neuer forgiue We â—â—leeue ours to be so powerful good as there is no sinne â—ot that against the holy ghost but he is ready to pardon iâ— if we truly repent They beleeue a cruell God who commaundeth eternally punisheth vs for incurring sinnes which of necessity we incurre or not fulfilling lawes which we cannot fulfill They beleeue an vniust God an â—ccepter of persons who detesteth all other mens defiled workes but accepteth theirs as if they were faire imputeth to other not to them the heynousnes of their â—biding faultes captiueth others to sinfull seruitude but indeweth them with the freedome of will to shun iniquity The true beliefe of Catholiks quite opposite to that of the Protestants giueth to them efficacious to others not sufficient meanes to salue their soules In all which pointes we beleeue the contrary We beleeue that our true mercifull God neither commaundeth nor punisheth but only such thinges as are in our power to performe or auoyde equally abhorreth the euill workes of his elect as of the reprobate Imputeth to each as long as they remaine in sinne defaultes alike Imparteth to euery one the liberty of free will sufficient meanes to purchase heauen Wherefore if that saying of S. Augustine be worthily approued in the iudgment of the learned Whosoeuer imagineth God such Augu. q. 29. super Iousue â—â— God is not he carrieth euery where another God a false God in his â—ind seeing Protestantes we frame diuers imaginations oâ— God one of vs beleeueth in a strâ—ung God or hatâ— a false beleefe of the true God and wheras false beleefe auayleth no more to saluation then no beleefe at all we cannot haue both that one faith of God which is requisitâ— for our eternall safety 6. The like argument may be made of Christ For Our ghospellers belieue not in the same Christ in which the Catholike Church belieueth our Reformers acknowledge a Christ who died not for all but for his elect alone We one who quoad sufficientiam died for all They a Sauiour who made mediation according to his diuinity wee one who performed that office according to his humanity only They a Sauiour who enriched himself but left his seruantes in beggery naked deuoyde of merites We one who aboundeth himself deriueth also vnto vs the riches of his treasures They at least the Caluinists their followers imbraceâ— Christ who died not only in body but also in soule A ProtestaÌ„ts belieue not the Articls of the Creed in that sole true sense which is necessary to saluation Not his descensioÌ„ into hell Christ subiect to ignorance ouersight desperation and the lamentable fits of the very damned wretches We â— Sauiour who dyed only in flesh and not in soule whose death is sinne a Sauiour alwayes perfect in knowledge forsight peace tranquility and who from the first moment of his conception was euer blessed with the sight of God So that they beleeue not in the same Christ with vs nor yet do they receaue the articles of the Creed in that sole single and constant sense which is only true For touching Christs descension into hell some deny it vtterly others interprete it of his descending in power vertue efficacy not of his true presence neither in the lowest hell of the damned which many Catholikes nor Not his comming to iudge the quike and the dead in limbo patrum which all Catholiques approue 7. Concerning Christes iudging the quick and the dead We holde that he will iudge vprightly euery one according to the merite of his workes you exclayme against it as iniurious to his death passion Concerning the Catholike Church we belieue it to be the visible society of such only as professe the Roman fayth dispersed Not the Catholike Church throughout the world you belieue it to be the whole company of Gods elect comprehending all the faithfull which â—ither be hath beene or shall be Touching the â—â—mmunion of Saints we graunt a mutuall intercourse Not the communion of Saints â—â—d participation of benefits from one member to another not only in the militant but also in the triumphant â—nd purgant Church you impugne these later two as â—mpious and sacrilegious Lastly touching remission of sinnes we belieue a true remission of all sinnes by inherent Not the remission of sinnes iustice euen in this life you deny it to be possible as long as we are clogged with humane infirmityes you only confesse an imputatiue pardon and imputatiue righteousnes most blasphemous to the merits of Christ and verity of holy Scriptures By all which I may conclude how impossible it is we should both be saued by the same beliefe of the Creed sith our beliefe is so repugnant and true beliefe but one 8. Further to passe from the Creed to any other conâ—rouerted question of Priestes absolution and penitentes â—onfession If that as we interprete it with the ancient Church be the second table after shipwracke and necesary to all such as haue mortally offended after baptism â—ecause it is written VVhose sinnes you remit they are remitted Ioan. 20. v. 23. â—nto them and whose sinnes you detayne they are detayned Then euery Protestant who neglecteth to submit himselfe to this iudgment seate hath his sinnes detayned his sinnes fast bound which enchaine his soule to the fetters of hel If it ought to be other wise expounded of preaching the word and denouncing only remission to the faythfull detention to the vnbeleeuers then we are guilty of sacriledge guilty of imposing a pharisaicall yoake on the consciences of our subiects which eternally casteth vs out of the fauour of God The same argument I might frame of Confirmation of extreme Vnction c. but I will only instance in the holy Eucharist wherein suppose as needs you must that solemne oath and protestation of Christ â—nles you eats the flesh of the Sonne of man and drinke his bloud you Ioan. 6. v. 54. â—â—all haue no life you to be properly vnderstood of the corâ—orall eating of his true flesh and all Protestants are estranged from the fountaine of life they cannot haue life in thâ—â— who disdaine to approach to this heauenly foâ— but take a shaddow or signe in lieu thereof Suppose aâ— God forbid it should not be so interpreted and all Câ—tholikes togeather with Lutherans make shipwracke of saluation who with horrible idolatry worship a creaturâ— insteed of the Creatour a morsell of bread as the body of their Lord. For this only variance concerning the reall presence Luther whose memory according to Whitaker VVhitak in his answere to M. Campians third reason Luth. lib. contr Sacramenta Confess Tiguri tract 3. fol 108. Luth tom 2. 263. shall euer be sacred among all good men accurseth all Caluinistes as arrant Heretikes saying VVe do seriously censure all Zuinglians and Sacramentaryes for heretikes and out of the Church of God Which censure of his and detestation of their opinion he gloryed to
approued miracles historyes prescriptions so many infallible traditions testimonyes of truth they betake theÌ„selues to the Scriptures alone to the maine Ocean of Propheticall and Apostolical writings without carde to direct them or pilot to guide them in that sea of difficulties They looke into few thinges when rowing there they passe ouer innumerable euident texts which make against them and take hold of some one which carryeth a little shew and semblance of countenauncing their fancyes For example they once read in S. Matthew The Lord thy God shalt thou adore and Matt. c. 4. v. 10. him only shalt thou serue And without further consideration of what homage he speaketh they peremptorily condemne all religious worship and adoration of Angells of Saints of their tombes reliques so often intimated in other places They once read in S. Iohn It is the spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing and thereupon they depriue their owne soules of the inestimable profit of Christs viuificall Ioan. 6. v. 63. and reall flesh in the sacrament of the Altar notwithstanding it be constantly auouched by the Apostle by S. Iohn all the rest of the Euangelists They once read That Christ is the propitiation for our sinnes That he paid for vs a full and perfect ransom 1. Ioan. 2. v. 2. and they deny all Canonicall or voluntary satisfactions all workes of pennance or expiations of sinne to which the Holy Ghost very often most earnestlâ— exhorteth vs. The like vnaduised and precipitate rashnes I might note in all other articles in which they swarue from vs but it shall be inough to specify it further in their chiefest article of iustification Hosius l. 1. de haeresibus nostri temporis citatur apud Prateolum verb. lustificatorij Gen. â—5 ad Rom. 4. Rom. 5. v. 19. wherein they are so headlong as no sooner do they find any one word sounding to their purpose but they obstinatly cleaue sticke fast vnto it For one Protestant readeth as Hosius diligently pursueth this matter Abraham belieued and it was reputed vnto him for iustice And thence he gathereth his imputatiue iustice by only faith Another readeth we are iustified by his blood he inferreth that the pretious bloud of Christe is our iustice Another readeth As by the disobedience of one man many were made sinners so also by the obedience of one many shall be made iust he faineth Christs obedience to be the garment of our iustice Another readeth he rose for our iustification and he Rom. 4. v. 25. accounteth Christs resurrection our heauenly vesture Another readeth The holy Ghost shall argue the world of iustice because I goe vnto my Father and he Ioan. 16. v. 8. 9. straight way affirmeth Christs passage to his Father to be our robe of righteousnes Thus they deuise aboue Prateolus in elencho verbo lustificatorij twenty seuerall opinions of that one substantiall point of Iustification alone Againe they looke into few thinges not only in adhering but chiefly in expounding such particuler passages as they first light vpon for neglecting the publique spirit voyce of God which speaketh in his Church neglecting the generall tribunall and consistory of the world they hearken only to the outward letter and to the priuate spirit which resideth in themselues by them only they interprete and by them only they will be tryed whether their interpretatioÌ„ be good or no. As if a theefe accused of felony would deliuer his owne tale as he frameth it ProtestaÌ„ts are fitly compared to the guilty person who admitteth no triall but his owne and admit no examination of witnesses no tryall of iury or sentence of iudge no former presidents or decisions of like case but his owne information voyce of his Soueraigne diuulged in his law which he maketh to sound as himselfe liketh best were not this to stop his eares against all testimonies but his owne to refuse all triall or iudgment which he himselfe being guilty doth not pronounce and yet such is our aduersaryes dealing They expound Scripturs as their secret spirit in wardly perswadeth them and they will trye their spirit by no other touchstone then by the publique word of God interpreted by themselues We appeale to the iudgment of the present Catholik Church they contemne her sentence we ascend to our Ancestours that haue gone before vs they cut off at one clappe the vsage practise and prescription of a thousand yeares space we repaire to the Doctors Fathers of the primitiue Church to the generall Councels and their authenticall decrees to the very sentences of Scripture explayned by them they regard them not any further then they agree in their opinion with the word of God At last we sommon them to their owne Court we presse them with the authority of Protestant writers they answere they were men they might erre no man is bound D. VVhit defens tractat 3. c. 7. to follow them any further then they follow the truth And so these new Reformers will iudge alone what is truth and who are followers and imbracers of it The common shift of Protestants in answering their own writers alleadged against theÌ„ They looke into few things when challenging at least in outward shew one or two they despise all other Sacraments of God ancient ceremonyes of the Church When pleading for fayth alone they gayne say the valew of workes and supernaturall dignity of infinite vertues When scandalized at the licentiousnes of some dissolute liuers in the Catholik Church they admire not the heriocall acts and resplendent sanctity of so many zealous Prelates deuout Priestes Religious Friers Monkes Nunnes and whole armies of Saints which flourish therein When dismayed with the faygned impossibility of keeping Gods Commandements they lift not vp their eyes to his Euangelicall Counsels and workes of supererogation When dazeled with the Sunne of Christs glorious morits they see not the beames of light and aboundant merits he deriueth vnto vs. They see not the efficacy of his sacraments the dowryes of his grace the full indulgence and remission of our sinnes the inherent beauty and splendour of iustice by which he garnisheth vpon earth the soules of his seruants They looke into few thinges in perusing the ancient Fathers When reading in S. Augustine for example That he is a miracle who seeketh for miracles August l. 22. de c uit Dei cap. 8. to belieue they conclude thereupon that all miracles haue ceased not weighing the occasion of S. Augustines wordes not attending to the miracles which in the same Chapter he mentioneth to haue beene S. Ciprian serm de lapsis post medium S. Gregor Nazian in laudem Cypriani Demonum profligationem morborum dâ—pulsionem futuram rerum praescientiam quae quidem omniuÌ„ vel â—ineres ipsi Cypriani modò fides adsit efficiunt Vide etiam illum in funere patris Chrysost l. cont Gentiles Quotidiana â— Martiribus miracula eduntur Hieron
pressed as they know not â—hat to say or whither to turne I appeale to the whole â—â—ditory whether this was not the summe of his reply â—â—d whether he did not heereupon abruptly end cease â— proceed any further with much disgust of the standers â— and small satisfaction to his owne fellow Ministers â—ho came to assist him Howbeit seeing both VVhitaker â— Reynolds distinguish in the same manner as Barbon hath â—â—one and often affirme that the Church may slide in to â—â—rours of probation not of damnation curable not inâ—â—rable I will a little further lay open the falsity of that â—istinction And first I would haue theÌ„ tell me what these â—urable errours be Grosse and fundamentall such as canâ—ot stand with the principles of faith or sleight and indifferent such as do not preiudice the integrity thereof â—â— such We need not for the attayning of saluation be cured of them we may without losse of Gods fauour heere or heereafter perseuere vnto death incurably in them In which case your new Ghospell was needles your outcryes slanderous your breach detestable in making so execrable a schisme diuision from vs for slender matters not necessary to saluation Grosse then and fundamental they be of which we shal be certainely healed before we dye therefore M. Whitaker affirmeth the Church may for a tyme erre in some foundations yet be safe or souÌ„d A crabbed saying for fayth must be entiere or els it is no fayth therefore if the beliefe of the Church be fayling in any one foundation it is no way sound but wholy erres in fayth as M. VVhitaker not many lines before directly auoucheth If any fundamentall point of doctrine be remoued the Church presently falleth A true speach howbeit most contrary and repugnant to the former And yet it is impossible for the Church euer to be ruined impossibly to perish or depart from God at any tyme or moment as hath beene disputed in the former Chapter Therfore impossible â—â— her to be ensnared in any substantiall or fundamental eâ—rour 5. Besides if curable errours be fundamentall whâ— be incurable What greater then fundamentall Or hâ—â— can any be counted incurable when there is none â— damnable which may not be cured by the salue of gracâ— When we dayly see that Arianisme Iudaisme Turcisâ—â— Apostacy Infidelity c. often cured with help from â—boue No errour there is which may not be cured by grace Are they incurable out of which the Church caâ— neuer be recouered But of this neuer Heretique as yâ—â— made question The Donatists who contended that thâ— whole Church crred and perished before their dayes saiâ— it reuiued againe and tooke life in them and so do all heretiks or sectaryes whosoeuer challenge a recouery of the decayed Church But what do I striue against meere fancyes All the arguments I haue heere proposed manifestly conclud that the true Church of Christ is neuer obnoxious to any errour at all little or great curable or incurable necessary or not necessary to saluation For she teacheth Why the Church can fall into no errour curable or incurable all truth the spirit and wordes of God are alwayes in her mouth She is a pure virgin and cannot be stayned with any spot of vnchast doctrine she is alwayes directed by the holy Ghost we are commanded by God alwayes to giue care vnto her But as we can be led into no offense smal nor grieuous materiall nor formal culpable nor inculpable into nothing dissonant or repugnant vnto truth by imbracing the direction or following ProtestaÌ„ts are eÌ„trapped in their own affertions holding the true Church may erre and yet themselus certain of truth the commandment of truth it self so we can tumble into no errour little or great curable or incurrable by following the direction or safe conduct of the Church And truely I wonder at this witch craft of Sathan how he should perswade our miserable sectaryes that they alone haue the purity of the Ghospell the certainty of the spirit the true reformed Church and yet to teach them withall that the true Church may erre For how can they be sure themselues do not erre in their fayth and in appeaching vs of so many superstitioÌ„s if their Church may erre How can their followers be sure they are taught â— truth if their teachers themselues confesse they may â— O drunken heresy O malicious blindnes art thou â—ereft of the light of reason and drowned in the pit of â—lful darknes as to produce no better witnesses for the â— of ours and rising of thy Church then such as may â—e such as may lye and beguile the people S. Augustine Aug. in psal 63. v. 7. â— braydeth the Iewes for labouring to disproue our Saâ—ours resurrection with sleeping watchmen And shall â—t I reuile our Lutheran or Caluinian strumpet for inâ—ing vs of sundry falshoodes by the verdict of errable â—inisters deceauable Reformers Who graunt they may â— blinded with curable errours Of such errours we acâ—se them in all points wherein they disagree from vs â—e proue them guilty by the word of God doome of anâ—â—quity and vniuersall Senate of all the faithfull who â—â—nnot erre Let them by the like Iury acquit themselues â—â—fense their doctrine with the like authority or els in â—â—ine do they bragge of verity or exclaime against our â—â—perstitious abuses Will they runne to the authority of Scripture But either they are infallibly assisted by the holy Ghost neuer to mistake or interprete it amisse and then their Church can neuer erre neither curably nor incurably which they deny or they may sometyme swarue from the sense and meaning of the holy Ghost they may fall into the curable errours of which we attach them and so are condemned by their owne mouthes for insufficient witnesses or accusers of vs. To go one Iren. l. 3. c. 4. 40. l. 1. c. 3. Hier. l. 3. adue Ruf. c. 8. in fine Cypr. epist 55. ad Cornel. Aug. de vnit Eccl. c. 28. 6. As the scripturs before mentioned so the ancient Fathers aboundantly testify the inerrable rule of the true Churches beliefe S. Irenaeus sayth The Apostles haue layd vp in the church as in a rich treasure all truth that he that will may from thence draw the water of life Likewise She keepeth with most sincere diligence the Apostles fayth and preaching In her sayth Saint Hierome is the rule or square of truth The Church sayth S. Cyprian neuer departeth from that which she once hath knowne S. Augustine Behould how after the same sort he addeth of the body which is the Church that he may not permit vs to erre neither in the bridegroome nor in the bride In another place he affirmeth Aug. tom 2. ep 166. fol. 290. that our heauenly Maister forewarneth vs to auoyd schismes In so much as he maketh the people secure of euill gouernourâ— least for them the chayer of holesome doctrine should be forsaken â— which euen
of their owne heads their accusations forgeryes their separation horrible schisme and open rebellion against the kingdome of Christ It followeth also that the Roman Church vniuersally spread ouer the face of the earth which once was must needs continue the true Catholike Church free from Apostacy free from heresy free from superstition or any other false doctrine of which she is accused CHAP. VI. Wherein is demonstrated that the Church is the supreme Iudge of Contrâ—uersyes against D. Whitaker D. Fulke and all Protestants THAT the holy Scriptures can neither by themselues nor by any rules our Sectaryes assigne determine the strifes which fall out in matters of Religion In the first part and first Controuersy hath in the first part of this treatise bin proued at large now that the Church is the only infallible and suprem Iudge which decideth those debates our Sauiour himself fully testifyeth when he referreth all matters controuerted to her sole and high tribunall saying Dic Ecclesiae Tell the Matth. 18. v. 17. Church if he will not heare the Church Where he teacheth after that priuate correction and publique admonition wil not serue the guilty party is to be summoned before the Prelates * So Saint Chrysostom heer taketh the Church for her Prelates or chiefe Pastours of the Church without further examination despute or appeale to stand to their sentence or els to be cast off as an Heathen or Publican VVhitaker seeketh to auoyd this place two wâ—â—es first by VVhitak cont 2. q. 4. c. ap 2. 3. â—xpounding it of Ecclesiasticall censures not of doctrine Secondly that the Church is to be heard but in those thinges only in which she heareth and obeyeth Christ Very friuolous and idle for in such thinges euen the Iewish Synagogue the Turkish Alcaron and the Diuell himselfe is to be heard as hath beene vrged before this were not to end Controuersyes without further appeale but to enter a new court of strifes to commence new examinations to call the Church in question whether she heareth and obeyeth Christ in the thinges she commandeth or no. 2. Besides if we ought to obey the Church in her Ecclesiasticall censures of excommunication suspension or the like much more in her condemnation of heresies If the Church caÌ„not erre in censuring much lesse in defining or publique definitions what we ought to beleeue If in sentences of fact much more in explications of fayth determinations of doctrine if God hath appointed her our supreme iudge in chastising and correcting vs with her spirituall punishments much more without doubt in curing our soules and preseruing them from all spots of errours And therefore our Sauiour restreyned not this precept of obeying his Church to any particuler matter but enlarged it to all and straight way giueth her that vniuersall commission Amen I say vnto you whatsoeuer you shall Matt. 18. v. 18. Ibid. v. 19. bind vpon earth shall be bound also in heauen and whatsoeuer you shal loose vpon earth shall be loosed also in heauen And Concerning euerything whatsoeuer they shall aske it shall be done to them Away then with M. Whitakers restrictions away with mens abridgementes where the Sonne of God imparteth so ample illimited and vniuersall a priuiledge In like maÌ„ner he did not vse any limitation but absolutely sayd Luc. 10. v. 16. Matth. 23. v. 3. VVhitak contro 2. q. 4. c. 2. fol. 267. 268. He that heareth you heareth me and all thinges whatsoeuer they shal say to you obserue ye and do ye Which two places Whitaker againe after his ridiculous fashion with this caution vnderstandeth He that heareth you teaching true prescribing iust thinges and whatsoeuer they shall teach according to the law dee yee As though the Sonne of God dallyed with vs sayd the same thing which was nothing but heare the truth wheresoeuer the truth is spoken yet S. Augustine by these later words attributeth a great prerogatiue to the chayer of Moyses In which verily sayth he he figured his owne for he Aug. con litt Petil. l. 2. c. 61. warneth the people to do that which they say and not to do that which they do and that the holynes of the chayer be in no wise forsaken noâ— the vnity of the flocke diuided for the naughty persons Howbeit if our Sectaryes cautioÌ„ may take place he figured the chayer of pestilence as much as his owne we might follow their doings which Christ forbiddeth as well as their sayings to wit whatsoeuer they doe conformable to the Law Moreouer S. Paul after a long dispute and many alleadged reasons referreth the last resolution of the matter debated 1. Cor. 11. v. 16. to the practise of the Church If any man seeme to be contentious we haue no such custome nor the Church of God 3. In the old testament God also appointed that in case inferiour Officers dissented in their opinions we should haue recourse to the consistory of Priests as to the chiefe and infallible Tribunall If you see that the wordes of Deut. 17. v. 8. â— the Iudges within thy gates do vary arise and go vp to the place which our Lord thy God shall choose and thou shalt come to the Priests of the Leuiticall flocke c. and thou shalt do whatsoeuer they that are Presidents of the place which our Lord shall choose shall say and teach thee according to the Law Which later words do not inuolue At one tyme ther was but one chief President called the high priest diuers successiâ—ely as Protestants wrangle any condition if they shall teach but an absolute warrant that they shall teach according to his Law els then their iudgment and determination were fruitles and the matter remayned as doubtfull as before for exceptions might be taken that sentence is not giuen according to the law of which some other must be coÌ„stituted Iudge whose decision is infallible or els the same doubt ariseth of him and so without end Then our aduersaryes answere againe that this place is vnderstood of ciuill and politique affayres not of doubtes of religion But if Gods wisedome so carefully prouided for the composing of ciuill matters much more for ecclesiastical where the doubtes are more intricate and contentions more dangerous Therefore God sayd of his Priests by Ezech. 44. v. 24. Ezechiel VVhen there shall be a controuersy they shall stand in my iudgments and shall iudge my lawes and my Preceâ—tes By Malachy Mala. 2. v. 7. The Protestants false translation of such places as make against theÌ„ The lippes of the Priest shall keep knowledge and the law they shall require of his mouth because he is the Angell of the Lord of hostes A Text so forcible as Protestants not enduring the pregnancy thereof for shall keep knowledge corruptly read should keep contrary to all Originalls In Hebrew it is â—ismeru In Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Latin custodient shall keep fortelling not what they
with the Apostle That neither fornicatours nor seruers of idolls nor aduowtrers c. shall possesse the kingdome of God So it is no presumption or defect in vs but zeale of Gods honour loue of soules so dearely purchased with the bloud of Christ to giue the same warning iudgment of those who run into schisme heresy or any sect whatsoeuer seeing they are reckoned by the mouth of the same Apostle in the number of such as are excluded heauen The workes of the flesh saith he are manifest fornication vncleanes c. seruing of idolls c. dissentions sectes c. which I foretell you as I haue fortold you that they which doe such thinges shall not obtayne the kingdome of God Marke them thâ—â— make dissensions and scandalls contrary to the doctrine which you haue learned and auoyd them for such doe not serue Christ our Lord. A man that is an heretike after the first and second admonition auoyd knowing that he that is such an one is subuerted and sinneth being condemned by his owne iudgment In which case it skilleth not with what heresy he be infected as S. Cyprian intimated to Antonianus curiously demanding to know the heresyes Cypr epist 502. which Nouatianus taught No matter quoth he what heresyes he hath or teacheth when he teacheth without that is out of the schoole of Gods holy Church In the same case his morall life modest carriage chastity prayer or almes deeds auayleth him nothing to the gayning of heauen as you may read in these wordes of Saint Augustine Let vs sayth he suppose a man to be chast continent not couetous not seruing Aug. l. 4. con Dona. c. 8. Constituaâ—us aliqueÌ„ c. idols ministring hospitality to the needy enemy to none not contentious patient quiet emulating none enuying none sober frugall but yet an heretike truly no man maketh doubt but for this alone that he is an heretike he shall not possesse the kingdome of God 16. My aduersaryes perehance will reply That they are not to be accounted Heretikes because they do not with contumacy defend any falshood nor stubbornely deny any knowne truth But I answere that they are not only heretiks who with pertinacy maintayne their peruerse and â—rased opinions but such as doubt wauer or call in question any matters of fayth such as willfully follow the heresy of others such as slouthfully deferre or fearefully put of the imbracing of truth when it is sufficiently opened and proposed vnto them Al these if not in the strict acception or outward bench of the Church yet in the inward Court and chancery of conscience are attainted for the crime of heresy and for such arraigned before the face of God Neuertheles let it be although it be very hard that some few may quit themselues from the imputation of that horrible cryme yet if they once commit any other mortall sinne into which they fall so often as Fulke auerreth That there is no man which liueth Fulke in c. 3. Apo. sect 2. after Baptisme but he committeth sinne worthy of death euery day they cannot receaue forgiuenes out of the bosome of the Church There only are left the Sacraments of reconciliation the conduits of grace the salues for sinnes medecines for our soules which whosoeuer refuseth to participate is iustly depriued of all celestiall fauours not for his heresy but for other offences he hath incurred 17. Let no man therefore of what sect soeuer feed himselfe with the hopefull solace or expectation of blisse who hauing heard of the true Catholike fayth is negligent in searching finding it out or hauing found it out doth not sincerely imbrace and intirely belieue euery braunch and point thereof or belieuing euery point doth not also communicate in outward profession and participation of Sacraments with the members of that Church or communicating with them flying the society of all others doth not renew his life in sanctification and holynes in the pursuite of vertue and hatred of vice as the diuine precepts of God and lawes of his Church direct and teach him These be the steps of Iacobs ladder by which only we ascend to the mount of heauen and whosoeuer slippeth from any one of them slideth downe to the bottome of hell CHAP. X. Wherein is disproued the false Markes which Protestants alleadge to find out the Church Against D. Whitaker and M. White Bâ—CAVSE the true Church is the holy sanctuary of God and only port of saluation out of which none can escape the gulfes of sinne billowes of dissention and miserable shipwracke of eternall perdition therore all Sectaryes make to this harbour of rest all challenge to themselues as Lactantius noteth to be the true flocke of Christ The waspes sayth Tertullian make hony combes and the Marcionists Churches To Lact. l. 4. c. 10. which purpose they commonly describe that heauenly campe by such generall or hidden signes as euery one may pretend a like clay me vnto it Such is M. Whitakers Tertu l. 4. con Marc. and our Protestants fraud who delineate set it forth by these two markes By the sincere preaching of the word and lawfull administration of Sacraments And what Heretike is Cont. 2. q. 5. cap. 17. fol 489. there or euer hath beene who doth not vaunt of these The Anabaptists now a dayes the Brownists The Arians Nestorians giue out that they alone haue the true preaching of the word administration of Sacraments which they all proue by testimonyes of Scripture by conference of places and by the in ward motion as they are perswaded of the holy Ghost as good Recordes as any Protestant Minister can bring for the truth which VVhitak contr 2. q. 5. cap. 18. he preacheth yet if they be deceaued by false perswasion if they abuse the Scriptures as VVhitaker often answereth may not we iustly suspect the like abuse in him 2. Secondly the signe ought to be more knowne The signe ought to be more knowne to vs theÌ„ the thing it signeth and not only Natura notius then the thing signed because by discerning that I must come to the knowledge of this but the true preaching of the word is more secret and vnknowne then the Church it selfe Therefore it cannot be a marke to descry the Church vnto vs. And when VVhitaker replyeth That the purity of doctrine is more hidden to vs yet more knowne in it selfe or more knowne in the nature of the thing he rather fortifyeth then weakneth the force of my argument For that which must be a signe to vs to discouer the vnknowne Church must be more sensibly knowne and apparant to D. VVhit contro 2. q. 5. c. 18. f. 500. vs or els we may seeke long inough before it lead vs to the knowledg therof VVhitaker denyeth my consequence because to espy the Church Is not sayth he the knowledge of sense but of fayth it appertayneth not to the eye of the body but to the eye of the
the building of their discorded Babell because the most of them liued at diuers tymes in diuers Countryes without any mutuall Society or lineall descent and with the interruption of many yeares one from the other For VVickliffe was furnished with no authority instruction or consecration to preach or administer Sacraments from the VValdenses nor the VValdenses from Berengarius nor Berengarius from Iouinian nor he from Aerius They all started vp of themselues maynteyned their seueuerall sects in seuerall ages without knowledge or agreements without deriuation of fayth and ecclesiasticall power from those their Predecessours which is necessary to vphould and continue the perpetuall and mediate succession of the Church Nay they were so farre froÌ„ composing an hereditary pedigrece or line of descent amongst themselues as they were all for the most part or Epiphan Prat. l. 1. Elenchi v. AeriaÌ„ Aug. haer â—2 Prat. in Eieae verbo Berengar Fox in his act monuments fol. 628. Stow in his Annalls pag. 464. M. Iacob in his defeÌ„ce of the Churches and Ministery of EnglaÌ„d pag. 13. Georg. Milius in explicatione Conf. August Art 7. pag. 137. 138. their chiefe beginners prime founders of our religion before they brake forth into schisme and heresy So Aerius was a Priest and disciple to Eustachius Bishop of Sebasta in Pontus Iouinian a Monke of the Citty of Rome in Italy Berengarius Archdeacon of Angiers in France VValdo a rich and Catholike Marchant of Lions VVickliffe a sacrifying Priest the Parson of Lutterworth in Leicester shire who sayd Masse if Maister Iacob an earnest Protestant may be credited eâ—eÌ„ to his dying day Therefore they had no Church in which they were borne none froÌ„ whence they were propagated but only ours the Protestants Church had no being wheÌ„ they beganne no being in England when wickliffe in Lyons when VValdo in any other Countrey when the former sectaryes peeped vp neyther of late had it any being in Scotland when Knox in France when Caluin in Suitzerland when Zuinglius in Germany when Luther first preached his ghospell For as Georgius Milius wisely obserueth graunt that Luther had any predecessours and Lutherans reformation wil be altogeather needles 6. Finally if Protestants had any complices or vpholders of their sect in Morauia Bohemia Calabria 〈◊〉 the largest tractes M. Fulke nameth for the openly Fulke in cap. 12. Apoc sect 2. â—nowne continuance of his Church they should haue gone and deriued from them the pedigree of their Pastors their power and commission to preach the gospell They as all other preachers in former tymes haue beene accustomed when their authority hath beene called in question should haue asked of them Litteras formatas dimissory or testimoniall letters to giue testimony of their calling which Our ghospellers had no testimoniall letters froÌ„ any church or Pastour before their dayes Iero. ep 89. we haue so often conuinced to be surreptitions and vsurped For if Saint Paul had not had as Saint Hierome sayth security of preaching the gospell if it had not beene approued by Peters sentence and the rest that were with him who were vndoubtedly imbraced as true Apostles how durst you without â—ny allowance and approbation of your auncestours â—eginne to preach your Ptotestant fayth Was it inough â—ou gathered it by your owne diligent yet deccauable interpretation out of the holy Scriptures And was â—t not inough for him to haue his Gospel by infallible reâ—elation immediatly from God Had he lost his labour runne in vaine without the attestation of the Pastours of the Church And do you thinke to reape any fruite by preaching without any euidence or approbation from Christes vicegerentes vpon earth Yf he who had his doctrine from heauen at least as Reynoldes graunteth to ad Galat. 2. v. 2. Reynoldes in his conference c. 4 diuis 2. fol. 134. Theophil l. 2. de paschat stop the mouthes of false seducers who disgraced him â—s lately crept into the Apostleship did conferre with â—â—ter and the rest of his predecessours why did not you â—â—stly accused by vs as wrongefull intruders as wolfes vsurpers put your doctrine to the like triall conference â—â—d examination of your forerunners Theophilus Bishop oâ— Alexandria anoucheth of Origen that he was possessed with the spirit of pride because he conferred not his faith with his auncestours as Saint Paul did and were you hinâ—ered with the like spirit from putting your doctrine to the approbation of the Church Or was it because you had not indeed any Church in the world any Bishop to impose handes vpon you any Temple Oratory Iudge or Tribunall to haue recourse vnto not any man liuing to approue your fayth or giue testimony of your calling but such as you had first seduced and bewitched with your follyes CHAP. XIII Wherein is ouerthrowne the like Clayme which Protestants make to the Professours of the Roman Church agaynst Doctour Fielde and Mayster White MAISTER Doctour Field and Maister White not finding sufficient stones amongst the forenamed heretikes to rayse the Temple of their Sectaryes not finding any publike assemblies in Morauia Bohemia Calabria c. nor any latent and hidden resortes in the Hyrcinian woods other parts of Europe proper to themselues they lay hold on the chiefest Rocks and pillers of our Church to stay vp thier ruinous sheep-cote And as the harlot before Salomon hauing killed her â— Reg. 3. owne pretended right to anothers child So they in behalfe of their barren and harlotry Conuenticles depriued of true parents and maynteyners of their beliefe entitle themselues to the noble issue of our fruitfull Mother to the right of her ordinary succession and lawfull â—aâ—ours For Field auerres of the Protestant Church that Before Luthers dayes it was the knowne and apparent Church in the Field in 3. booke of of the Church ca. 6. pag. 72. VVhitein his defence of the way to the true Church ca. 44. fol. 424. Fulke in c. 20. Apoc. sect 6 Field ibid. pag. 73. VVhite in his way to the true Church §. 45. fol 338. and. § 50. fol. 372. in his defence of the same way c. 44. fol. 420. VVhitak cont 2 pa. 165. world wherein allour Fathers liued and dyed wherin Luther and the rest were baptized receaued their Christianity ordination power of mynistery Which White acknowledgeth saying For the first 600. hundred we assigne the Church wherein the Fathers liued and for the rest to this day we will assigne no other catalogue then the Church of Rome it selfe Thus the Protestants Church which in the opinion of their greatest Clarkes was latent and inuisible or which continued in desert corners before Luthers appearing is now by their followers made at the same tyme famous and apparent euen the glorious renowned Church of Rome it selfe so ill do the schollers agree with their Maysters the children with their Fathers But when we oppose against theÌ„ that the Church of Rome is that superstitious and Antichristian Church
which peruerted as they falsly auouch the very foundations themselues of Christian religioÌ„ They answere that the stiffe professours and maynteyners of Popery were not the true Church but a daungerous and wicked saction tyrannyzing ouer mens consciences A disease a contagion outwardly cleaning to the Church or breeding as a gangrene within and corrupting the pure doctrine but by a little and little vnder which faction notwithstanding and even in the midest thereof the true Church continued In which manner say they the Church was in the papacy but the papacy was not the Church 2. This is their last most deceiptful mask by which they thinke to duske mens eyes and amaze their wittes with disguised wordes when they cannot satisfy their Aug. l. de bapt cont Donat. ca. 6. 7. consciences with any substantiall answere for although the contagion of the papacy by little and little corrupted the pure doctrine yet it came to be deadly and damnable according to them in diuers points for many yeares ago Whereupon I dispute although not altogeather with the same wordes yet with the same force of reason as Saint Augustine doth agaynst the Donatistes When that contagion or the Roman errours came to be deadly eyther they contaminated the Church or did not contaminate it Choose which of these you will say they contaminated An vnauoydable dilemma coÌ„cluding agaynst Protestants it that is defiled it with such hereticall and blasphemous doctrine as could not stand with the being thereof the Church hath perished as Saint Augustine inferreth Christs promise hath fayled there was no meanes left for you to be propagated or new borne in Christ no meanes of catechizing or instructing you Say they defiled not the Church neyther could they haue defiled you by remayning in it why then did you separate your selues from August in same place it Why erected you an Altar agaynst the Altar of the world Why with the sacriledge of most haynous schisme presumed you to diuide the vnity of the Church How cometh it to passe that whilest by shunning the small faultes Aug. ibid. which your selues do faygne you runne into the sacriledge of schisme more grieuous then all other faultes For is not this sacrilegious and schismaticall diuision to preach new doctrine to minister Field in his third book of the Church ca. 6. 7. fol. 72. 73. 74. 75. new Sacraments and not to participate with your mother Church in fayth and communion 3. Both Mayster Field and White make answere that the errours of the Roman Church defiled not the whole but some part of Christs mystical body as a canker which corrupteth not the whole but some part of mans flesh after which manner they call it a faction a disease VVhite in his way to the true Chu §. 45. § 50. In his defence of the same chap. 44. pag. 420. The Protestants caÌ„not say they communicated with the Papacy which infected the papacy but not the Church and so pretend that they haue separated themselues from the coÌ„tagious faction not from the true Church But they still walke in mystes out of which we must leade them with this second dilemma Eyther the true Church whose Society our Protestants challenge did so continue with the papacy as it participated with it in sacrifice and Sacraments in publike faith and open communion Or did not participate but made a Church by it selfe mynistring Sacraments and preaching the word apart from the Papists If it participated with that preuayling faction they were contaminated with their heresies defiled with their errours and so the papacy was not only a contagion outwardly cleaning to the Church or infecting it in part but inwardly canckering and corrupting the whole all â—ere made partakers of her disease who openly admitted and professed her doctrine 4. Agayne if the Protestant Church communicated with the Papacy and submitted her selfe to the tyranny of her faction at least for feare and in outward shew howsoeuer they belieued aright in their inward harts they were all eyther hypocrites or base dissemblers all open idolaters and deniers of Christ they were all depriued Luc. 9. v. 26. Rom. 10. vers 10. of the meanes of saluation For he that shal be ashamed of me and of my wordes him the Son of man shal be ashamed of when he shall come in his maiesty And with the hart we belieue to iustice with the mouth confession is made to saluation Which as I haue already confirmed by the testimony of Caluin so now I Field l. 1. c. 10 fo 1â— strengthen with the authority of M. Field Seeing sayth he the Church is the multitude of them that shal be saued and no man can be saued vnlesse he make confession vnto saluation for Faith hid in the hart and concealed doth not suffice It cannot be but they that are of the true Church must by the profession of the truth make themselues knowne in such sort that by their profession practise they may be discerned from other men So he 5. Moreouer if the true Church of the elect did communicat with the Papacy in preaching of the word and administration of Sacraments from Saint Gregory the great till Luthers dayes for almost a thousand yeares space eyther the Papacy it selfe was the true Church or Christ had all that while no true Church no spouse vpon earth because the true Church cannot possible be without the true preaching of the word and administration of Sacraments which are euen in our aduersaryes opinion the essentiall markes and properties of the Church and where they cease the Church according to them must perish Whitak in his answere to the third reason of M. Campian and decay VVe ascribe quoth Whitaker those properties to the Church which comprise the true nature of the Church whose presence make a Church and their absence marre or destroy a Church Wherefore sith no other truth was preached in the Papacy then the Roman Catholike fayth eyther that was true or no other true fayth was openly professed vpon earth On the other side if our aduersaryes do answere They caÌ„not answere they communicated not with the papacy that they communicated not in fayth and Sacraments with the Papacy but made a separate Church by themselues distinct from it in which the true word was preached and Sacraments mynistred Then that pure Protestant Church needed not the reformation of ProtestaÌ„ts from that Luther should haue learned his faith to that he and followers should haue ioyned themselues Then if they challenge such a Church they are engaged to name the persons who maynteyned their doctrine the people who imbraced it the tymes and places in which it was ProtestaÌ„ts vrged to shew their temples councels and countryes conuerted by them taught they must shew vs what Temples they built what Councells they gathered what bookes they wrote what heretikes they condemned what Countryes they haue conuerted and instructed in the fayth For it is
remission of sinnes is only to be had apart by themselues nor together with vs vnles they acknowledge our church to be true Which if they graunt as needs they must vnlesse they precipitate their forefathers into hell by diuiding them from the band of Gods spirituall campe they ought to returne their chiefest ringleaders all their complices for blasphemous slaunderers in calumniating the spouse of Christ in calling his Virgin with a sacrilegious Hieron in dialogâ— ad Luciferia cap. 8. tongue for these be Saint Hieromes wordes the strumpet of the Diuell the whore of Babilon the seat of Antichrist the â—inagogue of Sathan c. They are bound as Field counsayleth â—hem to imbrace her communion follow her directions rest in her Field in his dedicatory Epistle to the Arhâ—bishop of CaÌ„terbury â—â—dgements They are bound to belieue Transubstantiation â—â—rgatory inherent Iustice Intercession of Saints worship of Images â—â— all other articles which she in her generall Councells out of the word of God by lawfull authority hath publikely enacted or els they are to be accounted heathens publicans who obey not the Church they are to be ceÌ„sured as heretiks who rebell agaynst it 11. Yf ours were the true Church howsoeuer they imagine it to be stayned with errours yet their separation from her is an Apostacy from Christ a diuorce from his spouse a dismembring from his body and a most execrable disunion and schisme from the vnity of Gods chosen flocke Which cannot by any ignorance be excused in you nor by any ill liues of our Prelates tyranny of publike or abuses of our priuate men be warranted to be lawfull For Saint Paul repreheÌ„ded Aug. l. 3. coÌ„t ep Par. cap. 4. Incests Contentions and many other faultes in the church of Corinth The Prophets did the like in the church of the Iewes yet they neuer presumed to separate themselues from them in fellowship and communion Moyses hâ—â—h cryed sayth Saint Augustine Isay hath cryed Ieremy hath cryed let vs see whether they deuided the people of God how â—oatly did Ieremy rebuke the wicked liuers of his people yet he was amongst Aug. l. 2. cont lit Petil. c. 51. them he entred the Temple togeather with them he frequented the same Sacraments in that Congregation of the wicked he liued In another place writing of the Prelates faults which ought not to cause any schisme in the people he thus challengeth the Donatist PetiliaÌ„ the CaluiniaÌ„ ProtestaÌ„t VVhy doest thou call the Apostolike chayre the chayre of pestilence Yf for the meÌ„ why Did our Lord Iesus Christ for the Pharises any wrong to the Chayre wherin they sate Did he not commend that Chayre of Moyses and preseruing the honour of the Chayre reprooue them For he saith They sate vpon the Chayre of Moyses that which they say do ye These thinges if you did well consider you would not for the men whome you defame blaspheme the Sea Apostolike wherewith you do not communicate Ibid ca 61. And a few Chapters after Neyther for the Pharisees iâ— whome you compare vs not of wisdome but of malice did our Lord coÌ„maund the Chayre of Moyses to be forsaken In which Chayre verily he figured his own For he warneth the people to do that which they say not to do that which they doe and that the holines of the Chayre be in no case forÌ„saken nor the vnity of the flocke deuided for the naughty pastours Caluin lib. 4. instit c. 1. §. 12. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 12. Yea Caluin also discoursing of this matter sayth There may some faultines creepe into the Church in the administration of the doctrine and of the Sacraments which ought not to estraunge vs from the communion of it A little after For as much as there is no man which is not wrapped with some little cloud of ignorance eyther we must leane no Church at all or we must pardon a being deceaued in such thinges as may be vnknown without violating the sum of Religion Where he proueth by the testimony of S. Cyprian by the former example of Saint Paul of the Prophets of Christ himselfe That neyther the pestilence of vices nor corruption of manners doctrine in matters of such moment as do not endanger saluation should euer withdraw vs from the fellowship of Christs flock yea he there auerreth that the departing from the Church is a denying of God and of Christ c. Neyther can there be imagined sayth he a fault more Caluin â—b cap. 1. §. 10. haynous then with wicked breach of fayth to defile the mariage which the only begotten sonne of God hath vouchsafed to contract with vs. Hitherto Caluin 13. By which you see that if the Roman Church was at Luthers rising the true Church of Christ he should not haue forsaken the band of her communion Yf it was not no Church remayned by which he might be â—â—â—ne or you propagated none in which the truth was â—â—eached Sacraments ministred so no Church can â—ou find by your own essentiall propertyes of finding the Church In liew of which I shall display such euident â—â—parent marks as al both rude learned simple wise â—ay manifestly discouer the true Church of Christ And â—â—rst I will handle fowre most honourably meÌ„tioned both â—n the Nicen Constantinople creed that it is one holy Caâ—holike Apostolicall wherin vnity consent in fayth sanâ—â—ity in doctrine manners the name Catholike with â—â—e sense meaning therof Apostolicall succession are â—lainly intimated as the vndoubted notes badges of the Church CHAP. XIIII In which Vnity is explayned and strongly proued to be a marke of the Church Agaynst Doctour Whitaker and Doctour Fielde AS the soueraigne and incompatable goodnes the prime verity and truth it selfe is one the same constant vnchaungeable So whatsoeuer parâ—â—keth most of vnity constancy and integrity that approacheth neerest to the perfection of truth and whatsoeuer is variable chaungeable seuered by schisme rent by diuision that proceeds from obliquity of errour that iâ— infected with the corruption of falshood Hence it commeth that vnity is a cleere and manifest token of the true Church a note of Christes Kingdome whereas diuision schisme and variance is the brand of heresy a proper peculiar blot of the peruerse wicked and Sathanicall synagogue by which it falleth vpon a sudayne to irreparable ruine and vtter desolation as our Sauiour diuinely witnessed saying Euery Kingdome deuided agaynst it selfe shal be made desolate and house vpon house shall fall So we read that discorde and rebellion hath beene the generall destruction Luc. 11. 17. and bane of common wealthes and vnion peace and concord hath beene alwayes the stay and preseruation of them 2. I speake not heere of that which the Philosophers call numericall or indiuiduall vnity by which the Church is on it selfe and deuided from all false or hereticall assemblies but of the vnity of
consent and agreement by which the members of the same Church though of diuers nations languages customes dispositions yet are all vnited in the same fayth lawes sacrifice religion They are all carefull as Saint Paul exhorteth to keep the vnity of the spirit in the band of peace To be of one accord and one iudgemet For which cause Christ earnestly prayed and vsed many other effectuall meanes he ordeyned vs all to one end and goale of felicity You are called in one hope of your vocation He taught vs to acknowledge as Saint Paul writeth in the â—ame place one Lord one fayth one Baptisme one God and Father of Eph. 4. v. 3. Phil. 2. v. 2. Ioan. 17. v. 11. Eph. 4. v. 4. v. 5. 1. Cor. 10. v. 17. 18. all He nourisheth vs with one bread his owne sacred flesh He incorporateth vs in one body He guideth vs with one and the same spirit and that all thinges might be orderly disposed he submitteth vs in his absence to the obedieâ—ce of one head his vice gereÌ„t vpon earth by which the pâ—erogatiue of vnity is principally maynteyned and â—â—â—refore Saint Augustine termeth the sea of his residence Câ—â—hedram vnitatis the Chayre of vnity And Saint Cyprian Aug. ep 166. CypriaÌ„ ep 73. Optat. l. 2. con Parm. Iero. con Iouin cont Lucif Leo ep 84. Bernard l. 3. ad Eug. Irae l. 1. c. 3. 〈◊〉 Peter vpon whome our Lord built his Church he instituted and â—â—wed the beginning of vnity The like hath Optatus rhe like S. â—â—rome and Saint Leo. 3. By the assistance of Gods holy spirit and â—y the subordination of the people Priestes Pastours Bishops to this supreme head the Pope of Rome which Saint Bernard resembleth to the subordination of the Angells Archangells Cherubims and Scraphims to Almighty God there is preserued in the vniuersall Church spread ouer all the world that admirable peace and perfect argrement as if it dwelled to vse Saint Irenaeus words â—â— one house enioyed one soule and one hart she preacheth teacheth and deliuereth the thinges shee belieueth so conformably as if she spake with one mouth For sayth he Although there be different languages yet the vertue of traditioÌ„ is one the same Neyther do those Churches which are founded in Germany belieue otherwise or otherwise deliuer Nor those that are amongst the Hiberians nor those that are in the East nor those that are in Aegypt nor such as are in Libya nor such as are planted in the midest of the earth But as the sunne that workemanship of God is one and the same in the vniuersall world so the light the preaching of truth euery where shineth and enlighteneth all who will come to the knowledge therof 4. This conformaty of doctrine which Irenaeus marked in the vniuersall Church of his tyme where can we now discouer but amongst the Professours of the Roman fayth Goe into Asia Goe into Africa sayle into India passe into Iaponia compasse the East and returne into Al Catho like professours are vnius Labij of the same speach or language the West and you shall behold all Countryes all prouinces all Cittyes euery professor of our Religion vnius Labij of one language of one hart and soule in Sacraments sacrifice and all Articles of fayth The reason is because they all as I â—outhed aboue submit themselues to the iudgement of one soueraygne and supreme head who guided by Gods spirit infallibly gouerneth and vnâ—â—â—th the whole body From whome if any dissent he is seuâ—red and cut of from the rest of the members 5. Amongst Protestants no such thinge nothing but schismes iarres and mutuall discordes such as Saâ—â—t Aug. l. 18. de ciuitat Dei ca. 41 Iraen l. 1. Tertull. de praes Hil. l. 7. de Tri. ChrysostoÌ„ Hom. 20. operis impersect in Matth. Parkes agaynst VVillets Limbomastix Augustine discouered amongst the heathen Philosophers â— such as Irenaeus Tertullian S. Hilary and S. Chrysostom amongst auncient heretikes For example trauayle into these ouâ— Sectaryes dominions one fayth shall you find in one Countrey another in another one in Saxony another in Germany another in England This at Geneua that at Zuricke c. What shall I speake of Citties and countries examine the fauorites of any particuler sect no agreemeÌ„â— amongst them no towne no village no man perseuereth long in the same beliefe But they often change and vary from themselues coyning as Saint Hilary reporteth of the Arians yearely and monethly faythes Euery man sayth M. Parkes maketh Religion the handmaid of his affections VVe may say now that there are so many faithes as willes and so many doctrines as manners of men whiles eyther we write them as we list or vnderstand Beza ep 1. and Andr. Dud. repeateth his wordes M VVilliam Reynolds in his preface before his refutation of M. VVhitaker reprehen Cauils them as we please in so much that many are brought to their wits ends not knowing what to do Which Duditius an emineÌ„t Protestant in the fight of Beza obiecteth agaynst his own brethren which Maister VVilliam Reynolds our Catholike writer notably declareth in the changes and alterations of our English gospellers in the dayes of Queene Elizabeth and I might further specify in many particulers since the raygne of our gracious King Iames. 6. For in her dayes the reall presence was * VVhitaker cont 2. q. 5. c. 7. pag. 89. Reynoldes in his fifth cont folio 657. Sparks in his answere to M. Iohn de Albins fol. 235. See these wordes of the Bishop of Ely allowed by Casaub in his aforesayd answ to Car. Peron â—â— 16. Causab pag. 33. In the conf at Hâ—mp court Reynolds in his 4. coâ—lus Field in his â— book c. 10. 11. Field in his third booke of the Church c. 22. fol. 118. Illiricus in clauo Scripturae de varia c. tract 6. dupl iustit instific Field in the place before cited impugned as implying contradiction and destroying the humane nature of Christ Now it is allowed as nothing impossible VVe agree with you sayth the Bishop of Ely concerning the obiect all the strife is aboue the manner c. we belieue the presence we belieue I say the true presence as well as you c. Then yearely shrift or auricular confession was an antichristian and popish bondage a butchery of mens consciences now the Fathers who ordeyned it had their reasons why they thought that such manner of confession would further the easier atteyning to saluâ—â—tion Then to pray for the dead that their soules might thereby be reliued was new fantasticall and superstitiâ—us popery Now to desire of God rest for their soules was an aunâ—â—ent custome and is referred by his Maiesty to the head of thinges proâ—â—able or lawfull Then when a woman was head a woman might lawfully baptize and Christen infants Now the midwifes christing is vnallowable and of no force at all Then the holy Catholike Church which we belieue
reasoneth well against the ProtestaÌ„ts Bishops titulary and antichristian Prelats Doctour Whitgift notwithstanding Mayster Hooker and Francis Mason strengthen confirme it as proceeding from God And the Royall Wisdome of King Iames deliuereth That Bishops ought to be in the Church I euer maynteyned it as an Apostolicall institution so the ordinance of God Which is so mighty a dissention as the one party must needs gainesay the other in a point fundameÌ„tal For eyther this ecclesiastical gouermeÌ„t vsed in England by Archbishops Bishops other inferiour ministers is de iure diuino ordained by God or not If it be Then as the Puritan authour of the twelue generall arguments reasoneth well The Churches of Scotland France low Countries and other places the precisians of England who account it Antichristian cannot be a true Church but the signagogue of Satan contradicting therein both Christ and his gospell If not Then according to the rule of Protestants who appeach all publike and ecclesiasticall administratioÌ„ as sacrilegious policy which is not warranted by the word of God the Puritans will conuince them of tyrannicall vsurpation who establish â—n their Church an ecclesiasticall hierarchy which God â—euer willed nor commaunded them to do These and many other such tragicall diuisions in matters essentiall â—aygne amongst them which the Protestant Relatour sayth tend mainely to the increase of Atheisme within of Mahomeâ—isme Relatour in his relat §. 45. printed at London anno 1605. D. Couell in his iust temper defence art 11. pag. 67. In their ChristiaÌ„ modest off c. p. 1â— published anno Domini 1606. Ibid. p. 16. VVillet in his medit vpon the 122. psal p. 91. ante medium abroad And Doctour Couell a Protestant more modest then Whitaker more sincere then Field plainly protesteth Least any man should thinke our contentions with puritaÌ„s â—â—ere in smaller points difference not great each side hath charged one the other with heresies if not infidelityes nay euen with such as quite ouerthrow the principall foundation of our Christian fayth 6. The Puritans iumpe with him affirming their disagreement from the Protestant Bishops to be of that nature in sundry propositions as if they shold not coÌ„staÌ„tly hold and maynteyne the same against all men they cannot see how possibly by the rules of diuinity the separation of their Churches from the Church of Rome from the Pope the supreme head thereof can be iustified c. A little after they add VVherein if they the Puritans be in errour the Prelats on the contrary haue the truth they protest to all the world that the Pope the Church of Rome in them God and Christ Iesus himselfe haue great wronge indignity offered vnto them in that they are reiected that all the Protestant Churches are schismaticall in forsaking vnity and communion with them Thus they Mayster Willets testimony rehearsing diuers of the forenamed variances adiudging theÌ„ blasphemous were too long to repeate the alleadged wil declare First what small trust is to be reposed in Whitaker Field White c. in other matters who in a thing so manifest are conuicted of falshood Secondly what hatfull quarrells cruell debats this new religion hath bread in England in so much as the poore ignorant people know not whome to follow or what to belieue when their greatest maisters and chiefest guides are at this deadly warre amongst themselues 7. Wherefore as Saint Augustine mourned the vnhappynes Aug. l. 18. de ciuitate Dei ca. 41. of the Athenians and vanity of their City who harboured and gaue countenance to sundry iarring Philosophers directly opposite and fiercely disagreeing one from the other Not sayth he about landes houses or money matters but about those things by which the life of maÌ„ is eyther miserably or happily leade In like sort I may coÌ„miserat and bewayle the dangerous estate of my countrymen and wofull calamity of our distressed Iland which now fostereth in her lappe and nourisheth in her bosome so many factious ministers diuided as you see farre worse then the Athenian Sophisters not in Ciuile brawles or politike diuisions not in morall precepts of life and manners but in the deepest affayres of conscience of fayth of religion which they cannot discusse without danger nor vp hold without infamy nor teach without infection nor long maynteyne without the viperous distraction of themselues and endlesse ruine of innumerable soules Yet So sâ— to seale vp my discourse with the same authours words it is necessary that rent diuided into small peeces they perish who Aug. con Parmen l. â— cap. 4. haue preferred the swelling pride of their haughty slomake before the most holy band of Catholike peace vnity CHAP. XVI Wherin is declared how SaÌ„ctity or Holines is a note of the true Church Agaynst Doctour Whitaker and Doctour Field MANYFOLD and various is the signification of this word Sanctum holy and so it diuersly entitleth and denominateth the Church of God First she is called holy because she is purchased and sanctified by the precious bloud of our innocent and vnspotted Lambe Christ Iesus which Saint Peter 1. Pet. 2. v. 9. insinuated when he stiled the faythfull A holy Nation a people of purchase Secondly it is holy because it is wholy dedicated and consecrated vnto God whereupon he sayd to his people You shal be holy because I am holy Thirdly it is Leuitic 11. 1. Pet. 1. holy for that it consisteth of holy lawes holy precepts holy ceremonyes holy Sacraments all thinges holy Fourthly it is holy by reason of her purity and holynes both in doctrine and manners and this all Catholique writers acknowledge as a proper badge and token of Christs chosen flocke yet not in that sort as purity of doctrine or syncere and true preaching of the word is challenged by the Protestants and refuted by vs a note more hidden then the thing it denoteth but in a farre different sense For Protestants take the vniuersall purity of A differet acception of sanctity of doctrin vsed amongst Catholiks and Protestants doctrine and true preaching of the word as it is opposite to all errours in euery dogmaticall and essentiall point to be a Marke of the true Church We a particuler purity or sanctity or sanctity only not as it excludeth all fundamentall errours contrary to truth but as it excludeth all grosse or palpable absurdityes repugnant to the principles of nature or rules of coÌ„mon reason known to all men this we assigne as an vndoubted recognizance of the immaculate and euer beloued spouse of Christ Wherein Mayster Whitaker hath inexcusably iniuried Cardinal Bellarmine in traducing him for challenging VVhitak contr â— q. 5. ca. 9. fol. 415. 416. Field in his 3. booke ca. 44. f. â—76 this not to haue forsaken his staÌ„ding to haue cowardly fled to their protestaÌ„t campe And Field more main part sawcie then he sayth A lier should haue a good memory c.
Nestorians Donatistes and diuers other sectaryes and haue they not beene euer since cassiered hated as arrant heretikes Are any of their Monumentes now extant Is there any memory left of them but only amongst the Catholike writers who confuted them For where I pray are the Psalmes of Valentinus and his Sophia The fundamentall Epistle What is become of all the eloquent works of former heretiks of the Manichees The Antithesis of Marcion Where is Arius Thalia Apollinaris great volume of 30. bookes Where are the Rules of Taconius the letters of Petilian the eloquent writings of other heretikes Are they not all trodden vnder feete and consumed by the Roman church So in short tyme the Protestants Harmony of consessions Caluins Institutions Bezas theologicall treaties Willets synopsis Spalatens Stan. Resc in Euang. sect Cent. Commonwealth and all such moderne writings with their professours wil be cleane worn out by that euer flourishing and abiding Sea For thus about a hundred eyghty and one furious raging and principall sects besides innumerable braunches springing from them before Luther and his Protestant broode was hatched haue beene vtterly vanquished and destroyed by her And what hope may these Gospellers haue to stand in battayle where so mighty aduersaryes are fallen to the ground Yf it be a treachery to God a disloyalty to his spouse to resist the Roman sea how tremble not they who storme agaynst it Yf all those whome she hath hitherto censured haue euer after beene adiudged for heretikes in what case are The RomaÌ„ Church neuer as yet condeÌ„ned any for heretikes but alwayes after they were held for such Protestants whome her highest and grauest Senate hath publikely condemned in the Councell of Nice 10. Yf others who had Emperours to support them Councells to fauour them Bishops Patriarches and a great part of the world to ayde them are notwithstanding quite abolished by the power of that Church haue not Protestants reason to feare the like destruction abolishment of their sect which by her owne often chaunges diuisions mutuall disagreements and endles brawles hasteâ—â—eth apace to ruine and decay whilest our Roman Religion perpetually vpholden by Gods protection standeth inuiolable and euer flourishing in the eye of the world from the Sea Apostolike by succession of Bishops heretikes vaine barking about it hath gotten sayth S. Augustine the height of authority hath assembled so many Councells condemned so many heresies wonne so many victories so often Aug. li. de vtilit cred vanquished the gates of hell Wherefore to conclude this marke Euen as when the Esquire of King Darius body had ended his discourse all the people cryed out Great is truth it preuayleth so all indifferent and iudicious readers will I doubt not giue sentence witâ— me and say Great is Esdras 3. c. 4. the Roman Church Great is the Sea of Peter Great is that rocke and highest throne it subdueth all her rebellious aduersaryes CHAP. XVIII In which the Name of Catholike is proued to a marke of the Church Agaynst D. Whitaker D. Fulke and D. Field NOvv I come to the great character of our glory and renowned title of our profession the name Catholique a name famous in the Primitiue Church famous in the Apostles dayes and inserted by them amonge the Articles of our Creed famous after in all succeeding ages and vsed comonly by the Fathers not so much to make a difference which some thinke betwixt the Iewish Sinagogue and the Christian Church as to CasauboÌ„ in his answ to the Ep. of Cardin. Peron fol. 6. in Eng. seuere and distinguish the false named Christians themselues from the true and vnfayned beleeuers Which Pacianus that eloquent Bishop of Barcelona giueth vs to vnderstand in these wordes VVhen after the Apostles heresies sprung vp and with diuers names endeuoured to rend the doue of God and teare his Queene in peeces did not the Apostolicall people engraue a surname Pacianus Epist 1. ad Simpro which might distinguish the vnity of the flocke incorrupted least the errour of some diuided into parts should rend and disseuer the vndefiled Virgin of God c. I entring sayth he a populous Citty where I find the Marcionists Apollinaristes Cataphrigians Nouatians who entitle themselues Christians how shall I know the congregation of my people vnles it were called Catholike And then he addeth Christian Ibidem stian is my name Catholike my surname that entitleth me this sheweth who I am Likewise S. Cyrill of Ierusalem If thou go into any Citty aske not where the Church is where the house of God is for Cyril cate 8. the very heretikes challenge them but aske where the Catholike Church is that is the proper name of our holy Church of vs all And Saint Augustines estimation hereof was such as he auoucheth The very name of Catholike keepeth we in the bosome of the Church The testimony of these three Fathers Whitaker obiecteth agaynst himselfe and to the former two he answereth Cyrill and Pacian in the name alone put no force Hath this man any conscience or regard what he sayth Peruse their Aug. con Ep. Fund cap. 4. wordes and passe your censure To S. Augustine he replyeth more bathfully but as friuolously altogeather Augustine sayth he attributeth something to the name but not so much as the Papistes And why not Because Bellarmine placeth that name VVhitak contro 2. q. 5 cap 2. in the first rancke Augustine in the last And is not the last place good Sir as respectfull and more honourable often then the first Is it not a precept also in Rhetorike to propose the most forcible arguments in the last place Therefore VVhitak Ibid. Saint Augustine recounting the motiues which held him in the bosome of the Church doth he make lesse account of the name Catholike because he placeth it last what childish stuffe is this You a diuine M. Whitaber and once Barl in his Answere pag. 269. Iren. l. 1. c. 10. Ierom. contra Lucifer ca. 7. Lactan. li. 7. diuin c. 30. Atha serm 2. coÌ„ Aria Field in his 2. booke of the Church ca. 9. publike Reader in Cambridge You he whose name though dead as M. Barlow braggeth is a terrour to Bellarmine yet dispute so idly 2. To proceed As the name Catholike hath been alwayes a peculiar note of the true beleeuers so to be stiled after the names of men as Lutherans of Luther Caluinistes of Caluin hath beene euer as Saint Irenaeus Saint Ierome Lactantius and Saint Athanasius teach a marke of heresy a token of schisme which M. Field likewise confesseth saying The name of a Cathelike was a note and distinctiue marke or character to knowe and discerne a Catholike from an heretike or schismatike by and the naming after the name of any man a note of particularity and hereticall or schismaticall faction The same he proueth a little after by the authority of S. Ierome Wherefore least he and his sectmates
and mangling with their corruptions the sacred text For as the two Scipios one was called Africanus because he subdewed Hanniball and the people of Africa the other Numantinus for subuerting Numantia so they maybe called Ghospellers because they subuert destroy and vtterly extinguish by their false interpretations the Ghospell of Christ Finally being not able to glory with the natiue property or single name of Catholiques they entitle themselues for others mockingly only and by way of derision giue them that name Christian Catholiques reformed Catholiques How Protestants are no true Catholikâ— by stiling theÌ„selues reformed Catholikes reformed Churches wherein by the very clayme they make they ouerthrow their owne plea and shew both their clayme vnconscionable and title vniust For if they be Christian Catholiques if reformed Catholiques then segregated limited and restrayned by their new reformation by their particuler Catholicisme from the generall illimited and absolute dignity of Catholiques and consequently no Catholiques not such as without some fine tricke or fayned addition are deciphered by that name but such as maske themselues vnder the disguised vizard or counterfeyte veyle of true and faythfull belieuers CHAP. XIX In which the thinge signified by the Name Catholique to wit Vniuersality is shewed to be a marke of the true Church Agaynst Doctour Whitaker and Doctour Abbot YOv haue heard how M. Robert Abbot in the precedent Chapter giuing vs the name Catholike challengeth to his sect the thing signified by the nam howbeit I haue euidently proued that the name and thinge are such indiuiduall and inseparable companions as they cannot be disunited or parted a sunder Now I am to declare what the thinge is how exactly it delineateth the Kingdome of our Church The Aug. con lit Petil. l. 2. c. 38. tract 118. in Euang. Iom l. 3. c. 1. cont Gaudent Aug ep 170. ad Seuer Cyprian li de vnita ec Cyril cate 18. Basilep 72. 75. Pacian ep 3. ad Symp. Opta coÌ„t Par. Iero. aduer Lucifer Beda in com sup Cant. word Catholike sayth Saint Augustine is deriued from the Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 secundum totum that is according to the whole or vniuetsall Therefore he teacheth that the Church is called in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Catholike Because it is spread and dispersed throughout all the world which he strengtheneth by the testimony of Saint Cyprian saying the Church adorned with the light of our Lord stretcheth her beames throughout the world With whome Saint Cyrill Saint Basill Saint Aug. de vnit e. in psal 2. 18. â—1 47. 7â— item ep 61 ad Ho. Donat. ps 2. v. 8. ps 18 v. 5. ps 21. v. 28. 29. Isay 54. v. 2. 3. Isay 52. v. 10. Vbi non est frequeÌ„ tia multitudinis Non in aliqua parte terraruÌ„ sed vbique notissima est Aug. devnit ec cap. 25. Aug. toÌ„ 9. de symb l. 4. c. 10. Pacian ep 1. 3. ad symp Opt. l. 2. cont Parmen Iero. cont Lucifer in fine Aug. to 6. cont Fulg. Donat. cap. 18 l. de past â— c. 8. Aug in psal 21. in psal 44. in psal 47. tract 1. in ep Ioan. Pacian Optatus Saint Ierome venerable Bede accord This vniuersality of the Church in all places and Countryes Saint Augustine demonstrateth out of sundry Texts of holy Scripture I will giue the Gentills for thy inheritance for thy possession the endes of the earth Their sound hath gone forth into all the eartâ— and vnto the endes of the round world the wordes of them The endes of the earth shall remember and be conuerted to our Lord and all the families of the Gentills shall adore in his sight Enlarge the place of thy tente and stretch out the skinnes of thy tabernacles c. Thy Redeemer the holy one of Israell shal be called the God of all the earth Our Lord hath prepared his holy army in the sight of all the Gentills and all the endes of the earth shall see the saluation of our God From these and the like sentences Saint Augustine gathereth that the Church is not here or there or in the desert where there is not a frequent multitude but quoth he you haue the Church to be euery where diffused and to increase vntill haruest you haue the Citty of which he that built it sayd A Citty cannot be hid placed vpon a mouÌ„tayne She therefore is that which not in any part of the earth but euery where is most knowne And in another place Euery congregation of what heresy soeuer sitteth in corners she is a concubine and not the matron She is a strumpet which lurketh in priuat places not the Queene or matron which publikely raygneth ouer all the earth By this marke Saint Pacian conuinceth Sympronian Optatus Parmenian Saint Ierome the Luciferians Saint Augustine the Donatistes of schisme heresy Saint Pacian expresly tearmeth the Catholike Church a full and solide body spread ouer all the world and not like the conuentieles of heretikes whome he calleth an insolent portion or swelling bunche separated from the rest of the body Saint Augustine for Optatus and Saint Ieromes wordes I haue cited els where compareth the Church to a fruitfull vine stretching her braunches farre and neere throughout all nations and heretikes to broken boughes cut from the vine he often auerreth that the whole world is Christes possession all the borders of the earth his inheritance His Church a great mountayne which replenisheth the whole face of the earth And thereby he inferreth that the Donatistes faction could not be Christes inheritance because they possessed only Africa or the confines of Mauritania which were but some partes of the world 2. Wherefore if by this marke you seeke to finde out the true Church of Christ amongst so many which falsly beare his name cast abroad your eyes into al forrayn coasts and countryes in euery place shall you find our Roman Church that is such as be of the same beliefe and profession The Roman Church spread ouer all the world and agreing in the same beliefe with vs in all points of fayth acknowledging one and the same heade the Pope of Rome This Church now raygneth in Europe Afrike Asia in Thracia Syria Capadocia Phrigia Mesopotamia in a great part of America Megallanica India Iaponia Brasilia China yea in all the flourishing states knowne Kingdomes of the earth Whereas the Protestants are locked vp in very narrow straites in respect of vs they are restrayned within the mountanies of Germany Ilandes of Britany borders of Denmarke within some Prouinces of the low Countryes and Cantons of France In those corners ProtestaÌ„ts shut vp in narrow corners at perpetuall braÌ„ls in poynts of fayth they find some publique harbour yet there they are at perpetuall strifes amongst themselues and so various in religion as they differ one from the other in substantial articles of fayth So do the Brownistes the Family of loue
the Protestants and Puritans in England of whome M. Ormerod witnesseth Puritans differ from Protestants in thinges fundamentall and substantiall Puritans doe not agree with Protestants in all matters of fayth So the Arminians dissente from the Orme dia. 2. Gomoristes in the law Countryes The Caluinistes of Geneua from the Lutherans of Saxony The Lutherans of Saxony from the Zuinglians of Tygurum They from the Aug. tom 7. de vnit eccl cap. 3. Osiandrines of Prussia the Osiandrines from the Anabaptistes of Westphalia c. as hath beene partly vnfolded in the first note of vnity 3. Therefore as Saint Augustine disputed agaynst diuers heretikes of his age Yf the holy Scriptures designe the Church in Africa only c. the Donatistes alone counteyne the Church Yf in a few Mores of the prouince of Cesarea we must repayre to the Regatistes c. If in the Easterne people only Amongst the Arians Macedonians and Eunonians c. the Church is to be sought After the like manner if the Caluinistes haue the truth to Geneua a few Cantons in France we must all resort Yf the Protestants to England if the Zuinglians to Tigurum if the rigide Lutherans to Saxony if the soft to Wittemberge Lipsia and Magdeburge c. For all these being so opposit cannot enioy the right fayth or if they could they be but parts of the world small tractes of the earth farre lesse then Africa farre lesse then the East to which the Church of God as Saint Augustine discourseth could not be confined For he goeth forward in the alleadged place Aug. lo ci But if the Church of Christ by diuine and most certayne testimonies of canonicall Scriptures be described in all nations whatsoeuer they shall Aug. tom 4. q. euang l. 1. q. 38. bringe or from whencesoeuer they shall write it who say behold here is Christ behold there Let vs listen rather if we be his sheepe to the voyce of our pastour saying doe you not belieeue because his Church quoth he shal manifestly shine like a lightning frō the east to the west that is ouer all the world 4. Now if the Kingdome of the Messias be the greatest and largest amongst all that professe the name of Christ if it be the sole and vniuersall Kingdome of all nations and if this be the thinge signified by the name Catholike not only that title which M. Abbot alloweth vs but the thinge also entitled the thinge betokened thereby the prerogatiue of Vniuersality appertayneth to vs. Fo◠we farre exceede the Protestants and all other sectaries of our dayes in multitude of people in variety of nations in troupes of followers in dignity of patrons in society of Princes who linke themselues to the body of our Church In so much as I may vrge M. Abbot as Saint Pacian did Sympronian Number if you can our Catholike flockes Abbot in his answ to D. Bishops epist to the King pag. 16. and 17. Paciā ep 3. ad Symp. sub finem Count vpon your fingers the swarmes of our people not those now which are dispersed throughout the world aboundant in all countryes but those brother Sympronian which dwell with you in the allied prouinces in the neighbour cittyes Contemplate how many of ours thou alone beholdest with how many of our people thou alone meetest Art thou not swallowed vp by vs as the eue droppings by great fountaynes as by the Ocean little bubles of water are consumed 5. Yf we should now compare Roman Catholikes with Protestants euen in these regions of Europe the same might we auouch of their paucity in respect of vs. Catholiks are in all countryes wher protestants raygne openly knowne But if we should passe out of Europe what townes or villages what Chappell 's or Oratoryes can they reckon vp in Asia Africa America c. how many Indians Ethiophians Iaponians How many of their sect can they name in China in Brasilia in Magellanica Not any one no publike Church haue they or Chappell out of Europe of any other then such as traffike in these parts Notwithstanding as we abound with many of our religion in all those remote Protestāts not hard of in a hundred Kingdomes where Catholikes flourish and forrayne Countries where the name of Protestants is vnknowne So in all the Prouinces in euery corner which sectaryes in habite we want not those who openly defend and professe our fayth We haue them in Germany low Countryes England and the Cantons of France To which purpose Saint Augustine speaking of sundry heresies and of the Church very fitly sayth They in many nations where this is are not found but this which is euery where there where they are is also found Aug. de vn eccles c. 3. 6. The first reason why God would haue his Church so vniuersall was to manifest his loue to all creatures that all people might partake of the riches of his Isay 54. v. 5. mercy That all might receaue the happy tidinges of their redemption and meanes of saluation And that he who was God of Israel might now as I say prophesied be God Prou. 14. vers 28. of all the earth The second reason was for the honour of the Son of God for the glory of his name for the reward of his merits To which effect S. Austine applyeth that saying Iero. dialo aduer Lucifer of Salomon In the multitude of people the dignity of the King and in the fewnes of people the ignominy of the Prince Therefore Saint Ierome accounteth it a great ignominy to Christ to haue the Empires of his Church the trophies of his Crosse Optat. l. ◠cōtra Par. as he tearmeth them restrayned to corners And Optatus blameth Parmenian for the like Yf so at your pleasure you barre vp the Church in a narrow roome if you withdraw all nations where Psal 2. is that which the sonne of God hath merited VVhere is that which his Father willingly bestowed vpon him saying I will giue thee Gentills forthy inheritance endes of the earth thy possession VVhy do you violate such a promise that the latitude of Kingdomes should be shut vp by you as it were in a prison How labour you to resist so great piety what meane you to make warre agaynst the merits of our Sauiour Permit the Sonne to enioy his legacies Permit the Father to fullfill his promises VVhy place you bounds why appoint you limits 7. The third and last reason is for the perswasion and stay of the faythfull For what greater motiue of credibility can we haue then the authority of so many and so learned men the fame celebrity consent of all nations This S. Augustine often proposeth as a weighty Aug vtil credendi c. 14. 17. argument which first induced and after strengthened him in our Catholike fayth Others by the very light of nature esteemed it also as a thinge most worthy of credite Seneca sayd VVe are wont to attribute much
to the presumption Seneca ep 118. or opinion of all men and it is with vs a great argument of truth that it hath beene liked of all Pliny likewise in his panegyticall oration to Traian hath recorded this notable sentence Better are all belieued then each particular all Plinius in pa. ad Traianump 125. Melius oÌ„nibus quaÌ„ singulis creditur singuli oÌ„nes decipere decipi possuÌ„t nemo omnes â—eminem oÌ„nes fefellerunt Aug. lib. l. 22. de ciui Dei cap. 8. magnum est ipse prodigium qui mundo credente non credit Great rashnes in Protestants to belieue one man agaynst al men Luther Pres l. de abrog missa priuata And the like he hath tom 4 annot breuis Item tom 5. in Gala. particular men may deceaue and be deceaued No man hath deceaued all men all men haue not deceaued any man Whereupon S. Augustine despiseth him as a strange and monstruous wonder who the world belieuing belieueth not Strange people then not to speake more hardly of them strange people are the Protestants of our age who will not belieue the articles of our fayth which all the Christian world excepting their little handfull constantly beleeueth and for this thousand yeares by their owne confession haue vnuariably perseuered in the same beliefe 8. Yf all men neuer beguiled any and yet if each particular maÌ„ may beguile be beguiled how can Protestants belieue aright who credited one Luther for there was not any other of his Religion when he first beganne agaynst all the world One man that might deceaue them agaynst al men that could not deceaue them With this opposition of al men Luther at the first was so much troubled as he testifyeth of himselfe How often did my treÌ„bling hart pant within me and reprehending me obiect against me that most stronge argument Art thou only wise Doe so many worldes erre VVere so many agesignorant VVhat if you thou errest Fulke in c. 5 Math. sect 3. 2. ad Thessa 2. sect 4. 5. VVhitak contro 2. q. 2. ca. 2. 3. cap. 3. q. 5. cap. 3. Field in his 2. book c. 8. and drawest so many into errour to be damned with thee euerlastingly So Luther with the same singularity of themselues generall contradictioÌ„ of others his followers were much daunted at the beginning But since hauing somewhat increased their number they eyther answere that truth doth not consist in multitude and largenes of extent or that they haue many others besides themselues of their fayth and religion dispersed throughout the world who although they be hidden from the eyes of men are notwithstanding well known to God or to the Fathers who often inculcat the large dominion of Christs flock they reply that the Church did perspicuously flourish Aug l. de vtil cred con Ep. Fund l. 1. contra lul l. 3. con Crescon c. 66. l. item 4. cap. 53. euery where was visibly spread thoughout all nations in Saint Augustines Saint Ierome and Optatus dayes but afterward it fayled at least froÌ„ being manifest publikely known These are the common shiftes of M. Fulke M. Whitaker and M. Field our moderne Protestants and these were the trickes of auncient heretikes including the former arguments 9. To the first therefore I answere that not euery multitude but an holy learned famous Matth. 8. longe continued and vnited multitude of all nations in supernaturall pointes of fayth this is an euident Apoca. 7. token of the true Church as Saint Augustine vrgeth Aug. loco citato l. 2. cont aduers leg Prophet c. vltimo agaynst the Donatistes Manichees and other heretikes VVho pretended that truth was often among a few and that it was the fault of many to erre This was the obiection of Cresconius the Grammarian agaynst whome he proueth by the many who shall come from the east and west and repose with Abraham in the Kingdome of heauen By that great and innumerable multitude which Saint Iohn describeth of all nations tribes people and tongues standing before the throne that multitude is no hinderance to truth and yet he often affirmeth That to vaunt and glory in paucity of followers is the the property of heretikes and a signe of falshood 10. Their second euasion that they haue many hidden ghospellers in all Countryes knowne to God is Augustine libro de ouibus cap. 10. ridiculous and absurd as Saint Augustine tearmeth it to humansense For how shall we belieue they haue any such vnlesse they be seene and mentioned by some men Or how should their Vniuersality be a marke of the true Church if they be not knowen nor marked by any Then Saint Augustine declareth that the vniuersall Church of which the Scriptures speake is apparantly seene and knowne to the world Reade his explication vpon that verse of the Psaâ—mist Be exalted aboue the heauens O God and thy glory vpon all the earth O hereticall madnes sayth Psal 56. Aug. tom 8. in ps 56. he that which thou seest not thou belieuest with me that which thou seest thou denâ—est thou belieuest with me Christ exalted aboue all the heauens which we do not see and thou deniest his glory vpon all the earth which we do see Marke these wordes which we do see Therefore the splendour of the Church is visible and Aug. libro vnitate Ec. cap. 8. conspicuous euery where In another place From whence quoth he is his glory vpon all the earth but because his Church is ouer all the earth Immediatly after he presseth his aduersaryes VVVhy do you preach Christ exalted aboue the heauens and doe not communicate with his glory vpon all the earth Whereupon it followeth that if our Ghospellers had any such latent Protestants in other Countryes as they fayne who agreed with them in their beliefe yet that were not inough to make their Church vniuersall vnlesse they had some other communication or society togeather because for want of this alone Saint Augustine excludeth Petilian al other Donatistes froÌ„ being members of the Church First of him he sayth I obiect vnto thee the cryme of schisme Aug. libro 2. contra Fetil c. 16. which thou wilt deny but I will instantly proue it For thou doest not communicate with all nations Then he cassiereth the rest and bindeth Catholikes in the vnity of the Church saying VVe holde the inheritance of Christ they holde it not For they do not communicate with the whole worlde they do not communicate with the vniuersality redeemed by the bloud of our Lord we are secure of his inheritance 11. Their last retrayte vsed by Mayster Field and often iterated by M. Whitker That the Church in Field in his 2. booke of the Church chapter 8. VVhitak contro 2. q. 2 cap 2. Ibidem q. 3. cap. 1. q. 5. cap 4 5 Saint Augustines and the rest of those Fathers dayes was in her growth Now in her declining Then flourishing in all partes
of the world Since retired to some few particuler and vnknown coastes Since perished out of view of all nations is heretofore resuted at large in the fourth chapter of this treatise And Saint Augustine detesteth it as a rash temerarious false and abhominable deuise He thinketh it strange to be spoken of and asketh what inuader Christ suffered to robbe him of his goods Of the whole world the price of his bloud Besides the places of Scripture by which S. Aug. tomo 8 in psal 101. conci 2. Augustine demonstrateth the Kingdome of Christ to be euery where extended to replenish the whole face of the earth to possesse all the endes of the world are not prophesies only of S. Augustines of Optatus of Saint Ieromes age they specify not their dayes any more then ours but they are indeterminably Aug. Exp. 2. in psal 21. written by the holy Ghost for all times ages Therefore they are as truly verified now as then as iustly vrged by vs agaynst Protestants as by them agaynst Luciferians or Donatistes And the exceptions taken by their aduersaries are the same which are now pursued by ours 12. Let me pose you M. Whitaker Doth he not deserue as great a curse who shall now deny the Passion and Resurrection of Christ as any heretike should doe in gaynsaying it in Saint Augustines tymes And yet S. Augustine maketh a like comparison between those mysteryes Aug. Ep. 48. and this of the Churches vniuersality As sayth he he shal be anathema which preacheth that Christ neyther suffered nor rose agayne because we learne by the Ghospell that it behoued Christ to suffer and to rise againe the third day So he shall also be anathema whosoeuer preacheth the Church to be elswhere then in the communion of all nations because by the selfe same gospell we learne in the words next following And pennance to be preached in his name and remission of sinnes thoughout all nations Wherfore as the former textes of Scripturre touching his death and resurrection so these concerning the amplitude of his Church are generally verifyed of all times and ages 13. But Doctour Whitaker obiecteth that there VVhitak cont 2. q. 5. c. 6. was a tyme at the beginning when the Church was not vniuersal I answere that as there is a tyme when a child new borne cannot actually laugh or exercise the function of man yet is then a true man and hath the power or faculty of laughing So the Church in her infancy was not actually dilated and propagated ouer all countryes yet it was then planted to be vniuersall and had the property of vniuersality belonging to it Because Christ at the first erecting of it sayd Teach ye all nations Going Matt. viti v. 19. Marc. 56. vers 15. Act. 1. v. 8. into the whole world preach the gospell to all creatures You shal be witnesses vnto one in Ierusalem and in all Iury and Samaria and euen to the vtmost of the earth Therefore although not the actuall extension yet the prerogatiue of Vniuersality apperteyned to the Church from the beginning and after that she should once obteyne her vniuersall and actuall propagation the diuine oracles often witnesse it should so continue vnto the end of the world As hath beene shewed both here in the fourth chapter of this third part Howbeit Mayster Whitaker ceaseth not to wrangle For because he cannot challenge the right of the thinge he picketh a quarrell at the etimology of the name Catholike he will not haue it to signify vniuersality of place but only of the truth saying That Church is VVhitak contro 2. q. 5. c. 2. q. 6. c. 2. Eulke in c. 24. Luc. sect 4. in name and deed Catholike which Catholikely and truly teacheth all the points of religion whatsoeuer ought to be learned and belieued of a Christian man The same is also auerred by Doctour Fulke 14. But how can it thus be a note of the true Church The true doctrine in all dogmaticall poyntes as I haue heretofore declared is more obscure and hidden then the Church It is the inward substance or dowry of the Church It cannot possibly be discerned especially by the vnlearned nor consequently guide them to the knowledge of the Church It is constantly challenged by all heretikes whatsoeuer Aske the Arian the Pelagian the Gnosticke the Anabaptist c. Euery one of them whosoeuer else will tell you that he alone hath the vniuersall truth and it would be a bootlesse labour to goe about by that marke taken in that sense to perswade him the contrary Yet into this labyrinth other heretikes of former tymes haue craftily retired For Vincentius the Rogatian would haue the word Catholike to Aug. Ep. 48. ad Vincentium Rogatian import the like integrity of fayth and vniuersall keeping of the commandements whome S. Augustine refelleth in this manner Thou seemest to haue found out a witty deuise when thou doest interprete the name Catholike not of the communion of all the world but of the obseruation of all the diuine precepts al the Sacramēts which deuise of his new burnished now Aug. de vt credendi c. 7. by our aduersaries he vtterly reiecteth immediatly after alleadgeth the sentence before cited with this preamble whatsoeuer crooked trains any mā weaueth against the simplicity of whatsoeuer he casteth of wily falshood euen as he shal be ana thema who preacheth that Christ hath not suffered nor risen So he that shall Aug. in ps 18. expo 2. deny the Church to be in the communion of the world Because both are learned out of the same Ghospell Besides Saint Augustine flatly distinguisheth this not of vniuersality or amplitude Fulke in c. 24. Lu. sect 2. in 2. ad Thess 2. sectione 5. VVhitak contro 2. from the verity of the Church in all mysteries of faith saying The Church is one as algraunt if you regard the whole worlde more stored with multitude and as they that know affirme more syncere in truth then all the rest but of the truth it is another question Loe M. Whitaker how you confound questions affect obscurities lurke in holes that you maynteyne a part in faction who might hold all in peace concord Abbot in his answere to M. D. Bishop Ep. to the King pag 15. 15. The last obiection repeated by M. Fulke Mayster Whitaker and Rhetorically dilated by M. Robert Abbot against our restraining the Citty of God vnto the Sea of Rome hath beene often answered by our men That we take not the Roman Church for the particuler diocesse which belonges to Rome but for the latitude of all people and countryes who consort with the Pope in Sacramentes fayth and communion acknowledging him for Christes vicar vpon earth And thus the Roman Church hath beene euer accounted all one with the Catholike and vniuersall Church For Saint Ambrose writeth of his Brother Satyrus desyring in pilgrimage Ambrosius in serm de ob
fratris to receaue the Sacramentes That he demaunded of a Bishop VVhether he agreed with the Catholique Bishops that is with the Roman Church Iocundus also the Arian as Victor reporteth sayd to Kinge Theodoricke Yf you put Armogastes to death the Romans will proclayme him a Victor Vti de pers Van. l. 1. Hier. in ap aduer Ruf. Martyr Where by the Romans he vnderstood Catholiques In like manner Ricemer the Goth and Arian wrote vnto the Genneses Yf he be a Catholique he is a Roman Hence the Roman fayth is tearmed the Catholique fayth the Romen Bishop Bishop of the Catholique Church Bishop of the vniuersall Church Pope of the vniuersall Cypr. l. 3. Ep. 11. Con. Calce act 3. in rela Sanctae Synodi ad Pap. Leonem Poss in vita Augustini ca. 17. Iustin in Epist Hormis papae Cypo epist 52. Leo ep 82. Cypr. l. 4. ep 2. Opt. l. 2. contra Parmen L. in vrbe Roma de statu hom Aug. de ci Deil. 5. c. 15. Art 22. 16. Church His sentence the iudgement of the Catholique Church His definitions Catholique instructions His Sea the roote or matrixe of the Catholique Church His solicitude the care of the vniuersall Church To communicate with him to communicate with the Catholique Church To enter league with him to keepe frendship or society of communion with the vniuersall world 16. In fine as in auncient tymes all people subiect to the Roman Empire were by a generall decree of the ciuill law graced with the name of Roman Cittizens After which sort Saint Augustine testifyeth of some enobled with the title of Roman Senatours who neuer entred the gates of Rome And Saint Paul being borne at Tharsis in Cilicia professed himselfe a Roman borne So in like manner All Churches that liue in communion with the Roman Church All that submit themselues to the obedience of that Sea Al that acknowledge her their head and mother Church borrow from her the denomination of Roman Churches Especially sith that generally denominations are deriued from the most eminent and principall part and neuer any Church neuer any people in any parte of the worlde hath beene taynted with heresy or touched with schisme which tooke the name of Roman Church or Roman people by reason of their communion with the Sea of Rome Therefore as the name Catholique and the thinge signifyed thereby So the name Roman or Romanist is a playne demonstration that our Church is the Gen. 13. 22. flocke of Christ and only seed which our Lord hath blessed and multiplyed like the starrs of heauen and duste of the earth The Kingdome of God whose dominion is extended from one sea to another and from the Riuer to the vttermost boundes of the worlde The Lady or Queene which sitteth one the right hand of her spouse enuironed with Psal 71. see S. Aug. vpon that psalme Pacian ep 3. ad Symp. Malach. c. v. 1. v. 11 the variety of all tribes and Countryes The chosen people which from the rising of the sunne euen to the setting euery where magnifyeth the name of our Lord. And the Protestantes Secte is that deuided faction which rebelleth agaynst him that segregated bunche or festered boyle That harlotry Synagogue which shrowded in corners lyeth in wayte to deceaue our soules to entangle them with fayre wordes and flattery of lippes c. VVhose howse the wayes of hell penetrating to the inward partes of death Prou. 7. CHAP. XX. In which Apostolicall succession is declared to be an apparant note of the true Church Agaynst Mayster Francis Mason AS the Church of Christ cannot possibly continue without the preaching of truth and administration of Sacraments the Sacramēts cannot be ministred nor truth preached without pastours teachers to deliuer the same The Pastours and teachers not still remayne without a perpetuall generation or propagation of them by succession mission and approued ordination Tertullian libro de praescrip Ther ore the ancient Fathers haue alwayes appealed to this lawfull successiō of Priests Bishops as to an illustrious note mark of the Church more plaine more cōspicuous more easily known thē the doctrin of truth to which notwithstanding it is inseparably linked Augustin psal contra partē Do. Tom. 7. libro contra Ep funda Iraeneus libro 3. c. 1. Therefore Tertullian thus prouoked the heretikes of his tyme Let them set forth the beginning of their Churches Let them thew the ranke or order of their Bishops c. Saint Augustine in like sort challenged the Donatistes Recount sayth he the Priestes euen from Peters seate and looke who haue succeeded one another in the ranke of those Fathers After the same manner Saint Iraeneus discomfiteth the Valentinians Saint Epiphanius Epiphan haer 17. Ieronymus dialog vlt. cōtra Lucif Optatus l 2. the Carpocratians Saint Ierome the Luciferians Optatus the heretique Parmenian And he particulerly nameth the Roman Bishops from Peter to Siricius Saint Augustine from Peter to Anastasius affirming that by that succession of Priests and Bishops he was held in the Church 2. Whereunto least some Cauiller should take exception that they speake only of the tyme past of the Augustine Ep. contra Faustum Manich. cap. 4. succession which was before their dayes but they prophecy not of the tyme to come nor do they auow that the like succession shal stil perseuere S. Austine to encoūter this obiection notably writeth in another place The true Church by most certayn successiō of Bishops doth perseuere frō the Apostles tyme vnto ours and to tymes after vs agayne Which is a Augustine libro cont aduers leg Proph. cap. 20. Ecclesia ab Apostolorum tēporibus per Episcoporum successiones certissimas vsque ad nostr ū deniceps tempora perseuerat thinge so cleerly defined in holy writ especially by Saint Paul to the Ephesians and so necessary for the instruction of the infidells edification of the faythfull consummation of the Saints and true essence or being of the Church as no Sacrament can be ministred word preached fayth imbraced or Church remayne where the true vocation or ordinary calling of Bishops and Priestes is at any tyme wanting Neyther doe the more learned of our Aduersaryes make doubt hereof But as the heretikes in Saint Augustines tyme so these now bragge of a certayne figure or similitude of beginning vnder the name of Christians but are indeed withered braunches cut of from the vine For some of them endeauour to steale a beginning or ordinary calling from the temporall Magistrates and suffrages of the people as Caluin and his brats of Geueua Others from the temporall Prince only without the peoples voyces as Brentius and Musculus Others from the Presbitery or meere Priestes that be not Bishops which Monsieur Caluin l. 4. instit c. 3. §. 1. c. 4 §. 11. Brent in prol Mus in locis comun Plessis in tract de Ecclesia cap. vlt. Field in his 3. booke of the
be reputed an aduersary while he sitteth in the throne And Saint Paul directly teacheth that the personall line and continuall propagation of Prophets Euangelistes Pastours and Doctours was instituted by God for the perpetuall succession and continuance Ephes 4. v. 11. 12. 13. Ibid. v. 14. of truth That now we be not children wauering and caryed about with euery winde of doctrine c. Therefore the true personall succession cannot be where the succession of doctrine wauereth much lesse where it fayleth which M. Reynolds M. Whitaker and sundry of our Protestant Reynolds in his conference ca. 7. diuis 9. VVhitak contr 1. q. 5. cap. 6. folio 271. aduersaries earnestly auowe and diligently demonstraty to our handes thereby to defeate if they could possible the prerogatiue of our succeeding Bishops But albeit it maketh nothing agaynst vs nay vpholdeth the right of our clayme who agree with our auncestours in al points of fayth yet it vtterly ouerthrowneth the vsurped title they newly challenge to the pedigree of our Bishops froÌ„ whome they dissent in the very many articles of our beliefe For by their owne arguments no participation can they haue with them in chayres no affinity or succession in Priestly thrones agaynst whome they bray forth defiance in doctrine 6. Now as touching Election the third thing which is defectiue in the Protestant ministery that is a priuiledge only due to ecclesiasticall persons For although secular ProtestaÌ„t Bishops want the electioÌ„ of Deane chapter of all clergy persoÌ„s Princes or such as haue auowsans might somtyme present and nominate their Prelates although the consent and approbation of people for greater vnion and peace hath beene also required yet the Election which interesseth the elected entitleth him to his dignity and giueth him a certayne right to his calling This is and euer was only proper to the Pope to the Deane and Chapter or some other of the Clergy and flatly forbidden to the laity vnder payne of excommunication in In Concil gener 8. can 22. ap Grat. distinc 63. c. Hadrian In Syno Niâ— 2. can 3. the eight generall Councell vnder Basil the Emperour and Adrian the Pope Likewise in the second Nicen Synod it is declared That euery Election of Bishop Priest Deacon made by secular powers let it be inualide and of no force And amongst the Canons of the Apostles the thirtith Canon hath these wordes The Bishop who by the fauour of the Princes and Potentates of the world hath gotten his Church let him be deposed But our English Protestant Bishops haue inuaded their Seas by the fauour of Princes by their letters patents without the canonicall election of Pope Deane and Inter can Aposto ca. 30. Chapter or any ecclesiasticall person Therefore they are to be deposed as wolfes vsurpers entring in at the window and not at the dore This defect is not fayned by coniectures as Barlowes consecration is by Mayster Mason nor proued by secret partiall and vnknowne Recordes MasoÌ„ l 3. c. 4. pag. 127. as he doth the ordination of others But it is publikely set downe in the common receaued lawes or Statutes of the Realme For in the first of King Edward the 1. Edward chapter 2. sixt an Act of Parlament was made for disanulling the election of Archbishops and Bishops by the Deane and Chap. taking away the writ of Conge-deslier grauÌ„ted to that purpose The wordes of the Statute are these The writ of Congedeslier was not to be graunted in King Edwards dais whose lawes Queene Elizabeth reestablished 8. Eliza. 1. 7. Be it enacted by the King with the assent of the Lords spirituall and temporall and the Commons in this present Parlament assembled by the authority of the same that from henceforth no such Conge-deslier be graunted nor election of any Archbishop or Bishop by the Deane and Chapter made but that the Kinge may by his letters Patentes at all tymes when any Archbishopricke or Bishopricke be voyde conferre the same to any persons to whome the Kinge shall think meete Can there be a more euident proofe that the Bishops of King Edwards dayes when this Statute was in force wanted their canonical electioÌ„ And after when his lawes repealed by Queene Mary were reestablished by Queene Elizabeth at least in the beginning how beit since they make shew of returning to the auncient custome Can there be likewise a more vehement suspition willfull forgery in M. Masons registers which testify the Writ of Conge-deslier to be graunted forth when by the tenour of that law it could not be graunted 8. Notwithstanding although their Bishops election Mason lib. 2. chap. 10. fol. 88. 89. The ordination of Protestant Priests Bishops vnlawfull inualide noneat all was inualide and succession of no account yet M. Mason stifly vrgeth that their ordination or consecration was good vnlesse we can name some defect eyther in the consecrated or consecratours I answere that the consecratours after their reuolte from the Catholique Church obstinat persisting in schisme heresy were excommunicated and suspended from the due execution and practise of their functions So that although they had beene before true lawfull Bishops as none excepting Cranmer were of the whole Protestant ranke yet then their authority being taken away by the Catholike Church which as she had power to giue had power also to restrayne and disanull their iurisdiction they could not lawfully communicate vnto others that which was suspended in themselues For this cause Saint Athanasius accouÌ„teth them not in the number of true Bâ—shops who are consecrated by heretikes saying By what right can they Athanasius in Concil Arimi Seleuc. § Quae auteÌ„ Seieâ—ciae be Bishops if they receaued their ordination from heretikes as they theÌ„selues accuse them to be Likewise writing in another place in the person of Pope Iulius It is impossible quoth he that the ordinations made by Secundus being an AriaÌ„ could haue any force in the Catholike Church 6. But M. Mason our Protestants Attorney will reply Apol. 2. that S. Athanasius is to be vnderstood of the legitimate and lawfull vse not of the validity of ordination For that euery Bishop communicateth not by reason of his inherent grace or out ward vnion with the Church but by vertue of his episcopall character which no schisme quoth he by deduction out of our writinges no sinne no Mason l. 2. c. 10. fo 88. heresy no censures of the Church no excommunication suspension interdiction degradation nothing nothing at all sauing only death if death can dissolue it Thus he I graunt that the character is indeleble and that alone is sufficient in the consecratour if his intention also be right and if he vse the true matter and forme essentially required thereunto But our English Superintendents after their fal from the Roman Church neyther intended to giue those holy orders which were instituted by Christ neyther did the ordeyned intend to receaue them
nor yet did they vse the true matter and forme prescribed by him Therefore notwithstanding their character their ordination was nothing els but a prophanation of that Sacrament For to instance in the order of Priesthoode so intrinsecally presupposed in Episcopall dignity as the Catholique Athanasius Apolo 2. in Episc CoÌ„cil Saâ—d Councell of Sardis wondred at the Arians impudency because they gaue sayth the Councell to him the title of Bishop who was not so much as a Priest The Priesthood instituted by Christ was a Priesthood ordeyned to sacrifice A Priesthood to which a iudiciall power was giuen by the holy Ghost to pardon and remit sinneâ— in 〈…〉 Pennance The forme of the Priesthood was partly that Receaue the holy Ghost whose sinnes you shall forgiue they are forgiuen them and whose you shall retayne they are reteywed partly this other 10. 20. vers 23. mentioned in the Councell of Florence Receaue power to offer sacrifice in the Church for the liuing and dead in the name CoÌ„cil Flor. in litter is Eugen. Luc. 22. of the Father and of the sonne and of the holy Ghost Which words although they be not set downe in holy writ in playne tearmes yet the substance of them is gathered out of S. Luke and that kinde of forme as likewise the forme of Baptisme is deliuered by tradition as proceeding from Christ The matter necessarily accompayning this later forme is the reaching of the chalice with wine the paten with the hoast to the party consecrated specifyed also in the aforesayd Councell of Florence So that two actes or functions are included in our Priesthood or a The power of Priesthood coÌ„tayneth two functions the one about the true the other about the mysticall body of Christ power twofold The one apperteyning to the true and reall body of Christ to consecrate and offer it to God which is the chiefest act or faculty of Priesthoode and first also imparted The other ouer Christes misticall body the members of his Church to remit their sins which necessarily presupposeth the former This order of Priesthood these two functions all Protestant superintendeÌ„ts disclay me and deny this the consecratours intende not to giue nor do the consecrated Mynisters purpose to receaue they haue not then that sacred ordination which was prescribed by Christ 10 Yet sayth M. Mason that holy Priesthood which Christ ordeyned we haue pared from the corruptions of sacrificing and shrift which you haue added to the institution Mason lib. 1. c. 2. p. 11. and libr. 2. c. 11. p. 94. In the first part of the Antidote in the 4 ad 5. contro of Christ Well then the whole question is brought to this issue whether our Sauiour instituted a sacrificing Priesthood to which authority is also giuen to remit sinnes in the Sacrament of Pennance or no But both these pointes I haue sufficiently conuinced in the first part of my Antidote The one in the controuersy of the Sacrifice of the Masse the other in the controuersy of Auricular Confession and the former I shall touch agayne in the Chapter ensewing Therfore if Protestant haue pared away these Priestly functions they haue reiected the whole substance and pared of the very pith of Christes heauenly Priesthood 11. Or if they will needs vsurpe the name of Priests let them tell me I beseech them in what order doe they ranke them selues In the order of Aaron or of Melchisedech The order of Aaron was to offer bloudy sacrifices bulles calues rammes and heyfers which neyther they Primas ad Heb. 5. callenge for any thinge I see nor yet doe they practise that abrogated function much lesse the function of Melchisedech whose office was to offer bread and wine and Euseb l. 5. de demon Euang. c. 3. Oecum ad Heb. 5. Geneb l. 1. Chronog Gal. l. 10. c. 5. Iero. in ep ad Marcal Cyp. ep 63. Aug. in ps 33. Primas in cap. 5. ad Heb. Arn. in ps 109. Pulke in c. 7. ad heb sect 8. in cap. 10. ad Corinth sect 8. not any of the former victimes Melchisedech sayth Primasius was not a Priest according to the legall precepts but accorning to the dignity of a certayne singular Priesthood offering bread to God not the bloud of bruit beastes Melchisedech sayth Eusebius neuer seemeth to haue vsed corporall sacrifices but wine only bread Melchisedech sayth Oecumenius was the first who offered an hoast without bloud to wit bread and wine Which Genebrard and Galatinus also proue out of the ancient Rabbines And therein Melchisedech was a perfect type and figure of Christ Witnesse Saint Ierome Melchisedech euen then in token of Christ offered bread and wine Saint Cyprian VVe see in the Priest Melchisedech the Sacrament prefigured of our Lordes sacrifice Saint Augustine Christ instituted a sacrifice of his body and bloud according to the order of Melchisedech Primasius In the order of Melchisedechs Priesthood Christ is made not a temporall but an eternall Priest not offering legall victimes but like vnto him bread and wine to wit his flesh and bloud Arnobius Christ by the mystery of bread wine is made a Priest for euer But you say quoth Fulke that Christ offered not bread and wine therefore not that which Melchisedech offered Did euer man reason so foolishly For must the signe and thinge signed the figure and the truth be al one Was not the Pascall lambe infinitly more base and inferiour in condition to our blessed Redeemer the Lambe of God Yet was it not a perfect type and figure of him In like manner the bread and wine offered by Melchisedech although meaner in quality and different nature from Christs body and bloud which â—â—mselfe sacrificed is the true tipe notwithstaÌ„ding reâ—â—â—blance hereof because this is made of the substance and offered vnder the accidents of bread and wine and so the same in quality the same in appearance the truth and full accomplishment of that typicall sacrifice which Melchisedech offered 12. This kind of oblation and office of Priesthood Luc. 22. v. 19. Doe this for a commemoration of me Aug. libro 1. cont ad leg prophe ca. 20. l. 16. de ciuit cap. 22. Amb. in psal 38. Epiphan haer 59. Theo. in c. 5. ad heb Leo 2. de aÌ„niuers suae assump Euche l. 2. c. 18 in Gen. Prim. in c. 5. ad heb Fulke in c. 7. ad heb sect 8. by the expresse warrant example and commaundement of Christ his Church the Church of Rome now practiseth vnder him And by this he being chiefe Priest and principal sacrificer the eternity of his priesthood is most properly continued according to the doctrine of the anâ—ient Fathers Of Saint Augustine They know that reade what Melchisedech hath offered such a sacrifice they now see offered to God throughout the world Also There first appeared the sacrifice which now is offered to God by Christians and that is fullfilled which longe after this is spoken by the Prophet to
Christ who was to come in flesh Thou art a priest for euer according to the order of Melchisedech Of Saint Ambrose Christ is declared to offer in vs whose speach sanctifyeth the sacrifice which is offered Of Epiphanius The Priesthood of Melchisedech now florisheth in the Church Theophilact Christ is called a Priest for euer because there is dayly offered there is perpetually offered an oblation by the mynisters of God hauing Christ our Lord both the Priest and sacrifyce Of Saint Leo Eucherius Primasius and the rest whose testimonyes togeather with the Priestly function of Melchisedech which they mayntayne M. Fulke and his felow-protestants vtterly contemne Insomuch as Fulke sayeth this bringing forth of bread and wine was no part of Melchisedeches Priesthood therfore those Fathers were deceaued that iudged that act to pertayne to his Priesthood Marke the arrogancy of this yesterday-vpstart in censuring the Fathers for allowing a Priesthood which he with his adherentes flatly detest Well then seing they renounce both these orders I know not in what ranke to place them vnlesse it Tully in Philip. be in the order of Asinius the voluntary Senatour as Tully iesteth at him himselfe being made by himselfe Or of the order of Don-Quixote knighted in an Inne by the good fellow his host For so they are eyther voluntary Priestes arrogating that dignity without commission or created at the Nags-head in Cheape by them that had as much authority to make them as the Inkeeper to dub a knight Or at the most they can be no other then Parlamentall Priests ordayned by the new deuised forme of that temporall Court authorized by the letters patents first of a Child then of a woman which although it may giue more shew and countenance to the vsurpation of their titles yet it giueth no more right then the former to the dignity of their functions 13. Moreouer no secular Princes or temporall Magistrates No secularprinces haue power to coÌ„ferre ecclesiastical orders haue authority to confer Ecclesiasticall orders But the order of Mynistery which our ghospellers challenge was both in Kinge Edward and Queene Elizabeths dayes wholy deuised and primarily conferred by the is secular and temporall authority It was therefore no true Episcopall Priestly or Ecclesiasticall order The Maior or first Proposition is apparant in nature For no man can imparte vnto others that which he hath not himselfe Secular persons neyther a part nor assembled togeather in publike Parlament haue any ecclesiasticall order or iurisdiction much lesse can they communicat it vnto others Then Ciuill Magistrates haue only Ciuill power in Ciuill affayres ordeyned to Ciuill and naturall endes The Episcopall or Priestly order is a spirituall dignity touching spirituall functions directed to a spirituall and supernaturall end which can no more be deriued from a Ciuill Magistrate then white from blacke day from night The Minor or second Proposition I proue by the Parlament lawes other testimonyes vnanswerable In the first of King Edward a Statute was made That Archbishops Bishops should not send out their sommons citations other processes in their own names but in the name and stile of the Kinge Seeing as the law it selfe speaketh that all authority of iurisdiction spirituall Edward 1. chap. 2. and temporall is deriued and deducted from the Kinges Maiesty as supreme head of these Churches and Realmes of England and Ireland and so iustly acknowledged by the Clergy of the sayd Realmes Then you heard before how by the Kinges letters Patentes Archbishoprickes and Bishopprickes were conferred And Fox testifyeth that King Henry 8. imparted to the Fox in his Monu pag 522. 1. Eliz. 1. c. 1. Lord Cromwell the exercise of his supreme spirituall regimeÌ„t making him in the Church of England vicegerent for concerning all his iurisdiction ecclesiasticall In the first likewise of Queenâ— Elizabeths raygne a Statute was enacted whereby all spirituall or ecclesiasticall power or authority is vnited and annexed to the Imperiall crowne of her Realme c. all sorrayne vsurped power iurisdiction preheminence cleerly extinguished c. and by solemne oath renounced forsaken in so much as Doctour Whitgift placed in the Queene the fulnes of VVhitg tract 8. c. 3. d. 33. all ecclesiasticall gouernement from whome all ecclesiasticall power and authority is deriued to Bishops and mynisters she hauing in her as he writeth the supreme gouernment in al causes ouer all persons as she doth exercise the one apportayning to matters Ciuile and temporall by the Lord Chauncelour So doth she the other concerning the Church religion by the Archbishops 14. As this power was straunge and neuer heard of before in any Christian heathen or Turkish commonwealth So the maner of consecrating the mynisters of those dayes was new and before vnasuall For another Act was made in the third of King Edwards raign 3. Edward c. 12. fol. 15. wherein it is sayd Be it therefore enacted by the Kinges Highnes with the assent of the Lords spirituall and temporall and the Comâ—ons of this present Parlament assembled and by the authority of the same That such forme and manner of making and consecrating of Archbishops Bishops Priests Deacons and other Mynisters of the Church as by sixe Prelats and sixe other men of this Realme learned in Gods law by the Kinges Maiesty to be appointed and assigned or by the most number of them shal be deuised for that purpose and set forth vnder the great seale of England before the first day of Aprill next comming shall by vertue of this present Act be lawfully exercised and vsed and none other any Statute law or vsage to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding Further when this new deuised forme of consecrating Bishops Priests c. bred many doubtes of the inualidity of their consecration and ordering Queene Elizabeth in publique Parlament decreed that all persons that haue been or shal be made ordered or consecrated Archbishops Bishops Priestes after the forme and order prescribed by Kinge Edward in the same forme and order be in very deed 8. Elizab. 1. and also by authority hereof declared and enacted to be and shal be Archbishops Bishops Priests c. and rightly made ordered and consecrated Any Statute law canon or other thing to the contrary notwithstanding 15. What meaneth this Statute Were your Bishops lawfully ordeyned and consecrated before Why then are they not only declared as M. Mason would excuse the manner of speach but enacted to be and shal be Archbishops c In vayne was this Act if they needed it not and Mason lib. 3. c. 4. p. 122. if they needed it it auayled them nothing as I haue already proued Or to speake more clearely Eyther the Lordes of the Parlament with their Queene had authority to install their Bishops in Episcopall dignity and make their inauguration lawfull in case it had beene inualid or they had no power to doe it Which of these M. Mason will you graunt For
designed by the mouth of our Lord from whence it is to beginne and how farre it is to be dilated it is to beginne at Ierusalem and to be dilated into all nations Where he often sayth it shal perseuere Ibidem c. 5. vntill the end of the world This marke is distinct from those which I haue explaned heretofore because I speake not here of the vniuersall being of the Church but of the manner how it came to be in all nations 〈◊〉 of the successiue line of pastorall doctrine but of the order how it also continued for euer 2. After which sort it is to be reduced to the precedent note of Apostolicall succession and such Churches as are thus deriued from those which the Apostles planted Tertull. in praes cont haer may be truly called as Tertullian affirmeth Apostolicall Churches But the Church of Rome only can shew how it beganne at Ierusalem how it grew and spread it selfe into all nations how it still perseuereth whole and entire in all the pointes of fayth she first sucked from the Apostles The Apostolicall fayth is to be knoweÌ„ not by the priuat expositions which now are deuised but by the generall interpretations of Scripture which haue been deliuered froÌ„ tyme to tyme. breastes Therefore she alone is the vndoubted spouse of Iesus Christ For we doe not here intrude our selues to the Apostles tymes and lay clayme as Protestants and other heretikes falsly doe to the Apostolicall faith but to the preaching propagatioÌ„ continuance of that fayth not to the new interpretatioÌ„s which now are made of the written word but to the receaued expositions which from tyme to tyme from country to country from Iury to Rome from Rome to all nations haue beene infallibly gathered and faythfully deliuered out of that sacred word Of this our sectaryes are so destitute as they had not any Priest or Bishop Clark of layman woman or childe in the whole world who preached vnto Luther their first beginner and deliuered vnto him or any other of his consorts their Protestant doctrin Therfore Mayster Mason retire to as you haue heard to the reuelation of Scripture made in England to Cranmer Latimer Ridley and their fellowes others to the like reuelations made to Luther at wittemberge to Caluin at Geneua Mason l. 1. chap. 2. fol. 11. to Oecolampadius at Basil from thence they deriue the propagation or reuiuall of their Gospell which lay dead before for many ages And that which Saint Augustine Aug. l. de vnit Eccl. cap. 17. condemned in the Donatists of no lesse then blasphemy to wit that the good seede of heauenly truth which was sowed by the Apostles and Apostolicall men in all the world and which was there to grow vntill the haruest should haue perished out of those places and be sowed a new out of Africa This I say which he accounted in them a most detestable blasphemy is reuiued again by our late Sectaries who as wretchedly dreame that the same seede was decayed in their dayes or couered at least froÌ„ the view of the world that it had not any publike Pastours to preserue it Doctours to water it preachers to sow it but it must be sowed a new by Cranmer out of England by Luther out of Wittemberge out of Geneua by Caluin whose folly I impugne with Saint Augustines wordes For as his enemyes furnish our Sectaryes with obiections so he armeth vs with irresistable answeres Let them sayth he search the Scriptures and agaynst so many testimonyes which proclayme the Church of Christ to be spread ouer all the world let them Aug. de vnit eccl c. 4. bring but one as certayne and manifest as those by which they demonstrate the Church of Christ to haue perished out of other nations and only to haue remayned in Africa as though it should haue another beginning not from Ierusaelem but from Carthage where first they set vp a Bishop agaynst a Bishop Or as we may apply it to our purpose VVhitak cont 2. q. 5. cap. 1. The Apology of the English Church pa. 4. chap. 4. Caluin libro 4. instit 1. c. 7. §. 24. Fox acts and mon. pag. 400. and pag. 402. Oecolampadius vpon his tomb at Basill is called Euangelicae doctrinae Author primus Buâ—er â—â— An. 36. ad Episco Hereford calleth Luther primum Apostolum purioris â—uangelij Ioachim Camera fratrum orthodoxae Eccles pag. 161. calleth â—uther 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from England from Wittemberge from Geneua where by Bishops of Priestes lately sprunge vp are scattered abroad new seedes of beliefe contrary to the sowinges of all other Bishops and Priestes In so much as their owne followers attribute vnto them The Restauration The Bringing to light The first Beginning or Rebudding of the Gospell The Reedification of the desolate ruines of Religion The Opening of a veyne longe hid before The Rising of aebeame of truth then vnknowne and vnheard They call them the first Authours first Maysters first restorers first Apostles of their euangelicall strange â—â—d new reformed doctrine For themselues also entitle it new â—â—d strange And another of their fauourites auerreth that â—uther receaued not his fayth eyther froÌ„ Husse or Wickâ—iffe but was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instructed of himselfe by the help no doubt aâ— he imâ—gâ—â—ed of holy Scripture A playne demonstration that the Protestant fayth is not that which beginning first at Ierusalem was diffused ouer the world and from Pastour to Pastour descended by the Apostles prescribed way of preaching vnto them Now let vs see whether this property belonge not to the Roman Church 3. Our aduersaries cannot deny but that the ChristiaÌ„ faith first preached at Rome came from Ierusalem eyther by Saint Peter as the whole clowd of Fathers and greatest torrent of Protestants beare witnes or at least by S. Paul who continued the same preaching and was there vnder Nero crowned with martyrdome Likewise that the same fayth was propagated into all Nations the Apostle also testifieth saying to the Romans Your fayth is renowned Rom. 1. v. 8. in the whole world and Saint Irenaeus calling it the greatest and most auncient Church of Rome knowne to all the world as founded by the two most glorious Apostles Peter and Paul addeth Irenaeus l. 3. c. 3. adu haeres immediatly after that vnto this Church in respect of her more mighty principality it is necessary that all Churches agree and haue accesse that is to say all faythfull people wheresoeuer they liue In which Church the tradition that hath descended from the Apostles VVhitak in his ans to Doctor Sanders 2. demonst Fulke in c. 22. Thessa sect 7. Reynolds in his 5. conclus hath euer beene kept by those that liue in any place of the world Fot this cause our aduersaryes confesse that it was our mother Church a most pure excellent and flourishing Church And so continued for some few ages But since say they it is degenerated into a
he then Constantine the Emperour gaue to the sayd Pope Siluester the towne of Rome and gaue vnto him the triple Crowne to be crowned therewith in token that he made him supreme head ouer all the Churches in Asia Africa and Europe as his gift conteyned in the decrees distin 96. For the like challenge of supremacy Zosimus Leo Gregory and Boniface are accused as the destroyers of the Church and first vsurpers according to Protestants of that vniuersall and Antichristian dominion Howbeit I haue apparantly conuinced in the second booke of my Antidote That the Supremacy was neyther giuen by Emperours eyther by Constantine to Saint Siluester or Phocas the Emperour to Boniface the third nor yet vsurped by Zosimus Leo Gregory or any other but that it was imparted immediatly from God to S. Peter and made hereditary to his Successours Which Constantine the Great plainly coÌ„fesseth in the very deed of gift or Charter of donation which he madâ— when resigning to the Pope the Citty of Rome Italy the westerne Prouinces In ipso Edicto donationis quod habetur Tomo 1. Concil fo 296. apud Binium Quoniam vbi principatus sacerdotum Christianae religionis caput ab Imperatore caelesti iustum non est vt illic Imperator terrenus habeat potestatem he departed to Constantinople Because sayd he Where by the heauenly Emperour the principality of Priests head of Christian Religion is placed it is not meete the earthly Emperour should beare any sway Therefore not the spirituall dignity or supreme headship which Constantine a little before deduceth out of the wordes of our Sauiour spoken to Peter whome he there calleth the Vicar of Christ but the temporall territories landes and reuenues were the endowments of the Roman Sea which he bestowed vpon S. Siluester 7. And the very Centuristes testify that before CoÌ„stantine the great the supremacy of Peter consequently of his successours was acknowledged by Tertullian of whome they write Tertullian doth seeme not without errour to thinke that the keyes of the Church were only giuen to Peter and that the Church was built vpon him They blame also S. Cyprian for affirming that the Roman Church is the Chayre of Peter from which all the vnity of Priesthood proceedeth Likewise Cyprian say they hath diuers other perilous opinions about this matter as for example that he tieth the office of true Pastorship to ordinary succession A little before they accuse him and three other Fathers of his tyme saying Cyprianus Maximus Vrbanus and Salonius doe thinke that one Bishop must be in the Catholike Church to wit one chiefe as head of the rest All these flourished before the dayes of Constantine So did Origen and Hipolitus Matth. 16. versus 18. 19. Martyr who subscribed to the primacy of one supreme Pastour Agayne if S. Siluester were the first Prelate by whome beganne as M. Napper blattereth the horrible detestable Kingdom of Antichrist the first general CouÌ„cel Centur. 3. c. 4. col 84. of Nice authorized in England by Act of Parlament in which he presided by his legats Hosius Vitus Vincentius which he after ratifyed and confirmed did fauour and Ibidem col 84. 85. vphold his Antichristian tyrranny If Zozimus were the man S. Austine was a limne of Antichrist who notwithstanding he was Bishop of Africa obeyed his iniunction Origen ho. 5. in Exod. ho. 7. in Lucam Hiâ—ol in ora deconsum mundi Napper p. 67 Cedrenus in compend histo Photius libro de 7. concilijs Damasus in Pont August Epist 157. of necessity as comming from his superiour The African Bishops likewise ouer whome our aduersaryes accuse him of encroachment for challenging the right Prosper Con. collat cap. 41. of appellations euen they I say were abettours of Antichrist to whose decrees Pope Zozimus as Prosper writeth added the authority or strength of his sentence and to the cutting of the wicked with the sword of Peter armed the right handes of all other Prosper in chronicis Prelates A Councell held at Carthage of 217. Bishops and the whole worlde did partake with Antichrist for that Councell sent vnto Zozimus their synodicall decrees CoÌ„cil CalcedoÌ„ in relation ad Leonem quae habetur Tomo 2. Conci act 16. paâ— 139. apud Binium Leo Sermo 2. in anniassuÌ„p sâ—u which being approued sayth Prosper throughout the whole world the Pelagian heresy was condemned 8. Yf Leo were the first by whome the Church was ruined and throne of Antichrist aduaunced why doe Protestants allow of the Oecumenicall sacred Councell of Chalcedon Which three tymes gaue him the title of holy acknowledged him their head and themselues his members humbly supplicated vnto him to ratify and confirme their Canons How doth Leo write thus of himselfe VVhen our exhortations are sounded forth in the eares of your Sanctity imagine him to wit S. Peter whose person we represent to speake vnto you because with his loue and affection we admonish Libro 1. ep 1. libro 6. ep 19. libro 1. ep 76. l. 4. ep 33. libro 7. iud 2. ep 2. l. 7. ep 32. l. 1. ep 72. 75. l 11. ep 50. 53. l. 7. indic 2. ep 112. libro ep 15. libro 9. indict 4. ep 61 l. 4. ep 15. 50. 55. libro 1. ep 19. l. 4. epist 9. you and we preach no other thing vnto you then that which he taught With what face could he haue deliuered this in such a publike assembly if he had coyned any new Gospell or taught any other doctrin then that which was preached by S. Peter But if S. Gregory as most Protestants accord was the last good and first Antichristian Pope then in his dayes some monstrous innouation was brought not only into the Roman diocesses but into al the Prouinces and Churches of Christendome which communicated with him as appeareth out of his Epistles to the Bishops of all countryes of Sicily Corsira Sardinia Africa Numidia Hispania Gallia Anglia Hibernia Grecia Dalmatia ouer whome he exercised the soueraygnty of his supreme iurisdiction yet he innouated nothing therin nor deliuered any other new doctrine not taught before as I demonstrate 1. By all these and other Bishops of his age who neuer appeached S. Gregory of any vsurpation of right or nouelty in doctrine to which they would either haue opposed themselues or haue complayned of it or would haue mentioned it at least 2. By S. Gregory himselfe who findeth no fault with any of his Roman predecessors for want of challenging their due or for not agreeing with him in all pointes of fayth as Protestants euery where reprehend and taske their auncestours with variance from them in sundry assertions 3. By diuers learned Fathers of the precedent ages out of whose writings I haue already among my Thirty Controuersyes cleerly proued and out of Scriptures also deduced euery article of importance of which our Gospellers attach S. Gregory 4. By the Magdeburgian and other Protestants
be celebrated in no other then places consecrated by the Bishop And they affirme that Platina writeth in Siluesters life of golden and siluer challices giuen by Constantine Cent. 4. c. 6. col 410. ibid. That it is be read in Eusebius his decrees how the sacrifice of the Altar was to be celebrated not in silke or hempe but only in fine linnen consecrated by the Bishop In the fifth age or Century they make mention out of Platina Sabellicus Casâ—â—na and Sigebert of the Antiphones Introites gradualls tractes c. of the psalme Iudica me Deus to be sayd at the beginning of the sacrifice All which they ascribe to Celestine the first who Cent. 5. c. 6. col 725. 729 727. Sabellicus Tom. 8. l. 1. Sigebert in chronico liued about 426 yeares after Christ whome Vrspergensis according to them maketh authour of the hymne holy holy holy to be sunge They alleage out of Sigibert Hirmanus Gigas and Flores temporum how at the end of Masse he that saydit was by the ordinance of Gelasius to blesse the people and to say the hymne trium pueroum 17. In the same age they write of Leo how he decreed that in the action of our Lords supper these wordes should be pronounced Ibidem col 729. Hancigitur oblationem c. Bergomensis say they Platina mention it Sigebert deliuereth this clause also to haue beene added by him and that in the Canon of the Masse Sanctum sacrificium BergomeÌ„sis in Theo. immaculatam hostiam which Sabellicus also reporteth Nauclerus likewise auoucheth that by his ordinance Orate sratres is sayd in Masse and Deo gratias in the end Sigebert relateth of him how he was wont Sabellicus Enead 8. l. 1. to say Massesouer the bodies or monuments of Martyrs when he would communicate their relikes vnto others All these be the wordes of the Centuristes Neyther doe they only specify these ceremonyes belonging to our sacrifice but they finde Naucler l. 2. gene 15. Ibidem col 729. fault with many of the auncients for writing vnbeseemingly in their conceite of the sacrifice it selfe as with Ignatius the Apostles scholler because he sayd ambiguously Cent. 5. c. 6. col 730. incommodiously I repeat their words it is not lawfull without a Bishop neyther to offer nor immolate the sacrifice Then Cyprian say they superstitiously fayneth c. the Priest to supply the roome of Cent. 2. ca. 4. col 63. Christ and sacrifice to be offered to God the Father c. which prase to offer sacrifice Tertullian also vseth speaking of the supper And Martiall the supper of our Lord that is a sacrifice is offered on the Altar Ignat. ep ad Smirn. to God the Creatour After There is a new phrase also in Nazianzen he defileth his handes with the oblation of the vnbloudy sacrifice Ambrose vseth speaches of the supper which before him none Cent. 3. c. 4. col 83. Centur. 3. c. 4. col 83. Tertullian de cultu faem Hartialis ep ad Burdeg Cent. 4. c. 4. col 294. Nazian in inuect 1. in Iulian. Cent. 4. c. 4. col 295. Ambros l 5. ep 33. of the Fathers was wont to vse as to say Masse to offer sacrifice Hither to the Protestants of Magdeburge By the which we manifestly gather first that our present Roman Church that now is hath no way declined from the purity of the auncient Church which flourished in the first fiue hundred yeares after Christ not in this diuine worship and publike sacrifice of the Masse Secondly that this our sacrifice was not inueÌ„ted by man but instituted by Christ and practised by the Apostles which I proue by three vncontrolable rules in the Iudgement of all prudent men Aug. l. 4. de bap ca. 24. Aug. l. de baept cont Donat. ca. â— Caluin l. 4. instit c. 18. §. 1. 18. The First is S. Augustines rule saying That which the vniuersall Church doth hold and was not instituted by Councells but hath beene still reteyned in the Church this we may most iustly belieue to haue come from no other anthority then the Apostles By which he proueth the bâ—ptising of infants not expressed in Scripture to be an Apostolicall tradition writing thus That custome which men before vs looking vpward to antiquity did not find to haue beene ordeyned by them that came after the first ages is rightly belieued to haue beene deliuered by the Apostles But the sacrifice of the Masse hath beene offered in the vniuersall Church For Caluin going about to impugne it sayth I heere match in fight with that opinion wherewith the Romish Antichrist Cen. 6. c. 6. col 33. Vtintelligas inquiunt missarum nunc solemnia passim oÌ„nia loca coÌ„pleuisse and his prophets haue infected the whole world namely that the Masse is a worke whereby the sacrificing Priest c. The Centurists his companions acknowledge the like generall practise aboue a thousand yeares agoe affirming in the 6. age Now the solemnityes of Masse to haue euery where filled all places Yet they looking into all historyes ransacking all auncient monuments from that tyme vpward cannot find by whome it was first instituted or where it began Therefore it was deriued from the Apostles as the institution of Christ otherwise these cunning Masons who discouered the placing of so many little rafters would haue espied without doubt the laying of this great beam in their eyes of superstitious idolatry And M. Mason himselfe who disauoweth this sacrifice and the only Priesthood ordeyned by Christ to offer it to his Father dismantleth his sectmates of the true spirituall power of â—â—iesthood or iurisdiction of Bishops 19. The second Rule is grounded vpon experience â—f the difficulty which ariseth in bringing in of any new â—ustome chaunge or innouation in a common wealth â—or as that can neuer be done in any temporall state touâ—hing temporal affayres without some strife opposition or dispute so much lesse in the Kingdome of the Church about matters of religion concerning which her watchmen Isay 62. v. 6. and Pastours shall neuer be silent but alwayes resist as M. M. Fulke witnesseth with vs all false opinions euen with open reprehension This argument M. Bilson vseth to proue Fulk in his answere to a counterfeit Catholike pag. 11. and 62. Bilson in his suruey of Christs sufferings pag. 660. Christ descending to Hades to haue beene aunciently and openly professed in the primitiue Church because Eusebius who expounded it so had beene otherwise resisted resuted by the Religious of those ages who liued with and after him So if our sacrifice of the Masse Inuocation of Saints worship of Images Merit of workes vowes of chastity and the rest often inculcated by the auncient Fathers of the first fiue hundred yeares had varyed from the analogy of Apostolicall fayth some other guides Doctours of the Church would haue checked and resisted which neuer any did those nouelties in them Was Triphylius an
them that were gouernours of that principall Church And who were these but the supreme Bishops Bilson ibid. pag. 388. of the Roman sea 22. M. Bilson was not so dull but he perceaued the weaknes of this first cuasion which maketh him seeke another way to gloze both S. Cyprians and S. Ieromeâ— De regulis iuris 68 in Glossa wordes by turning non posse cannot to may not by right or lawfully because the law sayth id dicimur posse quod de iure possumus we can do that which by right we can As though infidelity could come by right to any other Church or the Ephesin the Constantinopolitan or other fayth might be lawfully chaunged which must needes follow of that construction or els that neyther S. Ierome giueth any prerogatiue to the Roman Fayth which by Saint Paules warrant they extoll so much aboue the fayth of euery towne and village man or woman pezant or Artisan that euer belieued For vnfaythfulnes cannot by right haue accesse to any nor can their fayth be possibly changed without incurring infidelity which is all the prayse that S. Ierome according to M. Bilson in thesame place pag. 394. Bilsons fond interpretation alloweth the Roman faith and yet indeed it is no singular prayse but a childish collection not sauouring of S. Ieromes Wisdome not fitting his purpose in that or sutable to his writing in other places For it is no singular prayse to appropriate that Ieron tom 2. Ep. 57. Dama CathedraÌ„ Patri fidem Apostolico ore laudatam censiuicoÌ„sulendaÌ„ to the fayth of the Roman Church which is common to the fayth of all Churches whatsoeuer It is no better a collection that Fayth cannot be changed without incurring infidelity then that temperance cannot be lost without falling to intemperance or a vertuous maÌ„ become vitious without some vice which is too childish an inference for the grauity of S. Ierome And how doth it sort with his discourse in that place the Roman fayth admitteth no such delusions because fayth cannot be chaunged without incurring infidelity O ridiculous glozes making the text ridiculous Tom 1. ep 26. adprinâ—ipium c. 1. Quasi ad tutissimuÌ„ communionis suae portum Romam confugerant which they peruert and corrupting the Authours mind in many other places in which he counsayleth vs in doubtfull cases to repayre to the Chayre of Peter fayth praysed with the Apostles mouth Calleth that sea a most safe hauen of communion Referreth his writings to be corrected by it Desireth to be resolued by her authority in matters of fayth in omitting or vsing the name of three Hypostases Sayth Let the chayre of Peter the Apostle confirme with her preaching the preaching of the chayre of Marke the Euangelist concludeth at length that whosoeuer gathereth not with Damasus Bishop the Roman Sea scattereth that is he belongeth In explica Symbo ad ama Tom. 2. ep 57. ad Dama Ep. 78. ad Pammaâ—h Marc. Ep. 57. ad Damas. CypriaÌ„ Ep. 55. not to Christ but to Antichrist And S. Cyprian auoucheth that heresies and schismes sprange from no other roote then that the Priest of God is not obeyed nor one Priest in the Church nor one Iudge for the tyme in liew of Christ is had in minde Therfore the Roman Bishop whome he accounteth that one Priest cannot be the authour of Schisme nor broacher of heresy He his Sea with the Church which obeyeth him is defended by God warded by the holy Ghost fenced by the prayer of Christ made for S. Peter and his successours That it neuer was nor euer can be circumuented with errour or be witched with the charmes of pernicious falshood FINIS A TABLE OF THE CHAPTERS OR PRINCIPALL HEADS conteyned in this Booke THE Epistle to the Reader pag. 1. CHAP. 1. VVherein is examined what the Church is and who are of it pag. 13 Chap. 2. VVherein is discussed whether the Church be one or many one visible which we ought to obey another inuisible which we ought to belieue agaynst D. Whitaker and Doctour Fulke pag. 20. Chap. 3. In which is declared that the true visible Church is apparently knowne and famous to the world agaynst D. Whitaker D. Fulke and D. Sparke pag. 27. Chap. 4. In which it is argued that the true visible and apparantly knowne Church can neuer fayle pag. 35. Chap. 5. VVherin is mayntayned that the true Church cannot erre agaynst D. Reynoldes D. Fulke and Doctour Whitaker pag. 45. Chap. 6. VVherein is demonstrated that the Church is the supreme Iudge of controuersies agaynst D. Whitaker D. Fulke and all Protestants pag. 58. Chap. 7. VVherin is manifested the conformable practise of the Church other authorityes alleadged the imagined circle obiected against vs auoyded pag. 65. Chap. 8. VVherein is discouered that out of the true Church there can be no hope of saluation in any Congregation or Sect whatsoeuer pag. 71. Chap. 9. In which is proued that no Sectary can be saued by beleeuing the chiefe heades of Religion pag. 76. Chap. 10. VVherein is disproued the false Markes which Protestants alleadge to find out the Church Agaynst D. Whitaker and M. White pag. 90 Chap. 11. VVherein is shewed That our Sectaryes had not any Preachers of the VVord nor administration of Sacraments nor any Church at all before Luther began Agaynst D. Fulke D. Sparke pag. 99. Chap. 12. VVherin is disproued the Clayme which our Reformers make to certayne pretended Protestants and to men of our Church Agaynst D. Fulke and D. Sparke pag. 106. Chap. 13 VVherein is ouerthrowne the like Clayme which Protestants make to the Professours of the Roman Church agaynst D. Field and M. White pag. 112. Chap. 14. In which Vnity is explayned and strongly proued to be a marke of the true Church Agaynst D. Whitaker and Doctor Field pag. 122. Chap. 15. In which sundry variances are reckoned vp wherein Protestants dissent amongst themselues in essentiall points of Religion pag. 129. Chap. 16. VVherin is declared how Sanctity or Holines is a note of the true Church Agaynst D. Whitaker and D. Field pag. 137. Chap. 17. In which Sanctity or Holines is another way explayned to be a badge of the true Church pag. 146. Chap. 18. In which the Name of Catholik is proued to be a marke of the â—rue Church Agaynst D. Whitaker D. Fulke and D. Field pag. 155. Chap. 19. In which the thinge signified by the Name Catholike to wit Vniuersality is shewed to be a marke of the true Church Agaynst D. Whitaker and D. Abbor pag. 164. Chap. 20. In which Apostolicall succession is declared to be an appaparent note of the true Church Agaynst M. Francis Mason pag. 177. Chap. 21. In which the Beginning Propagation Continuance of the true Fayth is proued to be a Note of the true Church and only to appertayne to the Roman Church which neuer altered the Faith it fiâ—st receaued from the Apostles pag. 205. Faults escaped in the Printing Page Line Fault Correction Pag. 4. 25. heriocall heroicall 6. 34. good God 7. 14. hild hidde Ibid. 24. some sonne 11. vlt. holynes holy ones 14. 31. Nouitians Nouatians 15. 27. preseuer perseuer 19. vlt. shee sheepe 23. 13. would could 24. 38. blynd build 25. 17. paradoxes paradoxe 27. 18 coÌ„municateth communicated 28. 1. some sometymes 29. 6. thorne throne 33. 16. breathed since he c. breathed since he defendeth it now c. Ibid. 26. dispute disputant 37. 22. visible flocke a visible flocke In the margent pag. 8. praesentiam lege potentiam If any other faults haue escaped it is desired of the learned Reader to correct them of his courtesy the Authour being far absent from the print and so forced to commit the same to strangers FINIS