decrees of these former generall Councels dare and doe affirme the Pope to be above all general Councels to be supreme Iudge over all and not subiect to the iudgement of anie upon earth Is not this intolerable pride and most abhominable licentiousnesse and lawlesnesse in the Pope of Rome and most grosse notorious and palpable flatterie in his followers The Popes Supremacie ecclesiasticall then which he claimeth over all Bishops and Councels and the civill Supremacie which he likewise claimeth over all Kings and Emperors appeareth to be not onely a meere Noveltie but a thing also extreamely iniurious to all Bishops and Councels and to all Kings Princes and Emperors also and is therefore iustly worthie of all to be detested and reiected 6 For must not the Supremacie civill which hee also claimeth over Emperors Kings and Princes to depose them from their Crownes and Kingdomes and to assoile their subiects of their allegeance be a most strange and a most damnable impietie when God himselfe saith thus By mee Kings raigne and not by the commission or permission of anie Pope and when in Daniel a voice from heaven proclaimeth That it is not the Pope but The most high that beareth rule over the kingdome of men and giveth it to vvhomsoever hee vvill and when moreover not the Pope but God himselfe is hee that is intituled King of kings and Lord of lords Besides it is a thing cleerely out of the commission of the Apostles and consequently out of the commission of all Bishops and other Ministers of the Gospel for they be the Keyes of the kingdome of heaven and not of earthly kingdomes that bee committed unto them And therefore it is not within the compasse of this their Divine and Ecclesiastical commission to meddle with anie earthly matters much lesse with earthly kingdomes or to depose anie Kings from their Thrones or to give away their kingdomes or to disanull the duetie and allegeance of subiects which by the law of God and Nature they owe unto their Soveraignes Did anie Apostle yea or all the Apostles together in ancient time take upon them to depose Nero or anie other Emperor were he never so great a persecutor or were hee never so wicked Or did anie Bishops in the ancient Church take upon them to depose anie of them that were hereticall Arrian Emperors in their times and persecuters of the Oxthodox and right beleeving Christians Yea did anie Bishop or all the Bishops in the world together take upon them to depose the Emperor Iulian though an Apostata though a man Anathematized though a most impious person and a scorner of Christ and of all Christian Religion By this one president then of Iulian the Apostata if there were no other you may easily perceive that no excommunication or Anathematization nor anie power of the Keyes whatsoever committed by Christ to Bishops Ministers of the Gospel have anie force included in them to depose Emperors Kings and Princes be they never so wicked or adverse to Christ or Christianitie yea that Bishops in no sort neither directly nor indirectly or in ordine ad Spiritualia as they speake or for advancement of anie pretended or Revera Catholike cause have anie such authoritie For Iulian still remained an Emperor and his Christian souldiers and subiects notwithstanding that he was so great an enemie to their Religion were neverthelesse obedient dutifull and serviceable unto him as S. Augustine also sheweth and affirmeth So farre off were they from rebelling or withdrawing their allegeance from him and so farre off also were the Bishops of those times from perswading abetting or counselling anie such wicked matter unto them Yea whereas Bellarmine and some other Papists affirme that the Christians in the primitive and those ancient Churches were therefore obedient because they wanted sufficient power and force to withstand their wicked Emperors doe they not herein speake more like politicke Atheists then Christian Divines Where is Obedience for conscience sake which God requireth of all Christians as S. Paul witnesseth if such Popish doctrine as this were true But besides Tertullian expressely confuteth it witnessing that such was the affection and disposition of the Christians in those times being ledde thereunto by dutie conscience as that they neither taught nor put in practice any course of disloyaltie or disobedience or bare armes against their Emperor albeit they had as he there sheweth sufficient force to have done it Yea the Christians in those times notwithstanding all their great number strength their sufficient power to rebel if they had bin so ill disposed were neverthelesse so farre from rebelling or procuring rebellions to be made against the Emperor of their times that contrariwise they were quiet and suffered all things patiently and prayed for him that Almightie God would grant unto him A long life a secure raigne safetie in his Court valiant Souldiers a faithfull Counsell dutifull subiects a quiet kingdome and all those blessings and comforts that his heart could desire Sigebert mentioning the Popes proceedings against Henry the Emperor divers hundred yeares since saith thus Bee it spoken vvith the leave of all good men This novelty that I say not heresie had not as yet sprung up in the vvorld that Gods Priests should teach the people that they owe no subiection to evill Princes and though they have sworne allegeance to him yet they owe him no fidelitie nor shall be counted periured that devise against the King yea That hee that obeyeth him shall be counted for excommunicate and he that doth against the King shall be absolved from the guilt of vvrong and periurie Vincentius likewise testifieth the same matter Where you see how directly they both condemne these trayterous and rebellious positions of Poperie which be at this day by too manie amongst them cherished and maintained for points of Catholike doctrine and that notwithstanding the pretence of the Popes authoritie and of a Catholike cause they be long since condemned and accounted and recorded to be meere Novelties if not Heresies Now then you perceive I trust that as the Pope hath no Supremacie lawfull in Ecclesiasticis so much lesse hath he anie Supremacie lawfull in Temporalibus within the Kings Dominions or elsewhere within the Dominions of anie other King And I assure my selfe that such are your loyalties and such the odiousnesse and apparant untruth of the trayterous and rebellious positions delivered in these later times by Iesuites and such like Popish Teachers against Kings for maintenance of the Popes pride that yee unfainedly and utterly abhorre detest those positions of theirs together with their practises as they are indeed iustly worthie I would yee did also detest the rest of their false doctrines as I hope upon better information ye will even for truths sake and the safetie of your owne soules 7 But to proceed what cleerer or greater argument can there be against the Popes Supremacie
hee that doth truth commeth to the light that his deeds might be made manifest that they are vvrought according to God Yea most lamentable is his estate that will neither reade nor heare the Word of God for Christ himselfe saith thus Hee that is of God heareth the vvords of God yee therefore heare them not because yee are not of God Observe well those words But againe he saith My sheepe heare my voyce and I know them and they follow mee And yet further he saith Hee that refuseth mee and receiveth not my vvords hath one that iudgeth him The vvord that I have spoken that shall iudge him in the last day Together with the rest let this last alledged saying of Christ be ever remembred For if Christ will iudge men in the last day according to his owne word as is here expressely evident and not according to the word doctrine decrees canons and constitutions of the Pope or of anie men mortall whosoever is it not good reason and a point of wisedome in the meane time for everie one willingly desirously and earnestly to reade search and studie the Scriptures and to suffer himselfe and his opinions to be over-ruled and iudged by that word which must iudge him at the last day CHAP. II. Of Fides Implicita that is of the Infolded saith of Papists What Church may erre and when and how far Of those which the Papists commonly call the markes of the Church and that it is not so visible as to bee alwayes openly seene and knowne to the wicked world That Peter was not a Bishop of Rome in that sense the Papists make him That the Pope is nothing like S. Peter That the Pope is not the head of the universall militant Church but Christ onely THe Premises considered doe you not perceive of what little availe the Papists Implicita fides infolded faith is which consisteth onely in assenting to the Churches Faith though it know not what the Churches faith is nor what it beleeveth nor be able to distinguish the right Church from the wrong Is it sufficient for the salvation of a man to say hee beleeveth as the Church beleeveth without knowing what it is the Church beleeveth Can such a sottish and blinde kind of beleeving which hath reference onely to the faith of others bring a man to everlasting happinesse Is not everie man to live by his owne faith or shall anie man be saved by the faith of another or shall knowledge be excluded from the nature of Religion or Religion be placed onely in an ignorant assenting to that which others beleeve Is not this a devise notoriously tending to the maintenance of ignorance blindenes idlenes sloath and negligence in the people It were a most easie way for all lay people to come to heaven if such a blind sluggish idle imaginarie and absurd faith as this were sufficient They shall neede to take no great paines for it by this doctrine But Christ teacheth that it is not such a broad and easie way to come to heaven but that it is a narrow way and requireth much diligence labour striving and contending to attaine unto it Yea he sheweth directly that Ignorance will not excuse a man in the day of Iudgment or free him from punishment and that it is so farre from being the mother of anie good Devotion that contrariwise he declareth it to be the mother of Error saying Erratis nescientes scripturas yee erre because ye know not the Scriptures S. Paul also requireth not onely some knowledge but even plenty or abundance of knowledge in the people And therefore hee saith unto them Let the vvord of Christ dwell in you plentifully or abundantly And indeed how shall anie of us be able certainely to know the doctrine of our Teachers whether it be true or false or to discerne true Teachers from false or the true Church from the false unlesse we grow acquainted with the Scriptures and be diligent and conversant in them The blinde man they say eateth manie a flie and no marvaile then is it if poore ignorant soules that be so hoodwinked and kept blinde in Poperie receive and swallow downe anie doctrine and opinion of their Teachers be it never so grosse false or erroneous especially when they are withall taught as Bellarmine teacheth them that they must reverence the doctrine of their Teachers but not examine it In this case I would demand of him or of anie other What if the blinde leade the blinde doe they not both fall into the ditch Or what if they be false Teachers or false Prophets must their hearers reverence receive their doctrine whatsoever it be Christ biddeth the people to beware of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Saducees of those times And againe he saith to all Christians Beware of false Prophets vvhich come to you in sheepes clothing but inwardly they are ravening vvolves How shal they beware of them if they may not examine their Doctrines It is true that Christ saith Yee shall know them by their fruits But by what fruits For false doctrines be chiefly the fruits of false Teachers inasmuch as they be properly called false-Prophets in respect of their false doctrine For as touching their life and conversation we see that Christ himselfe here telleth us that how wicked soever they be inwardly yet outwardly they will put on sheepes-clothing and so make faire shewes externally of innocencie sanctitie and pietie to entangle and deceive people withall Not without good cause therefore did S. Basil say that It behoveth the hearers that be learned in the Scriptures to try those things vvhith are said by their Teachers and receiving that vvhich agreeth with the Scriptures to reiect the contrary And this also Gerson affirmeth saying that the examination and triall of doctrines concerning faith belongeth not only to a Councell and to the Pope but to every one also that is sufficiently learned in the Scriptures because every man is a sufficient Iudge of that he knoweth Neither ought anie Teacher to be hereat offended for was not Saint Paul himselfe though an Apostle content to have his doctrine thus tried and examined by his hearers And are not they much commended that made that search and examination of it by the Scriptures Yea which is more was not even Christ Iesus himselfe who is incomparably greater then anie Apostle or then all the Apostles put together yea then the whole world consequently farre greater then all that be the Bishops Pastors and Doctors in the same content neverthelesse to have himselfe tried by the Scriptures whether he were the Messias or no Seeing then Christ the Head of his Church was thus content to be tried shaâ—l the Church or anie Bishops Pastors or Doctors which be his servants yea servants to the Church scorne or disdaine it or take it ill For when mens Doctrines bee thus brought to bee tried and examined by
the sacred and canonicall Scriptures this is not as Papists affirme to make a private spirit or anie private man but a Divine spirit even God himselfe speaking in those his sacred and canonicall Scriptures to be the Iudge in the matter To whose voice and judgement all Churches Men Angels and all creatures must stoope and obey And therefore as I said before all the insolencie and most intollerable pride and arrogancie that is in this case is not in those who for their owne safetie and securitie make search and examination but in such Bishops Pastors and Teachers as will not endure this triall and examination of their doctrines by those Scriptures Pure and uncounterfeit gold will endure the Touch-stone but no marvaile though the drossie corrupt and unsound doctrine of Poperie will not admit of such a course 2 But you say the Church cannot erre that therefore you may boldly and confidently relie and build thereupon without anie further search or examination Howbeit you should first find out and know which is the Church that cannot erre before you relie so confidently upon it For you will easily and readily grant that the false Church may erre And indeed the Text that you alledge where S. Paul calleth the Church Columnam firmamentum veritatis the Pillar and ground of Truth sheweth that he speaketh not of anie false but of the True Church namely as himselfe expresseth of that which is the Church of the living God His words put all together be thus These things I vvrite unto thee saith hee to Timothy trusting to come shortly unto thee But if I tarry long that thou mayest yet know how thou oughtest to behave thy selfe in the house of God vvhich is the Church of the living God the pillar and ground of Truth In these words thus rehearsed by mee that ye might the better observe them consider that Timothy who was the Teacher and overseer of this Church at Ephesus had his direction and instruction from the writings of S. Paul the Apostle for so he saith These things I vvrite unto thee c. The Church then which is the ground and Pillar of Truth appeareth even by this verie Text to be such a one as receiveth her instructions and directions from the sacred and canonicall Scriptures whereof those Apostolicall writings of S. Paul to Timothy be a part From whence therefore you may rightly conclude this which we hold namely that so long as anie Church followeth and is guided by these holy and canonicall Scriptures it is the pillar and ground of Truth and doth not erre or goe astray but if it decline from them and goe another way it doth and must then needs fall into error Howbeit if when you say The Church cannot erre you meane it of the whole universall Church of Christ that is of all and everie one of the faithfull members thereof it is true that cannot erre totally nor fundamentally that is to say All and everie one of those faithful members of Christ as Panormitan and the Glosse also upon the Canon Law have before told us cannot erre in such points as be necessarily required to salvation for Gods Church shall never utterly perish or be extinguished but that in some or other it shall continue to the worlds end and consequently so must the saving faith thereto belonging But if you meane it of anie visible particular Church such as is the church of Rome the Church of Ephesus the Church of Corinth or anie such like it is as cleere that may erre and goe astray yea and fall from God to Idolatry and false worship Were not the people of Israel in times past the true Church of God and yet did even that Church erre fal verie grievously even unto Idolatrie and false worship when they and Aaron also the high Priest with them made the Golden Calfe and did worship before it And manie sâ—ch declinings and falls from God to Idolatrie and false worship in that people are sundrie other times likewise to be found in the old Testament But besides what is now become of the seven Churches in Asia mentioned in the Revelation of S. Iohn which were once the true Churches of Christ Hath not Turcisme and Paganisme overflowed and drowned manie that in former times were famous Christian Churches Yea did not God himselfe also sometime complaine even of that Church and Citie of Ierusalem saying thus How is the faithfull Citie become an Harlot No marvaile then is it though Rome which was once a faithfull Citie and a true spouse of Christ be now long since fallen away and become an Harlot even the vvhore of Babylon as was long agon prophesied and foretold of her that she should be For neither was it anie more impossible for her to degenerate into Antichristianisme then it was for sundrie other Christian Churches and cities to degenerate and to be turned into Turcisme or Paganisme Yea S. Paul also hath long since prophesied and foretold of this great Apostasie or departure from the right faith and religion which hath now of a long time so amply prevailed in the world under the head of that Apostaticall and Antichristian kingdome the Pope of Rome and therefore this ought not now to seeme anie new or strange thing unto anie Christian. 3 Howbeit ye usually alledge these namely universalitie antiquitie perpetuitie unitie succession of Bishops and doing of Miracles or vvonders amongst you to bee markes of the true Church But first if by universalitie ye meane that faith doctrine and religion which was taught universally in the world by the Apostles of Christ and at his appointment Wee tell you that yee are farre from that universalitie For that faith doctrine and religion which was taught universally in the world by the Apostles is comprised in the sacred and canonicall Scriptures and is the same that wee hold and not you as appeareth by conferring and comparing both the religions with those Scriptures But moreover remember that the great Whore of Babilon as shee is called sate upon many waters that is ruled over manie people and multitudes and nations and tongues as the text it selfe expoundeth it And it is further said that with that VVhore the Kings of the earth have committed fornication that the Inhabitants of the earth were drunken with the wine of her fornication Yea it is again said That all Nations have drunke of the vvine of the vvrath of her fornication the Kings of the earth have committed fornication vvith her Behold here the universalitie belonging to your Church which being thus foretold the event being correspondent none should with such universality be any longer deluded As for Antiquitie unlesse truth and true religion be ioyned with it which is not in the Popish Church it is but Vetustas erroris Antiquitie of errors as S Cyprian rightly calleth it Yea Antiquity of the ancientest date our religion hath and not yours for
that being touched with remorse for some offence committed by him he fell at S. Colmes feet lamented bitterly and confessed his sinnes before all that were there present Whereupon the holy man weeping together with him is said to have returned this answer Rise up Sonne and be comforted thy sinnes which thou hast committed are forgiven because as it is written a contrite and an humbled heart God doth not despise Wee reade also of Adamanus that being verie much terrified with the remembrance of a grievous sinne committed by him in his youth he resorted unto a Priest by whom he hoped the way of salvation might be shewed unto him he confessed his guilt and intreated that hee would give him counsel whereby he might flee from the wrath of God that was to come Now the counfell commonly given unto the Penitent after Confession was that he should wipe away his sinnes by meet fruits of repentance which course Bede observeth to have beene usually prescribed by our Cuthbert For penances were then exacted as testimonies of the sinceritie of that inward repentance which was necessarily required for obtayning remission of the sinne and so had reference to the taking away of the guilt and not of the temporall punishment remayning after the forgivenesse of the guilt which is the new found use of penances invented by our later Romanists One old Penitentiall Canon we finde laid downe in a Synod held in this countrey about the yere of our Lord CCCCXL. by S. Patrick Auxilius and Isserninus which is as followeth A Christian who hath kild a man or committed fornication or gone unto a southsayer after the maner of the Gentiles for every of those crimes shall doe a yeare of Penance when his yeare of penance is accomplished he shall come with witnesses and afterward he shall be absolved by the Priest These Bishops did take order we see according to the discipline generally used in those times that the penance should first be performed and when long and good proofe had beene given by that meanes of the truth of the parties repentance they wished the Priest to impart unto him the benefit of Absolution whereas by the new devise of sacramental penance the matter is now far more easily transacted by vertue of the keyes the sinner is instantly of attrite made contrite and thereupon as soone as he hath made his Confession he presently receiveth his Absolution after this some sorie penance is imposed which upon better consideration may be converted into pence and so a quick end is made of manie a foule businesse But for the right use of the keyes wee fully accord with Claudius that the office of remitting and retayning sinnes which was given unto the Apostles is now in the Bishops and Priests committed unto every Church namely that having taken knowledge of the causes of such as have sinned as many as they shall behold humble and truely penitent those they may now vvith compassion absolve from the feare of everlasting death but such as they shall discerne to persist in the sinnes which they have committed those they may declare to be bound over unto never ending punishments And in thus absolving such as be truely penitent we willingly yeeld that the Pastors of Gods Church doe remit sinnes after their maner that is to say ministerially and improperly so that the priviledge of forgiving sinnes properly and absolutely be still reserved unto God alone Which is at large set out by the same Claudius where he expoundeth the historie of the man sicke of the palsey that was cured by our Saviour in the ninth of S. Matthew For following Bede upon that place he writeth thus The Scribes say true that none can forgive sinnes but God alone vvho also forgiveth by them to vvhom he hath given the power of forgiving And therefore is Christ proved to be truely God because hee forgiveth sinnes as God They render a true testimony unto God but in denying the person of Christ they are deceived and againe If it be God that according to the Psalmist removeth our sinnes as farre from us as the East is distant from the West and the Sonne of man hath power upon earth to forgive sinnes therefore hee himselfe is both God and the Sonne of man that both the man Christ might by the power of his divinitie forgive sinnes and the same Christ being God might by the frailtie of his humanitie dye for sinners and out of S. Hierome Christ sheweth himselfe to be God vvho can know the hidden things of the heart and after a sort holding his peace he speaketh By the same majestie power wherby I behold your thoughts I can also forgive sinnes unto men In like maner doth the author of the booke of the wonderfull things of the Scripture observe these divine workes in the same historie the forgiving of sinnes the present cure of the disease and the answering of the thoughts by the mouth of God who searcheth all things With whom for the propertie of beholding the secret thoughts Sedulius also doth concurre in those sentences God alone can know the hidden things of men To know the hearts of men and to discerne the secrets of the minde is the priviledge of God alone That the contract of Marriages was either unknown or neglected by the Irish before Malachias did institute the same anew among them as Bernard doth seeme to intimate is a thing almost incredible although Giraldus Cambrensis doth complaine that the case was little better with them after the time of Malachias also The licentiousnesse of those â—uder times I know was such as may easily induce us to beleeve that a great both neglect and abuse of Gods ordinance did get footing among this people Which enormities Malachias no doubt did labour to reforme and withall peradventure brought in some new matters not knowne here before as he was very desirous his countrymen should generally conforme themselves unto the traditions and customes of the Church of Rome But our purpose is here onely to deale with the doctrine and practise of the elder times in which first that Marriage was not held to be a sacrament may be collected from Sedulius who reckoneth it among those things which are gifts indeed but not spirituall Secondly for the degrees of Consanguinitie hindering marriage the Synod attributed unto S. Patrick seemeth to referre us wholly unto the Leviticall law prescribing therein neyther lesse nor more then the Law speaketh and particularly against matching with the wife of the deceased brother which was the point so much questioned in the case of King Henry the eight this Synodicall decree is there urged The brother may not ascend into the bed of his deceased brother the Lord having said They two shall be one flesh Therefore the wife of thy brother is thy sister Yet how farre this abuse prevayled afterward in this countrey and how foule a crime it was esteemed
of the elect and eternall life as witnesseth the Apostle who saith Other foundation can no man lay beside that which is laid which is Christ Iesus Yet doth the same Claudius acknowledge that S. Peter received a kinde of primacie for the founding of the Church in respect whereof he termeth him Ecclesiae principem and Apostolorum principem the prince of the Church and the prince or chiefe of the Apostles but he addeth withall that S. Paul also was chosen in the same maner to have the primacie in founding the Churches of the Gentiles and that he received this gift from God that he should be worthy to have the primacie in preaching to the Gentiles as Peter had it in the preaching of the Circumcision and therefore that S. Paul challengeth this grace as granted by God to him alone as it vvas granted to Peter alone among the Apostles and that he esteemed himselfe not to be inferiour unto S. Peter because both of them were by one ordayned unto one and the same ministerie and that writing to the Galatians he did in the title name himselfe an Apostle of Christ to the end that by the verie authoritie of that name he might terrifie his readers judging that all such as did beleeve in Christ ought to be subject unto him It is furthermore also observed by Claudius that as when our Savior propounded the questiō generally unto all the Apostles Peter did answer as one for all so what our Lord answered unto Peter in Peter he did answer unto all therfore howsoever the power of loosing binding might seeme to be given by the Lord unto Peter alone yet without all maner of doubt it is to be knowne that it was given unto the rest of the Apostles also as himselfe doth witnesse who appearing unto them after the triumph of his passion and resurrection breathed on them and said unto them all Receive the holy Ghost whose sinnes ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose sinnes yee retayne they are retayned Lastly as Claudius noteth that the foundation of the Church was laid not only upon S. Peter but also upon S. Iohn so in a certaine Hymne supposed to be written by Secundinus knowne in this country commonly by the name of S. Schachlin in the yeare of our Lord CCCCXLVIII S. Patrick also is thus commended He is constant in the feare of God and unmoveable in the faith upon whom the Church is builded as upon Peter whose Apostleship also hee hath obtained from God and the gates of Hell shall not prevayle against him yea Christ is there said to have chosen him for his Vicar upon earth and as for the titles of Summus Sacerdos and Summus Pontifex the highest Priest and the highest Bishop we finde them in Cogitosus attributed unto the Bishop of Kildare himselfe those titles and prerogatives which the Pope now peculiarly challengeth unto himselfe as ensignes of his Monarchy being then usually communicated unto other Bishops when the universal Church was governed by an Aristocraty Master Campion I know telleth us that vvhen Ireland first received Christendome they gave themselves into the Iurisdiction both spirituall and temporall of the See of Rome but therein hee speaketh without book of the spirituall jurisdiction untruly of the temporall absurdly For from the first legation of Palladius and Patricius who were sent to plant the faith in this country it cannot be shewed out of anie monument of antiquitie that the Bishop of Rome did ever send anie of his Legats to exercise spirituall jurisdiction here much lesse anie of his Deputies to exercise jurisdiction temporall before Gillebertus quem aiunt primà functum legatione Apostolicae sedis per universam Hiberniam saith one that lived in his owne time even Bernard himselfe in the life of Malachias One or two instances peradventure may be alledged out of som obscure authors whose names and times and authoritie no man can tell us newes of but unlesse that which is delivered by Bernard as the tradition that was current in his time can be controlled by some record that may appeare to have beene written before his dayes we have small reason to detract anie thing from the credit of so cleare a testimonie This countrey was heretofore for the number of holy men that lived in it termed the Iland of Saints of that innumerable companie of Saints whose memorie was reverenced here what one received anie solemne canonization from the Pope before Malachias archbishop of Ardmagh and Laurence of Dublin who lived as it were but the other day We reade of sundry Archbishops that have beene in this land betwixt the dayes of S. Patrick and of Malachias what one of them can be named that ever sought for a Pall from Rome Ioceline indeed a late Monke of the abbey of Furnesse writeth of S. Patrick that the Bishop of Rome conferred the Pall upon him together with the execution of legatine power in his roome But he is well knowne to be a most fabulous author and for this particular Bernard who was his ancient informeth us farre otherwise that from the very beginning untill his time the metropoliticall see of Ardmagh wanted the use of the Pall. And therefore Giraldus Cambrensis howsoever he acknowledgeth that S. Patrick did choose Ardmagh for his seate and did appoint it to be as it were a metropoliticall see and the proper place of the primacie of all Ireland yet doth he affirme withall that in verie deed there were no Archbishops in Ireland but that Bishops onely did consecrate one another untill Iohannes Paparo the Popes legate brought foure palls thither in the yeare of our Lord 1152. Gelasius was then arcbishop of Ardmagh who dyed in the yeare 1174. at which wee finde this note in our Annales This man is said to be the first Archbishop because he used the first Pall. But others before him were called Archbishops and Primates in name only for the reverence and honour of S. Patrick as the Apostle of that nation The same time that the foure Archbishopricks were established by Iohannes Paparo our Bishopricks also were limited reduced unto a fewer number whereas at the beginning they were verie many for we reade in Nennius that S Patrick founded here 365. Churches and ordayned 365. Bishops beside 3000. Presbyters and in processe of time were daily multiplied according to the pleasure of the Metropolitan so farre that every Church almost had a severall Bishop whereof Bernard doth much complaine in the life of Malachias For in erecting of new Bishopricks the Pope was no more sought unto here then in the nomination and confirmation of the Bishops themselves all matters of this kinde being done at home without relation to anie forraine authoritie The ancient forme of making a Bishop is thus laid downe by Bonifacius archbishop of Mentz in the life of Livinus When Menalchus
aliquid errasse firmissimè credam I have learned to yeeld this reverence and honour to the canonicall Scriptures Onely that I most firmely beleeve no Author of them to have erred any thing in their Writing Yea the Writings of all others he saith are to be read non cum credendi necessitate sed cum judicandi libertate not with a necessitie to beleeve them but with a libertie to judge of them For The Authoritie of the sacred Scriptures cannot deceive And by those Bookes saith hee de caeteris literis fidelium vel Infidelium liberè judicemus We may freely judge of the Writings of all other men whether they be Christians or Infidels And this freedome or libertie S. Augustine againe challengeth to himselfe in quorumlibet hominum Scriptis in the Writings of all men vvhosoever and addeth this reason once more Quia solis canonicis debeo sine ulla recusatione consensum because I owe my consent without any refusall saith hee to the canonicall Scriptures onely Yea it is manifest that not onely singly or severally but iointly also with one consent manie ancient Fathers together have erred For example with S. Cyprian in his error of rebaptization manie of the ancient Fathers then living yea even great Councils also tooke part Againe did not all these Iustine Irenaeus Papias Tertullian Victorinus Lactantius Severus Apollinaris and others hold the Chiliastick error otherwise called the Error of the Millenarians In the Question also concerning Antichrist although verie manie ancient Fathers with one ioynt consent held he should come of the Tribe of Dan yet doth Bellarmine himselfe for all that hold this to be an opinion not certaine because it is not well and sufficiently proved by the Scriptures for the texts of Scripture which are wont to be alledged for maintenance of that opinion himselfe answereth and sheweth that they prove no such matter And therefore Turrecremata also saith thus The Writings of the Doctors are to be received vvith reverence yet they binde us not to beleeve them in all their opinions but wee may lawfully contradict them vvhere by good reason it appeareth that they speake against the Scripture or the truth And thus also speaketh Marsilius that he will receive whatsoever they bring consonant to the Scripture but what they bring dissonant from it hee will reject with reverence upon the Authoritie of Scripture vvhereunto he will leane Yea whereas some suppose that the ancient Fathers because they lived much neerer to the times of the Apostles then the late Writers did therefore see more and further into truth then the late Writers Andradius holdeth the contrarie saying God hath revealed manie things to us that they never saw Agreeably whereunto Dominicus Bannes another learned Popish Writer likewise saith thus It is not necessarie that by how much the more the Church is remote from the Apostles times by so much there should be the lesse perfect knowledge of the mysteries of faith therein because after the Apostles time there were not the most learned men in the Church which had dexteritie in understanding and expounding the matters of faith We are not therefore involved in the more darkenesse by how much the more in respect of time vve be distant from them but rather the Doctors of these later times being godly and insisting in the steps of the ancient Fathers have attained more expresse understanding in some things then they had for these be like children standing on the shoulders of Giants vvho being lifted up by the tallnesse of the Giants no marvaile though they see further then they Seeing then the ancient Fathers have erred and may erre even in the opinion of Papists as well as of Protestants it must be concluded that therefore they also cannot be this infallible Iudge What then May-Traditions not written or not specified in the sacred Scriptures alledged to be Apostolicall be held to be anie infallible Iudge or anie infallible rule of Faith I answer no. For first how can a man be assured that those Traditions be Apostolical which be alledged and affirmed so to be when he seeth no proofe or evidence for them in anie of the Writings of the Apostles or in anie of the sacred and canonicall Scriptures If you say that some of the ancient Fathers do testifie them to be Apostolicall That is no sufficient proofe that therefore they came originally and assuredly from the Apostles because even those ancient Fathers themselves taking them upon report of others might possibly be deceived And so pretious is mens faith and so deare unto them is and ought to be the salvation of their soules as that in those regards no Authoritie or testimonie of men without the Authoritie and testimonie of God therewith concurring can give them an undoubted or assured satisfaction For our Faith is not to be builded upon the credite Authoritie or testimonie of men but upon the testimonie and Authoritie of God himselfe Irenaeus in Eusebius declareth what maner of Traditions those were which Polycarpus delivered and said he had heard and received from the Apostles and testifieth of them that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all consonant to the Scriptures Traditions of this sort namely which be consonant and agreeable to the holy Scriptures we refuse not but willingly embrace but such Traditions as be dissonant and repugnant to those holy Scriptures there is ever iust reason to refuse or if they be not thereby warranted none is necessarily tyed or bound to beleeve them to be undoubtedly divine and Apostolicall It was not therefore without good cause that S. Paul himselfe gave caveats even touching Traditions and matters delivered as comming originally from the Apostles because sometimes some things were reported to come originally from them which indeed did not so come A cleere example wherof Eusebius sheweth in Papias who was himselfe so deceived under the name and supposition of Apostolicall Traditions and thereby also occasioned others to be deceived This Papias was schollar to Iohn the Apostle schoole-fellow to Polycarpus before mentioned and for the credit of his Traditions said thus I am not delighted with them that make mention of strange precepts and commandements but in them that teach those things that be true and bring such things as are delivered by the Lord to our fidelitie and came from the truth it selfe So vvhen anie came that was a Disciple of the Elders I enquired the vvords of the Elders What Andrew What Philip What Thomas or anie other of the Disciples of the Lord said and he saith moreover that hee laid up all those things well in his remembrance Howbeit notwithstanding all this his care diligence and vigilancie about Apostolicall Traditions he brought in as Eusebius saith sundry paradoxes and strange opinions and such as vvere full of fables amongst which was the Chiliastick opinion Yea this great liking and affection to unwritten Traditions deceived not onely Papias but as Eusebius witnesseth
it gave occasion of the Chiliastick error unto divers Ecclesiasticall persons also after him And he addeth the reason because saith he they pretended the antiquitie of that man Clemens Alexandrinus also was much addicted to unwritten Traditions and therewith likewise much deceived affirming and teaching by reason therof verie erroneous strange and untrue opinions as namely that Philosophy did in times past justifie or save the Greekes that Christ preached onely one yeare that the Apostles after their death preached unto the dead which with the Apostles descended into the vvater and being made alive ascended thence againe that Christians may not contendin judgment neither before the Gentiles nor yet before the Saints and sundry other errors Yea he there further mentioneth a certaine kinde of Gnostici of whom hee delivereth this description saying that the knowledge which maketh a true Gnostick is that which commeth by succession unto few from the Apostles and is delivered vvithout vvriting c. Where may appeare whence the heresie of the Gnosticks which was afterward condemned by the Church did spring and had his original namely out of unwritten Traditions supposed to be Apostolicall Yea sundry other Hereticks also boasted of their doctrines and opinions as if they had received them by tradition from the Apostles For Valentinus alledged himselfe to be schollar to Theodatus who was familiarly acquainted with S. Paul The Marcionites boasted that they had the Disciples of Matthias to their Master and taught the doctrine by them delivered Artemon likewise boasted of his doctrine as if it had come unto him undoubtedly by tradition Apostolicall But Eusebius for all that sheweth that it was not so Excellent therefore and ever memorable is that speech of Irenaeus touching this point where hee granteth that The Apostles did indeed at the first preach the Gospel by vvord of mouth but afterward saith hee by the vvill of God they delivered it in vvriting that so being committed to writing it might be for ever after that the foundation and pillar of our faith So that now and ever since that time wee must hold as S. Hierome also teacheth and holdeth saying thus That which hath no Authoritie of the holy Scriptures is as easily contemned as allowed And againe hee saith directly that such things as men invent and devise of themselves without the Authoritie and testimonie of the Scriptures as it vvere by Tradition Apostolicall the Sword of God striketh downe Yea some Traditions mentioned in ancient Fathers to be Apostolicall even the Papists themselves doe not observe as namely the temper of Milke and Hony given to them that be newly baptized abstayning from washing an whole vveeke after oblations for the Birth-day yearely not to fast nor kneele in prayer or worshipping of God on the Lords day nor betweene Easter and Whitsontide All which be mentioned in Tertullian S. Basil likewise mentioneth it as an Apostolicall tradition for Christians betweene Easter and Whitsontide to pray standing S. Hierome also mentioneth it as an Apostolicall Tradition the Temper of Milke and Hony as also on the Lords-day and throughout everie Pentecost neyther to pray on the knees nor to fast If then some Traditions affirmed by ancient Fathers to be Apostolicall be neverthelesse not observed in the Popish Church it selfe which is a thing very manifest why should anie Traditions be urged or obtruded upon the Protestants under the name of Apostolicall and by them necessarily to be held and beleeved which be not found specified in the undoubted Word of God the sacred and canonicall Scriptures but have onely the Authoritie of some men without the Authoritie of Gods word to testifie the same Yea as touching all points necessarie to salvation the holy Scriptures themselves be abundantly sufficient so that for that purpose there is no need of anie unwritten Traditions as even the ancient Fathers themselves doe also testifie The holy Scriptures inspired from heaven saith Athanasius be sufficient for all instruction of truth Whatsoever is requisite to salvation saith Chrysostome all that is fully laid downe in the Scriptures In the two Testaments saith Cyril everie vvord or thing that pertaineth to God may be required and discussed There vvere chosen to be vvritten saith Augustine such things as vvere thought sufficient for the salvation of the faithfull The Canon of the Scriptures saith Vincentius Lirinensis is sufficient and more then sufficient for all matters What need then is there of anie more speech in a matter so cleere and evident Concerning this point therefore Inasmuch as it is verie apparant that some errors heresies have arisen out of Traditions said and supposed to be Apostolical and that under that pretence and name sundry men in ancient and former times have beene deceived and may now much more by that meanes in these later times so farre remote from the times of the Apostles possibly be deceived it must be concluded that Traditions Apostolicall as they be called not warranted nor specified in the divine Scriptures cannot be held for anie infallible Iudge or infallible rule of truth in this case Seeing then the Church who is her selfe in question may not be the Iudge but must be iudged of and that by the Scriptures for in such a case where the Church it selfe is in question even by Bellarmines own acknowledgement the Scripture is better knowne then the Church and therefore must be the Iudge of it and seeing also that not Councils whether Generall or Provinciall nor Popes of Rome nor ancient Fathers nor unwritten Traditions said to be Apostolicall can be this infallible Iudge what remaineth but that God himselfe speaking unto us in his sacred and canonicall Scriptures is and must be held to be the only infallible Iudge in this case Or which commeth all to one effect if we will have visible and mortall men to be the Iudges The infallible Rule whereby they are to iudge and to be directed appeareth to be the verie same sacred and canonicall Scriptures wherein God speaketh And this also doe the ancient Fathers themselves yet further directly teach and affirme For S. Augustine saith The Scripture pitcheth downe the Rule of our Faith Tertullian likewise calleth the Scriptures the Rule of faith S. Chrysostome calleth them a most exquisite Rule and exact Square and Ballance to trie all things by And Gregory Nyssen also calleth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a straite and inflexible Rule By this Rule of the Scripture then it is that not only Bishops Pastors and Clergie-men but even everie man else that is able to make search and tryall is to trie and examine these differing and contradictorie doctrines and positions betweene the Protestants and the Papists For how otherwise shall we certainly know what is right what is wrong in them or how otherwise shall we be able to discerne the true Teachers which wee are to reverence honour and embrace from the false
not verie ancient as being given of later times to those Christians that have protested against the errors abuses in Poperie yet that hindreth not but that the Faith Religion by them professed may be nevertheless as it is the most ancient Apostolick Catholick Christian Divine As likewise the name of Papists is not verie ancient as being also of later times given by their adversaries unto them for that they depend so much upon the Pope his doctrine decrees designes yet do the Papists neverthelesse hold the faith and religion which they professe to be verie ancient yea the most ancient and the Apostolick Catholick and Christian. Howbeit both these Religions they being so repugnant contradictorie one to the other cannot be right but one of them must needs be wrong and that is Poperie as this Booke declareth That which wee meane and comprehend under the name of Poperie being nothing else but the errors heresies and corruptions which the Church of Rome holdeth and be accrued and growen unto it since the first institution and planting of it by the Apostles For what the Church of Rome rightly holdeth or beleeveth the Protestants impugne not nor have cause to impugne but they onely impugne her errors heresies and corruptions As for the terme of Catholicks which Papists have put upon themselves their calling themselves so doth not therfore prove them to be so for the Arrians in times past likewise called themselves Catholicks who were neverthelesse not so but Hereticks in verie deed But as we dislike not but well approve of that name of Catholicks when it is rightly used and applyed and given to those to whom it properly belongeth so doe wee preferre the name of Christians before it as being indeed the more ancient and the more honourable name it being derived from Christ himselfe the Head of his Church and the Author of the Christian religion Who be the right Catholicks and the true-Christians who not yea which be the Christian and which be the un-Christian and which be the Antichristian people doth afterward appeare that so every man may know what name doth rightly properly belong unto him and may ranke himselfe in his due place For whosoever knoweth Antichrist well wil abhorre detest him and will love honour and adhere unto Christ the puritie of his religion so much the more If then the Pope of Rome shall here appeare unto you to be as hee is the grand Antichrist foretold in the Scriptures I doubt not but you wil speedily renounce him his Antichristian Supremacie his Antichristian Religion together with all his seducing and Antichristian Teachers and wicked and Antichristian courses against the Church of God For no true-Christians ought nor will give anie better respect to Antichrist especially after that they once know him have him discovered manifested unto them God therefore open reveale his truth more more unto us all and incline all our hearts and affections to embrace it evermore to walke in the wayes of it AMEN An Alphabeticall Table of the principall matters handled in this Worke following A ANtichristianisme a mysterie of iniquitie and not any open hostilitie or professed enmitie against Christ and Christianitie pag. 208. pag. 39. p. 61.62 pa. 285.286 pag. 394 395. c. Antichristianisme began in the Apostles dayes pag. 280.321 VVhat maner of adversarie the speciall and grand Antichrist is pag. 285.286 and pag. 394 395.396 pag. 334.335 Antichrist is the falseâ—Prophet amongst Christians and not amongst the Turkes and other Infidels of the world pag. 341. c Miracles signes and wonders done in the Antichristian Church to seduce and deceive people with all pag. 280.281 VVhat maner of miracles or vvonders they be that be done in the Antichristian Church pag. 280.281.282 pag. 306.307 pag. 341. pag. 98.99 A difference betweene Christian un-Christian and Antichristian people pag. 286 Antichrist is not one singular or particular man that shall continue iust three yeares and an halfe but is a State or succession of men that is to have continuance for many hundreth yeares in the world pag. 312.313.314 315.316.317.318.319.320.321 c. Antichrist is to sit in the Temple of God that is in the Church and amongst those that professe Christ and Christianitie p. 283.284 The speciall and particular place vvhere the grand Antichrist is to sit is not Constantinople nor Hierusalem nor any other Citie but Rome pag. 283.284.285 pag. 246.247.248 p. 377. c That the Pope of Rome is the grand Antichrist shewed out of 2. Thes. 2. pag. 279.280.281 c The Pope of Rome further shewed to be Antichrist out of Rev. 13. pag. 325.326.327.328.329.330.331.332 c Againe the Pope shewed to be Antichrist and the Popish Church to be the Antichristian out of 1. Tim. 4. verses 1 2 3 4 5. pa. 353 354.355 c Sundry obiections of the Papists concerning Antichrist answered pag. 377.378.379 380 381.382 c. That Papall or Popish Rome is the vvhore of Babylon shewed out of Revel 17 pag. 244.245.246 c The Romane Empire standing in the height and glory vvas the let or impediment that Antichrist could not shew himselfe in his height untill that impediment vvas removed pag. 304.305 pag. 391.392 393 That Antichrist is come long sithence pag. 391.392.393 394. pag. 43.44 c. pag. 61.62 Antichrist the man of sinne the sonne of perdition pag. 396.397.398 399.400 c. The reason vvhy men are so seduced and misled by Antichrist pag. 307.308 The most fearefull and vvofull estate of those vvho receiving many admonitions to the contrary vvill neverthelesse live and dye in obedience to Antichrist and his religion pag. 309 and p. 397 c. Assurance of salvation in this life and how it is 〈…〉 and mâ—y be obteyned pag. 158.159 160.161 c B IN vvhat sense some ancient Fathers call Peter Bishop of Rome and vvhether he vvere properly so to be called pag. 90 91 92 How unlike the Bishop of Rome is to S. Peter pag 92 93 94 c VVho that Beast is that is mentioned in Rev. 13 and in diverse other places of the Revelation pag 308.309 pag 325 326 327 328 c. and pag. 249.250.251.252.253 C WHere our Church vvas during the raigne of Poperie pag. 36.37 38 Councels aswell generall as Provinciall may erre in matter of Faith as vvell as in matter of fact pag. 50 51 52 54 c. See also the Preface VVhat Church that is vvhereof it is said that it cannot erre and vvhen and how farre it may erre and how farre not pag. 81 82. See also the Preface Concerning universalitie antiquitie perpetuitie visibilitie unitie succession of Bishops and doing of miracles vvhether all these be in the Popish Church and vvhether they be inseparable markes of the true Church pag. 83.84 85. c. to the end of that chapter Chastisements and afflictions in this life be sent of God upon his children out of his love toward them for other
but two Sacraments of the new Testament properly so called and that Confirmation Penance Mariage Orders and Extreme unction be not Sacraments properly pag. 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 c That the Sacraments doe not give grace ex opere operato by the verie vvorke or action done by the Minister but grace commeth and is given another vvay pag. 215 216 T TRaditions not specified in the Scriptures affirmed to be Apostolicall there being no assured proofe that they came undoubtedly and originally from the Apostles be not to be urged or imposed upon the faith of men pag. 57 58 c How men in ancient time vvere deceived by Traditions said and supposed to be Apostolicall See the Preface That these Traditions be needlesse because the sacred and canonicall Scriptures vvithout them be perfectly and completely sufficient for all instruction of truth concerning divine and heavenly matters pa. 57 58.64 c. See also the Preface V THat the Bishop of Rome if hee vvere a good and orthodoxe Bishop is no more the Vicar of Christ then other Bishops are pag. 97 To vvhat Vse and end God gave his Law of the Ten Commandements pag. 151.152 it being impossible to be exactly and perfectly fulfiâ—led by men by reason of the vveâ—kenesse that is in all flesh and â—hat God therein is neither cruell tyrannicall or uniust p. 151 152. and pag. 108 109 c W GOod Workes be the effect and fruite of a iustifying faith and doe not iustifie in Gods sight pag. 101 c. p 112 c There is a reward belonging to good Workes but it is a reward of bountie and grace and not of merit or due desert by men pag. 113 114 c. Good Workes be the vvay that men must vvalke in towards the kingdome of God but they be not the cause of their comming thither pag. 105 c. Good Workes and a good life and godly conversation must be observed but not to purchase or merit heaven thereby for it cost a greater price but for other godly uses and ends pag. 110.111 112 c. pag. 121.122.123 124 pag. 151.152 â—o good Workes in Gods sight and censure before faith received pag 147 â—â—od Works done after faith received do not merit at Gods hands â—or iustifie in his sight pag. 148.149.150 â—orkes of supererogation most abominable pag. 151.152 â—orkes of mens owne invention and devising done for and in the â—way of Gods service and religion not commanded by him nor warranted by his VVord whatsoever good intention is pretended â—e neverthelesse not good nor approved in his sight and censure pa. 145.146 FINIS TABULAE ERRATA PAg 1 in marg 1. Pet. 5.12 for 1. Pet. 5.1 2. pag. 3. l. 1. audiens for erudiens p. 10. l. 6. knoâ— for knew p. 11. l. 17. otger for other p. 27. l. 25. Grantzius for Crantzius p. 74. l. 10. hirdly for thirdly p. 96. l. 19. alwayes to be blotted out p. 109 l. 22. Clesiphontem for Ctesiphoâ—â—â—â— p. 111. l. 29 manifested for magnified p. 116. l 18. reade in this sense p. 128. l. 28. able to dye 〈◊〉 able to doe it p. 130. l. 31. highest for highest p. 139. l. 37. himselfe to be blotted out p. 148. â— marg Psal 3.12 for Phil 3.12 ib. Gal. 5 1â— for Gal. 5.17 p. 159 l 4. sim for sum p. 177. l â— hâ—â—gh for though p. 190. l. 28. bloud for beloved p. 193 l. 1. sinnes for sinne p. 200. l. 14 of to 〈◊〉 blotted p. 207. l. 13. outward for inward p. 211. l 31. end for and p. 212. l. 25 popist for â—â—â—pish p. 216. l. 1. in marg Graces for Grace p 222. l. 7 member for members p. 231. l. 25. Traâ—â—substation for Transubstantiation p. 232. l. 6. aswell sense for aswell as sense l. 7. Transubstaâ—â—tiation for Transubstantiation p 239. l. 30. manet for manent p 43. l 13. ef for of p. 184. â— marg Ioâ— 4.10 for 1. Ioh. 4.10 Ioh. 4.19 for 1. Ioh. 4.19 p. 253. l. 8. it for is and l. 26. â— in good measure to be blotted p 254. l. 26. Espencaelus for Espencaeus p. 256 l. 6. continuaâ—â—â— for câ—â—ntenance p 263. in marg Exod. 23.8 for Exod 32.8 p. 271 l. 28 due for done p. 283. l. â— reade Titus Vespasian and the rest c p. 296. l. 1 althought for although l. 25. Legall 〈◊〉 Regall p. 318. l. 3. fable for fables p. 331. l. 31. Imperio for l. 'imperio l 37. had led for hanâ—â— p. 332 l 1. for for so p. 341. l. 6 no for not p. 343 l. 11. redigerint for redegerint and l. 9 â— qurdringentos for quadringentos l. 23 Empires for Empire p. 361 l 9 Doranus for Dorâ—â—nus p. 380. l. 15 21. et for est p 387. l. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 39â— l 5. Apostles for Apâ—â—stle p. 393 l. 26. or three to be blotted p. 395. l. 1 2. in the Church relation to Antichrist 〈◊〉 whose spirit they speake as S. Iohn affirmeth to be blotted p. 400. l. 20. true-Christians 〈◊〉 true-Christian p. 410. l 22. bni for bin p. 243. l 4. heree for here p. 296 in marg l 6. petrus â—â—â—spondet for unus respondit p. 380. l. 20. Theodorum for medorum p 48 Finis libri primi 〈◊〉 Finis primae partis hujus libri p. 63 l 26. that for the. l. 5. uphold for hold p. 64. l. 37. prâ—â—structae for praestructa p. 27. l. 21. Minister for Ministers p. 69. l. 1. perish for passe p. 119. l â— for not p 16 l. 15. by them for to them p. 88. l. 4. strang for strange p. 100. l. 5 truth for trutâ—â— p. 113. l. 26. to superfluous p. 38â— l. 34. odoravit for adoravit p 345. l 19. velunt for velut 〈◊〉 358. l 24. Apostolici for Apostoli p. 365. l. 3. after peace add and ioy p 375. l. 32. of prohibiâ—â—â—on for of a prohibition p. 40. in marg for Cyprian in psalmo ad quid Iustificationes meas 〈◊〉 assumis Testamentum meum per os tuum read Cyprian lib. 2. Epist. 3. ad Caecilium p. 3â—â— l. 1. howres to be blotted p. 401. l 26. licentiousnes for covetousnes Other faults may also escape in the printing which I desire the Reader to correct witâ— his pen. THE FIRST PART of the BOOKE CAP. I. Concerning the Kings Supremacie and the Oath in that behalfe to be taken HIS MAIESTIES Supremacie is chiefly considerable in two respects namely in respect of Persons and in respect of Things or Causes First then concerning his Supremacy in respect of Persons Ecclesiasticall as well as Civill within his owne Dominions who can iustly denie it him Doth not S. Peter expresly require of all Christians that live within the Dominion of anie King that they should submit themselves unto him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as unto the chiefe or supreame person over them It is evident that hee calleth the King
chiefe or supreame not onely in respect of Dukes Earles or other temporall Governors as the Rhemists would have it but in respect of all the rest likewise were they Bishops Pastors Clergie men or whosoever for hee writeth that his Epistle not to Heathens but to Christians and amongst them not to the Lay people onely but to such also as were Presbyters and did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doe the office of Bishops amongst them requiring even them as well as the rest to yeeld their subiection and submission unto him And doth not S. Paul also require the same subiection and obedience to be performed by all maner of persons to their King and Princes For thus he saith Let every soule be subiect to the higher Powers for there is no power but of God and the powers that be be ordayned of God VVhosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves Iudgement or Condemnation And againe hee saith VVherefore ye must be subiect not onely because of vvrath but also for Conscience sake Now then if every one must be subiect to Kings Princes and these higher Powers which thus beare the civill sword as both these Apostles of Christ doe here cleerly testifie it is apparant that Kings and Princes and these higher powers be and must needs be granted to be supreame to whom all the rest within their Dominions be thus required to be subiect Yea S. Paul writing that his Epistle to the Church of Rome and requiring every Soule therein to bee subiect to these higher Powers sheweth that not onely Lay people but all within the Ecclesiasticall order also even as manie as have soules should be subiect to these higher powers And therefore S. Chrysostome upon this place saith directly Sive Apostolus sive Evangelista sive Propheta sive quisquis tandem fueris c. Everie soule must be subiect to the higher powers yea though you bee an Apostle or an Evangelist or a Prophet or whosoever you be And he further addeth saying Neque enim pietatem subvertit ista subiectio For neither doth this subiection overthrow pietie or godlinesse And so saith Theodoret likewise upon this Text Sive est Sacerdoâ— aliquis sive Antistes sive Monasticam vitam professus us cedat quibus sunt mandati Magistratus whether he be a Priest or a Prelate or professe a Monasticall life hee must submit himselfe to those to whom Magistracie is committed Theophilact upon the same Text speaketh in like sort Vniversos erudit sive Sacerdos sit ille sive Monachus sive Apostolus ut se principibus subdant cuiusmodi subiectio nil prorsus est Dei sublatura cognitionem S. Paul instructeth all saith he whether he be a Priest or a Monke or an Apostle that they should subiect themselves to Princes which kind of subiection will in no sort take away the knowledge of God Likewise speaketh Oecumenius Instruens omnem animam audiens ut licet Sacerdos quispiam sit licet Monachus licet Apostolus potestatibus subijciatur That S. Paul teacheth and instructeth everie soule that though he be a Priest though a Monke though an Apostle he must be subiect to these higher Powers Bernard also writing to the Archbishop of Senona alleageth this Text Let every soule be subiect to the higher powers and addeth further Si omnis anima vestra Quic vos excepit ab universitate If everie soule must be subiect then must your soule also for who hath excepted you from this universalitie Yea Aeneas Silvius who was himselfe afterward a Pope of Rome called Pope Pius the second alleaging this Text saith Omnis anima potestatibus sublimioribus subdita sit nec excipit animam Papae Let everie soule be subiect to the higher powers neither saith hee doth he except herein the soule of the Pope himselfe And Gregory who was also himselfe a Pope of Rome in an Epistle to the Emperor Mauritius in the person of Christ saith thus unto him Sacerdotes meos manui tuae commisi I have committed my Priests to thy hand And in another Epistle hee saith that Dominari non solum militibus sed etiam sacerdotibus concessit God hath made the Emperor ruler not only over Souldiers but over Priests also Hee further calleth the Emperors his Lords saith that Potestas super omnes homines dominorum meorum pietati coelitus data est Power over all men is given from heaven to the pietie of my Lords And this supremacie doth also Optatus expresly acknowledge saying Super Imperatorem non est nisi solus Deus qui fecit Imperatorem Above the Emperor is not anie but God onely that made the Emperor And this againe did all the ancient Christian Church acknowledge in Tertullians time saying thus Colimus Imperatorem ut hominem à Deo secundum solo Deo minorem Wee Christians honour our Emperor as the man next unto God and inferior onely to God Againe hee saith that they held their Emperors to be under the power of God onely à quo sunt secundi post quem primi from whom they bee the second and after whom they be the first Kings therefore who have the like preeminence authoritie within their kingdomes that the Emperors had within their Empire must of all that will be right and Orthodox Christians bee acknowledged to have the Supremacie or which is all one the supreme government over all persons within their own kingdomes and dominions of what sort soever whether they be Lay or Ecclesiasticall And this is further confirmed by the sixt Toletan Councel which speaking of Chintillanus the King saith thus Nefas est in dubium deducere eius potestatem cui omnium gubernatio superno constat delegata Iudicio It is an heinous offence to call his power into doubt to whom it is apparant that the governement of all is committed by Gods appointment How intollerably iniurious then is the Popish Clergie which will not acknowledge this subiection but if it so fall out that anie of them be Robbers Traytors Rebels Murtherers or how great offendors soever in a Commonweale yet hold themselves neverthelesse free by reason of their Order from â—riall for those offences in Kings Courts This you see is directly repugnant to the Institution and word of God and to the opinion and practise of the Primitive and ancient Church and was moreover long sithence condemned as it was well worthie by Marsilius of Padua as a new devise and not so new as pestiferous occasioning the ruine of States and inducing a plurality of Soveraignties in one kingdome yea from hence all scandals grow and which standing saith he civill discord shall never have an end Is not then the position of such Priests and Iesuites as Emanuel Sa is iustly to bee condemned who in his Aphorismes at the word Clericus affirmeth that Clerici rebellio in
things forbid evill things not onely such things as belong to humane societie but such things also as belong to Gods Religion Can anie thing be more plainely or more directly spoken for this purpose 4 It is true that the Oath of Supremacy conteyneth in it not onely an affirmative clause that The King is the onely supreme Governor of this Realme and of all other his Highnesse Dominions and countreyes c. but a negative clause also viz. that No forraine Prince person Prelate State or Potentate hath or or ought to have anie Iurisdiction power superioritie preeminence or authoritie Ecclesiasticall or Spirituall within this Realme c. And why should wee not all frankely and freely acknowledge this For beside that the effect of this negative clause is included in the former affirmative what hath anie forraine Prince or Prelate to doe within anie the Kings Dominions without his leave and licence For as touching the Bishop of Rome otherwise called the Pope concerning whom all the scruple is made his authoritie is by Act of Parliament directly banished and abolished out of all his Maiesties Dominions So that by anie humane Law or constitution of force in this kingdome he neither hath nor can challenge anie authoritie at all much lesse a supremacy amongst us How then doth he claime it Or which way can he have it Is it by anie Divine Institution That hath been often pretended I know but could never yet be proved nor ever will be For as for those three Texts of Scripture which be usually alledged namely the one in Matth. 16 Tu es Petrus super hanc Petâ—â—â— c. and Luk. 22. Oraâ—i pro te Petre c. and Ioh. 21. Pasce oves meas c. They have beene often heretofore as they be againe afterward examined and cleerely shewed to make nothing for him in respect of anie supremacy eyther Civill or Ecclesiasticall In the meane time will you be pleased to heare what some great learned men even of former times when Poperie was not altogether so grosse and bad as it is in these daies have written of this matter Cusanus a Cardinall did himselfe dispute in his time against them that thought the Pope to have more power and authoritie then otger Bishops Oportet primum si hoc verum foret Petrum aliquid à Christâ— singularitatis recepisse Papam in hoc successorem esse sed scimus quod Petrus nihil plus potestatis à Christo accepit alijs Apostolis First if this were true then must Peter have received something singular from Christ and that the Pope be his successor therein but we know saith he that Peter received from Christ no more power or authoritie then the rest of the Apostles Aeneas Silviaâ— likewise who was afterward himselfe a Pope of Rome hath written a Booke of the Acts and proceedings of the Councell of Basil and first handling that Text Tu es Petrus super hanc petram c. he saith thus A quibus verbis ideo placuit eâ—ordiri quod aliqui verba haec ad extollendam Romani Pontificis authoritatem solen◠〈…〉 sed ut statim patebit alius est verborum Christi sensus Of which words it therefore pleased mee to begin for that some are wont to alledge these words for the extolling of the authoritie of the Pope of Rome but as shall by and by appeare there is saith he another sense or meaning of those words of Christ. Iohn Gerson also Chancellor of the Vniversitie of Paris inveighing against flatterie and flatterers of the Pope saith That this offence was given by such as would prove his Iurisdiction from certaine Texts of Scripture as Tu es Petrus super hanc Petram c. and Oravi pro te Petre c. and such like which Texts saith he bee taken by these flatterers grosse non secundum regulam Evangelicam grossely and not according to the rule of the Gospell Observe well these speeches for they tell you how much these Texts of Scripture both heretofore have beene and still be herein abused it being indeed a thing certaine that neither to the civill Supremacie nor yet to the ecclesiasticall the Pope can make anie good title In times past he claimed the one or at least a great part of the Empire by a pretended gift or donation of Constantine the Emperor But that supposed donation and conveyance hath beene long since shewed to be a forged and counterfeit thing and that not onely by Protestants but by Papists also as namely by Valla by Volateran by Antoninus Catalanus by Canus also loc Theol. lib. 1. cap. 5. and by Pope Pius the second as Balbus witnesseth and by sundrie others In like manner he claimed in ancient time an ecclesiasticall supremacie by a supposed Canon of the Councell of Nice but that was also upon examination found to be a forged and counterfeit Canon and so discovered and made evident to the world by the sundrie Bishops of those times assembled in Councels And divers other forged Authors they likewise alledge for this purpose as for example certaine Decretall Epistles under the nameâ— of Clemens Anacletus Evaristus Sixtus Teleâ—phorus Higiâ—s Pius Anicetus Victor c. of which Epistles Bellarmine himselfe speaking saith Nec indubitatas esse affirmare audeam that neither durst he affirme them to be undoubted or uncounterfeit Such forged suspicious and counterfeit writings therefore can make no good or sure title to the Pope but contrariwise doe make the matter the more evident and the more odious against him Yea even the title appellation of universall Bishop wherin consisteth the summe and substance of the ecclesiasticall Supremacie he claimeth did two Bishops of Rome themselves in ancient time oppugne stand against when it was first affected by Iohn the Bishop and Patriarch of Constantinople for first Pelagius and then Gregory the great both Bishops of Rome withstood it Let no Patriarch saith Pelagius use so prophane a Title Againe he saith God forbid that it should ever fall into the heart of a Christian to assume any thing unto himselfe vvhereby the honour of his brethren may be debased for this cause I in my Epistles never call any by that name for feare lest by giving him more then is his due I might seeme to take away even that which of right belongeth to him For saith he The Divell our adversary goeth about like a roaring Lyon exercising his rage upon the humble and meeke hearted and seeking to devoure not now the sheepe-coats but even the principall members of the Church And againe hee saith Consider my brethren vvhat is like to ensue c. For he commeth neere unto him of whom it is written This is he which is King over all the children of Pride which words I speake with griefe of mind in that I see our brother and fellow Bishop Iohn in despite of the commandement of our Saviour the precepts of the Apostles
forme of the said Oath shall accept of the same Oath vvith this interpretation sense or meaning her Maiestie is vvell pleased to accept every such in that behalfe as her good and obedient subiects and shall acquite them of all maner penalties contayned in the said All against such as shall peremptorily or obstinately refuse to take the same Oath The words of that Admonition being thus set downe I shall need to say no more For hereby you see I trust verie fully the true certaine and undoubted sense scope meaning and interpretation of the Oath Why therefore should anie be so contentious or malicious as to wrest or wring it to a contrarie meaning or such as it never intended For hereby appeareth that although the king be supreme Governor within his owne Dominions yet it is explained That he is supreme Governor under God so that by reason thereof the King neither doth nor can take upon him anie authoritie over Gods word or ordinances to devise alter or frame religion as he list as some verie odiously and no lesse strangely have inferred Such thoughts be farre from his godly minde Neither when it is said at anie time That the King hath Authoritie or Iurisdiction ecclesiasticall is anie other thing meant thereby but his Iurisdiction or Authoritie in Ecclesiasticall causes and over ecclesiasticall persons and thereby is not meant or intended as some againe verie absurdly and malignantly have imagined That the King hath anie such authoritie as is meerely Ecclesiasticall and proper to Bishops Pastors and such like Ministers of the Church as namely to preach to minister the Sacraments to excommunicate to absolve to consecrate Bishops or such like for the exposition of the Oath which is before delivered in the Admonition and ratified by an expresse Act of Parliament directly declareth the contrarie to that conceit And therefore his Majesties authoritie in Ecclesiasticall causes must not be conceived to be anie such as is properly Sacerdotall or Episcopall but such as is rightly and properly Regall and Imperiall Which Regall and Imperiall Authoritie ought no more to be denied unto him then that which is meerely and properly Sacerdotal or Episcopal may be denied to Priests or Bishops What should hinder then but that yee all may as ye ought utterly renounce and forsake for ever the Papall and all forraine Iurisdictions whatsoever and further also promise according to the tenor of the Oath to your power to assist and defend all jurisdictions priviledges preeminences and authorities granted or belonging to the King his heires and successors or united and annexed to the Imperiall Crowne of this Realme considering that there is no Authoritie in these matters ecclesiasticall granted or belonging to the King or united or annexed to his Crown but such as appeareth to be lawfull and is rightly Regall and Imperiall and which withall in no sort wrongeth the authoritie of anie other Church governors of Gods institution whosoever Yea the King is so farre from encroching or intruding upon or impugning or hindering anie of the offices or authorities granted or belonging unto them from God that contrariwise he leaveth all those rights and authorities wholly and entirely unto them to be executed and which is more such is his most godly and Christian disposition that to that their divine Calling Ambasâ—age and Ministerie enioyned them from God and by them sincerely and faithfully administred himselfe in his owâ—â— person most readily and willingly yeeldeth both reverence and obedience as wel knowing that in respect of God whose Ambassadors and Ministers they be and whose word and will onely they are to teach and deliver the greatest King is but a subiect Howbeit neverthelesse otherwise and in respect of their owne persons it must be confessed that they be subiect unto him and owe him obedience and are in all dutie and humilitie to performe the same unto him So that I hope you now sufficiently perceive that his Maiesties Supremacie under God his government and authoritie as touching causes persons ecclesiasticall being such as is only Regal and Imperial and no way derogatorie preiudiciall or iniurious to anie Bishops Pastors or Ministers that be of divine Institution or to their offices and functions but rather verie much helpfull to them in their places is so farre from being to be disliked that contrariwise being rightly understood it is ever to be allowed and that with much praise thanks unto God for the same whose gracious ordinance it is for the further good greater comfort and benefit of his Church and Religion CAP. II. Wherein is shewed That our Church was in the Apostles dayes and in all times and ages since howsoever that which we call Popery did as an Infection or Corruption grow unto it whereof it was againe to be purged and so to become as we call it a reformed Church and that all these things came thus to passe in the Church according to the Prophecies thereof formerly delivered in Gods owne Booke AND What is to be thought of those forefathers of ours that lived and dyed in the time of Poperie AS ALSO That long before the Dayes of King HENRY the eight and long before LUTHER or CALVIN were borne the Pope of Rome was complayned of and exclaymed against and affirmed and published to be Antichrist as also Popish Rome affirmed to be the whore of Babylon mentioned in the Revelation of S. Iohn BEfore I enter to speake of the other particular points hereafter mentioned it will not be amisse here to speake something in a generall sort concerning Gods Church and his Religion For how confident and resolute soever some take upon them to be in that Popish Religion they hold and professe yet is that no proofe that therefore they be right for not only those of a right Religion but those also of a wrong be verie resolute and confident as appeareth by all Sectaries Heretickes and Schismatickes who be verie pertinacious and resolute for the maintenance of their severall errors and opinions Neither is it a reason sufficient for them to say they follow the waies of their forefathers and ancestors except they be sure that they went the right way for we are not to follow our forefathers and ancestors in anie vices or errours they held be they otherwise never so deare unto us VValke not yee saith God in the ordinances of your fathers nor observe yee their maners nor defile your selves vvith their Idols I am the Lord your God vvalke yee in my statutes and keepe my Iudgements and doe them Yea ye may remember that it is written thus of some people who are therefore much reproved So did their children and their childrens children As did their fathers so doe they unto this day Where further it is said that notwithstanding this following of their forefathers and doing after their old custome yet they obeyed not God Nor is it sufficient for them to say they follow the doctrine or direction of their
Paschall the second would have warre made upon the Emperor promising to give remission of sinnes and assurance of everlasting life to all that would doe it and on the other side to excommunicate all those that would shew obedience to him They say thus Because VVee keepe the Law of God they obiect against us that vvee transgresse their new Traditions But God saith unto them vvhy do you transgresse the commandements of God by your Traditions God commandeth to give unto Cesar the things vvhich are Cesars and to God that which is Gods which S. Peter and S. Paul doe lâ—kewise teach honour the King let every soule be subiect to the hâ—gher powers Hee that commands every soule to doe this whom doth hee exempt from this earthly power Because therefore wee honour the King and serve our Lords and Maisters in the simplicitie of our hearts are wee therefore excommunicated c vvho can reprehend a Bishop for keeping his faith and loyaltie to his Prince and yet they that teare in sunder the kingdome and Priesthood with new Schismes and new Traditions promise to absolve them from the sinne of periurie that breake their faith to their king Suppose say they our Emperor vvere an hereticke yet is he not to be repelled as such a one by us by taking armes against him yea they alledge that the Prophet Ieremy praied for Nebuchadnezzar and S. Paul for Nero and adde further VVhich of the Popes of Rome hath by his Decrees given authoritie that a Bishop should use the sword of vvarre against any offendors All from Gregory the first used the spirituall sword alone unto the last Gregory vvho was the first that armed himselfe and by his example others vvith the sword of warre against the Emperor c You say that if a man be excommunicate for vvhat cause soever if he dye in that estaete hee is damned But the Authoritie of the Church of Rome say they helpeth us in this point vvho teach that the Bishop of Rome hath power to absolve any that is uniustly excommunicated by others If then the Bishop of Rome may doe this vvho will say that God cannot absolve whomsoever the Pope hath uniustly excommunicated yea the Popes curse of Excommunication they make no reckoning of but contemne and despise it but above all say they vvee feare that which the spirit of God by the mouth of the Psalmist hath said viz. Cursed are all they that decline from his commandements That Curse of excommunication vvhich Pope Hildebrand Odoardus and this Third have by a new Tradition indiscreetely brought in vvee vvholly reiect and vvee hold and reverence those first holy Fathers unto this day vvho by the motion of Gods spirit not carried vvith their owne affections have otherwise ordeyned c. forasmuch therefore as vvee sticke to the Ancient rule and are not carried away vvith every winde of Doctrine we are called Excommunicates false Clerkes c. Howbeit let Pope Paschall lay aside his spirit of presumption and let him advisedly consider vvith his Counsaylors how from Silvester to Hildebrand the Popes have obtayned the chaire at Rome vvhat and how manie outrages have beene committed by the Ambition of that Sea c. As for those Legats à latere vvho run through the world to fill their purses vve say they wholly reiect them according to those Councels of Affricke held in the times of Zozimus Caelestinus and Boniface for that vve may know theraby their fruits there proceeeds from their legations no correction of manners or amendment of life but the slaughters of men and the spoyle of Gods Church c. That there should be such desolation of the Church such oppression of the poore and vvidowes such crueltie such rapine and vvhich is worse such effusion of bloud without respect of good and evill and all this and worse then all this Done by the Commandement of the Pope vvho would beleeve it if his owne mouth had not spoken it VVee remayne astonished at the novelty of these things and vvee enquire from vvhence this new Example should come That the Preacher of peace with his owne mouth and the hand of another man should make vvarre against the Church of God c. Where further they directly affirme Rome to be Babylon and say that the Apostle so calleth it as foreseeing by a Propheticall spirit The confusion of that dissention vvherewith the Church at this day is torne in pieces c. And a great deale more is spoken in that Epistle of theirs which though it be long and large is worthie the reading over And this no doubt moved the Bishop of Florence also in the yeare 1106 publiquely to preach that Antichrist was borne and then in Esse which Pope Paschall understanding of and being much grieved therewith tooke the paines to goe himselfe in person to Florence to stop the mouth of this Bishop And fearing as it seemes to stirre in the matter too much contented himselfe onely to admonish him to desist from this bold enterprise lest otherwise indeed the truth of that matter should more strongly breake out But yet further about the yeare 1150. The letters of the Emperor Fredericke Barbarossa to the Princes of Germany be sufficiently knowne wherein he sheweth unto them that the Pope had no other drift but to set his foot upon the Emperors head that so hee might the more easily overcome the members And upon this it was saith Radevicus That the Pope vvas not ashamed to maintaine that the Emperor vvas his man and held the Empire of him Yea the Popes are gone so farre saith Aventinus that they affect both domination and deitie so that they vvill be feared of all as God yea more then God pretending that they are not bound to give account of their Actions to any That amongst them be many Antichrists and that indeede there be none more pernicious to the Christian Religion then the Popes The same Emperor in his letters to King VVencislaus saith that the high Bishops of Babylon that is of Rome doe sit long over the Temple of God and seise upon the divinity that to please the desire of these false Christs thâ— Princes doe ruinate one another and all states be in a combustion That they be blinde vvhich see not that they be cruel vvolves which under sheepes cloathing spoyle the flocke of Christ. And that this was the Iudgement also even of sundry of the Germane Church as wel as of the Emperor appeareth by the oration of an Archbishop to the States of the Empire for saith he He that is the servant of servants as if he vvere God coveteth to be the Lord of Lords hee disclaymeth the counsell of his brethren or rather of his Lords He feareth lest hee should be forced to give account of that vvhich he doth and usurpeth every day over the lawes Hee uttereth great things as if he vvere God Hee coyneth new devises in his minde to appropriate the Empire to himselfe
Relatum where it is said Non enim sensum extrinsecus alienum extraneum debetis quaerere Sed ex ipsis Scripturis sensum capere veritatis oportet For yee ought not to seeke for a strange and forraine sence from vvithout but out of the verie Scriptures themselves yee must take the sence of the truth So that although the Church of Christ and the Bishops Pastors and Ministers therein be to expound the Scriptures yet wee see by what rule they are to be directed namely by the Scriptures themselves and not to expound it at randome or as they list If they wil have their expositions to be right and sound and such as shall be deemed to come from the holy Ghost 3 Yea the verie Church it selfe is also thus to be tried and decided namely by the Scriptures For so S. Augustine holdeth directly saying thus Let us not heare I say and thou sayest but let us heare Thus saith the Lord. There are verily the Lords bookes to the authoritie vvhereof vvee both consent vvee both beleeve vvee both serve There let us search the Church there let us discusse our cause And againe he saith That all that should be remooved vvhatsoever is alleaged on eyther side against other saving that vvhich commeth out of the Canonicall Scriptures And againe he saith Let them shevv their Church if they can not in the sayings and fame of the Affricanes nor in the determinations of their Bishops nor in any mans reasonings nor in false signes and vvonders for against all these vvee be vvarned and armed by Gods VVord but in the things appointed in the Lavv spoken before by the Prophets in the Songs of the Psalmes in the voyce of the Shepheard himselfe and in the preachings and painefulnesse of the Evangelists that is in the authoritie of the bookes Canonicall And a little after he saith againe thus To that eternall salvation commeth no man but he that hath the head Christ and no man can have the head Christ vvhich is not in his bodie the Church vvhich Church as also the head it selfe vvee must knovv by the Canonicall Scriptures and not seeke it in divers rumors and opinions of men nor in facts reports and visions c. Let all this sort of them be chaffe and not give sentence before hand against the vvheat that they bee the Church But this point viz. vvhether they be the Church or no Let them shevv no other vvay but by the Cononicall boâ—kes of the holy Scriptures For neither doe vvee say that men ought to beleeve vs because vvee are in the Catholike Church of Christ or because Optatus Bishop of Millevet or Ambrose Bishop of Millain or innumerable other Bishops of our Communion doe allâ—w this doctrine that vvee hold or becaâ—se in Churches of our Companions it is preached or because that through the vvhole world in those holy places vvhere our Congregations resorted so manie wonders either of hearings or of healing be done vvhatsoever such things be done in the Catholicke Church the Church is not thâ—refore proved Catholicke because these things bee done in it The Lord Iesus himselfe vvhen he vvas risen from death and offered his ovvne bodie to be seene vvith the eies and handled vvith the hands of his Apostles least they should for all that thinke themselves to bee deceaved hee rather iudged that they ought to bee established by the testimonie of the lavv Prophets and Psalmes shevving those things to be fulfilled in him that were there spoken so long before of him And hereupon a little after he saith againe These are the doctrines these are the stayes of our cause vvee read in the Acts of the Apostles of some faithfull men that they searched the Scriptures vvhether the things vvere so or no vvhich they had heard preached vvhat scriptures I pray did they search but the Canonicall of the Lavv and of the Prophets To these are ioyned the Gospels the Epistles of the Apostles the Acts of the Apostles The Revelation of S. Iohn Search all these bring forth some plaine thing out of them vvhereby you may declare that the Church hath remained onely in Affricke So farre Augustine Chrysostome also speaketh to the same effect saying VVhen you shall see the abhominable desolation stand in the holy place that is as he expoundeth it VVhen you shall see vngodly Heresie vvhich is the army of Antichrist stand in the holy places of the Church in that time let them which are in Iurie flie vnto the hills that is saith hee Let them that are in Christendome resort vnto the Scriptures for like as the true Ievv is a Christian as the Apostle saith he is not a Ievv vvhich is one outvvard in like manner the verie Ievvrie is Christianitie the hills are the Scriptures of the Apostles and Prophets But why doth hee command all Christians at that time to resort to the Scriptures Because in this time sithence Heresie hath prevailed in the Church there can bee saith hee no proofe nor other refuge for Christian men desirous to knovv the truth of the right Faith but onely by the Scriptures And the reason hereof he further sheweth For saith he such things as pertaine to Christ the Heretickes also have in their schisme They have likevvise Churches likevvise the Scriptures of God Bishops also and other orders of Clerkes and likevvise Baptisme and the Sacrament of the Eucharist and to conclude Christ himselfe vvherefore he that vvill knovv vvhich is the true Church of Christ in this so great confusion of things being so like hovv shall he knovv it but onely by the Scriptures And afterward againe he saith thus For if they shall looke upon anie other thing but onely the Scriptures they shall stumble and perish not perceiving vvhich is the true Church and so fall into the abhominable desolation vvhich standeth in the holy places of the Church So farre he Now then these being times of Schisme and heresie and of much contention and variance betweene the Protestants and the Papists and the great question betweene them being VVhether of them is the true Church Yea these being the times wherein the verie grand Antichrist himselfe with his armie of Bishops Priests and Clerkes hath place in the world as before in some sort but afterwards is more fully declared It followeth necessarily by this rule of his as also by the former Rule and direction of S. Augustine likewise that all people that bee desirous to know the truth in these times and which is the true Church must resort and betake themselves for the true tryall discerning and deciding hereof vnto the holy Scriptures only for all other waies and courses be uncertaine and unsure and such as whereby a man may possibly and easily be deceived as those ancient Fathers do there expresly teach and affirme And to give you some little tast here also that these be the times of Antichrist and that Antichrist is long sithence come and that the Pope of Rome
is he besides that which is before spoken doe but consider what the Abbot Ioachim long sithence told King Richard the first King of England namely that Antichrist was then alreadie borne and had his seat at Rome and was to be advanced in that Apostolicall Sea And he further saith Non nulli sub specie sedis Dei id estâ— universalis Ecclesiae Facti sunt sedâ—s Bestiae quae est regnum Antichristi regnantis ubique in membris suis c. Sundrie saith he under pretence of Gods seat that is of the universall Church are become the seat of the Beast vvhich is the Kingdome of Antichrist raigning everie vvhere in his members consisting as he there further saith in the Cleargie men in the Monkes and Monasteries Againe he saith that Rome est in spiritu Babylon Rome is the spirituall Babylon And againe he saith Negotiatores terrae sunt ipsi sacerdotes qui vendunt orationes missas pro Denarijs facientes domum orationis Apothecam Negotiationis The Merchants of the earth be the Priests themselves vvho sell Prayers and Masses for money making the house of Prayer a shop of Merchandize Yea sundrie both Princes and Bishops of Germanie long agon have affirmed and published the Pope to be Antichrist as appeareth in Aventinus But I leave this to be as I said more fully handled afterward In the meane time if anie would know who be the right Catholikes as Papists verie boldly but verie uniustly take upon them that title let him consider these two sentences of Vincentius and conferre and ioyne them together The first is this Id teneamus quod VBIQVE quod SEMPER quod ab OMNIBVS creditum hoc est enim verè proprieque Catholicum Let us uphold that vvhich hath beene beleeved everie vvhere and at all times of all persons for this is rightly and properly Catholicke The second is this where he saith Ille est verus Germanus Catholicus qui quidquid universaliter ANTIQVITVS ecclesiam Catholicam tenuisse cognoverit id solum sibi tenendum creder dumque decernit He is the true and right Catholicke who iudgeth that he is to hold beleeve onely that which he knoweth the Catholicke Church to have formerly held universally in the old time This Vincentius lived above 1200. yeares sithence so that this Antiquitùs this old time whereto he referreth everie man that will be a right Catholicke cannot be intended the age and time wherein himselfe lived much lesse can it he supposed anie of those manie hundreth yeares that came after him and are sithence his time gone and past but it must needs be intended of an old time passed long before the time wherein hee lived and wrote these things which old time therefore which he so called what can it be but the Primitive and Apostolicke times If then yee will prove your selves to bee Catholickes and your Church to bee the Catholike Church by this rule and definition of Catholikes out of Vincentius then must you not take your patterne and proofe from that Councell of Trent nor from the late Councell of Constance nor anie of the times after Vincentius but you must transcend and goe to the times that were in the old Time long before the daies of this Vincentius even to the primitive and Apostolike times which were indeed the best and purest times and from thence must you take the patterne of your Church and Religion For that which alwayes formerly and every vvhere and of all Christians in That Old Time was held and beleeved is the thing that he accounteth and defineth to be Catholicke and such to be Catholickes which hold and beleeve only so much and no more Which faith doctrine and religion of those old Primitive and Apostolicke times was at first delivered by word of mouth by the Apostles but was afterwards as Irenaeus hath before enformed us committed to VVriting that so it might be for ever that The foundation and pillar of our Faith Yea this even Vincentius also himselfe teacheth saying Scripturarum canon sufficit ad omnia satis superque the canon of the Scriptures doth suffice for all matters sufficiently and more then sufficiently that is abundantly and overflowingly By this rule then and definition of a Catholike given so long agon by Vincentius it is evident that not yee but wee are to be held for the right and true Catholikes inasmuch as not yee but wee doe beleeve and hold that faith doctrine and Religion which those old and first Christians universally held in those ancient primitive and Apostolick times and which was afterwards written and is omni-sufficiently conteined in that written word of God the sacred and canonicall Scriptures Yea that and onely that wee hold and beleeve as Vincentius saith right and true Catholikes ought to doe and so doe not you therefore whether yee or wee be the right Catholiks is a verie easie and apparant matter to be decided Aufer Haereticis quae cum Ethnicis sapiunt ut de scripturis solis Quaestiones suas sistant stare non poterunt Take from the Heretickes saith Tertullian those things wherein they savour of Heathen wisedome so as that they bring their Controversies to bee decided onely by the Scriptures and they be not able to stand In which wordes men that will not suffer their Controversies to bee decided onely by the Scriptures may see themselves ranged within the compasse of Hereticks and so termed and entituled by him so farre are they off from being the right and true Catholikes And yet Papists have I grant for some of their errors a kinde of Antiquitie but it is an Antiquitie of a later date and it is not that most ancient Antiquitie which Vincentius and the rest of the ancient Fathers direct you unto and which should be in request For that is the True whatsoever is the first and that which is later or commeth in after the first is the adulterate or corrupted as Tertullian againe expressely affirmeth Yea he saith further Hoc mihi proficit Antiquitas praestructae divinae Literaturae Herein doth Antiquitie availe me if it be builded upon the divine Scripture Wherefore if yee will be good and right Catholikes ye must go and take the patterne and president of your Faith and Religion from those most ancient primitive and Apostolike times as we doe because as Eusebius also out of Egesippus noteth the Church so long as the Apostles lived remayned a pure Virgin for that if any vvent about to corrupt the holy rule vvhich was preached they did it in the Darke and as it vvere underneath the earth But after the death of the Apostles and that generation was past which God vouchsafed to heare the divine wisedome with their own eares the placing of wicked error saith he began to come into the Church For which purpose to shew that corruptioÌ„ grew in those after succeeding times ClemeÌ„s also alledgeth the proverb
That there were few sons like their fathers 4 And here whilest I am speaking of the Canonicall Scriptures I must crave leave to tell you that the Popish Church holdeth divers Bookes to be Canonical Scripture which the old and ancient Church held not to be Canonicall as namely Tobias Iudith VVisedome Ecclesiasticus otherwise called Iesus the sonne of Sirach the Maccabees and the rest which the Protestants with that old ancient Church hold not to be Canonicall for so doth Athanasius affirme of them that non sunt Canonici they be not Canonicall Cyrill calleth them Apocryphall biddeth men reade those XXII bookes of the old Testament Cum Apocryphis vero nihil habeas negotij But with the Apocryphall bookes saith hee have nothing to doe Cyprian or if you will have it so Ruffinus after he had rehearsed the Canonicall Bookes of the old Testament saith Haec sunt quae Patres inim Canonem concluserunt ex quibus fidei nostrae assertiones constare voluerunt Sâ—â—onâ—dunt tamen est quod alij libri sunt qui non sunt Canonici sed ecclesiastici à maioribus appellati sunt ut est sapientia Solomonis alia sapientia quae dicitur filij Sirach Eiusdem ordinis est liber Tobiae Iudith Macchabeorum libri Quae omnia legi quidem in Ecclesus voluerum non tamen proferri ad authoritate 〈◊〉 fidei confirmandam These be they saith he which our Fathers have included within the Canon out of which they would have the assertions of our faith to appeare But yet we must know that there be also other Bookes which be not Canonical but be called of our Ancestors Ecclesiasticall as is the wisedome of Solomon and the other wisedome which is called the sonne of Sirach otherwise termed Ecclesiasticus of the same sort is the Booke of Tobias and Iudith and the Bookes of the Maccabees All which they will indeed have to be read in the Church but not to be alledged to confirme out of them the authoritie of Faith Epiphanius likewise of the Booke of Wisedome and Ecclesiasticus saith that Howsoever they have use and profit in them yet in numerum receptorum non referuntur they are not reckoned in the number of the received books S. Hierome likewise saith that the bookes of VVisedome Iudith Ihesus the sonne of Sirach and Tobias non sunt in Canone be not Canonicall And againe in another place he saith thus Sicut ergo Iudith Tâ—biae Maccabaeorum librâ—s legit Ecclesia sed eos inter Canonicas Scripturas non recipit sic haec duo volumina sapientiae Solomonis Syrach legit ad aedificationem plebis non ad authoritatem Ecclesiasticorum Dogmatum confirmandam As therefore the Church readeth Iudith and Tobias and the bookes of the Maccabees but receiveth them not for canonicall Scriptures so these two Bookes likewise namely the Wisedome of Solomon and Ihesus the sonne of Syrach doth the Church also reade for the edification of the people but not to confirme thereby the authoritie of anie Doctrines or positions in the Church And so also doth Lyranus Hugo the Cardinal affirme Yea and Gregory the great also of the Bookes of Macchabees saith That they be not canonicall And these bookes doth likewise the Councell of Laodicea repell and reiect from being canonicall Whereby observe that when you or anie of your Church alledge anie saying or sentence out of Tobias Ecclesiasticus or the Maccabees or out of anie other Apocryphall writing which is not Canonicall to confirme thereby anie point of Faith or Doctrine that is in question yee doe that which the old and ancient Church alloweth not but utterly disalloweth you to doe as is apparant But moreover the primitive and ancient Church would have the common Praiers and publique Service and Liturgie not in such a tongue as the people understood noâ— but in such a tongue as they might and did understand For Origen saith Graeci Graecis Romani Romanis singulique precantur in propria lingua Deumque celebrant pro viribus The Grecians use Greeke words and the Romanes Romane wordes and men of everie Nation pray and praise God with all their might in their owne mother tongue Yea it was the doctrine of that hereticke Elxay to teach praier in such words or in such a tongue as was not understood Nemo quaerat interpretationem sed solum in oratione haec dicat c. Let no man saith he seeke for the interpretation or understanding of the words but only in his praier let him say these words c. Chrysostome also saith that unlesse the unlearned understand vvhat thou prayest he is not edified nor can give consent to thy prayer But herein I shall not need to spend more time for Lyran himselfe acknowledgeth this point saying In primitiva Ecclesia benedictiones â—aetera communia fiebant in vulgari lingua In the primitive Church blessings and the rest of the common or publique Services were done in the vulgar tongue And accordingly wee all know that it is the rule of the Apostle Saint Paul that all things in the Church should be done to the instruction and edification of the people But in praiers or Service said or celebrated in Latin to such as understand not Latin or in Greeke to such as understand not Greeke or in anie tongue to such as understand not the tongue is no profite instruction or edification at all to the people unlesse it be afterwards interpreted unto them in such a tongue as they understand And yet whensoever it is so interpreted being so done it is but double labour and needlesse expence of time which might better be done and easily remedied by having at first as were fittest the Praiers and Service aswell as the Sermons in such a tongue as the people might understand 5 But why doth your Church of late times further proceed and accuse the holy divine and canonicall Scriptures themselves whereby all questions and controversies in Religion are to be decided and determined of falshood or corruption in the Originals and therefore preferreth the Latin translations which yee call S. Hieromes before those Originals of the Hebrew and the Greeke Be not these strange accusations And doe they not lay a foundation and ground-worke for Atheisme Nullifidianisme and all irreligion For if the Originals be corrupted false and untrue what certaintie is there then left for men on earth to build their faith upon Or can either your Translation which you call S. Ieromes or anie other Translation of the Scriptures be then assured to be right and sound For if the Fountaine de defiled and poisoned how shall cleere pure and sound water run and be found in the rivers that issue and streame from thence If you will say as Gregory Martin and other of your Teachers say that the Greeke Hereticks have corrupted the Greeke text and the Hebrew Heretickes the
yee cannot so much as shew the points of your religion wherein yee differ from us by the testimonie of the sacred and Canonicall Scriptures to have beene in the Apostles times and taught or approved by them as wee can doe ours And as touching Perpetuitie your Church hath it not but ours verie clearely hath it as having beene not onely in the times of the Apostles but in all succeeding ages also and posterities as is before sufficiently and plainely declared in the first part of this booke Chap. 2. For the true Church is builded upon so strong and invincible a Rocke namely upon Christ Iesus himselfe whom Peter confessed as that the gates of hell shall not prevaile against it If all the power of hell and divels as is here manifest cannot prevaile against the Church of God that is the companie of Gods Elect and the number of his true and right Worshippers It is evident that this Church that is a companie of right and true worshippers of him must be granted to be perpetuall and to have continued throughout all ages and generations especially considering what God himselfe further speaketh saying thus I will makâ— this my covenant with them my spirit that is vpon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy Seede nor out of the mouth of thy Seedes seede saith the Lord from henceforth even for ever Yea that our Church was in Esse and had continuance even during the hottest rage of the raigne of that Romish Antichrist besides all other arguments this is a manifest one namely because the Popish Church still molested pursued and persecuted our Church under the names of Berengarians VValdenses Albigenses VVickâ—evists Lutherans Calvinists Lollards Heretickes Scismatickes and such like And yet very true it is that such may be sometime in some place the state of the Church by reason of rageing persecution against it as that even a right godly man and true worshipper of God may thinke himselfe to bee left alone without anie followers or copartners with him there in the right service of God As for example Elias complained in his time and of that place where he then lived that hee was left alone and That they sought to take avvay his life also And yet for all that was not Elias left alone although he so supposed and spake for God told him that he had even there namely in Israell where Elias then was reserved unto himselfe Seven thousand right worshippers of him which had not bowed their knee to Baal If the Companie of Gods chosen Church and elect people and right Worshippers of him be as is here evident sometime in some place unknowne even to a right godly man and Prophet of God no marvell is it though they sometimes lye hid and be unknowne to their enemies and persecutors to whose devowring pawes and bloodie hands without urgent cause they had no reason to shew themselves It is therfore no good argument which Papists make when they say that at some times during the raigne of Poperie they neither saw nor knew nor could heare of anie Protestants for if it were so as they say that they could finde none nor knew of anie at sometimes yet even then might there bee and were there also some such true and right worshippers of God albeit they lay hid from them and kept themselves as they had reason from their knowledge and mercilesse crueltie The reason then which they make against the continuance and perpetuitie of our Church because it was not as they say at all times seene of the world nor had their exercises of Religion at all and singular times publikely knowne to the world appeareth to be verie idle and of no force As for the answer which the Rhemists make to the former complaint of Eâ—ias that the faithful in his time were forced to keep close by reason of the persecution of Achab Iesabel which was onely in the Kingdome of the ten Tribes that is in Israell and yet neverthelesse that at the verie same time in Ierusalem and in all the Kingdome of Iudah the externall worship and profession of faith was openly observed well known even to Elias himselfe Admit all this were true which is not proved yet what will they then say to this that the Church at other times hath beene so hidden that there was no open or publike exercise of Religion to be sâ—ene no not in Iuda or Ierusalem it selfe no more then in those ten Tribes of Israell as namely in the daies of Ahas the sonne of Iotham King â—f Iuda of whom it is said that hee walked in the way of the Kings of Israâ—ll yea and made his Sonne to goe through the fire after the abhominations of the Heathen and in whose time the Altar of God was removed and an Idolatrous altar by the high Priests consent 〈…〉 Yea in the daies also of Hoseah King of Israell it is testified that not onely Israell but Iuda also kept not the Commandements of the Lord their God but walked according to the fashion of Israel vvhich they vsed How was the Church then visible in that sort and sense that wee speake of that is to say was it such a Church as had publike exercises of Gods religion splendently seene and openly apparant to the world Againe in the daies of Manasseth King of Iuda when Hee did evill in the sight of the Lord after the abhomination of the Heathen and erected altars for Baall and worshipped all the hoast of heaven and served them and when hee also built Idolatrous altars in the house of the Lord yea when it was recorded that this King Manasseh led the people out of the way to doe more wickedly then did the heathen and made Iuda also sinne vvith his Idols I say when Iuda became thus corrupted and Idolatrous aswell as Israell Had then the Church her outward practise of Religion according to Gods commandement and appointment to bee openly seene of the world And was it not so likewise in the daies of Amon King of Iuda Sonne and successor to Manasseh vvho did evill in the sight of the Lord as his father Manasseh did for he walked in all the waies his father walked in and served the Idols that his father served and worshipped them Thus you see that the Church of God was sometimes not openly seene but lay hidden and that as well in Iuda and Ierusalem as in the ten Tribes But perceiving this Church of Iuda and Israell to make against them then they flie to another devise and say that the Christian Church hath better promises then the Church of the Iewes Howbeit they can shew none as touching this point better for the one then for the other Yea for the Church of the Ievves to continue untill the first comming of Christ there be as strong as good promises to be seene as for
yee First it is well knowne that S. Peter was a contemner of the pompe and pride of the world and a disregarder of the wealth riches thereof insomuch that hee said to one that asked almes of him that he had neither silver nor gold but the Pope of Rome is not so but contrariwise hath the pompe pride glorie and riches of the world in verie high and chiefe esteeme and aboundeth with them Againe Peter was subiect to Emperors Kings and Princes and taught all Christians to be likewise subiect to them but the Pope is so far from being subiect to them that contrariwise hee claimeth soveraignetie and supremacie over them all and taketh upon him to depose Kings Princes and Emperors at his pleasure and to disannull and dissolve the allegeance of subiects when and as often as he listeth Peter would not allow Cornelius though but a Captaine of the Italian band to fall downe at his feete but bad him arise but the Pope of Rome doth well allow not only Captaines but Kings Princes and Emperors to fall downe and kisse his feet Yea hee hath not beene ashamed with his feete to tread upon the necke of some of the Emperors Peter was a godly earnest and diligent Preacher of the Gospel in his owne person according to that commandement of Christ so often repeated saying unto him Pasce Pasce Pasce feed my lambes feed my sheepe feed my sheepe But the Pope of Rome like an idle pompous and slothfull man in his owne person seldome or never Preacheth Peter was content and well endured to be reproved at the hands of S. Paul when there was cause He also patiently suffered himselfe to be accused and contended against by certaine Christians and mildely and modestly answered to those their exceptions against him for their satisfaction But the Pope of Rome though he be never so worthie of reproofe will neverthelesse not suffer himselfe to be reproved nor accused or contended against nor will have his doings examined questioned censured or iudged by anie men such is his unmeasurable pride and unmatchable loftinesse Againe S. Peter did acknowledge S. Paul S. Matthew S. Andrew S. Iames and the rest of the twelve to be Apostles aswell as himselfe albeit they had no ordination or calling to that their Office of Apostleship from him for that they all had an immediate calling to that their Apostleship from Christ Iesus himselfe and not from Peter is a thing undeniably manifest But the Pope contrariwise acknowledgeth none to be a Bishop except he be ordeyned and made a Bishop by him or by his authoritie Moreover they were accounted and held to be Presbyters and Ministers of the Church which were made and ordeyned by other Apostles though they were not made or ordeined by Peter nor by anie authoritie derived from him But the Pope of Rome acknowledgeth none to be Presbyters or Ministers of the Church which be made by other Bishops except they be made and ordeined by him or by authoritie originally derived from him Yea S. Peter did acknowledge the rest of the Apostles to be his fellowes or Equals as well knowing that Christ Iesus himselfe did directly forbid them to beare Princely authoritie one over another insomuch that Peter aswell as Iohn was content to bee sent by the rest of the Apostles into Samaria and did goe thither at their sending But the Bishop of Rome acknowledgeth not other Bishops to be his fellowes or Equalls nor will be content to be sent as their Messenger to anie place but most proudly challengeth a Princely Primacie and king-like superioritie over them all If the Pope will needes be Peters successor it were reason and a thing equall and iust that he should claime no more authoritie over other Bishops then Peter had over the rest of the Apostles yea if hee will make Peter his patterne and president to follow as it were a happie thing for him if he were in verie deed so wel affected he must then utterly give over his triple Crowne and all his Papal worldly pompe and pride and be cleane reformed and become altogether another man in all respects wherein he is so exceedingly degenerated and unlike unto him And then together with the relinquishing of his most proud Popedome he must also forsake renounce and detest his Poperie and Popish Religion for S. Peter cleerely was such a one as we call a Protestant that is to say one that both held and taught that Religion that wee hold namely that which is conteined in the Booke of GOD the sacred and canonicall Scriptures Yea S. Peter died a Martyr for the testimonie of this faith and religion and the Pope of Rome is contrariwise a persecutor of those that professe this faith and religion For that the Papists be the cleere and undoubted persecutors of the Saints and Martyrs of Iesus is afterward manifested by a direct and most evident testimonie thereof in the Revelation of S. Iohn to the end ye should not hereafter bee mistaken in that point as usually yee be nor deceive your selves anie longer therein Furthermore S. Peter was content and held it honour enough to be a member of the bodie of Christ which is his Church acknowledging with S. Paul and the rest of the Apostles that Christ onely was and is the head therof But the Pope of Rome is not content unlesse he intrude himselfe into this his verie royal prerogative taking upon him to be the verie head of the whole militant church We know that the Church of Christ is but one body as the Scripture speaketh and witnesseth though there be manie members of it and one bodie is to have but one head why then or by what right or reason doe they make this bodie of Christ which is his Church to have two heads namely one in heaven which is Christ Iesus another on earth which they say is the Pope They confesse that of the Church in heaven which is to us invisible Christ is indeed the head but of the visible Church on earth the Pope say they is the head and that such a visible head for the visible church is requisite and necessarie And here they have a distinction that Christ is indeed Caput vitale the vital head from whence all his members have and derive their life but that the Pope is Caput ministeriale visibile the ministeriall and visible head And thus they boldly speake frame and devise matters and distinctions according to the fancie of their owne braines But first what Patent conveyance warrant or commission from God can the Pope of Rome shew whereby he is thus authorized to be either Christ his special or onely Vicar Deputie or Lievetenant over his whole universall church here upon earth or to be this speciall and onely visible and ministeriall head Iust none at all doe they or can they shew for it And is it
signes or vvonders wee say that those which were done by Christ and his Apostles and in those ancient and primitive Churches be sufficient for the confirmation of that most ancient primitive Christian and Apostolicke faith and religion conteined in the booke of God which wee professe Yea now in these daies saith S. Chrysostome the vvorking of miracles is ceased and they be rather counterfeit miracles saith he vvhich be found amongst them that be false Christians Againe he saith There be some that aske vvhy men vvorke not miracles novv in these dayes If thou bee beleeving saith he as thou oughtest to be and if thou lovest Christ as he should be loved thou needest no miracles for signes be given to unbeleevers and not to beleevers Againe S. Cyrill saith that to vvorke miracles maketh not a man one iot the more holy seing it is common to evill men and to such as he obiects or reprobates For so the Lord himselfe witnesseth saying Manie shall say unto mee in that day Lord Lord have not vvee prophesied in thy name and in thy name cast out divels in thy name done manie great vvorks And yet will he neverthelesse professe unto them I never knevv you depart from me ye vvorkers of iniquitie And on the other side working of no miracles hindereth not a mans holinesse for Iohn wrought neither signe nor miracle and yet was this no derogation to his holinesse for amongst them that are borne of vvomen arose there not a greater then hee as Christ himselfe testifieth Yea that miracles signes or wonders may be done by false Prophets and false teachers is further manifest for even Christ himselfe saith that There shall arise false Christs and false Prophets and they shall shevv great signes and vvonders so that if is vvere possible they should deceive the very Elect. S. Paul also directlie testifieth that in the Antichristian Church there shall be the vvorking of Sathan vvith all power and signes and lying VVonders Which saith S. Augustine be called lying signes and VVonders for this cause that either mens senses be deceived thinking that to be done which revera is not done or else because if they be done in deed they draw men to beleeve that they could not be done but by the power of God whereas they know not the power of the Divell For S. Iohn in the Revelation mentioneth spirits of Divels vvorking Miracles to deceive those that be of the Antichristian Church By all this then you see that the Miracles wrought in Poperie be no argument or proofe that therfore it is the right or true Church or that the Teachers therein be the right and true Teachers for they may be false Prophets and false Teachers and the Popish Church may be as indeed it is the false and Antichristian Church all these their Miracles notwithstanding But hereof I shall have occasion to speake more fullie afterward when I come to speake of Antichrist and his Miracles In the meane time concerning this point thus much may suffice CAP. III. Of Iustification by Faith onely The right sense and meaning of that position and of the truth of it And that being rightly understood it excludeth not good workes nor importeth anie licentiousnesse at all in it but the cleane contrarie IT is a thing well knowne how busie and earnest Popish Teachers be not only by word of mouth but by their books writings also to perswade you all that ever they can against ours the most ancient most pure and only right Religion and amongst other their bad devises which they plot contrive for their owne advantage and behoofe this is not the least that they accuse our Religion to be a doctrine and religion of much licentiousnesse and that in sundrie points which therefore must be answered And manie there be also that be too hastie and over credulous to beleeve them as if all that they speake and write were to be held for undoubted truth and oracles without further enquirie or examination But howsoever they thus boldly presume they for all that be not able to take anie iust exception against our Religion or to shew or prove it in anie point whatsoever to be an allower of anie the least impietie or licentiousnesse if it be rightly understood It is true that sundrie that professe Protestancie live licentiously and wickedly and so doe manie also that professe Poperie likewise live wickedly licentiously If therefore they allow not this for an argument sufficient to convince their religion of wickednesse licentiousnesse which is taken from the wicked lives manners and conversations of men Why will they be so unequall as to make it of anie force against our religion Wise men can easily distinguish inter vitium rei personae betweene that which is the fault of the thing and the fault of mens persons For the religion may be good though some persons that professe it live not answerably thereunto yea the Protestant that is the Christian Religion which we professe is so good godly divine holy and pure as that it neither alloweth nor tolerateth the filthie Stewes nor anie other impuritie nor anie treasons or rebellions nor perjuries nor lying or deceitfull equivocations nor anie other wickednesse or impietie whatsoever but utterly condemneth them all So that for true pietie puritie integritie and all manner of good life and godly conversation the religion of Poperie commeth farre short of it and is in no sort to be compared with it If then anie professing our religion live wickedly or licentiously as too manie do it is the fault of the men that live so dissolutely and not of the religion which requireth and commandeth the cleane contrarie at their hands But for all that they persist and say that even the Protestants religion it selfe is licentious because it teacheth and holdeth that men are justified in Gods sight and before his Tribunall onely by faith in Iesus Christ which doctrine say they maketh men licentious and carelesse of doing good workes Howbeit both they and you must understand that when the Protestants doe say or have said at anie time that Faith onely iustifieth in Gods sight it is and ever was meant and intended howsoever some seeme purposely to mistake it not of anie dead faith which hath no life in it to bring forth anie good workes but of a true and lively faith which is accompanied with good works and is fruitfull and working by love as S. Paul and S. Iames and S. Peter and the rest of the holy Scriptures cleerly declare Whilst therefore they teach both in their Sermons writings with S. Iames and the rest of the Scriptures That the faith that is vvithout vvorks is dead and that such a faith cannot save or iustifie a man but that it must be a true and lively faith that is such a faith as produceth bringeth forth good workes I hope you sufficiently perceive that the doctrine of
a salve to all if all can take hold of him and apply him unto themselves as a Saviour by a true and lively faith But because all cannot doe this for none have this true lively and iustifying faith but Gods elect onely therefore he died efficiently that is his death was effectuall and beneficiall only to Gods Elect. Wherfore also well doth he distinguish whether it were Augustine or Prosper Qui magnitudinem pretii distinguit a proprietate redemptionis vvhich distinguisheth the greatnes or sufficiencie of the price from the proprietie of redemption Agreably whereunto S. Ambrose likewise saith that Etsi Christus pro omnibus passus est specialiter tamen pro nobis passus est quia pro Ecclesia passus est Although Christ suffered for all excluding none from the benefite of his death if they beleeve in him yet specially or in a speciall manner hee suffered for us that doe beleeve in him because for his Church it was that hee suffered And so likewise testifieth S. Hierome that Christ gave his life a redemption not for all but for manie that is saith hee for them that beleeve In like manner doth S. Paul say that God gave him to death for us all that is for all Gods elect whereof hee was one For so also S. Augustine interpreteth it in Ioh. tract 45. Pro nohis omnibus tradidit illum Sed pro quibus nobis praescitis Praedestinatis Iustificatis Glorificatis Hee gave him to death for us All But for vvhich Vs namely for them saith hee vvhich are the foreknovvne the Predestinate the Iustified and the Glorified persons Againe in the Epistle to the Hebrevves it is said that Christ Tasted death for all but in the verses that follow he sheweth the speciall meaning of those words viz. that those All vvere sanctified persons the brethren of Christ the Children vvhich God had given him and the Children which hee by that his death and passion was to bring unto glory For which cause he is also there called the Prince of their salvation In like sort it is said in the second Epistle to the Corinths that Christ dyed for all but in the words following he explaineth the matter and sheweth that hee died for all such as finding themselves dead in themselves should afterwards live not unto themselves anie longer but unto him that died for them and rose againe which kinde of godly and new life none doe live but the elect onely Againe in his Epistle to the Thessalonians he speaketh thus God hath not appointed us unto wrath but to obtaine salvation by the meanes of our Lord Iesus Christ which dyed for us Observe here likewise that he maketh Christ Iesus in a speciall and peculiar manner to die onely for those which bee appointed to obtaine salvation by the meanes of him and not for the rest which were appointed unto Wrath for he there manifestly distinguisheth betweene those two sorts of people Againe S. Paul in his Epistle to the Ephesians speaketh thus Husbands love your vvives even as Christ loved the Church and gave himselfe for it Where you see also that he appropriateth the benefit of the death of Christ to his Church which he so entirely loved Yea Christ Iesus himselfe affirmeth the same saying that Hee is that good Shepheard which giveth his life for his Sheepe And againe hee saith Greater love hath no man then this that a man bestovv his life for his friends yee are my friends if yee doe whatsoever I command you By all which appeareth that Christ in respect of the proprietie of redemption gave his life and died onely for his Church for his Sheepe for his Friends that would obey him which is as much to say as that hee died specially and properly for the Elect. Yea he was in Gods purpose intended and ordayned to come into the world for the redemption of the Elect. So S. Peter likewise testifieth directly for writing his Epistle to the Elect of God 1. Pet. 1.2 he saith that They were redeemed with the pretious blood of Christ as of a Lambe undefiled and without spot and hee there further saith expresly that Christ was ordained before the foundation of the world but was declared in the last times for their sakes Where you see it precisely affirmed that Christ was ordained to come and did come into the world for the Elect sake And so also doth S. Paul declare in his Epistle to Timothy And this likewise doth Esay shew in his Prophesie saying Vnto us a Childe is borne unto us a Son is given that is unto the Church and people of God of which number the Prophet was one that so speaketh Againe S. Paul writing to the Church and people of God distinguishing them from the rest saith thus unto them Yee are not your owne for yee are bought with a price Therefore glorifie yee God in your bodie and in your spirit for they are Gods Againe in the Acts of the Apostles it is said to bee The Church of God which Christ hath purchased with that his blood Yea this is so evident that by the All for whom Christ died is in respect of redemption and remission of sinnes meant all the elect onely that for the clearer illustrating of it to be so the Scripture it selfe often useth in stead thereof this word Manie As in the Gospell according to S. Matthew Christ Iesus himselfe saith thus This is my blood of the nevv Testament that is shed for manie for the remission of their sinnes Againe hee saith The sonne of man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a redemption for manie Marke that in both those places he saith That he gave his life to be a ransome or redemption not of all in a generalitie but of Manie that is as I said before of the Elect onely So likewise it is said in the Epistle to the Hebrevves Christ vvas once offered to take avvay the sinnes of manie And againe it is said by S. Paul that By the â—bedience of one namely of Christ manie shall be made righteous And so againe it is said in Daniel that The Messias should be slaine and that he should confirme the covenant vvith manie But beside all this S. Paul speaketh yet further verie plainely thus God setteth out his love tovvard us seeing that vvhilst vvee vvere yet sinners Christ died for us much more then being novv iustified by his blood vvee shall be saved from vvrath through him Observe here first that he saith Christ died for us that is for us that be of Gods Church and people for he speaketh in the person of them and in their behalfe and secondly observe that he maketh this an argument as it is indeede of Gods great and speciall love towards them that he sent his sonne to die for them what can be more plaine to shew that in Gods
Supper not only a signe but a seale also to everie several particular faithfull man of the full and free remission of all his sinnes and of that immaculat perfect complete righteousnesse which hee hath by and in Christ Iesus Where therefore you may note by the way that the Doctrine of Assurance of Salvation is a most certaine true and undoubted doctrine inasmuch as these verie Sacraments themselves doe assuredly testifie and seale up the same even to everie several and particular faithfull and godly person that receiveth them S. Augustine somtimes useth the word in the large sense and acception but when hee speaketh of Sacraments in the more proper and strict sense he reckoneth them as wee doe saying Haec sunt Ecclesiae gemina Sacramenta These be the two Sacraments of the Church And againe he saith that Christ and his Apostles have delivered unto us a few Sacraments in stead of many Baptisme and the Lords Supper So S. Ambrose likewise treating purposely of the Sacraments speaketh of two as the reformed Churches doe Yea Innocentius the third speaking of them maketh mention of these two which we receive not of the rest which we refuse And even Cardinal Bessarion also saith Haec duo sola Sacramenta in Evangelijs manifestè tradita legimus VVee reade these twoâ—Sacraments onely to be manifestly delivered in the Gospel It is true that Bellarmine proveth the word Sacrament to be sometime given in some writers to the other five but that is as I said before when the word is taken in a general or large signification for anie Signe or token in which case it may indeed more properly be called a Signe then a Sacrament These five therefore namely Confirmation Pennance Matrimony Orders and Extreame unction wee reject from being Sacraments properly and strictly so called the other two namely Baptisme and the Lords Supper wee embrace as being altogether perfect and sufficient not onely to enter and plant a man into the Church but also to cherish increase confirme strengthen and maintaine him in it unto the end and therefore no need is there of anie moe to be Sacraments for anie of those uses ends or purposes 2 First then touching Confirmation It is granted that the Christians in the ancient Church caused their Children after that they came to yeares of discretion to come before the Bishop who examined them in the principles and fundamental points of Religion and instructed them further for their confirmation therein and that this action might have the more reverence and esteeme hee laid his hands upon them and praied unto God for them that hee would encrease and continue the good things that hee had begun in them But howsoever this was a laudable usage yet doth it not follow that therefore it was a Sacrament Yea your maner of Confirmation with Chrisme or Oyle for you make this Oyle to be the outward signe of this your supposed sacrament hath no institution or commandement from Christ therfore it can be no Sacrament for it is well knowne that everie sacrament must have an outward visible signe or element ordained and appointed of God for that purpose as in Baptisme the outward visible signe or element is water and in the Lords Supper the outward visible signes or elements be bread and wine and all these of Gods owne instituting and appointing But what institution or appointment from God can be shewed for this your Chrisme or oyle to be used as a visible signe in Confirmation Iust none at all in Gods booke Inasmuch therefore as this outward visible signe of Chrisme or Oyle used in Popish Confirmation is none of Gods instituting it can be no sacrament It is true that wee finde in the Scripture that the Apostles sometimes used Imposition or laying on of hands but therein wee reade of no Oyle or Chrisme they used Yea moreover by that their imposition or laying on of hands the miraculous gifts of the holy Ghost were given as appeareth in the same places of Act. 8.17.18.19 c. Act. 19.6 which power of giving the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost by that meanes is now ceased and is not to be found in the Popish Church at this day nor in anie other Church and therefore should not be attempted Howbeit as touching another kinde of Imposition of hands used in the ordination of Ministers shall be afterwards spoken 3 Concerning Pennance The Papists call it Pennance which the Greekes call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latines Poenitentia or rather Resipiscentia and wee call it Repentance which consisteth properly in the change of the mind and affections and not so much in the outward afflicting and punishing of the bodie Yea the outward afflicting and punishing of the bodie anie manner of way howsoever is to no purpose if there be not inwardly a true change of the minde and affections You may call it Pennance if you will externally so to punish the bodie but allowable or good Christian repentance it will never be without a change of the minde and alteration of affections and becomming a new man For Repentance is an outward true godly sorrow for sinnes committed ioyned with fervent prayer unto God for the forgivenesse of them and hath in it an earnest desire purpose and endevour not to commit them anie more and is indeede a dying to sinne and a walking in newnesse of life and is testified by fasting weeping and mourning and by such outward tokens and declarations of it as wee reade of in holy Scripture to be approved Now that this which wee call Repentance and the Papists call Penitencie or Pennance is no Sacrament proper to the New Testament is hereby manifest First because it was in the time of the Old Testament and ever since the time of mans fall and transgression required in all ages and of all persons that they should repent for their sinnes committed Secondly it wanteth a visible signe instituted of God for this purpose to make it a Sacrament such as water is in Baptisme and such as bread and wine is in the Lords Supper and for want of this outward signe also it can therefore bee no Sacrament But Bellarmine saith that Christ instituted the Sacrament of Pennance when after his resurrection he said to his Apostles VVhose sinnes yee remit they are remitted and vvhose sinnes yee retaine they are retayned and he saith further that the vvords of absolution be the outward signe and that the remission of sinnes is the grace therby signified This is farre fetcht to prove it a Sacrament But first I demand of Bellarmine or of anie other How words of Absolution or anie words whatsoever uttered and spoken can be an outward and visible signe Words be audible I know when they be uttered and spoken but how are they visible when they cannot be seene for not audible but visible signes be required to a Sacrament Yea if words uttered by a Pastor or Minister
be a sufficient outward signe to make a sacrament then should the preaching of the Gospel and ministerie of the word be also a sacrament which hath that outward signe the grace also of reconciliation unto God wherein absolution and remission of sinnes is included thereunto belonging And by such reckoning would there be no difference betweene the ministerie of the Word and the ministerie of Sacraments But as I said before not an audible voice uttered but a visible signe and that of Gods owne instituting and appointing is required to make a Sacrament Yea although Christ in Ioh. 20.23 gave authoritie to his Apostles and Ministers of the Gospel to declare and pronounce absolution and remission of sinnes to beleeving and repentant persons yet thereupon it followeth not that therefore Repentance should be a Sacrament for everie good godly and allowable thing is not by and by to be called a Sacrament in that sense of the word that we here speake of Yea you may by as good reason aswell make faith and beleefe a Sacrament as repentance for Faith is also necessarie and requisite for the remission of sinnes as well as Repentance But there is indeed no cause or necessitie that Repentance or Penance as yee call it should be made a Sacrament for this purpose because Christ hath appointed other to be Sacraments serving to this use and end namely to testifie and seale up remission of sinnes to everie faithfull and repentant sinner viz. Baptisme and the Lords Supper For Baptisme is expressely affirmed to be the Baptisme of repentance for remission of sinnes Mark 1.4 And so saith S. Peter also Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the Name of Iesus Christ for the remission of sinnes So that Baptisme is a Sacrament and seale unto us of the remission of all our sinnes as well actual as original upon our faith and repentance And so is also the Lords Supper another Sacrament given for the same use end and purpose viz. to signifie testifie assure and seale up unto us the remission of all our sinnes whatsoever or whensoever committed upon our repentance faith in Christ Which thing Christ himselfe also declareth when he teacheth it to be a Sacrament of that blood of his which was shed for manie for remission of sinnes 4 And that Marriage or Matrimony is also no Sacrament proper to the new Testament and the Christian Church is a thing verie evident First because it was a thing instituted in Paradise and was before the Law and under the Law and in the times of the old Testament used and observed aswell as under the new Testament Secondly because Marriage may be as it is amongst Infidels and unbeleevers and such as be out of the Church societie of the faithfull For the Matrimonie of Infidels is lawfull God instituting it for all mankind and therefore it cannot bee a Sacrament proper to the Christian Church and to the members of Christ onely Thirdly because it is not common and commanded to all Christians For it is not required nor of necessitie that all in the Church should be married for everie one hath his proper gift of God some one way some another Fourthly it hath no promise of remission of sinnes or of salvation annexed unto it as Sacraments ought to have being strictly and properly taken Fiftly it hath no outward visible signe nor word of Institution from Christ to make it a Sacrament and therefore it can bee none For whereas Bellarmine saith that the word of Institution is I take thee c. and the externall signe bee the persons that be married These bee strange conceites For first these words I take thee c be words devised of men and not of Christ his institution and be words only expressing the mutuall consent of the parties that are to bee married Againe the outward visible signe in a Sacrament must bee material and real and not personal as water is in Baptisme and bread and wine in the Lords Supper and therefore the persons married cannot be the outward visible signe Besides the married persons be the receivers of this pretended and supposed Sacrament so that they cannot bee also the signe For the signe and the receiver in every Sacrament must needs bee divers and distinguished If anie obiect and say that Marriage is the signe of an holy thing namely of the spirituall coniunction betweene Christ and his Church I demand who instituted it to bee so Yea it was not instituted to that end to bee a Sacrament of our coniunction with Christ howsoever it may resemble it but for other ends and purposes as namely to avoide fornication and adulterie c. But further all signes comparisons or resemblances of holy things must not bee counted Sacraments in that sense of the word wee speake of For then how manie Parables comparisons or similitudes there be of holy and heavenly things in Scripture so manie Sacraments should wee have and then the Rainebow the Sabboth a graine of Mustard-seede Leaven a Draw-net a Vine a Doore and sundrie such other things should wee make Sacraments But the greatest reason whereof they are most confident is out of Ephes. 5.32 which their vulgar translation and the Rhemists read thus This is a great Sacrament Howbeit in the Original which is ever to be followed the words bee these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is a great mysterie Now everie thing that is a mysterie is not by and by to be concluded to be a Sacrament for then godlines shold be a sacrament because it is said to be a misterie 1. Tim. 3.16 Gods wil is also said to be a misterie Ephes. 1.9 The obstinate unbeleefe of the Iewes untill the fulnes of the Gentiles be come in is likewise called a misterie Rom. 11.28 That all shall not die but that some shal be changed at the cōming of Christ to Iudgment is also affirmed to be a misterie 1. Cor. 15.51 Yea Iniquitie is also called a misterie 2. Thes. 2.7 And yet none I thinke will be so unwise as to conclude all these to be therfore sacraments But the Apostle himselfe preventeth answereth this obiection affirming that this great misterie he speaketh of consisteth not in carnal Matrimonie but in the spiritual coniunction betweene Christ and his Church This is a great mysterie but I speake saith hee concerning Christ and his Church So that the marriage betweene Christ and his Church and the coniunction and knitting of them together which is not natural and carnal as that of the husband and the wife is but spiritual is the great misterie or secret he there expresseth himselfe to meane speake of And therefore doth Cardinal Caietane ingenuously confesse upon this text of Ephes. 5.32 that these words prove not Matrimonie to be a Sacrament And indeed it is verie evident to all that duly consider that text and the circumcumstances of it that the Apostle bringeth not marriage
such grosse Idolaters as to worship a peece of â—read for God Yea even that Heathen man Cicero could say Quem tam amentem esse putas qui id quo vescâ—tur Deum creda esse VVhom doe you thinke to be so mad as to beleeve that which he eateth to be God Is it not then high time for all that love their owne salvation utterly to forsake that monstrous and Idolatrous Church of Rome which is become thus extreamely degenerate and deformed 6 But the Popish Church hath yet further mangled and maimeâ— this sacrament of the Lords supper most audaciously and Sacrilegiously in that contrarie to the Institution of Christ and practise of the Apostolicke primitive Church it depriveth the Laie people of receiving anie consecrated wine As though the Laie people might not receive aswell the consecrate wine as the consecrate bread Did not Christ say Drinke yee all of this and doth not S. Paul shew directly that the Laie people in his time did aswell drinke of that Cup as eate of that Bread Yea the late Councell of Constance doth confesse that in the Primitive Church the Laie people did communicate in both kindes and received aswell the wine as the bread and yet for all that doe they there decree against it Must not this needs bâ— the spirit of Antichrist which dareth thus in their Councells to contradict and decree against the Institutions of Christ and the manifest and confessed practise of the primitive Church For feare of spilling some of them say the Laie people may not receive the consecrated wine As though the Priest might not also sometimes spill it upon some accident aswell as they or as though the like inconvenience of letting fall of the consecrated bread by some accident might not aswell bee feared But how commeth it to passe that the Popish Councell and Church taketh upon them to bee herein wiser then Christ and all his Apostles and then the Primitive churches For Christ ordained and so the Apostolicke and Primitive churches practised and observed that the Laie people should aswell drinke of the consecrated wine as eate of the consecrated bread without anie such feare of inconvenience or inconveniences as the Popish church hath sithence that time found out devised But they say that per concomitantiam by a concomitancie forsooth the blood is included in the bodie of Christ so that if the lay people receive the bread which say they after consecration is the verie natural bodie of Christ they do therein withall receive the blood of Christ because in the bodie say they the blood also is included And thus hath one error begotten another with them as is indeed the fashion of all errors to do for Vno absurdo dato sequuntur infinita But if this their doctrine of concomitancie be true then by the same reason also it may suffice the Priest to receive likewise the consecrated bread onely without the wine And why then doth the Priest drinke of the consecrated wine for is not the blood of Christ per concomitantiam by their concomitancie aswell included in the bread which they say is the body of Christ to him as to the lay people Can anie tolerable or allowable reason be yeelded by your Priests or Church for these things May they not then all bee ashamed thus grosly to abuse and delude the world But now if that which is confessed to bee the Primitive and Apostolike Church administred the Lords supper to Laie people in both kinds namely aswell in wine as in bread How can anie suppose the Popish church which hath decreed and observeth the cleane contrarie to be herein like unto that Primitive and Apostolicke Church And if that primitive and Apostolicke Church were as questionlesse it was guided by the holie Ghost the Spirit of Truth must not your Priests Teachers and Church observing teaching and decreeing the contrarie needs bee supposed â—o be led not by that but by another spirit And what other spirit then can it be but the spirit of Error of opposition to Christ even the spirit of Antichrist Yea farre degenerate even in this point also is the Church of Rome from that it was in the daies of Pope Gelasius in whose time it was decreed that All they should be excommunicated that would receive but in one kinde 7 But yet a further wound also hath the Papacy given to this Sacrament of the Lords Supper by diverting and turning it from a communion of the faithfull into a private Masse or into such an action as wherein the Priest eates and drinkes alone without anie Communicants with him the people onely looking on Did Christ thus celebrate his Supper alone and did the rest that were his Disciples onely looke on and not communicate Wee know that Christ willeth them both to eate and to drinke at that Table and not to bee lookers on onely And so in the Primitive and Apostolicke Churches not the Pastor alone but the people also together with him did communicate And in verie deede what is more absurd then to bid men to a Supper to looke on onelie and neither to eate nor drinke S. Chrysostome complaineth of this corruption beginning to creepe in in his time O custome saith hee O presumption In vaine is the daily Sacrifice offered in vaine doe wee stand at the Altar seeing no bodie communicateth And a little after hee saith thus The Lord saith these things to us all who stand by heree unwisely and rashly for everie one that partakes not of the Mysteries is unwise and rash in standing by And hee addeth further saying Tell mee If a man that is bidden to a feast wash his hands aâ—d be placed at the table and yet eates not doth hee not wrong him that â—ad him vvere it not better that such a one were not present So thou art present thou hast sung the Hymne and in that thou hast not retyred thy selfe with them that are unworthy thou hast made profession that thou art of the number of those that are vvorâ—hie Hovv then dost thou stay and not partake ef the Table thou art therefore unvvorthy also to partake of the Prayers Yea the rule even of the Church of Rome it selfe in ancient time said to bee Pope Agapets which is Dist. 2. de Consecra Can. peracta is delivered in these words VVhen Consecration is finished all that vvill not bee put out of the Church dore must Communicate for so the Apostles ordained and so the Church of Rome observeth Marke well these words for thereby you see how farre differing at this day the deformed and new Church of Rome is in this point also from that it was in former and ancient time But againe can anie be so besotted as to thinke that onely by looking on hee communicateth or that by the eating and drinking of another as namelie of the Priest himselfe can bee fed or nourished Can the eating or drinking of another preserve your life if
unto thee but my Father vvhich is in heaven And I say unto thee Thou art Peter and upon this Rocke vvill I build my Church and the gates of hell shall not overcome it And I will give unto thee the Keyes of the Kingdome of heaven and vvhatsoever thou shalt binde on earth shall be bound in heaven and vvhatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven Howbeit first you must be put in mind that the confession which Peter here made of Christ to be the Sonne of the living God was likewise the confession and acknowledgement of the rest of the Apostles aswel as of Peter so that Hee for his part was therin but as the Mouth of the rest or like the Foreman of a Iurie pronouncing that verdict and confession for them all For which cause also the Keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven and the power of binding and loosing of sinnes bee there promised to be given to Peter not as to him alone but to him as bearing and representing at that time the person of them all For that Peter at that time represented the person of them all is manifest by these reasons First the question was demanded not of Peter alone but of the rest of the Apostles aswell as of him for the words be not in the singular but in the plural number Vos autem quem me esse dicitis But VVhom doe yee say that I am and consequently the answer that was given must consonantly thereunto be supposed to be the answer of them all For it were a verie uncivill and unseemely part beside undutifull if the rest being demanded and asked the question aswell as Peter should give no maner of answer to their Lord and Master demanding it of them Which they must needs be held guiltie of unlesse their answer be taken to bee included and comprehended in that answere of Peter Secondly when this promise made to S. Peter came to bee performed it was performed to them all alike as you may see in that place of Ioh. 20.22 23. where that promise was performed and accomplished Which also sheweth that the promise made to S. Peter was not made as to him alone but to him as representing at that time the person of them all For the promise and the performance of that promise must of necessitie have coherence and bee made to agree together as most aptlie and rightly expounding one an other And according hereunto doe the Ancient Fathers likewise expound it Origen saith This saying of Christ to Peter I will give unto thee the keyes of the Kingdome of heaven is common also to the rest of the Apostles and the words that follow as spoken to Peter bee also common to them all Again he saith Shall we dare to say that the gates of hell shall not overcome onely Peter and that the same gates shall prevaile against all the other Apostles And againe hee saith If wee speakâ— the same thing that Peter spake wee are become Peter and unto us it shall bee said Thou art Peter for hee is a Rocke whosoever is the disciple of Christ. And againe hee saith If thou thinke that the whole Church was builded only upon Peter what wilt thou then say of Iohn the son of Thunder and of everie of the Apostles Cyprian speaketh in like sort upon these words of Christ to Peter In the person of one man saith hee the Lord did give the Keies to all the Apostles to signifie the unitie of them all for verilie the rest of the Apostles were the same that Peter was endued with equal fâ—llowship both of honour and power But hee did begin with unitie that is to say with one that thereby it might be signified that there is but one Church of Christ. In like sort doth S. Augustine expound it saying VVhen they vvere all asked Peter alone maketh the Ansvver and it is said unto him I vvill give unto thee the Keies of the kingdome of heaven as though hee alone had received authoritie to binde and to loose whereas HE had spoken THAT for them All and received THIS as representing or bearing in himselfe the person of unitie And againe hee saith If there were not a mystery of the Church in Peter The Lord would not have said I will give to thee the Keyes of the Kingdom of heaven for if this were said onely to Peter then the Church hath them not And if the Church hath them then when hee received the Keyes hee signified the whole Church So likewise testifieth S. Hierome Yee will say saith hee that the Church is builded upon Peter hovvbeit in another place the same thing is done upon all the Apostles and all receive the Keyes of the Kingdome of heaven and the strength of the Church is founded equally upon them all Beda doth likewise so expound it saying thus The power of binding and loosing notwithstanding it seeme to bee given onely to Peter yet without all doubt wee must understand that it was given also to the rest of the Apostles Haymo doth also so affirm This authoritie saith hee the Lord gave not onely to Peter but also to all the Apostles because Peter expressed the faith of all the Apostles when he said Thou art Christ the Sonne of the living God So that vvhat the Lord said to Peter he said unto all his Apostles as appeareth Ioh. 20.23 where hee saith thus unto them all alike VVhose sinnes yee remit they are remitted unto them and whose sinnes yee reteine they are reteyned Wherefore the Keyes whereby the Kingdome of heaven is opened and shut to sinners and the power of binding and loosing sinnes appeare to be no more specially or principallie given to Peter then to the rest of the Apostles but they all received that power athority equally alike And here withal you may perceive that the verie person of Peter is not the Rocke or foundation whereupon the Church of Christ is builded for then upon the death of Peter the church for want of a rocke or foundation to uphold it would have come to ruine but it is Christ Iesus himselfe whom Peter there for himself in the name of the rest confessed that is the Rocke and foundation to support and uphold the Church and whereupon it is builded For so also doth S. Paul expound and declare it saying in precise termes thus Other foundation can no man lay then that vvhich is layd alreadie vvhich is Iesus Christ where you see that hee expresly affirmeth the Church to have no other foundation but Christ onely And in another place hee also calleth Christ Iesus the Rocke in expresse termes for he saith That Rocke was Christ yea and Christ himselfe saith Hee that heareth my vvordes and doth them is the vvise man that buildeth his house upon the Rocke What better expositors then these would you have to expound and declare these words By the Rocke then not Peter but Christ is to
be understood Yea howsoever Christ spake in the Syriacke tongue using the word Cepha in both places yet in the Greek text which taketh away all ambiguitie declareth the verie true sense of those words as also in the latin translations there is a cleer expresse difference and distinction made inter Petrum Petram betweene Peter and the Rocke for the words bee not as you suppose Thou art Peter and upon thee vvill I build my Church but thus Thou art Peter and upon this Rocke I will build my Church that is upon my selfe whom thou hast thus confessed to bee the Messias or Christ the Sonne of the living God will I build my Church So that howsoever the Church is builded upon Christ and such faith in him and confession of him as S. Pâ—â—er had and delivered yet it is not builded upon the person of S. Peter as is apparant And so also doth S. Augustine teach and expound those words Thou art Peter saith hee and upon this Rocke vvhich thou hast confessed upon this Rocke vvhich thou hast acknowledged in saying Thou art Christ the Sonne of the living God I vvill build my Church that is upon my selfe being the Sonne of the living God I vvill build my Church I vvill build thee upon mee and not mee upon thee For men vvilling to build upon men said I hold of Paul I of Apollo and I of Cephas that is of Peter but others that would not build upon Peter but upon the Rocke said I holde of Christ. Be not these things then verie plaine and evident It is true that in the numbring of the names of the Apostles Peter is reckoned first but as they could not all be reckoned at once but that of necessitie some must bee reckoned before the other so Theophilact telleth you the reason of it to bee namely because hee and Andrevv his brother were the first that were called by Christ to the Apostleship as is indeed manifest in Mat. 4.18 19. c. And therefore doth S. Ambrose also acknowledge that Paul was not interiour to Peter or to anie of the rest of the Apostles that went before him in Dignitie but in Time And in his Booke De Incarnat Domini cap. 4. hee affirmeth the Primacie of Peter to bee Primatum confessionis c. A. Primacie of confession verely but not of honour a primacie of faith but not of Degree And likewise doth S. Augustine say of him that hee was ordine primus the first in order or reckoning Although then Peter bee granted to have a Primacie yet you see what manner of Primacie it was that it was not anie King-like or Emperour-like primacie but a Primacie onelie of order or of Excellencie in other respects For Christ Iesus himselfe when the Apostles contended for a Maioritie one over another sheweth directly that they might not expect to raigne or beare Domination one over another although they saw Kings and Princes to doe so over the people of those nations that were subiect to them Vos autem non sic Yee may not doe so Agreeablie whereunto S. Cyprian also hath told us that Christ gave to all his Apostles the same or equal authoritie And againe hee saith that Peter tooke nothing proudlie upon him as to say That hee had a Primacie whereby others that were his after-commers should bee obedient to him And so likewise testifieth the Greeke Scoliast of him saying thus Behold hovv hee doth all things vvith common consent And further hee saith of him that hee did nothing Archicos that is Imperiously or with Commanding authoritie Much lesse did hee anie thing Monarchicos that is like a Monarch or King over all So that Peter had no more primacie in respect of anie Legal Princely or Monarchical authoritie over the rest of the Apostles then the rest had over him nor was anie more the Rocke or foundation of the Church then the rest were Yea when S. Paul sheweth that the Church is built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Iesus Christ himselfe being the chiefe Corner-stone and when it is likewise said in S. Iohn to haue tvvelve foundations and in them the names of the Lambes tvvelve Apostles It is by both those places verie apparant that Peter by being a foundation hath therein no more preeminence or prerogative then the rest inasmuch as the rest bee there expresly said to bee foundations as well as hee The Church being founded aswell upon the rest of the Apostles as upon Peter and the strength of the Church being equally builded upon them all as S. Hierome hath also before affirmed But then secondly they alledge Luk. 22.31 32. where Christ saith thus unto Peter Symon Symon behold Satan hath desired you to vvinnow you as vvheat But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fayle not therefore when thou art converted strengthen thy brethren In which words Christ foreseeing how Satan would sift and shake them all but especiallie Peter who by thrice denying him and forswearing of him was to fall more grievouslie and dangerously then the rest therefore telleth him that hee had praied for him especiallie that his faith faile not that is as Beda expoundeth it That after hee vvas fallen by denying Christ hee might rise again by repentance and being so raised up to repentance by Gods special grace and Christs prayer hee might bee afterward able even by his owne example and experience to comfort strengthen others in the like case S. Chrysostome likewise so expoundeth it Oravi pro te ne deficeret fides tua hoc est ne in fine pereas I have prayed for thee that thy faith fall not that is saith hee that thou finallie perish not Againe hee sheweth you the true cause why Christ did there so speciallie mention Peter by name If saith hee Satan desired to sift the miall vvhy did not Christ pray for them all It is evident as I said before that to touch him the more deepely and to shevv his fall to bee farre more grievous then anie of the rest Christ turned his speech to him in particular Againe he saith thus I have praied for thee particularly that thy faith faile thee not This Christ spake to touch Peter the more vehemently signifying that his fall should be much fouler then of his fellovves and therefore that hee needed the more helpe This text then sheweth a greater weaknesse in Peter and a greater danger towards him then toward the rest and from whence it was that hee had his strength and stabilitie whereby hee was kept that hee did not utterlie perish in that his so grievous and dangerous a fall but it is far from proving or intending anie Monarchical or Princelie rule or authoritie in him over the rest It hath no such scope purpose or meaning in it And here also is answered the third Text they cyte of Ioh. 21.15 16 17. where Peter having formerly denied Christ thrice
that they further obiect that there bee manie names which make that number of 666. and thereupon would inferre that anie of those may be the name there spoken of aswell as Latine or Romane they talke likewise very idely and to no purpose for although there bee many names that conteine that number of 666 yet none of them conteyning that number can be the name there spoken of unlesse it bee the name first of a Beast that is of a State or Kingdome secondly unlesse it be the name of that verie Beast with seven heads there mentioned nor thirdly unlesse it bee such a name as agreeth with that Beast in every other respect and circumstance of which sort none is or can bee shewed to bee but onely that which is the Latine or Romane State Inasmuch then as the Pope of Rome counterfeiteth the Lambe but acteth the Dragon in verie deede and exerciseth all the power and authoritie of the first Beast that is of the Romane State and that before his face and seeing that the deadlie wound given to the Empire was cured and healed in him and that hee with his Clergie and holie men and holy women hath by their Miracles done in the sight and viewe of the Romane State together with his doctrine and other his devises so bewitched and inchanted the Inhabitants of the Earth that they have as verily beleeved the Popes Supremacie and his religion to be of God as if they had beene ratified and approoved from God himselfe by some miraculous sending of fire from heaven for the confirmation of them and hath also caused an Image of the Beast to be made namely the Papall State in lieu of the Imperial whereof himselfe is now the Head and Monarch hath moreover put such a spirit into this Image of the Beast so that it did speake and give forth such terrible Edicts Iudgments that whosoever did not obey it the decrees therof should be put to death and hath also caused and commanded all professors of Christianitie under his rule and dominion to receive the Marke of the Beast which in respect of Religion is manifestly Poperie and hath willed also and ordained that none within his Dominions professing the name of Christ should buy or sell or use the trade of Merchandizing unlesse hee have the marke of the Beast that is unlesse hee professe the religion of Poperie or have his name which is to bee a Romanist or Latine man that is a man of the Romane or Latine Religion professing subiection to him or have the number of his name that is unlesse hee so carrie and demeane himselfe as that hee bee numbred and reckoned amongst them as if he were a verie true Latine or true Romane indeed and seeing that the number of the name of the Beast conteyning 666. doth also fitly and fully agree to the Latine or Romane State yea seeing the Pope hath all the Markes whatsoever mentioned in the holy Scriptures to belong to Antichrist for no instance can be given to the contrarie I conclude that hee is and must needs be helde to bee the verie undoubted Grand Antichrist and that there is no other to bee expected CHAP. IIII. Shewing also the Pope to bee Antichrist and the Popish Church to be the Antichristian out of the 1. Tim. 4. Vers. 1 2 3 4 5. THE words of this Text bee these But the spirit speaketh evidently that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith giving heede to spirits of error and doctrines of Divells which speake lyes in hypocrisie having their consciences seared with an hot Iron forbidding to marrie and commanding to abstaine from meates vvhich God hath created to bee received with thankesgiving of them which beleeve and know the truth for every Creature of God is good and nothing to bee refused if it be received vvith thankesgiving for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer Beside the former notes and markes of the Antichristian and Apostatical Church the Apostle here hath for our fuller and better satisfaction in that point notified also and set downe unto us two other marks and those not the worst but the most sensible nor the most wicked though wicked enough but the most easie to bee knowne that none might anie longer erre or goe astray therein The two markes whereby to discerne and know this Antichristian Church which hath made an Apostacie or departure from the right faith and whose teachers bee false teachers hee specifieth to bee these namely 1. Forbidding people to Marrie which by Gods law bee not prohibited 2. A commanding to abstaine from meates for religion sake which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving Which two notes or markes bee apparantly found in the Papacie For there namely in the Papacie are divers persons forbidden to marrie which by Gods law be not forbidden as namely their Bishops Deacons Priests Monkes Friers Nunnes c. And there also is a commanding to abstaine from some kinde of meates for religion sake as is sufficiently knowne and as shall afterward appeare and therefore in the Papacie it is that the Church is Apostatical and Antichristian But touching the point of Marriage the Rhemists and other Papists answer that S. Paul here speaketh onely of the Manichees Encratites Marcionites of the heretickes called Apostoloci Ebionitae and the like whose heresie about Marriage was say they that to marrie or to use the Act of Matrimonie is of Satan and that the distinction of Male and Female came of an ill God And thus would they have the old Heretickes onely to be branded and themselves noe way to bee touched herein But indeede if you well observe the words not so much those old heretickes as the later hereticks namely the Papists bee there noted and branded yea these chiefely and especially if not altogether For those old hereticks that attributed the institution of Matrimonie to Satan and the distinction of male and female and procreation of Children to the Divel did not speake lies or falshood in hypocrisie as these are here said to doe but in palpable and open blasphemie which might therefore easily bee discerned of Christians and avoided But the Papists that under pretence of holinesse religion puritie and chastitie forbid Marriage bee those that utter this their doctrine in hypocrisie and therefore bee such of whom the Apostle here speaketh and had the more neede to give the Church a forewarning that they might beware of them and bee the better armed against them But because they confesse the old Heretickes to be here condemned let them tell mee how much differeth in this point the Church of Rome from those old Heretickes the Manichees For even the Manichees permitted marriage to the Lay people which they called their hearers but in no wise to their Clergie which they called their Elects or chosen men as S. Augustine declareth Seeing then they are in the same heresie with them in this very point how can they
hee did leade them about But lastly the verie scope of the Text is also directly against this their conceit and exposition which expound it of such rich weomen as did minister of their substance to the Apostles necessitie For by such rich weomen the Church could not bee charged but was rather helped and relieved by them whereas with the Apostles wives that were poore as their husbands the Churches might lawfully have beene charged For this is the verie scope purpose of the Apostle in that place to shew to the Corinthians that in this point Hee and Barnabas used not that power and libertie which freely and lawfully they might have done in leading about a Sister a Wife with them aswell as Cephas that is Peter and some other of the Apostles did And even S. Hierome against Helvidius to the same effect citeth this text also thus Numquid non habemus potestatem uxores circumducendi sicut caeteri Apostolici Have vve not power to lead about vvives aswell as the rest of the Apostles And Tertullian likewise according to this Text saith Licebat Apostolis nubere uxores circumducere It was lavvfull for the Apostles to marrie and to lead about their vvives Clemens Alexandrinus also by this Text doth proove that the Apostles had Wives and did lead them about Doe they also saith hee reiect the Apostles For Peter and Philip did beget Children Philip also did give his Daughter in marriage And therefore Paul saith in a certaine Epistle Have vvee not povver to lead about a Sister a VVifâ— asvvell as the rest of the Apostles c. 2 Yea that Bishops and Deacons may be maried men and have wives S. Paul himselfe further cleerely witnesseth shewing both what maner of men Bishops and Deacons should be and likewise what manner of weomen their wives should be A Bishop saith he must be blamelesse the husband of one vvife vvatching sober comely a lover of hospitality apt to teach not given to vvine no striker not greedy of filthy luâ—re but gentle abhorring fighting abhorring covetousnesse one that ruleth vvell his owne house having children in subiection vvith all honesty For if a man know not how to rule his owne house how shall hee care for the Church of God Where first you may observe that a Bishop is expressely allowed to be the husband of one wife Some Papists hereunto answere that by being the husband of one wife is meant that a Bishop must have but one wife before his admission to that his Episcopal office but after his admission to that office he must have none at all It is a verie strange answer and untrue For first they hereby expound these words a Bishop must be c. by these A Bishop must be such a one as hath beene c. And so by this exposition of theirs which will have it expounded of the time past onely but not of the time present they make the Apostle to speake as if he had said thus Let such a one be ordeined a Bishop as hath heretofore beene blamelesse but now at the time of his ordination and after is not so such a one must be made a Bishop as before he was a Bishop was watchfull sober apt to teach c. But now after that hee is a Bishop hee may have none of these vertues or good qualities in him Is not such an exposition senselesse impious and absurd And yet if they will expound the one clause of the sentence touching a Bishop to be the husband of one wife as they doe of the time past onely and in no sort of the time present they must likewise expound all the rest of the members and clauses of the same entire sentence in the same manner and so runne into those senselesse and impious absurdities before mentioned But the Apostle himselfe to put the matter further out of all controversie speaking of Deacons saith in the present tense Diaconi sint unius uxoris viri Let the Deacons be the husbands of one vvife Now as touching the meaning of these words that a Bishop or Deacon must be the husband of one wife it is not to tye him necessarily to have a wife but to this that if he have anie care must be taken that hee have no more then one at a time So that this Text maketh against Digaâ—y or Bygamie as wee call it or Polygamie that is against the having of two or more wives at once and not as some take it against the having of several wives one succeeding after the death of the other And so doth S. Chrysostome expound this Text speaking thus He saith not this as making a law that none without a vvife may be made a Bishop but appointing a measure of that matter for it vvas lawfull for the Iewes to be ioyned in the second marriage and to have two vvives at once Theodoret likewise upon these words The husband of one vvife saith thus The preaching then began and neither the Gentiles did exercise virginitie nor the Iewes admit it for they esteemed the procreation of children to be a blessing therefore forasmuch as at that time they vvere not easily to be found vvhich exercised continencie he commandeth of such as had married vvives to ordeyne them vvhich honoured temperance And concerning that saying The husband of one vvife I thinke saith he certaine men have vvell said for of old time both Greekes and Iewes vvere vvont to be maried and that vvith two three or moe vvives at once And even now also vvhen the Imperial lawes forbid men to marry two vvives at once they have to doe with Concubines and Harlots They have said therefore that the holy Apostle saith That he vvhich dwelleth honestly vvith one vvife onely is vvorthy to be ordeyned a Bishop for say they hee doth not reiect the second marriage vvho hath often commanded that it should be used Theophilact doth also so expound these words the husband of one vvife He spake this saith he because of the Iewes for to them vvas permitted Polygamy that is to ioyne marriage vvith many at one time Yea even S. Hierome though no great favourer of marriage and being himselfe inclined to that opinion that he which hath beene twice married should not be ordeined yet in his Commentary upon the Epistle to Titus confesseth and declareth that sundrie did interprete the Text otherwise namely as wee doe Some Interpreters of this place saith he doe give this sense It vvas of the Iewish custome say they that men had two vvives or moe at once as vvee reade in the old Law of Abraham and Iacob and this they will have to be the Apostles commandement in this place that he vvhich is to be chosen a Bishop have not two vvives together at one time The sense and meaning then of those words is evident and plaine enough viz. that hee which is blamelesse or unreproveable that is the husband of one wife and of
care for the preservation of the Church goods wholly and entirelie to themselves But againe is it not grosse hipocrisie and dissimulation for them to pretend Chastitie in this matter wherein there appeareth to bee none at all but the cleane contrarie For how can the forbidding of Mariage to such as have not the gift of Continency tend to chastitie Yea how can it otherwise tend but to unchastitie filthinesse dishonestie and uncleannesse Yea what a great affecter of chastitie the Popish Church is may appeare by the Canon Is qui in the 34 Distinction the inscription whereof is this Hee that hath no vvife let him in stead of a vvife have a Concubine The Canon following is this It is not lavvfull for a Christian to have I doe not say manie vvives but not so much as tvvo vvives but onely one vvife or in defect thereof a Concubine Likewise the Canon Dilectissimis in the 12 cause and the first question doth approove of Platoes opinion the wisest among the Greekes which saith All things should bee common amongst friends Novv under this name of all things saith this Canon mens vvives also bee comprehended But I shall need to say no more herein because the premises as touching this point of forbidding marriage under pretence of chastitie and religion when there is neither chastitie nor religion in it but the cleane contrary doe sufficiently declare the Popish Church to bee verie clearely and undoubtedly Antichristian 4 The second marke of the Apostatical and Antichristian Church out of this Text is a commanding to abstaine from Meates for Religion sake And this note or marke is also found verie evidently to be in the popish Church For in the Papacie the people are enioyned and that not for politicke or civill respects but for pietie and religion sake to abstaine from flesh-meates and other meates on certaine daies and times by them appointed although neverthelesse on the same daies and times they permit fish of all sorts to be eaten and wine also to bee taken Yea they not onely account it a sinne against God to eate flesh on those dayes but doe also repose matter of merit and satisfaction to Gods Iustice for their sinnes in that their abstinence and in such their obedience performed to their Mother the Church of Rome Howbeit S. Paul contrariwise saith that The kingdome of God is not meate nor drinke but righteousnesse and peace in the holy Ghost And againe hee saith If any of them vvhich beleeve not bid you to a feast and if you vvill goe vvhatsoever is set before you eate asking no question for conscience sake Yea Christ Iesus himselfe sheweth that they bee not meates and drinkes moderately taken but other things that defile a man for saith hee Perceive yee not that vvhatsoever entreth into the mouth goeth into the belly and is cast out into the draught But those things vvhich proceede out of the mouth come from the heart and they defile a man for out of the heart come evill thoughts murders adulteries fornicaâ—ions thefts false testimonies slanders these bee the things that defile a man And againe hee saith expreslie That vvhich goeth into the mouth defileth not a man but that vvhich commeth out of the mouth that defileth a man Doe not these testimonies manifestlie proove that good and true Christian Religion and the kingdome of God consisteth not in these outward things of meat and drinke but in things inward seated in the heart of a man as namely in righteousnesse in peace and in ioy of the holy Ghost and such like Yea when God thus permitteth aswell flesh as fish to bee eaten and saith expresly that the Eating of it defileth not a man can anie Popish Prohibition make it to defile a man or to bee sinne in his sight which himselfe affirmeth to bee none For they say that though God hath not forbidden it yet their Mother the Church of Rome hath forbidden it upon paine of deadly sinne and damnation Howbeit this excuseth not yea herein it is that their church doth disclose and declare her selfe to bee in verie deede Antichristian in thus exalting herselfe against God and daring to forbid that in the way of Religion which hee hath not forbidden but contrariwise hath allowed in his religion The true Church hath but one Lavv-giver as S. Iames speaketh and that is God to make and give Lawes to binde the soule and consciences and to certificus what is sinne and what is not sin in his sight How then can any Prohibition of the Pope or Popish Church make that to bee sinne against God and his religion which God himselfe affirmeth not to bee so yea the contrarie whereof hee teacheth and affirmeth But consider yet further what Mother it is that they bee so carefull to obey and whether shee bee not the Mother of VVhoredomes and abhominations of the earth and even the Whore of Babylon as shee is before declared to bee out of the Revelation of S. Iohn For it will bee small honour ioy or comfort for anie to shew or performe obedience to such a Mother Yea all Gods people bee expresly commanded by a voyce from heaven to forsake that Mother and to goe out of her lest being partakers of her sinnes they also receive of her plagues And therefore whilst they doe it in obedience to such a Mother their sinne is not thereby lessened but is so much the greater Yea whilst your Church is thus bold to give this Prohibition S. Paul even in this place to Timothie telleth you that God is so farre from prohibiting or forbidding anie Meates in his religion that contrariwise he hath created them to that verie end to bee received and that with thankesgiving and hee there further teacheth that they are so farre from having anie sinne pollution or uncleannesse in them to a faithfull and well perswaded Christian as that they are to him cleane contrariwise sanctified by the word of God and prayer Can anie thing bee more forciblie spoken to confute that Prohibition But amongst the rest this is most intolerable that they place remission of sinnes or matter of merit or satisfaction to Gods Iustice for their sinnes in this their abstinence from flesh and betaking themselves to fish and other meates which they also call fasting For first did ever anie true christian Religion teach a Fast acceptable to God and allowed of him to consist in difference of meates or which is all one in absteyning from some kinde of meate and eating of othersome as namely in absteyning from flesh and eating of fish or such like A true christian Fast whether it be publike or private is to eate neither flesh nor fish nor anie thing at all for that day or time that is so dedicated for humiliation in Gods sight and besides it hath alwaies humble earnest fervent and repentant prayers ioyned with it and a serious and deep meditation and contemplation of divine heavenly
seeth not that such a kinde of fast or abstinence pretended to be for religion sake to keepe downe the bodie and to suppresse lust is meerely hypocriticall and a verie mockerie serving for nothing so well as to declare it selfe to be an apparant direct and demonstrative note of Antichristianisme For to absteine from flesh and to fill the belly with fish and wine and other dainties and delicates or to have a law permitting this Can anie that hath but common understanding suppose it to be availeable to the chastening of the bodie taming of the flesh and subduing of lust Must not he needs be verie senselesse that shal beleeve it and verie shamelesse that shall affirme it 7 Touching that they alledge of the Rechabites absteyning from drinking Wine at the commandement of their father they did therein well to obey the lawfull commandement of their father whom Gods law also requireth to honour and obey but this is no warrant for anie to obey an unlawfull commandement of an unlawful and wrong mother namely of the Church of Rome which is before evidently proved unto you to be the vvhore of Babylon whom all Gods people be required not to obey but to depart from and to renounce and forsake And as touching that they alledge of the Nazarites that they also absteined from wine they had Gods expresse commandement requiring them to do so and therefore might not omit it But have they likewise Gods expresse commandement to absteine from flesh in their fasts with an allowance and permission neverthelesse to eate fish and other meates during the same daies and that also for religion sake If there be anie such expresse commandement from God for this as is for the other let them bring it forth that it may appeare but if they can shew none such as wee are sure they cannot in vaine doe they make those cases like that doe so farre differ and have no resemblance As for the Fast of the Ninevites Moses Elias Anna or of anie other godly persons mentioned in the holy Scriptures their fastings not consisting in difference of meates but in an abstinence from all kinde of meates for the time they be so apparantly unlike to your Fasts as that it were but labour vainely bestowed to take paines to make anie further answer to them Touching that you say that in England Fish-dayes be observed and commanded to be observed and therein an abstinence from flesh required during those times you are to know that it is no constitution or decree of the Church for religion sake but a Statute of the commonweale made onely in politicke and civill respects namely for the maintenance of Navigation and Fishermen and for the breed of yong cattell and such like civill uses and ends And so much the verie Statute it selfe made in that behalfe doth tell you if you please to reade it But for your better and easier satisfaction I will here recite unto you one clause of the same Statute which is this Because no manner of person shall mis-iudge of the intent of this Statute limiting orders to eate fish and to forbeare eating of flesh but that the same is purposely intended and meant politickely for the increase of Fishermen and Mariners and repayring of Port-townes and Navigation and not for any superstition to be maintayned in choyse of meates Be it enacted that vvhosoever shall by preaching teaching vvriting or open speech notifie that any eating of fish or forbearing of flesh mentioned in this Statute is of any necessity for the saving of the soule of man or that it is the service of God otherwise then as other politicke Lawes are and be that then such persons shall be punished as spreaders of false newes are and ought to be Whereby you see that the Statute and Law of England is so farre from favouring their opinion touching abstinence from flesh and eating of fish by reason of prohibition given in the way of religion or otherwise then in politicke and common-weale respects upon fish daies for so the Statute also calleth them fish-daies and not fasting daies that contrariwise it inflicteth a punishment upon those that shall spread or publish anie such opinion 8 Now then forasmuch as these two notes and markes of the Apostatical and Antichristian Church viz. forbidding of Marriage under colour and pretence of chastitie and holiness and commanding to abstaine from some kinde of meates for Religion sake and under pretence to chasten the bodie and subdue lust when neverthelesse Fish and other kinde of meates be permitted bee cleerely and undeniably found in the Church of Rome it followeth that the Church of Rome is and must needes be concluded to be not the Christian and Apostolicall but the Apostaticall and Antichristian Church and consequently that the Pope of Rome being the Head and Ruler thereof is and must needs be the Grand Antichrist For howsoever the Rhemists and other Papists to shift these things from their Church would have this Text of S. Paul to Timothy expounded onely of the hereticks in old time that utterly condemned both marriage and meates as things in themselves and by nature and creation polluted and uncleane you perceive that it much more fitly agreeth to the later heretickes namely the Papists First because the Text it selfe sheweth that it is most properly to be intended of such false Teachers as speake lies or falshood in Hypocrisie but those old Heretickes that utterly condemned Marriage and Meates as things in themselves and by creation polluted and uncleane did not speake lies in Hypocrisie but in plaine manifest palpable and open blasphemie On the other side the later Heretickes namely the Papists be such as speake these lies or falshood in Hypocrisie inasmuch as they forbid Marriage and Meates not in respect of anie supposition that they be in themselves or by creation polluted or uncleane but upon pretence of much chastitie forsooth sanctitie and religion therein to be conteyned And therefore these later rather then those old Heretickes be here to be intended Secondly this Prophecie is of such as did make the Apostacie or departure from the faith Now this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apostasie or departure from the right faith being the same that is mentioned in 2. Thess. 2.3 doth for that cause also rightly and fitly agree to the Papacie Thirdly observe that he saith this Apostacie or departure from the right faith and this attending to spirits of error and doctrines of Divels by meanes of such persons as speaking lies in hypocrisie should forbid Marriage and Meates was to come to passe neither in the first or elder times not yet in the last times but in the later times for wee must note that Saint Paul in these his Epistles to Timothy speaketh distinctly of two times shewing him what shall come to passe not onely in the later but in the last times also Seeing therefore hee hath expressely distinguished these times wee must not confound them
heathen Rome but of Rome also after it had forsaken heathenisme and had received the faith of Christ and turned againe from that unto Antichristianisme Obiect 9. But although those Iesuits do meane that Rome shall become Antichristian and bee ruled by Antichrist yet they doe not meane that it shall bee so untill some few yeres before the end of the world Ans. They meane as they must needs that Rome should become Antichristian in the dayes and times of the Grand Antichrist who is come long sithence For wheras they have a conceit that this Antichrist is not yet come and that when hee commeth hee shall raigne but three yeares and a halfe therein is their great error and mistaking For what was it that hindred or letted his appearing was it not the Romane Empire Onely bee which now letteth shall let untill hee bee taken out of the way and then shall that wicked man bee revealed saith S. Paul Hereupon Tertullian in his Booke of the Resurrection of the flesh Chapt. 24 saith thus Onely hee which now letteth must let till hee bee abolished VVhat is this but the Romane Empire Chrysostome in his fourth Sermon upon the second to the Thessalonians is of the same opinion and so is the Greeke Scholiast And so doth S. Augustine also expound it in his twentieth Booke and ninteenth Chapter of the Citie of God and Primasius also S. Hierome likewise saith the same in th 11 Question to Algasia and addeth That the Apostles durst not say in expresse termes that the Romane Empyre should be abolished for feare of drawing persecution upon the Church Howbeit this needeth no proofe at all because the Adversaries themselves doe also teach that the impediment to Antichrist mentioned by S. Paul was the Romane Empire But the Romane Empire which was the Onely let or impediment of Antichrist his appearing is now long sithence taken out of the way Ergo long since was the time of Antichrist his comming and appearing That the Romane Empire which was so flourishing in S. Pauls time is now long sithence abolished or taken out of the way is before prooved by the expresse testimony of the Historiographers themselves affirming the same as namely by Machiavell who dedicateth his Florentine Historie to Pope Clement the seventh by Guicciardine in the fourth Booke of his history and by Augustinus Steuchus and by Lipsius c. And so also is it testified in Synodo Reginoburgensi that Romani Maiestas Populi qua olim orbis regebatur Sublata est de terris Imperator vana apellatio sola umbra est The Maiestie of the Romane people whereby the world in times past was governed is taken from the earth The Emperor is now a vaine title and a shadow onely And so likewise affirmeth Lyranus that Ab Imperio Romano recesserunt quasi omnia Regna negantia ei subijci redditionem Tributi All Kingdomes in a manner have departed from the Romane Empyre denying to bee subiect to it and to pay it tribute And hee further addeth saying I am a multis annis Imperium illud caruit Imperatore Now manie yeares sithence hath that Empyre wanted an Emperor This also appeareth by Sigonius in his historie of the Kingdome of Italy lib. 3. where shewing by what meanes it was that the Emperors lost all their right in Rome hee concludeth thus saying By this meanes Rome and the Dukedome of Rome came to be in the Popes power But what neede anie proofes by histories or Authors of a matter so cleere and evident For doth not everie mans knowledge eies and eares tell and testifie unto him without anie more adoe that he that is called the Emperor at this day is the Emperor of Germanie and that the Emperor of Germanie howsoever hee bee entitled is not for all that Emperor of Rome For hee hath not the headship or Soveraigne rule there Yea the Pope is hee that now is long hath beene to the eies and view of the whole world the head and Soveraigne ruler of that Citie If then the Pope be at this day as none is so simple or ignorant but he knoweth it the head and Soveraigne Ruler of Rome then is not the Emperor of Germanie nor anie other the head supreame Governour of it Yea the Emperor of Germanie is so farre from having anie chiefe or supreame rule there that cleane contrarywise hee acknowledgeth subiection to him that hath the Headship and Soveraignetie there namely to the Pope to whom for that purpose he giveth an oath of homage fealtie or allegeance The ample and Soveraigne rule of the Emperors then which they had appeareth to bee long sithence abolished and taken away and the Popes have succeeded in their place at Rome and have gotten the headship and Soveraigne rule there And therefore also the grand Antichrist who by this direct Prophesie of S. Paule was then to appeare hath accordingly appeared long sithence even ever since the time that the headship and supreame rule and government of that City was taken from the Emperors and exercised by the Popes For there bee two or three degrees of the appearing of that grand Antichrist the one when hee became an universal Bishop over all Bishops and was made head over all the Christian Churches in the world The second when after that his Episcopal and Ecclesiastical supremacie obtained he attained to a Temporal supremacie or terrestrial Monarchie which hee also got by the decay and ruins of the Empire But an other cleere and demonstrative argument of this matter hath also S. Iohn given us in Rev. 17.3.7.9 10 c. Shewing that the state of Rome from the beginning of it to the end of it is to have but seven sorts of Soveraigne Rulers or Heads of it which bee Kings Consulls Decemvirs Tribunes Dictators Emperors and Popes For though an eight head bee there mentioned yet is that eight expresly affirmed to bee one of the seven Rev. 17.11 Rev. 13.3 Now then if Rome be to have in all but these seven heads as is apparant and that Rome at some one time or other before the end of the world is to become Antichristian and to bee ruled and governed by Antichrist as the Adversaries also themselves confesse How can they choose but grant that Antichrist is alreadie come and hath long since ruled and raigned in Rome and at this day there ruleth and raigneth inasmuch as the Popes visibly and undeniably appeare to bee the seventh and consequently the last head of that Citie Yea this the Rhemists themselves confesse and doe say the seventh head is Antichrists state which shall not come so long as the Empire of Rome standeâ—h And Bellarmine likewise writeth Antichristum fore ultimum qui tenebit Romanum Imperium tamen sine nomine Romani Imperatoris That Antichrist shall bee the last head who shall hold the Empyre of Rome and yet vvithout the name of the Romane Emperor Seeing then the Empire of Rome is dissolved
them within his dominions in France he received such another answer from them as Thaddaeus in the Ecclesiasticall historie is said to have given unto Abgarus the governour of Edessa We who have forsaken our owne that according to the commandement of the Gospell we might follow the Lord ought not to embrace other mens riches least peradventure we should prove transgressors of the divine commandement How then did these men live will you say Walafridus Strabus telleth us that some of them wrought in the garden others dressed the orchard Gallus made netts and tooke fish wherewith he not only relieved his owne companie but was helpefull also unto strangers So Bede reporteth of Cuthbert that when he retired himselfe unto an anchoretical life he first indeed received a little bread from his brethren to feed upon and drank out of his owne well but afterwards hee thought it more fit to live by the worke of his owne hands after the example of the Fathers and therefore intreated that instruments might be brought him wherewith he might till the earth and corne that he might sowe Quique suis cupiens victum conquirere palmis Incultam pertentat humum proscindere ferro Et sator edomitis anni spem credere glebis The like doth he relate of Furseus and Bonifacius of Livinus and Theodorus Campidonensis or whosoever else wrote that book of Gallus Magnoaldus and the rest of the followers of Columbanus that they got their living by the labour of their owne hands And the Apostles rule is generally laid down for all Monks in the life of Furseus They vvhich live in monasteries should worke with silence and eate their owne bread I passe by a like sentence which we reade in the life of S. Brendan A Monke ought to be fedd and cloathed with the labour of his owne hands that is more memorable which others do write of the same Brendan that he governed three thousand Monkes who by their owne labours and handy-worke did earne their living Such was the monasterie of Magio founded in this countrey by Bishop Colman for the intertainment of the English where they did live according to the example of the reverend Fathers as Bede writeth under a rule and aâ— canonicall abbot in great continencie and sinceritie with the labour of their owne hands Such also was the monasterie of Mailros planted by Bishop Aidan and his followers in Northumberland where S. Cuthbert had his education who affirmed that the life of such monkes was justly to be admired which were in all things subject to the commands of their Abbot and ordered all the times of their watching praying fasting and working according to his direction Excubiasque famemque preces manuumque laborem Ad votum gaudent proni fraenare regentis As for their fasting for of their watching and praying there is no question made and of their working we have alreadie spoken sufficiently by the rule of Columbanus they were every day to fast and every day to eate that by this meanes the enabling of them for their spiritual proficiency might be retayned together with the abstinence that did macerate the flesh Hee would therefore have them every day to eate because they were every day to profite and because abstinence if it did exceed measure would proâ—e a vice and not a vertue and he would have them to fast everie day too that is not to eate anie meate at all for other fastes were not known in those dayes untill evening Let the food of Monkes saith he be meane and taken at evening flying satietie and excesse of drinke that it may both sustaine them and not hurt them This was the daily fasting and feeding of them that lived according to Columbanus his rule Such as followed the instructions of Bishop Aidan observed this kinde of fast on Wednesdayes Fridayes only upon which dayes they forbare eating of anie meate untill the ninth houre that is to say untill three of the clock in the afternoone according unto our account So Bishop Cedd who was brought up at Lindisfarne with Aidan and Finan keeping a strict fast upon a speciall occasion in the time of Lent did every day except the Lords day continue his fast as the maner was untill the evening and then also did eate nothing but a smal pittance of bread one egge with a little milke mingled with water Where by the way you may note that in those dayes egges were eaten in Lent and the Sondayes excepted from fasting even then when the abstinence was precisely and in more then an ordinarie maner observed But generally for this point of the difference of meals it is well noted by Claudius out of S. Augustin that the children of wisedome doe understand that neyther in abstayning nor in eating is there any vertue but in contentednesse of bearing the want and temperance of not corrupting a mans selfe by aboundance and of opportunely taking or not taking those things of which not the use but the concupiscence is to be blamed and in the life of Furseus the hypocrisie of them is justly taxed that being assaulted with spirituall vices doe yet omit the care of them and afflict their body with abstinence who abstayning from meates which God hath created to be received with thankesgiving fall to wicked things as if they were lawfull namely to pride covetousnesse envy false witnessing backbiting And so much for that matter Now concerning the Catholick Church our Doctors taught with S. Gregory that God hath a vineyard to wit the universall Church which from just Abel untill the last of the elect that shall be borne in the end of the world as many Saints as it hath brought forth so many branches as it were hath it budded that the congregation of the just is called the kingdome of heaven which is the Church of the just that the sonnes of the Church be all such as from the beginning of mankinde untill now have attayned to be just and holy that what is said of the body may be said also of the members and that in this respect as well the Apostles and all beleevers as the Church it selfe have the title of a pillar given them in the Scriptures that the Church may be considered two maner of wayes both that which neyther hath spot nor wrinkle and is truly the body of Christ and that which is gathered in the name of Christ vvithout full and perfect vertues which notwithstanding by the warrant of the Apostle may have the name of the Church given unto it although it be depraved with errour that the Church is sayd not to have spot or wrinkle in respect of the life to come that when the Apostle saith In a great house there are not only vessels of gold c. but some to honour and some to dishonour 2. Tim. 2.20 by this
great house he doth not understand the Church as some have thought which hath not spot nor wrinkle but the world in which the tares are mingled with the vvheate that yet in the holy Church also the evill are mingled with the good and the reprobate with the elect and that in this respect it is resembled unto the wise and foolish virgins as also to the Kings marriage by which this present Church is designed wherein the good and the bad doe meet together So that in this Church neyther the bad can be without the good nor the good without the bad whom the holy Church notwithstanding doth both now receive indifferently and separate afterwards at their going from hence They taught further that the Church sometimes is not only afflicted but also defiled with such oppressions of the gentiles that if it were possible her redeemer might seeme for a time utterly to have forsaken her and that in the raging times of Antichrist the Church shall not appeare by reason that the wicked persecutors shall then exercise their cruelty beyond all measure that in those times of Antichrist not onely more often and more bitter torments shall be put upon the faithfull then before were wont to be but which is more grievous the working of miracles also shall accompany those that inflict the torments as the Apostle witnesseth saying Whose comming is after the working of Satan with all seduction signes and lying wonders namely juggling ones as it was foretold before They shall shew such signes that if it were possible the very elect should be deceived by such a phantasticall power as Iamnes and Mambres wrought withall before Pharao What unbeleever therefore say they will then be converted unto the faith and who is hee that already beleeveth whose faith trembleth not and is not shaken vvhen the persecuter of piety is the worker of wonders and the same man that exerciseth crueltie with torments that Christ may be denyed provoketh by miracles that Antichrist may be beleeved And vvhat a pure and a single eye is there need of that the way of wisdome may be found against which so great deceivings and errors of evill and perverse men doe make such a noyse all which notwithstanding men must passe through and so come to most certaine peace and the unmoveable stabilitie of vvisedome Hence concerning Miracles they give us these instructions First that neyther if an Angell should shew himselfe unto us to seduce us being suborned with the deceipts of his father the Divell ought he to prevayle against us neyther if a miracle should be done by any one as it is sayd of Simon Magus that he did flye in the ayre neyther that signes should terrifie us as done by the Spirit because that our Saviour also hath given us warning of this before hand Matth. 24.24 25. Secondly that the faith having increased miracles were to cease forasmuch as they are declared to have been given for their sakes that beleeve not and therefore that now when the number of the faithfull is growen there be many within the holy Church that retayne the life of vertues and yet have not those signes of vertues because a miracle is to no purpose shewed outwardly if that be wanting which it should worke inwardly For according to the saying of the Master of the Gentiles Languages are for a signe not to the faithfull but to infidells 1. Cor. 14.22 Thirdly that the working of miracles is no good argument to prove the holinesse of them that be the instruments thereof and therefore when the Lord doth such things for the convincing of infidels hee yet giveth us warning that vvee should not be deceived thereby supposing invisible wisedom to be there where we shall behold a visible miracle For he saith Many shall say unto me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophecyed in thy name and in thy name cast out Divels and in thy name done many miracles Matth. 7.22 Fourthly that hee tempteth God who for his own vaine glory will make shew of a superfluous and unprofitable miracle such as that for example was whereunto the Divel tempted our Saviour Matt. 4.6 to come downe headlong from the pinnacle of the Temple unto the plaine every miracle being vayne vvhich vvorketh not some profite unto mans salvation Whereby wee may easily discerne what to judge of that infinite number of idle miracles wherewith the lives of our Saints are everie where stuffed manie wherof we may justly censure as Amphilochius doth the tales that the Poëts tell of their Gods for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fables of laughter worthy and of teares Yea some of them also we may rightly brand as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnseemely fables and Divells documents For what for example can be more unseemely and tend further to the advancement of the doctrine of Divels then that which Cogitosus relateth in the life of S. Brigid that she for saving the credite of a Nunne that had been gotten with childe blessed her faithfully forsooth for so the author speaketh and so caused her conception to vanish away without any deliverie and without any paine which for the saving of S. Brigids owne credit eyther Hen. Canisius or the friars of Aichstad from whō he had his copie of Cogitosus thought fit to scrape out and rather to leave a blanke in the book then to suffer so lewd a tale to stand in it But I will not stirre this puddle anie further but proceede on unto some better matter And now are we come at last to the great point that toucheth the Head and the foundation of the Church Concerning which Sedulius observeth that the title of foundation is attributed both to Christ and to the Apostles and Prophets that where it is said Esai 28.16 Behold I lay in Sion a stone etc. it is certaine that by the rock or stone Christ is signified that in Ephes. 2.20 the Apostles are the foundation or Christ rather the foundation of the Apostles For Christ saith he is the foundation who is also called the corner stone joyning and holding together the two walls Therefore is he the foundation and chiefe stone because in him the Church is both founded and finished and we are to account the Apostles as ministers of Christ and not as the foundation The famous place Matth. 16.18 whereupon our Romanists lay the maine foundation of the Papacie Claudius expoundeth in this sort Vpon this rock will I build my Church that is to say upon the Lord and Saviour vvho granted unto his faithfull knower lover and confessor the participation of his own name that from petra the rock he should be called Peter The Church is builded upon him because only by the faith and love of Christ by the receiving of the sacraments of Christ by the observation of the commandements of Christ vve come to the inheritance
White field among whom there was contention about the order of Easter For Lasreanus the Abbot of the monastery of Leighlin unto whom there were subject a thousand and five hundred monkes defended the new order that lately came from Rome but others defended the old This Lasreanus or Lazerianus is the man who in other Legends of no greater credite then this wee now have in hand is reported to have beene the Bishop of Romes legat in Ireland and is commonly accounted to have beene the first Bishop of the Church of Leighlin His principall antagonist at this meeting was one Munna founder of the monastery which from him was called Teach-munna that is the house of Munna in the Bishoprick of Meath who would needs bring this question to the same kinde of triall here that Augustin is said to have done in England In defence of the Roman order Bede telleth us that Augustin made this motion to the Brittish Bishops for a finall conclusion of the businesse Let us beseech God which maketh men to dwell of one minde together in their fathers house that he will vouchsafe by some heavenly signs to make known unto us what traditiō is to be followed by what way we may hasten to the entry of his kingdome Let some sick man be brought hither and by whose prayers he shall be cured let his faith and working be beleeved to be acceptable unto God and to be followed by all men Now Munna who stood in defence of the order formerly used by the Brittish and Irish maketh a more liberall proffer in this kinde and leaveth Lasreanus to his choyce Let us dispute briefely saith he but in the name of God let us give judgement Three things are given to thy choyce Lasreanus Two bookes shall be cast into the fire a booke of the old order and of the new that wee may see whether of them both shall be freed from the fire Or let two Monkes one of mine and another of thine be shut up into one house and let the house be burnt and wee shall see which of them will escape untouched of the fire Or let us goe unto the grave of a just Monke that is dead and rayse him up againe and let him tell us after what order we ought to celebrate Easter this yeare But Lasreanus being wiser then so refused to put so great a matter to that hazzard and therefore returned this grave answer unto Munna if all be true that is in the Legend We will not goe unto thy judgement because we know that for the greatnesse of thy labour and holinesse if thou shouldest bid that mount Marge should be changed into the place of the White field and the White field into the place of mount Marge God vvould presently doe this for thy sake So prodigall doe some make God to be of miracles and in a maner carelesse how they should fall as if in the dispensing of them he did respect the gracing of persons rather then of causes In what yeare this Councell of the White field was held is not certainly known nor yet whether S. Munna be that whited wall of whom we heard Cummianus complaine The Synod of Strenshalch before mentioned was assembled long after at Whitby called by the Saxons Streanesheale in Yorkeshire the yeare of our Lord DCLXIIII for the decision of the same question Concerning which in the life of Wilfrid written at the commandement of Acca who in the time of Bede was Bishop of Hangustald or Hexham in Northumberland we reade thus Vpon a certaine time in the dayes of Colman metropolitan Bishop of the citie of Yorke Oswi and Alhfrid his sonne being Kings the Abbots and Priests and all the degrees of Ecclesiasticall orders meeting together at the monastery which is called Streaneshel in the presence of Hilde the most godly mother of that abbay in presence also of the Kings and the two Bishops Colman Aegelberht inquiry was made touching the observatiō of Easter what was most right to be held whether Easter should be kept according to the custome of the Brittons and the Scottes and all the Northren part upon the Lords day that came from the XIIII day of the Moone untill the XX. or whether it were better that Easter Sonday should be celebrated from the XV. day of the Moone untill the XXI after the maner of the See Apostolick Time was given unto Bishop Colman in the first place as it vvas fit to deliver his reason in the audience of all Who with an undaunted minde made his answer and sayd Our fathers and their predecessors who were manifestly inspired by the holy Ghost as Columkille was did ordayne that Easter should be celebrated upon the Lords day that fell upon the XIIII Moone following the example of Iohn the Apostle and Evangelist who leaned upon the brest of our Lord at his last Supper and was called the lover of the Lord. He celebrated Easter upon the XIIII day of the Moone and we with the same confidence celebrate the same as his disciples Polycarpus and others did neyther dare we for our parts neyther will we change this Bede relateth his speech thus This Easter which I use to observe I received from my elders who did send me Bishop hither which all our fathers men beloved of God are knowne to have celebrated after the same maner Which that it may not seeme unto any to be contemned and rejected it is the same which the blessed Evangelist Iohn the disciple specially beloved by our Lord with all the Churches which he did oversee is read to have celebrated Fridegodus who wrote the life of Wilfride at the command of Odo archbishop of Canterbury expresseth the same in verse after this maner Nos seriem patriam non frivola scripta tenemus Discipulo eusebij Polycarpo dante Iohannis Ille etenim bis septenae sub tempore Phaebae Sanctum praefixit nobis fore Pascha colendum Atque nefas dixit si quis contraria sentit On the contrarie side Wilfride objected unto Colman and his clerkes of Ireland that they with their complices the Pictes and the Brittons out of the two utmost Iles and those not whole neyther did with a foolish labour fight against the whole world And if that Columb of yours saith he yea and ours also if he were Christs was holy and powerfull in vertues could he be preferred before the most blessed prince of the Apostles unto vvhom the Lord said Thou art Peter and upon this rock will I build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevayle against it and I will give unto thee the keyes of the kingdome of heaven Which last words wrought much upon the simplicitie of King Oswy who feared that when he should come to the doors of the kingdome of heaven there would be none to open if he were displeased who was proved to keepe the keyes but prevayled nothing with Bishop Colman who
and Canons of the Church by this haughty name to make himselfe his forerunner that is the forerunner of the King of Pride namely of Antichrist And he further addeth that hereby Iohn went about to attribute to himselfe those things which properly belong to the head himselfe that is to Christ and by the usurpation of this Pompous Title to bring under his subiection all the members of Christ. And therefore hee saith They must beware that this Tentation of Satan prevaile not over them either to give or to take this title of universall Bishop Gregory the great was likewise verie vehement and earnest against it By this Arrogancy and Pride saith he what else is portended but that the time of Antichrist is now at hand in that he imitateth him who making light of that happinesse which he possessed in common with the whole army of Angels would needs aspire to a singularitie above all the rest Againe hee saith All those that have read the Gospel know well vvhat the Lord said unto Peter c howbeit he is not called the universall Apostle and yet behold my fellow Priest Iohn seeketh to be called the universall Bishop I am now forced to cry out O the times and ô the maners of men Europe is now exposed for a prey to the Barbarians and yet the Priests vvho should lye along in the dust upon the Pavement vveeping and rowling themselves in ashes seeke after names of vanity and boast themselves of their new found prophane Tiâ—les And againe he saith VVhat vvilt thou answer unto Christ vvho is the true head of the universall Church in that day of Iudgement seeing that by this name of universall Bishop thou seekest to bring under all the members of his body unto thy selfe whom dost thou imitate herein save onely him vvho in contempt of those legions of Angels vvhich vvere his fellowes sought to mount aloft to the Top of Singularity vvhere he might be subiect to none and all others subiect unto him Againe he saith The king of Pride is at hand and vvhich I dread to speake an army of Priests standeth ready to receive him For they that vvere appointed to chalke out the vvay of meekenesse and of humblenesse doe now become souldiers unto that neâ—ke of Pride vvhich lifteth it sâ—lfe up And againe he saith Not to speake of the vvrong vvhich he hereby doth unto other Bishops If there be one called universall Bishop then must the universall Church goe to the ground if he vvhich is universall happen to fall but never may such foolery befall us never may this vveakenesse come unto my eares And againe he saiâ—h I speake â—t confidently that vvhosoever calleth himselfe or desâ—reth to be called universall Priest is in that his elation of minde the forerunner of Antichrist And a great deale more doth he write to this effect against it But notwithstanding that both these Bishops of Rome were herein thus earnest and vehement yet neverthelesse after the death of this Gregory the great Sabinianus succeeded who was Bishop but for a verie little space then came in Boniface the third to be Pope of Rome who obteyned of Phocas the Emperor who was a Traytor and murtherer of his predecessor and liege Lord the Emperor Mauritius that new and proud title of universal Bishop or headship over the whole Church For so also testifieth Paulus Diaconus Abbas Vspergensis Platina Otho Frisingensis Marianus Scotus Sabellicus Blondus and other Historians So that this appeareth to be then and in those times a verie new device and a new matter not heard of before in the Church and consequently could not be a declaration of a thing ever before acknowledged as Bellarmine would most strangely perswade Howbeit he alledgeth that before that time Iustinian called the Church of Rome the head of all the Churches And this is true but in that sense in which he called also that other namely the Church of Constantinople by the same name saying likewise that Constantinople is the head of all other Churches both which he so calleth in respect they were Patriarchall Sees and consequently everie of them Head of all the other Churches that were under them in those their severall Patriarchships But saith Bellarmine the Patriarch and Bishop of Rome was called Vniversall or Oecumenicall Bishop before Phocas his time whereunto is answered that so were also the other Patriarchs as well as he for so did Iustinian call Epiphanius the Bishop of Constantinople sometimes oecumenicall and sometimes which is all one universall Patriarch So doth he also call Anthemius and Menna in his Novels And the Councell of Calcedon likewise in sundry places calleth Menna oecumenicall Patriarch And so were other of the Patriarchs also called in respect of the generall charge which iointly together they had over all the Churches and in respect also of all those particular Churches which were severally belonging to each of them in right of those their severall Patriarchships Wherefore the taking of this Title from the rest of the Patriarches within their severall Patriarchships and the peculiarizing and appropriating of it to one Bishop or Patriarch alone as namely to the Bishop of Rome thereby to give him the headship and supremacie over all the Bishops in the world doth still appeare to be not untill this time of that abhominable Traytor and murtherer Phocas who bestowed it upon him about the yeare of our Lord 606. Such a wicked Founder and Author of it hath the Popes Ecclesiasticall Supremacy which as it had his originall from a Traytor so is it still continued upheld and maintained if ye well observe it by Treason and Rebellion But to make this yet more manifest ye may remember that the Christian Churches were in ancient times divided amongst foure or five Patriarches as of Rome Constantinople Alexandria Antioch and Hierusalem who in those ancient times were all of equall authoritie amongst themselves and had everie one their severall bounds limits beyond which they might not goe This is evident even by divers generall Councels and first by the first generall Councell of Nice holden anno 325. wherein were 318. Bishops The words of that Councell Can. 6. be these Let the ancient customes continue in force that are in Egypt Libia and Pentapolis That the Bishop of Alexandria have the governement of all these for as much as the Bishop of Rome also hath the like custome And so likewise throughout Antioch and in other Provinces let the Churches have their Prerogatives upholden by them Where we see that the severall Patriarches and by name the Bishop of Alexandria and the Bishop of Rome had their limits and bounds set them which they might not exceed for the ancient rights and customes touching the bounds limits of Alexandria be there confirmed because the Bishop of Rome who was another of the Patriarches had the like custome as touching bounds and limits set and appointed to him within his
in that place as a similitude to represent the neere coniunction betweene Christ and his Church but contrariwise hee bringeth and mentioneth the great love of Christ and the neere mistical coniunction between him and his Church as a similitude and argument to declare and enforce the love that shold be of the husband toward his wife For that is the maine matter scope and point of exhortation the Apostle there aymeth at as is expresse and apparant by the 25. Verse and so from thence to the end of that Chapter 5 Now concerning Orders By Orders wee understand the ordination of Ecclesiastical Ministers to their ministery by Imposition or laying on of hands Here then I would be glad to know why or for what reason they should hold this to be a Sacrament Is it because it is a good worke and an holy action But it is answered before that everie good worke and godly and holy action is not to bee reckoned for a Sacrament Or doe they make it a Sacrament because it hath in it an outward signe of an holy thing accounting the ordination or consecration to the ministerie to bee the holy thing and the imposition or laying on of hands in that action and for that purpose to bee the outward signe But hereunto is answered that everie outward signe of an holy thing or of an holy action is not sufficient to make a Sacrament for then Prayer with lifting up of hands should bee likewise a Sacrament end sundrie such like But it must be an outward signe of this particular holy thing namely of the remission of our sins and of our coniunction and communion with Christ or otherwise it is no Sacrament in that sense of a Sacrament which wee speake of Yea it must bee not onely a signe but a seale also of that our uniting and coniunction with Christ as is before declared which thing because the act of Ordination of Ministers by imposition of hands is not therefore it can be no Sacrament Againe the Sacraments be such as bee common belong to all sorts and degrees of Christians aswell to the lay sort as to Ecclesiasticall Ministers as appeareth by the example of these two confessed and undoubted Sacraments viz of Baptisme and the Lords Supper but these orders be proper and peculiar unto those onely that bee of the Ecclesiasticall Ministerie and extend no further and therefore they can bee no Sacraments in that sense of Sacraments that wee speake of 6 The last supposed Sacrament in the Popish Church is Extreme unction or last anointing or annealing as they cal it But how do they prove this to be a sacrament We reade indeed in Mark 6.13 that the Apostles of Christ being sent abroad did cast out Divels and annointed manie that were sicke with oyle and healed them But wee see this reckoned amongst the rest of the miracles which those Apostles had power given them to doe in those times of the first preaching and planting of the Gospell to win the greater credit unto it Agreeably whereunto it is said that They went forth and preached everie where the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signes following But beside that it is thus reckoned among the rest of the miracles the effect or event did also declare it to bee miraculous because as manie as were in those daies annointed by them were healed as the Text it selfe affirmeth Now can or doe Popist Priests in like sort in these daies by their annointing with oyle cure and heale the sicke and diseased as they in the Primitive and Apostolicke Church miraculously did All men know they neither doe nor can S. Iames likewise saith to the Christians of those Primitive and Apostolicke times in this sort Is anie sicke among you let him call for the Presbyters or Elders of the Church and let them pray for him and annoint him with oyle in the name of the Lord and the prayer of faith shall save the sicke and the Lord shall raise him up and if he have committed sinnes they shall be forgiven him For Sinnes commonly bee the cause of mens sicknesses and diseases And because God pardoneth such as repentantly acknowledge and confesse their sinnes and faults and not such as hide them and will iustifie themselves therein hee addeth further saying thus Acknowledge your faults one to another and pray one for another that yee may bee healed for the prayer of a righteous man availeth much if it bee fervent teaching them hereby that they ought freely to conferre one with another touching their diseases and sicknesses to confesse the sins which bee the cause of them one to another that so they might helpe one another with their praiers unto God for their recoverie for S. Iames doth not say that it was the bare anointing with oyle that did heale or save a man from death or raise him up from that his sicknesse wherewith hee was visited but it was Annointing with oyle in the name of the Lord that is such as had prayer invocation and calling upon the name of the Lord ioyned with it And therfore in the next words he sheweth that praier was added and that it was the prayer of faith that did preserve or save the sicke and that recovered and raised him up againe What then is there in all this to prove this Vnction or the annointing with oyle to bee a Sacrament Is it because in this healing there was used an external ceremonie or an outward visible signe but it is before shewed that that is not sufficient to make a Sacrament yea then might the curing of the diseased by the water of the Poole of Bethesda Ioh 5.2 3 4. c. be called a sacrament the annointing of the blind mans eies with clay made with spittle together with his washing in the Poole of Siloam Ioh. 9.6.7 might also by as good reason bee termed a Sacrament and sundrie other such actions wherin outward visible signes were used should become Sacraments which it were absurd to affirme in that sense of the Sacraments we here speake of But this Vnction or annoynting with oyle in the Apostles times can be no Sacrament in that sense of a Sacrament that wee speake of for sundry reasons First because it served onely for the healing and curing of the bodie For as for the forgivenesse of sinnes there mentioned and prayer used for that purpose they tended all in this case to this end to worke the effect of healing for the cause of the sicknesse which was sinnes being remooved by the prayers of the faithfull the effect which was the sicknesse or disease caused by those sinnes was also remooved Secondly it was a gift of healing that was in those daies miraculous to cure and heale the sicke in that manner which miraculous and extraordinarie power of healing is now long since ceased and because it was a thing miraculous and extraordinarie and is not ordinarie and perpetual it