other was a home-bred man native of our owne parts unlearned but witty hee had beene in the Order of Priest-hood when hee dy'd 70. years they said hee was a Queen Mary Priest I came to him upon his dying-bed in November 1639. and did my best to bring him to a true beliefe and used to that effect obliging tearmes as I conceiu'd I earnestly desired him to make a sound Act of Contrition and confesse his sins penitently for reconciling himselfe to God I told him hee was not taken for an Heretick but for one that willfully went out of the Church and forsook his Master not for feare as Peeter did but to live with a woeman in Lust and Sacriledge and to injoy the pleasures and commodityes of the World notwithstanding all this I told him I would ingage my Soule under God for his Salvation if hee would then turne to God and true Faith with a true Repentance for his sinnes and have harty Contrition I pray'd him to think on the good theefe that lived wickedly untill his last Houre and yet when hee said even then with repentance and love Domine memento mei dum veneris in Regnum tuum hee heard that comfortable voyce of mercifull Iesus Hodie mecum eris in Paradiso I did all I was able to doe and wept bitter tears to see if I could gaine this Soule and peerce his stony hart but all in Vaine for hee gave mee noe good answer but very hard words and cal'd mee Hypocrit and what not his words did not trouble mee but the dispairing state of the mans Soule gave mee great Affliction of minde At length I told him in severe words that I would arise against him in the day of Iudgment to give Testimony of his rejecting Gods Grace offered him at that tyme for sauing his Soule what was the ende of my sincere Exhortation Prayers and Tears the man roaring out and speaking impious words turn'd his face to the Wale and even in that Instant lost his witts God knows with how sad a hart I parted from him one of his Daughters a Catholick that liu'd with him came to mee weeping and crying O Reverend Father what of my Father will hee come of I have seen him said shee often saying his Canonicall Houres and did use to hide his Breviary in a secret place I replyed your Father hath willfully violated his holy Vowes hee hath liu'd in Sinne and Sacriledge aboue 64. yeares hee hath deserted God and all Godliness and God hath I may well feare it abandoned him in this tyme of his departure out of the world The miserable man dyed within some Houres after sencless and this was his end Think well Sall if it is not your neare concern to consider seriously and deeply of the evill end of these two wicked Apostata's Secundum Punctum THis Author further said it was observed that Protestants who imbraced the Catholick Faith made change of lives and manners for the better that they mortify'd theire Bodys Fasted and Prayd were meek humble continent and charitable especially those that took Priest-hood became rare examples of Piety and all kind of Vertue and soe lived in the feare of God and in soe great Charity toward all men that Catholicks took great Joy and delight in theire Conversation and glorify'd God in theire Conversion and Protestants in theire change confessed they had cause of Admiration Tertium Punctum THe Author said alsoe hee had heard of some Protestants that dying demaunded a Catholick Priest to helpe them to dye in the Roman Catholick Faith But hee never understood of any that lived Catholicks who dying caled for a Protestant Minister to helpe them dye and make a happy end in the Protestant Religion Sall though you are a Learned man for such I take you to bee and haue read much and taught Diuinity for soe many years I doe not think you shall make any loss of tyme in pondering duly these three graue points and obseruations of this Protestant learned Author The seventh and last Advertisment OLIM POSSIDEO PRIOR POSSIDEO The Roman Catholicks strong defence against the Claime of all kinde of Hereticks and theire Attempts I Shall borrow much of what will be said in this Advertisment out of the Author of PROTESTANCY WITHOVT PRINCIPELS c. The strong Arguments of that learned man shall serve for a Wale and Ramper to this my little Treatise from men of my decaying age high and great things can not bee expected wee must then have them from our Neightours to him it will be some honour that I make use of his Learning and discourse and to mee noe kinde of disgrace both of us ayming at the same mark or Butt the pure Glory of God Quia ambo predicamus Christum Crucifixum Prime Cor. cap. 1. Nor have wee beene at any tyme esteemed by those that know us men gaping after winde and Vanity Now to my purpose 1 Before all I would have my Reader suppose as realy hee should that Luther and his Associats once Roman Catholicks separated themselves from the Communion of the ancient Church which gave them Baptisme about the year 1517. 2. It is as evident that the Protestants of England following Luther and his Sectaryes uphold still and stifly defend that actuall Separation as a Necessary Lawfull fact and well done 3. It is noe less cleare that as Luther when hee first began his Revolt from the Church stood all alone without joyning himselfe with any visible Society of Christians soe it is now as manifest that our Protestants to this day stand alsoe as a Solitary Society alone owning noe Fellowship Union or Communication of Liturgies Rites or Sacraments with any Church through the Universall World they forsake Catholicks they forsake Grecians Armeâ—ians Abyssins Arians Nestoriâ—ns Ruthemans Socinians and all the rest of Christians wherfore if euer Scisme was in the World or can be possibly conceived Protestants are most evidently guilty of a formall Separation from all other Christian Churches and consequently are formall Separators or in plaine tearms Scismaticks I pray did not Cromwell and his bands runn into a Rebellion why soe because with those that follow'd him hee shaked of all Obedience to the King and to the Lawes of the Land hee contemned the Goverment and made himselfe and his party a Body by themselves a Body apart and though hee gayned all the Cittys and Townes inslaved Free-men and acted the worst Treason Imaginable by putting to death his Leage-Lord and Soveraigne noe man for all this can affirme that this great power hee had and soe many years enjoy'd exempted him from of the Title of a Traytor actually in Rebellion Unlawfull power and violence cannot justify Rebellion and Treason This is our very case England all the World knowes once owned the Pope of Rome not only for the first Patriarch but alsoe supreme head of the Vniversall Church It admitted of this Churche's Discipline and Law and yielded Obedience to it It communicated
England Nicolaus Sanderus a famous Doctor N. Sanderus de Scismati Anglieano lib. 3. Leges depotestate Regia in rebus Ecclesiasticis Anno 1. Elizabethe Latae of Divinity showes the latitude of this Vsurpation out of the English Lawes made in Parlament Ita inquit habet lex Omnia Privilegia praeeminemiae praerogativae superioritates spirituales quae ab ulla potestate vel humano vel Ecclesiastice Iure haberi aut exerceri possunt quoad visitationem correctionem seu reformationem Cleritotius seu quarumcunque personarum Ecclesiasticarum ad cognitionem etiam ac punitionem omnium errorum Haerefum Schismatum abusuam c. volumus in posterum quod Regio Sceptro in perpetuum sint annexa Decernimusque Reginam suosque Haeredes ac in regali dignitate Successores habere habiturosque efse deinceps omnimodam potestatem nominandi substituendi quoscunque voluerint qui eorundem vice ac auctoritatate candem Jurisdictionem Ecclefiastieam exerceant pro beneplacito suo personas visitent Hareses Schismata errores abusus castigent aliudue quiduis juris vel potestatis exerceant quod ab ull◠unquam Ecclesiastico Magiftratu exerceri potuit aut oportuit Decernitur item ne clerus ad synodum ullam aliorum quam Regiis literis mandaris conveniat neve ullum Canonem Legem Constitutionem Synodalem seu Provincialem vel faciat velexequatur sine expresso Majestatis suae consensu licentia hujusmodi Canones faciendi promulgandi vel exequendi sub poena carceris mulcta pro Reginae arbitrio Imponenda Decernitur ne quis exeat regnum ditionesque suae Majestatis ad ullam Visitationem Consilium Conventum aut Congregationem quae Religionis causa uspiam fiet sed ur talia omnia Regiâ auctoritate intra regnum fiant Item ne Episcopi vel ullius Nominatione vel Electione vel ulla Auctoritate aliâ quà m Regiâ creentur neve Iurisdictionem potestatemque Episcopalem teneant aut exerteant nisi ad beneplacitum Reginae nec aliter nisi per ipsam a regali MAjestate derivatam auctoritatem Such saith hee is the Law All Priviledges Prehemenensies Prerogatives Spirituall Superiorityes which can be had or exercised from any power or any right human or Eeclesiasticall as to Visitation Correction or Reformation of the whole Clergy or of any Eeclesiasticall Persons whatsoever to the knowing and punishing of all Errors Heresies Schisme Abuses c. Wee will hereafter that they be annexed to the Royall Scepter for ever And wee decree that the Queen and her heires and all her Successors in the Royall Dignity have and possess and shall have hereafter all power of nominating and substituting whosoever they shall please to exercise by theire Authority and Order and according to theire good pleasure may exercise the same Ecclesiasticall lurisdiction that they vissit persons that they correct Heresies Schismes Errors and Abuses and that they exercise all right and power which could or ought to be exercised and practised by any Ecclesiasticall Iudge or Magistrate It is determind and enacted that the Clergy may not meete or assemble themselves in a Synod otherwise then by the Royall Letters and Mandats nor may they make any Canon Law Constitution Synodall or Provinciall or execute any such without the express Consent and allowance of her Majesty and licence of making such Canons and of promulgating or putting them in Execution and this under the penalty of imprisonment and of fyne or mulct to bee imposed according to the Queens pleasure It is further determind that none may part out of the Kingdome and her Majestyes Dominions to any Visitation Councell Meeting or Congregation which shall be any where made for Matters of Religion but that all such things be done within the Kingdome by Authority Royall Likwise that Bishops be created by noe other Nominatiou or Election or any other Authority whatsoever other then by Royall Authority nor that they hould or exercise Episcopall Iurisdiction and power but only ad beneplacitum Reginae that is according to the Queens good pleasure and that they have noe Authority but dependant of her and derived from the Royall Majesty Sall you see here all Spirituall and Ecclesiasticall power and Iurisdiction given by the Parlament to Queen Elizabeth goe now I pray you and read all the Annalls and Church Histories of the world and then tell mee was ever any thing heard of in the World more prophane and impious then men that held themselves to be Bishops to agree with such a Parlament and to hold for an Article of Faith a woeman to be head of the Church in Ecclesiasticis Spiritualibus Whereas Saint Paul commaunded woemen should not soe much as speak in the Church Mulieres saith Epist 1. ad Cor. cap. 14. the Apostle in Ecclesiis taceant non enim permittitur eis loqui sed subditas esse sicut lex dicit siquid autem volunt discere domiviros suos interrogent Turpe enim est Mulieri laqui in Ecclesia That is Let woemen hould theire peace in the Church for it is not permitted them to speak but to be subject as alsoe the Law sayeth If they will learne any thing let them ask theire husbands at home For it is a foule thing for a woeman to speak in the Church The Apostle teacheth the same writing to Timothy Mulier in silentio Epist 1 adTim cap. 2. diseat cum omni subjectione Docere autem Mulierinon permitlo neque dominari in virum sed esse in silentio Let a woeman learne in silence with all subjection But to teach I permitt not unto a woeman nor to have Dominion over the man but to be in silence The Matter went quite otherwise in England after the XXXIX Articles came in force forasmuch as Bishops themselves could not speak in the Church without a woemans that is the Queens Licence nor exercise any power Iurisdiction or function Episcopall which lookes like a kinde of abomination Sall I see you are gon a way in Opinion with those Bishops and Clergy that reverenced to much that Queen and loved woemen to much and continency to little Et idto prophanus factus es negans comedere agnum cum Sancto Ieronimo in Donio Dei eligens comedere cum impio Calvino extra Ecclesiam renuis cum hoc Sancto in arca contineri hinc miser peribis deluvio regnante And therfore you are becom prophane and denying to eat the Paschall Lamb with holy Hierome in the House of God and Chusing to eat the same with impious Calvin out of the Church you deny to be in the Arck with Saint Hierome wherfore miserable man you shall perish in the deluge Sall I shall pray you to ponder maturely the important saying of Saint Augustin Disputare saith the Saint contra id quod totum per orbem frequentat Ecclesia insolentissim a in sania est That is To dispute against that which the Church houlds over
there discribed After followes the fight between Lucifer and those of his side and Michael the Arck-Angell Captain of the innumerable Legions that remaind obedient to God and these had the victory And there was made Apocal. ibid. agreat Battle in heaven Michael and his Angells fought with the Dragon and the Dragon fought and his Angells and they prevailed not neither was there place found any more in heaven And that great Dragon was cast forth the old Serpent which is called the Deuill and Sathan which seduceth the whole World and hee was cast into the Earth and his Angells were throwne downe with him From Heresie and Hereticks in heaven let us pass to those on Earth Hereticks in the Law of Nature AS soone as God began to be Cain the first Heretick worshipped on Earth the Heresie of Cain sprang up who deny'd Gods Providence and murthered his brother Abel for maintaining Gods Providence Cains Envy could not brook Abels Innocency The second Heresie was that of Lamech Lamech the second Heretick who marryed two wives at once and soe deny'd the Unity of the Church God drew but one Ribb out of Adam and of that made but one woeman and said to them Erunt duâ— Genesis cap. 2. in carne una Lamech violated this Law by taking two Wives which was an Heresie 3. The Gyants were the third sort of Hereticks 4. All those that did not enter the Arck and perished in the Deluge were Hereticks 5. C ham after the Deluge mocked his Fathers nakedness and was Eo Nomine Pratriarck and Father of all those scoffing Hereticks that contemne the holy Fathers saying they were ignorant unlearned and blind You see by this there was one Heretick Cham in the Arke wherin were in all but eight Soules 6. Those that were building Babell were Hereticks and the figure of Hereticks that follow'd them God confounded theire tongues soe that they could not understand one another it is soe this day with Protestants strucken by God with a giddiness and soe disagreeing in Religion and Opinion as upon this one Text of Scripture HOC Math. cap. 26. r. 27. EST CORPVS MEVM There are 400. Opinions and Interpretations God hath confounded them in theire understanding tongues and writings 7. Esau for persecuting his Brother Iacob therby opposing himselfe to God and Israel These are Sall your Companions in the Law of Nature Hereticks in the written Law 1. FRom the tyme the Church of God was planted in Egypt wee find by tradition that Iamnes and Mambre Tim. 2. cap. 3. who resisted Moyses were the first Hereticks of those speaks Saint Paul But as Iamnes and Mambre's resisted Moyses soe these alsoe resist the truth men corrupted in minde reprobat concerning the faith 2. All those that dyed in the desert murmouring against God and Moyses and his directions and commaunds 3. Chore and Dathan with theire seditious companions that opposed Moyses and his authority 4. Nahab and Albiu that put strange fyre in the Insence of the Lord. 5. All those strange Kings that made warre against the Children of Israel 6. All the false Prophets of Baal and all of that kind All these Sall are your companions in the written Law Hereticks in the Evangelicall Law IN the tymes of the Law of nature and of the written Law there haue not been if I am not mistaken above 20. Kindes of Hereticks but in the Evangelicall or in the Law of grace they have been above 600. of them A man would say it were hard to beleeve this seeing the standart of the Cross after Christes passion hath been lifted up against hell and heresie the kingdom and power of the Devill diminished Idols cast down Atheisme bannished and the Empire of Hell on Earth as it were destroy'd by the Bloud of Iesus Vertue Piety and the light of Grace for all this woefull experience proues what I have said to be true And Saint Cyprian giues you the true reason S. Cyp. lib. de Vnitat wherfor in these words Cum videret inimicus idola derelicta templa sua deserta exâ—ogitauit novas fraudes hereses inuenit scismata â— quibus fidem subuerteret When Sathan saw after our Sauiours Passion the Idols cast away and his tempels deserted hee thought of new fraudes hee inuented heresies and scismes by which hee might subuert faith and sanctity Sathan therfore the Father and Author of all lyes and Heresies seduced men from the way of truth and stirred them up against the Church and Verity these kinde of men sowed Heresyes and Scismes and some of them began like Hypocrits covering theire damnable Doctrin with a cloack of Sanctity such were Arius Iohn Wicklef and many more and even the worst livers of them pretended a kind of Piety in theire Opinions and as it were a speciall regard of the glory of God grounding all Sanctity and Salvation upon Sanctifying faith alone and upon this account some of them took away free will others good works fasting pennance and allkind of Mortification they did but mock all these things others took away the Invocation of Saints and Angells and Doctrin of Purgatory Indulgence and Prayers for the dead others reduced seven Sacraments unto two or rather to one to wit Baptisme and others have even destroy'd this Sacrament teaching infants to be saved in the faith of theire Parents and that Baptisme is but a meer cerimony that might be used or omitted without sinne others said the Commaundements were impossible to be kept and others held they did noe way oblige Christians and that they were only made for the Iewes but oboue all Calyin was soe zealous in attributing mans Salvation only to the Passion and Bloud of Iesus that hee held all the good works man could doe of noe value or effect yea hee termed Bona opera hominis piacula sordes inquiuamenta By this you see the Doctrins taught by Hereticks were but mera somnia deliria and a good part of the thirty nine Articles of the Church of England are such I shall herafter in a convenient place give you a long Letany of Hereticks but it will be noe way holy In this place I will only set downe the Sect of Quakers that sprung up in England some years agoe theire principall theorems and tenets are 1. That they are imediatly cald by Iesus and sent to convert the world as the Apostles were by an extraordinary mission 2. That God being a pure Spiritt is to be honoured only by the Spiritt wherfore they condemne all bending of knees and all exteriour signes of Religion and worship due to God 3. That it is superstition to light Candles by daytyme to weare Capps Copes Albs or any sacred vestments 4. That it is Idolatry to build Churches put up Crosses or the Images of Christ or his Saints or render them any Worshipp 5. They denye and reject the name of Sacrament and affirme that Baptizing in water is not of devine Institution 6. They
to see or discerne though all the world knew him to be Summersets competitor This crafty man though hee had bin allways a Roman Catholick in his Iudgment yet as many polititians use to doe hee dissembled his belief and soothed the Protectors inclination to the Protestant Reformation and made account those new men for Propagation and Preseruation of theire new Ghospell and Doâ—trin would fix upon himselfe for theire chief Patrone and Director and take with him whome hee would appoint for Soueraigne of the Land and to this purpose hee much humored their madness and zeal while they were intoxicating the people with the liberty and pleasure of the new Religion Dudlay being all in all with the Protector and having gotten the power of the Militia into his owne hand hee began to settle a new Religion in England upon the score of a refined Reformation and to unsettle the goverment and ancient faith and in doeing all this hee gave the world to understand the Protector did all and therby made him soe odious that none could indure to heare his name or to live under his goverment This wicked Earle compassed what hee went about to his owne desire his impious drift was to make his Sonne King who was marryed to my Lady Iane Gray of the Blood-Royall and a Protestant Infine hee contrived the Protectors distruction and had him put to death the young King to be poysoned the Princes Mary afterwards Queen to be excluded and the Lady Iane Gray to be Crowned Queen of England For preparing the way to all those sadd things this cruell impious man by force of the Army which was in his hands against his owne Conscience in the first Parlament and yeare of King Edwards Raigne obtained in favour of Protestancy and these new men an act of indemnity for the new Preachers and Hereticks from pennaltyes inacted by the ancient Lawes of the Land against marryed Priests and Hereticks and a repeal of the English Statutes that had tyme out of memory confirmed the imperiall Edicts and Lawes against Heresies But in the second year and Parlament of Edward VI. it was carryed though by few votes and after along debate of aboue foure months that the Zwinglian or Sacramentarian Reformation should be the Religion of England O tempora ô mores ô exicrabilem Parlamenti Anglicani impietatem ô scelus Cleri Apostatantis Who the Contrivers of the XXXIX Articles and first Reformers of Protestant Religion TRue Faith and all Sanctity being chased out of England by the sinns of the Clergie and the wicked laymen in the Parlament the Charge of framing Articles of this new Religion as alsoe of composing the Liturgie and a Book of Rites Ceremonies and Administration of Sacraments was committed to Thomas Cranmer Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and to som other Protestant Devines who were all married Fryers and Priests lately come out of Germany with their sweet harts videlicet Hooper and Roger Monks Coverdale an Augustin Fryer Bale a Carmelit all these Englishmen Peter Martir a Chanon Regulare Martin Bucer a Dominican and Bernardus Ochinus a Capucin these three strangers came over with three galloping Nuns invited by the Protector and Cranmer out of Germany and apointed to preach and teach in both Universityes and at London who were to agree with the rest in the new modern forme of Religion which was a matter of great difficulty because the tenets which they untill then had professed were irreconsilable For that Hooper and Rogers were fierce Swinglians that is Puritans or Presbiterians and joyned in faction against Cranmer Ridly and other Prelaticks Hugh Latimer of great regard with the common people hee opposed himselfe to Cranmer and others for their opposing his pretention to the Bishoprick of Worsester Coverdale and Bale were both Lutherans and yet differed because the one was a riged the other a milde or halfe Lutheran Bucer had alsoe professed a kind of Lutheranisme in Germany but in England was what the Protector would have him to be and therfore would not for the space of a whole yeare declare his opinion in Cambrid though pressed to it by his schollers concerning the Real Presence untill hee had heard how the Parlament had decided the Controversy at London and then hee changed his opinion and became wholy a pure Zwinglian The same tergiversation was used by Peter Martir at Oxford and soe ridiculously that coming sooner in the first Epistle of Corinthians which hee undertook to expound to the Words HOC EST CORPVS MEVM then it had bin determined in Parlament what they should signify the poor Monk with admiration and laughter of the University was forced to divert his Auditors with impertinent comments upon the precedent Words Accipite manducate fregit dixit c. Which needed noe explanation At length when the news was com that both houses had ordered these Words HOC EST CORPVS MEVM should be understood figuratiuely and not literally Peter Martir sayd hee wonderd that any man could be of another opinion though hee knew not the day before what would be his owne opinion As for Bucer hee was a concealed Iew joyned in Contriving the XXXIX Articles only to make good days with his Nun and dyed a Iew being asked confidently his opinion of the Sacrament by Dudley Duke of Northumberland in the presence of the Lord Paget then a Protestant who testifyed the same publickly afterwards hee answered that the Real Presence could not be deny'd if men believed that Christ was God and spoke the Words THIS IS MY BODY But whether all was to be believed which the Evangelistes writt of Christ was a matter of more Disputation Peter Martir who came to England to Cherish in pleasures his wanton Nun whose death hee lamented efeminatly was noe Protestant in Iudgment as is cleare by what is said and yet hee joynd in the XXXIX Articles Bernardus Ochinus who loved Woemen soe well as by an express written Book hee affirmeth Polligamy or the lawfullness of having two Wives together dying professed himselfe to be a Iew and soe whilest hee lived in England was but a counterfeit Protestant to make bon-chear with his Nun and for this cause agree'd to the XXXIX Articles Cranmer was a meer contemporiser and of noe Religion at all Henry the eight raised him from Chapline to Sr. Thomas Bullen Ann Bullens Father to be Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to the end hee might divorse him from Queen Catharin and marry him to said Ann Bullin which hee did Afterwards by the Kings Order hee declared to the Parlament that to his knowledg Ann Bullen was never lawfull wife to his Maiesty by which hee let the World know Elizabeth her daughter had noe right title to the Crowne of England After this hee marryed the King to Ann of Cleves and when the King was weary of her Cranmer declared this marriage alsoe null and married and unmarried him soe often that hee seemed rather to exercise the office of a pymp then the function
thy sonne liveth And the woeman said to Elias now in this I have knowne that thou art a man of God and the word of our Lord in thy mouth is true Sall wilt thou beleeve that the Miracle made this woeman beleeve Mi ∣ racle 3 When the Prophet Elizeus raised to life the dead child of the Sunamite saying to her Take thy sonne Lib. 4. Regum Cap. 4. Shee came and fell at his feet and adored upon the ground and took her Sonne and went out c. Behold Sall the force of the Miracle Miracle 4 This is a pretious one the preservation of Sidrach Misach and Abdenago three of the Children of Israell in the midst of the flames of burning fyre where they walked in the midst of Dan. Cap. 3. the flame praysing God and blessing our Lord. And did not Nabuchodnozor moved with this Miracle breaking forth say Blessed be the God of Sidrach Misach and Abdenago who had sent his Angell and had delivered his Servants that beleeved in him And after said By mee therfore this decree is made that every people tribe and tongue whatsoever shall speak Blasphemy against the God of Sidrach Misach and Abdenago hee perrish and his house be wasted for there is none other God that can soe save This Miracle made Nabuchodonozor confesse There was noe God could save but the God of Israel In the Law of Grace you will finde that God gave the power of working Miracles to witt of casting out Devills Math. cap. 10. of curing all manner of Infirmityes Where our saviour says to his Diciples And going preach saying That the Kingdom of heaven is at hand Cure the sick raise the dead cleans the lepers cast out Divells gratis you have received gratis give ye Mark Mark cap. 16. 2. Cor. cap. 12. the Evangelist doth attest the same Saint Paul alsoe avouched Miracles for the signes of his Apostle-ship The Miracles of Saint Peter and the rest of the Apostles are many and evident as is manifest by undenyable tradition All this being soe goe now Sall and tell thy Protestants Miracles wrought in the Catholick Church are Monstrous But if you will know the Miracles wrought by Hereticks Tertullian in a few words wil give you an account therof hee speaking of the Apostles said Apostoli de mortuis vivos saciebant Tert. de prescr That is The Apostles gives dead men life And then speaking of Marcion Valentinus Nigidius Hermogenes and other Hereticks said Isti de vivis mortuos faciunt These make living men dye soe is it speaking of mens Soules and somtymes of theire Bodyes as the Miracle of Calvin upon the Taylior Bruleus and of a certaine Arian that made aman seeing well quite blinde Another grave Father tells us of another kind of wonders Hereticks doe Invenerunt saith hee Matres quas de captivis monialibus fecerunt mulieres That is Of Nuns who were in theire power as it were captives they made woeman and Mothers Luther Beza Bucer Ochinus Peter Martyr and hundreds more wanton Monks Priests and Apostata's were excellent at working such Miracles Here Sall will tell mee hee makes noe question or doubt of Miracles attested in holy Scripture if soe hee must confess they are undenyable signes and proofs of a true Church and Religion and though they were says hee you cannot conclude other Miracles to be soe hee means Church Miracles and all such as are not found in Scripture these are they hee accounts for Monstrous Yet Luther himselfe confesseth these Words of Christ Hee that beleeveth in mee Iohn cap. 14. the works that I doe hee shall doe and greater Are understood of the power Christ left of working Miracles to the whole Body of the Church in whome this Vertue doth shine for ever and your English Bibles Edit 1576. in the marginall notes referrs this power to the whole Body of the Church A Deo discimus saith Luther accepimus aeternum verbum veritatem Luther Tom. 7. Lib. de Iudois c. fol. 220 Dei hactenus mille quingentis annis Miraculis signis consessam confirmatam That is Wee have learn'd and received from God the eternall Word and Verity of God hither to a thousand and five hundred years to have been confessed and confirmed by Miracles and Wonders But Protestants now a days contradict their holy Father Luther in this particular as all men must who maintaine errors and say when wee press them to relate some of theire Miracles that Miracles are now superfluous and therfore none wrought in the Church And some hold them ridiculous but Sall goes further saying they are Monstrous But I shall aleage some Miracles in Confirmation of the Roman Catholick Doctrin and more especially of Transubstantiation that some Protestants themselves will acknowledg to bee Miracles of undoubted creditt XXII CHAPTER Six Miracles confirming the Doctrin of the Catholick Church touching Transubstantiation and the Adoration of Christ in the Sacrament SAint Nilus relateth how Saint Ghrysostome S. Nilus in Ep. ad Anastasium almost every day had visions of Angells assisting and adoring the blessed Sacrament untill the Sacrifice was finished In the Ecclesiasticall History is recorded this example which Euagrius Euagr. Orthodoxus lib. 4. cap. 35. anno D. 552. writt as a thing notorius and done in his owne Tyme In the Tyme of Patriarck Menas saith hee there happened a Miracle worthy to be remembred It was an ancient Custome in Constantinople A Miracle for the Communion under one Kinde when many Parcels of the pure and unspotted Body of Christ our God were remaining after Communion little Children were caled out of the Schools and were permitted to eat them It happened that a little boy whose Father was a Iew by Profession and a maker of glass by his Trade being among the rest did eat alsoe his share of the aforesaid Reversion of the blessed Sacrament but coming some what late home and his parents demaunding the cause the child told innocently what hee had done which the Iew his Father understanding was soe enraged that unawares to his wife hee cast his little sonne into the burning ouen wherin hee us'd to melt and frame his glass The Mother missing the child sought for him three days together but hearing noe news of him abroad shee returned home with an heavy hart and sitting downe at the work-house house doore shee began to bewail the loss of her Sonne caling him by his name the boy hearing and knowing his Mothers call did answer within the oven where at the woeman starting burst the work-house doore and rushing in espied her child standing amidst the coles without receiving any harme After coming out being demaunded how hee escaped burning soe long a woe man said hee came often Tymes unto mee and brought mee water to quench the force of the fyer wherwith I was invironed and withall gave mee meat as often as I was hungry This accident being told unto the emperoor
squalida cutis situm Aethiopicae carnis obduxerat quotidie lachrimae quotidie gemitus si quando repugnantem somnus imminens oppresserat nuda humo vix ossae harentia collidebam De cibis verò Ipotu taceo cum etiam languentes Monachi aquae frigidae utantur coctum aliquid accepisse luxuria sit Ille igitur ego qui ob gehennae metum tali me carceri ipse damnaveram Scorpionum tantùm socius ferarum sapè choris intereram puellarum Pallebant or a jejuniis mens desideriis aestuabat inifrigido corpore ante hominem sua jam carne praemortuuuâ— fola libidinum incendia bulliebant Itaque omni auxilio destitutus ad Jesu jacebam pedes rigabam lacbrimis crine tergebam repugnantem carnem hebdomodarum inedia subjugabam Non â—rubesco consiteri infelicit atis meae miseriaemquin potius plango me non esse quod fuerim Memini me clamantem diem crebro junxisse cum nocte nec prius à pectoris cessasse verberibus quà m rediret Domino increpante tranquilitas Ipsam quoque cellulam meam quasi cogitationum mearum consciam pertimescebam mihimet iratus rigidus solus deferta penetrabam Sicubi concava vallium aspera montium rupium ptaerupta cernebam ibi meae orationis locus ibi illud miserrimae carnis ergastulum ut mihi testis est Dominus post multas lachrimas post coelo inhaerentes oculos nonnunquam videbar mihi interesse agminibus Angelorum laetus gaudensque cantabam post te in odorem unguentorum tuorum curremus That is O how living and lamenting in the desert and vast Wilderness which scorched with the burning of the Sonne gives a horrible kind of dwelling to the Monks and notwithstanding in my minde I was injoying the delights of Rome I sate alone replenished with bitterness All the parts of my body covered with sackcloath gave mee a kind of horrour and my withered skinn was black like the Flesh of an Ethiopian nothing but teares and sighes day and night and if sleep coming on did oppress mee resisting it I layed on the naked ground my bare bones hardly hanging together I say nothing of my fare and drinck when Monks fainting and languishing used noe other drinck then cold water and to eat any thing that was hott or saw the fyre was among them esteemed a great delicacy and wantonness I therfore who for the feare of hell condemned my selfe to such a prison companion only of Scorpions and wilde beasts seemed to be in my thoughts present at the sporting and dansing of the Ladys of Rome My countenance was pale with fasting and yet my minde in a cold body was flaming with burning desires of Concupisence In this anguish and lamentable Condition destitute of all comfort I sat downe at the feet of Crucify'd Iesus I watered them with teares and dry'd them with my havre and tamed the Rebellion of my Flesh with the want of fooding for many weeks I am not ashamed to confesse the misery of my unhappy Condition I remember well I have oft joyned the day with the night weeping and crying to God and knocking my breast with strokes and blowes untill tranquility and quiet returned and that the Lord was pleased to give mee ease in my Tentations I feared my cell it selfe least it should have knowne my inward thoughts and all alone angry and sever against my selfe I penetrated the desert there I beheld the depth of the valleys the asperitie of the mountains and the precipice of the high rocks there was the place of my prayers and the prison of my miserable Flesh and as my Lord is my wittness after many teares and after my eyes being fixt upon heaven I thought somtymes I was present with Hostes of Angells and joyfully I did cry to thee my God I will runne after thee and after the odour and smell of thy oyntments O Sall behold I present upon a Theater great Jerome a mortify'd Monk of the desert of austere Sanctity Leane Pale and consum'd with fasting and pennance bring you now to the vew of the world the Doctors and Masters you have chosen wanton grosse vagabond Monks running out of theire Monasteryes with theire nuns and wenches and that having abandon'd all Religious Authority contemne and mock Jeroms Mortification Let the world see thy great master Luther with his nun Chatharin Borin as alsoe Buser Peter Martir and Ochinus with theire runaway nuns And Calvin the Adulterer and Sodomyte and Beza another Adulterer and Sodamyte with his mayd Candida and faire boy Audebertus forgett not Bale the Carmelite with his lusty wench Dorathea and many more of that kinde A shame he upon thee Sall to forsake Jerome a man of God an Angell of the Desart and spectacle of Mortification to joyne with those Monsters of Impurity doe you take this to be a signe of your Praedestination As for Matter of Doctrin how different Ieroni was from those you joyne with you may learne by an excellent Epistle of his to Pope Damasus the Saint being solicited in Syria by severall Sects to joyne with them in Communion writes thus to the foresaid Pope Quanquam igitur tua me terreat magnitudo S. Ter. Epist ad Damasum Papum de Apostas invitat tamen humanitas a Sacerdote victimam salutis a Pastore presidium ovis flagito ego nullum primum nisi Christuns sequens beatitudini tue Cathedrae Petri communione consocior supra illam Petrans aedificatam Ecclesiam scio quicunque extra hanc domum agnum commoderit Prophanus est si quis in Area Noe non fuerit peribit regnante deluvâ—o And says in the end of the Epistle Quamobrent abtestor beatitudinem tuam per Crucifixum Mundi salutem per Homousion Trinitatem ut mihi Epistolis tuis sive tacendarum sive dicendatum Hypostaseon detur Authoritas You see here Sall a pure and rationall Submission of this learned Doctor to Pope Damasus in Matters of Faith what could be more humbly said by him then those words Ut mihi Epistolis tuis sive tacendarum five dicendarum Hypostaseon detur Authoritas Was this his deference to Damasus though a learned pope for being a more subtile Fxpounder of the sence of Scripture then Ierome Noe but because that Damassus was sitting upon Saint Peters Chaire ad quam error non habet accessum Sall you see that Saint Ierome revered the Pope as the Fountaine of all Spirituall Iuridiction under God he recognyzed him as such a head of Gods House and Family and you with your new Bishops and Clergy owne and acknowledge King Charles though a great Monarck yet a pure lay-man Ad quem pertinet tantum jus maenium Supreme head of the Church of England in Ecclesiasticis this is an express Article of your Faith the XXXVII of your XXXIX Articles wherin all Authority in Spirituall and Ecclesiasticall Matters and causes properly apertaining to the Pope is conferred on the Kings of
1594. lib. 2. fol. 72. sua potenti adeo hunt Haereticum percussit ut desperata salute demonibus invocatis jurans execrans blasphemans miserrimè animam malignam exhalarit obiit autem Calvinus morbo pediculari vermibus circa pudenda in apostemate seu ulcere faetentissimo crescentibus ita ut nullus assistentium faetorem amplius ferre posset That is God in the rod of his fury visiting Calvin did horribly punish him before the houre of his death for hee so stroke this Heretick so hee termâ—d him in regard of his Doctrin concerning the Sacrament and of God being the Author of sin with his mighty Hand that being in dispaire and calling upon the Devill hee gave up his wicked soule swearing cursing and blaspheming hee dyed of the disease of lyce and worms a kinde of death wher with God often stryketh the wicked as Antiochus Herod c. increasing in a most loathsom ulcer a bout his privy parts soe as none present could endure the stench the same Author saith Scio lego Bezam aliter de vita moribus obitu Calvini scribere cum vero Beza eadem Haeresi eodem fermè peccato nobilitatus sit ut historia de Candida ejus meretricula testatur nemo ipsi in hac parte fidem habere potest I know and read Beza to write otherwise of Calvins life manners and death but Beza being infected with the same Heresie hee means the denyall of the real presence in the Sacrament and being accused of the same sin as the History of Candida his little whore makes good noe man can give credit to Beza writing Calvins life A sodomite as wee have said a bove will not condemne a nother sodomite Finally I give you heer Iohannes Haerennius words a protestant writer who being himselfe an ernest Caelvanist and at Geneva when Calvin dyed testifyeth Calvins filthy dispairing death himselfe having bin present and an eye wittness therof Whose words are as followeth Calvinus in disperatione finiens Ioannes Herenius in libello de vita Calvini vitam obyt turpissimo fetidissimo morbo quem Deus rebellibus maledictis comminatus est prius excruciatus consumptus quod ego verissime attestari audeo qui funestum tragicum illius exitum his meis oculis presens aspexi That is Calvin ending his life in disperation dyed of a most filthy and loathsum disease which God doth use to inflict on Rebells and acurssed sinners being before tormented and consumed away which I can truly attest having been present and seen with myne eyes his tragicall and curssed end Tell mee Sall after this horrible end of Calvin a pillar of the English Church and your highest esteemed Doctor whose institutions are your golden Rules what Angells have hurried him out of this world to the tribunall of the Sonne of God and to what Eternity have they carryed him of Glory or Confusion Certainly such a despairing end of his life can be noe other then the beginning of an Eternity of Flames and Torments XII CHAPTER Of Beza's Doctrin and Conversation THe aforesaid Hierom Bolseck writt alsoe the life of this filthy Beza and what ennormious villanies hee committed First hee rann away with a Taylors wife in Callendors-street in Paris and shee then stole away her husbands goods hee sould a way a Priory hee had to one for redy monyes and hee had farmed it to another for 5. years for mony before hand after his running away these two fell to a publick sute which lyes upon record in the Court of Paris Hee was accused for getting his mayd Claudia with Child in Geneva and then faining himselfe and his mayd to be sick of the plague hee procured they should be lodged in two Chambers of Petrus Virettus in another Garden to conceal the sin hee had Claudia bled and strongly purged soe as shee was delivered of a dead Child which they buried in the Garden the Barber that blooded Claudia confessed all this to Doctor Bolseck upon oath What doth Beza to cover the foule matter hee composes a Hymne of certaine spirituall songs of the great paines hee suffered by vehemence of the plague and printed them at Geneva Sall is not this a holy man fitt to reforme the Church of God and to Sanctify the World O abhominable Imposter that covered black sinns with spirituall Hymnes Bolseck in publishing Beza's life anno 1582. doth object against him many great and haynous Imputations setting downe in particular with speciall naming of tymes places and persons and cleare circumstances Beza printed seditious Books for stirring up and fomenting civill warrs in France wherof one was intitled the French Fury another the truth another the watch another the waking Bell hee writt a most pestellent Book intitled De Iure Magistra tuum in subditos A thing soe perfidious as Mr. Suttlife saith The Doctrine Suttl in his ans to a Libel suplicatory pa. 75. and pa. 92. Banc. in his Serray of holy pretended discipline printed 1593. Cap. 3. pag 45. and in his book of dangerous positions pa. 21. therof doth wholy tend unto trouble and rebellion doth arme the subjects against the Prince and overthroweth in effect all the Authority of Christian Kings and Magistrates Likewise Bancroft Protestant Arch-Bishop of Canterbury delivers the same opinion of that dangerous Hereticall Book Who will be pleased to consider the principels and Aphorismes of Zwingâ—ius Calvin and Beza the tribunes of the furious People Boute-feux and Ring-leaders of Rebellion it shall appeare clearly ex effectis that Geneva is the School of Rebellion and the Semenary of all the civill warrs in France and if you will call to minde both theire beginnings theire proceedings and theire continuance till this tyme in the Kingdome of France In all these three things are specially to be observed 1. Theire many Conspiracyes 2. Theire many and great Batles against the King and his Officers 3. And the horrible outrages and attempts both incomparable for crueltie and incredible for disloyalty To say noe more of these things let it serve turne to informe you of the open and actuall Rebellion of these new Saints who sought by the sword in theire hands to compell the King to pacification Remember first that furious and memorable Battle upon the plaine of Dreux the Batle of Saint Dennis the Battle of Ianac the Battle of Coutras the Battle of Moncontour and the besieging of Roan where the King of Navare lost his life At Saint Dennis the Constable was slaine and at tarnat the Prince of Conde and at Coutras the noble Duke Ioyeuse ended his days The fields of France were stayned with noble French blood and a curssed Beza was the greatest instigator of all men living in those Battles and seditions against his King Charles the ninth who was bound to defend the Catholick Religion prescrib'd in France and professed for aboue 1300. years against all Heresiarks and impious men that would chase out that Religion and bring
in Heresie And by very reasons of state and the Law of Nations hee was bound to doe soe and to this purpose conduced the wise Councell Mecaenas gave to Augvstus as an axiome contra Novatores as Dyon recordeth Libro 52. Eos qui indivinis aliquid innovant odio habe coerce non deorum solum causa quos tamen qui contemnit nec sant aliud quidquam magni fecerit sed quia nova quaedam numina ij tales introducentes multos impellunt ad mutationem rerum Vnde conjurationes seditiones conciliabula res profecto minime conducibiles Principatui That is Hate those said Mecaenas to Augustus that make any change in Religion and chastise them not only for respect of the Gods though hee that contemneth them shall neuer doe any great thing but because those that introduce new Gods doe stirre up the people to mutation and discorde from this springs up conspiracies seditions and dangerous meetings and consultations things noe way agreable or profitable to the Kingdome And surely by such innovation did Beza insinuate himselfe into the favour of the discontented Princes as Conde Collignie and others and there by cast the strong and flourishing Kingdom of France into such convulsions as it hardly ever recovered its former strength and vigour Noe man did ever more vilefy and contemne the holy Fathers then this wanton Poet his insolency here in is intollerable Will you heare him utter the greatest petulancy that could be spooken Itaque dicere nec immerito quidem Beza ia Epist Theolâ— printed Geneve 1572. Epist 1 pag. 5. ut opinor consuevi dum illa tempora Apostolicis etiam proxima cum nostris comparo plus illos Conscientiae scientiae minus habuisse nos contrá scientiae plus Conscientiae minus habere haec mea sententia est Therfore saith Beza I was acustomed to say and not without reason when I compare those tymes even next to the Apostles with our tymes that they the Fathers had more of Conscience and less of Science and wee on the other side haue more learning and less Conscience then they c. As for Conscience hee said most true but to preferre himselfe and his Brethern Sectaries in learning to the ancient Fathers hee would not have don it unless the Spirit of lying and pride had throughly possessed him That wee may loose noe more tyme with this man of abomination that preferrs Calvin to all the Fathers in this language Magnus ille Ioannes Calvinus beatae memoriae veteres recentiores omnes longè superauit That is The great Iohn Calvin of blessed memory did farre excell all the antient Fathers and later Authors alsoe Hee means in expounding and interpreting Scriptures Let mee tell you what Heshusius a Hesh in libro Verae Sanae Confessionis c. learned Protestant says of him worsse cannot be said Spurcissimus suis moribus dedecori fuit ipsis diciplinis honestis quique nefandos amoris illiciti concubitus scortationes faeda Adulteria Sacrilego Carmine decantavit orbi non contentus eo quod ipse more porci in fimo volutaret nisi etiam aures studiosae juventutis sua illuvie contaminaret That is Beza by his most dishonest and villanous manners was a staine to honnest studyes and learning who published to the world in wanton sacrilegious vers vnlawfull and horrible coppulations of his beastly love horedomes and filthy Adulteryes Let us make an end with that knowne and scandalous Epigram by him made of his inordinat liking to his Ganimed termed Andebertus and to his young woeman called Candida in which as therby appeareth hee much debateth whether sinn hee may preferre and in the end concludeth with preferring the boy before his Candida The Epigram hath this tytle Theodorus Beza de sua in candidam Andibertum benevolentia It beginns thus Ab est Candida Beza quid motaris Andebertus ab est quid hic moraris Tenent Parisii tuos amores habent aurely tuos Lepores tu Vezelys mauere pergis procul candidula amoribusque Imo Vezely procul valete vale pater valete fratres nam Vezelys carere possum carere his illis At non Candidula Andibertoque g sed utrum ergo praeferam duorum utrum invisere me decet Priorem An quenquam tibi Candida anteponam An quenquam anteferam tibi Andeberte Quid si me in geminas secem ipse partes harum ut altera Candidam revisat currat altera versus Andebertum At est Candida sic auara novi ut totum cupiat tenere Bezam sic Bezae est cupidus suus Andebertus Beza ut gestiat integro potiri Amplector quoque sic hunc illam ut totus cupiam videre utrumque integris frui integer duobus h Praeferre attamen alterum uecesse est ó duram nimium necessitatem sed postquam tamen alterum necesse est Priores tibi defero Andiberte qnod si Candida forte conqueratur quid tum Basiolo tacebit uno Who understands this Epigram may tell you how fitt a man Beza was to reforme the Church or if God would Chuse such an uncleane Monster to doe it XIII CHAPTER A Brief Relation of the manners and Conversation of others of the Protestant Religion and pretended Reformers of the Church THose were Zwinglius Philip Melankion and others Of Zwinglius HEe was a Priest and Chanon of Constantia Prince of the Sacramentarians a seditious and turbulent man Hee had a conferrence with an evill Spiritt utrum albus an ater whither hee was white or black hee did not know and upon the same hee abolished the Mass as Luther did before him Hee at once with other votary Priestes as continent men as himself offer'd a petition to the Helvetian common wealth which Englished goeth thus Wee ernestly request that the use of Mariage be not deny'd to us who feeling the infirmity of our Flesh perceive that the love of Chastity is not given us by God for if wee consider the words of Paul wee shall finde with him noe other cause of Mariage then for to satisfy the lustfull desires of the Flesh a Carnall saying and false which to burne in us wee may not deny seeing that by means hierof wee are made infamous before the congregation Was not this a fyne Confession of Zwinglius and Companions hee had still in his mouth this bloody saying Evangelium fitit sangunem That is The Ghospell thursteth after blood Indevouring by fighting and by bloodshed to inforce his new Ghospell upon some Cantons and Countrys of the Switzers hee was slaine armed in a Battle And Luther gave this noble Character of him Obiit latro armatâ—â— obiit That is The theefe dy'd and hee dy'd armed Now Sall think on it if this man came from God or the Devill Phillip Melankton A Devine of eminent rank among Protestants prefered by Luther to Saint Austin himselfe maintained three distinct Divinities as there are three distinctt persons Hee taught
Apostolicale will you heare these holy men speake in theire owne Cathechisme Albe it say they the substance of the Doctrine comprised Catebhisme VVest infine in the abridgment commonly called th' Apostles Creed be fully sett forth in each of the Cathechismes soe as there is noe necessity of incerting the Creed it selfe Yet it is here anexed not as though it were composed by the Apostles What new masters or rather Monsters are these What ungodly pestiferrous Doctrin is this to say and teach the Creed is a human Collection and not made by the Apostles this they declared as was said and after such Declaration they did not say it neither did they require it to be said any more of others as the custome was formerly at Babtising infants all this they did to put the Creed out of Estimation and use now this Innovation calling the Creed in question the beleevers therafter could be sure of nothing Thus the Presbyterians indeavered to dash th' Authority of the Cymbol the principall foundation of Religion O abomination of furious zealots that would change the Apostolicall Creed which was taught for such and soe beleeved and esteemed in all ages by the consent of all Christian Nations and said dayly by all the Servants of God young and old But against the Impiety of those men wee have the Authority and Testimony of all the ancient Fathers for the Credit and Estimation of the Creed Cardinall Barronius in the first tome of Baron Tom. 1. Annal. an 44. N. 15. seq his Annals doth shew by the Testimony of the holy and ancient Fathers that the Creed was composed by the holy Apostles a little before they were to part and goe into severall Countryes to preach the Ghospell unto the Gentils to the end there might bee a certaine short cleare rule of Faith in which they all agreed wherin they were to instruct all persons and by which as by a certaine badge all Christians might be knowne Be pleased now to heare the Fathers speak of the Symbol Saint Ambrose saith Let us beleeve the Symbol S. Amb. Serm. 18. Epist 81. of the Apostles which the Roman Church doth ever preserve and keepe inviolate Saint Hierom saith The Symbol of our Faith and hope which was delivered by th' Apostles is not written in Paper or Ink but in the fleshly Tables of the hart Saint Augustin speaks thus The comprehension Aug. Serm. 42. de trad and perfection of our Faith is the Creed It is simple saith hee short and full That its simplicity might serve the rudeness its shortness the Memory And its fullness the Instruction of the hearers Else where hee saith this is a Symboll brief in words but large in Misteryes for whatsoever is declared in the Scriptures or foretold by the Prophets c. is contained and briefly confessed in it To show the excellency of the Creed which is therfore to be often sayd Saint Augustin speaks thus Render Aug. homil fortitu your Symboll render it unto the Lord be not weary to rehearse it the repitition of it is good least forgetfullness creep one thee doe not say I sayd it yesternight I sayd it to day I say it every day I have it well Remember thy Faith Behold thy selfe let thy Creed be a mirrour unto the there see thy selfe if thou beleeve all that thou confessest thy selfe to beleeve and rejoyce dayly in thy Faith Let it be thy Riches the dayly apparell of thy Soule Doe you not cloath your selfe when you rise Soe by remembring thy Creed cloath thy Soule least per-adventure forgetfullness make it naked Saint Ambrose cales this the Seale of our Ambr. lib. 3. de Virgin Tom. 4. hart which wee ought dayly to review and the Watch-word of a Christian which should bee in a readiness in all dangers Wee have the Creed by an assured Tradition and Testimony of the Church which Saint Augustin holds of noe less certainty then the Scriptures as is signifyed by these words I would not have beleeved saith the Saint Aug. Cont. Epist fund Cap. 5. the Ghospell unless the Authority of the Catholick Church had moved mee c. And that Authority being once weakned neither can I beleeve the Ghospell Seeing these Presbiterians have abollished the Authority of the Crâ—ed saying it is not Apostolicall what in Gods-name have these Doctors given to the People in place of the Symboll The holy Covenant and as the Creed is denyed by these men to be Apostolicall soe is the Covenant cry'd up to be Divine for they call it Gods Covenant and the Confession of the Scottish Kirck This was truly a rare exchange to deny the Creed to be Apostolique and to cry up the Covenant to be devine To Rob us of a most ancient clear briefe positive sacred Confession of Faith made by the holy Apostles famous in all ages and Universally received throughout the whole world full of great Misteryes and divine Expressions and to give us in place of it a new long obscure negative Confession or rather noe Confession of Faith full of terrible oathes Execrations and Combinations devised by some few discontented heads and by cunning and force obtruded upon the Nation much suspected at the beginning to bee nothing but a meere pretence of Religion as it was notoriously known to be a humane Invention and as it 's now at length after all its disguises manifested for such unto the World It 's good fame hath not lasted long neither at home nor a broad It gott some footing in England by cunning and worldly interest but these soone failing it was quickly detected and rejected The Christian Mediator sayth to this purpose That the last Reformation Christ Mod. pag. 2. settled with soe solemne a Covenant and carryed on with soe furious a zeal is already by better lights discovered to be meerly humane and therfor deseruedly layd aside These are the words of the converted Presbyterian Sall I would now faine know what is your Iudgement of these kinde of Protestants perhaps you will say they are noe Protestants but Geneva the acknowledged school of English and Scottish Protestants will tell you that Presbiterians are the purest Protestants of all and for ought I could ever learne the Church of England held and holds them soe according to Doctor Whitakers manner of speaking Tell mee Sall have you ever seen any act of Parlament in England declaring that Presbiterians are not Protestants or any penal lawes enacted against them noe such thing though they differ as was said from the Episcopall or Royall Protestants in fundamentall points of Religion that of the order and dignity of Episcopacy which they hold to bee Anti-Christian and Tyranicall and noe way de Iure Divino The other of the kings supremacy in Spiritualibus which they flatly deny they alsoe differ from the Kings Protestants in abollishing the Lords prayer and the Hymne of Glorification to the B. Trinity and in denying the Greed to be Apostolicall
which are flatt Heresies and for all these Impietyes and abominations there are not that I heare of any Lawes made in Parlament for punishing these Presbiterians Noe but all the lightning thunder and tempest of the Bishops and that kind of Protestants and of the Presbiterians likwise doth fall upon the poor Catholicks our Religion is made treason to owne the Pope head of the Church in Spiritualibus as realy hee is is punish'd with death to worship Images superstition to invocate the Angels and Saints Idolatry wee suffer disgrace in Court and Country wee suffer the loss of livings wee suffer Imprisonments and death it selfe the Extirpation of our Faith is desired sought and put in Execution and men receive pleasure which is inhumane and cruell in our Miserye and Distruction and all these Afflictions fale upon us soly for the hatred men have to Religion What comfort can wee finde in these Extremityes That only and that is enough which our Saviour hath promised to his Servants Beati qui persecutionem patiuntur Math. Cap. 4. propter Iustitiam quoniam ipsorum est Regnum Caelorum That is Blessed are they that suffer Persecution for Justice for theirs is the Kingdome of heaven Sall wee heare you have preached in July 1674. before the Lord Lieutenant and State in Christ-Church in Dublin a long premeditated Sermon for Justifying your departure from the Romish Communion and you then told your Auditors that you had found in the Romish Church three Abominations to wit Idolatry Impiety and Tyranny and those you called Abominationem desolationes stantem in loco Sancto And that therfore according to our Saviours Admonition you departed from that Congregation But I tell you you have forged a pernitious Calumnie and Imposture in charging the Church of Rome the Mother of all Churches with Idolatry Impiety and Tyranny And I further say my Opinion that an Idol which is found in all your Congregations the pride of the privat Spiritt that Spiritt Doctor Whitaker see Pagina 17. discribed made you charge the Church of Rome with Idolatry Sir your zeal in your new Religion is soe furious that you have render'd your selfe at present incapable of Councell and all advice but in tyme you may become colder Non est abrevitae manus Domini And think better of what you have done however for the true love I have for you and especially for your Soule which is the maine and principal part ought to bee taken care for I hartily pray you what kinde of thing is Parlament Religion a ssippery and changable Religion which is thus declared For Satisfying King Henry the eight The Parlament changed some Articles of Faith as soone as hee dy'd they changed that Faith into Zwinglianisme to comply with the Protector Summerset young King Edward the sixt his Vncle within two or three years after they changed Zwinglianisme into Calvinisme and at the sute of Calvin reformed the Liturgy accordingly After the young Kings death they return'd with good Queen Mary to the old Faith and by new acts abolished those acts they had lately made before against Catholick Religion with Queen Elizabeth they restored againe the new Religion with some Alterations when King Iames succeeded they changed the translations of Scripture and other things In King Charles the firsts tyme Prelatick Protestancy was puld downe by Presbitery and this by IndePendency and the last puld downe quite Kingly Authority and took of the good Kings head from his Body Prelatick Protestancy being restored by King Charles the second the forms of Ordination where upon depends the validity of the Protestant Ministry Church and Sacraments being not thought sufficient were amended and are now changed into more Catholick Forms adding to the Forms the words Priest and Bishop which hath quite discredited theire Character of Priesthood and Episcopacy for those two Words being held by them as Essentiall in these two Forms the former orders given without these Words must have been invalid and in like manner all things in theire Ministry that depends upon Ordination are uncertaine and doubtfull for if the Church of England hath acknowledged to have erred in a thing of soe great importance as the Forms of Ordination what reason can it have in not erring in all the rest In a word Protestants in the Kingdome of England in one age have made more changes of Religions then Mahometans in the ten ages they have continued What I have sayd being duly examined tell mee Sall is not Protestant Religion slippery and changable and consider well what shall become of you in the sad exchange you have made The fourth Advertisment Learned Protestants of the Church of England doe confess that English and Irish Pagans venerable Beda called them Slaves of Idols were converted to Christian Faith by men sent from the Popes of Rome holy men that wrought Miracles in those Conversions IF any shall demaund to what end doe I make Mention of these Protestant Authors what doe I inferr from theire Testimoneys I make this Illation that said Authors did attest the Conversion of those Pagans to have beene made by those sent from Rome to a true and sauing Faith and for this Verity there are two convincing reasons The first that the Veracity of God was herein concerned which neuer confirm'd by Miracles a false Faith The second that the Goodness of God would not have Pagans brought from Idolatry to Heresy or to such a Religion wherein they would bee as certainly damn'd as in Idolatry to Iudge this of the goodness of God were a horrible Blasphemy for it were noe less then to cale him a cheate Sall examin now seriously what Faith that was the Saints Fugatius Damianus sent from Pope Eleutherious taught to the Pagans of England when King Lucius the first Christian King his Queen and thousands more were converted what the Faith which Saint Augustin the Benedictin Monk sent from S. Gregory Pope denounced to the Saxon Pagans In what Faith did S. Parrick sent from Pope Celestinus instruct the Idolaters of Ireland doubtless you will confess it was the same Faith then professed in Rome and by all the People that obey'd the Pope now all these professed as Articles of Faith the Real-Presence in the Eucharist the Invocation of Angells and Saints the seven Sacraments the Sacrifice of the Mass worship of Images and the like And aforesaid Saints Fugatious Damianus c. delivered them for such to the Pagans of both the Nations they likewise wrought Miracles for proving the truth of the Religion they taught and the Pagans seeing those Miracles beleeved they were sent from God They were indeed sent to those Idalaters as Moyses Elias and others Prophets to the People of Israel and as the Apostles to the Gentils doeing wonders In Nomine Virtute Dei. I observe in this place that the Religion the S S. Fugatious Damianus Patrick and Augustin preached to the Pagans of these countryes was not the Faith now Professed by Sall and