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
by sudden death before the morning came Oecolampadius going well in health to bed with his woman was found next morning lying stone dead by her an untimely end as is to be feared for one who had been not onely a Priest but was tyed also to the religious order of St. Briget with the triple cord of his three Vowes some Suppose hee was killed by the Devil others write that hee killed himselfe Nor was the end of Carolstadius less terrible for of him the Ministers of Basil write in their Funeral Epistle of him that hee was killed by the Devill he had been Archdeacon of Wittenberg and a Priest but presently upon Luthers revolt sided with him and took a Concubine Zuinglius who had been a Canon of Constance the incendiary of a bloody civill warre in his own Country was at last massacred in one of the battels himself his pretence was to extirpate Popery and to plant the Reformed religion as they called it But Erasmus in his Epistle to Goclenius sayes plainly That the aym of Zuinglius as also of Oecolampadius was tyranny and that they affected some temporall dominion Osiander before his miserable end was suddenly struck dumb like a beast as may be read in Prateolus And Calvin's end was by being eaten up by Vermine the horrour of which punishment and the frightfull terrours injected into his conscience made him spend his last minutes as Hierom Bolsecus writes in execrations and blasphemous ejaculations with invocation of the Devils O dreadfull punishments tragicall and dismall deaths untimely ends so truly spoke St. Paul when he said It is a horrible thing to fall into the hands of God Heb. 10.31 so truly said David that God is Terrible in his counsels upon the sons of men Psal 66.5 and can you still adhear to those your sects which had such founders Still persecute the Church of Rome and read such punishments Harken rather to what the Prophet saies and fulfill his words yea the words of God Love ye peace and verity saith the Lord Omnipotent Zach. 8 Consider lastly the unsuccessefull affairs and finall ends of three secular Princes who in their several countries did most harm to Roman Catholicks King Henry the eighth in England William Nassaw in the Low countries and Gustavus Adolphus in Germany they had been all three once Roman Catholicks and how sad enemies they proved afterwards to the persons places and practice of that Religion and yet not so much out of hatred of that religion as to compasse their other designs few are ignorant but they themselves were overwhelmed in the ruines they made and of the tragedies by them begun the Catastrophe fell chiefly upon them The one was delivered over to his own sensuality and made a slave to it even his very body was metamorphized out of that of a man almost into that of a monster he sunk still deeper into sin till his souls danger grew almost desperate and all his latter years were full of punishments of his Schisme and Sacriledge The second when death rushed in at the windows of those wounds which the bullets made in his breast and carried him presently to render up the accounts of his Stewardship to God and his King was not the heavy hand of God upon him The third after an ocean of Innocent bloodshed in his unjust invasion of the Empire after such a ruine of Catholick Houses Villages Towns Cities Monasteries and Churches after such a ransack of Religion and threats against Rome and the Vicar of Christ himself to be killed without a moments respite to repaire what was amisse was not this a fearfull scourge of God undoubtedly it was Hence infer that the whole complex of these examples proves evidently that the Roman Catholicks are the true Church of Christ and for this reason amongst others because God hath laid so remarkable punishments upon their enemies and persecuters Secondly gather that these examples efficaciously prove against Atheists that there is a God who punisheth wickednesse Thirdly infer what misery and punishment Luther made himself lyable to for his giving the first Allarum to all the Heresies of these later times O Luther what got thou by imitating Lucifer thy pride and disobedience to the true Church was like his to God thy fall from that state which is a kinde of heaven upon earth was like to his and I fear thy doom is not unlike to his The twentieth Meditation Confession of the Adversaries The first Point FOr the Conclusion of this Work let the subject of this last Meditation be that which these late Sectaries grant in behalf of the Roman Church and against themselves Consider therefore that the Sectaries since Luthers time and particularly Protestants do grant and acknowledge many things in behalf of the Roman Catholicks First they confesse that the Fathers and Doctours of the Primitive Church believed and taught the same things which the Roman Catholicks now hold and in which they and other sectaries differ First That Saint Peter was ordained by Christ the head of the Apostles and of the whole Church 2. That the Bishop of Rome succeeded S. Peter in the Primacy of the whole Church 3. That the Books of Toby Judith Esther Wisdom Ecclestasticus and two first of the Machabees were truly Canonicall scripture 4. Traditions 5. The reall presence and Transubstantiation 6. That Masse was a sacrifice truly propitiatory for the living and the dead 7. That Christ gave Priests power to forgive sins and the necssity of auricular Confession 8. Pardon or Indulgences 9. Purgatory and Prayer for the dead 10. Praying to Angels and Saints 11. Placing Christs image and his Saints in Churches and reverencing them 12. Reverence to the relicks of Martyrs and other Saints 13. That such as were made Clergy-men could never afterwards marry 14. That not only Faith but also good works do truly justifie and that these are meritorious of grace and glory These and diverse other Tenents of the Roman Catholicks are acknowledged by chief Protestant Writers to have been taught believed and practiced by the antient Fathers That the protestant Writers confesse these points which indeed is a strange thing and utterly ruines their cause those learned and laborious works to wit the Protestants Apology the Progeny of Catholicks and Protestants as also many other Authors do most amply declare and cite the very words of all the chiefest Protestant Writers most faithfully about the the forementioned points Secondly they confesse that Roman Catholicks dying Roman Catholicks may be saved this the most of all Sectaries grant both in their Writings and in their ordinary discourse truly as this acknowledgment ought to bring no smal comfort to Catholicks when they reflect that they are of a religion which even in the opinion of their Adversaries is soul-saving so me thinks it should make a great impression upon others which are not Roman Catholicks and move them to embrace that religion in which all parties think and say men
reach the ability of nature or art for such persons question lesse have conference and hold correspondence with God and de facto Insidels were brought to embrace the Catholick Faith by these motives as the cheifest inducements The truth is That it is not only in all mens opinion morally but as many learned Divines teach metaphysically impossible that that Religion should be false which God hath confirmed with his own Hand and Seal I mean with these Arguments Motives and Marks which the absolute power of God onely could produce for otherwise it would follow that God should induce men into error and be the author of falshood a thing which implies a contradiction and is incompatible with the goodnes and veracity of God and would make the divine will repugnant to it self by commanding men to serve him in the true Religion and yet leading them to a false one by the whole complex of such and so extraordinary motives as these are Thus much for the instruction and conviction of non-christians and such as do not admit the holy scripture to be the word of God Concerning which people I adde that when any of them are come so far as to believe with humane faith which may be in every ones power to do that these motives convince that to be the true church which is confirmed by those divine signes and when they do accept of that Church for such God will undoubtedly raise their humane Faith up to be divine by infusing into them the auxiliary forces of his supernatural grace and light with the habit of divine faith Now for the better understanding how from humane faith a man may ascend to an act of divine faith Note the distinction betwixt these four principles into which an act of faith may be resolved First the extrinsical motives and these are not nor can they be the efficient cause of an act of divine faith but they are dispositions that is they are motives or cause why that Religion or such a point is accepted on for the truth Secondly The Authority of the Churchs and she doth onely propound what is to be believed and gives order and direction how to proceed in the carriage of belief Thirdly The Veracity of God revealing to the Church and by the Church to us divine truths and this is the formall object or cause why the understanding assents to such a thing as a divine truth for therefore we believe that such Books are Divine because God hath revealed to the Church that they are so Fourthly The habit of Divine Faith together with divine grace and these are the efficient cause of an act of Divine Faith All these four principles intervene in the analysis of theologicall Faith but with subordination to one another and not as so many independent first principles of Faith for the first immediate and indemonstrable cause of mans assent is God revealing though the cause of accepting such a faith must be the motives of credibility I conclude this Preface with giving the Reader notice that before I begin with the Meditations of the particular Marks of which I have chosen out onely 16. I thought fit to premise 4 Meditations which are both of most necessary subjects in themselves as also preparatives for the more fruitfull perusage of those which follow And for a clearer demonstration to Sectaries that such and such are put for marks of Christs Church by scripture it self I have of set purpose cited the proofs universally out of the Protestants own Bible A Table of the severall Meditations following MEd. 1. Of the end of Man Page 1 Med. 2. Of divine Faith Page 11 Med. 3. Of Christs true Church Page 22 Med. 4. Of the Marks in generall Page 33 Med. 5. Of Miracles Page 46 Med. 6. Of Sanctity of Life Page 57 Med. 7. Of Holinesse of Doctrine Page 73 Med. 8. Of the Conversion of nations Page 91 Med. 9. Of the Vninterupted and Apostolical Succession of the Pastors of the Church Page 106 10. Of the antiquity of the true church Page 123 Med. 11. Of Vnity in matters of Faith and Religion Page 143 Med. 12. Of the Amplitude and Extent of the Dominions of Christs Church Page 156 Med. 13. Of the Name of Catholick and whose it is by right Page 167 Med. 14. Of the gift of Prophesie Page 176 15. Of easy Decission of Controversies Page 186 16. Of Persecution and Martyrdome Page 198 Med. 17. Of the Prophecies and Promises and Figures of the old Law fulfilled in Christes Church Page 208 Med. 18. Of Temporal blessings Miraculously bestowed on the Defenders and Propagators of the Catholick Religion Page 219 Med. 19. Of the Disasters and Vnhappy ends of the Opposers and Enemies of the Roman Church Page 233 M. 20. Of the Confession of Adversaries Page 249 Of the end of Man The first Meditation and a ground to those which follow after Of the End of Man Of the means to attain it and of the Use which is to be made of that means The first Point COnsider first how the Almighty drawing man by the act of creation out of the darksome abysse of that non-entity or nothing in which hee had laine from all eternity past without any reall being and bringing him into the light of life now a rational and noble creature placed him in this inferiour world but for what end to spend precious time in searching after sensull pleasures in hunting after honours in scraping up riches No the end for which God created thee man was more sublime than so it was a supernatural end an end of the highest perfection and the most to be wished for that can possibly be to serve God in this life and to enjoy eternally the beatisicall Vision of him in the life to come this was that which God intended in creating thee do thou prefix to thy self the same end if thou will be happy Consider Secondly for the better understanding of this mainly fundamental point that this end hath two parts or is twofold So sayes St. Paul Ye have your fruit unto sanctification but your end eternall life And our Saviour intimateth the same in these Divine words Matt. 6. 33. Seek first the kingdome of God and his righteousnesse so that here 's sanctity and eternall beatitude the one is to be practised in this life the other shall be purchased in the next the one is finis maximus and the other is the remote end and as the self same thing may be both the end and the means also respectively so here holinesse of life though it be really mans end in this life for he is created to serve God in this life yet in respect of the finall end which is eternally to enjoy that insinite goodnesse the former is onely the means by which the latter is attainable Gather out of this Fundamentall point a strong resolution and effectuall desire from henceforth to make the consideration of this so noble end thy serious and frequent
honour of both and greater expressions of divine perfections than the adversary opinions are Is it not better to have more means for obtaining divine grace and consequently more Sacraments the instrumentall causes of it than fewer to receive the real body blood of Christ is not that a more noble memorial of Christs a thing more beneficiall to man and more honourable to God than a bit of Bread onely and a sup of Wine Is it not farre more beneficial for frail and sinfull men that Christ give Priests power to remit and forgive them their sins than otherwise that the Church of Christ be conspicuous and visible in all Ages that it be liable to no defectibility or fallibility that it have easie and accessible means for the decision of Controversies that some stately and majesticall form of worship be exhibited to the divine Majesty as also that a sacrifice of some rare thing such as is the precious body blood of Christ be offered daily to that infinite deity that there be an Ecclesiastical Hierarchy ascending by different degrees up till it come to one supream head to whom all are to yeeld obedience do not these make more for the Churches perfection Gods honour and glory than the contrary Frame to thy self a lively Idea of the congruity of these particulars with Gods and his Churches greater honour look upon these instances with a judicious eye and conclude that in case it were doubtfull whether the affirmative or negative opinion were truer in these points yet since one of the two must be embraced choose that which is most conducing to the honour of God and his Church The second consideration is that the opinions of the Roman Catholicks these in particular now urged and others which will be mentioned hereafter are more suitable and consonant to the holy scriptures than their contradictories are For the better intelligence of which observe these two rules whereof the first is clear places of scripture must be preferred in point of proof before hard and obscure ones the other is many texts of Scripture must be a greater argument than fewer caeteris paribus these two rules can be rejected by none but such as conscious of their own unjust plea will come to no try all at all Now conformably to these rules it is apparently evident that Roman Catholicks bring more and clearer places out of the scriptures to establish the truth of the forementioned opinions and others which they hold than their adversaries can possibly bring to the contrary Read any Catholick book of Controversie and you will see the truth of what is here affirmed and by the way note also how this consideration strengthens and fortifies the truth of the former The third consideration is that the tenents of Roman Catholicks are more conducing to the security of mens salvation than the Negative opinions are in this corruption of humane nature vitiated by that Original sin of our protoparent Adam the flesh wages war continually against the spirit and the inferiour against the superiour portion of the soul and the issue of the war would be the undoing of the nobler part unlesse it had continuall recruits and supplyes both of auxiliary forces from heaven and made use also of Fasting Watching and self-denial and other asperities and mortifications for these are the ordinary arms with which the rebellious passions vicious inclinations must be curb'd these are the things so much recomended in the scriptures both Propheticall and Apostolicall these are the things recommended unto us all by Christ himself when he bid us deny our selves take up our crosses follow him as also when he bid us go in the narrow way and enter in at the strait gate Now this is the very doctrine of Roman Catholicks and only of them They both in their Pulpits and with their pennes inculcate these vertues continually witnesse the many rare Treatises written by their Priests upon that subject as also of the angelical vertue Chastity and of the Sacrament of Confession which is accompanied with the exercise of most virtuous acts of Contrition Penance purposes of emendation of satisfying for injuries done and removing the occasions of relapses all which vertues as they are contrary to self-ease the wild liberty of flesh and blood so they keep off sin secure salvation so much the more and thus you see how their doctrine teaches to decline from evill by the aforesaid means as for doing good which is the second part of the works of Christian duty it is most certain that their doctrine favours this and leads to this most effectually for they teach that the commandements of God may be kept and that the difficulty of observing them is not insuperable They teach that man hath a free liberty of will not onely to doe evill but good also They teach that mans works done in vertue of Christs merits and united with them may be good and meritory of an increase of grace and glory These opinions cannot but animate a man towards the keeping of divine precepts and doing all the good he can and consequently bring a greater security of salvation Which if thou takest to heart truly thou must like love and embrace this doctrine The third Point Consider now whether or no the doctrine of other Sectaries now swarming in England be holy and wholsome and how helpfull it is to the saving of soules this will appear by a short survey made of those particulars which are commonly held by them all first behold what a pitiful poor and naked thing they make the Church of Christ by w ch Church is here meant not this or that Church which either Roman Catholicks or other Sects call Christs Church and theirs but prescinding from controversie about whose or where it is we mean the Church of Christ secundum se and which all Sects must grant Christ hath upon earth this they devest of all the ornaments which become it and the founder of it They deny it to be of infallible authority and say it can and hath erred they will not admit it to be the judge of Controversies nay nor to have been in all ages visible they deny that Priests have power to remit sins which is contrary to the expresse words of Christ and contrary to the Book of Common Prayer and they averre that Christ hath not left his real and true body and blood to be received by Christians nor that there is in the Church any true proper or propitiatory sacrifice and since sacrifice is so great an act of Religion as it is by depriving the Church of Christ of this they undervalue the Church and monarchicall government which even Aristotle a heathen could define to be the best for keeping of order they deny Christs Church a man would think that God who does all things in number weight and measure should have made the Church a master-piece of his wisdome power and goodnesse the Roman Catholicks indeed