For then in heaven this sentence would never be ratified And tell me not that this texts speakes of private differēces betweene brother ād brother though I denie not but this is also true in such differences as belong to the Court or Tribunall of the Church yet hence evidently follows that this Text doth much more concerne those differences in point of Religion between brother and brother Both because these doe more properly belong to the Court of the Church and to her Tribunall as also because when scandal and offence is giuen to our brother in point of heresie tending to the seduction of his soule our brother seeing this soule-murthering sinne broached to his owne ruine ād to the eternall ruine of his brother hath farre greater reasō in this case thē in any other to tell the Church his mother to whome in this difference aboue all other differences it properly belongeth to looke to the safety of her childred For this is an offēce ād scandal to the whole brotherhood of all Christianity Therefore in these points of highest concernement we are most bound to heare the Church vnder paine of being accounted Publicans and Heathens and of haueing this heauie sentence ratified in heauen 5. Sixtly Matt. 23.1 Then Iesus spake to the multitudes and to his Disciples saying Vpon the chaire of Moyses haue sitten the Scribes and Pharises by which sitting with lawfull succession they as wicked as they were are knowne to be lawfully authorized Prelats all therefore whatsoever they shall say unto you observe and do Behold here a precept of obeying in all whatsoever And therefore behold a precept which could not be givē if that which is delivered by publicke authority of the Church were not secured from error in all whatsoever 6. Sevently The first and best Christians did practically acknowledge theyr beleefe of the infallibility of the Church For to have a decision of the most important Controversies Act. 15.2 they appointed Paul and Barnabas to go up and certaine others of the rest to the Apostles and Priests unto Hierusalem upon this question And the Church assembled the first Councill in which though this Councill were assisted with the Holy Ghost yet there was made a great disputation v. 7. And then the definition of the Church came forth in these words It seemeth good to the Holy Ghost and us v. 28. Other lawfull Councills knowing the Holy Ghost allso promised to them do vse to set forth theyr definitions with the same words and this most agreable to Scripture For Iohn 15. v. 26. When the Paraclete cometh whom I shall send from my father the spirit of truth he shall give testimonie of me and you shall give testimonie Marke this conjunction of he and you He the the spirit of truth and you Governers of my Church so that you in giveing testimony may freely say It seemeth good to the Holy Ghost and us 7. Eightly It is cleere out of Scripture that the first Christians were so fully possessed with the beleefe of the infallibility of the Church that they would beleeve nothing but what thy knew conformable to her doctrine S. Paul was a Scripture-writer and so great an Apostle and yet he sayeth of himselfe Gal. 2.1 Then after fourteene yeares I went to Hierusalem again not meerly to satisfie a vaine fancie of some particular men but I went up according to revelation and conferred with them the Ghospel which I preach among the Gentills But I conferred severally or a part with them that seemed to be something least perhaps I should runn or had runn in vain So that he thought all his fourteen yeares preaching and allso his future preaching might come to be in vaine vnlesse even his doctrine were made known to be approved by the Church as wholy conformable to the Church So much in these goulden dayes were the first Christians taught to relye vpon the Church which had been imprudence if she had been fallible Yet we must not thinke that then they did apprehend that the approbation of the Church did adde any degree of truth to his doctrine as it doth not add any degree of truth to the Scripture or pretend to have power to change or correct true Scripture And so S. Paul sayth v. 6. For to me they that seemed to be some thing added nothing For as the toutchstone adds no value to the gold but onely evidently manifesteth which is true gold which not so the Church as then did only manifest infallibly the truth of what he had preached So allso the Church as now doth only manifest to vs that such and such Bookes be the true word of God such and such be not such be true copies such not c. But the word of God hath its true worth from it selfe and not frō the Church as the gold hath its being true gold from it selfe and not from the toutchstone So when Catholiques say with S. Aug. Cont. Epist fundam c. 5. I would not beleeve the Ghospell unlesse the authoritie of the Church moved me they doe not meane that the Church can adde or take away from the truth of any true Scripture but they meane that by her definition as by a Sure touchstone it is now manifestly assured vnto them that such a booke is true Scripture and such not And as the orall preaching even of such an Apostle as had been a Scripture writer might have been in vain without this approbation so allso might his writings have been in vaine Whence we see that his Epistle vnto the Hebrews was not known or acknowledged as Gods word vntill the Church approved it If the Scripture writer himselfe teacheth in vaine without this approbation much more will his writings teach in vaine 8 Ninthly The Church is to be followed by vs as an assured approver or reprover of spirits and consequently as infallible Iohn 1.4 My dearest beleeve not every spirit but prove the spirits if they be of God then v. 6. We are of God he that knows God heares us Pastours of Church he that is not of God heares us not In this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of errour Here S. Iohn expresly meanes to give to posterity a standing Rule to know a true spirit from a false one To witt By the hearing of us or not hearing of us This could not be a Rule to vs who live after the Apostles if by hearing us he onely meant the Apostles and not theyr successours Yea he could not meane onely the Apostles For the other Apostles were all dead when he wrote this Wherefore the true sence of S. Iohn is In this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of errour if they heare us Pastours and Governours of the Church Not that each one of these Pastours and Governours a part can say to any one heare me vnlesse he teach that which all the rest are sufficiently knowne to teach but they in a Generall Councill may most truely say Heare us He
true miracles Christ himself of himself sayth Iohn 15.24 If I had not done among them workes which no other man did they had not had sin To witt the sinne of Incredulity No sin therefore it is to reject Luther and Calvin and all such new teachers as never did miracle THE XLIII POINT That wee laudably keep feasts in the honour of Saints 1. THese feastes to many seeme to have no ground in Scripture and therefore not to be keept but to be esteemed unwarrantable Yet wee say first the Apostles may have instituted severall feasts of our Lord and our Lady though they thought that they sufficiently recommended them to posterity upon the warant of tradition only For they knew that upon tradition only the Sabboth had been kept from the beginning of the world untill Moyses that is for 2400. yeares After which time Moyses did first sett downe in writing this command Yet at the very beginning of the world Gen. 2.3 God blessed the seaventh day and sanctifyed it See the 2. Point n. 2. And thus we know by Tradition only that wee are not any longer to keep the seaventh day though God had sanctifyed it but that wee are to keep the Sunday in honour of his Resurrection which is the eighth and not the seaventh day 2. Now it is a strange thing that wee should be appointed by the Apostles to keep weekely a feast in honour of that day of the weeke on which Christ did rise and yet should not be appointed to keep the feast of the Resurrection it self The Iewes keept theyr Pentecost for having receaved Gods law in written tables And shall not Christians keep a Pentecost for having receaved the law of grace first divulged and written in mens harts at the coming of the Holy Ghost If the Resurrection of Christ be a mystery so great that one day every weeke should be keept through the whole yeare Holyday in honour of it shall Christs Ascension be so farre inferiour that no one day in a yeare and consequently no one in an age is to be keept in memory of it Had the Iewes reason to keep the feast of Tabernacles because God preserved them living in Tabernacles 40. yeares in the wilderness a benefitt belonging only to theyr Fathers And hath not the Church reason to institute a feast in the honour of Christ coming to live in the Tabernacle of our flesh at his Nativity And another feast in memory of his giving us under the shape of Bread his body to remaine in all the Tabernacles of our Churches and to enter so often into the Tabernacles of our Breasts both inestimable benefitts to us personally and allso to all our posterity Had the Iewes all reason to keep a feast of assembly or Collection in gratitude for the peaceable possession of the Land of promisse and have not wee more reason to keep the solemnity of all Saints our most Holy Fathers who now are in peaceable possession of the Land of the living and the inheritance of Christ and from thence afford us help and assistance to come thither Had the Iewes sufficient reason to keep the feasts of Trumpets Numb 29. v. 6. in gratefull memory that theyr father Isaac was freed from beeing sacrificed by Abraham God sending a Ramme to be sacrificed in his place and therefore they allwayse offered a Ramme in that feast and hath not the Church sufficient reason to keep a lesse solemne feast in gratefull memory that our chief Patriarch and head of our Church S. Peter was freed when Herod intended bloudily to Sacrifice him to the good pleasure of the Iewes and when prayer was made to God without intermission by the Church for him Act. 12.5 An Angel of our Lord was sent the night before Herod would have brought him forth to deliver him as well as to deliver Isaac now upon the point of beeing slain This I bring because many wonder that wee keep a feast though lesse solemne of S. Peters Chaines and of his delivery from them As for the feasts of Martyrs because to them it is a greater benefitt to suffer all torments and consummate them by death it self then to be freed by miracle from them the Church hath all reason to solemnize the dayes upon which God glorifyed these blessed Martyrs by enabling them first to undergo so excessive torments so couragiously and then crowned them with immortall blisse after theyr Victory The Iewes allso besides these solemnities here mentioned and besides theyr weekly sabboth had divers other feasts yea every new Moon brought them at least one solemnity And will you think that Gods Church can have no reason nor authority to appoint any other feast then the Sunday 2. I will therefore farther shew you out of Scripture that besides the feasts appointed by God in Scripture other feasts have been superadded laudably by the authority of the Church By which will appeare her authority to do this when she judgeth it expedient The law prescribed the solemnity of Azymes or of unleavened bread to be keept but seaven dayes Yet upon a peculiar occasion it seemed expedient to the Church then assembled to add seaven more so sayth the Scripture 2. Chron. 30.23 The whole Assembly took counsell to keep other seaven dayes and they keept other seaven dayes And the Scripture adds v. 27 in commendation of this great piety And the Priests and Levites blessing the people theyr voyce was heard and theyr prayer came up to his Holy Habitation of heaven For as in Holy places so in Holy times prayers are more effectuall as here they were in a Time made Holy or set a part to Gods service by the authority of the Church only 3. Again Esther 9.20 upon the like authority it pleased the Iewes to establish this among them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the Month Adar and fifteenth day of the same yearly As the dayes wherein the Iewes rested from theyr enimies and the month which was turned to them from sorrow to ioy And the Iewes undertook to do this And v. 27. The Iewes ordeyned and took upon them and upon theyr seed and upon all such as joyned themselves unto them so as it should not faile that they would not keep these two dayes according to theyr appointed time every yeare Why Did any Scripture command this No but the Church did put this obligation upon it self The Iewes sayth the Scripture took upon themselves and theyr seed Christs Church hath no lesse authority in this kind then the Iewish Church had to impose an obligation upon herself and her seed and upon all that will be ioyned to her Religion Wee read allso that because the Church so judged it expedient a perpetuall feast with an Octave that is lasting for eight dayes was instituted Mach. 4.56 with out any peculiar warrant from Scripture besides the common warrant of holding that warrantable which the Church appointed Now if the bookes of Machabees be not true Scripture as we hold them
death belonged not to us 5. Wee fast the Eves of severall great feasts so to be the better disposed to prayer the next day By fasting allso we imitate and excite those Saints to help us whose feast wee solemnize thus more honoring them and more powerfully imploring theyr intercession by fasting ioyned with our prayers Wee fast for 40. dayes in Lent for even the most ancient Fathers called this fast an Apostolicall Tradition And surely if the Apostles had not together with the other practises of our Religion delivered allso this practise of fasting for 40. dayes the like may be sayd of fasting weekely no man afterward could have had sufficient authority and this through the whole multitude of Christians to make them all believe themselves to be obliged to fast so often Men love theyr belley to well to be brought so easily to such an insufferable burthen as this seems to many Nothing but a strict command of an undoubted authority could have made all Christianity accept of this great fast with that rigour which Luther found in the whole Church at his time Some Protestants venture to say that Pope Telesphorus who lived Anno Domini 141. was the first that commāded this fast They should have sayed he was the first that by written Law commanded the more exact observance of this Apostolicall Tradition which by some mens neglect was grown to be lesse observed if they make him the first Introducer of Lent then they must be enforced to confesse that in that primitive age the Popes authority was known for undoubted and reverently obeyed even over all Christendome at that time and this in a matter which pincheth many so hardly that we see here in England neither the known Laws of the land made by those of theyr own Religion nor the Kings Proclamations pressing those Lawes nor the Penalties enjoyned by them can prevail half so much in this one nation as the Authority commanding Lent did in those pure and primitive ages prevail through all Christian nations I must not end this point without observing that the whole Church may stand obliged to observe such and such fasts notifyed to her without any Scripture by the sole attestation of Church Tradition delivering this obligation as imposed first by the Apostles or such like lawfull authority For from the dayes of Noë untill Moyses that is above a thousand yeares all were obliged thus not to eat the flesh with the bloud Gen. 9.4 see Point 2. n. 2. A Command made known to them only by Tradition THE XLV AND LAST POINT That wee laudably in our fasts abstayne from certaine meates 1. OVr adversaries finding fasting so often and so highly commended in Scripture and not knowing well how to find fault with it they turne to pick a quarell against our manner of fasting For upon fasting dayes wee abstaine from flesh and in Lent from eggs yea from whitemeates also in some places for wee hold that the more afflictive or laborious the fast is so that it be discreet the more perfect it is of its own nature as beeing more satisfactory for our sins past and by more taming of our flesh more preventive of new sins and conteyning a greater exercise of vertue to the greater encrease of merit Not that God delights in our sufferings as they are afflictive of us but because he highly delights in them as they are so many wayes beneficiall unto us hence Ioel 2.12 Turne ye unto me with all your heart and with fasting Now to fast all day with out eating any thing is a thing over hard to be prescribed by preccpt to such a vast eommunity as the Church is The Church therefore according to her prudent Charity hath thus moderated the Matter First that we should fast till noon or there about with out eating any thing that may break out fast Secondly that the meat wee then eat be not of flesh which beeing more nourishing doth allso nourish temptations Thirdly that at night wee eat no supper but a slight collation is permitted for fear our nights rest should otherwise be lost with prejudice of health Other fasts be lesse strict and be rather to be called dayes of abstinence as Saturdayes are on which we only abstaine from flesh But other fasts we have yet more rigorous as from egges and all that is made of egges from whitemeat which no one who hath the sense of feeling can deny to be a very considerable addition to the austerity of fasting 2. This abstaining from certaine nourishing and delightfull meates is peculiarly recommended by Scripture as especially pleasing to God First the Nazarites Num. 6. were obliged to abstaine from wine though wine were the usuall drink of theyr Country there beeing no beer Secondly Ieremy 35. The Rechabites in like manner abstaining upon command from wine are highly commended by God and rewarded for it v. 18. Thirdly S. Luke c. 1.15 He shall be great before our Lord wine and strong drink he shall not drink Fourthly the same great Iohn Baptists ordinary food was Locusts and wild hony Matth. 3.4 And even of this course food he did feed so sparingly that Christ himself sayd he came neither eating nor drinking Matth. 11.18 Fiftly S. Timothey could not be induced to drink a litle wine in the weaknes of his stomake and his often infirmities untill S. Paul for this reason advised him not still to drink water 1. Tim. 5.22 Sixtly I might adde that this kind of fast is the most effectuall to keep under our bodyes and bring them into subjection least we become reprobate as S. Paul sayd of himself 1. Cor. 9.27 Daniel sayth allso of himself Flesh and wine entred not into my mouth for three weekes Dan. 10.3 3. Hence we may easily answer our Adversaries objections First then they object Mark 7.15 Nothing that is with out a man entring into a man can defile him For the sense is this no meat of its own nature is polluting or defiling though to eat meats that are forbidden doth pollute and defile the soul as the Apple defiled Adams soul as allso the taking of drink in excesse pollutes the Drunkard And even after our Saviour spoak these words eating of Hoggs flesh would have defiled the soules of the Apostles Yea and the first primitive Christians should have been defiled by eating bloud or meates strangled Not because those meates were still uncleane but because the Church thought fitt yea and necessary to forbidd at that time the eating of those meates Acts 15.28 It hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost and us to lay no further burden upon you then these necessary things that you abstain from meat offered to Idols and bloud and that which is strangled So Gen. 9.4 For above a thousand years before Scripture all were obliged not to eath the flesh with the bloud And this no Scripture then either commanded or testifyed yet even then not the meat but the breach of the Churches commandment would have defiled them and
which he will find them in his English Bible for you have so many severall traÌ„slations of the English Bible that whilst I oblige my selfe to follow one I shall make sure not to follow the other I conceived the best expedieÌ„t to avoid this difficulty would be to follow alwayes either the very words or the full seÌ„se of that English Bible which is most universally received And in this point I have been so very scrupulous that I continually admonish my Reader if at any one time I chance to put downe any single text differing in sense from the English Bible vvich I have made choice of as the best edition of theyr most received Bible which is that which was set forth at Cambridg 1635. printed by Thomas and Iohn Buck Printers to that Vniversity which Bible King Iames did cause to be set forth out of his deep Iudgment apprehending how convenient it was that out of the Originall sacred tongues there should be a more exact TranslatioÌ„ as is sayd in the Preface of this TranslatioÌ„ dedicated to his Majesty A note to the Catholike Reader LEt the Catholik Reader observe that when we cite the two books of Samuel the texts cited will be fouÌ„d in our two first Books of Kings And when we cite here theyr two Books of Kings the Texts will be found in our Bibles in the two last Books of Kings For our Third is theyr first our fourth theyr second So also with them the Books of Paraâ—ip be called Chronicles the secoÌ„d of Esdras they call Nehemiah In numbring allso the Psalmes they do from the 10 Psalme differ from us counting still one more then we untill they come to Ps 147. which from the 11. verse includes our Psalm 147. And thence we goe forward with the same account A Table of the Pointes contained in this Treatise POINT I. That the Scripture alone cannot be a Rule sufficient to direct us in all necessary Controversies Page 1. POINT II. Tradition besides Scripture must direct us in in many necessary Controversies Page 12. POINT III. Of the never failing of the Church which beeing perpetuall can preserve perpetuall Traditions allso of succession of true Pastors and Professors P. 21. POINT IV. Of the universality and vast extent of this perpetuall Church which allso must be the converter of Gentils this no Church differing from the Roman ever was Page 33. POINT V. Of the infallibilitie of the Church and consequently of her fittnes to be judge of Controversies P. 44. POINT VI. That the Roman Church is this infallible Church aÌ„d our Iudge in all points of CoÌ„troversie P. 64. POINT VII That the Chief Pastor of this Church is the successor of S. Peter Page 66. POINT VIII That this our Chiefe Pastour or Pope is not Anti-christ Page 74. POINT IX Of the Sacraments of the Church and of the Ceremonies which the Church useth in administrating these Sacraments as allso in other occasions Page 79. POINT X. Of Baptisme which is the first Sacrament P. 86. POINT XI Of Confirmation Pag. 87. POINT XII Of the Holy Eucharist Page 89. POINT XIII Of Communion under one kind Page 106. POINT XIV Of the Masse and of the Holy Eucharist as it is a Sacrifice Page 109. POINT XV. Of saying Masses and other publike prayers in the Latin tongue Page 119. POINT XVI Of the Sacrament of Pennance or Confession Page 131. POINT XVII Of the Sacrament of Extreame Vnction Page 134. POINT XVIII Of the Sacrament of Holy Order P. 138. POINT XIX Of the Sacrament of Matrimony Page 139. POINT XX. Of the single life of Priests Page 141. POINT XXI Of the single life of such as have vowed Chastity Page 149. POINT XXII Of works of Counsel and supererogation Page 155. POINT XXIII Of voluntary Austerity of life Page 159. POINT XXIV Of satisfactory good workes Page 165. POINT XXV Of Purgatory aÌ„d prayer for the dead P. 173. POINT XXVI Of Indulgences Page 189. POINT XXVII That faith alone doth not Iustifie P. 196. POINT XXVIII Whether Justification be any thing inherent in us Page 200. POINT XXIX Whether our Justification may not be lost Page 205. POINT XXX To Justification it is necessary to keep the Commandments Page 209. POINT XXXI How still wee have free will to do good or evill Page 213. POINT XXXII How this free will is still helped with sufficient grace Page 216. POINT XXXIII This sufficient grace is denyed to none Christ dying even for Reprobates Page 220. POINT XXXIV How our good works done in grace and by the helpe of Christs grace be meritorious and merit life everlasting Page 224. POINT XXXV It is laudable to do good works for reward Page 233. POINT XXXVI Wee laudably worship Angels and Saints Page 235. POINT XXXVII The Angels and Saints can hear our Prayers Page 245. POINT XXXVIII That Saints can and will helpe us and therefore it is laudable to pray to them Page 252. POINT XXXIX That among the Saints it is most laudable to pray to our Lady and of the beads sayd to her honour Page 264. POINT XL. It is laudable to worship the Images of Saints Page 275. POINT XLI It is iaudable to worship the Reliques of Saints Page 289. POINT XLII Some places are more Holy then others wee therefore laudably make Pilgrimages and Processions to such Holy places Page 296. POINT XLIII That wee laudably keepe Feasts in the honour of Saints Page 306. POINT XLIV That we laudably observe Fasts Saints eves and other dayes Page 312. POINT XLV That we laudably in our fasts obstaine from certaine meates Page 317. TO THE PROTESTANT READER I Humbly begg of thee to peruse this Table of the Points here treated and to turn first to that very Point in which thou thinkest wee are less able to give thee satisfaction And according as thou findest what I shall say even in that Point to be more or less satisfactory so judge of the rest But first correct these faults escaped with thy penne and pardon the Printer who was an externe THE FIRST POINT That Scripture alone can not be a Rule sufficient to direct us in all necessary Controversies 1. NO Roman Catholike doth deny the Scripture to be a sufficient Rule to direct us in all controversies if wee take the Scripture rightly interpreted And therefore all those many textes which Protestantes bring to prove the Scripture to be our sole Rule of fayth are very clearely answered by saying that all those Textes speake of the Scripture not taken as the letter sounds for the letter kills 2. Cor. 3.6 but they speake of the Scripture as rightly interpreted And Protestantes cannot but graunt the Scripture rightly interpreted to be a sufficient Rule of fayth But what are wee the nearer For now comes the great Question of Questions who be those that give the right Interpretation to Scripture 2. The very ground of all Religions but the Roman is the Scripture as Interpreted by theyr own selves after they have carefully conferred
one place with an other For I aske and ask them again and again by whom Scripture ought to be interpreted They will say by Scripture conferred with Scripture Here I must yet ask them again by whom the conference of one Scripture with another can be made so exactly that from hence wee may come vndoubtedly to know the true interpretation This question I will be still asking them untill they can answer it For I am sure that If I presse this question home they must be at last enforced to say that the ground of their whole Religion is the Scripture interpreted by them selves when it hath bin carefully conferred by them selves so that the very ground of their whole fayth is deceiptfull and fallible if they them selves be fallible either in interpteting or in conferring Scripture carefully or skillfully If they say their Interpretation thus made is undoubted and infallible then they can not blame us for saying that the interpretation of the Church made with as great care and skill used by her in the exact conference of one Scripture with an other is infallible 3. Stay here Deare Reader and as thou lovest thy saluation before thou goest any further ponder attentively how fallible and subject to a world of errors the ground of all such Religions must needs be which wholy and entirely are found at last to rely upon a meer human interpretation after that a meer human and most fallible diligence and skill hath bin employed in conferring one Text with an other Then ponder on the other side how incomparably surer and more justifiable in the sight of God and man the ground of that faith is which relyeth indeed on the Scripture but not on the Scripture as interpreted by private and fallible interpreters after theyr most fallible exactnesse of conferring Scripture with Scripture but which relyeth upon Scripture as interpreted by the Church after that shee with no lesse exactnes hath conferred one Scripture with an other in a generall Council having incomparable greater human abilities then those of any private mans be and having the speciall assistance of the Holy Host leading his Church into all truth Of this infallibility wee shall speak fully Point 5. 4. Now the Scripture as rightly interpreted by the Church will send us for the clearing of many doubtes unto the Church authorized by Christ to instruct and teach us as in that fift Point shall be evidenced out of Scripture The difference then between our adversaries and us is that wee affirme the Scripture as it is rightly interpreted by the Church after she hath exactly conferred in a general Councel Scripture with Scripture to be the Rule of Faith by which she decideth all necessary Controversies But our adversaries misliking the dependence on the Church will have the Scripture by it selfe alone to be a Rule sufficient to direct each one who shall carefully conferre it to judge all necessary Controversies This wee deny and though they say it in wordes yet in very deed they also come to deny what they say for let a man mark it well and he shall see that all these sectaries when they come to the maine Controversie do not take Scripture alone as conferred with Scripture only but they all take Scripture with theyr own interpretation made upon theyr own conference And if you tell them they have fayled by not taking due notice of severall other Texts in Scripture which should have been pondered in their Conference and would have produced a different interpretation they will say their own spirit tels them the contrary so that finally they who laugh at the Church for trusting to be securely guided by the Holy Ghost come to ground theyr whole fayth upon the assurance of being truly guided by theyr own spirit or judgement but let us come to what we propound and let us prove by Scripture that Scripture taken as they take it can not be a sufficient Rule to direct us in all necessary Controversies This I prove 5. First because to end all Controversies wee must at least rule our selves by al the bookes of Scripture and we must be assured wee doe so This is cleere because by no text of Scripture it can be prouved that any determed booke or number of bookes is sufficient to end all Controversies But to do this the whole number of books written by any Scripture writer is wholy requisite seeing that no Text speaks of any one or any determinate number but all speake of all Now marke to what passe this opinion brings you For if wee be to judge all necessary Controversies by all the bookes which ever were written by any Scripture writer we must necessarily have these books amongst us But wee have not in the whole world extant amongst us diverse books of Sacred Propheticall Scriptures For no fewer then twenty books of the Propheticall Pennemen of the Holy Ghost have quite perished as the learned Contzen proveth in his Preface upon the fower Ghospels and I will prove this as far as is sufficient by these following texts Iosue 10.13 Is not this written in the book of Iascker Again 1. Kinges 4.32 Salomon spoke three thousand Proverbs and his songes were one thousand and five Again 1. Chron. 29.29 The actes of David first and last are written in the book of Samuel the Seer and the book of Nathan the Prophet and the book of Gad the Seer Where be these two Prophets books Again 2. Chron. 9.29 mention is made of the books of Nathan the Prophet and the Prophesie of Ahyah and the visions Iddo the Seer And Chap 12.15 and the book Schemaiah the Prophet and of Iddo the Seer concerning Genealogies which seemes to be a different book from his book of visions before specifyed And Chap. 13.22 mention is made of the story of the Prophet Iddo And Ch. 20.34 mention is made of the book of Iehu sonne of Hanani and Ch 33.19 wee find mention of the works of the sayings of the Seers Wee know then by Scripture that what is sayd by those books is sayd by Prophets And wee also know by Scripture that God spoke in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets 2. Pet. 1.21 Moreover we know by Scripture that Prophesie came not in old time by the will of man But the Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2. Pet. 1.21 Standing therefore to what is known by Scripture these bookes which have perished did deliver what was spoken by the Holy Ghost and contained the true word of God Whēce is proved that we have not now entierly the whole word of God written and this is further proved by the ensuing textes of S. Paul 1. Cor. 5.9 I wrote to you in one Epistle Note that he sayth this in his first Epistle to them Where is the Epistle which S. Paul wrote to them before he wrote the first to them I wrote to you Wee then say Give us all sacred Propheticall writings which ever were written
or give us at least some one single cleare text which tells us that wee are to end all necessary Controversies by such books alone as be now extant in the true Cannon of Scripture or else be ashamed to speak with out a text in this very question in which you affirme that all our necessary Controversies must be ended by only cleere Scripture The Controversie about this very question is one of the greatest of all Controversies and yet you would have us credit you without beeing able to bring cleer Scripture for what you say especially Scripture conferred with these now cited texts of which I dare say you never thought And though you should bring me a cleer text to prove what is desired yet where would you find a cleer text to shew me that all those twelve books yea or any one of them which you have rejected amongst the Apocrypha do not belong to the true Canon of the whole Scripture Remember I call for a text as you bid me and not for a reason against which wee have our reasons the Text say you must end all necessary Controversies Let then some Text be brought able to end this even in your own Iudgement 6. Secondly if Scripture only be the Rule to end all necessary controversies then some Ages had no such Rule at all but were destitute of all assured Rule to end theyr necessary controversies and that for two thousand and four hundred yeares together For Moses who was the first Scripture writer was not borne but after the world had stood two thousand and four hundred yeares as may be made aparent by Scripture in calculating the Ages of such as successively lived one after the other according to his own History of Genesis soo long therefore the world was with out any Scripture Scripture then is not the only Rule of true Faith seeing that Sara Rebecca and others of those times had true faith though theyr faith was only squared by the Rule of the Tradition of theyr Church as wee will see in the next Point n. 2. 7. Thirdly the Rule by which all men should be ruled in all necessary points should be in a language understood by all But it is cleere that most of the Iews in the Captivity of Babilon had lost the knowledge of the Hebrew tongue wherein the old Scripture was written Neither was the Bible translated into the Syriak language till some yeares after our Saviours death Syriak differs as much from Hebrew as Italian from Latin And the very letters differ as much as Greeke and Latin The Iews then for above fourteene Generations understood the Hebrew no more then your people now understand the Bible in Latin But of all this I shall speak more fully Point the 15. n. 1. 8. Fourthly That can not be a sufficient Rule to decide all necessary controversies which speaks not one word of many necessary controversies But the Scripture speakes not a word of many necessary Controversies Ergo first it is necessary to know which bookes of Scripture be Canonicall and which not Also whether the Canonicall bookes wee now have be alone sufficient to guide us in all necessary controversies Then whether they can do this if they be not incorrupt And how wee shall assuredly know whether they be incorrupted or not Or which is the Copie that is uncorrupt Again which is the true Translation of this Copie Again which is the true sense of this Translation and that assuredly with a cleere Text for this assurance Of these and many more particular controversies not a word in Scripture Again standing to Scripture alone the Heresy of Helvidius denying our Blessed Lady ever to have remained a Virgin seemeth rather to have had some colourable defence then any cleere jugdment givē against it by Scripture only For Matth. 1.25 He knew her not till the brought forth her first borne Sonne In which Text these words till she brought forth and those others her first borne Sonne give some colour to say she had other Sonnes afterwardes For which doctrine Helvidius was held an Heretik by S. Augustin Her 84. and by S. Hierome contra Helvidium You may see fower and twenty necessary Pointes sett downe all at large by Optatus Ductor in his Question of Questions no one of which are cleerly decided in Scripture 8. Fiftly that can not he a sufficient Rule to decide all necessary Controversies which in such controversies speakes not cleerly but is very hard to be understood as the Scripture is Whence we see all Controversies arise about the true meaning of such and such Texts So 2. Pet. 3.16 In the which Epistles of S. Paul are certeine thinges hard to be understood which the unlearned and unstable wrest as they do the other Scriptures unto theyr owne damnation Whence it is evident that damnable errors may be incurred by misinterpteting places hard to be understood And so this hardnes is found in pointes necessary to saluation For in such only damnable errors can be incurred 10. Sixtly Christ did not command any one of the Evangelistes to write his Ghospell They all did write of themselves upon particular ocasions expressed by Eusebius S. Luke tells you in his Preface why he did write uncommanded Christ then intended to leave us some other Rule then this which he never commanded to be written at all much lesse to be written so as to be to us the only Rule of Faith 11. Seaventhly by reading the Ceremoniall law given by God to Moyses soo cleerely so distinctly and so closse together in the compasse of no great book I evidently inferre that if the selfe same most prudent Lawmaker had intended in the bookes of Canonicall Scripture to deliverd unto us the sole Rule of Faith and which alone we were to follow he would not only have cleerly told us so but he would with no lesse but rather with more clarity and distinction and in a farr lesse compasse have sett downe unto us this Rule intierly and compleatly together in some one part of the Canonicall Scripture distinctly expressing all those pointes the beliefe of which he exacteth of us under paine of damnatiun For this did much more import to be done thus plainly and distinctly then the setting downe of the Iewish Ceremoneyes For is it likely that the same God who prescribed unnecessary Ceremonies to be so cleerly and distinctly set down in a few leafes to direct the Iewish Church which is but the Hand Mayd would not for the Church of Christ which is the Mistris give as clear a direction in Pointes wholy necessary to saluation But would send every one of her Children to read over the whole Bible and to pick out here one place and there an other as Protestantes say God sends us to seeke even the most necessary Pointes of our beliefe which he requires of us under paine of damnation now in this place of so vast a Vollume as the Bible is now in an other place hard by now
whom they committed the Churches To which ordinance many Nations of those barbarous people who have believed in Christ do consent with out letter or inke having salvation that is soul-saving doctrine written in their heartes For a world of the first believers did never so much as see all scripture It was the yeare 99. before S. Iohn writt his Gospell And when the Canon of Scripture was fully ended there is no meÌ„tion made euen of the lâ—â—st care taken by the Apostles to divulge the Scripture in barbarous languages no nor to divulge it in latin it selfe as you must needes say who deny primitive Antiquity to all Latine Editions All this cleerly proves that Tradition was relyed upon as upon the word of God it selfe Whence S. Paul did not only counsel but also commaÌ„ded the Thessalonians to with draw them selves from all who walked not after the Tradition they had received of their Pâ—stors 2. Thâ—s 3.6 Now sayd heâ— wee comaund you Bretheren in the name of our Lord that ye with draw your selves from every brother that walketh discorderly and not after the Tradition which he receaved of us 5. It was for the keeping this Tradition and forme of Faith why he praysed the Romans Ch. 6.17 You have obeyed from your heart the forme of doctrine what was delivered you This forme could not be a forme conteyned in the whole Canon of Scripture for the whole Canon was not finished when S. Paul did write this It was therefore the forme of uniforme TraditioÌ„ delivered in each church which taught by word of mouth all th nges necessary For this he praysed the Corinthians 1 Cor. 11.2 Now I prayse to Bretheren that you keepe the Traditions so you put in the margenâ— but in the Text you read Ordinances as I eliverded them to you This Forme these Traditions these Ordounances are inculcated again and again 1. Tim. 6.20 O Thimothie keep that which is committed to thy trust And v. 3. If any one teached otherwise he is proud knowing nothing Again 2. Tim. 1.13 Hold fast the good forme of good words which thou hast heard of me That good thing which was committed to thee keep by the H. Ghost Again Ch. 3.14 But thou continue in those things which thou hast learned and been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them learned I say by word of mouth for by writing he had received but title So also when as yet by writing he had taught the Romans nothing he in his first and only Epistle to them wrote thus Rom. 16.17 Now I beseeeh you Bretheren mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned Likwise when as yet he had written nothing to the Galatians for where is any such writing he begines thus Gal. 1.6 I maruel that so soon you are removed from him who called you into the grace of Christ unto an other Ghospell I say removed that is changed from the forme of Faith which I delivered which was a true though not a written Ghospel into an other Ghospel taught by these new otherwise teathers yet sayth he with all earnestness Although wee or an Angel from heaven preach any other Ghospel unto you then that ye have receaved let them be accursed v. 8. S. Paul as yet had preached nothing to them in writing but they had received all by Orall Tradition and yet not with standing once again more vehemently v. 9. As wee have sayd before so I say now again if any man preach any other Ghospel unto you theÌ„ that you have received be he accursed Note the word Received intimating that they had all by Tradition For what as then had they received from him in writing And he sayth no more then other Apostles Who did write nothing but delivered all by Orall Tradition might truly have sayed of the Ghospel so delivered by them Neither did S. Paul speake of what they should receive many yeares after but of what they had as theÌ„ received For that was as true as any thing they should receive by writing And therefore for theyr forsaking of what they had received thus he most deservedly sayth unto them O Foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you c. 3. v. 1. For indeed they seeme bewitched out of theyr senses who to follow the private judgment of some otherwise teachers reject what they had received by the full and still-continued report of all Christianity from the first teachers of the faith 6. They object Tradition to be the word of men but all these arguments shew this Apostolicall Tradition for which only wee now contend to be the word of God A forme of sound words And 1. Thes 2.13 Ye received the word of God which ye heard of us ye received it not as the word of men but as it is in truth the word of God Behold what was heard by them by only word of mouth was in truth the word of God Therefore a fitt Rule of Faith even before it was written 7. They aske how wee know a true Apostolicall Tradition from a false one which is the tradition of men I answer that a true Apostolicall Tradition cometh downe handed by a full unanimous report of all Catholike Nations in all ages attested by thyr universall practise and uniforme doctrine what is thus delivered is the Doctrine of the Church diffused and therefore infallible upoÌ„ this ground for other infallible groundes you have none you receive only such and such Scripture for Canonicall and such and such copies of the Scripture for Authenticall We can therefore to the full as well distinguish true Traditions from false ones or Apostolicall Traditions from Traditions of Ordinary men as you can distinguish the Authenticall copie of theyr writings from such as are forged or corrupted for you must first distinguish the truth of the Tradition which recommend such bookes unto you from all false Traditions THE THIRD POINT Of the never fayling of the Church which beeing perpetuall can preserve perpetuall Traditions Also of succession of true Pastors and Professors 1. IF the Church of Christ could fayle or cease to be it is evident Tradition might fayle and not be preserved in its purity The true Church is both infallible as long as she lasts of which see Point 5 and is allso sure to last to the end of the world Yea she is assured all this time to have a lawful succession of true Pastors and under them true Professors of the faith in a vast number find any such Church besides the Roman if you can and I give you leave to call that the true Church And lest perhaps the great number of powerfull Texts which we are to cite should worke smale effect with minds prepossest with one or two objections to the contrary we will first cleare them and then passe to the manifold cleere Texts which demonstrate the true Church at no time to be in a lurking Invisibility 2. The prime objection is from the wordes of Elias
1. Kinges 18.22 I even I only remaine a Prophet of our Lord. And in the next Chap. v. 10. I even I only am left which again he repeates v. 14. I answer that at lest he is told presently by God v. 18. That there were left in Israël seven thousand men whose knees had not bin bowed before Baal And in the former Chapter it is manifest he knew of an hundred Prophets For v. 13. Abdias told him I hidd of the Prophets of our Lord an hundred men by fifty and fifâ—y in caves Wherefore he knew well that there were many faithfull amongst whom so many Prophets were known to him yea hence it is cleare that he was not the only Prophet left Wherefore those words I only I remaine a Prophet of our Lord are to be understood thus I only I remaine a Prophet standing openly to oppose theyr fury amongst the Apostated Tribes of Israël For Elias knew full well that not all the Children of Israël but only tenne Tribes were faln from God 1. Kinges 12. He knew allso that the still faithfull Tribe of Iuda including Benjamin afforded Roboam an hundred and four seore thousand chosen men to fight against the other revolted tenne Tribes v. 21. which is again repeated 2. Chron. 11. with a notable declaration how much the true Church even then florished in Iuda and Benjamin Roboam himselfe building fifteene cities inclosed with walls And v. 13. the Preestes and Levits that were in all Israël resorted to him out of all theyr coasts And v. 16. Of all the Tribes of Israël whosoever had given theyr heartes to seeke theyr Lord God of Israêl came into Ierusalem to sacrifice and they strengthned the Kingdome of Iuda All this Elias knew very well and also that which follows to witt that Asa reigned over all Iuda in all pietie and peace 2. Chron. 14. And he built other fenced cities in Iuda And v. 8. Asa had of Iuda an army of three hundred thousand and of Benjamin two hundred eighty thousand And he defeated tenn hundred thousand Ethiopians And 2. Chr. 17. Iosaphat who lived in the day 's of Elias was yet greater then Asa his Father both in piety and power For v. 10. The Dread of our Lord came about all the Kingdomes of the Lands that were about Iuda Neither durst they make battell against Iosaphat And he built many strong cities and stupendious was the number of his forces v. 14. of Iudath under Abnath Three hundred thousand and two hundred eighty thousand under Iohanan And two hundred thousand under Amasias And two hundred thousand under Ehada And two hundred eighty thousand under Iosobad All these make Eleven hundred thousand and sixty thousand soldiers And yet the Scripture sayth All these were at the hand of the King besides others whome he had putt in Walled cities in Iuda Behold the Iewish Church even at her lowest ebbe Christ's Church is the Mistris and of higher dignity Wherefore at all times after her beginning you must find me at lest as many visible Professors of her doctrine as the Iewish Church had in her meanest coÌ„ditioÌ„ For the new testameÌ„t is established in far better promisses Heb. 8.6 As also appeares by the texts which here shall be cited All which texts coÌ„vince such a perpetuall coÌ„spicuous and visibly florishing state at all times that no church differing from the RomaÌ„ caÌ„ be shewed to have had any thing like it 3. The other only considerable objection is that perhapes these promises made by God to his Church concerning his allwaise protecting her were made upon this condition that he would do this if she should persever to keep his commandments for so all his promises to David and Salomon are made I answer that it is evideÌ„t that some promises which feeme made to them and their posterity are not to be litterally understood of their posterity according to flesh but as they by grace be sonnes of Christ who was the sonne of David And diverse of these promises are made so absolutly that absolutely they admit of no such condition Take for proof hereof that convincing Text Ps 89.4 I have made a covenant with my chosen I have sworne to David my servant thy seed will I establish for ever and I will build up thy throne to all generations All which is only verified in Christ Who in his Church hath giveÌ„ hâ—m the seate of David his father and he shall reigne in the house of Iacob for ever and of his Kingdome there shall be no end As the Angel sayd Luke 1.32 After this promise of everlasting perpetuity to his Church lest any ony should thinke his promises might be made void by any sins of hers or to be made only upon condition of theyr walking in his commandments he addeth in the same Ps v. 29. And I will putt him the first begotteÌ„ high aboue the kings of the earth I will keepe my mercy unto him for ever and my Testament faithfull unto him I will putt his seede for ever and ever and his throne as the days of heaven But if his Children shall forsake my law this can not be possibly in your doctrine spoken of the Elect and will not walke in my Iudgments If they will prophane my Iustices and not keep my commandments I wil visit theyr iniquities with a Rod and theyr sinnes with stripes But my loving kindness I will not take a way from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail My covenant will I not break nor the thing which is gone out of my Lips Once I have sworn in my holy if I ly to David his seed shall continue for ever And his throne as the Sun in my sight and as the Moon perfect for ever This Text speakes home to prove what I inteÌ„d to witt that these promises be made upon Christ The son of David the son of Abraham Matth 1.1 and as S. Paul teacheth that only those who believe in Christ be the rue children of Israël and Abraham so they only be the true children of David and concerning them is verified the promise which as is here sayed for no fins of theirs shall ever be frustrated Not as though the word of God had takeÌ„ no effect but they that are the Children of the Promisse are counted for the seed Rom. 9.6 4. And in this sense the Sacred Text speakes 2. Sam. 7.16 And thine house and thy Kingdome shall be established for ever before thee thy throne shall be established for ever According to all these wordes did Nathan speake to David So Psalm 72.5 They shall feare thee as long as the Sun and Moone endure through out all generations He shall have dominion allso from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the Earth In whom can these Texts of Scripture be verified but in Christ ever raigning in his Church diffufed even in a florishing condition over the face of the earth According to what is sayd Luke 1.32 The Lord God shall give
And v. 28. And they shall be no more a spoyle to the Gentills Againe Ch. 37. v. 23. Neither shall they be polluted any more in theyr Idolls and I will cleanse them and they shall be my people and I theyr God and my servant David King over them and theyr shall be one Pastour over them all They shall walke in my Iudgments and they shall keepe my commandments and they shall doe them and they shall dwell on the Land which I gave to my servant Iacob themselves and theyr Children and theyr Childrens Children Even for Ever And David my servant Prince for ever And I will make a peace to them an Everlasting Covenant shall be to them and I wâ—ll found them and wil multiply them and will give my sanctification in the middest of them for Ever and the very last verse of the last Chapter The name of the Citty from that Day Our Lord there 8. Clearly allso Daniel Ch. 2. v. 44. In the days of those Kingdomes the God of heaven shall rayse us a Kingdome that shall not be dissipated for ever But still continue in quality of a Kingdome and this Kingdome shall not be delivered to another people and it shall consume all the Idolatrous Kingdomes and it shall stand for ever in quality of a Kingdome There is litle need to passe to the New Testament the old sufficing if any thing will suffice Of Christs Gospell S. Paul says 2. Cor. 4.3 If our Ghospell be hid it is hid to them that are lost Either you must confess your selves lost men or you must say that at no Time Christs Ghospell lay hid so as you could not tell who professed it I insist not in the known places as that the Church Matth. 16.18 Is built upon a Rock that the Gates of Hell shall not provaile against it Again it is evident that she must still be visible in all ages that we may still at any time Tell the Church and heare her Matth. 18.17 and be still fedd by her Doctrine and Sacraments For these be the two essentiall markes of a true Church as Protestants say Hence Ephes Chap. 4 v. 11 He gave some Apostles some Prophets and other some Evangelists and other some Pastors and Doctors c. untill we meete al in the unity of faith which will not be till the worlds end These be the light of the world still sett upon the candlestickes never hidd under a busshel Matth. 5.14 A Cittie upon a hill still to be seen And though the mustard seede was the lest at the beginning yet in the growing it proves a Tree and all fowles repaire to it Matth. 13.32 Yea this must be a Church perpetually continuing in such reverence to our B. Lady that her words must be fullfilled Luc. 1.48 All generations shall call me blessed And v. 33. Her Sonne shall retgne in the house of Iacob for ever and of his Kingdome there shall be no end And so himselfe sayth to his Apostles Matth. 28.20 Behold I am with you all Days even to the consummation of the world His Apostles were not to be in the world even to the end of the world The promise therefore is to be with them in the persons of such as should succed them in teaching and preaching c. Again in the like sense he sayth Iohn 14.16 And he will give another Paraclete that he may abide with you for ever All these Texts demonstrate what we have undertaken to prove And hence it doth unavoidably follow that the Chureh must in all ages have a continuall succession of true Preachers of the word of God and true administration of Sacraments for these two things even according to the 39. Articles of the Church of England are the two essentiall signes or notes of a true Church which must ever accompany her in all ages And if a Church be as S. Cyprian sayth a flock adhering to ther shepherd then as in all ages there is a flock of Christ so there must be a shepherd to whom this flock may and must adhere And therefore a lawfull succession of true Pastors must needs in all ages be found in the Church at lest without any considerable interruption And this is expressed in severall texts here cited Now ponder that this is to be found in no Church but the Roman See more the next Point THE FOVRTH POINT Of the vniversality and vast extent of this perpetuall Church which also must be the converter of Gentiles This no Church differing from the Roman ever was 1. IF the Church were to remaine perpetually in any very small extent or bignesse perhaps we might heare litle newes of her in some ages But te true Perpetuall Church foretold to be in all ages in the Texts now cited is likewise in Scripture no lesse clearly foretold to be in all ages so universally spread aÌ„d so visibly numerous that the very recitall of these Texts is enough to put quite out of countenance any other Church but the Romane especially being that this true Church is so manifestly said to gaine this her vast extent by the multitude of Gentiles which she is to convert to her A thing which evidently must be verified in the true Church and yet is is evideÌ„t that this only is verified in the Roman Church that is no Church but such as was ioyned to her in communion euer converted any one parish of Gentiles 2. The Texts which evidence this vast extent of the true Church are Gen. 13.16 I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth And C. 15. v. 5. Looke up to heaveÌ„ and number the stars if thou canst And he sayd to him so shall thy seed be Again Chap. 22.16 By my owne selfe I have sworne sayth the Lord I will blesse tbee and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is by the sea And in thy seed shall be blessed all Nations of the earth Now Saint Paul tells us Romans 9.8 Not they that are the Children of the flesh of Abraham they are the Children of God but they that are the Children of promise are esteemed for the seed And if still you contend that these Texts are only for the Iewish Church you must allso remember that Christs Church is the Mistris she the Handmayd and that as S. Paul sayes The new Testament is established in farre better promises Hebr. 8.6 And must florish farre more then ever the Iewish Synagog did Hence Apoc. 7.5 S. Iohn after twelve thousand of every Tribe of Israël were signed saw a great multitudes which no man could number of all nations Tribes peoples and tongues But let us goe on 3. David Psal 2.8 Aske of me and I will give thee the Gentills for thy inheritance and thy possession to the end of the earth Psal 22.27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and he converted to our Lord. All the Kindreds ef the nations shall adore in his sight Again Psal 72.7
In his Christs dayes shall the righteous florish so long as the Moone endureth And he shall rule from sea to sea and from the River even to the ends of the round world Yea all the Kings of the earth shall adore him and all nations shall serve him Psal 98.3 All the ends of the earth have seene the saluation of our God Of what Church is this true besides the Roman 4. In this point of the multitude of Gentiles to be converted none more eloquēt and copious then the Prophet Isaias Chap. 2. v. 2. And in the later dayes the new Testament is called the last houre 1. Io. 2.18 the mountaine of the house of our Lord shall be prepared in the topp of mountaines and all nations shall flow unto it and he shall judge the Gentills c. Again Ch. 49. v. 1. Listen ô you Ilands and attend you people from a farr And then v. 6. It is a small thing that thou shouldest be my servant to rayse up the Tribes of Iacob and to convert the Dreggs of Israël it is too too poore a thing for Christ to be authour of so small a Church as the Iewish Church was Behold I have given thee to the light of the Gentills that thou mayest be saluation even to the farthest part of the earth Kings shall see and Princes arise and adore for our Lords sake Behold these shall come from farr and behold they from the north and the sea and these from the south country Lift up thy eyes round about and see all these are gathered togeather thy are come to thee And v. 19. Thy desarts and thy solitary places in which no body before served God and the land of thy ruine shall now be straite by reason of the inhabitants And yet shall the Children of the Barrennesse say in thine eares The place is straite for me make me space to dwell Then v. 22. Behold I will lift up my hands to the Gentills and to the people I will exalt my signes And they shall carry thy Sonns in theyr armes and thy Daughters upon theyr shouldiers And Kings shall be thy nurcing fathers and Queenes thy Nurses With a countenance cast downe to the ground they shall adore thee and they shall licke up the dust of thy feet Kings prostrating themselves at the feet of Christs Vicar and kissing them Again Chap. 54.2 Enlarge the place of thy tents and streetch out the skinns of thy Tabernacles for thou shalt penetrate to the right hand and the left And thy seed shall inherit the Gentills and shall inhabite the desolate Cities Here note that these things were spoken to the Iewish Church telling her how much the future glorie of Christs Church should exceede her and so to her the Prophet sayd in the first verse Payse ô barren woeman which barest not sing prayse and make joyfull noyse because many are the Children of the desolate Gentills more then of her that hath a husband To witt the Synagogue to which he had been so long espoused So that it is flatly against Scripture to make the Church of Christ at any time so barren as the Synagogue was in the dayes of Elias Allthough even then she had in the field farr above an eleven hundred thousand men besides many thousands of soldiers in her walled Cities as we shewed Point 3. n. 2. much more is it against Scripture to make her so litle as not to be visibile or known And therefore again Ch. 60. v. 1. Arise be illuminated Hierusalem because thy light is come and the glorie of our Lord is risen upon thee Gentills shall walke in thy light and Kings in the brightnes of thy rising Lift up thine eyes and see round about all these are gathered togeather they are come to thee Thy sonns shall come from a farr and thy daughters shall rise from thy side Then shalt thou see and abound and thy heart shall be enlarged when the multitude of the sea shall be converted to thee The strenght of the Gentills shall come to thee the inundation of Camells shall couer thee v. 10. The Children of strangers shall build thy walls and theyr Kings shall minister to thee and thy gates shall be open continually never shalt thou be invisible for day and night they shall not be shutt that the strenght of the Gentills may be brought to thee for the nation and the Kingdomes that shall not serve thee shall perish What nations can serve yea and be bound under paine of perishing to serve an invisible church again v. 15. I will make thee an eternall excellency a joy unto generation and generation and thou shalt suck the milk of Gentills and thou shalt be nourished with the teate of Kings Again Ch. 62. v. 2. And the Gentills shall see thy Righteousnes and all the Kings thy glory 5. Ieremie allso every where fully Chap. 30.19 I will multiplie them and they shall not be few and I will glorifie them and they shall not be small Christs Church still shal ever containe a vast number of people Again 31.34 And a man shall no more teach his neightbour and a man his brother saying know our Lord for all shall know me from the lest of them to the greatest sayth our Lord Thus sayth our Lord that gives the Sun for the light of the day the order of the Moone and Starrs for the light of the night If these laws shall faile before me sayth our Lord then allso the seed of Israël shall faile that it be not a nation for ever before me This text cometh convincingly home to prove that this universality shall be perpetuall and no more faile in any age then the light of the Sunne and Moone As long as they last this Church shall be a flourishing Nation for ever For again v. 37 Thus sayth our Lord. If the heavens shall be able to be measured and the foundations of the earth beneath to be searched out I allso will cast away all tht seed of Israël And then in a Metaphore of a Citie built upon hills farr distant from one another he sayes this so vastly extended Citie shall not he plucked up and it shall no more be destroyed for ever which is a gallant expression of the perpetual universality of the Church for ever retaining a vast great extent in any ages whatsoever The same follows Ch. 33. v. 20. Thus sayth our Lord if my covenant with the day can be voide and my covenant with the night that there be no day nor night in theyr time allso my covenant may be made voide with David my servant that there be not a sonne of him to reigne in his throne and Levits and Priests my Ministers Even as the Starrs of heaven cannot be numbred and the sand of the sea be measured so will I multiplie the seed of David my servant and the Levits my Ministers Now if the number of Priests Pastours and Teachers shall be so great at all times how great att all times
publick practice and also upon all occasions taught by word of mouth and expressed in written bookes Thus our common law in England though never written by any lawmaker is notwithstanding by dayly practice most faithfully kept and hath been so for so many hundred yeares by the whole Nation diffused And in this manner the Church diffused keepeth in perpetuall practice and delivereth to her children as infallible truth what was first delivered unto her by commission from God either in writing or by word of mouth The other way of making and delivering Laws is to call togeather the represētative body of the Community So here in England our statute laws are made not onely by the King nor onely by the Parlament but by the order both of King and Parlament And what is thus enacted is the decree of the Natiō representative Now as the represētative of our nation is the King and Parlament so the Church Representative is the chiefe Pastour thereof togeather with a Lawfull generall Councill And the definitions and decrees set forth by their authority be called the definitions and the decrees of the Church Representative All such definitions we Romā Catholicks hold infallible Whither the definition of a Councill alone defining without their chiefe Pastour or the definitions of the chiefe Pastour alone defining without a Councill be infallible or no there be severall opinions amongst us in which we do and may varie without any prejudice to our Faith which is not built upon what is yet under opinion but upon that which is delivered as infallible and we all unanimously hold that to be so which the universall Church Representatiue consisting joyntly of the chiefe Pastour of the sayd Church voting in and with a Generall Councell not that this Representatiue made wholy of men is not of its owne nature subject to errour For this we never affirme And so our adversaries say nothing at all to the purpose whilst they labour to proue this Let thē disproue if they can and that out of Scripture alone that which we say to witt that this Church Representatiue is infallible meerly and purely by the speciall assistance of the Divine Provedence always affording to his Church a sufficient measure of the spirit of truth to lead her into all truth And that he is evcr so surely resolved to do this that no sinns of his Church shall ever hinder him from doeing of it as is most expressly delivered by God himselfe Psalm 89. in the words cited by me at large Point 3. n. 3. Which place the Reader shall find most convincing to prove that notwithstanding all the sinns that shall euer happen in his Church the sunne and moone shall sooner faile then God will faile to provide a successour in Christs throne to governe his Church in the profession of truth so as his faithfulnes shall not faile nor none of his words be frustrated which you shall see delivered again and again in the ensueing places of Scripture All which to the number of thirty I gather to fully because the Protestants exclaime againest nothing more then the Churches claime to infallibility which D. Ferne calls The very bane of Christendome though it be the very ground worke of Christianity For all interpretation of Seripture is fallible if the interpretation of the Church be fallible euen then when she hath carefully conferred Scripture with Scripture 2. And to avoide confusion I will divide these thirty Texts into these three severall sorts The first sort shall containe eyther such as command vs absolutly to follow and obey the Church in such a māner as would wholy misbeseeme God to commaund vs if she could thrust errours vpon vs for Divine verities or such Texts as theach vs to relie more vpon the Church then could prudently be done if she could teach errour The second sort shall containe a multitude of such glorious expressions made every where of the Church as would be most emptie and truthlesse if the Church should ever prove a Mistris of errours and presse them on her children for Divine verities The third and last sort shall be such Texts as plainly affirme Truth to be still taught in the Church and to be intailed vpon her promising she shall not revolt from it but stand still a true piller and ground of Truth 3. Of the first sort of Texts we haue these by which eyther God commaundes vs vniversally to follow his Church or speakes that of his Church which could not be delivered as it is if this Church could erre For example how could God glorie in the multitude of such as follow his Church if by so doeing they should be led into errour And yet Isaias 2. God seemes to glorie in the multitude of those who confidently resort to the Church as to a Mistris of assured Truth to be instructed by her saying v. 3. Let us goe vp to the mountaine of our Lord and he wil teach us his wayes and we shall walke in his pathes and he shall judge among the natiōs Behold Christ erecting a Court or tribunal in his Church to judge amōg natiōs ād decide all their cōtroversies which must needs suppose obediēce to be yeilded to this judgmēt Yea the same Prophet adds c. 54. v. 17. that No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper and every tongue resisting thee in judgment thou shalt condemne And the Prophet there from the beginning manifestly speakes of Christs Church Thirdly Isaias Ch. 60.12 The Nation and Kingdome that will not serve thee shall perish Vnder paine of perishing the Church must be obeyed Whence Fourthly Ezech c 44. v. 23. They that is the Priests shall teach the people what is between a holy thing and a thing polluted and the difference between clēane and vncleane They shall shew them and when there shall be controversie they shall stand in judgment and shall judge according to my judgments This being their office the peoples office must needs be not to judge them but obey them 4. Whence Fiftly Christ Matt. 18.17 commands all to obey the Church vnder paine of being held here on earth as Publicās and Heathens and of haveing this sentence ratifyed in heauen Tell the Church sayth he and if he will not heare the Church let him be vnto thee as a Heathen and a Publican Amē I say vnto you whatsoever you shall bind on Earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever you shall loose vpon earth shall be loosed also in heaven Here you see obedience to be yeilded vnder paine of being held as a Publican or an Heathen and this sentence to be ratified in heaven Now if the Church could erre in theaching for example that Christ is truly present in the Sacrament and hence oblige all to adore him there in as much as they adore him in heauē and could oblige them to this vnder paine of being held as Publicans and Heathens ād held so as well in heaven as vpon earth surely this cānot be an errour
that knows God heareth us 9. Tenthly In declaring the true meaning of the true Scriptures the practise and doctrine of the Church is necessary to be followed as a certaine Guide For example When Christ sayd Doe this in remembrance of me He did impose sayth the Church a true commaund to doe so Yet though Christ no lesse cleerly sayd Iohn 13.14 That we ought to wash one anothers feete for I have given you an example that as I have done So you allso should doe He did not impose sayth the Church any commaund obliging vs to wash one anothers feete For though he sayd we ought to wash one an others feete yet by the practise and doctrine of the Church it is assuredly declard to vs that these words of Christ containe no precept though the former do 10. Eleventhly The same Apostle in his first Epistle Chap. 2.19 after that concerning Heretikes he had sayd They went out from us He turnes his speach to those who still remained in the Church subject and obedient to it and of them he sayth But you have the unction from the Holy one and know all things To witt the spirit of truth residing in the Church to teach her all truth maketh you who are guided by the Church to know all things necessary for your information and instruction 11. Twelfly It is grounded in this infallibility of the Church that her Prelates may exact obedience of her Children in captivating theyr understanding to the faith which she by commission from Christ delivereth unto them 2. Cor. 10.4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God casting downe Imaginations or Reasonings and every thing that exalts it selfe against the knowledg and bringing into captivity All understanding unto the obedience of Christ and haveing in a readines to revenge all disobedience So S. Paul But it is most irrationall to say God should impower his Church to force men to follow a Church which being fallible must needs confesse that she may deceive you and enforce you to follow errors Yet this in a Church haveing the infallible assistance of the Holy Ghost is most rationall For there you are to your apparent good enforced to follow truth in place of such error as might be most hurtfull to you Thirteenthly The same S. Paul tells vs that God out of an expresse intention which he had to keepe vs from all wavering and vnsetlement in faith resolved so to assist the Governours of his Church that we might securely relye upon them For Ephes 4 11. He gave some Apostles and some Prophets and other some Evangelists and other some Pastours and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the worke of the ministery for the edifying of the Body of Christ untill we all come into the unity of faith To what end all this to the end that we hence forth be no more Children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftines from which his Providence had not thus secured vs vnles these our Teachers had beē infallible whē defining in a lawfull councill or proposing what is universally taught by them 12. The second sort of Texts proving the infallibility of the Church conteines such glorius Titles given her or such admirable things spoke by Gods own mouth of her as must needs be vain empty and truthles words if the Church ever prove to be a Mistris of errors obtruding them to her Children for divine verities First Psal 132.13 Our Lord hath chosen Sion he hath chosen it for an habitation unto himselfe This is my rest for ever and ever Here will I dwell because I have chosen it Now Christs dwelling place as S. Paul tells vs is his visible Church 1. Tim. 3.15 That thou mayest know how to converse in the house of God The Church of the liveing God He could not be taught how to converse in an invisible Church he speakes then of the Church visible Farr be it from this house to be a store house of errors For how then could it be Christs desirable Habitation and his rest for ever and ever 13. Again Isa 54.4 Feare not for thou shalt not be ashamed neyther be thou confounded for thou shalt not be put to shame What greater shame or confusion to a Church which should be the Pillar and ground of truth to see herselfe growne now to professe open superstition Idolatry and other pernicious errors in whole swarmes How then is that true which follows 14. Thirdly Isai 60.15 I will make thee an eternall excellency a ioy of many generations Fourthly v 18. Thou shalt call thy walls saluation our Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light Thy Sunne shall goe downe no more and thy Moone shall be no more diminished because our Lord shall be thine everlasting light Words manifestly spoken not of the Elect but of the visible Church on earth even from the beginning of the Chapter for v 10. he tells how Kings should minister to her and how he had struck her when she was the Synagogue in his indignation Which words cannot be understood of the elect or the invisible Church and so he goes still on speaking 15. Fiftly In the like sense Chap. 62. v. 3. Thou shalt be a crowne of glory thou shalt be no more called forsaken as thou wert when thou wert the Synagogue but thou shalt be called my delight in her And sixtly to secure her from all error contrary to his will he adds v. 6. Vpō thy walls Hierusalem I have appointed watchmen And how careles soever thy be by theyr owne nature yet by my continuall assistance all the day and all the night for ever they shall not hold theyr peace To witt by crying downe errours For they had better have held theyr peace that preached publickly errours every where And v. 12. Thou shalt be called a Citie sought for and not forsaken And yet Protestants say they did laudably forsake every visible Church vpon earth by adhering to Luther and his followers who did separate themselves from all Churches visible in the whole world openly professing that as then there was no one Church on earth worth seeking for and so they did not joyne themselves in Communion with any Church then vpon earth but pretended to returne to the Primitive Church as it was above a thousand yeares before which is to say that for this whole last thousand yeares the Church was a Citie forsaken and that for so long her Communion was not to be sought for 16. Seventhly There is a very convincing text to prove the Church to be by divine Providence assuredly provided of faithfull Pastours and Governors Ierem. 33. v. 25 If I have not put my Covenant to night and day and laws to the heaven and earth then will I cast away the seed of Iacob and David my servant that I doe not take from his seed Princes to be Rulers over the seed of Abraham Isaac
many nor halfe so cōvincing Texts cā be alleaged against it And yet grāt this and you must grāt all Note that besides these 30. Texts here alledged I have allso all those numerous and most full Texts related at large Point 3. For whatsoever proves that the true Church cannot faile to be a true church proves allso her infallibility For truth of doctrine is essentiall to a true Church If therefore by being fallible and erring the whole Church could recede from the true doctrine of Christ it manifestly follows that the whole Church could faile to be a true Church contrary to these most expresse Scriptures there plentifully alledged 23. Most impertinent is the distinction which our adversaries use to avoide the force of these Texts They say that the Church may be taken in two wayes first for the visible Church containing all beleevers as well reprobate as elect and this Church they say may erre Secondly for the invisible Church which only containes the elect and this they say cannot erre But this is a palpable contradiction if well noted For this invisible Church of the elect which as you say cannot erre is contained in the visible Church in which as you say both reprobate and elect are contained which visible Church you allso say may wholy erre But if the whole visible Church wholy erre then allso the elect contained in it may erre or if they cannot erre thē many in the visible Church cannot erre And yet you cannot find many in any Church visible vpon earth whome you can shew on the one side to have differed from the beleefe of the Roman Church and on the other to have been guarded from errour as those who make the true Church must be Again I have shewed that many Texts here by me cited speake clearly of the visible Church THE SIXT POINT That the Roman Church is this infallible Church and our judge in all points of Controversie 1. THough this Question seemes to import as much as the certaine decision of all our Controversies yet haveing been so long in the former Point we are able to give in a word full satisfaction in this For no man will denye the Church which is proved to be infallible to be the most commodious decider of all Controversies For what can a man wish more to the right decision of his Controversie then a cleare sentence delivered there in by an infallible authority 2. All that can be imagined against what hath been sayd is this That we have not as yet proved the Roman Church to be infallible We have indeed proved the true Church to be so but there seemes a vast labour to remaine to prove the Roman Church to be this true infallible Church and consequently the decider of all Controversies I most earnestly therefore begg of my Reader to note well this one short demonstration and he will see how evidently convincing it is to prove home our full intent even in a word 3. My demonstration is this No Church can be the true infallible Church and decider of all Controversies which teacheth herselfe to be fallible For if any such Church be infallible in all that she teacheth she is infallible allso in teaching herselfe to be fallible And hence it followeth that infallibly such a Church is fallible but every Church in the world but the Romā teacheth herselfe to be fallible wherefore by evident demonstration no other Church upon earth can be infallible But the true Church is infallible as hath been proved by no fewer then thirty Texts therefore by evident consequence the Roman Church by all those Texts is proved the only true Church and our Iudge in all our Controversies THE SEAVENTH POINT That the Chiefe Pastour of this Church is the successor of S. Peter 1. THe old Testament helps vs thus farr in this Point that it teacheth first that amongst the Priests of the old law one was chosen successively to be the highest and chiefe Priest Num. 3.32 The Prince of Princes of the Levitts Eliazar the sonne of Aaron the Priest And Num. 27.21 If any thing be to be done for Iosue theyr Governour Eliazar the Priest shall consult our Lord. At his word shall he Iosue go out and go in and all the rest of the Children of Israël with him By going in and going out all the principall actions are vsually vnderstood in Scripture In those actions therefore God would have Iosue and all the people to depend on the high Priest When then we read Iosue 3.8 that Iosue did commaund the Priests and that Ch. 5. he appointed Circumcision to be ministred and that Ch. 24. he renewed God's Covenāt c. he is to be supposed therin as in all his principall actions to have proceeded according to the above cited Text only executing that which God by Eleazar the Priest had ordeined him to do For example to command the Priests to go with the Arke into Iourdan to administer Circumcision to renew the Covenant with God c. Again when Princes are allso Prophets as Iosue David Salomon and some others were they might have some extraordinary commission to do and order severall things which belong not to the ordinary Iurisdiction of temporall Princes So Kings 2.27 Salomon cast out Abiather that he should not be the Priest of our Lord yet this was done that the word of our Lord might be fullfilled which he spake concerning the house of Helle. Salomon allso as a Prophet by extrordinary commission v. 35. Placed sadoe the Priest for Abiathar 2. Secondly wee have cleerly in the old Testament the distinction of the chiefe Ecclesiasticall and chiefe secular Power 2. Chr. 19.11 And behold Amariath the chiefe Priest is over you in all matters of the Lord that is Ecclesiasticall affaires Then for temporall or secular affayres Zebediath the Ruler of the house of Iudah for all the Kings matters whence it is cleare that the former causes are not matters which aperteine to the Kings 3. Thirdly we have the old law Deut. 17. v. 8. commanding all such causes as are Ecclesiasticall causes to be brought to the Tribunall of the High Priest and his sentence to be obeyed even vnder paine of death I call them Ecclesiasticall causes because the former Text sayth they be matters of the Lord and distinct from matters of the King 4. Fourthly we have out of the new Testament this vnanswerable Text concerning the high Priests even of the old law Matth. 23.2 Vpon the chaire of Moyses have sitten the Scribes and Pharisees all therefore whatsoever they shall say unto you observe and doe it No wikedness of the high Priests his person shall excuse your obedience if he sitt vpon the chaire of Moyses Moyses was not only a secular Prince but allso the first high Priest amongst the Iewes Moyses and Aaron amongst his Priests Psal 99.6 Now those who succeed Moyses as he was high Priest are sayd to sitt upon the chaire of Moyses for as he was the secular Prince of the
people Iosue in that dignity did succeed him But he had but part of his glory so Num. 27. v. 18. Take Iosue the sone of Nun a man in whome it the spirit and put thy hand upon him who shall stand before Eliazar Priest and thou ô Moyses shalt put some of thine honour upon him Now the one part of Moyses his honour was to be a secular Prince and commander in chiefe In this dignity Iosue did succeed him But in Levit. Ch. 8. God commanded Moyses to inuest Aaron with the other part of his dignity which was to be High Priest But when Aaron now came to dye God sayd to Moyses Num. 20.26 Take Aaron and his sonne with him and when thou hast unvested the father of his vestiture thou shalt revest therewith Eleazar his sonne Moyses did as our Lord commanded him And thus successively God provided his Church of high Priests Neither for the wikedness of any of them did he cease to governe his Church by them even by heavenly and supernaturall assistance As bad as Cayphas was yet because he was the high Priest he did prophesy Io. 11.51 He sayd not this of himselfe but beeing the high Priest of that yeare he prophesyed that Iesus should dye for the Nation 5. The old law beeing now transferred to the new it was necessary that the Priesthood allso should be transferred these two going togather Hebr. 7.12 wherefore the new law beeing the Lady the old the hand maide as S. Paul speakes the new law allso according to him beeing established upon better promisses Hebr. 8.6 we may with all ground in Scripture expect to see Christs church ever provided of such high Priests as shall by his bounty have many advantages above the high Priests of the old law Christ then intending to build his new church he called to him even amongst the first of his Apostles Simon and presently changed his name into Cephas which is interpreted Peter a Rock Io. 1.42 To this Simon Matth. 16.18 he sayth Thou art Peter which in that language which Christ spoke is as much as to say Thou art a Rock and vpon this Rock I will build my Church The wisest of men designes a sure Rock for the everstanding building of his church in the midst of all windes and waves if any one say that Christ himselfe is a Rock so as not to communicate this Rock-like firmity of his allso to S. Peter he flatly contradicts Christs saying Thou art a Rock and upon this Rock I will build my Church If any man should take a fayre stone in his hand and say Thou art a fayre goodly solid stone and upon this stone I intend to rayse a Chappel Who would conceive this man in the last part of his speach to point at any other stone thē that which he had in his hand True it is that Christ is the fundation yet with out any dishonour to him nay to the increase of his honour he communicateth that very title of fundation to others So Eph. 2.20 we are sayd Built upon the fundation of the Apostles and Prophets Iesus Christ beeing the thiefe corner stone Christ then is the chiefe Rock of an everlasting perpetuity and this by his owne vertue S. Peter is a Rock standing firme everlastingly not by his owne vertue but by the vertue of Christ and made thus not for his owne sake but for Christs churches sake Christ intending that this his church should stand for ever as I proved Point 3. Whence Christ adds upon this Rock I will build my Church We willingly grāt that the church was to be built not upon the shoulders of S. Peter but vpon his faith yet his faith must not be taken as separated from his person but it must be taken as the thing chiefly regarded in his person for which to him personally this dignity was given yet given chiefly for the perpetuall good of the church to be built upon him Wherefore lest the building should be shattered at his death this firme perpetuity of a Rock that is this saith of his which Christ prayed should never fayle Luc. 22.32 was to be derived to his lawfull successors as the chaire of Moyses ever had the successors of Moyses sitting in it for no well ordered common wealth is destitute of sufficient meanes still to provide her of her lawfull Heads and Governours appointed her successively And as it is not enough to say Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords therefore the civil commō wealth needs no other King or Lord. So it seems farr greater non-sense to say that because Christ is the chiefe head and Priest of the church therefore we vpon earth need no other head to governe such a common wealth as the Church is conteining so many severall people of so many nations natures customes and dispositions as be foūd frō the rising of the sūne to the going downe of the same though this so farr spread common-wealth were intended from the beginning to last as long as the Sunne and Moone It was then for this his churches sake that some one was ever to be first and Chiefe in it 6. Now sayth S. Matthew numbring the Apostles Princes of the Church The names of the twelve Apostles be these The first Simon who is called Peter Matth. 10.2 And so in all places where the Apostles are counted as Iudas is allwaise the last so S. Peter is counted first and as it was sayd of Eliazar that he was the Prince of Princes of the Levites Num. 3.32 So amongst the spirituall Princes of Christs Church S. Matthew doth not only count him first but plainly says he was the first The first Simon who is called Peter He was neither the first in order of calling to the Apostle shipe nor in age For his Brother Andrew was before him in both these Io. 1. Again to signifie that he was the head and chiefe in ordinary Christ sayd to him Matth. 16.19 And to thee will I give the Keyes of the Kingdome of heavē For though the power of loosing and binding was afterward given to the other Apostles Iohn 20.23 yet the Keyes of the Kingdome of heaven are never in Scripture sayd to be given to any but to S. Peter The giving of the Keyes is wel knowne to signifie naturally the supreme Rule in a citty or familie Hēce the Keyes of the citty are offered to the chiefe Governours at theyr entrance So allso the Keye of the house of David is given to Christ being to reigne in the house of David for ever Here Christ giveth the Keyes to S. Peter as to his successor in the house of God which is the Church of the living God 1. Tim. 3.15 By these Keyes is signified the plenitude of highest power 7. Again Iohn 21.15 Simon of Iohn lovest thou me more then these Feed my lambes And yet again v. 17. Feed my sheepe Note that he would not have required greater love in Peter rather then in any of the rest nor
his flesh to be eaten in a meere signe or figure of it had S. Peter thought this I dare say he would have pulled the other disciples backsaying our master only speaks of giving a signe of his body Had this been so then allso vndoubtedly the other Evangelists when they had come to write of this mystery which had scandalized so many before theyr writing would not have encreased the scandal by writing so vnanimously of this Sacrament in words sounding so loud a litterall sense as these do This is my body this is my blood But they would rather have lessned the difficulty by declaring it only to be a figure which they might have done in a word S. Paul was so farre from declaring it to be so that 1. Cor. 11. v. 27. he flatly saith Therefore whosoever shall eate this bread and drink the Chalice of our Lord unworthily he shall be guilty of the Body and Blood of our Lord. Which could not be vnlesse he received the Body and Blood truly and not in a figure only To eate a Paper picture of Christ makes no such heinous guilt though it be done by a sinner and it be allso a figure of his body 4. S. Luke allso had been particularly to blame in encreasing the scandal by expressing so clearly a litterall sense Chap. 22. v. 19. This is my body which is givē for you This cup is the new Testamēt in my Blood which Chalice shall be shedd for you I say which Chalice that is that which is cōteyned in the Chalice shall be shed for you Now wine was not shed for vs but his true blood His true blood therefore was the thing cōteined in the Chalice For though by the Latine or English words we can not tell whether Christ sayd his blood should be shed for thē or the Chalice or Cup yet S. Luke writing in Greek makes it evidēt to all who know that language that he sayd the Chalice should be shed for us for he speakes in the nominative case by a word which can not agree with the blood which in Greek is the dative Now thus having proved that Christ literally sayd This is my body I have proved allso that this is not bread For it is his body which is as good a consequence as this this is a stone therefore it is not bread Or this is not bread for it is a stoone 5. Coming now out of Scripture to answer the chiefe okjections I begin with one which doth afford me a new strong argument They object then Idolatry to vs for adoring that which is bread I answer that according to Scripture Idolatrie can not be found in the only visible Church of Christ for Scripture sayth clearly of this Church Ifa 2.18 And Idolls shall be utterly abolisht Again Ezech. 36.25 And I will power upon you cleane water c and from all your Idols will I cleanse you And in the next Chapter v. 23. Neither shall they defile themselves any more in theyr Idols Again Micheas Chap. 5.12 Thou shalt no more adore the works of thy hands Again Zachar. 13. v. 1. In that day shall be a fountaine lying open to the house of David And it shall be in that day sayth the Lord of Hosts I will cast of the names of Idols out of the Land and they shall be remembred no more Hence I argue thus In the whole visible Church there continued and doth still continue adoration of the Sacrament but Idolatry did not continue in the whole Church visible therefore adoratiō of the H. Sacramēt is not Idolatry Moreover if worshipping this H. Sacrament were Idolatry all Christianity for many ages practizing this adoration had committed Idolatry and Christs Church for so many ages had quite failed as is cleare out of the third and fourth point For Christ had no other Church for many ages but that which every where practized this Idolatry as you miscall it Or tel mee if you can what other visible Church Christ had vpon earth different from the Roman in faith and worshipe for the thousand yeares before Luther If this be the only visible Church Christ had vpon earth then I have proved it could not be guilty of Idolatry 6. Against such a torrent of Scripture as we have for vs you ground yourselues not in Scripture but in Philosophy which tried by Scripture will be found to faile you in all your objections First then you object that an accident can not be without a substance Wee answere out of Gen. 1.3 God sayd be light made and light was made Light is a quality or accident Yet hence S. Basil S. Greg. Naz. and Theodoret are of opinion that light was without any subject at all for the Scripture specifyes no subject in which it was put Whence followes that at lest they must needs think it possible that light should be without a subject Secondly you object that the same body of Christ can not be multiplied so often over We answere again out of Gen 2.21 Our Lord God cast a dead sleepe upon Adam and whē he was fast a sleepe he tooke one of his ribbs and filled up flesh for it And our Lord God built the ribbe which he tooke of Adam into a woeman I aske how many times over must this one ribbe be multiplyed before a whole woeman of a comely proper stature could be made up of it After the same manner God can of one ordinary brick make a pillar of many foote high by multiplying that one brick In the like manner our Saviour multiplyed those five Barley loaves with which he fed above five thousand men Io. 6. For if he made new loaves he did not feede them with those five but with those many hundred new loaves which he made and yet the Scripture sayth v. 12.13 After they were filled they gathered the remnants and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves and not of any new loaves created by Christ so that the bread which was eaten remained still to be eaten And it is worth our noting that our Saviour did this miracle immediatly before he did first declare this strange doctrine of giving his flesh to be eaten like bread by every one that so when he should presently declare this strange doctrine they should have no reason to disbelieve the possibility thereof For his disciples seeing that he had done that most prodigious miracle so very lately ought not presently to have sayd This is hard and who can heare it Neither ought they so soone to have walked a part from him as there S. Iohn sayth they did but rather they ought to have sayd with S. Peter We believe and know thou art the Sonne of God able to make they words good as thou wart able so to multiply so few loaves 7. Hence appeares a solution of that which allso they still object one body can not be in two places at once For if whole Eve were made of one ribbe of Adam as the
this power was allso givē to Thomas Whence appeares that it was not givē only to those who then were present as a grant givē meerly for theyr sakes and to encrease theyr authority but this grace was givē for the sake of all belonging to Christs flock of which flock the farre greater number lived after the times of the Apostles 3. That this text is litterally to be understood as I have interpreted it may be demonstratively prooved by the same argumēt by which we prooved that Text This is my body to be litterally understood P. 12. n. 2. For if the Apostles with the first faith did not deliver this litterall sense but only taughr this power to end with them and that no man after theyr dayes either had power to forgive sins or stood obliged to confesse them then you must say that in some after age some one man began first for allwaies one begins at first to vent a broad these two straunge things first that all Priests had power to forgive sins Secondly that all Christians guilty of sin were bound under paine of damnation to confesse theyr sins to the Priests though they were never so foul or never so secret But shall any one man make me believe that this single mans doctrine so new and so hard could presently without contradiction grow to be so generally received and practized not in one but in all parts of Catholike Christianity And that no history should tell us who this man was where or when he broached this doctrine Or how he could so bewitch all that no man should contradict him or that no one should have grace or witt to say If Priests had this power or if all Christians had this strict obligation surely the Apostles and theyr successours would have made this known and they would have made both Priests and Christians do theyr duty in this kind For they only saying this would have then been enough to have stopped this mans mouth Neither is the Doctrine of Confession or the practise of it so easy to be brought in that it could possibly be thus silently and speedily entertained yea and entertained all the Christian world over without contradiction or opposition even so much as in any one single place for we no where heare of any such contradiction 4. I know after Confession was every where practized that the Novatian Heretiks did oppose it saying that it was a dishonour to God that man should forgive sins But all Catholicks hould this to be an Heresie in them And S. Ambrose sayth to them Luk 1. c. 7. Why should it be more a dishonour to God or be more inconvenient that man should forgive sins by Pennance then by Baptisme seeing it is the Holy Ghost who in both cases doth it by the ministery of the Priests So he In Baptisme the Priest says I Baptise thee that is I wash thee I aske from what surely from sin according to that Act. 22.16 Rise up and be baptized and wash away thy sins I aske again can your Priests or Ministers wash sin away You will answer that they can administer the Sacrament which washeth sin away and so they wash away sin not by theyr own power but as Ministers of Christs Sacraments Iust so each Priest sayeth I absolve thee yet our Priests absolve not by theyr owne power but as Ministers of Christ they administer the Sacramēt of absolution which cancels all sinns Lastly I observe that when Christ did forgive the Paralitick his sins Matth. 9. the multitude was so farr from saying this was a dishonour to God that the multitude glorified God who gave such power unto men v. 8. THE XVII POINT Of the Sacrament of Extreme vnction 1. THe very name of this Sacrament is grown even vnheard of to us here in England who boast so much of the word of God And yet according to the word of God there is not any Sacrament at all which can be more manifestly proved a true Sacrament thē this both in regard of the outwatd or visible signe or in regard of the invisible grace This visible signe is proved evidently to have been instituted by our Saviour because no body but he could annex the guift of of invisible grace to this visible signe to which signe most cleare Scripture doth testifie this grace to be annexed For so we read Iam. 5.14 Is any man sick among you Lett him bring in the Priests of the Church and lett them pray over him annoynting him with oyle in the name of our Lord. Behold the visible outward signe of this Sacrament And in the next words behold the invisible grace annexed there unto And if he be in sins they shall be remitted him Now good Protestant give me leave to aske thee this one question is there any time in which it more imports a man to have so good a warrant as Gods word is for the remission of his sins then in the time of his departure out of this world Behold then here a meanes to obteyne this remission even at this very time and this meanes warranted by the very word of God And yet without any ground at all in Gods word you have rejected a thing so importing all Christians though you found the practice of all Christianity to be cōformable to the words as they sound how doth this stand with your pretence of reforming our errours by the Rule of Scripture you go so flatly contrary to cleare Scripture even in a point of abolishing a Sacrament which was used by all the Catholick Church before your Reformation and having so clear a Text for it and no one single Text against it 2. To take away the force of this Text first in place of Priests you are pleased against all antiquity to read Elders because the Greek word that signifieth Priests in vulgar use signifieth Elders Now this is as ridiculous as if one would say The Bigger of the Cittie in place of saying the Major of the Citty because the word Major signifyeth the Bigger or as if for the like cause you would call a Doctor of Physick a teacher of Phisick wheras a Doctor is well known to signifie such a degree as allso a Major is notoriously known to signify a secular office or dignity in a citty so the name put in Greek for a priest Presbyteros is as notoriously known to signifie a Priest endued with a Priestly order office and function in the Church of God Whence this name is improperly trāslated Elder whē speach is manifestly of Church affaires as here speach is of some Ministery or other at which sins are forgiven 3. I know that those who graunt that here is a command for Counsels you will have none to use annoynting of the sick with true oyle pretend that this was commanded to be done only for obteyning a miraculous Cure A doctrine full of absurdities The first of which is novelty The second is flatt contradiction to the Text expressing the chief effect to be
is or can be due to those sinns yet Christ out of his Prudence and Iustice thought fit to order so that this full fruit of his Passion should not be applyed to any but such as should performe severall things which he requires at theyr hands for this effect Not that there is neede of this to supply any want of value in his Passion but there is neede to do all this to fullfill on our parts the Covenant and conditions upon which this benefitt is graunted As you must say of all those five severall things which you yourselves require to be superadded by us on our part that we may enjoy the full fruit of his Passion To these five things we Roman Catholicks adde a sixth and we have Scripture for this sixth as well as you have for the other five That sixth thing is that Christ requires of us severall penall and laborious works which though in themselues and as they meerely proceede from us they have no sufficient proportion to cancell the paines due unto our sins as allso you must confesse all that is done by us in Baptisme or in believing or in repenting or in receaving his body or in endeavouring to keepe his Law hath allso no such proportion yet each of them have vertue to this effect But this vertue is meerely from the vertue of the Passion of our Saviour which is communicated to us by the performance of these things For wee so magnify the vertue of our Saviours Passion that we say a most satisfactory vertue or a speciall efficacy to cancel paine due to sinns is not only communicated by it to Faith but the like efficacy in order to this effect is by the same Passion communicated to our painfull and laborious works of fasting hayrecloath watching praying almesdeedes and therefore this our doctrine is so farre from derogating to our Saviours Passion that it honoureth it more then yours which doth deny the Passion of our Saviour this praise of being sufficient to elevate and rayse our poore endeavours of satisfying to any ability of making reall satisfaction 3. The force and vertue of these actions was well known to H. David who did practice them so much as I shewed in the last point n. 4. His knees were weakned with fasting he laboured in sighing he every night washed his bed and watered his couch with his teares The voice of his perpetuall groaning for his sins with other austerities joyned therewith made his boanes cleave to his skin he being meerely skin and boanes for did eate ashes as bread and mingle his drinke with his most frequent teares he gave himselfe to prayer night and day Every night washing his bed with teares rysing at midnight to confesse to our Lord and then preventing the dawning of the day by the cry of his morning prayers Seven times in the day he sayd praise to God all this he did being a King Almesdeeds may seeme lesse wonderfull in a Royall person yet his bountifull Almes considering the charge of so continuall warrs were even incredible Towards the building of the Temple 1. Chron. 22. v. 14 Behold sayth he I in my trouble prepared the charges of the house of our Lord. Of Gold a hundred thousand talents and of silver a thousand thousand talents and of brasse and of iron without weight for the number is surpassed by the greatnesse timber and stoanes I have prepared to all the charges To all this in the 29. Ch. v. 3 Above all these things which I have offered into the house of my God I give of myne owne peculiar goods gold and silver unto the Temple of my God besids those things which I have prepared for the Holy House Three thousand talents of the gold of Ophir and seven thousand talents of most approved sylver Thus he excelled in all the three satisfactory works Fasting Prayer and Almesdeeds to which three all other satisfactory works are reduced Who commaunded David this The excellency of his Charity to God 4. In like manner Iob of himselfe I abhorre my selfe and repent in dust and ashes Iob 42.6 And as for Almes c. 31. v. 17. If I have eaten my morsels alone and the pupil hath not eaten with me If his sydes have not blessed me and he was not warmed with the fleeces of my sheepe The straunger tarryed noth without my doore was open to the wayfaring man If I have bene affrayde of a very great multitude In another place he was an eye to the blinde a staff to the lame c. Of Holy Iudiths actions we spoake in the former point Heare what is sayd to that wicked King by Daniel 4.24 Wherefore ô King lett my counsel be acceptable to thee break of thy sinns by rightiousnesse and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poore Behold the sinns even of Nabuchodonozar might be cancelled by Almes For Prov 16.6 By Mercy and truth iniquity is purged Ioë 2.12 Convert to me in all your hart in fasting and in weeping and in mourning and rent your harts and not your garments Ionas 3 5. The men of Ninive proclaymed a fast and were cloathed with sackcloath c. And God saw theyr works and had mercy c. Why He saw theyr works 5. In the new Testament we are exhorted to approve our selves Ministers of God in labours in watching in fasting in Chastity 2. Cor. 6.4 We have S. Iohn Baptist neither eating nor drinking Matth. 14. His Disciples fasting often Christ promising that after his death his allso should fast as S. Iohns did that is should fast often Matth. 9.15 We have S. Anne by fasting and prayers serving night and day Luk. 2.37 S. Paul chastizing his body his Disciple Timothy drinking still water And as for Almes after so many woës denounced to the most uncleane Scribes and Pharises Christ himselfe sayth But yet what remayneth give Almes and behold all thinges are cleansed unto you Luk. 11.41 So that to cleanse them by his blood he would have theyr Almes joyned with the vertue of his blood which blood gave this cleansing power to theyr Almes And S. Paul promiseth us Rom. 8.17 That we may be Heyres of God and Ioyntheyres with Christ if so be we suffer with him that we may allso be glorified with him Note the condition if so be that we suffer Though Christs suffering of its owne selfe be more then enough yet he will have ours joyned upon these tearmes he covenants to communicate the full fruit of his Passion to us and therefore without this be done on our part something is sayd to be wanting to the Passion of Christ in order to its full effect 6. This is cleare out of Col. 1.24 I Paul who now reioyce in suffering for you and do fill up what is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body which is the Church Notwithstanding Christs Passion as I declared n. 1. and 2. some scores are left behind so that some things are wanting not wanting on Christs part
but Christ requyres them to be done our part for they be our scores which be thus behind untill we shall have done all that he hath ordayned that we should doe to be partakers of the full fruit of his Passion in order to the cancelling of paines due for our sinns And we must either by our selves fill up what is behind or accomplish these things which want of the Passion of Christ to this effect or our charitable Brothers must by theyr suffering for us helpe us out as S. Paul here sayth he did helpe out the Coliossians by his suffering for them So that if we be fellows in his Passion we shall be fellows in his Resurrection and gloy Rom. 8.17 7. The obtayning of this remission of all sinns and of all paines due to these sinns which are committed after Baptisme is not done with that facility and easines with which all this was done in Baptisme but it is a thing requires much labour and paine Heb. 10.26 For if we sin willingly after the knowledge of truth receaved there is not left an Host for sins Wherefore though it be most true which was there sayd v. 14. By one oblation he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Yet the true meaning of that text is that he hath done this in that manner which he in his prudence and justice hath thought fitt that is he hath by that one oblation so perfected them for ever that they to be partakers of this consummated perfection compleated on his part must do all things which he exacts to be done on theyr parts that is believe repent resolue to keepe or endeavour to keepe the Commaundements If thus disposed they superadde Baptisme all is perfected wholy supposing theyr perseverance But if we sin after this Baptisme in which we professe the knowledge of the truth receaved there is now not an Host for sin that is the Host of Christ Crucified which is the oblation consummating them for ever is not left to witt it is not left to cancel and cleanse our sins so easily as before For none can again be baptized in cold water but wee must be rebaptized in the hott water of our teares in the baptisme of pennance for so the Scripture calls pennance in fasting sackcloath watching praying almesdeeds or else we must smart in Purgatory as by Scripture wee shall now prove THE XXV POINT Of Purgatory and prayer for the Dead 1. SOme are so ignorant in the understanding of Scripture that if they find not there the name of Purgatory they presently conclude that according to Scripture there is no such thing as Purgatory This is as great simplicity as it would be to deny the most Blessed Trinity because this name cannot be found in all the Scripture old or new Such men are to be taught that any thing is sufficiently proved out of Scripture if the Scripture can be shewed to contain such principles as cannot be true unlesse it be true allso that there is a Purgatory 2. I say then the Scripture holds forth vnto ut three severall principles all which three must be false unlesse we grant a Purgatory For first if any Scripture teach that although our sins be forgiven us whensoever we truly repent but yet that they are only forgiven so that all the paines due to them be not allwayes forgiven them together with these sins then that very Scripture teacheth us allso that there is a Purgatory because it may often happen that he to whom all sins were forgiven did depart this life before that all the paines due to those his sins were remitted These pains being due by divine Iustice and not being cancelled by any satisfaction made for them in this world it evidently follows that divine Iustice must exact the payment of them in the next world but not in Hell because no man is condemned to Hell who did truly repent for his sin Therefore some other place or state must needs be granted in which such a soule is to pay those temporall punishments which are yet due to her by divine Iustice This place or state is that which we call Purgatory 3. Secondly if any Scripture teach vs that we may live and dye with such sins as be not damnable but only deserve temporall punishment and not eternall that Scripture allso must needs teach us Purgatory which is nothing else but a place in which souls departed suffer only for a time and not for eternity 4. Thirdly if any Scripture teach us to pray for the dead that very Scripture teacheth us a Purgatory For prayers for the dead are unnescessary to those who are in heaven and unprofitable to such as are in Hell Those dead then who can receive help and relief by our prayers must neither be in heaven nor in Hell but in a third place which we call Purgatory My work then is done if I can shew that these three principles beheld forth unto us in Holy Scripture Yet fourthly we shall add severall other Texts in proofe of Purgatory 5. Let us now begin with the first principle and let us shew how the Scripture teacheth us that full often after the sin it self is forgived there do remain some pains yet due even to that sin We are all born in Originall sin This sin is quite forgiven to many children wether it by the faith of theyr parents as in the Law of nature or by Circumcision as in the old Law or by Baptisme as in the new And yet those very infants to whom this sin is forgiuen do notwithstanding for the selfsame forgiven sin suffer the punishment of death due unto them for no other cause but for that very originall sin which was forgiven them This is taught by S. Paul Rom. 5.12 As by one man sin entred into the world and by sin death so unto all death did passe yea truly unto all did death passe even to those innocent Children who have not committed the least offence in the world 6. In the book of Numbers ch 14 The people greviously offended God by murmuring But Moses praying earnestly for them our Lord said I have forgiuen it according to thy word But yet all the men that have seen the signes that I have done in Aegypt and in the wildernesse they shall not see the Land for which I sware to theyr Fathers v. 23. In this wildernesse shall your Carcases lye v. 28. and v. 32 Your Carcases shall be in the wildernesse your Children shall wander in the desert forty years and shall bear your fornication untill the Carcases of theyr Fathers be consumed in the desert And forty yeares shall ye bear your iniquities For as I have spoken so will I doe Note here that God with his own mouth sayd he had forgiven the sin and yet he with the same mouth and breath as I may say tells them there shall be still a just punishment undergone for this very sin for which though forgiven they shall dye in the wildernesse
6.9 Be not weary in well doing why so For in due season wee shall reap if wee faint not Sixthly Eph. 6.8 Knowing that every one what good so ever he shall do that shall he receive of our Lord. Seaventhly he seeks in his Convertites the doing of good works by reason of the reward they shall receive for them So Philip 4.16 Ye sent once and againe to my necessity not because I desire the gift But I desire the fruit that may abound to your account Behold S. Paul desired the encrease of theyr merit Eightly 1. Tim. 6.17 Charge them that are rich that they do good that they be rich in good works ready to distribute Laying up store for themselves a good fundation against the time to come that they may lay hold of an eternall life Ninthly Tim. 2.4.8 There is layed up for me a Crowne of righteousnes which our Lord will render to me in that day a just Iudge and not only to me but c. It is his mercy to promise heaven to our good works it is his mercy to give us that grace which confers all the meritorious value upon these works it is his mercy to excite us by actuall grace to performe such works and to accompany and assist us whilst wee work But it is his Iustice and righteousnes to give that reward which his mercy made these works able to deserve So that now as a just Iudge he rewards our merits though they be his gifts Tenthly Heb. 11.24 Moyses refused to be called the Sonne of Pharao his daughter choosing to be afflicted with the people of God esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches then the treasures in Aegypt For he had respect unto the recompence of the reward Behold how much Moyses valued the recompence of the reward due to so meritorious an act as that was And Eleventhly Hebr. 10.35 Cast not away your confidence which hath recompense of great reward I might end all these Texts with that of the Apocal. 22.12 My reward is with me to give every one according as his works shall be 5. But I thought fitt to adde that wee Roman Catholicks do so extoll the dignity of good works in regard of that value given them by the grace of Christ merited for us by his Passion that wee say these works thus dignifyed make us worthy of heavenly blisse And this wee prove by Scripture S. Paul Col. 1.12 Who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of Saints And Apoc. 3.4 But thou hast a few names in Sardis which have not defiled theyr garments and the shall walke with me in whites because they are worthy Hence Psal 18.21 The Lord shall reward me after my righteous doings According to the cleanes of my hands shall he recompense me See Point 28. n. 2. 3. 6. Against so many and so cleare Texts our Adversaries chiefly object First that the Scripture Isa 64.6 Wee are all as an uncleane thing and all our righteousnes are as filthy raggs I answer this is sayd of us and our works done meerly by us as wee are left to our selves borne and growen up in sin and not aided nor clensed and dignified by Gods grace And it is a strange inference of our Adversaries to draw from hence that our best works done in grace and by the helpe of Gods grace be all deadly sinns For so in the Texts cited David could not be rewarded after his righteousnes and according to the cleanes of his hands Neither should there be any of so unfiled garments as to walke in whites because they are worthy again how sayth S Iames c. 2.21 Abraham was he not justifyed by works offering Isaac Seest thou not how faith wrought with his works and byworks was made perfect How so if both his faith and his works were deadly sinns What doth God thus reward deadly sin or could such a sin be a worke justifying Abraham In the Texts n. 6. It is sayd that God will repay us for fasting praying giving almes in secret How is this true if all these works be deadly sins in us Tell me how it is possible by heaping up deadly sinns to do what Christ bids us that is to heap up treasures in heavē The yong man of whom I spook was told that by selling all he should purchase a treasure in heaven How then was this selling all a deadly sin If selling all be a deadly sin then to say If thou will be perfect go and sell all is to say go and do a deadly sin if thou wilt be perfect Is that the one thing that was wanting unto him And thus I might argue out of most of the above cited Texts I am sure Christ sayth Matth. 3.10 Every tree that brings not forth good fruit his hewen down and cast into the fire If the fruit of no tree be good then every tree must be burned S. Iames 1.26 Of the doer of the work sayth This man shall be blessed in his deed And S. Paul Phil. 4.18 calls the almes sent to him an odour of a sweet smel a Sacrifice acceptable well pleasing to God These almesdeeds then were not filthy raggs 7. Secondly they object out of Luk 17.10 When you have done all that you are commanded say wee are unprofitable servants I answer this is true that by all wee do or can do even by Gods grace wee are servants unprofitable to God For all wee do or can do profits him nothing But wee are servants profitable to our selves For heaping up treasure in heaven and making friends of Mammon to receive us into the eternall Tabernacles are things very profitable unto us as allso to be good and faithfull servants and therfore to be placed over much and enter into the joy of our Lord. S Paul sayd 1. Cor. 13.3 If I should distribute all my goods to be meat to the poore and have not Charity it doth profit me nothing Ergò with Charity it profits me much Yea though faithfull servants be thus unprofitable to God yet in regard of the service they do him he sayth Io. 15. v. 14. Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you a thing of no small profit and honour Again is it not think you any profit to have a hundred fold here in this world and life everlasting in the next for leaving what they had for his like Is it no profit to us to say truly with S. Paul Col. 1 12. He hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints and to walke with him in whites because wee are worthy Apoc 3.4 Had he no profit by overcoming to whome it was sayd He that shall overcome and keepe my works untill the end I will give him in heaven power over the nations and he shall rule them with a rod of Iron Apoc. 2.26 Hee that shall overcome I will give to sitt with me in my throne Apoc. 3.21 Do wee not then by overcoming profit our selves in a high
receiving of it because that worship is done to the person signifyed by this signe But that which presseth you farr more is that S. Paul sayth He that eateth and drinketh unworthyly is guilty of the Body and Blood of Christ 1. Cor. 11.27 Now of this beeing guilty of Christs Body and blood it is impossible for you to give any other reason but that the abusing of the signe or figure of Christs body is a high abuse done to the body it self The same is proved out of Samuel 2. c. 6.16 where of Davids dauncing before the Arke it is sayd Michol saw David dauncing before our Lord. You see the honour thus done as much to the Ark as our bowing or kneeling or prostrating is done to the Images is referred not to the Ark but to our Lord and is layd to be done before him 2. First then I say wee neither are nor can be accounted guilty of Idolatry upon this account No understāding mā can deny but this hath been the practice of the only true visible Church for a thousand yeares at lest therefore no Idolatry can be in this practice For Idolatry destroyeth the very essence of a true Church Moreover the Scripture manifestly tells us that all Idols after the coming of our Saviour shall be quyte abolished in his known and visible Church For how can otherwise be understood that Isa 2.18 Idols shall he utterly abolish That of Ezech. 36.25 I will power upon you cleane water And from all your Idols I will cleanse you And Chap. 37. v. 23. Neither shall they defile themselves any more in theyr Idols And therefore Micheas Ch. 5. v. 13. Thy graven images allso I will cut of and thy standing Images out of the midst of thee Therefore in Christs Church there can not be found the use of such Images as were unlawfull that is of such as should be made to be adored as Gods whence the next words are And thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands Now all those words are evidently spoken of what should happen after the coming of the Messias for in the beginning of this chapter is the famous Text prophesying that Christ should be borne in Bethlem And then he prophesyeth the ensuing benefits of his birth Zacharias allso speaking c. 13. v. 1. of this time sayth In that day shall be a fountaine lying open to the house of David and it shall be in that day sayth the Lord of Hostes I will cutt out the names of Idols out of earth and they shall bee remēbred no more And yet what a remēbrance of Idols would it be to see all Churches in the whole visible Church filled full of statues Images and pictures exposed to all to be worshiped if the worship used in these Churches be Idolatrous A most urging Argument and cleer demonstration Yea among the Iewes as prone as they were to Idolatry there was by Gods appointment a Religious use of Images 3. Thus God to Moyses Thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold Two Cherubins also thou shalt make of beaten gold on the two ends of the mercyseat Let one Cherub be on the one end and the other on the other end And the Cherubins shall stretch forth theyr wings on high covering the mercyseat with theyr wings Exod. 25. v. 17. And thus Moyses by the command of God made the Propitiatory that is the Oracle or mercyseat of the purest gold Two Cherubins allso of beaten gold on either side of the Propitiatoryes even to the mercyseat ward were the faces of the Cherubins Exod. 37.9 It is no smale signe of honour that these Cherubins pictures were made of gold as allso that they were placed before the Oracle it self The Holy of Holies Hence S. Paul sayth Hebr. 9.5 Over it were the Cherubins of glorie shadowing the mercyseat When this Tabernacle came to be placed in Gods Temple The Temple it self had graven Cherubs in the walles 2. Chron. 3.7 And v. 10. And in the most Holy house he made two Cherubins of image worke and theyr faces were towards the house v. 13. So that the people adored towards them v. 14. He made the vaile of bleue and purple-crimson and wrought Cherubins thereon Note here how all the people kneeled immediatly before these pictures when they prayed yea graven Cherubins were in the walles as I sayd placed before them which way soever they turned 4. There is allso a memorable passage of Osee the Prophet Chap. 34. where lamenting the great desolation of the Temple he particularly allso laments the want of that Religious use of Images in Gods Temple Because sayth he many dayes shall abide many dayes sit without King without Prince without Sacrifice and without an Image or statue and without Theraphim that is without Images which word of Images some of your Bibles have some put the word Theraphim which properly siggnifies a Statue Image or Similitude either of Indifferent use as the statue which Michol put in Davids bedde Sam. 19.16 is called Teraphim or of an Idolatrous use as Gen. 31. v. 19. Rachel stole the Teraphim Idols of her Father or of Religious use as in this place of Osee where the want of Teraphim is bewailed with the want of Sacrifice and Altar And hence the Ancient Rabbies proved that Images of Angels are not contrary to the Decalogue The same we may say of the Images of Saints not then used because as then the Saints were not in heaven But theyr Images now may so much the more be allowed because they can be pictured in theyr own true likenes and shape which Cherubins and Angels could not no more then God Where for simple people you may note that it litle imports whether the Picture be just like the person pictured It is sufficient it serves perfectly to represent him as these Cherubins and Angels were represented perfectly enough to our Imaginations by theyr Images or statues which were nothing like them 5. A further proof for Images is out of S. Paul Phil. 2.10 He hath given him a name above all names that at the name of Iesus every knee should bowe We have from hence that because this name is above all names therefore every knee is to bowe at it Why so because it is a name representing Christ by our eares as his Image represents him to our eyes Only the Image beeing a more lively representation especially to those who know not the person is the farre more noble Remembrance of the two And as to bowe at the name of Iesus was and is commanded the English reformed Church by theyr Canons so to bowe at the more perfecter Representation of Iesus can not be but as lawfull an act of Reverence to his person The Iewes out of Reverence to God dared not to pronounce his most sacred name of Iehova for so you are pleased to read this name now as the honour done to the name of any person so the honour done the Image of such a person redownes
to be yet at least according to our Adversaries they conteyne a faithfull Ecclesiasticall History in which in the place cited it is recorded That they keept the Dedication of theyr Altar eight dayes Moreover v. 59. Iudas then high Priest and his brethren with the whole congregation of Israël ordeyned that the dayes of the Dedication of the Altar should be keept in theyr season from year to year by the space of eight dayes from the five and twentith of the Month Casleu that is November This Feast was keept by the Iewish Church untill our Saviours time and that with out warrant of Scripture Yea our Saviour himself observed it For so wee read Io. 10.22 And the feast of the Dedication was in Ierusalem and it was winter I know the feast of the Dedication of the Temple restored 1. Esd 6. Was in February and therefore in winter But this beeing the winter before his death it could not be in that part of the winter which was spent as farre as February because our Saviour is there by S. Iohn and by the other Evangelists sayd to have done more then could be done between February and 25. of March upon which he suffered death So that Beza himself in his Annotations upon this place of S. Iohn confesseth this feast wich our Saviour keept to have been the feast wee speak of A great proof allso of using prayer for the dead For had the Institutor of this feast who in that book is recorded to have used prayer for the dead had he I say been superstitiously given Christ would never have keept a feast of his Institution Note here allso the warrant for feasts of Dedications so usuall in our Church yet so unheard of among Protestants THE XLIV POINT That wee laudably observe Fasts Saints Eves and other dayes 1. OVt of the former Point wee make this strong argument The Church hath power to oblige her subjects to keep such and such Feasts as hath been proved therefore she hath the power to oblige her subjects to keep such and such fasting dayes for the Scriptures speak universally of this obedience requiring of us carefully to hear the Church Matth. 18.17 and saying he that heareth you heareth me He that despiseth you despiseth me Luke 10. v. 16. As allso obey them that have the Rule over you for they watch for your soules Hebr. 13.17 Yea though Scribes and Pharisees should by lawfull succession sit upon the chayre of Moyses Christ himself will bid us Therefore to do all whatsoever they command All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do Matth. 23. v. 2. And if you say that wee must obey only when they bring cleer Scripture you are refuted by the former point where you see so many feasts commanded with out cleer Scripture which did no where appoint those feasts she then may command fastes not commanded by Scripture 2. And now I will shew you fasts to have been commanded by the Church upon a day not appointed in Scripture but only by the appointment of the High Priest or Church So Iosaphat proclaimed a fast to all Iuda 2. Chron. 20.3 So Ioel 1.14 exhortes the Church to command an extraordinary fast sanctify ye a fast Allso upon a day not commanded by Scripture Esdras the High Priest commanded a fast And I proclaimed a fast that wee might be afflicted before Lord our God 1. Esd 8.21 And we fasted and besought our God for this and he was entreated of us v. 23. And Ester 4.16 To gather together all the Iewes and fast ye for mee and neither eat nor drink three dayes night or day And it was done according as it was commanded And Hest 9.27 The Iewes ordeyned and took upon them and upon theyr seed so as it should not fail that they would keep these two dayes of feast every yeare And v. 31. They decreed for theyr selves and for theyr seed the fastings and theyr cry For fasting and crying to our Lord were fitly then appointed to be observed in the Vigil or Eave of this feast as we usually fast in the Vigils of our feasts for devout fasting best disposeth our mind to devotion the next day Moreover you Protestants teach there be no Counsels given us by God but only precepts If this be so God himself commands you to fast when he sayeth Ioel 2 12. Turn ye to me with all your hearts ād with fasting ād weeping ād mourning 3. Wee fast on Ember dayes because those dayes be deputed by the Church to ordaine and Consecrate new Priests and other Ministers of the Church And it is Christs command Matth. 9.38 Pray the Lord of the Harvest that he send forth workmen into his harvest To obey this command the more perfectly and to make our Prayer powred forth for so important a blessing the more effectuall the Church with this prayer ioyneth three dayes fast So of the most primitive Church wee read Acts 13.3 When they had fasted and prayed and layd theyr hands on them they sent them away to witt Barnabas and Saul se they beeing sent by the Holy Ghost departed And Chap. 14.23 When they had ordeyned thē Elders Priestes in every Church and prayed with fastings they commended them to the Lord. 4. Moreover by our fastings in each one of the four seasons of the year we consecrate those seasons and our life 's to God and more effectually petition for his blessings in and at all seasons We fast on Frydayes because our Saviour dyed upon a Fryday And because he remained dead all Saturday wee abstaine from flesh upon Saturdayes Christ sayed expressely Matth. 9.14 That after the bridegrome should be taken from his Disciples as he was at his Passion then they should allso fast as much as the disciples of S. Iohn and the Pharisees did And there the Seripture sayth they fasted often And you know the proud Pharisee braggs that he fasted twice a week No wonder then that the Church thought this measure at least expedient for us Shee allso knew by Scripture that it was expedient to keep under our Body and bring it into subjection 1. Cor. 9.27 And to approve our selves in watchings and fastings 2. Cor. 6.5 And to give our selves to fasting 1. Cor. 7.5 For this reason it was that S. Iohn the greatest of Prophets taught his disciples to fast often Matth. 9.14 Our new Prophets teach theyr disciples to scoff at fasters often Moreover wee who sinne dayly have but to much need to fast weekly so to satisfy for our sins to which effect how much fasting availeth I declared P. 24. n. 6. Now there beeing so great good in fasting and all Gods greatest Saints having practised it so much upon this account as I shewed out of Scripture Point 23. it is a wonder that among our ungodly Saints even good Friday it self on which we receaved a greater benefitt then ever man kind received should have no more notice commanded to be taken thereof then if Christ his
still defileth us if wee eat what the same Church still forbids to be eaten at the times forbidden 4. Secondly you object 1. Cor. 10. v. 25. All that is sould in shambles eat asking no questien for Conscience I answer that the Apostle there only tells them that though to eat in the Temple of Idols that which there is offered up to the Idol be unlawfull v. 28. yet wee must not have a Scruple of eating what we see sould in the shambles by asking questions out of an over timerous conscience whether that ox or Calf or sheep sould there were not before it was brought to the markett immolated to some Idol Now what is this to our purpose 5. Thirdly it is objected Col. 2 16. Let no man judge you in meat nor drink or in respect of a Holy day or of the new Moon or of the Sabboth I answer by what is here added of a new Moon it is manifest this Text only speaks of fasts according to Iudaicall distinction between meat clean and unclean all meats beeing now clean to Christians still as above excepting bloud and strangled meat though sold in the shambles for this is not contrary to that S. Paul sayd All that is sold in the sambles eat 6. Fourthly and chiefly they object 1. Tim. 4.3 The doctrine of devils forbidding to marrie and commanding to abstaine from meates which God created to receive with thanks giving For every creature of God is good and nothing is to be refused which is received with thanksgiving For as much as concernes our doctrine of abstaining from marriage we have all ready answered this Text in Point 20. n. 8. We must see now in what sense it is Devils doctrine to abstaine from meats which God created It can not be in that sense in which the Nazarites and Recabites abstained from wine and S. Iohn Baptist from wine and strong drink and from all meats allmost but Locustes and wild hony coming neither eating nor drinking Or in which S. Timothy allso abstained from wine or in which all Christians as then abstained from bloud and what was strangled or offered to Idols The abstinence of the Manichees was Devils doctrine for they taught to abstaine from meats which God created Because they sayd that the Devil and not God created some meates Against such men S. Paul of all meates without exception sayth God created them To attribute such meates to the devils creation and therefore to abstaine from them is to teach the doctrine of the devils This doctrine of the Manichees was held by divers more ancient Heretiks as the Rhemish Testament sheweth in this place Again the doctrine of some Iewes was the Doctrine of Devils who taught that still we must make a distinction between meates clean and unclean and abstaine from these because the Law was given by Angels and they sayd that the Angels had revealed that therefore this law was still to be keept even by Christians But these Angels were Angels of darknes and this was truly the doctrine of Devils though disguised in the shape of Angels of light This is the Interpretation of the most learned Tertullian as I allso shewed Point 36. n. 9. The Conclusion to the Protestant Reader SVpposing these fourtie five Points have been with attention read by thee it only remains that I should presse thee to answer mee sincerely to this one question Whether in thy Conscience and in the sight of Allmighty God thou canst remeyn perswaded that wee Roman Catholikes have so much as in any one of these Points hield or forthield any doctrine opposit to clear Scripture Name that Point and read over again what wee here have sayd of it and see if thy conscience doth not tell thee that wee have rather clearer Scripture for it then you for the contrary Why then are wee who did build in a manner all the Churches in England and who taught no other doctrine in them then what had been delivered us at our first beeing made Christians a doctrine found so conformable to Scripture even in these uery points in which we stand accused by you to most contradict Scripture why I say should wee not so much as have one Church left us in one shire or County with free liberty to teach and practise that faith which hath been taught and practiced by all our forefathers in this Kingdome and established by all the Lawes thereof ever since wee professed Christianity untill this last Age gave birth to so many new Religions And this shall be the Conclusion of our Plea FINIS ERRATA Page 3. lin 2. move read more P. 3. l. 13. Host r. Ghost P. 4. l. 27. determed r. determined P. 6. l. 18. 59. r. 5.9 P. 14. l. 1. whrre r. were P. 14. l. 17. offerings not r. not offering P. 17. l. 1. last r. lest P. 17. l. 18. what was r. which was P. 17. l. 25. prayse to r. prayse you P. 18. l. 10. title r. litle P. 25. l. 27. the rue r. the true P. 36. l. 26. Payse r. Prayse P. 42. l. 28. Vniversitie r. Vniversality P. 46. l. 12. nor r. or P. 51. l. 10. to r. so P. 51. l. 13. same r. some P. 57. l. 23. thy r. they P. 60. l. 3. see r. seed P. 62. l. 27. the r. he P. 75. l. 14. adversay r. adversary P. 76. l. 20. began r. begins P. 83. l. 29. clade r. clay P. 91. fine not be r. not but be P. 94. l. 26. dele had l. 27. be r. been P. 96. l. 3. besser r. lesser P. 99. l. 18. ir r. is P. 102. l. 14. they r. thy P. 106. l. 18. life r. live P. 110. l. 2. is r. his so allso in the last line P. 127. Heare 's r. Hearers P. 144. l. 5. which r. whilest P. 153. l. 25. baving r. having P. 171. l. 7. our part r. on our part P. 175. l. 6. it by r. it be by P. 179 l. 24. shee r. see P. 185. l. 25. hotty r hotly P. 239. l. 4. he r. be P. 246. l. 28. 2. r. 28. P. 310. l. 10. not keep r. keep
in another a greate way of And so to goe seeking from the beginning of Genesis to the end of the Apocalipse And this though the number of Pointes necessary to saluation be but smale as Protestants all agree I can not therefore thinke is was Gods intention te leave us to the Bible only as to the sole Rule of Faith THE SECOND POINT Tradition besides Scripture must direct us in many necessary Controversies 1. FIrst the word of God may be notified either by Tradition with out writing or by Scripture or writing It is undoubted that the word of God written or unwritten is the Rule of Faith wherefore seeing it hath been proved in the former Point that the writteÌ„ word of God is not our only Rule of Faith it evidently followeth that Gods unwritten word notified by Tradition must be taken as part of this Rule 2. Secondly Moyses was the first Scripture writer and he according to his own story did not write till the world had continued above two thousand and four hundred yeares so long then all the faithfull in the world were truly faithfull without any Scripture All this long time then the unwritten word of God that is Tradition was the only Rule of Faith For even then many had that faith which is defined by S. Paul 11. Hebr. 1. which I prove because in that very place he numbers Abel Enoch Noë Abraham and Sara all having the faith he there described and yet Sara cannot be shewed to have had her faith grounded on any other word of God but that which was delivered by the Tradition of the Church in her times And generally then the faith of all true beleivers was grounded upon Tradition only By this Tradition they knew that God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it Gen. 2.3 And so all held themselves obliged to keep the Saboth By this Tradition they knew the distinction of Beastes cleane and uncleane Gen. 7.2 By this Tradition they knew themselves obliged not to eate the flesh with the blood Gen. 9.4 so likewise that the Tithes were to be pâ—yd to the Priest Gen. 14.20 By only Tradition they knew the fall of Adam theyr future saluation by the Messias to come theyr remedy from sinne by Pennance and repentance theyr reward of Good punishment of evell Againe from Abraham untill the written law that is for some foure hundred yeares they knew by Tradition only that this is the Covenant which ye shall keep between me and you All man kind shall be circumcised an infant of eight dayes Gen. 17.10 Now give me one Text if you can which bide us not to take Tradition for a Rule of Faith after the writing of Scripture 3. Thirdly even after the writing of Scripture the Gentils had not the Scripture yet by Tradition only many of them as apeares by the booke of Iob retained true faith And even among the Iews after they had the Scripture several necessary Pointes where left to be knowne by Tradition only as the remedy for Original sinne before the eight day and for woemen children both before and after As also by only Tradition they knew that all the vertue there sacrifices had to take away sinne was from the blood of theyr Redeemer to come The observing of al these traditions was not any unlawfull Addition to the written word of God whence you may understand the clere meaning of those words so often objected against us Deut. 4.2 You shall not adde to the word I command you neither shall you diminish ought from it For here is only forbidden to add contrary to the law So that other place Ch 12.32 Whatsoever I command you observe thou shall not adde thereunto nor diminish from it For this place is meant only of offerings not any other sacrifices besides those which were in the law prescribed But it was ever lawfull for lawfull Superiors to add more preceps agreable to the law So 2. Ch. 30.21 after the Children of Israël according to the law had kept the solemnity of Azymes seven dayes v. 23. The whole assembly took good counsel to keep other seven dayes And v. 27. Theyr prayer came to the Holy habitation of heaven This addition then did not displease God Again Esther 9.27 The Iews ordained and tooke upon them and theyr seede and upon all that would be ioyned with them so as it should not faile that they keep these two dayes and that these dayes should be kept through out every Generation every family Behold here an other addition and behold also an other again of the Dedication of the Altar made for eight dayes from yeare to yeare 1. Mach. 4.56.59 And that you may know that this booke is Scripture or at least that a feast is to be kept not appointed in Scripture our Saviour himselfe did keep this Feast Iohn 10.22 as I shall shew Point 38. Again the change of the Sabboth into the Sunday is only clearly known by Tradition Yea the manner of keeping it is contrary to all Scripture we have for Scripture sayth Levit. 23.32 From Even unto Even shall ye celebrate Your Sabboth Yet we do not begin the Sunday the even before neither dare wee worke after the even upon Sunday Who taught us this Tradition only 4. Fourthly Tradition is and therfore is truly to be held the word of God making us fully assured of what is not written For example for some yeares after the Death of our Saviour his glorification after death was not written so as to expresse that Iesus was that Christ whom God had glotified and yet before this was written S. Peter sayd truly Acts 2.36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly marke the word assuredly that God hath made the same Iesus whome you have crucified both Lord and Christ We may then have an infallible faith of what is not written yea we are forbidden to believe otherwise then was delivered by Tradition 2. Thess 2.14 Therefore Bretheren stand and hold the Traditions you have bin taught whether by word or by our Epistle For what he taught by his tongue only was as truly the word of God as what he did also write with his penne Yea this which I call Tradition is the Epistle of Christ 2. Cor. 33. you are the Epistle of Christ not written with inke but with the spiritt of the living God This Epistle written with the spiritt of the living God is no lesse true nor of lesse credit then what is writteÌ„ with inke in papers Whereforemost of the Apostles did give their Convertites no other forme of beliefe but what by their preaching they had written in theyr heartes not with inke but with the spiritt of the living God For the proper subject to receive and râ—â—ayne the word of God is not paper but the heartes of the faythfull Whence S. Irenaeus lib. 3. cap. 4. What if the Apostles had also left no Scripture Ought not we to follow the order of Tradition which they delivered to them to
heaven ever did as those who are skilled in antiquity know Yea Christ himself was pleased to sett forth some more mysticall cures which he did with such ceremonies as you would scoff at thē if our Church in farr more mysticall actions had made use of them So Mark 7. v. 32. in the Cure of a deaf and dumb man First he took him from the multitude a part Secondly he putt his fingars into his eares Thirdly spitting he touched his tongue Fourthly he looked up to heaven Fiftly he groaned Sixtly he used a word deserving speciall interpretation saying Epheta that is be opened So allso Iohn 8. v. 6. In pardoning the adulteresse he twice bowing himself wrot in the earth God knows what And in the nynth Ch. curing a man blind from his nativity v. 6. He spitt on the ground and made a claye of his spittle then he spread the clay upon his eyes Lastly he sayd unto him goe wash in the Poole Siloe which is interpreted sent Thus teaching his Church to use Ceremonies in such mysterious actions as are ordeined to cure our spirituall deafnes spirituall dumbnes spirituall blindnes So we shall see it to be Scripture that sprinkling of water must be used in Baptisme Imposition of hands in Confirmation and Ordination anoynting with oyle in Extreme-vnction Before our Lord gave the Eucharist to his Disciples he Mark 14. made choyse of a roome very spacious and adorned He first washed his disciples feete then setting down he tooke bread gave thanks blessed it brake it c. When he gave his disciples power to absolve and to administer the Sacrament of Confession Io. 20.22 He first sayd to them As my father sent me so I send you when he had sayd this he breathed upon them and he sayd to them Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins yo shall forgive are forgiven c. When the Pastors of our Church use the insufflation or Breathing upon any for the lyke mysticall signification you cry a lowd superstition superstition an apish mimicall action c. 7. There is allso one very great commoditie in the Churches perscribing such and such particular ceremonies in such and such actions that hence it ensues that all her priests performe all these sacred Rites in administring Sacraments offering sacrifice c. after just one and the self-same manner all the world over which is a most comely and orderly thing and could not have happened had not such and such peculiar Rites been prescribed to all 8. But now if after that we have proved Ceremonies to be reasonable you aske why the Church did prescribe just these particular Ceremonies and no other First I answer that eyther these particular Ceremonies are more proper and seemly and as it were more connaturall to such an actiō or secondly they are fittest for some mysticall signification Lastly I say that our unsatisfied adversaryes would have asked the self same question of any other particular ceremonies if the Church had peculiarly appointed them Even as some men will curiously be asking Why did God make the world just at such a particular time and not sooner or later For as S. Augustin wittily answers Had God made choise of any other time to make the world you would still have been asking the very selfsame wyse question Why just now and not sooner or later Even so you would as wisely haue been saying Why just such a Ceremonie and not as well such or such an one Lett this suffice for the Iustification of our Ceremonies THE TENTH POINT Of Baptisme which is the first Sacrament 1. I Will first shew Baptisme to be a Holy signe or ceremony signifying and causing grace in those who duly receave it Ezech. 36.25 And I will power uppon you cleane water and you shall be cleansed from all your contaminations Behold an outward powring of water cleansing inwardly from all contaminations The Baptisme of S. Iohn was an outward powring of water with a solemne profession of doing pennance towards the cleansing of the soul but no grace was given by it to cleanse the soul So Matth. 3.11 sayth S. Iohn Baptist I have Baptized you with water but he Christ shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost His baptisme shall give this soul-cleansing grace Again Act. 2.38 Be every one of you baptized for Remission of your sins and you shall receave the Holy Ghost Again Act. 22.16 Rise up ad be baptized and wash away thy sinns Nothing can cleanse from contamination give Remission of sins wash away sins but that which gives grace Again Gala. 3.27 As many of you as are baptized in Christ have put on Christ Hence Baptisme is called Tit. 3.5 The washing of Regeneration and by it man is borne of the spirit Whence Io. 3.5 Vnlesse a man be borne again of water and the Holy Ghost he can not enter into the Kingdome of God That is to say Baptisme so breeds our spirituall birth in God as our carnall birth causeth our life into the world 2. Wherefore evē the Childrē of the Iust need baptisme For Rom. 5.12 Vnto all men death did passe in whom all sinned Whence David Ps 51.5 And in sin did my mother conceave me And therefore unlesse such an one be born againe of water and the Holy Ghost he shall not enter into the Kingdome of God For of every one it is sayd Eph. 2.3 We were by nature Children of wrath as allso the rest THE ELEVENTH POINT Of Confirmation 1. COnfirmation is approved such a Sacrament Act. 8. v. 14. And when the Apostles that were in Ierusalem had heard that Samaria had receaved the word of God they sent unto them Peter and Iohn wo when they were come prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost For he was not come upon any of them but they were only baptized in the name of our Lord Iesus Then did they impose theyr hands upon them behold the outward signe and they received the Holy Ghost Behold the inward grace given to those who though they had been baptized yet they had not received this particular strength and Confirmation of speciall grace which the coming of the Holy Ghost in this Sacrament did bring unto them It is allso most agreable to Scripture that this Sacrament be given not by inferiour Priests but by Bishops Whence Bede excellently noteth that it was not Philip the Apostle who is here sayd to have converted Samaria but Philip one of the seaven Decons And so though he could baptize them yet he could not give thē this Sacrament and therefore the Apostles sent Peter and Iohn to Samaria Not to baptize them again but to confirme them And though here be no mention of oyle yet it followeth not that no oyle is to be used in this Sacrament For so in the Scripture there is no mention of water in that very Text which mentions the institution of Baptisme as Matthew the last Teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father the Sonne and Holy
Ghost Yet the practice of the Church testifyed by all antiquity sufficiently teacheth the use of oyle or Holy Chrisme in this Sacrament See the Remish Testamēt upon the place of the Acts now cited There allso you shall find this memorable note That none ever but known heretiks condemned this Sacrament of Chrisme Again Act. 19.5 They were baptized and when Paul had imposed hands on them the Holy Ghost came upon them And whereas some say the Text I alleged for this Sacrament to prove only the guift of the Holy Ghost in order to speak severall languages I remitt them to S. Austin tract 6. in Ep. Io. Is there any man sayth he of so perverse a heart as to deny these Children on whom we now imposed hands to have received the Holy Ghost because they speake not with tongues Out of which words allso you may observe how anciently they then imposed hands and Confirmed Children when they were of yeares of discretion and could speake wisely though not in any tongue but theyr own This is still our practice THE XII POINT Of the Holy Eucharist 1. FIrst this Holy Sacrament under visible signes of bread and wyne signifying nourishmēt doth invisibly conteyne the Body and Blood of our Lord which nourishes up our soules with his grace to life everlasting Iohn 6. v. 48. I am the bread of life your Fathers did eate Manna in the desert and they dyed This is the bread that descendeth from heaven that if any man eate of it he dye not I am the living bread that came downe from heaven If any man eate of this bread he shall live for ever Behold here the invisible grace And the bread which I will give you is my flesh the life of the world Behold the outward visible signe truly conteyning his person who gives the grace And tell mee not that it is sayd of his flesh The flesh profits nothing For it is blasphemy to say so of his flesh of which he sayth here My flesh is the life of the world A carnall grosse manner of understanding that his flesh was to this effect to be eaten in its owne kind like flesh in the shambles doth indeed put upon us a sense in which it is true that his flesh profits nothing Neither doth his flesh taken as they tooke it that is as the flesh of one who was only man profit any thing But these his words are spirit and life For they should rayse us in spirit to believe this flesh to be joyned to the divinity which is so able to give his flesh to be eaten that by realy feading upon it they may be nourished to eternall life 2. Here then secondly comes in our beliefe of the reall presence of Christ in the Sacrament which we all professe to be his true body and consequently not to be bread but living bread as S. Iohn calls it whence followeth Transubstantiation or change of the substance of dead bread into the true Body of Christ which we all say to be as truly in the Sacrament as he is in heaven at the right hand of his Father And therefore adoration is no lesse due to him here in the Sacrament then there in heaven as reason perswades if we can shew that the selfe same body is really present in the Sacrament Lett the first proofe hereof be taken from the cleare and so often repeated words even word for word in the Ghospel of S. Matthew S. Mark S. Luke and S. Paul 1. Cor. 11.24 This is my Body this is my blood and in S. Iohn in the words now cited If I can shew that these places be not to be taken figuratively but litterally my buisines is at an end I think I can make this evident by this demonstration If these Texts be to be understood figuratively as you Protestants say then questionlesse the Apostles and theyr successors did tell the first Christians that it was so and to gether with theyr first faith they received that doctrine and they with that faith delivered it to theyr successours And thus all beleived for some time But then you must come to some other time in which some one man began first to teach that those texts are to be understood litterally as they sound and that one man taught that Christ was really present in the Sacrament and beeing so was also to be adored Now when this one man began this doctrine first for some one man must have been at first the beginner it could not but seeme new as beeing never heard before it could not but seeme suspected of falsity as beeing notoriously thē contrary to what all true believers in the world believed It could not but be manifestly accounted of all understāding men to be Idolatrous as teaching that to be adored for God which all Instructed by the Apostles and theyr successours taught to be nothingh else but bread and wyne It could not be accounted a doctrine incredible which must needs teach the great Body of a man to be wholy conteyned in a smale quantity of a litle peece of Bread And which must needs teach one and the self same Body to be really present at a thousand severall places and to be eaten there and yet to be still present here which allso must needs teach that there should not be bread and wyne where our own sences tell us there was nothing else but bread and wyne yea where as then faith it self tould them the self same This beeing so I ask this vnanswerable question How could this one man who must first begin to broach this new doctrine be able to sett it forth so plausibly that it beeing a doctrine so against all reason all sence all experience and all faith of all men at that time and allso a thing so hard to perswade men of piety and of vnderstanding for feare of open Idolatry and playne innovation in Religion So hard to perswade bad and weake vnderstanding persons who for no kinde of gaine or benefit were to be made go directly not only against theyr ancient faith but to goe flatly against theyr own vnderstanding and common sence How could I say this one man be able to perswade this strange new vnprofitable hard doctrine not to one towne only or Citty or to one country or nation only but to the whole multitude of Christians from the rising of the Sunne even to the goeing downe thereof And this so that no one is known to have either by word of mouth or writing opposed his doctrine but all to have so readely and so peaceably and so vnanimously embraced it that no kind of mention should be made in any history of the lest stop it had or of the lest contradiction made any where against it or of the lest taxing it eyther of Novelty or of strāgnes yea no mention is made in any one country though there be so many countryes in Christianity when or where or by whom this strange new doctrine was begun But behold on the