say it is so but other Sectaries deprive it not of comely ornaments onely but even requisites and have lest in it nothing but one Sacrament to wit baptisme for their other things is but bare Bread and Wine and that now omitted and abused by many no form of Worship but some one of their ill translated Psalms and that not used by all and Preaching common to all sorts and even Sexes of People Secondly they teach things which are plainly paradoxical and asystata things not onely repugnant to most clear texts of Scripture but quite destructive of good Works and by consequence of the means for salvation for by their private spirit and each mans own interpretation of scripture they measure and square out the whole busines of Faith and Religion in this if they erre and how can they be free from errours they not onely run hazard of but plainly incur damnation for he that will not believe shall be condemned Amay with this pernicious and presumptuous tenent let the Church be your guide hear Her Shee 's exposed to no illusions of self-conceipt or of the wicked spirits whose transfiguring themselves into angels of light she can discover you cannot They deny also that man can merit by his good Works a tenent evidently contrary to all places of scripture in which the word reward is extant for merit and reward are correlatives they inferre one another to say that Christ amongst the other things he merited merited also this that mans good works done in relation to hiâ— passion and in vertue of it should be meritorious does not this more extoll Christs merits and magnifie them more than the negative opinion does many stupendious benefits favors and means for mans salvation Christ our Savior merited amongst the rest this They deny Free will at least to do good in man O imposture What 's this but a cloak for malice an occasion if not invitation allurement to sin and a stumbling block laid in the way for all to break their necks over this was a trick of Luthers and Calvins devising who after they had shamefully fallen into some enormous sins of the fltsh as they did began to broach this doctrine conformable to the lives they had begun and intended to lead thereby to save themselves from the indeleable stain of sacriledge Apostacy and infamy and because companions contribute to lessen the miseries of disgrace and dishonour by how many the more there be that participate of them therefore they indeavoured by this hellish herefie to inveagle others to adhere to them Many of them hold that the Commandements of God cannot possibly be kept O blasphemy What 's this but to impeach the divine Majesty of tyranny Can that goodnesse that infinite wise legislator impose laws under pain of damnations which are impossible to be kept stand astonisbed you heavens at this And to omlt other their assertions dishonourable to Christian Religion they hold that an act of Faith alone works that great work of mans justification that great change which the Prophet David cals the work of the right hand of him that is on high of a soul transferred from the state of being found guilty of mortal fin and by it of eternal punishment to the state of grace divine adoption and right to the eternal inheritance of the kingdom of heaven to attribute this stupendious effect to one act of faith alone as the cause either efficient or formall of it is an incredible paradox yea an impossibility besides the bad sequels which thence result that by which a man is formally justified is justice intrinsecally inherent in the soul to wit sanctifying grace and this is bestowed upon him for Christs justice to wit his merits nor can Faith alone be the efficient cause of mans justification or sanctification it is indeed a disposition but so is fear penance hopes and an act of the love of God by which act the soul is much more unired to God than by an act of Faith of mans justification therefore the efficient cause is God the formall cause divine grace and the meritory cause is Christ to wit by his merits and passion The bad sequels are many which that opinion of faith alone justifying brings first it hinders the exercise of many other vertues much recommended unto us in the holy Scripture as filiall fear offending God sorrow for having offended him and good purposes of amendment secondly it is a great let and impediment to good Works and the study of vertue for if I can be satisfied and consequently saved by producing one act of Faith only what need is there of spending my time and taking pains to pray fast watch do penance give alms What need you take pains about self-denyal carrying my Crosse and following my Saviour by imitating his vertues the three things he recommends unto us the practice of which since that opinion hinders it who does not see how pernicious it is thirdly it lays open a wide gate for all licenciousnesse sin and wickednesse for if with an act of faith onely you can repair and redress all the misery which sin brings to my soul why should I not feed all my senses with their delightfull objects follow the instinct of my flesh give the bridle to my passions and sacrifice my time my body my thoughts and my endeavours wholly to sensuality Ah deer Redeemer Now I see the reason of that your pitifull complaint Supra dorsum meum fabricaverunt peccatores upon my back sinners have built I see who they are that insteed of carrying their crosses after you and in imitation of you build upon your back and lay not onely all their obligations to Christian duties upon your sacred shoulders by omitting them but heap sin upon sin by offending more freely and lay these upon you also For what do they else who under pretence of magnifying your merits deny all merits of mans best works by denying Freewill to do good do no good by extolling the ability of Faith alone give occasion of remisnesse in vertue of falling into vice and of making shipwrack of all true faith The fourth point Consider now in order to a rectifying of thy judgement in matter of belief and for the better managing of thy life what may be inferred out of the precedent points and amongst other things first some peculiar differences betwixt the Doctrine of Romane Catholicks and that of Sectaries the one is most conformable to the holy Scriptures and our Saviours doctrine and example the other is contrary to these the ones Doctrine favours and honours the church of Christ by teaching that which is most beseeming almighty God and it the other by attributing all to an act of faith makes the Church an imperfect yea a needlesse thing for all the other priviledges and proprieties of it as also the means it hath conducing to salvation are superfluous if an act onely of faith will do all The one teacheth to
Pau. What lopping produceth in the Vines that persecution effecteth in the Church saith Saint Persecution Justin The blood of Martyrs is the seed of the Church in Triphon saith Tertullian in his Apologetick cap. ult and Saint Cyprian both said it sealed the truth of it with his blood King James also is said to have often repeated these Saint Cyprians words sanguis martyrum semen ecclesia and upon reflection of the truth of them to have often expressed his mislike of shedding Priests blood The blood of Tiburtius and Valerianus of Faustinus and Jovita of Saint Clement Saint Thecla and Saint Katherine shed for the Faith of Christ drew a far greater number than they were to believe in him did not the death of Saint Lucia the Roman widdow double in Geminianus and others converted what the Church was robbed of by her death Was not the number of Faithfull B lievers as much augmented in the conversion of Adauctus as it was diminished by the death of happy Felix And did not the Curch gaine by loosing Saint Januarius almost five thousand For so many were converted at his martyrdome Read the Martyrs sufferings those who love to read rare things and they will be convinced of what even the Apostata Julian was convinced that the sequell of persecuting Christians is the multiplication of Christians Consider a second effect of suffering for such a cause and that is the great glory which doth acrew both to God and to the sufferers thereby God cannot regale man more in this mortal life than to make him a Martyr and man cannot perform a greater point of service for God than by suffering as becomes a Martyr for no man bath greater charity than such an one In Martyrdome God compleateth man with the greatest of his favours and in the same man complieth with God in the superlative degree of his indeavours O strange and most perfect circle of perfect love Persecution betwixt God and man in martyrdom out of the Ocean of infinite love flows this felicity into man by a strange participation and from it runs back into the same abysse by a pure intention O strange reciprocation and unheard of communication betwixt God man in martyrdome O martyrdome a felicity which none conceives but he who receives it a secret which no man knows but from God who tels it a word which none understands but from him who gives it and a favour which none can deserve but let all desire it Pardon me said one I know what 's good for me fire crosse beasts breaking of my bones disjoynting of my limbs brusing of my body and all the torments that the Devill can inflict come upon me so be that I may enjoy Christ O myrrour of martyrdome blessed Bishop Ignatius if to us thy words seem so sweet how sweet were thy thoughts when thou uttered these words when thou suffered what thou longed for when thou enjoyed the reward of what thou suffered Answer thou O my soul at least guesse what a case that enamoured bea rt was in then think ruminate meditate with desire humility sorrow and purpose to be often that in affection which thou cannot till God please be in effect The third Point Ponder first that all who are out of the true Church are incapable whilest they remain so of this great purchase of martyrdome for without Catholick and true faith it is impossible to please God and without pleasing God as little possible to be a martyr Now those who are not members of Christs true Church cannot have true faith whilest they remain so Hence infer that though Sectaries suffer upon score of Religion as some of severall Sects have yet none of them are martvrs for as amongst severall Sects of believers there can be but one true Church so amongst several sorts of sufferers there 's one only of them can be true martyrs the reason of this is contained in these words of Saint Austin Non poena sed causa facit martyrem not the punishment which a man suffers but the cause for which be suffereth makes a Martyr Let him suffer torments and death never so willingly and that upon account of Religion yet he can be no martyr unlesse his Religion be the true one Occidi potest coronari non potest sayes that holy Father Infer secondly that he who will deny the Primitive Martyrs to have been of the same Religion with the Roman Catholicks which now are must positively prove in what and when the Roman Church which was once the true Church even by the Confession of all Sectaries did fall from being the true Church This fall this change this transition is inconceptible and yet Sectaries are obliged to prove it or else return to that Church again Ponder secondly that in case it were supposed that Sectaries might be capable of being truly Martyrs yet no one sect no nor all sects together out of all which Fox makes his Martyrs could make up a Martyrologe comparable to what is in the Church of Rome Gather out of the precedent points first that the mark of Martyrdome is only to be found in the Roman church and consequently that it is the true church Secondly that the martyrs of the Primitive Church and those Roman Catholicks that suffered under King Henry the eighth Queen Elizabeth and her successors were all of one Church all Roman Catholicks all true Martyrs for Sectaries could never yet prove any innovation in matters of faith or false doctrine introduced by the Church of Rome add to the former those martyrs all Catholick Priests and in number 21 who have suffered in England since the year 1640 till this present year 1654 inclusive Hail King of Martyrs Christ the meritory and exemplar cause of all true martyrdome we magnifie thee in these thy martyrs noble Champions and pious Prodigals of their blood for thee Please if it be thy blessed pleasure that in this thy cause my unworthy self with many more may have some share of these sweet sufferings and if not dye for thee at least dye for not dying for thee The seventeenth Meditation Of Prophesies and promises and the figures of the old law fulfilled in the true Church The first Point COnsider first that not only the the Prophets of the old law but Christ himself also foretold many things of great concernment which were to be verisied and fulfilled in his Church or by it in these prophesies also many large promises of ample privilegies and prerogatives made in reference to the same Church were included which were afterwards accomplished And Saint Paul often in his Epistles intimateth that the Jewish Synagogue with its sacrificies and ceremonies was a Symbol or Figure of Christs church and its proprieties So that no sect amongst Christians can or indeed doth deny these truths in affirming of which the scriptures are so clear and copious Consider secondly that the fulfilling of these prophesies is to be brought against Turks Jews Pagans
thraldome so the reall Body and Blood of Christ is offered up when the priest by the power which Christ hath given him consecrateth it in Masse in remembrance and thanksgiving for the benefit of man's being redeemed by Christ from the more than Egyptian bondage of sin and therefore it is called Eucharist which signifies thanksgiving and it the sacrifice of Thanksgiving Is not this a better and more honourable remembrance of Christs passion than a bit of meer Bread and a sup of Wine The devout Ceremony of making the signe of the Crosse used and commended by the holy Fathers and all ancient Christians was plainly represented and commended to us all by that Thau in Ezekiel cap 9. and by the Angels signing the Servants of God in the Revelations cap. 7. v. 3. This as the rest is fulfilled perfectly only by the Church of Rome Gather hence that since the prophesies and types also the great promises contained in these prophesies are fulfilled in the Roman Church and in it only it follows evidently that it is Christs true Church The third Point Consider now the sad condition of Sectaries argued out of their having no share at all in this full table of sweet and comfortable promises foretold by the prophets for this evidently shews that they are not the Church of Christ nor members of it On the contrary they have just reason to fear that the heavy denounciations and threats of the prophets for in this kinde onely they are like to fulfill prophesies will fall upon them for as their novell opinions fond and prophane images of their own fancies made by their private spirit have some semblance of those Idols to which the Jews sometimes falling from the worship of the true God Sacrificed So let these modern imitatours of them take heed they be not delivered over to a reprobate sense and the like spirituall punishment with them And can you still persist in that perversnesse away with these fancies yeeld to truth and say with the repenting Jewes and in this they may by you be well imitated Signa nostra non videmus jam non est propheta Psal 73. v. 10. We acknowledge we have no signes nor miracles in behalf of our sects We grant there are no propheticall men amongst us We see not the marks of Christs Church upon our Sects We confesse the prophesies are not fulfilled by us And therefore from hence forth we will resolve and choose rather to be abject in the house of God his Church than to dwell in the Tabernacks of sinners of Sectaries any longer The eighteenth Meditation Of temporal blessings and felicities miraculously bestowed on the Defenders and Propagators of the Catholick Religion The first Point To understand how temporall felicity may be one mark amongst the rest which discovers the Church of Christ from all other Sects Consider first the difference betwixt the ordinary and extraordinary providence of God The first is that whose effects we see and feel in the production conservation and operation of creatures It appears also in the effects of mans morality industry or art and in the natural effects of all secondary causes The second appears to us chiefly in effects which are surpassing the forces of naturall causes the one confers riches honours victories kingdomes and the like after that manner which we have daily experience see or hear of By me Kings do raigne Prover 8. vers 15. sayes God and he cals them Ministers of his Kingdome Wisdome 6. vers 5. and Saint Paul sayes There is no power but from God Rom. 13. By the other he give principalities and victories miraculously when and to whom he pleases and without the cocourse of secondary causes any way proportionable to those prodigious effects Thus he gave the Jews Victories most miraculously as to Josu Gedeon Judas Machabeus and others which as they were extraordinary signes both of the Divine Protection over the Synagogue as also that it was then the true Religion so the same Argument holds in behalf of the Church of Christ that that people is it on which God bestows the like victories and benefits after a miraculous manner Consider secondly for the avoiding of errour in the weaker understandings that these temporall felicities are not to be supposed a mark of Christs Church in themselves but onely so far forth as they are conferred after a miraculous manner for certain it is that poverty is as conducing a means to eternal salvation as riches yea heaven is far casilier attainable by poverty if it be imbraced not only patiently but willingly than by riches yet they are in themselves both gifts originally arifing from the hand of God The Lord hath given the Lord hath taken away sayes Job chap. 1. The Lord maketh poore and enricheth he bringeth low and lifteth up 1 King 2. v. 7. Poverty and honesty are from God Eccles 11.24 He humbles this man and he exalteth that man Psal chap. 74. So that there is no doubt of this But we speak here of the manner of Gods dispensing out these temporals which when it is miraculous it argues which Religion is most favoured by Almighty God and consequently is his Hence infer that this mark is not any way repugnant to that other of persecution for different circumstances of time place and persons remove this difficulty the Jews though they were often miraculously protected by God yet at other times he permited them to be sore persecuted as by Antiochus and others The second Point Consider now by induction of examples how highly the Roman Church and its members have been favoured by Almighty God in a miraculous way Constantine the Emperour and honour of England his native country was a Roman Catholick well known by his great reverence to the Pope to the Saints and their Relicks and to the signe of the Crosse and his example methinks might move all England to reverence the same God gave him the Empire after a miraculous manner for as he were upon his march going out of England towards Italy with small forces against Maxentius the Tyrant who had in his Army a hundred and seventy foot with eighteen thousand horse espyed in the ayre about mid-day a faire Crosse with this inscription upon it In hoc vince overcome by means of this the next night our Saviour appeared to him and shewed him the same Crosse and gave him order to bear that signe in his Banner and so he should be victorious He did so overcame the Tyrant and then became Christian After which he was victorious in all his other Battails also by means of our Saviours promise made to him if he carried that figne of the Crosse which he did alwayes carry in his Standard called the Labarum causing it to be transferred alwayes to that quarter of the Army which was most weakned by the Enemy and the fight of it added new courage to the one by which the other were soon defeated Theodosius the elder a pious and
at this sequel denyes the former proposition pretends that the protestant Church was visible in every age But first neither he nor any other could ever yet prove any such visibility Secondly this argues that the protestants are here also as in other points at variance amongst themselves Lastly they confess and in confessing this alone they grant enough to undo themselves and establish the truth of the Roman Church that they went out from the Roman Catholicks The thing indeed in it self is most true and it hath been often proved by Catholicks that Waldo Wicliffe Hus Luther Calvin and the cheif of these new Reformado's were sirst Catholicks and members of the Roman Church before their change But the thing now to be considered is their own consession of this truth As for Luther he acknowledgeth in many places of his Works that he had been a Papist and went out from them And Caloin sayes in plain terms that he and his departed from the Church of Rome yea and from the whole world Discessionem à tot mundo facere coactisumus Mr. Jewel Fox Rainolds Mason and many more of them acknowledge their Church to have gone out of the Roman Church so that nothing remains now but to take notice of what sequels result out of this and their other ingenuous confessions The third Point Consider lastly Some inferences which may be drawn out of the two former points first by their granting that they went out of the Roman Church acknowledging also that those who dy in the same Church may besaved they evidently make themselves guilty of schisme 2. granting in this manner Salvation to Roman Catholicks whom they confesse also not to erre in fundamentals the latter of which is also inferred out of the former nor to want any of those things which are essntial requisites to salvation it followes that these other are not only guilty of Schisme but of heresie also if they hold any thing as they hold many contradictory to these confessedly foule saving tenents of Roman Catholicks 3. This grant of their going out from the Roman Catholicks which thing is evidently proved also in the third point of the meditation of antiquity this alone makes the protestant Religion guilty of novelty and by consequence of falshood for the true church of christ began in the time of the apostles theirs comming after that time could not be it by reason of its posteriority but some other false sect 4. The whole sum of what they have granted in behalf of the Roman catholicks and against themselves proves evidently that the Roman catholicks are the only true church of christ Since therfore in this great suite betwixt Sectaries especially Protestants and Roman catholicks about the true church of christ and whose it is by right we have not only proved that the marks of it and of that of the Roman catholicks are all one and consequently that these two are not in reallity two but one and the same church but our adversaries have moreover given us a judgement by confessing in substance that our claims are good and their own ill grounded what remaines but execution not that which the ministers of divine justice doe upon the wicked which God avert but that rather for such are my cordial wishes which the equity of this cause exacts to be done by convicted persons upon themselves by putting in execution that true conversion to the catholicke faith to which the evidence of these most credible testimonies the markes of the true church must needs incline an impartial reader Confident I am that the substance of these meditations cannot but convince that the markes of christs true church are to be found amongst the Roman Catholicks and only amongst them If passion prejudicate opinions obstinacy be laid aside if self-ends and temporal interests be not prevalent and disturb reason undoubtedly the testimonies of these markes will make it give sentence for the catholicke party Away with these fears of sequestration or temporal incumbrances heaven is a happy purchase though it cost you these yea life it selfe Such premisses as the praxis of your belief and life prepare such conclusions will death draw out in the end Nor can either belief or life be good in a Religion which is bad Choose therefore the best whatsoever it cost since thy salvation depends upon thy Election in point of Religion Mean while Let this be the last though not the least of the sequels which may be drawn out of the precedent Meditations to wit a cessasion of persecution Can reason yea can nature choose but cry out in seeing Catholicks persecuted where all Sects are tolerated and in beholding those mens blood shed or sought for even by those for the good of whose souls these others are so piously prodigall of their own blood England England which kill 's the Prophets and with the averse affections of thy hard heart ston's those that are sent to thee How often and how willingly would they have gathered thy children together as the Hen her Chickins under that shelter which he wished for who said Under the shade of thy wings protect me but thou wouldest not Behold thy house is left like a desert without Altar without Priest without Sacrifice stone upon stone and scarce that some where Alas The dayes will come in which thou must repent thy not taking notice of the visites which thy Saviour gave thee by his Servants England remember from whence thou hast fallen do pennance and do thy first works Return to thy self and consider how many thousands in the house of thy Father abound with bread the bread of Angels their daily bread whilest thou perishes with famine Rise goe and say Father I have finned against heaven and in thy sight now I am no more worthy to be called thy daughter since I have forsaken thy Spouse my mother And thou O God of hosts look down from heaven and behold and visite this vinyard and the Vineyard which thy right hand once planted let it by the same be again repaired to thy eternall glory Amen Soli Dei honor gloria ERRATA PAge 2. line 25 read proximus and marg Rom. 6.22 p. 3. l. 12 get p. 4. l. 11 dele all p. 8. l. 9 an oblation p. 14. marg dele Isa 7.9 p. 16. l. 27 dele ment p. 27. l. 13 what they are p. 28 marg Elogium's p. 40. l. 19 ingenuous mar del Jo. 5.24 p. 41. l. 10 machins p. 46. l. 20. Mar. 16.20 p. 54. l. 10 the enemy l. 13 eye witness reports p. 55. l. 7 a great blunder is l. 14 cambinding p. 47. marg 14.12 p. 57. l. 1 Ephpheta l 7 that way in p. 58. marg dele Lev. 15.16 p. 61. l. 26 believing p. 63. l. 18 least p. 65. l. 13 r. Patrick l. 15 Silverius p. 68. l. 21. Iohn Fox p. 85. marg 76.11 p. 86 l. 20 besanctified l. 25 need I p. 87. l. 6 I can p. 95. l. 3 Nervians p.
Symbol of eternall reward but those that laboured in the VINEYARD It s of infinite consequence therefore whether or no the Sect you are on be the true Church pray read meditate conserre compare Sect with Sect till you finde out the true Church for as truly said Saint Cyprian and Saint Austin He shall not have God for his Father who will not have the Church for his Mother to wit the true Church Christ's Church Do thou therefore O my soule study the matter of the salvation and glorifying God well The Catholick Church is the school in which the Holy Ghost presides as chief Professor in it onely all truth is taught none elswhere nor true divinity out of that schoole that long and hard lesson thy life led here thou must give an exact account of both in the particular examen at thy death and in the generall at the day of doom learn a pace by living that thou may attain to an intuitive knowledge of God and obtain the praemium of eternal life Amen The fourth Meditation Of the Marks in general of Christs true Church The first Point COnsider first what is meant by the Marks of the Church a mark in general is that by which we know a thing and are able to distinguish it from other things by the direction of that mark so the divine Wisdome set certain marks upon his Church by means of which it might be made notorious and easie to be found out as also by the same means easily discernable from all other Sects whatsoever Consider secondly that the marks of the true Church must needs have one propriety and that is clarity They must be things though they be rare and extraordinary yet clear known apparent and free from obscurity and uncertainty in themselves and therefore they are called signes and notes by reason of their facility of being observed and taken notice of but if they be defective in this they are no marks but things as much subject to be questioned and controverted as that very thing to wit the Church or its infallible authority whose marks they are pretended to be but miracles prophesies and strange conversions of Nations also Unity Sanctity Universality and Apostolical succession which foure last are mentioned in the Nicen Creed these are plainly convincing arguments and marks by which Christs Church may be found out and distinguished from all false Sects that have them not Hence inferre that all modern Sects shew themselves guilty of maintaining a bad cause and that Christs true Church is not amongst them because they assigne no such marks as these above mentioned but other obscure things and points controverted betwixt them and the Roman Catholikes Such are lawfull administration of the Sacraments and sincere preaching of the Word of God and the like these are no marks but we must finde out where these are by the forementioned marks they make themselves by this guilty also of another fault which is called petitio principii or begging the question by taking that for an argument in their own behalf which very thing is the question to be argued For by the marks of the Church as we must finde it out so must we find out who are true Pastors also when this question is urged apart The second Point Consider now the necessity of these marks First from the holy Scriptures Exod. 3. God gave Moses order to undertake that great enterprize of bringing the Israelites out of their Aegyptian bondage To which Moses made reply alledging his own insufficiency Upon which God confirmed this his extraordinary Embassadours Commission with the gifts as it were with his great Seale of working Miracles which he made use of to the astonishment of both Nations all being convinced thereby that he was a man of God nor did God send any other of his Prophets upon any great designe but he authorized them with the gift of miracles prophecy eminent sanctity or some one of them by means of which credit was given to their words that they were the words of God revealed to them Christ our Saviour made use of the same means as necessary to induce the Jews to believe what he was and that his doctrine was divine the same power and confirmation he gave to his Apostles Disciples and their successours as wholly necessary for the propagation of the Gospel and certainly there could be no ground for thinking that ever the mysteries of Christian Faith should seem probable to Insidels unlesse the preachers of Christs doctrine were qualified with these divine Priviledges Consider secondly the necessity of these marks from this God exacts of man prudence in his moral actions much more in the main one such as are deliberation and choice in point of Religion on the election of which his eternal interest depends and certainly that man proceeds not prudently who fals rashly upon any Sect or Religion without well grounded motives witnesse the divine wisdom which sayes He who believes soon is light of heart That is fickle inconsiderate imprudent mark this prudentiall point you Novellists examine what motives hold you in the way you are in and what marks of the true Church your sect hath Ponder further the necessity at least convenience of a true understanding and comprehension of the marks and signes of the true Church from this if these two quaeries which be the marks of the true Church and in what Sect or Religion are they to be found were sully answered as by the divine assistance they shall be in this Treatise then it would clearly appear which were the true Church and so all doubts and controversies would vanish or be composed easily Gather hence how much conducing and necessary in order to a setled security of minde and a prudent choice of Religion is a sober and mature search after the marks of Christs Church especially for those who are not yet confined to any determinate Sect and for those who professing some one in particular yet fear that all is not well with them for those also who finde none of these Marks upon the Church they are in Enter into a serious consideration with thy self about these two queries thou that loves thy soules security seek and thou shalt find to wit the true Church by its marks and signes Say with David Now have I begun this change is the work of the right hand of him that is on high I have been mindefull of the works of the Lord I will be mindfull from the very beginning of thy wonderfull things and I will meditate upon all thy workes And after a diligent inquiry made for finding out of the marks and signes of Christs Church in your own Sect you will at length conclude with these words of the same Prophet Psalm 73. 10. We have not seen our signes there are none upon this our Church now there is no Prophet none amongst us whose doctrine we are certain is from God soul-saving secure The third Point Consider now the
Ecclesiastical Prelat but even sense and reason requires to wit that he should use that power for the edification and not to the destruction of that Church which gave him it that he should Preach and Teach her doctrine that he should administer her Sacraments but he went beyond his Commission yea quite contrary to it he preached doctrine contradictory to that of the Church he taught her doctrine was false in many of the mainest points and that her Sacraments were not so many and so efficacious causes of grace as they were he could have no commission for this yea his revolt and rebellion against the Church quite annull'd his former Commission and devested him of all the faculties which had been delegated formerly to him as for Episcopacy though some of his clients stiled him Bishop of Wittenberg as Oecolampadius whose Grave stone expresseth him the first Bishop of Basil and Zuinglius of Tigur and Calvin of Geneva yet neither he nor these other ever gave out or pretended they had Episeopall Consecration or jurisdiction from the Roman Church or from any precedent Bishops so that what they acted in this kinde was by a usurped power and invalid Consider secondly the calling of the English Ministry the Protestant titular Bishops urged alwayes against their Catholick Antagonists that they were true Bishops their proof was because they were consecrated by the old Catholick Bishops Mark here for your comfort Catholicks that your Bishops and by consequence your Priests are acknowledged for true and lawfull even by their adversaries But you Protestants mark in order to your amendment that this very means and the onely argument by which they must prove themselves lawful Bishops which they make use of to establish your cause destroys it and with all confirms that the Roman Catholicks are the onely true Church For since that main thing which Christ gave his Church to wit power to ordain Bishops and Priests and to send them to seed souls with the word of God and the Sacraments is granted to be in the Church of Rome it follows evidently that it is the true Church of Christ and that its doctrine and Sacraments are onely true for Christ could not give that Church commission to Preach doctrin contrary to his nor could the Church which confessedly hath this power ordain others and give them commission to Preach against it self Hence also it followeth if these supposed Protestant Bishops were ordained by the old Catholick ones by going against their commission and preaching and acting against that Church which gave them their power first that their former true commission ceased and was annulled Secondly that Protestants and their Bishops were and still are guilty of Schisme by not holding communion with the Church of Rome and thirdly that they are guilty of heresie these Bishops and ministers to wit in believing and teaching Doctrine contrary to the Roman Church which they say gave them their power Fourthly that they incurred the Ecclesiasticall censures for the forementioned reasons and consequently could not give orders lawfully so that their Successors were not lawfully ordained Fifthly that since the Protestant Bishops neither used the true form nor matter in the consecration of their later Bishops and Ministers with which the first of them was supposed to have been consecrated with by the old Catholick Bishops even upon this score the later were no true Bishops nor Priests Sixthly that since none can lawfully succeed in a Bishoprick unlesse the former Bishop be either dead or canonically deposed even upon this ground all the first of the Protestant Prelates were unlawfull because the old Bishops were living and not deposed when the later usurped their Sees or were intruded by others But the truth is these first Protestants took to themselves that Ecclesiastical honour without being called by God as Aaron was and took upon them the Office of preaching without being sent contrary to the words of Saint Paul It must not be presumed but positively proved by them that they were consecrated by the old true Bishops and that they succeeded them legally they must be able to prove when where and by what Catholick Bishops they were consecrated and what faculties and commission they had All other Catholick Priests can demonstrate in behalf of their Apostolical calling all these particular circumstances but the Protestants could never yet prove their lawful calling thus and yet are obliged to do it otherwise they are to be looked upon as having got into the sheepfold not by entring in at the doore but by elimbing up another way And indeed the Catholicks urge which they are not liged to do very positive and probable arguments to convince the Protestants unlawful calling and that they had not any consecration or jurisdiction from them For first the Catholick Bishops all of them absolutely refused to consecrate any of the Protestants who seeing this and not hoping to obtain it of them by proceeding in a fair way aimed at the getting of it by underhand dealing but that good old and infirm Bishop of whom they thought to have taken orders without discovering that they were Protestants having got some hints of their designe rejected them their next plot was the producing of a Register in which were set down the names of divers Protestants ordained Bishops by such and such Catholick Prelates but the forging and fraud of this Register was soon laid open by the Catholick party and so that attempt ceased The next Machine they moved was by an Order from the Court that so many Divines and Lawyers should enter into consultation and resolve whether some new form of making Clergy-men might not be found out without dependence of the Church of Rome but the ridiculousnesse of this adynaton soon made that conventicle desist from proceeding further in that way at length therefore they resolved to ordain each other without more ado which seven or eight of them ventured upon all on one day not after the ancient Catholick manner publickly and solemnly in the Church at high masse and in the eyes of many hundreds of people but privately in an Inne and without any witnesses And lastly Queen Elisabeth and the Parliament ordained that all who had the Queens Letters Patents for to be Bishops should by the people be acknowledged for true Bishops notwithstanding what soever defect might have happened in the consecration of them Now these instances and particularly the last plainly intimate that all was not well with these Protestant Bishops in point of lawfull calling The fourth Point Out of the precedent points many fruitful consequences may be gathered and first that that Sect which wants Pastors lawfully called cannot possibly be the true Church of Christ 2. That none can be lawfully called unlesse they be consecrated by Bishops lineally descended from the Apostles 3. That since there must be a See Apostolick somewhere for otherwise Apostolical succession cannot be derived down from age to age till the world
of a Judge which is clearly to pronounce sentence so that both parties which contest about the thing controverted may understand and acknowledge who is cast who hath got the better 2. There is a difference betwixt the written laws and the judge in civill matters the one is the rule acording to which the judg must give sentence but the other to wit the judge must give the sentence he is the mouth of the law and must interpret its land the legislatours mind now the same Analogy and comparison holds betwixt the holy scripture and the written law of God and the ecclesiastical judge 3. About the scriture it self arise many controversies which have been long agitated to and fro as what Books are Canonical which Apocriphal the Roman Catholicks say the books of Judith Toby Wisdome Ecclesiasticus the first and second of the Macchabees are canonicall scripture the Protestants deny them to be so Now how shall this great controversie be decided the scripture cannot give sentence for it hath not a living voice in like manner about the sense and meaning of many places of the canonical scriptures many long quarels have been amongst different Sectaries themselves and betwixt them and Roman Catholicks the scripture it self can never compose these controversies for want of a living voice 4 The old Hereticks had never been convinced nor condemned iâ— the scripture had been appointed for judge for still they wou'd have had evasions the scripture neither did nor could give sentence against them but the Church by the Pope and General Councels As for the private spirit this must either be supposed to be an infallible judge or not if not Sectaries can never have their controversies truly decided for this judge may erre give a false resolution and so expose poore soules to an evident danger of frequently believing that to be a point of divine Faith which is not so or the contrary If infallible what shameful presumption will it be to challenge to your own particular person such an assistance of the Holy Ghost as by it you shall infallibly judge a right in whatsoever point of Controversie and yet deny this to the whol body of the Roman Church 2. The question is whether that private spirit be the holy Ghost or a wicked spirit or your own spirit to wit your own judgment or fancy How shall this question be determined O miserably misled souls of such Sectaries do you not see in what labyrinths of errours and miseries you wilfully involve your selves Is not this to walk in a circle like the wicked But since you will be so heare the word of the Lord Wo be to the foolish Prophets who follow their own spirit Ezcek 13. Mark these words well and amend least your folly in following your own spirit bring you to eternal wo. But O thou infinite goodnesse God send forth thy pirit that these deluded souls may become new creatures make them members of that Church to which only the spirit of truth teacheth all truth Amen The sixteenth Meditation Of Persecution and Martyrdom The first Point COnsider the many and clear Texts of the holy scripture in which our Saviour doth denunciate to his Apostles and Disciples and in them to the succeeding members of his church that for their professing and propagating of his faith they shall undergo persecutions of all forts yea death it self Beware of men for they will deliver you up to the Councels and ye shal be brought before Governours and Kings for my sake Mat. 10.17 18. And ye shall be bated of all men for my name sake v. 22. But when they persecute you in this City fly into another v. 23. The time cometh that who soever killeth you will think be doth God service Matt. 16.2 They shall lay hands on you persecute you delivering you up to the Synagogues and into prisons Luke 21. v. 12. And some of you they shall cause to be put to death v. 16. Gather hence first that God permits for he could hinder it if it pleased him his Church to be persecuted to wit by the Devil and his Emissaries wicked men Secondly that persecution is a mark of Christs Church and much more martyrdome Thirdly that to fly in time of persecution is lawfull till God dispose the circumstances for their sufferings The second Point Consider first that what our Saviour foretold begun soon to be verificd of men that persecuted Christs church the Jews Pagan Princes hereticks are the chief The Jews not onely persecuted Christ whom they hanged on a crosse and his Apostles and Disciples before his Passion but after his sacred death they were most bitter and violent against the young flock of his church as may be read in the Acts of the Aposeles yea their sacrilegious and savage handling and abusing the blessed sacrament other holy things when they laid hands on them by stelth as also their very crucifying of even Christian chrildren argues an implacable and incredible hatred of them against christian religion 2. As for the Pagan Princes Nero Demitian Trajan Aurelian Maximean Dioclesian and Galerian with many others how cruelly and barbarously did they torture Christians In Rome alone three hundred thousand Christians were martyred amongst which were twenty seven Popes and the sacred bodies of 180000 of them were buried in that famous Churchyard of Saint Calistus Pope and Martyr Now if in the City of Rome alone so many were martyred to what an immense number would all that suffered for the same cause in all other parts of the world if they were added to these amount 3. And for the Hereticks it is their main maxime and a principle in which generally all the sects of them are united to oppose and band against the Roman Church their heads and judgements look all severall ways but in this point they are tyed together out of this opposition sprung hatred and this egged them on to persecute Catholicks which they did most bitterly The Arian Emperours the Kings of the Huns Gothes and Wandels and Martyrdome sent many thousands of Catholicks martyrs to heaven nor were they a few hundreds that were put to death for the same religion under Henry the eighth King of England and Queen Elizabeth And could thou be so cruell England as to see thy own bowels so often unbowelled at Tyburn and not yet repent Not yet give over seeing thine shed thy own blood and this for thee For the old religion the true religion thy religion The third Point Consider the admirable effects which the Divine Providence hath drawn out of these sufferings of Martyrs the first effect and that a happy one was an increase thereby of Catholick religion that very medium which the enemies of the Church took for the destroying of it the same the Divine Wisdome made use of as an instrumental cause for the greater propagation of it The Church is not lestned by persecutions but augmented saith St. Leo Ser. I. de Petro
may saved and this acknowledgment did produce this effect in that honourable Lady the Countesse of Buckingham which was present at that publick disputation betwixt Mr. Fisher a Jesuit and Master White a Minister held by the Kings order For Mr. Fisher demanding of Mr. White whether or no he thought that one dying a Roman Catholick might be saved and he answering that upon his soul he thought such an one might be saved presently upon this she resolved to become a Roman Catholick and what she then purposed she soon put in execution as many thousands could witnesse Thirdly They confesse that Roman Catholicks do not erre in any fundamentall point of Faith and that they want none of the things essentially requisite to salvation and therefore the most learned Adversaries grant that Roman Catholicks are a true Church or members of the true Church though not the true Church to wit alone The consideration of this also as of the former cannot but comfort ROMAN CATHOLICKS whilest they remain so Now what a madnesse is it to fall from that Religion in which all parties agree that salvation may be had Certainly a prudent man will not venter his temporal estate upon a probable security if he can have a certainty provided also that it be lawful much lesse his eternall No man can in conscience expose his soul to hazard if he may make sure work For though in things which are necessary necessitate pracepti only a probable opinion of Doctours will save a soul harmlesse yet in things which are absolutely necesfary and means without which salvation cannot be had as the being a member of the true Church is the surest way is to be chosen Fourthly that very thing which hath been by me prefixed to my self as the end of my endeavours in these twenty Meditation which was to shew that the marks of Christs Church were to be found onely amongst the Roman Catholicks and consequently that Christs true Church was onely with them is by many of the chief protestants Writers granted by granting those things which really are the marks of Christs true Church They grant that S. Malachy S. Bernard S. Francis S. Dominick others were Roman Catholicks that they were Saints and that they wrought Miracles they grant the mark of Antiquity and that no known beginning of the Roman Church since the Apostles time which is a convincing argument that it begun in the Apostles time can be assigned They grant that the Roman Church never went out of any Society of Christians ancienter than it self They grant that no particular time can be assigned in which any innovation of Faith was introduced or change made in the Church of Rome which three things notwithstanding they ought not onely to deny but are obliged positively to prove the contrary or els grant that their forsaking the Church of Rome and caluminating it is most unjust as most certainly it is Besides this in granting as they do that the holy Fathers of the Primitive Church held the same forementioned opinions which the now existent Roman Catholicks hold consequently they must grant these two to be both one as also the Roman Catholicks to have those who were eminent in Sanctity Miracles Prophesie and the like for the holy Fathers of the Primitive Church were persons priviledged with all these great endowments and by good consequence to have the marks of Christs true Church In brief it hath been most amply proved by Catholick Authors as by the Protestants Apology and other learned Books that the ablest protestant Writers grant those things to be amongst Roman Catholicks which are truly the marks of Christs Church Read also the eleventh and thirteenth chapter in every Century of the Magdeburgians and you will see how effectually the Protestants like good advocates plead the cause of the Roman Catholicks who may truly say with Moses Our enemies are judges of the equity of our cause The second Point Consider now what things the Protestants acknowledge against themselves And here a man may truly say Out of thy own mouth I judge thee naughty servant First they disclaim from the antient Fathers and will not own them That Luther and Calvin and the Centurists doe so it is well knowne to all that read theire workes And that many of the English Protestant writers doe the same their works do witnesse True it is many of them doe pretend to appeal to the Fathers but since as many or more of them doe not but the contrary it appears by this that the Protestants are divided amongst themselves in this main point Therefore Mittam Egyptios contra Egyptios I will put the Egyptions against the Egyptions belongs to them And since of the forementioned Protestant Authors many do plainly censure and condemne the Fathers for holding popish tenents hence also it followes that they must grant them to bee all one with the now Roman Catholicks Secondly they grant that the ancient Fathers condemned in the ancient hereticks many opinions which are held by the protestants themselves now a days This is instanced at large by the author of the Progeny and others that the assertions of the old hereticks were condemned and that notwithstanding the Protestants now hold the same is evident and therefore they are forced to grant it in particular about the Sacraments the Scriptures Freewill Faith Good-works Mariage of Priests Monachism and divers other points Thirdly they grant that the four first generall Councels lawfully condemned Arius Nestorius Eutyches and Macedonius and that these were truly hereticks and yet some of them erred but in one point Therefore since to deny any one point sufficiently propounded as a truth revealed by God makes an heretick and this by the protestants own consession let any prudent man judg whether the protestants do not expose their sules to evident danger First by denying so many points now held by the Roman catholicks and the same held by the antient Fathers also Secondly by not having amongst themselves one and the same body or number of things to bee believed but on the contrary taking to themselves all liberty in believing and being actually so various and disagreeing in matters of faith as every where they are amongst them selves and so by granting these former to have been truly hereticks for their denial of some one point as they must grant it seeing the four first general councells are received in England hence it followes that they condemne and undo themselves and their own cause Founthly they grant that when Luther began there was neither true preaching nor true pastors nor true doctrine in the world Which thing though it be most false yet by granting this they grant that they themselves had no Church till Luther began and what Church began then onely could not be the true Church of Christ for want of Antiquity apostolical succession Visibility and Indefectibility which proprieties Christs Church must have True it is that Prideaux as also some others troubled