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
and it is the maine designe of some of the Clergie to perswade the people into a belief that he is Antichrist which conceipt when it hath once strongly seized them as it doth yet by very weake and silly arguments they care not to enquire any further but conclude from thence and that justly if it were true that neither he nor his adherents are either Head or members of the Church But the contrary I found most evident by the testimony of all antiquity First that our Saviour appointed S. Peter his Vicar Head of his Church here on earth and after him his successors in the Sea of Rome nor do we read either in Scriptures Councells Fathers or histories that any other of the Apostles but Peter was thought or pretended by any to be the chiefest over the rest and over the whole Church and that it is necessary that some one be Head both reason and authority doe convince Nor is it a denyall of Christ to be the Head while we say that S. Peter was and the Pope is so For Christ we confesse is the Head originally and immediately the Pope derivatively from and by him Christ is the principall the Pope but his deputy and representer and these two headships doe not contradict as some Protestants imagine but are subordinate the one to the other And with as much reason they may deny a King to be head of his Kingdome because the Scripture saith Psal 46.8 God is King over all the earth as deny the Pope to be head of the Church because Christ is so S. Basil Concione de poenit shewes us the difference of their headships Though Peter be a rock saith he he is not a rock as Christ is for Christ is the true immovable rock of himselfe Peter is immoveable by Christ the rock for Jesus doth communicate and impart his dignities not voiding himselfe of them but holding them to himselfe bestowes them also on others He is the light and yet you are the lights He is the Priest and yet he makes Priests He is the Rock and he made a rock Therefore our Saviour saith to Peter Math. 16.18.19 Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevaile against it And I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven Nor is it contrary to this as Protestants imagine to say as the Fathers sometimes doe that the Church was built upon the confession of Peter these two expositions not excluding but including one another For they intend that the Church was built causally on the confession of Peter and formally on the ministry of the Person of Peter that is to say the confession of Peter was the cause wherefore Christ chose him to constitute him the foundation of the ministry of the Church and that the person of S. Peter was that on which our Lord did properly build his Church as S. Hilary in Mat. c. 16. saith The confession of S. Peter hath received a worthy reward So that to say the Church is built upon the confession of Peter is not to deny that it is built on the person of Peter but it is to expresse the cause wherefore it is built upon him as when S. Hierome ad Pammach advers error Joan. Hierosol Ep. 91. said that Peter walked not on the waters but faith it is not to deny that S. Peter walked truly on the water but it is to expresse that the cause that made him walk there was not the naturall activity of his body but the faith that he had given to the words of Christ So that these two propositions are both true Peters faith walked on the water and Peters person walked on the water so likewise these the Church is built on the faith of Peter and the Church is built on the person of Peter the confession of Peters faith being the cause why Christ built his Church upon Peters person Againe our Saviour said to Peter Simon sonne of Jonas lovest thou me more than these He saith unto him yea Lord thou knowest that I love thee He said unto him feed my lambs John 21.15 And thus the second and the third time Which speed was directed to Peter alone as appeares by these words more than these whereby he is separated from the rest and by these words is given to him the Ecclesiasticall power to feed and also to governe as the word in the originall doth signifie and that not some alone but all the whole flock of Christ Of which the Fathers give abundant testimony S. Aug. saith Serm. 5. in fest Pet. Pauli speaking of S. Peter that he only amongst the Apostles deserved to hear verily I say unto thee thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church worthy truly who to the people who were to be builded in the house of God might be a stone for their foundation a pillar for their stay a key to open the gates of the Kingdome of heaven And againe Quaestion vet nov Test q. 7◠'Our Saviour when he commands to pay for himself and Peter seemes to have payed for all because as in our Saviour were all the causes of superiority so after him all are contained in Peter for he ordained him the head of them that he might be the head of our Lords flock S. Gregory also lib. 4. Ep. 32. saith ' It is cleer to all that know the Gospell that by our Lords mouth the care of the whole Church is committed to Holy Peter the Prince of all the Apostles for to him it is said Peter lovest thou me feed my sheep and further he applies the places of Scripture spoken to S. Peter above mentioned to this end And S. Chrysostome Hom. 87. in Joan. 21. saith that Peter was the mouth of the Apostles and the Prince and top of the company and therefore Paul went to see him above others As for S. Pauls reproving of S. Peter it was for an error of conversation not of doctrine as Tertullian saith nor doth it any way diminish his Primacy but only shews that an inferiour may reprove his superiour if the matter require it and the manner be not unseemly which no man will deny Therefore this instance is nothing to the purpose being thus also answered by S. Augustine lib. 2. de Bapt. c. 1. § 2. And as Christ ordained S. Peter to be the supreme Pastor and Head of the Church so it was his will that that office should continue in S. Peters successors in the Sea of Rome That there should be one chiefe Pastor alwaies in the Church for the government thereof and deciding of controversies Gods practise in the Church of the Jewes Numb 20.28 Exod. 18.15 c. Deut. 17.8 c. gives us reason to believe who appointed the High Priests therein to succeed
still that Scripture which giveth credit to the rest would require another Scripture to give credit to it * Ibid. p. 103. neither could we ever come to any pause whereon to rest unlesse besides Scripture there were something else acknowledged And this something is as he saith * Lib. 2. ca. 4. p. 300. The Ecclesiasticall tradition an argument whereby may be argued and convinced what books be Canonicall and what not § 8. Lastly some say they know the Scripture to be the Word of God by the Spirit of God prompting it to their soules And this of all the rest seemed to me most absurd For first I durst not arrogate this Spirit to my self nor could I know it was in any other His saying the Spirit told him the Scripture was the Word of God did not prove it nor had I reason to believe he had the Spirit more than I without some proof If a mans testimony in his owne case might thus be admitted I saw that no Heretique would want it to support his impiety by ascribing it to the Spirit as * Epiphanhaer 21. Simon Magus did only this H. Spirit he believed to be his Concubine Helena and Protestants ascribe the title of the Spirit to their private fancies If I should have said that I know by the suggestion of Gods Spirit that this or that part of Scripture or that none of it was the Word of God my proof was as good to him as his to me For although the testimony of the Spirit of God be a sure witnesse to him that hath it yet it is none to others unlesse he can prove he hath it by some miraculous effect And without this kind of proof every prudent man hath reason to believe that such a boaster is a lier and intends to deceive others as it is likely of the first Authors of Heresies or else that he deceives himselfe by a strong operation of his fancy which he calls the Spirit because he is told by the doctrine of some Protestants that he must feel that he hath the Spirit as in particular concerning the assurance of his salvation desirous then to be in the right way that which he would have he perswades himself he hath because else he finds himselfe at a losse which begets a horror in him Which to avoid he flies to this pitifull refuge being the best he is instructed to that he may have some stay for his belief and repose for his soul And this happens commonly and most strongly to those that have some zeal but little wit on whom therefore the reflection of their fancy is the stronger and works upon them as upon some I have read and heard of who by their eager desire to be so have strongly conceited themselves to be indeed Kings and Princes and other kind of great and rich men when truly and in all other mens judgements they were either mad-men or fools So that this I perceived was to open a gap to any mans fantasticall pretence whatsoever who had the impudence to ascribe it to the Spirit of God Nor is there any peaceable way to compose the differences amongst men of this nature for each one pretending the Spirit he hath no reason to yeeld to another the holy Spirit being an infallible director wheresoever it is yet when it is different in different men who pretend to it as it often falls out it is a certaine signe that one of them is deceived and both are deceived in the opinion of each other yet neither yeelding to other the contention ends in the action of Zedekiah against the Prophet Micheas who gave him a box on the eare and said 2 Chron. 18.23 Which way passed the Spirit of our Lord from me that it should speake to thee And so it hath fallen out amongst those that derive their knowledge this way that they end their differences by blowes and conquests not by Councels and miracles Plut. And as the sonnes of Pyrrhus asking him who should succeed him in his Kingdome he answered he that hath the sharpest sword so if it be demanded amongst them who hath the Spirit of God and consequently the true Religion It must be answered He that hath the most strength of armes to maintaine it But S. Peter did otherwise who provoked by Simon Magus proved that he had the Spirit of God by raising up a childe from death Egesippus which the other with all his Magick could not do who also challenging S. Peter to fly from the Capitol to Mount Aventine while he was doing so by the prayer of S. Peter he came tumbling down and brake his leg whereof he soone after died If men that boast of the Spirit cannot this way prove it the saying of S. Augustine is appliable unto them * Tract 45. in Ioan. There are innumerable who do not only boast that they are Videntes or Prophets but will seem to be illuminated or enlightned by Christ but indeed are Heretiques § 5. Yet most certain it is that no man can believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God but by the Spirit of God inclining him thereunto for as the Apostle saith Ephes 2.8 Faith is the gift of God But there are two kinds of inspiration of the Spirit of God one immediate without the concourse of any externall ground of assurance the other mediate moving the heart to adhere to an externall ground of assurance making it to apprehend divinely of the authority thereof they that challenge the first are Enthusiasts and run into all the fore-mentioned absurdities they that take the latter way must besides their inward perswasion have an externall ground of belief and then what is there so high and sufficient as the testimony of Vniversall Tradition Agreeable whereunto Hooker saith * Eccles Pol lib. 2. sect 7.8 The outward letter sealed with the inward witnesse of the Spirit is not a sufficient warrant for every particular man to judge and approve the Scripture to be Canonicall the Gospell it self to be the Gospell of Christ * lib. 3. sect 3. but the authority of Gods Church as he saith is necessarily required thereunto § 9. And though it were true that we might know the Scripture to be the word of God without the testimony of the Church yet it doth no where appear that the Scripture is the whole word of God and containes all that the Apostles left unto the Church for their direction so that my first Quere would still be unsatisfied to wit how we should know the whole word of God which the Apostles taught For even that word which is written doth tell us that all is not written and therefore doth S. Paul exhort us to keepe both the written and unwritten Stand fast saith he and keepe the traditions which you have learned whether by word or by our Epistle 2 Thes 2.15 It is manifest that the first Church of God from the creation untill Moses which was about the space
have been eye-witnesses of the severall Countreys thereof wherein though the publike profession thereof be Hereticall Mahometicall or Heathenish yet even there hath the Romane Catholique Church both Fathers and children Pastors and people And like the Sea what she loseth in one place she wins in another what she hath lost by the falling away of the Protestants in Europe she hath gained with increase by the propagation of her faith in the East and West Indies where whole Kingdomes are converted thereunto as a Protestant Author confesseth saying Simon Lythus in respons altera ad alteram Gretseri Apologiam p. 333. The Jesuites within the compasse of a few years not content with the bounds of Europe have filled Asia Africa and America with their Idols And thus shee was Catholique by Napier a Protestant Writers confession forementioned and others for 12. or 1300. yeares ago and ever since And whereas Protestants say that this universality is no true mark of the Church because it is appliable to Turkes and Pagans it is doubtlesse a very poor objection for the markes of the Church are not given her by God to distinguish her from all sorts of Religions but only from those that are contained equivocally under the same next kind and may be supposed and taken for Churches that is to say from other Christian societies to wit from Hereticall and Shismaticall Sects which challenge by false markes the title of the true Church To which purpose S. Augustine saith disputing with the Donatists Thou askest of a stranger whether he be a Pagan or a Christian he answers thee a Christian thou askest him whether he be a catechumene Aug de Pastor c. 13. or one of the faithfull he answers thee one of the faithfull thou askest him of what communion he is he answers thee a Christian Catholique Besides the Roman Church hath this forme of universality beyond all Religions of the world even Turkes or Heathens That there is no place of the known world where there are not Roman Catholiques propagating their Religion by converting the people of the land whosoever they are which is manifestly wanting to all other Religions and is therefore in this regard also more universally spread over the face of the earth than any other Others say that this universall spreading of the Church is antidated by Roman Catholiques with application to themselves for that it was not to take beginning but from the time of Luther because some places of Scripture which speak of the largenesse of the Church say it shall be in the later daies But it is manifest that by later daies is meant all the space of time from Chirst to the end of the world as S. Peter interpreting a prophecie of Joel which saith that it shall come to passe in the last daies that God will powre his Spirit upon all flesh Acts 2.17 by which is intended the amplitude of the Church applies it to that present time when the holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles Nor can any reasonable man imagine that it can sort with the goodnesse of God and his tender love to mankind to suffer the light of his truth in the not spreading of his Church to be eclipsed for 14. or 1500. years seeing that according to the opinion of some learned men grounded upon fair probabilities the world is likely to last but 2000. yeares after Christ. Howsoever this universality of the Protestant Religion is but begun it is not perfected for the Roman Church is yet actually exceeding larger and Protestants that allow this for a mark of the true Church now begin hopefully to apply it to themselves are bound to be of the Roman till they see their expectation satisfied in the Protestant Churches exceeding her in latitude which I dare boldly say will not be as long as they live and therefore they ought to die in the Roman Faith § 3. But if we examine the matter a little more strictly we shall find that the Protestants plea for universality wil be cut very short when we consider that though they make themselves all of one Church when they would vie for multitude with the Roman Church yet compared with one another we shall find that they are very many Churches not distinguished by nation only but by doctrine and points of faith and that there are many Churches in one Nation as in England for example and will be many more if the desired Independency be advanced Now it is not sufficient that the Protestant Religion in generall be enlarged but it must be the true Protestant Religion which every particular Sect thinking it self to be of and denying it the most of them to the rest the universality of the Religion wil be mightily abated Indeed when they muster their strengths together and make boast of their greatnesse then they rake all into the title of Protestantisme who have revolted from the Roman Church count them on their side as if the definition of a Protestant were one that is opposite to the Church of Rome So that if there were a thousand sorts of Heretiques in the world they would in this case account them but one Church But the word Catholique being a note of Communion as I have shewed already as the Roman Church calls none a Catholique that doth not communicate with her so cannot the Protestant Church of Engl. count any to be of her Religion thereby by inlarging of her bounds to prove her selfe Catholique unlesse they will communicate with her which the Grecian Churches wil not the Lutheran Churhes will not many of the Sects within the Kingdom will not as Presbyterians Antinomians Anabaptists Brownists Familists Erastians Socinians Arminians Seekers Adamites Shakers Independents with many others These I say will not communicate with the Protestant Church of England nor will they communicate each with other but have at least most frequently their Congregations as they call them separate and apart so that these are all to be accounted severall Churches and Religions and no one is further universall than the communion thereof doth spread which is so litle a way that none of them is nay though they were al united together would they be able to stand in competition with the Roman Church under whose Communion are many entire Kingdoms and in all known parts of the world an infinity of people even in Asia Africa and America where the name of Protestant much more any particular Sect thereof is altogether unknowne Besides all the Christian Churches which are now separated from the Roman were once united to her both in faith and communion and then either she was the Catholique Church or there was none in the world which is impossible therefore they that departed from her departing from the Catholique Church became Schismatiques and departing from the faith they received from her become Heretiques § 4 Lastly the very possession of the name Catholique is a proof that it doth belong to her seeing no sort of Christians
else can usurp it from her For howsoever some when being so hard pressed that they cannot claime the title of true Chritian unlesse they assume the name of Catholique do then arrogate it to themselves and say that they are Catholikes yet in ordinary speech if you speak of a Catholike every one understands thereby a Romane Catholike all other Sects voluntarily taking to themselves the name of some men for their founder as of Luther Calvin whom they call their Reformers or of some place as the Albigenses or from some accident of their pretended reformation as Protestants by which the legall Protestants delight to stile themselves with this addition of the Church of England renouncing therein as they suppose Luther and Calvin as ashamed or seeming to scorne to derive themselves from any one man as though the Church of England in this matter namely in opposition to the whole Church both present and precedent were of more consideration then one single man Moreover certain enough it is that the Reformation of the Church of England began by one man and he no God neither except it were such an one as Jupiter was who transform'd himself into a beast for the love of women before it filled the whole Kingdome and arrived at that high pitch of perfection that some suppose And who that man was is well enough knowne and what godly motives he had which they must confesse or else that their Church is like Melchizedek without Father or Mother or like a Mushrump started up in a night no man knowes how On the contrary the true believer will own no name but that of the Catholique Faith which was first devised by the Apostles in the Creed and which the successors of the Apostles in that Faith have alwaies worne As the Antient Father a Pacianus ad Symp. Ep. 1. S. Pacianus saith in an Epistle to Sympronianus a Novatian Heretique Christian is my name Catholique is my Sir-name that names me this marks me out by that I am manifested by this I am distinguished And Saint b Cyrill Hieros Catech 15. Cyrill of Jerusalem expounding the Creed For this cause saith he thy faith hath given thee this Article to hold undoubtedly and in the holy Catholique Church to the end thou shouldest fly the polluted Conventicles of Heretiques And a little after when thou comest into a Town inquire not simply where the Temple of our Lord is for the Heresies of impious persons do likewise call their dens the Temples of the Lord neither ask simply where the Church is but where is the Catholique Church For that name is the proper name of this holy Church And on the contrary c Hieron cont Lucifer c. 9. S. Hierome saith If in any part thou hearest of men denominated from any but from Christ as Marcionites Valentinians c. know that it is not the Church of Christ but the Synagogve of Antichrist And d Lib. deutilitat cred cap. 7. S. Augustine fully Although there be many heresies of Christians and that all would be called Catholikes yet there is alwaies one Church if you cast your eyes upon the extent of the whole world more abundant in multitude and also as those that know themselves to be of it more sincere in truth than all the rest but of the truth that is another dispute That which sufficeth for the question is that there is one Church to which different Heresies impose different names whereas they are all called by their particular names that they dare not disavow from whence it appears in the judgement of any not pre-occupate with favour to whom the name of Catholike whereof they are all ambitious ought to be attributed And again e De vera relig cap. 6. We must hold the Christian Religion and the communion of that Church which is called Catholique both by her own and by strangers for whether Heretiques and Schismatiques will or will not when they speak not with their own but with strangers they call the Catholiques no otherwise than Catholiques As for the Protestants it is certain that neither by others nor yet by themselves in ordinary speaking are they called Catholiques No nor yet in their most solemne and serious speaking as appears by the severall Acts both of the King of England and of the Houses of Parliament wherein both sides publish to the world and yet in a sense different from one another that they will maintain the Protestant Religion But the Roman Church hath alwayes possessed the name of Catholique and therefore she is such CHAP. XII Of the second Mark of the Church viz. Antiquity both of persons and doctrines § 1. THe second mark of the Church is Antiquity as God saith by the Prophet Jeremy Stand in the waies see inquire of the old paths which is the good way and walk therein Ier. 6.16 And our Saviour saith Mat. 13. that the good seed was sown first and afterwards the tares And even in nature truth is before falshood And this Antiquity I found applyable in the highest degree to the Roman Religion for though some heresies are very antient as is intimated in that the tares were sowen soon after the good seed yet the truth is more antient and so is the Church of Rome This antiquity of hers for the greatest part of time is confessed by Protestants Perkins whom I alledged before grants it for 900. yeares Napier goes higher and saith it raigned universally and without any debateable contradiction 12. hundred and 60. yeares And seeing this raign of the Catholique Religion which Protestants call Popery was then universall it is apparent that it did not then begin for such an universall possession could not be got on the suddain as they may perceive by the Protestant Religion which is not improved to neere that universality in above a hundred yeares so that in all probability even according to the opinion of Protestants the beginning thereof must be in or neere the Apostles times Now whether we take the Roman Church for the society of Christians that acknowledge the Bishop of Rome for their head or whether we take it for Fathers and Doctors holding the doctrines of the present Church of Rome in both respects it will appear that the Church of Rome is most antient and Apostolicall The former is proved by the testimony of S. * Iren. cont Val. lib. 3. c. 3. Irenaeus who calls the Roman Church the greatest and antientest Church founded at Rome by the two most glorious Apostles Peter and Paul And of S. Augustine * Aug. Epist 162. who saith In the Roman Church hath alwaies flourished the Principality of the Apostolique Seat This word alwaies including all the time upward from that present to S. Peter So that by this it is manifest that there was a Roman Church even from S. Peters time who was the first Bishop and Pope thereof Which S. Augustine confirmes in another place saying Number the Priests even from
Disciplines you shall find none Tradition is shewed thee for the Author custome the confirmer and faith the observer And in the first age S. Clement speaking of S. Peter reports thus of him g Clem. Ro. Ep. 1. de S. Petre prope fin His daily preaching amongst other divine commandements was this c. every one as farre as he understands and is able to love God with all his heart and his neighbour as himself to relieve the poor to cloath the naked to visit the sick to give drink to the thirsty to bury the dead and diligently to perform their funeralls and to pray and give alms for them § 8. Concerning Traditions in the fift age S. Augustine saith h Lib. 4. de bapt con Donat c. 24. That which the whole Church doth hold and is not instituted by Councells but is alwaies retained is rightly believed not to be delivered but by Apostolique authority And S. Chrysostome i In 1 Thes 2. In 1 Thes hom 4. It is manifest that the Apostles did not deliver all things by Epistle but many things without writing And as well these as those are worthy of the same credit wherefore let us esteem the Tradition of the Church to be believed It is a Tradition seek no further In the fourth age S. Basil speaks thus k Lib. de Spirit sancto c. 27. The opinions which are kept and preached in the Church we have partly out of written Doctrine partly we have received by the Tradition of the Apostles brought to us in a mystery Both which have the same power to piety and no man contradicted these who hath but mean experience of Ecclesiasticall rights In the third age * Heres 61. we must use Traditions saith S. Epiphanius for all things cannot be received from divine Scripture wherefore the holy Apostles have delivered some things by Tradition even as the holy Apostle saith As I have delivered to you and elswhere so I teach and have delivered in Churches In the second age S. Irenaeus thus expostulateth * lib. 3. c. 4. But what if the Apostles neither had left Scriptures unto us ought we not to follow the order of Tradition which they delivered to them to whom they committed the Churches And in the first age S. Dennys tells us that c Areopag c. 1. Eccles Hierar those first leaders of our Priestly Office delivered to us those chief and supersubstantiall things partly in writings partly in unwritten institutions I could give plenty of proofs in all other particulars But as the cluster of grapes which was brought out of Canaan to the Israelites was a testimony of the fruit the Land brought forth Numb 13.23 So this small parcell of antiquity taken out of their great store is proof sufficient that the most antient Church even in all the first ages and the Scripture it selfe in the judgement of those Fathers did teach the same Doctrines that the Roman Church now doth and hath had a perpetuall and uninterrupted succession in those Doctrines and her Pastors and is therefore the self-same Church with the Apostles A thing fore-told by Daniel who cals it a Kingdom which shall never be dissolved Dan. 7.14 And in which the Maxime of wise Gamaliel is verified if this counsell or work be of men it will come to nought but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it Act. 5.38 39. § 9. But among the Protestant Churches I found no such thing neither Antiquity in their Doctrine but contrariwise their Doctrine condemned by Antiquity as I have shewed before nor yet in the bodie of their Professors And though they alledge some places of the Fathers in proof of their Doctrines yet they corrupt the meaning as may easily appear to those that divesting themselves of all interest can and will indifferently examine the places who shall find that they make not for them Nor indeed can they for my former alledged reason namely that if Antiquity had understood them so to wit in the Protestant sense some or other would either have reproved them for so frequently elswhere affirming the Roman Doctrines as Protestants confess they did as I have shewed or for affirming those Protestant doctrines which were contradictory to them which seeing they did not 't is manifest they believed no such contradictions in their writings but understood those places which Protestants alledge as Catholiques now doe as making nothing to the Protestants purpose But for their Catholique doctrines it is manifest that they cannot be interpreted to comply with the Protestant Religion for if they could why do the most learned Protestants accuse them of Popery It is a rule of * De doct Christ lib. 3. cap. 25. 26. S. Augustine in the interpretation of Scripture which is also as proper for the Fathers and agreeable to reason that where there are many cleer places on the one side and some few obscure places on the other the obscure must give place to the cleer and be reduced to an agreement with them in meaning which rule if it be observed it will easily appeare whether the Fathers were of the Roman or the Protestant Church As for the Antiquity of the body of the Professors of the Protestant religion it whom the antient Apostolicall Church hath her resurrection which like Epimenid◠they say fell asleep when she was yong and waked not till she was old no man knowing what was become of her in the mean while I could not indeed find i◠more antient than some very old men somewhat above sixscore yeares old Pa◠that died in England but few years agoe might have been grandfather to the Religion or at least elder brother to the Father thereof Martin Luther who in the year 1517. like a prodigious Comet began to appear and ingendring with the devill blasted the beauty of the Spouse of Christ and filled the Christian world with Heresie and bloud And in the year 1529. Luther and his Disciples received the name of Protestants from their Protestation and Appeal from the decree of the Diet of Spira in which title the nation of England I think doth more triumph than any of Luthers ofspring And whereas they do pretend some of them to have alwaies had a Being before that time it will fitly be examined in the next mark of the Church which is visibility For the maxime of law will hold good in this case IDEM EST NON ESSE ET NON APPARERE it is all one not to be and not to appear For the present seeing no more of them than yet we doe we may speak to them in the words of Tertullian * Tertul. de praescript 17. QUI ESTIS VOS UNDE ET QUANDO VENISTIS who are you from whence and when came you for either they are as young as Luthers Apostasie or else older than Christ and his Apostles even Jewes and so old that the mark is quite worn out of their mouth CHAP. XIII Of visibility the
third mark of the Church And of the vanity of Protestants supposition that the true Church is sometimes invisible That Protestant Churches have not alwaies been visible § 1. The third mark we will seek the true Church by is Visibility which was foretold by the Prophet Esay 2.2 Micah 4.1 It shall come to passe in the last daies that the mountaine of the Lords house shall be established in the top of the mountaines and shall be exalted above the hills and all nations shall flow unto it Also Ezek. 37.28 The nations shall know that I am the sanctifier of Israel when my sanctification shall be in the middle of them for ever And S. Augustine resembles it according to the saying of our Saviour Matth. 5.14 A city placed on a hil that cannot be hid And he hath placed his tabernacle in the sun Psal 18.6 that is in open view c. his tabernacle his Church is placed in the Sun not in the night but in the day Tom. 9. in Epist Jo. Tract 2. And further saith of the Church that e Cont. Petil. l. 2. c. 104. she hath this most certain marke that she cannot be hid she is then known to all Nations the sect of Donatus is unknown to many Nations that then cannot be she To the children of the Church it is appointed by Christ that for the redresse of their grievances they tell the Church Mat. 81.17 which were a delusion unlesse the Church were alwaies visible who did also forewarn us against all obscure congregations saying If therefore they shall say unto you behold he is in the desert go you not forth behold he is in secret places believe it not Mat. 24.26 Now according to these assurances I found that the Roman Church was alwaies and eminently visible but the Protestant never eminent and for the most part not visible at all Concerning the visibility of the Church of Rome it is proved before by those testimonies which shew the antiquity perpetuall continuance thereof which cannot be proved but with the granting of her visibility Nor have I found the Protestants denying it the thing being so visible that it leaves no place for objections But they think to wipe out this mark by saying that it is not necessary to a true Church to be alwaies visible but others disliking that assertion by reason of the absurdity thereof do affirme to counterpoize the Roman that the Protestant Church hath been alwaies visible § 2. And first they that hold that the Church hath been invisible and that therefore visibility is not a certain mark of the Church indeavour to prove it by the example of the Church of the Jewes in the daies of Elias 3 King 19.10.18 who complained that the Prophets were slaine and he only was left alive and God answered that there were left seven thousand that had not bowed the knee to Baal To which objection I found the answer of Catholiques very true namely that this complaint of Elias was uttered with relation to the Kingdome of Israel onely wherein Elias then was and was persecuted by King Ahab but in the Kingdome of Judah the Church did florish and was sufficiently known to him and all men under the reigns of Asa and Joshaphat 3 Kings 22.41 who reigned in Judah when Achab reigned in Israel As what time the number of true believers was so great 2 Chron. 17.14 15 16 17 18 19. that the men of war only did amount to many hundred thousands And whereas M. Meade makes reply to this answer saying that the Church was invisible in the Kingdome of Iudah also in the daies of Manasses because it is said 2 Chron. 33. that Manasses set up Idolatry committed all impiety and caused Judah and Jerusalem to erre I answer that this comes short of a proof for though the Kings example in all cases though never so bad have a mighty influence on the people yet this proves not but that the Kingdome or an eminent part or at least a visible part both of Priests and people was still untainted even as it was in the daies of the persecution of Antiochus against the Jewes who set up the Abomination of desolation the Idoll of Olympick Jupiter in the Temple and compelled men to worship it Besides if it were as he would have it the case is much different between a very short time of the invisibility of the Church of the Jewes for we read in the same Chapter that Manasses quickly repented and amended all and the invisibility of the Protestant Church which by their own confessions was above a thousand years Also the comparison between the Church of the Jewes and Christians is not equall the New Testament being established in better promises Heb. 8.6 and therefore that may be incident to the one which is not to the other Moreover if there had been this totall eclipse it had relation but to the Nation of the Jewes only besides which were many other faithfull people in all ages as appears by the examples of Melchizedek Job c. in the Old Testament and in the New of Cornelius and the Eunuch to the Queen of Candace amongst which the Church might be visible though amongst the Jewes invisible § 3. Others I have heard say that by Catholikes own confession in the daies of Antichrist the Church shall be invisible But I never have read any Catholique that said so yet on the contrary I have found Protestants affirm a Bullinger in Apoc. 20. Fulk against Rhē in Thes 2. sect 5. the visibility of the Church and that universally even all the daies of Antichrist which makes against themselves if they account the Pope Antichrist as most of them do and themselves the Church Yet Doctor White contrary to his brethren saith that b F. VVhites Reply p. 61. lin 15. 26. in time of persecution the true Church may be reputed an impious Sect by the multitude and so not be known by the notion of true and holy nor can her truth be discerned by sense and common reason To which I answer that as there are four properties of Church-doctrine so there are foure notions of the Church The first is to bee Mistresse of saving truth and according to this notion the Church is invisible to the naturall understanding both of men and Angells for God only and his Blessed see our Religion to be the truth The second is to be Mistresse of Doctrine truly revealed by secret inspiration according to this notion ordinarily speaking the Church is invisible to almost all men that are or ever were the Apostles and Prophets only excepted The third to be Mistresse of the Doctrine which Christ and his Apostles by their preaching and miracles planted in the world according to this notion the Church was visible to the first and Primitive times but now is not The fourth is to be Mistresse of Catholique doctrine that is of Doctrine delivered received by full Tradition and profession all the
they court to their faction are no Protestants for they hold damnable errors in the judgment of Protestants to wit Invocation of Saints Adoration of Images Transubstantiation Communion in one kind for the sick with many others So that Protestants are in great penury of professors of their Religion before Luther that are forced to call the Grecians in as Protestants in essence for they may even as well name the Pope himselfe As for John Husse and his followers who brake out about the year 1400. and are claimed to be Predecessors in the Protestant Religion it is certaine that they were no Protestants but held such Doctrines that if they were now in England they should suffer as Papists For they held a p. 216. seven Sacraments b p. 209. Transubstantiation c p. 217. art 7 8. the Popes primacy and the d Luther in Colloq Ger. c. de Missa Masse it self as Fox in his Acts and Monuments acknowledgeth No greater title have they to Wickliffe who appeared about the year 1370. in whom some Protestants say their visibility was maintained for he did visibly maintain Popery as e Wiclerus de blasphemia c. 17. holy water the f Idem de Eucharist c. 9. worship of Reliques and Images the g Idem in Ser. de assumpt Mariae intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary h Idem de apostosia c. 18. the Rites and ceremonies of the Masse all the i Idem in postil sup c. 15. Marci 7. Sacraments with all the points of Catholique doctrine now in question Moreover he held errors in the condemnation wherof both Catholiques and Protestants do agree as that k Acts Mon. p. 96. a. art 4. if a Bishop or Priest be in mortall sinne he doth not order consecrate or baptize l Idem p. 96 fine That Ecclesiasticall Ministers should not have temporall possessions He m Osiand Epit. hist Eccl. p. 459 art 43. condemned lawfull oathes with the Anabaptists and held many other pernicious doctrines Let any man then judge whether this man and his followers were Protestants or no. Then they ascend higher and claim on Waldo a merchant of Lions who brake out of the Sheepfold about the year 1220. with his followers as men in whom the Protestant Church was visible But these men were no more of kin to them than the former For they held the n In Ep. 244. p. 450. reall presence in the B. Sacrament for which they are reproved by Calvin who therfore understood them in the Catholique sense not in the Protestant And the most essentiall Doctrine of the Waldenses was their extolling of the merit of * Illiriâ—us Catolog Test p. 1498. voluntary poverty affirming all Ministers to be damned that had rents and possessions and that the Church perished under Pope Silvester and the Emperour Constantine through the poyson of temporall goods which Clergy-men began then to enjoy as they said against the Law of God Surely Protestants do not account this an Article of their faith Moreover the Waldenses held * Idem Catol Test p. 1502. these Anabaptisticall Errors That children are not to be baptized That there is no difference betweene a Bishop and a Priest a Priest and a Lay man That the Apostles were Lay-men and that every Lay-man that is vertuous is a Priest may preach and administer Sacraments That a woman pronouncing the words of consecration in the vulgar tongue doth consecrate yea transubstantiate bread into the body of Christ That it is a mortall sin to swear in any case That Magistrates being in mortall sin do lose in their office and no man is to obey them with many other absurdities too tedious to be recited The like may be said of the Albigenses and also of Beringarius who broached his Heresie about the yeare 1048. who was a Protestant but onely in the point against Transubstantiation which he also recanted and died a Catholique And what do any of these or all these together availe the Protestants every one of them extending but to some part of time between this and the Primitive Church and is also but the example of some one or other private man in whom the revolt first began who was first a Catholike and beginning afterwards to hold some one or few points of the Protestant faith continued in all other matters of controversie a Catholique By all which it appeares that none of these were Protestants and that therefore in them the visibility of the Protestant Church is not maintained And that if it were yet seeing they lived at severall times ununited by a line of time one to another but jumping over severall ages against the Law of nature which non facit saltum and that therfore in the between-spaces there was an invisibility of the Protestant Church the main question of their Churches perpetuall visibility is yet unsatisfied Especially when we consider that for about a thousand yeares which was the time betwixt Beringarius and the Apostles the Protestants pretend to no predecessors As for the most Primitive Fathers whom they affirm to maintain the Protestant Doctrine I have in brief shewed it to be false already and they that will search shall more largely find it so Also they all died members of the Roman Church So that the Protestants have not in them to wit the Fathers a visible Church distinct from the Roman nor was the Roman theirs From whence it is manifest that there is not any one Protestant Church in the world that can shew her visibility in any Kingdome city poor countrey village or particular person from the Apostles time to Luther the truth wherof M. Wotton is not ashamed to confesse where he saith in his answer to a Popish Pamphlet p. 11. You will say shew us where the faith religion you professe were held Nay prove you they were held no where c. and what if it could not be shewed yet we know by the Articles of our Creed that there hath been alwaies a Church in which we say this Religion we now professe must of necessity be held with us it is no inconvenience to have the true Church hid This stands you upon to disprove which when you attempt to do by any particular records you shal have particular answer Than which saying what more ridiculous To presume that their Church was alwaies visible in the land of Vtopia sure where no man ever saw it because it is the true Church wheras they should prove it the true Church because it hath been alwaies visible the knowledge of her visibility being much more easie than of her truth which is the main thing in controversie And to require of Catholiques proof that they were not visible by particular records is extreme foolish records being memorialls of things that were not of things that were not § 7. All which considerations shaking the confidence of many Protestants in the visibility of their Church before Luther
the judgement of charity but of discretion Catholiques judge no particular man to be damned because they know not the operations of God upon his soule in his latest minutes but they judge that all men out of the Roman Catholique Church are out of the road of salvation because they are assured thereof by the word of God And if to grant the possibility of salvation to others be such a testimony of charity as they conceive then surely Origen was of all men most charitable who held that at the last even the devills themselves should be saved and yet I find no man agreeing with him in this charitable opinion But the truth is as I conceive that Protestants are thus kind to Catholiques for their own ends which are to provoke Catholiques to shew the same favour to them that so they may have the better security in their way by the concurrent opinions of others and also for feare lest by denying salvation to the Church of Rome they cut off the hope thereof from themselves who acknowledge no lawfull ministry by consequence no Church and by consequence no salvation but that which they derive from the Church of Rome Which seeing they do indeed want they are neither united with her nor can justly hope for salvation without her CHAP. XV. Of the fifth Mark of the true Church viz. Unity in doctrine And of horrible dissentions among Protestants § 1. A Fifth Mark of the Church is unity in doctrine of which it is said by S. Paul I beseech you that all speak one thing be ye knit together in one mind and one judgement 1. Cor. 1.10 endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace Ephes 4.3 Continue in one Spirit and one mind Philip. 1.27 of one accord and one judgement Philip 2.2 Thus in the first times were the multitude of them that believed of one heart and one soule Acts 4.32 Thus our Saviour prayeth and no doubt was heard that they may be one John 17.11 and the effect of that prayer we see in the Church of Rome and no where else Thus also the Holy Ghost describes the Church of Christ saying my dove is one Cant. 6.8 And the want of this unity is so improper to God that he is therefore termed the God not of dissention but of peace 1 Cor. 14.33 And it is such an assured meanes to shorten continuance that the Scripture saith if you bite and devoure one another take heed that you be not consumed one of another Galat. 5.15 and that a kingdome divided against it self shall perish Luc. 11.17 And by the want of this mark of unity did the antient Fathers discover the Heretiques of their times S. Crysostome saith Op. imperfect in Math. Hom. 20. All infidells that are under the devill are not united nor hold the same things but are dispersed by divers opinions one saith so and another so c. in the same manner are the falshoods of Heretiques who never hold the same things but have so many opinions as there are persons To the same purpose speakes Jrenaeus Tertullian and others Iren. l. 1. c. 5. Tertull. de praesc advers haer 42. And this unity I found apparently in the Church of Rome and the contrary as apparent amongst Protestants Thus the antient writers do wonderfully agree in all matters of faith so also do all the decrees of all lawfull Councells and Popes though they were men living in severall ages in severall countries and wrote in severall languages And now also all Catholiques in the world howsoever otherwise divided by country language particular interest civill dissentions or war yet agree exactly in all points of faith And this because they have a certaine compasse to steere by to wit the generall Tradition of the Church and the decrees of Generall Councells who they have reason to believe doe preserve that which was delivered by the Apostles and if any doubt arise about the sense of Scripture are better able to interpret it than any other persons to which therefore they doe modestly and wisely submit their judgements But no such agreement was ever found or ever can bee found amongst Protestants or any sort of Heretiques S. Irenaeus lib. 1. cap. 21. saith of Simon Magus his Heresie that it was divided into severall sects S. Augustine of the Donatists lib. 1. de Bapt. c. 6. that in his time it was cut into small threds And particularly the same is happened to Protestants who soon after their separation from the Church of Rome were divided amongst themselves and have ever since so continued multiplying daily in their divisions insomuch that even in the one Kingdome of England and even in the one City of London there are very many And in many particular houses there are some different Sects of Religion each pretending to be the true Protestant and denying that title to the other Nor is there any meanes to reconcile their differences but they are rather likely to grow more and greater as wee see at this day For no Sect will acknowledge another its superiour in matter of Religion nor stand to its judgment except it be by force no not any one particular person thinks himself obliged to submit to the whole world therefore they use to say that they will not pin their faith upon another mans sleeve but all pretend to be guided by the Word of God which each one will interpret for himselfe and accuse all others of error so far as they dissent from him And though Sects and Heresies do first arise out of the Catholique Church as the Apostle saith There must be Heresies 1 Cor. 11.19 yet the Church doth not lose her unity hereby because she having a certain Touch-stone whereby to try them namely the judgement of the Church if they will not submit to that they are excommunicated and by judiciall sentence cut off from that body from which they first cut themselves by mis-belief as the Apostle saith an hereticall man after the first and second admonition avoid Tit. 3.10 whereby they preserve the rest of the body intire and at unity within it self So that the Heresies do not arise from the Doctrine of the Church but from the malice of the Devill But amongst Protestants the liberty of reading and interpreting Scripture and the examining and judging the Preachers Doctrine thereby being given to every silly soul as Doctor Bilson saith c True difference part 2. p. 353. The people are discerners and judges of that which is taught as with good reason they ought for it was upon this ground that they first separated from the Church of Rome undertaking to be judges of her Doctrine and if the present Clergie should not continue this liberty to the people against themselves who are no more infallible than the other nor can pretend to it they would play very foule play with the people and instead of giving them liberty of conscience which they promised only translate them from
one Tyrant over their consciences so they called the Church of Rome to another the Church of England there must needs arise varieties of Sects in Religion according to the various conceipt and apprehension of people even out of the very nature of this their Doctrine which is the ground-work for all the rest and is the most exercised in those who are most conversant in the reading of Scriptures to wit the Puritans and Sectaries And in the many differences that are amongst them they call no Generall Councells nor indeed can they by way of authority no Sect acknowledging it self subject to anothers Jurisdiction if it be under another temporall Governour but constitutes a Church by it selfe absolute and independent And in the variety of Sects in any one Kingdome or Government neither party believing it self justly subject to another in matter of conscience But supposing themselves alwayes in the truth they think they are bound to maintain that truth with the hazzard of their lives and to oppose their lawfull Soveraignes in the defence thereof and whensoever they have power they put it in execution and turn Rebells for Gods sake As we see many have done heretofore and the English are many of them now in the accursed act Nor can the men under whose conduct the people do this hope for more calme obedience from them longer than by force they are subdued to it unlesse they give them that in possession which now they have in hope and for which they have all been united in their service to wit Liberty of Conscience to every particular person to be of what Religion soever he shall make to himself out of the Bible free independent on the jurisdiction of any other And with very good reason for seeing they have all shaken off Christs yoke why should any man put a yoke upon another mans conscience and oblige him to believe or do or suffer that which is against his Word of God Thus as their Religion is divisible according to their severall senses of the Scripture so Kingdomes are divisible according to their Religions So that there must still be division either in Religion or in War for the defence thereof Yea so accurately doth Heresie teach to run division that it is meerly by accident that any two Protestants are of the same Religion in any one point for seeing they do not oblige themselves to agree in any one Principle but only the letter of the Scripture and refer the interpretation to themselves as Chillingworth Preface fine saith Let all men believe the Scripture and that only indeavour to believe it in the true sense and require no more of others it is but by the constitution of their brains and the grain of their fancie running the same way that brings any two of them to an union in the same belief concerning any point of Religion which constitution as it was accidentall in their generation so it is daily changeable by age education and many other occurrences and so also as uncertain for the future as accidentall at the present Thus all tends to division amongst them through the nature of their doctrines and the method of knowing and preserving them And this division of theirs in doctrine and opinion is the reason why when I mention the belief of Protestants I usually say some Protestants because they are not all of a mind scarce in any one point wherein they differ from Catholiques And some of them are so silly as to think that if they themselves doe not believe such a point no Protestant else doth supposing all Protestancy included in their owne brests which indeed is nothing so only they have reason according to their principles to believe as they do that that which every particular man holds is the true Protestancy and ought to be a rule to all the world beside § 2. The Catholique Roman Church hath in it the propriety of heat and doth congregare homogenea gather together things of the same kind and disgregare heterogenea separate things that are of different natures casting out of her Communion all sorts of Heretiques And on the contrary the Protestant Religion hath the property of cold which is congregare heterogenea to gather together things of different natures enfoulding under her name a miscellane of Religions freezing them altogether and withall making them so brittle that every chance breakes them into smaller sects and sub-divisions which in the end will be the destruction of the whole as it hath been of all foregoing heresies And this truth Sir Edwin Sandys a learned Protestant In his Relation of Religion of the Western parts confesseth saying The Papists have the Pope as a common father adviser and conductor to reconcile their jarres to decide their differences to draw their Religion by consent of Councells unto unity c. whereas on the other side Protestants are like severed or rather scattered troupes each drawing adverse way without any meanes to pacifie their quarrells no Patriarch one or more to have a common superintendency or care of their Churches for correspondency and unity no ordinary way to assemble a generall Councell on their part the only hope remaining ever to asswage their contentions Of which seeing there is no hope the sword must be the Umpire Which if it should in England prevaile on the Puritane or Roundheads side as they now stile them which God forbid I think I may without rashnesse say that it falls out by the just judgement of God that they that cast out the Catholique Religion and Catholique Bishops their predecessors upon pretence of the Reformation of Errors which they discovered as they said by the pure word of God are upon the same pretences cast out themselves and are forced to say with Adonibezek in the first of the book of Judges As I have done so God hath rewarded me So true a rule it is that he that practises disobedience to his superiours teaches it to his inferiours § 3. But the Protestants say that they do not differ from one another in fundamentalls no not from the Catholiques so much at unity with all the world do they professe to be The impertinency of their distinction of fundamentalls and unfundamentalls I have before discovered and little reason have they to use it in this case For to my apprehension all their differences are in fundamentalls yea all that they believe they account fundamentall For the Church of England saith in her sixth Article That whatsoever is not read in Scripture nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any ma that it should be believed as an Article of Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation as nothing but what may be proved by the Scripture is by her accounted necessary to salvation which is the same with fundamentall so I suppose that all that can be proved by the Scripture is necessary to salvation even in their own opinion for I think they will not say
but that it is necessary and fundamentall to believe God in all that he saith whether the matter be great or small now Protestants professing to believe nothing necessarily but what may be proved by the Scripture and their differences being in the things which they believe it followes that their differences are in things which are proved by Scripture that are the pure Word of God and the meaning of the Holy Ghost as they use to speak and therefore must needs be in the severall opinions of them that hold them fundamentall and necessary to salvation To instance in some particulars of their disagreement for to speak of all were to enter into a Labyrinth First concerning Scripture it selfe I think they will grant it is a fundamentall point I am sure their learned Hooker doth so Eccles Pol. lib. 1. sect 14. who saith Of things necessary the very chief is to know what books we are bound to esteem holy and as sure I am that in this there is great disagreement for the Lutherans do deny besides those books of the Old Testament which the Calvinists also deny * Châ—mnit exam conc Trid. part 1. pag. 55. also Enchyrid p. 63. the second Epistle of S. Peter the second and third Epistle of S. John the Epistle to the Hebrewes of S. James of S. Jude and the Revelation all which the Calvinists and the Church of England do undoubtedly believe to be the Word of God And if they disagree about their prime Principle how can agreement be expected in the things that they derive from thence Secondly concerning their translation of Scriptures in the truth whereof consists the truth of Gods Word to those that understand it not but as it is translated very great are the disagreements and bitter the reprehensions between Luther and Zuinglius between Calvin and Molineus between Beza and Castalio between legall Protestants and Puritans of England each party condemning the others translation I will instance chiefly in the English The Ministers of Lincoln Diocesse in a book delivered to King James being an abridgement of their grievances say pag. 11.13.14 that the English translation of the Bible is a translation that takes away from the text that addes to the text and that sometimes to the changing or obscuring the meaning of the holy Ghost And Broughton the great Linguist in his Advertisement of Corruptions tels the Bishops that their publique translations of Scripture into English is such as that it perverts the text of the old Testament in 848 places and that it causeth millions of millions to reject the new Testament and to run into eternall flames And yet the translators of the Bible and the Bishops were of another mind or else surely they would not have commended it to the use of the people And what a wofull condition were the people in who must be guided by such a Bible in which either there was certaine falshood or they were not certaine that it was the truth Secondly the Reall presence of Christs body in the Eucharist by consubstantiation and to the bodily mouth of the receiver is affirmed by the Lutherans but denyed by the Calvinists Thirdly that Christ descended into Hell which is an article of the Creed is affirmed by Hill in a Treatise of that subject by Nowell and by many Protestants but is denyed by Carleil in a book written to that purpose and commonly by all Puritans Fourthly Evangelicall Councells are affirmed by Hooker Eccles Pol. l. 3. sect 8. p. 140. but are denyed by Perkins Reformed Cath. p. 241. and most of the Church of England Fiftly concerning the head of the Church or the supreame governour in causes Ecclesiasticall which one would think a fundamentall matter the Church of England holds that the King or Queen when the Kingdome is governed by a Woman is the head thereof but the Church of Helvetia saith f Harmony of Consess p. 308. forward we acknowledge no other head of the Church but Christ and that he hath no deputy on earth and many there are in England of the same opinion who are not afraid to say so now though it be by law a capitall offence Sixtly the government of the Church by Bishops one would think were a fundamentall point for it is affirmed to be jure divino by divine law by many Protestants in England and particularly Bishop Hall wrote a book a few yeares since to that purpose and yet this is denyed by a great party in England as the Bishops by woefull experience do know A hundred other differences might be named in the maintenance whereof books have been written one against another one side holding with the Catholiques so that there is scarce any point of Catholique doctrine but is maintained by some or other Protestants amongst them all almost the whole Catholique doctrine If therefore they differ from the Church of Rome they differ from one another And that their differences are not light but about most important matters in their own opinions being about matters as they conceive revealed in the word of God to which all men are bound to adhere even their persuit of those differences doth plainly demonstrate which stretcheth to the g Luth. con art Louan Thes 27. condemning of one another for Heretiques h Osiander â—pit Eccl. hist cont 16 par altera p. 805. and banishing each other from their severall territories i Hospi hist Sacrament par alt fol. 393. 395. 397. 398. forbidding the reading of each others books imprisoning of their persons and finally breaking into open Arms one against another are not al these tragical particulars to our infinite grief now acted on the stage of England the chief pretence is Religion And surely they are guilty of extreme folly that will fight to the fundamentall overthrow of themselves families for ought they know of the whole Kingdome for matters which they hold not-fundamentall § 4. But the Protestants think to wipe off this staine of disagreement by retorting it upon the Catholiques accusing them of as great disagreement as is amongst themselves which when I considered I found altogether impertinent For amongst Catholiques there are two sorts of points some defined by the Church in a Generall Councell and so infallibly certain others not defined In the former they all exactly agree in the later each man follows the direction of his particular reason Like to this there are amongst Protestants certaine Articles as they call them which are agreed upon in each severall dominion of Protestants which are set down in their Harmony of confessions concerning which first it is to be noted that there is great disagreement in generall betwixt their Churches they never meeting all together in any one Councell to determine any one thing so that they are not united in any one point by consent Then in particular dominions the decrees that they publish are not firmely believed by all under those dominions but are accounted as
Saint is kept with great veneration and frequent Miracles wrought thereby and there was he made perfectly whole and thereupon abjured the Religion wherein his father brought him up and became a Roman Catholique § 3. Now for the Miracles that are said to be done in the Roman Church we have as high humane Testimony as can be imagined So that Protestants may with as much reason deny all humane story as that there were Henries and Edwards Kings of England whom they never saw yea they may as justly deny or doubt of the truth of their owne names which they doe not know but by report and mens calling them so and the poor record of a Church-book but Miracles have much more famous Records and more people that believe them And can they prudently imagine all Christians but themselves so stupid and foolish to believe these things without sufficient proof who in all other matters they must without the help of modesty acknowledg more wise and learned then themselves What did Christ and his Apostles doe more than the Roman Church hath since done and what can Protestants say more against her than the unbelieving Jewes or Gentiles might say against them And because some feigned Miracles are sometimes discovered from thence to charge all with the same accusation as it is unjust so it is absurd and destroies all humane faith they may as well deny all that is or hath been done in the world whereof they have not been eye-witnesses because some of those reports have been false Therefore as they believe Catholiques when they say some were feigned so in justice they ought to believe them when they say others are not so Otherwise by the same way of reasoning they may say that the Miracles of Moses were not true because the Magitians were counterfeit or that the new Testament is not the word of God because there were many Gospells Epistles counterfeited under the names of the Apostles And surely Catholiques would never endeavour to discover feigned Miracles if they were not sure that some were true but rather by one act condemn all that have been since the Apostles that are or shall be for false and counterfeit as Protestants in effect doe when they say that Miracles are ceased Moreover to affirme that Miracles are Antichristian as some Protestants doe is improper first because it is yet in question betwixt us whether Antichrist be come or no which Protestants have not proved nor never will with reference to the Pope Secondly it is granted on both sides that Antichrist shall doe no Miracles properly but only some signes and wonders not exceeding the power of nature and the devills art whereof one is to cause fire to come down from heaven Apoc. 13.13 which never any Pope did but the Miracles done in the Church doe exceed all created power And lastly many Miracles were done in the Roman Church before the time or times for they agree not in their reckoning that Protestants say Antichrist did first appear as at the reliques of d Chrysost in lib. cont Gentiles Babylas e Nazian in Cyprian Cyprian f Ieron in vita Hilar. Hilarion and many others So that all Catholiques may say with Richardus de Sancto Victore not with doubt or feare of being deceived but with assurance to the contrary g Lib. 1. de Trinit c. 2. O Lord if it be error that we believe we are deceived by thee for thou hast confirmed these things to us with signes and wonders which could not be done but by thee CHAP. XVII Of the seventh Mark of the true Church viz. Conversion of Kingdomes and Monarchs § 1. ANother Mark of the true Church is the conversion of Kingdomes and Nations from Heathenisme to the faith of Christ As the Prophet Esay saith Kings shall bee thy nursing-Fathers and Queens thy Mothers Esay 49.23 thou shalt suck the milke of the Gentiles and the brests of Kings Esay 60.61 Their Kings shall minister to thee and thy gates shall be continually open that men may bring to thee the riches of the Gentiles and that their Kings may be brought c. Esay 60.10 11. And the English Bible printed Anno 1576. upon the 49. of Esay vers 23. saith The meaning is that Kings shall be converted to the Gospell and bestow their power and authority for the preservation of the Church And this Mark I found on the Roman Catholike but not upon the Protestant Church The first three hundred years after Christ being a time of great persecution there were few or no Kings converted to Christianity and from Constantine to Boniface the third which was almost 300. years more there were few Kings converted except the Emperours of the East and West and they were converted to the Roman Catholique not to the Protstant Faith as Napier in his Treatise on the Rev. p. 145. confesseth saying After the year of God 300. the Emperour Constantine subdued all Christian Churches to Pope Sylvester from which time till these our daies the Pope and his Clergie hath possessed the outward and visible Church Now since the yeare 600. these Prophesies have been accomplishing and they have been done by the Roman Church not by the Protestant Churches which were untill Luthers daies under hatches and invisible by their owne confession before mentioned And if wee look upon the conversion of Kings and Nations in these later times since their ignis fatuus which they call the glorious light of the Gospell hath appeared we shall find it performed not by Protestants but by Roman Catholiques in the remote and divided parts of the m Joan. Petrus Maffeus hist Indicarum 16. East and n Jos Acosta de natur novi orbis West Indies and of o Hartwell of Congo Epist to Reader Africa as by sufficient testimony appears In so much that Simon Lythus a Protestant before alledged saith The Jesuites within the space of a few years have filled Asia Africa America with their Idolls And whereas it is objected that the Gothes were converted to the Christian Religion by the Arrians first p Cap. 22. de not Eccl. Bellarmine proves it to be false secondly if it were true yet it is of no moment to prove the power of any other Religion but the Roman Catholique for the converting of nations and the fulfilling of the large Prophesies of the Scripture therein seeing they that are pretended to be converted by the Arrians were but the lesser part of the Gothes most of them having been Catholiques before Thirdly this example doth rather make for the Roman faith in that of all the world converted to Christian Religion there is but one poor half example of conversion and that false too wrought by any other Religion Which when it is observed that this pretended conversion was wrought by Arrians who even in the opinion of most Protestants were Heretiques it will turne to the shame and reproach of Protestants who pretending to be the true
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
from the just owners thereof not purchased but stolne Here you shall see a Church that hath continued without interruption since the first planting thereof that hath kept perpetuall Term without Vacation that in all the rough tempests of this worlds persecution hath still rid out the storme and though by the tyranny of heathen and heretiques millions of her children did fall it was but like the morning deaw watering thereby the seeds of grace which themselves had sowne and when they calmly bled it was but oyle to the Apostles lamps whose bright flames may yet serve to light posterity to heaven And as the enemies of the city of Rome were wont to weep to see it on fire because it would afterwards be fairer built so the devill though he caused it yet did mourne to see the Church of Rome on fire in her Martyrs which was ever repaired by a greater encrease of converts who constantly kept the faith till they lost themselves in keeping it like Naboth who kept his possession with the losse of his blood There you shall see Churches like Castor and Pollux rising and setting by turnes sometimes alive sometimes dead with such huge great gaps between the times of their subsisting that for any succour they could have from them millions of soules might in the interim have dropt into hell And as the Moabites when they saw the waters look ruddy thought they had been mingled with blood when it was but the reflexion of the morning sun beames on them so when they suffered any thing they called it persecution for their obedience to God when it was indeed but the effect of justice on them for their Rebellion against Gods deputies Ecclesiasticall and civill the high Priest and the Prince and instead of giving them increase as persecution hath alwaies done to the Church it did with the aid of their inward discords utterly extingnish them Who have had none but have made many Martyrs reviving even in these later present times the antient copies of cruelty against Catholikes blindly believing that by killing Gods servants they do God service Whose meek spirits have paid as large a tribute of patience unto heaven and sufferance to the world as any that went before them and have proved in themselves the truth of the Spouses saying in the Canticles ch 5. v. 10. My beloved is white and ruddy being blanch'd with the whitenesse of innocence guled with the blood of martyrdom the fury of whose malice and persecution hath pursued many even through the gates of death adding prophanation to their cruelty by disturbing the dead bodies and silent urnes of Saints departed A poor revenge and foolish which doth more expresse their hatred than satisfie it and shewes that their malice doth more afflict their owne minds before it is executed than it can doe their enemies bodies in the execution So eager so importunate is sinne ever to its owne shame § 2. Here you shall see a Church that hath alwaies been in view whom neither fear nor coynesse hath made to hide her head and whose admired beauty hath invited all men to her chast embraces and like Medusaes head hath turned them to stones of this living building by the admiration of her surpassing beauty There you shall see Churches such which is very strange as were never seen or very seldome keeping such unkind and retired state that men like Diogenes who went about Athens with a candle and a lanterne at noone day to seek an honest man must doe so about the world to find them out and in the mean time perish for want of spirituall aid who never had any beauty riches or rarity amongst them but only Giges his ring whereby they did for the most part walk invisible The English Proverb saith that where God hath his Church the devill hath his Chappell and so he hath alwaies had in Heretiques who in regard of place have been mingled with Catholiques but that the devill should have all the Church and God not so much as the Chappell as they pretend is most incredible § 3. Here you shall see a Church like the city of Jerusalem that is at unity within it selfe and like the wals of Byzantium so closely united that they seem to be all but one entire stone And as God spake of old By the mouth of his Prophets Luc. 1.70 intimating that though they were many Prophets yet they had all but one mouth in regard of the unity and agreement of their sayings so speakes he now by the mouth of the Priests in the Catholique Church A body having Christ for the head from whom as the Apostle saith the whole body being fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplies according to the effectuall working in the measure of every part makes encrease of the body to the edifying of it selfe in love Whose powerfull union like the Bundle of Arrowes presented by the Emperour Saladine to his sonnes as the Embleme of united strength cannot be broken by the assault of any force which like the floating Ilands or the stone Tyrrhenus being unbroken floats still aloft and keepes her head above the main when others like clods of earth rent from the Jland or broken in pieces of that stone sink to the bottom and perish There you shall see Churches stand like the stones in some high waies to measure their length a mile asunder from each other And as the Cameleon changes it self into all colours except white So they wander through all the forms of opinions that fancy can imagine saving only truth Which need no externall disasters to try their strength no forraine enemies to attempt their destruction For like the Serpents teeth sown by Cadmus or the eternally-hating brethren Eteocles and Polynices they with mutuall cruelties destroy each other Here a Church that for the admirable effects of her unity deserves the name of that pretious stone which for the rarity thereof is called Vnity There such as for the variety and deformity wherewith they are possessed may be termed Legion § 4. Here you shall see a Church that religiously triumphs over all Christian Kings and Kingdomes of the world making them the Trophees of her spirituall victories and conversions whose powerfull influence hath cast a charme upon the fierce and lionly natures of barbarous Princes and hath not only made the Lion and the lamb to live together as was foretold by the Prophet but hath turned the Lions into Lambs Alexander the great being asked if hee would run at the Olympick games said I could be content so I might run with Kings Here then may be exercised a vertuous ambition and truly worthy of the majesty of the most excellent King of England who if he will honour the Church and himselfe to run this way shall run with almost all Kings of the Christian world both his owne and other Kings predecessors and that at the true Olympick exercises the exercises of heaven There you shall see
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
to cure all our maladies And thereceipts for these cures contriv'd with wondrous art for as bodily evills are cured either with things of the same quality or the contrary so here For wounds given by the world here is a cure by giving the world away in almes For wounds received from the flesh a cure by mortifying the flesh with fasting and other austerities A cure for the fiery darts of the devill by the darts of prayers shot up to heaven And when we depart this life for this warfare must not alwaies last here is precious oile to embalme our soules with grace which like the oyle to the antient Roman wrastlers makes us nimble agile in our latest wrastlings with the devill that we may slip out of his hands and be presented rendering a sweet smelling savour unto God And that this holy Church may continue in succession untill her royall Bridegroom call her up to his own throne here is Holy Sacramentall Matrimony both to represent that union and by grace to encrease it And that this multitude may not beget confusion here are holy Orders by vertue whereof they that are ordained do govern this society as spirituall Magistrates and conduct it as spirituall Captaines through the wildernesse of this world to the land of Canaan the heavenly Jerusalem which is above Here is the true Communion of Saints both of those in heaven in earth and under the earth by the participations of each others Prayers Merits and Satisfactions Here is as in all well-governed Common-Wealths Justice both commutative and distributive Commutative betwixt God and Christ who payed a ransome for us and purchased an estate for us and we take possession upon the conditions required distributive in rendring rewards and punishments according to the geometricall proportion of mens merits or offences § 8. Here are the Arcana imperii high and mysterious things such as are worthy the wisedome and contrivance of God Things to be believed by the world thought incredible things done by God and to be done by us by the world thought impossible things to be suffered by the world thought intolerable and they are believed done and suffered which could not be effected but by a power omnipotent And because they are so difficult none but God could subdue mortalls to the belief and practise of them and therefore even because they are such they prove him only to be their author For who can imagine that Confession a thing so much against the bias of flesh and bloud or the belief of Transubstantiation a thing so far above the reach of humane reason could have got such possession in the soules of Christian mankind and that without any externall violence had not the finger of God writ it on mens hearts In doctrines of this Church that will admit the use of reason for their proportionablenesse no things seem more reasonable and where they are above reason nothing can be more sublime and befitting God the Author of this Religion and Christ Jesus the husband of this Church God who is the God of reason of which that small portion which man is Master of which yet ennobles him above all bodily creatures is but a ray from the splendor of his all-seeing sun-light a spark from his celestiall fire worketh all things according to the counsell of his will Ephes 1.11 which counsell implies prudence and reason in his actions according to the type of that eternall law whereby he workes himselfe and commands all his creatures to work And by this character the doctrines and the discipline of the Catholique Church proclaim him for their Author and are not therefore to be disgraced as they are by Protestants by the ill-sensed name of policy giving to the vertue of highest wisedome the superscription of deceitfull cunning And the knowledge of those things which in the government of this noblest Kingdome of Christ surmount the reach of present reason are reserv'd for a reward of our humble belief in the life to come when our faith shall be happily turned into sight and we shall cleerly see and be fully and eternally satisfied with the reason of al those things which now our short understandings have not line enough to fathom Excellent things are spoken of thee thou city of God Psal 86.3 And as it is written of Alexander the Great that his body was of such an excellent composition that it sent forth sweet vapours that perfumed all his clothes and our Saviour we know had such abundant vertue flowing from him that it cured such as touched him such is the body of the Church of so rare so holy and so rationall a composure that vertue goes out of her and sanctifies and wisedome and makes reasonable all her garments all her utensils and whatsoever appertaines to her the smell of thy garment is like the smell of Frankincense Cant. 4.11 And if any third party that were neither of the Roman nor of any Protestant Church should observe the admirable frame of this Church both in regard of the doctrine discipline he would surely say as the Apostle to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 14.25 God is truly in you and with the Patriarch Jacob How dreadfull is this place this is no other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven Gen. 28.17 and as in the Canticles 6.10 this is she that goeth forth like the springing morn faire as the moon choice as the sun terrible as an army in battel aray But looking on the Churches of Protestants or any sort of Heretiques he should see a body without a head or which is as monstrous an hydra a beast with many heads and that possibly may have as many more if Kingdomes should be lessened and encreased having a law without a Judge but every one that is a party claiming that power in his owne cause Where they have no assurance that their law is uncorrupt but by the testimony of those they account their adversaries and the greatest lyars and seducers of the world Who have amongst them no faith but opinion no charity but humanity no hope fitly tempered with fear but bold presumption and pretended assurance for which they that are the most confident have the least cause of any men in the world Where there is no beauty comelinesse or order worthy the Bride of Christ not yet of the design or owning of any generous or wise and prudent man But as some Philosophers hold that the world was made by the accidentall concourse of Atomes So they seem to be made by chance and by chance to come together not being united by any internall form but only in a politicall opposition of her who is their Mother and Mistresse The Senate of Rome having chosen three men to go on an Embassie whereof the one had his head full of cuts and gashes the other was a fool and the third had the Gout Cato laughing said that the Senâ—â— had sent an Embassadour which had neither head heart
nor feet And even such imperfect things are all hereticall and deformed Churches which want faith for their head charity for their heart firmnesse and perseverance for their feet Holding such monstrous and absurd opinions that they make up a bundle of Heathenisme Turcisme Heresie and contradictions to common-sense Can then any indifferent and prudent man who knowes that God made the world with wisdome in number weight and measure can he think that they are the Church of God the deare Spouse of Christ for whose sake he descended from his heavenly Throne and took and lost humane life Or will he not rather say that they are mad 1 Cor. 14.26 Who are framed neither in number weight nor measure their societies and Churches being or being possible to be according to their principles as many as their persons their opinions vaine and foolish and their government confused and mis-shapen seeming rather a chaos than a creation In summe there is nothing that can be said for a true Catholique Church but may be truly said for the Roman there is â—othing that the Protestant Churches have said or can say for themselves but have been or may be said by Heretiques and are said by those who subdivide and separate from them which pretences if they be good in them against the Church of Rome they are good in others against them which yet they will not admit So that the Church of Rome is the true Church or there never was any true Church and all Protestants are Heretiques or there never were any that deserved that name § 9. What remaines then for all Protestants of what sort or title soever but to listen to the voice which sayeth Goe out of her my people that yee be not partakers of her sinnes and that ye receive not of her plagues Revel 18.4 To redeem their soules from forfeiture that have been thus long morgag'd to eternall death and with the Prodigall son to returne home to the Catholique Church their mother and thereby to God their Father in whose house there is plenty of celestiall Manna while they perish for want of food or become fellow commoners with the hogs and feed upon huskes and draught and thereby to give joy both to earth and heaven in their conversion seeing that as the elements never rest contentedly but in their proper placeâ— so they will find no rest but in the bosome of the true Church which is the proper place of every Christian To listen to the voice which crieth Return return ô Sunamite return return Cant 6.13 And the Spirit and the Bride say come And let him that heareth say come and let him that is athirst come And whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely Revel 22.17 by coming to Mount Sion and to the city of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angells to the generall assembly and Church of the first borne which are written in heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the Spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant Heb. 12.22.23.24 before he come to them as a terrible Judge revealed from heaven with his mighty Angells in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospell of our Lord Jesus Christ 2. Thess 1.7.8 And that they may all doe so especially the Kingdome of England and most especially the most excellent King thereof Strike ô strike their and his soule O Lord with thy omnipotent grace whose magnetique vertue may draw his Royall heart to thee and make him a glorious and happy instrument of drawing others till they all meet in the unity of the faith so to continue untill their mortality shall put on immortality and his temporall crown of thornes be exchanged for an eternall crown of glory Amen FINIS S. Ambr. Ep. 31. ad Valent. Imp. Non erubesco cum toto orbe longaevo converti verum certè est quia nulla aetas ad perdiscendum sera est Erubescat senectus quae emendare se non potest Non annorum canities est laudanda sed morum Nullus pudor est ad meliora transire A Table of the Contents of the severall Chapters contained in this Book Chap. 1. THe Introduction And that the knowledge of the meanes to arrive unto eternall life is not otherwise attaineable then by faith grounded on the Word of God pag. 1. Chap. 2. Of the means to know which is the Word of God And that all the arguments imployed by Protestants to prove that the Scripture and it only is the Word of God are insufficient And that the Generall Tradition of the Catholique Church is the only assured proof thereof p. 6. Chap. 3. Of the insufficiency of means used by Protestants to find out the true sense of Scripture The absurdity of that assertion of theirs That all points necessary to salvation are clear and manifest p. 26. Chap. 4. Of the vanity and impiety of those who affirm that each mans particular reason is the last Judge and interpreter of Scripture and his guide in all things which he is obliged to believe and know And that the Catholique Church is the only Judge p. 36. Chap. 5. Of the meaning of those words Church and Catholique and that neither of them belong to Protestants p. 49. Chap. 6. Of the Infallibility of the Church p. 54. Chap. 7. That Catholique Tradition is the only firme foundation and motive to induce us to believe that the Apostles received their Doctrine from Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ from God the Father And what are the means by which this Doctrine is derived down to us p. 66. Chap. 8. That the Church is infallible in whatsoever she proposeth as the Word of God written or unwritten whether of great or small consequence That to doubt of any one point is to destroy the foundation of Faith And that Protestants distinction between points fundamentall and non-fundamentall is ridiculous and deceitfull p. 78. Chap ' 9. That there is and ever shall be a visible Church upon earth And that this Church is one holy Catholique and Apostolique p. 94. Chap. 10. That the Roman is that one holy Catholique and Apostolique Church p. 105. Chap. 11. That the true Church may be knowne by evident marks and that such marks agree only to the Roman Church And first of Universality the first mark of the Church p. 137. Chap. 12. Of the second mark of the Church viz. Antiquity both of persons and Doctrine p. 151. Chap. 13. Of Visibility the third mark of the Church And of the vanity of Protestants supposition that the true Church is sometimes invisible That Protestant Churches have not alwaies been visible p. 188. Chap. 14. Of the fourth mark of the true Church viz. a lawfull succession and ordinary vocation and mission of Pastors And that it is ridiculous to affirme that Catholiques and Protestants are the same Church p. 208. Chap. 15. Of the fifth Mark of the true Church viz. Unity in Doctrine and of the horrible dissentions among Pretestants p. 216. Chap. 16. Of the sixth Mark of the true Church viz. Miracles And that there are no true Miracles among Protestants p. 240. Chap. 17. Of the seventh Mark of the true Church viz. Conversion of Kingdomes and Monarchs p. 254 Chap. 18. Of the eighth and ninth Marks of the true Church viz. Sanctity of Doctrine and life p. 260. Chap. 19. 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 felf p. 276. Chap. 20. That the Pope is the head of the Church p. 281. Chap. 21. That English Protestants do much mistake Catholike Doctrine being abused by the malice or ignorance of many of their Ministers And that upon their owne grounds they are obliged to inform themselves more exactly of the truth p. 297. Chap. 22. Of Communion in one kind p. 331. Chap. 23. Of the Liturgie and private prayers for the ignorant in an unknowne tongue p. 351. Chap. 22. Of the foolish deceitfull and absurd proceedings and behaviour of Protestants in matter of Religion And of the vanity and injustice of their pretext of conscience for their separation from the Roman Church p. 336 Chap. 23. The Conclusion wherein is represented on the one side the splendor and orderly composure of the Roman Catholique Church And on the other side the deformity and confusion of Protestant Congregations p. 362. The faults made by the Printer I desire the Reader thus to correct Page 21. line 1. dele § 5. p. 37. l. 2. r. tittle p. 47. l. 25 r. faith p. 61. l. 18. dele come p. 71. l 19. r. dangerous p. 85. l. 14. 15. r. ununiversall p. 140. l. 24. r. Psal 2.8 p. 147 l. 3. r. became l. 17. r. man p. 165. l. 9. r. intermingled p. 168. l. 11. r. unexpressible p. 188. l. 23. r. to a City p. 199. l. 9. r. tittle p. 201. l. 21. r. one p. 208. l. 22. r. all meet p. 210. l. 4. dele ought r. accusing p. 221. l. 13. r. call p. 261. l. 17. r. of hell l. 25. r. in our p. 276. l. 23. r. different p. 290. l. 2. r. say of l. 12. r. pillar of p. 293. l. 8. r. denying them p. 292. l. 18. r. Bishop p. 307. l. 12. r. as his p. 341. l. 15. r. consequentiae p. 358. l. 12. r. done in p. 358. l. 14. r. to this p. 367. l. 15. dele in p. 368. l. 5. r. Vnion Postscript The French Printer to the English Reader WHilst this piece so generally and deservedly lik'd and applauded both in the English Originall and in the French Version was reprinting here at Paris the learned Author returning hither from Rome in the very nick of time hath thought fit to add a Preface and two new Chapters to it the first Of Communion in one kind the other Of praying in an unknowne tongue both no lesse requisite then abundantly satisfactory So that I make no question but the contentment and benefit you will receive thereby will easily reconcile you aswell to the misnumbring of some Chapters pages occasioned by the Addition as to some other Errata's for which my ignorance in your language craves the benefit of a pardon Adieu