is the ordinary sequel punishment of schisme witnes England from the Church of Rome and so by denying due Allegiance to that See they became by the judgments of God to be made subject to the Turk To the See of Rome therefore all these Nations in point of Religion were then subject Adde to these Italy Spain Sicily France Scotland and England which were all under the same obedience After the death of that holy Pope new Nations came in with their voluntary subjection to the Roman See apace Flaunders with the other Low Countryes and adjacent places and Germany with its adherent Provinces and after these Denmark and Sweathland Russia Norway Poland Hungary and Transylvania All these Kingdoms and Countries with their Kings and Princes became voluntary subjects to the See of Rome and so persisted many hundred years till Luthers licentious doctrine began to seduce Germany and to give occasion of new heresies and many revolts both from their tenporal Princes their Spiritual Prelats and their true and Antient Religion Such is the nature of heresy Consider secondly how far the limits and bounds of the Roman Religion extend themselves in these our dayes all Italy Venice Sicily Spaine and Portugal with many other adjacent Hands are intirely Roman Catholick France excepting some places hath every Towne and Province of the same Religion of the seventeen Provinces the far greater part is intirely Catholicke and of Germany more than three parts are Faithful professours of the same Roman Faith as also of Poland and Hungary add to these the many hundred thousands of Roman Catholicks mixt promiscuously amongst other Sectaries in England Holland Sweathland Denmark the revolted Townes in Germany and Switzerland and other the like places And then Consider whether this be not that mark of Magnitude and far extended bounds promised by the Prophets to Christs Church Let us passe further And first into Affrica all which Simon Lathus the Protestant sayes the Jesuits have filled with their Idols he means that they have planted the Roman Religion every where in it From thence let us passe over the main Ocean every way and further then ever any earthly Empire went to the East Indies to the west America to the north in Japan and to the south in Brasil and from thence into the furthest and vastest Kingdom in the world China into all these have the Roman Priests advanced the royal Standard of Christs Crosse Fables which had the liberty to attribute to their Heroes and Baccus and Hercules what feats and travails they pleased never fained so much as these men have really affected in their extending the dominions of the Roman Faith Caesar and Alexander never went near where these are now Preaching Christianity nor had the old Roman Empire near so great Dimensions of longitude and latitude as the Spiritual Empire of the Church of Rome now hath and it dayly gets ground and continually dilates it selfe for these more then Herculean labourers there find still plus ultra O that our natives of England were but spectators awhile of the infatigable and succesful labours of these Roman Priests they would see in them most clearly these signa Apostolatus those signes of Apostle-ship signes of truly Apostolical men which would make them have an other manner of opinion of them and the Religion they all preach But one thing more is most worthy of a mature consideration and that is that the Roman Catholicks in these foreign Nations are not confined to a private exercise of their Religion as Catholicks in England are but there are whole Townes yea Countryes and those many intirely Catholick and without any mixture of Infidels and in these there are Churches many and richly adorned and Collegies as at Goa Mexico and in many places besides in which the studies of Humanity Philosophy and Divinity are taught And in this posture are Catholick affairs in these many and vast Nations converted to Christianity by Roman Priests Hence we infer that it was thee Rome and thy Faith to which these large promisses of Nations for thy inheritance were made for in thee only they have bin performed And since the bounds of the earth are given to thee who can deny but they were promissed to thee The third Point Consider now and make a survey of the greatest and most populous Sect now extant in Europe But if the distinction of Sects be taken from the different body of Articles or different number of points of Faith as really it must there will be no proportion or degree of comparison betwixt the Roman Catholicks and any one Sect left For he that will hold that the number of Roman Catholicks in Holland or England is as Copious as any one sect taken according to this true distinction of sect from sect in either Nation holds a very probable opinion But take all Sects now on foot amongst Christian Countries Conglobate them all into one by aggregation yet their dominions would not out reach yea equalize the above mentioned bounds of the Roman Church Look upon the compendium of the earth either the Map or Globe and your eye will satisfy your understanding in this point As for great Personages amongst Sectaries What and how many Magnificent Benefactors hath any of these Sects or all together had As for the Religion of the Roman Catholicks Kings indeed hath been its nursing Fathers Queens its nursing Mothers such were Constantine and Hellen such were Lucius Ethelbert Inas Ethelred Oswald Alfred Edward and many others in England such were Lewis in France Richardus in Spaine Casimer in Poland Stephen in Hungary Wenceslaus in Bohemia Canutus in Denmark Henry and many of the house of Austria in the Empire In fine such were Cimegundis Blanch the Elizabeths of Hungary and Portingal with many more of that sex O royal souls be ever Crowned with Glory for managing your earthly Crownes so well towards the maintaining of the Church of Christ Well did you know that to serve Christ was to reigne and that so to reigne was the means to reigne eternally The great ones which ruled where Sectaries swarmed such were the Duke of Saxony the King of Denmark Queen Elizabeth the Palsgrave the Landgrave of Hesse the Prince of Orange the King of Sweathland what Universities what Bishopricks what Abbeyes what Churches Chappels and Altars have they founded yea rather what have they not destroyed Now confer dominions parallel Princes and compare Religions together and then chose according to equity and prudence The fourth Point Out of what hath been here handled make these reflections in order to thy Spiritual profit First that since large extent of limits hath been promissed to Christs Church and since it is patently apparent that only the Roman Church hath this Amplitude none but it can be Christs true Church Secondly that since the Scriptures in the first point cited with other places in Isay and Daniel as also the great promisses made by God to Abraham and
his prayers immediately upon which the fearfull storm ceased to the great astonishment of the King and increase of his reverent respect to the man of God Saint Bernard being requested by a Noble mans son that he would pray for the conversion of his Father returned him this answer be not perplexed be not perlexed I shall bury him in this Monastery of Clarevall a perfect Monk and so it fell out he foretold also the conversions of foure more Saint Francis foretold the Captains of the Christian Army that if they gave the Sarazens battail upon their intended day they should loose the field they took little notice of the holy mans Caveat ingaged with the enemy and were defeated Saint Dominick falling sick at Bolonia called for the Religious Fryars of the Convent there and exhorting them to the study of perfection told them he should die of that sicknesse and yet it was far from mortal then Saint Ignatius founder of the order of the â—ociety of Jesus foretold that Francis Borgia then Duke of Gandia should forsake the world become religious and General of the forementioned order so he died and is now beautisied Hence infer that the Roman Church is highly priviledged with this Prerogative and gift of prophesie for these blessed men are known by all to have lived and dyed Roman Catholicks As for the Writers of their lives or Prophesies Saint Athanasius S. Austin S. Gregory Venerable Bede S. Bonaventure and other Authors of known fidelity with what face can they be suspected either of feigning or recountting these things without an assured knowledge of the truth of them The third Point Consider first for prevention of objections against the gift of prophesies being an argument that the Roman Church is the true Church that though God may or have revealed things to come by persons not known to be of the true Church or in his favours as he did by Balaam Number 24. v. 17. foretell the Star which appeared at our Saviours birth and by the Sybils whose acrostick Poem is full of most clear predictions about our Saviour Yet he will never permit a thing contingent to be foretold and fulfilled in confirmation of a fals religion Besides this makes nothing against the intent of this Meditation which is to shew first that the gift of prophesie is a mark of Christs true Church and this is proved by scripture 2. That this gift is found to be eminent in the Roman Church and so it appears evidently proved in this point going before 3. That that Sect cannot possibly be the true Church which is destitute of this gift because it wants this mark which is inseparable from the true Church for the Negative here as in all other marks admits no latitude but excludes all sects devoid of these marks from possibility of being the true Church and to understand how truly Sectaries are destitute of the gift of Prophesie Consider secondly that in reall truth they could never instance any particular Prophesies delivered by members of their Sects in confirmation of their doctrine nor indeed have they any person endowed with the gift of any true prophesie at all True it is that Luther prophesied once that if he lived but to preach his doctrine two years longer the Pope Cardinals Bishops Monks Nuns Towers Bels and Masses would all vanish away he preached afterwards according to his manner not onely two years but almost twenty two yet these things are al extant none of them vanished hence infer that Luther proved himself a false prophet by this and his doctrine false according to what is Writ in Deuteronomy cap. 18. of false prophets and that of Jeremy Thy Prophets England have seen false and foolish things Lam. 2. Calvin indeed prognosticated more truly but to the destruction of his own Sect in these words Concerning posterity I am so anxious that I dare not think of it for unlesse God send marvellous succour from heaven I seem to see extream barbarousnesse hang over the world and I pray God our children may not erelong feel that this is rather a prophesie than a conjecture Thou hadst had Calvin no need of such fear if thy sect had been that Church which Christ built upon that rock for the gates of Hell would not have been able to prevail against it But conformably to what Gamaliel said since thine is the work of man thy prophesie will be accomplished it will come to nothing And he that will apply to the Protestant what Hooker appropriated to the Puritan King Davids words of the life of man and withall summon up the years betwixt the establishing of Protestant Religion by Queen Elizabeths Parliament and the abolishing of the same by this late parliament will sinde a kinde of prophesie of the ruine of it in these the royal prophets words The dayes of our years are threescore years and ten and if by reason of of strength they be fourscore years yet is their strength labour and sorrow for it is soon cut off Psal 90. Thus speaks the Protestant Bible and thus out of this point it appears that Sectaries have not that gift of prophesie which is promised by scripture to Christs Church as a mark of it The fifteenth Meditation Of Easie decision of Controversies The first Point COnsider first what means the divine wisdome provided the Jewish religion with in order to deciding of Controversies amongst them In Deuteronomy 17. God declared in expresse terms many particulars concerning this matter and first he appoints for judge of the hardest controversies not the scripture as Sectaries doe but the Priests a living judge and particularly the chief Priest Secondly he commands all to stand to the definitive sentence of that judge even upon pain of death v. 12. And thirdly he promiseth that that judges definition verdict and decree shall be infallibly true v. 9 10 11. but particularly in these words He shall shew thee the truth of judgement judicii veritatem which words in the Protestant Bible are falsly translated the sentence of judgement Consider secondly the necessity of a living judge No form of Government be it Monareby Aristocracy or Democracy can subsist in an orderly being without it No suit either in Civil or Canon Law no action of debt or dammage can come to a tryal no sentence can be passed upon any person or cause without the voice of a living judge two Counsellors cannot without a Judge as Umpire put a final period to any one cause for example in the Court of Chancery so as that both parties shall understand and acknowledge it to be decided much lesse will the Plaintiffe and Defendant end their quarrell by themselves alone without a Judge for each one would still plead for himself the dead letters of the written law can never sufficiently expound either the legislatours mind or it is own meaning nor shal men at any time understand by it alone who is cast who
of a Judge which is clearly to pronounce sentence so that both parties which contest about the thing controverted may understand and acknowledge who is cast who hath got the better 2. There is a difference betwixt the written laws and the judge in civill matters the one is the rule acording to which the judg must give sentence but the other to wit the judge must give the sentence he is the mouth of the law and must interpret its land the legislatours mind now the same Analogy and comparison holds betwixt the holy scripture and the written law of God and the ecclesiastical judge 3. About the scriture it self arise many controversies which have been long agitated to and fro as what Books are Canonical which Apocriphal the Roman Catholicks say the books of Judith Toby Wisdome Ecclesiasticus the first and second of the Macchabees are canonicall scripture the Protestants deny them to be so Now how shall this great controversie be decided the scripture cannot give sentence for it hath not a living voice in like manner about the sense and meaning of many places of the canonical scriptures many long quarels have been amongst different Sectaries themselves and betwixt them and Roman Catholicks the scripture it self can never compose these controversies for want of a living voice 4 The old Hereticks had never been convinced nor condemned iâ— the scripture had been appointed for judge for still they wou'd have had evasions the scripture neither did nor could give sentence against them but the Church by the Pope and General Councels As for the private spirit this must either be supposed to be an infallible judge or not if not Sectaries can never have their controversies truly decided for this judge may erre give a false resolution and so expose poore soules to an evident danger of frequently believing that to be a point of divine Faith which is not so or the contrary If infallible what shameful presumption will it be to challenge to your own particular person such an assistance of the Holy Ghost as by it you shall infallibly judge a right in whatsoever point of Controversie and yet deny this to the whol body of the Roman Church 2. The question is whether that private spirit be the holy Ghost or a wicked spirit or your own spirit to wit your own judgment or fancy How shall this question be determined O miserably misled souls of such Sectaries do you not see in what labyrinths of errours and miseries you wilfully involve your selves Is not this to walk in a circle like the wicked But since you will be so heare the word of the Lord Wo be to the foolish Prophets who follow their own spirit Ezcek 13. Mark these words well and amend least your folly in following your own spirit bring you to eternal wo. But O thou infinite goodnesse God send forth thy pirit that these deluded souls may become new creatures make them members of that Church to which only the spirit of truth teacheth all truth Amen The sixteenth Meditation Of Persecution and Martyrdom The first Point COnsider the many and clear Texts of the holy scripture in which our Saviour doth denunciate to his Apostles and Disciples and in them to the succeeding members of his church that for their professing and propagating of his faith they shall undergo persecutions of all forts yea death it self Beware of men for they will deliver you up to the Councels and ye shal be brought before Governours and Kings for my sake Mat. 10.17 18. And ye shall be bated of all men for my name sake v. 22. But when they persecute you in this City fly into another v. 23. The time cometh that who soever killeth you will think be doth God service Matt. 16.2 They shall lay hands on you persecute you delivering you up to the Synagogues and into prisons Luke 21. v. 12. And some of you they shall cause to be put to death v. 16. Gather hence first that God permits for he could hinder it if it pleased him his Church to be persecuted to wit by the Devil and his Emissaries wicked men Secondly that persecution is a mark of Christs Church and much more martyrdome Thirdly that to fly in time of persecution is lawfull till God dispose the circumstances for their sufferings The second Point Consider first that what our Saviour foretold begun soon to be verificd of men that persecuted Christs church the Jews Pagan Princes hereticks are the chief The Jews not onely persecuted Christ whom they hanged on a crosse and his Apostles and Disciples before his Passion but after his sacred death they were most bitter and violent against the young flock of his church as may be read in the Acts of the Aposeles yea their sacrilegious and savage handling and abusing the blessed sacrament other holy things when they laid hands on them by stelth as also their very crucifying of even Christian chrildren argues an implacable and incredible hatred of them against christian religion 2. As for the Pagan Princes Nero Demitian Trajan Aurelian Maximean Dioclesian and Galerian with many others how cruelly and barbarously did they torture Christians In Rome alone three hundred thousand Christians were martyred amongst which were twenty seven Popes and the sacred bodies of 180000 of them were buried in that famous Churchyard of Saint Calistus Pope and Martyr Now if in the City of Rome alone so many were martyred to what an immense number would all that suffered for the same cause in all other parts of the world if they were added to these amount 3. And for the Hereticks it is their main maxime and a principle in which generally all the sects of them are united to oppose and band against the Roman Church their heads and judgements look all severall ways but in this point they are tyed together out of this opposition sprung hatred and this egged them on to persecute Catholicks which they did most bitterly The Arian Emperours the Kings of the Huns Gothes and Wandels and Martyrdome sent many thousands of Catholicks martyrs to heaven nor were they a few hundreds that were put to death for the same religion under Henry the eighth King of England and Queen Elizabeth And could thou be so cruell England as to see thy own bowels so often unbowelled at Tyburn and not yet repent Not yet give over seeing thine shed thy own blood and this for thee For the old religion the true religion thy religion The third Point Consider the admirable effects which the Divine Providence hath drawn out of these sufferings of Martyrs the first effect and that a happy one was an increase thereby of Catholick religion that very medium which the enemies of the Church took for the destroying of it the same the Divine Wisdome made use of as an instrumental cause for the greater propagation of it The Church is not lestned by persecutions but augmented saith St. Leo Ser. I. de Petro
by sudden death before the morning came Oecolampadius going well in health to bed with his woman was found next morning lying stone dead by her an untimely end as is to be feared for one who had been not onely a Priest but was tyed also to the religious order of St. Briget with the triple cord of his three Vowes some Suppose hee was killed by the Devil others write that hee killed himselfe Nor was the end of Carolstadius less terrible for of him the Ministers of Basil write in their Funeral Epistle of him that hee was killed by the Devill he had been Archdeacon of Wittenberg and a Priest but presently upon Luthers revolt sided with him and took a Concubine Zuinglius who had been a Canon of Constance the incendiary of a bloody civill warre in his own Country was at last massacred in one of the battels himself his pretence was to extirpate Popery and to plant the Reformed religion as they called it But Erasmus in his Epistle to Goclenius sayes plainly That the aym of Zuinglius as also of Oecolampadius was tyranny and that they affected some temporall dominion Osiander before his miserable end was suddenly struck dumb like a beast as may be read in Prateolus And Calvin's end was by being eaten up by Vermine the horrour of which punishment and the frightfull terrours injected into his conscience made him spend his last minutes as Hierom Bolsecus writes in execrations and blasphemous ejaculations with invocation of the Devils O dreadfull punishments tragicall and dismall deaths untimely ends so truly spoke St. Paul when he said It is a horrible thing to fall into the hands of God Heb. 10.31 so truly said David that God is Terrible in his counsels upon the sons of men Psal 66.5 and can you still adhear to those your sects which had such founders Still persecute the Church of Rome and read such punishments Harken rather to what the Prophet saies and fulfill his words yea the words of God Love ye peace and verity saith the Lord Omnipotent Zach. 8 Consider lastly the unsuccessefull affairs and finall ends of three secular Princes who in their several countries did most harm to Roman Catholicks King Henry the eighth in England William Nassaw in the Low countries and Gustavus Adolphus in Germany they had been all three once Roman Catholicks and how sad enemies they proved afterwards to the persons places and practice of that Religion and yet not so much out of hatred of that religion as to compasse their other designs few are ignorant but they themselves were overwhelmed in the ruines they made and of the tragedies by them begun the Catastrophe fell chiefly upon them The one was delivered over to his own sensuality and made a slave to it even his very body was metamorphized out of that of a man almost into that of a monster he sunk still deeper into sin till his souls danger grew almost desperate and all his latter years were full of punishments of his Schisme and Sacriledge The second when death rushed in at the windows of those wounds which the bullets made in his breast and carried him presently to render up the accounts of his Stewardship to God and his King was not the heavy hand of God upon him The third after an ocean of Innocent bloodshed in his unjust invasion of the Empire after such a ruine of Catholick Houses Villages Towns Cities Monasteries and Churches after such a ransack of Religion and threats against Rome and the Vicar of Christ himself to be killed without a moments respite to repaire what was amisse was not this a fearfull scourge of God undoubtedly it was Hence infer that the whole complex of these examples proves evidently that the Roman Catholicks are the true Church of Christ and for this reason amongst others because God hath laid so remarkable punishments upon their enemies and persecuters Secondly gather that these examples efficaciously prove against Atheists that there is a God who punisheth wickednesse Thirdly infer what misery and punishment Luther made himself lyable to for his giving the first Allarum to all the Heresies of these later times O Luther what got thou by imitating Lucifer thy pride and disobedience to the true Church was like his to God thy fall from that state which is a kinde of heaven upon earth was like to his and I fear thy doom is not unlike to his The twentieth Meditation Confession of the Adversaries The first Point FOr the Conclusion of this Work let the subject of this last Meditation be that which these late Sectaries grant in behalf of the Roman Church and against themselves Consider therefore that the Sectaries since Luthers time and particularly Protestants do grant and acknowledge many things in behalf of the Roman Catholicks First they confesse that the Fathers and Doctours of the Primitive Church believed and taught the same things which the Roman Catholicks now hold and in which they and other sectaries differ First That Saint Peter was ordained by Christ the head of the Apostles and of the whole Church 2. That the Bishop of Rome succeeded S. Peter in the Primacy of the whole Church 3. That the Books of Toby Judith Esther Wisdom Ecclestasticus and two first of the Machabees were truly Canonicall scripture 4. Traditions 5. The reall presence and Transubstantiation 6. That Masse was a sacrifice truly propitiatory for the living and the dead 7. That Christ gave Priests power to forgive sins and the necssity of auricular Confession 8. Pardon or Indulgences 9. Purgatory and Prayer for the dead 10. Praying to Angels and Saints 11. Placing Christs image and his Saints in Churches and reverencing them 12. Reverence to the relicks of Martyrs and other Saints 13. That such as were made Clergy-men could never afterwards marry 14. That not only Faith but also good works do truly justifie and that these are meritorious of grace and glory These and diverse other Tenents of the Roman Catholicks are acknowledged by chief Protestant Writers to have been taught believed and practiced by the antient Fathers That the protestant Writers confesse these points which indeed is a strange thing and utterly ruines their cause those learned and laborious works to wit the Protestants Apology the Progeny of Catholicks and Protestants as also many other Authors do most amply declare and cite the very words of all the chiefest Protestant Writers most faithfully about the the forementioned points Secondly they confesse that Roman Catholicks dying Roman Catholicks may be saved this the most of all Sectaries grant both in their Writings and in their ordinary discourse truly as this acknowledgment ought to bring no smal comfort to Catholicks when they reflect that they are of a religion which even in the opinion of their Adversaries is soul-saving so me thinks it should make a great impression upon others which are not Roman Catholicks and move them to embrace that religion in which all parties think and say men
against that decree which was made against them at the Dyet in Germany Luther was presently writ against and confuted by many learned men in all Catholick Countries his Doctrine and he were condemned first by Pope Leo the tenth and afterward by the Councel of Trent so that Luthers going out and the beginning of his new Sect are most certainly known and recounted by many Yea the falshood and novelty of Luthers doctrine as also his going out of the Roman Church and that the said Church of Rome is Christs true Church is plainly demonstrated further by this thing which is most worthy to be taken notice of At that time when Luther began his new sect there were not in the world any Religions but these the Roman Paganisme Judaisme Mahometisme the relicks of Nestorianisme in Greece and some Hussites in Germany some one of these was Christs true Church for he had a visible Church upon earth Therefore the Roman must be it for even the Lutherans deny that any of the other could be it Hence infer first that Luther could not but know that he went out and separated himself from Christs Church by forsaking all Churches one of which he knew must be it Secondly that he could not but know that the Roman Church was it thirdly that supposing the Church of Rome were it which must be supposed or else the denyers must say Christ had no true Church upon earth it could not be guilty of any Heresie or Idolatry nor give any just cause to Luther of going out of it and consequently by his revolt from the communion of it he incurred the sin of schisme by teaching doctrine contrary to it he fell into the sin of heresie Fourthly that all that entered into that schismaticall league with him and embraced his opinions were guilty of the same sins so far forth as ignorance did not make their acts involuntary Fifthly that that schisme unlawfully begun by Luther cannot be lawfully continued by others and therefore all that are not Roman Catholicks expose themselves to evident danger of their souls unless they return to the communion of the Roman Church The fourth Point Consider now what may be drawn out of all the precedent points first that antiquity is not onely a mark of the true Church but it is one by which even the most ignorant soules may easily finde out which is the true Church and which are late sects and consequently false for a smal enquiry will bring them to the knowledge of which Religion is of the longest standing and a far lesse will discover unto them which are of the latest for of Luther above mention is made Calvin begun at Geneva anno 1538. and Protestant Religion in England begun under Queen Elizabeth though some symptoms of falling into it were difcovered in her predecessor Edward the sixth his dayes as is evident out of John Stows Chronicle and other Protestant Writers as also out of the Stature book 2. That since according to Saint Austins rule which is that if there be any thing practised in the Church universally and no time of its being introduced can be assigned that thing is to be supposed to have its first origin from the Apostles times no known beginning of the Roman Catholick Religion since the daies of the Apostles can be specified it must be the true Religion On the contrary since both the going out from the Roman Church and also the first beginnings of all later Sects are easily demonstrable none of these can be true or a soul saving Religion 3. That all who are not Roman Catholicks for these know it have great reason yea are obliged to inform themselves about the requisitenesse of antiquity in point of Religion For by a neglect of this they expose themselves to the danger of making an imprudent choice to the great prejudice of their soules whereas a compliance with this obligation of searching after the antiquity of Religion will bring them easily to a perfect insight into the defectivenesse and falshood of all save only that Religion of the Roman Catholicks Inquire therefore of the old paths you who are out of that way which your Ancestors held for above eight hundred years together in England before Luther was born you who have left the true worship of God and sacrifice to the Idols of your own fancies learn that lesson well which Moses reads to you Do ye thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise remember the dayes of old consider the years of many generations ask thy Father and he will shew thee thy Elders and they will tell thee What The ancient being and truth of the Catholick Religion and the non-entity of these late ones of our miserable times The Eleventh Meditation Of Unity The first Point Consider first that the true Church of Christ is but one The Scriptures Councels Fathers History and Reason prove this truth imprint in thy minde the many divine Oracles with which the true God of Wisdome hath confirmed this One is my Dove my perfect one Cant. 6. One God one Faith one Baptisme one body one spirit sayes Saint Paul Ephes 4. who also recommends to all Christians most earnestly that they will stand fast in one spirit with one minde Phil. 1.27 and that they will be like minded having the same love being of one accord and one minde Phil. 2.2 in all which places and many more he exhorts to unity in Faith Judgment and opinion Our Saviour every where speaks of his Church in the singular number tell the Church upon this rock will I build my Church intimating thereby it is but one the General Councell of Nice and Constantinople received by Protestants define and professe in their Creed that the Catholick Church is but one the holy Fathers all unanimously fight for the unity of Christs Church against Hereticks and schismaticks and History delivers unto posterity the continued succession of Popes Bishops Priests Doctours Confessors Virgins and Martyrs for fifteen centuries of years together and more all whose lives deaths books and blood have published signed and sealed their attestations that there is but one Church the Roman Church which is the Catholick Church Consider secondly and that seriously what forces natural reason brings to establish this Unity verity it self is but one and that indivisible and propositions contradictory cannot possibly be both true how then can Sects or Religions contradicting one another in one and the self same points be more than one of them true Different Nations people of different callings and qualities may meet in conjunction together and make one and the same body in Faith and Religion as it happened in the Primitive Church But different Sects and People of a contrary beliefe about the self same material objects or points of Faith for example about the real presence of Christs body in the Eucharist about Justification about Purgatory about the infallible Authority of the Church and such like cannot
and particularly Atheists too to many of which are now abroad under the notion of Sectaries and indeed this confusion of modern Sects produceth Atheists as efficacious arguments to convince them of the unreasonablenes and stolidity of their infidelity and to bring them to Christianity for though they deny our scriptures to contain oracles of Divine Truth yet they admit them or at least may be brought by discourse to admit them as worthy to be ranked amongst the best monuments of humane History Now this their humane authority is sufficient to convince and move them if it be effectually shewed for example to an Atheist that such such things were foretold by Isay or Daniel Authors to whom all the best wits amongst Christians give credit and that the said predictions are recorded to have been fulfilled by Authors of the greatest repute Prophesies fulfilled The second Point Consider first some of the chief Prophesies fulfilled and by whom the four Monarchies to wit the Chaldean that of the Persians and Medes the Grecian and the Roman like rivers running one into another at length lost themselves in their Ocean the Monarchy of Christs Kingdome to wit his Church the great extent of which its never being overcome its superiority and predominance over all other Kingdomes and its perpetual durance are foretold by Daniel cap. 2. but particularly in the 44. verse this is apparently fulfilled in the Church of Rome yet and in no other Sect. The Preaching of Christs Gospel to the Gentiles and the Conversion of them is foretold in many places of scripture but mark the words of Isa cap. 66. v. 19. I will send of those which shall be saved of them to the Gentiles into Affrica and Lydia into Italy and Greece unto the Ilands a far off that have not heard of my same neither have seen my glory and they shall declare my glory to the Gentiles These names are left in the Protestant Bible untranslated out of the Hebrew which is strange and argues that the Translatours had no minde that a place so particularly expressing the conversion of the Gentiles by the Church of Rome should be intelligible Call to minde you enemies of the Church of Rome the religious submission humble gâ—nuflexions inclinations of the body and exteriour reverence and comportment even of the greatest personages exhibited to Priests Prelates and Popes Then read these words of Isa c.49.v.23 Kings shall be thy nursing Fathers and Queens thy nursing mothers they shall bow down to thee with their face towards the earth and lick up the dust of thy feet and in the 60. cap. verse 14. The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee and all they that dispised thee shall how themselves down at the soles of thy feet Now consider whether these places do not foretell and in a manner describe the forementioned exteriour reverences Malachy Prophesieth of Christs Church thus In every place a pure offering is sacrificed and offered to my name The sacrifice of holy Masse so acknowledged and reverenced by all the holy Fathers is daily offered to God by every Priest almost extant in any part of the world and by it is fulfilled that prophesie Adde to these the gist of working Miracles the gist of prophesie the unity antiquity amplitude sanctity and some other Marks of the Roman Church onely mentioned in the first points of the particular meditations all these you will finde to be prophesied and fulfilled onely in the Roman Church The blessed Virgin Mary in her Canticle Magnificat prophesied of her sacred self in these words For behold from benceforth all generations shall call me blessed Now as it is evident that all generation of Roman Catholicks have complyed with this prophesie so Sectaries may be ashamed to exhibit no kinde of honour to her nay not so much as this or any other honorable appellation but rather speak undervaluingly and disrespectfully of her whom not withstanding the whol torrent and generality of the holy Fathers extols with such Elogium's and that deservedly both in respect of her being the mother of God Queen Mother to the King of Kings as also in regard that her life was the perfectest copy that ever was taken out of the Prototypon of all perfection Christ her son and our Lord The Roman Catholicks consonant to the ancient Fathers and consequently both of the same Religion by reason of their Union in this and other opinions honour this great Theotocos as such a personage whereas most of these modern Sectaries Nestorian-like make no more of her than if she were one of the vulgar yet all England for almost 900 years together as all Catholick countries doe still honoured her with due respect and reverence Consider secondly that the Types and figures of the old law which were representations of what was afterwards to be in the Church of Christ are fulfilled in the Church of the Romane Catholicks and in that only For the Synagogue as it was a figure of Christs Church so the Alters Priâ—sthood Sacrifices which being correlatives infer one another as the want of any of them argues the want of true Worship and Religion were types not only of the priâ—st hood and sacrifice which Christ himself exercised and offered when he was amongst men in mortall flesh but also of the daily sacrifices and eternall priesthood which he left and ordered to be exercised and offered in his Church now since there must be some analogy and similitude betwixt the thing prefigured and the figure such as is clearly to be seen in the priesthood and sacrifice of Masse daily offered in the church of Rome of which other Sects have nothing that can any way answer to those former types It follow evidently that the Church of the Romane Catholicks is that which was prefigured by these and consequently is Christs true Church As for particulars the Manna of the Israelites with its proprietits was a type of the Sacrament of the reall body of Chrift and its effects this is truly fulfilled in the Roman Religion Sectaries in this point still Judaize and of Christs reall body have still only a figure for they acknowledge their Bread and Communion to be no more Nor is it so good a figure of Christs reall body as the Jews Manna was of which also as some of it was alwayes kept in the Tabernacle so is the holy Eucharist kept in the Tabernacle in Catholick Churches Melchisedecks Bread and Wine was a figure of Christs reall body and blood Secturies have still nothing but his bare Bread and Wine they are still in the figure but Roman Catholicks have the reall thing they have reall priests and offer up to God the real body and blood of Christ though in a mysticall manner The Jews Pascall Lambe was both a Sacrament and Sacrifice so is the holy Eucharist and as the Pascal Lambe was offered in memory and in thanksgiving for the benefit of their deliverance out of the AEgyptian
much that day a Spanyard Gather hence first that since the forementioned Princes and their Armies on which God bestowed these victories were Roman Catholicks as all history evidently shews and since the victories bestowed on them were above the forces of nature or humane endeavours and pollicy and none such were ever obtained by any other sect it evidently follows that the religion of these Roman Catholicks is the true religion 2 that these examples related by authors of good credit and those many evidently prove against atheists and such as in cline that way that there is a God and that god by his providence rules the world and that ther is no such thing in the world as Fortune or Fate those things w ch seem casual are only so in regard of secondary causes nothing is casual in respect of the prime cause God this mans adverse fortune and the others successeful endeavors this mans want the others plenty this mans health and others infirmities are all from the hand of God his gists and the one as well as the other matter for vertue and means to salvation if they be used well with a rectified intention The third Point Consider first that Sectaries even all put together cannot make it appear that they have received any miraculous favours like to the above mentioned either in confirmation of any of their sects or any other way Gods providence hath permitted the Sarazens Turks to prevail much against Christians and to possesse themselves of many Countries in which catholick Religion had formerly flourished yet this doth not argue that God loves them better than the Christians or thereby approves of their Alcaron In like manner in the Wars betwixt Catholicks and Sectaries the latter as they have often received the worse so have they often been prevalent against the other yet never but upon some great advantage and are now in possession of many Towns and Countries which were sormerly Catholick but this is no more a divine approbation of their Tenents and Doctrine than the Turkish Temporall successe pleads the truth of their Religion in both cases of the prospirity of Turks and Sectaries as also of what dammages they have inferred to Catholicks these are only ordinary and experienced in all ages effects of the divine providence which humbles this man and exalts that man Quia calix in manu domini virimeri plenus mixto inclinavit ex hoc in hoc Psal 74. But these miraculous effects are plainly a divine confirmation of Religion And thus must all Sectaries argue against Insidels inbehalf of Christianity and their own Sects by denying that their worldly prosperity proves them to be in favour with God and of the true Religion and yet convincing them that these prodigious effects are arguments of true Religion and of Gods great protection for they are so indeed And therefore thou may truly say O holy Church with the holy Prophet I will not fear thousands of people that have set themselves against me round about psal 3.6 Though an host should encampe against me my heart shall not fear though war should rise against me in this will I be confident ps 27.3 The nineteenth Meditation Of the Disasters and unhappy ends of the opposers and enemies of the Roman Church The first Point AS victories and other temporall blessings miraculously bestowed upon the defenders propagators of the Roman religion so extraordinary and prodigious punishments inflicted upon the persecutors of the same are signes and arguments that that is the true Catholick Church of Christ consider therefore first that though God permit the wicked livers and those and those that seek the ruine of his Church to go long unpunished yet to convince the world that this is meerly'a permission of his thereby to give the just matter for merit and the bad time to reclaim themselves repent and that he can lay his heavy hand hard on where he pleases he lets men have frequent experiment that he hath a reserve of miraculous punishments which he lets flie like his thunderbolts out of the Clouds at them and especially at the enemies of his Church Scismaticks Heretick and Persecuters Consider secondly that those punishments are twofold some are such as cannot be conceived to be otherwise then by miracle as when God punished the Madianites by the mutuall slaughter of one another others tho not transcending the forces of natural causes yet are such and accompanied with such circumstances as that it appears evidently that God thereby punisheth extraordinarily Such were the punishments of Herod he that in killing the holy innocents aymed at the killing of our Saviour who was consumed by Vermin and so dyed having first killed his own wife and children and attempted to kill himself And of Pilate who killed himself as Eusebius recounts As also of the other Herod the Tetrarch who beheaded S. John Biptist and treated our Saviour as a fool he was thrust out of his king dom sent into banishment and in it lived and died with a great deal of misery Consider thirdly that amongst other signes by which the world might easily know that the only true religion before Christs time was that of the Jewes one was and that a principall one the exemplar and extraordinary punishments which God exacted upon those who were irreligiously in jurious to the same Such were those nine plagues which were laid upon the Aegyptians for oppressing that faithfull people the Philistians for handling the Ark of the Testament unworthily suffered many calamities the Bethsamits for their irreverent looking only at that Ark contrary to Gods comand were punished with the death of 70. men of prime quality and 80000. of the vulgar sort Antiochus for the out cryes and Sacrileges which he committed in his persecution of the Jewes was struck with most abominable diseases and devoured by vermine Baltbasar for his Sacrileges committed in Hierusalem and prophane abuse of the sacred Vessels in the very heat of his banquet read the dismal sentence of his losse of life and Kingdom which was put in execution that very night written miraculously by singers which appeared upon the wall and Heliodorus to omit many more besides other scourges was cruelly whipped by two young men sent by God for his sacrilegeous attempt of robbing the temple of Hierusalem Hence inser that if such like punishments can be shewed to have been laid upon the enemies and persecutors of the Roman religion it must by the same consequence be judged to be the true Church of Christ The second Point Consider therefore first the tragical end of those Pagan Emperours that persecuted the Catholick Church of the first 24 of them which sat at the sterne of the Roman Empire betwixt the time of Augustus Cesar and Constantine the great as there was scarce 4. of them which did not persecute that most cruelly most of them the Catholick Church so hardly four of them escaped the
revenging hand of God and most miserable ends some of them were selfe murderers others were massacred by those very men or their affociats whom they had raised up to the highest step of honour in the Court or Militia and others were destroyed by horrible diseases judged even in the opinion of their own Pagan physitians more then naturall After their times and when Rome was free and intirely Catholick two reniarkable Examples of punishment inslicted upon two armies which attempted to make Rome Constantinople the subject of their barbarous cruelry happened Radagaisus King of the Goths marched with an Army of two hundred thousand men armed no lesse with malicious intentions against Religion then with other weapons towards Rome and faced the City with those formidable forces the Romans to prevent this sudden storming their City armed themselves with what speed they could but considing chiefly in that which S. Paul cal's the Armor of God and with their small number went out to fight that mighty Army behold what happened on a sudden that vast army was struck by the divine power with such an amazment and stupidity and so disabled from fighting that the Romans falling upon it totally routed and destroyed it together with that King who with his sons was slain amongst the rest and of the Romans not so much as any one man kiled or wounded this is related and counted for a miraculous punishment by S. Austine himselfe who was living at the same time and not twenty years after Roylas with a puissant army of Scythians Anno 425. coming with the same intention to Constantinople as he made his approach towards the City then filled with fears and frights as may well be imagined behold fire and thunderbolts at Gods command fell upon that huge Army totally destroyed it lo two famous Examples of Gods heavy hand upon the enemies of the Caltolick religion Consider secondly what punishments befell some of those Emperors and Princes who after that they had been or were Christians became injurious to the same Religion Julian for his apostasie from the true Church and his malicious persecuting the same at length fighting against the Persians received a morall wound with a lance from what hand it came no man about him could tell but himselfe acknowledged that it were a stroak from heaven by his casting handfuls of his own blood furiously into the ayre and saying to our Saviour Vicisti Galilee thou hast overcome O Galilean after which the earth opening swallowed up his body as S. Gregory Nazianzen writes in an oration of Saint Athanasius Valens the Arian Emperour persecuting the same Religion was many wayes punished by Almighty God and at last he was burnt alive by the Goths The Emperour Anastasius who both opposed the Church of Rome favoured the Eutychian heresie was slain with a Thunder bolt Leo Iconomachus the Emperour caused the people of Constantinople to take all the pictures and images out of the Churches and burn them in the market-place Presently after which fact the plague invaded that City and destroyed in a short time three hundred thousand persons This happened about the year 719. in the time of Pope Gregory the second The Emperour Zeno an Eutichian heretick Rome was by Anastasius who succeeded him buried alive Justinean the Emperour after so many laudable facts of his at length be gun the heresie of the Aphthartodocites affirming out of an in discreet Zeal of our Saviours honour that his flesh was incorruptible before his passion But whilest he was about making an Act for the receiving of this opinion all the Empire over he was carried out of the world by sudden death Heraclius the Emperour after the great favour he had received of God in that miraculous Victory against the Persians at length fell into the heresie of the Monotholites and dyed most miserably Belizarius that great warrier them which the world had no greater then was degraded and devested of all his honorable offices which he had had under his Emperour Justinian both his eyes were pulled out of his head and he sunk down into so low a condition as to sit a blind beggar with these words still in his mouth Give a bodwel to Bellizarius Whence this great change from Justinians jealousie that he affected his Empire as some say But Belizarius himselfe with many more attributed that punnishment to the injury he had done the Vicar of Christ Pope Silverius whom he unjustly sent into banishment by the Empresse Theodora's instigation Theodorick the Arian King a mongst the other mischiefs he had done the Church of Rome killed Pope John the first with a cruel imprisonment at length a holy Saint in a vision saw that King led betwixt that Pope and Simmachus a noble Patrician whom the same Theodorick had unjustly killed towards the fiery pits of mount Etna and thrown headlong into one of them This is related by Saint Gregory who saies that upon examination it was found that the King dyed at that very time which the holy mans vision specified and by consequence argued the verity of it Hunnericus an other Arian King and a great persecuter of the Roman Church was eaten up alive by vermin After these astonishing examples of Pagan and Christian Princes punnished for opposing the Church of Rome and persecuting the same Consider thirdly what became of some of the Arch hereticks Arius going to ease himselfe voided out his bowels together with his excrements and so dyed Manicheus was fleed alive by the King of Persia Montanus Theodotus and their Women which pretended to have the gift of prophesie all hanged themselves And Nestorius his impious tongue which had denied that the blessed Virgin Mary was Mother of God was eaten away by Vermin after he himselfe had been condemned by the Ephesine Counsel and the blessed Virgin declared Theotocos to wit the mother of God And this example me thinks and the authority of that general Counsel might move these later sectaries to bear more respect than they doe to that blessed Virgin Mary The third Point Though the looking upon these examples with a juditious and considerate eye would sufficiently convince any man that the heavy hand of God hangs alwaies over the heads of the opposers and enimies of the Roman Church which I suppose may without presumption be now called as it only is the Catholick Church as onely having the true marks of Christs Church yet the nearer wee deduce this argument down to wards these our dayes the greater influence it will have upon many Consider therefore First what befel the protoparents of all these later sects Luther the Ring-leader of all the succeeding sectaries after aplentiful and merry-supper in which he had exhilarated all his company with his discourse the drift of which was ordinarily to make the Pope and papists ridiculous and odious he went safe and sound to bed but was ceazed upon