so much which is nothing else but a wilfull suffering of themselves to be led blind-fold by one man who commonly is more blind than many of themselves is no fruit of the spirit but of meere carnall policie and may serve peradventure for a bond of peace betwixt themselues and their owne partie such as the Priests of Antichrist were to have and as many as would be content to yeeld themselves to the conduct of such a Commander but hath proved the greatest block that ever stood in the way for giving impediment to the peace and unity of the universall Church which here we looke after And therefore Nilus Archbishop of Thessalonica entring into the consideration of the original ground of that long cōtinued schisme whereby the West standeth as yet divided from the East and the Latin Churches from the Greeke wrote a whole booke purposely of this argument wherein he sheweth that there is no other cause to be assigned of this distraction but that the Pope will not permit the cognisance of the controversie unto a generall Councell but will needs sit himselfe as the alone Teacher of the point in question and have others hearken unto him as if they were his Scholars and that this is contrary both to the ordinances and the practice of the Apostles and the Fathers Neither indeed is there any hope that ever wee shall see a generall peace for matters of Religion setled in the Christian world as long as this supercilious Master shall be suffered to keepe this rule in Gods house how much soever he be magnified by his owne Disciples and made the onely foundation upon which the unitie of the Catholick Church dependeth Now in the next place for the further opening of the unitie of the faith wee are to call unto minde the distinction which the Apostle maketh betwixt the foundation and that which is builded thereupon betwixt the principles of the doctrine of Christ and that which he calleth perfection The unitie of the faith and of the knowledge of the Sonne of God here spoken of hath reference as we heard to the foundation as that which followeth of a perfect man and the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ to the superstruction and perfection In the former there is a generall unitie among all true beleevers in the latter a great deale of varietie there being severall degrees of perfection to be found in severall persons according to the measure of the gift of Christ. So we see in a materiall Building that still there is but one foundation though great disparitie be observed in sundry parts of the superstruction some rooms are high some lowe some darke some lightsome some more substantially some more slightly builded and in tract of time some prove more ruinous than others yet all of them belong to one building as long as they hold together and stand upon the same foundation And even thus is it in the spirituall Building also whether we respect the practicall part of Christianitie or the intellectuall In the practicall we see wonderfull great difference betwixt Christian and Christian some by Gods mercy attaine to a higher measure of perfection and keepe themselves unspotted from the cōmon corruptions of the world others watch not so carefully over their wayes and lead not such strict lives but are oftentimes overtaken and fall fowly that he who looketh upon the one and the other would hardly thinke that one Heaven should receive them both But although the one doth so farre outstrip the other in the practice of new Obedience which is the Christian mans race yet are there certaine fundamentall principles in which they both concurre as a desire to feare Gods name repentance for sinnes past and a sincere purpose of heart for the time to come to cleave unto the LORD Which whosoever hath is under mercie and may not be excluded from the Communion of Saints In like manner for the intellectuall part the first principles of the Oracles of God as the Apostle calleth them hold the place of the common foundation in which all Christians must be grounded although some be babes and for further knowledge are unskilfull in the word of righteousnesse other some are of perfect age who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discerne both good and evill The Oracles of God containe aboundance of matter in them and whatsoever is found in them is a fit object for faith to apprehend but that all Christians should uniformely agree in the profession of all those truthes that are revealed there is a thing that rather may be wished than ever hoped for Yet the varietie of mens judgements in those manie points that belong to Theologicall faith doth not dissolve the unitie which they hold together in the fundamentall principles of the Catholick faith The unitie of the faith commended here is a Catholick unitie and such as every true Christian attaineth unto Till wee ALL come in the unitie of the faith saith the Apostle As there is a common salvation so is there a common faith which is alike precious in the highest Apostle and the meanest beleever For we may not thinke that Heaven was prepared for deepe Clerkes onely and therefore beside that larger measure of knowledge whereof all are not capable there must be a Rule of faith common to small and great which as it must consist but of few propositions for simple men cannot beare away many so is it also requisite that those articles should be of such weight and moment that they may be sufficient to make a man wise unto saluation that howsoever in other points learned men may goe beyond common Christians and exceed one another likewise by many degrees yet in respect of these radicall truthes which is the necessarie and common food of all the children of the Church there is not an unitie onely but such a kinde of equalitie also brought in among all sorts of Christians as was heretofore among the Congregation of the Israelites in the collection of their Manna where he that gathered much had nothing over and hee that gathered little had no lacke If then salvation by beleeving these common principles may be had and to salvation none can come that is not first a member of the Catholick Church of Christ it followeth thereupon that the unitie of the faith generally requisite for the incorporating of Christians into that blessed societie is not to be extended beyond those common principles Which may further be made manifest unto us by the continuall practice of the Catholick Church her selfe in the matriculation of her children and the first admittance of them into her communion For when shee prepared her Catechumeni for Baptisme and by that dore received them into the congregation of Christs flock we may not think her iudgement to have beene so weake that shee would omit any thing herein that was
essentially necessary for the making of one a member of the Church Now the profession which she required of all that were to receive Baptisme was for the Agenda or practicall part an abrenuntiation of the Divell the World and the Flesh with all their sinfull workes and lustes and for the Credenda the things to be beleeved an acknowledgement of the articles of the Creed which being solemnly done she then baptised them in this faith intimating thereby sufficiently that this was that one Faith commended unto her by the Apostles as the other that one Baptisme which was appointed to be the Sacrament of it This Creed though for substance it was the same every where yet for forme was somewhat different and in some places received moe enlargements than in others The Westerne Churches herein applyed themselves to the capacitie of the meaner sort more than the Easterne did using in their Baptisme that shorter Forme of Confession commonly called The Apostles Creed which in the more ancient times was briefer also than now it is As we may easily perceive by comparing the Symbol recited by Marcellus Ancyranus in the Profession of the faith which he delivered to Pope Iulius with the expositions of the Apostles Creed written by the Latin Doctors wherein the mention of the Fathers being Maker of heaven and earth the Sonnes Death and Descending into Hell and the Communion of Saints is wholly omitted All which though they were of undoubted veritie yet for brevities sake seeme at first to have beene omitted in this short Summe because some of them perhaps were not thought to be altogether so necessary for all men which is Suarez his judgement touching the point of the descent into Hell and some that were most necessary either thought to be sufficiently implied in other Articles as that of Christ's death in those of his crucifixion and buriall or thought to be sufficiently manifested by the light of reason as that of the creation of heaven and earth For howsoever this as it is a truth revealed by God's Word becommeth an object for faith to apprehend Heb. 11.3 yet it is otherwise also clearely to be understood by the discourse of reason Rom. 1.20 even as the unitie and all the other attributes of the Godhead likewise are Which therefore may be well referred unto those Praecognita or common principles which nature may possesse the minde withall before that grace enlightneth it and need not necessarily to be inserted into that Symbol which is the badge and cognizance whereby the Beleever is to be differenced and distinguished from the Vnbeleever The Creed which the Easterne Churches used in Baptisme was larger then this being either the same or very little different from that which we commonly call the Nicene Creed because the greatest part of it was repeated and confirmed in the first generall Councell held at Nice where the first draught thereof was presented to the Synod by Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea with this Preamble As wee have received from the Bishops that were before us both at our first catechizing and when we received Baptisme and as we have learned from the holy Scriptures and as we have both beleeved and taught when wee entred into the Ministery and in our Bishoprick it selfe so beleeving at this present also we declare this our faith unto you To this the Nicene Fathers added a more cleare explication of the Deitie of the Sonne against the Arrian heresie wherewith the Church was then troubled professing him to be begotten not made and to be of one substance with the Father The second generall Councell which was assembled fiftie-six yeares after at Constantinople approving this confession of the faith as most ancient and agreeable to Baptisme inlarged it somewhat in the Article that concerned the Holy Ghost especially which at that time was most oppugned by the Macedonian Heretickes And whereas the Nicene confession proceeded no further than to the beliefe which we have in the holy Trinitie the Fathers of Constantinople made it up by adding that which was commonly professed touching the Catholicke Church and the priviledges belonging thereunto Epiphanius repeating this Creed at large affirmeth it to haue been delivered unto the Church by the Apostles Cassianus avoucheth as much where he urgeth this against Nestorius as the Creed anciently received in the Church of Antioch from whence hee came The Romane Church after the dayes of Charles the great added the article of the procession of the Hâ—ly Ghost from the Sonne unto this Symboll and the Councell of Trent hath now recommended it unto us as that principle in which all that professe the faith of Christ doe necessarily agree and the firme and ONELY FOVNDATION against which the Gates of Hell shall never prevaile It is a matter confessed therefore by the Fathers of Trent themselues that in the Constantinopolitane Creed or in the Romane Creed at the farthest which differeth nothing from the other but that it hath added Filióque to the procession of the Holy Ghost and out of the Nicene Creed Deum de Deo to the articles that concerne the Sonne that onely foundation and principle of faith is to be found in the unitie whereof all Christians must necessarily agree Which is otherwise cleared sufficiently by the constant practice of the Apostles and their successours in the first receiving of men into the Societie of the Church For in one of the Apostles ordinary Sermons we see there was so much matter delivered as was sufficient to convert men unto the faith and to make them capable of Baptisme and those Sermons treated onely of the first principles of the doctrine of Christ upon the receiving whereof the Church following the example of the Apostles never did denie Baptisme unto her Catechumeni In these first principles therefore must the foundation be contained and that common unitie of faith which is required in all the members of the Church The foundation then being thus cleared concerning the superstruction we learne from the Apostle that some build upon this foundation gold silver precious stones wood hay stubble Some proceed from one degree of wholesome knowledge unto another increasing their maine stock by the addition of those other sacred truthes that are revealed in the word of God and these build upon the foundation gold and silver and precious stones Others retaine the precious foundation but lay base matter upon it wood hay stubble and such other eyther unprofitable or more dangerous stuffe and others goe so farre that they overthrow the very foundation it selfe The first of these be wise the second foolish the third madde builders When the day of tryall commeth the first mans worke shall abide and hee himselfe shall receive a reward the second shall lose his worke but not himselfe he shall suffer losse saith the Apostle but he himselfe shall be saved the third shall lose both himselfe and his worke together And as in this spirituall
them and Gods anger So that where these things did thus concurre in any as wee doubt not but they did in many thousands the knowledge of the common principles of the faith the ignorance of such maine errours as did endanger the foundation a godly life and a faithfull death there we have no cause to make any question but that God had fitted a subject for his mercy to worke upon And yet in saying thus wee doe nothing lesse than say that such as these were Papists either in their life or in their death members of the Romane Church perhaps they were but such as by God's goodnes were preserved from the mortalitie of Popery that raigned there For Popery it selfe is nothing else but the botch or the plague of that Church which hazardeth the soules of those it seizeth upon as much as any infection can doe the body And therefore if any one will needs be so foole-hardy as to take up his lodging in such a Pest-house after warning given of the present danger wee in our charitie may well say Lord have mercy upon him but he in the meane time hath great cause to feare that God in his justice will inflict that judgement upon him which in this case he hath threatned against such as will not beleeve the truth but take pleasure in vnrighteousnesse And so much may suffice for that question The second question so rise in the mouthes of our Adversaries is Where was your Church before Luther Whereunto an answere may bee returned from the grounds of the solution of the former question that our Church was even there where now it is In all places of the world where the ancient foundations were retained and those common principles of faith upon the profession whereof men have ever beene wont to be admitted by Baptisme into the Church of Christ there we doubt not but our Lord had his subjects and wee our fellow-servants For wee bring-in no new Faith nor no new Church That which in the time of the ancient Fathers was accounted to be truely and properly Catholick namely that which was beleeved every where alwayes and by all that in the succeeding ages hath evermore beene preserved and is at this day entirely professed in our Church And it is well observed by a learned man who hath written a full discourse of this argument that whatsoever the Father of lies either hath attempted or shall attempt yet neither hath he hitherto effected nor shall ever bring it to passe hereafter that this Catholick doctrine ratified by the common consent of Christians alwayes and every where should be abolished but that in the thickest mist rather of the most perplexed troubles it still obtained victorie both in the mindes and in the open confession of all Christians no wayes overturned in the foundation thereof and that in this veritie that one Church of Christ was preserved in the midst of the tempests of the most cruell winter or in the thickest darknes of her waynings Thus if at this day we should take a survay of the severall professions of Christianitie that have any large spread in any part of the world as of the Religion of the Romane and the Reformed Churches in our Quarters of the Aegyptians and Aethiopians in the South of the Grecians and other Christians in the Easterne parts and should put-by the points wherein they did differ one from another and gather into one body the rest of the Articles wherein they all did generally agree wee should finde that in those propositions which without all controversie are universally received in the whole Christian world so much truth is contained as being joyned with holy obedience may be sufficient to bring a man unto everlasting salvation Neither have wee cause to doubt but that as many as doe walke according to this rule neither overthrowing that which they have builded by superinducing any damnable heresies thereupon nor otherwise vitiating their holie faith with a lewd and wicked conversation peace shall bee upon them and mercie and upon the Israel of GOD. Now these common principles of the Christian faith which we call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or things generally beleeved of all as they have Vniversalitie and Antiquity and Consent concurring with them which by Vincentius his rule are the speciall characters of that which is truely and properly Catholick so for their Duration wee are sure that they have still held out and beene kept as the Seminarie of the Catholique Church in the darkest and difficultest times that ever have beene where if the Lord of Hostes had not in his mercy reserved this seed unto us we should long since have beene as Sodom and should have beene like unto Gomorrah It cannot be denied indeed that Sathan and his instruments have used their utmost endeavour either to hide this light from mens eyes by keeping them in grosse ignorance or to deprave it by bringing-in pernicious heresies and that in these latter ages they have much prevailed both wayes aswell in the West and North as in the East and South Yet farre be it for all this from any man to thinke that God should so cast away his people that in those times there should not be left a remnant according to the election of grace The Christian Church was never brought unto a lower ebbe than was the Iewish Synagogue in the dayes of our Saviour Christ when the Interpreters of the Law had taken away the key of knowledge and that little knowledge that remained was miserably corrupted not onely with the leaven of the Pharisees but also with the damnable heresie of the Sadduces And yet a man at that time might have seene the true servants of GOD standing together with these men in the selfe-same Temple which might well be accounted as the House of the Saints in regard of the one so a Denne of theeves in respect of the other When the pestilent heresie of the Arrians had polluted the whole world the people of Christ were not to bee found among them onely who made an open secession from that wicked company but among those also who held externall communion with them and lived under their Ministery Where they so learned the other truthes of GOD from them that they were yet ignorant of their maine errour God in his providence so ordering matters that as it is noted by S. Hilary the people of Christ should not perish under the Priests of Antichrist If you demand then Where was Gods Temple all this while the answer is at hand There where Antichrist sate Where was Christs people Even under Antichrists Priests and yet this is no justification at all either of Antichrist or of his Priests but a manifestation of God's great power who is able to uphold his Church even there where Satans throne is Babylon was an infectious place and the infection thereof was mortall and yet God had his people there whom hee preserved from the
point of learning in the Schooles Yet Christ did give as well his Apostles and Prophets and Evangelists as his ordinarie Pastors and Teachers to bring us all both learned and unlearned unto the unitie of this faith and knowledge and the neglecting of this is the frustrating of the whole worke of the Ministerie For let us preach never so many Sermons unto the people our labour is but lost as long as the foundation is unlaid and the first principles untaught upon which all other doctrine must be builded Hee therefore that will studie to shew himselfe approved unto God a workeman that needeth not to be ashamed dividing the word of God aright must have a speciall care to plant this Kingdome both in the mindes and in the hearts of them that heare him I say in the hearts aswell as in the mindes because we may not content our selves with a bare Theoricall knowledge which is an information onely of the Vnderstanding and goeth no further than the braine but we must labour to attaine unto a further degree both of Experimentall and of Practicall Knowledge in the things that wee have learned A young man may talke much of the troubles of the world and a Scholar in the Vniversitie may shew a great deale of wit in making a large declamation upon that argument but when the same men have afterwards been beaten in the world they will confesse that they spake before they knew not what and count their former apprehension of these things to be but meere Ignorance in respect of that new learning which now they have bought by deare experience The tree in Paradise of which our first parents were forbidden to eate was called the tree of knowledge of good and evill because it signified unto them that as now while they stood upon termes of obedience with their Creator they knew nothing but good so at what time soever they did transgresse his commandement they should begin to know evill also whereof before they had no knowledge not but that they had an intellectuall knowledge of it before for he that knoweth good cannot be ignorant of that which is contrarie unto it Rectum being alwayes index sui obliqui but that till then they never had felt any evill they never had any experimentall knowledge of it So our Apostle in this Epistle boweth his knees unto the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ that hee would grant unto these Ephesians to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge shewing that there is a further degree of knowledge in this kinde that may be felt by the heart though not comprehended by the braine and in the Epistle to the Philippians he counteth all things but losse for the excellent knowledge sake of Christ Iesus his Lord. Meaning hereby a knowledge grounded upon deepe experience of the vertue of Christs death and resurrection in his owne soule as he expoundeth it himselfe in the words following That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings and be made conformable unto his death There is an Experimentall knowledge then to be looked after beside the Mentall and so is there a Practicall knowledge likewise as well as an Intellectuall When Christ is said to have knowne no sinne wee cannot understand this of Intellectuall knowledge for had he not thus knowne sinne he could not have reproved it as he did but of Practicall So that Hee knew no sinne in S. Paul must be conceived to be the very same with He did no sinne in S. Peter In the first to the Romanes they that knew God because they glorified him not as God are therefore said not to have God in their knowledge God made his wayes and his lawes knowne to the children of Israel in the desert and yet he said of them It is a people that doe erre in their heart and they have not knowne my wayes For there is an errour in the heart as well as in the braine and a kinde of ignorance arising from the will as well as from the minde And therefore in the Epistle to the Hebrewes all sinnes are termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ignorances and sinners 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ignorant and erring persons because how ever in the generall the understanding may be informed rightly yet when particular actions come to be resolved upon mens perverse wils and inordinate affections cloude their mindes and lead them out of the way That therefore is to bee accounted sound Knowledge which sinketh from the braine into the heart and from thence breaketh forth into action setting head heart hand and all aworke and so much onely must thou reckon thy selfe to know in Christianitie as thou art able to make use of in practise For as Saint Iames saith of faith Shew me thy faith by thy workes so doth he in like manner of knowledge Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge amongst you let him shew out of a good conversation his workes with meekenesse of wisedome and S. Iohn much to the same purpose Hereby we doe know that we know him if wee keepe his commandements He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandements is a lyar and the truth is not in him He speaketh there of Iesus Christ the righteous the Sonne of God who is here in my text likewise made the Obiect of this Knowledge Thou art Christ the Sonne of the living God is by Christ himselfe made the rocke upon which the whole Church is builded And Other foundation saith S. Paul can no man lay than that is laid which is Iesus Christ. Not that wee should thinke that there were no other fundamentall doctrine to bee acknowledged but this alone for the articles of the Holy Ghost forgivenesse of sinnes resurrection of the dead eternall judgement and such like other have their place also in the foundation but because this is the most speciall object of faith and the primarie foundation of all the other For first as God is made the coaequate object of the whole bodie of Divinitie notwithstanding it treateth also of men and Angels Heaven and Hell Sinne and Obedience and sundrie other particulars because all these are brought to God reductiuely if not as explications of his Nature yet of his Workes and Kingdome so likewise may Christ be made the primarie head of all other fundamentall articles because they have all reference unto him being such as concerne eyther his Father or his Spirit or his Incarnation or his Office of Mediation or his Church or the speciall Benefits which he hath purchased for it Secondly howsoever this faith and knowledge being taken in their larger extent have for their full object what-ever is revealed in the Word of God yet as they build us upon the foundation as they incorporate us into the mysticall body as they are the meanes of our justification