The Vaudois were then a new Sect, which Chap. 3. began after the middle of the twelfth Centu- Queftio ry. But without renouncing the Principles of their Sect, they neither did, nor could, receive Proteftants into their Communion.

Much lefs would the Neftorians, the Eutychians, and Semi-Eutychians, or the Greeks do it, who efteem'd Proteftants no better, than Hereticks, and Apoftates. Crufius and James Andrew (Lutheran Divines of Tubingen) follicited the Greeks: But they foon found, that the Attempt was vain, and impracticable.

The Greeks before the Greek Schifm began, had fubmitted, for many Ages, to the Pope's Supremacy: And, long before Luther's Time, had agreed with the Church in Communion with Rome (in which Church Luther, and the firft Proteftants were haptiz'd) that an unwritten Apoftolical Tradition is of equal Authority with the written Word of God; that there are feven Sacraments, Baptifm, Confirmation, the B. Eucharift, Penance, Extreme Unction, Holy Order, and Matrimony; that Chrift is really prefent in the Bleffed Sacrament, and that Bread and Wine are truly and fubftantially chang'd into his Body, and Blood; that the Holy Oblation on the Altar is a Sacrifice of Mercy and Propitiation, for the living and the dead; that the Juft, who before their Death had not fully fatisfy'd for their Sins, are in a State of Suffering for a Time, and may be reliev'd by the Prayers and Alms of the living; that it is good and profitable to pray to the Bl:ffed Virgin Mary, and to the reft of the Saints; that their Relicks ought to be honour'd; that

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Chap. 3. Veneration and Refpect is due to their ImaQueftio ges; that Monaftical Vows ought to be obferv'd; that the Church Laws of fafting, &c. oblige Chriftians in Conscience.

And as all these Points of Doctrine were held unanimously, for many Ages before Luther's Time, not only by the Catholick Church, but alfo by the Neftorians, by the Eutychians, and Semi-Eutychians, by the Greeks, and Russ fians, and had been contain'd, for many Ages before the Reformation, in the neceffary Terms of Catholick Communion: it is plain,

ift, That the Catholick Church did not exclude Proteftants, by making new Terms of Communion.

adly, That if any hidden Protestants lurk'd in the Catholick Communion, before the Reformation, they could not be better than Hypocrites, that is, the worst of Villains. For how could a Proteftant, without Hypocrify, joyn in publick Prayers to Saints? How could he, without Hypocrify, kneel or bow at the Elevation of the B. Sacrament? Is not adoring that, as God, which he judges to be only a Wafer, black and bare-fac'd Idolatry? And is a plain Proteftant Idolater no Villain? Is it not Hypocrify, for a Man to receive Confirmation in his Health, and Extreme Unction at his Death, as holy and religious Rites of divine Inftitution; when in his Heart he judges them to be no better, than Superftition, Abomination, and Marks of the Beast? And, if this hidden Proteftant happen'd to be a Paftor or a Bishop; how many thoufand Times, in his Life, must he have done that, which he himfelf judg'd, and (in the Proteftant Lan

guage)

guage) knew to be Idolatry? How many Chap. 3.
millions of Times, muft he, in matters of Queftio
Religion, have play'd the Sanctify'd Hypocrite?
So that either there were no Proteftants in the
Christian World immediately before the Re-
formation; or if there were any, they were
the worst of Men. But I am willing to Sup-
pofe, that there were no fuch Hypocrites, either
among the Vaudois, or in any other Chriftian
Society. And he must utterly renounce com-
mon Sense, who can perfwade himself, that
Men can, without Hipocrify, pretend to be
Members of any Chriftian Society, tho' they
inwardly diffent from it in those Points of Do-
&trine, which are known to be the publick
Terms of Communion with it. Nor will our
Adverfaries, I fuppofe, think it worth their
pains, to make a ftrict Inquiry after Prote-
ftant Hypocrites, before the Reformation.

II. But are not Proteftants ftill in Communion with the Church of Rome, in as much as they agree with her in fome Points of Do&trine? To this I answer, that a Man must have little Hopes, and as little Desire, of Salvation, who dare venture it, upon fuch an Argument, or rather upon fuch a Quibble, as this.

For first, notwithstanding this Agreement, Catholicks and Proteftants are evidently in feparaie Communions, and difagree in Matters of Revelation and Religion. And it was prov'd in Answer, to the first Question of this Part, "that the Catholick Church neither is nor

can be in feparate Communions; as of Ca"tholicks, of Proteftants, &c.

Secondly

Chap. 3. Secondly, The Catholick Church 1s, from Queftro our Saviour's Time, always in Being; it is always a visible, and known Society; it is always, in a moral Senfe, the Church of all Nations; it is always Orthodox, both in the chief and in the fecondary Articles of Religion, as it was prov'd in Anfwer to the third, fourth, and fifth Question of this Part. For the Catholick Church, and the Church which is both Univerfal and Orthodox, are only dif ferent Names of the very fame Thing. If fo, all thofe, who pretend to reform herFaith, are Unorthodox, and are no Part of her.

or

Thirdly, The Catholick Church has always excluded from her Society, not only thofe who diffented from her in the chief Articles of Religion, call'd Fundamentals, as the Marcionites, the Manichæans, Sabellians, Arians, Macedonians, Nestorians, and Eutychians; but also thofe, who diffented from her in the Secondary Articles of Religion, as the ancient Montanifts, the Novatians, the Donatifts, and the Apolinarians of the fourth Century; who even retain'd her wholeFaith, but left her Communion, and were therefore call'd Schif maticks; Such as the Bishops of Iftria were in the fixth Century, and the Quartodecimans, in the fourth. For the Secondary Articles of the Christian Revelation are as certainly reveal'd, as thofe, which are the most Fundamental. And it was fomewhat too late, for Reformers in the fixteenth Century, to doubt, whether it belong'd to the Catholick Church to judge, what is or is not reveal'd, after She had always fuppos'd it to be both her Right and her Duty, for fifteen hundred Years; and had practis'd it,

P

it, upon all Occafions, whenever the Faith, Chap. 3. once deliver'd to the Saints, was call'd in Que-Queftio ftion.

Again, if She be always the Communion of Saints; if She be always Orthodox in ftating the Terms of Communion, and always Holy; Schifmaticks, and Hereticks, are equally inexcufable.

Fourthly, If Proteftants are still in Communion with the Church of Rome, because they agree with her in fome Points of Doctrine'; thefe Confequences are undeniable:

ift. That all Chriftians, who are, or ever were, are and were Members of the Catholick Church. Because they all agreed with her in this, that they believ'd in Chrift. So that Valentinus with his thirty Male and female Deities, Marcion who blafphem'd the Creator, Manichæus with his Heathen and Hellish System, and all the Hereticks, who are either mention'd by Theodoret, by S. Auguftin, by S. Epiphanius, or by St. Irenæus, or whom St. Paul deliver'd to Satan, (2) were in the Holy Catholick Communion: even those, whom St. John calls (3) ANTICHRISTS, who went out from us, fays he, but were not of us; for, if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us.

2dly, That all Jews and Turks are in the Catholick Communion. Because they believe in God and the Jews receive one half of the Bible.

3dly, That all who believe a Deity, are in the Catholick Church. So that Pagans, tho'

they

(2) 1 Tim. i. v. 20. (3) 1 Jo. ii. v. 18, 19, 22. 1. Jo. iv. v. 3. 2 Jo. v. 7.