to be the ground of your Faith and reason of your believing so as you do therefore believe all the points of your salvation to be true because the Church doth teach and instruct you in the same Or have you any other rule and ground of your faith Prot. The Authority and good conceipt we have of Gods Church prepareth us to believe the points of our Salvation and serveth as an introduction to bring us to the discerning and perfect apprehension of these Mysteries of our faith but the Scripture only is the ground and reason of our believing For as the Samaritans were induced and drawn on to believe in Christ by that talk of the woman but having heard Christ himself profess plainly they believe no longer for her saying but because they heard him speak himself So do we begin to believe moved thus to do by the good conceipt we have of the Church but rest not in it as the ground of our believing but only in the infallible assurance of God's truth in the Book of Scriptures Pap. Then God help you if that be your last resolution For our Church cannot erre but your Scriptures without the help of the Church to tell you so much can never be ascertained unto you to be the word of God and therefore what assuredness of belief can you propose your selves upon so unsetled a foundation Protest The Catholick Church indeed spread over the world cannot erre damnably though the Church of Rome and all other particular Churches may as your own Writers confess But the Scriptures we know to be the word of God not because the Church or Church-men do tell us so much but by the Authority of God himself whom we do most certainly discern to speak in his word when it is preached unto us For if we bring pure eyes and perfect senses the Majesty of God forthwith presenteth it self unto us in the Holy Scriptures and beating down all thoughts of contradicting or doubting things so Heavenly forceth our hearts to yield assent and obedience unto the same And therefore if you doubt whether that which you read in your Bible be the Word of God or find any reluctancy in your understanding to the Doctrin of the same it is in vain to flie unto either Church or Church-men to be perswaded in this point but down upon your knees and pray fervently unto God for Faith and the illumination of the Holy Ghost which can only assure you of the truth of the Scriptures For after we are enlightned by the Spirit we do no longer trust either our own judgement or the judgement of other men or of the Church that the Scriptures are of God but above all certainly of humane judgement we most certainly resolve as if in them we saw the Majesty and Glory of God that by the ministery of men they came unto us from Gods own most sacred mouth Pap. But what certain ground of faith can you place on the Scriptures seeing by the several interpretations of men and women they are turned and wrested like a nose of wax to every private design and purpose Do not you observe how the Catholicks Protestants and especially the Brownists and Anabaptists do fit all their turns out of the Holy Scriptures on which of these senses and imaginations is your faith rooted or peradventure have you some odd capritchious kind of interpretation of your own apprehension to direct you in these businesses Prot. We Lay-folks are licensed in the Church of England to read but not to interpret Scriptures excepting only those passages which contain the necessary points of our Salvation the which passages are so plain and easie every where that any man or woman of the meanest capacity especially if he or she be instructed in their Catechism or grounds of Religion may perfectly conceive and understand them But for the harder and more difficult places we leave them to be interpreted by our Church-men in their Sermons and daily Ministery For the ordering of which interpretations there are as I have been told ten several helps the which if they be followed will be sure and unfallible guides to boult out the true meaning of each place of Scripture 1. An illumination of the understanding by the Holy Ghost 2. A mind free from other thoughts and desirous of the truth 3. Knowledge of the Scriptures Creeds Catechismes Principles and other Axiomes of Divinity 4. A consideration how our meaning suits with other points of Christianity 5. The weighing of circumstances antecedents and consequents 6. Knowledge of Histories Arts and Sciences 7. Continual Reading Meditating and Praying 8. Joint and unjarring expositions of the Fathers 9. Consenting decrees of Synods and Councils 10. Knowledge in the tongues Because therefore Lay-men and women Papists Brownists and Anabaptists are wanting in all or some of these helps they bring forth many times such lame and prodigious interpretations Pap. If we make the Scripture and not the Church the rule of our Faith how shall we believe the Creed the Trinity the Sacraments the unity of Essence the Three Persons in the Deity c. words never read in the Bible and yet necessarily to be apprehended of us upon pain of damnation Prot. I say that all these things are set down in Scriptures either in so many syllables or at leastwise by necessary inferences and deductions And we do not therefore believe them because they are only taught by the Church but because they are rooted and grounded in the Holy Scriptures the only stay and pillar of our affiance To sum up therefore all this Chapter 1. The Church doth prepare us but the Scripture only doth force us to believe 2. The whole Church cannot any part thereof may erre damnably 3. We are taught the Scriptures to be the Word of God by the Holy Ghost moving in our hearts and not by the Church sounding in our ears 4. Lay-men are to read not to interpret Scriptures 5. The miss of some rules causeth wrong expositions of Scriptures 6. All things necessary to be believed are either found in or collected and inferred from the Scriptures CHAP. III. Of Iustification Papist HOw then do you learn out of the Scriptures that you are to be justified and saved before God Prot. I am to be justified before God by an Act single in it self but double in our apprehension which is by Gods not imputing unto me my sins and the same Gods imputing unto me Christs righteousness and withall by his creating of faith in my heart by the Holy Ghost I mean an operative a lively a working Faith to assure my Soul that God for the Active and Passive obedience of Christ Jesus hath accomplished those two former Acts of not imputing my Sin and of imputing unto me Christs Righteousness Pa. A very easie no doubt and reasonable Religion which you have learned out of the Scriptures Here is no burthen left for your own back you cast all
A MANVAL OR Three SMALL and PLAIN TREATISES VIZ. 1. Of Prayer or Active Divinity 2. Of Principles or Positive Divinity 3. Resolutions or Oppositive Divinity Translated and Collected out of the Ancient Writers for the Private Use of a most Noble LADY to preserve her from the Danger of POPERY By the most Reverend Father in God JOHN Lord Arch-Bishop of YORK LONDON Printed for William Garret and are to be Sold by Joseph Clark and Ralph Needham in Little-Britain 1672. Certain PRAYERS AND Short MEDITATIONS Translated out of the Writings of St. Augustine St. Gregory St. Bernard Joannes Picus Mirandula Ludovicus Vives Georgius Cassander Charolus Paschalius and others for the private Use of a most Noble Lady Morning Prayer MY Soul fleeth unto the Lord before the morning Watch I say before the morning Watch. O let me hear thy loving kindness betimes in the morning for in thee is my trust shew thou me the way that I should walk in for I lift up my soul unto thee O Lord assist me with thy Holy Spirit in my Prayers and let my cry come unto thee Our Father which art c. A Prayer for Confession of sins REceive O Lord in the arms of thy mercy thy distrâ—â—sed handmaiden who in remorse and contrition returns unto thee from her sins Because the life of that sinner is not abhorred of thee which is accompanied with sighs and repentance Pardon then O Lord all my offences for thy dear Son's sake Amen A Prayer for the Morning ALmighty God our heavenly Father which hast brought me thy handmaiden to this present morning protect me still with thy mighty power that this ensuing day I may fall into no sin nor run into any kind of danger but that my thoughts words and deeds may tend to the honour and glory of thy Name and the eternal comfort and salvation of mine own soul through Jesus Christ my Lord and only Saviour Amen Another O Most sincere and pure Light from whence this light of the day and of the Sun fetcheth his begining Thou which enlightenest every man that cometh into the World Thou Light whom no night or evening can obscure but continuest ever in thy High-noon brightness Thou Word and Wisdom of so great a Father enlighten this morning my soul and understanding that thy weak Hand-maiden may be this day as blinded to the Vanities of the World and quick-sighted only to those things which are pleasing unto thee and leading to the waies of thy Commandements Amen For the Mediation of Christ LOrd Jesus that art not only righteous but righteousness it self and art my Advocate with God the Father justifie thou me thy hand-maiden in the day of judgment because I acknowledge and accuse my self as full of injustice and pollution For it is not upon any action or contrition of mine owne that my soul relies but only upon a faith assurance and bold confidence in thee mine Advocate who livest and raignest with the Father and the holy Ghost one God world without end Amen Against Temptations GIve me thy Grace O Almighty God so to vanquish and overcome the lusts and temptations of this world that I may triumph with thee over the Devil and his wicked angels in the world to come Amen For Piety I Humbly beseech thee O Almighty God that his desire of reading and â—earing thy sacred Word which by thy Holy Spirit thou hast planted in my heart may by thy grace and mercy be daily renued and augmented unto a perfect fire of zeal and devotion to the honour of thy Name and salvation of mine own soul in Christ Jesu Amen A Prayer for a Noble-woman O Lord Jesus Christ that art so far from contemning Nobility of birth that thy Evangelists have diligently searched out and recorded thine own genealogy give me thy unworthy Hand-maiden the grace that I abuse not by ingratitude this thy favour and mercy But rather as it was first acquired in my Ancestors let it still be preserved in my Person by my continual serving of thee and doing as it shall lie in my power all works of Charity to my Neighbours Give me grace that as thou hast plac'd me in Birth Rank so I may be found in devotion piety lowliness of mind weekness and a religious care of thy worship conspicuous above others And if it be thy gracious Will to make me a Mother of Children and Mistriss of a Family let me appear a pattern and ensample of Devotion and Piety to all that are about me And make me and them so to live in thy fear that we may dye in thy favour through Jesus Christ our Lord and only Saviour Amen A Prayer for a Wife ALmighty God which hast given me to be a comfort and an helper unto my Husband endue my soul with those Heavenly Graces wherewith I may be most enabled to serve thee and please him Knit our minds as well as our bodies in an indissoluble band of sincere affection Give either of us sanctified hearts zealous towards thee thankful towards our Soveraign sincere loving one towards another Crown withal if it be thy will these chast intentions with thy fructifying grace that we may become the happy Parents of such Olive branches as may one day advance thy Glory in the Church and Common-wealth In a word so incorporate us both by faith in Christ unto thy kingdom of Grace that we may at the last attain unto thy kingdom of Glory Amen A Prayer for one attendant neer the person of a Prince ALmighty God by whose gracious providence it cometh that my Lord and Husband is thus employed in that nearness of attendance upon His Royal Majesty give him grace so to serve thee that he may the better serve him and by making him thy Saint continue him his servant Fill his mind with all wisdom knowledge and other virtues befitting his rank and calling that he may seem no more elected by the King then selected by thee for these employments Make him vigilant careful and industrious in his Masters affairs Make him to accompt it his only happiness to serve thee his only virtue to observe him and all the rest as glittering vanity That after a troublesome but long life in a Kings Court his soul may be carried by the Angels unto thy Court where one day is better than a thousand Crant this for thy dear Son's sake Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Meditation Count MIRANDULA his twelve Thoughts or Weapons against all the Temptations of Sin Think 1. THe pleasure thou art tempted unto but short and momentary 2. And even this is attended with loathing and anxiety 3. And yet that for this thou must lose Heaven 4. That thy life is but as a dream and shadow 5. Thy death is suddain and at thy door 6. Thy time of repentance casual and uncertain 7. Thy reward or punishment endless and eternal 8. That thou art a creature of an
favours vanquish with â—hy mighty hand all open enemies and privy Conspirators who oppugn â—heir Religion Life Diadem or Dignity Crown each of them with all virtues these virtues with â—ong lives and their lives at the last with eternal glory Amen For Charity or the works of Mercy O Lord of mercy and compassion I beseech thee by the tender bowels of thy Son Christ Jesus to move my stony heart to the works of mercy that I may keep my hours of Prayers mourn with them that mourn counsel them that are amiss help them that are in misery relieve the poor comforâ— the sorrowful help the oppressed forgive them thaâ— trespass against me pray for them that hate me requite good for evil despise no man or woman reverence my betters respect my equals be humble and courteous to my inferiours Imitate those that are good shun those that are bad embrace virtue eschew vice Be patient in adversity modest in prosperity thankful in either Keep a watch over my tongue Scorn this world and thirst after Heaven Amen For the receiving of the Blessed Sacrament O Lord Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God through whom only is granted forgiveness of sins and life everlasting who didst justifie the Publican when he confessed the woman of Canaan when she prayed Peter when he repented and the thief upon the Cross when he called upon thee grant unto me a most miserable and wretched sinner pardon and forgiveness of all my transgressions which I most humbly confess I have committed against thee that I may receive this Communion of thy Body and Blood not to my judgement and condemnation but to my everlasting comfort and salvation who livest and reignest with the Father and the holy Ghost one God world without end Amen Meditation When you have newly received O Lord increase my faith O Lord let the Body and Blood of Christ be fixed in my soul to my comfort in this life and eternal salvation in the life to come Amen For that day you expect to hear a Sermon or when you read upon your Bible ALmighty and everlasting God whose Word 〈◊〉 a lanthorn to our feet and a light unto our paths open and enlighten my understanding that I may learn the mysteries of thy Word so far forth as is necessary to my salvation purely and sincerely And be so transfigured in my life and conversation unto that which I shall learn as to please thee in will and deed through Jesus Christ my Lord and only Saviour Amen For Sickness and all other Vses you have excellent Prayers in the Book of Common-Prayer PRINCIPLES Few Notes for the private Use of a most Noble LADY A Prayer to be said upon your knees before the reading over of these Notes ALmighty God the Fountain of true Wisdom and Knowledg send thy Holy Spirit into my heart that I may sufficiently understand and stedfastly believe all the Doctrins necessary to my Salvation and adde such practice and obedience to this Faith through the whole course of my life and conversation as I may so serve thee in thy Kingdom of Grace that hereafter I may be made partaker of thy Kingdom of Glory through the only merit and mediation of thy dear Son and my dear Saviour Jesus Christ Amen I. MAn since his fall in Adam hath no hope of salvation but by the Covenant of Grace betwixt God and Man Whereby God promiseth unto man Mercy and Forgiveness of Sins and man unto God true Faith in Christ and holiness of life and conversation II. CHrist is the Saviour as of all so especially of them that believe and these alone are of God's Church Now the Church of God is Any Company or Congregation of men wheresoever living called by God through the sound of the Gospel unto the Faith of Christ and distinguished from other Societies by these five Marks especially 1. hearing and reading the Word 2. Faith thereunto 3. the use of the Sacraments 4. Prayer and 5. Sanctity of life Where these five things are there is ever a Church of God and sufficient means of salvation III. THe Word must be read often upon your Bible with modesty and short desires of the heart unto God to give you grace to understand it to believe it and to practise it It must be heard upon all convenient occasions especially in those two hours of the Lords day appointed by the Church and the State for that Divine Worship and then you must observe four Rules 1. Observe the Preacher with attention and modesty 2. Secondly apply unto your self in particular the Doctrins and Uses which are delivered in general 3. Examin your conscience if you be guilty of the sins there reproved and presently call to God for grace to amend them 4. Think upon these things again when you come to your Chamber IV. THis outward hearing and reading of the Word together with the inward working of the Holy Ghost in your hearts doth beget a true lively and saving faith which is A full belief without doubting that all is true which God hath spoken or promised in the Scripture and that you rest wholly and confidently upon God that he will grant unto your self in particular forgiveness of sins upon your Repentance and Amendment and perseverance unto the end This is the main point you are seriously to meditate upon and therefore observe these precepts 1. If you do not believe or if you do doubt of any thing in Scripture presently pray unto God to strengthen and enlighten you 2. If you doubt whether you may have any particular interest in those general promises of grace in Christ propounded in the Gospel fall again to your prayers for an increase of Faith 3. If you doubt and yet can find in your heart to pray for more faith let your conscience never be troubled with such a doubting 4. Mark well when the Creed is in reading and give an assent with your heart to every Article And as I doubt not you have learn'd it so keep it still in memory V. NOw as this practical and working Faith is wrought in us by the reading and hearing of the Word joyned with Prayer so is it signed and sealed in our hearts by the two Blessed Sacraments Baptism The Lords Supper Observe in either Sacrament two parts A visible sign Water in Baptism Bread Wine in the Supper An invisible grace Remission of sins in Baptism The benefit of Christ passion in the Supper VI. BAptism is the first Sacrament of the New Testament to wit An outward washing of Water appointed by Christ in his Church with this promise that upon your being Baptized you were as certainly washed from your sins Original being an infant and actual if you had been of years by the Holy Ghost and the Blood of Christ as you were rinsed outwardly in body by this Element of Water Mark then these Vses of Baptism 1. It assures us we are washed from our sins by the Holy Ghost
and the Blood of Christ 2. It keeps us from despair because it assures us our sins are washed away 3. It keeps us from sin For it is a shame for one washed to soil himself again 4. It gives an entrance â—nto the Church 5. It hath a visible sign Water Grace invisible Forgiveness of sins by the blood of Christ VII THe Lords Supper is a distribution of Bread â—nd Wine which seals signs â—nd exhibits or gives unto you Christs true Body offeâ—ed and his true Blood pouâ—ed out upon the Cross for â—…our sins as certainly as â—he Priests exhibite unto your hands the Bread and â—he Wine And withal the Supper assures your heart that Christs Body and Blood nourish your soul to eternal life as surely as Bread and Wine doth nourish your body to the offices of this temporal life Mark then the Vses of this Sacrament of the Supper 1. It assures you of all the benefit that is to be expected from the Body and blood of Christ 2. It puts you continually in mind that Christ died for you 3. It strengthens and ascertains your faith if it be received worthily And therefore you must not neglect thrice in the year at the least to approach with all reverence to this heavenly Table VIII THat this Sacrament may be received worthily you must examin your self before the receiving Pray unto God for Faith in the receiving and take heed of gross and premeditated sins after the receiving of this Sacrament IX BEfore the receiving you must examin four things 1. You must examin your knowledge 1. Whether you know how you ought to Live To this end read over the Ten Commandements 2. Whether you know how to Believe Read over attentively your Creed 3. Whether you know how to Pray Say over advisedly the Lords Prayer Without this little knowledge at the least you are not fit to Receive 2. You must examin your Faith Whether you are assured in your heart that Christ hath fully satisfied for your sins and perfectly on your repentance reconciled you unto God not others only but your self also Without this assurance in some measure you may not receive 3. You must examin your Repentance 1. Whether you are sorry for your sins 2. Whether you hate sin 3. Whether you resolve to indeavour to sin no more Without this Repentance you cannot Receive worthily 4. You must examin your Charity 1. Whether you forgive all the world 2. Whether you are free from malice and hutred When you have examined these four points you may receive worthily X. NOw your faith in Christ which you have gotten in Gods Church being thus hatched by the holy Ghost in your heart brought forth by your hearing cherished by your reading of the word sealed by your Baptism and strongly confirmed and strengthened by your part a king of the blessed Sacrament of the Supper must be continually maintained and preserved by these two means Prayer unto God and him only And Good works or holiness of life And this is the sum of all your Notes which I recommend unto you for this time 1. Salvation is only by such faith in Christ as worketh by Love 2. Faith only in Gods Church 3. Where by the Word read or heard Faith is nourished 4. By the Sacrament of Baptism assured 5. By the Sacrament of the Supper ratified and confirmed 6. By Prayer and Good works for ever established A Prayer after the reading of these few Notes O Lord God that I may be partaker of thy Covenant of Grace make me a believing member of thy Church send thy Holy Spirit into my heart to beget there a confidence and full assurance of the remission of all my sins in Christ Jesus let this assurance be still nourished with my hearing and reading of the Word let it be sealed unto me by my Baptism confirmed by the Sacrament of the Supper and fully established by my serving of thee in Prayer and Good Works to the glory of thy Name and the endless comfort and salvation of mine own soul through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen A SHORT CATECHISM CONCERNING Faith and good Works To be Read and Meditated upon once every Week at the least which may be well called The Catechism of the Conscience Quest WHy hath God made me a reasonable Creature and not as well he might of a meaner kind Answ That with your whole heart that is with your will and understanding you might serve him and love him Which creatures only indued with reason can do Quest How is God principally served and loved of me Answ By your faith and good works which God commands you in his Word And these good works of yours are twofold Prayer to God Charity to men Quest What is Faith Answ A full belief and perswasion of your heart sometimes called an Assurance whereby you are resolved of these three points 1. That there is one only God one Essence and Three Persons The Father who created you Son who redeemed you Holy Ghost who sanctified you 2. That God the Son came into the world to do all that was to be performed and to suffer all that was to be endured by you for your sins actual and original And hereby obtained for you perfect forgiveness of all your sins and hath bestow'd upon you his own perfect righteousness by the means whereof you are reckon'd just and guiltless before the throne of God on a supposal that you repent and are become a new creature by bringing forth fruits meet for repentance 3. That God hath prompted with his Holy Spirit the Pen-men of the Scriptures to teach you all this faith and belief as also all the course of his worship And that every thing contained in these Scriptures is true Q. Why doth God so much require of me faith and belief A. Because without believing in him you cannot love nor reverence him As if you did not believe your father to be your father you would not love him or reverence him as your father Q. How is this Faith first wrought A. By your hearing of Gods word and using those two Sacraments appointed by Christ in his Church Baptism and the Lords Supper And withal by praying continually unto God and doing of good works Q. How shall I know that I begin to have Faith A. If you find in your self these alterations 1. If you find that you have gotten more knowledge of God and of Religion and are glad thereof 2. If you do desire more than you did to have the Son of God to become your Saviour and to stand betwixt you and Gods wrath for the sins you have committed against God 3. If you take more delight than you did in Reading and hearing the Word of God Receiving the Sacrament 4. If when you find doubtings in your mind you can pray unto God to strengthen your Faith 5. If you endeavour to abstain from fin for fear of offending so good a God 6. If you begin to endeavour to live godly and
you now put me in mind of another objection which usually we make against the Protestants of England that they bring in too much good fellowship in Religion and make Salvation a flower which grows in every mans Garden Seeing that according to their Tenets Papist Protestant Anabaptist and Familist may every one of them by means offered in his own Church as a portion or fragment of the Catholick Church attain unto Salvation Prot. If you were learned I could answer you in a word that none of these three Sectaries considered in his own Formality Quatalis as he is a Papist Anabaptist or Familist can ever attain unto Salvation but only as he is a Christian man admitted by Baptism unto the visible Church and there made partaker of Gods word and Sacraments For then although these blessed means are very much weak'ned and obscured in their Synagogues by the malice of Sathan and inventions of men yet may that holy Spirit that bloweth where he listeth work in such a mans heart by these weak instruments and the rather the more the Word is faithfully preached and the Sacraments be in those places sincerely administred a true faith in Christ Jesus to bring him to salvation So then we do not hold that Papists Anabaptists and Familists but only that some Christians living in their congregations may though with great difficulty in comparison of this flourishing Church of ours and these admirable means of Salvation tendered in the same by the special mercy of God be saved and preserved If we be in an errour it is safer to erre in Charity than in Malice and precipitancy considering the event hereof is unknown to either of us Pap. I but where was your Church before this reformation began Prot. 1. When our Saviour Christ with-drew the people from the leaven of the Scribes and Pharises to the bread which came down from Heaven and to salvation by faith in his Name was it fitting to demand of him where his Church was before that Reformation 2. When these Churches of Corinth Galatia Pergamus and Thiatyra were full of abuses if some part only upon the preaching of the Apostles had reformed themselves and so a division had grown would you straight waies have tax'd them of Novelty or ask'd them where their Church had been before this reformation 3. When the Apostles cast off the Law of Moses excepting only those three or four Ceremonies and when the primitive Church some hundred years after cast off those Ceremonies also for I find them breathing of their last as it were about the times of Justin Martyr had it not been a poor challenge of the Jews or Traskists of those times to demand where this unceremonial Church lay hid before the reformation I answer then that our Church before this reformation began lived together in one communion with yours with toleration of all those abuses which you have still retained and we most justly rejected Pap. I but I hope you dare not compare in the gifts of the Spirit with Christ his Apostles or those worthies of the primitive Church And therefore how presumed you to reform your selves Reformation being a work fitter for a general Councel to have gone about than for a small handful of Northern people Prot. The Court of Rome had so gained upon the Church of Rome that is the Pope and his Conclave of Cardinals had wriggled in themselves to that transcendency of power over the rest of the Clergy and well minded laity that it appeared both at Constance and Trent there was small hope of Reformation from such a Council where the Pope the party to be reformed became the party reforming and supream Judge and president of the Reformation it self Although poor seduced ignorant women are much carried away with the name of the Councel of Trent yet you will quickly find out this ridiculous absurdity In a general Council as now it is held since the decay of the Empire the Pope is the party to be accused yet puts up his own endictment passeth a jury of his own vassals and find they what they will being to give final judgement he will be sure to do as his supposed predecessor taught our Saviour to do to wit favour himself So as there was no hope of doing good by a General Councel unless it were a generous and free Councel and such a one the Pope you may be sure would never abide And therefore one of your own writers concludes that in such a case several Kingdoms are to reform themselves by National Councels which England and Denmark did put in practise Pap. Yea but it is too well known it was no zeal of Reformation but carnal respects that moved King Henry to touch upon Religion Prot. To you it seems it is given to know these secrets but I see no reason we should think so The King could not be induced to this reformation as a means to possess himself of the Abbeies for they were already swallowed up Nor as a preparative for his woing as Saunders thinks because Fisher the Bishop of Rochester who opposed his Marriage made up the one and twentieth prelate in banishing the Pope out of this Kingdom But without doubt the finger of God was the cause whatsoever was the hint or occasion Festus his popularity and humour of pleasing gave S. Paul occasion to appeal to Caesar and to visit Rome where and when he laid the first Stone of the Romane Church Would you like it well a Protestant should say that your Church was founded upon Courtship and popularity If any carnal respect whetted on the King that was but the opportunity God only was the first mover and prime Agent in this reformation Pap. Nay surely God is the God of unity but your Church being once severed from the Roman was presently canâ—l'd out into as many factions almost as there are Countries witness the Lutherans soft and rigid the Calvinists Puritans Conformitans Brownists Anabaptists c. So as one may easily ghess from what Lerna and fenny ground this Hydra of so many heads had her first Original Protest This Argument sounds very bigg in a Ladies closet and weighs much with the ignorant and unlearned people but with a man but of a reasonable understanding this seeming division is no scandal at all to our reformed Churches What man of any reading in the Histories of the time but knows well that after the trumpet for this reformation had blown the first warning by Wicklef Hus and Hierome of Prage and then the second by Gerson Peter de Aliaco Cardinal Cusanus Picus Mirandula Savanorola and many others of whom we read in Guicchiardyn when Luther in Germany blew the last and that there appeared no hope of a free and indifferent Council so as several Kingdoms were thus necessitated to provide and take care for themselves this worthy
questioned But some aspersions more are cast upon the persons of your Ministers As that they lie wilfully and against their knowledge in points of Divinity and are thus zealous in the cause out of a desire only to preserve their great estates in the Church whereas our Priests have no other worldly comfort but the goodness of their cause and the testimonies of their consciences Prot. Let your common discretion be your judge in this case whether we that ground our doctrins upon the Word of God interpreted by those ten rules I formerly set down or these men that put all to the determination of the Church that is to their own proper phantasies and the gross exposition of an unlearned Pope are most likely to gull the World with crotchets and Chimaeras Besides you know how full this Kingdom is of men well read as in all sciences so especially in Divinity You know and yet none knowes it so well as they that best know him the profound learning and deep apprehension of the King himself as having perfectly digested the very body and bulk of all sacred Knowledge And is this a stage for ignorance imposture to play their parts on Or doth this learned Monarch the Lord of three Kingdoms woed and sought unto by all the Catholick Princes palliate his Religion in hope of a Bishoprick These are poor and toothless aspersions Then for our Ecclesiastical Estates they are so par'de and pol'de with duties and impositions all which had their Original from the Court of Rome that the time of the charge of breeding up a Minister would raise him a better means than he hath in the Church in any other Trade or Traffick whatsoever The King is gracious to his servants of all professions But a Country Minister cannot inne for the harvest of a whole year what a Jesuit can get in an hours confession Lastly concerning these professors of poverty the Priests and the Jesuits it is too well known they want no maintenance What by traducing our Nation abroad and seducing our people at home their bones are full of marrow and their eyes swell with fatness and what the Statute hath taken from us cogging and cheating hath drawn upon them I mean the privy Tithes and Benevolences of the Kingdom But to choke this Objection in one word That our means is no cause to keep us in this profession witness our Brethren in France and elsewhere who without the same means teach preach the selfe same doctrin Pap. They also inform us that your Ministers have neither learning nor honesty Prot. It is true indeed they teach their Novices that the greatest Doctor in our Church doth not understand the common grounds of Divinity and must of * necessity be put to his A B C again But common reason can inform you whether this be true or not Again they are only the base fugitives and discontented runnagates of our own Nation that spread these rumours who think their Countrey-men the grossest fools in Christendome that they dare thus amuse them and lead them by the nose with such impossible assertions And therefore I will give you a touch here how other Papists have ingeniously acknowledged the learning and piety of many Protestants Pope Pius commended Hus for learning and purity of life Alphonsus de Castro Oecolampadius for all kind of knowledge and the tongues especially Rhenanus also Conradus Pellican as a man of a wonderful sanctity and erudition Andradius likewise Chemnitius for a man of a sharp wit and great judgement Costerus all the Protestants for their civil behaviour their Alms their building of Hospitals and forbearing from reviling and swearing Gretzer himself our ordinary writers to be for the most part of great learning and judgement Stephen Paschier held Calvin worthy set his opinions aside to be compared for zeal and learning to the chief Doctors of the Catholick Church Erasmus held Luther of that integrity of life that his very enemies had nothing to cast in his dish Lindanus acknowledged Melancthon to be adorned with all kind of learning In a word your Writers themselves did so applaud the persons of their adversaries for learning and piety that Pope Clement the 8. was fain to command all your Controversie-writers to be reviewed and these graces and praises bestowed on our men to be blotted out and Expunged And therefore when you next hear a Jesuit in this theme think upon these true relations and withall laugh at him and pray for him Pap. Sir I have received some satisfaction that matters are not so far out of square in the Church of England as I have been informed But yet my conscience will not serve me to come to your congregations because there are beside these trivial many other points of doctrine never heard of amongst Protestants which be in very deed the Caballas and mysteries of the Roman-Catholick Religion You have been very tedious in your answers and declarations I pray you therefore bestow the last Chapter upon me to shew the reasons why so many Ladies and good Souls refuse to conform themselves to the Church of England Prot. With all my heart I will therefore end my speach with the summing up this fifth Chapter and leave the event to God and your Conscience 1. The Means of our Church-men are not so great as to make them maintain a false Religion but their Religion is so true as it makes them contented with any means 2. Yet in other Countreys where no hope of preferment appears there appears an equal zeal of our Religion 3. Our Church-men are commended for their lives and Learning by the pens of their prime Adversaries CHAP. VI. Reasons of refusal to leave the Romish Religion collected out of printed Authors Pap. I Cannot leave my Religion I. Reason Because we must simply believe the Church of Rome whether it teach true or false Stapl. Antidot in Evang. Luc. 10. 16. pag. 528. And if the Pope believe there is no life to come we must believe it as an Article of our Faith Busgradus And we must not hear Protestant Preachers though they preach the Truth Rhem. vpon Tit. 3. 10. And for your Scripture we little weigh it For the word of God if it be not expounded as the Church of Rome will have it is the word of the Devil Hosius de expresso verbo Dei II. Reason You rely too much upon the Gospel and S. Paul's Epistles in your Religion whereas the Gospel is but a fable of Christ as Pope Leo the tenth tells us Apol. of H. Stephen fol. 358. Smeton contra Hamilton pag. 104. And the Pope can dispense against the New Testament Panormit extra de divortiis And he may check when he pleases the Epistles of St. Paul Carolus Ruinus Consil 109. num 1. volum 5. And controul any thing avouched by all the Apostles Rota in decis 1. num 3. in noviss Anton. Maria in addit ad decis
Rotae nov de Big n. 10. And there is an eternal Gospel to wit that of the Holy Ghost which puts down Christs Cirellus a Carmelite set it forth III. Reason You attribute all your Salvation to Faith in Christ alone Whereas He is the Saviour of men only but of no women Dial. of Dives and Pauper compl 6. cited by Rogers upon the Artic and Prostellus in Jesuits Catech. l. 1. cap. 10. For Women are saved by S. Clare Som. in Morn de eccles cap. 9. Mother Jane Postellus in Jesuits Catech lib. 8. cap. 10. Nay to spreak properly S. Francis hath redeemed as many as are saved since his daies Conformit of S. Fran. And the blood of S. Thomas a Becket Hor. Beat. Virg. And sometimes one man by his Satisfactions redeems another Test Rhem. in Rom. 8. 17. IV. Reason In your Church there is but one way to remission of sins which you call Faith in Christ but we have many For we put away Our Veniuls with a little Holy water Test Rhem. in Rom. 8. 17. Mortals by 1. Merits of the B. Virgin Hor. B. Virg. 2. The Blood of Becket ib. 3. Agnos Dei or Holy Lambs Cerem l. 1. t. 7. 4. Little parcels of the Gospel Breviar 5. Becoming Fransciscans confor l. 1. sol 101. 6. A Bishops pardon for 40 dayes a Cardinals for a 100 daies and the Popes for ever Taxa Camaer apud Esp in 1. ad Tim. V. Reason You stand too precisely upon your Sacraments and require a true Faith in the partaker Whereas with us to become a Monk or a Nun is as good as the Sacrament of Baptism Aquin. de Ingres relig l. 2. c. 21. And the very true and real Body of Christ may be devoured of Dogs Hogs Cats and Rats Alex. Hales part 4. q. 45. Thom. parte 3. q. 8. art 3. VI. Reason Then for your Ministers every one is allowed to have his wife or else enforced to live chastly whereas with us the Pope himself cannot dispense with a Priest to marry no more than he can priviledge him to take a purse Turianus found fault withal by Cassan Consult art 23. But whoredom is allowed all the year long See Sparkes's discovery pag. 13. constitut Othen de concubit cleric removend And another sin for June July August which you must not know of Allowed for this time by Sixtus Quartus to all the family of the Cardinal of S. Lucie vessel Grovingens tract de indulgent citat à Jacob. Laurent Jesuit lib. pag. 196. vide Jo. Wolfii lection memorab centen 15. pag. 836. For indeed the wickedness of the Church-men is a prime Argument of the worthiness of the Roman Church Bellar. l. 4. de Rom. Pont. cap. 14. artic 28. And the Pope can make that righteous which is unrighteous l. 1. Decretal Greg. tit 7. c. 5. And yet can no man say unto him Sir why do you so In extrav tom 22. titul 5. c. ad Apostolatus VII and last Reason You in the Church of England have cast off the Bishop of Rome whereas the Bishop of Rome is a God Dist 96. c. Satis evidentur Panorm cap. Quanto Abbas FINIS Psal 130. 6. Psal 143. 8. S. Greg. Homil 33. in Iob. Georg. Cassander Pres. Eccles Vives Greg. Hom. 7. in Ezech. Aug. Serm. 86. de verbis Domini Aug. Serm. 82. Carolus Paschalius Carolus Paschal Carolus Paschal Jo. Pici Mirandulae Doct. Salutif Bern. Bonavent Dionis Carthus Carolies Paschal Vives G. Cass Vives Vives The practice of King Charles the First Vives Vives G. Cass August Meditat. G. Cass G. Cass G Cass Jam. 2. 20 21 26. Georg. Cassan consult titul de Ecclesia Russin in Symb. August Ser. 115. Id. Serm. 181. de Tempore a Theoriani collo Damianus à Gots Onuphrius in vita Julii Cassand cons Page 930. meerly spiritual consisting in Faith Hope Charity true Doctrin c. Institut of a Christian fol. 19. Cassand ibid. a Cas consult pag. 929 Gerson de potestaie Ecclesix a Barclajus paraenes lib. 1. gag 7. b Can. loc theol l. 4. c. 1. Lindan panopl. l. 4. c. 7. a Quodlibets pag. 342. b Russic com c. 25. p. 103. c Sle. Hist l. 5. d Allens confes e Protest p. 16. a John 3. 8. a Mat. 16. 12. b Joh. 6. 35. c 1. Cor. 5. 1. d Gal. 3. 1. e Rev. 2. 12. f Rev. 2. 18. g Acts 15. 29. h Anno Dom. 140. Dialog qui inscribitur Tryphon Luther in epist ad Galat. in praefat distinctio amissa in Comitiis Augustanis ab ipsis Germanis Principibus Scultet annal decad 1. p. 43. a In the year 1415. b In the year 1546. Matt. 16. 22. See the History of the Council of Trent Gerson de concil â—â—…ius obed 31. Hen. 8. Instructions of a Christian in the Preface Act. 23. 1. a In the year 1375. b In the year 1410. c De signis ruin eccl d 1411. e Bucholcer Anno 1517. f In Theor. g Phil. Comin l. 3. h Guic. hist l. 4. i In the year 1512. a Sand. de schis Ang. lib. 3. b 32. of Henry 8. In the Year 1552. Sander de Scism lib. 3. Harding against Jewell a M. Mason Arch-deacon of Suff. b Institut of a Christian fol. 19. a S. Basil Nazianz. S. Ambros S. Hierom. S. Austin were in their times called Heretiques Lind in panopl. lib. 4. cap. 7. b Institut of a Christian fol. 18. a Dominic à Soto in 4. Sent. d. 25. Biel. in 4. d. 25. q. 1. Con. 4. Capreol in 4. d. 25. q. 1. art 3. c. a Euseb l. 5. c. 23. Eras epist in Agrippa de vanit c. 59. b Baron tom 3. ad ann 375. c Euseb l. 7. c. 2 3 4. Cassan consult art 7. d Bellar. de Ro. Pont. l. 2. c. 25. 46. Lindan Panopl l. 7. c. 89. Possevinus in Apparat titul Carthage e Bellar. de Ro. Pont. l. 2. c. 31. Idem de Matri c. 15. art 2. Institut of a Christian set sorth Anno. 1537. by Authority August contra Epist fundam c. 5. John 4. 29. John 4. 42. Wald. doct fid l. 2. art 2. 27. Calv. Instit l. 1. c. 7. d. 4. Calvin instit l. 1. c. 7. d. 7. Do all Interpret 1. Cor. 12. 30. Staplet cont 6. q. 7. exp si art Observed out of Dr. Field Mr. Hooker Chemnitius and Trelcatius Verba Lutheri ep ad Hen. 8. tom 2. ep p. 290 Psal 3â— 1. Rom. 4. â—5 a August tom in Psal 31. b Amb. in cp ad Rom. c. 8. Ephes 2. 8. Rom. 8. 33. a Epiphau b Hugo de S. V. l. 2. de Sacram. c. 11. Altis l. 3. c Cassan in consult art 21. a August conâ— Faust l. 20. c. 2. b Jovius hist lib. 24. c August in Psal 113. d Idem de civit Dei lib. 22. cap. 10. e Epi. ad Heb. cap. 11. a Eckius in his Enchirid. b Orig. l. 2. in Epist ad Rom. c Basil cited by the Bishop of Lincoln d Naz. Orat. 1 in Julian orat in Gorgon e Psa 50. 15. f Mat. 4. 10. g Psa 74. 12. a Eliens resp ad apolog pag. 44. b Vide Epist Vratistaviens apud Scultetum Annal. decad 1. p. 150. a 1 K. James preface monit a August do moribus Ecclesiae a August de civit Dei l. 8. cap. 27. b Plin. Sect. l. 4. ep 8. Florim Remon en son Histoir ex Hom. Mel. in evang de Incarnat Rogers in art â—2 a Leo 10. ep ad Bemb 17. b Rosa Mar. c Polan synt l. 3. c. 24. d Aug. ser 17. de verb. Ap. e Epiph. l. 3. advers haeres a P. Lom 4. sent dist 45. Roffens cont art Luther art 18. Cassand prec eccles Vide epist Vratislau apud Scultet Annal. dec 1. pa. 152. See Common Prayer Book Schoolmen is 4. sent a Aug. conf à apud Cassan consult art 10. b Calvin in 1 Cor. 11. 21. c Melan. in ep ad Palat. Granguellam d Fortunatus Calvinista apud Greg. de Valent. l. 1. de praesen christi in Euchar. c. 7. dist Istius Britanno Remanus pag 19. Aeneas Sylvius de orig Bohem c. 35. Alph. lib. 2. advers haeres tit Ador. haer 2. In annot in Tertul. coron Militis Indefens conc Trid. l. 1. p. 41 Enchirid. c. 2. p. 101. De prohib l. 2. c. 13. Recherches de la Fraunce pa 910 511. a Lib. 11. epist 11. Epist b Lindan l. 3. Strom. cap. 33. c Index expur distinct 2. Blasph Blasph Blasph Abomination Blasph
Act of Reformation begining in sundry estates by reason partly of their divers shapes and forms of governments and partly of a great disadvantage thatone part of Christendom knew not what another did nor consulted with their fellows that so they might with unanimity proceed in the same did necessarily produce a seeming difference in the outward forms of particular Churches But loe the goodness and providence of Almighty God Although these Churches have several faces yet have they all but one heart there being no essential fundamental or material difference amongst any of us of the reformed Religion as you may easily find by reading the confessions of our several Churches And therefore for these odious Nick-names of Lutheran Calvinist Huguenot Zuinglian and the like be more sparing of them until you have reconcil'd your own Church-men as your Minorits and Dominicans about the conception of the Blessed Virgin your Jesuits and Dominicans about predestination and those dependant questions Your Sorbonists and Jesuits about the bounding and meeting out the Regal and Papal Authority and you shall find more doctrinal oppositions in your own than you can imagin â—n our Churches But keep you at home in your â—ative Country and look without envy or partiaâ—ity upon this flourishing Church of England and â—ame me one Kingdom in all Europe that hath continued â—ery neer this hundred years in that constancy and â—mmutability of Doctrin or Discipline We are ordered with that consecration that Archbishop Cranmer was we renounce the Pope by that abjuration that Archbishop Cranmer did we subscribe to those Articles of Religion which Arch Bishop Cranmer in the Reformation pitch'd upon before we can be admitted to any Ecclesiastical function Some wild coults we have that start and boggle at the first if they see but their own shadows but by the discipline of the Church they are curb'd and fetch'd about again and taught in a little while to come on gently to this uniformity and subscription So that malice it self cannot challenge the Church of England this most glorious portion of that Catholick Church of any fractions or divisions in points of Doctrin Pap. Nay but I have often heard that you have no Bishops or Priests at all in your Church But that in the beginning of Q. Elizabeths reign Lay-men in the Parliament did appoint you Bishops who consecrated one another in a Tavern at the Nags-head in Cheapside and that your Priests were ordered only by these Parliamentary Prelates Prot. This tale of the Nags-head Harding Sanders and Stapleton have forged out of their own Nags-heads without any grounds or likelihood at all And yet as easily as they came by it put a Minister of our Church to an infinite deal of learned pains Who by His Majesties special commandment did search out the ancient Records of the Arch-bishop of Canterbury agnized since by many Priests and Jesuits in the Clink and other prisons and out of them hath composed a learned Book shewing the successive Consecrations of all the Bishops of England from that first convocation that banish'd the Pope about the year 1536 so as any Minister looking out that Bishop who gave him Orders may presently ascend in a right line of Bishops to those Prelates that lived in the Reign of Henry the eighth before the reformation And therefore if your own Priests be lawful you may not quarrel with ours differing only from yours in their renouncing of your impieties and superstitions Pap. This Record you speak of is somewhat to the purpose unless the heresie of those first Bishops did disable them for granting of lawful Consecrations and Orders Prot. Heretick indeed is a common word for us in the mouth of every Woman that is but a little Romaniz'd But is it not strange how he should be an Heretique that saies the Creed and the Lords Prayer in that literal and explicate sense and meaning that all the Fathers of the Church for the first 500 years understood the same Yet this is nothing to the point in hand For first if the Bishops in Queen Maries time were lawful notwithstanding their being consecrated by Cranmer and other tainted Bishops as you term them why may not the Bishops in Queen Elizabeth and King James his time expect the same priviledge And secondly your own Writers confess that Heresie which we suppose but not yield these Prelates fallen unto cannot rase out from that Character of a Bishop this inseparable power of consecrating and ordering Pap. Yet there remains an objection against your Church that it cannot possibly be a true Church because it is severed from the true visible head thereof the Pope of Rome Prot. This is a stale objection and soon answered The Church of Asia severed from Pope Victor in the year 200. Athanasius and his fellows from Faelix and Tiberius in the year 375. Cyprian and his Brethren yea and three National Councils from Pope Stephen in the year 250. the Bishops of Carthage Schismatized from all Popes of Rome for an hundred years together about the year 409. lastly the Greek Church cut off from the Roman for 300. years are sufficient testimonies there may be a true Church of God though severed and divided from the Pope of Rome And here in this Kingdom it was no Protestant but Popish Bishops that concluded in a National Synode our King might if he pleased create a Pope of his own in his own Kingdoms and Dominions and yet remain a member of the Catholick Church Pap. Well the best is you have been so tedious in your answers that I have I thank God forgotten all that you have said for your reformed Church Prot. But I will help that quickly by summing up of all into these twelve Positions 1. We have a Church as having Doctrine Salvation Discipline 2. It is a portion of the Catholick Church 3. It hath a Spiritual union of Doctrin with the untainted members of the Church of Rome 4. And yet hath severed her self from the Church of Rome by crying against and dissenting from her Superstitions 5. Which some of us hold no true Church of Gods in regard of the prevailing Faction 6. Although we judge charitably of the Salvation of some in that Church 7. Who notwithstanding are saved not as Papists but as Christians 8. And in one lump or Communion with this Church lived ours before the Reformation 9. Which then for want of a General did sever her self by a National Council from the same 10. Nor was it any by-respect of the Kings but God and the cry of that age that caused this reformation 11. Nor do our reformed Churches dissent amongst themselves in Doctrine but in outward policy and discipline only 12. Our Bishops and Priests come by a lineal Succession from Henry the eights time nor can a supposal of Heresie cut off this discent CHAP. II. Of the Scriptures Papist DOe you then hold this Church of yours