and sole though invisible Monarch The foundation of which Church was ever one and the same Rock to wit Christ Jesus the promised Seed of the Woman that should break the Serpents head and as many Persons Families Societies and Companies as truly believed in that blessed Seed without exception of any sort or distinction of People were the true Members and parts of the Catholick Church For the death of our Saviour Christ which long after did actually ensue was virtually through Faith as effectual to all Believers before his Passion as it hath been since In respect whereof the Holy Ghost did not only affirm That Jesus Christ was the same that is the Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption of those that believ'd in him yesterday that is before and after the Law as to day that is now in the time of the New Testament but likewise that he was the Lamb slain from the beginning of the World because his Death and Passion being ever as present in the view and sight of God the Father before whom a thousand years are but as one day the same was typically represented by Sacrifices and effectual Sacraments and the merits thereof have from the beginning been communicated to all Believers So that although in imitation of the Scriptures we have spoken hitherto but of one particular Church and of the Succession of it in the Lines of Seth and Sem yet there have been other particular Churches in all Ages which were built upon the said Rock and promised Seed Cain offer'd his Sacrifice to God as well as Abel though it was not for his sins accepted and it is not to be doubted but that every chief Family of his Posterity had their Priests and publick worship of God albeit mingled with some such Superstition and Idolatry as offended God and made them less acceptable in his sight For as of the Posterity of Seth many perished so we are to judge on the other side that many of Cain's Line died in God's favour except we should think against the rules of Charity that the Curse which fell upon Cain killing his Brother Abel did cause his Off-spring to become as brute Beasts whereas having Adam their Grandfather it is more than probable he did better instruct them and prevail'd at least with some of them Likewise after the Flood all Noah's Off-spring being one Church under him and grounded upon Christ the true Foundation of it although afterward when they were setled in their several Countries allotted unto them they swerved greatly from that Purity in Religion which Noah had taught them yet they had still their Priests their Sacrifices and some outward worship of God amongst them Besides hitherto all the World being as one People if there were then any visible Churches at all upon the Earth it cannot be truly said that the calling of Abraham out of Chaldaea and the Erecting of the true worship of God in his Family did make them to be in worse case than they were before If Churches before they so continued after though Superstitious and Idolatrous Churches Again it is generally held that God did not therefore distinguish the Jews from other Nations and People and settle his publick worship amongst them as purposing thereby that his Catholick Church in their times should only consist of them and of their Nations and such other Proselytes as would be circumcised and join themselves unto them but much more because by that means the truth and certainty of all the Promises and Prophecies concerning the coming of the Messias might be faithfully and diligently observ'd and kept in one Nation and visible known place and People For it is plain in the Scriptures that after the said distinction many of the Gentiles served God and believed in Christ and were thereby made the true Members of the Catholick Church though they were not circumcis'd nor had any medling with or dependency upon the Jews Some are particularly named as Job Jethro Rahab the Ninevites the Widow of Sarepta Naaman Cornelius and some others by whom we are not only to judge of their Families and Governments that they were so many particular Churches but likewise that in every Country and People many such godly Men from time to time might have been found who with their Families and peradventure Subjects were so to be held and esteemed of We will not enter into the discussing of these places how far they may be extended 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 In the word was life and the life was the light of men Is God the God only of the Jews and not of the Gentiles also Yes of the Gentiles also for it is one God who doth justify Circumcision by Faith and the uncircumcised through Faith I have other sheep which are not of this fold Only we do further observe that it was lawful for any of the Gentiles to come into the outward Court of the Temple to bring their Sacrifices unto the Lord and there to offer up their Prayers likewise unto him that accordingly they did often resort to the Temple for Devotion sake there to worship God as by the Examples of the Eunuch of Ethiopia and of certain Grecians that are mentioned in the Scriptures and that many of them were so addicted to the true service of God as the Prophet Haggai calleth our Saviour Christ Desiderium Gentium So that the Catholick Church consisting from the beginning till Abraham's time of such only as were afterward for distinction sake called Gentiles although God was then pleased to bestow his Mercies more plentifully upon that one particular Church of the Jews deduced from Abraham than upon any other or indeed upon all the rest for the principal Causes before-specified yet they were not utterly so rejected or cast out of God's favour but that many of them did continue as dutiful Children in the Lap and Bosom of the said Catholick Church Of which Catholick Church it is true that Adam and Noah for their times were under Christ the chief Governours Howbeit afterward the Posterity of Noah being mightily encreased when thereupon he distributed the whole World among his three Sons and their Issue he did not appoint any one of them to be the Ruler of the said Catholick Church but left the Government of every particular Family or Church unto their chief Heads Princes and Priests and of the whole to the Son of God and sole Monarch of it who only was able to undertake such a charge Neither do we read that Aaron or any of the High-Priests took upon them at any time to extend their Jurisdiction beyond the bounds and limits of the twelve Tribes or so much as once dream'd that the whole World was their Diocess that which they had being indeed more than they well ordered
to an House to a Ship and that therefore she must have but one Captain one humane Head one King one Pastor one Housholder and one Pilot that although there be but one and proper Head of the Church which is Christ that governeth the same spiritually yet she hath need of one visible Head or otherwise the Bishop of Rome and all other Bishops Pastors Doctors and Ministers were needless that although Christ be the Head of the Church yet he ought to have one underneath him by whom she may be governed as a King when he is present may govern his Kingdom himself but being absent doth usually appoint another under him who is called his Vice-Roy that every Diocess and Province hath her Bishops and Archbishops to govern the particular Churches under them within their several Charges and that therefore there must be one Bishop of the whole Catholick Church to rule and govern them all Lastly That as there is but one God one Faith and one Baptism so there must be in the Catholick Church but one chief Bishop and Judge upon whom all Men ought to depend Many more are the reasons grounded upon divers other similitudes which our Adversaries have heaped up together to uphold the Pope's Authority all of them being as vain and frivolous as the former For it is certain and manifest that as the Catholick Church is resembled in the Scriptures to an Host well ordered to a humane Body to a Kingdom to a Flock of Sheep to an House and to a Ship so Christ only is intended thereby to be her only General her only Head her only King her only Shepherd her only Housholder and her only Pilot. Neither can any other thing be inforced from the words mentioned of one Faith and one Baptism but that as we are only justified through a lively Faith in Christ so there is but one Baptism ordain'd whereby we have our first entrance into his Spiritual Kingdom and are made particular Members of his Catholick Church Besides in the like sense that the Catholick Church is resembled to an Host well order'd to a humane Body to a Kingdom to a Flock to an House to a Ship so may the Universal Kingdom of Christ over the whole World as he is the Creator of it be resembled to them all and the aforesaid Titles respectively attributed unto him The whole World is an Host under him well order'd and he is the General of it The whole World is but as one Body whereof he is the Head being the Life of all Men from whom as from their Head they have their Sense Understanding and Motion The whole Universal World is but his Kingdom and he is the King of it ruling and disposing it as seemeth best to his divine Wisdom The whole World is with him but one Flock and he is the Shepherd of it all Men in it being the Sheep of his Pasture to whom he giveth food and sustentation in due season Also he ordereth all the affairs in the World as a good Housholder doth order and direct all the businesses and troubles appertaining to his Family Likewife the whole World may aptly be compared to a Ship in that the State of all Mankind living in it is subject as a Ship on the Sea unto all manner of contrary Winds Tempests and Storms of which Ship were not Christ as he is the Creator of the World the only Pilot the World could not subsist And as the Catholick Church is resembled to a Fold which containeth in it all that believe in Christ so may the universal Kingdom of Christ over all the World be compared unto a Fold in that it containeth in it all Mankind generally his Heavenly Care and Providence evermore protecting them Moreover as there is but one Catholick Church one Head or Spiritual Ruler of it Christ our Redeemer one Christian Faith one Baptism one Gospel one Truth one and the self-same Form or Nature of all the several Theological Virtues and one Inheritance which are all of them to be taught embraced and expected by all that are true Members of the Catholick Church So there is but one Universal Kingdom in all the World the Creator of it being the sole Emperour and Governour of it one moral Faith one Nature of Truth to be observed amongst all one rule and nature of Justice one moral Law one nature of Equity one Kind Form or Nature of all the several Virtues both Moral and Intellectual which are to be put in practice as occasion requireth in this one Empire by as many as expect from Christ their Emperour any happy success in their Worldly affairs But as all these Unities in the temporal Monarchy of Christ are no sufficient grounds to warrant this assertion that there ought to be one temporal King or Emperour under Christ to govern the whole World so the aforesaid Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Unities are not able to establish or uphold this Inference That one Pope must of necessity have the Government under Christ of the whole Catholick Church Also from the authority of Scripture that God made all Mankind of one Adam to signify that he would have all Men to depend upon one why may it not as well be collected that he meant that all the Men in the World should depend upon one Emperour for causes Temporal as upon one Pope in Causes Ecclesiastical Likewise it is a very absurd conceit that our Jesuit maintaineth when he saith That although Christ be the Head of the Church yet he ought to have one underneath him by whom she may be governed as a King when he is present may govern his Kingdom himself and when he is absent appoint his Vice-Roy Of likelyhood this Fellow would perswade us that Christ is sometimes absent from his Church to the end that the Pope may be his grand Deputy For otherwise by his own Example Christ may govern the Catholick Church without the Pope as the King ruling himself in his own Kingdom needeth no Vice-Roy That Christ is never absent from his Church but doth by his Power Grace and Virtue of the Holy Ghost still defend and protect it It is plain by his own words where he saith Lo I am with you always unto the end of the World It is true that he told his Apostles that he was to depart from them meaning that they must be deprived of his Corporal presence but did he signify unto them that for their comfort he would leave St. Peter in his place and after him the Bishops of Rome St. Peter's Successors to govern his Church to the end of the World No such matter These are our Saviour Christ's words It is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you Again When he is come which is the Spirit of truth he will lead you into all truth Again I will pray to my Father and he
sort to be distinguished as God himself is not divided although the three Persons in Trinity are rightly held to be indeed distinguished and yet all the said actions and proprieties of the two Natures of Christ distinguished as we have expressed they are are notwithstanding very truly to be affirm'd of his sacred Person The reason whereof hath been before touched and it is this because seeing that both the Natures are joined together in the Person of the Son by an Hypostatical and consequently a true and essential Union so as Christ is thereby both true God in regard of his Divine Nature and true Man in respect of his humane Nature Whatsoever is the Propriety of the Divine Nature and of the humane Nature the same is wholly and altogether in Christ and is necessarily therefore to be affirmed of him both essentially and properly In respect whereof we say that Christ was dead and that he could not die that he is both finite and infinite eternal and temporal in every place and yet circumscribed in one place For of necessity whatsoever are the Properties of the humane Nature the same are truly and properly to be affirmed de vero homine and whatsoever are the Proprieties of the Divine Nature the same are likewise to be affirmed de vero Deo Christ being out of all Controversie amongst the Children of God verus homo verus Deus And thus we have after a sort both briefly and truly set down the Force and Efficacy of the Hypostatical Union of the two Natures of Christ being distinguished but no ways confounded as the same together with the true Doctrine of all other necessary Articles concerning the Blessed Trinity doth by the Scriptures most truly expounded in the Creeds above-mentioned many ways very notably appear To this purpose much more might have here been added by us if our Course considered we had thought it necessary Only we have thought it fit furthermore to profess and make it thereby known to all Men that there are some other Creeds made by other Councils and particular Bishops like to Athanasius and other worthy Persons as Irenaeus's Creed Tertullian's Creed as we may so term it Damasus's Creed the Creed ascribed to St. Ambrose and to St. Augustine Te Deum laudamus c. the Creed of the first Council of Toledo St. Jerome's Creed the Creed ascribed to Leo which was approved by the Council of Chalcedon and the Creed of the sixth Council of Constantinople against the Monothelites holding that in Christ both God and Man there was but One Will all of them tending to the setting forth the Orthodoxal and true Doctrine of One God in Trinity and Trinity in Vnity not confounding the Persons nor dividing the Substance and of One Christ true God and true Man not confounding his Natures nor dividing his Person Which Creeds we do receive embrace and reverence in such sorts as they have been received embraced and reverenced hitherto by all the particular Churches of the Christian World in as much as they agree both with the Scriptures with the Apostles Creed with the four Creeds mentioned of the four first general Councils and with the Athanasian Creed which contain in them that Faith which was then and so still ought to be accounted the true Catholick Faith nothing in effect being contained in all the Creeds before by us specified which may not be deduced by necessary consequence out of the said Athanasian Creed and the Conclusion of which Creed is in these words expressed This is the Catholick Faith which except a Man believe faithfully he cannot be saved To which Conclusion that in sense is very consonant wherewith Damasus doth end his Creed in these words Read these things believe them retain them to this Faith submit thy Soul and thou shalt obtain Life and Reward from Christ In which Creeds containing the Catholick Faith in those days or in any of the rest we have thought it good here to remember that there is not any one Article to warrant or prove those new Articles which were coined long after the making of any of the said Creeds by the Bishops of Rome and are added to the Nicene Creed by Pius IV. in the professing of the Roman Faith especially that New Article of the Pope's Supremacy which is still so stifly maintained and urged upon many under pain of the loss of their Souls viz. that it is altogether necessary for them if they will be saved to be obedient to the Bishop of Rome Which New Article being but an extravagant Conclusion made by a very strange Man and built upon as strange Collections out of the Scriptures We leave it for a novelty unto all the Articles of the ancient Catholick Faith and will now address our selves to prosecute the same course and points in the New Testament which we held in the Old CAP. II. IT is a certain rule in Divinity that Grace doth not destroy Nature The Doctrine of the Seed of the Woman that was foretold should break the Serpents head did not abolish the Moral Law The Ceremonies in the Old Testament which shadowed and signified the mercies of God in Christ had no power to extinguish the Laws first imprinted in mens hearts and afterward ingraven in Tables of stone by the Finger of God The Prophets foretelling the coming of Christ and the merits of his Passion did likewise reprove all sins and offences committed against the Ten Commandments Christ testifieth of himself that he came not to destroy the Law and the Prophets but to fullfil them By his Death he hath delivered us from the Curse of the Law but not from the obedience of it And St. Paul saith that the Apostles did not make the Law of none effect through Faith but they did thereby establish the Law For that Faith doth only apprehend Christ truly to Salvation which worketh by Charity that is which purgeth the Conscience from dead works to serve the living God and bringeth forth by the Spirit Obedience to the Precepts and Laws of God It hath been shewed by us at large in the former Book that although the Son of God having made the World did by his mighty Power and divine Providence retain as it were in his own hands the general Rule and Government of it yet for a more visible benefit and comfort to Mankind he did divide and distribute the same into divers Countries Principalities and Kingdoms and ordaining civil Magistracy did not only appoint Soveraign Princes and Kings as his Deputies and Lieutenants upon Earth to rule and govern under him such Countries and Kingdoms as he had allotted unto them but did likewise tie Mankind by one of the Moral Laws ingraven in their hearts that they should honour them serve them and be obedient unto them Which particular Commandment was no more abolished by the Incarnation of our Saviour Christ than were all the rest Nay it was in truth of such force and publick note as that our
before his Ascension enlarging their Commission did commit unto his Apostles the Administration of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and shortly after furnished not only them but the said Disciples also according to their several Functions most abundantly with all such Gifts and Heavenly Graces as were necessary for them in those great Affairs which were imposed upon them Whereby we find already two compleat Degrees of Ecclesiastical Ministers ordained by Christ himself immediately viz. His 12. Apostles and his 70. Disciples the one in Dignity and Authority above the other the Disciples in that respect being termed Secondary Apostles and were the same as 't is most probably held who were afterward called Evangelists We will not intermeddle with the Prophets in those times of whom the Scriptures make mention because divers of them were no Ministers of the Word and Sacraments of whom only we have here taken upon us to intreat leaving in like manner the said 70. Disciples or Evangelists as before they had been assistants unto Christ so now to be directed by his Apostles Touching whose blessed calling it is to be observed that the end of it was not that they should only for their own times by Preaching the Word Administring the Sacraments and likewise by their Authority of Ecclesiastical Regiment draw many to the embracing of the Gospel and afterward to rule and order them as that they might not easily be drawn again from it but were in like sort to provide for a Succession in their Ministry of fit Persons sufficiently Authorized by them to undertake that charge and as well to yield some further assistance unto them whilst they themselves lived as afterward also both to continue the same in their own Persons unto their lives end and in like manner to ordain by the Authority of the Apostles given unto them other Ministers to succeed themselves that so the said Apostolical Authority being derived in that sort from one to another there might never be any want of Pastors and Teachers for the work of the Ministry and for the Edification of the Body of Christ unto the end of the World This being the duty of the said Apostles and that it may be evident what it was which they did communicate unto the Ministry it is to be observed that some things in the Apostles were essential and perpetual and was the substance of their Ministry containing the three Essential Parts before mentioned of Preaching administring the Sacraments and of Ecclesiastical Government and that some were but personal and temporary granted unto them for the better strengthning and approving of the said Ministry with all the Parts of it there being then many Difficulties and Impediments which did many ways hinder the first Preaching and Plantation of the Gospel In the number of the said personal or temporary Gifts or Prerogatives these may be accounted the Chief 1. That they were called immediately by Chirst himself to lay the Foundation of Christian Faith among the Gentiles 2. That their Commission to that purpose was not limited to any Place or Country 3. That they had power through Imposition of their hands to give the Holy Ghost by visible Signs 4. That they were directed in the performance of their Office by the especial Inspiration of the Holy Ghost and lastly That their Doctrine which they deliver'd in Writing was to be a Canon and Rule to all Churches for ever All which personal Prerogatives although they did then appertain and were then adherent to the Essence of the Apostolick Function and were necessary at the first for the establishing of the Gospel yet it is plain that they did not contain in them any of the said Essential Parts of the Ministry and likewise that they could not be communicated by the Apostles unto any others So as either the Apostles for the Propagation and Continuance of the Eccelesiastical Ministry did communicate to others the said three Essential Parts of it viz. Power to Preach to Administer the Sacraments and Authority of Government wherein must be Degrees some to direct and some to be directed or else they died all with them which were a very wicked and an idle conceit the Apostles having Power to communicate them all alike as by their Proceedings it will appear At the first they themselves with the Evangelists and so many of the Prophets as were Ministers of the Word and Sacraments after they had converted many to the Faith did execute in their own Persons agreeably to their several Callings all those Ecclesiastical Functions as were afterward of necessity and in due time to be distinguished and setled in some others Whereby it came to pass that the Church in Jerusalem during that time had no other Deacons Priests nor Bishops but the Apostles the Evangelists and the said Prophets But afterwards the Harvest growing great as to disburthen themselves of some charge they Ordained Deacons So their own Company Apostles Disciples or Evangelists and Prophets coming short of that number of Labourers which the said Harvest required they did for their future aid chuse unto themselves by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost certain other new Disciples and Scholars such as they found meet for that work and after some good experience had of them made them by the Imposition of their hands Priests and Ministers of the Gospel but did not for a time tie them to any particular places as having design'd them to be their Fellow-Labourers and Coadjutors These Men the Apostles had commonly in their Company and did not employ their Pains and diligent Preaching for the speedier Propagation of the Gospel which was their first and most Principal Care but likewise did use to send them hither and thither their Occasions so requiring to the Churches already planted as their Messengers and Legates sufficiently authorized for the dispatching of such Affairs as were committed unto them Of this number were Timothy Titus Marcus Epaphroditus Sylvanus Andronicus and divers others who in respect of such their Apostolical Employments and because also the Apostles did oftentimes commend them greatly and join'd their Names with their own in the beginnings of sundry their Epistles to divers Churches were Men of great Reputation and Authority amongst all Christians in those days and had the name it self of Apostles given unto them as formerly it hath been observ'd of the 70. Disciples And these were the Persons who were afterward when they were tied to the oversight of divers particular Churches or Congregations termed Bishops as it will afterward appear Now because these Apostolical Persons were still to attend upon the Apostles and their Designments as is above mentioned and for that the number of Christians every where did still encrease the Apostles held it necessary to ordain by imposition of their hands a second degree of Ministers who were thereupon still to remain in the particular Churches or Congregations that were already planted in divers Cities for in those