and praise ought to be in faith Whatsoever ye ask if ye believe ye shall receive it Matth. 21.22 We must come unto the Father in the Sons Name and he will hear us ask and he will do it John 14.14 By faith in Jesus we have boldness and entrance with confidence Eph. 3.12 So that Whatsoever we desire when we pray believe that we shall have it and it shall be done unto us Mark 11.24 But without faith it is impossible to please God For He that cometh to God must believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him Heb. 11. And without faith our prayer turns into sin for Whatsoever is not of faith is sinne Rom. 14.23 So then for any society to come to Divine service in a Tonge they do not understand their prayer and praise cannot be of faith in respect they know not what they ask their Priest is their mouth and they cannot in heart go along with him because they understand not what he sayes and their saying Amen to they know not what cannot be acceptable unto God according as S. Paul writes to the Romanes Rom. 10.14 How shall we call on him in whom we have not believed and how shall we believe in him of whom we have not heard We must believe in him and by him and by him offer the sacrifice of praise to God we must draw neer unto him with a pure heart in the assurance of faith Heh 10.22 This was the Doctrine of the Apostles and this was the practice of the Primitive Churches Theodoret lib. 5. de Graec. affect curat pag. 521. telleth us that in his time which was about 440 years after Christ the Scriptures were translated into all manner of languages and that they were not onely understood of Doctors and Masters of the Church but of Lay-people and common Artificers Hebraici libri non modo in Graecum Idioma conversi sunt sed in Romanam Aegyptam Persicam Judicam Armenicam Scyithicam linguam semelque ut dicam in omnes linguas quibus ad hunc diem nationes utuntur It was then the practice that every Nation should have the Scriptures in their own Tongue which Bellarmine unawares confessed Bellarm. Chap. 106. Tom. 1. col 191. lib. 4. de verb. Dei Script cap 11. But such is the pride and vain-glory of the Popes of Rome that they will not admit this in these latter dayes for since the Bishop of Rome grew up to be the Universal head all Churches must receive anew the Scriptures in their own Tongue and not onely so but their Lyturgies too burning such Scriptures as the people understand in their own vulgar Tongue and excommunicating all persons of the Laity be they neveâ— so well learned that shall reason of matters of faith or dispute of his power commanding Latine Service and Latine Homilies to the vulgar and though they cannot understand it yet he has Decreed it shall be so 6 Decret lib. 5. cap. quicunque By which means he thinks to gain an opinion of being the onely Planter of those Churches whenas indeed he is but a busie intruder upon the Apostolical foundations of others and in this his Holiness has a further reach for by this means he pleads Authority to rule over them producing this in evidence against them should they oppose him that Conqueror-like he has given them a Law in the proper language of Rome And if any questions should arise concerning any points taught in those Translations he likewise did by this means obtain the priviledge to be the Interpreter it being more proper to Rome to unfold the sense of that language than to any other place And thus and for those ends did the Popes of Rome obtrude the Latine Lyturgies upon several Churches which how it agrees with the Law Divine for the work of the Ministry for the gathering of the Saints and for the edification of the body of Christ till we all meet together in the unity of the faith and knowledge of the Son of God let the holy Spirit of that God and the Angels of the several Churches witness CHAP. XVIII The Conclusion Wherein the Reformation of England is justified notwithstanding the Objections of Rome against it and that the Pope was the cause of the Protestant Churches their separations from the Church of Rome I Have briefly touched most of those points which the Doctor hath urged against the Protestants wherein I conceive the Church of England doth differ from the Church of Rome and for that it is not my desire to make the breaches wider but if possible to reconcile them into one and to make up the gap of separation betwixt them I now hasten to a conclusion Yet let not any one censure me as if I were weary of my enterprize because to some particular Chapters I have not given particular answers for I conceive that the scope of their matter is sufficiently refuted in this discourse and those Chapters not concerning any points of controversie betwixt us any further than I have already answered I did therefore forbear to multiply words against the Doctor but hastned to the conclusion The Doctor in his 22. and 23. Chapters doth flutter with the Lapwing and makes most bussle when he is furthest off the Nest He had formerly cast his sting and there in conclusion ends with buzzing and noise onely he rolls up himself in Rhetorick and with the Seriphian Froggs of which Pliny writes lib. 8. cap. 85. he is clamorous in invectives he like an untamed Colt having leaped the Pale which kept him in a safe and fitting Pasture ranges up and down the miry paths throwing up dirt behind him till at length having run himself out of breath he becomes tame and is content to take scraps at the Jesuites hands he feeds upon the Orts of Parsons Saunders and such like Renegadoes he has turned away his face from England's Sion in whose true mirror of divinity he might have seen the image of Christ himself and his own face beauteous as a Son of that Church but now having turned aside he has forgot what manner of man he was or what before he had beheld by the help of the reflections and now he altogether contemplates upon a false gloss which doth present unto him deceiving objects on the one hand is the Church of England presented to him black and ugly being transformed by the false Vail they and such like have put upon her for which they are with all indulgence cherished and encouraged by his Holiness according to the saying of Salomon Prov. 26.22 The words of a Tale-bearer are as flatterings and they go down into his belly But on the other hand the Church of Rome is set out with all the Art imaginable so that any who will give up himself unto the speculative Religion of Popery is cheated into an opinion of Romes beauty and comliness and into a â—aâ—â—en and deâ—â—â—tation of the Protestâ—nt Religion because
expectations and other proceedings of the Popes of Rome's pretensed Jurisdiction And 't was thought by many that H. 4. would have revived this which many conceive did given occasion to shorten his days And as these Provincials were free and immune without appealing to the See of Rome so had England the same priviledge and jurisdiction nor did she ever in any businesses appeal to Rome she being a distinct Province of old and declared by the Bishop of Rome Eleutherius that the King is Vicarius summus infra Regna might call Councils and by the ensuing Liberties granted to Provincials by the first Councils might make Rules of Faith to which the people by the Princes consent were bound and this to be without appealing to the See of Rome and never before Becket's business Becket's câ—se ante Chap. 4. of which I have already spoken in the fourth Chapter did the Pope intermeddle here Besides that business of Becket was betwixt the King and his own Clergie about a Law made at Clerudun by which Law Ecclesiastical persons were not to be freed by Church-priviledge from murder and one Brock a Monk after committing a murder was by contrivance of Becket and others delivered from publike Justice whereupon the variance began and the Pope excommunicating the King the King was forced through necessity of State at that time to submit yet nevertheless in the Articles made between the King and Pope Alexander at that time it was conditioned amongst other things that the King should suffer the people of England to appeal to Rome as appears by the Annals of those days which is an argument it was not before due to the See of Rome And indeed that it was not due is a truth so manifest and a right and jurisdiction belonging to every Province so unquestionably that I will forbear to insist any further upon this particular and submit to the Reader whether upon what I have here fairly laid down we in England may not call a Council without appealing to the See of Rome For as for that concession of H. 2. it was afterwards declared void it being a thing not properly lying within his conusance compass or capacity to grant being a right inherent in his Provincials and those bare Articles forced through necessity of State from the King could no ways oblige the successors in the See of Canterbury and York but that still notwithstanding there may be Provincial Synods in England for reformation of Schism or reconcilement of Controversies as occasion shall require and that without any allowance or approbation of the Pope of Rome For to argue a claim to the Pope to require Appeals from hence by reason of the Articles between H. 2. and Pope Alexander and that the Provinces of Canterbury and York should be thereby bound is no more reasonable then if the Emperour should condition with a Bishop of Canterbury that the Bishops of Rome should appeal to them which I believe his Holiness would not think should bind him or his successor And for that there was no right to be proved before those Articles I say the case is equally just and therefore as the Bishop of Rome for shame must not claim it from this argument of H. 2. so may we in no other respect grant it but that we as I said before may still without his allowance call Provincial Councils for deciding controversies and correction of Schism and Disorders in our Church I must confess that the Doctor has justly reproved some dissentions and varieties of Opinions amongst us in England Sects in England But that excuse he made for the differences which are amongst the Papists salvs up our sore as well as theirs For as the Doctor fol. 236. says They are but Reasonings of private men and the Church not having interposed her Decree may not be properly said differences of our Church or distracted contradictions in our Articles of Faith For should our Church convene a Synod she would either reconcile the differences or condemn them as Hereticks which dissent from her and after that sentence pronounced they are no more of our Church though they may be said to be in our Church according to that of S. John 1 Joh. 2.19 Si ex nob is essent permanserint nobiscum And let me not appear partial in this point to pass it over barely thus without shewing the reasons the Church of England doth not reform these differences sith before in this Treatise Chap. 5. I have taxed the Church of Rome of errour of negligence in this particular The Church of Rome at present is in so flourishing a condition that nothing can stop her unless the private interest of her Pope hinder her to reform the differences that are in her own Church She may convene a Council without any opposition But such is the distressed condition of the Church of England that on a sudden her â—lilies were over-topped with weeds the Sectaries which fed upon wilde olives gave thereof unto the giddy multitude who were presently like cursed children of old Adam tempted to eat that forbidden fruit and having Liberty promised to be masters and lords of the whole Vintage they claim bargain with the merchandizers of holy wares and presently cry down the ancient Husbandmen of the Vineyard Which strange and unheard-of change struck such amazement in the hearts of the people and caused such struglings in nature to digest this new-tempered Potion she was to drink that the whole body of the Land was severed so that till this fit of her sickness be over her ancient Husbandmen cannot nay must not enter into the Vineyard to prune and dress her and to cut off those extravagant branches which like ill weeds have thriven fast and make the whole Plantation seem out of order Let us therefore pray the Lord of the Vineyard that he would restore her Husbandmen unto her that he would repair her walls which are troden down and make up her hedge that she may no longer be eaten up that in stead of these wilâ—e grapes she may bring forth fruits meet for her Lord and Master and that he would strengthen their hearts in this day of visitation and give them patience to undergo the Cross that 's laid upon them and no doubt but in due time he will give her joy for heaviness and turn the hearts of her persecutors to support with the right hand whom they have buffered with the left This is the Lords doing thus to visit her and would it please him to say to the destroying Angel It is enough would he in mercy turn to his Vineyard and have pity on her would he please to restore her beauty that she might rejoyce in her salvation and and that the world might no longer laugh to see Christs disciples weep Joh. 16.20 Then I dare on her behalf promise she would not be slack to reform the enormities committed against Christ and his Truth And as in the mean time she may not justly
wine we do signifie the flesh and blood which he offered for us And the Old Testament saith he was instituted in blood because that blood was a witness of Gods benefits in signification and figure whereof we take the mystical cup of his blood for the tuition of our body and soul he and many more concurring in judgement in this point that the Sacramental bread and wine are not corporally and really the natural substance of the flesh and blood of Christ but that they are similitudes significations figures and sâ—gnes of his body and blood and therefore be called and have the name of his flesh and blood and were but indeed tokens thereof and meant of a spiritual grace as Christ witnesses The words which he spake were spirit and life Joh. 6. It was bread which he took it was wine which he gave saying I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine till I drink it with you in my Fathers kingdom They were the elementary parts of the Sacrament signifying the spiritual substance of his body and blood And when he took the bread and the cup and said This is my body this is my blood it is manifest by what I have already spoken that that saying was a figurative speech To maintain that it was very flesh and very blood Christ gave to his disciples Bread and wide are the outward elements of the invisible grace doth utterly destroy the nature of a Sacrament both according to the Tenents of the Church of Rome and all other Churches concerning the nature of a Sacrament The Church of England holds that the bread and wine are but the outward visible signes of the inward spiritual grace And herewith agrees S. Austin in his definition of a Sacrament lib. 2. de doctr Christian Sacramentum est sacrae rei signum sensibile sanctificans nos S. Tho. part 3. quaest 60. art 3. says Tria significantur primuÌ„ causa effectiva nostrae sanctificationis scilicet Passionem Christi Hoc facite in mei commemorationem 1 Cor. 11. secundum causam formalem nostrae sanctificationis scil gratiam tertium cansam finalem quae est gloria Whereupon the Church hath this heavenly Song Oh sacred banquet in which Christ is received and the memory of his Passion recollected by which our mindes are filled with grace receiving a blessed pledge of future glory Hugo de Sancta Victoria part 1. cap. 1. Sacramentum è materiale elementum foris sensibus praepositum ex similitudine representans ex institutione significans ex sanctificatione continens aliquam invisibilem spiritualem gratiam And herewith agreeth S. Austin saying Sacramentum signum est quod praeter speciem quam ingerit sensibus facit quicquid in cognitionem venire The Councel of Florens treating upon the Sacrament of Confirmation have resolved that all Sacraments must consist of matter and form there must be an outward signe to signifie the inward grace Wherefore I wonder that the Papists can for shame deny that the matter of bread and wine should remain in the Eucharist for by this means they deny it to be a Sacrament destroying the end of Christs holy institution which was That it should be had in remembrance of him And they generally gainsay the publike profession of their Church by the contradictory practices in private and particular Masses and Altar-Sacrifices And they likewise go against Christ who says This bread is my body He did not say This is no bread but my body And certainly if Christ would have had us to think the substance of the elements were changed he would not have called them bread and the fruit of the vine Nay he would not when he explained the words of giving his flesh to eat and his blood to drink have said his words were spirit and life And S. Paul therefore to witness this truth with the Church of England says The bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ He thereby explaining Christs saying Hoc est corpus meum to be meant of a spiritual eating and of a communion of his body we being hereby made one with Christ he dwelling in us and we in him Besides when Christ bade them drink all of the Cup it was wine he bade them drink for the words of consecration follow And therefore if the Apostles drank any thing else they did not fulfil the precept or else Christ commanded them to drink that that was not there which were impious to imagine And as for the bread it is called bread after consecration for S. Paul calls bread the communion of Christs body which must needs be understood of bread consecrate otherwise it is not the communion of his body So that it is evident that the elements of bread and wine remain in the Sacrament and are not materially changed And this the Monks which administred to King John of England and to Henry the seventh the Emperour knew well enough which Princes the better to further the holy designes of the Pope were dispatched hence out of this world by the poysoned elements of the Eucharist which elements Christ ordained Sacramentally to be received for our nourishment thereby signifying our communion with Christ by the bread and wine made of many ears and many grapes and our growing up by faith in Jesus even as those elements turn into our flesh and blood by natural digestion so Christ is spiritually conveyed unto our souls which are fed by his flesh and blood which every faithful and worthy receiver is by the receiving of this Sacrament made partaker of The Doctor would perswade us fol. 327. that if by denying the bodily presence we mean onely not with accidents of his body as quantity figure and the like and that Christ is â—ot so bodily in the Sacrament but spiritually Then we agree with the Catholikes But then in the same leaf â—e would again perswade us that Christ cannot be really there unless his body be there and that it must be as well corporally as spiritually there or else we deny Christs being there To which I answer The errour of Transubstantiation We by maintaining a spiritual eating and drinking of the body and blood do not divide the spirit from the body as the Church of Rome doth by maintaining a bodily presence because according to their doctrine the wicked receive the body and not the Spirit as I have already proved we by taking the bread and wine which tend to the nourishment of our outward bodies the thing signified by them to wit Christ Jesus is hereby conveyed unto us to be the food of our souls and becomes spirit and life to us he living in us and we in him and this is onely to the worthy receiver who by faith feeds upon him and lays hold of the benefits of his Passion The ungodly they onely receive the bread wine not discerning the Lords body And if the Church of Rome mean that his body is
CATHOLIKE HISTORY Collected and gathered out of Scripture Councels Ancient Fathers and modern Authentick Writers both Ecclesiastical and Civil for the satisfaction of such as doubt and the confirmation of such as believe the Reformed Church of ENGLAND Occasioned by a Book written by Dr. Thomas Vane INTITULED The Lost sheep returned home By Edward Chisenhale Esquire Chrysost in Matth. Hom. 30. Christianus si malus evaserit pejor fit quam suisset Gentilis 2 Pet. 2.21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness then after they have known it to turn from the holy commandment given unto them London Printed by J.C. for Nath-Brooks at the signe of the Angel in Cornhil 1653. To the Right Reverend The LEGAL CLERGY OF The Reformed Protestant Church OF ENGLAND The Author Wishes many dayes of consolation here and eternal joy in the Holy Ghost THe Israelites lamented after the Lord when the Ark was removed and it pittyed the children of Sion to see her stones in the dust and how can any sing a song of the Lord in a strange Land For my own part many have been the troubles of my spirit Right Reverend for the desolations and miseries that have of late befallen our English Church and amongst the rest this has not been the least affliction of my soul to see her like Sennacherib murdered of her own sons to see her laid desolate whilst her enemies cry There there so would we have it When Ierusalem was destroyed she became an habitation unto strangers and our English Sion being now laid waste a Babylonish Tower of Rome would fain be built by the Enemy upon our holy Hill But that which most afflicted me was to see the sons of our Sion's Tower being compleatly furnished out of her spiritual Magazine and being harnessed and carrying bowes to resist the Darts of Satan should like the children of Ephraim turn their backs in the day of battel amongst whom I finde Doctor Vane the Author of a Book intituled The lost sheep returned home to be the Ring leader and chief of the Apostate-Tribe who had no fooner escaped out of our English sheep-fold but straightway he discovers the Muset thorow which he stole thinking thereby to decoy the rest of the flock into the Wilderness Now I seeing this injury done unto our English Vineyard though it was not proper to me to make up the fence did presume to lay these thorns in the breach whereby I might divert the Flock from straying after novelties and seeking after strange Pastours and in the interim blind the Wolves that they should not discover the breach that is made in our Pale Some I know will condemn me for presuming to treat upon this subject being a Theam too high for my reach and too sacred for my calling and with Socrates will condemn Lysia's Oration as not being suitable for him that was to pronounce it If there be any such amongst us I desire them to take notice That when the Temple was to be rebuilt all the people of Israel without exception contributed towards the work Ezra 11.5 6. The Priests and Levites and all the children of Israel c. and appointed the Levites to set forward the work Chap. 3.8 For my part I do not desire to transgress the bounds of a well-wishing Israelite I do not with Uzzah think to support the Ark with my own hand but humbly present to your judicious sense the sweet smelling flowers which grow in others Gardens and withal give your Reverendships a view of the wilde Thistles that bear no Figgs leaving it to your choyse to weed out the one and root up the other to whom the work more properly belongs For my part had I not perceived that the hearts of many of the Romish Faction were hardened through the deceitfulness of that Book insomuch that many began to triumph over the wounds therein given to our English Church as if the Protestant Religion were neckt in the sparring blowes And had I not been upbraided daily with the clamorous insultings of divers Papists that our Church wanting grounds of Replyes was the cause of her silence I had neither given them this occasion to censure me of presumption or busied my self either for their information or the Church of England's justification the one more properly belonging to anothers charge the other needless in respect the quarrel they have renewed is but with their own shadow all that ever they now pretend being heretofore fully answered the force of Divinity and weight of Reason adjudging the Garland to our English Church Nevertheless those answers being in several pieces and many not having the several Books and the Doctor having couched many subject matters in one Volume I thought it requisite that a Reply were composed in answer to his objections not the importance of his subject matter but the ease and convenience of the people to have him answered in one piece calling upon some to this work And I consulting with my self and imagining after so long a time of its not being answered that the more judicious amongst you might perhaps think it below them to make a reply to that which had already by others been most fully and plainly refuted answered did assume the boldness to re-capitulate this ensuing Treatise which together with my self I prostrate at your feet Amphion plaid ever best when he heard poor Ithoneus blow upon his Oaten Pipe and I could wish these rude Collections of mine might but serve as a Plain-song whereon your Reverendships might descant I did not intend that these loose pieces thrown into the Gap should stand for a sufficient Fence for our English Vine-yard onely I was something confident that they might be serviceable to you and be made use of in part as being Materials prepared for your use wherewith you might firmly repair the Breach which the Doctor has made which being set by your more Divine hands might become a growing Rampire against the Wolves and Foxes that would steal into your Vine-yard to pluck your Grapes and a standing Bulwark to keep her up maugre the engines of Hell and Satan I know it is you to whom the charge of the Plantation is committed it is you that are the proper Husband-men and know best how to fence her clusters you are the Levites must repair the breaches in our English Tabernacle I beseech you be not offended that I have taken notice of this Gap made in your Fence but rather let this my boldness finde pardon from your goodness and let this piece be acceptable to you as coming from one that in humility and love desires you to have an eye to this breach and if when you view the pieces I have thrown into the Gap you finde any that are proper for your Fence fix it down and throw the rest by or if in your judgements you think it need no further reparation yet vouchsafe to confirm it with your holy hand sith this bold
that of S. Paul Galat. 2.8 He that was mighty by Peter in the Apostleship over the Circumcision was also mighty by me towards the Gentiles but do and hope still to hold out the truth they have received against any innovation of the Romish See whatsoever and particularly the Church of England When the first Councell of Nice was called England not subject to Rome we had a Church planted here and publike profession of the Faith of Christ 120. years before that Councell and had Bishops and Metropolitans of London and York and although it might tacitly be inferred from the sixth Canon of that Councell that we were within the Jurisdiction of Rome as being within the West yet in the second Canon thereof is mention made of many Provinces and power of Jurisdiction reserved to every Metropolitan which by the next generall Councell 2. Can. is further enlarged Ecclesias in longinquis Gentibus constiâ—utas gubernari convenijtuxta consuetudinem quae est à patribus observata By which Canon we may justly claim provincial Jurisdiction to the Church of England having at that time a Metropolitan of our own however it is confirmed to us in the Chalcedon Councell 19. Can. Episcopos in unaquaque Provincia bis in anno Metrapolitano istius provinciae provinciales Episcopos admonente convenire licet which was afterwards confirmed and declared in a Councell at Antioch 20. Can. Provincial Councels that it was lawfull for Metropolitans of Provinces to call Counsells propter utilitates ecclesiasticas absolutiones earum rerum quae dubitationem controversiamque recipiunt and by the said Councell of Antioch the nineth Can. and the Councell of Carthage the seventeenth Can. it is decreed that in every Province there be a Metropolitan so that had we had none before we might by these two Canons claime one but having one it is confirmed to us to be distinct of our selves and for one Metropolitan to govern and call Councells without any appeal to Rome having the authority of Councells to confirm this unto us nor is this to arrogate to our selves any more then what of right belongs to us and what other Provincials may justly challenge to themselves and what has beeh practised of old both by the French Germans Spaniards c. as shall be shewed more at large in the chapter of Councells If I should argue like the Doctor Possession infra chap. 4. I must plead possession of this priviledge as he doth for Universality and say it were jus Gentis but I dare not in cases of this nature stand to that humane Plea possession for hold and prescription for time is no good Plea in cases of Religion though in civill matters for peace sake and avoiding contentions it be admitted in bar of after too busie Inquisitors for the first may be a claim by intrusion which is the point in question and the other antiquity of error malus usus est abolendus let custome yeeld to truth is a sound axiom of Divinity I will not therefore stand so much upon possession of this immunity as upon the right of that possession though whilest I prove a possession from these Councells I destroy Romes prescription to Universality in that these records are above her Donor Phocas and so annihilate her puisne title It was the Decree of the Councell of Carthage 28. Can. that Priests if they thought themselves agrieved at the censures of their Diocesans to appeal to the primate of their own Province and not to Rome or any other See over Sees and if they did they stood excommunicate from the rest of the Churches in Africa and shall we being as free and having as good right to this priviledge subject our selves to a forraign See at Rome sith we may call a Councell of our own which may upon serious debate judge of things maintained and done by other Churches and resolve whether to admit of them into their own provinciall Churches without being branded for Heretikes and Schismatikes upon which score the Church of England did in her full and lawfull assembles heretofore cast off some usurpations of the See of Rome and did retain what she conceived Apostolical what she cast off we offer to the world to maintain the action by authority of Scripture Fathers and Councells and what we retain Rome cannot blame for we being provinciall and having a Metropolitan of our own and a lawfull Succession of Bishops as I shall shew anon even from Apostolicall Ordination to this day we might well reform propter utilitates ecclesiasticas absolu iones controversiae infra provinciam without either appealing to Rome or she questioning what we do herein yet in those things we differ we would willingly submit them to the sentence of a generall Councell might it be free and rightly constituted of which in the chapter of Councells In the mean time we may with confidence affirm that Rome is not the only Catholique Church and for the better satisfaction of the Reader of the justnesse of this our claim and to acquit us of all presumption in this point I will crave pardon though it do not much conduce to the subject matter of this chapter any further then what is already spoke to give him a brief relation of the planting of the Christian Faith in this Island of Britain It is recorded by the ancient Writers and preservers of antiquity in this Isle England converted to the Faith that the Gospell was planted here by Joseph of Arimathea who was sent hither out of France by Philip who was sent thither by Paul some affirm it was Philip the Apostle upon dispersion of the Jews to have come to France but for my part I rather encline to think it was Philip the Deacon who was ordained by Paul Acts 6. and that Paul sent him into France and that he planted the Gospell here and it is agreed by all that Joseph of Arimathea was here and did preach the Gospell to the Britains about the year of our Lord 63. and here remained in this land all this time and died here and was buried at Glassenbury and was the first that preached to the Britains but whether he was sent of Paul from Rome or came from Philip out of France who came thither directly from the East and not from Rome as some suopose the histories do not plainly declare nor is it much materiall for whether Philip came from the East or from Rome and sent Joseph hither it is certain Joseph had his Mission from Apostolicall order besides presently after Simon Zelotes was sent out of France hither as Nicephorus lib. 2. cap. 40. reporteth and here the Gospell was received and nourished though not publikely professed before Lucius time which was Anno 169. after Christ for as a City upon a hill cannot be hid so the Gospell having been preached here though but in some obscure corners of the Isle did so spread by Gods blessing upon the labours of them that
but was reduced back and centred again in its own proper sphear and that not by any compulsive power but as if the succeeding Pope Adrian had felt som compunction of Spirit for detaining that which of Right belonged to the Civill Magistrate he did freely and by consent of a Councell at Lateran give power to Charles the Great to appoint the Bishop of Rome and to dispose of his See Apostolick which so remained in him and his Successours for a long time and since diverse Popes of Rome by vertue hereof have been deposed as Benedict 5th by Otho the first and Leo placed in his roome and Gelasius deposed by Hen. 5. and several others which came not in in right of the Emperours as may appear by the German and Italitan Histores wherefore the pretence of some Popes Parasite that Ludovious Pius successour to Charles the Great should release this priviledge of Collation back again is vain and utterly false as is evident by these transactions of succeeding Ages The Romans bound themselves to Henry 3d the Emperour by Oath not to meddle with the appointing the Emperour which after within four years when the Emperour was absent was violated the Clergy of Rome choosing Stephen 9th anno 1057. which being but an usurpation in the Clergy so to doe the Cardinalls thought they had as much right as those Clergy-men and therefore upon the Rule that one Thief may rob another did by the assistance of Pope Nicholas 2d and Hildebrand his Cardinal Chaplain take it to themselves so that whosoever is Pope by their Election hath no right to the Chair for that the Title of the Cardinalls is surreptitious and illegall in its Commencement Et quod ab initio valet in tractu Temporis non convaliscat For the Pope being a Spiritual man ought not to plead possession when as his claim is by Intrusion and prescribe he cannot for that these Records are extant to the contrary since therefore by primitive right and by reduction after a separation thereof and that made good by Authority of Pope and Councell and after by Oath confirmed it doth belong to the Emperour of the West or the King of France to appoint the Bishop of Rome Let the present Emperour look to his Right as he will be served and let him beware of too long a discontinuance of this priviledge for should the gnawing rusty teeth of time worm-eat and rase all his Records and Testimonies that prove him a right to this Collation he shall never repair his losse when as he may be sure the Vactitan Hill shall be stored with old and new additions to the Bishop of Rome a right to appoint Germany an Emperour And as the Emperour had right to Collate to the See of Rome so likewise had he the same right to other Metropolitan Sees of Germany till over looking his Right to Rome the rest fall from him according to the Rule Dato uno absurdo mille sequuntur But I return back to England and will shew what right the Civill Magistrate hath to appoint Bishops in England without consent of the Pope By the Antient Lawes and Constitutions of this Kingdome The Kings of England appoint Bishops without the Pope the King was Patrone of all the Bishopricks in the Land for the Rule is Patronum faciunt dos edificatio fundus they were all donative and of the Kings gift Per traditionem annuli Pastoralis baculi as appears by the Law-books 7 Edw. 4. Cook 10. Report 73. and Matthew Paris History fol. 62. The King by Edward the Confessours Lawes cap. 19. is declared to be Vicarius which was long before acknowledged by Eleutherius in his Epistle before recited summus persona mixta cum sacerdote Constitutus est ut Populum dominii super omnia ecclesiastica Regat By the Judges of old it was declared that Papa non potest mutare leges Angliae none can Found or Erect a Colledge Church Abbey c. without the Kings Warrant Dyer 271. the Priviledges of the Church were growing out of the Civil Magistrates power and therefore by the Articles Super clerum made 9 Edw. 2. no suite was to be before the Bishops for any matter whatsoever but a prohibition lay and there it is expressed in what cases it shall be allowed 16 Edw. 3. Excom 4. and 2 R. 3.22 Excom by the Pope is no disability of any suit within this Kingdome which resolutions are grounded upon the Common Law of this Kingdome which Common Law is but certain reasonable Customes and usages of the Land refined by the experience of succeeding Ages and drawn into forme by Edward the Confessor which gathered it out of Divine natural and moral principles and as I said the antient reasonable usages of the precedent Ages and that the King is by antient Custome Vicarius sumus and with the advice of his nobles did appoint Bishops is proved by Eleutherius who was the first Bishop of Rome that ever had any entercourse concerning Church affaires in this Land which was onely to assist and further the Ministry but in no means to take from the King what was his right or what formerly belonged to him nor was this Antient right ever invaded till Beckets businesse that I can find 't is true that some strangers were sent hither and recommended by the Bishop of Rome to be by him preferred to English Benefices which were out of courtesie accepted but this did not prove any right of Collation in the Bishop of Rome at all nor did ever he set up his pretence to that Right till Hen. 2. time Which quarrel the advantage of the troubled times did occasion not the Justice of the Popes Cause to spur him to clear his title thereto he knew well enough that the King had the sole Power and just Title without him to set up what Bishops he pleased And whereas it may be objected that the Bishops of England are elegible it is true they are so but that was by the consent of King John for before that they were not elegible but were made elegible by a Roll 15 Jan. 17. of K. John but notwithstanding that grant is so restrained that they cannot be elected without the Kings Writ of Conge Deslier As for the Pope excommunicating the King about Beckets quarrell Tho. Becket that doth not prove the Popes power so to do For to argue de facto ad jus brings with it an absurd consequence it pleased the King to submit to it not being able to oppose the Factions then stirred up against him Infra 90. 11 chap. But it cannot from thence be evinced that the Kings voluntary submission out of policy of State doth make the Popes claim to excercise that power in anothers Province lawfull I have more at large treated of this particular businesse in the 11 chapter to which I refer you But the main businesse insisted upon by the Papists is the grand contest between Innocent the third and
of her spots and deforâ—mity whereas if any please to seaken them both he shall finde that Englands Church which is thus presented to him is black but comely and like the curtains of Salomon is set all with precious Stones and Jewels on her inner side Cant. 1.4 I am black but comly as the curtains of Salomon And if he please to make inquisition into the Church of Rome he will finde that she has onely a glorious outside she is a painted Jezebel that cares not to venter through a Sea of blood to take possession of her Neighbours Vineyards causing the Prophets of the Lord to be slain 1 Kin. 18. She is Harpy-like with a fair face and a foul heart and in that fair face were but the Ignatian paint taken off would rivelled browes and wan-worn cheeks appear How much therefore is the Doctors case to be lamented who hath joyned himself to the Heathen to open his mouth that he may praise the power of the Idols and to magnifie a fleshly King for ever Esth 5.10 Hence is it that in his second and third Chapters taking for granted that Rome is the onely Catholick Church and her Bishop Peter's Successor and absolute and sole possessioner of all Apostolical Power and Jurisdiction he doth hereupon conclude that the Protestant Churches are heretical Conventicles and that they know not the Scriptures without the Tradition of Rome nor can disperse and teach them without Commission from thence Now for that it is my desire not to multiply words I will forbear any particular answer to these Assertions and refer the Reader to my second Chapter where his Holiness Universality is fully refuted And as touching that Assertion of his concerning the Scriptures my 2.8.11 and 12. Chapters are sufficient answers where first I have proved equal Commission then that the Scriptures are to judge the truth of themselves Traditions and Councels and that other Churches had the Scriptures and not from Rome that the Provincials of Apostolical plantation have equal power having the same Spirit to guide them as by the outward means the visible sign of the invisible grace given in the Sacrament of order is in Christian charity to be presumed and therefore may as well judge of those points of Scripture which admit of explanation as the Church of Rome And the many arguments used by the Doctor in those Chapters are not onely grounded upon false suppositions but in themselves are injurious wrongfully accusing the Church of England laying opinions to her charge concerning the wayes and means to understand the meaning of those Scriptures which she doth not profess as Doctrinal And then in the 22. Chapter he would disprove our ground of separation from Rome as to this I have in part touched in the 2.4 and 6. Chapters and in the 11. Chapter I have proved aright in Provincials to reform Schismes and Heresies And whereas he saies we ought not to have separated from Rome hecase saith he we pretending the truth of our opinions ought to have demonstrated them to the world whereby to have reformed Rome and not to have separated our selves To this I answer The first occasion of the separation was about the difference of the Popes Supremacy and he having in a high way got the upper hand of many Churches which were vassallized under his power and the Councels being so abused and made invalid by the late Lateran Prerogative it was to no purpose to offer the difference to a general Councel which must either act for or not against his Holiness having no power to decree any thing against his Holiness as I have proved in the tenth Chapter This gave occasion to other Provinces which could get opportunity to back the right and priviledge proper to their own Sees to cast off any further appealing either thither or to Rome And they knowing this to be an usurpation in Popes it gave them occasion to suspect the truth of many other of her Doctrines and betaking themselves to the holy word of God delivered to them and approved through all ages for the verities of God himself and searching into the Primitive Churches and practices of the antient Fathers they found Rome to have changed her faith as those particulars I have already treated on make mention Vincentius adversus Hereticos sayes that Doctrine is to be accounted Catholick quod semper ab omnibus credendum est and if this must be the rule then are neither we Hereticks nor Rome Catholick Rome cannot be said Catholick in respect the faith of Christ was at other places professed when it was not at all at Rome nor may we be by her called Hereticks because she has changed The Doctor upon Saint Austin's rule fol. 120. sayes that Doctrines without known beginnings are not to be disputed against but those Doctrines of Rome of which I have treated I have fairly proved them to be innovations and therefore by that we are not to be censured for opposing them And whereas the Doctor sayes that Rome must either be the true Church or else there is none he hereby proves himself to be in darkness he has confessed it in Aethiopia without her planting and in several other places I have proved it to have been planted and not from Rome wherefore it is not necessarily to be concluded upon the score of her onely dispensing the Gospel that she is the visible Church if the Gospel be hid it is hid to those that are lost the lost sâ—eep's gone to Rome to idolize the pontifical Pope whom the God of this world hath blinded that the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ which is the Image of God should not shine unto him for saith Saint Paul We preach not our selves but Christ Jesus our Lord and our selves your servants for Jesus sake Which is neither the Jesuites Doctrine who teach nothing but the infallibility of his Holiness nor the Popes profession who would every where be a Master but no servant to the Saints and people of God We therefore because of his change from this Doctrine and because of his intolerable pride and usurpations and as the other Churches shake him off but do not change from the Primitive faith taught by the Apostles and formes maintained by the Church of Rome it self And though we lay long under Romes innovation yet this is no Argument for the Doctor to urge against us that we should not at all reform Christ has withdrawn his Spirit for a time from several Churches as I have proved in the 5. Chapter Magna est veritas praevalebit Truth is stronger than all the power of man as I have proved by Zerubbabel 1 Esdr 4. And though the Pope with the inventions and polices of his Cardinal conclave had so warded the several Churches of the West that he thought them absolutely mastered and under his command to be servants to do his drudgery he did as we say reckon without his Host he did consult with flesh and
I return to search a little further into the Councels The sixt general Councel the Councell of Carthage in which S. Austin was present did confirm the Cannons of the former Councells No â—ppeals to Rome infra chap. 11. declaring the powers of the Patriarks to be equall and the right of appealing to Rome by such as were condemned by the Arch bishop of their own Province was declared unnecessary S. Austin after that who was Bishop of Hippo opposing three Bishops of Rome Zozimus Boniface and Celestine in this so just a cause common to all provinciall Sees as appears by the ensuing report One Apiarius an African Priest being excommunicated and flying to Rome and being absolved by Zozimus the then Bishop of Rome Aurelins the Metropolitan of Afrie with the Councell wrote to Celestine the succeeding Bishop stiling him Dominus Frater and acquainting him that by the sixth Canon of the Councell of Nice ecclesiastick persons are to be committed to the charge of their Metropolitans appealing to provincials or generall Churches but not to any forraign See and reproving the absolving of Apiarius exhorted Celestine Nè induceret fumosum typum in Ecclesiam Christi quae lucem simplicitatis humilitatis praefert iis qui Deum diligunt did afterwards proceed against Apiarius enjoyning him penance notwithstanding the Bishop of Romes former absolving of him and this was acknowledged received of all Churches as an Evangelical truth acknowledged by the succeeding Bishop of Rome Gregory I. who lived An. Chri. 590. reputing the decrees of these first Councells equall with the Evangelists as proceeding from the same holy Spirit of God which he had promised to his Church Se suscipere quatuor prima concilia sicuâ— sancti Evangelii quatuor libros venerari fatetur and thus did the Church of o me continue in brotherly fellowship with the other Patriarks not claiming any Jurisdiction over the rest till Phocas the Emperours time which change was occasioned through a vvicked murder and having by that means acquired a superintendency over the other provincialls the succeeding Bishops have since practised Navigation in the Red See her universall Ark not knovving hovv to ansvver its helm in any clear and pure vvaters the brief of vvhich history follovvs in these fevv vvords Mauritius the Emperour having made John of Constantinople universall Patriark Gregory the Great John of Constantinople universall Patriarch Bishop of Rome writ against that and maintained that whosoever took upon him that stile was the forerunner of Antichrist and did in opposition of that stile assume to himself the title of servus servorum Gregory did not oppose that title in that sense the Doctor would have us to rake it folio 293. to wit that none should be universall Bishop thereby excluding others but to be Bishop of the universall Church it was in Gregories opinion lawfull a pittifull shift to excuse the unjust usurpations of Gregories Successors by this means he will tie universality to Rome in respect of the place not as Peter was universall Bishop and this distinction has destroyed all Bellarmines Arguments who would have the Church built upon Peter and all power of governing given to him which Gregory by the Doctors own distinction confessed calls Antichristian so that I would fain know how Rome can be a Universall Church since no Bishop can be a Universall Bishop for certainly it was not the Universall See before Peters coming and if he was not Universall Bishop how could he make it a Universall See I send this riddle back to the Doctor and desire he will recommend it to the Ignatian tribe to varnish over with a new paint For if this must passe for current that the Bishop of Rome is universall in respect of his See and that the gates of hell shall not prevail against locall Rome the world knows they maintain a lie as will appeare more at large in the fourteenth chapter of this Book â—t is plain to any judgement not aleady forestalled with a preoccupated conceit of Romes sophisticall delusions that Gregory writ against John of Constantinople his being universall Patriark for that it was an injury to Alexandria Rome Antioch c. that any should take upon them that title when both by the holy Scriptures and the judgements and decrees of the reverend Fathers of the holy Church the powers and Jurisdictions of Patriarks were declared to be alike The same Gregory when he was by Eulogius Patriarch of Alâ—xandria stiled universall refused the stile as derogatory to his Brethren and writing an Epistle to the said Eulogius he calls that stile new foolish perverse wicked and prophane and whosoever shall arrogate that stile he does the work of Satan to whom it was not sufficient to be alike and equall to other Angells Phocas made the Bi hop of Rome universall and did tax John of Constantinople for the same It hapned so that not long after this affront done to Alexandria Rome and the other Provinces that Mauritius was murdered by the means of Phocas who no sooner had perpetrated so vile and hainous an offence but his guilty conscience contracted many dark jealousies upon his soul and presented to his phansie many sad and fearfull apprehensions one amongst the rest was that Italy would certainly shake off all Faith and Allegiance to such a Monster of mankind who had justly provoked their dissents to obey him who had forfeited all their loves and affections by his bloudy violation of the Bonds of Nature and Civility by this his barbarous assassination of his Liege Lord and Soveraign and thereupon he casts upon all essaies which way to preserve his Western Territories the garden of his new acquired Empire and calling to mind the respect the inhabitants thereof bore to their Metropolitans and that the affront done to him by setting the Constantinopolitan above him was thorn in his side and had bred in him a grudge towards the then murdered prince Mauritius He to engratiate with the people of those parts and to engage a pragmaticall Orator to blandish his foul murder did resolve with himself to make the then Bishop of Rome Universall Bishop which he accordingly did by vertue of which Donation and by their own strengths and policies since the present Bishop thereof claim this title and Jurisdiction which their Predecessors did condemn in another from which bloudy founder they took this Prerogative and in a full measure of tyranny and against all divine Right Ecclesiasticall and against the doctrine of that See whilest any other had that Prerogative will needs perswade the world that the present Church of Rome is the only Catholique Church Yet blessed be God the light of the Gospell having shined in several Nations of this Western world by the means of S. Paul who God ordained by his grace hereunto hath taken such root in many Churches of the same that they will not admit of this Antichristian usurpation of the Romish See according to