matters of Faith do destroy Souls like as Wolves do destroy Sheep and that it is as impossible that their Followers should acquire by their teaching Divine Faith and True Sanctity as it is impossible that Thorns should bring out Grapes or Thisles Figgs The same Doctrine is taught by the Apostle who affirms That Hereticks are subverted Tit. 3. And Subvert the Faith of others 2 Tim. 2.18 That they make Shipwrak about Faith 1 Tim. 1.19 That they depart from the Faith 1 Tim. 4.1 That they are Reprobate about Faith 2 Tim. 3.8 and the like Which mischief they fall into themselves and bring upon their followers though they Err but in one Article of Faith as Himenaeus and Philetus did 2 Tim. 2.18 But Note here That the Apostle in the places cited doth not mean that Heretical Teachers do so Subvert and Ruine the Faith of their Followers that they leave them no Faith at all but that they subvert their Divine Faith which is the Gift of God wholly overthrowing that though they leave them store of Humane Faith to which seduced people firmly sticking yea sometimes even to Fetters and Death do reap thereby nothing at all but Temporal Commodities and Vain glory purchased with the Eternal loss of their Souls Secondly Doth appear out of the same Doctrine the great Obligation that Christian People have to keep themselves within the Bosom of the True and Catholick Church of Christ Because that this Church being continually assisted by Christ himself Matt. 28. 20. And taught all Truth by the Holy Ghost John 16.13 doth propose unto her followers in her Doctrine of Faith nothing buth Truth whereby their Faith doth easily come to be Divine and the Gift of God his Havenly Grace Co-operating with them It doth also appear how deeply they are obliged to take heed of and to shun and avoid false Prophets false and heretical Expounders of God's Word which run of their own accord not being sent authroized or allowed of by the Ordinary Doctors and Pastors of the Ever Visible and Catholick Church of Christ And how wary they ought to be not to have itching Ears after new Masters 2 Tim. 4.3 Or greedily to hearken to their Novelties in Matters of Faith which upon the reckoning will be found to be no better than Fables that is than the Fictitious and Self-inventions of mens brains Though these busie Teachers palliate them with specious terms and bear their Hearers in Hand That these their new devices are the Pure Light of the Gospel For by forsaking the Doctrine of the Church the Spiritual Mother and Mistress of all Nations and as the Apostle terms her 1 Tim. 3.15 The pillar and Ground of Truth and following such New Teachers they make shipwrack of their Divine Faith and run themselves assuredly upon the Rock of Perdition Thirdly It appears how dangerously those are deceived who think they have Faith enough to Salvation if they believe those Points of the Christian Religion about which Catholicks and Protestants agree esteeming themselves not obliged to believe any of those Articles about which the Learned of these two Religions do differ and contend As though Christian people were not obliged under pain of Damnation to beware of false Prophets Matt. 7. To shun Heretical Teachers Tit. 3. To obey their Lawful Prelates and to be subject unto them in matters of Faith and Religion Heb. 13. To hear those Teachers whom Christ doth send Luke 10. To hear and obey the Voice of his Church if they will not be held to be in as ill case as Publicans and Ethnicks are Matth. 18. Or as though they were not bound to know the right means by which they are to be Justified cleansed from Sin and Saved to Believe rightly and to Receive worthily the great Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ 1 Cor. 11. Joh. 6. And as though they were not obliged under the same Penalty to believe and profess the True Gospel the True Faith and Religion of Christ and to Serve and Worship God rightly Seeing those which believe not his Gospel that is the whole Sum of Divine Doctrine taught by his Apostles and by their Successors the Ordinary Doctors and Pastors of his Church are to be Damned Mark. 16 As those also are Which deny Christ before men Matth. 10.33 Which Crime all commit who deny themselves to be of the True Religion as is manifest by the Example of St. Peter who denying only that he was a follower of Christ and of his Company was reputed to deny Christ even as those will be who culpably profess a False Religion For such by their very Fact deny the True and themselves to be of the Communion thereof and of the Company and Society of the True Followers Disciples and Servants of Christ whereby at his Judgement-seat they will be reputed to have forsaken and denied him But to open this Point a little more because many even of the better sort are brought thereby into no small danger of Perdition this their conceit is not grounded upon any clear Text of Gods Word or upon the Authority of any Vnerring Church but meerly upon a Mistake of their own by which out of one or two Truths they infer a pernicious falshood upon which while they trust they trust to a broken staff which at their last Leap will let them fall into the deep Ditch of Perdition if before their Death they cast it not away Which presumptuous discarding of Divine Verities revealed by Christ to his Apostles for the direction of mankind to Eternal happiness and by them laid up in the Treasury of the Church as a Sacred Depositum 1 Tim. 6.20 under the sure Custody of the Holy Ghost is no less than High Treason against Christ our Saviour in regard that it raises a most pernicious Rebellion in his Spiritual Kingdom bringing part thereof again under the Tyranny of the Devil It frustrates the full Operation of his Passion extinguishes the true and right Worship of God despoils Christian People of Divine Faith and thereby of the true means of Salvation It deprives the Saints of due Honour defrauds the Faithful departed of necessary Relief It robs Heaven of Souls and inriches Hell with innumerable unwary and most unhappy People For which respects it is rightly stiled one of the greatest Sins and of the loudest crying Crimes that is Note That God cannot stir up and draw men by this his Heavenly Grace to believe these Verities unless they be proposed to be believ'd without all mixture of falshood for if any falshood be packt in among them and proposed with them for a Divine Truth revealed by God he cannot draw Men by his Grace to believe them thus mingled and preposed with Falshood as is manifest because he cannot induce men to believe any Falshood at all And therefore whosoever doth thrust in among some Divine Vereties any false Doctrine contrary to that which God hath revealed proposing the same to be believed as a
that Paganism having been banish'd out of our Land upon the false Information of our first Teachers that it was an Adoration of Devils or evil Spirits and wicked debaucht Men who by counterfeit Wonders and Cheats gained the peoples Adoration since that Dr. Stillingfleet Dr. Burnet and other Reformed Writers will make it out thar the Pagans Adored no Devils but One true Omnipotent Supream God blessed for ever more which they called Jupiter and the rest of the Gods as Inferiour Deities as Papists do their Saints and will prove that the Pagans were charged by the first D. Doctors of Christanity and by all our Ancestors with more than they are guilty of why should not Paganism be restored again to the Land and heard to speak for it self and Dr. Stillingfleet and his zealous companions be Licenc'd to plead for them and for holy Jupiter so foully mis-represented by Antiquity as to be believed an Arch-Devil whom Dr. Stillingfleet will prove to have been a true blessed God for evermore That Paganism was so unjustly banish'd from our Nation if what Dr. Stillingfleet says be true he is a learned Religious and diligent searcher into Scripture the Ancient D. Drs. and Fathers of the Church reading Scripture judged and taught that Jupiter was a Devil as well as the rest of the Gods which the Gentiles Adored Dr. Stillingfleet and other Reformed D. Doctors reading Scripture judge he was no Devil but the true God blessed for evermore any Child of the Reformation may believe either of both and put Jupiter into our Litanies as well as JESUS Christ and offer Sacrifice to him as formerly our Ancestors did for whatever any Man of sound judgement judges to be the Doctrine of Scripture may be safely believed and is the Doctrine of the Reformation Here follows the Sense of Scripture as Interpreted by the Church Councils and Fathers in lieu of those fond fancies which the Protestant Preachers have possest the people with as the belief of Catholicks faithfully reported from a true zeal and affection to my Country-men that they may not plead Ignorance before the Tribunal of the Almighty in so important a concern as their Salvation to the manifest hazard of their Souls Eternity THe Catholicks teaches Pennance Mortification of the Body subjection of the Flesh to the Spirit the sensitive part to the rational by Praying Fasting Obedience Humility Poverty To Crucifie the Flesh and the Lusts thereof Gal. 5.12 Pardoning Injuries loving one another Praying for Enemies doing good to those that Persecute us Forsake all and follow Christ Mat. 19.22 suffering Persecution for Conscience sake making Vows of Chastity And out of the same Chap. v. 27 28 29. By Vowing perpetual Chastity St. Mat. 19.12 leaving the World our friends and possessions to Consecrate our selves by Prayer and the service of God to keep Lent and fasting days to observe Religious Vows St. Mat. 15.15.25 to sell all we have and give it to the Poor Tobit 12. to take up our Cross and follow Christ Tobit 1. to leave Father Mother Isai 58. Brothers Sisters and Wife St. James 5. and all things for the love of God St. Matt. 18. in fine Galib Prov. 27. that there is no way to Heaven Eccles 5. but by the way of Pennance Fasting Rom. 15. and Prayer and such like Mortifications and Austerities of the Body St. Mark. 11. St. James 2. 26. to make Restution of ill-gotten good St. John 4.16.3 v. 14. James 5.20 and Reparation for any Violations of anothers good Name or Reputation 1 St. John 3.14 to feed the Hungry give drink to the Thirsty Cloath the Naked Redeem the Captives Harbour the Harbourless Visit the Sick Bury the Dead to Correct the Obdurate Instruct the Ignorant Reduce the Wavering Comfort the Sorrowful bear wrongs patiently forgive all Injuries and to pray for the Living and the Dead as also that God shuts the Gate of Heaven against the Impenitent and that there is no Salvation without Charity but that Charity it self covers a Multitude of Sins that Charity gives Spiritual Life to the Soul that in Charity we know we are Translated from Death to Life because we love the Brethren That the good Pastor giveth his life for his Sheep St. John 10.12 As That Faith without Charity is dead St. James 2.26 And that the highest act of Charity is to give our Life for Gods Honour and the Salvation of our Neighbour these ways are not pleasing to the people nor easie to Flesh and Blood without Gods Grace If Protestants and Reformers go to Heaven with more liberty and with greater ease and pleasure we must say broad is the way and many there be that find it But if there be no Salvation without following the above-cited Doctrines as the Catholick Church teaches the Catholick is much nearer that the Protestant to the strait way and narrow Gate that leads and opens to Eternal Life There are no Doctrines mentioned here but what are contained in the Catechisms of all Roman Catholicks and that which they teach all Children and which are very wide from those Doctrines that Protestant Preachers report of them about Dispensations with Allegiance Oaths and all other Tyes how solemnly sacred soever all which are no less commonly than untruly suggested for I shall demand of such by what Councils received by the Catholick Church such Dispensations have been allowed or from what Church Tradition such pernicious Tenents have been handed I desire of Protestants to produce one for if it be any point of Faith it must have taken rise either from the Authority of some Council received in the Church or of Universal Tradition since whatever obliges all Roman Catholicks must of necessity enter into their belief or practice at one of these two doors And if these Dispensations have been taught neither by Councils nor Traditions it remains that Protestants have been gull'd by their Pastors in receiving such for Catholick doctrines which are taught no where but in Protestant Books and Pulpits For had such Dispensations been the Doctrines or Practices of Papists what folly had it appeared in Protestant Magistrates to require Oaths of them who hold themselves under no obligation to them when they have taken them and what madness had it appeared in Papists to incur the Forfeiture heretofore of their lives and late of their liberty and fortunes rather then take such Oaths with which if they had advised with the Protestant Minister they might have dispensed at pleasure Country-men read your Chronicles peruse your Statutes and Records review many of your Ancient Customs and Observances look upon the Windows of the Churches reflect upon the Names and Dedications of the same Chruches of divers days of the year of divers of your Colledges upon the Crosses every where erected upon the Multitude of Monasteries Abbies and other Religious Houses which heretofore flourished in this Kingdom and then suffer you selves to doubt
the Vocation in which you are called and a little after carefully to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace One Body and one Spirit as you are called in one hope of your Vocation one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all Your Faith i. e. the Roman is spoken of throughout the whole World i. e. is Catholick Romans 1.8 Although we or an Angel of Heaven Preach to you any other Gospel then that which we have Preached to you be he Anathema Gal. 1.8 Therefore if we or an Angel Preach any other Gospel then that the Roman Faith is the Catholick let him be Anathema Again Brethren stand ye fast and hold ye the Traditions which ye have received whether by word or by our Epistle 2 Thessal 11. 15. Here are both Written and Vnwritten Traditions given equally in Charge and the Vnwritten named first Remember the Prelates who have spoken to you the Word of God Whose Faith follow Obey your Prelates and be subject to them for they watch as being to render account for your Souls Heb. 13.7 17. Contend earnestly for the Faith once Delivered to the Saints S. Jude 3. How was this Faith once Delivered to the Saints Faith comes by Hearing Rom. 10.17 Whom did the Saints hear Hear the Church If he neglect to hear the Church let him be to thee as an Heathen and a Publican S. Matth. 18.17 Which is the Church that if I neglect to hear I am as an Heathen and a Publican That which is built upon S. Peter Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church and the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it S. Matth. 16.18 No Author of our side denied S. Peters being at Rome Note that till we discerned the Consequence That upon his Personal Being there they grounded a Primicy in that See. See Dr. Donne Serm. in Psalm 11.3 pag. 25. Elsewhere thus Pope Hyginus who was within 150 years after CHRIST and the Eighth Bishop of that See after S. Peter Dr. Donne Serm. in S. John 10.22 The Church 3 Reg. 8.14 Matth. 18.17 The Church Unity figured by Noah's Ark. Gen. 6.14 1 Pet. 3.20 By the new Jerusalem Apocalips 21.2 See also Cantic 4.12.6 8. Psal 79.9 Cantic 2.15 Isaiah 5.2 Jerem. 2.21.12.10 Matth. 20.1 Mark 12.1 Luke 5.3 Mat. 13.47.13.24.25 The Church the Pillar of Truth and Infallible Isa 29.21 Matth. 16.18 Mac. 28.20 Luke 22.32 John 14.16.16 13.17 11 20. 1 Tim. 3.15 1. Jo. 2.27 The Church the Body of CHRIST Cantic 4.7.9 11 12. Ephes 1.22.4.4.5.23 1 Corinth 12 27. Jo. 14.23.2 Corinth 6.16 The Church of the Faithful planted and propagated by sound Doctrine Jo. 1.12.3.3 Rom. 8.13.9.8 Gallat 3.20.4.19 Ephes 1.50 Tit. 1.1 1 Cor. 4.15 Philem. 10. 1 Peter 1.27 1 Jo. 3.9.5.1 18. Jam. 1.18 The Church the Spouse of CHRIST Psal 44.11 Ezech. 16.9.2 Cor. 11.2 Ephes 5.5.26 Apocal. 19.8.21.10 CHRIST the Head of the Church Osea 2.2 1 Cor. 12.27 Eph. 1.22.4.15.5.23 Colos 1.18.2.10 The Keys of the Church and their Power Promised Delivered Exercised Matth. 16. 18. Jo. 20.23 Matth. 18.17 Excommunication instituted by CHRIST Matth. 5.29.16.19.18.8 18. Mark 9.42 Jo. 20.23 In use with the Apostles 1 Cor. 5.3.10 2 Thess 3.6.14 1 Tim. 1.20 Tit. 3.10 Matth. 18.17 Confession of Sins Gen. 41.9 Levit. 16.21.39.26.40 Number 5.6 Jos 7.19 2 Reg. 24.17 1 Esdras 9.6 2 Esdr 9.2 Psal 27.7.31.5.37.18.94.2 Proverb 16.3.18.17.28.13 Eccl. 4.25.31.7.34.17 27. Isa 38.15 Daniel 9.5 Matth. 3.6 16.19 Luke 11.4.18.13 Jo. 20.23 Jac. 5.16 1 Jo. 1.8 9. Of Hereticks and false Teachers See Jud. cap. 1. 1 Cor. 11.19 1 Tim. c. 1. v. 20. 2 Tim. c. 2. v. 18. 1 Jo. 2.18 2 Jo. 7. Apocol 2.15 Mat. 24.5.24 Jo. 5. 43. 1 Tim. 4.1 2 Tim. 3.1.5 2 Pet. 2. 1.3.3 Deu. 13.1 Mat. 7.15 Rom. 16.17 Tit. 3.10 2 Thesal 3.14 Joan. 2.10 Deut. 13.5.18.20.3 King. 18. 40.4 K. 10.25 Heresie is a Spiritual Fornication and Idolatry Deut. 31.16 Jude 2.17.27.33 Isa 1.21.57.3 Jer. 3.1 Ezeck 6.9.19 Osea 1.2.2.4.4 Apoc. 18.3 Testimonies of the Fathers shewing their Affection and Zeal to Catholick Unity and their Detestation of Schism and Divisions In Psal 54. saith St. Austin 1. OF the Donatists We have each of us one Baptism in this they were with me we Celebrated the Feasts of the Martyrs in This they were with me we frequented the Solemnity of Easter in this they were with me But they were not in all things with me in Schism they were not with me in Heresie they were not with me in many things they were with me and in some few things they were not with me but in those few things in which they were not with me those many things do not profit them in which they were with me 2. Speaking to the Donatists Epist. 48. saith You are with us in Baptism in the Creed and in other Sacraments of the Lord But in the Spirit of Vnity in the Bond of Peace and finally in the Catholick Church you are not with us 3. To the same purpose Writteth St. Cyprian in his Book Deunitate Ecclesia One Church saith he the Holy Ghost in the person of our Lord designeth and faith one is my Dove This Unity of the Church he that holdeth not doth he think that he holdeth the Faith he that withstandeth and resisteth the Church he that forsaketh Peters Chair upon which the Church was built doth he trust that he is in the Church Where the blessed Apostle St. Paul also sheweth this Sacrament of Vnity saying one Body and one Spirit Ephes 4.4 which Vnity we Bishops especially that Rule in the Church ought ot hold fast and maintain that we may prove the Episcopal Function also it self to be One and undevided 4. And again in one of his Epistles Epistle 40. There is One God and One Christ and One Church and One Chair by our Lords Voice Founded upon Peter Another Altar to be set up or a New Priesthood to be made besides one Altar and one Priesthood is impossible Whosoever gathereth elsewhere Scattereth It is Adulterous it is Impious it is Sacrilegious whatsoever is instituted by Mans fury to the breach of Gods Divine Dispensation Get ye far from the Contagion of such Men and fly from their Speeches as from a Canker and Pestilence our Lord having premonished and warned us beforehand saying they are Blind leaders of the Blind Matth. 15.14 5. St. Augustin says of the Donatists De Bapt. l. 1. cap. 8. Those whom the Donatists heal of the wound of Idolatry and Infidility they themselves wound more dangerously with the wound of Schism 6. And again Super. Gest Emerit Out of the Catholick Church an Heretick may have all things but Salvation he may have the Sacraments he may sing Hallelujah he may Answer Amen he may keep the Gospel he may have the Faith and preach it only Salvation he cannot have 7. In like manner St. Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria as Eusebius witnesseth hist l. 6. c. 45. Writing to Novatian saith A Man ought rather to endure all things than to consent to the Division of the Church of
God since that Martyrdom to which men expose themselves to hinder the Dismembring of the Church is no less Glorious then what a man suffers for refusing to Sacrifice to Idols nay in my Opinion this seems of the two the more Glorious Martyrdom for in the other cause he that suffers is a Martyr upon his own account but in this he is a Martyr for no less than the Body of CHRIST the Church 8. Also St. Cyprian lib. Deunitat Eccles Do they think saith he that Christ is among them when they are Assembled I speak of those which make Assemblies out of the Church of Christ no although they were drawn to Torments and Execution for the Confession of the Name of Christ yet this pollution is not washed away no not with their Blood. This inexpiable and inexcusable crime of Schism is not purged away even by Death it self That a man cannot be a Martyr that is not in the Church 9. And Again he saith He cannot have God for his Father that has not the Church for his Mother 10. So likewise St. Pacianus in one of his Epistles Epistle 2. ad Sempr. Although that Novatian saith he hath been put to Death for Christ yet he has not received a Crown and why because he was separated from the peace of the Church from Concord from that Mother of whom whosoever will be a Martyr must be a Portion To the same purpose also these words of Lactantius are very remarkable It is the Catholick Church only that keeps the true Worship of God. This is the Fountain of Truth this is the House of Faith this is the Temple of God into which if a man enter not or from which if any man goes out he is an Alian and Stranger from the hope of Everlasting Life and Salvation No man must by obstinate Contention flatter himself for it stands upon Life and Salvation St. Cyprian 55. ad Cornel. Num. 3. says The Church never departs from that which she once hath known and St. Irenaus lib. 1. cap. 3. That the Apostles have laid up in the Church as a rich Treasury all Truth It were an infinite labour to recite all that the Fathers say of this matter all counting it a most Pernicious Absurdity to affirm That the Church of Christ may err in Doctrine of Faith. For example How could God glory in the multitude of such as follow his Church if by so doing they should be led into Errour And yet Isaias 2. God seems to Glory in the multitude of those who confidently resort to the Church as to a Mistress of assured Truth to be instructed by her saying v. 3. Let us go up to the Mountain of our Lord and he will teach us his ways and we shall walk in his Paths and he shall judge among the Nations Behold Christ Erecting a Court or Tribunal in his Church to judge among Nations and deside all their Controversies which must needs suppose Obedience to be yielded to this Judgement Yea the same Prophet adds Ch. 54. v. 17. That no Weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper and every Tongue resisting thee in judgement thou shalt condemn And the Prophet there from the beginning manifestly speaks of Christ's Church Thirdly Isaiah Ch. 60. 12. The Nation and Kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish Under pain of perishing the Church must be obeyed Whence Fourthly Ezek. ch 44. v. 23. They that is the Priest shall teach the people what is between a Holy thing and a thing Polluted and the difference between clean and unclean They shall shew them and when there shall be Controversie they shall stand in Judgments This being their Office the peoples Office must needs be not to Judge them but Obey them Fifthly Christ Matth. 18.17 commands to Obey the Church under pain of being held here on Earth as Publicans and Heathens and of having this sentence ratified in Heaven ' Tell the Church saith he And if he will not hear the Church let him be unto thee a Heathen and a Publican and I say unto you whomsoever you shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever you shall loose upon Earth shall be loosed also in Heaven Here you see obedience to be yielded under pain of being held as a Publican or an Heathen and this Sentence to be ratified in Heaven Now if the Church could Err in teaching for Example that Christ is truly present in the Sacrament and hence obliged all to Adore him therein as much as they Adore him in Heaven and could oblidge them to this under pain of being held as Publicans and Heathens and held so as well in Heaven as upon Earth surely this cannot be an Errour for then in Heaven this Sentence would never be ratified St. Aug. Cont. Epist Fundam c. 5. I would not believe the Gospel unless the Authority of the Church moved me What ways the Church has made use of to settle mens minds in the Doctrin of the Sacrament of the Eucharist or the Lord's Last Supper TO make this appear more fully I will give you a brief Relation of the past Proceedings of the Church in the Decision of the Disputes concerning the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament and in the Substantial Conversion of the Elements of Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. This Real Presence and Substantial Conversion Berengarius and some Followers of his long ago denied Who being complained of two Councils were called one after another at Rome and Verseilis Anno Domini 1050 Berengarius Summoned and he not appearing his Heterodox Opinions were condemned He according to the new Protestant Grounds thinking his a Doctrine of great consequence and the Decrees of the two Councils a manifest Error and that himself had manifest Scripture and Demonstration against it judged himself freed from the obedience of silence or noncontradiction of these Councils And so he and his Followers publickly justified his Tenet desiring a reversion by some new Council of the former sentence against it Upon this revived Disturbance of the Church another Council five years after is Assembled at Tours Anno 1055. not far distant from Angiers where he was Archdeacon Here himself with others of his Party were present his Cause pleaded his Demonstrations considered and after all his Opinion again condemned himself also Recanting it The Council dismissed he finds yet other new Reasons and a greater strength in his former and falls again to the abetting maintaining and spreading abroad his old Doctrin A Fourth Council upon these new Troubles of the Church Anno 1059. Four years after the last was called at Rome where himself also was present Some say long Disputation there had his new Plea for it was found too light and rejected And his Opinion opposing Substantial Conversion again condemned both by himself and
THE SPEECH OF Nicholas Heath Lord Chancellor of England Lord President of Wales Bishop of Worcestor And afterward Archbishop of YORK and Ambassadour into Germany delivered in the Upper House of Parliament in the Year 1555. On occasion of the Supremacy Proofs from Scripture That Christ left a True Church and that there is no Salvation but in the Catholick and Apostolick Church Proofs from the Fathers That there is no Salvation to be expected out of the True Catholick and Apostolick Church Certain Principles of the first Authors of the Reformation not so well known to many of their followers The Principles of the Catholick Apostolick Church Testimony of the Fathers touching the Real Presence LONDON Printed for the Author 1688. TO THE READER I Cannot but admire to see most Protestants so negligenn in their search of Truth so seemingly secure and so indifferent in the buying and reading Controversial Books which abound now a days more than ever when yet in their Hearts they know they may be in Errour for even by their own Principles they dare not so much as affirm they are Certainly in the right The swarms of Books about Religion that have these two last years fill'd the Press render it impossile to say any thing New on this Occasion and therefore farther indeavours to write Controversy may seem vain and unnecessary and indeed if all the Catholick Books that have been lately Publish'd were read by the Protestants with the same Spirit of Humility with which they were wrote all prejudice passion and interest laid aside there would be abundantly enough to open the eyes of the people and satisfie all discerning Men that Popery is not that Antichristian Monster which it has for so many years been painted in England but that it is indeed the true Antient Catholick and Apostolick Faith which our Saviour deliver'd and taught his Apostles and which has continued since and been believed in the Church in all succeeding Ages But since we find too many stop their ears against all the charms of Truth since we find still such mighty numbers of Men continue in entertaining their old barbarous conceits of the Catholick Religion and either through malice or negligence very slow in Reading what might Inform their judgements and settle their Consciences it cannot be esteemed improper for every honest Man to contribute his Mite and endeavour what he may to rouse up some by a third or fourth call who have refused the first and second and for as much as many are discouraged by the length and some by the dearness of the Book I have resolved to remove these two Impediments an hours reading with the expence of two pence is all the time and the charge that needs be spent upon this Pamphlet It must not be expected I should launch out into those prolix Disputes that have almost at this day tir'd the Pens of Schoolmen I intend only to establish two or three most important Truths on which the Catholick Faith does more immediately depend What I may beside insist on shall only be in general so as to give the Reader an occasion of seeking elsewhere more particular Information and that with as much brevity as Y can or the nature of the thing will admit I shall take the liberty to suppose in as much as many Protestants own as much that there has been in all Ages since our Saviour Christ planted the Gospel a true Church on Earth or to express my self more in the Protestant Phrase that there has been in every Age since Christ a company of Men who have retained that Orthodox Faith deliver'd in the Gospel I dare not think there is a Protestant living will deny this because he would by so doing first maintain there was an Age since Christ where in all the Articles of the Creed were not true viz. that there was no Holy Catholick Church seconly he would make Christ a false Prophet who has declared he would never depart from his Church but that he would be with her even unto the end of the World and that the Gates of Hell should not prevail against her Matt. 16.18 I will in the second place make bold to suppose that his true Church or this company of Orthodox Men has been visible in all Ages If there be a Protestant in the World so weak as to imagine the true Church was not visible in all Ages I desire him to consider that so much is implyed in the very nature and essence of a Church as to Preach the Gospel and administer the Sacraments which even in his own notion are Visible Signs without which a Church can no more subsist than a Man without a Head or a House without a Foundatian And Secondly seeing Preaching the Gospel and Administring the Sacraments are Actiors Visible and Conspicuous the Church that does these things must by necessary consequence be Visible and Conspicuous likewise there is no Sophistry in this but what any one that pleases may reduce to a plain and easy Syllogism And indeed is there any thing in Nature more absurd and contradictory than to affirm the true Church was at all times and yet not at all times Visible What the Church daily does and what she must of necessity do to deserve that name are things as manifest and evident to humane sense as teaching a School or the Rule of a Commonwealth and will any man affirm that a School can be Taught or a State Governed in an invisible Manner Surely no neither then may any Protestant be so absurd as to believe the Church of Christ was at any time Invisible and not rather Visibly Apparent in her Rites and Sacraments as well as in her Assemblies on those occasions Taking it then for granted that there has been a true Church at all times since Christ and that this Church has been at all times visible it follows by an easie Consequence which every body can infer that what ever Church is not able to prove her Being since Christ and her being visible all that time cannot be the True Church But neither the Church of England nor that of Luther or Calvin nor any Protestant Reformed Church have been Visible in all Ages since Christ therefore neither the Church of England nor any other Protestant Church is the True Church I would fain see to this a plain and possitive answer given 't is what has not yet been given by any defender of the Protestant Cause nor I suppose will ever be to the end of the World. How ridiculous is it and how unbecoming any reasonable Creature what Protestants urge in this matter that their Principles were taught and believed in the Primitive Church till she fell into Idolatry and Superstition where she lay buried for above 1000 years till God rais'd up Luther and Calvin and the other Reformers to remove the Errors and raise up a new Glorious Orthodox Church I have often admir'd how such palpable Nonsence and such gross Contradictions came to
culled out of them Aid this year was sent to assist the Rebels in Scotland against their Lawful Queen The Presbyterians seeing Episcopal Government settled begin to play their Game The Bishops being thus settled begin the next year to make Laws and to compose Articles of Religion and to exact a Conformity to them Upon which they find great opposition from the Presbyterians In her fourth year she was solicited by Pope Pius to send her Orators to the Council of Trent which she refus'd to do The Emperour also writ to her to desist from these Alterations of Religion and to return to the Antient Catholick Faith of her Predecessors In her fifth year the Articles of Religion were agreed on in the Convocation In her sixth year she would have Married the Earl of Leicester to the Queen of Scots Calvin dies this year and Cartwright the great promoter of Presbytery retires out of England upon a discontent to Geneva In her seventh year the Calvinists began first to be called Puritans Dr. Heylyn In her eighth year the Government of the Church by Archbishops and Bishops was Confirm'd And for this we are beholding to Boner the late Bishop of London Who being call'd up to take the Oath of Supremacy by Horn of Winton refus'd to take the Oath upon this account because Horn's Consecration was not good and valid by the Laws of the Land. Which the insisted upon because the Ordinal Establish'd in the Reign of King Edward the VI. by which both Horn and all the rest of Queen Elizabeths Bishops received Consecration had been Repealed by Queen Mary and not restor'd by any Act of Parliament in the present Reign which being first declar'd by Parliament in the Eighth of this Queen to be Casus Omissus or rather that the Ordinal was look'd upon as a part of the Liturgy confirm'd in the First year of this Queen They next Enacted and Ordain'd That all such Bishops as were Consecrated by it in time to come should be reputed to be lawfully Consecrated Baker In her Eleventh year there arose a Sect openly condemning the receiv'd Discipline of the Church of England together with the Church Liturgy and the very Calling of Bishops This Sect so mightily encreas'd that in the Sixteenth year of her Reign the Queen and Kingdom was extreamly troubled with them In the same Sixteenth year were taken at Mass in their several Houses the Lord Morley's Lady and her Children the Lady Gilford and the Lady Brown Who being thereof Endicted and Convicted suffer'd the Penalties of the Laws In her Twentieth year the severe Laws against Roman Catholicks were Enacted In her Twenty third year a Proclamation was set forth That whosoever had any Children beyond Sea should by a certain day call them home and that no Person should harbour any Seminary Priest or Jesuit At this time also there arose up in Holland a certain Sect naming themselves The Family of Love. In a Parliament held the 26th year of her Reign the Puritan Party labour'd to have Laws made in order to the destroying of the Church of England and the setting up of their own Sect. In her Twenty eighth year the Queen gave a special Charge to Whitgift Archbishop of Canterbury to settle an Uniformity in the Ecclesiastical Discipline which lay now almost a gasping And at this time the Sect of Brownists deriv'd from one Robert Brown did much oppose the Church of England In her One and Thirtieth year the Puritan-Flames broke forth again In her Thirty sixth year the Severity of the Laws were Executed upon Henry Barrow and the Sectaries for condemning the Church of England as no Christian Church Thus Sir Rich. Baker Here is an End of this Work. Wherein I hope there is full satisfaction given concerning the Alterations of Religion which have been made by Publick Authority in the Reigns of these Kings and Queens With a sufficient discovery of the Actings of the Presbyterians in this Nation and the ground of multiplying other Sects Here ends of Historical Collections Gentlemen of the Reformation this following Discourse I assure you is not intended to make any Reflection upon your Tenets but meerly out of zeal to your good and desiring the Almighty to give you his Grace not to be deluded by the Principles of the first promoters of the Reformation For it may well be that every one of you does not know the Principles of those first Authors of the Reformation therefore out of Charity and zeal to you and the good of your Souls I declare them here The Preface to the Children of the Reformation BE not concern'd to know whose Hand it is which holds the Link but follow the Light it gives directing you to a view of the Principles upon which the Reformation supports it self asserting a Holy Liberty to each Person and to act as he pleases with a safe Conscience according to the Principles of our Reformation to grant any humane Power can oblige our Consciences against our Judgements in matters of Religion is but an imaginary Remedy for a real Evil. Our common Reformation is cemented and was first rais'd upon this Holy Liberty that every one should read Scripture Interpret it for himself and believe what he though was the true Sense of it without any compulsion or constraint and not to believe either Church State Vniversity or Doctors if he did not judge by Scripture his Doctrine was true Considering the Infancy of the Reformation our blessed Reformers taking to themselves and giving to others this Holy Liberty for to Teach and Believe whatever they judg'd to be the Doctrine and true Sense of Scripture though it should be against the received Opinion of the Councils Church Vniversities and Doctors Look into the Reign of Edward the VI. then did our Reformation flourish in England and was miraculously propogated by the Liberty of Martin Bucer Cranmer Ochinus Peter Martyr and others in teaching Calvinism Lutheranism Zuinglianism by Scripture as every one understood it Descend to the Reign of Queen Mary then the light of the Gospel was ecclipsed in the sense of the Reformers because the flock was again Popishly compell'd to believe not what every one judg'd by Scripture to be true but what the Church judg'd was such Come down a step lower to Queen Elizabeth's time then the flock recovering their holy Liberty to believe what each one though was the Doctrine of Scripture the Reformation gain'd ground and our Protestancy was establish'd the Religion of the Land which others were not totally suppress'd Step down a degree lower to King James his time the Reformation held its course because their Consciences were not oppress'd Look down a step lower to King Charles the I's Reign His Majesty carried with a Godly Zeal of restraining the diversity of Opinions would by new Laws and Ordinances force the flock to an Uniformity of Doctrine then those of the Reformation pleaded for the Evangelical Liberty to believe nothing nor use any Rites or Ceremonies but
manner in the Soul as the virtue of Wheat remains in the corrupted grain to raise it again at Spring feeding it with Grace and at set times affording it new infusions of Actual Grace Divine Lights and Heavenly Affection and in the Resurrection raises again the Body and unites it to the Soul. Reformers Object that the same Body of Christ cannot be multiplied so often over We answer out of Gen. 2.21 Our Lord God cast a dead sleep upon Adam and when he was fast asleep he took one of his Ribs and filled up flesh for it and our Lord God built the Rib which he took of Adam into a Woman I ask how many times over must this Rib be multiplied before a whole Woman of a comely proper Stature could be made of it After the same manner God can of one ordinary Brick make a Pillar of many Foot high by Multiplying that one Brick in the like manner our Saviour Multiplied those five Barley Loves with which he fed above five Thousand Men. Jo. 6. For if he made new Loves he did not feed them with those five but with those many hundred new Loves which he made and yet the Scipture saith v. 12.13 After they were filled they gathered the Remnants and filled Twelve Baskets with the fragments of the five Barley Loves and not of any new Loves created by Christ So that the Bread which was eaten remained still to be eaten and it is worth our noting that our Saviour did this Miracle immediately before he did first declare this strange Doctrine of giving his flesh to be eaten like bread by every one that so when he should have no reason to disbelieve the possibility thereof For his Disciples seeing that he had done that Prodigious Miracle So very lately ought not presently to have said This is hard and who can hear it Neither ought they so soon to have walked a-part from him as there St. John saith They did but rather they ought to have said with St. Peter We believe and know thou art the Son of God able to make thy words good as thou wert able so to multiply so few Loaves Concerning the Exposition of these words THIS IS MY BODY WE say these words This is my Body prove clearly the Real Presence of Christ's Body in the Host Because they ought to be taken in their proper sense in which they would prove it clearly by the grant of our adversaries who therefore say they are to be taken Figuratively Now that they ought to be taken here in their proper sense I prove 〈◊〉 positively Positive Proofs WHen in a Speech a word is indifferent of it sellf to be taken in the literal or figurative sense you must look to the words that follow in the same Speech if they express the property of a figure the word is to be taken figuratively if the property of the real thing then the word is to be taken in the literal sense For Example when one tells me I have seen the King I know not yet what he means whether his person or picture but when he adds set in a frame of Gold I know he means his Picture because 't is the property of a Picture to be set in a Frame If he adds speaking with the Chancellour I know he means the King's Person because 't is the property of a person to speak with another Just so when Christ says Luke 22. v. 19 This is my Body I know not yet what he means whether his Real Body or only a figure of it But when he adds which is given for you I know he means of his true Body because 't is the property of a true body to be sacrificed for us 2. I prove again that these words of Christ This is my Body are to be taken in the literal sense by the Protestant Principle which is this When two passages relate to or speak of the same matter in Scripture the obscurer passage is to be explained by the clearer But these two passages relating to our Lord's Supper This is my Body and Do this in remembrance of me This latter is the obsecurer and that former the clearer then this latter ought to be explained by that former that is to say to the sense of that former viz. Christ having changed a piece of bread into his Body by his Almighty word says there to his Disciples Do ye for the food of other Souls what ye have seen me do for the food of yours Change ye likewise by pronouncing the words I have ordained for that end bread into my Body but do it with such circumstances that people standing by may be mindful of my death and passion But the clear Proposition ought not to be explained by the obscure one thus This is my Body that is to say this is a figure only or a remembrance of my body because he said after do this in remembrance of me for the thing was now done and he told them what it was in clear words afore he said Do this in remembrance of me He did not say this is a remembrance of me no but Do this in remembrance of me He did not speak of the substance of the thing but only of the manner of doing it By these words then in remembrance of me he only intimated that they should make at that same time a sensible expression of his passion to the people as is seen done in the Sacrifice of the Mass If by This he understood a figure or remembrance then he had said do or make aremembrance of me in remembrance of me or remember me to remember me which is ridiculous Now let any indifferent and judicious man be judge if these words do this in remembrance of me be as clear to prove that in the Euchrarist or the Lord's Supper is only a Figure of Christ's Body as these words This is my Body are clear to prove that the Eucharist is his true Body If you instance that as Christ said This is my Body so he said also I am a Vine and consequently as the latter Proposition must be taken figuratively so must also the former I answer it doth not follow there being a great disparity For we all Protestants as well as Catholicks avow that Propositions in the Holy Scripture cannot be taken in the literal sense if so taken they imply or intimate something contrary to Faith as this Proposition I am a Vine literally taken would do Por Protestants as well as Catholicks believe that the Divine Word hath assumed no nature but that of Man then he hath not assumed that of a Vine and consequently 't is against Faith to say in the literal sense Christ is a Vine But these words This is my Body taken in the literal sense imply nothing against Faith no more than he who shewing you a knife says This is a Knife for the term This and the term Knife suppose for the same thing and not for different natures so in Christ's Proposition