whatsoever he was in other points sure hee was no father or author of your position your citations out of him haue no one word of Evangelicall Counsails of perfection Mr LEECH The report and rumor whereof by relation of some friends no sooner came vnto my eares but presently knowing well the assured grounds of my doctrine I addressed my selfe to haue satisfied and contented any ingenious and vnpassionate auditour by a second repetition with a briefe punctuall and perspicuous explanation and confirmation of my aforesaid doctrine For I was altogether vnwilling to suffer the least imputation or scandall to be fastned vpon it or vpon the Author were it but in corners secretly and farther though I intēded not to run into a publike opposition yet now occasion might bee ministred vnto me others to vindicate a necessary truth from the detraction of calumnious tongues ANSVVER To satisfie anie auditor is not only ingenuous but a religious act But did you giue content to any mā that conferred with you in it Did you not rather in your preparation for the second sermon take occasion to cast the stumbling blocke of offence in your third verifying that speech 〈◊〉 Finis vnius mali gradus est futuri I will not aske you whether the second sermon were your owne or whether you purged the bowels of a Fryers Postill culd all those your pearles as you thought them out of the Dunghill of some moath-eaten Monke tyed vp in chaines till you came to free him and to binde your selfe The generall iudgemente vpon your booke when it came first foorth was this that it was composed of two styles diverse in forme vneequall in fabrique the one somewhat dull and leaden very resty the other more nimble and quicke-silvered but somewhat scurvy whervpon a familiar acquaintance of yours censured it thus that the grounde of your paper was plowed by an oxe and an asse a coniunctiō forbidden in the law I do not desire to make my paper guilty of idle wordes but yet this I must professe that your second repetition which you mētion doth savour of much vnsavory stuffe and hath in it d sapientiam attramentalem non mentalem Senec. You say you did not purpose to run into a publicke opposition when you did reiterate that in your second which you had in your former sermon But I desire you to summon the sobriety of your senses before your owne iudgement and confesse plainely how it could otherwise be But that the proclamation of cōtradiction in you would proue a publicke oppositiō mainetained by you weigh this in the ballance of discretion and you will finde it lightnes and innovation you seeme to ioine your forces in mainetenance of your position when you say occasion was given to you and others to vindicat this necessary truth What others assisted you Among vs all desire to purge the Temple from superstition to sweepe away those cobwebs which the Spiders of Rome haue hanged vp There is no one that dare polute our Holie places publiklie with anie such infectious doctrine so farre are your fellow Counsailors from making a plural number that a duall number never shewed themselues amongst vs yet in this controversie Mr LEECH CHAPT 3. BEing thus occasioned by the secret clancular murmuration of Brethren the fame whereof began now to disperse it selfe abroad to addresse some defence of my former doctrine I tooke the next opportunity to supply the publike place willing rather to giue a litle farther touch to convince the said Brethrē then to dwell as yet vpon any maine and full discourse which was not my purpose the point being yet not publiquely contradicted I repeated and dilated vpon the point more at large as it was originaly deduced out of the last brāch of S. Gregorie his distinction to wit quidā non judicantur regnāt to this purport and effect ANSVVER OCcasion and scandall be either given or taken they were both given by you rather then offered you You desired to giue a touch to convince the said Brethren all of vs were brethren in this all agreed in dislike of your manner of preaching which was so dull and Delphically mysticall that fewe heard you and none approved you But I woulde willingly desire you to reconcile these two places in this paragraph First that the fame of the brethrens murmuratiō began to spread it selfe abroad and yet within fiue lines you confesse the point was not publikely contradicted If murmuration be contradictiō then non sense may serue as a marginall note But because you breath at the brethren againe in this chapter though I defende none that Schismatically contradict the state or breake the blessed peace of our flowrishing Church neither doe know any such here God that knoweth the secrets of all hearts bearing me recorde seeing you so malitiouslie traduce this Honorable Vniversity as if it were an Anabaptisticall Seminary I doe challendge you or anie of your part to answer these two points First that there be * Vide Iohan Pappium Peace of Rome and many other bookes more materiall differences in points of religion and more grosse pointes of Chatharisme amōg Papists then among al the Schismatiques or Separists Secondly that the Church of Englande never had any so Puritannical as to iudge themselues celestiall men terrestriall Angels excelling surmounting transcending in perfection fulling the law nay more then the law Mr LEECH Of this point said I I may speake as S. Iohn speaketh to the seauen churches of Asia cōcluding euer the burthē of his admonitiō which a pathetical Epiphonema in the reprehension Let him that hath an eare to heare heare what the spirit saith to the churches And may not I apply let him that hath not only an eare to heare but a soule to saue by the eares hearing heare what the coelestial Oracle heauēly spirit Catholike Church iointly speak deliuer concerning Evangelicall Counsells ANSVVER Remember not only what S. Iohn endeth his epistle with but also what he sealeth vp his whole revelatiō with I a Apoc. 22.19 protest vnto euerie man that heareth the Words of the prophecie of this book If any māshal adde vnto these things God shall adde vnto him the plagues that are written in this booke For that sweet aphorisme and acclamation of everie of S. Iohns Epistles cited by you I acknowledge the power and divine spirit speaking in it For what is recorded of Hercules Gallicus that his speeches tyed the eares of his hearers to his tongue is more true by many degrees concerning God and therefore it is not onlie Davids incitation * Ps 34.9 O come and see and taste how good the Lord is but b Ps 34.12 Apoc. 1. O come hither chidren and harken I will teach you the feare of the Lord. And S. Iohns proclamation in the first of the Apocalyps Blessed are they that read and they that heare and they that keepe the words of this booke therfore let
in gathering stickes never making iudgement the Master of your opinion seldome adorning your speech with the better part of that which the Navy of Hiram brought to Salomon I meane with gold and siluer but with Ivory and Apes and Peacocks legends allegories c. But neerer to the purpose to answere why your doctrine was not descried by his vigilant wisdome and rebuked the reason was either his absence at that time which whither he were or no hee knoweth not being not only then but ever since hee gouerned vs imployed continually in the greatest and most aduantageous businesse that ever any Vicechancelor laboured in or else because of the vndisposed vndigested rude and crude manner of your preaching wherin you proposed your positions so darkly and obscurely that vnlesse you were vnacquainted with your selfe you had not begun your Epistle with Efficacior lingua quā litera for if * Some body doth much iniury you if hee were not author of much corrector of most in this your booke none had mēded your pen your most ingenuous friendes woulde haue as much neglected your paper worke as your pulpit O howe much are you to answere for the prophanatiō of that holy place and for your idle words in that holy worke beating the aire mispending the time mistaking the Text that the most iudicious among vs could hardly conceiue whether your doctrine were positiue or priuatiue affirmatiue or negatiue the most charitably censorious thought it perdere horā to heare you Arist as the Philosopher spake to such another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose speech was composed of non sense non sequitur If in your first sermon you only vrged the distinctiō and began to build your rotten wall vpon that foundation afterwardes marvaile not that when like a Mole you were working vnder ground you were not discried when you were not aboue ground For as it is a doctrine conceived in darknes so you brought it forth in clowds of darknesse Mr LEECH Howbeit certaine of a purer straine Brethren some mē call them and Brethren I confesse them to be fratres in malo as Simeon Levi sometimes were secretly murmured and began in corners priuatly as Heretiques vsually haue done to traduce me my doctrine and my author S. Gregory calūniating that in secret which openly they durst not yet adventure substantially to impugne ANSVVER Nullus est eorum fidus affectus Ierom. quorum est diversa fides saith S. Ierom Difference in religion extinguisheth charity in affection You proue this true when you taxe the purer straine and yet you straine for a more perfect straine Do any of the more pure strain professe angelicall integritie virginall chastity spirituall transcendency as you teach Or to come to your meaning be any here of those purer straine whome while you scoffe he that sitteth in heauen shall laugh you to scorne be there I say any here of those who making conscience of their waies haue refused in manuall subscription and orall declaration willingly to manifest their harty consent and reverence to the religious Articles in our Church maintained The name of Brethren is much abused by you a name that Christ by his own mouth sanctified the Apostles in the Acts so frequently vsed S. Iohn in his Epistles so familiarly recited the Primitiue Church in their time so blessedly entertained The a Ratisbon in Comp. Theol Schooles obserue the name of Brother to be nomen vnitatis aequalitatis charitatis societatis and even by this brotherhood we haue santiorem copulam cordium quam corporum saith Bernard Bern. A name more welcome to the godly then the Oliue branch to Noah then David to Ionathan then the waters of Bethel to David It is an Oade a Psalm a Canticle a c Cant. 1.2 name as an oyntment powred out as that name in the Canticles It was the oyer and determiner of d Gen. 13.8 Abraham and Lots controversies in the law and it is the bonde of peace and girdle of truth to al true Christians in the Gospell Of Iosephs miseries it is recorded that the Archers greiued him and shot against him and hated e Gen. 49.23 him Malitious perfidious murtherous brethren greeued him iniuriâ operis shot against him blasphemiâ oris and hated him invidiâ cordis saith f Hugo in Gen. Hugo You may be rankt with such brethrē if you continue the Cacoethes of traducing those worthies whose liues shine before men that they honor God and glorifie their Father which is in heauen Discharge not then such arrows even bitter words hedded with venome feathered with fury and shot off with folly But these Brethren you say they bee fratres in malo such as were Simeon and Levi. How Caiphas-like you denounce iudgement against fratres in malo your brethren in iniquitie looke the Text Gen. 49.5 Gen. 49.5 c. Never any Scripture came so neere to any offenders as that to fratres in malo the salt Peter Pyoners who like as if the dreame of the Stoicks had come to passe that the world should be fired had instruments of cruelty in their habitations into their secrets let not my soule come saith old and Reverend Iacob my glory bee not ioined with their assemblies for in their wrath they killed a man and in their selfe will they digged down a wall Cursed be their wrath for it is fierce and their rage for it is cruel Nay the very curle of curses and very bottome of the viall and dreggs of vengeance with the dissipation and dispersion of their families vpon the face of the earth the eternall detestation of their names with the clapping and hissing and supplotion of al the world against them be vpon them and their posterities that practise such Helborne boundlesse conspiracies Wee haue no such fratres in malo Obiect not murmuring against any among vs it is the brand of malecontented Traitors not of godly preachers The Christians in this life may be compared to the Stork desolately sitting to the Turtle mourning to the Doue lamenting to Rahel weeping and to the soules vnder the altar crying out How long Lord holy and true dost not thou avenge So they may sorowfully complaine to see the abomination of desolation Romish diuilish Antichristian positions presume ever to bee taught in our Churches and Temples It was no factious murmuring no secret calūniating as you vniustly tearme it but the vindicating of truth from oppressiō which neither Policy for example nor religion for peace could tolerate Your preaching was misliked not your author S. Gregories praises we neither deny nor envy yet h Bar. Tom. 8. Annal. An. Christi 1593. num 62. p. 57. Baronius affirmeth that he liued in a barrē time and therein taxeth him for some wants in learning And i Canus loc Theol. lib. 11. c. 6. Canus observed that he was overcredulous in the reports of miracles in his time therein toucheth his defect in iudgement But
vnto thee Arise and if you heare not this I ingeminate his speech yet to a third yong man i Act. 9.4 Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Mr LEECH O what an exchange had this yong man made what an offer did Christ make him what counsell did the wisdome of the father giue him how much doth it now repent him In a word ô how happy had he beene both in body and in soule since he had beene secure of the salvation both of body and of soule and not only secure of that but thesaurū habuisset in coelo his penny had beene of pure gold he had had measure for measure yea aboue measure heauens remuneration heaped vpon him in lieu of Christian perfection if he had parted with himselfe and abandoned the worlds trash to haue partaked with Christ and heauens treasure ANSVVER It had beene a royall exchange if he hereby for riches that are transitory had obtained heauens blisse his soules security I am glad that all your lamp is not leavened that yet you beleeue a man may bee secure and certaine of his salvation which is a point vncertainely delivered among you What meane you by his now repenting Thinke you that he is in hell I doubt not but you may easily know seeing in Rome you haue news every day from hell and purgatory Certainty of salvation howsoever it be opposed by the Iesuits in generall yet k Medina 1. 2 q. 112. art 5. p. 630. Medina averreth that he would haue every beleeuer certainely to hope he shall obtaine eternall life Vega saith l Greg. de Valentia tom 2. pag. 957. Gregory de Valentia holdeth that some spirituall men may be so certaine that they bee in grace that this their assurance shall be without al feare and staggering And m Cathar assert apolog Catharinus holds the same certainty of faith which we teach I might vrge much out of n 3. d. 23. p. 46. Scotus o Par. 3. q. 61. mem 7. art 3. Alexander of Hales p Lib. 3. distin 20. q. 1. art 2. Bacon others whō you claime yours And q Stap. de Iustif pag. 341. Stapleton commeth so nere to the point as that hee professeth thus wee leaue not a sinner hanging in the midst of wavering doubtfulnesse but wee place him in good and firme hope Your penny of pure gold I will not stand to waigh if I should bring it to the ballance of the sanctuary I should find it scarce sense and much lesse Scripture Mr LEECH And yet this being a counsell not a precept it is not enioined as a precept to all but giuen by way of counsaile vnto perfecter men as the Fathers teach And the reason is excellently rendred by S. Gregory the great to be this It is not enioined as a precept to all for then were it sin either to marry or to possesse any of the worldes goods but yet it is counselled vnto men of more holy rancke For these haue an arbitrary and voluntary choice in their things ANSVVER That your owne advocate should giue evidence against you is great disadvantage S. Gregory himselfe calleth it praeceptum a precept not a counsaile I desire all indifferent readers to looke on the 25 Chapter of his 26. booke of Moralls Greg. Mor. lib. 26. where as I saide before you borrowed this distinction there is only the word precept neither counsel nor counselled is there mentioned And in your place vrged but not quoted not found in S. Gregory suppose it were so it may haue a good meaning for that which you call a counsell is nothing but a particular praecept which though it bind not all yet it must bee observed of those who are furnished with gifts and find themselues fitted thereto by Gods spirit Mr LEECH Such were the Apostles and those Apostolicall mē that hauing possessions sold them brought in the mony laid it downe at the Apostles feete ANSVVERE What Apostles did so Indeed Peter and Andrew forsooke their nets Mat. 4.20 a Mat. 9.9 Matthew forsooke his custome Reliquerunt non vēdiderunt saith one b Luk. 19.8 Zaccheus did restore al Luk. 19.8 c Mat. 19.27 The Disciples did forsake all Mat. 19.27 S. d Phil. 3.8 Paule did vilie value all Phil. 3.8 Only the Merchant did sell all Mat. 13.46 But that is but a parable Laert. Plut. Heathens did somewhat in this kinde e Mat. 13.46 Diogenes neglected all Socrates contemned all Crates cast awaie all and yet these were as farre short of the disciples as the Disciples of Angelicall perfection But to the purpose that the Apostles sold all it is not so they sold nothing for they had nothing to sel That the Apostolical mē sold their possessiōs Act. 4.35 Act. 4.35 it is true but it was not by Evangelicall counsaile nor for Angelicall perfection but to supplie the present want of the Church Mr LEECH Such was holy Antony that ancient Monke of Egypt S. Paul the Hermite S. Benedict S. Hierom S. Basil S. Gregory Nazianzen S. Gregory the great S. Bernard and many other Doctors and Fathers the most renowned lights of learning and greatest pillars of the Church ANSVVER For your Catalogue of Saints f Trithem Anthony was no such Monke nor Benedict the former lived in the year 330 the later in the yeare 500. I marvaile not that you make these to be Monkish Counsellors seeing before you haue so reckoned the Apostles themselues You ioine the Saints very vnequally and claime kindred of some that never knew your religion I examine not the sanctitie of some of them but denie all their bils of Sale or if they sold al I hope you wil be accōptable what they did with the mony I acknowledge the reverence of those blessed Fathers S. Hierom S Basil S. Gregorie Nazianzen c. I marvailed why you brought not in S. Francis till I remembred that g Canus loc Theol. l. 11. c. 7. Canus calleth him a lowsie Saint and yet hee instructed a Cade lambe so wel that it would kneele at Masse and the Saint was wont to preach to geese which heard him with devotion Or why remembred you not S. h Baron ano 1208. n. 5. Fulbert a man of Evangelicall perfection who being sicke the virgin Marie came gaue him sucke from heaven Or among many others i Ant. part 3. art 23. c. 1. §. 1 S. Dominicke whō Antoninus maketh the first inventor of Evangelicall Coūsailes Of whom he affirmeth that before he was borne there were two images founde in a church at Venice the one of S. Paul the other of Dominicke on S. Pauls image was written By this man you may come to Christ on Dominickes image But by this easier Antoninus giveth the reason because Paules doctrine led but to faith and keeping of the commādements but Dominicke should teach the observing of Evangelical Counsailes which is the easier way Risum
outlawry the law doth accuse you for sin and you accuse it for imperfection Vnlesse you send for an advocate to Hell there is none to speak for you Briefly to your quotation I say the law wanted not perfecting but man wanted meanes of fulfilling it Christ in that sense added perfectiō to the law in fulfilling it because as Cardinall l Cusanus excit l. 10. Cusanus confesseth never did any fulfill the commandements but Christ But in this there was no addition and therefore no former imperfection in the law Mr LEECH And as he taught this vnto vs by practise in his owne most sacred person and in the persons of his Apostles so he left vs the first pure primitiue Church and raised vp many in the other succeeding ages and Centuries of the Catholike Church to be examples and patterns of these Evangelicall Counsells ANSVVER It is a toile that my pen must follow yours in these so idle repetitions and needlesse Tautologies I ingeminate my former answer Christ did not professe the teaching of Evangelicall Counsells he came not from heauen with another edition of the law then what Moyses had brought The Primitiue Church knewe not the name of Evangelicall Counsells that as m Assert Luther conf art 18. pag. 86. Fisher B. of Rochester said of Purgatory that there was litle mentiō or none at all among the Ancients thereof so I say of Counsells this opinion was a Posthume to the Primitiue Church Anselmus that liued many hundred yeeres after denyeth that any man may performe more then he oweth as you would teach by Counsells His words be n Anselm de concep virg c. 21. Nullus potest reddere quantum debet solus Christus reddidit pro omnibus qui salvantur plus quà m debetur But as o Dion Xiphilin in epitome Domit. Decebalus king of Dacia put to flight the Romans by arming trunks of trees insteed of souldiers so the new Romans suppose to gull vs by obtruding shadowes insteed of substance inserting into their Pamphlets the name of the Primitiue Church Ancient Catholike Church Fathers of the Church in those matters controversed betweene vs whereas the Church and Fathers in this case may answere Papists as answer was made to p 1. Sam. 28.26 Saul in the 1. Sam. 28.16 Wherefore dost thou aske of mee seeing the Lord is gon from thee and is thine enemie Mr LEECH This was the summe of my repetition with a more ample explanation of my former doctrine iustified now in publike against the Brethren who had traduced it in their whispering conventicles according to the liberty of their private spirits ANSVVER You haue landed this discourse thinking hereby to gaine the name of an authorizer if not an author But bragge not that you haue publikely iustified that against the Brethren which you will be constrained to deny before the Saints The writtē Coppy which you delivered is much different frō this second repetition you and it farre from truth Because with Peter you hope to warme your hands at the high Priests fire therefore you deny the truth of your Master Follow Peter rather in repenting then in forswearing CHAP. 4. Mr LEECH THis sermon being ended and supper time immediatly approaching M. Doctor Hutton one of the Channons of Christ Church now deputed Provicechancellour in the absence of Mr. Doctour King sent for me by one of my fellow Chaplaines into the commō kitchin A place fitt to treat vppon Iovinianisme but vnfit for the sacred mysteries of Religion to conferre with me vpon the point delivered in my sermon ANSVVER The summe of this ensuing chapter was begot in the Kitchin it is so full of smoake heat Your marginall note doth much traduce Doctor Hutton Prebendary Subdeane of Christ-Church an auncient learned preacher Professor Doctor of Diuinity the least of these titles might haue restrained you in your duty towards him But a more neere respect of obseruance bound you to reuerence him not only for private but for publicke authority not only for feare but for cōscience sake saith the Apostle He was the Magistrate Provicechancellor Deputy Governor of your betters at that time not in that house alone but in the whole Vniuersity He might haue sent for you by an officer not your fellow Chaplaine vnto a publique place not so familiar to cōvent censure imprison punish you not to conferre with you It is not the place that doth honest the man but the man the place Lucifer rebelled in heaven Adam sinned in Paradise whē as Lot served God in Sodom Ioseph in Egypt Better to speake truth in the Kitchin then falsehoode in the Pulpit The place of all other is least circumstantiall Mr LEECH Hither I no sooner came but hee interessing himselfe in the quarrell of IOVINIAN began very fiercely to assault and chardge me for preaching scandalous erroneous doctrine excepting farther against the tearmes of Angelicall Chastity and Evangelicall Counsailes of perfection expresly mentioned by me in the aforesaid sermon ANSVVER For any Iovinian heresie that you taxe him with or the opposers of your opinion you knowe in your conscience that no Protestant ever defended anie of them S. r Aug. de haeresibus ad quod vult De um haeres 82. Augustine in his tract De haeresibus ad Quodvult Deum the 82. heresie reciteth the divers positiōs of Iovinian and I doe freely and fully protest that I knowe no point wherewith our Church in that kinde may be accused In what point of Iovinianisme was he guilty name it I am sure if you could you would Your doctrine offered much offence therfore was scandalous and was opposite to our Churches doctrine and therefore to be called erroneous Mr LEECH The onset being thus given by his worship my warde was Sir vnder your correction the doctrine lately by me preached howsoever you disconceipt it is not nay cannot possibly be either scandalous or erroneous for it is the doctrine of that great Pillar of the Latine Church S. Gregory accorded vnto and confirmed by vniforme consent of fathers both of the Greeke Latine Church ANSVVER As Salomon spake of ſ Eccl. 12.12 making many books so may I of vsing many words There is no end the one wearying of the flesh the other angariation to the spirit It is not as you take it the doctrine of that great Pillar of the Church S. Gregory it is a Doctrine which is the Pillar of Monkes I assure my selfe the Monkes would not maintaine it vnlesse it did maintaine Monkes The Fathers of the Greeke and Latine Church are answered so sufficiently as that I hope you will change and challendge your Grand-Iurie for beeing too partiall for our part Mr LEECH As for the termes of a Virginity equalleth it selfe to Angells yea if wee examine well the matter we shall finde it to exceed Angells for that contrary to nature it getteth a victory in flesh aboue flesh which Angells doe not Cypr. de
Pez p. 552. Pezelius noteth they make thē Perfectiores leges Evangelicas which be but Enarrationes decalogi But to your supposition how vmbragious soeuer you seeme to be it is manifest you never vnderstood the state of the question Counsells are precepts I can easily bring a Iurie of Fathers to proue it not such as you impanelled to condemne your selfe Precepts I say they be to particular men who exceed others in gifts of grace And because much shall bee required of him that hath much giuen him therefore a Counsell as a praecept doth oblige not all in generall but him that is particularly furnished by God for such a purpose and service and therefore he that hath the gift of chastity other circumstances concurring is bound sub poena not to marry S. Hierom doth only speake of generall precepts and the place in Gregory is oft cited and as oft answered but not quoted at all But I say the same of him Greg. mor. l. 26. cap. 25. as of Hierome for Gregory is most plaine in the point in the 25 Chapt. of the 26 booke of Moralls his words be specialis iussio and specialia praecepta and specialiter imperatur and the distinction of generale praeceptum speciale praeceptum is so often repeated about the midst of that Chapter as nothing can be more plain So that Ierome and Gregory come over to vs for they meane speciall precepts not generall And certainely as S. Basil speaketh if virginity were a generall command to all it would exclude marriage but being not some may marry some liue chast all doe well Mr LEECH This I demanded but hee then passed it ouer with silence and therefore I expect his answere now how hee cā avoid this consequence which followeth vpon his own learning ANSVVER Eccles 12. The words of the wise are like Goads like nailes fastened by the masters of the assemblies saith Salomon His words might haue satisfied you if truth and reason would haue yeelded you satisfaction but a false opinion once grounded is like poison fully setled or like Deianiraes shirt it wil hardly be shaken of without plucking the skinne with it Mr LEECH As for sending me vp to London to answere the point there my reply was that for my part I was ready to answere vnto the point and to iustify the doctrine either there or else where in what consistory soever in the kingdome Only for your own credit sake and place said I which you supply I wish that it would please you to bee better advised at least to conferre with some other doctors who heard the sermon as well as your selfe and maturely to deliberate whether there be scandalum datum or acceptum a scandall on my part iustly giuen or on your part vniustly taken and whether your exception against my doctrine will beare waight or no being poysed in an indifferent ballance of equity before you resolue vpon this precipitation Otherwaies you shall bewray great want of sound iudgement in opinion and disclose much oversight in discretion ANSVVER o Theod. in Plut. Pericl Pericles had that skill in wrastling that though he receiued a fall yet hee would perswade the wrastler that cast him and others that beheld him that he cōquered I know no such subtelty in you as you would haue your hearers to beleeue but sure I am you did not braue it so with the Doctor as you here relate In all these proceedings of D. Hutton you haue iniured him much but your selfe more you know what slayeth the soule and therefore ought to forbeare al insulting tearmes iniust imputations circumstantiall disparadgments false relations and to regard age and authority learning piety so are you bound by feare and conscience What other Doctors iudged concerning your sermon you knowe by those reverend Divines and governors among vs when you were censured about it and therefore it is an idle question whether you gaue or tooke the offence The doctrine you know was Papisticall therefore you ought not to haue obtruded such a point in the pulpit Christs speech is generall p ◠Mat. 18.6 whosoeuer shall offend one of these little ones that beleeue in me it were better for him that a milstone were hanged about his neck and that hee were drowned in the depth of the sea Your weapons were made on the Philistims forges Aug. your arguments were neither de veritate nor pro veritate Neither truth of matter nor sobriety of speech had place in your tempestuous conceit disiointed sermon You were not so willing to answere at London nor so peremptory to accuse the Doctor for want of iudgement in opinion or ouersight in discretion Mr LEECH And farther I assure you call me whether you will into questiō I shall discharge my selfe with sufficient credit when you shall gaine little by questioning my doctrine or molesting me causelesly ANSVVER You wel ad the word farther for you never spake so farre as this you haue a strange gift of amplification you scarse spake the tēth part of that which you haue here so enlarged as is confirm'd and averred by wise honest witnesses that heard it This large discourse was not extant then You neither durst nor could babble so much in so short a time you durst not for your distraction that night observed by many was very much it shewd that then you had not altogether dispassioned your conscience but that there was some sparke which did feare and follow you observed by her owne eie though no other eie should perceiue her chased by her own foot though nothing either in heauen or earth should pursue her Relation tells me there was some ouerture of compunction then in you your looks gestures words gaue testimony that you durst not speake so peremptorily And that you could not it is plaine scarse three questions and answers passing between you and those rather commanding your Coppy then disputing the question Mr LEECH Here the kitchin-conference brake vp only in the loose he required a copy of that doctrine of Counsells delivered by me out of S. Gregory To this I voluntarily condescended adding these words to intimate my confident resolution Sir For the doctrine I will request no fauor at your hands only I hope that you will doe me iustice if not assure your selfe I shall right my selfe else where This was the last period of our conference at that time and so wee parted supper calling vs both away ANSVVERE So much for your saucy vnsauory kitchin-stuffe You need not againe to insist vpon the place a circūstance in that businesse lest materiall And the advantage of malice and hatred hence is very small if duly considered Therefore breefly to enforme the Christian indifferent Reader Concerning that aspertion of disgrace you call the kitchin conference thus it was as I haue receiued it from the mouthes vnder the hands of those it concerneth Presently vpon your sermon you were sent for because of the generall
more then thou commādest Witnesse learned iudicious Hooker in the second booke of his Church Politie in the thirde page before the ende of the same booke witnesse also the Apologie in defence of him written by Doctor Covell in the 14. Chapt. of Satisfaction ANSVVERE Tertullian observeth that Orthodoxall teachers vse first to teach Lib. contra Valent. c. 1. and then to perswade but heretikes vse first to perswade and then to teach I can finde abundance of wants both in your manner method matter of this sermon This sermon doth nether teach nor perswade teaching by false proofe perswading by fained power to strengthen that which no mā besiegeth or gain saieth that there be degrees of perfection In this part your proofes so sinisterly collected from the practise of the Apostles Authority of S. Austin frō the opiniō of Mr Hooker Doctor Covell need rather an interpretiue answer then a defensiue encounter 1. For the Apostles that they did forsake all the necessity of the times and their vocation required it Legend yet Christ biddeth them keepe their Scrippe Coate Frier Iuniper thought that was too much ran about without his breeches and Fryar Ruffin as Sedulius witnesseth Apol. l. 2. c. 5. n. 7. did preach naked Secondly for the Virgins in S. Austin whose speech is amando te plus facimus quà m iubes Serm. 18. de verbis Apost by loving thee we doe more then thou commandest that is more thē thou commandest Perkin prob Tit. super hoc mandato de non moechando as learned Perkins answereth or it is to be vnderstood in genere to others that God did not command all so to loue him as they did that is in that kinde he commandeth al to avoide adultery but he commaundeth not all to professe Virginity and yet those that he hath seperated for that kinde of life are bound because commanded so to liue and cannot say plus facimus quà m iubes For your third allegation out of that Reverend Authour Mr Hooker In the place cited he maketh not any mētion of the word Counsaile One of his propositions among others is this that God approveth much more thē he doth commande which may be spokē in a good sense for as much as God doth approue many things hee doth not particularly commande in holy Scriptures I will seek no other example then that which Mr Hooker alleadgeth there his words be these Hook 2 book of Eccles Polity § 8. p. 120 lin 39. Hereat S. Paul vndoubtedly did aime in so farre abridging his owne liberty and exceeding that which the bond of necessary and enioined duty tied him vnto What that was his marginal quotation sheweth 1. Thes 2.9 the words be these 1. Thess 2.9 Yee remember brethren our labour travaile for we laboured day and night because wee would not be chargeable to any of you and preached vnto you the Gospell of Christ To preach the Gospel so freely as that he that serveth at the altar doth not seeke maintenance from the altar is more then is enioined generally to the Ministers of the Gospell and yet is approved in the sight of God and no doubt rewarded Yet vpon some circumstances where the people are vnwilling to heare because vnwilling to pay for their hearing a Minister ratione officij rather then beneficij is bound to preach because his rule is this vbicunque quandocunque quomodocunque wheresoever whensoever howsoever he is commaunded to preach the word in season out of season For your authority out of learned Doctor Covell I answere aetatē habet doctrinam habet he may saue you the helpe of a Frier to lash you for stealing out of that one Article aboue forty lines of his words without his meaning According to my vnderstanding all that he endevoureth to shew is that there be divers degrees of perfection in this life and of glory in the life to come that to attaine this perfection some courses bee more exquisite thē others that such courses are not of necessity prescribed to ALL therefore in that regarde they may be said to be more then is commanded in generall or in particular to any absolutely but only conditionally with supposall of gift or vocation These hee calleth Coūsels And we refuse not the name if the thing were taken aright but that by such we may merite for our selues and others and come with an over-plus to bee treasured vp to make marchandise for indulgences let him speake himselfe what hee thinketh in this Article whence you borrowed much but vnderstood little The 8. Article 8. of defence of M. Hooker Title Super. Article of his defence of Mr Hooker in the Title workes of supererogation whereas you quote him for the 14. Chapter the Title Satisfaction But to the purpose in the place aboue cited the vpshot of his tract is this we cannot supermerit by these more then we ought Therefore his speech fasteneth no post in your weake building And in a word to adde this Corolarie to Mr. Hooker Doctor Covell which will I hope giue some light to any that shall sinisterly interpret them Lib. 3. de anima It is a position in Aristotle lib. 3. de Anima that intellectus Coniunctus semper progreditur ab imperfecto ad perfectum which Thomas the schooles haue made vse of in the Metaphysickes to proue that conceptus particularis a particuler conceipt is ever more perfit then an vniversall so species then genus individuum then species is held more perfit because in descending downewarde there is ever something added to the perfection of the vniversall which the particular includeth This may be well applied to the present and to the conceit of these learned men to which you never attained Though the vniversall precept bindeth al and in that may be said to want no perfection yet the particular adding some thing from extraordinary meanes to a branch of the generall precept is some way said to bee a more exquisite way notwithstanding these lists are ever to be kept that as the Poet spake Est modus in rebus sunt certi denique fines Quos vltra citraque nequit consistere rectum So say I and so held these in divinity in all the actions of our life there be land markes of our procession which striue we never so earnestly we cannot goe beyonde and therefore not beyond the precept Mr LEECH The perfection of man here in this life is the soules vnion with God not essentiall for this is peculiar only to the Trinity Not personall this proper to Christ his humanity Not sacramentall this extendeth to the whole Church in generall But it is vnio animae spiritualis the soules spirituall vnion with God when the soule is whollie sequestred from the world and is sincerely ravished with the loue of God of Christ and of her neighbour guided ledde therevnto by precepts and Counsailes ANSVVER It is true
if marriage be like to be an vnavoideable hinderance to the service of God a man must cut of the thought of marriage not by advise but by expresse cōmand Mat. 5.30 yea vpon paine of eternal damnation as Christ doth witnes If thy hand offend thee cut it of and if thy eie offend thee put it out better it is to go into heavē with one eie or one hand then into hell Now for your Authorities Coccius what * Cocke hatched your Authority and like a Cuckow brought them into his owne nest I finde whence these Testimonies bee vrged verbatim as you quote them The most authorities drawne from Bellarm. Coccius others from their tracts of Monkish life Coccius Treasury out of the bad treasure of his hart lent you them Vita Monastica is the Commō place and Arsenall from whence you furnished your selfe which is the lesse credit to your opinion and you cānot deny but from mare mortuū you did fetch your water in as much measure as the Pitcher of your vnderstanding could carry otherwise Bellarmine Iodocus Coccius coulde haue furnished you with manie more * I am far from tearming the ancient Fathers so but I meane the authorities falsly sinisterly drawne out of them bee false witnesses false witnesses But if I should take out a Commission from the kings bench of Scripture to examine these not one of them would stande to you You beginne with Saint Hierome if I shoulde vsher Saint Hierome with the estimation that some great Clarkes among your Priests and Iesuits haue afforded him for his contempt of marriage in comparison of Virginity Tom. 14. in 1. Cor. 7. Disput 14. § ad dubium De continēt lib. 3. cap. 11. De rati studij Theol. l. 4. c. 5. obl 2. I should quickely vnedge the authority you seeke from him Salmerō affirming that he was in this iniquior acerbior Espencaeus that he was aequus sanè parum nuptijs Villavincentius Malè audit accusatúrque Hieronimus dum pro virginitate propugnans the Iesuit Acosta Virginitatis oppugnatores insectans videtur aliquando matrimonio iniquior But I proceed to the expositiō of him rather then exposing so holy a Father to detractiō S. Hierom ad Eustochiū hath these words Quod non habet Domini de virginitate praeceptum c. Besides that S. Hierom is hardly cēsured by your own for that and the like speeches it is manifest that there his words bee rather declamatory then assertatory and howsoever he speake thus Si virginitas imperata nuptiae videbantur ablatae yet that virginity is commaunded he granteth when in another place hee calleth it praeceptum virginale Againe in his 1. booke against Iovinian though he hath such words as you intende Quia vbi consilium datur offerentis arbitrium est vbi praeceptum necessitas est servientis yet I againe answer S. Hierom doth cal that which is here by him tearmed a counsell a precept in his Commentary on the 19. of Mat. he hath not only the words before vrged but more praeceptū pudicitiae praeceptum virginale c. Secondly if you vrge the power and strength of this his speech vbi consilium datur offerentis arbitrium est I answer that the worde arbitrium doeth interpret the worde consilium for it is arbitrium in respect of the things cōmanded which lie indifferent to the choice but it is mandatum in respect of the Commāder Answer to S. Ambros S. Ambrose authority out of the first place vpon the words of the Apostle Apostolus de virginibus praeceptum nō habet consilium habet non enim praecipitur quod supra legem est It is thus easily resolved S. Ambrose did follow the vulgar translation of the Bible which so doth read that place of S. Paule but there is no warrant for such interpretation What need we seeke light of a Candle when wee haue the most resplendent beames of the Sun And what need we to craue the help of a translation in a point of controversie when we haue the original 2. Cor. 7.25 First I say the greek hath the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth advise not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is interpreted Counsell therefore though I owe al reverence to S. Ambrose and the other Fathers yet if they read it so when the word in the Primitiue sacred Coppy doeth not so render it I had rather proue the Fathers by Scripture then proue Scripture by the Fathers Sixt. Senens Bibl. lib. 8. in fine p. 365. D. Bannes in 1. Part. Thomae q. 1. p. 67. Line de Opt. gen interpr l. 3. c. 1.2.4.6 Sixtus Senensis Dominicus Bannes but especially Lindanus doe condemne the vulgar Translation to haue mōstrous corruptions of all sorts scarse one coppy to be found vndefiled sundry places to bee thrust from their naturall sense the Translator to be no Latinist but a smattering Graecian And sure as your owne doe thus condemne your owne Coppie of the Trent vulgar Translation so doe I the old vulgar for I wil never beleeue that S. Ierom so translated it But as Lindan thought of your Translation that he was a Grecian no Latinist so thinke I the cōtrary of him that interpreted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie Coūsell he was scarse Latinist but sure no Grecian But to the later inference out of Ambrose Quod supra legem est non praecipitur it is true if we consider supra legem to be supra legis observationem so Virginity is aboue the law aboue the generall law commanded to all but not aboue that proper Law and Precept of virginity which S. Hierome calleth praeceptum virginale Hier. in 19. Math. Ambros tract de viduis The second place you vrge out of Ambrose Foeminae non coguntur autoritate aliqua praecepti c. It is ment not by authority of any generall precept commanding all women but by the especiall which doeth inioine some furnished with that spirit and gift and the words following enforce not any more Honorabile cōiugium sed honorabilior integritas Marriage is honourable but integrity more honorable integrity not virginity for in Marriage there may be great measure of integrity That which closeth vp this sentence bene dixit Apostolus De Virginibus praeceptum nō habeo consiliū do the Fathers are no straungers to this interpretation that there is praeceptum omniū commune Greg. in 26. Moral c. 25. praeceptū aliquorum particulare a generall precept enforcing al men such a precept concerning Virgins the Apostle had not and there is an especiall precept enioyning some mē this was the Counsell Paule meant and that Counsel is the precept which Christ gaue Qui potest capere capiat S. Austin in his 61. Sermon de tempore Answer to S. Austin hath these words Aliud est consilium aliud praeceptum distinguishing there the common precept from a speciall precept which he
Andradius so who teacheth that the Fathers doe in many places not expound the Scriptures according to the literal sense the only which hath power to proue points of faith and that when they seeke the literall sense they doe not alwaies finde them but giue diuers senses one vnlike another therfore we may forsake their senses all and bring a new vnlike to theirs Now dare you curse Caietan and Andradius Andrad desens fid Trid. lib. 2. and bestow that epithet vpon these that you doe on Luther I knowe you dare not But as in others so in you Tullies observation is remarkable Tully that bad Orators insteed of reasons vse exclamations The reason why Luther is so much vilefied among you Erasmus gaue long since Chronic. Carion Auct a Melanthon lib. 5. when being asked by Frederick Duke of Saxony what hee thought of Luther so earnestly seeking reformation Erasmus answered as Carion records it that Luther had committed two great errors one was that hee touched too neere the Crown of the Pope another that he purged too much the belly of the Monks But the name of Luther shall remain among the posterities for euer and howsoever Hell and Papists haue endeavoured to transferre vpō the cause personall weaknesse most falsly imputed vnto him yet that Epitaph of his framed by Reverend Beza shall be monumentum aere perennius Beza in Epitaphijs Roma orbem domuit Romam sibi Papa subegit Viribus illa suis fraudibus iste suis Quanto isti maior Lutherus maior illa Istum illúmque vno qui domuit calamo The last part of this Paragraph vrgeth Flavianus to which speech we most willingly agree The determinations of the Fathers are not to be changed when their rule is consonant to Scripture but we deny that the generall consent of the Fathers ever helde this point for many of them whom you vrge haue not as in your proofes it is plaine so much as the distinction or any word of Counsaile And againe if by the misinterpretation of that place of S. Paule some of the Fathers read the place so yet the Greeke Fathers haue not any word of Counsels D. Benefield his Appendix pag. 186. in all their workes as Doctor Benefield in his Appendix witnesseth Mr LEECH And therfore to exemplifie further vpon this ground and to raise the particuler building vpon this general foūdatiō I would but aske what meant S. Cyprian that ancient famous martyr in his tract de Nativitate Christi sectione 10. penultima and S. Gregory that worthie pillar of the latine Church in his 26. booke on Iob to stile these consilia perfectionis Counsailes of perfection if there be no Counsailes Secondly what meant Theodoret Primasius Sedulius Haymo Theophylact Ambrose Augustine Hierome Gregory Basill Chrysostome Beda Lyra Aquinas Anselmus with all antiquity greeke and latine Church so to expound that place of S. Paul 1. Cor. 7.25 ANSVVER Suffragia potiùs sunt pendenda quà m numeranda voices and authorities are rather to be weighed thē to be numbred Cyprian or Gregory haue no worde of Counsailes The booke falsely ascribed to Cyprian is denied to be his by Pamelius Bellarmine Possevine many others of your owne as hath beene proved the ancient manuscript thereof in the library of All-soules Colledge here in Oxford entitleth Arnolde an abbat to be the Author of it For Gregory as I haue many times cited so do I now againe if in that place so often quoted viz. the 26. booke 24. 25. Chapters you finde the word Counsaile I will surcease to answere begin to beleeue you It is an easie businesse in you to faine the distinction of Counsels to be in Gregory seeing that the Vaticane Cyclopses haue foisted 168. Epistles into him besides infinite corruptions and contradictions as will shortly appeare by the exact and laborious endeavours of that liuing Library Mr Thomas Iames the indefatigable and carefull President of that businesse and the diligent assistance of many some whereof are the choisest most eminent in all our Vniversity The Fathers that you muster togither out of ranke I reverence yet what Austin in his 19. Epistle said in such another case that I hold good For all these Austin in Ep. 19. and aboue all these we haue the Apostle Paul saith he Though some of these Fathers do so read according to the translation formerly cōdemned yet habemus Apostolū Paulum we haue Paule to witnesse the contrary in his owne word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was but his advise or sentence not counsell Mr LEECH Thirdly what meant S. Hierome ad Eustochium and against that Epicurean Heretique Iovinian one of the first impugners of this Doctrine S. Ambrose in the tenth booke of his Epistles the 82. ad Vercellensem Ecclesiam in his tract de viduis propè finem S. Augustine in his 61. sermon de tempore his 18. tract de verbis Apostoli chapter the 21. his 2. booke of Evangelicall questions chapter the 19. and in his Enchiridion ad Laurentium chapter 121. Origen vpon the 15. to the Rom. S. Basill de vera virginitate S. Chrysostome in his 8. Homilie de poenitentia Nazianzen in his 3. oration which is the first invectiue against Iulian and many others The time would faile mee if I shoulde reckon vp all And therefore to close vp all in a word what meant all antiquity greeke and latine fathers so to distinguish betwixt precepts and Counsailes if there bee no Counsailes ANSVVER Lubertus truely observeth of Bellarmine that in a point where hee is weakest there will hee name and quote Authorities most plentifully but when hee should come to the life of the point then he shuffles away amōg his multitude like a Cut purse in a thrōg or like the fish sepia who being ready to be caught darkens the sea roūd about with a black water issuing from her These authorities and Testimonies of the Fathers haue been answered in that part of the Tract before the Sermon and as the occasion was offered in the sermon and all of them even the most strong and selected authorities that you coulde gather are aunswered plentifully in Doctor Benefields Appendix where it is proved that the Fathers did not set a man beyond the Land-marke of Gods commandement but that by the generall precepts enioining all the particular commanding some every man is bound to serue and feare and loue the Lord with all his heart with all his soule and withall his minde And this necessitate praecepti by the necessary obligement of the cōmandement Austin in 38. Psalm that which Austin vpon the 38 Psal hath written with the pen of a diamond standing fast as Hercules Ne plus vltra that no man can say he is perfit Nemo se dicat esse perfectum and so proceedeth that if any man doe looke for perfection in this life decipit se fallit se seducit se non potest hîc habere perfectionem Mr
LEECH To these I might adde Wickliffe against the order of begging friers where he stileth them Christ his high Counsells Likewise Luther in the 30. article of his assertions Iudicious and learned Hooker in his Church Politie and the Apologie in defence of him in the Chapter of satisfaction D. Barlow The Bishop of Rochester and elect of Lincolne in his sermon preached at Court concerning the authority of Bishops the 4. page before the ende ANSVVER It is not vnfitly said by you I might adde for never was so small a booke so stuft with additions and detractions as this is adding to divers Authors detracting from divers persons Heresie is a Bastardy it seldome knoweth the true Father that names many Fathers falsly this vrgeth many fainedly and indeed hath no lawful Father but that outlawried pervagus terrae in the first of Iob Iob. 1. Gen. 4. it selfe being vagus terrae as Cain was in the 4. of Genes For those that here you ad to your Catalogue of Authors and Authorisers First Wickliffe must be heard in his owne maner of speech Wick against begging Friers Chap. 34. Luther yet he needs no interpreter In the 34 Chapter against begging Friers these be his words Many blind fooles binden them to the high Counsells of Christ that cannot keepe the least commandement but see hypocrisie of them sith each Counsell of Christ is commandement for some time and some circumstances how binden they them to more then the commandements Not by the Counsels for they been commandements but they fainen this to draw yong children into their rotten habit and other fooles that knowen not the perfection of Christs order Now you haue heard wickliffe himselfe beleeue him and reade no reporters of his fragments Next Luther fauoureth your cause verie little In the place you cite him hee saith that there is but one Counsaile Evangelicall if you stande to him there avowing only the Counsell of Virginity you must let Poverty go begge and obedience go loose But Luther vpon better consideration doth vtterly discharge all Coūsails Luther de votis Monasticis Tom. 2. fol. 300. in his book de votis Monasticis Tom. 2. fol. 30. a. Mr Hooker is before interpreted and I hope will giue satisfaction though you quote him falsely in his Chapter of Satisfaction the place being found in the Article of superogation His Apologist is also made plaine in the same place The Bishop of Rochester now of Lincolne then the Austin of Hippo nowe the Ambrose of Millaine doth no way yeelde you suffrage in his powerfull sermon cōcerning the Antiquity Superiority of Bishops shewing out of Clemens Alexandrinus that the Apostles manured the Church with a double tillage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If saith hee any thinke that this maketh way to Popish traditions vnwritten verities it is no other then S. Paules distinction of praeceptum and Consilium c. His reverend wisdome most accute iudgement alleaging the word out of a vulgar translation meaneth by the name Consilium those things which S. Paul 1. Cor. 11.34 calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things vnwrittē which the Apostles did or spake as the times occasioned and the holy Ghost directed further then this there is nothing in that place or sermon giving warrant to your opinion of iustifying popish monkish Counsells and how great his dislike is to any such position his learned speech at Lambeth which like a thunderbolt strooke you dumbe doth testifie to all So that all these witnesses refuse you Luther wickliffe Hooker D. Covell and this most reverend Prelat not vouchsafing your doctrine coūtenance or maintenance Mr LEECH These and many more of their ranke I might adde if I could be perswaded that the Fathers needed their sons suffrages And yet certaine I am Sonnes in this point or such like For no otherways did I meane that the sons stande in neede of their fathers testimonies Or were it not rather so that all these being men of eminent note in our Church are rather relatores antiquae fidei quà m authores novae doctrinae relators of the ancient faith of the Church to their credit and honor in that respect he it spoken rather then authors and coyners of any new doctrine And therfore passing them and for this time sparing them not to strike a haires breadth from my former groūds Leo Epist 17. 94. my maine conclusion is this maneant termini patrum intráque fines proprios se quisque contineat sufficiant limites quos sanctorum patrum providentissima decreta posuerunt let the bounds of ancient church abide and let every man keepe himselfe within due bounds limits let the meetes which the Fathers most prouident decrees haue set content vs. And the reason is excellently rendred by S. Bernard Epist 77. ad Hugonem de S. Victore viz quantò viciniores erant adventui salvatoris tantò mysterium salutis pleniùs praeceperunt the neerer the Fathers were to Christ his incarnation the more cleerely and fully received they the mysterie of salvation ANSVVER It is true the Orthodoxall Fathers need not the suffrages of their sonnes and yet Bellarmine denieth it and is so vnnaturall to the Fathers as that he maketh them to need the suffrage of the Pope Bellar. de Pōt l. 2. c. 27. § Respon istos for when hee is pressed by Nilus to follow in the question of the Primacy the opinion of the Fathers he professeth that the Pope hath no Fathers in the Church for they are all his sons So by this Gregory the great shall stand in need of Burgesies testimony Cā you endure this that Gregory whose learning holinesse eloquence c. was so eminent he that you call Patron though he never bestowed so much as opinion vpon you shall he need the testimony of Mounsieur Burghesi whom your owne confesse to be none of the best Popes and sure not of the best men But to the Fathers this I say we respect and honor them in generall and the present quotation of S. Bernard we dislike not For Patres quo saniores eo seniores quo iuniores eo ieiuniores but they being impostured as Papists professe to practise it in their Index expurgatorius that if the Fathers speak against any points now maintained by papists Ind. Expurg belg fol. 20. then the Index warneth thus Let vs excuse it or extenuat it or deny it by some devise or faine some other convenient sense whē it is opposed in disputation Our main conclusion hence is Patres quo Papis viciniores eo corruptiores Mr LEECH To these were my iudgement and opinion any Of Luther Calvin all their proper Disciples Qui non cōsentit Sāctorum Patrum expositionibus seipsum alienat ab omni sacerdo tali communione à Christi praesētia Eudoxius in Concil Chalced. I durst not otherwaies then subscribe with all humble submissiō to the censure of the Church fearing that censure of
that D. Hutton had inhibited me that D. Benefield whose bookes I was not worthy to carry had publikely confuted my doctrine c. with such like frivolous allegations ANSVVER Here to helpe your memory which wandreth as much as your iudgement you forget that vpō your bragge that all the Latine Church held with you D. Aglionbee asked you what was the Church and you receiving a blow where you had no ward were driven so farre out of the way as to affirme the last resolution of the Church to be not in primam veritatem but in the iudgement of men the absurdity of which position I haue dealt with in your Epistle The Vicechancellour seeing such presumptuous insolence ioined with ignorance herevpon remembred you how the inhibition by authority and the confutation of that controversie might haue staid your proceedings and added the due worth of the Doctor who had determined that point in his solemne Lecture Mr LEECH As for D. Hutton his inhibition I answered as before adding farther that I respected not his iudgement in this matter For I knew indeed that as his vnderstāding is not very deepe so his affection is not very good who in a certaine booke or rather statizing pamphlet concerning the crosse in baptisme defendeth this laudable Christian ceremony by tradition of the Church as it is witnessed by the holy Fathers and yet now in a point of greater importance expressed in Scripture taught by Fathers practised by the Saints defined by the whole Church he blushed not to accuse me nay S. Gregory himselfe of Popery in this doctrine But singular is my comfort to consider by what Iudge I am thus vsed in what cause and with what Patrone from whom our Nation first receiued her first faith for whose faith I must now forsake my nation ANSVVERE You leaue the answer of your neglect of D. Huttons gouernement and traduce his iudgement Inhibition is matter of authority not of learning why disobeyed you that command you answere but not to the purpose you respected not his iudgement Let not malice be iudge but cōsider how base infamous malitious your reproaches be his soūdnes of iudgment is approved sufficiently by the consent of our whole Vniversity And that booke which so scornfully you reproach is esteemed deservingly and is of reverend respect with the best Bishops of our Church Where the Fathers agreeing to Scripture are truly vrged and vnderstandingly interpreted both D. Hutton and all of our part with all willingnesse receiue their assertions But when Fathers are misvrged arrested and impostured by Coccius or Bellarmin and you receiue them at second hand not from the foūtaine but from the ditches we returne your party-coloured blended sentences as vnworthy of approbation because they be vsed as the Tyrant entertained his guest if to long for his bed to chop of if to short to racke them out The doctrine which you call a point of great importance expressed in Scripture taught by Fathers practised by the Saints and defined by the whole Church is not so founded as you presume to teach Scriptures no where expresse it Fathers teach it not the Saints of God haue not practised it the Church of Christ hath not defined it Therefore he only accused you of Popery but not Gregory For as formerly hath beene said D. Hutton and all any way seene in Gregories Moralls may perceiue how you foist into the Text the words Evangelicall Counsells Your comfort will proue your corrasiue your Iudge in this was God others were but his deputies the cause was religiō nay the very marrow pith of Religion and the opposition of many absurd hereticall positions Your Patron was not Gregory hee neither taught you this nor from him our Church received their first faith Neither for defending this were you cōstrained to leaue the Land you forsooke your Religion rather then your Nation Vegetius tells that in the Roman Armies Vegetius Non fugere was a speciall precept The way for you to Triumph had beene to recant and to remaine in your station not to fly Bosquiers speech is true Bonsq cont 7 the Devill is overcome by resisting but the flesh and the world by running away but you fled because you would run into the world Mr LEECH As for D. Benefield with his lecture his bookes I passed them over considering that M. Vicechancellour made excursions from the point loading me only with contumely and disgrace ANSVVER You passed him ouer because he doth so far overpasse you but he is in your bosome his Lecture lyeth heavy on your heart it is such a pang that you will not easily remoue The Vicechancellour loading you as you call it with disgrace knewe you had a back provided for a burthen If his speech seeme harsh to you you turned his tongue being turned your selfe Otherwise his tongue is the hearauld of encouragement and comfort himselfe the refuge of innocencie a Tutor to his Colledge and a father to the Clergy in his Accademicall governement Mr LEECH Wherefore not suffering him to divert mee from the maine issue Haeretici est praecepta Patrum declinare saith worthy Flavian in his first epist to LEO the great I desired him to deale punctually that is to say first to admit a triall by the Fathers or to deny it if he denied it he should be thereby sufficiently convinced Secondly if he admitted this triall then either to disproue my authorities or to approue my doctrine ANSVVER To deale punctually is so proper vnto all his discourses that all his Auditors will acknowledge this a speciall felicity in the power of his speech Your demands were preposterous in your Epistle you commit your selfe to the censure of the Church now to the triall of the Fathers no appeale at all to the Scriptures without which whatsoever is taught is like Israells building in Aegypt without stuffe no warrant for the matter they build with Mr LEECH But he not daring to make a briefe and punctuall answer to my reasonable demands fell extravagantly into a mention of the reformed Churches summoning me before their tribunall for the censuring of this doctrine ANSVVER Not daring Why continueth this Bracchadochian humor it hath long beene in the consumption it will at length spend it selfe What dareth not he that vndertakes without rashnes and performes without feare did ever your experience finde him to be a read shaken with the winde or to want the sinewes of courage and resolution No you knowe hee is ballaced with wisedome and worth able to vndertake the most resolute and vndauntedest of the contrary side in the worlde Neither in this was there the least note of extravancie as your exorbitancie of accusation doth impute for by whom should a minister of the reformed Churches bee censured but by the power iudgement of the reformed Churches Mr LEECH Which course of proceeding I vtterly disclaimed as vnequall because the later Church is not to iudge the former but contrarily the former
desire to be taught the rule of faith out of an humble and a religious meaning here you may learne it it was a question worth his asking a point worthy your learning Mr LEECH Why said he what other ground of faith then the pure word of God I demaunded then who shall interpret this word Hee replied the spirit What spirit good Sir The spirit of God only which privat men thinke they haue Against which rule I except for that it was the common plea of all condemned Heretiques Wherefore I required a triall of this pretended spirit for I cannot admit that to be God his spirit in any private man which consenteth not with the spirit of the Catholique Church And thus you see M.D. Airay that what you formerly reiected out of my rule as Popish you must necessarily admit as true that is Ecclesiasticall Tradition annexed to the sacred Canon for the discerning of private spirits Otherwaies each Heretique will sense Scripture in the mould of his owne braine ANSVVER That the word of God is the ground of beleefe in God sacred Scripture it selfe proveth in manifold and pregnant places as in the olde Testament in the Proverbs Prov. 2.9 They make a man vnderstand righteousnes and iudgement and equity and every good path Esay 8.19.20 in Esay should not a people enquire at their God at the law and at the Testimonie they that speake not according to this word there is no light in them by Malachie Mal. 4.4 Remember the law of Moses which I commanded all Israell with the statutes and iudgements in the new Testament in S. Paul 2. Tim. 3.15 The Scriptures are able to make a man wise vnto salvation through the faith which is in Christ Iesus in S. Peter 2. Pet. 1.19 We haue a most sure word of the Prophets wherevnto we must giue heed as to a light that shineth in darknesse till the day starre arise in our hearts Luc. 1.4 in S. Luke They containe the certainty of those things whereof we are instructed and in S. Iohn Ioh. 5.39 These things are written that yee might beleeue that Iesus is that Christ the sonne of God and in beleeuing yee might haue eternall life and by Christ himselfe sealing this point Search the Scriptures for in them you haue eternall life and they are they which testifie of mee but to this also the Fathers with all reverence haue agreed Basil Ep. 80. ad Eust Med. Let the Scriptures be arbitrators betweene vs saith Basill in his 80 Epistle and whosoever holds consonant opiniōs to those heavenly oracles let the truth bee adiudged on their side We are to enquire for iudges saith Optatus Contra Parmenianum de coelo quaerendus est Iudex Optat. cont Parmen l. 5. the Iudge must bee had from heaven but saith hee wherefore need we to knock at heauen when we haue a iudge wohm wee finde in the Gospell The Scripture is the rule of faith saith Tertullian contra Hermogenem Tertull. cont Hermog Chrysost in 13. Homil. in 2. Corinth It is a most exquisit rule saith Chrysostome in his 13 homily vpon the second to the Corinths It is an inflexible rule Greg. Nyss Grati. de ijs qui adeunt Hierosolymā saith Gregorius Nyssenus And S. Austin ample for this in many places in his booke de bono viduitatis testifieth that the Scripture pitcheth downe the rule of our faith And not only the Ancient Fathers but the Schoole-men haue succeeded in the same resolution Aquinas writeth expresly Aq 1. qu. 1. art 8. that our faith must rest vpon the Canonicall bookes of Scripture Durand agreeth with this Durand pref in senten that the maner of our knowledge exceed not the measure of faith and the holy Scripture expresseth the measure of faith Sum part 3. tit 18. c. 3. Nay Papists haue acknowledged this Antoninus confesseth that God hath spoken but once to vs and that in Scripture so plentifully that hee voucheth Gregory in the 22 book of his Moralls thus God needeth to speake no more concerning any necessary matter Al. 1. sent quaest 1. art 3 1. Coroll seeing all things are found in Scripture Alliaco consenteth to this The verities of Scripture bee the Principles of divinity quoniam ad ipsas saith he fit vltima resolutio Theologici discursus Bell de verbo Dei lib. 1. c. 2. In one word Bellarmin agreeth to all these Testimonies in his first book de verbo Dei Sacra Scriptura est regula credendi certissima tutissima This may serue to shew you that there is no other ground of faith then the worde of God Scriptures Fathers Schoolemen nay even our Adversaries being witnesses Deut. 32.31 as Moses speaketh You demaund who shall interpret this word It is replied the spirit of God which spirit the elect doe know certainly that they haue not only thinke as you traduce the speech of this reverēd Doctor but they assure thēselus that they haue the spirit and hee that knoweth not this ◠Cor. 3.16 is ignorant as Paul teacheth by an interrogatiō Knowe yee not that yee are the Temples of the holy Ghost and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you But against this rule you except for this was you say Chrysos prolog in Epist ad Rohan 3. de Lazar. the plea of al Heretiques It is false Heretiques and the devill did vrge Scripture but these could never for wāt of Gods spirit compare Scriptures together The privat spirit even every Priuat man of himselfe saith Chrysostom only by reading may vnderstand yea need nothing else but to read Chrysos hom 13. in Gene◠by which he meaneth to confer one place of Scripture with another And the same Father giveth the reason Scriptura seipsam exponit auditorem errare non sinit The scripture expoundeth it selfe and suffereth not the hearer to be deceived Distinct 37. Relatum So speaketh Chrys 13. hom in Genes The Canon Law is most plaine herein Non enim sensum extrinsecus alienum extraneum sed ex ipsis Scripturis sensum capere veritatis oportet For we must not from without them seeke a forraine and strange sense but wee must out of the Scriptures themselues receiue the meaning of the truth And a clowde of witnesses do testifie the same Wherefore it is no way necessary that we aske helpe of Tradition which is as I formerly spake the cittie of refuge for all runnagate points in your religion Popish Tradition in the Church soiourning only as the deuill doth to deceiue as a treacherous stranger not to be acquainted with or as an Infidell not to be conversed with and therefore D. Airay taught you the truth when you heretically thought you might mould the sense of scripture in the brain of the brasen head Tradition Mr LEECH And now M. D. Airay being thus overthrowne in the rule of his faith proposed vnto me a question of
as Hereticall for which Act S Ierom himselfe was much condemned and how his bookes against Iovinian were excepted against even at Rome D. Field sheweth in the place cited by you Whose words which you propose so disgracefully are better worth the pondering then you thinke Our determination state of that question is this breefly virginity is a state of life wherein if all things be answerable in the parties that embrace it there are fewer occasions of distractions from God and more opportunities of attaining to the height of excellēt vertue then in the opposite state of marriage yet so that it is possible for some married men so to vse their estate that they be no way inferiour to those that are single This doth S. Austin confidently defend so your Iesuit Espencaeus as before and so also Gregory Nazianzen absolutly doth proue it Nazianz. in his Oration made in the praise of Gorgonia his sister I might stand much in proofe of this as also that the olde Roman Church did defend and maintaine the cause of Iovinian But I haue in many places already answered this accusatiō and therefore I retort vpon you that seeing your imputations be furnished with malice spite rather then truth and spirit my sixt resolution is to acknowledge with thankfulnesse duty comfort the truth of God defended in this Church of England from whence rather out of a desire to maligne thē out of strength of argument to repugne you are fallen by contumacy in action and heresie in opinion Mr LEECH The seauenth Motiue The Protestants accommodate their Religion vnto the state and present time AS the formes of Ecclesiasticall gouernments are varied by the Calvinists in sondry places according vnto the state vnder which they liue so their Doctrines are framed according to the times and made sutable vnto the policy of their common wealths Pipe state and dance Church Religion must haue no coat otherwise then measure is taken by the State Aiust experience whereof I had in the passage of this businesse For as the more grosse and senselesse Calvinists in England do Heretically confound Evangelicall Counsailes with Legall Precepts so others more regardfull of the time wherein they liue then of the truth which they should professe doe willingly yeeld for if they should doe otherwaies they should speake against their iudgement and conscience that this distinctiō is founded in the gospell and propounded by the Church but they say that it is not a doctrine seasonably to bee delivered in these times And might not this statizing reason aswell plead for Arrius his damnable Heresie being more generally disaffected by the state in those times Contra Lucifer dum totus mundus ingemuit sub Arrianismo as S. Hierom speaketh But I considered first that truth is not to be impugned suppressed is the common fury of Calvinists hath euer sought to extinguish it to the vttermost of their power in which respect I found my selfe extraordinarily affected for the reiection of their heresie in this behalfe And I trust it was not without speciall motion of that spirit which breatheth in the whole body of the Catholike church and consequently in every member of the same Secondly though time beare the blame yet men are in the fault therfore seeing that the opē enemies of truth did barke when her secret friends did holde their peace I conceived that it was my duty rather to change the time from evill into good then to suffer it to grow from evill in to worse And though some men assisted with power to punish that which their peevish fansie disaffected did beare me downe by violence yet I tooke no lesse comfort by this iniurie which they offred vnto me thē courage by the course which they held against my doctrine For I saw that they rather observed prophane policie to force me vnto silence then either shew of iustice or piety in proceeding against my falsely supposed crime or waight of reason in convincing my vnderstanding And why they are the slaues of time but not disciples of truth ANSVVER HOw true this imputation vrged against vs is in the Romane Religiō some parts of the Christian world see and others feele it Leo that kinsman of the roaring Lyon when he was about to go in visitation to his infernall cosen confessed how much worth to his purse fabula Christi that tale of Christ was as he blasphemously called the gospell And is it any better esteemed at this day among Papists at lest haue they not enioined tales and fables and lies to bee beleeved as well as the Gospell Indulgences and Purgatory to go no farther be they not only invented to get mony doth the Pope ever keepe fire but he hath his fuell from Purgatory Is not this doctrine of Monkery only invēted to humor divers melācholike fat paūches If our land were a poore Coūtrey the Pope would never keep such a stirre it is not to gaine souls but Peter pence And to sum vp all in one word all religion depends on the Popes pleasure That as in the Metaphysickes the vtmost proposition is Nihil simul est non est so in Popish divinity the vtmost resolution is Papa non potest errare Wherefore Bellarmine holdeth Question of Supremacy which all the world seeth to be but a matter of Policie Bellarm. in praef ad 3 cōtrovers to be summam rei Christianae who then are the statizers To say nothing of your Iesuits that manage al the affaires of those Princes in whose Courts like Salomons Spiders they remaine Our Religion is the same which the Apostles did teach was in practise in the Primitiue Church happy is the state in which this true Religion flourisheth your distinction of Precepts and Counsels hath beene sufficiently cāvased and you haue been taught in what sense wee retaine the name of Counsell and that S. Austin calleth your Consilia perfectionis Aug. lib. de perfect iustitiae ad coelestinum praecepta perfectionis It is a slander by which you seek to deceiue by your speech of accusing any of our part as if they did professe that your doctrine was true but not seasonable for these times We hold that all places and all times must entertaine truth and therfore your first collection is false Calvinists extinguish not truth Rome doth racke burne torture the Gospell and the truth therof but we feare the punishmēt of sinning against conscience and knowledge if wee should suppresse but the lest truth we behold it with an impartiall eie we represse not the professors but adversaries thereof of which number you were accounted one Your second Collection which hath more sound then sense is easily refuted time beareth no blame for truth secret enemies may looke against her open friendes but wisdome will bee iustified and though Sathan seek to sow bad seed in good ground yet the Lords busbandmen sleepe not but will reforme ill by good refute that is false
forsake the Fathers and schoolemen Our differences about the sacraments are none at all Crastovius hath observed many contradictions of the Iesuits herein The doctrines that follow in rehersal Crastov which you say you preached without impeachmeÌ„t were ceÌ„sured though not publikely yet privatly you were theÌ„ pitied rather then opposed as being known to be vngrounded in these principles For you vnderstood not Calvin Bellarmine doth defend him Nescio saith he Bell. lib. 2. lib. 2. de Christ cap. 19. speaking of this imputed error an sit in re â—n solùm in verbis and againe Non facilè pronuntio eum in hoc errore fuisse and againe that Calvin was free from error he absolutely affirmeth in the matter he erred not in re non est quaestio and againe in the * Tom. 3. in edit Lugdun An. 1596. Index of his booke referring the reader to the place these be his wordes Calvini sententia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 explicatur defenditur and more theÌ„ all this speaking of Symlerus expounding Calvins meaning in this point Iosiâ— sententia non video cur Catholica dicenda non sit So that Bellarmin alloweth Calvins opinion to be Catholical and you revile it with the terme of heretical Ergo with you Catholica seÌ„teÌ„tia est haeretica Secondly for the Conception of Christ Thomas stateth the question after this manner In the conception three things are to be coÌ„sidered 1 the coÌ„fluence of the matter 2 the forming of the body of Christ out of this matter 3 the groth of it so formed in the womb this Confluence growth he acknowledgeth to haue proceeded successiuely but concerning the forming of this body in the which the essence of the conception consisteth his assertion is that it was in an instant not member after member or lineament after lineament in 46. daies as the conception is of other men This opinion of his which hee groundeth on Gregories authority though it do scarsely relish with Caietan Psal 139. v. 15 16. yet by vs was not so much disliked as medled not with wee hold with David that the fashioning of vs in the woÌ„be is a secret clasped in Gods booke which yet hath not beene opened And if it be so in the fabrique and framing of our bodies howe much more secret is that sacred mystery of Christs incarnation of which matter with what vnsanctified and vnpolished tearmes you did sometimes entreate you know and many of a religious vnderstanding Congregation in England will never forget It is not therefore absurde to deny that which we see no ground for but presumption in such matters to affirme more then is revealed Which Euclide a heathen did acknowledge when being asked a curious questioÌ„ about the Gods he answered Caetera quidem nescio illud scio quòd odere curiosos Thirdly your rebukeable rebuke of Calvin which vniustly you taxe him for is easily answered No doubt but that in the actions passions of vnrighteous meÌ„ there is more to be deemed of God then his bare permission for doubtlesse he hath his will therein yet not in counselling and much lesse in compelling therevnto but in ordaining and governing them in applying them to better ends theÌ„ sinners be aware of he hath a will but not a willingnes and this not in respect to the sin it selfe but to some other good adioined vnto it As in the statutes of our CoÌ„mon wealth there are many things contained more then the laws either commit or allow as treasons fellonies heresies c. which notwithstanding the Lawes do order and dispose of so in the wil of God within the coÌ„passe and pale of his arbitrament much more is contained then either by action or authorizement from him could ever be defended and yet that will of his is the Iudge and disposer of all those particulars But to come vnto that which Bellarmine and you enforce vpon Calvin Beza after many windings and turnings Bellarmin is driven at length vnto the same tenent For who acknowledgeth not this received distinction how in every sinne two things are to be coÌ„sidred first the action it selfe which the schoolemeÌ„ cal the subiect or materiality of the offence secondly the obliquity or deformity of the action as Ocâ—am calleth it which is the swaruing from the line according to Bellarmin which Gods word hath drawn vs the first hath God for his author and the Papists cannot deny it the second mans will and the devill and no more haue our men affirmed Suarez the great schooleman amoÌ„g the Iesuits ingeniously professeth so much the Protestants saith he knew well that God intendeth not that which is formall in sin nor inclineth the will of man that he should intend it And Bellarmine his wordes be these to that purpose Bell. de amiss grat statu perfect c. 2. Adversarij verbo fatentur id quod Catholici docent In words saith he our adversaries teach no otherwise then we do God is not properly the author of sinne but the orderer he ordaineth the worke not the fault the effect not the defect and by this it is plaine he is more then the permissiue cause And if you obserue Calvin truely without common malice you will finde that he is much wronged and wrested and may say for himselfe If I haue evill spoken beare witnesse of the evill but if I haue well spoken Ioh. 10.23 why smitest thou me Fourthly Christ crying to his father Deus meus Deus meus may in some sort saith Bernard be said to be forsaken non per dissolutionem unionis sed per substractionem visionis he suffered all poenall punishmeÌ„ts but not peccaÌ„t as Aquinas al miserable paines but not damnable as S. Austin distinguisheh And howsoever Calvins wordes be wrested as if hee thought Christ was in some kinde of dispaire yet they beare it not it was vox tanquaÌ„ desperantis but not simply desperaÌ„tis the sacrifice he offred as it was most necessary in regard of our sinnes so was it most voluntary in respect of himselfe and Caluin holdeth no other position Fiftly Christ was not ignoraÌ„t of the day of iudgement Caluin doth passe no further theÌ„ the words of Christ Marc. 13 3â— that none knoweth not the sonne but the father only He was ignorant secundum concomitantiam non secundum causam as Bonaventure speaketh and as Bernard speaketh he tooke all infirmities and therein this of ignorance all which made for the apparance of the truth of his humanity and these he had by necessity not a deriued but an assumed necessity as BonaueÌ„ture proueth Caluin hath not any where further for in respect of Christ his humane nature he witnesseth himself None but the Father knew this but by the Hypostaticall vnion ioining both he was equall to his Father in this knowledge What may seeme in Calvin to relish otherwise is not his owne opinion as by the place is most plaine Papists haue giuen as reproachfull titles to their