Cùm jam varia grassentur quasi factiones opinionum c. Whereas every where now-adays divers factions of Opinions grow up among them that profess the Gospel there are some among others who by certain Philosophical Reasons go about to evacuate or make void the Testament of our Lord so as they would remove the Presence of the true Body and Blood of Christ from the Communion and would by a certain strange perplexity of words deceive the people against the most clear the most evident the most true and the most potent words of our Savior himself Wherefore your Majesty must principally look to this point and provide that the Articles of our Faith be kept without such Pharisaical Leaven and that the Sacraments instituted by Christ be restored without all corruption and adulteration Thus far the Magdeburgians to her Majesty by which you may perceive why I call them Fox his Masters in lying but not his Mates in believing 7. To come therefore now to our purpose I might as before hath been said if it were not over long use two ways for this positive Proof That these Articles deny'd by Fox and his Scholar were heard of and acknowledged in Eleutherius's time The first by citing the places themselves out of the principal Doctors that then lived but this as I have said would be over-long Yet one place I cannot omit of Irenaeus in the very Age we speak of and written while Eleutherius yet lived The words are these Maximae antiquissimae Ecclesiae c. We shewing the Tradition of the greatest and most ancient Church of Rome known to all the World as founded by the two most glorious Apostles Peter and Paul which Tradition and Faith she receiving from the Apostles hath preached and delivered unto us by Succession of her Bishops from time to time unto our days do confound thereby all those Heretics which by any ways either through delight in themselves or vain-glory or blindness of understanding do gather otherwise than they should For that unto this Church in respect of her more Mighty Principality it is necessary that all Churches must agree and have access that is to say all faithful people wheresoever they live In which Church the Tradition that hath descended from the Apostles hath ever been kept by those that live in any place of the World. 8. And again a little after having for proof of his Faith and confirmation of Apostolical Tradition recounted all the Bishops of Rome from St. Peter to his days he saith Nunc duodecimo loco c. Now in the twelfth place from the Apostles hath Eleutherius that Bishopric and by this Succession of the foresaid Roman Bishops is the Tradition of the Apostles conserved in the Church and the Preaching of the Truth hath come down unto us and this is a most full Demonstration that one and the same lively Faith hath been conserved in the Church from the Apostles time and delivered unto us in Truth c. 9. Lo here Tradition of the Apostles delivered and conserved by the Succession of the Bishops of Rome Lo here the Church of Rome called so long ago the Greatest and most Ancient of all other Churches her Principality both named and confirmed Behold the Obligation of all other Churches of the World yea and of all faithful Christians to agree and have access to Her See here all vainglorious and self-will'd Heretics confounded by Irenaeus with the only Tradition and Succession of this Church of Rome and her Bishops even from St. Peter's time to Eleutherius that lived with Irenaeus What Catholic man could say more at this day And will any jangling Fox or Sir Francis avouch yet without shame that none of these points were ever known or heard of in Eleutherius's time 10. Well then this is one way to confound them if I would follow it But being over tedious I mean to take another and shew out of their own Historiographers the Magdeburgenses that all these Doctrins deny'd by Fox and his Follower here were known and in ure among the chiefest Writers in the primitive Church and first Ages after Christ And first of all to begin with this very matter first named by them Of the Primacy of the Pope and Church of Rome The Magdeburgians have an especial Paragraph thereof De primatu Ecclesiae Romanae under the foresaid Title of the incommodious Opinions Stubble Straw and Errors of the Doctors that lived within the first 200 years after Christ And in that Paragraph they not only do alledge for Stubble this last Authority of Irenaeus by me cited tho' they alledge it so miserably maimed as of six parts they leave out more than five but also another place of St. Ignatius that lived in the first Age with the Apostles themselves to the same purpose which they cite in like manner under the same Title of Straw and Stubble and incommodious Opinions And then passing to the third Century or second Age after that of Christ they cite Tertullian for the same incommodious Opinion about the Primacy of the Roman Church and Bishop saying of him Non sine errore sentire videtur Tertullianus claves soli Petro commissas Ecclesiam super ipsum structam c. Tertullian doth seem not without Error to think that the Keys of the Church were given only to St. Peter and that the Church was built but on him 11. They cite also four or five places out of St. Cyprian where he holdeth the same with Tertullian and so they are both confuted for Stubble-Doctors together Yet go they further with St. Cyprian citing divers other places out of him to the same effect for the Bishop and Church of Rome all which they take for Stubble as where he saith One God one Christ one Church one Chair builded upon the Ark by the Word of our Savior and three or four like places more which for brevity I omit and finally they say of him and three other Fathers of his time Cyprianus Maximus Vrbanus and Salonius do think that one Chief Bishop must be in the Catholic Church c. Lo four old Fathers that lived almost 1400 years agone and were the Lights of that Primitive Church rejected here by four drinking Germans gathered together in some warm Stow of Magdeburg tippling strongly as a man may presume and judging all the World for Stubble besides themselves for which cause the third person in this Quaternity is called perhaps Mattheus Judex But let us go forward 12. They are not content with this rejection of St. Cyprian but they fall upon him again in these words Cyprian affirmeth expresly without all foundation of holy Scripture that the Roman Church must be acknowledged by all Christians for the Mother and Root of the Catholic Church And further yet in another Treatise That this Church is the Chair of Peter from which all the Vnity of Priesthood proceedeth And finally Cyprian say they hath
tho' first before we enter into this examination we have thought good to treat certain general Points that make way thereunto as by the next Chapter you shall perceive CHAP. I. Of how to great Importance Ecclesiastical Succession is for trial of true Religion and how Sectaries have sought to fly the force thereof by saying That the Church is invisible How fond a shift this is and how foolishly John Fox doth behave himself therein THE Sentence of the Philosopher is known to all That contraries being laid together do give light the one to the other as white and black proposed in one Table do make each colour more clear distinct and lively in it self For which respect we having laid open before in the first Part of this Discourse the known manifest Succession of Christian Religion in our Isle of England first from the Apostles times among the Britans for the first six Ages after Christ and then again among the English-men for nine Ages more since their first Conversion from Paganism we are now to examin what manner of visible Succession John Fox doth bring us forth of his Church that is to say of the Protestants of his Religion for the said 1500 years or fifteen Ages if any such be for that by this comparison of the One with the Other the Nature and Condition of both Churches will be understood But yet first I mean to note by the way certain principal points to be considered for better understanding of all that is to be handled in this Chapter or about this whole matter of Ecclesiastical Succession 2. Whereof the first may be that which I have touched in the end of the former Chapter to wit of how great importance this point is I mean the Succession and Continuation of Teachers the one conform to the other in matter of Belief and Religion for clear demonstration of Truth in matters of Controversie and for staying any discreet man's judgment from wavering hither and thither in his belief according to that which holy St. Augustin said of himself and felt in himself For that considering the great diversity of Sects that swarm'd in his time and every one pretending Truth Antiquity Purity and Authority of Scriptures and himself also having been misled by one of these Sects for many years was brought by God at length to be a true Catholic and to feel in himself the force of this visible Succession of the Catholic Church And therefore writing against one that in time past had been his Master as Head of the former Sect wherein he had lived to wit Faustus Manichaeus after divers other reasons alledged of his confidence and assurance of Truth in the Catholic Church and of his firm resolution to live and die in the same he bringeth for his last and strongest reason the perpetual Succession of Bishops in the same Church and especially in the Church of Rome Tenet me in Ecclesia saith he ab ipsa Petri sede usque ad praesentem Episcopatum successio Sacerdotum c. I am held in this Church against all you Sectaries by the Succession of Priests and Bishops that have come down even from the first seat of St. Peter the Apostle to the present Bishop of Rome Anastasius that holdeth the seat at this day c. 3. Lo here the force and estimation of Succession with St. Augustin Whereunto are conform all other ancient Fathers if we would stand to alledge them yea they stand so firmly upon this point and do make so great account of it as they do generally note Heretics and Sectaries for the contrary defect to wit that they have no Succession or orderly continuation either of Bishops or of Faith among them but did leap hither and thither as ours do at this day challenging to themselves now this and now that without either Order Interest Continuation or Succession Ordinem saith St. Augustin ab Apostolo Petro coeptum usque ad hoc tempus per traducem succedentium Episcoporum servatum perturbant ordinem sibi sine origine vendicantes Heretics do trouble and break the order of succeeding of Bishops begun by St. Peter and brought down by Off spring one Bishop succeeding another and so challenge unto themselves a certain Order without beginning 4. To which effect also Tertullian more than 200 years before St. Augustin challenging Heretics to this Combat of Succession said Edant Haeretici origines suarum Ecclesiarum evolvant ordinem Episcoporum suorum c. Let Heretics set forth the beginning of their Churches let them recount the order of their succeeding Bishops if they can And then having set down for his part and for proof of true Catholic Succession the whole rank of the Bishops of Rome from St. Peter to Pope Eleutherius that lived in his days Mark I pray you the proof he useth tho' he were of the Church of Africa He glorieth as tho' he brought forth an invincible Argument against all Heretics challenging and provoking them to do the like if they could Consingant saith he tale aliquid Haeretici Let Heretics bring forth or devise any such things for proof of their Church if they can And consider here gentle Reader how Heretics remain confounded by Tertullian's judgment for want of Succession 5. But this is not only Tertullian's Opinion for St. Irenaeus before him again objecteth the same to Heretics against whom he wrote saying Obedire oportet eis qui successionem habent ab Apostolis qui cum Episcopatus successione charismata veritatis acceperunt You ought to obey these who have their Succession from the Apostles who together with the Succession of their Bishoprics have received from time to time the gifts or privileges of Truth And in another place Apud quas est ea quae est ab Apostolis successio hi fidem nostram custodiunt scripturas sine periculo nobis exponunt With whom the Succession of Bishops from the Apostles time downwards is found to have remained these are they who conserve our Faith and do expound the Scripture unto us without danger Behold the vertue of Succession which this blessed Bishop and Martyr St. Irenaeus esteemed so highly in his days as he ascribed thereto both the infallible Conservation of Faith and true Exposition of Scriptures 6. And it is to be noted that he speaketh not only of Succession in Belief as every one of our Sectaries will seem to pretend that they have it among themselves from the Apostles which yet is ridiculous and manifestly false as before hath been declared and after shall be more in particular but he speaketh expresly also of the external Succession and Continuation of Bishops ascribing to them and proving by them the Succession of one and the self-same Faith And to that end doth he number up all the Bishops of Rome from St. Peter to his time as Tertullian before-alledged did notwithstanding the one lived in France and the other in Africa proving
meaneth of Customs and Ceremonies and not of Articles of Belief Which no Council can appoint but only declare and expound as before we have shewed 12. This Position then of St. Augustin is most true and consonant to the Doctrin of all other Fathers in that behalf that when any thing is found generally received in the Church and no Author Institutor or Beginning can be found thereof this without all doubt cometh down from the Apostles And of this position may be alledged two infallible grounds The one of Faith the other of evident Reasons For in Faith who can think so basely of Christs Power or Will in performing his Promises made unto his Church to conserve her in all Truth unto the Worlds end as that he should permit her notwithstanding to admit or teach generally any one false Article of Doctrin and much less so many as these men object against us For whereas he promised his Holy Spirit to be with her unto the Worlds end and that she should be the Pillar and Firmament of Truth to direct others and finally that hell gates should never prevail against her How should all this be performed if she fell into those Errors of which Protestants accuse her or what greater Victory could the gates of Hell have against her than that from an Apostolical Church of whom Christ spake she should become an Apostatical Church as these Men do call her which is the greatest Blasphemy against Christ and his Divinity that possibly can be imagined seeing it doth evacuate his whole Incarnation Life Death Doctrin Resurrection and other Benefits of his coming which were all imployed to this end to make unto himself a Church and Kingdom in this world that should direct Men in all Truth to their Salvation And this being taken away and the other granted that the Church her self may fall into Error and false Doctrin then is there no certainty in any thing And consequently it cannot be that any erroneous Doctrin should be taught or received generally by the Church And this is the first ground of St Augustin's Assertion 13. But besides this there is another founded in Reason and Experience which cannot be denied And for that it is a consideration of great Importance and may serve the Reader to many purposes of moment for discerning of Doubts and Controversies I shall desire him to be attent in perusing the same We do find by Experience and that not only in Ecclesiastical but Temporal Affairs also That when Orders Laws and Customs are once settled in any Common-wealth it is hard to alter or take them away or to bring in things opposite or different to them without some Resistance Dispute Contradiction or at least some Memory thereof how why and by whom it was done As for Example if a Man would go about to bring in any Innovation in the particular Laws of London and much more in the general Laws of all the Land no doubt but he should find some Resistance therein some that would dispute about the matter alledging Reasons to the contrary others would resist and oppose themselves and when all did fail at leastwise some Record Story or Memory would be left of this Change. 14. But much more if this matter did concern Religion which is most esteemed above other Points As for Example if a Man would begin to teach any Points of Doctrin at this Day in England contrary or different from that which is there received and established by public Authority he would presently be noted and contradicted by some no doubt as we see the Puritans Brownists Family of Love and other such newer Teachers have been and the History thereof is notorious and will remain to Posterity 15. And this is the very reason also why all Heretics and Heresies from the beginning did no sooner peep up in the visible Catholic Church but that they were noted impugned confuted and finally cast out from that body to the Devils dung-hill And the Records thereof do remain who were the Authors and Beginners who the Favourers and setters forward at what time upon what occasion under what Popes and Kings and other such-like Circumstances And this will endure to the end of the World. 16. This then being so we now come to the state of our Question and to joyn with the Protestants upon this Issue That seeing the Doctrins before mentioned of the Popes Authority Sacrifice of the Mass Transubstantiation Vse of Images and the like were found to be generally received and believed in the Visible and Universal Catholic Church of Christendom when Martin Luther first began to break from the same yea and many Ages before by their own confession they must shew us when the said Doctrins were brought in afterwards to the Church not being there nor believed therein before to wit by what Man or Men with what Authority Constraint or Persuasion with what repugnance of them that misliked the same and other like Circumstances before mentioned which if they be not able to do most certain it is that whatsoever they prattle against these Doctrins saying they were not in Eleutherius's time it is nothing but Cavils and Heretical Shifts 17. And now that they cannot shew any such particularities for the entrance or admittance of these Doctrins into the Church is most evident For whatsoever time they assign for their beginning we can still shew that before that time they were in use if they mean of the Things themselves and not only of Words or Phrases As for example when they object That in the Council of Lateran under Pope Innocentius III. in the year of Christ 1215. the word Transubstantiation was first used we answer That albeit that word was then added for better explication of the matter as these words Homousion Consubstantial Trinity and the like were by the first General Council of Nice yet the substance of the Article was held before from the beginning under other equivalent words of Change and Immutation of Natures Transformation of Elements and the like As for Example that of St. Ambrose speaking of the words of Christ in the Consecration Non valebit sermo Christi ut species mutet elementorum Shall not the words of Christ be of power to change the Natures of Elements And again Sermo Christi qui potuit de nihilo facere quod non erat non potest ea quae sunt in id mutare quod non erant The Speech of Christ that was able to create of nothing that which was not before shall it not be able to change things that are already into that which they were not before He meaneth the Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ as himself doth expound 18. So as here we see the change of the Natures of Elements and of the Substance of one Body into another averred by St. Ambrose long time before the Council of Lateran which is the same that we mean by Transubstantiation And
Catholic Church had all Truth in it that was revealed by Christ and not some sparks only as Fox requireth in his Church and that it had continual Succession of multitudes of true Teachers without interruption and not one starting up in one Age and another in another wherewith Fox seemeth to be contented for the continuation of his Church 25. And finally if Fox coming at length to be asham'd of his former definition of an obscure and trodden-down Church and of the sparkled Doctrin of Truth therein taught should leave the same and offer to lay hands on the Great Illustrious and Visible Church of the first 300 years saying that this was His which yet you have seen by many Arguments demonstrated that it cannot be I shall be content to admit so ridiculous a pretence for a time with condition that he will stand to it and go forward with this Church in the sequent Ages and not to disclaim from Her to his hidden Church again Which if he yield unto then have we now a Visible and Eminent True Church on foot by confession of both Parties which we must follow to the Worlds end for that she cannot perish again as before we have declared For which cause I am to prosecute the same from Age to Age in this Treatise from this time downwards to our days in the Chapters that do ensue where we shall see who sticketh to her and who flieth from her who followeth her constantly or who giveth the slip for that she being now once so Potent Notorious and Illustrious as both Parts do confess if he will stand to it in earnest that she is his Church also it is not possible that she should be lost shrink or fade away again but that all the World must see it How Where When and by Whom so great an Accident should fall out neither can Fox and his People being now once in Her and of Her by his own pretence be found out of her afterward but only by Apostacy or Heresie and running away This then let us examin in the Ages following CHAP. III. The prosecution of the same matter to wit of the Descent of the Catholic and Protestant Church for other Three Hundred years that is from Pope Sylvester and Constantine to Pope Gregory and Mauritius the Emperour And where John Fox his Church lay hid in this time AND thus having run over the first three Ages after Christ we must now pass to the second station which is for other 300 years beginning from Constantine the Emperour downward unto the time of St. Gregory under whom St. Augustin came into England in which space of time the Catholic Christian Church spread over all the World as before you have heard did grow and confirm it self powerfully especially after Persecution did cease as by all Stories appeareth having had thirty-two Popes between Sylvester and Gregory whereof thirty were holden for great Saints and three or four were Martyrs 2. The Fathers and Doctors also of these three Ages were most excellent men both Grecians and Latins and it seemeth that what wanted in these three Ages from the former three in the Glory of Martyrdom it was supply'd by the Excellency of Learning As for Example in the fourth Age after Christ which is the first of the second three did flourish Eusebius Lactantius Rheticius Juvencus Athanasius Hilarius Optatus Climacus Basil Nazianzenus Ambrose Prudentius Hierom Chrysostom Epiphanius Cyril and divers others In rhe fifth Age St. Augustin Possidonius Sulpitius Orosius Cassianus Prosper Vincentius Lyrinensis Falgentius and many more And in the sixth Age Cassiodorus Emisenus Procopius Fortunatus Venantius Evagrius Gregorius Turonensis and Gregory the Great All which filled the World with their excellent Books both Greek and Latin besides many General National and Provincial Councils whereof five were Universal the first of Nice the second of Constantinople the third of Ephesus the fourth of Chalcedon wherein there were 630 Bishops and the fifth was of Constantinople the second time but of Provincial and National Councils there are receiv'd to the number of almost seventy to have been held in this time 3. By all which concourse of Testimonies the Force and Unity of Catholic Faith is shewed to wit that these Fathers Doctors Popes and Councils agreeing together all throughout the World in one and the self-same Faith and Religion and continuing the same from Age to Age with so great Authority of Respect and Majesty as not only all Ecclesiastical Persons of what Nations soever and other Christian People but all Temporal Princes Kings and Emperours in like manner except such as were noted with any particular Heresie as some Emperours of the East did wholly submit themselves with one consent Whereby this visible Illustrious Roman Church was made so Great and Universal notorious and known embracing all Christendom as it is wholly impossible for John Fox to find out any creeping hidden Church bearing the name of Christian in these three Ages and yet different from this visible and splendent Church of Rome which he calleth the Devil's Chappel And much more hard will it be for him to find out this in these latter three hundred years than in the former for that the external Glory of this Church was increased much more in these three Ages than in the first three before treated of which passed all in Persecution 4. The Heresies also and Sects of this time being above Fifty in number were beaten down more strongly by the foresaid Fathers Bishops and Councils than before by reason they had more time and leisure from Persecution to attend unto them than had those of the former three Ages The principal Heresies of this fourth Age were Meletians Donatists Arians Novatians Macedonians Luciferians Aërians Eunomians Apollinarians Aetians Priscillianists Jovinians Vigilantians Collyridians Helvidians Antimarians and other the like And in the fifth Age were Pelagians Nestorians Eutychians and other such Rabble And in the sixth Age Severians Monothelites Chrystolytes Agnoites Sadduces Theopaschites and the like Out of which Synagogues and Congregations of wrangling Spirits which succeeded one another in divers Times Places and Countries and opposed themselves maliciously out of their obscure corners against the shining Light of the foresaid Catholic Church if John Fox will frame his poor and beggarly Church which yet he holdeth for the only true Church of God oppressed and trodden down as he saith and almost scarce visible to worldly eyes he may do it with great probability for that these Fellows were neglected and trodden down indeed by the other opposite Roman Church and yet did they as John Fox requireth for the Succession of his Church continue and rise up from time to time tho' by no orderly Succession of Bishops or Doctrin as hath been said yea they had that other quality also proper to John Fox his Church that they always kept some sparks of true Doctrin and Religion together with their Heresies So as in this
credible and sufficient to move any wise considerate man to believe the same tho' they do not enforce him 30. And the like may be said and shewed concerning the Arguments for Catholic Religion against all Sects and Heresies whatsoever which are so many and pregnant in themselves to him that will consider them duly as there can be no probable doubt in the world which is the truth and which is falshood tho' oftentimes for want either of diligence to know them or pious affection to consider indifferently of them which is the third Point here to be mentioned many Mens Judgments are so obscured or perverted that they cannot or will not see the truth Of these Arguments of credibility for proof of Catholic Faith in general against Heresies you may see many put together by Tertullian in his excellent Book De praescriptionibus adversus Haereses and in S. Augustin's Books De utilitate credendi de moribus Ecclesiae and other such Treatises and in all his other Books against the Donatists Manichees and Pelagians And in that Golden Treatise of Vincentius Lirinensis contra prophanas haeresum omnium novitates who wrote soon after S. Austin and in our times Bosius de signis Ecclesiae and divers others have handled the same Argument And more than this there want not also store in our English Tongue of like matter as Dr. Bristow's Motives and others and you shall find no small number of these Arguments in this Treatise if you read it over So as this Point maketh any man inexcusable that will pretend ignorance herein 31. But now there resteth the third Point which as I said is the Key of all the rest to open the Gate to true Faith and Belief which is a pious and purged Affection without which all the Arguments of Credibility in the World will do no good to move a man to true Religion no more than the persuasion of S. John Baptist did with Herod nor the often speeches and Conferences of S. Paul prevail'd with the Proconsul Foelix the reason whereof is that albeit naturally our Judgment and Understanding should yield to that which appeareth truest and that our Will and Affection by the same natural course ought to follow our said Judgment and Understanding yet thro' the corruption of mankind we find daily by experience that our Will draweth after it our Judgment and as she is affected or disaffected so goeth our Judgment and Understanding also 32. This Point touch'd Christ our Savior when he said in S. John's Gospel to certain ambitious Jews Quomodo vos potestis credere qui Gloriam ab invicem accipitis Gloriam quae à solo Deo est non queritis How can you believe in me which do take and seek Glory one of another and do not seek that true Glory which is only to be had from God Here you see that an ambitious affection did impossibilitate their Understanding to believe notwithstanding what Arguments Reasons or Motives soever to the contrary S. Paul also giving the reason why certain Infidels did not believe the Gospel preach'd by him with many Signs Miracles and other Arguments to move them he noteth the whole impediment to be in their affections saying In quibus Deus hujus saeculi excaecavit mentes ut non fulgeat illuminatio Evangelii gloriae Christi qui est Imago Dei In whom the God of this world hath blinded their Minds and Vnderstanding so that the light or illumination of the glory of Christ's Gospel cannot shine in them who is notwithstanding the very Image of God c. 33. Here you see that there wanted not external Light on the behalf of Christ and his Gospel whose Glory shin'd by so many Miracles in those days of S. Paul but that the love of this World and disorderly affection to Honor Ambition Riches and other Sensualities thereof which here by the Apostle are called the God of this World for that worldly men do adore them This God I say or Devil rather of corrupt affections had so blinded their Judgments and Understanding inwardly as they could not see this shining Light of Truth So that where this pious affection is not or at leastwise where it is not so purg'd from sinister humors as it remaineth with some indifferency of desire to know and follow the Truth if it be discovered no good can be hop'd for In regard whereof Christ refus'd to do Miracles before Herod or in his own Country for that he knew them so obstinately averse in mind as they would not profit by them And for the same cause he refus'd to reason or argue with Pilat about his own Cause when he gave him occasion for that he knew his affections to be so ty'd to the World and himself so addicted to please the People and to gain the good will of Tiberius the Emperor as his labor would be but lost in seeking to persuade him being so obstinately dispos'd otherwise And thus much of this third Point of pious affection and the necessity thereof to a Man's Salvation 34. The fourth and last Point of this Consideration is That tho' it be true as is said in the first Point that ordinarily and for the most part the Object or Articles of our Faith are above the reach of man's Reason and were first reveal'd to man from God himself yet are there some Points thereof which by force of human Reason may be known and demonstrated As for example that there is a God and that he is but One and cannot be Many and that the World was made by Him and that he hath Providence over the same and other such-like Points Which Points and Articles notwithstanding for that on the other side they are propos'd also in the Scriptures and in the Nicene Creed as Articles of our Faith that must be believ'd by Christians as reveal'd from God hence ariseth no small question among School-Divines whether these Points here set down may be known by two distinct ways or no to wit evidently by force of human Reason or Demonstration and inevidently by Light of Faith and Revelation from God And the more common and probable Opinion of School-men and more conformable to the Scriptures and ancient Fathers is That they may for that our Vnderstanding may have two Lights to know one and the self-same thing the first by Revelation from God which always is with some darkness and obscurity to our Reason as before hath been declared and consequently our Judgment being not forc'd to yield thereunto by the clearness of evidence it followeth that our assent by Faith is more free and greater place is given to pious affection of our will and thereby also more merit to assent as before hath been shewed 35. The second Light may be by force of Man's Reason and evidence of Demonstration which sometimes is so clear in it self as it admitteth no doubt at all as when we shew
Tythes and if any man will needs give he may give to whom he will excluding thereby their Curates Another Article also was of the said Brute That a Priest receiving by bargain any thing of Yearly Annuity is thereby a Schismatic and Excommunicate Which if it be true then are his Ministers in a hard case at this day in England who do bargain for their Service and Wages due thereunto 40. And so goeth Fox on from Point to Point to ratifie John Wickliff's Doctrin or at least the Professors thereof not considering simple Fellow how much they differ from him or make against him so they be contrary to the Pope of Rome or condemned by him For further proof of which Folly and blind Ignorance we shall pass now to treat in a several Chapter what manner of Continuance and Succession of his Church he deviseth thro'out the Rabble of these opposite Sects from the time of Pope Innocentius III. to the Reign of King Henry VIII whereby I doubt not but the Reader will remain sufficiently instructed of these Mens madness that of so contrary and repugnant Spirits will needs frame to themselves the Unity of a true Christian Church CHAP. X. The most absurd and ridiculous Succession of Sectaries appointed by John Fox for the Continuance of his Church from Pope Innocentius III. downward where also by this occasion is declared the true Nature and Conditions of lawful Ecclesiastical Succession HAving now followed John Fox throughout all this Treatise from Christ's time to ours to see what visible course and race he would set down as well of His Church as Ours according to his promise made in the beginning of his Acts and Monuments we have found him hitherto to have talked only in a manner of Our Church that is to say of the Universal Roman Church perspicuously come down by succession of Years and Ages from the Apostles to Us neither did John Fox for twelve hundred years together so much as name unto us any other Congregation of Men or Women small or great good or bad that in this time bare the Name of a Christian Church besides the other nor did he pretend any Succession fearing perhaps those words of Tertullian before recited Confingant tale aliquid Haeretici c. Let Heretics presume to feign or devise any such Succession of Bishops Teachers and Pastors for Their Church as we have alleged for Ours if they dare 2. But now from Pope Innocentius's time downwards John Fox presuming that all the other Church was fallen from God a great presumption indeed as before hath been shewed he bringeth us forth in place thereof another Company of Men which he saith in those days made the true Church for that they were condemned by the other Church which he holdeth for the false And these were a certain Rabblement of Sectaries different in Opinions and Professions not only from Us but also from John Fox and his Crew and most of all among themselves being of divers Countries Sects Times Ages Offices and Functions and cohering together in no other form at all of Succession but that one rose or sprung up after the other For which cause Fox himself in his Acts and Monuments doth not handle their Affairs as of any Congregation that ever met together or saw perhaps one another or had Conference Order Subordination or Succession among themselves but only tieth them together in a certain List or Catalogue as Sampson's Foxes were by the Tails Which List or Catalogue he setteth down in his foresaid Protestation to the Church of England telling us first That during the time of the last 400 years from Pope Innocentius downwards the true Church of Christ durst not openly appear in the face of the World being oppressed by Tyranny but yet that it remained from time to time visibly in certain chosen Members that not only bare secret good affection to sincere Doctrin but stood also in the defence of Truth against the Church of Rome 3. This is his Assertion which he proveth by a large List or Catalogue as I have said of sundry that were in this time censured and condemned in some part of Doctrin by the said Roman Church In which Catalogue saith he first to pretermit Bertramus and Berengarius which were before Pope Innocentius III. a Learned multitude of sufficient Witnesses here might be produced whose Names neither are obscure nor Doctrin unknown as Joachim Abbot of Calabria Almaricus a Learned Bishop that was judged an Heretic for holding against Images besides the Martyrs of Alsatia of whom we read an hundred to be burned by Pope Innocentius in one day Add likewise saith he to these the Waldenses and Albigenses Marsilius Patavinus Gulielmus de Sancto Amore Symon Tornacensis Arnoldus de nova Villa Joannes Semica besides divers others Preachers in Suevia standing against the Pope Anno 1240 c. 4. Thus beginneth Fox his Catalogue and then goeth he forward with Joannes Anglicus a Master of Paris Petrus Joannis a Minorite burned after his death Robert Grossehead Bishop of Lincoln called Malleus Romanorum c. And further he addeth Joannes de Ganduno Eudo Duke of Burgundy that counselled the French King to receive the Popes Extravagants Dante 's an Italian Poet that wrote against Popes Monks and Friars together with Petrarcha and them Conradus Hagaz imprisoned for preaching against the Mass Anno 1339 c. And to these again he coupleth Franciscus de Arcaterra and others burned for new Opinions Gregorius Ariminensis Armachanus Occham and others as tho' these had been all of the same Opinions And finally he falleth upon the Lollards Wickliffians Hussites and their Followers in England and Bohemia succeeding one after another now in this Country now in that now upon one occasion and now upon another until the Reign of King Henry III. when Martin Luther began his Profession who did agree and symbolize in divers Points with the said former Sects of Waldenses and Albigenses Lollards Wickliffians and Hussites and differed in others as before hath been declared And after the Lutherans did follow again others partly agreeing and partly disagreeing as Zuinglius Calvinus Beza Oecolampadius and others unto our days and every one affirming his Opinions to be the New Gospel 5. And this is the visible Succession forsooth which John Fox hath devised to set down for the proof of his new Church and the Antiquity thereof for 400 years past And it is like as if a man in England to disgrace the City of London should seek out the Records of all those that have been hanged at Tyburn for Theft or Murthers for 400 years and having found them out should produce them for Witnesses of the truth and for honest men and good Citizens condemning both the Judges and Jurors and whole Country that gave Sentence and Verdict against them And yet if you will see how John Fox playeth the Fool indeed and braggeth of this Succession
every where there is mention of all these Doctrins as afterward in our second Argument we shall shew out of the Protestants themselves and namely the Magdeburgians that profess to note all 24. Now then I ask our Adversaries touching this creeping Instance how could these Doctrins so creep into the Catholic Visible Church in this fourth Age for example and be received so generally over all Nations Countreys and Kingdoms by these principal Lights Captains Watchmen and Guiders of the same as no Note Detection Resistance or Memory should be left of any Doubt Dispute or Opposition made against them Is this likely Is this possible Read all the Fathers Works over and find if you can but one place wherein one Father did ever hitherto note another for holding Purgatory Praying to Saints believing the Real Presence or the like as they did Cyprian tho' otherwise a most Learned and Holy Man for teaching Re-baptization of Heretics and some other Fathers for other particular Opinions different from the Catholic Doctrin of that Age. Whereof we may infer That they would have done the like also in these other points if they had been held for new or erroneous in those days And hereof also may be inferred another Sequel or Observation of very great moment against our Heretics That when soever any Doctrin is found in any of the ancient Fathers which is not contradicted nor noted by any of the rest as singular that Doctrin is to be presumed to be no particular Opinion of his but rather the general of all the Church in his days for that otherwise it would most certainly have been noted and impugned by others Whereby it followeth that one Doctor 's Opinion or Saying in matters of Controversie not contradicted or noted by others may sometimes give a sufficient Testimony of the whole Churches Sentence and Doctrin in those days which is a point very greatly to be considered 25. But yet further to all this may be added another Consideration of no small weight which is the difficulty of bringing in certain Doctrins if any man would have attempted it as for Example the Doctrin of Seven Sacraments If there had been but Two only before in the Apostles time it had been an extreme great Novelty to have added Five more which never would have been admitted without much strife and resistance seeing all Catholics do hold that Christ only could institute Sacraments for that He only could assure the Promise of Grace made thereunto as excellently doth declare the Council of Trent and long before that again the Master of Sentences and St. Thomas in the name of all Catholics did leave that Doctrin registred and there can be no doubt thereof 26. Wherefore this Truth being admitted That the whole Church hath no Authority to institute any Sacrament or to alter any thing about the substantial parts thereof to wit the Matter Form or Number as the same Council of Trent in another place declareth how was it possible that five whole Sacraments should be added or brought into Catholic Doctrin and received and believed throughout Christendom without any resistance or opposition at all if there had been but two only instituted by Christ and exercised by the Apostles in the first Age How I say could five more be brought in afterward By whom at what time in what Countrey c. For if any one had begun to do it others would have resisted it being a matter of so high moment And if one Countrey Province or Church had admitted them another would have refused or at leastwise there would have been some Doubt or Disputation and some general Meeting and Synod or Council gathered about that matter and some parts would have admitted one Number and some another as we see that the Sectaries of our time have done since the matter hath been called in question by them some allowing five some four some three some two But no memory of any of these differences being to be found among Catholics most certain it is that this Number came down from Christ and his Apostles themselves 27. The like or greater difficulty would also have been about the use of Sacramental Confession if it had not been appointed by Christ and put in ure presently and so continued from time to time For that it being a thing in it self most repugnant to man's sensual Nature to be bound to open his particular sins to another with that Humility and Subjection which Catholic Doctrin doth prescribe in the use of that Sacrament clear it is that if it had not been in ure even from the Apostles time and that as a matter of absolute necessity it could never have been received afterward nor yet brought in by any Human Power Art or Device For who I pray you should or could bring in such a thing of so great repugnance and difficulty upon the whole Christian Church Will they say any Pope Let them name either Him or Them together with the Time and other Particularities which they never will be able to do 28. Besides this I ask them further What Pope would ever have attempted this if it had not been by Obligation before him seeing that Popes themselves the more Great and Eminent they be above others the more natural repugnance must they needs find in themselves to go and kneel down at the feet of an inferior Priest and confess unto him their most secret sins And the like may be said of Temporal Princes and Emperours who if any Pope or Power Ecclesiastical would have laid such a burthen upon them not used nor of obligation before how would they have yielded unto it which of them would not have answered that seeing their Fathers and Ancestors were saved without this subjection and irksom obligation of revealing their particular sins they would hope to be so also And finally some great Difficulty Doubt or Contention would have been about this matter before it could have been so brought in and established all over the Christian World as we see by experience it was and at leastwise some memory would have remained thereof in Histories which we find not and consequently we may conclude that there was never any such thing And this is sufficient for our first Argument Now let us pass to the second CHAP. VI. It is proved by the second kind of Affirmative or Positive Arguments That the Points of Catholic Doctrin before denied by Fox and Sir Francis were in use in Pope Eleutherius his Time and in other Ages immediately following and this by Testimony of Protestant Writers themselves ALbeit the Reasons and Considerations before alledged whereby our Adversaries are willed to shew the beginning of such Articles and Points of our Catholic Doctrin as they deny to have come down from the Apostles Time were sufficient to put them to silence being not able to perform any part thereof and consequently also may open the eyes of any studious Reader to see
the Infirmity of Their Cause and the Strength and Truth of Ours yet will we for greater satisfaction of all sorts pass over to the other part also of Positive and Affirmative Proofs which are so abundant in this behalf as if I would set them down all this only point would require a particular Treatise wherefore I mean to abreviate the matter as much as I may 2. For which respect whereas there are two means to set down these Proofs one out of the Authors themselves that lived in the same Age with Eleutherius and the next after and the other to cite the same out of Protestant Writers I have made choice of the second way in this place both for that it is shorter and seemeth also more sure and effectual For if I should cite the places as for Example in the second Age St. Irenaeus lib. 5. advers haeres for the Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome and the same lib. 4. cap. 77. and with him Justinus Martyr q. 103. together with Theophilus Athenagoras Clemens Alexandrinus for Freewill and the same Clemens lib. 5. stromatum and divers others of that Age for the Merit of Good Works for the manner of doing Penance and the like and if I should alledge the said Irenaeus lib. 4. cap. 32. for the Sacrifice of the Mass and Justinus Martyr Apolog. 2. and Clemens Alexandrinus lib. 7. Stromatum about the Rites and Ceremonies of the said Mass and the same Justinus q. 136. and the same Irenaeus lib. 1. c. 18. for the Ceremonies of Baptism and Chrism used in those days If I say I should alledge these and other Authors of that time for positive Proofs of Catholic Articles against Protestants in Eleutherius's days the matter would first grow to be very long for that I must alledge the places at length seeing that otherwise the quarrelling Adversary would say that I left out the Antecedents and Consequents as themselves are wont to do when they mean not to have any Text rightly understood Secondly they would quarrel with us when they see themselves prest about the Authors Books whether they be truly theirs or no and thirdly about the Translation Words and Sense All which would bring a long Dispute 3. But now finding that certain Authors of their own Religion if they be of their Religion I mean the Magdeburgians called otherwise Centuriatores have taken upon them to set down the whole Story of the Church and have herewithal treated as well of the Doctrin as also the Doctors of every Age I have thought best to take my Proofs out of them being Confessions as it were against themselves and their Mates the Calvinists tho' not very friendly Mates in many matters of Doctrin as you shall hear and their Story being the very Ground and Fountain of all John Fox his Volume of Acts and Monuments except only those things which concern England in particular wherein whether he or they behave themselves with less Honesty or Conscience is hard to say but in this Treatise you shall have divers tasts of them both And this being spoken as it were by the way of Preface we shall now take in hand the matter proposed 4. These men being four Saxons whom before we have named gathered together in the City of Magdeburg to wit Flaccus Illyricus Joannes Vigandus Matthaeus Judex and Basilius Faber and in Religion strict or rigid Lutherans took upon them as hath been said to write the whole Ecclesiastical History from Christ to their Time by Centuries or Ages allowing 100 years to every Age whereof they are called Centuriatores And in every Age they handle these and like Chapters Of the Church and increase thereof or Doctrin therein taught Of Heresies and Heretics Of Doctors and Writers and the like But amongst other points especially to be noted to our purpose that presently after the Apostles in the second Century they make this Chapter repeating the same in every Age after Inclinatio Doctrinae complectens peculiares incommodas opiniones stipulas errores Doctorum quae palam quidem hoc est scriptis tradita sunt That is The declining of true Christian Doctrin containing the peculiar and incommodious Opinions of Doctors their Errors Straw or Stubble which were left publicly by them that is to say in their Writings 5. This is the Title of this Chapter in every Age and those last words seem to be added thereby to insinuate to the Reader that the said Doctors inwardly did hold perhaps many more Errors and Straw-opinions in these mens judgments than they left openly in writing And by this arrogant Title you may see these four good Fellows mean to judge and censure all from the beginning of Christian Religion unto their days and among others they will censure John Fox also and his Fellows as you may see in the Preface of one of their Centuries dedicated unto the Queen of England the third year of her Reign 1560 where having told her Majesty a long Tale of the Gospel and pure Word of God naming the same above half a hundred times if I have counted right in this one Epistle and shewing how Princes must have no other Rule of Government than the said Word but yet understood as these men will interpret it they tell her also that they now do bring her Antiquity to look upon yet complaining that few in ancient Times did write luculenter cum judicio perspicuously and with judgment And then again Sacrosanctae antiquitatis titulo plurimos quasi fascinari ut citra omnem attentionem rectumque judicium quantumvis tetris erroribus applaudant That very many are as it were so be witched with the holy Title of Antiquity that without all attention and upright judgment they do give willingly consent to never so foul Errors if they be set down by Antiquity 6. Lo here what an entrance this is of them that profess Antiquity to discredit by their Preface all Antiquity of Christian Religion and of the eldest and primitive Church whose Acts and Gests they promise to set down but the very point indeed is that they themselves will be Judges of all as the fashion of proud Heretics is and admit only so much as maketh for their particular Sect and discredit or reject the rest And in this point our English Calvinists are like to find as little favour at their hands as we that are Catholicks and less too for that by the whole course of Antiquity they do shew these men to be clearly Heretics and their Opinions about the Sacraments Invisibility of the Church and other like to be Heretical whereas our Doctrins which they find in ancient Fathers differing from them they call either incommodious Opinions Blots Stubble or Errors of Doctors as before you have heard and not lightly Heresies As in this their Preface to the Queen they admonish her Majesty more carefully to beware of Their Doctrin than of Ours in these words
of his Church observe what he writeth presently upon the enumeration of these foresaid Pillars of his Church 6. Wherefore if any be so beguiled in his Opinion saith he as to think that the Doctrin of the Church of Rome as now it standeth is of such Antiquity and that the same was never impugned before the time of Luther and Zuinglius now of late let him read these Histories and peruse the Acts of Parliament passed in this Realm of ancient time as Anno 5 Regis Richardi 2. 1380 c. Did you ever hear a man in his Wits reason in this sort How doth this Catalogue I pray you of condemned Heretics for these last 400 years impugn the Antiquity of the Roman Church or Doctrin before that time And again Who doth deny but that the same Roman Church and Doctrin was impugned by old Heretics long before Luther and Zuinglius yea and before Wickliff Waldenses Albigenses and Berengarius were born as by our former deduction hath appeared that she was impugned by Heretics of every Age And moreover To what purpose doth Fox will us to read these Histories and the Acts of Parliament passed against Wickliffians in the time of King Richard II To what purpose I say doth this simple Fellow talk and write this against himself seeing that by these Histories and Statutes we learn nothing as before we have noted but only that his elder Brethren the Lollards and Wickliffians were condemned for Heretics by public Authority of our Realm above 200 years agone Which we grant unto him without further proof 7. Wherefore to leave this childish babling that is without sense consequence or reason and to return to some more serious Argument We shall handle here two Points for better discussion of this Succession of Sectaries alleged by John Fox First What are the Conditions necessarily required to a good Ecclesiastical Succession for demonstrating a Church And then What manner of men these were indeed which Fox doth here assign for Representation of his Church And all shall be done with as much brevity as may be 8. The first Condition is That this Succession of men that make the Church be Universal both in Place and Time that is to say to use St. Augustin's words Non quae hoc loco est sed quae hoc loco per totum Orbem terrarum nec illa quae hoc tempore sed ab ipso Abel usque in finem c. That it be not in this or that particular place only but in this place and throughout the whole World and that it be not only in this or that time but that it be from Abel to the end of the World. By which words of St. Augustin we see that the visible Succession of the true Church must be Universal first in Place and that it must be a visible Company professing Christ under one Faith and Doctrin not in this or that particular Country Province or Place only but over all the World where Christians are And so we see it verified in the Succession of the Roman Church in our former deductions 9. Secondly It must be Universal in Time for that it must not begin from John Wickliff only Bertramus or Berengarius as John Fox doth appoint the Visibility of his Church but it must come down from the Apostles and endure visibly to the end of the World yea from Abel himself as St. Augustin saith for that even from Him Christ instituted a visible Church and continued the same by Succession under all three Laws both of Naturè of Moyses and of Grace as St. Augustin in his Book de Civitate Dei doth declare at large and in our days Dr. Sanders most Learnedly in his Excellent Work de Visibili Monarchia doth prove the same 10. So as this Collection of Sectaries alleged here by John Fox being neither Universal in place nor agreeing in Faith with the Universal known Church of Christendom but with particular Assemblies one in one place and another in another nor yet having Universality of Time as not coming down from the Apostles Age but only for some 400 years as Fox himself confesseth these men I say cannot make a true Church tho' they have some sparks of true Doctrin among them as Fox braggeth seeing it is true which St. Augustin affirmeth Quicunque credunt quòd Christus Jesus in Carne venerit quòd fit Filius Dei c. Et tamen ab ejus Corpore quod est Ecclesia ita dissentiunt ut eorum communio non sit cum toto quacunque diffunditur sed in aliqua parte separata inveniatur manifestum est eos non esse in Catholica Ecclesia Whosoever doth believe that Christ Jesus came in Flesh and that he is the Son of God c. And that they do so dissent from his Body that is the Church as they do not communicate with the whole spread over all parts but only with some separate part it is manifest that these men are not of the Catholic Church And thus much of the first Condition 11. The second Point to be considered is When the ancient Fathers do stand upon visible Succession of Men as a Note of the true Church they meant it especially by Bishops that come down by continual Succession from the Apostles time to ours Ecclesia saith St. Augustin ab Apostolorum temporibus per Episcoporum Successiones certissimas usque ad nostrum deinceps tempora perseverat The true Church doth persevere from the Apostles time unto ours and after us again to the Worlds end by most certain Succession of Bishops c. St. Irenaeus also Tertullian Optatus and St. Augustin before-alleged do each of them as you have heard deduce the visible Succession of the Church from the Apostles to their days by the visible Succession of the Roman Bishops 12. And finally the Sentence of the said holy Father St. Augustin is notoriously known in many parts of his Works concerning the importance of this Succession Tenet me saith he in Ecclesia Catholica ab ipsa Sede Petri ad praesentem Episcopatum Successio Sacerdotum The Succession of Priests he meaneth Bishops from the Seat of St. Peter unto the present Bishop of Rome holdeth me in the Catholic Church And again against his old Master Faustus the Manichee Vides in hac re quid Ecclesiae Catholicae valeat Authoritas quae ab ipsis fundatissimis Sedibus Apostolorum usque ad hodiernum diem succedentium sibimet Episcoporum serie tot populorum consensione firmatur Dost thou not see of what force the Authority of the Catholic Church is which being established by the most firm foundations of the Apostolic See doth endure unto this day by the Race of Bishops succeeding one another and by the consent of so many Nations under their Government 13. Behold here four things especially required by St. Augustin in Succession of men that must demonstrate a true Church First