he comes to yeares of vnderstanding which he professed in baptisme by the months of those that then carried him And in another place he saith that christians should vse it as à looking glasse morning and night to examine themselues in their faith by it L 1 dosymb 1. By all which it doth appeare first that the Creede is of diuine autority as made by the Apostles and deliuered by word of mouth from them to posterity as the written word of the new Testament was from hand to hand to be beleeued with diuine faith Secondly out of S Ambrose and S. Augustine that it being a kea and a looking glasse which the Apostles made for vs we ought with great reuerence to keepe it and to vse it as such often frequenting it to locke vp the infernal darknes from vs and to open the diuine light vnto our soules and to examine ourselues in faith by it as by a looking glasse that soe we may allwais keepe constant to the Catholike Church Quest Say the Creede Answ I beleeue in God the Father almighty maker of heauen and earth And in Iesus Christ his onely Sonne our Lord. Who was conceiued by the Holy Ghost borne of the Virgin Mary Suffered vnder Pontius Pilate was Crucifyed dead and buried He descended into hell the third day he arose againe from death He ascended into heauen sitteth at the right hand of God the Father almighty From thence he shall come to iudge vs all both the quicke and the dead I beleeue in the Holy Ghost The holy Catholike Church the Communion of Saints The forgiuenesse of sinnes The Resurrection of the flesh Life euerlasting Amen THE FIRST ARTICLE I Beleeue in God the Father almighty maker of heauen and earth In this article the Apostles professe their beleefe in the first person of the blessed Trinity in the following articles they professe the second person and the third But we are not here to vnderstande that God the Father without the Sonne and the Holy Ghost made the world for euery external worke which God doth is done by all the Persons of the blessed Trinity the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost hauing all the same vndiuided power all equally concurring to the making of the world and of euery thinge that is conteined in it The Father is named first and the creation of the world is here particularly attributed to him because he is the first Person from whom the Sonne and the Holy Ghost eternally proceede God is rightly termed a father to signify his power loue and care ouer vs. God a father For as fathers beginne the generation that commeth of them and gouerne their children and prouide for them soe is God the beginner of this world he gouerneth it with his power and by his prouidence conserueth it Deut. 32. Is not he thy father that hath possessed thee and made and created thee By heauen and earth are vnderstoode all creatures heauenly and earthly that is both spirituall and corporal creatures And in this the power of God is expressed by his external works soe as is sufficient to destinguish him as the supreme power and to putt vs in minde of our duety to him and dependance of him as giuing vs our being and still conseruing vs in the being which we haue and which all creatures should presently and in an instant loose if he should withdraw his diuine helpe from them and there would be noe creatures at all but as there was once nothing but God God is the most perfect of all thinges and therefor a spirit all ouer by his power and his power is himselfe He is not conteined in any place now noe more then he was before the creation of the world He was all wais the same power the same goodnes and those infinite He euer had a decree to create the world and that eternall decree he performed in time making the Angels onely spirits men both spiritual in their soules and corporall in their bodys and other creatures as we see onely corporall He made heauen a place of glory for the good and hell a place of punishment for the wicked He desireth the saluation of all and giueth sufficient meanes of saluation to all that being the end for which he made vs. In this article we doe not say I beleeue in Gods makers c. but I beleeue in God the maker c. In which we haue two thinges professed Atheâ—sts First the essence and existence of God against prophane and wicked atheists and secondly against Pagans the being of one onely God This is here but breisly professed for the Apostles made the Creede but onely as an abbreuiated profession and rule of faith to ground and guide vs in the articles which we were to beleeue they prooued them in their preaching as neede required yet that there is a God as in the Creede they suppose it soe also they might doe in their preaching and needed not to prooue it to Iewes or Gentils who were then onely in the world and were neuer likely to deny it But now in these times of soe many heresys I doe not see that any point of faith whatsoeuer is more necessary to be prooued For heresy as it is a corruption of the true faith soe it corrupteth and destroyeth by litle and litle the very hart and roote of all faith and as it annulleth the authority of the Church it taketh away the foundation of all certainty and openeth a gappe to euery mans errors to say what he listeth and for shamelesse atheisme to enter in by it For make it once lawfull to disobey the Church which is the onely authority of God externally vpon earth as all archhaeretiks doe who beginne their new doctrines with obedience to noe Church then extant in all the world and then it followeth that euery man without controle may beleeue and teach what he will himselfe for there is noe authority vpon earth to controle him and soe he may as well teach atheisme as heresy Secondly those that are of God are ordained saith the Apostle that is to say they are with order Rom. 13. and he requireth there that we be subiect to higher powers not onely of necessity but for conscience sake now order importeth subiection and subordination of inferiors to superiour powers if then you take away this subiection and subordination of inferiors to superiours as haeretiks doe by disobeying the Church you take away all order in religion and by consequence you take away God and bring in atheisme and a worse disorder then is in hell How hateful then is heresy to God which is opposite to all religion and how dangerous is atheisme In Collar Patrum and necessary to be preuented in haeretical times Cassianus relateth an example of this in which he sheweth by experience that heresy leadeth into atheisme He sayth that there was a certaine religious man who beginning first of indiscretion to make comparisons betwixt the Saints and
called priests Angels saying The lipps of the priest shall keepe knowledge and from his mouth thou shalt require the law Mal. 2. because he is the angell of our Lord of hosts The angels are the treasurers of the diuine mysterys who open them in their messages to mankind as God will haue them to be imparted vnto vs soe priests haue the keeping of the diuine mysterys and must deliuer them to the people as they neede them and therefor the people must aske of them and adhaere to the doctrine of the Church when it is deliuered by them Yet the mystery of the blessed Trinity is a mystery which is kept euen from the knowledge of priests although angels witnes S. Augustine who was a priest and one of the cheife of the Angelical Hierarchy of Priests B. Trin. for he was a bishop yet he relateth of himselfe how that being on a time walking on the sea shore studying vpon the mystery of the blessed Trinity he saw a child who hauing made a litle pitte in the sand was lauing with a spoone the water of the sea into Aug. ad volus that litle pitte S. Augustine earnestly obseruing him asked him what he meant did he thinke to empty the maine ocean into that litle pitte yes replyed the child as soone will I bring the ocean into this compasse as thou with thy vnderstanding shalt comprehende the mystery of the blessed Trinity By which he vnderstoode that it was a messenger of God sent vnto him to humble him and to let him know that the mystery of the blessed Trinity is aboue humane vnderstanding We see by reason that God the Creatour of all thinges must needs be aboue all thinges incomprehensible infinite in power wisdome and goodnes and therefor for men to thinke to comprehende God is to contradict the first principle of reason and aboue Lucifers pride to thinke to be equall with him It is enough for vs to thinke that God is God that is to say the supreme and infinite perfection which putts bounds and limits to the perfections of all other thinges who as he hath sette a terme of time to our liues soe hath he also limited our vnderstandings and we can noe more by our owne power exceede those limits then we can by our owne power escape death Great is our Lord great is his strength Psa 146. and of his Wisdome there is noe number If we will build vpon a sure ground let vs cleaue to that rocke which Christ hath left and say as our Creede teacheth vs I beleeue the holy Catholik Church In the law of Moyses the mystery of the blessed Trinity was beleeued as authors commonly shew by diuerse places in the old Testament although the Prophets haue deliuered it for the most part in obscure termes to the Israëlits least they who liued amongst idolatrous nations and were of themselues prone to idolaâ—ry should take occasion by the Trinity of Persons to beleeue in many Gods But idolatry being to be soe much subuerted by the faith of Christ and buâ— litle or noe danger of it amongst christians the mystery of the blessed Trinity is deliuered to vâ— planely and more expresly in the new Testament our Lord and Sauiour at his last departure from his Disciples commanding the expresse profession of it to be made in baptisme when we are made christians Mat. 28. Going therefor teach ye all nationâ— baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost Io. 1.5 and againe There be three that giue testimony in heauen the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost And these three be one Genebrard sheweth by diuerse places out of the auncient â—hilosophers that the Gentils by their familiarity and commerce with the Iewes came to heare and to write of the B Trinity But the moderne Iewes which now are earnestly oppose it being fallen in this point as they are also in the mystery of the Incarnation from the true faith which their forefathers professed That which we beleeue of this mystery is to acknowledge an vnity of Godhead essence and nature in the Trinity of Perfons God the Father is the same God as God the Sonne God the Sonne is the same God as God the Holy Ghost and they are not three Gods but one onely God The Person of the Father is not the person of the Sonne nor is the Person of the Sonne the Person of the Holy Ghost but they are three really destinct and different Persons This we intende to professe when we say in the Name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost We also paofesse in the signe of the Cros the mystery of the Incarnation in that we make a Cros to remember and acknowledge the loue of God with which he soe loued the world that he gaue his onely begotten Sonne to become man Ioan. 3. and to redeeme vs on the Cros. God had created man in a happy state in Paradise as it were in the way to heauen enuironed on all sides with vnspeakeable pleasures and in that pleasant way was conducting him to the heauenly glory But man sinning lost the fauour of God was debarred of that blessed state which he should haue obtained and being then out of the state of grace he could sinne still more and more buâ— he could doe noe good worke sufficient to satisfy for his sinnes and to be restored againe to the diuine grace by it God of his iustice requireth satisfaction but noe man not creature being able and of sufficient worth to make it and the diuine nature not being subiect to make sarisfaction in in it selfe it was the goodnes of God to vnite our weakenes to his power and our nature to his diuine nature in the incarnation of his sonne that the nature of man being vnited to his diuine person might by that person be soe dignifyed that it could make worthy satisfaction for the sinnes of all men that should apply vnto themselues the merits of his passion This is the mystery which was reuealed vnto Abraham and the holy Patriarks which many kings and Prophets desired to see and which filled the hart of Abraham soe full of comfort that he laughed for ioy to heare and thinke of it By this the seed of the Patriarks was multiplyed like the starres of heauen and like the dust of the earth which is not to be numbred and all kindreds were blessed in it to wit as Christ came of their seede by the merits of whose passion heauen is replenished with saints more glorious than the starres and the Catholike Church of all faithfull christians haue sprung from him dilâ—â—ed to the west and to the East and to the North and to the south not to be numbred all whosoeuer are saued being saued by Christ our Sauiour We can neuer sufficiently acknowledge the loue of God in this mystery by it man was soe exalted as to become the diuine Spouse by
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
people not fearing the barbarousnesse of any but condemning all danger and labouring incessantly reiovced to suffer for him They mainteined the ghospell of Lesus Christ with such reasons force of spirit and miracles that being themselues vnlearned they confounded the learnedest of the world All were astonished at the hearing of them the fame of their preaching ringing in all places They confounded the Iewes silenced the oracles of the idols and with in a few yeares they filled the world with a numberlesse number of constant christians And this they did not by force of armes making of seditions or raising of partys to defende their cause or to increase their number but with humility and patience Thus did the faith of Christ beginne in the vertue and power of God and not as idolatry and Turcisme by the power and commande of the sword forcing of people to their obedience It beganne in litlenes pouerty humility and patience and increased as a grane of mustarde seede into a goodly tree hauing noe Princes or potentates of the earth to protect or to countenance it noe men of learning eloquence or humane pollicy to draw others vnto it but of such learning and eloquence as God infused into them God spoke in their mouths and with their hands and God soe speaking the prowde of the world came downe to their doctrine and became humble christians the rich of the world contemned riches the followers of vice beganne to loue vertue and a happy change was seene in the world by them They had to contest with Princes Iudges Priests Magistrates Philosophers artificers and all sorts of people who as their enemys mainteined their auncient rites and Priuileges against them Yet these poore and ignorant men kept still the christian faith on foote and maugre all the power which their enemys had the more they opposed it the more God increased it and the number of the faithfull was daily augmented that their enemys of all ranks and manner of callings in the end were contented to ioyne with them and to hazard their titles dignitys and profits and to forsake their owne wills and liues to obey Christ This was most miraculous euen as much as the miracles which they wrought and as planely testifyeth the power of God to haue brought these thinges to passe After the Apostles the same faith of Christ was still continued by others whom God raised as Apostles to succeede them and to whom he gaue the same spirit with sanctity of life and power of miracles to defende it And is at this day professed and defended by missions of Priests and religious men who goe as Apostles to preach the faith of Christ as I haue seene in Spaine euery yeare for the most part to be sent vnto the strange and rude people of the Indias for their conuersion and by soe many miracles make good that which they preach that it were a madnesse to question all those thinges which God hath wrought by them And euen here amongst vs vnworthy we see by continuall experiences the power which Christ promised to his Apostles of casting forth deuils Exorcismes to be practisedby christian Priests with good successe the powers of hell trēbling at the name of Christ are forced whether they will or noe to yeeld possession when they arecōmanded by it And to attribute this vnto art magicke by the cōmande of greater deuils ouer the lesse is that desperate refuge which the Iewes vsed against Christ himselfe Mat. 12. saying that in Beelzebub Prince of the deuils he did cast forth deuils and which was commonly obiected against the Apostles by their enemys and can not be true First for that the exorcismes of the Church are not done against the lesser deuils onely but with the greatest opposition hatred and despite that possible may be against the greatest and all the deuils of hell ouer whom there is none but God that hath supernaturall power Secondly the kingdome of the deuils is not soe diuided as that any of them should doe good or hinder euill except they be forced vnto it by the power of God yet by christian exorcists they are often forced to many thinges amongst Infidels to the destruction of infidelity and heresy and amongst christians of euill life to the hinderance and confusion of sinne which the deuills with all their power would mainteine Thirdly if we might attribute that which is done to the extirpation of infidelity heresy and confusion of sinne or for some good end to any other but the power of God we should neuer acknowledge nor could euer destinguish the power of God at any time to be exercized ouer the deuils although we saw them neuer soe much forced and neuer soe good effects to proceede of it but might attribute goodnes to the authour of euill And this was that manifest conuincing argument with which our Sauiour answered to the Pharisys when they made this very obiection against him If I in Beelzebub cast forth deuils Mat. 12. your children in whom doe they cast out We haue then for the comfort of christians christianity demonstrated by the holy scriptures of the old testament and the miracles of Christ and of the Apostles and of the continually succeeding and now being Church of Christ That which he taught and confirmed by miracles was that he was the Sonne of God the authour of life the promised Messias and Sauiour of the world This the Apostles preached after him and this we now preach in the Catholike Church Act. 4. and say with S. Peter neither is there any other name vnder heauen giuen to men where in we must be saued but in the euer blessed name of Iesus in him we blesse and honour God professing him in the Creede to be his onely Sonne our Lord. As the Sonne of God he is true God infinite in all perfections equall with the Father and the Holy Ghost and the very same in nature and essence with them according to which nature the Apostles in this article professe him our Lord. According to his humane nature he is also our Lord for that his humane nature being vnited to the diuine was exalted in dignity and made superiour vnto all creatures and had power aboue all men and Angels Mat. 28. All power saith he is giuen to mee in heauen and earth Christians that beleeue in Iesus Christ and carry in their name the name of him ought very much to honour themselues in it and to imitate him In baptisme they haue renounced the works of Satan to put on the armour and follow the warrfarre of Christians and then they receiued as also in the other Sacraments the souldiers garment of diuine grace their sinnes being forgiuen them by the merits of Christ Let vs then as his souldiers and seruants serue him and resist his enemys Let all the world open their eyes and harts to his diuine power and if they haue any feeling of God or desire to haue it and will consider the
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
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
to vse their owne wills and to fullfill their desires vpon them by what torments they would rather then to forsake the faith of Iesus Christ and thousands of thousands of faithfull christians gathered together in the Catholike Church are now ready with them in the same manner to professe it But we will honour Christ and comfort good christians by declaring the testimonys which God hath giuen of him We haue of Christ two kindes of diuine testimonys First by diuine scriptures and secondly by his miraculous works We will heare first what the scriptures testify of him When the mystery of the Incarnation was fullfilled and Christ came into the world there were then in all the world but two onely religions or diuine worships professed to wit the religion of the Iewes who worshipped one eternall and omnipotent God and the religion of the Gentils or Pagans adoring many Gods And the worship of one God being in the first article setled for true and the worship of many Gods reiected by the Apostles for false it followeth that the people of the Iewes were then the people of God whom he had chosen to be truely honored amongst Secondly it followeth that the Iewes hauing then the true faith and diuine worship whatsoeuer they then beleeued was true and that they then beleeuing in Christ as to come he was then indeede to come and whatsoeuer they beleeued of him then as future the same we are to beleeue of him as past and whatsoeuer the scriptures receiued by them which are the old Testament haue declared of him that is allwais to be beleeued as of diuine authority and as spoken by the word of God who dictated those scriptures for the gouernment of the world in the true worship of him Now the holy scriptures of the old testament deliuer soe planely the comming of a Messias or which is all one a Christ to redeeme the world that all whosoeuer receiue those scriptures doe still confesse it For it is the maine butte and prime scope of the old Testament to shew that Christ was promised from the beginning to the Patriarks and reuealed from time to time to the Prophets that the world might expect him then to come as it is the butte and scope of the new Testament to declare him to the world to be allready come And as the new Testament describeth all ouer the ioy of the faithfull in enioying him soe did the old testament comfort the faithfull then with the expectation and hopes of him First his comming was signifyed euen at first in paradise in terrour to the serpent who had caused our sinne when our Lord threatening him with an enemy that should come against him said I will put enmitys betâ—ixt thee and the woman Gen. 3. and thy seede and the seede of her she shall bruize thy head in peeces and thou shalt ly in waite of her heele Christ was by this mysteriously denoted God then declaring that the enmity of mankind with the serpent was to be especially betwixt him and the seede of a woman by which it is signifyed that Christ the Redeemer of the world and the serpents greatest enemy should be particularly the seede of a woman and is not there said to be of the seede of a man because he was to be conceiued and borne of a Virgin mother without the helpe of man And this was the prerogatiue of the Sauiour of the world that the sinne of mankind being first occasioned by a woman he that was to be the death and destruction of sinne should be by the power of God of womans seede onely without man The same was deliuered by reuelation to the Patriarks and Prophets afterwards and they did not onely declare it to posterity but also described the manner of the accomplishment of it Esa 9. A litle child is borne to vs and a sonne is giuen to vs and principality is made vpon his shoulder and his name shall be called Meruelous Counseller God Strong Father of the world to come The Prince of peace And in another place the same Prophet describeth the circumstances of his comming among the Iewes Arize be illuminated Hierusalem Esa 60. because thy light is come c. vpon thee shall our Lord arize and his glory shall be seene vpon thee And the Gentils shall walke in thy light and kings in the brightnesse of thy rizing Lift vp thine eyes round about and see all these are gathered together to thee Thy sonnes shall come from a farre and thy daughters shall rize from the side Then shalt thou see and abounde and thy hart shall meruaile and shall be enlarged when the multitude of the sea shall be conuerted to thee the strength of Gentils shall come to thee Here it is foretold that the Messias should come amongst the Iewes vnder the dominion and commande of Hierusalem the comming of kings to acknowledge his power and the conuersion of the Gentiles who by multitudes farre and neere should receiue the light of his doctrine and obey him our Lord. But I neede not stande to alledge scriptures for the comming of the Messias for it is inferred by that which I haue said allready that the Iewes who had then the true worship of God beleued it and it shall appeare by many places of the scriptures which I shall afterwards alledge Neither is there any difference betwixt that which the people of God beleeued of him by those scriptures before his comming and that which the faithfull now beleeue of him since his comming but onely in the diuersity of times they being before and we after him they beleeuing in him as to come and expecting of him we hauing receiued the ioy of his comming They were not then called Christians although they beleeued in Christ because they were but one nation and people of the Israëlits consisting of diuerse tribes and tooke their denomination of Ieâ—â—es from the â—ribe of Iuda which was the cheife tribe and of which it was foretold that the Messias should come But after his comming when the true faith and diuine worship was not confined to one onely nation but was enlarged vnto other nations and made common to all then all truâ— beleeuers beganne to be called by the Apostles Christians Act. 11. as by a name which abstracted from all nations to those who beleeued in Iesus Christ the true Messias and Redeemer of the wâ—rld Soe thâ—â— all true beleeuers haue allwâ—is beleeued in Christ as the Israëlits or People of the Iewes did immediatly before his comming and as now we doe But when Iesus Christ our Sauiour came into the world and preached his heauenly doctrine amongst the sewes a People wholy drowned in sinne and giuen to pride and desires of this world he abstaining from their euill wayes rebuking their vices and exhorting them to vertue and contempt of the world without giuing any hopes of temporall riches and glory but onely of spirituall blessings and such felicitys as were to be
expected in the world to come they despised him and easily finding out wayes to delude their scriptures and hardening their harts against his powerfull miracles by which he prooued himselfe to be the Sonne of God and the Sauiour of the world they made it a blasphemy in him to say soe and sought in priuate to haue killed him but that not preuailing for that the scriptures had otherwise foretold his death they publikely apprehended him and deliuered him to the Gentils accusing him and procuring sentence of death to passe against him and to be openly executed in the sight of the world and soe the scriptures were fullfilled in that which they had foretold of him and which he also had foretold of himselfe And although they knew also of his resurrection againe and that testifyed euen by their owne witnesses yet they continued obstinate in malice against him and contradicting the doctrine which he taught haue euer since for these sixteene hundred of yeares in vaine expected and still expect another Christ to come to redeeme them Here we haue two thinges to declare First that Christ the Messias foretold and promised by the scriptures was to be true God and secondly that Iesus Christ our Sauiour was indeede the true Messias whom the scriptures foretold and promised And although the mirâ—â—es which our blessed Sauiour wrought were sufficient to prooue this doctrine to be true he declaring himselfe both to be the Sonne of God and the promised Messias yet I will breifly alledge some places of scriptures to shew that the promised Messias was to be true God Say to the faint harted Esa 35. take courage and feare not saith the Prophet Esay behold your God shall bring reuenge of retribution God himselfe will come and will saue you Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened and the eares of the deafe shall be open Then shall the lame leape as a hart and the tongue of the dumbe shall be opened Here the Prophet sayth planely that God himselfe should come to saue vs and foretelleth the miracles which were to be wrought at his comming and by which he was to prooue himselfe as Iesus Christ our Sauiour did The Prophet Hieremy hath declared this most conuincingly against the enemys of Christ Behold the dayes come saith our Lord Hier. 23. and I willraise vp to Dauid a iust branch and he shall reigne a king c. And this is the name that they shall call him THE LORD OVR IVST ONE Here the very Iewes confesse that the Prophet speaketh of the Messias who was to come of Dauids race as of the most eminent man by which the tribe of Iuda of which Christ was to be borne was aduanced to regall dignity and of which many kings after Dauid did succeede And by these words he is manifestly declared to be true God for where the Prophet saith that he should be called our Lord the iust one the hebrew text hath the word terragrammaton by which God named himselfe to Moyses and which is vnderstood by all as the most proper name of God neuer vsed to signify any other but the true eternall and omnipotent God And the people of the Iewes haue that word in such reuerence that as vnutterable they will not name it nor reade it in the scriptures but read Adonai insteede of it which the Septuagint interpreters expound Lord. The Prophet Michaeas declareth in particular his proper procession by which he proceedeâ—h eternally as the Sonne of God from his eternall Father Miâ—h 5. And thou Bethleem Eprata art a liue one in the thousands of Iuda out of thee shall come forth vnto mee he that shall be the dominatour in Israel and his comming forth from the beginning from the dayes of eternity Where we haue two processions in the Messias the one eternall as he was the Sonne of God proceeding from the Father the other temporall as he proceeded man of the Virgin Mâ—â—y and was borne in Bethleem called Ephrata to destinguish it from another Bethleem in the tribe of Zahulon Thus would God ordaine that the holy scriptures of the old Testament should foreshew and declare the diuinity of Christ which the Apostles professe in this article Now we shew how that Iesus Christ our Sauiour was the true Messias of whom the scriptures foretold and whose diuinity they declared Christ prooâ—ed by scriptures It was necessary that holy scripture should soe farre declare the circumstances of the Messias his comming as that the world might haue sufficient signes and tokens to know him by when he came and that the Iewes amongst whom he was to come receiuing those scriptures might by the same scriptures receiue him or be vnexcusable if they receiued him not and therefor our Sauiour admonished them saying search the scriptures Io. 5. For you thinke in them to haue life euerlasting and the same are â—â—ey that gine testimony of mee The testimonys of the scriptures by which they testify the circumstances of the Messias his comming to agree to our Sauiour Iesus Christ are soe many that I once thought to haue mentioned none of them but onely to haue shewed the diuine testimony of his doctrine by the miracles which he wrought yet I will take somethinge out of authors for this also and especially out of Lyra commented vpon by Burgensis and note by the way that this Burgensis had bene himselfe a learned Iew borne of the tribe of Leui and brought vp in the study of that sect but discouering the many sleights and impostures which are vsed by them after a long conflict with himselfe resolued in the end to become a christian and accordingly with his whole family he receiued in baptisme the faith of Christ After some yeares he was made bishop of Burgos in Spaine and became an eminent prelate in the Church of God and wrote his commentarys vpon Lyra in which he hath well testifyed his zeale of the Catholike faith First by the circumstances which the scriptures deliuer as tokens of Christ the Messias it appeareth that he is allready come The Prophet Esay speaking of the land of Iury which was to bring him forth Esa 66. sayth that before she traueled she brought forth before her time came to be deliuered she brought forth a man child In all that Chapter he speaketh of the Messias his comming and according to the Chaldaike traslation those words are to be vnderstoode of his comming before the destruction of Hierusalem when the land of Iury felt as it were the pangues of a woman in child birth in that desolation and deluge of sorrowes which then came vpon hâ—r and it is as much as to say that the land of Iury should bring forth the Messias after a strange manner not after the ordinary course of women who haue ioy after their deliuery but on the contrary the paines of deliuery after her bringing forth of him and soe it happened with them in the comming of Christ for after his
repeate in honour of it as by the signe of the Cros the masse the Creede the Haile Mary and the like in which it is still commemorated that we behold in them the fullfilling of that great vision which Moyses had Exo. 3. when our Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the middes of a bush and the bush was on fire and was not burnt By which the Conception of Christ was fignifyed to be of the blessed Virgin without detriment of her Virginity and that he was to be borne without paine to her And this vision as it signifyed the Sonne of God vested with our nature was soe high and glorious that Moyses was commanded to bare his feete for the holinesse of the very ground on which it appeared Iob. 16. He at whose beck the pillars of heauen tremble and dread is inuolued in the myserys of our nature to draw vs to vertue and to saue vs by his merits THE FOVRTH ARTICLE SVffered vnder Pontius Pilate was Crucifyed dead and buried The Apostles hauing professed Christ in the glory of his diuinity as the onely Sonne of God and in the mystery of his conception and ioy of his birth set him now before our eyes in his passion and death That sacred body which was conceiued by the Holy Ghost and was vnited to the diuine word in the wombe of a Virgin we behold it now in the hands of cruell executioners who haue free power to torment and to kill it see now that body nailed vpon a Cros and soe exposed to the scorne of the world That face of life whose beauty the Angells desire to behold is left pale and dead without comlinesse and beauty The horrible paine which Christ suffered in his Passion is not to be apprehended by vs but was without doubt soe great in it selfe that the apprehension of it in him had bene sufficient to haue bereaued him of life if he had not supported nature by supernaturall meanes as he did in that agony which he suffered in the garden by the apprehension onely of his future Passion Mat. 26. when he said my soule is sorrowfull euen vnto death For his body as it was conceiued and framed onely of the Virgins blood was of a more tender complexion and more sensible of paine then others are and soe he had a more liuely apprehension greater horrour and more repugnance from the torments of his Passion which he foresaw and according to the inferiour part of his soule he desired and prayed to be freed from although they were woluntary to him For the vnderstanding of which we are to vnderstande two powers in the soule of man commonly called the Superiour and Inferiour part or portion of the soule The superiour power is in respect of its higher operations of reason and will which it hath equall with the Angels The inferiour part or portion of the soule is the inseriour powerwhich it hath as it is sensitiue causing vs to feele by our senses as inferiour creatures doe According to the superiour of the soule the Passion of Christ was nothing sorrowfull to him as not being contrary to his reason and will but it was most voluntary nay ioyfull to him he went as a gyant to runne that race and was straightened vntill he had perfected the baptisme of his Passion According to the inferiour power of the soule as it is sensible he could not but feele paine and his senses did abhorre the torments of his Passion for otherwise they had bene noe torments vnto him and as the complexion and constitution of his body was more perfect soe was he more sensible of paine and therefore the very apprehension of his Passion had a more violent effect in him then the paines of death is euer read to haue had in any other causing a sweat of blood to runne downe to the earth from him This would he suffer before his Passion to shew that his sorrows were aboue all sorrows and most horrible to him Yet he would preserue his life vntill he had suffered those thinges and fullfilled that which the scriptures had foretold of him For two reasons the Apostles would specify that Christ suffered vnder Pontius Pilate First for the more particular and exact relation of his Passion to shew that the Prophecys were fullfilled that had signifyed the time about which it should be And secondly for the performance of his owne words to shew the accomplishing of that which himselfe had foretold when speaking of his Passion he said Mat 20. they shall deliuer him to the Gentils to be mocked and scourged and crucifyed Which was fullfilled when the Iewes apprehending him deliuered him to Pilate and his souldiers who were Gentils and scourged and crucifyed him For the cheife of the Iewes seeing that they could not resist the doctrine which he preached nor the power of his miracles caused him to be apprehended and to be sent as a malefactour to Pontius Pilate who was then the Romane President of Iury Crucifyed and who by the instigation of the Iewes adiudged him as they desired to the death of the Cros which was held in that place the most disgracefull kind of death that malefactours could suffer and was soe much abhorred by the law that we reade in deuteronomy he is accursed of God that hangeth on a tree Deut. 21. Yet this the most reprochfull of all deaths was Christ contented to vndergoe for vs and that in a most ignominious manner betwixt two the eues We haue in the scriptures many mysterious types and honorable figures by which God would foreshew the death of his sonne Innocent Abel murthered by his brother was a figure of Iesus Christ killed by the Iewes Gen. 4. Gen. 22. The Sacrifice which Abraham was commanded to offer in his onely sonne was a type of Christ offered for vs on the Cros. Exo. 12. The vnspotted lambe which the Israëlits were commanded to offer when they came out of Aegypt represented also our Sauiour offered for our redemption of whom the Prophet saith Hier. 11. and I as a mild lambe that is carried to a victime The brazen serpent which God commanded to be erected that the people beholding it might be cured from the stings of the fiery serpents was as it were the shaddow of Christ nailed on the Cros. For as those that were wounded by serpents were cured by that and as of vipers and scorpions a medicine is made against their poyson and stings soe the malice of sinne committed by man was cured by man againe in Iesus Christ contrary to him By a man death sayth the Apostle and by a man the resurrection of the dead Cor. 1.15 And as the brazen serpent was in shew a serpent but had noe sting nor poyson to hurt but vertue to cure the stings of other serpents soe Christ in the similitude of the slesh of sinne had noe sinne Rom. 8. but tooke away the sinnes of the world and therefor
resurrection of Christ but his resurrection excelleth theirs in many respects First for that he raised himselfe as I haue said by his owne power and all others were raised by his power Secondly he was the first that euer aroze glorious Thirdly others aroze to death as well as to life Fourthly his resurrection was the cause and meanes of all our glorious resurrections In these respects S. Paul calleth him the first fruits of those that rize to life Cor. 15. Christ saith he is rizen from the dead the first fruits of them that sleepe In Christ all shall be made aliue But euery one in his owne order the first fruits Christ then those that are of Christ The resurrection of Christ ought to be a great comfort and encouragement to the good For his rizing to glory hath giuen vs hopes of a glorious resurrection Blessed be God saith S. Pet. 1.1 Peter and the father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath regenerated vs vnto a liuely hope by the resurrection of Iesus Christ from the dead vnto an inheritance incorruptible We are encouraged to beare with patience all afflictions and all kind of persecutions in this world in hopes to rize glorious with him Christ is our head and we are the members of his body and he hauing made way through persecutions for vs we ought couragiously to follow him THE SIXT ARTICLE HE ascended into heauen sitteth at the right hand of God Christ hauing consummated the worke of our redemption by his death on the Cros and after his death performed his resurrection and hauing after his resurrection remained forty dayes on earth to teach his disciples speaking of the kingdome of God that is to say instructing them concerning the gouernment of the Catholike Church which is the kingdome of God vpon earth he had done now all for which his father sent him and was to ascende into heauen and to carry mankind vnto that blessed place of glory which he had purchased for them He tooke therefor his disciples vnto mount Oliuet to be the witnesses of his ascension and lifting vp his eyes and blessing them he was gloriously elâ—uated in their sight and they being â—auished with ioy and spirituall consolation at it behold two Angels whom the Euangelist calleth men stoode beside them in white garments and said to them Act. 1. Ye men of Galily why stande you looking into heauen This Iesus which is assumpted from you into heauen shall soo come as you haue seene him going into heauen Thus would our Sauiour ascende that he might giue vnto the world a tast and scantling of the future glory and a memorial of his second comming This was the most glorious day that euer was to mankind For this is the day of our first entring into heauen The holy Prophet king Danid inuiteth all the world to the ioy of this day saying All ye nations clappe hands Ps 46. make iubilation to God in the voyce of exultation God is ascended in iubilation To day mans nature triumphed in the heauens and that soe glorious that it was exalted aboue all the coelestiall powers of Angels to the very right hand of God Ser. 3. de Ascen See ô man sayth S. Iohn Chrysostome how high thy nature is exalted Consider the distance of heauen and earth and of the lower to the higher heauens and from those higher heauens to the Angels and from them to the higher powers and from those to the seate where our Lord sitteth Humane nature is exalted thus high aboue all that nature which was of it selfe soe low that it could be noe lower became now soe high that it could be raised noe higher And the Holy Ghost to shew how high that glory was which mankind then receiued would inspire the Apostles to make such a remarkeable expression of it as to say that it was set at the right hand of God That as great Princes and eminent personages when they will shew a more then ordinary respect to some other Prince their freind they set him on their right hand soe the nature of man in Iesus Christ who was the Prince of mankind ascending into heauen the king of heauen and of the whole world would be said to set him on his right hand A greater expression of his loue could not be made then this yet thus would he haue his Apostles to expresse it Christ ascended both in body and soule for they being once vnited together in his resurrection were neuer more to be separated againe He ascended by his owne power and not as Elias Abacuc S. Phillip or others who were eleuated into the ayre carried by Angels for their soules and bodys being then vnglorifyed could not by their owne power ascende But Christ besides that he ascended by the power of his diuinity being in the state of glory his body was perfectly subiected to his soule and was therefor eleuated by it and stoode noe neede of the externall helpe of Angels In that he is said to sitt at the right hand of God we are to vnderstande a siguratiue manner of speech which God would haue to be vsed to accommodate himselfe to our weake vnderstandings which can haue nothing represented to them but by the species of corporal thinges and soe Christ is said to sitt at the right hand of God to shew how highly our nature was exalted in him although God haue noe hands nor corporal parts as being a spiritual substance that needeth not them Neither ought we to thinke by this that there is any precedency of place or degrees of dignity in the Persons of the B. Trinity but that the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost are all of equall and infinite dignity Christ according to his humanity is said to sitte at the right hand of God in respect of creatures in that he is superiour to them in dignity and glory And according to his diuine nature he may be said to sitt at the right hand of God in this sense and to this end that we might not vnderstande as Arius did that the Sonne of God was inferiour to the Father For which reason the holy Psalmist also placeth the Sonne at the right hand of the Father Ps 109. and then presently in the same psalme the Father on the right hand of the Sonne to signify equallity betwixt them Let vs now apply this mystery to the profit of our soules that they may haue the benefit of it and receiue the giftes which were then giuen Ps 67. for it is written ascending on high he ledd captiuity captiue he gaue gifts to men Iph. 4. These gifts are too great to be spoken for vnto some he gaue then the gift of heauenly blesse Towit to the soules of those in limbus whom he freed out of captiuity and carried with him And to those whom he left behinde him on earth he gaue the promise of the Holy Ghost and performed that promise within a while sending him to comfort and
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
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 speaking of the validity of baptisme done by haeretiks which validity S. Cyprian and some others of that time denyed he hath these words Neither durst we affirme any such thinge to wit as that the baptisme of haeretiks is valid were we not well grounded vpon the most vniforme authority of the whole Church vnto which vndoubtedly S. Cyprian would haue yeelded if in his time the truth of this question had bene cleered and by a General Councell established Greg in registro l. 1. c. 24. S. Gregory that he esteemed of the foure Generall Councells of Nyce Constantinople Ephesus and Chalcedon as of the foure ghospels of Mathew Marke Luke and Iohn Blessed Theodosius before S. Gregorys time went vp into the pulpit as Metaphrastes declareth in his life and pronounced publikly Let him be accursed that esteemeth not the foure holy Councels equal with the foure ghospells An edict was setforth by the Emperour Valentinian and Martian his collegue in which the decrees of the Councel of Chalcedon are commanded to be obserued in these words Let now all prophane strife be laid aside for verily he is impious and sacrilegious that after the sentences of soe many Priests shall thinke that there remaineth any thinge by his opinion to be handled Another decree is extant of the Emperour Martian to the people of Constantinople in which he sayth We haue forbidden all to dispute of religion for one or two can not finde out those secrets especially when soe many venerable Priests with extreme labour and much prayer could not discouer the truth but by the diuine authority It is indeede a most vaine thinge to dispute of the truth of those thinges which a Generall Councell hath declared to be true because all such thinges haue bene already sufficiently disputed by the best authority of the world That therefor which by a General Councell is established as of faith remaineth allwais firme and certaine in its truth for God is not changed nor can his words euer be but true and the words of a General Councell are the words of God Christ and the Holy Ghost teaching them all truth Mat. 28. Io. 14 16. That which by some former Councell hath bene but obuiously and sleightly handled as being then out of question may be more illustrated by a following Councell and such orders and constitutions as are agreeable to some times may be repealed as not conuenient for other times and soe S. Augustine saith that the former are sometimes amended by the following but noe General Councell signed vnto by the head and Pastors of the Church can euer be declared for false nor any thinge which is declared by such a Councell Some conuenticles of haeretiks as that of the Arians at Ariminum and of Nestorians at Ephesus haue bene declared for false because they were not general of the whole world nor called and ratifyed by the bishop of Rome as all General Councels vsed and ought to be But those which were true Councels and were truely authorized by him were neuer questioned afterwards nor any thinge in them But although a General Councell includeth the authority of the whole Church yet it is not necessary that euery member of the Church be present at it it is sufficient that the voice and assent of euery member of the Church be with the Pastors of the Church for as it is not required that euery member of a kingdome be personally present at the Councell table of the king but onely the king and Peeres of the realme who haue authority ouer all and as the superiors onely and magistrates of the Commune Wealth which are present in consultation make lawes for the good of all and all are bounde to obey them as the lawes of that nation and commune wealth which they defende with their liues and are guilty of death if they breake them because they proceede from the general and lawfull authority soe the head of the Church and pastors that are in Communion with him being placed by Christ and the Holy Ghost to gouerne the Church haue lawfull authority to determine for all and all are bounde to obey their decrees for that they are the decrees of all and that assembly is the whole Church in authority Thus an assembly of the cheife of the â—raëlits is called in holy scripture all Israël Reg. 3. â— and as I haue shewed the holy fathers haue called General Councels assemblys of the whole Church and of the whole world Neither is it necessary that all the bishops of the Church be personally present at them For that is morally impossible and very inconuenient some being necessary to remaine for the performing of Episcopal functions All the Apostles were not present with S. Peter at the Councell of Hierusalem but onely those which could be spared from their places which all at once can not be General Councels consist onely of bishops Neither can Councels enely of bishops or euer did any other but bishops take place by their owne authority in them And therfor S. Leo in his Epistles and S. Augustin commonly call them Councels of bishops In the acts of the Councell of Chalcedon these words are some times repeated Synodus Episcoporum est non Clericorum Superfluos mitte foras The Councell is of bishops not of Clerks Those that are supersluous let them be put forth The Abbot Auxentius being inuited to the Councell answered It is not for Monks to teach others but to be taught This is due onely to the dignity of bishops As for temporal Princes as such they neuer had any spiritual iurisdiction in the Church of Christ for that was giuen to Peter and the Apostles The Emperour Theodosius writing to the Councell of Ephesus sayeth It is not lawfull for mee that am noe bishop to intermedle in Ecclesiastical affaires The Emperour Valentinian being sollicited by some bishops to cause a Councell to be called for the deciding of certaine questions then in controuersy answered It is not for mee that am but in the ranke of the people to medle with those thinges Let the Priests to whom they belong agree among themselues to meete where they like These Emperours spoke like wise men and good Christians Cor. 1.7 Euery one in the vocation that he was called in it â—et him abide saith the Apostle Bishops are called to gouerne in spiritual temporal Princes in temporal thinges and they must not goe forth of their propper callings Bishops made not themselues bishops God gaue that authority to them and whosoeuer haue it must haue it of God I will giue Pastors saith God by his Prophet and they shall feede you with knowledge and doctrine Hier. 3. And S. Heb 5. Par. 2.26 Paul speaking of priesthood sayth neither doth any man take the honour to himselfe but he that is called of God as Aaron Ozias king of Iuda resisting the Priests and comming boldly to the altare to vsurpe without calling their authority and office
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
must prooue it by extraordinary fignes and miracles such as are propper to God onely and proportionable to that kind of commission Soe did Moyses prooue by miracles that he was sent of God soe did Christ prooue his authority by miracles But if they haue neither miracles to prooue extraordinary nor succession of lawfull pastors for ordinary commission but vpon their owne bare word onely will draw men from obedience to their lawfull pastors we must take them for such as Core Dathan and Abiron were who disobeying their pastors and hauing noe commission from God to shew for it they and their followers sunke downe visibly into hell Now for miracles to iustify their disobedience to the Church they neither haue nor can possibly haue for that God will not approoue of any such disobedience but hauing ordained the gouernment of the Church to be by S. Peter as supreme head and by 〈◊〉 Apostles as pastors vnder him and Christ â—auing promised to be with them all dayes to the consummation of the world we must at all times looke vnto the successors of S. Peter and his pastors as to the lawfull authority of the Church of Christ and allwais obey them and we must take those for false Churches that disobey their authority And therfor S. Cyprian solidly rebuketh Nouatus the â—aeretike for separating himselfe from the Communion of Cornelius then Bishop of Rome and concludeth that the Church of Christ being but one and not conteining both those that are with in and those that are out of it those onely saith he are in the Church Cyp. l. 4. op c. who are in the COmmunion of Cornelius successour to Fabianus But that they may not thinke to excuse their disobedience by any pretences I stoppe all pretences whatsoeuer and preuent all answeres that can possibly be deuised by that which followeth They can not deny but there haue bene and are false Churches of christians in the world but there neuer was nor now is any false Church of christians but it might haue if it would the same pretences and haue the same ground for them that any of these haue they being commune to all disobedient and obstinate persons that will stande out against the Church therefor all which any of them can pretende for themselues are but vaine pretences and if euer there were any false Church of christians in the world they are all false Churches As for the first S. Paul saith that there must be heresys Cor. 1.11 Which being held by a Communion of many there is then a false Church He that readeth D Prateolus of the beginnings of heresys and seeeth the absurditys which they haue obstinatly mainteined will easily grant that there haue bene false Churches of Christians in the world He shall finde some against the whole B. Trinity some against one of the Persons some against another some against the diuinity some against the humanity of Iesus Christ some against the blessed Virgin some against the Angels some against the Saints one saith that Christ is the sunne which we see to shine another saith that himselfe is Christ another maketh himselfe to be the Holy Ghost some will haue all to marry some will haue none to marry some soe affected to sobriety that they held wine vnlawfull to be drunke euen to the consecrating of water insteede of it some are running naked others are foming quaking and changing gastly countenances as a signe and point of perfection another cryeth downe learning and will haue noe triall of the truth but by force of armes commanding for that purpose his disciples at his death to make a drumme of his skinne All which I mention in relation to the Apostles words and to my first proposition that there haue bene false Churches in the world and withall to obserue what absurde errors men would runne into if there were not at all times an authority of visible pastors guided by the Holy Ghost to gouerne the Church and all were bounde to be gouerned by them Now if any of these were a false Church it was for their obstinacy in those errors and for their disobedience to those pastors which the primitiue Church acknowledged to haue by succession from S. Peter the supreme authority and to the pastors of their Communion as hauing at all times the lawfull authority of the whole Church And these were as I haue shewed the Bishops of Rome and the pastors that were in Communion with them none els hauing any pretence vnto that succession Then for the second proposition I aske any one of those sects that are now out of the Catholike Romane Church what pretence can they haue which is not common to all the rest and which all the false Churches that are or euer were and which they confesse to be false Churches might not if they would haue alleadged for themselues as well as they to excuse there disobedience If they pretende errors in the doctrine of their pastors or if they alleadge priuate spirit or if they pretende authority from the true Church but inuisible or if they say that they were thrusten out of the Church against their wills or if they pretende immediat commission from God to disobey all authority vpon earth in religion who doth not see that all these are but vaine pretences common to all that will vse them and which if they were to be allowed of a gappe were opened for all turbulent and disobedient persons to runne out of the Church vnder some of these pretences at any time when they would themselues Neither is there any thinge which any of them can pretende but that which all the rest may as well take for pretence and all the false Churches that euer were whom they confesse to be false Churches may as well pretende as they And if this be not soe I desire and challenge any wise and learned man of whatsoeuer sect out of the Romane Church to study and to thinke with himselfe of any lawfull pretence and excuse for their disobedience to the Romane Church and then to take some other which he holdeth to be a false Church and conferring them together to propose to his owne conscience whether that pretence agree not as well to the other as to his owne And if he can deuise none which is propper to his owne Church more then to false Churches then I warne and charge him to returne againe to the obedience of that authority which the primitiue Church first obeyed and which the Romane Church hath allwais obeyed and which his Church and all others haue at some time goneforth of and disobeyed and this was as I haue shewed the authority of the bishop of Rome and his pastors All those Churches that are now extant out of the Romane Church went first out of it by disobedience to the head and pastors of the Romane Church and as for Protestants they confesse that they went forth and separated themselues from it Aug. l. 2. cont Crescon c.
eminently blessed aboue the rest of the Sacraments and infinitly blessed in that it conteineth the authour of all blesse These are the words of S. Denis the disciple of S. Eccl hier c. 3. Paul concerning it for it is saith he according to our renewmed master the Consummation of the Sacraments Neither is it almost lawfull for any of the priestly functions to be exercized but this diuine and high Sacrament of Eucharist must be performed It is the highest indeede and most diuine of all the Sacraments because the rest conteining onely the vertue and power of Christ this truely and really conteineth Christ himselfe And therefor the Apostles called it the Eucharist that is to say a high and blessed grace or gift By it the Church of Christ is placed in a midle ranke of honour aboue the synagogue of the Iewes and vnder the cittizens of heauen we being but a litle lesse exalted then they The Synagogue of the Iewes in the law of Moyses had Christ in sigure onely we in the Eucharist haue him as really as the cittizens of heauen but they haue him in glory In the Eucharist all Christ is conteined for although by vertue of the words This is my body c. his body onely be really present in it yet because all his perfections are allwais accompanying his sacred body and wheresoeuer it is there is all Christ hence it followeth that both his body and soule and all the perfections of his diuine and humane nature and all whatsoeuer is in Christ is really in the Eucharist in company of his body If his body were without his soule then it were dead Rom 6. as it was in the sepulcher but Christ rising againe from the dead now dieth noe more Saith the Apostle Christ therfor being now not dead wheresoeuer his body is there his soule is all ouer vnited to it There is then his intire humane nature of body and soule and being that his diuine and humane nature are allwais vnited together there is also the diuine word and nature of God All Christ is intirely in the host and all Christ is intirely in the chalice although vnder different signes and species And Christ is not onely all in all the host and chalice but all Christ is in euery part of them soe that he that receiueth onely the host receiueth as much as he that receiueth both host and chalice and he that receiueth the chalice onely receiueth as much as both chalice and host and the least particle of either of them is as much as all The reason of this supposing the truth of Christs words may easily be vnderstoode for that he did not determine any particular quantity to be consecrated which if he had done then a lesser quantity had not bene consecrated but leauing the quantity indifferent and the least part of it being consecrated as well as the whole it is the perfect Eucharist and perfect Christ as well as the whole Christ being shortly to depart this world would leaue vnto vs a great testimony ef his loue and although his passion and death were sufficient to testify it yet besides them he would bestow a gift token and pledge vpon vs which might allwais remaine with vs as a memorial of him He called therfor his disciples to supper and being there all together he made his wil and last testament amongst them bequething vnto them the most pretious gift that was in his hands to giue and in his blessed hands were all thinges It was his owne pretious body which then he bequeathed and gaue to them and with it all the perfections of his diuine and humane nature and he gaue it not in promise onely and for the future but he deliuered it then to them for themselues and for all good christiaÌ„s for euer And that noe haeretike might misconstrue his will and defraude the world of this pretious Isgacy he declared his minde soe planely and in such termes as could not wel be misinterpreted telling them that it was the very body which Was to be deliuered and that blood which was to be shedd Gâ—r 1.11 For the Apostle sayth that whilst they were at supper Iesus tooke bread and blessed and brake and he gaue to his disciples and said take ye and eate THIS IS MY BODY which shall be deliuered for you and taking the chalice he gaue thanks and gaue to them saying drinke ye all of this For this is my blood of the new testament which shall be shed for many vnto remission of sinnes Commanding them to doe the same in commemoration of him If then his true body and blood was deliuered and shedd it was his true body and blood which then he gaue to them And although as there is noe absurdity soe great but haeretiks wil finde out how to mainteine it the Manichees haue conceited that an apparent body onely and not the true body of Christ was deliuered on the Cros for vs yet now that I heare of there are noe such haeretiks in the world All christians then beleeuing that his true body was deliuered on the Cros why shall not all as wel beleeue that his true body is conteined in the Eucharist seeing that we haue the same authority for it After this the Apostles vndertooke to consecrate the Eucharist and honored it as the very true body and blood of our lord Cor. 1.11 Mat. 26. S. Paul whosoeuer shall eate this bread or drinke the chalice of our Lord vnworthily he shall be guilty of the body and blood of our Lord. and that he eateth and drinketh iudgment to him selfe not discerning the body of our Lord. Thus did the Apostles receiue the Eucharist from Christ and honored it as his true body And the primitiue Church that receiued it from them gaue it the same honour as they did and as the Romane Church now doth That the Rom. Church doth now giue it that honour it is well knowne and that the primitiue Church honored it as much it shall appeare by the sentences of those fathers and first by the honorable names which they giue it Hier. Eccl. c. 3. Ignat. ad Ephes Iustin Apoll Cyp. de lapsis S. Denis termeth it hostia saluta ris the sauing host S. Ignatius calleth it medicamentum immortalitatis antidotum non moriendi the medicine of immortality the antidote against death Iustinus Caro sanguis incarnati Iesu the flesh and blood of Iesus incarnated Cyprian de laps Sanctum Domini gratia salutaris sacrificium perpes holecaustum permanens the holy one of our Lord the sauing grace the continual sacâ—ifice an offering allwais remaining Concilium Nicaen Agnus Dei qui tollit peccata mundi the lambe of God that taketh away the sinnes of the world S. Cyr mystag 4. Cyril hath these words of it Vnder the shew of bread the body is giuen to thee and the blood is giuen vnder the shew of wine Doe not consider it as naked bread and wine For it
neighbour But some louers of diuision will needs diuide the first Commandement into two and breake the connexion which the doctors of the Church haue commonly acknowledged in them They will haue the first to conteine all vnto the end of those words Thou shalt not haue strange Gods before mee and the second Commandement to beginne at the words following and to conteine the forbidding of images and pictures because they thinke by this meanes to giue it more force against the auncient and Catholike doctrine which alloweth them to be worshipped as holy thinges where it hath indeede noe force at all against it as I shall presently shew Onely obserue here that it maketh noe more against images in two Commandements then in one soe that we keepe the same words and their propper translations which not withstanding those very men haue made bold to alter I remember that a Protestant freind of mine once obiected to mee that Catholiks had taken away one of the ten Commandements meaning that we had put two into one to mainteine our doctrine of the worship of images But those that had soe possessed this ignorant man had manifestly deceiued him for the Catholike Church hath declared nothing in this but leaueth it indifferent to be vnderstoode as one or as two Commandements That which the Catholike Church teacheth is that which the Holy Ghost saith Exod. 34. Deut. 4. and that is that the Commandements are ten in number but to any particular manner of diuiding them the Church obligeth not Those that will diuide the first into two must take heed that they make not eleauen Commandements and if to remedy this they shall ioyne the two last into one then they fall into another inconuenience which is to make fower Commandements in the first table and six onely in the second which is contrary to the commune and auncient manner of diuiding them into three of the first table belonging to God and seauen of the second table belonging to our neighbour which S. Augustine approoueth of Aug. quest 71 in Exod. and which hath in it selfe most cōnexion For that there is more cōnexion betwixt forbidding strange Gods and forbidding of grauen thinges to be adored and serued then there is betwixt the desire of adultery and the desire of theft as is manifest they being in two destinct kindes of sinne and therfor with more reason shall be diuided into two Commandements then the first Thus much for the diuision of the Commandements Thou shalt not haue strange Gods before mee VVorship of images Two things are here commanded The one positiue to wit to worship the true God the other negatiue prohibiting the worship of false Gods And although the second be included in the first because the worship of the true God excludeth the worship of false Gods yet because the Israelits were a people prone to idolatry and to liue in the midst of Idolatrous nations that they might not fall into that sinne as in the end they did when Ieroboam Achab and other wicked kings pretended to worship the God of Israel when they worshipped idols also therefor they were not onely commanded to worship God but also expresly forbidden to worship strange Gods And by this we may vnderstande the sense of the words following thou shalt not make to thee a grauen thinge nor any similitude c. to be that they should not make them to be adored and serued as Gods Sap. 13. which the Gentil idolatours did who haue called the works of mens hands Gods and whom holy wisdome in the same place reprooueth for that either the fire or the winde or the swift ayre or a circle of starres or exceeding much water or the Sunne and the moone they thought to be Gods rulers of the world This was perfect idolatry and this was that which God would here preuent in the Israelits and by this the worship of images with inferiour onely and not diuine worship but as holy things is not forbidden But suppose that the Israelits were commanded here not onely not to worship images and pictures with diuine worship in themselues but also not to haue them amongst them it would make nothing against vs. Many things were forbidden them which are lawfull to vs the circumstances of that imperfect law of that peoples weaknesse of those times and places requiring it They were forbidden to eate blood because they were of themselues a bloody people and in the Apostles times it was necessary to obserue it as a praecept Act. 15. but now it is not Certaine corporal clensings were commanded them and certaine creatures were forbidden to be eaten as vncleane and these were neither obserued in the Apostles times nor are now Images and pictures in those idolatrous times might be forbidden them to haue for their pronenesse to idolatry but the Apostles had them and we haue them and worship them as holy thinges in the law of Christ which was to be and hath bene as we see the dostruction of idolatry That which the Commandements oblige vnto by obligation of nature that we and all people are bounde to obserue but that which they commande as propper to the Israelits onely obligeth not vs. He therefor that would make a good argument against our worship of images must prooue that it is forbidden either by some particular praecept propper to vs or by a natural praecept commune to all but this none can euer prooue As for any particular praecept propper to vs there is none can or doth offer to produce any praecept by which images are forbidden to be worshipped particularly by christians And for any general praecept forbidding by nature the worship of images as holy thinges it is contrary to reason to the scriptures to General Councels and to the practise of the primitiue and present Church Natural reason and order requireth that euery thinge be honored according to its natural goodnesse God is to be worshipped as God with supreme and diuine worship primely in himselfe and creatures with inferiour worship according to their nature as they haue more or lesse relation to God We giue ciuill honour to one another and especially to our superiors as hauing a neerer relation to him that is supreme and we giue religious worship to holy things as they haue more or lesse relation to him Images then hauing a particular relation to God by the holy things which they represent are to be worshipped with a holy and religious worship natural reason teaching that when we worship any thinge we should worship that also which hath relation vnto it because in respect of it and for its sake it deserueth also some worship and therefor we loue all that haue relation to our freinds and worship our superiors for Gods sake whom they represent We are not then forbidden by any praecept of nature to worship images with a secondary and relatiue worship but we are taught by natural reason that as they haue relation to the holy things
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
haue noe correspondence from beyond the seas promising that if they would take this oth they should haue their Churches deliuered to them The first thinge which the Catholike Bishops did was to make a resolute and vnanimous profession of their faith They sent therefor to the king in these words We haue allwais said and now say and will allwais say we are bishops we are christians we all hold one true and Apostolical faith But as for the oth some of them were of minde to take it hauing a scruple of their Churches being otherwise detained from them others fearing some deceit in the busines excused themselues with the words of Christ I say to you not to sweare at all But in fine they were all to be banished those that would take the oth as men of noe conscience that would sweare to any thinge and those that would not because they loued not the king Such is the performance of haeretiks promises It is not onely vnlawfull to take the name of God in vaine but also to sweare by his creatures For as the power and goodnes of God is resplendent in them he that abuseth them abuseth God It is then an euil custome that which some haue of swearing by this light by this fire and the like oths Mat. 5. by which this Commandement is broken and therefor Christ I say to you not to sweare at all neither by heauen because it is the throne of God neither by the earth because it is the footstoole of his feet This Commandement is broken by vaine oths vaine promises by breaking of vowes by prophaning of Scriptures applying them to idle and iâ—reuerent purposes by blaspheming and cursing c. It is an vnworthy thinge to see the irreuerence of some to this Commandement and to the most sacred name of God which vpon euery occasion they abuse powring forth oths vpon oths as water vpon the face of the earth Base minded men who because they see the patience of God with sinners that presently he striketh them not they contemne him and where as they flatter men and giue faire words to their enemys for feare they rize vp against God with oths curses and blasphemys as though they would fight and be reuenged of him Those that haue this euill custome may be thought to haue committed a mortal sinne when they first gott it and although they can not on a suddaine quite leaue it of yet they are bounde vnder a mortal sinne to endeauour against it That which is propper to this sinne is to harden the hart more then other sinnes doe and to dispose those that vse it to all other sinnes for as it hath a vaine and seeming brauery in the opinion of foolish men soe they take more complacence and continuelonger in it euen to the hardening of their harts soe that they haue almost noe feeling of the offence of God And therefor the Holy Ghost hath said Aman that sweareth much shall he filled with iniquity Eccl. 23. L. 4. Dial. â— 18. And then presently he addeth and plague shall not depart from his house For it is obserued of swearing that beside the punishment of the next world it is often exemplarly punished in this S. Gregory relateth of a child that was visibly taken away from his father by the deuils for cursing and swearing Which was such an example as perhaps the like is hardly read of in punishment of any other sinne For that child was but fiue yeares old and I know not whether he were capable of sinne or noe But whether he sinned or were earried away to preuent his sinne it was a manifest plague of God vpon that house for swearing and by this and the words alleadged we may well thinke that many houses are plagued for it The remedy is to consider the infinite maiesty of God Romedyâ— against swearing The courtiers of heauen are allwais in his presence praising him and shall I stande before his face cursing and swearing by his blessed name what hurt hath the Creatour of the world done to mee that I should soe dishonour him to his creatures It is also a good practical remedy to gette a custome when any thinge troubleth vs to say some good words as God be blessed Blessed be the name of God or the like and often to vse them as readiest with vs. The words of S. Paul are very literal for this saying Rom. 12. blesse and curse not Iob soe holy a man and soe great in the world disdained not this easy but efficacious remedy who when all those calamitys came soe thicke vpon him he broke not out into oths and curses but had ready to say blesseâ— be the name of God and soe gotte victory and a duble reward euen in this world Let vs gette a custome of such words It is a custome easy to gette THE THIRD COMMANDEMENT REMEMBER thou sanctify the Sabaoth day The word Sabaoth signifyeth Rest and soe the Sabaoth day is as much as to say a day of rest in which we are to rest from labour Here then we are commanded to sanctify to God a day of rest that absteining from corporal works we attende vnto acts of religion and diuine worship This is an obligation which all haue by nature that as all times were created and ordained for the seruice of God soe some dayes should be particularly obserued in honour of him But we are not by nature bounde to obserue any one day more then another for that was to be determined by the Church which is directed by the Holy Ghost to order all according to conuenient circumstances And soe the Church of the Israelits was commanded to obserue the seauenth day on which God rested from the creation of the world and the Church of Christ is directed to keepe the next day after it in remembrance of the resurrection of our sauiour and of the comming of the Holy Ghost both which mysterys happened on the next day after the Iewish Sabaoth and on that day which we call Sunday and which the Scriptures call the Dominical day that is to say Our Lords day Thus the Sabaoth day was transferred vnto the next day by the same authority that first commanded it and was kept by the Apostles on the same day on which we keepe it as appeareth by S. Cor. 1.16 Paul commanding the gatherings to be made In the first of the Sabaoth That was on the first day after their Sabaoth in which the people of Christ mette together to celebrate our Lords day And S. Iohn sayth Apoc. 7. J was in spirit on the Dominical day that was on our Lords day to destinguish it fom the Iewish Sabaoth By the Sabaoth all holy dayes are here vnderstoode In the law of Moyses diuerse other solemnitys beside the Sabaoth were commanded and obserued some with more and some with lesse solemnity according to the more or lesse remarkable mysterys which they represented The feast of Azyme or Pasch was
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
Gen. 39. Ioseph the Patriarke was assalted by a wicked woman tempting him to lust but by the helpe of God he ouercame the temptation Holy and chast Susanna was grieuously tempted falsely accused and brought euen to the vtmost danger of death but God vndertooke her cause and defended her It was a glorious victory that which Iob gott ouer the world the flesh and the deuill and as gloriously rewarded of God that gaue it Let vs pray to God and serue him and he will giue grace against temptations For this is the way to arme ourselues with prayer and vigilancy against them and to keepeallwais in our harts a vehement detestation of all mortall sinne in general and when any particular temptation beginneth in vs to resist it presently at first by making a contrary act to it and then without delay to fly the occasion of that kind of sinne Thus we shall gett victory and the glorious crowne which to the victorious is promised For the resisting of particular temptations see the Commandements THE SEAVENTH PETITION BVT deliuer vs from euill Here we repeate all which we prayed for in the former petitions redoubling our prayer againe for them for he that prayeth to be freed from euill prayeth to be freed from all that is opposite to the honour of God to the obtaining of his kingdome to the performance of his will and from any thinge that is contrary to the other petitions And we aske further more the remission of the punishment due to our sinnes and also to be freed from those corporal euils which euery hower we are subiect vnto I said at first that the Pater Noster was a perfect patterne and forme of prayer which our blessed Sauiour made for our instruction Let vs then obserue dilligently the methode of it First we are taught in it to desire aboue all things the honour of God and to direct all our prayers to that end that the name of God which is infinitly holy in it selfe may be hallowed also externally by vs. And hauing asked that the name of God be hallowed and also all things that are positiuely good for vs then we aske to be freed from that which is hurtfull and especially to be freed from sinne as the most hurtfull of all things and for the future that we fall not againe by temptation and lastly to be freed from all euills in general and in particular which God knoweth to be euill for vs and to be pardoned of the punishment for our sinnes And it is to be obserued that Christ would not onely teach vs to pray for ourselues but for all others that soe we might keepe ourselues in charity with all We say not my father giue mee forgiue mee lead mee not c. but our father giue vs forgiue vs lead vs not c. And we are taught also to forgiue our enemys and to pray for them In fine the art and mastership of this prayer is more then man can expresse or vnderstande much lesse can it be perfectly imitated by any prayer which we can make nor that the Angels can deuise Yet it was not the intention of Christ to binde vs to say noe other prayer but it for both he and the Apostles are read to haue said other prayers neither that we should allwais pray for all that is conteined in it but that we should allwais pray for all or for somethinge that is in it or conformable to it and with that order that the honour of God be first sought for in all our prayers and that all things be prayed for in order to it When therefor we pray for any temporal thinge we ought first to desire the honour of God and our owne spirituall good by it before that we aske for the thinge it selfe and we are to resigne our wills to the will of God and first seeke to be freed from our sinnes before that we pray to be freed from any other euill and not presently when any thinge troubleth vs to pray onely for our owne ease and content as some doe who if their head or their breast or backe ake or are in any affliction or danger they complaine presently where it paineth them and without any more adoe pray to be freed from it but this is not according to our patterne of prayer in which we are taught first to pray for the honour of God and our owne spiritual good saying at least in our hatts hallowed be thy name thy kingdome come c in the first place of our prayer and allwais to be pleased with that which pleaseth God not too earnestly desiring to be freed from temporal euills assuring ourselues that if we haue not our prayer we haue that which is better for vs such afflictions being many times sent of God as a speciall meanes of our saluation We must follow Christ our master It is not sitting saith S Bernard ser 5. de omnibus sanctis that the members should be pampered vnder a thorny hâ—ad The holy king sang these words for his comfort Ps 118. Princes haue persecuted mee without cause and my hart hath bene affraide of thy words I will reioyce at thy words as he that findeth many spoiles Let vs not therefor greiue at our afflictions nor seeke too earnestly to be freed from them but let vs goe willingly with the will of God and follow Christ in them Some adde to the Pater Noster for thine is the kingdome power and glory But Catholiks vse not to say those words because they are not in the scriptures but were added to the Pater Noster as Glory be to the father c. Was added to the end of the psalmes And the Pater Noster being the prayer which Christ left as a lesson for vs to learne to pray by we keepe it intirely by it selfe without adding any thinge to it Amen is an hebrew word much frequented by our Sauiour It is as much as to say verily Amen indeede certainely c. It is sometimes vsed in the beginning and sometimes in the end of a speech to confirme the verity and certainty of it But in this place we vnderstande it not as in the end of other prayers as it were to repeate and vrge them with more earnestnes but as an answere to shew that by the vertue and efficacy of this prayer our desire is acceptable and we are dismissed with the grant of our petition And therefor in the holy sacrifice of masse at the end of the Pater Noster the Clerke answereth not Amen as at the end of other prayers but leaueth it for the priest to say that he as the interpretour of God may denounce vnto the people that their prayer is granted And for this reason S. Hierome might well say that Amen is the seale of our Lords prayer to declare that God doth as it were set his hand to it You haue learned now how to pray and how to prepare your selues vnto prayer First we are to free
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
our Lord is a Sacrifice The Masse is a Sacrifice that is the action of Sacrifizing the body and blood of our Lord is a Sacrifice that is the thinge which is Sacrifized or offered at Masse The worship of Sacrifice hath bene esteemed at all times and by all religions soe necessary to be giuen to God that there neuer was any religion in the world according to Turseline before the Turks soe Barbarous but as they allwais worshipped some God soe they offered some kind of Sacrifice to him in soe much that Plutarch could say that it was easier to finde cittys without temples Plut. aâ— uers Color and coynes of moneys without inscriptions Then temples without altares To wit to Sacrifice vpon For the same natural reason that teacheth all people to defende themselues and to honour their superiors teacheth them also to worship God with some high and soueraigne worship aboue all propper onely to him And therefor it was a good expression of this authour to declare by the foresaid similitudes the nature and necessity of Sacrifice for as cittys are defended by walles and principalitys destinguished and acknowledged by the impressions of their coynes soe the worship of God is mainteined and his supreme principality destinguished and acknowledged by the worship of Sacrifice as due and propper onely to him L. 10. de Ciu. Dei Quis enim Sacrificandum censuit sayeth S. Augustine nisi ei quem Deum aut sciuit aut putauit aut finixit for who euer deemed that Sacrifice was to be offered to any but to him whom he either knew or thought or feigned to be God And therefor saith he the deuill hath labored soe much to haue Sacrifice offered by Infidels vnto him because it is the highest and properly diuine worship And therefor shall Antichrist striue soe much to take away the daily Sacrifice of Masse as Daniel figuratiuely Prophecyed in wicked Antiochus because it is the highest externall act of religion We offer vp to God the acts of our minde as spiritual Sacrifices and we offer vp also some corporall thinge to him to acknowledge him the authour both of our body and soule and of all spiritual and corporal thinges In the Law of nature Sacrifices were offered to God and in the Law of Moyses which was more perfect then that Sacrifices also were offered to him and shall he want his supreme worship in the Law of Christ which they did but praesigure as to be perfected by it Noe The shall haue a much more perfect Sacrifice and that is the sacred body and blood of our Lord offered euery day to him This is our Sacrifice the very same that was offered on the Cros the most noble and pretious of all corporal thinges and therefor most worthy to be the Sacrifice of that Law and Religion which the sonne of God in his owne person was to institute amongst vs. ALL TRVE SACRIFICES BEfore Christ were but Types and Emblemes of honour to setforth the dignity of our Sacrifice THE Sacrifices of the Law of Nature and of the Law of Moyses were good and holy Sacrifices yet as those Lawes did but signify the more perfect Law of Christ which was to come soe their Sacrifices which were the cheife things of those Lawes were but figures of ours Their Sacrifices of Beeues Calues Rammes Lambes Turtles and the like were killed and their blood was shed vpon the Altare to signify the Lambe of God whose blood was to be shed vpon the Altare of the Crosse There were in the Law of Moyses three kindes of Sacrifices the Holocaust the Placable host and the Peaceable host The Holocaust is as much as to say all burnt For it was not offered for any particular end or intention but onely to giue supreme honour to God and therefore it was all totally consumed in honour of him The Placable host was to appease the diuine wrath when by some sinne they had offended him and it was diuided part of it being consumed to God and part giuen to the Priest to signify that the remission of sinnes proceedeth cheifly from God as the principal cause and secondarily from Priests as the instruments and meanes by which his poweris applyed to vs. The Pacifique or Peaceable host was offered for the obtaining of some benefit which they desired or in thanks-giuing for some which they had obtained and it was diuided into three parts the one of which was consumed to God another was giuen to the Priest and another remained to the party that offered it to signify that all benefits proceede from God by the help of Priests and by our owne endeauours concurring with them All these Sacrifices were fullfilled in ours to wit in the sacred Body of Christ our Sauiour He was our Holocaust quite consumed in his death vpon the Crosse he was our Placable host that appeased the wrath of God against vs he our Peaceable host by whom we haue all benefits Their bloody Sacrifices more expresly signifyed his body as it is was offered on the Crosse and their vnbloody Sacrifices of first fruits corne flower bread and the like represented more particularly the same body as it is offered after an vnbloody manner vpon the holy Altare at Masse But the Planest figure of the Sacrifice of Masse was a Lambe with Bread and Wine offered euery day in the Law of Moyses to signify the Lambe of God offered vnder the signes of bread and wine as the daily and continuall Sacrifice of the Law of Christ then to come Our Sacrifice then is the substance of those shaddowes and the glorious mystery which they were to signify This S. Andrew the Apostle of Christ professed as the Priests of Achaia in his Martyrdome rehearse when being vrged by Aegeas to offer Sacrifice to Idols he had this answere ready for him I offer euery day vpon the Altare an immaculate Lambe whose flesh when all the people haue eaten the Lambe that was sacrifyzed remaineth whole and aliue Thus did he glory in our immaculate Lambe which euery day as a Priest he offered and which the people then vsed euery day to receiue And in these words he planely intimateth that the sacrifices of the Law of Nature and of Moyses and especially that of the daily Lambe were but sigures to dicipher shaddows to denote and emblemes of honour to setforth the dignity of ours that was then to come a Sacrifice like them but infinitly more perfect And those Sacrifices being shaddowes of ours then to come they were to vanish away and to be offered noe more when it once came because then they lost their nature which was to signify ours as future But the holy Sacrifice of Masse representing noe other future Sacrifice and being the most perfect of all Sacrifices can neuer be made voide by any nor shall euer haue an end vntill the end of the world But we will shew THAT THE SACRED BODY OF our Lord as it is offered at Masse is a true Sacrifice THE
which the cheife and essentiall parts of Masse are conteined Oslertory The Offertory is a praise giuing to God after the preaching of the Ghospell thatas faith commeth by hearing and is receiued in the hart so prayse also may be giuen by the mouth It is a deuout and auncient custome to offer gifts at the Offortory by which the people concurring then with the Priest and consenting to that which he doth say as it were I beleeut and professe that which is here professed and I consent vnto and combine with the Priest to offer that which he offereth to God These offerings are iustifyed by our Sauiour himselfe Mat. 5. saying If thou offer thy gift at the Altare c. goe first and be reconciled to thy brother and then comming thou shalt offer thy gift And God expresly commanded in the law of Moyses Deut. 16. that when they came to the solemnitys of the Temple There shall not appeare before our Lord any empty but euery one shall offer according to that he hath according to the blessing of our Lord his God which he shall giue him Then the Host and the Chalice are prepared and offered The bread is then called an immaculate host not for that it is then an host but in respect of the future for that it is to be a most immaculate Host and perfect Sacrifice as the tree of Paradise was called the tree of the knowledge of good and cuill in respect of the future for that we were to haue the knowledge of euill by it This offering before consecration signifyeth the voluntary oblation by which Christ offered himselfe in minde before the oblation of the Crosse A little water is mixt to the wine Chrysost in Missa according to the custome of the auncient Church to signify the issuing out of blood and water from the side of Christ when one of the soldiers blindly but mysteriously opened it with a lance The Host and the Chalice being deuoutly prepared the Priest turneth about to the people and sayeth Orate fratres to desire their prayers Orare fratres that the host may be pleasing to God and profitable to them and to the whole Church and they pray accordingly Then the Priest prayeth in secret Secr. tâ— praycrs to represent the time of Christs retirement For the Priests of the Iewes and Pharisys seeing the force of his doctrine and miracles and that by no meanes they could preuaile against them procured an edict to be setforth to apprehende him and laid in wait to haue killed him But what are the councells of man to contest with God sometimes he disappeared out of their sight and past vnseene through the midst of them Ioan. 7. some time she rerired himselfe and kept out of their hands because his time was not yet come But the Feast of the Pasch drawing neere he returned from beyond the seas of Galily into Iury againe Prasaâ—ion for he chose for his Passion the Paschall time when greatest refort of all nations might he at Hierusalem as spectators and witnesses of his sufferings Then he preached publikly amongst them and with that applause of the people that for all the power and malice of his enemys they slocked neuerthelesse by multitudes vnto him and with great honour and acclamations of ioy conducted him solemnely into Hierusalem as the Church celebrateth in the office of Palme Sunday and is now celebrated at the Praefation and therefore the Priest spreadeth his hands intoken of ioy and inuiteth all the Angelicall quires to prayse God with him repeating the words which the people then cryed saying Mat. 21. Blessed is he that commeth in the name of our Lord. Hosanna in the Highest and the words of the Seraphims who cryed Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus Holy Holy Holy in the presence of God Esa 6. and he maketh the signe of the Crosse before him to shew how litle Christ regarsted the glory of this world that in all that prompe he had nothing before his eyes but the good of soules weeping then for the sinnes and desolation of that people This part of the Masse is called the Praefation or Praeface as an introduction to the Passion of Christ which is represented at the consecration His birth was celebrated at the Gloria in excelsis his life vntill he beganne to preach is signifyed in that which followeth vnto the ghospell his preaching in the ghospell and Creede the beginning of his persecution in the secret prayers his glorious entrance into Hieâ—tsalem in the Praeface his last supper and death is commemorated in the consecration After the Praeface followeth the Canon Canon that is to say the rule and order Which Christ the Apostles and their successors haue instituted for the deuout and worthy offering of this Sacrifice The Priest prayeth for his superiors spiritual and temporall and for his benefactors and freinds that are liuing and for whom or whatsoeuer he intendeth to pray professing all our hopes and confidence to be in this blessed Sacrifice he prayeth in secret to signify the dolorous time of Christs Passion he maketh then a commemoration of our B. Lady and of the Saints mentioning none but martyrs as witnesses of Christs Passion in their blood For although our B. Lady did not actually suffer death for Christ yet she was a Martyr in that she actually suffered the paines of death that is to say paines sufficient to haue depriued her of life according to the Prophecy of Simeon that a sword should pierce her soule The time of consecration drawing neere the Church prostrateth herselfe with all humility in prayer to God Consecration beseeching him that as there neuer was nor euer can be any thinge soe deere and pleasing to him as Iesus Christ his onely sonne and as the works which he did and ordinances which he ordained and as of all the ordinances which he left to the Church this is the cheife and summe of all in which he would bequeath his owne body to remaine for our continuall Sacrifice amongst vs soe he will vouchsafe to accept of that Sacrifice and the loue of him to be soe grounded in vs that in all temptations and aduersitys of this world we may cleaue to him and in the end be admitted into his blessed company in heauen He taketh then the host into his hands and blesseth it with the signe of the Cros. S. Augustine Ser. 181. de temp with the signe of the Cros we consecratethe body of our Lord and whatsoeuer is consecrated in the name of Christ is consecrated with this signe The host is then consecrated that manner of consecration being exactly obserued which Christ commanded at the last supper After consecration he kneeleth downe to the blessed Sacrament Eleuation and neuer toucheth it or vncouereth the Chalice without kneeling downe of reuerence to it for if the Apostle requireth that euery knee bow of the calestials terrestrials and insernals at the name of Iesus
the end his blessed and glorious sight we purposing to vse those meanes which he hath procured for our obtaining of it Thirdly at Masse we are inflamed vnto acts of charity and vehement loue of God hauing before our eyes such a testimony of his loue towards vs that he would send his beloued sonne to take vpon him the imperfections of our nature and to be soe vnworthily treated and killed to redeeme vs that killed him This should make the hart of a Christian to melt with the loue of God and without doubt it would doe soe if we could rightly consider and apprehende it and the whole scope of the Masse tendeth to this to imprint in our mindes a liuely apprehension of our Sauiours Passion We then praise and extoll in the highest manner that we can his sacred merits we set him in the sight of God and propose him as our mediatour before his eternall father beseeching him that he will not looke vpon our sinnes but vpon his owne deere Sonne soe handled for the loue of vs to obtaine our pardon and to reconcile vs to him Fourthly the Masse is a thanks giuing to God for the infinite and immense benefits which he bestoweth allwais vpon vs and especially for the mystery of the Incarnation If we giue but a litle almes or doe neuer soe small a curtesy to our neighbour we expect at least to hatie thanks returned presently for it Why then shall not we be as thankefull to God as we would haue our neighbour to be to vs and we hauing nothing of our owne with which we could worthily gratify the benefits of God therefor Christ would leaue to vs the Sacrifice of his owne body that in it we might haue a worthy offering and a rich and pretious gift by which our gratitude might be acceptable to him Fiftly by being present at Masse we are disposed to repentance for our mortall sinnes and to come to the state of grace by a good Confession For as the Israelits that were stung by the fiery serpents were cured by beholding the brazen serpent erected soe we by meditating vpon the Passion of our Sauiour and by beholding him eleuated on the Cros are cuted of the wounds of the fiery serpents of hell and those that heare Masse in the state of grace obtaine a plentifull remission of their venial sinnes much more then by any other good worke Sixtly the Masse is not onely beneficiall to the liuing but also to the dead and the most efficacious worke of charity which can be done for them by the generall commemoration which is then made for the soules of purgatory and they when they are released are not forgetfull of those that helped them in misery Seauenthly those that are present at Masse may receiue the B. Sacrament with more deuotion at least spiritually in hart and minde vniting themselues with an ardent desire to the life giuing flesh of our Sauiour and noe doubt but shall carry away the effect of that sacred foode in their harts For as it were not fitting that those who wait at the tables of Princes or at great feasts should goe away hungry for want of meate soe those that attende at this blessed feast shall not depart vnsatiated with it but euen as one that entreth into a wine cellar of strong and pretious wines is comforted and strengthened with the strength and smell of them although he tast them not soe those that are present at this sacred banquet ate spiritually refreshed comforted and filled with the vertue and strength of the B. Sacrament although corporally they receiue it not Finally not onely the Priest that saith Masse but all that are present offering vp that Masse with him teceiue spirituall distributions at the hands of God who giueth something to euery one of them for the offering which they gaue to him And not onely spirituall but also temporall benefits are obtained by the Masse because as it is a Sacrifice it may be offered vp for the obtaining of any good or the auoiding of any euill whatsoeuer Iacob offered Sacrifice for the good successe of his iourney Melchisedech offered Sacrifice in thanks-giuing for his victory Noe in thanks-giuing for his preseruation in the deluge Iob for his children Sacrifices were offered for women before their deliuery and after their deliuery for their purification Chrys ho. 21. in act Aug. l. 22 cap. 1. de ciu Dei and for bodily health and cleansing from leprosy and other impuritys Saint Chrysostome mentioneth how that Sacrifice was offered in his time for the fruits of the earth and for temperatnes of ayre Saint Augustine relateth how that himselfe caused it to be offered in houses hanted with euill spirits and that they were expelled by it Saint Bede as you haue heard of a gentleman that was miraculously deliuered out of captiuity by hauing Masse said for him And Saint Anthony Archbishop of Florence commonly called Saint Anthonine relateth of the men the one of which who had not heard Masse on a holy day was suddenly strucke dead with thunder and the other was saued by miracle for that he had heard Masse By all which we may see that there is no kind of benefit but it may be obtained by the Masse and that there is nothing so efficacious for the obtaining of benefits as to procure Masses to be said for that end And therefore it is a deuotion very acceptable to God that which many pious people haue of hearing Masse euery day and a deuotion which Saint Augustine hath commended in his mother Saint Monica that she let no day passe without being present at the Sacrifice of the Church For as parents are pleased to see their children come euery day to acknowledge their superiority and to doe their filial duety to them so it is a thing very pleasing to God to see vs his children come euery day as it were to aske his blessing by the holy Sacrifice as the worship due and proper to him from vs and as parents are moved with tendernesse towards their children to pardon their falts and to cherish and bestow gifts on them when they see them continue this daily submission and duety to them so the loue and mercy of God must needs be moued towards vs to pardon our sinnes and to bestow graces vpon vs when he seeth vs euery day at Masse Wee ought then to conceiue a very great deuotion to this holy Sacrifice and with all modesty silence and reuerence to be present at it Allways when we are going to Masse let vs thinke that we are then going to present our selues before the diuine Maiesty to offer to him a very rich and precious offering the greatest that is in the world that which astonished heauen and earth when it was offered on the Crosse and we may imagine that we were going to Mount Caluary to see the very crucifying of Christ and that ioyning our selues to the company of our blessed Lady and of Saint Iohn Euangelist
the whole world and what more could theeues robbers and all wicked malefactors desire to exempt themselues from all humane lawes and obligation of conscience then to deny all obseruations as of the autority of man and to referre all to the tribunal of God which they know that they can not escape but must stande to whether they will or noe You may see what reuerence is here to the word of God and how easily that sacred word is abused by those that will stande against the whole Church First therefor I tell them that they cannot but see those words to haue the same force against fasting in generall which commonly they allow of as against the fasts of the Church which now they reiect but that is indeede noe force at all the circumstances being altered in which Christ spoke them to reprooue the fasts of vaine and hypocryticall men who fasted without order and humility for shew onely Secondly I tell them that the authority of the Church is the authority of God as I haue sufficiently prooued and therefor the Praecepts of the Church are not onely the obseruations of men but the Commandements of God Thirdly I tell them that God by his Church commanded fasting in the Law of Moyses and in the Law of grace euen in the Apostles times the Councell of Hierusalem prohibiting some meates Act. 15. as is specifyed in the fifteenth of the acts Fourthly I tell them that fasting as it is a Praecept of the Church is vsed as a corporall affliction to subdue the euill inclinations of our flesh and corporall afflictions vsed with order as the Church praescribeth them are pleasing to God therefor fasting as it is a Praecept of the Church is pleasing to God Cor. 1.9 S. Paul saith I chastize my body and bring it into seruitude least perhaps when I haue preached to others my selfe become reprobate Fiftly I tell them that Aërius was condemned as an haeretike many hundreds of yeares since Haer. 53. and S. Augustine hath taken the paines to put him into his catalogue of haeretiks for this very doctrine for that allowing of fasting in generall he disallowed of it as a Praecept of the Church and would haue none to fast but as they liked themselues He that should reade the second booke of S. Hierome against Iouinian the haeretike that denied fasting should finde there much more then I haue said or can say in commendation of it And it is admirable to reade the sentences of Scriptures and the erudition which this holy Doctour hath drawne there together for this purpose shewing by seuerall authors how much this vertue was esteemed of euen by heathens in the best ages of the world who saw by reason and founde by experience the force of fasting in the tempering of our bodys in refreshing and quickening of our vnderstandings and by consequence in disposing vs vnto Morall vertues And writing to the Virgin Demetrias he hath this high expression that fasting is not onely in it selfe a perfect vertue but the foundation sanctification purity and Prudence of the rest without which none shall see God Now for the particular fasts or abstinences which the holy Church commandeth There are the forty dayes fast of Lent the fast of Ember dayes of Rogation dayes of Vigils of Frydayes of S. Marke Lent and of Saturdayes We haue for the forty dayes fast of Lent the examples of Moyses of Elias and of Christ himselfe Moyses fasted forty dayes and receiued the Law enioying in that time the familiar conuersation of God Elias fasted forty dayes and then wrought miracles reuiuing the dead Christ fasted forty dayes in the beginning of his miraculous preaching soe preparing himselfe to deliuer his ghospell and to redeeme the world And although we can not fast soe strictly and perfectly as our blessed Sauiour did eating nothing all that time yet it is fitting that we should doe our endeauour in honour and imitation of him And it is not vnlikely that Christ commended the fast of Lent as well by word and expresse commande as by example to his Apostles in those forty dayes space betwixt his Resurrection and Ascension in which he often appeared to them and taught them concerning the Church and therefor the auncient and holy fathers commonly call it the institution of the Apostles by the Commandement of Christ S. Ambrose that it was not inuented by any earthly cogitation but commanded by the heauenly maiesty Amb. de quadrag ser 36. Igna. ep 5. Aug. ser 69. de temp S. Ignatius who was the Disciple of S. Iohn Euangelist saith contemne not Lent for it conteineth the imitation of our Lords conuersation and S. Augustine saith that by the due obseruation their of the wicked are separated from the good Infidels from Christians haeretiks from faithfull Catholikes He then that honoreth the name of a Catholike and Christian will honour Lent and obserue it It is instituted to be kept against the Passion of Christ that we who professe ourselues his seruants and souldiers may in some sort suffer with our master and captaine It were a preposterous mirth and absurde in a seruant to laugh and make merry when he saw his master full of paine or for a souldier to take his ease in bedd when his captaine were enduring hardnesse in the field Good Vrias comming out of the campe to the court the King badd him to goe home and rest himselfe but he refused to doe soe Reg. 2.11 saying the arke of God c. And my Lord Ioah abide vpon the face of the earth and shall I enter into my house to eate and drinke I will not doe this thinge Neither did he it but went out and slept before the gates of the Kings house with the other seruants of his Lord because he would not pamper himselfe and ly within doores when the arke and his Lord laid without Our blessed Lord the King of heauen and earth the Sauiour of the world is suffering many blowes he is bleeding vpon the Crosse his meate and drinke is vinagre and gall and is it then a time for vs to make merry and to feast our selues is this like a seruant and souldier of Christ or is it not rather most vnseasonable preposterous and spirefull vnworthy of the name and profession of a Christian how preposterous then is the malice of those who choose the time of Lent of all the times of the yeare and Good Friday of all the dayes in lent to make their feasts on is this a good preparation to receiue the benefit of Christs Passion and Resurrection if they were Iewes or professed enemyes of Christ they might doe soe indeed in despite of him but being Christians they should be ashamed of it Saint Augustine commendeth the fast of Lent as a preparation for Easter and saith as you haue heard that the breaking of it is wicked and proper to Infidels and Haeretiks This they may glosse with some pretence and finde some thing to say
the Church hath not forbidden to drinke but it hath forbidden to eate all kind of meate and therefore apleâ— and fruit are not to be eaten out of mailes Fasting dayes beginne at twelue a clocke in the morning and end at twelue a clocke at night conteining fower and twenty houres Aunciently they fasted from supper time on the day before till supper time againe on the next day without eating of any thing but mens complexions growing weaker and weaker and perhaps their deuotions also they beganne to take their suppers sooner on fasting dayes vntill by litle and litle they brought supper to noone time and custome hath now preuailed to take a litle collation at night as is obserued in the Church So that the maile which we haue on fasting dayes is not properly a dinner but a supper and therfore it may lawfully be differred as late as we will but it may not be taken before the time allowed of by custome Which is at soonest about noone time Finally Scandall for the manner of fasting the customes of places are to be obscrued and we must be very carefull that we giue noe scandall to others especially to the enemys of the Catholike Church who make allways the worst of our actions and therefore many things which are lawfull are not allways expedient to be done It was in it selfe lawfull for saint Paul to eate flesh and of that flesh which was immolated to Idols for the flesh was no worse yet he would rather neuer eate flesh at all Cor. 1. â— then scandalize any by â—ating of it If meale saith he scandalize my brother It ill neuer eate flesh least I scandalize my brother THE SECOND PRAECEPT TO keepe Holy dayes In the Law of Moyses diuerse holy dayes were commanded to be kept Ioan. 10. and were then obserued by praecept of the Church Apoc. 1. and our blessed Sauiour hath allowed of them honoâ—ing their solemnitys by his owne presence at them as he did the feast of the Dedication of the Temple instituted by the Church in the time of Iudas Machabaeus The Scriptures make mention of the Domâ—nicall day that is to say our Lords day or our Sunday to haue bene kept in the Apostles times The Church then tooke away the Saturday Sabaoth which God first commanded in remembrance of the creation of the world and instituted Sundays Sabaoth or rather transferred Saturdays Sabâ—oth vnto Sundayes Sabaoth in honour of the Redemption of the world as à greater mystery and I doe not heare of any Heretiks now in the world that refuse to keepe Sunday for Sabaoth with what consequence then can they refuse to keepe the other holy dayes or any other praecept of the Church they all hauing the same authority that Sundayihath and the same obligation Yet Protestants allow the obligation of Sundayes solemnity and durst neuer attempt to alter it or to deny the obligation of it hauing no other warrant for it but the authority of the Church which then gouerned the Christian world and hauing the same for other holy dayes they reiect them The truth is that they haue forsaken the Church that was allayes in the world to beginne a Church which then was not at all in the world and therefore the holy Ghost hath forsaken them and left them to such inconsequences of their owne wits Clem. l. 8. Apost constit Saint Clement who liued in the Apostles times and was disciple vnto Saint Peter and Coadiutor to Saint Paul and who wrote as an eyewitnesse of those things which were then obserued in the Catholike Church deliuereth that the Apostles gaue order for the obseruing of the Feasts of their fellow Apostles and in particular of Saint Steuen as also of some other Martyrs Epiph. haer 75. Saint Epiphanius denounceth Aërius for an Haeretike in that he reiected the holy dayes of the Church By all which it appeareth how weake that obiection of Protestants is which Aërius also obiected out of the Apostles words Gal. 4. Yoü obserue dayes months times and yeares Where the Apostle speaketh against the superstitious obseruations of Heathens from which yong Christians at their first conuersions were hardly weaned in those times and therefore he rebuketh them but I haue said enough for this and all other Praecepts of the Church when I shewed that they are the Precepts of God and haue divine authority This Praecept includeth two things to wit to absteine from seruil works and to heate Masse for it is not sufficient not to worke corporall works on holy dayes but we must also sanctify them with some speciall good works as dayes particularly dedicated to the seruice and honour of God and Masse being the cheife highest and most eminent worship which can be giuen to him as his onely true Sacrifice therefore the Church hath commanded that euery one be present to offer vp at least one Masse euery holy day And this is as great an obligation as to obserue Lent or any other Praecept of the Church obliging vnder a mortall sinne S. 2. Par. Chron. tit 9. c. 10 §. 2. Anthony Archbishop of Florence relateth of two men who going out to fowle vpon a holy day they heard a voice that cryed strike him strike him and the one of them that had not heard Masse was presently strucke dead with a thunder bolt and his astonished companion hearing the voyce to continue still was comforted with another which answered I can not strike him for that he hath heard Verbum caro factum est intimating that he had heard an intire Masse to the end Amongst Holydayes those are obserued as most solemne in the Church that haue more immediate relation to God himselfe We keepe also the feasts of our blessed Lady and of the Angels and Saints to honour God by them that as they help vs and reioyce at our good soe we may praise their vertues and reioyce in their glory Besides by celebrating their feasts we are incited to the imitation of their liues and to aspire to that state of blesse which they enioy THE THIRD PRAECEPT TO Confesse our sinnes to our ordinary Pastour or to another with his leaue at least once a yeare By Praecept of the Church we are boundnoe oftener to confession then once in the yeare but many circumstances may occurre in which by diuine Praecept we are bounde to confesse oftener First in all dangers of life as when we are dangerously siâ—ke and as those that are condemned to dy Souldiers also tradesmen and trauelers when they are to goe vpon any dangerous attempt or iourneys finally in all perils of life we are bounde to prepare our selues for death and if â—e be conscious of any mortal sinne in such dangers we are bounde to goe to confession as the ordinary meanes which God hath instituted for the remissioÌ„ of sinnes We are bound also to goe to coÌ„fession allwais before we receiue any of theseauen SacrameÌ„ts if we be guilty of mortal sinne because
continuing in sinne without repentance they fell still into more and more sinnes vntill at last their consciences were as it were seared vp and heardened against God and euen as it were quite dead As one in an apoplexy or strucken with some violent passion becometh pale voide of sense and suddenly dyeth that if you take him vp and turne him from side to side or call vpon him all is in vaine he is dead and gone and his body is then noe better then the body of a dead dogge or swine so great sinners hauing hardoned themselues against God they heare not his callings nor feele his inspirations but are quite senslesse and voide of spirituall life liuing onely as beasts that had no soule to be saued This I say againe is the depth and centour of all euâ—â—â—s when a man will resolue to continue still in sinne and laboreth against himselfe to blotte out the remorse and auersion from it which he hath by nature that so he may sinne without feare Prou. 18. and with contempt of God The impious when he commeth to the depth of sinns contemneth saith the holy Prouerbe This is indeede as deepe as a sinner can goe in this world for it is to bring a hell vpon earth and for men to become litle deuils something lesse then deuils in that they are not so obfirmed in sinne as the deuills are that are setled in an eternall duration of malice and paine which sinners in this world can not be but are in state of repentance but they come as neere as man can come to a diabolicall obstinacy resoluing with themselues to sinne against the Holy Ghost by finall impenitency These then in summe are the euills of sin To separate vs from God and from all coelestiall comfort to put vs into the deuils power and into the state of the damned in hell to bring miserys and aduersitys euen in this life and those not onely vpon the sinners themselues but also vpon their kinred and freinds after them to yeeld but a false short and base pleasure and then affrightments of conscience and sorrows and finally to harden our harts to the vtter contempt of God and of our owne soules Now what can the sinner answer to all this why will he for the base pleasure of sinne forsake God and incurre all these euills Against presumption he presumeth perhaps vpon the diuine mercy and saith that in the end God will pardon him but this is a most vaine presumption as though one should resolue vpon a wicked course of life to perpetrate all the mischeifes that he could deuise presuming of mercy that in the end the King would pardon him It were to destroy all orders and to make God the cause of disordering the whole world if men might doe what they would in hopes of pardon It is true the mercy of God is aboue all his works and more then his iustice in this that he sheweth it more pardoning often before he once condemne but his iustice also shall be fullfilled His mercys are commended to make vs to seeke for pardon but not to bring vs into presumption How many examples haue we of the terrible iudgments of God against sinne First vpon all mankind for the sinne of one Secondly vpon all but eight persons drowned in the deluge Thirdly vpon Kingdomes as the astonishing plagues that came vpon Aegypt and the swallowing vp of their King and his whole army in the sea Fourthly vpon citys as Sodome and Gomorra Fifthly vpon particular houses and familys as Dathan And Abyron who with their wines and familys were suddenly deuoured vp by the earth And vpon particular persons without number What an example was that in Ananias who for dissembling and lying to S. Peter and the Apostles was presently strucke dead and his wife comming in a litle after and mainteining her husbands ly Behold saith S. Act. 5. Peter there feete that haue buried thy husband at the doore and they shall beare thee forth Forth with she fell before his feete and gaue vp the ghost And sometimes for that which to vs would seeme noe great sinne What great offence should we thinke it to haue bene in Lotts wife to looke backe to see Sodome and Gomorra on fire yet presently it cost her her life What an example of the iustice of God was that vpon Moyses soe holy a man and of all men that euer were the speciall figure of Christ our Redeemer yet for an offence soe small that authors hardly destinguish in what it consisted he was depriued of that which aboue all thinges in this world he had most reason to desire to wit to see the Land of promise in the possession of the Israelites and the true worship of God flourishing in it euen as good Catholikes commonly desire to see the conuersion of England to the Catholike faith and God truely worshipped in it but that as his zeale was greater then ours soe was the desire which he had of that greater then ours is of this yet he neuer obtained it but euen then when it seemed to be soe neere that he had brought the people vnto the borders of the Land and as it were to the very last steppe into it they were drawne backe againe and he must neuer haue the happinesse to see them in it When saith S. Basil I behold Moyses soe great a man that it was said vnto him Thou hast found grace before mee Bas proe in lib. eth to 2. Exod. 33. and thy selfe I haue knowne by name yet because he said can we out of this rocke bring you forth water it was presently denounced against him that he should not bring the Israelites into the Land of promise And when I see him soe often praying and still praying in vaine and when I consider that all those great works which he did could not auaile to procure his pardon for soe short a word Then I beginne to thinke of that rigid seuerity of God of which the Apostle speaketh and how true the words of S. Peter are that if the iust man shall scarce be saued where shall the impious and wicked appeare Now who shall dare to presume vpon Gods mercy But he saith that he intendeth to repent presently after sin That is a good intention indeede and God forbidde but he should haue that intention But how doth he know that he shall performe it seeing that he can not assure himselfe of a moment of life after sinne to repent in How many chances is this life of ours subiect vnto slender and easily broken as a spiders webbe how many dy suddenly and if they be in sinne without repentance some by suddaine diseases some murthered some drowned some killed accidentally by chances which we heare of euery day And how many especially in England haue desired at their deaths the assistance of a Priest and could not obtaine it All these hazards doth the sinner vndergoe and one greater then them all to wit
is Catholike 178. It is One 180. The honorable titles of the Church 181. The Church Triumphant and Militant 181. The gouernment of the Church 195. S. Peter was the head of the Church by the institution of Christ 196. c. The true Catholike Church is destinguished from all false Churches 214. The beginning of all false Churches 215.235 The Church proposeth pious obiects to our mindes to moue vs to pious considerations 564. The Church must decide all controuersys in religion 184.641.711 Commandements The ten Commandements oblige by the Law of nature 379. God the authour of the ten Commandements 381. Priests must see that the Commandements be kept 379. The Commandements possible to be kept 383. How the Commandements are to be diuided 387 Communion of Saints 182. Of deuout Communion 308. Vnder one kind 316. Communion at Easter time 664 Concupiscence 441. Degrees of Concupiscence 442. Confession 253.322 662. of intire confessions 337. Cleerenes in confession 344. Confession once a yeare and in diuerse circumstances is of obligation 662. The benefits of confession 663 Confirmation 296. The ceremonys of Confirmation 297. The effect of Confirmation 297 Conscience Sinnes against Conscience 674. Remorse and terrour of Conscience 695. Examine of Conscience 329. c. Continuance in sinne 359. 696 Contrition 329 Couetousnes 443. Remedys against Couetousnes 445. Councells Generall Councells 205. Generall Councells consist of bishops 209 Counsaile Good to aske Counsaile 674 Creede The authority of the Apostles Creede 76 Cros. The signe of the Cros. 49. How the signe of the Cros is to be made 4â— What is signifyed in the signe of the Cros. 51. The Cros is to be honored and worshipped by Christians 60. The power and vertue of the Cros. 63 Crownes shauen 368 Curiosity in points of faith is dangerous and groundlesse 10.16.17.18 c. Customes of the Church 64â— D DEtraction 434. Remedys against Detraction 439 Deuill The deuill is bounde in the Law of Christ 498 Distractions in prayer 473.506 Doctrine Obligation to learne the christian Doctrine 7 Duell 417 E. EAst Altares towards the East 603 Education of children 1 Ember dayes 654 Eucharist 298. 664. The Eucharist excelleth all the Sacraments 299. What is conteined in the Eucharist â—00 c The Eucharist a Sacrament 305. The effects of the Eucharist 321 Examine of conscience 329 Exorcismes 139.293.364.534 Extreme-Vnction 360. Extreme-Vnction a Sacrament 361. The effect of Extreme-Vnction 361. F FAith is supernaturall and therefor not to be sought into by naturall reason 12.13 c. 19. Faith accordeth with reason 21. Faith is allwais with obedience to the Church 25. How the true faith in the obedience to the true Church is to be prayed for 34. c. Faith alone iustifyeth not 482 Fasting commended in the Scriptures 646. Fasting includeth two things 657. Fasting dayes are to be obserued according to the intention of the Church 656 Father vide Parents God a Father 77.477 Font consecrated 291 Freewill 673.708 Frydayes fast 655 G GHost The Holy Ghost 56.142.173 Glory The state of glory 259. 480.481 God a Father 77.477 Plenty to the seruants of God 487. Angells and men giue testimony of God 84. Naturall feeling of God 91. Naturall reason doth demonstrate the supreme power of God 96. Creatures sometimes called Gods in the Scriptures 108. God in all places but especially in heauen 479. God not the authour of sinne 704. God the supreme and principall we the inferiour and instrumentall causes of our owne good 710. God a spirituall substance infinite in perfection 105.108.675 God fathers 3.292 Gouernment of the Church 195 Grace What Grace is 268 H HEauen Vide Glory Hell 160.682 c. Head The Head of the Church 196.215 c. Noe Secular Prince as such is the head of the Church of Christ 234 Haile Mary c. 508. The Haile Mary next vnto the Pater Noster is the best of all prayers 555 Hardnes of hart by much sinning 696. c. Heresy leadeth to atheisme 79.80.81 c. Heresy is a peruersednes and obstinacy of minde by which one will mainteine some doctrine contrary to the whole Church 216. c. Heretiks make the grounds of diuine faith to be as vncertaine as the grounds of Philosophy 705 Holydayes 404.659 Holy bread 656.625 Holy Ghost 56.142.173 Holy water 624 Honour The Honour of God first to be sought and prayed for 479.503 The honour of this world is vaine and vncertaine lost by sinne 687.690 I IESVS 111 Ignorance inuincible 674 Images to be worshipped 389. c. Immortality of the soule and the Resurrection of the body vnderstoode sometimes as the same thinge 257 Incarnation 57.142.532.556 The mystery of the Incarnation often commemorated in the Catholike Church 150 Iniurys to be pardoned 420.490 c. Inuocation of Saints 460. c. Iudaisme and Turcisme reiected 112.113 c. 250 Iudgment 169 K KIngdome of heauen 480. vid. Glory The Kingdome of God diuersly vnderstoode 482. Knowledge Too much desire of knowledge 10.53 Knowledge of the christian doctrine necessary to be had by all 7 L LAdy The Angelicall Salutation of our blessed Lady 509. c Our blessed â—ady was full of grace 510.515 The promises made vnto the Patriarks of Christs coming of their seede were fullfilled in our blessed Lady 513. The auncient fathers of the Catholike Church sing the praises of out blessed Lady 517. Protestants dishonour our blessed Lady 524. The Assumption of our blessed Lady 518. The summe of our blessed Ladys prayses out of the fathers 529. Our blessed Lady blessed among woemen 530.531 Our blessed Lady the Mother of God and to be honoured as such 538. c. It was meete and conuenient that our blessed Lady should excell all creatures in sanctity 541. The power of our blessed Lady in fauour of her freinds 544. c. and against her enemys 548. Our blessed Lady present at our deaths 553 Latine tongue vsed in the Church seruice 627 Lent 651 Luxury vid. Carnal M MArke S. Marks solemnity 655 Mary vid. Lady Masse 575. The Masse is the Christian Sacrifice 576. c. 582. The Sacrifice of Masse continueth for euer 584. Masse a commemoratiue sacrifice yet a true sacrifice 594. The caeremonys of the Masse 598. The diuision of the Masse 604. Meditations vpon the Masse 622. The authour of the Masse 621. Masse in Latine 626. The fruits and benefits of the Masse 633. And those not onely spirituall but also temporall 637. A commendable deuotion to heare Masse euery day 638. All are bound to heare Masse on holydayes 660 Matter the Matter and forme of the Sacraments and intention of him that administreth them 27â— Matrimony a Sacrament 369. The loue and duety of married folkes 369. c. The tribulations of marriage must be considered before hand 373. c. Those that marry must declare concerning three things 374 The vse of matrimony not conuenient at all times 375. Marriage forbidden to be celebrated in some times 640. Merits The Merits of Christ must be applyed
vnto vs by ourselues 155.156 c. 593 Messias 111 Christ the Messias true God 116.121 c. Iesus Christ the true Messias 122. c. Miracles prooue obedience to that Church in which they are wrought 28. The faith of Christ confirmed by miracles 130 Moderate affection of parents towards their children 411 Mortall sinne 717 N NAme The Name of God 398. Phantasticall Names reprooued in baptisme 295 Neighbour Who is our Neighbour 409. Charity towards our Neighbour v. Charity O OYle vsed in the consecration of holy things 291.603 Order 30.79.644.609 Orders a Sacrament 663 Seuerall degrees of orders in the Church 364 Originall sinne 715 Oths require three conditions to be lawfull 398 Oths imposed vpon Catholikes by Haereticks or any Infidels are allwais to be suspected 399 P PAganisme refuted 117. The Pagan Philosophers confounded themselues 15. They were replenished with sinne 697 Parents to be honored and obeyed 409. Parents must loue their children and prouide for them yet with discretion and moderation 411. c. Superiors are Parents 410. The good example of parents to their children 414. Parents haue a double obligation to instruct their children 2 Pastour The Pastours of the Church gathered together haue the authority of the whole Church and all false Churches beginne by disobedience to them 205.215 Patience the proper vertue of Christians 418 Pennance a Sacrament 322. The essentiall parts of Pennance 328. The effect of Pennance 328 Pleasure in sinne is false base and short 690 Poore The Poore to be releeued 473 Prayer The fruit and force of prayer 450. Preparation to prayer 455. What we are to pray for 457. Prayer to Saints 459. c. Prayer to particular Saints for particular benefits 470. Hinderances of obtaining our prayers 471. Attention in prayer 473. Prayer and good life must goe together 479. Sentences of holy Scriptures vertually Prayers 567. Perseuerance in Prayer 569 Praecepts of the Church 640. They oblige vnder a mortall sinne 641 Praesumption of Gods mercy 699 Pretences All Pretences of haeretiks obstructed 247. c. Priests must be called of God 210.367 Seuerall degrees of Priests 366. Chastity annexed to Priesthood 367. Priests Iudges 254. And they doe not onely declare sinnes to be forgiuen but doe truely forgiue sinnes 324. Priests must be able to giue satisfaction to the people in things necessary for them to know 54. The office of Priests to instruct and to see that the Commandements of God be kept 378 Purgatory 349. c. R REcreation Lawfull and modest Recreations are to be allowed of in seasonable times 406. Reliques and holy things to be worshipped 396 Remission of sinnes in confession 253.323 c. Remorse of conscience 495.695 Restitution 430.432 Resurrection of Christ 131. c. 162. The Resurrection of the body and the immortality of the soule were aunciently vnderstoode as the same 257 Reuerence to the Sacraments 277. to holy thinges vide Images Rogation dayes 654 Romane The Romane Church prooued by induction from all other religions in the world 250 Rosary vid. Beades S SAbaoth vide Holydayes Sacrament What a Sacrament is 266. The difference betwixt our Sacraments in the Law of grace and all former Sacraments 267. The necessity of Sacraments 271. The authour of the Sacraments 272. The Matter and forme of the Sacraments 272. The minister of the Sacraments 274. The Character of the Sacraments 275. Reuerence to the Sacraments 277 The number of the Sacraments 280 Sacrifice v. Masse Saints to be prayed vnto 459. c. Saints are present in spirit at our prayers 467.568 Satisfaction 346 Scandall 658 Sinne. The euills of sinne 495.675 c. None free from sinne 490. Sinne a monster 669. Sinnes by ignorance and sinnes against conscience 674. The miserable condition of sinners as slaues 679. Sinne the cause of temporall afflictions 684. Sinne punished in the freinds and allyance of sinners 688. The authour and cause of sinne 704. Diuerse kindes of sinne 715. Sinne by thought 441 Scruples in faith proceede from the weakenes of our reason 20 Soule two powers Superiour and Inferiour 152 Spirit The Spirit of God inspiring to the true faith is allwais with obedience to the Church 24.25 c. Not euery spirit is to be beleeued 25.26.27 c. Not euery one that prayeth hath the true spirit 31. How the good spirit is to be prayed for 34.35 c. 40 Superstition Noe Superstition to obserue a certaine number of prayers in relation to some pious mystery 571 Sweare vid. Oth. T TEmporall prosperity proceedeth from God and is lost by sinne 414.684 Temptations commune to all 497. How God is said to Tempt 498 Theft Diuerse kindes of Theft 430 Thought Sinne by Thought 441 Traditions 73.74 c. Transubstantiation 305 Trinity The blessed Trinity 53.142.174 The B. Trinity hath appeared in corporall shapes 144. V VEniall sinne 721 Vertue yeeldeth satiety of true pleasures and of temporall felicitys 480 Some prayers aske nothing expresly but they aske Vertually and in effect 567 Vigils 654 Vyande or Voyage bread the Eucharist 664 W WAges 4â—1 Will. Our owne Wills are our greatest enemys 483. Conformity to the Will of God 484 Witnesse False Witnesse 434 Worldly care in excesse 444.