Catholicke Church Saint AVGVST and the other Bishops of Africa answered them that the separation intended by that passage was the morall separation of faith and breach of Communion It was saith S. AVGVST represented what ought to be the separation of the good from the bad in this world that they might not communicate in theire sinnes to witt separation of hart by dissimilitude of life and manners and that otherwise ought not to be vnderstood that which is written goe out from the middle of them and withdrawe from them and touch not theire vncle annesse that is to saie be distinguished in liuing in an other sorte and consent not to theire vncleannesse But the excellent kinge saith that there are other places of scripture whereby is proued that which he pretendes to gather from the allegoricall wordes of the reuelation to witt that the visible Church should become soe corrupt as the faithfull should be obliged to leaue her communion Now the obiections that his Maiestie reserues for vs in this regard are either taken from this interrogatory of our Lord In your opinion the sonne of man when he comes shall he finde faith vpon the earth or from these wordes the moone shall not giue vs her light Which S. AVGVST interpretes of the Church or from this prophecie of Saint Paule the Sonne of perdition shall be seated in the temple of God Or out of these words of the same booke of the reuelation two winges of a great Eagle were giuen to the woeman that she might flye into the wildernesse Or from the examples of the pretended ecclipses and sincopes of the Iewish Church And therefore settinge aside the obiection of the symptomes of the Iewish Church which we remitt to treate of heereafter it is fitt that we solue all the rest presently To the first obiection then which is to the interrogatory that our Lord made to his disciples when he asketh them In your opinion when the Sonne of man comes shall he finde faith on the earth Wee saie saint IEROM and S. AVG. haue answered it longe agoe the one against the Luciferians and the other against the Donatists And haue shewed that this passage is intended not of confessed and doctrinall faith but of iustifiynge faith workinge by charitie and yet not of the extinction but of the diminution of this iustifiynge faith The Donatists saith saint AVG. alleadge that this that our Lord asketh in your opinion the Sonne of man vhen he comes shall he finde faith vpon the earth is to be expounded of the reuolte of all the earth which we vnderstand to be said either in regarde of the perfection of faith which is soe oifficult to men that in the very Saintes who where to be admired as in Moses there was found some thinge wherein they haue staggered or might stagger or for the aboundance of the wicked and the smalle number of the good And saint IEROM speakinge of the Luciferians If they flatter themselues said hee with this sentence written in the Ghospell in your opinion when the Sonne of man comes shall he finde faith vpon the earth let them know that the faith there mentioned is that whereof the same Lord said Thy faith hath saued thee And agaiue of the Centurion I haue not found so great faith in Israell And a little after it is this faith that our Lord hath foretoulde shall be rarelie found it is this faith that euen in those that belieue well is hardlie found perfect Let it be done to thee said hee accordinge to thy faith I would not haue that word pronounced to me for if it be done to me accordinge to my faith I shall perish and yet I belieue in God the father I belieue in God the Sonne and I belieue in God the holy Ghost To the second obiection which is that sainct AVGVSTINE interpretes allegorically these other wordes of the Ghospell then the moone shall 〈◊〉 more giue her light to be meant of the Church which in tyme of persecutions whereof he speakes shall not appeare we answere sainct AVGVSTIN meanes that she should not appeare in her carnall and weake members but not that she shall not appeare in her strong and spirituall Champions that she shall not appeare or lesse appeare in her 〈◊〉 parte in her strawe in her drosse because that parte will yeild to persecutions but not that she shall not appeare in her more excellent parte in her corne in her golde which contrarywise will then shine more then before This appeares by what he writes in his Epistle to 〈◊〉 It is shee said hee that is sometimes obscured and as it were shadowed with 〈◊〉 by the multitude of scandalls that is to saie persecutions when the Sinners 〈◊〉 theire bowe to wound it the obscuritie of the moone the lawes of theire heart but euen then she is eminent in her moste firme champions And a little after It is not in vaine that it was said of the seede of Abraham that is should be as the starrs of heauen and as the sand vpon the Sea-shore that by the starrs of heauen might be meant the faithfull lesse in number more steddie and more cleere and by the sand which is on the Sea-shore the multitude of weake and carnall men who some-times in calme weather appeare free and quiet and sometimes are couered and troubled with the waues of tribulations and temptations And therefore after he hath said she shall not appeare he adds for as much as manie which seemed to shine in grace shall yeilde to persecutions and fall awaie and some faithfull persons verie firme shall be troubled And againe persecution shall so precede as that defection of some shall followe that he might shew that he meanes not to saie that the Church shall not appeare in her whole bodie otherwise how coulde he crye out in an other place she hath this most certaine marke that she cannot be hidden but that she shall not appeare in some of those that had bene her partes Which neuerthelesse in matter of application of allegories where it is permitted to bow the sense of the wordes to accommodate it to the grace of the application and where interpretors content themselues if the thinge signified answere in anie parte to that signifiyinge it sufficeth to make him say to the end to appropriate the 〈◊〉 of the moone to the Church that the Church then shall not appeare that is shall not appeare in some of her partes The third obiection followes which is that saint Paul writes that the daie of the Lord shall not come till the reuolte be first made and till the man of sinne be reuealed and the sonne of perdition who shall oppose and exalte himselfe aboue all that is called God or esteemed an obiect worthie of whorship euen to sitt in the temple of God shewinge himselfe as if he where God Now I will not heere stand to dispute what saint Paul meanes by this reuolte or
2. Decemb. 1631 F. Leander de S. Martino sacrae Theologiae Doctor Hebraeae linguae in alma Academia Duacena professor Regius Benedictinorum conuentus S. Gregorij Angliae Prior. THE LETTER OF THE LORD CARDINALL OF PERRON SENT TO MONSIEVR CASAVBON INTO ENGLAND SIR the letter that you deliuered to Monsieur de la Bodery was deliuered to me by him euen as I was vpon my departure for a voyage into Normandy and since my returne from thence I haue bene almost perpetuallie sicke which hindered me from answering with more speede Now that my disease begins to be at some truce with me I will paie the arrerages of this delaie and will first thanke you for the good office that you haue done me in shewing the letter I writt to you to the most excellent king of great Brittaine and in procuring me an interest in his fauour I will striue so to husband it by my humble seruice s and particularlye by celebrating his prayses which is the only fruite that good and vertuons kinges such as hee doe gather from allthe labours and thornie cares that the burden of a kingdome loades them with as his maiestie shall haue noe cause to be sorrie that it be declared to after ages how he hath honord mee with his well wishes ād how I haue had his 〈◊〉 in reuerence and admiration As for the translation of the verses of Virgill whereof you writt to me that he desires a Copie that which I sent you being lost I deferr yet for some daies to acquit myself of that dutie because I haue put it to the presse with the addition of a part of the fowrth which I haue ended expresselie for his maiestie sake to inlarge my presēte to him As soone as those few Copies which are in doing shall be finished I will not faile to addresse one of them to you to offer vp to him on my behalfe The third point of your letter yet remaines which is that his Maiestie was astonisht at those wordes in my letter That excepting the title of Catholicke I knew nothing wanting in him to expresse the figure of a perfect and compleate Prince and that he pretendes that since he beleeues all thinges that the Ancientes haue with an vnanimous consent esteemed necessarie to saluation the title of Catholique cannot bee donied him Now as on the one side I can not but greatlie praise his maiesties pietie and Christian humilitie in not disdayning to submitt his iudgement adorned with so manie lightes naturall ād acquired to that of those cleare beames of antiquitie imitating therein the wisdome of that great Emperor Thodosius who thought there was noebetter meanes to agree the dissentions which disturbed the Church of his time then to exact from either part an answere whither thy beleeued that the Fathers which had flourish'd in the Church before the separation had bene orthodoxall and that being confessed to summon them to submitt themselues to whatsoeuer they should be found to haue beleeued so on the other side there are manie obseruations `to be made vpon this Thesis before wee passe to the hypothesis which since I Cannot represent to his maiestie I shall be gladd to informe you of them for your particular satisfaction The first is that the name of Catholicke is not a name of beleefe simplie but of Communion also else antiquitie would not haue refused that title to those Which were not separated from the beleefe but from the Communion of the Church nor would they haue protested that out of the Catholicke Church the Faith and Sacramentes may be had but not Saluation Out of the Catholicke Church saith S. Augustin in his treatie of Conference with Emeritus a man may haue orders hee maie haue Sacraments he may sing Alleluya he may answere A men he may keepe the Gospell he may haue and preach the faith in the name of the Father of the Sonn and of the holie Ghost but he can no where finde Saluation but in the Catholicke Church And in the Booke De vtilit credendi There is a Church as all men graunt if you cast your eyes ouer the extent of the whole world more full in multitude then all the rest and as those that know themselues to be of it affirme more sincere in the doctrine of truth But of the truth that is an other question that will suffice for this search that there is one Catholicke Church vpon which seuer all heresies impose seuerall names whereas they are all call called euery one by his particular name which they dare not disauow from whence it may appeare to the iudgment of anie arbiter that is not prepossessed by fauour to whom the name of Catholicke where of all are ambitions ought to bee attributed And in the Booke against the fundamentall Epistle Then to omitt this wisdome which you denie to bee in the Catholicke Church there are manie other things which doe most iustlie retaine me in her bosome the consent of people and nations retaine me therein the authoritie begūn by miracles nourished by hope increased by charitie confirmed by antiquitie retaines me therein the succession of Prelates euen from the verie seate of Peter to whom our Lord deliuered his sheepe to be fedd after his Resurrection euen to the present Bishops seate retaines me therein and finallie the verie name of Catholick retaines me therein which not without cause this Church alone amongst so manie heresies hath in such sorte obtained as though all heretickes would be called Catholiques neuerthelesse when a stranger askes where the Catholicke Church doth assemble there is not one 〈◊〉 that dares shew his 〈◊〉 or his howse And in his treatise of Faith and of the Creede Wee beleeue the holie Church and that Catholick for heretickes and schismatickes call their Congregations Churches but hereticks beleeuing of God false thinges violate faith and Schismatickes separate themselues from brotherly charitie by vniust diuisions allthough they beleeue the same things that we beleeue and therefore neither can the hereticke belonge to the Catholicke Church because she loues God nor the schismaticke because she loues her neightour And in the Booke Of the vnitie of the Church All those that beleeue as hath bene said that ouer Lord IESVS is come in the flesh and is risen againe in the same flesh wherein he was borne and hath suffered and that he is the sōne of god god with god ād one with the Father and the onlie immoueable word of the Father by which all things haue bene made but yet dissent so from his bodie which is the Church that theire communion is not with the whole or is spread in deed but yet is in some part found to be separate it is manifest they are not in the Catholick Church And Prosper his scholler Hee saith hee that Communicates with this vniuersall Church is a Christian and a Catholicke but he that communicates not therewith is an hereticke and Antichrist And for this cause wee see that the Fathers denied the title
without obliging him-selfe to the doctrine whereof it makes profession And therefore saint EPIPHAN interpretes iudicially these gates of hell that shall not preuaile against the Church to be heresies the gates of hell said he are heresies and heresieMasters To the second which is that saint PAVL writes you are arriued to heauenly Ierusalem to the Church of the first-borne which are inrolled in heauen Wee answere he speaketh of the Church triumphant to which he writes that we are arriued in the same sorte as he writes our conuerfation is in heauen that is to saie in hope as when a shipp hath cast his ankor on land which is saith saint AVGVSTINE the symbole of hope it is said to be arriued to land though it be yet in the sea and let vs add that the word first-borne signifies there euen by Caluins owne confession the holy Fathers and 〈◊〉 of the old testament Or if saint PAVL speake there of the Church militant and that by the first-borne he intends the predestinate we 〈◊〉 he calls it the Church of the first-borne not because it containes only the elect but because the elect are no where els I meane the elect inuested in the temporall grace of theire election as we call the parliament of Paris the Court of the Peeres not because it containes none but Peeres but because there is noe place els wherein the Peeres are inuested in theire qualitie of Peeres To the third which is taken from this article of the Creede I beleeue in the Catholicke Church we saie it sufficeth that faith be either of inuisible things or of things apprehended vnder inuisible conditions as those are vnder which wee consider the Church when we beleeue her to be the spouse of Christ the temple of God the mansion of the holy Ghost the gate of heauen the treasuresse of spirituall graces Otherwise to beleeue in Christ had not bene an article of faith while our lord was in this world And neuerthelesse he saith Who beleeues not in the sonne is alreadie iudged And when the Councell of Constantinople puts this confession of Faith amongst the articles of the Creede of the Church I beleeue one baptisme in remission of sinnes they must conclude baptisme to be inuisible against the vniuersall condition of Sacraments which is to be visible signes of inuisible graces To the fourth obiection to witt that saint AVGVSTINF writeth that only predestinate Catholiques are true partes of the Church and true members of the bodie of Christ and distinguisheth betweene them which are in the howse and them which are of the howse and betweene the people knowne in the eyes of God and knowne in the eyes of man we haue three solutions The first solution is that saint AVGVSTINE intended not that only Catholiques predestinate were true partes of the Church according to the formall beinge of the Church which is common to all that are called but according to the finall being of the Church that is to the end and in the fruits for which the Church is instituted I meane saint AVGVSTINE did not intend in those places to define the Church formally and by what she is in this world but finally and by what she shall be in the other Euen as he that saith only good Citizens are true partes of a common wealth doth not define a common wealth formally and by what it is in it selfe but finally and by what it is in the intention of the law-maker And he that saith a true haruest is only the corne that is gathered from the strawe and not the strawe wherewth it is mingled defines not a haruest formally and by what it is in the feild or in the barne but finally and by what it will be in the garner We confesse saith saint AVGVST that whicked men are together with the good in the Catholick Church but as Corne and strawe And againe Wicked men may be with vs in the barne but they cannot be with vs in the garner For that sainct AVGVST doth not esteeme that the formall and precise condition that constitutes men in the Church is that of predestination internall to God and eternall but that of externall and temporall vocation he shewes it when he saith vpon saint IOHN None can enter by the gates that is by Christ to life eternall which is in vision if by the same gate that is to saie by the same Christ he be not first entred into his Church which is his sheepefolde to the temporall life which is in faith And in the place already alleadged vpon the psalmes Our predestination is made not in vs but in God the other three things are wrought in vs vocation iustification and glorification And in his writings against Faustus Men can be inserted into noe name of Religion whether true or false but they must be tied by the common participation of some signes or visible Sacraments Contrarywise the verie same saint AVGVST which distinguisheth betweene those in the howse and those of the howse teacheth vs that all Catholickes both predestinate and reprobate are in the howse that is to saie in the Church Those saith he we cannot denie but that they are likewise in the howse and then that the formall condition which 〈◊〉 the Church is vocation and not predestination but that there are none but the predestinate Catholickes which are of the howse that is to 〈◊〉 that are finall peeces inalienable and inseparable from the howse or to speake in termes of lawe that are goodes that the father of the familie vouchsafes to put into the Inuentory of his howse the other being there but for a tyme and as by waie of loane and not to dwell there 〈◊〉 euer For when the Church shall passe from earth to heauen and from the state of mortalitie to immortalitie only predestinate Catholickes shall remaine there and not the others The Church saith he is the 〈◊〉 the seruant is the Sinner now many sinners enter into the Church and therefore our Lord did not saie the Seruant enters not into the howse but he dwelles not for euer in the howse And againe None can blott from heauen the constitution of God nor can anie blott from the earth the Church of God c. She containes good and euill but she looseth none on earth but the euill and admitts none into heauen but the good The second solution is that this distinction of partes of the Church true and not true and of vessells which are in the howse and not of the howse and of people knowne in the eyes of God and knowne in the eyes of men is not a distinction of Religion but a simple distinction of manners which puts difference betweene the one and the other in regarde of the formall being of the Church and of the externall meanes of vocation which are the profession of the true faith the sincere administration of the Sacramentes and the adherence to lawfull
light more splendid then the Sunn whose rayes From the ethereall desert first doe springe And that the rest of the seede of the woman were those of whom our Lord said shewing his disciples See heere my mother and my bretheren For though Saint Iohn make mention of the paines of childbirth neuerthelesse those wordes may be vnderstood to be spoken accordinge to the ordinarie custome of the childbirth of wemen as it is written that the daies of the purification of the childbirth of the virgin were accomplished and that she presented our Lord in the temple to obserue the lawe that commaunded that euery male that opens the wombe shall be holy to the Lord. Now if the mention of the paines of childbirth keepe vs from expoundinge this passage of the virgin and obligeth vs to transferr it to the Church what shall hinder vs from interpretinge still the wildernesse to be heauen and from sayinge that the wildernesse whither the woman fled was heauen into which the first of the faithfull persecuted and martyred fled euery day by theire death and the Church in theire persons from before the face of the serpent and were deliuered from his Snares persecutions and temptations followeinge this exclamation of Saint IOHN Blessed are those that dye for the cause for the Lord for they shall rest from thence forward from theire labors Or if wee will not by the word Wildernesse vnderstand heauen who shall hinder vs frō sayinge that this woman was the Church who haueinge bene once amongst the Iewes after she had brought forth Christ by the preachinge of the Ghospell was persecuted by the Iewes that is to saie the people of the Gentiles which is often vnderstood by the wildernesse from whence it is that S. AVG. interpretinge these wordes of the Psalmist Whē I passed through the wildernesse the earth trēbled writes the wildernesse were the natiōs that 〈◊〉 ignorant of God the wildernesse was there where there was noe lawe giuen from God where noe Prophetes had dwelt which had foretolde that the Lord should come And who can hinder vs from Supposeinge that the relicks of the seede of the woman were the Iewes who were conuerred to the Christian Religion and whose generall reunion with the Church shall be made before the end of the world or who can forbidd vs to interpret this wildernesse to be the exclusion from ciuill and politicke charges from which the Church was soe banished vnder the pagan Emperors that the Christians were not admitted to anie parte of the administration of the Common wealth For our aduersaries will not haue that the number of three yeares and a halfe to which this flight is limitted should be taken accordinge to the ordinary and literall accompt Or finally if it permitted to the last commers to hope to finde the diuination of the passages of the Reuelation in theire coniectures as the cupp of prophecie in Beniamins Sacke Who shall hinder vs from applyinge this allegory to the Conuersion of the Countries newly discouered and to in terpret the wildernesse to be the Indias and the other hemispheare which had bene soe longe tyme left waste and desert from the knowledge of the true God and from saying that the two wings are the two nauigation of the East and west by which the Church that the diuell vnder the ensignes of Mahomet striues to driue from our hemispheare is gone to visite those regions conformable to the stile of the Grecians which call the sailes of shipps wings and say winge a shippe in steede of settinge to the sailes and who shall hinder vs from interpretinge the Eagle from whence these two winges preceede to be the westerne part of the Roman Empire whereof these two nauigations are partes and from expoundinge the relickes of the woman to be the Catholickes that remaine vnder the tiranny of Mahomet For to expound the woman to be the secret mumber of the predestinate and the wildernesse to be inuisibilitie and obscurity how can it agree with that that our Lord Cryes If they tell you heere is Christ beholde him in the desart goe not forth beholde him in the secret places belieue them not And S. AVGVSTINE after him It is not an obscure question and wherein they can deceiue you of whom our Lord foretolde that they should come and saie see heere is Christ beholde he is there see heere hee is in the wildernesse that is out of the frequency of the multitude And a while after that is then the Church that is not in anie one parte of the earth but which is well knowne ouer all And how can it be that the woman beinge retired into the wildernesse that is to saie the Societie of the predestinate beinge shadowed hidden and obscured from before the face of the Dragon shall quit the pursuite of the woman to goe make warr with the relickes of the seede of the woman for if the woman be inuisible how can the relickes of the woman be visible And if from that that is said that the woman flied into the desert it be permitted to conclude that the Church shall be inuisible wherefore shall we not by the same reason conclude that the Babylon of the Reuelation shall be inuisible seeinge Saint IOHN writes And he carried me in the spirit into the desert and I saw the woman sitt vpon the beast And this wee saie not that we pretend to warrant this interpretation more then the rest but to shew how weake foundation such allegoricall allegations are to builde a reuolt and an alteration of Religion vpon and to ouerthrowe soe manie euident and literall promises of perpetuall beinge visibilitie eminencie and purity as God hath made to his Church Of the consequence of the places alleadged by the fathers for the aucthoritie of the Catholicke Church CHAPT XVI The continuance of the Kinges answere NOw to come neerer the point the kinge denies that this exact collection of places out of Saint AVGVSTINE doth in anie sorte touch him THE REPLIE IN truth if the most excellent Kinge can proue that the Church to which he adheares hath bene perpetually visible and eminent aboue all other Christian Societies as Saint AVGVSTINE puts this condition for one of the necessary markes of the Church when he saith she hath this most certaine marke that she cannot be hidden she is then knowne to all nations the sect of Donatus is vnknowne to manie nation then that cannot be she And if he can shew that she hath bene not onely perpetuallie visible and eminent but also perpetuallie pure from all contagion of Schisme and heresie as Saint AVGVSTINE protestes that to be of the essence of the Catholicke Church when he writes noe hereticke belonges to the Catholicke Church because she loues God nor noe Schismaticke because she loues her neighbour And againe The Church of the Saintes is the Catholicke Church the Church of the Saintes is not the Church of the hereticke she was
person he foretold him he should noe more 〈◊〉 calld Symon but 〈◊〉 signifiing most aptlie by that word that vpon him as vpon a 〈◊〉 and a stedfast stone he should build his Church And this may be said of the first point of this Article which is of building of the Church vpon the faith or vpon the person of PETER Let vs passe forward to the secōd which is of that of the other Apostles The Church saith his maiestie is founded vpon the Confessiō of PETER the other Apostles Here it is needefull to distinguish the diuers vses that this word foundation of the Church receaues in the Scripture for it is one thing to be the foundation of the faith of the Church and an other thing to be the foundatiō of the Ministrie of the Church And againe the foundation of the faith of the Church is of two sortes for there is an obiectiue foundation of the faith of the Church and a suggestiue foundation of the faith of the Church I call that an obiectiue foundation of the faith of the Church which is the first obiect that the Church is obliged to knowe and embrace for doctrine of faith and that is Christ of whom S. PAVLE saith None can 〈◊〉 anie other foundation besides that which is alreadie laid that is Chrict For the first thing that enters into the obiect of the Christian faith as it is Christian is Christ God and Man crucified for our Sinns And all the other doctrins of Faith haue noe other place then as superedifications and accessories to that I call that a suggestiue foundation of faith of the Church vpō which the Church grounds and assures the beleefe of those things which she holdes for doctrines of faith and this againe is double the one principall and originall to wit the holy Ghost of whom our Lord saith Hee shall suggest to you all thinges that I haue told you and the other instrumentall and organicall to wit the voice and pen of those that he hath chosen to declare vnto vs the misteries of faith with certaine and infallible authoritie And in this sence not only all the Apostles and Euangelists but also all the prophets are foundations of the faith of the Church according to this Apostolicall sentence Wee are edified vpon the foundation of the Prophets and of the Apostles And in this same sence sainct PAVL said in the second to the Corinthians That he had bene nothing inferior to the most excellently great of the Apostles And in the Epistle to the Galatians That he had not receiued his Ghospell from men but from God And that those that seemed to be something that is to saie those that for the more particular familiaritie that they had with our Lord it seemed they should bee more eminent in the doctrine of Faith and should bee the Pillars of Faith had taught him nothing For to be something according to the stile of those 〈◊〉 the east is a word not of contempt but of great and extraordinarie estimation I call him foundatiō of the ministrie of the Church that hath the supereminēce and superintendencie of the gouernment and ministrie of the Church which I haue distinguisht frō the foūdatiō of the Faith not but that the primitiue and originall Ministrie of the Church comprehends the Office of reuealing the Faith and that the perpetuall and ordinarie ministrie of the Church comprehends the office of preseruiug and propagating the Faith from whence it is that sainct PAVL calleth the Church The pillar and foundation of faith But because the foundation of the Ministrie extends further and manie as sainct LVKE amongst others haue bene foundations of the Faith of the Church who neuerthelesse haue not bene foundations of the Ministrie of the Church Now it is of this kinde of Foundation to witt of the Foundation of the ministrie of the Church that is treated off in these words of our Lord Thou art Peter and vpon this Rock I will build my Church as it appeares by what followes of the keyes and of the power to binde and loose This qualitie then of foundation of the gouernment and ministrie of the Church to dispute whether since it haue bene extended and communicated to the whole Bodie of the Apostles it is an other point For what S. PAVL saith If they be ministers of Christ I am so more then they is to be vnderstood of the excesse in the labour of the Ministrie and not in the authoritie But at the least when our Lord pronounced these wordes Thou art Peter and vpon this Rock I will build my Church It is certaine that in that instant and in those wordes it was conferred to none but to sainct PETER for the wordes are all pronounced in singular termes and excluding pluralitie Blessed art thou Symon Sonn of 〈◊〉 and I saie vnto thee that thou art Peter and vpon this Rock I will build my Church and I will giue thee the keyes of the kingdome of heauen Which sainct AMBROSE declares who after he had said This man to wit PETER when he had heard but 〈◊〉 what saie yee that I am presently not forgetfull of his place he made the primacie adds to it It is then this Peter that answered before the rest but for the rest and therefore he is called Foundation Which sainct CYPRIAN likewise acknowledges in these wordes Vpon him beinge one he built the Church And it is not to be said that the Condition of Foundation of the Church hauing bene giuen to sainct PETER in fauour and for recompence of his Coafession all the other Apostles that had part in his Confession ought also to haue their part therein For the qualitie of foundation of the Church was not giuen to sainct PETER in fauour of his Confession simplie for then it should be common to all the faithfull but in fauour of the primacie of his Confession wherein the other Apostles had noe actual part but only by consent and non repugnancie for as much as sainct PETER only answered as illuminated immediately from God the others being silent and not knowing what to saie and learning it but my the means of sainct PETERS Answere Hee was saith sainct 〈◊〉 made worthie of first knowing what there was of God in Christ. And 〈◊〉 CYRILL of Hierusalem All the other Apostles being silent for this doctrine was aboue their reach Peter the Prince of the Apostles and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Church not of his owne inuention neither perswaded by human reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his soule by God the Father said to him thou art Christ the Sonn of the liuing God And sainct ATHANASIVS manie yeares before them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Father reuealed to Peter those thinges whereof our Lord demaunded him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not doubt but the same Lord who inquired as if he had first reuealed to 〈◊〉 those things that he had knowne from the Father he askes him humanly to 〈◊〉 in inquiring
acknowledge that our Lord in calling Peter Cephas did intend to call him Rock and to constitute him for the foundation of the Church as appeares by these words of Rabbi Helias in his Tisbi vpon the exposition of the word Cephas Iesus the Nazarean saith hee called Simon sonn of Bariona Cephas which signifies fortitude for the interpretation of the Hebrew word sela is Cepha which signifies in manie places fortitude meaning that he was the head and fortitude of his religion and therefore he called him Cephas And to this there doe agree all the famous editions of scriptures in what tongue soeuer as well printed as manuscripts For not only the Hebrew editiō of the Ghospell of saint MATTHEW published by Munster saith Thou art Cepha and vpon this Cepha Thou art a Rock and vpon this Rock And the Syriack publisht by Moses of Merdin in Mesopotamia and republisht by Tremellius Thou art Kipho and vpon this Kipho thou art a Rock and vpon this Rock But also the Arabicke hath it Thou art Ascara and vpon this Ascara thou art the stone and vpon this stone And the Persian Thou art zeng and vpon this zeng thou art the Rock and vpon this Rock And the Armenian thou art Vimi and vpon this Vimi thou art the stone and vpon this stone And the Ruthenian Egiptian and Ethiopian euen the same Neuerthelesse though the want of the Hebrew and Syriack tongues suffered S AVGVSTINE to fall into this mistake to thinke that the primitiue word Rocke was not there attributed to sainct PETER but only the deriuatiue and that Petrus signifieth not Rock but Rockey or Stonie he hath alwaies acknowledged be it by vertue of the other places of the scripture or be it by vertue of the perpetuall traditiō of the Church the same thing that wee conclude out of this passage to witt the Primacie of saint PETER For interpretating a while after these wordes And I will giue thee the keyes of the Kingdome of heauen of the donation of the keyes made to the Church in the person of PETER he saith the Church did then receaue in the person of PETER the keyes because PETER figured the Church And yeelding elsewhere a reason why the person of PETER figured the Church he declares that it is because of his Primacie Hee beares saith hee by a figur atiue generalitie the person of the Church because of the primacie he had amongst the rest of the disciples By which word Primacie he intends according to the stile of the scripture the superintendencie and principalitie as it appeares by these words of Wisedome I haue had Primacie in all nations And by these wordes of the same saint AVGVSTINE Peter denominated from the Rock happie bearing the figure of the Church holding the principallitie of the Apostleshipp And againe who knowes not that this Principallitie of the Apostleship ought to be preferred before whatsoeuer other Bishoprick And elsewhere in the Roman Church hath alwaies flourisht the Principalitie of the Sea Apostolicke Of the indiuisibilitie of the Church CHAP. IV. The continuance of the Kinges answere BVT it hath begun to diminish in luster as being deuided into manie partes as for externall Communion wholie seperate one from an other THE REPLIE Two Opuntine Bretheren deuided the inheritance of their Father with such rigor as they deuided euen to a cupp and to a Coate It is in a sorte thus with the heretickes they doe indeede deuide the Chalice that our Father hath left vs by Testament and where of Dauid singeth The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my Chalice that is to saie they doe indeede diuide the Sacraments of Christ but the coate of Christ which is his Church they cannot diuide for it is alone and indiuisible When the raigne of Israell saith S. CYPRIAN should be diuided the Prophet Achias diuided his Rayment But because the poeple of Christ cannot bee diuided his coate woven of a peece and keeping it selfe whole was not diuided by those that possessed it The coate of Christ indiuisibly vnited preseruing itself whole shewed the indissoluble Concord of our poeple of vs who haue put on Christ. By the Sacrament signe of his coate he hath declared the vnitie if his Church Who then is he so impious so faithlesse and so disturbed with the fury of discord that beleeues that the vnitie of God the Coate of our Lord the Church of Christ can be deuided or dare to deuide it Not but that the multitude of the persons whereof the Church is compounded and which analogicallie is in steede of matter to it may be deuided but this diuision is but a materiall diuision of the Church and not a formall diuision no more then the diuision that the false mother would haue made of the Child had bene a formall diuision for as much as the being and the forme of the whole had not remained in either of the partes but a materiall diuision For the Church as well as naturall organicall bodies may be materiallie diuided but formallie it cannot be diuided that is to saie the members and parts may indeede be seperated from their whole but after the seperation they are noe more members and parts of the Church but 〈◊〉 and by abuse of language euen as the members and partes of a Bodie indued with a life animall and sensitiue when they come to be seperated from their whole are noe more members and partes but equiuocally forth as much as they participate noe more of the forme of the bodie wich cannot be possessed but in vnitie nor reside but in one only masse vnited and continued By meanes whereof the Church after the diuision of the externall communion resides only in one of the partes to witt in that from which the others haue diuided themselues and not in the others for the Church is either one or none My Doue saith the Spouse is an onelie one And Dauid Hierusalem that is builded as a Cittie whose participation is in vnitie And saint PAVL One bodie and one Spirit as you are called in one hope of your vocation Optatus Mileuitanus There is one Church which can not be at once amongst you and amongst vs. It resteth then that it be in one place And saint CHRISOSTOME The name of the Church is not a name of diuision but a name of vnion and agreement And saint AVGVSTINE He is one the Church is vnitie nothing answeres to one but vnitie And elsewhere Let euerie other inheritance be deūided amongst coheires the inheritance of peace cannot be diuided And therefore when the Fathers saie that hereticks and Schismaticks deuide the Church they intend either that they deuide it as much as lyes in them that is to saie that they indeuor to diuide it or that they deuide it materiallie and not formallie that is to saie that they make thereof manie Societies but not manie Churches Of the effect that diuision brings
with that modesty and submission which is due to the person and worth of so high and mighty a Monarch and with that learning and solidyty that might be expected from so great a maister of truth as that most eminent Cardinall was in behalf of so glorious a cause as is the doctrine of the catholique Church THE L. CARDIN PERRONS REPLIE TO HIS MAIESTIES ANSWER TO THE LETTER WRITTEN TO MONS CASAVBON THE FIRST OBSERVATION Reduced into an abridgement by the Kinge THE name of Catholicke doth not simplie designe Faith but also Communion with the Catholicke Church for this Cause the Fathers would not suffer that those should bee Called Catholickes which had separated themselues from the communion of the Church though they retained the Faith thereof For there is one only Catholicke Church out of the which Faith and Sacramentes may be had but not Saluation To this end there are manie places alleaged out of S. AVGTSTIN OF THE VSE OF THE WORD CATHOLIQVE THE ANSVVERE OF THE KINGE CHAPITRE I. TO beleeue the Catholicko Church and to beleeue the Communion of Saintes are put distinctly as diuers thinges in the Creede and it seemes the first was ptincipallie inserted to discerne the Iewish Synagogue from the Christian Church which ought not to be as that was inclosed within the lymittes of one only nation but to be spread in length and breadth through all the regions of the world And therefore the reason is not manifest enough why in the beginning of this obseruation it is said that the title of Catholicke designeth Communion These two thinges are very neere one an other but different notwithstandinge as wee haue shewed THE REPLIE WHEN the Philosopher FAVORINVS disputed against the Emperor ADRIAN and that his hearers were amazed and reproached it to him that he suffered the Emperor to confute him and yielded to him he answered them should not I yield to a man tha commaundes twentie legions Soe if there were noe question in this worke but of humane philosophie secular learninge it should be easie for me to stop my selfe at FAVORINVS boundes and to abstaine to contest with his maiestie or to resist him But since heere wee treate of his interest who hath not legions of men but of Angells and which hath for his title THE KINGE OF KINGES AND LORD OF LORDES and from whom this excellent Kinge himselfe makes profession to holde in Fee his life and Crownes that is to saie the cause of IESVS CHRIST and of his Kingdome which is the Church I will promise myselfe from his Maiesties bountie that he will not mislike where it shall be needefull that I resist and contradict him with all the respectiue libertie that the lawes of disputation yield me Then for the argument of the Creede I will saie after I haue kist my weapones three thinges for my defence FIRST that it is vncertaine whither the cause of the Communion of Saintes be an article aparte or an explication of the precedinge cause and a declaration that the Catholicke Church consistes not in the simple number of the faithfull euery one considered a parte but in the ioinct Communion of all the bodie of the faithfull in such sorte as both clauses make but one article as it seemeth sainct IEROM RVFFINVS and Sainct AVGVSTINE who haue omitted the latter haue esteemed it The SECOND that it is vncertaine whether it signifie the Communion that the faithfull liuinge haue one with an other or the Commerce that the Saintes of the triumphant Church doe exercise with the Saintes of the militant Church by the prayers that the Saints of the triumphant offer for the Saints of the militant and the commemoration that the saints of the militant make of the saints of the triumphant which is that that wee in our Liturgie call to communicate with the memory of the Saintes And the THIRD that whatsoeuer it signifie it is most certaine that the word CATHOLICKE was not added to that of the Church to distinguish the Christian Church from the Iewish Synagogue which had neuer borne the name of Church in qualitie of a title of a Religion when the creed was Composed and by consequence did not oblige the Christian Church to take the Epithete of Catholicke to bee discerned from that from which in all cases she had bene suffieientlie distinguished by the title of Christian but it was added to discerne the true Church from hereticall and schismaticall Societies which vsurpe equiuocally and by false markes the name of Church for that our Lord was the first that affected and consecrated the word ECCLESIA which we vsually translate in Englishe Church to signifie a societie of Religion whereas before neither it nor the Hebrewe word that answeres to it had anie other vse but that which prophane authors giue it which is to signifie Assemblies conuocations Generall Estates as when DEMOSTHENES said to ESCHINES thou wert dumbe to the assemblies where the greeke word is Ecclesijs the conuocations or general meetings And as when Aristotle called the conuocations of Creete ecclesias And as when the Scholiast of HOMER said Iupiter gathered together Ecclesias the Assemblies of the Gods It appeares first by the testimonie of MOSES who forbids bastardes to enter into the Church of Israell And of DAVID who singes I hate the Church of the malignant And of S. STEPHEN who said MOSES was in the Church in the solitarie place that is to saie with the multitude of the people in the desert It appeares secondlie by the testimonie of S. IEROM and of S. CYRILLVS who interpretinge this verse of ESAY Thou shalt bee called by a new name that the mouth of our Lord shall pronounce Doe affirme that this new name must be the name of Church It shall noe more saith S. IEROM be called Ierusalem and Sion but it shall receiue a new name that the Lord shall impose vpon it sayinge to the Apostle PETER thou art PETER and vpon this PETRA or rock I will build my Church And S. CYRILL It shall be noe more called Synagogue but the Church of the liuinge God And finallie it appeares by the verie testimonie of our aduersaries that not only in all the textes of the old Testament where the Greeke translation of the Seuentie vse the word Ecclesia but also in all those of the new where that word hath relation to anie other multitude beside the Christian Church they expresse it by Congregation or Assemblies And if since the cōminge of IESVS CHRIST and the edition of the creede the Fathers haue sometymes called the Synagogue by the name of Ecclesia or Church it hath bene by anticipation to shew the successiue vnitie of the one and other societie but not that the Iewish Church while it lasted hath euer vndertaken to attribute to herselfe the title of a Church in the qualitie of a title of Religion Neither consequently when the creede was composed was there neede of an
perfectly treated of no more then before the questions of the Arrians the Trinitie had neuer bene perfectlie treated of the thesis or tenet of the Catholickes was that the word Catholicke was a word of Communion and not a word of Simple beliefe The Christian Africans are called saith Saint AVGVSTIN and not with out good right Catholickes protesting by theire proper Communion the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And againe wee shew by the testimonie of our Cōmunion that wee haue the Catholicke Church the thesis of the Donatistes contrariwise was that the word Catholicke was not a word of Cōmunion but of beliefe and obseruation of precepts The Donatistes saith Saint AVSTIN answered that the word Catholike was not deriued from the vniuersalitie of nations but from the fulnes of the Sacramentes that is to saie from the integritie of the doctrine And in the Epistle to VINCENTIVS Rogat Thou thinkest said he then to saìe some subtile thing when thon interpretest the name of Catholicke not from the Communion of the whole world but from the obseruation of all the preceptes and diuine Sacramentes And againe you are those that hold the Catholicke faith not from the Communion of the whole world hut from the obseruation of all the preceptes aud diuine Sacramentes And the iudgement that was made vpon this difference was that the word Catholicke was a title not of simple beliefe but of Communion also After a contention of 40. daies saith OPTATVS Mileuit speaking of the first disputation of the Donatistes the finall sentēce of the Bishops Eunomius and Olimpius whcih were the Bishops deputed to iudge the possessiō of the word Catholicke betweene the Catholickes of Africa and the Donatistes was that that was Catholicke that was spread throughout the world And Saint AVSTINE speaking of the Conference of Carthage The Commissarie said he answered that he could not by 〈◊〉 attribute the name Catholicke to anie other then to those to whom the Emperor from whom he had his Commision had attributed it And in an other place citing the law of the Emperors made vpon this Conference The Emperors said he haue forbidden that those that vsurpe the name of Christians out of the Communion of the Catholicke Church and will not in peace adore the author of 〈◊〉 should dare to possesse anie thing vnder the title of the Church And againe The Emperors of our Communion haue ordained lawes against all heretikes now they call heretickes those that are not of theire Communion amongst which you are And after disputing with the same Donatists Thou askest said he of a stranger whether he be a pagan or a Christian he answeres thee a Christian thou askest him whether he be a catechumenus or one of the faithfull least he should intrude himselfe vnlawfullie to the Sacraments he answers thee one of the faithfull thou askest him of what Communion he is he answers thee a Christian Catholicke CHAP. II. Of the Conditions of the Catholicke Church The pursuite of the kings answere NOw the King belieues simplie without colour or fraude that the Church ōf God is one only by name and effect Catholicke and vniuersall spread ouer all the world out of which he affirmes himselfe there can be noe hope of Saluation he condemnes and detestes those which either heeretofore or since haue departed from the faith of the Catholicke Church are become heretickes as the Man ichees or from her Communion and are become schismatickes as the Donatists Against which two kindes of men principally sainct AVGVSTINE hath written the things alleaged in this obseruation THE REPLIE TELESIVS a Stripling of Greece hauing won the prize and victorie of the Combate in the Pythian games when there was question of leadinge him in triumph there arose such a dispute betweene the diuers natiōs there present euery one being earnest to haue him for theire owne as the one drawing him one waie the other an other waie insteed of receiuing the honor which was prepared for him he was torne and dismembred euen by those that stroue who should honor him most Soe happenes it to the Church All those that beare the name of Christians auow that to her only appertaines the victory ouer hell and that whosoeuer will haue parte in the prize and glory of this Triumph must serue vnder her ensigne But when they come to debate of the true bodie of this societie then euery sect desirous to draw her to themselues they rent and teare her in peeces and in steed of embracing the Church which consistes in vnitie they embrace schisme and diuision which is the death and ruyne of the Church The cause or rather the pretext of this euill comes from two faultes that the aduersaries of the Church commit in the distinction of the word Ecclesia or Church which makes the possession vncertaine and disputable The one is the fraudulent restriction of the terme of the Church to the only inuisible number of the predestinate by which when they feele themselues pressed to represent the succession of theire Church they saue themselues like Homers Aeneas or Virgils Cacus in obscuritie and darknes The other is the equiuocall and captious extension of the same word Church to all Sectes which professe the name of Christ by which when they see themselues excluded from the refuge of theire inuissble Church they haue recourse from darknes to confusion and confesse that there hath bene alwaies a visible Church but sometymes pure in faith and sometymes impure that is to saie now a Church and now noe Church And therefore I attribute it to a singular care of the prouidence of God that his Maiesty saying he beleeues the catholicke Church hath added as to preuent all theses shiftes without colour or fraude For to beleeue the catholicke church without colour or fraude is to beleeue her in the sence that the Fathers haue beleeued and vnderstood her the Fathers I say which haue lest vs these sentences pronunced sometymes as in the hypothesis against the Manichees and Donatists but as in the thesis against all kindes of heretickes or schismatickes in generall that out of the Catholicke Church there is noe saluation that whosoeuer is separate from the Catholicke Church cannot haue life and other such like which his Maiestie protested to approue Now first by the word Catholicke Church these Fathers haue beleeued and intended such a Church as these wordes of Esay 〈◊〉 In the last daies the Mountaine of the Lord shall be on the topp of all the Mountaines and all the hills shall flowe to her The people shall walke in thy light and the kings in the brightnes of thy Orient Theire seede shall be knowne amongst the people and theire kinge in the middest of the nations And these of our Lord The Citie built vpon the mountaine cannot be hid Tell it to the Church and if he heare not the Church let him be to thee as
Scripture haue bounded her to a little number of Moores of the Cesarian prouince then we must goe to the Rogatists if to a little compaine of Tripolitans Byzacenians and prouincialls the Maximianists haue gotten her If onlie to those of the East we must seeke her amongst the Arrians Macedonians Eunomians and others if there be others to be found for who can number the particular heresies of euerie nation But if by the diuine and most certaine testimonie of the holie Scriptures she is designed to be in all Nations whatsoeuer is alleadged to vs or from whence soeuer it is alleadged by those that saie heere is Christ there is Christ if we be sheepe lett vs rather heare the voice of our shepheard who saith beleeue them not for these are not tobe found in manie places where she is and she who is euerie where is also wheresoeuer they are And againe My sheepe heare my voice and follow me You haue heard his most manifest voice recommendinge his future Church not only in the psalmes and in the prophets but by his owne mouth alsoe And a little after This is no obscure question and wherein they may deceiue you of whom our Lord hath foretolde that they should come and saie lo heere is Christ behold he is tbere lo he is in the desert that is to saie out of the frequeneie of the multitud beholde him heere in the secret places that is in hidden traditions and darke Doctrines You heare that the Church must be spread ouer all and grow to the haruest you haue the citie of which himselfe that built it said the Cittie built vpon a hill cannot be hidden it is then she that is not in anie single parte of the earth but is well knowne euery where Beholde the markes of the Church that saint AVGVSTINE affirmes to be designed by the voice of the pastor and soe cleerely designed as they neede noe interpreter to the end that the Church beinge knowne by them we may after by the Church be informed of the sense of the other voices of the pastor which neede interpretarion Produce to vs said he something for your cause which cannot be interpreted more truly against you nay which at all needes no interpreter as these wordes In thy seede all nations shall be blest neede no interpreter As these wordes It behoued that Christ should suffer and rise againe the third daie and that in his name there should be preached penāce and remissiō of Sinnes through all nations beginning from Ierusalem haue no neede of an interpreter c. As these wordes And this Ghospell of the kingdome shall be preached through the whole world in testimonie to all people and then the end shall come haue noe neede of an interpreter As these wordes Let both grow together till haruest haue noe neede of an interpretor For when they had neede of an interpretor our Lord himselfe ineerpreted them for euen as when a testator ordaines some one to interpret the difficulties of his testament and that the name o this interpreter being common and equiuocall to manie the testator assignes marks in his 〈◊〉 to make him knowne the clause whereby he designes the markes to know him must be so cleere as they shall need no interpreter since it is by them that he should be knowne to whom it is necessary they should addresse themselues to make them vnderstand those thing that shall neede interpretation So God hauing promised in his testament to giue the interpretatiō of his testamēt to the Church the wordes whereby the markes of the Church are there designed must be so cleere that they shall neede noe interpreter so that by them the Church beinge knowne we may after by the Church learne the vnderstanding of those things that neede an interpreter And therefore the order and course of S. AVGVSTINE was to verifie by places of Scripture which had not need of an interpretor the externall and sensible markes ' of the Church by the externall and sensible markes of the Church the Church itselfe and by the Church the vnderstanding of those places of Scripture which had need of interpretation n This point said he we reade it not plainely and euidētly neither I nor thou but if there were beere some mā indued with wisdome to whom our Lord himselfe had giuen testimonie and that he were consulted with by vs about this question I beleeve we would nothinge doubte to doe as he would 〈◊〉 vs for feare of beinge iudged repugnant not soe much to him as to our Lord Iesus Christ by whom he was recommended Now he giues testimony to his Church And elswhere Whosoeuer then feareth to be deceaued through the obscuritie of this questiō lett him cōsult with that Church which the holy Scripture bath designed without 〈◊〉 ambiguitie But this was when hee disputed with the Donatists who agreed with the Catholicks concerninge the truth of the Scripture for when he disputed with the Manichees or with the Infidells which denied or questioned it then he changed his method and did not proue to them the Church by the Scripture but the Scripture by the Church and to that end he vsed two kindes of proceedinge The one was to put it for a ground that if god haue care of the Saluation of man as without this principle all discourse of Religion is in vaine there can be noe doubt but he hath appointed a meanes howe they might attaine it and that this meanes not cōsisting in thinges knowne by naturall reason for as much as thē naturallie all men would agree in it it is thē of necessity that it should consist in authority and then this ground benig laid to verifie that amonge all the Societies of Religion that bee in the world the onely Catholicke Church hath the true markes of authority The other proceedinge was to propose to them the accomplishment of profecies touching the extirpation of Idolles and the ruyne of the false Gods of the paganes and touchinge the abolishment of the Iewish Ceremonies and the dispersinge of the people of the Iewes and touchinge the comeinge of a newe lawe maker and of a newe Religion and to represent to them that these prophecies were written before the birth of our Lord and kept by the enemies of the Church and were couched in termes soe cleere that it was a wonder that the Iewes which kept them were not persuaded by them but that within the same bookes it was foretolde that theyshould be stricken with blindnes and that in seeinge they should not see And by this meanes to proue to them that these were sacred and inspired from God and then this obtained to shewe them in the same prophecies the markes whereby amongst soe manie Societies which should vsurpe the title of Christian Societies shee was to be discerned to whow appertained the right of beinge the true Common wealth of Christ. And she beinge finally acknowledged to addresse them to
corrected or explained it both in the conference that he had with them in Carthage and in his retractations as there remaines noe more colour to abuse it For Saint AVGVSTINE in his first disputatiōs against the Donatistes finding himself pressed with the arguments that they brought to proue that baptisme could not be giuen by heretickes because heretickes were out of the Church aduised himselfe and particularlie in the worke of the seuen bookes of baptisme from whence this distinction of people knowne in the eyes of God and in the eyes of men is principally taken to helpe himselfe against them not with the formall definition of the Church by which onely infidells and hereticall and Schismaticall Christians are excluded but by the finall definition of the Church that is to saie by the definition of the Church considered according to the finall and future number of those of whom she should be constituted in the other world from which wicked Catholickes are also excluded to the end to inferr from thence against the Donatistes that as euill Catholickes though they were out of the Church defined according to her future permanent and principall being did truly baptise soe heretickes and Schismatickes though they were out of the Church defined according to her present and passant being yet might administer true baptisme And for a foundation of his definition he made vse of Epithetes of Salomon and S. Paul hauing noe spott nor wrinkle and 〈◊〉 her such like elogies of the Church which appertained either to the state of the other world or to the puritie of doctrine But after that the Donatistes abused both this definition and the testimonies from whence it was taken to inferre from thence that the Catholicke Communion which was mingled with wicked men was not the Church he changed his proceding in the conference that he had with them at Carthage and declared that this definition belonged not to the Church considered according to the present and formall being which she hath in this world but accordinge to the future and finall being which she shall haue in the next The Catholicks saith he made it appeare by many testimonies and examples of holy Scriptures that wicked mē are now so mingled in the Church that although Ecclesiasticall discipline ought to be watchfull to correct them both in words and by excommunications and degradations neuerthelesse not onely being hidden they are vnknowne but euen being knowne they are often tollerated for the vnitie of peace and shewed that the testimonies of scriptures did in that manner well agree together to witt that the places whereby the Church is represented with the medly of the wicked signisie the present tyme of the Church as she is in this world and the places whereby she is designed to haue no wicked persons mixt with her signifie the future state of the Church such as she shall eternally haue in the world to come And a little after so the Catholickes refuted the calumny of the two Churches declaring expressely and instantly what they intended to saie to witt that they had not pretended that that Church which is now mingled with wicked men should be an other Church then the kingdome of God that shall haue no wicked pesons in it but that the same one and holy Church is now in one sorte and shall be then in an other now she is compounded of good and wicked men and thē she shall not be soe And in the worke of the Cittie of God made by him after the Conference of Carthage there where the one and other kinde are found that is good euill there the Church is as 〈◊〉 is at this present but where the one only shal be there is the Church such as she is to 〈◊〉 when there shal be no wicked men in her And in the answere to the second Epistle of Gaudentias written also after the said Conference You see that the Church according to Cyprian is called Catholicke by the name of all and it is not without manifestly-wicked men And in the second booke of his retractations I wrote said he 7. bookes of Baptisme against the Donatistes attempting to defend themselues by the authority of the most happie Bishop and Martyr 〈◊〉 in all those bookes where I haue described the Church without wrinckle or spott it must not be takē of the Church as shee in her present being but as being 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 such whē she shall appeare in glorie And againe In my writings to an vnknowē Donatist speaking of the multitude of cockle I said by which are vnderstood all heretickes there wantes a Coniunction which is necessary for I should haue said by which are also vnderstood all beretickes c. whereas I spake as if there were onely cockle out of the Church and none in the Church And neuerthelesse the Church is the Kingdome of Christ from whence the Angells in the haruest tyme will plucke vp all Scandalls which caused the Martyr Cyprian to saie Although we see tares in the Church yet ought neither our faith nor our charitie to be so diuerted as because we see tares in the Church we should therefore seperate our-selues from the Church Which sense we haue also followed els where and principallie against the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 present in the act of the Conference From whence it appeares how much it is to abuse Saint AVGVSTINES wordes against the sense whereto himselfe intendes they should be either corrected or explained to transferr as the protestantes doe that that he spake of the Church considered according to her future and finall being in the other world and applie it to the Church considered accordinge to her actuall being heere and to inferr from thence that she may consist in this world formally in the onely mumber of the predestinate and remaine hidden and visible To the fift obiection which is that Saint Ierom writes vpon the Epistle to the Ephesians The Church is glorions wthout spott or wrinkle or anie such like thing he then which is a sinner and soyled with anie spott cannot be called of the Church of Christ neither subiect to Christ We answere that he meanes not to saie that wicked men are not of the Church which is the body of Christ which fightes heere below but that they are not of the number of the Church which is the bodie of Christ which shall raigne in heauen For soe farr of is it from Saint IEROM to belieue that the promise to be without wrinkle or spott of manners appertaines to the Church considered as she is in this world that he cryes out quite contrarilie against the Pelagians That what the Apostle writes that our Lord will make his Church holy and without spott or wrinkle shall be accomplished at the end of the world and in the consummation of vertues And againe True perfection and without soyle is reserued for heauen when the bridegrome shall say to the bride Thou art wholie saire my
same Sacraments If we be in vnitie saith S. AVGVSTINE what haue two altars to doe in this Citty Neither can the office of mutuall prayers that is to saie prayers made one for an other constitute an Ecclesiasticall vnitie and Communion For Catholickes namely vpon good friday pray for heretickes and heretickes for Catholickes although indeede the exercise of prayers either made ioyntly or exacted one from the other be an office of communion though an vnperfect one And therefore the Councell of Laodicea forbiddes Catholickes to pray with heretickes And the first Councell of Nicea ordaines that those penitentes that had in perill of death receiued the Eucharist theire health beinge recouered should remaine with those that communicate by prayer onely And the Councell of Ancyra admittes a Communion without Obligation And the religious of Egipt driuen away by Theophilius being come to Constantinople were not depriued by Saint CHRISOSTOM of the Communion of prayer He thurst them not saith Socrates out of the participation of prayer but he iudged it not conuenient to admitt them to the Communion of the Sacraments before the knowledge of the cause Neither is true Charitie to be found out of the Church but only an humane affection which can noe otherwise be called charitie but equiuocally None saith saint AVGVST can transport charitie forth of the Catholicke Church And againe Thou hast proued to me that thou hast faith proue to me like wise that thou hast charitie Keepe vnitie Neither can the simple coniunction of hope constitute anie Ecclesiasticall communiō for all heretickes and Schismatickes agree in this pointe that they hope eternall life and the promised inheritance Wee saith Petilian the Donatist hauing nothinge yet possessinge all thinges beleeue that our soules are our reuenewe and with out labour and bloud we purohasse the eternall riches of heauen Neither finally can the coniunction in one iust hope haue anie place but amongst those that are called and inserted into the bodie of the Catholicke Church followinge this sentence of saint Paule One bodie and one spirit as you are called in one hope of your vocation Of the knowledge that the predestinate haue of their predestination CHAP. XII The continuance of the Kings answere KNowing I speake of the elect that they are predestinate from before the foundation of the vvorld to be coheires vnited in bodie and copartners of the promises of God in the Ghospell a the diuine Apostle saith THE REPLIE HEere the most excellent Kinge behaues himself like Hippomanes who runninge with Atalanta for masterie cast out golden apples in her way to delaie her with takinge them vp soe his Maiestie putts rubbes in this discourse to staie the course of my pen and to stoppe me to examine them But I hope to remoue them so quickly that I shall be time enough at the end of my carrere To this then I will succinctly saie fower thinges The first that philosophers teach vs that the morall passion which wee call hope from whence theologicall hope hath by analogy borowed her name is alwaies mingled and tempred with feare By meanes whereof those thinges that fall vnder the obiect of hope as are the goods of future life in respect of euery particular man cannot be apprehended with a certaintie of Theologicall faith that is to saie infaillible not to be doubted of otherwise hope should noe more be a vertue distinct frō faith against this oracle of sainct PAVL now remaines faith hope and Charitie and these things are three but ought to be embraced with an expectatiō mingled tempered with feare as Dauid exhortes vs in these wordes ferue the Lordin feare and reioyce in him with tremblinge And S. PAVL in these Thou subsistest by faith be not pussed vp but feare He that thinkes he stands let him take heede least he 〈◊〉 And againe worke your saluation with feare and tremblinge And speaking of himselfe I chastize my bodie and bring it vnder least when I haue preached to others myselfe become a reprobate The second that faith cannot bee but of things reuealed by the word of God for faith saith saint PAVL is by hearing and hearing by the word of God Now it is not reuealed to anie one in the word which God hath consigned to his Church either by writinge or tradition that he is absolutelie of the number of the predestinate and therefore if hee haue not expresse and particular reuelation from God as Saint Paule had who vpon this occasion speakes somtimes of himselfe according to his common condition as simply one of the faithfull and sometymes according to his extraordinary reuelatiō of a predestinate person he can not haue anie certaintie of Faith in this respect For to saie that it is reuealed to vs in scripture that whosoeuer trustes in our Lord shall not be cōfounded And that our Lord himselfe saith who beleeues in me hath life eternall all these pro mises not to speake of other modifications which the scripture puts to them ought to be vnderstood with the condition wherewith our Lord will haue them vnderstood when hee saith who perseuers to the end shall be saued And Saint Paule when he writes See the goodnesse of God in thee if thou perseuere in goodnes otherwise thou shalt be also cutt of Now where is it that this finall perseuerance is particularly promised to anie one in the word of God for if you answere that our Lord saith all that you aske for when you pray beleeue you shall receiue it and it shall be done to you And consequentlie if we demaunde perseuerance we shall obtaine it I answere that he meanes all that you demaunde as you should demaunde it Now the principall condition required to demaunde perseuerance as you should demaunde it is to perseuere in demaundinge it and not to content our selues with demaundinge it once but to demaunde it petpetually followinge this preeept os Saint Paule Pray without ceasinge And againe watch and pray with all perseuerance Far Salomon demaunded wisedome and begged it in faith without staggeringe which is the condition wherewith saint IAMES saith we should begge it but because he did not perseuere to aske it he lost it Now this perseuerance to aske perseuerance where is it promised to anie one in the scripture The third that this beliefe is pernicious both to religion as an enemie to humilitie and good workes and to States and common-wealthes as an enemie to good manners For imprinting in the spirit of euery particular man yea which is worse as well of those that are wicked and reprobate as of others because what is proposed in a Religion for a doctrine necessarie to saluation all doe thinke themselues obliged to holde it that he is assuredly predestinate and that whatsoeuer sinnes he commit he shall infallibly haue leasure and grace to repent him before his death this I say doth puffe vp men with arrogance and
apostasy to wit whether hee meane the reuolte of the people from the Roman Empire or the reuolte of 〈◊〉 Christians from the Religion of Christ to that of Mahomet or the reuolte of the Iewes from vnder all the temporall principalities within whose estates they are dispersed to revnite themselues in a newe monarchie vnder theire pretended Messias that is to saie vnder Antichrist As little will I stand to examine whether this temple of God wherein the sonne of perdition shall sitt be to be vnderstood by the materiall temple of Ierusalem when Antichrist shall haue caused it to be reedified as Sainct IRENEVS cont haeres lib. 5. cap. 30. protestes in these wordes When Antichrist shall haue laied desolate all things heere in this world and shal haue raigned three yeares and a halfe and shall be sett in the temple at Ierusalem then the Lord shall come from Heauen And as it seemes to be gathered from the relation of the speech of Sainct PAVLE to those wordes of DANIEL spoken of the Iewish temple and cited by our Lord vpon the speeche of the locall temple of Ierusalem the abhomination of desolation shall be in the temple from whence it is that auntient writers note that Iulian the Apostata one of the figures of Antichrist would haue attempted to reedifie it Or whether it be to bee vnderstood by the Iewish nation whom God had first chosen for his liuinge temple in which Antichrist shall place his throne followinge this prophecy of our Lord to the Iewes I am come in the name of my father and you haue not receiued me if an other come in his owne name you will receiue him Or whether it be to be vnderstood of nations heeretofore Christian in who temples now turned into mosqueas now there Mahomet the fore-runner of Antichrist sitts and that one daie shall ioyne with the Iewes to receiue Antichrist It is sufficīet that all the fathers are agreed vpon two thinges the one that Antichrist shall be the pretended Christ and Messias of the Iewes Antichrist saith Saint HILLARIE shall be receiued by the Iewes And Saint CYRILL of Ierusalem saith he shall deceiue the Iewes as beinge the Christ expected by them And Saint IEROM Wee know that Antichrist shall be the Christ of the Iewes And S. CHRYSOSTOME Christ argues the imposture of the Iewes by the expectation of Antichrist in that they not receiued him that qualified himselfe as sent from God and him that shall not acknowledge God but glorifie himselfe to be the soueraigne God they will adore And Saint AVGVSTINE Christ by these words if an other come in his owne name you will receiue him signifies that the Iewes shall receiue Antichrist And againe The Iewes shall fall into his nett of whom our Lord hath said I am come in my fathers name and you haue not receiued me an other shall come in his owne name and you shall receiue him And of whom the Apostle writes that the man of sinne and the Sonne of perdition shall be reuealed who shall oppose and exalte himselfe aboue all that shall be called God And S. CYRILL of Alexandria speakinge to the Iewes in the person of our Lord you shall receiue for as God I know all things him that shall come vnder a selfe title And THEODORET The Iewes which haue crucified our Lord because he called himself the Sonne of God shall giue creditt to Antichrist that shall call himselfe h the great God From whence it appeares that neither Antichrist shall take the title of a Christian nor his faction the title of a Church although they possesse many peoples and nations which haue before possessed the name of a Church since all the Fathers agree that he shall be receined by the Iewes The other thinge wherein the Fathers agree is that this apostacie shall bringe noe interruption to the course and visible succession of the Catholicke Church that is to saie it shall not hinder but that there shall be alwaies a Christian Societie illustrious and eminent aboue all false and pretended Churches from whose communion it shall be forbidden to departe as Saint AVGVSTINE declares in these wordes If the Church should not be heere till the end of the world why did Christ saie I ame with you to the end of the world And in an other place speakeinge of the very comeinge of Antichrist whose raigne hee deemed should be but three yeares and a halfe Let none imagine saith he that that little while that the Diuell shall be vnbounde there shall be noe Church vpon the earth And shortly after disputinge whether while that short space of tyme lasted the diuell should be so vnbound as that he should hinder anie from entringe into the Church either Children by baptisme or men by Conuersion but said he We should rather belieue that euen then there will not want people both to goe out of the Church and to come into the Church for certainly both fathers will be soe couragious as to giue baptisme to theire children and those that then beginn first to beleeue will be soe constāt as they will cōquer this stronge one euen although he be vnboūd Whereby he shewes plainely that he speakes not of a Church hidden and vnknowne but of a Church visible and exposed to the eyes and knowledge of men The sowrth obiectiō is that the woeman that had brought forth him that ought to rule the nations fledd into the wildernesse And againe that two winges of a great Eagle were giuen to the woeman to flye into the wildernesse For these two retreates into the wildernesse are but one retreate repeated by two seuerall descriptions betweene the which is inserted the fall of the diuell to shewe the the cause of the reuenge that he would haue exercised vpon the woeman From this retreate then they conclude that the Church shall then be inuisible But besides that the same answeres alreadie propounded against the argumentes which are drawne from the allegoricall expositions of the reuelation are alsoe of force against this allegation what shall hinder vs from interpretinge this passage with Saint AVGV of the blessed virgin who brought forth him that ought to rule the nations and who is described crowned with starrs because she was descended from the race of the twelue Patriarches who in Iosephs dreame were sigured by ste starrs and who is represented enuironed by the Sunne because according to the translation of the seuentie which is that the Apostles haue followed the Psalmist singeth He hath pitched his tabernacle in the Sunn And who shall hinder vs from sayinge the wildernesse wither she flew was heauen into which she was assumed after her death which the Grecians call wildernesse because it is exempt from all generation wherefore Pindarus calleth the heauen a desert or wildernesse in these verses If thou of combates honor mean'st to singe Seeke not when daie on the horizon stayes A
is mine Miletius Vitalis Paulinus soe were the 3. Patriarkes of Antioch called say that they communicate with thee if hut one of them had said soe I had belieued it but nowe either two or all three doe lye and therefore I couiure thy Blessednesse by the Crosse of our Lord by the necessarie ornament of our faith by the passion of Christ c. that thou signifie to me by thy letters with whom in Syria I ought to communicate This appeares by Optatus Bishop af Mileuis in Africa who saith At Rome hath bene setled for Peter first the Episcopall chaire in which the head of all the Apoctles Peter hath sate c. to the end that in that only chaire vnitie might be obserued by all least the other Apostles should attribute to themselues each one his seuer all chaire but that be might be a sinner and a schismatick that against that only chaire should erect an other And a little after To Peter then succeeded Linus to Linus Clement to Clement Anacletus to Anacletus Euaristus c. to Damasus Syricius who is at this day our Colleague by which meanes all the world communicates with vs by the commerce of formed letters This appeares by saint CHRYSOSTOME who writes to Pope Innocent Let vs enioy the continuance of your letters and of your charity and those of all the rest which we enioyed before This appeares by saint AVSTIN who saies Cecilianus might well dispise the conspiring multitude of his enemies seeing himself vnited by communicatorie letters with the Roman Church in which the principalitie of the Sea Apostolicke hath alwaies sllorisht with other Countries from whence the Ghospell came into Asrica This appeares by Eulalius Bishop of Syracusa who a while after S. Austins death disswaded Fulgentius an Asrican afterward Bishop of Ruspa in Asrica frō goeing to inhabite with the monkes of Egipt in the desertes of Thebaidis because they were not in the communion of saint Peter The countrie said hee whither thou desirest to trauaile a perfidious dissention hath separated them from the cōmunion of the blessed Peter All those Religious men whose admirable abstinence is celebrated shall not haue the Sacraments of the altar in common with thee This appeares by Iohn Patriark of Constantinople who writt to Pope 〈◊〉 in abiuration of Acacius memory Following said hee in all things the Apostolicke chaire wee declare all that hath bene thereby decreed and therefore hope to be in one communion with you declared by the Sea Apostolicke in which there is the integritie of Christian Religion and perfect soliditie promising heereafter not to 〈◊〉 amidst the sacred misteries their names that haue separated themselues from the communion of the Catholicke Church that is to say that consent not in all things with the Sea Apostolicke This appeares by the Emperor Iustiniā who writes in the lawe addressed to Epiphanius Patriark of Constantinople We preserue in all things the estate of the vnitie of the holy Churches with the holy Pope of old Rome And in the lawe addressed to the Pope We haue had care to vnite and submitt all the Bishops of the East to the Sea of your Holynesse 〈◊〉 who are the head of all the holy Churches This apperes by Menas Patriarke of Constantinople who said in the Councell of Constantinople Wee follow the Sea Apostolicke and obey it and communicate with those that communicate therewith and condemne those that it condemnes This appeares by the forme that saint GREGORIE left vs of the abiuration that the Bishopes returning from Schisme to the communion of the Church made into the handes of the Apostolicke Procurators which haue these wordes I Bishop of such a Cittie hauing discerned the trapp of diuision wherein I was caught after a longe and mature deliberation I am returned by Gods grace with my pure and free will to the vnitie of the Sea Apostolick and that I may not be esteemed to returne maliciously or sainedly I vowe and promise vnder paine of falling from myne Order and vnder obligation of 〈◊〉 to thee and by thee to the holy Prince of Apostles Peter and to his Vicar the most Blessed GREGORIE or to his Successors that by anie perswasion whatsoeuer or in anie other manner I will neuer returne to Schisme from whence by our Redeemers mercy I haue bene deliuered but that I will alwaies remaine in the vnity of the Catholique Church and in the Communion of the Bishop of Rome And this finally appeares by the extract of the Councell of 〈◊〉 which is to be read at the end of the latine edition of the Councell of Chalcedon vnder the name of the extract of the Councell of Nicea for the composition of formed letters made by Atticus Bishop of Constantinople but some manuscripts of the sixt Councell of Carthage testifie they were sent into the west by the same Atticus with the other decrees of the Councell of Nicea when the Asrican Bishops requested them of him For this extract ordained that they should take the number of the firste Greeke letters of the names Father Sonn and Holy Ghost the number of the first letter of the Apostle Peters name and of the author that writt and of him to whom he writt and of the bearer of the letter and of the place from whence it was written and the day of Paske and adding them to the number of the indiction which then was currant they should thereof make a summe whose cipher should be added to the Epistle to serue it for a forme and character By meanes whereof when there was noe more occasion to doubt who was either in communion with the Roman Church or saint Peters sea or out of it as the diligence of the Catholicke Emperors and Kings haue in the West left noe subiect of that doubt this many ages the necessity of these kind of letters hath ceased And therefore soe farr off is it that the vse of the letters formed or cōmunicatory whereof antiquity made vse was a marke to shew that the Church was then more manifest then nowe as contrarywise it was a testimonie that she was much harder to be discerned then she is at this present For that which constrained them to vse this meanes was the multitude and confusion of heresies which were then in soe great number and soe mingled in aboade and habitation amidst the Catholicke Church as there was almost noe Towne where there was not to bee found besides the true Church a dozen Sects and heresies and the most of them agreeing in forme and outward worship with the Catholicke Church Arians Donatistes Pelagians Nouatians Macedonians Appolinaristes and other such like plagues Of the pretended excommunications attempted against the Pope CHAP. XXVII BVt against this thesis to witt that the Sea Apostolicke was the Center and beginning of all the formed and communicatory letters the Popes aduersaries obiect three instances first that Stephen Patriarke of Antioch in the false
that were instituted in the Churches without the sentence of the Bishop of Rome And the Emperors Theodosius and Valentinian Wee decree that accoding to the ancient custome nothing shall be innouated in the Churches without that sentence of the reuerend Pope of the Cittie of Rome Now how was this anie other thing but to make the Pope what the same lawe of Theodosius and Valectinian calls him to witt the Rector of the vniuer salitie of Churches and what the Councell of Chalcedō intitles him to witt the Guardian of the Lords Vine and what the Councell of Sardica the Councell of Chalcedon and the Emperor Iustinian qualifie him to wit the head of Bishops For if as the Prouinciall Nationall or Patriarchall Councells could not be reputed perfect nor decide the affaires of the 〈◊〉 or of the nation or of the Prouince without the Metropolitan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the generall Councells could not be generall nor decide 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which concerned the vniuersall Church without the assistance and 〈◊〉 of the Bishop of Rome And if as S. IEROM saith that the Councell of 〈◊〉 had ordained that Antioch should be the metropolitan 〈◊〉 spirituall of all the East so not only saint ATHANASIVS calls Rome the Sea 〈◊〉 and metropolitan of Romania that is of all the Roman Empire beates the Arrians with the epistle which they had writen to the Pope in the which though fainedly irronically they had called the Roman Church the Schoole of the Apostles and the Metropolitan of religion but also S. GREGORIE Nazianzene cries out the ancient Rome marcheth right in the saith 〈◊〉 all the west tied by the healthfull word as it is conuenient that 〈◊〉 should doe which rules all the world And if as the Bishops of Egipt protested at the Councell of Chalcedon that it was the custome in the prouinces of the 〈◊〉 of Egipt to doe nothing without the sentence ordinance of the Archbishop of Alexandria So Socrates saith that the Coucell of Antioch was argued of nullitie for as much as the ancient Ecclesiasticall law bare that the Churches could not bee ruled without the 〈◊〉 of the Bishop of Rome how is it that the Bishop of Rome was not metropolita of the vniuersall Church such in regard of the whole Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Patriark Metropolitan was in regard of his diuision And if the Pope reciprocallie as heire to the principall Sea of S. PETER Metropolitan of the vniuersall Church was Rector of the vniuersality of Churches how could it be that the originall Patriarks which were heires of the 〈◊〉 Chaires of S. PETER the Metropolitans of the secōd 〈◊〉 of the Empire were not by proportion in the behalfe of their diuisions that which the Pope was ouer the whole extent of the Church It appeares thirdlie by the proceeding of the same Councell of Nicea and in the same Canon For what cause had the Councell of Nicea to represse the rebellion of Meletius Bishop of Sycopolis in Egipt who refused to obey the Bishop of Alexandria his Patriarke alledged the custome of the Pope not that of the Patriark of Antioch The Patriark of Antioch was in person at the Councell which the Pope was not hee was neerer both to the cittie of Nicea wherein the Councell wae holden to the Sea of Alexandria in whose fauour this Canō was made then the Pope he had the 〈◊〉 ouer fifteene great prouinces where of the least conteined more countries then the Protestants attribute to the Patriarkship of the Pope For what cause doth the Councell to suppresse Meletius alledge the custome of the Bishop of Rome and not that of the Bishop of Antioch but because the Bishop of Antioch his authoritie was of positiue right as well as that of the Bishop of Alexandria by which meanes the same 〈◊〉 that carried Meletius to denie the one might likewise haue carried him to denie the other where the Popes authoritie was of diuine right that is to saie as S. AVSTIN the Mileu Councell speake drawne 〈◊〉 the authoritie of the holie scriptures Moreouer for what cause did the Coūcell of Nicea confirme the custome of the Patriark of Alexandria that of the Patriark of Antioch not confirme that of the Pope but because the Popes authoritie depends not of the authoritie of Councells but proceeded from the verie mouth of our Lord as Pope Gelasius whō S. 〈◊〉 the secōd S. AVS or rather the second Oracle of the African Church calleth the Reuerēd Prelat of the Sea Apostolicke hath since expressed it in there words The holie Romā Catholicke Apostolick Church hath not bene preferred before other Churches by anie synodicall constitutions but hath obtained the primacie Euāgelicall voice of our Lord and Sauiour when he said Thou art Peter and vpō this rocke I will builde my Church Now this being so how is it not manifest that the intention of the Councell was not to restraine the authoritie of the Pope to the limits of a simple particular Patriarkship as that of the other Patriarkes but to propound the authoritie that the Pope had in regard of the vniuersall Church for a type and patterne of the authoritie of the other Patriarkes in regard of their patriarkships for either the law diuine gaue nothing to the Pope ouer the other Bishops or if it gaue him anie thinge it was giuen him ouer all the Earth although for the cōmoditie of the vniuersall gouernement of the Church the Pope abstained from the immediate administratiō of the other Patriarkships cōtented himselfe with the onely immediate gouernement of the patriarkship of the West and with the mediate generall superintendencie ouer the rest It appeares fowthly by the possession wherein the Pope remained after the Canon of the Councell of Nicea of iudging the persons and iudgements of the other Patriarkes and that in the view with the applause euen of those that had made the canon of their successors without that anie euer murmured that this practise contradicted it for how had Pope Iulius the first who was created Pope fiue yeares after the Coúcell of Nicea restored those great Champions of the Councell of Nicea saint ATHANASIVS Patriark of Alexandria Marcellus Primat of Ancyra in Galatia Asclepas Bishop of Gaza in Palestina because to him saith Sozomen for the dignitie of his Sea the care of all things apperteyned if the intentiō of the Councell of Nicea had bene to restraine the authoritie of the Pope into the onely limitts of a particular Patriarkship as well as that of the other Patriarkes And how had those great Chāpions defendors of the Coūcell of Nicea made vse of the Popes restitution to re-enter their Seas if it had bene contrary to the canon of the Councell of Nicea the which themselues had helped to compose S. ATHANASIVS amongst the rest who had bene the soule and pen thereof was then heire
these words Who is it saith hee that doubts but that the Church of Constantinople is subiect to the Sea Apostolicke which the most Religious Lord the Emperor and our brother Bishop of the same cittie continuallie protest For as for the illusion of those who to weaken the credit of this passage cauill vpon the word Eusebius which is in the printed copies before these words Bishop of the same cittié and obiect that the Bishop of Constantinople then being was not called Eusebius but Cyriacus I will not stand vpon it to say that there was noe inconuenience in it that Cyriacus might haue had two names and be called Eusebius Cyriacus as Sainct IEROME was called EVSEBIVS IEROME And besides that the word Eusebius might there be taken adiectiuely and signifie pious and religious as when Arrius writt to Eusebius Bishop of Nicomedia Farewell Eusebius trulie Eusebius that is to saie farewell Eusebius truly Religious It will be a shorte cutt to answere at the first that it is an error of the Exemplarists who of an 〈◊〉 euill written and for that occasion blotted out and written againe haue made Eusebius for the copies of this epistle which had bene currant two hundred yeare after saint GREGORIE read simplie and our brother Bishop of the same cittie without makeing anie mention of 〈◊〉 as is seene by the relation of Amalarius Bishop of Treuers who liued eight hundred yeares agone who inserting into his Booke of the Ecclesiasticall offices this epistle of saint GREGORIE whole and intire from the beginning to the endinge reports the period now in question in these onely words without anie mention of Eusebius for as for that which is spoken of the Church of Constantinople who doubts but it is subiect to the Sea Apostolicke which the most Religious Lord the Emperor and our brother the Bishop of the same Towne continually protest And therefore alsoe when the Patriarkes of Constantinople were in anie Synodicall action with the Popes Legates yea within Constantinople it selfe they abstayned from the title of Vniuersall and left it to the Popes Legates alone for their master to the end to shew that they held the Pope for head and stocke of the Vniuersalitie and did repute themselues Vniuersall but in the absence of him or of those that represented him as appeares by the signatures of the third generall Councell of Constantinople which was celebrated vnder Constantine Pogonat in the next age after Sainct GREGORIE wherein the Popes Legates signed in the qualitie of Legats to the vniuersall Pope and the Patriarke of Constantinople in the qualitie of onely Bishop of Constantinople for though the epistle of the Emperor to the Patriark of Constantinople written before the holding of the Councell attributes to him the title of Vniuersall neuerthelesse in the signatures of the Councell the onely Legats of the Pope take the title of Vniuersall for their master and signe in this forme Theodorus humble Priest of the holy Church of Rome and holding the place of the blessed and vniuersall Pope of the cittie of Rome Agatho I haue subscribed George humble Priest of the holy Church of Rome and holdinge the place of the blessed and Vniuersall Pope of the Cittie of Rome Agatho I haue subscribed Iohn humble ` Deacon of the holy Church of Rome and holding the place of the blessed and vniuersall Pope of the Cittie of Rome Agatho I haue subscribed And the Patriarke of Constantinople forbare it and signed thus George by the mercie of God Bishop of Constantinople new Rome I haue voted and subscribed The third Answere is that whatsoeuer was the intention of the Patriarke of Constantinople so farr was hee from doeing anie thinge against the Popes authoritie as contrarywise he confirmed and 〈◊〉 it altogether And that it is so how from this that the Bishop of Constantinople pretended to be vniuersall Bishop because Constantinople had bene associated to the Rights of Rome can it chose but followe that the Bishop of Rome was so primitiuely and originallie For as for those that saie that the Patriarke of Constantinople was called Oecumenicall Bishop in the same sence wherein the other Patriarkes were so called not knowing that there is great difference betweene the word Catholicke Bishop which Nilus attributes to the Patriarkes which signifies generall Bishop of a Region and the word 〈◊〉 Bishop which signifies vniuersall Bishop either of all the Imperiall Orbe or of the particular Orbe of the Empire of Constantinople I will not stand to confute them it shall suffice me to aske them why then the Patriarke of Constantinople neuer gaue the name of vniuersall Patriarke to the other Patriarkes of the East And why the other Patriarkes of the East neuer gaue it one to another but haue yeilded it onely to the Bishops of Rome and of Constantinople And why the Bishops of Constantinople haue stirred vp so many tragedies to participate therein and haue alleadged that Constantinople was the second Rome and ought after her to enioy the same Rights and priuiledges And in briefe it shall sussice me to aske them why then both anciently and euen to this day the Patriarke of Constantinople doth attribute to himself by vertue of his vniuersalitie this aduantage aboue the other Patriarkes of the East to call the generall Councells of the East and to preside in them and to iudge by appeale of the sentences of the other Patriarkes It hath bene reported saith Pope Pelagius in the epistle before alleadged to those of the East to the Sea Apostolicke that Iohn Bishop of Constantinople inscribes himselfe Vniuersall and by vertue of that his presumption hath called you to a generall Councell And the Emperors Constantine and Leo The care and the iudgement of all the Metropolitanships and Bishopricks and of all the Monasteries and Churches appertaine to their proper Patriarke but the Patriarke ol Constantinople may in the territorie of the other Seas when there hath bene noe precedent consecration plant the Crosse and not onelie soe but also may decide and determine the controuersies bredd ' in the other Seas And Nilus The twentie eight canon of the Councell of Chalcedon and the thirtith six of the sixth Councell honoring the Sea of Constantinople with like priuiledges to that of Rome graunt also manifestly the appeales to that of Constantinople And Balsamon This priuiledge is not giuen to the Pope alone to witt that euerie condemned Bishop should haue recourse to the Sea of Rome but it ought also to be vnderstood of the Patriarke of Constantinople And elsewhere that which neuerthelesse is but a claime bredd amongst the Greekes since the schisme The fifteenth canon of the councell of Antioch was abolished by the fourth Canon of the councell of Sardica or at least is to be vnderstood of the Synods which are subiect to noe appeale as those of the Pope and of the Patriarke of Constantinople For as for the place of Photius from whence they
ordaine saith hee according to the definition of Councells that the holy Pope of olde Rome shall be the first of all Prelates and that the blessed Archbishop of Constantinople new Rome should haue the second place after the Sea Apostolick of olde Rome Lesse yet is it to be obiected that some latter Greekes saie that the Councells of Constantinople Chalcedon adiudged the primacie to the Church of Constantinople for they will not saie that the intention of those Councells was then to iudge the primacie to the Church of Constantinople but by propheticall spirit to iudge the primacy to the Church of Constantinople after the Roman Church should haue lost it And to this end they pretend that the word after which the Councell of Constantinople made vse of when it saith the Bishop of Constantinople should haue the priuiledges of bonor after him of Rome was not a note of order but a note of tyme that is to say that the Fathers of the Councell foreseeing by diuine inspiration that the Sea of Rome should one daie fall into the heresie of the double procession of the holy Ghost so call they the doctrine of the procession of the holy Ghost by deriuation from the Father and from the Sonne and by that occasion fall from her ranke they ordained that after the Bishop of Rome should haue lost his primacie the Bishop of Constantinople should possesse it Which Zonarus although a Greeke and a Schismaticke reportes and confutes in these words Some said he belieue that the preposition after is a marke of time and not a submission of honor to the Church of Rome and they make vse for the proofe of their opinion of the twentie eigth Canon of the Councell of Chalcedon c. But the 130. Nou. of Iustinian inserted in the third title of the fift booke of the Basilickes giue the Canons otherwise to be vnderstood And a little belowe From hence it appeares manifestly that the preposition after signifies submission and inferioritie And elsewhere the Councell of Chalcedon ordaines that newe Rome should be honored with the same Ecclessiasticall prerogatiues as old Rome and should be preferred in honor before all the other Churches being the second after her for it is impossible that she should be equallie honored in all thinges vnlesse they will saie that those diuine Fathers foreseeing by the light of the holy spirit that the Church of Rome should be cutt off from the bodie of the orthodox and bee banisht from the Societie of the faithfull because of the diuersitie of the doctrine they destined that of Constantinople to be one day the first and so esteemed it then worthie to enioy in all things equall priuiledges to witt when she should haue receiued the primacie as the Roman Chuch had in former time had it And againe But to this sence the thirtie sixth canon of the councell Trullian doth oppose it self which hauing placed the Sea of Constantinople second after that of old Rome adds And after it that of Alexandria and after that of Alexandria that of Antioch and after that of Antioch that of Ierusalem And therefore not onely Nilus Archbishop of Thessalonica writing against the latines confesseth ingeniously that the Greekes neuer disputed for primacie with the Roman Church Wee are not said hee separated from peace for attributing to ourselues the primacie nor for refusing to holde the second place after the principalitie of Rome for wee neuer contested for primacie with the Roman Church But euen amongst the Authors of the last age Duaren although a greate enemie to the Pope acknowledgeth that the sentence of Phocas interuened vpon the word Vniuersall and not vpon the word First Behold his words Boniface the third said hee obtained with great contention from Phocas to be made oecumenicall and vniuersall Bishop Onely he shewes his galle in saying that Boniface obtained from Phocas to be made vniuersall Bishop where hee should haue said that he obtained of Phocas that the title of vniuersall Bishop should be preserued to him alone and that the Bishop of Constantinople who desired to participate in it might be excluded frō it For neither did the Bishop of Constantinople dispute the title of Vniuersall Bishop with the Pope but pretended he ought to be therein associated with him neither did the title of Vniuersall Bishop begin to be attributed to the Pope by Phocas but from the tyme of the Emperor Marcian aboue an hūdred fiftie yeare before Phocas it had bene exhibited to him in the councell of Chalcedon and after that vnder the Emperor Iustinian aboue fiftie yeares before Phocas it had bene giuen him in Constantinople it selfe as it appeares both by the Acts of the Councell of Chalcedon wherein the petitions of the Clerkes of Alexandria presented to the Councell bore To the most holie and vniuersall patriarke Leo and to the holie generall Councell And by the testimonie of saint GREGORIE who wrote to Eulogius Patriarke of Alexandria Your Holynesse knowes that the title of vniuersall Bishop hath bene offerred in the councell of Chalcedon and by the following Fathers to my predecessors And by the Acts of the Councell of Constantinople holden vnder Menas confirmed by Iustinian where the petitions of the Regulars of Constantinople and of Syria and of the Bishops of the Patriarkships of Antioch and of Ierusalem to Pope Agapet were inserted with this inscription To our holy aud blessed Lord the Archbishop of old Rome and vniuersall Patriark Agapetus In such sort as be it that Phocas sentence were vpon the word vniuersall it cannot be said that Phocas was the author of the attribution of this title to the Pope since from the time of the Councell of Chalcedon and since vnder the Empire of Iustinian it hath bene attributed to him or be it that it interuened vpon the word First the originall thereof could not be imputed to Phocas since the Emperor Iustinian more then fiftie yeare before Phocas had written Wee ordaine following the definitions of the Councells that the holy Pope of olde Rome be the first of all the Prelates and that the blessed Archbishop of Constantinople new Rome haue the second place after the Sea Apostolicke of old Rome and be preferd before all the other Seas But it may be replied that S. GREGORIE did not onely condemne the vse of the word vniuersall in the person of the Btshop of Constantinople but refused it himself in his owne For hauing admonisht the Bishop of Alexandria that he should giue this title neither to him nor to the Bishop of Constantinople and the Bishop of Alexandria hauing written to him that hee had abstained according to this admonition from attributing it to the Bishop of Constantinople he replies I said you should giue such a title neither to me nor to anie other and behold in the front of your Epistle which you haue addressed to myselfe which haue made you this prohibition you haue
caused the diuision of the Church especiallie in the West for whatsoeuer multitude of gouernments haue had place there vnder the title of Empire Kindome Principalitie and Common wealth and whatsoeuer difference of manners languages lawes and institutions that haue raigned there the Church hath bene no more visible in the tyme when the Empire was one and ruled ouer all the East and west then it hath bene vnder this diuersitie of Princes and gouernments Also the vnitie of the Church was not foretold by the Prophets only for the time wherein there should be but one tēporall monarcke in the world if euer that title could haue belonged to anie Prince but also for that tyme wherein there should bee seuerall kinges and Administrators of Estates according to this Prophecie of the Psalmist The Kings and Kingdomes shall agree in one to serue our Lord. Which caused S. AVGVSTINE to saie vnder colour that in the whole world Kingdomes are often deuided yet for all that Christian vnitie is not 〈◊〉 for as much as the Catholicke Church remaines on either part And indeede that the vnitie of the Church depends not from the vnitie of the Empire but from the relation to a visible center of the Ecclesiasticall communion it appeared sufficiently euen in the time of the greatest vnitie and extent of the Empire when the Christians which were vnder Firmus King of the Barbarians in Africa vnder Mania Queene of the Sarazins vnder Cosroes King of Persia states all distinct yea the most part of the time enemies to the Romane Empire And after in Damascus and other neighbouring Prouinces vnder the Kings of the Agarenians did all agree in the vnion and communion of the Catholicke Church For as for the deuisions which are at this daie in the East euery one knowes that that of Egypt and Ethiopia hath begun from the time of the vnitie of the Empire And that of the Armenians likewise as appeares by the decisiōs made against them in the Canōs of the Coūcell holden vnder Iustinian 〈◊〉 And that of the Nestorians and Iacobites which haue yet to this day their sect in Mesopotamia other partes of Asia likewise And as for the Greeke Church it is certaine that although it began to be diuided since the separation of the Empire neuerthelesse the cause of the diuision was not the diuision of the Empire vnder which it perseuered yet manie yeares in vnitie with the Latine but the Schisme betweene the two competitors of the Patriarkship of Constantinople Ignatius and Photius to which to make it the more lasting heresie was added and which the Emperors according as they haue bene good or euill haue indeuoured themselues to fomēt or stopp and there haue not wanted generall Councells euen of the two seuerall Churches to extinguish this diuision when they haue desired it For histories are full of these examples witnes that which was holden at Constantinople vnder the Emperor Basilius for the restitution of Ignatius that which was holden vnder Pope Innocent the third which wee call the great Councell of Lateran to reunite the Greeke church with the Latine and that which was holden for the same effect at Florence vnder Eugenius the fourth at which the Emperor and the Patriarke of Greece assisted in person As also the diuision of the Empire and the rule of the Greeke Emperors after of the Mahometan Princes did not hinder the Churches that acknowledged the Patriarke of the Syrian tongue whom we call Maronites from perseuering in the communion of the Roman Church In such sort as this varietie and diuision of sects in the East can not be attributed to the defect of the vnitie of the Empire since in the time that the Empyre was most vnited these troubles and innouations had such place therein as Socrates and Sozomene doe in the tyme of the Emperor Constantius set the mount Tuscis in Illiria for a bound betweene the quiet peace of the Church and the tempest and turbulencie of hereticks But it ought to be attributed to the want of constancie of the Easterne people or rather to the blessing of God vpon the Roman church which would shew that this prophecie Thou art Peter and vpon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not preuaile against it hath had some more speciall effect for the Sea of S. PETER then for those of the other Patriarkes according to that oracle of the great Leo Besides the stone that our Lord hatt sett for a foundation noe other building shall be stedfast Of the interpretation of these vvords Thou art Peter and vpon this Rock I will build my Church CHAPT III. The continuance of the Kings answere SINCE that time the Catholicke Church in truth hath not ceast to be for it shall allwaies bee and the gates of hell shall not preuaile against her who is founded on Christ the true stone and in the faith of PEETER and of the other Apostles THE REPLIE THat some times the Fathers expound these words Vpon this Rock I will build my Church of the Faith of S. PETER and say that the Church was built vpon the confession of PETER And that some times they expound it of the person of PETER and saie that the Church hath bene founded vpon the person of PETER they are not contrarie expositions the one excluding the other but conioynt the one including the other for they intend the Church to speake the Schoole language is built causallie vpon the confession of PETER and formallie vpon the ministrie of the person of PETER that is to saie the confession of PETER was the cause werefore Christ chose him to constitute him for the foundation of the ministrie of his Church By that saith saint HILLARIE the blessed Confession hath obtained his reward and that the person of saint Peter hath bene that vpon which our Lord hath properlie built his Church Soe as to saie that his Church is built vpon the confessio of PETER is not to denie that it is built vpō the person of PETER but it is to expresse the cause wherefore it is built vpon him noe more then to sale with saint HIEROME that PETER walked not vpon the waters but Faith is not to denie that saint PETER walked trulie properly and formallie vpon the water but it is to expresse that the cause that made him walke there was not the actiuitie or naturall vertue of his person but the faith that he had giuen to the words of Christ. And therefore as these two propositions the faith of PETER walked vpon the waters and the person of PETER walked vpon the waters are both true but in a different sence for the faith of PETER walked vpon the waters causallie as the Schooleme sare that is to saie it was the cause that the person of saint PETER walked there and the person of saint PETER walked there trulie properlie and formallie so these two propositions the Church was built vpon
carnally that Peter that should tell them knew them 〈◊〉 FOR that in the sixth of S. IOHN S. PETER answeres in common for all the Apostles Wee beleeue and knowe thou art Christ the Sonn of the liuing God besides that the Latine editions haue not the word liuing Wee saie it was a later thing for as much as when sainct PETER answered Wee beleeue and know that thou art Christ the Sonne of the liuing God hee had bene alreadie constituted head and Prince of the other Apostles and in this qualitie he answered alone for all the rest as sainct CYRILL testifies in these wordes By one that presided or that was preeminent all answered and had alreadie receiued the promisses of our Lord that vpon him he would build his Church As S. CYPRIAN declares in these wordes Peter speakes heere vpon whom the Church had bene built And therefore as the Apostles had part in the primacie of this confession only by adherence and non-repugnancie so our Lord gaue them part in the authotitie he had giuen to S Peter by adherence and communication with S. PETER that is to saie vnder condition of cōmunicating and adhearing and remayning in vnitie with saint PETER And yet this part that he promised and gaue them in the rule and ministrie of the Church was afterward to witt as in right in the eighteenth of saint MATHEW What yee bind on earth shall be bound in heauen And as the installment into the possession in the twentith of saint IOHN Receiue the holie Ghost whose sinns yee forgiue shall be forgiuen to the end to shewthat to sainct PETER ōly the cōditiō of being a Rock that is to sa rule and foundation of the building of the Church had bene principallie and originally giuen and that afterwards it was extended to the other Apostles it was by aggregation and association and by communicating and adhering with him and as hauing relation and correspondence to him as to the Center and middle forme of the veritie of the Church For as God gaue first his spiritt to Moyses and after tooke of the Spiritt that he had giuen to Moyses and gaue thereof to the seauen tie two Elders not that God tooke awaie from Moyses anie portion of the spiritt that he had giuen him not that the spirit of God was diuisible but to the end to establish and shew a relation of vnitie dependencie and adherencie of the seauentie two Elders to Moyses Soe in some sort for I compare not the two histories wholie our Lord gaue first the whole authoritie of the ministrie and the Chaire Apostolicke to saint PETER alone I intend as in right and not in actuall possession which he receaued not till after the Resurrection and after 〈◊〉 it to all the twelue Apostles in common to the end to shew the relation of dependencie vnitié and adherence that they ought to haue with saint PETER whom vpon this occasion Macharius an antient Egiptian diuine calls the successor of Moyses Afterward said hee to Moyses succeeded Peter to whom the new Church of Christ and the true priesthood hath bene committed Which hath caused the Fathers to saie that there was but one Chaire which was the Chaire of PETER but that in this Chaire all the Apostles were placed to witt by the adherence communion and vnitie that they had with S. PETER In the Episcopall Chaire saith saint OPTATVS Mileuitanus there is sett the head of all the Apostles Peter from whence he also hath bene called Cephas to the end that in this only Chaire vnitie might be preserued in all least the other Apostles should attribute to themselues euery one his Chaire a parte but that he might be a Schismaticke 〈◊〉 that against this onelie Chaire should erect an other And therefore also the surname of PETER by which this Condition of being the foundation of the rule of the Church is designed hath bene giuen to him only to beare it in the title of a proper name and not to anie other Apostle to show that to him by excellencie and eminencie ouer all the rest appertained the thing whereof he alone bore the name For since our Lord should by the word PETER designe the condition of being the ministeriall foūdation of the Church for what cause should he affect it to Peter alone to beare it in the title of a proper and ordinarie name and not giue it to anie other if he were not to bea foundation of the Church in an other manner then the rest Which S. BASILL hath in such sort acknowledged as desiring to shew the difference which is betweene the substance and the hipostaticall proprieties of anie subiect he alleadgeth for example of the substance the substāce of humanitie which is commō to PETER PAVL although said he the appellations be different yet the substance of Peter and Paule and of all men is one and alleadgeth amongst the examples of the hypostaticall indiuiduall and incommunicable conditions of PETER that is to saie which are particular to him onely and are not common to him with saint PAVL nor with anie other the condition of being the foundation of the Church Because said he the names of men signifie not their substances but the proprieties whereby each of them is designed in particular From thence it is that when wee heare the name of Peter we vnderstand not his substance c. but conceiue the sence of the proprieties which are perticular to him For as soone as wee heare this word wee vnderstand Peter the Sonne of Ionas he that was of Bethsaida he that was Brother to Andrew he that of a Fisherman was made an Apostle he that 〈◊〉 reason of the supereminencie of his Faith receiued vpon him the edification of the Church AND for this same cause to saint PETER onely there hath bene conferred singularlie separately and apart the authoritie of the rule of the Church and to all the rest onely in common and ioyntlie with him to the end to shew that he was the originall the source the center and the beginning of the vnitie of the Church and that no other out of his Communion could exercise the rule and ministrie thereof but that the rest had right to exercise it it is onely as associated and aggregated with him and as grafted and inserted vpon him For our Lord neuer said singularly to anie of the Eleuen Thou art Peter and vpon this Rocke I will build my Church and I will giue thee the keies of the Kingdome of heauen nor I haue praied for thee that thy faith shall not faile And finallie Thou being conuerted confirme thy Bretheren nor louest thou me more then these feede my sheepe But only hath said in generall to all the Bodie of the Apostles sainct PETER being Colleague present and comprehended therein that which he had said before to saint PETER alone as to the head That which yee shall binde on earth shall be bound in heauen and they
whose sinns yee forgiue shall be forgiuen Which hath moued saint CYPRIAN to saie that Christ hath instituted saint PETER the originall of vnitie PETER saith he vpon whom Christ hath built his Church and instituted him the originall of vnitie And againe One chaire built vpon Peter by the voyce of our Lord. And for this occasion as although in a tree there be but the stocke and the bodie of the tree only that succeedes and is tied by direct continuance with the roote neuerthelesse the other branches are tied to it by oblique and collaterall succession and continuance Soe though there bee but only the Bishop of Rome that is saint PETERS successor in direct succession neuerthelesse all the Bishops are esteemed in some sort to be sett in saint PETERS Chaire and to be in a manner saint PETERS successors to witt by oblique and indirect succession because of the communication that they haue with the Chaire of S PETER But the Bishops are neuer said neither in their whole bodie nor separately to be successor to anie other particular Apostle but are said either in generall to bee the Apostles successors or in particular successors to S. PETER as to him that for being the head of the Apostleship containes in vertue all the Apostolicke Bodie so as neuer anie one Bishop hath called himself successor to anie other Apostle except those that haue succeded locallie to anie one of the other Apostles as the Bishops of Hierusalem are in title successors to saint IAMES BVT against this exposition the aduersaries to the Primacie forme thriteen oppositions the first that our Lord adds presently after speaking to Peter Got behind me Sathan The seconde that he cries out If anie one amongst you desire to bee greatest he shall be the least The third that S. PETER forbids from domineering ouer the flockes The fourth that the Apostles sent PETER and IOHN into Samaria The fifth that S. IAMES voted last in the Councell of Hierusalem The sixth that S. PAVLE names S. IAMES before S. PETER The seauenth that the same S. PAVL saith that the Ghospell of the Gentiles was committed to him as that of the circumcision to PETER The eighth that he saith S PETER walked not right in the Ghospell The ninth that he saith he resisted him to his face because he was reproueable The tenth that S. CYPRIAN writes that the other Apostles were the same that Peter was The eleauenth that EVSEBIVS reportes out of S. CLEMENT Alexandrinus that PETER IAMES and IOHN contested not amongst themselues for the honor but made IAMES Bishop of the Apostles The twelfth that Sainct CHRISOSTOME writeth that the other Apostles yeelded the Throne to IAMES And the thirteenth That the same S. CHRISOSTOME writes that the Principalitie was committed to IAMES To the first then of these obiections which is that our Lord said a while after to S. PETER Goe behind me Satan Wee answere S. HIEROME hath solued it in these words This blessing beatitude and edification of the Church vpon Peter is promised to Peter in future times and not giuen to him in time present I will build said he my Church vpon thee To the seconde which is that our Lord cryes elsewhere If anie one amongst you desire to be greatest let him be the least Wee answere he doth there forbidd the desire and not the effect of the Primacie the Ambition and not the thing the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 witnes this traine that followes as the Sonn of man is come into the world not to be serued but to serue By which he pro pounds himself to his disciples for an example not of an Anarchy but of Superioritie accompanied with humilitie To the third Which is that S. PETER writes not domineering ouer the flocks Wee answere that the Greeke word signifieth a violent Dominion such as that whereof our Lord said The kings of the nations domineere ouer them And such as S. HIEROME representeth it in these words The Princes of the Churches are wont to oppresse the People with arrogance of whom it is written they haue constituted thee Prince be not puft vp but be amongst them as one of them And not a presidencie and fatherlie direction such as was that of Samuell ouer the people of Israell who after he had exercised the Gouernment of Israell and iudged the people many yeares iustified himself in the end saying I haue conuersed with you from my youth to this 〈◊〉 answere me in the presence of God and of his annoynted if I haue taken anie mans bullock or his Asse or if I haue commaunded by force and oppressed any one of you And such as that whereof sainct PAVL said Obey your prelats and be subiect to them And elsewhere Let him that presides preside in all diligence And our Lord himself which is the wise and faithfull seruant that our Lord hath constituted ouer his familie It is Peter saith sainct AMBROSE chosen by the iudgement of our Lord to feede his flocke who hath merited to heare feede my lambes feede my sheepe To the fourth which is that the historie of the Actes testifies that the Apostles when it was in agitation to forme the Church of Samaria sent thither PETER and IOHN wee answere it was a mission of request as that when the Israelites sent Phinees their high priest and the princes of the tribes and not a mission of authority To the fifth which is that S. IAMES voted last in the Councell of 〈◊〉 Wee answere that in Councells contrary to the order of secular companies those that preside vote first And namely saint HIEROME saith that saint PETER from whose words S. IAMES tooke his Rule was the Prince of this decree To the sixth which is that S. Paule writes that Iames Cephas and Iohn seeing the grace that God had conferred vpon him gaue to him and to Barnabas the right hands of fellowshipp Wee answere that the greeke edition of Complutum and manie seuerall Readings Greeke and Latine haue it Cephas Iames and Iohn Witnesse S. CHRISOSTOME who in his comentarie vpon the Epistle to the Galatians reades Cephas Iames and Iohn and Theodoret who in his comentarie vpon the fifteenth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans alleadging this passage reports it in these words The Apostle teacheth this manifestly in the Epistle to the Galatians for he saith Peter Iames and Iohn who seeme to be the pillars gaue the right hands of fellowship to me and to Barnabas And saint AVGVSTINE who as well in the text as in the comentarie reades Cephas Iames and Iohn And saint HIEROME who not only both in the text and the comentarie reades Cephas Iames and Iohn but euen in his writings against Heluidius citeth the text of saint PAVLE in these words Cephas Iames and Ishn. And moreouer elswhere speaking of saint PAVLS Ordination to the Apostleship saith Paule was ordained Apostle of
the Gentils by Peter and Iames and Iohn And therefore when it is found written in anie place Iames Cephas and Iohn as in the poeme of Theodoret vpon the Epistle to the Ephesians and in that of the Epistle to the Hebrewes wee saie that this order is to haue reference to the prioritie of the knowledge that Iames receiued of the fruites of the grace of saint PAVLE for as much as when Paule and Barnabas came the first tyme from Antioch into Hierusalem they found but only saint IAMES because saint PETER was in prison And indeede not only throughout the scripture where saint PETER is named with the other Apostles he is first named or if he be last named it is in increasing and rising by degrees As when saint PAVLE saith The other Apostles and the bretheren of our Lord and Cephas But also when there is question of making the Generall catalogue of the Apostles saint PETER is alwaies first placed and Iudas last and all the rest without order or at least without the title of second or third to shew that there was not only handled simplie primacie of order but of dignitie and he is not only set downe first but he is sett first with the expression of the word first The first saith S. MATTHEW is Peter which Beza findes so to presse him as he chargeth falshood vpon this place of the Ghospell I suspect saith Beza that this word FIRST hath bene added by some one that would establish the primacie of Peter for that saint ANDREW was called before saint PETER because saint ANDREW as saint EPIPHANIVS saith was the eldest From whence it is that Bethsaida is called the cittie of Andrew and of Peter This was in the first vocation described by saint IOHN and before our Lord had said to saint PETER Thou shalt be called Peter in which word contained implicitly the promise to make him VICAR of the true Rock and to constitute him ministeriall head of the Church and not in the second vocation described by saint MATHEW and made after the imposition of the name of Peter in the which as S. EPIPHANIVS saith Peter preceded his brother To the seauenth which is that saint PAVL writes That the Ghospell of the circumcisiō had bene committed to PETER and the Ghospell of the vncircumcision to him Wee answere this clause is not a diuision of the authoritie of ministrie but a more especiall testimony of the blèssing of God vpon S. PETER to persuade the Iewes and vpon saint PAVLE to perswade the Gentills otherwise S. PAVLE had bene excluded from preaching the Ghospell to the Iewes and neuerthelesse wheresoeuer he came addressed himself first to the Iewes and saint PETER from declaring the Ghospell to the Gentiles yet neuerthelesse it was by his ministrie that God first opened the gate of the Church to the Gentiles as appeares both by the historie of the conuersion of Cornelius and by the protestation that he made to the Councell of Hierusalem in these wordes You know that God from the daies of old hath willed to call the Gentiles by my mouth To the eighth which is that the same S. PAVLE saith that saint PETER abstayning to eate with the Gentiles vpon the coming of the Iewes walked not with right stepps in the Ghospell Wee answere that it was as Tertullian saith a vice not of doctrine but of conuersation and which consisted more in the occasion then in the thing since saint PAVLE himself made himself after ward a Iewe to the Iewes and a Gentile to the Gentiles that hee might gaine all and circumcised Timothie and purified himself in the temple To the ninth which is that he adds that hee resisted S. PETER to his face or in his presence which is a phrase which we are accustomed to vse to expresse a resistance to anie more eminent person because he was reprouable or according to the Greeke and S. HIEROME reproued Wee answere this resistance was not a reprehension of authoritie but a reprehension of charitie as those of Iethro to Moyses or of S. BERNARD to Pope Eugenius that is to saie a reprehension that excluded not the superioritie of the reproued ouer the reprouer Witnes these wordes of saint Aug. you see what saint Cyprian saith that the holie Apostle Peter in whom there shined soe great a grace of the Primacie being reproued by saint Paule did not answere that hee had the Primacie and would not be reproued by new men later then himself And againe The Apostle PETER hath left a more rare example of humilitie to posteritie in teaching men not to disdaine reproofe from their inferiors then Paule in teaching the meaner to resist the greater sauiug charitie for the defence of the truth And these of saint CHRISOSTOME giuing the reason of the humilitie that S. PETER shewed in this action And from hence it coms saith hee that Paule reproues and Peter beares it to the end that while the Master reproued holdes his peace schollers may change their opinion TO the tenth obiection which is that S. CYPRIAN saith that the other Apostles were the same that Peter was indued with like authoritie and power It is true but saint CYPRIAN speakes there of the internall and essentiall power of the Apostleship and of the externall and accidentall power to the Apostleship that is to saie that they were equall as concerning power but not concerning the order of the exercise of the power for the vnderstanding whereof it must be knowne that there are two things requisite to exercise the Apostleship lawfullie the one to exercise it with authoritie for those that exercise it without power as the false Apostles were vsurpers and sacrilegious persons witnes this sentence of saint PAVL None attributes honor to himself but he that is called like Aaron the other to exercise it in vnitie For those that had exercised it out of vnitie had bene schismaticks although they had true commission and authoritie to exercise it At Rome saith Optatus Mileuitanus there hath bene placed a Chaire for Peter that vnitie might bee preserued by all least the other Apostles should attribut to euery one his owne And againe he repeateth the knowledge that sainct PETER had of the diuinitie of the Sonn of God the promise that hee had made him to die with him and how he had thrice denied him And adds yet neuerthelesse for the good of vnitie he had not merited to be separated from the number of the Apostles And a little after They remained all innocent and a Fisherman receiued the keyes that the negotiation of vnitie might be formed c. without which thing vnitie which is soe necessarie could not bee Now to preserue that vnitie in which the internall and essetinall authoritie of the Apostleship ought to be exercised it was necessarie first to haue a subiect which should be as the center the head
and roote of this vnitie and by relation and adherence whereto all the colledge of the Apostles and all the Bodie of the Church might be manitained in vnitie For the thinges which are plurall by themselues and are not one with locall vnitie cannot without loosing their vndiuided pluralitie be reduced to a visible vnitie vnlesse by relation to some thing which by it self may be visiblie one And secondlie to maintaine this vnitie it is necessarie further beside the internall authoritie essentiall to the Apostleship there should be an other externall authoritie and accessory to the Apostleship which might haue the superintendencie ouer the care of the preseruation of vnitie to cause the Apostles to exercise their Apostleship in vnitie And as the office of the cause is to rule his effect he that should be the beginning and originall of this vnitie should likewise haue the superintendencie ouer the rest for what concernes the preseruation of vnitie and by consequence that to him should belonge the supereminent iurisdiction ouer things necessarie to the maintenance of vnitie that is to saie ouer things necessarie to preuent schisme and hinder the disorder and confusion of the exercise of the ministrie as are the distinction and distribution either mediat or immediate ofiurisdiction the suspension limitation of the exercise of the ministrie and other such like Not that the Apostles for their maintenance in vnitie had neede that the effect of this Authoritie should be practised so euidently ouer them as ouer their sucessors because of the assistance that they had euery one in particular of the Spirit of God but to the end to propound to the Church a forme and a modell of the order that she should keepe after their decease 〈◊〉 as although there were noe neede of a Councell in the time of the Apostles to decide questions of Religion whereof euerie particular Apostle might be informed with all fullnes and certaintie neuerthelesse the holie Ghost would that they should vse this forme in the matter of legall things to leaue it for a patterne to the Church of the succeeding ages in like occurrences It was then the internall authoritie and essentiall to the Apostleship which consisted in the power of reuealing matters of faith with assurance of infallibilitie to make canonicall writings to institute the first mission of pastors remitt sinns to giue the holy Ghost and other the like that saint CYPRIAN spake of when he said that all the Apostles were indued with equall authoritie and not of the externall authoritie and accidentall to the Apostleship which was instituted to cause it to bee exercised in vnitie THIS appeares first because he touches before and after the originall of vnitie The Lord saith he buildes the Church vpon him being one and commaunds him to feede his sheepe And although he conferr like power after his Resurrection vnto all his Apostles and said to them As my Father sent me so send I you c yet to manifest vnitie he constitutes the Chaire one and disposeth by his authoritie that the originall thereof shall take beginning from one That certainly that Peter was the other Apostles were also indued with a like share of authoritie and power but the originall takes his beginning from one that the Church the Chaire may appeare to be one And a little after according to the antient manuscripts and the citations of Iuon and Gratian He that abandons the Chaire of Peter vpon which the Church is built can he bee confident of being in the Church And elsewhere Peter vpon whom one God hath built the Church and from whom he hath instituted the originall of vnitie This appeares secondly because he calls the Roman Church the Chaire of Peter and the principall Church from whēce Sacerdotall vnitie proceedes This appeares thirdly because saint HIEROME after he had repeated the same sentence of S. CYPRIAN in these words Thou wilt tell me that the Church is built vpon Peter though the like be done in an other place vpon others and that the fortitude of the Church doe leane equallie vpon all Adds but amongst twelue one is chosen to the end that a head being appointed the occasion of Schisme might bee taken awaie To teach vs that in all other things the Apostles were equall to saint PETER except in those that had regard to the preuention of Schisme and the preseruation of vnitie for the consideration whereof he had bene constituted head of the Apostles And finallie because Optatus Mileuitanus countryman to the one to witt saint CYPRIAN and timefellowe to the other to witt saint HIEROME cries out Thou canst not denie but that at Rome the Episcopall Chaire hath bene placed by the Apostle Peter c. in which the vnitie was obserued by all to the end that all the Apostles should not attribute to themselues to each one his Chaire but that he should be a sinner and Schismaticke who against the onelie Chaire should erect an other And a little after from whence is it then that you would vsurpe to yourselues the keyes of the Kingdome you that by your presumptions and audacious sacriledges combat against the Chaire of Peter To the eleuenth obiection which is that Eusebius ill translated by Russinus reportes from Clemens Alexandrinus that Peter James and Iohn established Iames brother to our Lord Bishop of the Apostles Wee answere that it is from a faultie Grammar a faultie-diuinitie For the greeke text saith of Hierusalem and not of the Apostles Peter saith he James and John contested not for glorie or opinion for greeke word signifies either but vnanimouslie constituted Iames brother of our Lord Bishop of Hierusalem that is to saie James and John did noe more stand vpon it to dispute for honor with S. PETER as they had formely done but vnited themselues with him to consecrate Iames Bishop of Ierusalem whereto the words of CHRISOSTOME agree about the iealousie that James and John formerly had of the Primacie of S. PETER Harken said hee how this same Iohn that latelie demaunded these thinges afterward wholie yeelds the primacie to Peter TO the twelfth obiection which is that S. CHRYSOSTOME vpō the proposition made by S. PETER in the first of the Acts to substitute an other Apostle in steede of Iudas writes See the modestie of James he had bene made the greeke saith he hath bene made Bishop of Hierusalem yet he saith not a word vpon this occasion Consider also the singular modestie of the other disciples how they yeelded the Throne to him and debated not more among themselues Wee answere that this obiection is Andabates fence For this concession of a Throne hath reference not to S. IAMES but to S. PETER who whilst he spake S. JAMES was soe modest as although he were so excellent that he was after made Bishop of Hierusalem he opened not his mouth and the other Apostles as James and Iohn Sōns of Zebedeus which had formerly bene iealous of S.
PETER debated the Primacie with him noe longer but yeelded him Presidencie This appeares as well by the text of the history where there is noe tracke of respect giuē to S IAMES but to S. PETER onlie as by the time wherein S. IAMES was created Bishop of Hierusalem For the first act that the Apostles did after the Ascension of our Lord was the substitution of MATHIAS insteede of 〈◊〉 in the historie whereof sainct CHRYSOSTOME saith these words And Clemens Alexandrinus and Eusebius testifie that the promotion of saint Iames to the Bishopricke of Hierusalem happened afterward By meanes whereof the Apostles could not in that action that is to saie in the election of MATHIAS yeeld Presidēcie to saint IAMES because of the Bishoprick of Hierusalem And the same is confirmed both by this that saint CHRISOSTOME had written vpon the twentith chapter of saint MATTHEW Marke said hee how this same Iohn that latelie made such demaunds after wholie yeeldes the Primacie to saint Peter And by this that he adds presently after the place obiected This mā saith hee speaking of saint PETER first constitutes a doctor and saith not wee are enough to teach far was he from vaine glory And a little after he takes the first authoritie of the affaire as he that had all other put into his hands for to him Christ had said And thou being once conuerted confirme thy bretheren And by this that he protests in the beginning of his discourse Peter saith hee both as full of 〈◊〉 as hauing receaued from Christ the flocke into his keeping and as the first of the Colledge alwaies first beginns to speake To the thirteenth obiection which is that saint CHRISOSTOME writes vpon the fifteenth of the Acts that the principalitie was committed to Iames It is true but he speakes there onlie of the Principalitie of the Hierosolomitan Church if indeede the greeke word doe in that place intēd principalitie and not beginning and that the sence be not that IAMES had bene establisht from the beginning that is to saie that he was of the ancient Apostles and not of the new as saint PAVL and neuerthelesse that he tooke noe exceptiōs to S. PAVL for speaking betweene S. PETER and him For what soeuer that Greeke word signifies it is certaine it can signifie nothing but the principalitie of the particular Church of Hierusalem and not the principalitie of the vniuersall Church which S. CHRISOSTOME himself testifies elswhere to haue bene grāted to saint PETER in these words For if anie one aske me said hee how did Iames obtaine the Sea of Hierusalem I will answere that Christ hath constituted Peter Master not of that Sea but of all the world And againe Christ had foretold Peter great things and had put the whole world into his hands and had pronounced martirdome to him and she wed him greater loue then to the rest And indeede S. CHRISOSTOME alleadgeth not this principalitie to shew the modestie of saint Iames in this that he was not offended that saint PETER had spoken before him but to shew the modestie of saint IAMES in this that he was not offended that saint PAVL spake betweene saint PETER and him A manifest proofe that he treates not of the vniuersall principalitie but of the principalitie of the particular Church of Hierusalem of which he makes mention in this place because those that had moued the trouble for which the Coūcell was holden were the Iewes and Pharisees of Hierusalem conuerted to Christianitie who were iealous to see that the Gentiles were receaued into the Church without obliging themselues to the obseruation of the lawe And because saint IAMES had more especiall credit in their behalfe because he was not only their Bishop but Bishop of the Cittie which but a while before was Metropolitan of the lawe and consequently it seemed he should be touched with a more strict interest to the obseruation of the lawe then anie other and also that he had not gone about with sainct PETER and sainct PAVL to receiue the Gentiles into the Church and by this meanes had not lost his 〈◊〉 in the behalfe of the legalists It was saith sainct CHRYSOSTOME a profitable prouidence that those thinges were done by those that were not to reside in Hierusalem and that he that taught the Hierosolomitans was not refusable and that his opinion might not be departed from For these causes then sainct IAMES had by accident a greater authoritie in the behalfe of the authors of this Scandall then the other Apostles to preserue the which he did saith saint CHRISOSTOME that which those ought to doe that are constituted in great authoritie that is to saie he suffered saint PETER to speake more seuerelie and himself spake more gentlie But that compared simplie with saint PETER hee was either equall or superior in iurisdiction saint CHRISOSTOME is so farr from hauing euer thought it that contrariwise he cries out a lowde Peter was the Prince of the Apostles and the mouth of the disciples and the head of the Colledge and for this occasion Paule went vp to visitt him letting the rest alone And a little after Christ put into his hands the Prouostship of his bretheren and vpbraids him not with his deniall of him nor reprocheth him with what was past but saith to him if thou louest me be president of they bretheren and the same loue that thou hast in all things shewed to me and whereof thou hast boasted shew it now and that life that thou hast said thou wouldst laie downe for me laie it downe for my sheepe And in the homilie thirtith three vpon saint MATHEW The first and the Corypheos of the Apostles was a man ignorant and without learning And in the homily fiftie fift Not onely the Apostles were Scandalized but also the Corypheos that is to saie Soueraigne of them all Peter And in the second booke of the Priesthood Christ committed the care of his sheepe to Peter and Peters Successors And in this doe all the rest of the Fathers agree aswell Greeke as latine Thou seest saith saint GREGORIE Nazianzene amongst the disciples of Christ all sublime and worthie of election that one of them is called the Rock and that the foundations of the Church are committed to him and the other is more beloued and leanes vpon the bosom of Iesus and the rest suffer the difference And saint AMBROSE The Lord said hee by these words louest thou me more then these asked the question not to learne but to teach being readie to be himself exalted into Heauen which was he whom he would leaue to vs for the Vicar of his loue And a little after And because that of them all he onlie protests he is preferrd before them all And elsewhere With a full floud of teares the Churches Rocke Did cleanse his Crime at crowinge of the Cocke And S. EPIPHANIVS Christ hath appointed Peter to be the guide and leader of his
Disciples And Optatus Mileuit In the Roman Chaire there is sett Peter the head of all the Apostles And againe Against the gates of hell we reade that Peter our Prince hath receaued the wholesome keyes And S. CYRILL of Alexandria Peter as the Prince and head of the rest first cryed out thou art Christ the sonne of the liuing God Euen vntill then it was a thing so well knowne vnto antiquitie that sainct PETER was the visible head of the Church and of Christian religion as the verie Pagans and Porphirius amongst the rest as sainct HIEROME reportes it reproched it to Christians that S. Paul had bene so rashe as to reproue Peter the Prince of the Apostles and his master And they fained as saith sainct AVGVSTINE that the Oracles of their false Gods hauing bene inquired of concerning Christian Religion answered this blasphemie that Chrict was innocent of the imposture of the Christiās but that Peter who was a Magitian for the loue he bore to his Master had inuented Christian Religion And this may be said of the comparison betweene PETER and the other Apostles for I will not now treate of the other frequent markes of the preheminēce and authoritie of S. PETER which are in the Euangelicall and Apostolicke historie As that our Lord commaunded him to paie the tribute for himself and for him that he vndertooke the care of the replacing of an other Apostle in Iudas his steede all the Colledge of the Apostles suffring themselues to bend and to be lead by his words that he is nominated as for preheminence and ranked a part Peter and the Eleuen that they bore the sicke into the Apostles waie that Peters shadowe might passe ouer them that that he alone iudged Ananias and Saphira to death that to him alone is reuealed the introduction of the nations into the Church and other the like for as much as it is not my purpose to examine the other places of scripture but onely those that his maiestie hath alleadged and to examine those not by scripture but by the Fathers whose obiection me thinkes I haue sufficiētly satisfied And as for Origēs interpretatiō which extends this text to all Christians in generall and saith that whosoeuer confesseth that Christ is the Sonn of God is made a foundation of the Church it is an interpretation morallized from this passage to bring it into sence although strained and wrested whose fruite may be applied to all the hearers and not a serious and litterall interpretation as the same Origen that makes vse of it testifies when he expounds it expressly and literallie of the persō of Peter There remaines the third point which is that the Church is built vpon Christ now in this point we are all of accord with his Maiestie but yet wee graunt not that S. PETER leaues to be the visible and ministeriall Foundation of the Church for the Philosophers teach vs that thinges subordinate combat not one an other but imbrace presuppose one other therefore to saie that Christ is the foundation of the Church and to saie that S. PETER is the foundation of the Church are not repugnant propositions but vnanimous and compatible For wee doe not pretend that they are foundations of the Church after one and the same sort but we hold that Christ is the foundation of the Church by himself and by his owne authoritie and S. PETER only by commission no more then to saie with Moyses that God only was the guide of the people of Israell in their passage from Egipt to the land of Chanaan and to saie with S. STEVEN that Moyses guided the people in the Wildernesse This was he said he that was with the Church in the desert Are not things incompatible for god was the guide of the people of Israel by his proper vertue and Moyses by commission and lieuetenancie from God Likewise to saie that the Vice-Roy of Ireland is the foundation of the gouernment and policie of Ireland And to saie that the excellent Kinge of Great Brittaine is the foundation of the state and policie of the same Ireland are not things incompatible for the excellent King of Great Brittaine is so by his proper authoritie and the Vice-Roy is soe by commission lieuetenancie and representation Although notwithstanding that the literall intention of this passage Vpon this Rock I will build my Church is no way to designe by the word Rock the person of Christ but that only of Peter as it appeares by six euident reasons THE first that our lord hauing foretold to S. PETER that he would change his name not by the attribution of a simple Epithete as he did to the Sonns of Zebedee whom he called the Sonns of thunder but by the imposition of a name ordinarie and permanent in saying to him Thou shalt be called 〈◊〉 puts him noe where in possession of this promise nor explaines to him noe where the cause of the imposition of this name but in this passage Thou art Peter vpō this Rock I will build my Church Now this passage cānot explaine the sence of the word Peter if in the secōd part of the passage the word Rock be not taken in the same sence and for the same subiect for which it is taken in the first and by consequence this clause vpon this Rock I will build my Church cannot there be interpreted of the person of Christ but on the only person of S. PETER The second that our Lord meanes in this place to render an exchange for the words that S. PETER spake of him as may appeare by this preface And I tell thee which for this cause Beza hath translated into these words And I tell thee reciprocallie Now S. PETER in his propositiō had done two things the one to declare the appellatiue name of our Lord which is Christ the other to explaine the sence and energy of the same name of CHRIST in saying Thou art Christ the Sonne of the liuing God And therefore the lawe of the Antithesis correspōdencie wills that not only our lord should declare the name that he had promised to giue him in saying to him Thou art Peter but also should explaine the sence energy of this name in saying to him and vpon this Rock I will build my Church Which could not be vnlesse by the word Rock in this second clause there were literally vnderstood the person of S. PETER and not that of CHRIST THE third that it had bene a thing extremely from the purpose to haue made mention of the name of Peter for the language that our Lord meant to speake to S. PETER if by this clause and vpon this Rock he had not intended to speake of the person of Peter For the word Rock hath no metaphoricall relation to the keyes but to the building The fourth that it had bene an inconstant grammaticall consequence and euil knitt to saie And I
declare to thee that thou art Peter and vpon this Rocke which is my self I will build my Church and I will giue to thee the keyes of the Kingdome of heauen The fifth that the connexion of the pronowne this with the repetition of the word Petra before exprest sheweth that it is a relatiue pronowne and whose relation is determined to the antecedent alreadie exprest by meanes whereof this pronowne could not be diuerted from the naturall vse of the relatiue that the repetition of the antccedent giues it to an vse of a demōstratiue pronowne but by the application of an externall gesture of demonstration either exprest in the text of the historie or by the verie explication of the historian As when our Lord after he had spoken of the Iewish Temple said Destroie this temple and within three daies I will build it vp againe The Euangelists to hinder the pronowne from being taken for a pronowne relatiue as the repetition of the word Temple alreadie before expressed would haue informed the auditors adds this he spake of the Temple of his 〈◊〉 a thing which is not in this passage AND the sixth and principall that it is most certaine that our Lord in these words thou art Peter and vpon this Peter or Rocke intended to allude to the name of S. PETER Now all allusions which are made to names are either allusions of confirmation or allusions of correction I call allusiōs of confirmation those which are made to confirme or approue the imposition of the name which had bene first giuen As when Uopiscus called the Emperor Probus trulie Probus that is to saie trulie an honest man and Carus truly Charus that is to saie trulie deare And saint ATHANASIVS called Osius truly Osius that is to saie 〈◊〉 holy And the Councell of Constantinople holden vnder Menas called Agapet truly Agapet that is to saie 〈◊〉 beloued I call allusions of correction those which are made to correct and reprehend the imposition of the name first giuen to shewe that the effect of the name agrees not with him that beares it And these allusiōs of correction againe are of two sortes the one are made by simple negation 〈◊〉 antithesis as when Noemi said Call me no more Noemi that is to saie Agreable but call mee mara that is to saie bitter And the other are made by translation as when the name that hath bene first imposed vpon anie one is transferred to an other As when saint 〈◊〉 speaking of Absalon whose name signified the peace of the Father saith That the true Absalon is Iesus Christ it is an allusion of translation and consequentlie of correctiō by which he transferrs the name of Absalon to Iesus Christ and shewes that it had not iustlie bene imposed vpon Absalon From whence it ariseth that if our Lord in saying Vpon this Rock I will build my Church intended by the word Rock the person of sainct PETER he ment to make an allusion of approbation but if hee intended his owne he ment to make an allusion of translation and consequently of correction Now besides that it must be impertinent that our Lord should make an allusion of correction vpon a name imposed by himselfe it is manifest that in honorable names allusions of approbation and confirmation are in steede of complements and gratifications and allusions of correction are in steede of reprehensions and chasticemets Then to know whether our Lord did there meane to make an allusion of approbation and by the word Rock intend the person of S. PETER or to make an allusion of correction and translation and by the word Rock intend his owne there needes but to see whether he meant by these words to cherish gratifie and recompence S PETER or to shake him vp and chastice him For if by the word Rock he vnderstood the person of S. PETER he ment to cherish and recōpence him but if there by he vnderstood his owne he meant to be rough with him and to correct him Now both the foregoeing confession of S. PETER Thou art Christ the Sonn of the liuing God and the preface of our Lords words Blessed art thou Symon the Sonne of Iona and this marke of recompence and reciprocall vicissitude of title and elogie translated by Beza himself into these wordes I saie reciprocallie to thee cannot without sacrilege suffer a doubt but that he intēded not in that place to be harsh with him and to chastice him but to gratifie and recompence him The blessed confession saith S. HILLARIE hath receaued the reward nor consequētlie but that our lord intēded to make an allusiō of cōfirmation not of correction that is to saie that he designed by the word Rock not his owne persō but the persō of S PETER And against this ought not to be obiected that S. PAVL writes The Rock was Christ. For metaphoricall names are not takē alwaies in the sams sēce nor for the same thinges but varie their significatiōs according to the seuerall relations whereunto they are imployed which hath caused S. THOMAS to saie that in metaphors there is not so much regard to be had from whence they are takē as to what they are taken and therefore although the word Rock sometimes signifies Christ in the scripture it would neuerthelesse be a blinde 〈◊〉 to will that wheresoeuer the scriptures vseth it it should be intēded of Christ. For sometimes the word Rock is imploied according to the relatiō that the Rock of a quarry hath to the morcels of stone that are drawne out of it And in this sence Abraham is called Rock Looke saith Esaie vpon the Rock from whence you haue bene cutt vpō Abraham your Father sometimes it is imployed according to the relation of the drynesse barennes that rockes haue to the seede that is cast vpon them and in this sence hard and indocile partes are intended by the word Rock Part of the seed said our Lord fell vpon the Rock Sometimes it is imployed according to the relatiō of the stedfastnes and soliditie that Rocks haue in the buildings which are founded vpon them And in this sence our lord saith to S. PETER Vpōthis Rock I will build my Church alluding to the custome of ātiquitie who vsed when they were to build temples to choose to build them vpō Rocks for their firmnes rather then vpon other places From whence it is that the place where vpon the Temple of Delphus was built was called the Delphian Rocks and that the men of a certaine Cittie of Asia to be preferred in the building of a Temple to the Emperor Tiberius represented to him that their cittie was situate vpon a Rocke And therefore our lord intending to build his Church vpon S PETER said to him according to the Hebrew and the Syriacke Thou art a Rock and vpon this Rock I will build my Church Sometymes it is imployed according to the relation that Rocks haue to the sources
and fountaines that spring from them and in this sence the Apostle saith They dranke of the spirituall Rock which followed them and that Rock was Christ. By meanes whereof to inferr from this that in these words the Rock was Christ when it is spoken of the Rock referr'd to the water 〈◊〉 sprang from it Christ was intended by the word Rock that heere where it is spoken of the word Rock referrd to the metaphor of the ministeriall building of the Church it should be necessarie to vnderstand it of the person Christ and not of of that of saint PETER were an inconsequent consequence And it is not to be said that in the parable of the man that built his howse vpon the rocke by the word Rock Christ is vnderstood for the litterall sence of the word Rock in this place is noe other then to signifie a good and firme foundation and that this is expounded of Christ it is by allegorie Now there is great difference betweene the litterall sence of places mingled with metaphoricall termes and the allegoricall sence For from the litterall sence of places mingled with metaphoricall termes arguments may be made and consequences may be drawne from one passage to an other and from the allegoricall sence not And then if sainct PAVL had said euen according to the relation to the ministeriall building of the Church the Rock was Christ hath not our Lord vsually communicated his names to his ministers And did not Iacob annoint the stone in Bethell in the figure of Christ as prefiguring that Christ ought to be the stone whereof God prophecied by the mouth of Esay Behold I will set vp in Sion a Rock well founded And neuerthelesse doth not the same Iacob saie that Joseph was the Pastor and the Rocke of Israel making vse of the word Euen in both of them That is to saie doth he not communicate by word the same word Rock of Israell to Ioseph that he had communicated by figure to Christ And if they stagger about the difference which is betweene the word Euen the word Tsur or Petra which signifies Rock although Beza doe not distinguish it when he translates Thou shalt be called Cephas which is interpreted lapis Doth not Tertullian write according to the vse euen of the word Tsur or Petra He hath giuen to the dearest of his disciples to Peter the name of one of his figures And doth not S. HIEROME write vpon the same place of S. MATTHEW As our Lord who is the light hath giuen to his Apostles that they should be the light so to Peter beleeuing in the Rock-Christ he hath giuen to be the Rocke And therefore according to the metaphor of Rock it is said to him with good right I will build my Church vpon thee And elsewhere Not only Christ was the Rock but hee hath giuen to Peter that hee should also be the Rock And sainct BASILL Although Peter be also the Rock neuerthelesse hee is not the Rock as Christ but hee is the Rock as Peter for as much as Christ is essentiallie the vnmoueable Rock and Peter is so by the Rock for our Lord giues his dignities without dispoyling himselfe of them c. He is the Rock he makes the Rock And sainct EPIPHANIVS He hath made the first of his Apostles the firme Rock wherevpon the Church is built And againe It is hee that hath heard from him Peter feede my lambes and to whom the keeping of the Flock hath bene committed And PROSPER This most strong Rock hath receaued from the principall Rock commmunication both of vertue and name For whereas sainct AVGVSTINE after hee had interpreted in manie places the Rock of the person of PETER as in these words of the comentarie vpon the sixtie ninth Psalme Peter who is in this confession had bene called the Rock vpon which the Church should be built And in these words of the Psalmes against Donatus his partie Reckon the Prelates from the Sea of Peter And in this order of the Fathers see who haue succeeded one an other this is the Rock that the prowde gates of Hell cannot ouerthrow And in these words of the comentarie vpon sainct IOHN Peter this Rock answered in the name of all and in those words of the Epistle eightie six Peter the head of the Apostles the Porter of heauen the foundation of the Church remitts it finallie in his retractations to the readers choyse whether of these two interpretations hee thinkes to be most probable to witt either to interpret it of the person of PETER or to interpret it of the person of CHRIST moued with this that the Latine text hath Tues Petrus and not Tues Petra This is a grammaticall error partlie proceeding from the defect of knowledge in the Hebrew and the Syriack tongues in which there is noe difference betweene Petrus and Petra But the text hath it throughout Thou art Cephas and vpon this Cephas that is to saie in Latine Tues Petra supra hanc Petram and in French Tu es rocher sur ce rocher Thou art a rock and vpon this rock partlie for want of experience in the practise of the greeke tongue in which the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie one selfe-same thing from whence it is that manie Greekes haue called the Sunne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to saie stone by allusion to the doctrine of Anaxagoras who held that the Sunn was a stone By meanes whereof the Greeke interpreter of S. MATTHEW hath pretended to put noe difference in sence but only in kinde betweene these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and meant to saie no other thing but what wee vnderstand in French by these words Tuesroc sur ce rocher ie bastiray mon Eglise And therefore alsoe saint BASILL produces the first part of the clause in these words Thou art the Rock 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hauing regard to the wordes of our Sauiour in which the cōdition of the Hebrew and Syriake tongues permitt not to make the distinction of gender as S. HIEROME notes in these words Not saith hee that Petrus and Petra signifie differing things but because that which in latine we call Petra the hebrewes and Syrians because of the affinitie of their tongues call it Cephas And this Beza though an enemie to the true sence of this passage is constrained to confesse in these words The Lord speaking in Syriack hath not vsed diuersitie of name but in both places hath said Cephas as in our vulgar French the word Pierre is said as well of the proper as of the appellatiue And for this same cause he translates the place of the first Chapter of saint Iohn into these termes Thou shalt bee called Cephas which is interpreted Petra that is to saie Rock or stone And not soe much as the doctors of the lewes but doe
to the Church CHAPT V The continuance of the Kings answere AND also which is principallie to be lamented it is happened by this dissipation that there is lesse force in the seperate parts then there was in the whole to resist the enemie of mankinde who as Christ teacheth vs is a wake and attentiue vpon 〈◊〉 occasion to mingle the good seede with darnell and tares THE REPLIE AFTER the deuision of the externall communion all the soule the forme and essence of the Church rests in one onlie of the societies which remaine after the diuision and not in the others which are no more trulie partes of the Church but only equiuocallie euen as when a member is separated from a liuing and sensible Bodie all the essence the Soule and forme of the creature remaines in the Bodie from whence that separation hath bene made and not in the part that hath bene separated from it which is noe more a part of the Bodie but equiuocallie and inproperlie And therefore after the separation of hereticks all the same strength vigor and vertue which was in the Bodie of the Church before the separation remaines in the part from whence the separation is made as she that inherits the condition of all and not in the others in such sort as she hath noe lesse force to resist the corruption that the enemie of mankinde would bring in but contrariwise oftentimes more for as much as the constancie of the Charitie of those which remaine in the Church is made the more vnited and the more eminent by the separation of the rest according to this sentence of saint PAVLE There must be heresies that the Good may be manifested And therefore saint AVGVSTINE writes That the Church makes vse of 〈◊〉 for the approbation of her doctrine and of schismaticks for the demonstration of her stedfastnes And elsewhere That those that goe forth from the Bodie of the Church are as euili humors by whose purgation the Bodie is eased By meanes whereof his Maiestie ought not to pretend that the alienations of the partes which are seperate from the Bodie of the Church haue left in her from whom they are seperated the lesse vigor to resist the enemie of mankinde and to maintaine her self vncorrupted then there was in the whole Bodie before but contrariwise to presuppose that the same vertue which resided in the whole Bodie is reunited in the part that succeedes it As when one of our eyes hath lost his former light His splendors faire effect shines in the other sight And th'extinguisht beame adds to the cleere-eyes store Who sees alone as much as both could see before Also it cannot be found that since the separation of the Roman Church and the Greeke faction quoted by his Maiestie which is the greatest seperation that euer was made the Roman Church receaued anie doctrine which was not holden by all the Bodie of the Catholike Church when this diuision happened and noe more till then since the separation of the Egiptians and Ethiopian Prouinces Of the pretended corruption of the Church CHAPT VI The continuance of the Kings answere AND what wee now see with our eyes to be happened yea and handle it with our handes it is a ridiculous thing and more then absurd to dispute if heretofore it could be or now can be done THE REPLIE THere was neuer anie age wherein those that seperated themselues from the Church haue not beleeued that they saw cleerly and euidently that she was corrupted and full of palpable and Cymerian darknes otherwise they had not seperated themselues from her The figure of this preiudication preceded in the rashnes of Oza who beleeued that the Arke was about to fall and vpon that beleefe put out his hand to lifte it vp for which he was punisht with death And followed in the incredulitie of the Apostles who while our Lord slept thought that the Barke wherein they were with him was about to perishe in indignation whereof he chidd them for their little faith and taught them that he that keepes Israell doth neither slumber nor sleepe and the historie since hath cōtinued in all the pretended Reformers of the Church For as Pentheus in seeing his children thought hee had seene Beares Tigers Serpents and other wild beastes and did not perceiue that the euill was not in them but in his sight Soe the heretickes in all ages in seeing their mother that is to saie the Church thought they had seene a troope of Dragons Lyons and wild-beasts and vpon that occasion haue put themselues to flight not discerning that the euill was not in the Church but in their eyes And that it is soe did not the Luciferians saie That the Catholicke Church had bene conuerted into a brothell and was become the whore of Antichrist And did not the Donatists call the Apostolicke chaire the chaire of Pestilence And did they not crie out that the Catholicke Church was become the shield of Romulus And saith not saint AVGVSTINE of them I iustly persecute him that detracts from his neighbour wherefore shall I not more iustlie persecute him that publickly blasphemes the Church c. when he saith she is a whore And the Pelagians when there was alleadged to them the number and the multitude of the Catholicks did they not answere that to finde anie thing a multitude of blinde men auailed nothing And neuerthelesse who knowes not at this daie that they were the blinde men and not the Church And then this pretended corruptiō of the Church being the theame of the question debated by vs to cause that to passe as a thing graunted it is to put for a principle that which his maiestie ought if it please him to reserue to be iudged at the end not presuppose at the beginning of the disputation For to saie that there is no thing but is altered and corrupted by age this argument is good for those thinges that are preserued by ordinarie and naturall faculties but not for those that are assisted by extraordinary and supernaturall helpe and to whom these words of Dauid may be applied Thy youth shall he renewed as the youth of an Eagle Now the Church is of this number for our Lord saith of her without exception of time Thou art wholly faire and there is noe spott in thee and shee sings and will sing to the end of the world I am black but I am faire that is to saie I am black in manners but faire in doctrine And therefore S. AVGVSTINE compares her to Sara who when she was old left not to be faire And for this same cause sainct HIEROME citing these wordes of Salomon that the eye that mockes his Father or despiseth the age of his mother the Crowes of the valley shall pull it out interprets them of hereticks who despise the age of the Church Assoone saith hee as the eye of the hereticks mocks the creator his father or despiseth the age
in our owne wordes or in the wordes of her head our Lord Iesus Christ I thinke wee ought rather to seeke her in his word from him that is truth and well knowes his owne Bodie And a while after I would not haue the Church demonstrated by humane instructions but by diuine or acles And againe Let vs then seeke her in the canonicall scriptures He did not intend that to seeke the Church in the scriptures betweene the Catholicks and the Donatists was to seeke the doctrine of the Church in the scriptures that is to saie to examin by the scriptures the point of doctrine which was contested betweene the Church and the Donatists but to seeke the markes and externall and visible characters of the Church in the scriptures to the end that the Church being discerned by those markes the truth of the doctrine contested might be after knowne by the disposition of the Church For the vnderstanding whereof it must be noted that there were two questions betweene the Catholickes and the Donatistes the one of the Bodie of the Church to know on what party either of the Catholickes or of them the true societie of the Church resided The other of the doctrine of the Church to witt the which they or the Catholickes held the true doctrine concerning the Baptisme of heretickes The first question then which is of the Bodie of the Church saint AVGVSTINE wills it should be iudged by the scripture alone for as much as in the precise controuersie wherein the question was which of the two societies was the Church the voice of the true Church cannot be discerned But the second question which is that of the doctrine contested betweene the Catholicks and the Donatists he would haue it decided by the onlie deposition of the Church as a faith full guardian and depositarie of the Apostolicke tradition To seeke then according to saint AVGVSTINE betweene the Catholickes and the Donatists the Church in the Scriptures was not to search the doctrine of the Church in the contentious points of Faith in the Scripture but to seeke the visible markes and notes by which the Church ought to be exteriorly discerned in the Scripture For the Donatists to proue that their Church was the true Church and not the Catholicke Church alleadged human actes and human proofes to witt that the Catholicke Church had receaued into her communion without anie expiation and purgation of preceding pennance those that had deliured the holie Bookes to be burnt and had sacrificed to the false Gods in the time of persecution and therfore that she was polluted with their contagion and was perished And then that the onely faction of Donatus which had remained pure from this contagion was the true Church And saint AVGVSTINE contrariwise saith that against all these words which were human proofes and words for if he that ordained Cecilianus had deliuered vp the holy Bookes in persecution time it was a thing to be proued by human testimonies that is to saie by actes of notaries and clerkes euen prophane the Catholickes had the wordes of Christ wherein the workes of the Church were described to witt that she ought to be visible eminent vniuersall perpetuall and that to examin the Church according to these markes it was to seeke her in the words of Christ and to examine her according to the production of the Donatists it was to seeke her in humane wordes What are saith hee our words wherein wee must not seeke her c. All that wee obiect one against an other of the deliuerie of the holie Bookes of the sacrificing to Jdolls and of the persecutions those are our wordes And a while after I would not that the Church should be demonstrated by human instructions but by diuine oracles for if the holse Scriptures haue designed the Church to be in Africa alone and in a smalle number of Roman inhabitants making their conuenticles in Rockes and mount 〈◊〉 and in the howse and territorie of a certaine Spanish Ladie then whatsoeuer records can be produced there are none but the Donatists that haue the Church If the Scripture assigne it to a little number of Mauritanians in the 〈◊〉 prouince you must goe to the Rogatists If in a smalle troupe of Bizacenians and Tripolitans prouincialls the Maximinianists haue mett with her If those of the East alone wee must seeke her amongst the Arrians Macedonians Eunomians and others if there be others for who can number the heresies as proper and particular of euerie particular Prouince But if by the diuine and most certaine testimonies of the Canonicall scriptures she be designed in all nations whatsoeuer they produce and whensoeuer it be produced by those that saie there is Christ if wee be 〈◊〉 let vs 〈◊〉 heare the voice of our Shepheard saying beleeue them not For euerie one of those is not to be found but this which is ouer all is to bee found in the selfe same places where the others are And therefore lett vs seeke her in the holie Canonicall scriptures The places the of the scripture where S. AVGVSTINE would haue the Donatists to seeke the Church are these In thy seede all the nations vpon the earth shal be blessed The children of the forsaken shal be in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 number then those of her that hath a husband This Ghospell must be declared ouer the whole world and then the end shall bee I am with you to the consummation of ages And other such like And the arguments that he bringes to manifest the Church by the Scriptures are these The cittie of God saith he hath this for a certaine marke that she cannot be hidden she is thē knowne to all nations the sect of Donatus is vnknowne to manie nations then that is not shee Item You haue the Church which ought to be spread ouer all and to growe till the haruest You haue the Cittie whereof hee that built it hath said the Cittie built vpon the mountaine cannot be hidd It is she then that is most euident not in anie one part of the world but ouer all And other the like But as for the point of doctrine I saie againe and I saie it boldlie that saint AVGVSTINE neuer intended either that the question of the Church betweene the Catholiques and the Donatists should be tryed by the doctrine nor that the article of the doctrine contested betweene thē should be decided by scripture but that the point of the Church should be examined by the externall and visible markes that of the externall and visible markes by the Scripture and the difference of doctrine by the reporte of the Church that is to saie by the tradition of the Apostles is to denie that in disputatiōs against other heresies whē pointes are handled which are heere esteemed to be expresselie treated of by the canonicall Scriptures but that hee often called vpon their iudgment For who doubtes but that where the Scripture is cleere
are borne in that age saith S. AVGVSTINE and associated with the people of God in that time wherein this plant bredd from the graine of mustarde-seede hath alreadie stretched forth her branches And that hee saith Enter in at the straight gate it is in respect of the conuersation of manners and not of the profession of doctrine as appeares by these wordes Manie called and few chosen And by these and the mariage chamber was full of inuited persons that is to saie of those that were called For though the number of the chosen be little in regard of the 〈◊〉 neuerthelesse considered in it self it is 〈◊〉 great It is this Church saith saint AVGVSTINE of the little number whereof in comparison of the multitude of the wicked it is said that the waie that leades to life is straight and close and that those that walke it are few in number And yet it is she againe of whose multitude it is said Thy seede shal be as the starrs of heauen and 〈◊〉 the sands of the sea For the same faithfull holy and good in comparison of the great multitude of the wicked are a little number and considered in themselues are manie for it is said that of the children of the forsaken are in greater number then hers that hath a husband And elsewhere Wherefore is it o yee hereticks that you glorie in your small number if Christ died to the end to possesse the multitude for his inheritance But if the prerogatiues of the Christian Church be much other as for eminencie and multitude then that of the Church of the Iewes how much more in regard of lasting and perpetuitie which are as often promised to the Christian Church as denied to the Church of the Iewes for who is ignorant that the Iewish Church had not receaued the same promises of lasting and perpetuitie as haue bene made to the Christian Church contrary-wise if anie promises of lasting and perpetuitie haue seemed to bee literallie addressed to the Jewish Church they were made to her conditionallie and not absolutely 〈◊〉 if anie haue bene made to her absolutely they were made to her onely in shadowe and in figure but the truth like the truth of the promises of eternitie made to the Raigne of Salomon belonged to him of whose Raigne Salomons was the figure Hieremie saith and saint PAVL after him that the daies would come wherein God would knitt vp a newe alliance with the familie of Iuda and with the familie of Israell not according to the alliance that he contracted with their Fathers when he tooke them by the hands and drewe them out of the land of Egipt Hec adds that if this contract once perisht from before the eyes of the Lord then all the seede of Israell should faile for euer and there should be noe more people before him 〈◊〉 anie age but that the heavens on high should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 measured and the foundations of the earth belowe be sooner sounded Then finallie he concludes with these wordes the sanctuarie of the eternall shall noe more be pluckt vp and shall neuer more be destroyed and desolate in anie time to come EZECHIEL saith I will make a treatie of peace with them I will haue an eternall confederacie with them I will build them and multiplie them and establish my sanctification in the middest of them for euer my tabernacle shall bee amongst them and I will be their God and they shall bee my people and the Nations shall knowe that I sanctifie Israel when they shall see my sanctification in the middest of them for perpetuitie ESAY cryes out As in the daies of Noe I swore that I would noe more powre downe the waters vpon the earth soe I haue protested that I will noe more 〈◊〉 angrie with thee and that I will noe more looke vppon thee in my wrath The mountaines shall be moued and the hills shall shake but my mercie shall not estrange it self from thee and the peace of my alliance shall neuer be transported from thee And in an other place When he that is driuen with the spirit of our Lord shall become as an impetuous floud and that the Sauiour shall arriue at Sion to turne away the iniquities of Iacob behold the alliance that shall be betweene them and me saith our Lord my Spirit which is thy mouth and the words which I haue put in thy mouth shall neuer depart from thy mouth nor from the mouth of they posterity nor from the posteritie of thy posteritie saith our Lord from this time forth for euer more And a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will contract a perpetuall confederacie with them and the people shall knowe their posteritie and their linage shall bee manifest in the middest of the Nations and all that shall see it shall knowe that this shall be the seede cherisht and fauourd by our Lord. Now to what purpose were all these 〈◊〉 of contracts and alliances all these mentions of preheminencies and prerogatiues if the Sincops and interruptions of the Church of the Iewes ought to make the lawe and president for the Christian Church To what purpose are all these clauses that the Gates of the Church should be continually open that they shall be shutt neither daie nor night that the multitude of nations may be brought in That whereas she hath bene abandoned and odious and that none frequented her she shall be made the glorie of the wourld and shall become the delight of generations That she shall noe more be called the forsaken and that her land shall noe more be called the desolate but her name shall be the fauoritie of our Lord and her land shall bee peopled and inhabited If the Christian Church should be exposed to the same ruines and desolations as the Iewish which neuer receaued anie promises of perpetuitie or if anie promises of perpetuitie may seeme to haue bene made to her literallie they haue bene made to her onlie in shadowe and in figure but their truth belonged to the Christian Church To what purpose were all these promises of our Lord Both by the mouth of Esaie As in the daies of Noe I swoare I would noe more bring the waters of the flood againe vpon the earth soe I haue sworne that I will noe more be angrie with thee And by that of Zachary I will noe more doe to this people as I haue done in times past And by his owne The cittie built vpon a mountaine can not be hidden the gates of hell shall neuer preuaile against her This Ghospell of the Kingdome must first be preached ouer all the world and then the end shall come I am with you to the consummation of ages and other the like if the Christian Church haue not quite other prerogatiues then the Iewish Church not only in eminencie and multitude but also in lasting and perpetuitie Philosophers teach that passion is a waie tending and leading
to corruption and that what is incorruptible is also reciprocallie impassible and inalterable what wonder is it then that the wayfarring preparation of the Religion of the Iewes which was corruptible and subiect to perish before it came to the terme of corruption haue tryed manie passions manie accidents manie changes that before it perisht it haue vndergone manie weaknesses Sincopes and faintings that this antient decrepite howse which was one daie to be ruined as the Apostle speaking of the old lawe teacheth vs that that which weares and growes old approacheth to ruine haue somes times bene amazed and shaken that this light that was finallie to be extinguished buried vnder a profoūd night and in perpetuall darknes haue sometimes bene obscured and dimmed and haue suffered defects and ecclipses And contrariwise that the state of the Christiā Church that the scriptures declare and prophecie to be incorruptible and not subiect to perish should be freed from all the passions preserued from all these accidens and dispenced withall and warranted from all these interruptions But we haue insisted too long vpon the thesis let vs now come to the hypothesis which is of the estate of the Church vnder the two first periods and principallie vnder that of the Iewish lawe For in regard of the defects of the Iewish Church the aduersaries to Christianitie make nine notable obiections which wee will confute in order one after an other The first is taken from the historie of Aaron Aaron saie they founded the Idoll after which the people Idolatrized It is true Aaron not yet inuested with the high Priesthood founded the golden calfe after which the people that 〈◊〉 to saie by Synecdoche a part of the people Idolatrized for Philo the Iew doth particularly saie that the maladie had not seised them all But neither Moyses who was the visible head of the Israelites Church and in whose onely person resided till then the high Priestood nor the whole bodie of the Leuiticall tribe destined to the future guard of the Temple and to the ordinarie ministrie of the lawe were touched with this crime For as soone as Moyses cryed If anie one belonge to our Lord lett him ioyne with me All the tribe of Leui gathered to him to roote out the Idolaters From whence it is that Moyses giues these praises to Leui It is he that hath said of his Father and of his mother I haue not seene them And who hath not acknowledged his Brothers and hath noe more knowne his children for they haue kept thy wordes And that God himselfe saith by the ministrie of Malachy The lawe of truth hath bene in the mouth of Leui and in his lipps there was noe forwardnes he hath walked with me in peace and equitie And that Philo the Iew searching wherefore the Townes of refuge had bene taken of the tribe of the Leuites saith that one reason was because the Leuiticall tribe destined to guard the temple had slaine the worshippers of the golden calfe And therefore saint PAVL citing the same historie reduceth it to the number of some To the end saith he that you become not Idolaters as some amongst them were to shew that this act was not vniuersall For that the sinn was imputed in generall to all the people it was not because they had all participated in it but because they had not endeauored to reuenge and punish it in the act And yet this action was not a iudiciarie action of the Church or a rituall custome of the Synagogue but a tumultuary seditiō of the people which was extinguished the same daie consequently could not be reckoned for an interruptiō of the Iewish Church for as 〈◊〉 as the brute of the tumulte of the Idolators was raised Moyses came downe from the mountaine to remedie it Now what proportion is there betweene the tumulte of a daie and such like clowdes of the Iewish Church whose longest lasted but the twentith part of an age by consequence gaue noe occasion to saie of the Iewish Church that that Cornelius Tacitus saith of the common-wealth of Rome vnder Tiberius Who is he that hath seene the common-wealth the pretended ieterruptiō of the Catholicke Church which according to the cōputation of her Aduersaries hath bene ecclipsed in faith erred in saluation aboue four hundred then yeares as they saie of Epimenides that he fell into a sleepe yong awaked old soe she fell a sleepe yong to witt īmediatly after the death of the apostl awaked old that is to saie vpō the end in the last waue of the world The secōd obiection is takē from the historie of the symptomes which hapened to the Iewish church betweene the time of Moyses that of Dauid where it is said one while that Micheas mâde an Idoll that six hundred men of the tribe of Dan hauing taken it placed it in Lais a cittie of the Sydonians possessed by them an other while that Gedeon made an Ephod in Ephra and that all Israel went a whoring after it An other while that Israel transgrest and abandoned the Lord. An other while that in the time of Hely the word of God was precious that is to saie rare An other while that in the time of Saule the arke had not bene required that is to saie according to the innouators glosse God had not bene consulted in his word But for the historie of Micheas soe farr is it off that from the act of Micheas which was but a particular act noe more then that of the six hundred Israelites of the tribe of Dan there can bee anie inference drawne that the visible seruice of God was the extinguished in all the people of Israel as Luther affirmes that this historie fell out either at the latter end of Iosua or vnder the gouernment of Othoniel an excellent seruant of God wherein none can pretend that the true seruice was extinguished in Israel And the historian noting that this idoll remained in the cittie of Lais as longe as the howse of our Lord remained in Silo testifies that the howse of God and the seate of the true seruice of God was then in Silo. And whereas the people of Israel tooke occasion to goe a whoring after the Ephod of Gedeon and that the historie of Iudges saith All Israel went a whoriug after it it must be vnderstood of the Israelites of the cittie of Ephra natiue place of Gedeon and others neere to it and that it is written in diuers places of the same history that Israel preuaricated and serued false Gods it is to be vnderstood by Synecdoche of a part for the whole following this sentence of S. AVGVSTINE The scripture hath this fashion of reproofe that the word seemes to be addressed to all yet concernes but some of them And indeede in the historie of Josua not only the scripture saith The children of Israel violated the commaundement and tooke
were vnder the iurisdictiō of Israel came to him out of all the citties which had bene giuen to him for their habitation leauing their possessiō and their inheritance and passing and inhabiting in Iuda and in Hierusalē because Ieroboā had driuen them out hee his Successors least they should attend to the seruice of our Lord hauing appointed priests of the high places to sacrifice to the diuells and to the calues that he had caused to be sett vp Frō other places also of all the tribes of Israel those that sett their hartes to seeke the God of Israel went vp to Hierusalem to offer their sacrifices before the Lord God of their Fathers Whereto Josephus adds these words as pronounced by Hieroboam in forme of an oration to the people of Israel I thinke said hee none of you are ignorant that there is noe place where God is not and that he reserues not to himselfe anie appointed seate but that euery where he heares those that pray to him and casts his eyes vpon all that serue him For this reason I haue not thought fitt to suffer you to goe so farr to worship and with so much paines and also in an enemie cittie as Hierusalem is The temple that is there was built by a mortal man neither more nor lesse then myselfe Therefore I haue consecraced for you two Calues of Golde the one in Bethel and the other in Dan that goeing thither according to the ease and oportunitie of the neighbourhood you may there worship God more commodiouslie Besides you shall want noe priests and Leuites whom I will establish from amongst you that you may haue noe more neede of the tribe of Leui nor of the familie of Aaron Behold then that the Church was then so farr from being confined to the Kingdome of Israel as the Metropolitan Seate of the religion seruice of God which was Hierusalem the place where sacrifices ought to be celebrated which was the temple the soueraigne tribunal of the adoration which was the Altar the succession of Dauid from whom the Messias was to come the high priest and all the sacerdotall and Leuiticall Estate which administred and represented the vniuersall Bodie of the Church did remaine following the election and institution of God in the partes of the Kingdome of Iuda and out of that of the Kingdome of Israel Which the holie Ghost had longe before declared by the mouth of the Psalmist in these termes not onlie historicall but also propheticall He hath saith hee reiected the tabernacle of Ioseph and hath not chosen the tribe of Ephraim that is to saie the kingdome of Israel which was called Ephraim for as much as Ieroboam as saith S. HIEROME who first raigned there was of the tribe of Ephraim but hath chosen the tribe of Iuda and the mountaine of Sion which he loued And after by that of Ezechiel in these Sonn of man saith the Lord take a peece of wood and write vpon it Iuda and the children of Israel which are vnited to him and of his fellowshipp and take an other and write vpon it The word of Ioseph which is in the hand of Ephraim and all the families of Israel and of all those which are vnited to him And therefore the historie of Tobie saith that when all those of the tribe of Nephthali went to the golden calues that Ieroboam king of Israel had made Tobie only fled the companie of all the rest and went into Ierusalem to the temple of the lord and there worshiped the Lord God of Israel offering all his first fruites and his tithes And therefore our Lord when the Samaritan said to him our Fathers worshipped in this mountaine that is to saie in the mountaine of Samaria and of Gerassim and yee affirme that in Hierusalem is the place where wee ought to worshipp answered that Saluation was on the Iewes side And for this same cause S. PAVL alleadging his extraction from Abraham according to the flesh notes particularly that he was issued from the familie of Beniamin as signifiing that he was extracted from the societie of those in whose communion resided the true Bodie of the Church The tribe of Iuda saith S. AVGVSTINE and the line of Beniamin had remained in the societie of the Temple the Tribe of Leui which was that of the Priests the tribe of Iuda which was the royall line and the line of Beniamin Those only staied on Hierusalems partie and in the communion of the Temple of God when the separation had bene made by the reuolt of Salomons seruant Doe not then imagine that it is of little weight that the Apostle adds issued from the tribe of Beniamin For it is as if he should haue said communicating with Iuda and not being depriued of and separated from the temple But behold yet more which is that the complaint of Elias is soe farr from verifying this pretended interruption and this generall ecclipse of the Iewish Church as contrarywise it appeares that at the same time at the same howre at the same moment that Elias lamented the persecution of Achab the true Religion florisht in Iudea with more glorie puritie and splendor then euer she had done since the first Salomon which was the figure of her true spouse and the author of the materiall Temple till the other that was declared to be greater then Salomon that is to saie vntill our Lord who built the spirituall Temple of the Catholicke Church For in the same time that Achab and Iesabell persecuted Elias Iosaphat sonn and Successor to Asa raigned in Iuda And to proue it soe the historie beares that Josaphat came to the crowne of Iuda the fowrth yeare of the Raigne of Achab King of Israel Now thete were six yeares and more of Achabs gouernement expired when Elias made his lamentation For the great drought whereof the hebrewes assigne the beginning to be in the third yeare of Achab and which lasted three yeares and six moneths according to the report of S. IAMES was then precisely finished so as the complaint of Elias not only falls out in the time of Iosaphat but meetes exactly with the reuolution of the third yeare of his Empire which was iust the same 〈◊〉 wherein he celebrated that famous circuit and if I dare so stile it that walking Parliament and those great daies of Religion where the most notable Princes of his estate and the principall priests and Leuites were appointed to trauell through all the citties of his Kingdome Behold the 〈◊〉 wherein Elias complaint happened Now what Iosaphat was frō the beginning to the end of his life how hee walked intirely in the way of Asa his Father without turning from it in anie thing but doeing what was pleasing to the Lord how the Seruice of God was holily celebrated and administred vnder his authoritie how the Almightie was with him because he trode in the stepps of Dauid his Predecessor and trusted not in
this cause soe abhor Achaz as being dead although his owne sonn succeeded him they did not 〈◊〉 him in the sepulcher of his Fathers THE fifth obiection is taken from the foure hundred Prophetts that Achab caused to come and prophecie before Josaphat who were all found false prophetts and Micheas alone a true Prophet But neither did this fall out in the kingdome of Iuda where was the seate of the Church but in the kingdome of Israel neither were those Prophets of the colledge of the Prophetts of Baal and of the qualitie of those of whom before Elias had said Take all the Prophetts of Baal and let not one man escape And of whom afterward Elias said to Ioram sonn of the same Achab What is there betweene me and thee Goe to the Prophets of thy Father and of thy mother And therefore when Iosaphat would cause Micheas to come hee asked him is there not heere one Prophet of the Lord to distinguish him from the Prophetts of Baal by this word of the Lord which is the same difference which Iehu afterwards vsed when being desirous to put Baal's Priests to death he said Take beede least there be anie of the seruantes of the Lord amongst you but lett the seruant of Baal be only heere The sixth obiection is taken from the historie of Manasses an Idolatrous Prince and who caused all manner of abominations and false worshipp to be practised in Hierusalem and Iuda But besides this that hee came afterward to repentance and then draue awaie all the Idolls and all the false Gods from Hierusalem and commaunded the people of Iuda to serue God euen then when he exercised his greatest impieties the church and the multitude of Gods true seruants were not for all that inuisible Contrariwise the scripture saith that he shedd so much innocent blood as Hierusalem was filled there with euen vp to the throate By meanes whereof although there had then bene no solemne assemblies in the Synagogues of Iuda and that all publicke exercise had bene suspended there yet the slaughter of the faithfull yet warme still breathing and the voyce of their blood which smoaked and cryed for vengeance as that of Abel before heauen and earth permitied not that the true Religion should be vnknowne and inuisible there For as manie executions and martirdomes as there were so manie sacrifices of praise and sweete smell were they soe manie professions of Faith soe manie sermons so manie seales and sacraments of the true beleefe which refresht and confirmed the memorie of the doctrine of saluation euen in the spiritts of those that persecuted it for as much as all men knew and themselues protested the cause wherefore they were banisht pursued and martyred For the Church is not only illustrated by her Lillies but also by her roses that is to saie she is not only euident by her quiet and peaceable exercises which are the congregations to heare and adore the word of God and to communicate in the sacramentes but also by her militarie exercises dyed in blood which are the martyrdomes and the executions suffered for the defence of the Faith which doe often no lesse increase her fame and renowne in the times wherein she is oppressed then in the seasons wherein she enioyes more calme quiet and fulfills without hindrance her ordinarie and accustomed workes Soe as S. AVGVSTINE saith she is then eminent in her most stedfast champions THE seauenth obiection is taken from the transmigration of Babilon during with time they pretend that the visible communion of the Iewish Church was interrupted But who knowes not that the Iewes during this exile had the true externall exercise of their religion wherein they wrought their Saluation performed the visible obseruation of all their worships seruices and ceremonies except of the Sacrifice alone which could not be offered but in the Temple and were euidently distinguished from other nations witnes these wordes of Aman to Assuerus There is a people 〈◊〉 ouer all the Prouinces of thy Kingdome and diuided into manie partes that practises new lawes and ceremonies And these of the historian Manie other nations and sects ioyned themselues to their religion and to their ceremonies For that this historie fell out in the time of the transmigration it appeares by this that it is said that Mardocheus was one of those that had bene transported from Hierusalem in the time of Nabuchodonosor and of Iechonias And it is not cōtradictorie to this that Assuerus writes that Amā was a Macedonian and would haue betraied the Empire to the Macedonians For the copie of the same epistle reported by Iosephus sixteene hundred yeares a gone hath it Allophilus that is to saie a stranger And that the Greeke Latine Edition saith a Macedonian it proceedes from the Syriacke translation of the same Epistle made after the death of Alexander after which all strangers in Asia were called Macedonians as at this daie all those of the west are called Frankes there From whence it is that the Syriacke edition saith that Assicerus was cloathed in a Macedonian habit that is to saie in the habit of a stranger THE eight obiection is taken from the writings of the Prophetts who often deplored the dessolation of the seruice of God in their people But either they spake of the portion of the Kingdome of Israel diuided from that of Iuda and of the faction of the schismaticall Israelites who were no more the Church and to whom God protested by the mouth of Ieremie that he had giuen the libell of diuorce Or if they spake of that of the Kingdome of Iuda S. AVGVSTINE teacheth vs that they spake prophetically and by an analogie of time of the future Estate of the Iewish people such as they should be after the death of our Lord Or if they spake by Synecdoche and according to the stile of preachers who censure the vices of particular persons in generall termes to the end to reproue as S. AVGVSTINE saith of S. HILARY the more seuerelie that which they reproue more vniuersallie that is to saie that they spake of certaine particular persons who either abandoned the Religion of their Fathers some to followe that of the Pagans that sacrificed to Idolls some to followe that of the Schismatickes who sacrificed in the high places or if they remained in the true religion and communion liued wickedlie there as concerning manners They collect saith S. AVGVSTINE speaking of the Donatists he might haue added the Caluinists to them either ignor antlie or fraudulentlie the places of Scripture which are spoken either of the wicked which are nimgled with the good vntill the end or of the destruction of the first people of the Iewes and would wrest them against the Church of God that she may seeme to haue failed and to be perisht from the whole earth The ninth and finall obiection is taken from the comdemnation that the Iewish Church made of the Sauiour of