may sit in the chair. But the uncertainty of this note, as it relates to this question, I have already manifested; and what excellent concord there is in the church of Rome, we are taught by the question of supremacy of councils or popes; and now also by the strict and loving concord between the Jansenists and Molinists; and the abettors of the immaculate conception of the blessed Virgin Mother, with their antagonists. 8. Sanctity of doctrine' is an excellent note of the church; but that is the question among all the pretenders, and is not any advantage to the church of Rome, unless it be a holy thing to worship images, to trample upon kings, to reconcile a wicked life with the hopes of heaven at the last minute, by the charm of external ministries; to domineer over consciences, to impose useless and intolerable burdens, to damn all the world that are not their slaves, to shut up the fountains of salvation from the people; to be easier in dispensing with the laws of God, than the laws of the church; to give leave to princes to break their oaths, as pope Clement VII. did to Francis I. of France, to cozen the emperor; and as pope Julius II." did to Ferdinand of Arragon, sending him an absolution for his treachery against the king of France, not to keep faith with heretics; to find out tricks to entrap them that trusted to their letters of safe conduct; to declare that popes cannot be bound by their promises for pope Paul IV. in a conclave, A. D. 1555, complained of them that said he could make but four cardinals, because (forsooth) he had sworn so in the conclave, saying, this was to bind the pope, whose authority is absolute; that it is an article of faith that the pope cannot be bound, much less can he bind himself, that to say otherwise was a manifest heresy; and against them that should obstinately persevere in saying so, he threatened the inquisition. These, indeed, are holy doctrines, taught and practised respectively by their holinesses at Rome, and, indeed, are the notes of their church; if by the doctrine of the head, to whom they are bound to adhere, we may guess at the doctrine of their body. 9. The prevalency of their doctrine' is produced for

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g Vid. The Legend of Flamens and Revieue.

h De Concile de Trente, lib. iv. c. 7.

i Hist. Concil. Trident. lib. v.

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a good note; and yet this is a greater note of Mahometanism, than of Christianity, and was once of Arianism: and yet the argument is not now so good at Rome, as it was before Luther's time. 10. That the chiefs of the pope's religion lived more holy lives than others,' gives some light that their church is the true one. But I had thought that their popes had been the chiefs of their religion, till now,-and if so, then this was a good note, while they did live well; but that was before popery. Since that time, we will guess at their church by the holiness of the lives of those that rule and teach all; and then if we have none to follow amongst us, yet we know whom we are to fly amongst them. 11. 'Miracles' were, in the beginning of Christianity, a note of true believers; Christ told us sok. And he also taught us that Antichrist should be revealed in lying signs and wonders; and commanded us, by that token, to take heed of them. And the church of Rome would take it ill, if we should call them, as St. Austin did the Donatists, mirabiliarios,' ' miraclemongers; concerning which, he that pleases to read that excellent tract of St. Austin, De Unitate Ecclesiæ,' cap. 14, will be sufficiently satisfied in this particular, and in the main ground and foundation of the protestant religion. In the mean time it may suffice, that Bellarmine says', 'miracles are a sign of the true church;' and Salmeron says, that they are no certain signs of the true church, but may be done by the false.' 12. The spirit of prophecy' is also a pretty sure note of the true church, and yet, in the dispute between Israel and Judah, Samaria and Jerusalem, it was of no force, but was really in both. And at the day of judgment Christ shall reject some, who will allege that they prophesied in his name. I deny not but there have been some prophets in the church of Rome: Johannes de Rupe Scissâ, Anselmus, Marsicanus, Robert Grosthead, bishop of Lincoln, St. Hildegardis, abbot Joachim, whose prophecies and pictures prophetical were published by Theophrastus Paracelsus, and John Adrasder, and by Paschalinus Regiselmus at Venice, 1589; but (as Ahab said, concerning Micaiah) these do not prophesy good concerning Rome, but evil: and that Rome should be reformed in ore gladii cruentandi' was one of the

k Mark, xvi. 17.

1 Tom, xiii. p. 193..

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prophecies; and,

Let

universa sanctorum ecclesia abscondetur,' that the whole church of the saints shall be hidden,' viz., in the days of Antichrist; and that in the days of darkness, the elect of God shall have that faith, or wisdom to themselves, which they have, and shall not dare to preach it publicly, was another prophecy, and carries its meaning upon the forehead, and many more I could tell; but whether such prophecies as these be good signs that the church of Rome is the true church, I desire to be informed by the Roman doctors, before I trouble myself any further to consider the particulars. 13. Towards the latter end of this catalogue of wonderful signs, the confession of adversaries' is brought in for a note; and no question they intended it so! But did ever any protestant, remaining so, confess the church of Rome to be the true catholic church? the man be named, and a sufficient testimony brought, that he was mentis compos,' and I will grant to the church of Rome this to be the best note they have. 14. But since 'the enemies of the church have all had tragical ends,' it is no question but this signifies the church of Rome to be the only church. Indeed, if all the protestants had died unnatural deaths; and all the papists, nay, if all the popes had died quietly in their beds, we had reason to deplore our sad calamity, and inquired after the cause; but we could never have told by this: for, by all that is before him, a man cannot tell whether he deserves love or hatred. And all the world finds, that, as dies the papist, so dies the protestant; and the like event happens to them all: excepting only some popes have been remarked by their own histories, for funest and direful deaths. 15. And lately, "temporal prosperity' is brought for a note of the true church; and for this there is great reason: because the cross is the highway to heaven, and Christ promised to his disciples, for their lot in this world, great and lasting persecutions, and the church felt his blessing for three hundred years together. But this had been a better argument in the mouth of a Turkish mufti, than a Roman cardinal.

And now, if by all these things, we cannot certainly know that the church of Rome is the true catholic church, how shall the poor Roman Catholic be at rest in his inquiry?

Here is in all this, nothing but uncertainty of truth, or certainty of error.

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And what is needful to be added more? I might tire myself and my reader, if I should enumerate all that were very considerable in this inquiry. I shall not, therefore, insist upon their uncertainties in their great and considerable questions about the number of the sacraments: which to be seven is with them an article of faith; and yet since there is not amongst them any authentic definition of a sacrament; and it is not, nor cannot be a matter of faith, to tell what is the form of a sacrament; therefore, it is impossible it should be a matter of faith, to tell how many they are: for in this case they cannot tell the number, unless they know for what reason they are to be accounted so. The fathers and schoolmen differ greatly in the definition of a sacrament; and consequently in the numbering of them. St. Cyprian and St. Bernard reckon washing the disciples' feet' to be a sacrament; and St. Austin called " omnem ritum cultus Divini,' a sacrament; and otherwhile he says there are but two: and the schoolmen dispute whether or no, a sacrament can be defined. And by the council of Trent, clandestine marriages are said to be a sacrament; and yet that the church always detested them: which indeed might very well be, for the blessed eucharist is a sacrament, but yet private masses and communions the ancient church always did detest, except in the cases of necessity. But then, when at Trent they declared them to be nullities, it would be very hard to prove them to be sacraments. All the whole affair in their sacrament of order, is a body of contingent propositions. They cannot agree where the apostles received their several orders, by what form of words; and whether at one time, or by parts: and in the institution of the Lord's supper, the same words by which some of them say they were made priests, they generally expound them to signify a duty of the laity, as well as the clergy; Hoc facite,' which signifies one thing to the priest, and another to the people, and yet there is no mark of difference. They cannot agree where, or by whom, extreme unction was instituted. They cannot tell, whether any wafer be actually transubstantiated, because they never can know by Divine faith, whether the supposed priest be a real priest,

or had right intention; and yet they certainly do worship it in the midst of all uncertainties. But I will add nothing more, but this; what wonder is it, if all things in the church of Rome be uncertain; when they cannot, dare not, trust their reason or their senses in the wonderful invention of transubstantiation? and when many of their wisest doctors profess that their pretended infallibility does finally rely upon prudential motives?

I conclude this, therefore, with the words of St. Austinm: "Remotis ergo omnibus talibus," &c. "All things, therefore, being removed, let them demonstrate their church if they can, not in the sermons and rumours of the Africans (Romans), not in the councils of their bishops, not in the letters of any disputers, not in signs and deceitful miracles; because against these things, we are warned and prepared by the word of the Lord: but in the prescript of the law, of the prophets, of the psalms, of the evangelists, and all the canonical authorities of the holy books." And that is my next undertaking; to show the firmness of the foundation, and the great principle of the religion of the church of England and Ireland; even the Holy Scriptures.

SECTION II.

Of the Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures to Salvation, which is the great Foundation and Ground of the Protestant Religion.

THIS question is between the church of Rome and the church of England; and, therefore, it supposes that it is amongst them who believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God. The Old and New Testament are agreed upon to be the Word of God; and that they are so, is delivered to us by the current descending testimony of all ages of Christianity and they who thus are first led into this belief, find, upon trial, great after-proofs by arguments both external and internal, and such as cause a perfect adhesion

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m De Unit. Eccles. c. 16.