Lady our King and Queen our Empress and Emperour And if further than this we acknowledge Her to be Head of the Church of England we ought also to grant that the Emperour or any other Prince being Catholick and their Subjects Protestants are to be Heads of their Church Whereby we shall do an Act as disagreeble to the Protestants as this seems to Catholicks If you say The Supremacy consists in Spiritual concernments Then it would be considered what the Spiritual Government is and in what points it doth chiefly consist Which being first agreed upon it would be further considered of your Wisdoms whether this House may grant it to her Highness or not And whether her Highness be an apt Person to receive the same So by through Examination of these parts your Honours shall proceed in this matter groundedly upon such sure knowledge as not to be deceived by ignorance Now to the First Point wherein I promised to examine what matter of weight danger or inconvenience might be incurred by this our forsaking and flying from the Church of Rome if there were no further matter therein than the with drawing our Obedience from the Popes Person supposing that he had declar'd himself to be a very Austere and Severe Father to us then the business were not of so great importance as indeed it is as will immediately here appear For by relinquishing and forsaking the Church or See of Rome we must forsake and fly from all General Councils Secondly from all Canonical and Ecclesiastical Laws of the Church of Christ Thirdly From the Judgement of all other Christian Princes Fourthly and Lastly we must forsake and fly from the Holy Unity of Christ's Church and so by leaping out of Peter's Ship we hazard our selves to be overwhelmed in the waves of Schism of Sects and Divisions First Touching the General Councils I shall name unto you these Four The Nicene Council the Constantinopolitan Council the Ephesine and the Chalcedon All which are approved by all Men. Of these same Councils Saint Gregory writes in this wise Sicut enim Sancti Evangelii quatuor Libros sic haec quatuor Concilia Nicenum Constantinopolitanum Ephesium Chalcedonense suscipire ac venerari me fateor That is to say in English I confess I do receive and reverence those Four General Councils of Nice Constantinople c. even as I do the Four Holy Evangelists At the Nicene Council the first of the Four the Bishops which were there Assembled did write there Epistles to Sylvester then Bishop of Rome That their decrees then made might be confirmed by his Authority At the Council kept at Constantinople all the Bishops there were obedient to Damasus then Bishop of Rome He as cheif in the Council gave Sentence against the Hereticks Macedoneus Sabillius and Eunomius Which Eunomius was both an Arrian and the first Author of that Heresie That only Faith doth juctifie And here by the way it is much to be lamented that we the Inhabitants of this Realm are much more inclined to raise up the Errors and Sects of Ancient condemned Hereticks than to follow the True Approved Doctrine of the most Catholick and Learned Fathers of christ's-Christ's-Church At the Ephesine Council Nestorius the Heretick was condemned by Celestine the Bishop of Rome he being chief Judge there At the Chalcedon Council all the Bishops there Assembled did write their humble Submission unto Leo then Bishop of Rome wherein they did acknowledge him there to be their Chief Head Six Hundred and Thirty Bishops of them Therefore to deny the See Apostolick and its Authority were to contemn and set at nought the Authority and Decrees of those noble Councils Secondly We must forsake and fly from all Canonical and Ecclesiastical Laws of Christ his Church whereunto we have already professed our Obedience at the Font saying Credo Sanctum Ecclesiam Catholicam that is I believe in the Holy Catholick Church Which Article contains That we must receive the Doctrine and Sacraments of the same Church obey her Laws and live according to the same Which Laws do depend wholly upon the Authority of the See Apostolick And like as it is there openly professed by the Judges of the Realm that the Laws agreed upon in the Higher and Lower Houses of this Honourable Parliament be of small or none effect before the Royal Assent of the King or Prince be given thereunto Even so Ecclesiastical Laws made cannot bind the Universal Church of Christ without the Royal Assent and Confirmation of the See Apostolick Thirdly We must forsake and fly from the Judgement of all other Christian Princes whether they be Protestant or Catholick Christians when none of them do agree with these our doings King Henry the VIII being the first that ever took upon him the Title of Supremacy And whereas it was of late here in this House said by a Nobleman That the Title of Supremacy is of right due to a King for that he is a King then would it follow That Herod being a King should be Supream Head of the Church at Jerusalem And Nero the Emperour Supream Head of the Church of Christ at Rome they being both Infidels and therefore no members of Christ's Church And if our Saviour Christ at his departure from this World should have left the Spiritual Government of his Church in the hands of Emperours and Kings and not to have committed the same to his Apostles how negligently then should he have left his Church It shall appear right-well by calling to mind That the Emperour Constantinus Magnus was the First Christian Emperour and was Baptized by Sylvester Bishop of Rome about Three hundred years after the Ascension of Christ Jesus If by your Proposition Constantine the first Christian Emperor was the First Head and Spiritual Governor of christs-Christs-Church throughout his Empire then it follows That our Saviour Christ for the space of Three Hundred years unto the coming of this Constantine left his Church which he had so dearly bought by effusion of his most precious Blood without any Head at all But how untrue the saying of this Nobleman was it shall further appear by the Example of Ozia and also of King David For King Ozia did take the Censor to do Incense to the Altar of God. The Priest Azarius did resist him and expelled him out of the Temple and said unto him Non est Officii tui Ozia ut adoleas Incensum Domino sed est Sacerdotam Filiorum Aaron Ad hujusmodi enim Officium consecrati That is to say It is not thy Office Ozia to offer Incense to the Altar of God. But it is the Priests Office and the Sons of Aaron for they are Consecrated and Anointed to that Office. Now I shall most humbly demand this question When the Priest Azarius said to the King Non est Officii tui whether he said Truth or not If you answer that he spake the Truth then the King was not Supream Head of the Church of the Jews
be proposed but much more how they ever came to be received in the World For what can be more ignorantly Blasphemous than to say God raised up Men to restore his Church who yet could by no means Agree among themselves in matters of Faith as hereafter will appear and whose Followers do at this day pursue each other with Excommunications and Anathema's If Calvin was the Messenger of God then was Luther a Sacrilegious Impostor if the Church of England be Orthodox then were Luther and Calvin both Impostors and if any other of the Reformers were in the right the Church of England is in the wrong Which then of the Dissenting Protestants Doctrin shall we say was the belief of the Primitive Church Were all these at once the Primitive Faith. or was some one Denomination of Protestants the primitive Believers and those of all other Denominations in the wrong It being impossible as I have proved that the True Faith should ever be Invisble at any time if therefore Protestancy had ever been professed it could never have been totally extinguish'd Though most certain it is that no footsteeps of any of the Reformers Principles were known for almost 1500 years in the Christian World except in some Heresies condemned in several Ages of the Church which do indeed much resemble the Innovations of our Modern Reformers as their Doctrine of the Sacrament in the Heresie of Berengarius of Invocation of Saints in the Heresie of Vigilantius of Prayer for the Dead in Aerius of Images in Xenias and the Iconaclasts of Confession in the Novatianus their practice of no mingled Chalice in the Heresie of the Armenians and of Priests Marriages in Jovinian as Luthers Marrying a Nun borrowed from Marcions corrupting a Virgin and to add no more their Famous Naggshead Consecration copied from Novatus that was made a Bishop in a Tavern and deposed by Cornelius And now for the Church of England she must ever stand or fall on her own Bottom having so notoriously condemned all other parts of the Reformation That the Lutherans are condemn'd by the Church of England every body knows and that the Calvinists are so too I will in one word plainly shew A Protestant Parson that comes from France from Holland or Geneva to be Beneficed in England cannot be admitted to Preach nor Administer the Sacraments after the Rites of the English Church till he has renounced that Mission he had before and taken new Orders according to the form of the Church of England which to all Men of sense implies that the Church of England does assuredly believe the Calvinist Teachers are false Imposters that they have no Mission no Authority no Ordination and by consequence no Sacraments being in their conceits purely Lay-men From hence I take the liberty to ask the Doctors of the English Church how they can in honour and conscience call them their Brethren as they do of the Reformation from whom they have seperated at so great a distance as to reject all their Ordinations at once as null and void and how they can suffer the French and Dutch Hugonots to have Churches and free exercise of their Religion here and some of them also the Church of Englands Liturgy at the same time as they believe them neither to have Priesthood nor Sacraments and by consequence no such thing as a Church at all Seeing then the Church of England look on themselves as the only Church of the Refonmation it follows that she must accordingly prove her self the true Church and shew how that Sum of Christian Doctrin which she now holds has been constantly held in all past Ages of the Church which I am sure all the English Doctors in the World will not make out nay I think they do not so much as pretend to For to end all Controversies let them shew but one Service-Book in all the 1500 years before Luther in any one vulgar Tongue which agreeth with their Service Book and for that one Book sake we will submit the cause no they say contrariwise that for about 1000 years Popish Superstition was the only Religion known in the World Which Superstition as they call it I shall now endeavour to prove to be that true Religion which has been from our Saviours time and which must Infallibly last to the end of the World. The Arguments by which I have briefly and I hope evidently shewn that the Protestant Church neither single nor aggregate can be the true Church do at the same time as evidently prove the Church of Rome to be so For as the Protestant Churches want of Antiquity their not having been from the beginning of Christianity nor Visible till within 200 years proves them not to be the Catholick Church so the Antiquity of the Church of Rome her having been from the beginning and continuing still Visible by propagating the Gospel and Administring the Sacraments in all Ages since Christ does as plainly evince her to be the only true Church the spouse of Christ and Pillar of Truth I demand has not this Church in all Ages had a visible Succession of Bishops a settled Government with a visible Head from St. Peter to this very day Has not this been the only Church that has duly planted the Faith and as duly suppressed Heresie and Schism Is not this the Church that has held all General Councils and has not the Bishop of Rome Presided in the four First seemingly allowed of by the Church of England Is not this the only Church that has sent Apostles and Missionaries out to plant the Gospel in all the Infidel corners of the Earth and from whence England first received the Christian Faith Is there any other Church that can pretend to have been assisted by God Almighty in the working of Miracles and in the Conversion of Nations What other Church can shew an Army of Martyrs and Confessors a number of Men that lead most Holy and Austere Lives forsaking the World to follow Christ What other Church in the World can pretend either to Unity or Universality to be every where the same and to have all her Children at perfect Agreement in matters of Faith and Doctrine for the disputes of Catholicks are about matters not defin'd and so controvertable but never about a Doctrine that has been once determined in a General Council These are the Marks and essential ones of the true Church but these agree to no other Church but that of Rome the Church of Rome is therefore the only Church Whatever the Grecian or the Abyssine Churches have to say in answer to this which does not much concern us sure I am the Church of England has nothing plausible to excuse her Schism and Rebellion against her Mother Church and under whose subjection she has been bred and maintained for many Ages in the World. Every one knows and no Church of England Man can deny that this National Church was in all Ages subject to and a part of the Western
Council consisting of an Hundred and Three Bishops The Third time this man revolts and publishes a Writing answered by Lanfrank afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury wherein he complains That some particular Enemies of his swayed the former Council and had made him to swear Contradictions These new Imputations occasioned a Fifth Council to be called at Rome Anno Domini 1078. in which were new Disputings his last Cavils censured and the Article of a substantial Conversion further vindicated and his Error of the Substance of Bread remaining again condemned by this Council And lastly condemned by himself Such was the Sentence of Five General Councils of the West and the same Arguments then refuted yet are still urged as will appear by the Writers of those times Lanfrank Guitmundus Algerus to any one that pleaseth to peruse them The same Authorites out of the Fathers then pressed as are still produced a-new by the Reformed and with the same Answers repelled All these Councils if some of them in the Members thereof less numerous yet universally accepted by all the Western Churches where this Controversie was only agitated Not one single Bishop thereof that is known dissenting or siding with the Berengarians Look we for more satisfaction yet When the Fervor of parties in this matter was much allay'd and the Church had had sufficient leisure to consider and digest the former Conciliary Degrees above an Hundred years after the last of the Councils afore-mentioned the great Laterian Council was assembled under Innocent the Third in which were present the Patriarch of Constantinople and Jerusalem in person and the Substitutes of the Patriarch of Antioch and of the Alexandrian Patriarch lying under the Saracen yoak Germanus his Deacon ' T is true indeed that some of these Partriarchs were then Latines or belonging to the Latine or Western Church because both Constantinople and Jerusalem being held in Possession the one for near 60 the other for near 100 years by the Latines Latine Patriarchs were then Elected As sometimes Greeks also by the Power of the Emperors have been Bishops of Rome But yet they were ths Lawful and the only Patriarchs of those Sees at that time And present there were besides These a considerable number of other Eastern Bishops the whole Council consisting of four hundred and twelve Bishops and Seventy Archbishops Now this Council again instead of reversing declared for a Substantial Conversion Where also first that is in a Council was used the Name of Transubstantiation Two Hundred years after this again the Council at Florence declared likewise for the same in the Articles of Instruction for the Jacobins and Armenians in these Words By force of the Words of Christ the Substance of Bread is converted or changed into the Body of Christ and the Substance of Wine into his Blood. Now if the Decrees of so many Councils so often weighing the Adversaries Reasons and Evidences was not sufficient for settling such a Point what can hereaffter be sufficient Or how can we ever hope that any Controversie shall be finally determined or ended by any future Council Can there be any ground here to question the integrity or lawful proceedings of so many Councils at such a distance from one another All concurring in the same judgment for a Real Presence and a Substantial Conversion Or can there be any New Light in this Point since there are no New Revelations attainable in these present times which those were never capable of Or if there could is not much the major part of the present Clergy and Ecclesiastical Governours of Christianity still swayed on the same side against any present Evidence pretended How then can the Reformed reviving the former Arguments of Bertram Scotus Erigena Berengarius c. still trouble the Church again with urging the same Arguments after the judgement of so many Councils already passed upon them Can any desire a fairer Judicature by Councils in any matter than there has been already in this And is there any reason that Protestants should refer themselves in this Point as they do to the judgment of a new Council If all the Councils successively erred in this Point so manifestly as that they could not lawfully oblige their Subjects to obedience the next and the next to that of such Councils as ever we can hope for may Err so too and the same Obedience be denied to them whilst one pretended Evidence or Demonstration quelled another new one starts up and demands satisfaction But if these Councils be invalid or not sufficient for the establishing the belief of a Substantial Conversion let us see the Proceedings of the Reformation here to repeal their Acts and to establish the contrary to them After all these Councils fore-named and that of Trent added to them Anno Domini 1562. a Synod is called at London of Two Provinces only of the West consisting of about Twenty four Bishops and Two Metropolitans And by These against all the former Councils above-said it is Decreed Articulo 28. That the change of the Bread and Wine in the Eucharist is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture and overthrows the nature of a Sacrament Thus that Article Now in obedience to this their Decree they tie their Subjects to subscribe that they acknowledge it that is believe it to be agreeable to the Word of God. See their Synod 1603. Can. 63. This is an Obedience which themselves though Subjects to deny to the Decrees of all those precedent Councils wherein the judgments of all the Bishops and Metropolitans of the Western World then concurred and amongst the rest Those of these Two Provinces also And yet doth their Synod require it Here let a Sober Christian judge if Assent be held due to this London-Synod is it not to those others much rather To those others I say incomparably more numerous accepted by the West for many Ages and adher'd to still by the greatest part thereof Having before them the Scriptures and the Traditive Exposition of them weighing the Arguments that are still on foot meeting so often and so concluding still in the same judgment But if those other Councils are justified by the Practice of this Englissh Synod in their requiring Assent and Obedience then is the Reformation rendred unlawful as likewise their Appeal to future Councils which can afford us no more just satisfaction than the fore-pass'd Here you have seen that for the Desiding this Controversie a General Council that is the most General that the Times would permit was assembled in the West nay of These more than One as has been shewed A Substantial Conversion of the Elements and Real Presence declared to be the sense of those Scriptures and a reverence suitable required in this great Mystery Not one Bishop in these Councils for any thing we know Dessenting and Those of the Eastern Churches absent consenting in the same judgement What more can be done Ought not Sense Reason and Philosophy here be silenced and ought not such
THE SPEECH OF Nicholas Heath Lord Chancellor of England Lord President of Wales Bishop of Worcestor And afterward Archbishop of YORK and Ambassadour into Germany delivered in the Upper House of Parliament in the Year 1555. On occasion of the Supremacy Proofs from Scripture That Christ left a True Church and that there is no Salvation but in the Catholick and Apostolick Church Proofs from the Fathers That there is no Salvation to be expected out of the True Catholick and Apostolick Church Certain Principles of the first Authors of the Reformation not so well known to many of their followers The Principles of the Catholick Apostolick Church Testimony of the Fathers touching the Real Presence LONDON Printed for the Author 1688. TO THE READER I Cannot but admire to see most Protestants so negligenn in their search of Truth so seemingly secure and so indifferent in the buying and reading Controversial Books which abound now a days more than ever when yet in their Hearts they know they may be in Errour for even by their own Principles they dare not so much as affirm they are Certainly in the right The swarms of Books about Religion that have these two last years fill'd the Press render it impossile to say any thing New on this Occasion and therefore farther indeavours to write Controversy may seem vain and unnecessary and indeed if all the Catholick Books that have been lately Publish'd were read by the Protestants with the same Spirit of Humility with which they were wrote all prejudice passion and interest laid aside there would be abundantly enough to open the eyes of the people and satisfie all discerning Men that Popery is not that Antichristian Monster which it has for so many years been painted in England but that it is indeed the true Antient Catholick and Apostolick Faith which our Saviour deliver'd and taught his Apostles and which has continued since and been believed in the Church in all succeeding Ages But since we find too many stop their ears against all the charms of Truth since we find still such mighty numbers of Men continue in entertaining their old barbarous conceits of the Catholick Religion and either through malice or negligence very slow in Reading what might Inform their judgements and settle their Consciences it cannot be esteemed improper for every honest Man to contribute his Mite and endeavour what he may to rouse up some by a third or fourth call who have refused the first and second and for as much as many are discouraged by the length and some by the dearness of the Book I have resolved to remove these two Impediments an hours reading with the expence of two pence is all the time and the charge that needs be spent upon this Pamphlet It must not be expected I should launch out into those prolix Disputes that have almost at this day tir'd the Pens of Schoolmen I intend only to establish two or three most important Truths on which the Catholick Faith does more immediately depend What I may beside insist on shall only be in general so as to give the Reader an occasion of seeking elsewhere more particular Information and that with as much brevity as Y can or the nature of the thing will admit I shall take the liberty to suppose in as much as many Protestants own as much that there has been in all Ages since our Saviour Christ planted the Gospel a true Church on Earth or to express my self more in the Protestant Phrase that there has been in every Age since Christ a company of Men who have retained that Orthodox Faith deliver'd in the Gospel I dare not think there is a Protestant living will deny this because he would by so doing first maintain there was an Age since Christ where in all the Articles of the Creed were not true viz. that there was no Holy Catholick Church seconly he would make Christ a false Prophet who has declared he would never depart from his Church but that he would be with her even unto the end of the World and that the Gates of Hell should not prevail against her Matt. 16.18 I will in the second place make bold to suppose that his true Church or this company of Orthodox Men has been visible in all Ages If there be a Protestant in the World so weak as to imagine the true Church was not visible in all Ages I desire him to consider that so much is implyed in the very nature and essence of a Church as to Preach the Gospel and administer the Sacraments which even in his own notion are Visible Signs without which a Church can no more subsist than a Man without a Head or a House without a Foundatian And Secondly seeing Preaching the Gospel and Administring the Sacraments are Actiors Visible and Conspicuous the Church that does these things must by necessary consequence be Visible and Conspicuous likewise there is no Sophistry in this but what any one that pleases may reduce to a plain and easy Syllogism And indeed is there any thing in Nature more absurd and contradictory than to affirm the true Church was at all times and yet not at all times Visible What the Church daily does and what she must of necessity do to deserve that name are things as manifest and evident to humane sense as teaching a School or the Rule of a Commonwealth and will any man affirm that a School can be Taught or a State Governed in an invisible Manner Surely no neither then may any Protestant be so absurd as to believe the Church of Christ was at any time Invisible and not rather Visibly Apparent in her Rites and Sacraments as well as in her Assemblies on those occasions Taking it then for granted that there has been a true Church at all times since Christ and that this Church has been at all times visible it follows by an easie Consequence which every body can infer that what ever Church is not able to prove her Being since Christ and her being visible all that time cannot be the True Church But neither the Church of England nor that of Luther or Calvin nor any Protestant Reformed Church have been Visible in all Ages since Christ therefore neither the Church of England nor any other Protestant Church is the True Church I would fain see to this a plain and possitive answer given 't is what has not yet been given by any defender of the Protestant Cause nor I suppose will ever be to the end of the World. How ridiculous is it and how unbecoming any reasonable Creature what Protestants urge in this matter that their Principles were taught and believed in the Primitive Church till she fell into Idolatry and Superstition where she lay buried for above 1000 years till God rais'd up Luther and Calvin and the other Reformers to remove the Errors and raise up a new Glorious Orthodox Church I have often admir'd how such palpable Nonsence and such gross Contradictions came to
Church and that the Bishop of Rome is Patriarch of the West is acknowledged by King James and T. Bishop of Winchester Now for a part to set up against the whole for a few Bishops of one National Church to Reform the Church of all Nations and for a National Synod to condemn all the General Councils at once is what all the Learning in the World can not justifie I would fain know why bâ— the same reason might not the Metropolitan of York Reform the National Church of England if he should pretend gross intollerable errours or the Diocesan of Carlile Reform the Metropolitan of York on the same score and any single Presbyteâ— again his Diocesan of Carlisles which indeed happen'd in the fundamental Reformation when Luther first Revolved and though but a single Presbyter yet took up on him boldly to Reform not only his own Superiour or Diocesan but even no less than the five Proto-Patriarchs at once The Church of Christ is surely an Established Government with power sufficient to chastise her Rebellious Subjects and certainly our Saviour never meant that every Presbyter should be Independent or that ever Bishop should be so or that every Province should be so nor that any Rational Church should be independent of the Whole For our Saviour expresses himself clearly that all his Sheep should be fed by one visible Head that all the Christians in the whole world should be subject to one Law and he gave sufficient Authority for the putting of it in execution If any private Gentleman here in England should declare he found gross intolerable Errours in the Government that he absolutely disliked Monarchy and should stir up a Party in the Nation to a Rebellion against the King. Suppose a Peer should do so or suppose a Province as for Instance that of Kent should pretend to discover these Errours and Revoult from their Sovereign what think you would not that Gentleman that Peer or that Province deservedly fall under the punishment of the Law and be thought by all the World guilty of Treason The Aplication is obvious and I defie any Man living to shew the disparity for the National Church of England was at least as much and as unavoidably subject to the Western Patriach Church as any one Province of England to the Laws of the whole Kingdom I never yet saw this objection answer'd nor any plausible reason given for the Grounds and Motives of the English Reformation And indeed the Schism is so obvious the Defection so apparently inexcusable and the Motives that induc'd Henry the VIII and those that prevailed with Edward thee VI. and Q. Eliz. so notoriously scandalous as Blood Divorce Perjury Sacriledge the maintainance of an Usurped Title that it seemeth to me little less than a Miracle how considering Men who have regard to their Eternal wellfare should be able to persuade themselves into a Belief that they may safely venture in the Communion of a Church sprung out of the Ruins of Churches and Religious Houses begun with the Divorce of Queen Catherine reveled with the Blood of Mary Queen of Scots made an Engine of state to support the Precatious Title of an Usurper and which has continued ever since in force by vertue of Sanguinary Penal Laws This subject has given occasion and vent to many Volumes and I might easily have extended it to a far greater length but I hope the Brevity will recommend it to the Perusal of all those who will not lose themselves and the Question in reading prolix Discourses I hope the old way of Answering will be no more taken up by Protestants to confute this or any Paper of the same Nature For when they can find no Reasons nor Arguments that may pass with Discerning Men to justifie the defection of the English Church or satisfie the people that the Roman is not the Catholick Church they still fly from the point in hand into Harangues and Rhetorical Digressions falling foul on some Doctrine of the Romish Church which they endeavour with Tropes and figures to paint out in the colours of Idolatry and Superstition Thus when hard pressed with the Sin of Schism and not able to justifie their Seperation they fall a railing at Transubstantiation Purgatory c. I would caution every Man that searches after Truth not to be put of with this Sophistry If the English Church can not shew Persuasive Arguments for her deserting her Mother the Church of Rome she fails in what is expected from her 'T is enough to fall foul on particular Doctrines she ought to shew that no subjection was due from her to the Western Patriarchal Church In treating of particular Controversies as Purgatory c. the Roman Church is very well able to satisfie all reasonable and impartial Men but she knows 't is the trick of Protestant Writers to wheedle Men into the Labyrinth of Controversial points and then dezle their eyes with fine words and elaborate Expressions I will Insert a Speech made in Parliament against Supreme Ecclesiastical and Spiritual Authority granted to Queen Elizabeth The Person that spake it was Nicholas Heath who was first Bishop of Worcester and Lord President of Wales Afterwards Arch-bishop of York and Embassador into Germany And made Lord Chancellor of England by Queen Mary in the year of our Lord 1555 and continued until he did surrender it up in Queen Elizabeth's time to Sir Nicholas Bacon The Person from whom I had this Speech is yet living who told me That he found it in Manuscript amongst Papers and Notes of his great Grandfather George Parrey who had been High Sheriff of Hereford-shire in the second year of the said Queen A Speech Made in the Vpper House of Parliament against the Supemacy to be in Her Majesty by Nicholas Heath Lord Chancellour of England in the first year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth above an 100 years fince In the Original Copy it is stiled A Tale told in Parliament For Oaths the Land shall be Cloathed in Mourning My LORDS WIth all humble submission of my whole Discourse to your Wisdoms I purpose to speak to the Body of this Act touching the Supremacy that so what this Honourable Assembly is now adoing concerning the passing of this Act may thereby be better weighed and considered by your Wisdoms First When by the Virtue of this Act of Supremacy we must forsake and fly from the See of Rome it would be considered what matter lies therein and what matter of danger or inconvenience or else whether there be none at all Secondly If the intent of this Act be to grant or settle upon the Queens Majesty a Supremacy it would be considered of your Wisdoms what this Supremacy is and whether it doth consist in Spiritual Government or Temporal If in Temporal what further Authority can this House give Her more than what She already hath by right of Inheritance And not by your Gift but by the Appointment of God Being our Sovereign Lord and
If you shall say No Why did God plague the King with Leprosie and not the Priest The Priest Azarias in resisting the King and thrusting him out of the Temple in so doing did the Priest play the faithful part of a Subject or no if you answer No why then did God spare the Priest and not spare the King If you answer Yea then it is most manifest Ozia in that he was a King could not be Supream Head of the Church And therefore King David did go before the Ark of God with his Harp making Melody and placed himself amongst the Minstrels and humbly did abase himself being a King as to dance and leap before the Ark of God like as his other Subjects did Insomuch as his Queen Michol King Saul's Daughter beholding and seeing this great Humility of King David did disdain thereat Whereunto King David making answer said Ludam vilior siam plùs quà m factus sûm c. That is I will dance and abase my self more than yet I have done and abjecting my self in mine own eyes I shall appear more glorious with those Handmaids that you talk of I will play here before my Lord which hath chosen me rather than thy Fathers House And whereas Queen Michol was therefore plagued at God's hand with perpetual Sterility and Barrenness King David received a great praise for his Humility Now may it please your Honours to consider which of both these Kings Examples shall be most convenient for your Wisdoms to make the Queens Majesty to follow whether the Example of Proud Ozia moving Her by your perswasions and Councils to take upon her spiritual Government and thereby exposing her Soul to be plagued at the hand of God as King Ozia was or else to follow the Example of the good King David which in refusal of all Spiritual Government about the Ark of God did humble himself as I have declared unto you Whereunto our Sovereign Lady the Queens Highness of Her own nature being well inclined we may assure ourselves to have of Her as Humble as Virtuous and as Godly a Mistress to Reign over us as ever had English People here in this Realm if that her Highness be not by your Flattery and Dissimulation seduced and beguiled Fourthly and Lastly We must forsake and fly from the Holy Unity of Christ's-Church Seeing that St. Cyprian that Holy Martyr and great Clerk doth say that the Unity of the Church of Christ doth depend upon Peter's Authority and his Successors Therefore by leaping out of Peter's Ship we must be overwhelmed with the Waves of Schisms of Sects and Divisions Because the same Holy Martyr in his Third Epistle to Cornelius testifies That all Heresies Sects and Schisms do spring only from hence that Men will not be obedient to the Head Bishop of God. And how true this saying of St. Cyprian is we may see it most apparent to all Men that list to see both by the Example of the Germans and by us the Inhabitants of this Realm of England And by this our forsaking and flying from the Unity of the Church of Rome this inconveniency amongst many we must grant the Church of Rome to be the True Church of God where Jesus Christ is truly taught and his Sacraments rightly Administred how can we disburthen our selves of our forsaking and flying from that Church which we do confess and acknowledge to be of God we ought to be One and not to admit of any Separation If you Answer the Church of Rome is not of God but a Malignant Church then it will follow that we the Inhabitants of this Realm have not as yet received any Benefit of Christ seeing we have received no Gospel or other Doctrine nor no other Sacrament but that which was sent unto us from he Church of Rome First in King Lucius his days at whose humble Epistle the Holy Martyr Elutherius then Bishop of Rome did send into this Realm two Holy Monks Fugatius and Damianus by whose Doctrine and Preaching we were first brought to the knowledge of the Faith of Jesus Christ of his Holy Gospel and his most Holy Sacraments Then Secondly Holy St. Gregory being Bishop of Rome did send into this Realm two other Holy Monks St. Austin called the Apostle of England and Milletus to receive the very self same Faith that had been before planted here in this Realm in the days of King Lucius Thirdly and Last of all Paulus Tertius being Bishop of Rome did send hither the Lord Cardinal Pool his Grace by Birth a Nobleman of this Land his Legate to restore us unto the same Faith which the Martyr St. Elutherius and St. Gregory had Planted here many years before If therefore the Church of Rome be not of God but a false and Malignant Church then have we been deceived all this while seeing the Gospel the Doctrine Faith and Sacraments must be of the same nature as that Church is from whence it and they came and therefore in relinquishing and forsaking that Church the Inhabitants of this Realm shall be forced to seek further for another Gospel of Christ other Doctrine other Faith and Sacraments than we have hitherto received Which will breed such a Schism and Error in Faith as was never in any Christian Realm And therefore of your Wisdoms worthy of Consideration and maturely to be ponder'd and be provided for before you pass this Act of Supremacy Thus much touching the First chief Point Now to the Second Deliberation wherein I promised to move your Honours to consider What this Supremacy is which we go about by vertue of this Act to give unto the Queen and wherein it doth consist whether in Spiritual Government or Temporal But if Spiritual as these words in the Act do import Supream Head of the Church of England immediately and next unto God Then it would be considered in what Points this Spiritual Government doth consist and the Points being well known it would be considered Whether this House hath Authority to grant them and her Highness Ability to receive them And as concerning the Points wherein Spiritual Government doth consist I have in reading the Gospel and the whole course of Divinity thereupon as to my Vocation belongeth observed these Four as chief among many others whereof the first is The power to loose and bind sins When our Saviour in ordaining Peter to be Chief and Head-Governour of his Church said unto him Tibi dabo Claves Regni Coelorum c. That is To thee will I give the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven c. Now it would be considered by your Wisdoms whether you have sufficient Authority to grant unto her Majesty this first Point of Spiritual Government and to say unto Her Tibi dabimus c. To Thee will we give the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven If you say Yea then do we require the sight of Warrant and Commission by the Virtue of God's Word And if you say No then you may be well
culled out of them Aid this year was sent to assist the Rebels in Scotland against their Lawful Queen The Presbyterians seeing Episcopal Government settled begin to play their Game The Bishops being thus settled begin the next year to make Laws and to compose Articles of Religion and to exact a Conformity to them Upon which they find great opposition from the Presbyterians In her fourth year she was solicited by Pope Pius to send her Orators to the Council of Trent which she refus'd to do The Emperour also writ to her to desist from these Alterations of Religion and to return to the Antient Catholick Faith of her Predecessors In her fifth year the Articles of Religion were agreed on in the Convocation In her sixth year she would have Married the Earl of Leicester to the Queen of Scots Calvin dies this year and Cartwright the great promoter of Presbytery retires out of England upon a discontent to Geneva In her seventh year the Calvinists began first to be called Puritans Dr. Heylyn In her eighth year the Government of the Church by Archbishops and Bishops was Confirm'd And for this we are beholding to Boner the late Bishop of London Who being call'd up to take the Oath of Supremacy by Horn of Winton refus'd to take the Oath upon this account because Horn's Consecration was not good and valid by the Laws of the Land. Which the insisted upon because the Ordinal Establish'd in the Reign of King Edward the VI. by which both Horn and all the rest of Queen Elizabeths Bishops received Consecration had been Repealed by Queen Mary and not restor'd by any Act of Parliament in the present Reign which being first declar'd by Parliament in the Eighth of this Queen to be Casus Omissus or rather that the Ordinal was look'd upon as a part of the Liturgy confirm'd in the First year of this Queen They next Enacted and Ordain'd That all such Bishops as were Consecrated by it in time to come should be reputed to be lawfully Consecrated Baker In her Eleventh year there arose a Sect openly condemning the receiv'd Discipline of the Church of England together with the Church Liturgy and the very Calling of Bishops This Sect so mightily encreas'd that in the Sixteenth year of her Reign the Queen and Kingdom was extreamly troubled with them In the same Sixteenth year were taken at Mass in their several Houses the Lord Morley's Lady and her Children the Lady Gilford and the Lady Brown Who being thereof Endicted and Convicted suffer'd the Penalties of the Laws In her Twentieth year the severe Laws against Roman Catholicks were Enacted In her Twenty third year a Proclamation was set forth That whosoever had any Children beyond Sea should by a certain day call them home and that no Person should harbour any Seminary Priest or Jesuit At this time also there arose up in Holland a certain Sect naming themselves The Family of Love. In a Parliament held the 26th year of her Reign the Puritan Party labour'd to have Laws made in order to the destroying of the Church of England and the setting up of their own Sect. In her Twenty eighth year the Queen gave a special Charge to Whitgift Archbishop of Canterbury to settle an Uniformity in the Ecclesiastical Discipline which lay now almost a gasping And at this time the Sect of Brownists deriv'd from one Robert Brown did much oppose the Church of England In her One and Thirtieth year the Puritan-Flames broke forth again In her Thirty sixth year the Severity of the Laws were Executed upon Henry Barrow and the Sectaries for condemning the Church of England as no Christian Church Thus Sir Rich. Baker Here is an End of this Work. Wherein I hope there is full satisfaction given concerning the Alterations of Religion which have been made by Publick Authority in the Reigns of these Kings and Queens With a sufficient discovery of the Actings of the Presbyterians in this Nation and the ground of multiplying other Sects Here ends of Historical Collections Gentlemen of the Reformation this following Discourse I assure you is not intended to make any Reflection upon your Tenets but meerly out of zeal to your good and desiring the Almighty to give you his Grace not to be deluded by the Principles of the first promoters of the Reformation For it may well be that every one of you does not know the Principles of those first Authors of the Reformation therefore out of Charity and zeal to you and the good of your Souls I declare them here The Preface to the Children of the Reformation BE not concern'd to know whose Hand it is which holds the Link but follow the Light it gives directing you to a view of the Principles upon which the Reformation supports it self asserting a Holy Liberty to each Person and to act as he pleases with a safe Conscience according to the Principles of our Reformation to grant any humane Power can oblige our Consciences against our Judgements in matters of Religion is but an imaginary Remedy for a real Evil. Our common Reformation is cemented and was first rais'd upon this Holy Liberty that every one should read Scripture Interpret it for himself and believe what he though was the true Sense of it without any compulsion or constraint and not to believe either Church State Vniversity or Doctors if he did not judge by Scripture his Doctrine was true Considering the Infancy of the Reformation our blessed Reformers taking to themselves and giving to others this Holy Liberty for to Teach and Believe whatever they judg'd to be the Doctrine and true Sense of Scripture though it should be against the received Opinion of the Councils Church Vniversities and Doctors Look into the Reign of Edward the VI. then did our Reformation flourish in England and was miraculously propogated by the Liberty of Martin Bucer Cranmer Ochinus Peter Martyr and others in teaching Calvinism Lutheranism Zuinglianism by Scripture as every one understood it Descend to the Reign of Queen Mary then the light of the Gospel was ecclipsed in the sense of the Reformers because the flock was again Popishly compell'd to believe not what every one judg'd by Scripture to be true but what the Church judg'd was such Come down a step lower to Queen Elizabeth's time then the flock recovering their holy Liberty to believe what each one though was the Doctrine of Scripture the Reformation gain'd ground and our Protestancy was establish'd the Religion of the Land which others were not totally suppress'd Step down a degree lower to King James his time the Reformation held its course because their Consciences were not oppress'd Look down a step lower to King Charles the I's Reign His Majesty carried with a Godly Zeal of restraining the diversity of Opinions would by new Laws and Ordinances force the flock to an Uniformity of Doctrine then those of the Reformation pleaded for the Evangelical Liberty to believe nothing nor use any Rites or Ceremonies but
any but as each Congregation Synod particular Doctor or Man of sound judgement interprets it and consequently what ever Doctrine any man of sound judgement Interprets it judges to be of Scripture is to be esteem'd the Doctrine of the Reformation and you may safely believe it if you like it and remain still as truly a Reformed Child as the proudest Protestant of England The Rule of Faith is Scripture as any particular Doctor of person of sound Judgement understands it Behold how convincingly first we have heard Luther quoted but now say We receive nothing but Scripture but so as that we must have some Authority to Interpret it Hear him again d In Colloq mensal fol. 118. The Governours and Pastors have Power to teach but the sheep must give their judgement f In Defens Art. Reliq Protest pag. 199. whether they propose the Voice of Christ or of strangers And again e To. Wittem fol. 374. Christ has taken from the Bishops Councils and Pastors the right of Doctrine and given it to all Christians in general and the Rule is Scripture as each one will think fit to interpret it And in consequent to this we have heard him say above I will be free and will not submit to Doctors Councils or Pastors but will teach whatever I think to be true Barlow The Apostles have given to each particular Man the right and power of Interpreting and judging by his inward spirit what is true it is needless that any Man or Angel Pope or Council should instruct you the spirit working in the Heart and Scripture are to each particular Person most assured Interpreters Bilson Bishop of Winchester says the same g In his true difier par 2. pag. 353. The people must be discerners and judges of what is taught Our Religion has no other rule of Faith says our French Reformation by the mouth of Du Moulin h Boucler de lay Foy. Drelincourt and the holy Synod of Charenton but the written Word of God as Interpreted by us It matters not so much for you to know what I approve or condemn but to know what the Doctrine of the Reformation is It is this That none can Teach Preach Administer Sacraments or Exercise Ecclesiastical Functions if he be not in Holy Orders Bishop Priest or Deacon for the Church of England teaches it and you may believe it if you please You may also deny it and say any Woman or Tradesmen has as much power to Preach and administer the Sacraments as the ablest Bishop in England This also is the Doctrine of the Reformation as well as the former because Quakers Presbyterians Brownists Anabaptists c. Believe and Teach this and they are men of as sound judgements and as good Reformers as the Protestants nay the most learned of our Reformaers allow Women a right to exercise Spiritual Functions and Administer the Sacraments Samaise Peter Martyr In lib ad Corin c. 11. in Explan Art. 17. To. 2. de minist Eccles instit fol. 369 lib. de Cap. Babil c. de Ordin lib. de abroganda Missa and Zuinlius expresly defend the Priesthood as well of Women as Men And Luther proves it strongly The first Office of a Priest says he is to Preach this is common to all even Women the second to Baptize which is also common to Women the third is to Consecrate Bread and Wine and this also is common to all as well as to Men and in the absence of a Priest a Woman may Absolve from Sins as well as the Pope because the words of Christ Whatever ye shall untye on Earth shall be untyed in Heaven were sad to all Christians And when so eminent Men had not said it Reason and Scripture convinces it Reason because that our Rule of Faith being Scripture as each Person of sound judgement understands it many Women undoubtedly are of sound judgement and why should not their Interpretation of Scripture pass for the Doctrine of the Reformation as well as that of our Bishops and Ministers Scripture because we read the Samariatan Woman was the first who preached the Messias to the City of Samaria and Christ commanded Mary Magdalen to go to Preach his Resurrection to his Disciples and we know by our Chronicles that our glorious Queen Elizabeth of blessed Memory did not only govern the state but was a great Apostoless in Church affairs To what purpose then have we Bishops and Ministers who enjoy so vast Revenues if any Man or Women can Preach and Administer the Sacraments as well as they You may believe Bishops and Ministers are very needful for the service of the Church for they being commonly learned witty Men and having Wives they come to instruct Wives so well that the good Women come in a short time to be as learned as their Husbands and as nimble and quick in the Ecclesiastical Ministery as if they were permitted to exercise it as some Authors of Credit relate unto us that a Gentleman of Constance writ to his friend in a Village about three Leagues distant from that City whose Inhabitants were for the most part of our Lutheran Reformation the good Pastor exhorted his Flock to prepare for Easter Communion that none should presume to come to the Holy Table but should first Confess and receive Absolution of his Sins Easter Holy days being come such a multitude flock'd to Confession that the Pastor could not satisfie the Devotion of so great a Croud he called his Wife to help him to hear Confessions and to give them Absolution in which Ministery the good Lady did Labour with great satisfaction of the Penitents but neither the Pastor nor his vertuous Consort being able to dispatch so great a multitude he called his Maid Servant who did work in the Holy Ministery with as much expedition as her Master For after all the Church of Scotland France and all England Protestants excepted will tell you that Bishops and Ministers are not needful nay that they are very prejudicial to the Reformation and State To the Reformation because this Hierarchy was the Bishops Court Surplices Corner Caps and other Trumperies puts the flock in mind of Popery whereof it 's a perfect Resemblance I remember a discourse started in the House of Lords not many years ago by his Grace the Duke of Buckingham he desired to know what it was to be a Protestant and wherein did Protestancy properly consist The Bishops who were present looked one upon another and whether they feared the difficulty of the Question or that for modesty's sake each expected to hear another speak first they stood silent for a while at last the Ice was broken by one others followed but hardly any two agreed and all that the Duke could gather out of their â—…al Answers was That our Rule of â—aith was Scripture as Interpreted by the Parliament and Church of England Whereupon he concluded We have been these hundred years very busie to settle Religion
it is Popery It is a Popish Errour we say to believe that Pennance or other penal Works of Fasting Almsdeeds or corporal Austerities can avail and help for the Remission of our Sins and satisfying Gods Justice No we say Penal Works serve for nothing all is done by Repentance that 's to say by sorrow of Heart for having offended God. This is the Doctrine of Daneus Willet Junius and Calvin who say Francis Dominick Bernard Anthony and the rest of the Popish Monks and Fryars are in Hell for their Austerities and Penal Works for all that you may very well believe and it 's the Doctrine of the Reformation that Pennance and Penal Works do avail for the Remission of our sin and are very profitable to the Soul for our Common-Prayer-Book in the Commination against sinners says thus In the Primitive Church there was a Godly Discipline that at the beginning of Lent such as were notorious sinners were put to open Pennance and punish'd in this World that their Souls may be saved in the day of the Lord. And our Common-Prayer Books wishes that this Discipline were restored again and surely it does not wish that Popery were restored therefore it is no Popery to say that Pennance or Penal Works do satisfie for our sins in this World and avail to save us in the other I know many much mislike our Common-Prayer Book for these Popish-Tenets but what do you say of the grand Errours of Popery can a man be a true Child of the Reformation and yet believe the Popes Supremacy deny the Kings Supremacy believe Transubstantiation and Communion is one kind are these Tenets the Doctrine of the Reformation or consistent with its principles The Kings Supremacy is undoubtedly the Doctrine of the Reformation because it is judged by the Church of England to be of Scripture yet only the Quakers Presbyterians Anabaptists and other Congregations judge it is not of Scripture but as Erroneous a Tenet as that of the Popes Supremacy Calvin 6. Amos says They were unadvised people and Blasphemers who raised King Henry the VIII so far as to call him the head of the Church but also that no Civil Magistrate can be the head of any particular Church the Doctrine of the Centurists cent sept pag. 11. of Cartwright Viret Kemnitus and many others who doubts then but that in the principles and Doctrine of the Reformation you may deny the Kings Supremacy though the Church of England believes it The Popes Supremacy is the Doctrine of Popery who doubts it but it is also the Doctrine of the Reformation for many of our eminent Doctors have judged it to be the Doctrine of Scripture as Whitgift a In Defens c. pag. 373. 70. 395. who cites Calvin and Musculus for this opinion but it is needful we relate some of their express words I do not deny says Luther b In Respons tredecem but the Bishop of Rome is has been and ought to be first of all I believe he is above all other Bishops it is not lawful to deny his Supremacy premacy Melancthon c In Epist ad Card. Bellay Episc Parsiens says no less that the Bishop of Rome is above all the Church that it is his Office to govern Propos to judge in controversies to watch over the Priests to keep all Nations in conformity and unity of Doctrine Somaize d In Tract Euchar ad p. Sarmunm The Pope of Rome has been without controversie the first Metropolitan in Italy and not only in Italy nor only in the West but in all the World the other Metropolitans have been chief in their respective districts but the Pope of Rome has been Metropolitan and Primate not only of some particular Diocess but of all Grotius has expresly the same Doctrin and proves this Supremacy belongs to the Pope Jure Divino I pray consider if these Doctors be not Men of sound judgement and eminent learning and credit in our Reformation and if our Doctrine be Scripture as such men understand it As for Transubstantiation it contrins two difficulties first if the Body of Christ be really in the Sacrament e In Annot. super Novum Testam cap. 10. Matth. saepe alibi and this Real Presence the Lutherans defend to be the Doctrine of Scripture as well as the Papists why then should it be called Popish more than Reformed Doctrine The second is if the substance of Bread be in the Sacrament together with Christ's Body Lutherans say it is Papists say it is not but that there is a Transsubstantiation or change of the whole substance of Bread into the Body of Christ but hear what Luther f To Edit Jonah l. de cap. Babyl says of this that we call Popish Doctrine I give all Persons liberty to believe in this point what they please without hazard of their Salvation either that the Bread is in the Sacrament of the Altar or that it is not would Luther have given this Liberty if Transubstantiation had not been the Doctrine of Reformation as well as any other Communion in one kind is the Doctrine of the Reformation no less than Communion in both for besides that Luther says g Lib. de cap. Babyl c. de Euchar. They sin not against Christ who use one kind only seeing Christ has not commanded to use both and again h Epist ad Bahemos in declarat Euch. in serm de Euch. though it were an excellent thing to use both kinds in the Sacrament and Christ has commanded nothing in this as necessary yet it were better to follow peace and unity than to contest about the kinds but also Melancthon i in Concil Theol. ad March. Elect. de usu utriusque speciei pag. 141. who in the opinion of Luther surpasses all the Fathers of the Church expresly teaches the same Doctrine and the Church of England Statute 1. Edward VI. commands That the Sacrament be commonly administred in both kinds if necessity does not require otherwise mark he says but commonly and that for some necessity it may be received in one lastly the sufficiency of one kind in the Sacrament is plainly set down by our Reformed Church of France in her Ecclesiastical Discipline Printed at Saumur Chap. 12. Art. 7. The Minister must give the Bread in the Supper to them who cannot drink the Cup provided it be not for contempt And the reason is because there are many who cannot endure to tast the Wine wherefore it often happens among them that some persons do take the Bread alone Now you may admire the injustice of the Papists in condemning our Reformed Doctrine and Doctors as Hereticks whereas those Tenets are believed by many of us as well as them and the groundless severity of our Congregations in exclaming against that Doctrin it being the Doctrin of the Reformation whereas so many eminent men of our own judge it to be of Scripture For to know certainly if a
the Vocation in which you are called and a little after carefully to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace One Body and one Spirit as you are called in one hope of your Vocation one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all Your Faith i. e. the Roman is spoken of throughout the whole World i. e. is Catholick Romans 1.8 Although we or an Angel of Heaven Preach to you any other Gospel then that which we have Preached to you be he Anathema Gal. 1.8 Therefore if we or an Angel Preach any other Gospel then that the Roman Faith is the Catholick let him be Anathema Again Brethren stand ye fast and hold ye the Traditions which ye have received whether by word or by our Epistle 2 Thessal 11. 15. Here are both Written and Vnwritten Traditions given equally in Charge and the Vnwritten named first Remember the Prelates who have spoken to you the Word of God Whose Faith follow Obey your Prelates and be subject to them for they watch as being to render account for your Souls Heb. 13.7 17. Contend earnestly for the Faith once Delivered to the Saints S. Jude 3. How was this Faith once Delivered to the Saints Faith comes by Hearing Rom. 10.17 Whom did the Saints hear Hear the Church If he neglect to hear the Church let him be to thee as an Heathen and a Publican S. Matth. 18.17 Which is the Church that if I neglect to hear I am as an Heathen and a Publican That which is built upon S. Peter Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church and the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it S. Matth. 16.18 No Author of our side denied S. Peters being at Rome Note that till we discerned the Consequence That upon his Personal Being there they grounded a Primicy in that See. See Dr. Donne Serm. in Psalm 11.3 pag. 25. Elsewhere thus Pope Hyginus who was within 150 years after CHRIST and the Eighth Bishop of that See after S. Peter Dr. Donne Serm. in S. John 10.22 The Church 3 Reg. 8.14 Matth. 18.17 The Church Unity figured by Noah's Ark. Gen. 6.14 1 Pet. 3.20 By the new Jerusalem Apocalips 21.2 See also Cantic 4.12.6 8. Psal 79.9 Cantic 2.15 Isaiah 5.2 Jerem. 2.21.12.10 Matth. 20.1 Mark 12.1 Luke 5.3 Mat. 13.47.13.24.25 The Church the Pillar of Truth and Infallible Isa 29.21 Matth. 16.18 Mac. 28.20 Luke 22.32 John 14.16.16 13.17 11 20. 1 Tim. 3.15 1. Jo. 2.27 The Church the Body of CHRIST Cantic 4.7.9 11 12. Ephes 1.22.4.4.5.23 1 Corinth 12 27. Jo. 14.23.2 Corinth 6.16 The Church of the Faithful planted and propagated by sound Doctrine Jo. 1.12.3.3 Rom. 8.13.9.8 Gallat 3.20.4.19 Ephes 1.50 Tit. 1.1 1 Cor. 4.15 Philem. 10. 1 Peter 1.27 1 Jo. 3.9.5.1 18. Jam. 1.18 The Church the Spouse of CHRIST Psal 44.11 Ezech. 16.9.2 Cor. 11.2 Ephes 5.5.26 Apocal. 19.8.21.10 CHRIST the Head of the Church Osea 2.2 1 Cor. 12.27 Eph. 1.22.4.15.5.23 Colos 1.18.2.10 The Keys of the Church and their Power Promised Delivered Exercised Matth. 16. 18. Jo. 20.23 Matth. 18.17 Excommunication instituted by CHRIST Matth. 5.29.16.19.18.8 18. Mark 9.42 Jo. 20.23 In use with the Apostles 1 Cor. 5.3.10 2 Thess 3.6.14 1 Tim. 1.20 Tit. 3.10 Matth. 18.17 Confession of Sins Gen. 41.9 Levit. 16.21.39.26.40 Number 5.6 Jos 7.19 2 Reg. 24.17 1 Esdras 9.6 2 Esdr 9.2 Psal 27.7.31.5.37.18.94.2 Proverb 16.3.18.17.28.13 Eccl. 4.25.31.7.34.17 27. Isa 38.15 Daniel 9.5 Matth. 3.6 16.19 Luke 11.4.18.13 Jo. 20.23 Jac. 5.16 1 Jo. 1.8 9. Of Hereticks and false Teachers See Jud. cap. 1. 1 Cor. 11.19 1 Tim. c. 1. v. 20. 2 Tim. c. 2. v. 18. 1 Jo. 2.18 2 Jo. 7. Apocol 2.15 Mat. 24.5.24 Jo. 5. 43. 1 Tim. 4.1 2 Tim. 3.1.5 2 Pet. 2. 1.3.3 Deu. 13.1 Mat. 7.15 Rom. 16.17 Tit. 3.10 2 Thesal 3.14 Joan. 2.10 Deut. 13.5.18.20.3 King. 18. 40.4 K. 10.25 Heresie is a Spiritual Fornication and Idolatry Deut. 31.16 Jude 2.17.27.33 Isa 1.21.57.3 Jer. 3.1 Ezeck 6.9.19 Osea 1.2.2.4.4 Apoc. 18.3 Testimonies of the Fathers shewing their Affection and Zeal to Catholick Unity and their Detestation of Schism and Divisions In Psal 54. saith St. Austin 1. OF the Donatists We have each of us one Baptism in this they were with me we Celebrated the Feasts of the Martyrs in This they were with me we frequented the Solemnity of Easter in this they were with me But they were not in all things with me in Schism they were not with me in Heresie they were not with me in many things they were with me and in some few things they were not with me but in those few things in which they were not with me those many things do not profit them in which they were with me 2. Speaking to the Donatists Epist. 48. saith You are with us in Baptism in the Creed and in other Sacraments of the Lord But in the Spirit of Vnity in the Bond of Peace and finally in the Catholick Church you are not with us 3. To the same purpose Writteth St. Cyprian in his Book Deunitate Ecclesia One Church saith he the Holy Ghost in the person of our Lord designeth and faith one is my Dove This Unity of the Church he that holdeth not doth he think that he holdeth the Faith he that withstandeth and resisteth the Church he that forsaketh Peters Chair upon which the Church was built doth he trust that he is in the Church Where the blessed Apostle St. Paul also sheweth this Sacrament of Vnity saying one Body and one Spirit Ephes 4.4 which Vnity we Bishops especially that Rule in the Church ought ot hold fast and maintain that we may prove the Episcopal Function also it self to be One and undevided 4. And again in one of his Epistles Epistle 40. There is One God and One Christ and One Church and One Chair by our Lords Voice Founded upon Peter Another Altar to be set up or a New Priesthood to be made besides one Altar and one Priesthood is impossible Whosoever gathereth elsewhere Scattereth It is Adulterous it is Impious it is Sacrilegious whatsoever is instituted by Mans fury to the breach of Gods Divine Dispensation Get ye far from the Contagion of such Men and fly from their Speeches as from a Canker and Pestilence our Lord having premonished and warned us beforehand saying they are Blind leaders of the Blind Matth. 15.14 5. St. Augustin says of the Donatists De Bapt. l. 1. cap. 8. Those whom the Donatists heal of the wound of Idolatry and Infidility they themselves wound more dangerously with the wound of Schism 6. And again Super. Gest Emerit Out of the Catholick Church an Heretick may have all things but Salvation he may have the Sacraments he may sing Hallelujah he may Answer Amen he may keep the Gospel he may have the Faith and preach it only Salvation he cannot have 7. In like manner St. Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria as Eusebius witnesseth hist l.
6. c. 45. Writing to Novatian saith A Man ought rather to endure all things than to consent to the Division of the Church of God since that Martyrdom to which men expose themselves to hinder the Dismembring of the Church is no less Glorious then what a man suffers for refusing to Sacrifice to Idols nay in my Opinion this seems of the two the more Glorious Martyrdom for in the other cause he that suffers is a Martyr upon his own account but in this he is a Martyr for no less than the Body of CHRIST the Church 8. Also St. Cyprian lib. Deunitat Eccles Do they think saith he that Christ is among them when they are Assembled I speak of those which make Assemblies out of the Church of Christ no although they were drawn to Torments and Execution for the Confession of the Name of Christ yet this pollution is not washed away no not with their Blood. This inexpiable and inexcusable crime of Schism is not purged away even by Death it self That a man cannot be a Martyr that is not in the Church 9. And Again he saith He cannot have God for his Father that has not the Church for his Mother 10. So likewise St. Pacianus in one of his Epistles Epistle 2. ad Sempr. Although that Novatian saith he hath been put to Death for Christ yet he has not received a Crown and why because he was separated from the peace of the Church from Concord from that Mother of whom whosoever will be a Martyr must be a Portion To the same purpose also these words of Lactantius are very remarkable It is the Catholick Church only that keeps the true Worship of God. This is the Fountain of Truth this is the House of Faith this is the Temple of God into which if a man enter not or from which if any man goes out he is an Alian and Stranger from the hope of Everlasting Life and Salvation No man must by obstinate Contention flatter himself for it stands upon Life and Salvation St. Cyprian 55. ad Cornel. Num. 3. says The Church never departs from that which she once hath known and St. Irenaus lib. 1. cap. 3. That the Apostles have laid up in the Church as a rich Treasury all Truth It were an infinite labour to recite all that the Fathers say of this matter all counting it a most Pernicious Absurdity to affirm That the Church of Christ may err in Doctrine of Faith. For example How could God glory in the multitude of such as follow his Church if by so doing they should be led into Errour And yet Isaias 2. God seems to Glory in the multitude of those who confidently resort to the Church as to a Mistress of assured Truth to be instructed by her saying v. 3. Let us go up to the Mountain of our Lord and he will teach us his ways and we shall walk in his Paths and he shall judge among the Nations Behold Christ Erecting a Court or Tribunal in his Church to judge among Nations and deside all their Controversies which must needs suppose Obedience to be yielded to this Judgement Yea the same Prophet adds Ch. 54. v. 17. That no Weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper and every Tongue resisting thee in judgement thou shalt condemn And the Prophet there from the beginning manifestly speaks of Christ's Church Thirdly Isaiah Ch. 60. 12. The Nation and Kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish Under pain of perishing the Church must be obeyed Whence Fourthly Ezek. ch 44. v. 23. They that is the Priest shall teach the people what is between a Holy thing and a thing Polluted and the difference between clean and unclean They shall shew them and when there shall be Controversie they shall stand in Judgments This being their Office the peoples Office must needs be not to Judge them but Obey them Fifthly Christ Matth. 18.17 commands to Obey the Church under pain of being held here on Earth as Publicans and Heathens and of having this sentence ratified in Heaven ' Tell the Church saith he And if he will not hear the Church let him be unto thee a Heathen and a Publican and I say unto you whomsoever you shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever you shall loose upon Earth shall be loosed also in Heaven Here you see obedience to be yielded under pain of being held as a Publican or an Heathen and this Sentence to be ratified in Heaven Now if the Church could Err in teaching for Example that Christ is truly present in the Sacrament and hence obliged all to Adore him therein as much as they Adore him in Heaven and could oblidge them to this under pain of being held as Publicans and Heathens and held so as well in Heaven as upon Earth surely this cannot be an Errour for then in Heaven this Sentence would never be ratified St. Aug. Cont. Epist Fundam c. 5. I would not believe the Gospel unless the Authority of the Church moved me What ways the Church has made use of to settle mens minds in the Doctrin of the Sacrament of the Eucharist or the Lord's Last Supper TO make this appear more fully I will give you a brief Relation of the past Proceedings of the Church in the Decision of the Disputes concerning the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament and in the Substantial Conversion of the Elements of Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. This Real Presence and Substantial Conversion Berengarius and some Followers of his long ago denied Who being complained of two Councils were called one after another at Rome and Verseilis Anno Domini 1050 Berengarius Summoned and he not appearing his Heterodox Opinions were condemned He according to the new Protestant Grounds thinking his a Doctrine of great consequence and the Decrees of the two Councils a manifest Error and that himself had manifest Scripture and Demonstration against it judged himself freed from the obedience of silence or noncontradiction of these Councils And so he and his Followers publickly justified his Tenet desiring a reversion by some new Council of the former sentence against it Upon this revived Disturbance of the Church another Council five years after is Assembled at Tours Anno 1055. not far distant from Angiers where he was Archdeacon Here himself with others of his Party were present his Cause pleaded his Demonstrations considered and after all his Opinion again condemned himself also Recanting it The Council dismissed he finds yet other new Reasons and a greater strength in his former and falls again to the abetting maintaining and spreading abroad his old Doctrin A Fourth Council upon these new Troubles of the Church Anno 1059. Four years after the last was called at Rome where himself also was present Some say long Disputation there had his new Plea for it was found too light and rejected And his Opinion opposing Substantial Conversion again condemned both by himself and