And v. 28. And they shall be no more a spoyle to the Gentills Againe Ch. 37. v. 23. Neither shall they be polluted any more in theyr Idolls and I will cleanse them and they shall be my people and I theyr God and my servant David King over them and theyr shall be one Pastour over them all They shall walke in my Iudgments and they shall keepe my commandments and they shall doe them and they shall dwell on the Land which I gave to my servant Iacob themselves and theyr Children and theyr Childrens Children Even for Ever And David my servant Prince for ever And I will make a peace to them an Everlasting Covenant shall be to them and I wâ—ll found them and wil multiply them and will give my sanctification in the middest of them for Ever and the very last verse of the last Chapter The name of the Citty from that Day Our Lord there 8. Clearly allso Daniel Ch. 2. v. 44. In the days of those Kingdomes the God of heaven shall rayse us a Kingdome that shall not be dissipated for ever But still continue in quality of a Kingdome and this Kingdome shall not be delivered to another people and it shall consume all the Idolatrous Kingdomes and it shall stand for ever in quality of a Kingdome There is litle need to passe to the New Testament the old sufficing if any thing will suffice Of Christs Gospell S. Paul says 2. Cor. 4.3 If our Ghospell be hid it is hid to them that are lost Either you must confess your selves lost men or you must say that at no Time Christs Ghospell lay hid so as you could not tell who professed it I insist not in the known places as that the Church Matth. 16.18 Is built upon a Rock that the Gates of Hell shall not provaile against it Again it is evident that she must still be visible in all ages that we may still at any time Tell the Church and heare her Matth. 18.17 and be still fedd by her Doctrine and Sacraments For these be the two essentiall markes of a true Church as Protestants say Hence Ephes Chap. 4 v. 11 He gave some Apostles some Prophets and other some Evangelists and other some Pastors and Doctors c. untill we meete al in the unity of faith which will not be till the worlds end These be the light of the world still sett upon the candlestickes never hidd under a busshel Matth. 5.14 A Cittie upon a hill still to be seen And though the mustard seede was the lest at the beginning yet in the growing it proves a Tree and all fowles repaire to it Matth. 13.32 Yea this must be a Church perpetually continuing in such reverence to our B. Lady that her words must be fullfilled Luc. 1.48 All generations shall call me blessed And v. 33. Her Sonne shall retgne in the house of Iacob for ever and of his Kingdome there shall be no end And so himselfe sayth to his Apostles Matth. 28.20 Behold I am with you all Days even to the consummation of the world His Apostles were not to be in the world even to the end of the world The promise therefore is to be with them in the persons of such as should succed them in teaching and preaching c. Again in the like sense he sayth Iohn 14.16 And he will give another Paraclete that he may abide with you for ever All these Texts demonstrate what we have undertaken to prove And hence it doth unavoidably follow that the Chureh must in all ages have a continuall succession of true Preachers of the word of God and true administration of Sacraments for these two things even according to the 39. Articles of the Church of England are the two essentiall signes or notes of a true Church which must ever accompany her in all ages And if a Church be as S. Cyprian sayth a flock adhering to ther shepherd then as in all ages there is a flock of Christ so there must be a shepherd to whom this flock may and must adhere And therefore a lawfull succession of true Pastors must needs in all ages be found in the Church at lest without any considerable interruption And this is expressed in severall texts here cited Now ponder that this is to be found in no Church but the Roman See more the next Point THE FOVRTH POINT Of the vniversality and vast extent of this perpetuall Church which also must be the converter of Gentiles This no Church differing from the Roman ever was 1. IF the Church were to remaine perpetually in any very small extent or bignesse perhaps we might heare litle newes of her in some ages But te true Perpetuall Church foretold to be in all ages in the Texts now cited is likewise in Scripture no lesse clearly foretold to be in all ages so universally spread aÌ„d so visibly numerous that the very recitall of these Texts is enough to put quite out of countenance any other Church but the Romane especially being that this true Church is so manifestly said to gaine this her vast extent by the multitude of Gentiles which she is to convert to her A thing which evidently must be verified in the true Church and yet is is evideÌ„t that this only is verified in the Roman Church that is no Church but such as was ioyned to her in communion euer converted any one parish of Gentiles 2. The Texts which evidence this vast extent of the true Church are Gen. 13.16 I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth And C. 15. v. 5. Looke up to heaveÌ„ and number the stars if thou canst And he sayd to him so shall thy seed be Again Chap. 22.16 By my owne selfe I have sworne sayth the Lord I will blesse tbee and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is by the sea And in thy seed shall be blessed all Nations of the earth Now Saint Paul tells us Romans 9.8 Not they that are the Children of the flesh of Abraham they are the Children of God but they that are the Children of promise are esteemed for the seed And if still you contend that these Texts are only for the Iewish Church you must allso remember that Christs Church is the Mistris she the Handmayd and that as S. Paul sayes The new Testament is established in farre better promises Hebr. 8.6 And must florish farre more then ever the Iewish Synagog did Hence Apoc. 7.5 S. Iohn after twelve thousand of every Tribe of Israël were signed saw a great multitudes which no man could number of all nations Tribes peoples and tongues But let us goe on 3. David Psal 2.8 Aske of me and I will give thee the Gentills for thy inheritance and thy possession to the end of the earth Psal 22.27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and he converted to our Lord. All the Kindreds ef the nations shall adore in his sight Again Psal 72.7
THE CATHOLIKE SCRIPTVRIST OR THE PLEA OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIKES SHEWING The Scriptures to hold forth the Roman Faith in above forty of the cheife Controversies now under debate Now I beseech you Bretheren marke them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them Rom. 16.17 By I. M. Printed in Gant by Maximilian Graet M.DC.LXII THE PREFACE 1. NOw I beseech you Bretheren mark those which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the Doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them Rom. 16.17 These words were the words of God and of truth as well in the yeare 1517. as at this present yeare Had any good Christian spoaken these words in that foresaid yeare 1517. all who had heard thē could have made no other sense of thē but that they were forewarned by them both to marke and to avoid all Authors of divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which they had learned yet as then there was not any good Christian unles you will account them for such whome you yourselves acknowledg to have maintained grosse Heresies who did not beleeve and professe the Roman Faith This was the Faith and Doctrine which they had learned Wherefore when in that yeare Luther first appeared causing divisions and offenses contrary to the Doctrine which they had learned all were bound by the advise of the Apostle to mark and avoid the sayd Luther and all his adherents and followers 2. But the world then no lesse addicted to old vices then to new doctrines did shutt they reares to this advise of the Apostle and did opē theyr armes to imbrace that which was in so very many Points contrary to the Doctrine which they had learned And the misery is that all those new Teachers which ensued in whole swarmes though they all taught contrary to what they had learned yea and the one contrary to the other yet all pretended to teach nothing but Scripture rightly understood which they all affirmed not to have been rightly understood for the foregoeing thousand yeares in such points as then they began to question yet with the same breath they sayd that in all those severall Points in which they contradicted the former doctrine and by doing so caused so great divisions and offenses they did affirme only that to which they were enforced by evident manifest and most cleer Texts of Scripture Which was to say that for the precedent thousand yeares no body had rightly understood or at least every body had by word and practise contradicted evident manifest and most cleere Texts of Scripture 3. The good Christians of those ages and we who adhere unto thē being in the quiet and peaceable possession of what we had learned were bound according to the advice of the Apostle to avoid those new teachers and it was sufficient for us to shew they taught contrary to what we had learned which they themselves confessed to be true and was too evident to require proofe But because we stood constantly to maintain what we had learned upon this ground as the Apostle did bid us our Adversaries desirous to bring us from beleeving to disputing would be still importunely pressing us to prove Point by Point every Point which we held by evidēt manifest and most cleere Scripture We vvell understood that it was theyr parts who affirmed all former ages for some thousand yeares at least to have thus grosly erred against cleere Scripture to make good so great and so scandalous an accusation by producing Texts in the Points under question of so manifest undeniable evidence against us that theyr Texts compared to ours alleadged in defence of the same Points should make the Truth so cleer on theyr side that all might be forced to confesse they had reason to revolt as they did from all theyr Ecclesiasticall and Civill Magistrates and to frame allso a new body by themselves wholy and entirely both in doctrine and discipline quite different yea and contrary to all Congregatiōs as then upō the face of the earth 4. The exorbitancy of this theyr proceeding will be unjustifyable when I shall here produce so many and so loud-speaking texts for above forty of those Points which they most misliked in our Religion yea it was our holding those Points for which they sayd they were enforced to this so unfortunate a Division But how weakly they were enforced upon this account to cause such divisions and offenses will easily be seen by any impartiall eye which shall attentively peruse on the one side al the texts which I shall here alleadg for forty five of those Points for which chiefly they have caused this division and on the other the few and inconsiderable and a thousand-times-answered Texts which they bring to the contrary 5. This then is the Plea of us Roman Catholicks that we ever since our Ancestors in England were Christians have held the doctrine which we have learned still avoiding those who taught the contrary For that we have done this in no fewer then fifty Points in which we are most accused of Novelty hath been demonstrated in a late booke entitled Englands old Religion out of Bedes owne words And though Bede had not been as he was the most grave and famed Authour which ever England had but had been only a lack straw living and writing before the yeare 731. that is above 900. yeares agoe yet to see in his words then writtē those fifty Points all held and all practised in our England when Englands Religion was at the purest cannot but abundantly convince that we Roman Catholiks did thē hold and practice what we hold and practise now What is this but to hold the doctrine we have learned avoiding those who teach the contrary 6. Yet this is not our whole Plea for wee know it will be objected that what we then learnt was contrary to Scripture and they must meane cleer and manifest Scripture or else why did they go against the doctrine and practise which they found agreeing so exactly with the doctrine and practice of old England as is unanswerably demonstrated in that book But we further more plead that in those very Points in which contradiction yea and manifest contradiction to Scripture is objected against us we have Scripture speaking so fully for us that no one of those many Religions now tolerated in England can with any colour of probability challenge greater evidence of Scripture for theyr opposit Tenets then we here produce for our undoubtedly ancient doctrine and therefore this our doctrine evē in this respect ought in all reason to be at least as much tolerated as any of those Religions lately sprōg up in England The proof of what I say must rely upon what shall appeare to be made good by me in each point of those forty five here ensuing 7. It only remaines that I advertise the reader how impossible it is that I or any one else should cite all Texts just in those very words in
still defileth us if wee eat what the same Church still forbids to be eaten at the times forbidden 4. Secondly you object 1. Cor. 10. v. 25. All that is sould in shambles eat asking no questien for Conscience I answer that the Apostle there only tells them that though to eat in the Temple of Idols that which there is offered up to the Idol be unlawfull v. 28. yet wee must not have a Scruple of eating what we see sould in the shambles by asking questions out of an over timerous conscience whether that ox or Calf or sheep sould there were not before it was brought to the markett immolated to some Idol Now what is this to our purpose 5. Thirdly it is objected Col. 2 16. Let no man judge you in meat nor drink or in respect of a Holy day or of the new Moon or of the Sabboth I answer by what is here added of a new Moon it is manifest this Text only speaks of fasts according to Iudaicall distinction between meat clean and unclean all meats beeing now clean to Christians still as above excepting bloud and strangled meat though sold in the shambles for this is not contrary to that S. Paul sayd All that is sold in the sambles eat 6. Fourthly and chiefly they object 1. Tim. 4.3 The doctrine of devils forbidding to marrie and commanding to abstaine from meates which God created to receive with thanks giving For every creature of God is good and nothing is to be refused which is received with thanksgiving For as much as concernes our doctrine of abstaining from marriage we have all ready answered this Text in Point 20. n. 8. We must see now in what sense it is Devils doctrine to abstaine from meats which God created It can not be in that sense in which the Nazarites and Recabites abstained from wine and S. Iohn Baptist from wine and strong drink and from all meats allmost but Locustes and wild hony coming neither eating nor drinking Or in which S. Timothy allso abstained from wine or in which all Christians as then abstained from bloud and what was strangled or offered to Idols The abstinence of the Manichees was Devils doctrine for they taught to abstaine from meats which God created Because they sayd that the Devil and not God created some meates Against such men S. Paul of all meates without exception sayth God created them To attribute such meates to the devils creation and therefore to abstaine from them is to teach the doctrine of the devils This doctrine of the Manichees was held by divers more ancient Heretiks as the Rhemish Testament sheweth in this place Again the doctrine of some Iewes was the Doctrine of Devils who taught that still we must make a distinction between meates clean and unclean and abstaine from these because the Law was given by Angels and they sayd that the Angels had revealed that therefore this law was still to be keept even by Christians But these Angels were Angels of darknes and this was truly the doctrine of Devils though disguised in the shape of Angels of light This is the Interpretation of the most learned Tertullian as I allso shewed Point 36. n. 9. The Conclusion to the Protestant Reader SVpposing these fourtie five Points have been with attention read by thee it only remains that I should presse thee to answer mee sincerely to this one question Whether in thy Conscience and in the sight of Allmighty God thou canst remeyn perswaded that wee Roman Catholikes have so much as in any one of these Points hield or forthield any doctrine opposit to clear Scripture Name that Point and read over again what wee here have sayd of it and see if thy conscience doth not tell thee that wee have rather clearer Scripture for it then you for the contrary Why then are wee who did build in a manner all the Churches in England and who taught no other doctrine in them then what had been delivered us at our first beeing made Christians a doctrine found so conformable to Scripture even in these uery points in which we stand accused by you to most contradict Scripture why I say should wee not so much as have one Church left us in one shire or County with free liberty to teach and practise that faith which hath been taught and practiced by all our forefathers in this Kingdome and established by all the Lawes thereof ever since wee professed Christianity untill this last Age gave birth to so many new Religions And this shall be the Conclusion of our Plea FINIS ERRATA Page 3. lin 2. move read more P. 3. l. 13. 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