them and Gods anger So that where these things did thus concurre in any as wee doubt not but they did in many thousands the knowledge of the common principles of the faith the ignorance of such maine errours as did endanger the foundation a godly life and a faithfull death there we have no cause to make any question but that God had fitted a subject for his mercy to worke upon And yet in saying thus wee doe nothing lesse than say that such as these were Papists either in their life or in their death members of the Romane Church perhaps they were but such as by God's goodnes were preserved from the mortalitie of Popery that raigned there For Popery it selfe is nothing else but the botch or the plague of that Church which hazardeth the soules of those it seizeth upon as much as any infection can doe the body And therefore if any one will needs be so foole-hardy as to take up his lodging in such a Pest-house after warning given of the present danger wee in our charitie may well say Lord have mercy upon him but he in the meane time hath great cause to feare that God in his justice will inflict that judgement upon him which in this case he hath threatned against such as will not beleeve the truth but take pleasure in vnrighteousnesse And so much may suffice for that question The second question so rise in the mouthes of our Adversaries is Where was your Church before Luther Whereunto an answere may bee returned from the grounds of the solution of the former question that our Church was even there where now it is In all places of the world where the ancient foundations were retained and those common principles of faith upon the profession whereof men have ever beene wont to be admitted by Baptisme into the Church of Christ there we doubt not but our Lord had his subjects and wee our fellow-servants For wee bring-in no new Faith nor no new Church That which in the time of the ancient Fathers was accounted to be truely and properly Catholick namely that which was beleeved every where alwayes and by all that in the succeeding ages hath evermore beene preserved and is at this day entirely professed in our Church And it is well observed by a learned man who hath written a full discourse of this argument that whatsoever the Father of lies either hath attempted or shall attempt yet neither hath he hitherto effected nor shall ever bring it to passe hereafter that this Catholick doctrine ratified by the common consent of Christians alwayes and every where should be abolished but that in the thickest mist rather of the most perplexed troubles it still obtained victorie both in the mindes and in the open confession of all Christians no wayes overturned in the foundation thereof and that in this veritie that one Church of Christ was preserved in the midst of the tempests of the most cruell winter or in the thickest darknes of her waynings Thus if at this day we should take a survay of the severall professions of Christianitie that have any large spread in any part of the world as of the Religion of the Romane and the Reformed Churches in our Quarters of the Aegyptians and Aethiopians in the South of the Grecians and other Christians in the Easterne parts and should put-by the points wherein they did differ one from another and gather into one body the rest of the Articles wherein they all did generally agree wee should finde that in those propositions which without all controversie are universally received in the whole Christian world so much truth is contained as being joyned with holy obedience may be sufficient to bring a man unto everlasting salvation Neither have wee cause to doubt but that as many as doe walke according to this rule neither overthrowing that which they have builded by superinducing any damnable heresies thereupon nor otherwise vitiating their holie faith with a lewd and wicked conversation peace shall bee upon them and mercie and upon the Israel of GOD. Now these common principles of the Christian faith which we call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or things generally beleeved of all as they have Vniversalitie and Antiquity and Consent concurring with them which by Vincentius his rule are the speciall characters of that which is truely and properly Catholick so for their Duration wee are sure that they have still held out and beene kept as the Seminarie of the Catholique Church in the darkest and difficultest times that ever have beene where if the Lord of Hostes had not in his mercy reserved this seed unto us we should long since have beene as Sodom and should have beene like unto Gomorrah It cannot be denied indeed that Sathan and his instruments have used their utmost endeavour either to hide this light from mens eyes by keeping them in grosse ignorance or to deprave it by bringing-in pernicious heresies and that in these latter ages they have much prevailed both wayes aswell in the West and North as in the East and South Yet farre be it for all this from any man to thinke that God should so cast away his people that in those times there should not be left a remnant according to the election of grace The Christian Church was never brought unto a lower ebbe than was the Iewish Synagogue in the dayes of our Saviour Christ when the Interpreters of the Law had taken away the key of knowledge and that little knowledge that remained was miserably corrupted not onely with the leaven of the Pharisees but also with the damnable heresie of the Sadduces And yet a man at that time might have seene the true servants of GOD standing together with these men in the selfe-same Temple which might well be accounted as the House of the Saints in regard of the one so a Denne of theeves in respect of the other When the pestilent heresie of the Arrians had polluted the whole world the people of Christ were not to bee found among them onely who made an open secession from that wicked company but among those also who held externall communion with them and lived under their Ministery Where they so learned the other truthes of GOD from them that they were yet ignorant of their maine errour God in his providence so ordering matters that as it is noted by S. Hilary the people of Christ should not perish under the Priests of Antichrist If you demand then Where was Gods Temple all this while the answer is at hand There where Antichrist sate Where was Christs people Even under Antichrists Priests and yet this is no justification at all either of Antichrist or of his Priests but a manifestation of God's great power who is able to uphold his Church even there where Satans throne is Babylon was an infectious place and the infection thereof was mortall and yet God had his people there whom hee preserved from the
mortalitie of that infection Else how should he have said Come out of her my people that yee bee not partakers of her sinnes and that ye receive not of her plagues If the place had not beene infectious he should not have needed to forwarne them of the danger wherein they stood of partaking in her sinnes and if the infection had not beene mortall he would not have put them in minde of the plagues that were to follow and if in the place thus mortally infected God had not preserved a people alive unto himselfe he could not have said Come out of her my people The enemie indeed had there sowne his tares but sowne them in the LORDS field and among the LORDS wheate And a field we know may so bee overgrowne with such evill weedes as these that at the first sight a man would hardly thinke that any corne were there at all even as in the barne it selfe the mixture of the chaffe with the wheate is sometime such as a-farre off a man would imagine that he did see but a heape of chaffe and nothing else Those worthy husbandmen that in these last 600. yeares have taken paines in plucking up those pernicious weedes out of the LORDS field and severing the chaffe from his graine cannot be rightly said in doing this eyther to have brought in another field or to have changed the ancient graine The field is the same but weeded now unweeded then the graine the same but winnowed now unwinnowed then Wee preach no new faith but the same Catholique faith that ever hath beene preached neyther was it any part of our meaning to begin a new Church in these latter dayes of the world but to reforme the old A tree that hath the luxurious branches lopped off and the noxious things that cleave unto it taken away is not by this pruning and purging of it made another tree than it was before neyther is the Church reformed in our dayes another Church than that which was deformed in the dayes of our fore-fathers though it hath no agreement for all that with Poperie which is the Pestilence that walked in those times of darkenesse and the destruction that now wasteth at noone day And thus have I finished that which I had to speak concerning the unitie of the faith for the further explication whereof the Apostle addeth and of the knowledge of the Sonne of God Wherein wee may observe both the Nature of this Grace and the Object of it For the former we see that Faith is here described unto us by Knowledge to shew unto us that Knowledge is a thing that is necessarily required in true beleeving Whereof this may bee an argument sufficient that in matters of faith the Scripture doth use indifferently the termes of knowing and beleeving So Iob 19.25 I know that my Redeemer liveth Ioh. 17.3 This is life eternall that they know thee the onely true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent Esai 53.11 By his knowledge shall my righteous servant iustifie manie As therefore in the fundamentall truthes of Christian Religion unitie of faith is required among all those that belong to the Catholick Church so in those maine grounds likewise there is unitie of knowledge generally required among all that professe the name of Christ. For some things there be the knowledge whereof is absolutely necessarie necessitate medij vel finis as the School-men speak without which no man may expect by Gods ordinarie law to attaine unto the end of his faith the salvation of his soule And in these a man may lose himselfe not by Heresie onely which is a flat denying but by Ignorance also which is a bare not knowing of them these things being acknowledged to be so necessarie that although it lay not in our power to attaine thereunto yet this invincible Ignorance should not excuse us from everlasting death Even as if there were one onely remedie whereby a sicke man could be recovered and freed from corporall death suppose the patient and the Physitian both were ignorant of it the man must perish as well not knowing it as if being brought unto him he had refused it And therefore in this case it is resolved that from the explicite faith actuall knowledge of these things nothing can excuse but onely such an incapacitie as is found in infants naturals and distracted persons and that in all others which have the use of reason although they want the meanes of instruction this Ignorance is not onely perillous but also damnable The danger then of this Ignorance being by the confession of the most judicious Divines of both sides acknowledged to be so great the wofull estate of the poore Countrey wherein I live is much to bee lamented where the people generally are suffered to perish for want of knowledge the vulgar superstitions of Poperie not doing them halfe that hurt that the ignorance of those common principles of the faith doth which all true Christians are bound to learne The consideration whereof hath sometime drawne mee to treate with those of the opposite party to move them that howsoever in other things we did differ one from another yet wee should joyne together in teaching those maine points the knowledge whereof was so necessary unto salvation and of the truth whereof there was no controversie betwixt us But what for the jealousies which these distractions in matters of Religion have bred among us what for other respects the motiō took small effect so betwixt us both the poor people are kept still in miserable ignorāce neither knowing the grounds of the one religion nor of the other Here the case God be thanked is farre otherwise where your Maiesties care can never be sufficiently commended in taking order that the chiefe heads of the Catechisme should in the ordinarie ministerie be diligently propounded and explained unto the people throughout the land Which I wish were as duely executed every where as it was piously by You intended Great Scholars possibly may thinke that it standeth not so well with their credite to stoop thus low and to spend so much of their time in teaching these rudiments and first principles of the doctrine of Christ. But they should consider that the laying of the foundation skilfully as it is the matter of greatest importance in the whole building so is it the very master-peece of the wisest builder According to the grace of God which is given unto mee as a wise master-builder I have layd the foundation saith the great Apostle And let the learnedest of us all try it when-ever wee please wee shall finde that to lay this ground-worke rightly that is to apply our selves unto the capacitie of the common Auditorie and to make an Ignorant man to understand these mysteries in some good measure will put us to the tryall of our skill and trouble us a great deale more than if we were to discusse a controversie or handle a subtile
and life they looke upon the Sonne of God and him onely The holy Scriptures within the bounds whereof the utmost extent of all our faith and knowledge must be contained are able to make us wise unto salvation but yet through faith which is in Christ Iesus 2 Tim. 3.15 So by his knowledge or the knowledge of himselfe shall my righteous servant iustifie many sayth the Father of the Son Esay 53.11 And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himselfe for me saith the Apostle Gal. 2.20 The children of Israel in the wildernesse being stung with fierie Serpents were directed for their recovery to looke upon the brazen Serpent which was a figure of the Son of man lifted up upon the Crosse that whosoever did beleeve in him might not perish but have eternall life Now as the Israelites with the same eyes and with the same visive facultie wherewith they beheld the sands and the mountaines in the desert did looke upon the brazen Serpent also but were cured by fastning their sight upon that alone and not by looking upon any other object so by the same faith and knowledge whereby we are justified we understand that the world was framed by the word of God and beleeve all other truths revealed and yet fides quâ iustificans faith as it doth justifie us doth not look upon these but fixeth it selfe solely upon the Son of God not knowing any thing here but Iesus Christ and him crucified And thus hath our Saviour a speciall and peculiar place in that larger foundation according to that of the Apostle Ephes. 2.20 Yee are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets of which for so his words in the Originall may well beare it Iesus Christ is the chiefe corner-stone It followeth now that wee should proceed from the foundation to the structure and so leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ goe on unto perfection unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ There is a time wherein Christ is but begun and as it were a-breeding in us Gal. 4.19 My little children of whom I travell in birth againe untill Christ be formed in you After that he hath beene formed in our hearts he is at first but as a babe there yet resteth not at that stay but as in his naturall body hee increased in stature so in every part of his mysticall body hee hath set for himselfe a certaine measure of stature and a fulnesse of growth which being attained unto a Christian is thereby made a perfect man And for this end also doth the Apostle here shew that the Ministery was instituted that we henceforth should be no more children as it is in the words immediately following my Text but that we might grow up into him in all things which is the head even Christ. For the perfection which the Apostle here speaketh of is not to be taken absolutely as if any absolute perfection could be found among mâ—n in this life but in comparison with childhood As the opposition is more clearely made by him in 1. Corinth 14.20 Brethren be not children in understanding howbeit in malice be you children but in understanding be perfect that is to say of mans estate And Heb. 5.13.14 Every one that useth milke is unskilfull in the word of righteousnesse for he is a babe but strong meat belongeth to them that are perfect that is that are of full age as our Interpreters have rightly rendred it Now as there is great difference among men in their naturall growth so is there no lesse varietie among them also in respect of their spirituall stature there being severall degrees of this imperfect kinde of perfection here spoken of which according to the diversitie of times places and persons may admit a greater or a lesser measure For we may not thinke that the same measure of knowledge for example is sufficient for a learned man and an unlearned for a Pastor and for an ordinarie Christian for those that lived in the time of darkenesse and them that enjoy the light of the Gospel for them that have the meanes and them that want it But according to the measure of the gift of God wee must know notwithstanding that it is required generally of all men that they grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ. 2. Pet. 2.18 not in knowledge onely but in grace even grow up into him in ALL things which is the head as our Apostle here admonisheth us Wee must proceed from faith to faith Rom. 1.17 that is from one measure and degree of it unto another and this being the root and other graces as it were the branches if it grow apace other graces also must hasten and ripen and grow proportionably with it else thou mayest justly suspect that thy growth is not sound and answerable to that which the Apostle sheweth to be in the mysticall body of Christ which according to the effectuall working in the measure of EVERY part maketh increase of the bodie unto the edifying of it selfe in love The time will not permit me to proceed any further and therefore here I end Now the God of peace that brought againe from the dead our Lord Iesus that great Shepheard of the Sheepe through the bloud of his everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good worke to doe his will working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Iesus Christ to whom be glorie for ever and ever Amen FINIS a Num. 10.35 b Psal. 68.1 c Ephes. 4 8.20 d Heb. 9.4 e Heb. 12.24 f Esa. 53.5 g Math. 3.15 and 5.17 h Rom. 10.4 i Psal. 40.7.8 Heb. 10.7 k Psal. 132.14 l Ibid. vers 8.9.16 2 Chron. 6.41 m Act. 10.38 n Mar. 16. o Ioh. 17.4 p Ioh. 16.28 and 19.30 q Act. 3.21 r Rev. 11.19 s Mat. 28.20 t Psal. 68 18. u Ephes. 4.8 x Ephes. 4.11.12 y 2 Chron. 6.41 Psal. 132.9.16 z Ephes. 4.10 a Ib. ver 12. b Col. 1.19 c Ephes. 1.23 d 1 Pet. 2.5 e 1 Cor. 12.13 f Psal. 2.8 g Esa. 43.5.6.7 h Augustin ep 48. Quà m multi nihil interesse credentes in quâ quisque parte Christianus sit ideò permanebant in parte Donati quia ibi nati erant eos inde discedere atque ad Catholicam nemo transire cogebat Et paulò pòst Putabamus quidem nihil interesse ubi fideÌ„ Christi teneremus sed gratias Domino qui nos à divisione collegit hoc uni Deo congruere ut in unitate colatur ostendit i Rev. 17.18 k Ibid. ver 15. l Ibid. vers 5. m Ib. v. 3. 7. n Gal. 4.26 o Rev. 18.7 p Rom 11.20 21.22 q Subesse Romano Pontifici omni humanae creaturae declaramus dicimus definimus pronuntiamus omninò