Answer that it is a 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 When with that Church which is 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 Sacraments but what was sent unto us from the 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 Chrrst of his Holy Gospel and his most Holy Sacraments Then Secuâ—…y 〈◊〉 St. Gregory being Bishop of Rome did senâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Realm two other Holy Monks St. Austin 〈◊〉 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. Eleutherius 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 pondered 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 Honors 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-Governor of his Church said unto him Tibi dabo Claves Regni Coelorum c. That is To thee will I give the the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven c. Now it would be considered by your Wisdoms whewhether 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 assured and perswade your selves that you have not sufficient Authority to make her Highness Supream Head of the Church of Christ here in this Realm The Second Point of Spiritual Government is gathered out of these words of our Saviour Christ spoken to St. Peter in the 20th Chapter of St. John's Gospel Pasce Pasce Pasce That is Feed my Lambs Feed my Lambs Feed my Sheep Now whether your Honors have Authority by this Court of Parliament to say unto our Sovereign Lady Pasce Pasce Pasce c. That is to say Feed you the Flock of Christ you must shew your Warrant and Commission for it And further it is evident that Her Majesty being a Woman by Birth and Nature is not qualified by God's word to feed the Flock of Christ appears most plainly by St. Paul in this wise Taceant Mulieres in Ecclesiis sicut lex dicit Ler Women be silent in the Church for it is not Lawful for them to speak but to be in subjection as the Law saith And it followeth in the same place Turpe est enim Mulieres loqui in Ecclesiâ that is for that it is not seemly for a Woman to speak in the Church And in his second Epistle to Timothy Dominari in virum sed esse silentes that is to say I allow not that a Woman be a Teacher or to be above her Husband but to keep her self in silence Therefore it appears likewise as your Honors have not Authority to give her Highness this second Point of Spiritual Government to Feed the Flock of Christ So by St. Pauls Doctrine her Highness may not intermeddle her self with the same And therefore She cannot be Supream Head of the Church here in England The Third chief Point of Spiritual Government is gathered out of those words of our Saviour Christ spoken to St. Peter in the 22th Chapter of St. Lukes Gospel Ego rogavi pro Te ut non deficiat fides Tua Tu aliquando conversus confirma fratres Tuos That is I Prayed for Thee that thy Faith shall not fail and thou being converted Confirm thy Brethren and ratifie them in wholesome Doctrine and Administration of the Sacraments which are the Holy Instruments of God so Instituted and Ordained for our Sanctification that without them his Grace is not to be received But to Preach or to administer the Sacraments a Woman may not be admitted to do neither may she be Supream of Christ's Church The Fourth and Last chief point of Spiritual Government which I promised to Note unto you doth consist in the Excommunication and Spiritual Punishment of all such as shall approve themselves not to be the Obedient Children of Christ's Church Of which Authority our Saviour Christ speaks in St. Matthew's Gospel in the 18th Chapter saying If your Brother offending will not hear your charitable admonition whether secretly at first or yet before one or two Witnesses then we must complain of him to the Church and If he will not hear the Church let him be taken as an Heathen or Publican So the Apostle did Excommunicate the
he is named before the Church in the Confession of our Faith Of which incomparable Excellency of the Church so beloved of Christ and so inseparably joyned in Marriage with him if the Hereticks of our time had any sense or consideration they would neither think their contemptible Company or Congregation to be the glorious Spouse of our Lord nor teach that the Church may Err that is to say may be divorced from her Spouse for Idolatry Superstition Heresie or other Abominations For this is as much as to say That this his Wife so dear and so praised here is in truth become a very Whore By this it evidently appears how just it is that all Hereticks should be Excluded from all hope of Salvation they being so injurious to Christ in thus reviling the Church his Spouse and accusing her of such horrid crimes It would require a large Volume to treat of all the passages of Scripture which speak of this Sacred Authority of our Mother the Church and the certain Damnation incurred by all such as refuse to hear and obey her to manifest which I conceive what has been here already said may suffice as also to confute that horrid false Opinion generally held in this Nation to the Destruction of many Souls to wit That all the multiplicity of Sects in this Nation may yet be capable of Salvation if they lead a Moral good Life which how untrue it is these following Testimonies of the Fathers conformable to the Testimonies of the Holy Scriptures will make it evidently appear CHAP. III. Testimonies of the Fathers shewing their Affection and Zeal to Catholick Unity and their detestation of Schisms and Divisions SAint Augustin says of the Donatists Epist. 48 That they conceived it a thing indifferent unto what Party they joyned themselves supposing that they were Christians and therefore they remained fixed to that Party in which they were born Now unto these St. Augustin and the rest of the Provincial Council at Cirta in Nuâ—…idia sent this following Declaration Aug. Epist. 152. Whosoever is separated from this Catholick Church amongst whom they reckoned the Sect of the Donatists how laudably soever he may think himself to live shall be excluded from Eternal Life and remain obnoxious to God's heavy Wrath as being guilty of the heinous crime of being divided from the Unity of Christ And as for the Sacraments received by them in that Separation the Declaration goes on thus You being fixed in the Sacriledge of Schism partake of the Sacraments of Christ to your own judgment or condemation Which Sacraments were profitable and very advantageous to you when in Catholick peace you had Christ for your Head where Charity covered a multitude of sins Again St. Augustin says of them De Bapt. lib. 1. chap. 8. Those whom the Donatists heal of the Wound of Idolatry and Infidelity they themselves wound more dangerously with the wound of Schism 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 Likewise in his Book against Petilian lib. 3. cap. 5. he saith No Man preaching the Name of Christ and carrying or ministring the Sacraments of Christ is to be followed against the Unity of Christ. And again writing against the Adversary of the Law and the Prophets lib. 1. cap. 17. he hath these words If he hear not the Church let him be to thee as an Heathen or Publican which is more grievous than if he was strucken through with a Sword consumed by Flames exposed to wild Beasts c. And again August de Symb. ad Catech. lib. 4. cap. 10. For this cause says St. Austin our Christian Creed concludes with the Articles touching the Church because if any one be found separated from her he shall be excluded out of the number of God's Children neither shall he have God for his Father who will not have his Church for his Mother It will nothing profit such an one that he hath been Orthodox or sound in his Belief done so many Good Woorks c. Lastly In another place Lib. de Past. cap. 12. he saith The Devil saith not Let them be Donatists and not Arians for whether they be here or there they belong to him that grathers without making a difference Let him adore Idols saith the Devil he is mine Let him remain in the Superstition of the Jews he is mine Let him quit Unity and pass over to this or that or any Heresie he is mine So likewise the Ancient Father St. Irenaeus lib. 4. cap. 62. God saith he will judge those which make Schisms in the Church Ambitious men who have not the honor of God before their eyes but rather embracing their own interest than the Unity of the Church for small and light causes divide the great and glorious Body of Christ. In like manner St. Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria Hist. lib. 6. cap. 45. as Eusebius witnesseth writing to Novatian saith A Man ought rather to endure All Things than to consent to the Division of the Church of God since Martyrdom to which Men expose themselves to hinder the dismembring of the Church is no less glorious than what a Man suffers for refusing to sacrifice to Idols Also St. Cyprian Lib. de Unitat. Ecles in his Book of the Unity of the Church Do they think saith he that Christ is amongst 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 inexplicable and inexcusable crime of Schism is not purged away even by death it self That Man cannot be a Martyr that is not in the Church And again he saith He shall not have God for his Father that would not have the Church for his Mother So likewise St. Pacianus in one of his Epistles Epist. 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 whosever will be a Martyr must be a portion St. Chrysostom in one of his Homilies Hom. 11. in Ephes. tells us There is nothing doth so sharply provoke the wrath of God as the Division of the Church insomuch as though we should have performed all other sorts of Good Things yet we shall incur a punishment no less cruel by dividing the Unity and Fulness of the Church than those have done who pierced and divided Christ's own Body And therefore the Fourth Council of Carthage declares Can. 1. That out of the Catholick Church there is no Salvation St. Fulgentius likewise saith De Remiss Peccat cap. 22.
Creed lib. 2. cap. 4. pag. 165. Sundry saith he in profession Protestants in eagerness of opposition to the Papists affirm That the Church or Spiritual Pastors must then only be believed then only obeyed when they give Sentence according to the evident and express Law of God made evident to the Heart and Consciences of such as must believe and obey them And this in one word is to take away all Authority of Spiritual Pastors and to deprive them of all Obedience Unto whom doubtless God by his Word hath given some special Authority and Right to exact some peculiar obedience of their Flock Now if the Pastor be then only to be obeyed when he brings evident commission out of Scripture for those particulars unto which he demands Belief or Obedience what obedience do men perform to him more than to any other man whatsoever For whosoever he be that can shew us the express undoubted Command of God it must be obeyed of all But whilst it is thus obeyed it only not he that sheweth it unto us is obeyed And if this were all the Obedience that I owe unto others I were no more bound to believe or obey any other man than he is bound to obey or believe me The Flock no more bound to obey the Pastors than the Pastors the Flock Yet certainly God who hath set Kingdoms in Order is not the Author of such confusion in the Spiritual Regiment of his Church Thus Doctor Jackson tying All to Obedience or Submission to the judgment of their Spiritual Superiors See lastly Doctor Ferne. pag. 48. The Church of Christ saith he is a Society or Company under a Regiment Discipline and Government and the Members constituting that Society are either Persons Taught Guided and Governed or Persons Teaching Guiding Governing And this in order to preserve all in Unity and to advance every Member of this visible Society to an effectual and real participation of Grace and Union with Christ the Head And therefore upon no less account is Obedience due unto them Ephes. 4. 11 12 13 16. and Heb. 13. 17. And he that will not hear the Church is to be as an Heathen and Publican Matth. 18. 17. Thus Doctor Ferne. Now in Confirmation of what has been here said by these Protestants concerning Obedience to Church-Authority See St. Augustin in his Book De utilitate credendi of the benefit of believing the Church written to his Friend Honoratus led away by many extravagant Manichaean Dotages advising him Submission of judgment to Church-Authority There is nothing saith he more easie than not only to say but also to think or conceive that we have found out the Truth but in reality it is very difficult Aug. de utilitat credendi Cap. 10. And Chap. 12. who is there but even of a mean capacity that does not plainly see it to be more secure for all such as are not profoundly knowing in Divine matters to obey the Precepts of the wise than to rely upon their own judgments For if this be convenient to be observed in lesser matters as in Merchandizing Tilling of Ground c. certainly much more in concerns of Religion For human Affairs are far more easily understood than the Divine Things of Faith Which being more sacred and sublime as they ought to be more reverenced and esteemed by us so the danger and offence is greater if we fail in the true notion of them And Chap. 17. he argues thus If every Discipline although never so mean and easie to be understood requires a Master or Teacher what can be a more temerarious Pride than not to learn the Books of the Divine Sacraments or Mysteries from the Interpreters of them And Chap. 7. No man that is not a Poet presumes to read Terence without a Master And will you venture upon the reading of those Books which by the Confession of almost all man-kind are accounted Holy and full of Divine Mysteries and presume to give a judgment of the sense of them without a Master And Chap. 16. he thus goes on Since it is so difficult a thing to come to the knowledge of God by Reason Do you think that all men are capable of comprehending the reasons which are produced to guide mens minds to this Divine Knowledge Thus he to induce his Friend Honoratus in such Divine matters to yield the guidance of himself to Church-Authority And then the Church Authority he would have him Submit to he describes thus Chap. 17. Which Church saith he hath obtained Supream Authority from the Apostolick See by a Succession of Bishops Hereticks in vain barking against it Who were lastly condemned partly by the judgment of the People partly by the Gravity or Authority of Councils and partly also by the Majesty or Greatness of Miracles Now not to submit to this Authority were the height of Impiety or a precipitant arrogancy For if there be no other way of obtaining Wisdom and Salvation but by Faith preparing and disposing Reason what could more manifest our Ingratitude unto God for his Divine aid and assistance than to make it our endeavours to resist the forementioned Authority Lastly he concludes with him thus Chap. II. If now you have been sufficiently toss'd and wearied out with variety of Disputes and desire to put an end to them follow the Direction of the Catholick Church or the way of Catholick Discipline which his derived from Christ himself to us by his Apostles and is to continue in the same Channel of Succession unto the End of the World Thus St. Augustin concerning the Security of adhering to Church-Authority Now because in the precedent Historical Collections there is so often mention made of the great contests that hapned concerning the Sacrament of our Lord's Supper I will endeavour to give some satisfaction and to settle mens minds in the true notion of this Doctrin of Faith CHAP. VIII What Ways the Church has made use of to settle mens minds in the Doctrin of the Sacrament of the Eucharist or our 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 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 denyed 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 now Protestant Grounds thinking his a Doctrin 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 Tenent desiring a reversing by some new
words of our Saviour John 6. 55. My Flesh is meat indeed and my Blood is drink indeed Where he writes thus The following words are these as my Living Father sent me and I live by the Father so he that eats or feeds upon me shall live by me Our Saviour has taught us by these Misterious Words That we are to be as Members in his Body the Church under him or connected to him as our Head feeding upon his Flesh and not deserting his Unity Now that which makes us his Members is this Unity Which Unity is caused by charity diffused into our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given to us It is therefore the Spirit to wit of Charity that gives life making us living Members Nor does this Spirit make any living Members but such as are in the Body of the Church which receives life from the same Spirit For the Spirit or Soul which is in man does not give life to a member separated from the Body because it is not joyned by Union to the same Body The design of this Discourse is to move us to love Unity and fear a separation from the Church For a Christian ought to fear nothing more than to be separated from the Body of Christ to wit his Church Since such as are separated from this his Mystical Body are not his Members and not being his Members they cannot receive life from his Spirit Now the Apostle assures us That such as have not the Spirit of Christ belong not to him And a little after in the same Homily he goes on thus The Faithful know Christ's Body if they neglect not to be his Body They must be his Body if they will live of the Spirit of Christ. For none live of the Spirit of Christ but his Body the Church Consider well what I have said You being a Man are composed of a body and a spirit which is otherwise termed a Soul The Spirit or Soul is invisible the Body visible Now as your Body lives by your Spirit so if you will live by the Spirit of Christ you must be in the Body of Christ. For as my Body lives by my Spirit and your Body by yours so the Body of Christ cannot live but by the Spirit of Christ. He that desires to live may understand here where he is to live and from whence he is to receive his life He must approach believe and be incorporated if he pretends to live He must not voluntarily separate himself from being connected with the Members of this Body of the Church nor be a corrupted Member so as to deserve to be cut off Nor yet so deformed or out of order that the rest of the Members of the Body may be ashamed of him He is therefore to be fair and neat aptly proportioned to the rest and in perfect health Moreover he must be careful to adhere closely to the Body of the Church taking his life from God and referring it to him labouring here in this life that he may afterwards reign in Heaven Thus St. Augustin convinces evidently That no Schismatick or Heretick can be saved CHAP. V. A further manifestation of the Horridness of the Sin of Schism and in what Case Ignorance may Excuse from the Guilt of it NOw yet to penetrate more fully into the true Grounds why above almost all other Sins a Christian is capable of committing Schism that is the setting up of an Altar against an Altar or the relinquishing the External Communion of the Church the making Collects or Assemblies without yea against the consent of the true Bishops or Church Governors c. should be a sin so unpardonable we are to consider that the true reason of this may be deduced from the Example of all other Governments whatsoever For the greatest offence a Subject can commit against Monarchy is an actual attempt or rather the attempt executed by which Monarchy is dissolved Inwardly to condemn the Laws of such a Government or to entertain Principles which if put in practice would withdraw Subjects from their due Obedience is an offence of an high nature but the actual Cantonizing of a Kingdom and the raising in it Courts and Judicatories independent on and opposite to the Common Tribunal of the Country is the utmost of all crimes both the Seducers and the Seduced are not only deprived of the Privileges belonging to good Subjects but pursued by Arms as the worst of All Enemies It is so in God's Church The main Thing our Creed teaches us to believe of it is its Unity without which it is not a Church Now if Unity then Order then Subordination of Governments c. What therefore is the great Sin against this Fundamental Constitution of the Church but Schism A dissolving the Communion and connexion that the Members of this great Body have amongst themselves and with relation to the whole We all willingly acknowledge that the great sin of the Synagogue the sin that filled up the measure of the crimes of the Jews was their Murdering of our Lord. Now says St. Chrisâ—…stom Homil. 11. ad Ephes. We shall not merit or incur a less cruel Punishment if we divide the Unity and Plenitude of the Church the Mystical Body of our Lord then Those have done who pierced mangled and tore his own Body But may not Ignorance excuse the Guilt of Schism No On the contrary in some regard it aggravates it For though Pride and Malice be far greater in the leading Schismaticks Persons of Wit and Learning yet ignorant Souls and Ideots seem more to contradict Human reason because the more ignorant they are and being no Pastors the more they ought to submit their judgments to Authority and consequently the preferring their own conduct or the conduct and direction of particular men or Churches before the universal Authority of the Church the Excommunicating as it were the whole Church of God the esteeming all Christians both Pastors and Flocks as Heathens and Publicans is a presumption so contrary to human nature and reason that their want of Learning is that which will most of all condemn them I speak not now of Persons absolutely Ideots who scarce know there are any other Pastors or any other Church than their own who pretend not at all to pass their judgments on other Religions but know only what their Pastors teach them having not ability by reason of their condition to examine Scriptures and Churches For such no doubt may by their simplicity and absolute invincible ignorance escape the malignity of Schism But I speak of Inferior Tradsmen of Gentlemen and Gentlewomen who have a capacity of being rightly instructed and better informed of the Spiritual Authority to which they owe their Subjection and yet who by their own perversness become troublers of the Church and who because they can read the Scriptures take upon them to judge of the Sense of them both for themselves and their Pastors Such as these no doubt have drunk in the
Patriarchal Councils yea of Oecumenical Synods are called into Examination All their Laws so far as to them seemed meet reformed the whole regard that England had to all other Catholick Churches as a Member of the whole is utterly broken by one National Church Nay not so much By one Luxurious King By one Child and by one Woman Even when the whole Body of the Clergy protested against it Let the world now be judge Whether this Action can be justified Thus of the Schism of the Church of England CHAP. VII The Assertions of some Protestants concerning Church-Authority And of some of them concerning the Dignity and Authority of the Church of Rome SChism and Heresie being here so evidently demonstrated to consist in denying Obedience to Church-Authority it may seem strange to find any Protestants so much to their own condemnation to write any thing in defence of such Church-Authority and particularly of the Authority of the Church of Rome from which they have separated totally casting off all obedience to it But yet this they have done as will appear by these following Testimonies of some very Eminent amongst them See Sir Edwyn Sands in his Europae Speculum Numb 12. where he has this following Discourse of the Security in submitting to the Authority of the Church of Rome Which although he delivers in the Person of a Catholick yet it is without Reply or seeking to deny the Truth of any thing here said The Discourse then is this SInce Christianity is a Doctrin of Faith a Doctrin whereof all Men are capable as being in gross and in general to be believed by all and since the high Vertue of Faith is in the Humility of the Understanding and the Merit thereof in the readiness of Obedience to Embrace it and withal since of outward proofs of our Faith where the true sense of Scripture is disputed the Churches Testimony whether for declaring to us the sense of Scripture or the judgments of the Ancients is a proof of most weight What madness were it for any man to tire out his Soul and to wast away his Spirits in tracing out all the thorny paths of the Controversies of these days wherein to err is no less easie than dangerous what through forgery of Authors abusing him what through sophistry beguiling him what through passion and prejudice transporting him and not rather betake himself to the right path of Truth whereunto God Nature Reason and Experience do all give witness And that is to associate himself to the Church whereunto the custody of this Heavenly and supernatural Truth hath been from Heaven it self committed To weigh discreetly which is the true Church and that being once found to receive faithfully and obediently without doubt or discussion whatsoever it delivers Now to discover this let him reflect that besides the Roman Church and such others as are United with it he finds all other Churches to have had their end or decay long since or their beginning but of late This Church was founded by the Prince of the Apostles with a promise to him from Christ That Hell Gates should never prevail against it Matt. 16. 18. And that himself would be assistant to it to the Consummation of the World It hath now continued Sixteen hundred years with an Honorable and certain Line of near Two hundred and forty Popes Successors of St. Peter both Tyrants Traytors Pagans and Hereticks in vain wresting raging and undermining it All the Lawful general Councils that ever were in the World have from time to time approved and honored it God hath so miraculously blessed it from above that many Learned and wise Doctors have enriched it with their Writings Armies of Saints with their Holiness and Virtues Armies of Martyrs with their Blood and of Virgins with their Purity have sanctified and embellished it And even at this day in such difficulties of unjust Rebellions and unnatural Revolts of her nearest Children yet she stretcheth out her arms to the utmost corners of the World newly embracing whole Nations into her bosom Lastly in all other opposite Churches there are found inward dissensions and contrarieties change of opinions uncertainty of resolutions with robbing of Churches rebelling against Governors confusion of Order Whereas contrariwise in this Church there is the Unity undivided the resolutions unaltered the most heavenly Order reaching from the hight of all Power to the lowest of all Subjection all with admirable Harmony and undefective correspondence bending the same way to the effecting of the same work all which do promise no other than a continual encrease and victory Wherefore let no Man doubt to submit himself to this glorious Spouse of Christ. This then being accorded to be the true Church of God it follows that she be reverently obeyed in all things without further 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 or Pagan And what folly were it to receive Scriptures upon the credit of her Authority and not to receive the interpretation of them upon her Authority also and credit And if God should not always protect his Church from Error and yet peremptorily command Men always to obey her then had he made very slender provision for the Salvation of Mankind which conceit concerning God whose care of us even in all things touching this transitory Life is so plain and evident would render us very ungratefully impious And hard were the case and mean had his regard been of the vulgar People whose wants and difficulties in this life and whose capacities will not suffice to sound the deep and hidden Mysteries of Divinity and to search the truth of intricate Controversies if there were not others whose Authority they might safely follow and rely upon Blessed are they who believe and have not seen Joh. 20. 29. The merit of whose Religious Humility and Obedience exceeds perhaps in honor and acceptation before God the subtle and profound knowledge of many others Thus Sir Edwyn Sands To the same purpose Dr. Jeremy Taylor in his Treatise of the Liberty of Prophesying These following Considerations says he may very easily perswade persons of much reason and more Piety to maintain that which they know to have been the Religion of their Fore-fathers which had actual possession and seizure of Mens minds and understandings before the opposite Professions had a name As first its Doctrin having had a long continuance and possession of the Church Which therefore cannot easily be supposed in the present professors to be a design since they have received it from so many Ages And it is not likely that all Ages should have the same purposes or that the same Doctrin should serve the several ends of divers Ages Secondly its long prescription which is such an advantage that it cannot with many Arguments be retrenched as relying upon these grounds to wit that Truth is more Ancient than Falshood and that God would not
notorious Fornicator that was among the Corinthians and by the Authority of his Apostleship unto which Apostles Christ ascending into Heaven did leave the whole Spiritual Government of his Church as it appeareth by those plain words of St. Paul in his Epistle to the Ephesians Chap. 4th saying Ipse dedit Ecclesiae suae c. He hath given to his Church some to be Apostles some Evangelists some Pastors and Doctors for consummation of the Saints to the work of the Ministry for edifying of the Body of Christ. But a Woman in the degrees of the Church is not called to be an Apostle nor Evangelist nor to be a Pastor as much as to say a Shepheard nor a Doctor or a Preacher Therefore she cannot be Supream Head of Christ's Militant Church nor yet of any part thereof For this High Government God hath appointed only to the Bishops and Pastors of his People as St. Paul plainly witnesseth in these words in the 20th Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles saying Attendite vobis universo gregi c. And thus much I have here said right Honorable and my very good Lords against this Act of Supremacy for the discharge of my poor Conscience and for the Love and Fear and Dread that I chiefly owe unto God to my Sovereign Lord and Lady the Queens Majesties Highness and to your Honors All. Where otherwise without mature consideration of all these Premises your Honors shall never be able to shew your faces before your enemies in this matter being so strange a spectacle and example in Christ's Church as in this Realm is only to be found and in no other Christian Realm Thus humbly beseeching your Honors to take in good part this my rude and plain Speech which here I have used of much Zeal and fervent good will And now I shall not trouble your Honors any longer Thus as to this Speech But notwithstanding this Speech or whatsoever else could be said against it the Act passed and this Supremacy was granted to the Queen CHAP. IV. A further Prosecution of the Settlement of this Change of Religion Established by Parliament and of the Opposition of the Catholick Clergy against this strange Innovation Dr. Heylyn pag. 108. NOw for the better exercising and enjoying the Jurisdiction thus acknowledged in the Crown there was this Clause put into the Act That it should be Lawful for the Queen to give Power to such as she thought fit to exercise all manner of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and to visit reform redress order correct and amend all kind of Errors Heresies Schisms c. With this Proviso notwithstanding that nothing should from thenceforth be accounted Heresie but what was so adjudged in the Holy Scripture or in one of the four first General Councils or in any other National or Provincial Council determining according to the word of God or finally which should be so adjudged in the time to come by the Court of Parliament This was the first Foundation of the High Commission Court And from hence issued that Commission by which the Queens ministers proceeded in that visitation in the first year of her Reign for rectifying all such things as they found amiss There also passed another Act for recommending and imposing the Book of Common-Prayer and Administration of Sacraments according to such Alterations and Corrections as were made therein by those that were appointed to review it In performance of which service there was great care taken to expunge out all such passages in it as might give any Scandal or Offence to the Papists or be urged by them in excuse for their not coming to Church In the Litany fiâ—…st made and published by King Henry the Eighth and afterwards continued in the two Liturgies of King Edward the Sixth there was a Prayer to be delivered from the Tyranny and all the detestable enormities of the Bishop of Rome Which was thought fit to be left out as giving matter of Scandal and dissatisfaction to all that Party In the first Liturgy of King Edward the Sacrament of our Lord's Body was delivered with this Benediction that is to say The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for the Preservation of thy Body and Soul to Life Everlasting The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ c. Which being thought by Calvin and his Disciples to give some countenance to the Carnal presence of Christ in the Sacrament which passed by the name of Transubstantiation in the Schools of Rome was altered in this Form into the second Liturgy that is to say Take and Eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee and feed on him in thy Heart by Faith with Thanksgiving Take and drink this c. But the Revisors of the Book joyned both Forms together lest under colour of rejecting a carnal they might be thought also to ceny a real presence as was deâ—…ended in the Writings of the Ancient Fathers Upon which ground they expunged also a whole Rubrick at the end of the Communion Service by which it was declared That kneeling at the Communion was required for no other reason than for a signification of the humble and grateful acknowledgâ—…ent of the Benefits of Christ given therein unto the worthy Râ—…ceiver and to avoid that Prophanation and Disorder which otherwise might have ensued And not for giving any Adoration to the Sacramental Bread and Wine there bodily received or in regard of any Real or Essential Presence of Christ's Body and Blood This Rubrick is again lately inserted And to come up closer to those of the Church of Rome it was ordered by the Queens Injunctions That the Sacramental Bread which the Book required only to be made of the finest Flower should be made round in the fashion of the Wafers used in the time of Queen Mary She also Ordered that the Lord's Table should be placed where the Altar stood and that the accustomed Reverence should be made at the Name of Jesus Musick retained in the Church and all the other Festivals observed with their several Eves By which compliances and the expunging of the passages before mentioned the Book was made more plausible And that it might pass the better in both Houses when it came to the Vote it was thought requisite That a Disputation should be held about some Points which were most likely to be keked at Two Speeches were made against this Book in the House of Peers by Scot and Feckenham and one against the Queens Supremacy by the Archbishop of York But they prevailed little in both Points by the Power of their Eloquence In the Convocation which accompanied this present Parliament there was little done because they despared of doing any good to Themselves or their Cause The chief thing they did was a Declaration of their Judgments in some certain Points which at that time were conceived fit to be commended to the sight of the Parliament that is to say First That in the Sacrament of the Altar by