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
P. then a certaine space after that Perused accompanied now with a Treatise tending to Pacification by Ed. Bunny so distinguishing the one from the other and putting mine owne name to no more than was mine setting those two letters vnto the other that I found in the end of the praeface following you haue told your gentle Reader that I haue giuen it this title A booke of Christian exercise c. Perused and accompanied with a Treatise tending to Pacification by Edm. Bunny Wherin although you durst not be so bold as plainly to charge me that I would seeme to take vpon mee more than was mine yet in couert maner you go very neere it in suppressing those letters that I put to the former part of the title and by setting my name in such sort in the end of the latter as that it might seeme to haue bene set by me to them both The seely help that you haue for your self is in your miserable c. but plain dealing had bene much better And that you ment to giue the occasion that others might think that I had vsed so indirect dealing another thing also doth very much boad if it do not cleerly proue it that is when you came to recite the latter part of the title as I had set it ther because you saw the maner of it was such as that it would not take it well that you should so vse me therfore did you therwithal cut his toong out of his head that it might not bewray you For whereas I had noted in the title that nowe that book of Resolutiō was accompanied with that other Treatise of mine tending to Pacification because that it did plainely import that that booke of Resolution was before and none of mine therfore you strooke out that worde Now that others might the more easily conceiue that opinion of mee that therein you laboured to cast vpon mee If in truth you were persuaded that you had such aduantage against me in those things that follow as afterward you would seeme that you are you might well haue spared this kind of dealing and either you should haue set downe the whole as I did so to affoord me my iust defence or else you should haue suppressed that togither with the other which being seuered from that other might for your sake seem to charge me with that which I did not Now that herein you doe leaue out one of the letters of my name and not onely here but continually after almost throughout your whole booke I know not well what to say vnto it If you haue done it of set purpose belike you haue some mysterie in it if it be so then bring it foorth and accordingly you shall heare from mee againe if neede so require If not that is if you haue no mysterie in it then is your negligence very apparant that hauing it set down right vnto you you haue so very often missed it when you were to set it downe againe And wheresoeuer such negligence reigneth belike the matters are not great that there we may looke for But because that this matter was but of small importance wee will bee perswaded that you made store of your diligence heere and would not gladly spende anie part of it now that so you might haue the more in a readines for that which followeth 3 After the title you take in hand the sentence of Scripture which I did set vnder the same Iesus Christ yesterday and to day and the same for euer Heb. 13.8 and therein you charge me two special wayes and yet notwithstanding you leaue vnto me greater aduauntage against you therein then you haue any against me in any part of the whole whatsoeuer But belike the sentence it selfe being so pregnant as it is against the very sinewes and marrow of your profession did at the first euen at the verie sight thereof so offend your eies that afterward you could not deale peaceably with it First you say you see not to what purpose I should place that sentence there you cal it a mysterie and you thinke it were hard for other men to coniecture why I did it What if you knowe not why it was done What need that offend you So that the sentence it selfe be good what neede you be greeued that you finde it there Are your gatherings or gleanings of that nature that such a sentence may not bee allowed such place among them But because you cannot coniecture nor others neither as you suppose what reason I had there to place it I will not sticke my selfe to tell you that which may satisfie you and those others You must know I had to deale with that which did not in diuers pointes agree with the truth it selfe in Iesus Christ which when I laboured to take away it might be notwithstanding that I left some vnespied of mee In which respect euerie one may plainely see that it did very fitly appertaine to the purpose both to be a defence vnto me for such corruptions as I tooke from it and to be a preseruatiue withall against such corruptions as remained if any such were shewing therby that I meant not to commend or leaue any other vnto them but only Iesus Christ our Sauior And if you had not blind-folded your selfe before you came to it with a setled purpose to catch at whatsoeuer you might get any holde of your selfe no doubt must needs haue seene it so fitlie it doth agree with the purpose that I had in hād and the argument it selfe doth so plainely witnes the same Then you proceede to a further matter and deale more hardly both with mee and the text it selfe The text you would haue supposed to be not onely in it selfe harde or obscure but also one of those Obscure sentences or places wherewith The holie Fathers noted the ancient heretikes to delight themselues and deceiue others and then comming to mee that I haue to that ende brought it in that is to delight my selfe deceiue others Wherein that you may preuaile the better in your margēt you send vs to Epiphanius Augustine after a sort to S. Peter too as thogh we should find the same in them Who knoweth not I pray you that heretiks were wont as plainly appeereth now in your selues to vse certain sentences of scripture to establish their errours withall But what is that to this purpose Haue you anie dowt of any such dealing in this must Iesus Christ yesterday to day the same for euer be now so obscure so apt to deceiue so ready a tricke for an heretike I know what you mean and if you durst for shame you would speak plainlier than you do If Iesus Christ be the only Sauior for al the ages already past for the time present for the time to com you see not well where to cog in those other deuises mony-doctrines that you haue of your owne For this cause therfore
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
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
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
and is in no wise to be allowed As touching the other with what face could you say it that â— do charge my fellow Ministers and brethren first to haue vrged this separation e Whereas in truth I doo no where so charge them but verie plainelie impure that to our aduersaries and especially to those that are the most cunning and most learned of them adding further in plaine tearmes both that they doo busily vrge that point and would haue neither vs nor others to make at all any quaestion of it is plainely appeereth in the beginning of the fifteenth section But belike the time is nowe come that God would haue it knowne vnto the world that the deeper you are rooted in those your Romish conceits and the more sway that you beare among your selues that are of that sort the more assured may we also bee that you haue the more piâ—â— off not onely al conscience and feare of God oâ—â— all honestie too and shame among men so 〈◊〉 to auouch so plaine vntruths 29 Your dalliance tendeth to this ende that now at the length I against al custom of my brethren do offer vnto you this so great and sodaine courtesie â—hen that you take vppon you to shewe what the cause is why so I haue doone This great and sodaine cortesie that now I offer vnto you is that I doo not denie you to bee members of the same church with vs generally and therewithal grant that the church wherof I speak is the true church Catholike and Apostolike I cannot denie you to be of one and the self-same church with vs generally because that being demaunded of your faith you say that you beleue in Christ and withal witnes that your profession by receiuing after a sort both the old Testament the new those two Sacraments that are therein to vs commended as we also on the other side beleue in Christ receiue those scriptures haue those Sacraments in daily vse But this curtesie as you tearme it doth not in truth so much please you as it doth inwardly vex fret you that therby you see your woÌ„ted course so crossed with the truth it selfe that you are out of hope so farre to abuse the facilitie of diuers as heretofore ful oft you haue done to your own aduauntage bearing them in hand and facing them downe that if they like not of your errors but imbrace the truth of Christ as it is in it selfe without your corrupt or needles additioÌ„s they are no more of the Church as they were before but now must go seeke a new habitation so conuey their descent froÌ„ other auncestors as that alwaies they find theÌ„selues to be a distinct people froÌ„ you not only since your corrupt estate but also before That you account this a new a sodain curtesie that I now at the length against all custom of my brethrenâ— as you say do offer to you that it is a meere fiction of yours a manifest vntruth yet notwithstaÌ„ding it is true too that hitherto we haue accounted you as your self alledgeth yet do the Synagogue of Sathan For we all accouÌ„t you in som sense to bee of the church as the Scribes and Pharisies were as that maÌ„ of sin is said to sit in the Temple of God as abhomination was said to stand in the holy place as Ismael was for a time with Isaac in the house of Abraham as Esau was for a time with Iacob in the womb of Rebecca as those wer builders that euer refused the head stone of the corner as those were his owne that neuertheles did refuse him knew him not when he came amoÌ„g them many such like I dare aduenture that you are able to alledge none that in such seÌ„se denieth you to be of the church As for example M. Caluin is one that most of al excludeth you from al sound interest in the church of God colour of it as plainly appeereth as in many other places of his godly profouÌ„d learned works so namelie in the second chap. of the fourth booke of his Institutions And yet he so concludeth his Treatise as that in such sense as I haue set down he leaueth you some interest in the church His woordes are plaine in the beginning of the last section of that chap. Quum ergo ecclesiae tit ulum non simpliciter voâ—umus concedere Papistis non idro Ecclesias apud cos esse inficianâ—â—er sed tantum litigamus de vera legitiâ—ima ecclesiae institutione quae in communione cum sacrorum quae signa sunt professionis tum vero potissimum doctrinae requiritur Antichrist uÌ„ in temple Dei sessurum praedixerunt Dan. Paul illius scelerati et abominandi regni ducem antesignanum apud nos facimus Rom. Pont. Quod sedes eius in templo Dei collocatur it a innuitur tale fore eius regnum quod nec Christi nec ecclesiae nomen aboleat Hinc igittur patet nos minime negare quin sub eius quoque tyrannide Ecclesiae maneaÌ„t sed quas sacrilegia impietate profanarit c. That is when as we do not simply or without al maner of limitatioÌ„ grant to the papists the title of the Church we do not altogither denie that they haue any churches but only we striue about the true lawfull institution of the Church which is sought in the felowship or partaking partly of holy thinges which are signs of our profession but chiefly of doctrine That Antichrist should sit in the temple of God Daniel and Paul haue for shewed of that wicked abhominable kingdome we doo holde that with vs the captaine and chiefe leader is the B of Rome That his seal is placed in the Temple of God thereby wee are giuen to vnderstand that such shal be the maner of his kingdome that shall not abolish the name of Christ or of the Church Hence therfore it appeareth that we doubt denie but that vnder his tyrannie Churches remaine but such as he with sacrilegious impietie hath prophaned c. And on 2. Thes. 2.4 he thus coÌ„cludeth his treatise thereon Templumerge Dei esse fateor in quo dominatur Papa sed innumeris sacrilegiis prophanatum That is I graunt therefore that to bee the Temple of God in the which the Pope beareth the sway but with innumerable sacrilegies prophaned Luther also you know wel inough dealeth roundly with you maketh you no better in respect of our Apostacle and vsurpation than the Synagogue of Sathan and the Kingdome of the Beast and yet in respect of the worde and Sacraments after a som remaining among you he dooth freely leaue you altogither as much as I haue giuen you For writing against the Anabaptists hee graunteth that there is plurimum bom Christiani sub Papatu and then reckoneth vp the holy Scriptures both the Sacraments and the Catechisme of the Lords Prayer the ten Commandements the Articles of the faith graunting
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
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