be reputed an aduersary while he sitteth in the throne And Saint Paul directly teacheth that the personall line and continuall propagation of Prophets Euangelistes Pastours and Doctours was instituted by God for the perpetuall succession and continuance Ephes 4. v. 11. 12. 13. Ibid. v. 14. of truth That now we be not children wauering and caryed about with euery winde of doctrine c. Therefore the true personall succession cannot be where the succession of doctrine wauereth much lesse where it fayleth which M. Reynolds M. Whitaker and sundry of our Protestant Reynolds in his conference ca. 7. diuis 9. VVhitak contr 1. q. 5. cap. 6. folio 271. aduersaries earnestly auowe and diligently demonstraty to our handes thereby to defeate if they could possible the prerogatiue of our succeeding Bishops But albeit it maketh nothing agaynst vs nay vpholdeth the right of our clayme who agree with our auncestours in al points of fayth yet it vtterly ouerthrowneth the vsurped title they newly challenge to the pedigree of our Bishops froÌ„ whome they dissent in the very many articles of our beliefe For by their owne arguments no participation can they haue with them in chayres no affinity or succession in Priestly thrones agaynst whome they bray forth defiance in doctrine 6. Now as touching Election the third thing which is defectiue in the Protestant ministery that is a priuiledge only due to ecclesiasticall persons For although secular ProtestaÌ„t Bishops want the electioÌ„ of Deane chapter of all clergy persoÌ„s Princes or such as haue auowsans might somtyme present and nominate their Prelates although the consent and approbation of people for greater vnion and peace hath beene also required yet the Election which interesseth the elected entitleth him to his dignity and giueth him a certayne right to his calling This is and euer was only proper to the Pope to the Deane and Chapter or some other of the Clergy and flatly forbidden to the laity vnder payne of excommunication in In Concil gener 8. can 22. ap Grat. distinc 63. c. Hadrian In Syno Niâ— 2. can 3. the eight generall Councell vnder Basil the Emperour and Adrian the Pope Likewise in the second Nicen Synod it is declared That euery Election of Bishop Priest Deacon made by secular powers let it be inualide and of no force And amongst the Canons of the Apostles the thirtith Canon hath these wordes The Bishop who by the fauour of the Princes and Potentates of the world hath gotten his Church let him be deposed But our English Protestant Bishops haue inuaded their Seas by the fauour of Princes by their letters patents without the canonicall election of Pope Deane and Inter can Aposto ca. 30. Chapter or any ecclesiasticall person Therefore they are to be deposed as wolfes vsurpers entring in at the window and not at the dore This defect is not fayned by coniectures as Barlowes consecration is by Mayster Mason nor proued by secret partiall and vnknowne Recordes MasoÌ„ l 3. c. 4. pag. 127. as he doth the ordination of others But it is publikely set downe in the common receaued lawes or Statutes of the Realme For in the first of King Edward the 1. Edward chapter 2. sixt an Act of Parlament was made for disanulling the election of Archbishops and Bishops by the Deane and Chap. taking away the writ of Conge-deslier grauÌ„ted to that purpose The wordes of the Statute are these The writ of Congedeslier was not to be graunted in King Edwards dais whose lawes Queene Elizabeth reestablished 8. Eliza. 1. 7. Be it enacted by the King with the assent of the Lords spirituall and temporall and the Commons in this present Parlament assembled by the authority of the same that from henceforth no such Conge-deslier be graunted nor election of any Archbishop or Bishop by the Deane and Chapter made but that the Kinge may by his letters Patentes at all tymes when any Archbishopricke or Bishopricke be voyde conferre the same to any persons to whome the Kinge shall think meete Can there be a more euident proofe that the Bishops of King Edwards dayes when this Statute was in force wanted their canonical electioÌ„ And after when his lawes repealed by Queene Mary were reestablished by Queene Elizabeth at least in the beginning how beit since they make shew of returning to the auncient custome Can there be likewise a more vehement suspition willfull forgery in M. Masons registers which testify the Writ of Conge-deslier to be graunted forth when by the tenour of that law it could not be graunted 8. Notwithstanding although their Bishops election Mason lib. 2. chap. 10. fol. 88. 89. The ordination of Protestant Priests Bishops vnlawfull inualide noneat all was inualide and succession of no account yet M. Mason stifly vrgeth that their ordination or consecration was good vnlesse we can name some defect eyther in the consecrated or consecratours I answere that the consecratours after their reuolte from the Catholique Church obstinat persisting in schisme heresy were excommunicated and suspended from the due execution and practise of their functions So that although they had beene before true lawfull Bishops as none excepting Cranmer were of the whole Protestant ranke yet then their authority being taken away by the Catholike Church which as she had power to giue had power also to restrayne and disanull their iurisdiction they could not lawfully communicate vnto others that which was suspended in themselues For this cause Saint Athanasius accouÌ„teth them not in the number of true Bâ—shops who are consecrated by heretikes saying By what right can they Athanasius in Concil Arimi Seleuc. § Quae auteÌ„ Seieâ—ciae be Bishops if they receaued their ordination from heretikes as they theÌ„selues accuse them to be Likewise writing in another place in the person of Pope Iulius It is impossible quoth he that the ordinations made by Secundus being an AriaÌ„ could haue any force in the Catholike Church 6. But M. Mason our Protestants Attorney will reply Apol. 2. that S. Athanasius is to be vnderstood of the legitimate and lawfull vse not of the validity of ordination For that euery Bishop communicateth not by reason of his inherent grace or out ward vnion with the Church but by vertue of his episcopall character which no schisme quoth he by deduction out of our writinges no sinne no Mason l. 2. c. 10. fo 88. heresy no censures of the Church no excommunication suspension interdiction degradation nothing nothing at all sauing only death if death can dissolue it Thus he I graunt that the character is indeleble and that alone is sufficient in the consecratour if his intention also be right and if he vse the true matter and forme essentially required thereunto But our English Superintendents after their fal from the Roman Church neyther intended to giue those holy orders which were instituted by Christ neyther did the ordeyned intend to receaue them
Christ who was to come in flesh Thou art a priest for euer according to the order of Melchisedech Of Saint Ambrose Christ is declared to offer in vs whose speach sanctifyeth the sacrifice which is offered Of Epiphanius The Priesthood of Melchisedech now florisheth in the Church Theophilact Christ is called a Priest for euer because there is dayly offered there is perpetually offered an oblation by the mynisters of God hauing Christ our Lord both the Priest and sacrifyce Of Saint Leo Eucherius Primasius and the rest whose testimonyes togeather with the Priestly function of Melchisedech which they mayntayne M. Fulke and his felow-protestants vtterly contemne Insomuch as Fulke sayeth this bringing forth of bread and wine was no part of Melchisedeches Priesthood therfore those Fathers were deceaued that iudged that act to pertayne to his Priesthood Marke the arrogancy of this yesterday-vpstart in censuring the Fathers for allowing a Priesthood which he with his adherentes flatly detest Well then seing they renounce both these orders I know not in what ranke to place them vnlesse it Tully in Philip. be in the order of Asinius the voluntary Senatour as Tully iesteth at him himselfe being made by himselfe Or of the order of Don-Quixote knighted in an Inne by the good fellow his host For so they are eyther voluntary Priestes arrogating that dignity without commission or created at the Nags-head in Cheape by them that had as much authority to make them as the Inkeeper to dub a knight Or at the most they can be no other then Parlamentall Priests ordayned by the new deuised forme of that temporall Court authorized by the letters patents first of a Child then of a woman which although it may giue more shew and countenance to the vsurpation of their titles yet it giueth no more right then the former to the dignity of their functions 13. Moreouer no secular Princes or temporall Magistrates No secularprinces haue power to coÌ„ferre ecclesiastical orders haue authority to confer Ecclesiasticall orders But the order of Mynistery which our ghospellers challenge was both in Kinge Edward and Queene Elizabeths dayes wholy deuised and primarily conferred by the is secular and temporall authority It was therefore no true Episcopall Priestly or Ecclesiasticall order The Maior or first Proposition is apparant in nature For no man can imparte vnto others that which he hath not himselfe Secular persons neyther a part nor assembled togeather in publike Parlament haue any ecclesiasticall order or iurisdiction much lesse can they communicat it vnto others Then Ciuill Magistrates haue only Ciuill power in Ciuill affayres ordeyned to Ciuill and naturall endes The Episcopall or Priestly order is a spirituall dignity touching spirituall functions directed to a spirituall and supernaturall end which can no more be deriued from a Ciuill Magistrate then white from blacke day from night The Minor or second Proposition I proue by the Parlament lawes other testimonyes vnanswerable In the first of King Edward a Statute was made That Archbishops Bishops should not send out their sommons citations other processes in their own names but in the name and stile of the Kinge Seeing as the law it selfe speaketh that all authority of iurisdiction spirituall Edward 1. chap. 2. and temporall is deriued and deducted from the Kinges Maiesty as supreme head of these Churches and Realmes of England and Ireland and so iustly acknowledged by the Clergy of the sayd Realmes Then you heard before how by the Kinges letters Patentes Archbishoprickes and Bishopprickes were conferred And Fox testifyeth that King Henry 8. imparted to the Fox in his Monu pag 522. 1. Eliz. 1. c. 1. Lord Cromwell the exercise of his supreme spirituall regimeÌ„t making him in the Church of England vicegerent for concerning all his iurisdiction ecclesiasticall In the first likewise of Queenâ— Elizabeths raygne a Statute was enacted whereby all spirituall or ecclesiasticall power or authority is vnited and annexed to the Imperiall crowne of her Realme c. all sorrayne vsurped power iurisdiction preheminence cleerly extinguished c. and by solemne oath renounced forsaken in so much as Doctour Whitgift placed in the Queene the fulnes of VVhitg tract 8. c. 3. d. 33. all ecclesiasticall gouernement from whome all ecclesiasticall power and authority is deriued to Bishops and mynisters she hauing in her as he writeth the supreme gouernment in al causes ouer all persons as she doth exercise the one apportayning to matters Ciuile and temporall by the Lord Chauncelour So doth she the other concerning the Church religion by the Archbishops 14. As this power was straunge and neuer heard of before in any Christian heathen or Turkish commonwealth So the maner of consecrating the mynisters of those dayes was new and before vnasuall For another Act was made in the third of King Edwards raign 3. Edward c. 12. fol. 15. wherein it is sayd Be it therefore enacted by the Kinges Highnes with the assent of the Lords spirituall and temporall and the Comâ—ons of this present Parlament assembled and by the authority of the same That such forme and manner of making and consecrating of Archbishops Bishops Priests Deacons and other Mynisters of the Church as by sixe Prelats and sixe other men of this Realme learned in Gods law by the Kinges Maiesty to be appointed and assigned or by the most number of them shal be deuised for that purpose and set forth vnder the great seale of England before the first day of Aprill next comming shall by vertue of this present Act be lawfully exercised and vsed and none other any Statute law or vsage to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding Further when this new deuised forme of consecrating Bishops Priests c. bred many doubtes of the inualidity of their consecration and ordering Queene Elizabeth in publique Parlament decreed that all persons that haue been or shal be made ordered or consecrated Archbishops Bishops Priestes after the forme and order prescribed by Kinge Edward in the same forme and order be in very deed 8. Elizab. 1. and also by authority hereof declared and enacted to be and shal be Archbishops Bishops Priests c. and rightly made ordered and consecrated Any Statute law canon or other thing to the contrary notwithstanding 15. What meaneth this Statute Were your Bishops lawfully ordeyned and consecrated before Why then are they not only declared as M. Mason would excuse the manner of speach but enacted to be and shal be Archbishops c In vayne was this Act if they needed it not and Mason lib. 3. c. 4. p. 122. if they needed it it auayled them nothing as I haue already proued Or to speake more clearely Eyther the Lordes of the Parlament with their Queene had authority to install their Bishops in Episcopall dignity and make their inauguration lawfull in case it had beene inualid or they had no power to doe it Which of these M. Mason will you graunt For
Father hath not planted shal be rooted vp 2. By this marke you shall see that the profession of our new gospellers is a bastardly slippe and the Romane Foure notes or branches of stability by which the RomaÌ„ Church is proued to be the true Church of Christ Fayth the only stable and vnconquerable truth First if you consider how this Roman fayth alone hath beene euer impugned by all kind of aduersaryes yet still remayned victorious Secondly how by it selfe it maynteyned her right agaynst them all without any forrayne helpe or succour Thirdly how it hath alwayes orderly proceeded by subduing them as a Queene or Empresse by absolute authority and iuridicall power Fourthly how in these encounters it hath neuer altered or changed her fayth neuer relented or yealded to her enemyes in any point little or great but hath still florished and preuayled agaynst them 3. Euery one of these notes are prerogatiues of The Roman Church shewed to be true because that alone is impugned by al false and hereticall conuenticles the true Church For all vices and errours though contrary in themselues agree in this that they are opposite vnto vertue opposite vnto truth So all sectes and heresies though neuer so repugnant one from the other yet all ioyne to make open warre agaynst the true fayth and Church of God The Sadduceans Pharisies Herodians were at deadly foe amongst themselues notwithstanding they made league and linked togeather in persecuting of Christ Thus the Roman Church only no other hath beene euer pursued by all the rebellious sects that euer were Agaynst her the Simonians Cerinthians Micolaits Eutichians Nacedonians in former tymes Agaynst her the Anabaptistes Brownistes Lutherans Caluinists Armenians Gomotistes and all Protestants bid battayle now a dayes Agaynst her the Turkes Iewes Pagans Polititians and Atheistes pitch their tents Against her the heathenish and other wicked Emperours haue bent their forces Dioclesian Valens Iulian Constantius Leo Isaurus Constantinus Copronymus Fredericus c Against her all the powers of hell and might of Sathan hath opposed yet could neuer preuayle She is therefore the house of God built vpon a rocke on Matt. 7. v. 24. 25. which the rayne fell the flouds came the windes blew but cold not ouerthrow it She is the Campe of Israell assaulted by all her bordering enemies yet neuer vanquished by any The 2. Reg. 7. throne of Salomon established for euer The Kingdome of Christ often impugned yet victoriously triumphing Aug. inps 47. The Roman Church the vncoÌ„querable truth because it resisteth ouercommeth by it self without help of others ouer all the Kingdomes of the earth 4. Secondly the Roman Church hath thus defended her selfe and gotten the victory without the association or confederacy of any Church She by her selfe vnder the protection of God hath stoutly atchieued these wonderfull conquests She by her owne men by the Bishops Prelates and other secular and religious persons of her owne profession hath maynteyned her Catholike Orthodoxall fayth with patience agaynst the stormes of persecutours with reasons agaynst the subtility of Philosophers with Scriptures against heretikes with prophecies agaynst the Iewes with prescriptions agaynst the Turkes with Christian prudence agaynst the Macihuelians with naturall arguments agaynst the Atheists Pagans with miracles agaynst the weake with consent fame and authority agaynst the proude and haughty Agaynst these and all others our Church alone hath in all ages euer since Christ his tyme with vnmatcheable wisdome and power vncontrolable vpholden the right and glory of her cause by helpes taken out of her owne armory with weapons of her owne Whereas her aduersaryes haue still ayded one another still called vpon forayne Sect aryes and false Churches are forced to borrow help one from the other succours to support backe them as our sectaries now implore the ayde of sundry heretiks to make some mâ—ster or shew of pretended Gospellers to encounter with vs not vnlike to Cataline the rebell who associated himselfe with all the dissolute ruffianlike vicious and forlorne refuse of what kind soeuer they were to warre agaynst his Countrey For so our English ProtestaÌ„ts linke in communion first with their fellow Puritans whome one of their owne brethren tearmeth Apostolikes Aerians Tull. orat 1. 2. 3. in Catal. Ormer dia. 1. Pepuzians Petrobusians Florinians Cerinthians Nazarens Beguardines Ebionites Catabaptides Catharists Iouianistes c. Then both Puritans and Protestants band with the Lutherans Caluinists Hussites Wickelifists Albigenses As heretiks begge men so likewise munition from forrenners VVhitak in resp ad Sand. Col. l 4. iust c. 9. §. 8. Fulk in his confutation of Purgatory Beza epist Theo. 81. VVhitg in his def Hooker in his preface to his eccl pol. pa. 24. 25. 26. 27. The Bish Confer at Hampt Court Picards with other such monsters more hideous and mishapen in profession then ill fauoured in names With them they ioyne frendship to fill vp the number of their mutinous and disloyall Army 5. Neither is it inough for theÌ„ to beg the supply of forrayne souldiers but their weapons also they steale froÌ„ others For when the Protestant would annoy the Puritan he putteth on the armour of our doctours Councells ordinances and prescriptions When he defendeth his quarrell agaynst Catholikes he flyeth to the secret ambushes and retrayts of Puritans he relieth wholy on their hidden spirit by it he will trye the sayings of Fathers and decrees of Councells By that Whitaker cassieereth a full senate of Fathers Caluin examineth general CouÌ„cells Fulke maketh hauocke of all antiquity Farre otherwise doth Beza with the Trinitaryes Mayster Whitgift with Cartwright Maister Hooker Doctour Couell and the Protestant Bishops in their coÌ„ference with Puritans disprouing them by our principles of tradition Besides from vs they borow their Scriptures their lawes their constitutions their ecclesiasticall gouernement and hierarchy of their Clergy With these rags of popery as both their and our enemyes seeke to disgrace them with these stollen feathers they are wont to glory like the Horatian daw In so much as some of their owne Protestants complaine of the present Ministry and Church of England That their Pontificall wherby they consecrate Bishops make ministers and deacons is nothing else but a thinge word for word drawn out Admo to the Parlia of the Popes Pontificall 6. Besides as they embezell from vs all that is laudable orderly or good amongst them so their dregges of Aug. l. de bar cap. 53. Guido Carmelit in su Coal l. de histor Hussi Syn. Constann sess 8. Lat. l. ad BereÌ„g Nicep in hist eccles l. 16. ca. 27. Bucching in eccl hist Prat. ver Nouatiani Ierem. lib. contra Virgilan Euthimius in Panopl par 2. tit 21. Theod. l. 4. haer fab Dam. l. de cent haer Iero. in lib. ad Vigil Ioui Ionas Aureliaâ—ensis apud SaÌ„d l. 7. de de visi mo Irae l. 1. c. 20. Epiph haer 64 Theod. l. 4. haer
2. sect 5. Isa c. 61. Gen. 2â— v. 17. Gen. 28. v. 14. Matt. 24. v. 23. Hiero. in comm cap. 24. Matt. Aug. lib. 9. c. 16. cont Petil. Aug. de vnit Eccl. c. 6. 7. 8. 9. Matt. 5. v. 14. Art 1. v. 8 Dan. 2. v. 44. Psal 88. v. 38. Matt. 5. v. 14. Aug. in psal 47. omnibus terrarum partibus nota Aug. l. 3. c. 5. cont Parm. Isa 2. v. 2. Psal 44. v. 16. any strangers sometymes so latent as they are no way aparent to the world VVe confesse sayth Whitaker a certaine number of them who piously worship Christ to be alwayes on earth but we say that this number is not alwayes visible It may come to passe that no certaine and true visible Church may be knowne or sound out in the world Likewise we all clearely know the visible church to haue perished aâ— thou knowest a man to be dead D. Sparks and D. Fulke trâ—ce the same steps how beit God witnesseth of the progeny of his Church by the mouth of Isay Their seed and generation shall be knowne amongst the Gentills and amongst the people all that see them shall know them that these are the seed which our Lord hath blessed I will multiply thy seed like the stares of the heauen and like the sandes of the sea Thou shalt be dilated from East to VVest from South to North. In so much as Christ himself fore warneth vs not to giue eare to them who auouch his Church to be at any tyme latent or restrained to corners If any man shall say vnto you loe heere is Christ or there do not belieue him Whereupon S. Hierome Do yee not go forth doe yee not belieue that the sonne of man is either in the desert of Gentills or in the closets of heretikes but from the East to the VVest his fayth shineth in the Catholike Church S. Augustine Dost thou think the sheep of Christ are so depriued of all sense to whome it is sayd do yee not beleeue that they will heare the wolse affirming behould heere iâ— Christ and will not heare the Pastour saying that he is throughout all Nations beginning at Ierusalem And in another place he willeth vs not to credit him who draweth Christ or his Church from the communion or fellowship of all nations christned to one corner towne or Countrey For this cause Christ calleth his shepheards the light of the world the witnesses of his truth to the most parts of the earth He compareth his Church to a renowned kingdom that shall break in peeces consume all other kingdoms To a magnificent throne as resplendent as the sunne To a lofty Citty placed vpon a mountayne which as S. Augustine affirmeth cannot be hid but shal be knowne to all the coasts of the earth To a mountaine prepared in the top of mountaines eleuated aboue the little hilles vnto which all Nations shall flow to the Temple of a king to a tabernacle seated in the sunne Whereupon S. Augustine he put his tabernacle Aug. in in eundem psal in the sunne that is his Church in manifâ—station or open view not in a corner not such as is hidden as if it were couered c. In the sunne he put his tabernacle what doest thou meane O heretike to fly into darknes What doest thou meane to hide the light to deface the thorne to dispeople the Citty to shroud in corners the kingdome of thy Lord the most famous monarchy of the world Three reasons why the Church must be alwayes visible 2. The reasons why the empyre or monarchy of the Church must be alwayes so manifest or resplendent are diuers but chiefly three First for the instruction of the faithful for to guide direct them to the port of saluation to teach them the truth preserue them from the wiles of errour For to this end pastours are appointed in the Church they are commaunded to take care of their flocke to gouerne feed them to defend them from the wolues the people are charged to heare obey them not to giue care to the voyce of strangers to receaue from theÌ„ the food of life Therefore both the one the other must be alwayes visible or els they cannot mutually performe these offices And because these faithfull seruantes of God shall continue in the most famous countreyes of the World this visible Church must needes perseuer in the view of al. Secondly it must also abid opeÌ„ly known for the extirpation of heresyes correction of delinquentes for the amendment of these auoyding of their company because S. Paul willeth vs to shun the hereticall person not to ioyne league with infidells We are also commaunded Tit. 3â— v. 10. 2. Cor. 6. v. 14. Rom. 16. v. 17. Matt. 18. v. 17. to note such as breed scandalls among vs to tell the Church of them that be in corrigible Which werâ— to no purpose if the Church at any time lay hidden Thirdly it is necessary it should be alwayes conspicuous manifestly apparent not only to the members but euen to strangers enemies there of to wit for their conuersion vocation of gentills Hence Isay prophesieth Thy gates shal be open continually day and night they shall not be shut that the strength of Isa 60. â— â—1 the gentils may be brought to thee and their kinges may be brought Which cannot be fullfilled if the Church be couched in darcknes if it be not alwayes a mountaine in the top of mountaines Isa c. 2. v. 2. Cap. 62. v. 6. Melan. in praef l. corp doct Christ in Eccl. Sax. c. impr Lipsiae anno 561. See him also in Repe conf Aug offerendae synod Tri. c. de Eccle. in resp ad impios art Baua inquis q. â— D. Humf. Iesu par 2. rat â— pag. â—41 item pag. 281. Field l. 1 c. 10. fol. â—1 VVhitak contro 2. q. 3. c. 1. Con. 2. q. 2. c. 2. cont 2 q. 3. cap. 1. Perkins in his exposition of the Creed pag. 400. Fulk in c. 2. Thess sect 4. vnto which all nations may flow and say Come let vs goe vp to the Mount of our Lord and to the house of the God of Iacob he will teach vs his wayes we shall walke in his pathes If it be not alwayes true which God himselfe foretold Vpon thy walles Ierusalem I haue appointed watchmen all the day and all the night for euer they shall not hold their peace 3. These reasons weighed so much with Melancthon as he bitterly inueigheth against such as impugne them saying VVhereunto tendeth this monstrous speach which denieth the visible Church It abolisheth all testimonies of antiquity It taketh away all iudgements It causeth an endlesse confusion and induceth a common wealth of vnruly Russians or Atheists wherein no one careth for another And our English Protestant Doctour Humfrey Obscure or hidden retirements c. are not Christian assemblyes Likewise It is a most manifest conclusion
saying It is all one to despise the minister of Christes catholique Church and to despise Christ So S. Augustine expoundeth the former of S. Matthew Fulk vpon this place sect 2. Aug. in psal 101. conc 2. Hiero. l. 4. in Matth. S. Ierome he who promiseth that he wil be with his disciples vntill the consumation of the world both sheweth that they shall alwayes liue as also that he will neuer depart from the faithfull Which the very words both heere elswhere importe all dayes vntill the consumation of the world vntill we all meet c. for euer And the ends also of graunting this authority require the same which were the propagation of the truth the edification of the body of Christ the confirmation of the faithfull the conseruation of the vnity of faith these are at all times and perpetually needfull Therefore the perpetuall asistance of the holy Ghost is alwayes necessary thereunto 2. Likewise the Prophet Osee in the person of God sayd vnto the Church I will despouse thee to me for euer c. Osee 2. v. 19. 20. will despouse thee to me in faith Therefore this pure imaculate spouse is euerlastingly wedded to Christ in synceritâ— of fayth she can neuer be stayned with adulterous errour neuer separated by schisme or heresy neuer be diuorced by any apostacy from her honourable bridegroome The same was also foretold by the Prophet Isay Isa 59. v. 21. My spirit that is in thee and my wordes that I haue put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth and out of the mouth of thy seed and out of the mouth of thy seedes seed saith our Lord from this present and for euer Now what spirit was there in the Prophet Isay but the spirit of God What wordes in his mouth but the wordes of truth Therefore the spirit of God and wordes of truth shall not depart he doth not say from the hartes only but not from the mouthes of the Churches generation from that present for euer can any thing be written more effectually So effectual it seemeth to diuers sectaries as the publique Glosers vpon the English Protestant translation confesse the truth thereof Cal. in c. 59. Isaiae in hunc vers in their marginall notes vpon that place And Caluin in his commentaries explaning the same text God promiseth quoth he that his Church shall neuer be spoyled of this inestimablâ— good but that it shal be gouerned by the holy ghost and vnderpropped with heauenly doctrine c. and soone after Such is the promise that our Lord will so assist his Church and will haue that protection and care of it as he will neuer permit it to be depriued of his doctrine For if it once could be depriued of truth fall into any errour this oracle were frustrated If it could fall into errour the gates of hell which our Sauiour denieth Matt. 16. v. 18. 2. Tim. 3. v. 15. 1. Ioan. 17. v. 17. 2. Cor. 11. v. 2. Matt. 18. v. 17. should preuaile against it if it could erre it were not as S. Paul witnesseth the piller and firmament of truth If it could erre in vaine did Christ pray to sanctify it in verity If it could erre it were not that vnspotted virgin of which the Apostle writeth I haue espoused you to one man to exhibite you a chast virgin vnto Christ Lastly if it could erre the Son of God could not command euery one to submit himselfe to the doctrine of his Church with that heauy commination If he will not heare the Church let him be to thee as the Heathen and Publican that is let him be like the excommunicated or vnbeleeuing miscreant who is cast of from Christ and vtterly abandoned to euerlasting misery But God could not threaten vs vnder this curse of damnation to heare and obey his Church if his Church could beguile vs with errour For theÌ„ God should be the cause of that errour then we might be beguiled by following his Commandment which is impossible Therefore the Church cannot teach or deliuer any errour vnto vs as a Priest imprisoned at Dauentry vrged M. Barbon the Minister at an appointed disputation held of that matter before many of the towne other Gentelmen of thâ— A conference held at Dauentry in Northampthonshire betweene a Priest ther impisoned and M. Barbon a Minister Country which Argument the Minister first laboureâ— to elude by answering that the Church indeed could noâ— erre as long as it heard followed the voyce of God but if it swarued from his word it might precipitate iâ— self into errour whereunto it was then replyed by thâ— Priest My argument said he prooueth it cannot possiblâ— swarue from the word of God For to swarue from thâ— word of God is to erre I proue it cannot erre Thereforâ— I proue it cannot swarue from the word of God Againe to affirme that the Church erreth not as long as it agreeth with the word of God is to graunt her no priuâ—â—edge aboue any hereticall or heathenish conuenticle For no Heretike Infidell Iewe or Turke no nor the diuell himselfe can erre as long as he speaketh conformable to Gods word 3. The Minister deuised another sleight and distinguished A fond distinctioÌ„ which ProtestaÌ„ts make of curable incurableerrors two kind of errours one curable another incurable one to probation another to damnation and so answered that the Church might fall herself and lead her children into curable errours out of which they may afterward escape not into incurable or damnable from which they shall neuer be deliuered But the Priest resuming his former probation insisted againe that it could leade her children into no errour at all because VVhosoeuer heareth the Church followeth the commaundement of God But no errour curable or incurable can we incurre by following the commaundement of God Therefore no errour curable or incurable can we incurre by hearing the Church The Minor only questionable was proued thus No offense to God can we incurre by following Gods commaundement But euery errour curable or incurable is an * Material or formal offense of God Therfore no errour curable or incurable can we incurre by following Gods commaundement 4. Here M. Barbon sweating and chafing yet not knowing what to deny peruersly denyed the arguâ—â—â—â— M. 〈◊〉 breaketh off the dispute cauilling at the sillogisticall forme yet could not discouer any fault neither in matter nor form The former idle distinctioÌ„ of Protestants further refelled VVhitak contro 2. q. 5. c. 17. fol. 490. Ecclesia adtempus etiam in fundameÌ„tis quibusdam errare potest tuÌ„ salua esse Whitaker contradicteth himselfe in manifest termes Si fundamentale aliquoddogma tollatur Ecclesia statim corruit â—elfe and carped at the Sillogisme as if it had foure â—â—mes the last and only collusion which he his sectâ—â—es are wont to vse to bleare the eyes of the vnlearned â—â—en otherwise they are so
Hier. q. ad Edibiam kingdome of Christ wherin such as refuse to liue are rebelles and traytours to God It is the house (b) Orig. in Iesu Naue hom 3. Cypr. de simplicitate Praelat Ambr. lib. de Salom. c. 5. of â—ahaâ— from whence whosoeuer departeth is guilty of his own death It is the (c) Ioan. 21. Luc. 5. Ambr ser 11. l. de Salom. c. 4. Concil Later c. 1. Vna est fidelium vniuersalis Ecclesia extra quaÌ„ nullus omnino saluatur Aug. tom 7. concione ad plebem de Emerita post medium Cypr. epist 62. ad â—omponium Iren. l. 3. aduer haeres c. 40. Ship of Peter out of which whosoeuer sayleth suffereth ship wracke Therfore the CouÌ„cell of Lateran hath truly and carefully defined There is one vniuersall Church of the faythfull out of which no man is saued This decree of that most holy and generall Councell the vniforme consent of the Fathers ratify and confirme a few with such as I haue alleadged shall speake for the rest S. Augustine Out of the Catholike Church a man may haue all things excepting saluation he may haue orders he may haue Sacraments he may sing Alleluia he may answere Amen he may haue the Ghospell he may haue and preach the fayth in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost but he can by no meanes obtayne saluation but in the Catholike Church S. Cyprian Neither can they writing of excommunicated persons liue without sith the house of God is one and no man can haue saluation but in the Church Irenaeus In the Church God hath appointed Apostles Prophets Doctours and the whole operation or ministery of the spirit of which they all are depriued who repaire not to the Church VVhere the Church is there is the spirit of God and where the spirit of God is there is the Church and all grace Then he interreth that such as do not partake of that spirit estranged from truth are iustly tumbled into euery errour Lactantius it is only the Catholike Lactant. l. 4 diuin instit cap. vlt. Church that hath the true worship and seruice of God this is the well spring of truth the dwelling place of fayth the temple of God into which whosoeuer entreth not and from which whosoeuer departeth is without all hope of life and eternall saluation Thus Lactantius With whom our chiefest aduersaries likewise accord Field confesseth one holy Catholike Church in which only the light of heauenly Field in his first booke of the Church c. 2. fol. 23. truth is to be sought where only grace mercy remission of sinnes and hope of eternall happynes are found And to maintaine this he citeth the aforesayd sentence of Lactantius 4. Caluin also speaking of the Church our Mother sayth There is no other entry into life vnles she conceaue vs in her Calu. l. 4. instit c. 1. §. 4. wombe vnles she bring vs forth vnles she feed vs with her breastes finally vnles she keep vs vnder her custody and gouernance vntill such tyme as being vnclothed of mortall flesh we shall be like vnto Angells The reason heereof is the secret and vnchangeable will of God who sent his Sonne into the world to erect one Church one fayth one religion one house and chosen company to whom he bequeathed the keyes of paradise That only Church he purchased with his bloud that only he loued for that he deliuered himselfe to sanctify her cleansing Act. 20. v. 28. Ephes 5. v. 25. 26. her with the lauer of water in the word of life In that only Church he hath left as Irenaeus obserued his Pastors and Doctours In that his word and Sacraments in that the embassage of reconciliation benefite of remitting sinnes To that only Church he communicateth his spirit To one only Church doth God commit the keyes of heauen and benefit of reconciliation promiseth his assistance imparteth his grace vertue and spirituall endowements therefore whosoeuer is deuided or separated from that is wholy bereft of Gods celestiall comforts Most of the learned Protestants consent with vs That out of the Church there is no saluation yet this couert they seeke to saue themselues That they are of the Church either of the same with vs as some imagine or of a distinct by themselues as others vphold or at least that euery one is sufficiently in the Church of saluation as long as he beleeueth the Trinity Incarnation Passion and other principle mysteryes of fayth But that they haue no distinct Church planted by Christ watered by his Apostles and perpetually continued vntill their dayes which is necessary for the true Church I shall demonstrate heereafter in the eleuenth twelueth and thirtenth Chapters of this booke Now that they are not any part of the Roman Church nor all one with vs I manifestly conuince 5. Because they abhorre our sacrifice condemne our Fulke in c. 5. Ephes sect 3. In cap. 13. Apoc. sect 2. Fulk in c. 24. Luc. sect 4. 1. Ioan. 2. sect 9. VVhitak contr 2. q. 6. cap. 1. ibidem c. 3. Reynoldes in his fifth conclusion Fulke in c. 13. Apo. sect 2. in c. 5. ad Ephes sect 3. Rogers in his booke 39. articles of Protestancy Sacraments forbeare all participation with vs and we with them in fayth and religion we excommunicate cut them off from the communion of our Church which they also renounce as superstitious blasphemous and antichristian It is certaine sayth Fulke the Church of Rome cannot be the true Church of Christ Againe The whole religion of Popery is nothing but blasphemy against God and Christ and his Church For this cause he calleth it the whore of Babylon the seate of Antichrist the malignant and Antichristian Church of Rome VVhitaker disclaymeth from it with the like reproachfull termes and addeth That the Papists are Idolaters and their Church Idolatricall Besides he reckoneth vp eighteen fundamentall points by which it ouerthrouweth in his conceit the grounds of true religion M. Iohn Reynolds labouring to discouer the like entitleth his fift conclusioÌ„ after this manner The Roman Church not the Catholike Church nor a sound member of the Catholike Church Yea he Fulke Rogers and others recount togeather with those which VVhitaker nameth aboue foure and thirty articles in which the Roman Church hath damnably erred and in euery one shaken the fabrike razed the foundation as they blaspheme of true beliefe Therefore it is impossible any Protestant should thinke his religion the same with ours shall substantiall points impossible he should looke to be saued in the lappe of our Church which his râ—rest men and stoutest patrons so spitefully traduce and purposely detest as the most contagious heretical and idolatrical Church that euer was As impossible it is that euery sectary should hope for the blessinges of heauen in his own sect by imbracing only the principall grounds of religion as the ensuing Chapter shall further declare
carry to the tribunall seate of Christ And then most agreable to the matter now in hand They beleeue in God the Father and in the Sonne and in the holy Ghost in vaine All these thinges sayd I auayle them nothing for asmuch as they deny this article of the reall presence and attach him of falsity who sayd of the Sacrament this is my body So Luther flatly acknowledgeth that the deniall of that one article the disagreement in the interpretation of that one place in such aâ— accept the other heades of religion is sufficient to plung them into the pit of hell Zanchius and many learned Protestants Zanchius in his epistle before his confession pag. 12 13. are of the same mind agreeing therin with the ancient Fathers with S. Athanasius who hath defined in his Creed that whosoeuer doth not hold the Catholike fayth who and inuiolate he shall perish for euer With S. Hierome who witnesseth that for one word or two contrary to the sayth many heresyes haue been cast out of the Church With S. Gregory Nazianzen saying Nothing can be more dangerous then thâ—se heretikes Hier. l. 3. Apolo cont Ruf. Nazian tract de fide who when as they runne through all thinges vprightly yet with one word as with a drop of poyson corrupt and stayne the true and sincere fayth of our Lord and of Apostolicall tradition With Saint Basil who being solicited by the persecutours to relent a little to the tyme stoutly answered as Theodoret reporteth that such as are instructect in the diuine doctrine do not suffer Theod. l. 4. hist c. 17. any syllable of the diuine decrees to be depraued but for the defence of it if need require willingly imbrace any kind of death 9. And not to stay longer in reciting the testimonies of 〈…〉 when the Sonne of God auouched he 〈…〉 Marc. 1â— v. 16. not shal be condâ—mned Of what beliefe did he speake 〈◊〉 of belieuing the whole Ghospell the whole corpes of Christian doctrine whereof he there sayd preach the Ibid. v. 15. â—hospâ—lâ— to all creatures which Ghospell comprehendeth many other articles besides the Trinity Incarnation Passion of Christ Therefore he that belieueth them not all shal be condemned Likewise when Christ auouched He that despiseth you despiseth me he that heareth not the Church c. Luc. 10. v. 16. Matt. 18. v. 17. he doth not add in this or that point but absolutely in whatsoeuer Let him be to thee as the Heathen and Publican And for this cause the custome of the Church hath beene in her publike definitions and generall Councells to strike with the thunderbolt of Gods heauy curse to threaten with anathema all such as refuse to belieue any one decree or definition of hers concerning any point of fayth whatsoeuer it be which the Church could not do without erroneous faultines in her selfe and wrong to her children if euery Canon she maketh and fenceth with that Anathema were not necessary to be belieued vnder paine of damnation Besides not only the Church but sundry zealous and forward sectaryes of all sorts are ready to yield their liues in behalf of any one article of their beliefe wherein although they erre concerning the particuler obiect yet this generall agreement in such seuerall sectes is an apparant token that Nature it selfe teacheth euery speciall point of true religion and not the principall only to be necessary to saluation wherein the Athenians were so precise as they punished without remission Teste Iosepho cont Appion any little word lesse warily vttered against the receaued opinion of their Gods The Iewes also were seuerely chastised for the transgression of any one of the ceremoniall lawes giuen vnto them by the disposition of Angels And God himselfe threatneth that he shall take Apo. 22. v. 19. â—â—ay his part out of the booke of life who shall diminish any word of S. Iohns reuelation What wonder then though â—e be blotted out of the register of heauen though he be eternally punished who eitheâ— gainesayth altereth or not beleeueth expresly or infoldedly euery point of doctrine the Sonne of God himselfe or the holy Ghost whome he after sent publiquely teacheth or inspireth to his Church 10. The chiefest reason why fayth must be whole entire is the infallible authority or veracity of God vpon One principall reason why fayth must be entire in al points whose testimony we belieue which being once suspected or doubted of in any one point of neuer so small importance the like doubt or suspition may creep into others and shake the whole foundation of Christian Religion Therfore S. Thomas and many other learned Deuines profoundly teach That he hath no supernaturall fayth he beleeueth not any thing moued by diuine authority S. Thomas 2. 2. q. 5. art 3. He that belieueth not euery article of fayth belieueth none at all Tertul. l. de praescri who beleeueth not euery thing little or great fundamentall or not fundamentall proposed vnto him to be credited by the same authority Whereupon they inferre That no sectary who maketh choyce vpon his owne liking or vpon the iudgment of his Ministers to belieue some articles and not the rest doth truly beleeue any one article at all After which manner Tertullian long since disputed against Valentine the heretike saying Some thinges of the law and Prophets he approueth some things he disalloweth that is he disalloweth all whilest he disproueth some In like sort I may argue of our Protestants and other Sectaryes that they make choyce to beleeue some things not to belieue other and so whilest they belieue not all thinges they belieue nothing nothing vpon the authority of God but vpon their owne election as humane motiues incline and perswade them which is humane only not diuine or supernaturall beliefe For fayth being an assent of our vnderstanding to thinges not euidently seene or conuinced by reason but only credited for the testimony of another it cannot be more certaine then he that testifyeth and deliuereth them vnto vs who if he be subiect to errour as all men are in Protestants conceipt they that belieue the reuealed mysteries or interpretation of Scripture either vpon their owne or such mens credit cannot attaine to the certainty of fayth no more then the Turke who although he belieue in God Creatour of heauen and earth yet he belieueth not in him with diuine fayth because he relyeth vpon the authority of his Alcaron or Turkish Muphtyes who as in other things do so might deceaue in Muphty is the name of the chiefe Interpreter of the Tuâ—kish law Cuspin in descript Magistrat Turcici that And whereas without true and diuine fayth it is impossible to please God they cannot hope for his fauour who do not belieue euery article as the inerrable testimony of his true Church proposeth them to be belieued 11. Hence it is that euen as we are bound to obserue and fullfill the whole law of iustice euery
mind that is to fayth What shall I call this treacherous VVhitak ibidem fol. 501. or foolish dealing to answere one thing wheÌ„ another is demanded we now dispute of the sensible markes to discouer the visible Church of such markes as may be seene and perceaued by sense and not of the act of fayth or thing belieued wholy in that respect inuisible and obscure because fayth according to the Apostles definition Is the argument of thinges not appearing Which Hebr. 11. v. 1. to confound with the precedent motiues inducing vs to accept these thinges as the misteryes of beliefe is knauish treachery or notorious folly For as the naturall reasons which the Philosopher alleadgeth to perswade the Atheist there is a God are not the thing he belieueth or obiect of his fayth but as it were the outward Ambassâ—dours he vseth to winne him to accept that first ground of beliefe so the visible signes which leade vs to the knowledge of the Church are not reuealed articles imbraced by fayth but the forerunning messengers which The outward markes which leade vs to the Church must be apparaot to sense propose vnto vs that article of belieue They appertaine to the eye of the body to the manifest feeling and touch of sense or els they could be no signes at all to giue notice vnto vs of a true visible and sensible Church 3. M. VVhite harpeth vpon another string but with as false a stroake as VVhitaker For he teacheth Faith is the cause of the Church and therefore more knowne then the Church it selfe c. as euery cause is more apparant to our vnderst anding and better knowne to our iudgment then the effect I graunt that faith is the cause of the Church but that causes are more apparant VVhite in his way to the church §. 26. fol. 112 113. VVhitak loc citat to vs imprisoned in a Cottage of earth wintered amongst the cloudes of sense then their effects is euidently false contradicted by VVhitaker disproued also by many experiences of the eclipse of the Moone of the ebbing and flowing of the sea of the Remora his hindering the course of a ship and of a thousand such naturall effectes whose causes are vnknowne from whence the knowledge of Philosophy had her first being For many learned men woundring at these and the like effects began to search out the hidden causes and reasons of theÌ„ And what Is Aristotle of another mind whome M. VVhite VVhite in the same place so boldly quoteth as countenancing his absurdity I am fully assured he hath not so much as any sillable sounding that way For he distinguisheth two kind of knowledges one in respect of vs the other in the nature of the Aristotle no where teacheth causes to be more knowne to vs then their effects as White falsifyeth him thing in it selfe that is the thing in the perfection of his owne nature is more intelligible although by reason of our imbecility we cannot reach vnto it Thus Aristotle in the very places obiected by VVhite only teacheth that causes are both before their effects and better knowne to wit in nature but not to vs not to our vnderstanding not to our iudgment as he wretchedly applyeth and abuseth his wordes whether of malice or of ignorance I will not iudge but although he had beene wholy vnacquainted and ignorant in Aristotle yet VVhitaker his maister who affirmeth the same and with the same distinction as Aristotle doth might haue taught him the truth if some euill humour had not possessed his hart 4. Thirdly the true preaching of the word and doctrine of saluation is the very being it selfe or essence of the Church it is the only thing we require in searching it out Wherefore to assigne that for a marke is to delude the seeker and to giue the substance as a figne of ProtestaÌ„tâ— markes meer collusions the thing required For example if a stranger should demand where the Mayor of the Citty or chiefest Magistrate lodgeth Were it not a mockery to say Where he dwelleth who hath the whole command of the towne or were the stranger any whit the neerer by this reply No more is any Protestant the neer of finding the Church by these her essentiall Markes which doe not openly appeare or shine in her forehead but are closely hidden in her secret bowells For so S. Augustine sayth That truth remayneth Aug. in psal 57. in the wombe or bosome of the Church as all essences are couched vnder the veyles of accidents by vs who borrow our knowledge from outward senses must needs be vnderstood before we vnderstand the natures themselues Therfore we must first repaire to the Church before we can find the truth inclosed therein 5. M. VVhite admitteth with S. Augustine that true faith is in closed in the bosome of the Church but as a VVhite in his way to the true Church §. 28. fol. 118. 119. light saith he in a watch tower as a candle standing in a lanterne which by it owne light can guid vs infallibly to the Church c. as the firmament is seene by the light of the sun though it self hold out the sun vnto vs These be his examples as farre wide from his purpose as he from sincerity in alleaging of them For the light manifesteth it self without the help of the tower the sun vseth not the working of the firmament to cast forth his beames They both doe naturally shine and giue light vnto vs the truth not so that cannot be seene vnles it be manifested opened by the Church Faith is Rom. 10. v. 17. Psal 118. v. 130. by hearing heard it cannot be without it be vttered vttered it must be by the Preachers of the Church the Preachers then are they that giue notice of the Truth Therefore the Royall Prophet doth not say that Gods truth of it self but that the declaration opening of his words illuminateth and giueth vnderstanding Againe By the light we discouer the parts of the tower by the sun the firmament quite coÌ„trary in our case for we arriue not first by beames of faith to take notice of our preachers but by our preachers we are instructed in all pointes of faith which order of proceeding is manifestly expressed by the Prophet Isay speaking Isa 2. v. 3. in the person of such as trauaile to learne the truth Come let vs go vp to the mount of our Lord to the house of the God of Iacob he will teach vs his wayes c. Loe they first knew the mount of the Church to which they ascended and knew it to be the mount of our Lord the house of the God of Iacob and then were taught and instructed in his lawes The spleÌ„dour of the Church guided them to the light of truth not her reuealed light to know the Church For this cause our Sauiour termed his Apostles their successors not the towers or houses only which hold bâ—
58. Osiand ceÌ„t 13. l. 1. c. 4. pag. 329. condemned by Osiander another Protestant writer for approuing two Authors or Beginners of things one good another euill with the wicked Manichees for denying Baptisme denying matrimony denying the resurrection of the flesh as Antoninus likwise testifyeth with him To whome I adde the censure of Mayster Cooper the once intruded Bishop of winchester who recordeth of them Albigenses were heretikes which beganne by Toâ—â—use in France the yeare of our Lord 1207. which held the heresies of the Albanenses touching the soule Baptisme God and the generall Resurrection wherein they taught as he a little before meÌ„tioneth That the soule of man after his death was put into another body That Baptisme was of none efficacy That there were two Gods Anton. 4. Summ. ti 11. cap. 7. â—â—e good and another euill that of the good proceeded good thinges of the euill God euill things c. That the body should not eft soones rise â—â— the day of Iudgement These heresyes they renewed of the Albanenses They held moreouer sayth Cooper That it was Cooper in his dictionary the worde Albigenses â—â—t lawfull for Christian men to eate flesh 3. The VValdenses or poore men of Lyons were the â—â—me with the former but diuersly tearmed vpon diuers occasions 1. They admitted no Iudicious senteÌ„ce or corpoâ—all punishment of death to be lawfull because it is writâ—â—n Nolite iudicare do ye not iudge and non occides thou shalt At the word Albanenses â—â—â—ediatly before VVho where all one as some thinke with the Albigenses Alfonsus de Castro lib. 11. aduers bar verbo â—ccidâ—re Guido Antoninus de waldensibus â—ot kill 2. They allowed laymen women to consecrate the Sacrament and preach the word of God 3. Permitted Illyr in caâ— testium veritaâ—is pa. 731. 729. 747. 735. 755. Antonin p. 4 tit 1â— cap. 7. Fulke in c. 12. Apoc. sect 2. Luther de 10. praeceptis in explicatione 1. praecepti eodem Tom. in resolutionibus de indulgeÌ„t conclus 25. impres VVittebergaeanno Domini 1582. Mihi inquit-certissimuÌ„ est purgatoriumesse Clergy men to enioy no possessions or proprietyes 4. Condemned oathes Princes and Iudges as Illiricus a zealous Protestant witnesseth of them And lastly they contemned the Apostles Creed as Antoninus testifieth The Picards whome Fulke accouÌ„teth in the number of his faithfull are disclaymed by Luther as infaelices haeretici vnhappy heretiks And because their first Authour denyed Purgatory which Luther imbraced saying It is most certeyne to me that there is a Purgatory he inueigeth agaynst him after this manner Must we therfore belieue an heretike scarce borne 50. yeares ago contending the fayth of so many ages to haue beene false especially when he doth nothing els then that he sayth I belieue not and so proueth all his owne things and disproueth all ours Thus Luther exclaymed agaynst the Protestant Picardus for impugning Purgatory and with the same outcry pursueth him for disallowing many articles as strongly warranted by antiquity as that 3. Petrus Abaylardus banded himselfe as we reade in Saint Bernard with Arius and Nestorius concerning the Trinity and the person of Christ he indeauored by many reasons to proue that christ was not deliuered to death by the will of his Father Constantinus Coproniuus whome Illyricus mentioneth amongst his witnesses of truth agreeeth I confesse with protestants in breaking of images and disauowing their worship But he was otherwise such a damnable heretike and hellish Idolater as he denyed our Lady to be mother of God with the Caytife Nestorius He worshipped Venus and offred humane sacrifices vnto the Diuell as Suidas reporteth Wickliffe also their great Ber. epist 192. 188. M. SimoÌ„s vpon the Reuela pa. 142. giueth instance among o-others of this Abaylardus Illyr in Catal. testium pag. 836. 837. Suidas in lexico Melancton epist ad Frider. Mycon quae praefixa est veterum sententijs à se câ—llect de caena Domini Patron is discarded by Melancthon Luthers scholler because sayth he he foolishly confouÌ„deth the Ghospell with politik affaires He contendeth it vnlawfull for Priests to possesse any thing proper or as their own he will haue no Tithes payd but to Teachers Of which propositions Melancton deliuereth this censure Pernicious and sediditious 〈◊〉 is that VVicklifian superstition which forceth the Ministers of the Church to beggery 4. Secondly besides these heresies which they held anathematized both by Protestants and vs they maynteyned other articles of Faith conformable to our Catholike doctrine and disagreable from Protestants in points fundamentall For this cause Luther reiecteth the VValdenses or poore men of Lions as halting in the article of Luther in resolut ca. de Suerm Iustification the principall ground life and soule of Protestancy They erre quoth he in that they belieue not only â—ayth to iustify without workes but that it must be confirmed with Charity of imputatiue Iustice they know nothing Melancton recordeth of Wickliffe he vnderstood not a whit nor held the Iustice of faith MelanctoÌ„â— loco citat And why so because he belieued with vs Iustification and merit of workes He acknowledged also with vs the adoration of Relikes the worshipping of Images the behoofull patronage and intercession of Saints Which according to Caluin doth race the foundation of religion stoppe all way VVicklif de Euc. c. 9. in decal super primo maÌ„dato ca. 15. Item in ser de assump Mariae he sayth hiâ— videturmihi quodim-possbile est nos praemiari fine Mariae suffragio Cal. l. 1. instit cap. 20. Luther in coll Germ. cap. de Sacram altaris cap. de Antichristo Fox in Apocalip cap. 11. pag. 20â— VVhytaker cont â— q. 5. c. 27. fol. 489 Cal. l. 4. insti cap. â— entry to God Luther abandoneth the Hussites warneth his followers to forsake their communion because they say priuate Masses and because Iohn Husse departed not as he testifieth a fingers beadth from the Papacy Foxe also affirmeth of him that he taughr practised the same with vs the same which iâ— taught at Rome concerning transubstantiation Masse vowes of Chastity free wil predestination informed faith the cause of Iustification and merits of good workes Of Iouinian and Berengarius I might shew the like that they defended many Caâ—holike points of doctrine which ouerthrow the very Tower of Protestancy For if the Church presently falleth according to Whitaker Caluin and all learned Protestants and Catholikes also as soone as she teacheth any fundamentall errour how long hath the Protestants Church laine buryed in her owne ruines which hath imbraced so many and such essentiall blasphemies 5. Thirdly although these false supposed Protestants had all accorded in Protestants profession yet they could not haue beene sufficient to vnderproppe the Although the Waldenses wicklifistes and the rest had agreed in one beliefe yet they could not continue the neuer interrupted succesion of the ProtestaÌ„t fayth walles or vnite
vnto death in this deadly schisme and vnreconciliable hatred the one agaynst the other To leaue forraine contentions and speake of domesticall VVhitak contro 2. quaest 6. c. 3. Fulke in cap. 11. Matt. sect 5. Hooker it s in his Eccl. poli lib. 2. pa 101. Co. in his def c. art 7. pag. 54. Perkins in his refor Catholikp 55. Abbot in his def c. c. 3. se 8. 9. 10 Sparke in his answer to M. Iohn d'Albins f. 281. 28â— 283. VVhitak vbi supra Field l. 3. cap. 22. fo 118. 119. Ouerall in the confer pa 41. 42. Fulke in c. 3. IoaÌ„ sect 2. in 2â— Actorum sect 10. VVhitakâ—r contro 1. quaest 6. c. 3. VVhit ibid. 57. Bils in his true difference c. p. 4. p. 586. 587 Casaub in his answere to Card. Per. p. 20. in eng M. Iacob in his def p. 88. Harm p. 80. 81. 82. VVhite in his way to the true Church §. 33. fol. 138. of our gospellers amongst themselues in such pointes of sayth as they confesse to be substantiall 4. Whitaker and Folke peremptorily define the coÌ„maundements of God impossible to be kept and the former of â—hem â—egâ—â—â—eth this as a fundamentall point M. Hooker and Doctour Concil eagerly gayne lay it and sincerely hold they may be kept Mayâ—â—er Perkins Doctour Abbot and Doctour Sparke maynteine that the faythfull once instifyed cannot fallout of the state of grace with whome Mayster Whitaker agreeth and setteth it downe as a fundamentall point And Sparke sayth the contrary is a most dangerous errour Doctour Field notwithstanding Doctour Oueral now Bishop of Couentry and Lichfield defend they may by grieuous sinns fall from grace into the present state of wrath and damnation whose opinion his Maiesty approued with his royall assent in the conference at Hampton Court Fulke sucketh from Caluin and Whitaker engrosseth it as a point fundamentall That the Sacramentes are not necessary to saluation That they signify only but they cause no grace And of Baptisme by name Whitaker sayth Our safety dependeth not of the outward lotion but on the meritts of Christ on the meere election and promise of God Mayster Hooker and Mayster Bilson contrary wise affirme the Sacraments necessary to saluation and that they do cause grace and that our safety so much dependeth on the outward lotion as infants quoth Bilson cannot enter the Kingdome of heauen nor be heyres with Christ before they be engrassed into Christ by Baptisme A little after The Church absolutely and slatly may not assure saluation to children vnbaptized Which Casaubon also in his Maiesties name alloweth as most true Mayster Iacob with the harmony of confessions which Mayster white honoureth as the touchstone of his beleefe approueth a disparity of sinns â—ome to be veniall not all to deserue eternall death Fuâ—â—â— â—ulke 〈…〉 Matth. sect 6. 〈…〉 in c. Rom. sect 11. VVhitak vbi su fol. 58. 58â— VVillet in his Synop. printed anno Domini 1600. contro 20. VVhitak in his ans to M. CaÌ„pians 8. reason l. 8. aduer Duraeum â— Bilson in his serm Of the full redemptioÌ„ c. Hugh Sanford l. 3. de desc Domini nostri ad inferoâ— sâ—â— 91. 92. 93. 94. c. Reynolds in his secoÌ„d conclusion annexed to his confer VVhitak cont 2. qu. â— cap. 3. f. 274. VVhite §. 14. fol. 79. Bancroft in his sermon preea had the 8. of â—â—br 1588. VVillet in finop p. 48 Field in his first book of the Church c. 20. Hook l. â— sect 8. p. 141. l. 2. p. 103. 12â— Couell in his defence art 8. p. 49. 50. 51. 52. Reyn. in his fift conclu VVill. in his medit vpon the 122. psalm Hook l. 5. p. 140. VVill. in sinop anno Domino 160. p. 789. 788. Bils in his suruey of Christ sufferings and of his des to hell Perkins in his treatise of that mattter San. l. 3. de des Domini nos â—nd Whitaker so bitterly inâ—eigh agaynst that Popish assertiâ—â— as Whitaker protesteth it doth not only ouerthrowe the true â—â—t establish a false foundation Willet and Whitaker blasphemously deny the full sufficâ—ency of our Redemption by Christs corâ—â—rall death without his feeling of eternall damnaation M. Bilson confuteth that diuâ—◠〈◊〉 errour and truly teacheth as we do out of the Scriptures Fathers That he fully redeemed vs with his death on the Crosse and neuer felt noâ—â—o much as dreaded any death of foule or â—orrour of damnation how beit Master Sanford laboureth to answere all his arguments raking the former heresy out of hell defendeth it with such impiety as I wonder so detestable a work is permitted in a Christian common wealth 5. It were an infinit labour to recount all their infinit differences For touching the Church Reynoldes Whitaker and White affirme the whole militant Church vpon earth may erre in manners in doctrine in points of fayth Mayster Bancroft holdeth it cannot erre in matters of fayth Willet sayth it is sometymes inuisible Field it is alwayes visible Touching Euangelicall Councells That a man may doe more then he is bound vnder precept is auouched by Mayster Hooker and Doctour Couell reiected by Doctour Reynolds and Mayster Willet as impious and presumptuous Concerning Christ Hooker defendeth he died for all Willet he died not for al but only for the elect Bilson sayth he descended into hell M. Perkins and Mayster Sanford he descended not into the locall place of hell but only into his graue or scpulcher Touching their Mission some wil haue it ordinary some â—xtraordinary one from the people another from the Prince or house of Parlament A third from the Catholike Clergy which they account false and Antichristian Field l. 3. c. 3â— fo 156. 158. c. Barlow in his Sermon preached September 21. 1606. In which kind Field auerreth endeauoureth to proue That Presbiters to wit Priests and not Bishops may in case of necessity ordeyne Presbiters and Deacons and he graunteth many of the reformed Churches namely those of France and others to haue had no other ordination But William Barlow late Bishop of Rochester in his Sermon concerning the antiquity and superiority of Bishops preached before the King at Hampton Court affirmeth and proueth That Neyther the Apostles nor Church of Christ succeeding would admit any other but Bishops to that busines as not iustifiable for Presbiters eyther by reason example or Scriptur Againe he addeth If any of the inferiour rancks vnder Bishops presumed to do it his act was reuersed by the Church for vnlawfull Lastly concerning the Regiment of their Church the consistory of Geneua in the confession of their fayth approued by Caluin and Beza detest the Papisticall hierarchy of the Church of England as vsurped and diabolicall All English Puritans abhorre the same accounting the Protestant Doctour VVhitgift against Cart. Hooker in his book of â—â—polâ—â—y Mason in his 4. bookes 1. King Iam. in his premonitioÌ„ pag. 44. The Auth. of the 12. Arguments
fab Iero in praefat dia. contra Pel. Damas haer 100. Field in his 3. book froÌ„ the â—3 to the 33. chap. heresies or puddles of naughtines wherein they dissent from our true fayth they seuerally sucke from the poysoned fountaynes of sundry old heretikes From Aerius their deniall of sacrifice and prayer for the dead Of Purgatory from the Armenians of Indulgences from the Hussits Taborits of the reall presence from Berengarius of the worshipping of Images from Xenaias They hold auricular Conlession not necessary with the Iacobits Priestes Absolution vnauaylable with the Nouatians Adoration of Relikes superstitious with Vigilantius honour done to the Crosse Idolatry with the Paulicians With the Audians they reprehend enioyned Pennance With the Lampetians the discipline order of Monkes With Vigilanlantius and Iouinian vowed chastity and Priestes single life Pilgrimages to Saints bodyes with Claudius Taurinensis From Simon Magus they take their sufficiency of fayth without workes to saluation From Proclus and the Messalians their inherency of sin in the soules of the regenerate That man hath not Freewill from the Manichees That all sinnes proceede from the determinat purpose and decree of God from the Mahometanes O loathsome sincke O infectious dunghill composed of so many and such contagious heresies All which haue beene heretofore anathematized accursed by our Roman Church For although Field and some of his associates goe about to acquite their sect from sundry of these impieties because the aforesayd heretikes maynteyned them vpon another ground then Protestants doe yet seeing the auncient Church condemned not so much the groundes or causes whereupon they relyed as the assertions themselues our sectaryes must needs be guilty of the same heresies who agree with them in the same positions 7. Thirdly As our Church by it selfe so by orderly proceeding hath vanquished her rebells For first The Roman Church hath alwayes orderly resisted and subdued her enemyes she hath sifted and examined their cause shewed them their errors admonisht theÌ„ of their faults giueÌ„ them time to repent peace fauour vpon their amendement Then the obstinate she hath summoned to appeare at the publik Court or great Consistory of her Prouinciall or generall councells She hath giuen theÌ„ safe conduct to come go liberty to propose dispute argue their owne cause after diligent study examination and discussion thereof like a supreme Iudge and soueraygne Empresse she hath pronounced sentence eyther for theÌ„ or agaynst theÌ„ according to the direction of Gods holy spirit After this princely iuridicall manner Arius was condeÌ„ned in the first Councell of Nice in the CouÌ„cell of Constantinople Macedonius Nestorius in the Ephesin in the Calcedone Eutiches c. Luther his coÌ„plices in the CouÌ„cell of Trent 8. Our Gospellers proceed not so with vs They disturbe and cast vs out of possession without examining The Protestants haue vsed base and disorderly proceeding in expelling is froÌ„ our right our right or admitting vs to speake in our owne behalfe They affoard vs neyther leasure to propose nor tyme or place to argue our cause A cause vniuersally susteyned by so many Christian Princes and people honourably defended in such famous vniuersityes supernaturally confirmed by miracles froÌ„ heauen Consecrated with the bloud of innunerable Martyrs ratified by the prescription of all precedent ages and neuer as yet autentically censured or reprooued in any Notwithstanding so great interest in â—o renowned a cause they neuer conuented vs hitherto before any Prouinciall or Nationall much lesse Generall assembly They haue admitted vs to no indifferent publike Conference for which we haue often supplicated heretofore as the Protestant Relatour testifyeth saying RelatioÌ„ of Religion c. 29. Catholikes cry maynly in all places for triall by disputation Thus did â—ampian many yeares since with vs. Thus as I passed through Zurick did Cardinall Andrea of Constance and his Iesuites c. And thus doe I now in behalfe of my brethren make humble sute to Nimble â—ute made to his Maiesty for triall of our cause eyther by disputatioÌ„ or other publike confereÌ„ce his Maiesty to graunt vs at length that reasonable request which the Ministers hertofore haue by al meanes possible laboured to hinder and in liew of those honourable trialls haue incensed the clemency of our gracious Princes and procured their swords to be drawne agaynst vs Their Parlamentall lawes Edictes and Proclamations their dreadfull anger and heauiest indignation to bannish imprison or at least stoppe the mouthes of innocents vnheard Of whome Mayster Ormeroda Protestant truly auerreth The Clinke the Gatehouse the VVhite lion and the Fleete he might haue added the rackes tortures and gallowses Ormer picture Pur. p. 1. haue beene Protestants only arguments whereby they haue proued their cause these many yeares An euident token in the iudgement of all prudent men of their cowardly harts and guilty consciences ProtestaÌ„ts haue been coÌ„straynd dayly to refine alter their new beliefe but Catholiks neuer chaÌ„ged any poynt of doctrine 9. Fourthly whereas Protestants notwithstanding their base teacherous courses haue beene still forced by our men to alter chaunge relent and vary in diuers fundamentall articles as hath beene discouered in explayning the precedent marke yet our Church in all the stormes which eyther in this present or former ages haue beene raysed agaynst her neuer shrunke neuer varied from the least iote of her beleefe She hath explicated sundry points more plainly more expresly defined some vnsearchable misteryes but she hath not at any time added any new or chaunged any old article of her fayth She hath wisely polished orderly carued fairely burnished righly adorned the precious stones as Vincentius calleth VinceÌ„t in com ca. 27. them of heauenly doctrine But the same incorruptible stones she hath still vnchangeably preserued A faithfull keepeâ— and true interpreter she hath beene but no broker changer Vincent ibid c. 29. or diminisher of the treasure committed to her custody Posterity sayth the same Vincentius may congratulate it to haue vnderstood by her which antiquity not vnderstanding did reuerence and adore Yet the same which she learned she so taught as when she taught newly she taught not new thinges c. A little after Her doctrin followed these lawes of increase that by yeares it was strengthned 〈◊〉 time enlarged aduaunced by age and yet it still continued inuiolable â—nd incorrupt O triumphant and victorious Church worthy to beare the crowne and sway the scepter of Christs Priestly and eternall Kingdome worthy to be that inconquerable and fatall stone on which whosoeuer falleth according Math 21. vers 44. to our Sauiours prophecy hath beene broken and which bruiseth them on whome it lighteth For haue not all her enemies beene broken wasted and discomfited who haue risen agaynst her and hath not she bruised shiuered into peeces and cleane extinguished as many as she hath striuen against She censured and condemned the Nouatians Macedonians Arians Pelagians Eutichians
one you must needes Had they authority Then no other ordination at that time to the validity of their orders was essentially required in their opinions but the royall assent of the Queene approbation of her Nobility Had they no authority or power to do it It was an vniust act theÌ„ of vsurpation in that honourable assembly a great want of Wisdome to make a law not appertayning to their office and nothing Mason pa. 132. 8. Eliz. c. 1. profitable to their cause 16. The like absurdityes ensew of the dispensation her Maiesty vsed to make good the consecrations of D. Paprker and other intruders ordeyned in the second or third of her raigne For if their consecrations were sound as Mayster Mason obiecteth to himselfe why did the Queene in her letters patentes directed for the consecrating of them vse diuers generall wordes and sentences whereby she dispensed with all causes or doubtes of any imperfection or disability that could or might be obiected in any wise agaynst the same as may appeare by â—â— Act of Parlament referring vs to the sayd letters Patents remayning vpon record Whereupon I conclude that seeing no man can dispense in the disabilityes of holy orders but such as haue authority to giue and conferre them eyther M. Maiesty who graciously dispensed to vse Mayster Masons wordes with Mason l. â— c. 5. p. 132. all causes or doubtes in their orders was the chiefe collatour and giuer of them or she iniuriously challenged to her selfe that which no law neyther of God nor man could possibly affoard her All the dawbinges which M. Mason applyeth to couer these faultes are pithily and iudiciously cast of by Mayster D. Champney For wheras he one while sayth that the Queene dispensed with the trespasses Doctour Champney in his answ to Mayster Mason c. 13. agaynst her owne lawes It is answered that there were no lawes of hers transgressed in consecrating of any before that tyme she hauing repealed in her first Parlament the lawes of Queene Mary which disanulled that new inauguration deuised by the twelue deputed by King Edward and hauing enacted no new lawes her selfe any way violable in that kinde before she practised that supreme power of her spirituall soueraygnty in graunting dispensations which was about the second yeare of her raygne Then when Mason dallyeth that she dispensed not in essentiall pointes of ordination but only in accidentall Mason l. 3. c. 5. p. 133. 8. Eliz. c. â— not in substance but in circumstance the wordes of the Queenes letters patents giue testimony agaynst him that she dispensed with all causes or doubtes of any imperfection or disability that can or may be obiected in any wise agaynst the same Now the doubtes were not about any accidentall ceremony or other not essentiall circumstance but as appeareth No man caÌ„ dispeÌ„se in the disabilityes of holy orders but he that hath power to coÌ„ferre theÌ„ by the Statute made in the Eight of Queene Elizabeth and by other most learned lawyers of the Realme as I shall declare by by they were about the very substance it selfe of their ordination whether they were true Bishops or no Likewise it belongeth only to them to dispense euen in accidental disabilities of holy orders to whome it belongeth to conferre the orders Therfore if Queene Elizabeth had power in M. Masons iudgemeÌ„t to doe the one she had authority to confer the other and that collation thogh voyde in it selfe was iudged sufficient amongst the Protestants Besides whereas M. Mason sayth That the wisdome of their Church discreetly and religiously pared away all superfluous and superstitions ceremonyes in ordination Mason l. 2. c. 11. p. â—4 What ceremony vnbeseeming What circumstance vnfitting remayned amongst them which needed dispeÌ„sation Especially seeing as M. Doctour Champney wel vrgeth agaynst him It is not to be thought that the Queene would dispense with those which the wisdome of their Church retayneth as good lawfull 17. In fine the ordination ministred in Queene Elizabeths raygne was no other then such as was deuised in the dayes of Kinge Edward ratifyed and confirmed by her But that inauguration was no validity as 8. Eliz. 1. appeareth by an Article of Queene Maryes made by the consent of the Lords spirituall and temporall and thus Fox in his Acts and Monum p. 1295. related by Mayster Fox Touching such persons as were heretofore promoted to any orders after the new sort and fashion of orders considering they were not ordered in very deed the Bishop c. The same Fox reporteth that Doctour Brook Bishop of Glocester proceeding to the degradation of Ridley consecrated Bishop after that new forme yet made Priest after the ancient tolde him That they were to degrade him only Fox pag. 1604. of Priesthood for they did not take him to be a Bishop Agaynst which Ridley neuer excepted Howbeit Cranmer being truly consecrated was degraded as Archbishop Then the opinion of the Iudges and censure of the common law disallowed that new ordination In the great Abridgement of the common law it is sayd Que Euesques c. That the Bishops in King Edward the sixt dayes were not consecrated Brookes Nouell cases placito 463. fol. 101. printed 1604. and therefore were not Bishops For which cause a lease for yeares made by them and confirmed by the Deane and Chapter shall not binde the Successour for such were not Bishops Contrarywise of a Bishop depriued which was Bishop in fact at the tyme of the letting confirmation made by the Deane and Chapter These were the Iudges words which are yet further strengthned by the case of Bishop Bonner who was certified into the Kings Bench by Doctour Horne supposed Bishop of Winchester for refusing the new oath appointed to ecclesiasticall persons by the statute of the first of Queene Elizabeth 1. Elizab. c. 1. vnto him offered in Southwarke in the Bishops howse there and his addition was Legum doctor in sacris or diuibus constitutus non clericus nec Episcopus And therefore the certificate was challenged sed non alocatur Also the sayd certificate was challenged for that the oath was sayd to be tendred vnto him by Robert Horne Bishop of Winchester who was no Bishop And Bonner was endited vpon this certificate in the County of Midlesex according to the Statute he pleaded thereunto not guilty And it was holden that the triall should not be made by a iury of Midlesex but by a Iurry of Surry and the venew of Southwarke c. It was also much debated amongst 6. 7 Eliz. Diar folio 234. al the Iustices in the Lord Catlins chamber if Bonner might giue in euidence vpon this issue not guilty that the said Bishop of VVinchester non fuit Episcopus teÌ„pore oblationu Sacramenti and resolued by all that the verity and matter being so indeed he should be well receaued vpon this issue and that the Iury should trye it The triall was
such as Bonner was discharged and neuer called more in question about that matter But it was presently after ordeyned in Parlament That all actes heretofore made or 8. Eliz. 1. 39. Eliz. 8. done by any person about the consecration confirmation or inuesting of any person elected to the dignity of an Archbishop or Bishop by vertue of the Queenes letters patents or commission since the beginning of her raigne shal be adiudged good 18. Which lawes had beene superfluous and not beseeming the dignity of that place if the sayd Bishops had been sufficiently made before especially seeing it is prouided in the same parlament that all tenders of the sayd 8. Eliz. c. 1. circa fineÌ„ â—ath made by any Archbishop or Bishop aforesayd or before the last day of this present Session to be made c. all refusalls of the same oath so tendred or before the last day of this present Session to be tendred by any Archbishop or Bishop c. shal be voyde and of no effect or validity in the law What better proofes What more forcible arguments to conuince the nullity of their Bishops former ordination then these Acts of Parlament these decisions of the Iudges That acquittance of Bishop Bonner This disanuiling of the oath tendred and refusall Abridgement of Diars reports 7. Eliz. 23. 4. thereof vntill that present Session in which their Bishops were adiudged authorized and enacted to be lawfull Otherwise it had belonged to that high Court to haue defended and maynteyned their Bishops precedent inauguration their tendring of the oath according to Sand de schis Angli pa. 166 D. Harding in his coÌ„fut of the Apol. par 2. cap. â— the Statute of the first of Queene Elizabeth condemned others refusall contrary thereunto 19. Further if Protestant superintendents had that vndoubted ordination which Mayster Mason fancieth why did their Ministers after Queene Elizabeth had vniustly deposed her lawfull Pastours seeke to Antony Kitchen Bishop of Landasse to be consecrated by him who by reason of his pretended blindnes auoyded the taske Why did they repayre to the Irish Bishop in the Tower Fulk in his answ to a counter Cashol p. 50. VVhitak contr 1. q. 5. cap. 6. Sutcliffe answere to exceptions pag. 87. Sparke in his answere to M. Iohn d' Albinsc 1. p 20 23. 24. 26. who likewise refused to lay hands vpon them and therfore were constreyned to ordeyne one another at the Nagge 's head in Cheapeside in such ridiculous manner as they are now ashamed of it Or if they had receaued their consecration from our Catholik Bishops what iniury doth Doctour Fulke both to his owne Prelats ours in saying vnto vs You are much deceaued if you think we esteeme your offices of Bishops Priestes and Deacons any better then laymen and you presume too much to thinke that we receaue your ordering to be lawfull What wronge doth Doctour Whitaker to himselfe and his collegues when he affirmeth our Catholique Bishops not to be lawfull Bishops eyther by diuine ecclesiasticall or Ciuill law And Sutcliffe in like manner The Romish Church is not the true Church hauing no Bishops nor Priestes at all but only in name what disgrace did Doctour Sparke cast on the glory of their Clergy when writing agaynst vs he presumeth to auow that our Bishops and Priestes haue no ordinary calling but wholy vnlawfull That infinite haue had their coÌ„secrations and orders from such as were no true Popes or Bishops during the tyme of the Papall schismes and thereupon inferreth how can we count those right Bishops and Priestes 〈◊〉 were made by such as had no right to make any or how shall we 〈◊〉 them from such as fetch their pedigree from right Popes This 〈◊〉 will trouble the whole Church of Rome to cracke 20. But now M. Sparke not the Church of Rome alone but your reformed Church of England is put to the trouble of cracking that nut Now you your selfe must cracke it or els you are a wolfe an intruder who commeth to kill and destroy the sheepe of Christ For as Socrates in the like case pithyly reasoned By the Nicen Fathers Socrates in hist Eccl. l. c. 32. all later Bishops are ordeyned if they had not the holy Ghost who might descend by ordination into euery one neyther haue these receaued the function of Priesthood For how could they receaue it when it 〈…〉 giuen by them who had it not So I dispute with Mayster Mason if our Bishops and Priestes had no ordinary calling no right to ordeyne any Yf they were wholy vnlawfull and meere laymen as his fellowes weene what calling haue their superintendents What ordination What spirituall iurisdiction deriued from such as had no authority to ordeyne them Doctour Whitaker therefore VVhitak contr 2. q. 5. c. 6. folio 35â— more ancient and neerer the beginning of Protestant profession then Maister Mason flatly denyeth the ordination or calling of their Mynistery to proceed from the Catholique Clergy which went before them saying Our Bishops and ministers although they be not ordeyned by Papistical Nostri Episcopi ministri si non sunt a Papisticis Episcopis ordinati tamen rite legitime ordinaÌ„tur Ibidem folio 357. IbideÌ„ folio 36. Bishops yet they are orderly and lawfully ordeyned A little before Truly amongst them Catholiques only they are lawfull Pastours who are called and created according to their order But we say their Ministery was corrupted and therefore that we ought not to be made and created Bishops by them Immediatly after being vrged with a Canon of the first Nicen Councell That a Bishop ought to be created by two or three Bishops he answereth That law was enacted by the Bishops and it was pious if it may be commodiously done and if there be godly Bishops from whome ordination may be had otherwise not which constitution in the flourishing Church may be reteyned not in the lapsed Agayne Touching ordination by three Bishops that constitution is to be obserued as longe as thinges remayne whole and entire and as longe as the Bishops were good otherwise not 21. Besides Yf he Bellarmine graunt our vocation saith Whitaker to be lawfull which neuer any Catholique did Ibid. f. 361. for ordination we 〈◊〉 contend because they that haue authority to cal haue authority also to ordeyne of lawfull ordination cannot be â—â—tayned c. But touching the Bishops of those tymes they neuer could be drawn Ad Episcopos veròillorum â—emporuÌ„ quod attinet illinuÌ„ quam induci potuerunt vt quemquaÌ„ ordinareÌ„t nisi qui illis per oÌ„niafaueret to ordeyne any vnlesse it were such a one as in all thinges fauoured theÌ„ For this cause he flieth at the end to an extraordinary successioÌ„ agaynst the common fashion and vulgarly receaued custome c. This quoth he our Church had because the ordinary succession was corrupt Where I pray Mayster Mason where lay your Registers hid when this glorious light of your
designed by the mouth of our Lord from whence it is to beginne and how farre it is to be dilated it is to beginne at Ierusalem and to be dilated into all nations Where he often sayth it shal perseuere Ibidem c. 5. vntill the end of the world This marke is distinct from those which I haue explaned heretofore because I speake not here of the vniuersall being of the Church but of the manner how it came to be in all nations 〈◊〉 of the successiue line of pastorall doctrine but of the order how it also continued for euer 2. After which sort it is to be reduced to the precedent note of Apostolicall succession and such Churches as are thus deriued from those which the Apostles planted Tertull. in praes cont haer may be truly called as Tertullian affirmeth Apostolicall Churches But the Church of Rome only can shew how it beganne at Ierusalem how it grew and spread it selfe into all nations how it still perseuereth whole and entire in all the pointes of fayth she first sucked from the Apostles The Apostolicall fayth is to be knoweÌ„ not by the priuat expositions which now are deuised but by the generall interpretations of Scripture which haue been deliuered froÌ„ tyme to tyme. breastes Therefore she alone is the vndoubted spouse of Iesus Christ For we doe not here intrude our selues to the Apostles tymes and lay clayme as Protestants and other heretikes falsly doe to the Apostolicall faith but to the preaching propagatioÌ„ continuance of that fayth not to the new interpretatioÌ„s which now are made of the written word but to the receaued expositions which from tyme to tyme from country to country from Iury to Rome from Rome to all nations haue beene infallibly gathered and faythfully deliuered out of that sacred word Of this our sectaryes are so destitute as they had not any Priest or Bishop Clark of layman woman or childe in the whole world who preached vnto Luther their first beginner and deliuered vnto him or any other of his consorts their Protestant doctrin Therfore Mayster Mason retire to as you haue heard to the reuelation of Scripture made in England to Cranmer Latimer Ridley and their fellowes others to the like reuelations made to Luther at wittemberge to Caluin at Geneua Mason l. 1. chap. 2. fol. 11. to Oecolampadius at Basil from thence they deriue the propagation or reuiuall of their Gospell which lay dead before for many ages And that which Saint Augustine Aug. l. de vnit Eccl. cap. 17. condemned in the Donatists of no lesse then blasphemy to wit that the good seede of heauenly truth which was sowed by the Apostles and Apostolicall men in all the world and which was there to grow vntill the haruest should haue perished out of those places and be sowed a new out of Africa This I say which he accounted in them a most detestable blasphemy is reuiued again by our late Sectaries who as wretchedly dreame that the same seede was decayed in their dayes or couered at least froÌ„ the view of the world that it had not any publike Pastours to preserue it Doctours to water it preachers to sow it but it must be sowed a new by Cranmer out of England by Luther out of Wittemberge out of Geneua by Caluin whose folly I impugne with Saint Augustines wordes For as his enemyes furnish our Sectaryes with obiections so he armeth vs with irresistable answeres Let them sayth he search the Scriptures and agaynst so many testimonyes which proclayme the Church of Christ to be spread ouer all the world let them Aug. de vnit eccl c. 4. bring but one as certayne and manifest as those by which they demonstrate the Church of Christ to haue perished out of other nations and only to haue remayned in Africa as though it should haue another beginning not from Ierusaelem but from Carthage where first they set vp a Bishop agaynst a Bishop Or as we may apply it to our purpose VVhitak cont 2. q. 5. cap. 1. The Apology of the English Church pa. 4. chap. 4. Caluin libro 4. instit 1. c. 7. §. 24. Fox acts and mon. pag. 400. and pag. 402. Oecolampadius vpon his tomb at Basill is called Euangelicae doctrinae Author primus Buâ—er â—â— An. 36. ad Episco Hereford calleth Luther primum Apostolum purioris â—uangelij Ioachim Camera fratrum orthodoxae Eccles pag. 161. calleth â—uther 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from England from Wittemberge from Geneua where by Bishops of Priestes lately sprunge vp are scattered abroad new seedes of beliefe contrary to the sowinges of all other Bishops and Priestes In so much as their owne followers attribute vnto them The Restauration The Bringing to light The first Beginning or Rebudding of the Gospell The Reedification of the desolate ruines of Religion The Opening of a veyne longe hid before The Rising of aebeame of truth then vnknowne and vnheard They call them the first Authours first Maysters first restorers first Apostles of their euangelicall strange â—â—d new reformed doctrine For themselues also entitle it new â—â—d strange And another of their fauourites auerreth that â—uther receaued not his fayth eyther froÌ„ Husse or Wickâ—iffe but was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instructed of himselfe by the help no doubt aâ— he imâ—gâ—â—ed of holy Scripture A playne demonstration that the Protestant fayth is not that which beginning first at Ierusalem was diffused ouer the world and from Pastour to Pastour descended by the Apostles prescribed way of preaching vnto them Now let vs see whether this property belonge not to the Roman Church 3. Our aduersaries cannot deny but that the ChristiaÌ„ faith first preached at Rome came from Ierusalem eyther by Saint Peter as the whole clowd of Fathers and greatest torrent of Protestants beare witnes or at least by S. Paul who continued the same preaching and was there vnder Nero crowned with martyrdome Likewise that the same fayth was propagated into all Nations the Apostle also testifieth saying to the Romans Your fayth is renowned Rom. 1. v. 8. in the whole world and Saint Irenaeus calling it the greatest and most auncient Church of Rome knowne to all the world as founded by the two most glorious Apostles Peter and Paul addeth Irenaeus l. 3. c. 3. adu haeres immediatly after that vnto this Church in respect of her more mighty principality it is necessary that all Churches agree and haue accesse that is to say all faythfull people wheresoeuer they liue In which Church the tradition that hath descended from the Apostles VVhitak in his ans to Doctor Sanders 2. demonst Fulke in c. 22. Thessa sect 7. Reynolds in his 5. conclus hath euer beene kept by those that liue in any place of the world Fot this cause our aduersaryes confesse that it was our mother Church a most pure excellent and flourishing Church And so continued for some few ages But since say they it is degenerated into a
bastard Church into an adulterous Church Wherefore the only thinge I am to proue is that the Roman church neuer ceased to be the true church of Iesus christ or which is all one that it neuer altered her religion neuer changed in any essentiall point from the purity of fayth which the Apostles togeather with their bloud to speak with Tertullian powred into it Which I first demonstrate TertulliaÌ„ in praes contra haer with this common argument often heretofore insinuated 4. The diuin prouideÌ„ce hath preserued inuiolably the truth of his Gospel in the persoÌ„ of succession inuisible descent of Bishops Priestes and preachers in some place or other for he hath appoynted a perpetuall generation of Apostles Prophets Euangelists Pastours Doctours to continue in his Church vntill we meete all into the vnity Ephes 4. v. 13. of sayth and knowledge of the Sonne of God that is vntill the last day The finall end or cause was that now we be not children wauering and carryed about with euery winde of doctrine So that Ibidem v. 14. as an orderly ranke of Pastours and preachers was still to remayne euen so the linke of heauenly truth is perpetually chayned thereunto by the holy Ghost in so much as the gates of hell and all the might of Satan shall neuer separate them but no other row of succeeding Pastours can be named besides those of the Roman Church or such as descending from them in all partes of the world haue likewise agreed with them in fayth and doctrine therefore they are the Doctours and Pastours which our Lord hath appointed to abide in his Church vnto the worke of the ministery vnto the edifying of the body of Christ vntill Ephes 4. v. 12. we all meet in the vnity of fayth 5. Secondly that Church which once was the chast and vndefiled spouse of Christ can neuer cease to be his Three only wayes can a true Church fayle by Schisme heresy or apostacy Schisma est recessus vel diuisio ab vnitate ecclesiae spouse or loose the integrity of sauing fayth vnlesse it be diuorced from him by schisme heresy or apostacy Schisme commeth from the greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is defined a departure or diuision from the vnity of the Church by which the band and communion held with a former Church is broken and cut off Heresy as it is now generally taken is a willfull election and firme adhesion to some priuate and singular opinion or rather errour coÌ„trary to the generall approued doctrine of the Church and it is deriued from the Greeke verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifyeth to chuse or voluntarily to preferre one thinge before another Apostacy is a defection or reuolte A description of heresy from God in such manner as it renounceth his faith casteth of the very name and title of a Christian by imbracing Iudaisme Turcisme or Paganisme But the RomaÌ„ Church which once syncerely professed the faith Of Apostacy of Christ neuer deuided it selfe by Schisme from the body of other faythfull Christians It neuer brake the communion or went forth froÌ„ the society of any elder Church The Roman Church neuer failed any of thes waies Not by Schisme Or if it did tell vs whose company it left From whom it went forth And where was the true Church which the Roman forsooke The Grecians and other schismaticall Churches haue separated themselues from her but she neuer went out or reuolted from any Likewise the RomaÌ„ Church hath at no tyme by voluntary election made choyce of any singular or new opinion disagreable to the common receaued doctrine of the Christian world Nor by heresy It hath cleaned in no age to priuate articles or propositions of fayth which were not at the same tyme generally maynteyned in the Church of Christ For who did euer Nor yet by Apostacy taxe the Roman Church of nouelty or innouation in this kinde What true Church did euer disclayme from this singularity or hereticall pertinacy in the Roman Church Did it betwitch all nations in a moment with detestable heresy And was no man left to discouer the M. Nappâ—r vpoÌ„ the reuelation p. 66. and 68. item p. 43. 63. MelancthoÌ„ in locis postremo editis Beza confess general c. 7. sect 12. Humfrey Iesuitis 2. part pag. 6â—4 VVhitak contro 2. q. 4 fol. 144. Fulke in his answer to a counterfeit Catholik pag. 36. infection It can not be Much lesse did it depart from Christ by the crime of Apostacy which necessarily presupposeth a departure from the true Church and a reuolte from the openly professed fayth with the renouncing of Christianity and falling to infidelity Wherefore seeing by no other meanes a Church once true can possibly decay the Roman Church which by neyther of these wayes hath strayed from the truth perseuereth still the Church of Christ vnstained in her fayth 6. Thirdly if the Roman Church euer fayled I aske when By whome Vnder what Pope or Emperour it first beganne to play the aduoutresse Mayster Napper maynteyneth that it did first degenerate about 300. and thirteene yeares after Christ by the meanes of Pope Siluester Melancton about the foure hundred twenty by the vsurpation of Zosimus Beza about the foure hundred and forty by the arrogancy of Leo. Doctour Humfrey about the fiue hundred ninty seaueÌ„ by Gregory the great whom he tearmeth the first Pope and leader of the Popish daunce Why taker and Fulke about the sixe hundred and sixe by Boniface the third his successours For Whitaker affirmeth All that followed Gregory to be true Antichrists Many other dissentions there be amongst them Because the CeÌ„turistes sometymes say that it beganne to be corrupted in Cent. c. 4. col 71. 79. 80. 81. c. Cent. 2. c. 4. col 55. Cent. 1. cap. 10. col 571. c. 584. and. c. 4. col 54. Et conuenientia testimonia non erant Marc. 14. Daniel 13. the three hundred sometymes in the two hundred yeare after Christ Other while they ascend higher and find corruptions euen in the Apostles dayes But as the disagreement of the two wicked Iudges in accusing Susanna one affirming she committed adultery vnder one tree another vnder another was a most apparant testimony in the iudgement of all people of her vnstayned chastity their inueterate malice So if another Daniell would now determine our cause this variance of our aduersaryes in appeaching the Roman Church one auonching she reuolted from Christ and fell into her spiritual adultery vnder one Pope Another vnder another One in the tyme of Siluester Another of Leo A third of Gregory c. must needes be an euident token of her vnchanged fayth and their new forged slaunders For why doe you dreame Mayster Napper that in the dayes of Saint Napper vpon the reuelation p. 66. Siluester and by his default the Roman Church decayed Because sayth