he alleadgeth this sentence in approbation thereof and commendation of the Author moderate men saith he ibid. on both sides confesse this controuersy may cease hee should haue said luke-warme men on both sides Secondly he resteth on this passage as being a full answer to the Popish obiection concerning the visibility of the Church Thirdly in other places of his booke Appeale page 113. and 139. and 140. he affirmeth in his owne words as much in effect as he here coteth linguâ Romanâ out of Cassander but fide Graecâ His words are page 113. I am absolutely perswaded and shall be till I see cause to the contrary that the church of Rome is a true though not a sound church of Christ as well since as before the Councell of Trent a part of the catholike though not the catholike church which wee doe professe to beleeue in our Creed In essentialls and fundamentalls they agree holding one faith in one Lord. And p. 139 Rome is and euer was a true church since it was a church And page 140. the church of Rome is a true church ratione essentiae and being of a church not a sound church euery way in their Doctrine Vt Marci Antonij de Dominis discipulum possis agnoscere I know well the mint where these new tenents were coined the Appealer shewes himselfe a tractable and respectiue Prebend to his late Deane following him pene ad aras neere to the Romish Altars That his Deane after his relapse into Popery in the last booke containing his poenitendam poenitentiam et retractandam retractationem his repentance to be repented of and retractation to bee retracted renouncing the true religion which he had defended laboureth to cleare the present church of Rome from the imputation of heresie because as he saith the wiser and learneder Ministers of the church of England teach that the church of Rome doth not erre in any fundamentall articles of faith In defectu credendi haeresis est non in excessu haereticus est censendus qui in fide deficit aliquid quod scriptum est non credendo non is qui in fide superabundat plus quam scriptum est credendo Heresie consists in the defect not in the excesse of beleeuing and he is an Heretike who is deficient in his faith by not beleeuing something that is written not he that superabounds in his faith by beleeuing more then is written This errour as I am informed spreads farre like a Gangreane therefore most needfull it is it be lookt to in time It is true that the Church of Rome holdeth if not all yet most of the fundamentall and positiue articles with vs. It is true also that most of their errours are by way of addition Yet whosoeuer from hence will conclude that the Church of Rome is not hereticall or erreth not in any point necessary to saluation grossely mistaketh the matter as will appeare to any whose iudgement is not forestalled by the demonstration of these two conclusions 1 That Heresy or damnable Errour may be as well by adding to as taking from the Orthodoxe faith 2 That the Church of Rome erreth not onely in excesse or beleeuing more then is needfull but also in defect and beleeuing lesse The first is thus demonstrated Whatsoeuer errours are alike forbidden in Scripture vnder the same punishment are alike damnable Errors by adding to and detracting from the Orthodoxe faith are alike forbidden in Scripture vnder the same punishment Therefore errours by adding to and detracting from the Orthodoxe faith are alike damnable The first proposition is cleare by it owne light The assumption or second proposition is deliuered expresly in holy Scripture Deut. 42. Ye shall not adde vnto the words which I command you neither shall you diminish ought from it Proverb 30. 5. 6. Euery word of God is pure adde thou not vnto his words lest he reproue thee Galat. 1. 18. If we or an Angell from heauen preach vnto you beside that which wee haue preached vnto you let him be accursed Reuel 22. 18. For I testifie vnto euery man that heareth the words of the Prophesie of this Booke If any man shall adde vnto these things God shall adde vnto him the plagues that are written in this book And if any man shall take away from the words of the booke of this Prophesie God shall take away his part out of the Booke of Life and out of the holy City and from the things that are written in this Booke Secondly thus Whatsoeuer things alike destroy the nature of faith are alike damnable Errours by addition and detraction alike destroy the nature of Faith Therefore errors by addition and detraction are alike damnable The first proposition is vnquestionable The assumption I declare thus Faith is of the nature of a rule or certaine measure to which if any thing be added or taken away it ceaseth to be that rule Cùm credimus saith Tertullian nihil desideramus ultra credere prius enim hoc credimus non esse quod ultra credere debeamus Fides in regulâ posita est nihil ultra scire est omnia scire When we beleeue we desire to beleeue no more for wee first beleeue this that there is nothing more we ought to beleeue Faith is contained in a rule to know nothing beyond it is to know all things Virtue is in the meane vice as well in the excesse as in the defect In our body the superabundance of humours is as dangerous as lacke of them as many dye of Plethories as of Consumptions A hand or foot which hath more fingers or toes then ordinary is alike monstrous as that which wanteth the due number To vse their owne similitude A foundation may be as well ouethrowne by laying on it more then it will beare as by taking away that which is necessary to support the building Thirdly thus The errours in faith and religion of the Samaritans Malchamites Athenians Galatians Ebionites Nazarites Quartadecimans Manichees and Nestorians were damnable But all these seuerall errours were errours of addition Therefore errours of Addition are damnable The first proposition will not bee gainesaied For all these errours are branded as hereticall or damnable either by the Spirit of God in Scripture or by the catholike christian Church The Assumption will appeare in the suruay of those particular errors The Samaritans feared the Lord and serued their owne Gods The Malchamites worshipped and sware by the Lord and sware by Malcham The Athenians worshipped the true God by the name of THE VNKNOWNE GOD and withall worshipped Idols The Galatians Ebionites Nazarites and Quartadecimans beleeued the Gospell yet retained also and obserued the legall ceremonies But now after ye haue knowne God or rather are knowne of God how turne ye againe to the weake and beggerly elements whereunto ye desire againe to bee in bondage saith Saint Paul of the Galatians Ebionitae ceremonias adhuc legis retinent pauperes interpretantur et vere sensu
of the Apostasie of Saints Edit Lugduni Anno 1615. pag. 12. Demand the first There is no absolute Election and b pag. 25. Absolute Predestination granted it was necessary to remoue the whole Scripture to settle that head or doctrine Arminius in the forecited Declaration pag. 33. Out of this doctrine to wit of absolute solute Predestination it c followeth that God is the Author of sinne And this may bee proued by a foure-fold Argument 1. Because this Doctrine layeth it downe that God precisely hath decrâ—ed to demonstrate his glory by punishing or punitiue iustice and mercy sauing some men and damning others which but by d Sinne entring into the world neither was nor could be done c. Arminius respons ad Artic. 10. It would be easie for mee to conuince the opinion of some of the brethren of Manichâ—isme and Stoicisme We protest to the whole world that by our aduersaries e Manicheisme and f Stoicisme or fatall necessitie is â—rought into the Church The Embleme of their booke of the Acts of the Synod of Dort hath this triumphant title Destructo fato or the 〈◊〉 of Fate Ex Act. Syn. Dordrac in Peror Bert. epist. Dedic before his booke of the Apostasie of the Saints There are who flie Pelagianisme not seeing that they plainly side with the Manichees Hee citeth these words as out of an Epistle of Casâ—ubon but forged by himselfe Hag Conference set out by Bert. pag. 90. This absolute Decree openeth a gate on this side to a g dissolute life on that side to h desperation APPEALER APPEALE to Caesar pag. 58. In all which passage to wit of the seuenteenth Article there rehearsed both concerning Gods decree and execution of that decree is not one word syllable or apex touching your absolute necessary determined irresistible irrespectiue decree of God to call saue and glorifie Saint Peter for instance infallibly without any consideration had of or regard to his faith obedience and repentance Appeale to Caesar pa. 54. Nothing is by mee ascribed to your side and to your Doctors but an absolute and irrespectiue decree concerning man in vtramque partem I brought no inferences to presse you withall such as are commonly and odiously made against you by opposites whose virulent inuectiues though too true imputations I vsed not I did not charge you with making God the Author of sinne That the reprobate are iâ—cited on and prouoked to sinne by God That God was the Author of Iudas treason and the like Appeale pag. 68. I neuer yet read of any prime preuious determining decree by which men were irrespectiuely denied grace and excluded from glory vnlesse from damned e Heretiques or f Stoâ—call Philosophers Appeale pag. 30. Against that absolute irrespectiue necessitating and fatall decree of your new Predestination Appeale pag. 60. I must confesse my dissent through and sincere from the faction of Noâ—â—lising Puritans c. but in no one point more than in this their h desperate doctrine of Predestination in which as they delight to trouble themselues and others in nothing more so I professe I doe loue to meddle nothing lesse I haue not I did not desire nor intend to declare my opinion in that point a Edit Lugduni Batau ex officina Tho. Basson 1512. b Positâ Praedestinatione illâ absolutâ necessarium fuit totam scripturam loco mouere vt illud caput adsereretur c It no way followeth See Caluines Preface of his booke of Diuine Predestin and first booke of Institut 17. Chap. Beza against Castellio Peter Martyr in his Comment on the 1. Chap. of the Epistle to the Romans Zuinglius in his Sermon of Prouidence Abbot Prelect of the Author of sinne Paraeus Answer to Bellaâ—mine second booke of the state of sinne and losse of grace chap. 4. and diuers others d God decreed the permission and disposing of sinne which he fore-saw vpon his permission would be hee did not decree the effecting or existence of it that it should be Saint Augustine fully answereth these and the like Arguments in his booke de Corrept Grat. cap. 10. We freely confesse that which we most rightly beleeue that the God and Lord of all things who made all things exceeding good and fore-saw that euill things would arise out of good and knew that it more appertained to his most omnipotent goodnesse to draw good out of euil than not to suffer euils to be hath so ordred the life of men and Angels that in it first he might shew the power of their owne free-will and then the benefit of his grace and iudgement of his iustice And in his Enchiridion ad Laurentium cap. 11. God being most exceeding good would not by any meanes suffer any euill to be in his workes but that he is also so omnipotent and good that he can and doth worke good euen out of euill e As Iulian the Pelagian often in his bookes vpbraided Saint Augustine with Manicheisme so doth Arminius and the Appealer following the Pelagians step by step lay the same imputation vpon the orthodox defenders of Predestination But the imputation is most false for the Manichees held two soules in a man one good another bad and ascribed good and euill not to the free-will of man but to those two soules We with the holy Fathers teach but one soule in man and referre good and euill to Free-will but so that the will of it selfe is free to euill but is not neither can sithence the fall of Adam be free vnto good till God hath freed it by his grace according to the words of our Sauiour in Saint Iohns Gospell Chap. 8. 36. But if the Sonne make you free you shall be free indeed And of Saint Paul Rom. 6. 18. Made free from sinne c. f A stale obiection long sithence answered by Saint Augustine in his second booke cap. 5. ad Bonifac. Wee maintaine not Fate or fatall necessity vnder the name of grace but if it please some men to call the omnipotent will of God vnder the name of Fate we seeke indeed to auoid prophane nouelty of word but wee will not contend about words To which answer of Saint Augustine we may further adde that the beleefe of Christians touching the falling out of all things according to the determinate counsell of God Act. 2. differeth from the Stoicke Fate or Fatality in foure things 1. The Stoicks subiected God himselfe to Fate Iupiter though he most desired could not free Sarpedon we subiect Fate that is the necessitie of things to Gods most free-will 2. They vnder the name of Fate vnderstood an eternall fluxe and necessary connexion of naturall causes and effects we teach that all natural and second causes had their beginning in the Creation neither is there such a necessary and absolute depeÌ„dance of effects from their naturall causes but that God can and often doth suspend those effects and miraculously worke beside aboue nay against nature 3. The Stoicks by their Fatality took away all contingencie wee admit
Gratia and by the Appealer out of Saint Augustine de bono Perseuerant cap. 6. we answer That the words are not found in the places quoted Yet Saint Augustine in other places hath such words But his meaning is very plaine He speakes of a temporary faith and common grace not a iustifying faith and sauing grace His owne words are Let it not moue vs that God giueth not some of his children perseuerance Absit enim vt ita esset si de illiâ— praedestinatis essent secundùm propositum vocatis qui verè sunt filij promissionis God forbid that it should be so if they were of the Predestinate and those which are called according to purpose which truly are the children of promise And a little after Rursus quidam qui filij Dei propter susceptam vel temporaliter gratiam dicuntur à nobis nec sunt tamen Deo de quibus ait Iohannes ex nobis exierunt sed non erant ex nobis hoc est quando videbantur in nobis non erant ex nobis tanquam â—i diceretur vnde id ostendis quòd si fuissent inquit ex nobis permansissent nobiscum Againe some who are called by vs the sonnes of God in respect of the temporall grace they haue receiued are not so vnto God of whom Saint Iohn saith They went out from vs but were not of vs that is and when they were seene amongst vs they were not of vs. And as if it were obiected to him Whence doest thou shew that For if they had beene saith he of vs they would haue remained with vs. In the same booke De Corrept Gratiâ Horum fides quae per dilectionem operatur profecto aut omnino non deficit aut si qui sunt quorum deficit reparatur antequam vita ista finiatur delet â quae intercurrerat iniquitate vsque in finem perseuer antia deputatur Qui verò perseueraturi non sunt ac sic à fide Christianâ conuersatione lapsuri sunt vt tales eos vitae huius finis inueniat proculdubio nec illo tempore quo benè pieque viuunt in isto numero computandi sunt The faith of these men which worketh by loue verily either faileth not at all or if it faile in any it is repaired againe before this life ends and the wickednesse which comes betweene being blotted out it is reputed for perseuerance to the end But those who perseuere not but so fall from Christian faith and conuersation that the end of this life findes them such without doubt they were not to be accounted in that number no not then when they liued well and godly And Chapter 9. Qui non habuerunt perseuerantiam sicut non verè discipuli Christi ita nec verè filij Dei fuerunt etiam quando esse videbantur ita vocabantur Those who had not perseuerance as they were not truly disciples of Christ so neither were they truly the sonnes of God no not when they seemed to be so and called so In producing testimonies of Saint Augustine Inopem me copia facit Store is a sore vnto me I will content my selfe onely with such passages as offer themselues vnto me in that very booke and chapter cited by the Appealer for the contrary Thus the Chapter begins These brethren as you write He speaketh of the Demipelagians and Massilians against whom Prosper and Hilary had made a remonstrance vnto him will not yeeld that such perseuerance should be taught which cannot be lost by contumacie where they doe not well obserue what they say for we speake of perseuerance to the end which if it be giuen the partie to whom it is giuen perseueres to the end Multi eam possunt habere nullus amittere hoc Dei donum suppliciter emereri potest sed cum datum fuerit amitti contumaciter non potest Quomodo enim potest amitti per quod fit vt non amittatur etiam quod posset amitti Many may haue perseuerance none can lose it this gift of God may be gained by humble prayer but once giuen cannot be lost by contumacy For how can that be lost which makes that what otherwise might be lost cannot be lost I pitie here the Appealers ill hap who like the Miser in the Greeke Epigram that going to the place where hee thought he laid vp his treasure safe found there no treasure but a rope wherewith he stopt his wind-pipe p To the place alledged out of Prosper Respons 7. ad Capit. Gallorum we answer First that Saint Prosper Saint Augustines faithfull Scholler and great admirer in the passage alledged concurreth with him Both of them in words seeme to affirme That a regenerate and iustified man may fall by his free-will into foule and enormous sinnes and die in them but lest any should stumble at this sentence vnawares Saint Augustine in the ninth chapter of the same booke giues them warning and most plainly declares his meaning Appellamus eos electos Christi discipulos Dei filios quia sic appellandi sunt quos regeneratos piè viuere cernimus sed tunc verè sunt quod appellantur si manserint in eo propter quod sic appellantur Si autem perseuerantiam non habent id est in eo quod caeperunt esse non manent non verè appellantur quod appellantur non sunt apud eum enim hoc non sunt cui notum est quod futuri sunt We call all those chosen disciples of Christ and sonnes of God because those whom we see liue godly and are regenerate are to be so called but then are they truly that which they are called if they remaine in that for which they are so called But if they haue not perseuerance that is if they remaine not in that which they began to be they are not truly called that which they are called and are not for they are not so to him who knoweth what they will be Secondly Saint Prosper with Saint Hilary made a ioynt relation to Saint Augustine of the Demipelagian and Massilian errors and desired Saint Augustines assistance against them Of these one was as their Epistles to Saint Augustine make it manifest Nulli dari perseuerantiam talem à quâ non permittitur praeuaricari sed à quâ possit suâ voluntate deficere There is no such perseuerance giuen to any man from which he is not suffered to reuolt but such from which a man may by his free-will fall away Against which I oppose that sentence of Saint Augustine as a fortresse impregnable An audebis dicere etiam rogante Christo ne deficeret fides Petri defecturam fuisse si Petrus eam deficere voluisset quasi aliud Petrus vllo modo vellet quà m pro illo Christus rogasset vt vellet Nam quis ignorat tunc fuisse perituram fidem Petri si ea quae fidelis erat voluntas ipsa deficeret sed quia praeparatur
If any say that iustifying faith is nothing else but a confident relying on Gods mercy forgiuing our sinnes by Christ or that this confidence is the only faith whereby we are iustified let him be accursed Ib. c. 16 If any say or beleeue that hee shall certainly haue by absolute and infallible certainty the great gift of perseuerance to the end vnlesse he know and haue learned it by speciall reuelation let him be accursed Appealer ANsw. to Gag pag. 186. If we consider our own disposition wee assigne no more then probable and coniecturall assurance This Bellarmine assigneth this is enough Faction may transport a man to wrangle for more but when once they ioyne issues the difference will not bee much Much or little great or smal thus or so the Church of England is not touched that assigneth it neither Appeale page 213. I professe I am not of that opinion with you and whatsoeuer you may resolue for your crying Abba Father secundum praesentem justitiam I craue pardon I cannot thinke that you are may or can bee so perswaded secundum statum futurum Discord Church of Engl. HOmily of the passion p. 186. What meanes is that It is faith not an inconstant or wauering faith but a sure stedfast grounded and vnfained faith Pag. 187. The only meanes and instrument of saluation required of our parts is faith that is to say a sure trust and confidence in the merits of God whereby we perswade our selues that God both hath and will forgiue vs our sins and that hee hath accepted vs again into his fauour that he hath released vs from the bonds of damnation and receiued vs into the number of his elect people Et post Wee must take heed that wee doe not halt with GOD through an inconstant and wauering faith but that it be strong and stedfast to our liues end Wee must apprehend the merits of Christs death and passion by faith nothing doubting but that Christ by his owne oblâ—tion and once offering himselfe on the Crosse hath taken away our sinnes and restored vs againe into Gods fauour The point of Perseuerance hath such affinity with this point of assurance of saluation that what is wanting in this may be supplyed out of the former Parallel Al that I here obserue is that the Appealer fully accordeth with the Councell of Trent not only in the conclusion but in the very reason alleadged by the Councell for the ground thereof Of the Popes Primacy Harmony Church of Rome IN the forme of oath prescribed in the Bul of Pius 4 annext to the CouÌ„cell of Trent I acknowledge the holy Catholicke and Apostolicke Church of Rome to be the Mother and Mistresse of all Churches and I vow and sweare true obedience to the Bishop of Rome the successor of Peter the Prince of the Apostles Vicar of Iesus Christ. Bellarmin de Romano Pontif. lib. 4. c. 1. The Pope is supreame Iudge in coÌ„trouersies of faith and manners Appealer ANsw. to Gag p. 29. I could interpret S. Anselm well enough as that if a controuersie were referred by the Church or an heresie to bee corrected in the Church which touched the case of the Catholicke Church it could not be put ouer more â—itly to any one man by the Church representatiue in a Councell then vnto the Pope first Bishop of Christendome of greatest not absolute power among Bishops Discord Church of England HOm. for Whitsunday second part pag. 214. 215. First as touching that they will bee termed vniuersall Bishops Heads of all Christian Churches through the world wee haue the iudgement of Gregory expresly against them who writing to Mauritius the Emperour condemned Iohn Bishop of Constantinople in that behalf calling him the Prince of pride Lucifers successor and the forerunner of Antichrist S. Bernard agreeing thereunto saith What greater pride can there bee then that one man should preferre his owne iudgement before the whole congregation as if hee onely had the Spirit of God And Chrysostome pronounceth a terrible sentence against them affiriming plainly that whosoeuer seeketh to be chiefe on earth shall finde confusion in heauen and he that striueth for the supremacy shall not be reputed among the Seruants of Christ. Homily against wilfull rebellion 5 part pag. 308. 309. The Bishop of Rome being by the order of Gods word none other then the Bishop of that one See and Diocesse and neuer yet well able to gouerne the same did by intolerable ambition challenge not onely to be Head of all the Church dispersed through the world but also to be Lord ouer all Kingdomes of the world In this point touching the Popes Primacy though the Appealer comes not full home to the tenent of the Church of Rome yet he goeth too far pointeth at a most dangerous course of referring the iudgement of controuersies of faith that concerne the whole Church vnto the Pope Which course if with Master Mountagues good approbation we should take in the great controuersie touching the Head of the Church the Power of the See of Rome the causes of our Separation from that Church and all the controuerted points betweene vs conclamatum esset he that hath but halfe an eye might see what the issue would bee This resolution of M. Mountagu if he hold still it will bee expected that in the next edition of his booke he change the title now prefixed Appello Caesarem into Appello Papam The markes of the Beast were come out in the Pope before Anselmes time and since they are so apparent in him that other learned Diuines make the Pope whole Antichrist and the Appealer himselfe makes him halfe the Antichrist pag. 149. and an entire Apostata from Christ and his kingdome And was there no fitter Bishop in all Christendome to decide controuersies concerning the whole Church of Christ then he who is either halfe or whole Antichrist but of this point see more in the Writ of error Of Antichrist Harmony Church of Rome BEllarmine de Româ—no pontif lib. 3. c. 13. The seat of Antichrist shal be in Ierusalem not Rome for Enoch and Elias are to fight with Antichrist in Ierusalem Ibid. c. 12. Antichrist shall properly come for the Iewes and shall be receiued by them as the Messias he shall be circumcised and keepe the Sabbath for a time Ibid. cap. 18. The frensies of Hereticks are refelled by which they do not so much proue as impiously affirme that the Pope is Antichrist This conclusion is the scope of his whole third book and he and all Papists who haue written of this argument apply themselues wholly to proue that neither the Pope personally nor the Popes successiuely constitute that Antichrist described in the Apocalyps Appealer ANsw. to Gagg page 74. 75. I am not of opinion that the Bishop of Rome personally is that Antichrist nor yet that the Bishops of Rome successiuely are that Antichrist so spoken of App. p. 146. Whether the Pope of Rome or the Popes of Rome either are