notably Cont. epist Fundam That be would not beleeue the Ghospell except the authority of the Catholike Church did mooue him thereunto so also he sayth as plainly August epist 18. that it was most insolent pride to dispute against it And therefore the mind of man being insatiable of knowledge for which it was created and according to the Philosopher it being better to know a little of Diuine thinges then to haue great intelligence of other matters hence it followeth that to know so many celestiall Misteryes as the doctrine of Christ containeth in so short a tyme with such great ease and infallible certainty being groūded vpon so many conuincing arguments and apparent testimonyes of Diuine authority which doctrine being also that pretious stone that bringeth with it all good thinges and beginneth that happynes in this life which is perfected and rewarded with eternall felicity in the next This I say must needs be a wonderfull strong and excellent motiue to compell all those to enter into the Schoole and Church of Christ whose mynds haue any dominiō ouer their bodyes and are not wholy transported with the pride of life or altogeather drowned in worldly desires or brutish sensuality Whereas the Protestants on the other side professing to haue no other ground of Fayth but only the bare Scripture do shew therein that they haue neither sufficient ground to beleeue that God hath reuealed his secrets to the world nor any Diuino assistance to know and discerne what seerets they are that were so reuealed For first as concerning Scripture denying the authority of the Church as they do if S. Augustine for example should deny the Scripture which he sayth plainely that he would not beleeue vnlosse the authority of the Church did moue him thereunto how I pray you could they perswade S. Augustine by Scripture alone which he would flatly deny that any thing was euer reuealed by God or being reuealed that it was truely deliuered againe or that any part of those thinges which were reuealed was writen by the spirit of God and so recommended to posterity Secondly the Scripture it selfe making mention of many other bookes of Scripture that are not extant though one should graunt that some part of Gods word was written which the Protestants without cause beleeue how could they proue that any part therof remayneth For if some bookes are lost why may not all haue perished Thirdly the malice of the Iewes and the fraud of Heretikes being so great as they are and the diligence of Scribes in writing being no more but humane and the copyes of Scripture being very many and very different one from another and the Hebrew Text hauing beene written a long tyme without vowells and the adding or giuing of diuers vowells making diuers and contrary senses the vowells themselues being but little prickes set vnder the letters and the Characters being so strange and many of them so like one another as they are and therefore it being not only an easy matter to change them but also it seeming almost impossible that they should not haue beene mistaken among so many writers in so many seuerall Countreyes for so many yeares togeather all this considered though a man should graunt that some bookes of Scripture were not lost how I beseech you can the Protestants shew that any part thereof is free from errour and foule corruption especially granting as they do that many places of the Originalls are actually corrupted Fourthly supposing the originalls either to haue remayned perfect all this while or els to be restored by them to their perfection whereof they can haue no other ground but their owne wilfull imagination considering that all their interpreters haue translated with passion and preiudice in fauour of their owne opinions and in opposition to the Roman Church and to the auncient vulgar translation following therein See the Protestant Apol. p. 256. 257. 258. rather the exposition of the Iewish Rabbins the enemyes of Christ then of the ancient Fathers And likewise considering that as their translatours are all deuided among themselues euery one seeking his owne glory so also that they condemne one another of mangling dismembring forging and of corrupting the Scripture with what colourable reason can the Protestants belieue any of their Bibles or particuler versions to be the word of God not rather the word of Tyndall or Caluin or Luther or of some other translatour Fifthly giuing vnto them that some things haue been reuealed by God and were truly deliuered and truly written and that some of those writings haue been preserued by God and still remaine miraculously vncorrupted And that the Caluinists alone or the Protestants of England alone haue only the true version or translation therof the (a) Diony de Eccles hierar c. 1. Orig. in prin peria tract 23. in Mat. Tertul. in l. praescrip l. de corona Milit. Clemens in ep Iren. l. 3. cont haer c. 2. 3. Bafil l. de spiritu sāctoc 27 l. cont Eunom Epiphan haeres 61. Hier. l. cōt Lueif August ep 118.119.86 Cypr. l. de card Chrisoper c. de ablut peaū Theoph in 2. ad Thes 2. Chrysost orat 4. in eandem ep Theod. ibi auncient Fathers of the Church prouing not only by tradition but also by the writen-word it selfe that the word of God is partly written and partly vnwritten what infallible proofes can the Protestants bring out of Scripture that we ought to belieue nothing which is not expresly contayned in the Scripture Especially considering that contrary to their owne ground they pretend to belieue many things which indeed are true but no where expresly contayned in the Scripture as that the Scripture it selfe is the word of God that children may be baptized before they belieue That Baptisme in rose water or any liquour then naturall Elementary water or in the Name of Christ alone is not good and sufficient That the Baptisme of Turkes and Iewes and Heretikes is good in some cases That it is allwayes a sinne to rebaptize That God the Father hath no Father which among many others is one instance of S. Augustine against the Heretikes of his tyme acknowledging no other ground of their Fayth but only Scripture That the Sabaoth day which is Saturday ought not to be publickly obserued as holy which is against the Commaundement of the Law and that all Christians are obliged to obserue the Sunday whereof there is not commaundement to be found in the written word of the Ghospell That our Blessed Lady remayned and continued still a Virgin That Easter day ought to be kept vpon a Sunday That it is lawfull to eat bloud and strangled meats contrary to the words of the Decree of the Church in the Acts of Apostles and the like Many things also they belieue that are meerly fals and not only not contayned in the words of Scripture but also expresly contrary thereunto As that (a) Ephes 5.32 Matrimony is no
Sacrament that the (b) Matt. 26. Marc. 14. Luc. 22. 1. Cor. 11. Ioan. 6.51 Blessed Sacrament of the Altar is not Christs Body that men are (c) 1. Cor. 13.2.3 Iacoh 2.14 c. iustifyed by Faith alone that (d) Iac. 2.21 c. Eccles 18. Rom. 6.19 no good workes do merit that the (e) Matt. 11.30.1 Ioan. 5.3.3 Reg. 14.4 Reg. 23. keping of Gods Commaundements is impossible that we haue (f) 3. Rag. 3.5 Eccl. 31.10 Gen. 4.6.7 1. Cor. 7.37 no Freewill to do well that Christ (g) Act. 2.24.2.7 1. Pet. 3.18 descended not into Hell And to be short that the Church of God is (h) See before Sect. 21. inuisible that it hath erred and that many true Prophets or preachers haue been sent to reforme it whereas the Scripture only tells of false Prophets to come and saith expressy that the gates of hell shall not preuayle against it Lastly if you will but barre the Protestants their owne expositions and argumentations vpon the Scripture which they confesse themselues to be no part of the written word they cannot produce so much as one expresse place of Scripture for any of those opinions so peremptorily defended and stifly obiected against vs which me thinkes considering how much they vaunt of Scripture is sufficient of it selfe to make such as are good amongst them ashamed of their errours and sheweth most euidently that the first authours of this new Ghospell haue founded the same vpon nothing els but only vpon their owne impudency the malice of the tyme and the weaknes of their hearers By all which considerations it is more then manifest that the Protestants denying the authority of the Church they ouerthrow the authority of the Scripture and that refusing to receiue the same from the Church they haue no Scripture at all but that diuers wayes contradicting their owne grounds insteed of Scripture they miserably abuse themselues with their owne translations and their owne imaginations and haue nothing els but only the bare name and outward shew of Scripture And now to come to the second Stone of their foundation which is the point of their pryuate spirit First they can produce no place of Scripture to proue either that the Scripture alone is a sufficient ruie of Faith or that God hath promised his holy spirit to euery particuler man in expounding the Scripture And therefore belieuing either the one or the other they ouerthrow their owne grounds and belieue something more then Scripture which is not expresly contayned therein Secondly this manner of interpreting the Scripture according to the priuate spirit of euery particuler man is not only warranted by the Scripture but also expresly contrary thereunto For the Scripture commaundeth vs for the deciding of controuersyes about the same to ascend to the high Priest for the tyme Deu. 17.9.12 Matth. 2.7 Mat. 18.17 Mat. 23.2 and to obay him vpon payne of death to require the Law from the lips of the Priests to heare the Church and that such as will not heare it shal be accompted as Heathens and Infidells to do as they say who shall sit in the Chayre of Moyses and the like Which places are contrary to that infallible assistance of euery mans priuate spirit which the Protestants pretend and are further confirmed by the practise and execution of them in the primitiue Church recorded also by the Scripture For all the Apostles were not commaunded to write but to preach Mar. 16.15 and the world was obliged not to belieue any particuler spirit but the words and writings proceding from the spirit of the Apostles Act. 15.28 And the question of the obseruation of the Legall Cerimonyes was not left to the arbitrement of euery mans priuate spirit but was reserued to the common spirit of the Church And therfore as the Church was founded not only by Scripture but also by the vnwritten word of God so also it must be preserued And as the world at that tyme belieued the words and wrytings of the Apostles deliuered by themselues so now it must giue credit therunto being likewise deliuered by their Successors We haue a more firme Propheticall speach whereunto you do well to attend sayth S. Peter 2. Petr. 1.20.21 and after adioyneth first vnderstanding this that no Prophesy of Scripture is made by priuate interpretation for not by mans will was Prophesy brought at any tyme but the holy men of God spake inspired with the holy Ghost Whereof you see it followeth that the Scripture must be interpreted by the same spirit wherewith it was written being communicated by the spirit of God for the publike benefit of the Church with the publike authority of those that wrote it it must also be expounded by the same spirit for the publike weale of the Church with the like publike authority of those that haue the keeping of it so vnderstanding this that no Prophesy of Scripture is made with priuate interpretation The spirit sayth S. Paul deuideth vnto all in particuler according as he will 1. Cor. 12.17 All the members of the body haue not the same act for if the whole body be ancye where is the hearing Where also he denyeth that all haue the gift of Prophesy Matt. 18.17 Hebr. 13.17 2. Thes 2.23 Phil. 4.9 Gal. 1.8 Marc. 7.15.24 Marc. 13.22 2. Pet. 2.1 1. Ioā 4.1 2. Thes 2.2 the interpretation of Tongues discretion to discerne of spirit which is expresly against the Protestants c. In conclusion as the Scripture exhorteth vs to heare the Church to obay our Pastours and spirituall Superiours to remayne in those thinges which we haue heard of them not to beleeue an Angell from heauen but rather to hold him accursed that should preach contrary thereunto and the like which do signify the great authority giuen to the publike spirit of the Church promised to be sent vnto it and to remaine with it for euer so all those places of Scripture which aduise vs to beware of false Prophets that is to say of Heretikes to try the spirit not to be terrifyed neither by spirit or speach and the like must needs be vnderstood of those who out of a priuate spirit should oppose themselues against the common doctrine of the Church or publique authority of the gouernour thereof wherein also consisteth the very essence of heresy Aug. ep 162. deciuit l 18. c. 51. de Bapt. cont Don. l. 4. c. 16. and in this sense S. Paul affirmeth (a) Tit. 3.11 that an hereticke is subuerted and sinneth being condemned by his owne iudgment That is to say opposing his priuate iudgment against the Church and so giuing sentence against his owne soule to his eternall damnation And as this Protestant ground is most opposite to Scripture so also it is no lesse contrary to reason it selfe For as in a Commonwealth or Kingdome the law being publique and common to all the interpretation of the law and the finall sentence
place by way of a friendly exhortation to peace and amendement he accuseth the Pope of many foule crymes and addresseth his speach vnto him in this manner Let vs obserue the famous saying of S. Cyprian iudging no man excōmunicating no man let vs imitate Cyprian c. as if he being free from all fault himselfe he had great compassion of the Popes vniust proceeding perswading him with all charity to reforme himselfe only he hath one trick which I know not how it can stand with the art of Rhetorick and it is this that commonly through all his booke he speaketh against himselfe or produceth such matter as most easily and most strongly may be vrged against him Whether it be his ill luck or a fault in Nature or the iudgment of God vpon those that falling from the Catholike Religion attempt to write against it I know not But this I dare say that he neuer learned this poynt of Rhetorike among the Iesuits First therefore as in other passages of his booke you haue seene all that he hath sayd to haue been retorted against him so in the same manner we will examyne in this place how much this allegatiō of S. Cyprian doth make for his purpose For the Cōtrouersy betweene S Stephen and S. Cyprian being about the baptizing of those that were before baptized by heretikes which could not be determyned by Scripture alone the decision thereof by the tradition of the Church and the condemnation of S. Cyprians opinion by the Nicen Coūcell doth euidently proue the necessity of tradition against the Protestants of whome the Bishop hath made himselfe one and that the Scripture alone cannot be in all matters a sufficient Iudge of Cōtrouersyes For as S. Augustine sayth that custome which was opposed to Cyprian Aug. de bapt cont Donat. l. 5. c. 23. ought to be belieued to haue taken his beginning from the tradition of the Apostles as there are many things which the vniuersall Church doth hold and for this cause are rightly belieued to haue been commaunded by the Apostles albeit they be not found to be written Thus S. Augustine Secondly I would know the reason of this great change and strang conuersion of things why as Vincentius sayth the authors of the selfe same opinion should be acknowledged for Catholikes and the followers therfore should be iudged Heretikes the Maisters should be acquitted the disciples condemned The writers of the same bookes should be receiued into heauen and the mayntainers of them shut vp in hell For the latter did no more oppose themselues against the Scripture then the former and both of them seeme to haue alleadged more Scripture in the defence of their opinions then the Catholikes that opposed themselues against them Wherfore no other reason can be giuen thereof but only this That in the time of S. Cyprian and his predecessors who were the authors of this opinion of rebaptizing Hereticks the controuersie was no way defined which being afterwards determined the Donatists that reuiued the same against the beleife of the whole Church were iustly condemned and this kind of condemnation being once admitted the Protestants that haue broached and retayned so many opinions against the generall beleife of the vniuersall Church since the time of Luther and haue been most authentically condemned by the generall Councell of Trent can neuer be secured from the infamy of Heresie which followed the Donatists in this life nor from the same eternall punishment which they receiued in the other Thirdly wheras S. Cyprian sayd to the rest of the Councell that none amongst them did make himselfe the Bishop of Bishops because Marke Anthony would haue it seeme that he taxed Pope Stephen therin who subscribed his letters with that title it must needs be graūted that those words were improuidently alleadged by this Protestant Apologer For as to haue vsurped so great a title had bene as great a crime as could be imagined and such as that all the Bishops in the world had bene bound in conscience to haue opposed themselues against S. Stephen for it more then against any heresie which those times produced so S. Stephen liuing in the 2. age and being a man so renowned for sanctity and martyrdome as he is by the vse of this title affordeth vs a most forcible and inuincible argument of the Popes Supremacy For writing himselfe the Bishop of Bishops he could intend no lesse nor be no otherwise vnderstood then that he professed himselfe the head and the chiefe of all other Bishops Which also may be further confirmed because he inuented not this title of himself but receiued it from his predecessors Wherof his zeale in preseruing the tradition of antiquity against all kind of nouelty may serue for a sufficient argument and Baronius proueth out of Tertullian that it was an ancient custome before the time of S. Stephen which is also confirmed by other titles giuen to the Pope by S. Athanasius and other Bishops in the foure first generall Councels as hath byn shewed SECTION XXXII VVherein is declared how the Bishop in alleadging the example of S. Cyprian and S. Stephen falsfieth the truth of the story against himselfe HAVING shewed how much the authority and example of S. Cyprian alleadged by the Bishop doth make against his owne cause ouerthroweth the principall grounds of all Protestant Religion that you may the better perceiue what a notable Champion he is like to proue of the Protestant faith I may not omit to shew you with what falshood he relateth the story of S. Cyprian and S. Stephen and how much to his owne disgrace For first in my opinion he wrongeth S. Cyprian not a little whom he semeth so much to extoll For he maketh him so stiffe in his owne opinion his words are propria opinione firmatus as to oppose himselfe not onely against the Roman but also against almost the vniuersall Church and so voyd of conscience as both to dissent almost from all others in matter of faith and yet to communicate with them For with what conscience could he eyther perseuere in his owne opinion wherein he condemned almost the whole Church of errour or condemning allmost all the members therof in such manner as this man sayth he did with what conscience could he communicate with them These things therefore as they redound very much to the dishonour of S. Cyprian so in themselues they are not true Cyp. ep 2. but are most vniustly layd vpon him by this back friend of his as may easily be proued For S. Cyprian was not the first that began to defend the baptisme of heretikes to be of no force but he receiued this custome from his predecessour Agrippinus as himselfe declareth in these words But with vs it is no now or sodayne matter that we should thinke that they ought to be baptized which come vnto the Church from heretikes there hauing passed now many years a long age sithence that vnder Agrippinus very many Bishops agreeing
haue to say into one argument alone which I frame in this manner S. Peter the Apostle had Supremacy ouer the whole Church of Christ but the Pope of Rome is only the true Successour of S. Peter therefore the Pope of Rome in the place of S. Peter hath also Supremacy ouer the whole Church of Christ Out of which argument you may obserue that the state of this Controuersy consisteth in the proofe of two points The first of S. Peters Supremacy and the second of the Popes succession to S. Peter For probation of the first point out of almost twenty places of Scripture alleadged by Bellarmine togeather with the exposition of the holy Fathers thereupon acknowledging therein the Primacy or Principality of S. Peter in the gouernement of the Church of God I will produce but two places alone The first out of the sixten of S. Matth. Matt. 10.17 where the same was promised in these words And Iesus answering sayd vnto him Blessed art thou Symon Bariona because flesh and bioud hath not reuealed it vnto thee but my Father which is in heauen And I say to thee that thou art Peter that is to say a Rock and vpon this rocke will I build my Church and the gates of hell shall not preuatle against it And I will giue to thee the keyes of the kingdome of Heauen And whatsoeuer thou shalt bind on earth it shall be bound also in the heauens And whatsoeuer thou shalt loose on earth it shall be loosed also in the Heauens Concerning which words there are three thinges which I find to be questionable The first what our Sauiour promised vnder those tearmes of a Rocke or Foundation of the keyes of the kingdome of Heauen and of binding and loosing in earth and heauen Which because the foundation is the rule and strength of the whole buylding and that the keyes commaund the whole Citty opening and shutting the gates therof and that the sentence of a Supreme iudge doth bind and loose vpon earth It seemeth to be manifest that nothing els can be meant thereby but only the rule the commaund and the gouernement of the Church as it is compared to a building or to a Citty and as it is called the kingdome of God in Scripture In which sense our Sauiour himselfe who of himselfe is the supreme King Head and gouernour of the whole Church is many tymes called a Rocke therein And he is also sayd to beare the key of Dauid and to haue the key of Hell And he himselfe affirmeth Da. 2.34 1. Cor. 10.4 1. Pet. 28 Esa 22.22 Apoc. 1.18.3.7 Matt. 11.30 the yoake which he imposeth to be sweet and the burthen which he byndeth vpon vs to easy And in the same sense all the ancient Fathers haue euer vnderstood this text of Scripture without any difference or variation betweene them The second thing which may be questionable herein is the person to whome these thinges were promised which being described to be S. Peter with so many circumstances of his Name and Syrname and the Name of his Father of the prayse of his former speach and Christs answere thereunto and so many particles applyable only to S. Peter as Iesus answering sayd to Him blessed art Thou flesh and bloud hath not reuealed to Thee and I say to Thee Thou art Peter and vpon this Rocke which according to the originall is this in English Thou art Peter and vpon this Peter or thou art Rocke and vpon this Rocke I will build my Church And againe vnto Thee will I giue the keyes c. Whatsoeuer Thou shalt bind c. whatsoeuer Thou shalt loose c. I say if all these things considered the person of S. Peter being thus particulerly described doubt may be made vnto whom the Gouernemēt was promised then we may well say that nothing is plaine but that all thinges are most ambiguous in holy Scripture Wherefore in this also the Fathers do all agree and all of them do gather out of this place that the gouernement of Gods Church was giuen to S. Peter Only S. Augustine who maketh no question to whome the keyes and the authority of binding and loosing was giuen in this place expoundeth sometymes the word Rocke to be meant of Christ whome S. Peter confessed Because saith he our Sauiour sayd not tu es Petra but tu es Petrus wherein he was deceiued as all men acknowledg not vnderstanding the Syriack tongue which maketh no more difference betweene the Masculine and Feminine then doth our English Aug. lib. 1. Retract cap. 21. And S. Augustine himselfe also hauing oftentymes expounded the word Rocke to be meant of S. Peter leaueth both these expositiōs to the choyce of the Reader without condemning either of them The rest of the Fathers out of this place do all affirme the Church to be built both vpon Peter and vpon the Faith of Peter or vpon Peter in respect of his faith which is al one For which faith our Sauiour promised to reward him by building his Church vpon him and by giuing such solidity and stability thereunto that the gates of Hell should not prenayle against it Lastly because the Fathers do oftentymes affirme that S. Peter receiued this power and authority in the person of the Church for the benefit of the Church the last thing questionable cōcerning these words is this Whether he receiued the same as a Procter or substitute alone or as the head and chief of all the Apostles For in both of these respects one man may represent the persons of many as in it selfe it is manifest But it seemeth also that this is a question of that wherof no question can be made For al the Apostles being present there was no necessity nor apparence neither why nor how they should make S. Peter their atturney And our Sauiour naming S. Peter in particuler Symon Bariona commending him in particuler Blessed art thou and confirming vnto him the name of Rocke in particuler it must needs be vnderstood that to him in particuler these promises were made of the regiment of Gods Church and of founding the same vpon him in such manner as that the gates of Hell should not preuayle against it And in this also the Fathers do generally agree as you will perceiue by those testimonyes which shall be produced thereby The second place of Scripture which I will alleadge for the proofe of S. Peters supreme authority is in the second of S. Iohn Ioan. 21.15 for what was promised in the 16. of S. Matthew was there performed For calling him by the name of Symon by the name of Peter and by the name of Symon the sonne of Iona to signify that he applyed his speach to himselfe alone and asking him first whether he loued our Sauiour more then the rest and twice more whether he loued him whereby our Sauiour would signify that he commended to his loue the thing that was most deare vnto him he commaunded
world God is one sayth S. Cyprian and Christ is one and the Church is but one and the Chayre therof but one founded vpon Peter by the voice of our Lord. Where he sheweth that as Christ is one with God so the Church being founded vpon S. Peter is one with Christ and according to the prayer of our Sauiour to his Father saying That they may be one as we are one And then followeth in S. Cyprian No other Altar or Priesthood can be established whosoeuer gathereth els where scattereth Lib. de past c. 13. To which purpose S. Augustine also hath these words For Peter himselfe to whome he commended his sheep as one man should do to another he our Sauiour made one with himselfe that so he might commend his sheep vnto him that is to say as to the other part of himselfe that as one was the head the other might beare the figure of the body to wit of the Church and that like the Brydegrome and the Bryde they might be two in one flesh Whereby he meaneth that S. Peter representing the whole Church as the head vnder Christ was made one with Christ the Supreme head thereof according to his owne words in other places saying That Peter the Apostle in respect of the Primacy of his Apostleship did beare the person of the Church by a figuratiue generality And againe Tract vlt. in Ioan. he is acknowledged to beare the person of the Church in respect of his Primacy and as holding the principality of the Apostleship More expresly In psal 108. Ser de verbis Dom. Ser. 2. de an assum S. Leo declareth this vnity saying For so he Peter was ordinated before the rest as while he is called a Rocke whil he is pronoūced to be the foundation while he is constituted the Porter of the kingdome of Heauen we might vnderstand by the misteryes of these appellations the society which he had with Christ. And yet more fully els where Serm. 3. de an assump As my Father manifested vnto thee my diuinity so also I make known vnto thee thy excellency for thou art Peter that is though I be the Rocke inuiolable the stone of the corner which maketh both to be one I the foundation besides which no man can lay another yet thou also art the Rock because by my vertue thou art made solide to the end that those thinges which by my power are proper to me by participation with thee might be made cōmon with thee and me By which wordes these holy Fathers labour to declare the vnspeakable vnity of Christ and his Church teaching how the head thereof in earth is made one by Gods diuine grace in name in place and dignity with the head in heauen For the further explicatiō wherof you shall vnderstād that the vnity which the Church possesseth by this means doth especially consist in 3. thinges the first is vnity of Iurisdiction or Iudiciall power which that it dependeth wholy of one head vpon earth and of the authority giuen to S. Peter is manifestly proued out of those places of the Fathers wherein he is acknowledged to haue the Primacy to be the head Pastour and gouernour of the vniuersall world which also shal be further cōfirmed when we come to speake of the Popes succession to S. Peter The second is vnity and consent in fayth for the mantainance whereof that solidity and strength was giuen to the fayth of Peter vpon which the Fathers according to the Scripture do aknowledg the Church of Christ to be built so strongly as that the gates of hell shall not preuayle against it And therfore S. Cyprian in his booke de vaitate Ecclesiae hauing declared that the Diuell to diminish the great mulutude of the beleeuers increasing so fast had denised Schismes and Heresyes wherby many were blinded and carryed away discouereth the cause therof in these words This is done sayth he beloued brethren because men haue not recourse to the origine of the truth neither seeking the head nor following the doctrine of their celestiall maister And then expounding himselfe he addeth Our Lord speaketh vnto Peter I say vnto thee Thou art Peter and vpon this Rocke c. And againe after his resurrection he sayd vnto him Feed my sheep In which words this glorious Martyr sheweth that according to the doctrine of Christ our maister for the finding out of the truth we must haue recourse to Peter the foundation of the Church and the Pastour therof And thereof he concludeth that albeit the Apostles were all equall in honour and power that is to say of Apostleship yet the Primacy was giuen to Peter that there might be one Church and one Chayre one flock fed by many Pastors with one mynd and consent The like words he also vseth in his epistle to Pope Cornelius where he sayth Lib. 1. ep 3. ad Cornel. For neither from any other cause do Heresyes come vp or Schismes do arise but only from this that obedience is not giuen to the Priest of God and that one Priest for the tyme or one Iudge for the tyme is not acknowlelged in the Church in the place of Christ. Whome if according to the diuine documents of their Maister the whole fraternity obeyed no man would or could moue any thing at all against the colledge of Priests that is to say collected vnited vnder one Priest one Iudge vpon earth in the place of Christ Epist 46. inter epist Cypriani And Pope Cornelius himselfe writing to S. Cyprian signifieth that some being repentant of their Schisme which ignorantly they had made against him confessed their errours in these words We know that Cornelius was elected by God almighty and by Christ our Lord to be the Bishop of the holy Catholike Church c. Our mind was alwayes in the Catholike Church For we are not ignorant that there is one God one Christ one holy Ghost and that in the Catholike Church there ought to be one Bishop so they which is the same in effect with the doctrine related out of S. Cyprian himselfe with which confession of theirs Cornelius sayth that he was much moued willed S. Cyprian to send his letters of the relation thereof to other Churches And to conclude this poynt the saying of S. Hierome is common in euery booke of Controuersy Among the twelue one was chosē that an head being established the occasion of schism might be taken away Thirdly therefore the vnity of the Church is increased and perfected by the vnity in power of Ecclesiasticall Order which as it dependeth of one alone to be rightly conferred so it is more then probable that our Sauiour ordayned it should descend from onealone Epist 1. so I vnderstand with Bellarmine those words of Anacletus that in the new Testament after Christ the Sacerdotall Order came from Peter by which he must meane not the order of Priests who were ordayned by our Sauiour himselfe in
would keep all the Pastours in the world in peace and vnity c. For in all societyes authority which cannot be where all are equall must procure vnity and obedience Thus Doctor Couell who goeth further and sayth If it concerne all persons and ages in the Church of Christ as surely it doth the gouernement must not cease with the Apostles but so much of that authority must remayne to them who from time to time supply that charge c. Which also is the doctrine of Melancthon who further confesseth Melanthō that as certayn Bishops are presidēt ouer many Churches so the Bishop of Rome is President ouer all Bishops Luther And Luther himselfe is inforced to acknowledge that for the vnity of the Catholike Church consisting of al Nations with infinite diuersity of māners conditions it was necessary that one should be chosen vnto whome and his Successors the whole world being made one fold might belong or pertayne Cart wright M. Cartwright likewise vrgeth the Protestāt Doctors with their owne argument saying that the peace of the whole Church requireth as well a Pope ouer all Archbishops as one Archbishop ouer all Bishops in a Realme Iacob And to conclue M. Iacob another Puritan sayth if a visible Catholike Church be once aknowledged there is no place in all the world so likely as Rome to be the visible and spring head of the gouernement thereof Protestant Apology See the Protestants Apology tract 1. sect 3. subdiu 10. And thus appeareth the force of this truth which God almighty hath caused to be iustifyed euen by the mouthes of our aduersaries themselues And now by the resolution of this first point alone hauing clearly ouer throwne and disproued whatsoeuer the Bishop can say in the fiue first books of his Commonwealth against the Monarchy Primacy and Papacy of the Church of Rome the succession therof the subiection of other Bishops therūto and in fine against all Iurisdictions of the Church of Christ I come to the explication and proofe of the second poynt concerning the succession of the Bishop of Rome to S. Peter wherein the folly and impudency of this man will be more discouered and his whole Volume of Ecclesiasticall Cōmonwealth either extant or not extant will be sufficiently answered SECTION IX The continuance of S. Peters authority is proued by Scripture and by the Fathers and by the confession of many Protestants and therof is inferred the succession of the Pope to S. Peter IN the beginning of the former point concerning S. Peters authority I shewed how the Catholiks considered and distinguished a double power in the Apostles of Christ the one extraordinary Apostolicall whereby they had equall Iurisdiction ouer the Church of Christ which is therfore called Extraordinary because it dyed with them for if others had succeeded them therin their successours also by vertue therof had beene all Apostles The other ordinary and Episcopall wherein others were to succeed them for the gouernement of the Church and which in S. Peter alone was supreme absolute and independant but in the rest it was limitted to particuler places and therefore albeit as Apostles they had all equall authority ouer the rest of the Church yet they were not equall amongst themselues but S. Peter by vertue of his supreme Episcopall authority was the chiefe Pastour and head of the rest And now likewise for your greater light in the handling of this second poynt we must distinguish in S. Peter a double Episcopall power the one in particuler proper to the diocesse of Rome wherof he was the immediate Bishop the other vniuersall ouer the whole Church of Christ whereby albeit he be not the immediate Bishop of the particuler Churches yet is he the vniuersall supreme Pastour ouer them all As the Bishop of Canterbury for example although he be the immediate Bishop of Canterbury alone yet as he is Archbishop he hath the care of those other Churches and Bishopricks of our Nation which are vnder his charge This distinction therefore being granted first there is no question to be made but that the Bishop of Rome doth succeed vnto S. Peter as he was the immediate Bishop of that Diocesse For this is euident not only by the catalogue of the Bishops of Rome and tradition of the Church but also by the testimony of all Historiographers and ancient Fathers and in particuler of S. Irenaeus Tertullian S. Hierome S. Augustine Optatus and others as we shal see anone Which being commonly granted by all the learned Protestants because if the supreme authority of S. Peter did not dye with him as the generall power of the Apostles ouer the whole Church did cease with them but remayned and continued in the Church after his death thereof it would follow that the Pope who succeeded him in the one should succeed him also in the other as he who is made Bishop of Canterbury is thereby also made Archbishop and Primate of all the kingdome For this cause diuers Protestants haue affirmed that albeit the Pope do succeed to S. Peter as he was Bishop of Rome yet they deny that he succeeded him in his vniuersall Pastorall function because they say it dyed with him And therefore on the other side if the Catholikes can shew that the Primacy of S. Peter doth still remayne in the Church that being proued there will be no difficulty but that the Pope doth succeed to S. Peter as wel in his Primacy ouer the whole Church as in his particuler authority ouer the Church of Rome especially no other Bishop hauing euer pretended or made claime to that Succession but only the Bishop of Rome Wherefore that the Primacy of S. Peter was to descend and remayne to his successors is proued by these two places of Scripture Matt. 16. Ioan. 21. alleadged for the proofe of his Supremacy For in the first place our Sauiour promised that he would make him the foundation and build his Church vpon him in such manner as the gates of Hell should not preuayle against it Whereby as he signifieth that the Church was to remayne and indure perpetually so much more he promised that the Foundation therof was likewise to remayne from whence the Church it selfe was to receiue her perpetuall strength and duration origen in 16. Matt. Which Origen considering sayd very well that it was manifest albeit not expressed that the gates of Hell cannot preuaile neither against Peter nor against the Church for if they preuailed against the Rock whereon the Church is founded they should also preuaile against the Church it selfe The like also may be easily inferred out of the second place where S. Peter was made the vniuersall Pastour of the sheep of Christ and by consequence the sheep of all ages were commended vnto him and therfore not only to him in person but also to his seat and to his successours represented and contayned in him as in theyr seed and foundation In which
to euery one of them their Churches and wrote to the Bishops of the East blaming them and gaue commaundement that some in the name of the rest should appeare before him at a day prefixed Many other excellent men and great Saintes of God appealed to the Pope as S. Chrysostome and Flauianus Chryst ep ad Innoc. Theod. ep ad Leon. Bishops of Constantinople So did Theodoret Bishop of Cyrus who was also restored by him as testy fieth the great Councell of Chalcedon saying The most holy Archbishop Leo restoreth to him his Bishoprick And Gregory the great Gregor l. 2. cap. 6. did excommunicate a B. of Greece called Iohn for that he had presumed to iudge another Bishop that had appealed to the sea Apostolike To this might be added their censures and excommunications of Kings and Emperous In a word Philip Euseb lib. 6. cap. 25. the first Christian Emperour was excluded from the Cōmunion of the Sacrament of the Altar vpon Easter day for some publick sinnes of his Niceph l. 3. cap. 34. by Pope Fabianus neither could he be admitted before he had purged himselfe by Confession and Pennance Innoc ep 17. ad Arcad. Imp. Innocentius the first hauing hard of the death of S. Chrysastome excommunicated the Emperour Arcadius and his Wife Eudoxia for not permitting S. Chrysostome to be restored to his seat as Innocentius commaunded which he did in these words I the least a sinner to whom the Throne of the great Apostle Peter is commended in charge do segregate thee and her from receiuing the immaculate Misteryes of Christ our God c. The exercise of the Popes authority is yet more confirmed and euidently proued by the authority of the Common Lawes which for the most part are nothing els but the decrees of Popes and of Councells confirmed by the Pope which hauing byn alwayes receiued and practised among all Catholike Nations professing the name of Christ do make an inuincible argument for the Popes Supremacy and which is most especially to be noted in all ages since Christ there cānot be found one Catholike Doctor or Deuyne that euer opposed himself either against the doctrine or against the practise of this authority as vnlawfull or vsurped by the Popes of Rome In so much that albeit the Popes haue been sometymes admonished and accused to haue proceeded with much rigour Cypr. l. 1. ep 3. 4. Euseb l. 5. hist c. 24. or with too little information in their censures as by S. Cyprian for example and S. Irenaeus and others yet none haue euer doubted of the lawfulnes of their authority And as you haue heard Epist ad Martian Valēt Imp. ep ad Leonē Con. Chal. act 3. in the Calcedon Councell it was accompted no lesse their fury and madnes of presumption in Eutiches that attempted to call a generall Councell and to excommunicate the Pope thereby SECTION XV. The Conclusion of this discourse of the Popes Supremacy I Haue shewed vnto you as orderly as clerely and as breifly as I could some of those euident proofes which the Catholikes are wont to bring for the Popes Supremacy deducing the same from manifest places of Scripture which conuince the continuance and perpetuall duration thereof in the Church of God from the lineall descent therof vpon those that succeded S. Peter in the Church of Rome abundantly testifyed by tradition and by the Fathers from the definitions of the foure first generall Councells from the authorityes of the ancient Fathers in the poynt of the Popes infallable doctrine grounded vpon the words and promises of our Saniour from the sentences of the Popes themselues iustly clayming their Supremacy not only in teaching and admonishing but also in ruling and gouerning the Church of God and lastly from the ancient continuall and vncontrolled practise of their authority which whether you respect the diuine Law or the vtility and necessity of the matter it selfe or the opinions of Lawyers and Sages or the auouchement of most lawfull witnesses or the sentences of most venerable Iudges or the Iudgment of Supreme Iudiciall Courts or the practise experience and custome of the whole world make the euidence so strong the proofe so full and the demonstration so cleare as the like in no sort can euer be brought before any Iudicial Bench for the proofe of any matter whatsoeuer may come in question And therfore no doubt all those shall be inexcusable before God that continuing obstinate in their owne opinions do either reiect or contemne it And truly if it might be permitted vnto vs to plead the statute of the first yeare of Queene Elizabeth whereby the foure first generall Councells were approued and made to be Law and that we might vpon those points of learning contayned in them which I haue before recited confirming them not only by the opinions of the Fathers which are the Doctors and Aduocates but also by so many decrees and sentences of the Popes which are the iudges of the Church concluding and bynding all those proofes aforsayd with the practise custome of the Church tyme out of mynd which is the best interpreter of all Lawes both humane and diuine And if we might be suffered withal to plead the Statute of Magna Charta for the exemption of Priests from temporall iurisdiction which is the most ancient written Law of England and continueth still in force and vnrepealed and to omit that King Henry the 8. is now commonly reputed a Tyrant as is testyfied in your owne historyes which is sufficient to make all his acts and Lawes vnlawfull that concerne not the interest of particuler persons If we might shew that those branches of the statutes made against vs in the first yeare of the Queene are of no force or validity being enacted by the Lords temporall alone against the ancient for me of Parliament and the priuiledges of our Kingdome and therefore that the confirmation of them in the tyme of our gracious King that now raigneth ought to be of no effect And lastly if our complaints might be heard that in the execution of those bloudy Lawes against vs so many wayes vniust in themselues no forme of Iustice is obserued the Iudges condemning vs without any sufficient witnesses produced against vs that can affirme according to the words of the statute wherupon we are indited that we are Priests and that we were made Priests in the Seminaryes beyond the seas whereby so much innocent bloud hath been so vnchristianly shed vnder the cloake of Iustice in our peacefull Countrey I say if we might be permitted to plead all this though it were in West minster Hall before the Iudges themselues that are so cruelly bent against vs and in the audience of those Puritan Lawyers and common Iustices who as being most ignorant of our cause are more our enemyes then the Ministers themselues that we might set before their eyes how vngently dishonourably vnciuilly and vnnaturally they haue persecuted many
tymes their own bloud their friends and nearest kynred to whome in vertue piety they were not comparable against whome no other cryme could be proued but the ancient religion of Christendome commonly either iustified or not condemned euen in the consciences of those that apprehended them prosecuted and executed the former lawes vpon them and if we might shew vnto them how by this means they haue crucifyed our Sauiour not once or twise but againe and againe for so many yeares togeather in his holy members I cannot but thinke that representing these things vnto them in vertue of that Word which deuideth betweene the soule the spirit the ioints and the marrow awaking in them the guilt of their owne consciences and the feare of Gods iugments we should inforce them to knock their breasts with the Iewes conuerted at the Sermon of S. Peter and to cry out vnto vs with teares of repentance Act. 2.17 Quid faciemus viri fratres men and brethren what shal we do SECTION XVI The absurd and pernicious grounds of the Bishops 10. Bookes and his Christian Commonwealth are further discouered and confuted AND now to returne to our Bishop I thinke by this tyme you perceiue that albeit this little booke of his be great bellyed like the Father yet his other ten bookes conceaued therin are but like so many bladders full of wind which if euer they come forth are like to shame not only himselfe but you also Not only because the former proofes of the Popes Supremacy are in themselues vnanswerable especially admitting as he doth the authority of the Councells Canons and Fathers of the Church but also in respect of that most absurd and most pernicious Position which he maketh the argument of his fifth booke and is indeed the very foundation of his Christian Commonwealth and the mayne ground of his Diuinity wherein he professeth to hold that there is no Iurisdiction in the Church of Christ Iurisdictionem omnem ab Ecclesia procul reijcio all Iurisdiction sayth he I cast far away from the Church that is to say all power and authority to commaund or to make spiritual lawes or to impose any punishment for the transgression of them A miserable deuise no lesse furious then dangerous and no more repugnant to the Popes Supremacy then directly contrary to the Councells Fathers and to the practise of the Primitiue Church in making lawes Canons and imposing censures vpon transgressours directly contrary as well to the institution of Christ in the authority which he gaue to S. Peter as you haue seene as also to the doctrine and proceeding of the Apostles themselues wherof no man that can read the Scriptures should be ignorant Let euery soule be subiect to the higher powers sayth S. Paul for there is no power Rom. 13.1 but of God c. Therefore he that resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist purchase to themselues damnation Rom. 13.5 And a little after Therefore be yee subiect of necessity not only for auoyding wrath but also for Conscience sake Out of which place we may argue thus The Church hath receiued power and authority from God and therefore they that resist the same resist and disobey the ordinance of God and purchast to themselues damnation That the Church hath receiued power and authority to gouerne from Almighty God is to too manifest for so all the Fathers expound the words of our Sauiour to S. Peter Whatsoeuer thou shalt bind c. and to the Apostles Matt. 16.19 Matt. 18.18 whatsoeuer you shall bind c. And that binding signifieth the imposing of some law or commaundment we find in the 23. Matt. 23.4 of S. Matthew They bind sayth our Sauiour burdens heauy and importable vpon the shoulders of men but they with their finger will not moue them and in the same manner the Fathers expound those other words Ioan. 21.11.16.17 feed my sheep of the gouernment of Christs sheep as you haue heard And our Sauiour signifying how much we are bound in conscience to obey our Prelates sayd vnto them Luc. 1◠16 He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me And againe as my Father sent me Ioā 20.21 so send I you and he that will not heare the Church let him be to thee as an heathen and Publican Act. 16.4 According whereunto it is sayd of S. Paul S. Timothy that passing through the Gittyes they deliuered vnto them to keep the precept of the Apostles and of the Elders 1. Thes 2.23 And to the Thessalonians he sayth You know what commaundments I haue giuen vnto you he that despiseth them despiseth not man but God that gaue his holy spirit vnto vs and if any do not obey our word note him by an epistle 1. Tim. 5. and do not accompany with him that he may be confounded So he writeth to Timothy not to receiue my accusation against a Priest vnder 2. or 3. witnesses And to the Corinthians the weapons of our warrefare sayth he are not carnall but mighty to God 1. Cor. 10.7 vnto the destruction of munitions destroying Councells and all loftynes extolling it selfe against the knowledge of God and bringing into captiuity all vnderstanding vnto the obedience of Christ Act. 15.20 and hauing in a readynesse to reuenge all disobedience c. And in the first Coūcell the Church of Hierusalem made this Decree It seemeth good to the holy Ghost and to vs not to impose any other burthen vpon you but only these necessary things to abstayne from meats offered to Idolls from strangled meats from bloud Can. Apost Can. 62. and fornication And the punishment of those that did eate bloud or strangled meat afterward was so great in the Primitiue Church as that Clarks were deposed and lay men were excommunicated for the same Neither is this most pestilent assertion of the Bishop contrary to Scripture alone and to the Fathers and Councells as hath been shewed but also to the practise and doctrine of the Church of England For I would aske this wild Bishop whether the authority the English Bishops in their spirituall Courts be from God or no If it be then according to S. Paul all men are bound to obey them in that which is iust vpon paine of damnation If it be not then it is no small vsurpation in them to take vpon them such authority whereof the Bishop should do well to admonish them as his friends before he go about to reforme the Catholike Bishops whome he supposeth to be his enemyes In conclusion the necessity of Iurisdiction is so euident in it selfe and the institution thereof so palpable in Scripture that the Puritans themselues who deny the same to Bishops are inforced notwithstanding to challenge so much to themselues as may suffice to excommunicate all those who are obstinatly disobedient in their Congregations And therefore I thinke there is
none but himselfe so drunke at this day with heresy in Christendome as to deny the lawfullnes of all Iurisdiction in the Church of God And as this position is most pernicious to all kind of Churches or spirituall Cōgregations whatsoeuer they be in taking away al obligation of obedience from them so also it is most dangerous to kingdomes and commonwealthes for such as in our tyme haue opposed themselues to the Iurisdiction of the Church haue likewise for the most part denyed their band of obedience to all temporall gouernement And their principall ground or reason is the same in both For no man say they that seeth not another mans conscience can bind the conscience of his brother And that all being made free by Baptisme ought to enioy the liberty of the Ghospell Whereof it followeth that neither sonnes nor seruants nor wyues nor subiects are bound to obay their Superiours for conscience sake but only and at the most either for feare or els for the auoyding of some publike scandall which doctrine if it were once receiued would in short space make Christians worse then Heathens And therefore I marueile how your English Bishops could let such doctrine passe being no lesse contrary to their authority then to the Popes Supremacy and no lesse perillous to themselues then to the gouernement of the whole kingdome vnles perhaps finding their case to be desperate they desire more to offend their enemy then to defend themselues would be cōtent their heresy should sinke so the Catholike Religion might be drowned with it But the Bishop being reputed to haue gotten some learning when he was yong and not being yet so old as to dote for age aboue all it is to be marueiled how he could suster himself to be so much deceiued by the Diuell as to ground his 10. yeares studyes the 10. books of his Christian commonwealth and in a word his whole religion and the saluation of his soule vpon an absurdity so grosse so fowle enormous dangerous to Church and Common-wealth as this is and the strangenes of his illusion is so much the greater because he was so blinded therewith that he saw not how manifestly he was inforced to contradict himselfe not only in other places of this his booke where he grāteth that Christian Princes haue power to do many thinges in the Church and challengeth vnto himselfe I know not what authority ouer Bishops in some cases which should make the Bishop of Canterbury to looke about him but also in the very title of his Booke which he calleth his Ecclesiasticall Cōmonwealth because it doth inuolue a manifest contradiction to this his strange position For vnles it be meerly a dreame and much more fantasticall then Platoes Idaea no man can imagine how any Cōmonwealth should be framed or est ablished without some Iurisdiction or power of gouernement giuen thereunto If he had contayned himselfe within any reasonable bounds and relyed his proofes vpon the Scripture alone interpreting the same according to his own sense how strang soeuer he might perhaps haue made some shift therewith for a while as his fellowes haue done before him But to pretend and contend as he doth that according to the Fathers Councells and Canons there is neither superiority of gouernment in the head nor power of Iurisdiction in the body of Christs Church is an euident signe that as he hath forsaken God so also God in his iustice hath not only forsaken him but also in great part hath taken his wits and reason from him For as S. Augustine sayth of the Prophesyes of the Church that they are more cleere in Scripture then the prophesyes of Christ himselfe because the tryall of all other Controuersyes dependeth vpon the knowledge of the Church so also for the same reason God Almighty in his prouidence hath so ordayned that the Iurisdiction of the Church and the authority of the head therof should be more expresly taught and aboundantly proued by the Doctours Pastours and ancient Fathers then any other point in Controuersy So that he might better haue gone about to proue and maintayne out of the Fathers Canons or Councells that the Sonne is not equall with the Father or the holy Ghost not equall to the Sonne or not proceeding from the Father and the Sonne or that our Blessed Lady ought not to be called the Mother of God or some other of those anciently condemned and rotten heresyes then to proue that there is no Iurisdiction in the Church nor any inequality of gouernment amongst the Pastours thereof And therefore as most impudently he denyeth the latter so it is much to be feared that he faltereth also in the former whereof he giueth many shrewd signes and apparant tokens in this little booke and much more is it likely he will bewray himself in the greater whē it cometh forth For being borne vpon the confines of Turky and Greece in which Countrey those ancient heresyes haue tirannized heeretofore and worse succeeded them in latter ages the suspitions wherewith as he professeth he was troubled when he was yong by all reason were more in fauour of the Easterne heresyes which he knew then of these of the West which he knew not And the bookes of the Arian Greciin heresyes being no lesse forbidden in Italy then the hereticall writers of these westerne parts whereby his suspitions were much more increased it is very probable that they swayed his mind more to that side then to this His maisters also do commonly dispute more against them then against these whome they are content to pretermit in these parts there being no vse of the knowledge of them And therefore by al likelihood his suspitions increased most in fauour of those opinions whereunto he was naturally most affected and wherewith he had more to do and which did more belong vnto him to know then the other did And besides all this that which he maketh his chiefe quarrell against the Pope is only the excommunication and condemnation of those opinions for heresyes which he sayth are not sufficiently condemned by the Church although it be manifest and he denyeth it not that they haue byn condemned by generall Councells And that inborne desire of peace Pag. 35. and vnity which he pretendeth of the East and West seemeth to consist in nothing els but only in permitting euery Bishop at the least to abound in his owne sense and to hold what he list as long as he doth not separate himselfe from the rest nor condemne their opinions And lastly to returne to the matter which we haue in hand by taking away all Iurisdiction from the Church of God he maketh voyd and repealeth the Anathema and excommunication of all former heretikes and by condemning the Fathers and Councells for condemning them without iudiciall authority he restoreth them all to their first pretended pleas and old forged titles And the renewing of these ancient censures condemnations of Heretikes by the Churche of Rome at this
hidden What shall I say more sayth S. Augustine vpon these words of our Sauiour but that they are blynd who cannot see so great a mountayne From hence also it doth necessarily follow that the doctrine of the Church is infallible and priuiledged from errour For according to the Protestants themselus that only is the true Church wherein the word of God is truly preached and the Sacraments truely administred And therefore if the Church should erre it should cease to be the true Church and should not contynue but the Gates of hell should haue preuayled against it Matt. 16.18 which is directly against the Scriptures And in particuler this priuiledge from errour is expresly promised in the old Testament Esa 59.21 in many places as where the Prophet Esay speaketh therof in these wordes This is my couenant with them sayth our Lord My spirit which is in thee and my wordes which I haue put in thy mouth shall not depart from thy mouth nor from the mouth of thy seed Oze 2.19.20 nor from the mouth of thy seeds seed from this tyme forth for euermore And where in Oze God sayth of his Church I will espouse thee for euer and I will espouse thee to me in iustice and iudgment in mercy and commiseration and I will espouse thee vnto me in sayth for euer Ephes 4.11 Epipha in Aâ—corato circa princ Matt. 16.18 Matt. 17.18 1. Tim. 3.5 IoaÌ„ 14.26 according whereunto it is also sayd in the new Testament That there should be Pastours and Doctours in the Church for euer that we be not carryed about nor deceiued with new doctrine that the Gates of hell by which is meant Heresy shall not preuayle against it that he who did not beleeue the Church should be compted as a Heathen or Publican that it is the Piller and foundation of truth that the holy Ghost should teach all things and suggest all things to the Pastours therof that God would giue them the spirit of truth IoaÌ„ 14.16 to remayne with them for euer In conclusion if you list to see more of the largenesse of these induments and of the flourishing greatnes of the Church of Christ you may read 4. whole Chapters of the Prophesyes therof in Esay 60.61 and 62. and Micheas the 4. which I thinke no man can read without the acknowledgement and admiration of them SECTION XXIII The force of the former Motiue is further declared out of the authorityes of S. Augustine and out of the effects of the contrary Doctrine AMONG all the ancient Fathers as there is none more opposite to the Protestant Ministers then S. Augustine so there is none more respected in outward shew and more esteemed by them which is vnto vs on the other side a notable argument of the excellency of the one and of the impudency of the other Now therfore if the word of S. Augustine be of force with you whome in regard of his antiquity learning wit vertue his aduersaryes themselues do so much respect read but the 6. Chapter of the first booke of that worke which is called Confessio Augustiniana for it cannot be that relying vpon the sayth of S. Augustine which could be no other then the sayth of the whole Church but that your vnderstanding should be wholy conuinced by it In regard wherof considering that it would be to long to alleadge the testimonyes of the rest of the Fathers and that men now a dayes are loath to seeke after that which they are affrayd to find with some temporall preiudice although it be the means of their saluation I thinke good to shew vnto you before I go any further the weight and force of this motiue out of the iudgment sayth and perswasion of S. Augustine For this was that which oueruled him so much as that he spared not to say I (a) Aug. cont epist Fundam c. 5. would not beliue the Ghospell vnles the authority of the Catholike Church did mooue me thereunto I (b) cont Faustum lib. 15. c. 3. must needs beleeue the acts of the Apostles if I beleeue the Ghospell because both those Scriptures the Catholike authority doth equally commend vnto me It being of necessity that one of those bookes must be fals speaking of the acts of the Apostles and of some other Apocriphy booke to which do you thinke we should rather giue credit either vnto it which the Church began by Christ himselfe continued by the Apostles with a constant course of succession euen vnto those tymes dilated ouer all the world doth acknowledge approue to haue beene deliuered and conserued or vnto that which the same Church doth reiect as vnknowne Those whom I beleeued saying vnto me Beleeue the Ghospell why should I not obey saying vnto me beleeue not Manichaeus Choose which thou wilt If thou sayst Beleeue the Catholikes they admonish me not to beleeue you Wherfore beleeuing them it is of necessity that I beleeue not you If thou say Beleeue not the Catholiks thou canst not with any reason compell me to beleeue Manichaeus because I beleeued the Ghospel it selfe by the preaching of the Catholikes If thou say thou didst well to beleeue them preaching the Ghospell but thou didest not well to beleeue them discommending Manichaeus dost thou thinke me such a foole as without any reason giuen to beleeue what thou wilt haue me and what thou wilt not not to beleeue Be not deceiued with the name of truth speaking as to the person of the Catholike Church the truth thou only hast in thy milke and in thy bread but in this Church of the Manichies or any other which is not Catholike there is the name of truth but the truth it selfe is not And of thy great ones thou art secure I frame my speach to thy little ones I call to thy tender issue that with garrulous curiosity they be not seduced from thee but rather let him be accursed of them who shall preach otherwise then that which they haue receiued in thee Know (c) Conc. ad Cathecum cap. 20. beloued that true sayth true peace and eternall saluation is only in the Catholike Faith For it is not in a Corner but it is euery where if any man depart from it and deliuer himselfe ouer to the errour of Heretikes he shall be iudged 〈◊〉 fugitiue seruant and no adopted sonne neither shall he rise to eternall life but rather to eternall damnation By (d) cort Faust l. 13. cap. 13. what manifest signe therefore I being yet a little one or a yong scholler and not able to discerne the pure truth from so many errours by what manifest token shall I know the Church of Christ in whome with so great manifestation of things fortold I am compelled to belieue the Prophet followeth on and hauing as it were orderly heard the difficulty or doubt of mynd of this new beginner Hier. 17. he sheweth him the Church of Christ fortold to be the same which is more apparant and
more eminent then any other For she is the seat of glory our sanctifycation And our Sauiour also prouiding an Answere against such doubts of little ones that might be led away from the manifestation of the clarity of the Church sayth A Citty placed vpon a hill cannot be hid for to this end the seat of glory our sanctify cation is so exalted that no eare be giuen to them who would draw others away to certayne remnants or peeces of religions saying Behold heere is Christ behold there for by such speaches behold heere behold there they shew but some parts whereas that Citty standeth vpon a hill what hill but that which according to the Prophet Daniel grew and was made a great mountayne Then (e) cont CresconiuÌ„ l. 1. c. 33. we hold and belieue the truth of Scripture when we do that which is pleasing to the vniuersall Church whome the Scripture recoÌ„mendeth vnto vs whosoeuer is affrayd to be deceiued by the obscurity of this question of not rebaptising Heretikes whereof in Scripture there is no example let him informe himselfe therein of that Church whom whithout any ambiguity the Scripture doth demonstrate But if thou doubt whether the Scripture commend that Church vnto thee which is dilated ouer all Nations with most copious numerosity I will load thee with many most manifest testimonyes out of the same authority (f) Epist. 161. Because we see the Church of God which is called Catholicke dissused through the world me thinkes we should not doubt of the most euident fullfilling of the whole Prophesy therof If (g) De â—nitat Eccl. the Church of Christ be described by the diuine and most certaine testimonyes of Canonicall Scripture to be in al Nations whatsoeuer they say Heretikes whatsoeuer they bring let vs not beleeue them In many Nations where the Church is they are not where they are the Church is which is euery where How (h) Ep. 48. do we trust to haue receiued Christ manifested in Scriptures if from thence we haue not receiued the Church which is also manifested therein As he shall be accursed who sayth that Christ hath not suffered nor risen againe the third day because we haue learned in the Euangelicall truth that Christ ought to suffer and the third day to rise againe from the dead So likewise he shall be accursed who shall teach a Church beside the coÌ„munion of all Nations because it followeth in the same place of truth that pennance and forgiuenes of sinnes shall be preached in his name to al Nations The (i) In psal 30. Con. 2. Prophets haue spoken more obscurely of Christ then of the Church I thinke the reason was because they saw in spirit that men would make partyes against the Church and not striuing so much about Christ would rayse vp great contentions about the Church Therefore that was more plainly foretold and more openly prophesied concerning which the greater strife and contention was after to insue We (k) Ep. 48. indeauour to demonstrate by this name Catholike that the Church is in all Nations according to the promisses of God and so many and manifest or aâ—les of the truth it selfe Who (l) De vnitat Eccles is so deafe who it so beside himselfe who is so blind-mynded as to speake against those most euident tests monyes alleadging in my places for the vniuersality of the Church but he that knoweth not what he speaketh By (m) Quaest Euang. l. 1. quaest 38. the East and by the West our Lord would signify the whole world through the which his Church was to be diffused c. aptly he teaâ—â—…eth the Church lightning which is wont to come forth with brightnes froÌ„ the clouds Therfore the authority of the Church being cleerly and manifestly established he admonisheth all that would beleeue in him not to beleeue Schismatickes and Heretiks That which he sayth his comming should be known from the East to the West is against those who are named to be in some part of the world and say that Christ is with them that which he sayth his comming shall be knowne like vnto lightning is against those that gather secretly and are hidden as it were in secret places and in the desart for the name of lightning doth appertaine to the manifestation and clarity of the Church There (n) cont ep Parm. cap. 5. is no security or assurance of vnity vnlesse according to the promises of God the Church declared to be placed vpon a mountayne cannot be hid Behold (o) In epist IoaÌ„ tract 1. thou hast the Church ouer all the world do not follow false iustifyers true distroyers be in that hill which hath filled the world They 〈…〉 stumble at this mountayne and when you bid them ascend they say there is no mountain and they sooner breake their foreheads against it then seeke to haue their dwelling in it How (p) In psal 47. great is the hill whereupon we should pray to be heard of God so great sayth he as that it filleth the world Vpon (q) In psal 44. that mountaine which hath filled the face of the earth there let him adore that will receaue there let him aske that will be heard there let him confesse that will be forgiuen In (r) Epist. 165. thy seed all Nations shal be blessed wherfore trusting to these promises if an Angell from heauen should say vnto thee leaue the Christianity of the whole world and follow the part of Donatus thou shouldest hold him accursed because he would separate thee from the whole and thrust thee into a part aliene thee from the promises of God Taking (s) In psal 56. a part and loosing the whole they will not communicate with the whole world Oh hereticall madnes thou dost beleeue with me that which thou seest not that which thou seest thou denyest Thou beleeuest with me that Christ is exalted aboue the heauens which we do not see and thou denyest his glory to be ouer all the earth which we see The (t) De vnitat Eccles cap. 2. Church is one whom our Ancestors named Catholike that they might shew out of the very Name how she is euery where (u) de vera relig c. 7. We must keep the Christian Religion and Communion with that Church which is Catholike and which is called Catholike not only by her owne but also by all her enemyes For whether they will or no the heretikes themselues when they speake not with their owne but with strangers they call the Catholike Church by no other name but Catholike For they cannot be vnderstood vnlesse they distingnish her by that name whereby she is knowne of all the world (x) In psal 57. Let not certayne flouds my brethren trouble you which are called torrents their water runs away it makes a noyse for a while and will quickly cease they cannot long contunue Many Heresyes are already dead and gone they ran in their brooks
as long as they could they haue run themselues out theyr brookes are dry their memory is scarce to be found or that they haue been (y) In psal 203. con 1. Thou shalt alwayes be firme if thou departest not from this foundation for she is the predestinated piller and foundation of truth (z) In psal 110. con 1. It shall not be inclyned from age to age because it is predestinated the foundation and piller of truth Tyconius (a) cōt ep Parm. l. 1. cap. 1. all the voyces of the sacred Leaues beating about him awaked and he saw tho Church diffused ouer all the world as it was foreseene and foretold by the harts and mouths of the holy Prophets Which hauing perceiued he began to auouch and to make manifest to his fellows that no foule sinne or wicked cryme of any man whatsoeuer could preuaile against the promises of God nor effect that Gods word of the Church to come to be diffused euen to the ends of the earth which was promised to the Fathers and is now exhibited or performed should come to nothing (b) De vnitat Eccl. Why do you make voyde the testament of God saying that it is not fullfilled in all Nations and that the seed of Abraham hath fay led in all those Nations where it was (c) In psal 47. But perchance that Citty which hath possessed all the world shall one day be ouerthrowne God forbid God hath founded it for euer If therfore God hath founded it for euer what doest thou feare least the foundation should fayle (d) In psal 101. conc 2. But that Church which was the Church of all Nations is now no more it is perished So say they that are not in her Oh impudent voyce Is not she because thou art not in her Take heed least for the same cause thou thy selfe be not for she shall be though thou art not This abhominable speach detestable full of presumption and falshood not supported by any truth not inlightned by any wisedome not seasoned with any salt vayne temerarious head-strong pernicious the spirit of God foresaw c. Thus S. Augustine whome perchance you neuer imagined to haue spoken so much so playnly and so vehemently for the infallible authority and vniuersall extension with equall visibility and perpetuall continuance of the Church of Christ as you see he hath and yet this is the least part of that which might be alleadged out of S. Augustine alone to the same purpose Whereunto if you add those former testimonyes for the proofe of the Popes Supremacy which I haue cited in the 11. Section of this Treatise thereby you may easily iudge if S. Augustine had been an English man and were now aliue whether he deserued not to be hanged at Tyborne as well as other Priests and Iesuits that haue been martyred there That is to say whether hearing your Ministers teach that the Pope with the whole Catholike Church haue erred and deceiued the world or that the Church hath fayled or remayned inuisible for more then a thousand yeares togeather he would not haue admyred as much as we do now at their deafnes to the voyce of the Prophets at their blyndnes in reading the Scriptures at their impudency temerity and madnes of their abhominable and detestable doctrine and whether he would not pronounce them many tymes accursed as he did the Donatists and other Heretikes of his tyme for the same opinions And now that you may the better perceiue with what great reason S. Augustine was so vehement against this their pernicious doctrine Let vs consider a little I pray you the consequence and effects therof in many of the greatest Maisters and Apostles of the Protestant religion For this made Sebastian Castalio in his Preface to the great Latin Bible dedicated to King Edward the 6. to doubt of those promises of God to his Church set downe in Scripture See Prot. Apology p. 106. sequent For if any man sayth he will affirme that they haue been performed I will demaund of him when If he say in the Apostles tymes I will demaund how it chaunceth that neither then the knowledge of God was altogeather perfect and afterward how in so short a tyme it vanished away which was promissed that at should be eternall and more aboundant then the flouds in the sea The more I do peruse the Scriptures the lesse do I find the same performed howsoeuer you vnderstand the foresayd Prophesies And Dauid George vpon the same grounds came to deny Iesus our Sauiour to be Christ For if that he had beene the true Christ the Church erected by him should haue continued for euer Whereupon also he fell to that madnes that he tooke to himselfe the name and office of Christ and secretly drew many to his opinion for the which he was taken vp burned three yeares after his death by the Protestants of Basil vnto whom he fled before being expelled from the low Countrys for holding the opinion of the Sacramentaries against the doctrine of Luther then there professed His story was written by them of Basil about the yeare 1559. In like manner Bernardinus Ochinus a man so renowned amongst the Protestants as Caluin demaundeth whom Italy it selfe could oppose against him and Iohn Bale sayth of him That he made England happy with his presence and miserable in his absence This renowned man as he confesseth in the preface of his dialogues began to wonder how it was possible that the Church which was founded by the power wisedome and goodnes of Christ washed with his bloud and enriched with his spirit should be vtterly ouerthrowne wherof he sayth the Popes were the cause and afterwards began to teach Circumcision and wrote a booke of Poligamy which Beza sayth that the aforsayd Sebastian Castalio translated out of Italian into Latin and finally became as Beza sayth an impure Apostata against the diuinity of Christ Alinianus a learned Swynglian for the same cause came to be of opinion that the Messias was not yet come so renouncing Christianity became a blasphemous Iew. And to omit Adam Neuserus a learned Caluinist chiefe Pastour at Heidelberg who in the end turned Turke and was circumcised at Constantinople and diuers other Protestants as well of forraine Countreyes as of our owne Nation who haue at length denyed the diuinity of Christ Caluin himselfe was greatly suspected therof in so much as Doctor Hunnius publick Professor in the Vniuersity of Wittemberge wrote a booke called Caluinus Indaizans and since that tyme there is another booke published by a Protestant Lutheran with this title A demonstratiō out of Gods word that the Caluinists are not Christians but only Baptized Iewes and Mahomets which was also reprinted And of this argumēt you may see sufficient matter in that learned booke of M. William Reynolds intituled Caluino-Turcismus which euidence also that according to the Protestants opinion God hath fayled of his promise in aduancing and defending his
Church according to the Scriptures must needs haue been one chiefe cause of those swarmes of Athiests in Protestant Countreyes whereof their principall writers do so much complayne Whereat I wonder nothing at all For to what end did our Sauiour come into the world but only to espouse his Church in Faith To what end did he instruct her with his preaching redeeme her with his death and Passion and sanctify her with his holy Spirit augment and confirme her with the labours of his Apostles and with the bloud of so many millions of Martyrs but only to make her such a glorious Kingdome euen vpon earth according to all the former Prophesies so constant so stronge so imoueable that she should vphold the glory of his name against Princes and Potentats against Kings and Emperours against Schismaticks Heretikes and wicked Christians and against all the force of the world and on the Diuell himselfe that would seeke withall his arts and engines to suppresse it Wherefore if our Sauiour be the true Messias whose Name was foretold to be Deusfortis Emmanuel Esa 9 6. Esa 7.15 the strong God God with vs and who according to his owne speach came into the world to bynd the strong man which is to say the Diuell that held all the world in peaceful captiuity before his comming then it must needs follow that the Kingdome which he erected shall stand for euer Matt. 16.18 and that the Gates of hâ—ll shall not preuaile against it But on the contrary side if it were true which the Protestants affirme that his Church hath erred ceasing to be the true Church or which is all one that his Kingdome was destroyed and that there came one after him stronger then himselfe that is to say the Diuell who did bynd his body whereof he was the head defiled his Spouse bereaued him of this Kingdome Matt. 12.20 and tooke his vessells and riches from him then of necessity it must be granted either that the former Prophesies of him were not true and that the Scripture is false or els that our Sauiour was not the true Messias who contrary to the Prophets and to his owne promises and protestations to maintayne his Church for euer hath suffered it to perish and therfore was not able to defend it This argument therefore of the largnes glory contynuance visibility and inuincible constancy of the Church is of great force to induce any man whatsoeuer whether he haue the Name or not so much as the Name of a ChristiaÌ„ to become a Catholike For the Scriptures euen as they are in the hands of our enemyes the Iewes â—iâ—t full of the Prophesies of those excellent perfectioÌ„s of the Kingdom of Christ which according to the present tymes and according to the historyes of all former ages we shewe to haue been performed since the death of Christ in the Catholike Church that was planted by himselfe and propagated by his holy spirit which according to his promise was giuen to his Apostles and their successours after them to remayne with them for euer And if it be manifest that this world in respect of the beauty and perfection therof Rom. 1. is the worke of Gods hand condemning all those that do not acknowledge him to be the Creatour of it much more manifest is it Eph. 5.27 that this glorious Kingdome and Church is the worke of God wherein he sheweth the riches of his power of his wisedome and of his infynit goodnes condemning all those that will not acknowledge it and subiect themselues to the gouerment therof SECTION XXIIII Foure other particuler motiues of the Conuersion of Nations of the Miracles of the Martyrdoms and of the vnion of the members of the Catholike Church are briefly propounded VNDER these generall tearmes of Holy Catholike Church are comprised many other partiticuler gifts and graces which being all supernaturall and diuine ech of them is a sufficient motiue to perswade any mans coÌ„science that the Catholike Church is the only blessed of God and the elected spouse of Christ our Sauiour Whereof being entred into this matter of Motiues I thinke good to giue instance in some few remitting you for the rest to other Catholike authours who haue treated more largely of this matter Diuers therfore haue been induced to belieue that the Catholike Fayth is the only true Religion by obseruing that all Nations and Countreys which at any tyme professed the Name of Christ haue been conuerted by Catholikes alone And in this last age since the Protestant religion began they haue reduced and subiected very many Kingdomes vnto the yoke of Christ whereof Philippus Nicolaus Coment de reg Christil 1. pag. 315. p. 52. Sym. Lyth in respons altera ad alteram Gretseri Apol. p. 331. Tertul. de praescrip c. 42. a Protestant numbreth more then 20. In so much as another Protestant in his answere to Gretser the Iesuit sayth The Iesuits within the space of a few yeares c. haue filled Asia Affrick and America with their Idols Whereas in the meane tyme the Protestants haue only sowne tares among the wheat atteÌ„ding as Tertullian sayd of the Heretikes of his tyme not to conuert the heathen but to peruert those that were before conuerted And although they haue sundry tymes attempted to conuert some heathen with hope to possesse their Countreys yet no King or Kingdome or Countrey or Prouince Sarauia in defension tract de diuersis gradibus Ministrorum pag. 309. was euer conuerted by them And Beza sayth plainly that the Protestants may leaue such peregrinatious to those locusts that belieue the Name Iesus Which conuersions of so many sauage and barbarous Nations by the words of a few poore men with a little broken language to imbrace a Religion so far aboue the reach of Nature and in respect of the austerity therof so contrary to flesh bloud and especially to their former intemperate liues and brutish customes as it shewath Gods promises by the Prophets to be dayly fullfilled in them and proueth our Church thereby to be the Church of Christ So it is most euident that their conuerters were supernaturally assisted by the strength of Gods Arme which is sufficient to perswade any indifferent man that the doctrine they preach can be no other then the true Ghospell reuealed by Christ to his owne Apostles Which also is a manifest token that the grounds of Christianity and of our Catholike doctrine are the very same And that the Protestants for want of them can neuer conuert any Heathen Nation to Christian religion denying as they do the grounds therof which are the same with the grounds of the Catholike doctrine Secondly therefore many haue submitted themselues to the obedience of the Catholike Church by consideratioÌ„ of those notorious miracles which in all ages haue beene wrought therin being such marks of truth as no man can deny them to be the seales of God and the signes of his owne hand If I should
of all suits causes concerning the law is likewise publique for otherwise there could be no peace nor concord made betweene priuate men if euery one might interprete the law to his owne aduantage so likewise the Catholike Fayth being common and publique propounded to all and all men being commaunded to agree togeather in the same fayth with vnity and concord it must needs follow that the definition and sinall sentence of all controuersyes causes of faith be also publique For otherwise there could be no end of differences euery man obstinatly defending the sense of his owne spirit and presumptuously condemning all those Hier cont Lucif c. 14. that oppose themselues against it If in the Church sayth S. Hierome there be no imminent power there will be so many Schismes as there are Priests And among twelue one was chosen that a head being appointed Idem cont Iouin the occasiō of Schism might be taken away But of this we haue spoken sufficiently els where and haue also shewed by experience that the Protestants for want of this publike authority are infinitly deuided among themselues and censure most terribly and condemne most extremly the seuerall opinions of one another Wherefore to proceed and to omit for breuityes sake that this rule of priuate interpretation being once admitted there would follow nothing els but an infinite confusion of little truth much falsehood in the Church of God And that the mēbers thereof should haue no meanes to discerne with whome they ought to hold communion as sincere and orthodoxall nor whome to auoyd as corrupt and hereticall What can be more contrary to the light of Nature then where all haue equall meanes to know the truth or that some for sundry good respects may be thought to excell the rest euery particuler man though neuer so simple should more cōfide in his owne priuate vnderstanding then in the iudgment of the best and wisest which as it is most absurd in all kind of knowledge so especially in the right vnderstanding interpretation of Scripture being in great part most obscure and euery where subiect to errour as you may easily iudge by the controuersyes decrees and generall Councells of the Church concerning the same by the condemnations of so many excellent wits learned men that haue erred therein and by the explications sermons and cōmentaryes that without end are made vpon them And truely that euery Protestant man woman and child plough-man artificer or of what profession soeuer learned or vnlearned whether they can read or no should take it vpon them and vpon their saluation as they do and as they are bound to do according to the ground of their Religion to iudge infallibly by the Scripture alone which bookes are Scripture and which not and to know euery verse and euery line of the Canonicall from that which is not Canonicall better then the ancient Fathers or Laodicean Councell for example who doubted of many of them and better then that famous Councell of Carthage where at S. Augustine was present is thought to haue been the Secretary and penner of it which decreed many bookes to be Scripture that are now contradicted reiected by the Protestants is so strange a madnes as it seemeth impossible that it should sinke into any mans hart to imagine or that the mind of any sober man could be deluded with it And the same we may say of the interpretation of Scripture For beleeuing as an article of their Fayth that there is no external means wherby they may infallibly know the meaning of Scripture but by the Scripture euery idle companiō preferreth his owne priuate iudgment therin not only before the iudgment of all the Fathers in particuler who haue doubted of many poynts of Fayth and of the meaning of many places in Scripture vntill by a generall Councell their doubts were cleared but also before the sentence of the vniuersall Church which euery Protestant doth imagine to haue grosly erred beleeuing in the meane tyme his owne opinion to be most infallible Which is yet more strang in that the Protestants perswading themselues to be most certaine that they haue the Scripture and the true interpretation of Scripture they confesse notwithstanding the meanes which they vse for the attayning of this certainty to be most vncertayne That is to say the reading of Scripture their conference of places their diligence prayer and the like Whereof the two last alone are common to all and euery one of these meanes being by their owne confession but human endeauours are therefore subiect to the errour of our frayle Nature to the common ouersight of mans infirmity And as all partyes among them condemne ech other so there was neuer any Protestant in the world whom they beleeue or acknowledge notwithstanding the vse of all these meanes not to haue been very much deceiued in the interpretation of the Scripture And therfore as the authority of the Catholicke Church in respect of the clarity and extension therof is fitly expounded by S. Augustine to be that Lightning of the comming of Christ which breaking forth out of heauen is scene from the East to the West Matth. 24.27 and filleth the world inforcing all men to behold it so it is no great mystery to vnderstand that the Protestants shutting their eyes against it haue chosen to themselues such a ground of their fayth as by it self alone is not only most vncertaine vnto them for diuers sundry causes but also in respect of the formality therof is most contrary to Scripture most opposite to reason and most euidently ouerthrowing it selfe as hath beene shewed Whereof because no man that is not willfully blind among you can be ignorant therfore I can blame none of those great numbers of whome your authors do so much cōplaine who preferre the light of sense or naturall reason before the fayth of the Protestants and chuse rather to beleeue nothing then to be so grossly and so manifestly deceiued For such a kind fayth as hath been shewed doth not perfect the light of naturall reason but abuse it nor maketh men spiritually wise but rather diabolically contentious and absurdly foolish And the ground therof being false and friuolous they who rely the most thereupon are the most deceiued And albeit they may hold many things that are true yet speaking properly of diuine faith they haue no faith at all whereof I gaue you the reason in the beginning of this Section because to ayme at the secrets of God or to mooue any dispute about them without some infallible meanes which himselfe hath ordayned for the preseruation tradition and preaching or deliuery of them is no lesse ridiculous then for blind men as I haue sayd to cōtend of colours or as S. Paul affirmeth no better then vayne and idle talking 1. Tim. 1.6.7 not vnderstanding neither what is spoken nor of what to affirme But as the Turkes albeit they are perswaded that there is one
forgetteth not to vse tearmes of due reuerence saying in this manner Neither dost thou disdaine that art not proud though thou gouernest in a higher place to be a friend to these of low condition and to returne loue for loue And you haue heard what words of great respect S. Hierom vsed to Pope Damasus Hier. ad Damasum when he sayd Although thy greatnes doth feare me yet thy humanity doth inuite me being a sheep I craue the help of my sheepheard c. And how the great Athanasius Patriarch of Alexandria with the Bishops of the East thought it no disgrace to call the Pope their holy Lord venerable with Apostolicall dignity the Father of the vniuersall Church Athan. ad Marcum tom 1. Con. affirming themselues to be his and that vnto him with all those committed to them they were obedient and euer would be Whereof I thought good briefly to remember you that you might perceiue the difference betweene the Christian humility of the ancient Fathers and the saucy presumption of this new contentious Heretike SECTION XXX Of Schisme which is the last obiection of the Bishop against himselfe wherein hee is proued to be not only a Schismatike but also a manifest Heretike HIS second last obiection which he maketh against himselfe is this That forsaking the Church of Rome which he calleth Babylon he may seeme to haue incurred the cryme of Schisme wherunto he answereth saying I will that this my flight or profectiō be free from all suspition of Schisme If Monsignor fate voy when he fell into the hands of the Merchants that had beene deceiued by him should haue sayd I will be free from beating do you thinke it would haue serued his turne Truly both these Monsignors hauing so well deserued their fees as the blowes fell vpon the one notwithstanding his good desire to the contrary so not only the suspition but also the infamy both of Schisme and Heresy whether he will or will not must light vpon the other But because it is manifest that there is a Schisme or diuision betweene the Pope and him he would insinuate that all things considered not himselfe but the Pope must needs be the Schismatike which he seemeth to proue first by reason and secondly by the authority and example of S. Cyprian His reason is this in effect He that maketh new Articles of fayth either cōtrary or not contayned in the Scriptures and ancient Creeds and admitteth for Articles of Fayth such things as are indifferent in themselues and were neuer sufficiently defyned by the Church and condemneth those for heretiks whom the Church hath not sufficiently condemned he is the Schismaticke But such is the Pope who doth these things not the Bishop who detesteth them Ergo c. Wherein what he meaneth by not being sufficiently defined or condemned by the Church I know not But to giue you some light heerin you must vnderstand that according to the Catholike doctrine any Controuersy in matter of Faith may be sufficiently defyned foure manner of wayes That is to say First by the vniuersall consent and generall beliefe of all the Faithfull for as hath been proued it is impossible the vniuersal Church should erre in matter of Faith Aug. l. de haeres in fine And therfore S. Augustine sayth It is sufficient to know that the Church reputeth any doctrine not to be of Fayth that it be not receiued by any of the Faithfull Lib 1 cont Cresc c. 31. 33 ep 48.99 in ep 118. c 5. l. de v◅lit cred c. 17. And you know how he affirmeth that to dispute against the doctrine of the vniuersall Church is most insolent madnes and that not to giue thereunto the first place of authority is either extreme impiety or precipitate ignorance Secondly any thing may be defined to be matter of fayth by the vniforme consent of the Doctours of the Church who if they should erre the whole Church being bound to beleeue them must fall of necessity into errours with them Thirdly by a generall Councell confirmed by the Pope or lastly by the definition of the Pope himselfe decreing the same for the direction of the faythfull and establishment of the peace of the Church as hath been proued at large in the former Sections of the Popes Supremacy And because the question between the Pope and the Bishop in this place concerneth Schisme Heresy you are further to vnderstand that Schism according to the sense of the word signifieth a scissure or diuision of minds which is opposed to vnity and consequently to Charity which doth vnite the minds of the Faythfull And because the greatest vnity in the Church is that of the whole body which proceedeth from all the members with the head and whereunto the vnity and Charity of the particuler members among themselues is naturally referred as the part to the whole from hence it is that Schisme being taken for such a great dissention S. Thom. 2.2 quaest 39. art c. in corpore Hier. in c. 3. ad Tit. as is most contrary to the vnity of the Church is defined to be a rebellion against the head of the Church refusing to communicate with the members therof as they are subiect vnto him According whereunto S. Hierome giueth vs this doctrine between Heresy and Schisme sayth he we make this difference that Heresy holdeth some peruerse opinion Schisme also separateth from the Church by Episcopall dissention Epiph. sect 68. Aug. l de Haer. haer 69. l 2. cont Crese c. 4. 7. or dissention from the Bishop So Miletius making a proper congregation against Peter Bishop of Alexandria his Superiour was accompted a Schismaticke and no Heretike For as Epiphanius sayth his faith was neuer changed from the Catholike Church So likewise Cecilian being made Bishop of Carthage against the will of Donatus who obiected many crimes vnto him and with his followers departed from him the Donatists in the beginning were accōpted Schismatiks And in the same manner Optatus to proue Parmenian not Cecilian to be the Schismatike argueth in this manner For Cecilian sayth he went not out from Maiorinus thy predecessour but Maiorinus from Cecilian Neither did Cecilian depart from the Chayre of Peter or of Cyprian but Maiorinus in whose chayre thou succeedest and which before him had no beginning Wherfore in our case it wil be an easy matter to find out of these two the Pope or this Bishop which is the Scismatike For the Bishop rebelling against the Pope his Superiour if not by diuine yet at least by humaine law as himselfe will confesse dissenting from the chiefe Bishop of the Church of Christ going out and departing from the Chayre of Peter and ioyning himselfe vnto another Congregation most oposite thereunto it is more absurd for him to accuse the Pope of schisme then for a subiect taking armes against his Prince or ioyning with his enemyes to acuse the Prince himselfe of rebellion and
did put the Church in danger of pernicious dissention But it is no maruell though his intention were not bad that an ill cause should be no better defended wherein the greatest commendation of S. Cyprian in my opinion is this that as it is most credible he repented himselfe both of the matter and of the manner SECTION XXXIII VVherein the Bishop is manifestly conuinced of schisme out of the Authority and example of S. Cyprian alleadged by himselfe and the same authority for as much as it seemeth to concerne the Pope is sufficiently answered VVHERFORE this one authority alone produced by the Bishop being almost all the matter of substance and almost the only proofe which he bringeth for any thing he sayth in his whole booke taking vp all things vpon trust as hath been obserued you see notwithstanding how that out of this one place of S. Cyprian alleadged by him we haue proued the Popes Supremacy and the necessity not only of tradition but also of the iudgment of the Church for the defyning of matters in Controuersy and for the condemning of heresy Besides we haue shewed how notoriously he falsifieth the Ecclesiastical history how he cōdemneth not only S Stephen most impiously but also S. Cyprian most absurdly whome he sought most to commend And now that you may perceiue how much this authority of S. Cyprian maketh not only against his cause in generall and his owne credit in particuler but also against himselfe in the very poynt for the proofe and declaration whereof it is inserted by him Thus I argue He that without authority condemneth any other Bishop and refuseth to hold communion with him according to S. Cyprian may be iudged a Schismatike or to giue occasion of schisme but Marcus Antonius condemneth without authority not only his Colleague but also his Superiour the Bishop of Rome not of one errour but of inumerable heresies not of any ordinary fault but of suppressing the Councells of deprauing the Scriptures and ancient Fathers of vsurpation and tyrany ouer the Church of God oppressing pilling and spoyling the same and sucking the bloud of the members thereof And by consequence he condemneth likewise all other Bishops that communicate with him and are subiect to him calleth the vniuersall Church which is vnder the obedience of the Pope by the name of Babylon that is to say the Citty or congregation of the Diuell Therefore Marcus Antonius is a Schismatike according to his owne discourse and according to the words of S. Cyprian which he fondly alleadgeth to proue the contrary Secondly according to the processe of his owne discourse I argue thus He that goeth against the example of S. Cyprian proposed to the vniuersall Church for the auoyding of schisme falleth into the cryme of schisme But Marcus Antonius goeth directly against the example of S. Cyprian propounded by himselfe as a rule for the auoyding of schisme Therfore Marcus Antonius according to his owne rule is falne into the cryme of schisme That Marcus Antonius hath proceeded against his owne rule and the example of S Cyprian which he propoundeth is a thing most manifest For whereas S. Cyprian notwithstanding that he reputed the Pope almost all the vniuersall Church to be in manifest errour would neuer depart from the communion of the Pope but respected him so much that he communicated with those whome he held impure only because the Pope receiued them into his communion Marcus Antonius in the same case hath not only forsaken the Pope but also all those that are vnited with him whome otherwise he thinketh not impur e only because they do not separate themselues from the Pope but still remayne in his communion Wherfore these two arguments produced by himselfe are so conuincing that there needeth nothing els to confound him So that this proofe of his out of S. Cyprian being the substance of his booke and being withall so contrary to his cause to his credit and to himselfe in the poynt of Schisme whereof he intended to cleare himselfe therby may be sufficient to giue you to vnderstand of what substance the matter of his other booke is like to be when it shal be printed For my part I am verily perswaded if it be well vnderstood it wil be found to be more against the Protestants then the Catholikes and more contrary to himselfe then to either of the other And now to draw towards an end of this matter in the allegation of this authority out of S. Cyprian he is so much the more to be blamed in that being of such force against himselfe for as much thereof as concerneth the Popes authority it may full easily be answered For those words of S. Cyprian That none of them made himselfe the Bishop of Bishops c. may very well be vnderstood of those that were present at that Councell and not to conclude in that sentence the Bishop of Rome who truly may be sayd to be the Bishop of Bishops the Father of Fathers the Bishop and Father of the vniuersall Church and the like as hath been shewed That which he sayth A Bishop cannot be iudged but by God alone as he receiueth his authority from God alone ought to be vnderstood that he cannot be iudged in those things which are doubtfull obscure and hidden Aug. l. 3. de baptis cap. 3. For so S. Augustine himselfe doth expound him For hauing recited these words of S. Cyprian As I take it sayth he he meaneth in those questions which are not yet discussed with most cleere perspection And that S. Cyprian belieued that Bishops in cases of heresy or schisme Cyp. lib 5. epist 13. might be iudged and deposed by the Pope is euident in one of his Epistles to Pope Stephen where he exhorteth him that he would commaund the Bishop of Arles in France to be deposed and to appoint another in his place So that you see the childish arrow of this Bishop as it is shot vpward against the Pope doth not aryue vnto him but returneth with greater force to fall vpon his owne head and woundeth him in many places as hath been declared But now to do him a pleasure let vs suppose that Cyprian in these words did glance at S. Stephen and that he meant to taxe him for proceding as he thought too rigorously against him with what conscience or with what honesty I pray you can this strange Bishop alleadge these words of S. Cyprian spoken in the defence of a wrong cause as he knoweth and in his cōmotion anger against the Pope of the which it is most probable and according to S. Augustine we ought to thinke that he repented himselfe against so many playne places expresse doctrine of S. Cyprian as I haue cyted before and which for the full satisfactions of your selfe and the Reader in this poynt I shal be content to repeat in part at this present SECTION XXXIIII Many testimonyes and playne places are produced out of S. Cyprian wherby
so the charity of this man is no lesse to be obserued and admired in calling the Pope his most holy Father and the Bishops vnited with him his most blessed Brethren giuing them thereby his kisse of peace whom before through all his booke he had sould to the Protestants for blind guydes teaching innumerable errours for corrupters of Gods word tyrants oppressors of the Church Babylonians and the like Which termes albeit no lesse falsely then impiously they are applyed by him to the Pope and his Bishops whether you respect the former wherein he should shew his loue or the later wherein he expresseth his hatred vnto them yet because as it appeareth by his owne words he describeth therein his owne spirituall kindred it cannot be denyed but that he is ready to acknowledge if need were the author of lyes himselfe for his holy Father and his wickedest children for his most blessed Brethren Wherefore considering his zeale wherof he boasteth so much to be so large and the armes of his charity to be so far extended from East to West as to imbrace the fellowship of Babylon which is the Citty of the Diuell it is manifest that he excludeth neither Turks nor Iufidells from his Communion And therefore me thinks that as no good Protestant can be much delighted with it so euery good Christian should abhorre and detest it The second poynt to be noted in his conclusion is this that he rather ordereth commaundeth then aduiseth the Pope to restore peace and charity to all those Churches that professe to receiue the essentiall Creeds of Fayth By which he must needs meane the three Creeds of the Apostles of the Councel of Nice against Arius and of the Councell of Constantinople against Macedonius and therefore supposeth all other poynts of Cōtrouersy not contayned in those Creeds to be matters indifferent not sufficiently defyned and not to be beleeued as articles of Fayth Which is such a monstrous opinion as doth euidētly shew him to be of no Religion at all and therefore I maruell how he could be suffered to publish such wicked doctrine in England For if the Pope must haue peace and communion with all those that receiue the Creeds alone howsoeuer they please to vnderstand them thereof it will follow that all Councells which haue beene celebrated since the making of those Creeds haue beene the authors of Schisme and dissention in condemning later Heresyes and that albeit a man should deny al Sacramēts yea and al Scripture at this day yet according to this Antichristian doctrine it should be Schisme to refuse him or to accompt him no good Christian for the same And how easy a matter is it not beleeuing the Scripture to contemne the Creeds or rather how impossible contemning the one to beleeue the other This therefore may be another signe to be added vnto those which I haue touched before that the Bishop being fallen frō the Church is fallen likewise to Neutrality in Religion may be a cause of greater mischiefe and of greater dishonour to our Countrey then they that feed him haue yet discouered in him I cannot omit his incredible ignorance which he discouereth where among other poynts of idle Counsell which he pleaseth to bestow vpon the Pope and the rest of the Bishops of the Catholike Church himselfe being so wyse as to admit no Counsell at all neither from them nor any other he telleth them that he will haue them belieue for certaine that Schisme in the Church is a greater euell then Heresy it selfe Wherin it is to be admyred how he could presume to teach the whole Church such a notable falshood with such arrogant temerity as heere he doth For as he that hath no faith can haue no charity so Heresy that destroyeth Faith bringeth also schisme with it which is opposed to Charity So that albeit there may be schisme in the Church without heresy as faith may remayne without charity yet charity without faith or heresy without schisme there cannot be And therefore all Deuines haue euer held that heresy is far the greater mischiefe which bereaueth a man of all supernatural vertue and maketh him worse then an Infidell The rest of his conclusion is much of the same nature wherein no lesse insolently then ignorantly he taketh vpon him to schoole and to catechize the Pope all his Prelates prescribing vnto them what they ought to belieue and with what tearmes and conditions they may giue him satisfaction make their peace and concord with him Whereunto I thinke no better answere can be giuen in the Popes behalfe then that which S. Cyprian made to Florentius Pupianus of whom we haue spoken before for no man can be thought of so fit as S. Cyprian to rebuke his Pryde whom a little before vnder the colour of much respect he so much abused And in his arrogant and insolent behauiour towards the Pope he doth so perfectly resemble the presumptuous demenour of Pupianus towards S. Cyprian Cyp. ep 65. as that the one seemeth to haue been but the figure of the other the words therefore of S. Cyprian are these that follow What swelling Pryde is this what arrogancy of hart what inflation of mynd to call vnto the trybunall of thy Iudgment the Priests that is to say the Bishops and those that are set ouer thee that vnlesse we can purge ourselues to thee and be absolued by thy sentence now for so many yeares for more then a thousand the Fraternity must be condemned to haue had no Bishop the people no Prelate the flock no Pastour the Church no Gouernour Christ no Antistes and God no Priest Let Pupianus or Marcus Antonius be pleased to help vs let him giue his sentence and be contented to make good the iudgment of God of Christ that so great a number of faythfull people ranged vnder vs may not be thought to haue departed without hope of saluation and that so many Nations of new beleeuers be not accompted to haue receiued from vs no grace at all of the spirit of God that the Communion and reconcilement giuen by vs to so many that haue repented be not dissolued and taken from them by the authority of thy decree vouchsafe at length to grant our request giue vs thy fauourable sentence confirme vs in our place by thy iudiciall authority that God and his Christ may giue thee thanks that by thee their Prelate is restored to their Alter againe and their Rector to the gouernement of their people Truly me thinks these words of S. Cyprian being so applyable to your Bishop as they are should make any man that seemeth to respect him euen to blush and to be ashamed for him And as concerning his Vertue of peace and concord S. Cyprian in the same place doth answer him so fitly as if he had penned the same directly for Marcus Antonius vnder the name of Florentius Pupianus For the which cause it being no way seemly for me to adde any thing