that all these Fathers were carelesse of the rest especially since the end which they professe to propose unto themselves herein is the instruction of the people of what Nation or Language soever which end as it was never meant to be limited to two sorts of people so could it never be attained without this liberty of Language fitted to their understanding To which may be added that the Greeks and Latines of all other had the least need of this provision since it was famously known that they had their several Services already of received and current use before this Constitution was hatched Neither is it of any moment which he addeth That in Italy it self this Decree was not extended to the use of Vulgar tongues for that it is evident that S. Thomas who lived soon after composed in Latine the Office of the Feast of Corpus Christi not in the Italian although the same Aquinas confesses that the vulgar tongue of Italy at that time was not Latine For what childe cannot easily see that if their great Doctor would write an Office for the publick use as is intended of the whole Church he would make choice to write it in such a Language as might improve it to the most common benefit of all the Christian world not confining it to the bounds of a particular Nation Besides what was the Italian in those times especially but a broken and corrupt Latine differing more in Idiome and termination then in the substance of speech That which Radevicus about the year 1170. records for the voice of the people in the election of Pope Victor Papa Vittore S. Pietro l'elege makes good no lesse for what such difference is betwixt this and Papam Victorem Sanctus Petrus elegit So as this instance doth nothing at all infringe that just Decree of the Roman Fathers Howsoever that observation of Erasmus is true and pregnant to this purpose Nec lingua vulgaris c. Neither was the vulgar tongue i. the Latine withdrawn from the people but the people went off from it And as for our Ancestors in this Island our Venerable Beda witnesses that in England the Scriptures were read by them in five Languages according to the number of the Books wherein the Law of God was written namely English Scotish British Pictish and Latine which saith he in meditation of the Scriptures is made common to all the rest A point which the said Author specifies for a commendation of the well-instructednesse of those people not as purposing to intimate that the use of the Latine did thrust out the other four for he there tels us that in all four they did not only search but confesse and utter the knowledge of the highest truth This restraint then is not more New then envious and prejudicial to the Honour of God and the Souls of men Sect. 2. Against Scripture AS for Scriptures were this practice so old as it is pretended the rule is Longaevae consuetudinis c. The authority of an ancient Custome is not to be slighted so long as it is not against the Canons Nothing can be more against the Canons of the blessed Apostle then this who did he live in these our daies and would bend his speech against the use of a Language not understood in Gods service could not speak more directly more punctually then he doth to his Corinths How doth he tell us that the speaking in a strange tongue edifies not the Church profits not the hearers produces a necessary ignorance of the thing spoken makes me a Barbarian to him that speaketh and him that speaketh a Barbarian to me How doth he require him that speaketh in an unknown tongue to pray that he may interpret And if he must pray that he may doe it how much more must he practice it when he can doe it How doth he tell us that in a strange-languaged Prayer the understanding is unfruitfull that it is better to speak five words with understanding that we may teach others then ten thousand words in an unknown tongue that those which speak with strange tongues are but as mad men to the unlearned or unbelievers Sect. 3. Against Reason IN which Scriptures besides Authority the Apostle hath comprized unanswerable and convincing Reasons against this Romish abuse Amongst the rest is intimated that utter frustration of the use of the tongue in Gods service For it is a true Rule which Salmeron cites out of Lactantius Nihil valet ex se c. That thing is to no purpose which avails not unto the end whereto it serves Silence doth as much expresse the thought as a language not understood In this sense is that of Laurentius too well verified Sacerdos imperitus mulier sterilis A Priest unable to expresse himself is a barren woman uncapable of bringing forth children to God As good no tongue as no understanding What good doth a Well sealed up as Ptolomy said of the Hebrew Text. Wherefore do we speak if we would not be understood It was an holy resolution of S. Augustine that he would rather say Ossum in false Latin to be understood of the people then Os in true not to be understood This practice however it may seem in it self slight unworthy of too much contention yet in regard of that miserable blindness and mis-devotion which it must needs draw in after it is so hainous as it may well deserve our utmost opposition The unavoidablenesse of which effects hath carried some of their Casuists into an opinion of the unnecessarinesse of devotion in these holy businesses so as one sayes He that wants devotion sins not another Though it be convenient that the Communicant should have actuall devotion yet is it not necessary Alas what service is this which poor souls are taught to take up with which God must be content to take from hood-wink'd suppliants This Doctrine this Practice thus new thus prejudicial to Christians we blesse God that we have so happily discarded and for our just refusall are unjustly ejected CHAP. XIII The Newnesse of forced Sacramentall Confession THE necessity of a particular secret full Sacramental Confession of all our sins to a Priest upon pain of non-remission is an Act or Institution of the Romane Church For as for the Greek Church it owns not either the Doctrine or Practice So the Glosse of the Canon Law directly Confessio apud Graecos c. Confession is not necessary amongst the Grecians unto whom no such Tradition hath been derived That Glosse would tell us more so would Gratian himself if their tongues were not clipt by a guilty expurgation But in the mean time the Glosse of that Canon hitherto allowed plainly controlls the Decree of that late Council For if the necessity of Confession be only a Tradition and such a one as hath not been deduced to the Greek Church then it stands not by the Law
is but either private or unnecessary and uncertain Oh that whiles we sweat and bleed for the maintenance of these oracular Truths we could be perswaded to remit of our Heat in the pursuit of Opinions These these are they that distract the Church violate our peace scandalize the weak advantage our enemies Fire upon the Hearth warms the Body but if it be misplaced burns the House My brethren let us be Zealous for our God every hearty Christian will pour Oyle and not Water upon this holy flame But let us take heed lest a blind self-love stiffe prejudice and factious partiality impose upon us in stead of the causes of God Let us be suspicious of all New Verities and careless of all unprofitable and let us hate to think our selves either wiser then the Church or better then our Superiours And if any man think that he sees further then his fellows in these Theological prospects let his tongue keep the counsel of his eyes left whiles he affects the fame of deeper learning he embroile the Church and raise his glory upon the publick ruines And ye worthy Christans whose Souls God hath entrusted with our spiritual Guardianship be ye alike minded with your Teachers The motion of their tongues lies much in your eares your modest desires of receiving needful and wholesome Truths shall avoid their labour after frivolous and quarrelsome Curiosities God hath blessed you with the reputation of a wise and knowing people In these Divine matters let a meek Sobriety set bounds to your inquiries Take up your time and hearts with Christ and Him crucified with those essential Truths which are necessary to Salvation leave all curious disquisitions to the Schools and say of those Problems as the Philosopher did of the Athenian shops How many things are here that we have no need of Take the nearest cut you can ye shall find it a side-way to Heaven ye need not lengthen it with undue circuitions I am deceived if as the times are ye shall not find work enough to bear up against the oppositions of professed hostility It is not for us to squander our thoughts and hours upon useless janglings wherewith if we suffer our selves to be still taken up Satan shall deal with us like some crafty Cheater who whiles he holds us at gaze with tricks of jugling picks our pockets Dear Brethren whatever become of these worthless driblets be sure to look well to the free-hold of your Salvation Errour is not more busie then subtile Superstition never wanted sweet insinuations make sure work against these plausible dangers Suffer not your selves to be drawn into the net by the common stale of the Church Know that outward Visibility may too well stand with an utter exclusion from Salvation Salvation consists not in a formalitie of Profession but in a Soundness of Belief A true body may be full of mortall diseases So is the Roman Church of this day whom we have long pitied and labored to cure in vain If she will not be healed by us let us not be infected by her Let us be no less jealous of her contagion then she is of our remedies Hold fast that precious Truth which hath been long taught you by faithful Pastors confirmed by clear evidences of Scriptures evinced by sound Reasons sealed up by the blood of our blessed Martyrs So whiles no man takes away the crown of your constancie ye shall be our Crown and rejoycing in the day of our Lord Jesus to whose all-sufficient Grace I commend you all and vow my self Your common Servant in him whom we all rejoice to serve JOS. EXON The Contents CHAP. I. THE extent of the Differences betwixt the Churches Pag. 375 CHAP. II. The Original of the Differences 376 CHAP. III. The Reformed unjustly charged with Noveltie Heresie Schisme 378 CHAP. IV. The Romane Church guilty of this Schisme 380 CHAP. V. The Newness of the Article of Justification by inherent Righteousness 381 Sect. 2. This Doctrine proved to be against Scripture 383 Sect. 3. Against Reason 384 CHAP. VI. The Newness of the Doctrine of Merit 385 Sect. 2. Against Scripture 386 Sect. 3. Against Reason ibid. CHAP. VII The Newness of the Doctine of Transubstantiation 387 Sect. 2. Against Scripture 389 Sect. 3. Against Reason 390 CHAP. VIII The Newness of the Half-Communion 391 Sect. 2. Against Scripture 392 Sect. 3. Against Reason ibid. CHAP. IX The Newness of Missal Sacrifice 393 Sect. 2. Against Scripture ibid. Sect. 3. Against Reason 394 CHAP. X. The Newness of Image-Worship ibid. Sect. 2. Against Scripture 396 Sect. 3. Against Reason 397 CHAP. XI The Newness of Indulgences and Purgatory ibid. Sect. 2. Against Scripture 399 Sect. 3. Against Reason 400 CHAP. XII The Newness of Divine Service in an unknown tongue ibid. Sect. 2. Against Scripture 402 Sect. 3. Against Reason ibid. CHAP. XIII The Newness of a full forced Sacramental Confession 403 Sect. 2. Not warranted by Scripture 404 Sect. 3. Against Reason ibid. Sect. 4. The Novelty of Absolution before Satisfaction 405 CHAP. XIV The Newness of the Romish Invocation of Saints ibid. Sect. 2. Against Scripture 406 Sect. 3. Against Reason 407 CHAP. XV. The Newness of Seven Sacraments 408 Sect. 2. Besides Scripture 409 Sect. 3. Against Reason ibid. CHAP. XVI The Newness of the Romish Doctrine of Traditions ibid. Sect. 2. Against Scripture 411 Sect. 3. Against Reason 412 CHAP. XVII The Newness of the universal Headship of the Bishop of Rome ibid. Sect. 2. The Newness of challenged Infallibility 414 Sect. 3. The Newness of the Popes Superiorities to Councils 415 Sect. 4. The new presumption of Papal Dispensation ibid. Sect. 5. The new challenge of popes domineering over Kings and Emperours 416 CHAP. XVIII The Epilogue both of Exhortation and Apologie 417 THE OLD RELIGION CHAP. I. The extent of the Differences betwixt the Churches THE first blessing that I daily beg of my God for his Church is our Saviours Legacy Peace that sweet Peace which in the very name of it comprehends all happiness both of estate and disposition As that Mountain whereon Christ ascended though it abounded with Palms and Pines and Myrtles yet it carried onely the name of Olives which have been an ancient Embleme of Peace Other Graces are for the Beauty of the Church this for the Health and Life of it For howsoever even Wasps have their Combes and Hereticks their Assemblies as Tertullian so as all are not of the Church that have Peace yet so essential is it to the Church in S. Chrysostome's opinion that the very name of the Church implies a consent and concord No marvel then if the Church labouring here below make it her daily suit to her glorious Bridegroom in Heaven Da pacem Give Peace in our time O Lord. The means of which happiness are soon seen not so soon attained even that which Hierome hath to his Ruffinus Una fides Let our Belief-be but one and our hearts will be but
Devils and that which Dionysius said to Novatus Any thing must rather be born then that we should rend the Church of God Far far was it from our thoughts to teare the seamless coat or with this precious Oile of Truth to break the Churches head We found just faults else let us be guilty of this disturbance If now Choler unjustly exasperated with an wholesome reprehension have broken forth into a furious persecution of the gainsayers the sin is not ours if we have defended our innocence with blows the sin is not ours Let us never prosper in our good Cause if all the water of Tyber can wash off the blood of many thousand Christian Souls that hath been shed in this quarrel from the hands of the Romish Prelacie Surely as it was observed of olde that none of the Tribe of Levi were the professed followers of our Saviour so it is too easy to observe that of late times this Tribe hath exercised the bitterest enmity upon the followers of Christ Suppose we had offended in the undiscreet managing of a just reproof it is a true rule of Erasmus that generous spirits would be reclaimed by teaching not by compulsion and as Alipius wisely to his Augustine Heed must be taken lest whiles we labour to redress a doubtful complaint we make greater wounds then we find Oh how happy had it been for Gods Church if this care had found any place in the hearts of her Governours who regarding more the entire preservation of their own Honour then Truth and Peace were all in the harsh language of warre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 smite kill burn persecute Had they been but half so charitable to their modern reprovers as they profess they are to the fore-going how had the Church florished in an uninterrupted Unity In the old Catholick Writers say they we bear with many Errours we extenuate and excuse them we finde shifts to put them off and devise some commodious senses for them Guiltiness which is the ground of this favour works the quite contrary courses against us Alas how are our Writings racked and wrested to envious senses how misconstrued how perverted and made to speak odiously on purpose to work distast to enlarge quarrel to draw on the deepest censures Wo is me this cruel uncharitableness is it that hath brought this miserable calamity upon distracted Christendome Surely as the ashes of the burning Mountain Vesuvius being dispersed far and wide bred a grievous Pestilence in the Regions round about so the ashes that flie from these unkindly flames of discord have bred a woful infection and death of Souls through the whole Christian world CHAP. IV. The Church of Rome guilty of this Schisme IT is confessed by the President of the Tridentine Council that the depravation of the discipline and manners of the Romane Church was the chief cause and original of these dissentions Let us cast our eyes upon the Doctrine and we shall no less finde the guilt of this fearful Schism to fall heavily upon the same heads For first to lay a sure ground Nothing can be more plain then that the Romane is a particular Church as the Fathers of Basil well distinguish it not the universal though we take in the Churches of her subordination or correspondence This truth we might make good by authority if our very senses did not save us the labour Secondly No particular Church to say nothing of the universal since the Apostolick times can have power to make a Fundamental point of Faith It may explain or declare it cannot create Articles Thirdly Onely an errour against a point of Faith is Heresie Fourthly Those Points wherein we differ from the Romanists are they which onely the Church of Rome hath made Fundamental and of Faith Fifthly The Reformed therefore being by that Church illegally condemned for those Points are not Hereticks He is is properly an Heretick saith Hosius who being convicted in his own judgment doth of his own accord cast himself out of the Church For us we are neither convicted in our own judgment nor in the lawful judgment of others we have not willingly cast our selves out of the Church but however we are said to be violently ejected by the undue sentence of malice hold our selves close to the bosome of the true Spouse of Christ never to be removed as far therefore from Heresie as Charity is from our Censurers Only we stand convicted by the doom of good Pope Boniface or Sylvester Prierius Quicunque non c. Whosoever doth not rely himself upon the Doctrine of the Romane Church and of the Bishop of Rome as the infallible rule of Faith from which even the Scripture it self receives her force he is an Heretick Whence follows that the Church of Rome condemning and ejecting those for Hereticks which are not is the Authour of this woful breach in the Church of God I shall therefore I hope abundantly satisfie all wise and indifferent Readers if I shall shew that those Points which we refuse and oppose are no other then such as by the confessions of ingenuous Authors of the Roman part have been besides their inward falsities manifest upstarts lately obtruded upon the Church such as our ancient Progenitours in many hundreds of successions either knew not or received not into their Belief and yet both lived and dyed worthy Christians Surely it was but a just speech of S. Bernard and that which might become the mouth of any Pope or Council Ego si peregrinum c. If I shall offer to bring in any strange opinion it is my sin It was the wise Ordinance of the Thurians as Diodorus Siculus reports that he who would bring in any new Law amongst them to the prejudice of the old should come with an Halter about his neck into the assembly and there either make good his project or dy For however in humane constitutions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the later orders are stronger then the former yet in Divinity Primum verum The first is true as Tertullian's rule is the old way is the good way according to the Prophet Here we hold us and because we dare not make more Articles then our Creeds nor more sins then our Ten Commandements we are indignely cast out Let us therefore address our selves roundly to our promised task and make good the Novelty and Unreasonableness of those Points we have rejected Out of too many Controversies disputed betwixt us we select only some principal and out of infinite varieties of evidence some few irrefragable testimonies CHAP. V. The Newness of the Article of Justification by inherent Righteousness TO begin with Justification The Tridentine Fathers in their seven moneths debating of this point have so cunningly set their words that the Errour which they would establish might seem to be either hid or shifted yet at the last they so far declare themselves as to
was this absolute Primacy and Headship of old as that when the Roman Dition was brought down to a Dukedome and subjected to the Exarchate of Ravenna the Archbishop of Ravenna upon the very same grounds stuck not as Blondus tels us to strive with the Bishop of Rome for Priority of place So necessarily was the rising or fall of the Episcopall Chair annexed to the condition of that City wherein it was fixed But in all this we well see what it is that was stood upon an arbitrable precedency of these Churches in a priority of order and according thereunto the Bishop of Rome is determined to be primae sedis Episcopus the Bishop of the first See A style which our late Learned Soveraign professed with Justinian not to grudge unto the modern Bishops of that See But as for a Primacy of Soveraignty over all Churches and such an Headship as should inform and inliven the body and govern it with infallible influences it is so new and hatefull as that the Church in all Ages hath opposed it to the utmost neither will it be indured at this day by the Greek Church notwithstanding the colourable pretence of subscription hereunto by their dying Patriarch Joseph of Constantinople in the late Florentine Council and the letters of union subscribed by them Anno 1539. Yea so far is it from that as that their Emperour Michael Palaeologus for yielding a kinde of subjection of the Eastern Bishops to the Roman would not be allowed the honour of Christian Burial as Aemilius hath recorded And in our time Basilius the Emperour of Russia which challengeth no small part in the Greek Church threatned to the Pope's Legate as I have been informed an infamous death and burial if he offered to set foot in his Dominions out of a jealous hate of this Usurpation Sect. 2. The Newnesse of challenged Infallibility THE particularities of this new arrogation of Rome are so many that they cannot be pent up in any streight room I will only instance in some few The Pope's Infallibility of Judgment is such a Paradox as the very Histories of all times and proceedings of the Church doth sufficiently convince For to what purpose had all Councils been called even of the remotest Bishops to what purpose were the agitations of all controversal causes in those Assemblies as Erasmus justly observes if this Opinion had then obtained Or how came it about that the Sentences of some Bishops of Rome were opposed by other Sees by the Successors of their own by Christian Academies if this conceit had formerly passed for current with the World How came it to passe that whole Councils have censured and condemned some Bishops of Rome for manifest Heresies if they were perswaded beforehand of the impossibility of those Errours Not to speak of Honorius of Liberius and others the Council of Basil shall be the voice of common observation Multi Pontifices c. Many Popes say they are recorded to have faln into Errours and Heresies Either all stories mock us or else this parasitical dream of impeccancy in judgment is a mere stranger And his disguise is so foul that it is no marvel if Errare non possum I cannot erre seemed to Eberhardus Bishop of Saltzburgh no other then the suit of an Antichrist Sect. 3. The Newness of the Popes Superiority to General Councils HOW bold and dangerous a Novelty is that which Cardinal Bellarmine and with him the whole Society and all the late Fautors of that See after the Florentine Synod stick not to avouch Summus Pontifex c. The Pope is absolutely above the whole Church and above a General Council so as he acknowledges no Judges on earth over himself How would this have relished with those well-near a thousand Fathers in the Council of Constance who punctually determined thus Ipsa Synodus c. The Synod lawfully assembled in the Holy Ghost making a Generall Council representing the Catholick Church militant upon earth hath immediately power from Christ whereunto every man whosoever he be of what state or dignity soever although he be the Pope himself is bound to obey in those things which pertain to Faith or to the extirpation of Schism And fifteen years after that the General Council of Basil wherein was President Julianus Cardinall of Saint Angelo the Popes Legate defined the same matter in the same words It is no marvell if Cardinal Bellarmine and some others of that strain reject these as unlawfull Councils but they cannot deny first that this Decree was made by both of them secondly that the Divines there assembled were in their allowance Catholick Doctors and such as in other Points adhered to the Romane Church insomuch as they were the men by whose sentence John Husse and Hierome suffered no lesse then death and yet even so lately did these numerous Divines in the voice of the Church define the Superiority of a Council above the Pope What speak we of this when we finde that the Bishops of the East excommunicated in their assembly Julius the Bishop of Rome himself amongst others without scruple as Solzomen reporteth How ill would this Doctrine or practice now be endured Insomuch as Gregory of Valence dares confidently say that whosoever he be that makes a Council superior to the Pope fights directly though unawares against that most certain Point of Faith concerning Saint Peter's and the Roman Bishops Primacie in the Church Sect. 4. The new presumption of Papall Dispensations FRom the opinion of this supereminent Power hath flowed that common course of Dispensations with the Canons and Decrees of Councils which hath been of late a great eye-sore to moderate beholders Franciscus à Victoria makes a wofull complaint of it professing to doubt whether in the end of the year there be more that have leave by this means to break the laws then those that are tied to keep them Thereupon wishing for remedy that there were a restraint made of those now boundlesse Dispensations and at last objecting to himself that such a Decree of restriction would be new and not heard of in any former Council he answers Tempore Conciliorum antiquorum c. In the time of the antient Councils Popes were like to the other Fathers of those Councils so as there was no need of any act for holding them back from this immoderate licence of dispensing yea if we do well turn over the laws and histories of the Antient we shall finde that Popes did not presume so easily and commonly to dispense with Decrees of Councils but observed them as the Oracles of God himself yea not onely did they forbear to doe it ordinarily but perhaps not once did they ever dispense at all against the Decrees of Councils But now saith he by little and little are we grown to this intemperance of dispensations and to such an estate as that we can neither abide our mischiefs nor
held on in a Line never interrupted Even in a forlorn and miserable Church there may be a personall succession How little were the Jewes better for this when they had lost the Urim and Thummim sincerity of Doctrine and Manners This stayed with them even whiles they and their Sons crucified Christ What is more ordinary then wicked Sons of holy Parents It is the succession of Truth and Holiness that makes or institutes a Church whatever become of the persons Never times were so barren as not to yeeld some good The greatest dearth affords some few good Eares to the Gleaners Christ would not have come into the world but he would have some faithful to entertain him He that had the disposing of all times and men would cast some holy ones into his own times There had been no equality that all should either over-run or follow him and none attend him Zachary and Elizabeth are just both of Aarons blood and John Baptist of theirs whence should an holy seed spring if not of the Loyns of Levi It is not in the power of Parents to traduce Holinesse to their Children it is the blessing of God that feoffes them in the Vertues of their Parents as they feoffe them in their sinnes There is no certainty but there is likelihood of an holy Generation when the Parents are such Elizabeth was just as well as Zachary that the fore-runner of a Saviour might be holy on both sides If the stock and the griffe be not both good there is much danger of the fruit It is an happy match when the Husband and the Wife are one not onely in themselves but in God not more in flesh then in the spirit Grace makes no difference of sexes rather the weaker carries away the more honour because it hath had lesse helps It is easie to observe that the New Testament affordeth more store of good women then the old Elizabeth led the ring of this mercy whose barrenness ended in a miraculous fruit both of her body and of her time This religious pair made no lesse progress in vertue then in age and yet their vertue could not make their best age fruitfull Elizabeth was barren A just soul and a barren womb may well agree together Amongst the Jews barrenness was not a defect only but a reproach yet while this good woman was fruitful of holy obedience she was barren of children As John which was miraculously conceived by man was a fit fore-runner of him that was conceived by the Holy Ghost so a barren Matron was meet to make way for a Virgin None but a son of Aaron might offer incense to God in the Temple and not every son of Aaron and not any one at all seasons God is a God of order and hates confusion no lesse then irreligion Albeit he hath not so streightned himself under the Gospel as to tie his service to persons or places yet his choice is now no lesse curious because it is more large He allows none but the authorised he authoriseth none but the worthy The incense doth ever smell of the hand that offers it I doubt not but that perfume was sweeter which ascended up from the hand of a just Zacharie The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to God There were courses of ministration in the Legal services God never purposed to burthen any of his creatures with devotion How vain is the ambition of any soul that would load it self with the universal charge of all men How thankless is their labour that do wilfully overspend themselves in their ordinary vocations As Zacharie had a course in Gods house so he carefully observed it the favour of these respites doubled his diligence The more high and sacred our calling is the more dangerous is neglect It is our honour that we may be allowed to wait upon the God of heaven in these immediate services Woe be to us if we flacken those duties wherein God honours us more then we can honour him Many sons of Aaron yea of the same family served at once in the Temple according to the variety of imployments To avoid all difference they agreed by lot to assign themselves to the several offices of each day the lot of this day called Zacharie to offer Incense in the outer Temple I doe not finde any prescription they had from God of this particular manner of designment Matters of good order in holy affairs may be ruled by the wise institution of men according to reason and expediencie It fell out well that Zacharie was chosen by lot to this ministration that Gods immediate hand might be seen in all the passages that concerned his great Prophet that as the person so the occasion might be of Gods own chusing In lots and their seeming casual disposition God can give a reason though we can give none Morning and Evening twice a day their Law called them to offer Incense to God that both parts of the day might be consecrate to the maker of time The outer Temple was the figure of the whole Church upon earth like as the Holy of holiest represented Heaven Nothing can better resemble our faithful prayers then sweet perfume these God looks that we should all his Church over send up unto him Morning and Evening The elevations of our hearts should be perpetual but if twice in the day we do not present God with our solemn invocations we make the Gospel lesse officious then the Law That the resemblance of prayers and incense might be apparent whiles the Priest sends up his incense within the Temple the people must send up their prayers without Their breath and that incense though remote in the first rising met ere they went up to heaven The people might no more goe into the Holy place to offer up the incense of prayers unto God then Zacharie might goe into the Holy of holies Whiles the partition wall stood betwixt Jews and Gentiles there were also partitions betwixt the Jews and themselves Now every man is a Priest unto God every man since the veil was rent prayes within the Temple What are we the better for our greater freedome of accesse to God under the Gospel if we doe not make use of our priviledge Whiles they were praying to God he sees an Angel of GOD as Gideon's Angel went up in the smoak of the sacrifice so did Zacharie's Angel as it were come down in the fragrant smoak of his incense It was ever great news to see an Angel of God but now more because God had long withdrawn from them all the means of his supernaturall revelations As this wicked people were strangers to their God in their conversation so was God grown a stranger to them in his apparitions yet now that the season of the Gospel approached he visited them with his Angels before he visited them by his Son He sends his Angel to men in the form of man before he sends his Son to take humane form The presence of Angels
that we might be a singular pattern and strange wonder of his Bounty What should I speak of the wholsome temper of our Clime the rich provision of all usefull Commodities so as we cannot say only as Sanchez did I have moisture enough within my own shell but as David did Poculum exuberans My cup runs over to the supply of our neighbour Nations What speak I of the populousnesse of our Cities defencednesse of our shoars These are nothing to that Heavenly treasure of the Gospel which makes us the Vineyard of God and that sweet Peace which gives us the happy fruition of that saving Gospel Albion do we call it nay as he rightly Polyolbion richly blessed O God what where is the Nation that can emulate us in these favours How hath he fenced us about with the hedge of good Discipline of wholesome Laws of gracious Government with the brazen wall of his Almighty and miraculous protection Never Land had more exquisite Rules of Justice whether mute or speaking He hath not left us to the mercy of a rude Anarchie or a Tyrannical violence but hath regulated us by Laws of our own asking and swai'd us by the just Scepters of moderate Princes Never Land had more convincing proofs of an Omnipotent Tuition whether against forein Powers or secret Conspiracies Forget if ye can the year of our Invasion the day of our Purim Besides the many particularities of our deliverances filed up by the pen of one of our worthy Prelates How hath he given us means to remove the rubs of our growth and to gather away the stones of false Doctrine of Heretical pravitie of mischievous machinations that might hold down his truth And which is the head of all how hath he brought our Vine out of the Egypt of Popish Superstition and planted it In plain terms how hath he made us a truely-orthodox Church eminent for purity of Doctrine for the grave and reverend solemnity of true Sacraments for the due form of Government for the pious and Religious form of our publick Liturgie With what plenty hath he showred upon us the first and later rain of his Heavenly Gospel With what rare gifts hath he graced our Teachers With what pregnant spirits hath he furnish'd our Academies With what competencie of maintenance hath he heartned all learned Professions So as in these regards we may say of the Church of England Many Daughters have done vertuously but thou excellest them all How hath the vigilant eye of his Providence out of his tower of Heaven watch'd over this Island for good Not an hellish Pionier could mine under ground but he espied him not a dark Lantern could offer to deceive midnight but he descries it not a Plot not a purpose of evil could look out but he hath discovered it and shamed the Agents and glorified his Mercy in our deliverance Lastly how infinitely hath his loving care laboured to bring us to good What sweet opportunities and incouragements hath he given us of a fruitfull obedience And when his Fatherly counsels would not work with us how hath he scruzed us in the Wine-presse of his Afflictions one while with a raging Pestilence another while with the insolence and prevalence of Enemies one while with unkindly Seasons another while with stormy and wracking Tempests if by any means he might fetch from us the precious juice of true Penitence and faithfull Obedience that we might turn and live If the presse were weighty yet the wine is sweet Lay now all these together And what could have been done more for our Vineyard O God that thou hast not done Look about you Honourable and Christian hearers and see whether God hath done thus with any Nation Oh never never was any people so bound to a God Other neighbouring Regions would think themselves happy in one drop of those Blessings which have poured down thick upon us Alas they are in a vaporous and marish vale whiles we are seated on the fruitfull Hill they lie open to the massacring knife of an Enemy whiles we are fenced they are clogged with miserable incumbrances whiles we are free Briers and Brambles overspread them whiles we are choicely planted their Tower is of offence their Winepresse is of blood Oh the lamentable condition of more likely Vineyards then our own Who can but weep and bleed to see those wofull Calamities that are faln upon the late-famous and flourishing Churches of Reformed Christendome Oh for that Palatine Vine late inoculated with a precious bud of our Royal Stem that Vine not long since rich in goodly clusters now the insultation of Boars and prey of Foxes Oh for those poor distressed Christians in France Bohemia Silesia Moravia Germany Austria the Valteline that groan now under the tyrannous yoak of Antichristian oppression How glad would they be of the crums of our Feasts how rich would they esteem themselves with the very gleanings of our plentifull crop of Prosperity How do they look up at us as even now militantly-triumphant whiles they are miserably wallowing in dust and blood and wonder to see the Sun-shine upon our Hill whiles they are drenched with storm and tempest in the Valley What are we O God what are we that thou shouldst be thus rich in thy Mercies to us whiles thou art so severe in thy Judgments unto them It is too much Lord it is too much that thou hast done for so sinfull and rebellious a people Cast now your eyes aside a little and after the view of God's Favours see some little glimpse of our requital Say then say O Nation not worthy to be beloved what fruit have ye returned to your beneficent God Sin is impudent but let me challenge the impudent forehead of sin it self Are they not sour and wilde Grapes that we have yielded Are we lesse deep in the Sins of Israel then in Israel's Blessings Complaints I know are unpleasing however just but now not more unpleasing then necessary Woe is me my mother that thou hast born me a man of contention I must cry out in this sad day of the sins of my people The searchers of Canaan when they came to the brook of Eshcol they cut down a branch with a cluster of Grapes and carried it on a staffe between two to shew Israel the fruit of the Land Numb 13. 23. Give me leave in the search of our Israel to present your eyes with some of the wilde Grapes that grow there on every hedge And what if they be the very same that grew in this degenerated Vineyard of Israel Where we meet first with Oppression a Lordly sin and that challengeth precedencie as being commonly incident to none but the Great though a poor Oppressor as he is unkindly so he is a monster of mercilesness Oh the loud shrieks and clamours of this crying sin What grinding of faces what racking of Rents what detention of Wages what inclosing of Commons what ingrossing of Commodities what griping Exactions what straining
one in the Heart One Baptism so it is one in the Face Where these are truly professed to be though there may be differences of administrations and ceremonies though there may be differences in opinions yet there is Columba una all those are but diversly-coloured feathers of the same Dove What Church therefore hath one Lord Jesus Christ the righteous one Faith in that Lord one Baptism into that Faith it is the One Dove of Christ To speak more short one Faith abridges all But what is that one Faith what but the main fundamental Doctrine of Religion necessary to be known to be believed unto Salvation It is a golden and usefull distinction that we must take with us betwixt Christian Articles and Theological Conclusions Christian Articles are the Principles of Religion necessary to a Believer Theological Conclusions are School-points fit for the discourse of a Divine Those Articles are few and essential these Conclusions are many and unimporting upon necessity to Salvation either way That Church then which holds those Christian Articles both in terms and necessary consequences as every visible Church of Christ doth however it vary in these Theological Conclusions is Columba una Were there not much latitude in this Faith how should we fetch in the antient Jewish Church to the unity of the Christian Theirs and ours is but one Dove though the feathers according to the colour of that fowl be changeable It is a fearfull account then that shall once be given before the dreadfull Tribunal of the Son of God the only Husband of this one Church by those men who not like the children of faithfull Abraham divide the Dove multiplying Articles of Faith according to their own fancies and casting out of the bosome of the Church those Christians that differ from their either false or unnecessary conclusions Thus have our great Lords of the Seven hills dared to doe whose faction hath both devoured their Charity and scorned ours to the great prejudice of the Christian world to the irreparable damage of the glorious Gospel of our Lord Jesus The God of Heaven judge in this great case betwixt them and us us who firmly holding the foundation of Christian Religion in all things according to the antient Catholick Apostolick Faith are rejected censured condemned accursed killed for refusing their gainfull Novelties In the mean time we can but lament their fury no lesse then their errours and send out our hopelesse wishes that the seamlesse coat might be darn'd up by their hands that tore it From them to speak to our selves who have happily reformed those errours of theirs which either their ambition or profit would not suffer them to part with since we are one why are we sundred One saies I am Luther's for Consubstantiation another I am Calvin's for Discipline another I am Arminius's for Predestination another I am Barrow's or Brown's for Separation What frenzy possesses the brains of Christians thus to squander themselves into Factions It is indeed an envious cavil of our common adversaries to make these so many Religions No every branch of different Opinion doth not constitute a several Religion were this true I durst boldly say old Rome had not more Deities then the modern Rome hath Religions These things though they do not vary Religions and Churches yet they trouble the quiet unity of the Church Brethren since our Religion is one why are not our tongues one why do we not bite in our singular conceits and binde our tongues to the common Peace But if from particular visible Churches which perhaps you may construe to be the threescore Queens here spoken of you shall turn your eyes to the true inward universal company of Gods Elect and secret ones there shall you more perfectly finde Columbam unam one Dove for what the other is in profession this is in truth that one Baptism is here the true Laver of Regeneration that one Faith is a saving reposal upon Christ that one Lord is the Saviour of his Body No natural body is more one then this mystical one Head rules it one Spirit animates it one set of joynts moves it one Food nourishes it one Robe covers it So it is one in it self so one with Christ as Christ is one with the Father That they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me John 17. 22. Oh blessed Unity of the Saints of God which none of the makebates of Hell can ever be able to dissolve And now since we are thus and every other way one why are we not united in Love why do we in our ordinary conversation suffer slight weaknesses to set off our Charity Mephibosheth was a cripple yet the perfect love of Jonathan either cures or covers his impotency We can no more want infirmities then not be men we cannot stick at infirmities if we be Christians It is but a poor love that cannot passe over small faults even quotidianae incursionis as that Father speaks It is an injurious niceness to condemn a good Face in each other for a little mole Brethren let us not aggravate but pity each others weaknesses and since we are but one Body let us have but one Heart one Way And if we be the Dove of Christ and his Dove is one oh let us be so one with each other as he is one with us And as the Church and Commonwealth are twins so should this be no lesse one with it self and with her temporal head Divisum est cor eorum Their heart is divided was the judgment upon Israel ose 10. 2. Oh how is every good heart divided in sunder with the grief for the late divisions of our Reuben We do not mourn we bleed inwardly for this distraction But I do willingly smother these thoughts yea my just sorrow choaks them in my bosome that they cannot come forth but in sighs and groans O thou that art the God of peace unite all hearts in Love to each other in loyal Subjection to their Soveraign Head Amen As the Church is one in not being divided so she is but one in not being multiplied Here is unus uni unam as the old word is He the true Husband of the Church who made and gave but one Eve to the first Adam will take but one wife to himself the second Adam There are many particular Churches all these make up but one universal as many distinct lims make up but one intire body many grains one bach many drops and streams one Ocean So many Regions as there are under Heaven that do truly professe the Christian name so many National Churches there are in all those Nations there are many Provincial in all those Provinces many Diocesan in all those Dioceses many Parochial Churches in all those Parishes many Christian Families in all those Families many Christian Souls now all those Souls Families Parishes Dioceses Provinces Nations make up but one Catholick Church of Christ upon earth The God of the
one But since as Erasmus hath too truly observed there is nothing so happy in these humane things wherein there are not some intermixtures of distemper and Saint Paul hath told us there must be Heresies and the Spouse in Solomon's Song compares her blessed Husband to a yong Hart upon the Mountain of Bether that is Division yea rather as under Gensericus and his Vandals the Christian Temples flamed higher then the Towns so for the space of these last hundred years there hath been more combustion in the Church then in the Civil State my next wish is that if differences in Religion cannot be avoided yet that they might be rightly judged of and be but taken as they are Neither can I but mourn and bleed to see how miserably the World is abused on all hands with prejudice in this kind Whiles the adverse part brands us with unjust censures and with loud clamours cries us down for Hereticks on the other side some of ours do so slight the Errours of the Romane Church as if they were not worth our Contention as if our Martyrs had been rash and our quarrels trifling others again do so aggravate them as if we could never be at enough defiance with their Opinions nor at enough distance from their Communion All these three are dangerous extremities the two former whereof shall if my hopes fail me not in this whole Discourse be sufficiently convinced wherein as we shall fully clear our selves from that hateful slander of Heresie or Schisme so we shall leave upon the Church of Rome an unavoidable imputation of many no less foul and enormous then novel Errours to the stopping of the mouths of those Adiaphorists whereof Melanchthon seems to have long agoe prophesied Metuendum est c. It is to be feared saith he that in the last Age of the World this errour will reign amongst men that either Religions are nothing or differ onely in words The third comes now in our way That 〈◊〉 Laertius speaks of Menedemus that in disputing his very ears would sparkâ—â—â— is true of many of ours whose zeal transports them to such a detestation of the Romane Church as if it were all Errour no Church affecting nothing more then an utter opposition to their Doctrine and Ceremony because theirs like as Maldonat professeth to mislike and avoid many fair interpretations not as false but as Calvin's These men have not learned this in S. Augustine's School who tels us that it was the rule of the Fathers as well before Cyprian and Agrippinus as since that whatsoever they found in any Schism or Heresie warrantable and holy that they allowed for its own worth and did not refuse it for the abettors Neither for the chaff do we leave the floor of God neither for the bad Fishes do we break his nets Rather as the Priests of Mercurie had wont to say when they eat their Figs and Honey 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. All truth is sweet it is indeed Gods not ours wheresoever it is found the Kings Coin is current though it be found in any impure Chanel For this particular they have not well heeded that charitable profession of zealous Luther Nos fatemur c. We profess saith he that under the Papacy there is much Christian good yea all c. I say moreover that under the Papacy is true Christianity yea the very kernel of Christianity c. No man I trust will fear that fervent spirits too much excess of indulgence under the Papacy may be as much good as it self is evil Neither do we censure that Church for what it hath not but for what it hath Fundamental truth is like that Maronaean wine which if it be mixed with twenty times so much water holds his strength The Sepulchre of Christ was overwhelmed by the Pagans with earth and rubbish and more then so over it they built a Temple to their impure Venus yet still in spight of malice there was the Sepulchre of Christ And it is a ruled case of Papinian that a Sacred place loseth not the Holiness with the demolished wals No more doth the Romane lose the claim of a true visible Church by her manifold and deplorable corruptions her unsoundness is not less apparent then her being If she were once the Spouse of Christ and her Adulteries are known yet the Divorce is not sued out CHAP. II. The Original of the Differences IT is too true that those two main Elements of evil as Timon called them Ambition and Covetousness which Bernard professes were the great Masters of that Clergie in his times having palpably corrupted the Christian World both in doctrine and manners gave just cause of scandal and complaint to godly mindes which though long smothered at last brake forth into publick contestation augmented by the fury of those guilty defendants which loved their reputation more then Peace But yet so as the Complainants ever professed a joynt allowance of those Fundamental Truths which descried themselves by their bright lustre in the worst of that confusion as not willing that God should lose any thing by the wrongs of men or that men should lose any thing by the envy of that evil spirit which had taken the advantage of the publick sleep for his Tares Shortly then according to the prayers and predictions of many Holy Christians God would have his Church reformed How shall it be done Licentious courses as Seneca wisely have sometimes been amended by correction and fear never of themselves As therefore their own President was stirred up in the Council of Trent to cry out of their corruption of Discipline so was the Spirit of Luther somewhat before that stirred up to tax their corruption of Doctrine But as all beginnings are timorous how calmly did he enter and with what submiss Supplications did he sue for redress I come to you saith he most holy Father and humbly prostrate before you beseech you that if it be possible you would be pleased to set your helping hand to the work Intreaties prevail nothing the whiles the importune insolence of Eckius and the undiscreet carriage of Cajetan as Luther there professes forced him to a publick opposition At last as sometimes even Poisons turn Medicinal the furious prosecution of abused Authority increased the Zeal of Truth like as the repercussion of the flame intends it more and as Zeal grew in the Plaintif so did Rage in the Defendant so as now that was verified of Tertullian A primordio c. From the beginning Righteousness suffers violence and no sooner did God begin to be worshipped but Religion was attended with Envie The masters of the Pythonisse are angry to part with a gainful though evil guest Am I become your enemy because I told you the truth saith Saint Paul yet that truth is not more unwelcome then successful For as the breath of
it For as that Father elsewhere In thy sight shall none living be justified He said not no man but none living not Evangelists not Angels not Thrones not Dominions If thou shalt mark the iniquities even of thine Elect saith S. Bernard Who shall abide it To say now that our actual Justice which is imperfect through the admixtion of venial sins ceaseth not to be both true and in a sort perfect Justice is to say there may be an unjust Justice or a just Injustice that even muddie water is clear or a leprous face beautiful Besides all experience evinceth our wants For as it is S. Austin's true observation He that is renewed from day to day is not all renewed so much he must needs be in his old corruption And as he speaks to his Hierome of the degrees of Charity There is in some more in some less in some none at all but the fullest measure which can receive no encrease is not to be found in any man while he lives here and so long as it may be encreased surely that which is less then it ought is faulty from which faultiness it must needs follow that there is no just man upon earth which doeth good and sinneth not and thence in Gods sight shall none living be justified Thus he To the very last hour our Prayer must be Forgive us our trespasses Our very daily endeavour therefore of increasing our Renovation convinceth us sufficiently of Imperfection and the imperfection of our Regeneration convinceth the impossibility of Justification by such Inherent Righteousness In short therefore since this Doctrine of the Roman Church is both new and erroneous against Scripture and Reason we have justly refused to receive it into our Belief and for such refusal are unjustly ejected CHAP. VI. The Newness of the Doctrine of Merit MErit is next wherein the Council of Trent is no less peremptory If any man shall say that the good works of a man justified do not truely merit eternal life let him be Anathema It is easie for Errour to shroud it self under the ambiguitie of words The word Merit hath been of large use with the Ancients who would have abhorred the present sense with them it sounded no other then Obtaining or Impetration not as now earning in the way of condign wages as if there were an equalitie of due proportion betwixt our Works and Heaven without all respects of pact promise favour according to the bold Comment of Scotus Tolet Pererius Costerus Weston and the rest of that strain Far far was the gracious humility of the Ancient Saints from this so high a presumption Let S. Basil speak for his fellows Eternal rest remains for those who in this life have lawfully striven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. not for the Merits of their deeds but of the grace of that most munificent God in which they have trusted Why did I name one when they all with full consent as Cassander witnesseth profess to repose themselves wholy upon the mere Mercie of God and Merit of Christ with an humble renunciation of all worthiness in their own works Yea that unpartial Author derives this Doctrine even through the lower Ages of the Schoolmen and later Writers Thomas of Aquine Durand Adrian de Trajecto afterwards Pope Clictoveus and delivers it for the voice of the then present Church And before him Thomas Waldensis the great Champion of Pope Martine against the miscalled Hereticks of his own name professes him the sounder Divine and truer Catholick which simply denies any such Merit and ascribes all to the mere Grace of God and the will of the giver What should I need to darken the aire with a cloud of witnesses their Gregory Ariminensis their Brugensis Marsilius Pighius Eckius Ferus Stella Faber Stapulensis Let their famous Preacher Royard shut up all Quid igitur is qui Merita praetendit c. Whosoever he be that pretends his Merits what doth he else but deserve hell by his Works Let Bellarmine's Tutissimum est c. ground it self upon S. Bernard's experimental resolution Periculosa habitatio est Perilous is their dwelling-place who trust in their own Merits perilous because ruinous All these and many more teach this not as their own Doctrine but as the Churches Either they and the Church whose voice they are are Hereticks with us or we Orthodox with them and they and we with the Ancients The Noveltie of this Romane Doctrine is accompanied with Errour against Scripture against Reason Sect. 2. Against Scripture THat God doth graciously accept and munificently recompence our good Works even with an incomprehensible Glory we doubt not we deny not but this either out of the riches of his Mercy or the justice of his Promise But that we can earn this at his hands out of the intrinsecal worthiness of our acts is a challenge too high for flesh and blood yea for the Angels of Heaven How direct is our Saviours instance of the servant come out of the field and commanded by his Master to attendance Doth he thank that Servant because he did the things that were commanded him I trow not So likewise ye when ye shall have done all things which are commanded you say We are unprofitable servants Unprofitable perhaps you will say in respect of meriting thanks not unprofitable in respect of meriting wages For to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt True therefore herein our case differeth from servants that we may not look for God's reward as of Debt but as of Grace By Grace are ye saved through Faith neither is it our earning but God's gift Both it cannot be For if by Grace then it is no more of Works even of the most Renewed otherwise Grace is no more Grace but if it be of Works then it is no more Grace otherwise Work should be no more Work Now not by works of Righteousness which we have done at our best but according to his Mercy he saveth us Were our Salvation of Works then should Eternal life be our wages but now The wages of sin is Death but the gift of God is Eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Sect. 3. Against Reason IN very Reason where all is of mere Duty there can be no Merit for how can we deserve reward by doing that which if we did not we should offend It is enough for him that is obliged to his task that his work is well taken Now all that we can possibly doe and more is most justly due unto God by the bond of our Creation of our Redemption by the charge of his Royal Law and that sweet Law of his Gospel Nay alas we are far from being able to compass so much as our duty In many things we sin all It is enough that in our Glory we cannot sin though their Faber Stapulensis would not yield so much and taxeth
according to S. Hierome's profession worship not the relicks of Martyrs nor Sun nor Moon nor Angels nor Archangels nor Cherubim nor Seraphin nor any name that is named in this world or in the world to come and unjustly are we hereupon ejected CHAP. XI The Newness of Indulgences and Purgatorie NOthing is more palpable then the Noveltie of Indulgences or Pardons as they are now of use in the Roman Church the intolerable abuse whereof gave the first hint to Luther's inquirie Pope Le◠had gratified his fister Magdalen with a large Monopoly of Germane Pardons Aremboldus her Factour was too covetous and held the market too high The height of these over-rated Wares caused the Chapmen to inquire their worth They were found as they are both for age and dignity For age so new as that Cornelius Agrippa and Polydore Virgil and Machiavel and who not tell us Boniface the Eighth who lived Anno 1300. was the first that extended Indulgences to Purgatory the first that devised a Jubilee for the full utterance of them The Indulgences of former times were no other then relaxations of Canonical Penances which were enjoined to hainous sinners whereof Burchard the Bishop of Wormes sets down many particulars about the year 1020. For example if a man had committed wilfull murther he was to fast forty daies together in bread and water which the common people calls a Lent and to observe a course of Penance for seven years after Now these years of Penance and these Lents were they which the Pardons of former times were used to strike off or abate according as they found reason in the disposition of the Penitent which may give light to those terms of so many Lents and years remitted in former Indulgences But that there should be a sacred treasure of the Church wherein are heaped up piles of satisfaction of Saints whereof only the Pope keeps the keyes and hath power to dispense them where he lists is so late a device that Gregorie of Valence is forced to confesse that not so much as Gratian or Peter Lombard which wrote about 400 years before him ever made mention of the name of Indulgence Well therefore might Durand and Antonine grant it not to be found either in the Scriptures or in the writings of the antient Doctors and our B. Fisher goes so far in the acknowledgement of the Newness thereof that he hath run into the censure of late Jesuites Just and warrantable is that challenge of Learned Chemnitius that no testimony can be produced of any Father or of any antient Church that either such Doctrine or Practice of such Indulgences was ever in use untill towards 1200 years after Christ Talium indulgentiarum Some there were in the time immediatly fore-going but such as now they were not Besides Eugenius his time which was too near the Verge for the words of Chemnitius are Per annos ferme mille ducentos Bellarmine instances in the third Council of Lateran about the year 1116. wherein Pope Paschal the second gave Indulgences of forty daies to those which visited the threshold of the Apostles But it must be considered that we must take this upon the bare word of Conrad Urspergensis Secondly that this Indulgence of his is no other but a relaxation of Canonical Penance For he addes which Bellarmine purposely concealeth iis qui de capitalibus c. to those that should doe Penance for capital sins he released forty daies Penance So as this instance helps nothing neither are the rest which he hath raked together within the compasse of a few preceding years of any other alloy Neither hath that Cardinal offered to cite one Father for the proof of this Practice the birth whereof was many hundred years after their expiration but cunningly shifts it off with a cleanly excuse Neque mirum c. Neither may it seem strange if we have not many antient Authours that make mention of these things in the Church which are preserved only by use not by writing So he He saies Not many Authours he shews not one And if many matters of rite have been traduced to the Church without notice of Pen or Presse yet let it be shewn what one Doctrine or Practice of such importance as this is pretended to be hath escaped the report and maintenance of some Ecclesiastick Writer or other and we shall willingly yield it in this Till then we shall take this but for a mere colour and resolve that our honest Rossensis deals plainly with us who tells us Quamdiu nulla fuer at de Purgatorio cura c. So long as there was no care of Purgatorie no man sought after Indulgences for upon that depends all the opinion of Pardon If you take away Purgatory wherefore should we need pardons Since therefore Purgatory was so lately known and received of the whole Church who can marvel concerning Indulgences that there was no use of them in the beginning of the Church Indulgences then began after men had trembled some while at the torments of a Purgatory Thus their Martyr not partially for us but ingenuously out of the power of truth professes the Novelty of two great Articles of the Romane Creed Purgatorie and Indulgences Indeed both these now hang on one string although there was a kinde of Purgatory dreamed of before their Pardons came into play That device peep'd out fearfully from Origen and pull'd in the head again as in S. Austin's time doubting to shew it Tale aliquod c. That there is some such thing saith he after this life it is not utterly incredible and may be made a question And elsewhere I reprove it not for it may perhaps be true And yet again as retracting what he had yielded he resolves Let no man deceive himself my brethren there are but two places and a third there is none Before whom S. Cyprian is peremptory Quando isthinc excessum fuerit When we are once departed hence there is now no more place of repentance no effect of satisfaction here is life either lost or kept And Nazianzen's verse sounds to the same sense And S. Ambrose can say of his Theodosius that being freed from this earthly warfare Fruitur nunc luce perpetuâ c. he now enjoies everlasting light during tranquillity and triumphs in the troops of the Saints But what strive we in this We may well take the word of their Martyr our Roffensis for both And true Erasmus for the ground of this defence Mirum in modum c. They do marvellously affect the fire of Purgatory because it is most profitable for their Kitchins Sect. 2. Indulgences and Purgatory against Scripture THese two then are so late come strangers that they cannot challenge any notice taken of them by Scripture neither were their names ever heard of in the language of Canaan yet the wisdome of that all-seeing Spirit hath not left us without preventions of
into that sacred order that we stick at There we finde that none but Christ can make a Sacrament for none but he who can give Grace can ordain a Signe and Seal of Grace Now it is evident enough that these adscititious Sacraments were never of Christs institution So was not Confirmation as our Alexander of Hales and Holcot so was not Matrimony as Durand so was not Extreme Unction as Hugo Lombard Bonaventure Halensis Altissiodore by the confession of their Suarez These were ancient Rites but they are new Sacraments All of them have their allowed and profitable use in Gods Church though not in so high a nature except that of Extreme Unction which as it is an apish mis-imitation of that extraordinary course which the Apostolick times used in their cures of the sick so it is grosly mis-applied to other purposes then were intended in the first institution Then it was Ungebant sanabant the oyle miraculously conferring bodily recovery but now Non nisi in mortis articulo adhibetur it is not used but upon the very point of death as Cajetan and Cassander confesse and all experience manifests and by Felix the Fourth drawn to a necessity of addresse to eternall life Sect 2. Seven Sacraments beside Scripture NOT to scan particulars which all yield ample exceptions but to wind them all up in one bottome Whosoever shall look into the Scripture shall finde it apparent that as in the time of mans Innocency there were but Two Sacraments the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge so before and under the Law however they had infinite Rites yet in the proper sense they had but Two Sacraments the same in effect with those under the Gospel the one the Sacrament of Initiation which was their Circumcision parallel'd by that Baptisme which succeeded it the other the Sacrament of our holy Confirmation that spirituall meat and drink which was their Paschall Lambe and Manna and water from the rock prefiguring the true Lambe of God and bread of life and blood of our Redemption The great Apostle of the Gentiles that well knew the Analogy hath compared both Moreover brethren I would not have you ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized in the cloud and in the sea and all did eat the same spirituall meat and all did drink the same spirituall drink for they drank of that spirituall Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ What is this in any just construction but that the same two Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords Supper which we celebrate under the Gospel were the very same with those which were celebrated by Gods ancient people under the Law they two and no more Hoc facite Doe this is our warrant for the one and Ite baptizate c. Goe teach and Baptize for the other There is deep silence in the rest Sect. 3. Against Reason IN Reason it must be yielded that no man hath power to set to a seal but he whose the writing is Sacraments then being the seals of Gods gracious evidences whereby he hath conveyed to us eternall life can be instituted by no other then the same power that can assure and perform life to his creature In every Sacrament therefore must be a Divine institution and command of an Element that signifies of a Grace that is signified of a word adjoyned to that element of an holy act adjoyned to that word Where these concur not there can be no true Sacrament and they are palpably missing in these five Adjections of the Church of Rome Lastly The Sacraments of the new Law as Saint Austin often flowed out of the side of Christ None flowed thence but the Sacrament of water which is Baptisme and the Sacrament of blood in the Supper whereof the Author saith This cup is the new Testament in my blood which is shed for you The rest never flowing either from the side or from the lips of Christ are as new and mis-named Sacraments justly rejected by us and we thereupon as unjustly censured CHAP. XVI The Newnesse of the Doctrine of Tradition THE chief ground of these and all other Errours in the Church of Rome is the over-valuing of Traditions which the Tridentine Synod professes to receive and reverence with no lesse pious affection then the Books of the Old and New Testament and that not in matter of Rite and History onely but of Faith and Manners also wherein as they are not unwilling to cast a kinde of imputation of imperfection upon the written Word so they make up the defects of it by the supply of unwritten Traditions to which indeed they are more beholden for the warrant of the greater part of their superadded Articles then to the Scriptures of God Both which are Points so dangerously envious as that Antiquity would have abhorred their mention Neither is any thing more common with the holy Fathers of the Church then the magnifying the compleat perfection of Scripture in all things needfull either to be believed or done What can be more full and clear then that of Saint Austine In his quae apertè c. In these things which are openly laid forth in Scripture are found all matters that contain either Faith or Manners Cardinall Bellarmine's elusion is not a little prejudicial to his own Cause He tells us that Saint Austin speaks of those Points which are simply necessary to Salvation for all men all which he acknowledges to be written by the Apostles But besides these there are many other things saith he which we have only by Tradition Will it not therefore hence follow that the common sort of Christians need not look at his Traditions that commonly men may be saved without them that Heaven may be attained though there were no Traditions Who will not now say Let me come to Heaven by Scripture goe you whither you will by Traditions To which adde that agreat yea the greater part if we may believe some of their own of that which they call Religion is grounded upon onely Tradition If then Tradition be onely of such things as are not simply necessary to Salvation then the greater part of their mis-named Religion must needs be yielded for simply unnecessary to all men And if we may be saved without them and be made Citizens of Heaven how much more may we without them be members of the true Church on Earth As for this place S. Augustine's words are full and comprehensive expressing all those things which contain either Faith or Manners whether concerning Governours or people If now they can finde out any thing that belongs not either to belief or action we do willingly give it up to their Traditions but all things which pertain to either of those are openly comprized in Scripture What can be more direct then that of holy Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 c. The Holy Scriptures inspired by God are in themselves all-sufficient to the instruction of truth and if Chemnitius construe it all truth This needs not raise a cavil the word signifies no lesse for if they be all-sufficient to instruction they must needs be sufficient to all instruction in the truth intended Tertullian professes openly Adoro Scripturae plenitudinem c. I adore the fulnesse of Scripture Let the skill of Hermogenes shew where it is written if it be not written let him fear that woe which is propounced against those that adde or detract Thus he Who can but fear that the Cardinal shifts this evidence against his own heart For saith he Tertull. speaks of that one point That God created all things of nothing and not of a pre-existent matter as Hermogenes dreamed now because this Truth is clearly expressed in Scripture therefore the fulness of Scripture as concerning this Point is adored by Tertullian and for that Hermogenes held an opinion contrary to Scripture he is said to adde unto Scripture and to incur that malediction Now let any Reader of common sense judge whether the words of Tertullian be not general without any limitation and if the first clause could be restrained the second cannot Scriptum esse doceat c. Whatsoever therefore is not written by this rule may not be obtruded to our belief Neither doth he say If it be written against but If it be not written and his challenge is nusquam legi that the words are no where read as if this were quarrell enough without a flat contradiction to what is read So as the Cardinals Glosse merely corrupts the Text. How easie were it for me to tire my Reader with the full suffrages of Origen Cyprian Chrysostome Basil Cyril Epiphanius Hierome Ambrose Theodoret Hilarie Vincentius Lirinensis and in a word with the whole stream of Antiquity which though they give a meet place to Traditions of Ceremony of History of Interpretation of some immaterial Verities yet reserve the due honour to the Sacred monuments of Divine Scriptures Our learned Chemnitius hath freely yielded seven sorts of Traditions such as have a correspondence with or an attestation from the written Word the rest we do justly together with him disclaim as unworthy to appear upon that awfull Bench amongst the inspired Pen-men of God Sect. 2. Traditions against Scripture IT is not to be imagined that the same word of God which speaks for all other Truths should not speak for it self how fully doth it display its own sufficiencie and perfection All Scripture saith the Chosen Vessel is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness Profitable saith the Cardinal but not sufficient Many things may avail to that end whereto they suffice not so meat is profitable to nourish but without natural heat it nourisheth not Thus he Hear yet what followeth That the man of God may be perfected and throughly furnished unto all good works Loe it is so profitable to all these services that thereby it perfects a Divine much more an ordinary Christian That which is so profitable as to cause perfection is abundantly sufficient and must needs have full perfection in it self That which can perfect the Teacher is sufficient for the Learner The Scriptures can perfect the man of God both for his calling in the instruction of others and for his own glory Thou hast known the Scriptures from a childe saith S. Paul to his Timothy which are able not profitable only to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus It is the charge therefore of the Apostle not to be wise above that which is written The same with wise Solomon's The whole word of God is pure Adde thou not unto his words lest he reprove thee and thou be found a lier Loe he saith not Oppose not his words but Adde not to them Even Addition detracts from the majestie of that Word For the Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul the Testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple The Statutes of the Lord are right rejoicing the heart the Commandement of the Lord is pure enlightning the eyes As for those Traditions which they do thus lift up to an unjust competition with the written Word our Saviour hath beforehand humbled them into the dust In vain do they worship me teaching for doctrines the commandements of men making this a sufficient cause of abhorring both the persons and the services of those Jews that they thrust humane Traditions into Gods chair and respected them equally with the institutions of God Cardinal Bellarmine would shift it off with a distinction of Traditions These were such saith he quas acceperunt à recentioribus c. as they had received from some later hands whereof some were vain some other pernicious not such as they received from Moses and the Prophets And the Authors of these rejected Traditions he cites from Epiphanius to be R. Akiba R. Juda and the Asamoneans from Hierome to be Sammai Hillel Akiba But this is to cast a mist before the eyes of the simple For who sees not that our Saviours challenge is generall to Traditions thus advanced not to these or those Traditions And where he speaks of some later hands he had forgotten that our Saviour upon the Mount tells him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that these faulted Traditions were of old And that he may not cast these upon his Sammai and Hillel let him remember that our Saviour cites this out of Esay though with some more clearness of expression who far overlooked the time of those pretended Fathers of mis-traditions That I may not say how much it would trouble him to shew any dogmatical Traditions that were derived from Moses and the Prophets in parallel whereof let them be able to deduce any Evangelical tradition from the Apostles and we are ready to imbrace it with all observance Shortly it is clear that our Saviour never meant to compare one Tradition with another as approving some rejecting others but with indignation complains that Traditions were obtruded to God's people in a corrivalty with the written Word which is the very Point now questioned Sect. 3. Traditions against Reason EVen the very light of Reason shews us that as there is a God so that he is a most wise and most just God needs therefore must it follow that if this most just and wise God will give a Word whereby to reveal himself and his will to mankinde it must be a perfect Word for as his Wisdome knows what is fit for his creature to know of himself so his Justice will require nothing of the creature but what he hath enabled him to know and doe Now then since he requires us to know him to obey him it must needs follow that he hath left us so exquisite a Rule of
to their sin then to my wrong The main ground of the Exception is That I yield the Church of Rome a true visible Church wherein the harsh noise of a mis-construed phrase offends their eare and breeds their quarrell For this belike in their apprehension seems to sound no lesse then as if I had said The Church of Rome is a true-believing Church or a true part of the mysticall body of Christ a sense which is as far wide from my words or thoughts as from truth it self Wherefore serves this Book but to evince the manifold Corruptions of that foul Church That she is truely visible abates nothing of her abominations For who sees not that Visible refers to outward Profession True to some essentiall Principles of Christianity neither of them to soundnesse of Belief So as these two may too well stand together A true visible Church in respect of outward Profession of Christianity and an Hereticall Apostaticall Antichristian Synagogue in respect of Doctrine and Practice Grant the Romanists to be but Christians how corrupt soever and we cannot deny them the name of a Church Outward Visibility gives them no claim either to Truth or Salvation Shortly then in two things I must crave leave to vindicate my self One that I do no whit differ from my self the other that I differ not from the Judgement of our best Orthodox and approvedly-classicall Divines Both which cleared what have I done It is a grievous challenge this of Inconstancy for though whiles we are here in this region of Mutability our whole man is subject to change yet we do all herein affect a likenesse to the God of Truth in whom there is no shadow by turning especially in Religion so much more as that doth more assimilate and unite us to that unchangeable Deity Lo say they the man that once wrote No peace with Rome now cries nothing but Peace with Rome whiles he proclaims it a true visible Church and allows some Communion with it Alas brethren why will ye suffer a rash and ignorant Zeal thus to lye palpably in your way to Truth Be but pleased to cast your eyes upon the first Chapter of that Book of mine which is thus objected to me in a causelesse exprobration that which long since I wrote of the Irreconcilablenesse of Rome and see if that Section be not a full expression of the same Truth and that in the same words which I have here published There shall you finde taught That there is no other difference betwixt us and Rome then betwixt a Church miserably corrupted and happily purged betwixt a sickly languishing dying Church and one that is healthfull strong and flourishing That Valdus Wiclef Luther did never goe about to frame a new Church which was not but to cleanse restore reform that Church which was That they meant onely to be Physicians to heal not Parents to beget a Church There you shall finde That we are all the same Church by virtue of our outward Vocation whosoever all the world over worship Jesus Christ the only Son of God the Saviour of the world and professe the same common Creed that some of us doe this more purely others more corruptly that in the mean time we are all Christians but sound Christians we are not There ye shall finde this very Objection so fully answered as if it had been either formerly moved or so long since prevented the words are these But how harshly doth this sound to a weak reader and more then seems to need reconciliation with it self that the Church should be one and yet cannot be reconciled Certainly yet so it is The dignity of the outward forme which comprehends this Unity in it self avails nothing to Salvation nothing to Grace nothing to the soundnesse of Doctrine The Net doth not straight make all to be Fish that it hath dragg'd together ye shall finde in it vile weeds and whatsoever else that devouring element hath disgorged The Church is at once one in respect of the common Principles of Faith and yet in respect of consequences and that rabble of opinions which they have raked together so opposed that it cannot as things now stand by any glew of Concord as Cyprian speaketh nor bond of Unity be conjoined That which Rome holds with us makes it a Church that which it obtrudes upon us makes it Hereticall the truth of Principles makes it one the Error and impiety of Additions makes it irreconcilable c. Look on the face therefore of the Roman Church she is ours she is Gods look on her back she is quite contrary Antichristian More plainly Rome doth both hold the Foundation and destroy it she holds it directly destories it by consequent In that she holds it she is a true Church howsoever impured in that she destroies it what semblance soever she makes she is a Church of malignants If she did altogether hold it she should be sound and Orthbox if altogether she destroied it she should be either no Church or devilish but now that she professes to hold those things directly which by inferences she closely overthrows she is a truely visible Church but an unsound one Thus I wrote well-near twenty years agone without clamor without censure And since that in my Latine Sermon to the Convocation did I very ought from this hold Did I not there call heaven earth to record of our innocence in separating from the Romane Church Did I not cast the fault upon their violence not our will Did I not professe Lubentes quidem discessimus c. We willingly indeed departed from the Communion of their Errors but from the Communion of the Church we have not departed Let them abandon their Errours and we embrace the Church Let them cast away their Soul-killing Traditions and false appendances of their new Faith we shall gladly communicate with them in the right of the same Church and hold with them for ever This I freely both taught and published with the allowance with the applause of that most Reverend Synod and now doth the addition of a Dignity bring envy upon the same Truth Might that passe commendably from the pen or tongue of a Doctor which will not be endured from the hand of a Bishop My brethren I am where I was the change is yours Ever since I learned to distinguish betwixt the right hand of Veritie and the left of Errour thus I held and shall I hope at last send forth my Soul in no other resolution And if any of you be otherwise minded I dare boldly say he shall doe more wrong to his Cause then to his adversary That I differ not from my self you have seen see now that I differ not from our learned judicious approved Divines That the Latine or Western Church subject to the Romish Tyranny unto the very times of Luther was a true Church in which a saving profession of the truth of Christ was found and wherein Luther himself received his Christianity
Ordination and power of Ministery our Learned Doctor Field hath saved me the labour to prove by the suffrages of our best and most renowned Divines amongst whom he sites the Testimony of Calvin Bucer Melanchthon Beza Mornay Deering And if since that time it be foully corrupted so as now that acute Author is driven to the distinction of Verè Ecclesia and Vera Ecclesia yet at last he thus concludes But will some man say Is the Roman Church at this day no part of the Church of God Surely a◠Austine noteth that the societies of Hereticks in that they retain the profession of many parts of heavenly truth and the ministration of the Sacrament of Baptisme are so far still conjoined with the Catholick Church and the Catholick Church in and by them bringeth forth children unto God so the present Roman Church is stil in some sort a part of the visible Church of God but no otherwise then other societies of Hereticks are in that it retaineth the profession of some parts of heavenly truth and ministreth the true Sacrament of Baptisme to the Salvation of the Souls of many thousand infants c. Thus he Junius distinguishing betwixt the Church and Papacie determines the Church of Rome to be a truely-living though sick Church whereof the Papacie is the disease marring the health threatning her life and punctually resolves Ecclesia Papalis qua id habet c. The Popish Church in that it hath in it that which pertaines to the definition of a Church is a Church Doctor Raynolds makes it his Position That the Church of Rome is neither the Catholick Church nor a sound member of the Catholick yielding it a member whiles he disproves it sound Paraeus Accusant nos c. They accuse us saith he that we have made a division in departing from the Church Nos verò c. But we have not departed from the Church but from the Papacie Master Hooker is most pregnant for this point Apparent it is saith he that all men are of necessitie either Christians or not Christians If by external Profession they be Christians they are of the visible Church of Christ and Christians by external profession they are all whose mark of recognisance hath in it those things which we have mentioned yea although they be impious Idolaters wicked Hereticks persons Excommunicable yea and cast out for notorious improbitie Thus he and going on he shews how it is possible for the self-same men to belong to the Synagogue of Satan and to the Church of Jesus Christ The passages are too long to transcribe and the Books are obvious Doctor Crakenthorp in his learned answer to Spalatensis defends heretical Churches to be truely members of the Catholick Church though unsound ones subscribing herein to the determination of Alphonsus and descending to this particular concludes Haec tamen ipsa tua Romana c. This your Romane Church must be accounted both to be in the Church and to be a Church not simply not according to the integrity of Faith not according to any inward virtue not so effectually that it should avail to Salvation for a man to be in it but yet a Church it is in some respects according to the external profession of Faith and of the Word of God according to the administration of the Sacraments according to some Doctrines of true belief by which as by so many outward Ligaments she is yet knit to the Orthodox and Catholick Church Thus he fully to my words and meaning I might swell up the bulk with many more a Catalogue whereof Brierley hath for his own purpose fetcht up together I will onely shut up this Scene with out late most Learned Soveraign King James who in the Conference at Hampton Court with the acclamation of all his judicious hearers avowed that no Church ought further to separate it self from the Church of Rome in Doctrine or Ceremony then she hath departed from her self when she was in her flourishing and best estate and from Christ her Lord and Head Well therefore doth my Reader see that I have gone along with good company in this assertion Although I am not ignorant that some worthy Divines of ours speak otherwise in the height of Zeal denying the Church of Rome to be a true Church to be a Church at all whose contradiction gives colour to this offence But let my Reader know that however their words are opposite yet not their judgement a mutuall understanding shall well accord us in the matter however the terms sound contrary Our old word is Things are as they are taken The difference is in the acception of True and Church both which have much latitude and variety of sense Whiles by True they mean right believing and by Church a company of Faithfull which have the Word of God rightly understood and sincerely preached and the Sacraments duly administred it is no marvell if they say the Church of Rome is neither true nor Church who would who can say otherwise But whiles we mean by a true Church a multitude of Christians professing to agree in the main Principles of Religion how can they but subscribe to us and in this sense yield the Church of Rome both a Church and truely visible So as shortly in a large sense of True Church these Divines cannot but descend to us in a strict sense of both we cannot but ascend to them in fine both agree in the substance whiles the words cross Certainly in effect Master Perkins saith no other whiles he defines his Reformed Catholick to be one that holds the same necessary Heads of Religion with the Romane Church yet so as he pares off and rejects all Errours in Doctrine whereby the same Religion is corrupted wherein that well-allowed Author speaks home to my meaning though in other terms That the Roman Church holds the necessary Heads of Religion gives it a right in my sense to a true Visibilitie that it holds foul Errours whereby the Doctrine is corrupted makes it false in belief whiles it hath a true Being This then may give sufficient light to that passage in my sixth page whereat some have heedlesly stumbled That which I cited from Luther out of Cromerus I finde also alledged by Doctor Field out of Luther himself the words are that under the Papacy is the very kernel of Christianity much good yea all Know Reader the words are Luther's not mine neither doth he say in the Papacy but under it under it indeed to trample upon not to possess or if to possess yet not to injoy Their fault is not in defect of necessary Truths but in excess of superfluous additions Luther explicates himself For his Kernel is the several Articles of Christian belief his all good is Scriptures Sacraments Creeds Councils Fathers all these they have but God knows miserably corrupted That they thus have them is no whit worse for us and little
call her the Church of Rome What speak we of or where is the Subject of our question Who sees not that there is a Moral Trueness and a Natural He that is morally the falsest man is in Nature as truly a man as the honestest and therefore in this regard as true a man In the same sense therefore that we say the Devil is a true though false Spirit that a Cheater is a true though false man we may and must say that the Church of Rome is a true though false Church Certainly there hath been a true Errour and mistaking of the sense that is guilty of this quarrel As for the Visibility there can be no question Would God that Church did not too much fill our eye yea the world There is nothing wherein it doth more pride it self then in a glorious conspicuity scorning in this regard the obscure paucity of their opposers But you say What is this but to play with ambiguities That the Church of Rome is it self that is a Church that it is visible that it is truly existent there can be no doubt but is it still a part of the truly existent visible Church of Christ Surely no otherwise then an Heretical and Apostatical Church is and may be Reader whosoever thou art for God's sake for thy Souls sake mark where thou treadest else thou shalt be sure to fall either into an open gulf of Uncharitableness or into a dangerous precipice of Errour There is no fear nor favour to say that the Church of Rome under a Christian Face hath an Antichristian Heart overturning that Foundation by necessary inferences which by open profession it avoweth That Face that Profession those avowed Principles are enough to give it claim to a true outward Visibilitie of a Christian Church whiles those damnable inferences are enough to feoffe it in the true style of Heresie and Antichristianisme Now this Heresie this Antichristianisme makes Rome justly odious and execrable to God to Angels and Men but cannot utterly dis-church it whiles those main Principles maintain a weak life in that crazie and corrupted body But is not this language different from that whereto our eares and eyes have been inured from the mouths and pens of some Reverend Divines and Professors of our Church Know Reader that the stream of the famous Doctors both at home and abroad hath run strongly my way I should have feared and hated to go alone what reason is there then to single out one man in a throng Some few worthy Authors have spoken otherwise in the warmth of their zealous contention yet so as that even to them durst I appeal for my Judges for if their sound differ from me their sense agrees with me that which as I touched in my Advertisement so I am now ready to make clear by the instance of Learned Zanchius whose pregnant testimonies compared together shall plainly teach us how easie a reconcilement may be made betwixt these two seemingly-contrary Opinions That worthy Author in his Profession of Christian Religion which he wrote and published in the Seventieth year of his age having defined the Church of Christ in general and passed through the Properties of it at last descending to the sub-division of the Church Militant comes to enquire how particular Churches may be known to be the true Churches of Christ whereof he determins thus Illas igitur c. Those Churches therefore do we acknowledge for the true Churches of Christ in which first of all the pure Doctrine of the Gospel is preached heard admitted and so onely admitted that there is neither place nor ear given to the contrary For both these are the just Property of the flock or sheep of Christ namely both to hear the voice of their own Pastor and to reject the voice of strangers John 10. 4. In which secondly the Sacraments instituted by Christ are lawfully and as much as may be according to Christs institution administred and received and therefore in which the Sacraments devised by men are not admitted and allowed In which lastly the Discipline of Christ hath the due place that is where both publickly and privately charitable care is had both by Admonitions Corrections and at last if need be by Excommunications that the Commandements of God be duely kept and that all persons live soberly justly and piously to the glory of God and edification of their Neighbour Thus he wherein who sees not how directly he aims both at the justifying of our Churches and the cashiering of the Roman which is palpably guilty of the violation of these wholesome Rules And indeed it must needs be said if we bring the Romane Church to this touch she is cast for a mere counterfeit she is as far from Truth as Truth is from Falshood Now by this time you goe away with an opinion that Learned Zanchy is my professed Adversary and hath directly condemned my Position of the Trueness and Visibility of the Roman Church Have but patience I beseech you to read what the same excellent Author writes in his golden Preface to that noble Work De natura Dei where this question is clearly and punctually decided There you shall finde that having passed through the woful and gloomy offuscations of the Church of God in all former Ages he descending to the darkness of the present Babylon concludes thus to have no less ceased to be the Church of Christ then those Eastern Deinde non potuit Satan c. Moreover Satan could not in the very Roman Church doe what he listed as he had done in the Eastern to bring all things to such pass as that it should no more have the form of a Christian Church for in spight of Satan that Church retained still the chief Foundations of the Faith although weakned with the Doctrines of men it retained the publick Preaching of the Word of God though in many places mis-understood and mis-construed the invocation of the Name of Christ though joyned also with the invocation of dead men the administration of Baptisme instituted by Christ himself howsoever defiled with the addition of many Superstitions So as together with the Symbol of the Covenant the Covenant it self remained still in her I mean in all the Churches of the West no otherwise then it did in the Church of Israel even after that all things were in part prophaned by Jeroboam and other impious and idolatrous Kings upon the defection made by them from the Church and Tribe of Juda. For neither do I assent to them which would have the Church of Rome Churches which afterwards turned Mahumetan What Church was ever more corrupt then the Church of the Ten Tribes yet we learn from the Scriptures that it was still the Church of God And how doth Saint Paul call that Church wherein Antichrist he saith shall sit the Temple of God Neither is it any Baptisme at all that is administred out of the Church of Christ The Wife that is an Adulteress
doth not cease to be a Wife unless being despoiled of her marriage-ring she be manifestly divorced The Church of Rome therefore is yet the Church of Christ but what manner of Church Surely so corrupted and depraved and with so great tyrannie oppressed that you can neither with a good Conscience partake with them in their holy things nor safely dwell amongst them Thus he again wherein you see he speaks as home for me as I could devise to speak for my self and as appositely professeth to oppose the contrary Look now how this Learned Author may be reconciled to his own pen and by the very same way shall my pen be reconciled with others Either he agrees not with himself or else in his sense I agree with my gainsayers Nothing is more plain then that he in that former speech and all other Classick Authors that speak in that Key mean by a True Church a sound pure right-believing Church so as their vera is rather verax Zanchie explicates the terme whiles he joines veram puram together so as in this construction it is no true Church that is an unsound one as if truth of Existence were all one with truth of Doctrine In this sense whosoever shall say the Church of Rome is a true Church I say he calls evil good and is no better then a teacher of lyes But if we measure the true Being of a Visible Church by the direct maintenance of Fundamental Principles though by consequences indirectly overturned and by the possession of the Word of God and his Sacraments though not without foul adulteration what judicious Christian can but with me subscribe to Learned Zanchius that the Church of Rome hath yet the true Visibility of a Church of Christ What should I need to press the latitude and multiplicity of sense of the word Church there is no one term that I know in all use of Speech so various If in a large sense it be taken to comprehend the Society of all that profess Christian Religion through the whole world howsoever impured who can deny this title to the Roman If in a strict sense it be taken as it is by Zanchius here and all those Divines who refuse to give this style to the Synagogue of Rome for the Company of Elect Faithful men gathered into one mystical Body under one Head Christ washed by his Blood justified by his Merits sanctified by his Spirit conscionably waiting upon the true Ordinances of God in his pure Word and holy Sacraments who can be so shameless as to give this title to the Roman Church Both these sentences then are equally true The Church of Rome is yet a true Church in the first sense The Church of Rome long since ceased to be a true Church in the second As those friendly Souldiers therefore of old said to their fellows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why fight we Stay stay dear brethren for Gods sake for his Churches sake for your Souls sake stay these busie and unprofitable litigations put up on both sides your angry pens turn your Swords into Siths to cut down the rank corruptions of the Roman Church and your Spears into Mattocks to beat down the walls of this mystical Babylon There are enemies enough abroad let us be friends at home But if our sense be the same you will ask why our terms varie and why we have chosen to fall upon that manner of expression which gives advantage to the Adversary offence to our own Christian Reader let me beseech thee in the bowels of Christ to weigh well this matter and then tell me why such offence such advantage should be rather given by my words then by the same words in the mouth of Luther of Calvin of Zanchie Junius Plessee Hooker Andrews Field Crakenthorp Bedell and that whole cloud of Learned and Pious Authors who have without exception used the same language and why more by my words now then twentie years agoe at which time I published the same Truth in a more full and liberal expression Wise and charitable Christians may not be apt to take offence where none is given As for any advantage that is hereby given to the Adversaries they may put it in their eye and see never the worse Loe say they we are of the true visible Church this is enough for us why are we forsaken why are we persecuted why are we sollicited to a change Alas poor souls do they not know that Hypocrites leud persons Reprobates are no less members of the true visible Church what gain they by this but a deeper damnation To what purpose did the Jews cry The Temple of the Lord whiles they despited the Lord of that Temple Is the Sea-weed ever the less vile because it is drag'd up together with good fish They are of the visible Church such as it is what is this but to say they are neither Jews nor Turks nor Pagans but misbelievers damnably Heretical in opinion shamefully Idolatrous in practice Let them make their best of this just Eulogie and triumph in this style may we never prosper if we envie them this glorie Our care shall be that besides the Church sensible as Zuinglius distinguisheth we may be of the Church spiritual and not resting in a fruitless Visibility we may finde our selves lively lims of the mystical body of Christ which onely condition shall give us a true right to Heaven whiles fashionable Profession in vain cries Lord Lord and is barred out of those blessed gates with an I know you not Neither may the Reader think that I affect to goe by-waies of speech no I had not taken this path unless I had found it both more beaten and fairer I am not so unwise to teach the Adversary what disadvantage I conceive to be given to our most just Cause by the other manner of explication Let it suffice to say that this form of defence more fully stops the Adversaries mouth in those two main and envious Scandals which he casts upon our holy Religion Defection from the Church and Innovation then which no suggestion hath wont to be more prevalent with weak and ungrounded hearts What we further win by this not more charitable then safe Tenet I had rather it should be silently conceived by the judicious then blazoned by my free pen. Shortly in this state of the Question our gain is as clear as the Adversaries loss our ancient Truth triumphs over their upstart Errours our Charity over their merciless Presumptions Fear not therefore dear Brethren where there is no room for danger suspect not fraud where there is nothing but plain honest simplicity of intentions censure not where there is the same Truth clad in a different but more easie habit of words But if any mans fervent zeal shall rather draw him to the liking of that other rougher and harder way so as in the mean time he keep within the bounds of Christian Charity I tax him not let every man abound
the two other Books and seconds that so I might return my payment cum foenore In that your Lordships Tractate I could not but observe the lively Image of your self that is according to the generall interpretation of all sound Professours of the Gospel of christ of a most Orthodox Divine And now remembring the Accordance your Lordship hath with others touching the Argument of your Book I must needs reflect upon my self who have long since defended the same Point in the defence of many others I do therefore much blame the Petulcity of whatsoever Author that should dare to impute a Popish affection to him whom besides his excellent Writings and Sermons God's visible eminent and resplendent Graces of Illumination Zeal Piety and Eloquence have made truely Honourable and glorious in the Church of Christ Let me say no more I suffer in your suffering not more in consonancy of Judgement then in the sympathy of my Affection Goe on dear Brother with your deserved Honour in God's Church with holy courage knowing that the dirty feet of an adversary the more they tread and rub the more lustre they give the figure graven in Gold Our Lord Jesus preserve us to the glory of his saving Grace Your Lordships unanimous friend and Brother THO. Covent and Litchfield TO THE Right Reverend Father in GOD JOHN LORD Bishop of SALISBURY MY Lord I send you this little Pamphlet for your censure It is not credible how strangely I have been traduced every where for that which I conceive to be the common Opinion of Reformed Divines yea of reasonable men that is for affirming the true Being and Visibility of the Roman Church You see how clearly I have endeavoured to explicate this harmless Position yet I perceive some tough misunderstandings will not be satisfied Your Lordship hath with great reputation spent many years in the Divinity-Chair of the famous University of Cambridge Let me therefore beseech you whose Learning and Sincerity is so throughly approved in God's Church that you would freely how shortly soever express your self in this Point and if you finde that I have deviated but one hairs breadth from the Truth correct me if not free me by your just Sentence What need I to intreat you to pity those whose desires of faithful offices to the Church of God are unthankfully repaied with Suspicion and Slander whose may not this case be I had thought I had sufficiently in all my Writings and in this very last Book of mine whence this quarrell is picked shewed my fervent zeal for God's Truth against that Antichristian Faction of Rome and yet I doubt not but your own ears can witness what I have suffered Yea as if this calumny were not enough there want not those whose secret whisperings cast upon me the foul aspersions of another Sect whose name is as much hated as little understood My Lord you know I had a place with you though unworthy in that famous Synod of Dort where howsoever sickness bereaved me of the houres of a conclusive Subscription yet your Lordship heard me with equall vehemency to the rest crying down the unreasonableness of that way God so love me as I do the tranquillity and happiness of his Church yet can I not so overaffect it that I would sacrifice one dram of Truth to it To that good God do I appeal as the witness of my sincere heart to his whole Truth and no-less-then-ever-zealous detestation of all Popery and Pelagianisme Your Lordship will be pleased to pardon this importunity and to vouchsafe your speedy Answer to Your much devoted and faithfull Brother JOS. EXON TO THE Right Reverend Father in GOD JOSEPH Lord Bishop of EXON these My LORD YOU desire my Opinion concerning an Assertion of yours whereat some have taken offence The Proposition was this That the Roman Church remains yet a True Visible Church The occasion which makes this an ill-sounding Proposition in the ears of Protestants especially such as are not throughly acquainted with School Distinctions is the usuall acception of the word True in our English Tongue For though men skilled in Metaphysicks hold it for a Maxime Ens Verum Bonum convertuntur yet with us he which shall affirm such a one is a true Christian a true Gentleman a true Scholar or the like he is conceived not onely to adscribe Trueness of Being unto all these but those due Qualities or requisite Actions whereby they are made commendable or praise-worthy in their severall kinds In this sense the Roman Church is no more a True Church in respect of Christ or those due Qualities and proper Actions which Christ requires then an arrant Whore is a true and loyall Wife unto her Husband I durst upon mine oath be one of your Compurgators that you never intended to adorn that Strumpet with the title of a true Church in this meaning But your own Writings have so fully cleared you herein that suspicion it self cannot reasonably suspect you in this Point I therefore can say no more concerning your mistaken Proposition then this If in that Treatise wherein it was delivered the Antecedents or Consequents were such as served fitly to lead the Reader into that Sense which under the word True comprehendeth onely Truth of Being or Existencie and not the due Qualities of the thing or Subject you have been causelesly traduced But on the other side if that Proposition comes in ex abrupto or stands solitarie in your Discourse you cannot marvell though by taking the word True according to the more ordinarie acception your true meaning was mistaken In brief your Proposition admits a true sense and in that sense is by the best Learned in our Reformed Church not disallowed For the Being of a Church does principally stand upon the gracious action of God calling men out of Darkness and Death unto the Participation of Light and Life in Christ Jesus So long as God continues this Calling unto any people though they as much as in them lies darken this Light and corrupt the means which should bring them to Life and Salvation in Christ yet where God calls men unto the Participation of Life in Christ by the Word and by the Sacraments there is the true Being of a Christian Church let men be never so false in their Expositions of God's Word or never so untrustie in mingling their own Traditions with God's Ordinances Thus the Church of the Jews lost not her Being of a Church when she became an Idolatrous Church And thus under the government of the Scribes and Pharisees who voided the Commandements of God by their own Traditions there was yet standing a true Church in which Zacharias Elizabeth the Virgin Mary and our Saviour himself was born who were members of that Church and yet participated not in the Corruptions thereof Thus to grant that the Romane was and is a True Visible Christian Church though in Doctrine a False and in Practice an Idolatrous Church is a true Assertion and of greater
City an Harlot And God about the same time cryed unto them by Micah Thou that art named the house of Jacob thou that wast of late my people and to the Ten Tribes by Hosea Ye are not my people and I will not be your God After the same manner Christ said to the Jews which gloried and made their boast that God was their Father If God were your Father ye would love me Ye are of your father the Devil and the lusts of your father ye will doe If we speak of the Romish Church according to this Distinction defining the Church by the keeping of the Covenant in pureness of Doctrine and Holiness of life God himself hath stript her of that glorious name calling her spiritually Sodome Egypt and Babylon Sodome in the pollution of her most filthy life Egypt in the abominable multitude of her filthy Idols Babylon in the cruell and bloodie oppression and persecution of the Saints And because she was to call her self as falsly as arrogantly the Mother-Church the Angel calleth her The Mother of Harlots and abominations of the Earth Because also she was to bring and magnifie her self in the multitude of her Saints he saith that she is drunk with the blood of the Saints and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus And taking from her the name of the Church which she challengeth privatively to all other Christian Congregations he nameth her as I have already said The habitation of Devils the hold of every foul spirit and a cage of every unclean and hateful Bird. In the first sense Moses said to God Why doth thy wrath wax hot against Thy people because although they had broken the Covenant on their part by the works of their hands God had not as yet broken it on his part Jeremiah in the greatest heat of their monstrous Idolatries praied after the same manner Do not abhor us for thy Names sake do not disgrace the Throne of thy glory Remember break not thy Covenant with us and Esaiah Thou art our Father we are ALL thy people For so long as God calls a people to him by his Word and Sacraments and honours them with his Name so long as they consent to be called by his Name professing it outwardly they remain his people although they answer not his Calling neither in soundness of Faith nor in Holiness of life Even as rebellious Subjects are still true Subjects on the Kings behalf who loseth not his right by their Rebellion nay on their own also in some manner because they still keep and profess his name and give not themselves to any forein Prince Did David lose his right by the Rebellion of the people under his son Absalom And therefore when the King subdueth these Traitors he carrieth himself towards them both in forgiving and in punishing as their lawfull and natural Prince and not as a Conquerour of new Subjects So as a Strumpet is a true Wife so long as her Husband consents to dwell with her and she is named by his name and as Agar when she fled from her Mistress Sarai was still Sarai's maid as she confessed saying I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai In like manner a rebellious fugitive and whoring Church is still a true Church so long as God keeping the right of a King of a Master of a Husband over her giveth her not the bill of divorcement but consents that his Name be called upon her and she still calleth her self his Kingdome his Maid his Wife Thus God calleth the Jews His people even then when he said they were not his people because he had not broken the band of Marriage with them and put them away by divorcement Therefore he said unto them Where are the letters of your Mothers divorcement whom I have put away Meaning he had not given unto them a writing of divorcement but did still acknowledge them to be his Spouse notwithstanding their manifold and most filthy whoredomes with false gods which he charged them with saying unto them by Jeremiah Thou hast polluted the Land with thy whoredomes and with thy wickedness Thou hast a whores forehead and refusest to be ashamed Wilt thou not for this time cry unto me My Father thou art the Guide of my youth Turn O backsliding children saith the Lord for I am married unto you or according to the French Translation I have the right of an husband over you So after he had called the Ten Tribes Lo-ruhama and Lo-hammi saying he would no more have mercy upon them and that they were not his people he calleth them his people My people saith he asketh counsel at their stocks and their stuffe answereth them But after that God had scattered them among the Medes and other Nations of Assyria and broken his Covenant with them they became not onely in the second but also in the first sense Jesrehel and no more Israel Loruhama and no more Ruhama Lohammi and no more Hammi Then was fulfilled the Prophesie Plead with your Mother plead for she is not my wife neither am I her husband So the Jewes which were Gods people in the midst of their Idolatrie since they have denied Christ to be the Messias the Mediator between God and them and have crucified the Lord of Glory are no more Gods people although they beg still that name They are saith Christ the Synagogue of Satan They say they are Jewes and are not but do ly For seeing God hath broken them off and grafted the Gentiles in their room they qualifie themselves Gods people as falsely and injuriously as a Whore lawfully divorced by her Husband calleth her self his Wife To apply this to the Roman Church which hath adulterated and corrupted the whole service of God and is more adulterous then was at any time Juda or Ephraim and therefore is not a true visible Church in the second sense I say she is one in some sort in the first In her God doth still keep his true word in the Old and New Testament as the contract of his Marriage with her In her is the true Creed the true Decalogue the true Lords Prayer which Luther calleth the kernal of Christianity In her Christ is preached though corruptly In her the Trinity and Incarnation of Christ are believed In her the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost are prayed unto though in an unknown tongue to the most part In her the little Children are Baptized in the Name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost And no Divine will deny that their Baptisme is a true Sacrament whereby their Children are born to God seeing we do not rebaptise them where leaving her they adjoin themselves to us Who then can deny that she is a true Church For out of the Church there is no Baptisme and the Church alone beareth children to God In her sitteth the man of sin the
Faith are those Principles of Christian Religion and Fundamental Grounds and Points of Faith which are undoubtedly contained and laid down in the Canonicall Scriptures whether in expresse termes or by necessary consequence and in the Ancient Creeds universally received and allowed by the whole Church of God IV. There cannot be now-a-dayes any new Rule of Faith V. As there cannot be any new Rule of Faith so there cannot now be any new Faith It is not therefore in the power of any creature under Heaven to make any Point to be of Faith which before was not so or to cause any Point not to be of Faith which formerly was so VI. He cannot be an Heretick who doth not obstinately deny something which is truly a Point of Faith or hold some Point contrary to the foresaid Articles of Christian Faith VII There are and may be many Theologicall Points which are wont to be believed and maintained and so many lawfully be of this or that particular Church or the Doctors thereof or their Followers as godly Doctrines and Probable Truths besides those other Essential and main matters of Faith without any prejudice at all of the common Peace of the Church VIII Howsoever it may be lawfull for Learned men particular Churches to believe and maintain those Probable or as they may think Certain Points of Theologicall Verities yet it is not lawfull for them to impose and obtrude the said Doctrines upon any Church or Person to be believed and held as upon the necessity of Salvation or to anathematize or eject out of the Church any Person or company of men that thinks otherwise IX Notwithstanding any such unjust Anathema denounced against any such Person or Church whosoever holds those Principles and Essential Points of Christian Faith however he be in place far remote from all the Visible Churches of Christ and neither know not or receive not those other Positions of Theological determination is throughly capable in such condition of Christian Communion and if many such be met together under a lawfull Pastor there cannot be denied unto them both the truth and title of a true Visible Church of Christ X. The Church of Rome is onely and at the best a Particular Church XI All Christian Churches are no other then Sisters and Daughters of that great and Universall Mother which furnisheth both Heaven and earth of equall priviledge in respect of God and his Faith save onely that each one is so much more honourable as it is more pure and holy It is not therefore lawfull for any one of them in regard of the businesses of Faith to take upon her self the power and command over any other or to prescribe unto any of them what they must necessarily believe upon pain of damnation XII Those issues of Controversie in regard whereof the Reformed Catholicks are wont to be condemned and anathematized by the Romane Church are far from Principles of Christian Faith neither are any other than their own Theologicall Positions and the institutions and devises of that particular Church XIII The Reformed Catholicks have not offered to bring in any new Opinion or Doctrine into the Church but only labour and endeavour to procure some late superfluous additions to the Faith to be cashiered rejected XIV Vainly therefore and unjustly is it required of them that they should shew the succession of their Religion and Church as raised upon a quite other foundation to be derived from the Apostolick times to the present since all that they professe is a desire to purge the very same Church of God from certain new Errors and Superstitious rites wherewith it is miserably defiled XV. Out of all which Premisses it necessarily followeth that the Romane Church which upon these grounds sticketh not to exclude true Christians differing from them in matter of such Doctrines from the Church of God and eternall Salvation is justly guilty of great insolency and horrible breach both of Charity and Peace and that the Reformed notwithstanding this rash and unjust censure of theirs forasmuch as they do inviolably hold all the Points of the truly ancient and Christian Faith do justly claim unto themselves a most true and perfect interest in the communion of all Christian Churches and eternall Salvation XVI There is no lesse danger in adding to the Articles of Christian Faith then in diminishing them or detracting from them XVII Those Points which the Romane Church is wont to adde and forcibly to put upon all Catholicks as well the Reformed as those whom they term their own are such as are grounded on her own mere authority XVIII The Reformed Catholicks do justly complain and prove that those Points which the Romane Church imposeth and urgeth as the meet additions both of Faith and Divine worship are neither safe nor agreeable to the holy Word of God and plead it to be utterly unjust that those accessory Points of their devising or determining wherein every Church should be left free and at her due liberty should be imperiously thrust upon them notwithstanding their vehement and just resistance XIX It argues a palpable self-love in the Romane Church and must needs at the last draw down a grievous Judgement from God upon her that this Particular Church will needs make her self uncapable of any better condition in that she vainly brags that she cannot erre and fearfully accurseth and sends down to hell all those that profer her the least endeavour of the means of her remedy and redresse XX. Upon all these grounds it is plain that the Reformed Catholicks are in a safe estate and that contrarily the Romane are in a miserable errour and fearfull danger and lastly that it is only through their default that the Church of God is not reduced to an happy Purity and Peace 2 Tim. 2. 7. Consider what I say and the Lord give you understanding in all things AN ANSWER TO POPE URBAN'S INURBANITIE Expressed in a BREEVE sent to LEWIS the French King exasperating him against the Protestants in France Written in Latine by the Right Reverend Father in God JOSEPH Lord Bishop of Excester Translated into English by his Son ROBERT HALL Master of Arts in Excester Colledge in Oxford LONDON Printed by JAMES FLESHER 1661. A BREEVE of Pope Urban the Eighth sent to Lewis the French King upon the taking of ROCHEL OUR most dear Son in Christ we send you greeting and Apostolical Benediction The voice of rejoicing and Salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous let the wicked see this and fret and let the Synagogue of Satan consume away The most Christian King fighteth for Religion the Lord of hosts fighteth for the King We verily in this Mother-City of the world triumph with holy joy we congratulate this your Majesties Victory the trophees whereof are erected in Heaven the glory whereof the generation that is to come shall never cease to speak of Now at the length this Age hath seen the Tower of ROCHEL no lesse
virtutis ministerium infirmo commisit ibid. c Guicciard l. 4. hist Imperante Carolo D. nosâ—ro d Paschalis Anno Euangelii 1070. primus omissis Imperatoris annis sui Pontificatus annos subscripsit In daâ— Apostolatus nostri Anno 1. dein Pontificatus Lib. Sacr. Cerem e Greg. l. 1. de major obed cx Innoc. f Capist 77. g Aug. Triumph qu. 44. 1. h Vide diatr. Derens Ep. l. 4. c. 3. §. 2. Unde habet Imperator Imperiiâ— nisi à nobis Imperator quod habet totum habet à nobis Ecce in potesâ—ate nostra est ut demus illud cui volumus Hadrian Ep. apud Avent l. 6. i Innoc. 4. in cap. Licet de â—oâ—o compet k Lib. sacr Cerem l Etiam Imperator aut Rex aquam ad lavandas ejus manus ferre debet primum item ferâ—â—lum c. ibid. m In processionibus c. ibid. n Stapham equi Papalis tenet c. ibid. o Sellam ipsam cum Pontifice humâ—ris suis aliquantuium portare debet Ibid. a Alm. de pe test Eccl. b Cassand 4. patte Consi 7. C. de Libellis 20. dist Aug. Triumph de pot Eccl. q. 13. Vid. Derens ubi supra Cassand Glor. mundi 4. part Cons 7. Iâ—â—oc Host in cap. 1 de Transâ— Inter Epistclas Ambrosâ—i l. 2. Epist 11. Sera tamen contumeltosâ— est emâ—n 〈◊〉 senectutis ibid. Ambros Epist lib. 2. Ep. 1â— Nullus pudor est ad meliâ—ra transâ—re ibid. Non es tantae authoritatis ut errasse te pudeat c. Hier. Apol. adver Ruffin Fr. Jun. de Ecclesia Capitis autem male sani deliâ—â— contagia vitanda sunt ne ipsi artus pesâ—ilenti humore labesecrent Fr. Pic. Mirandula Theor. 23. Maldon in 4. Joan. Nehem. 9. 33. No peace with Rome Et Roma irreconciâ—iabilis Sect. 1. Columba Noae c. Append. to the Book of the Church 3 part chap. 2. Aug. de Baptis contr Donatist lib. 1. c. 8 10. Jun. de Eccl. lib. sing c. 17. Thes Rain 5. Par. in Rom. 16. Hook 3 Book of Eccles pol. c. 1. One Lord one Faith one Baptisme Crak desen Eccles Angel c. 16. Pet. Baro Conc. ad clerum Bunnie treat of Purif D. Some against Penrie Peter Mart. Epistle Answer to Machiavel p. 8. D. Covel Fregevil polit â—ef B. of S. Davids Chap. D. Williams of the Church Confer pag. 75. * Zanc. miscell de Eccles Whitak Câ—uaes 6. c. 1. pag 444 445. in quâ—r Perk. in 1. ad Galat. CameroÌ„ Zanch. ubi supra In quo purum Dei verbum Orthodoxe intellectium sincere pradicaâ—um Sacramenta solâ— legitimè juxta institutuÌ„ Christi administrata c. M. Perk. Ref. Cath. Append. ubi supra Obj. Resp Obj. Resp Ibid. Praefat. de nat Dei Epist l. 2. resp ad Catabaptist Job 13. 7. Matth. 21. 13. 2 Thes 2. 4. Rev. 18. 1 2. Acts 16. 14. 1 Pet. 3. 21. Rom. 2. 28 29. John 1. 47. 2 Tim. 2. 19. 1 Cor. 2. 12. Rev. 2. 17. Exod. 19. 7 8. 24. 3 7. Exod. 34. 27. Deut. 26. 17 18. Jer. 7. â—3 11. 4. John 10. 27 5. 1 John 4. 6. John 13. 35. Matt. 5. 16. Ps 78. 36. 37. John 2. 23 24. Exod. 32. 7. 32. 19. Esay 1â— 4 10 21. Miâ—h 2. 7. 8. Hoâ—â—â—â— 9. John 8â— 42 44. Rev. 11. 8. 14. 8. 17. 5. 6. 18. 2. Exod. 32. 11. Jer. 14. 2â— Esay 64. 8 9. Gen. 16. 8. Esay 58. 1. 50. 1. Jer. 3. 2 3 4 14. Hos â— 6 9. 4. 12. Hos 2. 2. Rev. 3. 9. Rom. 11. 17. 2 Thess 24. Rev. 18. 4. Rev. 14. 8. John 1 29. 1 John 1. 7. Gal. 2. 16. Heb. 7. 22 25. Gen. 16. 9. Exod. 33. 7. Ezec 16. 25. Jer. 15.1 19. Hos 4. 17. Rev. 18. 4. Lev. 13. 45. 2 Coâ— 6. 14 15 1â— 17 18. Neh. 3. 4. 1 Cor. 3. 12. Psal 36. 3. Rev. 22. 11. 2 Cor. 3. 18. * Si Christus Judam passus est cur non ego patior Birrhichioncm Dial. de S. Martino Sever. Sulpâ— I perceive some Readers have unheedily unjustly stumbled at this Proposition as if I had herein slighted the Differences betwixt us and the Romane Church from which I am so far as that I have ever professed to hold them to be on their parts no lesse then damnable Errors and such as by consequence do raze the Foundation If these words have seemed to sound otherwise it is nothing but the Readers inconsiderate mistaking who if he please to bend his second and more serious thoughts upon the place will easily see that my intention is herein only to shew how unjustly the Church of Rome doth charge us with Heresie in denying their Doctrine forasmuch as those Positions of theirs which we are condemned for refusing are far from being Principles of Faith but are things of their own devising imposing For example they condemn us for rejecting the doctrine of Transubstantiation and refusing to hold that the substance of the Bread is by the force of the words truly and really turned into the very Flesh Blood and Bone of Christ Now I say this their doctrine of Transubstantiation is far from being any Principle of Faith but only a point of their own Divinity devised and maintained by themselves They condemn us for refusing to pray to Saints or to worship Images I say that this Doctrine that Saints ought to be invoked or Images worshipped is far from being a Principle of Faith but onely one of their own Theologicall Positions devised and imposed by themselves The like may be and must be said of all their other Points obtruded on the Church wherein I hope no wise Reformed Catholick will think he hath reason to dissent from me or to misdoubt my Proposition