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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20606	The rockes of Christian shipwracke, discouered by the holy Church of Christ to her beloued children, that they may keepe aloofe from them. Written in Italian by the most reuerend father, Marc Ant. de Dominis, Archb. of Spalato, and thereout translated into English; Scogli del christiano naufragio, quali va scoprendo la santa chiesa di Christo. English	De Dominis, Marco Antonio, 1560-1624.	1618 (1618)	STC 7005; ESTC S117489	73,138	191

sinnes in any sauing Christ alone and in his merits Rom. 3.24 for hee freely iustifieth you without any merit of yours True it is and therefore take heede of the other extreame that no man can present himselfe to God nor rely vpon Christ's merits that goeth on in a wicked resolution to continue still in sin against his conscience And therefore I told you that you must addresse your selues vnto Christ to obtaine this remission but with faith that is with a true and liuely faith Iam. 2.17 not with that faith which without workes is dead but with such a faith in the mind which is accompanied with holy affections and that is to beleeue in Christ to bee subiect vnto him to obey him with detestation of faults committed and intending of a new life and yeelding vp a man's selfe to the keeping of God's holy Commandements And whosoeuer doth not this in vaine shall hee rely vpon Christ and his merits neither shall he euer obtaine remission of his sinnes This rysing vp from sinne and submitting to the obseruance of God's Commandements as farre as humane frailty will afford is not in you any merit whereto remission should bee repayed as due but it is a necessary disposition and taketh away the impediments that otherwise would hinder remission of sinnes And herein consisteth Penitence being both the inwards of true repentance which is the most principall disposition requisite for remission and the outside also of penitentiall workes as fasting almes mortifying the flesh and other workes of piety which are indeede no merits nor causes of forgiuenesse but fruits of inward true repentance and a fit appurtenance vnto the inward good disposition and vnto due humiliation These dispositions being forelaid as necessary required by God let a man hold himselfe to his faith and confidence in Christ and by his mercy hee shall without faile obtaine remission and the whole conueyance betweene God and a sinner is carried in this man̄er by the meanes of Christ mine and your onely Mediatour without any necessity at all of any other Confession made vnto man due Confession made vnto God beeing of it selfe sufficient whereby a sinner beeing humbled doth not any more defend his sinnes but confesseth to God Chrys in ep ad Heb. hom 31. that he hath sinned I doe not aduise thee saith Saint Chrysostome to lay thy selfe open nor to accuse thy selfe to others Psalm 57. but to obey the Prophet who sayeth Reueale thy way vnto the Lord. Confesse thy sinnes before God declare thy offences before the Iudge though not with thy tongue yet with thy memory and then hope that thou shalt obtaine mercy So saith that worthy holy Father I doe not know that I euer intertayned in my house any such Sacrament appointed mee by my Spouse as a true and proper Sacrament whereby hee hath obliged himselfe to giue remission of sinnes after Baptisme I beleeue indeed that whosoeuer groaning vnder the load of sinne shall with true inward pentience and reall repentance approach vnto the holy table and receiue the Communion with due preparation shall receiue remission of his sins For although this Sacrament was principally instituted by Christ and committed to mee for the spirituall feeding of the soule and for the preseruing of charity among my children yet in that it is also a remembrance of the Passion of Christ it auayleth much for the remission of sinnes for the obtayning whereof Christ's body was sacrificed vpon the Crosse his most pretious blood shed and therefore in his first giuing the Communion to his Apostles hee said vnto them Luc. 22.19 Math. 26.28 that that was his body which was giuen for them and his blood shed for the remission of sinnes You must vnderstand also that Auricular Confession and Priestly Absolution which are the ground of this Rocke now set before your view is neither practised aright nor well vnderstood by those that follow the Romane doctrine who hereupon haue built a shop of money-mart and gaine Recall I pray you to your remembrance that which I obserued before in the fourth Rocke of the first part concerning the two first medicinall Excommunications and you shall finde that my ancient custome prescribed vnto mee by my Spouse and practised by my holy and learned Ministers of at least foure of the first Ages was publickly to correct grieuous and scandalous offendors and according to the authority committed to me by Christ to binde them in their sins and afterwards to loose them againe and in this man̄er to imploy the keyes about the remitting of sinnes namely to debarre such offenders for some while from the holy Table sometime also from all other Congregations and meetings of the faithfull for spirituall exercises as heynous delinquents drowned in their sinnes and vnworthy of such participation vnlesse they should first recall themselues vnto due inward penitence and giue also outward satisfaction vnto mee by penitentiall workes enioyned them by me and my Ministers when they thus had by scandalous sins disgraced mee and not yet made mee any due satisfaction And yet in due time according to the pious discretion of my Ministers such as these were loosed and reconciled and were anew admitted to the holy meetings with others and to the Communion of the Lord's Supper This was a course taken to very good purpose and at length did work great setlednesse and comfort in the consciences of such offenders though perhaps it did goe downe with some bitternesse and shame For such a sinner being in this man̄er bound by me vpon earth was infallibly also bound in heauen nor could obtaine remission at God's hands though hee were neuer so well disposed by penitence and inward contrition betweene God and him for that promise made by Christ is most certaine and cannot faile Matth. 18.18 that he would bind in heauen all those whom I had without error bound vpon earth Iohn 20.23 and that he would withhold and suspend all remission from those sinners whose sinnes I had withheld namely by the aforesaid retention or excommunication or solemne penance and as soone as such a sinner thus first bound by me was afterward reconciled and remaunded to the Church and restored to religious commerce and to the participation of the holy Sacrament he did without faile obteine remission of Christ himselfe by vertue of his aforesaid promise that he would release and forgiue the sinne assoone as I had loosed the person and released the sinne by this externall remission and so the internal remission afforded by Christ in such a case dependeth vpon the externall remission giuen by me which truely was a way of dealing on a very sure hand And moreouer many grieuous and also secret offenders nay perhaps all the sort of them in regard of the suretie of this course came to their Bishop or to some other deputed by him who was afterward called the Penitentiary or Confessor and some openly with a lowd and audible voyce

Peter was ordained by Christ an vniuersall Pope ouer mee yet what hath the Bishop of Rome to doe with St. Peter The holy Scriptures giue-in no euidence at all that euer Peter was at Rome Onely humane histories report it And as for diuine Records they plainely shew that he departed not from the coasts of Iudea till the fiftieth yeere of our Lord. Thereafter wee finde in the Ecclesiastique histories that before his going into the West Hieron in Pet. hee preached the Gospell in the Easterne parts in Pontus Cappadocia Asia Bythinia c. for the space of diuers yeeres and that hee suffered martyrdome in Rome about the sixty eight yeere of our Lord. It is not possible therefore that he could haue bene Bishop of Rome so long as fifteene yeeres much lesse twenty fiue Which space of time is very vnaduisedly assigned him by some passable ancient writers But to omit these arguments from computation suerely neither Saint Peter nor any other Apostle was euer made Bishop of any particular City whereto his seat might be entayled by a perpetuity This is repugnant to the very office of Apostleship which was by Christ their Chiefe Lord instituted an order of professed errants throughout the whole world when he gaue them their commission Matth 28.19 Mar. 16.15 to Goe and teach all Nations and to preach the Gospell to euery creature that is to say to all men wheresoeuer throughout the world They had no power therefore to fix themselues on any particular place nor to binde themselues to it but their duty was to attend the enlargement of my tents Act. 1.8 beginning from Ierusalem to the vtmost parts of the earth and when they had founded any particular Church and vnited it to me the vniuersall Mother they were then to passe on for new plantations Who therefore is so hardy as to coope vp Saint Peter at Rome and to binde him to a particular Bishopricke there till the day of his death And if hee finished his course at Rome certainely hee died not with the title of Bishop of Rome but of an vniuersall Apostle For neither that nor any other See could be chosen by him as proper to him beeing by his function and calling to passe to and fro through the world But if hee ended his life in any heathenish place where as then there was no Church planted who then was to be his successor in the Papacie It is therefore a groundlesse and idle assertion to name personall successors to any of the Apostles whenas none of them all was a locall Bishop for as for Iames Bishop of Ierusalem Constit Apost lib. 6. c 14. Doroth. in synopsi c. hee was none of the twelue Apostles but a Disciple beside that number and therfore all Bishops succeed all the Apostles in Solidum that is to say euery particular Bishop whatsoeuer hee bee holdeth the place and office of the Apostles who by Christ's institution committed their charge and office to the Bishops and those to other Bishops and so to others by continuall succession till the end of the world and that by vertue euen of those words of Christ to the Apostles Io. 20. As the Father hath sent me so I send you That is to say As the Father hath giuen mee power to send you soe I giue power to you to send others and to giue them likewise the same missiue power which I giue you and the Father hath giuen me And hereupon it followeth that euery Bishop in respect of the diuine institution hath the very Apostolicall power that is vniuersall in habite or generall qualification which he is enabled to exercise actually in any part of the world But in regard of my restreining precept for the auoyding of disorder and confusion there are long since limitations set downe and particular distinctions of euery ones Diocesse Now therefore when as there is no personall succession vnto any of the Apostles who can fetch his claime from Peter who from Iohn who from any other of the Apostles Nay if such plea were good there could not bee aboue 12. or at the most 13. Bishops in the world And to afford personall succession to Peter onely with deniall of it to all the rest is to beate the aire with idle words and to goe against the Scriptures Certeinely for a thousand yeeres and more I neuer heard in all my family from the mouth or penne of any pious and holy Author that the Bishop of Rome was acknowledged for an Vniuersall Pope Indeed the Bishops of Rome themselues haue endeuoured to make me an vnderling and to put me vnder their feete and to make themselues my Head and Lord and Master with great wrong to my true and onely Head Lord and Spouse CHRIST IESVS but they haue long attempted it in vaine For they haue met with stout oppositions St. Polycrates a most holy Bishop of Asia did strongly oppose S. Victor B. of Rome S. Irenaeus B. of Lions did the like and this befell neere the times of the Apostles Cypr. l. 1. ep 3. l. 3. op 13. Apud Cypr. ep 74. Pamel S. Cyprian beareth himselfe as a companion and Colleague with S. Steuen and S. Cornelius both Bishops of Rome euen in the Vniuersall gouernment of the Church and spareth not to hold his owne against them S. Firmilian B. of Cesarea in Cappadocia handleth the same Steuen of Rome very homely and setteth nought by his excommunications Euseb l. 7. c. 4. Iulij Epist. ad Orientales Socrat. l. 7. c. 5. Sozom. l. 3. c. 5 c. The Church histories are plentiful in shewing how lightly S. Iulius though B. of Rome was ouerpassed by the Bishops of the East and by the Councell of Antioch which for the more part of it was Catholique and Orthodoxe for no lesse matter then that he would make himselfe an Vniuersall Iudge euen in the causes of the Easterne Church and yet in the end hee was faine to sit downe and be quiet The Councell of Nice acknowledgeth not the B. Con. Nic. can 6 of Rome for any other then one of the three then Patriarchs who had their limited iurisdictions so also doeth the first Councell of Constantinople and the Councell of Chalcedon None of the ancient fathers my dearest children for the space of 600. yeeres together hath any the least impression of the Romane Papacie by whom the B. of Rome was neuer taken for other then at the most for Patriarch of the West The Africane Church in those dayes one of my most noble daughters affronted the Romane Church and would not in any wise that she should exercise any power ouer her in the ordering of the Ecclesiasticall policie and went so farre as in open Councels to resist her in which euen the renowned S. Augustine bare his part The like hath bene many times practised by the Churches of Rauenna of Aquilege of Milan And S. Gregory in opposing the title of Vniuersal

Mat. 28.20 1. Tim. 3.15 to whom the continuall assistance of the Spirit of my Spouse is promised and not to the Romane I that am the pillar and ground of truth yet dare not be so bold as to assure my children that this infolded faith sufficeth them namely to beleeue vnder generall termes whatsoeuer I beleeue How then shee now swarming with errours and falshood and being nothing but ambition and auarice how dares shee bee thus bold My beloued Saint Paul would not haue his Corinthians thinke 2. Cor. 1.24 that hee would beare dominion ouer their faith which hee did sweetly instill into them and not thrust it vpon them by command and domineering But Rome will haue euery man will hee nill hee by all meanes to beleeue and rest in whatsoeuer shee determineth and commandeth and to subscribe his beleefe to all that shee beleeueth and maintaineth or rather to whatsoeuer shee inuenteth and imagineth though indeed herselfe beleeue it not nor hold it for any point of faith but for a matter of state vpō this point of policy she taketh order that those inuentions which shee knoweth to bee no matters of faith but onely to serue her ambition and couetousnesse must be giuen out for points of faith Rome cannot abide that yee my children should bee zelous in seeking to know what it is that yee are to beleeue for by such enquiry you would discouer her trickes and therefore shee telleth you that you are safe if yee haue this enuelopped faith and beleeue all that shee beleeues And if so be any of you make a stand vpon any particular beeing one of those articles which shee in point of policy hath inuented and which shall hereafter be declared by me in my descry of these Rockes then she presently mufleth vp your eyes and blindeth you and sendeth to you her owne attendants the Priests and Friers preachers and confessors who wholly depending on her are all at her deuotion they declare vnto you that Rome hath decided the point to be an article of faith And thus when yee are bound to beleeue all that the Church of Rome beleeueth and maintaineth that is whatsoeuer she teacheth and auoucheth as fit to be held and beleeued ye must needs play at hoodman-blind and being loaden with dangerous scruples stumble vpon the rocke of many an error and fiction and so incurre miserable shipwracke There is indeed a kinde of vnweeting obedience which is holy and good nay necessary but vnfolded which concerneth the fundamentall articles of my faith Such as are the vnitie of the Godhead and Trinitie of persons in one essence and nature the incarnation of the Word with the conioyning of two distinct natures the diuine and humane in the one onely diuine person of my Spouse Christ that he suffered and shed his blood and gaue his life vpon the Crosse for my redemption that he rose againe by his owne power and that hee ascended and is glorified in heauen where he remaineth my true Mediatour and continuall Aduocate with the Father and that he is to bee iudge of all men to giue to euery one according to his owne workes either life or death euerlasting In the beleeuing these and other such Articles euery childe of mine must yeeld his eyes closed vp by obedience without curiositie or recalling them to the principles of humane reason For these are the fundamentals wherein all Catholique Christendome is well resolued and setled with absolute agreement But in many other points either necessary or not necessary to saluation there is danger 2. Cor 21. that ye may be deceiued For oftentimes Satan transformeth himselfe into an Angel of light Therefore euery of you that hath any heart and spirit at all ought to open his eyes and looke well into that which is propounded to him to be beleeued either by implication or expresly and to examine it with Christian and sober diligence whether that which your Preachers and confessors and writers teach you concerning spiritual things who too often vnder the name of my Ministers are wolues in sheepes-cloathing and nothing els but the ministers of humane ambition and auarice be conformable to the holy Scriptures and vnto my refined and throughly-established iudgement mine I say that is of the Vniuersall Church such as I was for the first foure or fiue vncorrupted ages and still am also in regard of my selfe but not such as the Romane by vsurping my name doeth disguise and vaunt herselfe to be For if you shall walke on blindfold vnder this enfuddling faith after blinde guids ye shall they and you too hit vpon the rocks and tumble into the infernall pit For these respects which I haue named Rome would faine haue you remaine still muffled vp with this cloudy faith and to keepe you in your spirituall blindnesse she hath depriued you of the vse of holy Scripture shee will not suffer it to be imparted to all the people in the vulgar tongues she prohibites it she hinders it Verily a most horrible crueltie God commanded not onely Moses not Aaron onely and the rest of the Priests not onely the Scribes and doctors of the Law and Pharisees but generally all his people that they should alwayes haue the Scripture before their eyes In this is stored vp your daily bread but in stead of making you abound with this bread those whom you call your spirituall fathers take it from you and so may yee starue for them Nay in stead of this bread they put into your hands either the stones of strange doctrines which are marueilous hard for you to chew as that you are to spend your liues for the maintenance of the Pope's humors or else the scorpions of errors and falshood which bite and sting your very soules or at the most the course browne-bread of their pamphlets concerning Christian doctrine and other manuels which they name spirituall Wherein because they can doe no lesse for then should they appeare to bee open professed wolues there are set downe some good foundations of many good Catholick verities but vnder the crust of this good wheaten-bread the course crumbe is deliuered to you or rather the poison of the manifold errors and superstitions of humane if not diuelish doctrine thereby to cherish in your simple soules such reuerence and obedience to the Pope Prelates Priests and Friers as their ambition and auarice gapeth after As for other bookes which discouer these their iugglings Rome doeth slanderously bruit them to be hereticall and prohibiteth them by vaine and childish terrors of excommunications and all this that ye may not open your eyes but remaine blinde for euer Looke well to this ¶ The fourth Rocke Excommunication IT is a wonderfull or rather miserable deuise and craftie tricke of the Popes for the mainteining their tyrannie ouer your soules and making themselues to be reuerenced feared and held for gods vpon earth that they proiect to beare you in hand that the keyes giuen me by Christ