Ordination 6. The Canonicall Books of the Old Testament and some other And yet for all these they grew up together comfortably and continued in the same body Seldome or never any that offer'd to make a breach or to censure other Churches for these or the like different observations and expressions but two or three Bishops of Rome Such were the humility and charity of those glorious Saints In those purer dayes (l) Neminem judicantes aut a jure communionis aliquem si diversum sensevit amoventes Cypr. in concil Carthag one Bishop was not so forward to censure or excommunicate another Bishop for being of a diverse persuasion No no saith St. Cyprian (m) Ib. Neque quisquam nostrum Episcopum se esse Episcoporum constituit aut tyrannico terrore ad obsequendi necessitatem collegas suos adegit No man in those dayes took upon him to be Bishop of Bishops or to enforce any by tyrannicall terror to subscribe his dictates Then was it lawfull for every one to speak his minde freely when reason not power weight and not number bore the sway 41. But you object that (n) n. 8. I say Sect. 19. that since the Reformation we have not communicated with the Church of Rome Very right I doe so But withall I tell you that this is no fault of ours since ye will not suffer us to communicate with you unlesse we communicate with your errors Is not this to deal with us as the Jews did with the poor man that was born blinde (o) St. Jo. 9.34 while he was blinde the Pharisees communicated with him but when he had gained sight they cast him out they excommunicated him But (p) Ib. v. 35. our blessed Saviour took pity on him and received him into his communion Thus while we were blinde and saw not your errors we were your dear friends but when we discerned them and complained of them hell was good enough for us Yet we doubt not but (q) 1. St. Jo. 1.3 we have communion with Christ since we hold communion with the Apostles by their successors not onely in function but in faith and charity For we receive the two Testaments with the three Creeds in the same sense with the Primitive Church We pray for the whole Church for all Jews Turks Infidels and Hereticks yea for our enemies persecutors and slanderers We anathematize not Churches but errors nor any persons but such as are or ought to be members of this Church and Kingdome we presse not beyond our line If this be the right way to heaven surely we are in the right and ye in the wrong 42. Well (r) n. 9. the Church of Rome and England being thus separated both in faith and communion and so not one and the Church of Rome and those in communion with her by your saying not being the Catholick Church For the separation we must thank you for our faith we blesse Christ What that is the Book of Common-prayer manifests in plain terms and I have shewed that the Pope and his Conclave have incurred Canonicall censures by imposing a new Creed upon us and others That we communicate not with you the fault is yours and Catholicks we shall be able to prove our selves when ye will not be found Orthodoxe But such is that typhus Romanus the infinite pride of Rome that none shal be Catholicks none in communion of the Church nor in the way to heaven that will not stoop to their lure that will not erre with Pius Quartus and the Councel of Trent As if the Romanes were the onely at least had been the first Christians and that St. Peter's keyes were tyed to the Popes girdle to let in and to keep out whom he listed Whereas we know (s) St. Jo. 20.22 23. the keyes were given to all the Apostles alike to St. John for Ephesus as much as to St. Peter for Rome Yea (t) Hieron St. Peter himself provided for Antioch before Rome for he was first Bishop of Antioch The same keyes to all the Apostles for all Nations alike that so all might be admitted by the same keyes into the same (u) 1. Tim. 3.15 house of God which is the Church of the living God the pillar and ground of truth And in this house by Gods grace we shall continue while (x) Col. 2.19 we hold the head and from thence receive nourishment by those joynts and bands which Christ hath ordained And * For the judgment of the whole controversie we refer unto the most holy Scriptures and the Catholick Church of Christ The Protest of Bish Scory c. Book of Mart. p. 2120 were your party contented to be ruled by antiquity we might be one as the house is one 43. That the Church of Rome and those in communion with her are not as you would fain have it the Catholick Church is fully manifested in my former answer § 2 c. 12 22 23 29. And yet there was the Catholick Church at all times since it was first constituted (y) Aug. de Gen. ad lit imperfect c. 1. Mater enim Ecclesia Catholica dicitur ex eo quia universaliter perfecta est in nullo claudicat per totum orbem diffusa est the Mother Church is hence called Catholick because she is universally perfect and halts in nothing and is diffused through the whole world She is not Catholick or sound because she communicates with Rome but Rome is Catholick if she communicate with her and so is every Church We shall therefore communicate with this our Mother that so we may continue Catholick We are sure the Mother halts not though some of the Daughters may That Rome hath halted downright in the prime Articles is too notorious as hath been shewed § 18 27 32 c. and then I am sure she was not Catholick (z) Vincent Lirin c. 14. Nemini enim licet praeter id quod Ecclesia Catholica usquequaque evangelizat accipere for it is not lawfull for her or any other to receive or broach any other doctrine then that which the Catholick Church preaches every where much lesse to enforce it as necessary to salvation Where then ye leave the Church Catholick it is our duty to leave you (a) Estnè aliquis tantae audaciae qui praeter id quod apud Ecclesiam adnunciatum est adnunciet vel tantae levitatis qui praeter id quod ab Ecclesiâ accipit accipiat Ib. This Church he speaks of is not the Romane but the Catholick Church As it is audaciousnesse in you to induce or impose any new Article so were it levity in us to embrace it 44. What we have we have received from our good Mother the Catholick Church and though by you yet not from you Christs legacies they are not yours If ye deliver us these legacies in base or counterfeit coin we shall not accept of it Gold ye received from the Testator and not
own men § 3. Thus that Church hath grievously erred and in more then one fundamentall And yet the Catholick hath been alwayes visible though oft-times invisible at Rome unlesse errors and heresies prove Catholick because professed at Rome 5. All this your Tutors reply not to nor hardly take notice of but have directed you to fall from your former desires upon new questions tempting me as the Pharisees did our Saviour but resolving to receive no answer Thus you put me to more trouble not with a mind to be satisfied but meerly to cavill and to slide over those arguments and testimonies which they are not able to answer or disprove Is not this to speak nothing lest you should seem to be silent Are these things which I have delivered true or false If true (k) A quâ—cunque verum dicitur illo inspirante dicitur qui ipse veritas est Aug. ep 28. let truth prevaile If false disprove them if impertinent manifest it Otherwise if you thus seek evasions you will enforce me to acquaint the world with your shifts and shufflings by publishing these papers that every eye may discern what is the weaknesse of your cause and what your obstinacy 6. Your intent being to decline what you cannot answer you divert me from the former businesse thus (l) n. 2. My originall doubt was say you that sith the Catholick Church must be alway visible and that I could not by my best inquiry finde that a succession of men professing the doctrine of the Church of England had been alway visible that that Church was not the nor any part of the Catholick Church What have I to doe with your originall doubt Your Letter and the expression of your desire I looked upon I endeavoured to satisfie your request and I presume a satisfactory answer was given to your demands that so I might win a soul not so much to our Church as to the Communion of Saints and to lead you out of error into the way of truth That the Catholick Church is hath been and must be alway visible is agreed on both hands But by your best enquiry you could not finde that a succession of men professing the doctrine of the Church of England had been alway visible No more could the Pharisees see the Prophesies that concerned our Saviour though never so visible Alas poore Gentleman little Learning are you troubled with you are not able to search the Scriptures Councels and Fathers as you ought and your enquiry hath been of such as are either ignorant or wilfully blinde and bent to misguide you 7. The doctrine of the Church of England is cleare in our Book of Common-prayer that is the rule for the Laity and such as the true Catholick Church hath alwayes imbraced and continued All therein is positive The Book of Articles is a rule for the Clergy to preserve them from error and much therein is negative He that means sincerely to instruct you so in the right way that you may be a guide to others must give you directions to avoyd the by-paths The positive doctrine of this Church was ever professed and is visible in all Catholick writers But you insist upon no particulars and guile lurks under generalls But I beseech you before you turned over to the Church of Rome why did not you make the like enquiry to finde out a succession of men professing the doctrine of the Church of Rome in those particulars wherein we dissent from them of that Communion If thus you had done you might easily have discerned that that Church is not the nor any part of the Catholick Church if wee goe by your line For the most skilfull of your party are not able to shew such a succession of men in the first 700 years of Christianity 8. But you are pleased to adde that (m) n. 2. to this doubt at our conference I endeavoured your satisfaction by attempting to prove that though the Church of England had not been alway visible at least not seen yet seeing she is but a member of the Catholick Church of which the Church of Rome is another it was sufficient that the Catholick Church had been alway visible in the Church of Rome and other particular Churches though not in the Church of England Good God what foreheads have men Is this could this possibly be my answer Who alwayes justifie that this Church hath been visible since the first or second Conversion though not alwayes under Reformation And for Rome I have demonstrated that the Catholick Church was not alway visible in that City or Diocese § 22 23 29. As also what kind of Church yee had for 450 yeers together § 33. when hardly the form either of Religion or a Church was there to be seen Yet visible it was here when invisible at Rome For you can never shew that this Church was overrun with Montanism Arianism or Eutychianism Yea this was a learned and pious Church when yours was miserably possest with ignorance and impiety Look upon your owne Mr. Pits his Catalogue of our Writers and this will manifestly appeare 9. However then (n) n. 3. that discourse which I sent unto you gave you no satisfaction yet it abundantly clears the questions proposed in your Letter Neither can I possibly expect to withdraw you from that faction who are resolved to receive no satisfaction unlesse we grant that the Church of Rome and those in communion with her are the onely Catholick Church And yet I never reade in Fathers or Councels that to communicate with Rome is either a sure or any token of a good Catholick St. Austine assures us that (o) Aug. quaest Evangel secund Mat. c. 12. they are good Catholicks qui fidem integram sequuntur bonos more 's who hold the undefiled Faith full and whole and observe good manners and those that endevour not to doe this are much to blame While then thus we doe we are good Catholicks But that Faith which we have received from the Apostles and Councels and Fathers we keep whole and undefiled without alteration addition or diminution While they are right we are so If they be out of the way we are content to erre with them Catholicks we are true right Catholicks by Lirinensis rule (p) Vincent Lirin c. 25. Gods truth the Church the body of Christ we love We prefer no mans no Churches authority no affection no wit no eloquence no philosophie nothing whatsoever before Divine Religion and the Catholick Faith These things we set light by and being fixed firme in faith we have determined by Gods grace to hold and beleeve that and that onely which we know to have been held by the Catholick Church universally of old from the beginning of Christianity And whatever new or unheard of doctrine we shall perceive to have been induced by any particular man or Church besides or against all the holy men of God this we understand to proceed from
the means and our charity is manifested by our prayers as heretofore I acquainted you § 19. But your charity is so little that rather then we shall be members of the Catholick ye will be none your selves 33. For (s) n. 7. say you if a member be separated but by schisme it is like an arm cut off from the body or a branch from the vine which make that arm or branch no part of the body or vine Very right it is so not because it is distant from this or that member or unlike either in fashion or comlinesse or office but because it is cut off from the body by which it receives life and strength from the head A Church then must be separated from the mysticall body of Christ before it can be in direct schisme and this must be done by pride or obstinacy in error If ye shall excommunicate any man or Church causelesly the fault is in you not in them though they be under Romes Jurisdiction But ye have no such power over us as is sufficiently proved § 25 26. Say not then though your selves be the hand or the eye that (t) 1. Cor. 12.15 because the foot is not the hand nor (u) Ib. v. 16. the eare the eye it is not therefore of the body God knows (x) Ib. v. 14. the body is not one member but many and each of these receive life from the head though not every one of these so suddenly so immediately Thus (y) Ib. v. 13. by one spirit we are all baptized into one body the mystical body of Christ (z) Ib. v. 27. We are therefore the body of Christ or rather of the body as Corinth was (a) Ib. membra de membro members in part not members of Rome but members of the Western Church And though not Romanists yet are we both Christians and Catholicks Say not because we cannot see Transubstantiation and Purgatory nor weild St. Peter's sword with you that we are no members we can hear the voice of the shepheard and (b) Quid relicto capite membris adhaeres Chrysost in col 2.19 we shall not forsake the shepheard to be in league with the members 34. Now we draw neer your issue which follows thus * n. 8. And that the Church of Rome and England are separated by schisme I think none will deny For they abhor mutuall communion in divine Worship Sacraments and holy Rites and no Protestant will frequent Catholick service especially in the holy Sacrifice of Masse A separation there is indeed between you and us and if you will a schisme the more the pity But (c) Archbishop Lawd § 21. n. 1. the cause of the schisme is yours for ye thrust us from you because we called for Truth and redresse of abuses And not onely so but according to your owne words (d) n. 8. Ye excommunicate us every yeer all Protestants in generall a course unheard of unknown with us For though some one convicted member of yours be excommunicated we use not to excommunicate a whole multitude or Nation We condemne doctrines not persons or if persons for the doctrines sake Care therefore is taken that (e) Can. our Parsons and Curates repair to Recusants houses to confer with them and to convince their errors that so they may be won to Church Neither doe we abhor mutuall communion with you in divine worship but in worshipping or adoration of Images and Reliques We cannot endure that (f) Latria ea dicitur servitus quae pertinet ad colendum Deum Aug. de civ D. l. to c. 1. divine worship be given to any other then to the blessed Trinity 35. We abhorre not your Sacraments but your halfe Communion nor any holy Rites ye have (g) Of Ceremonies before the Book of Common-prayer The excessive multitude of ceremonies within our selves we have pared off (h) Ib. And in these our doings we condemn no other Nation much lesse abhorre them nor prescribe any thing but to our owne people onely observe that Yet (i) Ib. such ceremonies we have retained which doe serve to a decent order and godly Discipline and such as be apt to stir up the dull mind of man to the remembrance of his duty to God as also (k) Ib. to the reducing of the people to a most perfect and godly living without error or superstition And they that know any thing cannot deny but (l) Socrat. l. 5. c. 21. Sozom. l. 7. c. 19. many Rites and observations there were in the East which were not received in the West And in the West they were not alike in all places Of these St. Ambrose speaks thus (m) Ambros de Sacrament l. 3. c. 1. In omnibus cupio sequi Ecclesiam Romanam Sed tamen nos homines sensum habemus Ideo quod ALIBI RECTIUS SERVATUR nos recte custodimus Desirous I am saith he to follow the Church of Rome in all things And yet we are men of understanding What therefore IS MORE RIGHTLY OBSERVED IN OTHER PLACES that doe we rightly keep And is it not as lawfull for us to doe so Perfection is not at Rome some observations may be more convenient yea better in other places And I remember St. Austin tells us that (n) Aug. ep 118. c. 2. it was a rule of St. Ambrose to observe the customes of that Diocese wherein we reside to have an eye upon the Bishop and to doe as he does This St. Austin took to be counsel from heaven what ever you think I would to God we were so humble and so flexible as to submit to this counsel 36. And whereas you adde that no Protestant will frequent Catholick service I must tell you that we of this Church frequent no other And our Book of Divine service is Catholick in all things but in this that it is not Romane Were it in the Latine tongue with a prayer for the Pope by name and your half Communion then it would be Catholick enough though the people went home never the wiser never the better I challenge the most able of your faction to shew me any one passage in our Common prayer Book that is not Catholick I know you cannot I know it is as agreeable as possibly may be to the Catholick faith I speak not this at hap-hazard or out of blind affection but as St. Austin so I (o) Aug. de Verbis Dom. Ser. 63. c. 2. Fides nostra id est fides vera fides recta fides Catholica non opinione praesumptionis sed testimonio lectionis collecta Our faith that is the true the right the Catholick faith which is not collected out of an opinion of presumption but testified unto us by our serious reading the Scriptures Councels and Fathers (p) Nec haereticâ temeritate incerta sed Apostolicâ veritate fundata hoc insinuat hoc novimus hoc credimus Ib. neither wavering through hereticall rashnesse but founded
upon Apostolicall truth insinuates this unto us thus we know it thus we beleeve it And for the Sacrifice of the Masse as ye call it we acknowledge it to be a Commemorative Sacrifice Let us have the Communion in both kindes presse us not to beleeve Transubstantiation or any of your late inventions and I know no reason but we may frequent that which ye call the Sacrifice of the Masse I shall not quarrel the word when the main matter is agreed upon 37. Heretofore whatever you think so little exception was there to our Divine Service Worship Sacraments Prayers and holy Rites that those two memorable Bishops (q) Bo. of Mar. Bonner and Gardiner communicated with us in them and so did most of the Romane Catholicks of this Nation for ten yeers under Queen Elizabeth till that terrible Bull of Pius Quintus came thundering out Yea Bishop Gardiner subscribes that the Common-prayer book is a devout a godly a Christian Book and Order c. * Ib. p. 1357. But as it was with the Donatists so is it much alike with you (r) Aug. de Verb. Dom. Ser. 49. c. 10. they in the height of pride trumpeted it out Nos sanctificamus nos justificamus nos facimus justos we are the men that sanctifie we are the men that justifie we make you just Ecce quo ascenderunt Behold to what an height they were grown And are not ye ascended to a strange height to say Nos facimus Catholicos Wee are they that make men Catholicks Side with us and ye are Catholicks differ from us in the least point and ye are Hereticks St. Paul is of another minde (s) Ro. 14.3 4. in meats in matters of indifferency in such things that are not of necessity to be done we are not to judge one another (t) Phil. 3.15 16. If in these kinde of things and such as tend to perfection of life we be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto us so that we walk by the same rule whereto we have attained That is (u) Chrysost in loc so we preserve the same faith and keep the same commandements So St. Chrysostome These these are the rule we must be sure to walke by 38. From Divine service you descend to the publick Statutes and Laws of the Land whereby it is enacted (x) n. 8. that any one who should reconcile one of the Church of England to the Church of Rome is guilty of death And reason good since ye have so many traitrous principles against the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy against the honor and safety of Princes Indeed what is this reconciling to Rome which by the Laws is condemned but a withdrawing of the people from their obedience to give that to the Pope which is due to their Prince This is plain by the Statute whose words are these (y) 3. Jac. 4. That person who shall put in practise to absolve perswade or withdraw any of his Majesties Subjects from their naturall OBEDIENCE TO HIS MAJESTY or to reconcile them to the Pope or Sea of Rome or to move them or any of them to PROMISE OBEDIENCE TO ANY PRETENDED AUTHORITY OF THE SEA OF ROME That then every such person their Procurers c. shall be adjudged Traitors and being thereof lawfully convicted shall have judgment and suffer as in cases of High Treason You see the Law and the reason of this Law If this will not satisfie the same Statute sayes moreover that (z) Ib. It is found by daily experience that many his Majesties Subjects that adhere in their hearts to the Popish Religion by the infection drawn from thence and by the wicked and devillish counsel of Jesuites Seminaries c. are so far PERVERTED IN POINT OF LOYALTY and due allegiance as they are ready to entertain and execute any treasonable conspiracies and practises as appears by the Gunpowder-treason By this time you see the reason of this Act and cannot deny it to be just 39. But if you speak truth a Priest that shall but celebrate Masse is made guilty of High Treason So you say but upon search I can find no such Statute Indeed an Act there is that (a) 23. Eliz. 1. Every person that shall say or sing Masse being thereof lawfully convicted shall forfeit the summe of 200 Marks and be committed to prison till he pay this summe And (b) Ib. Every person that shall willingly hear Masse shall forfeit the summe of 100 Marks and suffer imprisonment for a yeer The like penall Laws have been heretofore set forth by the best Christian Emperours (c) Socrat. l. 1. c. 6 Sozom. l. 1. c. 19. by Constantine the Great against the Arians But the Donatists were Schismaticall Sectaries and (d) Aug. ep 48. against these he made also a Decree that so many of those as refused to be united to the Church should forfeit their personall estates Many such Laws are to be seen in the African Code And our Saviours command is that (e) St. Luc. 14.23 the people be compelled to come into his house And this care hath been taken for the good of all sorts of Recusants that so (f) 1. Eliz. 2. 23. Eliz. 1. they might be drawn to Church to serve God with one mind and one mouth which every National Church is bound to doe Care therefore is taken that (g) Cod. Eccles Vnivers can 81 we pray with the people But how doe they pray with the people who pray in a tongue the people understand not (h) Ib. Neither ought we in times of peace to communicate with such as meet in private houses and frequent not the Church prayers (i) Ib. And they that abhorre one Church are not to be received into another Yee therefore that will not communicate in prayers with your own Mother Church ought not to be received by any member of the Catholick And in doing so in receiving such as you are Rome offends against the Laws of the Catholick Church 40. These Canons are little observed little thought of all that is studyed in these dayes is to continue the breach and to make it wider Hence is this exclamation (k) n. 8. How therefore can one Church Christs mysticall hody grow up together of such different members That Christs mysticall body consists and growes up of different members is clear 1. Cor. 12.12 c. and all these receive life and power from the same head even those very members that are distorted or diseased The sound hand therefore cannot say to the lame leg or gouty foot Thou art not of the same body but according to the directions of the head the sound hand provides and applies a plaister to the diseased member Observable it is that between the Eastern Western Churches were many differences viz. 1. About the observation of Easter 2. Rebaptization of Hereticks 3. Procession of the holy Ghost 4. The number of Sacraments 5. The manner of