though God wot vpon most dislike occasions in as great execration as those whom the ancient Fathers excommunicated 2 A notable instance to iustifie this assertion wee haue in the seuenth Synod or second Nicene Councell The point in debate was whether such Prelates and other Ministers as had fauoured the Eiconaclastae and withstood the worshipping of Images were to be receiued againe into the Church and to be restored to their dignitie vpon their submission The bookes being produced by which it did appeare that Athanasius Cyrill and other ancient Pillars of the orthodoxall Church had receiued notorious heretikes into their fauour and communion againe a Bishop of the Prouince of Sicilia learnedly puts in this exception or caueat The Canons of the blessed Fathers which hitherto haue beene produced were enacted against the Nouatians the Encratists and Arians But as for the Masters of this present heresie in what ranke shall wee place them Vpon which a Deacon of the same Church and Prouince propounds this question Whether is this new sprung heresie greater or lesse then those heresies which haue beene before it To all which the great Herod of Constantinople Tharasius being reconciled quoad haec to the Romane Pilate Pope Adrian makes this learned answer Euill is alwaies the same alwaies equall This is true saith Epiphanius the venerable Deacon of the most holy Church of Catanes Vicar or Deputie for the most blessed Thomas Archbishop of Sardinia but especially true in causes ecclesiasticall or matters concerning the Church from whose decrees to swarue in matters great or small is all one seeing the diuine Law is violated in both cases And after him one Iohn a venerable Monke Vicegerent for the orientall thrones as if his part had beene to act the Parasite in the Comedie and to turne magnas into ingentes gaue this verdict This heresie is worse then all other heresies and of all euils the very worst c. But was this great Patriarch Tharasius so stoically senslesse as not to be offended with this illiterate rough-shod Asse that thus would claw him like a Spannell For if this heresie were worse then all other heresies or the worst of euils the most excellently illiterate Patriarch and the venerable Deacon were grosly ouerseene in their sentence That all errours or heresies in matters ecclesiastike were equall Or will any Christian be so senselesly partiall as to thinke that this illiterate factious Councell could be Prophets or Doctors infallible in their conclusions when they bewray themselues to be grosse heretikes or more then heathenish Stoicks in the premisses that Malum semper est idem aequale that euill is alwaies the same alwaies equall Thus by the selfe same stroke of Authority by which this Councell did de facto thrust all other out of the visible Church that would not worship Images they haue declared themselues to be excommunicated de iure from the holy Catholike Church 3 In this assertion the ancient Fathers vnanimously accord that defection or swaruing from the Catholike Faith doth exclude men from the Catholike Church and by consequence from saluation but about the extent or precise limits of holy Catholike faith or about the exact list of Articles to be beleeued their concord is not so generall What particular opinions did induce or argue a defection frō Catholike faith or diuorce from the Catholike Church was neuer consented vpon by the ancient Fathers nor could their ioynt authoritie in this case be so great as in the former The latter ages of such as in respect of vs are ancient are in this point various and superstitious But of the vse effects or iust causes of excōmunication we shall haue occasion to speak more particularly hereafter The rules most pertinēt to our present busines which serue as an entry to the main controuersie betwixt vs the Romanists are two 4 The former immediately concernes Prelates or Church Gouernours They are alwaies to remember that this power is giuen them not for destruction or to shew their owne greatnesse but for the edification of others and therefore neuer to be vsed but vpon speciall and weighty occasions Hee that strikes fiercely with his spirituall sword at feathers doth alwaies either wound himselfe or wrest his arme neither is it safe to measure the iustice of Prelates proceedings by the euent or to collect that God doth approue their sentence because the partie sentenced by them may often come to a wofull or feareful end They may dye in their sinnes and Gods iustice may be manifest in the manner of their death and yet for all this their blood may bee required at their hands which did thus rule them with a rod of iron or feede them as the Apostle sayes with the sword when they should haue nourished them with the milke of the Gospell or at least haue vsed salutari seueritate wholesome seueritie towards them The second caueat concernes priuate men and it is that they be more vnwilling to separate themselues from the visible Church then to be cut off from the common-wealth wherein they liue The occasions of voluntary separation ought to be more weighty and hainous in respect of the parties from whom they voluntarily separate themselues then are the causes of excommunication for which inferiours are violently yet iustly separated from the Church by their Gouernours Cato as one saith could not haue committed so hainous a murther by killing another man as by killing himselfe for I thinke it had scarce beene possible for him to haue killed any Romane that had lesse deserued death than himselfe did yet not in this respect onely but simply and absolutely it was a greater sinne in him and is more vnlawfull for any man to kill himselfe then to kill another The rule is as true in this point of spirituall murther that is of vnlawfull separation actiue or passiue from the visible Church Though it be a grieuous sinne in Gouernours to depriue their inferiours of all communion with the visible Church vpon light and vnnecessarie occasions yet it is a greater sinne in inferiours to depriue themselues of the same communion vpon the same or like occasions especially if they bee not certaine elsewhere to inioy the like or equiualent cōmunion without disturbance Such as intend a separation must alwaies respect as well terminum ad quem as terminum à quo whom they goe to as from whom they depart It is a motto better befitting Christians in violent persecutions by heathens then in voluntary separation from Christian Churches Quos fugiam habeo quo fugiam non habeo I know from whom I flye but whither to flye I know not To forsake the Church wherein wee haue beene baptized for the foule abuses that wee know by experience to bee committed in it before we be certaine in what other Church we may be admitted in which there is not in some kinde or other the like or worse abuses or more vnsufferable grieuances were as
Church visible or representatiue did first incroach vpon the royall Attributes of the holy Catholike and Apostolike Church For what causes Christians may separate thewselues or suffer themselues to be separated from any visible Church whereof they were sometimes members 111 15. That our Forefathers separation from the Romish Church was most lawfull and iust both in respect of Prince and State and in respect of euery priuate person which feared God or sought to retaine the holy Catholike and Apostolike Faith 118 SECTION III. The visible Church of England retaines the holy Catholike faith which the Romish Church hath defiled 16. That our Chvrch was in the Romish Church before Luthers time and yet in it neither as a visible Church altogether distinct from it nor as any natiue member of it 139 17. That men may be visible members of the holy Catholike and Apostolike Church and yet no actuall members of any present visible Church 149 18. In what sense it may bee granted that the visible Romish Church at the time of our forefathers separation from it was a true Church and yet withall the Synagogue of Sathan the seate of Antichrist and common sinke of heresies 160 19 Whether our Forefathers in separating themselues or suffering themselues to be separated from the Romish Church did any otherwise then Gods Prophets or our Sauiours Disciples had their case and opportunity beene the same would haue done 170 20. Whether the name Catholike can in good earnest bee pleaded or pretended for an vnseparable marke of the true visible Church 21. That the title of Catholike is proper and essentiall vnto the faith professed by the present visible Church of England but cannot truely be attributed to the Faith or Creede of the moderne visible Romish Church 180 22. Of the adinuentions or new Articles added to the Creede by the Romish Church by which shee hath defiled the Holy Catholike and Apostolike faith Of the difference betwixt the Church of Rome and the Church of England concerning the rule of faith What that ecclesiasticke tradition was which Vincentius Lirâ—nensis so much commendeth to what vse it serued in the ancient Councels 185 23. Of the agreement betweene the Enthusiast or some non-conformitants to the Church of England and the Romish Church concerning the manner how the Spirit of truth as they suppose doth lead men into all truth That the true sense of scripture is as determinable by light of reason and rules of art as the conclusions of any other sciences or faculties are A generall suruey of the depraued or more then hereticall or heathenish infidelity of the moderne Romish Church 195 Errata Page 80 lin penult for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A TREATISE of the Holy Catholique Faith and CHVRCH IN the Exposition of the Apostles Creed a worke vndertaken by me long agoe I did sequester foure points from the body of that intended worke now almost finished The first was the doctrine of the holy blessed Trinitie which I reserued for the last part of my labours to be set downe by way of prayer or Soliloquies as being an argument in my iudgement both then and now more fit for meditation then for controuersie or Scholasticke discourse The second point was the Article of the holy Catholike Church The Third the Communion of Saints The fourth the Forgiuenesse of sinnes Points which I knew not how to handle in that ranke and order as they are propounded vnto vs in the Creede without manifest interruption of my intended method which I indeauoured should be continuate each latter part immediately issuing out of the former Nor could I finde a commodious entrance into the Article of Christs comming to iudge as well the dead as the liuing before I had treated of the resurrection of the dead Nor could I finish what I had to say or what was to bee said concerning the last Iudgement it selfe without some explication of the sentence to be awarded and that is life euerlasting to all true beleeuers and euerlasting death to the disobedient and vnbeleeuers So then the articles of the holy Catholique Church of the Communion of Saints of the forgiuenesse of sinnes haue beene out of choice and intended method left altogether vntouched reserued for peculiar Treatises CHAP. I. That it is easier to oppose than to answer a Romanist in this Argument of the Church The Authors method for meeting with wrangling Sophismes FIrst then of the Holy Catholique Church An Argument fitting for these times being specially insisted vpon and inlarged by Priests and Iesuites to our preiudice they well perceiuing their intricate disputes and sophisticall discourses in this point to bee the only net which Peters pretended successors haue left them for catching silly vncatechized soules or for intangling men of deepe vnderstanding but of deeper discontent or dislike with their present Gouernours or Dispensers of preferment For vnto men either not misled by discontented passion or otherwise not vncapable of sound reason it might easily appear that there is no heresie at this day maintained in Christendome at least so generally which doth either so highly offend God and his Christ or so grieuousty disturb the publike peace of Christs Church or so desperately indaÌ„ger the soul of euery one that subscribes vnto it as this heresie concerning the transcendent Authoritie of the visible Romish Church Howbeit I must confesse it is a great deale easier to discouer their blasphemies refute their heresies to pittie the stupiditie of some or to deride the petulancie or rashnesse of others then to auoide the contrary errors into which some reformed Writers of good note haue fallen some through meere eagernesse of opposition others through weakenesse and want of Arts. And no maruell for there is nothing which sooner or faster leades Artists themselues into errour than identitie of names or words including in them diuersitie of significations or importances The diuers significations of one and the same word may be either equiuocall or analogicall or a medly of both Be the diuersitie of this or that kinde or of what kinde it may bee vntill the difference betwixt them be exactly notified or vnfolded by some commodious distinction or artificiall explication they are apt to bring forth seeds of such endlesse quarrels betwixt controuersie-writers as grounds and tenements not well bounded or suruaide alwaies breede betwixt greedy and wrangling neighbours As in the one case each man is prone to trespasse vpon his neighbours possession so in the other each seuerall signification or importance is alwaies incroaching vpon the attributes or prerogatiues which most properly appertaine to some other more prime and principall Now there is no word or terme vsed either in any scientificall morall or popular discourse which hath so many so much different significations or importances as the word Church hath whether we take it in the Greeke Latine or English For preuenting the inconueniences whereunto the multiplicity and diuersitie of its significations or
Inhabitant of China or of Terra incognita can be saued is a great deale more safe then to thinke God hath no meanes vnknowne vnto vs by which he may and doth saue some euen in those countries wherin there is no visible Church or Christian Congregation or whose Inhabitants haue no commerce with any Christians Wee see by experience that God teacheth such as are borne deafe and dumb many things by the eye or other external suggestion which such as haue the vse benefit of eares tongue could not learn either by sight or other externall sense Now albeit the Apostles rule faith commeth by bearing be most vndoubtedly true and true likewise that without faith it is impossible to please God yet were it an hard censure hence to conclude that none such as are born deafe and dumbe can be saued The Apostles saying then that faith commeth by hearing must bee limited by its proper subiect that is men to whom God hath giuen the gift of hearing So must the Maxime now in question extra Ecclesiam non est salus out of the Church there is no saluation bee limited or restrained to its proper subiect Howbeit the exact limitation of it might best bee made or taken by such as haue occasion to dispute with the Iewes or Heathens It is onely or especially true in respect of such Iewes Turkes or heathens and their seuerall progenies as haue commerce with Christians The former Maxime with reference to such men is vniuersally true if we take the visible Church vniuersally or indefinitely vnlesse such men associate themselues to some visible Church or other they cannot be saued And in some cases it may be vndoubtedly true in respect of some particular visible Church but so true onely ex accidenti or hypothesi by accident or vpon supposition As if a Iew or Mahumetan by profession and birth should liue in this kingdome hauing no possible meanes of associating himselfe to any other congregation of Christians than such as conforme themselues to the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England it were both safe and orthodoxe to lay the former Law or Gospell as hard vnto him as the Papists doe vnto vs to tell him in plaine and peremptory tearmes that there were no meanes for him to escape the horrors of hell and miseries of the world to come vnlesse hee would become a member of Christs Church planted here amongst vs. Or in case he and other more such as he is were to leaue vs and to reside in some other State or Kingdome we were bound in conscience to apply the like medicine vnto him or them and to tell them there were no hope for them to escape the wrath of God but by becomming the sonnes of God no hope to become the sonnes of God but by becomming the children of some visible Church indued with power and authoritie to baptize them into Christs death and resurrection Of heathens then or infidels or of whosoeuer not as yet professing Christianitie yet hauing commerce with Christians and liuing within the call of the visible Church that of Cyprian is vniuersally true Hee that hath not the Church for his Mother cannot haue God for his Father Albeit by the Church in this saying we meane a visible Church 2 Of such as haue beene actuall members of some visible Church but haue either separated themselues from it or haue beene cast out of it by Ecclesiastike censure or coactiue power neither of the former Maximes extra Ecclesiam non est salus Et qui non habet Ecclesiam Matrem non habet Deum Patrem out of the Church there is no saluation And he that hath not the Church for his Mother hath not God for his Father is vniuersally true if we speake of the Church visible whether particular indefinite or vniuersall Both must be limited by the reasons or occasions which did moue the parties to forsake the Church wherein they were baptized or by the causes for which they were excluded or cast out of it It is here supposed that if the causes why they are excluded from one visible Church bee iust and good and the exclusion it selfe legall and formall the parties thus iustly excluded from one cannot lawfully be admitted into another visible Church 3 Swarez in his treatise to my remembrance de causa formali and in that question An dentur plures formae in vno composito whether there bee more formes than one in one body mentions a Synod which anathematizeth all such as dogmatically doe hold tres animas in vno viuente three soules in one liuing body And had the spirituall sword been put into Lactantius his hands it is very likely he would haue put all such Philosophers Geographers or Astronomers as had held the Antipodes to haue sought out a visible Church in that region At the least if his arme had beene so long as the Iesuits make the Popes hee would haue cut them off from all Communion with any visible Church or congregation of Christians within the Hemisphere wherein he liued And no question but euery visible Church hath such power and authority that it may so it will tyrannically abuse the power which God hath giuen it cut off euery inferiour member de facto But being cut off though from the vniuersall Church visible vpon no greater occasions or iuster causes then these late mentioned they do not thereby cease to be members of the Church which is to vs inuisible that is of the Church which is Holy and Catholike 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no not to be visible members of the Holy Catholike Church taken in a secondary sense that is of the Catholike Church which is visible to vs. Of which and of the ground of this distinction betweene an actuall member of the present visible Church and a visible member of the Holy Catholike Church we shall speake hereafter But to hold tres animas in vno viuente three soules in one liuing bodie is not so great an error in Diuinity or so meritorious of excommunication as either to affirme that there be two persons or to deny that there be two natures in our Sauiour Christ He that should dogmatically hold the affirmatiue or negatiue specified deserueth to bee vtterly cut off from euery visible Church And one and the same stroke of the spirituall sword which cuts him off from being a member of the visible Church doth incontinently cut him off from being a member of the Holy Catholike Church in what sense soeuer taken or to speake more properly hee doth depriue himselfe ipso facto of all communion with Christ or his body the Church by denying the vnity of his person or by confounding his natures And hauing thus apparantly excommunicated himselfe from that holy Church which is only knowne vnto God to vs invisible the visible Church stands bound in dutie of conscience and allegiance to Christ to depriue him of all communion with her or any member of hers either in the
the first planting of Churches had and practised Secondly Whether independent Iudicatures ecclesiasticke did or may decrease or multiply in succeeding ages or so decrease for number that there shall be but one left on earth vnto which all ought to bee subiect so farre that there shall or can bee but one true visible Church Concerning the first point Whether there bee any Iudicature Ecclesiasticke altogether the same with that which the Apostles had I am not of opinion with Erastus that great Physition and good Diuine that the exercise of Excommunication was then onely needfull when no visible Church had any legall or ciuill remedie to preserue its vnitie or purge it selfe of grosse offenders Or that the right or power of Excommunication which the Apostles and their immediate successors had did vtterly expire and vanish after once whole Cities or Common weales became Christian and the Churches which before had onely soiourned amongst them were incorporated into them as liue principall members enabled by full authority deriued from the supreame Maiestie or soueraigntie of States or Kingdomes to inflict corporall punishment vpon offenders to enact coerciue or penall Lawes or other meanes necessary for diffusing the doctrine of life throughout the whole body politike without lett or incumbrance of any particular part or member But though I be not thus farre of Erastus his mind that the power of Excommunication did at that time specified by him vtterly expire or determine yet hath experience made it more then probable that after the Churches and Common weales were so mutually interwrapt and lincked together that euery member of the Common weale was inforced to become a member of the Church and to bee so admitted by Church Gouernours the edge of the spirituall sword was much abated the force of former spirituall ordinances became stifeled with the multitude of persons against whom they were directed Whether the defect bee in the power it selfe or in such as haue it but doe not vse it certaine it is that this branch of discipline is not in our dayes so effectuall as sometimes it hath beene either for framing visible Churches vnto the rules prescribed by their great Founders or first Planters or for conforming the members of the visible Church vnto the true Holy and Catholike Church The meere spirituall power with which alone the Apostles and their immediate Successors were indued was of greater efficacie then both the remainder of the like spirituall power in later Bishops and Pastors and all the strength of secular or ciuill power wherewith Princes States or Kingdomes since the mutuall incorporation of Common weales and Churches haue as they were in conscience and de iure divino bound assisted Prelates and Church-gouernors 7 To the second question Whether there be one or more independent tribunals the later Romanists vnanimously answer that there is but one onely Iudicature or supreame tribunall here on earth the Iudge whereof they make the onely head of all the Churches or as they would say of the whole militant Church here on earth Nostra sententia est saith Bellarmine Ecclesiam vnam tantum esse non duas et illam vnam et veram esse coetum bominum eiusdem christianae fidei professione et eorundem sacramentorum communione colligatum sub regimine legitimorum pastorum ac praecipue vnius Christi in terris vicarij Romani Pontificis Ex qua definitione facile colligi potest qui homines ad Ecclesiam pertineant qui vero ad eam non pertineant Tres enim sunt partes huius definitionis Professio verae fidei Sacramentorum communio et subiectio ad legitimum pastorem Romanum Pontificem The Church in our opinion saith Cardinall Bellarmine is one not two and this one true Church is a Company of men linked together by profession of the same christian Faith by communion of the same Sacraments vnder the gouernement of lawfull Pastors and chiefly of the Bishop of Rome Christs sole Vicegerent here on earth Out of this definition hee further addes it may easily bee gathered what men pertaine vnto the Church who pertaine not vnto it For the parts of this definition are three Profession of Faith Sacramentall Communion and subiection to the lawfull Pastor viz. the Bishop of Rome The conclusion which he aymes at is this that whosoeuer either doth not hold the same Faith in all points which the Romish Church doth or doth not communicate with that Church in the vse of Sacraments or doing both these doth not withall acknowledge the Bishop of Rome for his supreame Gouernour ecclesiastike hee no way belongs to the true Church Whosoeuer holds all the three parts of the former definition he is the true sonne of the same Church The militant Church saith the Author of the Antidote is a society or company of men linked and combined together in the same profession of the Christian Faith and vse of Sacraments vnder lawfull Pastors chiefly vnder one Head and Vicar of Christ the Pope of Rome the 3. part of the Antidote cap. 1. p. 17. § 5. 8 The Church triumphant is more beholding to or rather lesse iniured by this Cardinall and his followers then it was by some former Popes or Councels which as the Doctor of famous and blessed memorie long since obserued haue made the Pope head of the Church triumphant Cardinall Bellarmine and his Epitomists in making the Pope such an head of the vniuersall Church militant make him an essentiall head of all Christs actuall liue and indeficient members here on earth And thus to doe is an indignitie to Christ not literally or fully expressable by any tearmes which the tongue or pen of men can inuent It may notwithstanding be thus typically represented or shadowed Suppose a man should put a Gorgon or Saracens head made of straw or clouts taken out of a sinke or some other place not fit to be named vpon the Kings statue or image made by publike authority of pure gold hauing first stricken off or stollen away the true head which the Artificer had framed of matter homogeneall and correspondent for forme or proportion to the rest of the body 9 Contradictorie to Cardinall Bellarmine and the Author of the Antidotes definition wee may for the present conclude and the rules as well of nature and reason as of lawes supernaturall and diuine will ratifie our conclusion viz. First that since the Churches and Common-weales absolutely distinct each from other and independent one of another haue beene thus wedded together as soule and body as man and wife there haue beene as many seuerall visible Churches independent each on other for matter of iurisdiction or subiection to one visible Head as there be seuerall free States or Christian Kingdomes independent one of another Secondly that the subordination of Church to Church is in proportion the same with the subordination of the seuerall states wherein the Churches are planted The best vnion that can be expected betweene visible Chuches
seated in Kingdomes or Common-weales independent one of another is the vnitie of league or friendship And this may be as strict as it shall please such Common-weales or Churches to make it Thirdly to make the Church seated in one absolute State or Kingdome liue in subiection to another Church seated in another Kingdome or to any member of another Church or Kingdome head or branch is to erect a Babell or seat for Antichrist not to build vp one holy Church to Christ This practice or vsurpation of the Romish Church hath been the reason why the christian world for these many yeeres hath beene more confused and disordered then the Synagogue of Mahomet Nor is there any possibilitie that christian States or Kingdomes should euer be so vnited in faith and loue as that their ioynt prayers should be acceptable vnto God against the Turke or other professed enemie of Christ vntill they haue cast off this heauy yoke of Satanicall slauery But of these points hereafter 10 Lastly since the Church hath beene diffused throughout all and euery part of Kingdomes and Prouinces it is impossible that euery member should personally meete to make lawes and orders And yet all lawes are presumed to bee made by vniuersall consent and in this regard the Churches haue beene inforced to haue as well Churches as Bodies politike representatiue And inasmuch as the practice and custome hath beene to admit none but Cleargie or Church-men as members of the Body Ecclesiastike or Church representatiue the name of the Church hath beene in a manner appropriated to the Cleargie Church-men or Spiritualtie The Church or body Ecclesiastike representatiue that is the Church inabled to make lawes or canons Ecclesiastike of what members soeuer it doth may or ought to consist for their qualification as whether onely of Clarkes or whether it may admit some mixture of the Layetie is either permanently existent or existent onely by vicissitude or turnes The Church representatiue which is existent onely by vicissitude or at certaine times onely may bee comprehended vnder the names of Councels or Synods whether oecumenicall generall or prouinciall or of Conuocations ecclesiastike The Church representatiue permanently existent amongst the Romanists is the Consistorie of the Pope and his Cardinals Albeit in very deede the Iesuites the Canonists and later Papists of their instruction haue contracted the Church representatiue into the Popes brest alone He to vse their own dialect is the vertuall Church that is He eminently comprehends al the authoritie which is formally and ordinarily seated or inhaerent whether in the Church representatiue or in the whole militant and visible Church of God whereof He claimeth to bee the sole visible head He hath the same reference to the whole body of the Church visible besides as Plato his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is hee is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the life or quintescence of the visible Church or in respect of that Church all in all So Cardinall Paleotus in his booke de sacro consistorio would perswade vs that as God Almighty sometimes gouernes the world by his ordinary power or by the ministerie or coagencie of second causes sometimes by his extraordinarie immediate or absolute power so the Pope sometimes determines controuersies in religion and orders the affaires of the Church by the consent and assistance of Councels or at least of his Consistorie somtimes by himselfe alone and by his sole plenarie and illimited power CHAP. IX That albeit the true Church be alwaies visible yet it is a grosse sophisme hence to inferre that the visible Church is alwaies the true Church or that one visible Church is more priuiledged from erring than another The strange blasphemie by which the Author of the Antidote seekes to support the infallibilitie of the visible Romish Church 1 THe subiect of our next inquirie shall bee so to share the titles or attributes giuen by the Scriptures orthodoxall antiquitie or other good authoritie to the Church indefinitely taken betweene that one Holy Catholike Church which wee beleeue in this Creede and the visible Church or Churches which we see or know so as that God and his Holy Church may haue their full dues and Gods deputies here on earth Caesars or other gouernours of his visible Church may haue no wrong The best and most generall rule for our direction in this search is that which will better appeare from a treatise concerning the exposition of prophesies For as one and the same prophesie touching Christ so one and the same promise made vnto the Church may be often literally verified and in different measure successiuely fulfilled of diuers parties Some promises may be literally verified of the visible Church or Synagogue of the Iewes before our Sauiours Incarnation and of the visible Churches planted by his Apostles and bee in part fulfilled throughout euery age of the liue-members of Christs body to vs inuisible but lastly to bee exactly fulfilled of the Church triumphant or Kingdome of glory 2 Most of the later Romanists arguments are meere Sophismes à dicto secundùm quid ad simpliciter that is they take all those glorious titles or promises made to the Church in its most ample or exquisite signification to be exactly and intirely fulfilled of the visible Church throughout all ages when as they are verified of it in part onely or at some speciall times or by way of type or shadow and vnto which she hath at no time any absolute title but conditionall In this mist of ignorance the Author of the blinde guide of faith in his second chapter doth strangely wander not onely from the truth but from the leuell which hee had taken not much amisse in the first chapter of his treatise and as his custome is when hee hath lost his way like a balling Hound not well entred fals a barking at Doctor Whitaker whose words or meaning how sincerely he quotes or recites I leaue it to the vnpartiall Readers examination In his third chapter hauing proposed this Thesis That the true visible Church is apparantly knowne and famous to the world he labours to proue in the fourth chapter that the true visible and apparantly knowne Church can neuer faile That the visible Church was in the Apostles time and after the true Church of God we neuer denyed nor will we contend with him whether the true Church of God on earth can euer faile no not whether euer it ceaseth to be visible Where then is the difference These two propositions the true Church of God is alwaies visible the visible Church is alwaies the true Church of God differ as much as a Mill-horse and a Horse-mill or as to stand with a man and to withstand a man The whole visible Church in the dayes of the Emperours Constantius and Valens did Arianize as the Romanist cannot deny The best answer that they can giue to this Instance is that these Emperours did not raigne long for Valens died within
three yeeres after the persecution by him begun Howeuer the Councell of Millain of Sirmium c. was the then visible Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But I hope they wil not say that it was the true Church of God For though almost all the Bishops and most Christians throughout the Romane Empire did subscribe vnto these Councels yet was not the true Church of God during these three yeeres inuisible but more remarkably visible in some few which did contradict the then visible Church content to suffer exile or other martyrdome in maintenance of the Holy Catholike faith which is the life and soule of the Church of God In few ages after wherein worse beasts then Valens was were chiefe Gouernours of the visible Church that is after the succession of Romish Bishops was growne vp vnto a perfect beast according to the measure of Antichrist the true Church of God was remarkeably visible in such as that visible Church did condemne for heretikes Instances to this purpose are plentifull in vnpartiall Writers And when the doctrine of Antichrist was come to his full growth as in the Councell of Trent although the whole bodie of Germany besides Chemnitius and some few others although the whole visible Church of France besides Caluin and some such had subscribed vnto that Councell yet the true Church of God had beene visible in France and Germanie in these worthies Enough there was in their writings against that Councell to condemne all such as followed it that is the visible or representatiue Church of Rome of palpable Antichristian heresie Yet when we say that the true Church of God was visible in these men in their writings or in Iohn Hus c. wee doe not tye our selues to embrace what soeuer they wrote for truth Wee may say of the true visible Church or of the truth by which we become visible members of the true Catholike Church as one said of Truth philosophicall That it could not be sound intire in the writings of any one Sect of Philosophers in the writings of all of them it might This aduantage we haue of all the Philosophers that we haue a surer and more perfect rule for examining the writings or doctrines of seuerall visible Churches than they had any for examining truths philosophicall Absolutely to assent in each particular to any writers or teachers since the first constitution of the Apostolike Church or accomplishment of the written rule of faith were to dissent from them in the maine and fundamentall point of Catholicke Faith For vnlesse there bee an vnfayned and hearty desire a spirit of watchfulnesse and of willingnesse to limit our adherence vnto whatsoeeuer other writings according to the greater or lesse evidence of their consonancy with the written rule neither Scholar nor Master nor Church visible or representatiue can be any other then equiuocall or dead members of the true Church The Catholike faith it selfe could it possibly be planted in any mans heart without the spirit or Genius to direct or informe it would quickly either putrifie or grow crooked 3 Amongst other glorious titles wherwith the same Author seekes to adorne the Church of Rome this which is the title of his fift chapter is one that the true Church cannot erre A proposition I must confesse as hard for vs to disproue if hee take it in sensu composito as it is for him to proue in sensu diuiso That no Church as it is true and whilest it is true or in respect of those points with reference to which it is denominated true can possibly erre is a truth that cannot be denied But if by the true Church he mean a visible or the visible Romish Church there neither is nor hath been any visible Church though planted by the Apostles themselues which since their times hath not either ceased to bee a visible Church or else continued for a long time as palpably erroneous and false as truely visible Whatsoeuer this Author deeme or write his Fellowes and Masters with one mouth confesse that every priuate man in their Church may erre that the Bishops assembled in Councell without the Popes direction or confirmation of their sentence may erre that the Pope himselfe vnlesse he speake ex cathedra may erre And by this confession either the Romish church is no true Church saue onely whilest the Pope speakes è Cathedra or else the whole bodie of the true Church if the Romish church be the true Church may sometimes erre For at all times else both head and members of this Church may erre In this inference I take it as granted that the Pope doth not alwaies speake ex cathedra Now if in these interims of his cathedrall silence any Bishop Priest or Iesuit shal take vpon them to instruct their Auditors out of the Pulpit or otherwise in points of faith or controuersie their poore flocke by this mans collections against vs cannot be made partakers of that true and infallible faith without which no man can be saued because their Preachers or ministers are not infallible nor to vse his words vndoubtedly fenced from all danger of errour His collections against vs are these Finally to what end doe Protestants striue so much for the Churches erring but onely to depriue themselues thereby of Church Faith and Religion For wheras neither religiō nor Church can stād without supernaturall faith nor supernaturall faith be attained without infallible certainty of the things beleeued if their Preachers their Ministers their Church be not vndoubtedly fenced frō all danger of error the Articles they beleeue haue not that inerrable warrant which is necessarie to faith Did this man may wee thinke beleeue that hee himselfe was vndoubtedly fenced from all danger of errour If he did so beleeue the Cardinalls of Rome shall doe him much wrong if they chuse him not Pope the next Election or appoint him not as coadiutor to the present Pope If it be replyed that the Romish instructers bee they Bishops or Priests cannot erre because they neither beleeue nor teach others to beleeue any points of faith but with absolute submission of their instructions to what the Pope already hath spoken or shall hereafter speake ex cathedra concerning the same points the medicine will be a great deale worse then the disease For this perswasion or resolution is altother incompatible with the first grounds of faith and is flat Apostacie from Christ as hath beene discussed at large in the second booke vpon the Creed and shall be further manifested if occasion require in the second booke of this Treatise To the former obiection the answer on our part is easie For true faith receiues its infallibilitie not from any infallibilitie in our immediate and ordinary teachers but from the infallibility of the truths themselues which they propose vnto vs out of the rule of truth and from the infallibilitie of that internall and secret Teacher without whose impressions of truths infallible in mens hearts no true faith
sicke of them vnto death no not after the second or third monition vnlesse his monitions be seasoned or tempered with a large measure of fatherly and louing instructions grounded vpon perspicuitie of truth Frequent contempt or neglect of such admonitions though it be in matters not altogether deadly may induce a separation from the holy Catholike faith vnto which nothing is more opposite then disobedience in cases wherein obedience by the Law of God is due 5 Euery one that is not rooted in faith and not truly ingraffed in Christ although for speculatiue opinions he be an Orthodoxe yet is he in respect of saluation but as an Embryon or as the seed or homogeneall Element from which vegetables or liuing bodies spring Now among such seeds or modells of vegetables or sensitiue bodies as are not yet organized or being organized are not truly informed or quickned some may bee so inwardly or deepely tainted that no benignity of natiue soile no comfort of Sunne no refreshing of wholsome winds or dew of Heauen can quicken or giue them specificall perfection Oâ—her seedes there are of the same kinde which though tainted yet they are not so deeply tainted but that they might bee organized or quickned by such comforts or cherishments as could not reuiue the former albeit euen the latter also are certaine shortly to perish if they be transplanted from a good soile to a bad or be exposed to noisome winds or other vncomfortable occurrences or contagious adherents Now every errour as was intimated before in matters of Religion is a tainting or an infection or sicknesse of the soule and of errors some are so deadly that neither the bosome of the Church nor all the benefits of Christs death committed to her custodies though imparted in as ample manner as she can distribute can reuiue or quicken the parties tainted with them Other errors againe there be not so dangerous in their kind or not so ful grown but that the parties tainted with them may retaine or recouer life so they may continue in the visible Church and enioy the communion of Saints and participate with them in the word of life in deuout prayers and in the ordinary vse of Sacraments Howbeit even these errours also become deadly if the parties in whom they settle bee with Hagar and Ismael cast out of Abrahams family into the wildernesse or be constrained to dwell in Mesech or to haue their habitation amongst the Tents of Kedar Now in respect of such as are cast out of the visible Church because they will not abandon or cast out such naughty though not deadly opinions out of their soules the former rule of Weselius concerning excommunication failes if it bee extended as farre as some haue done it For some haue taught or by their speeches giuen others iust occasion to conceiue their meaning to bee That the visible Church hath onely a declaratiue sentence in all excommunications whereas this rule is to be restrained vnto excommunications onely of the former ranke that is such as are directed against manifest heresies ex specie hereticall and deadly To kill a man already dead in heresie the Church cannot but onely declare him to be dead The visible Church notwithstanding hath power simply and absolutely to excommunicate some of her members albeit it doth not fully appeare vnto her whether the opinions wherewith their soules are tainted doe either necessarily induce or argue a schisme or separation from the holy Catholike faith Yea though this point be doubtfull or though it be more probable that the opinions as held by them doe not induce a separation from the holy Catholike Church or Faith yet may the visible Church vse her authoritie of binding them before they haue bound themselues and depriue them of all communion with the sound and orthodoxe members of the Church lest happily they might by their vicinitie infect others It would argue more folly then pitty or at least more pitty then discretion or wholesome discipline if the Church should be indulgent to such as are ouer indulgent to their naughty opinions or lewd affections especially if they hurt others either by misperswasion or ill example 6 Now of all and euery party that is cast out of the Church vpon these occasions the former Maxime extra Ecclesiam non est salus out of the Church is no saluation is most true The most wholesome and most effectuall medicine that can bee applyed vnto soules sicke of this sicknesse is to bee instant in denouncing vnto them that albeit they be not as yet spiritually dead yet there is small hope of life vnlesse they seeke re-admission with sighes and teares into the bosome of the visible Church And though it be true that such as doe not in time seeke their re-admission by repentance doe therefore perish because rhey are separated from the visible Church yet doe they not perish quatenus separantur à visibili Ecclesia sed quatenus separantur ab Ecclesia sancta Catholica that is their separation from the visible Church is a praeuiall disposition to the spiritual death or such a cause of it as the Pilots absence is to the passengers whose company hee hath for their misdemeanours abandoned yet doth not their spirituall death properly consist in this separation nor immediately and instantly result from it but it consists in or immediately results from their separation from the Holy Catholike Faith and Church vnto both which the visible Church wherein they liued so they had still remained in the bosome of it might haue vnited or wedded their soules or yet may reunite them so they will with submissiue or heartie repentance returne vnto it CHAP. XIV Declaring by one speciall instance the particular manner and opportunities by which the Church visible or representatiue did first incroach vpon the royall Attributes of the holy Catholike and Apostolike Church For what causes Christians may separate themselues or suffer themselues to bee separated from any visible Church whereof they were sometimes members 1 FRom this distinction of errours in Religion which either deserue or may bee pretended to deserue the sentence of excommunication wee may discouer the manner how the great monster with seuen heads and tenne hornes the grand mysterie of iniquitie was brought forth out of the wombe of the visible and as the Romanists call it the Catholike Church The manner was thus seeing the ancient and orthodoxe Fathers had in the name and power of the holy Catholike and Apostolike Church as they were in dutie bound excommunicated the Encratists Eutychians Arians Nestorians c. which had manifestly excommunicated or diuorced themselues from the holy Catholike Faith by adherence to their wicked opinions the Successors of these holy Bishops in place of authority but not in holinesse and vnderstanding in matters spirituall tooke vpon them to pronounce the like censure vpon euery opinion which they disliked and expected the whole visible Church should hold the persons of men whom they excommunicated
take vpon them to defend the truth This did not Peter this would not any Bishop of Rome haue done within fiue hundred yeeres after Christ SECT 3. That the present visible Church of England retaines the Holy Catholike Faith which the Romish Church hath defiled and by defiling it hath lost that true vnion with the primitiue and Apostolike Church which the visible Church retaineth CHAP. XVI That our Church was in the Romish Church before Luthers time and yet in it neither as a visible Church altogether distinct from it nor as any natiue member of it 1 IT is in the first place obiected that wee had no Church at all before Luthers time Secondly that neither Luther nor Christian Princes which imbraced his doctrine had any authority to erect or found a new Church If we say as we must say and beleeue that we had a true Church before Luther of a Monke became a Reformer it will bee demanded where our Church was and of what persons it did consist To the former part of this importunate demand Where was your Church before Luthers time the Reverend learned Doctor Field pithily answers Our Church was in the same place then wherein now it is His explication will iustifie his meaning against all gainesayers Howbeit I must frame my answer according to my former principles fit it to some captious questions or obiections made by some of our Aduersaries since this Worthy died 2 If our Church before Luthers time were in the same place wherein now it is it will further bee demanded Whether it were a Church distinct from the then Romish Church or a member of it That wee had a visible Church before Luthers time in this Kingdome altogether distinct from the Romish visible Church planted in this Kingdome before Luther was borne or so distinct as respublica Venetorum is à Regno Gallia as the State of Venice is from the kingdome of France seemes very improbable to the Romanists and somewhat hard for vs to proue vnlesse we will deriue our pedigree from the Albigenses the Picardi or the poore men of Lions which to doe I know not how safe it is or how well pleasing it would be to the present visible English Church vnlesse we had better records of their tenets then I haue seene or then the visible Romish Church that de facto condemnes them for heretiks was willing to propagate to posteritie On the other side if our Church before Luthers time was a member of the then Romish Church wee shall bee further questioned what authoritie our King and State had either to dismember their Church or to make a new intire distinct Church of an old dismembred part of their Church In these and like obiections they alwaies suppose two things as vnquestionable which we vtterly deny The first that the whole multitude of Christians throughout these Westerne parts as England France Germany Italy and Spaine c. excepting such as were by their Church disclaymed for heretikes or schismatikes were all members of the then visible Romish Church and that there was such an vnion betwixt all and euery one of this multitude as sufficeth to make all indiuiduals within these States or Kingdomes true members of one visible or of the then visible Romish Church The second They suppose that our vnion with some present visible Church is a natiue degree or part of our vnion with the Holy Catholike Church or that our vnion with some present visible Church is necessary or essentiall not accidentall to our being or not being members of the Holy Catholike Church For our more orderly and safe proceeding wee are in the first place to shake and hereafter by Gods helpe to raze these two rotten foundations wheron all their arguments either for annoying ours or for supporting their Church are grounded 3 Our first Counterfort shall be this All the particular Congregations recounted by reformed Writers which before Luthers time had either separated themselues from the visible Romish Church of their times or had beene disclaimed by it for schismatiques or heretikes being sequestred from this dispute our Church might bee and was in the visible Romish Church as Bellarmine and other professed sonnes of that Church define it and yet bee in it neither so as to make one intire visible Church distinct from it nor as any integrall part or naturall member of it If we take all which the Romish Church doth challenge for her sonnes before Luthers time there was in that multitude rather a Church truely visible than one true visible Church if wee measure the truth of the visible Church according to our former principles and as wee ought to measure it by the conformitie which it hath with the one truely holy and Apostolike Church Our meaning is the whole multitude of Christians in these Westerne parts before Luthers time all those being excluded which the Romish Church representatiue did condemne for heretikes or schismatiques had no such vnitie as truely answers to the vnitie of a body naturall but an vnitie onely answerable to the vnitie of an heap or congest of Heterogeneals Some had the number only others the very character of the Beast The heape or congest which wee suppose as an Embleme of the visible Romish Church taking that Church in that amplitude which they challenge before Luther by Gods appointment attempted reformation shal be an heap or congest of seueral mettals al or most part vnpurified In this one heape or congest a great part of heterogeneals though not all shal be supposed to haue had the vnion of continuation or concretion that is some pieces of vnpurified gold by the negligence or vnskilfulnes of the artificer were made vp or suffered to make vp themselues in some clod or cake with an huge quantitie of copper lead brasse iron or other baser metals all vnpurified from their drosse the other part of the same heape or congest consisting of seuerall or lesser pieces of richer metall all homogeneall in themselues though many vnpurified and wanting the vnion of contiguitie or concretion 4 The parts of a good Mineralist or Refiner in this case were first to dissolue the cake or clod and to seuer the richer metall from the baser Secondly to purifie homogeneals so seuered from their owne drosse Thirdly to make them vp so seuered or purified into plate wedges or Bullion or to put some other accidentall or artificiall forme vpon them All this being done we cannot say there was a true generation of any new body or substance or that the Refiner did make gold where there was none before as some Alchymists professe that they can turne iron or other metals specifically distinct into gold here was only a refining of metall praeexistent and an addition onely of an accidentall forme To parallel the Refiners worke by the reformation wrought by Luther and the Christian Princes that harkened to him First it cannot be denyed but that the visible Romish Church or if you will the faction
had deliuered this sentence ex cathedra It is expedient for vs that one man die for the people and that the whole nation perish not Iohn 11. ver 49. And vpon his authority or warrant they aduentured to put the Lord of glory to death Had not this false Apostaticall Priest beene in vero sacerdotio a chiefe officer in the house of God neither could so cleer a truth as he vttered haue beene inuerted to such a pernitious end as it was spoken by him apprehended by others nor could hee haue conceiued or vttered so cleare a truth of himselfe as S. Iohn instructs vs he did This he spake not of himselfe but being high Priest that same yeer he prophesied that Iesus should die for the Nation Ioh. 11.51 Other Acts of his priesthood tooke their validity from his office not from his person this speculatiue truth tooke its poysonous operation from his person not from his office although he could not haue borne so bitter enmity vnto Christ vnlesse he had beene in that office Now albeit we grant that Caiaphas did prophesie by vertue of his place or Priestly office yet no Romanists as I hope will deny that Caiaphas in the preposterous application of his propheticall sentence might well brooke the name of Antichrist at the least that hee was a type or shadow of the Antichrist to come who was to sit as Caiaphas did in the Temple of God or if so they will haue it in S. Peters chaire that hee may wrest diuine truths authoritatiuely to as wicked ends as Caiaphas did 5 But may it not hence bee inferred that as the Sanedrin was the onely visible Church which God had here on earth so the Romish Church from which Luther did separate himselfe was the onely true visible Church of Christ at the time of his separation This may be granted de facto but not de iure For there was an expresse Law of God that there should be no more visible Churches then one before our Sauiours death and resurrection after which there were to bee as many visible Churches de iure as there were seuerall independent Soueraignties I haue heard indeed of some French Catholikes as they would bee accounted which vse this as an argument whether intended by them ad homines to delude the obiecter onely or ad rem to the matter it selfe I know not But this argument they vse to proue that their Church as opposed to Reformed Churches is the true Church because the Pope is Antichrist Antichrist as the Apostle teacheth is to sit in the Temple of God and the Temple of God no question is the true Church whence seeing hee sits in their Church they inferre that theirs is the true Church not ours But as in most other arguments concerning the Church so in this they cozen themselues with the fallacy à dicto secundùm quid ad dictum simpliciter First both letter of Scripture and analogie of faith doe teach that Antichrist is to sit as Caiaphas did in a true Church yea to be a chiefe Officer of some Church otherwise he could not be a principal Rebell or notorious Traitor against Christ But in that he was to be such a rebell and such a Traitor it is not conceiuable that the Church which wholly submits herselfe to him as to her head should bee the true Church much lesse the onely Church of Christ The former argument will hold thus farre The Pope is Antichrist ergo the Church of Rome is a true Church secundùm quid that is in opposition to the Synagogue of Iewes of Turkes or other professed Infidels But if we speake absolutely or compare it with Churches truly Christian it is no true Church of Christ but the Synagogue of Satan Or as he said of his sordid Hosts entertainment that there was so much fire as a man could not haue truly said in strict propriety of logicke phrase there was no fire that is there was so much as if hee had beene bound by couenant of Lease neuer to haue suffered the fire to goe out hee might haue saued his lease from forfeiture and yet there was no fire but a mocke-fire to the entertaining of a stranger so much as was a greater eyesore to him that had sought comfort or refreshing from it then if there had been none at all In like manner there is so much of the true Church in the present Romish visible Church as a man cannot say it is no Church at all so much true doctrine in it as sufficeth to support the title of Antichrist and to make it the very seat of all abominations or impieties more then natural For as the mingling of the Traditions of men with Moses doctrine did make the leuen of Pharises to be so malignant and distastfull to God and all good men so is it the mixture or making vp of the doctrine of Christ and of Deuills in one and the same Liturgy which makes Antichristianisme in graine And as elswhere is obserued the Idolatry of the Romish Church is so much worse then the Idolatry of the Heathens by how much that Churches generall beliefe of one God of the glorious Trinity and of the redemption of mankind is better then the Heathens beliefe or knowledge of the same points 6 But when it is said that Antichrist is to sit in the Temple of God it is not meant onely that hee should sit in the present visible Church but that he should be an vsurper of that chaire which sometimes had beene the seat of Gods Saints and bee an intruder into that Church which had beene Holy and Catholike before his intrusion and which still retaines the rootes and stemmes of Catholike faith into which it shall be his and his followers continual care to ingraffe the doctrine of Deuills and to exercise their spirituall whoredomes in the Oratories of God CHAP. XIX Whether our Forefathers in separating themselues or suffering themselues to be separated from the Romish Church did any otherwise then Gods Prophets or our Sauiours Disciples had their case and opportunity beene the same would haue done 1 BVt here againe the Author of the Antidote or the blinde Guide of faith will obiect That neither the Prophets of old nor our Sauiours Disciples before his death did separate themselues from the present visible Church If not to beleeue as the Church visible and representatiue for the time present did if not to communicate with her in matters of fact or practice were to bee separated from the present visible Church as this Authors words elsewhere imply the Prophets out of all question did either separate themselues or suffer themselues to be separated from the visible Church wherein they liued Ezekiel and Daniel would neuer haue consented to the Priests and Rulers in their persecutions of Ieremie as a false Prophet or Traytor Our Sauiours Disciples before his death stood excommunicated by the visible Church of the Iewes they were as farre from communicating with
seruice In this waking dreame the Author of the Guide of saith was brought to raue as followeth Now I come saith he to the great Character of our glory and renowned title of our profession the name Catholike a name famous in the Primitiue Church famous in the Apostles dayes and inserted by them among the Articles of our Creede famous after in all succeeding ages and vsed commonly by the Fathers not so much to make a difference which some thinke betwixt the Iewish Synagogue and the Christian Church as to seuer and distinguish the false named Christians themselues from the true and vnfaigned beleeuers And Reason teacheth D. Whitaker often confesseth the markes and properties of the Church to be vnseparable from the Church whose markes they are Therefore that which once was must still continue a marke of the Church because the true Church although it admit some accidentall change yet it is alwaies in nature vnuariable in essence vnchangeable so that the properties which flow from the essence thereof as the name Catholike doth can no more be altered changed or cease then the power of laughing a propertie which proceedeth from the nature of man can euer cease to appertain to man c. 18. sect 1. 4. p. 155. 138 Auditum admissi risum teneatis amici 2 If the power of laughing proceede from the nature of man and the nature of man consist in reason it will bee very hard for any man to refraine laughing that hath but so much reason as to consider the vanitie of this assertion that a name should be an vnseparable propertie proceeding from the nature of any realitie God gaue names to the first Man and to the first Woman and the first man gaue names befitting other creatures but the names proceeded not from the nature of the creatures named but from the Imposers otherwise their names should haue beene the same in all nations and languages And if the name Catholike were an vnchangeable marke or naturall propertie of any reall Church it should be of the Greeke Church or nation vnto which the name or title of Catholike is prime and naturall If the reall propertie answering to this name had belonged to the Romish Church the holy Ghost would haue exprest it by a Romane name and haue called the Romane Church the vniversall Church at least the Romanists should haue called themselues vniuersals not Catholikes But let vs listen againe vnto this Rauer Wee onely inioy the liuely badge and are inuested with the Liuerie of the true professors of Christ Neither can Mr. Abbot or Mr. Whitaker dismantle vs of that royaltie by saying Names may be falsly imposed to things or vniustly vsurped For this name is not imposed by man nor vsurped by abuse but imparted by God inspired by the Holy Ghost as I haue proued aboue who cannot apparell vs with any faigned attire nor can the Deuill take from Gods people their cognizance or nobilitate his vassailes with the colours of Christ 3 Was the name of Catholike more immediately inspired by the Holy Ghost then the name of Angels or Apostles was or was this title more appropriated to the Church than the other two titles of Holy and Apostolike Now S. Paul tels vs 2 Cor. cap. 11. verse 14 15. that Sathan himselfe is transformed into an Angell of light and it is no maruaile if his Ministers transforme themselues into the Apostles of Christ Is it then impossible for the ministers of Sathan to vsurpe the name of Christs Apostles or Catholikes though both names were imposed by God and inspired by the Holy Ghost Certainely seeing this transformation is not in substance but onely in colour or shew it must needes include the colour or vsurpation of the name whether of Apostles or of Catholikes But he further addes That no heretike could euer obtaine to be called Catholikes by true Christians For this very reason we Protestants of reformed Churches who are if not the onely true Christians on earth yet the truest Christians and the most conspicuous members of the Holy Catholike Church as militant here on earth dare not vouchsafe to bestow the name of Catholike vpon any Papist but with such an addition or item as wee giue the name of Angels to infernall fiends which we tearme Satans Angels or collapsed Angels Now the same analogie which Gods Angels or a holy Angell hath to Sathans Angell or to a collapsed Angell a true and holy Catholike hath to a moderne Romane Catholike For by this tearme we meane such a one as being a seruant of Sathan doth seeke to transforme himselfe into a true and holy Catholike The point which this blinde-guide was to proue was this That no heretikes could vsurpe the name or title of Catholike We say it is the propertie of the moderne Romish Church to counterfeit the fairest titles giuen to the Church by orthodoxall Antiquitie more plausibly then the ancient heretiâ—es could And by this propertie we discerne her to bee that mother of Harlots which can imitate the Lambs voice whilest she acts the Wolfes part Hee further obiects that the Iewes and Mahumetans when they heare a man named a Catholike thereby conceiue some member of the present moderne Romane Church not any of Luthers or Caluines followers So we likewise when we heare a people brag and instile themselues a holy nation wee presently conceiue the parties that thus instile themselues to be Iewes Yet doe we not for all this beleeue that the Iewish Nation is the Holiest of Nations or the onely chosen people of God now on earth As for both Iewes and Turkes it is likely they could bee well content to suffer the Romanist to inioy the name Catholike as a preheminence aboue Christians For they might well hope to proue their owne Religion to bee better then the best professed amongst Christians if once it were granted that the Romane Catholike Religion is the best But to giue the Christian Reader some reall solace after his pleasant recreation at this ridiculous Discoursers folly in that he and his fellowes can thus seriously pleade for the name Catholike which they seeke by faction to ingrosse vnto themselues this is an argument to vs that the floods already approach the sandie foundations whereon this spirituall Babylon is built and that her downefall is at hand For vnlesse her professed Champions and Pilots were likely to be drowned they would not so earnestly catch at such shadowes or floating bul-rushes as this Guide of Faith hath done But leauing the shadow let vs in the next place see whether haue better interest in the body or substance whether wee or they doe better deserue the reall titles of Catholikes CHAP. XXI That the title of Catholike is proper and essentiall vnto the faith professed by the present visible Church of England but cannot truely be attributed to the Faith or Creede of the moderne visible Romish Church 1 WHether the name Catholike were first bestowed vpon the Church or vpon that faith
which is the life and soule of the Holy Apostolike Church shall bee no part of our inquirie It sufficeth that the name Catholike it selfe is vniuocall in respect both of Church and faith True faith is therefore Catholike faith because it is the onely doore or way vnto saluation alike common vnto all without nationall or topicall respect Whosoeuer of any Nation haue beene saued haue beene saued by this one and the same faith and whosoeuer will be saued as Athanasius speakes must hold this Catholike faith and hee must hold it pure and vndefiled The maine question then is who they be that hold this Catholike faith and whether they hold it vndefiled or no. Were Vincentius his rules as artificiall as they are orthodoxall and honest the issue betwixt vs and the Romanist would be very easie and triable But let vs take them as they are Id catholicum est quod ab omnibus vbique et semper c. That is Catholike which is held by all in all places and at all times The three speciall notes of the catholike faith or Church by him required are vniuersalitie antiquity and consent Whether these three members be different or subordinate and ofttimes coincident I leaue it to be scanned by Logicians According to the Authors limitation all three markes agree to vs not to the Romanist 2 First concerning vniuersality the question is not Whether at this present houre or in any former age for these thousand yeeres past there are or haue been more which professe the present Romish Religion established in the Church of Rome then the Religion established in the reformed Churches since the separation was made If wee should come to calculate voyces after this manner Whether will you bee a Romane Catholike or a protestant They might perhaps haue three for one amongst such as professe themselues Christians ready to cry I am not for the protestants but for the Roman Catholikes will I bee But it was farre from Vincentius his meaning that vniuersality should bee measured after this fashion for hee very well knew that the Arian faction had preuailed especially by this tumultuary kind of canvase or calculation The multitude of voices thus taken for them may proue their faction to be stronger and greater than our Church it cannot proue their faith to be so vniuersall as our faith is The fallacie by which the Romanists deceiue poore simple people is in making them beleeue that our Religion and their Religion our faith and their faith are duo prima diuersa or so totally distinct that part of the one could not be included in the other But for the vniuersalitie of our faith wee haue euery member of the Romish Church a suffragant or witnesse for vs. First nothing is held as a point of faith in our Church but the present Romish Church doth hold the same and confesse the same to haue beene held by all orthodoxall Antiquity So that for the forme of faith established in our Church we haue the consent of the Primitiue Church of the foure first generall Councels of all succeding ages vnto this present day the consent likewise of the present Romish Church and of our selues Now as France is a great deale bigger than Normandy if we compare them as distinct and opposite and yet France and Normandy is bigger then France without Normandy so likewise though the present visible Romish Church be much greater then the Church of England yet seeing the Romish Church how great soeuer doth hold all the points of faith which our Church doth for Catholike and orthodoxall our consent and their consent our confession and their confession is more vniuersall then their consent without ours But if their consent vnto the points of faith beleeued by vs proue our faith to be vniuersall and our Church by consequence to bee Catholike why should not our consent vnto the points of faith beleeued by them proue their faith to bee vniuersall or their Church to be Catholike Because it is not enough to hold all points of Catholike faith vnlesse the same points bee kept holy and vndefiled The Romish Church we grant doth hold all points of Catholike faith and so farre as she holds these points wee dissent not from her yet dissent from her wee doe in that she hath defiled and polluted the catholike faith with new and poysonous doctrines for which shee neither hath the consent of Antiquity nor of reformed Churches And in respect of these doctrines she stands conuicted of schisme and heresie by Vencentius his rules For it is with him a fundamentall rule That no present visible Church hath any authority to commend any thing as a point of faith to posterity which hath not beene commended to the said Church by Antiquity deriued from the Apostles times A proficiency or growth in faith hee allowes and granteth modò sit in eodem genere so it be in the same kinde or proceed from the same root but for additions or new inuentions he takes them for the markes of schisme and heresie 3 So then we hold the Catholike faith and they hold the Catholike faith And seeing they hold the Catholike faith in the same measure that we doe is it not reason they should bee termed Catholikes as well as we though not so good Chatholikes as wee No reason they should be termed Catholikes at all Where is the difference In this Wee hold it pure and vndefiled they haue defiled and polluted it for many generations and doe still defile it with many loathsome additions and inuentions Now in this case the denomination followeth the worser part that is they are not so much to bee reputed Catholikes for that they hold the Catholike faith as to be adiudged Heretikes and Schismatiks because they haue defiled and polluted it with many new inuentions and being admonished hereof and reproued will not purifie their faith will not reforme their religion according to the rule of faith and the practice of Antiquity Their faith not purified from the additions of the second Nicene and Trent Councell can be no Catholike faith Their Religion not reformed can be no true Religion saue onely in reference to Paganisme Iudaisme or Mahumetisme For as Dionysius saith Bonum non est nisi ex integra causa malum ex quolibet defectu Nothing is good which is not intire and sound evill ariseth from euery defect Euery new addition or inuention in matters of faith or doctrine is enough to make that church schismaticall which before was Catholike and orthodoxall Catholike and orthodoxall no Church can be vnlesse it hold all points of faith without admixture of humane inuentions or of new articles The admixture of a great deale of mans meat with a little swines meat makes the whole dish to bee no mans meat but swines meat Our Church according to Vincentius his rule admits a growth or proficiencie in faith in that it holds not only those propositions which are expresly contained in Scripture but such as
vnwritten tradition or customes commended or ratified by the supposed infallibility of any visible Church That Ecclesiastical Tradition which Vincentius Lirinensis so much commends did especially consist in the Confessions or registers of particular Churches Now the vnanimous consent of so many seuerall Churches as exhibited their Confessions to the Nicene Councell being not dependent one of another not ouerswayed by authority nor misled by faction to frame the Confessions of their faith by imitation or according to some patterne set them but voluntarily and freely exhibiting such Confessions as had beene framed and taught before these controuersies arose was a pregnant argument to any vnpartiall vnderstanding man that this faith wherein they all agreed had beene deliuered vnto them by the Apostles and their followers by the first planters of the Churches thus agreeing a pregnant argument likewise that these first planters had beene inspired and taught by one and the same Spirit Each particular Church was a competent or authentike witnesse of euery other Churches integrity and fidelity in seruando depositum in carefull preseruing the truth committed to their speciall trust On the contrary in that Arius Eutyches Nestorius and other heretikes did obtrude such constructions of scriptures vpon their Auditors as had no where beene heard of before but sprung vp with themselues or from the places wherein they liued this was an argument more then probable that if the Apostles had deliuered the whole forme of wholesome doctrine vnto posteritie a point questioned by no Church in those times these men or the particular Churches which abetted them had not kept the doctrine deliuered vnto them by our Sauiour and his Apostles but had corrupted or defiled it with the idle fancies of their owne braines or with the muddy conceit of their discontented passions To speake more briefly though perhaps more fully The vnanimous consent of so many distinct visible Churches as exhibited their seuerall Confessions Catechismes or Testimonies of their owne and their forefathers faith vnto the foure first oecumenicall Councels was an argument of the same force and efficacie against Arius and other heretikes for whose conuiction these Councels were called as the generall consent and practice of all Nations in worshipping some Diuine power or other hath beene in all ages against the Atheists Nothing besides the ingraffed notion of a Deitie or diuine power could haue inclined so many seuerall Nations so much different in naturall disposition in ciuill discipline and education to affect or practice the dutie of adoration Nothing besides the euidence of truth deliuered vnto the Christian world by Christ and his Apostles could haue kept so many seueral Churches as communicated their Confessions vnto the Councell of Nice and Ephesus c. in the vnitie of the same faith 4 Howbeit this vnanimous Tradition Ecclesiasticke was not in these times held for any proper part of the Rule of faith but alleadged onely as an inducement to incline the hearts of such as before acknowledged the written word for the onely Rule of faith to beleeue that the interpretations or decisions of those Councels did containe the true sense and meaning of the Rule acknowledged by all So that the written Tradition which Vincentius so much commends was not by the Nicene Councell vsed to any such purpose as the Romanist now vse vnwritten Traditions The onely vse of it was to direct the present Church in her examination of the Catholike truth or points of faith The chiefe authority which the visible Church then challenged did consist in the vnanimous consent of Ecclesiasticke Tradition and that as was said before but an inducement to imbrace the interpretations of the present Church and reiect the interpretations of vpstart heretikes 5 But was it a receiued truth in these Primitiue times or a truth acknowledged by Vicentius the pretended patron of Roman Catholike Tradition that the ioynt consent of so many Bishops as were assembled in the first Councell of Nice or the ioynt Confessions of so many seuerall Diocesses as were then deliuered to that Councell should vnto the worlds end continue an argument or inducement of like force or validitie as it then was either for establishment of the Canons which succeeding Councels should make or for condemning such opinions as with the consent of as many or more Bishops as were there assembled should be condemned for heresies No the same Vincentius hath giuen posteritie a Caueat as full of wisedome as of religion in some cases not to admit of his former admonition concerning the triall of Catholike faith either for refelling heresies or for establishing of the truth The limitation of his former admonition is in his owne words thus As for ancient and inueterate heresies they are not in any wise to bee refuted by the former method because continuance of time after heresies be once set on foot may afford Heretikes many opportunities of stealing Truth out of the writings of the Ancient or for exchanging orthodoxall antiquity with prophane nouelties Now what opportunities of falsification did these 800. yeeres last past affoord which the Romane church was not alwaies ready to take The opportunities afforded by dissolution of the Romane Empire and variance of christian Kings first made the Romane Cleargie such sacrilegious Thieues as Vincentius supposeth any opportunitie may make heretikes to be And the Romane church being flesht with the spoile of Christs flocke and christian churches through the West haue not beene wanting vnto themselues in deuising new opportunities in coyning a new art of falsifying Antiquitie of stealing the consent and suffrages of the christian world from orthodoxall and primitiue truth So that if this controuersie may be examined and discussed by Vincentius his rules since the first acknowledgment of the Popes supremacie since the making of Edicts for the acknowledging of it since the exemption of Clarkes from royall or ciuill iurisdiction all the written testimonies or vnwritten traditions which the children of the Romish church doe or can rake together are voyd in law and voyd in conscience there is not so much as one legall single Testimony but all are as a multitude of false and illegall witnesses of parties or conspirators in their owne cause 6 But although heresies of long standing continuance cannot be refuted nor may not be assaulted in Vincentius his iudgement by the former method that is by multitude of suffragants or ioynt consent of seuerall Prouinces is there therefore no other meanes left to conuince them no way left to eschew them yes we may eschew them saith he as already condemned by ancient and orthodoxall Councels or we may conuince them so it be needfull or expedient by the sole authority of Scriptures Now if the Scriptures be sufficient to conuince heresies of long continuance or long standing and to confute such heretikes as want neither wit will nor opportunitie to falsifie ancient records and imprint traditions of their owne coyning with inscriptions of Antiquity I hope the same Scripture was
of this case they would not conclude the cause specially before a Iudge not acquainted with the mystery of the Creation For he that hath a wife and a wife hath a wife and shee that hath a husband and a husband hath a husband But if that precept of our Sauiour Whosoeuer putteth away his wife vnlesse it bee for adulterie and marieth another committeth adultery and hee that marieth her being so put away committeth adultery were once produced any Heathen Ciuilian might giue this absolute and infallible sentence If yee Christians will admit this Law for true and iust or for a rule of conscience then Polygamy certainly is a naturall part of Adultery and hee that hath a wife and marieth another is to bee punished as an Adulterer For what is the reason why he that putteth away his wife though by legall diuorce and marieth another commits adultery with the second or why he that marieth the first being so put away is likewise an Adulterer Is not the reason because the bond of matrimonie betwixt the husband and the first wife according to this your Christian law is not dissolued by a legall sentence of diuorce extra casum adulterij vnlesse in case of adultery Yet as a sentence of diuorce gotten vpon suspicion of adultery or subornation or vpon other causes which humane Lawes and Gods Law vnto the Iew did permit cannot by the Evangelicall Law altogether dissolue the bond of matrimony so out of all question it doth rather loosen or weaken it than corroborate or knit it faster Wherefore if hee that hauing gotten a sentence of diuorce by formall course of Law against his wife become guilty of Adultery in the Court of conscience and by the Euangelicall Law if hee marry another then much more shall he be an Adulterer who hauing a wife whose chastity was neuer called in question against whom no sentence of Law hath beene obtained if he shall presume to marry another Thus farre an Heathen by light of naturall reason without the assistance of Gods Spirit may goe in this and many other controuersies amongst Christians 3 Were not most Recusants throughout this Kingdome worse affected I will not say towards vs and our Religion but towards truth it selfe euen towards the light of the Gospell than any ciuill Heathen either are or can be they might as clearly discerne the vsurped authority of the Romish Church ouer their faith and ouer Scriptures the rule of faith to be as true a branch of Apostasie from Christ as Polygamy is of Adultery and that it doth more euidently dissolue the bonds of matrimony betwixt Christ and his Spouse the Church than Polygamy or adulterie doth the bond of matrimonie betwixt man and wife First they make the Scriptures as was said before not onely an imperfect rule in respect of its quantity but this defect being in their opinion supplyed by associating vnwritten Traditions vnto it in the second place they make both Scriptures and vnwritten Traditions to bee an vnsufficient rule in respect of their quality For it is their doctrine that we cannot know which be Canonicall Scriptures which are not which be authenticke traditions which not but by relying vpon the authority of the visible Church Againe admitting the Church could determine which were Authenticke Traditions which were not and that no Traditions should hereafter be receiued besides those which shee had determined yet if any controuersie should arise concerning the meaning of those Scriptures which she hath determined to be Canonicall or concerning the meaning limitation or vse of these Traditions which shee hath acknowledged to be authentike no priuate man may take vpon him absolutely to beleeue this or that to be the meaning of either but with submission of his iudgment to the Churches sentence And this as I haue elswhere shewed at large is not onely to make the authority of the Church to bee aboue the authority of the Scriptures but vtterly to nullifie the authority of the Scriptures saue onely so farre as they may serue as a stale or footstoole to support or hold vp the authority of the Church or Pope So that the last resolution of the Romanists beliefe as out of their owne comparisons of the Scriptures to colours and the authority of the Church vnto the light by which colours become visible to vs as is elsewhere demonstrated must be this That he absolutely beleeues onely the infallible authority of the Church concerning the truth of Scriptures and their true meaning their truth or meaning he neither absolutely nor infallibly beleeues So that if he beleeue any diuine truth it is onely ex accidenti that is in as much as the Church doth not erre in that point of faith which she proposeth vnto him howbeit to beleeue that which is true vpon no better motiue or condition then this is much worse then the ignorance of truth or meer vnbeliefe of the same truth How many seuerall diuine truths or articles of faith soeuer he thus beleeueth hee can be no true Catholike because he beleeues no diuine truth but as it is mixt with hellish antichristian falshood If wee shall proue that this supposed infallibilitie of the Romish Church doth in diuers points induce not onely heresie but infidelity and that infidelity of a worse sort then can be incident to any Heathen I hope our intended conclusion will bee sufficiently euicted that whosoeuer holds this absolute infallibility of the present visible Romish Church whatsoeuer he holds besides can bee no Catholike To giue you an instance for proofe of this 4 If one being a Christian shall steale hee doth commit a grieuous sinne yet a sinne of one kinde or species that is theft he doth not thereby cease to be a Christian he doth not thereby become an Infidell or Antichristian The like wee may say of fornication adultery murder incest or the like all which are grieuous sinnes and without repentance exclude men from the Kingdome of Heauen Yet can wee not say that they make a man an Infidell though worthy to be cast out of the Church vntill hee giue full proofe of his humble submission and hearty repentance for his fact But if any man that hath beene baptized and made a partaker of the word which in many points hee beleeues shall by couetousnesse malice intemperancie or the like haue so farre corrupted the feeds of Christianity or Law of God written in his heart as he shall thinke that which indeed and truth is theft fornication adultery murder or incest to be no sinne he is by the generall verdict of the Schooles not onely an hereticke but an Infidell Now Infidelitie is of two sorts either infidelitas purae negationis priuatiue infidelity such as is in the Heathen which haue not knowne God or his Lawes as hauing no commerce with his people or infidelitas prauae dispositionis depraued infidelity of which there bee more degrees as first it may bee in the Heathen to whom the truth of the
Law or Gospell hath beene imparted but they haue impugned both or had them in derision or it may bee in the Iew which acknowledgeth the truth of Mosaicall and Propheticall writings and yet oppugnes the truth of the Gospell which is contayned in them with greater spight and violence then the Heathen which acknowledge neither Briefly as the contrarietie is greatest which is betwixt opposite qualities of neerest alliance in predicamentall line such as haue the same immediate or proximum genus so is their infidelity or enmity vnto the Catholike faith most deadly which communicate with true Catholikes in most principles and yet swarue grosly from them and from the truth in some particular principles or practices thereon grounded As for an Heathen to hold murther or incest to be no sinne is not a crime so haynous as the like in a Iew For a Iew to licence or authorize incestuous mariages to allow or reward the murther of Christians for whom Christ shed his blood includes not so great an enmitie vnto Christ and his Lawes it argues not so high a degree of infidelity as the like practice or opinions doe in him that professeth himselfe to bee a Christian to bee a successour of Christs Apostles to bee Christs Vicar here on earth 5 To proue our intended conclusion by full induction first let inquirie be made what pillage and spoiles of ecclesiastical Benefices the Pope or which is all one the Church of Rome hath made by Bulls of prouision throughout this and other Kingdomes whereby many Christians haue beene induced to account sacriledge no sinne Secondly what oaths whether of allegiance from Subiects to their Soueraignes or of solemne leagues betwixt Prince and Prince or free Soueraignties or of solemne contracts betwixt man and wife haue beene dispensed withall and vtterly nullified by the Pope by which meanes a great part of the Christian world haue beene seduced to esteeme breach of lawfull vowes or periurie ioyned with disloyaltie to bee no sinne Thirdly what mariages the Pope hath licenced betweene parties forbidden to marry not onely by the Law of God but by the ciuill Law of the Ancient Romanes and other Nations by which means many great Families and whole Christian Kingdomes haue beene induced to account such incest or fornication as was loathsome to the Gentiles to be no sinne Fourthly what massacres or cruell butcheries of men neuer conuicted or condemned by course of Law haue beene either licenced before hand or commanded or else allowed approued and commended after the fact done by the Pope whereby many Christians haue beene seduced to account cruell murther no sinne but a meritorious act yea an act of mercy and pitty towards Christs Church If all such particulars as belong to euery branch here specified and haue beene related by vnpartiall Historians were duely collected and examined with the circumstances we might referre it to any Heathen Ciuilian to any whom God hath not giuen ouer to a reprobate sense to beleeue lyes whether the supposed infallibility of the Romish Church or the prerogatiue giuen to the Pope by his followers bee not according to the Euangelicall Law and their owne tenents worse then heresie and worse then any branch of Infidelitie whereof any Iew or Heathen is capable yea the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or period of Antichristianisme Why should wee looke for a greater Antichrist in Rome or elsewhere then hath beene already reuealed when as the Pope hath herein manifested himselfe to be the first borne of Sathan in that hee takes authority vpon him to execute the prerogatiue wherein Sathan and his Angels most delight that is of turning Gods affirmatiue precepts into negatiues and Gods negatiue precepts into affirmatiues 6 Amongst other explicite Articles of the Romane Creede which euery Bishop at his consecration is bound by oath to maintaine this is one that in the Masse there is sacrificium verum proprium et propitiatorium pro viuis et defunctis A propitiatorie sacrifice as well for the dead as for the liuing How farre this heresie doth contaminate or ouerthrow the Canon of Catholike faith into which it is inserted by Pius Quartus as it were a toade or spider put into the Chalice or wine of the sacred Eucharist I am not now to meddle My onely purpose for this present is to giue the Reader to vnderstand that failing in other points about consecration of Bishops in England their principall exceptions against our Church and Ministerie is that our Priests in their ordination doe not receiue the power of sacrificing Christs body and blood in the Sacrament But their inserting this clause into the forme of ordination doth proue their Priesthood to be antichristian And as many as receiued ordination in this forme had the number though not the character of the Beast And although this clause did not nullifie their Priesthood which had beene thus ordained before the doctrine of the present Masse was fully discouered to be a part of Antichrists Liturgie yet doth it now make all communion with them either in ordination or in the Romish Sacrament of the Eucharist to bee a desperate heresie and for this cause the controuersie about the Masse must bee reserued to the second Booke of this TREATISE FINIS * Pro concione is as much as Pro rostris (a) for this word Church whether we doe according to the most vsuall and otherwise most refined Dialect of this Kingdome pronounce it or as some other Dialects would haue it Kurk or as the most ancient Dialect sounds it Kyrke all deriue their pedigree from the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in the first signification is in value the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Lords house or palace All the difference in the diuers pronunciation of it in our English ariseth from the different manner of pronouncing or expressing the Greek K or Î¥ in the Latine English or moderne tongues Some expressing χ by the English K others by the Latine C. which in English is vsually expressed by Ch as Carolus in English Charles and Cista a chest so likewise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by liâ—e corruption of speech comes to be Church Such as expresse the Greek χ by the English K and the Greeke Î¥ by the Latine or English V. pronounce it Kurke such as retaining the true pronunciation of the Greeke χ found the Greek Î¥ like vnto the latine or English Î¥ haue propagated the name of Kyrke * Aliud enim materia est aliud species Cui materia legata est species ex eâ facta non debetur vt sâ—lana legata est deinde vestis fiat aut ex tabulis navis aut armarium Similiter traditur si navis legata dissoluta sit nequè materiam nequè navem refectam deberi Hottoman Quaest il lust Quaest octaâ— * See Col. 1.18 and Ephes 4. vers 11.12.15.16 Cap. 4. Cap. 5. See chap. 17. parag 1. Cap. 6. Cap. 7. Ecclesia duplex est militans et
A TREATISE OF THE HOLY CATHOLIKE FAITH and CHVRCH Diuided into three Bookes By THOMAS IACKSON Dr. in Diuinitie Chaplaine to his Maiestie in Ordinarie and Vicar of Saint Nicolas Church in the Towne of Newcastle vpon Tyne The first Booke LONDON Printed by M. F. for Iohn Clarke and are to be sold at his Shop vnder St. Peters Church in Cornehill 1627. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFVLL and truly worthy Knight Sir RICHARD ANDERSON of Pendley in Hartfordshire the blessings of this life and of that to come bee multiplied RIGHT WORTHIE SIR YOur vnfaigned Loue to Learning and true Religion well knowne by reall testimonies to all true Louers of them which haue the happines as my selfe for long time haue had to be acquainted with you drew this short Treatise vpon its first returne vnto mee to whom it hath beene from its first birth a stranger to take you for its Foster-Father Could it speake for it selfe it would I am perswaded complaine of wrong if I should direct it to seeke another Patron being not acquainted with any Family which beares a more liuely image of a well-ordered Church than your Family doth Nor is there any other to whom I more heartily wish all furtherance in good beginnings and proceedings then I doe to yours and to that Honorable Family vnto which you are happily vnited Of this my desire of my best respect vnto your selfe and to your Noble Lady I haue no better token for the present then this Treatise of the holy Catholike Faith and Church Thus commending both of you with all yours and it vnto the blessing of him who is the sole Fountaine of Faith and Head of the Holy Catholike Church I take my leaue and rest Yours euer in the surest bonds of sincere loue and obseruance THOMAS IACKSON From my Vicarage in Newcastle vpon Tine this first of Ianuary 1626. Courteous and Christian Reader THe summe of this Treatise was deliuered in Catechisme Lectures for the benefit of yonger Students in Pembrook Colledge in Oxon at the request of the Master of that Societie my Reuerend and Worthy Friend and of some other good friends to whose religious desires my hope was to haue giuen better satisfaction if my continuance in that ancient and sweet Nurserie of Learning had been longer or my studies there lesse interrupted with other occasions But God be praysed that Colledge hath beene furnished since with one of their owne body of whose learned and polite Labours I hope one day to be with others a partaker This Treatise as now it is hath beene for the most part since in the hands of others being committed by me to the perusall of that great light of the Northerne parts my then Reuerend and dearest Friend Doctor Birkhead from whose iudicious censure I hoped then this and other of my Labours should haue receiued some perfection and I much comfort from his company But it pleased the Lord whose good pleasure we must obey not question to call him from vs no doubt to his greater good though to the great losse and sorrow of euery true member of the English Church which knew him before it was my hap being then absent from these parts to heare from him or speake with him Since his death it hath past through many hands but all as it seemes good friends in that it returnes vnto me intire And from it as it is I hope no orthodoxall Reader shall receiue any discontent nor any Aduersaries of the truth much aduantage Wherein it is for the matter deficient or not so fully exprest I shall haue opportunitie whether by the aduise of Friends or exceptions of the Aduersarie to amend or inlarge in other Treatises of the same Argument which by Gods assistance shall shortly be communicated to thee And for this reason in part I haue beene the more willing to haue it published at this time Thine in Christ Iesus THOMAS IACKSON ⧠The Contents of the seuerall Chapters handled in this Treatise SECTION I. Containing the description definition and properties of the Holy Catholike Church taken in the prime and principall sense in the sixe first Chapters Chapters Folio 1. That it is easier to oppose than to answer a Romanist in this Argument of the Church The Authors method for meeting with wrangling Sophismes 3 2. The definition of the Church in generall gathered from the diuers sorts of vnion betweene bodies naturall artificiall or ciuill 5 3. Of the nature and properties of the Church taken in its principall sense How it is differenced from other Bodies ciuill Of the peculiar vnity which it hath 13 4. Of the preeminences which the Church hath of other Bodies or Corporations in respect of the Gouernour of it and the Lawes by which it is gouerned Of the two Attributes Holy and Catholike 21 5. Containing the friuolous exceptions of Cardinall Bellarmine and some other Romanists against the former or like description of the true Church or that Church which is principally meant in the Apostles Creed 29 6. Containing the speciall points to bee beleeued concerning this Article of the One Holy Catholike Church How euery one is so to moderate his assent or beliefe concerning it that hee neither incline vnto presumption nor fall into despaire 35 SECTION II. Of the visible Church in generall Of its principall Attributes or Priuiledges vnto the sixteenth Chapter 7. Of the Church Militant and Triumphant In what sense it is said that the true Church is inuisible 43 8. What is required to the constitution of a visible Church Whence the vnitie or pluralitie of visible Churches ariseth What vnity may bee had or expected betweene visible Churches independent one of another for Iurisdiction The diuers acceptions or degrees of the visible Church 52 9. That albeit the true Church be alwaies visible yet it is a grosse sophisme hence to inferre that the visible Church is alwayes the true Church or that one visible Church is more priuiledged from erring than another The strange blasphemy by which the Author of the Antidote seekes to support the infallibilitie of the visible Romish Church 66 10. In what cases Arguments of proportion may bee drawne from Allegories A full explication of the Allegory vsed by S. Paul Gal. 4. and of the Argument or concludent proofe in the same Allegorie contained 75 11 Of the consonancie betweene the promulgation of the old Testament and the New Of the opposition betweene the Law and the Gospell or betweene the old Testament and the New The explication of the Apostles argument Heb. 9. ver 13 14. 86 12. The Allegorie or Argument of proportion drawn from Noahs Arke explicated according to the former rules and retorted vpon the Romanist 92 13. How farre and in what cases that Maxime vsed by the Fathers Extra Ecclesiam non est salus Out of the Church there is no saluation is true of the visible Church or Churches visible 97 14. Declaring by one speciall instance the particular manner and opportunities by which the