and arguments in religion occurre Yet these by the method of the Romane Catechisme could not be quite omitted and the publike necessity of England did require that they should come forth more at large then was necessary onely for Catholike assemblys Therfor for this booke to be more beneficiall euery thinge is to be sought for in its propper place and nature Instruction and Exhortation where and as intended to wit onely for Catholiks and as for confirming the Catholike faith he into whose hands it shall come of whatsoeuer religion he be if he desire indeede to serue God and will pray to him I hope he shall haue sufficient satisfaction Thus much for your direction in this worke which at first I beganne without the least thought of publishing any thinge but onely to discharge my obligation which vntill then I had not soe well reflected vpon but beginning to obscrue a great ignorance in some and obseruing it still more and more and considering with my selfe how pertinent the words of the Apostle are How shall they beleeue him whom they haue not heard Rom. 10 and how shall they heare without a preacher I conceiued this the best and most profitable manner of preaching and applyed my selfe most to the practise of it And hauing vsed it for some yeares I founde it soe efficacious to that which I desired that some of their owne accorde acknowledged to mee the benefit which they had receiued by it and desiring mee to publish somethinge of it which they might haue to reade I brought this booke to the perfection which it hath and was many wayes encouraged to grant their desires especially by the aduice of a graue and learned Prelate who first to approoue of my designe told mee that if he himselfe were in England he would apply himselfe most to Catechizing and hauing afterwards pervsed a great part of the Discourses gaue mee most satisfaction in it Finally for the right vnderstanding of all I declare here that it is not my intention to giue examples vnto others how to Catechize For that the Romane Catechisme hath done allready neither would I vndertake soe much although for my Summe of the Christian doctrine I would willingly commende the vse of such an one gotten without booke and expounded as a foresaid My first intention is to instruct the ignorant and for that I made choice of that forme which the Councell of Trent hath deliuered and which was the sole scope and marke which it aimed at by the Romane Catechisme to wit that Pastors should vse such Catechisticall sermons as might be both a Catechizing for instruction an exhortation to vertue and in times of heresys might confute them and confirme the Catholike faith Which if it were practised as frequently as the holy Councell desired and as other preachings are which are much lesse necessary for the people exceeding great profit and a generall good might be expected by it That Catholike is very carelesse of himselfe who with all this labour doth not learne and know that which is fitting or at least necessary to be knowne And that Catholike who knoweâ—h his duety to God and hath it thus beaten into his minde yet liueth as it were contemning of God and of all remedys for his soule that hauing sinned doth not endeauour to rise againe and to aime at a new and vertuous life but will continue in sinne and resolue still to sinne he deserueth not at all the name of a Catholike And that Christian that professeth himselfe to beleeue in God and to worship him in that faith and religion which Christ left to his Apostles and was allwais according to the ninth article of the Creede to be in the Catholike Church yet will beginne a religion contrary to all the Christian Churches in the world or beleeue in a religion which soe beganne he deserueth not the name of a Christian And that man that being sufficiently satisfyed of the true religion and Marke that I say sufficiently satisfyed for euidence of reason is not to be relyed vpon in any religion yet will not professe it for temporall respects but goeth on with a guilty conscience in the profession of a false religion or rather liueth like an Atheist or beast without any religion at all that man I know not how to call him A miserable wretch he is and of all creatures out of hell the most miserable who to feede vpon the dung of the earth sinneth against the Holy Ghost hardening his hart willfully against all heauenly inspirations For Atheists and all false religions I haue said enough in the Creede but for him that is neither in profession an Atheist nor yet hath indeede any religion I know what to say but to wish him to consider with himselfe of the power and goodnes of God and of the euills of sinne that depriueth vs of him and let him reade the last Discourse where I treate somethinge of that subiect If God of his mercy visit these men with some heauy Crosses and great afflictions necessary to draw them to his seruice it is indeede a singular mercy by which sometimes they are brought to repentance But in the meane time I warne these hard harted men that they praesume not too farre but that they thinke of their soules and of death which in the end shall surprise them And I will tell them one thinge which they thinke not of that is that they are in danger of suddaine death not onely as all men are but in particular more then others and that God hath shewed this by many examples in which such kind of men haue bene so punished The example of Pharao and of thousands of the Aegyptians were enough to prooue this who hauing hardened their harts against the manifest light of God were suddainly ouerwhelmed in the sea and miserably perished The like examples we haue in our Kingdome but ouer many of the suddaine deaths of those who against their consciences haue professed a false religion I mention onely two which happened lately in two neere neighbors to the place where I haue liued for dinerse yeares They had both bene Catholiks and for plane loosnesse and liberty of life had forsaken the Catholike Church and gone to the Protestant Churches manifesting by many expressions the guilt of their owne consciences to their intimate freinds but continuing still dissembling in religion the one of them as he was hunting fell from his horse and died presently the other who had engaged himselfe further against the Catholike Church and would take noe warning by his neighbors example within a few yeares after hauing bene drinking about three or fower miles from home in his returne was suddainly strucke with the paines of death fell downe and was carried away dead It is ill dallying with God Know thou and see Hier. 2. that it is an euill and bitter thinge for thee to haue forsaken the Lord thy God and that my feare is not with thee saith the Lord of hosts
any other religion nor doubt of their owne as long as they adhaere vnto it but must sticke fast to that pillar and sure ground of truth and beleeue that the spirit of God and assistance of Christ is allwais with the Church and that obeying it they obey the holy Ghost and Christ They by these grounds can not as you see pray to God to inspire them to the true faith but must pray to God that they may allwais continue in the spirit of obedience to the Church as hitherto they haue done And soe this point hath onely soe farre relation to Catholiks as that they may gather by it that as hitherto God hath giuen them his holy light and spirit to reiect all priuate inuentions both of their owne and of others to obey the autority of the whole Church and to adhaere to it soe they ought still to doe and to pray to God that they may allwais doe soe and neuer forsake it But all those who haue goneforth of the Church and followed the priuate inuentions of some particular men as all others but Romane Catholikes haue done beginning new Churches which then were not teaching That it behoueth Protestants and those that are out of the Catholike Church to if examin the state of their owne Church nor gouerning of people in any place but were prohibited by the auncient Church as soone as they beganne and would haue bene prohibited sooner if they had begunne sooner with their new doctrines to oppose it all these and those that follow them of necessity mainteining that the true Church had then failed and that there was then noe true Church in the world which they might submitte vnto but that God sent them to reforme the Church and to restore it to its truth againe as Protestants say that when Luther beganne to oppose the Romane Catholike Church the true faith was perished wholy extinct destroyed not one iot of the ghospel had bene knowne but by his labour and study and the like sayings which may be seene in the booke called THE AVTHOVR OF THE PROTESTANT RELIGION l. â— c. 1. and commonly in authors This they saying as they needes must by consequence to their new reformation they ought in all reason if they will haue any care of their soules to be continually feareful and in doubt concerning their faith and being that the true Church may and did as they say faile and was quite decayed out of the world they ought to pray to God to enlighten them to see whether it be not decayed againe as then they say it was and stande not neede of a new reformation as then they say it did and if it doe that he will bring them to the true faith Or els if they will be out of doubt and free from feares they must beleeue as we doe that the Church could not stande neede of any reformation at all in doctrines of faith and soe to betake themselues againe to the obedience of it and to rest secure and contented with the Apostles Creede I beleeue the Catholike Church without troubling themselues about reforming it But being that they can neuer be certaine in their faith as long as they hold it lawfull to change their religion by reforming of errors in the Church they ought to haue often recourse vnto God to know when they should change their religion and to what religion they should change And this by Gods grace I will now shew them how they shall haue recourse to God for This question therefor I adde here for Cods sake and for those that are out of the Catholike Church that being as I haue shewed in the former title saying their prayers they obtaine not the diuine grace because they pray amisse they may know how to pray And because I conceiue it the most necessary of all points and that on which the conuersion of those that are in a false religion cheifly dependeth that they haue true recourse vnto God and also because it was commended to mee by a very graue and experienced person to procure of such that they will commende the state of their soules to God whose grace worketh much more efficaciously in them then our words can doe and because it is a meanes which none by reason can except against therefor I would adde this whole title for their satisfaction and final good that seeking rightly to God they may obtaine the pretious iewel of true faith in obedience to the true Catholike Church necessary to saluation But that the Protestant or any such reader may receiue that benefit by â—his which I wish him and may haue some feeling of that which we are now treating of I desire him first to take into serious consideration the state of his soule and of religion and that he goe not coldly about this busines which of all thinges in the world concerneth him most and is as important vnto him as his entrance into that happy and blessed state were he shall enioy the glorious sight of God or his entrance into hell where he shall neuer see the diuine face but most irefull and full of rage against him to the extreme horrour of his soule and to thinke truely that in this I aske nothing but that which is both according to his owne grounds and also reasonable in it selfe For his predecessors hauing forsaken the common religion of christians which was then vniuersally professed by that which had the name of the Catholike Church for a religion which had then noe name nor being in any place of the world he may with great reason feare himselfe and with much more reason forsake his new religion for some other that was then extant and especially to that which both is now and was then the most famous of all christendome But that which I now aske of him is not to change but onely to haue recourse to God and to pray vnto him that if his Church doe erre as he sayth that it may and once did that by his diuine light and inspiration he will bring him into the true Church He that were trauailing in a vast wildernes vncertaine of his way and saw the darke night comming on and heard the wild beasts sallying out of their dennes roaring and seeking for their pray in what feare and anguish of minde would he be what would he giue for a guide that could sett him into à safe way free from dangers much more fearefull is the condition of euery man that is out of the Catholike Church this world is the wildernes in which he wandereth heauen is his home obedience to the Catholike Church is the onely way to it death is the night that draweth on and the infernal spirits as wild beasts surrounde him Poore soule thou confessest thy selfe to be in an vncertaine Church which may lead thee to hell and why dost thou not tremble for feare and cry vnto God betake thy selfe vnto him call vpon him beseech him earnestly to guide thee and
being reprehended by his superiour for it he tooke in such euill part his reprehension that he fell to say that the Saints were noe better then other men and when he was reprooued for his temeratious speech he fled to the scriptures demanding the contrary to be shewed by them and when the scriptures were produced against him he interpreted them after his owne sense and liking and when the interpretations of holy fathers were alleadged against him he scorned all saying that they were men and might erre Lastly the authority of the Church guided of God for the orderly gouernment of the world is obiected against him and when he saw that he must either sticke to the autority of God gouerning vs by the Church and deny his owne singularity or sticke to his owne singularity and deny allorder and gouernment of God he stucke like an haeretike to his owne singularity and rather then he would submitte vnto the Church he denyed God and fell to atheisme The end of this obtinate brute was at last to become madde and to dy roaring like a beast Now his last proposition was but consequence to the former for he that in matter of faith will beginne a nouelty by which he separateth himselfe from all religions and will obstinatly mainteine it against all Churches why may he not as well deny that there is a God seeing that he hath but his owne opinion for both The same experience we haue now a dayes of too many who by long continuance in heresy and disobedience to the true Church seeme to haue lost the very beleefe of God and all feare and feeling of him out of their harts and in this haeretical kingdome it is long since come to that that euery man in religion might in a manner hold what opinious he liked soe that he were not a Romane Catholike and as an enemy of the Catholike Church would but goe to their Churches A neighbour yet liuing not farre from this place mainteined publikly against the mystery of the blessed Trinity and the diuinity of our Sauiour and being many yeares since apprehended for it when he was brought to his tryall he was cleered and by publique authority set at liberty to teach his blasphemys as now he doth to all that will heare and learne them the Foreman of the sury who was a knight of the best ranke in this countrey of what religion I know not declaring as I haue heard that he would rather take the lines of twenty Papists then to haue the blood of one such man vpon him Tell one of our libertines that he is an atheist which a Romane Catholike presently would abhorre to heare most English Protestants make but a iest of it and many there are who seeme as though they would gladly be soe indeede that they might let goe the bridle to all liberty and follow their sensuality without restraint They seeing the wicked sometimes to prosper in their liues and in the end to dy life other men doe what they can to perswade themselues that there is neither heauen nor hell and to say in their harts that there is noe God This is now the plane case of many amongst vs and I could rehearse the prophane sayings of some of our great ones which I haue heard of to this purpose many yeares since but they are not worth the repeating He that will reade The Authour of the Protestant Religion l. 1. c. 4. may see more particularly how the doctrine of Protestants tendeth to atheisme and the vnworthy and atheisticall speeches of their authors and in The Suruey of the new Religion l. 8. almost all ouer but especially c. 3. he may see the same This is easy to be seene in all heresys that they beginning allwais in the contempt of the Church assume to themselues liberty of doctrine and that liberty of doctrine bringeth liberty of life now who doth not see the next and last consequence which liberty of life and doctrine runneth into It is therefor very necessary in these times to say somethinge for haeretiks in proofe of this first article of the Creede to preserue it as the hart roote and foundation of faith from their corruption and to let those libertines see their extreme folly that labour to beate out of their harts the feare of God But Catholiks who beleeue it as a point of the Catholike and Apostolike faith neede noe proofe of it because they haue it as they haue all other points of faith by the testimony of God manifesting himselfe to them who can not deceiue vs as we may doe our selues by our owne reason God is true Rom. 3. and euery man a lyer faith the Apostle and therefor we may mistrust ourselues but we can not mistrust God nor contradict the Church by which he speaketh to vs and gouerneth vs. If it be an irreuerence to stande in contradiction with a graue and reuerent person how much more must it be to contradict God were he not a madman that should oppose his physitian and denying that to be poyson which he affirmeth to be soe should take it and kill himselfe or if a man seeing a caldron full of melted led prepared by some workeman and were warned by him to take heed of it yet would not regard his words but because he saw not the fire vnder it nor any smoke in it should deny it to be hot and throw himselfe into it would not you thinke that he were worse then madde we ought to beleeue God the workman of the world and not like atheists who because they see not the fire of hell will not beleeue it but throw themselues into it and damne themselues And we must not onely beleeue in God and receiue for his authority all points of faith but we must also with our mouths Confesse our beleefe and defende it with our liues when neede requires Rom. 10. With the hart we beleeue vnto iustice but with the mouth Confession is made to saluation Saith the Apostle And the holy king saith I beleeued for which cause I spake And as S. Peter Psal 115. and S. Iohn answered to the high Priests and Princes of the Iewes we can not but speake the thinges which we haue seene and heard soe ought we in the like occasion to speake resolutly the thinges which we see Act. 4. and heare in the Catholike faith and say with S. Paul I am not ashamed of the ghospell And in all temptations both publike and priuate stande to our Creede Rom. 1.8 and professe I beleeue in God and the Catholike Church This I wish that all the world could truely say and I will bring all that I can to say soe and to beginne with the atheists of these times who in words say I beleeue in God but not in hart he shall see first that all the Angels and all nations of men giue testimony against him Secondly he shall see God and feele him by experience in himselfe Thirdly he
scriptures and that in innumerable places which for breuity I omitte and will mention onely the words of our Sauiour which he spoke to his disciples at his last farewell from them Christ in his Ascension being to leaue his Apostles with a hard taske and difficult worke which they were to performe in founding of the Catholike Church amongst soe many enemys he told them for their comfort Mat. 2â— Behold I am with you aâ—l dayes euen to the consummation of the world He spoke then to the Apostles and would not onely comfort them but all others who were to haue the gouernment of the Church for euer after promising to be with them as long as the world should endure As long then as Christ was to be with them their doctrine was for euer to be true and their authority diuine and he being to be with them vnto the consummation of the world their doctrine was to be true and their authority diuine vnto the consummation of the world as the doctrine and authority of Christ who promised allwais to assist them in their worke and soe their worke was his worke and their doctrine and authority were his Christ therfor is allwais with the Pastors of the Church when they represent and haue the authority of the whole Church not with euery one of them particularly but with all of them together and therefor although any one particular bishop as he is onely a particular member of the Church may erre yet all bishops cannot possibly erre at any time because Christ hath promised to be with them all dayes It is not needfull to produce the sentences of fathers for the diuine authority of the Church both because these words of the Creede made by the Apostles and at all times consented vnto by the fathers I beleeue the Catholike Church may stande for their sentences and also because their sentences to this purpose will frequently occurre in that which I haue to say of the Church Scriptures and fathers are easily misconstrued by haeretiks who make them to speake as they will vnderstande them or if they be too plane against them they discarde the sentence or the whole booke For those that are soe bold as to contradict the whole Church haue lost their shame and neede regard noe authority at all But because they pretende reason as building all their doctrines vpon their owne witts and because this point is soe necessary for the deciding of all controuersys and to the true and lawfull condemnation of all haeresys we will make it euident by plane and easy reasons which all may vnderstande To thinke to haue religion without the diuine authority of an infallible Church is to thinke to build without a foundation or as we commonly say to build castles in the ayre the foundation of all true religion being the authority of the Church which professeth it Grant once that a Church may erre as it may if it be not supported by the diuine authority and we can not be certaine of any doctrine which it teacheth and being vncertaine of the truth of its doctrine we are not bound to beleeue vncertaintys and it can not be the true religion if it be professed by a Church which we are not bounde to beleeue And therefor the first thinge which is to be established as the foundation of true religion is the infallible and consequently diuine authority of the Church that professeth it Take once away the authority of the Church and absolue men from the obedience of it and you make euery man his owne master and leauing him to himselfe to beleeue what he listeth all is brought into vncertainty and confusion for there is noe point of faith soe certaine nor any thinge soe cleere but by prowde and contentious men it might be brought into question This is declared by particular instances If the Church of Christ were not of diuine authority and infallible certainty in all which it teacheth we could not be certaine either of the Creede or of the scriptures or of the sense of either of them or of any article of faith whatsoeuer nay the very foundation of all religion would be destroyed the diuine existence becomming also vncertaine to vs and insteede of gouernment vnion and order in the worship of God we should haue noe diuine worship nor God at all but a horrible confusion and more then hellish disorder would dwell vpon earth First the Creede is not receiued but for the authority of the Church We beleeue that euery article of the Creede was made by diuine inspiration and authority and as such we will defende them with our liues yet this we know not but by the Church for of our selues we could not certainely know it nor should we beleeue it of the Creede more then of other writings which we receiue not as of faith but that the Church commandeth vs soe to beleeue of it and not of them Againe we doe not know the sense of any article of the Creede but by the authority of the Church take away this and we had the sense of them to seeke we knew not where euery one might follow his owne sense and we should be certaine of nothing but of vncertainty and confusion Take away the diuine and infallible authority of the Church in the Apostles times and you bring all into vncertainty whatsoeuer they taught and ruine the foundation of the whole christian faith and it had bene noe matter what they had deliuered in the Creede or whether they had made any Creede at all Take away that authority from the Church of Christ that is at all times and it is noe matter what Creede it deliuer or what sense of the Creede seeing it may erre in that which it sayeth and those thinges may be false which it deliuereth for true The same appeareth in the scriptures We beleeue that such and such scriptures were written by some that had the spirit of God to write nothing but truth in them that all those bookes which we receiue were written with that spirit and that all those bookes passing through soe many hands and handwritings as must necessarily haue bene before printing was inuented haue remained vncorrupted vntill our times How doe we know all this to be soe but by the authority of the Church deny this as all haeretiks doe to follow their owne phansys and you may admitte of what Scriptures you will or if you will you may deny all scriptures And this we see by experience to be true that haeretiks reiecting the authority of the Church and disobeying it reiect also the scriptures and receiue but what they will The Carpocratites Seuerians and Manichees reiected all the old Testament and all the foure ghospels of the new except that of S. Luke Cerdon and Cerinthus reiected S. Luke The Seuerians reiected the acts of the Apostles and all the Epistles of S. Paul Luther and some Protestants reiect the Epistle of S. Iames. The Alogians and some Protestants reiect
the Catholike Church but after diuerse yeares preparation the lower Orders being first receiued and after them Subdeaconship after that Deaconship after Deaconship priesthood euery one of the higher Orders in seueral yeares that the dignity of priesthood may be ascended vnto by degrees and with sufficient time of probation The lower orders are fower Porter Lector Exercist Acolyt They are called lower or lesser orders because they haue a more remote relation to the blessed Sacrament then the higher orders haue in which relation the dignity of all the orders doth cheifly consist of priests in consecrating it of Deacons and Subdeacons in assisting about the altare at the consecration of it and of the lower orders concurring in their nature though more temotely to the decent ministring of it The office of the Porter is to open and shutt the doores of the Church to admitte of the faithfull and to exclude the faithlesse out of it and to ring the bells The office of the Lector is to reade the lessons of the old and new testament which aunciently the bishop vsed to expound The office of the Exorcist is to expell the deuill and to hinder his power ouer those who are to be or are allready baptised and to prepare water in the font of which reade the second article of the Creede towards the end This power was giuen by Christ Matt. 10. who hauing called saith the Euangelist his twelue disciples together he gaue them power ouer vncleane spirits that they should cast them out And againe in the same place Cure the sicke raise the dead clense the lepers cast out deuils The office of the Acolyt is to carry the canstlesticks and cruits and to light the candles The office of the Subdeacon is to serue at the altare vnder the Deacon to prepare the altare cloths to wash the palls and corporals c. and to read the epistle The office of the Deacon is to attende vpon the bishop at all times but especially to guard him and the priest at masse and at Sermon and to be as it were the eye of the Bishop to obserue the liues of the people to see that they come to diuine seruice and to informe him of their behauiour within and without the Church The office of priests is to gouerne the Church to offer sacrifice and to remitte sinnes Rom. 1. These are the orders of the Catholike Church Those things that are of God are ordained Saith the Apostle that is they are with order And the more order that euery thinge hath the more it appeareth to be of God And therfor he hath ordeined these orders in his Church that our religion might appeare to be of him and that the B. Sacrament might be worshipped with decency amongst vs. As there are seueral degrees of orders soe there are seueral degrees of priests First there are ordinary priests and then Bishops and betwixt priests and bishops there is noe degree of orders Those who were aunciently called Choriepiscopi that is to say Vicars of Bishops being sometimes onely priests although they had priueleges aboue ordinary priests as to giue lower orders as also Rural Deanes might haue sometimes being inferiour bishops and had licence to ordaine with higher orders but they were not of any order betwixt priests and bishops but either onely priests or true bishops Aboue Bishops are Archbishops then Patriarks then Cardinals and aboue all the Pope Which is an honorable title decreed aboue a thousand yeares since to be given to none but to the bishop of Rome as to the most eminent father of all whom therfor S. Cyril in the Councell of Ephesus called The Patriarke and father of the whole world As the inward acts of our minde which we offer to God are spirituals hosts or sacrifices soe all men may be said to be spiritually priests by their holy and feruerous affections which God setteth on fire in their harts And therfor S. Peter admonisheth all saying Be ye a holy priest hood to offer vp spiritual hosts Pet. 1.2 But although all be priests in the spiritual hosts of their minde yet all may not take vpon them to performe the Ecclesiastical functions of priesthood For this they must be called of God and haue authority from him Hier. 3. I will giue Pastors saith God who shall feede you with knowledge and doctrine And S. Paul speaking of priesthood saith neither doth any man take the honour to himselfe Heb. 5. but he that is called of God as Aaron It is a dignity which must not be taken if not giuen All were not priests in the law of Moyses but onely the sonnes of Aaron to offer sacrifice to God And we reade in the Scriptures of the great punishments of God vpon prowde and praesumptuous men who haue assumed that dignity without order to themselues Soe great is the dignity of priesthood that S. Francis vsed to say that if he should meete with a saint from heauen and with a priest together he would not doe reuerence to the saint vntill he had kissed the priests hands Signifying how much he was bounde to reuerence those hands from which he receiued the body of Christ and for himselfe he could neuer be gotten all his life time to ascende higher then Deaconshipp Bonauen in eius vita For the greater honour of priestshood and that priests may attende better to the performing of that high function the Catholike Church hath all wais annexed chastity to it neuer permitting her priests to marry And therefor those that will be priests must be willing to vndergoe the obligation of a fingle and continent life He that rightly considereth the dignity of priesthood and the preeminence which virginity hath before marriage wil easily condescende to this institution of the Church S. Paul generally councelleth virginity Cor. 1.7 and foretelleth to those that marry the tribulations which they shal haue requiring of those that haue wiues that they be as those that haue not wiues which is very hard for them to be and saith that he that is without wife is careful of those thinges which pertaine to our Lord how to please God but the married man is diuided betwixt the loue of his wife and how he shall both serue God and attende to his family By all which it is manifest that the true and syncere meaning of the Apostle was to commende virginity and to preferre chastity before a married life And as manifest it is according to his words that the inconueniences and distractions of marriage are least suetable to the office of priests who of all men ought to be most vnited and conuersant with God and to follow the example of Christ their master who was a priest and a virgin borne of a virgin S Aug. retract l. 2. c. 2. haer 82. Augustine calleth Iouinian the haeretike a monster for making marriage equal with virginity and saith that this haeresy was soe sottish and fleshly that it could neuer
freely cooperate with it For as God would make vse of Moyses his rodde to the working of miracles saying Exod. 4. What is it that thou holdest in thy hand and then beganne to worke miracles by it and as Elizeus asked the widdow what hast that in thy house Reg. 4.4 and vsed her oile to the enriching of her Io. 1. and as Christ would vse water to the procuring of wine soe God vseth vs as instruments to the effecting of good works and therefor in the Scriptures they are attributed sometimes to God and sometimes to ourselues To God as to the principall and cheife cause to vs as to an inferiour and instrumentall cause Exod. 31. As I am the Lord that sanctify you To wit cheefly and principally and man also is said to sanctify himselfe as in S. Io. 1. Iohn euery one that hath this hope sanctifyeth himselfe That is instrumentally and after an inferiour manner by cooperating with Gods grace Ezech 36 Ezech 8 Cor. 1.5 Soe also Ezech. I will giue you a new hart And in another place make to your selues a new hart And therefor S. Paul saith we are Gods Coadiutors but if we had not freewill the goodnes of the worke were by noe meanes to be attributed to vs and we could not be said to sanctify ourselues nor to make to ourselues new harts Furthermore we see that we can deliberate and consult of our actioÌ„s but we can deliberate and coÌ„sult of nothing but that which we haue freedome to doe or not to doe therefor our actions are free in vs. When an enemy pursueth vs we deliberate not whether we shall fly in the ayre or noe because it is not in our freedome Lawes are commanded vs rewards and punishments are proposed to vs we exhort to good works and praise and honour those that doe well which we would not doe if they did soe of necessity and had not freedome to the contrary Clem. Alex. l. 1. strom Neither praise nor dispraise nor honours nor punishments were iust if man had not freewill And this which is soe manifest to reason is as planely declared in the Scriptures Eccli 15. God from the beginning made man and left him in the hands of his owne counsaile Holy Iosue at his death exhorting the Israelites and drawing neere to the end of his speech to engage them the more to the seruice of God he biddeth them to choose what they would doe Ios 24. Now therefor feare our Lord and serue him with a perfect and very true hart But if it like you not to serue our Lord choice is giuen you Choose this day that which pleaseth you Soe that it is in our choice to doe well or ill But I end this and all controuersys of religion in this booke with the authority of the Church This was the doctrine of the Catholike Church aboue a thousand and foure hundred yeares since when Manes beganne to oppose it and he was then and hath euer since bene esteemed an haeretike for opposing it there being then noe Church of Christians in all the world that denyed it therefor this is the true Catholike doctrine This was the doctrine of the Church a few yeares since when Luther beganne to oppose it Ses 7. c. 16. can 14. and the Councell of Trent of aboue two hundred and fifty prelates with the authority of the supreme pastour that then was of the Church declared for this doctrine therefor this is the true Catholike doctrine Let now the enemys of the Catholike Church obiect what they can either out of Scriptures or reason against it all is in vaine the Church is to iudge of the sense of Scriptures and of reason and not euery priuate man to vnderstande them as he will and to get followers to himselfe against the Church Whatsoeuer is obiected contrary to the authority of the vniuersall Church allthough it seeme neuer soe plane is wrong and falsly applyed and we must take them for haeretikes that will stande obstinate in any such doctrine S. Augustine must that which is cleere be denyed Aug. l. de nat grat c. 38 because that which is done can not be vnderstoode and what is soe cleere as that which is once declared by all the Doctors of the Catholike Church We may dispute about the sense of Scriptures or any point of doctrine vntill the Church haue declared concerning it as Lawyers dispute about applying the sense of the Law to particular cases vntill the iudge giue sentence in it but when that is done then all argument must cease because then it is cleere and soe cleere that it can be noe cleerer then to be declared viua voce with the liuely voice of the iudge who hath lawfull authority Soe that which the Church hath once declared is soe cleere that it can be noe cleerer because it is declared by the liuely voice of all the Pastors of the Church all who must either haue lawfull authority to decide all controuersys concerning Scriptures and all other points of faith or els there is noe lawfull authority in the world to decide them but euery man might hold and teach what he listed which were to destroy the world Therefore we neede noe more for the proofe of freewill but the authority of the Church and all arguments that can be obiected against it are but delusions Yet the true sense of those places which they obiect may be vnderstoode by that which hath bene said I know Lord that mans way is not his owne Ier. 10. neither is it in a man to walke and to direct his stepps It is not in man by himselfe without the grace of God But with it it is Io. 6. Noe man can come to mee vnles the father that sent mee draw him God draweth not by force necessitating whether we will or noe but as the spouse said draw mee Can. 1. we will runne after thee in the odour of thine ointments that is sweetly and by faire meanes mouing and exciting our wills Nay although he had said vnles my father compell them we might haue vnderstoode it of a sweet kind of violence by which God inuiteth vs to him as the master in the ghospell seeing the slownes of those that were inuited in comming to him sent to bid others saying Compell them to enter which was noe more Luc. 14. but earnestly to intreat and inuite them Such is the loue of God to vs and his desire of our saluation and soe powerfull is the grace by which he inuiteth and exciteth vs to vertue that he may very well be said to draw vs as a very louing father doth his children vnto goodnes Will you see this planely Apoc. 3. Behold I stande at the doore and knock If any man shall heare my voice and open the gate I will enâ—er into him and suppe with him and he with mee See here O Christian the loue of God towards thee what he doth for
CATECHISTICAL DISCOVRSES IN VVHICH FIRST An easy and efficacious way is proposed for instruction of the ignorant by a breife Summe of the Christan Doctrine here deliuered and declared SECONDLY The verity of the Romane Catholike Faith is demonstrated by induction from all other religions that are in the world THIRDLY The methode of the Romane Catechisme which the Councell of Trent caused to be made is commended to practise of instructing in doctrine confirming in Faith and inciting to good life by Catechisticall Sermons By A. E. Attende to thy selfe and to doctrine be earnest in them For this doing thou shalt saue both thy selfe and those that heare thee Tim. 1.4 To the wise and vnwise I am debter Rom. 1. At PARIS By P. TARGA ordinary Printer to the Archbishoprick of Paris Sworne by the Vniuersity In the streete of S. Victor at the Golden Sunne 1654. With Approbation of Paris and of England I desire the Reader to reade vvith attention the Praeface to him A DEDICATORY PRAYER TO IESVS-CHRIST DREAD Soueraigne LORD King of all Kings and of all creatures both in Heauen and Earth My Maker my Redeemer my Conseruer my Eternall and Omnipotent God Whom my soule by nature doth feare and reuerence and in whom is all my hope and confidence Behold mee thy sinnefull creature trembling for feare before thee astonished with the power of my Creatour But O my sweet Redeemer thou dost recreate mee with thy sacred bloodshed and giuest mee a new being full of ioy and loue towards thee This feare and loue hath brought mee to thy feete to offer my selfe and my worke first to thee I present and dedicate it to thy infinite Majesty an vnworthy present if thou make it not worthy Giue life I beseech thee and vigour for the fruit of it Thou hast the harts of all in thy hands the good spirit is giuen to none but by thee Open then my God the harts of those that shall reade this booke and expell the spirit of stupidity infidelity and all kind of sinne out of them that thy holy inspiration taking place they may receiue due instruction in thy doctrine reiect all illusions of faith and may bring that increase in holinesse of life which I pray and labour for in them Grant sweet Iesus that this booke though neuer soe bitter in it selfe may become like hony in those that shall vse it to produce in them true charity towards thee and their neighbour and towards mee in particular to pray that in all afflictions and temptations that shall befall mee I may willingly pleasantly and constantly obey and honour thee comforted by thy merits and by thy sweet and comfortable name called vpon Liue sweet Iesus King of eternall glory Liue liue and reigne in our soules here and in Heauen for euer and euer Amen A DEDICATORY EPISTLE TO THE HIGH and MOST GRACIOVâ— PRINCESSE HENRIETTA MARIA DAVGHTER OF ENGLAND HAVING offered my labours first to Iesus-Christ and sollicited the fauour of his Sacred Maâ—esty in the next place I bring them to you for yours and I-beseech your Highnesse with all the earnestnesse and humility I can that you will be pleased to accept as fauourably as I hope he hath done of them It is the Doctrine of Iesus Christ that desireth your protection A subiect too sublime to be handled by my insufficiency or to neede to be protected by any but that the present state of England required this labour of mee and it to be more acceptable stoode neede of your protection This I ingegenuously confesse to be the true and onely motiue why next vnto God I dedicate my worke to your Highnesse Because setting forth this methode of doctrine which the Councell of Trent hath soe earnestly commended and which is practised with soe much profit in some places and not yet deliuered in the English tongue I haue done il soe as I thought was sittest for England yet not soe but that I know a powerfull Protectour to be both seasonable and necessary to make it more acceptable And therefore as I was carefull that it should haue a more then ordinary approbation before it entred the presse soe now comming forth in publicke I desire it should goe vnder your name because I thinke none soe powerfull to commende it to the vse and profit of others as your Highnesse You are the Highest of all English Catholickes You are sette in our Crowne as a gemme of singular lustre and our eyes and harts are filled with the expectation of you the wisdome of your Father which the world in due time shall admire and the piety of your Mother whom the most turbulent of times could neuer taxe meeting both together first in you For you are the first of the Royall stocke of England that now for many yeares and for some descents hath professed the Catholike Faith brought vp by speciall prouidence in the bosome of the Catholike Church that we may say of you as of Iacob Gen. 48. God hath fed you from your youth vntill this present day as though designed to some eminent happinesse To whom then shall the Catholike Doctrine in English addresse it selfe but vnto you Where shall it finde a Patrone if you should reiect it A prudent hart shall possesse knowledge Prou. 18. and the eare of the wise doth seeke doctrine This is the doctrine which your eare hath harkened vnto which you possesse in your hart and your Diuine Spouse doth require that you outwardly professe what your hart possesseth and putte him as a seale both vpon your hart and vpon your arme The afflicted Catholikes of England will reuiue with ioy to see this Doctrine publikly in your hands and will take it as a pledge of greater felicity which from your neerest Progenitour they may well expect I will speake here the truth which I haue spoken vnto many that when I read in S. Bede the conuersion of the English and saw S. Augustine graciously receiued by King Ethelbert well disposed to his doctrine by hauing married à Catholike who was daughter of France it made then such impression in mee and gaue such liuely hopes of the like benefit againe that a small knowledge in history represented presently some other such marriages to mee by which I beganne to conceiue it as a blessing vpon France that the Flower de Luces should send forth the odour of Christ vnto other nations the Catholike Doctrine comming from thence for their conuersion The first-fruits of these hopes we haue allready in you and by this they will grow and increase in vs. Besides this booke beeing soe directed to Catholikes as by the way to giue satisfaction to all other Religions that shall meete with it I was to seeke for such a Patrone as without offense to any might ingratiate it to all and for this there was none soe proper as your selfe who as yet in the candour of your Chrysome are gratefull to all Christians and by your vnspotted innocency to all the world Grant
man to thinke by reason that the Romane Church hath the true faith which God will haue him to belseue and is the true Church which he will haue him to obey Yet if we had not the supernatural light and inspiration of God mouing vs to that faith but that we were to goeby our owne thoughts onely then were it not a supernatural faith of absolute and infallible certainty as not proceeding from the authority of God nor had it proportion to supernatural glory But when reason dictateth somethinge to be true and God confirmeth it by the declaration of the Church which is as his voyce and hath his authority I being illuminated and inspired of him to beleeue the Church then whatsoeuer I soe beleeue I beleeue it for the diuine autority and although vnto reason it haue some obscurity and be not absolutely certaine as it is in reason onely yet as it is beleeued by faith it is absolutly and infinitly certaine because then it hath the testimony and authority of God And soe wisdome reacheth from end to end mihtily and disposeth all thinges sweetly Mightily Sap. 8. in that God assureth vs with his owne diuine word of the truth of our faith Sweetly in that he draweth vs euen by our owne reason soe to beleeue in him By reason we are brought to beleeue the true Church God illuminateth and inspireth vs to beleeue him speaking by that Church and by that supernatural light and gift of inspiration we produce acts of faith Now we will shew THAT THE SVPERNATVRAL light and gift of faith is all wais to the obedience of the Church BY that which hath bene said it doth appeare that faith is not a natural but a supernatural light and gift of God now we will shew that by it we are allwais to adhaere and firmely to beleeue the doctrine of the Church which is the second part of that which you haue answered to the question of faith The ennemy of mankind enuying at our felicity that we should haue and cooperate with that light of faith which he reiected and should by it attaine to that blessed state of glory which he must neuer obtaine cometh in the night time to sow in our harts many darke fallaces against faith and by false illusions and conterfeit inspirations often deceiueth vs and therefor we must haue some anes to try this deceiuing spirit and to discouer his false inspirations from the true and some power to allow or to disallow of particular mens spirits and by this we may see how necessary it is that there should allwais be in the world a continual Church infallibly assisted of God for the trying of spirits and discerning of them and that the diuine inspiration should allwais be with obedience to that Church I referre the reader to the ninth article of the Creede and to the eleauenth discourse of the Praecepts of the Church where I declare more fully the necessity and authority of such a continual Church where he may see how that we could neither know which were the true scriptures nor which were the true sense of them nor certainely destinguish betwixt true and false reason nor beleeue any thinge as certaine by faith but that all order and gouernment in religion were quite destroyed if we had not a continual visible Church with assurance from God of his diuine assistance with it and we were bounde to obey it in the deciding of all controuersys in religion which by proude and contentius men might be raised of any point though neuer soe cleere Here now I speake onely of the diuine light and inspiration vpon which we depende in all points of faith and I shew that being that this necessary light and inspiration may be counterfeited by our enemy we must of necessity acknowledge some external vniuersal power vpon earth authorized of God to try and to destinguish the seueral spirits of all men And this external power must either be assured by the diuine assistance of the verity of that which it declareth or els it were also deceiuing as the false spirit is and we should haue noe meanes to discerne the true spirit of God from the false but euery man might teach what he list vnder pretence of diuine inspiration Inspiration to faith must betryed by the Church There was neuer yet any man that labored to set abrode any errors in religion but as he pretended his doctrine to be of God soe he pretended the spirit of God to be after some sort with him but he will come to noe tryal of his spirit but would haue all to beleeue him vpon his owne bare word that he hath the spirit of God Soe the Archhaeretike that beginneth new doctrines in disobedience to the whole Church would haue men to take his word against all the world that then is that he hath the spirit of God and to prooue it he alleageth many reasons of his owne but he will not be tryed by any authority and soe his spirit being brought to be subiect to his priuate reason and all things being as you see finally resolued by it the controuersy coms in the end to that which in the former title is refuted and by which he is conuinced to wit that we are not to be resolued in matters of faith by our owne vnderstandings and priuate reasons onely but by the testimony of God inwardly in ourharts and externally as now I shew by the authority of the Church Tim 1.4 S. Paul saith that certaine shall depart from the faith attending to the spirits of error and doctrines of deuils Io. 1.4 By which we see that men may haue false spirits And S. Iohn sayeth beleeue not euery spirit but prooue the spirits if they be of God By which we see the same and also that we must haue some meanes for the tryal of false spirits Now what way can be thought more reasonable for the tryall of spirits then by the sentence of the whole Church which is giuen without partiality or respect of persons in generall to all alike Suppose two men going forth of the Church obstinatly manteining some new and contrary opinions to the doctrine of the whole Church and to each other Both of them pretende that they haue the spirit of God and yet they mainteine contrary doctrines to the whole world and to one another First it is certaine that both of them haue not the spirit of God for the spirit of God is the spirit of truth which can not be thus diuided Which then of them hath the true spirit how shall they be tryed The one of them alloweth of such and such scriptures and of such a sense of scriptures and the other denyeth all that he sayeth and yet pretendeth that he hath the spirit of God First this can not be decided by their spirits for as long as they hold contrary doctrines their spirits can neuer agree for the one of them to be tryed by the other Shall it
33. l. 3. c. 43.44 l 2. cont Gauden c. 3 l. de vntco bap â—â—s c 15. ep 48. L. 2. cont Petâ—lâ— c. 19. as may be seene in The Authour of the Protestant Religion l. 2. c. 11. They must therefor shew some iust cause why they went forth and separated themselues For as S. Augustine alluding to the holy Prouerbe c. 30. often obiecteth against the Donatists The euill child calleth himselfe iust but he can not excuse his going forth And in another place You must come and giue an account of your separation But none of them haue a iuster cause nor can giue a better account of their separation then those whom they confesse to be false Churches therefor they are all false Churches I haue now sufficiently performed one thinge which I promised in the title of this booke The verity of the Roma â—e Cathelike faith is demonstrated by industion from aâ—l other religions to wit to demonstrate by induction from all the religions that are in the world the verity of the Romane Catholike faith As for the atheist he ought indeede to be excluded from all speech of religion for that he hath none yet his prophanesse is disprooued in the first article of the Creede in which the Apostles laid the foundation of religion saying I beleeue in God The Pagans religion is disprooued in the same article in that he beleeueth not in one God the maker of heauen and eaâ—th The Iewish and Turkish sects are disprooued in the second article for that they beleeue not in Iesus Christ the onely Sonne of God All sects of Christians that are out of the Romane Church are disprooued in that they haue broken this ninth article of the Creede I beleeue the Cathâ—like Church disobeying its authority in the lawfull head and pastors of it Let them harken to the words of the Holy Ghost Deut 17. If thou perceiue that the iudgment with thee be hard and doubtfull c. Thou shalt come to the Priests of the Leuitical stocke and to the iudge that shall be at that time and thou shalt doe whatsoeuer they that are presidents of the place which our Lord shall choose shall say and teach thee according to his law and thou shalt follow their sentence neither shalt thou decline to the right hand nor to the left hand But he that shall be prowde refusing to obey the commandement of the priest which at that time ministreth to our Lord thy God and the decree of the iudge that man shall dy Here now I cry to all those christians that are out of the Romane Church Graecians Arians c. and to all the seueral Churches of Protestants and especially to you my very deere Countreymen for whose soules I haue long hazarded my corporall life You haue contemned this great authority or rather a greater then it was You haue refused to obey the commandement of the priest and priests not of the Leuitical stocke but of the institution of Christ to wit the Successour of S. Peter and his pastors that is to say the Bishop of Rome and his pastors who gouerned the primitiue Church of Christ and were then actually gouerning it when your Churches beganne These you know you haue disobeyed and stande still disobedient vnto General Councels haue declared against you all and especially against the seueral sects of Protestants the Councell of Trent consisting of two hundred and fifty fiue fathers besides the most eminent doctors of the Catholike Church All Romane Catholiks obey this Councell in all points of faith and you disobey it Disobedience to the Leuitical priest and priests by the law of Moyses was punished with death and your disobedience I am sorry with all my hart but I haue noe scruple to speake it shall without doubt if you repent not be punished with eternal death Therefor I coniure you by the sweet merites of Iesus Christ in whom you beleeue and whom you expect to be your iudge to reflect ypon your soules and vpon true religion Call to minde how your Churches beganne and how schismes and heresys beginne and if you finde as you shall easily finde that you haue begunne after the very same manner as they in disobedience to the head and pastors of the Church and to all but your owne wills your beginners were as Core Nu. 16. Dathan and Abiron that beganne diuisions in the Church of God their followers that liued with them were as the followers of the former whom God destroyed also with them and you rising vp to mainteine their disobedience when they are dead and gone are like to those who after their deaths rose vp to iustify their cause and were therefor by the iudgment of God consumed with fire Forsake their company desert that vnlawfull cause and returne againe into the sheepfold of Christ if you desire to be saued THE TENTH ARTICLE FOrgiuenesse of sinnes None can rightly consider these words as made by the Apostles to be an article of the Creede but he must needs conceiue some greater mystery to be conteined in them them onely to professe that God can or doth forgiue sinnes Neither can he in reason vnderstande any other thinge then that there is power of forgiuing sinnes in that Church which they had newly professed This was indeede a gift and priueledge worthy to be mentioned in the publike Creede Christ after his resurrection before he ascended into heauen appeared to his Apostles and breathing vpon them said Io. 20. Receiue ye the Holy Ghost whose sinnes you shall forgiue they are forgiuen and whose you shall retaine they are retained This was a mystery which the Church of God had great reason to remember and often to inculcate vnto her people and therefor the Apostles hauing professed their beleefe in the Catholike Church in the next place would commemorate this gift and power which the Catholike Church hath of the forgiuenesse of sinnes that with gratitude we might remember it and make good vse of it It is a greater worke saith S. Aug. tract 52. Augustine to make an euill man good then to make the world of nothing Yet it is giuen vnto man to doe this great worke It is giuen I say vnto man for it is not of his owne power but of the gift of God God onely of his owne natural power can forgiue sinnes Esa 43. I am he that taketh cleane away thine iniquitys but he can if he will giue that power vnto men The Apostles had that power by the gift of God as they had of him to worke many miracles which were as hard and vnpossible to nature as to forgiue sinnes Iudges of themselues haue not power to iudge but when the king maketh them iudges and giueth them power then they haue power and may exercize it and the exercize of it is good and valid because the king who gaue them that power setteth them in his owne place giueth them to represent his owne person and ratifyeth the