The True Catholic and Catholic Church Described, Part 7
Having spoken thus much to these several Sects that would appropriate the Catholick Church to themselves, I shall once more speak to them altogether. Whether you are Papists, or what Sect soever that are guilty of this grievous crime, I beseech you think of these following aggravations of your sinne.
1. How evidently is your Doctrine against the mercifull nature of God, and contrary to that abundant grace which he hath manifested to mankind. Is he Love it self? and his mercy over all his works, reaching unto the Heavens, and unconceivable by sinners? Hath he not thought the bloud of his Sonne too dear for us? And yet can you believe those men that would perswade you, that the farre greatest part of the Christians of the world, are out of the Church, and shall be damned, because they believe not in the Pope of Rome, or because they are not Rebaptized, or the like? How holy soever they are in other respects? Is this like God? Or hath he thus described himself in his Word? We are as willing as you to know the truth, and study, and pray, and seek as much after it, and would most gladly find it at any rates: and the more we search, and study, and pray, the more confident we are that your way is wrong: And must we yet be all unchristened that are not of your opinion?
2. How much do you wrong and dishonour the Lord Jesus in many respects. 1. Hath he purchased his Church with his own bloud? And now dare you presume to rob him of the farre greater part of his purchase, because they be not of your opinion? I would not stand before him with the guilt of such a sin for all the world. 2. Dare you charge so great unmercifulness on Christ, that hath so wonderfully shewed his mercy, and at so dear a rate? After all his bloud and sufferings, dare you feign him to say to the world, [Believe in me, and Love me never so much; if you obey not the Church of Rome, you cannot be my Disciples, or be saved?] Yea, and would he lay our salvation on this, and yet not reveal it to us, but say so much against it? Let him be of these mens minds that can, for I cannot. 3. Moreover, the weaknesses and diseases of the Saints, do honour the skill of Christ their Physician, that hath undertaken the cure, and in due time will accomplish it. And will you go and turn them all out of his Hospital, and say, they are none of his patients?
3. Your design is against the very nature of the Catholick Church, and the Communion of Saints. The design of Christ in the work of Redemption was, to gather all into one Body, and bring them to God. To break down the partition wall between Jew and Gentile, and take away the Ordinances and Ceremonies that occasioned the division, and to unite them all in himself the Universal Head, Ephes. 2. 13, 14, 15. that he might reconcile both to God in one Body by the Cross, having slain the enmity thereby, vers. 16, 17. To this end, When he ascended, he gave Pastors and Teachers, as well as Apestles, Prophets and Evangelists, for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the Ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Sonne of God, unto a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ,—that we may grow up into him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joyned together, and compacted by that which every joynt supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of it self in Love.] Ephes. 4. 11, 12, 15, 16. In these several particulars you directly strike at the very nature of the Catholick Church: 1. The Church is but one, and you tear off a member, and call it the whole, and so would make it many, or divide it. It was the design of Christ to unite all the differing parts; and you crosse his design, and go about to separate that which he hath conjoyned and cemented even by his precious bloud. 2. The Church is united and centered in Christ, and knows no other Head: And Papists would set up a mortal and incapable man, and have all unite in him as a Vicar Head: And having not a word for this from Christ, they pervert one Text, 1 Cor. 12. 21. The eye cannot say to the hand, &c. or the head to the feet, I have no need of you.] See here (say they) is a visible Head: But 1. It is visible to any man that will understand, that the term [Head] is used of the Natural Body's head, by way of similitude: but when the thing assimulated (the mystical Body) is mentioned, there's not a word of a Head; but the application is of [the more honourable or comely parts] in general: many such Heads there be, that is, more honourable parts; but no Ʋniversal Governour, that's it they should prove: They may else as well pretend, that beside the Pope who is the Head, there must be one or two universal eyes, and two universal hands or feet, for the whole Church. Thus men abuse themselves, when they will dare to wrest the Scripture to their interests. 2. But if it had spoke of one Universal Head, must it needs be the Pope, or an earthly man? I must profess that very Chapter is so full and plain against Popery, that were there no more, I could hardly be a Papist. For mark, I pray you, 1. The Lord Jesus himself is expresly named, in vers. 12. and yet must we seek for another exposition of the word Head? [All the members of that body, being many are one body; even so is Christ.] It is Christ that the Church is united in.
Object. But Christ may say to the feet, I have no need of you.
Answ. For himself he hath no need of any creature: but 1. For the compleating of the body he hath need of the members, which is the thing here mentioned. 2. And to his own glory he hath use for them. He that said of a Colt, when he was to ride into Jerusalem, [The Lord hath need of him] may as well be said to have need of his members. 2. If neither Prophet, Apostle or Teacher were Head of the Church, then the Pope is not: For he pretends not to be greater then Peter the Apostle. But none of these were the head, as is most plain, vers. 27, 28. [Now ye are the Body of Christ, and members in particular, and God hath set some in the Church first Apostles, secondarily Prophets, thirdly Teachers, &c.] So that Christ only is made the Head, and Apostles are all together numbered with the prime or most honourable members, and no more.
So Colos. 2. 18, 20. [And he is the Head of the Body, the Church:—For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulnesse dwell, and having made peace by the bloud of his Cross, by him to reconcile all things to himself.] What a daring vile attempt is it of that man, that would tear the greater half of the members from his body, when it hath cost him so dear to unite them in himself.
4. Moreover, Your course is dishonourable to the Church and cause of Christ. I know his flock is small; but to narrow it as you would do, is exceedingly to dishonour it. To make men believe that God hath no more in all the world but your party, is to raise temptations and hard thoughts of God in the minds of men without any cause.
5. And if such a dividing censure must needs be past, There's none lesse fit to do it then you, that are commonly forwardest to divide. If most of the Christian world must needs be unchurched, to whose share were it liker to fall than to you? Quakers, I will say nothing to, their folly being so gross. Anabaptists are setting up a new Church-entrance in the end of the world: and if they know any thing of Church History, they must needs know, that comparatively there's few in Heaven that were of their mind on earth. And for the Papists, we have much ado to maintain our charity, in proving them to be a Church at all. And the truth is, the Question hath some difficulty. Whether the Church of Rome be a true Church or no: To which I give this true and plain answer in brief.
The word Church signifieth four things (pertinent to our present purpose) 1. The Ʋniversal or Catholick Church as visible: So the Church of Rome is not the Church at all. 2. The Ʋniversal Church as Invisible: So the Church of Rome is not the Church. 3. A Particular Political Church of Christs institution. And, 4. A Community or meer Countrey or company of Christians, as part of the Catholick Church. Now as to these two last, the Church of Rome signifieth, 1. Either all the Papists formally as such, that is, as united to a pretended Universal Bishop. And in this formal respect, the Church of Rome is a false Church, and no true Church at all of Christs appointing. 2. By [the Church of Rome] may be meant, the persons that live under the Papal captivity and subjection, not as his Subjects formally, but as Christians, and the Subjects of Christ: And thus all Christians in the Church of Rome, are a part of the Universal Church of Christ: A Part, and but a Part, as Christians: No Part, but the plague of the Church, as Papists. This is the plain truth. Your errours are great and numerous: yet we are willing to extend our charity as farre as is possible, to take you for Brethren: And will you be so froward as to unchurch others, even all the rest of the Christian world, that have need of so much charity to your selves? You cry out of the Heresie of the Jacobites, Georgians, Syrians, Armenians, &c. Some are Nestorians, some are Eutychians, and I know not what: But woe to Rome if worse men, and more erroneous than they, may not be of the Church, and saved. Shall I set down the words of one of your own Monks that dwelt among them in Judea? It is Bochardus Descript. Terrae sanct. 323, 324, 325, 326. [Sunt in terra promissionis, &c. There are in the holy Land (saith he) men of every Nation under Heaven: and every Nation liveth after their own Rites: and to speak the truth to our great confusion, there are none found in it that are worse and of more corrupt manners than the Christians (he means the Papists) Pag. 235. he saith, [Moreover those that we judge to be damned Hereticks, Nestorians, Jacobites, Maronites, Georgians, & the like, I found to be for the most part Good and simple men, and living sincerely towards God and men, of great abstinenee, &c.—And Pag. 324. he tells you, That the Syrians, Nestorians, Nubians, Jabeans, Chaldeans, Maronites, Ethiopians, Egyptians, and many other Nations of Christians there inhabit, and some are Schismaticks, not subject to the Pope, and others called Hereticks, as the Nestorians, Jacobites, &c. But (saith he) there are many in these Sects exceeding simple (or plain) knowing nothing of Heresies, devoted to Christ, macerating the flesh with fastings, and wearing the most simple garments, so that they even far exceed the very Religious of the Romane Church.
Thus by the testimony of your own eye-witnesses, even these that you cast out for Hereticks and Schismaticks, are farre beyond even the the Religious of your Church: What then are the Reformed Churches? Truly Sirs, it's intollerable for the Parlour to say [I am all the house] but for the Chimney, Kitchin, or Cole-house, it is more intollerable. If your chief servant shall say, the rest are no servants, it is not well: but for the scullion or groom to say so is worse. If the Oak say [I am the whole wood] it is ill: But if the bramble say so, it is worse. If the best of your children should say, that all the rest are bastards, it is not well: but if the most vicious and deformed say so, it is worse.
And as you are unfit for quality to exclude all others, so also for number you are very unfit. As for the Anabaptists, and such inconsiderable parties, that are not past the thousandth part of the Church, or perhaps the many thousandth part of it (when yet the whole visible Church is supposed to be but the sixth part of the world) I do admire how any Christian can make himsef believe, that the love and grace of Christ, is confined to so narrow a room, and his Church so small. I think he that believeth once that Christ hath not one of so many thousands, is next to believing that he hath no Church at all, & consequently that there is no Christ at all.
And for the Papists, how deeply also are they guilty in this? As I said, in their greatest height now, they are not near one half the Christians in the world: A great part of their Church are the poor Americans, whom they drive to Baptism, as cattel to the water, (yet not leaving it to their choice so much as to drink when they come thither:) So that their own Writers tell us, That multitudes of them know nothing of Christianity, but the name, and many forget that too. A while ago the Papists were but a small part of the Church, before Tenduc, Nubia, and other Kingdoms fell away. One of their own Bishops, and a Legate there resident speaks upon his own knowledge of the state of the Church in the Eastern parts, That in the Easterly parts of Asia alone, the Christians exceeded in multitudes both the Greeks and Latine Churches. Jacob a Vitriaco Histor. Oriental. cap. 77. And a most learned Writer of their own (Melch. Canus Loc. Theol. lib. 6. cap. 7. fol. 201.) saith, Pugnatum est, &c.—Both the Greeks and almost all the rest of the Bishops of the whole world, did vehemently fight, to destroy the Priviledge of the Romane Church: And they had on their side both the Arms of Emperours, and the greater number of Churches, and yet they could never bring it to passe, that the Power of this one Romane Pope should be abrogated.] You see here by their own most express confession, which way the most of the Churches went, and that almost all or most of all the Bishops of the world were against them; (and so where our Church was before Luther:) And yet are these men a competent number to condemn all the rest of the Churches of Christ, and appropriate all the Catholick Church to themselves? O what a world of faction do we live in! I am bitterly censured on one side for believing that any Papists are parts of the Catholick Church: And on the other side we cannot perswade the Papists, that any other are parts of it but they: And so they will needs be either the whole Church, or none of it.
6. This factious course of unchurching all Christians saving your selves, is contrary to the very internal nature of Christianity. Every Christian as a Christian, is taught of God to love the Brethren, and by this all must know that we are Christs Disciples; and he that loveth not his brother abideth in death. There is a holy disposition to Unity and closure in all Christians. And if you have not this disposition your selves, you are but hypocrites: if you have it, how dare you sinne against it? Though you must not unite with any in their sinne, you must unite with all that are Christians in their Christianity.
7. Moreover, Your course is contrary to Christian humility, and proclaimeth the most abominable Pride of the dividers. That you should call all the rest of the Christian world, Schismaticks and Hereticks, and say, that none are Christians but you? Why, what are you above other men, that you should say, [Come not near me, I am holier than thou?] Have none in the world think you, faith, and hope, and charity, but you? Can you indeed believe that none shall be saved, but you? Alas that you should not only so much overlook Gods graces in your brethren, but also be so insensible of your own infirmities! Have you so many errours and sinnes among you, and yet are none of the Church, but you? Me thinks an humble soul should say, Alas, I am so bad, that I am liker to be cast out than they; I am unworthy of the Communion of the Saints!
8. Yea you trespasse against common reason it self. Do you think it Reasonable for us to believe, that all those that we see walk uprightly with God and men, earnest in prayer, and study to know the truth, holy and humble and heavenly Christians, are yet out of the Church, and state of life, because they be not rebaptized with the Anabaptists, or because they believe not in the Pope of Rome with the Papists? It's hard to imagine that he that pretends to believe such unreasonable things as these, doth well believe Christianity it self.
9. And how could you honour and gratifie the Devil more, and magnifie his Kingdome, then by teaching men that most of the Churches are his. Will you not be content to let him go away with all the unbelieving world, and all the hypocrites also in the Church; but you will proclaim him the King of Christs inheritance, even of the best and greatest part of his Disciples, because they are not of your opinion, or your sect? What dealing is this for a Christian to be guilty of?
10. Lastly, Consider what uncomfortable Doctrine it is that you deliver, especially to your selves? You will not believe that all these Sects and differing parties that hold the essentials are members of the Catholick Church: You scorn at such a Church, and say, what a medley Church is this? Will Christ entertain men of so many opinions, and of so much corruption? Yea, or else woe to you, and such as you are? Me thinks you should rather say, Alas, what will become of me, if sinners and erring persons may not be Christi…ns, but must all perish? O what sinnes have I, that are greater than many of their errours? And who is liker to erre than such an ignorant wretch as I? Take heed lest you cut a shooe too little for your own foot; and and lest you shut out so many that you must your selves go out with the first. I must professe after long impartial studies, if I were of the opinion that most of the Christian world are out of the Catholick Church; I could not believe that the Papists are in it.
Consider now of these Aggravations of your sinne: To think and say, 1. That one piece of the Church is the whole Church. 2. Yea, and a piece that is no greater. 3. That none of the best, nor far from the worst. 4. Nor none of the ancientest, what ever is pretended. 5. And to exclude the greatest part of Christians, for such a matter, as not believing in the Pope of Rome. And, 6. Lastly, To do all this in pretence of Ʋnity, even to cast away the most of the Church, to unite it. What an unreasonable, unchristian course is this? Dividing spirits may plead what they will, but God will one day shew them their sinne in a fouler shape, than here I have opened it; though it seem to them but pious Zeal.