A Retentive to Stay Good Christians, Title page · Motive 47
The 47. motiue is the 50. demaund.
Sure to continue. The church is euerlasting and visible. Bristow.Protestants do decay and shall come to nothing. The churches continuaunce. S. Augustines motiue. England beware destruction. Luther was a false Prophet.
I neede not to shewe, how often and how vainly Bristowe repeateth one thing, to make a great number of motiues. The euerlasting continuaunce of the true church hath bene seuen times at least before alleaged. But neither is it proued that the Popish church is that true church, nor yet that any sect or companie which shall continewe to the ende of the worlde is the Catholike church of Christ. For although Antichrist is and shall be more and more consumed with the breath of the Lordes mouth, which is his holie worde yet shall he not be altogether abolished vntill the ende of the worlde. Yea at the ende of the worlde, as our Sauiour Christ sayeth, fayth shall be verie scant, and hard to be founde, and iniquitie shall hauehave the vpper hande. Therefore there shall be a great church of malignant hypocrytes euen to the ende of the worlde. It is true therefore, that Christes church is sure to continewe but not whatsoeuer sect shall continew, is thereby proued to be Christes true church. How vayne his bragge is, that Protestantes doe decaye: and shall come to nothing, by their dayly increase in all partes of the world, God be thanked may be seene to all men. Likewise how true it is, which he affirmeth that Papistes doe increase, and to such numbers euen in Englande that there are more Papistes nowe, then when the Gospell was first preached, (notwithstandinge so many yeares preaching of vsus and large silence of them) who liuing in Englande can be ignoraunt? I confesse there are too many obstinate Papistes in Englande whome none of Bristowes motiues, hath either moued vntounto Poperie, or confirmed therein, but onelyonly great tolleration and lenitie which is vsed in these times. But if such seueritie were vsed nowe, as in times past, the Pope shoulde not hauehave many confessors in Englande to glorie of. And to say the truth, what one of these Papistes, dare professe what he thinketh of the Popes auctoritie, because the lawe is somewhat sharpe in that poynt. If the like lawe were of hearing masse we should hauehave as fewe suffer for masse as for the supremacie. But to returne to our motiue S. Augustine doth well to send Honoratus the Manichee to followe that way of Catholike doctrine which from Christ him selfe by the Apopostles is descended vntounto vsus, and from hence to posteritie shall descende. De vtilit. cred. cap. 8. But that it is not the way of all Popish doctrine which neuer came from Christ, nor his Apostles, nor the most auncient church. And if the tradition be vncerteyne, how shall we know what came from Christ and his Apostles, but that which we finde in the Gospell of Christ and the Epistles of his Apostles.
But the same Augustine (sayeth Bristow) biddeth the simple Donatistes to Number the Priestes euen from the verie seate of Peter, and in that order of fathers see, who to whom succeeded. That same is the rocke which the prowde gates of Hell doe not ouercome P. S. contra Donatistas. Augustine speaketh of the Catholike church, which was the vine, whereof the Church of Rome at that tyme was but a growing braunch. For a litle before he sayth, Scitis Catholica quid sit, & quid sit precisum a vite. You knowe what the Catholike church is, and what is that which is cut of from the vine. But if Bristowe shoulde vrge the seate of Peter to be called of Augustine the rocke, Augustine in his retractations confesseth that he oftentimes hath expounded the rocke to be Christ, and so will not abide by that former exposition Retract. lib. 1. cap. 21. Neither did Augustine euer meane that the see of Peter at Rome was a rocke in such sorte, that none that euer should sit there, coulde erre, for he him selfe, with the rest of the fathers of the councell of Carthage withstood ye Bishop of Rome, claiming iurisdictiō in Africa by coullour of a coūterfet decree of the councell of Nice. Conc. Carth. 6. cap. 4. Concil. …phr Ep. ad Celest. what shoulde I heere repeate Pope Honorius condemned for an heretike, not only in the generall councell of Constantinople the 6. but also in the Idolatrous coūcell of Nice the 2. and Iohn the 23. condemned for an Atheist in the councell of Gonstance. If the gates of hell preuayled not manifestly against that seate, yea and so many other Bishoppes thereof, whom they them selues confesse to be damned in hell for their wicked life: we neede not greatly be affrayed of the gates of hell. Yea (sayth Bristow) It hath bene impugned ten thousand times more then any other, but all in vayne, frustra circumlatrantibus haereticis sayth S. Augustine. In vayne is the barking of heretikes all about it. De vtil cred. cap. 17. But the place of Augustine which he citeth, is of the Church of Christ and not of Peters seate, round about the which, the heretikes hauehave barked in vaine. For euen in that seate, but yet out of the Church, Liberius had barked Arrianisme, Marcellus gentilisme, and after his time Honorius barked with the Monothelits as his epistle which remayned after his death declared. Vigilius also by his epistle was proued to barke Euty chianisme, Liberat. cap. 22. Iohn the 23. barked with the Sadduces against the resurrection of the dead, cont. Constanti. sect. 11. The see of Rome therefore is no more the rocke against which the gates of hell shall not preuaile, then the see of Canterbury or London. But sayth Bristowe who can saye that there shall be alwayes a Byshoppe of Canterburye or London? Verely, no more can any man saye, that there shall alwayes bee a Byshop of Rome. And whosoeuer sayth, that there hath beene alwayes since Peter a Byshop of Rome, shall lye moste impudently. For the See hath often ly…n voyde, not onelyonly for a short… time, while a newe Byshop might be chosen: but many yeers togither. Againe the See hath beene translated from Rome to Auinion, and the Popes Court kepte there for threescore yeeres togither by which it is manifest both that the Citie of Rome ha…h not beene the perpetuall See of Peters successours, and that Peters successors hauehave erred in remouing their Courte from that Citie, which Peter chose to be heade of the worlde and Constantine gaue (as they say) to be the head of the church, which might hauehave forborne so great a gift like as Peter also might hauehave spared his trauell in remouing his see from Antioch to Rome, if they coulde hauehave foreseene that the Popes court might hauehave bene kept as well in Fraunce, as in Italie, at Auinion as at Rome.
But Luther is charged to be a false Prophet, for that he sayth in his booke against King Henry, That he was sure that he had his doctrines from heauē. That his doctrine should stand and the Pope should fall. That God should see whether first be wery and faile, the Pope or Luther. The note of a false Prophet in Deu. 18 is to geue a signe which doth not follow, & so hath Luther doone sayth Bristow. For Zwinglius hath ouercome Luther & Caluine Zwinglius and the Puritans the Protestants in England. To this I aunswere, that Luther doth not take vponupon him to foreshew things to come by any speciall reuelatiō, but only affirmeth that his doctrine in as much as it is agreable to the word of God, is from heauen, & shall continewe, whereas the Popes doctrine being the doctrine of the deuill shall come to naught. And in this victorie, (if he please so to tearme it) hath not the Pope loste by preuayling of Zwinglius and Caluine. And was that opinion of Luther which they hauehave impugned, I meane of the carnall presence Luthers or the Popes? But whereas ye slanderous hypocrite, would make men think, that Caluine hath opposed himselfe against the doctrine of Zwinglius, the cōsent of the churches of Heluetia wt them of Sabaudia being publikely set forth to the worlde, doth openly testifie the contrarie. Also the contention of those whom he calleth Puritanes in Englande, is not so great, nor about so great matters, that any such diuision is to be feared, which might cause desolation of the kingdome. Adde hereunto that Bristow sayd in the 40. motiue, that the Protestantes of England be in a manner all in heart Puritanes, whereby he confesseth against him selfe, that there can be no deadly contention betwene them, that in heart are all one.