respect of obscurity and contemptibility John Fox may easily joyn his Church with them as also in having some sparkles of true Doctrin but not the whole body of true Doctrin among them 5. He may joyn also in divers particular Doctrins which these men held as peculiar Heresies to themselves and were condemn'd by the Church for such in those days and are held also in these days by John Fox his Church in the very self-same words sense and meaning as they were held by those Heretics As namely he may joyn with the Donatists who said that thy were the only true Church and called the Succession of Bishops in the Church of Rome as Sectaries do at this day the Chair of Pestilence and moreover that the whole Church besides themselves had erred c. which is the common Song of our modern Protestants And further if you will see how near of Kin these Donatists and our Protestants be both in Manners Conditions Doctrin and Belief read St. Augustin Optatus and other Writers that objected against them these things following to wit That they had cast the blessed Sacrament of the Altar to Dogs overthrew Altars broke Chalices and sold them cast a Bottle of holy Chrism out of the Church-window shaved Priests heads to take away their Unction turned Nuns out of their Monasteries to the World polluted all Church stuff and the like And whether John Fox and his Fellows do not joyn also in these Points let the Reader judge 6. They may joyn in like manner with the Eunomians for their only Faith who affirmed as St. Augustin saith quòd nihil cuiquam obesset guorumlibet perpetratio ac perseverantia peccatorum si hujus quae ab illis docebatur Fidei particeps esset That the committing and perseverance in never so great sins could not hurt him that was partaker of their Faith. They may also joyn with the Novatians of that time in denying the Churches power in forgiving sins They may joyn with the Aerians who taught as St. Angustin saith non oportere orare vel Oblationem offerre pro mortuis that we ought not to pray or offer Oblations for them that be dead and further That solemn Feasts are not to be appointed by the Church but every one to fast when he would lest he should seem to be under the Law c. 7. Thus testifieth St. Augustin of him and of Jovinian that followed him both the said Father and St. Hierom that wrote against him do accuse him to have held That all sins were equal before God that fasting from certain meats was not profitable that chast Marriage was equal in honor and merit to professed Virginity in Nuns and that he had been cause that some Nuns had married in Rome and finally that the reward in Heaven was equal to all men And is not this good currant Protestant Doctrin and Practice at this day But let us go forward They may joyn also with the Helvidians or Antidicomarians in impugning our Blessed Lady and equalling Marriage with Virginity And much more with Vigilantius in impugning the continent sole Life of Clergy-men Worship of Martyrs at their Tombs use of Candles and Torches in the Church by day-time Invocation of Saints Vows of Poverty and the like 8. I will go no further for that this is sufficient to see what Communion John Fox his Church did hold in these three Ages either with the common known Catholic Church of Christ or with these lurking Assemblies of Heretics pursued and persecuted by the said Church and for that John Fox is guilty to himself in this behalf he hath proceeded accordingly in his Acts and Monuments For whereas he promiseth a several Book of these second 300 years under this Title The second Book containing the next 300 years after Christ c. he not finding any sufficient matter for his purpose to patch up this second Book withal as he did the former with recounting the Martyrs of those days what shift deviseth he think you to blear his Readers eyes with all and to seem to say somewhat in the continuation of his Story You shall hear briefly and by this one trick you may learn to know the man and his meaning for the time to come 9. First he writeth but five leaves in all for the continuation of the Story of these second 300 years A short Volume you will say for so great and copious an Argument And yet further you must know that of these five leaves he passeth two in telling tales and matters that fell under Pope Eleutherius and King Lucius more than a hundred years before and consequently it should have been told in his former Book by order of Time and Story and then the other three leaves he spendeth in setting down the entrance of the Saxons into England about the year of Christ 449 and the Succession of their Pagan Kings unto St. Augustin's coming So as of all the foresaid glorious Christian Church for 300 years together to wit from Pope Sylvester and Constantine unto Pope Gregory and Mauritius the Emperour wherein she flourished more than in any other three Ages we find only five Leaves designed but scarce three Lines performed Whereby you may perceive how little part John Fox persuadeth himself to have in these three Ages for his hidden Church You may consider also what an honest Bargainer he is and how well he performeth his promise made in the first page of his whole Work wherein he saith That he will set forth at large the whole Race and Course of the Church from the Primitive Age to these latter times of ours c. whereof you see he hath performed nothing at all hitherto either largely or briefly I mean of this Race or Course of any Church General or Particular Domestical or Foreign Good or Bad True or False His or Ours for of the first 300 years he wrote only the ten Persecutions as you have seen and of the second 300 years he writeth nothing at all 10. Which if you consider well is a strange confession of his own weakness and poverty seeing that these three Ages to wit the fourth fifth and sixth are the most abundant of matter that are to be found in the Church of Christ from the beginning and so might he see by the Centuries of his Masters the Magdeburgians who do enlarge themselves much more in these three Ages than in the former enforced thereunto by the multitude of matter tho' all against themselves as before hath been noted and here will also appear which John Fox well perceiving thought best by slight of silence to avoid that inconvenience of treating a History so apparently against himself Which slight notwithstanding or rather flight every man of mean understanding doth easily see considering that according to the Argument of his Book and particular promise made before he should have declared to us That the Religion of Britanny in these 300
for a time Brentius as appeareth in his Confession of Wittemberg and some others of that Sect. But this Opinion of Luther did not long please his Followers for that Ph. Melancthon his chief Scholar did soon after teach the contrary viz. That the Church was visible to the eyes of men also And the Magdeburgians do hold the same defining every-where the Church to be a visible Company of Men. Which going back of the principal Lutherans in this point it being done by a certain Consultation had thereof among themselves as Fredericus Staphylus the Emperor's Counsellor that had been one of them affirmeth was some Cause perhaps that Calvin coming presently after them took upon him to defend the same Doctrin again saying Nobis invisibilem c. We are forc'd to believe the Church to be invisible and to be seen only by the eyes of God. Lo Calvin putteth necessity in this point of Belief 13. The Causes that moved the chief Lutherans to go back from their first Opinion about the invisibility of the Church were principally the apparent Evidences and Demonstrations which Catholics do alledge both out or Scriptures Fathers common sense and reason for overthrow of that most fond and ridiculous Paradox And first out of holy Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament these men being not able to alledge any one place where the Name of God's Church is applied to an Invisible Congregation the Catholics on the contrary side pressed them with many most evident Texts of Scripture where it was and is used for a visible Company of Men as that in the Book of Numbers ch 20. Cur eduxisti Ecclesiam Domini in solitudinem Why hast thou brought the Church of God into the Desart And again in 3 Kings ch 8. Convertitque Rex faciem suam benedixit omni Ecclesiae Israel omnis enim Ecclesia Israel stabat c. The King turning his face about did bless all the Church of Israel for that all the Church of Israel was present c. Which places and many the like cannot possibly be understood of an Invisible but of a Visible Company 14. And much more if we consider the speeches of Christ and his Apostles in the New Testament as these words of Christ Dic Ecclesiae si Ecclesiam non audierit c. Tell the Church and if he hear not the Church let him be unto thee as an Heathen or Publican But if the Church were invisible neither could a man complain to the Church nor hear the Church Moreover St. Paul exhorteth the chief Pastors of the Ephesians to attend diligently to their charge Acts 20. In quo vos Spiritus Sanctus posuit Episcopos regere Ecclesiam Dei In which the H. Ghost hath placed you as Bishops to govern the Church of God. But how could they being visible men govern a Company that was invisible not to be seen 15. And yet further when St. Paul and St. Barnabas went up from Antioch to Jerusalem the Scripture saith Deducti sunt ab Ecclesia c. They were brought on their way by the Church of Antioch and when they came to Jerusalem suscepti sunt ab Ecclesia they were received by the Church And yet further ascendit Paulus salutavit Ecclesiam Paul went and saluted the Church c. All which places cannot agree possibly to an invisible Church and yet that this was the true Primitive Church of Christ no man can deny 16. And finally when St. Paul doth teach Timothy his Scholar 1 Tim. 3. Quomodo oporteat conversari in Domo Dei quae est Ecclesia c. How he should converse and govern the House of God which is his Church Columna Firmamentum Veritatis the Pillar and Firmament of all Truth Ibid. All this I say had been spoken to no purpose if the true Church of Christ were invisible for how can a man converse in a Congregation which he cannot see or know or how can the Church be a Pillar and sure Firmament of Truth to resolve all Doubts and Questions that may fall out about Scriptures Articles of Belief and Mysteries of Christ's Religion if it be an invisible Congregation that no man seeth discerneth or knoweth where or how to repair unto it nor who are the persons therein contained 17. And lastly not to stand longer upon this matter that is so evident in it self and plain to common sense and reason if the true Church of Christ be a Society not of Angels Spirits or Souls departed but of Men and Women in this life that must be governed or govern therein how can they be invisible And if they must have Communion together in external Sacraments and namely in Baptism and participation of the Body of Christ if they must profess the Name and Doctrin of Christ externally to the World as also to be persecuted and put to death for the same if all men must repair unto them and those that be out of the Church to enter and be received therein and those that be in her to be resolved of their doubts to lay down their complaints to be governed and directed by her and finally to obey her under pain of Damnation how can all this be performed if she be invisible to man's eyes and only seen by the eyes of God 18. To alledge Fathers and Doctors in this behalf were both endless and needless for that all of them every-where almost are occupied in setting forth not only the Visibility but the Splendor also and Greatness yea the multitude and external Majesty of Christ's Church throughout the World in their days and only St. Augustin may serve for all who dilateth himself every-where in this Argument shewing how the little Stone prophesied by Daniel was grown to be a huge Mountain and terrible to the whole World and that the Tabernacle of Christ which is his Church was placed by him in the Sun to be seen of all and that it was a City upon a Mountain which none could be ignorant of and other like Discourses founded on evident Scriptures Whereby is refuted not only the first shift of Luther and Calvin making the true Church of Christ invisible but also the second of these latter Lutherans who tho' overcome with the former proofs do grant the Church to be a visible Company yet do they deny it to be that external conspicuous Succession of Bishops and Councils which have been most eminent in the known Christian Church from the Apostles downward but rather to be some few obscure and contemptible people which they call the Elect that have lived or lurked from time to time in shadows and darkness and known to few or none 19. But this second device is more fond than the former for where shall a man seek out these hidden Fellows to treat with them or to receive Sacraments at their hands how shall they be known how may they be trusted whence have they
Popes of Rome from St. Peter to Pope Silvester which were Thirty-three in number all Martyrs and every one of them condemned the Heretics of his time 13. This accursed new Church also of Heretics had the other quality ascribed in like manner by John Fox to his Church to wit that they were neglected in the Christian World and not regarded in Stories but only to recount them to their shame and damnation Finally the last commendation also was not wanting to them that they were almost scarce visible or known in respect of the flourishing Catholic Church And lastly these congregations and swarms of Heretics tho' never so much divided among themselves continued indeed from the Apostles by a kind of broken Succession of times the one rising and the other falling And they had the last point also specified by John Fox of keeping some sparks of true Doctrin in Religion for that as St. Augustin writeth Nulla falsa Doctrina est quae aliqua Vera non intermisceat There is no Doctrin so false which doth not interlace some true things And this is proper to Heresies for that otherwise if they had no points of true Doctrin they should be rather Apostates than properly Heretics for that Apostates are those that deny all Christ's Doctrin but Heretics do grant some parts and deny others 14. About which point of old Heretics and their Affinity with the Protestants of this Age it is worth the noting That whatsoever some of our late English Writers especially the Minister O. E. or Matthew Sutcliff do prattle to the contrary yet shall you never find any one Article of those that are in controversie and held by us at this day against the Protestants to have been held singularly by any one old Heretic in that sense as we do hold the same and much less condemn'd for Heresie in him or them by the Church in these days or by any one Father thereof And on the other side you shall find divers Doctrins held by them and condemn'd in them by the Church for Heresies I mean the Heretics of the first 300 years which the Protestants do hold at this day properly and in the same sense that those Heretics did And We do condemn the same for Heresies in Them as the Primitive Church did in the Other As for Example that of the Pseudo-Apostoli Heretics called false Apostles who did think only Faith to be sufficient to Salvation without Works against which Heresie St. Augustin saith were written the Epistles of St. James St. Jude St. Peter and St. John. 15. That other point also which St. Ignatius reporteth of certain Heretics in his time Qui non confitebantur Eucharistiam esse Carnem Salvatoris nostri Jesu Christi quae pro peccatis nostris passa est Who did not confess that the Eucharist was the Flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ that suffered for us That other Doctrin in like manner that Theodoretus writeth of the Novatians His qui ab ipsis tinguntur sacrum Chrisma non praebent quocirca eos qui ex hac haeresi Corpori Ecclesiae conjunguntur benedicti Patres ungi jusserunt To those that are baptized by them the Novatians they do not give holy Chrism for which cause whosoever returning from that Heresie are to be joyned to the Body of the Catholic Church the holy Fathers commanded that they should be anointed with the said Chrism 16. Cornelius also Bishop of Rome complaineth that the said Novatus and Novatians did not receive the Sacrament of Confirmation For speaking of Novatus he saith Qui sigillo Domini ab Episcopo non signatus fuit quomodo quaeso Sanctum Spiritum adeptus est He that was not signed with the Seal of our Lord by the Bishop how could he think you obtain the Holy Ghost The same Heretics also deny'd the power of absolving from sin in Priests as also Confession and Satisfaction according as the same holy Bishop and Pope Cornelius objecteth unto him by the testimony of St. Cyprian And finally to go no further within these first 300 years St. Hierom objecteth for an Heresie to the Manichees the denying of Man's Free-will saying Manichaeorum Dogma est hominum damnare naturam liberum auferre arbitrium It is the Doctrin of the Manichees to condemn Man's Nature and to take away Free-will So saith St. Hierom and St. Chrysostom and St. Augustin do also testifie the same of the Manichees expresly And tho' perhaps the Manichees held that Doctrin upon other grounds than Protestants do yet in the Heresie it self they do plainly symbolize and agree 17. These are matters then most evident and clear nor can they be deny'd but that these Opinions are held by Protestants at this day in the very same words sense and meaning as they were by the forenamed old Heretics wherein also they were anathematiz'd and condemn'd by the known Catholic Church of these ancient Ages 18. But now when on the contrary side some Sectaries of our time to cure or cover this wound of theirs will needs like Apes object to us again That we hold some old condemned Errors and Heresies also or rather some shadow or similitude thereof you shall ever find one of these two frauds or falshoods in their Objection to wit that either they object unto us that which we indeed hold not at all or at least not in the sense which they object it or that the thing in truth is no Error in it self nor ever was held or condemned for such in the sense and meaning in which we hold it tho' it may have some little external similitude with that which was an Error As for Example O. E. objecteth unto us That we do symbolize and participate with two old Heresies the one of the Angelici qui Angelos adorabant that did adore Angels as St. Augustin saith the other of the Collyridians so called of the Greek word Collyra signifying a little triangular Cake or Bun that those Heretics being Women did offer in Sacrifice to our Blessed Lady But in both these Examples we utterly deny that we agree in Doctrin or Practice with those Heretics seeing that we neither adore nor worship with Divine Honor Angels or other Saints nor do offer Sacrifice to the Mother of God but only to God himself alone tho' in the Honor and Memory also of his Mother and other Saints glorified by him which Doctrin of ours is extant in all our Books So as here is manifestly found the first fraud of our Adversaries which is to object to us that which we hold not indeed 19. And the other falshood also cannot be deny'd whereby they affirm the Doctrin which we truly hold and practise in this behalf about honoring of Saints to have been at any time held for Error or condemn'd by the ancient Catholic Church or Teachers thereof for such Truth it is that the Magdeburgians are not asham'd to note this
for an Error in Origen Invocandos Angelos Origenes putavit homil 1. in Ezech. Origen thought Angels to be invoked And then again Hanc formulam invocandi Angelos proponit Veni Angele suscipe conversum ab Errore pristino c. And he setteth down this form of praying to Angels Come Angel receive him that is converted from his former Errors c. 20. But I would have the Magdeburgians or any of their Partners shew me when or where this Sentence of Origen was ever noted or condemned by Antiquity for Error or Heresie as some other Doctrins of his were Certain it is they cannot which is a singular Argument against them for that those Watchmen of the Church that noted and condemned those other Errors of his would have noted also this if it had been taken for an Error in those days And further I say to the Magdeburgians Let them tell us whether other holy Fathers yea the chiefest of God's Church after Origen did not hold the very same Doctrin Sure I am that the Magdeburgians themselves in the very next Century after do condemn by Name St. Ephrem and St. Hilary for this Doctrin of Invocation of Angels in the same sense that Origen did hold it And then again in the same third Century they do reprehend by Name for Invocation of other Saints which is the same Controversie the gravest Doctors of the Church to wit St. Athanasius St. Basil St. Gregory Nazianzen St. Ambrose St. Epiphanius Ephrem and Prudentius citing their plain words and condemning their Doctrin in this behalf So as if this were an Heresie all these Fathers were Heretics which were a blasphemous cogitation to think and much more to speak or utter And thus much of the first Objection about honoring Angels and other Saints wherein Protestants do only calumniate our doings as you see 21. As for the Collyridians he that will read St. Epiphanius who writeth of that mad fond fantastical Error of certain Women in Thracia for so he termeth them that would needs make our Blessed Lady a Goddess and offer Sacrifice unto her he shall find this Father to handle two things at large First That notwithstanding our Blessed Lady for the Privilege of bearing the Savior of the World be highly to be honored yet not ultra decorum as his words be that is not more than is decent or beyond the limits of a Creature seeing she is not God tho' the Mother of God And consequently these Thracian Women did foolishly and wickedly in devising this public Sacrifice unto her 22. Secondly That albeit this their Sacrifice had been offered by them to God himself yet was it unlawfully done by Women for that neither in the Old or New Testament saith he was it appointed that Women should do the Function of Sacrifice but Men only and those Priests And this Argument St. Epiphanius prosecuteth very largely proving that in the New Testament and Christian Church the Apostles only and other Priests succeeding by Imposition of hands had Authority to sacrifice but no Woman no not the Mother of Christ her self who should have had that Privilege above all other Women if any of her Sex might have been admitted And after our Blessed Lady he addeth these that followeth Fuerunt saith he quatuor filiae Philippo Evangelistae prophetantes sed non sacrificantes c Philip the Evangelist had four Daughters that prophesied but not that sacrificed And again Et ministrarum quidem Diaconissarum appellatarum Ordo est in Ecclesia sed non ad sacrificandum c. Diaconissis indiguit Ecclesiasticus Ordo nusquam autem eas Presbyter as aut Sacrificulas constituit c. Vnde igitur hic rursus Mulierum fastus insania muliebris There is saith he in the Christian Church an Order of them that are called Diaconesses but not to sacrifice The Ecclesiastical Order had need of these Diaconesses at the beginning but yet never ordained them as Priests or Sacrificers And whence then is now come again this pride of Women or womanish madness as to take upon them to sacrifice in the Church 23. By all which Discourse you may easily see what was the true Heresie condemned in these Collyridians to wit Colere Sanctos ultra modum decorum as the words of holy Epiphanius are that is to worship Saints beyond measure and decency and above the nature and condition of Creatures which is forbidden by God's Church but not to honor Them as Servants of His and Him in Them. You will see also what Opinion and Use of Christian Sacrifice there was in Epiphanius's days and how it was deny'd to Women and practis'd by Priests only which yet the Sectaries of this Age cannot abide to hear of And here now will we make an end of these first 300 years after Christ wherein as you see John Fox hath put down no Succession of his Church at all either in Men or Doctrin For as for men to wit Bishops Pastors and Teachers succeeding one to another from the Apostles downward they were all of the Roman visible Church and so were all other that bear the name of Christians except the Heretics before named and of the said Roman and Catholic Church the chief Leaders were from St. Peter unto Silvester Thirty-three Popes as before hath been mentioned all Martyrs and Witnesses of the same Faith. And in other principal Patriarchal Seats wherein the Apostles had held the first Chairs as Antioch Hierusalem Alexandria and the like there had succeeded other holy Bishops as also in infinit other places throughout the World so as in the Emperor Constantine's time who liv'd in the end of these first 300 years and was the first Christian Emperor that publickly professed Christian Religion the said Christian Church was so glorious that in the first General Council of Nice there were 318 principal Bishops joyned together the most of them of Asia only Whereby we see how Illustrious and Eminent the said Catholic Church and Religion was at that time 24. By which we do most evidently infer That either John Fox his obscure and trodden-down Church scarce visible as he saith to the World was not at all in those days or else it lurk'd only in some of the forenamed Heretics For if he say that the great perspicuous Roman Church was his at that time then how doth he define his Church to be obscure and scarce visible to the World And moreover we have shewed before that the Bishops Doctors Teachers Martyrs and chief Members or Guiders of this great illustrious Church were opposite to Him and his Church both in Faith and Doctrin and this by the confession of his own Doctors and Writers the Magdeburgians and others that reprehend and condemn the Fathers of the second and third Ages for holding divers principal Points of Doctrin now also in controversie against Them and for Us. And we have shewed also that this great Universal and
In respect whereof thou oughtest also if thou be in any doubt not only to take upon thee the labor of reading this or any such Treatise that may help thee therein but also to travel both by Sea and Land Countries and Kingdoms if we believe S. Austin that both said and practised the same to seek out the Truth and Certainty of Catholic Religion whereby only and by no other ways and means under Heaven may a man be saved or escape Everlasting Damnation as holy Athanasius protesteth in his Creed Wherefore this ought to be unto us as the same Father saith that rich Jewel found in the Field for buying whereof we should not stick to sell or lose all other temporal Goods or Riches that we have seeing Christ our Savior doth so much commend them that did so and thereby inciteth us also to do the like 9. And the same Doctor S. Austin together with S. Chrysostom and other Fathers do reprehend greatly the sluggishness of divers men in their days that seeing Sects and Heresies to arise and diversities of Religion in almost every Country did not bestir themselves to try out the Truth but were content either to accept of every Novelty thrust upon them or to remain doubtful or indifferent which in some sort is a worse state than the other For as the Prophecy and Prediction of our Savior is clear that such times of Heresie and Contradiction should come when one Sect would say here is Christ and another there is Christ One Heretic would cry here is the Church here is the true Doctrin here is Reformation and another deny it So the Apostle expoundeth the hidden Providence of Almighty God in this permission of his to wit ut qui probati sunt manifesti fiant that those who are men of proof should be made manifest among us And how then in a time of proof and of so special trial when so great a Crown is to be gained are men so negligent slothful and fearful in shewing and declaring themselves S. Chrysostom yields this reason which is severe Quia neque promissio beatitudinis ejus saith he desideratur neque judicium comminationis timetur c. It is for that neither God's promise of Eternal Felicity in the next Life is desired by these slothful people nor his threat of Judgment feared And yet saith the same Father si Vestimenta empturus gyras unum negotiatorem alterum c. if you were to buy a Garment you go about from one Seller or Merchant to another to see and examin where the best is to be found And how much more ought this to be done to try out true Religion 10. If a pretension were made saith one to take away your Temporal Lands and Livings or that any new doubts should be put in the Title of your Inheritance or that it should be call'd in question by any Promoters or busie people whether you were true Owners of such and such Lands and Livings or no you would quickly start and bestir your selves looking out Records and Writings for confirmation of your Right and Title and would seek Lawyers to plead and defend the same and you would make account of ancient Witnesses for proof thereof All which you neglecting in this case of trial about Catholic Religion against Heretics which is more clear in it self if men would attend unto it than any other proof of Possession Right Interest Title or Inheritance whatsoever this negligence I say doth clearly declare that men have more care and cogitation of Temporalities than of Eternity of Earth than of Heaven and of this miserable short and vanishing Life than of God's Everlasting Kingdom and their Immortal reigning with him 11. And thus much be spoken by the way concerning the judgment sense and feeling of ancient holy Fathers about the care and sollicitude that every true Christian ought to have for informing himself soundly and substantially but especially in time of Heresies what the truth and certainty of Cath. Religion is lest being negligent therein and yielding overmuch to the cogitation of worldly affairs he be deceived before he be aware and carried away to Perdition by the present surge and sway of Innovations under the colour and name of New Reformations persuading himself that he goeth right and hath no need of further advice or information therein 12. For preventing of which most perilous course held alas by too many of our Country at this day who persuade themselves that either matters of Religion appertain not greatly unto them or that they go well as they are or that they may remain indifferent or attend to worldly affairs and let the other alone or at leastwise do imagin by the multitude of contradictions which they see and hear every where that it is a hard matter to discern which Party hath the Truth or where that Certainty lieth For help I say in all these Points but especially the last I have thought best to publish this Treatise which I trust shall be a sufficient Light for discerning Truth to them that will vouchsafe to peruse the same for that it doth briefly clearly and in whole sum or view lay before them the Verity of Catholic Religion the Off-spring Increase and Continuance thereof together with the Fraud and Falshood of all Sects whatsoever but especially those of our time 13. And it is here to be noted that as in Suits and Controversies about Temporal Lands and Livings belonging to any Estate or Lordship a man may take two ways of proof and trial against Quarrellers that craftily and falsly would intrude or make pretension thereunto The first by alleging particular Evidences for every part and parcel thereof severally as for this Close this Meadow this Park that Pasture those Woods that Glebe-land and the like which way as you see is more prolix and troublesom There is therefore a second more short and general whereby a man proving One point proveth All as if we would take upon us to shew that the chief Mansion-house of the said Lordship in Controversie whereunto all the rest belong is Ours and hath been ever held by our Ancestors and that we are true Successors Heirs and Inheritors to them This Issue I say were more short and sure and this is that in which I do now join plea with our Adversaries especially with J. Fox in name of all his Brother-Protestants to wit that whereas other men hitherto have taken upon them to defend and prove particular Points of Controversies severally As for example the Real Presence Purgatory Prayer to Saints Seven Sacraments and the like which are but Branches of our whole Cause my purpose is to prove all together by joyning the foresaid Issue about the chief Mansion-house and true Owners thereof that is to say the true Catholic Church and lawful Family thereunto belonging descending from Christ himself for that we proving this only we prove the whole no man being able to deny but
in the second Age after Christ there was not the Faith in Rome that now is For that there was no mention or knowledge then either of any universal Authority of the Church or Bishop of Rome or of the name or use of Masses or Sacrifice propitiatory or of Transubstantiation or of Images used in Churches and the like 5. To which vain Arguments of both these poor Men I might answer sufficiently by telling them if they will learn that albeit it were true in some sence that these Doctrins which here they alledge and some other in Controversie between us were not found in the Second Age when Pope Eleutherius lived so expresly set forth as in other Ages afterward when better Occasion was offered and the Times did more permit the same yet is this no good Argument to prove that they were not believed then also in the Catholic Church For if this Consequence should be admitted then as well might it be admitted also against many other principal Points and Articles of our Faith which are acknowledged and believed by Protestants also at this day tho not expresly handled discussed or determined in those first two hundred Years after Christ as for Example the Name and Doctrin of the Blessed Trinity the two distinct Natures and one Person in Christ his two distinct wills the Virginity of our Blessed Lady both before and after her Child-birth the Proceeding of the Holy Ghost as well from the Son as from the Father c. 6. All which Points and some others are not found to be handled so clearly and distinctly by Authors of the first two hundred Years as afterward partly for that they were occupied in other matters against Gentiles and Hereticks that touched not these Points and partly for that General Councils could not yet be gathered together to discuss and declare them distinctly tho no good Christians will or may doubt but that they were believed in the Church before from Christ downward and that the General Councils that determined them afterward for Articles of true Belief against Heretics that had called them in question did not so determine them as if they had made them Articles which were not before for this the Church could not do as is held by all Catholics but only that they being Articles of True and Catholic Belief before the Church did now declare them to be such Wherefore this being so I might answer and I see not how they could reply that John Fox and his Scholar may as well deny and call in question all or any of these foresaid Articles as the other which they recite For that they were as little or perhaps less specified in the first two hundred Years than these which they object 7. But I will deal more liberally with our Minister and Knight and will seek to satisfie them with Reason who do brabble and argue against us without Reason I shall endeavour to do the same by two ways hoping to make their Folly appear to every indifferent Man by them both The first shall be via negativa the negative way by putting them to some proof And the second shall be affirmative shewing them what Proofs may be brought for our side Nothing doubting but that each shall be sufficient to satisfie the equal Reader Let the first kind of Argument then by the way of negative be this 8. We deny that the Faith now held in Rome and namely the Articles here mentioned of the Pope Mass Transubstantiation and use of Images were not believed in Pope Eleutherius's days as now for the substance of the Doctrin And let them prove it if they can and if they say that it is hard to prove a negative we are content that they prove only an affirmative whereby the said negative may be inferred to wit that any one of these Doctrins did begin to enter into the Church after Eleutherius And to this Proof they are bound in all equity and reason as we shall shew by our sequent Discourse For if it be true that the Articles and Points of Doctrin here mentioned by Fox and Sir Francis wherein they differ from us be indeed not things heard of or believed at Rome in the time of Pope Eleutherius which yet they denie not but that in other Ages after they were generally received then followeth it that Fox and his Fellows must shew the Time Place Men and Occasion of their beginning to wit when where and by what Men and upon what Causes and with what Authority or Induction or Violence or by what Deceit or with what Contradiction of others these Doctrins entred first and were continued in the Church All which Points we can shew of every other Error or Heresie that hath risen and was held for such from Christ's Time to ours 9. And if either Fox or his Cub or any of that Kennel can or will shew this and joyn issue with us upon this one Point we do accept thereof and the matter may be quickly dispatch'd But if this cannot be done then must we follow the Rule of St. Augustin held by him for infallible in such Affairs to wit That when any Doctrin is found generally received in the known visible Churh at any Time or in any Age whereof there is no certain Author Time or Beginning found then is it sure that all such Doctrin hath come down from Christ and his Apostles 10. This doth that holy Doctor and great Pillar of Gods Church Saint Augustin affirm and reiterate in every place of his Works against Heretics of his Time which argued as our Men do by denying only and putting Catholics to Proof As for Example against the Donatists denying the custom of baptizing Infants for that it was not in Scripture nor recorded by Fathers of the first Ages Saint Augustin answereth thus Illa consuetudo quam tunc homines sursum versum aspicientes non videbant à posterioribus institutam rectè ab Apostolis tradita creditur That Custom of Baptizing Infants which Men before us in the Church looking upward to Antiquity did not find to have been ordained by them that came after the first Ages is rightly believed to have been delivered by the Apostles 11. And again in another place speaking of Ecclesiastical Customs he saith Quod universa tenet Ecclesia nec Conciliis institutum sed semper retentum est non nisi anthoritate Apostolica traditum rectissimè creditur That which the universal Church doth hold and was not instituted by any Council but hath been still retained in the Church this we may most justly believe to have come from no other Authority than from the Apostles And the like Speeches unto this hath St. Augustin in divers other places both of this Book against the Donatists as l. 2. c. 7. and l. 5. c. 23. as also lib. de Vnitat Ecclesiae c. 19. Epistola 118 c. And as for that he speaketh of Institution by Councils he
divers other perillous Opinions about this matter as for Example That he tyeth the Office of true Pastorship to ordinary Succession and that he denieth that Bishops can be judged c. And Origen also in this Age hath no mean blots about the Power and Office of the Church c. 13. Hitherto are the words of the Magdeburgians against the chief Writers of these two first Ages after the Apostles concerning the point of Principality and Supremacy of the Church and Bishop of Rome so clearly confessed by the said Fathers as the Magdeburgians do grant and on the other side so boldly denied by the Fox and the Knight his Follower and Proselyte as a thing not so much as heard or dreamed of in these first Ages whereof you have heard their several and resolute asseverations before Let them but grant me saith Fox and then I say quoth the Knight there is no such matter c. And by this one point only of the five Articles before objected by them and denied flatly to have been known or believed in Eleutherius's time you may see how they behave themselves and what may be said on our part and how great a Volume this Book would grow unto if I should prosecute all the other four Articles also by them mentioned before and should pass through the first three or four or five hundred years after Christ for so much our Adversaries sometimes upon a good mood of bragging will seem to allow us to shew not out of the Books and Writings of the ancient Fathers themselves for that this were over long but what these Magdeburgians do note and gather against themselves out of their Works for the Antiquity of that Doctrin which they impugn rejecting afterward all again with this only frivolous and fond Cavil That these Opinions of the Fathers were but naevi stipulae palia Doctorum stains stubble and straw of Doctors opiniones incommodae c. and incommodious Opinions 14. Wherein it is well noted by a Learned Man of our time That these Fellows do proceed as if one being suspected or accused of Theft Heresie or any other grievous Crime should willingly present himself before the Magistrate or Senate of the City and there first of all for his clearing should bring in for Witnesses against himself the best learned most grave ancient and best reputed honest men of all that City to testifie that he is indeed such a one to wit a false Thief an Heretic or the like but yet having so done would endeavor to refute all these again by one bare rejection saying that they spake rashly and incommodiously and that they were overseen and knew not what they testified or were in a dream when they spake or testified against him and finally that all were deceived and he alone to be believed against them all And would this shift think you countervail so grave Witnesses against him or would any indifferent Judge leave to condemn him for this evasion or would any man think him much better than mad that would take such a course of Defence And yet this is the very course of these Magdeburgians who citing first the gravest and most ancient Fathers of Christendom against themselves do reject the same again with this only jest and contumely that they spake incommodiously ignorantly and were Stubble-Doctors 15. Well then for so much as concerneth the first Article mentioned by Fox and Sir Francis as a thing not heard of in Eleutherius's time to wit the Vniversality and Primacy of the Church and Bishop of Rome you see that with going to the Authors themselves of that Age the Magdeburgians do make it clear against themselves And for the second point concerning the use of Mass and Propitiatory Sacrifice we have cited sufficiently before in the first Chapter of this Treatise out of the same Magdeburgians who condemn divers of the most ancient Fathers for testifying this matter and we may do the like in all the other Articles specified by Fox and his Knight but that it would be over tedious And therefore I do remit the curious Reader to the Volumes of the Magdeburgians themselves if he have so much time to lose as the reading thereof doth require Only in this place I am to note unto him for his better Instruction three or four kinds of shifts and frauds used ordinarily by these Protestant Germans in setting down these and other like matters out of the Fathers which I shall do in the next ensuing Chapter CHAP. VII The same Argument is continued and it is shewed out of the Magdeburgians how they accuse and abuse the Fathers of the Second and Third Age for holding with Us against Them. DIvers are the shifts and frauds and manifold the abuses which Protestant Writers and namely the Magdeburgians do offer to the ancient Fathers in examining their Sentences about Controversies in Religion Whereof one principal may be accounted that of four or five places or more that may be alledged out of them for Us and our Doctrin in the question proposed they will not cite two left the multitude of Authorities if they alledge all that in the Fathers are found should give our Cause too much credit Secondly of four or five parts of the Fathers words contained in the places by them alledged these good Fellows do cut off ordinarily three lest if they did set them down at length with their Antecedents and Consequents their Opinions might appear more probable and plausible than these men would have them And of this you have had an Example in the first Authority alledged by me even now out of Irenaeus about the Principality of the Church of Rome which being set down somewhat at length as it is in the Author maketh the matter clear but shuffled up in four or five words after a most curtail'd manner as the Magdeburgians do alledge them do scarce make any sense at all which is the thing the Alledgers do desire thereby to discredit the Author 2. Their third fraud is that having alledged the first Authorities for Us and against themselves they devise divers pretty and witty slights to discredit them again as sometimes saying that in other places the said Father expoundeth or contradicteth himself sometimes that he speaketh rashly or incommodiously or without Scripture and other such contemptuous rejections As for Example talking of St. Cyprian that famous Bishop Doctor and Martyr and the Christian Phoenix of his Age as St. Augustin judgeth of him these men do handle him in this sort 3. Cyprianus sine Scriptura loquitur Cyprian speaketh without Scripture Cyprianus superstitiosè fingit Cyprian doth feign superstitiously Cyprianus malè judicat Cyprian judgeth naughtily and the like Nay they endeavor to discredit the whole multitude of Doctors and Fathers in every Age As for Example in the beginning of the first Age next after the Apostles they write thus Tamesit haec aetas Apostolis admodum vicina fuit c. Albeit this
they would choose such a person as this is reported to be having wandred the World up and down with a Monk as Fox affirmeth How could all this lie hidden Was there none that either by Countenance Voice or other Actions of hers could suspect this Fraud How happened her own Lovers had not discover'd her or her Incontinent Life How could she pass through Priesthood and other Ecclesiastical Orders How by so many under Offices and Degrees as they must before they come to be Popes without descrying 35. And finally not to stand upon more Improbabilities either this Pope Joan was young or old when she was chosen If she were young that was against the Custom to choose young Popes as may appear by the great number of Popes that lived in that Dignity above the number of Emperours that succeeded often in their Youth besides it is a most unlikely thing that the whole Roman Clergy would choose a Pope without a Beard especially a Stranger But if she were old when she was chosen then how did she bear a Child publicly in Procession as our Heretics affirm How did they not discern her to be a Woman or an Eunuch seeing she had no Beard in her Old Age. 36. Again how could she be nine months with Child in that place without being discovered or suspected by some How durst she go forth in public Procession when she knew her self to be so near her time How is she said to have gone from the Palace of St. Peter to St. John Lateran whereas the Popes lay not then in the Vatican at St. Peters but at St. John Lateran it self Finally there are so many fond Improbabilities and moral Impossibilities in this Tale especially being joyned with the grave Testimonies of so many ancient Authors and Historiographers as before we have recited to the contrary as no man of any mean judgment discretion or common sense will give credit thereto but will easily see the vanity of so ridiculous a Fiction Wherefore this shall suffice for the Confutation of this Heretical Fable tho' as before hath been shewed if it were or had been true yet no prejudice could come to Us thereby that hold No Woman good or bad can be Head of our Church CHAP. VI. The Narration of English Ecclesiastical Affairs during this fourth station or distinction of Time is continued and the Absurdities of John Fox are discovered WHerefore now we shall return to follow the Thread of John Fox's Story again And whereas you asked me before What indeed the poor Fellow performeth in this his Third Book I now will answer as then I began to say That in very deed he meerly trifleth out the time handling noting of that he should have done of the orderly Descent Race or Course of the Church but telling us impertinent and trivial matters and for the most part not Ecclesiastical but Temporal to be found in every Chronicler to wit certain scraps of the Lives of our English Kings from King Egbert Ethelwolf Ethelbald Ethelred Alured and the rest unto King Edward the Confessor and so to William the Conqueror censuring every Prince when he speaketh of spiritual matters for their belief actions and doings in Religion As for Example reprehending them for that they builded so many Monasteries and much more for that so many of them and their Children entred to be Monks and Nuns that they gave so much Lands Livings and Privileges to Abbeys and Churches and for that they went on Pilgrimages offered Alms for their Sins ordained Masses to be said for them when they were dead that they believed so easily Miracles went to Shrift humbled themselves to Priests and other such-like Religious Actions which do greatly displease Fox 2. And to shew you some few Examples he beginneth first with Ethelwolf Son to King Egbert misliking a certain Donation of Lands which he gave to the Church in his time for Alms to pacifie as he saith God's wrath thereby the sooner for diverting the cruel Persecution and Inundation of the Danes which had begun in his Father King Egbert's time and endured still to the utter Desolation of the Land. His words are these Post multiplices tribulationes ad affligendum usque ad internecionem Ego Ethelwolfus Rex c. After many Tribulations afflicting us even to death I king Ethelwolf together with the Council of my Bishops and Princes have taken this wholsom and agreeable resolution to give some Portion of the Land of my Inheritance unto God and the B. Virgin Mary and to all the rest of his Saints to be possessed by them for ever c. to the end that they may pour out Prayers for us to God so much the more diligently c. 3. Thus far John Fox tho' William of Malmsbury doth relate the same far differently and much more largely telling what Bishops were present at the making of this Chart to wit Alstane Bishop of Shirbourn afterward translated to Salisbury and Swithin Bishop of Winchester and what Psalms and Masses were appointed by the said Bishops for the King in respect of these Alms and the like All which do greatly displease John Fox but help him nothing at all but disgraceth rather his new Church this happening in the year of Christ 844. 4. The like Donation doth Fox recite out of William of Malmsbury made by Ethelbald King of the Mercians some years before to wit about the year of Christ 740 where he saith Ego Ethelbaldus Merciorum Rex pro amore Coelestis Patriae c. I Ethelbald King of the Mercians for the love I have to my Heavenly Country and for the health of my Soul have thought good to study how by good works I may free the same from the chains of sin Wherefore seeing Almighty God for his Mercy and Clemency without any precedent Merit of mine hath given me my Crown of this Government I do willingly out of that which he hath given me restore to him again by way of Alms that which followeth c. 5. Thus far that good King which greatly also misliketh John Fox And he saith in particular that two things do much offend him in these Donations to Churches and Monasteries The first That they should erect these Monasteries of Monks Nuns saith he to live solely and singly by themselves out of the holy state of Matrimony And secondly That unto this their Zeal and Devotion was not joyned the knowledge of Christ's Gospel especially in the Article of our free Justification by the Faith of Jesus Christ 6. Lo here what two quarrels our Fox hath pick'd out against these ancient Christians The first That so many did profess the holy State of Virginity and Continency The other That by doing so many good works they lacked the knowledge of the Protestants Gospel which justifieth by Faith only without good works But they might answer with St. James Thou hast Faith and I have Works shew me thy Faith without Works and I
brag of the obscurity and contemptibility of their Church And so again whereas we hold and highly esteem that our Church hath all truth of Christ's Doctrin and Religion in it Fox writeth of his Church as before we have recorded That by God's mighty Providence there hath always been kept in her some sparks of Christ's true Doctrin and Religion 15. Again whereas we glory that in our Church there is power to absolve from sins security from error and the like Fox denieth these privileges to be in his Church objecting unto us for an error against the first in a certain Treatise of his before his Acts and Monuments That we in our Church have Confession and Absolution at the Priests hands c. And against the second he bringeth in a large Conference of Ridley and Latimer agreeing together that the greater part of the Universal Catholic Church may err but yet fearfully as you shall see more largely in the Third Part of this Treatise when we shall come to treat of these Foxian Saints and their Festival Days Acts and Monuments The same Patriarchs also do censure S. Augustin's Speech before by me alleged for an excessive vehemency for so are their words where he saith That he would not believe the Gospel if the Authority of the Catholic Church did not move him thereunto signifying thereby as before hath been noted that he could not know Scriptures to be Scriptures nor the Gospel to be Gospel neither their sense and meaning to be such as they were taken for but by the Authority of the Universal Catholic Church that had conserved them from time to time and delivered them to him and to the rest of the World for such to be believed 16. Wherefore to conclude this matter seeing that John Fox doth allow so well this Doctrin of his Patriarchs Ridley and Latimer and thereby doth take from the true Church and consequently in his meaning from his own all this excellent Authority which S. Augustin and other Fathers do ascribe to the Catholic Church to wit the Sovereignty of approving or rejecting true or false Scriptures of discerning between Books and Books and judging of their true interpretations and seeing further he taketh away from his Church both Confession and Absolution of sins and all efficacy of Sacraments leaving them only to bare Signs that do signifie and not work seeing he taketh away from her all infallibility of Doctrin confessing that she may err and contenteth himself that she retain ever some sparkles only of true Doctrin and Religion as before hath been shewed out of his own words and considering moreover that he maketh her so poor a thing as now you have seen and furnisheth her with such rags to wit with such variety of Sectaries as is ridiculous to name they disagreeing among themselves and the one most opposite to the other in Doctrin and Belief she being such a Church I say so poor and miserable so obscure and ragged so doubtful and uncertain no marvail tho' they make little account of her or give small credit unto her which in very deed is no greater than is given to the worst man or most dishonest woman living which is to believe her so far as she can prove by others what she saith to be true to wit by Scriptures without which witness none of her own children or houshold will credit or believe her which is a remarkable Point for that with the same condition they will believe the Devil himself and must do if he allege Scriptures in the true sense and meaning 17. And this is the estimation which Protestants do hold of their new Church Now let us pass to speak a word only about the second Point which concerneth the assigning out or description of this Church Clear it is and cannot be denied that Catholics do assign such a Church as may be seen and known by all men begun visibly by Christ himself in Jury when he gathered his Apostles and Disciples together and continued afterward with infinite increase of Nations and People Countries and Kingdoms that in tract of time adjoyned themselves thereunto and that this most manifest notorious and known Church hath endured ever since under the name of the Christian Catholic Church for the space of sixteen hundred years as we have shewed before both largely and particularly in the former Treatise which is plain dealing clear and manifest whereas on the other side the Protestants of our days following herein the steps of old Heretics their Ancestors do seek to assign such a Church as no man can tell where to find it for that it is rather imaginary mathematical or metaphysical than sensible to man's eyes consisting as they teach of just and predestinate men only whom where or how to find you see how uncertain and difficult a thing it is in this mortal life 18. Wherefore as the ancient Fathers condemned wholly the Heretics of their times for this fond and pernicious device and wrote eagerly against the same as S. Cyprian against the Novatians S. Epiphanius and S. Augustin against the Donatists and Pelagians for that under this cover and colour they would make themselves to be the only true Church to wit every Sect their own Sectaries and Congregation saying that they only are predestinate just holy and God's chosen people and consequently also his only true Church so do we at this day stand in the very same controversie with Protestants that seek the same evasion and refuge 19. And he that hath but so much leisure as to read over the Conference of the Third day had between S. Augustin and other Catholic Bishops on the one side and the Bishops of the Donatists on the other side at Carthage by the Emperor's persmission and appointment even upon this very Question of assigning the Church he shall see the matter most clearly handled and that the Catholics of this time do urge nothing in this Point but that S. Augustin and his fellow Catholic Bishops did urge in that Conference against the Donatists and that the Protestants of our time do take no other course of shifting and defending themselves therein than the Donatists did in those days for that after infinite delays and tergiversations used before they could be brought to this Conference which S. Augustin setteth down in the collation of the first and second day when at length in the third days meeting they came to joyn upon the Controversie in hand they began first about the word Catholic it self which the Catholics urg'd against the Donatists as we do now against the Sectaries of this Age and the Donatists sought to avoid the same by the very same sleights which ours do as appeareth by S. Augustin's words 20. Donatistae saith S. August responderunt Catholicum nomen non ex universitate gentium sed ex plenitudine Sacramentorum institutum petiverunt ut pro barent Catholici c. The Donatists did