Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
church_n africa_n bishop_n rome_n 4,127 5 6.9616 4 false
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A08327 The guide of faith, or, A third part of the antidote against the pestiferous writings of all English sectaries and in particuler, agaynst D. Bilson, D. Fulke, D. Reynoldes, D. Whitaker, D. Field, D. Sparkes, D. White, and M. Mason, the chiefe vpholders, some of Protestancy, and some of Puritanisme : wherein the truth, and perpetuall visible succession of the Catholique Roman Church, is cleerly demonstrated / by S.N. ... S. N. (Sylvester Norris), 1572-1630. 1621 (1621) STC 18659; ESTC S1596 198,144 242

There are 18 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

haue stretched a litle further the space of his dominions Could you not haue named afforded him the wildernes of Aegypt the Tartarian desertes or dens of Arabia some vnknowne Caesar in his Commentary Protestāt forunners haue left no memory of their Church yet our Church hath been alwayes perspicuous coastes in the ayre or crookes in the sea Was the diuell so greedy and you so religious and carefull of his prey as to engrosse the right of the whole world vnto him Or you knew full well that the Hyrcinia wood which is nine dayes iourney in breadth and forty in length as Cesar reporteth was of too great extēt for your perfecuted cōpany of elect Inded the least molehill or mouse hole there might comprise them all whome no authour nameth or chronicler recordeth who haue left no marke or memory behind them of their noble exploytes Our Church in her infancy through the storms of persecution hath been driuen to lurke insecret vaultes and ca●es vnderground and yet her sheep and shepheard their oratories their sepulchers their assemblies their preachingea their deathes their bannishmentes were publiquely knowne the pedigre of her Bishops the names of her Priests the catologue of her Martyrs and innumerable monumentes are yet extant of her faith and profession And hath your predestinate flock beene so often rauished in spirit and rapt into the heauens as they haue left no earthly signe or token of their being not in those consecrated Alpes and Apennine hills hallowed no doubt with their presence and dayly perfumed with the spirituall incense of their deuoutest prayers 8. Note therfore a wily tricke of his double dealing he doth not resolutely auouch the mēbers of his Church were chased into these desert places but they were often driuen into the monntaynes c. or els dispersed and kept close in all Fulke in the place aboue cited Regiōs of Europe Why vse you this wauering vnconstant speach Were they kept so close as you know not in what corners they lurked what places they inhabited or who they were that hid themselues How shall we then beleeue there were any such if no mention be made of them How doe you know they taught your Protestant faith If both themselues their doctrine be wholy vnknown S. Augustine writeth If any man shall say there be perchance Aug. l. de ouibus c. 10. some sheep of God I know not where which God taketh care of and I know them not he is too too absurd to humane sense who thinketh or imagineth such thinges Yet Fulke is so absurd Sparke so absurd all protestantes so absurd who dreame of preachers of the word and administratours of the sacramentes of sheep and shepheards whose names they know not Againe were they kept close in al regions of Europe only Had you none in Africa none in Asia Brasilia India America c. When the Donatistes affirmed the like and confined the faithfull to the straites of Africa S. Augustine and Optatus rebuked them in this manner That with you saith Optatus in Optat. l. 2. cont Par. a particle of Africa in a corner of a litle region the Church may be with vs in another parte of Africa shall it not be In Spaine in Italy or Fraunce where you are not shall it not be If you will haue it 〈◊〉 with you in ●a●●onia in Dacin Mi●ia 〈…〉 in all Greece where you are not shall it not be that it may ● with you in Pontus Galatia Capadocia Pamphilia c. where 〈◊〉 are not shall it not be and innumerable other Ilandes and pro●●ces where you are not shall it not be VVhere then is the propriety of 〈◊〉 Catholique which is so tearmed because it is nationa all euery August in psal ●1 ●here diffused Saint Augustine reproueth them as sharply saying Saint Paul affirmeth that in euery place the faythfull are the ●●eet odour of Christ is it contradicted Africa only yealdeth a good ●ent all the world stincketh c. A little after VVhat tellest thou ●e O heretike The whole world is not the price of Christes bloud if Ibidem Africa only be redeemed Thou darest not say the whole world was not ●●deemed but that it hath perished And whō did Christ suffer to inuade ●●s dominions and depriue him of his right Thus they agaynst ●he Donatistes and yet the impudency of our aduersaries ●● far more exorbitant They had in Africa 270. Bi●hops Aug in coll Cart. of their faction as Saint Augustine reporteth their ●omplices called Montenses had a certeyne succession in ●he dens by Rome which Optatus reciteth And these our ●ectaries imprison the Church within the Regions of Optat. l. 1. 2. cont Parmen Europe where they name not any Priest or Bishop or ●ine of succession for the space of a thousand fiue hundred yeares as shal be manifestly shewed by discarding them which they iniuriously shuffle into the packe of their Professors CHAP. XII Wherin is disproued the Clayme which our Reformers make to certayne pretended Protestants and to men of our Church Agaynst Doctour Fulke and Doctour Sparke ALBEIT many Sectaries after a longe search and great confusion to satisfy our importunity beginne to draw ● Catalogue of their professors yet those very men they name cannot any one of them concurre to build their Synagogue for some whom they rehearse were manifest and knowne Catholikes wholly of our Sparke in his answer to M. Iohn d' Albins Chap. 1. 4. Illiricus in catal test Gifford in his sermon vpon the reuela Simō de Voyon in his discourse vpō the 〈…〉 ●●il● in his 3. book chap. 1●● Religion as Alcuinus Maister to Charles the great Gregory of Arimini an Augustine frier and Prior generall of their order Saint Catherine of Siena a canonized Saint and professed Nunne of the order of Saint Dominicke Ocham Iohn Gerson Saint Thomas of Aquine Picus Mirandula and S. Bernard 1. The rest were notorious heretikes as Aerius Iouinian the Albigenses VValdenses Picardi Petrus Abaylardus Berengarius Constantin●● Copronimus VVickliffe Husse who could not contynu● the succession nor mayntayne the true preaching of the protestants Ghospell first because VVhitaker VVhitaker contr 2. q. 5. cap. 18. fol. 506. 507. confesseth with all Catholike Doctours that no heresy c●n ●●sist with the true sayth nor that the Church cā be any Church which ●●ach●th an heresy But these forenamed miscreants obstina●ly ●aught sundry heresies condemned by Protestants thēsolues therfore they could not be professors or members Epiphan haeres 75. Aug. l. de heres 82. of their Church for Aerius denyed the consubstantiality of the sonne of God with his Father Iouinian held that mā●fter baptisme could sin no more 2. The Albigenses gallenged by Doctour Fulke and Doctour Sparke to be vpholders of Protestancy are notwithstanding By Fulke in cap 20. Apoc sect 6. in c. 12 sect 2. By Sparke in his answere to M. Iohn de Albins pa.
designed by the mouth of our Lord from whence it is to beginne and how farre it is to be dilated it is to beginne at Ierusalem and to be dilated into all nations Where he often sayth it shal perseuere Ibidem c. 5. vntill the end of the world This marke is distinct from those which I haue explaned heretofore because I speake not here of the vniuersall being of the Church but of the manner how it came to be in all nations 〈◊〉 of the successiue line of pastorall doctrine but of the order how it also continued for euer 2. After which sort it is to be reduced to the precedent note of Apostolicall succession and such Churches as are thus deriued from those which the Apostles planted Tertull. in praes cont haer may be truly called as Tertullian affirmeth Apostolicall Churches But the Church of Rome only can shew how it beganne at Ierusalem how it grew and spread it selfe into all nations how it still perseuereth whole and entire in all the pointes of fayth she first sucked from the Apostles The Apostolicall fayth is to be knowē not by the priuat expositions which now are deuised but by the generall interpretations of Scripture which haue been deliuered frō tyme to tyme. breastes Therefore she alone is the vndoubted spouse of Iesus Christ For we doe not here intrude our selues to the Apostles tymes and lay clayme as Protestants and other heretikes falsly doe to the Apostolicall faith but to the preaching propagatiō continuance of that fayth not to the new interpretatiōs which now are made of the written word but to the receaued expositions which from tyme to tyme from country to country from Iury to Rome from Rome to all nations haue beene infallibly gathered and faythfully deliuered out of that sacred word Of this our sectaryes are so destitute as they had not any Priest or Bishop Clark of layman woman or childe in the whole world who preached vnto Luther their first beginner and deliuered vnto him or any other of his consorts their Protestant doctrin Therfore Mayster Mason retire to as you haue heard to the reuelation of Scripture made in England to Cranmer Latimer Ridley and their fellowes others to the like reuelations made to Luther at wittemberge to Caluin at Geneua Mason l. 1. chap. 2. fol. 11. to Oecolampadius at Basil from thence they deriue the propagation or reuiuall of their Gospell which lay dead before for many ages And that which Saint Augustine Aug. l. de vnit Eccl. cap. 17. condemned in the Donatists of no lesse then blasphemy to wit that the good seede of heauenly truth which was sowed by the Apostles and Apostolicall men in all the world and which was there to grow vntill the haruest should haue perished out of those places and be sowed a new out of Africa This I say which he accounted in them a most detestable blasphemy is reuiued again by our late Sectaries who as wretchedly dreame that the same seede was decayed in their dayes or couered at least frō the view of the world that it had not any publike Pastours to preserue it Doctours to water it preachers to sow it but it must be sowed a new by Cranmer out of England by Luther out of Wittemberge out of Geneua by Caluin whose folly I impugne with Saint Augustines wordes For as his enemyes furnish our Sectaryes with obiections so he armeth vs with irresistable answeres Let them sayth he search the Scriptures and agaynst so many testimonyes which proclayme the Church of Christ to be spread ouer all the world let them Aug. de vnit eccl c. 4. bring but one as certayne and manifest as those by which they demonstrate the Church of Christ to haue perished out of other nations and only to haue remayned in Africa as though it should haue another beginning not from Ierusaelem but from Carthage where first they set vp a Bishop agaynst a Bishop Or as we may apply it to our purpose VVhitak cont 2. q. 5. cap. 1. The Apology of the English Church pa. 4. chap. 4. Caluin libro 4. instit 1. c. 7. §. 24. Fox acts and mon. pag. 400. and pag. 402. Oecolampadius vpon his tomb at Basill is called Euangelicae doctrinae Author primus Bu●er ●● An. 36. ad Episco Hereford calleth Luther primum Apostolum purioris ●uangelij Ioachim Camera fratrum orthodoxae Eccles pag. 161. calleth ●uther 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from England from Wittemberge from Geneua where by Bishops of Priestes lately sprunge vp are scattered abroad new seedes of beliefe contrary to the sowinges of all other Bishops and Priestes In so much as their owne followers attribute vnto them The Restauration The Bringing to light The first Beginning or Rebudding of the Gospell The Reedification of the desolate ruines of Religion The Opening of a veyne longe hid before The Rising of aebeame of truth then vnknowne and vnheard They call them the first Authours first Maysters first restorers first Apostles of their euangelicall strange ●●d new reformed doctrine For themselues also entitle it new ●●d strange And another of their fauourites auerreth that ●uther receaued not his fayth eyther frō Husse or Wick●iffe but was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instructed of himselfe by the help no doubt a● he im●g●●ed of holy Scripture A playne demonstration that the Protestant fayth is not that which beginning first at Ierusalem was diffused ouer the world and from Pastour to Pastour descended by the Apostles prescribed way of preaching vnto them Now let vs see whether this property belonge not to the Roman Church 3. Our aduersaries cannot deny but that the Christiā faith first preached at Rome came from Ierusalem eyther by Saint Peter as the whole clowd of Fathers and greatest torrent of Protestants beare witnes or at least by S. Paul who continued the same preaching and was there vnder Nero crowned with martyrdome Likewise that the same fayth was propagated into all Nations the Apostle also testifieth saying to the Romans Your fayth is renowned Rom. 1. v. 8. in the whole world and Saint Irenaeus calling it the greatest and most auncient Church of Rome knowne to all the world as founded by the two most glorious Apostles Peter and Paul addeth Irenaeus l. 3. c. 3. adu haeres immediatly after that vnto this Church in respect of her more mighty principality it is necessary that all Churches agree and haue accesse that is to say all faythfull people wheresoeuer they liue In which Church the tradition that hath descended from the Apostles VVhitak in his ans to Doctor Sanders 2. demonst Fulke in c. 22. Thessa sect 7. Reynolds in his 5. conclus hath euer beene kept by those that liue in any place of the world Fot this cause our aduersaryes confesse that it was our mother Church a most pure excellent and flourishing Church And so continued for some few ages But since say they it is degenerated into a
eloquent and learned Bishop sharply rebuked in a publike audience by the venerable and reuerend Spiridion only because he chaunged for elegancy and finenes of speach a word of the sacred writ of no great importance to wit Grabatum into Lectulum and could so many chaunges or prophanations rather as sectaryes conceaue not in words Nicepho l. 8. cap. 42. but in sense and substance in Sacraments sacrifice orders Priesthood worship of God and chiefe articles of fayth be generally made in all Countryes without ●hecke or controllement It is credible It is possible 20. The third Rule is mentioned by Tertullian That if these pointes of doctrine which Protestants condemne in the Roman Church were the inuentions of men they could neuer be so vniformely taught and constantly belieued among such diuersity of nations For Is it likely sayth he so many and so great Churches could combine together all in the same errour Had Churches erred they would haue differed Tertulliā in prescrip cap. 28. in their errours VVherefore what is one and the same amongst so many was not ●eygned but deliuered So the Pagans or heathenish Idolaters agreed all in acknowledging fealty by outward sacrifice to some high and supreme excellency Aug. ep 49. ad Deogra q. 3. which was God as S. Augustine insinuateth proceeded frō God yet they infinitely varied in the multiplicity of false Gods to whom diuersity of sacrifices which they offered for those thinges sprung from their own fancies or selfe liking of others But the Roman Church euery The conformity of the Romā faith in al articles al ouer the world cōuinceth it to be the true fayth of Christ where accordeth not only in the externall homage of sacrificing to some but in the three persons of Trinity to whome alone our sacrifice is offered In the thinge sacrificed which is bread and wine mingled with water both consecrated into the body bloud of Christ In the forme of wordes which our Sauiour himselfe vsed in offering of it In the circumstance of tyme and place in which he instituted it In all necessary conditions properties or other dispositions required in him that sacrificeth Which constant vniformity must needs flow frō the soueraygne springe authour of vnity That which I auouch of our sacrifice is verified of Purgatory prayer for the dead inuocation of Saints merit of workes and the rest which Protestants condemne of nouelty and superstition For neyther can these be drawne to any other head or of spring then Christ and his Apostles nor could they be so conformably taught by all sorts of people had they crept into the Church by the errours of men Therfore by al these rules it is manifest that the Romā Church neuer altered her fayth or vented any new opinion not generally approued before Which rules M. Field also Field in his 4 booke of the Church chap. 18 fo 224. receaueth as infallible saying VVhatsoeuer the most famous haue constantly and vniformely deliuered as a matter of fayth no man contradicting though many other Ecclesiasticall writers be silent and say nothing of it Like wise that which the most famous in euery age constantly deliuered as matters of fayth and as receaued of them that went before them in such sort that the contradictours and gaynsayers were in their beginning noted for singularity nouelty and di●●on and afterwards in processe of tyme if they persisted in such con●radiction All Protestants cōuicted of innouatiō by Fields testimony Aug. tom 7. l. 1. cōt Iulia. pela cap. 2. Aug. in psal cōtra partem Donati Cypriā ep 55. Iero. Apo. aduer Ruff. l. 3. c. 4 Cito Romanā fidē non posse mutari Bern. in c. 1●0 ad Innocen Arbitror ibi potissimū resarciri dāna fidei vbi nōpossit fides sentire defectum Bilson in 2. part of the true differ c. pag. 386. print in 8. charged with heresy These thinges we admit sayth ●e as comming from those first authors and founders of our Chri●●ian profession See what a verdict M. Field hath giuen in ●o acquite our sacrifice and other articles from superstiti●n which haue beene by the most famous in all ages vniformely belieued and to find his owne sectmates guilty of innouation who for gaynsaying of them were in their beginning noted for singularity nouelty and diuision as Aerius Vigilantius and other their forerunners at sundry tymes haue been for the like contradiction and afterwards for their willfull perseuerance arraygned condemned of heresy by the whole Senate of Christendō in the Councell of Trent 21. Finally many auncient Fathers and renowned writers testify not only that the Romā sea bath not but that it cannot chaunge or alter her beliefe by reason of Gods special assistance alwayes guarding and protecting it and her supreme Pastour So S. Augustine writeth of Innocentius the Pope VVhat could that holy man answere to the African Councells but that which aunciently the Apostolicall sea the Roman Church held with other Churches And in another place he calleth Peters seate That Rocke which the proude gates of hell ●●●quith not S. Cyprian sayth To the chayre of Peter the prin●ipall Church c. infidelity or false fayth cannot haue accesse S. Ierome Know you that the Roman Fayth commended by the Apostles ●oyce receaueth no such delusions and that being armed with Paules ●uthority it cannot be chaunged c. S. Bernard writing to the Pope sayth All daungers scandalls of the Kingdome of God es●●cially those which belonge to Fayth ought to be reserred to your A●ostleship For I thinke it meeete that the decayes of fayth be there re●ayred where Fayth cannot suffer any detriment For to what other ●ea was it euer sayd I haue prayed for thee Peter that thy Fayth doe ●●● fayle M. Bilson obiecteth to himselfe by Philander his aduersary these three last authorityes and although he dippeth of the chiefest part of S. Bernards sentente disgraceth him with the scoffe of poore Bernard and requireth some grauer and eider Father Yet he graunteth that S. Bernard applyeth this priuilege of not erring to the Church of Rome But S. Cyprians saying he pittifully writheth vp and downe forcing it rather to be vnderstood of the people of Rome then of the Pastours of whome S. Cyprian directly speaketh writing to Cornelius the Pope of Felicissimus Cypria ep 55. and other seditious persons sent by Fortunatus the false Bishop out of Africa vnto him His wordes are After all this they dare sayle and carry letters from schismatikes prophane persons to the Chayre of Peter and the principall Church where Priestly vnity had her beginning do not remember those to be Ad quos perfidia non potest habere accessum Romans whose sayth was praysed by the Apostles mouth to whome infidelity or false beliefe cannot haue accesse Therefore to them infidelity could not come in S. Cyprians iudgement to whom Fortunatus sent his legates to them that presided in Peters chayre to
The Guide of Faith OR A THIRD PART OF THE ANTIDOTE AGAINST THE PESTIFEROVS WRITINGS OF ALL ENGLISH SECTARIES And in particuler agaynst D. BILSON D. FVLKE D. REYNOLDES D. WHITAKER D. FIELD D. SPARKES D. WHITE and M. MASON the chiefe vpholders some of Protestancy and some of Puritanisme VVherein the Truth and perpetuall Visible Succession of the Catholique Roman Church is cleerly demonstrated By S. N. Doctour of Diuinity 1. Tim. 3. vers 15. The Church of the Liuing God the Pillar and Ground of Truth Permissu Superiorum M. DC XXI TO THE KINGS MOST EXCELLENT MAIESTY MOST DREAD AND GRACIOVS SOVERAIGNE I know not to whome I should more fitly present these Disputes in matters of Controuersy then to your Highnes who hath Learning to vnderstād Wisedom to discerne and Authority to commaund that Faith and Religion be obserued in your Realme which is most conformable to the Scriptures and consonant to the doctrine of the Primitiue Church to which you haue beene pleased long since to submit your Royall Iudgment now of late most prudently forbidden those newfangled writers who spurning at the Testamentes of their Forefathers call the Beliefe of all Antiquity in question Therefore I haue heere laid open to your Princely View that vnspotted truth which the Lambe of God deliuered vpon earth which the Apostles preached and committed to writing which the Auncient Fathers in the first fiue hundred yeares sincerely taught and inuiolably manteyned as I proue not only by their owne irrefragable testimonies but by the confession also of the Aduerse Part which if your Gracious Clemency would giue vs leaue vnder your fauourable winges peaceably to enioy and freely to professe at least in secret without the offence of any it must needes oblige vs more fast to our dutifull Allegiance of which howsoeuer in our greatest extremities we shall neuer be wanting then all the lawes of Conformity Oathes of Fidelity or other Punishments can inforce For what more sure band then the tye of Conscience the obligatiō of Religion the seale of Fayth and promise we owe to God which being truly kept as our Catholike Profession strictly bindeth vs no daunger of Treason no fewell of Sedition no alienation of Minds from Prince or Countrey can be feared On the contrary side if those heauenly bandes be once violated by any in taking an Oath hurtfull to their conscience preiudiciall to their Religion what trust or security can be reposed in them what hope of fidelity in ciuill affayres who in matters diuine in the most weighty affayres of their Souls haue openly committed the deepest disloyalty Wisely was this obserued by Princes in former tymes When Hunnerike the King of the Vandalls had guilefully proposed an Victor Vticen lib. 3. de persec Vandal paulo post initium entrapping Oath to the Catholique Bishops of Africk those who refused to take it he presently banished from their Seas as enemyes to the Crowne Such as condescended to his will and bound themselues by oath to performe his desire he mistrusting their fidelity commaunded likewise to depart from their Churches and neuer to see them more because contrary to the law of God or commaundement of his Ghospell they presumed to sweare A subtile yet pernicious deuise More cōmendable was the fact of Theodorike Nicepho l. 16. c. 35. Zonaras Cedrenus Theod. lect 2. collectan King of the Gothes Conquerour of Italy For when a fauourite of his very deare vnto him to be more endeared fell to Arianisme which the King imbraced he straight way commaunded him to be beheaded with this cause of condemnation pronounced agaynst him How should I look thou shouldest be true to me a man since thou hast not beene faythfull in thy promise to God Eusebius l. c. 12. de vi Const Zo●om l. 1. bist c. ● But most prudent and fittest for my purpose was that of Constantius Father to Constantine the Great Who to discouer the harts and affections of his Subiectes caused it to be promulgated to all of his Court at home Family abroad that free choice liberty was graunted thē either by sacrificing to the Idols to continue his Fauour enioy their wōted honours or spoyled of them to leaue his Pallace his friendship familiarity for euer Hereupō when his Nobles other of his retinue had parted thēselues into two seuerall companies the one yielding the other renoūcing to sacrifice the wise Prince sharply rebuked their timidity basenes who were ready to prostitute themselues tovile Idolatry for preseruing of their temporal dignityes exceedingly commended the Constancy noble Resolution of the others who rather chose to forsake their preferments thē their religiō The former he cassiered as Traitours to God and vnworthy his Imperial Seruice For how sayd A notable saying of of Constantius Father to Constantine the Great his fact ensuing as worthy he can they keep their fayth inuiolable to the Emperour of the earth who by so manifest a signe haue shewed thēselues perfidious to the great Monarch of Heauen These therfore he reiected banished his Royal pallace Those who by such an apparent triall profession of Truth were foūd worthy of God he adopted into the number of his dearest most familiar friendes those he placed about him as Gardiās of his person those he more esteemed then Exchecquers ful of inestimable treasures affirming that they who had been so loyal vnto God would be most faythfull also and loyall vnto him O that your Princely Wisdō would imitate herin the Father whose sōne you worthily praise set before your Royall eyes as a president to behould in the supreme Gouernement of your Soueraigne Estate I would to God you would as you may securely make the like account of such cōstant Recusants who vpon iust feare of offending God forbeare to yield in points of Faith to the lawes of mē I would their Dutifull Hearts were so well knowne vnto your Highnes as their cause deserueth Then with that famous Constantius you would might iustly esteeme thē as the true Friends of God Souldiers of Christ Treasures of your Kingdome Suppliants for safety surest Guards of your Crown and Scepter In whose persons I humbly prostrate my selfe at your Maiesties féete beseeching the diuine Maiesty so to prosper your earthly Raygne as after many happy yeares of peaceable gouernement you may passe from this Transitory to his Eternall Kingdome Your Maiesties most humble and deuoted Subiect S. N. THE EPISTLE TO THE READER I Haue often heard this principle recorded by Aristotle much celebrated amongst Deuines Quierrat ad pauca respicit He that erreth looketh into few thinges Which A principle of Aristotle notably verified in our moderne Protestāts learned axiome of so graue a Philosopher the temerity of Protestants teacheth to be true For they with partiall eye haue regard to few thinges when in matters of fayth abandoning al autenticall proofes and argumentes of credibility renouncing so many
consent and agreement by which the members of the same Church though of diuers nations languages customes dispositions yet are all vnited in the same fayth lawes sacrifice religion They are all carefull as Saint Paul exhorteth to keep the vnity of the spirit in the band of peace To be of one accord and one iudgemet For which cause Christ earnestly prayed and vsed many other effectuall meanes he ordeyned vs all to one end and goale of felicity You are called in one hope of your vocation He taught vs to acknowledge as Saint Paul writeth in the ●ame place one Lord one fayth one Baptisme one God and Father of Eph. 4. v. 3. Phil. 2. v. 2. Ioan. 17. v. 11. Eph. 4. v. 4. v. 5. 1. Cor. 10. v. 17. 18. all He nourisheth vs with one bread his owne sacred flesh He incorporateth vs in one body He guideth vs with one and the same spirit and that all thinges might be orderly disposed he submitteth vs in his absence to the obedie●ce of one head his vice gerēt vpon earth by which the p●erogatiue of vnity is principally maynteyned and ●●●refore Saint Augustine termeth the sea of his residence C●●hedram vnitatis the Chayre of vnity And Saint Cyprian Aug. ep 166. Cypriā ep 73. Optat. l. 2. con Parm. Iero. con Iouin cont Lucif Leo ep 84. Bernard l. 3. ad Eug. Irae l. 1. c. 3. 〈◊〉 Peter vpon whome our Lord built his Church he instituted and ●●wed the beginning of vnity The like hath Optatus rhe like S. ●●●●rome and Saint Leo. 3. By the assistance of Gods holy spirit and ●y the subordination of the people Priestes Pastours Bishops to this supreme head the Pope of Rome which Saint Bernard resembleth to the subordination of the Angells Archangells Cherubims and Scraphims to Almighty God there is preserued in the vniuersall Church spread ouer all the world that admirable peace and perfect argrement as if it dwelled to vse Saint Irenaeus words ●● one house enioyed one soule and one hart she preacheth teacheth and deliuereth the thinges shee belieueth so conformably as if she spake with one mouth For sayth he Although there be different languages yet the vertue of traditiō is one the same Neyther do those Churches which are founded in Germany belieue otherwise or otherwise deliuer Nor those that are amongst the Hiberians nor those that are in the East nor those that are in Aegypt nor such as are in Libya nor such as are planted in the midest of the earth But as the sunne that workemanship of God is one and the same in the vniuersall world so the light the preaching of truth euery where shineth and enlighteneth all who will come to the knowledge therof 4. This conformaty of doctrine which Irenaeus marked in the vniuersall Church of his tyme where can we now discouer but amongst the Professours of the Roman fayth Goe into Asia Goe into Africa sayle into India passe into Iaponia compasse the East and returne into Al Catho like professours are vnius Labij of the same speach or language the West and you shall behold all Countryes all prouinces all Cittyes euery professor of our Religion vnius Labij of one language of one hart and soule in Sacraments sacrifice and all Articles of fayth The reason is because they all as I ●outhed aboue submit themselues to the iudgement of one soueraygne and supreme head who guided by Gods spirit infallibly gouerneth and vn●●●th the whole body From whome if any dissent he is seu●red and cut of from the rest of the members 5. Amongst Protestants no such thinge nothing but schismes iarres and mutuall discordes such as Sa●●t Aug. l. 18. de ciuitat Dei ca. 41 Iraen l. 1. Tertull. de praes Hil. l. 7. de Tri. Chrysostō Hom. 20. operis impersect in Matth. Parkes agaynst VVillets Limbomastix Augustine discouered amongst the heathen Philosophers ● such as Irenaeus Tertullian S. Hilary and S. Chrysostom amongst auncient heretikes For example trauayle into these ou● Sectaryes dominions one fayth shall you find in one Countrey another in another one in Saxony another in Germany another in England This at Geneua that at Zuricke c. What shall I speake of Citties and countries examine the fauorites of any particuler sect no agreemē● amongst them no towne no village no man perseuereth long in the same beliefe But they often change and vary from themselues coyning as Saint Hilary reporteth of the Arians yearely and monethly faythes Euery man sayth M. Parkes maketh Religion the handmaid of his affections VVe may say now that there are so many faithes as willes and so many doctrines as manners of men whiles eyther we write them as we list or vnderstand Beza ep 1. and Andr. Dud. repeateth his wordes M VVilliam Reynolds in his preface before his refutation of M. VVhitaker reprehen Cauils them as we please in so much that many are brought to their wits ends not knowing what to do Which Duditius an eminēt Protestant in the fight of Beza obiecteth agaynst his own brethren which Maister VVilliam Reynolds our Catholike writer notably declareth in the changes and alterations of our English gospellers in the dayes of Queene Elizabeth and I might further specify in many particulers since the raygne of our gracious King Iames. 6. For in her dayes the reall presence was * VVhitaker cont 2. q. 5. c. 7. pag. 89. Reynoldes in his fifth cont folio 657. Sparks in his answere to M. Iohn de Albins fol. 235. See these wordes of the Bishop of Ely allowed by Casaub in his aforesayd answ to Car. Peron ●● 16. Causab pag. 33. In the conf at H●mp court Reynolds in his 4. co●lus Field in his ● book c. 10. 11. Field in his third booke of the Church c. 22. fol. 118. Illiricus in clauo Scripturae de varia c. tract 6. dupl iustit instific Field in the place before cited impugned as implying contradiction and destroying the humane nature of Christ Now it is allowed as nothing impossible VVe agree with you sayth the Bishop of Ely concerning the obiect all the strife is aboue the manner c. we belieue the presence we belieue I say the true presence as well as you c. Then yearely shrift or auricular confession was an antichristian and popish bondage a butchery of mens consciences now the Fathers who ordeyned it had their reasons why they thought that such manner of confession would further the easier atteyning to salu●●tion Then to pray for the dead that their soules might thereby be reliued was new fantasticall and superstiti●us popery Now to desire of God rest for their soules was an aun●●ent custome and is referred by his Maiesty to the head of thinges pro●●able or lawfull Then when a woman was head a woman might lawfully baptize and Christen infants Now the midwifes christing is vnallowable and of no force at all Then the holy Catholike Church which we belieue
and mangling with their corruptions the sacred text For as the two Scipios one was called Africanus because he subdewed Hanniball and the people of Africa the other Numantinus for subuerting Numantia so they maybe called Ghospellers because they subuert destroy and vtterly extinguish by their false interpretations the Ghospell of Christ Finally being not able to glory with the natiue property or single name of Catholiques they entitle themselues for others mockingly only and by way of derision giue them that name Christian Catholiques reformed Catholiques How Protestants are no true Catholik● by stiling thēselues reformed Catholikes reformed Churches wherein by the very clayme they make they ouerthrow their owne plea and shew both their clayme vnconscionable and title vniust For if they be Christian Catholiques if reformed Catholiques then segregated limited and restrayned by their new reformation by their particuler Catholicisme from the generall illimited and absolute dignity of Catholiques and consequently no Catholiques not such as without some fine tricke or fayned addition are deciphered by that name but such as maske themselues vnder the disguised vizard or counterfeyte veyle of true and faythfull belieuers CHAP. XIX In which the thinge signified by the Name Catholique to wit Vniuersality is shewed to be a marke of the true Church Agaynst Doctour Whitaker and Doctour Abbot YOv haue heard how M. Robert Abbot in the precedent Chapter giuing vs the name Catholike challengeth to his sect the thing signified by the nam howbeit I haue euidently proued that the name and thinge are such indiuiduall and inseparable companions as they cannot be disunited or parted a sunder Now I am to declare what the thinge is how exactly it delineateth the Kingdome of our Church The Aug. con lit Petil. l. 2. c. 38. tract 118. in Euang. Iom l. 3. c. 1. cont Gaudent Aug ep 170. ad Seuer Cyprian li de vnita ec Cyril cate 18. Basilep 72. 75. Pacian ep 3. ad Symp. Opta cōt Par. Iero. aduer Lucifer Beda in com sup Cant. word Catholike sayth Saint Augustine is deriued from the Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 secundum totum that is according to the whole or vniuetsall Therefore he teacheth that the Church is called in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Catholike Because it is spread and dispersed throughout all the world which he strengtheneth by the testimony of Saint Cyprian saying the Church adorned with the light of our Lord stretcheth her beames throughout the world With whome Saint Cyrill Saint Basill Saint Aug. de vnit e. in psal 2. 18. ●1 47. 7● item ep 61 ad Ho. Donat. ps 2. v. 8. ps 18 v. 5. ps 21. v. 28. 29. Isay 54. v. 2. 3. Isay 52. v. 10. Vbi non est frequē tia multitudinis Non in aliqua parte terrarū sed vbique notissima est Aug. devnit ec cap. 25. Aug. tō 9. de symb l. 4. c. 10. Pacian ep 1. 3. ad symp Opt. l. 2. cont Parmen Iero. cont Lucifer in fine Aug. to 6. cont Fulg. Donat. cap. 18 l. de past ● c. 8. Aug in psal 21. in psal 44. in psal 47. tract 1. in ep Ioan. Pacian Optatus Saint Ierome venerable Bede accord This vniuersality of the Church in all places and Countryes Saint Augustine demonstrateth out of sundry Texts of holy Scripture I will giue the Gentills for thy inheritance for thy possession the endes of the earth Their sound hath gone forth into all the eart● and vnto the endes of the round world the wordes of them The endes of the earth shall remember and be conuerted to our Lord and all the families of the Gentills shall adore in his sight Enlarge the place of thy tente and stretch out the skinnes of thy tabernacles c. Thy Redeemer the holy one of Israell shal be called the God of all the earth Our Lord hath prepared his holy army in the sight of all the Gentills and all the endes of the earth shall see the saluation of our God From these and the like sentences Saint Augustine gathereth that the Church is not here or there or in the desert where there is not a frequent multitude but quoth he you haue the Church to be euery where diffused and to increase vntill haruest you haue the Citty of which he that built it sayd A Citty cannot be hid placed vpon a moūtayne She therefore is that which not in any part of the earth but euery where is most knowne And in another place Euery congregation of what heresy soeuer sitteth in corners she is a concubine and not the matron She is a strumpet which lurketh in priuat places not the Queene or matron which publikely raygneth ouer all the earth By this marke Saint Pacian conuinceth Sympronian Optatus Parmenian Saint Ierome the Luciferians Saint Augustine the Donatistes of schisme heresy Saint Pacian expresly tearmeth the Catholike Church a full and solide body spread ouer all the world and not like the conuentieles of heretikes whome he calleth an insolent portion or swelling bunche separated from the rest of the body Saint Augustine for Optatus and Saint Ieromes wordes I haue cited els where compareth the Church to a fruitfull vine stretching her braunches farre and neere throughout all nations and heretikes to broken boughes cut from the vine he often auerreth that the whole world is Christes possession all the borders of the earth his inheritance His Church a great mountayne which replenisheth the whole face of the earth And thereby he inferreth that the Donatistes faction could not be Christes inheritance because they possessed only Africa or the confines of Mauritania which were but some partes of the world 2. Wherefore if by this marke you seeke to finde out the true Church of Christ amongst so many which falsly beare his name cast abroad your eyes into al forrayn coasts and countryes in euery place shall you find our Roman Church that is such as be of the same beliefe and profession The Roman Church spread ouer all the world and agreing in the same beliefe with vs in all points of fayth acknowledging one and the same heade the Pope of Rome This Church now raygneth in Europe Afrike Asia in Thracia Syria Capadocia Phrigia Mesopotamia in a great part of America Megallanica India Iaponia Brasilia China yea in all the flourishing states knowne Kingdomes of the earth Whereas the Protestants are locked vp in very narrow straites in respect of vs they are restrayned within the mountanies of Germany Ilandes of Britany borders of Denmarke within some Prouinces of the low Countryes and Cantons of France In those corners Protestāts shut vp in narrow corners at perpetuall brāls in poynts of fayth they find some publique harbour yet there they are at perpetuall strifes amongst themselues and so various in religion as they differ one from the other in substantial articles of fayth So do the Brownistes the Family of loue
he then Constantine the Emperour gaue to the sayd Pope Siluester the towne of Rome and gaue vnto him the triple Crowne to be crowned therewith in token that he made him supreme head ouer all the Churches in Asia Africa and Europe as his gift conteyned in the decrees distin 96. For the like challenge of supremacy Zosimus Leo Gregory and Boniface are accused as the destroyers of the Church and first vsurpers according to Protestants of that vniuersall and Antichristian dominion Howbeit I haue apparantly conuinced in the second booke of my Antidote That the Supremacy was neyther giuen by Emperours eyther by Constantine to Saint Siluester or Phocas the Emperour to Boniface the third nor yet vsurped by Zosimus Leo Gregory or any other but that it was imparted immediatly from God to S. Peter and made hereditary to his Successours Which Constantine the Great plainly cōfesseth in the very deed of gift or Charter of donation which he mad● when resigning to the Pope the Citty of Rome Italy the westerne Prouinces In ipso Edicto donationis quod habetur Tomo 1. Concil fo 296. apud Binium Quoniam vbi principatus sacerdotum Christianae religionis caput ab Imperatore caelesti iustum non est vt illic Imperator terrenus habeat potestatem he departed to Constantinople Because sayd he Where by the heauenly Emperour the principality of Priests head of Christian Religion is placed it is not meete the earthly Emperour should beare any sway Therefore not the spirituall dignity or supreme headship which Constantine a little before deduceth out of the wordes of our Sauiour spoken to Peter whome he there calleth the Vicar of Christ but the temporall territories landes and reuenues were the endowments of the Roman Sea which he bestowed vpon S. Siluester 7. And the very Centuristes testify that before Cōstantine the great the supremacy of Peter consequently of his successours was acknowledged by Tertullian of whome they write Tertullian doth seeme not without errour to thinke that the keyes of the Church were only giuen to Peter and that the Church was built vpon him They blame also S. Cyprian for affirming that the Roman Church is the Chayre of Peter from which all the vnity of Priesthood proceedeth Likewise Cyprian say they hath diuers other perilous opinions about this matter as for example that he tieth the office of true Pastorship to ordinary succession A little before they accuse him and three other Fathers of his tyme saying Cyprianus Maximus Vrbanus and Salonius doe thinke that one Bishop must be in the Catholike Church to wit one chiefe as head of the rest All these flourished before the dayes of Constantine So did Origen and Hipolitus Matth. 16. versus 18. 19. Martyr who subscribed to the primacy of one supreme Pastour Agayne if S. Siluester were the first Prelate by whome beganne as M. Napper blattereth the horrible detestable Kingdom of Antichrist the first general Coūcel Centur. 3. c. 4. col 84. of Nice authorized in England by Act of Parlament in which he presided by his legats Hosius Vitus Vincentius which he after ratifyed and confirmed did fauour and Ibidem col 84. 85. vphold his Antichristian tyrranny If Zozimus were the man S. Austine was a limne of Antichrist who notwithstanding he was Bishop of Africa obeyed his iniunction Origen ho. 5. in Exod. ho. 7. in Lucam Hi●ol in ora deconsum mundi Napper p. 67 Cedrenus in compend histo Photius libro de 7. concilijs Damasus in Pont August Epist 157. of necessity as comming from his superiour The African Bishops likewise ouer whome our aduersaryes accuse him of encroachment for challenging the right Prosper Con. collat cap. 41. of appellations euen they I say were abettours of Antichrist to whose decrees Pope Zozimus as Prosper writeth added the authority or strength of his sentence and to the cutting of the wicked with the sword of Peter armed the right handes of all other Prosper in chronicis Prelates A Councell held at Carthage of 217. Bishops and the whole worlde did partake with Antichrist for that Councell sent vnto Zozimus their synodicall decrees Cōcil Calcedō in relation ad Leonem quae habetur Tomo 2. Conci act 16. pa● 139. apud Binium Leo Sermo 2. in anniassūp s●u which being approued sayth Prosper throughout the whole world the Pelagian heresy was condemned 8. Yf Leo were the first by whome the Church was ruined and throne of Antichrist aduaunced why doe Protestants allow of the Oecumenicall sacred Councell of Chalcedon Which three tymes gaue him the title of holy acknowledged him their head and themselues his members humbly supplicated vnto him to ratify and confirme their Canons How doth Leo write thus of himselfe VVhen our exhortations are sounded forth in the eares of your Sanctity imagine him to wit S. Peter whose person we represent to speake vnto you because with his loue and affection we admonish Libro 1. ep 1. libro 6. ep 19. libro 1. ep 76. l. 4. ep 33. libro 7. iud 2. ep 2. l. 7. ep 32. l. 1. ep 72. 75. l 11. ep 50. 53. l. 7. indic 2. ep 112. libro ep 15. libro 9. indict 4. ep 61 l. 4. ep 15. 50. 55. libro 1. ep 19. l. 4. epist 9. you and we preach no other thing vnto you then that which he taught With what face could he haue deliuered this in such a publike assembly if he had coyned any new Gospell or taught any other doctrin then that which was preached by S. Peter But if S. Gregory as most Protestants accord was the last good and first Antichristian Pope then in his dayes some monstrous innouation was brought not only into the Roman diocesses but into al the Prouinces and Churches of Christendome which communicated with him as appeareth out of his Epistles to the Bishops of all countryes of Sicily Corsira Sardinia Africa Numidia Hispania Gallia Anglia Hibernia Grecia Dalmatia ouer whome he exercised the soueraygnty of his supreme iurisdiction yet he innouated nothing therin nor deliuered any other new doctrine not taught before as I demonstrate 1. By all these and other Bishops of his age who neuer appeached S. Gregory of any vsurpation of right or nouelty in doctrine to which they would either haue opposed themselues or haue complayned of it or would haue mentioned it at least 2. By S. Gregory himselfe who findeth no fault with any of his Roman predecessors for want of challenging their due or for not agreeing with him in all pointes of fayth as Protestants euery where reprehend and taske their auncestours with variance from them in sundry assertions 3. By diuers learned Fathers of the precedent ages out of whose writings I haue already among my Thirty Controuersyes cleerly proued and out of Scriptures also deduced euery article of importance of which our Gospellers attach S. Gregory 4. By the Magdeburgian and other Protestants
M. Fulke in defence of themselues their patrons answere All these thinges are vnderstood of the particular visible Churches not of the Catholique Church in them the good bad preseuer together not in this But either the Catholique Church is also visible or els no societie can the good haue no communication together which is essentially required to the nature of a Church Besides S. Augustine expresly sayth VVe confesse in the Catholique Church both the good to be the euill but so as corne and chaffe The same is confessed by S. Cyprian S. Ierome S. Fulgentius of which more in due time Againe if the iust only be of the Churche the sacrament of pennance could not be administred to grieuous sinners who are out of the Church the Pastours prelates who fall into sinne should fall from the Church and as Wickliffe dreamed loose theire Prelacy and gouernement of their subiectes the subiectes should be discharged of their obedience a sea of confusion would ensue The like would follow if the elect onely be members of the Church For howe should we knowe who be elect whome to heare whome to obey to whome we should lincke cōioyne our selues yea what company or society can the predestinate make who haue no band or combination the one with the other For S. Thom. 1. part q. 23. art ● predestination as S. Thomas teacheth produceth nothing in the predestinate but is only a decree ordinance in the minde of God Further if the elect be alwaies incorporated in the body of Christ howe could S. Paul say to the Ephesians you Ephes 5. v. 7. 1. Pet. 2. 9. Rom. 8. v. 9. were once darcknes but nowe light in our Lord. Or S. Peter sometime not a people nowe the people of God Or S. Paul to the Romans if any man haue not the spirit of Christ the same is not his But many of the predestinate follow the desires of the flesh liue in errour ignorance haue not the spirit of Christ therefore they are not as yet his Whereupon our Sauiour saieth I haue other sheep who are not of this fould who Ioan. 10. v. 16. stray abroad are not as yet called to the fould of my Church many are called continue therein whome he in the end will vtterly forsake say nescio vos I knowe Matt. 25. v. 12. you not In fine to quench the coles of this already couered raked-vp heresie he againe reporteth of a reprobate person found at the marriage feast of his spouse at the banquet of his Church who bound hand foot was cast into vtter Matt. 22. v. 13. darknes And he sealeth vp the parable and mouthes o● our aduersaryes with this terrible conclusion Many are called and few elected that is many are called and truly remayne in the bosome of the Church who are not chose● and elected of God Therefore to vnderstand what it is S. Ioan. 1. ep cap. 4. Three Vnions with Christ in this life which incorporateth in the outward body of Christ yo● must know that there be three vnions with him in this life two internall the other outward or exteriour Th● first and perfect internall coniunction is by grace an● charity of which S. Iohn He that abideth in charity dwelleth i● God and God in him The other internal is by Fayth whic● 〈…〉 sparke of heauenly breath an imperfe●● spi●●tuall beginning or supernaturall habit tending to eternall life yet not able to iustify without the flame of charity The third is meerely exteriour in outward profession and shew of fayth by reason of our external and Catholike Commnnion with true belieuers And albeit the first coniunction of loue be necessary to make vs liuely members of Christ yet the last is sufficient to billet vs in the house or outwardly conioyne vs to the fellowship of his militant Church which may be thus defined 5. It is a society or company of men linked and combined togeather The Church defined in the same profession of Christian fayth vse of sacraments vnder lawfull Pastours chiefly vnder one head and vicar of Christ the Pope of Rome More briefly S. Cyprian The Church is the assembly of people vnited to the Priest and the flocke adhering to the Cypr. l. 4. ep 9. Pastour Whereby it appeareth that all who openly participate in her seruice sacraments and communion vnder the obedience of a head be they heretikes infidels or ne●●r so grieuous sinners so long remaine of this visible body vntill either by publique Apostacy they reuolte by heresy rebell by schisme departe or by ecclesiasticall censures are banished her society The Catechumens notwithstanding are only as S. Gregory Nazianzen writeth Greg. Nazian in vestibulo pietatis in the p●rch of piety and not as VVhitaker surmizeth in the lap of the Church vntill they be incorporated by baptisme no more are publique Apostatas open heretiks schismatiks and excommunicate persons They because they voluntarily forsake rebell or breake the bands of this vnited company These because they are vtterly reiected cassiered her followship Howbeit if they be vniustly banished and perseuer in the fauour of God they may be saued as the Catechumens are by their feruent desire of being of it So likewise the predestinate not yet called are not actually of the fould of Christ but only in potentia Field in his first booke of the Church c. 8. fol. 17. in power according to the full designement intent of God which distinction with certaine sentences out of S. Augustine M. Field borrowing from Cardinall Bellarmin D. Stapleton vaine-gloriously citeth and vrgeth against them thereby to make the simple beleeue he refelleth the ●ayings of those worthy men when he repeateth the lessons he learneth of them That the elect are not actually of the Church before they be called is proued already That naughty Christians are the parables before mentioned do witnes That secret heretikes and schismaticall dissemblers likewise are this place of S. Iohn perspicuously insinuateth They went out from vs but they were not of vs. 1. Ioan. 2. v. 18. Where S. Augustine hath these words All heretikes all schismatikes haue gone out from vs that is haue gone out of the Church c. If before they went out they were not of vs many are within they haue August Tract in ep Ioan. not gone forth and yet are Antichristes and then And they that are within are truely of the body of our Lord Iesus Christ c. They are so in the body as ill humours when they are vomited forth the body is eased And Origen Heer in Hierusalem that Origen ho 21. in Iosue is in the Church there be certaine Iebuseans who both in fayth and manners are peruerse and wicked 6. Our sectaryes obiect that the Church is holy The first obiection therefore it cannot harbour in her bosome either the wicked or hidden heretike I answere it is holy
Hier. q. ad Edibiam kingdome of Christ wherin such as refuse to liue are rebelles and traytours to God It is the house (b) Orig. in Iesu Naue hom 3. Cypr. de simplicitate Praelat Ambr. lib. de Salom. c. 5. of ●aha● from whence whosoeuer departeth is guilty of his own death It is the (c) Ioan. 21. Luc. 5. Ambr ser 11. l. de Salom. c. 4. Concil Later c. 1. Vna est fidelium vniuersalis Ecclesia extra quā nullus omnino saluatur Aug. tom 7. concione ad plebem de Emerita post medium Cypr. epist 62. ad ●omponium Iren. l. 3. aduer haeres c. 40. Ship of Peter out of which whosoeuer sayleth suffereth ship wracke Therfore the Coūcell of Lateran hath truly and carefully defined There is one vniuersall Church of the faythfull out of which no man is saued This decree of that most holy and generall Councell the vniforme consent of the Fathers ratify and confirme a few with such as I haue alleadged shall speake for the rest S. Augustine Out of the Catholike Church a man may haue all things excepting saluation he may haue orders he may haue Sacraments he may sing Alleluia he may answere Amen he may haue the Ghospell he may haue and preach the fayth in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost but he can by no meanes obtayne saluation but in the Catholike Church S. Cyprian Neither can they writing of excommunicated persons liue without sith the house of God is one and no man can haue saluation but in the Church Irenaeus In the Church God hath appointed Apostles Prophets Doctours and the whole operation or ministery of the spirit of which they all are depriued who repaire not to the Church VVhere the Church is there is the spirit of God and where the spirit of God is there is the Church and all grace Then he interreth that such as do not partake of that spirit estranged from truth are iustly tumbled into euery errour Lactantius it is only the Catholike Lactant. l. 4 diuin instit cap. vlt. Church that hath the true worship and seruice of God this is the well spring of truth the dwelling place of fayth the temple of God into which whosoeuer entreth not and from which whosoeuer departeth is without all hope of life and eternall saluation Thus Lactantius With whom our chiefest aduersaries likewise accord Field confesseth one holy Catholike Church in which only the light of heauenly Field in his first booke of the Church c. 2. fol. 23. truth is to be sought where only grace mercy remission of sinnes and hope of eternall happynes are found And to maintaine this he citeth the aforesayd sentence of Lactantius 4. Caluin also speaking of the Church our Mother sayth There is no other entry into life vnles she conceaue vs in her Calu. l. 4. instit c. 1. §. 4. wombe vnles she bring vs forth vnles she feed vs with her breastes finally vnles she keep vs vnder her custody and gouernance vntill such tyme as being vnclothed of mortall flesh we shall be like vnto Angells The reason heereof is the secret and vnchangeable will of God who sent his Sonne into the world to erect one Church one fayth one religion one house and chosen company to whom he bequeathed the keyes of paradise That only Church he purchased with his bloud that only he loued for that he deliuered himselfe to sanctify her cleansing Act. 20. v. 28. Ephes 5. v. 25. 26. her with the lauer of water in the word of life In that only Church he hath left as Irenaeus obserued his Pastors and Doctours In that his word and Sacraments in that the embassage of reconciliation benefite of remitting sinnes To that only Church he communicateth his spirit To one only Church doth God commit the keyes of heauen and benefit of reconciliation promiseth his assistance imparteth his grace vertue and spirituall endowements therefore whosoeuer is deuided or separated from that is wholy bereft of Gods celestiall comforts Most of the learned Protestants consent with vs That out of the Church there is no saluation yet this couert they seeke to saue themselues That they are of the Church either of the same with vs as some imagine or of a distinct by themselues as others vphold or at least that euery one is sufficiently in the Church of saluation as long as he beleeueth the Trinity Incarnation Passion and other principle mysteryes of fayth But that they haue no distinct Church planted by Christ watered by his Apostles and perpetually continued vntill their dayes which is necessary for the true Church I shall demonstrate heereafter in the eleuenth twelueth and thirtenth Chapters of this booke Now that they are not any part of the Roman Church nor all one with vs I manifestly conuince 5. Because they abhorre our sacrifice condemne our Fulke in c. 5. Ephes sect 3. In cap. 13. Apoc. sect 2. Fulk in c. 24. Luc. sect 4. 1. Ioan. 2. sect 9. VVhitak contr 2. q. 6. cap. 1. ibidem c. 3. Reynoldes in his fifth conclusion Fulke in c. 13. Apo. sect 2. in c. 5. ad Ephes sect 3. Rogers in his booke 39. articles of Protestancy Sacraments forbeare all participation with vs and we with them in fayth and religion we excommunicate cut them off from the communion of our Church which they also renounce as superstitious blasphemous and antichristian It is certaine sayth Fulke the Church of Rome cannot be the true Church of Christ Againe The whole religion of Popery is nothing but blasphemy against God and Christ and his Church For this cause he calleth it the whore of Babylon the seate of Antichrist the malignant and Antichristian Church of Rome VVhitaker disclaymeth from it with the like reproachfull termes and addeth That the Papists are Idolaters and their Church Idolatricall Besides he reckoneth vp eighteen fundamentall points by which it ouerthrouweth in his conceit the grounds of true religion M. Iohn Reynolds labouring to discouer the like entitleth his fift conclusiō after this manner The Roman Church not the Catholike Church nor a sound member of the Catholike Church Yea he Fulke Rogers and others recount togeather with those which VVhitaker nameth aboue foure and thirty articles in which the Roman Church hath damnably erred and in euery one shaken the fabrike razed the foundation as they blaspheme of true beliefe Therefore it is impossible any Protestant should thinke his religion the same with ours shall substantiall points impossible he should looke to be saued in the lappe of our Church which his r●rest men and stoutest patrons so spitefully traduce and purposely detest as the most contagious heretical and idolatrical Church that euer was As impossible it is that euery sectary should hope for the blessinges of heauen in his own sect by imbracing only the principall grounds of religion as the ensuing Chapter shall further declare
the building of their discorded Babell because the most of them liued at diuers tymes in diuers Countryes without any mutuall Society or lineall descent and with the interruption of many yeares one from the other For VVickliffe was furnished with no authority instruction or consecration to preach or administer Sacraments from the VValdenses nor the VValdenses from Berengarius nor Berengarius from Iouinian nor he from Aerius They all started vp of themselues maynteyned their seueuerall sects in seuerall ages without knowledge or agreements without deriuation of fayth and ecclesiasticall power from those their Predecessours which is necessary to vphould and continue the perpetuall and mediate succession of the Church Nay they were so farre frō composing an hereditary pedigrece or line of descent amongst themselues as they were all for the most part or Epiphan Prat. l. 1. Elenchi v. Aeriā Aug. haer ●2 Prat. in Eieae verbo Berengar Fox in his act monuments fol. 628. Stow in his Annalls pag. 464. M. Iacob in his defēce of the Churches and Ministery of Englād pag. 13. Georg. Milius in explicatione Conf. August Art 7. pag. 137. 138. their chiefe beginners prime founders of our religion before they brake forth into schisme and heresy So Aerius was a Priest and disciple to Eustachius Bishop of Sebasta in Pontus Iouinian a Monke of the Citty of Rome in Italy Berengarius Archdeacon of Angiers in France VValdo a rich and Catholike Marchant of Lions VVickliffe a sacrifying Priest the Parson of Lutterworth in Leicester shire who sayd Masse if Maister Iacob an earnest Protestant may be credited e●ē to his dying day Therefore they had no Church in which they were borne none frō whence they were propagated but only ours the Protestants Church had no being whē they beganne no being in England when wickliffe in Lyons when VValdo in any other Countrey when the former sectaryes peeped vp neyther of late had it any being in Scotland when Knox in France when Caluin in Suitzerland when Zuinglius in Germany when Luther first preached his ghospell For as Georgius Milius wisely obserueth graunt that Luther had any predecessours and Lutherans reformation wil be altogeather needles 6. Finally if Protestants had any complices or vpholders of their sect in Morauia Bohemia Calabria 〈◊〉 the largest tractes M. Fulke nameth for the openly Fulke in cap. 12. Apoc sect 2. ●nowne continuance of his Church they should haue gone and deriued from them the pedigree of their Pastors their power and commission to preach the gospell They as all other preachers in former tymes haue beene accustomed when their authority hath beene called in question should haue asked of them Litteras formatas dimissory or testimoniall letters to giue testimony of their calling which Our ghospellers had no testimoniall letters frō any church or Pastour before their dayes Iero. ep 89. we haue so often conuinced to be surreptitions and vsurped For if Saint Paul had not had as Saint Hierome sayth security of preaching the gospell if it had not beene approued by Peters sentence and the rest that were with him who were vndoubtedly imbraced as true Apostles how durst you without ●ny allowance and approbation of your auncestours ●eginne to preach your Ptotestant fayth Was it inough ●ou gathered it by your owne diligent yet deccauable interpretation out of the holy Scriptures And was ●t not inough for him to haue his Gospel by infallible re●elation immediatly from God Had he lost his labour runne in vaine without the attestation of the Pastours of the Church And do you thinke to reape any fruite by preaching without any euidence or approbation from Christes vicegerentes vpon earth Yf he who had his doctrine from heauen at least as Reynoldes graunteth to ad Galat. 2. v. 2. Reynoldes in his conference c. 4 diuis 2. fol. 134. Theophil l. 2. de paschat stop the mouthes of false seducers who disgraced him ●s lately crept into the Apostleship did conferre with ●●ter and the rest of his predecessours why did not you ●●stly accused by vs as wrongefull intruders as wolfes vsurpers put your doctrine to the like triall conference ●●d examination of your forerunners Theophilus Bishop o● Alexandria anoucheth of Origen that he was possessed with the spirit of pride because he conferred not his faith with his auncestours as Saint Paul did and were you hin●ered with the like spirit from putting your doctrine to the approbation of the Church Or was it because you had not indeed any Church in the world any Bishop to impose handes vpon you any Temple Oratory Iudge or Tribunall to haue recourse vnto not any man liuing to approue your fayth or giue testimony of your calling but such as you had first seduced and bewitched with your follyes CHAP. XIII Wherein is ouerthrowne the like Clayme which Protestants make to the Professours of the Roman Church agaynst Doctour Fielde and Mayster White MAISTER Doctour Field and Maister White not finding sufficient stones amongst the forenamed heretikes to rayse the Temple of their Sectaryes not finding any publike assemblies in Morauia Bohemia Calabria c. nor any latent and hidden resortes in the Hyrcinian woods other parts of Europe proper to themselues they lay hold on the chiefest Rocks and pillers of our Church to stay vp thier ruinous sheep-cote And as the harlot before Salomon hauing killed her ● Reg. 3. owne pretended right to anothers child So they in behalfe of their barren and harlotry Conuenticles depriued of true parents and maynteyners of their beliefe entitle themselues to the noble issue of our fruitfull Mother to the right of her ordinary succession and lawfull ●a●ours For Field auerres of the Protestant Church that Before Luthers dayes it was the knowne and apparent Church in the Field in 3. booke of of the Church ca. 6. pag. 72. VVhitein his defence of the way to the true Church ca. 44. fol. 424. Fulke in c. 20. Apoc. sect 6 Field ibid. pag. 73. VVhite in his way to the true Church §. 45. fol 338. and. § 50. fol. 372. in his defence of the same way c. 44. fol. 420. VVhitak cont 2 pa. 165. world wherein allour Fathers liued and dyed wherin Luther and the rest were baptized receaued their Christianity ordination power of mynistery Which White acknowledgeth saying For the first 600. hundred we assigne the Church wherein the Fathers liued and for the rest to this day we will assigne no other catalogue then the Church of Rome it selfe Thus the Protestants Church which in the opinion of their greatest Clarkes was latent and inuisible or which continued in desert corners before Luthers appearing is now by their followers made at the same tyme famous and apparent euen the glorious renowned Church of Rome it selfe so ill do the schollers agree with their Maysters the children with their Fathers But when we oppose against thē that the Church of Rome is that superstitious and Antichristian Church
reasoneth well against the Protestāts Bishops titulary and antichristian Prelats Doctour Whitgift notwithstanding Mayster Hooker and Francis Mason strengthen confirme it as proceeding from God And the Royall Wisdome of King Iames deliuereth That Bishops ought to be in the Church I euer maynteyned it as an Apostolicall institution so the ordinance of God Which is so mighty a dissention as the one party must needs gainesay the other in a point fundamētal For eyther this ecclesiastical gouermēt vsed in England by Archbishops Bishops other inferiour ministers is de iure diuino ordained by God or not If it be Then as the Puritan authour of the twelue generall arguments reasoneth well The Churches of Scotland France low Countries and other places the precisians of England who account it Antichristian cannot be a true Church but the signagogue of Satan contradicting therein both Christ and his gospell If not Then according to the rule of Protestants who appeach all publike and ecclesiasticall administratiō as sacrilegious policy which is not warranted by the word of God the Puritans will conuince them of tyrannicall vsurpation who establish ●n their Church an ecclesiasticall hierarchy which God ●euer willed nor commaunded them to do These and many other such tragicall diuisions in matters essentiall ●aygne amongst them which the Protestant Relatour sayth tend mainely to the increase of Atheisme within of Mahome●isme Relatour in his relat §. 45. printed at London anno 1605. D. Couell in his iust temper defence art 11. pag. 67. In their Christiā modest off c. p. 1● published anno Domini 1606. Ibid. p. 16. VVillet in his medit vpon the 122. psal p. 91. ante medium abroad And Doctour Couell a Protestant more modest then Whitaker more sincere then Field plainly protesteth Least any man should thinke our contentions with puritās ●●ere in smaller points difference not great each side hath charged one the other with heresies if not infidelityes nay euen with such as quite ouerthrow the principall foundation of our Christian fayth 6. The Puritans iumpe with him affirming their disagreement from the Protestant Bishops to be of that nature in sundry propositions as if they shold not cōstātly hold and maynteyne the same against all men they cannot see how possibly by the rules of diuinity the separation of their Churches from the Church of Rome from the Pope the supreme head thereof can be iustified c. A little after they add VVherein if they the Puritans be in errour the Prelats on the contrary haue the truth they protest to all the world that the Pope the Church of Rome in them God and Christ Iesus himselfe haue great wronge indignity offered vnto them in that they are reiected that all the Protestant Churches are schismaticall in forsaking vnity and communion with them Thus they Mayster Willets testimony rehearsing diuers of the forenamed variances adiudging thē blasphemous were too long to repeate the alleadged wil declare First what small trust is to be reposed in Whitaker Field White c. in other matters who in a thing so manifest are conuicted of falshood Secondly what hatfull quarrells cruell debats this new religion hath bread in England in so much as the poore ignorant people know not whome to follow or what to belieue when their greatest maisters and chiefest guides are at this deadly warre amongst themselues 7. Wherefore as Saint Augustine mourned the vnhappynes Aug. l. 18. de ciuitate Dei ca. 41. of the Athenians and vanity of their City who harboured and gaue countenance to sundry iarring Philosophers directly opposite and fiercely disagreeing one from the other Not sayth he about landes houses or money matters but about those things by which the life of mā is eyther miserably or happily leade In like sort I may cōmiserat and bewayle the dangerous estate of my countrymen and wofull calamity of our distressed Iland which now fostereth in her lappe and nourisheth in her bosome so many factious ministers diuided as you see farre worse then the Athenian Sophisters not in Ciuile brawles or politike diuisions not in morall precepts of life and manners but in the deepest affayres of conscience of fayth of religion which they cannot discusse without danger nor vp hold without infamy nor teach without infection nor long maynteyne without the viperous distraction of themselues and endlesse ruine of innumerable soules Yet So s● to seale vp my discourse with the same authours words it is necessary that rent diuided into small peeces they perish who Aug. con Parmen l. ● cap. 4. haue preferred the swelling pride of their haughty slomake before the most holy band of Catholike peace vnity CHAP. XVI Wherin is declared how Sāctity or Holines is a note of the true Church Agaynst Doctour Whitaker and Doctour Field MANYFOLD and various is the signification of this word Sanctum holy and so it diuersly entitleth and denominateth the Church of God First she is called holy because she is purchased and sanctified by the precious bloud of our innocent and vnspotted Lambe Christ Iesus which Saint Peter 1. Pet. 2. v. 9. insinuated when he stiled the faythfull A holy Nation a people of purchase Secondly it is holy because it is wholy dedicated and consecrated vnto God whereupon he sayd to his people You shal be holy because I am holy Thirdly it is Leuitic 11. 1. Pet. 1. holy for that it consisteth of holy lawes holy precepts holy ceremonyes holy Sacraments all thinges holy Fourthly it is holy by reason of her purity and holynes both in doctrine and manners and this all Catholique writers acknowledge as a proper badge and token of Christs chosen flocke yet not in that sort as purity of doctrine or syncere and true preaching of the word is challenged by the Protestants and refuted by vs a note more hidden then the thing it denoteth but in a farre different sense For Protestants take the vniuersall purity of A differet acception of sanctity of doctrin vsed amongst Catholiks and Protestants doctrine and true preaching of the word as it is opposite to all errours in euery dogmaticall and essentiall point to be a Marke of the true Church We a particuler purity or sanctity or sanctity only not as it excludeth all fundamentall errours contrary to truth but as it excludeth all grosse or palpable absurdityes repugnant to the principles of nature or rules of cōmon reason known to all men this we assigne as an vndoubted recognizance of the immaculate and euer beloued spouse of Christ Wherein Mayster Whitaker hath inexcusably iniuried Cardinal Bellarmine in traducing him for challenging VVhitak contr ● q. 5. ca. 9. fol. 415. 416. Field in his 3. booke ca. 44. f. ●76 this not to haue forsaken his stāding to haue cowardly fled to their protestāt campe And Field more main part sawcie then he sayth A lier should haue a good memory c.
the Protestants and Puritans in England of whome M. Ormerod witnesseth Puritans differ from Protestants in thinges fundamentall and substantiall Puritans doe not agree with Protestants in all matters of fayth So the Arminians dissente from the Orme dia. 2. Gomoristes in the law Countryes The Caluinistes of Geneua from the Lutherans of Saxony The Lutherans of Saxony from the Zuinglians of Tygurum They from the Aug. tom 7. de vnit eccl cap. 3. Osiandrines of Prussia the Osiandrines from the Anabaptistes of Westphalia c. as hath beene partly vnfolded in the first note of vnity 3. Therefore as Saint Augustine disputed agaynst diuers heretikes of his age Yf the holy Scriptures designe the Church in Africa only c. the Donatistes alone counteyne the Church Yf in a few Mores of the prouince of Cesarea we must repayre to the Regatistes c. If in the Easterne people only Amongst the Arians Macedonians and Eunonians c. the Church is to be sought After the like manner if the Caluinistes haue the truth to Geneua a few Cantons in France we must all resort Yf the Protestants to England if the Zuinglians to Tigurum if the rigide Lutherans to Saxony if the soft to Wittemberge Lipsia and Magdeburge c. For all these being so opposit cannot enioy the right fayth or if they could they be but parts of the world small tractes of the earth farre lesse then Africa farre lesse then the East to which the Church of God as Saint Augustine discourseth could not be confined For he goeth forward in the alleadged place Aug. lo ci But if the Church of Christ by diuine and most certayne testimonies of canonicall Scriptures be described in all nations whatsoeuer they shall Aug. tom 4. q. euang l. 1. q. 38. bringe or from whencesoeuer they shall write it who say behold here is Christ behold there Let vs listen rather if we be his sheepe to the voyce of our pastour saying doe you not belieeue because his Church quoth he shal manifestly shine like a lightning frō the east to the west that is ouer all the world 4. Now if the Kingdome of the Messias be the greatest and largest amongst all that professe the name of Christ if it be the sole and vniuersall Kingdome of all nations and if this be the thinge signified by the name Catholike not only that title which M. Abbot alloweth vs but the thinge also entitled the thinge betokened thereby the prerogatiue of Vniuersality appertayneth to vs. Fo● we farre exceede the Protestants and all other sectaries of our dayes in multitude of people in variety of nations in troupes of followers in dignity of patrons in society of Princes who linke themselues to the body of our Church In so much as I may vrge M. Abbot as Saint Pacian did Sympronian Number if you can our Catholike flockes Abbot in his answ to D. Bishops epist to the King pag. 16. and 17. Paciā ep 3. ad Symp. sub finem Count vpon your fingers the swarmes of our people not those now which are dispersed throughout the world aboundant in all countryes but those brother Sympronian which dwell with you in the allied prouinces in the neighbour cittyes Contemplate how many of ours thou alone beholdest with how many of our people thou alone meetest Art thou not swallowed vp by vs as the eue droppings by great fountaynes as by the Ocean little bubles of water are consumed 5. Yf we should now compare Roman Catholikes with Protestants euen in these regions of Europe the same might we auouch of their paucity in respect of vs. Catholiks are in all countryes wher protestants raygne openly knowne But if we should passe out of Europe what townes or villages what Chappell 's or Oratoryes can they reckon vp in Asia Africa America c. how many Indians Ethiophians Iaponians How many of their sect can they name in China in Brasilia in Magellanica Not any one no publike Church haue they or Chappell out of Europe of any other then such as traffike in these parts Notwithstanding as we abound with many of our religion in all those remote Protestāts not hard of in a hundred Kingdomes where Catholikes flourish and forrayne Countries where the name of Protestants is vnknowne So in all the Prouinces in euery corner which sectaryes in habite we want not those who openly defend and professe our fayth We haue them in Germany low Countryes England and the Cantons of France To which purpose Saint Augustine speaking of sundry heresies and of the Church very fitly sayth They in many nations where this is are not found but this which is euery where there where they are is also found Aug. de vn eccles c. 3. 6. The first reason why God would haue his Church so vniuersall was to manifest his loue to all creatures that all people might partake of the riches of his Isay 54. v. 5. mercy That all might receaue the happy tidinges of their redemption and meanes of saluation And that he who was God of Israel might now as I say prophesied be God Prou. 14. vers 28. of all the earth The second reason was for the honour of the Son of God for the glory of his name for the reward of his merits To which effect S. Austine applyeth that saying Iero. dialo aduer Lucifer of Salomon In the multitude of people the dignity of the King and in the fewnes of people the ignominy of the Prince Therefore Saint Ierome accounteth it a great ignominy to Christ to haue the Empires of his Church the trophies of his Crosse Optat. l. ● cōtra Par. as he tearmeth them restrayned to corners And Optatus blameth Parmenian for the like Yf so at your pleasure you barre vp the Church in a narrow roome if you withdraw all nations where Psal 2. is that which the sonne of God hath merited VVhere is that which his Father willingly bestowed vpon him saying I will giue thee Gentills forthy inheritance endes of the earth thy possession VVhy do you violate such a promise that the latitude of Kingdomes should be shut vp by you as it were in a prison How labour you to resist so great piety what meane you to make warre agaynst the merits of our Sauiour Permit the Sonne to enioy his legacies Permit the Father to fullfill his promises VVhy place you bounds why appoint you limits 7. The third and last reason is for the perswasion and stay of the faythfull For what greater motiue of credibility can we haue then the authority of so many and so learned men the fame celebrity consent of all nations This S. Augustine often proposeth as a weighty Aug vtil credendi c. 14. 17. argument which first induced and after strengthened him in our Catholike fayth Others by the very light of nature esteemed it also as a thinge most worthy of credite Seneca sayd VVe are wont to attribute much
of the world Since retired to some few particuler and vnknown coastes Since perished out of view of all nations is heretofore resuted at large in the fourth chapter of this treatise And Saint Augustine detesteth it as a rash temerarious false and abhominable deuise He thinketh it strange to be spoken of and asketh what inuader Christ suffered to robbe him of his goods Of the whole world the price of his bloud Besides the places of Scripture by which S. Aug. tomo 8 in psal 101. conci 2. Augustine demonstrateth the Kingdome of Christ to be euery where extended to replenish the whole face of the earth to possesse all the endes of the world are not prophesies only of S. Augustines of Optatus of Saint Ieromes age they specify not their dayes any more then ours but they are indeterminably Aug. Exp. 2. in psal 21. written by the holy Ghost for all times ages Therefore they are as truly verified now as then as iustly vrged by vs agaynst Protestants as by them agaynst Luciferians or Donatistes And the exceptions taken by their aduersaries are the same which are now pursued by ours 12. Let me pose you M. Whitaker Doth he not deserue as great a curse who shall now deny the Passion and Resurrection of Christ as any heretike should doe in gaynsaying it in Saint Augustines tymes And yet S. Augustine maketh a like comparison between those mysteryes Aug. Ep. 48. and this of the Churches vniuersality As sayth he he shal be anathema which preacheth that Christ neyther suffered nor rose agayne because we learne by the Ghospell that it behoued Christ to suffer and to rise againe the third day So he shall also be anathema whosoeuer preacheth the Church to be elswhere then in the communion of all nations because by the selfe same gospell we learne in the words next following And pennance to be preached in his name and remission of sinnes thoughout all nations Wherfore as the former textes of Scripturre touching his death and resurrection so these concerning the amplitude of his Church are generally verifyed of all times and ages 13. But Doctour Whitaker obiecteth that there VVhitak cont 2. q. 5. c. 6. was a tyme at the beginning when the Church was not vniuersal I answere that as there is a tyme when a child new borne cannot actually laugh or exercise the function of man yet is then a true man and hath the power or faculty of laughing So the Church in her infancy was not actually dilated and propagated ouer all countryes yet it was then planted to be vniuersall and had the property of vniuersality belonging to it Because Christ at the first erecting of it sayd Teach ye all nations Going Matt. viti v. 19. Marc. 56. vers 15. Act. 1. v. 8. into the whole world preach the gospell to all creatures You shal be witnesses vnto one in Ierusalem and in all Iury and Samaria and euen to the vtmost of the earth Therefore although not the actuall extension yet the prerogatiue of Vniuersality apperteyned to the Church from the beginning and after that she should once obteyne her vniuersall and actuall propagation the diuine oracles often witnesse it should so continue vnto the end of the world As hath beene shewed both here in the fourth chapter of this third part Howbeit Mayster Whitaker ceaseth not to wrangle For because he cannot challenge the right of the thinge he picketh a quarrell at the etimology of the name Catholike he will not haue it to signify vniuersality of place but only of the truth saying That Church is VVhitak contro 2. q. 5. c. 2. q. 6. c. 2. Eulke in c. 24. Luc. sect 4. in name and deed Catholike which Catholikely and truly teacheth all the points of religion whatsoeuer ought to be learned and belieued of a Christian man The same is also auerred by Doctour Fulke 14. But how can it thus be a note of the true Church The true doctrine in all dogmaticall poyntes as I haue heretofore declared is more obscure and hidden then the Church It is the inward substance or dowry of the Church It cannot possibly be discerned especially by the vnlearned nor consequently guide them to the knowledge of the Church It is constantly challenged by all heretikes whatsoeuer Aske the Arian the Pelagian the Gnosticke the Anabaptist c. Euery one of them whosoeuer else will tell you that he alone hath the vniuersall truth and it would be a bootlesse labour to goe about by that marke taken in that sense to perswade him the contrary Yet into this labyrinth other heretikes of former tymes haue craftily retired For Vincentius the Rogatian would haue the word Catholike to Aug. Ep. 48. ad Vincentium Rogatian import the like integrity of fayth and vniuersall keeping of the commandements whome S. Augustine refelleth in this manner Thou seemest to haue found out a witty deuise when thou doest interprete the name Catholike not of the communion of all the world but of the obseruation of all the diuine precepts al the Sacramēts which deuise of his new burnished now Aug. de vt credendi c. 7. by our aduersaries he vtterly reiecteth immediatly after alleadgeth the sentence before cited with this preamble whatsoeuer crooked trains any mā weaueth against the simplicity of whatsoeuer he casteth of wily falshood euen as he shal be ana thema who preacheth that Christ hath not suffered nor risen So he that shall Aug. in ps 18. expo 2. deny the Church to be in the communion of the world Because both are learned out of the same Ghospell Besides Saint Augustine flatly distinguisheth this not of vniuersality or amplitude Fulke in c. 24. Lu. sect 2. in 2. ad Thess 2. sectione 5. VVhitak contro 2. from the verity of the Church in all mysteries of faith saying The Church is one as algraunt if you regard the whole worlde more stored with multitude and as they that know affirme more syncere in truth then all the rest but of the truth it is another question Loe M. Whitaker how you confound questions affect obscurities lurke in holes that you maynteyne a part in faction who might hold all in peace concord Abbot in his answere to M. D. Bishop Ep. to the King pag 15. 15. The last obiection repeated by M. Fulke Mayster Whitaker and Rhetorically dilated by M. Robert Abbot against our restraining the Citty of God vnto the Sea of Rome hath beene often answered by our men That we take not the Roman Church for the particuler diocesse which belonges to Rome but for the latitude of all people and countryes who consort with the Pope in Sacramentes fayth and communion acknowledging him for Christes vicar vpon earth And thus the Roman Church hath beene euer accounted all one with the Catholike and vniuersall Church For Saint Ambrose writeth of his Brother Satyrus desyring in pilgrimage Ambrosius in serm de ob
fratris to receaue the Sacramentes That he demaunded of a Bishop VVhether he agreed with the Catholique Bishops that is with the Roman Church Iocundus also the Arian as Victor reporteth sayd to Kinge Theodoricke Yf you put Armogastes to death the Romans will proclayme him a Victor Vti de pers Van. l. 1. Hier. in ap aduer Ruf. Martyr Where by the Romans he vnderstood Catholiques In like manner Ricemer the Goth and Arian wrote vnto the Genneses Yf he be a Catholique he is a Roman Hence the Roman fayth is tearmed the Catholique fayth the Romen Bishop Bishop of the Catholique Church Bishop of the vniuersall Church Pope of the vniuersall Cypr. l. 3. Ep. 11. Con. Calce act 3. in rela Sanctae Synodi ad Pap. Leonem Poss in vita Augustini ca. 17. Iustin in Epist Hormis papae Cypo epist 52. Leo ep 82. Cypr. l. 4. ep 2. Opt. l. 2. contra Parmen L. in vrbe Roma de statu hom Aug. de ci Deil. 5. c. 15. Art 22. 16. Church His sentence the iudgement of the Catholique Church His definitions Catholique instructions His Sea the roote or matrixe of the Catholique Church His solicitude the care of the vniuersall Church To communicate with him to communicate with the Catholique Church To enter league with him to keepe frendship or society of communion with the vniuersall world 16. In fine as in auncient tymes all people subiect to the Roman Empire were by a generall decree of the ciuill law graced with the name of Roman Cittizens After which sort Saint Augustine testifyeth of some enobled with the title of Roman Senatours who neuer entred the gates of Rome And Saint Paul being borne at Tharsis in Cilicia professed himselfe a Roman borne So in like manner All Churches that liue in communion with the Roman Church All that submit themselues to the obedience of that Sea Al that acknowledge her their head and mother Church borrow from her the denomination of Roman Churches Especially sith that generally denominations are deriued from the most eminent and principall part and neuer any Church neuer any people in any parte of the worlde hath beene taynted with heresy or touched with schisme which tooke the name of Roman Church or Roman people by reason of their communion with the Sea of Rome Therefore as the name Catholique and the thinge signifyed thereby So the name Roman or Romanist is a playne demonstration that our Church is the Gen. 13. 22. flocke of Christ and only seed which our Lord hath blessed and multiplyed like the starrs of heauen and duste of the earth The Kingdome of God whose dominion is extended from one sea to another and from the Riuer to the vttermost boundes of the worlde The Lady or Queene which sitteth one the right hand of her spouse enuironed with Psal 71. see S. Aug. vpon that psalme Pacian ep 3. ad Symp. Malach. c. v. 1. v. 11 the variety of all tribes and Countryes The chosen people which from the rising of the sunne euen to the setting euery where magnifyeth the name of our Lord. And the Protestantes Secte is that deuided faction which rebelleth agaynst him that segregated bunche or festered boyle That harlotry Synagogue which shrowded in corners lyeth in wayte to deceaue our soules to entangle them with fayre wordes and flattery of lippes c. VVhose howse the wayes of hell penetrating to the inward partes of death Prou. 7. CHAP. XX. In which Apostolicall succession is declared to be an apparant note of the true Church Agaynst Mayster Francis Mason AS the Church of Christ cannot possibly continue without the preaching of truth and administration of Sacraments the Sacramēts cannot be ministred nor truth preached without pastours teachers to deliuer the same The Pastours and teachers not still remayne without a perpetuall generation or propagation of them by succession mission and approued ordination Tertullian libro de praescrip Ther ore the ancient Fathers haue alwayes appealed to this lawfull successiō of Priests Bishops as to an illustrious note mark of the Church more plaine more cōspicuous more easily known thē the doctrin of truth to which notwithstanding it is inseparably linked Augustin psal contra partē Do. Tom. 7. libro contra Ep funda Iraeneus libro 3. c. 1. Therefore Tertullian thus prouoked the heretikes of his tyme Let them set forth the beginning of their Churches Let them thew the ranke or order of their Bishops c. Saint Augustine in like sort challenged the Donatistes Recount sayth he the Priestes euen from Peters seate and looke who haue succeeded one another in the ranke of those Fathers After the same manner Saint Iraeneus discomfiteth the Valentinians Saint Epiphanius Epiphan haer 17. Ieronymus dialog vlt. cōtra Lucif Optatus l 2. the Carpocratians Saint Ierome the Luciferians Optatus the heretique Parmenian And he particulerly nameth the Roman Bishops from Peter to Siricius Saint Augustine from Peter to Anastasius affirming that by that succession of Priests and Bishops he was held in the Church 2. Whereunto least some Cauiller should take exception that they speake only of the tyme past of the Augustine Ep. contra Faustum Manich. cap. 4. succession which was before their dayes but they prophecy not of the tyme to come nor do they auow that the like succession shal stil perseuere S. Austine to encoūter this obiection notably writeth in another place The true Church by most certayn successiō of Bishops doth perseuere frō the Apostles tyme vnto ours and to tymes after vs agayne Which is a Augustine libro cont aduers leg Proph. cap. 20. Ecclesia ab Apostolorum tēporibus per Episcoporum successiones certissimas vsque ad nostr ū deniceps tempora perseuerat thinge so cleerly defined in holy writ especially by Saint Paul to the Ephesians and so necessary for the instruction of the infidells edification of the faythfull consummation of the Saints and true essence or being of the Church as no Sacrament can be ministred word preached fayth imbraced or Church remayne where the true vocation or ordinary calling of Bishops and Priestes is at any tyme wanting Neyther doe the more learned of our Aduersaryes make doubt hereof But as the heretikes in Saint Augustines tyme so these now bragge of a certayne figure or similitude of beginning vnder the name of Christians but are indeed withered braunches cut of from the vine For some of them endeauour to steale a beginning or ordinary calling from the temporall Magistrates and suffrages of the people as Caluin and his brats of Geueua Others from the temporall Prince only without the peoples voyces as Brentius and Musculus Others from the Presbitery or meere Priestes that be not Bishops which Monsieur Caluin l. 4. instit c. 3. §. 1. c. 4 §. 11. Brent in prol Mus in locis comun Plessis in tract de Ecclesia cap. vlt. Field in his 3. booke of the
nor yet did they vse the true matter and forme prescribed by him Therefore notwithstanding their character their ordination was nothing els but a prophanation of that Sacrament For to instance in the order of Priesthoode so intrinsecally presupposed in Episcopall dignity as the Catholique Athanasius Apolo 2. in Episc Cōcil Sa●d Councell of Sardis wondred at the Arians impudency because they gaue sayth the Councell to him the title of Bishop who was not so much as a Priest The Priesthood instituted by Christ was a Priesthood ordeyned to sacrifice A Priesthood to which a iudiciall power was giuen by the holy Ghost to pardon and remit sinne● in 〈…〉 Pennance The forme of the Priesthood was partly that Receaue the holy Ghost whose sinnes you shall forgiue they are forgiuen them and whose you shall retayne they are reteywed partly this other 10. 20. vers 23. mentioned in the Councell of Florence Receaue power to offer sacrifice in the Church for the liuing and dead in the name Cōcil Flor. in litter is Eugen. Luc. 22. of the Father and of the sonne and of the holy Ghost Which words although they be not set downe in holy writ in playne tearmes yet the substance of them is gathered out of S. Luke and that kinde of forme as likewise the forme of Baptisme is deliuered by tradition as proceeding from Christ The matter necessarily accompayning this later forme is the reaching of the chalice with wine the paten with the hoast to the party consecrated specifyed also in the aforesayd Councell of Florence So that two actes or functions are included in our Priesthood or a The power of Priesthood cōtayneth two functions the one about the true the other about the mysticall body of Christ power twofold The one apperteyning to the true and reall body of Christ to consecrate and offer it to God which is the chiefest act or faculty of Priesthoode and first also imparted The other ouer Christes misticall body the members of his Church to remit their sins which necessarily presupposeth the former This order of Priesthood these two functions all Protestant superintendēts disclay me and deny this the consecratours intende not to giue nor do the consecrated Mynisters purpose to receaue they haue not then that sacred ordination which was prescribed by Christ 10 Yet sayth M. Mason that holy Priesthood which Christ ordeyned we haue pared from the corruptions of sacrificing and shrift which you haue added to the institution Mason lib. 1. c. 2. p. 11. and libr. 2. c. 11. p. 94. In the first part of the Antidote in the 4 ad 5. contro of Christ Well then the whole question is brought to this issue whether our Sauiour instituted a sacrificing Priesthood to which authority is also giuen to remit sinnes in the Sacrament of Pennance or no But both these pointes I haue sufficiently conuinced in the first part of my Antidote The one in the controuersy of the Sacrifice of the Masse the other in the controuersy of Auricular Confession and the former I shall touch agayne in the Chapter ensewing Therfore if Protestant haue pared away these Priestly functions they haue reiected the whole substance and pared of the very pith of Christes heauenly Priesthood 11. Or if they will needs vsurpe the name of Priests let them tell me I beseech them in what order doe they ranke them selues In the order of Aaron or of Melchisedech The order of Aaron was to offer bloudy sacrifices bulles calues rammes and heyfers which neyther they Primas ad Heb. 5. callenge for any thinge I see nor yet doe they practise that abrogated function much lesse the function of Melchisedech whose office was to offer bread and wine and Euseb l. 5. de demon Euang. c. 3. Oecum ad Heb. 5. Geneb l. 1. Chronog Gal. l. 10. c. 5. Iero. in ep ad Marcal Cyp. ep 63. Aug. in ps 33. Primas in cap. 5. ad Heb. Arn. in ps 109. Pulke in c. 7. ad heb sect 8. in cap. 10. ad Corinth sect 8. not any of the former victimes Melchisedech sayth Primasius was not a Priest according to the legall precepts but accorning to the dignity of a certayne singular Priesthood offering bread to God not the bloud of bruit beastes Melchisedech sayth Eusebius neuer seemeth to haue vsed corporall sacrifices but wine only bread Melchisedech sayth Oecumenius was the first who offered an hoast without bloud to wit bread and wine Which Genebrard and Galatinus also proue out of the ancient Rabbines And therein Melchisedech was a perfect type and figure of Christ Witnesse Saint Ierome Melchisedech euen then in token of Christ offered bread and wine Saint Cyprian VVe see in the Priest Melchisedech the Sacrament prefigured of our Lordes sacrifice Saint Augustine Christ instituted a sacrifice of his body and bloud according to the order of Melchisedech Primasius In the order of Melchisedechs Priesthood Christ is made not a temporall but an eternall Priest not offering legall victimes but like vnto him bread and wine to wit his flesh and bloud Arnobius Christ by the mystery of bread wine is made a Priest for euer But you say quoth Fulke that Christ offered not bread and wine therefore not that which Melchisedech offered Did euer man reason so foolishly For must the signe and thinge signed the figure and the truth be al one Was not the Pascall lambe infinitly more base and inferiour in condition to our blessed Redeemer the Lambe of God Yet was it not a perfect type and figure of him In like manner the bread and wine offered by Melchisedech although meaner in quality and different nature from Christs body and bloud which ●●mselfe sacrificed is the true tipe notwithstāding re●●●blance hereof because this is made of the substance and offered vnder the accidents of bread and wine and so the same in quality the same in appearance the truth and full accomplishment of that typicall sacrifice which Melchisedech offered 12. This kind of oblation and office of Priesthood Luc. 22. v. 19. Doe this for a commemoration of me Aug. libro 1. cont ad leg prophe ca. 20. l. 16. de ciuit cap. 22. Amb. in psal 38. Epiphan haer 59. Theo. in c. 5. ad heb Leo 2. de āniuers suae assump Euche l. 2. c. 18 in Gen. Prim. in c. 5. ad heb Fulke in c. 7. ad heb sect 8. by the expresse warrant example and commaundement of Christ his Church the Church of Rome now practiseth vnder him And by this he being chiefe Priest and principal sacrificer the eternity of his priesthood is most properly continued according to the doctrine of the an●ient Fathers Of Saint Augustine They know that reade what Melchisedech hath offered such a sacrifice they now see offered to God throughout the world Also There first appeared the sacrifice which now is offered to God by Christians and that is fullfilled which longe after this is spoken by the Prophet to
such as Bonner was discharged and neuer called more in question about that matter But it was presently after ordeyned in Parlament That all actes heretofore made or 8. Eliz. 1. 39. Eliz. 8. done by any person about the consecration confirmation or inuesting of any person elected to the dignity of an Archbishop or Bishop by vertue of the Queenes letters patents or commission since the beginning of her raigne shal be adiudged good 18. Which lawes had beene superfluous and not beseeming the dignity of that place if the sayd Bishops had been sufficiently made before especially seeing it is prouided in the same parlament that all tenders of the sayd 8. Eliz. c. 1. circa finē ●ath made by any Archbishop or Bishop aforesayd or before the last day of this present Session to be made c. all refusalls of the same oath so tendred or before the last day of this present Session to be tendred by any Archbishop or Bishop c. shal be voyde and of no effect or validity in the law What better proofes What more forcible arguments to conuince the nullity of their Bishops former ordination then these Acts of Parlament these decisions of the Iudges That acquittance of Bishop Bonner This disanuiling of the oath tendred and refusall Abridgement of Diars reports 7. Eliz. 23. 4. thereof vntill that present Session in which their Bishops were adiudged authorized and enacted to be lawfull Otherwise it had belonged to that high Court to haue defended and maynteyned their Bishops precedent inauguration their tendring of the oath according to Sand de schis Angli pa. 166 D. Harding in his cōfut of the Apol. par 2. cap. ● the Statute of the first of Queene Elizabeth condemned others refusall contrary thereunto 19. Further if Protestant superintendents had that vndoubted ordination which Mayster Mason fancieth why did their Ministers after Queene Elizabeth had vniustly deposed her lawfull Pastours seeke to Antony Kitchen Bishop of Landasse to be consecrated by him who by reason of his pretended blindnes auoyded the taske Why did they repayre to the Irish Bishop in the Tower Fulk in his answ to a counter Cashol p. 50. VVhitak contr 1. q. 5. cap. 6. Sutcliffe answere to exceptions pag. 87. Sparke in his answere to M. Iohn d' Albinsc 1. p 20 23. 24. 26. who likewise refused to lay hands vpon them and therfore were constreyned to ordeyne one another at the Nagge 's head in Cheapeside in such ridiculous manner as they are now ashamed of it Or if they had receaued their consecration from our Catholik Bishops what iniury doth Doctour Fulke both to his owne Prelats ours in saying vnto vs You are much deceaued if you think we esteeme your offices of Bishops Priestes and Deacons any better then laymen and you presume too much to thinke that we receaue your ordering to be lawfull What wronge doth Doctour Whitaker to himselfe and his collegues when he affirmeth our Catholique Bishops not to be lawfull Bishops eyther by diuine ecclesiasticall or Ciuill law And Sutcliffe in like manner The Romish Church is not the true Church hauing no Bishops nor Priestes at all but only in name what disgrace did Doctour Sparke cast on the glory of their Clergy when writing agaynst vs he presumeth to auow that our Bishops and Priestes haue no ordinary calling but wholy vnlawfull That infinite haue had their cōsecrations and orders from such as were no true Popes or Bishops during the tyme of the Papall schismes and thereupon inferreth how can we count those right Bishops and Priestes 〈◊〉 were made by such as had no right to make any or how shall we 〈◊〉 them from such as fetch their pedigree from right Popes This 〈◊〉 will trouble the whole Church of Rome to cracke 20. But now M. Sparke not the Church of Rome alone but your reformed Church of England is put to the trouble of cracking that nut Now you your selfe must cracke it or els you are a wolfe an intruder who commeth to kill and destroy the sheepe of Christ For as Socrates in the like case pithyly reasoned By the Nicen Fathers Socrates in hist Eccl. l. c. 32. all later Bishops are ordeyned if they had not the holy Ghost who might descend by ordination into euery one neyther haue these receaued the function of Priesthood For how could they receaue it when it 〈…〉 giuen by them who had it not So I dispute with Mayster Mason if our Bishops and Priestes had no ordinary calling no right to ordeyne any Yf they were wholy vnlawfull and meere laymen as his fellowes weene what calling haue their superintendents What ordination What spirituall iurisdiction deriued from such as had no authority to ordeyne them Doctour Whitaker therefore VVhitak contr 2. q. 5. c. 6. folio 35● more ancient and neerer the beginning of Protestant profession then Maister Mason flatly denyeth the ordination or calling of their Mynistery to proceed from the Catholique Clergy which went before them saying Our Bishops and ministers although they be not ordeyned by Papistical Nostri Episcopi ministri si non sunt a Papisticis Episcopis ordinati tamen rite legitime ordinātur Ibidem folio 357. Ibidē folio 36. Bishops yet they are orderly and lawfully ordeyned A little before Truly amongst them Catholiques only they are lawfull Pastours who are called and created according to their order But we say their Ministery was corrupted and therefore that we ought not to be made and created Bishops by them Immediatly after being vrged with a Canon of the first Nicen Councell That a Bishop ought to be created by two or three Bishops he answereth That law was enacted by the Bishops and it was pious if it may be commodiously done and if there be godly Bishops from whome ordination may be had otherwise not which constitution in the flourishing Church may be reteyned not in the lapsed Agayne Touching ordination by three Bishops that constitution is to be obserued as longe as thinges remayne whole and entire and as longe as the Bishops were good otherwise not 21. Besides Yf he Bellarmine graunt our vocation saith Whitaker to be lawfull which neuer any Catholique did Ibid. f. 361. for ordination we 〈◊〉 contend because they that haue authority to cal haue authority also to ordeyne of lawfull ordination cannot be ●●tayned c. But touching the Bishops of those tymes they neuer could be drawn Ad Episcopos veròillorum ●emporū quod attinet illinū quam induci potuerunt vt quemquā ordinarēt nisi qui illis per ōniafaueret to ordeyne any vnlesse it were such a one as in all thinges fauoured thē For this cause he flieth at the end to an extraordinary successiō agaynst the common fashion and vulgarly receaued custome c. This quoth he our Church had because the ordinary succession was corrupt Where I pray Mayster Mason where lay your Registers hid when this glorious light of your
can tell who checked and controlled who opposed themselues agaynst these mighty heretikes For Damasus the Pope with the first Constantinople Councell condemned Macedonius Georgius Theodo l. c. 11. Tom. 1. Concil f. 10. apud Binium Athana ad solita Nazian orat in liudem Athana Lucifer pro Atha l. 1. 2. Vide Eusebium libro 7. c. 23. 24. Iero. ep 61. Pamma Ruffin in explic sim Nazian in carm de vita sua who liued about the yeare of our Lord 380. Geiasi●● in decreto habito de Apochriphis Scripturis habetur apud Biniū tom 2. eōcil folio 264. They made that decree the yeare 494. Cappadox was resisted and impugned by Athanasius by S. Gregory Nazianzen by Lucifer Calaritanus Paulus Somasatenus by a Councell held at Antioch in the yeare of our Lord 274. Iohn the Patriarch of Ierusalem by S Ierome and S. Epiphanius Thus vnlesse you set downe the tyme the Pope the heresy by which the Apostolicall sea was defiled with superstition who they were that opposed agaynst it it is euident which Ruffinus writeth that in the Church of the Roman Citty no heresy euer began and the auncient custome is there obserued Euident which S. Gregory Naziazē testifyeth of his age That old Rome from aunciēt tymes hath the right sayth always keepeth it as it becometh the Citty which oueruleth the whole world always to belieue rightly in God Which Gelasius with 70. Bishops witnes for theirs That the chiefe seat of Peter the Apostle is the Romā Church not hauing any spot or wrincle or any such thinge Which Theodoret for his That this holy Sea holdeth the flerne of gouernement ouer all the Churches of the world as for other causes so for that it hath still remayned Theodoret epist ad Rena he wrote the yeare 450. ●oyde of the stench or ill sauour of heresy Which Iohn the Patriarch of Constantinople which Agatho which Regino which Rupertus affirme for theirs Iohn the Patriarch of Constantinople and second of that name saith In the Apostolicall Sea speaking of Peters the Catholike Religion Iohannes Constan 2. in epist ad Horm habetur Tō 2. concil about the yeare 517. is alwayes kept inuiolable Agatho you haue heard already Regino auerreth That the seate of Peter could neuer be entrapped by heresy or false doctrine Rupertus The Roman Church more strongly built v●on the rocke of Apostolicall sayth hath stood vnshaken and hath alwayes condemned the heresies both of the Greeke Church of all the world 12. Moreouer not only the ruines of these renowmed seas but the fall of euery particuler Church is registred Regino in 2. libro Chronico he wrote in the yeare 890. and diuulged by the watchmen of Gods house by the vigilancy of Catholike Pastours whose care and diligence to keepe the vnity of fayth inuiolable discouer the chaunges which might creep into all Cathedrall Seas hath beene such as besides the Sacrament of Ordination these cautions they vsed with euery new elected Bishop 1. He was wont to send cōmunicatory letters conteyning Rupertus libro 2. de diui offic c. 22. ●e liued about the yeare 1100. the profession of his fayth to all prouinces abroad especially to Rome which was called Synodicā dare as S. Cypriā mentioneth of himselfe of Sabinus a Spānish Bishop S. Ambrose likwise of his election The second was if any broke the line of succession or altered the traditiō of fayth the like notice was giuen of him as of Cerdon of Eutiches of Paulus Samosatenus and of certayne Nouatian See this more largely in Stapleton contro 1. q 4 or ● de principijs fidei doctrin Cyprian libro 4. ep 9. and lib. 1. ep 4. Ambro ep 82. Irenaeus libro ● c. 4. Leo ep 9. Euseb Phamphil l. 7. c. 24. Cyprianus l. 1. ep 3. 4. Leo epist 68. Sozom. l 7. c. 8. Theo. l. 5. histo eccles cap. 9. in epis Synodo Bishops mentioned by Irenaeus Leo Eusebius S. Cyprian The third was the confirmation of the Romā Bishop by whom the election of euery new Bishop was accustomed to be ratified and confirmed So Leo the great confirmed Proterius Patriarch of Alexandria Damasus confirmed Nectarius Patriarch of Constātinople Sop●o ad Honor. Honorius confirmed Sophronius Patriarch of Ierusalem The fourth was to matriculate as it were or enrole in the Church bookes or publike records the names of such as agreed with the rest in fayth profession thereby to commemorate or remember them in the tyme of the dreadfull sacrifice of the Masse which was in diptyro nomen habere and withall cancelling the memory or nams of such as dissēted from them in matters of fayth which Hormisda the Pope strictly commaunded to be put in Hormisd● in epist. decretal ad Episcopos Hispaniae And see Damasus in his epistle to the Easterne Bishops agaynst Apollinaris ● apud Theo. l. 5. c. 10. Greg. in Regist l. 4. ep 2. indic 2. Ibidem l. 4. ep 34. item libro 6. ep 64. Cyprian l. 1. ep 4. VVhitak contro 2. q. 5. c. 3. f. 312. Sparke in his ans to Mayster Iohn d'Albins an Epistle of his to the Bishops of Spayne All these cautions continued in the Church euen vntill the dayes of S. Gregory the great of which he in particuler maketh mention Therefore it was impossible that any one of vnknowne sayth as S. Cyprian teacheth should vsurpe an Episcopall Sea Impossible for any Bishop to stray from the auncient doctrine without publike notice taken of it Much more impossible for the Roman Bishop As impossible for the Roman Church which alwayes flourished in the view of the world And what can our Protestants deuise what colour haue they to imagine the contrary Whitaker Sparke and their sect-mates alleage that it decayed by little little by such flow and slily steps as it could hardly be perceaued 13. Well let it be that corruption stole thus secretly vpon some part or limme of the Church yet it could neuer grow ouer all the body without being marked by some or other at least when the chaunge or corruption came to be notorious When she first preached heresy supported idolatry When she first relinquished the communion of the true Church this must needs be noted chronicled And this is only that which we desire our aduersaryes to tell vs. We can tell them when all other scandalous and pernicious heresyes first beganne when Arianisme Nestorianisme Manichisme Pelagianisme Lutheranisme Caluinisme c. We can describe the places name the authours recount the vpholders supporters of those and the like blasphemous errours Theodoret reckoneth vp threescore and sixe Saint Augustine fourescore and eight which were before their dayes S. 〈…〉 haer fabu l. 3. Antoninus Guido Carmelita Alfonsus de Castro and Prateolus make mention of the rest euen to this present age Let Protestants performe the like of the superstitious Aug. l. de haeres ad Quod vult Deum
bastard Church into an adulterous Church Wherefore the only thinge I am to proue is that the Roman church neuer ceased to be the true church of Iesus christ or which is all one that it neuer altered her religion neuer changed in any essentiall point from the purity of fayth which the Apostles togeather with their bloud to speak with Tertullian powred into it Which I first demonstrate Tertulliā in praes contra haer with this common argument often heretofore insinuated 4. The diuin prouidēce hath preserued inuiolably the truth of his Gospel in the persō of succession inuisible descent of Bishops Priestes and preachers in some place or other for he hath appoynted a perpetuall generation of Apostles Prophets Euangelists Pastours Doctours to continue in his Church vntill we meete all into the vnity Ephes 4. v. 13. of sayth and knowledge of the Sonne of God that is vntill the last day The finall end or cause was that now we be not children wauering and carryed about with euery winde of doctrine So that Ibidem v. 14. as an orderly ranke of Pastours and preachers was still to remayne euen so the linke of heauenly truth is perpetually chayned thereunto by the holy Ghost in so much as the gates of hell and all the might of Satan shall neuer separate them but no other row of succeeding Pastours can be named besides those of the Roman Church or such as descending from them in all partes of the world haue likewise agreed with them in fayth and doctrine therefore they are the Doctours and Pastours which our Lord hath appointed to abide in his Church vnto the worke of the ministery vnto the edifying of the body of Christ vntill Ephes 4. v. 12. we all meet in the vnity of fayth 5. Secondly that Church which once was the chast and vndefiled spouse of Christ can neuer cease to be his Three only wayes can a true Church fayle by Schisme heresy or apostacy Schisma est recessus vel diuisio ab vnitate ecclesiae spouse or loose the integrity of sauing fayth vnlesse it be diuorced from him by schisme heresy or apostacy Schisme commeth from the greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is defined a departure or diuision from the vnity of the Church by which the band and communion held with a former Church is broken and cut off Heresy as it is now generally taken is a willfull election and firme adhesion to some priuate and singular opinion or rather errour cōtrary to the generall approued doctrine of the Church and it is deriued from the Greeke verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifyeth to chuse or voluntarily to preferre one thinge before another Apostacy is a defection or reuolte A description of heresy from God in such manner as it renounceth his faith casteth of the very name and title of a Christian by imbracing Iudaisme Turcisme or Paganisme But the Romā Church which once syncerely professed the faith Of Apostacy of Christ neuer deuided it selfe by Schisme from the body of other faythfull Christians It neuer brake the communion or went forth frō the society of any elder Church The Roman Church neuer failed any of thes waies Not by Schisme Or if it did tell vs whose company it left From whom it went forth And where was the true Church which the Roman forsooke The Grecians and other schismaticall Churches haue separated themselues from her but she neuer went out or reuolted from any Likewise the Romā Church hath at no tyme by voluntary election made choyce of any singular or new opinion disagreable to the common receaued doctrine of the Christian world Nor by heresy It hath cleaned in no age to priuate articles or propositions of fayth which were not at the same tyme generally maynteyned in the Church of Christ For who did euer Nor yet by Apostacy taxe the Roman Church of nouelty or innouation in this kinde What true Church did euer disclayme from this singularity or hereticall pertinacy in the Roman Church Did it betwitch all nations in a moment with detestable heresy And was no man left to discouer the M. Napp●r vpō the reuelation p. 66. and 68. item p. 43. 63. Melancthō in locis postremo editis Beza confess general c. 7. sect 12. Humfrey Iesuitis 2. part pag. 6●4 VVhitak contro 2. q. 4 fol. 144. Fulke in his answer to a counterfeit Catholik pag. 36. infection It can not be Much lesse did it depart from Christ by the crime of Apostacy which necessarily presupposeth a departure from the true Church and a reuolte from the openly professed fayth with the renouncing of Christianity and falling to infidelity Wherefore seeing by no other meanes a Church once true can possibly decay the Roman Church which by neyther of these wayes hath strayed from the truth perseuereth still the Church of Christ vnstained in her fayth 6. Thirdly if the Roman Church euer fayled I aske when By whome Vnder what Pope or Emperour it first beganne to play the aduoutresse Mayster Napper maynteyneth that it did first degenerate about 300. and thirteene yeares after Christ by the meanes of Pope Siluester Melancton about the foure hundred twenty by the vsurpation of Zosimus Beza about the foure hundred and forty by the arrogancy of Leo. Doctour Humfrey about the fiue hundred ninty seauē by Gregory the great whom he tearmeth the first Pope and leader of the Popish daunce Why taker and Fulke about the sixe hundred and sixe by Boniface the third his successours For Whitaker affirmeth All that followed Gregory to be true Antichrists Many other dissentions there be amongst them Because the Cēturistes sometymes say that it beganne to be corrupted in Cent. c. 4. col 71. 79. 80. 81. c. Cent. 2. c. 4. col 55. Cent. 1. cap. 10. col 571. c. 584. and. c. 4. col 54. Et conuenientia testimonia non erant Marc. 14. Daniel 13. the three hundred sometymes in the two hundred yeare after Christ Other while they ascend higher and find corruptions euen in the Apostles dayes But as the disagreement of the two wicked Iudges in accusing Susanna one affirming she committed adultery vnder one tree another vnder another was a most apparant testimony in the iudgement of all people of her vnstayned chastity their inueterate malice So if another Daniell would now determine our cause this variance of our aduersaryes in appeaching the Roman Church one auonching she reuolted from Christ and fell into her spiritual adultery vnder one Pope Another vnder another One in the tyme of Siluester Another of Leo A third of Gregory c. must needes be an euident token of her vnchanged fayth and their new forged slaunders For why doe you dreame Mayster Napper that in the dayes of Saint Napper vpon the reuelation p. 66. Siluester and by his default the Roman Church decayed Because sayth