one is that the Church of Rome hath been apparently visible in all ages An other that since Christ must have a true Church upon earth and since one of the marks of it is appears by the scriptures conversion of Nations by the doctrine and since no other Sect hath this mark the Church of Rome which hath alwayes had it must be and is Christs true Church a third that when any are converted to the Roman church from insidelity or heresie they amend their lives and live more vertuously than before But those that were Roman Catholicks when they fall and betake themselves to any other Sect they grow worse and worse as we see it sals out by experience in almost every one that revolts from the Catholicks to any other Sect and the reason of this is clear because liberty and temporall ends are their motive not any quarrel they have against the probability and truth of the Catholick Tenents If I stay with the Catholicks I must not onely confesse my sins and be truly sorry for them but I must also seriously purpose amendment of my life and repair what soever dammages my neighbours same or fortune have suffered by my malignant tongue or fraudulent dealing Wave these obligations and go once to Church and by this I may evade the misery of sequestration and live free from sears siding with the Sect most countenanced and cryed up will secure me and mine With such thoughts the wicked spirits inveagle those fraile ones which like unto Fishes at first sight lay hold on the bait but mind not the hook no efficacy of doctrine moves such men But thou Rationalist be thou led with motives grounded upon eternity and let that doctrine which all Nations have experienced to be efficacious finde no resistance in thee and thou heavenly Physician who said that the healthfull had no need of such artists but the sick onely look upon the distempers of this distracted Nation in point of Religion England that when time was lent Evangelical light to so many others sits now in darknesse and in the shadow of death but thou who art the way make her walk in thee thou that art the truth make her believe in thee that since thou art life she may live in thee till all Nations meet in the Unity of Faith AMEN Of the uninterrupted and Apostolical succession of the Pastors of the Church The first Point COnsider first that as Christ our Saviour founded the Catholick Church so as that it should last to the end of the world so also he ordained that in it there should be lawfull Pastors succeeding one another so long as the Church was to continue this the scripture teacheth in expresse terms He gave some Apostles and some Prophets and other some Evangelists and other some Pastors and Doctors to the consummation of the Saints unto the work of the ministery unto the edifying of the body of Christ until we meet al in the unity of faith Consider secondly that this continued succession was to be propagated by a legall descent from Christs Apostles both scripture and reason proves this truth for if all true members of the Church must like living stones be built upon the foundation of the Apostles to the end that all the building fitly framed together may grow unto a holy Temple in the Lord much more necessarily must the Pastors be built upon them and as that family ceases is extinguished when once the line of descendents from the first of that family is by death interrupted so the lineal but morall or politick descent of Pastors from the Apostles ceases and is extinct when such an interruption is made as that Pastors cease to have their spirituall birth to their Functions by that legitimate consecration and jurisdiction which is derived from the Apostles the want of which also in the first of a new Episcopal See illegitimate him and all his descendents now that this descent from the Apostles be legall it requires a calling from God or Vocation No man takes to himself this honour but he that is called of God as Aaron was this vocation is the door in at which every shepherd that is a true one must enter in to the sheepfold of Christs Church for he that entreth not by the door into the sheepfold but climbeth up some other may the same is a thief a robber saies the good shepherd Christ a severe césure for such as are not true Priests and get into the Office of Pastors onely by self-intrusion or by the deputation only of some secular power devoid of all Ecclesiastical jurisdiction Consider thirdly the manner of this legall Calling which Saint Paul sayes must be from God as Aaron was divine calling or vocation is twofold extraordinary and ordinary the former is when God by himself immediately cals one as he did the Prophets Moses and the rest and this extraordinary manner of calling was absolutely necessary in the first plantation of the Church For the first Pastors to wit the Apostles could not be called otherwise because they were the very first themselves The Ordinary calling is also from God but not done by him immediatly but by the concurrance of others The first of the line of those which were ordinarily called was called after the extraordinary manner by God immediately so was Aaron called but Aarons successors were ordained by others so the Apostles who were called extraordinarily ordained other Bishops and Priests and these Bishops afterwards made others according to the order prescribed by Christ to be held in his Church and thus both vocations were truly from God Now to understand the better what the lawfull calling of a true Bishop or Priest is and by this means to be able the better to distinguish who are lawfull Pastors and who not Consider these things first the Election or designation of the Person and this belongs properly to Church men though the People or secular Princes have been sometimes permitted to depute and propose to the Church such persons as they desired thought sit but this makes not a man either Bishop or Priest the next thing after Election or Approbation is Consecration or Ordination and this act is to be performed onely by Bishops this act is it which makes a true Bishop or Priest and without this consecration all the Princes of the world by any their deputation of persons to Episcopall or Priestly Function can never make them true Bishops or Priests The third thing is Jurisdiction which is given by a Superiour Prelate to the Consecrated person and this is called Mission for he is sent with faculties to govern souls and feed them with the holy Sacraments and the word of God These faculties for so they are called are the Priests Commission and the giving of them with lesser or greater limits as also the assigning him these subjects in particular and not others is only in the hands of Spiritual Prelats and in
no temporall Princes power whatsoever Gather out of the premisses First that that Church cannot possibly be Christs Church which wants Bishops Secondly that these are only true Bishops and Priests who are lawfully descended from the Apostles Thirdly that those only are legally descended from the Apostles who have these two things Succession and Consecration both Apostolicke A true Pastor must succeed to some one of the Apostles ether immediatly as Saint Liuus succeeded Saint Peter and as Saint Policarpe succeeded Saint John or else mediatly as S. Ignatius succeeded S. Evodius who was ordained Bishop by S. Peter his Consecration also must be Aposto lick that is this Priest must be consecrated by a Bishop which Bishop must be consecrated by other Bishops and these by others till at length an assent by degrees be made up to the Apostles Fourthly that Spiritual dignity is of a far higher nature than temporal both by reason of its lineal descent and that never interrupted from Christ as also by reason of its Function which is about things Speritual and Divine The second Point To under stand how lawfully the pastors of the Church of Rome are called Consider first that the Protestants doe not stand in denial of this but plainly grant it yea they pretend for the lawfulnes of their own calling no greater argument then that they have their succession from the Church of Rome conscious to wit that there can be no true power either of order or Jurisdiction nor any true legislative power Ecclesiasticall at all but it must descend by succession from Christ and his Apostles and this they acknowledge the Church of Rome to have pretending with all that themselves are united to the same line of Communication in that Apostolick succession Consider secondly this their lawfull calling confirmed by this Negative Argument Christ must have and hath a Visible Church upon earth somewhere this Church must have a Visible succession of Pastors for this is the main thing in which chiefly the visibility of the Church appears since where the succession of Pastors ceaseth there the flock is lest ungoverned unfed exposed to dispersion and perishing and thus the Church would come to faile not onely in visibility but even in its existency Now this Visible succession must be derived from the Apostles and that without ever being interrupted otherwise the Church would not be Apostolick contrary to the scripture and the Nicene Creed nor remain the same unto the end of the world contrary to our Saviours promise and St. Pauls forementioned words And since there is not any sect which either doth or can with any shew of probability pretend to have a See Apostolick or a never interrupted visible succession from the Apostles but onely in the Church of Rome there it must be and consequently their calling yea only theirs lawfull True it is the Greek Church had Apostolick Sees to wit at Hierusalem Antioch and Alexandria each of which had an Apostle or Evangelist for its first Bishop but for the space of these last nine hundred years since the begining of which time the Persians Sarazens and Turks have kept possession of those Countries the succession in these hath been obscure interrupted as good as none And this by the just judgement of God for the Schisme and persidiousnes of the Greek Church as also to make the Roman See Apostolick more clearly to appear to be the Mother and Mistress of all Churches Consider thirdly that the lawfull Calling of Pastors amongst the Roman Catholicks is further positively demonstrable from the succession of their Popes For the better understanding of which note first That the ancient Fathers were most exact in registering the names of the Popes as they succeeded one another so did Saint Ireneus Tertullian Eusebius S. Austin S. Hierom and others the like diligence hath been used by other Roman Catholicks in all succeeding ages even to this present Popes dayes who is called Innocent the 10. and is the two hundred thirty and nine from S. Peter Note secondly that the forementioned holy Fathers used to produce the succession of Popes as an impregnable argument to prove that to be the onely true Religion which had these chief Pastors on its side Now if the succession of twenty or thirty of them were of such force in the judgment of these learned Doctors to convince Hereticks how forcible an argument against these modern Sects must a long Catalogue of 239 make Note thirdly that none were ever acknowledged by the Roman church for true and lawfull Bishops or Priests but such as were ordained either immediately by the Apostles or by their successors now conformablely to these truths here noted this follows and is most certain that from every true Priâ—st now living by passing from the Bishops which consecrated them to those that ordained these and so on upward a line of spiritual pedegree uninterruptedly ascends to the very Apostles This orderly series or scale of succession proves evidently the Pastors of the Roman Religion to be lawfully called and sent Here 's solidity here 's security those that will get out of their labyrinths of errours doubts or fears must do it by the conduct of this line begin go on this is your way to the Apostles and Christ The third Point Consider now how the case stands with other Sects in point of lawfull calling and first for Luther the ringleader of all modern sects that his calling was not extraordinary it is certain for he could never shew his extraordinary Commission to wit Miracles the gist of Prophecy or these other supernatuall endowments which God alwayes gave to his Prophets and Apostles whom he sent extraordinarily and that this exacting of Miracles in this case is most just and reasonable it is hence proved if some new upstart should pretend he were immediately sent by God to preach against such or such a Sect the onely means that Sect could use for silencing and confuting such an one were to demand Miracles of him and if some new impostor should pretend he were Christ or urge his being sent extraordinarily to Preach against Christ or any other mystery of Faith which were believed by all Christians as the mystery of the Incarnation or Passion the reality of supernatural Faith and divine grace or the like against such a fictitious pretender not onely Roman Catholicks but all other Sects amongst Christians also ought to bid him shew his Commission sealed with Miracles As for Luthers ordinary calling true it is he was lawfully ordained Priest by the Church of Rome but a Priest cannot ordain other Priests much lesse Bishops so that no succession could be propagated by him It is true also that he had jurisdiction which must flow from the spring head of all true ecclesiasticall jurisdiction Christ and his Vicar and was lawfully sent after his being consecrated to govern and seed souls but his faculties or commission were given him with these limits and conditions which not only the
end as the Scripture sayes it must and since there is no other but the See of Rome which can with the least shew of probability pretend to have a succession of Bishops uninterruptedly continued from the Apostles time to these our dayes the Romane See must be the Apostolick this being so as most assuredly it is change that simister opinion you misled men which you have had of the Church of Rome so long away with that contumelious language with which you vilifie and slander it lay aside passion and prejudice then let the Romane Religion be paralell'd with any one or all other Sects and after your second thoughts upon this subject you will assuredly frame a better conceipt of that so long continued and so well grounded faith Gather fourthly that the Church of Rome hath been alwayes visible which is proved by its continuall succession of chief Pastors Fifthly that since Christ must have a Visible Church upon earth and since no other but the Roman hath been visiblely conspicuous in all ages it must be Christs Church love it therefore honour it adhere to it Sixthly since there is no true religion without true Priesthood no true Priesthood without true consecration and that by Bishops Apostolically descended and since there are none of those among these later sects what hopes what comfort what security yea or probability of salvation amongst these O Chief Priest Christ O thou whom God hath anointed with the olye of gladnesse before thy fellows be thou ever blessed for sending them as thy Father sent thee be ever praised for giving that eternall Priest hood according to the order of Melchisedech to them which thy Father gave thee Silence we beseech thee all false and lying prophets that say the Lord saith and the Lord hath not sent them Send labourers into thy Vinyard and make the fruits of their labours many and great to thy glory Amen The Tenth Meditation Of Antiquity The first Point Consider first that antiquity is a mark of Christs Church this is most clear out of scripture all those places in which the indefectibility and infallibility of the Church is foretold promised or intimated prove also the Antiquity of it And I will make this my covenant saith the Lord my spirit that is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy seed nor out of the mouth of thy seeds seed from hence forth for ever A most ample promise of the Churches antiquity and never failing Vpon thy wals O Hierusalem have I set watchmen all the day and all the night for ever they shall not be silent These so significant words cannot be verified upon the City of Hierusalem since it hath been destroyed but of Christs Church Behold I am with you all the dayes even untill the consummation of the world most expresse words of our Saviour who also said That after the sower had sown good seed then came the enemy and sowed cockle upon it the good seed of Catholick doctrine was first sowen by Christ and afterwards the devill sowed the cockle of false doctrine and heresie upon it Confider secondly the antiquity of Christs Church gathered from other reason And first its very names import thus much it is called the Church of Christ because he founded it when in mortall flesh he conversed with men and therefore it would imply a contradiction to grant it to be Christs Church and yet deny it antiquity it is also called Catholick not onely because it imbraceth all places but all times also and it is called Apostolick because it begun in the Apostles retains their doctrine and keeps their succession 2. Reason dictates to all that truth is precedent in time to falshood which is nothing else but a denyall of truth and consequently posteriour in time to it for the Father of lyes brought falshood into the world when he tempted our first Parents after their creation in the state of Grace and Knowledge of Truth 3. The holy Fathers alwayes urged this mark of the antiquity of the Catholick Church against the Novellismes of the Hereticks and their comming after that the Church of Christ was begun so did Saint Austin urge this mark against the Manicheans and Saint Hierom in his Epistle to Pammachius Hence infer first that that Sect cannot possible be yea or conceived to be Christs true Church w ch begun in such or such a year after that Christs Church was instituted Why because this posteriority of times argues diversity which excludes identity Secondly that that sect cannot possibly be the true Church of Christ which though it began in Christs or his Apostles time yet hath not continued but is now annihilated and why because its antiquity which must not onely be derived from Christs time but the same must also be without interruption continued till the worlds end is come to an end Christs Church having still its being The second point Consider now the Antiquity of the Church of Rome by which Church is understood not onely that Congregation of the faithfull which in the City of Rome and the adjacent places adhere to that Supream Bishop but all others also dispersed over all the earth that are united to the Church of Rome by the same belief by communion in the same Sacraments and by obedience to the same Supream head under Christ the Antiquity therefore of this Church is first demonstrated out of the Scripture it self Saint Paul writ that famous Epistle of his to the Church of Rome in which he gives the members thereof many great Elogiums To all that be in Rome beloved of God called Saints and again your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world When Saint Paul was come near to Rome the faithful for even then there were Christians at Rome at Puteoli and thereabouts before Saint Pauls coming thither went out of Rome to meet him and his fellow prisoners as far as Appii forum He began presently upon his arrival to preach in sine he preached the faith of Christ in Rome without any disturbance for two whole years together Of the Church of Rome Saint Peter also makes mention in these words The Church which is in Babylon salutes you so that both the Antiquity and truth also of the Romane faith is demonstrated out of Scripture Consider secondly the Antiquity of the Romane Church continued conserved uninterrupted in all ages since its being founded in the Apostles time First at all times in every age there hath been apparent a visible body of Professours of the Roman faith this is evinced clearly by that brief Catalogue of Saints put down in the sixth Meditation as also by the never interrupted Apostolick Succession of chief Pastors treated in the preceding Meditation 2. The faith and Doctrine held now by the Church of Rome accords most perfectly with the faith and Doctrine of
Independent or the like being about to die is desired to declare himself in point of Religion he will not say thus I die a Catholick for the spectatours and auditours would immediately conclude that he dyed a Papist but he would declare himself thus I die a Protestant Presbyterian or the like or I die a member of the Church of England which is in effect to say he dies a Protestant and thus the titular Archbishop of Canterburie Mr. Laud and some other great Personages that died the same death before and after him declared themselves at that instant which was both most unseasonable for dissembling and at which period a man should be serious if ever and yet these great Persons to hold an argument whilest they were in discourse upon who had the best claim to the honourable title of Catholick would undoubtedly have stood for it themselves The fourth Point Out of these former points make these ensuing reflections first that the name Catholick is and hath been alwayes esteemed by venerable antiquity a mark of the true Church yea even Sectaries alwayes esteemed it so upon that account would somtimes challenge it thereby to Patronize and vent their new fashioned Religions the sooner 2. That those who desire to be accounted Catholicks by all Sects and sorts of people yea and which is better by God himself must joyn with those whom they call Roman Catholicks in the same Belief Communion and obedience to the spiritual Prelates 3. That the denominations of Catholick Papist or Roman Catholick are in substance all one thing and as it were termini convertibiles or synonima Now to the â—nd a man may be saved since it is not sufficient to bear onely the extrinsecall appellation of a Catholick but he must lead a life conformable to that name and Religion therefore Grant good Lord a large contribution of thy grace both to all aliens from thy Church that they may become members of it and to those also who are adopted into that honourable family already that they may speake by a good life what they professe in their belief Amen The fourteenth Meditation Of the Gift of Prophecy The first Point FOr a perfect information and understanding of this truth that the priviledge of prophesying is a mark of Christs Church Consider first the infallible testimony of Gods word Your sons and your daughters shall prophecy and your young men shall see visions Joel 2. Behold Gods promise by his Prophet and that this was made to the Church of Christ witnesse the Prince of the Apostles Saint Peter who cites these very words of Joel Acts 2. to prove what 's here intended Nor is Saint Paul inferiour to Saint Peter in the proof of this point for in his induction of the graces given to the Church Gratis he ranks the gift of Prophesie amongst the rest so that no doubt can be made of this truth Consider secondly the excellency of this endowment and how sufficiently able it is to notifie unto us which is the true Church Prophets are called videntes by reason of that kind of intuitive knowledge which they have of future things not as at a distance onely but as actually present they need no such window in mans breasts as that momus wished for thereby to see into mens hearts they anticipate what the succession of time brings to others and the celestiall secrets which others have from the second or third hand they have them immediately from the divine Wisdom and certainly the knowledge of future things contingent is not attainable either by the nature or art of man it can only be had from God and who have it may deservedly be held for great correspondents with him and this truth is expressed to the full in these words following Declare the things that are to come and we shall know that ye are Gods Isa 41. Now if these by this gift of Prophesie become as it were Gods or men of God certainly that must be the Church of God which is highly endowed with the same gift The second point Consider now how eminent the Roman Church hath been at all times in this point and to say nothing of the predictions of Saint Gregory Thaumaturgus mentioned by Saint Basil in his book of the Holy Ghost cap. 29. Of Saint Anthony recounted by Saint Athanasius the Writer of his Life of the Abbot John of whom Saint Austin in in his Book of the City of God makes honourable mention cap. 26. And to passe with silence the Saints of the Primitive Church famous in this kinde we will come to those times and persons which Protestants themselves acknowledge for papistical the argument will be the stronger by this supposition Saint Benedict the spiritual Father of many thousand Monks amongst his other strange Prophesies foretold Totilas King of the Goths that he should enter the City of Rome then crosse the Seas homeward and that he should depart this life after the period of nine years should be expired all these things Saint Gregory sayes he knew to have been effected Lib. 2. dial c. 25. Saint Cuthbert foretold the totall rout of Egfrid King of the Northumbers his Army by the Picts and the Kings death amongst the rest in the field and this the year before it hapened and the next year upon the approach of the time and a disaster prenunciated he went on purpose to Carlile to comfort the Queen Egfrids wife and to be with her against that fatall day there in spirit he saw the whole tragedy as it was acted a far off in the Country of the Picts and related the same to the Queen the same Saint foretold his own Election to be Bishop with the time when and other circumstances he foretold his own departure out of this life to the holy Ermit Herebert who earnestly requesting the Saint that he would negotiate with the divine Majesty for his passage together with his presently the Saint replyed that his petition was granted and indeed one and the same day carried them both out of this mortal life together He foretold but with the qualifying particle perhaps out of his humility that after his death men should have recourse to his body as to an asylum it proved so and that for the space of eight hundred and forty years These predictions with many more Venerable Bede recounts in a particular Book extant in his Tomes of S. Cuthberts life King Edward the Confessor whilest he was hearing Mass upon Whitsunday saw the King of Denmark fall into the Sea as he was going out of a Long-boat into the Admiral and drown by which accident that his intended invasion of England with that Navy was spoiled Saint Hugh Bishop of Lincolne whilst he was yet Prior of the Charterhouse Monks at Witham next under God delivered King Henry the second out of a dangerous Tempest at Sea for that King in that great danger had most earnestly wished for the assistance of Saint Hugh