whole Rosary consists of a hundred and fifty Ave Maries And as the Instrument to which David did sing his Psaâ—mes was an instrument of ten strings Ps 32.2 So wee distinguish these hundred and fifty Ave Maries into severall tenns that is into fifteen tenns if wee say the whole Rosary or into five tenns if wee say but the third part of it as wee do when our leasure or devotion reacheth not at once to the whole Rosary Every tenn is distinguished with a Pater noster sayd in the beginning thereof For before wee call upon our Lady wee think it fitt to call upon our Lord from whom all the graces of our Lady did proceed and from whom all must be given which wee begg of her to obtain For wee do not acknowledg our Lady to be the giver of any graces though her intercession be most powerfull to obtain them to be given by her Son When wee use this devotion wee do indeed deed say ten Ave Maries for one Pater noster But the reason of this is not that wee honour our Lady more then our Lord for wee are so farre from equalizing her to him that wee confesse her infinitely inferiour to him But the reason is that it is fitt wee should set some time a part to honour her or else wee should honour her at no time Now as when wee are busied in honouring our Mother wee are not at that time busied in honouring our Father So when wee bestow this parcel of time in honouring our Lady wee only at this time honour our Lord so farre as all the honour we do to his Mother is done out of the respect wee beare to her because shee is his Mother Wee reserve other devotions to our Lord which contain an honour of an incomparably higher strain then any honour wee give to our Lady For because our Lord dyed on the Friday wee to his honour fast all fridayes because he remayned dead all Saturday wee honour him for it by abstinence from flesh all Saturdayes Because he did rise again on the Sunday wee honour his Resurrection by solemnizing all Sundayes Because he fasted forty dayes for us wee to his honour yearly fast the forty dayes of Lent No such honour is done by us to our Lady Our adversaries will aske us first what authority wee have for the Ave Mary Secondly why wee use this prayer just so often reiterated and how wee busy our minds in the mean time You will soon know what to answer by the ensuing discourse 6. Wee say then the first part of the Ave Mary was made by an Angel and he as Ambassador from God used such words as he knew to be to Gods mind saying to our Lady Hail full of grace our Lord is with the blessed art thou among weomen Luke 1.28 The second Part came allso from God For v. 41. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost and shee spake out with a loud voice and sayd blessed art thou among weomen And blessed is the fruit of thy wombe The Holy Church addeth Holy Mary Mother of God for shee is in the next verse called Mother of our Lord pray for us sinners now and at the houre of our death Amen Which words are most full of piety supposing what wee have proved prayer to Saints to be pious for if wee may pray to our Lords servants wee may pray to his Mother Behold the whole Ave Mary 7. Secondly wee use just the number of a hundred and fifty Ave Maries in the whole Rosary because wee would say a whole Psalter to her honour If these had been a hundred and fifty severall prayers as there be a 150. Psalmes who would have remembred them But now they being all but the same prayer so often repeated and this prayer allso so well knowen any simple person though he cannot read can say this whole Psalter to our Lady without book And it was made chiefly for a devout entertaynement for those ignorant people who cannot read though it be allso an excellent entertaynment even for the most learned when either they have not light to read or when being wearied out with contemplation or lesse disposed thereunto they desire to walke or passe the time devoutly without any overmuch tiring exercise If any one adds an Ave Mary more or lesse then this number he doth no other hurt then he who intending to say the whole Psalter should say one Psalme lesse or repeat one twice These hundred and fifty Ave Maries are most conveniently divided into fifteen tenns to help us at every severall tenne to call to our memory and devout consideration a severall Mystery of the life of Christ and our Lady For the prime Mysteries of theyr lives be reduced very fitly and orderly into fiften Mysteries of which five be joyfull five be sorrowfull and five be glorious To the honour of all these fifteen Mysteries wee say the fifteen tenns when wee say the whole Rosary If wee have not will or leasure to say the whole Rosary at once then wee say only the beads of five tenns honoring or pondering either the five joyfull or the five sorrowfull or the five glorious Mysteries When I say the first five tenns at each tenn I will honour and attentively ponder with devotion one of the five joyfull Mysteries As first the Annunciation of our Lady when the Angel announced unto her that God would become man and shee should be exalted to be his Mother Secondly her Visitation when visiting her Cosen Elizabeth As soon as Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary the infant did leap in her wombe and Elizabeth was replenished with the Holy Ghost and cryed out Blessed art thou c. Luke 1.41 Thirdly the Nativity of our Lord. A joy that shall be to all people because this day was borne to them a Saviour Luke 2.10 Her joy was greatest who was the Mother in this joyfull birth Fourthly her Purification when Simeon in whom the Holy Ghost was came in spirit into the Temple and took the Child into his armes shewing him to all publickly in the Temple and declaring him to be a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of the people of Israël Luke 2.32 Fiftly her finding the lost Child disputing with the Doctours in the Temple where they all were astonished that heard him upon his wisdome and answers Luke 2.47 And he went down with his Mother and lived subject unto her even till he was thirty yeare old and shee keept all his words in her hart v. 51. 8. When I come to say the second five tenns I will honour and ponder the five sorrowfull Mysteries First Christ his prayer in the Garden Secondly his whipping at the Pillar Thirdly his Crowning with thornes Fourthly his carrying of the Crosse Fifthly his being Crucifyed and dying upon the Crosse All which as Christ felt them most sensibly in his body so our Lady next to Christ had a most tender feeling of them in her own soule And
Some places are more Holy then others we therefore laudably make Pilgrimages and Processions to such Holy places 1. OVt of Holy Scripture it is evident some places were more Holy then others and for that respect choyce was made of such places to performe the best acts of devotion The great Patriarch Abraham had digged a well and there called upon God by that solemne oath which he made to Abimalech Gen 21.31 Wherefore he called that place Beershebath that is the well of the oath This is the place of which it is sayd Gen. 26.23 And he Isaac went up from thence to Beersheba And the Lord appeared to him that night saying I am the God of Abraham I will blesse thee and multiply thy seed for my dead servants Abraham sake HeÌ„ce the Well was accounted a sanctified place And you shall find in the 46. Chap v. 1. that Iacob or Israël many yeares after taking his journey with all things that he had towards Aegypt came to the well of the oath and offering there Sacrifice to the God of his father Isaac who there as I sayd appeared to Isaac he heard God by a vision in the night calling him c. You see Iacob with all his Children beginning his journey with a Pilgrimage to this Holy Place you see that purposely he makes choyce of this place to offer there Sacrifice You see God in this Holy place favoring him with a heavenly vision as he had done his Holy Father Isaac in the same place Doth not then God make choyse of some particular place rather then of others 2. The place where God appeared is to be called and hield Holy So Exod. 3.5 God out of the burning bush to Moyses sayth draw not nigh hither loose of thy shoe from thy feet For the place wherein thou stands is Holy ground to witt made Holy and sanctified by the presence of God or rather of an Angel sent as Gods Embassadour For Acts. 7.30 S. Stephen sayth There appeared to Moyses an Angel in the fire of the flame of a bush saying loose of thy shoe for the place wherein thou standest is Holy ground Whence it was the transitory presence of an Angel appearing for that so short a time which did Sanctify this place and make respect and reverence due to it upon that account Therefore by good consequence the permanent abode of a Saints body resting in such a monument may do the like that is may Sanctify this place This is allso made evident by the mouth of that Angel who exacted reverence to be done in the place where he appeared Ios 5. saying to Iosue I am the Captain of the Hosts of our Lord loose thy shoe from thy feet For the place wherein thou dost stand is Holy The ordinary common field of Iericho was by the Angels presence made so Holy that it was indecent to tread upon it with a shoe Wherefore those who come bare foot to the Bodyes of Saints commit no superstitious excesse in devotion 3. Moreover some places are farr more Holy then others There was a place in which the Propitiatory or Mercyseat stood called Sancta Sanctorum the Holy of Holyes or the Holiest of all to which place for reverence to it none approached but the High Priest alone once a yeare not without blood Hebr. 9.7 Thus offering Sacrifice allwayes when he entred this so Holy a place which is the highest act of worship And because Sacrifice was the highest act of worship God would not permitt that to be performed in any ordinary Holy place But he thus commanded the people of Israël Deutr. 12.5 To the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of your Tribes to put his name there even unto his habitation shall you seek and thither shall yeu come Thither shall you bring your burnt offerings and Sacrifices where I note that this place is called his habitation or dwelling place In which sense some Catholiks may say our Lady dwells at Sichem or Loretto for the choise God hath made of those places in order to bestow favours and graces to such as there implored our Ladys aid Note allso that verse 26. How farr of soever they lived God commands the things Sacrificed and vowed to our Lord to be all offered here So that Pilgrimage to this Holy place did allwayes accompany this Holy offering His command doth justify the Holynes thereof 4. Yea because the Temple of Salomon which was the place chosen was the place thus Sanctifyed and made so peculiarly Holy the very ordinary prayers which men made when they came in Pilgrimage to this place and made them there were upon that account more pleasing to God and sooner heard by hâ—m For 2. Chron. 6.19 His eyes be open upon this house night and day upon the place whereof thou hast sayd that thou wouldest put thy name there to harken to the prayer which thy servant prayeth TOWARDS THIS PLACE harken to the supplication of the people made TOWARDS THIS PLACE And the next verses are all full of Blessings begged for them who shall pray or make supplication or spread forth his hands in THIS HOVSE v. 24.29 Wherefore for easier obteyning of all these blessings a Pilgrimage to this place was usually undertaken For a Pilgrimage is nothing else but only a going to some Holy places for devotion Those who could not go to the Temple or Ierusalem would at least turne themselves towards these places when they prayed as we shall presently see Daniel did 5. At the first bringing of the Ark into the Temple there was a most solemne Procession made 2. Chron. 5. by the King Salomon himself gathering all the ancients of Israël and all the Princes of the Tribes and the heads of the families of the Children of Israël to bring the Ark of the Covenant from the citty of David From that place then the Procession began the Priests and Levits carrying the vessels of the Sanctuary and at the Temple in mount Moria the Procession ended with Sacrifices without number 6. Pilgrimages to this place and processions at the same time were used by the most Holy Kings of the Iewes So 2. Chron. 20.3 The most pious king Iosaphat feared and set himself to seek our Lord and proclaimed a fast through all Iuda And Iuda gathered themselves to gather to ask help of our Lord. Then v. 13. All Iuda stood before the Lord with there litle ones theyr wives and theyr Children For with them they all came up in Pilgrimage to this place here making this so solemne supplication And God upon the very place prophecyed victory to them And Iosaphat the next day caused a procession of singers to the Lord to go before his Armey singing that Psalm Prayse the Lord. And when they began to sing prayses our Lord tourned the Ambushments upon themselves Lo here the pious procession favored from heaven with a stupendious victory For they not fighting one stroke theyr enimies by theyr own swords lay dead in so great
1. Kinges 18.22 I even I only remaine a Prophet of our Lord. And in the next Chap. v. 10. I even I only am left which again he repeates v. 14. I answer that at lest he is told presently by God v. 18. That there were left in Israël seven thousand men whose knees had not bin bowed before Baal And in the former Chapter it is manifest he knew of an hundred Prophets For v. 13. Abdias told him I hidd of the Prophets of our Lord an hundred men by fifty and fifâ—y in caves Wherefore he knew well that there were many faithfull amongst whom so many Prophets were known to him yea hence it is cleare that he was not the only Prophet left Wherefore those words I only I remaine a Prophet of our Lord are to be understood thus I only I remaine a Prophet standing openly to oppose theyr fury amongst the Apostated Tribes of Israël For Elias knew full well that not all the Children of Israël but only tenne Tribes were faln from God 1. Kinges 12. He knew allso that the still faithfull Tribe of Iuda including Benjamin afforded Roboam an hundred and four seore thousand chosen men to fight against the other revolted tenne Tribes v. 21. which is again repeated 2. Chron. 11. with a notable declaration how much the true Church even then florished in Iuda and Benjamin Roboam himselfe building fifteene cities inclosed with walls And v. 13. the Preestes and Levits that were in all Israël resorted to him out of all theyr coasts And v. 16. Of all the Tribes of Israël whosoever had given theyr heartes to seeke theyr Lord God of Israêl came into Ierusalem to sacrifice and they strengthned the Kingdome of Iuda All this Elias knew very well and also that which follows to witt that Asa reigned over all Iuda in all pietie and peace 2. Chron. 14. And he built other fenced cities in Iuda And v. 8. Asa had of Iuda an army of three hundred thousand and of Benjamin two hundred eighty thousand And he defeated tenn hundred thousand Ethiopians And 2. Chr. 17. Iosaphat who lived in the day 's of Elias was yet greater then Asa his Father both in piety and power For v. 10. The Dread of our Lord came about all the Kingdomes of the Lands that were about Iuda Neither durst they make battell against Iosaphat And he built many strong cities and stupendious was the number of his forces v. 14. of Iudath under Abnath Three hundred thousand and two hundred eighty thousand under Iohanan And two hundred thousand under Amasias And two hundred thousand under Ehada And two hundred eighty thousand under Iosobad All these make Eleven hundred thousand and sixty thousand soldiers And yet the Scripture sayth All these were at the hand of the King besides others whome he had putt in Walled cities in Iuda Behold the Iewish Church even at her lowest ebbe Christ's Church is the Mistris and of higher dignity Wherefore at all times after her beginning you must find me at lest as many visible Professors of her doctrine as the Iewish Church had in her meanest coÌ„ditioÌ„ For the new testameÌ„t is established in far better promisses Heb. 8.6 As also appeares by the texts which here shall be cited All which texts coÌ„vince such a perpetuall coÌ„spicuous and visibly florishing state at all times that no church differing from the RomaÌ„ caÌ„ be shewed to have had any thing like it 3. The other only considerable objection is that perhapes these promises made by God to his Church concerning his allwaise protecting her were made upon this condition that he would do this if she should persever to keep his commandments for so all his promises to David and Salomon are made I answer that it is evideÌ„t that some promises which feeme made to them and their posterity are not to be litterally understood of their posterity according to flesh but as they by grace be sonnes of Christ who was the sonne of David And diverse of these promises are made so absolutly that absolutely they admit of no such condition Take for proof hereof that convincing Text Ps 89.4 I have made a covenant with my chosen I have sworne to David my servant thy seed will I establish for ever and I will build up thy throne to all generations All which is only verified in Christ Who in his Church hath giveÌ„ hâ—m the seate of David his father and he shall reigne in the house of Iacob for ever and of his Kingdome there shall be no end As the Angel sayd Luke 1.32 After this promise of everlasting perpetuity to his Church lest any ony should thinke his promises might be made void by any sins of hers or to be made only upon condition of theyr walking in his commandments he addeth in the same Ps v. 29. And I will putt him the first begotteÌ„ high aboue the kings of the earth I will keepe my mercy unto him for ever and my Testament faithfull unto him I will putt his seede for ever and ever and his throne as the days of heaven But if his Children shall forsake my law this can not be possibly in your doctrine spoken of the Elect and will not walke in my Iudgments If they will prophane my Iustices and not keep my commandments I wil visit theyr iniquities with a Rod and theyr sinnes with stripes But my loving kindness I will not take a way from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail My covenant will I not break nor the thing which is gone out of my Lips Once I have sworn in my holy if I ly to David his seed shall continue for ever And his throne as the Sun in my sight and as the Moon perfect for ever This Text speakes home to prove what I inteÌ„d to witt that these promises be made upon Christ The son of David the son of Abraham Matth 1.1 and as S. Paul teacheth that only those who believe in Christ be the rue children of Israël and Abraham so they only be the true children of David and concerning them is verified the promise which as is here sayed for no fins of theirs shall ever be frustrated Not as though the word of God had takeÌ„ no effect but they that are the Children of the Promisse are counted for the seed Rom. 9.6 4. And in this sense the Sacred Text speakes 2. Sam. 7.16 And thine house and thy Kingdome shall be established for ever before thee thy throne shall be established for ever According to all these wordes did Nathan speake to David So Psalm 72.5 They shall feare thee as long as the Sun and Moone endure through out all generations He shall have dominion allso from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the Earth In whom can these Texts of Scripture be verified but in Christ ever raigning in his Church diffufed even in a florishing condition over the face of the earth According to what is sayd Luke 1.32 The Lord God shall give
In his Christs dayes shall the righteous florish so long as the Moone endureth And he shall rule from sea to sea and from the River even to the ends of the round world Yea all the Kings of the earth shall adore him and all nations shall serve him Psal 98.3 All the ends of the earth have seene the saluation of our God Of what Church is this true besides the Roman 4. In this point of the multitude of Gentiles to be converted none more eloquēt and copious then the Prophet Isaias Chap. 2. v. 2. And in the later dayes the new Testament is called the last houre 1. Io. 2.18 the mountaine of the house of our Lord shall be prepared in the topp of mountaines and all nations shall flow unto it and he shall judge the Gentills c. Again Ch. 49. v. 1. Listen ô you Ilands and attend you people from a farr And then v. 6. It is a small thing that thou shouldest be my servant to rayse up the Tribes of Iacob and to convert the Dreggs of Israël it is too too poore a thing for Christ to be authour of so small a Church as the Iewish Church was Behold I have given thee to the light of the Gentills that thou mayest be saluation even to the farthest part of the earth Kings shall see and Princes arise and adore for our Lords sake Behold these shall come from farr and behold they from the north and the sea and these from the south country Lift up thy eyes round about and see all these are gathered togeather thy are come to thee And v. 19. Thy desarts and thy solitary places in which no body before served God and the land of thy ruine shall now be straite by reason of the inhabitants And yet shall the Children of the Barrennesse say in thine eares The place is straite for me make me space to dwell Then v. 22. Behold I will lift up my hands to the Gentills and to the people I will exalt my signes And they shall carry thy Sonns in theyr armes and thy Daughters upon theyr shouldiers And Kings shall be thy nurcing fathers and Queenes thy Nurses With a countenance cast downe to the ground they shall adore thee and they shall licke up the dust of thy feet Kings prostrating themselves at the feet of Christs Vicar and kissing them Again Chap. 54.2 Enlarge the place of thy tents and streetch out the skinns of thy Tabernacles for thou shalt penetrate to the right hand and the left And thy seed shall inherit the Gentills and shall inhabite the desolate Cities Here note that these things were spoken to the Iewish Church telling her how much the future glorie of Christs Church should exceede her and so to her the Prophet sayd in the first verse Payse ô barren woeman which barest not sing prayse and make joyfull noyse because many are the Children of the desolate Gentills more then of her that hath a husband To witt the Synagogue to which he had been so long espoused So that it is flatly against Scripture to make the Church of Christ at any time so barren as the Synagogue was in the dayes of Elias Allthough even then she had in the field farr above an eleven hundred thousand men besides many thousands of soldiers in her walled Cities as we shewed Point 3. n. 2. much more is it against Scripture to make her so litle as not to be visibile or known And therefore again Ch. 60. v. 1. Arise be illuminated Hierusalem because thy light is come and the glorie of our Lord is risen upon thee Gentills shall walke in thy light and Kings in the brightnes of thy rising Lift up thine eyes and see round about all these are gathered togeather they are come to thee Thy sonns shall come from a farr and thy daughters shall rise from thy side Then shalt thou see and abound and thy heart shall be enlarged when the multitude of the sea shall be converted to thee The strenght of the Gentills shall come to thee the inundation of Camells shall couer thee v. 10. The Children of strangers shall build thy walls and theyr Kings shall minister to thee and thy gates shall be open continually never shalt thou be invisible for day and night they shall not be shutt that the strenght of the Gentills may be brought to thee for the nation and the Kingdomes that shall not serve thee shall perish What nations can serve yea and be bound under paine of perishing to serve an invisible church again v. 15. I will make thee an eternall excellency a joy unto generation and generation and thou shalt suck the milk of Gentills and thou shalt be nourished with the teate of Kings Again Ch. 62. v. 2. And the Gentills shall see thy Righteousnes and all the Kings thy glory 5. Ieremie allso every where fully Chap. 30.19 I will multiplie them and they shall not be few and I will glorifie them and they shall not be small Christs Church still shal ever containe a vast number of people Again 31.34 And a man shall no more teach his neightbour and a man his brother saying know our Lord for all shall know me from the lest of them to the greatest sayth our Lord Thus sayth our Lord that gives the Sun for the light of the day the order of the Moone and Starrs for the light of the night If these laws shall faile before me sayth our Lord then allso the seed of Israël shall faile that it be not a nation for ever before me This text cometh convincingly home to prove that this universality shall be perpetuall and no more faile in any age then the light of the Sunne and Moone As long as they last this Church shall be a flourishing Nation for ever For again v. 37 Thus sayth our Lord. If the heavens shall be able to be measured and the foundations of the earth beneath to be searched out I allso will cast away all tht seed of Israël And then in a Metaphore of a Citie built upon hills farr distant from one another he sayes this so vastly extended Citie shall not he plucked up and it shall no more be destroyed for ever which is a gallant expression of the perpetual universality of the Church for ever retaining a vast great extent in any ages whatsoever The same follows Ch. 33. v. 20. Thus sayth our Lord if my covenant with the day can be voide and my covenant with the night that there be no day nor night in theyr time allso my covenant may be made voide with David my servant that there be not a sonne of him to reigne in his throne and Levits and Priests my Ministers Even as the Starrs of heaven cannot be numbred and the sand of the sea be measured so will I multiplie the seed of David my servant and the Levits my Ministers Now if the number of Priests Pastours and Teachers shall be so great at all times how great att all times
her own soule the sword of grief did peerce As Holy Simeon prophecyed of her Luk. 2.35 When I come to say the third five tenns I will spend the time in saying each of them by meditating upon and so honouring each of the five glorious Mysteries First the Resurrection of our Saviour Secondly his Ascension to heavenly glory Thirdly his sending the Holy Ghost Fourthly the Assumption of our Lady When as many Holy Fathers have taught that body of hers in which Christ took flesh was soon after its buriall not made meat of wormes but with farre greater reason made partaker of her Sons Resurrection then were those many Saints of whom S. Matth. c. 27.53 sayth theyr graves were opened and they rose And they going forth out of theyr graves after his Resurrection came into the Holy Citty and appeared to many Fiftly and lastly I will to her honour consider her Coronation importing her special state in that heavenly glory in which shee is looked upon and reverenced by all Saints and Angels as theyr Queen she being the Mother of the King of glory The Mother of my Lord. Luke 1.43 9. The intent of the Holy Church recommending this devotion is to teach all that use it especially the more ignorant who cannot use Books how to imploy theyr minds fruitfully in a most commendable Meditation of Mysteries most glorious to Christ and his Mother and most beneficiall to our soules whilst theyr lipps are most devoutly busied in reciting words so pleasing to the Mother of God to which end the Teachers of our Church both by words and by writing still are inculcating this true use of the Beades 10. Now this number of fifteen tenns or of five tenns serving so fitly for the orderly practise of so easy a devotion cannot be more easily observed then by letting one Bead fall at each Ave Mary And the beginning of the next tenne can no way be more easily notifyed then to begin the sayd tenne with a bead of so different a bignes that it may easily be noted even in the dark without any distraction And the same different Bead serves allso to mind us of passing to the consideration of a different Mystery unles perhaps our soule hath other predominant pious thoughts or affections which tending to a very beneficiall Meditation are better continued then interrupted Now though many simple people use not these considerations but attend only to the words they say yet those words be so excellent that this entertaynment proves most vertuous by theyr using the recitall of them to honour Christ and his Blessed Mother 11. Neither is the often repeating of the same prayers or prayer a thing blame worthy For if after the saying of one Ave Mary wee should use a lesse excellent prayer yea or no prayer at all you could not blame us How then grow wee to be blame worthy for using this so excellent prayer Hee who should every houre say our Lords prayer although he should do it three times each houre is not to be blamed but commended How thē is he to be blamed who sayth the Lords prayer three our fourscore times in one houre Next unto our Lords prayer no prayer hath greater authority or excellency then the Ave Mary Why then be wee blamed for using it so often in so short a space whilst as you thinck you remain without blame who use it so seldome our Saviour had the rarest invention that ever man had and if we may make bould to accoūt any of his prayers more excellent then an other his prayer in the garden may seem to have been most excellent And yet even then as rare an invention as he had He prayed the third time using the same words Matth. 26.44 And not inventing any new forme So likewise those four blessed six winged Creatures Apoc. 4.8 Had not rest day and night saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Omnipotent The oftner they said this one prayer over and over the more fervour appeares even in so rare inventive spirits All the Publicans prayer was God be mercifull to mee a sinner Luke 18.13 and v. 38. All the prayer of the blind man was to cry again and again saying Iesus Sonne of David have mercy upon mee And when they rebuked him to hold his peace he cryed much more Sonne of David have mercy upon me And thus he by perseverance in the same prayer obtained his request Who doth not see a speciall power to stirre up a great feeling of Gods mercies in the Psalm one hundred and thirty six which containeth but twenty seaven verses and yet it doth twenty seaven times repeat those words For his mercy endureth for ever THE XL. POINT It is laudable to worship the Images of Saints 1. IT is laudable I say to worship the Saintes Images in that sense in which we Roman Catholiks worship Images The very Saintes themselves we worship not with divine honour as I sayd and largely declared Point 36. n. 3. 4. 5. And therefore it is a most unconscionable slander which our Adversaries lay upon us saying that we give divine honour to Images No we give no such honour to the Saints themselves much lesse do we give it to theyr Images without you think we worship the Images more then the person represented by the Images All that we Roman Catholiks hold as a Point of faith may be read by all men in the Councel of Trent sess 25. where this Councel teacheth due honour and veneration to be given to the Images of Christ and his Saints not that there is believed to be in them any Divinity or Vertue for which they are to be worshiped or that any thing is to be asked of them or that any confidence is to be placed in the Images as anciently was done by the Gentils who did put theyr hope in theyr Idols Psal 115.8 But because the honour which is given to the Images is referred to the persons represented by the Images so that by or through the Images which we kisse and before which we uncover our head or ly prostrate we adore Christ and reverence the Saints whom these Images represent Behold the belief of our Church teaching that all the reverence done before Images I pray note well this manner of speach All the honour I say that is shewed before the picture resteth not in the Image but passeth through it and resteth in the person represented to me by this picture He that abuses King Charles his picture or statue neither intendeth to shew nor sheweth any anger or disrespect to Paper or to stock or stone All the abuse by all mens Iudgment is given to King Charles represented by his picture in paper or engraven in wood or stone A further and an evident proof of all this is that your selves on the one side believe the Sacrament to be only a signe or figure of Christs body and yet on the other side you count it no Idolatrie to kneel before this Sacrament at the
a number that for three dayes they could not take away the spoiles for the greatnes of the prey v. 25. And v. 28. The fourth day they entred into Ierusalem with Psalteries and Harpes and Trumpets into the house of our Lord. Thus by a Pilgrimage and Procession returning thanks for so great a victory got purely by a Pilgrimage and Procession accompanied with fasting and prayer as we usually accompanie our Pilgrimages and Processions How often do Protestants read these places and for want of practise in these devotions never understand them or note them 7. Againe what shall or can they say to that pious fact of Naaman generall Captaine of Syria cleansed from his Leprosie by washing seaven times in the river Iordan God prescribed the waters of the Holy Land for his cure though he had better in his Country as he sayd 2. Kings 5.12 But it is for a farr other reason why I speak of Naaman It is because beeing hartely converted by this miracle and resolved to serve only the God of Israël he sayd to Elizeus v. 17. Shall not then I pray thee to thy servant be given two mules burthen of earth For thy servāt hence forth will offer neither Burnt offering nor Sacrifice but unto the Lord. Where I observe that he apprehending how hard it was for one of his quality to come in Pilgrimage to Ierusalem and Sacrifice there and knowing himself because he was a stranger to be licensed to Sacrifice else where would notwithstanding carry the earth of that Holy Land a Land chosen by God for his service that upon the Holy earth he might raise an Altar and so do his devotions in a Holy place as well as circumstances permitted Yet how do our Adversaries scoss at us if we bring a little earth from about our Lords sepulcher or Mount Calvary upon which he shedde his blood more sanctifying that earth then ever earth was Sanctifyed When Daniel was captive and could not go to the temple to pray yet His windowes beeing open in his chamber towards Ierusalem he kneeled upon his knees thrice a day and prayed and gave thankes to his God as he did afore time Dan 6.10 Behould this was his usual devotion to turne towards a Holy place and pray when in body he cold not go thither 8. In the new Testament you have Matth. 2. the three sages or Kings coming an exceeding long Pilgrimage to adore in personall presence our new borne Saviour allthough they knew fullwell that he did as well see and heare all the respect and devout prayers performed to him by them in theyr own Countries as farr of as they were Yet they personally would shew theyr respect by waiting on him in person So we Catholikes personally will honour S Peter in presence of his body at Rome by going to that end so long a Pilgrimage allthough we full well know he could hear our prayers made at our own houses yet we know those prayers to be more acceptable to him as hath formerly been shewed concerning prayers made in Holy places expecially when those prayers receive so great force from so painfull and devout a Pilgrimage Again in the new Testament you have allso Io. 12. v. 20. That there were certaine Greeks who came up to worship at the feasts These Greeks were not obliged to the Iewish Law But theyr devotion exhorted them to this long Pilgrimage And though they were by birth descending from the Gentils yet theyr coming to worship makes it evident that they were true believers Now that this theyr Pilgrimage was gratfull to our Saviour it appeares by his divine providenc ordering things so that they should be introduced in to see him at such a time as a voyce came from heaven saying I have glorifyed it thy name and again I will glorify it v. 28. Likewise Philip by Gods speciall providence was sent to instruct convert and baptise that noble Eunuch of Candace Queen of Aethiopia who was come to Ierusalem to adore though he lived as farre of as Aethiopia A grattfull Pilgrimage to God though not commanded him by God See Acts 8. v. 26. evident therefore it is that some places are to be held more Holy then others and upon that account we do laudably go in Pilgrimages to them that is we go to them for devotion sake to do our best duty to God in those places Again because our Saviour was transfigured on Mount Thabor S. Peter calls that Mount a Holy Mount 2. Pet. 1.18 When we were with him in the Holy Mount So say I because our Saviour was so disfigured at Mount Calvary and all besprinkled that place with his sacred bloud that is allso a Holy Mount And farre more grattfull to God be all the devotions which are made in that Holy place 9. There is a memorable passage of Iohn e. 5.2 to confirme all that hath been sayd or that is believed or practized among us in this Point For there is in Ierusalem by the sheepmarket a Poole having five Porches in these lay a great multitude of persons blind lame withered expecting the stirring of the water And an Angel of our Lord descended at a certaine time into the Pond and the water was stirred and he that had gone down first into the Pond after the stirring of the water was made whole of what infirmity soever Interpreters affirme this great and constant miracle which was true though the former Scriptures never did sett it downe to have therefore been given to the water of this Pond which made so great recourse of Pilgrims to that Place because the Carcasses of the sheep Sacrificed in the Temple were washed in this Pond or else because the blood of them did runne into it Shall not the bloud of Martyrs Sacrificed for Christ more Sanctify any place where it was shedde thē the bloud of sheep Sacrificed in his honour Scarce any Relique hath lesse relation to the person whose Relique it is then this miraculous Pond had to that great Lord to whose honour these beastes were sacrificed Yet this Pond had an Angel of God deputed to look after it The miracle was constant and infallible And so no wonder a great multitude of persons came from remote places in pilgrimage to this place so allso many came or were brought even to S. Peters shadow as we noted in the former Point n. 5. His bones and other Reliques have a farre stricter relation to him then his shadow 10. Lett no man think that miracles now cease All England knowes that our Kings by touching with certaine Ceremonies cured and still cure the Kings Evell and all France knows theyr Kings do so to this day The first for S. Edwards sake the other for S. Lewis Our Saviour speaks home when he sayth and he sayth it without limiting any time He that believeth in me the workes that I do he allso shall do and greater then these shall he do Io. 14.12 Believe to find no true belief where there be no
him the throne of his father David And he shall reigne over the house of Iacob for ever by having still the Kingdome of his Church consisting of those true Israëlits of whom S. Paul spoak and of his Kingdom or Church there shall be no end 5. Isaias every where is very full to this purpose Chap. 49. v. 14. And Sion sayd our Lord hath forsaken me and our Lord hath forgotten me Why can a woeman forget her infant that she will not have pitty on the Sonne of her wombe And if she should forgett yet I will not forgett thee Behold I have written thee in my handes And again Ch 54. v. 9. As in the day 's of Noë is this thing to me to whome I swore I would bring in no more the waters of Noë upon the earth so have I sworne not to be angry with thee nor to rebuke thee For the mountaines shall sooner be moved and hills tremble But my mercy shall not depart from thee and the covenant of my peace shall not be moved sayd our Lord thy Miserator Poore litle one shaken with tempest with out all comfort behold I wil lay thy stones in order and will found thee in Saphires and I will put the Iaspar stone for thy munitions Again Ch. 60. v. 15. I will make thee the pride of worlds a Ioy unto generation and generation v. 18. Iniquity shall be no more heard in thy land wast and destruction in thy borders and saluation shall occupy thy walls and prayse thy gates Thow shalt have no more the Sunne by Day neither shall the brightness of the Moon illighten thee these are to meane lightes for thee but the Lord shall be to thee an Everlasting light and thy Lord God for thy glory Thy Sunne shall go down no more and thy Moone shall not be diminished because the Lord shall be unto thee an euerlasting light and the dayes of thy mourning shall be ended Again Ch. 61.6 You shall eate the strength of Gentils and in theyr glory You shall be proude Everlasting Ioy shall be to theÌ„ I will give theyr worke in truth and make a Perpetuall Covenant with them And they shall know theyr seed in the Gentills Al that shall see them shall know that these are the seed which the Lord hath blessed Again 62.3 Thou shallt be a crowne of glorie in the hand of our Lord and the Diademe of a Kingdome in the hand of thy God Thou shalt no more be called forsaken and thy land shall be called no more Desolate But thou shalt be called my will in her aÌ„d thy laÌ„d inhabited because it hath well pleased our lord in thee and thy land shall be inhabited Thy God shall rejoyce upoÌ„ thee upoÌ„ thy walls IerusaleÌ„ I have placed watchmeÌ„ all the day and all the night for euer they shall not hold theyr peace See here the continuall visibility of the church in her watchmeÌ„ and Pastours of which consequently there must be a perpetuall successioÌ„ And v. 8. Our lord hath sworne by his right hand and by the arme of his strenght if I shall give thy wheate any more to be meate to thy enimies and if the straÌ„ge ChildreÌ„ shall drinke thy wine And he concludeâ—h v. 12. Thou shalt be called a citty sought for and not forsaken That the true Church allso shall have a perpetuall successioÌ„ of Priests and Levites is cleerly expressed in the last chapter of Isaias in wich after the Prophet had named Africa Lidia Italy Greece and the Ilands a farr of he addeth v. 21. And I will take of them to be Priests and Levites sayth our lord for as the new heaveÌ„s and the new earth which I make to stand before me so shall staÌ„d the seed of your name Note that these Levites be now not by birth but by electioÌ„ ordeyned to be such out of severall couÌ„tries Italy Greece and other IlaÌ„ds which names your bible avoids to traÌ„slate 6 S Ieremy is no lesse copious C 30. v. 11. Though I make a full end of al natioÌ„s yet I will not make a full eÌ„d of thee but I will correct thee in measure The church indeed may be chastised for a while but never be brought to consuÌ„matioÌ„ For C. 31.35 Thus sayth our lord that giveth the Sunn for the light of the day the order of the moone and the starrs for the light of the night c. If these laws shall faile before me sayth our lord theÌ„ also the seed of Israël shall faile froÌ„ beeing a natioÌ„ before me for ever If the heaveÌ„s aboue shall be able to be measured and the fuÌ„datioÌ„s of the earth to be searcht out I also will cast a way al the seed of Israël Again C. 32.38 And they shall be my people and I will be theyr God and I will give theÌ„ one heart and one way that they may feare me all days and it may be well with theÌ„ and with theyr childreÌ„ after theÌ„ And I will not cease to doe theÌ„ good And I will make an Everlasting covenaÌ„t with theÌ„ And I will giue my feare in theyr heart that they may not reuolt froÌ„ me Again C. 33.14 Behold the days will come sayth our lord and I will rayse up the good word that I haue spoakeÌ„ to the house of Israël in that time I will make the spring of Iustice to budd forth unto Dauid and he shall doe IudgmeÌ„t and Iustice on the earth This sayth our Lord there shall not fayle of Dauid a man to sitt upon the throne of the house of Israël Christ must successively have his vicar or vicegereÌ„t in al ages aÌ„d of the priests aÌ„d leuites theyr shall not fayle before my face a maÌ„ to offer holocaustes and to burne sacrifices and to kill victimes all days Behold a successioÌ„ of lawful Priests still offering sacrifices expressed by the Priests and sacrifices as were then only known Again it followeth and the word was made to Ierimy saying if my covenaÌ„t with the day caÌ„ be made voide allso my covenant may be made voide with Dauid my seruaÌ„t that there may be not of him a sonne a vicar or vicegereÌ„t to reigne in his throne aÌ„d the leuites aÌ„d priests my ministers yea v. 22. eueÌ„ as the stars in heaueÌ„ caÌ„ not be nuÌ„bred aÌ„d the saÌ„d of the sea be meÌ„sured so will I multiplie the seed of David my servant and the Levites my Ministers Whence it is evident that the number of lawfull Priests by lawfull mission and ordination shall not only never fayle but allso never fayle to be a great number There followeth again in the same Chapter the formeâ— Covenant repeated once more 7. Ezechiel allso speakes very home Ch. 34.22 I will save my flock and it shall be no more into spoyle and will rayse up over them one Pastour who shall Leade them my servent David he shall feed them and he shall be theyr Pastour And I the Lord will be theyr God and my servant David the Prince of them
And v. 28. And they shall be no more a spoyle to the Gentills Againe Ch. 37. v. 23. Neither shall they be polluted any more in theyr Idolls and I will cleanse them and they shall be my people and I theyr God and my servant David King over them and theyr shall be one Pastour over them all They shall walke in my Iudgments and they shall keepe my commandments and they shall doe them and they shall dwell on the Land which I gave to my servant Iacob themselves and theyr Children and theyr Childrens Children Even for Ever And David my servant Prince for ever And I will make a peace to them an Everlasting Covenant shall be to them and I wâ—ll found them and wil multiply them and will give my sanctification in the middest of them for Ever and the very last verse of the last Chapter The name of the Citty from that Day Our Lord there 8. Clearly allso Daniel Ch. 2. v. 44. In the days of those Kingdomes the God of heaven shall rayse us a Kingdome that shall not be dissipated for ever But still continue in quality of a Kingdome and this Kingdome shall not be delivered to another people and it shall consume all the Idolatrous Kingdomes and it shall stand for ever in quality of a Kingdome There is litle need to passe to the New Testament the old sufficing if any thing will suffice Of Christs Gospell S. Paul says 2. Cor. 4.3 If our Ghospell be hid it is hid to them that are lost Either you must confess your selves lost men or you must say that at no Time Christs Ghospell lay hid so as you could not tell who professed it I insist not in the known places as that the Church Matth. 16.18 Is built upon a Rock that the Gates of Hell shall not provaile against it Again it is evident that she must still be visible in all ages that we may still at any time Tell the Church and heare her Matth. 18.17 and be still fedd by her Doctrine and Sacraments For these be the two essentiall markes of a true Church as Protestants say Hence Ephes Chap. 4 v. 11 He gave some Apostles some Prophets and other some Evangelists and other some Pastors and Doctors c. untill we meete al in the unity of faith which will not be till the worlds end These be the light of the world still sett upon the candlestickes never hidd under a busshel Matth. 5.14 A Cittie upon a hill still to be seen And though the mustard seede was the lest at the beginning yet in the growing it proves a Tree and all fowles repaire to it Matth. 13.32 Yea this must be a Church perpetually continuing in such reverence to our B. Lady that her words must be fullfilled Luc. 1.48 All generations shall call me blessed And v. 33. Her Sonne shall retgne in the house of Iacob for ever and of his Kingdome there shall be no end And so himselfe sayth to his Apostles Matth. 28.20 Behold I am with you all Days even to the consummation of the world His Apostles were not to be in the world even to the end of the world The promise therefore is to be with them in the persons of such as should succed them in teaching and preaching c. Again in the like sense he sayth Iohn 14.16 And he will give another Paraclete that he may abide with you for ever All these Texts demonstrate what we have undertaken to prove And hence it doth unavoidably follow that the Chureh must in all ages have a continuall succession of true Preachers of the word of God and true administration of Sacraments for these two things even according to the 39. Articles of the Church of England are the two essentiall signes or notes of a true Church which must ever accompany her in all ages And if a Church be as S. Cyprian sayth a flock adhering to ther shepherd then as in all ages there is a flock of Christ so there must be a shepherd to whom this flock may and must adhere And therefore a lawfull succession of true Pastors must needs in all ages be found in the Church at lest without any considerable interruption And this is expressed in severall texts here cited Now ponder that this is to be found in no Church but the Roman See more the next Point THE FOVRTH POINT Of the vniversality and vast extent of this perpetuall Church which also must be the converter of Gentiles This no Church differing from the Roman ever was 1. IF the Church were to remaine perpetually in any very small extent or bignesse perhaps we might heare litle newes of her in some ages But te true Perpetuall Church foretold to be in all ages in the Texts now cited is likewise in Scripture no lesse clearly foretold to be in all ages so universally spread aÌ„d so visibly numerous that the very recitall of these Texts is enough to put quite out of countenance any other Church but the Romane especially being that this true Church is so manifestly said to gaine this her vast extent by the multitude of Gentiles which she is to convert to her A thing which evidently must be verified in the true Church and yet is is evideÌ„t that this only is verified in the Roman Church that is no Church but such as was ioyned to her in communion euer converted any one parish of Gentiles 2. The Texts which evidence this vast extent of the true Church are Gen. 13.16 I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth And C. 15. v. 5. Looke up to heaveÌ„ and number the stars if thou canst And he sayd to him so shall thy seed be Again Chap. 22.16 By my owne selfe I have sworne sayth the Lord I will blesse tbee and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is by the sea And in thy seed shall be blessed all Nations of the earth Now Saint Paul tells us Romans 9.8 Not they that are the Children of the flesh of Abraham they are the Children of God but they that are the Children of promise are esteemed for the seed And if still you contend that these Texts are only for the Iewish Church you must allso remember that Christs Church is the Mistris she the Handmayd and that as S. Paul sayes The new Testament is established in farre better promises Hebr. 8.6 And must florish farre more then ever the Iewish Synagog did Hence Apoc. 7.5 S. Iohn after twelve thousand of every Tribe of Israël were signed saw a great multitudes which no man could number of all nations Tribes peoples and tongues But let us goe on 3. David Psal 2.8 Aske of me and I will give thee the Gentills for thy inheritance and thy possession to the end of the earth Psal 22.27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and he converted to our Lord. All the Kindreds ef the nations shall adore in his sight Again Psal 72.7
and how exceeding visible must be the number of the people who are visibly to be ruled fedd and taught And yet again v. 25. If I have not set my covenant between night and day and laws to heaven and earth surely I will allso cast of the seed of Iacob and of David my servant that I take not of his seede Princes of the seede of Abraham Isaac and Iacob These Levites and Priests shal not be so by birth but they shall be taken out of Italians Africans Grecians the Ilands as Isaias sayth in his last Chap. v. 21. Though your Bible did not interpret the Hebrew names of the Countries These Texts then manifestly tell the perpetuall succession of Priests and Pastours in Christs Church so that we are no lesse assured of haveing lawfull Princes in the Church lawfully still governing the same then we are assured of haveing night and day and the heavens moveing above us and the earth standing under us A point much to be noted yet we may confidently say no Church no Church but the Roman can doe this 6. Ezechiel Chap. 17.22 Thus sayth our Lord. And I will take the marrow of the high Cedar and will set it and will plant it upon a mountaine a mountaine high and eminent On the high mountaines of Israël will I plant it and it shall shoote forth into a budd and shall yeild fruit and it shall be into a great Cedar and all Birds and every foule sball dwell under the shaddowe of the boughes thereof and shall there make theyr nests Behould Christs Church which in her beginning was but a small graine of mustard seede now growne up to the greatnes of such a Cedar as this is And not growne and growne untill at last she was growne quite invisible Memorable is that Text Chap. 36.25 And I will powre out upon you cleare water and you shall be cleansed from all your contaminations and from all your Idolls will I cleanse you and give you a new heart and will put a new spirit in the middest of you and will by my grace make that you shall walke in my precepts and keepe my judgments and doe them Before we goe farther I pray take speciall notice that the Church by the grace of Christ is freed from feare of being abandoned because she did at any time grow to forsake Gods judgments for he will still give her grace to keepe them In that day that I shall cleanse you from all your iniquities and shall make the Cities to be inhabited and shall repaire the ruinous places and the desert land shall be tilled and they shall say This land untilled is become a garden of pleasure And v. 37. I will encrease them with men like a flock as the flock of Hierusalem in her solemne feasts in which feasts many thousand men gathered out of every howshold of that nation did use to goe up to Hierusalem so shall the desert Cities be full of flocks of men How can universality and a most visible numerosity be more fully expressed when even the desert places shall be filled as Hierusalem was thronged and crowded in the solemnityes thereof Daniel Chap. 2. v. 35. makes the Church of a litle stone grow into a moutaine filling the whole earth how ridiculously then do you tell me you can scarce see it for this 1000. yeares before Luther 7. Micheas Chap. 4.1 And it shall be in the later end of the dayes 1. Io. 2.18 the time of the new Testament is called the last howre there shall be the mount of the howse of our Lord prepared in the topp of mountaines and high above all the hills what more visible and people shall flow unto it and many nations shall hasten and shall say Come let us goe up to the mountaine of our Lord and to the howse of the God of Iacob c. And v. 7. I will make her that labours into a mighty nation and our Lord will reigne over them from this time now and for ever So that from this time now and for ever the Church was promised still for all ages to be a mighty or strong nation Never a small invisible unknowne company 8. Zacharias Chap. 14. v. 8. And it shall be in that day liveing waters shall issue forth of Hierusalem halfe of them to the east sea and halfe of them to the last sea in summer and winter shall they be and our Lord God shall be King over all the earth and in that day shall be one Lord and his name shall be one And by and by he tells us at large even to the end of the Chapter how all nations shall be accursed that come not up to adore in his Church A manifest signe of her pepetuall purity in Doctrine For how would God lay such curses ad plagues upon men for refusing to follow the Church erring 9. Malach. Chap. 1.11 tells us the Church shall be extended as farr as the sun beames among the Gentills From the rising of the sun even to the goeing downe thereof great is my name among the Genrills and in every place there is sacrificing and there is offered a cleane oblation because my name is great among the Gentills sayth the Lord of Hosts Behould the true Church all the world over offering a pure and gratefull sacrifice 10. The places of the new Testament are more knowne as that the Church by reason of her continuall university is A Citie upon a Hill still to be seene from all places A Candle upō a candlestick as well seene to the whole world as a cādle to the whole Roome in which it burnes The Apostles are sent to preach to all Nations The litle mustard seed grows to be the bighest of all plants like the Cedar in Ezechiel chap. 17.22 S. Peters nett is even broken with the taking of fish c. But because the new Testament writes no farther then the Acts of the Apostles and contained but small part of them the subsequent conversion of the multitude of Nations of the strenghth of Gentils and of all the Kings of the earth as the above cited Texts declare is to be taken out of historie in which manifestly the truth of all that was foretold doth appeare But all this wholy and intirely was performed by the Roman Church onely that is by such as have beene knowne to have joyned in Communion with her If you say the Roman is not the true Church heere foretold by the Prophets then I pray ponder well how impossible it is for you upon earth to find any other Church to which those manifold Prophecies with any shew of probality can be applied THE FIFT POINT Of the infallibility of the Church and consequently of her fitnes to be judge of controversies 1. NOte that in two manners or wayes things of beleefe and practice may be delivered by a community The first is whē such things once received by the sayd Community are perpetually retained by the same in all places by the
have sayd lovest thou me more then these if he had not here intended to give him higher dignity in Pastorship then to the rest If every one of the other Apostles be sheep of Christ S. Peter is here made Pastor to every one of them for he is commanded to feed them Note again and principally that the whole flocke of Christ his lambes his sheepe his subjects and theyr Rulers did not consist of those only men who then lived but much more of all such faithfull men as were to be of the flock and Church of Christ even from his days to the end of the world Wherefore this high Pastorship beeing as we sayd chiefly instituted by Christ out of his love and care to his flock and not meerly out of the desire of honoring S. Peter was by ordinary course of succession to be devolved to all posterity 8. And that no man should say that this succession shall everfaile Thus sayth our Lord Ier. 33.17 David shall never want a man to fitt upon the throne of the house of Israël and of the Priests and Levits there shall not faile a man c. And he adds that his Covenant should sooner be made void with the day and the night then his Covenant should be made voide with David his servant That there be not of him a sonne to reigne in his throne and Levits and Priests his Ministers And the Prophet Esau in his last Chapter tells us that in the new law these Levits shall not be borne Levits of the Tribe of Levi or any particular Tribe or Nation but by election they shall be chosen to be Levits out of severall Nations particularly of Italians Graecians Affricans and the Ilands a farre of though the English Bible doth not translate these names I will take sayth he of them to be Priests and Levits But shall there not still be one chiefe Pastour of these never decaying races of Priests and Levits yes there shall And they shall have one shepherd or Pastor over them all Ezech. 37.24 THE EIGHT POINT That this our chiefe Pastor or Pope is not Anti-christ 1. BEcause there is never a pulpit in Englād in which the Pope hath not been preached by all our Ministers to be not only Anti-christ but allso the Anti-christ who is so much spoken of and detested in Scriptures I thought fitt to make my deare country men see with theyr own eyes how unconscionably these theyr Ministers so universally deale with them in this point in which they can not but see if indeede they reade and will understand how flatly and point blank this doctrine is against most manifest Scripture 2. First The Scripture teacheth clearly that Anti-christ is one particulare determinate man and not any ranke of severall distinct men successively living one after the other as Popes do Hence 2. Thess 2.3 Anti-christ is called That man of sin the sonne of perdition The adversary And Apoc. 13.14 An image shall be made of this particular person where as no such image can represent those hundreds of Popes who have sitt in S. Peters chaire Again there it followeth that this particular man shall have a speciall name and such a peculiar number shall expresse this name For it is the number of a man A man I say and not many mē succeeding one an other as Popes are Whence it followeth The number of him is six hundred sixty six Of that Him whom Christ allso insinuated to be one particular man when he sayed Io. 5.43 If an other shall come in his Name him you will receave Whereas no one of the Popes was yet receaved by the Iewes Wherefore of the Pope it is false to say the Iewes have received him And this is the second reason why the Pope according to Scripture is not Antichrist 3. Thirdly this one particular man shall not come untill we be close bordering upon the very last end of the world Mark 13.24 But in those days after that tribulation of Anti-christ the Sunne shall be darkned Popes have beene ever since S. Peters days and that which you all call Popery hath beene as you confess above these thousand yeares and yet the Sunne shines upon the world as clearely as ever 4. Fourthly this one speciall man shall reigne but a short time where as these Popes upholders of confessed Popery have reigned these many Ages Anti-christ shall reigne but three yeares and a half a time and times and halfe a time Dan. 7.25 And Apoc. 12.14 Hence Dan. 12.11 this time is further expounded to be a thousand two hundred and nynety days And the Church a litle after this persecution began shall fly into the wildernesse for a thousand two hundred and sixty days And for this time of 1260. days the two wittnesses shall prophesy Apoc. 11.3 For the persecution of Anti-christ shall last but two and fourty months as it there expressy sayd And Apoc. 13.5 Power was given to the beast to continue two and fourty months The time therefore of Anti-christs reigne shall be short For the elect the days shall be shortned Matth. 24.22 So Apoc. 20.3 it is sayed that the diuel shall be lett loose for the short time of Anti-christs reigne After these things he must be loosened a litle time That is after Christ hath bound up the divel during the long time of the new Testament described there by the complete and perfect number of a thousand yeares he shall be lett loose for the short time of the reigne of Anti-Christ 5. Fiftly all the Ministers in England or out of England can never be able to shew that the Pope did ever kill two such wittnesses as Anti-christ is clearly sayd to kill Apoc. 11.6 That is two witnesses who shall prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days cloathed in sackloath who shall have power to shutt the heavens that it may not raine in the days of there prophesy and power of the waters to turne them into bloud And to strike the earth with all plagues as often as they will If your Ministers will prove the Pope to be Antichrist they must not only proue that he did kill two such witnesses as they are for the true Anti-christ must doe this but allso they must prove that the Pope did kill two such witnesses in Ierusalem leaving theyr bodyes lying in the streets thereof For this allso the true Anti-christ must do because it followeth v. 7. The beast shall kill them And they re bodyes shall lye in the streetes where theyr Lord was crucified that is in Ierusalem 6. Sixtly Hence appeares that the chiefe seate of Anti-christ shall be at Ierusalem where he shall most shew his power and glory whence it was allso sayd before that the Iewes should receave him and the Holy Fathers commonly say he shall be borne a Iew of the Tribe of Dan which is the cause why that Tribe was not numbred with the rest Apoc. 7. neither could the Iewes receave him if he were not borne a Iew. None
heaven ever did as those who are skilled in antiquity know Yea Christ himself was pleased to sett forth some more mysticall cures which he did with such ceremonies as you would scoff at thē if our Church in farr more mysticall actions had made use of them So Mark 7. v. 32. in the Cure of a deaf and dumb man First he took him from the multitude a part Secondly he putt his fingars into his eares Thirdly spitting he touched his tongue Fourthly he looked up to heaven Fiftly he groaned Sixtly he used a word deserving speciall interpretation saying Epheta that is be opened So allso Iohn 8. v. 6. In pardoning the adulteresse he twice bowing himself wrot in the earth God knows what And in the nynth Ch. curing a man blind from his nativity v. 6. He spitt on the ground and made a claye of his spittle then he spread the clay upon his eyes Lastly he sayd unto him goe wash in the Poole Siloe which is interpreted sent Thus teaching his Church to use Ceremonies in such mysterious actions as are ordeined to cure our spirituall deafnes spirituall dumbnes spirituall blindnes So we shall see it to be Scripture that sprinkling of water must be used in Baptisme Imposition of hands in Confirmation and Ordination anoynting with oyle in Extreme-vnction Before our Lord gave the Eucharist to his Disciples he Mark 14. made choyse of a roome very spacious and adorned He first washed his disciples feete then setting down he tooke bread gave thanks blessed it brake it c. When he gave his disciples power to absolve and to administer the Sacrament of Confession Io. 20.22 He first sayd to them As my father sent me so I send you when he had sayd this he breathed upon them and he sayd to them Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins yo shall forgive are forgiven c. When the Pastors of our Church use the insufflation or Breathing upon any for the lyke mysticall signification you cry a lowd superstition superstition an apish mimicall action c. 7. There is allso one very great commoditie in the Churches perscribing such and such particular ceremonies in such and such actions that hence it ensues that all her priests performe all these sacred Rites in administring Sacraments offering sacrifice c. after just one and the self-same manner all the world over which is a most comely and orderly thing and could not have happened had not such and such peculiar Rites been prescribed to all 8. But now if after that we have proved Ceremonies to be reasonable you aske why the Church did prescribe just these particular Ceremonies and no other First I answer that eyther these particular Ceremonies are more proper and seemly and as it were more connaturall to such an actiō or secondly they are fittest for some mysticall signification Lastly I say that our unsatisfied adversaryes would have asked the self same question of any other particular ceremonies if the Church had peculiarly appointed them Even as some men will curiously be asking Why did God make the world just at such a particular time and not sooner or later For as S. Augustin wittily answers Had God made choise of any other time to make the world you would still have been asking the very selfsame wyse question Why just now and not sooner or later Even so you would as wisely haue been saying Why just such a Ceremonie and not as well such or such an one Lett this suffice for the Iustification of our Ceremonies THE TENTH POINT Of Baptisme which is the first Sacrament 1. I Will first shew Baptisme to be a Holy signe or ceremony signifying and causing grace in those who duly receave it Ezech. 36.25 And I will power uppon you cleane water and you shall be cleansed from all your contaminations Behold an outward powring of water cleansing inwardly from all contaminations The Baptisme of S. Iohn was an outward powring of water with a solemne profession of doing pennance towards the cleansing of the soul but no grace was given by it to cleanse the soul So Matth. 3.11 sayth S. Iohn Baptist I have Baptized you with water but he Christ shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost His baptisme shall give this soul-cleansing grace Again Act. 2.38 Be every one of you baptized for Remission of your sins and you shall receave the Holy Ghost Again Act. 22.16 Rise up ad be baptized and wash away thy sinns Nothing can cleanse from contamination give Remission of sins wash away sins but that which gives grace Again Gala. 3.27 As many of you as are baptized in Christ have put on Christ Hence Baptisme is called Tit. 3.5 The washing of Regeneration and by it man is borne of the spirit Whence Io. 3.5 Vnlesse a man be borne again of water and the Holy Ghost he can not enter into the Kingdome of God That is to say Baptisme so breeds our spirituall birth in God as our carnall birth causeth our life into the world 2. Wherefore evē the Childrē of the Iust need baptisme For Rom. 5.12 Vnto all men death did passe in whom all sinned Whence David Ps 51.5 And in sin did my mother conceave me And therefore unlesse such an one be born againe of water and the Holy Ghost he shall not enter into the Kingdome of God For of every one it is sayd Eph. 2.3 We were by nature Children of wrath as allso the rest THE ELEVENTH POINT Of Confirmation 1. COnfirmation is approved such a Sacrament Act. 8. v. 14. And when the Apostles that were in Ierusalem had heard that Samaria had receaved the word of God they sent unto them Peter and Iohn wo when they were come prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost For he was not come upon any of them but they were only baptized in the name of our Lord Iesus Then did they impose theyr hands upon them behold the outward signe and they received the Holy Ghost Behold the inward grace given to those who though they had been baptized yet they had not received this particular strength and Confirmation of speciall grace which the coming of the Holy Ghost in this Sacrament did bring unto them It is allso most agreable to Scripture that this Sacrament be given not by inferiour Priests but by Bishops Whence Bede excellently noteth that it was not Philip the Apostle who is here sayd to have converted Samaria but Philip one of the seaven Decons And so though he could baptize them yet he could not give thē this Sacrament and therefore the Apostles sent Peter and Iohn to Samaria Not to baptize them again but to confirme them And though here be no mention of oyle yet it followeth not that no oyle is to be used in this Sacrament For so in the Scripture there is no mention of water in that very Text which mentions the institution of Baptisme as Matthew the last Teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father the Sonne and Holy
his flesh to be eaten in a meere signe or figure of it had S. Peter thought this I dare say he would have pulled the other disciples backsaying our master only speaks of giving a signe of his body Had this been so then allso vndoubtedly the other Evangelists when they had come to write of this mystery which had scandalized so many before theyr writing would not have encreased the scandal by writing so vnanimously of this Sacrament in words sounding so loud a litterall sense as these do This is my body this is my blood But they would rather have lessned the difficulty by declaring it only to be a figure which they might have done in a word S. Paul was so farre from declaring it to be so that 1. Cor. 11. v. 27. he flatly saith Therefore whosoever shall eate this bread and drink the Chalice of our Lord unworthily he shall be guilty of the Body and Blood of our Lord. Which could not be vnlesse he received the Body and Blood truly and not in a figure only To eate a Paper picture of Christ makes no such heinous guilt though it be done by a sinner and it be allso a figure of his body 4. S. Luke allso had been particularly to blame in encreasing the scandal by expressing so clearly a litterall sense Chap. 22. v. 19. This is my body which is givē for you This cup is the new Testamēt in my Blood which Chalice shall be shedd for you I say which Chalice that is that which is cōteyned in the Chalice shall be shed for you Now wine was not shed for vs but his true blood His true blood therefore was the thing cōteined in the Chalice For though by the Latine or English words we can not tell whether Christ sayd his blood should be shed for thē or the Chalice or Cup yet S. Luke writing in Greek makes it evidēt to all who know that language that he sayd the Chalice should be shed for us for he speakes in the nominative case by a word which can not agree with the blood which in Greek is the dative Now thus having proved that Christ literally sayd This is my body I have proved allso that this is not bread For it is his body which is as good a consequence as this this is a stone therefore it is not bread Or this is not bread for it is a stoone 5. Coming now out of Scripture to answer the chiefe okjections I begin with one which doth afford me a new strong argument They object then Idolatry to vs for adoring that which is bread I answer that according to Scripture Idolatrie can not be found in the only visible Church of Christ for Scripture sayth clearly of this Church Ifa 2.18 And Idolls shall be utterly abolisht Again Ezech. 36.25 And I will power upon you cleane water c and from all your Idols will I cleanse you And in the next Chapter v. 23. Neither shall they defile themselves any more in theyr Idols Again Micheas Chap. 5.12 Thou shalt no more adore the works of thy hands Again Zachar. 13. v. 1. In that day shall be a fountaine lying open to the house of David And it shall be in that day sayth the Lord of Hosts I will cast of the names of Idols out of the Land and they shall be remembred no more Hence I argue thus In the whole visible Church there continued and doth still continue adoration of the Sacrament but Idolatry did not continue in the whole Church visible therefore adoratiō of the H. Sacramēt is not Idolatry Moreover if worshipping this H. Sacrament were Idolatry all Christianity for many ages practizing this adoration had committed Idolatry and Christs Church for so many ages had quite failed as is cleare out of the third and fourth point For Christ had no other Church for many ages but that which every where practized this Idolatry as you miscall it Or tel mee if you can what other visible Church Christ had vpon earth different from the Roman in faith and worshipe for the thousand yeares before Luther If this be the only visible Church Christ had vpon earth then I have proved it could not be guilty of Idolatry 6. Against such a torrent of Scripture as we have for vs you ground yourselues not in Scripture but in Philosophy which tried by Scripture will be found to faile you in all your objections First then you object that an accident can not be without a substance Wee answere out of Gen. 1.3 God sayd be light made and light was made Light is a quality or accident Yet hence S. Basil S. Greg. Naz. and Theodoret are of opinion that light was without any subject at all for the Scripture specifyes no subject in which it was put Whence followes that at lest they must needs think it possible that light should be without a subject Secondly you object that the same body of Christ can not be multiplied so often over We answere again out of Gen 2.21 Our Lord God cast a dead sleepe upon Adam and whē he was fast a sleepe he tooke one of his ribbs and filled up flesh for it And our Lord God built the ribbe which he tooke of Adam into a woeman I aske how many times over must this one ribbe be multiplyed before a whole woeman of a comely proper stature could be made up of it After the same manner God can of one ordinary brick make a pillar of many foote high by multiplying that one brick In the like manner our Saviour multiplyed those five Barley loaves with which he fed above five thousand men Io. 6. For if he made new loaves he did not feede them with those five but with those many hundred new loaves which he made and yet the Scripture sayth v. 12.13 After they were filled they gathered the remnants and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves and not of any new loaves created by Christ so that the bread which was eaten remained still to be eaten And it is worth our noting that our Saviour did this miracle immediatly before he did first declare this strange doctrine of giving his flesh to be eaten like bread by every one that so when he should presently declare this strange doctrine they should have no reason to disbelieve the possibility thereof For his disciples seeing that he had done that most prodigious miracle so very lately ought not presently to have sayd This is hard and who can heare it Neither ought they so soone to have walked a part from him as there S. Iohn sayth they did but rather they ought to have sayd with S. Peter We believe and know thou art the Sonne of God able to make they words good as thou wart able so to multiply so few loaves 7. Hence appeares a solution of that which allso they still object one body can not be in two places at once For if whole Eve were made of one ribbe of Adam as the
better not to vow then after a vow not to performe the thing promised For this is a sin as hath been proved by the former unanswerable Text. 3. As for the particular vow of Chastity we have our Saviours owne words Matth. 19.12 And there be Eunuchs who have made themselves Eunuchs for the Kingdome of heaven Those geld themselves for the Kingdome of heaven who vow Chastity sayth S. Aug. de Virg. c. 27. For by vow they make themselves as it were impotent for marriage And the doing this for the Kingdome of heaven is a cleare proofe that this state doth much further towards obteyning heaven Again both voluntary Poverty and Chastity are particularly rewarded by our Lord. Luc. 18.29 There is no man who hath left either house parents or wyfe for the Kingdome of God Note still how Chastity furthers towards the Kingdome of God who shall not receave manifold more at this present time and in the world to come lyfe everlasting Here I find a reward for leaving a wyfe shew me a reward for marrying one 4. S. Paul is most cleare 1. Cor. 7.25 As concerning Virgins a command of our Lord I have not yet I give my judgement or counsel can you give better counsel or judgement which is Art thou loosed from a wyfe seeke not a wyfe Why so It follows v. 32. He that is without a wyfe is carefull of the things that pertaine to our Lord how he may please God Note still how Chastity conduces to the gaining heaven But he thas is with a wyfe is carefull of the things that pertaine to the world The Virgin thinketh of things that pertaine to our Lord that she may be Holy both in body and spirit But she that is married thinketh of things that pertaine to the world And v. 38. He that joyneth not his Virgin in Matrimony doth better And v. 40. But she is happier if she so abide after my judgment 5. Againe 1. Tim. 5.9 Lett a widdow be chosen which hath beene the wyfe of one husband Here he speaks of the choise of such widdows as then were deputed to the service of the Church in assisting to prepare weomen Cathecumens to Baptisme as allso to serve the sick to administer to the poore especially of theyr owne sex And this they did living under the charge of the Deacons whence they were called Diaconissae S. Paul here sayth he would have none chosen or taken to this kind of state who had been marryed more then to one man Neither doth he permitt them after they have once undertaken this state to marry again That hence you may see evidently how farre he was from permitting Priests to marry again after the state of Priesthood undertaken Heare his discourse c. 5. n. 11. Younger widdows avoyde in this choyce for when they have begun to wax wanton again that is well fedd by Church goods offered to Christ as those widdows were they will marry having damnation because they have cast of theyr first saith Behold here theyr marriage and theyr damnation joyned together and the reason given why they have incurred Kryma damnation or judgment to theyr condemnation to witt because they have cast of theyr first faith This first faith is theyr vow of keeping perpetuall widdowhood according to all Fathers Greeke and Latin who ever did write upon this place sayth the Rhemish Testament here citing allso S. Aug. who together with two hundred and five-tenne Fathers in the fourth Councell of Carthage speaketh thus If any widdows have vowed themselves to God and left theyr laicall habit and under the testimony of the Bishop or Church have appeared in Religious weede and afterwards go any more to secular marriage according to the Apostles sentence they shall be damned because they were so bold as to make voide the faith or promise of Chastity which they vowed to our Lord. And as S. Augustin sayth Heresi 82. Iovinian the Heretike was the first who induced vowed Virgins to marry And l. 3. Retr c. 22. for this his new doctrine he calls him a monster 6. Lett vs go on with S. Paul v. 14.15 I will therefore the younger to marry such as be fraile t◠give no occasion to the adversaries to speake evell for some are allready turned aside after Satan Whence it is evident that breach of vows is damnable even in these yonger widdows who by reason of that breach are sayd to have turned aside or gone after Satan thus making theyr first faith voide 7. I end with that prayse given to Virgins Apoc. 14.4 These are they which follow the Lamb whethersoever he goeth THE XXII POINT Of works of Counsel and supererogation 1. PRotestants deny all works of supererogation that is works which we of our owne selves superadde to our boundē duty and consequently they will have no good worke to be only counseled unto vs but they say we are commanded to do all the good we can Against this errour be allmost all the texts in the former point and particularly the Text I there cited n. 1. out of the Booke of Numbers and what I cited n. 4. out of S. Paul flatly saying Concerning Virgins a commaund of our Lord I have not but Counsel I give And againe art thou loose from a wyfe seeke not a wyfe Is this a commaund Woe then to Ministers marrying when they were free men If it be no commaund what can it be but a Counsel And again He that ioyneth not his Virgin in Matrimony doth better to witt by doing something which you dare not say he is commaunded but which S. Paul once before tould you shee was only counseled And he tells you allso once more that it is only a Counsel More happy sayth he shall shee be if shee remaine so according to my judgment or Counsel Is thine better To the proofe of this point make all those manyfold Texts which in the next point we shall bring to prove how commendable voluntary austerityes be for none of those austerityes be by any precept commaunded but only commended to us and so they be not of precept but of Counsel superadded to what we are commaunded and therefore they be works of supererogation See all those Texts for they be most convincing 2. In the Law of nature I find Iacob freely without being commaunded vowing to build a Church Gen. 28. v. 20. And he vowed a vow saying if God shall keepe me in the way and I shall be returned prosperously to my Fathers house this stone which I have set for a pillar shall be Gods house Which he being safely returned did fullfill c. 35. v. 6. Iacob came to Luza surnamed Bethel and he built there an Altar and called that place the house of God 3. In the Law of Moyses God himselfe giveth a Rule Num. 6.2 To man and woeman who shall separate themselve to vow a vow to separate themselves to our Lord. For those I say who shall separate or consecrate themselves which manner of speach sheweth that
they were obliged by no precept But as long as they would be separated or consecrated God obligeth them not to drinke wine nor eate grape or raison Yea Ieremy 35. v. 6. Ionadab the son of Rechab most commendably though he were not commanded did give these Laws to himselfe and his Sonns You shall not drinke wine you and your Children for ever though wine were as common drinke with that nation as beere with us And you shall not build houses and you shall not sow seede and you shall not plant vineyards nor have any But you shall dwell in tabernacles all your days We obeyed the voice of Ionadab our father Wherefore to them by Ieremy v. 18. Thus sayth the Lord for that you have obeyed the commandment of Ionadab your father and have done all things that he commaunded you therefore thus sayth the Lord. There shall not want a man of the stock of Ionadab the son of Rechab standing in my sight all dayes or to stand before me for ever As your Bibles have it This is true for the sonns of promise though not the sons of flesh to the Rechabites be our Religious of which from the time of the Apostles to the last day there shall not faile to be many devout men still standing in Gods sight Lett Protestants shew any such amongst them who can be esteemed of the stock of Ionadab or a Rechabite They are so farre from this that they rayle at us for being followers of superstitious inventions of men when we follow the giver of so Holy Rules as Ionadab gave to his sonne so praised and so rewarded by God for following them Let them tells vs if they can how amongst them it is true there shall not want a man of the stock of Ionadab 4. Suppose the Booke of Iudith if you please to be only a true History which you do not deny from thence then we have a true Relation how piously Iudith lived without any precept who c. 8. 3. having but lived three yeares and a halfe with her husband he dying shee in the higher part of her house made her selfe a secret chamber in which she aboade shut up with her mayds and having cloath of hayre upon her loynes she fasted all the dayes of her life but Sabboths and the feasts of the house of Israel And this though her husband left her much riches and a great family And c. 16. v. 26. There was allso Chastity ioyned to her vertue so that shee knew not man all the dayes of her life after that Manasses her husband was deade And she aboade in her husbands house a hundred five yeares so that she so faire and so rich lived a widdow about sixty nine yeares in Chastity in prayer in a perpetuall fast and hayre cloath Who commaunded her this or who required it at her hands Love of serving God more perfectly 5. Wherefore in the Ghospel to the yong man whom our Saviour loved because he truly for he loves not lying boasters did say that he had kept the commaundments from his youth Mark 10.20 Christ notwithstanding sayd One thing thou lackest Go thy way go sell whatsoever thou hast and thou shalt have a treasure in heaven This one thing was not wanting to any duty which he was bound to performe to be saved For to enter into lyfe Christ did only bidd him keepe the commaundments Matth. 19 v. 7. But sayth our Lord v. 21. If thou wilt be perfect go sell the things thou hast and give to the poore and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come and follow me This then is that one thing which thou lackest I say thou lackest this one thing not to the state of saluation for keeping the commandments doth suffice to the state of saluation but thou lackest this to the state of perfection if thou wilt be perfect For this one thing conteines all the three Evāgelicall Counsels First Poverty to sell all and give to the poore Secondly Chastity for him whom he counselleth to sell all and give to the poore he must needs counsel not to take a wyfe with charge of family and Children for else something were to be kept for them Thirdly Obedience Come and follow me under the obedience of those whom I shall place over thee in lawfull authority for our Saviour in person was not to live but a very short time after this See all that followeth in the next Point THE XXIII POINT Of voluntary austerity of life 1. I handle this point apart because there being such dayly practise of these kind of works in our Religion and so little in our adversaryes they scoffing at all we do or suffer in this point we will shew whether they scoffe not at the practise of vertue recommended by Scripture 2. First then observe all that hath beene sayd in the last point doth recommend austerity of life by counselling a chast life which cannot be maintayned unlesse the flesh be tamed by some austerityes neither is Chastity it selfe a small austerity Note allso that they who in the old Law Numb 6. Had a will to separate themselves to God had allso a will to choose an austere life abstayning from wyne the usuall drinke of that countrey How great and voluntary was the austerity of the Rechabites or sonns of Ionadab who neither did drinke wyne nor built houses but lodged abroad in tabernacles nor possessed vineyeards nor sowed corne or any seede And yet how doth God praise and reward them for it Ieremy 35.18 How great and how voluntary was the austerity of Iudith living sixty nine yeares in Chastity in upper roomes retyred from the world allmost in continuall fast continuall hayre cloath most frequent prayer she being so rich and when she began this course so younge and so beautifull Christ allso counselled no small voluntary austerity to him whome he advised for greater perfection to sell all for money being the price of all commodities the want of it brings all incommodities He was advised allso to follow him who had not a hole to shroud his head in What austerity is here counselled 3. Much like this was the voluntary austerity of the first Christians forsaking money the price both of all delights and allso of all convenient accommodation and yet Act. 4. v. 34. As many as were owners of lands or houses sold and brought the prices of those things which they sold and caryed them before the feete of the Apostles Who commaunded this Love of serving God more perfectly For if we speake of any obligation they had no other then we have Hence S. Peter to Ananias c. 5. v. 4. Whiles it remained was it not thine owne and after it was sold in thyne owne power That is thou hadst power to keepe it wholy to thy selfe or to vow it wholy to God after which vow thou hadst no further power to keepe it according to what we proved fully out of Scripture Point 21. n. 1.2 4. But to speake more particularly of that
which we call austerity of life such as that of Iudith was both great and voluntary as allso that of Rechabites or Sonns of Ionadab how great and voluntary was the austerity of Holy David though a King His knees were weake through fasting Psal 109.24 I am weary with my groaning All the night make I my bed to swimme I water my couch with my teares Psal 6. v. 6. By reason of the voice of my groaning my boanes have cleaved to my skin Ps 102. v. 5. I have eaten ashes like bread and mingled my drinke with weeping v. 9. His prayers allso farre exceeded any commaund given him Psal 119. 148. Mine eyes have prevented the nights watches that I might meditate thy word I prevented the dawning of the morning and cried And v. 62. At midnight I will rise to give thanks to thee And v. 97. Thy Law is my Meditation all day And 164. Seven times a day I do prayse the. Daniel c. 9.3 of himselfe sayth I did put my face to my Lord God to beseech and pray him in fastings sackcloath and ashes And Nehemiah 9. v. 1. The Children of Israël came together in fasting and sackclaths and earth upon them What the Ninivites did is wel knowne Of Iacob as wealthy as he was the Scripture tells us how sleeping on the ground he used a stone for his pillow and so was favored with that heavenly vision Gen. 28.11 so all Israël is sayd Ioël 2.12 Turne ye to me with all your heart with fasting with weeping and with mourning 5. Now in the new Testament Christs doctrine would have made the great sinners of Tyre and Sidon do pennance in sackloath and ashes Matth. 11. v. 21. He sayth to all He that will come after me lett him take up his crosse Great and voluntary was the austerity of S. Iohn Baptist He shall be great before our Lord. Wine and sicer or strong drink he shall not drinke Luc. 1.15 The Child grew and waxed in spirit and was in the desert untill the day of of his Manifestation or shewing in Israël v. 80. That is from his childhoode untill he was above 30. yeares old He was cloathed with Camels haire and a girdle of skinne about his Ioynes and he did eate locusts and wilde honie Mark 1. v. 6. And he did eate so sparingly that of him Christ sayth Iohn came neither eating nor drinking Matth. 11.18 Of his Disciples often fasting we reade Matth. 9. v. 14. And they were instructed by him of whome Christ sayd amongst the Children of woemen there hath not risen a greater then Iohn Baptist Christ allso promised there that his Disciples should do as Iohns did that is fast often when the Bridgrome should be taken from them 6. They did but what S. Paul taught 2. Cor. 6. v. 4. In all things approving our selves as the Ministers of God in much patience in tribulations in necessityes in distresses in strypes in prisons in seditions To these which all perhaps were not voluptary he exhorts us voluntarily to adde In labours in watchings in fasting in purenesse or Chastity For as we shall be partakers of his sufferings so shall we be of his consolation 2. Cor. 1.7 Mortify your members which be upon earth Col. 3.5 But before I passe hence I must observe what is sayd of Holy Anne Luk. 2. v. 37. Shee was a widdow untill eighty and fowre yeares living even untill that age shee departed not from the Temple by fasting and prayers serving God night and day Behold by what exercises God is served Who commaunded her this The desyre of serving God more perfectly 7. Heare S. Paul of himselfe 1. Cor. 9.27 I keep under my body and bring it into subjection least perhaps whilst I preach to others my selfe may become a cast away or reprobate Who commaunded him Desire of securing his saluation Again Col. 1.24 I Paul who now rejoyce in suffering for you and do accomplish or fill up that which is behind or those things which want of the affliction of Christ in my flesh for his body which is the Church Behold an other reason which was to suffer thereby to satisfy for the sinns of others of which text more when we shall speake of satisfactory good works in the next point n. 6. 8. S. Timothey Disciple to S. Paul having great weaknes of stomack and frequent infirmities in the midst of so great labours did notwithstandin so continually drinke water at all his meales that S. Paul thought it necessary to write to him thus 1. Tim. 5.23 Drinke not yet water but use a litle wine for thy stomack ād thy oftē infirmityes So that you see that before he did not so much as drinke a litle wine though it were the common drinke of that countrey and though he were so weakned by sicknesse and labour Thus voluntarily absteyning from wine so good a creature of God Who commaunded him this abstinence Love of Perfection THE XXIV POINT Of satisfactory good workes 1. THese voluntary austerities of which we spoake in the former point and all such painfull and laborious good workes when they are performed in state of grace are held by vs Catholicks to have a great satisfactory vertue by which the paine due to our sin is forgiven and is more or lesse cancelled as the works are more or lesse perfect For wee teach that after the sin it selfe is forgiven by our true repentance and humble Confession there yet remaines the guilt of temporall paine to which that sin makes us still lyable as I shall prove in the next point which if you please you may reade before this Protestants thinke they much magnify the Passion of our Saviour by saying that by vertue of that alone all sinns and all paine due to all sinns are quite forgiven But first I aske them if nothing else be required on our parts They are forced to confesse something else required for they are constrained to acknowledge First that we must be baptized Secondly that we must lay hould of the Passion of Christ by the hand of Faith Thirdly that besids this faith wee must have true repentance Fourthly they must needs say that allso you must have a will to receave the Body and Blood of Christ Vnlesse you eate the flesh of the Sonne of man and drinke his blood you shall not have life in you Io. 6.53 Fiftly they must needs allso say that either the observation of the commaundements is necessary as we shall shew point 36 or at least a good will and serious endeavour to keepe them He was made to all that obey him the cause of eternall saluation Hebr. 5.9 So that obeying him is required on our parts to have him be effectually to us the cause of eternall salvation 2. By this discourse it is evident that though the Passion of Christ in it selfe be of a sufficient worth and value to satisfy for all the sinns of the world yea of a million of worlds and allso for all the paine that
is or can be due to those sinns yet Christ out of his Prudence and Iustice thought fit to order so that this full fruit of his Passion should not be applyed to any but such as should performe severall things which he requires at theyr hands for this effect Not that there is neede of this to supply any want of value in his Passion but there is neede to do all this to fullfill on our parts the Covenant and conditions upon which this benefitt is graunted As you must say of all those five severall things which you yourselves require to be superadded by us on our part that we may enjoy the full fruit of his Passion To these five things we Roman Catholicks adde a sixth and we have Scripture for this sixth as well as you have for the other five That sixth thing is that Christ requires of us severall penall and laborious works which though in themselues and as they meerely proceede from us they have no sufficient proportion to cancell the paines due unto our sins as allso you must confesse all that is done by us in Baptisme or in believing or in repenting or in receaving his body or in endeavouring to keepe his Law hath allso no such proportion yet each of them have vertue to this effect But this vertue is meerely from the vertue of the Passion of our Saviour which is communicated to us by the performance of these things For wee so magnify the vertue of our Saviours Passion that we say a most satisfactory vertue or a speciall efficacy to cancel paine due to sinns is not only communicated by it to Faith but the like efficacy in order to this effect is by the same Passion communicated to our painfull and laborious works of fasting hayrecloath watching praying almesdeedes and therefore this our doctrine is so farre from derogating to our Saviours Passion that it honoureth it more then yours which doth deny the Passion of our Saviour this praise of being sufficient to elevate and rayse our poore endeavours of satisfying to any ability of making reall satisfaction 3. The force and vertue of these actions was well known to H. David who did practice them so much as I shewed in the last point n. 4. His knees were weakned with fasting he laboured in sighing he every night washed his bed and watered his couch with his teares The voice of his perpetuall groaning for his sins with other austerities joyned therewith made his boanes cleave to his skin he being meerely skin and boanes for did eate ashes as bread and mingle his drinke with his most frequent teares he gave himselfe to prayer night and day Every night washing his bed with teares rysing at midnight to confesse to our Lord and then preventing the dawning of the day by the cry of his morning prayers Seven times in the day he sayd praise to God all this he did being a King Almesdeeds may seeme lesse wonderfull in a Royall person yet his bountifull Almes considering the charge of so continuall warrs were even incredible Towards the building of the Temple 1. Chron. 22. v. 14 Behold sayth he I in my trouble prepared the charges of the house of our Lord. Of Gold a hundred thousand talents and of silver a thousand thousand talents and of brasse and of iron without weight for the number is surpassed by the greatnesse timber and stoanes I have prepared to all the charges To all this in the 29. Ch. v. 3 Above all these things which I have offered into the house of my God I give of myne owne peculiar goods gold and silver unto the Temple of my God besids those things which I have prepared for the Holy House Three thousand talents of the gold of Ophir and seven thousand talents of most approved sylver Thus he excelled in all the three satisfactory works Fasting Prayer and Almesdeeds to which three all other satisfactory works are reduced Who commaunded David this The excellency of his Charity to God 4. In like manner Iob of himselfe I abhorre my selfe and repent in dust and ashes Iob 42.6 And as for Almes c. 31. v. 17. If I have eaten my morsels alone and the pupil hath not eaten with me If his sydes have not blessed me and he was not warmed with the fleeces of my sheepe The straunger tarryed noth without my doore was open to the wayfaring man If I have bene affrayde of a very great multitude In another place he was an eye to the blinde a staff to the lame c. Of Holy Iudiths actions we spoake in the former point Heare what is sayd to that wicked King by Daniel 4.24 Wherefore ô King lett my counsel be acceptable to thee break of thy sinns by rightiousnesse and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poore Behold the sinns even of Nabuchodonozar might be cancelled by Almes For Prov 16.6 By Mercy and truth iniquity is purged Ioë 2.12 Convert to me in all your hart in fasting and in weeping and in mourning and rent your harts and not your garments Ionas 3 5. The men of Ninive proclaymed a fast and were cloathed with sackcloath c. And God saw theyr works and had mercy c. Why He saw theyr works 5. In the new Testament we are exhorted to approve our selves Ministers of God in labours in watching in fasting in Chastity 2. Cor. 6.4 We have S. Iohn Baptist neither eating nor drinking Matth. 14. His Disciples fasting often Christ promising that after his death his allso should fast as S. Iohns did that is should fast often Matth. 9.15 We have S. Anne by fasting and prayers serving night and day Luk. 2.37 S. Paul chastizing his body his Disciple Timothy drinking still water And as for Almes after so many woës denounced to the most uncleane Scribes and Pharises Christ himselfe sayth But yet what remayneth give Almes and behold all thinges are cleansed unto you Luk. 11.41 So that to cleanse them by his blood he would have theyr Almes joyned with the vertue of his blood which blood gave this cleansing power to theyr Almes And S. Paul promiseth us Rom. 8.17 That we may be Heyres of God and Ioyntheyres with Christ if so be we suffer with him that we may allso be glorified with him Note the condition if so be that we suffer Though Christs suffering of its owne selfe be more then enough yet he will have ours joyned upon these tearmes he covenants to communicate the full fruit of his Passion to us and therefore without this be done on our part something is sayd to be wanting to the Passion of Christ in order to its full effect 6. This is cleare out of Col. 1.24 I Paul who now reioyce in suffering for you and do fill up what is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body which is the Church Notwithstanding Christs Passion as I declared n. 1. and 2. some scores are left behind so that some things are wanting not wanting on Christs part
have Faith but not works and that in this case his Faith will not save him which is that which S. Paul allso sayd before If I have all Faith but have not Charity I am nothing S. Iames goes on v. 21. Abraham was he not justifyed by works offering Isaac Seest thou not how Faith wrought with his works and by works was faith made perfect If this Faith had justifyed before any works proceeded from it it had been perfected before any such works Yet it is sayd that by works this Faith was made perfect Whence followeth v. 24. Ye see then how that by works a man is justifyed and not by Faith only This then is our demonstration if Faith justifyeth alone it justifyeth without works but S. Iames sayth it doth not justify without works therefore it doth not justify alone For by works and not by Faith alone a man is justifyed What more cleer THE XXVIII POINT VVhether our Iustification be any thing inherent in us 1. OVr adversaries doctrine is that wee are only just because God is pleased to repute us so in regard of Christs Iustice imputed to us and thus he doth only cover our sins these sins still remaining in vs but God doth now impute them to us because wee having once layd hold of Christs Iustice by the hands of Faith this Iustice is made ours and by Christs merits wee shall undoubtly be saved Our doctrine opposite in all points shall be point after point proved out of Scripture 2. First then wee say our Iustice is a quality truly inherent in us Ezech. 36.26 A new hart allso I will give you and a new spirit I will put with in you And cause you to walke in my statutes And ye shall keep my Iudgements and do them I need speak no cleerer So Rom. 5.5 The Charity of God is powerd forth in our harts by the Holy Ghost which is given us by the infusion of this Charity into us in us is framed the new creature Gal. 6.15 And this new inward man is sayd Col. 3.12 to be put on by us by such vertues as are inherent As by the bowels of mercies kindnes humblenes of mind meeknes And v. 14. Above all these by Charity which is the bond of perfection Behold the parts of this inward new man of which again he sayth Eph 4.23 Be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new man which after God is created in righteousnes and true holynesse which be qualities most inherent And Eph. 1.4 He hath chosen us before the foundation of the world that wee should be Holy without blame in his sight in Charity which Charity is an inward quality 3. Secondly wee say that by this quality wee are not only reputed just but wee are just verily and really And because wee verily are so wee truly are to be reputed so wee being Holy before him in Charity Eph. 1.4 For as was sayd in the former Texts wee have in us a new hart a new spirit by Charity powred forth in our very harts transforming us inwardly into new creatures and new men being truly renewed in spirit Whence 1. Io. 3. Wee are not only called the Sons of God v. 1. But now wee are the sons of God v. 2. So when you read that Abrahams Fai h working by Charity was imputed to him to righteousnes and he was called the friend of God Iames 2.23 You shall note that he therefore was reputed just and therefore called the friend of God because truly he was just and was truly Gods friend having Faith quickned by Charity in him So Luke 1.6 of Zachary and Elizabeth They were both righteous before God whose eyes see what is the most covered walking in all the Commandements and Ordinances of our Lord without blame They therefore were just even before Gods eyes And this true Iustice in the eyes of God is in the same chapter promised to vs by the grace of the Saviour there foretold that wee may serve him in Holynes righteousnes and Iustice before him all our dayes v. 75. Note this Holynes before him which is to be Holy in his sight Hence God to Noë Gen. 7.1 I have seen thy righteousnes before me Hence allso Col. 1.10 That you may walke worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing fructifying in all good works Giving thanks to the Father who hath made us meet to be partakere of the inheritance of the Saints So Apoc. 3.4 Thou hast a few names in Sardis which have not defiled theyr garments and they shall walk with me in whites because they be worthy And 1. Io. 3.7 Litle Children let no man deceive you He hath doth righteousnes is righteous even as he is righteous Note those words even as he that is God is righteous For God is righteous not by imputative but true interior Iustice of which inward Iustice Christ sayth Matth. 5.20 I say unto you unles your righteousnes shall exceed thae of Scribes and Pharisees you shall not entee into the Kingdome of heaven For if there be not righteousnes in us exceeding Scribes and Pharisees wee shall be damned and no righteousnes shall be imputed to us For as is sayd Rom. 2.2 Wee are sure that the judgement of God is according to truth It were not verity but falsity to repute him just who in very truth is not just but is still a sinner Hence Prov. 17. v. 15. He that justifyeth the impious and he that condemneth the Iust both are abominable before God Dare you say that God doth that which is abominable He reputes things to be as they truly are in themselves So Rom. 2.9 Wrath and Indignation Tribulation and Anguish upon every soule of man that worketh evill He imputes Iustice to no sinner untill he leaves of to be so by true returning to works of Iustice Those whom he reputes clean truly are clean And you are clean Io. 13.10 4. Thirdly hence wee say that our sins be not only covered but wholy taken away For wee by vertue of Gods inward grace given for Christ are clensed made white and glittering For Christ is the Lambe of God who taketh away the sins of the world Io. 1.29 He doth not only cover them but takes them quite away And so Psal 32.2 when David sayth Blessed is the man to whom the Lord doth not impute iniquity and whose sins are covered It followeth there is no guile in his spirit And because there is no guile therefore no iniquity can be imputed to him Protestants still cite the former words but leave out these latter which words teach us excellently that that which is covered from Gods eyes must not be at all and therefore his sin now not being at all cannot now at all be seen For as the same David tells you Psal 103 v. 12. As farre as the east is distant from the West so farre hath he removed our transgressions from us This expressiō though it may be thought very full yet really our sins forgiven are
as farre from us as that which is not now is distant from that which is now which is a greater distance then East from West though that be farre enough to declare a true perfect remission by quite abolishing the sin forgiven by infused grace according to Ezech. 36.25 I will sprincle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthines And 1. Io 1.7 And the blood of Christ clenseth us from all sin So that by this his blood the body of sin is destroyed Rom. 6.6 And thus he will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea Mich. 7.19 THE XXIX POINT Whether our justification may not be lost 1. THe hart is deceitfull above all things who can know it Ier. 17.9 Yet Protestants placing justification in such a speciall faith as assures each man of his saluation by the merits of Christ are hence enforced to teach two strange Paradoxes The first is that this speciall faith breeds a full assurance grounded in a reall truth wherefore wee need not feare our salution The second which is contained in the former or thence clearly deduced is that this justification of ours cannot be lost for else that assurance might have had a lye for its ground and sole fundation 2. Wee teach first that no man without a speciall Revelation is assured to be saved and so all ought to worke theyr saluation with feare and trembling S. Paul every where proveth our doctrine Thou by faith doest stand be not high minded but feare Rom. 11.20 Again 1. Cor. 4.4 he sayth he knew nothing by himselfe concerning any guilt but I am not justified herein But he that judgeth me is our Lord. I dare not judge my selfe though I know nothing by my selfe how then darest thou Again 1 Cor. 9.27 But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection lest that by any meanes whilst I preach to others I my selfe may become a cast away or reprobate Again c. 10. v. 12. Therefore he wh◠thinketh himselfe to stand as Protestants do lett him take heed left he fall Again Phil. 3.11 If by any meanes I might attain to the resurrection of the dead He found no security in that speciall Faith you speak of Therefore he sayd Phil. 2.12 Work your own saluation with feare and trembling Apoc. 3.11 Hold that fast which thou hast that no man take thy crowne For Luke 8.13 There be those who for a time believe and in time of temptation fall away 3. Secondly conformably to all the Texts wee say that those who were just may come finally to be damned For exod 32.33 Whosoever hath sinned against mee him will I blot out of my Book Those who are baptized are born again of water and the Holy Ghost Io. 3.5 Yet how many thousands of these once regenerated men sin afterwards and never rise again and truth sayth of him who riseth not again whosoever hath sinned against mee him will I blot out of my Book out of which he could not be dashed unles his name had once been enroled in it Salomon his saluation is much doubted of by Holy Fathers yet there could be no doubt thereof if your opinion were true for God himself sayth he once was just 1. Chron. 28 7. I will establish his Kingdome for ever if he be constant to my Commandement and Iudgements as at this day At that day then he was in a state pleasing to God and yet you see doubt of his perseverance is even here intimated Yea by and by David his Father tells him but if you forsake him he will cast the of for ever v. 9. David did not judge Salomon to be at this time out of Gods favour yet his words shew he feared that he might hereafter come to loose Gods favour What Salomon after did the Scripture tels us 1. Kings 11. v. 3. Weomen turned away his hart And when he was now old his wives turned away his hart to other Gods He worshiped Astarthee the Goddesse of the Sidonians and Moloch the Idol of the Ammonites he built a Temple to Camos the Idol of Moab and in this manner he did to all his wives who where strangers Therefore our Lord was angry with Salomon because his heart was turned from the Lord. v. 9. Did he not cease to be just when his heart was turned away from our Lord David sayth Psal 5.7 Thou hatest all workers of iniquity God then did hate Salomon I dispute not whether he repented or no whether he were saved or no but without all dispute he once lost his former Iustice his hart and minde being turned away from God and our Lord therefore bearing wrath against him and hating him Let us proceed 4. The Apostles Act. 6.3 Commanded seaven men full of the Holy Ghost to be made Deacons One of them was Nicolas a stranger of Antioch These they sett in the presence of the Apostles and praying they imposed hands upon them Yet this Nicolas did fall finally into Heresy and began the Heresy of those who from his name are called Nicolaites Apoc. 2.6 S. Paul allso Hebr. 6. v. 4.6 tels us the sad condition of those who were made partakers of the Holy Ghost if they shall fall away which is manifestly to suppose that even such men may fall away So the foolish Galatians having begun with the spirit ended with the flesh Gal. 3.3 It is therefore sayd to them You did run well who hindred you not to obey the truth Gal. 5.7 Behold they came not to obey the truth who before did not only walk well but allso run well Hence allso it is that the Scripture useth to speak thus fearfully and conditionally concerning our perseverance in Iustice Io. 15.6 If a man abide not in me he is cast forth And Rom. 11.22 If thou continue in his goodnes otherwise thou allso shall be cutt of And 2. Io 8. Look to your selves that wee loose not those things which wee have wrought Evident therefore is our Doctrine thus delivered by Ezechiel c. 33. v. 12. The righteousnes of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression Neither shall the righteous be able to live for his righteousnes in the day that he sinneth All his righteousnes shall not be remembred But for his iniquity which he hath committed he shall dy for it He then may die for iniquity who once was just Hence he taught his just Apostles to pray Lead us not into temptation for feare of falling into it Let us therefore when wee have faith Hold faith and a good conscience which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwrack 1. Tim. 1.19 THE XXX POINT To Iustification it is necessary to keep the Commandements This is possible 1. I Say first that it is possible to keep the Commandements by the helpe and assistance of Gods grace sufficiently afforded us to that end Deut. 5. v. 1. Moyses called all Israël and sayd to them heare Israël the statutes which I speake
you harden your harts as Aegypt and Pharao did harden theyr hart And so David cryeth to us all Harden not your harts Psal 94 8. And Ezech. 18.31 Cast away from you all your transgressions and make you a new heart and new spirit for why will you dye ô house of Israël for I have no pleasure in the death of him that dyeth sayth the Lord God Wherefore turne your selves and live ye 3. Behold how God himselfe declares that by the grace he offers us we may make our selves a new heart a new spirit turne our selves and live God speaks cleerly in Deut. 11.26 Behold I sett forth in your sight this day benediction and malediction benediction if you obey the Commandements of our Lord malediction if you obey not but revolt from the way which now I shew you Again Deut. 30.15 See I have sett before the this day life and good and contrariwyse death and evill And v. 19. I call for record this day heaven and earth I have sett before you life and death blessing and cursing Choosing therefore life See here the choise left to our freewill So Iosue 24.15 Chuse this day whom you will serve 2. Samuel 24.12 Choice is given the of three things Chuse one one of them which thou wilt And Philem. v. 14. Without thy minde I would do nothing that thy benefit should not be as it were of necessity but willingly And 1. Cor. 7.37 He that standeth stedfast in his hart having no necessity but hath power over his owne will doth well 4. Behold we have power over our owne will to do that which is lesse perfect or that which is more perfect For as it there sayd he who giveth in marriage doth well he that giveth not doth better And wee have power over our owne will to do either Yea Gods grace so enables our power that Io. 1.12 As many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God By this his power we clense our hands purify our harts clense our whole selves wee Matth. 12.33 make the tree and fruit good And as it is sayd Io. 3.3 Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himselfe Hitherto of free will in doing good 5. How frees will comes to lead us to all our evill S. Iames tells us c. 1. v. 14. Every one is tempted when he is drawne away of his owne lust and enticed hitherto no sinne but then when I pray note this then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sinne Then sinne and only then is hatched when free will yealds her selfe to concupiscence so as to consent to what is suggested Ye did not heare ye did choose that wherin I delighted not Isa 65.12 The Texts allso in the following point confirme free will THE XXXII POINT How this free will is still helped with sufficient Grace 1. IF God gave vs not allwayes that grace which is of sufficiēt force to excite us to the effectuall performance of all the good which we are bound to do or to the avoyding of all the evill which we are bound to avoyd our free will could neither do the one nor avoid the other All the former Texts then which so cleerly prove that wee by Gods helpe can if wee will do what wee are bound to do and can avoyd what wee are bound to avoyd do consequently prove that God allwayes gives such Grace to both effects as wants nothing of perfect sufficiency to produce them but our free consent Hence S. Paul thus exhorts us 2. Cor. 6 1. We then as workers togeather with him beseech you allso that you receive not the grace of God in vaine Excellently the Rhemists upon this Text. It lyeth in mans power and free will to frustrate or to follow this motion of God as this Text plainly proveth which really is the very selfesame that the Councill of Trent sayth Sess 6. c. 5. That by Gods exciting and helping grace we are disposed to cōvert our selves by freely assenting and cooperating to the same grace so that God touching the hart of mā by the illumination of the H. Ghost mā is neither void of all action he receiving that inspiration for he receives it so as having in his power to cast it away Neither can he without the grace of God move himselfe And therfore it followeth in the fourth Canon If any one shall say that the free will of man moved and excited by God doth cooperate nothing att all by giving her consent to God exciting and calling by which he may dispose himselfe to the grace of Iustification and that he cannot dissent if he will let him be Anathema Lett those harken to this who harken so much to the Iansenists And let us go on to speake of this sufficient grace which in the next point wee will shew more fully to be offered to all Of this grace Isaias 5.4 What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it For Prov. 1.24 I called you and you refused And that you may not say he only called and did not stretch forth his hand to helpe you to come the next words are I stretched forth my hand and no man regarded But ye have set at nought all my cousel And Isa 65.12 When I called ye did not answer when I spake ye did not heare and did choose that wherin I delighted not Though they did choose thus against Gods call yet this his call was so sufficient to have moved them that God tels Ezechiel c. 3. v. 6. that if he had sent him with so strong and powerfull preaching to barbarous and unknowen people They surely would have heard thee But the house of Israël will not heart thee for all the house of Israël are impudent and hard harted They will not be moved by those calls which would move others And because they answered like Protestants c. 33.10 If our transgressions and our sinns be upon us and we pine in them how should we then live God commands the Catholicke doctrine to be thus delivered Say unto them As I live sayth the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turne from his way and live Turne ye turne ye from your wicked wayes and why will you dye ô house of Israël Note how still he sayth he excites them sufficiently otherwise vainly had he sayd why will you dye ô house of Israël For they might reply we cannot but dye because thou givest us not the grace to live 2. And as God sayd of Ezechiels preaching that it was sufficient to have converted Barbarians though the Iewes would not be moved by it So Matth. 11. v. 20. of Christ it is sayd He began to upbraid the Citties wherein were done the most of his miracles for that they had not done pennance Wo be to the Corozain wo he to the Bethsaida for if in Tyre and Sidon had bene wrought the miracles that were wrought in thee they had
done pennance in hairecloath and ashes long ago Though the Iewes wold not repent yet hence I am sure that Christ did sufficient for that end Hence that most just exprobration both here and Matth. 23.37 Ierusalem Ierusalem how often would I have gathered together thy Children as the hen gathereth together her chickins and thou wouldest not I would thou wouldest not therefore justly it followes Behold your house shal he left desert Again Rom. 10 21. All the day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people Again Apoc. 3.20 Behold I stand at the dore and knock if any man heare my voice and open the dore I will come in to him Whence again 1. Tim. 2.4 Who will all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of truth And therefore the same Apostle Rom. 2. v. 4. Doest thou contemne the riches of his goodnesse Patience Longanimity but according to the hardnes of thy hart thou heapest up to thy selfe wrath Behold a free will able to contemne the very riches of Gods goodnes in still giving graces and with so much patience and longanimity expecting the effect of them still by mans voluntary malice made fruitles Of such a soule it is sayd Apoc. 2.21 I gave her space to repent of her fornication and she repented not You cannot blame a poore man for not dining because you gave him space to dine unles you allso give him meat wherewith to dine so God could not complain of our not repenting because we had time unlesse allso he offered us grace to repent THE XXXIII POINT This sufficient grace is denyed to none Christ dying even for reprobates 1. IT is evident in Scripture that no grace is givē to any but by the merits of Christ consummated with his death He hath blessed us with all spirituall blessings in heavenly things in Christ Eph. 1.3 So that if you see Point 30. Grace given to all to make the keeping of the commandemēts possible to all if you see point 31. That our free will is still by Gods grace able to do good if you see Point 32. This free will still helped by sufficient Grace to avoid evill and do good you must needs by all this see that this grace can come only from Christs death and therfore this grace being so oftē proved to be offered to all by the same Texts it is allso proved that Christ dyed for all Call to minde how many according to what was proved Point 29. do become reprobates who by vertue of Christs death once received the guift of heavenly grace in Baptisme The like grace was by Christs death given to that just man of whom Ezechiel cited there n. 5. sayth That his Iustices shall be forgotten because he persevered not and in his iniquities he shall dye He therefore became a Reprobate And thus it is true which God sayd to Abraham Gen. 12.3 In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed And Gcn. 22.18 In thy seed shall be blessed all the nations of earth Now as S. Paul sayrh Gal. 3.14 The blessing of Abraham comes on the Gentiles through Christ Iesus There is none therfore to be excepted from being partaker of this blessing seing that all the families of the earth and all the nations of the earth do enioy it Yct it is evident that many among these families and nations be Reprobates Reprobates therfore enioy many blessings by Christs death which eould not be if Christ did not dye for them By the merits of Christs death many are called yet of these many few are choosen Matth. 22.14 Hence Ezech. 18.23 Why Is the death of a sinner my will sayth our Lord God and not that he convert from his wayes and live Which without grace from Christ he could not do Again c. 33.11 I will not the death of the impious but that the impious convert from his way and live Why will you dye ô house of Israël And so Prov. 1.24 To those to whome he sayd I have called and you have refused I have stretched out my hand and you have not regarded He shall say likewise I will laugh when your destruction cometh as a whirlewind v. 27. They therfore shall be destroyed and perish who by Christs death and merits had many graces helps and callings given them Note that in Christ the will with which he called them was a serious will of which 1. Tim. 2.4 He will all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of truth See in the former Point the many evident Text cited to this effect Hence it is sayd Rom. 2.4 He shewed the riches of his goodnes to those who dispised it treasuring up wrath to themselves Who be those but the Reprobate Again 2. Pet. 3.9 Willing that none should perish And Rom. 5.6 Christ did dye for the impious or ungodly And most cleerly 1. Io. 2.2 He is the propitiation of our sinns And not for ours only but allso for the whole world The whole world comprehends more reprobate then elect He then who dyed for the whole world did allso dye for the Reprobate Wherfore S. Paul more then once warneth us not to be occasion of damnation to those for whom Christ dyed So Rom. 14.15 Do not with thy meat destroy him for whom Christ dyed He therfore for whom Christ dyed may be destroyed and perish eternally Again 1. Cor. 8.11 Through thy knowledge shall thy weak Brother perish for whom Christ dyed And again 2. Pet. 2.1 False teachers bringing in damnable Heresies even denying the Lord who bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction Hence you see that even those who have brought upon themselves destruction have done this by denying him who bought them at the price of his blood and death He therfore even dyed for those Children of perdition Whence Holy Fathers often say that son of perdition Iudas did shedde that blood with which he was redemed Let us then all be as is sayd 2. Cor. 5.14 Iudging this that if one dyed for all then all were dead S. Paul had not proved by Christ his dying for all that all were dead if any man could be found for whom Christ did not dye And that no one should presume to say that any such man could be found S. Pauls next words are Christ dyed for all v. 15. The Councel of Trent Sess 6. c. 3. citing these words sayth But though he dyed for all yet all receive not the benefit of his death but only those to whom the merit of his Passion is communicated Hence it is sayd 1. Tim. 4.10 We trust in the liveing God who is the Saviour of all men especially of those who believe Saviour he is to all men by giveing what sufficeth to save all mē but this sufficiency is effectuall to saluatiō only in the truly faithfull whose works answered to theyr beliefe and therefore chiefely he is theyr Saviour Yet it is true that speaking generally of us all 1. Cor.
degree THE XXXV POINT It is laudable to doo good works for reward 1. AS Charity towards our neighbour is a most commendable vertue so charity towards our selves cannot be but most commendable Wherefore seeing these good works do profit us so very much as wee have seen in the last point and last number I cannot possibly vnderstand that Paradox of our Adversaries saying they do ill who do well out of a desire to gain heaven True it is a man may do well out of a more commendable motive that is to honour and please God But because something is better then doing good for hope of reward the doing good out of that hope doth not cease to be good You say faith alone is so good that it doth justify a man and yet Scripture tells you that of these three Faith Hope and Charity the greater and better of these is Charity 1. Cor. 13.13 Faith is very good and commendable Whence appeares that nothing ceases to be good because an other act is better 2. The Scriptures cited in the last point evidently exhort us in our sufferings to be glad and rejoyce because our reward is great in heaven and to do our good works in secret not to loose our reward but to heap up to our selves treasure in heaven and to sell all to purchase treasure there and in doing good works not to fail for in due time wee shall reap not failing May wee not sow in hope of harvest Did not S. Paul seek the fruit abounding on this account to those who had sent to his use Did he not bid us not to loose our confidence because it hath a great reward Hebr. 10.35 And not to sow sparingly that wee may reap plentifully 2. Cor. 9.6 Did not Christ himselfe say make friends of the Mammon of iniquity Luk 16.9 To what end this To the end that they may receive you into the eternal Tabernacles But what can be more cleer then that which I there cited out of Heb. 11.24 Moyses denyed himself to be the sō of Pharao his daughter chusing to be afflicted with the people of God esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches then the treasure of Aegyptians For he looked to the reward or according to your Bibles for the regard or respect he had to the reward No lesse cleer David Psalm 118. vers 112. I have inclined my hart to do thy Iustifications for ever for reward And for this reward he inclined his hart to do them sayth S. Augustin in this place reading it as wee do And so as wee tead it it is so faithfully translated by the Septuaginta out of the Hebrew and so your Translatours might have translated it if they had pleased but they willfully choose another sense though they so much professe to follow the Septuaginta THE XXXVI POINT VVee laudably worship Angels and Saints 1. FOr the ground of this question I lay this fundation out of Scripture that as the Angels are in heaven so the soules of the Saints go directly from hence to heaven without they have some few offēces to cleere in Purgatory Our soules sleep not untill Doomesday Christ sayd to the good theife This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise And therefore S. Paul desired to be dissolved that he might be with Christ And again 2. Cor. 5.8 Wee are willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with our Lord Therefore wee may come to be present with our Lord even whilst our soules are absent from our body Neither do our English Protestants deny this 2. This supposed our doctrine is that great reverence and worship is due to the Angels and Saints with God Secondly that they can hear our prayers Thirdly that they can and will helpe us and therfore it is laudable to pray to them and that this doth not derogate from Christs honour Fourthly that among the Saints it is most laudable to pray to our Lady And here wee shall speak of the Beads sayd to her honour Fiftly wee laudably worship Images of Christ and his Saints Sixtly that wee laudably worship theyr Reliques and inshrine them richly and place them as honorably as wee can Sevently that some places are more holy then others sanctifyed by the presence of those Reliques or by speciall graces given there And for this reason wee laudably make processions and pilgrimages to these places with all devotion Eightly that wee laudably keep Feasts or Holy Dayes as allso fasts in the honour of Christ and his Saints Lastly in these our fasts wee laudably abstaine from certaine meates All and every one of these nine things shall have theyr particular proofes in so many severall Points next following in the order here designed 3. And first for the worship of Angels or Saints note that the very selfe same outward worship yea and Adoration it selfe may outwardly be given either as a civil reverence to persons of respect and great eminency or it may be given to them out of a religious respect in regard of the great Sanctity and heavenly dignity in such a person or lastly given in regard of Divine perfection and infinite worth When this respect is given thus outwardly there passeth inwardly an act in our understanding apprehending the exellcency which wee honour to be either human as in civil honour or to be an excellency of singular though limited heavenly eminency as in the worship of Saints which wee call Dulia or lastly wee judge that there is a devine and infinite excellency in that person as it happens in the worship of God only which wee call Latria An other act passeth in our will answerable to that which was in our understanding by which wee have a will to make this outward worship or adoration to be either a civil honour only such as is due to men of highest human dignity or to make it a Religious worship though farre from devine such as is given to persons of eminent Sanctity or endowed with great heavenly gifts or lastly wee intend to make it an act of devine worship as when wee do it to God Whence it is evident that by doing of the outward act it cannot be knowne whether the honour wee do be meerly civil or Religious or Devine 4. With only civil adoration Abraham rose up and adored the people of the land Gen. 23.7 Iacob coming into the presence of his elder Brother Esay Gen. 33. v. 4. Going forward adored prostrate to the ground seaven times And v. 7. Lia with her Children adored in like manner and last Ioseph and Rachel adored And Gen. 43 v. 27. Iosephs Brethren offered him presents holding them in theyr hands and they adored prostrate to the ground And again Gen. 50. v. 18 And Iosephs Brethren came to him and adoring prostrate on the ground All these Texts are thus read in the Rhemish Testament But the Protestant Bible refusing to put the word Adore put either bowing down or falling down on theyr face Wee do no
laudable to pray to them 1. FIrst Protestants often ask us where wee have a command to pray to Angels or Saints I answer that if there be many advantages accruing to us by the devout Invocation of Saints then it is apparent that Prudence and Charity to our selves ought to excite us thereunto as it doth to seek shelter when it raines without beeing called to go under shelter by the cryers voice as they say some simple people are it is as simple to exact a commād in a thing of greater benefit I say moreover that if there be a command to begg the prayers of Saints living on earth that command a fortiore urgeth us to begg the prayers of Saints living in heaven they being more willing and more able to help us If there be no such command and yet wee may without any command practise that laudably so allso may wee laudably practise this without a command seeing that they hear us as well as the Saints living with us Why then may wee not say to Saints in heaven that which S. Paul sayd to Saints on earth Brethren pray for us Iobs friends were commanded to go to Iob to pray for them as wee shall shew more fully n. 9. You all keep the Sunday Where is that commanded to you You answer it is sufficient to see examples of it among the first Christians So say I it is sufficient wee shew you exemples in Scripture of such as prayed to Angels For of praying to Saints the old Testament could not write no Saints being as then in heaven The four Ghospels writt no farther then the Ascension of Christ to heaven before which no Saint allso was in heavē Wherefore you need not wonder that in the 4. Ghospels you see no mention of praying to Saints in heaven In S. Pauls Epistles you find him begging prayers of Saints on earth So Hebr. 13. v. 18. Pray for us Seeing then that prayer to Saints in heaven is more beneficiall to us it is allso by manifest consequence more to be used by us And as often as the Scripture exhorts us to promote our saluation and spirituall good by all meanes wee can so often doth it exhort us to use this meanes as much or more then begging the prayers of others upon earth In fine when a thing hath many spirituall goods in it wee are sufficiently invited thereunto without a command So no body commanded Timothie still to drink water S. Iohn to drink no wine and to come neither eating nor drinking nor his Disciples to fast often See Point 22. It is sufficient that wee obtain much good thereby 2. That by praying to Saints wee obtain much good I prove by proving that Saints can and will help us which all they supposed who called upon them as Gen. 48.15 And Iacob blessed the sons of Ioseph and sayd God before whom my Fathers walked the Angels that delivered or redeemed me from all evill blesse the lads Hee calls first upon God and then upon his good Angel to helpe those Children And he tells you that this Angel delivered him from severall evils How Iacob prayed this Angel is expressed Osee 12.4 Iacob prevailed against the Angel and hee weept ande made supplication unto him So Iobs friend following the practise of those times did bidd him call upon some Saint or Angel as I shewed last point n. 3. How well the Angels wish us theyr joy for the conversion of sinners testifyeth And if the evill Angels are so restles in circling about to see whom they can devour and accuse our Bretheren night and day as I shewed in the former point n. 7. The good Angels are no lesse carefull to seek whome they can defend help and save 3. Hence that earnest prayer of that Angel Zach. 1. v. 12. And the Angel of our Lord sayd ô Lord of Hosts how long wilt thou not have mercy on Ierusalem and on the Citties of Iuda against which thou hast had indignation these three score and tenne yeares What call you praying if this be not Now hear with what effect this Angel prayed for them And our Lord answered the Angel good words confortable words Behold here this Angel would and could help our necessityes And of S. Michael in particular Daniel sayth c. 10. v. 21. There is none that holdeth with me in these things but Michael your Prince And c. 12. v. 1. At that time shall stand up Michael the great Prince who standeth for the Children of thy people In what doth S. Michael stand for Gods people if he doth not so much as pray for them 4. That by the merits of Saints wee may begg and obtain favours I prove allso thus 1. Kings 15.5 When wicked Abias reigned in Iuda for Davids sake our Lord his God gave him a lamp in Ierusalem that he might rayse up his sonne after him and establish Ierusalem because David had done right in the eyes of our Lord. When a hundred eighty five thousand Assyrians came to besiege Ierusalem God by his Prophet sayd to Ezechias I will protect this Citty that I may save it for my owne sake and for Davids sake my servant Isa 37. v. 25. That is say the Protestants for my promise made to David But wee say if they seeke over all Scripture they will find no such promise made to David of defending or protecting Ierusalem Yea wee prove there could be no such promise because Ierusalem in the captivity was not protected but ruinated 5. The power which the prayers of Saints have and that they use carefully to pray for us is often expressed in Scripture Ieremy 15.1 Though Moyses and Samuel stood before me yet my mind could not be toward the people By which manner of speeeh it appeares that Moyses and Samuel long sincc dead were after theyr death used to pray for the people and that theyr prayers were most powerfull So a King may say though my Mother shall come to me and pray I will not hear her You shall see Daniel of like merit and power with God in just such another Text. Ezech. 14. v. 14. I will kill out of the Land man and beast And if these three men shall be in the midst thereof Noë Daniel and Iob they by theyr Iustice shall deliver theyr own soules Yet though these three men were in it sayth our Lord they shall deliver neither Sons nor Daughters but themselves alone shall be delivered Which he repeates again v. 20. This joyning of Daniel a Saint then living with Noë and Iob dead so many hundred yeares before sheweth that these men by theyr prayers no lesse powerfully interposed themselves then Daniel living Of Elias his care to assist his people after his death wee gave you a memorable testimony in the former point n. 5. In the famous vision of Iudas Machabeus 2. Mach. c. 15. v. 12. First Onias who had been the high Priest but was now dead stretching forth his hands prayed for all the people of the Iewes
for you Him I will accept that is his mediation shall avail to your pardon Neither do wee dishonour but wee rather honour our Saviour when wee desire Saints to pray for us For by this wee shew the dignity of his merits to be so great that by his merits Saints are advanced to so great favour with God that theyr prayers hence come to be so effectuall as were those of à Moyses who living yet on earth could obtain so often pardon for the whole people of Israël From whence allso it proceeds that thc Saints in heaven as well as the Saints here living are in Scripture sayd to save others Hence S Paul 1. Tim. 4. v. 16 For in doing this thou shalt both save thy selfe and them that hear the. And S. Iâ—mes c. 5.20 He which converteth a sinner from the errour of his way shall save a soule from death 10. Neither lastly do wee act against that precept of Christ saying Come ye all to me A S. Paul did not act against the sayd precept when after our Saviour had sayd these words he himself went begging the prayers of the Thessalonians and Hebrews in his Epistles to them For there be two wayes of going to Christ The first immediatly by our selves approaching reverently in prayer to him The second and more powerfull way is when wee humbly acknowledging our unworthynes and the meanesse of our poor prayers do procure the intercession of Christs greatest friends to accompany with theyr joynt Mediation our humble petitions And thus though the Centurion did not personally come to Christ yet he is sayd by Saint Matthew truly to have come to Christ There came to him a Centurion Mat. 8.5 And yet S. Luke sayd he did not come to him for Luke 7.3 only he sent unto him the elders of the Iewes to interceed beseeching him that he would come And again when he was now not farre from the house the Centurion sent friends to him saying I am not whorthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof And Christ marveling sayd neither in Israël have I found such faith Behold this more humble way of coming to Christ by Mediatours and Intercessors supplying our unworthynes farre preferred before the former way and that even for the faith of the person so approaching I have not found so great faith no not in Israel Ponder well this passage THE XXXIX POINT That among the Saints it is most laudable to pray to our Lady And of the Beads sayd to her honour 1. AS wee are farre from honouring our Lady more then her son because wee know that all the grace shee hath and all her power in the Court of heaven is wholy and entirely by her son so are wee allso farre from equalizing any Saint in grace or power to the most Blessed Mother of God who even before she was his Mother was by the Archangel pronunced full of grace Luke 1.28 The higest Saints in heaven are only stiled servants of God But our Lady is truly stiled Gods Mother Whence is this to mee that the Mother of my Lord should come to me Luke 1.43 In all well ordered families the power of the Lords Mother incomparably exceeds the power of all his servants God who hath commanded us in a speciall commandment to honour our Parents cannot without impiety be thought not to yeald a speciall honour to his Mother All generations shall call her blessed Because he that is mighty hath done great things to her Luke 1.48 2. Two things cheifly concurre to eminent Sanctity Exteriour advantages to improve our selves in grace and interiour assistance of the Holy Ghost to make best use of those advantages Our Lady in the exteriour occasions of improving her selfe in grace had the greatest advantages that ever any creature had even after shee was declared full of grace Shee had our Saviour lodging in her wombe nine Months And she knew who he was aÌ„d what graces he could bestow upoÌ„ her if shee neglected not to begg them Shee did see the humility of his Birth aÌ„d beheld all that theÌ„ happened But Mary keept all these things and pondered them in her hart Luke 2.19 All that wee read of our Lord untill he was thirtie yeare old is that he lived subject to his parents And his Mother keept all these sayings in her hart Luke 2.51 Shee then had for 30 yeares together the benefit of his example to informe her the benefit of his conversation to move her the benefit of his instruction to teach her all shee could desire to learne or he desire to impart to her When her Sonne began to preach to the world and the people all sayd Never man did speak as he did who can doubt but a Mother so deerly affecting such a Sonne did hear him more frequently and devoutly then any other still keeping and pondering all in her hart But her speciall harvest was in the time of his Passion which her compassion made allso to be hers Mothers will understand some what of the Martyrdome shee then suffered But no body can understand how much after his death and ascension her soule dayly was improved by continuall Meditation of what shee had seen and allso by the devout feeding upon the Body of our Lord which shee made her dayly bread Now as for the interiour assistance of the Holy Ghost exciting her to make the best advantages of all these occasions wee know that all such excitations and graces are dispensed by the hands of her own Sonne Is not shee then the likest to have the largest share in all these graces which graces her Son allso had instructed her to use so well to her best advantage and to theyr howerly increase and improvement 3. Hence it is that as shee surpassed all in the practise of vertue so shee is raysed above all in supereminency of heavenly glory Whence it followeth that both love to God and love to her neighbour being most perfect in her she by them both is most powerfully moved to afford to all such as devoutly call upon her all the assistance she is able Wherefore seeing her power is farre surpassing that of other Saints wee have all reason to believe her intercession to be most available for us 4. Among other devotions which wee use to procure this her so advantagious intercession one is to say the Rosary or Beades to her honour Not that our Church commands any one to say these beades but that she holds this to be a very commendable thing which she knoweth full well to be but a late practise of piety as allso many other prayers are most pious which were made long since the Apostles time For you cannot prove that in theyr time any one prayer which is in your Common Prayer Booke was used except the Pater noster and Creed Will you say then that the use of them is not laudable Let us thâ—n go on 5. As the Psalter consists of a hundred and fifty Psalmes so in imitation of that the
receiving of it because that worship is done to the person signifyed by this signe But that which presseth you farr more is that S. Paul sayth He that eateth and drinketh unworthyly is guilty of the Body and Blood of Christ 1. Cor. 11.27 Now of this beeing guilty of Christs Body and blood it is impossible for you to give any other reason but that the abusing of the signe or figure of Christs body is a high abuse done to the body it self The same is proved out of Samuel 2. c. 6.16 where of Davids dauncing before the Arke it is sayd Michol saw David dauncing before our Lord. You see the honour thus done as much to the Ark as our bowing or kneeling or prostrating is done to the Images is referred not to the Ark but to our Lord and is layd to be done before him 2. First then I say wee neither are nor can be accounted guilty of Idolatry upon this account No understāding mā can deny but this hath been the practice of the only true visible Church for a thousand yeares at lest therefore no Idolatry can be in this practice For Idolatry destroyeth the very essence of a true Church Moreover the Scripture manifestly tells us that all Idols after the coming of our Saviour shall be quyte abolished in his known and visible Church For how can otherwise be understood that Isa 2.18 Idols shall he utterly abolish That of Ezech. 36.25 I will power upon you cleane water And from all your Idols I will cleanse you And Chap. 37. v. 23. Neither shall they defile themselves any more in theyr Idols And therefore Micheas Ch. 5. v. 13. Thy graven images allso I will cut of and thy standing Images out of the midst of thee Therefore in Christs Church there can not be found the use of such Images as were unlawfull that is of such as should be made to be adored as Gods whence the next words are And thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands Now all those words are evidently spoken of what should happen after the coming of the Messias for in the beginning of this chapter is the famous Text prophesying that Christ should be borne in Bethlem And then he prophesyeth the ensuing benefits of his birth Zacharias allso speaking c. 13. v. 1. of this time sayth In that day shall be a fountaine lying open to the house of David and it shall be in that day sayth the Lord of Hostes I will cutt out the names of Idols out of earth and they shall bee remēbred no more And yet what a remēbrance of Idols would it be to see all Churches in the whole visible Church filled full of statues Images and pictures exposed to all to be worshiped if the worship used in these Churches be Idolatrous A most urging Argument and cleer demonstration Yea among the Iewes as prone as they were to Idolatry there was by Gods appointment a Religious use of Images 3. Thus God to Moyses Thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold Two Cherubins also thou shalt make of beaten gold on the two ends of the mercyseat Let one Cherub be on the one end and the other on the other end And the Cherubins shall stretch forth theyr wings on high covering the mercyseat with theyr wings Exod. 25. v. 17. And thus Moyses by the command of God made the Propitiatory that is the Oracle or mercyseat of the purest gold Two Cherubins allso of beaten gold on either side of the Propitiatoryes even to the mercyseat ward were the faces of the Cherubins Exod. 37.9 It is no smale signe of honour that these Cherubins pictures were made of gold as allso that they were placed before the Oracle it self The Holy of Holies Hence S. Paul sayth Hebr. 9.5 Over it were the Cherubins of glorie shadowing the mercyseat When this Tabernacle came to be placed in Gods Temple The Temple it self had graven Cherubs in the walles 2. Chron. 3.7 And v. 10. And in the most Holy house he made two Cherubins of image worke and theyr faces were towards the house v. 13. So that the people adored towards them v. 14. He made the vaile of bleue and purple-crimson and wrought Cherubins thereon Note here how all the people kneeled immediatly before these pictures when they prayed yea graven Cherubins were in the walles as I sayd placed before them which way soever they turned 4. There is allso a memorable passage of Osee the Prophet Chap. 34. where lamenting the great desolation of the Temple he particularly allso laments the want of that Religious use of Images in Gods Temple Because sayth he many dayes shall abide many dayes sit without King without Prince without Sacrifice and without an Image or statue and without Theraphim that is without Images which word of Images some of your Bibles have some put the word Theraphim which properly siggnifies a Statue Image or Similitude either of Indifferent use as the statue which Michol put in Davids bedde Sam. 19.16 is called Teraphim or of an Idolatrous use as Gen. 31. v. 19. Rachel stole the Teraphim Idols of her Father or of Religious use as in this place of Osee where the want of Teraphim is bewailed with the want of Sacrifice and Altar And hence the Ancient Rabbies proved that Images of Angels are not contrary to the Decalogue The same we may say of the Images of Saints not then used because as then the Saints were not in heaven But theyr Images now may so much the more be allowed because they can be pictured in theyr own true likenes and shape which Cherubins and Angels could not no more then God Where for simple people you may note that it litle imports whether the Picture be just like the person pictured It is sufficient it serves perfectly to represent him as these Cherubins and Angels were represented perfectly enough to our Imaginations by theyr Images or statues which were nothing like them 5. A further proof for Images is out of S. Paul Phil. 2.10 He hath given him a name above all names that at the name of Iesus every knee should bowe We have from hence that because this name is above all names therefore every knee is to bowe at it Why so because it is a name representing Christ by our eares as his Image represents him to our eyes Only the Image beeing a more lively representation especially to those who know not the person is the farre more noble Remembrance of the two And as to bowe at the name of Iesus was and is commanded the English reformed Church by theyr Canons so to bowe at the more perfecter Representation of Iesus can not be but as lawfull an act of Reverence to his person The Iewes out of Reverence to God dared not to pronounce his most sacred name of Iehova for so you are pleased to read this name now as the honour done to the name of any person so the honour done the Image of such a person redownes
to the honour of that person 6. But because our Adversaries much blame us for using this honour before insensible creatures lett us see whether such honour is not used in Scripture before things wholy insensible of any honour Yet behold before I look into the Bible and whilst I only stay looking upon it I see Protestants cover theyr Bibles with curious covers and placing them in decent places and taking it very ill if any one should trample them under foot or scornfully tear them in peeces And all this is done by reason of the relation which the word of God hath to God himself You know and we shall tell you in the next Point what honour was given to the Ark by reason of the Relation it had to God in regard that from thence he gave his Oracles to the Priests And 2. Sam. 6.16 it is sayd Michol saw David dancing before our Lord. Because he danced before the Ark he is sayd to do this before our Lord so when he kneeled or adored before it it may allso be properly sayd David kneeled and adored before our Lord. And in this sense when we kneele before any Image of our Lady or Saint we may be sayd to kneel before our Lady or before such a Saint This manner of speaking which you account ridiculous and superstitious is as you see the very phrase of Scripture in like occasion Yea adoration it self was used before the Ark. David Psal 99.5 Sayth worship at his footstoole for he is Holy Mark that the reason why worship is to be made at his footstoole is the Relation which this footstoole hath to him whose footstoole it is for he is Holy that is for it is the footstoole of him who deserves that worship should be done even at his footstoole 7. Our Adversaries will make us believe that they can call to mind Christ and his Passion as well and as frequently without seeing a Crucifix as by seeing it which is contrary to all common experience And the Scriptures teach our weaknes and dulnes to be much helped towards stirring up pious Acts by the outward use of these materiall signes Numb 15.38 Speak to the Children of Israël to make to them selves fringes in the borders of theyr garments And it shall be to you a fringe that ye may look upon it that ye may remember all the commandments of our Lord. These fringes were those Philacteria Matth. 23.5 We see that to help theyr dulnes in remembring Gods commandmēts this command is given them so Deutr. 6.9 Thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and on the gates And you Protestants usually for this reason write them in great letters in your Churches Give us then leave by Images of our Saviour to excite the memory of him Now to theyr objections 8. You first object Exod. 20.4 Thou shalt not make to thee a graven thing you read Image nor any similitude But I pray go on v. 5. Thou shalt not bowe down thy self to them nor serve them I answer these last words do tell you the sense of this commandment That is we are not to make any graven thing to adore it or serve it And this is the sense insinuated in those words Thou shalt not make to thee that is to be adored as God by thee or served by thee We neither bowe to them with intention to adore them as Gods nor do wee hold them so much as capable of beeing served by us Again the Hebrew word Pesel doth only signify a Graven thing though you did translate this word as if it had determinately signifyed a Graven Image This you did purposely to make us apeare Idolaters Certainly if God had declared it unlawfull to make Graven Images he would never have caused the Images of Cherubins to be made in the Ark before whose only presence Idols could not stand as we see 1. Sam. 5.7 by Dagon so often cast downe before it Neither would Salomon have presumed to place round about the walls of Gods Temple Images of Cherubins Wherefore in this command Idols only are forbidden and not such Images as are not used as Idols Whence the septuagint whom you pretend to follow hath the very word eidolon that is Idols why then translate you Graven Images If our Images be Idols God hath not fullfilled his promise to take out of his Church the worship of Idols as I sayd n. 2. 9. Your other and only objection to any purpose is Exod. 32. To answer which I must note some things before I put it First the people beeing assembled against Aaron sayd Arise make us Gods that they may go before us v. 1. Secondly Aaron knowing that they ment such Gods as they had seen worshiped in Aegypt made them a Molten calfe neither can you think of any other reason why he made rather a Calfe then any other thing but only because the Aegyptians worshiped theyr God Apis or Serapis in the shape of a black Calfe with white spotts as S. Augustin testifyeth l. 18. de Civit. c. 5. Thirdly this Calfe beeing molten v. 4. they sayd These be thy Gods ô Israel which have brought thee out of the Land of Aegypt which when Aaron had seen he built an Altar before it and by the Cryers voyce proclamed saying To morow is the Feast of our Lord. Here comes your objection The word which Aaron useth here for the Lord is the name Adonai or Iehova as your Protestants will have it a name proper to the God of Israël so that it seems they only worshipped the God of Israël Neither is it say our adversaries credible that Aaron would do otherwise or that he could call the Aegyptian God by the most sacred name of all names a name so especially appropriated to the God of Israël Whence say they you committ Idolatry if through the Images you worship the person it represents For the Israëlits when they committed Idolatry did only through that Calfe worship the God of Israël represented by It. And this seems strongly confirmed For Ieroboam renewed the selfsame Idolatry by making molten Calves to the house of Israël yet through these Calves he only worshiped the God of Israël calling him Baali as appeares by these words of Hosea c. 2. v. 16. And it shall be in that day sayth our Lord that thou shalt call mee no more Baali Where you see the God of Israël sayth they called him Baali Him therefore the Israëlits worshiped Calling him Baali And so through Baali they worshiped him I answere that they did not in this theyr Idolatry worship the true God but false Gods The people themselves desired Gods to be made them by Aaron as is thrice in that Chapter of Exodus expressed And Aaron knowing that they meant such Gods as they had seen worshipped by the Aegyptians did for that reason make a Calfe as I sayd To this Calfe or if you will to the Aegyptian God Apis through this Calfe they did offer Sacrifice Hence God sayd to
to be yet at least according to our Adversaries they conteyne a faithfull Ecclesiasticall History in which in the place cited it is recorded That they keept the Dedication of theyr Altar eight dayes Moreover v. 59. Iudas then high Priest and his brethren with the whole congregation of Israël ordeyned that the dayes of the Dedication of the Altar should be keept in theyr season from year to year by the space of eight dayes from the five and twentith of the Month Casleu that is November This Feast was keept by the Iewish Church untill our Saviours time and that with out warrant of Scripture Yea our Saviour himself observed it For so wee read Io. 10.22 And the feast of the Dedication was in Ierusalem and it was winter I know the feast of the Dedication of the Temple restored 1. Esd 6. Was in February and therefore in winter But this beeing the winter before his death it could not be in that part of the winter which was spent as farre as February because our Saviour is there by S. Iohn and by the other Evangelists sayd to have done more then could be done between February and 25. of March upon which he suffered death So that Beza himself in his Annotations upon this place of S. Iohn confesseth this feast wich our Saviour keept to have been the feast wee speak of A great proof allso of using prayer for the dead For had the Institutor of this feast who in that book is recorded to have used prayer for the dead had he I say been superstitiously given Christ would never have keept a feast of his Institution Note here allso the warrant for feasts of Dedications so usuall in our Church yet so unheard of among Protestants THE XLIV POINT That wee laudably observe Fasts Saints Eves and other dayes 1. OVt of the former Point wee make this strong argument The Church hath power to oblige her subjects to keep such and such Feasts as hath been proved therefore she hath the power to oblige her subjects to keep such and such fasting dayes for the Scriptures speak universally of this obedience requiring of us carefully to hear the Church Matth. 18.17 and saying he that heareth you heareth me He that despiseth you despiseth me Luke 10. v. 16. As allso obey them that have the Rule over you for they watch for your soules Hebr. 13.17 Yea though Scribes and Pharisees should by lawfull succession sit upon the chayre of Moyses Christ himself will bid us Therefore to do all whatsoever they command All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do Matth. 23. v. 2. And if you say that wee must obey only when they bring cleer Scripture you are refuted by the former point where you see so many feasts commanded with out cleer Scripture which did no where appoint those feasts she then may command fastes not commanded by Scripture 2. And now I will shew you fasts to have been commanded by the Church upon a day not appointed in Scripture but only by the appointment of the High Priest or Church So Iosaphat proclaimed a fast to all Iuda 2. Chron. 20.3 So Ioel 1.14 exhortes the Church to command an extraordinary fast sanctify ye a fast Allso upon a day not commanded by Scripture Esdras the High Priest commanded a fast And I proclaimed a fast that wee might be afflicted before Lord our God 1. Esd 8.21 And we fasted and besought our God for this and he was entreated of us v. 23. And Ester 4.16 To gather together all the Iewes and fast ye for mee and neither eat nor drink three dayes night or day And it was done according as it was commanded And Hest 9.27 The Iewes ordeyned and took upon them and upon theyr seed so as it should not fail that they would keep these two dayes of feast every yeare And v. 31. They decreed for theyr selves and for theyr seed the fastings and theyr cry For fasting and crying to our Lord were fitly then appointed to be observed in the Vigil or Eave of this feast as we usually fast in the Vigils of our feasts for devout fasting best disposeth our mind to devotion the next day Moreover you Protestants teach there be no Counsels given us by God but only precepts If this be so God himself commands you to fast when he sayeth Ioel 2 12. Turn ye to me with all your hearts ād with fasting ād weeping ād mourning 3. Wee fast on Ember dayes because those dayes be deputed by the Church to ordaine and Consecrate new Priests and other Ministers of the Church And it is Christs command Matth. 9.38 Pray the Lord of the Harvest that he send forth workmen into his harvest To obey this command the more perfectly and to make our Prayer powred forth for so important a blessing the more effectuall the Church with this prayer ioyneth three dayes fast So of the most primitive Church wee read Acts 13.3 When they had fasted and prayed and layd theyr hands on them they sent them away to witt Barnabas and Saul se they beeing sent by the Holy Ghost departed And Chap. 14.23 When they had ordeyned thē Elders Priestes in every Church and prayed with fastings they commended them to the Lord. 4. Moreover by our fastings in each one of the four seasons of the year we consecrate those seasons and our life 's to God and more effectually petition for his blessings in and at all seasons We fast on Frydayes because our Saviour dyed upon a Fryday And because he remained dead all Saturday wee abstaine from flesh upon Saturdayes Christ sayed expressely Matth. 9.14 That after the bridegrome should be taken from his Disciples as he was at his Passion then they should allso fast as much as the disciples of S. Iohn and the Pharisees did And there the Seripture sayth they fasted often And you know the proud Pharisee braggs that he fasted twice a week No wonder then that the Church thought this measure at least expedient for us Shee allso knew by Scripture that it was expedient to keep under our Body and bring it into subjection 1. Cor. 9.27 And to approve our selves in watchings and fastings 2. Cor. 6.5 And to give our selves to fasting 1. Cor. 7.5 For this reason it was that S. Iohn the greatest of Prophets taught his disciples to fast often Matth. 9.14 Our new Prophets teach theyr disciples to scoff at fasters often Moreover wee who sinne dayly have but to much need to fast weekly so to satisfy for our sins to which effect how much fasting availeth I declared P. 24. n. 6. Now there beeing so great good in fasting and all Gods greatest Saints having practised it so much upon this account as I shewed out of Scripture Point 23. it is a wonder that among our ungodly Saints even good Friday it self on which we receaved a greater benefitt then ever man kind received should have no more notice commanded to be taken thereof then if Christ his