be that Babtlon spoken of in the Apocalips for it is the opinon of many Catholicke Interpreters that in the persecution of Antichrist the Ethnick Idolaters and the Enemies of the Christian name shall perhaps subdue it and of such that prophesie not yet fulfilled may be fitly verified yet in such sort as the faith of the Catholicke Church may continue safe and found Whereby now you see that my applying it to Christian Rome is but a meere calumniation for I know that Christian Rome is not Babylon neither can it be so called without great iniurie and God forbid that by this Prohesie we should vnderstand the same Romane Church which is the Mother and the head of all either to haue beene or hereafter to become Babylon for those things which are spoken of the Citie are not to be transferred vnto the Church I denied that there is a Church at Rome but I did not proue it therefore that negation must be layed vp amongst my euill speeches reproaches and heresies and conuincing my selfe within my selfe being ouercome by reason euen in the same Treatises I constantly affirmed that the Romane Church with her adherents was the only Church of Christ and now I doe most earnestly professe and affirme it I said it made a Schisme when I had not yet exact consideration what a Schisme was and in this I erred grosly this being a manifest falsehood and the proofe which I brought in confirmation is of no force For he who is lawfully appointed head of a Body and calleth and publisheth himselfe for head of the same body doth not seperate himselfe from the body neither casteth away the body from him but ioyneth himselfe vnto the body which hath no coherence with a Schisme yet I will handle this matter more at large in the correction of that worke Now I proceede to declare how it is euident to me that the English Sectaries and much more all the other Sectaries of our age are truly and properly Schismaticks because they haue seperated themselues without any lawfull cause from the true Church of Christ which is the Catholick Romane Church and her adherents 10 There can be onely two causes of a lawfull separation why one or more Churches of Christ and yet not commit Schisme should abandon one or more other Churches from their communion The one is heresie and the other is Schisme it selfe This is well knowne vnto all the faithfull that the hereticall Churches which are incorrigible are to be auoyded by Catholickes and that with such they ought not to haue any Ecclesiasticall communion I enquired often times of the English why they seperated themselues frō the church of Rome her adherents whither for any heresie And truly not none of them could either by words or writing shew me that the Romane Catholicks either of our time or in the time of our auncestors in their generall publi ke profession were at any time stayned with any heresie The Kings Maiestie himselfe of great Eritanie granted to me publickly and plainely and so did the wiser sort of their Ministers of all sorts and not a fewe of their learned men that the Church of Rome did not erre in fundamentall poynts of Faith wherefore the Church of Rome is not hereticall if we will take but that which they graunt Perhaps they will say the Church of Rome doth not erre in fundamentall poynts of faith which thing I also seemed to teach especially in the causes of my departing and in the Sermon I preached at London yet they erre and are fallen into heresie in other articles of faith which be not fundamentall But first I know not what article it may be of true faith which is not fundamentall for neither could I vnderstand nor they explicate vnto me how there may be such a distinction made or admitted that some be fundamentall and some not I haue alwayes thought that all and the sole articles which are truly articles of faith were fundamentall yet I errred when I excluded many true articles from the fundamentall which being true were also fundamentall articles and without heresie could not be denied although they be not of those principall articles of the Trinity incarnation necessity of grace Baptisme in the name of the Trinity c. such as are the Sacraments iustification necessity of workes merrits indulgences and the rest which I haue before rehearsed as already limitted in the Church because those things relye no lesse vpon the reuelation of God then the former and for that cause appertaine no lesse vnto faith then those For he that thinketh God to be a deceiuer in any one article whatsoeuer it be must of necessity also acknowledge him to be a deceiuer in all the rest Then I enquired often times of them who dealt seriously in the businesse to shew some article of faith in which the Church of Rome thought taught erroniously They vse to bring the article of Transubstantion of the bread into the body of Christ frō which they gather as they think some heresies viz. That Christ hath not a true body but a phantasticall if that in the least crum of the bread we put that whole body so that a body should not be a body Item that Christ is not in heauen if he be vpō the Altar on earth which is contrary to the article of the ascension of our Lord. Itē that Christ is not borne of the virgin Mary if that we do make him of bread In these men it is most true that which St. Hierome saith vpon the Epistle vnto Titus cap. 3. There is no Schisme that doth not inuent some heresie vnto it selfe that it may seeme to haue departed frō the Church vpon a iust cause But transubstantiation which the Catholicks professe is very far distant frō those heresies for all the properties of a body in thēselues are safe although they be put in a crum of bread but the same proprieties in order vnto the place which is externall to the body be seperable from it by the diuine omnipotencie which our Schoolmen explicate sufficiently But what heresie can they find in vs if we all doe constantly confesse that we beleeue as an article of faith that Christ had hath a true body with all his naturall proprieties in himself which we beleeue confesse may be kept by the same omnipotencie euen whē the body is brought into the least externall place neither can any impugne this Theologically and humane Philosophy neither can nor ought to measure the diuine power Let naturall Philosophy iudge what may be done by nature but let her reuerence and not iudge those things that be aboue nature Neither doth it follow that the body of Christ is not in heauen if it be vpon the Altar we all confesse that we beleeue by a diuine faith that Christ ascended into heauen and there sitteth continually at the right hand of the Father But yet we say that by dinine power one and the same body may
from Apostolicall Tradition and succession from the most ancient Church which who so followeth cannot erre and he who contemneth and reiecteth such things is to be cast out as an haire-brained enemy of the Church Tertullian lib. de Baptismo setteth downe the vse of hallowed oyle August epist 119. numbereth also oyle amongst holy things The consecration of water for baptisme hath beene kept time out of minde in the Church for Cyprian lib. 1. epist vlt. maketh mention of the water and oyle of consecration and anoynting We haue in Optatus Miliuitanus That the holy Lib. 2. câ—â—e Par ent Temples if they were polluted by any meanes were wont to be hallowed againe with exorcismes and washing of the walls St. Basil deduceth from tradition Lib. de Spirita Sanct. ca. 27. the vsuall rite of annointing the baptized with oyle Antiquity teacheth that the signe of the crosse was wont to be vsed in the hallowings and consecrations of all things Iustin quest 118. Nazianzen Orat 1. against Iulian and in the Orat. at the Funerall of his Father Chrysost 55. in Matheum August tract 118. in Ioan. and serm 3. of the Annunciation and serm de tempore 181. cap. 3. Areopagita and others There are perhaps amongst vs some Rytes not so ancient in which we vse hallowed and consecrated things but seeing the Primatiue Church instructed by the Apostles feared no danger of secret Idolatry when she vsed consecrated oyle and the like why should we now feare who attribute no more vnto these consecrated things then the old Antiquity did vnto theirs Therefore to runne into schisme for these things is great impiety These rites are good seeing most of them are instituted by the Apostles and others sprung forth from the deuotion of Catholicke Churches and all are in no part contrary to faith but rather consonant vnto faith There was in old time diuersity of rytes and ceremonies in diuers Churches and yet they did not therefore depart from a mutuall Communion For as Sozominus saith They esteemed it to be friuolous and that worthily that they who agree together in the principall heads or points of Religion should be seperated one from another for the difference of a Ceremony Therefore the seperation of the English by which they haue deuided themselues from the true Catholicke Church and broken out into a manifest schisme is friuolous rash and impious And to communicate with them in diuine matters is to consent vnto their most wicked and pestiferous schisme 24 I will not here for feare of being too long dispute of the supposed new articles whereupon they ground their complaints and endeuour to excuse their schisme But will reserue this matter to be handled in another place Now I aske them this question Whither they thinke that those which they call new articles be contrary to faith or no if they should be contrary to faith then they should be heresies and should make vs heretickes worthily to be auoyded and to be seperated from the Communion of the catholicke Church But I haue proued already that there is no heresie in the Catholicke Roman Church and the Kings Maiestie of great Britaine and many learned men in that kingdome haue confessed that the Church of Rome doth not faile or erre in fundamentall points of faith and I haue already proued before that there is no true article which is not fundamentall and to be firmely beleeued therefore it maintaineth no articles which are contrary to the Catholicke faith and since they be not contrary to the true faith but containe the true faith they cannot minister a iust cause to begin a schisme But Protestants say the Church of Rome doth seperate and deuide vs from her because we respect those articles But I am sorry and lament that they had made a most foule and grosse schisme before any thing was spoken of concerning these articles which they call new Therefore it is great folly in them to alleage these new articles as a cloake for their schisme for the effect cannot goe before his cause I defend that they haue made a schisme without cause and by this I knew that they were manifest schismatickes and therefore haue departed from them And those same articles which Protestants affirme to be new may be euidently demonstrated out of Scriptures Traditions and Fathers to be true and the contrary articles which they set downe may be conuinced out of them to containe manifest heresies If the sence of the first Authors be retained for some milder Protestants now of late in matters of Controuersie as I haue heard doe vse fauourable explications not much dissonant from Catholicke doctrine by which they seeme to tend to a pious Reconciliation Who without a pernitious errour or rather plaine heresie can put all his saluation in faith only and exclude the necessitie of good workes and absolutely denie our merits and affirme that grace once had cannot be lost and that the iust cannot sinne They who hold with tooth and nayle that these and the like are articles of faith and that the contrary are heresies doe without question erre in matters of faith and declare themselues to be hereticks and by consequence are worthily numbred amongst hereticks by Catholicks in their definitions Therefore not any heresie of the Church of Rome or her manifest or secret Idolatry could giue an occasion vnto the Protestants schisme Neither can they obiect schisme vnto the Roman Church for she made not the schisme but they made it and she endured it for from her Luther and Caluin and the rest seperated themselues first and not she from them When they obstinatly reiected the Iudgement of the Church then they made a schisme Then they deuided the Coate of Christ then they errected one Altar against another then they forsooke the true Church 25 Besides the causes before rehearsed and examined they also pretended for their schisme a necessitie of Reformation in the Church But I could neuer yet see any reformation amongst them but to say the truth I obserued many deformations for the care of conscience is vtterly neglected and cast away amongst them some few accepted the rest haue no scruple of conscience to commit adultery violent extertion treacherie against their neighbours cosenage vsury as people who haue impiously abollished auricular confession fastings penance and such like holy exercises And suppose that they had found amongst vs any thing to be reprehended either in our manners or in our actions or in our gouernment that should not be imputed to the defects of the Church but vnto particular men whose actions are not allowed but reproued by Catholicks neither ought they to haue raised a filthy schisme for those smaller matters when the foundation of faith remained firme stable and vnshaden in the Church of Rome And suppose that we had builded vpon it Wood stubble or Hay as it is said in 1. Cor. 3. 12. Yet we should not be excluded from saluation But the Protestants haue left the
haue sought to diminish it for at last that losse must needs before God be glorious to me also Wherefore I doe first confesse and truly and sincerely out of my owne conscience doe giue testimony that I did not write the intent of my departing from the Romane Church and the Rockes and the Sermon out of sincerity of heart or out of a good conscience or faith not fained but that I might couer with some excuse my shamefull departure and be more gratefull and acceptable to hereticks to whom wretch that I was I ranne in hast and with whom I familiarly conuersed The ten yeares labour which in the booke of the intent of my departing I boasted of were not spent in mature deliberations graue and aduised Counsels or other discreete discussions of the truth but contrariwise mispent in vaine vnprofitable and malicious purposes and preparations how I might boldly vent and put in practise my hereticall lyes and inuentions thereby to satisfie my malitious anger insomuch as my vocation to doe it was not a Diuine vocation but a deuillish suggestion stirred vp in me not by the holy Ghost but by a wicked spirit a spirit of giddines worse then was that of Saules And I do not doubt to attribute my returne back againe to a true Diuine vocation the holy Ghost calling me to returne vnto my Mother the Catholicke Romane Church 4 I said that the manners of the Court of Rome did cause mee alwayes to abhorre it This I acknowledge to haue bin wickedly spoken for neither then nor yet is wanting in Rome very many notable examples of piety and all Christian vertues which may both delight and incite religious mindes to further deuotion I said that by forbidding the reading of bookes written against the Doctrine of Rome there arise some euill suspitions which gaue credit to the writing of hereticks and made men beleeue that there is some thing in them secretly which Catholicks are not able to answere This I confesse to haue beene iniuriously spoken of me against the Catholicke faith who found in the bookes of hereticks false hereticall scandalous and pestiferous Doctrine from the reading whereof the faithfull are to be kept least it infect their soules Neither is it a thing befitting priuate men to read such bookes but the iudgement in matters of such alwayes did and now doth belong vnto the Shepheards who finding venomous Pastures should remoue their sheepe as farre from them as they can Moreouer the arguments of hereticks are deceitfull Sophisticall and easie to be answered I said that the Doctrine of those who opposed themselues against the Romane Church did either nothing or little differ from the Doctrine of the auncient Church and this is false for the opinions wherein they differ from Catholicks are wholly differing from the Doctrine of the auncient Church and nothing can more connince them then the authority of the auncient Church from which they by their nouelties haue so farre departed that worthily for this respect they are condemned for hereticks by the Church of Rome It is therefore detestable and I detest that which I said that their Doctrines were therefore condemned onely by the Church of Rome because these things they said were repugnant vnto the sensuality and corrupt manners of the Court of Rome I said also that at Rome they coyned new articles of faith by maine force And this I said truly against my conscience for I neuer obserued it at any time and I certainely know that it cannot be obserued by any man For the declarations and explications made by holy Church touching articles and mysteries of faith collected out of Diuine Scriptures and traditions of the Fathers and out of the very rules of faith cannot any wayes be termed new coyning of articles Moreouer I endeauoured to take away the title of Catholicke and vntuersall from the Church of Rome in which I erred very much for by the Catholicke Romane Church is vnderstood not onely that speciall and perticular Church which is at Rome but also the whole multitude and company of all the Churches adhearing vnto the Church of Rome in the vnity of faith and in obedience to the Pope in what place soeuer they be yea in the vtmost confines of the earth And it is most true and was approued by me both by word of mouth as England it selfe may witnesse and by writing in my Treatises of the Ecclesiasticall Common-wealth in that part which I heare is lately set forth in Germany that no Church is Catholicke but the Romane and such as are vnited vnto her For all other congregations of Christians being stayned with heresies and deuided and seperated by Schisme from the Romane Church are and be excluded from the Catholicke vniuersall and true Church of Christ and being as it were blinded together with their blinde Guides doe rush and runne headlong into the bottomlesse pit of perdition which I wickedly affirmed of the Romanes to their great wrong For from the Church of Rome at all times a most glorious light of pure and incorrupted faith came forth and doth at this present lighten all other Churches of Christ whatsoeuer But I remember that in the preface of the bookes of the Christian Common-wealth among other things I vsed some words in which I seeme to put and place in the Catholicke Church all them who haue receiued Baptisme in the name of the Blessed Trinity and in so saying althought the words sound euill and make the hereticall Churches true and sound members of the true Catholicke Church which is most false and hereticall yet my meaning was vtterly to exclude the Arrian Nestorian and Eutichian heresies and all hereticall Churches condemned in former times and to retaine them onely that were Orthodoxall But herein I was deceiued in that I esteemed that there were many more Orthodoxall Churches then are for I erroniously beleeued that many Churches which are infected with the heresies of these later Times and deuided by Schisme did appertaine vnto the Catholicke Church which although it be called Catholicke for that it is vniuersall yet vniuersality doth not comprehend any but those that be Orthodoxall and true beleeuing and dilated ouer all the world and continuing in the Catholicke vnity with the Romane For the vniuersality of the Romane Church consisteth not onely in the perpetuall and neuer interrupted or to be interrupted continuance and firmenesse of faith but is also vniuersall because her Identicall or selfe same faith and soueraigne gouernement hath beene dilated and spread ouer all places and into Nations after the comming of Christ for which respect euen in these later times and ages it is to be called Catholicke no lesse then it was in the times of the auncient Fathers seeing that the faith of the Romane Church is dilated in these our times into the farthest and most vast or remote Regions of the East and West and euen to the vttermost confines of the earth So that her children trauelling too and fro from
reason and by lawfull authority that the Pope may excommunicate the faithfull wheresoeuer they are That the precepts of the Church binde vnder paine of mortall sinne That the vnity of the Church dependeth chiefely of one onely visible head of the same Church That the Pope is the true and lawfull Pastor of the whole Church and according vnto his obligation is zealous of the good of Christs flocke by daily thirsting after and most carefully procuring their eternall saluation That in the Masse is offered a true proper and propitiatory sacrifice vnto God That the ceremonies of the Masse instituted by the holy Fathers and Pastors of the Church by the inspiration of the holy Ghost are holy mysticall profitable and ought to be obserued and kept That in the Sacrament of the Alter there is transnbstantiation that is to say a conuersion of all the substance of bread into the body and of wine into the blood of our Lord Iesus Christ That in the sacramentall absolution which the Priest vseth in absoluting from sins is exercised the true and proper power of binding loosing sins which our Lord hath deliuered or giuen to the Ministers of his Sacraments in the Church That there is a Purgatory after that manner and sort which the holy Romane and Apostolicke Church doth affirme it to be That satisfaction is of great power after the fault remitted for the remission of the punishment also That the vse of Indulgences in the Catholicke Church vnto whom Christ hath giuen authority to bestowe them is very auncient very profitable and approued by the authority of holy Councels That we may not onely lawfully pray vnto Saints but also that it is a good and profitable thing to flye for helpe vnto their prayers and ayde That the worship of Images and Reliques is good lawfull and profitable and cannot be rejected without the blot of heresie That the merrit of eternall life dependeth vpon good workes Also I often times loathed and despised the later generall Councels which be of high authority in the Church especially the Councels of Florence and Trent and sometimes that of Constance And by my meanes it came to passe that a certaine History of the Councell of Trent was published whereof I could haue no certaine knowledge for that it was iustly suspected of forgerie and in these things also I confesse that I haue maliciously erred and now affirme that all the most wholsome decrees of these Councels are worthy of credit and ought to be embraced 6 In a certaine Sermon of mine on the first Sonday of Aduent made at London in the Italian tongue and printed I published almost the same errours which I repeated after in the booke of the Rockes all which I doe now deepely detest In that Sermon I faigned a certaine darke night of Popish errours and of the Church of Rome when in very deede in the onely Church of Rome and in the Churches connexed vnto her is a true and cleare Sunne-shining day and out of her especially in England there is a perpetuall night and most obscure darknesse The light of truth and the true and right vnderstanding of the Scriptures which is in the Church of Rome driueth farre from her the mistes of all these errours wherewith wretched England being ouer-clowded walketh as a blinde man groping for the wall at mid-day I said in the same Sermon and I repeated the same in the little booke of the Rockes that Peter was neuer at Rome yet notwithstanding I know that this is a grosse and an ignorantlye and therefore I doe ingenuously confesse that it ought to be rejected of all men I made the Apostles equall in founding and ruling the Church when yet euen out of the very Gospels and Apostolicall tradition the Supremacie of Peter aboue them is apparant I said that the Bishops succeeded the Apostles with equall power and that they were Bishops of the vniuersall Church in grosse when as they are but Pastors of perticular Churches in their sole particular cares or charges the generall Primacie belonging vnto him who succeeded Peter which is the Pope I said that holy water graynes crosses holy Images the Popes or Bishops benediction Stations habites girdles belts the visitations of Churches Altars Beades Processions and the like were meere toyes when yet it is certaine that the vse of almost all these things is well approued and very auncient in the Catholique Church and ought to be preserued together with the vse of other things of later times added as prouokements to piety aad deuotion I affirmed that there were onely two Sacraments Baptisme and the Supper when yet the Catholicke Church illuminated by the holy Ghost plainely teacheth and defineth that there are seuen true Sacraments All which and whatsoeuer other heresies condemned by the Catholicke Romane Church I also condemne and the things contrary to them being defined by the same I also with a firme faith beleeue holde and professe For most certaine it is that in the decrees of the holy Romane Church reason is not seperated from authority and that the Doctrine of the Schoolemen is altogether consonant vnto the sence of the holy Fathers especially in articles of faith I also confesse that I did vndeseruedly in these little Pamphlets complaine of the Court of Rome as if she had vsurped other mens rights for except she preserue by her lawfull authority ouer them the Bishops and Archbishops in their duties there would presently follow a generall violation of her lawes by them And the Church is then very happy when all her perticular Pastors vnder the most vigilant and highest Pastor doe readily receiue and execute both reformation in manners and the custody of sound and sincere Doctrine from him who hath the soueraigne authority And verily except the benigne and paternall care of the holy Inquisition had watched seriously ouer our Lords flocke the scabbed cattell should not receiue any cure but the filthy Canker would daily encrease The ordinary Armour of that Tribunall is found Doctrine and charitable instructions and not those instruments which out of a minde corrupted with malice in my Pamphlets I haue exagerated by lyes and slaunders and yet sometimes when rotten vlcers cannot be cured with gentle medicines it is both fit and necessary that the Physitians should vse more forceable remedies 7 But when the inward burning of the infirmities of my minde was alayed almost by a miracle about the beginning of the Popedome of the most holy Gregory the 15. whose rare piety singular prudence and continuall holinesse of life was such as that I doe not doubt but that it was cause of his aduancement to that high dignity the holy Ghost illuminating me with a certaine diuine light my minde began to thinke vpon wholsome courses And then the dangers into which I had cast my soule began also euery day more clearely to muster themselues in troupes before me and I did wonder how I had fallen into so great madnesse and errour as to
be in sundry places at one time at least sacramentally neither can that be impugned but out of humane philosophie and apparently only And to conclude we doe not say that bread is made a body which was not before but we say that the bread is transubstantiated into the body of Christ which body was before the consecration of the bread so likewise the body of Christ borne of the Virgin Mary was before this transubstantiation and by conlecration the Bread is transubstantiated into it Truly they deuise out of their owne heads these heresies something grossely for he is an hereticke who maintaineth heresie directly But if they aske of vs what we thinke of the verity of the body of Christ of his ascention of his Incarnation they shall receiue from vs a true beliefe in all these things although we affirme some things whereon they thinke errours may follow which we truly denie and they will neuer be able to proue Theologically the contrary Wherefore as for heresie they cannot make or alleage any pretext from hence why they haue iustly and rightfully seperated themselues from our Church 11. The milder sort of English Protestants who are not infected with Puritanisme doe not much charge the Roman Church with heresie and yet thereby they doe not free themselues from the crime of Schisme but they talke much of Idolatrie and the pressing of new articles of faith vpon them wherein they contend that the Roman Church and her adherents that is to say the very Catholicke Church hath reuolted from the true faith And by this they doe principally defend the equitie of their seperation They esteeme that it is manifest Idolatry to worship and pray vnto Saints and to reuerence Reliques and Images but most of all to adore the blessed Sacrament They say likewise there is a secret Idolatry in the confidence we put in the salt water and oyle and other things exercised and blessed They complaine that the Catholicks thrust vpon them new articles in so many definitions made in the councell of Trent about Iustification workes merits purgatory Indulgences c. But these are vaine words if wee Catholicks were truly Idolaters we should not only be hereticks but much worse also then many hereticks and then we were worthily to be auoyded and to be cast out from the socyetie of all faithfull people But I maruell how he that is well in his wits can impute Idolatry vnto them who daily professe themselues to beleeue in one God and are ready to shed their blood for this foundation of faith who continually preach that Gods worship is not to be giuen to any pure ereature So this is but a vaine Calumniation If for the inuocation of Saints the worship of Images the adoring of the blessed Sacrament they suspect vs to become guilty of Idolatry let them but seeke search and know what we thinke of the vnity of the true God and what of the not giuing diuine honour vnto creatures and then they shall easily finde themselues to be notorious fooles who thinke that we be Idolaters that is adorers of creatures with diuine worship neither should they breake out into schisme vntill they first finde in vs true Idolatry 12. None of vs at any time said that holy men already dead or Angels were to be worshipped with diuine worship we are not yet become such fooles Vigilantius obiected this against the Catholicks in old time but slanderously as S. Hierome writing against him doth declare As in other things so in this wee haue approued masters viz. the old Fathers we doe not dissent we donot depart we do not disagree from them we willingly embrace and diligently put in practise whatsoeuer wholsome catholick precepts the Fathers haue left conferning the Saints as Origen lib. 8. contra Celsum Epiphanias heres 79. Augustm epist 44. Et lib. de quantitate auimae ca. 34. Et lib. de vera relig ca. 55. Et contra faustum lib. 20. ca. 21. Câ—ritâ— Alex. lib. 6. contra Iulian. Theodoret in hist Sanctorum Patrum ca. 24. whose words I cice not at large because this little booke doth not beare it From whence therefore haue these blinde masters receiued new eies seeing that long before they were the holy Catholike Church was perfectly adorned with most bright and glorious lights 13 Vnto the honour of Saints belong the Feasts which are celebrated in memory of them praising God and giuing him thankes that he hath preferted mortall men to that high degree of Sanctitie neither is it a new thing in the Catholicke Church to celebrate festiuall daies yeerely in the honour of Saints It is an ancient thing which may worthily be referred vnto an Apostolike tradition besides the Lords day to celebrate the birth-dayes of the Saints with festiuall solemnities for I see it is approued by the ancient custome of the Catholicke Church I finde Cyprian lib. 3. cpist 6. to haue vsed diligence that the dayes on which the Martyrs lost their liues for the faith should be carefully set downe that on such dayes saith he we may make oblations and sacrifices for their commemorations S. Iohanes Chrysostome serm in Martyrem Pelagiam and S. August psalm 88. part 2. in the end doe exhort the people to celebrate deuoutly the solemnities of the Saints wherefore I cannot but much wonder at the new scruples of the Protestants who will seeme to know more then is true whilest they esteeme that the feasts of all the Saints and also of the blessed Virgin Mary Mother of God and of the Apostles and most famous Martyrs ought to be abrogated although in England they haue left somewhat in this kinde yet very little 14 They say it is all one to pray vnto Saints that be dead and to haue many Gods and that the inuocation of Saints and worshipping of Images doth not differ from the customes of the heathen for which cause they hate vs very much But it were easie for vs if this place would beare a longer disputation about the inuocation of Saints to refell all the slaunders of these hereticks for first they are compelled if they will giue credit vnto the holy Scriptures to grant that the soules of the Saints doe make intercession vnto God for vs mortall men euen in particular and it is very well knowne that the faithfull in this life doe finde helpe before God by the prayers of the just men here vpon earth for Moyses many times auerted the anger of God from the people of Israel and God perswadeth the friends of Iob ca. 42. 18. to procure Iob to pray for them that they might obtaine remission of their folly Paul many times commendeth himselfe to the prayers of the faithfull Ephes 6. 19. Colos 4. 3. 1 Thess 5. 23. 2 Thess 3. 1. Heb. 13. 18. c. and they may learne if they will that the Saints deceased whose soules liue before God and raigne with Christ make intercession for the liuing of the millitant Church Hierom. 15. 1. Ezechiol 14. 14.
foundation they haue forsaken the foundation it selfe and the gold and siluer and pretious stones which they vainely brag of and vaunt to be theirs are more base then the filth and mire in the streets vnlesse they be built vpon the true foundation which is Christ There is one foundation not two foundations one Church not two one Christ not two If Christ be our foundation which they cannot deny then he is not theirs They haue made another Church deuided and seperated from ours and that cannot be the Church for that the Church is one and not two He that will be a member of that Church must needs be without the true Church of Christ 26 I confesse that the English Protestants deceiued me before that I had exactly considered the nature of a schisme for when I obiected schisme vnto them some answered that it was not their fault that they did not communicate with the Church of Rome they were ready to be in vnion but the Pope would not receiue them into his communion but reiected them with an anathema This excuse seemed to me for a time to be iust and reasonable but after I begun out of this ground in my priuate arguments and publike Sermons to vrge an vnion which vpon their words seemed to me somewhat easily to be concluded and so thrust my finger further into the wound then I perceiued that in England they did not vse the English confession or authorised articles for a rule of their faith which as they affirmed were very modest But the Confession of Caluin and many grosse errours of Luther And this I perceiued more euidently when I looked into the counterfeit Sinod of the Protestants at Dort in which the puritanicall articles of Caluine by consent of the English Agents were confirmed with the good liking of the English sect And if the English confession which is deuided into certaine articles doth not include in them those puritanicall articles of Dort why did they giue their consent and voyces vnto the Caluinian excesses in the name of the English sect Moreouer how can they which professe themselues mortall Enemyes to the Church of Rome be thought to desire an vnion with the Church of Rome and that the defect of agreement is not on their parts How can they cast the causes of schisme vpon the curses of Rome and Councell of Trident when before the said curses they had deuided themselues by schisme from the Catholicke Church and by such a schisme as in some respect was farre worse and more foule then was the schisme which was first raised by Luther and increased by Caluine For that England at the beginning abstained from the opinions of Luther and Caluine neither did they charge the Church of Rome either with heresie or Idolatry which the Lutherans and Caluinists made the pretext of their schisme and yet neuerthelesse without any apparent cause long after they yealded vnto the common schisme of these hereticks And now at this time the Englishmen for the most part doe not onely commend and defend the deuision and seperation made but striue by all force to maintaine it for they flye backe from vnion cast away charity and doe all they can to hinder peace and brotherly Loue in such sort as that many of them say they will sooner and more willingly enter into allyance or league with the Turks then with the Papists Call you this a minde ready to agree or to make an attonement is it likely to be true that the fault is not theirs why they doe not communicate with the Romane Church No it cannot possibly be that the vnion whereof I had some hope should take effect except they doe first detest all heresies and heretickes and beleeue aright with the Catholicke Roman Church and be conioyned vnto it in perfect Charitie 27 Henry the 8. made little difference but with the Pope onely whose primacie he denied with an hereticall spirit and moued with some distempered humours violently tooke vnto himselfe onely the Ecclesiasticall supremacie and carried himselfe more modegatly in other things which belonged vnto the faith and diuine seruice and ceremonies of the Catholicke Religion Vnder Edward his sonne a childe and much more vnder Elizabeth they departed not onely from the Pope the Vicar of Christ and supreame Pastor of the whole Christian slocke but also the diuine seruice and worship of God was taken away from the Catholicks by maine force and iniury and forbidden by the publique secular lawes What was there any lawfull Synode first called were the obiections against the Catholicks examined and discussed were their answers heard were they conuicted of any errour or impiety in Religion was the iudgement giuen by any competent Iudge No such matter Doth not the same violence the same iniury the same impietie continue for what labour and paines doe they who haue the chiefe charge of their Religion in England such as it is daily take least that the diuine anncient pious and prescript seruice should be restored vnto Catholicks And are not they then in the fault that the Schisme is not taken away They vrge Reformation yet Reformation although it be iust and necessary if it be done with Schisme is a most foule hatefull deformation That is reformed which continuch the same in substance Therefore the Catholicke Religion and her substantiall exercises ought to haue remained in England and if any thing therein had been to be reformed it should haue beene put vnder a lawfull reformation seruatis seruâ—â—ndes without taking away necessaries And they should not haue brought in another Religion and suppressed the former or thrust it into a corner thereby to make two contrary and repugnant Religions so as the first is not reformed but as much as in them lyeth lestroyed and a new forged Moreouer there cannot be two Religions of Christ but one onely which is ours as I haue shewed because there is but one Church one foundation and one Christ 28. Therefore when amongst other euils I saw my selfe enuironed on euery side with an inuetterate Schisme and that there was no hope of vnion an Altar being erected against an Altar and disioyned from the charity of the Church I neither ought nor could stay with them any longer with a safe conscience Wherefore the remorse of conscience compelled me to returne vnto the Catholicke Church My Agar hearing the voyce of the Angell reprouing her and saying Returne vnto thy Mistris and humble thy selfe vnder Gen. 16. 9 her hand was forced of necessity to returne vnto the most holy Church her Mistris Moreouer my slight could bring me nothing but shame and destruction God commaunded me to be humble vnder the hand of my Mistris and in this thing especially it behooued me to follow God I wish to God that they vnto whom I foolishly fled would acknowledge their most miserable spirituall estate not onely for their heresies but also for their lamentable Schisme from which as I haue shewed them they cannot be