Churches and many others whom they scandall and accuse of divers heresies and errors which we and they abhorre and detest This point I will conclude with Doctor Fields observations First Doct. Field of the Church lib 3. cap. 1. that by the mercifull goodnesse of God all these different sorts of Christians though distracted and dissevered by reason of delivering certaine points of faith mistaking one another or variety in opinion touching things not Fundamentall yet agree in one substance of faith and are so farre forth orthodox that they reta in a saving profession of all divine verities absolutly necessary to salvation and are all members of the true Catholicke Church of Christ The second that in the principall controversies touching matters of Religion betweene the Papists and those of the reformed Churches they give testimonie of the truth of that which we professe As Docter Field also hath collected 1 They all denie and impugne that supreame universalitie of Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction which the Bishop of Rome claimeth 2 They thinke him subiect to error as other Bishops are 3. They deny that he hath any power to dispose of principalities kingdomes of the world or to depose Kings 4 they acknowledge all our righteousnesse to be imperfect and that it is not safe to trust thereunto but to the meere mercy and goodnesse of God 5 They adâ—nit not of the merit of Congruence condignitie nor works of Superrogation 6 They teach not the doctrine of satisfactions as the Romanists doe 7 They beleeue not Purgatorie and pray not to deliver men out of temporall punishments after this lfie 8 They reiect the Romish doctrine touching Indulgences and pardons 9 They beleeve not that there are seven Sacraments 10. They omit many ceremonies which the Roman Church useth in Baptisme as spittle c. 11. They haue no private Masses 12. They minister the Communion in both kindes to all communicants 13 They beleeve not transubstantiation nor the now reall sacrificing of Christ They have their divine service most of them in their owne tongue 15. Their Preists are married and although they permit theÌ„ not to marrie a second wife without dispensation yet if any do they do not avoid or dissoluethe mariage 16. They make no image of God 17 They have no Massy Images but pictures onely 18. They think that properly God onely is to be invocated and howsoever they have a kinde of invocation of Saints yet they thinke that God onely heareth them and not the Saints And thus much of the Vnity of these Churches with us 4 The Vnitie of the Reformed Churches appeareth by their severall Confessions OF Auspurge Set downe in a booke called the Harmonie of ConfessioÌ„s of the faith of the Chrislian Reformed Churches Printed Cambridge 1586. which was first presented in the Germaine tongue at the Citie of Auspurge in the yeare 1530 to Charls the fift being Emperor by certaine most renowned Princes of Germanie and other States of the sacred Empire whoÌ„ they call Protestants Of Straugsborough Constance Meminga Lindan presented to the said Emperour Of Basill called also the Confession of Millaine Of the Helvetian Churches Of the Saxon and Meissen Churches Of Wirtemberge presented by the Ambassadours of Christopher Duke of Wirtemberge and Tecca Earle of Mountbelgard presented to the Councell of Trent the 24 of the Month of Ianuary Anno. 1552. Of the French Confession which was in the yeare 1559. presented to Francis the second King of France Of the latter Confession of the Helvetian Church which was written by the Pastors of Zurich in the yeare 1566. Of Belgia which was published in French in the name of all the Churches of Belgia in the yeare 1566 and in the yeare 1579. In a publique Synod held at Belgia it was repeated confirmed and turned into the Belgian tongue Of Bohemia published in divers places was also approved by common testimonie of the Vniversitie of Wirtembergâ— published in the yeere 1532. Of Scotland subscribed by King James of famous memorie and the States thereof to the glory of God and good example of all men At Edenborough the 28 day of Ianuary 1581 and in the 14 yeere of his Maiefties Raigne Although some private men led more by passion and their owne selfe pleasing conceipt then by the sacred rules of piety and truth have laboured to sow the tares of dissention in the vineyard of the Lord and have made Crooked some branches cleaving unto them as Anabaptists Brownists and others yet the generall societies of these Orthodox Churches in the publique confessions of their faith do so agree that there is a most sacred har mony betweene them in the more substantiall points of Christian Religion necessary to salvation as touching the Holy Scripture the Sacred Trinitie the person of the Sonner of God God and man The providence of God Sinne Freewill the Law the Gospell Iustification by Christ faith in his name Rogeneration the Catholique Church and supreme head thereof Christ the Sacraments their number and use the state of Soules after death the Resurrection Doctor Potters wantâ— of charitie pag. 93. Doct Field of the Church pag 819. and life eternall They differ rather in Phrases and formes of speech concerning Christs presence in his holy Supper other things then in substance of doctrine and also in Ceremonies And to manifest preface to Mr. Brerwoods enquiries this their unity The first Act in the Polonian Synods of which they have had divers lately as before in which assembly are Protestants embracing Bohemick Augustan and Helvetique confessions The first Act is a religious confession of their unfeined consent in the substantiall points of Christian faith necessary to Salvation and also that all disputation should be cut of concerning the manner of Christs presence All of them beleeving the presence it selfe and that the Eucharisticall elements are not naked and emptie signes but doe truely exhibite to the faithfull receiver that which they signifie and represent And for as much as they all accord in the substantiall veritie of Christian doctrine they professe themselves to be content to tollerate diversities of ceremonies according to the divers parctise of their particular Churches 5 Of the differences and want of unitie in the Roman Church WHereas our Adversaries boast much upon unitie and thinke it to be the glorie of their Church as Coster writeth that the Catholickes in the world are under one Pope whom they all obey and constantly retaine one faith they speake one thing they thinke one thing and beleeve one and the same in all things so that they disagree not in the least point of Religion Yet for all this their want of unitie will appeare not onely in the want of concord and love one to another but also in their difference in opinions amongst themselves and moreover they in their new doctrines differ from all the true Catholike Churches of the world yea even from holy Scriptures it selfe Their want of concord and unitie
of Cuthbert that one Hildmar an officer of Egfrid King of Northumberland intreated Cuthbert to send a Priest that might minister the Sacrament of the Lords body and blood unto his wife that then lay adying Antoninus Archbishop of Florence writeth that William the Conqueror and his whole Armie received the Communion in both kindes And Mathew Paris saith the same to wit the Normans the morning before they fought with Harald strengthened themselves with the body and blood of Christ For the marriage of Priests it was accounted as lawfull then as now Anselme was the first that made a decree against Priests marriage in this Kingdome Hon. Hunting lib. 7. pag. 378. Anselmus prohibuit uxores sacerdotibus Anglorum ante non prohibitas as Henry of Huntington reporteth Anselme saith he held a Synode in London in which he forefended Priests to have wives which they were not inhibited before to have which was about the yeere 1104. It seemeth that the Priests kept their wives after Anselmes time by the Decree made by the Cardinall of Cremen in the yeere 1131. against Priests marriage who having in a long oration commended Chastitie and in a Synod in London made a Decree against the marriage of Priests was himselfe that night found in bed with a whore as Mathew of Paris reporteth to the no little shame of the Clergie What Anselme or the Cardinall did against Priests marriage proceeded from the Pope Gregorie the seventh who under the colour of Chastitie forbad marriage His Bull is to be seene against Priests mariage which the Germans and French resisted what a holy man this Gregory was appeareth by the sentences of the Councell of Wormes and Brixia in which the said Gregory was deposed for his perjurie for necromancy for beeing a Conjurer and many other crimes Ordâ— Baptizandi visitandi For Merit reade a booke set foorth by Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury to be used in his province called the order of Baptizing and visiting the sicke in which are these words Dost thou beleeve that none can bee saved by his owne merits but by the merits of Christs passion to which the sicke partie was taught to make answer all this I beleeve And the Priest concluded Goe to therefore as long as thy soule remaineth in thee place thy whole confidence in his death onely c. And for the Supremacy what did King Henry the eighth assume more then Bishop Eleutherius gave to Lucius our King and that the antient Kings of the Britans assumed to themselves Of these points and others you may reade more in the most learned discourse of the Religion antiently professed by the Irish and British written by the most reverend Father in God Iames Vsher Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland And thus you may see how King Henry the eight or King Edward brought in no new Religion amongst us but restored the old ancient Religion suppressed for some yeeres by the Church of Rome By this it manifestly appeareth that most of the Doctrines before named now taught and urged for Catholike in the Roman Church were neither the Doctrines of the other Christians in Europe Asia and Africa nor the antient Roman Easterne Southerne Churches nor of Gregory the great Bishop of Rome who sent Austen hither nor of the antient Britaines our forefathers And whereas inquirie is made for the visibilitie of our Church or for any one professing our Religion before Luther heere you may see the whole true Catholike Church of God upon the face of the Earth of the which these Churches are members professing the same faith with us For which common Vnion we have greate cause to rejoyce Hieremie as the Greeke Patriarch having seene the Tenets of some of the reformed Churches congratulateth with them after this manner Wee give thankes to God the Author of all grace and wee rejoyce with many others especially in this that in many things your Doctrine is agreeable to our Church So let us thanke God for the holy harmony and agreement of these Churches with us in the point before mentioned in controversie betweene the Roman Church and us and let us endeavour to keepe the unitie of the Spirit in the bond of peace VIII Of the Devotion and pietie of these Churches BRochardus the Monke telleth us Brochard Monac that he found the Nestorians Jacobites Maronites and Georgians and such others whom they judge to bee heretickes to bee for the most part honest and simple men living sincerely towards God and man men of great abstinency attentively hearing the word of God And that the Armenians and Georgians have for their Prelats men of the best conversation going before them aad teaching them as by word so also by example Devotion Godignus de Abass rebus p. 133. In oratione frequentanda non facile similes reperiri censeo omni namque diluculo cuncti corum toto corpore in pulverem ipsuÌ„ prostrati orationes ad Deum fundunt Faber in Relig. Moscovit p. 180. These Christians use great reverence in their Churches no man is allowed to walke talke or sitt in them the old and weake may leane against the walls Godignus reporteth that the Aethiopians doe allow the old weake crutches to sustaine them withall as before and Faber reports of the Russes that hee hath not seene of them the like for their frequenting prayers and devotion in their prayers which lying prostrate on the ground they poure out unto God They touch not the holy Scriptures but with great reverence and place the Bible in their houses in the most honorable place The Greekes much blame the Latines for their unreverent sitting in their Churches and suffering Lay men with Bootes and Spurres to sit by the Priests at time of Divine Service and also for not keeping dogges out of their Churches as before Of these Churches I may say although wee thinke them not to be so learned as we are they wanting the meanes that we have yet they are more devout For their Fasts Their Fasts these Christians tast nothing at all till Sun sett The Aethiopians doe so macerate themselves in their Lent-fasts which they begin tenne dayes before ours that their enemies commonly set upon them at the end of their Fasts hoping then to finde them feeble and weake in their Fasts especially upon good-friday beside their great abstinence they goe like mutes not saluting one another with their countenances dejected The Greekes also blame the Latines for drinking in their Fasts Irineus Râ—dâ—ginus pag. 15. and that some of them are drunke before their fasts are ended and that when their fasts are ended generally they eate and fill their bellies plentifully For their obedience to Princes Obedience to Princes their Patriarches and Bishops although they are subject to many greivous pressures yet they submitt themselves to their Kings and Princes that God hath placed over them according to that of Lactantius Religion is to bee defended not by
approved him and so it may be said of many others Moreover their want of unitie will appeare in that the Popes of Rome as Lawgivers set them down in St. Peters Chaire as they pretend and made lawes and constitutions contrary to Gods commandements and Christs institutions As Clement the 5 gathered a Councell at Vienna 1311 in which it was ordeined that the Emperor should give his oath of Allegiance to the Pope Roman 13.1 1 Pet. 2 13. contrary to the written word of God Let every soule be subiect to higher powers And to the King as supreme Also in the Councell at Constance Anno 1414 the Pope and his Prelates altered the Testamentall legacy of Christ himselfe in taking from the Laitie the use of the Cup in the Sacrament the holy Symboll of Christs bloud which caused many true hearted Christians to tremble for that their Prelates durst set their mouthes against heaven and correct the ordinance of Christ himselfe and in that rude manner that although Christ did administer to his disciples under the formes of bread and wine c. Yet they commanded no Priest to communicate to the people in both kindes under the paine of excommunication And last of all Paul the third summoned a Councell at Mantua after removed to Irent wherein some few Bishops assembled being the Popes Creatures Flaccus Illyricus in prote statione adversus concilium Tridentinum of which holy fathers some were titular as Richard Pates Bishop of Worcester and blind Sr. Robert Bishop of Armagh and also two of them were taken in Adultery as Illyricus reporteth the one stroken with a dart the other taken in a trap by the husband Bp. Iuell defence pag. 625. hanged by the neck out of a window these helped to make the new articles of faith before mentioned and upon this Councell the now Roman Church dependeth Against this assembly Bellarm. de effect Sacrament lib. 2 cap. 25. Francis the French King protested and held it but for a private Conventicle and divers other Christian Nations have disavowed the same Many of the Canons therein decreed and established for Articles of faith are repugnant to the holy Scriptures as for example they decreed That Images may be made to be worshipped contrary to Deut. 27 15. and to the very second Commandement it selfe That prayers may be made to the Virgin Mary and to the Saints departed contrary to Math. 6.9 contrary to the practise of the Patriarches Prophets and Apostles and holy men in Scripture That the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is to be ministred and received in one kinde contrary to Christs institution Mat. 26.27 1 Cor 10.16 They that desire to see more particulars of the popish doctrines Barnard pag. 18.19.20 contrary to holy Scriptures let them read Mr. Barnards booke called Looke beyond Luther Doct Feild of the Church lib. 5 pag. 114. Frequentur accidit ut quae opinio paucis ab hinc annis usu non erat modo communi consensione recipiatur in Gallia et Germania nonulli scriptores tradide runt Crucem non esse colendam hono re et veneratione â—atriae sed alio infe viore cultu at in Hispania communi consensione doce tur Cruci cultum et honorem latriae deferendum Azori mora â—instit Tom 1. lib. 2 cap. 13. And moreover their opinions are different according to times places as Azorius the Iesuit saith it fals out that that which was the Comon opinion a few yeares since is not the opinion now and that which is the common opinion of Papists in one place is not the opinion in another As for example it is the comon opinion in Spaine and Italy that Latria or divine honor is due to the Crosse which in France and Germany is not so but some inferror kinde of worship is due thereunto And Navare the Iesuit saith that at Rome no man may say that the Councell is above the Pope nor at Paris that the Pope is above the Councell and thu s much of their want of unity difference between the Romanists VI. The Agreement of the antient Roman East and South Churches with us in these points following Which sent Austen the Monke to us and especially of Gregorie Bishop of Rome who is pretended to be the founder of the Roman Religion amongst us who lived about the yeere 600. which Tenets are condemned by the now Roman Church which plainely sheweth the Noveltie of the Doctrine of the now Romish Church and the Antiquitie of ours 1. The Popes Supremacie GRegory I say confidently The old Roman Church Ego autem sidenter dice quia quisquis se universalem sacerdâ—tem vocat vel vocari desiderat in elatione sua Antichristum pracurrit lib. 6. Epist 30. whosoever calleth himselfe or desires to bee called the universall Bishop is in the pride of his heart the forerunner of Antichrist None of my Predecessors Bishops of Rome Nullus unquam decessorum meerum hoc tam profane vocabulo uti concessit lib. 4. Epist 36. Distinct 99. Vniversalis autem nee etiam Romanus Pontifex appelletur ever consented to use this so profane a name Pope Pelagius Gregories Predecessor decreed that no Bishop no not the Bishop of Rome himselfe ought to be called universall Bishop Saint Chrysostom The Easterne Church Distinct. 40. C. multi ex Chrysos Quicunque desideraverit Primatum in terra inveniet confusionem in coelo nec inter servos Christi computabitur qui de primatu tractaverit Chrysost hom 3. ad Popul Antiochen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fol. 474. Savil. Patriarch of Constantinople He that seeketh primacy in earth in Heaven hee shall finde confusion and hee that doth but once intreate of primacie is not worthy to bee numbred amongst the servants of Christ Our Citie of Antioch is most dearest to Christ above all others and like as Peter did first preach among the Apostles so among Cities this had first of all the name of Christians as a certaine wonderfull Crowne Saint Augustine Bishop of Hippo in Aphrick The South Church Saint August de Verb. Domini Ser. 13. Super me aedificabo te non me super te Cyprian in sententijs Concil Carthag ad QuirinuÌ„ On these words thou art Peter and on this rocke which thou hast confessed I will build my Church I will build thee upon me and not me upon thee None of us maketh himselfe a Bishop of Bishops neither was Peter so arrogant to take things so insolently upon him as to advance himselfe as primate and one unto whom the rest as novices and punies should bee subject The old Roman Church Greg. moral lib. 19 c. 13. art 6. de qua re non inordinate agimus si ex libris licet non canonicis sed tamen ad adificationem Eccl. editis testimoniuÌ„ proferamus Eleazar namque c. 2. Canonicall Scripture Gregory Wee doe not amisse if wee bring forth a testimony out of the bookes