your former bookes yet if anie frend of yours at whose handes your would better take it would now take out the most of that which in this your second edition you haue put vnto it my opinion by your patience is that hee should make your booke so much the better aesteemed but onelie for the names sake with most of your frends that would read it for godlines sake or to stir vp their minde therunto Not denying hereby but that some part of the matter in it selfe is good as that there is a God which rewardeth good and euill and of the certaintie of Christian Religion which two matters are prosecuted at large in two seuerall chapters and are the greatest part of your additions and some other besides But those thinges you knowe were at large handled before by the Fathers of olde against the Gentiles and Iewes and of late likewise as by diuers others in some parte or other as occasion serued so verie fullie by Monsieur du Plessis in that notable booke of his of the truth of Christian Religion You knowe likewise that such thinges as are of diuers argumentes are not euer so welcome vnto those that for the time desire to heare but of the one though in their kinde the one bee as good as the other and in time and place as welcome But yet as touching those reuerend Catholike Priestes that you speake of that suppose so manie among vs to bee falne vnto Athersine by beating out the pointes of Religion first it may bee that they doo thinke that so manie as abandon their woonted errours of poperie doo vtterlie cast of all true Religion likewise And yet notwithstanding I will not denie but that if by them-selues they measure others they may very well thinke if they can haue the grace to consider how far they are falne that it is needfull now to lay againe those first principles of all Religion that there is a God and that the faith of Christ is without question the onely truth But yet are they not able in this lande to finde anie others of what estate or calling soeuer by whome they may take so true a skantling for these matters as by themselues as their trecherous practises long since haue witnessed and daily yet doo to the shame of you all And this of the whole 34 To come to particulars my purpose is no more but this a little to vnfould vnto you these two points how loth you are to be admonished or to amend any thing that already you haue set downe be it neuer so wrong and yet that there is verie good cause why you shuld not trust to your selfe so much as you do That you are loath to be admonished or to amend that which once you haue doone amisse appeereth sufficiently in this for that you doo so greeuously take this little amendment that herein I haue tendered vnto you though in neuer so quiet and gentle manner Insomuch that whereas I neuer vsed any contumelie of speech against you for anie thing that you had so corruptly put in and besides that absteined also from iust reproofe and neuer did anie more but either left them out or amended them in quiet manner you on the other side by all such occasions haue stirred vp your selfe to lay on load in reprochfull and taunting speeches But whereas it seemeth your selfe doth account them as deadly instrumentes against whome they are throwne yet the truth is they are but the shuttle-cocks of your owne vanitie and carrie with them no force at all against the truth and vpright dealing Then also I thinke your selfe may not well denie but that I admonished you of or my selfe amended certaine things wherin you were wrong which notwithstanding you haue not corrected in this your new booke but haue come forth with them againe as corruptly now as you did before Whereof although I were able to alledge verie manie examples yet I will content my selfe with few And first when you haue occasion whether orderly giuen or purposely taken to alledge anie thing out of those bookes that are not Canonical yet you still call them the Scripture and the H. Scripture as well as those books that are Canonicall or vndoubted Scripture indeed And this you do both against the vse custom of the primitiue Church respecting the whole generally and of an euill heart to the holie and vndoubted woorde of God that by aduauncing other bookes also to the same degree you may so the more easily take downe the better estimation of it and make it no better than those that are of your own allowance In like manner whereas before I put you in mind of many places corruptly translated or wrong applied yet neuertheles you hold on still your head-strong course as propter dolos for in lubrico posuisticot Psal. 73. against Ierome and aboue for vpon all his woorks Psal. 144. against Saint Ierome and against Saint Augustine both and manie others like vnto these Wherein you doo not onelie go against the Fathers but also against the truth it selfe and all to continue your former course and a little therby to helpe out a few od points of your profession not woorth three halfe-pence the best of them all So likewise howe you did some-what ouer-slippe your selfe beyond the warrant of the woorde of God to ascribe that as a custome to Isaac that the text reporteth but of one speciall time I noted vnto you towards the beginning That you may see howe I had amended onely by leauing your errour out and nothing at all laying it vnto your charge not bewraying it vnto others Which notwithstanding now you haue taken it in againe and more discouered your weakenes therein than you did before But it may be you will say that that part of your booke was printed before What if it were yet was not the vsuall helpe of corrections in the end of your booke denied vnto you But for this cause to leaue all the fore-part of the booke and to bee sure to leaue you out three partes to your selfe and to take in hand but the fourth part onely the hindmost of all by which time though the print went on yet might you haue good time of aduisement there to picke out but some few things also wheras I pag. 271. holpe to rectify the number of quarters that you pag. 297. had set down for a Corus in Salomons prouisiō far aboue Ierom beiond al mesure much aboue Iosephus also you neuertheles do still hold on your former course in your new booke haue set it down altogither as corruptly as you did before A little after pag. 300. you had set down that on thursday c friday the Iews cried crucifige against Christ prefored the life of Barrabas before his And yet I trust you know well inough that thogh they bare him il harts before likly inough that they on thursday were practising against him yet neither of those
and sense of the other for the hast that you made to come the sooner vnto your vaine of reproching though the matters themselus be not great yet therin you deserue som iust reproofe But it seemeth rather that of purpose you would so take them so to make you a readier way to that which you were desirous thereon to set downe And then the more impudently that you were giuen to ioine with so bad a company in so naughtie a matter the more dooth it argue the fault to raigne in you and the deepelier you haue offended therein But if I therein treated of mortification and contempt of the world then must you either seperate these things from that deuotion pietie and contemplation that after you speake of or else must you call backe as well you may for the number of them some part of those lauishing speeches that there you vse or otherwise bee contrarie to your selfe in this But the lesse that I directed mine Epistle vnto that ende the meeter it is that for my part I take not this aduauntage of you 7 My Praeface to the Reader is the next that commeth vnder your censure and how welcome that is vnto you it appeareth by the harde entertainment that with you it findeth For heere you shew your selfe to bee much offended not onelie with me but with others also And the cause why you finde your selfe so greeued is for that I saide that the Booke of Resolution seemed to me to be gathered out of certaine of the Schoole-men as they are tearmed that liuing in the corrupter time of the Church did most of all by that occasion treat of reformation of life when as others of them were rather occupied about the controuersies that were most in question among them But what is there here that so much offendeth Forsooth that thereby I endeuored as you do charge mee to make the booke more contemptible in the iudgement of others that so I might the rather get it vnder my learned censure to vse at my pleasure But that I meant not to make it contemptible may sufficiently appeer both by the report that I gaue it better than your selfe before deserued but much lesse now by the paines that I tooke about it to cleanse it from that corruption of yours wherewith it could not haue come abroad and which was a blemish to the booke it self though you cannot see it Neither should you especially taking it so much to your selfe as now you do haue thought that book so far abased by imputing a good part of it to anie of those whom there I spake of as also you could not doe it without a great ouer-weening of your selfe nor without ouer-much abasing of those And wheras you tell vs of certaine fathers out of whose homilies sermons commentaries and other works the booke was taken in which man or you might haue attributed some parte thereof to the Scriptures also but that you glorie much lesse in thē than in the others that so your glorie may redoūd more iustly to your shame it is nothing at al to the purpose that so you alledge For thogh the matter therein contained were first deriued from the Scriptures and Fathers originally yet not withstanding that hindereth not but that it may well be taken out of the monuments and workes of those that wrote long after them gathered such matter somewhat neerer togither Now as for your selfe although it may bee that I doo not know you yet by the light that now you haue giuen vs of the profoundnes that is in you and if you bee the partie that most commonly is named vnto it you are I warrant you as likely as others to make your choyse rather where you may haue it neerer gathered togither then at large in the Scriptures and Fathers themselues That heerein you charge mee so deepely with ignorance and that my studie is lesse than nothing at all in those your Schoolemen the matter is not great if therein I suffer you to take your pleasure of mee and when you haue made mee as vnlearned in them as shall like your selfe best or best may serue to aduance you it may bee that I my selfe could wel be contented to spare somewhat of that also that you would leaue mee and yet notwithstanding am not so little acquainted with them neither that anie thing I feare your learning in them or in any others And God be thanked there is much good learning to be had though a man doo neuer come neere those that you speake of as also there was long before them But I pray you good Sir are you able to alledge anie one of them all from whome a good part of that booke may not bee deriued either among those that dealt in the controuersies if you respect your pointes or doctrine or among the others if you respect the rules of life and conuersation Or to go no further than your selfe hath occasioned may we thinke that you are perswaded indeed that this booke which nowe you cal yours standeth so cleere in all your parables vnderstanding of Scriptures application of them your diuisions also and manner of speech from that sort of Schoolemen that before I spake of or you nowe speake of that whosoeuer should conceiue that in som good part it descended of them he must needs be so ignorant in them as that he knoweth not so much as the verie subiect and argument that they handle as it pleaseth you in the depth of that learning of yours to charge mee Could you warrant mee thus much that it were as woorthy the labour as it were possible inough to doo it it were no hard matter soone to shewe that a great part of it might well haue beene taken not onely out of those that before I noted but as you had dressed it in such colours as you thought good to bestow vppon it euen out of those that you also haue named vnto me When as in the first lines of al after your title and sentenced that you set vs down you cannot be content to be our resoluing to serue God beginning aright and perseuering therein to be our dutie and an acceptable seruice to him but needes you will teach vs forth seeke saluation thereby not by the righteousnes of Christ but by our owne when you tell vs that our forefathers receiued the ground of faith peaceably and without quarrelling not from the holy scriptures or frō their father but from their mother the Church when as so barely you set vs down the example of Cornelius as though you would make vs beleeue that hee had works or a vertuous life acceptable to God before that euer hee had any faith when as you call it Scripture indifferently as well what you finde in those bookes that are Apochrypha as in those that are Canonicall when you tell vs that wilfulnes in Popery is suffering for righteousnes when as so odly you take occasion to let
anie liking of that which is the head-stone of the corner And if there bee no remedie but that needes you will holde on the course you are in walking in darknes in the midst of light abiding in bondage when you may bee free and disposed to perish when saluation is offered what can we doo better than as Christ in the like case did fully content settle our selues in such iudgements of God the causes whereof are euer iust howe secret soeuer they bee vnto vs. His name therefore be euer blessed and glorified of all those that are his that to the glorie of his holie name and to the further manifestation of his great and vnspeakable mercies to his chosen people it hath pleased him to hide those things from the wise and learned and to open the same vnto babes Euen so bee it for so it standeth with his good pleasure Among you all we trust there are some that doo appertaine to the secret election and are to be called in their time Now is the time when they may as plainly perceiue howe far they are falling if they should go on still with you as euer they or anie others might since the world began God giue them grace so to perceiue it and so to with-draw themselues from your naughtie waies and that while they haue this acceptable time before that euer it be too late that with you they be not partakers of those heauie iudgements that are already prepared for you and of which in the course that now you are in you shall one day tast and cannot escape would you neuer so faine FINIS The occasion of this myne Answer That the Aduersaries haue it their common maner to make much a doe about nothing This aduersarie of mine to folowe the same course likewise In what maner this my answer in framed vnto him 1 Not thinking at the first to make any answer here vnto by what reason I was after induced vnto it Of that which he had doone against me Of the Title of the booke wherein he would charge me to haue bin desirous to haue crept into the credit of it First by altering the maner of it to his best aduantage Then by striking out a word that made against him How hee hath altered my name either of grosse negligence or some foolish mysterie Of the sentence of scripture What fault he findeth in mee about it What aduantage therein he hath left against himselfe How indistinctly therfore ilfauoredly he setteth down that text of scripture How resolutely hee setteth down that which the fathers before nor the learned now could so fully agree on His idle caueling about the first page a sufficient pattern of all the rest A friuolous slander of the keies crown vpō the Archbishop of Yorke his Armes As good title thereunto onely by coupling their armes togither as they haue any by the word of God His printers Alphabet fit for the matter hee hath in hand Vpon the Epistle Dedicatorie he associateth himselfe to an The great lewdnes of his own fellowes in that kind Le Cabinet du Roy de France Aboue half a score a peece one with another had in bodily abuse by these holy fathers A wilfull ouersight Of the preface Of the foūtains whēce the booke was taken Pag. 2 3. 3 4 5 6 6.7 7 8 9 14 19 25 32 34. 35 37. 25 33. 35 39 41 Ib. Ib. 42 He altereth my words changeth the pointing to make them square better to his purpose Of the want of learning that he in his vanitie doth charge vs withall How the aduersaries euer haue shunned yet doe the triall of learning Hee is so wearie of being so roundly handled in matters of controuersies that now hee braggeth vs with an other argument to till vs aside frō dealing any longer in this Iudges 9. How arrogantly he challengeth to him selfe and his fellows that which is the farthest of frō them of al others How properly they themselues are occupyed in writing bookes of deuotion pietie and contemplation Of the faults that he findeth in the Resolution How iniustly he chargeth mee with corrupting falsifiyng c. Being takē in the maner himself he thinketh best with opē mouth to lay it on others Vpon how weake a ground-worke he buildeth this greeuous charge The places that he specially toucheth doe readily turn to his owne reproch Of the seared conscience Of sinning wilfully in their owne conscience Acts and monumēts out of Hen. Pantal. lib. 19. an 1543. in the storie of Mollius one of the Italian Martyrs Athanasius abused and falsified That he is made to speake like a good Minister of the Church of England How little cause hee hath to cōplaine of those few parentheses that I had added Of those follies and errors of his that I left out Purgatorie Auriculat confession Satisfactiō Moonks Virginitie Wilful pouertie Apparitiōs Chastising of the body Watching weeping abstinence fasting Merit Of my Annotations Of those that he calleth fond A note of Philosophers taken to himselfe and his fellowes Whether there be any reason or not why Christ should die if we shuld be saued Of those that he calleth absurd Of the maner of our knowledge one of another in the world to come The place of Cyprian abused S. Augustines rule Augustine Possidonius both abused togither What Saint Augustines rule was generally What it was more specially as touching wiuing Good reason why S. Augustine should refuse to cohabite with women yet that to be no rule vnto others that are not in the like case with him Forgetting how farre themselues are polluted with all vncleanes hee condemneth lawful marriage in vs. My Annotation depraued Of the assurāce that we haue in God Of those that he calleth wicked The conuersion of S. Anthony The conuersion of S. Augustine My Annotation dismembred The silence of the blessed Virgin Of his vain and friuolous illation vpon the premises How little cause was giuen by me that so he should charge vs. How faithfully the later church of Rome hath kept the monuments of antiquitie The Nicene Councell Decretall Epistles Constantines gift The Fathers S. Ierome S. August Particular examples M. R. in his confer cap. 5. diuis 2. De doctrin Christ. lib. 2. cap 8. Dist. 19. In canonicis (a) li. 4. dist 10. (b) de consecr dist 2. Prima quidem (c) parte 3. Quest. 75. Art 1. (d) super can missae lect 39. A. M. Reinolds in his praeface of the Confer to the Seminaries pag. 23.26 In praef ad lect in Indicem Expurg Of the treatise of Pacificatiō Of those that are trifling Of the iniurie that he saith I haue offered vnto him to the ouerthrowe of al agreement Of my methode Of those that are by him depraued in that which I had set downe to persuade others Cōcerning Religion That I shuld seem to vaunt of our owne proper lerning aboue all others He gibeth at the consequence after that first he hath taken away one halse of that whereon it depēdeth That I shuld seem to graunt that there is no cause why men should ioin with vs in respect of Religion but in respect of Policie onely The I deuise bugs on the Ecclesiastical authoritie of the B. of Rome That because I teach that we ought to rest in Christ alone for the whole worke of our redemption therefore I abolish works and that we all are little occupied in any good woorks Concerning our ciuil estate That I shuld seeme to exempt our profession from temporall calamities and that our superiors conuey our treasure out of the land to forraine vses Of the peace of the church Of carying out our treasure Other places by him depraued in that which I brought for the remouing of certain impedimentes that hinder others He first depraueth then derideth Christs descending into hell That I should grant that their faith and ours is all one About my treatise of the church Taking in hand that which I set downe first some part of it he dismembreth some he falfifieth After he dallieth thereupon That I shuld seem in such sort to graunt them to be of the church as that it were no great matter of whether religion a man were of theirs or ours How they are of the Church Rob. Bellar tom 1. com 3. lib. 3. cap. 13. cō 4. lib. 4. cap. 16. Quest. 11. ad Algasiū De Ciu. Dei lib. 20. ca. 19 How they are of that Church that is true Catholike Apostolike yet themselues nothing at all the better thereby Vpon what cause hee would haue it to seeme that I did grant them this curtesie Not so careful to keepe them in as that they should not thrust out others What it is that for this matter they are to do Two other matters of another kind Why I shuld write this Pacification That regard of temporal commodities is all that we haue to mooue others to our profession as he wold haue it Of the hope that he giueth vs of a certaine new worke to be taken in hande which none of them all nor altogither can euer perform He forgat himselfe when hee laid this vnto vs. Of the residue that he hath otherwise broght vs. Of the whole booke generally Of the Title of it The Troian horse The monks hood Acts and mon. 1209. Of the matter of it Of a few particulars That he is loath to amend that hee hath done amis Apothrypha Canonicall like Scripture with him and why Corrupt translations stil continued against the Fathers Corus That fowly he erreth in manie things In the ods that he conceiueth betwixt faith and works Pref. 7. in the book it selfe 315. In defining of a true Christian. Part. 1. c. 5. In comforting sinners against dispaire Part. ◠cap. 1. Miserable comforters all the sort of them In certaine others that do nothing belong to anie controuersie Isaac was but a child with him when he was fortie yeeres old Pag. 16. Fiftie gentlemen for two hundred and fiftie pa. 70. Iephthes sacrificing of his daughter Pag. 78. Of the time when Abraham liued pa. 143. Of the time of their bondage in Aegypt Pag. 144. The first part of the conclusion beginning with a brief recitall of the whole First generally that he dealeth herein as Laban som time dealt with Iacob Gen. 31. Then more specially in the particulars The second part of the conclusion ending with a short admonition of the iudgements of God
had beene cleane chased out of the field of al good learning Which of you al now thinke of the best you must withdrawe your eies from your selfe and from such others as you are was euer able in learning to stand vnto the cause you had in hand Supposing at the first that the Scriptures would haue serued your name were yee not faine to abandon them and to flee for helpe to the Fathers And when thence also you were beaten out were you not fain to run to the Church and there to entrench your selues in this that the Church can neuer erre As nowe likewise when you see that in that also you cannot be safe nor able to stand against the forces that come against you your onely helpe and last refuge is the perswasion of your owne conscience that so you haue beene taught such is your conscience and so you beleeue And yet I denie not but that sometimes you come foorth with some floorish or shewe of learning but yet to no purpose because that all such furniture of yours is but as a band of scattered men ofteÌ„ foiled vanquished already such as now wil abide or stand no longer togither but only till the enimie come When the captaine being hardly followed on by the enimie retireth his souldiers within their treÌ„ches or to any other strength or place of defenâ—e is it not a token that himself his company is euer weake to keep the field yea though himselfe and his soldiors too should vaune neuer so much that they could To come vnto your selues it is your manner now-adayes to talke much of learning to aduance your selues aboue the moone to make others as grashoppers in your sight and yet notwithstanding what one controuersie is there of anie importance wherein you will standeth the triall of learning what other thing doo you with all your confederates but onely retire them to their trenches What other learning is it that you teach them whereby to defend themselues in those causes but onely that so they are perswaded and that their conscience already is setled may not be mooued Had you any helpe at all in learning would you not teach it those your adherents Nay would it not â—â—â—ene as fast among you from one to another as other things are woont to doo that make for your purpose Or are you so readie to helpe one another in other matters of lesse importance and could you bee so forgetfull or so careles in this No no there is another matter in it You haue therin a priuie maime it is not in you that is the cause that you do it not Goe talke of our learning among the ignorant and of the goodnes of your cause to those that beleeue all that you say we knowe well inough that your cause is naught that you haue no learning at al that can defend it What faire offers haue often bene made you your selues do know caÌ„not denie if you would how weakly you haue behaued your selues in answering of them though you can not find in your harts to acknowledge and make your frends beleue you do not see it yet others do see it and glorifie God that now the nakednes of that strumpet of yours is so discouered that al meÌ„ may see that she was nought els for all her glittering wherwith she hath now so long deceiued vs but onely an arrant harlot most odious to God a â—â—etestation to the godly yet notwithstanding that in the iust iudgements of God a snare to you For it was meet that her illusioÌ„ shuld be stroÌ„g vpon you that hardened your harts against the gratious calling of God could neuer yet to this day be induced to receiue the loue of the truth Hauing so spoiled so many of vs at once of al our learning belike you are in som need your self when you scamble so harde with those for it that haue so litle by your own confessioÌ„ then you put with full sailes a trim gale of winde into an other fancie of yours as mad as this that is gone before and supposing it to be an hauen where you might well and safely harbour needes would yor arriue and come on shore but it is but a sand-bed you are deceiued it holdeth you of and will not suffer you there to land For now with one breath but it is but a vaine blast you do both vtterly depriue all vs of abilitie and power to make anie books or treatises of deuotion pietie and contemplation and challenge that to be a feat belonging to your selues yea proper and peculiar to you alone And but that I am nowe to keepe mee onely to that which is in this parte of your praeface which you direct against me it were a sport to see what reasons and Scriptures you gather togither towardes the ende of this your wandring and wrangling praeface and how you vrge them to make for your purpose in this matter But are you so perswaded indeed No not so it is an other matter you shoot at You know that you had for your glorie and for your bellies very much of late corrupted the truth of Christ that in such sort you had setled your errors in the hartes of the ignorant that they cannot be cleane rooted out yet And now because that wee are so busily occupyed in laying foorth your manifold errors and corruptions before the people of God by the Scriptures by the Fathers by Councels and al which is the thing that in this age of ours and as you had corrupted religion vnto vs was and yet is most of all others to bee done of vs this doth go so neere vnto you and you find your selues so netled withall and so little able to stand against it that nowe you crie for bookes of deuotion And heere it is not vnwoorthy the marking that so soone as you haue abased vs in matters of learning to aduance your selues immediately you are so deuout cal so hard for books of deuotion remembring belike that how vnlearned soeuer then in your sodain passion you had made vs yet you found that wee had alreadie so hardly beset you in matters of learning in all the controuersies that are betwixt vs that now you thought it best to call vs to bookes of deuotion that so the follie of Gahal of old might be the more liuely represented in you vnto this present age of ours For as he in the absence of Abimelek had made light of him but the next day after when he was come needed then to be egged on turned his backe and was ouerthrowne so you likewise that in a little forgetfulnes what foils you had taken in the matters of controuersie that are betwixt vs so boldlie bereaued vs of all good learning by and by after vpon better remembrance of those matters brag vs so hard with bookes of deuotion that in the controuersies it seemeth you graunt that you are not able to go
country of England sauing onely when it pleaseth you to steale in to your own aduauntage and to helpe forward some wicked practise For as for those others that you alledge of former times and of the learned of other countries when you come to this praesent time your portion is little or none in them In all ages and places God is woont to stirre vp some to rebuke the loosenes of those dayes wherein they liue especially when that great loosenes that popish idolatrie brought in amongst vs did so mightily praeuaile as it did and yet dooth at this time also in all those countries where yet it raigneth Whereas therefore those that you haue named doo appertaine either vnto former ages when popery raigned or to those countries that yet are in that miserable captiuitie and so consequently to those times and places that abound in all manner of loosenes and could not then and cannot yet get the opportunitie to debate the controuersies of Religion nor to sift out the corruption thereof what other thing were the former then or the latter nowe able to doo to better purpose than to inueigh so much as they could against that loosenes that so much ouer-whelmed all godlines amongst them But now when we come vnto you our discontented countrymen of England such of you especially as are the greatest stirrers and sticklers in these our dayes wee would gladly knowe of you whither wee might goo or where wee might seeke to finde anie of you all so tollerably occupyed To Rhemes But wee see well inough and too much a great deale what matters you hammer out on your forges there To Rome What is it else but euen the verie nursery it selfe of all these treacheries whereabout you haue beene so long imployed against the lawe of nature of man of God and what other thing is it that there you doo but that first you learne those Italian feates and then that you vndergoe the charge and addresse your selues to put them in practise Or shall we seeke out where otherwise you are heere and there lurking with those that are most like vnto your selues within the lande Wee may long seeke you before wee can finde you you lie so close and so much disfigurely your selues besides But whensoeuer we find you we are sure of this that wee cannot otherwise finde you occupied than in defacing the present state and the truth it selfe and lying the platforme of some rebellion or wicked practisse or putting the same in execution As for bookes of deuotion pietie and contemplation write them who will you are not the men that will trouble the world with any such matters Let others take the paines to doo them it is ynough for you when they are doone to take vnto your selues the glorie of them Though you bee not of that disposition nor temper that you can occupie your selues with so honest and godly and peaceable affaires yet when they are done your temper can beare it well inough both to make them as pack-horses vnto you to carie forth your errors withall and besides that to shrewd your credits and couer your practises vnder the claime and title of them But that you do so busily take vp and that in your owne person too loth to trust your harbinger with it all the roomes in the Catholike Church that none may haue place there but your selues alone who of all others here among vs are farthest from it that so it might the rather bee thought that this minâ— of coyning bookes of deuotion goeth onely with you and that to that end also you make the truth of Christ so to participate the very power and force therof to your most loathsome ridiculous popery as though it could not stand without it both these pointes are of such a nature at that the boldâ—ier you doo auouch them the lesse doo wee neede to make you answereâ— 10 And now that you com to the bookes themselues first you begin with the Resolution and therein first you charge mee with very ill dealing throughout the whole and then you come vnto certaine particulars The ill dealing that you lay to my charge throughout the whole is no lesse than corrupting falsifiyng and mangling of this your booke and of the Fathers and Scriptures alledged therein as appeereth in this place of your praeface and in the title annotations and table it selfe of this your new booke But are you so liberall to charge me so deepâ—ly vpon so small occasion as this Had you any thing at all elected your selfe of the selfe-same kinde of dealing which hee that â—et out your former Resolution vsed towardes the originall copie as before I noted by verie good proofe in my praeface to the Reader and out of the third and beginning of the fourth chapters of the first part thereof or but your fellow to whom I pointed in mine Epistle then both I could haue â—orne it better and others might haue thought that you had proceeded more orderly vnto it But you were taken with the manner and finding no way to helpe your selfe you thought best to passe â—â— ouer with silence and with open mouth to lay that fault to the charge of others so much as you might But to let you alone with your owne dooings and to deale no further with you but onelie so far as is needfull to answer your wrongful charging of me did I offer anie other discurtesie vnto you but only that in quietnes I left out that which I saw could not wel stand Did I it with any conâ—umelie or bitternes towards you And did I not plainly professe vnto all what it was that therein I had done Did those few things that I added or any parentheses as you call them put anie thing in that was contrarie to your profession or disagreeing from the argument that you had in hand If you found any of those things in mee how is it that you haue not brought them to light If not what colour of reason had you therein to exercise the bitternes of your stile against me Are you so farre priuiledged that you may set downe whatsoeuer you lift without controlment When you are disposed to set foorth error thay no bodie 〈◊〉 maintaine the truth Must you haue that libertie and freedome to sende vs in whatsoeuer you 〈◊〉 and must we bee tied to accept of all When you haue taken the Fathers and Scriptures captiueâ— and abuse them at your pleasure and very dishonorably hale them after you may no bodie stir to cut asunder their bands of captiuitie and to set them free from such slauerie of yours When wiâ—â— find you to haue dealt so verie iniuriously with the godly Fathers and with the Scriptures themselues must it needes bee corrupting falsifiying and mangling to redresse the same But that you 〈◊〉 so desirous to make your case all one with 〈◊〉 you are to know that you are but a scholleâ—â— you are no Father If it were ill doone so to deale with
our profession and frame them to speake euen as Iohn Caluin speaketh in all matters of controuersie or rather as that good man for the time would haue them speake vnto whose hands the last edition of such works should bee committed all this is so much as concerneth vs but a vain causles out-crie and so much as concerneth you a false and a foolish Tesuiticall out facing of that which you know to be nothing so For what cause haue I giuen you either in this sort to charge me or for my sake so impotently to run vpoÌ„ others to poure forth vpon them so plentifully what the distemperature of your vnquiet braine can imagine or the volubilitie of your slanderous tong can vtterâ— Haue you herein any cause to complaine that we haue no honest meaning no fidelitie no conscience no regard of God or man Are not these very greeuous accusations And must it of necessitie follow that either you haue in this dealing of mine some special cause so far to complain or els that you make no conscience at all falsly to accuse and to beare â— shew as though you had much matter against vs wherein notwithstanding you knowe you haue none And so because it is euidently seene that heerein you haue no such cause to complaine as you would seem by such an out-crie to haue euâ— in the iudgement of your owne adhaerents therefore haue you now euen in this onely though we had no other proofe at all against you as indeede we haue very much sufficiently declared both that such complaintes of yours doo not euer import any fault in vs and that this heauie charge of yours of no honest meaning no fidelitie no conscience no regard of God or man finding no place to light vpon vs returneth home to your selfe againe as to the proper owner of it 19 To say somewhat particularly both of my faultines in this matter especially of the innocencie that you claim to your selues haue I herein so much as attempted to make the booke that I did publish to seeme to be yours in such sorte as I had published the same Did I not both in the Title briefly and in the Praeface more at large plainly praemonish and acknowledge what I had doone for that matter Did I not perswade my selfe thinke you that if therein I had left you anie aduantage against me you wold haue bene readie to take hold of it haue not your selfe verified that coniecture of mine that so mightily storme for nothing at all And though I had not regarded you yet for mine own credits sake I might in no wise haue set it forth in such sort as I did and withal beare the world in hande that so it was set out by you For who would haue beleeued that one of the adhaerents of the Church of Rome a wilful exile from his country for that forrain preâ—ates sake and of blinde zeale or vaine hope or for impunitie a professed Frier as it is thought would euer publish anie such booke so litle infected with their owne vnsauerie opinions All men know wel inough in what maner you speake and what ye write nothing at al when you are in your proper vaine but contentious brablings or traiterous libels or when you come foorth vnder a viâ—ard borrowing for a purpose the shewe of some godlines to make it a packe-horse to carrie foorth your poperie by it If I therefore should haue giuen foorth the same as yours I had not onely giuen forth an vntruth of you but also I had discredited my selfe for that no bodie would haue beleued that so corrupt branches as you and your fellowes are knowne to bee could euer bring foorth any fruit that is so little corrupted And as for your selfe you need not to feare that it would bee altogither accounted yours vnles you were sure that there be none that can set downe such a petigree of it as that they leaue a verie small portion thereof to be yours but those brabling points of popery onely I haue heard long since and not sought out by mee by one that hath trauailed in those parts that your selfe did but translate the Booke that nowe you call yours and added vnto it most of those points of popery and not much besides that the Booke was before in the Italian toong and in Italy commonly solde and by the reporter read there But whether it be so or not I cannot say nor will not ground vpon report If it bee so your self best knoweth and then there is the lesse cause why you should take this matter so hotely Sure I was when first I read it that a latter had busilie added vnto the doings of the former and that chiefly in matters of popery as in my preface before I noted And since I saw your latter booke I was therby much more strengthened to thinke that whose soeuer the better part of the forine booke was without all quaestion it was none oâ— yours But to returne to my selfe againe seing that I had sufficiently acknowledged and published to all that it was not doone by you in such sorte as it was set foorth by me you haue no cause hereby to gather that we are so voide of honest dealing fidelitie conscience and regard of God and man that if wee had the keeping and setting out of the Fathers as you haue had we would lop them and circumcise them and make them to speake as our selues would I haue doone no more yet but onlie that I would not suffer you to traile them in against their wils and to make them speake as you would haue them I haue not laboured to make them speake as we would haue them 20 And so nowe to come to your selues that haue had those monuments of antiquitie so long in your keeping and haue as you would fayne haue the world perswaded so truly kept them so faithfully set them foorth to others heerein you discouer your vnshamefast and graceles nature so far that no bodie needeth to lay you more open than you do your selfe For what man that hath anie honest shame can so confidently beare the world in hand in that which himselfe doth know to be most vntrue and that not onely for the time that is past but also for this time that now is present For as touching the time that is past howe can you be ignorant would you neuer so faine of the great corruptions and forgeries that your Church of Rome hath euer vsed Immediately after that persecution was ceased and that you had gotten a litle rest beginning to deuise for your owne aduauncement did you not labour to haue corrupted the Nicene councell and that so grosly that you were manifestly taken withall by the whole councell of Carthage S. Augustine himself beeing one of the Fathers that tooke you with it And when you were taken with the manner did you then acknowledge your fault and aske forgiuenes that we might conceiue hope of
little childe And this we are sure was no bodies els but onely your owne because it is not in the former Booke but onely in this latter of your owne trimming vp But I feare it is you that was the child and not he because the Scripture in the next chapter after doth plainely witnesse that he was at that time vpon fortie yeeres olde Whence you shuld haue this conceit of yours I cannot tell Howbeit hereby you make me to call to remembrance a much like matter that was saide to bee doone in Oxfoord about the same time that you were there if you bee the same that I heare that you are or at least not so long before but that a fresh report thereof might very well reach vnto you A certaine company of country plaiers came thither to play they made it knowne what they did meane and as the maner is drew in a companie soone vnto them Among other thinges they had to deale with the storie of Isaac both of his sacrificing when he was but a childe and of his marriage when after he came to riper age They were not so wel stored of persons to furnish their partes but that one boy must play Isaac both in his childhood and manhood also but as the boies own face serued their turne for Isaacs childhood so had they for him a faire long beard to resemble his manhood But all the cunning was to hit the time when he should haue his beard on and when he should not What will you there was no more but right and wrong When therefore hee came foorth as a childe to bee sacrificed hee had on his beard and when after he was to be married then as a child he had it off and onely his owne boyes face to shut vp the matter But I hope you were neuer so mad as to take it thence That which you speake of your fiftie Gentlemen consumed by fire might with some colour bee laid on the Printer but that the number is written at large and especially for that you haue so many slips of this kinde that it is a great deale more likely that you aimed thereat after your manner blindly inough but so well as you could Howbeit the storie is both in the Bible and in Iosephus too that they were no lesse than two hundred and fiftie But it may bee those two hundred were wearie of their entertainment because you did looke no better vnto them and so being disposed to play the gentlemen with you got them out of sight when you should haue taken the view of them For the sacrificing of Iephthes daughter whom you say her father did put to death you haue I grant in that matter many great authors for you both olde and newe But if it had pleased you better to haue opened your eyes to the light that in these daies God hath giuen vs it may bee you might haue espied an other opinion likely to haue the stronger warrant in the worde of God Your reckoning likewise that Abraham liued verie neere two thousand yeeres after Adam must vnlesse you followe as knowing no better the Graecian account improperly spoken or els false because the truth is that it was but a little more betwixt the first creation of the world and the birth of Abraham otherwise from the death of Adam vnto Abrahams calling which seemeth to lie neerest to your purpose therin to the best aduauntage for you there wants aboue 800. of those that you haue gathered But whereas you make 400 yeeres after the death of Iacob of the people of Israels bondage in AEgypt you shewe your selfe nothing neere to vnderstand howe to reckon those 400. yeeres that are mentioned Gen. 15.13 Act. 7.6 as in the 13. chap. likewise 20 verse sauing that others are there put vnto them nor those 400. 30. in the 12. of Exodus the 14. verse and in the ◠to the Galathians and 17. verse Wherin althogh the iudgement of diuers doth some-thing varies yet is there no such varying in them as vnder which you may be able to couer the ignorāce that here hath slipt you For seing that you shew your selfe to speake of that part of the time whereof there is little recorded in Scripture of their dooings the same to be after the death of Iacob for both these limitations are your owne you haue made it euident thereby that you meane that very time in which the persecution was raised against them and afterward in cruel maner was executed vpon them and not the whole time from the first calling of Abraham nor from the promisse renewed vnto him For from the first calling of Abraham vntil their comming downe into AEegypt and likewise of their first entertainment there for a time there is in Scripture so much recorded as excepting the first and the last yere of their being in the wildernes onely there is not more of anie historie of that quantitie of time in all the Bible besides that it all went before the death of Iacob But now whereas from the calling of Abraham or from the promisse renewed vnto him vntill their deliuerance out of AEgypt there are reckoned but those foure hundred thirty yeres in all the time of their wandring in Canaan the coasts thereabout is verie cleerely found to be two hundred and fiftene yeeres before that Iacob by Iosephs means came to soiourn in AEgypt the residue of Iosephs life after that his father was come was about threscore eleuen al which are parcel of those foure hundred thirtie yeres and past before that bondage of theirs began it appereth most plainly that herein you wer maruelous wide are in no wise able to excuse your ignorance in it So that howsoeuer your fellowes may vse you to som other purpose that wil serue their turn as wel yet by your patience it seemeth to me that they neede some other to make their reckonings But of these inough more than needed but that needes you must be the onely men of the world for learning praunce vp down on the face of the earth and fling here and there like the goodliest and the most seruiceable coursers that are yet in the plainest ground that is are euer tripping and stumbling too and ofttimes falling flat downe on all foure Insomuch that wheresoeuer els your learning lieth yet in the word of God we find that you are but as other men are those not of the greatest account You make so light of it that it also maketh as light of you and therfore sendeth you emptie away that so you may bee both to your selues and to those that chuse you to be their leaders that of the iust iudgements of God an heauie and an vnprofitable burthen lamps without light and wandring guides euer shocking on to fro in the glimmering of your own light and by the sparks that your selues haue kindled and yet
not restrained further among vs than the woorde of God alloweth it to be Which latter point was in no wise to be reprooued by you considering how fowly you are polluted because you doo so far abandon that holie ordinance of God from you And yet are you so eagerly set thereon that to force that aduauntage on your side you haue depraued both my Annotation and Saint Augustines rule besides which faine you would haue strengthened against vs therin With like wisedome and honestie is it that when wee aduaunce the blessednes of these daies to the glorie of God and ioy that our monie dooth not nowe goe foorth to the mainteinance of forraine power abroad you call the one intolerable lying flatterie the other you 〈◊〉 is but a fiction As touching my selfe there â—â—ede bee no question but that you are througly â—â—â—gred with me you do so vnquietly take whatsoeuer I doo whatsoeuer I say When I bring in that sentence of Scripture Iesus Christ yesterday today and the same for euer you cannot tell what I should meane thereby and besides you abuse for my sake I feare the sentence it selfe When I am so bold as to gesse that a good part of your booke might be taken out of certain of the Schoolmen thereupon I must bee so ignorant in them that I do not so much as knowe what they treat on and yet both you know that so it might and your self are faine both to shut vp your eies that you might in no wise see whom I speake of and there also to alter my words againe to your aduauntage Afterward in the Pacification not onely the methode misliketh you when as notwithstanding you doe finde no fault with it but also whatsoeuer I say that do you euer almost take in a contrarie sense when as notwithstanding the woordes bee cleere inough in themselues as before is declared But then comming to your owne sweet selues the copie of your countenance is by and by altered and there you put on more amiable lookes For you forsooth are the onely men that can make books of deuotion pretie contemplation you perhaps it is wel that this commeth in with perhaps will one day declare that our profession is such as hath nothing at all in heauen nor in earthy to mooue men vnto it but onely respect of temporal commoditie but yours hath all So that now for deuotion and the controuersies also all the learning that thereunto belongeth lieth altogither with you and none with vs. And yet are you no sooner entered into the remembrance of the learning you haue found in manie of vs and name 〈◊〉 in the controuersies that are betwixt vs but that by and by you call hard vpon vs for bookes of deuotion when you were desirous to say somewhat against vs by the authoritie and force of some speciall places in all your store you found none other but such as did most readily turne against your selues when you thought you had Cyprian to accord vnto you in your perswasion of our glorified estate it appeereth you did not vnderstand your owne author when you heard that the silence of the blessed Virgin and of other Disciples of Christ leauing him vnto the reproch of all men and nothing at all defending his innocencie against them was a breach of diuers of Gods commaundements you could not tell how to begin to find it the breach of anie one To which end also may bee referred that knowledge and faith is with you but of one weeks learning your grosse and rude definition of a Christian man your imperfect discourse against despaire your so vnskilfull reckoning of those yeres that I haue admonished you of so distinctly and plainly set downe in the text it selfe But the more you denie learning to those that so readilie finde such ignorances in you in so small a roome so manie togither in a woorke that was laboured and carâ—â—â—ing with it great vaunts of learning the strongger you conclude against your selfe the more haue you brought your selfe in question and the lesse are you able nowe to cast off the selfe-same reproch that you were so desirous to cast vpon vs. All which if nowe you had rather to haue in lesse roome it is no more in effect but this that you haue boldly borne vs in hand of much you haue mistaken depraued and falsified more and freelie haue you taken your libertie and pleasure to carpe at all but otherwise against me or for your selfe that is woorth the writing or woorth the reading you haue brought as little as may bee and that is nothing 38 This is in a manner the effect of all your labours heerein these are the causes you had to complaine and this is the busines you haue made thereupon And now haue I no more at this time to say vnto you because I see no such temper in you as may put mee in anie hope to doo you anie good by sound admonition For seeing that you haue so manie waies so ill a cause not onelie in your religion now but also in your naughtie dealings against princes and states themselues yet notwithstanding are in no wise able your selues to find it nor can be made to perceiue it by those that do most plainly point you vnto it how many we thinke otherwise of you but that either you are starke blind and can see nothing at all or els haue hardened your hartes so much against the mercifull calling of God that though you see it yet you cannot beleeue it nor yeeld your selue in obedience vnto it If it be so then is it cleere that in that case there can bee no dealing with youâ— your conuersion so long as the iustice of GOD doth leaue you therein to your selues Yet others may see and acknowledge in you the feareful but righteous iudgements of God that hauing followed idols so much as you haue nowe are you become idols your selues hauing eies and yet not able to see eares and yet not able to heare faire nostrels to see too and yet hauing in them of this kind of life no breath at all Insomuch that nowe we haue in you experience againe of that which hath beene taught vs before that as the wares of God are plaine and right vnto the iust so are they stumbling-blockes to the wicked and that Christ himselfe in the wisedome of the Father is in so wonderfull maner giuen vnto vs as that although he be in Sion a chiefe corner-stone ebect and pretious to them that beleeue yet is hee likewise a stone to stumble at a rocke of offence to them which stumble at the woord and are disobedient Go your waies therefore yee shrinking children that haue forsaken the Lord of life and counted your selues vnwoorthie of him that haue had the Gospell deliuered vnto you by Christ himselfe and haue not kept it that all this while bearing the world in hande that you are the onelie builders can neuer bee induced to haue