that such Persons should resolve by a voluntary Banishment to dye to their Country and Friends and to the whole World by a Religious Profession and to bury themselves alive in a Cloyster than if they had restored Life to others and banish'd death from Graves and Monuments 7. Now after that our Protestant Gentleman hath considered our Catholick Monasteries let him examine whether in his own Church there hath been or now is any thing resembling so much Religion and super-natural Virtue as that which amongst us is not admired though admirable because so ordinary This kind of Life is as far from Protestants Practice and Doctrine as it is from natural Inclination Yet I have heard that Master Laud of Canterbury was once inclined to erect some Protestant Nunneries in England I believe it would occasion as great stirs as his Reformation did in England because nothing is more opposite to the Tenets of the reformed Gospel and first Reformers than to make Vows of Poverty Chastity and Obedience Protestancy begun and is founded upon the dissolving of Monasteries and Religious Vows and is not compatible with their observance if things must be carried on by the same means that acquired them a being 8. The Conversion of Nations to Christianity is not only a sign of the true Church but also the end of its Institution This is so proper to the Roman Catholick even at this present that none who heard the names of America Angola China Monomotappa India or Iaponia can be ignorant of our pious endeavours and miraculous success in preaching the Gospel to so remote Nations where nothing that is coveted in this World could be aimed at or expected by our Apostolical Preachers I will not say any more concerning the Signs of the true Church these being sufficient to convince any Person that desires to be saved that out of the Roman Church there is no Salvation seeing it alone hath supernatural and visible Signs whereby God doth declare sufficiently that it is an infallible guide to inform men of his Mysteries and direct them in the way he hath prescribed for his Divine Service commanding all men to hear and obey it as they would hear and obey God himself Now let us see what Luther the Apostate Apostle of Protestants says Velit nolit in praise of the Infallibility of the Roman Catholick in his Book against the Anabaptists who in hatred of the Pope of Rome did reject Infant Baptism Nos We confess sub papatu plurimum esse boni Christiani imo omne bonum Christianismum atque illinc ad nos devenisse quippe fatemur in papatu veram Scripturam Sacram esse verum Baptismum verum Sacramentum Altaris veras claves ad remissionem peccatorum verum praedicandi officium verum Catechismum ut sunt articuli fidei decem praecepta c. Dico insuper sub papatu esse veram Christianitatem imo verum nucleum Christianitatis esse O magna est veritas praevalet Mark what Calvin says Instit. c. 10. § 17. That St. Bernard was a godly and pious Writer Adding Et certe Papista fuit Bernardus nemo est Pius sine vera fide salutem veritatem ab inimicis habemus Mark lastly what Melancthon one of the first Followers of Luther said to his dying Mother whom he perverted from the old Religion to his new one Mother send for a Priest confess your sins before you die Illa securior haec plausibilior via ad salutem She did so and died in the Communion of the old Roman Catholick Faith in which she was born and bred This you will find in Florimundus de Ortu Haeresis lib. 1. cap. 9. What can be said more of the advantage of the Roman Catholick Church than what her mortal Enemies proclaim to the World for to undeceive men and guide them to the secure Ark of Sanctification and Salvation Now to deny this Infallibility so evidently demonstrated is the great crime Protestant pretended Reformers are charged with in this Infallibility is founded all the Power of Christ's Church obliging to believe the inviolableness of her Government the unjustifiableness of any Schism the firm security that Faith is certain and whatever in the Church is Sacred But Protestants never clear themselves from Schism upon any other grounds that those which if admitted would prove all Malefactors in the World innocent and make it lawful nay an obligation in conscience to dissolve the whole Fabrick of the Worlds Government whereas the very posture of a Fallibility of Faith first lays and in time hatches the Cockatrice Eggs of Anarchy and Atheism What Man ever arrived to that height of mistake as to endeavour to manifest his Innocency by the voluntary confession of a crime which implies the objected sin of Schism Now Protestants are accused of Schism they lay for the ground of their excuse that they acknowledge not Christs Churches Infallibility which is charged on them to be both Schism and Heresie and as the very sink of Infidelity Sure they clearing themselves by denying the Infallibility of the Church does the self-same as if some Male-contented Subject having first out-lawed himself by denying the Laws and rejecting the Government of the Land and afterwards this man becoming obnoxious to those Laws by Robbing or Murthering should endeavour to plead not Guilty by alledging that though indeed the Subjects who accept the Laws and allow the Government of England are liable to punishment if they offend against them Yet I quoth he who suppose this Government Tyrannical and the Laws unjust especially having a perswasion and thinking in my Conscience they are so cannot be obliged to obey them and therefore I must not be accounted a Factious Man nor liable to punishment if I break them Pray what will become of this Malefactor Sure Protestants will clear him in favorem Schismatis But I am perswaded wiser Judgments will think him more highly deserving the Gallows for refusing subjection to the install'd Government then it is manifest that Protestants do more deeply merit Excommunication for denying and rejecting Church-Government and her Infallibility CHAP. V. A Paraenetical Admonition to the People of England PRotestants regard the antient Faith of Christ whose Purity Ministers seek to blacken by insufferable Injuries Lyes Invectives and Calumnies of the deepest Dye They full well knowing that its Purity cannot be attacqu'd with solid evident Reasons nor Arguments they found out by experience that their Arguments to prove their new fangled false Doctrine makes but slight Impression in the Peoples minds And they daily see that when they but faithfully represent the Sentiments and real Doctrine of the Catholick Church they can neither justifie their Fatal Separation nor excuse the Extravagancies and Impudencies of their first Reformers they finding it impossible by these means to maintain the ground of their cursed Schism they have a recourse to a most unjust pernicious and hellish Artifice viz. to impute to the Roman Catholick Church an
relieving even in the dead of Winter and to the hazarding your life with extraordinary speed the City of Waterford when besieged eighteen days by the Vsurper Cromwell he having assured all his Adherents that that City was most extremely his These my Lord your Heroick Vndertakings to promote Loyalty the same Loyalty which now stands the top and most visible of your Grace's most Illustrious Titles and Characters which rendred you all along a great Favourite of our late deceased Sovereign and makes you now most dear unto his present Majesty King JAMES the Second These I say are so notoriously known both at home and abroad that even base Envy and Detraction have but rendred them to be the more acknowledged and most illustriously conspicuous These my Lord not common actings are patterns of your unbounded Merits these Heroick Efforts Vndertakings and brave never-to-be-forgotten Performances proceeded sure from that your Noble Genius or natural propension to Monarchy in detestation of Democracy and Anarchy Now my Lord you are to apply that your clear Eagle-ey'd Iudgment and great Wisdom in owning and honouring that great Monarchy which Christ established here on Earth governed by one Visible Head the Vniversal Pastor Vicegerent of Christ and Successor to St. Peter to whom he gave special warrant to govern his Flock And it 's an undoubted truth my Lord that the Interest and Conservation of Kingly Government is twisted with true ancient Christian Religion that it seems animated with one and the same Soul for like to Hippocrates's Twins they smile and weep together and live and die together For even as Rebellion is the bane of Civil Kingdoms and Peace and Concord the preservation of them even so Schism is the utter ruine of the Church of Christ Peace Vnity Vniformity the special gift of God therein and in the true Church above all Kingdoms or Common-wealths because it 's in all points a glorious conspicuous Monarchy tending every way to Vnity there being but one God one Christ one Flock one Pastor one Hope one Faith one Body one Head as the Apostle assures us To this heavenly Monarchy my Lord you are invited all Sects or false new-fangled Churches cannot pretend to be a Monarchy having no Head nor united Body but a confused Chaos I am confident that your Grace is a Master of more solid reason than to ground your Faith upon an uncertain Foundation or to pin the Salvation of your Soul on the bare sleeves of any Sect whose Guides are failable and fallible in all mens Opinions when you may enquire and find out a secure Infallible Guide leading to that Eternity of Glory you were created for The great reason my Lord the great motive that excited Dr. Vane Dr. Cressey Dr. King Bishop of London the Bishop of Glocester with very many more to separate from the Protestant blind Sect was because they found no safe secure certain human infallible unerring warrantable Iudge to interpret Scriptures and define questions of Faith without errour with any promise and privilege from Christ among the Protestants And consider my Lord that it 's very probable that the last Verdict and Sentence of the forlorn Protestant Sect is already written in Heaven that it must soon yield and fall to nothing as all other damn'd Heresies have done for it 's but folly to pretend to secure by human arts that which God is resolved to destroy Are you peradventure afraid or asham'd that Sectaries will blame you of inconstancy in changing or removing to the Roman Communion Sure we Mortals have above bruit Beasts the Resurrection of our Bodies we have above Devils to repent reclaim and flie from sin especially that most heinous sin of Schism and Heresie for Sectae non possi debunt Regnum Dei Galat. 5. So as that you must want constancy only to sin Sapientis est mutare consilium nullus pudor est ad meliora convertie Sure it was no blemish to St. Paul to turn to Christ from a Persecutor it was no shame to Constantine the Great of a Heathen to become a Roman Catholick Converted and Baptized by Pope Sylvester and it was no blemish to Louis I. King of France to be drawn to Christ's Faith by a Woman Then what shame can it be to your Grace to forsake Schism and come to the true mother-Mother-Church the which King James I. of Blessed Memory did acknowledge in open Parliament to be the only Mother-Church of all Churches I hope my Lord you are none of those who say to God Job 21. Depart from us we will not have the knowledge of thy ways I hope you are none of those which abhor to hear good Inspirations flie and detest good Company and Books lest by such occasions they might be touched in conscience and so be converted and saved I hope you are none of those most unfortunate hard-hearted men whereof the Prophet Isa. 28. speaketh We have strucken a league with Death and made a bargain with Hell it self which is in effect as much as if they had said Trouble us not molest us not with thy persuasions spend not thy words and labour in vain talk to others who are not yet settled let them take Heaven that will we for our parts are resolved we are at a point we have made a league that must be kept we have made a bargain that must be performed yea though it be with Hell and Death everlasting O what a wonderful fury and obduration of an unrelenting heart is this My Lord when men are byass'd or prepossess'd they lie open to be imposed upon to the belief of a down-right Lye or to the disbelief of a manifest demonstration of an infallible Truth and so to be mis-led to a plausible Errour The great reason why there are few in comparison who now-adays come to a right understanding and a well-grounded persuasion in matters of Faith is because they are not many who make a due enquiry with sincerity and unbyassed disposition sure such who wilfully remain under the power of the false Principles which were instill'd in them in their Education or who blindly following failable and fallible Guides whose persons they have in admiration and veneration resolving never to trouble themselves with a free and impartial use of their own Iudgment concerning those Doctrines which they have in their own Opinion wisely and safely as they imagine taken upon trust led away by lofty conceits and opinion of their own Reason and Capacity will not suffer them to attempt any sincere ingenuous Examination of such things as imply a possibility of being deceived in points of Faith whence it comes to pass that they weigh only what is offered in favour of their own side and make it the great end of their search not to follow what shall appear to be true upon enquiry but rather to be confirmed in their present erroneous Persuasion it 's no wonder then that such as do enquire thus are rather hardned in Errour than convinced of the
Truth I say then that it is at once disingenuous dangerous and silly to entertain such blind thoughts I pray God these motives may have a strong influence upon you by the assistance of God's Grace which is never wanting to those that are not wanting to themselves and imprint in your Soul the Character of Truth that you may conquer all oppositions of Vnderstanding or Will which may bar your ready Obedience thereunto First divest your mind of all prepossess'd Opinions and worldly respects in favour of any Sect or in dislike of the true ancient Church so as truly having deposed all obstinate prepossessions of your Iudgment you 'll be easily persuaded that the Roman Church is the true Church wherein only is Salvation to be had Pursue this Quest my Lord suffer not your self to be mis-led by the seducing of flattering blind Guides or Obstinacy Adjourn not this Quest Say not as Felix said to St. Paul Acts 24.25 When I have a convenient season I will call for thee The World expects your happy Return to the Glorious Liberty of the Sons of God. Alexander the Great my Lord being asked if he would run at the Olympick Games said I could be content so I might run with Kings Begin then to exercise a Virtuous Ambition in running after Kings at the Olympick Game for an Eternity of never-ending Glory in the Roman Communion in so doing you may know that you run with two and twenty brave Kings of England that were Saints you run with King Charles II. whose dear Favourite you have been who by the quick-sighted piercing eye of his natural Iudgment said in his Speech That Christ can have but one Church and that the same is the Roman Catholick Church and that Christ left his Power to it even to forgive sins He desired to know How came that Church to lose that Power and by what Authority men separated themselves from it His Majesty answers saying That it was that particular men raised Schism for their own advantage Here my Lord you see the King leaves the heavy guilt of SCHISM at the door of the Protestant Sect. You run with our most Sacred Leige and Sovereign King JAMES II. whom God preserve for many many happy years whose Motto is Let Life and Three Kingdoms lie at stake Before I damn my Soul or true Faith forsake Run with King James I. of ever Renowned Memory who did acknowledge in open Parliament That the Roman Catholick Church is the only Mother-Church of all Churches See Stow pag. 840. Run finally my Lord with all the present Kings in Christendom excep those of Swedeland and Denmark who reign in that Cold Cloudy and Sin-darkned Northern Corner of the World where Heresie is entertained by a company of dull stupid people that will not penetrate Run I pray with the best part of Mankind in all Ages with the wisest Heads of the World for unfeigned Holiness and Learning Run along with these irradiant Pole-Stars and you cannot go astray and it 's an undoubted truth that the Life Example and Heroick Actions of a Prince have usually a greater sway upon the minds of his Subjects than his Laws for the Example of a King is a living Law which secretly over-rules mens minds and bends them to a compliance with it None can deny this but those who have their Iudgments swallowed up by prejudice and whose blind passions have over-run their reason Listen therefore to the Voice of Heaven Apoca. 18.24 Go out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues Schism my Lord and damn'd Heresie to which you pertinaciously adhere are most grievous Plagues from it redeem your precious Soul from forfeiture that has been this long time mortgaged to Death for Sectae non possi debunt Regnum Dei and non est prudentia nec concilium contra Dominum and Sapientis est mutare concilium Make it my Lord your daily Prayer to God to settle you in the right This said my very good Lord begin to put on in the Name of Ever-glorious Iesus a Noble Resolution to shake off those Chains and Bonds of that Monstrous Tyrant Schism which detains you in slavery let the scales of blind misguided Zeal fall from your eyes that you may see to find out a most secure Vnerring Guide in your Iourney towards a happy Eternity I beseech the Father of Lights and Mercy to illuminate your Vnderstanding with Beams of his Saving Grace that you may learn embrace and practise the Faith of Christ which shall be the daily Prayer of me who intreats your Grace to bestow one Grace which is to permit me to bear all my Life-time the Title of your humble Chaplain being always Your most obsequious and faithful Servant I. E. He may be won that longest does resist To pray for your Return I 'll ne'r desist I 'll ne'r despair of any whil'st I see A fruitless Tree may next year fruitful be A WINDING-SHEET FOR THE Schism of England CHAP. I. THe ALMIGHTY as a most Divine Architect rais'd the Fabrick of his Church in this World as a medium to Salvation a Man for not hearing this Church is term'd in St. Matth. 18.18 a Publican or Heathen Protestants segregating themselves and not hearing this Church are in a most lamentable state Sure a natural unity and connection of the Parts among themselves and to the Head is necessary for the conservation of the natural Body Christ promised that there should be Unity in his Church St. Iohn 10.16 They shall be made one Fold and one Pastor This Unity is most requisite in God's Church St. Iohn 17.11 Christ prayed that his Disciples should be one And again 1. Cor. 1.10 I beseech you that you all speak one and the same thing and that there be no Schism among you but that you be perfect in one judgment Protestants denies and flyes from this Unity being divided and subdivided Christ praying Sure his Prayer took effect his People his Flock and Congregation being still one in the bonds of Peace The pretended Reformation have no Unity differing in most essential Points for Salvation therefore no true Church the Roman Catholick Church and no other stands firm and infallible against all the tempests of Apostacy Heresie and Schism and this by her Unity and Uniformity Sure by confession of Protestants the Roman Church was once the true Church according to St. Paul Rom. 1.8 First I thank my Lord through Iesus Christ that your Faith is spoken of throughout the whole World. And again v. 7. To all that be in Rome beloved of God call'd to the Saints Grace to you and Peace Now I say having it once how could they but retain the same Faith still infallibly For no general Council even ever yet condemned her of Error none of the holy Fathers ever wrote against her and by no authority was she to this day reproved of Schism for she left no Church or Company
de Eucharistia And was adored with outward Gestures as the true Body of Christ in Concil Ephes. in Epist. and Nestor in Concil Nicaen c. 14. To give prime Honour and supreme to St. Peter Bishop of the first See as Universal Pastor and Vicegerent of Christ Concil Nicaen c. 15. Concil Chalced. Act. 4. 16. constit c. 5. To pray to Saints that they may intercede for us in Concil Chalced. Act. 11. Prayers for the Dead offered publickly and privately in St. Augustin's time August de cura pro mortuis In those days the Church held the Fast of Forty days of Lent as Apostolical Tradition St. Hier. ad Marcel Ep. 54. Fridays likewise Confession and priestly Absolution St. August Homil. 49. saith The Keys given to the Church is to some purpose sure We must not frustrate the words of Christ. So St. Basil Tertullian St. Clement c. And thus of all other Points in Controversy we may find Reason Authority Practice and uninterrupted Custom in all Ages as Napier in his Treatise on the Revelations pag. 145. confesseth saying After 300 years the Emperour Constantine subdued all Christian Churches to Pope Silvester from which time till these our days the Pope and his Clergy hath possess'd the outward and visible Church Protestants employment being not at all to convert Heathens but to pervert those already converted Tertul. praescr c. 42. And we may find in the Writings of Roman Catholick Authors Orthodox Fathers that the Doctrine now held by Protestants were condemned as Heretical in those Persons that then held them For Example The Protestant hold that the Church may err so did the Donatists who were condemned by St. Augustin Potestants deny unwritten Tradition and urge Scripture only so did the Arrians and were condemned by St. Augustin and Epiphanius Protestants teach that Priests may marry so did Vigilantius and condemned by St. Hierom contr Vigilant c. 1. Protestants deny Prayers for the Dead so did Arrius condemned by St. August haer 53. and St. Epiphan haer 75. Protestants deny invocation of Saints so did Vigilantius for which he was condemned by St. Hierom contra Vigilant c. 3. Protestants deny the Real Presence so did the Capernaits and Berengarius who reclaimed and did Penance Protestants deny confession of Sins to a Priest so the Novatian Hereticks did reproved and condemned by St. Ambros. lib. de penitent c. 7. So did the Montanists condemned by St. Hierom Epist. ad Marcel 54. I leave off an addition of many other Points which makes really the new-moulded Protestant Sect appear but a meer frippery or hodge-podge of old condemned Heresies Hence you may understand that the Doctrine of the Roman Church is this day as it was 1600 years ago still one Holy Catholick Apostolick and Unchang'd grounded on such a solid unshaken Foundation that it is never to be brought down by the Gates of Hell i. e. Heresie Schism Apostacy Wranglings foolish Fopperies Lyings Railings c. Now Sir if you are sufficiently toss'd and wearied out with variety of Disputes and desire to put an end to them now follow the guide and direction of the Roman Catholick Church in Faith Religion Sacraments Sacrifice and Doctrine all which are derived from Christ himself to his blessed Apostles from the Apostles down to us and is to continue in the same heavenly Channel of Succession unto the end of the World Which Roman Catholick Church hath obtain'd supreme Authority from the Apostolick See by a wonderous succession of Bishops by the judgment of the People by the gravity and authority of Councils and lastly by the Majesty of Miracles And not to submit to this Divine Authority sure is the height of Impiety and precipitant Arrogancy and not to Dotages of particular idle Intruders Now as Rebellion is the bane of Civil Government in Kingdoms and Peace and Concord the preservation of the same so is Schism Division and diversity of Faith the ruin and calamity of the Church and Unity Peace and Uniformity the special Blessing of God therein and in the Church above all Commonwealths because it is in all points a Monarchy tending every way to Unity there being but one God one Christ one Church one Faith one Hope one Head one Body one Baptism Christ's Church is a Society of those that God hath called to Salvation by the profession of the true Faith Religion dread Sacrifice the sincere Administration of Sacraments and the adherence to a lawful Pastor as Head which Description is so fitted and proportioned to the Church that it resembles the Nest of the Halcyon which according to Plutarch is of such a just and exact size for the measure of her Body that it can serve no other Bird either greater or lesser Since Christianity is a Doctrine of Faith a Doctrine whereof all Men are capable of and since the high virtue of Faith is in the humility of our Understanding and the merit thereof in the ready obedience to embrace it what madness it is for any Man to tire out his Soul to wast away his Spirits in tracing out all the thorny Paths of the main Controversies of these our backsliding days wherein to err is easie and dangerous what through the malice of Authors abusing him what through Sophistry beguiling him what through blind Passion and Prejudice transporting him and not rather betake himself to the right way of Truth whereunto Christ Reason Nature and Experience do all give witness and that is to associate himself to that Church established by Christ whereunto the custody of a heavenly and supernatural Truth hath been from Heaven it self committed to weigh and find out discreetly which is the true Church to receive it chearfully and discreetly without doubt or discussion whatsoever it delivers without any farther inquisition she having the warrant that he that hears her hears Christ and whosoever hears her not hath no better place with God than a Publican and Pagan And what folly is it now to receive Scriptures upon the credit of her Authority and not to receive the interpretation of them upon her Authority and Credit also Sure if God should not always protect his Church from Error and yet peremptorily commanding Men upon pain of Damnation to obey her always then had he made very slender provision for the Salvation of Mankind which conceit concerning God would render us very ungratefully impious These Considerations or Motives may very easily perswade Persons of Reason and Piety to embrace and maintain that which they know to be the Religion of their Fore-fathers before her Adversaries had a Name her Doctrine having had a very long continuance which cannot easily be supposed in the present possessors to be a Design since they have received it down from so many Ages and it is not likely that all Ages should have the same purposes or that the same Doctrine should serve the several different ends of divers Ages relying upon the Grounds to wit that Truth is more ancient than Falshood
infinite number of gross Errors representing them under the hideous Idea of a Society professing most impious Doctrine thus no wonder that Peoples minds under their conduct should be alienated as to feel Horror and Detestation of her Doctrine so as their breach has been all along grounded upon Lyes Calumnies and False Suppositions Not being able to alledge in the behalf of their Schism any thing that can bear weight assuredly such disingenuous proceedings cannot but bring a deserv'd disrepute shame and confusion on the Protestant decaying Sect even from the sober understanding men among them And it is observable that Incredulity is an immortal Disease which hath reign'd from the beginning of the World and which shall never end but with the Worlds Dissolution Dreams Lyes Illusions and Falshood are easily believ'd because they insinuate themselves into the Hearts of men by Charms but glorious Truth which can never bely her self hath much ado to make her self entertain'd and understood yet we must know that there are many things unknown to us wherein God doth exercise our Faith but not satisfie our vain curiosity It is said that heretofore in Smyrna a City in Greece there was a false Mirror kept in the Temple which did represent the most beautiful Faces with notable Deformity and on the contrary gave to ugly and mis-shapen a Lustre of borrow'd and wholly imaginary beauty It is most notorious that the Protestant Ministers in the false Glass of their Preachings and lying printed Panphlets represents the glorious Church of Christ the Spouse of Heaven ever Holy as a Monster composed of Idolatry and Abomination as the Horrid Beast Whore of Babylon c. and on the contrary a Protestant Sect which begun by a revolt from all Obedience to lawful Superiors and by an infinite number of Exorbitances Sacriledge and unparallel'd Cruelties is forsooth represented as celestial holy and beautiful and it is to be wondered to see even Dr. Stillingfleet that Hircules and prime Advocate for Schism and who undertakes like a Goliah to defie the whole Hoast of Israel in the false Glass of his Roman Idolatry p. 8. Velit nolit represents the Roman Catholick Church as Idolatrous and Superstitious and yet makes it out clearly that she is the true Church to whose Communion the purest of all Christians are bound to joyn and that those who in any time did not joyn with it acted against their Christianity and must be counted as Schismaticks Now noble Sirs you are intreated seriously to reflect and bear in mind that heavenly Virtue of ready and true filial Obedience to lawfully authorized Superiors as Guides of your Souls in this Valley of Misery and sink of Death this Virtue is of the first magnitude and deserves all imaginable Encomiums Opposita juxta se posita magis clucescunt said the most excellent Philosopher contraries are their best Illustrations Now Schism is Disobedience and a most horrid Vice considered in her own ugly shape being carnality it self so as there is not any crime so hainous as Schism not Sacriledge Idolatry Paracide nor worshipping the Devil it 's an Abridgement of all the most damnable inexcusable unexpiable Vices imaginable it being impossible to receive such an injury or provocation from Church-Governours as may make a Separation excusable for according to St. Austin it is impossible that there should be any just cause for any to separate from the Catholick Roman Church Sirs such expressions as these cannot but strongly incite any understanding unbyass'd man whom a tender care of Eternity invites to seek satisfaction in this Point and seriously to consider that the Decision of no one Controversie is more neerly concerning Salvation than this being the hinge on which the Ocean of particular Disputes and Controversies do hang. This said let us see what Dr. Stillingfleet asserts in his Roman Idolatry p. 8. That a Christian by Virtue of his being so is bound to joyn in some Church or Congregations of Christians and that those who in any time did not joyn with it acted against their Christianity by virtue of which they were bound to do it he adds that a Christian by being so is bound to joyn in Communion of some Church and to chuse the Communion of the purest from this his Doctrine any understanding man must gather that he and his Protestant-pretended Church are guilty of Schism for separating themselves and remaining from joyning with the Communion of the Roman Catholick Church notwithstanding the said Stillingfleet strains all his Wits to palliate Schism painting their idle Reformation to advantage and not at all in its true colours proclaiming often Roman Catholicks Idolators superstitious c. which is the chief Rope whereupon he dances the Antick and triumphs O tempora o mores himself and his Proselites being in Schism over head and ears What then I pray are Protestants the better for all the Sermons they hear and Sacraments they receive Living in the cursed state of Schism for sure before Luther there was a glorious Church by the confession even of Adversaries this must be the Roman whose Communion was necessary to Salvation Therefore the Church of England separating and remaining obstinately from joining in Communion with It must be Schismaticks and something more to boot and it 's notoriously evident that the Roman Church hath the strongest warrantable promises prerogatives and motives even given to it by the sacred mouth of glorious Jesus then sure she could not err then sure she could not need any idle pretended Reformation So as that all Stilling fleet 's blind preaching of Reformation is vain his Faith is vain his Sacraments vain all his super-structures of daily printing lying new Books and scurrilous Pamphlets but all vain and by consequence himself no better than a sorry Schismatick So as any unbyass'd understanding man may plainly see all those Arrows which Dr. Still shoots against Roman Catholicks fall directly on his own head Muta fiant labia dolosa quia narraverunt iniqui fabulationes sed non ut lex tua His Objection is That Rome was an Harlot Superstitious the horned Beast c. It 's true that St. Ierome and other holy Fathers avers the same with reason but it was so called then when Rome was Gentile infected with Errours vain Superstitions of all Nations blaspheming God adoring Stocks and Stones and shedding in hatred of Christian Religion the Blood of Saints But after that Rome gave her name to Christ she can no more be stiled the Whore of Babylon but a glorious City faithful City replenished with all Grace and Righteousness which by receiving and confessing the Faith and Religion of Christ purely wip'd and wash'd off all Impurity all Blasphemies and superstitious Observances from that time it 's become the Tabernacle of God in the Sun true Pillar and Ground of Faith no blemish spot or wrinkle doth she carry When I pray is any able to say he saw her brave Sun go down or her fair Moon withdraw she always
being a perpetual Excellence of a spotless Light and Irradiancy From this City of the Sun Decrees of pure Faith are daily call'd for a pure Fountain from whence to the universal world streams of heavenly Truths Doctrines and Sanctity daily flow This is the most triumphant Tribunal of Christ whence the real Conviction and Condemnation of Heresies Sects and Errours do proceed the Oracle of Christians by which and in which alone infallibly all arising doubts about true saving Faith are resolved It 's the sublime and invincible Seat of glorious Peter wherein to this day doth reign and invisibly as President resides Christ never forsaking the same This is the holy Land consecrated by the Sacred Blood of the Apostles in which 72 Popes are Saints so many our B. Saviour's Disciples were O glorious triumphant Hierarchy O Queen O invincible and ever-blessed Kingdom of Christ O flourishing potent and brave resplendent City O Army embattell'd in a heavenly martial order where Christians must stand always upon their guard with weapon in hand fighting here to be crowned in Heaven labouring here to rest there sowing of tears here to reap joys there in a storm here to be in a calm there and therefore our Roman Catholick Church is called Militant here but Triumphant there both which are correlatives I said it is a well-ordered Army set in Battel-array in which the King and Chief in Command is Christ his Under-Vicegerent Vicar-General Universal Pastor is the Pope his Colonels the Archbishops Bishops Prelates and Pastors his Captains and Engineers are all Under-Priests of all Estates his Trumpetters are the Evangelical Preachers his Souldiers all stout Christian Catholicks This heavenly Army is furnished with all the Sacraments Matrimony peopleth the Army with men Baptism presseth and enrolleth them Confirmation armeth and strengtheneth them the most Blessed Eucharist provideth the Camp with Ammunition-bread and heavenly Victuals O brave Church of Christ ever Glorious founded on a Rock and this was Christ who said Matth. 7.25 26. The Rain fell the Floods came the Wind blew and rushed upon the house and it fell not for it was founded on a Rock But the pretended Reformation established by Law on the 20 th of May 1549 And was it not quite abolished on the 26 th of November 1644 by the like failing Authority Assuredly it could expect but the fate of the Fool 's House It fell for being built upon the sandy foundations of humane Invention and black Arts. This sure happened by God's sweetly-chastising Mercy that by weighing their fatal dissolution and the causes of it they may retrieve their wanderings and at length recollect their scattered and distracted Members into the ever firmly united Body of the One Catholick Roman Church This made Mr. Hooker that prudent Protestant-writer affirm That the Protestant Church was not likely to continue more than fourscore years lib. 5. num 79. Nor could he judge otherwise seeing it bears evidently the Principles of corruption and mutability in its very constitution viz. the materia prima of a meer secular Basis the first Governours of it being none of those to whom Christ promised his continual assistance to the Worlds end Forsake then and leave Sirs that fleeting and unbodied shadow of Shism return and unite your selves to the Catholick Church be not wandring Brethren dry and sapless now seeing that as the Elements never rest contentedly but in their Centre so you 'll find no rest but in the bosom of the true Church which is the proper place of every Christian to which I invite the brave Nobles of England to begin to open their Eyes and consider that it 's very strange how that in a manner all the Nobility of England fell from their old Religion establish'd by unfeigned Miracles and readily embraced a pretended Reformation Sure it was not for Conscience sake some fell for liberty some for flattery some for ambition and some for sordid lucre of Church-Lands I ask whether Henry the Eighth or the Nobles that fell with him found any fault or exception against the Sacraments Divine Service or the other holy Rites of the Church Not at all then their woful fall must proceed from their perverse wills which they made their Law hinc lacrymae Sure this dismal change in King and Peers was the sad in-let of all the Wars Confusion and Calamities in Church and State that hapned ever since in this brave Kingdome this general defection from God against Conscience of the Nobility may plead in some measure a plausible excuse their being excited and provok'd thereunto by the example of their passionate King who hath strong influence on his Subjects according to the Poet Claudian Regis ad exemplum totus componitur Orbis Mobile mutatur una cum principe vulgus Scilicet in vulgus manant exempla Regentum Sure we may perceive a just judgment inflicted on the Nobility of England after their revolt pray what 's become of all that manly Courage Prowess Gallantry and Valour that made them still renowned in all Countreys of the whole World All now degenerated into a shameful effeminacy debauch'd cowardice and inconstancy Sure a touch of blindness and madness possessed them and whetted their high Spirits on to such impious actings as to yield to Injustice Sacriledge Schism and Heresie how came they I say to be so stupified as to forget the great Zeal and courage of their Christian Ancestors Who for some small temporal Concern or Priviledge have often bid defiance to their Prince yet in King Henry the Eighth's time the Nobility prov'd Cowards their Spirits low and base in the Cause of God and his old Religion so as very few withstood the Innovation and Usurpation of Henry the Eighth's hinc illae lachrimae think you could the Nobility in whose hands and power it lay to impede the innovations and unparrellell'd Sacriledge of their King expect to escape the Vengeance of God who is a jealous God revenging the Crimes of Parents upon their Posterity even to the fourth Generation yet the floud-gate of of Gods mercy is still open to all Sinners who with a contrite heart shall lay hold on Jesus Christ by Conversion from Schism to his Faith found only in the Roman Catholick Church Fair warning take O brave Nobility sound a retreat fight not any longer against Heaven call to mind the dishonour you have done to glorious Jesus trampling on his precious blood by your Sacrilegious contempt of his Sacred Religion and Sacraments Know that non est concilium nec Sapientia contra Deum leave off to be embroil'd any longer in that most pernicious quarrel of Henry the Eighth's unjustly undertaken Vna manus vobis vulnus opemque feret Sure your will gave you the deadly wound of Schism and Heresie the same must sure heal you by perusing this small Treatise with Gods assistance it may convince your understanding and reduce your perverse will to obedience Begin therefore to reclaim its high time for you to
return to God who bindeth Nobles in Fetters of Iron and who alone can en-noble the meanest and laugh to scorn the proud that presume on Nobility in contempt of the Almighty for he is noble that in Vertue shines ill Life and Manners are degenerate Signs Earth's Nobles in Heaven's Court unknown Heaven not Gentry but the just doth own should you in power and strength excell all other men Plenty of Massie Gold and Silver what then Injoy'd you Fortune's Wheel to raise thee to the Skie Well ordered Servants that in Duty would outvie all others what then All 's but Folly and distress but God alone to serve is true Glory to possess The want of a serious consideration hereof brought England to the Stage of Confusion Disorder Schism and Sacriledge pray did not your Schism occasion a grievious Civil War which continued for three years soon after a gloomy horrible Comet appear'd in the Air which did usher a most raging Plague soon after Fire and dreadful Flames from Heaven all but warnings and merciful invitations for to bring England to true obedience and re-union to the ancient reveal'd and Soul-saving Faith of Christ yet all proved ineffective What A fiery Comet in the Van What a frightful Plague in the main Body What devouring Flames as horrid Executioners of Gods vengeance in the Rear and yet no moving at all towards the fear of God irritated notwithstanding all such prodigious Judgments and Visitatious sent from a hand more then humane all did but harden the people of Londons hearts in Schism and Heresie But now in a most happy hour Lo our great Royal Iames now displays his white Flag Clemency and Mercy to his Subjects assuring the World out of his Princely Mature Wisdome and Experience that Liberty of Conscience in England cannot but mainly conduce as an Inlet for the reducing of all his Loyal Subjects from Dire Schism and Heresie to the one true Catholick Apostolick and Roman Church of Christ ut fiat unum ovile unus pastor ovium For his most Sacred Majesty by his well ordered Zeal and Dei-form intention labours to promote vigorously the common good Spiritual and Temporal of his Subjects as he like a most good just clement and puissant Prince holds himself bound O brave England do but seriously consider how the World cannot chose but discern you ever since your Revolt overcast with blindness and disingenuity your Nobles and Gentry become altogether most inconstant unsteady wavering and still dissatisfied with any Government Monarchical or Anarchical even as when a Bone is out of joynt the Patient can never be free from his pain till it be not only set but set right again So England it is not only out of joynt but even broken in pieces suffering inexpressible miseries changes and calamities both in Church and State yet even to this day it feels no ease at all because none have had it in hand to cure its distempers but such as instead of healing its wound have inflam'd its maladies and woful distractions O brave Nobility of England joyn with your great Prince according to that Axiom per quascunque causas conponitur res per easdem dissolvetur Henry the Eighth began the dance in bringing in Schism the Nobility followed him Now great King Iames begins to chace away Schism introduce union peace prosperity follow him a brave Pole Star Take this Fable to our purpose upon a time the Frogs petition'd Iupiter to grant them a King he condescended and tumbled among them a Log after they had leap'd a while both on it and about it and finding it to be insensible they once more petition'd for a King active and stirring whereupon he sent them a Crane which fell immediately a pecking up The Moral hereof plainly shews that nothing can give any lasting satisfaction to the desire of change to the people of England for whether the Governour be a Frog or a Crane passive or active clement or cruel gracious or grievous they disrelish all unwilling to obey any such are their Principles so as that they leave no stone unmoved to unsettle or alter any Government chosing to be enslaved by a bad rather then endure constantly a good one and all this because they are blind and mad out of all order for want of faith I could not forbear letting fall some tears beholding such a Mockery of Heaven and Sacriligious Villany performed on St. Patriarks day last in contempt of that Apostle of Ireland who by the Sign of the Cross wrought many Miracles whereof one is most notorious viz. That he chased away from that Kingdom all venomous Creatures even to this very day Any considering man may plainly see how that Schism revealed its own turpitud and betray'd it self to the full on the 17 of September last it 's sure then the semblance painted with Hypocrisie and Forgery was pull'd away then it 's Vizard and adulterated colours were quite taken away so as Schism discovered is a face unmasked then sure by Schism the Origine of our holy Reformation the work was done to the full when all the grounds of Christian Religion then were quite pull'd down Root and Branch pray what are all our Protestant Reformations but the taking away the antient Principles of Faith without any positive institution still proceeding by degrees from Schism to Reformation from this to Infidelity and Blasphemy until of the whole Fabrick of Divine Faith there is not left one stone upon another The Sign of the Cross only as a distinctive character between Christian and Pagan left was on St. Patriarks day last villified and exposed to the scorn and laughter of the giddy crowds of Protestants at London when Bulls with Crosses in their Horns Bears and Dogs with Crosses in their Foreheads were seen marching through the Protestant Streets of London and none did appear with any touch of Zeal or Religion to reprove check or punish such a villanous devillism o tempora o mores What! To see the holy Cross pull'd from Churches Altars from the Crown of our Sovereign and even from Baptism then most prophanely translated to the heads of Bears Bulls and Dogs Sure such Heathenish practices suits better with Turks and Moors now then what other can the Permitters Promoters Applauders and Abettors of such prophane ridiculing of the prime Mystery of Christianity expect then a heavy judgment from Heaven Is this the fruit of all the plausible Sermons in Protestant Churches on every Sunday Is this the end of Schism and its deformation now it 's come to the height of shame O plentiful Reformation O Zealous O Blessed O Sober O Godly Protestant thorough Reformation Now the work is done non plus ultra Who sees not how Schism produced Reformation a disorder establish'd by humane Law which bred this confusion thus Protestant Preachers teaching their Proselites to hate Popery they have put them upon the over-acting the work so as to leave their Religion a gasping O London
A WINDING-SHEET FOR THE SCHISM OF ENGLAND Contriv'd for to inform the ignorant resolve the wavering and confirm the well principled Roman Catholick By I. E. Missioner Narraverunt iniqui fabulationes sed non ut lex tua Spal 5. Veritas non erubescit nisi obscondi Tertull. contra Valent. Printed at Dublin Permissu superiorum 1687. TO THE KINGS Most Excellent MAJESTY WHEN I contemplate the many Miracles of Divine Providence that led your most Serene Majesty by the hand through so many wonderful changes and imminent dangers to the Throne of your Royal Ancestors maugre all the contrivements of Hell and Plots of Horror and Impiety sure all signalize you as pre-ordain'd by the Almighty for a great work of Ages viz. To rescue the Virgin Spouse of Christ the Roman Catholick Church from the Jaws of the Dragon it 's your rare Valour and Piety that must give the fatal blow to the many headed Hydra of this Schism-abounding Age this heavenly work shall eternize your glorious Name and Memory at the Rising and Setting Sun even beyond the tracts of time and manifest you to be among all earthly Kings the most meek clement valorous most wise merciful and the most tender hearted truely Christian Prince who hath Learning to understand Wisdom to discern and Powerful Authority to command and commend that Faith be observ'd in your Kingdoms which is most conformable to the Scripture most consonant to the Doctrine of the Primitive Church and most warranted from the express priviledges advantages and promisses given by the Sacred mouth of ever glorious Jesus O great IAMES in you signally is now verified that receiv'd Maxime A fortibus fortes a piis generantur pii from a confluence of the most transcendently august blood of the best Kings of Europe and from your great Grand-Father and great Grand-Mother the ever blessed Queen Mary of Scotland mark Sanguis Martyrum semen Ecclesiae Lo their blood running in your most Sacred Veins inflames your dread Majesty to most sublimely religious undertakings specially when in you is to a prodigy seen such a Spring of Valour and pious Zeal for to promote vigorously yet mildly the Glory of the Almighty so as that no Posterity will keep it silent but blazon it throughout the whole World to your eternal Glory For can any think that the all-bountiful God has imported all those stupendious Gifts in vain to you No undoubtedly they are destin'd to glorious actings for to fill the World with wonders of your happy Reign in drawing after you to Christs holy Faith the hearts and obstinate Wills of your Subjects Therefore may it please your most Sacred MAJESTY this small Tract of Divine Faith confidently flies to be shelt'red under the Wings of the gracious Patronage of your most Serene MAJESTY now by the Grace and Providence of God Defender of the Faith And now the most invincible HERO the only Glory moving Soul and the most Tutelar Angel of Great Brittain Y'our Prince whose Valour and Conduct is such As none can praise nor yet admire too much In you all 's great great in all Magnificence Your graces and gifts excells all Excellence You by grant of Liberty quite allays The Schisms of our late sore aflicting days Now each of your Subjects to Faith may tread That way which safest him to Bliss may lead Reign long great Prince sure your course shall hold Though ten hundred thousands Whigs cross you should Whose mad vain damn'd contrivings can't hide The woful stings of their dark inner side They like guilty blind buzzards of the night Shrink from the clement terrour of thy might Lo Christ's Faith you maintain and that in sight Of all the World in all the World's despight In glorious Iesus you always confide Who sure for your all safety shall provide God on whom all sublunary things depend Bless your designs and you from all harm defend Sweet Iesus grant that upon Sea and Land All things prove prosperous you take in hand May all the blessings my wishes can invent Prolong your days and fill them with content Therefore let us all your Subjects lift up our eyes hands and hearts to God on high and let us earnestly beseech him mercifully to bless our dread Sovereign Queen MARY with a most holy sweet Princely Graff a rising from so august high and gloa Stock and this for the full comfort and succour of great Brittain to the end that ne'r any other hand than Stuarts should sway the Scepter of this Land to this Prayer let all true Subjects say Amen Amen May it please your Majesty This is the daily Prayer of your most eternally devoted Servant John Everard Vive Iacobe diu dux optime maxime princeps Te divina tegat dextera prosper abi TO HIS GRACE THE Duke of ORMOND May it please your Grace AS my well-intended and honest endeavors were never yet wanting to serve your Grace not only by God's heavenly Inspiration in saving your precious life some years past but even now also by the direction of the same Divine Spirit am endeavouring to prove instrumental in the saving your more precious Soul that immortal Soul which is to survive either in the bosom of Glory or in the flames of the Damn'd to all Eternity This small unpolish'd Tract contriv'd by me for that purpose I present your Grace the whole scope whereof may I hope be not unfitly applied to your present state in matter of true Soul-saving Faith. My Lord it 's notoriously apparent that your moral Principles were all along for Monarchy or Kingly Government all your life being eminently employed in real Loyalty through very many vicisitudes of Fortune and trials of Constancy First having sacrificed your Estate and Ease slighting all Cromwell's tempting offers by a voluntary banishing your self after your Sovereign into Flanders Secondly in gallantly exposing your life in coming and remaining in London some fifteen days incognito striving wisely and warily to pave the way for the Restauration and happy Re-inthroning of King Charles II. of Ever-glorious Memory Dr. Huet and others being put to death for entertaining your Grace Add to this how you being last of all Lord Lieutenant in Ireland you proved most Loyal Wise and Watchful always striving to defend vigorously the Prerogatives of the Crown to render Sedition odious to undeceive the people of those Shams Cheats and Frauds that were palm'd upon them to purge away all venemous humours and distempers which the hellish Faction were always infecting the Subjects with You exposed their wild Artifices to the derision and detestation of the World preserving that Kingdom from fained and false Plots tending to destroy the Peace and Tranquillity of the Land and involve it in Anarchy and Confusion Such was the indefatigable Labour and Vigilance of your Grace to put a stop through your wise Government and prudent Counsels to the restless endeavours of the publick Enemies of Kingly Government I should not forget my Lord your great Vigilance in
divers prudent and religious Counsellors And even Nature gives us a Hieroglyphick hereof in the Bees whose sweet Commonwealth is ordered by one King See Georg. lib. 4. Quemadmodum mirantur omnes circumstant fremitu denso stipantque frequentes They all follow and obey like little nimble Courtiers their little King c. All this considered will not a good Judgment see that to go about to oppose any of these two Powers is to do that which St. Austin said To suffer ones self to run into a folly which hasten'd into the height of Insolency and Madness and in the end find nothing but an Ocean of Disturbances and unavoidable Perdition and Ruin. God bless King IAMES our most gracious Pole-Star no sooner His Royal Brother King Charles the Second of ever glorious Memory died but he publickly went to hear Mass confiding in the mercy of ever blessed Jesus who for him doubtless will all Safety and Prosperity provide O Prodigie never to be duly pondered for which he is through all the World praised and admired Magna est Veritas praevalet We must not meddle with things Sacred but with due reverence we must not confound the true Churches Spiritual Authority with the Regal Civil and Temporal both being distinct in Office and severally given and appointed by the Almighty they are like the two Arms of his Divine Power employed by him and distributed to their several Uses the one exercising the meer Spiritual and Persuasive Power the other the Corporal and Coercive Power the one holding the Pastoral-directing and Soul-corrective Staff the other swaying the Royal and All-subjecting Scepter the one unsheathing the Spiritual Sword cutting off by Authority Disobedient Schismatical or Heretical Sinners from the communion of the faithful Flock and from eternal Life the other brandishing the Kingly Sword cutting off the Lives of the Offenders of established just Laws and even as God holds this World in his hands that the vast Sea and firm Land may not mix together but observe their just bounds lest they should come to another Chaos So he will not have those two sovereign distinct Dignities be blinded into one least Confusion and inevitable Ruine should follow Sure since King Henry the Eighth revolted from the Monarchical Spiritual Power of Christ's Church nothing to this day followed but confusion misery disasters in this brave Kingdom of England by degrees ascending to height of unheard-of Iniquity and Tyranny as to cut off the best of Kings Charles the First assuredly those miscreant Hell-hounds that murdered him would not stick to murder even Divinity This is the woful Catastrophe of disjoyning the Spiritual from Kingly and Monarchical Government Now I must say this much of the Roman Catholick Church that according to St. Paul Rom. 1. was and is yet and will continue in perpetuum famous for Faith Religion Sacrifice and Sacraments throughout the Universe for the sound of her Doctrine hath been heard every where and her Fame to the utmost Parts of the World so as it is the same to say Roman as Catholick or Vniversal whereas there where the Roman Eagles Wings did never spread the Roman Faith did reaching down to all Ages and spreading over all Kingdoms for who can view Christianity in its extent but must consider how all Kingdoms and Nations were by Roman Emissaries converted to the true ancient Faith of Iesus we need not make any further Enquiries but embrace and walk confidently in those plain Paths in which Fools cannot err following the foot-steps of the true Flock and the heavenly good Pastor where alone Sanctity Verity and all Virtues inerrability infallibility and perpetuity are found for when where or how she ever err'd or fail'd no Authentick Author have yet related no faithful candid Writer recorded nor have any of those watchful Luminaries and Sentinels whom God hath placed in his Church ever given the least alarm of Innovations gotten into the same only Schismaticks and Hereticks combining conspiring and reviling and in vain CHAP. II. Of the CHURCH THe Church of Christ is one Society or Company of Men link'd and combin'd together in one and the same profession of Christian Faith Religion Sacrifice and use of Sacraments under lawful Pastors and under one supreme visible Head Pastor or conservator of Peace Union and Verity This is a true notion or definition of the Church established by Christ and propagated by the blessed Apostles here the true nature essence and constitution of a Church is manifested and doth truly distinguish it from all Hereticks and Schismaticks vain Pretences whatsoever for they are apparently excluded from Christ's Church and she appears glorious without spot wrinkle or any such thing she is described in holy Writ by the Emblems of a City orderly govern'd by one chief supreme Governour or of an Army govern'd by that Military Discipline that requires subjection to one Generalissimo the King had placed over it of the Body each Member in due subjection to its visible Head on Earth and the Pope in point of Government rul'd by his invisible Head in the highest Heaven Hence it followeth by order of good consequence that Divine Faith and Belief wherein consisteth as well the ground and foundation of our eternal welfare as also the Fruit and entire Utility of Christ's coming into this World is to be had in the Church made plain by the Prophet Esay 45. he foreshewed the wonderful Providence of God in providing for Christians so manifest a way of Direction for their Faith and Religion as that the most simple and unlearned Man in the World should not be able but out of wilfulness to go astray therein his words directed to the Gentiles are these Take comfort and fear not behold your God shall come and save you then shall the Eyes of the Blind be opened and the Ears of the Deaf shall be restored and there shall be a Path and way and it shall be called The holy way and it shall be to you a direct way as Fools shall not be able to err therein Sure the plain and direct way mentioned by Esay wherein no simple or ignorant Men can err is the general Body of Christ's visible Church upon Earth planted by his Apostles throughout all Nations and Countries and continuing by Succession unto the World's end in which Church who remaineth and believeth all things taught therein cannot at all fall into any Error of Faith for that this Church is guided by Christ's Spirit and therefore in no ways subject or within the compass of Error For which cause St. Paul ultimo calls it The Pillar and Firmament of Truth And the same Church is so conspicuous and evidently manifest that it is more easie to find it out than it is to see the Sun or Moon when it shineth brightest at Noon or to behold the greatest Hill or Mountain in the World and for more declaration of this it 's to be noted That in the time from Christ's ascension until the 13
th year of Nero's Region who first of the Roman Emperours began open Persecution against Christians and put to death St. Peter and St. Paul In this time I say of Toleration under the Roman Empire which continued the space of 36 years the blessed Apostles and Disciples had preached one uniform Gospel and Faith throughout all the World as may appear by their Acts recorded and by the peculiar Testimony of St. Paul to the Romans Rom. 1. which thing being most miraculously done by the Divine Power and Virtue of Christ Bishops Pastors and Governours being ordained in every Country and Church for guiding and directing the same by themselves and their Successors in perpetuum this I say being once brought to pass then the blessed Apostles for preventing of new false Doctrines that might afterward arise most earnestly exhorted and with all vehemency called upon the people to stand fast in the Doctrine Documents and Traditions then received to hold firmly the Faith and Doctrine already delivered as a Depositum or Treasure committed to them to be safely kept till the last day And above all other things they forewarned them to beware of new fangled Teachers whom they called Hereticks who should break from the Unity of the Universal Body already made and knit together and should devise new Glosses Expositions and Interpretations of Scripture bringing in new Sences Doctrines Opinions and damnable Divisions to the utter renting of Christ's Church Kingdom City already builded and all this to the perdition of infinite Souls Hence it is that St. Paul Tim. 1. pronounceth peremptorily of a contentious and heretical Man that he is damned by the testimony of his own Judgment or Conscience for that he abandoned the common direct publick way which all Men might see devising particular Paths and pernicious Turnings to himself and the ancient Fathers of the Primitive Church disputing against the same kind of People defended always that their Error was of Malice and wilful Blindness and not at all of Ignorance for they will not behold the plain direct sure safe unerring and infallible way among Christians wherein no man can err tho' never so simple but only of blind wilful and obstinate malice Yet by promises of Christ himself in the Gospel we are absolutely ascertained that the same visible Congegation Body Common-wealth Church Kingdom and Government which was established by Christ and propagated by the blessed Apostles shall endure and continue by Succession of Followers in perpetuum and that no new Teacher of later Doctrines dissenting from the first shall ever prevail against it albeit divers Errors and Heresies have sprung up and made great blustering and disturbance for a time yet have they been repress'd and condemn'd by the same Church and her visible Pastors and Doctors in the end For Example-sake in the first Age there arose up certain seditious fellows among the Iews as Simon Magus Nicolaus Cerinthus Ebion Meander c. that were Hereticks against these stood in defence St. Peter who broke the Neck and Black Art of Simon Magus even by his Prayer And after him St. Martialis St. Dionysius Areopagita St. Ignatius Policarpus and others In the second Age rose up Basilides Cerdon Marchion Valentinus Tacianus Apelles Montanus and divers others against these stood in battel Iustin Martyr Dionysius Bishop of Corinth St. Ireneus Clemens Alexandrinus Tertullian with many others their equals And so all along downward from Age to Age unto cursed Luther's days whatsoever Heresie or new false Opinions hath been raised contrary to the general consent of Christ's universal Church it hath been check'd controul'd silenc'd and condemn'd by vigilant Pastors and Doctors chief Governours of the same Body by general Assemblies and Councils gathered from time to time as occasion serv'd in all Parts of the World Whereby it 's evidently most manifest that he who relieth upon this general consent of Christ's Church and the judgment thereof cannot err in matters of Belief but walketh in that sure secure and infallible Path wherein 't is said in Isaiah 35.8 That a very Fool cannot go amiss Hence one may be persuaded of the Churches perspicuity and infallibility in her Traditions and Doctrines through God's Divine Providence which did and will always preserve it from corruption having a warrant for it out of Scripture Isa. 59.21 My Spirit which is upon thee and the words which I have put into thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy Seed nor out of the mouth of thy Seed's Seed from henceforth for ever And St. Austin said Ep. 118. That to dispute against a living multitude of the whole Church is insolent madness And to say she may err through ignorance wilfulness or negligence is most absurd and blasphemous she having Christ for her Head and the holy Ghost for her Guide and Spirit who was sent by our Saviour to teach it all Truth wherefore to tax that heavenly Government with errors in Faith is either to tax the holy Ghost with them or to blaspheme against Christ our blessed Redeemer by saying He has not kept his word and promise in sending the holy Ghost to teach his Church all truth for ever King IAMES in a publick Speech made in his Parliament acknowledged the Church of Rome to be our Mother-Church saying I acknowledge the Church of Rome to be our Mother-Church This you may find in Stow pag. 840. Sure the Sacred Blood of his glorious Mother Queen Mary the ever blessed Martyr ran in the Veins of this her Royal Son King Iames who would do wonderful things in favour of the Roman Catholick Church if it were not for the black contriving of the Gun-powder Plot by the Matchevilian Policy of crooked Cicil only for to hinder King Iames from favouring the Church of Christ Sanguis mantirum semen Ecclesiae See Osburn Sure there is no other certain Testimony to any prudent considering Man no firm Ground or Motive to believe that the Primitive Church received her Doctrine from the blessed Apostles these from Christ Christ from God the Father nor any way to bring it down from those times to these our days but only the Tradition of the Church from hand to hand For we may observe three properties of the Doctrine of Divine Faith to be true to be revealed of God to be preached and delivered by the Apostles The highest ground by which a Man is perswaded that his Faith is true is the Authority of God speaking and revealing it the highest proof by which a Man is assured that his Faith is revealed is the Authority of Christ and his blessed Apostles who delivered the same as descending from God but the highest ground that moveth a Man to believe that his Faith was preached by the blessed Apostles is the perpetual constant Tradition of the Church succeeding the blessed Apostles unto this day assuring him so much according to the saying of Tertul. depraes c. 21. 37. who made his Ladder
of Belief thus What I believe I received from the present Church the present from the Primitive the Primitive from the blessed Apostles these from Christ Christ from God and God the prime supreme Fountain of Verity from no other Fountain different from his infallible Knowledge So as we must cleave to the present Church firmly believing the constant Tradition thereof successively So as if any have taught contrary points of Faith than what is revealed the Catholick Church hath condemned them for Hereticks which is a sufficient proof that until such heretical Spirits some one or more Traditions of the Church were universally believed As for Example The Doctrine of Christ's consubstantiality or being of the same substance with the Father no Man of reason will deny but that it was generally believed in the Church before the days of the Arch-heretick Arrius and that the Council of Nice condemning him was a sufficient proof that the Doctrine he opposed was the Universal Tradition of the Church by force and vertue whereof he was overthrown and not by Scripture only The various ridiculous attempts of Protestants had hitherto no better success than Achelous had in fighting with Hercules who took upon him several shapes hoping in one or other to overcome him but was by Hercules beaten through all his shapes and forced at last to take his own proper shape and yield Even so Protestants fighting against Roman Catholicks are daily by them beaten thro' all their changes forms shifts and inventions through which they wander yet are forced at last to take their true form of Protestancy which is obstinately to deny and even protest against manifest Truth against general Councils holy Fathers and consent of all Nations But I do heartily pray that it would please God to bring them to the true ancient heavenly form which they ought to have which is of Roman Catholick and not perpetually roul like the blinded Sodomites wander and grope in the darkness of uncertainty and instabibity until eternal Torments seize upon them One great egregious fraud you may observe amongst the Canonical Protestants viz. That when they dispute against Roman Catholicks they have recourse to the Scripture and will be tryed by that only but when they dispute against Puritans and other Sectaries who can deal with them at their own Weapon the Scripture only then they have their recourse to the Fathers and the old Tradition of the Church just using the very same Arguments against Sectaries that Catholicks do against them particularly in the baptising of Infants against the Anabaptists and the keeping of the first day of the week holy against the Sabbatarians who would have Saturday for either of which there is not any command in Scripture And shall Tradition serve them in those cases and not in others And this shift is such a one as St. Augustin Psal. 80. witnesses to be common to Foxes and now to Hereticks for even as the Foxes have two holes to save themselves by one when they are driven from the other so Hereticks whom the Scripture figured out by Foxes Cant. 2.15 have a double passage to save themselves by the one when they are assaulted by the other so that he that will catch them must set his Nets before both issues and besiege both passages As ever yet to this day the excellent Writers among Catholicks have done and have left them neither Tradition nor Scripture whereby to escape Confusion and the shame of Schism and Heresie for it is but folly to pretend to secure by human crafty Arts that which God is resolved to destroy AN APPENDIX PRotestants corrupts Scripture in their Translations most shamefully wickedly and impiously for to make good and justifie their Schism To make Catholicks Idolaters they in the year 1562. corrupted the Scripture 2. Cor. 6. How agreeth the Temple of God with Idols They translated and printed in the English Bible How agreeth the Temple of God with Images The same wickedness they practise in 1. Cor. 5. If any that is called a Brother be a Fornicator Covetous or server of Idols they printed in the year 1562. Or a worshipper of Images It were too tedious a business to specifie all their false and absurd Translations by which they brought the word of God to be ridiculous to the world Priest in their Language is Elder Church Synagogue holy Ghost holy Wind Soul Carcass Christ Anointed Lord Baal Eucharist Thanksgiving Baptism Washing Hell Grave Devil Slanderer Beelzebub Lord of a Fly Angels Messengers So that an exhortation to Devotion in the Protestant Scripture-Language will move Men more to Laughter than to Piety whereas in the Catholick Translation and Phrase it moves to compunction Suppose a Catholick Priest should exhort the People thus I who am a Priest placed in the Church by the holy Ghost for the feeding of your Souls do denounce to you in the name of Christ our Lord That unless you come to the Eucharist with more Devotion and perform better your Promises made to God in Baptism ye shall be condemned Body and Soul to Hell and your Portion shall be with the Devil I say with Beelzebub and his Angels Sure this Exhortation in the Protestant Language of Scripture goes very absurdly Let us suppose that a young spruse Protestant Minister should step up to the Pulpit and repeat the Priests Exhortation in his own corrupt Phrase thus I that am your Elder placed in the Synagogue by the holy Wind for the feeding of your Carcasses do denounce unto you in the name of the Anointed our Baal that unless you come to the holy Thanksgiving with more Devotion and perform better your Promises made to God in washing ye shall be condemned Body and Carcass to the Grave and your Portion shall be with the Slanderers I say with the Lord of a Fly and his Messengers How therefore can any Man of reason and judgment joyn in Communion with such impious Sectaries that thus corrupts the holy Word of God for to keep Souls in Schism Heresie and Damnation Away away Fie fie on such hellish Practises The main thing Protestants deny is the Antiquity of the Doctrine of the Roman Church saying most impudently That the Primitive Fathers taught the Protestant Doctrine and not that which the Roman Church now-adays teacheth which is found to be most false by the examination of Particulars Let us take a view of the Roman Doctrines as they were held in S. Augustine's days and the four first General Councils which were held between the year 315 and 457 to which four Councils Protestants give much honour and subscribe to their Decrees Sure in those times the Church believed in the true and real Presence of the eating with the Mouth the Body of Christ in the Eucharist as Zuinglius the Prince of the Sacramentarians acknowledge in these words From the time of St. Augustin the opinion of Corporal Flesh had really got the mastery St. Aug. lib. de vera falsa Religione cap.
Sacraments Where that Children who cannot yet believe or answer for themselves are to be Baptized c. And so many other things of this nature which makes us sufficiently understand they ruine themselves by their own Hands and Weapon the Bible which they force and wrest to fit it to their depraved purposes Alas poor deluded Pretenders To whom do you trust your Souls for Salvation your Honours and Lives having blindly rejected the old Belief and Truths of your Fore-fathers upon a bare pretext of Scripture cast and moulded on the heads of changeable Men Let us therefore follow and embrace the Generality the Antiquity and common Consent let 's hold what is held every where and always and by all so it be authorised by the Divine Law and the Catholick Church's Tradition Let us now see what the Ministers of Protestantism oppose against so many infallible Proofs to cover their want of Antiquity Mission Succession Miracles Sanctity Judgment and Reason They cease not to buzz out every where a false pretext of Scripture 〈…〉 ich verily is the greatest illusion that can be imaginable for these pitiful ones seeing themselves batter'd on every side from the beginning of Reformation know well in their consciences that the Scripture is against them yet say they to mock at the faith of Mankind and lead Souls to Atheism We must avoid the decision of a Power lively and lawful we must only take colour from the holy Text we will make it say what we list we will maintain nothing is to be believed but what is written we will disguise it with glosses and consequences to catch these who seem to have reason and wit. Behold the only means to colour their pretences Who are endued with sufficient and solid Judgment cannot but consider and discover how deceitful weak and ruinous their Foundation is Now behold the powerful and invincible Reasons which made St. Austin resolve upon the Religion we profess Many great Reasons said he with much reason keep me in the obedience of the Catholick Church the consent of People and Nation 〈…〉 hold me the Authority of the same 〈…〉 which is risen up by Miracles m 〈…〉 ed with Hope augmented by Charity established by its Antiquity the succession of Bishops holds me therein which begins in the Seat and Authority of St. Peter to whom God recommended the Care of his Flock is maintained to this day Lastly the name Catholick holds me to it adding Contra Epist. Manichaei He would not believe the Gospel it self if he were not convinced by the Authority of the Church What can be more clear Yet tho' the Scripture doth so straitly recommend unto us in the practise of Humility the seat of Grace not to make our selves over-wise or able Rom. 12. Not to rest upon our own proper Judgment or Prudence Prov. 35. To hearken to our Fore-fathers to obey Pastors who have lawful Succession to work out our Salvation in fear and trembling What may a Man think of a Protestant Sect which authorizeth a peculiar Spirit which hath ever been the Seminary of all Schisms and Disorders in Church and State which without distinction puts the Scripture into all hands to judge of Points of Faith Verily from hence it is an admirable thing to behold how the petty Spirits of silly Artificers Mechanicks and even simple Women busie themselves with their Bible and to what degree of Pride they come when abused by some imaginary Text of Scripture they are puffed up with their own poor Ability flattering themselves deluded Souls by some Text not rightly understood with assurance of Salvation and Predestination in the greatest Exorbitancies and neglects of Life What Pride more irregular than this to see Men not content with the Religion practised in England's three Conversions doing all they can to deifie their own Opinions What Pharisee ever came near this height of Pride Yet the Bible they daily read and use Verily I plainly see they must hereafter live in Re-union it is the Spirit of God that commands it and will effect it in due time Whereas now a days Shism and Faction has evidently prevailed over Unity Pride over humble Submission to reveal'd Truth and ill stubborn Nature over real Truth CHAP. V. Plain Testamonies of holy Scripture both Old and New for the Church's Infallibility WE read that the Jewish Synagogue had a Supream Court of Judicature to end all arising difficult controversies from whence there was no Appeal because God promised that the Judge there should shew them the Sentence and threatned Death to those who should do presumptiously and not harken to the Priest or Judge Deut. 17.8 nay Christ himself commanded the people even in his time to do as they said who sate in Moses Chair but not to do as they did Matth. 23.3 So that till the spirit of God forsook the Synagogue it was to be obeyed and by consequence was secured from giving a false Sentence in necessaries to Salvation And can we imagine that God would leave his Spouse his Church without this so great a priviledge to whom a Covenant with better promises hath been given Heb. 8. The Prophesies that speak of the Churches the New Law tells us that there shall be in those daies a way of Holiness that the way-faring Men tho' Fools shall not Err therein Isa. 35.8 Furthermore the Prophesies tells that God had made a Covenant with his Church that his Spirit shall be upon her and his words which he had put into her mouth shall not depart out of her mouth nor out of the mouth of her Seed nor out of the mouth of her Seed's Seed for ever saith the Lord Isa. 59.20.21 Therefore no Errors Read besides the 60. Chapter of Isa. Say that all Nations that will not serve Her shall perish she will Suck the Breasts of Kings that her Sun shall not go down nor her Moon withdraw it self but the Lord shall be to her an everlasting light sure this is to secure her from teaching false Doctrine or falling into Idolatry the most abhorred of all Vices From the New-Testament Christ promises that he will Build his Church upon a Rock and that the Gates of Hell which the Fathers interpret Error and Heresie shall not prevail against it Matth. 16.18 That he will be with her Pastors and Preachers even to the end of the World Amen Matth. 28.20 That he will send them another Comforter the spirit of Truth to abide with them for ever Iohn 14.16 To teach them all things and to bring all that he has taught them to their remembrance ver 26. And that he shall guide them in all truth chap. 16. v. 15. Moreover he has laid an Injunction upon all persons to hear his Church under the severe Sentence of being look'd upon as Heathens and Publicans Matth. 18.17 Christ told his Disciples and their Successors that who heard them heard him Luke 10.16 he commanded to teach all Nations and told them that they who believed should be
saved and that they who believed not should be damn'd Math. 28.19 Mark 16.15 O Soveraign and Heavenly Promises Priviledges and Graces of the true Catholick Roman Churches Infallibility Add to this how the Apostles tell us that the Chuch of the living God is the Pillar and ground of truth 1 Tim 3.15 Sure we may securely rely upon her and they assure us that Christ gave his Son Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers for the perfection of the Saints that henceforth we may be no more Children tossed to and fro c. Eph. 4. Are not these plain and wondrous texts of Scripture and cannot you see clearly an infallible assistance promised to the directing and guiding men that they should not be carried about with every wind of false Doctrine by the slght and wiles of men and cunning craftiness whereby some lie in wait for to deceive No other Congregation under the Sun but the Roman Catholick Church can stand up or pretend to these great Priviledges it follows that Protestants are as they aver fallible saying so they tell all the World an Infallible truth and thereupon we may be infallibly assured that they always are failable and fallible And hence it follows whilst Protestants themselve declare they are fallible they can no ways pretend to be the infallible Church of Christ For if the Word of God should have the first place and serve as a basis for the perpetuating of a Church infallible as it is most reasonable I incessantly challenge Ministers to shew but one only Text of Scripture express formal and irreprovable contrary to the Articles of the Roman Catholick Church sure this they could never yet perform for hitherto they have produc'd nothing but Semblances Stories Lyes and Railings for to delude weak inferior Judgments of the giddy Multitude being unable to make them good before considering and learned understanding Men And if a lawful Succession sacred Mission Character and real Consecration of true Pastors be required which is absolutely necessary for the establishment of an Ecclesiastical Hierarchy the Roman Church can shew that from the Apostles hitherward our Popes and other inferior Pastors do all to this day successively follow one another above two hundred and thirty Popes Magna est veritas prevalet If the Authority of Councils be requisite which are the Sinews Mouths and living Oracles of Religion in the Revolution of sixteen Ages all Councils will be found call'd for to confirm the Roman Church confute and condemn her Adversaries If the Interpretations of Holy Doctors who have been the Lights of their times Instruments of the Holy Ghost and Secretaries of the Divinity they all with one accord and consent speak for the Roman Church condemning loudly the Errors and Schism of new Sects If Miracles which were wrought in all Ages and in the sight of all Mankind with so much approbation that they have evicted Confession even from the most Incredulous and Reverence from the most Stupid Millions and unfeigned Miracles were and are daily wrought in confirmation of the verity of the Roman Catholick Religion So as that there is not a Country wherein the Roman Catholick Religion is profess'd which doth not produce Testimonies so prudently and evidently credible of true Super-natural Miracles that to deny them were to destroy all Humane Faith. Did not Simon Magus impiously boast by the Spirit of his private Fancy that he would do wonders as St. Peter did who provok'd by the said Simon Magus did prove that he had the Spirit of God by raising a Child from Death which the other with all his Black Magick Art could not do yet boldly challenging St. Peter to fly from the Capitol to Mount Aventin while he was doing so by the Prayer of St. Peter loe he came tumbling down and brake his Leg whereof he died soon after Even so that false Apostle Calvin for the credit of his new Damn'd Doctrine he would fain make a shew to the People of doing a Miracle hir'd one that was Sick to counterfeit himself Dead who when Calvin should speak certain words was to arise as it were from the Dead but he not stirring was found dead indeed Withall mark how that the Son of Calvin being bitten by a Mad Dog his Father not being able to cure him sent him to St. Hubert in Arden where the Body of that Saint is kept with Veneration and frequent Miracles wrought thereby where he was perfectly made whole whereupon abjur'd his Fathers Sect became a Roman Catholick and lived and died so Yet Protestants object its strange themselves never see any Miracle being so desirous and miracles so frequent as we pretend Herod was also very desirous to see a Miracle but his curiosity excluded him from that favour Men who believe nothing but what they see deserve not to see Miracles because they are obstinate Yet there are few Protestants who do not see Miracles what greater Miracle than that all Catholicks turn not Protestants If the continual Victory over natural and vehement Inclinations doth require a Miracle of super-natural Grace we are as naturally and vehemently inclined to their Religion as we are to our own Liberties and Pleasures What greater Miracle than that Roman Catholick sober and learned Men should be perswaded that their Senses are deceived in the Sacrament of the Altar and that they should suffer death for the Mystery of Transubstantiation There must be effects of super-natural Grace and not of Ignorance or Obstinacy which cannot be laid to our charge seeing we submit our Judgments to every definition of the Roman Church and our very Adversaries know we are learned Men. Sanctity of Life is a super-natural sign and effect of Grace and of the true Church This Sanctity is evident in the Roman Church Not to speak of Antonies Hilarions or Stillitas let 's draw nearer our times and consider the Lives of St. Bernard St. Dominick St. Francis St. Vincent Ferrer St. Francis of Paula St. Charles Barromeus St. Teresa St. Francis Xaverius St. Anthony of Padua and many more who were known Roman Catholicks professing the same Tenets and Obedience to the Pope which we now maintain against pretended Reformation And not to speak only of the Dead let any indifferent Person consider how in all Vocations of both Clergy and Laity we have many Persons eminent in Virtue far above that degree of morality Let our English Protestant be pleased to weigh with himself whether young Ladies of as great Quality Fortunes and Gifts of Nature as England doth afford could forsake their native Country Kindred and Friends contemn all pleasures of the World and themselves by embracing a religious poor and penitent Life in perpetual Inclosure submitting their wills to the Obedience and Humour of a Woman could this I say be performed by so many so continually and with so great alacrity and content of mind without a miraculous and super-natural Grace of the Almighty In my judgment it is a greater Miracle