against this Epistle to be of no force 3. You except (r) pag. 28â— against the Epistle of Pius because you will not belieue him to haue commanded that if any drops were shed out of the Chalice in the Eucharist they should be licked vp and the board scraped You belieue not this because you belieue not the reall presence of the body and bloud of Christ in the Eucharist but thinke it reuerence inough if your Clerke take home your bread that remaines and crimble it into his potage and drinke vp the wine merily with his guests at dinner and yet some of you tell the people it is the body and bloud of Christ Howsoeuer your Argument is wholly from the matter for this command of Pius is not in his first Epistle which you deceiptfully cite in your margent nor in any of his Epistles but in his decrees which the Church approueth (s) Breuiar Roman Iul. 11. from whence to inferre that his Epistles are apocryphall is a consequence which I suppose you will not grant I am sure euery one will see to be absurd The error which out of Baronius you mention (t) Pag. 282. in two of Pius his Epistles might easily creepe into the copies by negligence or mistake of the Scribe and therfore is no sufficient Argument to disauthorize them and much lesse the rest in which there is no such mistake 4. You reiect (u) Ibid. the Epistles of Soter and Alexander because you cannot thinke the vse of Incense at the Altar nor the expiation of small offences by holy water to be so ancient For your better instruction coÌ„cerning the ancient vse of incense at the altar I remit you to (x) L. 1. de ritib Eccles c. 9. DuraÌ„tius who sheweth how foolishly it is relected by heretikes to Bellarmine (y) L. 2. de Missa c. 15. and Brereley in his Liturgy of the Masse (z) Pag. 40. n. 12 pag. 94. lit D. Concerning the antiquity of holy-water for the expiation of small offences casting out of Diuels and other great miracles wrought by sprinkeling therof read Baronius (a) Spoud Indic V. Aquae Beâ—ed antiq vsus Bellarmine (b) L. 3. de Eccles triumph c. 7. l. 2. de Missa c. 15. Durantius (c) L. 1. de rit c. 21. and Brereley (d) Liturg. pag. 64. lit u. x. pag. 94. l. b. c. They will certify you that both these ceremonies are Apostolicall traditions vsed in the Church from the beginning shew your reiecting of those ancient Epistles because they are mentioned in them to be cauilling without ground 5. Because Cooks findeth in some of those Epistles a word or a phrase which some one Author thinkes not to be so ancient in that sense or forsooth not so elegant and Ciceronian you are pleased to call them all horrid and barbarous (e) Pag. 279. to help out the matter you exemplisy in Caius which is none of the fourteene alleaged by Bellarmine But you consider not that diuers of those Epistles were written in Greeke and that the Latine phrase is not of the authors but of the translators And as Nicolas the first (f) Ep. 8. apud Bin to 3. pag. 682. speaking to the vngodly Emperor Michaell of Latin translated into Greeke sayth If it beget barbarismes the fault is not in the Latin tongue but in the Translators striuing not only to keep the sense but vsing force to render word by word so I say to you if in the Epistles of ancient Popes you find some words or manners of speach not so vsuall the fault is not in the Epistles but in the Translators striuing to render them word by word And to go no further for the confutation of this cauill you obiect against vs (g) Pag. 291. out of an Epistle of Adrian the first that liued almost 800. yeares after Christ these words Consecrationes Episcoporum Archiepiscoporum sicut olitana constat traditio nostra dioecosis existentes in which whether you regard the word olitana or the phrases sicut olitana constat traditio consecrationesnostrae dioecesis existentes you may vnder colour that the phrase of this Epistle is horrid and barbarous reiect it with as much ground as you do the Epistles of Popes that liued in the first 300. yeares after Christ The truth therfore is that you reiect those because they make wholly against you and receaue this because you find something in it which may serue you for an Argument against vs though without ground for Adrian in that Epistle most effectually proueth the authority of the Roman See wherof something hath bene spoken already (h) Chap. 33. sect 2. SECT II. The nullity of Doctor Mortons answeares to the testimonies of Popes that liued in the second 300. yeares after Christ THere is no stronger Argument then that which is drawne from the confession of the Aduersaries for as Tertullian obserueth (i) In Apologet No man lieth to his owne shame and therfore he is soner to belieued that confesseth against himselfe then he that denieth in his owne behalfe Which truth the Father of the Roman eloquence vnderstood by the light of nature saying (k) Orat. P. Qui. Thy testimony which in another mans cause is litle to be regarded when it is against thy selfe is of great weight And you acknowledge (l) Answere to the Prot. Apol. Epist. Dedicat. that the testimony of the aduersary is the greatest reason of satisfaction Let vs then see whether you wil not beare witnesse for vs against your selues that the Popes of the first 600. yeares after Christ acknowledged and exercised their authority and iurisdiction ouer all the Churches of the world and this chiefly in their Epistles for of most of them there are no other writings extant Their testimonies in this behalfe are plentifully alleaged by Maister Brereley (m) Protest Apologâ—tra 1. sect 3. subdiu 10. sect 7. subd 5. and in particular concerning the Popes of the second 300. yeares of whom our question here is he sayth They Protestant writers consesse and say that in the fifth age the Roman Bishops applied themselues to get and establish dominion ouer other Churches To this end they vsurped to themselues the right of granting priuiledges and ornaments to other Archbishops they confirmed Archbishops in their Sees deposed excommunicated and absolued others arrogating also to themselues power of citing Archbishops to declare their causes before them and that against a Bishop appealing to the Roman See nothing should be determined but what the B. of Rome censured That they appointed Legats in remote Prouinces which were somtimes no meaner men then some one or other of the Patriarkes That they challenged authority to heare and determine all vprising controuersies especially in questions of fayth That they tooke vpon them power of appointing generall Councells and to be Presidents in them and euen by their Deputies when
imbraced many other errors yet it deserueth this singular praise that by the speciall gift of God it hath kept it selfe free from the heresies of this age and with greatest care diligence made resistance vnto them And how farre the Russians euen those which are not of the Roman communion are from allowing your Protestant doctrine you may learne from M. Grimston who in his Description of Countries (o) Pag. 697. 698. writeth that the Russians haue the Masse that they pray to the Virgin Mary the Saints and keep their Bodies with great reuerence that they neuer passe by any Crosse but they kneele downe pray that they often blesse themselues with the signe of the Crosse that they haue many Monasteries of Monkes of S. Basils Order who in their quires in the night sing praises to God that they vse the Sacrament of Confession and receaue absolution and pennance that they keep the holy Sacrament in their Churches in one kind for the sicke and in that kind alone administer it vnto them that they say Masses for the faythfull deceased And not to conceale what other Protestants write of the doctrine of the Russians and all the other nations which you affirme to be of your beliefe and communion Osiander (p) Epit. Centur. 16. pag. 970. speaking of all the Easterne Churches ingenuously confesseth that they haue not sincere Religion but are in most part of their articles Popish Doctor Philippus Nicolai testifieth (q) L. 1. de regno Christ. pag. 22. that not only the Greeke Churches but also the Ruthens Georgians Armenians Indians Aethiopians that acknowledge Christ hold the reall presence of his body and bloud in the Eucharist And speaking of the Armenians in particular he reckoneth (r) Pag. 35. among their errors Inuocation and intercession of Saints and oblation of the Sacrament Of the Indians he sayth (s) Ibid. pag. 45.46 that they offer the sacrifice of the body and bloud of Christ preparing themselues vnto it by confession of their sinnes that at their entrance into the Church they sprinkle themselues with holy water as the Papists do that they pray for their dead bury them with the same ceremonies the Papists vse that their Priests shaue their Crownes that they obserue strictly the fastes of the foure Ember weekes as also of Aduent Lent and that they haue Monkes and sacred Virgins reclused in seuerall Monasteries where with great religion they strictly obserue Abstinence and Chastity These doctrines though they be in themselues Orthodoxall and Catholike yet Protestants reiect them as false and superstitious and your selfe in particular censure the doctrine of the reall Presence and sacrifice of the Masse as idolatrous (t) Pag. 403. not blushing to compare Christ in the Eucharist to the Idoll Moloch and calling our adoration of him The adoration of our Romish Moloch in the Masse Wherby it appeares that albeit you condemne these doctrines in vs as hereticall and Idolatrous yet you are contented to allow them in the Russians and other nations which you claime to be of your Communion and to canonize their blasphemous errors against Christ and the holy Ghost with other their impious heresies for Orthodoxe doctrines and to tell your reader that the Russians Aethiopians and other nations which professe themselues to be Christians diffent from the Church of Rome are truly professed Christians parts of the Catholike Church in state of saluation and in accordance of communion with Protestants Of the Melchites your Historian M. Grimston in like manner reporteth (u) Pag. 1051. that they hold all the errors which were condemned in the Councell of Florence and that there are also Nestorians among them And this sheweth how vntruly (x) Pag. 341.406.407.409 you affirme that the Asians and Atricans are not guilty of fundamentall errors for the Aegyptians Aethiopians Melchites and Armenians what are they but Asians or Africans And so likewise are the Iacobites of whom M. Grimston reporteth (y) Pag. 1052. that they follow the heresy of Dioscorus and Eutiches Of the Persians he likewise writeth (z) Pag. 797. that among them there are Nestorians And of the Tartarians that they follow the heresy of Nestorius and hold him for a Saint as also Paulus Samosatenus Theodorus of Mopsuestia and Diodorus Tharsensis and that they condemne S. Cyril of Alexandria and reiect the Councell of Ephesus And yet neuerthelesse all these are to you good Christians and members of your Protestant Church But among all the vntruthes which you haue vttered in your discourse of the Churches of remote Nations there is none more remarkable then that speaking of the Christians which in those nations are not of the Roman Communion you say (a) Pag. 336. that in our owne iudgments they are not heretikes excepting for the denying of this false Romish article Of necessary Subiection and Vnion to the Church of Rome And enlarging this vntruth you adde (b) Pag. 340.341 that we dare not directly charge them with heresy and that there are scarse any among them chargeable for any fundament all heresy for to omit the error of the Grecians denying the holy Ghost to proceed from the Sonne which if you belieue the Creed of S. Athanasius makes them incapable of saluation the heresies of Nestorius and Eutiches against Christ are against the most fundamentall doctrine of the Church of which S. Paul sayth (c) 1. Cor. 3.10 None can lay any other foundation beside Christ. And S. (d) 2. Ioan. 7. If any confesse not that Iesus Christ income in flesh he is a seducer and Antichrist And againe (e) Ibid. vers 10. 12. If any one bring not this doctrine receaue him not into your houses and say not to him Well be it with thee for whosoeuer sayth to him Well be it with thee communicats in his wicked workes I conclude therfore that the heretikes of remote natios of whom we haue spoken erre fundamentally if any error can be fundamentall and that as you by professing your selfe to accorde in Communion with them shew your selfe to be of their spirit and to be out of the Church of Christ as they are so on the contrary the Roman Church by excluding them and you from her communion she weth herselfe to be the true Catholike Church and of the same beliefe with the holy Councells of Constantinople Ephesus and Chalcedon in which those heretikes were anathematized and condemned CHAP. XLII Doctor Mortons plea for his Protestant Church AS profuse as you haue bene in your inuectiues against the Church of Rome so briefe and succinct you are in setting forth your Protestant Congregation which affords you so litle matter of discourse that coming to treat professedly of her (f) Pag. 341. you confine her praises to lesse then a small leafe of paper You commend her for foure things for great Extent for the purity of her Doctrine for her freedome from Vice and from Schisme SECT I.
the Church and confesse how little constant Errour is to it selfe That Innocency from Lust which so many of your Writers affirme impossible to preserue your owne single and I hope incorrupt life hath approued possible for vnlesse you will endanger your selfe to a Censure in the high Commission you must acknowledge flesh and bloud may be kept in order by the spirit But what discouers the bodies of all Churches which oppose the Catholike most misshapen is the diuision among your selues now and euer so apparent that I dare confidently auerre were there a Councell called of all those you reckon yours his Holinesse might suspend his Censure each one of you prepar'd to pronounce the other Heretike And for your Lo. p though reputed most Orthodoxall vnlesse you quit that most reuerend Title which is your honor to make good I suspect you would by the Maior voyce be condemned without the guilt of any other crime though Truth and all Antiquity teach vs that Episcopall dignity hath euer bene most eminent and necessary in the Church and ought to be held in veneration where lawfully conferred not vsurped But I feare I keep no good time when I strike on this harsh string I will not therfore further afflict your eare Let me only intreat and if possible preuaile with your Lo. p to cast vp the accompt of those many yeares you haue numbred heere on earth And if you haue prouided a Marble hereafter to inclose your dust looke not on the flattering Epitaph which betrayes the Reader but listen to the silent sad Oratory in which it pleads to you your condition It tells you that euery path of life how crooked soeuer in mans purposes leads streight to death That all the pompe of wealth and honour for acquisition of which he doubts not often to stake a Soule is but an euening shadow soone to be lost in an euerlasting darknesse That youth doth oftentimes breake promise when it proposeth length of life but that age is frantick if it hope long to hold out against the assault of death It therfore imports your Lo. p who opprest with yeares bow downward to the graue seriously to looke inward turne your sight frō those vanities which haue hitherto bewicht you For pardon me if to pride vanity I ascribe a long continuance in error and that I want credulity to thinke an able Scholler can belieue Vntruth though for the designes of his owne Ambition he obtrude it to the world May your Lop. take courage and gaine an entire Conquest ouer Sense by subscribing to that Church in which only is safty and which your many vnlucky Labors haue slaundered not iniured So signall a Conuersion will add◠ioy and triumph to the Angells and make me who haue bene hitherto your Aduersary not Enemy hereafter Your true Admirer and humble Seruant I. S. TO THE READER GOOD READER The Author of the Grand Imposture in his first Epistle dedicated to his Maiesty sets only forth in generall the heads of that doctrine he afterwards endeauors though vnluckily to make good But Error without apparence of proofe confutes it selfe And it would anticipate the designe of my study if here I should labor thy satisfaction since the whole ensuing Treatise discouers euery of his mistakes in particuler which at the first entrance to his Booke he affirmes in grosse Yet could I wish that only truth should dare to approach the throne of Maiesty and that a conscience guilty of deceipt should not be able to pretend the confidence of the innocent for the falsest doctrine may easily winne beliefe vpon the Laity whom either much busines diuerts from the search of truth or an vnwillingnesse to be disturbed encourageth to follow that easy path they from their infancy haue beaten especially when it appeares in publike asseuered by them who haue their large stipend and high honor only on condition to be sincere in what they teach But howeuer he may flatter himselfe that hs Reader will neuer arriue to patience inough to trauaile beyond his Epistles or that his authority will be sufficient though his proofes are defectiue I hope he will find his comfort to haue betrayd him for the businesse which here we controuert being of value far beyond the whole world beside I meane the soule of man and the Church in which only that can expect safety I doubt not good Reader but thou wilt be so charitable to thy selfe as to reade distinguish and then reiect error how plausible soeuer it may appeare to sense Nor though his reputation may haue gained heretofore much vpon thee wilt thou belieue that Truth is by couenant bound to christen all the abortiues of his Opinion And wheras in his second Epistle directed to all Romish Priests whether Iesuits or others he seemes by a Rhethoricall figure to heare them censuring his charging the Church of Rome with Imposture the bold assumption or rather impudent and impious presumption of an Heretike I cannot but commend the iudgment he instructs them to pronounce for how could the wit of Iustice inuent a more proper or seuerer Or to speake more truly how could Mercy vse a gentler And though in that single word Heretike all Impiety is comprehended yet how can he deserue any other sentence who hath dared to defame thy innocency O thou Immaculate Spouse of our great Redeemer Who hath termed thy doctrine which threw downe the Statues of the Heathens and rooted vp all false worship Idolatrous Sacrilegious Thy doctrine which planted the fayth of Christ with the bloud of Martyrs and tyed vp the common enemy of man Satanicall and Antichristian Thy doctrine which is the only safety of the soule Execrable and Pernicious which teacheth the true adoration of God Blasphemous Impious which neuer varied in the least article from the truth Schismaticall and Hereticall But how farre vnable are these weake calumnies to wound thy strength which hath triumpht ouer all the opposition of heresy and hell Thou art built vpon a Rock of Diamond which yields the brightest lustre when impure slander raifeth the blackest night A Rock which neuer moued since Christ designed it as a foundation for his greatest worke on earth A rock against which her many Aduersaries haue battered with continuall tempests but still ended in froth and noise But all these fowle aspersions might be interpreted the wild expressions of an extrauagant zeale and perhaps challenge that pitty we throw away vpon the franticke Neither can any man be enraged with such infamous language who considers it is that spirit which possest the first professors of this pretended reformation who created a Religion in contempt of iurisdiction And as euery where they derogated from the spirituall so spared they not the temporall where feare of punishment restraind not their tongues to modesty But what euen amazeth my Vnderstanding is that so well practis'd a man in controuersy so iealous of honor and such a pretender to integrity should fall into that deceitfull
teach the people out of it for as S. Hilary sayth (r) Can. 13. in Math. the Church is the ship in which the word of life is placed and preached and which they that are out of it cannot vnderstand but lye like sand barren and vnprofitable and the preaching of Gods word out of the ship of Simon in particucular signifies that Christ dwelleth in that society which keepes the fayth and communion of Peter and makes his See the pastorall chayre from whence by Peter and his successors he teacheth the doctrine of his Ghospell Our Lord sayth S. Ambrose (s) Serm. 11. goeth only into that ship of the Church of which Peter is Mayster our Lord saying Vpon this rock I will build my Church And then he addeth that the Church of Peter is the Arke of Nōe to shew that out of his Church none can be saued Which Doctrine S. Hierome likewise deliuereth comparing the Roman Church to the Arke of Nōe out of which whosoeuer is shall perish at the coming of the floud Moreouer howbeit other ships be tossed yet sayth S. Ambrose Peters ship is not tossed in her wisdome sayleth perfidiousnesse is absent (t) L. 5. in c. 5. Luc. fayth fauoureth for how cold that ship be tossed of which he is Gouernor that is the strength of the Church And S. Bernard (u) L. 2. de consider The sea is the world the ships the Churches From whence it is that Peter walking on the waters like our Lord shewed himselfe to be the only Vicar of Christ which was not to gouerne one nation but all for many waters are many people and therfore wheras each of the others hath his peculiar ship to thee he speakes to Eugenius Pope S. Peters successor is committed that one mighty great ship made of them all to wit the vniuersall Church of the whole world I conclude therfore that the ship of S. Peter is the pastorall Chayre from whence the doctrine of Christ is to be learned by all and the Arke of Nōe out of which none can be saued and that therfore betweene his ship and that in which S. Paul sayled as also betweene the priuiledges granted to the one and to the other there is as much difference as betweene the eternall saluation of all Gods elect and the corporall lyfe of a few Mariners and passengers that sayled with S. Paul Your seauenth and principall Obiection is (x) Pag. 65. If S. Peter had written of himselfe as S. Paul did of himselfe saying I haue the care of all the Churches this one wold haue seemed to you a firmer foundation then the word Rock or any other of those Scriptures wherby you labour to erect a Monarchy on S. Peter and by your consequence vpon the Pope ouer all Churches in the world Answere There are two kindes of solicitude and care one proceeding from the obligation of iustice the other merely out of the zeale of Charity The supreme care which S. Peter had both of all Churches and of their Pastours was of obligation of iustice because he had iurisdiction ouer them all as being supreme Pastor ouer the whole flock of Christ and therfore as the Pastor hath obligation of iustice to gouerne his flock and attend to the good therof so had S. Peter to attend to the good gouerment of the vniuersall Church and whatsoeuer persons therof which function was not committed to S. Paul nor did Christ promise to build his Church on him as he did on S. Peter and therfore that care he had of the vniuersall Church proceeded from his great zeale of Gods glory and feruorous charity which made him trauell so much in the conuersion of soules SECT VI. What estimation S. Paul had of the Roman Church YOu say (y) Pag. 65. S. Paul had not by farre so great estimation of the Roman Church as we would make the world belieue How proue you this because say you Dionysius Bishop of the Corinthians witnesse Eusebius (z) L. 2. c. 24. sayth that Peter and Paul both founded the Church of Corinth and that of Rome This then is your argument Dionysius Bish of Corinth sayth Peter and Paul founded the Churches of Corinth and Rome Ergo S. Paul had not by farre so great estimation of the Church of Rome as we would make the world belieue A witlesse consequence It is true that we account it a great honor and happinesse for the Church of Rome to haue bene founded by those two most glorious Princes of the Apostles and so it was also to the Church of Corinth But the Church of Rome was not only founded but moreouer ennobled by them for as Tertullian (a) L. de Praescr c. 36. obserueth they powred into her all their doctrine togeather with their bloud and enriched her with the inestimable treasure of their sacred bodies But her chiefest dignity and that which maketh her absolutely the Head and Mother of all Churches is that S. Peter the supreme Pastor and Gouernor of the vniuersall Church fixed his seate at Rome and ending his life there left the same dignity to his successors and they as occasion required ceased not to send their pastorall admonitions to the Corinthians for when not long after S. Peter and Paul had founded a Church among them they fell into errors and dissentions among themselues S. Clement Pope successor to S. Peter writ vnto them sayth S. Irenaeus (b) L. 3. c. 3. potentissimas literas most effectuall letters reducing them to peace and shewing them the Doctrine which they had newly receaued from the Apostles And to the same purpose Soter Pope not long after writ also vnto them And that the Corinthians acknowledged these epistles of the Roman Church to be sent vnto them as from their Mother Church whose doctrine they were to imbrace and receaued them as such appeareth in this that is Dionysius their Bishop and Eusebius (c) L. 4. hist. c. 22. out of him testify they held them in so great veneration that they vsed to read them publikely in the Churches for the instruction of the saythfull But this you could not see or if you did see it were willing to conceale it as not being for your purpose 2. Wheras we in commendation of the Roman fayth and Church are wont to alleage those words of S. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans (d) Rom. 1.8 I giue thankes to my God through Iesus Christ for all you because your fayth is renowned throughout the whole world you say (e) Pag. 66. that we vpon this commendation of the fayth of those Romans vse in a manner to triumph as though that Encomium with the same fayth were hereditary to that Church or as if at that day Catholike and Roman had bene all one If in this testimony of S. Paul we triumph and hold the Catholike fayth and the Roman fayth to be all one and hereditary to the Church of Rome we do therin nothing more then