Church hath been and is so visible ours not therefore theirs is the true Church of Christ and ours is not For the first we say that howsoever the Catholique and Universall Church hath continued from the beginning of the world and shall continue to the end the Lord shall never want on earth a company of faithfull men to serve him yet this Church is ever invisible an article of our Faith to beleeve there is such a Companie and that we are of that number but for a congregation of men and women to have the Word truly preached and Sacraments administred in publike and by Authoritie which wee call a visible Church and is a mixt company there hath not alway beene such neither can wee be assured that there alwaies shall be such For the second viz. That they say the Roman Church hath beene visible and enioyed such a succession without interruption since Christ and his Apostles time professing the same faith without change I answer there hath not been in the Church of Rome that perpetuall succession they boast of For to say nothing whether Peter was ever Bishop of Rome or not or who succeeded him whether Clement or Linus which is disputed amongst themselues it is most cleare that there have stood three Popes at once and did the Succession hold when Pope Ioan stept into the Papall Chaire and managed the affaires of the Church Was she also Saint Peters Successor and they lawfull Cardinals Bishops and Ministers of her ordination Neither are his Arguments to be despised who proveth that now for divers yeares ever since Sixtus they have had no Popes nor Cardinals nor Bishops according to their owne Councels and Canons c. But grant them what succession soever they challenge yet succession of persons and place without succession of doctrine is nothing worth as Ierome said Yee hold the Seat and Faith of Peter if faith be gone the state is no better then a chaire of pestilence Now the faith is gone and not onely this latter Rome holdeth doctrine contrary to the Ancient Rome within the five hundred or six hundred yeares after Christ but now maintaineth strange and novell doctrines and service which Rome knew not when it first became the seat of Antichrist as the Conception of Mary Latine Service suppression of Scriptures the mariage of Priests adoration of Images supremacie of Pope Communion in one kinde Transubstantiation c. and therefore is long since ceased to be any true visible Church Lastly whereas all Popishly affected persons doe commonly demand Where was your Church and who professed your Religion before Luthers times I will answer plainly that the simple may understand the Doctrine Faith and Religion which we professe is the very same that all the Christian Churches throughout the world professed for many hundred yeares after Christ and his Apostles all the blessed Martyrs in the Primitive died for no other but our Faith and Religion after that the Church had peace by meanes of godly Constantine the learned Bishops Fathers taught no other the people beleeved received professed no other though as the mysterie of iniquitie began to worke in the Apostles time so the longer the worse and moe errors and corruptions crept into the Church till in the end the ship came to be covered with waves of heresies persecutions that the Church was not so glorious eminent visible conspicuous as before Then came the darke time of Antichrist for many hundred yeeres yet even then were the Waldenses Bohemians and others who agreed with vs in the substance of Religion and spake and wrote against the corruptions of those times but when it pleased God to stirre vp Iohn Husse Ierome of Prage Martine Luther and other his worthy servants to open the skupperholes the waves which so oppressed the Church ran out the ship came aloft againe and that Faith which had so long beene oppressed began publikely to be professed and a faire visible Church in one place or other hath ever since continued and I trust shall now to the end of the world and shall never be universally covered againe Neither let any Papist suppose it a forfeiture of the cause if wee cannot shew a precise and exact Catalogue of the persons places and times by whom where and when our faith was professed For first howsoever in all ages some have oft appeared and given singular witnesse to our faith as our Martyrologe hath recorded so the Church may be in some places where none can see it as in Elias time there were seven thousand in Israel and yet hee saw never an one of them And as wee doubt not but there are at this day in Spaine Italy Rome even where Satans throne is Againe through defect of history many things are hid from us and specially the Church of Rome doing her best to deface the memory of any thing that might witnesse for us and our Religion If in these daies they will not spare man living but wipe names out of bookes give commandement that none shall name them but with contempt and charge the Protestants with such horrible opinions as wee hold not As that God is the Author of sinne we condemne prayer fasting povertie chaâ—â—itie good workes confession what may wee not thinke their Ancestors have done in former ages to men of our Religion So as it may be there were many moe Martyrs that then died for our Faith yea moe Churches that professed our Faith then are come to our knowledge Thirdly howsoever the Church in these parts of the world might for many yeares be oppressed as the Moone in Ecclipse and as a ship covered with waves yet even then Christ might have most glorious visible Churches in other parts of the world for howsoever the Iesuits brag exceedingly of their conversion of the Indies where they say our Religion is scarce heard of Yet that learned Iewel of our Church hath long since shewed out of Vespatius that in the East-Indies there were many godly Bishops and whole Countries professing the Gospell before the Portugals came there or Popes name heard of Yea doe not they say that the Apostle Thomas lieth buried in a City there and that he converted them to the Faith of Christ and did S. Thomas preach Popery or no If they say true our Religion was there professed before Popery Lastly give me leave in a word to answer them out of themselves Thus writeth Gregorie of Valence When we say the Church is alwaies conspicuous this must not be taken as if we thought it might at everie season be discerned alike easily for we know that sometimes it is so tossed with the waves of Errours Schismes and persecutions that it shall be verie hard to be knowne Yea the learned Papists doe generally confesse that in the supposed or imagined reigue of Antichrist their Church shall be invisible Thus saith Acosta In the daies of
did arise Then is this societie a shadow or figure of the visible Church By visible and invisible I do not mean two distinct Churches as our Adversaries falsly charge us as if a member of the visible were not also a member of the invisible but I distinguish the divers considerations of the same Church which is visible in respect of profession and use of the Word and Sacraments but invisible in respect of saving grace wherein only elect doe communicate and whose bodies profession is visible but saving grace invisible unknown of us saving in the judgement of charity As all men might know Nathaniel to be an Israelite but to be a true Israelite in whom was no guile that Christ only knew so that many of the invisible lie hid in the visible as a part in the whole which visible Church may be thus described viz. It is a mixed company that professe that doctrine which is according to godlines having the word of God for matters fundamentall purely preached Sacraments for substance sincerely administred And I say this is a mixed company For in such a company may be ludas and many unregenerate and hypocrites in the visible which are not of the invisible Church This Church was shadowed out by Noahs Arke wherein were both cleane and uncleane beasts by a floare having a heape of corne and chaffe mingled together a field wherein wheat and tares grow together a draw-net gathering all sorts of fishes good and bad a wedding wherein are guests that have the wedding garment and that want it by a company wherein are both wise and foolish virgins the one having lampes and oyle the others lampes onely a flocke of sheepe and goats Matth. 25. 32. a great house wherein there are vessels of gold and siluer so also of wood and earth some to honour and some to dishonour And this visible Church is two-fold Vniversall and Particular the Vniversall visible Church is the company of all such as professe the doctrine of godlinesse and enioy the ministerie of the Word and Sacraments wheresoever in the world they be A Particular visible Church is a company professing as before but receiving denomination from the Countrie Kingdome or Citie as the Church of England Scotland Bohemia Corinth Galatia Ephesus Philippi which is the reason why particular visible Churches are so affected with ioy or griefe at one anothers prosperitie or adversitie because in effect they are even the same and as members of the same bodie parts of the whole Thus we have shipped the passengers Now as friends at parting have commonly some loving Charge or other suffer me before they launch forth to give to them and in them to you and us all a double warning viz. Beware of departure from and of division among I say beware of departure and division goe not out fall not out For the first howsoever Iudas the covetous wretch and who afterwards was Traitor be in the company yet let none depart from the ship and forsake the fellowship of Christ and the rest of the disciples for his sake it had been no lesse dāgerous to the bodie of any of them to have gone out of the ship into the sea than it is to the soule of any to depart from a true visible Church where Christ and his Disciples are I doe not deny but for many respects it may be warrantable for a man to depart from one visible Church to become a member of another yea for a time to dwel where no visible Church is but to depart because of some corruptions specially in discipline or manners is the dangerous departure condemned by the Scriptures and the ancient Fathers in Donatists Novatians Catharists and such like Separatists of all whom S. Iohn hath pronounced They went out from us but they were not of us for if they had beene of us they would no doubt haue continued with us neither shall such departers ever satisfie their blind and preposterous zeale There never was nor will be a visible Church in this world without great blemishes faults and corruptions Looke upon the state of the Church from the beginning of the world and you will finde it so yet in all the Scriptures there is no precept rightly understood commanding to depart nor warrantable example of any that have so departed A thing also which the Fathers in their times haue exceedingly declamed against Not that we should sit downe carelesse and not take to heart the corruptions of Church or Common-wealth or as if Magistrates and Ministers by word and sword should not endeuour reformation Indeed the Master said to his servants Let both grow together till the harvest which place the Anabaptists abuse amongst others to proue a toleration and S. Augustines opinion was so at the first as himselfe confesseth and gave his Reason lest professed Heretikes should become dissembling Hypocrites but Luther hath both shortly and soundly expounded the place saying It is not a sentence of approbation but of consolation that we should not endevour reformation but a comfort when we cannot so reforme but still there will be corruptions yet for them not to forsake the fellowship as the manner of some is But these things I have more largely handled and pressed in this place hereto fore from some other Scriptures and because such departure is not now so hot and common as it hath beene I passe it over with this touch and caution in few words given The second charge I give is the same that Ioseph gave to his brethren Beware of division and falling out All division is dangerous be it of Kings Cities or Families as our Saviour saith Every kingdome divided against it selfe shall be brought to desolation and every citie or house divided against it selfe shall not stand but no division so dangerous as that in a ship and specially in a storme what doth that threaten but ship wrack and destrucction to them all Wherefore there is nothing that Sathan more laboureth and wherein he doth more hurt than by causing of divisions and nothing more commanded than peace amitie and unitie Have salt in your selves and have peace one with another The Angels at Christ his comming into the world proclaimed peace and Christ at his going out of the world bequeathed peace My peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you The Apostles still wished Grace and Peace to those Churches to which they wrote and inioyned the Saints If it be possible and as much as lieth in them to liue peaceably with all men yea to follow peace with all men and to striue to keepe the unitie of the Spirit in the bond of peace And here I cannot sufficiently wonder at the Romanists that considering our unite and the great and grievous divisions in the Synagogue of Rome yet the Romanists are not ashamed
blush that Bellarmine so well knowing what are the lives and conversations of men and women in that Church should not be ashamed of this and is sufficiently confuted by their owne iest of the Duke of Vrbins Painter who being hired by a Cardinall to picture the Images of Peter and Paul the Cardinall told him he had painted them too high-coloured in the face the Painter replied that when they were alive they looked pale with preaching and fasting but now they were so red with blushing at the wickednesse of their successors I will not deny but Rome was an holy Church when S. Paul did write his Epistle to it and during the continuance of 63 Bishops till Boniface the first Pope set up by Phocas who had killed the Emperour Mauritius and his wife and children Many of which said Bishops were Martyrs for Christ and his Gospell which they now persecute and sanctitas vitae is gone I need not reprove the Lay-mens lives wherein some live civilly and morally yea in superstition and blinde devotion severe and not sparing the body But if they would have the world beleeve Romanists are so holy they must not wipe expunge but burne Bernards Sermons Platina Baronius Annals Iansenius c. who have made it known to all the world that Popes themselves have beene convicted of Atheisme Sorcerie Heresie Blasphemie Sodomie Incest Whoredome Adultery Simonie as for Covetousnesse Pride Drunkennesse ordinarie faults `` Only let us marke that as they deceive the simple with glorious titles of Catholike and holy mother Church and honour the Pope with the like of Christ his Vicar and Peters Successour so doe they strangely gull the world in changing the Popes names The first was Sergius who because his owne name Bocca di Porco or Swines-mouth was not consonant to his dignitie hee was called Sergius and so ever since if any be an absolute Atheist he is called Pius if a bloudie Tyrant Clemens if a Coward Leo if a Rusticke Vrbanus if an harmefull man Innocens if a drowsie sluggard Gregorie if an earthly minded man Coelestinus if cursed of God and man Benedict Thus they take great paines to gild and decke their Pilot who sitteth at the sterne by which meanes they draw not a few passengers into their vessell and having put a faire Coape upon the Pope and made him in his name an holy blessed and good man then they stand for sanctitas vitae to be a note of the Church and might have done so with fairer pretence if they had also changed Pope Ioan the harlots name and have called her Casta or Matrona c. Was not Pope Ioan a fit Head for such an holy Church which having plaid the whore fell in travell in the midst of procession Was not the Cardinall of Crema a fit Legat from such an holy Church who in a Councell at London inveighing against the marriage of Priests and with these words It was a shamefull thing to rise from the sides of an whore to make Christs bodie was the same night following taken in bed with a notable whore Yea they must be sure also to burne all the Rolles and Records in England the suppression of their Abbeyes and Nunries here bringing to light such abominations as are not onely a shame to speake but rehearsall whereof would infect the aire yea they must be sure to burne the booke of Revelation too for that telleth us and wee finde true by experience that Rome is an habitation of Devils and a cage of all uncleane birds a sinke of sin and confluent of all uncleannesse and iniquitie I will conclude with the testimonies of two men the first one of their owne a famous Predicant in Turin in Savoy who comming to speake of Sancta Ecclesia he was so far from making it a note of the Church with Bellarmine that fearing hee should rather prove the Calvinists to be the true Church by that he thought good rather against all points of schollership and specially in the tongues to derive sanctam from sancio sancivi Sic Panegirolla ut in Car. Lett. pag. 118. The other a worthie Doctor of our Church having spent many yeeres amongst the throng of Papists in Lancashire professeth that fowlest disorders were ever in those parts where the people were most Pope-holy being generally buried in sinne swearing vncleannesse drunkennesse most dissolute fierce and inhumane behaviour ring-leaders in riotous companies drunken meetings seditious assemblies in profaning the Sabbath quarrels braules and all Heathenish customes But I purposely forbeare to rake in this filthie puddle which I would have passed by if they had not beene so shamelesse to make holinesse of life a note of the Church Let vs blesse God that in our Church and other Reformed Churches we have for a Pilot and Master one of the Trinitie House we have the holy Scriptures and Sacraments purely and sincerely preached and administred According to the foure first generall Councels and whatsoever the Fathers living within the first five hundred yeeres after Christ unanimously taught as needfull to salvation we beleeve and professe And though we have too many sins amongst us yet by the Word and Sword of Civill and Ecclesiasticall Magistrates they are so rebuked and reformed that if we stood to the triall of these two notes it would be found that our Church is the holy Church of God the true ship wherein Christ and his Disciples are and the Church of Rome an Antichristian Hereticall Apostaticall and prophane Synagogue a man of warre and ship of Pirats and therefore all men must take heed of passing in her VERSE 24. And behold there arose a great tempest in the Sea in so much that the ship was covered with the waves but he was on sleepe THe passengers being all shipped now we proceed to the hoyssing of the sailes and launching forth into the deepe and the whole storie of their voyage wherein three things are to be considered viz. First the great perill jeopardie they were in Secondly their deliverance out of it Thirdly The effects thereof Their perill and danger is reported in this 24. verse where we have First a note of attention Behold Secondly the Narration therof it selfe which hath two parts viz. First a Declaration of the cause of their danger and secondly an aggravation of the danger it selfe In the Declaration the cause of danger is first in one word expressed a Tempest secondly described by two things viz. First the qualitie it was sudden it arose secondly the quantitie it was great The danger is aggravated by two circumstances the first concerneth the cause of their danger the tempest was so great that even the ship was covered with waves the second concerned the meanes of their safetie and securitie Christ was on sleepe which in their conceit did not a little aggravate their perill Of these in order And first for the first part viz. The note of regard Such
crueltie compared with the compassion of God God himselfe hath said Can a woman forget her sucking childe that shee should not have compassion on the sonne of her wombe Yea they may forget yet will I not forget thee Our Saviour therefore useth an argument from the lesser to the greater saying If yee that are evill give good gifts to your children how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that aske him The Lord professed of himselfe that his bowels were troubled for Ephraim his deare sonne and pleasant childe Yea that his heart was even turned within him and his repentings did roule together As if he had begotten mercy he is called the father of it Yea as if there were no end thereof he is called The Father of mercies Yea whereas he is called the God of many things as of Patience Comfort Hope Peace c But Father and in plurall of none but this as if he were nothing but mercy Christ had compassion on the multitude when he knew they were but hungry He had compassion when he saw them bring their sicke unto him and will he not have compassion when life is in danger Oh right deare and precious in his sight is the death of his Saints Hee wept when his friend Lazarus was dead and will he not prevent it in his disciples Yes assuredly if it be for his glory and their good they doe well therefore to goe to Christ but it is enough to tell him what is their danger and misery Lord save us we perish Is then the Church of God in danger through cruell rage of bloudy persecutors so as it cannot in likelihood subsist goe to Christ and pray for his people Lord save us we perish Art thou thy selfe in danger through hunger thirst by water fire sword pestilence c. Goe to Christ and say Lord save me I perish So did David I will cry unto God most high and he shall send from heaven and save me from such as would swallow me â—p Psal 57. 2. Yea and go to him with great comfort and confidence for he hath beene made like unto his brethren that he might be a mercifull and faithfull high Priest yea hath beene touched with the feeling of our infirmities therefore let us goe bolaly to the throne of Grace and specially in danger of death Let us with his Disciples here goe to him who hath himselfe both suffered and feared it and hath in nothing more declared his goodnesse and greatnesse love and power than in delivering his servants from it when their lives have beene for his glory as his people from rage of enemies and Red sea Moses from the water Ionah out of the Whales belly the three Children out of the fiery furnace Daniel out of the Lions den yea Paul out of the mouth of the Lion Oh the dangers that every where by sea and land at home and abroad by day and night we are continually subject unto and wherein we had long since perished if he had not mercifully by his good providence and powerful protection of his good Angels preserved us To him let us ever commend our selves Lord save us that we perish not But I heare some object against this Vse and say Doe not Gods people complaine For thy sake are we killed all the day long and as sheepe appointed for the slaughter Doe they not complaine that the enemies prevailed and gave the bodies and flesh of his servants to be meat to the beasts of the field and fowles of the heaven and shed their bloud like water And againe They breake in peeces thy people and afflict thine heritage they slay the widow and stranger and murther the fatherlesse The ungodly even for his owne hearts lust doth persecute the poore Never might such complaints be more justly made than in these daies wherefore it seemeth that Christ doth not care though his people doe perish but as the carelesse shepherd said That which perisheth let it perish Zach. 11. 9. I answer that sometimes God suffereth great havocke to be made of his Church and people for their sinnes and giveth the dearely beloved of his soule into the hands of their enemies Ierem. 12. 7. nor will heare his best servants for them Ezech. 14. 20. but casteth them off to sword pestilence captivitie Ier. 15. 2. And then the enemie groweth proud and blasphemeth Who is the Lord that he should deliver Ierusalem out of mine hands And there is no helpe for them in God and then even Davids feet had wel-nigh slipt And the Prophet Habakkuk is wonderfully offended and expostulateth with God Oh God why doest thou hold thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he Yea then such as are not sound at heart fall away and say It is in vaine to serve God what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hoasts I say to all such enemies Vnderstand ye bruitish among the people He that planted the eare shall he not heare he that formed the eye shall hee not see He heareth the sighes and groanes and seeth the misery of his people and when he hath sufficiently scourged his people and accomplished his great worke upon Sion and Ierusalem he will burne the rod and Ashur shall pay for it as he hath threatned I was wroth with my people and gave them into thine hand but thou didst shew them no mercy upon the Ancients hast thou very heavily laid the yoke Oh the persecuting enemies have an heavie day comming And I say to all such as feare God Stand still and see the salvation of God Never any father corrected his childe with more unwillingnesse than God doth afflict his people his bowels yearne He putteth all their teares in his bottell And as he will preserve them they shall never everlastingly perish so either their bodies shall not perish but be preserved from sword of enemie or if he give them for a prey he will fill them with patience comfort and joy and receive them to eternall happinesse so as they shall praise him and for ever confesse Thou hast tried us as silver thou broughtest us into the net thou layedst affliction upon our loynes thou hast caused men to ride over our heads we went thorow fire and water but thou hast brought us into a wealthy place Rest assured Most precious in the sight of God is the death of his Saints They may confidently pray they may not perish for he hath numbred their very haires Matth. 10. 30. He keepeth their very bones so as not one can be broken much lesse any one shal die but as it is for Gods glory and their good Our second