3. A

which you do not Believe is in the Catholick Church; There are many other things, which moft justly hold me in her Communion. 1. The Agreement of People and Nations holds me. 2. An Authority, begun with Miracles, nourisht with Hope, increas'd with Charity, confirm'd by Antiquity, holds me. Succeffion of Bishops, defcending from the See of St. Peter, to whom Christ, after his Resurrection, committed his Flock, to the prefent Paftor, holds me. 4. Lastly, the very Name of a Catholick holds me ; of which, this Church alone has, not without reason, fo kept the Poffeffion, that, tho' all Hereticks defire to be call'd Catholicks; yet, if a Stranger ask them where Catholicks meet, none of the Hereticks dares point out his own Houfe, or his Church. Thus the Learned St. Auguftin.

14. AND, in his Book of the Advantage of Believing, written, anno 392, to his Friend Honoratus, whom he had formerly engaged in the Manichaan Herefy, a Man of Excellent Parts, but Caught by the Manichee's fair Pretence of Advancing nothing, but what was (1) Visfible, Clear and Demonftrative: and who laught at Catholicks, for (2) Obliging Men to Believe, inftead of giving Reafon for what they faid: In this Book, I fay,

trita, Charitate aucta, Vetuftate firmata. Tenet, ab ipfâ Sede Petri Apoftoli, cui pafcendas Oves fuas poft Refurrectionem Dominus commendavit, ufque ad præfentem Epifcopatum, Succeffio Sacerdotum. Tenet poftremò ipfum Catholicæ nomen, quod, non fine caufâ, inter tam multas ærefes, fic ifta Ecclefia fola obtinuit, ut, cum omnes æretici fe Catholicos dici velint; quærenti tamen Peregrino alicui, Ubi ad Catholicam conveniatur, nullus Hæreticorum vel Bafilicam fuam vel Domum audeat oftendere. (') Lib. de Utilitate Credendi. cap. x. () Lib. 1. Retractationum. cap. 14.

P

which

which St. Auguftin writ to fhew, that it is (1) a Sacrilegious Rafhnefs in the Manichees, to laugh at thofe, who, following the Authority of Catholick Faith, prepare themselves to understand Truth, by believing what yet they cannot comprehend: he comes at length to this Conclufion (2) Are me afraid of Embracing the Communion of that Church, which, as all Mankind knows, by a continued Succeffion of Bifhops in the Apoftolick See (in fpite of Hereticks barking on every fide, and condemn'd partly by the Voice of the People, partly by the Gravity of Councils, partly by Miracles) has the higheft Authority, Culmen Authoritatis obtinuit? To which, not to give an Abfolute Preference, is a Piece, either of Intolerable Impiety, or of Extravagant Pride. Thus, St. Auguftin, of the Authority which the Catholick Church hath, as an Illuftrious Society only.

(') Lib. de Utilitate Credendi. cap. 1. (1) Ibid. cap. 17. Dubitamus nos ejus Ecclefiæ condere Gremio, quæ uíque ad Confeffionem generis humani, ab Apoftolica Sede, per Succeffiones Epifcoporum (fruftra Hæreticis circum-latrantibus, & partim plebis ipfius judicio, partim Conciliorum gravitate, partim etiam miraculorum majeftate damnatis) culmen authoritatis obtinuit? Cui nolle primas dare, vel fummæ profectò Impietatis eft, vel præcipitis Arrogantiæ.

§. IV.

How the Authority of the Church, as an Illuftrious Society, is Defcribed by Dr. Taylor.

IN

N his Liberty of Prophefying, S. 20. p. 249. Confiderations, which (as he fays) may very eafily perfmade Perfons of much Realon, and moze Piety, to retain that which they know,

་ to

to have been the Religion of their Fore-fathers; and which had Actual Poffeffion and Seizure of Men's Understandings, before the Oppofite Profeffion had a Name; are thefe. First, Its Doctrines having had a long Continuance, and Poffeffion of the Church: which, therefore, cannot eafily be fuppofed, in the prefent Profeffors, to be a Defign; fince they have receiv'd it from fo many Ages. Its long Prefcrip

tion, which is fuch a Prejudice, as cannot, with many Arguments, be retrench'd; as relying upon thefe Grounds; that Truth is more Ancient, than Falfhood, that God would not, for so many Ages, forfake his Church, and leave her in an Error.

2. To thefe, he Adds the Beauty and Splendor of that Church. Their Service (full of Religious Čeremony and External Veneration, he calls it Pompous) The Stateliness, and Solemnity of the Hierarchy: Their Name of Catholick. The Antiquity of many of their Doctrines [he should say,All] The continual Succeffion of their Bishops; Their Immediate Derivation from the Apostles; Their Title to Succeed St. Peter; The Multitude, and Variety of People, which are of their Perfwafion; The apparent Confent with fome Elder Ages, in many matters Doctrinal; The great Confent of the one Part with another, in that which most of them defend to be, de Fide; The great Differences, which are Commenc'd among their Adverfaries: Their Happiness, in being Inftruments in Converting diverfe Nations (as the English, when first made Chriftians): The Advantage of Monarchical Govern ment [he means the Pope's Supremacy] the Benefit of which they daily do Enjoy; The Piety, and the Austerity of their Religious Orders, of Men and Women; The Single Life of their Priefts, and Bishops; The Severity of their Fafts, the great Reputation of P 2

their

their Bishops, for Faith and Sanctity; The known Holiness of fome of those Perfons, whofe Institutes their Religious pretend to Imitate; Their Miracles [recorded by the Saints, He fays true or falfe]; The Cafualties and Accidents, that have happen'd to their Adverfaries; The Oblique Acts, and Indirect Proceedings of fome of thofe, who departed from them; and, above all, the Name of Heretick and Schifmatick, which they faften upon all that Difagree from them: He fhould fay, as the Catholick Church has always done: And on the other fide, that Proteftants Commit themselves to the Conduct of new Reformers; at the first, a Few, and of the Lowest Rank of the Clergy; being under the Ecclefiaftical Cenfures; Affifted against their Spiritual Superiors by fome Secular Powers: when both They, and These were Subjects (as to the Judgment of all Spiritual Matters) to that Ecclefiaftical Hierarchy, which they Oppofed, as a Learned Writer has exprefs'd it, p. 228.

§. V.

How the Church, as an Illuftrious Society, is Defcribed by Sir Edwyn Sandys.

IN his Relation of the Western Religions, pag. 29,

under the Perfon of a Catholick; but without making any Reply.

1. Seeing Chriftianity, fays he, is a Doctrine of Faith; a Doctrine, whereof all Men, even Children, are Capable; Seeing the High Vertue of Faith, is in the Humility of the Understanding; and the Excellency thereof, in the Readiness of Obedience to embrace it; and feeing the Outward Proofs thereof, are only Probable; and of all Probable Proofs,

the

the Church-Teftimony is the most Probable: What Madness were it, for any Man to Tire out his Soul, and to waste away his Spirits, in Tracing out all the Thorny Paths of the Controverfies of these Days; wherein to Err is no lefs Eafy, than Dangerous; and not rather betake himself to the Right Path of Truth, whereunto God and Nature, Reafon and Experience, do all give Witness? that is, to Affociate himself to that Church, whereunto the Cuftody of this Heavenly, and Supernatural Truth, hath been from Heaven it felf Committed. To weigh difcreetly,which is the True Church; and that being once found, to receive Faithfully and Obediently, what it Delivers.

2. And if he finds, fays Sir Edwyn, all other Churches, to have had their End or Decay long fince; or their Beginning but of late: If this, being founded by the Prince of the Apostles, with Promise to him by Chrift, that Hell Gates should not Prevail against it, but that himself will be Affiftant to it, till the Confummation of the World; hath continu'd on now, till the End of One thoufand Six hundred years, with an Honourable andCertain Line of near two hundred and forty Popes, Succeffors of St. Peter: both Tyrants, Traytors, Pagans, and Hereticks, in vain Wresting, Raging, and Undermining it: If all the Lawful General Councils, that ever were in the World, have from time to time Approv'd and Honour'd it: If God hath fo miraculously bleft it from above, asthat fo many Learned Doctors fhould enrich it with their Writings, fuch Armies of Saints with their Holinefs, of Martyrs, with their Blood; of Virgins, with their Purity, fhould Sanctifie and Embellish it: If even at this Day, in fuch Difficulties of unjuft Rebellions, and un-natural Revolts of her Nearest Children, yet She stretcheth-out her Arms to the Utmost Corners of the World; newly embracing whole NaP 3 tions,