by the zealous complaints against sin on either side for zealous complaint is hyperbolicall even in holy Scripture But it is manifest that the Protestant Religion hath not that sanctity of life in it that the Catholique hath when neither the founders thereof had any at all nor the followers any more but much lesse than when they were Catholiques In fine compare the lives of Roman Catholiques and Protestants both Clergie and Laity and of the same Nation for that some Nations perhaps are addicted to vice in generall more than others and every Nation to some one or few particular vices more than another the best to the best and the major part to the major part we shall find so have I done and I have heard even Protestants themselves confesse that they are exceedingly overballanced by the Catholiques CHAP. XIX Of the tenth and last here mentioned Mark of the Church viz. That the true Church hath never been separated from any society of Christians more antient then her selfe § 1. THe last Mark of the Church which I will mention is her never going forth out of any visible society of Christians elder than her self of which going out as a note of error and falshood the Apostles say They went forth from us 1 Joh. 2.19 Certain that went forth from us Acts 15.14 Out of your selves shall arise men speaking perverse things Acts 20.30 These are they that separate themselves Jude vers 19. Certain it is that the true Church is most antient as truth it self is elder than falshood if therefore there have risen in the Church men of indifferent judgements or affections from the true Church they have presently made a separation gone out of the Church wherein they were and erected a new Church to themselves As S. Augustine saith Tract 3. in Ep. Joan. de Sym. ad cateth l. 1. c. 5. All Heretiques went out from us that is they go out of the Church and againe The Church Catholique fighting against all Heresies may be opposed but she cannot be overthrowne all heresies are come out from her as unprofitable branches out from the Vine but she remaines in her vine in her root in her charity A vain thing therefore it is for Protestants to charge the Church of Rome with departing from the Word of God and the Doctrine of the Apostles unlesse they can prove that she departed from some former Church that held other doctrine than she doth But certain it is that this cannot be proved seeing she was planted by the Apostles S. Peter and S. Paul and never separated her self from any precedent Church It is true indeed that there were Churches elder than she in time as she is a particular Church as the Church of Ierusalem where the Gospell was first preached and of Antioch where S. Peter was first Bishop with other Churches in Asia but these all agreed in the unity of Faith and were all subject to the Church of Rome after it was planted in union under the head thereof S. Peter and his successors as I shall shew by and by And the Church of Rome did never seperate from any of these but many of these from her in the Heresie of Arius and others as Protestants will not deny If then she did never separate from any elder Church so that men might say here is a Church and there is the Church of Rome once the same with her and now separated from her she must still be the first and true Church or there is none upon earth But certain it is on the contrary side that all the former Churches which Protestants themselves will call Heretiques as Arrians Macedonians Nestorians Entychians Donatists with many others did separate from the Church of Rome and she can tell when and why and no lesse certain is it that all that are now called Protestants and all the pedigree of their fore-fathers Waldo Wickliffe Husse Luther Calvin and all the Kingdomes wherein their followers are were once and first of the Roman Catholique Church and have forsaken her Communion and departed from her and have not joyned to any other Church more antient and subsistent apart from her by which shee was condemned of novelty and separation nor are they able to shew any such Church therefore the Roman must needs be the true Church Or else which is a most absurd and impossible imagination the true Church hath been utterly extinguished and revived againe and that not by the service of such men as proved their calling by miracles or sanctity of life as Roman Catholiques have done to all the nations they have converted but were men notable only for their wickednesse And these amongst many others which might be added and of which much more might be said are those infallible Markes that prove the Church of Rome and those that communicate with her to bee the one true holy Catholique and Apostolique Church That Church of whose infallible and never-erring Judgement the Scripture assures us calling it The ground and pillar of truth which hath the Spirit of God to lead it into all truth which is built upon a rock against which the gates of hell shal not prevaile wherein Christ placed Apostles Prophets Doctors and Pastors to the consummation and ful perfection of the whole body that in the mean time we be not carryed away with every blast of doctrine 1 Tim. 3.15 John 16.13 Mat. 16.18 Ephes 4.11.12 That Church which whatsoever it says God commands us to doe and he that will not is an heathen and a Publican which whatsoever shee shall bind on earth is bound in heaven and whatsoever shee shall loose one earth is loosed in heaven which is the spouse of Christ his body his lot Kingdome and inheritance given him in this world Math. 23.3 and 18.17.18 Of which S. Cyprian Epist 55. saith To S. Peters chaire and the principall Church infidelity or false faith cannot have accesse And S. Hierome Apol. advers Ruff. l. 3. c. 4. That the Roman faith commanded by the Apostles cannot be changed And S. Gregory Nazianzen Carm. de vita sua 'Old Rome from antient times hath the right faith and alwaies keepeth it as it becomes the city which over-rules the world Which being so what remaines to every man but laying aside endlesse dispute about particulars to cast himself into the armes of this Holy mother Church and wholly rely upon her infallible judgement wherein Christ Jesus her husband hath promised and hath reason to preserve her And to submit themselves to the visible head thereof the Pope of Rome of whose authority as I did my self particularly enquire and was moved thereby so I will briefly propound it to others CHAP. XX. That the Pope is the head of the Church § 1. THe Protestants doe usually blaspheme the Pope and Sea of Rome with the title of Antichrist of the Whore of Babylon of the Mother of Abominations of the Beast with seven heads and ten hornes and many other like courteous compellations
do yea and more commanding things impossible and then punishes us for not doing them which is most tyrannicall Now if God do not require all but only thus much to do well then the doing better than well is a stock which God of his great bounty gives us to improve for our selves in a higher measure and to offer him liberalities beyond the bond of duty And what pride is it for man to acknowledge this sweet providence of his creator to praise his merciful indulgence in not exacting so much as he might but giving him a way means to shew his voluntary unexacted love to him Especially believing that this divine favour not to exact the uttermost of mans performance and consequently mans ability to present to God more perfect and excellent service than he requires is given through the merits of Christ § 8. But above all the Reall presence is the prodigie of opinions in the conceipt of Protestants whose playnnesse in Scripture notwithstanding leaves not where to adde to it with cleerer proofe as appeares by Christs words of institution This is my body so often repeated Mat. 26.26 Mar. 14.22 Luc. 22.19 They fight against it therfore with arguments drawn from the power of nature think because it exceeds the power of nature therfore it cannot be To whom it may be said as our Saviour said to the Jews who thought that mens bodies in heaven were like their bodies here on earth ye erre not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God Mat. 22.29 And why then do Protestants believe that God was in the form of a man a thing as impossible in nature as for God man together to be under the form of bread or wine And because they would make sure work if they could the former objection being in the opinion of many of them insufficient they say that it doth not only exceed the power of nature but of God also in that it implies a contradiction but this the most learned of them have never been able to prove nor never will I hope they will all take Luthers judgement herein whom they will not deny to be learned enough to discerne a contradiction Tom. Wittemb 1557. defens verb. Coenae fol. 388 and he saith what Scripture have they to prove that these two Propositions be directly contrary Christ sitteth in heaven Christ is in the Supper The contradiction is in their carnall imagination not in faith or the word of God They also fright the people from this belief by presenting to them the uncomlinesse and inconveniences that may ensue which objections are but raked out of the ashes of the old Heathen and Heretiques who made the like against Gods taking our flesh upon him as that it was undecent that God should lie in a womans womb nine moneths that he should be circumcised whipt and spit upon and finally suffer a most shamefull and painfull death But seeing Protestants doe believe that Christ when he was on earth was subject to all humane infirmities except sin why should his liablenesse to such infirmities make them forbear to believe that he is in the Sacrament But to acquit them of that trouble they may take notice that Christs body in the Sacrament is not subject to those inconveniences that it was before his death because it is now a glorified body and not subject to suffer any thing For as the Sun shining on a dunghill is not defiled therewith and as the Deity it selfe is every where and yet suffers no infection from the foulnesse of any place So the body of Christ being immortall and impassible cannot be defiled or hurt with the touch or impression of any unclean or hurtfull thing more than a man can hurt or defile a Spirit for of that nature are all glorified bodies as the Apostle saith It is sowen a naturall body it shall rise a spirituall body 1. Cor. 15.44 So that in this respect Protestants have more reason to believe the reall presence of Christs body in the Sacrament than that he once had a reall body conversant here on earth But some of them againe do acknowledge as they say themselves the Reall presence of Christs body in the Sacrament and therein seem to be Catholiques and please themselves in seeming to be so and think we can desire no more but they do but cozen both themselves and us for when their Presence is sifted we find no reality in it They say that Christ is really present in the Sacrament but not corporally or bodily by which bodily they mean either that his body it selfe is not there or that it is not there with the circumstances and accidents of a body as quantity and the like If they mean the former to wit that he is really there and yet his body is not there I would faine know how this may be For a body to be really in any thing must fignifie to be bodily or in body there or nothing Therefore to say that Christ is really there who is a body and yet not there bodily is the contradiction they speak of and is in their reall presence not in the Catholiques For it is as much as if they should say his body is there and it is not there If by not bodily they mean not with the accidents of his body as quantity figure and the like and that so Christ is not bodily in the Sacrament but spiritually that is after the nature of a Spirit then they agree with Catholiques who say the same and in this sense he may be and is both corporally and spiritually present in the Sacrament Now if by really they mean in regard of his Deity which is every where this is true but is not the true meaning of really for he is no more there in this sense than he is every where else so their confession of a reall presence imports nothing distinctly and is but a delusion For Christ being a man as wel as God the body of a man as wel as the Godhead concurring to the making of his person he that is whole Christ and unseparated cannot be said to be any where really unlesse he be there also bodily and if his body be there his body is by us received and that not only spiritually that is under the conditions of a Spirit or spiritually by receiving the grace of his holy Spirit into our Spirits and souls but also corporally in regard of himselfe who is a body and in regard of us who receive his body into our bodies and this not by faith but with faith that is not by an imaginary conceipt that he is there or that the benefits of his passion are conveyed to the receiver that thinks so which is the Protestant saith in this case but with faith that is faith and charity also abiding in our souls without which though we doe receive him truly really yet we do not receive him worthily profitably But according to the Protestant
it is the offer of us all the same do we all promise and we will all perform it Indeed in the first three of the first six hundred years the Church was almost under continuall persecution and so the writers of those times were few and much of that which they wrote did perish in those great ship-wracks of persecution and the matters that they wrote of most commonly were of another quality than concernes our present differences the Heresies of those daies being for the most part different from the present and much of their writings being spent in Apologies for themselves against the Heathen Yet all these advantages of the Protestants are too narrow to cover their designe For in those ages to retort the former boast of the Protestants there is not one single proof out of any one Father rightly interpreted for any one point of doctrine held by Protestants opposite to the Roman Catholique and for the Roman Catholique there is abundance In the alleadging whereof I will begin at the bottom and so go upward in some of which testimonies there shall be intermingling the interpretation of some Scriptures to the same purpose whereby I will include the testimony of Scripture also as it is interpreted by these Fathers who were doubtlesse better expositers than John Calvin or any of his followers And first of the Reall and corporall presence of our Saviour in the Holy Eucahrist and of the Holy Sacrifice of the Masse In the fift age or hundred of years S. Augustine expounding the title of the Psalme in which it is written And he was carried in his owne hands saith * Aug. Conc. 1. in Ps 33. Brethren who can understand how this could be done in man for who is carried in his own hands a man may be carried in the hands of another How this may be understood in David himselfe according to the letter we find not but in Christ we find For Christ was carried in his owne hands when commending his own body he said This is my Body for he carried that body in his hands Nor have the Protestants more reason to deny this place to intend the true reall naturall body and person of our Saviour because Turtullian saith it is a figure of his body than the Manichees and other Heretiques had to deny a reall body to our Saviour when he lived upon earth because the Scripture saith He took upon him the forme of a servant and was made in the likenesse of men Philip. 2.7 From which place they inferred that he was not a man really and indeed but had only the forme and likenesse of a man And if they would ' not stand to the judgement of the Church for the sense and meaning of these words who could convince them For they drew all other places to the sense of this and would not suffer this to yeald unto them though they were never so many or never so plaine In the fourth age S. Ambrose saith * Lib. 4. de Sacram c. 5. Before it be consecrated it is but bread but when the words of consecration come it is the body of Christ. To conclude heare him saying Take and eat of it all for this iâ— my body and before the words of Christ the chalice is full of wine and water when the words of Christ have wrought there it is made blood which redeemed the people Therefore mark in how great matters the word of Christ is potent to convert all things Moreover our very Lord Jesus testifieth unto us that we receive his body and bloud what ought we to doubt of his fidelity and testimony And again he saith * Lib. de iis qui misteriis initiantur c. 9. Perhaps you may say I see another thing how do you affirme to me that I shall receive the body of Christ This yet remaines to us to prove How great examples therefore do we use to prove that it is not this which nature hath formed but which benediction hath consecrated and that there is greater force of benediction than of nature because by the benediction the nature it selfe is changed Moses held a Rod he cast it down and it is made a Serpent c. which if humane benediction were so powerfull that it converted nature what say we of the divine consecration it selfe where the very words of our Lord and Saviour do work In the third age S. Cyprian tells us plainly if the former be not plaine enough for Transubstantiation that * Serm. de Coena Dom. prope init That bread which the Lord did give to his disciples being changed not in shape but in nature by the omnipotency of the word is made flesh and as in the person of Christ his humanity was seen his divinity lay hid so in the visible Sacrament the divine essence doth infuse it selfe after an expressible manner In the second age we find S. Iraeneus speaking thus * Lib. 4. c. 32. in fine But giving councell unto his diciples to offer unto God the first fruits of his creatures not as to one that wanted but that they might be neither unfruitfull nor ungratefull he took that which is bread of the creature and he gave thanks saying this is my body And the cup in like manner which is of that creature which is according to us he confesseth his blood and taught a new oblation of the new Testament which the Church receiving from the Apostles offers to God through all the world to him that maketh the first fruits of his gifts in the new Testament nourishments to us of which in the twelve Prophets Malachy 1.10.11 hath thus fore-signified I have no wil to you saith the Lord Omnipotent and I wil not receive a sacrifice of your hands for from the rising of the sun unto the going downe my name is glorified amongst the Gentiles and in every place incense is offered to my Name and a pure sacrifice because my name is great amongst the Gentiles saith the Lord Almighty Manifestly signifying by these words that the former people ceased to offer to God but in every place sacrifice is offered to God and this pure but his name is glorified in the nations Nor can this be meant of the Sacrifice of all Christians in generall but only of the Priests because as by the Chapter it doth appear God speakes of rejecting the Priests of the old law and their Sacrifice and choosing a new priesthood whom he calls the sonnes of Levi Mal. 3.3 by which figuratively is meant the Priests of the new Law and so do the Ministers of England frequently stile themselves the Tribe of Levi. Besides Protestants confesse that their * VVhitak cont Dur. l. 8. p. 572. praiers and best actions are impure and sinfull it cannot therefore be meant of such Sacrifices for this is a pure sacrifice and proper which none but Priests can offer is therefore according to the exposition of S. Irenaeus the Sacrifice of the Body and
one another to this end That the office of a Pastor is alwaies needfull our Saviour implies in calling his people his sheep and sheep without a shepherd are like to be but il provided for and as they are alwaies sheep so they ought alwaies to have a shepherd which office in ordinary being given to S. Peter first ought to continue out of the necessity of the cause thereof so long as the sheep continue which will be to the end of the world Which S. Peter not being now able to doe in person reason requires that it should be done by his Successors The Apostle 1 Cor. 12.21 compares the Church to a body and saith The head cannot say to the feet I have no need of you which cannot be understood of Christ our head for he may truly say to us all that he hath no need of us it must therefore be meant of some Head here on earth which must continue as long as the Church continues a body and that is to the worlds end And that the successors of S. Peter are this Head S. Chrysostome doubts not to affirm who demanding why Christ shed his blood De Saterdot l. 2. initio Leo Serm. 2. de Annivers assump sua ad Pontific answers It was to gaine that flock the care whereof he committed to Peter to Peters successors And S. Leo Peter continues and lives in his Successors And that his successors are the Bishops of Rome is out of doubt none but they ever assuming it to themselves or having it granted by others For the Bishop of Antioch succeeded not S. Peter in the government of the whole Church but of that diocesse for succession to any in his whole right is not but to him that leaves his place either by naturall death deposition or voluntary resignation now S. Peter living and ruling left the Church of Antioch and placed his Sea at Rome where he also died so that he that succeeds him in that Sea must succeed him both as he was Bishop thereof and likewise as he was Head of the whole Church as for the Bishop of Antioch he did never either possesse or pretend to higher than the third place amongst the Patriarchs Cone Nic. Can. 6. Gelasius In decret cum 70. Episcopis affirmes that the Roman Church is preferred before other Churches not by any constitutions of Councells but she obtained Primacy by the Evangelicall voice of our Lord saying thou art 〈◊〉 upon this rock I will build mâ—… 〈◊〉 And S. Hierome in his 59. Epistle 〈…〉 to Pope Damâ—sus saith To 〈◊〉 she 〈◊〉 require from the Priest the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—â—â—tion and from the Pastor 〈…〉 I speak with the successor of th◠〈◊〉 shoâ—â— c. I following none but Christ in 〈◊〉 joyned in Communion to your holyn sse that is to the chaire of Peter upon that rock I know the Church to be builded 3. whosoever out of this house eates the lamb is prophane whosoever shall not be in the Ark of Noe shall perish in the deluge And S. Aug. writing to Pope Innocentius Epist 92. saith wee think that by the Authority of your Holynesse derived from the authority of Holy Scriptures they will more easily yeeld who believe such perverse and pernicious things Wherein he derives the Popes authority from the Scriptures And S Bernard writing to Pope Eugenius saith thus Thou alone art not only the Pastor of sheep De consider l. 3 cap. 8. Epist 190. ad Innoc. PP but also of Pastors Thou demandest how I prove this Out of the word of our Lord. For to whom I do not say Bishops but also of the Apostles were all the sheep so absolutely and indeterminately committed Peter if thou lovest me feed my sheep which the people of this or that city country or Kingdome Hee saith my sheep To whom is it not plain that hee did not assigne some but all Nothing is excepted where nothing is distinguished c. To conclude James who seemed a pillar for the Church was content with Jerusalem onely yeelding the universality to Peter And with the Fathers apart doe concur the Fathers united in Councell by whom in many Councells this truth hath been declared as in the Councell of a Sess 14. c. 7. Trent the Councell of Florence b Sess ult the Councell of c Respons Synod de authoritat Conc. general Basil the Councell of d Part. 2. Act. 3. Ephesus the Councell of e Sub. Innoc. 3. e. 5. Lateran the second Councell of f Act. 2. Nice the Councell of g Conc. Chal. Act. 1. Act. 3. tom 2. p. 252 edit Venet. Chalcedon as is easy to shew at large if need required § 3. As for the attempt of the Bishop of Constantinople against the Pope it was not for the Primacy and headship of the Church Catholique but only of the Churches of the East And the title of universall Bishop which he claimed was not with intent of superiority over the Pope but over the other Patriarchs who were all of the Easterne Empire and in association with the Pope for those parts yet with subjection to the Pope acknowledging him the root and stock of the universality even as Menas Patriarch of Constantinople in the time of this contention acknowledges saying Concil Constant sub Men. Act. 4. we will in all things follow and obey the sea Apostolique And as the Emperour and Patriarch both acknowledge as S. Gregory lib. 7. indict 2. ep 93. reports in these words Who is it that doubts but that the Church of Constantinople is subject to the Sea Apostolique which the most religious Lord the Emperour and our brother Bishop of the same city continually protest And if it were true as Protestants imagine that the Bishop of Constantinople contended with the Pope for the absolute Primacy over the Christian world this doth no more prove his right than Perkin Warbecks pretention in the daies of King Henry the seventh did prove his right to the crown of England And certain it is that neither the one nor the other did obtain that which he aspired to but were rejected by the voice of mankind which is an argument that their claim was unjust § 4. Another great objection of Protestants against the Popes Primacy is fetched from S. Gregory who was Pope himselfe and is this That he that intitled himselfe universall Bishop exalted himselfe like Lucifer above his brethren and was a forerunner of Antichrist To the understanding of which words I found that the word universall hath two meanings the one proper literall and grammaticall whereby it signifies Only Bishops excluding all others the other transferred and Metaphoricall whereby it signifies the supreme over all Bishops and S. Gregory censured this title in the first sense because that from hence it would have ensued that there had been but one Bishop only and that all the rest had been but his Deputies and not true Bishops and true Officers of Christ as
Churches that never had the power to invite a King or nation to their Communion but such as were born to it or at first compel'd to it by the violence of some prevailing faction or moved to it by oblique and self-reflecting ends Barren and in jurious Churches that live not by their own labour and the gaines they make thereof but boast only of that which they have ravished from others and convert not from Heathenism but neerer to it § 5. Here you shall see a Church working wonders far above the power of all created Beings commanding by the rich dowry of her husband and Saviour heaven earth and hell and all the frame of the creation making them bow their fixt and stubborn natures and meekly yeeld to the dreadfull command of man propt by omnipotent Divinity In which the miracle of miracles Transubstantiation is most frequently wrought even millions of times a day and sufficiently proved to be so by the frequent effusion of blood that it hath made like murdered bodies many times bleeding afresh in the presence of the murderers to confute the incredulity of Jewes and Heretiques which if it do not so to those that do not see it having credible testimony thereof as well as to those that see it shall one day with the rest of his most precious soul-healing balm be required at their unhappy hands when he shall come incircled with flames and armed with dreadfull thunder to throw down vengeance on the impious and unbelievers who shall remedilesly feel that which heretofore they would not believe that he that believeth not shall be damned Mark 16.16 There you shall see Churches that do wonders indeed but they are wondrous evills the fowlest in all the stock and brood of villany too many to be repeated but not to be forgiven for that therefore I will alwaies pray Churches that are so poor in proof of their Doctrine that they neither come neere the Church of Christ nor yet do so much as the accursed Antichrist for he shall do some wonders but they do none Or at least it is but one only Miracle that they do and that is that being as they say the true pure Church of God they do no Miracle And one Miracle I beseech God to do amongst them and especially in the once-every-way happy and the now-every-way miserable Kingdome of England that is once more to convert them to his true faith and Catholique Roman Church where it is only to be had that they may see and submit before it be too late to him whom they have pierced and may as Christ admonisheth the Church of Ephesus remember from whence they are faln repent and do their first works Rev. 2.5 before all hope to see the Kingdome flourish be withered and that by their falling from bad to worse there remaine nothing but a fearfull expectation of seeing it over-run and possessed by some barbarous Nation as the Greek Churches are by the Turks for their Heresies most likely and Schism from the Church of Rome or else that they will become such themselves § 6. Here you may see a Church that is the worlds SANCTUM SANCTORUM most holy place guilded with the lives of innumerable both men and women persons of matchlesse sanctity shining through the vailes of their coarse cloth and neglected flesh yea in the feebler Sex God making his power as he saith to S. Paul perfect through weaknesse People so charitable to others that they will forgive every one but themselves and so severe to themselves that they had rather lose the reward of their well-doing than the punishment of their evill Whose fasting and prayers like empty-bellied instruments send up harmonious musick to heaven and exceed the Spheres Who suffer no mutiny of passions against reason or of reason against God Who disdain to stoop to the lure of sense or to serve it in any thing beyond the margent of necessity but ascending up to the mount Tabor of heavenly contemplation do there abide with Christ and are transfigured with the beauty of holinesse on whose hearts is written that which was on the brest-plate of Aaron Holinesse to the Lord. These are those noble Worthies of God who like Vriah one of Davids Worthies are ashamed to injoy the pleasures and delicacies of this life while they consider that their great Generall wanted them but like him spend all their time in suffering evill and doing good and are therein like to arched roofs whereon the more weight is laid the firmer and stronger they are And are many of them so extasied with heavenly raptures that their unbodied soules leave them forgetfull of all things that may tend to their temporall preservation Having such strong impressions of the presence of God that wheresoever they are or whatsoever doing they so behave themselves as if with S. Hierome they heard the sound of the Archangells trump summoning them to judgment Which high degrees of holinesse they underprop with the basis of humility and like the weightiest eares of corn bow down their heads the lowest to the earth and stand like figures in Arithmetique where the last in place is greatest in account So that this alone may perswade infidells that God was made man while they see men thus made Gods Into their secrets O Lord let my soule come let my glory be joyned to their assemblies There you shall see Churches calculated onely for the meridian of flesh and blood whose Apocryphall Priesthood cannot beget Canonicall much lesse super-canonicall vertues whose Priests like anticks which we see carved on the sides of sumptuous buildings seem with their bowed shoulders to bear up the house when they are indeed borne up by it so they pretend to be the only Pillars of the house of God but indeed have no share therein but what they derive from this Church of Rome Thou bearest not the root but the root thee Rom. 11.18 And what remaines of the perfume of goodnesse yet amongst the people bating the disposition of nature is but the reliques of the Roman scent perhaps not yet utterly faded § 7. Lastly look upon the Roman Catholique Church and you shall see a thing so complete and perfect in all her dimensions as if it had been as indeed it was moulded on a heavenly frame many members built up into one body and that body united under one head maintaining most sweet and admirable correspondence having in it selfe all fit means for the spirituall conservation both of the individuum and species of the particular body and of the kind For birth here is Baptisme Confirmation for strength and advancement in the state of grace The sacred Eucharist for our daily stock of spirituall improvement and encrease And so our spirituall sicknesses and wounds which we receive in our Christian warfare here are Physitians with the balme of Gilead the good Samaritanes with wine and oyle to powre into our wounds the holy Priests after the order of Melchisedeck with the Sacrament of Penance