purpose As the name of Christian doth distinguish the Church from Jews Gentiles and Heathens so the name Catholick from falsâ— Prophets and peculiar Sects who glory under the name of Christ and belong not to him And to this purpose said Pacianus my Name is Christian my Sirname Catholickâ— This Name therefore is most deservedly put into the Creed of the Apostles aâ— distinguishing from all Sects and Hereticks and most proper to the true Church Only None therefore can miss of the true Church who follow the Catholickâ— The general name will most certainly inform you her very adversaries being Judges Luk. 19.22 Out of thy mouth I Judge thee O wicked Servant The true Church must be One holy Catholick and Consequently Apostolick THe Fourth and last mark is Apostolick Apostolick shewing the true Church and Religion not taken up at the second hand as many do now a days to be derived from Christ and his Apostles and so to us as an inheritance from our Ancestors by a continual succession of Bishops from the Chayr of Peter to this present Pope and so to continue without â—ayling every One holding Vnion with his Predecessors True Religion no Inveâ—tion of Maâ—â— and keeping still the same Profession of Faith so visibly and apparently that it is like a City upon a Mountain or a Candle on a Candlestick to give light to all in the house of God Whereby it is manifest that it is not the Invention of Man it never being contrary to it self in Doctrin but allwaies running in the same Current of Apostolical Tradition and through this united strength hath out lasted many hundreds of Heresies which though manifestly divided in themselves did ever joyne hands to overthrow this One holy Catholick Apostolick Faith but never found any other Rock then It against which they split themselves And thus we know it to be that kingdom of which Daniel Prophesieth saying Dan. 2.44 And in the Dayes of these Kings shall the God of Heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed and this kingdom shall not be given to any other people but it shall break and destroy all those kingdoms shall stand for ever Observe therefore I beseech you out of this Mark that those who pretend to be founders of new Religions Reformers or what else they please to be called were once of this Apostolical continued Faith and went out and forsook it and consequently their Doctrin is later or less Antient Math. 14. and for this very reason not good seed but Cockle which the envious Man soweth after For these are the Properties of Hereticks and false teachers to be inventors of new Doctrin to divide and separate themselves to cause dissentions scandals against the Doctrin they had learned The true Faith therefore is Apostolical to be traced up to the Apostles and Christ himself the fountain and author of all truth Now if you desire to know in particular the positive tenents of the true Catholick Faith which I find St. Augustin the Monk of the holy Order of St. Benedict preached and professed who planted the Christian Faith in England above a thousand yeares ago in the yeare 596. in the reign of Elbert otherwise Ethelbert King of Kent who married Queen Bertha of France a Catholick sent by St. Gregary the great theâ— Pope of Rome in that Apostolical Mission Doctor of the Church Monk of the same holy Order who founded seaven Monasteries himself six in Sicilia the 7th in Rome dedicated to St. Andrew of which St. Augustin was Abbot And in very deed searching into Antiquity and the Tradition of the Church by which the Truth infallibly is delivered to us I find the very same Articles plainly to be traced even to Christ himself and his immediate successor St. Peter and so down to us till this day and shall be till the worlds end visible and Apparent which is the sure Footing for every one to tread in They are these contained in the Profession of Faith received by the Church to wit I. N. Do by a firm Faith believe and Profess all every thing contained in the Symbol of Faith which the Holy Roman Church useth viz. I believe in one God the Father Almighty Maker of heaven and Earth and of all things Visible and invisible And in One Lord Jesus Christ the onely begotteâ— Son of God and begotten oâ— his Father before all Agesâ— God of God Light of Lightâ— very God of very God begotten not made Consubstantial to the Father by whom all things were madeâ— who for us men and for ouâ— salvation descended from heaven and was incarnated by the holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary and made Man was also crucifyed for us under Pontius Pilat suffered and was buried and rose the third day according to the Scripturesâ— and ascended into Heavenâ— sitteth at the right hand oâ— the Father and shall come again with Glory to judge the quick and the dead of whose Kingdom there shall be no End And in the Holy Ghost the Lord and giver of â—ife who proceedeth from â—he Father and Son who together with the Father and â—he Son is equally adored and â—onglorified who spake by â—he Prophets And One Hoâ—y Catholick and Apostolick Church I confess one Baptisme for the Remission of â—â—ns and I expect the resurrection of the dead and life â—f the world to come Amen The Apostolical and Ecclesiastical Traditions and the other Observations and Constitutions of the samâ— Church I do most firmly admit and embrace Likewise I admit the Holy Scripture according to that sense which our holy Motheâ— the Catholick Church eveâ— did and doth hold to which it belongs to judge of the truâ— sense and interpretation oâ— the Holy Scriptures neitheâ— will I receive or interpreâ— it but according to thâ— unanimous Consent of thâ— Fathers I profess also that there aâ—â— Seaven true and proper Sacraments of the new Law instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ and necessary to the salvation of Mankind though not all to every particular Person To wit Baptism Confirmation the Eucharist Pen-nance Extream Unction holy Order Matrimony And that they do confer Grace of these that Baptism Confirmation and Order without Sacrilege cannot be reiterated The received and approved rites also of the Catholick Church in the solemn Administration of all the foresaid Sacraments I do receive admit I do embrace and receive all and every one of the Doctrines touching original Sin and Justification which have been defined and declared in the Holy Council of Trent I do in like manner profess that there is a true proper and Propitiatory Sacrifice for the living and the dead offered to God in the Mass by lawful Priests truly ordained And that in the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist after Consecration there is truly really and substantially the body and blood together with the soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ And that the whole substance of Bread is converted into
same profession are ashamed off and do loath their very naming and that with just reason The Crafty Fox shews it fully in his Acts and Monuments by which he hoped to have erected the Glory of his braynsick Martyrs and doting Confessors That by which and whose Professors never any Miracle was Wrought or ever can be No Miracles That which hath no religious Orders No religious Orders or peoplei professing a peculiar perfect state of life through Poverty Chastity and Obedience That which is destitute of all wholsome Laws for the Direction of the Ministers and People towards God and his holy Service No Canon Laws That which professeth the large Libertinisine and broad way leading to Perdition granting Libertinisme to the highest degree of wickedness in One Kind or Other to all Its followers That into which whosoever enters forsaking the true Wickedness of life begins presently to leave all goodness and becomes an outcast and Scumm of the earth as to all wickedness and prophaness That which enjoyes no true Spirituality â—ut brainsick Phancy No solid true Spirituality as being void of all true Humility and Mortification the only sound groundwork and foundation of all true Spirituallity and interior correspondence with God and this appears most evidently by the fruits The divine Book of the Following of Christ For never any sound spiritual Book hath been written by them but excellent Ones written by those of the true Religion corrupted by them They have the Lord indeed much in their Mouth but their hearts are farr from him Mat. 19.8 I wish therefore with all my Soul that all such as have an Interiour Propension would seriously ponder this Motive if they desire to satisfy such their Interiour Propension as they must needs be inclined to do thereby to discern A good advice and shun these Sectaryes and to embosome themselves in the true Catholick Church as they love the real and otherwise impossible true satisfaction of their Propension And they shall receive and experience a more beautifying kind of spirituality then ever they have done or could do out of the true Church Remember this again and again you who are called Puritans and pretend to be spiritual and come the right way home to your selves That whose publick and common service is without all Ceremony Publick service and Majesty no Commemorations of the mysteries of our faith no Ceremonies in administration of the Sacraments or much more truly no Sacraments at all and most of all to be noted no true real propitious Sacrifice no honour to the Saints That lastly though much more may be said of the wickedness thereof which by reason of its wicked Obstinacy and libertinsme brings all the professors thereof to disobedience Rebellion and disobedience and Rebellion to their Princes and Superiors takes away all neighbourly Love and just dealing one with another and hereby brings Ruin and Confusion upon all Common-wealths yea Kingdoms and Ecclesiastical power where such sway and domineer To all which give evident Testimony the late bleeding Experience of our own miserable Country and the General History of former Ages Read Monarchomachia or Jerusalem and Babel a Book so called printed in London 1653. and then give Credit The Church of God as it is One and Holy so must it be Catholick THe true Church must be Catholick that is Universal Catholick sprend over the whole world since by it all must be saved The sound of it must Come to all Mens Eares of what Nation Rom. 10.17 and Country soever For Faith coms by hearing And therefore beginning at Jerusalem river-like through the length of her Course hath ever more encreased and spread it self from time to time even to this hower and shall do for ever till it poure it self forth into the triumphant as the records of all Nations and Ages and the approbations of 18. General Councils the highest Consistories upon Earth and Oracles of the greatest infallibility as being the sentence of all the most learned in the Christian world and assisted by the holy Ghost bear evident witness And this is so palpable and Visible that He must be most blind deaf void of all sense and a stupid block who cannot discern it Look upon the whole world at this present and behold if this One holy Church be not Catholick that is spread over the whole world a being in Italy Spain France Germany Poland Portugal China the east and wesâ— Indyes and infinite Other Places of the World which are governed by no other Religion but this and all consent iâ— One and the same Now as St. Augestiâ— said very well if any thing be done by the whole Church to call that in Question is insolent Madness What Madness iâ— it then in this Iland of England and Scotland I must not include Ireland a little corner of Europe to question noâ— only some things done but the very Fundamental Religion of the whole world besides O insolent Madness to be thus singular and peculiar which must bring upon our Country singular and peculiar Misery before we can Enjoy the blessing and true happiness which always wait on the true Catholick Faith This Note Mark is so proper to the Church that no heretical Congregation sect or Company could ever obtain it though they have endeavoured much for it and at this present do but fail of their enterprise Wherefore what St. Augustin said of old we may now with truth say and it will ever with Truth be said If any ask to go to the Catholick Church they dare not shew their Conventicles Congregations Churches or houses And therefore saith be the very Name of Catholick which not without cause the only true Church hath obtained keeps me in her Bosome This Name Catholick no heresy could ever obtain let them labour never so much for it and Justly For how can they be called so since their Congregations or Churches are neither One or holy And therefore cannot be Catholick True it is Heresies may be spread over the world then you may call them Epidemical that is a general Plague but not Catholick a general union holiness or Blessing No no their names are very proper for them which they assume and stile themselves withal and are so known and called by Others to wit Lutherans Calvinists Protestants Puritans Brownists Anabaptists Armenians Socinians Independants black and white with an infinite rable besides Lutherans you shall find few out of Germany Swedland and Denmark Calvinists in Geneva some places of France Scotland England is not wholly subject to them Prelatical Protestants no where but in England Brownists Anabaptists Armenians Socinians c. are individui vagi wanderers sculking in every Corner but the sink of all and Confusion of Babel is at Amsterdam in Holland Judge then if there be any Religion Catholick but One true and Holyâ— And hereupon Cyrillus Jerosolomitanâ—â— said very Learnedly and to the
the Body of Christ and the whole substance of Wine into his Blood Which Conversion the Catholique Church calls Transubstantiation I acknowledg likewise that under One only form all and entire Christ and a true Sacrament is received I do constantly hold there is a Purgatory and that the souls there detayned are holpen by the Prayers and suffrages of the faithful In like manner that the Saints raigning with Christ are to be venerated and invoked and that they offer up Prayers to God for us and that their Reliques are to be reverenced I do most constantly affirm that the Images of Christ of the Virgin mother of God and of other Saints are to be kept and had in due honour and Veneration That the power also of Indulgences was left by Christ in his Church and the right use of them to be wholsom and profitable to Christian People I do acknowledge that the Holy Catholick and Apostolick Roman Church is the Mother and Mistriss of all Churches And I do promise true Obedience to the Bishop of Rome the Successor of St. Peter Prince of the Apostles and Vicar of Jesus Christ This was the Constant Profession of Faith in those dayes by St. Augustin and all his disciples Venerable Bedes Histâ—ry set forth by Docter Tho. Staplâ—ton and Prâ—sented to Queen Eâ—â—zabeth in the Yeare 1565. And For Further proof read 〈◊〉 Book Callâ—â— Englands 〈◊〉 old Religioâ— set forth by H. B. Printed at Antwerpe 1659. Now that you may not think I impose upon St. Augustin read the History of England written by Venerable Bede 800. Yeares ago and other most authentik Histories St. Augustins very letter to Pope Gregory before mentioned acknowledging Him cheif Pastor ruled by Him as head and Chief His life practise and Conversation holding forth both by word and Example all and every Article of Faith aforesaid daily sacrificing and offering up the Holy Masse even in the same manner as now it is praying to the Saints and for the dead administring the Sacraments in a word doing all the Catholick Church doth now at this Day and ever shall For as I have often said and say it again There can be no new Article of Faith The Articles are alwaies and ever will be the same Methinks I heare some Murmur and mutter Objection saying this discourse tends plainly to Popery and the introducing thereof To which answer is already Answer clearly plainly made with this distinction If they mean by Popery the ancient true Catholick Apostolick Christian faith such as Christ and his Apostles planted and taught and continueth from Christ to this hour and ever shall as is here set down That is to say again again a Truth never too oftento be repeated The Christian Religion planted by Christ and his Apostles as is here set down derived by infallible Authority of Tradition down to us without Addition or diminution Then in Gods name let such Popery be introduced every where if that be Popery to the Glory of God and salvation of all Mens Souls But if you mean by Popery Superstition Idolatry and that the Pope is infallible in his Person That he hath power to depose Kings and over temporal possessions I would have no such Popery introduced I defy and abhorr it knowing it to be novelty and the invention of Men. I am none of that Company gang or Crew I am I hope a good Christian and Loyal subject I acknowledge the Pope chief Pastor Successor of St. Peter supream head of the Church to whom all owe Obedience and Subjection in spiritual things and from whom as from the Fountain all spiritual Jurisdiction is derived But as St. Bernard observes well His Power is over the Sins of the People not over the Possessions of the Earth Math. 22.21 Give to Caesar what is Caesers to God what is Gods And here I leave you and if this be not sufficient to satisfy any indifferent man seeking the Truth of Religion let their own Conscience be judge which will give Testimony against them in that day when Jerusalem shall be searched with Lanthorns and the Hearts of all made known and manifest Sopho. 1.12 and the veil of Hypocrisy and vain Fancy taken away from the Face of the pretended Saints A Prayer O Our Lord God most humbly prostrate at thy feet in this perilloâ—â— time we most heartily supplicate thy divine Majesty as thou desirest not the Death but repentance of sinners be propitious 〈◊〉 thy People returning to Thee that theâ— remaining devout to thee Thou mai'â—â— mercifully remove the scourge of thy Angerâ— and absolve us from all Errors whereby wâ— shall be delivered from the Perditioâ— which hangs over us Through our Lorâ— Jesus Christ AMEN AMEN AMEN Ezec. 16.55 Et tu filia tua revertimini ad Antiquitatem vestram And thou and thy Daughters shall return to your Antiquity Errare possum haereticus esse nolo Err I may a Heretick I will not be ECCLESIAE JUDICIO SUBIECTA SUNTO B. P. S.