to make Deans and Chapters useless and thereby to prepare them for a Dissolution Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning this Act of Parliament I will take leave here although it be not its proper place to insert an Act of Parliament of the third year of this King's Reign concerning the Form to be used in making of Bishops The words of the Act are these to wit THat such form and Manner of Making and Consecrating of Archbishops Bishops Priests and Deacons as by Six Prelates and Six other Learned Men or by the most number of them they being appointed and assigned by the King shall be devised for that purpose and set forth under the Great Seal shall be accounted as lawfully exercised and Used and no other Thus Dr. Heylyn page 82. concerning the Election of Bishops From this Alteration which was made in Parliament in reference to the making of Bishops and the way of Exercising their Authority we shall find in the Progress of this story That there was great Havock and Spoyl made of the Bishopricks themselves Two Examples and Testimonies whereof here immediately follow Related thus by Dr. Heylyn pag. 129. THe See of Lincoln being vacant it was kept void from August till the next June During which interval the Patrimony of that great and wealthy Bishoprick one of the richest in the Kingdom was so dismembred in it self so parcelled out for a prey to others That when the new Bishop was to be restored to his Temporals there was none of all his Mannors reserved for him but his Mannor of Bugden together with some Farms and Impropriations The rest was to be raised out of the Profits of his Jurisdiction Yet so that nothing was to be abated in his Tenths and First Fruits which were kept up according to their former value The second Example is this Doctor Barlow being made Bishop of Bath and Wells gratified the Lord Protector with a Present of Eighteen or Nineteen Mannors which anciently belonged unto it And lying all or most part of them in the County of Sommerset seemed very conveniently disposed of for the better maintenance of the Title of Duke of Sommerset which the Protector had taken to himself Many such strange Donations we shall find in others The more to be excused because there was no other Means as the times then were to preserve the whole but by advancing some part thereof to preserve the rest Thus Dr. Heylyn page 130. concerning these Bishopricks And thus far concerning the proceedings of this Parliament CHAP. III. Of several other Alterations in Religion made in the beginning of this Year Of which Dr. Heylyn gives this Account Page 54. Anno Regni Edwardi Sexti 2. NO sooner was this year begun but it was Ordered by the King and his Privy Council that no Candles should be born upon Candlemas-day nor Ashes or Palms used any longer The Lords drove this business on so fast That before this Order could be published in the remote parts of the Kingdom they followed it with another as little pleasing to the main Body of the People concerning the taking down of all Images which in some places of the Realm were either not taken down at all as was required the year before by the King's Injunctions or had been Re-edified again as soon as the first heats of the Visitation had began to cool Bishop Gardiner in a Letter of his signified his great dislike of some proceedings had at Portsmouth in taking down the Images of Christ and his Saints certifying withal That he had not only seen these Images standing in all the Churches of the Lutherans but that Luther himself had purposly written a Book against some men that had defaced them And therefore it may be well thought that Covetousness spurred on this business more than Zeal There being none of these Images so poor and mean the spoyl whereof would not afford some Gold and Silver if not Jewels also besides Censers Candlesticks and many other rich Utensils appertaining to them In which respect the Commissioners hereto Authorized were entertained in many places with scorn and railing and the further they went from London the worse they were handled Insomuch as that one of them as he was pulling down an Image in Cornwal was stabbed And though the Principal Offender was hanged which quieted all matters for a time yet the next year the storm broke out more violently than before not only to the endangering of the peace of those Western Counties but in a manner of all the Kingdom Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning the Zeal of the People about the taking down of Images Which great Commotions the Council could not but foresee as the most probable Consequents of such Alterations Especially when they are sudden and press'd too fast There being nothing of which People commonly are so tender as they are of Religion on which their happiness depends not only for this world but the world to come And therefore it concerned them in point of Prudence to let the People see that there was no intention to abolish all their ancient Ceremonies And in particular it was held expedient to give the generality of the Subjects some contentment in a Proclamation for the strict keeping of Lent and the Example of the Court in Pursuance of it For Dr. Glasier Preaching at Paul's Cross affirmed That Lent was not Ordained of God to be Fasted neither the eating of Flesh to be forborn But that the same was a Politick Ordinance of men and therefore might be broken by men at their pleasures Upon this there was no scarcity of those that cried down all the Observations of Days and Times even to the Libelling against that ancient and Religious Fast in most scandalous Rhymes Complaint whereof being made by Bishop Gardiner to the Lord Protector a Proclamation was set out by which all People were commanded to abstain from Flesh in the time of Lent and the King's Lenten-dyet was set out and served as in former times Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning this Policy To Establish this more firmly there was this following Act of Parliament made concerning it Thus set down in the Statute Book FOrasmuch as divers of the King's Subjects have of late more than in times past broken and contemned such Abstinencies as have been used in this Realm upon Fridays and Saturdays Ember-days Vigils Lent and other accustomed times this Parliament considering that due and godly Abstinence is a means to Virtue and to subdue mens Bodies to their Soul and Spirit And considering withal that Fishers may thereby be more set a work and that by eating of Fish much Flesh shall be saved and encreased and also for divers other Considerations and Commodities of the Realm doth Enact and Ordain That all manner of Statutes Laws Constitutions and Usages concerning any manner of Fasting and Abstinence from any kind of meats heretofore in this Realm made or used shall lose their force and strength and be void and of no effect And also that no Person
words of our Saviour John 6. 55. My Flesh is meat indeed and my Blood is drink indeed Where he writes thus The following words are these as my Living Father sent me and I live by the Father so he that eats or feeds upon me shall live by me Our Saviour has taught us by these Misterious Words That we are to be as Members in his Body the Church under him or connected to him as our Head feeding upon his Flesh and not deserting his Unity Now that which makes us his Members is this Unity Which Unity is caused by charity diffused into our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given to us It is therefore the Spirit to wit of Charity that gives life making us living Members Nor does this Spirit make any living Members but such as are in the Body of the Church which receives life from the same Spirit For the Spirit or Soul which is in man does not give life to a member separated from the Body because it is not joyned by Union to the same Body The design of this Discourse is to move us to love Unity and fear a separation from the Church For a Christian ought to fear nothing more than to be separated from the Body of Christ to wit his Church Since such as are separated from this his Mystical Body are not his Members and not being his Members they cannot receive life from his Spirit Now the Apostle assures us That such as have not the Spirit of Christ belong not to him And a little after in the same Homily he goes on thus The Faithful know Christ's Body if they neglect not to be his Body They must be his Body if they will live of the Spirit of Christ. For none live of the Spirit of Christ but his Body the Church Consider well what I have said You being a Man are composed of a body and a spirit which is otherwise termed a Soul The Spirit or Soul is invisible the Body visible Now as your Body lives by your Spirit so if you will live by the Spirit of Christ you must be in the Body of Christ. For as my Body lives by my Spirit and your Body by yours so the Body of Christ cannot live but by the Spirit of Christ. He that desires to live may understand here where he is to live and from whence he is to receive his life He must approach believe and be incorporated if he pretends to live He must not voluntarily separate himself from being connected with the Members of this Body of the Church nor be a corrupted Member so as to deserve to be cut off Nor yet so deformed or out of order that the rest of the Members of the Body may be ashamed of him He is therefore to be fair and neat aptly proportioned to the rest and in perfect health Moreover he must be careful to adhere closely to the Body of the Church taking his life from God and referring it to him labouring here in this life that he may afterwards reign in Heaven Thus St. Augustin convinces evidently That no Schismatick or Heretick can be saved CHAP. V. A further manifestation of the Horridness of the Sin of Schism and in what Case Ignorance may Excuse from the Guilt of it NOw yet to penetrate more fully into the true Grounds why above almost all other Sins a Christian is capable of committing Schism that is the setting up of an Altar against an Altar or the relinquishing the External Communion of the Church the making Collects or Assemblies without yea against the consent of the true Bishops or Church Governors c. should be a sin so unpardonable we are to consider that the true reason of this may be deduced from the Example of all other Governments whatsoever For the greatest offence a Subject can commit against Monarchy is an actual attempt or rather the attempt executed by which Monarchy is dissolved Inwardly to condemn the Laws of such a Government or to entertain Principles which if put in practice would withdraw Subjects from their due Obedience is an offence of an high nature but the actual Cantonizing of a Kingdom and the raising in it Courts and Judicatories independent on and opposite to the Common Tribunal of the Country is the utmost of all crimes both the Seducers and the Seduced are not only deprived of the Privileges belonging to good Subjects but pursued by Arms as the worst of All Enemies It is so in God's Church The main Thing our Creed teaches us to believe of it is its Unity without which it is not a Church Now if Unity then Order then Subordination of Governments c. What therefore is the great Sin against this Fundamental Constitution of the Church but Schism A dissolving the Communion and connexion that the Members of this great Body have amongst themselves and with relation to the whole We all willingly acknowledge that the great sin of the Synagogue the sin that filled up the measure of the crimes of the Jews was their Murdering of our Lord. Now says St. Chrisâ—…stom Homil. 11. ad Ephes. We shall not merit or incur a less cruel Punishment if we divide the Unity and Plenitude of the Church the Mystical Body of our Lord then Those have done who pierced mangled and tore his own Body But may not Ignorance excuse the Guilt of Schism No On the contrary in some regard it aggravates it For though Pride and Malice be far greater in the leading Schismaticks Persons of Wit and Learning yet ignorant Souls and Ideots seem more to contradict Human reason because the more ignorant they are and being no Pastors the more they ought to submit their judgments to Authority and consequently the preferring their own conduct or the conduct and direction of particular men or Churches before the universal Authority of the Church the Excommunicating as it were the whole Church of God the esteeming all Christians both Pastors and Flocks as Heathens and Publicans is a presumption so contrary to human nature and reason that their want of Learning is that which will most of all condemn them I speak not now of Persons absolutely Ideots who scarce know there are any other Pastors or any other Church than their own who pretend not at all to pass their judgments on other Religions but know only what their Pastors teach them having not ability by reason of their condition to examine Scriptures and Churches For such no doubt may by their simplicity and absolute invincible ignorance escape the malignity of Schism But I speak of Inferior Tradsmen of Gentlemen and Gentlewomen who have a capacity of being rightly instructed and better informed of the Spiritual Authority to which they owe their Subjection and yet who by their own perversness become troublers of the Church and who because they can read the Scriptures take upon them to judge of the Sense of them both for themselves and their Pastors Such as these no doubt have drunk in the
the same time giving him a Subsidy of six shillings in the Pound to be paid out of their Spiritual Promotions poor Stipendiary Priests paying each of them six shillings eight pence to encrease the Sum which also was so soon consumed that the next year he press'd his Subjects to a Benevolence and in the following year he obtain'd the Grant of all Chantries Hospitals Colleges and Free-Chappels within the Realm though he lived not to enjoy the benefit of it Most true it is that it was somewhat of the latest before he cast his Eye on the Lands of Bishopricks though there were some that thought the time long till they fell upon them Concerning which there goes a story That after the Court-Harpies had devoured the greatest part of the Spoyl which came by the Suppression of Abbeys they began to seek some other way to satiate that greedy Appetite which the division of the former Booty had left unsatisfied And for the satisfying whereof they found not any thing so necessary as the Bishops Lands This to Effect Sir Thomas Seymour is employed as the fittest man being in Favor with the King and Brother to Queen Jane his most beloved and best Wife and having opportunity of access unto him as being one of his Privy Chamber And he not having any good affection to Archbishop Cranmer desired that the experiment should be try'd on him And therefore took his time to inform the King that my Lord of Canterbury did nothing but fell his Woods letting long Leases for great Fines and making havock of the Royalties of his Arch Bishoprick to raise thereby a Fortune to his Wife and Children Withal he acquainted the King That the Archbishop kept no Hospitality in respect of such a large Revenue and that in the Opinion of many wise men it was more convenient for the Bishops to have a sufficient yearly stipend out of the Exchequer than to be so encumbred with Temporal Royalties being so great a hinderance to their Studies and Pastoral Charge and that the Lands and Royalties being taken to his Majesties use would afford him besides the said Annual Stipends a great yearly Revenue The King considering of it could not think fit that such a plausible Proposition as taking to himself the Lands of Bishops should be made in vain only he was resolv'd to prey further off and not to fall upon the spoyl too near the Court for fear of having more partakers in the Booty than might stand with his profit And to this end he deals with Holgate preferred not long before from Landaff to the See of York from whom he takes at one time no fewer than Seventy Mannors and Townships of good old Rents giving him in exchange to the like yearly value certain Impropriations Pensions Tythes and Portions of Tythes but all of an extended Rent which had accrued to the Crown by the Fall of Abbeys Which Lands he laid by Act of Parliament to the Dutchy of Lancaster For which see 37 Hen. 8. Chap. 16. He dismembred also by these Acts certain Mannors from the See of London and others in like manner from the See of Canterbury but not without some reasonable Compensation for them And although by reason of his death which followed within a short time after there was no further Alienation made in his time of the Churches Patrimony yet having open'd such a gap and discovered this Secret that the Sacred Patrimony might be Alienated with so little trouble the Courtiers of King Edward's time would not be kept from breaking violently into it and making up their own Fortune in the spoyl of Bishopricks So impossible a thing it is for the ill Examples of Great Princes not to find followers in all Ages especially where Profit or Preferment may be furthered by it Thus Heylyn CHAP. VI. Of some other Passages concerning this King and likewise of his death HAving now prosecuted this Relation thus far and drawing to an end of it we will here insert a Passage out of Dr. Heylyn's History of Reformation Pag. 6. concerning King Henry the Eighth's Absolute Power of disposing of the Crown The words are these Anno Regni 28. In the Act of Succession which past in the Parliament of this year there is this Clause to wit That for lack of Lawful Heirs of the Kings Body it should and might be lawful for Him to confer the Crown on any such Person or Persons as should please his Highness and according to such Estate and after such Manner Form Fashion Order and Condition as should be Expressed Named Declared and Limited in his Letters Patents or by his Last Will The Crown to be enjoyed by such Person or Persons so to be nominated and appointed in as large and ample manner as if such Person or Persons had been his Highness's Lawful Heirs to the Imperial Crown of this Realm Thus Dr. Heylyn By this and what hath been said in these Collections it evidently appears that all Inheritances both Civil and Ecclesiastical as likewise the Lives of all men in the Reign of this King depended upon the Arbitrary Government of those times Now we must end this story concerning matters of Religion in this Kings Reign with a brief Relation of his Death with a Summary Account of his Wives and the years of his Reign The Relation of his Death is thus deliver'd by Dr. Heylyn in his History of Reformation Page 14. THe King having lived a voluptuous Life and too much indulged to his Palate was grown so corpulent or rather so over-grown with an unweildy burthen of Flesh that he was not able to go up Stairs from one Room to another but as he was hoised up by an Engine which filling his Body with foul and foggy Humors did both wast his Spirits and encrease his Passions In the midst of which Distempers it was not his least care to provide for the Succession of the Crown to his own Posterity At such time as he married Anne Bulleign He procur'd his Daughter Mary to be declar'd Illegitimate by Act of Parliament The like he also did by his Daughter Elizabeth when he had married Jane Seymour settling the Crown upon his Issue by the said Queen Jane But having no other Issue by her but Prince Edward and none at all by his following Wives he thought it a point of prudence to establish the Succession by more Stayes than one For which cause he procured an Act of Parliament in the 35 year of his Reign in which it is declared That in default of Issue of the said Prince Edward the Crown should be entail'd to the Kings Daughter the Lady Mary and the Heirs of her Body And so likewise to the Lady Elizabeth and the Heirs of her Body And for lack of such Issue to such as the King by his Letters Patents or his last Will in Writing should limit Of which Act of Parliament he being now sick and fearing his approaching end made such use in laying down the state of the
Or that the Communion Table if any then were was removable up and down hither and thither and brought at any time to the lower part of the Church there to Celebrate the Lord's Supper Or That any Communion was kept upon Good-Friday Or That the Sacrament was administred then sometimes in Loaf-Bread sometimes in Wafers And that without the Name of Jesus or the sign of the Cross Or That at the Communion-time the Minister should wear a Coap and at all other Service a Surplice only Or as it is used in some places nothing at all beside his Common Apparel Or That they used a Common and Prophane Cup at the Communion pag. 162 Or That a solemn Curse should be used on Ashwednesday Or That a Procession about the Fields was used in Rogation week rather thereby to know the Bounds and Borders of every Parish than to move God to Mercy and mens hearts to Devotion Or That the Man should put the Wedding-Ring upon the Fourth Finger of the left hand of the Woman and not on the right as hath been many Hundred years practised pag. 163 Or That the residue of the Sacrament unreceived was taken of the Priest or of the Parish Clerk to spread their young Childrens Butter with or to serve their own Tooth with it at their homely Table Or That it was lawful then to have but one Communion in one Church in one day pag. 164 Or That the Lent or Friday was to be Fasted for Civil Policy not for any Devotion pag. 165 Or That the Lay-People Communicating did take the Cup at one anothers hands and not at the Priests pag. 166. Or That any Bishop then threw down the Images of Christ and his Saints and set up their own their Wives and their Childrens Pictures in their Chambers and Parlours pag. 164. Or That being a Virgin at the taking of the Holy Order of Priesthood did afterwards lawfully Marry pag. 165. Or That was Married on Ashwednesday Or That preached it to be all one to Pray on a Dunghil and in a Church Or That any Friar of 60 years obtaining afterwards the Dignity of a Bishop Married a young Woman of Nineteen years c. pag. 166. Here ends Dr. Heylyn's History of Reformation Now to compleat the story of the Presbyterians I will here add what is related by Dr. Heylyn concerning their actings in this Queens Reign in his History of Presbytery AN ADDITION Of some other Historical Collections Taken out of Dr. Heylyn's History of Presbytery CHAP. XV. A Discovery of the Insolent and Rebellious Spirit of the Presbyterians and particularly of Knox. Dr. Heylyn pag. 244. AT Queen Elizabeths first coming to the Crown such English as had lived in exile amongst the Zwitzers or at Geneva became exceedingly enamored with Calvin's Platform by which they found so much Authority ascribed unto Ministers in their several Churches as might make them absolute and independent without being called to an account by King or Bishop This Discipline they purposed to promote at their coming home But the Queen had heard so much from others of their carriage at Frankfort and their untractableness in point of Decency and comly Order in the Reign of her Brother as might sufficiently forewarn her Besides She was not to be told with what reproaches Calvin had reviled her Sister nor how she had been persecuted by his followers in the time of her Reign Some of them railing at her Person in their scandalous Pamphlets Some practising by false and dangerous Allusions to subvert her Government and others openly praying to God That he would either turn Her heart or put an end to her days And of these Men she was to give her self no hope but they would proceed with her in the self same manner whensoever any thing should be done how necessary and just soever which might cross their humours The Consideration whereof was of such prevalency with those of her Council who were then deliberating about the altering of Religion that they were resolved to have an eye upon those Men Who were so hot in the persuit of their flattering hopes that out of a desire of Innovation as my Author tells me they were busied at that very time in setting up a new form of Ecclestastical Policy and therefore were to be supprest with all care and diligence before they grew to a head But notwithstanding this discovery of their Rebellious practices yet they had so many Friends in England that they might easily have obtained Favour in order to the Promoting their designs had not Knox's furious Spirit moved him to write these following malicious Letters In one of which to Sir William Cecill he first upbraids him with consenting to the suppressing of Christ's true Evangile to the erecting of Idolatry and the Shedding the Blood of God's most dear Children during the Reign of mischievous Mary the professed enemy of God as he plainly calls her Then he proceeds to justifie his Treasonable and Seditious Book against the Regiment of Women of the truth whereof he positively affirms That he no more doubted than of the truth of that Voice of God pronounced against that Sex to wit That in dolour they should bear their Children Next he declared in reference to the person of Queen Elizabeth That he would willingly acknowledge her to be raised by God for the manifestation of his Glory although not nature only but Gods own Ordinance did oppugn such Regiments And thereupon did inferr That if Queen Elizabeth would confess that the Extraordinary Dispensations of God did make that Lawful in her which both Nature and Gods Laws did deny in all Women beside none in England should bemore ready to maintain her Lawful Authority than himself But on the other side he pronounces this Sentence on her That if she built her Title upon Custom Laws and Ordinances of Men such foolish Presumption would grievously offend God and that her ingratitude in that kind should not long lack punishment To the same purpose he writes also to the Queen her self reproaching her withal That for fear of her life she had declined from God Bowed to Idolatry and gone to Mass during the persecution of Gods Saints in the time of her Sister In both his Letters he complains of his being denied the liberty of Preaching in England and endeavours to excuse his Flock of late assembled in the most Godly Reformed Church and City of Geneva Thus Dr. Heylyn CHAP. XVI A further Discovery of their Practices in order to the Promoting of their Discipline which was much Advanced by their being admitted into the Publick Ministry Dr. Heylyn pag. 246. SUch was the necessity which the Church of England was under that it was hardly possible to supply all the vacant places in it but by admitting some of the Genevian Zealots to the Publick Ministry the Realm had been extreamly visited in the foregoing year with a dangerous and contagious Sickness which took away almost half of the Bishops and occasioned such a
Principality coins or else follows new Opinions St. Augustin likewise notes in the latter end of his Book De Haeresibus That the People need not to be curious to know what Opinions Hereticks hold much less to labour to confute them It being enough for them to know that they are condemned And St. Cyprian Epist. 52. Num. 7. sayes notably to Antonianus demanding curiously what Heresies Novatian taught No matter saith he what Heresies he holds or preaches when he teaches without That is to say out of the Church Now although Hereticks be often incorrigible yet the Church of God ceases not by all means possible to revoke them Therefore St. Augustin says Epist. 162. The Heretick himself though swelling with odious and detestable pride and mad with the frowardness of wicked Contention as we admonish that he be avoided lest he deceive such as are weak and little ones so we refuse not by all means possible to seek his amendment and reformation Now to understand the Reason why the Apostle here says That an Heretick is condemned by his own judgment we are to know That some other grievous offenders are separated by Excommunication from the Communion of Saints and the Fellowship of God's Church by the Sentence of their Superiours in the same Church But Hereticks more miserable and unfortunate than they run out of the Church of their own accord and so give Sentence against their own Souls to damnation Now further to shew the Reason why Heresie which seeks to divide and tear in pieces the body of the Church is so horrid a crime St. Paul here describes its Unity saying 1 Cor. 12. 12. For as the Body is one and hath many Members and all the Members of the Body whereas they be many yet are One Body So also Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body And vers 23. God hath tempered the Body giving to it that wanted the more abundant honor that there might be no Schism in the Body but the Members together might be careful one for another And a little after You are the Body of Christ and Members of Member Now to prevent the making a Schism in this Body he says 1 Cor. 1 10. I beseech you Brethren by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you All say one Thing and that there be no Schisms among you but that you be perfect in one Sense and in one Knowledge Again Eph. 4. 1. I beseech you that you walk worthy of the Vocation in which you are called And a little after Careful to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace One Body and One Spirit as you are called in one Hope of your Vocation One Lord One Faith One Baptism One God and Father of All. And now to manifest what care our Saviour had taken to preserve this Unity of the Church he further adds vers 11. And he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and other some Evangelists and other-some Pastors and Doctors to the Consummation of the Saints unto the Work of Ministry unto the Edifying or building up of the Body of Christ to wit his Church until we meet all into the Unity of Faith and Knowledge of the Son of God into a perfect Man into the measure of the Age of the Fulness of Christ That now we be not Children wavering and carried about with every wind of Doctrin in the wickedness of Men in craftiness to the circumvention of Error But doing the truth in charity let us in all things grow in him who is the Head Christ Of whom the whole Body to wit the Church being compact and knit together by all juncture of Subministration according to the Operation in the measure of every Member maketh the encrease of the Body unto the edifying of it self in charity Thus the Apostle fully delivers the admirable Structure of the Church Annotations Now as Rebellion is the bane of Civil Common-wealths and Kingdoms and Peace and Concord the preservation of the same so is Schism Division and diversity of Faith the Calamity of the Church and Peace Unity and Uniformity the special Blessing of God therein And in the Church above all Common-wealths Because it is in all points a Monarchy tending every way to Unity There being but One God One Christ One Church One Hope One Faith One Baptism One Head One Body as the Apostle here assures us Thus the Apostle of the United Body of the Church Now to manifest the great Dignity of the Church and how much she is beloved by our Saviour St. Paul Ephes. 5 22. says The Man is the Head of the Woman as Christ is the Head of the Church Himself the Saviour of his Body to wit the same Church and of no other And a little after vers 25. Husbands saith he love your Wives as Christ also loved the Church and delivered himself for it that he might Sanctifie it cleansing it by the laver of Water in the Word that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it may be holy and unspotted And again a little after vers 29. No man ever hated his own flesh but he nourisheth and cherisheth it as also Christ the Church Because we be the Members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bones Annotations The Apostle here saying that Christ is the Saviour of his Body to wit his Church doth evidently declare That none can be saved or have any benefit by Christ that is not of his Body the Church And what Church that is St. Augustin expresseth in these words The Catholick Church only is the Body of Christ whereof he is the Head Out of this Body of the Church the Holy Ghost quickeneth no man And a little after He that will have the Spirit let him beware he remain not out of the Church Let him beware he enter not into it feignedly August Epist. 50. ad Bonifacium Comitem in fine It is an unspeakable Dignity of the Church which the Apostle expresseth often elsewhere but more especially in this whole passage to be that Creature for which Christ effectually Suffered to be washed and embrued with Water and Blood issuing out of his holy side to be nourished with his own Body to be his Members to be so joyned unto him as the Body and Members of the same Flesh Bone and Substance to the Head to be loved and cherished of him as a Wife of a Husband yea to be his Wife and most dear Spouse taken and formed as St. Augustin often says out of his own Side upon the Cross as Eve our First-Father Adam's Spouse was made of his Rib. August in Psalm 126 127. In respect of which great Dignity and Excellency the same holy Father affirms the Church to be the principal Creature of God and therefore named in the Creed next after the Holy Ghost And he proves against the Macedonians the Holy Ghost to be God because
Out of this Church neither the Title of Christian secures any one neither doth Baptism confer Salvation neither doth any man offer a Sacrifice agreeable to God neither doth any man attain to Eternal Life For there is one only Church one only Dove one only Well-Beloved one only Spouse And again in his Book De Fide ad Petrum cap. 39. Hold this saith he most firmly and doubt not of it in any wise That every Heretick and Schismatick whatsoever Baptized in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost if before the end of his Life he be not Reunited to the Catholick Church let him bestow never so many Alms yea though he should shed his Blood for the Name of Christ he cannot obtain Salvation Likewise St. Prosper says Lib. de Prom. Praedestinat Dei p. 4. cap. 5. He who does not Communicate with the Universal Church is an Heretick and Antichrist See Athanasius in the beginning of his Creed Whosoever expects to be saved must necessarily before all things Assent to and retain the Catholick Faith which unless he preserves intire and inviolate that is entirely submits to it without all question he will perish everlastingly And again at the end thereof thus This is the Catholick Faith which except a Man believe Faithfully he cannot be saved See St. Augustin writing upon this Beatitude Blessed are those that suffer Persecution for Justice Lib. 1. de Sermone Domini in Monte. It is not the suffering these Things saith he that makes men Blessed but the undergoing them for the Name of Christ not only with an equal mind but likewise with joy and much satisfaction For many Hereticks deceiving Souls under the name of Christians have suffered many of these things But they are therefore excluded from this reward of being Blessed because it is not here only said Blessed are those which suffer Persecution but it iâ—… further added for Justice Now where Faith is not sound and entire there can be no perfect Justice since the Just man lives by Faith Neither can Schismaticks promise to themselves any thing of this reward because likewise where there is no Charity there can be no Justice For the love of our Neighbor cannot design any thing that is evil or unjust against him Hence it is manifest that if they had such Charity they would not seek to rent and tear in pieces the Body of Christ which is his Church Likewise the same Father in his Fourteenth Sermon De verbis Domini proves in general against all Hereticks and Schismaticks That whatsoever in particular their opinions are yet since they profess otherwise than the Church does and requires of them to do they are in a damnable Estate because thereby they virtually renounce one Fundamental Article of Faith viz. of the Authority and Unity of the Catholick Church And therefore if they break Communion though but for one Doctrin and that of it self of no great importance their Orthodoxness in all other Points will not avail them wanting Truth and especially renouncing Charity and Obedience to the Universal Church Hereupon the same Father in Psal. 54. saith of the Donatists We have each of us one Baptism in This they were with me We celebrated the Feasts of the Martyrs in This they were with me We frequented the Solemnity of Easter in This they were with me But they were not in All Things with me In Schism they were not with me In Heresie they were not with me In many Things they were with me and in some few Things they were not with me But in those few Things in which they were not with me those many Things do not profit them in which they were with me So again the same Father speaking to the same Donatists Epist. 48. saith You are with us in Baptism in the Creed and in other Sacraments of the Lord But in the spirit of Unity in the bond of Peace and finally in the Catholick Church you are not with us To the same purpose writeth St. Cyprian in his Book De Unitate Ecclesiae One Church saith he the Holy Ghost in the Person of our Lord designeth and saith One is my Dove This Unity of the Church he that holdeth not doth he think that he holdeth the Faith He that withstandeth and resisteth the Church He that forsaketh Peters Chair upon which the Church was built doth he trust that he is in the Church When the Blessed Apostle St. Paul also sheweth this Sacrament of Unity saying One Body and one Spirit Ephes. 4. 4. Which Unity we Bishops especially that Rule in the Church ought to hold fast and maintain that we may prove the Bishoply Function also it self to be one and undivided And again in one of his Epistles Epist. 40. There is one God and one Christ and one Church and one Chair by our Lord's Voice founded upon Peter Another Altar to be set up or a new Priesthood to be made besides one Altar and one Priesthood is impossible Whosoever gathereth elsewhere scattereth It is adulterous it is impious it is sacrilegious whatsoever is instituted by mans Fury to the breach of God's Divine Disposition Get ye far from the contagion of such men and fly from their speeches as from a canker and pestilence Our Lord having premonished and warned us beforehand saying they are Blind leaders of the Blind Matt. 15. 14. St. Hilary likewise Libro ad Constant. August thus applieth this same place of the Apostle Ephes. 4. 4 5. against the Arians as we may do against the Calvinists Perillous and miserable it is saith he that there are now so many Faiths as Wills and so many Doctrins as manners whiles either Faiths are so written as we will or as we will so are understood And whereas according to one God and one Lord and one Baptism there is also one Faith we fall away from that which is the only Faith and whiles more Faiths be made they begin to come to that that there is none at all Noah's Ark is an acknowledged Type of the Church as it appears by St. Peter 1 Pet. 3. 20 21. Wherefore as All perished Temporally by the Deluge that were not in the Ark so all perished Eternally who are out of the Church Witness St. Cyprian whose words are these Cyprian lib de Unitat. Ecclesiae Whosoever separates himself from the Church is separated from the Promises of Christ. Whosoever forsakes the Church is an Alien an Enemy a prophane Person He cannot have God for his Father who will not have the Church for his Mother Could any escape drowning being out of the Ark So neither shall any one escape Damnation out of the Church They cannot abide with God who refuse to continue with one accord in his Church Though they be cast into the Fire and burnt though they be devoured by wild Beasts c. yet shall not that be any Crown of their Faith but a punishment of their perfidiousness Such an one may be killed he shall