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A34972 I. Question: Why are you a Catholic? The answer follows. II. Question: But why are you a Protestant? An answer attempted (in vain) / written by the Reverend Father S.C. Monk of the Holy Order of St. Benedict ... Cressy, Serenus, 1605-1674.; Cressy, Serenus, 1605-1674. Why are you a Catholic? 1686 (1686) Wing C6900; ESTC R1035 63,222 76

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The Prophesies themselves are thus expresly set down in the Old Testament and acknowledged by Protestants to regard the Christian Church The Prophet Isai writes thus Isa. 60. 2 3. The Lord shall rise upon thee and his Glory shall be seen upon thee ver 5. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light and Kings to the brightness of thy rising ver 10. The abundance of the Sea shall be converted unto thee the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee ver 11. The sons of Strangers shall build thy walls and their Kings shall minister unto thee ver 14. Thy Gates shall be open continually that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles and their Kings may be brought All they that despise thee shall bow themselves at the soles of thy feet and they shall call thee The City of the Lord ver 22. A little one shall become a thousand and a small one a strong Nation Again Isai. 49. 23. Kings shall be thy nursing Fathers and Queens thy nursing Mothers And again Isai. 39. 21. This is my Covenant with them saith the Lord My Spirit which is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy Seed nor out of the mouth of thy seeds seed saith the Lord from henceforth and for ever Also the Kingly Prophet Psal. 11. 8. I will give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance and the ends of the earth for thy possession This Kingdom saith the Prophet Daniel Shall not be given over to another people but shall stand for ever Dan. 11. 44. These are Gods Promises to his Church so acknowledged by Protestants Now it is manifest out of Ecclesiastical History that these Prophecies began not in a signal manner to be accomplished till the days of Saint Gregory For during the first three hundred years the Church was wholly under Persecution and was encreased chiefly by sufferings In the next three hundred years the Emperour Constantine being converted to Christianity there were but few other Kings Foster-fathers of the Church And besides this several of the Emperours and some Kings during that space turned Arians and Apostates from the Catholic Faith But from Saint Gregories time till Luther it is incredible almost what we read of the Conversion of Nations and Kingdoms and of the wonderful Piety and zeal of once Barbarous Kings and Queens assoon as they had embraced the Catholic Faith Which Conversions were generally made by the fervor care and authority first of St. Gregory himself as England can but most ungratefully will not as becomes her witness and next of St. Gregories Successors Bishops of Rome §. 36. Now Sir consider the force of illgrounded prejudices Several Protestants though they saw all the formentioned Prophesies perfectly fulfilled by Catholic Missioners yet out of the pre-assumed hatred to Catholic Religion they will not acknowledg the forsaking Idols and worship of Devils and the embracing of the Catholic Faith to be a Conversion but rather a Perversion and therefore wonder that they do not to this day see those Prophecies accomplished which were made above two thousands years since In so much as Castalio Professes The more I do peruse the Scriptures the less do I find these Promises performed howsoever they are to be understood David George a Protestant living at Basil upon the same grounds became a Blasphemer of Christ whom he called a Seducer Bernardin Ochin turned an Apostate denying they Divinity of Christ. Adam Neuserus a Calvinist Professor at Heydelberg turned Turk and was circumcised at Constantinople Alemannus likewise renouncing Christianity became a blasphemous Iew. And the principal motive of all these horrible changes was an opinion that these Prophecies were false Dreams or impudent inventions of Sectaries and never fulfilled because forsooth not fulfilled in a Church of their Reformed Religion which Reform'd Religion never banished Pagan Idolatry out of one Village Some conversions indeed of their own particular mode they have made for by seditions they have banished Catholic Religion out of several places And particularly the Hollanders may brag that they have converted the great Empire of Iapan from the Catholic Faith to its pristine most execrable Idolatries to effect which they have procured the most cruel murder of near four hundred thousand Catholic Martyrs themselves in the mean time renouncing the open Profession of Christianity §. 37. Notwithstanding the truth is the wonderful Conversions of Nations in former and later times also by Catholick Missioners have been so illustrious that very many of the soberer Protestant Writers have highly exalted their zeal and unwearied deligence in their Apostolical functions and glorified God for it being forced hereto by the many undeniable Miracles wrought by them Yet the pleasant cunning of one Luther an Writer is very remarkable his name is Dr. Philip Nicolai who having written a Book on this very Argument to wit the fulfilling of the fore-cited Prophesies touching the Conversion of Nations is forced to alledg the examples not only ancient as of the Saxons Frisons Danes Germans c. converted by Catholic Bishops and Priests but later also as of innumerable People in the East and West-Indies reduced from Idols to Christianity by Iesuits and other Religious Missioners and to acknowledge likewise that God testified the Doctrine preached to them by stupendious Miracles All this this Lutheran confesses but then with a turn he deprives Catholics of the glory and merit of all their labours and applies it to his own Sect for he tells his Readers that all these Apostolical Preachers in converting Nations did Luther anizare and that the Iesuits in their first converting the Oriental Indians did shew themselves not Roman Catholics but Lutherans and Evangelicks Might he not have said as well that Christ's Apostles converted Nations not as such but as Lutherans §. 38. Now if these Prophesies be Divine and have indeed been fulfilled they have been fulfilled by Catholics only and consequently Catholic Religion constitutes that Church of Christ to which such glorious Predictions were made I will therefore here adjoyn the words of St. Augustine who having alledged out of the Scripture many such Prophesies concludes thus Whilst thou holdest thy self fast to these Prophesies if an Angel from Heaven should say to thee Leave the Christianity of the whole Earth and chuse the part of the Shismatic Donatus Luther Calvin Tindal c. he ought to be to thee Anathema because he would endeavour to cut thee off from the whole and thrust thee up into one part so alienating thee from the Promises of God §. 39. These Sir among many other are grounds surely sufficient to justifie the Right which the Roman Church has to merit your Obedience I beseech you think seriously on them For mine own part I do sincerely protest to you that unless I would renounce all other Guides to eternal Happiness but an over-weaning Fancie of mine own
the Roman Empire to bring together so vast an Assembly from all Regions and yet Unity essential to the Church being always to be preserved which cannot be done without a supereminent Goverment always existent hence it is come to pass that the supream Bishop and Successor of the Prince of the Apostles has even from the beginning been acknowledged this supereminent Governor through all the whole Church to take care that the common established Laws former Definitions and Decisions of the Church be every where observed and professed to prevent any innovations in Doctrine and also to end Controversies among Catholics if any arise at least by silencing contentious Disputes till a General Council may further consider them by which all Schisms are prevented and also Heresies that is any Doctrines that are declared by this supream Pastor contrary to former Church-definitions perpetually crushed and lastly to judg in causis majoribus when quarrels arise among Patriarks Metropolitans c. Thus stands the case and now I appeal to your own Conscience whether you can imagine any other Expedient for preserving a general Peace and Unity in Gods Church And whether if you were appointed and also enabled to frame such a Church as was necessarily to continue always One Body Reason it self would not dictate the same Order to you Experience shews that all Divisions both in the West and East are to be ascribed to mens renouncing Obedience to this Common Governor §. 63. Prot. Truly Sir I cannot but acknowledg that to preserve Order and Peace in so vast a Body as the Church is there must of necessity be a Government and if Government then Subordination and consequently an established Supream Governor And now methinks reflecting upon Ecclesiastical History I see clearly that such an orderly Government was settled in the Church by the Apostles themselves For if as some among us pretend the same Apostles had intended no Supereminence of Bishops above Presbyters and no degrees of authority among Bishops it could not possibly have happened that a few unarmed Bishops not assisted by Secular Power should so immediately after the Apostles have subdued such a world of Presbiters formerly supposed their equals to their Iurisdiction and no marks be left in any antient Writers to shew that those Presbyters resisted or so much as complained against such an usurpation and tyranny And the like may be said touching the Subordination of simple Bishops to Metropolitans Primate Patriarks and of all these to the Supream Pastor Though probably those Titles came into the Church in posteriour ages Therefore upon due consideration I cannot deny but my aversion to such and so qualified an Authority of the Bishop of Rome as you say is moderated by the Churches Decision is very much abated Cath. Since therefore you now see a way how to avoid danger from this to you formerly Rock of offence I may I suppose proceed to the following Points of Controversie touching the Holy Eucharist c. §. 64. 3. Of the Popes Temporal Authority and Iurisdiction Prot. No Sir You go too fast For though I am perswaded that our first Reformers with all their Rhetoric should not have drawn me with them out of the Church upon this Motive of opposing such an Authority in the Pope as has been acknowledged by General Councils and the ordinary Exercise of it to be regulated by approved Canons since I suppose such Authority regards only Ecclesiastical Affairs But your Church will not be contented with this for she will extend it also to Temporal matters even to the disposing of Kingdoms deposing of Princes absolving Subjects from their natural Allegiance expresly commanded in Holy Scripture c. Cath. Where do you find that our Church invests the Pope with such an Authority Prot. I cannot distinctly tell you that but of this I am assured that the Pope challenges it and as by Divine Right Cath. How do you ground such an assurance you will not surely esteem this to be an irrefragrable Proof thereof because some of his Predecessors have challenged it when as for above a thousand years before them not any precedent Pope ever pretended to it But let it be supposed that the present Pope did now challenge it Will you not live in a Community in which the Governor challenges more then you will grant to be his due Prot. No truly especially if that Authority to which he pretended endangers the ruine of Kingdoms or the utter banishment of Peace every where For such an Authority I am sure was never established on earth by our Saviour who is the Prince of Peace And that which makes me assured hereof is this because if Christ had had such an intention of dissolving the Frame of all Civil Government through the world he would have left in Scripture or Tradition most express proofs of such his will in a matter of that infinite importance whereas the quite contrary rather appears Cath. You say well But will you run out of the Church in case a Pope should chance to challenge more then his due when perhaps no obligation lies upon you to submit to such Authority challenged by him or to acknowledg the justice of it Prot. Dare you disacknowledg this Authority §. 65. Cath. What I acknowledg or disacknowledg is not material But to rectify your mistake I will sincerely acquaint you with the whole matter as it stands at this day and thence you may collect what must be required from you in case you are a Catholic Prot. You will much oblige me therein Cath. Then it cannot be denyed that besides that Temporal Power indeed belonging to the Pope within his own Dominions of which he is now the Temporal Soveraign several Popes in former times have both Challenged and actually exercised an unlimitted Temporal Iurisdiction over other Kingdoms and Empires Which Iurisdiction if it hath not been expresly acknowledged as just yet it hath been sometimes submitted to by Kings either obnoxious and unable to resist or desirous to make use of it for their own advantage against Enemies or Rebels Several examples hereof remain in our Records particularly during the Raigns of King Iohn and Henry the third But generally Princes when freed from such exigences have resolutely and stoutly resisted such pretentions of the Roman Court. If we now descend to latter times and cast our view on the present state of Christendom we shall find Kings and states so far from admitting such an exorbitant forrain Iurisdiction to be exercised or acknowledged within their Dominions that not any of them will permit Rescripts Bulls or Mandats from Rome though regarding even Ecclesiastical affairs unless touching private inferior persons to be published and much less executed within their states till examined and approved in their respective Councils Nay more then this even the Canons of Reformation prescribed by the General Council of Trent as far as they are suspected to entrench upon the Temporal Power of Princes have always been refused to
a Protestant §. 2. Prot. Perhaps we do not agree in the sence of this Article Cath. It may well be so therefore for a tryal give me leave to propose a few Questions to you Prot. Ask what you please Cath. First then when you say you believe the holy Catholic Church do you not believe this Church to be one Body as St. Paul expresly teaches saying There is one Body one Spirit as there is one Hope of our calling one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all c. Ephes. 4. 4. 5. 6. and as we profess in the following Creeds of the Church Prot. Yes I believe the true Catholic Church of Christ to be one Body §. 3. And do you not further believe that this Church of Christ shall continue one Body till the end of the world Prot. Yes doubtless for otherwise the time might come in which this Article of our Faith should be false and also Christ's promise That the Gates of Hell should never prevail against his Church should fail §. 4. Cath. In professing such a Belief of this Article do you not also intend thereby to acknowledg your self a Member of this one Catholic Church Prot. Yes without doubt Cath. You cannot surely think it a matter indifferent whether you be a Member of this one Church or not Prot. No by no means On the contrary I acknowledg that whosoever is separated from this one Church of Christ and dies in that separation cannot be saved §. 5. Cath. Thus far then we both agree Let us further if you please consider what a Church in general is I mean a Christian Church Prot. I conceive it to be a Society of Men and Women publicly professing that Religion which they believe to have been taught by Christ. §. 6. Cath. But every Society thus professing is it thereby the same Church which we are taught to believe in the Creed Prot. It is at least a part of that Church Cath. Are then Societies of Heretics and Schismatics part of that one Church since they also profess the Religion which they believe to have been taught by Christ Prot. No For they cut themselves off from this one Church either by inventing New and false Doctrines which renders them Heretics that is Chusers of a new Faith Or by disobeying the Lawful Commands of this one Church which renders them Schismatics that is Rebels §. 7. Cath. Can any Society be called one Body or Corporation unless it be united by common received Laws and Governors Prot. I now begin to perceive whither you would lead me Therefore I must advise well lest I engage my self too far by an hasty answer to this Question Cath. Sir it is not Victory but truth we now regard Therefore speak not of being engaged but freely recal any Answer you have or shall give if you find cause And as for the present Question consider well what that is which makes a Society as a Kingdom a Province an Army a City a Corporation to become one Body Is it not an Obligation imposed on those who live respectively in any of these to be subject to the peculiar Government and Laws there established This appears plainly in that wheresoever any one obstinately refuses such submission he is esteemed and treated as a Rebel a Fugitive an outlawed person and utterly deprived of all Priviledges and emoluments belonging to the said Body Prot. This cannot be denyed Cath. Apply this then to God's Church St. Paul says expresly it is one Body your Creed obliges you to call it One The Scripture compares it to a City at Unity in it self and to a well ordered Army with Banners under which all Soldiers are reduced in their ranks expecting the Generals command signifyed by subordinate officers Such a society is Gods Church It is the Kingdom of Christ which if once divided cannot stand But by his promise it and no other Kingdom besides it shall stand for ever and therefore it shall never be Divided but all its members shall continue in their order Now what makes such Order but obedience to Government and Laws Can you Imagine any other excluding this Prot. I must confess I cannot For it is plain that where every one will be a Law to himself there can be no Order nor Unity nothing but confusion and endless Divisions Cath. Hence it follows then that the Church must necessarily consist of Teachers and Disciples of Governors and Subjects Prot. That is granted Cath. And consequently that it is a Visible Society Prot. True for otherwise none will be able to know whom or what to obey No Society can be invisible to the members of it and it is not a Society if the Governors or Teachers in it be invisible and the Laws unknown §. 8. Cath. By whom have these Teachers and Governors been appointed in the Church Prot. St. Paul informs us Epes 4. 11. 12. 13. saying Christ gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edifying of the Body of Christ Till we all come in the unity of the Faith and of the knowledg of the Son of God unto a perfect man c. So also we read in the Epistle to the Hebrews No man taketh this honour to himself but he that is called of God as was Aaron Heb. 5. 4. §. 9. Cath. This being so are not they who are Disciples in Gods Church obliged in conscience to believe their Teachers and Subjects to obey their Governors Prot. Yes without doubt But yet with this condition that these Teachers teach truth and these Governors command lawful things Cath. But is every Subject to be a Iudg whether the Doctrine taught him be true and the thing commanded lawful Prot. The Scripture is to be Judg between them Cath. Indeed that which you say would be to some purpose if the Scripture could speak and answer the Readers Questions and Doubts as we two can do to one another But the Scripture being only a Writing and by consequence incapable of interpreting its own meaning whensoever any doubt of its true sence arises if it may be permitted to every Christian to judg of his Teachers Doctrines by examining them by Scripture the Church may as well be without Teachers §. 10. Prot. I know no remedy For since it is evident to us that there is on Earth no visible infallible Guide and Interpreter of Scripture we cannot rely upon any Man or any Society of Men so as to remain secure that they will not mislead us either out of ignorance or secular interests Therefore we must leave to all Christians a judgment of diseretion to discern by the Light of Gods word whether their Teachers guide them in the way of Truth or not Every one must take the best course he can not to fall into any dangerous Error And since Eternity depends upon it it is not likely that men will
to be Holy when it teaches Truth and Holiness So is the Universal Church Holy and so is every Member in its Communion Since that which makes it a Member in its Communion is its agreement with the whole in Doctrines taught by it both regarding Faith and Manners And from hence it follows that to ascribe Error and Corruption to any Church which is acknowledged a Member of the Catholic Church and for such pretended Errors to break off Communion with it is to do the same to the Universal Church and consequently to contradict an Article of Faith Now that this is the condition of the English-Church is manifest For since all Christians are under pain of damnation obliged to live in Communion with the Universal Church by being obedient to it's Laws and Governors as also to believe that this Universal Church is at this day extant where can an English Protestant hope to find this Church if not in the Roman Communion In the Greek-Church he will find the same Doctrine which in the Roman he calls dangerous Errours as besides the confession hereof by several Protestant Authors formerly hath been of late beyond all gainsaying evidenced by the indefatigable industry of Monsieur Arnaud in his two late Replies to Claude a Calvinist Minister from the Authentick Testimonials and Declarations both of several late Synods and of many Ecclesiastical Persons of eminency both in the present Greek and other Eastern Churches And besides these he will find other Doctrins which we all condemn as Heresies Then for pretended Corruptions in practice the same practices which he stiles Superstitious and Idolatrous principally touching the Blessed Sacrament he will find in the Greek Church far more distastful to him And as for other Eastern Sects besides the same Practises he will find himself obliged if in Communion with any of them to assent to Ancient Universally condemned Heresies Nestorianism Eutychianism Monothelitism c. §. 26. Prot. But no doubt God hath his Elect Servants among them all who are truly Orthodox as we are with whom we may be said to be united in Spirit Cath. Truly Sir this is a meer pittiful dream to talk of Communion in spirit with hidden Christians to you invisible as you are also to them This renders all the Discourses of the Holy Fathers touching the Churches Visibility and Unity utterly impertinent Yea this evacuates the Predictions of all Gods ancient Prophets foretelling the Extent Glory and Victories of the Kingdom of the Messias and it makes void the Promises of our Saviour touching his Church What meaning therefore can you frame to your self when you say You acknowledg a perpetually existent Catholic Church and a necessity imposed on all Christians to live in her Communion §. 27. Pr. We acknowledg our selves in Communion with all Christian Societies as far as they teach Truth and practise according to Christs Law Cath. So you may be said to communicate with Iews Turks and Insidels for some Truths are taught by all these and some of their practises are lawful But is this such a Communion as the Church Catholic anciently or as the First four General Councils required It is manifest that at the time of your first Separation there was not one Society of Christians in the world to whose Profession of Faith you would subscribe in whose Religious Worship you would joyn and by whose Laws you would be governed So that all Christians then living and visible in the World were to you as Heathens and Publicans and you the very same to them Were your first Reformers in Communion with them Certainly you will not say that the Roman Grecian and Oriental Churches though they will not deny but you teach some Truths and sometimes practise virtues do live in your Communion that is That Persons mutually excommunicating one another do at the same time live in one Communion or that Pastors live in Communion with those who renounce Obedience to them and abhorr the Faith taught by them §. 28. P. Why Sir would you have us allow such a way of Communion as you seem to understand to Societies which we firmly believe do teach damnable Errours and enjoyn Idolatrous or Superstitious Practises Cath. No Sir by no means But since there is on earth a visibly holy Catholic Church placed as a City upon a Hill with which you must under pain of damnation communicate in such a manner as Christians did in the time of the first four General Councils I adjure you not to rest where you now are in Schism from all visible Churches preceding your Separation but to find Her out and having found her out to depose an overweening conceit of your own abilities to censure and condemn her Doctrines and with Christian Humility to submit your self entirely to her Guidance by which means you will be sure to find rest of mind §. 29. Prot. This seems to me a task too hard to be undertaken Cath. That which makes it seem so hard to you is perhaps a secret whisper of Nature and self-love telling you that this may expose you to many worldly disadvantages or if not this a strong prejudice by education deeply imprinted in your mind against the Roman Church the condemning and reviling of which is the subject of most Books you read and of most of the discourses and Sermons you hear I name the Roman Church because I am perswaded that if you should happen to entertain any Doubts of the security of the Grounds of Protestant Religion it would not be the Grecian nor any of the other Oriental Churches whose Religion you would put in the scales against it but only the Roman from whence you had your Christianity your Church her subsistence and within the Limits and Iurisdiction of whose Patriarch you live Do I not judg aright Prot. Yes §. 30. Cath. Then Sir though at present you should have no doubts of any Doctrines taught by your Church or rather in it for your self will not allow her the Title of an authentic Teacher neither does she challenge it yet since you have voluntarily fixed your self in such a Church which not pretending to an infallible direction from God cannot with any shew of reason tell you that you are bound in conscience to believe any one of her Doctrines nor that it is a sin for you to leave her Communion and to chuse that of any other Society which you may like better for then all Christians should as well as you be obliged to joyn themselves to the English Church only Endeavour I beseech you with a mind as disinteressed as may be to hearken to what may be alledged for the Right which the Roman Church has to challeng your Obedience so as that the refusal of such Obedience would be an heinous Sin For this Right indeed She challenges and She alone No other ancient Church hath and no par ticular Sect doth or can pretend to it Prot. I am content §. 31. Cath. First then consider that
be raised to the end a heavier judgment should befall those who saw the Church and yet fled out of it Quis numeret testimonia de Ecclesia toto Orbe terrarum diffusa Quis Who can number the testimonies given in Scripture touching the Church spread over the whole earth who can number them There are not in the whole world so many Heresies against the Church as there are Testimonies in the old Law for the Church What page there does not proclaim this what verse does not mention it All passages there cry out aloud for the Unity of our Lords Body for he has placed peace through the borders of Hierusalem Now thou O Heretick barkest against all these Testimonies And therefore that whch is written in the Apocalypse is justly verified in that City Without are dogs Thou barkest against these Testimonies From what Tribunal dost thou judg Thy Tribunal is the presumption of thine own heart It is a lofty but a ruinous Tribunal Exaltare super coelos Deus super omnem terram gloria tua Be thou exalted O God above the Heavens and thy Glory over all the earth My Bretheren we have not seen God exalted above the Heavens yet we believe it But we not only believe but we see his Glory exalted over all the Earth in his Church Now I beseech you observe what a madness it is which possesses Heretics They being cut off from the compacted Body of the Church of Christ and by holding a part being deprived of the whole will not communicate with the whole earth over which the glory of Christ is spread O Heretical Madness Thou believest with me that which thou doest not see and thou deniest that which both thou and I do see Thou believest with me that Christ is exalted above the Heavens which neither of us hath seen and thou deniest his glory over all the earth which we both see In sole posuit Tabernaculum suum He has placed his Tabernacle in the Sun that is in a place manifest to all His Tabernacle is his flesh His Tabernacle is his Church which is placed in the Sun not in the night but in the day Tanquam ille quem catechizamus quaereret diceret quo ergo signo If a Catechumen should be inquisitive and say But by what sign shall I being as yet a little one and unable clearly to discern the truth from so many errours by what mark I say shall I find the Church of Christ to believe which I am obliged by so many manifest predictions Hereto the Prophet as if he had a perfect knowledge of the Catechumens scruples answers teaching him that this is foretold to be the Church of Christ which is raised on high and apparent to all For she is the seat of his Glory For in regard of such doubts as may befal the simpler sort of Christians who may be seduced by crafty men from the Church so gloriously manifest our Lord providing a remedy saith A City which is set upon a mountain cannot be hid Christo tales maledicunt qui Those do blaspheme Christ who affirm that the Church hath perished from off the whole earth and remained only on Africa Geneva England Holland c. §. 2. Of the Catholic Churches Unity and of Schism §. 43. Una est Ecclesia quaecunque illa sit There is one only Church whichsoever that is of which it is written my dove my undesiled is but one she is the only one of her Mother neither can there be so many Churches as there are Shisms O this Position both the Schismatics Donatists and St. Augustin were agreed Perirem si essem departe Pauli I should perish eternally if I were of a party of which St. Paul was the leader How then shall I avoid perdition if I be of the party of Donatus of Luther Calvin Tindall c Quamvis Novatianus Though the Schismatic Novatian hath been put to death for the Faith yet he hath not been crowned Why not Crowned Because he died out of the peace concord and communion of the Church separated from that common Mother of whom whosoever will be a Martyr must be a Member We ought rather to endure any torments than consent to the dividing of Gods Church Since the Martyrdom to which we expose our selves by hindring a division of the Church is no less glorious then that which is suffered for refusing to Sacrifice to Idols Si in Navi pericula sunt If there be dangers to those who are ein the Ship there is certain drowning to those who are out of it In montem sanctum tuum Into his Holy Mountain His holy Mountain is his Holy Church This is the Mountain which according to the Vision of Daniel grew to this vastness from a small stone and breaks all the Kingdoms of the earth and which encreased in greatness till it filled the whole surface of the earth In this Mountain he was heard who said I cryed with my voice unto the Lord and he heard me from his holy Mountain Whosoever prays besides this Mountain let him not hope to be heard to eternal life Many are heard in many of their requests but let them not boast because they are heard The Devils were heard in their request to be sent into the Swine Let us desire to be heard to eternal life There cannot possibly be made any Reformation of such importance as the mischief of Schism is pernicious Nobiscum estis in Baptismo You Donatists are with us in Baptism in the Creed and in the other Sacrament of our Lord. But in the Spirit of Unity in the Bond of Peace and finally in the Catholic Church you are not with us Tenenda est nobis Christiana Religio Christian Religion is to be held by us and the Communion of that Church which is Catholic and is named Catholic not only by her children but also even by her enemies Fieri non potest It cannot possibly be that any one should have a just cause to separate his Communion from the Communion of the whole world Ut hanc omittam sapientiam Not to speak of that Wisdom which you do not believe to be in the Catholic Church there are many other things which most justly keep me in her bosom the consent of people and Nations keeps me the authority begun by miracles nourished by hope encreased by charity established by antiquity keeps me there A succession of Bishops from the Chair of St. Peter to whom our Lord after his Ascension committed his Sheep to be fed to the present pontificate keeps me there Lastly the very Name of Catholic keeps me there which name the Church alone among so many Heresies hath not without just reason possessed insomuch as though all Heretics are desirous to be called Catholics yet if a stranger asketh any of them where the Catholic Congregation meets not any of them has the boldness to shew him his own