beginneth to deriue that authority from Christ vnto S. Peter that by one head and supreme pastour vnity might be preserued in the Church And sayth againe that Heresys haue sprung and Schismes haue bene bred by noe other cause Cyp. l. 1. ep 13. 55. but for that the Priest of God is not obeyed nor one iudge considered to be for the time in the Church of God Soe that to shew who is the true head of the Church will sufficiently destinguish the true Church for the pastors that communicate with him are the true pastors and the people of that Communion are the true people of God and that whole congregation of pastors and people being taken alltogether is the whole Catholike Church Now to shew who is the true head of the Church we must secke into antiquity and see what bishop did aunciently in the first Church of the Apostles and in the primitiue times after them beare that authority and was then acknowledged for the head and supreme pastour of the Church For as truth which was eternally in God was before falsehood which came afterwards by creatures and as true and lawfull power was first in the true Church of Christ and false vsurped power was afterwards begunne by disobeving it soe he that was first acknowledged in the primitiue times of the Church as the head and supreme pastour he and his successors are all wais to be acknowledged after him and they are false Churches that haue begunne at any time in disobedience to him and to the pastors of his Communion Now let vs see what bishop was acknowledged in the primitiue times and was first obeyed as the head and supreme pastour and which of all Churches that how are retaine still their obedience to him These are either all or the cheife christian Churches that are now in the world The Romane Church which is truely Catholike and Vniuersal ouer the whole world the Greeke Churches which are not Catholike nor vniuersall in the world although some of them be much spred The Church of the Georgians of the Armenians of the Aethiopians of the Arians of the Nestorians of the Waldenses of the Lutherans of the Zuinglians if any of them be yet extant destinct from the Caluinists the Church of the Caluinists and the Church of England which is the latest and newest of them all If there be any more besides these as we see petty sects daily to arize out of the later and to beginne in disobedience to them as all of them once did to the Romane Church both they and all the rest beside the Romane Church shall appeare to be false Churches and it onely to be the true Catholike Church for that it onely is in vnion and holdeth obedience to the true and lawfull head of the vniuersall Church and to the pastors of his Communion all the rest disobeying that authority But first it is to be obserued that the word Church being a word of Communion siguifying a company of people communicating together in the same faith and vnder the same authority it can not be the same Church and a lawfull Church if it haue not the same and that a lawfull authority Secondly some of these acknowledge a head and supreme pastour of the Church vpon earth and others of them will acknowledge none The Romane Church all ouer the world acknowledgeth the bishop of Rome to be vpon earth the head and supreme pastour of the Church The Graecians Armenians Georgians Aethiopians and Churches of the east haue some of them the Parriarke of Constanâ—inople others the Patriarke of Alexandria or a parricular and propper pastour to themselues whom they acknowledge for the supreme head of their Church and the Church of England vntill within these tenne or dozen yeares acknowledged their temporal prince man woman or child that was for the time to be the head of that Church Others there are who are headlesse acknowledging noe supreme head vpon earth in any spirituall power as the Lutherans Caluinists c. these are but few and inconsiderable in comparison of those that submitte vnto a head and supreme authority And I shall shew that both they and all others beside the Romane Church are false Churches for that they stande disobedient to him and to the pastors of his Communion who is indeede the true head of the Church I haue shewed before that the gouernment which Christ instituted in his Church was by S. Peter as the head and cheife pastour of it Now I shew that that supreme authority of S. Peter was acknowledged by the primitiue Church to descende vpon the bishop of Rome as successour to him and that there is none but he that can with reason pretende to haue had that authority This is prooued first by the manifest testimonys of those auncient writers that then liued Secondly by the practise of those times for that the bishop of Rome exercized in fact that supreme authority and the faithfull of those times obeyed it Thirdly for that there is none els that can pretende to haue bene at any time aboue all other bishops as the cheife pastour and gouernour of the Church First then I produce soe many The Bishop of Rome is acknowledged by the primitiue fathers to be the head of the Church and such testimonys of auncient writers as shall be sufficient to satisfy him that regardeth the safety of his soule And to beginne euen from the Apostles times the scriptures which they wrote declare soe farre for the supremacy of the bishops of Rome that they are alleadged to that purpose by holy and auncient authors as will appeare by their following citations who seeing the supreme pastorship to haue bene promised by Christ vnto S. Peter Mat. 16. and to haue bene giuen him Io. 21. when he commended soe particularly the feeding of his sheepe to him and considering him to haue died at Rome bishop of that place and a successour in his authority to be allwais necessary for the gouernment of the Church without any more argument they grounded themselues vpon these scriptures and commonly alleadged them for the supremacy not onely of S. Peter but also of the bishop of Rome The same they inferre out of S. Paul to the Romanes where he sayth your faith is renowmed in the whole world Rom. 1. gathering by these words the supremacy of the Romane chaire S. Epis 55. Cyprian speaking against some of those times sayeth They are soe bold as to carry letters from prophane schismatiks to the Chaire of Peter Nu. 6. and the principall Church whence priestly vnity arose not considering the Romanes to be them whose faith the Apostle being the commender was praised to whom misbelcefe can not haue accesse And S. Hierome know ye that the faith of the Romanes will receiue noe such deceits Adner Ruffin l. 3. c. 4. to 2. nor can possibly be changed though an Angell taught otherwise being fensed by S. Cyp. ep 52. and Anronian Amb
repeateth and inculcateth ouer againe the necessity of instruction also in that particular point that it is a thinge very remarkeable to see the great zeale of this holy Councell in soe often commending and recommending to Pastors the instruction of their people In the explication of the Sacraments beginning to speake of Baptisme it sayth that Pastors should neuer thinke that they had said enough in declaration of that Sacrament and exhorteth them that not onely on the Eues of Easter and whitsunday when it is administred with greater solemnity but also at other times that they take occasion when they see a good number of people together at the baptizing of any to say something if not of all the cheife parts of it at least of some one or other point of it as opportunity shall permitte And in another place as I remember it exhorteth them to haue certaine commune places in their memory for the explicating of any part of the Christian doctrine as neede shall requite This was the first thinge which I could not but obserue in the Romane Catechisme and which ought to be a great incitement especially to the Pastoral Clergy to whom it was directed and who haue by office the charge of soules to attende earnestly to doctrine And indeede he that before God hath vndertaken this charge and considereth on one side the dignity and necessity of the Christian Doctrine in it selfe and on the other side the ignorance of many and the stupid neglect of their soules which is caused by it will easily see what obligation he hath to vse his vtmost endeauours by all methods and wayes possible to attende to it but especially in that which by the sanctity wisdome and autority of a Generall Councell is commended I will not here omitte to propose the Clergy of France for an example and especially those about Paris in all Ecclesiasticall perfections the glory of Christendome who considering the Christian Doctrine to be the first ground of spirituality haue sett themselues soe earnestly to instruct in it as though the words of the Apostle were allwais in their eares Attende to thy selfe and to doctrine be earnest in them c. Tim. 1.4 And the sentence of God menacing Ezec. 34. Woe to the pastors of Israel which fedd themselues c. But my flocke you fedd not How many seuerall institutions haue of late yeares bene there erected for this purpose How many congregations of Priests are now established in the Parish Churches of the citty for education of the Pastoral Clergy and with speciall care to the Christian doctrine What methods haue they deuised what a number of books haue they settforth How many litle papers haue they dispersed amongst the people and what extreme and continuall paines doe they take to inculcate that by word of mouth which they deliuer in writing It is an admirable thinge and full of aedification to see the sweat and toile which I haue seene in those graue and excellent men Nay that nothing might be left vnessayed by them they haue caused the cheife points of the Christian doctrine to be put into verse for the easyer learning of it without booke But that which is yet of more moment and most worthy to be practised all ouer the Catholike Church is an exercise confirmed by authority as I perceiue all ouer France which they call the Prone or Pronaum as being deliuered in the Naue or open of the Church in which euery Sunday at High Masse the Creede being ended the Celebrant or some other for him ascendeth the pulpit and ioyning prayer with the people for the necessitys of the Catholike Church for the Popes Holinesse the soules in Purgatory and particular affaires that occurre the Christian doctrine is then read to them and a speech or Sermon is commonly made vpon some part of it Is not this a zeale worthy of Catholike Priests of the soules of Christians which they must answere for of the dignity of that doctrine which they professe Why doe not all then imitate this zeale in them That which they doe in this Prone is but in prosecution of the Councell of Trents desire and that which I here labour for For what is my Summe of the Christian doctrine but the Creede Sacraments Praecepts of the Church and the other most necessary points which first they reade and what my Discourses but as theirs vpon some of them Truely it was noe small satisfaction to mee when comming into France I saw that which for some yeares I had practised in priuate to be see publikely and generally there professed allthough vnknowne to mee And besides the profit which I had experienced in it and the authority of the Romane Catechisme their example did not a litle encourage mee to publish it and to commende the like practise to our countrey which standeth much more neede of it then they And yet for all this care and paines which they take I haue heard them sometimes complaine to their people that many of them were ignorant euen in the first principles and most necessary points of doctrine and I know by some experience that it was not alltogether without cause But if in France and about Paris where such care is taken and where the common people generally are to be thought more knowing then in any place of the Christian world there was reason to complaine what shall we say of other places where that care is wanting and where those methods of Catechizing are not soe much as thought of By all which we may see the dignity and necessity of Catechizing in the iudgment of the wise and how great a falt it is in some of the weaker sort of Christians who sleight it as a thinge for children onely and when themselues perhaps remaine in damnable ignorance The Christian doctrine is the ground and foundation of religion and the Catholike Church continueth allwais in the world by continuall instructing in it Christ the Sonne of God laid that foundation the Apostles after him buildded vpon it the Fathers and Doctors of the Catholike Church from time to time haue raised vp the structure and by their preachings and writings mainteined it and for all that they haue said and written there will still remaine for others to write vntill it come to that perfection to which God hath ordained it in this world This is that doctrine which plane humble and outwardly despicable but grounded vpon the promises of Iesus-Christ auncient Philosophy could not withstande it This doctrine deliuereth the principles of diuinity it hath beaten downe infidelity dispersed haeresys like smoke it abolisheth sinne and inflameth vnto vertue the harts of those that faithfully imbrace it Finally this is the knowledge of saluation in which the Orient from on high hath visited vs. And it should suffize to say that it is the knowledge of saluation What esteeme then ought all to haue of it with what dilligēce to study it and to be perfect in it And therefor
that there might be seuerall sorts of Christians all of them beleeuing in Iesus Christ yet all could not haue the true faith of Christ as being opposite in doctrine and disobedient to each others Churches therefor it was further necessary that the Apostles should declare which of all Christian Churches that were then or might be afterwards was the true Church of Christ This they did in the ninth article when hauing professed the cheife things that concerned the B. Trinity and the mystery of the Incarnation in the next place they added I beleeue the Catholike Church Here noy all controuersys of faith should haue an end we being allwais bounde to beleeue the Church and in all points to referre our selues with obedience to it And if this article had bene allwais truely obserued there neuer could haue bene any haeresys nor false Churches of Christians in the world For if all Christians had allwais kept themselues constant to the doctrine of the Church and continued obedient submitting allwais to it noe false Churches of Christians could at first haue risen all of them first rising in the breach of this atticle for that they will not beleeue the Catholike Church which is then and must be at all times extant for the gouernment of the world in the true worship of God but will follow the conceipts of some priuate men and beginne new Churches which then are not in any place And if we rightly consider this article we shall finde it sufficient to destinguish amongst all Christian people that now are which of them is for the present the true Church of Christ For as at first the true Church of Christ was planted Catholike that is to say a people all ouer and vniuersally agreeing in the same faith and doctrine and those that beganne false Churches of Christians were first of it and went forth to beginne a new Church in disobedience to it soe if amongst all the Churches of Christians that are now in the world we finde one out of which they haue all gone forth all the rest that haue gone forth of it are false Churches and that out of which they haue all gone forth must haue the true faith of Christ and be that first Church which the Apostles planted and called The Catholike Church This argument of the Apostles take to prosecute and to prooue more at large that which they in the Creede haue but briefly professed First in the first article against atheists that there is a God Secondly in the same article against Pagans that there is but one God Thirdly in the second article against Iewes and Turks and all that deny Christ I prooue the Christian faith Fourthly in the ninth article I shew how that amongst all the Christian Churches that are in the world there is none but the Romane which is commonly called Catholike that is indeede the true Catholike Church for that all other Christian Churches that are in the world went first out of it and beganne at some time in disobedience to that Church And to shew this I willingly vse the Popes autority that the enemys of the Catholike Church may see the truth and lay a side their auersion from that holy seate which to the ruine of their soules they labour to disgrace This manner of inducing the verity of the Romane Catholike faith is as you see both according to the Apostles method and by it the verity of all and euery particular point of that faith is inferred For that being once prooued to be the true Church there needeth noe further proofe of any particular point which it teacheth the true Church not being subiect to teach falsehood in particular doctrines but all whatsoeuer is taught by it is to be receiued for the authority of God soe speaking and we are allwais to say I beleeue the Catholike Church Yet in the other parts of the Christian doctrine when any points of controuersy in religion occurre I giue satisfaction briefly in them also as the Romane Catechisme doth but that which I desire most to satisfy in is the authority of the Romane Catholike Church prooued out of the first second and ninth article of the Creede and which may be vnderstoode by reading the ninth onely The third thinge which I labour for in Catechizing is edificatioÌ„ to good life Esa 27. for this is the end and fruite of all to take away sinne We lay the foundation when we instruct in the Christian doctrine and we build vpon it when we exhort to good life this being the hight and perfection of our labors Wherefor that you may not onely know speculatiuely what to beleeue but also how to apply practically that knowledge to the honour of God and your aduancement in his grace I haue annexed many things both out of the Romane Catechisme and other authors as also some examples of my owne certaine knowledge which tende onely to deuotion Thus I follow that methode which the Councell of Trent hath giuen vs to follow in the Discourses of the Romane Catechisme adding onely the Haile Mary in the beginning of euery Discourse as a pious deuotion to implore the assistance of our B. Lady before any good exercise But because the Discourses of the Romane Catechisme were but few as treating onely of fower subiects besides the praeamble which it hath of faith to wit of the Creede of the Sacraments of the Commandements and of the Pater Noster and those also somethinge obscure as not being intended by the Councell of Trent as a Catechisme immediatly to the people but to pastors to giue them examples how to Catechize and were therefor deliuered as intire speeches without titles vntill Andreas Fabritius for more cleernesse added titles vnto them therefor I haue treated of more subiects as first of the Obligation which all haue to learne the Christian Doctrine of the Signe of the Cros of the Masse of the Aue Maria of the Rosary of the Praecepts of the Church and of Sinne. And I haue destinguished the points which are treated in them by titles sufficiently connecting the former sense with that which followeth soe that I hope you will haue here the substance of the Romane Catechisme with that cleernes which Fabritius added vnto it and also some other subiects in the same manner handled soe requisite for all to know that this will appeare not onely a good but a necessary booke As for the stile of Catechizing if it be plane and easy it is propper and as it ought to be and for this I haue laboured all that I could euen to the repearing of the same words often ouer of purpose for more cleernesse That which I feare most is a weake and cold spirit which will appeare in many places of this booke but this must be supplyed by your more feruerous desire and endeauour of profiting your selfe by it yet the iudicious will coÌ„sider that tendernes of deuotion is not much obe expected where instruction is deliuered much â—sse where controuersys
and arguments in religion occurre Yet these by the method of the Romane Catechisme could not be quite omitted and the publike necessity of England did require that they should come forth more at large then was necessary onely for Catholike assemblys Therfor for this booke to be more beneficiall euery thinge is to be sought for in its propper place and nature Instruction and Exhortation where and as intended to wit onely for Catholiks and as for confirming the Catholike faith he into whose hands it shall come of whatsoeuer religion he be if he desire indeede to serue God and will pray to him I hope he shall haue sufficient satisfaction Thus much for your direction in this worke which at first I beganne without the least thought of publishing any thinge but onely to discharge my obligation which vntill then I had not soe well reflected vpon but beginning to obscrue a great ignorance in some and obseruing it still more and more and considering with my selfe how pertinent the words of the Apostle are How shall they beleeue him whom they haue not heard Rom. 10 and how shall they heare without a preacher I conceiued this the best and most profitable manner of preaching and applyed my selfe most to the practise of it And hauing vsed it for some yeares I founde it soe efficacious to that which I desired that some of their owne accorde acknowledged to mee the benefit which they had receiued by it and desiring mee to publish somethinge of it which they might haue to reade I brought this booke to the perfection which it hath and was many wayes encouraged to grant their desires especially by the aduice of a graue and learned Prelate who first to approoue of my designe told mee that if he himselfe were in England he would apply himselfe most to Catechizing and hauing afterwards pervsed a great part of the Discourses gaue mee most satisfaction in it Finally for the right vnderstanding of all I declare here that it is not my intention to giue examples vnto others how to Catechize For that the Romane Catechisme hath done allready neither would I vndertake soe much although for my Summe of the Christian doctrine I would willingly commende the vse of such an one gotten without booke and expounded as a foresaid My first intention is to instruct the ignorant and for that I made choice of that forme which the Councell of Trent hath deliuered and which was the sole scope and marke which it aimed at by the Romane Catechisme to wit that Pastors should vse such Catechisticall sermons as might be both a Catechizing for instruction an exhortation to vertue and in times of heresys might confute them and confirme the Catholike faith Which if it were practised as frequently as the holy Councell desired and as other preachings are which are much lesse necessary for the people exceeding great profit and a generall good might be expected by it That Catholike is very carelesse of himselfe who with all this labour doth not learne and know that which is fitting or at least necessary to be knowne And that Catholike who knoweâ—h his duety to God and hath it thus beaten into his minde yet liueth as it were contemning of God and of all remedys for his soule that hauing sinned doth not endeauour to rise againe and to aime at a new and vertuous life but will continue in sinne and resolue still to sinne he deserueth not at all the name of a Catholike And that Christian that professeth himselfe to beleeue in God and to worship him in that faith and religion which Christ left to his Apostles and was allwais according to the ninth article of the Creede to be in the Catholike Church yet will beginne a religion contrary to all the Christian Churches in the world or beleeue in a religion which soe beganne he deserueth not the name of a Christian And that man that being sufficiently satisfyed of the true religion and Marke that I say sufficiently satisfyed for euidence of reason is not to be relyed vpon in any religion yet will not professe it for temporall respects but goeth on with a guilty conscience in the profession of a false religion or rather liueth like an Atheist or beast without any religion at all that man I know not how to call him A miserable wretch he is and of all creatures out of hell the most miserable who to feede vpon the dung of the earth sinneth against the Holy Ghost hardening his hart willfully against all heauenly inspirations For Atheists and all false religions I haue said enough in the Creede but for him that is neither in profession an Atheist nor yet hath indeede any religion I know what to say but to wish him to consider with himselfe of the power and goodnes of God and of the euills of sinne that depriueth vs of him and let him reade the last Discourse where I treate somethinge of that subiect If God of his mercy visit these men with some heauy Crosses and great afflictions necessary to draw them to his seruice it is indeede a singular mercy by which sometimes they are brought to repentance But in the meane time I warne these hard harted men that they praesume not too farre but that they thinke of their soules and of death which in the end shall surprise them And I will tell them one thinge which they thinke not of that is that they are in danger of suddaine death not onely as all men are but in particular more then others and that God hath shewed this by many examples in which such kind of men haue bene so punished The example of Pharao and of thousands of the Aegyptians were enough to prooue this who hauing hardened their harts against the manifest light of God were suddainly ouerwhelmed in the sea and miserably perished The like examples we haue in our Kingdome but ouer many of the suddaine deaths of those who against their consciences haue professed a false religion I mention onely two which happened lately in two neere neighbors to the place where I haue liued for dinerse yeares They had both bene Catholiks and for plane loosnesse and liberty of life had forsaken the Catholike Church and gone to the Protestant Churches manifesting by many expressions the guilt of their owne consciences to their intimate freinds but continuing still dissembling in religion the one of them as he was hunting fell from his horse and died presently the other who had engaged himselfe further against the Catholike Church and would take noe warning by his neighbors example within a few yeares after hauing bene drinking about three or fower miles from home in his returne was suddainly strucke with the paines of death fell downe and was carried away dead It is ill dallying with God Know thou and see Hier. 2. that it is an euill and bitter thinge for thee to haue forsaken the Lord thy God and that my feare is not with thee saith the Lord of hosts
aske him Luc. 11. Many there are that satisfy themselues with this answere and because they say their prayers and doe morall good works they will stande in disobedience to the true Church and mainteine a religion which beganne at sometime in disobedience to all the Churches in the world therefor I will say somethinge to shew the weakenesse of it I say therefor that this man willfully deceiueth himselfe in that he either prayeth not as he ought to obtaine the diuine inspiration according to that of S. Ia. 4. Iames you aske and receiue not because you aske amisse or if he obtained it by his prayer he followed it not For although it be true that he who prayeth as he ought with a desire of following of the truth although he be then in a false religion and out of the state of grace obtaineth not withstanding of congruity the diuine inspiration to the true faith and shall come to haue the true faith if he will follow that spirit but if he beginne a religion in disobedience to the whole Church of Christ or follow a religion which soe beganne in obedience to no knowne Church then extant in all the world I say that either there is some defect in his prayer as there was in the Pharisys prayer who prayed not rightly or if he prayed rightly soe as that he was then inspired of God to the obedience of that which is the true Church that then he followed not the diuine inspiration but as that yong man of the ghospel who asking of Christ what he should doe to receiue euerlasting life when Christ told him Goe sell Whatsoeuer thou hast and giue to the poore and come follow mee Marc. 10. He followed not the diuine calling but was strucken sad and went away sorrowfull Soe doth he and soe doe many when God sufficiently inspireth them to the Catholike Church for although God speake to their harts and haue illuminated their vnderstandings to thinke at sometime that the Catholike faith is the true faith yet they sleight that good thought they are strucken sad to thinke of the persecution which they hazard in themselues children or freinds endangering their wordly preferment or riches on which they haue sett their harts and can not soe wel enioy in it and being dishartened with these thinges they follow not the calling of God And although for the present their conscience accuse them yet going on in their old way within a while they forgette that euer they were called and will tell you that they say their prayers and that the spirit directeth them in the way in which they are Where as indeede when they rightly considered of it the spirit of God directed them a quite contrary way and would againe direct them to the same way if they would seeke as they ought to be inspired of God and obey his inspiration when he speaketh to their harts In the next place therefor I will shew how the diuine inspiration to the true Church is to be prayed for I onely desire thus much of all those who are out of the Catholike Church that being as I haue shewed that the true faith which is by a supernatural light and gift of God is allwais with obedience to the Church they will resolue with themselues to seeke vnto God to be inspired to that Church And that if he speake to their harts soe as that they come once to thinke that the Catholike Romane Church is the true Church they take that word of God as a lanterne to their feete and follow it or els they are all ready condemned in their owne consciences and shall finde one day those words to be true which the Holy Ghost hath threatened Esa 65. Because I called and you haue not answered I spoke and you haue not heard c. you shall cry for sorrow of hart and for contrition of spirit you shall howle But let vs see AFTER VVHAT MANNER THE diuine inspiration to the true Church is to be sought for by those who are out of the Catholike Church HAuing shewed that natural reason without supernatural light and diuine inspiration is not sufficient to direct vs in matters of faith and that this supernatural light and inspiration to faith is allwais with obedience to the true Church The next thinge most necessary to be shewed is how to obtaine the diuine light and inspiration to that Church Diuerse haue setforth seueral marks to know the true Church by and in the ninth article of the Creede I destinguish the true from all false Churches by their continuall obedience to the head and Pastors of the Church But here I intreate of a more prime subiect necessary to be knowne before that to wit that being noe marks are sufficient to discerne the true Church by soe as to become à member of it without diuine light and inspiration by which they are brought to obey it I now shew how that efficacious light and inspiration is to be obtained But first I aduertise the Catholike reader that this point hath not cheifly relation to him but to those that are out of the Catholike Church Yet thus farre the Catholike is concerned in it as that he shall planely see by that which immediatly I am going to say that according to his owne grounds and according to reason he can not seeke vnto any other Church where as all other Churches according to reason ought allwais to be seeking vntill they come to it For this is the comfort of Catholikes and of none but Catholikes The Church can not erre that vnderstanding and firmely beleeuing that the Church shall neuer faile out of the world by teaching errors in faith but that it is the pillar and ground of truth Tim. 1.3 and that the spirit of God is With it vntill the worlds end to teach it all truth that it is builded vpon a rocke and that the gates of hell shall neuer preuaile against it Io. 14. Mat. 16. And that Christ hath prayed for it that the faith of the cheife gouernour their of faile not in the gouerning of it and that the other gouernours of it might be sanctifyed in verity and that it is the body Luc. 22. the spouse the kingdome and the house of Christ Io. 17. Catholiks grounding themselues vpon all these places of holy scripture and vpon the ninth article of the Creede I beleeue the Catholike Church hold it a most horrible blasphemy against them to say that the Church can erre and a damnable heresy obstinatly to contradict it and hauing by reason of all these places continued allwais in obedience to it and soe kept constant to their auncient religion which was then extant in the world when all others beganne their new professions which then were not extant in any place of the world Catholiks according to these grounds must still continue as hitherto they haue all wais done in obedience to the same Church and can not seeke vnto
any other religion nor doubt of their owne as long as they adhaere vnto it but must sticke fast to that pillar and sure ground of truth and beleeue that the spirit of God and assistance of Christ is allwais with the Church and that obeying it they obey the holy Ghost and Christ They by these grounds can not as you see pray to God to inspire them to the true faith but must pray to God that they may allwais continue in the spirit of obedience to the Church as hitherto they haue done And soe this point hath onely soe farre relation to Catholiks as that they may gather by it that as hitherto God hath giuen them his holy light and spirit to reiect all priuate inuentions both of their owne and of others to obey the autority of the whole Church and to adhaere to it soe they ought still to doe and to pray to God that they may allwais doe soe and neuer forsake it But all those who haue goneforth of the Church and followed the priuate inuentions of some particular men as all others but Romane Catholikes haue done beginning new Churches which then were not teaching That it behoueth Protestants and those that are out of the Catholike Church to if examin the state of their owne Church nor gouerning of people in any place but were prohibited by the auncient Church as soone as they beganne and would haue bene prohibited sooner if they had begunne sooner with their new doctrines to oppose it all these and those that follow them of necessity mainteining that the true Church had then failed and that there was then noe true Church in the world which they might submitte vnto but that God sent them to reforme the Church and to restore it to its truth againe as Protestants say that when Luther beganne to oppose the Romane Catholike Church the true faith was perished wholy extinct destroyed not one iot of the ghospel had bene knowne but by his labour and study and the like sayings which may be seene in the booke called THE AVTHOVR OF THE PROTESTANT RELIGION l. â— c. 1. and commonly in authors This they saying as they needes must by consequence to their new reformation they ought in all reason if they will haue any care of their soules to be continually feareful and in doubt concerning their faith and being that the true Church may and did as they say faile and was quite decayed out of the world they ought to pray to God to enlighten them to see whether it be not decayed againe as then they say it was and stande not neede of a new reformation as then they say it did and if it doe that he will bring them to the true faith Or els if they will be out of doubt and free from feares they must beleeue as we doe that the Church could not stande neede of any reformation at all in doctrines of faith and soe to betake themselues againe to the obedience of it and to rest secure and contented with the Apostles Creede I beleeue the Catholike Church without troubling themselues about reforming it But being that they can neuer be certaine in their faith as long as they hold it lawfull to change their religion by reforming of errors in the Church they ought to haue often recourse vnto God to know when they should change their religion and to what religion they should change And this by Gods grace I will now shew them how they shall haue recourse to God for This question therefor I adde here for Cods sake and for those that are out of the Catholike Church that being as I haue shewed in the former title saying their prayers they obtaine not the diuine grace because they pray amisse they may know how to pray And because I conceiue it the most necessary of all points and that on which the conuersion of those that are in a false religion cheifly dependeth that they haue true recourse vnto God and also because it was commended to mee by a very graue and experienced person to procure of such that they will commende the state of their soules to God whose grace worketh much more efficaciously in them then our words can doe and because it is a meanes which none by reason can except against therefor I would adde this whole title for their satisfaction and final good that seeking rightly to God they may obtaine the pretious iewel of true faith in obedience to the true Catholike Church necessary to saluation But that the Protestant or any such reader may receiue that benefit by â—his which I wish him and may haue some feeling of that which we are now treating of I desire him first to take into serious consideration the state of his soule and of religion and that he goe not coldly about this busines which of all thinges in the world concerneth him most and is as important vnto him as his entrance into that happy and blessed state were he shall enioy the glorious sight of God or his entrance into hell where he shall neuer see the diuine face but most irefull and full of rage against him to the extreme horrour of his soule and to thinke truely that in this I aske nothing but that which is both according to his owne grounds and also reasonable in it selfe For his predecessors hauing forsaken the common religion of christians which was then vniuersally professed by that which had the name of the Catholike Church for a religion which had then noe name nor being in any place of the world he may with great reason feare himselfe and with much more reason forsake his new religion for some other that was then extant and especially to that which both is now and was then the most famous of all christendome But that which I now aske of him is not to change but onely to haue recourse to God and to pray vnto him that if his Church doe erre as he sayth that it may and once did that by his diuine light and inspiration he will bring him into the true Church He that were trauailing in a vast wildernes vncertaine of his way and saw the darke night comming on and heard the wild beasts sallying out of their dennes roaring and seeking for their pray in what feare and anguish of minde would he be what would he giue for a guide that could sett him into à safe way free from dangers much more fearefull is the condition of euery man that is out of the Catholike Church this world is the wildernes in which he wandereth heauen is his home obedience to the Catholike Church is the onely way to it death is the night that draweth on and the infernal spirits as wild beasts surrounde him Poore soule thou confessest thy selfe to be in an vncertaine Church which may lead thee to hell and why dost thou not tremble for feare and cry vnto God betake thy selfe vnto him call vpon him beseech him earnestly to guide thee and
that by his holy light and inspiration he will bring thee to see whether thy Church erre or noe and if it doe to forsake it and to obey the true Church And this I will shew thee how thou shalt require it of him I said before that the spirit of God is denyed to none that rightly aske it To obtaine then the diuine inspiration inspiring vs to the obedience of the true Church we neede noe more but rightly to aske it He therefor that beleening in a Church which may erre is resolued with himselfe to vse all possible meanes to know whether it erre or noe and to be inspired vnto the true Church let him take a time of purpose to thinke of this important businesse and to commende it seriously to God and then the first thinge which he must doe is to prepare himselfe with a calme and quiet minde and ready promptitude to performe that which God shall inspire him firmely purposing that nothing in the world shall hinder him to follow that which he shall thinke to be the true way of saluation Prou. 16. soe that he may truely say My hart is ready ô Lord my hart is ready It perteineth to man saith the holy proue be to prepare his hart and againe the hart of man disposeth his way Hauing thus prepared his hart with an earnest desire of the diuine inspiration and with à full purpose of obeying it then let him make his prayer to God not in extrauagant words as some doe with the Pharisee but with all the humility and feruour of minde that he can possibly stirre vp in himselfe beseeching his diuine and infinite goodnes that he will not permitte his soule to perish in a false religion but that he will enlighten him to see which is the true Church and efficaciously inspire him to the obedience of it Hauing made his prayer let him then consider quietly with himselfe some grounds of religion as for example the necessity of a continual visible Church declared by holy scriptures and by natural reason for the gouernment of the world in the true worship of God and therefor that must be the true Church of Christ which hath continued at all times for the saluation of soules and that all those Churches which haue begunne at any time to oppose the setled Church of Christ which was then in the world are false Churches as being in their beginning guilty of the greeuous sinne of disobedience to the continual Church which God hath ordained at all times for the gouernment of the world in his true worship And if he be a Protestant he may thinke with himselfe how that at that time when Luther begâ—nne to oppose the Romane Catholike Church he submitted himselfe to noe Church then extant in all the world but beganne to teach a doctrine which all people in the world reiected for false and did many thinges which noe Church that was then would iustify for lawfull but gotte onely some priuate men to ioyne with him against all Churches that then were pretending that there was noe Church which they could lawfully ioyne themselues vnto and that he was sent of God to reforme the errors of the Church Buecer Ep. ad Episc Hâ—reford termeth him the first Epistle of the reformed doctrine Fox act pag. 400 416. that God sent Luther and gaue him his mighty spirit to reforme religion and that he was à conductour and chariot of Israel to be reuerenced next vnto Christ and S. Paul aboue all the saints VVâ—iâ—â—k resp ad Edmund Camp ration 8. we reuerence Luther as a father and imbrace the Lutherans and Zuinglâ—ans is very deere brethren Thus Protestants themselues confesse that Luther was the beginner of the reformed doctrine which they professe And thus did all the seueral Churches of Christians but the Romane Catholike Church beginne disobeying of it and obeying and vniting themselues to noe Church then extant in the world Hauing quietly with himselfe considered some such reason noe doubt but God will illuminate him to thinke and to see that this is not the Catholike Church and inspire him with pious affections of his will to the obedience of the Romane Catholike Church out of which all others went-forth and had their beginnings in disobedience to it And being thus moued and inspired of God to the obedience of that Church which he then thinketh in his hart to be the true Church that inspiration must be followed as the will of God and presently without delay he must gette himselfe vnited to that Church He is therfor first to prepare his hart with an indifferency and willingnes to doe that which God shall inspire to him secondly to pray earnestly and humbly to God to inspire him to the true Church thirdly with a quiet and calme minde to weigh with himselfe some reasons and grounds of religion according to his capacity and lastly to choose and to resolue with himselfe according to that which God then speaketh to his conscience and to goe about presently to performe it This is a thinge easy to be done by them and a thinge which as I haue shewed all those that are not Catholiks euen according to their owne grounds ought in all reason to doe if they will haue à care of their saluation And hauing done all this on their parts they haue done what in nature they could doe and relying for the rest vpon God for his helpe it is then most congruous and agreeable to the diuine goodnes to enlighten them and to shew them the truth which they desire and pray for And if afterwards they follow it not it is not for any defect of his assistance who by reasons sufficiently conuincing drew them at that time vnto him and offered them his diuine grace to become actually members of the true Church but it is of their owne wills and stubborne mindes that will not make vse of those helps and good motions which were abundantly sufficient for their conuersion This is the way which I direct vnto all such trauelers as are out of their way or vncertaine of their way as all those confesse themselues to be who beleeue in a fallible Church Let them haue recourse vnto God and see what he speaketh to their harts let them open their vnderstandings to his diuine light and let them prepare their wills to receiue those inspirations with which he moueth them to acknowledge his autority in the true Church and they shall finde comfort in him By this light and inspiration of God to obey his Church all are conuerted that are truely conuerted in this consisteth the security of all constant Catholiks who not by their owne reasons but by the diuine autority and inspiration are resolued in all points of faith and that inspiration finally tryed not by their owne iudgments but approoued of by the continual Church by which the true faith and worship of God is allwais conserued in the world and beleeuing and adhaering vnto that Church
they adhaere vnto the diuine autority and are grounded vpon a sure and immoueable rocke I haue said now all that I haue to say of faith I haue shewed in the first title that it is a supernatural light and gift of God and therfor it is most vaine and dangerous to seeke by natural reason into the mysterys of faith euen as though one should thinke to fly and should steppe downe from some high precipice or from the toppe of a house Secondly I haue shewed that the inspiracion of God to the true faith is allwais to the obedience of the Church And lastly I haue shewed how this diuine inspiration is to be sought for and obtained by those that haue it not In the following discourses I shall declace the particular mysterys of faith and points of the christian doctrine I wil adde onely a word or two to apply all to the greater honour of God and your profit that Christ hauing giuen sentence saying Marc. 16. Heb. 11. He that beleeueth not shall be condemned and the Apostle hauing declared that without faith it is impossible to please God those that feare the damnation of their soules and desire to please God wil aboue all things in the world esteeme of the true Catholike faith as a pretious iewell and rich treasure vpon which the loue of God and their saluation dependeth and will not permitte themselues for any hopes or ioyes of this passing life to be depriued of it It is a supernaturall light and gift of God intrusted to thee that art a Catholike by thy obedience at all times to the continuall Church of Christ and they haue miserably lost that treasure that through pride and peruersednes haue inuented singularitys of their owne or mainteined the singularitys of others against that authority O wicked pride O diabolicall peruersednes Lucifer was an archhaeretike amongst the Angells by not standing in verity but resisting the power of God And archhaeretiks are Lucifers amongst men by defending new doctrines against the authority of the Church which is the supreme power of God vpon earth Lucifer beganne the disorder of the damned and confusion of hell where noe order but eternall horrour dwells they beginne a disorder in the Church by drawing others into contempt of their superiours to mainteine their obstinacy against all authority How highly doe these wretches displease God without faith How deepely are these misbeleeuers condemned charged with the losse of soe many soules as follow them This is all that can be said for their comfort that the disorder wich they make and confusion amongst men is but a hell vpon earth out of which they may be freed if they will forsake those singularitys which without authority they defended and defende that authority which at first they forsooke And this is the comfort which now I would giue them that they seeke againe for the treasure which they haue lost Consider then the state that you are in the greeuousnesse of your sinne and the losse which you susteine soe much to be deplored It is God which you haue lost not a God of syluar as that which Michas ranne weeping and wailing for Iudg 18. but it is the foundation of all true Godlinesse the Catholike faith which Iesus Christ preached and established in his Church and that Church neuer to be interrupted at any time nor to stande in neede of reformation from errors That Church you must seeke for there you shall finde the faith which you desire if you desire indeede the true Catholike faith and with syncere harts pray to God for it But you preferre perhaps the temporall goods of this world before the blesse of heauen you feare the losse of riches of pleasures of dignitys and perhaps of life and you feare nor to offende him in whose onely power these things are and besides all that can destroy both soule and body into hell How many are there in the Catholike Church rich enough Matt. 10. honorable enough and healthfull enough allthough they hazard all this to defende the faith of Christ This aduātage we haue of thee that our sufferings for Christs sake shall be rewarded in heauen and for that which thou sufferest thou shalt haue noe reward Were it not better allthough with hazard of persecution to saue thy soule then to loose thy soule and to be in danger of miserys here also Christ gaue his life for the loue of thee when he needed not and dost thou repine to giue thy life for thy owne soule God can giue comfort in the midst of persecution that noe threats of our enemys shall affright vs but that we shall be contented with them and reioyce in his grace and diuine assistance which then he wil giue and which we must rely vpon before hand and then we shall not feare We deceiue ourselues in that naturall feare For nature hath noe power in that conflict but supernaturall grace which God will then giue to those that desire it But you ô Catholike souldiers that defende this treasure how honorable is the cause which you defende in it how powerfull and ready is your captaine to defende you and how rich and liberall to rewarde you in the end you defende that faith which Christ deposited with his Apostles which they deliuered to their successors and which descended from them by Pastors to Pastors and from people to people through all ages and times into your hands Keepe faithfully the depositum thus giuen to you and auoide all those noueltys which men take vp of themselues and are not giuen by authority to them Trust in Iesus Christ and he will comfort you soe that neither shame nor paine shall trouble your mindes in time of persecution Tim. 1.6 Fight the good fight of faith apprehende eternall life where in you are called by patience to possesse your soules There are noe greater riches noe more ample possessions Serm. de verbis Dom. cap. 4. nor honours more excellent saith S. Augustine then the Catholike faith in defence of which three hundred thousand martyrs by computation of authors haue suffered onely at Rome twenty seauen of them hauing bene without interruption the bishops of that place Blessed be God that enabled them to it Cor. 1.10 and who will make with temptation issue in vs with constancy to follow their glorious example Matt 10. He that shall perseuer vnto the end shall be saued Grant vs ô Lord perseueran◠in faith and good life to the saluation of our soules Amen THE THIRD DISCOVRSE OF THE SIGNE OF THE CROS I INTENDE now to declare vnto you the signe of the Cros. Which as it is a deuotion vpon all occasions soe much frequented in the Catholike Church it is very fitting that all Catholiks should vnderstande it and know the mysterys that are conteined in it But first we will salute the blessed virgin and require her intercession Haile Mary c. HOVV THE SIGNE OF THE Cros is to be made Quest Let
being reprehended by his superiour for it he tooke in such euill part his reprehension that he fell to say that the Saints were noe better then other men and when he was reprooued for his temeratious speech he fled to the scriptures demanding the contrary to be shewed by them and when the scriptures were produced against him he interpreted them after his owne sense and liking and when the interpretations of holy fathers were alleadged against him he scorned all saying that they were men and might erre Lastly the authority of the Church guided of God for the orderly gouernment of the world is obiected against him and when he saw that he must either sticke to the autority of God gouerning vs by the Church and deny his owne singularity or sticke to his owne singularity and deny allorder and gouernment of God he stucke like an haeretike to his owne singularity and rather then he would submitte vnto the Church he denyed God and fell to atheisme The end of this obtinate brute was at last to become madde and to dy roaring like a beast Now his last proposition was but consequence to the former for he that in matter of faith will beginne a nouelty by which he separateth himselfe from all religions and will obstinatly mainteine it against all Churches why may he not as well deny that there is a God seeing that he hath but his owne opinion for both The same experience we haue now a dayes of too many who by long continuance in heresy and disobedience to the true Church seeme to haue lost the very beleefe of God and all feare and feeling of him out of their harts and in this haeretical kingdome it is long since come to that that euery man in religion might in a manner hold what opinious he liked soe that he were not a Romane Catholike and as an enemy of the Catholike Church would but goe to their Churches A neighbour yet liuing not farre from this place mainteined publikly against the mystery of the blessed Trinity and the diuinity of our Sauiour and being many yeares since apprehended for it when he was brought to his tryall he was cleered and by publique authority set at liberty to teach his blasphemys as now he doth to all that will heare and learne them the Foreman of the sury who was a knight of the best ranke in this countrey of what religion I know not declaring as I haue heard that he would rather take the lines of twenty Papists then to haue the blood of one such man vpon him Tell one of our libertines that he is an atheist which a Romane Catholike presently would abhorre to heare most English Protestants make but a iest of it and many there are who seeme as though they would gladly be soe indeede that they might let goe the bridle to all liberty and follow their sensuality without restraint They seeing the wicked sometimes to prosper in their liues and in the end to dy life other men doe what they can to perswade themselues that there is neither heauen nor hell and to say in their harts that there is noe God This is now the plane case of many amongst vs and I could rehearse the prophane sayings of some of our great ones which I haue heard of to this purpose many yeares since but they are not worth the repeating He that will reade The Authour of the Protestant Religion l. 1. c. 4. may see more particularly how the doctrine of Protestants tendeth to atheisme and the vnworthy and atheisticall speeches of their authors and in The Suruey of the new Religion l. 8. almost all ouer but especially c. 3. he may see the same This is easy to be seene in all heresys that they beginning allwais in the contempt of the Church assume to themselues liberty of doctrine and that liberty of doctrine bringeth liberty of life now who doth not see the next and last consequence which liberty of life and doctrine runneth into It is therefor very necessary in these times to say somethinge for haeretiks in proofe of this first article of the Creede to preserue it as the hart roote and foundation of faith from their corruption and to let those libertines see their extreme folly that labour to beate out of their harts the feare of God But Catholiks who beleeue it as a point of the Catholike and Apostolike faith neede noe proofe of it because they haue it as they haue all other points of faith by the testimony of God manifesting himselfe to them who can not deceiue vs as we may doe our selues by our owne reason God is true Rom. 3. and euery man a lyer faith the Apostle and therefor we may mistrust ourselues but we can not mistrust God nor contradict the Church by which he speaketh to vs and gouerneth vs. If it be an irreuerence to stande in contradiction with a graue and reuerent person how much more must it be to contradict God were he not a madman that should oppose his physitian and denying that to be poyson which he affirmeth to be soe should take it and kill himselfe or if a man seeing a caldron full of melted led prepared by some workeman and were warned by him to take heed of it yet would not regard his words but because he saw not the fire vnder it nor any smoke in it should deny it to be hot and throw himselfe into it would not you thinke that he were worse then madde we ought to beleeue God the workman of the world and not like atheists who because they see not the fire of hell will not beleeue it but throw themselues into it and damne themselues And we must not onely beleeue in God and receiue for his authority all points of faith but we must also with our mouths Confesse our beleefe and defende it with our liues when neede requires Rom. 10. With the hart we beleeue vnto iustice but with the mouth Confession is made to saluation Saith the Apostle And the holy king saith I beleeued for which cause I spake And as S. Peter Psal 115. and S. Iohn answered to the high Priests and Princes of the Iewes we can not but speake the thinges which we haue seene and heard soe ought we in the like occasion to speake resolutly the thinges which we see Act. 4. and heare in the Catholike faith and say with S. Paul I am not ashamed of the ghospell And in all temptations both publike and priuate stande to our Creede Rom. 1.8 and professe I beleeue in God and the Catholike Church This I wish that all the world could truely say and I will bring all that I can to say soe and to beginne with the atheists of these times who in words say I beleeue in God but not in hart he shall see first that all the Angels and all nations of men giue testimony against him Secondly he shall see God and feele him by experience in himselfe Thirdly he
indeede Iesus but also because it was his propper name imposed not by chance but by the will and expresse commandde of his father the Angell forespeaking it to the blessed Virgin when he said Behold thou shalt conceiue in thy wombe and sâ—alt beare a sonne Luc. 1. and thou shalt call his name Iesus He is called Christ to signify his dignity and speciall functions according to his humanity Christ. for Christ is as much as to say The Messias or Annointed and he was annoinsed in diuerse respects Priests and kings are annointed because they haue authority from God to represent his maiesty Prophets aunciently were annointed because they were the interpreters of God and dispensers of diuine mysterys as Priests and kings are also in their kind Christ had all these offices and according to his humane nature he was Prophet Priest and king after an eminent manner and therefor he was eminently and singularly annointed not by the hands of Prophets or Priests but spiritually by God himselfe Ps 44. Thou hast loued iustice and hast hated iniquity therefor God thy God hath annointed thee with the oile of gladnesse aboue thy fellowes God annointed Christ and Prophets Priests and kings are annointed as lesser Christs that haue power vnder him Christ shewed himselfe a Prophet actually prophecying many thinges and in particular the most remarkeable passages of his owne death and resurrection As priest he offered the most holy Sacrifice of his body at the last supper and afterwards againe he offered the same sacrifice of his body vpon the Cros. He also shewed himselfe to be a king and to haue regall power that could bring kings to adore him and that he could haue brought other kings and all the kings of the world as well as them to his feete if it had pleased him Besides the Catholike Church is his kingdome he is the head and king of it allwais with it vnto the consummation of the world His onely Sonne our Lord. The Apostles in the former article hauing professed the Father who is the first Person of the Blessed Trinity now they professe the second Person in Iesus Christ the Sonne of God S. Iohn testifying that which is here professed saith Io. 1.4 We haue scene and doe testify that the Father hath sent the Sonne the Sauiour of the world And then presently he addeth whosoeuer shall confesse that Iesus Christ is the Sonne of God God abideth in him and he in God This all good christians doe testify and confesse and for that end the Apostles made this article that we might allwais professe it We will see here CHRISTIANITY DEMONSTRATED THat which we beleeue and professe in this article was allwais beleeued by all true beleeuers euer from the beginning of the world All the quires of Angels in their first creation foresaw that the Sonne of God was to be incarnated in lesus Christour Lord and the good Angels willingly submitting to him and beleeuing in him were saued by his pretious blood But Lucifer and the wicked Angels could not endure to see the nature of man exalted to that high dignity aboue Angels that our nature should be assumed of God and not theirs which he could but would not assume noe where doth he take Angels saith S. Heb. 2. Paul but the seede of Abraham he taketh This was the sinne of Lucifer that ennuying and repining at the glory of humane nature in Iesus Christ he drew others into the same sinne with him and for aspiring to be aboue him in glory he was cast downe into the depth of the lake and lost that glory which he might and should haue had and which the good Angels haue by submitting to the diuine ordination in it This was beleeued by our first parents in paradise and euer since as I shall presently shew Christ was promised to them and after them to the following patriarks and after the Patriarks to Prophets they deliuered that faith to posterity vntill his comming he when he came deliuered it to the Apostles they to the Church the Church by a continuall succession of Pastors hath deliuered it vntill our times as it doth now to vs saying I beleeue in God the Father almighty maker of heauen and earth and in Iesus Christ his onâ—ly Sonne our Lord. In this faith all miracles haue bene wrought that euer were wrought in testimony of faith This was confessed by heauen earth seas by liuing trees and sensible beasts and not onely by holy men but euen by the powers of hell all the creatures of God obeying Christ at his comming This the Apostles saw and were commanded by him to speake it and when they were forbidden by his enemys Act. 4. they answered we can not but speake the thinges which we haue seene and heard and would loose their liues rather then they would cease from publikely professing it S. Paul who saw not the miraculous life of Christ with his Disciples nor heard his preaching but was afterwards called and enlightened by him became notwithstanding soe assured of this verity and by true charity soe vnited vnto him that he thought it was vnpossible for any torments to separate him from him Rom. 8. â—ho then shall separate vs from the charity of Christ tribulation or distresse or famine or nakednesse or danger or persecution or the sword as it is written for we are killed for thy sake all the day we are esteemed as sheepe of slaughter But in all these thinges we onercome because of him that hath loued vs. For I am sure that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalitys nor powers neither thinges present nor thinges to come neither might nor hight nor depth nor other creature shall be able to separate vs from the charity of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. S. Paul was rauished and enamoured with the beauty of Christs diuinity and was transformed as it were by loue into him confessing him to be the image of the visible Goâ— Colos 1. Heb. 1. The first borne of all creature by whom he made the worlds being the brightnes of his glory and the sigure of his substance Whom the Angels adore soe much more excellent then themselues as he hath inherited a more excellent name aboue them For to which of the Angels saith this holy Apostle did he say at any time Thou art my Sonne to day haue I begotten thee Colos 2. in whâ—m dwelleth all the fullnesse of the Godhead corporally All this did S. Paul say and professe of Christ It was then noe meruaile that with Gods grace he would defende him till death Thus did the Apostles professe of him and this profession they made good by many miracles which the enemys of christianity haue written of and confessed This the posterity of the Apostles haue allwais professed in former ages and haue stretched forth their hands and feete vpon racks and with cheerfull mindes haue yeelded their bodys into the hands of torturers
long as they liue soe the damned are setled in that state of desperation rage and horrible torment to endure it and to endure it still and can neuer change or alter from it In all thy works remember thy latter ends Eccli 7. and thou wilt not sinne for euer This is the last thinge which the Apostles would mention of Christ in the Creede and which ought to leaue a great feare and vehement horrour in the mindes of the wicked to whom he shall come as to his enemys that can expect noe fauour from him And therfor this day is called the day of our Lord. Because Christ shall come as a terrible Lord to them and shall call them to a strict account for the neglect of their seruice to him and they hauing receiued good thinges in this life but wickedly imployed them haue then euill to receiue but the iust who haue serued God duely and haue not sought after the pleasures and goods of this world but haue then good thinges to receiue haue reason to reioyce and to be comforted at the thought of this day and therefor at the departure of Christ in his Ascension from the Apostles the Angels were sent to comfort them with the remembrace of his second comming saying Ye men of Galilee why doe you stande looking into heauen Act. 1. this Iesus which is assumpted from you into heauen shall soe come as you haue seene him going into heauen He commeth as a spouse full of ioy to the iust and blesseth them with euerlasting blessings because they haue prouided the light of good works Let vs doe soe and we shall be admitted into his ioyfull nuptials and receiue blessings of him Thus you vnderstande what is meant by the quicke and the dead to wit the state of the good and of the euill the one of them liuing spiritually with the life of grace the other being dead in sinne But perhaps it may be vnderstoode also of corporal life with which some shall be then liuing on earth when Christ shall come and shall be iudged with those that were dead before that day And who knoweth but he himselfe may liue to see the terrible appearence of Christ comming to iudge him and that presently dying he shall rize againe to receiue the sentence of his iudgment for Christ himselfe hath said that of that day or hower noe man knoweth Mar. 13. neither the Angels in heauen How much then ought we to feare and preuent it and not to remaine one day noe nor one hower in mortall sinne THE EIGHT ARTICLE I Beleeue in the Holy Ghost Hitherto the Apostles in all the former articles haue deliuered those thinges which concerne the first and second person of the B. Trinity the Father and the Sonne now they professe the third Person in the Holy Ghost S. Act. 19. Paul comming to Ephesus found certaine disciples soe ignorant that asking them if they had receiued the Holy Ghost they answered that they had not soe much as heard that there was a Holy Ghost This had bene indeede a very great ignorance in them if they had bene Christians which they were not and the mystery of the blessed Trinity was to be but obscurely deliuered to the Iewes as I haue shewed in another place treating of it They were the Disciples of S. Iohn Baptist baptized by his baptisme which could not giue the Holy Ghost and were not as yet baptized with christian baptisme in which the Holy Ghost is giuen and therfor it was a lesse ignorance in them But for any of vs not to know what the Holy Ghost is were an extreame ignorance And therefor we will first declare who the Holy Ghost is and why he is soe called The Holy Ghost is the third Person of the B. Trinity and is as much as to say The holy spirit And although the Father and the Sonne and the holy Angels are holy spirits yet they are not The Holy Ghost of whom we are speaking When therefor we say the Holy Ghost we meane the diuine Person of the Holy Ghost as when Christ commanded baptisme in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost The first Person of the blessed Trinity is called The Father because the Sonne and the Holy Ghost proceede from him The second Person is called The Sonne because he proceedeth as sonne from the Father The third Person is called the Holy Ghost or holy spirit because he proceedeth from the Father and the Sonne by way of mutuall inspiration The Holy Ghost is true God omnipotent eternall and infinite in all perfections the very same in essence and nature with the Father and the Sonne And therefor S. Peter threatening Ananias for his deceit and ly which he had told said Ananias why hath Satan tempted thy hart Act. 5. that thou shouldst ly to the Holy Ghost tâ—ou hast lyed to God And therefor in the words of baptisme he is commanded to be named as the same in Godhead with the Father and the Sonne and S. Iohn saith There be three which giue testimony in heauen the Father the Word Io. 1.5 and the Holy Ghost And these three be one Three in destinction of Persons one in the vnity of nature and essence And because the Holy Ghost proceedeth both from the Father and the Sonne therefor he is sometimes said in the Scriptures to be the spirit of the Father and sometimes the spirit of the Sonne THE NINTH ARTICLE THe holy Catholike Church the Communion of Saints The Apostles hauing professed their beleefe in God the Father almighty maker of heauen and earth and in Iesus Christ his onely Sonne our Lord borne and crucifyed in the nature of man and their beleefe in the Holy Ghost they had giuen vs in breife the mysterys of the B. Trinity and of the Incarnation The next thinge which they minded was to make an article of beleeuing the Catholike Church Which article was noe lesse necessary then any of the former nay in this it was the most necessary of all that by beleeuing the Church we come to haue the truth of the former and to vnderstande rightly all the articles of the christian faith And therefor as S. Augustine hath obserued the Prophets haue spoken planelyer of the Church then they haue done of Christ himselfe Aug. in Is 30. because the authority of the Church is the rule and guide by which we are to be directed in all thinges which we beleeue of him and all true beleeuers are kept in the vnity of true faith and that faith which was founded by him continueth allwais inuiolated by continuall obedience to the Church This then being the end and intention of this article let vs now come to the declaration of it Quest What is the Catholike Church Answ The Catholike Church is the congregation of all faithfull Pastors and people vnited together as a body with its head S. Augustine defineth the Church to be the congregation of all the faithfull dispersed ouer the world Which is in substance the same that is here answered for euery one that hath the true faith and is in vnion with the head and Pastors of the Church by
obeying them is a member of the true Châ—â—ch and all these put together make the whole Church But because Schismatiks although they beleeue in all points yet are out of the Church as diuiding themselues from it by disobedience to the head and Pastors theirof therefor to be a member of the Church we require vnion with the rest of the members vnder one head to wit the Pope who is for the time the successor of S. Peter the Vicar of Christ and the Head of the Church Now for the explication of this article In the first place the Church is said to be holy Holy It is holy in diuerse respects First in respect of the eminent holines of Iesus Christ the cheife head of it Secondly for the holy gouernment which Christ instituted and allwais conserueth in it Thirdly it is holy in respect of the holy sacrifice which it hath of his most sacred body and in respect of the holy Sacraments and obseruances that are in it Fourthly in respect of the Vicarhead Pastors and people whose holinesse it includeth Christ ascending into heauen made S. Peter the head of all the Apostles and of the whole Church to remaine as Vicar to himselfe vpon earth commending particularly to him the charge of his sheepe that is of all faithfull christians that are in the Church as in his sheepfold This charge was performed by him whilst he liued and after his death by men of great holines who succeeded him ioyning their blood vnto his as it were in a continuall streame of martyrdome for almost three hundred yeares after the Ascension of Christ After them those who haue succeeded in that chaire and office haue bene for the most part men of great holinesse as they haue great meanes to be and as it is fitting they should be in that holy office The Church is also holy in many other inferiour Pastors and people of all sorts and callings of Martyrs Confessors and Virgins who haue illustrated it with their holy liues and haue rendred it a deere and amiable spouse to Christ Lastly the Church is holy as being by its authority the ground of all holines there being none at all but in it For there can be noe holinesse in this world if not grounded vpon true faith Heb. 11. without which it is impossible to please God And being there can be noe faith that can please God but in the Catholike Church all holinesse that is amongst men is in the holy Catholike Church The Church is called by the Apostles Catholike Catholike which is as much as to say vniuersal to destinguish the true Church of Christ from all false Churches of christians which they saw might rize vp in following times and did euen then beginne to rize in their times None of which can be said to be Catholike or vniuersal but priuate and particular Churches which beginne by opposing of the Catholike and vniuersal Church then extant when those new sects beginne First the Church is vniuersal in doctrine for that it teacheth all ouer the same doctrine and yeeldeth obedience to the same gouernment vnder one head and soe the Church of Rome is Catholike and the Church of Protestants is not Catholike for that protestants agree in name onely and nor in doctrine and also because some of them acknowledging a head vpon earth as the English Protestants did and some of them acknowledging noe head vpon earth they haue not all obedience to the same authority which obedience must necessarily be had to be the same Church and to be the true Catholike Church For the Apostles made this article to keepe vs allwais in the odedience of the true Church and that those might be knowne to haue the true faith of Christ who retaining the doctrine which is professed by the whole Church which then is and obeying the authority of it submitte in all controuersys to that which it teacheth and say with the Apostles I beleeue the Catholike Church and therefor two Churches that obey two different authoritys can not both of them be vniuersal and Catholike Secondly the true Church is vniuersall in times for that it must be at all times and neuer soe vanished out of the world that there should neede any to restore it againe for God doth not soe vnequally destribute his graces as to leaue the the world at any time without meanes of saluation which cannot be without a true and lawfull Church Besides the Apostles Creede is to be said at all times and soe we are allwais to say I beleeue the Catholike Church which we could not allwais say if at some time there were noe true Catholike Church in the world Thirdly the Church is vniuersal in place for if S. Paul could with truth apply those words of the psalme their sounde hath gone forth vnto all the earth Ps 18. and vnto the ends of the â—ound world the words of them to the Church of Christ in the Apostles times when it was nothing soe much dilated as now God be thanked it is we may now with good reason call it Catholike in respect of all places when the sounde of the Apostles doctrine is soe much enlarged that there is hardly any place of the world whither the Catholike Church doth not send her subiects to preach Out of this vniuersality of the Church it followeth One that there is but one true Church in which saluation may be had for vniuersality importeth vnity and if there be vnity in the Church and that this vnity be necessarily required and included in the word Catholike or vniuersal which signifye hâ— many agreeing in the same thinge then two Churches which are not vnited in the same Communion and obedience to the same authority can not both of them haue meanes of saluation for if they could both haue meanes of saluatioÌ„ and yet might lawfully disobey each others authority then we should not be bounde to obey it nor could it lawfully require obedience to it which is contrary to the words of Christ binding vs to the obedience of the Church and contrary to this article and to all reason and gouernment S. Augustine There is nothing which a christian ought soe much to feare as to be separated from the body of Christ Aug. tract 27. which is for certaine the one Catholike Church For if he be separated from the body of Christ he is not a member of him If he be not a member of him he is not nourished with his spirit By which it is plane in the doctrine of this saint that it can not be a true Church which is separated from the true Church and by consequence two Churches which separate from each other can not both be true Therefor let those take head that hearken
scriptures and that in innumerable places which for breuity I omitte and will mention onely the words of our Sauiour which he spoke to his disciples at his last farewell from them Christ in his Ascension being to leaue his Apostles with a hard taske and difficult worke which they were to performe in founding of the Catholike Church amongst soe many enemys he told them for their comfort Mat. 2â— Behold I am with you aâ—l dayes euen to the consummation of the world He spoke then to the Apostles and would not onely comfort them but all others who were to haue the gouernment of the Church for euer after promising to be with them as long as the world should endure As long then as Christ was to be with them their doctrine was for euer to be true and their authority diuine and he being to be with them vnto the consummation of the world their doctrine was to be true and their authority diuine vnto the consummation of the world as the doctrine and authority of Christ who promised allwais to assist them in their worke and soe their worke was his worke and their doctrine and authority were his Christ therfor is allwais with the Pastors of the Church when they represent and haue the authority of the whole Church not with euery one of them particularly but with all of them together and therefor although any one particular bishop as he is onely a particular member of the Church may erre yet all bishops cannot possibly erre at any time because Christ hath promised to be with them all dayes It is not needfull to produce the sentences of fathers for the diuine authority of the Church both because these words of the Creede made by the Apostles and at all times consented vnto by the fathers I beleeue the Catholike Church may stande for their sentences and also because their sentences to this purpose will frequently occurre in that which I haue to say of the Church Scriptures and fathers are easily misconstrued by haeretiks who make them to speake as they will vnderstande them or if they be too plane against them they discarde the sentence or the whole booke For those that are soe bold as to contradict the whole Church haue lost their shame and neede regard noe authority at all But because they pretende reason as building all their doctrines vpon their owne witts and because this point is soe necessary for the deciding of all controuersys and to the true and lawfull condemnation of all haeresys we will make it euident by plane and easy reasons which all may vnderstande To thinke to haue religion without the diuine authority of an infallible Church is to thinke to build without a foundation or as we commonly say to build castles in the ayre the foundation of all true religion being the authority of the Church which professeth it Grant once that a Church may erre as it may if it be not supported by the diuine authority and we can not be certaine of any doctrine which it teacheth and being vncertaine of the truth of its doctrine we are not bound to beleeue vncertaintys and it can not be the true religion if it be professed by a Church which we are not bounde to beleeue And therefor the first thinge which is to be established as the foundation of true religion is the infallible and consequently diuine authority of the Church that professeth it Take once away the authority of the Church and absolue men from the obedience of it and you make euery man his owne master and leauing him to himselfe to beleeue what he listeth all is brought into vncertainty and confusion for there is noe point of faith soe certaine nor any thinge soe cleere but by prowde and contentious men it might be brought into question This is declared by particular instances If the Church of Christ were not of diuine authority and infallible certainty in all which it teacheth we could not be certaine either of the Creede or of the scriptures or of the sense of either of them or of any article of faith whatsoeuer nay the very foundation of all religion would be destroyed the diuine existence becomming also vncertaine to vs and insteede of gouernment vnion and order in the worship of God we should haue noe diuine worship nor God at all but a horrible confusion and more then hellish disorder would dwell vpon earth First the Creede is not receiued but for the authority of the Church We beleeue that euery article of the Creede was made by diuine inspiration and authority and as such we will defende them with our liues yet this we know not but by the Church for of our selues we could not certainely know it nor should we beleeue it of the Creede more then of other writings which we receiue not as of faith but that the Church commandeth vs soe to beleeue of it and not of them Againe we doe not know the sense of any article of the Creede but by the authority of the Church take away this and we had the sense of them to seeke we knew not where euery one might follow his owne sense and we should be certaine of nothing but of vncertainty and confusion Take away the diuine and infallible authority of the Church in the Apostles times and you bring all into vncertainty whatsoeuer they taught and ruine the foundation of the whole christian faith and it had bene noe matter what they had deliuered in the Creede or whether they had made any Creede at all Take away that authority from the Church of Christ that is at all times and it is noe matter what Creede it deliuer or what sense of the Creede seeing it may erre in that which it sayeth and those thinges may be false which it deliuereth for true The same appeareth in the scriptures We beleeue that such and such scriptures were written by some that had the spirit of God to write nothing but truth in them that all those bookes which we receiue were written with that spirit and that all those bookes passing through soe many hands and handwritings as must necessarily haue bene before printing was inuented haue remained vncorrupted vntill our times How doe we know all this to be soe but by the authority of the Church deny this as all haeretiks doe to follow their owne phansys and you may admitte of what Scriptures you will or if you will you may deny all scriptures And this we see by experience to be true that haeretiks reiecting the authority of the Church and disobeying it reiect also the scriptures and receiue but what they will The Carpocratites Seuerians and Manichees reiected all the old Testament and all the foure ghospels of the new except that of S. Luke Cerdon and Cerinthus reiected S. Luke The Seuerians reiected the acts of the Apostles and all the Epistles of S. Paul Luther and some Protestants reiect the Epistle of S. Iames. The Alogians and some Protestants reiect
the Apocalypse And Suencfeldius seeing such a strife about the scriptures cleered himselfe readily in a word reiecting all Soe that if we might contradict the Church and follow either our owne or the conceits of any priuate men we might reiect the true scriptures as these haue done and receiue false scriptures as the Apocryphi did or deny all scriptures as Suencfeldius Quintinus the Libertines and other haeretiks haue done The authority of the Church bindeth vs to receiue scriptures and appointeth what scriptures we should receiue and for that authority we receiue the ghospell which S. Marke wrote who was noe Apostle and not that of S. Thomas who was an Apostle and we reiect the ghospell of Nicodemus who had seene Christ and receiue the ghospell of S. Luke who neuer saw him Therfor we must ground our selues vpon the authority of the Church and obey it or els we should not know what scriptures to receiue S. Augustine hath said this in plane termes Epis fund c. 5. when he said that he would not beleeue the ghospell but for the authority of the Church And addeth that for the same authority he would not beleeue Manichaeus the haereticke Further more the word of the scriptures is not profitable to vs but in its true sense and that true sense can not be knowne but by a true interpretour which euery priuate man as we see is not for although there be a great disparity in the abilitys of men excelling one another yet noe man of himselfe is free from errour and can but by his owne reason probably affirme that which another may probably deny and therfor all priuate opinions must be referred vnto some certaine authority which must decide all controuersys in the sense of the scriptures Besides the scriptures in themselues are soe hard to be vnderstoode and full of difficultys that it were against reason to leaue euery man to his owne sense and construction of them They haue beside the litteral sense many kindes of allegorys in which if we should follow the letter it would kill vs. The deuill alleadged the letter and word of holy scriptures but in a false sense to tempt Christ and Christ refuted him by the words of scripture in their true sense but if we had not at all times the like authority of Christ in the Church the deuill would easily peruert the scriptures to vs and we should be subiect to continuall errors S. Peter saith that in the Epistles of S. Paul there are certaine thinges hard to be vnderstoode which the vnlearned and vnstable depraue as also the rest of the scriptures to their owne perdition and S. Augustine Pet. 2.3 Epis 119. who was one of the learnedest sort of men confesseth that there were more places of the scriptures which he vnderstoode not then that he vnde stoode The sense of the scriptures is soe depraued by haeretiks that Luther called the scriptures the booke of haeretiks euery haeretike alleâ—dging scriptures and all of them deprauing them to their owne perdition and in this they are knowne to depraue them that they follow their owne interpretations and priuate conceipts against the whole Church Simon Magus would giue soe much honour to the Angels that he would haue them our mediators aboue Christ and he alleadged scriptures and reason for this doctrine Protestants honour them soe litle that they will not grant them any mediation at all neither vâ—der Christ and they also alleadge scriptures and reasons for their doctrine The Manichees forbadde some meates as in themselues vnlawfull to be eaten and alleadged scriptures and reason for this doctrine Protestants allow of all meates to be eaten at all times although it be against the praecepâ— of the Church and alleadge also scriptures and reason for their doctrine The Marcionists Encratites and other haeretiks forbadde marriage as vnlawfull and alleadged scriptures and reasons for this doctrine Protestants esteeme soe highly of marriage that they make it lawfull for virgins and religious persons that haue dedicated and vowed their chastity to God and alleadge also scriptures and reasons for it Pelagius attributeth our good works to our owne natural forces and to freewill more then to grace and hath more shew of scriptures then most haeretiks haue for their doctrines Protestants on the contrary grant noe freewill at all and will not want scriptures nor reasons for themselues Thus you haue two contrary doctrines both of them alleadging scriptures and both of them in a false sense the truth being betwixt them both saith a learned authour as Christ was betwixt two theeues Mald in Io. 6. But how doe we know that neither of them hath the true sense of the scriptures We know it by the authority of the whole Church which at first declared against those doctrines and therefor whosoeuer shall obstinatly mainteine them are haeretiks because they deny the ninth article of the Creede not beleeuing the Catholike Church but standing obstinate against all authority that was then in the world Which if at any time it were lawfull to doe then were there none to interprete the scriptures and to destinguish betwixt sense and sense and reason and reason and we might as well haue noe scriptures at all as haue noe meanes to know the true sense of them Lastly if there were not at all times some authority amongst men infallibly assisted of God to gouerne and direct in his worship and to determine the verity of all propositions that were to be beleeued with diuine faith then might euery man beleeue and say what he liked and all order and gouernment were taken away and vtmost disorder would reigne amongst vs euen to the denying of God For although natural reason doth declare the diuine existence and a demonstration may be made by a good Philosopher to prooue it yet liberty would induce to that which is against reason and would draw into atheisme as it doth to other vices which by the reason and nature of all men are abhorred Besides not one man among a thousand can make that demonstration and what then should become of those that can not if they were to forsake the authority of the Church and follow onely their owne reasons should he onely be saued that can make it noe nor he neither by that which were but a natural knowledge and humane faith in him Out of all which it followeth that the Catholike Church hath diuine authority to determine all veritys and to decide all controuersys of faith and to direct vs infallibly in that which we are to beleeue and to doe in relation to the honour of God or els the Creede had bene in vaine as also the scriptures all proofe of reason had bene vncertaine all vnion and orderly gouernment and the very foundation of all religion were vtterly destroyed and therfor one may as well say I will haue noe Creede nor religion at all as to say I will haue or beleeue noe Church and those onely remaine sure and
secute from errour that at all times in all controuersys follow the sentence of the Church and adhaere to it And therfor the Apostles by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost made this important article that we might neuer forgett our obedience to the Church but that in all doubts and difficultys we might haue recourse to it and say I beleeue the Catholike Church And that those who will stande against it may be knowne to be infringers of the law and Creede of the Apostles From hence is the beginning of all heresys that some priuate men will contradict the authority of the whole Church and obiecting against some particular point or points of faith they make themselues the iudges and determine as they will themselues They contende allwais about some particular point or points of faith and wrangle about them but if you aske them vpon what authority they contradict the Catholike Church and all the Churches in the world separating from them they are then out of their witts and know not what to say knowing that if they pretende the word of God the same question confoundeth them againe demanding vpon what authority they dare interprete the word of God against the Catholike Church and against all the Churches in the world besides that the word of God is against them commanding both in the Creede and scriptures to beleeue the Church If we will giue them satisfaction in those particular points and difficultys it is but of curtesy for we confesse that there are many points of faith which by our owne reason we cannot comprehende the most reasonable and best satisfaction is because the Catholike Church soe teacheth otherwise as I haue shewed we should neither haue Creede nor scriptures nor God Contende not then with haeretiks about particular points but aske them vpon what authority they dare question them what Church will they follow If they will fall from the Catholike Church to some company of haeretiks that beganne at some time against all Churches or if themselues will beginne such a company they are here condemned in this article The authority of the Church is the rule the guide the sure anker to which we must all wais hold It is a rocke which dasheth in peeces all temptations of faith and obiections of haeretiks and keepeth vs free from doubts and feares as in a quiet and safe harbour Let vs now speake OF THE GOVERNMENT of the Church THe Church in holy scriptures is compared to a well ordered citty such an one as Hierusalem was when the seruice of God slourished in it But the gouernment of the Church of Christ doth farre excell that For it is a gouernment which God hath taken a neerer charge of as hauing in his owne person instituted it first and engaged himselfe by promise allwais to protect and defende it and therfor he must at all times prouide such gouernors for it as shall carefully mainteine his diuine seruice in it Esa 62. Vpon thy walls Hierusalem I haue appointed watchmen all the night for euer they shall not hold their peace It is compared to the army of a campe set in array Cant. 6. glorious in it selfe and terrible to its enemys for the order which it hath The order and good gouernment of the Church consisteth in the dew subordination of subiects to their superiors As in our bodys seueral offices are giuen to seueral parts and all of them constituted vnder one head And as in a common wealth some beare offices and others without offices obey them and all are finally reduced vnto some head and supreme power and that supreme power subordinate lastly to God that impowred it soe in the gouernment of the Church some haue authority ouer others and one head is placed ouer all These are the pastors whom God hath appointed and disposed into that order Rom. 13. Those thinges that are of God are ordained Saith the Apostle that is to say they are with order and to be with order is to be not all alike but with subordination of inferiors to superiour powers and soe the order of the Church consisteth in people subordinate to their pastors and of pastors subordinate vnto one supreme head vpon earth And the head and pastors of the Church exercizing their power most fully in a General Councell it will be sufficient for the gouernment of the Church to speake of the head and of General Councels Christ chose out of all the world some to be his disciples Of the head of the Church out of his disciples he tooke some to be Apostles and out of his Apostles he chose one to be the head and to haue authority ouer his whole Church These vnderstanding by the disciples all those that were vnder the Apostles were then the whole Church of Christ S. Peter was chosen by him as the head and supreme pastour ouer all both pastors and people Him and his successors we call the vicars of Christ that is to say he that beareth vpon earth the person and place of Christ who is in heauen the cheife head of the Church Neither can it in reason offende any that we call S. Peter and his successors in that office the Vicars of Christ For if S. Paul might authorize what he did in punishing and pardoning of the Corinthian with the authority of Christ and could lawfully say that he did it in the name vertue Cor. 1.5 Cor. 2.2 and person of Christ he being but a subiect of the head pastour of the Church with much more reason the cheife pastour and head of the Church may be called the Vicat of Christ he performing and executing that office after a more eminent manner in the name vertue and person of Christ Christ first promised this authority when asking his disciples whom they thought him to be Peter answered Thou art Christ the Sonne of the liuing God Then â—esus answering said to him Mat. 16. Blessed art thou Simon 〈…〉 I say to thee thou art Peter that is to say a rocke and vpon this rocke I will build my Church and the gaâ—es of hell shall not preuaile against it And I will giue to thee the keyes of the kingdome of heauen And whatsoeuer thou shalt binde vpon earth shall be bounde also in the heauens and what soeuer thou shalt loose in earth it shall be loosed also in the heauens By which it is most euident that some greater dignity and preeminonce was intended to Peter then to the rest of the Apostles First it was a most singular high mystery that which Christ asked and Peter then professed and which before then perhaps was neuer reuealed to any of the Apostles and which flesh and blood could not reueale that is by humane meanes could not be vnderstoode Moreouer Christ then blessed him and spoke vnto him after a most particular and energious manner of speech calling him a rocke which was not his name nor had ary relation to him more then to the rest of his
also he left one head to haue supreme authority vnder him in the gouernment of the Church which is his cheife kingdome conteining all the kingdomes of the world and therefor stoode much more neede of a head to gouerne and keepe vnity in it This as I haue shewed could be none but S. Peter whilst he liued for that Christ founded the Church on him gaue vnto him the keyes of heauen and made him the pastour of all his sheepe in such circumstances as are most euident for it Moreouer he is first named in the catalogue of the Apostles Mat 10. and said to be the first not for that he first followed Christ Amb. in Co. 2.12 for as S. Ambrose sayth Andrew first followed Christ before Peter and yet the primacy Andrew receiued not To him the Apostles had recourse as to their superiour he tooke vpon him cheifly to decide controuersys in General Councells to speake before the rest to worke miracles before the rest and was neuer murmured at by any of the Apostles as taking vpon him more then his due The auncient and holy fathers of the Church acknowledge as you haue seene his supreme authority And if all this be not sufficient let it suffize that it is the doctrine of the Catholike Church what vpstart teacher will beginne to contradict it or who will beleeue and follow him It was very necessary that Christ should ordaine one head and supreme power in the Church for the keeping of vnity and concord in it and that in all difficultys which should arize the Pastors of the Church might be called together by the cheife head the place of their meeting might be assigned by him and they be kept in vnity by obeying his authority S. Cyprian considered this as the onely meanes for the suppression of haeresys Cyp. defimplâ—â—t praeatorum siuâ— de vnit Eccles which the enemy of God laboreth soe much to raise and deliuereth it as the meanes instituted of Christ to keepe vnity in the Church The enemy saith this saint perceiuing his idols to be forsakâ—n and his temples to be deserted by the multitude of beleeuers inuented a new deceit to deceiue the vnwary by the name of a Christian raizing heresys and schismes to corrupt verity and to subuert faith This is ô brethren because we haue not recourse unto the origen nor seeke to the head Which if we would examine and consider there would neede noe long treatise nor many arguments to finde out the truth Our Lord said to Peter Thou art Peter and vpon this rocke I will build my Church c. and againe after his resurrection Feede my sheepe Vpon him alone he buildeth the Church and commendeth to him the feeding of his sheepe And although he gaue equall authority to all the Apostles after his resurrection saying as my father sent mee All the Apostles equal in Apostle ship Yet Veteronely had the primacy Hiero. l. 1. aduers Iouin c. 14. soe I send you receiue the Holy Ghost whose sinnes c. Yet to manifest vnity be constituteth one chaire and by his authority he disposed the origen of that vnity to beginne from one The rest of the Apostles were that which Peter was The primacy was giuen to Peter that the Church of Christ might appeare to be one and one chaire S. Hierome Although all the Apostles in Apostleship were alike yet Christ for the better keeping of vnity and truth would haue one to be the head of them all that a head being once constituted occasion of schisme might be taken away By which we see how necessary it was in the opinion of these saints that one should be established as the supreme pastour and head of the Church and that although all the Apostles had the same power as bishops and had their authority immediatly from Christ himselfe and soe the Church was also founded vpon them that is vpon their necessary functions yet it was cheifly founded vpon S. Peter as the Primate and supreme pastour ouer all who had also from Christ himselfe the lawfull execution of that authority Now if one supreme head was constituted of Christ as necessary to keepe vnity and preuent schismes in the Church of God the gouernment of the Church required euer after that supreme power to remaine in successors to him and it was not to continue onely for thirty six or thirty seauen yeares as long as S. Peter liued there being afterwards as much if not more neede of it schismes and heresys being as likely to rize in the Church after the Apostles dayes when it was destitute of their presence as when it had their helpe and assistance and S. Cyprian as you see maketh this to be the origen of all schismes and heresys because they seeke not to the head And therefor as I shall shew in the next title it is a sufficient destinction to discerne all false Churches by that they beginne allwais in disobedience to the head of the Church and the Pastors of his Communion But hauing spoken of the head of the Church in the next place we will speake of Generall Councels Christ hauing chosen Apostles to gouerne the Church General Councells and amongst the Apostles one to be the head these then had the authority of the whole Church and all were bounde to obey them When therefor the general necessity of the Church requireth for the preuenting of schismes or heresys or the deciding of any controuersys that a Generall Councell should be called the head of the Church exercizeth his supreme authority summoning the Pastors together and appointing a place of meeting for them who consulting and resoluing vpon those questions their resolutions are to be imbraced by all as hauing authority from Christ himselfe who made him the lawfull head and them the lawfull Pastors of his Communion in place of S. Peter and the Apostles to whom the Holy Ghost was sent for their assistance and whom Christ promised to be with vnto the consummation of the world Thus did S. Peter with some other pastors of the Church that could conueniently be present meete at Hierusalem and hauing ended their consultation they rehearsed their decrees and doubted not to call them the decrees of the Holy Ghost Act. 15. saying It hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to vs. Such decrees as these are receiued by all as hauing indeede the authority voyce and consent of all true beleeuers that are in the world For euery true and faithfull christian giuing his voice as he ought to that assembly it hath the authority of the whole Catholike Church and of all the faithfull in the world Soe S. Athasius calleth the Councell of Nyce Ath. de gest Conc. Arim. an assembly of the whole world S. Leo calleth also the decrees of that Councell the deâ—rees of the whole world S. Augustine The sentence of a plenary Aug. l. de bâ—p cont Donat. l. 2. c. 4. or Generall Councell is the sentence of the whole Church And
was strucken of God with a suddaine leprosy which then in the sight of all broke forth of his forhead soe that for his prowde aspiring to the dignity and office of Priests he was then for his leprosy to be excluded euen from the people And Saul for offering of holocaust being a king onely and noe Priest although compelled as he thought by necessity vnto it lost notwithstanding his kingdome from himselfe and from his posterity for euer Some times Emperours and Prince are present at General Councells to grace and protect them from turbulent men but they giue not their voices in any thinge Soe Constantine the first christian Emperour was present in the first General Councell of Nyce but how he came in the last of all and hauing a litle low seate sette for him he satte not downe vntill the bishops made him a signe to sitt downe And as for the decrees of the Councell we reade that three hundred and eightteene bishops subscribed to them but not that Constantine euer subscribed Soe also men of more sanctity of life and eminent in abilitys although not bishops are sometimes called to assist in General Councels but not to giue sentence or to subscribe to the decrees by their owne authority The gouernment therefor which Christ ordained in his Church was by S. Peter and the Apostles that is to say by one head or cheife bishop and by inferiour bishops vnder him And their authority is most full and obliging when it speaketh by a General Councell Then the head of the Church exercizeth more fully his supreme authority calling together the pastors of the world and assigning to them the place of their meeting The bishops and others who for sanctity wisdome and learning are in reason to be thought the best deseruing of the whole world are present at them Being come together solemne dayes of prayer are instituted for the inuocation of the Holy Ghost Euery one of this absolute company hath then liberty to speake his minde freely and by the grounds of his owne religion is bounde not to dissemble but to speake the truth according to his conscience they being for the most part meere strangers to one another All things being well examined they subscribe in order first the head bishop and then the rest after him according to their dignity This is the harmony which Christ hath composed in his Church of people concording with their pastors and of pastors with their supreme head Now what more satisfaction can our soules desire then from such an assembly of soe many holy and learned men who haue the voyce of the whole Catholike Church and the assistance of Christ and of the Holy Ghost Let any christian speake truely and he must needes confesse that it would be a horrour to his conscience and that his owne thoughts would condemne him of errour if he were condemned by such an authority And therfor S. Paul might well say that the haretical man is condemned by his owne iudgment Tit. 3. Because he seeing his doctrine to be publikely condemned by the general sentence of the whole Catholike Church that then is in the world can not but see his owne peruersed obstinacy in still mainteining it and that he breaketh the concord of people with their pastors confoundeth all order of gouernment in the Church destroyeth the certaine ground of all diuine veritys and maketh the Creede scriptures and all principles of faith to become subiect to the censure of euery priuate man Wherefor the Apostle biddeth vs to take heed of such men and our blessed Sauiour himselfe hath commanded vs to regard them noe otherwise then as Heathens and Publicans Victor an auncient and graue authour Vis l. 2. de pâ—rses Vandal who liued in the age of S. Augustine about twelue hundred yeares since relateth a passage worthy to be remembred to shew the comfort and confidence which Catholikes haue in General Councells and how that haeretiks are affrayed and dare not stande to them Hunnericus king of the Vandals persecuting the Church summoned the Catholiks of his dominions to come to Carthage to a publike disputation with his Arian bishops Bishop Eugenius in the name of the Catholikes answered in this manner Let the kingknow that trusting in God we are ready and very glad to haue a publike triall of our cause but we desire that all the world may be present at it for we will not take vpon vs to decide the generall cause by our particular votes Let therfor all those beyond the seas know that the vniuersall cause is here to be treated and not onely the cause of the Affrican Prouinces for we will be tryed by the vniuersal authority and consent of all And when the king returned answere by his Prefident that he would grant him his desire if he would bring all the world vnder his power Eugenius replyed againe Thou shouldest not desire that request of mee which is not in my power to performe That which I say to the king is that if his maiesty desire indeede to be sdtisfyed in our religion which onely hath the true faith let him sende vnto his friends and I will sende vnto my fellow bishops and especially to the Romane Church which is the head of all Churches The bishop suspecting the intention of the king denyed to come to his city and wisely appealed to the generall authority and especially to the bishop of Rome but noe haeretike will euery yeeld to that appeale where the question is to be tryed by the vniuersal authority of the whole Church but as owles and battes fly from the sunshine soe doe they from such a glorious tryall and as they beganne in the disobedience of a few obstinate persons or of some one silly man soe they are affrayed to be tryed by the vniuersal Church which is at all times and was then when their disobedience beganne Disp Lyps Luther was contented to haue a tryall of his doctrine by single disputation and when that worthy man Dâ— Eckius the glory of Swedland publikely confuted and shamed him he broke forth into blasphemous words vnworthy to be repeated But he durst not come to the Councell of Trent which he needed not to hâ—ue feared if he would haue submitted to the authority of the vniuersall Church as all good Christians ought to doe Now let vs see WHICH IS THE CATHOLIKE Church Quest Giue mee a difference betwixt the true and all salse Churches Ans The true Charch continueth allwais in vnion and obedience to its head pastors all false Churches beginne in dissentions and disobedience to the head and pastors of the Church Thus S. Cyprian S. Hierome and others alleadged S. Peter being constituted of Christ as the head and supreme pastour of the Church as I haue shewed and is confirmed by all that which I haue to say of his successour the Bishop of Rome and that authority being necessary to remaine allwais after him we must see at all times and in all
controneâ—sys what the successour of S. Peter and the pastors that ioyne with him determine and we must adhaere to them as to the true and lawfull authority of the Church This as I shall â—hew is the bishop of Rome and the pastors of his Communion and therefor those that obey him and them obey the lawfull authority and are the true Church and they are all false Churches that disobey them Because the authority of the whole Church residing in the head and Pastors of it disobedience to them is disobedience to the whole Church and all false Churches of christians being either of Schismatiks or haeretiks and they beginning allwais in disobedience to the Church it followeth that those who continue allwais obedient to him that is then the head of the Church and to the pastors of his Communion are the true Church and the company of them altogether is the whole Catholike Church and those that refuse to obey their authority are false Churches of Scismatiks or haeretiks And this disobedience is not onely the original cause of all false Churches and a destinctiue signe to discerne them by but it is the very essential forme which constituteth them in the nature of false Churches and maketh them to be such For noe man can be a member of a false Church for false doctrine onely except it be ioyned with obstinacy and disobedience to the Church A good Catholike may hold or reach false doctrine of ignorance or mindelesnesse but he is not a Catholike if he mainteine any thinge obstinatly against the authority of the Church In points which are disputed by Philosophers and Catholike diuines affirmed by some and denyed by others a falsehood is taught on one side but noe errour in faith is committed nor the sinne of schisme or haeresy is incurred because the head and pastors of the Church hauing declared nothing in those points there is noe disobedience to the Church by them S. Cyprian and the bishops of Affrica erred in doctrine and opinion when they thought that the baptisme of haeretiks was not valid but they erred not in faith because the Church had then declared nothing of it and therefor it was noe formal errour or heresy because there was noe disobedience to the Church I may erre say the fathers commonly alleadged but I will neuer be an haeretike Errour is of the minde and vnderstanding but heresy is the defect of the will to be allwais free from errour we can not but from schisme and heresy we may if we will It is then willfull disobedience to the head and pastors of the Church that constituteth all false Churches and it is obedience to the head and pastors of the Church that conserueth vs in the true Church The true Church is a congregation of people vnited together with his lâ—wfull head and pastors all false Churches are congregations of people diuided from and disobedient to the head and pastors of the Church S. Paul warneth the Romanes to remember this marke saying Rom. 16. I desire you brethren to marke them that make dissentions and scandals contrary to the doctrine which you haue learned and anoide them If all christians had remembred these words and at all times had obserued them there had neuer bene any false Church of christians And if all would here after obserue them in the beginning of heresys the arch haeretike might despaire of his worke and would not gett soe much as one follower after him he would discouer himselfe by the propper marke of an haeretike which is not onely to hold false doctrines but also to make dissension in the Church by teaching new doctrines and by standing obstinate in them If therefor you see any one to beginne some singularity of doctrine contrary to that which is taught in the Church suspect presently such a man as tainted at least with a dangerous humour of pride if not with inward heresy but iudge him not an haeretike vntill his errour be made manifest by the authority of the Church and he stande obâ—â—inate against that authority Which if he doe then he maketh dissention and scandall and we may then and must iudge him to be an haeretike and auoide him We should pitty such a man with all our harts and pray for him as for our brother but we ought to auoide his conuersation as the breath of one infected with the plague But if you see that he gette followers to ioyne with him and to mainteine his disobedience to the head and pastors of the Church you haue then in them a false Church and those that mainteine their disobedience though neuer soe long after are all members of the same false Church and those that keepe in vnion and obedience to their head and pastors are the true Catholike Church Now christians you haue for ener a preuention against all schismes and heresys that may hereafter arize you shall presently destinguish the true Church from the false by this noble cognizant to wit obedience to the head and pastors of the Church and the false you shall discerne it by the infamous brand of pride and disobedience to them Keepe your selues in vnion and obedience to that authority which is and allwais must be in the Church of God and you are grounded vpon a sure rocke I would that these words were written in the doores of euery Church and engrauen in the walls in stones of flint THE TRVE CHVRCH CONTINVETH ALLWAIS IN VNION AND OBEDIENCE TO ITS HEAD AND PASTORS ALL FALSE CHVRCHES BEGINNE BY DISOBâ— DIENCE TO THE HEAD AND PASTORS OF THE CHVRCH that all by often beholding them might remember their due obedience to the Catholike Church And this marke is not onely sufficient to discouer for the future and to preuent the rizing of false Churches here after but also to shew which of all christian Churches that are now extant in the world is the true Catholike Church for Christ hauing instituted the gouernment of his Church to be by one head and supreme pastour and by other bishops as inferiour pastors in Communion with him and the gouernment which Christ instituted being allwais to be obserued and obeyed by vs there needeth noe more to shew which is the true Church but to shew who is the true head of the Church by succession from S. Peter and by the lawfull possession of his chaire and power For he and the pastors of his Communion are to be obeyed as deriuing their authority from Christ himselfe and as hauing from him the authority of the whole Church This argument is often vsed by S. Cyprian who biddeth vs in the beginning of all heresys and for the deciding of all controuersys allwais to looke vp to the head of the Church and to seeke to him and tractatu de simplicitate praelatorum siue de vnit Eccles he maketh this the cause of all heresys as you haue heard Because saith he we haue not recourse vnto the ormen nor seeke vnto the head and then he
de obitu fratris Pauls authority And S. Cyprian and S. Ambrose signify that it is all one to say the Romane faith and the Catholike faith All which they would neuer haue said if they had not thought the Romane chaire to haue had preeminence and authority aboue all and vnderstoode the words of S. Paul in that sense that the faith of the Romanes was renowmed in the supreme authority of that sea and therefor we may rightly alleadge those scriptures according to the auncient fathers interpretations for the supremacy of the bishop of Rome But we will produce their plane testimonys immediatly from the Apostles times Anacletus who liued with the Apostles hath these words Ep. 3. ad omnes Epis This holy and Apostolicall Romane Church not onely from the Apostles but euen from our Lord and Sauiour himselfe hath obtained the principality and eminency of power ouer all Churches and ouer the whole flocke of the people of Christ he himselfe saying to S. Peter Mat. 16. Thou art Peter c. And they also themselues consented vnto it that he should be aboue all the rest of the Apostles and should be Cephas that is to say the head and beginning of the Apostle ship who deliuered the same forme to his successors and the rest of the Apostles to bishops to be held by them If any difficult causes arize amongst you referre them to this head that by the apostolicall iudgment they may be ended for such is the will of our Lord who hath soe determined as by the foresaid places is declared Therfor this Apostolical seate is constituted of none other but of our Lord himselfe to be the hinge and the head as is said before of all Churches That as the doore is guided by the hinges soe by the disposition of our Lord all Churches should be gouerned by this holy seate S. L. 3. c. 3. Irenaeus who liued in the next age after the Apostles reckoneth vp all the bishops of Rome vnto Eleutherius who then gouerned to shew the succession of that supreme authority from S. Peter and saith that in all cases of controuersy we should haue recourse vnto the Apostolical traditions and try them by the Church of Rome Tertullian L. depudicitia who liued in the same age with him calleth the bishop of Rome Pontificem Maximum Episcopum Episcoporum The highest Priest the Bishop of bishops S. Cyprian De vnitate Eccles who liued in the next age after them speaking of the beginning of heresys saith in substance all which I am saying to wit that all schismes and heresys haue begunne by disobedience to the head of the Church and particularly specifyeth to what head to wit to the successour of S. Peter that is for the time and saith that if we would seeke to that iudge all controuersys would soone be at an end And speaking of the bishops of Rome L. 4. ep 9. from hence saith he all heresys haue rizen and still arize because that bishop who is but one and presideth ouer the Whole Church is despised by the prowde presumption of certaine men and he whom God hath dignifyed is iudged by men as vnworthy of dignity In the next age liued S. Athanasius a glorious Confessour and for forty yeares and more in which he was bishop the prime pillar of the Catholike Church in the easterne parts against the Arian haeretiks Apud Theoâ—â—et â— 4. c. 3. He reckoneth vp the Churches of the seueral parts of the world and saith that they and the whole world consented to the Councell of Nyce in which the primacy of S. Syluester then bishop of Rome was acknowledged and declared And it is here to be obserued that the Arians who are the auncientest of all sects now extant out of the Catholike Church beganne but in these times when the Romane bishop had bene honored for about three hundred yeares as the Vicar of Christ vpon earth And the same saint together with the fathers of the Councell of Alexandria wrote vnto Felix 2. then bishop of Rome after this manner To the honorable holy father Felix Pope of the Apostolical seate of the city of Rome Athanasius and all the bishops of the Aegyptians Thebaians and Lybians by the grace of God assembled in the holy Councell of Alexandria We suggest vnto your holy Apostleship that you would vouchsafe to vs of your wounted care ouer vs c. Because most holy father our praedecessors and we haue receiued helpe of your Apostolical scate We implore that Apostolicall and according to the canons the cheife seate that we may haue helpe from thence from whence our auncestors haue had their doctrines orders and relcefe Vnto that we haue recourse as to our mother that we may be nourished at her breasts And as the mother own not forgett her child soe doe not you forgette vs committed to your charge For our enemys haue inuolued vs in noe small troubles apprehending and threatening vs with irons vnles we will yeeld to their errors Which without your knowledge we will not presume vpon the canons hauing decreed that in cases of moment nothing should be done without the Romane bishop Therfor God hath placed you and your praedecessors the bishops of Rome in the toppe of all that you might haue a care of all Churches hauing the iudgment of all bishops committed to you For we know that in the great Councell of Nyce of three hundred and eighteene bishops it was established by all that without the sentence of the Romane bishop noe Councell should be called nor any bishops condemned although these and many other necessary thinges be taken away from vs and burnt by turbulent haeretiks c. Likewise it was agreeably defined by the foresaid fathers that if any of the bishops shall haue in suspicion the Metropolitan Comprouinciales or Judges let him appeale to your holy seate of Rome to whom the power of binding and loosing was giuen by speciall priuilege by our Lord himselfe c. Thou art the deposer of prophane haeresys inuaders and infesters as the Head and Doctour and Prince of orthodoxe doctrine and vnspotted faith After S. Athanasius in the next age liued S. Optatus bishop of Mileuetum in Affricke who made a catalogue of all the Popes from S. Peter to Siricius who then gouerned and writing against the haeretike Parmention he telleth him that in setting vp a chaire contrary to the Chaire of Rome he could not pleade ignorance knowing that the first was giuen to S. Peter to be at Rome and particular chaires to the other Apostles L. 1. conc Parm. that he might be knowne for a schismatike and praeuaricatour that should set vp a chaire in opposition to it Amb. in 3. ad Tim. S. Ambrose speaking of Damasus then bishop of Rome saith that all the world being Gods yet the Church onely is hit house whose Rectour or Ruler at this time is Dumasus S. Hierome also liued in the time of this
Pope and there being then in Antioch three seuerall factions all of them pretending to haue the Pope on their side he thus declareth himselfe writing to Damasus ad Damas I cry for him that ioynes with Peters chayre Meletius Vitalis and Paulinus say they adhaere to thee I could beleeue it if onely one of them affirmed it but now either two of them ly or they all three ly I know not Vitalis Meletius nor Paulinus he that gathereth not with thee scattereth he that is not of Christ is of Antichrist I ioyne my selfe vnto thy holinesse That is the chayre of S. Peter Vpon that rocke I know the Church was built S. Augustine made a catalogue of all the Bishops of Rome from S. Peter to Anastasius who then liued and saith that the succession of those bishops kept him in the Catholike Church Ep. 165. and that the principality of the Apostolical chayre allwais flourished in the Church of Rome S. Leo Pope writing to the Emperour stileth himselfe Bishop of the Vniuersal Church although he refused the title of Vniuersal Patriaâ—ke or Bishop of the Church when the Councell of Chalcedon gaue it to him Lâ—â— ep 52. because it was a title more subiect to misconstruction Theodoret writing to this Pope saith your sea praesideth ouer the whole world that holy sea holdeth the sterne of gouernment ouer all the Churches in the world S. Gregory the great who for the aforesaid reason refused the title of Vniuersal Patriarke often calleth the Church of Rome Caput omnium Ecclesiarum L. 7. c. 26. The head of all Churches And saith that if a falt be committed by a bishop he knoweth none but he is subiect to the Apostolical seate And againe who doubteth but the bishop of Constantinople is subiect to the Apostolical seate which also the most pious Emperour and Eutichius our brother the bishop of that city doe allwais confesse and yet the bishop of Constantinople then tooke place of all other bishops but the Bishop of Rome Thus you see by euident testimonys of auncient writers that in the primitiue times of the faith of Christ the Bishop of Rome was acknowledged as the prime pastour and head of the Church The same I shew also by the practise of those times The B. of Rome aunciently exercized in fact the supreme authority for that the Bishop of Rome then exercized in fact the supreme authority deporting himselfe in all thinges as the head of the Church He or his legates for him praesided allwais in General Councells confirmed them and was obeyed by them as the superiour ouer all bishops and all people as giuing bishoppricks to the worthy as depriuing the vnworthy as giuing lawes vnto all and hearing the causes of all of whatsoeuer Diocese and of the cheife bishops and cheife princes of the world in spirituall affaires All which will appeare by that which followeth As soone as the Church of God had gotten a Christian Emperour that bishops from all places could safely meete together a General Councell of the whole world was assembled at Nyce to decide the controuersys of those times Hosius Vitus and Vincentius presided in that first General Councell of the whole world as the legates of S. Syluester then Pope and subscribed in the first place And the primacy of the Romane Bishop was in that Councell expresly and of purpose declared as you haue seene in the words of S. Athanasius and the bishops of Aegypt Thebais and Libya written to Pope Felix The second General Concell was held at Constantinople and the fathers of that Councell wrote vnto Damasus Pope confessing themselues to be members of him In the third General Councell which was held at Ephesus S. Cyril Patriarke of Alexandria praesided in place of Pope Celestine and in condemning of Nestorius the Councell vseth this forme that they were forced by the Canons and by the authority of bishop Celestine to proceede with weeping teares to that heauy sentence against him The fourth General Councell was â—eld at Chalcedon where Paschasius Lucentius and Bonifacius praesided in place of S. Leo Pope and subscribed first And the fathers of this Councell wrote vnto Leo to desire his immediate approbation of their canons stiling him The Head and vniuersal Patriarke of the Church And his approbation being sent and read in the Councell the fathers cryed out Soe doe we all beleeue Pope Leo soe beleeueth let him be accursed that doth separate and diuide This is the faith of Leo cheife bishop Peter hath spoken by Leo's mouth and the Apostles haue taught soe Leo hath taught truely we all beleeue as Leo beleeues In the fift General Councell which was held at Constantinople Menas praesided who had bene thrusten out of that seate but was restored to it againe by the authority of Pope Agapetus In the sixt General Councell which was held also at Constantinople Theodore George and Iohn praesided as the legates of Pope Agatho whose letters being read the fathers of the Councell cryed out as those of Chalcedon had done almost three hundred yeaâ—es before to Pope Leo that Peter spoke by Agathós mouth c In the seauenth General Councell which was held at Nyce two Peters were the legates of Pope Adrian and had the first place and when his letters were read the fathers answered The whole Synode doth soe beleeue and teach The eight General Councell was held at Constantinople where Donatus and Stephanus Praesided as the legates of Pope Adrian and subscribed in this forme I Donatus by the grace of God bishop of Ostia hauing the place of my Lord Adrian high Priest and vniuersal Pope and praesiding ouer this General Councell according to his will haue promulged all that is here read and haue subscribed with mine owne hand I adde here that the very word and title of POPE is soe holy honorable and authentical that it is a sufficient proofe of his primacy and eminent authority aboue all For where as it signifyeth in it selfe a Great or Grane Father and was first of all giuen to Patriarks and more venerable pastors and higher dignitys it was decreed by an assembly of more then sifty bithops aboue a thousand yeares sinne that it should be giuen to none but to the bishop of Rome as to the Vniuersal Father of all faithfull christians Bishops Emperours Princes haue obeyed this decree the custome of nations hath consented vnto it and the very enemys of the Catholike Church now after the praescription of a thousand yeares giuing him that honorable title vertually confesse the supreme authority which then he had The bishops of Rome exercised authority ouer other dioceses and ouer the cheife persons of the world both of the Clergy and Laity S. Athanasius Patriarke of Alexandria who then tooke place of all but the bishop of Rome Asclepas of Gaza Marcellus of Ancyra and Lucius of Adrianopolis being expelled out of their bishoppricks by those of the Arian faction repairing to Pope Iulius were by his
none mainteined in schisme their owne Churches which had noe succession of head and pastors from Christ except they were as all false Churches are of a succession inuisible The Waldenses beganne in the disobedience of Iohn Waldo an ignorant lay man in the city of Lyons aboue eleauen hundred yeares after that the faith of Christ had flourished in the world who disobeying the authority of Alexander 3. Pope and of the fathers of a General Councell held at Rome beganne a new Church against all saying we must obey God rather then men And Iohn Hus was proceeded against as an haeretike for mainteining with obstinacy his doctrine The Church of the Lutherans beganne in the disobedience of Martin Luther a Fryar of the holy order of S. Augustine about fifteene hundred yeares after the first establishing of the Church of Christ who disobeying the authority of the head and pastors of the Church that then were to wit of Pope Leo and the pastors of his Communion broke his vowes of pouerty chastity and obedience and hauing gotten some to follow him he beganne with them a new Church which had noe succession of head and pastors from Christ nor from any Church except it were a succession inuisible The Zinglians beganne in the disobedience of Vlricus Zuinglius a Canon of Constance who seeing the people of Germany soe greedily to swallow downe the liberty of Luthers doctrine and noueltys disobeying the authority of Pope Clement and of the pastors of his Communion would beginne also a new Church contrary both to the Church of Rome and of Luther denying the reall presence of the body of our Lord in the holy Eucharist The Church of the Caluinists beganne in the disobedience of Iohn Caluin Priest of Noyon who following the example of Luther and Zuinglius brokeforth after them out of the sheepefold of Christ and disobeying the authority of Paulus 3. then Bishop of Rome and of the pastors of his Communion beganne a new Church according to his owne words separating themselues from the whole world Resp ad versip The Church of England which is the newest of them all beganne in the disobedience of king Henry the eight who hauing first obtained of Pope Leo the glorious title of Defendour of the faith for his good seruice done to the Church of God especially in oppugning of Luthers heresy became afterwards soe blinded with carnality that desiring of Pope Clement a diuorcement from his lawfull wife and not obtaining it he denyed his authority forbadde in his dominions all commerce with the court of Rome and caused himselfe to be proclaimed The supreme head of the English Church vpon earth putting to death Bishop Fisher Sr Thomas Moore and others for denying his supremacy By all which it appeareth that the words of S. Iohn may well be applyed to all these sects when to discouer the false Churches of schismatiks and heretiks which he speaketh of by the name of Antichrist he giueth them this marke They went out from vs. Io. 1.2 Soe may we say of all the sects of schismes and haeretiks that are in the world they beganne at some time in disobedience to the Romane Church the beginners of them were once Romane Catholiks but they were the chaffe of the Catholike Church which being puffed vp with pride and obstinacy went out from vs and beganne new Churches which were not then at all in the world You haue seene now the supreme authority of the Bishop of Rome to haue bene first acknowledged and obeyed by the primitiue Church and consequently all other Churches of christians whatsoeuer without naming of any haue at some time goneforth of that Church and begunne in disobedience to that Bishop and to the pastors of his Communion and you haue seene also in particular the cheife and most notable and one may say all other Churches for that the rest of the petty sects haue begunne indisobedience to some of these and goneforth of them you haue seene I say in particular the rest of the Churches that now are to haue begunne in disobedience to that authority which was first obeyed by the primitiue Church of Christ and was then obeyed in the world and euen by themselues vntill they tooke vpon them to disobey it Wherefor I conclude with this that the true Church is that which continueth allwais obedient to the true head of the Church and pastors of his Communion and they are all false Churches that haue begunne in disobedience to the true head of the Church and pastors of his Communion but there is none but the bishop of Rome that can with any reason pretende to be the true head of the Church nor any pastors that can pretende to be in Communion with the true head of the Church but those that are in Communion with him therefore that is the true Church which hath continued all wais in obedience to the Bishop of Rome and his pastors and they are all false Churches that haue begunne at any time and continue still in disobedience to him and them There remaineth now onely to see what they can say for themselues and to shew the vanity of their pretences First if they deny that the Romane Bishop had supreme authority in the primitiue Church it is to confound as I haue said the knowledge of all thinges past I haue shewed that the holy fathers of those times haue interpreted the scriptures for the Bishop of Rome his supremacy and I haue shewed by their plane sentences and expresse words that the Romane Church hath obtained from our Lord and Sauiour himselfe the principality and eminency of power ouer all Churches that holy seate being the hinge and head of all Churches that in all controuersys we ought to haue recourse vnto it that the Bishop of Rome is the highest Priest and Bishop of bishops that all schismes and heresys haue sprung from the disobedience to that chaire that they are Schismatiks and Praeuaricators that set vp another chaire contrary to it that they belong to Antichrist that are not of that Communion I haue shewed also that the Bishop of Rome his supremacy was acknowledged by Generall Councels that his legates praesided in them that he protected the good and corrected the â—ad both of the Clergy and of the Laity of other Dioceses euen the cheife persons of the world as vnder his charge and that there is noe other bishop that by any title can iustly pretende to haue had that authority in the primitiue times And therfor it is most senselesse to deny his supremacy which the world hath soe long confessed And if they shall still oppose it Sap. 5. the round world shall fight with him against the senslesse who are soe bold as to hazard their soules against the whole world and against soe many worlds as I haue shewed gathered together in General Councels who haue submitted to the Bishop of Rome as to their supreme pastour They will grant then perhaps that the Bishop of
33. l. 3. c. 43.44 l 2. cont Gauden c. 3 l. de vntco bap â—â—s c 15. ep 48. L. 2. cont Petâ—lâ— c. 19. as may be seene in The Authour of the Protestant Religion l. 2. c. 11. They must therefor shew some iust cause why they went forth and separated themselues For as S. Augustine alluding to the holy Prouerbe c. 30. often obiecteth against the Donatists The euill child calleth himselfe iust but he can not excuse his going forth And in another place You must come and giue an account of your separation But none of them haue a iuster cause nor can giue a better account of their separation then those whom they confesse to be false Churches therefor they are all false Churches I haue now sufficiently performed one thinge which I promised in the title of this booke The verity of the Roma â—e Cathelike faith is demonstrated by industion from aâ—l other religions to wit to demonstrate by induction from all the religions that are in the world the verity of the Romane Catholike faith As for the atheist he ought indeede to be excluded from all speech of religion for that he hath none yet his prophanesse is disprooued in the first article of the Creede in which the Apostles laid the foundation of religion saying I beleeue in God The Pagans religion is disprooued in the same article in that he beleeueth not in one God the maker of heauen and eaâ—th The Iewish and Turkish sects are disprooued in the second article for that they beleeue not in Iesus Christ the onely Sonne of God All sects of Christians that are out of the Romane Church are disprooued in that they haue broken this ninth article of the Creede I beleeue the Cathâ—like Church disobeying its authority in the lawfull head and pastors of it Let them harken to the words of the Holy Ghost Deut 17. If thou perceiue that the iudgment with thee be hard and doubtfull c. Thou shalt come to the Priests of the Leuitical stocke and to the iudge that shall be at that time and thou shalt doe whatsoeuer they that are presidents of the place which our Lord shall choose shall say and teach thee according to his law and thou shalt follow their sentence neither shalt thou decline to the right hand nor to the left hand But he that shall be prowde refusing to obey the commandement of the priest which at that time ministreth to our Lord thy God and the decree of the iudge that man shall dy Here now I cry to all those christians that are out of the Romane Church Graecians Arians c. and to all the seueral Churches of Protestants and especially to you my very deere Countreymen for whose soules I haue long hazarded my corporall life You haue contemned this great authority or rather a greater then it was You haue refused to obey the commandement of the priest and priests not of the Leuitical stocke but of the institution of Christ to wit the Successour of S. Peter and his pastors that is to say the Bishop of Rome and his pastors who gouerned the primitiue Church of Christ and were then actually gouerning it when your Churches beganne These you know you haue disobeyed and stande still disobedient vnto General Councels haue declared against you all and especially against the seueral sects of Protestants the Councell of Trent consisting of two hundred and fifty fiue fathers besides the most eminent doctors of the Catholike Church All Romane Catholiks obey this Councell in all points of faith and you disobey it Disobedience to the Leuitical priest and priests by the law of Moyses was punished with death and your disobedience I am sorry with all my hart but I haue noe scruple to speake it shall without doubt if you repent not be punished with eternal death Therefor I coniure you by the sweet merites of Iesus Christ in whom you beleeue and whom you expect to be your iudge to reflect ypon your soules and vpon true religion Call to minde how your Churches beganne and how schismes and heresys beginne and if you finde as you shall easily finde that you haue begunne after the very same manner as they in disobedience to the head and pastors of the Church and to all but your owne wills your beginners were as Core Nu. 16. Dathan and Abiron that beganne diuisions in the Church of God their followers that liued with them were as the followers of the former whom God destroyed also with them and you rising vp to mainteine their disobedience when they are dead and gone are like to those who after their deaths rose vp to iustify their cause and were therefor by the iudgment of God consumed with fire Forsake their company desert that vnlawfull cause and returne againe into the sheepfold of Christ if you desire to be saued THE TENTH ARTICLE FOrgiuenesse of sinnes None can rightly consider these words as made by the Apostles to be an article of the Creede but he must needs conceiue some greater mystery to be conteined in them them onely to professe that God can or doth forgiue sinnes Neither can he in reason vnderstande any other thinge then that there is power of forgiuing sinnes in that Church which they had newly professed This was indeede a gift and priueledge worthy to be mentioned in the publike Creede Christ after his resurrection before he ascended into heauen appeared to his Apostles and breathing vpon them said Io. 20. Receiue ye the Holy Ghost whose sinnes you shall forgiue they are forgiuen and whose you shall retaine they are retained This was a mystery which the Church of God had great reason to remember and often to inculcate vnto her people and therefor the Apostles hauing professed their beleefe in the Catholike Church in the next place would commemorate this gift and power which the Catholike Church hath of the forgiuenesse of sinnes that with gratitude we might remember it and make good vse of it It is a greater worke saith S. Aug. tract 52. Augustine to make an euill man good then to make the world of nothing Yet it is giuen vnto man to doe this great worke It is giuen I say vnto man for it is not of his owne power but of the gift of God God onely of his owne natural power can forgiue sinnes Esa 43. I am he that taketh cleane away thine iniquitys but he can if he will giue that power vnto men The Apostles had that power by the gift of God as they had of him to worke many miracles which were as hard and vnpossible to nature as to forgiue sinnes Iudges of themselues haue not power to iudge but when the king maketh them iudges and giueth them power then they haue power and may exercize it and the exercize of it is good and valid because the king who gaue them that power setteth them in his owne place giueth them to represent his owne person and ratifyeth the
sentence which they giue soe priests are made of God the iudges ouer soules they beare his person they forgiue sinnes and whose sinnes they forgiue vpon earth those are forgiuen by him in heauen By sinne we become debtours to God he is the creditour who onely of himselfe can forgiue but he substituting others to forgiue in his name his substitutes can validly forgiue and the substitutes of God are his priests To say that men can not haue power to forgiue sinnes is that which the Iewes obiected against Christ and which he answered and disprooued by a miracle shewing by it that himselfe not onely as he was God but also according to his humanity could forgiue sinnes A lame and impotent man being brought vnto him he said Mat. 9. Thy sinnes are forgiuen thee And when the Iewes heard those words presently they said that he blasphemed as though the power of forgiuing sinnes had bene soe propper to God that he could not haue imparted it to man But they shall see the contrary and that there was noe blasphemy in his words Wherfor thinke you euill in you harts saith Christ whether is easier to say thy sinnes are forgiuen thee or to say arize and walke but that you may know that the Sonne of man hath power on earth to forgiue sinnes Arize take vp thy bedd and goe into thy house And he aroze and went into his house And the multitudes seeing it glorifyed God that had giuen such power to men Now let none euer say that men cannot haue power to forgiue sinnes It is soe farre from being a blasphemy or iniury to God to say that he giueth power to men to forgiue sinnes that to say the contrary is a blasphemy and iniury to him to wit that he can not or doth not giue that power to men For as the honour and power of the king is not diminished but rather his loue and care ouer his subiects is demonstrated in making iudges to conserue iustice and order amongst them and especially in giuing power to his iudges to pardon offences done against him soe is it a special demonstration of the loue of God vnto men to giue power to priests to forgiue sinnes which are committed against him And this is that which the Apostles would haue vs here to professe to wit the forgiuenesse of sinnes by power giuen to the Catholike Church He that considereth the euill of mortall sinne how that it woundeth and quite killeth our soules leauing them depriued of the grace of God and guilty of the paines of hell will esteeme greatly of this power and will thinke that there is nothing in the world which soe much behoueth a sinner as the right application of that power to himselfe Esa 27. This is the end and fruit of all that sinne be taken away Saith the Prophet By this our soules when they are as a dead and filthy carrion in the sight of God are restored to the life of grace made cleane and beautifull and all the happines of future life also becommeth then due to them This we shall learne how it is to be applyed in the Sacrament of Pennance where the benefit of it is obtained THE ELEAVENTH ARTICLE THe Resurrection of the flesh How necessary this article was to the establishing of the christian doctrine it appeareth in this that the holy scriptures doe not onely professe it but also prooue it S. Paul prooueth the resurrection of our bodys by the resurrection of Christ If saith he there be noe resurrection of the dead neither is Christ rizen againe Cor. 1 15. And if Christ be not rizen againe then vaine is our preaching vaine also is your faith And he declareth and confirmeth it by the similitude of corne which corrupting in the seede rizeth vp fresh and faire corne againe With these and the like arguments he disputeth against certaine men that denyed the resurrection Tim. 2.2 as Hymenaeus and Philetus who interpreted the scriptures to be vnderstoode of the resurreation of the soule to the state of grace Christ also himselfe disputed with the Saducaeans about this point and confirmed in fact the truth of it when he raized Lazarus to life who although he had bene fower dayes dead and laid then stinking in the monument yet when Christ called he heard Io. 11. and obeyed comming forth fresh and liuely Holy Iob in the midst of all his assictions comforted himselfe with these words Iob 19. I know that my redeemer liueth and in the last day I shall rize out of the earth And I shall be compassed againe with my skinne and in my flesh I shall see God Thus did this holy man solace himselfe with the thought of the resurrection which he saith he had laid vp in his bosome vsing it as a cordiall and antidore against his great miserys Our soules and bodys desiring by nature to be vnited together for the complete and intire constituting of man it stands with reason that they should once come together againe that the soules of the blessed may enioy their desire and be satiated in the naturall appetite which they haue vnto their bodys And for this reason the immortality of the soule and the resurrection of the body is mentioned in the scriptures and was taken by the auncient Philosophers as it were for the same because such is the connexion betwixt them that by the immortality of the soule the resurrection of the body is inserred for if the soule be immortal and haue a natural appetite to the body as being ereated to constitute man consisting of both soule and body then that appetite must once be satiated by the resurrection of the body after death and revnion of the soule to it againe and soe take away the resurrection of the body and you take away the immortality of the soule and then all grounds of faith and the hopes of future life are taken away with it our soules being mortal with our bodys and therefor S. Paul If I fought with beasts at Ephesus what doth it profit mee Cor. 1.15 if the dead rize not againe let vs eate and drinke for to morrow we shall dy And therefor S. Chrysostome calleth the Saducaeans who denyed the resurrection the most pernicious haeretiks that euer were S. Ambrose hauing prooued it by scriptures and by the examples of those who haue rizen from the dead and by reasons which he calleth euident concludeth all in this plane and certaine truth that the corruptions of seedes and productions which we see of new thinges are vnto God the resurrection of the old That which we beleeue by this article is that the very same bodys which liued before although neuer soe much corrupted shall be vnited to their soules againe and remaine for euer with them for if it were not the same body which was before it were not a resurrection but a production of a new thinge and that this resurrection is general to all Cor. 1.15 according to the
the lawes of God Lastly we pray for all people euen our enemys the conuersion of Infidels Iewes Turks and haeretiks to the Catholike faith And we pray not onely for the liuing but also for the dead of which I haue spoken in the Sacrament of Pennance as a deuotion both charitable to them and profitable to ourselues It is a deed of charity to pray for them because they can not pray for themselues and it is profitable to vs because beside the reward of our owne good worke we shall be sure to haue their intercession both now in purgatory and afterwards when they come to heauen For they are not like the cupbearer of Pharao who prosperous things succeeding to him forgotte his friend of whom in prison he had receiued comfort Now let vs see TO WHOM WE ARE TO PRAY WE pray to God as to the supreme power and first authour of all benefits acknowledging all goodnes to proceede from him And therefor prayer in the Apocalypse is assimilated vnto incense and is called a sacrifice because it respecteth God as the source and first authour of goodnes We pray also to our blessed Lady and to the Angels and Saints as the freinds of God for their prayers and intercession to him But an haeretike will presently obiect that if prayer be a kind of sacrifice how doe we pray to the Saints all sacrifice being to be offered to God Our prayers indeede may be called and are a kind of sacrifice because we either expresly confesse the supreme power of God or implicitly acknowledge it by all prayers The prayers which we make immediatly to God are a kind of Sacrifice because by them immediatly and directly we acknowledge his supreme and diuine power The prayers which we make by the mediation of the Saints are also sacrifices in their kind because mediatly and indirectly they acknowledge the same in that finally they tende vnto God by the Saints praying to him as we desire The prayers which we make to Saints are a kind of sacrifice as they tende vnto God as they tēde vnto the Saints they are not sacrifices because they acknowledge not the supreme and diuine power to be in them It was an auncient heresy in the primitiue Church to deny the inuocation of Saints mainteined by vigilantius and other haeretiks Hier. cont vigil and of purpose refuted by S. Hierome and others of the holy fathers but time which is the abolisher of all heresys had abolished this and the Catholike Church which suruiued all times had suruiued this heresy and buried it in the obliuion of men vntill some vnruly spirits of these later yeares who would be ruled by noe Church in the world raked vp this heresy out of the dirt and set it on foote againe But you shall see the inuocation of Saints breifly made good by scriptures Councels the authority of the auncient Church and by reason Turne to the 48. Chapter of Genesis and you shall finde there the Patriarke Iacob blessing the children of Ioseph and inuoking the Angels and Saints vpon them in these words Gen. 48. The Angell that deliuereth mee from all euills blesse these childrën and be my name called vpon them the names also of my fathers Abraham and Isaac Here this holy Patriarke after that he had twice called vpon God then inuoked his Angell and the Saints Abraham and Isaac who as yet were not in perfect glory And if they onely departing as holy men in the fauour of God might be prayed vnto before that they had the perfect glory of heauen with much more reason the Saints of God may now be prayed vnto when they are in that perfect state And he that shall vnderstande the Angell whom he there called on to be any other then his owne Angell guardian shall contradict the common interpretation of the fathers who prooue by this place that we haue euery one an Angell Guardian deputed to defende vs and shall shew but litle reuerence to the holy scriptures which he dareth to delude with such vaine glosses of his owne head But to be breife I will say noe more but that S. Paul prayed to the liuing for their prayers therefor with more reason we may pray to the Saints for their prayers when they are in glory But of this afterwards The second Councell of Nyce which is receiued by our enemys declareth expresly for the inuocation of Saints The fathers of the Councell of Chalcedon cryed out to blessed Flauianus martyr act 11. Flauianus that is dead is yet liuing a martyr let him pray for vs. The practise of the primitiue Church ought to be sufficient for this The auncient lyturgys of the Church seruice the Romane which S. Peter made that of Hierusalem which S. Iames made that of the Aethiopians which S. Mathew made that of Milan which S. Barnaby and S. Ambrose made and that which S. Iohn Chrysostome made all of them making a deuout commemoration of our blessed Lady and imploring her intercession As for the sentences of these and other holy fathers they are as plane as my words now are for the inuocation of Saints and they haue as earnestly defended it as we now doe S. Athanasius ser de Deipara Speaking of our B. Lady saieth all the quires of Angels are incessantly singing that glorious hymne Aue gratia plena Dominus tecum c. And we the terrestrial hierarchy of men salute thee saying Haile full of grace pray for vs O Lady O Mistres O Queene O Mother of God What more could any Catholike haue said or desired of S. Athanasius then to heare him praise our blessed Lady and pray to her in the very same termes which himselfe now vseth in the Catholike Church Ser. 1. de S. Steph. S. Augustine if Steuan were heard when he prayed for those that stoned him how much more shall he be heard when he prayeth for those that pray deuoutly to him If S. Athanasius and S. Augustine should appeare now to the world to decide this controuersy and should say noe more but these words ouer againe who would not thinke that the controuersy were ended and sentence giuen for the inuocation of Saints but their testimonys will not satisfy our obstinate enemys who confesse that the auncient fathers teach inuocation of Saints but accuse them of errour for it O haeretical pride shall one single man disobey all the Churches that are then in the world and stand also at defyance with the holy and auncient fathers and shall any man shew that contempt of his owne soule as to follow Luther who came but in the last age or Caluin who came after him rather then the whole world that then was when they came and also rather then those learned Saints whom the christian world hath held in reuerence for these many hundreds of yeares Finally this is also manifest by natural reason which dictateth that the intercession of the freinds and fauorits of Princes may with prudence be desired for
to 8. That saith he the sacred body of which Christ tooke flesh and vnited together the diuine and humane nature should be giuen to the wormes to eate I dare not say it nor can I thinke it Thus much out of saint Iames saint Denis and saint Ignatius for the first age In the second age liued S. Irenaeus and Tertullian both of them haue set forth her ample prayses comparing her by contrarys to Eue Iren. l. 5. Tertl l. de Incarnat Christi who was our mother that caused our fall hurt and losse of Heauen but the B. Virgin is our Mother by whom wee are raised cured and restored to heauen againe And in respect of the power which her prayers haue with God S. Irenaeus calleth her the Virgin Aduocate of Eue the Virgin In the third age liued Origen a man of such parts to 3. ho. 1. and so well deseruing in his former yeares that he had a chaire of publike lecture of diuinity in the Schooles of Alexandria when he was but eighteene yeares of age he speaking of Christ and his Mother hath these words His Mother mother immaculate mother incorrupted mother vntouched His mother whose mother the mother of the onely begotten Sonne of God O great Sacrament the same a virgin and the mother of our Lord and a little after of this onely begotten Sonne of God this is the mother the Virgin Mary The worthy of the worthy one the vndesiled of the holy one the freind of the only one Tertullian liued in this age although he seemeth to haue flourished most in the former Saint Athanasius also liued in this age but flourished most in the next where I goe to cite him In the fourth age S. Athanasius flourished who opposing himselfe against the Arian haeretiks for forty six yeares in which he was Bishop was the prime pillar of the Catholik Church in the easterne parts of the world In these words he soundeth the blessed Virgins prayses and prayeth to her It becometh vs to call thee the regenerating mother Mistres and Lady for that our King Lord and God sprang forth of thee Athan in euang deip The Archangell gathered the first fruits of thy prayses when he spoke that glorious hymne Haile full of grace c. So doth the first front of Thrones Cherubims and Seraphims salute thee and so doth the second Hierarchy of Dominations Vertues and Powers and so doth the third of Angels and we the terrestriall hierarchy admonished by them extoll thee with a lowd and cleere voyce saying Haile full of grace our Lord is with thee Pray for vs ô Lady ô Mistres ô Queene ô Mother of God In the same age liued S. Ephrem who calleth her Holier then the Seraphims with out comparison more glorious then the supernall hosts The hope of the Fathers the glory of the Prophets the prayse of the Apostles Virgin before her child bearing and after it In this age also liue Saint Hierome S Chrysostome Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustine whom God raised as glorious lights to illustrate his Church in those blind and obstinate times of the Arian herely being at the hight And they haue said so much in deuotion to our blessed Lady that I know not where to beginne their Sentences You may read in S. Hier. ep de Nat. Mar. ad Crom. Heliod to 9. Hierome the miraculous manner of her Conception of S. Anne an aged and barren woman and how the name of MARY which in Hebrew is to say MISTRES or LADY was brought for her by an Angell from Heauen Who also foretold to Ioakim her father that she should bee blessedamong women and how she was consecrated to the seruice of God at three yeares old in the Temple and attended their being gouerned by priests Esa 11. and how that the Prophecy of Esay was litterally denoted in S. Ioseps rod which miraculously flouriâ—hed to assigne him as a worthy husband for her And in another place hee calleth her the life Epist ad Paul Enstoc rule and discipline of all and saith that as there is none Holy to compare with God so there is none perfect in comparison of her Saint Chrysostome Truely this Virgin is the miracle of the world Chry. in hypa dom She alone surpasseth in greatnes both Heauen and Earth For what is there holier then her not the Prophets not the Apostles not Martyrs not Patriarks not the Angels not the Thrones not the Dominations not the Cherubims not the Seraphims nor any other thing is there to bee founde greater or more excellent then her either amongst visible or inuisible creatures You may see in the second book which S. Ambrose wrote of Virgins and in S. Augustins sermons of her Natiuity and Assumption the deuotion which they bore to her In the next age beganne Nestorius his heresy the professed enemy of Christ and of our blessed Lady so farre as to deny vnto him one onely person of God and by consequence to robbe her of her prime title and honour of the Mother of God Many holy men beganne then to bestirre themselues for the honour of Christ Cyr. cont Nestor and his Mother but Saint Cyrill of Alexandria was his prime Antagonist and next vnder God the prime defendour of the Catholike cause who thus expresseth his deuotion to her Praise be to thee ô Holy Trinity to thee also be praise Holy Mother of God Thou art the pretious pearle of the world Thou art the candlestike of vnquenchable light Orat. de dorm deip the Crowne of virginity the Scepter of the Catholike Faith In the sixt age liued Andreas Hierosolymitanus Bishop of Crete who calleth our blessed Lady a saint holier then the Saints the most holy treasure of all sanctity Eusebius Emissenus liued in the same age who speaking of our B Lady was strucken with astonishmeÌ„t that he knew not what to thinke of the greatnes of her graces For saith he if she were full of grace before she conceiued what shall we thinke her to haue bene after it But what what then shall we thinke her to haue bene after so many yeares of continuall and such intimate conuersation with Christ she being his mother and he her master Thus you haue the deuotion of the auncient Fathers to our blessed Lady for the fist six hundred years of the Faith of Christ declaring a farre different spirit in them from those who wickedly blaspheme her or derogate from her praises or but any way sleight them as the moderne enemys of the Catholike Church commonly doe I might produce the Sentences of holy men in following ages vnto our dayes to shew the contiruance of that first and auncient denotion to her to haue bene at all times in the Catholik Church I might alleadge the words of S. Anselme Auth. Protest relig l. 1. c. 6. § 3. Saint Bernard Saint Bonauenture Saint Thomas of Aquine the denotion of S. Dominike S. Francis and of many other Saints some of whom
Body of our Lord was truely offered as a Sacrifice on the Crosse So in the Eucharist it is truely offered as a Sacrifice at Masse Protestants say that his true Body is neither truely offered as a Sacrifice at Masse nor is the Eucharist any Sacrifice at all nor yet is he soe much as present in it What commeration doe they make according to this doctrine of his death on the Cros where he was both truely present and a true Sacrifice The truth is that they laboring to pull downe the Masse as the cheife and highest worship of God which the Catholike Church had regarded not to take away all commemoration of Christs Passion and to leaue the world for euer after without any Sacrifice at all We haue in the acts of the Apostles Act. 13. where they are said to haue bene ministring to our Lord. Which planely denoteth that they were offering of Sacrifice for if they had bene preaching or administring the Sacraments onely then they had ministred to the people but to minister to God can haue noe other propper signification but to offer somethinge to God In the Greeke text it is expresly they being offering of Sacrifice and Erasmus himselfe Translateth it soe expounding the word lyturgy which the Greekes tooke from thence to signify the Church seruice Missa the Masse Soe that the Apostles had Sacrifice and Masse The Church hath declared this verity in seueral General Councells The first Councell of Nyce Can. 13. and more planely in another Canon which Doctour Kellison mentioneth out of Surius and out of the Reuerend Lord Cuthbert Tunstall the last Cathol ke Bishop of Durham of whose consanguinity I very much glory as a glorious Confessour of the Catholike Church The same after many General Councells is lastly declared by the Councell of Trent in which it is defined that a true and propper Sacrifice is offered to God at Masse Sess 22. c. 1. 2. Holy and auncient fathers haue spoken planely of a Sacrifice in the Church and haue called it by the word Missa the Masse Can. 3. Soe the Apostles in their canons requiring that those who are present at the Church seruice when they haue heard the Scriptures of the Apostles and the ghospell they remaine vntill Masse be done Clem. ep 3. S. Clement who liued in the Apostles times admonisheth the Clergy that they doe nothing without the licence of the Bishop and in particular that noe Priest say Masse with out it Eccl. hier c. 3. Amb. in Luc. 1. Aug. l. 10. de ciu Dei c. 19. 20. Ser. 13. de verb. Apost L. 3. de bap c. 19. Bed l. 4. c. 12. S. Denis the Disciple of S. Paul calleth the Sacrifice of the Church the quickening holy Sacrifice the vnbloody host and victime S. Ambrose sayth that there is noe doubt but that the Angels doe assist when Christ is immolated S. Augustine elegantly describeth the destinction of our inward and outward Sacrifice declaring how that Christ according to his humanity is the Sacrifice and according to his diuinity receiueth it and calleth it the Sacrifice of our mediatour the Sacrifice of our price the Sacrifice of the New Testament the Sacrifice of the Church And in another place he stileth it the onely inconsumptible victime without which there were noe religion S. Bede who liued after them although about a thousand yeares since relateth a notable histoty to setforth the power of the Masse The summe of which is that a Gentleman who serued the King of Northumberland in his warres being sore wounded in batle was taken by the enemy and recouering of his wounds was sold vnto a merchant of London His brother who was a Priest thinking him to haue bene killed said euery day Masse for him and to shew the power and essicacy of the Masse in loosing of the soule from punishments in the next world it pleased God that allwais at that time of day in which his brother said Masse for him the fetters with which he was bounde of their owne accord were loosed from him in soe much that is patrone obseruing it and acknowledging some mystery in it gaue leaue to his bondsman to goe amongst his freinds to procure his ransome It is a story worthy to be read at large in S. Bede who endeth the narration of it in these words this because I know it to be true I would insert it into my Ecclesiasticall History And if it be true as S. Bede saith he knew it to be it must manifestly conclude for the dignity power and efficacy of the Masse according as it is vsed in the Catholike Church and that it is a Sacrificè as we beleeue it to be Finally the Masse is soe auncient and soe planely testifyed by the primitiue fathers of the Church of Christ that a Protestant authour Confesseth that noe beginning there of after the Apostles times can be shewen Ascham apol pro Coena Do. Calu. in Heb. 9. Which when Caluin saw to be true he could not conteine himselfe but broke forth into these irreuerent words that the destinction of a bloody and vnbloody Sacrifice is a Scholastical and friuolous innention adding another farre worse terme which I will not repeate and concludeth nil moror quod veteres scriptores sic loquantur I care not for auncient writers saying soe Noe Caluin cared not for auncient writers sayings but good Catholikes care for them It shall allwais be a comfort to vs to haue our doctrine confirmed by the sanctity learning and antiquity of such writers as I haue produced in testimony of the Masse and by such miracles as S. Bede hath related which I needed not to haue mentioned ouer againe but for Caluins rash words We shew by such writers that it was the doctrine of the auncient Catholiks and we beleeue it to be true because the whole Catholike Church doth soe beleeue And this whole Church was contradicted by Caluin when he beganne his doctrine in opposition and disobedience to all the Churches of the world And for this I will adde further the words of the Apostle we haue an altare Heb. 13. where of they haue not power to cate that serue the tabernacle He speaketh there to some who being conuerted from Iudaisme to the faith of Christ were still inclining to the Iewish Sacrifices and to disswade them from this he compareth together their altare and ours and preferreth ours By which it is manifest that we had a Sacrifice in the Apostles times for what are altares for but to offer Sacrifice on and the Apostle comparing these two altares together must suppose and vnderstande their Sacrifices by them for the altares are not eaten but the Sacrifices which are offered on them and therefor as the Iewish altare had a Sacrifice which was eaten soe had the altare of the Apostles or els there is noe comparison betwixt the two altares nor connexion in the Apostles speech To the former authoritys I adde this reason The
diuine word breaketh his lawes and taketh away all order and gouernment quite out of the world for all order includeth subordination that is to say subiection of inferiors to superiour powers but take once away the authority of the Church and absolue men in conscience from the obedience of it to beginne new doctrines beleeuing teaching and doeing what they list themselues and you take away all subordination of inferiors to superiors in the diuine worship therfore take away obedience to the Church and you take away all order and gouernment in Religion quite out of the world by making men subiect to no authority and consequently you destroy the world which without order in Religion can not consist The ground therefore foundation and first principle of all order is the divine authority of the continuall Church to beleeue as the Church teacheth and to obey it The Apostles haue commanded obedience to temporall superiors who then were infidels and could haue no authority in spirituall affaires Petr. 1.2 Let euery soule be subiect to higher powers for there is noe power but of God Rom. 13. Therefore he that resisteth the poâ—er resisteth the ordinance of God If infidell masters Magistrates and Powers be to be obeyed in temporall things as ordained of God how much more are we to obey the higher powers of the Catholike Church God hath ordeined the Superiors of the Church to gouerne the world in his diuine seruice therefore they haue the authority of God Aug. coÌ„t adu leg lib. 1. c. 17. and their Praecepts oblige vnder a mortall sinne There is no chaine of iron or adamant saith S. Augustine that can binde so hard as the Praecepts of the Church The like may be said of Ecclesiasticall customes which by long continuance haue obtained the force of lawes Ecclesiastical customes Therfor S. Paul commendeth the Corinthians for keeping the Praecepts which he had giuen them and alleadging the custome of the Church he thought it sufficient to stoppe the mouths of the contentious to say we have noe such custome nor the Church of God Cor. 1.11 And if those customs of the Church could gaine that authority soe soone within twenty or thirty yeares that Christ founded it certainely they shall haue as much now when it hath the addition of about sixteene hundreds of yeares S. Augustine hath these words for customes In those things of which the scriptures determine nothing for certaine Aug. ad Caâ—ulan the custome of the people is the custome of God and the institutions of our auncestors are to be kept as lawes and as praeuaricators against diuine lawes soe the infringers of Ecclesiasticall customes are to be restrained because the Church seeing those customes and not forbidding them by silence consenteth and alloweth of them and God declareth by the practise of the Church that in those times and places such customes oblige as necessary then to be kept Now let vs declare the Praecepts of the Church in particular THE FIRST PRAECEPT TO fast fasting dayes Soe great is the benefit of fasting that the Catholike Church would haue none of her people to be depriued of it and therefor would oblige all to diuerse fasts which I shall presently declare but first we will say somethinge of fasting in generall Fasting is commended first in the old Testament sometimes by examples of the Prophets and holy men and sometimes by the admirable effects of it Fasting was the first Praecept that was commanded to man and all our miserys beganne first by the vnhappy breaking of that Praecept God might haue chosen any other Commandement to haue exercized our obedience in but he would commende fasting to vs. After that in the Law of nature it was commanded againe some meates being then prohibited to be eaten as vncleane Nu. 6. Iud. 13. Hiere 35. In the Law of Moyses he himselfe fasted at the receiuing of it The Nazareits and Rechabeits who were particularly dedicated to the seruice of God were strict and austere in fasting Holy Iudith armed with fasting went forth against all the Assyrian forces accompanyed onely with one maide seruant and full of zeale and heauenly fortitude with her owne hands slew their Prince and put them all to slight The sentence of death was giuen against all the Israelits and a day appointed for their generall massacre Esther the Queene must venture her life for them by going to the King to aske their pardon She fasted and the people fasted for her good successe and she became soe beautifull and gracious that the hart of the King being enamoured with her the liues of thousands were granted at her request The Niniuers for their sinnes had deserued destruction and God sent his Prophet to declare against them and to cry as yet forty dayes and Niniue shall be subverted Ion. 3. The King hearing of it commanded a solemne fast and the city obseruing it God was pacifyed the sentence was suspended and Niniue stoode firme repaired by the force of fasting The three children armed with this vertue entred into the furnace of Babylon and walked in the raging fire as in a pleasant fresh ayre Daniel by fasting was too strong for Lyons and greedy hungar vrging them to deuoure God stopped their mouths that they did him noe hurt Graue Eleazarus contemned death to defende that fast which God had then commanded in the Church And the seauen brethren in the Machabees with their Mother aboue measure maruelous passed through cruell torments in defence of the same fast In the New Testament we haue fasting much more commended vnto vs by the example of Christ himselfe who blessedly beganne the Law of grace with his owne fast of forty dayes We haue also that Anne the Prophetisse fasted that S. Iohn Baptist fasted that the Apostles fasted and that Christ did not onely commende fasting by his example but in plane words and by miracle He would haue a possessed person to be brought to the Apostles that they labouring in vaine to despossesse him he might performe it himselfe and then declare for fasting saying this kind can goe out by nothing but by prayer and fasting Marc. 9. Is it not now a shame for the enemys of the Catholike Church to pretende Scriptures and yet to stande against the whole current both of tho old and new Testament for some aequivocall sentence which they picke out to obiect against fasting Christ to reprooue the hypocrysy of the Pharisys who vsed often to fast and to wash themselues that they might seeme holy before men said Mat. 15. not that which entreth into the mouth defileth a man meaning that the end intention and circumstances of eating and not the corporall meate was either good or hurtfull to the soule of man and they obiect this saying against fasting in generall or against the fasts of the Church Gal. 4. and call them the obseruations of men and not of God What more could an haeretike say to deny the doctrine of
mortall sinne is as opposite to the diuine grace as poyson wounds and sicknesse are to health and as darknes is to light which can not be both together and therefor he that knoweth himselfe to be in mortall sinne and cleereth not his conscience before he receiueth any Sacrament doth as a sicke man that should desire health and yet willfully keepe poyson at his hart or as one that should shutte vp the windows to let in light and doth not onely hinder the effect and fruit of the Sacrament which he receiueth but committeth also a new mortall sinne in soe receiuing and there for we are bounde to cleere ourselues by a good confession from mortall sinne before we receiue either the Eucharist Extreme-Vnction Holy Orders or any other Sacrament baptisme onely excepted because by it we must be made christians before we can receiue any of the christian Sacraments if we did but consider the benefits which we gette by the Sacrament of Pennance we should not neede to be commanded to it First we â—ette the forgiuenesse of our sinnes by which we are as it were in a moment freed from the most painfull and lothsome sicknes that can be We gette the diuine grace the least degree of which is better then all this visible world we gett pardon from a horrible and euerlasting â—ame for the future we gett ourselues admitted into the Communion of Saints and to the fellowship of the blessed soe as to haue then a condignity through the merits of Christ to their euerlasting reward Lastly we exhilarate and make glad the whole court of heauen and we contristate and make sad the spirits of hell with our conuersion to God We are commanded to confesse to our ordinary Pastour and that with good reason that our Pastors who haue the particular charge of vs may haue a more destinct and particular knowledge of the state of our consciences And this is intimated in the words of Christ when he said that the good Pastour calleth his sheepe by name and leadeth them forth that is knoweth them all in particular and hath a care of euery one of them Besides Pastors and people are thuâ— â—ngaged to each other to be good Pastors and good people But because Pastors in their parishes haue many imployments and can not allwais attende to hearing of confessions therefor the Church licenceth other Priests and religious men who are not ordinary Pastors to heare confessions and to such we may lawfully confesse because our Pastors licence is supposed to confesse to them THE FOVRTH PRAECEPT TO receiue the Eucharist at Easter time I haue shâ—wed in its propper place how oftne of deuotion we may receiue this the most blessed of all Sacraments But that none may be depriued of the benefits and graces of it the Catholike Church hath commanded that all should receiue once euery yeare and that about Easter time because it was then instituted and bequeathed as a legacy to the Apostles to be deliuered by them to the christian world and to remaine as an euerlasting testimony of the loue of Christ towards vs and as a memoriall of the worke of our redemption And therefor it is sitting that euery christian should commemorate the mystery of it about that time by humbly and thankefully receiuing it We are bounde also to receiue it against our deaths because it is the most comfortable Vyande and strengthening bread which God hath prouided against that last and irreuocable voyage Of which we haue a figure in the third booke of Kings When Iesabel persecuted the Church and killed soe many Prophets that Elias in Israel was as it were left alone and he also was threatened by a messenger that the next day his soule should follow them he fledd into the desert committing himselfe to the diuine prouidence in that barren and solitary place And God who neuer faileth to prouide for his freinds prouided for him sending him bread by an Angell who badde him eate for that he had a great way to goe Reg. 3.19 And eating of the Angels bread he walked in the strength of that meate forty dayes and forty nights vnto the mount of God Horeb. The Angels bread was the blessed Sacrament in mystery the Angell that brought it signifyeth the Priest tho great way which Elias had to goe is the iourney of death which all haue to goe Horeb the mount of God representeth heauen and thither we artaine by vertue and strength of this comfortable bread We are bound then to receiue the Eucharist at Easter time and at our deaths THE FIFT PRAECEPT TO pay tithes This Praecept obligeth partly by Law of nature and partly by the authority of the Church By the Law of nature we are bound to allow a maintenance for our spirituall Pastors and the Church hath determined that this allowance should be the tithes In the holy Law of Moyses God chose to himselfe the tribe of Leui to attende vpon his sâ—ruice and to labour for the spirituall good of the people and being soe imployed in that charge that they could not attende to tilling of Land nor to worke for their owne maintenance he ordained that the people whom they susteined spiritually should susteine them corporally and should pay to them the rithes of the fruits of the earth as a competent allowance for them By the same â—ty of God and of nature we are bounde as they were to mainteine our spirituall Pastors and Christ not hauing specifyed any allowance in particular but hauing left it to the determination of the Church what could the Church of Christ more reasonably determine then that which God had determined before in the same case to wit the tithes aâ— a competent maintenance for Pastours Saint Paul indeede would receiue nothing of the Corinthians but would worke with his hands on the night time to maintaine his labour on the day rather then he would be burder some to them But although he would doe this with the Corinthians yet with others he did not soe but receiued a liuelyhood of those to whom he preached and of the Corinthians also he challenged it as due although for some reasons he would take nothing of them Luc. 10. Our Sauiour instructed his Apostles to take their maintenance of the people and declared it as due to them as wages are to workemen For the workman saith he is worthy of his hyre Tim. 1.5 And Saint Paul alleadging this sentence to that purpose hath assured vs of the sense of it and of the authority of Christ in that sense The same Apostle speaking of it saith Whoeuer playeth the souldier at his owne charges in the law of Moyses those that serued the Altare participated of the Altare And so also our Lord ordained in the Law of grace for them that preach the Ghospell to liue of the Ghospell Thus doth S. Paul discourse vpon thâ— By all which it doth appeare that the tithes being appointed by the Church for the labors of the Clergy
they are as due to them as wages are to workemen And we may speake by experience to them that know not the truth that our labour is without comparison greater then the labour of day tale workmen I haue no more to say of the Praecepts of the Church You haue seene first the authority of the Church to be diuine and her Praecepts to oblige vnder amortall sin Secondly you haue in particular the declaration of them Let vs keep them with deuotion and zeale of the honour of the Church that coÌ„mandeth them She is the immaculate spouse and glorious Bride of God She is our mother and neuer was there any mother so disirous of her childreÌ„s good nor so efficaciously procuring their true prefermeÌ„t as the Catholik Church doth ours The mother of the Zebedoes was sollicitous for her sonnes with Christ asking to haue them neere him in his Kingdome but she knew not what she asked The Catholike Church asketh nothing for her children but that which God will haue her to aske and which he inspireth her how to procure and which they if they will obey her are sure to obtaine and that is the highest honour and greatest felicity of all honours and felicitys to be made indeede the courtiers and fauorits of Christ in his euerlasting Kingdome Let vs then obey her Eccli 3. As he that gathereth treasure soe he that honoreth his mother And then a little after he is cursed of God that doth exasperate his mother How much then ought we to honour the whole Catholike Church and with what reuerence to receiue her Precepts THE TVVELFTH DISCOVRSE OF SINNE I Haue now a most hidous and fearefull monster to set before your eyes I meane to describe vnto you the euill of sinne which is indeede the most hideous monster of the world so deformed that neither men nor Angels can comprehende the deformity of it none but God can rightly vnderstande it and he vnderstanding it is moued with infinite detestation and auersion from it as from that which is most opposite of all things to his goodnesse and most hurtfull to his creatures I would stire vp in your hearts a vehement abhorring and vtter renouncing of sinne This is all the fruite saith the Prophet that sinne be taken away Esa 27. and this is all the fruit which I desire and labour for in you and which you ought to labour for in your selues to haue your sinnes taken away fot this we preach catechise and exhort that we may detest all sinne and fly it as the most dreadfull monster in the world We may conceiue somethinge of the power and malice of sinne by the vision which Saint Iohn had in the twelfth of the Apocalipse Apoc. 12. First he saw a very glorious woman soe glorious that she was clothed with the Sunne and had the Moone vnder her feete and vpon her head a crowne of twelue starres Then there appeared another signe in the Heauens a great dragon with seauen heads and tenne hornes and seauen diademes on his head And this dragon was soe strong and powerfull that he drew downe from Heauen the third part of the starres and cast them to the earth and assalting the glorious woman for all her glory he put her to flight and although she had giuen her the wings of an Eagle to fly into the desert yet the dragon sending forth of his mouth a flood of waters ouertooke her with them and had swallowed her vp if she had not gotten helpe By this dragon we may vnderstande something of the power and malice of sinne Sinne is the enemy of all glory it ascended into the Heauens and threw downe from thence the celestiall Angels and made them who were as the starres of Heauen in naturall beauty to wander now vpon the earth and vnder it full of shame and paine The Church farre more glorious in the sanctity of soules then the Sunne is in corporall brightnesse and which may well be signifyed by the glorious woman iâ— sometimes so persecuted by the sinnes of Infidels and euill Catholiks that although the true worship of God be neuer quite banished out of the world yet in some places it is so obscured that the Church in those places is driuen into corners as it were into the desert Sinne is that monster which brought the flood of all humane miserys and a reall flood of waters vpon the Church in the deluge and had quite swallowed her vp if God had not miraculously saued her Sinne hath brought plagues vpon houses citys and Kingdomes and taged in the end so violently destroying of soules that the Sonne of God was incarnated to destroy it It made the Sunne to be eclipsed with a horrible darkenesse the roofe of the Temple of Hierusalem and the rocks there abouts to be rent in peeces the ground to tremble graues to open and dead bodys to rise againe at the destruction of it It made our Saviour to weepe vpon Hierusalem and it made HierusaleÌ„ within a while to be as a stinking graue that swelled vp to an incredible hight with the multitude of dead carcases which were in it It made thousands of that people to languish away with famine and hundreds of thousands to come into their enemys hands and to become subiect to their slauery and torments Sinne hath brought haeresys into the Church of Christ and by them cruell blood â—hed amongst ChristiaÌ„s It is the cause of all dissentions and all the euills that euer were were caused by sinne It maketh the prowde to be contemned the enuious to be enuyed the contentious to be killed the couetous to be full of perplexity the luxurious to dispaire and all sinners to detest that in the end which once they loved and to be full of horrour when they come to dy Wise and holy men haue liued hard and austere liues to keepe themselues cleare from sinne and haue chosen to submitte themselues rather to the cruellest deaths that sinners could devise to inflict then to be sinners with them These are the effects of sinne what monster could euer doe the like if those tall and strong men that terrifyed the Israelites were called monsters for their extraordinary strength and tallnesse why may not we call sinne a monster which hath such power Num. 13. and if excesse or defects or disorders of members make monsters How monstruous is sinne that is the originall cause of all the excesses defects and disorders that euer were it peruerteth the order of all our actions it corrupteth our nature and euen as poyson put into wine intoxicateth it quite and changeth it all into poyson so sinne corrupteth all that is good in our soules and all our good workes being poysoned with one mortall sinne goe downe with it into hell What reason then haue we to abhorre and to fly from sinne If we looked behinde vs and saw a Lyon Beere or terrible Serpent pursueing vs at our heeles our harts would faint presently our whole bodys would
freely cooperate with it For as God would make vse of Moyses his rodde to the working of miracles saying Exod. 4. What is it that thou holdest in thy hand and then beganne to worke miracles by it and as Elizeus asked the widdow what hast that in thy house Reg. 4.4 and vsed her oile to the enriching of her Io. 1. and as Christ would vse water to the procuring of wine soe God vseth vs as instruments to the effecting of good works and therefor in the Scriptures they are attributed sometimes to God and sometimes to ourselues To God as to the principall and cheife cause to vs as to an inferiour and instrumentall cause Exod. 31. As I am the Lord that sanctify you To wit cheefly and principally and man also is said to sanctify himselfe as in S. Io. 1. Iohn euery one that hath this hope sanctifyeth himselfe That is instrumentally and after an inferiour manner by cooperating with Gods grace Ezech 36 Ezech 8 Cor. 1.5 Soe also Ezech. I will giue you a new hart And in another place make to your selues a new hart And therefor S. Paul saith we are Gods Coadiutors but if we had not freewill the goodnes of the worke were by noe meanes to be attributed to vs and we could not be said to sanctify ourselues nor to make to ourselues new harts Furthermore we see that we can deliberate and consult of our actioÌ„s but we can deliberate and coÌ„sult of nothing but that which we haue freedome to doe or not to doe therefor our actions are free in vs. When an enemy pursueth vs we deliberate not whether we shall fly in the ayre or noe because it is not in our freedome Lawes are commanded vs rewards and punishments are proposed to vs we exhort to good works and praise and honour those that doe well which we would not doe if they did soe of necessity and had not freedome to the contrary Clem. Alex. l. 1. strom Neither praise nor dispraise nor honours nor punishments were iust if man had not freewill And this which is soe manifest to reason is as planely declared in the Scriptures Eccli 15. God from the beginning made man and left him in the hands of his owne counsaile Holy Iosue at his death exhorting the Israelites and drawing neere to the end of his speech to engage them the more to the seruice of God he biddeth them to choose what they would doe Ios 24. Now therefor feare our Lord and serue him with a perfect and very true hart But if it like you not to serue our Lord choice is giuen you Choose this day that which pleaseth you Soe that it is in our choice to doe well or ill But I end this and all controuersys of religion in this booke with the authority of the Church This was the doctrine of the Catholike Church aboue a thousand and foure hundred yeares since when Manes beganne to oppose it and he was then and hath euer since bene esteemed an haeretike for opposing it there being then noe Church of Christians in all the world that denyed it therefor this is the true Catholike doctrine This was the doctrine of the Church a few yeares since when Luther beganne to oppose it Ses 7. c. 16. can 14. and the Councell of Trent of aboue two hundred and fifty prelates with the authority of the supreme pastour that then was of the Church declared for this doctrine therefor this is the true Catholike doctrine Let now the enemys of the Catholike Church obiect what they can either out of Scriptures or reason against it all is in vaine the Church is to iudge of the sense of Scriptures and of reason and not euery priuate man to vnderstande them as he will and to get followers to himselfe against the Church Whatsoeuer is obiected contrary to the authority of the vniuersall Church allthough it seeme neuer soe plane is wrong and falsly applyed and we must take them for haeretikes that will stande obstinate in any such doctrine S. Augustine must that which is cleere be denyed Aug. l. de nat grat c. 38 because that which is done can not be vnderstoode and what is soe cleere as that which is once declared by all the Doctors of the Catholike Church We may dispute about the sense of Scriptures or any point of doctrine vntill the Church haue declared concerning it as Lawyers dispute about applying the sense of the Law to particular cases vntill the iudge giue sentence in it but when that is done then all argument must cease because then it is cleere and soe cleere that it can be noe cleerer then to be declared viua voce with the liuely voice of the iudge who hath lawfull authority Soe that which the Church hath once declared is soe cleere that it can be noe cleerer because it is declared by the liuely voice of all the Pastors of the Church all who must either haue lawfull authority to decide all controuersys concerning Scriptures and all other points of faith or els there is noe lawfull authority in the world to decide them but euery man might hold and teach what he listed which were to destroy the world Therefore we neede noe more for the proofe of freewill but the authority of the Church and all arguments that can be obiected against it are but delusions Yet the true sense of those places which they obiect may be vnderstoode by that which hath bene said I know Lord that mans way is not his owne Ier. 10. neither is it in a man to walke and to direct his stepps It is not in man by himselfe without the grace of God But with it it is Io. 6. Noe man can come to mee vnles the father that sent mee draw him God draweth not by force necessitating whether we will or noe but as the spouse said draw mee Can. 1. we will runne after thee in the odour of thine ointments that is sweetly and by faire meanes mouing and exciting our wills Nay although he had said vnles my father compell them we might haue vnderstoode it of a sweet kind of violence by which God inuiteth vs to him as the master in the ghospell seeing the slownes of those that were inuited in comming to him sent to bid others saying Compell them to enter which was noe more Luc. 14. but earnestly to intreat and inuite them Such is the loue of God to vs and his desire of our saluation and soe powerfull is the grace by which he inuiteth and exciteth vs to vertue that he may very well be said to draw vs as a very louing father doth his children vnto goodnes Will you see this planely Apoc. 3. Behold I stande at the doore and knock If any man shall heare my voice and open the gate I will enâ—er into him and suppe with him and he with mee See here O Christian the loue of God towards thee what he doth for
subiecteth vs as lyable to some punishment soe euery good worke which we doe in the state of grace aduanceth vs in the diuine grace and taketh away some of our due punishment But allthough Veniall sinnes depriue vs noâ— of the diuine grace nor make vs as the enemys of God guilty of eternall damnation yet we ought to beware of them and to be carefull especially that we gett noe euill habite nor affection to any Veniall sinne for that is very dangerous and if we gett not also a habit of repenting presently for it it will without doubt draw vs in the end into some Mortall sinne And in this sense we may say of Veniall sinnes that they depriue vs of Gods grace and euen kill our soules dispositiuely that is they dispose vs to Mortall sinnes bâ— which our soules are immediatly killed euen as a litle hole or leck in a shippe neglected causeth a greater breach by which she is suddenly ouer charged and sinketh downe to the bottome soe litle falts neglected bring great sinnes and are sometimes bewailed with euerlasting teares in hell And therfor to preuent great sinnes we must haue an eye ouer our lesser falts to mende them by times Besides a good and louing seruant will feare to offende in any thinge least by committing that by which his masters affection should bellessened towards him he might come in the end quite to loose his fauour This is that saith S. Hiero to 7. instrueÌ„s amicum quemdam Hierome which the Apocalypse reprooueth in the bishop of Ephesus who is called an Angell for that he had in his conscience the merits of many good works much labour and sufferings for Christs sake But because the edge of his former piety was somethinge dulled and the heate of his loue beganne to abate he is called and stirred vp to repentance Apoc. 2. I know thy works and labour and patience that thou canst not beare euill men and hast tryed them that say themselues to be Apostles and are not and hast found them lyars And thou hast borne for my name and hast not sainted But I haue against thee a few things because thou hast left thy first charity Be mindfull therefor from whence thou art fallen and doe pennance And what pennance may we read that the Saints of God haue done euen for litle Veniaâ—â— sinnes because they knew that by all such sinnes the grace of God was endangered and that the least degree of his grace was better to them and in it selfe more pretious then all this world S. Theresa conceiued soe greatly against the least oâ— her sinnes that she spoke of them as heinous offences and if it happened that in singing in the quire she missed in any thinge presently in the sighâ— of all she prostrated her selfe to the ground with such true shame and sorrow that the rest of thâ— Nunnes were interrupted from singing and could not goe on for teares Grant vs O Lord by the merits of thy Passion and by the prayers of thy blessed Mother and of the whole court of heauen that we may neuer loose thy grace by mortall sinne and may allwais feare to offende by veniall I haue done now my deere Reader that which I intended in this booke I haue giuen thee for thy instruction a breife Summe of the whole Christian Doctrine in a few short answeres to be gotten without booke and the declaration of them at large in their propper places I haue sett before thee in the Apostles Creede one supreme eternall and omnipotent Power God the beginner and conseruer of all creatures to be worshipped by thee And for thy comfort and Confirmation in the Catholike faith I haue shewed that there is noe true worship of God but in the Catholike Church of Christ The Catholike Church reacheth that an eternall retribution ofteward or punishment remaineth according to our works good or euill Good works by Gods grace are in our owne hands if we will What now remaineth but to excite our wills This also I haue done according to my ability exhorting thee to vertue and holinesse of life And now at last I intreate and coniure thee by the omnipotent power and infinite goodnesse of God that made thee by his iustice and mercy which one day thou must try by the torments of the damned and ioyes of the blessed soules by all which thou canst imagine to be feared or desired that thou feare 〈…〉 loue him Looke downe to hell and feare him in that horrible eternity Looke vp to heauen and loue him seeke him and enioy him in that happy state Resolue from this very instant vpon a vertuous life Beginne now a new and perseuer to the gaining of that euerlasting life which is the end of the Creede and of all Instruction Live sweet Iesu King of eternall glory Liue Liue and reigne in our soules here and in heauen for euer and euer Amen Laus Deo Dei genitrici Virgini Maria. A TABLE A ACTVALL sinne 715 Altare 603. Altares towards the east 603. Almes deeds 473 Amen 505 Angell Gabriel 510. 532. The time and place of the Angell Gabriel his apparition to the blessed Virgin 533. c. Anger 415. Remedys against anger 420 The Apostles preaching 137 The Ascension of our Sauiour 164 Atheisme and Atheists 78. 79. 80. c. Attributes of the diuine Persons in the Blessed Trinity 142 B BAptisme The necessity of Baptisme 283. Baptisme a Sacrament 284 The effect of Baptisme 285. The Baptisme of S. Iohn 286. The caeremonys of Baptisme 287 Beades 555. blessings of Beades 572 Aue Mary Bell. 564 Bloody sinnes horrible to nature 416 C CArnall sinnes 412. seuerely punished of God 422. the causes and rootes of Carnality 428. Remedys against Carnall sinnes 428 The Catholike Church prooued by induction from all other religions that are in the world 250. Catholikes according to their grounds can not with reason seeke vnto any other Church not doubt of their faith but all other Churches euen according to their owne grounds ought to doubt allwais and can neuer be satisfyed till they come to the Catholike Church 35. Character Vide Sacraments 275 Charity towards God and our neighbour 409.491 amongst the primitiue Christians 418 Ceremonys 287.598 Two kinds of Ceremonys 290. Childrens education 1 Christ 109. The faith of Christ euer from the beginning of the world 113. Christ the Messias was to be true God 120. Iesus Christ our Sauiour was the true Messias foretold by the Prophets 122. Christianity demonstrated by holy Scriptures and miracles 113. vnto 140. Christ was more sensible of paine then others 151. Christ prophecyed of his Passion 153. Christs Passion was voluntary 154. Christ the annointed as he was Prophet Priest and King 112. Christmas day 148 Church The Church must try the priuate spirits of all men 24.184.641 Noe order in religion but by the authority of the Church ibid. The Church can not erre 35. The authority of the Church 184.641 The Church is holy 177. It
CATECHISTICAL DISCOVRSES IN VVHICH FIRST An easy and efficacious way is proposed for instruction of the ignorant by a breife Summe of the Christan Doctrine here deliuered and declared SECONDLY The verity of the Romane Catholike Faith is demonstrated by induction from all other religions that are in the world THIRDLY The methode of the Romane Catechisme which the Councell of Trent caused to be made is commended to practise of instructing in doctrine confirming in Faith and inciting to good life by Catechisticall Sermons By A. E. Attende to thy selfe and to doctrine be earnest in them For this doing thou shalt saue both thy selfe and those that heare thee Tim. 1.4 To the wise and vnwise I am debter Rom. 1. At PARIS By P. TARGA ordinary Printer to the Archbishoprick of Paris Sworne by the Vniuersity In the streete of S. Victor at the Golden Sunne 1654. With Approbation of Paris and of England I desire the Reader to reade vvith attention the Praeface to him A DEDICATORY PRAYER TO IESVS-CHRIST DREAD Soueraigne LORD King of all Kings and of all creatures both in Heauen and Earth My Maker my Redeemer my Conseruer my Eternall and Omnipotent God Whom my soule by nature doth feare and reuerence and in whom is all my hope and confidence Behold mee thy sinnefull creature trembling for feare before thee astonished with the power of my Creatour But O my sweet Redeemer thou dost recreate mee with thy sacred bloodshed and giuest mee a new being full of ioy and loue towards thee This feare and loue hath brought mee to thy feete to offer my selfe and my worke first to thee I present and dedicate it to thy infinite Majesty an vnworthy present if thou make it not worthy Giue life I beseech thee and vigour for the fruit of it Thou hast the harts of all in thy hands the good spirit is giuen to none but by thee Open then my God the harts of those that shall reade this booke and expell the spirit of stupidity infidelity and all kind of sinne out of them that thy holy inspiration taking place they may receiue due instruction in thy doctrine reiect all illusions of faith and may bring that increase in holinesse of life which I pray and labour for in them Grant sweet Iesus that this booke though neuer soe bitter in it selfe may become like hony in those that shall vse it to produce in them true charity towards thee and their neighbour and towards mee in particular to pray that in all afflictions and temptations that shall befall mee I may willingly pleasantly and constantly obey and honour thee comforted by thy merits and by thy sweet and comfortable name called vpon Liue sweet Iesus King of eternall glory Liue liue and reigne in our soules here and in Heauen for euer and euer Amen A DEDICATORY EPISTLE TO THE HIGH and MOST GRACIOVâ— PRINCESSE HENRIETTA MARIA DAVGHTER OF ENGLAND HAVING offered my labours first to Iesus-Christ and sollicited the fauour of his Sacred Maâ—esty in the next place I bring them to you for yours and I-beseech your Highnesse with all the earnestnesse and humility I can that you will be pleased to accept as fauourably as I hope he hath done of them It is the Doctrine of Iesus Christ that desireth your protection A subiect too sublime to be handled by my insufficiency or to neede to be protected by any but that the present state of England required this labour of mee and it to be more acceptable stoode neede of your protection This I ingegenuously confesse to be the true and onely motiue why next vnto God I dedicate my worke to your Highnesse Because setting forth this methode of doctrine which the Councell of Trent hath soe earnestly commended and which is practised with soe much profit in some places and not yet deliuered in the English tongue I haue done il soe as I thought was sittest for England yet not soe but that I know a powerfull Protectour to be both seasonable and necessary to make it more acceptable And therefore as I was carefull that it should haue a more then ordinary approbation before it entred the presse soe now comming forth in publicke I desire it should goe vnder your name because I thinke none soe powerfull to commende it to the vse and profit of others as your Highnesse You are the Highest of all English Catholickes You are sette in our Crowne as a gemme of singular lustre and our eyes and harts are filled with the expectation of you the wisdome of your Father which the world in due time shall admire and the piety of your Mother whom the most turbulent of times could neuer taxe meeting both together first in you For you are the first of the Royall stocke of England that now for many yeares and for some descents hath professed the Catholike Faith brought vp by speciall prouidence in the bosome of the Catholike Church that we may say of you as of Iacob Gen. 48. God hath fed you from your youth vntill this present day as though designed to some eminent happinesse To whom then shall the Catholike Doctrine in English addresse it selfe but vnto you Where shall it finde a Patrone if you should reiect it A prudent hart shall possesse knowledge Prou. 18. and the eare of the wise doth seeke doctrine This is the doctrine which your eare hath harkened vnto which you possesse in your hart and your Diuine Spouse doth require that you outwardly professe what your hart possesseth and putte him as a seale both vpon your hart and vpon your arme The afflicted Catholikes of England will reuiue with ioy to see this Doctrine publikly in your hands and will take it as a pledge of greater felicity which from your neerest Progenitour they may well expect I will speake here the truth which I haue spoken vnto many that when I read in S. Bede the conuersion of the English and saw S. Augustine graciously receiued by King Ethelbert well disposed to his doctrine by hauing married à Catholike who was daughter of France it made then such impression in mee and gaue such liuely hopes of the like benefit againe that a small knowledge in history represented presently some other such marriages to mee by which I beganne to conceiue it as a blessing vpon France that the Flower de Luces should send forth the odour of Christ vnto other nations the Catholike Doctrine comming from thence for their conuersion The first-fruits of these hopes we haue allready in you and by this they will grow and increase in vs. Besides this booke beeing soe directed to Catholikes as by the way to giue satisfaction to all other Religions that shall meete with it I was to seeke for such a Patrone as without offense to any might ingratiate it to all and for this there was none soe proper as your selfe who as yet in the candour of your Chrysome are gratefull to all Christians and by your vnspotted innocency to all the world Grant
Act. 5. and she was cured In the acts of the Apostles we haue that people put their sick and lame folkes in the streets and high wayes with in the compasse euen of S. Act. 19. Conc. Nyc Peters shaddow that it might touch them as he passed by and cure them of their infirmitys Act. 3. 4. and that the napkins or hand kercheifs of S. Paul being laid vpon the sicke cured them The second Councel of Nyce alloweth of the worship of holy reliques The tombes of Saints were aunciently worshipped in the Catholike Church S. Aug. l 22. de Câ—â— D. â— c. â— Augustine relateth the miracles which were done at S. Steuans tombe S. Hierome cont Vigilant we honour the reliques of Martyrs that we may worship him whose Martyrs they are We honour the seruants that the honour of the seruants may redounde vnto the master who saith the that receiueth you receiueth mee And this is soe plane in the holy fathers that the Magdeburgians confesse their authority but condemne them for it which is sufficient to condemne themselues in the opinion of all wise men that they starting vp against their Superiors and against theauthority of the whole Church that was then when they beganne would resist the whole world then present and also stande at defyance with the auncient fathers By that which hath bene said of holy images and reliques the worship of Saints is also prooued lawfull for that we worship them not as God but as his seruants in relation to him who is their master That which is commanded in the first commandement is the true worhip of God to wit as it is in the Catholike Church and therefore atheisme and all false worship of infidelity and heresy is forbidden in it Necromancy and all kind of witchcraft superstitious obseruations and actions such as yong women doe to see him that must be their husband or to finde somethinge that is lost These if they be not excused by ignorance committe a mortal sinne against the first Commandement in that they implicitly acknowledge supernatural power to be in some other thinge beside God and soe they worship stranges gods THE SECOND COMMANDEMENT THOV shalt not take the name of God in vaine By this Commandement we are not forbidden absolutly to sweare but to take the name of God in vaine To sweare may be lawfull nay sometimes worthy of praise but to take the name of God in vaine is allwais vaine and vnlawfull It is an act of diuine honour and worship to sweare in due circumstances for by such an oth we acknowledge the supreme goodnes Deut. 6. and first verity to be in God Thou shalt feare thy God and him onely shalt thou serue and by his name thou shalt sweare Ps 61. And king Dauid all shall be praysed that sweare by him Cor. 2.1 The Apostles sometimes confirmed their sayings by oth Apoc. 10. The Angels are also â—ead in the Scriptures to haue sworne as the Angell that appeared to S. Iohn sware by him that liueth for euer and euer Nay God himselfe Gen. 22. the Lord of Angels is read to haue sworne in diuerse places of the old testament our Lord called Abraham saying by my owne selfe I haue sworne Psal 109. And in the Psalmes our Lord sware and it wil not repent him Soe that there is noe doubt but it is lawfull to sweare if the conditions of a lawful oth be obserued As for the conditions of a lawfull oth authors commonly vnderstande them to be conteined in the words of Hieremy Hier. 4. Thou shalt sweare our Lord liueth in truth and in iudgment and in iustice The first condition is verity that it be true that which we call God to be the witnesse of The second is that it must be also with iudgement and not rashly and inconsideratly as some doe vpon euery friuolous occasion abusing the holy name and maiesty of God This is a very great irreuerence For if it be an irreuerence to a king or great personage to be called as witnesse of triuial and friuolous things of noe moment as of killing of flyes or picking of strawes much more is it against the diuine maiesty to be called rashly and indiscretly as a witnesse without necessity The third condition is iustice that it be iust and lawfull that which we promise and sweare to This condition was wanting in Herods oth who hauing sworne to the daughter of Herodias to grant her whatsoeuer she should aske and she asking the head of S. Iohn Baptist he was then either to breake his oth or to doe that which was worse to deliuer the life of a iust and innoceÌ„t man into the hands of a malicious and spitefull woman It was also wanting in those wicked Iewes who meeting together swore that they would neither eate nor drinke till they had killed S. Paul Act. 23. Such oths neuer binde for noe oth can make an vnlawfull thinge to be lawfull but the oth being past the worke is still as vnlawfull as before and if he performe it he committeth two mortal sinnes one in swearing and an other in performing an vnlawfull thinge Catholiks that liue in the dominions of infidels or haeretiks must be very wary of any oths which are tendered to them and consider well before they take them If the oth intrench any way vpon Religion as praeiudicial to the Catholike faith Act. 5. they must not take it for the whole world nor hearken to it but must answere resolutly as S. Peter did saying God must be obeyed rather then men If it seeme not much to concerne religion the best is to take aduize of the lawfull nesse of it and if an answere be required presently before that we can haue aduize we may commende it breifly to God and hauing first resolued with ourselues firmely that we will not offende our conscience we may consider of the grounds for the lawfullnesse of it an we must by all meanes iudge it lawfull before we take it If we thinke that it hath sufficient probability and that our doubt be but a timorous feare we may iudge it lawfull and then take it but if we finde not sufficient probability that we can iudge it lawfull but that we hang in suspense and doubt of the lawfullnes of it it is by noe meanes to be taken for he that doubteth of the lawfullnes of the oth and yet taketh it sinneth and is condemned by his owne conscience as doeing of that which he could not iudge to be lawfull but at least doubted to be vnlawfull That which is obserued in such oths is that there is but litle thanks afterwards to those that take them An. 464. Baronius recordeth of Hunnericus king of the Vandals that being himselfe an haeretike he sent an oth vnto his Catholike subiects in which they were to sweare that after his death they would admitte of his sonne Hildericus to be their king and that they should
supperlesse to bedd through their couetousnesse Goe too now you rich men saith S. Iohn weepe howling in your miserys which shall come to you Ia. 5. Your riches are corrupt and your garments are eaten of moths Your gold and syluar is rusted And their rust shall be for a testimony to you And shall eate your flesh as sire You haue stored to your selues wrath in the last dayes And presently he giueth the cause saying behold the hyre of the workemen that haue reaped your feilds which is defrauded by you cryeth and their cry hath entred into the eares of the Lord of Sahaoth You haue made merry vpon the earth and in riotousnes you haue nourished your harts in the day of slaughter You haue presented and slaine the iust one And he resisted you not Those that pay not their tithes breake this Commandement Vserers also who by vniust exactions oppresse others spinning by litle and litle their very bowels from them by taking moneys or other profits onely for loane contrary to the commande of Christ Luc. 6. doe good and lend hoping for nothing there by Iudges also who for bribes sell to the rich the causes of poore men Those also that pay not their debts but by prolonging defraude their creditors Of these the holy king The sinner shall borrow and not pay Psal 36. And those who seaze presently vpon their pledges if they be not redeemed iust at the appointed time Those also that gette the saile of corne or other commoditys into their owne hands to raize the rates of them which is called Monopoly He that hideth corne shall be cursed among the peoples Prou. 11. but blessing vpon the head of those that sell All these are a kind of robbers and breake this Commandement And because robbers as well as thecues are bounde to restitution it is necessary to declare who they are that haue this obligation of restitution These are in the first place those that robbe or steale and those that commande them to doe soe for they are the causes and authors of their sinne and the worst of all kindes of theeues Secondly those who hauing not the power to commande perswade others to it Thirdly those that consent Fourthly those that participate of the profit if that may be called a profit which is vniustly gotten Fiftly those that might and ought to haue hindered and did not Sixtly those who conceale dissembling themselues not to know of it when they ought to speake Lastly those that assist harbour or any way protect theeues All these are inuolued in their sinne and are bound to restitution as the theeues themselues That which is obserued of this base and contemptible sinne of theeuery is that it taketh away the truth and fidelity of those that are addicted to it theeues being for the most part full of lyes and deceit For by much deceiuing they get a custome to deceiue and are the most perfidious of all men betraying euen their best freinds if it serue to their purpose Soe Iudas was first a theefe stealing from Christ and the Apostles And then became a traitour to his master The rootes of this sinne are couetousuesse and idlenes Some steale of couetousnes onely when they haue noe neede others of idlenes because they will not worke And these for all their stealing are still needy and in misery and yet will hazard their liues and good names to liue in want when they might follow many other honest courses in which they might liue out of hazard and in more plenty S. Dial. l. 3. c 26. Gregory relateth how that Menas a poore hermite hauing nothing but some bee hiues to liues on there came a robber into those parts who being admonished not to medle with the hermits bees neuerthelesse he spared them not Esa 33. But God who by his Prophet hath threatened woe be to thee that dost robbe shalt not thou also be robbed permitted the deuill to take possession of his body and greeuously to vexe him for it The remedys against this sinne are to doe almes deeds that giuing somethinge of their owne for Gods sake they may keepe their hart open to their neighbour and free from the desire of his goods Let them remember the words of the Apostle Tim 1.6 They that will be made rich fall into the snare of the deuill And let them neuer forgette that general rule of Christ Mat. 7. all things whatsoeuer you will that men doe to you doe you also to them For this is the law and the Prophets THE EIGHT COMMANDEMENT THOV shalt not beare false witnesse against thy neighbour In the former Commandements of this table the sinnes that are committed by worke are forbidden in this we are forbidden to sinne by word But that which is cheifly forbidden here is to giue false testimony in iudgment against our neighbour as being most iniurious and hurtfull to him in that it is auouched by an oth in which God standeth as witnesse and against which the iudge can not except but by euident proofs or by the insufficiency of witnesses But not onely false testimony in iudgment but also out of iudgment is here forbidden for in the booke of Leuiticus where the Commandements are repeated ouer againe the words are more generall You shall not ly neither shall any man deceiue his neighbour Leu. 19. By which it appeareth that all kind of lyes detractions deceitfull and iniurious words are here forbidden That which was said in the former Commandement against theeues may be applyed here to detractors and lyars who are theeues in their kind in that they take away the good name of their neighbour and soe much worse then theeues by how much his good name is more pretious then his riches and are therefor bounde to restitution more then theeues The deuill when he lyeth speaketh of his owne saith Christ because he is a lyer and the father thereof who stood not in verity Io. 8. but falling himselfe into lyes draweth all he can after him to learne to ly What can there be more filthy and base then as S. Iames saith with the same tongue to blisse and to curse God we say our prayers and blesse God and within a while we make some ly and soe curse him Lyars are by S. Paul expresly excluded from the kingdome of heauen Cor. 1.6 And the psalmist asking of God Lord who shall dwell in thy tabernacle Ps 14. answereth presently he that speaketh the truth in his hart that hath not done guile in his tongue Yet these are the commune diseases and plagues of the world Lyers and detractors are as the frogs of Aegypt spred all ouer euery house and chamber is full of them bedds and tables are hanted by them and all conuersation is pestered with this base sinne of noting the imperfections and blemishing the good names of others by which quarrels are bred and false accusations ensue amongst steinds and neighbors Behold saith S.
the vse of this as he did vnto them the vse of the former and so they are both of God see disc 4. art 9. disc 11. of the authority of the Church The Church vseth such like obseruations and rites not as Sacraments to restore vs to the diuine grace when we haue lost it but as holy actions to advance vs further in the diuine grace which wee haue and consequently to remitte lesser sinnes which are compatible with grace sanctifying vs more in the sight of God Holy bread or disposing vs to more sanctity Soe the Catechumens in the primitiue Church that receiued not the blessed Sacrament receiued the holy bread of which Saint Augustine That which the Catechumens receiue although it be not the body of Christ yet it is a holy thing and holier then other meates which we eate Theodorit who liued about 1300. yeares since Theod. cap. 21. relateth a passage admirable to this purpose Marcellus Bishop of Apamaea hauing in that citty a temple of Iupiter much offensiue to the honour of God vsed all meanes possible to demolish it but the structure of it was soâ— strong and firmely compacted with stone and iron that two Captaines who passed that way with their souldiers about two thousand in number could not all dissolue it At last a simple and ignorant man promiseth to effect what he desired if that he will but allow him the assistance of two onely which being granted they vndermined the pillars and applying timber and fewell to the foundation of them sett fire on it But there appeared a blacke and terrible fiend that put out the fire as fast as they enkindled it Then Marcellus hallowing water with the signe of the Crosse and throwing it into the fire it made it to burne and flame as though oyle had bene throwne into it One would thinke it strange that water should increase the flame of fire but it is not strange that holy water should suppresse the deuills power Thus much by the way of holy water Now let vs see WHY THE MASSE IS SAID in Latine THE Masse is said in Latine for diuerse reasons First for that the Church is Catholike that is to say vniuersall not of one nation but of all and therefore it is most conuenient that she should prayse God and haue her seruice in a language which is most generall and vniuersally vnderstoode and esteemed of by all nations and this is the Latine tongue An English Catholike may go into Italy France Spaine or into any place of the Catholike world euen into the furthest Indys and as he is vnited in the same faith and doctrine and obeyeth the same authority of the Church with them Gen. 11. so he shall see the very selfe same seruice of God and heare the very same words which he heareth in his owne countrey and vnderstande them if he vnderstandeth the Latine tongue This is the comfort of Catholiks that they are the people of one tongue and one speech not onely in faith and doctrine but also in manner of vtterance as neere as can be Neither was it euer the practise of the Church to haue her seruice in the vulgar languages of euery nation In the easterne parts of the world Masse was aunciently said in Greeke because the Greeke tongue was most vniuersally vnderstoode and esteemed of in those parts although the common sort of people in all those places generally vnderstoode it not In the Westerne parts of the world it was said in Latine as Saint Augustine sayeth that the Scriptures were vsed in Affrica in Latine Bed 1. hist Ang. cap. 1. and Saint Bede saith that there being in England in S. Augustines time fower seuerall languages by his preaching and saying seruice in the Latine tongue it came commune to them all For this reason the Masse is said all ouer in Latine except perhaps in some places of Greece or where the Latine tongue is but litle studied Secondly a higher and more esteemed language giueth more maiesty and reuerence to the misterys of God then a vulgar tongue and therfore the holy Ghost speaking by the Scriptures would vse a most high and maiesticall manner of speech for the most part aboue vulgar capacitys and the Catholike Church speaking in the person of the holy Ghost it is meete that she should vse his manner of speech Thirdly if the Church seruice were to be said in euery vulgar tongue it would be subiect to continuall misconstructions abused by the prowd and contentious who being for the most part of the ignorant sort as regarding more the shew of knowledge then the substance and good vse of it would pretende to vnderstande all things and contend without end As now we see in England where euery old wife to use S. Hieromes words presumeth to teach that which she neuer learned and thinketh that she hath braines enough to looke downe into that great depth of the Scriptures which the Doctours of the Church haue so much admired and which S. Augustine was so affraid to looke into Confess l. 12. c. 14. that he cryed out O wonderfull profoundnesse of thy words wondefull profâ—undnesse my God wonderfull profoundnesse it maketh a man quake to looke into it Handy craft men and silly women amongst the Protestants of Eagland haue none of this feare they can vnderstande and interprete the holy Scriptures they can correct their common prayer and controling their Ministers when they list they will steppe vp into the pulpit before them The Protestants Miuisters may now see and I know where some of them haue confessed the originall cause of this confusion amongst them to haue bene the vnlimitated reading of the Scriptures and the hauing of their common seruice in the vulgar tongue and that it was an errour in their predecessors to put such kniues into childrens hands that could not vse them The Catholike Church as a carefull mother her selfe carueth for her children instructing them in that which is necessary for them not trusting them to their owne caruings and misconstructions S. Dion eccl hier cap. 1. Basil de Spirit S. cap. 27. Denis and S. Basil therefore declare that the sacred mysterys in their times were kept of purpose from the vulgar Fourthly if the Church Lyturgy were to be said in euery vulgar tongue few Priests could exercise their functions out of their countreys An Italian Priest could not say Masse in Spaine nor a Spaniard in Italy And this is the reason why so few Protestant Ministers euer trauaile out of their countreys Although it be thither where their owne Religion as they prerende is professed for their seruice being in a different language which that people vnderstandeth not they must either be silent abroade or stay at home If they will say seruice Where as Catholike Priests may serue God after the same manner in all places and all people may serue God by them Fiftly if the publike seruice of the Church were said in euery vulgar tongue
that suppose he hath time of repentance granted whether he shall make good vse of it or nee and if he repent for that time whether he shall not fall againe into the same sinne for one sinne disposeth to another and if it be forgiuen the first time we are not sure of pardon the second or third time which we committe it One sinne damned all mankind to death and to loose the glory of God for euer The deuill told Eue that she should not dy if she sinned but it was a delusion of the deuill and soe it prooued God had said in what day soeuer thou shalt eate thou shalt dyâ— and eating she sinned Gen. 2. and died It is a delusion of the deuill to take from vs the feare of death after sinne and for any man to thinke that he shall not dy before he repent he being then subiect euery moment to death S. Hom. 22. in 2. ad Cor. c. 10. Iohn Chrysostome they say to themselues God hath granted the benefit of repentance to some euen in their last old age What thou saith he shalt thou also haue it perhaps I shall saith the sinner O why dost thou say perhaps I shall Say rather perhaps I shall not and then what will become of mee I shall be damned Thinke that it is thy soule which thou dost deliberate on If thou wert to goe to the warres wouldest thou say I will not dispose of my affaires first perhaps I shall returne againe many haue done soe Or if thou wert thinking to marty wouldst thou say I will marry a poore woman perhaps I shall grow rich many haue done soe Or if thou wert to build a house wouldst thou lay rotten foundations and say perhaps my house will stande why wilt thou then vpon rotten and vncertaine grounds build the saluation of thy soule all these are vncertaintys and soe is thy life and thy repentance Death commeth as a thelfe and we know not at what hower the theife will come The rich man was glorying in his riches and presently he heard a voice from God saying Luc. 12. this night they require thy soule of thee Absalom was domineering with a glorious army of rebells and presently his army is lost and himselfe riding away is hung by the haire in a tree and there commeth loab with three lances and sticketh them all in his hart Our liues are as the turne of a dy subiect to many vncertaintys and soe is our repentance If we are truly wise we will take the safest way and that is to fly sinne and to be allwais prepared for death He that were to passe through a dangerous wildernes in which many had bene killed would he not choose the safest way that he could The way of vertue is a safe way the way of sinne is full of danger thousands haue perished in it and none can perish but in it some indeede haue turned backe and forsaken that way againe but that is a hazard Fly grom drunkennesse Amb. exhort ad poenit saith S. Ambrose from concupiscence and from euill talke Man ought not onely after his sinne to refraine these thinges but also when he is sound and in good health because he knoweth not whether he shall repent and Confesse his sinne to God and to the Priest There are two thinges either he shall repent or he shall not Which of them shall come to passe I know not but that which I counsaile is to leaue the vncertaine and to choose the certaine All that can be said is that he may repent but this is vnâ—â—rtaine Certaine it is that if he hath sinned he hath deserued hell and that if he repent not he shall be damned Let not the sinner then flatter himselfe with presumption of the diuine mercy and of repentance It is a flattery of the deuill to delude and to draw him into hell Consider sinne as it is in it selfe and the euills that of themselues follow it Behold it as a monster that commeth to kill thee and to deliuer thee into the deuils power Thinke the most horrible spectacle that thou canst deuise to thinke and know that thy soule in sinne is more horrible and deformed then it Our soules saith S. Chrysostome in possession of the deuill is in worse state then our bodys possessed by him For although sinners saith he foame not at the mouth roare not with their voices nor writh their heades and eyes as possessed persons doe yet they are much more deformed inwardly and in the sight of God And in another place declaring how all things are confounded by sinne He affirmeth that it maketh men in some respects worse then deuills for the deuills saith he hurt not those of their owne kind but men by sinne care not what hurt they doe to one another and of malice will kill euen their neerest freinds and kindred Thus much of the malice of sinne Now OF THE AVTHOVR OF SINNE SVCH being the malice of sinne as is declared soe contrary to reason and to the goodnes of God it cannot stande with his diuine goodnes to impute the malice of it to him and to make not him the authour of it Some things there are soe manifest in themselues that euen at the first apprehension without disputing we assent vnto them and although strong and difficult arguments may seeme sometimes to arize against them as they may against all veritys whatsoeuer yet they are allwais to be granted and to be kept as firme and vndenyable principles Now if there be any thinge manifest in it selfe and to be kept as a firme and certaine principle it is that God is infinit in goodnes infinitly hating sinne and therefor can not be the authour of the euill which it conteines but it must proceede from some cause which is quite opposite to the goodnes of God And although some arguments might be obiected against this yet it is an extreme boldnes and prophanenesse in any man to question the truth of it but euen as all Philosophers agree to the Axiome that the whole is greater then any of its parts although arguments are often obiected against it soe ought we allwais to agree and much more firmely to ground ourselues vpon this verity that all goodnes is of God and that the euill which we doe is of ourselues according to that of the Prophet Perdition is thine O Israel Ose 13. onely in mee thy helpe But heretiks contemning all authority and denying the principles which the whole Catholike world receiueth to follow their owne fancys and conceits make the mysterys of faith to be more vncertaine then the principles of Philosophy They would be ashamed to be brought to deny that which all Philosophers had setled and are ashamed to deny that which Christ and the Holy Ghost and all the Doctors of the Catholike Church haue taught and established in faith but one arch haeretike will coÌ„tradict them all and gette followers to mainteine his singularity against them Thus
it It is the doctrine of Catholike Diuines that all the euills of this world noe not the eternall torments of all the damned spirits put together is aequall to the euill of one mortall sinne I will rather be sent into hell Mach. 2.6 saith Elcazarus when they perswaded him to dissemble against his conscience For although at this present time I be deliuered from the punishments of men yet neither aliue nor dead shall I escape the hand of the almighty Greg. hâ— 34. in Euang Victorinus whilst he liued in the wildernes being drawne into the sinne of fornication by a wicked delusion of the deuill was soe vexed in conscience afterwards that fastening his hands into a peece of clouen wood he liued three yeares with onely raw herbes and water After that he wrought miracles became a bishop and at last a glorious martyr The Magdalen moued to repentance came presently into the Pharisys house Luc. 7. and was not ashamed to weepe in publike soe many teares that she washed the feete of Christ with them S. Peter after his sinne went out presently and wept bitterly And soe great was his sorrow euer after that he is recorded by S. Clement who liued with him Clem. in recognit to haue carried allwais in his hand a litle linnen napkin to dry his face from teares But the example of our Sauiour weeping for the sinnes of others should moue vs more then these who wept for their owne sinnes Christ as he came downe Mount Oliuet hauing before his eyes a full view of the city of Hierusalem was strucken with such an apprehension of the sinnes of that people that beginning to speake he was interrupted with teares and could not goe on for weeping And he wept also for Lazarus long dead and putrifyed that was to signify the sinner dead and putrifyed in long continued sinnes that we might see how much he loued our soules and how he lamenteth at their spirituall death Mat. 16. What doth it profit a man if he gaine the whole world and susteine the dammage of his soule My soule is all the world to mee and when I come to dy I shall finde it soe Grant vs O Lord that we may saue our soules the whole world beside we will loose it willingly And this is the effect of mortall sinne that he that committeth but one and dyeth in it is as sure to suffer shippwracke of his soule and to be damned into hell as though he were guilty of all the mortall sinnes in the world Ia. 5. according to that of S Iames whosoeuer but offendeth in one is made guilty of all To wit soe farre as to the guilt and punishment of hell I haue bene desired by some to giue them some such destinction betwixt Mortall and Veniall sinne as that they might allwais know by it when the sinne which they committe is mortall But this is vnpossible for that the circumstances are infinite which may aggrauate or lessen the malice of sinne soe that litle sinnes may become great and great sinnes litle ones and sometimes noe sinnes at all Besides God will not haue vs to know for certaine whether we be in state of grace or noe according to that of Ecclesiastes Man knoweth not whether he be worthy of loue or hatred and Iob allthough I shall be simple Eccl. 9. Iob. 9. the same shall my soule be ignorant of Yet thus much may be said for their satisfaction that sinnes against any of the tenne Commandements or against any of the Praecepts of the Church when they come to a notable degree of malice or deformity or if they be intended thought or doubted to be soe they are Mortall Veniall is as much as to say easily pardonable and soe a Veniall sinne is a sinne which easily obtaineth pardon A litle sinne which diminisheth the feruour of diuine grace in vs but taketh not the grace of God from vs soe as to put vs in state of damnation It maketh vs to grow colder and colder in deuotion and disposeth by litle and litle to some mortall sinne and then by that we loose quite the diuine grace and are in state of damnation Soe that Mortall sinne is quite opposite and incompatible with the diuine grace Veniall sinne is compatible and may stande with it Authors commonly declare this by the similitude of a traueler going out of his way He may either goe a quite contrary way or he may goe wrong yet not quite contrary to the right way By Mortall sinne we goe the quite contrary way from heauen to wit to hell by Veniall sinne we goe not to hell yet we goe wrong and out of the way to heauen S. Augustine compareth Veniall sinnes to scabbs that deforme and disfigure the body but kill it not soe Veniall sinne deformeth and deminisheth the beauty of our soules but leaueth them still with spirituall life And declaring some Veniall sinnes in particular he saith that it is a Veniall sinne to laugh immoderately Aug. l. de Nat gra c 38. to iest too much to desire somethinge intemperately to plucke fruit ouer greedily and the like Finally whatsoeuer we thinke that we doe not well in we may accuse ourselues of it as at least of a Veniall sinne That all sinnes are not damnable to hell but that there are some such lesser sinnes which we call Veniall it is manifest by diuerse places of the holy Scriptures Prou. 24. Seauen times shall the iust fall and shall rise againe but the impious shall fall into euill Where we see that a man may fall into some sinnes and yet be iust He that contemneth small thinges shall fall by litle and litle Eccl. 19. By which we see that one may sinne by small things and by litle and litle before that he fall from the diuine grace Ia 3. S. Iames saith that in many things we offende all And he cannot be thought to speake of mortall sinnes S. Iohn hauing declared that by the blood of Christ we are clensed from sinne adde h presently Io. 1.1 If we shall say that we haue noe sinne we seduce ourselues and the truth is not in vs. By which it appeareth that we may be soe purged from sinne as to be in state of grace by the merits of Christs Passion and yet to haue some sinnes This is also most congruous to reason and agreeable with the diuine goodnes and mercy For if it be an vnreasonable seuerity for Kings and Common wealths to punish euery litle falt with the sentence of death farre must it be from the mercy of God to punish euery litle excesse or defect euery litle anger neglect distraction in our prayers and the like with the eternall death of hell Mortall sinnes are neuer taken away but by the Sacraments in deede or in desire Veniall sinnes are blotted out by euery good worke which we doe For as euery Venial sinne deminisheth the feruour of the loue of God in vs and