euer since the time of our Sauiour vnto this present I doe beleeue with the same faith and vpon the same grounds that I beleeue the Catholike Church because I beleeue our Church of England to be a member of the Catholike and this I beleeue a priori that is for the promise sake made in the Scriptures that it shall bee so But where our Church was before Luther or who were the Professors of it euer since the time of our blessed Sauiour vntill this present is no part of my Creed There is not a syllable in it which inuites me to proceed that way Doe I say I beleeue the vniuersalitie of Christs Church and must my foundation be such onely as can breed in me but an opinion or naked hope doe I begin in Faith and with the Galathians must I end in the flesh that is with sense Doe I build with one hand a Church Catholike which cannot bee seene and with the other must I draw it in a Map or point it out to the eye Nay set the Church as Catholike aside and consider it but in her parts which consideration of it belongs not to the Creed yet in this sense also is the Church at sometimes so obscured that by our Aduersaries owne confession none but the prudent and wise are able to discerne it The Church is I confesse compared in the Reuelation to a woman clothed with the Sunne in Isaiah to a Citie built vpon an Hill and by the Fathers to the Moone the Sunne the Moone and a Hill are things most easie to be discerned yet we know this Sunne may be obscured with a Clowd an Hill may be hid with a mist and the Moone as Saint Austen in his 119. Epist alluding to the Church obserueth hath her wanes and eclipses in the time of her peregrination SECT II. The second way whereby one may know the Church to be Catholike or Vniuersall IF any should mistake me and thinke that pressing so earnestly the preeminencie of knowing the Church to be Catholike and Vniuersall a priori that is from the promises made vnto it in the Scriptures we doe suspect our proofs a posteriori from the Professors of our Religion in all Ages to be either none or weake let them know that we want not those who haue scored out varietie of sufficient paths to proceed this way also which howsoeuer they bee not like the testimonie of our Sauiour to beget a faith yet are they like the testimonie of the Samaritan woman to induce a credulitie For not to tyre you with large discourses which were to exceed my limits onely for satisfaction herein to the reasonable and impartiall Hearer let vs take along with vs these few considerations 1. The first that we are to distinguish betweene our affirmatiues that is such things as are purely affirmed by vs and our negatiues such as in whole or in part we denie betweene which there is a great difference to be made in all sciences For affirmatiue propositions onely are the proper parts and ingredients of a discipline Negatiues are admitted say Logicians not so much by way of Precept as of Cautell and of Commentaries to vindicate the other from misconstruction 2. The second that such affirmatiues of ours as are established by our Church of England at least such as concerne the foundation of faith haue beene in all ages professed by the Church of Rome it selfe For explication whereof we are to obserue that the Popes Arithmetick which he vseth in calculating the articles of faith is not substraction but addition what wee purely affirme the Popish writers for the most part doe affirme the same the difference is that they affirme somewhat more then wee doe They denie not so much that our affirmations are truth as that they say we affirme not all the truth wherevpon they vsually stile vs in their writings Negatiuists For example sake Wee agree on both sides the Scriptures to be the Rule of Faith the Bookes of the old Testament written in Hebrew to bee Canonicall that we are iustified by Faith that God hath made two receptacles for mens soules after death Heauen and Hell that God may bee worshipped in spirit without an Image that wee are to pray vnto God by Christ that there be two Sacraments that Christ is really receaued in the Lords Supper that Christ made one oblation of himselfe vpon the Crosse for the redemption propitiation and satisfaction for the sinnes of the whole world In a word where they take the Negatiue part as in with-holding the Cup from the Laytie forbidding the administration of the Sacraments in the vulgar tongue and restrayning the marriage of Priests yet euen in these they condescend vnto vs for the lawfulnesse of the things in themselues and in respect of the Law of God and oppose them onely in regard of their necessitie and conueniencie and for that the Church of Rome hath otherwise ordayned But see our affirmations content them not To the Scriptures they adde and equalize vnwritten Traditions To the Hebrew Canon the Apocrypha To Faith in the act of Iustification Workes To Heauen and Hell Purgatorie Limbus Patrum and Limbus Puerorum To the worship of God in spirit Images To prayer to God by Christ inuocation and intercession of Saints To Baptisme and the Lords Supper fiue other Sacraments To the realitie of Christ in the Sacrament his corporall presence To the sacrifice of Christ vpon the Crosse the sacrifice in the Masse with other like and these we denie 3. The third that our affirmations by the iudgement of the Church of Rome haue beene in all ages deemed sufficient to saluation so that our Negatiues take not away any doctrine the explicit beliefe whereof is absolutely necessarie For first in regard of knowledge the Schoolemen hold that much lesse is needfull to bee explicitly beleeued then what is contayned in our affirmations For whereas wee entertayne and embrace amongst our affirmatiue articles not onely the doctrine of the three Creedes but also sundrie other assertions as may appeare by the booke of Articles and Homilies established in our Church Albertus Magnus on the contrarie with Bonauenture Richardus and Durandus thinke that so much onely of the Creed is necessarie as the Church solemnizeth in her holidayes Thomas Aquinas Scotus Gabriel Biel and Pope Adrian the sixth which goe farther thinke it needfull to beleeue but the whole Creed and Alexander ab Hales which goes farthest thinkes that one need but adde to the Apostolicall Creed the Nicen and Athanasian to make a compleat beleeuer quanquam hoc nimis durum videtur though this seemes too hard an imposition saith Gregorie de Valentia in his third Tom. vpon Thom. 1. disp although one wade no farther therein then the proper sense and haue no great distinct knowledge of the matters Nay Bellarmine is so confident in this point that he sticks not to say that the Apostles themselues neuer vsed to preach openly
that it is a matter of faith which they propound This if they do it will soone appeare that the Church of Rome for a 1000 yeres after our Sauior professed no other Faith nor published any other beliefe in points fundamentall either Negatiue or Affirmatiue then wee doe The fift that after a thousand and some few yeares more were expired Transubstantiation and Adoration of the Host with other dregs of Antichrist being established though we cannot say that the Church of Rome was from thenceforth absolutely our Church yet we may boldly say that our Church was from that time vntill Luther both within the Romane Church and without it For the clearer demonstration whereof wee are to note that our Church had in those dayes a twofold subsistencie the one separate from the Church of Rome the other mixt and conioyned with it Separate so it was in the Albigences and Waldenses a people who so soone as the Church of Rome had interpreted her selfe touching sundrie of those maine points of difference betweene vs and that a man could no longer communicate with her in the publicke worship of God by reason of some Idolatrous rites and customes which she had established arose in France Sauoy and the places neere adioyning and professed the same substantiall Negatiues and Affirmatiues which wee doe in a state separate from the Church of Rome hauing Pastors and Congregations apart to themselues euen vnto this day From these descended the Wicklefists in England and the Hussites in Germanie and others in other Countries who mauger the furie of fire and sword maintayned the same doctrine that they did And if any be desirous to be more particularly informed touching what they held and taught because they are out of malice as some Popish writers more ingenious do testifie branded with new and vnheard of opinions which their confessions Catechismes and other writings to be seen at this present do disclayme as were also the Christians in the Primitiue Church by the Pagans and wee in like manner by the Romanists let the testimonies of their Aduersaries themselues which are strong as one spake once of Porphyryes and admit no contradiction cleare them For points of doctrine therefore Reynerius an inquisitor against them and one that liued three hundred yeeres agone will tell you that they beleeued all things well of God and all the articles of which are contained in the Creed onely the Church of Rome they hated and blasphemed Claudius Seysellus Arch-bishop of Turin in Piedmont who died more then an hundred yeres since and being their neighbour laboured most carefully both to informe himselfe concerning their positions and also to confute them layes no more to their charge then what Alphonsus a Castro Prateolus Cardinall Bellarmine Gregorie de Valentia Gaulterus and other of the Roman Pale doe in their writings acknowledge viz. that they denied 1. The inuocation of Saints Bell. de cultu sanct lib. 3. cap. 7. 2. The placing of Images in Churches or worshipping of them Bell. de reliq sanct lib. 2. cap. 6. 3. Confirmation to bee a Sacrament Castro v. confirmatio 4. Auricular confession Castro v. confessio 5. Popish Indulgences Valent. in Thom. tom 3. disp 7. q. 20. p. 2. 6. Purgatorie Valent. in Thom. tom 4. disp 11. q. 1. § 6. Bell. lib. 1. de purg cap. 2. 7. Masses for the dead Prat. v. Waldenses 8. Merits Castro v. ieiunium Gaulterus in Cronolog ad an 1200. 9. Orders of begging Friers Castro v. Monachatus 10. Extreame vnction to bee a Sacrament Castro v. extrema vnctio 11. Exorcismes in Baptisme Castro v. exorcismus Gault cron loc citat 12. The consecrating of Oyle Salt Franckincence Boughes c. Castro v. benedictio 13. Transubstantiation Bellarm. lib. 1. de Eucharist cap. 2. Valent. tom 4. in Thom. disp 6. quaest 3. punct 1. 6. 14. The Popes supremacie Bellar. in Praefat. ad lib. de Rom. Pont. 15. Vnwritten Traditions to be the rule of faith Seissel p. 4. with many others of like nature For Discipline I cannot tell what the necessitie of the times might force them to practise this wee are taught by Sanders haeres 150. and by Gaulterius in his Chronologie ad an 1200. both Romanists that they held three Orders to bee in the Church viz. of Deacons Priests and Bishops nay the Hussites which descended from them did so highly esteeme of these Orders that as Bellarmine and Gregorie de Valentia doe acknowledge they receiued none into the Office of Pastors but such as were ordayned by Bishops The state of the Church mixt and conioyn'd with the Church of Rome it selfe consisted of those who making no visible separation from the Roman profession as not perceiuing the mysterie of iniquitie which wrought in it did yet mislike the grosser errors which at this day shee maintayneth and desired a reformation For there may bee a Church which in respect of her chiefe Prelates and a predominant faction therein may bee false and Antichristian yet may contayne some members of the true Church within her Pale who though they refuse not to communicate with her nay more are infected with some smaller errors of the time yet swallow not downe all vntruths without difference but keepe still the foundation of faith intire and vnshaken Thus it was with the Church of the Iewes at the comming of our Sauiour They which fate in Moses chaire were the Scribes and the Pharisies who peruerted the doctrine of the Law and were the profest enemies of our Sauiour yet many there were who though they communicated with them in the outward Sacraments and discipline of the Church yet were the flock of another fold and like a few Oliues at the end of a twig after the shaking of the tree claue to the right stocke and wayted for the redemption of Israel by Christ And thus doubtlesse it was with some which being outwardly of the Church of Rome wee may iustly notwithstanding challenge to our selues 1. For first there was baptisme which admitted them to the rights and priuiledges of our Church for they were baptised vnto Christs Truth and not the Popes errors Secondly There was true lawfull ordination wherein their Pastors receiued commission and did promise to teach the people not the Popes legends but out of the holy Scriptures and to intend wholly to the sense thereof So that both Pastor and flock were ours by admission promise and ingagement theirs by abuse and practise for howsoeuer the Priest at the baptising or the Bishop at the ordination had another meaning yet the wordes wherewith they baptised and ordayned being the wordes of Christ are to be taken in Christs meaning inasmuch as hee which receiueth a thing from another is to receiue it according to the intention of the principall Giuer and not the instrumentall giuer Hee which conferres Baptisme and Orders as the principall Donor is Christ the Bishop or Pastor conferres them onely as his instruments Thirdly There were
times and places In respect of its forme so likewise it hath sundrie considerations for the forme of it is Either 1. Internall which is the misticall vnion which the members thereof haue with Christ and through Christ one with another which vnion is wrought by faith 2. Externall which is the vniformity the parts haue one to another in the profession of the truth and the right administration of the Sacraments which truth and right administration wee say must be if not in all points whatsoeuer yet at least in all points fundamentall and necessarie to saluation Now to bring this home to my argument the Church Catholick of these foure wayes that it may be considered is not visible at all three wayes and the fourth it is not alwayes so clearely visible as that the visibilitie should serue for a note whereby to come to the knowledge of the vniuersalitie and perpetuitie of the Church It is not visible at all First in respect of its matter taken in the full Latitude thereof excluding no times no places nor any condition of men In which sense by the Tridentine catechismes owne confession it is taken in the Creed For nothing is visible which is not present I may remember times past or read of men absent or coniecture things to come but I can see onely those things which are present Secondly it is not visible at all in respect of its inward forme which is the misticall vnion of the members with Christ and one another wrought by faith for this is rooted in the heart and the heart of man God onely seeth Thirdly not in respect of its outward forme which as it enters the Creed is not onely an outward profession of a Doctrine or Discipline but a profession of the same vnder the notion of truth and that the Church in this sense is inuisible Gregorie de Valentia confesseth in his 3. Tom. vpon Thomas and 1. disput and Bellarmine in his 3. booke de Eccles and 15. chap. where he saith In Ecclesia aliquid videri aliquid credi videmus eum caelum hominum qui est Ecclesia sed quod isle caetus sit ipsa vera Christi Ecclesia non videmus sed credimus That is in the Church something is beleeued and something seene wee see that companie of men which is the Church but that this company is the true Church wee doe not see it but beleeue it Againe the Church considered in her most fauourable sense for the Papists that is according to her matter which are men and that againe in a limitted acception not as shee is taken in her Latitude and extent for the whole but in respect of her parts onely with reference to their proper times and places yet in this sense I say is not so cleerely visible at all times as to haue her visibilitie to serue for a note whereby to know it to be Catholicke and vniuersal For Not a sufficiens ac propria ad dignoscendum Ecclesiam omnino necesse est vt sit omni hominum generi atque conditioni accommodatum it is Gregorie de Valentia's own rule in the place aboue cited q. 1. punct 7. § 15. that is that for a sufficient and proper note to know the Church it is necessarie that the note bee fit for all sorts and conditions of men and that all men bee qualified and capable to discerne the Church by it But the Church euen in this sense by his owne confession in the 16. § is sometimes so tost with the flouds of error schismes and persecutions that to the vnskilfull and such as cannot prudently weigh the reasons of times and circumstances it is hard to bee knowne so that by consequence the Visibilitie of it is not alwaies so apparant vnto all sorts of men as to serue for a note or proofe of the Church as Catholicke To make our argument yet more pregnant let vs but aske where the Church was in the time that the Arrian heresie ouerspread and hee will tell you out of Hierom that the ship of it was almost sunke and out of Hilarie that it was then non in tectis exteriori pompa querenda sed potius in carceribus speluncis not to be sought for in buildings or outward pompe but in Prisons and Caues Aske Turrecremata and others where the Church was in the passion of our Sauiour and they will tell you that it remayned only in the Virgin Marie which they say is signified in the Church of Rome by the putting out of all the Tapers saue one onely in the celebration of the passion Nay Bellarmine though hee oppugnes this opinion of Turrecremata's the most hee can yet he is contented to concurre with Abulensis in this that howsoeuer the Apostles might beleeue yet he thinkes that the Virgin Mary onely had fidem explicitam an explicite beliefe of Christs resurrection without which the Apostle saith that our faith is vaine we are yet in our sinnes 1. Cor. 15. Now grant that the Apostles beleeued as well as Marie yet if their beliefe was but implicit their profession could not be visible idem est non esse non apparere it is all one not to bee and not to appeare in this case Nay aske Bellarmine but how the Church shall be in the dayes of Antichrist and he will answer in his third booke de Rom. Pont. and seuenth chap. that it is certaine the persecution then shall bee so great that all publike ceremonies of Religion and Sacrifices shall cease How vniustly then doe the Papists deale with vs in this question touching modum cognoscendi the manner of knowing the Church to bee Catholike that is vniuersall and perpetuall by tying vs to proue it a posteriori instancing who were the Professors who the Pastors what their Names where they abode in all Ages as if ignorance of a thing were a Cause sufficient to make it not to be or Gods promise were not a gage strong enough for such an incredulous generation as theirs is vnlesse there were Registers to shew how and in what manner he kept his word Certainly if God in his wisedome had thought these kinde of proofes necessarie for his Church hee would haue erected an Office and Officers for the purpose now hee hath giuen vs indeed his Royall promise that it shall be so but no promise hath he giuen that there shall be Scribes in all Ages to commit to writing the names and persons of those by whom it came to be so If therefore a Papist should in this manner question me Where was your Church before Luther or what Professors of your doctrine were there or what assemblies of men professing the same faith that you doe euer since the time of our Sauiour vntill this present I would thus answere him out of the Creed That the Church of which I am a member was before Luther that there were assemblies of men professing the same faith that I doe and that
sufficient meanes of Calling besides to supply the Pastors negligence and default as first profitable parcells of Gods Word read in the Church and the whole bodie of the Scriptures at hand which though it were in Latine yet many might vnderstand it and this our Sauiour pointed at when hee brings in Abraham in the Parable thus speaking to the rich man touching his brethren habent Mosen Prophetas they haue Moses and the Prophets Secondly The Writings and Commentaries of the Fathers to whose interpretations their Councells binde them to adhere and out of whom diuers of the Papists both ancient and moderne doe confesse as you haue heard that many of the chiefe articles of Poperie were not for a long time brought into the Church nor beleeued Thirdly Schoolemen and others of their owne side which taught publikely in their Vniuersities our very doctrine not I confesse so entirely as they should but some in one point others in another whereby there was both pregnant meanes to know the truth and strong reasons to thinke at least the doctrines so controuerted and diuersly resolued to be in the Popish sense at most no article of faith Lastly there were no Councells generally receaued by all and not excepted at by some which so expresly deliuered the grounds and Tenets of Poperie as now they are vntill the Councell of Trent So then who can denie that they were ours by Calling ours by Ordination by institution and admission ours and why should any doubt but that some were by practice and obedience ours surely God which called Iob amongst the Heathen and the Queene of the South by the bare report of Solomon would not suffer this Calling to be stil in vaine the Ordination to be wholly vnprofitable or that Admission in baptisme to be alwayes frustrate that is to be the sauour of death vnto death and in none the sauour of life vnto life For if sheepe in a pasture where venemous herbes are mixt with wholsome can by the instinct of nature make choise of that which is proper for them and abstaine from the contrarie what maruaile is it if the flocke of Christ who know the voyce of the true Shepheard from the voyce of strangers should by the guidance of Gods assisting Spirit doe the same Who can denie that God hath his Temple where Antichrist hath his Throne seeing Antichrist as the Apostle tells vs is to sit in it or that some of Gods people may bee in Babylon seeing such are warned by the Spirit to come out of her and it were in vaine to command a man to depart a place if he were not there Now if any shall thinke these motiues and considerations of ours especially touching the last sixe hundred yeeres not to be altogether so exact as the Papists require who challenge vs to produce the names of such visible Protestants in all ages as professed the same entire doctrine in all respects that we doe I answere first that it is not our hold that the Church neuer erreth or discordeth from it selfe in minoribus in matters of lesse moment and therefore it is sufficient for vs to shew who professed our faith entirely in majoribus that is such points as of themselues are fundamentall Secondly we say that whereas wee finde a twofold state of the Church in the Apocalypse the one before the loosing of Satan whilest the old Dragon was shut vp in the bottomlesse pit for a thousand yeeres the other after his loosing when the Deuill was to be let free to goe and deceiue the Nations not in one pettie Hamlet but in the foure quarters of the earth that is as Saint Austen expounds it vnder the reigne and tyrannie of Antichrist We are not bound to giue so strict a reckoning and account of our Professors vnder the second state of the Church as vnder the first The reason is because the Church in her first estate was glorious to behold appearing like a Woman clothed with the Sunne But in the latter shee was to be vnder the thraldome of Antichrist and our Aduersaries themselues tell vs that then wee are not to enquire for visible Professors of the true faith or for the publike exercise of Religion so Suarez Bellarmine and others In a word then was the time that the Church was to flee into the wildernesse as was foretold Reuel 12. Now to expect multitudes of people frequent cities pompous splendor affluence of foode and prouision in a wildernesse were extreame madnesse this were to suppose a wildernesse to be no wildernesse In Deserts there may be assemblies of men but they are rare there may be foode but we know it is but little and such happily as is but absolutely necessarie for the life of man and there may be buildings edifices but through the thickets of trees and shades of leaues hardly to bee discerned And so did it fare with the Church vnder the tyrannie of Antichrist There were some alwayes of it but few there were assemblies but not so euident to the eye of the world and there was the foode of the Word and Sacraments but not so plentifull nor euery where so pure as before times But who would thinke that the Iesuites were all this while but in iest and that they are conscious to themselues that the taske which they require to bee performed on our part is not fesable on their owne For let mee but question them from their owne grounds whether the entire articles of faith which the Church of Rome now holds are found mentioned by Writers in all ages The Cardinall and others of the Iesuites ingeniously confesse they were not and namely Indulgences the Churches treasurie the Popes canonizing of Saints c. onely they answer that it followes not that they were not beleeued because they are not mentioned Bee it so but if their articles of faith be not mentioned how will they make it appeare by the testimonies of writers in all ages as they vndertake to doe that such Tenets were from the time of the blessed Apostles held without interruption Bellarmine therefore answeres that the concurrent testimonies of some Writers of greatest note affirming such a Doctrine to haue beene professed beleeued by the Church in all ages none gaine-saying it will serue the turne But here besides that they stand not to their first bargaine which was to produce the testimonies of Writers in all ages I demand of what ages they meane that their writers shall bee to whose concurrent iudgement they will adhere if of the primatiue Church we accept the offer but this will little aduantage them for neither are many points of difference betweene vs and them mentioned by those writers as aboue was specified much lesse affirmed to bee Apostolicall Traditions neither are those which are mentioned allowed of in that sense which they deliuer If the writers of the after Church and namely the Schoolemen let them heare Gregorie de Valentia's owne