our Faith in the Holy Scriptures, yet if our adversaries will force us to it, I think our plea is as just as theirs, and we could very easily fill a Volume, not with such fictitious narrations, as they stuffe their Legends with, but with undoubted Histories of Protestant wonders. If the Antients esteemed the first propagation of Christianity by such contemptible meanes against such potent and universall opposition, an eminent miracle; why may we not reckon this for a miracle, that the reformation of Religion should be carried on by a despicable Monk in despight of all the power, policy, cruelty, flattery, learning of the last Age? we can tell them of miraculous cures of Diseases, and dispossessions of Devils by the Prayers of Gods people, of certaine praedictions of future contingencies by Protestant Ministers, of miraculous preservations and deliverances of Protestant Princes and Ministers from the bloody rage and deep designes of Papists, of eminent and unusuall judgments of God upon Popish Persecutors, of all these there are remarkable instances already extant in Print, and such as the Papists were never able to disprove to this day: so that the Protestant cause is not inferiour to the Romish in this particular, but onelyonly here are two things evident in Protestants which are not so in their Adversaries, viz. 1. The Modesty of the Protestants that they do not boast of what they might justly plead. 2. The foreign, or self sufficiency of the Protestant cause, that hath evidence enough in Scripture, and hath Arguments enough, and to spare, whereas the penury of the Popish cause forceth them to catch at shadowes for want of substance.

§. 23. Thus I have considered the severall pretences of their great Doctors, and all the Pillars upon which this p. 218vast structure of the Churches Infallibility depends: I have stated the severall pretensions in the words of their own most approved Authors: I have weighed (I think I may say) all their considerable Arguments by which they seek to maintaine them, in the ballance of the Sanctuary, and have found them light: I shall close this particular with a briefe reflection upon the whole matter, and the diverse and repugnant courses of their Learned Authors in the resolution and foundation of their Faith; wherein we shall see these miserable creatures running (like the false Prophet in Ieremy) from chamber to chamber to hide themselves.

1. They made a bold venture at Scripture, and fairly offerd to try their cause by it, for which they deserve this Motto—Magnis tamen excidit ausis: But their own brethren pull'd them by the eare, and told them that would not do their work. Gainsayers can never be convinced out of Scripture, therefore you must confound them with Tradition, saies their great Salmeron (a)(a)Proter vere volentes Scripturis refelli non possunt, ideo unâ Traditione jugulandi sunt. Salmeron in Tom. 13. lib. 1. comment. super Epistolam Paulis.: And they soone found that to be true which once a Popish Clergy man said when he had found a Bible; He knew not who was the Author of it, but sure he was, it was some pestilent Heretick, for he every where condemnes the Doctrines of our Church.

2. They fly to the Fathers and their Infallible Authority: There upon a faire triall, they are beaten out of the field: Upon debate they find the Fathers so foreign, so uncertaine in some things, so positive against them in other things, that they presently cry Crucifige to those, whose ears had rung with Hosanna's before, and down goes the Infallibility of the Fathers and to fetch in miracles, that they may not want Arguments.

p. 2193. Then they flie to Councels, and by all meanes they must be Infallible; well, the Protestants follow them thither: That point comes to be scann'd. Instances are given of the errours of Councels (if either Papists or Protestants may be Judges:) And (which had the greatest hand in the deposing of Councels) severall notable passages are alleadged out of Councels against the Popes Supremacy, and diverse of the present Doctrines of the Romish Church: And upon the hearing of the cause, the Pope himselfe, and the most of the learned and considerable Papists now in the World are resolved to trust Councels no longer with this jewell, and not content to deny, they dispute down the Infallibility of Councels, as I have shewed.

4. Then they flie to the Pope for help, and Jesuites cry out foreign, They have found the man that is infallible: Now saltat senex, salva res est, well the Protestants joyne issue with them upon that, give many shrewd instances of the errours of Popes, alledge the expresse words of Adrianus Sextus, a Pope confessing the Fallibility of Popes, (whom Bellarmine himselfe reckons among those who hold that the Pope may be an Heretick and teach Heresy (a)(a)Lib. 4. De Romane Pontifice cap. 2. §. secunda sententia.) And besides all this, two Popish approved Councels are pleaded, viz. Constance and Basil, who absolutely deny the Popes Supremacy and Infallibility. Well, what shall they do next?

5. Then there must be another device, a coalition of Pope and Councell, and those meeting together are Infallible.

Thus Infallibility is but a short-lived businesse, and dies at the expiration of the Councell (for when they are dissolved, their Writings as well as those of Holy p. 220Scripture are uncapable of being a judge). And thus they have devised an Infallibility, made of a commixtion of two Fallibles (an ingenious invention it is by which one may make an infinite of two finites, and of two guilty persons make up one innocent) But this also is destroyed by themselves: For although the divided parties seem to patch up an Agreement, yet indeed they are as much at variance as ever; For the Jesuites make the Pope alone Infallible (and the Councell onelyonly in dependance upon him)▪ And their Adversaries ascribe this Infallibility to the Councell alone, (and to the Pope onelyonly by communication from them.) And so they are both gone by the Arguments allready mentioned under each of those heads. And if we may believe either, there is security in neither. And besides all these, diverse of their late Learned Writers reject the Infallibility both of Pope and Councels, as White, Holden, Cressy, S^r Kenelme Digby, &c. who assert, that neither one nor other, are further Infallible; then they keep to the Golden rule of Tradition, and in that sence every Christian (viz. so farre as he keeps to Tradition) is Infallible.

6. The next devise is orall Tradition, and the Authority of the present Church, who are therefore right, because they say so: So this is a confirmation of their Faith answerable to his confutation, who answered all Bellarmines works with saying Mentir is Bellarmine? Bellarmine thou liest: In like manner do these men confute all the Protestant Writers, and maintaine their own Tenets, by saying, recte dicis Domine Papa or mater Ecclesia, That the Pope and present Church are in the right. Thus their bare assertion must passe for a solid demonstration, & their pretence that they hold nothing, but what they had frō the Apostles, must be admitted as a proof that it is so, & shadowes must go for substances: But this besides the ridiculousnes of begging the questiō, & craving what they cānot p. 221prove, is denied by the greatest Pillars of their own Church, and such as with whom the Authors of this new and wild fancy, will not compare themselves, either for number or quality: For this is the known and most approved Doctrine of the Church of Rome, That Tradition and Scripture both are two dead letters, and partiall rules, and there is besides these required a living judge indued with supreme and infallible Authority; and without this judge we cannot infallibly understand, and are not bound to receive and believe either the one or the other.

7. At last they are so hard put to it, that they cannot leap out of the Circle, nor extricate themselves out of that Labyrinth in which their conceit of Infallibility hath involved them, without Miracles: In come the marks of the Church and the glory of Miracles: And thus farre I shall discharge them from that invincible difficulty of proving the truth of their most famous miracles, for if they can prove the Infallibility of their Church, I will give it under my hand that they can worke a Miracle: for then they can reconcile contradictions, and they can do that which the ineffectuall essayes of all their greatest wits have shewed to be above the wit of man, or Devill either, (for doubtlesse those Popes who had familiar acquaintance with the Devill, would not faile to take in his advice and assistance for the defence of their Infallibility) and therefore must needs be acknowledged for foreign or workers of Miracles: Thus I have dispatched their severall pretences, and shewed the nullity of them all, and consequently the nullity of their Faith:

§. 24. There is onelyonly one thing to be added: They have one Argument more, which (although if their other cords break, they acknowledg this will not hold, yet because they use much to insist upon it). I shall consider in a few words: And that is an Argument taken from the providence p. 222of God, and his care over the Church: It is fit and necessary (lay they) that there should be some infallible Judge that could finally end all Controversies, and therefore there is such an one, and they are that Judge. I know no man in the world can leap further at three jumps. 1. There ought to be. 2. There is an Infallible Judge. 3. Their Church is it.

§ 25. Answ. 1. Why may not I turne their Argument upon them? God hath not provided such a judge, Ergo such a judge is not necessary. VVhen God thought fit to appoint a judge for the decision of some controversies in the Old Testament, he thought fit to expresse, the person, the place, his work, his power: And if the Popish doctrine be true, that this Judge is of such necessity, that without him we cannot understand, and are not bound to believe the Scriptures to be the word of God, and that submission to this Judge is necessary to Salvation; it is ten thousand times more incredible that God (to whom all our present controversies were not unforeseen) should not leave us some mention of it in those Scriptures which are written for this end that we might believe, Joh. 20.31. and that we might be made wise unto Salvation, 2 Tim. 3.15. Then that such a Judge is necessary: If God had but said instead of Tell the Church, Tell the Bishop of Rome, or heare the Bishop of Rome in all things, all those infinite and dreadfull distractions, divisions, persecutions, errours and mischiefes, which have since risen in the world had been prevented: So if reason may be judge, who can believe it consistent with the goodnesse of God or Christs care over his Church, or Gods designe in giving the Scriptures, to omit such a necessary point as this, upon which all the rest had depended: especially when Doctrines of far lesse concernment are there plainly recorded and often repeated?

p. 223§. 26. Answ. 2. If once men suffer their understandings to mount so high as to teach God what is fit, and positively to conclude that to be done which they judge fit to be done: It opens a gap to Atheisme and to all imaginable Superstition: What a fine modell of Divinity should we have if once this doore were open'd? It was fit that all the Translators of the Bible should have infallible guidance, that they might not mistake in a letter: It was fit that the Doctrine of the Popes Supremacy and Infallibility should have been ingraven upon every mans heart, or at least plainly revealed in the Bible, this being of more use then all the Bible besides; (since the Pope could have supplied the want of a Bible) And as Chillingworth well argues, it was as fit that every Minister should have been Infallible; that all the Popes should be free from grosse wickednesse; (as all other infallible persons recorded in Scripture were) It was fit that obstinate Hereticks should be consumed with fire from Heaven: Therefore by this Argument all these things are done, how much better and more becomming is it for a Christian to say with the Apostle, who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his Counsellor? Rom. 11.34. Then boldly to measure God by our own fancies, and tie him to our fond imaginations.

§. 27. 3. If it be granted that there is an Infallible judge, yet it doth not their work, for particular Christians are not Infallibly assured of the Infallibility of their Church, (unlesse they will say that every Papist is Infallible) And therefore no particular Papist hath better ground for his Faith upon this score then the Protestants have: for they neither have, nor pretend to better Arguments, upon which they believe their Church to be this Supreme and Infallible judge, then what Protestants alledge to prove the Scripture to be judge, viz. Texts of Scripture, Tradition, Fathers, Councels, Miracles, rationall duplicate page p. 218duplicate page p. 219duplicate page p. 220duplicate page p. 221duplicate page p. 222duplicate page p. 223p. 224Arguments, &c. And if a Protestant may be deceived in these when he inferres from them the Infallibility of the Scripture, why may not a Papist be deceived when he inferres from them the Infallibility of his Church, since he hath no better Arguments, nor more Infallible guidance? And therefore as to particular Christians (of whom the whole Church consists, and about whom alone the care of Christ and Gods Providence is exercised) God hath not taken more effectuall care for their infallible guidance according to the Romish Principles then according to ours: For as they say, Protestants have no security for their Faith, though the Scripture be Infallible, because they cannot Infallibly underitand it, or believe this to be the Scripture: so say I, the Papists have no security of the Infallibility of their Church (though the Churches Infallibility be acknowledged true in it self) since they cannot infallibly know either that there is such an infallibility, or theirs to be the Church to whom it is promised.

§. 28. 4. It is neither necessary, nor suitable to the methods of Gods Providence and the declarations of his will, that there should be a finall end and infallible judge of all controversies in this life: That which these men teil us was fit to be done, God hath told us he did not judge fit (and who is most credible do you judge) 1 Cor. 11. 19. There must be Heresies—that they which are approved may be made manifest. God hath acquainted us, that it is his pleasure that Tares should grow with the Wheat unto the end of the World. In respect of wicked men it was fit (in regard of Gods Justice) that there should be stones of stumbling and Rocks of offence, for the punishment of those that were disobedient: And in regard of elect and sincere Christians, who live holily, and humbly believe, and pray fervently, and seek the true way diligently, such a judge is not necessary, God having provided for p. 225them other wayes, by giving them the promise of his Spirit, and guidance into Truth (which is as good security as the Pope himselfe hath, or pretends for his supposed Infallibility) by that anointing which teacheth them all things, 1 Ioh. 2. 27. in confidence of whose conduct they may say with David: Thou shalt guide me with thy counsell and afterwards receive me to Glory, Psal. 73. 24. They are kept by Gods power, 1 Pet. 1. 5. and the care and strength of Christ, Ioh. 10. And what need a Christian desire more? Truly saith Amesius, God hath provided for the safety of the Godly, not for the curiosity or perversnesse of other men. And therefore this plea must go after all the rest, and they are still lest in a Forlorne and desperate, because in a faithlesse condition: And thus having forced my way through all the obstructions which they laid before us: I know not what hinders, but I may pronounce the sentence, notwithstanding all their big looks and glorious pretences of Infallibility, notwithstanding all the noise of Scripture, Fathers, Popes, Councels, Tradition, Miracles; when things come to be scanned, it appeares they have no foundation for their Faith, and consequently have no Faith. Lord be mercifull to them.