after the vulgar sense and acceptation of words run far wide and short of his meaning when we thinke we are at his heeles For if I be not much mistaken he is euen now closely lurking in Socinianisme while we follow him in the knowne way of Protestancy Now in good Socinianisme or true Atheisme all Heresy as supposed criminall and in the odious and ordinary acception of the word is only a colour and pretence hauing in it selfe no reality or substance of crime For these Nullifidians as they know no such vertue as Fayth so they acknowledge no such Vice as Heresy For in their Sceptique or Pyrrhonian way all assensions are but opinions all Visa are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all Vision but Apparition Will you haue the Character of a Socinian Take it in briefe and for this tyme in part He is a thing that neither see 's nor hear's nor smelles nor feeles nor tast's any thing nor vnderstands any thing but is only so affected as though he saw heard felt c. He is therefore a quasi animal and a quasi man and a quasi Christian nothing without a quasi or a quasi nothing and a quasi any thing He will giue no iudgment at all of any thing he will not say the Crow is blacke to day for feare he may say to morrow this a swan nor that hony is sweet to day least it may seeme gall to morrow For all obiects affect their senses not by what they are in themselues but as the senses are formerly affected which affection or disposition may vary daily which variance or mutation because they foresee not therefore they can promise you no opinion of theirs for to morrow no more then the Wether-cock can tell you which way it shall stand when the wind blowes next They deny as peremptorily as they can that there are ten Predicaments for whatsoeuer may fall vnder sense or vnderstanding belongs to one Predicament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing but relation So Fayth then with such men is but a Fancy as the obiect that beget's it but a phantome a thing not so but only seeming so Aske him then what he think 's of any Christian doctrine whether he belieue three persons one God the Sonne of God Incarnate or that he was borne of a Virgin c rather then he will seeme headlong or a spend-thrift of his iudgment rather then he will be thought so vnwise he will as a lesse disgrace be thought no Christian therefore he will answere you so very readily as you shall see he doth it easily 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ti 's no more so then so Or neither so nor so With this briefe sentence of absolution they quit all Heresy nor will it be prophane in them to whom nothing is holy to say to Heresy smiling sweetly vpon her as she stand's at the barre mulier vbi sunt qui te accusant nemo te condemnauit woman where or who are thy accuser's and her to answere nemo Domine none but Papists my Lord no Socinian my Lord Neque ego te condemno nor do I condemne thee thou art as true to me as the most Orthodoxe opinion of Christianity Vade in pace Fallacy of Diuision SECT XIX ANother Fallacy I meet with euen in this place which we may rank with Fallacies of Diuision For where his Aduersaries discourse hath his Arguments or reasons of proofe in ioynt connexion and immediate subsecution of his Position there this Sophister seuer's and deuides the proofe from the Position disioynting and dismembring them into so many senerall and disparate propositions without any relation or discursiue consecution of the one from the other which Fallacy though it may seeme to fall naturally from the spring and spirit of Heresy and Schisme which in their very Notion and Etimology import diuison yet I make no doubt but it was voluntary heere and of choyce hauing in it the Authors ends which were I doubt not to weaken his Aduersaries discourse as if he would vnty the faggot the more easily to breake the single stick 's which in the whole faggot he could not do His aduersaries position was this The doctrine of Protestants followed closely and coherently to it selfe induceth Socinianisme and particularly their doctrine denying infallibility of the Visible Church of Christ This proposition he proueth immediatly For if the infallibility of such a publique authority be once impeached what remaineth but that euery man is giuen ouer to his owne wit and discourse c. This reason he sorth with declaring and confirming by other reasons with close compacture and consistency of discourse because it was strong Pede pes iunctusque viro vir he fraudulently dissolues and discomposeth hoping perchance by a semblable sleight and finesse the like fortune and successe of that one suruiuing Roman Champion against the three Albane Curiaty whome by a guilefull flight hauing deuided by competent distances he return's vpon them so singled slew them one after another whom in ioynt combat he durst not deale withall Which hope notwithstanding hath frustrated this Champion nor could he indeed in reason expect the happy successe of the Roman combattant who fight 's against Rome against whose Fayth the power of hell shall not preuaile Do but cast your Eye if you please vpon these reasons euen as they lye apart and loosely and of purpose scattered by this Aduocate Inuenies etiam disiecti membra Quiritis you shall find in euery limbe a Catholique verity too strong for him to breake though single As where his Aduersary sayth for if this infallibility be once impeach't c. he omits the connecting particle for importing a reason of the immediately preceding position thus You say againe confidently that if this infallibility c. Pres Againe when his Aduersary adioyneth in confirmation of this reason For if the true Church may erre c. we are still deuolued either vpon the priuate spiret or else vpon naturall wit for determining what Scriptures contatuâ— true or false doctrine c. He hath it thus You say thirdly with sufficient cousidence Pref. that iâ— the true Church may erre c. Where his Aduersary addeth in further confirmation of this And indeed take away the authority of Gods Church no man can be assured that any booke of Scripture was written by diuine inspiration c. this man thus Pref. You say fourthly with conuenient boldnes that this infallible authority of your Church being deâ—yed no man can be assured c. Where you may also obserue a false trick by the way to make his Aduersaries words carry a more odious sound to Protestant eares for he sayth not take away the authority of our Church but take away the authority of the Church of God which he therfore the rather sayth God's Church then our Church because he takes not that here as granted by the Protestant that our Church is Gods Church but only shew's heere the necessity of an
the Synagogue This is therefore a terrible hearing to Protestancy a Church Terribilis vt castrorum acies ordinata terrible as an army in battaile-array Now for Primitiue Christians they imply no such order no such coordination or subordination as of a body and therefore as so many scattered sheep they might wholy dye in their owne ashes not Phenix-like suruiue in their posterity which to affirme of a Church of Christ his establish't Common-wealth or kingdom purchas 't by right of Conquest with the inestimable price of his blood is not only Hereticall but most impious and prophane since neither the Synagogue and Law of Moyses became euacuate or abrogate viâ corruptiuâ by a corruptiue desition but past into a Church Euangelicall Law via perfectiuâ as Christ was the perficient not the corruptiue end of the Law Non veni legem soluere sed adimplere c. I came not to dissolue but to fulfill the Law c. Some other fallacious Euasions in answere to the same position of his Aduersary SECT XXVII IN the very next Paragraph I meete with another Fallacy which I haue also touch't before Pref. You say with conuenient boldnes that this infallible authority of your Church being denyed no man can be assured that any parcell of Scripture was written by diuine inspiration which is an Vntruth for which no proofe is pretended and besides voyd of modesty full of impiety Answ And I pray you obserue his notorious method his Censure is for the most part the preface to his Answere when he hath first struck his Aduersary on the head or wounded his reputation with some calumny or contumely then he wil dispute the matter not only cooly but very coldly as you shall see In the meane tyme since he is so liberall of contumelious and reproachfull language if we spare him it is mere gratuite grace no merit of his not so much as of congruity nay it may seeme much more congruous to shew the man his error where he may see it better then in himselfe For I belieue it will appeare to any vnderstanding man euen by the Genius of his stile that he hath drunke more liberally of Narcissus Well then of Aristotles as neere as it springs Whence I do not see but his President way be my Apology and very Charity will require that some sprinkling of salt be employed vpon his so great insulsity Now marke the Fallacy His aduersary sayth Take away the authority of Gods Church no man can be assured c. For Gods Church this Atturney changeth your Church as though his aduersary preassumed what is in question with Protestants Which he purposely doth not but only sheweth the necessity of a Visible Church and infallible authority shereof The fallacy of this change hath this intent to make his aduersary more odious for his preassuming antedating as also that he may impugne him more easily where he contends not which he doth almost euery where neuer strikes where his Aduersary wards So he seldome or neuer argues or answeres to the matter in hand But why now is this an vntruth void of modesty Because sayth he the experience of innumerable Christians is against it who are sufficiently assured that the Scripture is diuinely inspired and yet deny the infallibility of your Church or any other Answ What Euen of Gods Church For this is the authority this the Church which his aduersary namely and only asserteth And where is the immodesty Is it immodesty in a Catholique to proue the infallibility of the Church of God his Prime principle of Religion and that by an argument which this no Church can no otherwise answere but by rayling at it as with his Lucians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O execrable For who are those innumerable Christians Are they not the aduersaries of the Roman Church and only they And is it immodesty in a Roman Catholique to defend and proue the contrary to that which the Aduersaries of that Church would proue and do teach whereby to ouerthrow that Church and with that all Christianity But to shew him the weaknes of his argument I forme the like Innumerable Christians are sufficiently assured that no man can be assured of any parcell of holy Scripture otherwise then by the authority of the Church of God Ergo M. Ch. who denies them this assurance is voyd of all modesty And now againe why full of impiety Pref. Because sayth he if I cannot haue ground to be assured of the diuine authority of Scripture vnlesse I first belieue your Church infallible then I can haue no ground at all to belieue it Answ I expected he would say then I will be a Socinian But still you see him in his Fallacy Your Church for Gods Church And why then hath he no ground at all vpon that supposall Pref. Because there is no ground nor can any be pretended why I should belieue your Church infallible vnlesse I first belieue the Scripture diuine Answ Still Your Church Sure we shall neuer bring him back to Gods Church againe Now quite contrary I say there is no sufficient ground to omit pretences and permit them to his Hyperbolicall style why men should belieue the Scriptures diuine vnles first they belieue an infallible Church of God For to reuolue to the first birth and parentage of holy Scriptures whence haue we them who told vs they were diuine haue we not the new Testament to instance in this part from the Euangelists and Apostles And were not they the Church of God and hath any other told vs they are diuine and of diuine authority but they primarily and their posterity after them Can any man expect a more certaine testimony concerning his owne or any other mans birth then from the mother who brought him forth into the world Was not the holy Scripture cōceaued of the holy Ghost as it were in the wombe of the Church Yea those soules and spirits of Prophets Euangelists Apostles in which those Scriptures were conceaued euen formally as diuine together with the truth contained in them were they not before those Scriptures were brought to light And could any but they or vpon their credit belieue those Scriptures were of diuine yssue conceaued I say in those spirits diuinely inspired and illuminated yea and from them flowing as from a vitall principle actually and actiuely inflowing into those conceptions togeather with the holy spirit of truth Whence also it followeth euidently that those diuine truth's cannot be the formall conceptions of any soule or vnderstanding not endued and eleuated by this spirit of truth with which spirit since no man can assure himselfe to be endued yet euery Christian ought to belieue as certaine that the Church of God is indued therefore euery Christian ought to receaue those diuine truths contained in Scriptures togeather with the Scriptures themselues from the Church of God whose lawfull issue and ofspring they are Neither can this in reason seeme to a Christian any whit
he hath proceeded no lesse consequently then irreligiously But what of this Pref. This is sayth he agreable to what you haue said before and what out of the abundance of your hart you speak very often that all Christians besides you are open Fooles or concealed Atheists Answ For my part I haue neuer knowne any Catholique vse any such inciuility of language Neither do I thinke any harboureth any such conceipt of all other not Catholiques that they are either open Fooles or concealed Atheists though I can easily belieue the common opinion of Catholiques to be that a Socinian is a concealed Atheist at the least and so in consequence a foole For the foole hath said in his hart There is no God Now that which followeth in this Paragraph I will only retort disoblige my selfe of a duty Mutato nomine de to Fabula narratur All this the Aduocate writes with notable confidence as the manner of Sophistes is which manner he is very well acquainted with to place their confidence of preuailing in their confident manner of speaking but then for the euidence wherewith he should maintaine so great a confidence it is as inuisible as the Religion he defends from the tyme of Luther vpward His fallacious Recriminations SECT XXIX HItherto we haue seene what this Aduocate had done he tell 's now what he could doe which we must suppose to be more then he hath or will doe O parce viribus vsque tuis As if he had a mynd to recriminate and charge Papists that they lead men into Socinianisme he cold certainly make a much fayrer shew of euidence then his Aduersary hath done And truly I belieue he hath met with an Aduersarie that will easily yeild him the priority in making faire shew's without any shew of repugnance at all But now he fall's into the puerility of a most triuial Rhetorique you shall see him fight as like a Parthian as you would wish doing most what he makes shew least to do fight 's as he flyes away and will be found I belieue Parthis mendacior For thus he colours and florishe's his Sophisme Pref. If I had a mind to recriminate I would not tell you you deny the infallibility of the Church of England Ergo you lead to Socinianisme Which is altogether as good as this Protestants deny the infallibility of the Roman Church Ergo they induce Socinianisme Answ Yet because this I would not tell you is no reall pretermission or passing ouer in silence what he would say but a saying it after a more aduantagious and Emphatique manner of speach then if he had said it positiuely and in plaine termes as the flight of warring Parthians is no serious and intended flight but a more dangerous fight vnder shew and pretence of feare and flight therefore we must vnderstand these words according to the direct and positiue sense as though they were couch't in this forme This argument You deny the infallibility of the Church of England Ergo you lead to Socinianisme is as good as this Protestants deny the infallibility of the Church of Rome Ergo they induce Socinianisme Wherein I note first his most familiar Fallacy of willfull ignorance and mistake of his Aduersaries Argument and the Elench who neuer inferred leading or inducing into Socinianisme out of the deniall of infallibility of the Roman Church but out of the deniall of some infallibility of Iudgment and authority of a Visible Church to determine of Scriptures and their interpretation c. For he knew well that if there were any other such infallible authority to determine such differences it should not then follow that they who disclayme the authority of the Roman Church should haue their only remaining refuge to the priuate spirit or naturall iudgment c. Wherefore hauing not yet excluded all other infallibility no nor disputed it he assumeth not infallibility of the Roman Church or the deniall of that as inducing Socinianisme but the deniall of all infallibility of whatsoeuer Church Therefore if this Logician would haue played fayre and not more like a Sophister then like a Scholler which very appellation in my iudgment carrieth with it a face and promise of ingenuity he should haue framed his Aduersaries Argument as it lyeth in him or at least so as it might appeare the same in effect and not seeme to haue his whole attention applyed to shift's and aduantages thus then he should haue formed it Protestants deny infallibility to the Church of God Ergo they induce Socinianisme and then haue compared it with this his owne recriminant Papists deny the infallibility of the Church of England Ergo they induce Socinianisme and then Macte O cum compare compar Not a nut more like an apple He had parallel'd it faire indeeed Secondly in comparing the English with the Roman Church Fallacy he seemes no doubt to take the Roman as a particular Church fraudulently affecting not to know that by the Roman Church Catholiques vnderstand all Christian Churches making one with the Roman by obedience and subordination to it Whence by the way Catholique Roman Church is no Bull as I haue heard a Dux Gregis among them was pleased sometyme to say it is And yet againe how long hath the English Church made a part separate from the Roman Look back into her cradle of extraction or distraction rather and blush not What was the originall cause and yet blush not Well say we what we list to all the Churches I know there is none more Visible then the Protestant some man yet aliue may haue seene her quite through from her first birth or appearance euen to this age but yet what was the cause of the distraction Causa mali tanti c. But I know this Aduocate will easily shift all this he will grant for a need True the generation was Equiuocall yet it might be Honourable inough Ex malis moribus bonae leges c. of euill manners good Laws c. I know his common place Howsoeuer in my iudgment the comparison hath something of the odious But what hath this Retrograde to do with the Infallibility of the Church of England He hath profe'st the infallibility of it so farre as to deny to subscribe the English Articles of fayth and doctrine wherein the authority of this Church may seeme to appeare of as great force as wheresoeuer He may haue since beene wrought into some other opinion by the skill and industry of some such Artist as know's well how to deale with so pliable a nature Vdum molle lutum nunc nunc properandus acri Fingendus sine fine rota Or that other though no Doctour yet a maister of Art ingenique largitor Persius proem one who can teach such towardly schollars wit yea thrifty wit a precious lesson in this age of prodigality may haue persuaded him to conforme Howsoeuer now he will do her this honour by way of Restitution as to say she is no more Fallible
derogatory from the maiesty of the diuine word to be conceaued in the spirit of man no more then it was from the Maiesty of the Sonne of God to be conceaued in the wombe of the B. Virgin Mary and that as there the Eternall Word was inuested with humane flesh so heere in these spirits of men as in the wombe of the Church the Word of God sowne by the holy Ghost should be inuested with humane notion and brought forth to light of the world in the guise of humane speach and voyce In which sense we may interprete that testimony of the holy Baptist Ego vox clamantis I am the voyce of the cryer as his voyce was the inuesture of that Word of the holy Ghost crying in the desert by which it was conueyed to the eares of mortall men so is the voyce and declaration of the Church the meanes by which the Word of God and all Truth contained in it is conueyed to our soules and vnderstandings And as that cry of the Holy Ghost was first conceaued in the spirit of the Baptist then vttered by his voyce to the world so these Scriptures were first conceaued in the Church those Apostolicall spirits in which they were first imprinted and inuested if I may so speak by the operation and Energy of that fire which appeared in tongues afterwards vttered vpon due occasions in words and writings As therefore those of that tyme heard the voyce of that cryer in the desart from the mouth of the Baptist so all Christians heare and must heare the word of God and diuine truth by the mouth of the Church Well then what this man so confidently auerreth that there is no ground yea that no ground can be pretended why we should hold Gods Church for so he must say if he say any thing against what his Aduersary sayes infallible vnles we first belieue the Scripture diuine I as confidently deny And for as much as respects priority or antecedency of beliefe since the Scripture as I haue said is no other word but what the Church hath and daily doth vtter vnto vs whether historicall or dogmaticall or howsoeuer first conceaued in the vnderstanding and spirit of the Church it followeth that as we haue receaued it vpon her credit telling and teaching vs that it is diuine so we must à Priori belieue the Church as infallible witnes or reporter before we can belieue the infallibility of Scripture which she reporteth it followeth also that we must belieue the Church interpreting the Scripture for it is incredible that any other man should better vnderstand what I speake according as I haue conceaued or what I meane by the words I speake then I my selfe the speaker who only intend to vtter my conceipt It followeth yet further that although there were no Scripture and these Christian Verities had descended to vs only by Tradition and by the testimony of former ages transmitting them successiuely from Christ to this present age we should be bound to belieue the Church that is that continued succession of men belieuing those Christian Verities vnles we will say there was no obligation vpon men to belieue in God and to worship him according to that beliefe before the tyme of Moyses before the Scriptures were For was not Circumcision obligatory before Moyses and was not the posterity of Abraham obliged to belieue and practise that tradition as of diuine authority of which our Sauiour sayth Moyses dedit rebis Circumcisionem non quia ex Moyse est sed ex Patribus He will say You proue the Church infallible by Scriptures your Scriptures must be first belieued infallible I answer we proue this out of Scriptures against such as professe to belieue Scriptures not the Church as out of their owne principles it followeth not thence that we first belieue the Scripturs diuine or infallible For though in methode of confuting such Aduersaries we begin with the Scriptures yet in the methode of belieuing we begin from the Church vpon whose credit we belieue the Scriptures to be diuine and according to this method commencing from the Church Christian fayth was first propagated among nations and imbraced by Heathens Nor will it be to the purpose to reply that Heathens were induced to belieue by reason of miracles This I say is not to the purpose how the Church gained this credit but hence it is inferred that in regard of Christian Beliefe the Church had the Precedency before Scriptures that is the Church was belieued before the Scriptures were belieued Wherefore to conclude this point if it be impiety not to belieue Scriptures as no doubt it is yet it is an impiety no way deducible from this doctrine that the beliefe of an infallible Church is precedent to the beliefe of Scriptures But it is not hard to conceaue by the very carriage of the busines as he handles it what he driues at in all this discourse which is indeed to euacuate all authority both of Church and Scriptures and vpon the ruines of both to build the Godles Socinianisme Therefore all inferences which may seeme any way to perplexe Christian doctrine or force it into straits are his aduantages It was the prudent industry of the Roman Consull to prouoke Catiline whose secret practises and designes vpon the Common-Wealth he had vnderstood into open warre and rebeilion for he supposed no Cittizen would then appeare in his defence or make the oppression of a Tyrant his quarrell As no man would approue the fyering of the house wherein himselfe were or wracking the shippe wherein he sayled himselfe I suppose likewise if this pretended Champion for Protestancy were once discouered and strip't to the naked truth of what he is indeed that is as I haue said a very Socinian Mole vnderworking euen Protestancy it selfe and all Religion no Protestant who hath any zeale of the Religion he professeth would euer be seene in his patronage nor willingly I thinke in his company nor would he vouchsafe the ordinary greeting or salutation as good-morrow Ep. 2. Joan. to him who acknowledgeth neither day nor morning of Christian religion or God saue you to him who doubts whether there be any such thing as God Saluation nor would they thinke him fit to conuerse among Christians who hath disputed himselfe out of all termes of Christian commerce and conuersation His Calumny concerning Protestants reputed Atheists c. by Catholiques SECT XXVIII Pref. YOu say fifthly and lastly sayth this Aduocate with confidence in abundance that none can deny the infallible authority of your Church but he must abandone all infused fayth and true religion if he de but vnderstand himselfe Answ This Aduocate himselfe is no small part of proof of the truth of this Hypothetique who since he hath relaps't from this doctrine of infallible authority of the Church hath withall disclaimed all infused fayth as his Aduersary hath charged him vpon information more then credible wherin that is in abandoning both I confesse
then other Churches are no then the Church of Rome Yet let them haue made of him what they can or what they list a Vessell of Honour or Contumely since by their all-sufficient Canon of Scripture they are vnquestionable for what they do or make of such matter yet I assure my selfe he will neuer be able to make good this comparison or parity vntill he make it euident when and how that notorious change entred into the Roman Church whence the Church of England receaued Christian Religion how and when I say the Roman Church Apostated from her selfe For vntill then we shall neuer cease to extoll in comparison her first birth and entrance first sowne and planted by Apostolicall euangelizing then watred with the blood of two principall Apostles as is extant vpon record of irrefragable testimony then the entrance of the same Religion from thence propagated into other nations togeather with the entrers and founders of the same all men of knowne and eminent sanctity to extoll I say these entrances of the Roman Religion in comparison with the infamous ingredientes of defection from that Church into some of the same Nations achieued by men or monsters rather of most celebrated infamy and stigmatized Worders Had the Church of Rome needed reformation were these likely or probable instruments a Friar with his dis-nun'd and de-uirginated Concubine Or a second branded and inusted Institutor Or that third Poet of his owne bi-sexe and heterogenious Loues Felicia tempora quae ves Moribus opponunt habeat iam Roma pudorem Happy tymes that haue such reformers now Rome hath cause to blush Most certainly the wisedom of God neuer made choyce of such Apostles who sayth Qui mihiministrat me sequatur he that doth my seruice let him follow me All morall and Christian Vertues especially contempt of the world and of all interest respect of flesh and blood vsher'd and accompanied the entrance of the Roman Catholique Religion wheresoeuer it entred Many well knowne and notorious vices paued the way to nouell Heresies and entred with them yea grew from the very root 's and principles of them Which very Paralell and one point of comparison whosoeuer shall haue duely considered and seriously waighed let him in gods Name dispute parities of the Church of England with the Roman Church The rest which followeth in this 16. Paragraph concerning the Popes infallibility is nothing else but rauing language the ouerflowing exuberance of his pregnant passion To which it is full inough to answer in this place That the Pope neuer hath nor euer shall define vice to be Vertue or the contrary nor oblige men to belieue Antichristianity Christianisme or Christianity Antichristian nor lead men by any such doctrine into Socinianisme into Turcisme yea these are the mans word 's vnto the diuell himselfe if he haue a mind to it Yet I confesse giue him his due this was no ill order'd consecution from Socinianisme to Turcisme from Turcisme to the Diuell though perhaps the progresse might haue beene better gisted thus From Turcisme to Socinianisme from Socinianisme to the Diuell at the very middle doore of which three I heare this Aduocate dwell's if any chance to enquire of him Domui paries communis vtrinque deuided from either with a common wall so that his mutuall intelligence with both is both facile and credible His concealed Arguments for Socinianisme SECT XXX ALthough this Atturney of Protestants would seeme to deserue of them his fee yet he will not faile to aduance his owne cause or his most owne Socinianisme which is I doubt his finis cui his most intended affaire Wherefore as he laboureth in behalf of Protestants to weaken yea to abolish all infallibility of the Church of Christ so he endeauours out of the doctrines of some Catholiques to vnnerue the testimony of Scriptures vpon the authority of which the whole fabrick of Protestancy is pretended to rely For who seeth not what aduantage he with his Socinian Academy will draw from hence As thus Doctrines of Christian fayth according to Protestants cannot be proued by the Authority of the Church for that authority with them is errant Againe some of them in the opinion of Papists cannot be sufficiently proued by Scriptures as that maine point of their fayth and hope the mistery of the Trinity therfore if we harken to both or belieue both since whether rather to belieue we know not it can no way be proued Whence with a Diagorus the surnamed Atheos or a Protagorus concerning any such thing as Trinity and soone after as Deity they will returne a Non liquet it is not certaine For me who haue enterprized the discouery of his Fallacies together with some hidden driftes and mines alone it shall not be necessary or requisite to pursue his seuerall testimonies of Catholique Writers they will do it no doubt at the least so far forth as they shall deeme it needfull who vndertake the answere of this great Pamphlet though I verily thinke it will proue magis operosum quà m operae pretium the haruest will neuer render the seed in so barren a field And I do not know but a man may suspect he had a mind to entertaine his Aduersary hastning after him in examining his witnesses were it but to slow his pursuite like as Medea scattered her brothers bones in her flight from her Father to retard their speed who eagerly pursued her while they stayd to gather them vp Yet was she neuer sure so peeuish a shrew as to quarrell with them for not gathering them vp cleane as this Aduocate doth in behalfe of his Clients scattered bones which notwithstanding I certainly thinke his aduersary either hath done or would haue gathered to a bone if he had thought them indeed his bones and not rather some other watry or aery substance Only after a more short and generall way I answere as concerning those Scriptures out of which as he sayth some of our Writers deny that the Trinity can be conuinc't ad hominem thus M. Ch. himselfe hath denyed in the hearing of sufficient witnesses that this point of Christian beliefe can be proued out of Scripture and said that it can lesse be so proued then the Catholique doctrine of Transubstantiation which he with his Agonotheâ—'s the Protestants constantly deny possible to be proued by Scriptures Whence thus I argue M. Ch. sayth the B. Trinity cannot be proued by Scripture he the same denieth that any point can be held as of diuine fayth but what is proued out of Scripture therefore he denieth that the Trinity is to be belieued as of diuine fayth Ergo he belieues not the B. Trinity as a Christian therefore he is none So by his owne doctrine he leades himselfe to Turcisme or Socinianisme or to the diuell himselfe if he haue a mynd to it Moreouer I answere those Catholique Writers no doubt from those lesse expresse and conuincing authorities of holy Scriptures lesse I say conuincing of themselues abstracting from
the authority of the Church applying them in confirmation of this mistery gather a necessity of acknowledging the infallible authority of the Church without which notwithstanding holy Scriptures we should be in doubt how to belieue some principall point of Christian beliefe The necessity of which authority appeareth yet more euidently euen by what he quarrells concerning the doctrines of Eusebius Origen and those other questioned and controuled by the like authority of the Church Against which authority no faculty of wit and vnderstanding no eminency or glory of science and erudition could preuaile no not martyrdome it self could protect any error against orthodoxe beliefe or escape the censure of this supreme Iudge on earth What he sayth of Cardinall Peron informing the world of some Errors of those Ancients Calumny against Peron if he meane the world knew them not before discourers great plenty of ignorance in himself if he knew it without his information he sayth nothing for could not Socinians who deuoure Christian Libraries to no other end but to digest them into scandals read the very same in others of far more ancient authority then this most learned Cardinall In that the Arrians would gladly be tryed by the Fathers before the Councell of Nice they shew their hereticall spirit which always flyes from the authority of a Visible Vocall and liuing Iudge to the mute copy of Gods or mans word as here to defunct authors who left behind them their priuate opinions in things at that tyme not expressely defined which is indeed to fly to their owne interpretations both of Fathers Scriptures from a publique authority to which a neuer failing assistance is diuinely promised to some particular or single opinions of priuate men to whom no such assistance was promised But whither will not a theefe fly from the sentence of authority which can condemne him And whither not an Heretique from the Church And who doubts but the Church of Christ is most representatiuely and iointly and vnanimously in a generall Councell as a kingdom in a Parlament or full senate in which mysticall body then as euer yea then more effectually and actiuely then euer the holy Ghost as the soule informing moueth and directeth Whither flyes he then who flyes from this Church but from the spirit of God Quo ibo à spiritu tuo Whether shall I fly from your spirit True he flyeth from Christ but escapes him not from him a Sauiour to him a Iudge from his Mercy to his Iustice si desceudero in infeinum ades if I go downe to hell you are there And is this the Socinian scandall or is this any way leading men into Socinianisme that the Church of God assembled together of purpose to examine or determine some question of fayth hath defined the contrary to some doctrine or opinion of some priuate Doctor or Doctors who as such whatsoeuer they preiudged could not say as the Councell could Visum est spiritui sancto nobis it hath seemed good to the holy Ghost and vs You see then the weaknes of this Fallacious Calumny yet strong inough to cast a mist before the eyes of the vnlearned or vnpassioned Reader the number of which sort because it like to affoard him most voyces their applause and approbation is the triumph he aymes at His Sophisticall Calumny concerning differences of Catholique Doctors in questions vndefined SECT XXXI ANother occasion or inducement to Socinianisme pretended by this Aduocate are those different opinions of Scholastique Deuines in points of doctrine as yet vndetermined by the Church this is also one of those a thousand tymes recoct Crambes like some cold Seruice daily brought in only to furnish vp the table vntill it grow mouldy and meat for no body But what is this towards the disabling or disparaging the authority of the Church in points now defined and no longer disputed as douâ—â—full Will the Socinian hence argue thus In some points of doctrine vndecided some Catholique Doctors disagree among themselues Ergo in points decided they haue no certainty Who seeth not the inconsequence of this illation If they differ concerning the modification of diuine Prescience and the different respect and habitude which it hath to future euents necessary or contingent abloâ—ute or conditionall will they out of this variance inferre the vncertainty of diuine prenotion or conclude that God foreseeth not at all But yet see how he concludes for the Socinians Pref. The Dominicans sayth he maintaine on the one side that God can foresee nothing but what he decrees The Iesuit's on the otherside that he doth not decree all things Answ Iungentur iam Gryphes equis he will make these one and other sides to meete in one syllogisme and so be no more sides at all and then no different doctrines at all which is the quite contrary conclusion to what he assumeth Reflect setiously vpon these different propositions of the Dominicans and Iesuits and you shall find them contradictories and so impossible to inflow into one Conclusion true or false by any lawfull consequence For ex nihilo nihil and contradictories annihilate one the other Now this proposition God foresees nothing but what be decrees is in effect equiualent to this God decrees all that he foresees Againe God decrees not all things as ratione materiae equipollent to this God decrees not something which be foresees for the question being stated of things future or which shal be both sides grant that God foresees them the difference betweene them is hâ—w he foresees them Now let any man commit the two propositions as ioynt premises and see whether from that complexion or commission the Socinian conclusion can any way result Nay you shall find it generally true which I haue said That two Contradictions can neuer ioyne in any such commission to produce a third proposition as truly consequent from them but see them now committed and obserue how ready and obuious the Conclusion will be which the Socinians draw from them Dominicans God foreseeth nothing but what he decrees Iefuits God doth not decree all things Socin Ergo God doth not foresee all things In what mood and figure Logician But what Socinian syllogizing is this to ioyne two propositions of contrary doctrines and repugnant in themselues in one formall complexion of premises and out of those to inferre the conclusion Is it wonder if of so monstrous a coniunction of premises a prodigious conclusion be brought forth the conclusion being the naturall issue of the premises Might he not aswell conclude from two propositions the one of Catholiques the other of Arrians in like manner thus Cath. The Sonne is consubstantiall with the Father Arr. The Father is greater then the Sonne Socin The Sonne is lesse and equall to his Father An obuious conclusion sayth the Socinian as though he would say Fairely encounterd and kisse it For out of this absurd conclusion he will further question whether there be any such thing as Father Sonne in
the wynd a fancy an opinion alterable with euery change of imagination nay with euery alteration of affection So what is Anathema to day Cell lib. ◠c. 5. in the worse sense an imprecation or execration may be to morrow Anathema in the better sense that is a consecration what to day is a curse way be a blessing to morrow Nor is it easy to conceaue in whether sense he takes Anathema by way of cursing or blessing For I vehemently suspect he neuer meant to curse the fauourer's of those opinions to whom I doubt not but he wishes as to himselfe yea and whose deferts towards himself haue gain'd no small interest title to his well wishings wherfore what he sayth He who holds so let him be Anathema may in the Socinian intendment be no more but this he who hold's so long may he liue Yet for a more expesse discharging himself from all imputations of this nature namely of such as charge him with deniall of supernaturall Verities what sayth he marry He belieues all those book 's of Scripture which the Church of England account's Canonicall Pref. to be the infallible word of God Answ You see the Resolution of his Fayth into the Authority of the Church of England Where you may note that he sayth not that he belieues it infallibly or that those bookes are infallibly the word of God but that they are the infallible word of God where that infallible is a meere fallacious Pleonasme a redundant and superfluous accession to the word of God Whence it followeth only that he belieues this with a fallible Fayth and therefore no diuine Fayth which he doth consequently to his principles for holding the motiue of his beliefe that is the authority of the Church of England as of all other Churches to be but fallible and capable of errour his beliefe can haue no greater assurance then that motiue hath But then it followeth that he hath no infallible assurance of these Bookes that they are the word of God Ergo he hath no assurance that the contents of these Bookes are supernaturall Verities or Verities at all Ergo with this may stand his deniall of supernaturall Verities And that you may Vnderstand that he belieues the aforesaid Verities with a Socinian fayth only he ioyneth in one and the same tenure of beliefe things euidently contayned in those Canonicall Bookes with things probably deducible from the same Whence thus I argue If he belieues as his words expresse things euidently contained in those Bookes with no more assurance then he belieues things euen probably deducible thence then he belieues neither with assurance of diuine fayth Ergo he belieues them not as supernaturall Verities to the beliefe of which humane fayth can neuer ascend as being out of the reach and extent of all such Fayth therefore as yet and by this profession he hath not cleared himselfe from the imputation of Socinianisme and Infidelity An Act of Parlament the motiue of his beliefe His fallacious refuge SECT XXXVIII Pref. FVrthermore I acknowledge all that to be Heresy which by the Act of Parliament primo Elizabethae is declared to be so Answ With this acknowledgment may well consist the deniall of all supernaturall verities according to my former deduction And this is surely a strong presumption that he belieues an act of Parlament with no greater assurance then the decrees of a Generall Councell yea and that he belieues the Parlament rather then a Generall Councell shews that such his beliefe is grounded vpon his affection not his iudgment for no poyse of iudiciall motiues can preponderate or sway him rather towards a Parlament Wherefore since none of these motiues or authorities yield him assurance that such contents of Canonicall Bookes are supernaturall verities it followeth no way out of his beliefe of these that he belieues any supernaturall verity as such Ergo notwithstanding this profession he is a Socinian still Which though it be so yet I will not do him wrong nor say he hath effected nothing by this his syncere profession and acknowledgment But what hath he done Forsooth he hath cuningly put himself vnder the wing's of the State he hath retired himself into the sanctuary of Protestancy by this meanes he hath ingaged them in his quarrell whose religion he professeth so that whatsoeuer inconuenience as irreligion nullity of diuine fayth lastly Socinianisme it self shall be deduced as consequent out of his disclaiming the authority of the Cath. Church and acknowledging a Parlamentary religion and authority in determining Canonicall Scripture declaring Heresies must fall first vpon the English Protestants and must be answered by them Thus while he endeauours to bring himself off fairely from those foule aspersiōs he draw's them on whom he pretends to vindicate and thus he brings about his owne ends and couertly aduanceth his owne designe which is to ruine all Religion His fallacious Hypocrisy SECT XXXIX WHat he talkes of retaining liberty in points which may be diuersly held satuâ fides compage the iuncture or structure of fayth remaining safe is a ridiculous Hypocrisy in him who endeauours by his doctrine and principles to demolish the very foundation of Christian Fayth which is the infallibility of diuine Reuelation I meane the infallibility of that authority which declares it to be such and consequently that vnquestionable certainty vpon which Christian Fayth relyeth being taken away not to leaue one stone vpon another in this earthly or militant Hierusalem in the building of Fayth And can you haue further patience to heare any more of his Sophistique Hypocrisy For he know's that all Christiās would spit defiance in his face should he not seeme to speak somewhat like a Christian Pref. Yet thus much I can say quoth he which I hope will satisfy any man of reason that whatsoeuer hath beene held necessary to saluation either by the Catholique Church of all ages or by the consent of Fathers measured by Vincentius Litinensis his rules or is held necessarie either by the Catholique Church of this age or by the consent of Protestants c. That against the Socinians and all others I do verily belicue and imbrace Answ Can any man belieue he writes what he thinkes if he vnderstand what he writes For who doubts but the Catholique Church of all ages hath held the beliefe of an infallible Church as a point of Christian Fayth For how could the Catholique Church gathered togeather in Generall Councels anathematize and condemne whosoeuer refused to subscribe to her decrees in points of fayth had not the same Church supposed her self to haue infallible authority for all such decisions and decrees Therefore he who belieues what the Catholique Church holds necessary to be belieued belieues this Now obserue in these very words by the Catholique Church of this age or by the consent of Protestants how he makes the Protestants a member of his diuision a part from the Catholiques Wherein also he preuaricates egregiously
then haue fallen flat into Atheisme therefore their falling thence immediatly into Atheisme is an argument of that former discourse which I haue supposed probably to haue passed in their secret discussions or this or none true Adde vnto this that in that Nation where our Religion hath and doth most absolutely commaund those wise and Gallant spirits were best acquainted with the doctrine taught in it Whervpon blinded with pride or passion or wicked life being not able to discerne the colour of truth by the light of the sunne they despaired to discerne it by candle-light And it is I confesse an experience grounded vpon great reason both of nature and manners Waight's which fall from higher places force their descent through middle obstacles more strongly and therefore fall lowest None but a Iudas called to the eminency of Apostle-ship could haue plunged himselfe into such a depth of desperate treason as to betway to death the Author of life whom when I consider how soone he fell from the spirit of his vocation to be a calumniator fratrum a Diuell as our Sauiour himselfe call's him I am induc'd to thinke he became an Apostle for no other purpose but to know our Sauiour and his doctrine and then betray him And verily I could easily belieue that of the number of those who professe Christianity more turne Atheists of those who haue beene Catholiques then of those who neuer knew Catholique religion as those who haue been bâ—rne and bred in Lutheranisme Caluinisme or the like because from so low a place they do not easily fall so farre Qui iacet in terrâ non habet vnde cadat Who lyes on the ground he fall's no lower vnles perhaps they haue taken these in their way from the Catholique for if they haue so twenty to one vnles they be some duller spirits they stay not there howsoeuer they make shew of such profession but after some short space of entertainment they goe on their iourney from thence to Adiaphorisme in religion where hauing spent some tyme in good fellowship with all professors vntill they haue consumed that litle remnant stocke of Christian or whatsoeuer else beliefe of a God they steale away after a while from thence too keeping on directly in that roade vntill they arriue to the very next Inne and the very last adioyning to the Ferry vpon the bank-side of Death and Damnation commonly called stylo veteri Atheisme now of later yeares the new Academy or Socinianisme By this the Aduocate may see what he hath gained to his Cause by this obiected Calumny Forsooth that reuolt from Catholique religion renders it selfe at last into Atheisme or Socinianisme where such reuolters I make no doubt would be glad to meete him for there men say this indifferent Trauailer dwells though they say again he hath shift of habitations and his iudgment often changeth lodging but that 's his ordinary and more constant rendeuous Calumnies against Miracles SECT VI. THe next Calumny and second in number of the Pretermissions strikes at Heauen and expect that he will haue a fling at God himselfe afore he hath done by mouing iealousy and suspicion of all miracles and histories and records of Saints whiles he would make men belieue the Catholique Church approueth forging of Miracles and lying Legends so he writes which is indeed a notorious Calumny and had he not made so much hast in running back from the Catholique as though he had come thither only to fetch fire of faction he might haue acquainted himselfe better with the practise of the holy Church in this very point of Miracles and relations concerning Saints He might haue admired their exactnes of scrutiny and all the way 's of industry to find out the truth and to reiect whatsoeuer hath the face or least shew of counterfait or vnsound Knowing well that neither truth can be of any durable consistency with falshood they expell one another euen naturally as light and darkenes but besides this Non tali auxilio nec defensoribus istis Roma caret the Catholique Church needs no such subsidies the pillar of truth craues no support of lyes and forgeries She hath in her Archiues records and euidences of this kind so authentique so authorized so testified that blindnes it selfe by no other Exorcisme but that of manifest truth hath beene compelled to see them and confesse them No otherwise then those Ministers of Pharao digitus Dei hic est But giue them leaue to question Saints and miracles who questionles had neuer yet any no not when the tyme most required them to countenance their extraordinary mission when they ran out of the Church to reforme it or as to cry fire fire when they carried it in their bosomes Calumny against holy Ceremonies SECT VII THe third passe or figuratiue omission in these word 's Not to obiect to you thirdly is a spurn'or kick as he goes by Pref. at the weake and silly Ceremonies and ridiculous obseruances so he of the Catholique Church Ans Indeed if they were only Ceremonies without the substance whereunto they relate they were surely silly Ceremonies but if euery least Ceremony include a mystery greater then hath euer entred into his little weake state or vnderstanding who is then ridiculous but he who laugh's at what he know's not yea euen therefore because he knowes it not Yet had the man but stayd to haue learned his Catechisme among vs he might haue knowne the vse and meaning of our Ceremonies now hauing come into the Church as Cato came vnto the Theater only to go out againe what meruaile if he returne a ridiculous censurer of what he only saw and vnderstood not Such post-hast were hardly tolerable in a Spie much lesse in one who comes to see and censure Of whom if I should aske what in particular were sylly and ridiculous in those ceremonies or whether the Church hath not authority to prescribe Ceremonies if the Church of England allow of ceremonies no whit more substantiall then the Roman to say no more will he be strong inough thinke you to find out a disparity Or will he rebell against all I belieue by these and many other the like passages of his booke the Chayres who haue subscribed it litle obserued how lowd an All-arme is sounded to mutinies and seditions and rebellions against all Church-gouernment But now alas euen this may seeme a thing ridiculous indeed in vs who reprehend his laughing and deriding the waiting Gentle-women or maides of Honour who geeres the Queene hir selfe For did he allow of any such thing as Religion Queene of vertues he would not grudge hir due attendance and obseruance of holy Ceremonies nor would he I thinke be so vnmannerly as to find fault with such as please the Queene Calumny against Ecclesiasticall Persons SECT VIII A Fourth Calumny with which he will not trouble vs is Pref. A great part of your doctrine specially in the points contested makes apparently for the temporall ends of the
Will he reprehend the seeking of the kingdom of God for this or the forsaking temporall estates to follow Christ in a higher way of perfection because the gaine and returne is a hundred fold in this life and therefore makes for the temporall ends of such men And are these our beaux Esprits Are these the learned new Academy that cannot make this distinction between making and being made or are they rather indeed en bon François in plaine English dull and earthly Spirits and which least they would heare not Wit 's but silly Fellows Who if they could once resolue vpon a God or any such not only omnipotent but free agent who could do and giue what he pleased should rather betake themselues with Salomon who had I thinke as good a naturall wit as the best of the new Academy and shew'd a much better in making such a choyce and in the acknowledgment of his owne weakenes and want betake themselues I say to their prayers that they might receaue the spirit of Wisedom from heauen without which spirit no meruaile if they haue no palate of heauen nor as being indeed meerely Animals any rellish of spirituall things But neither indeed do they belieue there is any such thing as holy spirit Et quem non inuenit vsquam Esse putat nusquam Concerning different opinions among Catholiques the Aduocates Fallacy and Calumny SECT X. AFter all these Rhetoricall pretermissions of temptations into so he writes and principles of Irreligion and Atheisme in Catholique doctrine as considerations which he wil seeme to esteeme of lesse moment thereby to prepare your expectation to some more weighty Only I should desire you sayth he to consider attentiuely when you conclude so often from the differences of Protestants Pref. that they haue no certainty of any part of their religion c. Whether you do not that which so magisteri ally you direct me not to do that is proceed a destructiue way c. Ans Now this Pretermissiō is no figure but a fraud Fallacy for his aduersary directs him not to proceed a meere destructiue way Now this restrictiue particle meere fraudulently left out is no figure but a fallacie of pretermission and makes indeed a kind of Non-sense in his Aduersary where there is a good and plaine sense For whosoeuer will throw downe the doctrine of another must proceed a destructiue way but he who doth nothing else but throw downe and builds nothing as he who doth nothing but ouerthrow doctrines of religion holdeth nothing prositiue in religion at least in coherence of his doctrine he proceeds a meere destructiue way and a meere Antimachus he is an Ismael sonne of Agar secundum carnem genitus a child of the flesh and therefore as euery Socinian doth persequutes the free-borne child the yssue of the Spirit but what sayth the Scripture Eijce ancillam filium eius non enim erit haeres filius ancillaecum filio liberae cast forth the handmaid and her sonne for the sonne of the hand-maid shall not coherit which the sonne of the free-woman Indeed one house could not hold them Why because Ismael was terrae homo a fierce condition'd man manus eius contra omnes manus omniam contra eum his hands against all men and all mens hands against him which is in effect to say he proceeded a meere destructiue way And I pray you is not a Socinian such an Ismael whose hands are vp against all Professors of Christianity since his reasons principles tend as his Aduersary chargeth him to the ouerthrow of all Christian Profession no lesse then of Catholique religion And doth he not deserue that all Christian hands should be employed about his eares with vnanimous consent to extinguish such a Giant But doth the sonne of Sarai proceed a meere destructiue way he dares not say it as bold as he is therefore he onely sayes he proceeds a destructiue way wherein he doth well and as euery confutant must do otherwise he doth nothing Pref. But his aduersaries Arguments so he retorts obiected against the Protestant tend to the ouerthrow of all religion because sayth he as you argue Protestants differ in many things therefore they haue no certainty of religion so an Atheist or a Sceptique may conclude as well Christians and the Professors of all religions differ in many things therefore they haue no certainty of any thing Ans I know well these are the ordinary Socinian Topickes which this man hath by hart whence they are wont to argue themselues out of all religion And it is a very Socinian and Atheisticall argument indeed that is a foolish one as foolish as this Euery man is a man therefore no man is a Christian For though euery man be a man and therefore subrect to errour some more some lesse some in one thing some in another whence difference of opinions ariseth and vncertainty is concluded yet some men are Christians and as such in matters defined to be of faith not differing nor vncertaine They should deduce thus if they would conclude to the purpose they intend Christians in points of fayth defined by their Church to be such the definition of which Church they hold as their rule of fayth disagree among themselues therfore they haue no certainty in points of religion then the solution is ready I deny that such Christians who rely on that autority of the Church defining as all Catholique Christians do disagree in any poynt of religion so defined therefore this inference of vncertainty from the differences of doctrines in poynts of fayth fals heauy vpon the backs of all Sectaries nor can be shaken off but toucheth not the Catholique Whence they should conclude if they were indeed wise and gallant either the Catholique or none Not as they are wont there is difference of opinions and doctrines among Professors of Christianity betweene Lutherans and Caluinists c. and the Catholique from them all therefore there is no certainty therefore no religion at all and therefore lastly I will be an Atheist or Socinian Whereas if these Sceptiques would be feriously sceptique indeed that is serious inquisitors of truth and not make it their whole life and busines euer to seeke neuer to find like those sylly and sinfull women of whome S. Paul semper discentes numquam ad scientiam veritatis peruenientes always learning and neuer arriuing to the knowledge of truth nay if they did not set downe for their last arrest despaire of euer knowing with those foolists Sceptiques and Pyrhonians lastly if they could be persuaded that they heare what they heare or see what they see certainely they might see discerne a vast disparity betweene these two kinds of differences the differences of Sectaries among themselues in most substantiall points of faith and those of Catholiques discepting and discussing difficulties occurring as yet vndecreed and vndetermined by authority as children of truth neuer ceasing to inquire after it
and goodnes are imprinted in all the workes of nature and all creatures from tyme to tyme togeather with their being receaue that stamp and impression which they exhibite to be read by all intellectuall natures in one most legible language of nature common to all nations according as it is said Caeli enarrant gloriam Dei c. So in regeneration and in the progeny of Grace the author of Grace Christ Iesus is read and vnderstood in his worke and word of Grace his creatures of grace which is the Church of Christ which by that spiritually and supernaturally creating power receaue the print and characters of Christ Iesus and his truth in their hart 's and soules first which afterward's they manifest in their liues and professions and much more in the death's whereby they proclaime him and the truth of his doctrine to all ages to all nations with the last and lowdest voyce of bloud like to that voyce of our dying Lord who crying with a lowd voyce gaue vp the Ghost O tooto dull and deafe eares which the singar of God hath neuer opened which cannot heare a voyce so lowd and those blind eyes which read not those letters that most legible Scripture of Catholique truth written in the bloud of all ages since Christ redeemed the world with his and those inominate and vnlucky birds of night who flying the triall of the day shining in the Church as in the Tabernacle of the Sunne run into couert and obscurity of darke Scriptures the common rendeuous and retrait of all Heresies which they do no lesse absurdely and preposterously then as if in question of right and title grounded in law they would appeale from the suruiuing law-maker to his written lawes as they would say giue vs your Law 's in writing and then leaue them to vs we will not learne of you the vnderstanding of them for so this euer-suruiuing Law-maker is the holy Ghost presiding in the Church in all iudgements questions of fayth from whom there neuer can be any iust appeale the Scriptures his lawes which are written primarily principally in the soules and hart 's and vnderstandings of this Church In which Scriptures no Heretique or Alien can pretend any right or title of interest at all no authority nor ability of vnderstanding them Therefore although we debate right and truth by testimony of Scriptures against the vniust vsurpers of them to take from them those stoln'e weapons and recouer them to the true titler's as euen in this claime of infallibility of the Church yet this truth we learne not immediately of the Scripture written but receaue it à priori from the originall of the holy Ghost written in that one composed of many homogenious by fayth and charity that one soule I say and vnanimous spirit of the holy Church of all ages For as in our natural body one the same in diuisible soule informeth and enlifeneth the daily new acceding and aggenerate matter of nourishment so this spirit of truth informeth as it were and animateth with the spirit of Grace and truth not only the whole mysticall body of Christ all at once or once for all but successiuely euery acceding and new-borne member of the Church As therefore in processe of naturall growth we do not properly learne that we are reasonable ereatures but by the very hauing a reasonable soule and the vse thereof we know it so Catholiques do not properly learne that the Catholique Church is inerrant or infallible but by being Catholiques we belieue it For of this truth I do not see but in a true sense I might say Est hac non scripta sed natalex quam non didicimus accepimus legimus verùm ex naturâ ipsâ arripuimus hausimus expressimus ad quam non docti sed facti non instituti sed imbuti sumus A truth not written for vs but borne in vs which he haue not learned nor acquired nor read in bookes but by a second nature of Grace we are instantly possest of we haue suckt it and exprest it for which we haue beene made not taught indued with it not schooled to it Therefore I should not doubt to auouch though the whole rable of flesh bloud and heresy reclaime that it is vnderstanding it in equality of proportion no lesse innate and connaturall to a Catholique man as such to belieue that the Catholique Church is indued with infallible authority then it is naturall to a reasonable man as such to know he is endued with a reasonable soule Therefore as he should be thought an absurd and senseles man who should goe about to persuade a man by reason that he hath not a reasonable soule so is he worthily iudged an impertinent pratling Sophist who endeauours to argue a Catholique out of his beliefe of a Catholique infallible Church which stone notwithstanding I know this Aduocate neuer ceaseth to rowle and I could wish he would reflect how he may haue deserued that Sisyphian pennance howsoeuer thus I vnderstand Saxum sudat voluendo neque proficit hilum He rowles the stone and sweats for his paines not those texte therefore of Scripture which this Sisyphus presumes but the visible Church the spouse of Christ his purchase of bloud not a lease for terme of yeares according to the tenure of seruile Agar and her issue which became voyd but an euerlasting in heritance according to the tenure of Couenant made with the progeny of Sarai the house of Israel and the house of Iuda an vnabrogable and term'les decree firme and durable as the constitutions of Nature Hierem. 32. In quam traditi estis c. Rom. 6.17 as the course of sunne and moone This spouse I say hath deliuered vs this truth or rather hath borne and bred vs in it we haue suck't this milke from hir brest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rationall and fraudlesse milke conformable to reason though aboue it and therfore consummating reason and extolling it food for the Children of Obedience vt in eo crescamus that we may grow by that in stature of grace and Christian perfection from which brests and milke of Christian simplicity no errant Sophister shall be of power to remoue vs though he attempt it neuer so confidently or impudently by adiuring vs Thus he adiured a certain Catholique as we will answere at the last day arrainged I trow at the Socinian Barre to be tried by certaine select Iudges or a grand Iury of Pyrrhonian Sceptiques or the new Academy who will neuer pronounce any arrest or sentence at all but what to suspect the doctrine of the Catholique Church to question her authority to call those so many Doctours the starr's and light 's of all Christian ages who haue alwayes taught and supposed this truth so many martyrs who haue obsigned it with their bloud to call them all to their answere forsooth for their holding or teaching this doctrine and to giue this Switzer a meeting and conuincing so that
guiding the Church But by this you may see the man miscrably tortured by vnauoidable truth euen maugre himselfe forc't to confesse what his Aduersary teacheth and euen here relaps't into his dilemma which he may seeme to haue laid of purpose to catch him for he is fallen vpon the Scripture as interpreted by euery man's naturall with and iudgment or the priuate spirit By which touch-stone the Priuate spirit with his Logick-rules c. he will also try euery spirit 1. Joan. 4. and by his ignorantly applying the words of the Apostle Belieue not euery spirit to this purpose shew's plainly how sure an Interpreter he is of holy Scripture togeather with his right reason and common notions and Logick-rules For surely in good Logick the vniuersall and distributiâ—e signe omnis all euery importeth number and multiplicity therfore he sayth Belieue not euery spirit but trie the spirits as if he said of many spirits belieue not euery spirit because the holy spirit is but one spirit from which one spirit spirits and euery one of spirits are participations and deriued spirits Now that one spirit which is so one that it cannot be a part of number like as diuine vnity or the vnity of diuine nature is no part of number that one spirit I say is not to be tried for it cannot be but a true spirit otherwise no spirit could be knowne to be true if that one spirit could befalse which is the only rule wherby to trie all spirits but of the multitude of spirits or partaking spirits some do and all may lye Of which number of lying spirits are the Apostate Angells fince their defection from the spirit of truth and those false Prophets in whose mouth 's those lying spirits were speakers Such also were those Pseudoprophets vpon occasion of whom S. Iohn forewarneth Christians not to belieue euery spirit but to try spirits And who were those false Prophets or Apostles those lying spirits They were those of whom he had said before that they had beene in the Church and were gone out of the Church and therefore became lying spirits oftentimes actually lying always inclined and prepared to lye and so neuer to be belieued For as that first reuolt from God the spirit of truth was the originall cause why those mutinous spirits became lyar's so Apostasy from the Church of God in whom the same spirit of truth presides is the generall origen and extraction of all false Prophets and Heretiques As therefore that one prime spirit is none of those spirits euery one of which is to be tryed but by which euery numerable spirit is to be proued so the spirit which guideth the Church is not a spirit to be tried but that by which euery priuat spirit must be examined and tried In which sense also it is most truly said Prima Sedes the prime sea is iudged by none therfore it is true againe that the Church of Christ the Catholique Church is the only competent iudge of it selfe according to that receaued principle of naturall reason rectum est iudex sui obliqui what is straight of it selfe both shew's it selfe to be straight and what is crooked to be so He therefore who will presume to reforme the Church in doctrine of faith wherein the spirit of truth is her guid and teacher Dauiel 12. he shall be the starre which would giue light to the Sunne but none of those who shall shine in perpetuas aternitates For I would aske any man only sober and in his wits if the Church of God may haue erred either in determining Scriptures or the true meaning of them which point concerning Scriptures I specifie to preuent all refuge to trial by Scriptures by what other spirit shall this spirit of the Church be tried And I would gladly looke vpon that face of Impudence that would assume to it selfe what it denyeth to the Church of God and when I shall haue found him I shall know for certaine that he is one of those Antichrists of whom the same Apostle Et nunc Antichristi multi facti sunt Ex nobis prodierunt Joan. 2. 4. and euen now many are turned Antichrists they went out from vs. Yea by this very brand I will know them this indeleble character of antichrist to goe out of the Church then to question the spirit and doctrine of the Church It would be worth their labour yet once to shew when the Church of Rome went out of the Church of Christ where she left it at her departure as we shew what Church Arrius went out of whence Pelagius and Nestorius c. whence of this later age Luthâ—r and Peter Martyr and Caluin and the rest Yet besides this character of a false Prophet which is his terminus à quo the whence they goe out the Apostle hath giuen vs another their terminus ad quem the whither they goe going out of the Church Multi pseudoprophetae exierunt in mundum many false Prophets are gone out into the world and yet more plainly Ipsi de mundo sunt ideâ— de mundo loquntur mundus eos audit They are of the world they are become worldlings the world is their talke flesh blood their discourse intimating euen by this that Hereticall doctrine is carnall doctrine the language of corrupt Nature the discourse of flesh blood and therefore the world harken's to their doctrine as being of a carnall spirit symbolizing with these teachers Indeed the Society of Christians is not the world nor any hâ—mâ—genious part of the world of whom therfore our Sauiours words are truly vnderstood Vâ—s de mundâ— nonestiâ— seâ—â—gâ—â—ligi voâ— de mundo you are not of the world but I haue chosen you out of the world Whence the whole mortall kind of man is sufficiently deuided by these two names the World and Christendome therfore that going out of the Church signified by those words prodierunt ex nobis they went out from vs could be no whither else but into the world there being no third place or family of mortall men to go vnto therefore all Heretiques are a part of that faction the World and therefore being indued swayed and guided by the spirit of the world which is a lying spirit they cannot be competent Iudges or Examiners of the spirit of the Church or any doctrine of fayth or interpretation of Scriptures But as the Church Triumphant shall iudge the world and condemne it and shall not be iudged by it so the Church now Militant is inuested with the like authority and iurisdiction towards mortall men of this world to iudge and condemne the world that is all those who are seuered from her Society and not to be iudged by them Her doctrine therefore is the sole Iudicature both of it selfe and all other crooked and oblique opinions Wherefore the counsaile of S. Iohn to try spirits is to trie them by the spirit and doctrine of the Church for vnles the spirit of the Church
were supposed the spirit of truth they could not haue beene iudged false Prophets for going out of the Church no nor for opposing the doctrine of the Church Moreouer that by which another thing is tried as by a rule must needs be supposed more perfect in regard of Iudicature then the thing tried but it is absurd to thinke that the spirit of a priuate man is more perfect in nature of Iudicature then the spirit of the Church therefore S. Iohn neuer aduised priuate men to try the spirit of the Church Lastly this very command or aduise Try euery spirit is the aduise of the Church it selfe in the person of S. Iohn a principall pillar of the Church but no man can be so silly as to thinke that the Church aduiseth priuate men to try her spirit and least of all can Heretiques challenge any such authority Heretiques also are subiects of the Church euen in that they are at the least characterically Christians which character of subiection they can neuer wipe out whersoeuer they run they are euer subiects though rebells therfore their calling the Church to question and triall is mere presumption and an act of rebellion No Catholique presumeth to trie the spirit or doctrine of the Church nay euery Catholique trieth his owne spirit and doctrine by that of the Church therefore a Catholique as such hath no priuate opinion of fayth but all Catholique that is the same with the whole Catholique Church The Catholique makes no choyce of doctrines of fayth but taketh such as are giuen him he is Gods beggar and therefore no chooser Ego autem mendicus sum pauper I am a beggar and poore Thus euery Catholique is taught both to say and belieue The Heretique makes choyce of what he will hold with the Church takes what he list's and refuseth what he list's not take And this is to be euen Etimologically an Heretique and an Heretique formally no lesse in what he takes then in what he refuses For what he takes he chooseth to take vpon his owne discretion not vpon the credit of the Church nor formally from the Church therefore he is an Heretique in all euen in the points of diuine fayth which he holdeth with the Church not of the Church and therfore holdeth nothing with diuine fayth because he is still a chooser of what he holds and so an Heretique Another Text of S. Iohn by this Aduocate corrupted and misinterpreted SECT XXI WHat this all-trying spirit can do of himselfe without the spirit of the Church will appeare by his singular talent in interpreting Scriptures nor shall I swarue from my subiect in this way for I shall demonstrate that all his interpretations are Sophismes wily and fallacious detorsions of Scripture from their true sense to his owne crooked ends Pref. S. Iohn sayth he giues a rule to all Christians to make this triall by to consider whether they confesse Iesus to be the Christ that is the guide of their fayth and Lord of their actions So he Answ The words of S. Iohn are these In hoc cognoscitur spiritus Dei c. In this the spirit of God is knowne Euery spirit that confesseth Iesus Christ to haue come in fleth is of God and euery spirit that dissolueth Iesus is not of God and this is Antichrist The affirmatiue part of which copulate sentence as some other the like occurring in the Epistles of S. Iohn is to be vnderstood in sensu formali as thus Euery spirit which coufesseth Iesus Christ to haue taken flesh as confessing this truth is of God who is the author and warrant of this truth therefore of him who confesseth this supernaturall truth it may be truly said Caro sanguis non reuelauit hoc tibi flesh and blood hath not reuealed this vnto thee being a truth aboue the conceipt of flesh and blood which restriction to a formall sense is both sufficient and often tymes necessary for the verifying of many the like sentences of â—oly Scripture Wherefore although the negatiue to deny Iesus Christ to haue taken flesh be a sufficient note whereby to discerne a false spirit yet the affirmatiue to confesse Iesus Christ to haue come in flesh is but a part of the rule The other part is the character of Christian Charity as the same Apostle teacheth in the same Chapter Omnis qui diligit ex Deo natus est Euery one that loueth is borne of God therefore these two rules we find conioyned in the precedent Chapter hoc est mandatum â—ius vt credanius in nomine silij eius Iesu Christi diligamus alterutrum This is his commaundment that we belieue in the name of his sonne Iesus Christ and that we loue one another for in these two vertues indeed a Christian is consummate For fayth in Iesus Christ the sonne of God incarnate includeth all points of fayth because it implyeth the beliefe of all that Iesus Christ hath taught or teacheth either by himselfe or by his Church according to that saying of of his Qui vos audit me audit in which sense also the affirmatiue proposition of the Apostle Euery one who confesseth that Iesus Christ came in flesh c. hath a true construction euen without restriction but then it is nothing to the purpose of this Aduocate who by this rule would exclude the necessity of beliefe of other points of fayth proposed by the Church to make this confession of Christ to haue come in flesh the rule whereby to try spirits As therefore that other cognoisance of a Christian mutuall Charity according to that of our Sauiour In hoc cognoscent omnes c. all men shall know you to be my disciples by this ensigne or character of mutuall loue excludeth not that of fayth or the confession of the sonne of God Incarnate from being a rule whereby to discerne spirits and to know who are true Christians So this rule of Fayth in Christ excludeth not that of Charity and neither of them nor both exclude a third giuen by the same Apostle Qui nouit Deum audit nos Cap. 4. qui non est ex Deo non audit nos in hoc cognoscimus spiritum veritatis spiritum erroris See heere an expresse rule to try spirits by He who know's God heares vs he who is not of God heareth not vs in this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error Now it is most absurd to think the force of that rule to be limited and confined with the age of the Apostles therefore by that vs is vnderstood the Church or if they were to be heard of posterity in their writings we caÌ„not heare them so without an interpreter which interpreter as before hath beene proued can be no other of infallible authority but the Church Now that the Apostles were to continue in their posterity of Apostles Euangelists c. that is Preachers and Teachers of Christs Ghospell Doctors and Pastors c. ad consummationem Sanctorum
not able to giue a particular reason of euery article of this Creed The Socinian will say he is bound to belieue no more What sayth Mâ—Ch whome in this Treatise of his we suppose a Christian vntill he declare himselfe a little more expressely a very litle will serue the turne But let him forme his discourse out of this text of S. Peter Euery man is bound to giue a reason of his beliefe or Hope Ergo Euery man is bound to giue a particular reason for euery point of his beliâ—fe or Hope when will he make good this illation by his neuer failing rules of Logick Againe if euery Christian were charged with this obligation to giue a reason to euery one requiring it what kind of reason should that be Must it need 's be a conuincing reason and satisfaction not only in it selfe but respectiuely in regard of the requirers vnderstanding or disposition What if he be a Iew or Infidell or Socinian shall I belieue no more then that wherof I can giue a conuincing satisfactory reason to a Iew Infidell or Socinian Let him tell vs what kind of reason he requires that we may know the obligation he layes vpon vs. In the meane tyme I doubt not to auerre and proue that the meanest Catholique is able to giue a more satisfactory account of euery point of Catholique faith then the most learned Protestant can of any one As thus why do you belieue three Persons one God because sayth the Catholique I belieue the Catholique Church which teacheth me so to belieue And so of the rest Now because no Protestant giues or can giue this reason in coherence with his Protestant principles of necessity he giues a worse if any For whether his reason be his owne or any other humane discourse whatsoeuer independant of this authority of the Church or secluding it or be it Scripture yea Canonicall Scripture interpreted by himselfe or any priuate Spirit he giueth no better an account then an Arrius Eutychius Donatist c. hath or might haue giuen in defence of their Heresies Thus much concerning the abused authority of S. Peter VVords of our Sauiour fallaciously abused SECT XXIII HEnce he proceedeth with some pretty Rhetorique method of blasphemy if you marke him as hauing first prophaned the testimony of S. Iohn after him S. Paul next S. Peter the Vicar and Viceroy of Christ in the Christian world Iam proximus ardet Vcalegon the very next house is a fire it was not probable he could stay himselfe in this precipice Lastly therefore he prophaneth Christ himselfe so truly may it be said of Heresy Inclinata est ad mortem domus â—ius ad inferâ—s semitae eiâ—s Prou. 2. Her howse is hanging towards death and her path's lead to hell Our Sauiours words are these Luc. 12. When you see a cloud rising from the West you say we shall haue raine and so it happen's And when the Southwind blow's you say the summer appreaches Hypocrites know you to discerne the face of heauen and earth and do you not discerne this tyme of my presence or comming But why also do you not discerne what is iust by your selues That is as if he had said you who are so skilfull as to read the prognostick signes of the heauens and by them foretell future euents of weather or seasons why do you not by your selues that is by those internall signes and tokens of your soules remorse of conscience secret inclinations and other the like indicatures of what is iust or vniust why do you not by these discerne what is iust And what affinity hath this discourse of our Sauiour with this Aduocates application that therefore euery man must of himselfe examine and try by his owne discourse or Scriptures interpreted by himselfe what is true doctrine in points of supernaturall beliefe What tokens or prognosticks haue men for these What light of naturall reason or what indicature of inward motions or naturall inclinations shew the truth of supernaturall mysteries And not without some Fallacy hath this interpreter made choice to translate Fallacy iustum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 right rather then iust why of your selues iudge you not what is right because right hath a more apparent reference to matter of doctrine in this positure of words of which doctrine he would haue euery man to be his owne iudge then iust hath which rather implyeth a relation to morall actions Another sentence of our Sauiour abused SECT XXIIII TO as litle purpose and with asmuch violence and irreuerence are those words of our Sauiour If the blind lead the blind c. applied by him For whether in probability follow the blind they who follow the Church of God as their guide to which is promis't the spirit of truth or they who follow either their owne priuate spirit or naturall reason and discourse or the Scripture interpreted by these which is to them as blind as the interpreters of it But by these goodly expositions and applications of Scriptures you see how substantially they are furnish't for examining and trying spirits and doctrines of fayth by Scriptures and naturall discourse and neuer-failing rules of Logick And Good Syr would a man euer wish that any man should make himselfe more ridiculous then to take neuer-failing or infallibility from the Church of God and giue it to Logick-rules This is to robbe Peter indeed but sure it is not to pay Paul His false Logick or misapplication of Logick-rules SECT XXV OBserue now forth with in the close of misapplyed Scripture his fallacious misapplication of Logick precepts and Dialectique forme of discourse Great confidence no doubt he had in the ignorance or negligence of his Reader He hoped to lye hid in these brakes of thorny and intricate Paralogismes to appeare only in gay flowers of soft language Mollit sermones suos extranea Pron 2. so Heresy is wont to soften and file her language Howsoeuer he giues me a warrant by his example to syllogize his loose Periods shape them into Logicall-formes Which for my part I professe to do with much more fidelity then he doth wherein I will appeale to the iudgement of other men yea and especially of those his more learned and more sober Co-academiques Thus then he argueth Discourse truly so called misguideth no man Drawing conclusions out of Scriptures by good consequence is discourse truly so called Ergo drawing Conclusions out of Scripture c. misguideth no man To this I answere that although Discourse truly so called misguideth no man ex vi formae by that forme of lawfull discourse yet ex vi materiae in regard of the matter it often doth But drawing of conclusions out of Scripture by good consequence is discourse truly so called this I distinguish Drawing them out of Scriptures formally taken that is truly vnderstood and this by good consequence is discoursetruly so called I yeild Out of the Scriptures taken only materially that is out of
repugnance betweene true religion and false or misconceauing Reason not submitting it self to supernaturall Fayth Nor yet doth it cease to be Reason and discourse truly so called though misapplied for to conclude consequently out of a false principle is no lesse an act of discourse then to inferre truth out of true principles Wherefore notwithstanding this Aduocate his tooto early and antedating Triumph these two Propositions of his Aduersary may stand togeather peaceably That no part of religion can be repugnant to Reason as Reason vndeluded as conteyning it self within due limits as in due subiection to that supreme light whence it is deriued as submitting it self where it is too weak as suffering it selfe to be guided where it is blind to be enlightned where it is darke to be raised to a competent stature or proportion where it creeps vnable to raise it selâ— all which conditions are conformable euen to naturall reason This I say may stand with this other That from Truth as truly conceaued or formally Truth no vntruth can be inferred by good consequence and lastly both these two may admit this third into society of coherence That if men sollow Reason where Reason is darke and blind and weake and in a word cannot guide they may be led into error and from error to error vntill at length they fall into vtter darknes of infidelity and Socinianisme Of Socinianisme I say a most diuellish and perhaps of all other the most dangerous Idolatry as being most neerely allied to the soule of man borne as it were in his bowels nurst and nourish't by selfe-loue cheris't and confirmed and growing daily in greater strength and equall stature with Pride and Self-conceipt For this Supremacy euen in spirituall commaund being once granted to naturall Reason with authority to direct and vmpire in spirituall affaires which authority and power God hath reserued to himself that is to the holy Ghost whose kingdome is the Church what followeth but that the holy Ghost is deposed Reason enthroned in his Chaire where it commaunds absolutely without all dependance or subordination to God from whome it neuer receaued any such authority Thus Reason is made the God of such men and because so made a very Idoll and all Socinianisme is Idolatry yea the last and lowest and basest I dolatry and whither Hereticall Idolatry dâ—uolues at last for euery formall Heretique is an Idolater and euery Socintan a worse then he A most proud Dwarfe a Pygmalion wholy contracted and confined within himselfe whose Reason is all his sayth and consequently his Hopes of no larger extent and his Charity enspheared within the same compasse the obiects or naturall reason Whose will is nothing else but self-loue referring all he doth to his proper interest regard which is indeed the highest place of pride then which the first Precedent of pride the creature that first shewed it to the world he in whom pride was first ideated from whose Pride as from the original source all the pride of temporall or spirituall Ambition all the pride of Schisme and Heresy and Socinianisme and Idolatry are shares and dimanations ascended no higher when he said ascendam ero similis Altissimo I will ascend and be like the most High Thus you see to returne his owne Epiphonema thither whence it came to his due and proper place that is vpon himselfe with what probable matter he might furnish out and iustify his accusation if he should charge his Aduersary with leading men to Socmianisme yet obserue I pray you his pittifull condescendence in the close the clemency and temper of his victory in the much which he sayth he could do and the very little which he doth Pref. Yet notwithstanding all this I do not conceaue I haue ground inough for this odious imputation much lesse should you haue charged Protestants with it whom you confesse to abhorre and detest it Answ Now this is the misery and indeed the point of difference betweene him and his Aduersary that he conceaues he hath not ground inough for this odious imputation therefore imputes it not His Aduersary conceau's he hath nor vainely conceau's but know's and prou's it and therfore chargeth them with it that deserue it to the end they may cease to deserue it abhorre it not only in it selfe but in the necessary cause of it Many a one loueth the Father who loues not the child yet that beloued Father is the parent of that vnlouely child What if the Rauen abhorre her young ones or the Beare perhaps her whelp 's yet both these are the naturall yssue of both effect's as they are the brood and progenie so are they images and resemblances of their causes wherin the face of causes may be seene as in a mirrour And for what other end are looking-glasses made then to reflect and shew the face wherof they present the image Let him first cleare his maintainers from this imputation that Socianisme is the effect of Protestancy or let him shew at least by solid arguments that it is not the naturall issue of Protestancy but as a monstrous birth not intended I do not say by Protestants but by Protestancy according to a Phisicall necessary though not a morall and expressely voluntary intention or lastly that the generation is meerly casuall and occasionall Then let them say they detest and abhorre it otherwise their detestation is like theirs who detest the shame of sinne but loue the sinne Nor is it indeed worth God a mercy to any man to abhorre Socinianisme for it hath certainly a most vggly and deformed aspect to any eye that hath euer lookt Christianity on the face yea I verily belieue if we could see a damned fiend without the sinne of Socinianisme which made him one he would seeme a much more tolerable Spectacle yet this ChaÌ„pion is very confident that he can arme the Mother against the Child commit them in deadly Duell he can do much in this kind and so could she of whom one said Tu potes vnanimes armare in proelia fratres Thou can'st set brothers together by th' eares And if the Sonne chance to fall in the war we haue his epitaph at hand Nati sepulchrum est ipsae Parens the mothers wombe his tomb For I am assuredly persuaded their ends are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confatall he will die like a Sampson or like an Eleazar perhaps suo sepultus triumpho buried in his triumph Pref. O. but Protestants will fight against Socinianisme her proud Impe not with broken reeds so this Aduocate and out of the paper foriresses of an imaginary infallibility Answ So I belieue but out of a paper fortresse of reall fallibility which he hath raised them in this Volume which I dare say will proue a doughty Fortresse while he maintains it especially so armed if not with broken reed's a reed tho and such a reed of resolution as I trust a little wynd may shake it if it blow in the right corner and
doubt but very many of either Vniuersity haue these talents in great eminency and no meruaile if we consider either so many and choyee wits as in so great a multitude of Pretenders or those excellent meanes wherewith they are endowed for all kind of good litterature Wherein I dare presume to say they are incomparable with any other Vniuersity of Europe and only comparable between themselues as one eye with another in the same face without disparagement to either Which Excellency would be in these kinds far more apparent and testified to the world that neither Enuy nor Truth might deny it especially in those yearly confluences of hearers and witnesses summond by the celebrity of report as it were to the Olympique Games and spectacles of learned Arts so that it might be said of them as someâ— me it was of ancient Rome Famam Rome tuae non pudet historiae if the care and industry of the Electors were rather to grace those publique Exercises by the Excellency of the men then the men by those Exercises As for their talent in preaching let them before they boast be sure whether Enuy do meddle with it at least forraine Enuy if domestique do and then shew vs their commission for preaching Quomodo pradicabunt nisi mittautur how shall they preach vnles they be sent Sicut scriptum est quam specâ—osi pedes c. how faire are the feet of those who preach those good tydings who preach peace signifâ—ing by this sequele and connexion that the speciosity neatnes or cleanes of feet that is of affections requisite in such a Preacher must proceed from the grace and spirit of that diuine mission and commission The quite contrary of which effects hath beene manifestly seene and obserued and notoriously knowne to the world in the preaching of a Luther of a Caluin and the like their preaching was without mission therefore were their feet so foule as the impressions of their foot-steps extant vpon record do clearely testify Therefore also the ayme and scope of their preaching was not peace but mutiny and rebellion and defection from their mother-Mother-Church and from spirituall obedience from Samuel to Saul in whose abiection and excussion of whose anthority they withall abiected and shook off God himself and in Saul and with Saul fâ—ll to Idolatry For he who shaketh of that obedience which God hath establish't in his Church enthroneth another God that is the power or the creature vpon which he transferreth his obedience which he oweth to God which is Idolatry Vpon which breach and defection followed forthwith that deluge of all mischiefe and inundation of Vices ouerflowing those nations wherein Religion had beene in greatest florish Loe the effect of their mission-Iesse preaching Vpon these groundes the examine must goe whether it were or no detraction to say their learning consists in a superficiall talent of preaching or whether he might not haue denyed it to be preaching at all according to the ordinary acceptation of the word as by Christian vse it is consecrated and dedicated to signify Euangelicall Annunciation or the Embassy of God to men vnles perhaps in attributing a superficiall talent of preaching he implicitely meant to deny the substance as indeed that kind of preaching can haue nothing else but superficiality being deuoid of the substance which is diuine truth and spirit It were therefore to be wish'd rather then disliked by this Adâ—ocate or his Clyent 's that they were enuied 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pindar Pyth. â—d 1. and not pittied that so goodly a superficies so much exteriour grace of wit should want the body and interiour worth and substance of diuine truth wherein to subsist Well Syr after all this brauery and presumed excellency of preaching c. if this proue a true imputation of insufficiency in those Deuines when they are pressed by Socinian Arguments who are therefore either caught themselues by their illaqueations or giue occasion to the Socinians of their greater obfirmation or to others to be drawne into the same infidelity If this I say be truth yea and a knowne and testified truth and so neither Calumny nor detraction how will he excuse that insufficiency or at the least deny it to be a great cause of the propagating of that contagion Or lastly which be pretends to doe vindicate his Maintainers from this aspersion Heare how substantially he doth it Pref. As if forsooth because they dispute not eternally Vtrum Chymaera bombinans in vacuo possit comedere secundas intentiones or Whether a million of Angels may not sit vpon a needles point because they fill not their braines with notions that signify nothing to the vtter extermination of all reason and common sense and spend not an age in weauing and vnweaning subtile webb's fitter to catch flies then soules therefore they haue no deepe knowledge in the Acroamaticall part of learning Answ This is his answere Whence you may suspect that Brasmus was his last Acrâ—ama from whom he eame to write this with his pen full of salt and sarcasme to cast vpon the faces of all Schoole-deuines and you may note as in passing by how euen heere as euery where what he blame's in his Aduersary he out-doe's it himself and by this very passage of many you may obserue how familiar he is with the Genius of Detraction which comes from him so easily that I durst almost excuse him and say he takes no notice of it Vsque adeo à teneris assuescere magnum est as some Orpheus play's and sing's by the rules of art which he reflect's not on As for this question of a Chymaera it is no doubt wholy Chymerique and whether it may haue beene the subiect of some Quadragesimall coursing I cannot tell I haue knowne as mad a question canuas't there in my day's as concerning a Pridian and a Postridian which some Diuinity-chaire may yet remember And yet me think 's I could propose this question to be maintained by some witty Inceptor or Commencer affirmatiuely thus Virum Chimaera bombiâ—ans in vacuo debeat comedere secundas intentiones Affirme Then for the more luculent and fraudlesse processe in this graue probleme I would first cleare the termes from ambiguity I would vnderstand by Chymaera a Socinian and him that you might be able to look vpon the monster with lesse fright and horror mask't or vizar'd in Protestantisme then bombinans in vacuâ— that is busy in disputing to no purpose nor with hope or intent to determine any truth or bombinans in vacuâ— buzzing his imposture in some idle and vacant eare or againe bombinans in vacuâ— buzzing and disputing against all principles of Diuinity and Philosophy that there is vacuum in nature that God is not euery where or that it is not certaine whether be be any where And then whether this Chymaera ought to feed only vpon second Intentions whether he ought in conformity to his Principles to be content with such Commons or whether he ought to take commons
granting to the Roman Church that attribute of Catholique which hath euer distinguish't the Church of God from all Hereticall Societies Separatist's and giuing to his Protestant the particular name of Separation which hath euer bene held a speciall character of Heresy Now it is euident that the Catholique Church of this age as distinguish 't from Protestants holds this point as a point of fayth and necessary to saluation That the Church of God is endued with infallible authority for determining questions or doctrines of Fayth◠which very point he constantly denyes Therefore it is false that he belieues if he belieue as he writes whatsoeuer the Catholique Church of all ages or the Catholique Church of this age holdeth necessary to be belieued His Purgation concerning temporall respects as Motiues to his change of Religion SECT XL. Pref. ANother great and manifest iniury you haue done me in charging me to haue for saken your Religion because it conduced not to my temporall ends c. Whereof if you could conuince me by iust strong presumptions I should then acknowledge my selfe to deserue that opinion c. that I changed not your Religion for any other but for none at all Answ His Aduersary seemes to charge him that hauing forsaken the Catholique he finally plunged himselfe into Socinianisme now this Aduocate confesseth in these words that Socinianisme is no religion which notwithstanding in the very same page he ranketh in the number of Christian professions For now he grants that if he can be conuinced to haue changed the Catholique for Socinianisme he hath chāged it for no religion at all It is true that this his chāge for Socinianisme can be proued no otherwise but by his owne words and actions which if they haue vpon seuerall occasions before many witnesses proclamed his iudgment concerning points of Christian Religion to harmonize with the doctrines and principles of knowne and profest Socinians surely these are presumptions strong inough at least as strong as can be expected in question of iudgment and opinions of men But now to the substance of the charge he saith nothing onely he attemps to disproue the motiues that is to proue those temporall ends to haue beene no motiues of his change which yet is more then he doth or can do Therfore in behalfe of those presumed ends and in confirmation of that presumption thus I argue only supposing first that he was in his wits when he made the change that it was voluntary and then secondly that no man in his wits and voluntarily maketh any change but for some end or ends then thus Whosoeuer may out of his owne words and demeanours be conuinced to haue changed religion for no religion may be conuinced to haue changed for temporall ends But M. Ch. may be conuinced out of his owne words c. to haue changed religion for no religion Ergo for temporall ends That Catholique religion is Religion or a Religion himselfe grantes That Socinianisme is no Religion he often seemes to grant and howsoeuer it is easily proued That he changed the Catholique for Socinianisme his owne words and actions and written doctrines testify euidently inough Now that no man changeth religion for no religion but for temporall ends is I thinke vndeniable For can any man be imagined to abandone all religion for an euerlasting end What to be the talke perhaps of posterity supposed neuer to end As he who is said to haue burn't Dianas Temple at Ephesus to be diffamed throughout the world and after ages for his villany and irreligion But let vs ponder his reasons by which he refutes this presumption of temporall end 's Pref. How is it possible that I should haue deserted your religion for end 's and our of desire of preferment since I refused which also you impute vnto me to subscribe the 39. Articles that is refused to enter at the Common doore which heere in England lead's to preferment Answ This is easily answerd by saying Some there are who enter Joh. 10. and not by the common doore no nor by the doore Againe those temporall ends might be many other besides Ecclesiastique preferments from enioying which this refusall of subscription could not exclude him But yet againe sayth he bow incredible is it that you should belieue that I forsook your religion as not suting with my desires and designes Pref. which yet reconciles the enioying of the pleasures and profits of sinne here with the hope of happines hereafter Answ This is manifestly false that Catholique Religion reconcileth the enioying of sinfull pleasures or profits of this life with hope of eternall happines but rather professeth and protesteth with S. Paul Neque fornicarij c. 1. Cor. 6. neither Fornicators nor I dolaters nor aduouterers nor the effeminate c. shall possesse the kingdom of God Yea further the Catholique Church denounceth Anathema against all such as Luther Caluin and the rest who reconcile Iustification with deadly sinne either by non-imputation or soli-fayth c. therefore of the Church it may be truly said Non enim qui operantur iniquitatem in vijs eius ambulauerunt for they who worke iniquity haue not walk'◠in her ways of doctrine Catholique doctrine denying all possibility of consistency to mortall sinne with sanctifying grace precludes all such sinne from hope of enioying eternall happines therefore he whose hopes ayme at any such reconciliation hath made a choyce better suting with his desires by changing the Catholique for Protestancy Pref. But the profession of Catholique Religion proposeth as great hopes of great temporal aduancements to the capable seruants of it as any nay more then any religion in the world Answ But what then if it proposed no such hopes to him If in so great a multitude of capable seruants and those of ancient and tryed seruice and fidelity who for that cause might very well expect to be preferred before him a late Proselyte nor sufficiently tried what I say if by reason of this interposall of so many iust pretenders aduancement from that profession stood aloofe to him and proposed to his hopes at a vast distance with litle probability of approach in any short space which proposition so qualified could be but a weak attractiue to a spirit ambitious that way And then what if he saw a shorter way to such aduancement proposed to him at home and extended towards him euen ouer the seas by a full and able hand Valer Flaccus as when Glory appeared from the transmarine shore to that Grecian Prince Iason with a laurell in her hand was it then incredible that if the motiues to his change were temporall ends he would lay hands on the most likely meanes and most conducing to those ends If he will giue vs leaue to belieue he had such ends since we cannot choose but belieue it sure he will giue vs leaue to thinke he was no foole Both which supposed the presumption of his Aduersary is iust and strong
fayth and therefore as necessarily to be belieued or at the least not reiected by an expresse misbeliefe Againe some parts of Scripture may haue an euident construction to one which to another may be darke and obscure then the doctrine inferred vpon that euidence will be of fayth to him to whom it is euidently contained in Scripture to another who will deny the euidence because he see 's it not it will not be so What authority then other then the Church shall determine the true sense of this part of Scripture euident and ineuident especially which may often fall out if no other more euident Scripture can be brought in as a witnesse of greater authority to cleare the doubt Heere then the doctrine of Fundamentalls and not Fundamentals will be good for nothing but to bring in more Fayths yea contradictory Fayths since all points of Fayth are Fundamentall so as necessarily to be belieued by him to whom they are euidently contained in Scripture and none fundamentall to him to whom they are not euidently contained in Scripture and therefore not necessary to be belieued And if you say that such points euidently contained in regard of some vnderstanding not euidently to another are none of those which are coÌ„maunded to be preached to all men which euasion this Aduocate may seeme to haue reserued how will this be proued since our Sauiours commaund is in general termes this Praedicate Euangelium hoc omnicreaturae Preach this Ghospell to all the world he sayth not these or these points of the Ghospell and no more And yet againe Quod aeudistis in aurem praedicate super tectae what you haue heard in secret preach it publiquely But especially when any controuersy concerning doctrine of fayth ariseth and some Heresy is authorized by some supposed euidence of Scripture then the contrary truth is to be preach't and publish't to the whole Church least that Heresy should be imbraced for a truth of Fayth or the word of God yea God himselfe pretended the Author of that vntruth or Heresy which pretence is a very high and low'd Blasphemy By which may appeare the grosse and palpable absurdity of this Ministers doctrine legitimating as it were all Adulterate and suprious Doctrines and Heresies by saying Nothing that is obscure can be necessary to be vnderstood or not mistaken Which is indeed one of his capitall Principles and a chiefe support of his doctrine For I aske Is not the mistaking or misinterpreting of some parts of Scripture the very source of some Hereticall doctrines and those Scriptures the greatest strength and colour that giueth credit and countenance to such Heresies Is not then the not-mistaking of such Scriptures necessary euen as necessary as it is that such doctrines should not preuaile or win credit by the authority of those Scriptures For though the true vnderstanding of some obscure parts of Scripture be not necessary yet it is necessary that such obscure parts be not so mistaken as to warrant Heresy by their authority If therefore out of that first principle by this Minister presumed a thousand other absurdities follow such as those by him deduced howsoeuer for I will not examine the regularity of those deductions what is this to the matter in hand For this was not the Direction or Caueat giuen him by his Aduersary that he should not answere out of this principle of Protestancy but that he should not out of those other specified by his Director those Socinian principles which euen Protestants abhorre The Conclusion of his Preface with his fallacious Apology for himselfe SECT XLIII HE concludes after his self-plauding manner as I haue often noted before Pref. And thus your Venome against me is in a manner spent Answ Which words I take notice of also heere that you may obserue with me the spirit of his style perpetuate throughout his whole worke and with all the difference betweene it and his Aduersariâ—s Pen and then tell me whether this be not the spirit of a Spider indeed which findeth venome euen where none is whome therfore that is Aduocare and Spider I shall not doubt to ioyne in one and the same Word which mall be this for the tyme. Inueniam aut faciam I will find it or make it Pref. Now only two litle impertinenties remaine the first that I refused to subscribe the Articles of the Church of England the second my mortues which first induced me to forsake Protestantisâ—â—e Answ So he and to the first he answer's in effect this Pref. That the doctrine of the Church of England is so pure and Orthodoxe that whosoeuer belieues it and liues according to it vndoubtedly he shall be sauâ—d That there is no error in it which may nocesutate or warrant a man to disturbe the peace or renounce the Communion of it Which acknowledgment he is persuaded is the only thing intended by subscription Answ By this you see he hath now leueled his way to Ecclesiasticall preferment so that if hereafter you heare he hath accepted any such commodity you many know he did it vpon better consideration The scruple he had concerning subscription is vanish't into the aire whither the rest of his scruples will follow in their turnes It may be that scruple was but a melancholique Dreame such as he conceaues Luthers conference with the Diuell might be He is now Materia prima for any benefice Chayre Prebendary Chanonry or what yee will you may coniecture who hath had the tempering and working of this pliable clay he was a Maister in that feat you may assure your selfe if not a Doctor and this his Maister-peece To the second impertinency concerning his motiues he answere's Pref. That it is more impertinent and friuolous then the former Vnlesse sayth he it he a iust exception against a Physician that himselfe was sometymes in and recenerâ—d himself from that disease which he vndertakes to cure or against a Guide in a way that at first before he had experience himselfe mistoâ—ke it and afterwardâ— so and his error and 〈◊〉 it That 〈…〉 Michaâ—â— de Montaigne wassurely of a farre different mynd for he will hardly allow any Physician competem but only for such diseases as himself had passed through and a farre greater then Montaigne Answ I pray you by the way take notice of this as not spoken by chance or without due reflection least any man should question whether authority were of greater waight in the Socinian balance Iesus Christ or Michael de Montaigne Pref. Euen he that said Tu conuersus confirma sratres tuos thou being conuerted confimre thy brethren giues vs sufficiently to vnderstand that they which haue themselues beene in such a state as to need conuersion are not thereby made incapable of but rather engaged and obliged vnto and qualified for this charitable function Answ He might haue added to this that the Hollander's men say make speciall choyce of such men for Pilot's and Maisters of ships who haue formerly wrack't many ships
the Land and then being for such his contumacy censured proscribed declared rebell or Traitor to the State vnles he would come in and acknowledge his obedience conformity to that order or Law still pretend that such a Law is no Law but an abuse of authority and say that if they will not allow him the Name and priuiledge of a true subiect but vpon such condition that by his subscription he professe against his conscience his consent to an error in gouernment to which he consent's not or acknowledges for law what he belieues not to be law in this case they for requiring such a condition are rebell's and traitours to the state not he for disclaiming it And I belieue the disparity will not easily be assigned neither will it euer be proued that the Temporall Laick authority of any State or Common-wealth in order to ciuill Gouernment or Command is more sacred and inuiolable then the authority of the Church of God in regard of determining doctrines of fayth or in order to Ecclesiasticall Lawes Constitutions Whence it may seeme a matter worthy the consideration that this spirit of doctrine hath in the very bowell's of it the very Embryâ— of all seditions and rebellions such as if it liue to grouth and strength of age may proue such a monster as may import in tyme the confusion and Anarchy of all State and Gouernment Verily it will appeare as I thinke very manifest that any refractory or rebellious subiect may accommodate this discourse to the maintenance and defence of his rebellion with very good congruity yea and finally retort the Traitor or Rebell vpon the Prince or Authority which proscribâ—s or censures him III. Motiue Because if any credit may be giuen to as creditable records as any are extant the Doctrine of the Catholicks hath byn frequently confirmed and the opposite doctrine of Protestants confounded with supernaturall and diuine miracles III. Remotiue To the third If any credit may be giuen to Records farre more creditable then these the Doctrine of Protestants that is the Bible hath been confirmed and the Doctrine of Papists which is in many points plainly opposite to it confounded with supernaturall and diuine Miracles which for number and glory out-shine Popish pretended Miracles as much as the Sunne doth an ignis fatuus those I meane which were wrought by our Sauiâ—ur Christ and his Apostâ—â—â— Now this booke by the confession of both â—â—des confirmed by inâ—umerous miracles c. III. Promotiue Before I mooue any further I thinke it best to close with you heere I haue already often said and must say it often that the Socinian iudgment is no iudgment at all nor any arrest of sentence but a very waue of a floating sancy and giddy affection which swelling now and appearing bigge soone after break 's vpon the shore and another waue of opinion followes growne from another fancy which is the Trident that moues and commaund's in the Socinian Ocean Not long fince when I know not now what wynd moued your phantastique affection towards the shore of Catholique truth then if any credit might be giuen to as creditable record's as any are extant c. after that the wynd changing and another affection flowing from a new fancy see how this Trident hath turned your iudgment to the quite opposite shore and now if any credit may be giuen to records farre more creditable then these What haue you now fouÌ„d out records far more creditable then these which are as creditable as any are extant then it seemes these records farre more creditable are not extant and yet you haue found them out Or are they now extant which seauen or eight yeares fince when your Motiues were conceaued were not extant Good Syr put them out to the print to the stationers with all possible speed London Oxford will come together by the â—ares for the commodity but be not rash in promising to either least a more liberall offer make you resent They will off at any Price you may compasse another purchase by the gaine of the commodity especially comming forth with the recommendation of a most plausible title as Record's for protestancy neuer extant in print before set forth by M. Ch. lately Roman Catholique now Atturney or adâ—â—cate for Protestants The first edition c. But now in earnest let vs examine these Records of superlatiue credit whereby the doctrine of Protestants that iâ— the Bible do you meane the bible it self or the doctrine of the Bible for there is great difference betweene â—â—ese two and â—othaps you will not easily find out of your Records how the Bible it self hath beene so miraculously confirmed that is declared by miracles that this Bible is the word of God and yet you say This booke confirmed by innumerous miracles I suspect you meant to be obscure and yet willing to haue it so vnderstood that the Booke it self hath beene so confirmed that your appeale to it might appeare more specious But then I dare be bold to say that the Bible that is the Scriptures translated by Protestants shall neuer be proued to haue receaued any confirmation at all by any one peece of a miracle therefore in this sense what you say is a meere vaunt void of all truth whereas againe if as translated and set forth by authority of the Catholique Church it hath euer beene miraculously confirmed this is a confirmation of Catholique authority and a shame and confusion of all Sectaries who reiect this authority But I will be so fauourable as to construe your meaning such as you can make good with most ease as that the Protestant-doctrine is the doctrine of the Bible which is no more then euery Heretique would say of his doctrine rather then submit it to the Censure of the Church which Protestant and Bible-doctrine hath been confirmed iointly by miracles out-shining all Popish miracles as the Sunne doth ignis fatuus In which place I will only specify one doctrine of Protestants and insist vpon that which is That the Church of God may erre in definitions of fayth or that it is not endued with infallible authority in order to such definitions Now when will you be so good as to proue vnto vs that this negatiue doctrine hath bene confirmed and the contrary doctrine of Papists confounded with supernaturall and diuine miracles When will you shew vs out of your more creditable records then any extant that those miracles of our Sauiour and his Apostles were wrought in confirmation of those doctrines wherin you oppose the Catholique Roman Church Nay when will you proue that any one of those miracles were not so many testimonies of some point of doctrine which the Roman Church professeth and teacheth at this day Come leaue your brauing dâ— not always â—ly with a Simon Magus in the ayre of verball ostenlation Quid cessas An tibi Mauors Ventâ—â—â in linguâ pâ—dibusque fugaâ—ibus istis Semper erit Come downe and instance in one point
of difference betweene vs and you which point held by you in opposition to the Roman Catholique hath euer beene countenanc't by any least miracle of our Sauiour or his Apostles or the opposite doctrine of Catholiques confounded by the like testimony For if you make not this appeare by your sunne of Euidence those diuine and supernaturall miracles what will remaine for your confirmation but ignis fatuus I know your Sanctuary when you haue tost turned all your creditable records and euidences you will shew vs forsooth that those points of fayth which you haue receaued and hold of the Catholique Roman Church though the tenure be merely Hereticall that is of voluntary choice because it pleaseth you to hold some such as import no restraint or that some face of truth may appeare like the face and song of Siren's to draw men vpon your rock's of pernicious Heresies those I say you will proue to haue beene attested and confirmed by those miracles of our Sauiour and his Apostles which will help your cause nothing at all but rather weaken it when by such testimony of miracles you can confirme no other doctrine but what you haue receaued from vs. Neither yet are those doctrines yours which you can proue to haue beene so confitmed I say no otherwise yours then those things which you haue stolne or keep by force from the right owners therefore they are with you as children rauish't from their mothers bosome and the company of their brethren by the Turket or Mâ—ret with whome they remayn so sequestred perforce daily testifiyng by their sighes and grones the tyranny of their restraint and their defire to returne to their Mother brethren After this violent manner are those Catholique doctrines with you and thus are holy Scriptures in your not custody but captiuity both of them entertained by you to no other end but to be slaues and seruants to your owne children the peculiar dâ—â—trines of your Schisme to carry torches before them to gaine â—ome reputation of light to those workes of darknes Although for Scriptures as I haue said before and say againe no Heretique hath them properly that is as they are the word of God which they are not but as truly interpreted for which truth of interpretation he can pretend no warrant or title at all For the Scriptures are not only the word of God but the word of the Church which hauing first conceaued them by the holy Ghost the spirit of truth brought them forth to light and bequeathed them from age to age to the children of her obedience made partakers of the same spirit and therfore they only can discerne them to be the word of God which is only discernable to those to whom it is spoken or reuealed by the same spirit which is only in the Church of Christ the one mysticall body of Christ which is also called the spirit of Christ and therefore is not to be found in any other Body or Society of men for then Christ should be the head or heads of more bodies which is absurd blasphemy And as the Church of God alone is endued with this spirit of discretion whereby she discernes what Scripture is the word of God so this Church alone hath the spirit of interpretation of Scriptures and she alone can certainly say this is the sense and meaning of this Scripture who can truly say this is Scripture as only that Daniel cold declare the interpretation and meaning of Nabuchâ—donozors dreame who could tell him what he had dreamed which none of those Wizards or Sorcerers or Enchanters could do who yet professed they would interprete the dreame so he would tell them what he had dreamed But the wise King belieued them not qua sunâ— per Allegoriam dicta But heere good Sir I must tell you as a friend I am ashamed to sâ—â— a man of your expectation hopefull promisings to come forth in this thred-bare liuery of old Heretiques this appeale from Church to Scriptures There was neuer so putide an Heretique which hauing once cast off the authority of the Church could not find some refuge or sanctuary in the darknes of Scripture hauing also togeather with that authority excussed taken to himselfe the freedome of interpreting Scriptures Belie us it Syr. it is and euer will be a maine presumption that you draw â—nder the same yoke with former Heretiques when you can not get out of the same Cart-rout which they haue track't before you Et monstrata diâ— veteris trabis â—rbita â—ulpa For first you haue gone out of the Roman Catholique Church so they from the authority of that Church you appeale to Scriptures so they then you interprete Scriptures according to your single vnderstanding without any other liuing guide or Vocall authority so they being gone out you turne all your power of Pen-gall against that Church whence you went forth so they But neither you nor your patrons nor Apostles conuert any nation to Christian fayth nor they You reduce few sonles from sinfull courses to better life nor they In the whole number of your Patriarches you cannot name one Saint nor they I see how you haue consociated your self and your Clyent 's with the knowne Heretiques of former tymes I would gladly know someone distinctiue signe by which you discerne and vindicate your selues from the formall character or character 's markes or brands of ancient Heretiques In the meane tyme let vs examin the remnant of this Remotiâ—e Rem This booke c. foretell's me plainly that in after ages great signes and wonders shall be wrought in confirmation of false doctrine Prom. But hath it fore told you that in after ages no true miracle shall be wrought in confirmation of true doctrine If not it hath foretold you nothing to the purpose you pretend Rem And that I am not to belieue any doctrine which seemes to my vnderstanding repugnant to the first Prom. Wâ—â—ch seemes repugnant c. to your vnderstanding Most ridiculâ—us 〈◊〉 no such thing was euer foretold you by the Booke of Gods Word you dreamed it But that doctrine is not to be belieued which to an infallible vnderstanding which is the vnderstanding of the Church which is guided by the spirit of truth is not only seemingly but really repugnant to Apostolicall doctrine But still you put vs in mynd of your Character your appeale to your owne vnderstanding you will not out of this Cart-rout Rem But that true doctrine should in allages haue the testimony of miracles that I am no where taught Prom. Are you any where taught the contrary Or that the testimony of miracles promised by our Sauiour is confined within a certain compasse or period of tyme Hath the Church only a lease of miracles for terme of yeare and if it hath when expired that terme or lease Vnles you can tell vs this for ought you know it is yet in being Now the promise of our Sauiour being conceaued and exprest in plaine words
applause and approbation to their Heresies being so farre indeed from any true agreement or harmony with them that they iarre euen in what they hold with them euen in those very doctrines wherein they say the same which the Fathers say The reason because in all those doctrines of Fathers this transcendent condition of a prepared and prompt submission to whatsoeuer determination of the Church is so permeant and pertinent and transfused throughout all their doctrines and sentences as the very soule and consistence of them so that whatsoeuer doctrine of Heretiques wanting this ingredient of a Catholique Submission and Relation to the Church can neuer be the same doctrine nor agreeable with that of the Fathers though it seeme neuer so much the same in words though inuested I say in the same language and exterior signification yet euen so they are but wolues in vestimentis ouium in the skin and garments of sheep which skin they put on for no other end nisi vt mactent perdant to kill massacre the soules of such who belieue they are Orthodoxe because they speak the language of the Fathers This is then the distinctiue signe the spirituall marke and cognoisance which infallibly proclaimes them to be Heretiques this pertinacity in any single opinion of fayth yea in any one the least point of fayth this standing our against the authority of the Church and refusall to submit destroyeth the whole forme the very constitutiue and distinctiue Character of a Catholique subiect Howsoeuer he appeare in all other points of Christian doctrine an Angell of light by this you shall discerne him as by a clouen foot with this submission no Hereticall opinion can make a man an Heretique without this the whole Apostolique Creed cannot make him a Catholique si per impossibile if it were possible that such submission should be wanting in him who belieues entirely the Apostolique Creed VII Motiue Because the first pretended reformers had neither extraordinary commission from God nor ordinary mission from the Church to preach Protestant doctrine VII Remotiue The Pastors of a Church caÌ„not but haue authority from is to preach against the abuses of it whether in doctrine or practise if there be any in it c. VII Promotiue Extraordinary mission or commission is immediately from God Ordinary mission or Commission is that which issueth immediatly from man placed in authority vnder God Now to proue an ordinary mission or commission is easily done by producing the testimony of that authority which sendeth or granteth the commission Extraordinary missions cannot be proued or manifested by ordinary manifestations and being not proued cannot oblige to acceptance or beliefe Now since to reforme is an act of power and authority and all power and authority is from God whether mediatly or immediatly hence it is that no such act can be legall or regular and so effectuall and valid of it self without mission or commission that is without receauing such power or authority to reforme from him who hath power to giue it that is from God himself immediatly or mediatly from his Officers Since then those pretended Reformers had or could proue no such mission or commission neither immediately nor mediately from God hence it followeth that they had none at all no authority Psay at all to reforme the Church Ergo their pretended Reformation was an illegall and irregular act of presumption It is true a Commission may be of two kinds respectiuely to circumstances It may be either an expresse and formall commission or interpretatiue only The expresse and formall Commission is that which I receaue expressely granted by superior authority Interpretatione I may call that which though I haue not expressely receaued from such authority yet I prudently and vndoubtingly suppose would be granted me in such circumstances of tyme place c. if the Superior had notice of them vpon which supposed and prudently presumed grant yea and direct will of the Superior I execute such an act of authority as to reforme reprebend teach preach c. Thus much premised let vs now consider this Remotiue or anti-Motine what waight it hath in ballance with the Motiue Remot The Pastours of a Church cannot but haue authority from it c. Promot Beware of false dealing in the very entrance A Church denoteth a particular Church The Catholique which is the Vniuersall Church the whole mysticall body whereof particular Churches and euery A Church are parts and members is improperly styled A Church but properly The Church as The spouse of Christ not A spouse as though he had many spouseâ—â— Vna est columba mea perfecta mea with which one Church or perfect Spouse particular Churches yea particular soules are his Spouses as they are one with her Now it is true that the Pastour of A Church hath authority from The Church to preach against the abuses of that particular Church when it swarueth either in doctrine or manners from the law's or doctrine of the Catholique Church to which it oweth Conformity But then againe the Pastour of A Church is the sheep not Pastour of The Church therefore his preaching against The Church is without all authority or commission either from God or man nay it is a prodigious presumption for any Christian subiect to preach against the doctrine or practise of that Church as against abuses whose doctrine and practise is his rule wherby to know what is abuse in either For of the preposterous way of making the Scripture the Rule to discerne such abuses by it inough hath beene already said how absurd and groundlesse it is especially when the point of doctrine which is imputed or traduced as abuse is concerning the Scripture it self or the true meaning or interpretation thereof which no priuate Spirit or particular Pastour hath authority do determine against the Church Remot Neither can any Christian want an ordinary commission from God to do a necessary worke of charity after a peaceable manner when there is no body else that can or will do it In extraordinary cases extraordinary courses are not to be disallowed Promot Commission immediate from God as granted to any subiect with out all mediation yea or approbation of his ordinary Superior cannot be an ordinary commission therefore it is not to be admitted or accepted yea or belieued without Precedent proofe and manifestation that it is from God by extraordinary signes and testifications Againe to vndertake such a reformation without any ordinary commission or yet extraordinary duly manifested to be such and that in opposition against ordinary authority cannot be peaceable for peace cannot be where order and subordination is violated therefore non est pax impijs dicit Dominus wicked men enioy not peace because in and by them as such due order is subuerted For this cause also this cannot be a worke of Charity being an act of dissention and rebellion and therefore of it self destructiue and subuersiue of Peace and Charity Remot But when there
is no body else that can or will do it c. Prom. When Martin Luther ran out of his Monastery and ran into a Nunry made a strumpet of a Nun and forthwith turned rebell vnder the colour of reforming abuses in the Roman Church there was not indeed another to be found so very a miscreant who could and would do the like worke of vnchristian Charity although the breach now made he was seconded by others true and most effectiuely by that burn't Sacrifice of Geneua who for his merit might haue been an holocaust Hem Correctores Behold the Reformers of the Roman Church with the true mark 's and brand's of their extraordinary Mission Habeat iam Roma pudarem blush Catholique Rome for your abuses laid open to the world by these innoceÌ„t Hieremies these extraordinary Committies or Missioners For in extraordinary cases extraordinary courses are not to be disallowed Remot If some Christian Layman should come into a Country of Infidels and had ability to perswade them to Christianity who would say be might not vse it for want of commission Prom. No man would say it that I know and as you M. Aduocate put the case you speake Law for in this exigent interpretatiue Commission from the Church to any Layman your self for example hath place for the Church giues leaue to any man to persuade Christianity especially in such circumstances of necessity yea and to make Christians too by baptizing But now the application What aduantage hath your plea from this Who can interpret that any man hath a Commission from the Church to preach against the same Church This can be no ordinary commission as I haue proued nor extraordinary of any effect or authority vntill it be manifested by extraordinary testimony which can be no other but true miracles VIII Motiue Because Luther to preach against the Masse which containes the most materiall points now in controuersy was perswaded by reasons suggested to him by the Diuell himselfe disputing with him so himselfe professeth in his Booke de Missâ priuata that all men might take heed of sollowing him who professeth himselfe to follow the Diuell VIII Remotiue â—â—thers conference with the Diuell might be for ought I know nothing but a melanchely dreame c. VIII Promotiue An qui amant ipsisibi somma fingunt Surely t' is you who dreame that Luther dreamed because you would haue it so otherwise you cannot choose but know by him that he dreamed not if you will belieue him who sutely knew whether he were waking or sleeping when the Diuell cour'st him otherwise you make the Diuell a very dull and Phlegmatique courser I haue seen much coursing in my dayes but neuer knew any man who slept while he was cours't yet I cannot but admire your iudgment and discretion that you rather belieue Luther in what he teacheth against the Church then what he testifieth of his owne certaine knowledge but this was properly and prouidently added by you for ought I know for I thinke you were not present at the disputation no you were then but an Embrie of Protestantisme no nor so much but only existeÌ„t in virtute causarum so for ought you know it was nothing but a melancholy dreame Yea and perhaps for ought you know he wal'kt too in his sleepe when as he confesseth of himselfe he oftentymes walk't with the Diuell in his bed-chamber that some of his Diuels with whome he conuersed so familiarly were braue Diuels Doctours of diuinity Doctours of the Chaire among the Diuels this he dream'd too Now I verily suspect these were the disputant Diuels who disputed him out of the Masse and being such great Doctors of Diuinity sure they would scorn to take hold of such an aduantage to dispute with him while he slep't For they no doubt intended a victory which had beene none if he had beene a sleepe while they disputed therefore I verily thinke he was broad-waking as he himselfe teaches But did he indeed trow you M. Aduocate eat so much salt with the Diuell as he saith he did It little appear's by this or did he but dreame he eat salt too For surely he was a very freshman in diuinity who would be driuen out of his saith by a dreame or because he could not defend it againnst the Diuell waking he sleeping But since you reserue so many euasions to escape this Diuellish disputation with Luther as not denying that he had such a Conference euen waking with the waking Diuell but that it might be otherwise then againe for ought you know we will presse you no further with this yet when you made this Conference of Luther with the Diuell your Motiue not to belieue Luthers doctrine authorized or suggested by the Diuell you then knew no more then now you know that is for ought you knew it might be but a melancholy dreame so this part of your Motiue stand's in the same force which then it had Remot But if it were reall the Diuell might persuade Luther from the masse hoping by doing so to keep him constant to it Prom. Certainly you haue taught the Diuell a lesson of Policy for which he will thinke himselfe obliged to teach you many In the mean tyme this is a very transcendent answere and applyable to many a solid blasphemy If the Diuell had persuaded Luther to preach against the Blessed Trinity as whosoeuer preacheth or teacheth against it may be presumed I thinke to do it by his perswasion and somewhat to this purpose I haue heard whisper'd of a certaine Socinian who stickles for Protestancy why might not a Socinian or Antitrinitarian answere to this likewise that the Diuell perswaded him this to keepe him more constant to the beliefe of the Trinity So likewise if Arius were said to haue beene perswaded by the Diuels arguments to preach or write against the Equality or Consubstantiality of the Sonne of God with God the Father why might not the Arian to whom this should be obiected answere the Diuell did it to keepe him more constant to the beliefe of Consubstantiality Syr I am sory you are become so priuate and inward with the Diuell that you can diue into his intentions and acquaint your selfe with them better then he who had eat so much salt with him who had his company at bed and board as daily and as nightly as his owne reueyled Catharine But do you not see what a gappe you lay open to a most outragious blasphemy when you teach Heretiques to make the Diuell a Gateghist and an Apostle of Christian doctrine and what he doth himselfe he might do by others his instruments So then the of-spring and posterity of those Heretiques who denyed that the sonne of God suffered death vpon the crosse might be said to haue beene perswaded by the Diuell to preach that deniall to the end to keep them closer to the beliefe of Christs Passion Now I see you so wholy taken vp in your extraordinary missions and extraordinary Courses
where soeuer it be and ready to imbrace it when they find it proposed vnto them either in the obscure light of infallible Authority or that of vision in Eternity Calumny concerning Transubstantiation and the B. Trinity SECT XI ANother maine tentation and principle of Irreligion he hath taken paines to transport out of Arabia this sonne of Agar where he hath met with his fellow Atheist or Socinian Pref. Againe I should desire you to tell me saith he ingenuously whether it be not probable that your portentuous doctrine of Transub stantiation ioyn'ed with your forementioned persuasian of no Papist no Christian hath brought a great many others as well as himselfe to Auerröes his resolution quandoquidem Christiani adorant quod comedunt sit anima mea cum Philosophis since Christians adore that which they eat let my soule go with the Philosophers Answ I thinke his Aduersary will not spare to tell him ingenuously that he is persuaded a very small matter may bring a Socinian to be as very an Atheist or Infidell as that Arabicke Leeche Auerröes and in phrasing the doctrine of Transubstantiation portentuous he sheweth himselfe brought as neere an Infidell as a Iew can be with whose spirit he seemeth so ingenuously to sympathize quomodo potest hic nobis carnem suam dare ad manducandum how can this man giue vs his body ro eate And yet euen hence by the way out of this very testimony of Auerröes you may perceaue that this doctrine of Transubstantiation or howsoeuer the reall and corporall Presence of Christs body in the Sacrament so as it was conceaued to be truly eaten was the common doctrine of Christians of those times not only of the Roman Church Concerning which doctrine and those words of Christ Nisi manducaueritis c. it is probably thought that Iudas was one of those who said durus est hic sermo c. This is a hard or harsh language c. Yet furthermore those words of our Sauiour at his last supper when he instituted this Sacrament accipite manducate hoc est enim corpus meum take and eat for this is my body are so cleere for Transubstantiation that this very Aduocate is knowne to haue retorted after his manner vpon occasion of some one pressing him to know his opinion concerning the Trinity that there is no so cleere testimony of Scripture for the Trinity as for Transubstantiation Which answere of his ioyned with that which he auoucheth so often in this Pamphlet that the Scripture not the Church is the rule whereby to determine points of fayth maketh the B. Trinity no lesse portentuous then Transubstantiation since it is certaine there is no mistery of fayth more seemingly repugnant and more apparently subuerting the prime and most receaued axiomes of naturall Reason and Philosophy then this of the B. Trinity And is not this a portentuous discourse of this Aduocate a prodigious Calumny trenching so deepely vpon the Deity it selfe And is not he the author of this a very Portent Prodigy vnder the guise of Christian profession worthy to be shipt for some vnknowne Land where his breath may infect none but sauage creatures nor make the hayre of Christian Professors stand stiffe by hearing such blasphemies from his mouth as I haue heard some one say his haire did who may one day write his Character if he haue not already done it in his very wittily Symbolizing Sceptique Meane while if this Auerreist haue made the like Arabick resolution to trust his soule with Philosophers rather thē with such Christians if he make a proper choice of Philosophers and sute himselfe fitly he may then in very good consequence of doctrine conformity to his principles sing euery moneth In noua fert animus No man will expect his Pithagorique soule in one shape of Religion long Fiet enim subitò Sus horridus atraque Tigris Squamosusque Drace fuluâ ceruice Leana Aut acrem flamma sonitum dabit atue ita vinclis Excidet aut in aquas tenues delapsus abibit And then Quo teneam vultus mutantem Protea nodo With what knot shall I hold fast this form-varying Proteus Marry thus it followeth Sed quanto ille magis formas se vertet in omnes Tanto Nate magis contende tenacia vincla Donec talis erit mutato corpore qualem Videris incepto tegeret cùm lumina somno For you shall haue him one while Arian another while Nestorian now Pelagian now Hussite now Caluinian then Arminian c. But only hold him fast throughout all his changes yea the more he transforms and transfigures draw the knot harder vntill at length after many and many a Metamorphosis he come about to the very same shape wherein first you tooke him sleeping in Socinian security onely waking in his nimble fancy wherin he shapes as many discolour'd formes of Religion as there are colours appearing in the Rain-bow or the Peacock's traine wherewith he playes according to the gaiety of his humor and frisk's from Religion to Religion like a squirrill from bough to bough His fallacious calumny concerning Prudentiall motiues SECT XII HIs immediately ensuing demaund Whether our requiring men vpon onely probable and prudentiall motiues to yeild a most certaine assent vnto things in human reason impossible c. Preface be not a likely way to make considering men scorne our Religion is a fraudulent Calumny as he would haue it vnderstood which is that we exact this most certaine assent out of Motiues onely probable and prudentiall as the principall cause or motiue of such assent Nor could he be ignorant if he deserue the opinion I haue conceaued of him that these motiues are proposed vnderstood by Catholiques as persuasiue and inductiue only or as preuious despositions to fayth which is the gratuite and supernaturall guift of God and therefore cannot flow from any humanely voluntary or naturall or sublunary Cause yet he who made all things ex nihilo sui of nothing or of no preexistēt Being in themselues and can therefore euen in reason more probably make any thing of some thing qui fecit medium fornacis quasi ventum roris flantem who made thefiery furnace refrigeratiue to the martyrs howsoeuer this were done qui fecit lutum ex sputo c. who contriued eye-light out of a plaster of dust and spitle who made wyne of water and the like stupendious effect's not contained in the naturall force or efficiency of such causes can likewise serue himselfe of inferior meanes and dispositions towards the producing of some supernaturall effect in the soule of man or assume them and ioyne with them or them with himselfe to such effects When therefore these probable or prudentiall Motiues attentiuely considered haue wrought in the soules of men first an opinion that such a doctrine may be true then perhaps a liking of the doctrine out of such motiues after this the spirit of God inwardly concurring mouing along with these motiues a kind
infallible Church which soeuer that be Nor will it help this Aduocate that soone after his Aduersary as it were directing his speach to Catholiques calleth that Church our Church for to Catholiques this needed no further proofe who belieue it already Whence with them he might presume it as granted according to that of S. Paul sapientiam lequimurinter perfectos we vtter wisedome diuine truth among those who belieue it reseruing that doctrine that our Catholique Roman Church is the true Church of God to the proper place as to be proued against Protestants But you shall take him very often faultring in this Fallacy Fallacy ante-dating his Aduersaries order and therefore seldome answering to the subiect in hand whereof hereafter instances will occurre very plentifully He wil say perhaps he hath fore-inserted his Aduersaries discourse entire and as it lye's in his owne Booke but to this I say againe he answer's is not as it lyes there but misordreth it to his aduantage euen as formerly ordred by himselfe For according to faire play and ingenuous behauiour although he might do well in answering the whole discourse by retaile or by parts yet he should haue taken notice of the relation and connexion of one part with another and so haue answered reason's as reasons positions as positions and not haue made euery reason a position I know he hath learned to analize a Discourse better then so and would esteeme it poore Anatomy only to dissect limbe from limbe ioynt from ioynt and neuer shew the naturall commissure and compacture of limbe with limbe ioynt with ioynt nor distinguish them according to their true Nomenclature and their seuerall both proper absolute relatiue functions But he as though the dissected were only bellua multorum capitum a beast with many head 's so he lectures vpon legs thighs belly eyes eares armes c. all vnder one appellation of Head as though all the parts and members were heads for iust so he hath anatomiz'd his Aduersaries context of speach making euery part as it were a seuerall head and why Because as in a naturall body by reason of that due order and composure of members a certaine mutuall intelligence of influences and sympathies of the members betweene themselues is entertained of which mutuall intelligence and influence depends the life and vigor of euery part and ioindy of the whoâ—e body so in the body of a rationall discourse there is the like influence of one part into another and one part vpholds strengthneth the other and to take away this mutuall correspondence and relation is to take away the very harmony of discourse none who know's what he doth will do it but he who intends to marre the musicke or loues discords and iarrings better then harmony For to this purpose which I haue said what other can be imagined he hath deuided those reasons and confirmations of his Aduersaries position into so many heads or propositions distinguishing them not only by numbers as you say first Pref. and you say againe you say thirdly then fourthly then fiftly but also by seuerally varying the odious phrase as you say confidently inough then you say with sufficient confidence thirdly you say with conuenient boldnes fourthly you say with confidence in abundance when all is indeed but one thing said the Proposition with some few proofes adioyned Yet the fauourers of his cause and person would easily pardon this poore peece of Sophistry or waue it at the least had he achieued his intent by this but now Cuibone what hath he got by this Nihil omnibus actum Tantorum Impensis operum With so much ado with so great expence of honesty and ingenuity laid out vpon a miserably Fallacy to do nothing is intollerable had he yet ouerthrowne those scattered forces or made something of his owne dissections more then a dissector of an oxe can doe now for my part I had no other drift but only to note his Fallacies and Calumnies and to do more in shewing his weake attempts vpon these disranked and dissected parts as they are singly encount'erd by him would proue an enterprise much more easy then needfull Yet because I haue shew'n his insufficiency against his first Prosection which is his Aduersaries Position whereof the ensuing members are as I haue said the proofes I will only employ a dash of pen vpon what he hath against the rest and the rather because I assure my selfe that euen in these too I shall meet with Calumnies and Fallacies these being indeed as the very soule or the naturall and proper language of his pen without which it cannot speake His Answers to his Aduersaries Arguments Fallacious or none SECT XX. Pref. YOu say sayth he againe if this infallibility be once impeach't euery one is giuen ouer to his owne wit and discourse To this he answer's by a distinction Giuen ouer to his owne wit and discourse not guiding it selfe by Scriptures he denyes this to be consequent to infallibility of the Church so impeach't giuen ouer to discourse that is right reason sanaratio say the Socinians grounded on diuine reuelation and common notions consequent deductions from them he denies this consequent to be inconnenient though it follow of the infallibility of the Church denied Answ Now this euasion his Aduersarie foresaw and therfore barred the passage which barre this nimble Aduocate slily skip's ouer taking no notice of it The barre of preuention was this And talke not here so his Aduersatie of Scripture for if the true Church may erre either in defining what Scripture is Canonicall or in deliuering the sense and meaning thereof we are still deuolued either vpon the priuate spirit or esse vpon naturall wit and iudgment What place then for discourse guided by diuine reuelation in colâ—erence of their doctrine who take away the meanes of knowing what reuelation is diuine Either materially in regard of the Canonicall Scripture or formally in regard of the true sense and interpretation of such Scriptures whereof neither the one nor the other can be afcertained without the infallible authority of the Church the only meanes to arriue to this certainty Wherefore if the man be in his wits he will find out his guide and know him to be a sure guide before he put himselfe into his iourney otherwise both the guide and guided may fall into a ditch whence neither his Logick-rules nor all his consequent deductions with twenty ropes to boot will euer be strong inough to pluck him out Now the only guide which guideth reason by Scripture is the holy Spirit the only true and sure interpreter of holy Scriptures This holy spirit is not promised to any priuate man but to the Church it is promised therefore in this Church is infallibly to be found whence he that followeth this company of men not only followeth not a company of beasts Pref. which this Aduocate would insinuate the Church may be but he followeth the holy Ghost
to himselfe a glorious Church hauing neither spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing And is all this come at length to a de iure not de facto to a what should be only not a what is And is this that state of beauty no lesse permanent then spotles wherein tyme which withers and wrinkles all the beauty of fields ' and flowers ' aruit foenum cecidit flos should cause no fading or impayring because 1. Pet. 1. Verbum Domini manet in aeternum that word of truth is euerlasting which as the forme and soule of beauty in this glorious spouse should neuer abandon her Now doth Christ Iesus thus sanctify his Spouse or no hath he purchast her this permanent Beauty or no If no then is he frustrate of his designe which was to espouse vnto himselfe a Church which should de facto indeed not deiure of duty only be euer Holy for though it be placed in the particular choice of euery single man to be holy or no thus and in such sort that no man is or shall be holy or vertuous of force or against his wil or not freely yet it is not in the particular choice or power of any particular man or men no nor in the malice of Hell it selfe to effect that Christ Iesus shall not haue a holy Church on earth euen to the worlds end For this was the intent of his precious death bloud-shed vt sanctificaret that he might de facto fanctify his Spouse that he might acquire vnto her a perpetuity of beauty not a duty only to preserue it And this intent can neuer be frustrate and yet it should be if the spouse of Christ should only of duty alwayes be holy but were not so indeed Or tell me is she spotlesse who should haue no spot's but hath them Is that a faire face which should be so and is not hath she no wrinkles who should haue none Rem But God hath neither decreed nor foretold that his true doctrine should de facto be alway's visibly profess't without any mixture of falshood Prom. What because he hath not foretold it to you who haue lost your eares of hearing or haue stop't them with humane reason or dwell too neere the Catadupa and the noise of waters or conuerse with bleating or bellowing cattle in fine haue your attention taken vp in the traffick care and tumult of earthly commodities that you cannot heare the musick of the Sphear's or the harmony of heauenly Truth And haue all men forfaited their eares since you haue beene deafe on the left eare or forgotten what you haue heard heretofore with the right But to other men it hath beene told and foretold in all the languages of the world they haue heard it foretold in those words of Esay Esay 35. Eterit ibi semita via via Sanctorum vocabitur hae erit vobisvia directa c. and this shall be a direct or straight way so that fooles shall not mistake it But Socinians are no simple fooles they may mistake it Now if this way be humane reason humanum est errare nothing human as such is exempt from error If the Scripture be this way the wisest may erre in interpreting it and then it is no way or at least not the way of Saints nor the true and straight way when a false interpretation hath distorted it But the doctrine of the Church is that Via Sanctorum the way of Saints wherein the spirit of truth residing according to promise interprets holy Scriptures which then becoms a way and a straight way wherin a Foole shall not erre 1. Cor. 3. Ibid. a Foole I say who hath made himself a foole that he may be made wise by Christian wisedom which is folly to the world and to Socinianisme as the wisedom of the world and Socinian Reason is madnes and folly to God and Christian Religion Againe they haue heard foretold in those words of our Sauiour Math. 28. 16. Ecce ego vobiscum sum c. and those other Et portae tuferi non praualebunt aduersus eam the power of hell shall not preuaile against it the preseruation of the Church of God from error of doctrine from all falshood of heresy They vnderstand it decreed by God Ephes and foretold by S. Paul Et ipse dedit quosdam Apostoles alios prophet as c. ad consummationem sanctorum in opus ministerij which worke of ministery necessarily supposeth visibility of the Ministers and ministred in adificationem corporis Christi for the edifying or building vp the body of Christ which is his Church the members whereof being to accede throughout all ages to this mysticall body by the Visible ministery of those Visible ministers Prelates Teachers and Gouernours inferre a necessity of true doctrine visibly taught or to be taught them by those their Prelates without which truth of doctrine they could not be the regenerate issue of the spirit of Truth They haue likewise heard the Church of God called by S. Paul 1. Tim. 1. Domus Deiviui columna firmamâ—ntum Veritatis the house of the liuing God the pillar and proppe of truth Of the house of God it is said Domum tuam decet sanctitudo Domine Psalm 92. in longitudinem dierum sanctitude becomes thy house O Lord for euer which fanctitude consistes in the rectitude of the vnderstanding and will of man rectified by truth of doctrine both in fayth and manners Ibid. And this is sure that visible house wherin S. Timothy was to be wary and to know how to conuerse for the edification and example of others who should be eye-witnesses and eare-witnesses of his doings and sayings This Church is also the pillar and proppe of Truth which proppe or pillar surely shall stand while truth hath need of a proppe which shall be in order to mankind while man is mortall obnoxious to errour and lapse in question of diuine truth To this pillar of Truth Isa 59. Johan 14.16 Johan 16.13 the spirit of God is by speciall Couenant tied to the worlds end or is himself this pillar of Truth and that spirit of truth which shall teach the Church and by the Church omnem veritatem all truth that is all necessary truth which necessary truth certainly excludes all falshood in doctrine of fayth and manners which are the points in contestation between the Catholicks and Protestants All this and much more the Fathers and Doctors of the Catholique Church haue heard and belieued as foretold and decreed by God concerning the Visible profession of true doctrine in the Church of Christ without any mixture of falshood and the continuance of such Visible Profession de facto not de iure only Nor if you can glosse these Scriptures to anothersense shall they cease for that to tell vs this truth to whom the Catholique Church doth so interpret them and who as sonnes of obedience haue learned to turne the
deafe eare to all exotique interpretation yea and to all naturall reason and discourse when it impugnes this authority as you Socinians are deafe to supernaturall truth when it sounds a note aboue the reach of your reason Wherefore since this your answere is in effect no otherwise a confutation of your first Motiue but by a flat deniall I do not see but it may moue still with as much force as euer yea and liue againe to fight against the Father and that with more equity then he fights against his Mother And all this I haue said supposing he meanes by his de facto as I vnderstand him and as I haue some reason more then euery man knows to thinke he mean's If he meane otherwise when he shall vouchsafe to come out of the Clouds and appeare in his true meaning he shall be answered otherwise II. Motiue Because Luther his followers separating from the Church of Rome separated also from all Churches pure or impure true or false then being in the world vpon which ground I conclude that either Gods promises did faile of performance if there were then no Church in the world which held all things necessary and nothing repugnant to Saluation or else that Luther and his Sectaries separating from all Churches then in the world and so from the true if there were any true were damnable Schismaticks II. Remotiue To the second God hath neither decreed nor foretold that there shall be alwayes a company of men free from all errour in it selfe damnable Neither is it alwayes of necessity Schismaticall to separate from the externall communion of a Church though wanting nothing necessary For if this Church supposed to want nothing necessary require me to professe against my conscience that I belieue some errour though neuer so small and innocent which I do not belieue and will not allow me her communion but vpon this condition In this case the Church for requiring this condition is Schismaâ—icall and not I for separating from the Church III. Promotiue Gods decree concerning the perpetuity of a Visible and infallible Church on earth to the end of the world hath bene foretold many wayes as hath beene declared in part in the former Promotiue and more fully and plainly by many Catholique writers and the contrary is heere assumed with too to great boldnes but without all proofe or possibility of proof That such separation from the Church is schismaticall is euident for schisme being the breach of vnion in Charity as Heresy violates the vnity of faith to separate from the externall communion of this Church is to shew you are fallen out with the Church with which you refuse to conuerse in Ecclesiasticall conuersation as he who flyeth the company of a man with whome he hath beene formerly familiar in way of ciuill conuersation is supposed to be fallen out with him Then againe this separation is very scaÌ„dalous as yeilding a iust presumption that such a Separant is in his iudgment an Heretique Now to scandalize wittingly and knowingly as such a Separate cannot be ignorant that this is a true cause of scandall or if he be he is wilfully ignorant is to violate the law of Charity and this especially when you separate from a Church wherein nothing necessary to Saluation is wanting as you make the supposition But if this Church wanting nothing necessary as you suppose require you to professe against your conscience that you belieue some error then say you your Separation is lawfull But either this error required by the Church to be belieued is in your conscience an error of doctrine concerning fayth or manners or no If yea then in your conscience somewhat necessary is wanting to that Church that is the contrary doctrine of truth If it be no error of doctrine concerning either of these but only some opinion held or practized as indifferent then certainly the Church will neuer vrge you to belieue it then againe you may choose whether you will belieue it or no and then lastly you should haue no cause for this to breake with the Church or deuide your selfe from her Communion If you say in the iudgment of the Church it may perhaps be held indifferent yea perhaps a necessary point of doctrine but to my conscience it is an error in faith or manners Now this I expected and this I knew you said in your hart so then I say againe in your iudgement and conscience the Church is wanting in some necessary point of true doctrine And heere now I appeale to the sentence of any sober and indifferent Christian what greater pride can be imagined then that any priuate or single man should haue a conscience repugnant and refragatory to the conference of the Church of God What sober Christian I say reflecting duely vpon such a conscience will not doome it mere insolency and arrogance True it is no pride of man can be a Paragon with the pride of formall Heresy this is indeed that Pes superbiae that foot of pride by the length and bulk whereof you may coniecture how Gigantique a monster an Heretique is For which cause all Orthodoxe Spirits haue learned to pray with the Church Psal 35. Non â—eniat miâ—ipes superbiae manus peccatoris non moucat me this foot of pride this suggestion of Sathan may it haue no accesse vnto my soule and the hand or pen of such a sinner let it haue no power to moue or drawe me from an humble beliefe Ibi ceciderunt qui operantur iniquitatem expulsi sunt nec potuerunt flare there and in that pride Apostat-Angels fell with them Apostat-Christians fall from the Church expulst and eiected thence or by reason of their pride they could stay no longer there For after this pride growing daily more in an Hereticall conscience hath at length extinguished the spirit of God stifled all his Inspirations and Motiues then the same spirit of God expulseth that Satanicall and mutinous spirit out of his family which is the Church of Christ bandites throw's him forth into the open field of professed Heresy 1. Iohn 2. vt manifesti fiant that they may be knowne for Heretiques and warred against as open rebels that their conuersation may be eschewed by weaker Christians their Herefies lay'd open and beaten downe by the more learned to be buried at last in the ignominy and obliuion of their infamous Ancestry 2. Thess 2. whom our Lord Iesus from age to age hath and will kill with the spirit of his mouth And now after their eiectmens and expulsion they pretend the equity of their separation when it is indeed their Iniquity which hath separated and expelled them qui operantur iniquitatem expulsi sunt c. As when God and the Apostate Angels by reason of their pride became two factions if I may so say the immensity of heauen was too strait to containe both Quaemare quae terras quae totum possidet Orbem Non caepit