the faithfull dispersed ouer the world Which is in substance the same that is here answered for euery one that hath the true faith and is in vnion with the head and Pastors of the Church by obeying them is a member of the true Châ—â—ch and all these put together make the whole Church But because Schismatiks although they beleeue in all points yet are out of the Church as diuiding themselues from it by disobedience to the head and Pastors theirof therefor to be a member of the Church we require vnion with the rest of the members vnder one head to wit the Pope who is for the time the successor of S. Peter the Vicar of Christ and the Head of the Church Now for the explication of this article In the first place the Church is said to be holy Holy It is holy in diuerse respects First in respect of the eminent holines of Iesus Christ the cheife head of it Secondly for the holy gouernment which Christ instituted and allwais conserueth in it Thirdly it is holy in respect of the holy sacrifice which it hath of his most sacred body and in respect of the holy Sacraments and obseruances that are in it Fourthly in respect of the Vicarhead Pastors and people whose holinesse it includeth Christ ascending into heauen made S. Peter the head of all the Apostles and of the whole Church to remaine as Vicar to himselfe vpon earth commending particularly to him the charge of his sheepe that is of all faithfull christians that are in the Church as in his sheepfold This charge was performed by him whilst he liued and after his death by men of great holines who succeeded him ioyning their blood vnto his as it were in a continuall streame of martyrdome for almost three hundred yeares after the Ascension of Christ After them those who haue succeeded in that chaire and office haue bene for the most part men of great holinesse as they haue great meanes to be and as it is fitting they should be in that holy office The Church is also holy in many other inferiour Pastors and people of all sorts and callings of Martyrs Confessors and Virgins who haue illustrated it with their holy liues and haue rendred it a deere and amiable spouse to Christ Lastly the Church is holy as being by its authority the ground of all holines there being none at all but in it For there can be noe holinesse in this world if not grounded vpon true faith Heb. 11. without which it is impossible to please God And being there can be noe faith that can please God but in the Catholike Church all holinesse that is amongst men is in the holy Catholike Church The Church is called by the Apostles Catholike Catholike which is as much as to say vniuersal to destinguish the true Church of Christ from all false Churches of christians which they saw might rize vp in following times and did euen then beginne to rize in their times None of which can be said to be Catholike or vniuersal but priuate and particular Churches which beginne by opposing of the Catholike and vniuersal Church then extant when those new sects beginne First the Church is vniuersal in doctrine for that it teacheth all ouer the same doctrine and yeeldeth obedience to the same gouernment vnder one head and soe the Church of Rome is Catholike and the Church of Protestants is not Catholike for that protestants agree in name onely and nor in doctrine and also because some of them acknowledging a head vpon earth as the English Protestants did and some of them acknowledging noe head vpon earth they haue not all obedience to the same authority which obedience must necessarily be had to be the same Church and to be the true Catholike Church For the Apostles made this article to keepe vs allwais in the odedience of the true Church and that those might be knowne to haue the true faith of Christ who retaining the doctrine which is professed by the whole Church which then is and obeying the authority of it submitte in all controuersys to that which it teacheth and say with the Apostles I beleeue the Catholike Church and therefor two Churches that obey two different authoritys can not both of them be vniuersal and Catholike Secondly the true Church is vniuersall in times for that it must be at all times and neuer soe vanished out of the world that there should neede any to restore it againe for God doth not soe vnequally destribute his graces as to leaue the the world at any time without meanes of saluation which cannot be without a true and lawfull Church Besides the Apostles Creede is to be said at all times and soe we are allwais to say I beleeue the Catholike Church which we could not allwais say if at some time there were noe true Catholike Church in the world Thirdly the Church is vniuersal in place for if S. Paul could with truth apply those words of the psalme their sounde hath gone forth vnto all the earth Ps 18. and vnto the ends of the â—ound world the words of them to the Church of Christ in the Apostles times when it was nothing soe much dilated as now God be thanked it is we may now with good reason call it Catholike in respect of all places when the sounde of the Apostles doctrine is soe much enlarged that there is hardly any place of the world whither the Catholike Church doth not send her subiects to preach Out of this vniuersality of the Church it followeth One that there is but one true Church in which saluation may be had for vniuersality importeth vnity and if there be vnity in the Church and that this vnity be necessarily required and included in the word Catholike or vniuersal which signifye hâ— many agreeing in the same thinge then two Churches which are not vnited in the same Communion and obedience to the same authority can not both of them haue meanes of saluation for if they could both haue meanes of saluatioÌ„ and yet might lawfully disobey each others authority then we should not be bounde to obey it nor could it lawfully require obedience to it which is contrary to the words of Christ binding vs to the obedience of the Church and contrary to this article and to all reason and gouernment S. Augustine There is nothing which a christian ought soe much to feare as to be separated from the body of Christ Aug. tract 27. which is for certaine the one Catholike Church For if he be separated from the body of Christ he is not a member of him If he be not a member of him he is not nourished with his spirit By which it is plane in the doctrine of this saint that it can not be a true Church which is separated from the true Church and by consequence two Churches which separate from each other can not both be true Therefor let those take head that hearken
secute from errour that at all times in all controuersys follow the sentence of the Church and adhaere to it And therfor the Apostles by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost made this important article that we might neuer forgett our obedience to the Church but that in all doubts and difficultys we might haue recourse to it and say I beleeue the Catholike Church And that those who will stande against it may be knowne to be infringers of the law and Creede of the Apostles From hence is the beginning of all heresys that some priuate men will contradict the authority of the whole Church and obiecting against some particular point or points of faith they make themselues the iudges and determine as they will themselues They contende allwais about some particular point or points of faith and wrangle about them but if you aske them vpon what authority they contradict the Catholike Church and all the Churches in the world separating from them they are then out of their witts and know not what to say knowing that if they pretende the word of God the same question confoundeth them againe demanding vpon what authority they dare interprete the word of God against the Catholike Church and against all the Churches in the world besides that the word of God is against them commanding both in the Creede and scriptures to beleeue the Church If we will giue them satisfaction in those particular points and difficultys it is but of curtesy for we confesse that there are many points of faith which by our owne reason we cannot comprehende the most reasonable and best satisfaction is because the Catholike Church soe teacheth otherwise as I haue shewed we should neither haue Creede nor scriptures nor God Contende not then with haeretiks about particular points but aske them vpon what authority they dare question them what Church will they follow If they will fall from the Catholike Church to some company of haeretiks that beganne at some time against all Churches or if themselues will beginne such a company they are here condemned in this article The authority of the Church is the rule the guide the sure anker to which we must all wais hold It is a rocke which dasheth in peeces all temptations of faith and obiections of haeretiks and keepeth vs free from doubts and feares as in a quiet and safe harbour Let vs now speake OF THE GOVERNMENT of the Church THe Church in holy scriptures is compared to a well ordered citty such an one as Hierusalem was when the seruice of God slourished in it But the gouernment of the Church of Christ doth farre excell that For it is a gouernment which God hath taken a neerer charge of as hauing in his owne person instituted it first and engaged himselfe by promise allwais to protect and defende it and therfor he must at all times prouide such gouernors for it as shall carefully mainteine his diuine seruice in it Esa 62. Vpon thy walls Hierusalem I haue appointed watchmen all the night for euer they shall not hold their peace It is compared to the army of a campe set in array Cant. 6. glorious in it selfe and terrible to its enemys for the order which it hath The order and good gouernment of the Church consisteth in the dew subordination of subiects to their superiors As in our bodys seueral offices are giuen to seueral parts and all of them constituted vnder one head And as in a common wealth some beare offices and others without offices obey them and all are finally reduced vnto some head and supreme power and that supreme power subordinate lastly to God that impowred it soe in the gouernment of the Church some haue authority ouer others and one head is placed ouer all These are the pastors whom God hath appointed and disposed into that order Rom. 13. Those thinges that are of God are ordained Saith the Apostle that is to say they are with order and to be with order is to be not all alike but with subordination of inferiors to superiour powers and soe the order of the Church consisteth in people subordinate to their pastors and of pastors subordinate vnto one supreme head vpon earth And the head and pastors of the Church exercizing their power most fully in a General Councell it will be sufficient for the gouernment of the Church to speake of the head and of General Councels Christ chose out of all the world some to be his disciples Of the head of the Church out of his disciples he tooke some to be Apostles and out of his Apostles he chose one to be the head and to haue authority ouer his whole Church These vnderstanding by the disciples all those that were vnder the Apostles were then the whole Church of Christ S. Peter was chosen by him as the head and supreme pastour ouer all both pastors and people Him and his successors we call the vicars of Christ that is to say he that beareth vpon earth the person and place of Christ who is in heauen the cheife head of the Church Neither can it in reason offende any that we call S. Peter and his successors in that office the Vicars of Christ For if S. Paul might authorize what he did in punishing and pardoning of the Corinthian with the authority of Christ and could lawfully say that he did it in the name vertue Cor. 1.5 Cor. 2.2 and person of Christ he being but a subiect of the head pastour of the Church with much more reason the cheife pastour and head of the Church may be called the Vicat of Christ he performing and executing that office after a more eminent manner in the name vertue and person of Christ Christ first promised this authority when asking his disciples whom they thought him to be Peter answered Thou art Christ the Sonne of the liuing God Then â—esus answering said to him Mat. 16. Blessed art thou Simon 〈…〉 I say to thee thou art Peter that is to say a rocke and vpon this rocke I will build my Church and the gaâ—es of hell shall not preuaile against it And I will giue to thee the keyes of the kingdome of heauen And whatsoeuer thou shalt binde vpon earth shall be bounde also in the heauens and what soeuer thou shalt loose in earth it shall be loosed also in the heauens By which it is most euident that some greater dignity and preeminonce was intended to Peter then to the rest of the Apostles First it was a most singular high mystery that which Christ asked and Peter then professed and which before then perhaps was neuer reuealed to any of the Apostles and which flesh and blood could not reueale that is by humane meanes could not be vnderstoode Moreouer Christ then blessed him and spoke vnto him after a most particular and energious manner of speech calling him a rocke which was not his name nor had ary relation to him more then to the rest of his
beginneth to deriue that authority from Christ vnto S. Peter that by one head and supreme pastour vnity might be preserued in the Church And sayth againe that Heresys haue sprung and Schismes haue bene bred by noe other cause Cyp. l. 1. ep 13. 55. but for that the Priest of God is not obeyed nor one iudge considered to be for the time in the Church of God Soe that to shew who is the true head of the Church will sufficiently destinguish the true Church for the pastors that communicate with him are the true pastors and the people of that Communion are the true people of God and that whole congregation of pastors and people being taken alltogether is the whole Catholike Church Now to shew who is the true head of the Church we must secke into antiquity and see what bishop did aunciently in the first Church of the Apostles and in the primitiue times after them beare that authority and was then acknowledged for the head and supreme pastour of the Church For as truth which was eternally in God was before falsehood which came afterwards by creatures and as true and lawfull power was first in the true Church of Christ and false vsurped power was afterwards begunne by disobeving it soe he that was first acknowledged in the primitiue times of the Church as the head and supreme pastour he and his successors are all wais to be acknowledged after him and they are false Churches that haue begunne at any time in disobedience to him and to the pastors of his Communion Now let vs see what bishop was acknowledged in the primitiue times and was first obeyed as the head and supreme pastour and which of all Churches that how are retaine still their obedience to him These are either all or the cheife christian Churches that are now in the world The Romane Church which is truely Catholike and Vniuersal ouer the whole world the Greeke Churches which are not Catholike nor vniuersall in the world although some of them be much spred The Church of the Georgians of the Armenians of the Aethiopians of the Arians of the Nestorians of the Waldenses of the Lutherans of the Zuinglians if any of them be yet extant destinct from the Caluinists the Church of the Caluinists and the Church of England which is the latest and newest of them all If there be any more besides these as we see petty sects daily to arize out of the later and to beginne in disobedience to them as all of them once did to the Romane Church both they and all the rest beside the Romane Church shall appeare to be false Churches and it onely to be the true Catholike Church for that it onely is in vnion and holdeth obedience to the true and lawfull head of the vniuersall Church and to the pastors of his Communion all the rest disobeying that authority But first it is to be obserued that the word Church being a word of Communion siguifying a company of people communicating together in the same faith and vnder the same authority it can not be the same Church and a lawfull Church if it haue not the same and that a lawfull authority Secondly some of these acknowledge a head and supreme pastour of the Church vpon earth and others of them will acknowledge none The Romane Church all ouer the world acknowledgeth the bishop of Rome to be vpon earth the head and supreme pastour of the Church The Graecians Armenians Georgians Aethiopians and Churches of the east haue some of them the Parriarke of Constanâ—inople others the Patriarke of Alexandria or a parricular and propper pastour to themselues whom they acknowledge for the supreme head of their Church and the Church of England vntill within these tenne or dozen yeares acknowledged their temporal prince man woman or child that was for the time to be the head of that Church Others there are who are headlesse acknowledging noe supreme head vpon earth in any spirituall power as the Lutherans Caluinists c. these are but few and inconsiderable in comparison of those that submitte vnto a head and supreme authority And I shall shew that both they and all others beside the Romane Church are false Churches for that they stande disobedient to him and to the pastors of his Communion who is indeede the true head of the Church I haue shewed before that the gouernment which Christ instituted in his Church was by S. Peter as the head and cheife pastour of it Now I shew that that supreme authority of S. Peter was acknowledged by the primitiue Church to descende vpon the bishop of Rome as successour to him and that there is none but he that can with reason pretende to haue had that authority This is prooued first by the manifest testimonys of those auncient writers that then liued Secondly by the practise of those times for that the bishop of Rome exercized in fact that supreme authority and the faithfull of those times obeyed it Thirdly for that there is none els that can pretende to haue bene at any time aboue all other bishops as the cheife pastour and gouernour of the Church First then I produce soe many The Bishop of Rome is acknowledged by the primitiue fathers to be the head of the Church and such testimonys of auncient writers as shall be sufficient to satisfy him that regardeth the safety of his soule And to beginne euen from the Apostles times the scriptures which they wrote declare soe farre for the supremacy of the bishops of Rome that they are alleadged to that purpose by holy and auncient authors as will appeare by their following citations who seeing the supreme pastorship to haue bene promised by Christ vnto S. Peter Mat. 16. and to haue bene giuen him Io. 21. when he commended soe particularly the feeding of his sheepe to him and considering him to haue died at Rome bishop of that place and a successour in his authority to be allwais necessary for the gouernment of the Church without any more argument they grounded themselues vpon these scriptures and commonly alleadged them for the supremacy not onely of S. Peter but also of the bishop of Rome The same they inferre out of S. Paul to the Romanes where he sayth your faith is renowmed in the whole world Rom. 1. gathering by these words the supremacy of the Romane chaire S. Epis 55. Cyprian speaking against some of those times sayeth They are soe bold as to carry letters from prophane schismatiks to the Chaire of Peter Nu. 6. and the principall Church whence priestly vnity arose not considering the Romanes to be them whose faith the Apostle being the commender was praised to whom misbelcefe can not haue accesse And S. Hierome know ye that the faith of the Romanes will receiue noe such deceits Adner Ruffin l. 3. c. 4. to 2. nor can possibly be changed though an Angell taught otherwise being fensed by S. Cyp. ep 52. and Anronian Amb
none mainteined in schisme their owne Churches which had noe succession of head and pastors from Christ except they were as all false Churches are of a succession inuisible The Waldenses beganne in the disobedience of Iohn Waldo an ignorant lay man in the city of Lyons aboue eleauen hundred yeares after that the faith of Christ had flourished in the world who disobeying the authority of Alexander 3. Pope and of the fathers of a General Councell held at Rome beganne a new Church against all saying we must obey God rather then men And Iohn Hus was proceeded against as an haeretike for mainteining with obstinacy his doctrine The Church of the Lutherans beganne in the disobedience of Martin Luther a Fryar of the holy order of S. Augustine about fifteene hundred yeares after the first establishing of the Church of Christ who disobeying the authority of the head and pastors of the Church that then were to wit of Pope Leo and the pastors of his Communion broke his vowes of pouerty chastity and obedience and hauing gotten some to follow him he beganne with them a new Church which had noe succession of head and pastors from Christ nor from any Church except it were a succession inuisible The Zinglians beganne in the disobedience of Vlricus Zuinglius a Canon of Constance who seeing the people of Germany soe greedily to swallow downe the liberty of Luthers doctrine and noueltys disobeying the authority of Pope Clement and of the pastors of his Communion would beginne also a new Church contrary both to the Church of Rome and of Luther denying the reall presence of the body of our Lord in the holy Eucharist The Church of the Caluinists beganne in the disobedience of Iohn Caluin Priest of Noyon who following the example of Luther and Zuinglius brokeforth after them out of the sheepefold of Christ and disobeying the authority of Paulus 3. then Bishop of Rome and of the pastors of his Communion beganne a new Church according to his owne words separating themselues from the whole world Resp ad versip The Church of England which is the newest of them all beganne in the disobedience of king Henry the eight who hauing first obtained of Pope Leo the glorious title of Defendour of the faith for his good seruice done to the Church of God especially in oppugning of Luthers heresy became afterwards soe blinded with carnality that desiring of Pope Clement a diuorcement from his lawfull wife and not obtaining it he denyed his authority forbadde in his dominions all commerce with the court of Rome and caused himselfe to be proclaimed The supreme head of the English Church vpon earth putting to death Bishop Fisher Sr Thomas Moore and others for denying his supremacy By all which it appeareth that the words of S. Iohn may well be applyed to all these sects when to discouer the false Churches of schismatiks and heretiks which he speaketh of by the name of Antichrist he giueth them this marke They went out from vs. Io. 1.2 Soe may we say of all the sects of schismes and haeretiks that are in the world they beganne at some time in disobedience to the Romane Church the beginners of them were once Romane Catholiks but they were the chaffe of the Catholike Church which being puffed vp with pride and obstinacy went out from vs and beganne new Churches which were not then at all in the world You haue seene now the supreme authority of the Bishop of Rome to haue bene first acknowledged and obeyed by the primitiue Church and consequently all other Churches of christians whatsoeuer without naming of any haue at some time goneforth of that Church and begunne in disobedience to that Bishop and to the pastors of his Communion and you haue seene also in particular the cheife and most notable and one may say all other Churches for that the rest of the petty sects haue begunne indisobedience to some of these and goneforth of them you haue seene I say in particular the rest of the Churches that now are to haue begunne in disobedience to that authority which was first obeyed by the primitiue Church of Christ and was then obeyed in the world and euen by themselues vntill they tooke vpon them to disobey it Wherefor I conclude with this that the true Church is that which continueth allwais obedient to the true head of the Church and pastors of his Communion and they are all false Churches that haue begunne in disobedience to the true head of the Church and pastors of his Communion but there is none but the bishop of Rome that can with any reason pretende to be the true head of the Church nor any pastors that can pretende to be in Communion with the true head of the Church but those that are in Communion with him therefore that is the true Church which hath continued all wais in obedience to the Bishop of Rome and his pastors and they are all false Churches that haue begunne at any time and continue still in disobedience to him and them There remaineth now onely to see what they can say for themselues and to shew the vanity of their pretences First if they deny that the Romane Bishop had supreme authority in the primitiue Church it is to confound as I haue said the knowledge of all thinges past I haue shewed that the holy fathers of those times haue interpreted the scriptures for the Bishop of Rome his supremacy and I haue shewed by their plane sentences and expresse words that the Romane Church hath obtained from our Lord and Sauiour himselfe the principality and eminency of power ouer all Churches that holy seate being the hinge and head of all Churches that in all controuersys we ought to haue recourse vnto it that the Bishop of Rome is the highest Priest and Bishop of bishops that all schismes and heresys haue sprung from the disobedience to that chaire that they are Schismatiks and Praeuaricators that set vp another chaire contrary to it that they belong to Antichrist that are not of that Communion I haue shewed also that the Bishop of Rome his supremacy was acknowledged by Generall Councels that his legates praesided in them that he protected the good and corrected the â—ad both of the Clergy and of the Laity of other Dioceses euen the cheife persons of the world as vnder his charge and that there is noe other bishop that by any title can iustly pretende to haue had that authority in the primitiue times And therfor it is most senselesse to deny his supremacy which the world hath soe long confessed And if they shall still oppose it Sap. 5. the round world shall fight with him against the senslesse who are soe bold as to hazard their soules against the whole world and against soe many worlds as I haue shewed gathered together in General Councels who haue submitted to the Bishop of Rome as to their supreme pastour They will grant then perhaps that the Bishop of
be decided by their owne reasons but who shall be the iudge betwixt them it must not be the determination of any particular man for that is as subiect to errour as they are and besides this question being concerning the spirit of God it cannot be decided by any authority lesse then diuine least otherwise the true spirit were reiected for false as possibly it might be by any inferiour authority Shall it be decided by force of armes That is soe absurde that it needeth noe refuting although perhaps Ioannes de Zischa was of that opinion for what absurdity will not an haeretike mainteine How then shall they be tryed bring them to the Church and see whether they will heare it But they will not be soe tryed How then there is now noe other way left to try them by They must then goe without any tryal at all to say what they list and soe they shall both prooue false spirits as being contrary to S. Iohn that sendeth vs to try our spirits and as being contrary to the scriptures which commande vs to heare the Church Maâ—t 8. Therefor the spirit of God is allwais with obedience to the Church and the final resolution of faith is reduced to the word of God speaking to our harts and interpreted by the Church For there is noe way to try spirits and to declare certainely who are rightly inspired but by the authority of God speaking by it and by submitting our selues to the obedience of it Luâ— 10. as to the voice of God He that heareth you heareth mee and he that despiseth you despiseth mee Saith Christ to the Pastors of the Church who haue the authority of the whole Church Mat. 18. And in another place If he will not heare the Church let him be to thee as the Heathen and the Publican Aug. tract 109. in Io S. Augustine the word of faith and the word of the Apostles to beleeue God and to beleeue the Church is the very same thinge Secondly the true faith hath bene often prooued and false doctrines confuted by miracles and these miracles haue planely conuinced for the obedience to that Church whose faith was soe confirmed Elias prooued by miracles the true faith of the Israëlits and confounded the Idolatrous Gentils Soe did Christ and his Apostles by many miracles prooue the christian faith against both Iewes and Gentils And these miracles obliged all whom inuincible ignorance excused not vnto the obedience of the Church of Christ and shewed planely that the spirit of God was to the obedience of that Church but noe miracle was euer wrought to shew that men should obey noe Church but that they might liue after their owne liking and beleeue what they would without obedience to any authority vpon earth Neither can there be any miracles wrought for any such manner of liuing for miracles being done in confirmation of the true faith oblige others to imbrace that faith which is soe confirmed by miracles and soe men come to an vnity of faith and make a Church that is to say a people vnited together in faith and religion But if men might for all those miracles which they see still follow their owne priuate spirits and not vnite themselues in obedience to that company whose faith is soe confirmed by miracles but might disobey it in matters of faith then they might disobey the authority of God and miracles were to noe purpose Therefor the very being of true miracles in confirmation of faith prooueth the being of a Church to which our spirits must allwais obey Moreouer if euery man were to be guided by his owne priuate spirit without obeying any Church there should be noe neede at all of miracles for the spirit is an inward and miracles are an outward testimony of the truth of any thinge to draw others vnto it but if all were to follow the inward testimony of their owne spirit without submitting vnto any external power then were they not to regard the outward testimony nor to be drawne by it And indeede to say that euery one is to follow his owne priuate spirit without being bounde to the obedience of any external power is as much as to say that euery one hath the true spirit of God and then what neede were there of miracles All which is contrary to the words of Christ and of the Apostles and contrary to the examples of the scriptures and to reason and experience by which we see soe many spirits of errors and of sinne in prowde and euill men Miracles may be and haue bene wrought to prooue the true faith but such miracles prooue that the spirit of God is to the obedience of the Church therefor the spirit of God is to the obedience of the Church Thirdly God hath ordained an orderly gouernment in his diuine worship and all order includeth subordination of inferiours to superiour powers and leaueth vs not to ourselues alone subiect to noe authority in points of religion and the same natural reason that bringeth vs to rely vpon the diuine autority in matters of faith telleth vs also that it is a more reasonable way for God to inspire vs to the obedience of the Church and to guide it with his sure and infallible assistance then to guide euery man by himselfe and his owne priuate spirit without being subiect to any autority or acknowledging of any superiour for this were to take away all order and to bring such a confusion into the world by making euery man his owne iudge as would by consequence destroy the world which without order can not subsist For if there were not allwais vpon earth some power authorized of God to prooue and approoue of the spirits of men what errors would be broched and what villanys committed and mainteined by wicked men vnder pretence of diuine inspiration God inspireth men to an orderly gouernment in his diuine worship therefor the diuine light and inspiration of faith in allwais to the obedience of the Church Soe that we may well say that faith is a supernatural light and gift of God by which we beleeue and firmely adhaere to the doctrine of the Church God giueth vs supernatural light to enlighten our vnderstandings and by his holy inspiration moueth our wills to submitte ourselues and to beleeue in all thinges according to the doctrine of the Church we cooperating with that light and inspiration of God submitte ourselues to the obedience of the true Church and then we haue actually true faith And whosoeuer he be that pretendeth himselfe to haue the spirit of God yet will not submitte himselfe to any Church but beginneth a new religion contrary to all the Churches then in the world or will mainteine a religion which soe beganne certainely that man hath not the true faith nor is the spirit of God in him But he sayth that he hath prayed to God for his spirit and Christ hath said that our father will giue the good spirit to those that
they adhaere vnto the diuine autority and are grounded vpon a sure and immoueable rocke I haue said now all that I haue to say of faith I haue shewed in the first title that it is a supernatural light and gift of God and therfor it is most vaine and dangerous to seeke by natural reason into the mysterys of faith euen as though one should thinke to fly and should steppe downe from some high precipice or from the toppe of a house Secondly I haue shewed that the inspiracion of God to the true faith is allwais to the obedience of the Church And lastly I haue shewed how this diuine inspiration is to be sought for and obtained by those that haue it not In the following discourses I shall declace the particular mysterys of faith and points of the christian doctrine I wil adde onely a word or two to apply all to the greater honour of God and your profit that Christ hauing giuen sentence saying Marc. 16. Heb. 11. He that beleeueth not shall be condemned and the Apostle hauing declared that without faith it is impossible to please God those that feare the damnation of their soules and desire to please God wil aboue all things in the world esteeme of the true Catholike faith as a pretious iewell and rich treasure vpon which the loue of God and their saluation dependeth and will not permitte themselues for any hopes or ioyes of this passing life to be depriued of it It is a supernaturall light and gift of God intrusted to thee that art a Catholike by thy obedience at all times to the continuall Church of Christ and they haue miserably lost that treasure that through pride and peruersednes haue inuented singularitys of their owne or mainteined the singularitys of others against that authority O wicked pride O diabolicall peruersednes Lucifer was an archhaeretike amongst the Angells by not standing in verity but resisting the power of God And archhaeretiks are Lucifers amongst men by defending new doctrines against the authority of the Church which is the supreme power of God vpon earth Lucifer beganne the disorder of the damned and confusion of hell where noe order but eternall horrour dwells they beginne a disorder in the Church by drawing others into contempt of their superiours to mainteine their obstinacy against all authority How highly doe these wretches displease God without faith How deepely are these misbeleeuers condemned charged with the losse of soe many soules as follow them This is all that can be said for their comfort that the disorder wich they make and confusion amongst men is but a hell vpon earth out of which they may be freed if they will forsake those singularitys which without authority they defended and defende that authority which at first they forsooke And this is the comfort which now I would giue them that they seeke againe for the treasure which they haue lost Consider then the state that you are in the greeuousnesse of your sinne and the losse which you susteine soe much to be deplored It is God which you haue lost not a God of syluar as that which Michas ranne weeping and wailing for Iudg 18. but it is the foundation of all true Godlinesse the Catholike faith which Iesus Christ preached and established in his Church and that Church neuer to be interrupted at any time nor to stande in neede of reformation from errors That Church you must seeke for there you shall finde the faith which you desire if you desire indeede the true Catholike faith and with syncere harts pray to God for it But you preferre perhaps the temporall goods of this world before the blesse of heauen you feare the losse of riches of pleasures of dignitys and perhaps of life and you feare nor to offende him in whose onely power these things are and besides all that can destroy both soule and body into hell How many are there in the Catholike Church rich enough Matt. 10. honorable enough and healthfull enough allthough they hazard all this to defende the faith of Christ This aduātage we haue of thee that our sufferings for Christs sake shall be rewarded in heauen and for that which thou sufferest thou shalt haue noe reward Were it not better allthough with hazard of persecution to saue thy soule then to loose thy soule and to be in danger of miserys here also Christ gaue his life for the loue of thee when he needed not and dost thou repine to giue thy life for thy owne soule God can giue comfort in the midst of persecution that noe threats of our enemys shall affright vs but that we shall be contented with them and reioyce in his grace and diuine assistance which then he wil giue and which we must rely vpon before hand and then we shall not feare We deceiue ourselues in that naturall feare For nature hath noe power in that conflict but supernaturall grace which God will then giue to those that desire it But you ô Catholike souldiers that defende this treasure how honorable is the cause which you defende in it how powerfull and ready is your captaine to defende you and how rich and liberall to rewarde you in the end you defende that faith which Christ deposited with his Apostles which they deliuered to their successors and which descended from them by Pastors to Pastors and from people to people through all ages and times into your hands Keepe faithfully the depositum thus giuen to you and auoide all those noueltys which men take vp of themselues and are not giuen by authority to them Trust in Iesus Christ and he will comfort you soe that neither shame nor paine shall trouble your mindes in time of persecution Tim. 1.6 Fight the good fight of faith apprehende eternall life where in you are called by patience to possesse your soules There are noe greater riches noe more ample possessions Serm. de verbis Dom. cap. 4. nor honours more excellent saith S. Augustine then the Catholike faith in defence of which three hundred thousand martyrs by computation of authors haue suffered onely at Rome twenty seauen of them hauing bene without interruption the bishops of that place Blessed be God that enabled them to it Cor. 1.10 and who will make with temptation issue in vs with constancy to follow their glorious example Matt 10. He that shall perseuer vnto the end shall be saued Grant vs ô Lord perseueran◠in faith and good life to the saluation of our soules Amen THE THIRD DISCOVRSE OF THE SIGNE OF THE CROS I INTENDE now to declare vnto you the signe of the Cros. Which as it is a deuotion vpon all occasions soe much frequented in the Catholike Church it is very fitting that all Catholiks should vnderstande it and know the mysterys that are conteined in it But first we will salute the blessed virgin and require her intercession Haile Mary c. HOVV THE SIGNE OF THE Cros is to be made Quest Let
he comes to yeares of vnderstanding which he professed in baptisme by the months of those that then carried him And in another place he saith that christians should vse it as à looking glasse morning and night to examine themselues in their faith by it L 1 dosymb 1. By all which it doth appeare first that the Creede is of diuine autority as made by the Apostles and deliuered by word of mouth from them to posterity as the written word of the new Testament was from hand to hand to be beleeued with diuine faith Secondly out of S Ambrose and S. Augustine that it being a kea and a looking glasse which the Apostles made for vs we ought with great reuerence to keepe it and to vse it as such often frequenting it to locke vp the infernal darknes from vs and to open the diuine light vnto our soules and to examine ourselues in faith by it as by a looking glasse that soe we may allwais keepe constant to the Catholike Church Quest Say the Creede Answ I beleeue in God the Father almighty maker of heauen and earth And in Iesus Christ his onely Sonne our Lord. Who was conceiued by the Holy Ghost borne of the Virgin Mary Suffered vnder Pontius Pilate was Crucifyed dead and buried He descended into hell the third day he arose againe from death He ascended into heauen sitteth at the right hand of God the Father almighty From thence he shall come to iudge vs all both the quicke and the dead I beleeue in the Holy Ghost The holy Catholike Church the Communion of Saints The forgiuenesse of sinnes The Resurrection of the flesh Life euerlasting Amen THE FIRST ARTICLE I Beleeue in God the Father almighty maker of heauen and earth In this article the Apostles professe their beleefe in the first person of the blessed Trinity in the following articles they professe the second person and the third But we are not here to vnderstande that God the Father without the Sonne and the Holy Ghost made the world for euery external worke which God doth is done by all the Persons of the blessed Trinity the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost hauing all the same vndiuided power all equally concurring to the making of the world and of euery thinge that is conteined in it The Father is named first and the creation of the world is here particularly attributed to him because he is the first Person from whom the Sonne and the Holy Ghost eternally proceede God is rightly termed a father to signify his power loue and care ouer vs. God a father For as fathers beginne the generation that commeth of them and gouerne their children and prouide for them soe is God the beginner of this world he gouerneth it with his power and by his prouidence conserueth it Deut. 32. Is not he thy father that hath possessed thee and made and created thee By heauen and earth are vnderstoode all creatures heauenly and earthly that is both spirituall and corporal creatures And in this the power of God is expressed by his external works soe as is sufficient to destinguish him as the supreme power and to putt vs in minde of our duety to him and dependance of him as giuing vs our being and still conseruing vs in the being which we haue and which all creatures should presently and in an instant loose if he should withdraw his diuine helpe from them and there would be noe creatures at all but as there was once nothing but God God is the most perfect of all thinges and therefor a spirit all ouer by his power and his power is himselfe He is not conteined in any place now noe more then he was before the creation of the world He was all wais the same power the same goodnes and those infinite He euer had a decree to create the world and that eternall decree he performed in time making the Angels onely spirits men both spiritual in their soules and corporall in their bodys and other creatures as we see onely corporall He made heauen a place of glory for the good and hell a place of punishment for the wicked He desireth the saluation of all and giueth sufficient meanes of saluation to all that being the end for which he made vs. In this article we doe not say I beleeue in Gods makers c. but I beleeue in God the maker c. In which we haue two thinges professed Atheâ—sts First the essence and existence of God against prophane and wicked atheists and secondly against Pagans the being of one onely God This is here but breisly professed for the Apostles made the Creede but onely as an abbreuiated profession and rule of faith to ground and guide vs in the articles which we were to beleeue they prooued them in their preaching as neede required yet that there is a God as in the Creede they suppose it soe also they might doe in their preaching and needed not to prooue it to Iewes or Gentils who were then onely in the world and were neuer likely to deny it But now in these times of soe many heresys I doe not see that any point of faith whatsoeuer is more necessary to be prooued For heresy as it is a corruption of the true faith soe it corrupteth and destroyeth by litle and litle the very hart and roote of all faith and as it annulleth the authority of the Church it taketh away the foundation of all certainty and openeth a gappe to euery mans errors to say what he listeth and for shamelesse atheisme to enter in by it For make it once lawfull to disobey the Church which is the onely authority of God externally vpon earth as all archhaeretiks doe who beginne their new doctrines with obedience to noe Church then extant in all the world and then it followeth that euery man without controle may beleeue and teach what he will himselfe for there is noe authority vpon earth to controle him and soe he may as well teach atheisme as heresy Secondly those that are of God are ordained saith the Apostle that is to say they are with order Rom. 13. and he requireth there that we be subiect to higher powers not onely of necessity but for conscience sake now order importeth subiection and subordination of inferiors to superiour powers if then you take away this subiection and subordination of inferiors to superiours as haeretiks doe by disobeying the Church you take away all order in religion and by consequence you take away God and bring in atheisme and a worse disorder then is in hell How hateful then is heresy to God which is opposite to all religion and how dangerous is atheisme In Collar Patrum and necessary to be preuented in haeretical times Cassianus relateth an example of this in which he sheweth by experience that heresy leadeth into atheisme He sayth that there was a certaine religious man who beginning first of indiscretion to make comparisons betwixt the Saints and
indeede Iesus but also because it was his propper name imposed not by chance but by the will and expresse commandde of his father the Angell forespeaking it to the blessed Virgin when he said Behold thou shalt conceiue in thy wombe and sâ—alt beare a sonne Luc. 1. and thou shalt call his name Iesus He is called Christ to signify his dignity and speciall functions according to his humanity Christ. for Christ is as much as to say The Messias or Annointed and he was annoinsed in diuerse respects Priests and kings are annointed because they haue authority from God to represent his maiesty Prophets aunciently were annointed because they were the interpreters of God and dispensers of diuine mysterys as Priests and kings are also in their kind Christ had all these offices and according to his humane nature he was Prophet Priest and king after an eminent manner and therefor he was eminently and singularly annointed not by the hands of Prophets or Priests but spiritually by God himselfe Ps 44. Thou hast loued iustice and hast hated iniquity therefor God thy God hath annointed thee with the oile of gladnesse aboue thy fellowes God annointed Christ and Prophets Priests and kings are annointed as lesser Christs that haue power vnder him Christ shewed himselfe a Prophet actually prophecying many thinges and in particular the most remarkeable passages of his owne death and resurrection As priest he offered the most holy Sacrifice of his body at the last supper and afterwards againe he offered the same sacrifice of his body vpon the Cros. He also shewed himselfe to be a king and to haue regall power that could bring kings to adore him and that he could haue brought other kings and all the kings of the world as well as them to his feete if it had pleased him Besides the Catholike Church is his kingdome he is the head and king of it allwais with it vnto the consummation of the world His onely Sonne our Lord. The Apostles in the former article hauing professed the Father who is the first Person of the Blessed Trinity now they professe the second Person in Iesus Christ the Sonne of God S. Iohn testifying that which is here professed saith Io. 1.4 We haue scene and doe testify that the Father hath sent the Sonne the Sauiour of the world And then presently he addeth whosoeuer shall confesse that Iesus Christ is the Sonne of God God abideth in him and he in God This all good christians doe testify and confesse and for that end the Apostles made this article that we might allwais professe it We will see here CHRISTIANITY DEMONSTRATED THat which we beleeue and professe in this article was allwais beleeued by all true beleeuers euer from the beginning of the world All the quires of Angels in their first creation foresaw that the Sonne of God was to be incarnated in lesus Christour Lord and the good Angels willingly submitting to him and beleeuing in him were saued by his pretious blood But Lucifer and the wicked Angels could not endure to see the nature of man exalted to that high dignity aboue Angels that our nature should be assumed of God and not theirs which he could but would not assume noe where doth he take Angels saith S. Heb. 2. Paul but the seede of Abraham he taketh This was the sinne of Lucifer that ennuying and repining at the glory of humane nature in Iesus Christ he drew others into the same sinne with him and for aspiring to be aboue him in glory he was cast downe into the depth of the lake and lost that glory which he might and should haue had and which the good Angels haue by submitting to the diuine ordination in it This was beleeued by our first parents in paradise and euer since as I shall presently shew Christ was promised to them and after them to the following patriarks and after the Patriarks to Prophets they deliuered that faith to posterity vntill his comming he when he came deliuered it to the Apostles they to the Church the Church by a continuall succession of Pastors hath deliuered it vntill our times as it doth now to vs saying I beleeue in God the Father almighty maker of heauen and earth and in Iesus Christ his onâ—ly Sonne our Lord. In this faith all miracles haue bene wrought that euer were wrought in testimony of faith This was confessed by heauen earth seas by liuing trees and sensible beasts and not onely by holy men but euen by the powers of hell all the creatures of God obeying Christ at his comming This the Apostles saw and were commanded by him to speake it and when they were forbidden by his enemys Act. 4. they answered we can not but speake the thinges which we haue seene and heard and would loose their liues rather then they would cease from publikely professing it S. Paul who saw not the miraculous life of Christ with his Disciples nor heard his preaching but was afterwards called and enlightened by him became notwithstanding soe assured of this verity and by true charity soe vnited vnto him that he thought it was vnpossible for any torments to separate him from him Rom. 8. â—ho then shall separate vs from the charity of Christ tribulation or distresse or famine or nakednesse or danger or persecution or the sword as it is written for we are killed for thy sake all the day we are esteemed as sheepe of slaughter But in all these thinges we onercome because of him that hath loued vs. For I am sure that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalitys nor powers neither thinges present nor thinges to come neither might nor hight nor depth nor other creature shall be able to separate vs from the charity of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. S. Paul was rauished and enamoured with the beauty of Christs diuinity and was transformed as it were by loue into him confessing him to be the image of the visible Goâ— Colos 1. Heb. 1. The first borne of all creature by whom he made the worlds being the brightnes of his glory and the sigure of his substance Whom the Angels adore soe much more excellent then themselues as he hath inherited a more excellent name aboue them For to which of the Angels saith this holy Apostle did he say at any time Thou art my Sonne to day haue I begotten thee Colos 2. in whâ—m dwelleth all the fullnesse of the Godhead corporally All this did S. Paul say and professe of Christ It was then noe meruaile that with Gods grace he would defende him till death Thus did the Apostles professe of him and this profession they made good by many miracles which the enemys of christianity haue written of and confessed This the posterity of the Apostles haue allwais professed in former ages and haue stretched forth their hands and feete vpon racks and with cheerfull mindes haue yeelded their bodys into the hands of torturers
resurrection of Christ but his resurrection excelleth theirs in many respects First for that he raised himselfe as I haue said by his owne power and all others were raised by his power Secondly he was the first that euer aroze glorious Thirdly others aroze to death as well as to life Fourthly his resurrection was the cause and meanes of all our glorious resurrections In these respects S. Paul calleth him the first fruits of those that rize to life Cor. 15. Christ saith he is rizen from the dead the first fruits of them that sleepe In Christ all shall be made aliue But euery one in his owne order the first fruits Christ then those that are of Christ The resurrection of Christ ought to be a great comfort and encouragement to the good For his rizing to glory hath giuen vs hopes of a glorious resurrection Blessed be God saith S. Pet. 1.1 Peter and the father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath regenerated vs vnto a liuely hope by the resurrection of Iesus Christ from the dead vnto an inheritance incorruptible We are encouraged to beare with patience all afflictions and all kind of persecutions in this world in hopes to rize glorious with him Christ is our head and we are the members of his body and he hauing made way through persecutions for vs we ought couragiously to follow him THE SIXT ARTICLE HE ascended into heauen sitteth at the right hand of God Christ hauing consummated the worke of our redemption by his death on the Cros and after his death performed his resurrection and hauing after his resurrection remained forty dayes on earth to teach his disciples speaking of the kingdome of God that is to say instructing them concerning the gouernment of the Catholike Church which is the kingdome of God vpon earth he had done now all for which his father sent him and was to ascende into heauen and to carry mankind vnto that blessed place of glory which he had purchased for them He tooke therefor his disciples vnto mount Oliuet to be the witnesses of his ascension and lifting vp his eyes and blessing them he was gloriously elâ—uated in their sight and they being â—auished with ioy and spirituall consolation at it behold two Angels whom the Euangelist calleth men stoode beside them in white garments and said to them Act. 1. Ye men of Galily why stande you looking into heauen This Iesus which is assumpted from you into heauen shall soo come as you haue seene him going into heauen Thus would our Sauiour ascende that he might giue vnto the world a tast and scantling of the future glory and a memorial of his second comming This was the most glorious day that euer was to mankind For this is the day of our first entring into heauen The holy Prophet king Danid inuiteth all the world to the ioy of this day saying All ye nations clappe hands Ps 46. make iubilation to God in the voyce of exultation God is ascended in iubilation To day mans nature triumphed in the heauens and that soe glorious that it was exalted aboue all the coelestiall powers of Angels to the very right hand of God Ser. 3. de Ascen See ô man sayth S. Iohn Chrysostome how high thy nature is exalted Consider the distance of heauen and earth and of the lower to the higher heauens and from those higher heauens to the Angels and from them to the higher powers and from those to the seate where our Lord sitteth Humane nature is exalted thus high aboue all that nature which was of it selfe soe low that it could be noe lower became now soe high that it could be raised noe higher And the Holy Ghost to shew how high that glory was which mankind then receiued would inspire the Apostles to make such a remarkeable expression of it as to say that it was set at the right hand of God That as great Princes and eminent personages when they will shew a more then ordinary respect to some other Prince their freind they set him on their right hand soe the nature of man in Iesus Christ who was the Prince of mankind ascending into heauen the king of heauen and of the whole world would be said to set him on his right hand A greater expression of his loue could not be made then this yet thus would he haue his Apostles to expresse it Christ ascended both in body and soule for they being once vnited together in his resurrection were neuer more to be separated againe He ascended by his owne power and not as Elias Abacuc S. Phillip or others who were eleuated into the ayre carried by Angels for their soules and bodys being then vnglorifyed could not by their owne power ascende But Christ besides that he ascended by the power of his diuinity being in the state of glory his body was perfectly subiected to his soule and was therefor eleuated by it and stoode noe neede of the externall helpe of Angels In that he is said to sitt at the right hand of God we are to vnderstande a siguratiue manner of speech which God would haue to be vsed to accommodate himselfe to our weake vnderstandings which can haue nothing represented to them but by the species of corporal thinges and soe Christ is said to sitt at the right hand of God to shew how highly our nature was exalted in him although God haue noe hands nor corporal parts as being a spiritual substance that needeth not them Neither ought we to thinke by this that there is any precedency of place or degrees of dignity in the Persons of the B. Trinity but that the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost are all of equall and infinite dignity Christ according to his humanity is said to sitte at the right hand of God in respect of creatures in that he is superiour to them in dignity and glory And according to his diuine nature he may be said to sitt at the right hand of God in this sense and to this end that we might not vnderstande as Arius did that the Sonne of God was inferiour to the Father For which reason the holy Psalmist also placeth the Sonne at the right hand of the Father Ps 109. and then presently in the same psalme the Father on the right hand of the Sonne to signify equallity betwixt them Let vs now apply this mystery to the profit of our soules that they may haue the benefit of it and receiue the giftes which were then giuen Ps 67. for it is written ascending on high he ledd captiuity captiue he gaue gifts to men Iph. 4. These gifts are too great to be spoken for vnto some he gaue then the gift of heauenly blesse Towit to the soules of those in limbus whom he freed out of captiuity and carried with him And to those whom he left behinde him on earth he gaue the promise of the Holy Ghost and performed that promise within a while sending him to comfort and
long as they liue soe the damned are setled in that state of desperation rage and horrible torment to endure it and to endure it still and can neuer change or alter from it In all thy works remember thy latter ends Eccli 7. and thou wilt not sinne for euer This is the last thinge which the Apostles would mention of Christ in the Creede and which ought to leaue a great feare and vehement horrour in the mindes of the wicked to whom he shall come as to his enemys that can expect noe fauour from him And therfor this day is called the day of our Lord. Because Christ shall come as a terrible Lord to them and shall call them to a strict account for the neglect of their seruice to him and they hauing receiued good thinges in this life but wickedly imployed them haue then euill to receiue but the iust who haue serued God duely and haue not sought after the pleasures and goods of this world but haue then good thinges to receiue haue reason to reioyce and to be comforted at the thought of this day and therefor at the departure of Christ in his Ascension from the Apostles the Angels were sent to comfort them with the remembrace of his second comming saying Ye men of Galilee why doe you stande looking into heauen Act. 1. this Iesus which is assumpted from you into heauen shall soe come as you haue seene him going into heauen He commeth as a spouse full of ioy to the iust and blesseth them with euerlasting blessings because they haue prouided the light of good works Let vs doe soe and we shall be admitted into his ioyfull nuptials and receiue blessings of him Thus you vnderstande what is meant by the quicke and the dead to wit the state of the good and of the euill the one of them liuing spiritually with the life of grace the other being dead in sinne But perhaps it may be vnderstoode also of corporal life with which some shall be then liuing on earth when Christ shall come and shall be iudged with those that were dead before that day And who knoweth but he himselfe may liue to see the terrible appearence of Christ comming to iudge him and that presently dying he shall rize againe to receiue the sentence of his iudgment for Christ himselfe hath said that of that day or hower noe man knoweth Mar. 13. neither the Angels in heauen How much then ought we to feare and preuent it and not to remaine one day noe nor one hower in mortall sinne THE EIGHT ARTICLE I Beleeue in the Holy Ghost Hitherto the Apostles in all the former articles haue deliuered those thinges which concerne the first and second person of the B. Trinity the Father and the Sonne now they professe the third Person in the Holy Ghost S. Act. 19. Paul comming to Ephesus found certaine disciples soe ignorant that asking them if they had receiued the Holy Ghost they answered that they had not soe much as heard that there was a Holy Ghost This had bene indeede a very great ignorance in them if they had bene Christians which they were not and the mystery of the blessed Trinity was to be but obscurely deliuered to the Iewes as I haue shewed in another place treating of it They were the Disciples of S. Iohn Baptist baptized by his baptisme which could not giue the Holy Ghost and were not as yet baptized with christian baptisme in which the Holy Ghost is giuen and therfor it was a lesse ignorance in them But for any of vs not to know what the Holy Ghost is were an extreame ignorance And therefor we will first declare who the Holy Ghost is and why he is soe called The Holy Ghost is the third Person of the B. Trinity and is as much as to say The holy spirit And although the Father and the Sonne and the holy Angels are holy spirits yet they are not The Holy Ghost of whom we are speaking When therefor we say the Holy Ghost we meane the diuine Person of the Holy Ghost as when Christ commanded baptisme in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost The first Person of the blessed Trinity is called The Father because the Sonne and the Holy Ghost proceede from him The second Person is called The Sonne because he proceedeth as sonne from the Father The third Person is called the Holy Ghost or holy spirit because he proceedeth from the Father and the Sonne by way of mutuall inspiration The Holy Ghost is true God omnipotent eternall and infinite in all perfections the very same in essence and nature with the Father and the Sonne And therefor S. Peter threatening Ananias for his deceit and ly which he had told said Ananias why hath Satan tempted thy hart Act. 5. that thou shouldst ly to the Holy Ghost tâ—ou hast lyed to God And therefor in the words of baptisme he is commanded to be named as the same in Godhead with the Father and the Sonne and S. Iohn saith There be three which giue testimony in heauen the Father the Word Io. 1.5 and the Holy Ghost And these three be one Three in destinction of Persons one in the vnity of nature and essence And because the Holy Ghost proceedeth both from the Father and the Sonne therefor he is sometimes said in the Scriptures to be the spirit of the Father and sometimes the spirit of the Sonne THE NINTH ARTICLE THe holy Catholike Church the Communion of Saints The Apostles hauing professed their beleefe in God the Father almighty maker of heauen and earth and in Iesus Christ his onely Sonne our Lord borne and crucifyed in the nature of man and their beleefe in the Holy Ghost they had giuen vs in breife the mysterys of the B. Trinity and of the Incarnation The next thinge which they minded was to make an article of beleeuing the Catholike Church Which article was noe lesse necessary then any of the former nay in this it was the most necessary of all that by beleeuing the Church we come to haue the truth of the former and to vnderstande rightly all the articles of the christian faith And therefor as S. Augustine hath obserued the Prophets haue spoken planelyer of the Church then they haue done of Christ himselfe Aug. in Is 30. because the authority of the Church is the rule and guide by which we are to be directed in all thinges which we beleeue of him and all true beleeuers are kept in the vnity of true faith and that faith which was founded by him continueth allwais inuiolated by continuall obedience to the Church This then being the end and intention of this article let vs now come to the declaration of it Quest What is the Catholike Church Answ The Catholike Church is the congregation of all faithfull Pastors and people vnited together as a body with its head S. Augustine defineth the Church to be the congregation of all
to that bold persuasion of some who perswade themselues that saluation may be had in any religion or in either of some two religions or in any faith soe that they beleeue in Christ for they shall finde one day that disobedience to the true Church is a sinne which deserueth damnation S. Augustine againe in another place Epist. 104. Being out of the Church and diuided from the heape of vnity and the bond of charity thou shouldst be punished with eternal fire although thou shouldst be burned aliue for the name of Christ The Church is honored in the scriptures with many noble and glorious titles The titles of Church It is called the kingdome of God the house of God his spouse his faire one his onely one and the very body of Christ He gouerneth it as his kingdome he prouideth for it as his household and loueth it as his deere spouse and as his owne body pleasing and delighting himselfe in the soules of good Catholikes that serue him It is compared to the holy city of Hierusalem in which the true worship of God flourished and in which diuine sacrifice was duely offered It is compared to the arke of Noë out of which there was noe saluation but a general death and destruction Infidels that haue not the faith of Christ are out of the Church Haeretiks Schismatiks and excommunicated persons although they beleeue in Christ yet because they heare not the Church that is obey it not they are also our of it as heathens that participate not the benefits of it The Catholike Church hath two parts The triumphans and militant Church the one Triumphant the other Militant The Triumphant Church is the company of blessed soules in heauen who hauing gotten victory ouer their spirituall enemys in this life are now triumphing in euerlasting glory The Militant Church is the company of the faithfull vpon earth liuing as it were in a warrfare where we are allwais fighting with the enemys of our soules and by perseuering vnto the end in the seruice of God we shall be crowned like good and faithfull souldiers The Militant Church conteineth both good and euill liuers Mat. 3. and therefor it is compared to a field that beareth both good corne and cockle to a nette that gathereth together both good and euill fish The good are kept Mat. 13. but the bad are throwne away It is compared to tenne virgins fiue of which were wise and had prepared the light of good works against the comming of Christ to reward them Mat. 25. and therefor they were admitted into his heauenly nuptials but the other fiue came like fooles and although they had the faith of Christ and were christians yet wanting the oile of the loue of God and the light of good works they were excluded from his blessed ioyes By these and the like places we are giuen to vnderstande that it is not enough to haue the true faith and to be Catholikes if our liues be dissonant from our profession that we liue not like good Catholikes for there are many euill liuers in the Catholike Church who as bundles of cockle shall be throwne into the fire The Communion of Saints Communion of Saints S. Iohn Euangelist writing to the faithfull giueth them as the cause of his writing that you also may haue society with vs Io. 1.1 and our society may be with the father and with his sonne Iesus Christ That is that you may keepe in the society and Communion of the Church and be partakers of those good works and meanes of saluation which are to be had in it For there in is the Catholike Church such a participation of good works that all Catholikes that are in the state of grace participate with one another in them and receiue benefit by the good works of others The reason is because the Catholike Church is as it were one body and all the members of it liue by the same spirit of the Holy Ghost and of Iesus Christ who keepe them in that holy vnion and Communion together And as all the members of the body concurre and helpe to the good of each other soe euery member of the Catholike Church helpeth to the good of the rest and receiueth good by the rest participating of their good works Ps 118. â—am partaker of all that seare thee Saith he holy psalme And in the Pâ—ter nester our Sauiour hath taught vs soe to pray that euery one should aske in the name of all saying giue vs forgiue vs c. Those who are guilty of mortall sinne as they haue noe reward of grace for any worke of their owne which is done in that state soe they loose the benefit which they should receiue by the good works of others For although they be members of the Catholike Church yet wanting the life of grace they are as dead and rotten members into which the rest haue noe spirituall influence The benefit which is reaped by the good works of others is participated by euery one in measure and proportion to the disposition which he hath for it and according to the intention of him that performeth the worke for as we are more or lesse in his intention soe doe we participate more or lesse benefit by the worke which he doth For this it is enough to say that our good works are offerings which we make to God and are therfor receiued and applyed by him according to the offerers intention By all which we may see what a happinesse it is to be in the Catholike Church Ps 83. and in the state of grace Blessed are they who dwell in thy house ô Lord. Now let vs speake OF THE AVTHORITY of the Church BY these words of the Creede it appeareth that the Catholike Church is of diuine authority for euery article of the Creede being of diuine authority and we being by this article bound to beleeue the Church it followeth that the Church hath diuine authority and that we are bounde to beleeue and to obey it as hauing the authority of God And therefor this article was most profitably and necessarily made by the Apostles as the ground and foundation of diuine faith and worship For although in the scriptures it be plane and by reason must needes be true that we are allwais to be gouerned by the authority of the Church yet this article being soe commonly and often professed it is agreat curbe to the rizing of new sects and haeresys all which beginne in the disobedience of some priuate men to the authority of the whole Church and it can not but be a horrour to their mindes and a greeuous wounde to their owne consciences to see how they contradict the common Creede of the Apostles And therefor S. Paul might well say that a man that is an haeretike is subuerted and sinneth Tit. 3. being condemned by his owne iudgment The authority of the Church is diuine in that it is declared also by the
de obitu fratris Pauls authority And S. Cyprian and S. Ambrose signify that it is all one to say the Romane faith and the Catholike faith All which they would neuer haue said if they had not thought the Romane chaire to haue had preeminence and authority aboue all and vnderstoode the words of S. Paul in that sense that the faith of the Romanes was renowmed in the supreme authority of that sea and therefor we may rightly alleadge those scriptures according to the auncient fathers interpretations for the supremacy of the bishop of Rome But we will produce their plane testimonys immediatly from the Apostles times Anacletus who liued with the Apostles hath these words Ep. 3. ad omnes Epis This holy and Apostolicall Romane Church not onely from the Apostles but euen from our Lord and Sauiour himselfe hath obtained the principality and eminency of power ouer all Churches and ouer the whole flocke of the people of Christ he himselfe saying to S. Peter Mat. 16. Thou art Peter c. And they also themselues consented vnto it that he should be aboue all the rest of the Apostles and should be Cephas that is to say the head and beginning of the Apostle ship who deliuered the same forme to his successors and the rest of the Apostles to bishops to be held by them If any difficult causes arize amongst you referre them to this head that by the apostolicall iudgment they may be ended for such is the will of our Lord who hath soe determined as by the foresaid places is declared Therfor this Apostolical seate is constituted of none other but of our Lord himselfe to be the hinge and the head as is said before of all Churches That as the doore is guided by the hinges soe by the disposition of our Lord all Churches should be gouerned by this holy seate S. L. 3. c. 3. Irenaeus who liued in the next age after the Apostles reckoneth vp all the bishops of Rome vnto Eleutherius who then gouerned to shew the succession of that supreme authority from S. Peter and saith that in all cases of controuersy we should haue recourse vnto the Apostolical traditions and try them by the Church of Rome Tertullian L. depudicitia who liued in the same age with him calleth the bishop of Rome Pontificem Maximum Episcopum Episcoporum The highest Priest the Bishop of bishops S. Cyprian De vnitate Eccles who liued in the next age after them speaking of the beginning of heresys saith in substance all which I am saying to wit that all schismes and heresys haue begunne by disobedience to the head of the Church and particularly specifyeth to what head to wit to the successour of S. Peter that is for the time and saith that if we would seeke to that iudge all controuersys would soone be at an end And speaking of the bishops of Rome L. 4. ep 9. from hence saith he all heresys haue rizen and still arize because that bishop who is but one and presideth ouer the Whole Church is despised by the prowde presumption of certaine men and he whom God hath dignifyed is iudged by men as vnworthy of dignity In the next age liued S. Athanasius a glorious Confessour and for forty yeares and more in which he was bishop the prime pillar of the Catholike Church in the easterne parts against the Arian haeretiks Apud Theoâ—â—et â— 4. c. 3. He reckoneth vp the Churches of the seueral parts of the world and saith that they and the whole world consented to the Councell of Nyce in which the primacy of S. Syluester then bishop of Rome was acknowledged and declared And it is here to be obserued that the Arians who are the auncientest of all sects now extant out of the Catholike Church beganne but in these times when the Romane bishop had bene honored for about three hundred yeares as the Vicar of Christ vpon earth And the same saint together with the fathers of the Councell of Alexandria wrote vnto Felix 2. then bishop of Rome after this manner To the honorable holy father Felix Pope of the Apostolical seate of the city of Rome Athanasius and all the bishops of the Aegyptians Thebaians and Lybians by the grace of God assembled in the holy Councell of Alexandria We suggest vnto your holy Apostleship that you would vouchsafe to vs of your wounted care ouer vs c. Because most holy father our praedecessors and we haue receiued helpe of your Apostolical scate We implore that Apostolicall and according to the canons the cheife seate that we may haue helpe from thence from whence our auncestors haue had their doctrines orders and relcefe Vnto that we haue recourse as to our mother that we may be nourished at her breasts And as the mother own not forgett her child soe doe not you forgette vs committed to your charge For our enemys haue inuolued vs in noe small troubles apprehending and threatening vs with irons vnles we will yeeld to their errors Which without your knowledge we will not presume vpon the canons hauing decreed that in cases of moment nothing should be done without the Romane bishop Therfor God hath placed you and your praedecessors the bishops of Rome in the toppe of all that you might haue a care of all Churches hauing the iudgment of all bishops committed to you For we know that in the great Councell of Nyce of three hundred and eighteene bishops it was established by all that without the sentence of the Romane bishop noe Councell should be called nor any bishops condemned although these and many other necessary thinges be taken away from vs and burnt by turbulent haeretiks c. Likewise it was agreeably defined by the foresaid fathers that if any of the bishops shall haue in suspicion the Metropolitan Comprouinciales or Judges let him appeale to your holy seate of Rome to whom the power of binding and loosing was giuen by speciall priuilege by our Lord himselfe c. Thou art the deposer of prophane haeresys inuaders and infesters as the Head and Doctour and Prince of orthodoxe doctrine and vnspotted faith After S. Athanasius in the next age liued S. Optatus bishop of Mileuetum in Affricke who made a catalogue of all the Popes from S. Peter to Siricius who then gouerned and writing against the haeretike Parmention he telleth him that in setting vp a chaire contrary to the Chaire of Rome he could not pleade ignorance knowing that the first was giuen to S. Peter to be at Rome and particular chaires to the other Apostles L. 1. conc Parm. that he might be knowne for a schismatike and praeuaricatour that should set vp a chaire in opposition to it Amb. in 3. ad Tim. S. Ambrose speaking of Damasus then bishop of Rome saith that all the world being Gods yet the Church onely is hit house whose Rectour or Ruler at this time is Dumasus S. Hierome also liued in the time of this
must prooue it by extraordinary fignes and miracles such as are propper to God onely and proportionable to that kind of commission Soe did Moyses prooue by miracles that he was sent of God soe did Christ prooue his authority by miracles But if they haue neither miracles to prooue extraordinary nor succession of lawfull pastors for ordinary commission but vpon their owne bare word onely will draw men from obedience to their lawfull pastors we must take them for such as Core Dathan and Abiron were who disobeying their pastors and hauing noe commission from God to shew for it they and their followers sunke downe visibly into hell Now for miracles to iustify their disobedience to the Church they neither haue nor can possibly haue for that God will not approoue of any such disobedience but hauing ordained the gouernment of the Church to be by S. Peter as supreme head and by 〈◊〉 Apostles as pastors vnder him and Christ â—auing promised to be with them all dayes to the consummation of the world we must at all times looke vnto the successors of S. Peter and his pastors as to the lawfull authority of the Church of Christ and allwais obey them and we must take those for false Churches that disobey their authority And therfor S. Cyprian solidly rebuketh Nouatus the â—aeretike for separating himselfe from the Communion of Cornelius then Bishop of Rome and concludeth that the Church of Christ being but one and not conteining both those that are with in and those that are out of it those onely saith he are in the Church Cyp. l. 4. op c. who are in the COmmunion of Cornelius successour to Fabianus But that they may not thinke to excuse their disobedience by any pretences I stoppe all pretences whatsoeuer and preuent all answeres that can possibly be deuised by that which followeth They can not deny but there haue bene and are false Churches of christians in the world but there neuer was nor now is any false Church of christians but it might haue if it would the same pretences and haue the same ground for them that any of these haue they being commune to all disobedient and obstinate persons that will stande out against the Church therefor all which any of them can pretende for themselues are but vaine pretences and if euer there were any false Church of christians in the world they are all false Churches As for the first S. Paul saith that there must be heresys Cor. 1.11 Which being held by a Communion of many there is then a false Church He that readeth D Prateolus of the beginnings of heresys and seeeth the absurditys which they haue obstinatly mainteined will easily grant that there haue bene false Churches of Christians in the world He shall finde some against the whole B. Trinity some against one of the Persons some against another some against the diuinity some against the humanity of Iesus Christ some against the blessed Virgin some against the Angels some against the Saints one saith that Christ is the sunne which we see to shine another saith that himselfe is Christ another maketh himselfe to be the Holy Ghost some will haue all to marry some will haue none to marry some soe affected to sobriety that they held wine vnlawfull to be drunke euen to the consecrating of water insteede of it some are running naked others are foming quaking and changing gastly countenances as a signe and point of perfection another cryeth downe learning and will haue noe triall of the truth but by force of armes commanding for that purpose his disciples at his death to make a drumme of his skinne All which I mention in relation to the Apostles words and to my first proposition that there haue bene false Churches in the world and withall to obserue what absurde errors men would runne into if there were not at all times an authority of visible pastors guided by the Holy Ghost to gouerne the Church and all were bounde to be gouerned by them Now if any of these were a false Church it was for their obstinacy in those errors and for their disobedience to those pastors which the primitiue Church acknowledged to haue by succession from S. Peter the supreme authority and to the pastors of their Communion as hauing at all times the lawfull authority of the whole Church And these were as I haue shewed the Bishops of Rome and the pastors that were in Communion with them none els hauing any pretence vnto that succession Then for the second proposition I aske any one of those sects that are now out of the Catholike Romane Church what pretence can they haue which is not common to all the rest and which all the false Churches that are or euer were and which they confesse to be false Churches might not if they would haue alleadged for themselues as well as they to excuse there disobedience If they pretende errors in the doctrine of their pastors or if they alleadge priuate spirit or if they pretende authority from the true Church but inuisible or if they say that they were thrusten out of the Church against their wills or if they pretende immediat commission from God to disobey all authority vpon earth in religion who doth not see that all these are but vaine pretences common to all that will vse them and which if they were to be allowed of a gappe were opened for all turbulent and disobedient persons to runne out of the Church vnder some of these pretences at any time when they would themselues Neither is there any thinge which any of them can pretende but that which all the rest may as well take for pretence and all the false Churches that euer were whom they confesse to be false Churches may as well pretende as they And if this be not soe I desire and challenge any wise and learned man of whatsoeuer sect out of the Romane Church to study and to thinke with himselfe of any lawfull pretence and excuse for their disobedience to the Romane Church and then to take some other which he holdeth to be a false Church and conferring them together to propose to his owne conscience whether that pretence agree not as well to the other as to his owne And if he can deuise none which is propper to his owne Church more then to false Churches then I warne and charge him to returne againe to the obedience of that authority which the primitiue Church first obeyed and which the Romane Church hath allwais obeyed and which his Church and all others haue at some time goneforth of and disobeyed and this was as I haue shewed the authority of the bishop of Rome and his pastors All those Churches that are now extant out of the Romane Church went first out of it by disobedience to the head and pastors of the Romane Church and as for Protestants they confesse that they went forth and separated themselues from it Aug. l. 2. cont Crescon c.
deceiue soe much as one learned priest but onely some carnal and simple women As priests are aboue Angels in dignity soe it is fitting that they should imitate their purity and Angels neither marry nor are married Nay it is fitting that they should be as the Catholike Church hath ordained them to be aboue Angels in this that Angels are chast by nature onely but priests are chast by the grace of this Sacrament and by vow which is better It was the auncient custome of the Church as now it is for the Clergy to weare their crownes shauen S. Denis who liued in the Apostles times maketh mention of it Eccl. Hierar c. 6. S. Beda deriueth the first vse of it from S. Peter it representeth the crowne of thornes of our sauiour It denoteth the dignity of priests as kings Of whom the words of S. Peter 1.1 L. 5. hist Aug. c 2â— may cheesly be vnderstoode saying you are an elect generation a kingly priesthood It signifyeth also that priests are to reiect all vaine superfluitys of this world and to betake themselues to the spiritual lot and part which they haue chosen OF MATRIMONY MATRIMONY is declared by the Councel of Florence to be a true and propper Sacrament Sess vitim one of the number of the seauen Sacraments of the law of Christ instituted by him to giue grace And therefore amongst christians it is absolutly indissoluble which as a contract of nature onely it is not It hath for its propper effect to remedy the vnlawfull concupiscences of the flesh and to giue grace to man and woman to liue together in mutual loue and coniugal chastity and to bring vp their children in the seruice of God It is called by S. Eph. 15. Paul a great Sacrament to wit in the mystery which it representeth of the marriage of Christ with his Church to which for euer he hath espoused himselfe and as a good husband allwais loueth it teacheth it defendeth it prouideth for it and remaineth for euer the head of it By this similitude we haue the duety of marriage wel deciphered and man and wife by it are taught how to behaue themselues to each other Christ loueth his Church with an infinite loue the Church also loueth him with a continuall and neuer interrupted loue Christ suffered for his Church giuing euen his life to gaine her an immaculate Spouse The Church also suffereth for him in the blood of her children that in her victorys of martyrdome she may well say to him as Sephora did to Moyses Exod 4. a bloody spouse thou art to mee when she saw the blood of her children circumcised by him Christ as a good husband beareth with many imperfections and sinnes that are committed in the Church and vpbraideth her not but pittyeth her and furthereth the amendment of them by faire meanes and good words calling her his freind his beloued his faire one and the Church as a good wife confesseth her falts and asketh pardon for them submitting herselfe more humble then Sara calling him her Lord her master her sauiour Finally Christ sitteth at the right hand of his father allwais ready to mediate for his Church in heauen and hath prouided to remaine also with her in the B. Sacrament allwais vpon earth and the Church reciprocally laboreth for him giuing Sacraments offering sacrifice exhorting commanding reprehending and punishing of her people to make them honour him Thus ought man and wife to liue together in continuall loue and to beare patiently and contentedly together the tribulations of marriage not vpbraiding one another with their falts but with wise and milde termes to procure the amendment of them and to concurre together in all things both to their spiritual and temporal good Of this vnion loue and goodnes of married folkes dependeth very much the good of all mankind and therfor it is often and earnestly commended in the Scriptures In the first marriage of man and woman in Paradise God to to shew the loue which he would haue betwixt man and wife would frame the wife of a true and reall part of her husbands body and not of his hands fingars or toes not soe intimate to him but of a ribbe of his side neere to his â—art And when Adam awakened out of his sleepe and first saw her he was presently enamoured with a holy loue of her as his lawfull wife and euen then presently he beganne to giue documents to married folkes saying Gen. 2. For this man shall leaue his father and mother and shall cleaue to his Wife anâ— they shall be two in one fles This Adam spoke to his posterity whom in the spirit of prophecy he foresaw and would forwarne of mutual loue that as man and wife are but one in flesh Soe they might be in minde and will according together to take a part in all things And therefor Adam called her his fellow companion as participating with him in a happy and good company all dissension and diuision betwixt them being contrary to the Sacrament and in it selfe most greeuous eueÌ„ as the diuiding of liuing flesh which bleedeth and smarteth on both sides or as the cutting of the whole body into two which can not be but with excessiue torment and certaine death Soe the diuision and dissention betwixt man and wife is allwais painefull on both sides and if it be in a matter of moment or with scandall it is death and damnation to their soules The best therefor is to reflect well vpon the inconueniences of marriage before hand and to preuent them Yong folke many times deceiue themselues who setting their mindes too earnestly vpon marriage imagin great happines and nothing but content in it But this content lasteth but a while with them For as soone as they feele the tribulations of that state they beginne to loath it and by litle and litle to thinke them vntollerable and to wish themselues vnmarried againe And this is soe commune that as the saying is one priest hat could vnmarry would haue worke enough for many priests These resemble litle children that cry after their mothers they will not be quiet till they haue their desire and within a while they beginne to be weary and cry to be backe againe Marriages that are made without due consideration and especially with out being well commended to God haue many times the like issue and these are often obserued to be of those who marry very yong who indeede seldome apprehende rightly that which they vndertake But what remedy When they are once married there is then none but in true vertue and a good coÌ„science they must setle themselues and be contented with the sower and the sweet taking one with the other as it shall please God to sende them and when any Cros happeneth with a constant and heroical minde to beare it for Gods sake and to accustome themselues to some good words in those occasions as Gods will be done or the like expecting patiently
the cheife Then the feast of Pentecost Thirdly the feast of Tabernacles in remembrance of God praeseruing them after their comming out of Aegypt for forty yeares in tabernacles Besides these they had also diuerse other lesser feasts as of the New moones c. but these were the cheife and soe solemne that they were kept with octaues and all the male people according to Maldonate was to be at them but now as shaddows their feasts are passed away Col 2. and oblige not Let noe man saith S. Paul iudge you in meate or in drinke or in part of a festiual day or of the new moone or of Sabaoths which are a shaddow of things to come to wit of more perfect obseruations and feasts that were to come in the law of Christ And therefor beside the Sabaoth which we celebrate euery weeke we obserue also other solemnitys of the cheife mysterys of the christian faith as also of our B. Lady and of the Angels and Saints intending allwais the supreme honour of God in them To sanctify holy dayes it is not sufficient onely to absteâ—â—e from seruil works but we much sanctify them by some special works of religion done on them to the sanctifying of our soules that they may haue the Sabaoth of a good conscience and rest from sinne Reg. 1.25 which causeth sohbing and scruple of haâ—t in vs. For this the Church hath commanded that euery one heare masse vpon holy dayes because it is the cheife act of religion as the sacrifice of the law of Christ and therefor fitting that euery one should be present to offer vp to God at least one masse euery holy day The other prayers of the Church as being much inferiour to the masse and sermon which is inferiour to the prayers of the Church oblige not all vnder a mortal sinne to be present at them Yet of deuotion it is sitting that all should be present also at those holy seruices of God which are to be preferred before any priuate deuotions of our owne Besides we shew more loue by those works of supererogation a good seruant will not expect to be commanded to euery thinge but of his owne accord will doe that which he seeth to conduce vnto his masters profit After euensong honest and modest recreations are not to be hindered those that haue labored hard all the weeke had neede of some time of recreation to refresh themselues and honest recreations may either lawfully be taken then or els they can neuer be had Those that are soe praecise to the contrary as some hypocrytical spirits of thesetimes haue bene commande they know not what and impose burdens which if themselues were to carry after a whole weeks labour they would not touch with their fingar God may be honored in such recreations and the seruants of God know how to honour him in them It is a great wickednesse in many who insteede of sanctifying of holydaies with good works and absteining from sinne make them the commune dayes of sinne prophaning them with new and more greeuous sinnes committed on them This is a circumstance at least fitting if not absolutly necessary to be expressed in confession For as it were a circumstance of higher malice for a subiect to strike at the king and to attempt to kill him on some solemne day in which he were reioycing in the midst of his people and comforting them with his gracious and glorious aspect soe it is a great sinne and heinous malice in a christian to giue himselfe to vice vpon holydayes and as it were to committe treason against God when his faithfull seruants are gathered together to praise and blesse him This commandement is broken by vnnecessary works but not by ringing of bells adorning of altares dressing of meate and the lâ—ke Christ himselfe allowed his disciples to doe such works on the Sabaoth day and when the Iewes murmured at them he iustifyed with good reasons that which they did saying Maâ—â— 2. that the Sabaoth was made for man and not man for the Sabaoth And when the Pharisys murmured at his curing on the Sabaoth day Luc. 14. he asked them which of you shall haue an asse or an oxe fallen into a pitte and will not incontinent draw him out on the Sabaoth day Luc. 6. And vpon the like occasion he asked them if it be lawfull on the Sabaoth to doe well or ill Yet God would haue this commandement to be soe strictly obserued in that law that it was not then lawfull to kindle a fire soe much as to dresse meate on the Sabaoth day nor to take a iourney aboue a mile or two at most according to Maldonate A man being apprehended for gathering of sticks on the Sabaoth day was brought vnto Moyses and Aaron but they not knowing the will of God what was to be done with him God himselfe gaue sentence of death against him Num. 15. saying to Moyses dying let tâ—is man dy let all the multitude stone him without the campe And they carried him out and stoned him to death Nay he would worke a miracle in praeseruing the Manna for two dayes together rather then they should gather it on the Sabaoth day although it were their necessary Foode and but a small labour How carefull then ought we to be in the keeping of this commandement in which God would be soe strict It is a great neglect in masters to dispose noe better of their affaires then to haue their worke to doe when their seruants should be at rest But in this as all other things the custome of the Church according to places is to be reuerenced THE FOVRTH COMMANDEMENT HONOVR thy father and thy mother that thou mast be longliued vpon earth Here now beginne the Commandements of the second table The three former were conteined in the first and in them was commanded that which pertained immediatly to the loue of God These belong to the loue of our neighbour The loue of God is the roote and foundation of keeping the Commandements for those that truely loue God will willingly and readily keepe his Commandements and by keeping them they are more and more grounded and perfected in the loue of him It was a high expression that of S. Iohn when he said God is charity and he that abideth in charity abideth in God Io. 1.4 and God in him by louing of God we are vnited vnto him we haue him in our harts we will that which he willeth and are as it were all one with him that as the Saints of heauen see all things in God who abideth in them soe it is a kind of heauen vpon earth to be vnited vnto God by loue afflictions being sweet and confortable in the loue and seruice of him And to know whether we haue the loue of God or noe the same Apostle giueth for a signe the loue of our neighbour saying in the same place If we loue one another God abideth in vs and his charity
to 8. That saith he the sacred body of which Christ tooke flesh and vnited together the diuine and humane nature should be giuen to the wormes to eate I dare not say it nor can I thinke it Thus much out of saint Iames saint Denis and saint Ignatius for the first age In the second age liued S. Irenaeus and Tertullian both of them haue set forth her ample prayses comparing her by contrarys to Eue Iren. l. 5. Tertl l. de Incarnat Christi who was our mother that caused our fall hurt and losse of Heauen but the B. Virgin is our Mother by whom wee are raised cured and restored to heauen againe And in respect of the power which her prayers haue with God S. Irenaeus calleth her the Virgin Aduocate of Eue the Virgin In the third age liued Origen a man of such parts to 3. ho. 1. and so well deseruing in his former yeares that he had a chaire of publike lecture of diuinity in the Schooles of Alexandria when he was but eighteene yeares of age he speaking of Christ and his Mother hath these words His Mother mother immaculate mother incorrupted mother vntouched His mother whose mother the mother of the onely begotten Sonne of God O great Sacrament the same a virgin and the mother of our Lord and a little after of this onely begotten Sonne of God this is the mother the Virgin Mary The worthy of the worthy one the vndesiled of the holy one the freind of the only one Tertullian liued in this age although he seemeth to haue flourished most in the former Saint Athanasius also liued in this age but flourished most in the next where I goe to cite him In the fourth age S. Athanasius flourished who opposing himselfe against the Arian haeretiks for forty six yeares in which he was Bishop was the prime pillar of the Catholik Church in the easterne parts of the world In these words he soundeth the blessed Virgins prayses and prayeth to her It becometh vs to call thee the regenerating mother Mistres and Lady for that our King Lord and God sprang forth of thee Athan in euang deip The Archangell gathered the first fruits of thy prayses when he spoke that glorious hymne Haile full of grace c. So doth the first front of Thrones Cherubims and Seraphims salute thee and so doth the second Hierarchy of Dominations Vertues and Powers and so doth the third of Angels and we the terrestriall hierarchy admonished by them extoll thee with a lowd and cleere voyce saying Haile full of grace our Lord is with thee Pray for vs ô Lady ô Mistres ô Queene ô Mother of God In the same age liued S. Ephrem who calleth her Holier then the Seraphims with out comparison more glorious then the supernall hosts The hope of the Fathers the glory of the Prophets the prayse of the Apostles Virgin before her child bearing and after it In this age also liue Saint Hierome S Chrysostome Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustine whom God raised as glorious lights to illustrate his Church in those blind and obstinate times of the Arian herely being at the hight And they haue said so much in deuotion to our blessed Lady that I know not where to beginne their Sentences You may read in S. Hier. ep de Nat. Mar. ad Crom. Heliod to 9. Hierome the miraculous manner of her Conception of S. Anne an aged and barren woman and how the name of MARY which in Hebrew is to say MISTRES or LADY was brought for her by an Angell from Heauen Who also foretold to Ioakim her father that she should bee blessedamong women and how she was consecrated to the seruice of God at three yeares old in the Temple and attended their being gouerned by priests Esa 11. and how that the Prophecy of Esay was litterally denoted in S. Ioseps rod which miraculously flouriâ—hed to assigne him as a worthy husband for her And in another place hee calleth her the life Epist ad Paul Enstoc rule and discipline of all and saith that as there is none Holy to compare with God so there is none perfect in comparison of her Saint Chrysostome Truely this Virgin is the miracle of the world Chry. in hypa dom She alone surpasseth in greatnes both Heauen and Earth For what is there holier then her not the Prophets not the Apostles not Martyrs not Patriarks not the Angels not the Thrones not the Dominations not the Cherubims not the Seraphims nor any other thing is there to bee founde greater or more excellent then her either amongst visible or inuisible creatures You may see in the second book which S. Ambrose wrote of Virgins and in S. Augustins sermons of her Natiuity and Assumption the deuotion which they bore to her In the next age beganne Nestorius his heresy the professed enemy of Christ and of our blessed Lady so farre as to deny vnto him one onely person of God and by consequence to robbe her of her prime title and honour of the Mother of God Many holy men beganne then to bestirre themselues for the honour of Christ Cyr. cont Nestor and his Mother but Saint Cyrill of Alexandria was his prime Antagonist and next vnder God the prime defendour of the Catholike cause who thus expresseth his deuotion to her Praise be to thee ô Holy Trinity to thee also be praise Holy Mother of God Thou art the pretious pearle of the world Thou art the candlestike of vnquenchable light Orat. de dorm deip the Crowne of virginity the Scepter of the Catholike Faith In the sixt age liued Andreas Hierosolymitanus Bishop of Crete who calleth our blessed Lady a saint holier then the Saints the most holy treasure of all sanctity Eusebius Emissenus liued in the same age who speaking of our B Lady was strucken with astonishmeÌ„t that he knew not what to thinke of the greatnes of her graces For saith he if she were full of grace before she conceiued what shall we thinke her to haue bene after it But what what then shall we thinke her to haue bene after so many yeares of continuall and such intimate conuersation with Christ she being his mother and he her master Thus you haue the deuotion of the auncient Fathers to our blessed Lady for the fist six hundred years of the Faith of Christ declaring a farre different spirit in them from those who wickedly blaspheme her or derogate from her praises or but any way sleight them as the moderne enemys of the Catholike Church commonly doe I might produce the Sentences of holy men in following ages vnto our dayes to shew the contiruance of that first and auncient denotion to her to haue bene at all times in the Catholik Church I might alleadge the words of S. Anselme Auth. Protest relig l. 1. c. 6. § 3. Saint Bernard Saint Bonauenture Saint Thomas of Aquine the denotion of S. Dominike S. Francis and of many other Saints some of whom
wee will minde their behauiour and learne of them how to behaue our selues at Masse And it were good to gette a custome allways when we heare Masse to make a purpose of amending some particular falt or imperfection which we know in ourselues and to remember that purpose at the beginning and at the end of euery Masse which we heare THE ELEAVENTH DISCOVRSE OF THE PRAECEPTS OF THE CHVRCH I Intende now to declare the Praecepts of the Church but first we will craue our blessed Ladys intercession Haile Mary c. Quest Say the fiue cheife Praecepts of the Church Answer To fast fasting dayes To keepe holy dayes To confesse our sinnes to our ordinary Pastour or to another with his leaue ot least once a yeare To receiue the Eucharist at Easter time To pay tithes There are diuerse other Praecepts of the Church as the prohibiting to celebrate marriage from the beginning of Aduent vntil after Twelfth day and from the beginning of Lent vntill after Low Sunday Also many things in seuerall generall councells commanded some in respect of the Clergy and some of the laiâ—y â—or of particular states and conditions of men which wee omitte as not of this place and declare onely the fiue aboue mentioned which Authors commonly deliuer as the cheife and most necessary for the people to be instructed in But before wce come to their particular declaration we will say somethinge OF THE AVTHORITY OF THE Church and of the obligation of her Praecepts Quest How doe the Praeceps of the Church oblige Ans The Praecepts of the Church oblige vnder a mortall sinne The authority of the Church is declared in many places of holy Scriptures Apoc. 1. Saint Iohn saw in a vision the Church descending downe from Heauen like to a glorious bride setforth with all her ornaments to meete her bridegroome God is the Bridegroome the Church is the bride the Praecepts of the Church are her ornaments for by the keeping of them the soules of the faithfull are adorned graciously in the sight of God and in the end become glorious in Heauen and those that breake the Praecepts of the Church breake teare and abuse the ornaments of the coelestiall bride and therefore commit a mortall sinne Christ hath compared the disobedient to the Church to Heathens Mat. 18 and Publicans saying If he will not heare the Church let him be to thee as the Heathen and the Publican but the eternall word of God and his infinite wisedome neither would nor could haue soe compared them as to put them in the ranke of the most odious and infamous of all men if they had not bene guilty of mortall sinne Nay the authority of God in many places of the Scriptures is in plaine words attributed to the Church A question arising concerning the necessity of Circumcision Saint Peter with some others mette at Hierusalem about it and hauing decided the controuersy they imposed some praecepts to be obserued by the Church and that in the name and authority of the Holy Ghost saying Act. 15. it hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to vs to lay noe further burthen vpon you then these necessary things c. And S. Paul who had bene an earnest aemulatour of the law of Moyses went vp to Hierusalem to them and without any murmuring at all was contented with that which was there decreed and which S. Peter then declared submitting willingly all those rites which he had bene brought vp in and which he had aemulated before to the censure Lawes and Praecepts of the Church of Christ and not onely himselfe obeyed them but also as in the same chapter is declared He walked through Syria and Cilicia confirming the Churches and commanding them to keepe the Praecepts of the Apostles and Auncients Ananias sold a piece of land and defrauded of the price of it bringing only part of it to the feet of the Apostles Saint Peter who by reuelation vnderstood his deceit rebuked him saying Act. 5. Ananias why hath sathan tempted thy hart that thou shouldest ly to the holy Ghost c. Thou hast not lyed to men but to God And it cost him his life forth with falling downe dead in the place And his wife Saphira who was priuy to his fraude comming in about three houres after and mainteining her husbands ly Behold said Saint Peter their seete that haue buried thy husband at the doore and they shall beare thee forth And she fell downe presently and dying was carried out of doores and buried with her husband See here the diuine authority attributed to the Church Saint Peter declaring that Ananias then lyed to the holy Ghost and not to men but to God in that he lyed to those who as the Praelats of the Church had the authority of God and a terrible example of the diuine Iustice ensuing to teach vs reuerence and obedience to that authority Our blessed Sauiour speaking to his Apostles said Luc. 10. He that heareth you heareth mee and he that despiseth you despiseth mee and Saint Paul writing to the Thessalonians concerning the Praecepts which he had deliuered to them Thess 14. saith He that despiseth these things despiseth not man but God who also hath giuen his holy Spirit in vs. By all which places we see that the Church hath diuine authority that to heare it is to heare God and to be vnheare to it is to be vnheare to him to dissemble with the Prelates of the Church is to dissemble with God and to dispise them is to despise him The reason of this is Order because the Superiours of the Church being ordained of God to gouerne the world in his diuine seruice their authority is to be obeyed as the ordinance of God and as the supreme authority vpon earth aboue all temporall power in that immediatly and directly it tendeth not the temporall but to spirituall peace and order and therefore those that deny obedience to it and resist it resist the diuine ordinance and the supreme authority that is amongst men If a father should set a Schoole Master ouer his children and commande them to obey him they denying obedience to him and refusing to be taught by him disobey their father as well as their master God setteth the Pastors of the Church as Masters ouer vs to instruct and commande vs in the diuine worship Mal. 2. The lips of the Priest shall preserue knowledge and the law thou shalt require from his mouth and the Apostle saith Heb. 13. Obey your Prelates and be subiect to them for they watch as being to render account for your soules The greatest Duke King or Emperour if he hath a soule to be saued he hath a Priest and a Prelate to obey as well as the meanest of his subiects he is his master in spirituall things and if he disobey him in the doctrine and Praecepts of the Church hee disobeyeth God who ordained him in that authority he doth contrary to the
for it as may be done for any absurdity whatsoeuer but the commune sense and the first apprehension of all men conceiueth it most naturall to sorrow with the sorrowfull and abhorreth the contrary as a disdaine and affront and Christ will disdaine those that disdaine him and despise those that despise his Church Baronius relateth of Saint Elphegus Bishop of Winchester how that exhorting of the people to obserue Lent a certaine man derided him but the Bishop foretold that he should dy that night and so it happened Lent then is obserued in imitation of our Lords fast in honour of his Passion and as a preparation for Easter The Sundayes in Lent are not of the number of the forty dayes fast although we keepe abstinence on them also that the forty dayes may continue in some kind of fasting all together and not be quite broken by eating of flesh within that time Ember dayes Ember dayes were fasted as a preparation for holy Orders which at those times vsed to be giuen Saint Hierome writing to Marcella sayeth that the Ember dayes as well as lent were instituted by the Apostles Act. 13. And it may be gathered out of their acts where it is said that fasting and praying they imposed hands that is gaue orders and from this of the Apostles came the practise of the Church of fasting Ember dayes for the more worthy receiuing of holy Orders Leo ser 7 as saint Leo declareth who therefore calleth it an Apostolicall tradition They are obserued in the beginning of the fower quarters of the yeare of Spring Summer Autumne and Winter to offer vp to God as it were the first fruits of all times the orders of the Church being then receiued Rogations dayes Rogation dayes are fasted for the fruits of the earth Procession is made that the whole Church both Clergy and Laity may be represented as present to acknowledge the goodnesse of God and his prouidence ouer vs and to pray for the continuance of it towards vs. Vigils Vigils are fasted inhonour of the day following that it being a holy day dedicated to prayer fasting and prayer may goe both togother for the greater honour of God They are called Vigils which is to say watchings because aunciently the faithfull vsed to watch all that night attending in the Church to the Ecclesiasticall office but many inconueniences in processe of time appearing in those watchings they were layed aside Fridays fast or abstinence Fryday according to custome of places is in honour of our blessed Sauiours Passion The feast and solemnity of Saint Marke was first instituted by occasion of a great pestilence S. Marke which reigned so violently in Italy and especially about Rome that people suddainly fell downe dead as they sneized or yawned And from thence saith Durandus came the custome of saying God blesse you to those that sneize as being then in danger of death Saint Pelagius who was then Pope instituted the solemnity of Saint Marke against it and himselfe died of it as he was going in the Procession Saint Gregory who succeeded him commanded it to be kept all ouer and therefore it is called the great Letany that is to say a greater supplication for Letany is as much as to say a supplication or petitioning of God and so the abstinence Procession and the whole solemnity may be vnderstoode as a supplication thus instituted The solemnity of Rogation dayes is called the lesser Letany because they were first begunne more priuatly and by a lesser authority to wit of the Bishop of Vienna Thus Durand Saturdays abstinence is kept in honour of our blessed Lady in remembrance of that Saturday Saturday on which the sacred body of our Lord remained in the Sepulcher for the Faith of Christ was then preserued especially by her the Apostles at that time wauering in the beleefe of his Resurrection This as all other Praecepts of the Church obligeth according to the intention of the Church commanding it How we are to fast For he that maketh lawes is to interprete his meaning in them who as he could giue them power to oblige so is he to determine the circumstances of their obligation Hence it followeth first that sicke folkes children and youths before they come to a sufficient setled growth aged and decayed persons poore people that must eate often as not hauing sufficient at once for an intire maile and those that labour much in body or minde are not bounde to fasting Because the Praecepts of the Church are to bee vnderstoode vnto edification and not vnto destruction that is to say they are intended to raise the honour of God by increasing of peoples deuotion but they should pull it downe and lessen it if they obliged with any notable hurt And therefore fasting and all such corporall afflictions are to be vsed with discretion and moderation and oblige not vnto our hurt or notable damage Saint Paul was a great lover of such afflictions and no doubt but he was glad to see his disciple Timothy to follow him in them yet when he saw that it was with excesse and to the impairing of his health Tim. 1.5 he aduised him saying Drinke not yet water but vse a litle wine for thy stomake and thy often infirmitys Secondly it followeth that our fast is broken with meate only and not with drinke which the Church might also haue forbidden but did not and therefore it is lawfull to drinke betwixt mailes either wine beere water or any thing which is vsed as drinke Milke betwixt mailes breaketh the fast because it is rather meate then drinke and therefore we commonly call it as the Scripture also doth te cate milke The Praecept of fasting includeth two things Two things in fasting to wit to abstaine from vnlawfull meates and to eate but one maile of lawfull meates The first bindeth all that are subiect to the Prâ—cepts of the Church that is all that are capable of reason The second obligeth only those that are of perfect strength and sufficient ability and not such as are mentioned aboue who may eate more mailes then one so that they absteine from meates prohibited It is a custome in some places to eate bread and drinke on fasting dayes in the morning which in seruants and others that are not bound to fast is allowable and very good because their fasting is a voluntary obsequy in them who not being able nor bound to oblerue strictly the fast of the Church it is to be vnderstoode that of deuotion they will absteine from a compleate breakfast and content them selues with onely bread and drinke but in those that are bound to fast I know not how to allow of it It proceedeth also as I suppose out of ignorance in some that they eate aples and fruit out of maile time on fasting dayes I tell thâ—se once againe that they may drinke on fasting dayes our of maile time and take some thing to quench their thirst because