Carthage (m) CoÌ„cil Carthag 3. c. 47. did admit into the CanoÌ„ the same books which Councell was kept within the first foure hundred (n) In the yeare of our Lord 397. years or in the beginning of the fifth age consequeÌ„tly that those books were held Canonicall within the lightsome tymes of Christianity when Religion did most flourish Secondly he saith that neuer any Popish Generall Councell was so presumptuous before this of Trent that euer durst adde more bookes to the sacred Canon then we receiued from the Church of the old Testament which is most inconsiderately spoken and apparently false except he meane to reiect as Apocriphall the foure Ghospells all the rest of the Apostolicall Scriptures of the new Testament which were not receiued from the Church of the old Testament as all know Thirdly he saith it is little materiall whether the Generall Councell of Florence did admit these bookes into the Canon or no seeing it was but a small tyme before Trent scarce an (o) Aboue an 100. yeares betwen these 2. Councells FloreÌ„ce in the year 1438. Trent began in the year 1545. 100. yeares by which you see what small accompt this Bachelour makes of Generall CouÌ„cells not fearing to meet in the field all the learned men of the Latin Greek Church who were gathered togeather in that generall Councell of Florence thinking himselfe perchance to be the Sampson of Protestants able to put to silence a thousand of such Doctours with the iaw-bone of an asse 8. Fourthly It is cleare saith he that neuer generall CouÌ„cell made these bookes Canonicall before Trent This S. Hierome doth conuince to be false saying of the booke of Iudith (p) HieroÌ„ praefat in Iudith Hunc librum Nicena Synodus in numero saÌ„ctarum Scripturarum legitur computasse The Hebrews placed this booke among the Apocriphall writings the authoritie of which is not sufficient in their opinion to establish any doctrine of faith but seeing we read that the Councell of Nice hath accounted this booke among the Canonicall I haue yielded c. What say you to this Councell M. Crashaw Was it popish Was it made in darke tymes Was it presumptuous Or may not you rather seeme puppish presumptuous that talke in the darke you know not what Fiftly he saith that we are not able to bring one Father that held these bookes to be Canonical within the first foure hundred yeares after Christ Looke into Bellarmine (q) Tom 1. coÌ„trouers 1. de verbo Dei l. 1. c. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. and Coccius (r) Tom. 1. l. 6. art 4. 9. 12. 13. 17. 18. whom he citeth and you shall clearely find he careth not what he saith For they both bring diuers Fathers that liued within the foure first ages after Christ for all and euery one of those six bookes in so much that of the booke of VVisdome which both Protestants and Iewes reiect Eusebius (s) Lib. 4. Histor c. 22. writeth that Aegysippus and Irenaeus omnis antiquorum chorus all the company of ancient Fathers doe affirme Salomon to be the author thereof of the authority of whose bookes neuer ancient Father did doubt And the same might be proued of the other fiue as you shall heare by that which shal be proued against his next impudent assertion where like that frantick Athenian who vaunted in the streets that all the ships in the hauen were his not being owner of so much as one dareth say that he is able to proue that all the Fathers for foure hundred yeares did reiect them not citing in text or margin so much as one a signe that he is a great prouer against vs in pulpit where without controll he may lye as he lift 9. And seeing he is so skilfull in the ancient Fathers we will set him a taske against the next tyme he print Let him proue that S. Augustine who liued and was conuerted vnto Christ within the first foure hundred (t) in the yeare 385. yeares did not admit these bookes who not only doth number then in the Canon of Scripture in his priuate (u) l. 2. de doctrina Christiana c. 8. writings but also subscribed to the Councell of Carthage where all those books are admitted into the sacred Canon as hath been sayd Let him proue that (x) l. 1. de partibê° diuinae legis Iulius Africanus or S. Ambrose did reiect the booke of Tobie which he termes (y) lib. de Tob. 1. PropheticuÌ„ librum a Propheticall booke of Scripture That S. Cyprian did reiect the same booke who citing it saith (z) Serm. de eleemos initio Loquitur in Scripture Spiritus sanctus the holy Ghost speaketh in the Scriptures That S. Athanasius or the Councell of Nice did reiect the booke of (a) Hieron prafat in Iudith Iudith That the same S. Cyprian did * S. Cyril l. 2. in Iulian vltra medium calles the booke of Wisdome diuine Scripture Melito epist ad Onefimum putteth it in the Canon The General CouÌ„cell of Sardica vseth the testimony thereof as Scripture against the Arians as Theodoret doth mention l. 1. Histor c. 7. let M. Crashaw proue they did reiect them reiect the booke of VVisdome which he calleth (b) De habit virg diuinam Scripturam diuine Scripture maketh Salomon the (c) Serm. de mortalit Author thereof Let him proue that S. Augustine did reiect the booke of Machabees which he saith not (d) Libros Machabaeorum non Iudaei sed Ecclesia pro Canonicis habet lib. 18. de ciuit c. 36. the Iewes but the Church of Christ doth hould for Canonicall 10. And here by occasion of S. Augustine and the booke of the Machabees I must giue M. Crashaw warning that in proofe of his assertion he bring not such testimonyes as are the three Syr Edward Hobby alleadgeth out of S. Augustine to proue he reiected the Machabees ignorantly and impudently corrupted not by Syr Edward himself I cannot thinke so dishonourably of men of his calling but by his trencher-School-maister or some mercinary (e) Syr Edward Hobbyes letter p. 23. Lecturer perchance euen by M. Crashaw himself who is great in the booke of this credulous (f) pag. 55. Knight whom they make fly hoodwinke to catch flyes which hood if I pull from his eyes that he may see how they (g) His owne phrase pag. 92. abuse him I hope he will take it in good part The first is out of the booke De mirabilibus sacrae Scripturae (h) l. 2. c. 34. which he citeth by their direction as S. Augustines which all learned men by vniforme consent discard from that number as a booke of no accoumpt which censure was made of this booke many hundred yeares (i) by S. Thomas 3. p. q. 45. a. 3. ad 2. before Syr Edward was borne or his Church eyther whose antiquity he doth say truly the Ladyes are not able to (k) In
of the English Church as Protestants haue that they haue laboured fully the curing and conuerting of the Roman Of what can M. Crashaw crake that the Brownists may not brag of the like or better That his men haue written many learned bookes specially these later yeares that if he may giue his iudgment the skirts of the Romish whore were neuer more clearely discouered but haue not Brownists also written many bookes Doe not they plentifully alleadg Scripture And if they might speake freely their iudgment at the Crosse as this Wise man doth The Brownists bookes would they not say they haue clearely discouered the skirts of the English Babylon or Whore Will our Bachelour boast of his Churches deuotion and prayer for the conuersion of Rome But can he accuse Brownists as slack in this ponit as not wishing hartily or not praying earnestly for the conuersion of England The Church of S. Antlings in London praying euery morning at six a clock hys example scarse matchable in the world Their prayers are they not all or most of them Brownists and their friends fauourits that fill the Church pray so loud that they be heard to Rome and shame the Pope Their examples and Cardinals for their negligence in this duty Can M. Crashw except against the Brownists example of professing their owne religion in Englands sight How many of that sort liue openly and are knowne generally in the Realme particulerly in London whereas Protestants if any be in Italy or in Rome they are priuy so close that no eye can see them and so sweet that none haue list to smell them out 8. M. Crashaws fourth salue of making lawes executing in iustice and suspending in mercy Brownists yet haue not vsed towardes him and his fellowes because they haue not the sword of temporall authority in their handes which if they get and to get it they haue done and still vse their best endeauours wherein M. Crashaw cannot iustly accuse them of slacknes they will make Protestants vnderstand that they can plaister them with their owne salues both execute in iustice and suspend in mercy aswell as they making Ministers weare sheetes insteed of Surplisses and their Bishops looke through ropes as they do now through Rochets So that I see not which of M. Crashawes salues and plaisters applyed to vs Brownists haue not with their best skill vsed vnto them that were in their power to vse and therfore haue as good testimony to their conscience for their discharge as Protestants can haue nay far better and more assured the reason therof is apparent and a consideration of great moment 9. For the English Church being yet but new errours and wounds in her as she is distinct from the Roman are new and greene and therfore neyther deep nor needing any extraordinary salues The wounds of the Roman if she be wounded must needs be old (q) M. Fulke sayth Some Protestāts haue written that the Pope hath blinded the world some say 900. some 1000. some 1200. years In his Treatise against Staplet and Martial pag. 25. and therfore dangerous and hard to be cured to vndertake the healing of which with only ordinary and vsuall salues as are writing books praying for them giuing example and the like which euery religion doth vse in their kind is the attempt of ignorant and vnskilfull Surgeons or rather fond endeauours of vayne glorious fooles making boasts of their little loue In truth to men of Iudgment that do seriously consider of the matter the vanity of the new Ghospellers must needs seeme admirable who confessing the wounds of the Roman Church to be so old hauing rankled in her body a thousand yeares togeather at least and so deep that the same errours were vniuersally spread yet they come to cure vs with triuiall toyes and trifles If they write three or foure bookes very learned in their owne iudgment Great vanity of Protestāts if in one Church in the world some few of them meet at six a clocke in the morning to pray if some Ministers walke modestly demurely in the streets which very few of them and very seldome they vse they think their prayers are heard ouer the world that the Pope and Cardinalls doe wonder at them and as though all men must needes be straight conuerted that read their books or do but see their outsides they are amazed that all Christendome hath not yet forsaken the faith of their Ancestours which because they haue not done these good Surgeons must needs pronounce them incurable so full of folly and vanity they are and so fondly conceipted of their great skill and excellent salues 10. But are these toyes sufficient meanes to heale old sores Doth God vse to apply no better plaisters when he will haue men forsake the faith of their Ancestors The practice of all ages past sheweth the contrary nay Luther doth himselfe confesse other stronger extraordinary salues are required Vbicumque Deus ordinariāviam mutare vult ibi semper miracula (r) Luther tom 3. Ien. Germ. fol. 455. apud Sleidā l. 3. ann 1525. in loc commū classe 4. pag. 38. Deus nūquam aliquē misit nisi vel per hominem vocatum vel per signa declaratum facit When God intendeth to change the ordinary course of things in his Church he doth euer worke myracles And in another place he biddeth vs examine Surgeons or Preachers when they come to practice their Phisick Vnde (s) Vbi sigilla quod ab hominibus sis missus vbi miracula quae te à Deo missum esse testantur tom 5. Ien. Germ. fol. 491. venis c. Whence commest thou Who sent thee Shew thy Patents if thou be sent from men shew Myracles if thou be sent from God These are the salues which must heale old wounds without which we must not change the old and ordinary way to heauen Now who doth not know but that Luther did change the ordinary course of things and in the same change doth his Posterity continue Who sent him with authority and commission to make this change to preach this doctrine to giue this strange Phisicke If God doth neuer change the ordinary course without myracles doubtlesse he will worke some myracles for the Protestant change if the same be from him and not from the Diuell But haue Protestants done this Haue they myracles to heale vs Haue they proued by this meanes the goodnes of their doctrine and phisick without which we may not admit it What dead men haue they raysed What lame man haue they cured To what blind man haue they giuen sight If since the vnfortunate triall of their Phisicke made by Caluin vpon wretched Bruley (t) Bolsec in vita Caluini c. 13. they neuer durst proue the same by doing myracles vpon men let them shew the vertue therof by working wonders vpon a dead dog or blind cat or lame horse Let them giue life to the one
his epistle to the Collapsed Ladyes conceaue though they may easily conceaue her nouelty seing some Ladyes â—ay yet liue that are elder then his Church and many are yet not very old whose parents were some yeares before Luther her first Father But as for that pretended booke of S. Augustine he that hath perused the same and can thinke it to be worthy eyther of the wit or learning or to sauour of the style of that learned Father he hath I dare say more â—kill of trenchers then of Authors specially seeing the Author himselfe in the fourth Chapter of his second booke doth say in expresse termes that he wrote the said booke in the yeare of our Lord 627. (l) In the third yeare of the 12. Cyclus which he makes begin 624. almost 200. yeares after that S. Augustine (m) Ann. Dom. 480. Prosper in Chronico was dead And was not Syr Edward think you heere bobbed by the Bachelour or some Lecturer 11. But more grossely by many ods do they abuse him in the two other authorityes which do not onely bewray grosse ignorance which is pardonable in a Knight Syr Edw. Hobb let pag. 60. when it is not ioyned with arrogancy but also great impudency and want of conscience framing sentences for S. Augustine which he neuet wrote nor so much as dreamed of The first is Machabaeorum Scriptura recepta est ab Ecclesia non inutiliter 〈◊〉 sobriè legatur vel audiatur maximè propter istos martyres sed ob haâ— causam in Canone morum non fidei censeri posset Thus they make S. Augustine speake shewing saith the Knight that theâ— must great sobriety be vsed in the hearing and reading oâ— these bookes and that they are in the Canon of manners and not of faith Now let vs see how intolerably his (n) His phrase of some of his Ministers Pedantes deceaue him S. Augustines words are these Scripturan quae appellatur Machabaeorum non habent Iudaei sicut Legem Prophetas Psalmos c. sed recepta est ab Ecclesia non inutiliter si sobriè legatuâ— vel audiatur maximè propter istos Martyres Machabaeos c. The Iews doe not admit the Booke of Machabees S. Augustines true wordes shewing the Machabees to be Canonicall lib. 2. cap. 23. contra Gaud. Ep. or in the better editions lib. 1. cap. 31. as they doe the Law the Prophets and Psalmes c. Yet it is profitably receaued of the Church if it be read or heard with sobriety specially in regard of those Machabees Martyrs c. This is that which S. Augustine saith of this matter By which it is cleare first that in S. Augustines iudgment the Christian Church doth admit the Books of the Machabees as Canonicall in thaâ— sense that the Iews did refuse them to wit euen as the Law Prophets and Psalms are Canonicall whose authority was euer sacred SecoÌ„dly that this whole sentence sed ob hanc causa in Canone morum non fidei censeri posset that therfore they may be admitted into the Canon of maÌ„ners but not of faith which coÌ„taineth the substance of the matter is wholy added by Syr Edw. Chaplain or School-maister Will Syr Edward suffer himselfe to be thus bobbed and his credit blowne vp Will he not set such a frowne on them as may make them vanish out of his sight for euer Can any staine to his (o) p. 24. Knighthood be greater then to be thought so notorious a falsyfier of so great and learned a Father euen in print Neyther can one gather because S. Augustin saith that the book is good if it â—e read soberly that therfore it is not Canonicall For what Booke of Scripture may not hurt rather then profit if the same be read without humility in a dronken fit of a wanton wit What Story or Miracle in the holy Bible will not some men deride when they bibble or take tobacco or when they â—ead the Scripture as Syr Edward doth seeme to doe Lypsius his Booke of our Ladyes miracles by the fire side when men rost crabs â—o driue a man out of a melancholy (p) pag. 102. fit 12. No lesse shamefully do they make the poore weake â—nueihgled Knight corrupt another place of S. Augustine to the same purpose This it is (q) De ciuitate lib. 1. cap. 20. In sanctis canonicis libris nusquaÌ„â—obis diuinitus praeceptum permissúmue reperiri potest vt vel ipsius adipisâ—endae immortalitatis vel vllius carendi cauendique mali causa * nobis ipsis necem inferamus vt Raâ—is seipsum occidens laudatur This place they gaue the Knight â—ut tould him not where it was to be found in S. Augustine â—eauing vs to seeke it in the wide world of his writings â—either haue the Latin words any sense as any that doth vnderstand that language must needs perceiue though in the â—nargent I haue both noted the place and added the words â—f S. Augustine that were waÌ„ting to make vp the sense which â—yr Edward doth thus turne into English In the holy Canonicall â—â—oks there is no diuine precept or permissioÌ„ to be found that we may eyther â—aine immortality or to escape any perill make away with our selues (r) Al this is added to S. Augustine pag. 61. 〈◊〉 Razis did and is therfore commended in the Machabees Thus Syr Edward Englisheth the wordes and then demaundeth VVhere 〈◊〉 now the collusion Truly Syr in the Minister that suggested vnâ—o you this corrupted peece of S. Augustine adding to the text 〈◊〉 Razis seipsum occidens laudatur as Razis did kill himself and is â—herfore commended in the Machabees which words S. Auâ—ustine hath not and were put in to discredit the Booke of â—he Machabees in which to the lesse wary or sober Reader Razias for that is his name not Razis as your suggester doth â—â—yle him may seeme to be praised for that fact of making away himself But did S. Augustine read that Book with so little sobriety that he fell into this dronken conceipt of your huâ—â—ourizing discourser Far was it from S. Augustines grauity pag. 24 who â—aith the coÌ„trary in expresse terms in that very place against Gaudentius you cyted where the Circumâ—elliam who killed themselues in their defence did obiect that sanctarum Scripturarum authoritate laudatus est Razias Razias is praysed by the authority of diuine Scripture Doth S. Augustine say he is praysed in the Machabees but that booke is not Canonicall No. He denieth that he was praysed for killing himself Quomodo laudatus sayth he quia fuit amator ciuitatis (s) 2. Machab 14. How is he praysed because he was a louer of the Citty or CoÌ„mon wealth and so goeth forward speaking of other causes why Razias was praysed and hauing set downe the bloudy and vndaunted manner of his death concludeth in these words This (*) Hanc eius morteÌ„ mirabiliorem quà m prudentiorem queÌ„admodum facta esset narrauit
10. lib. 2. de CoÌ„cil c. 12. l. 1. de sacr matr c. 5. Authors Definitions and Decrees of Popes and this is one new trick of falshood Secondly he chargeth vpon the Canon-law that doctrine which euen in that place the new reformed booke of Gratian denyeth in expresse termes putting a maine difference betwixt diuine Canonicall Scriptures Popes Decretall Epistles declaring that the saying of S. Augustine cyted out of a corrupt copy of that Fathers workes (p) Bellar. l. 2. de Concil c. 12. by Gratian that might seem to magnify the Canonicall Epistles of Popes was not referred to the Decretalls but to the Canonicall holy (r) Quae quideÌ„ sententia B. Augustini noÌ„ ad decretales Romanorum PontificuÌ„ sed ad Canonicas sacras Scripturas refereÌ„da est Decr. dist 19. c. 6. In canonicis Scripture Which note the Bachelour doth acknowledge and no meruaile saith he though they confesse it For the name of Decretall Epistles of the Popes was to get and to beare many a fayre yeare after his dayes where his ignorance of Histories might be shewed by many Decretal (s) See their Epistles tom 1. Concil Epistles of Popes as of Anacletus Alexand. Victor Anicetus Marcellus others that liued many a fayre yeare before S. Augustine The Decretall Epistles of S. Leo Pope Protestants themselues do not doubt of who liued in S Augustines tyme and was made Pope not long after his (t) S. Augustine died 430. S. Leo chosen Pope 440. death Likewise the Decretall Epistles of Innocentius the first are no lesse certaine and vndoubtedly his who liued in S. Augustines tyme and dyed some yeares before (u) Innocentius anno 417. him as all that haue any acquaintance with antiquity do know So that this cauill is eyther foule ignorance or a faire lye But that which is most to our purpose the Bachelour cannot deny but that a distinction betwixt the authority of diuine Scriptures and Popes Decretalls is expressely taught euen in this place whence he would inforce the contrary doctrine which is not ignorance only but impudency also 2. Thirdly he doth peruert the playn and cleare meaning of Gratian in that place which I will shew out of that very distinction the more largely to stop the mouth of this Minister and his Mates who still come forth with this trish-trash triuiall slaunder For I demaund of him seeing his Conscience speaketh that he hath perused the whole scope of this place whether he doth not know that Canonicall Scriptures or writinges doe not there signify holy and diuine Scriptures but Codicem Canonum the Booke of Canons or Decrees of Generall Councells to which and not vnto diuine Scriptures Gratian intendeth to proue in that distinction that the Popes Decretalls are equall as appeareth both in the beginning ending body thereof The beginning is De (x) See the beginning of the 19. distinctioÌ„ 1. part Decreti Epistolis Decretalibus quaeritur an vim authoritatis obtineant cùm incorpore Canonum non inueniantur The question is whether the Decretall Epistles be of authority seeing they are not found in the body or booke of Canons This is the question which Gratian handleth in that distinction and maketh answere in the wordes cited by the Bachelour that the Decretall Epistles are reckoned among Canonicall writings concluding in the end with these words (y) Titulus cap. 6. Decretales itaque Epistolae Canonibus Conciliorum pari iure exequantur The Decretall Epistles haue right to be equalled to the Canons of Councells (z) in fine distinctioÌ„is 19. It is then playn that a distinction is made by Gratian betwixt Canonicall writings and holy Canonicall Scriptures and that the Popes Decretalls are said to be of equall authority with the first not with the second Which is yet more playnly set downe in the body of the distinction in the words of Nicolaus Pope about this matter bringing many arguments that the Decretall Epistles of Popes that are not in the Booke of the Canons of Councells are to be reckoned Canonicall and of authority to bynd If (a) cap. Si Romanorum saith he the Decretall Epistles of ancient Roman Bishops were not to be admitted because they are not inserted into the Codex Canonum the Code of the Canons then neither the constitutions of holy Gregory nor of any other Pope are to be receiued because they are not written in the booke of Canons Itaque nihil refert saith he vtrum fint omnia necne Decretalia Sedis Apostolicae coÌ„stituta inter Canones Conciliorum immista cùm omnia in vno corpore compaginari non possint That is It imports not though all the Decretall Epistles of the Apostolicall Sea be not ioyned with the Councells seeing that all could not be compacted into one corps or booke Thus writeth the Pope cited by Gratian. By which it is euident and by the whole scope of that distinction that Canonicall writings signify in that place the Code of Canons and not holy and diuine Scripture What shall we think then of the coÌ„science of this Bachelour which speaketh that he hath diligently perused the whole scope of this place and yet so notoriously falsifyeth the meaning thereof The fifth slaunder That the Popes Decretals are of more authority then diuine Scriptures â— THE second Babel about holy Scriptures and his fifth wound is that we not only equall but also prefer the Popes Decretalls before the holy Scripture for this ambitious Bachelour will needs proceed to higher degrees of slaunder not ceasing to clymbe till out of hatred to the Pope he become graduate in Atheisme a plaine Atheist as you shall heare in his next wound This Babel â—he seeketh to rayse vpon the words of S. Boniface our Countreyman famous for sanctity and learning who conuerted a great part of the Germayne Nation vnto the Christian fayth (b) See Baron tom 9. ann 722. 723. 724. seq and was therfore called the Apostle of Germany where he endured a glorious martyrdome for that cause (c) Vide Baron an 755. This blessed Saint and Martyr sayth That (d) Decret d. 40. in appendice ad cap. 6. all men do so much reuerence and respect the Primacy of the Apostolicall Roman Sea that they seeke some part of the disciplyne of holy Canons (e) NoÌ„nullam SaÌ„ctorum Canonum disciplinam which the Bachlour traÌ„slateth much of the discipline of holy Canons putting in to the text much of his owne and of the ancient Institutions of Christian Religion rather from the mouth of the Bishops thereof then eyther from holy Scriptures or the Traditions of Ancestors and that therefore if the Bishop of Rome be zealous of Gods glory carefull in his office irreprehensible in his life he is able by his doctrine and example to draw great multitudes of all sorts of professions vnto to Christ to the great increase of his reward But if on the contrary side he be carelesse of
the sentence of Hierome it seemeth they are not quod saith he est valde notabile which is a thing much to be noted And it is in very deed notable to discouer the fraud and perfidious dealing of this Bachelour who seeing he could not charge the Church of Rome with this errour that Salomons bookes are not Canonicall knowing we admit not only the Prouerbs but also the bookes of VVisdome and Ecclestasticus which Protestants reiect he giueth vs quid for quo insteed of this errour and ouersight of the Glosse caused by ouer hasty reading the words of S. Hierome such an horrible blasphemy and monster as could scarse fall into the imagination of man which impiety against God and iniury vnto vs Protestants may better vnderstand by this example Luther not out of ouer sight as this Glosser but obstinately doth reiect the Epistle of S. Iames calling the same contentious swelling with pride and not worth a (m) Praefat in Ep. Iacobi contentiosam tumidam aridam stramineam in edit Ienensi rush If one to comfort Atheists should charge Luther and the whole Protestant Church for his sake that they teach that holy Scripture and the word of God is contentions prowde not worth a rush were not this wicked and perfidious dealing might not ProtestaÌ„ts iustly and would they not bitterly exclayme against vs who yet are so blinded that they permit their Bachelour to build such wicked Babels against vs to father such falshoods vpon vs making that mistaking of one Glosser doubting of the Canonicall authority of one booke of Scripture a deniall and contempt of all Scripture and euen of the knowne word of God in the whole Catholick Church I want wordes to expresse this wickednes which therefore I leaue to the ponderation of the Reader what a Church that is which permitteth and in what dreadfull danger they are that heare such Preachers who couertly seeke to strengthen Atheisme shewing that their owne iudicioâ— Protestant writer Hooker (n) In his Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy had reason to conceyue much feare that Puritans and such hoat-spurrs and enemyes of the Pope as this Bachelour vnder colour saith he of rooting out Popery will make in the end a way for Paganisme or for extreme Barbarity to enter 9. In the same wound he doth notoriously slaunder our learned Countreyman Doctor Heskins which though in regard of the matter they may seeme light and nothing compared with the former yet they be great tokens of his great malice Doctor Heskins in his Parliament of Christ tells a story of one whom he heard vpon the reading of the booke of Ecclesiastes earnestly say that it was a naughty (o) l. 1. c. 2. fol. 7. booke What was he saith the Bachelour that spake it a Protestant No a Papist Which is more then Doctor Heskins saith though he make it his answer For the man rather seemes to haue beene a Protestant seeing vpon conference had with the Doctour vpon the matter he seemeth not to haue yielded to the definition and doctrine of the Church which seemeth the Protestant practise of priuate spirits Secondly he said Doctor addeth of a Gentlewoman Heskins ibid. that hearing a â—ext of Scripture which seemed more liuely to describe the â—hamlesnes of some womeÌ„ their immodest behauiour vnder hedges theÌ„ her bashfulnes could well endure said that â—he would no more belieue Scripture for it was naught Heere the Bachelour asketh againe what was she that said this His answere is which he pretends to set downe in Doctor Heskins wordes A vertuous Catholick Gentlewoman and â—ne that feared God Here is another trick of the Bachelour â—dding the word Catholicke which is not in the Author â—hough the Bachelour might perchance very probably â—hesse by her blushing at womens shameles immodesty that â—he was not like those Godly sisters that goe weekely as I â—m informed to gossip with him to Pemlico Thirdly he â—hargeth Doctor Heskins that he telleth these storyes rather with approbation then with any detestation of them which to be a manifest slaunder the wordes of Doctor Heskins which follow vpon this story declare May not this saith he â—rieue a Christian hart that the Scriptures Gods holy word should be â—â—us blasphemed Is this to approue those sayings Doth he not detest them as blasphemyes Doth he not openly condemne them How doth malice blynd this Bachelour that dareth vtter such open and impudent slaunders 10. I omit his other cauils at Doctor Heskins his sayings as his accusing him of blasphemy for saying that the song of Salomon seemeth wanton in the outward face that the Book of the Preacher seemeth vehemently to diswade from wisdome (p) Here the Bachelour doth also falsify D. Heskins making him say of the whole booke what be speâ—keth of one only senteÌ„ce therof that some speaches of Scripture a modest man cannot repeate without blushing which the holy Ghost did purposely vtter that modest men should speake them with blushing that others might see their owne shame not blushing to do what the modest blush to name These cauils I say the Reader of himselfe doth see to be foolish which D. Heskins brings to proue that it is not conuenient that ignorant people should commonly read the Scripture in their vulgar tongue which doth much distast our Bachelour because he saith in another place (q) His 3. wound pag. 62. had his women vulgar people the Bible in their mother tongue they would startle hearing in pulpit some doctrine they do not vnderstaÌ„d would soone say that is false doctrine which whether it be good discipline or no Pride that women should by the Bible in their mother tongue get tongues of Mothers presuming to teach their Fathers and of sheep that should heare the voice of their Pastours Disorder become shrewes chiding them out of pulpit as he maketh his vulgar people to do with the Italian Fryer Bernardinus de Busto whether this I say be good discipline and whether reading Scripture in the vulgar tongue be not worthily forbidden by the Church of Rome if it do produce the former effects of startling correcting their Pastours and some saying they know not what these things I remit to the iudgment of any prudent Protestant or discreet man I am sure had this order byn kept with this Bachelour in this Sermon made at the Crosse to wit that men might haue soone said that is false that is a lye that is a slaunder that is folly knocking such Babes of Babel on the head straight as they came thicke and threefold out of his mouth he might haue bene I dare say interrupted so often that he would not haue ended in a yeare But the Church of God and God himselfe doth rather require that women and vulgar people haue the eares of daughters then the tongues of mothers not to startle from the beaten way of the faith of their Ancestors when they heare any doctrine preached they do not vnderstand nor so
soone say that this is false doctrine but enquire modestly of their Husbands at home or of others that are more learned But you M. Bachelour that like startling and soone-saying why do you reiect D. Heskins his Gentlewoman that did both startle and soone-say reiecting the booke of Ecclesiasticus iumping with you both in a chiefe point of your beliefe as also in the very principle therof of following her priuate spirit The seauenth slaunder or wound That Images are made Lay-mens bookes 11. HIS seauenth wound but fourth Babel about Scripture is that we make Images books for Lay-men insteed of Scriptures And marke saith he how this wound hath bene made deeper and wyder First they taught that the Scripture and Images togeather were good bookes for Lay men Then that Images without the Scripture were to be accompted bookes for Lay-men Now at last Images are easier and readier and therefore better bookes for Lay-men then the Scriptures Thus according to his fashion doth he clymbe buylding the Babel of slaunderous falshoods one vpon another without any ground that still in the end the Babel falleth on his owne head leauing him buryed eyther in horrible Atheisme or extreme ignorance or both as you shall see clearly by this seauenth wound For on what doth he build Babel Vpon a meere bable or babery rather that I doubt not but euen ProtestaÌ„ts themselues will laugh at his grosse mistaking and wonder at his intolerable impudency obiecting his owne more then babish ignorance as a wound of our Church All this high Babel-building of our Church in a worse and worse doctrine is grounded vpon his childish reading amisse the words of Peraldus who is made Prince of the doctrine which ioyneth Scriptures and Images in the same commission to vse his phrase to be Lay-mens teachers Thus he readeth (r) Gulielmus Peraldus summa virt vit tom 1. c. 3. Peraldus Vt Scripturae litterae sunt Clericorum sic Scriptura sculptura litterae sunt Laicorum As Scriptures are the bookes and containe the learning of the Clergy so Images and Scripture are the learning and bookes of Lay-men Thus he Where first you may note that wheras in the Latin commission by him cyted Peraldus giueth Scripture the first place the Bachelour putteth in the English Images before them which may be thought malicious in him who is so exact and curious to carp at the placing of our words one before another that because Scribanius euen in a verse placed the Virgin before Christ Ergo Parens Nate meis aduertite votis He doth thence gather Iesuits that he Marshals them in the order of his iudgment and affection and that as he placed the Virgin before her Sonne in his verse so we all do prefer and giue her the precedence in the deuotion of our soule 12. But indeed the true sentence of Peraldus hath not Scriptures at all which the Bachelour put in to haue occasion to rayle at the Pope as though he had made them to be left out in latter writers for the wordes are Pictura vel sculptura litterae sunt Laicorum (s) Tom. 1. summae virtutum vitioruÌ„ de iustitia part 6. quae est de dulia c. 3. paynted or carued Images of Christ and Saints and historyes of their liues are bookes of laymen Where you see the Bachelour was eyther blynd that he could not discerne betwixt Scriptures Pictures or rather wittingly mistooke the word to take an opportunity to build by degrees his Babel which may seeme probable hauing had good experience of his truly imoderate and insatiable desire to cauill and exagitate the Roman Church vpon euery imaginable fancy euen though it may giue aduantage vnto Atheists as you haue heard And this suspition that he doth willingly take vpon him this ignorance is strongly confirmed by his quoting the place of Peraldus in such sort as it might not be easely found without turning ouer the whole booke to wit Peraldus summae virt vit tom 1. cap. 3. By which quotation there being many thiâ—d Chapers in that Tome to wit as many as he doth handle seuerall vertues the place can hardly haue beene found without turning ouer the whole Wherfore hauing some security that wee could not discouer his false dealing by tracing his treacherous steps he falleth bouldly to exagitate the Pope for leauing out Scriptures which only himself put into Peraldus his sencence pag. 81. Peraldus saith he gaue Scripture so much honour as to be ioyned in Commission with Images they two to be ioynt teachers of the Laity Shamelesse lying and rayling now comes the great Penitentiary Lelius Zecchius and is well allowed by the Pope to leaue out the Scriptures as needles and to giue all power to Images Thus he What can a man say to such impudent and shameles lying that Zecchius left out Scriptures in Peraldus Nay that the Pope did allow him to doe it where they neuer were Must Popes and Catholikes be rayled at if Protestant Bachelours cannot read Let any moderate Protestant iudge whether these be not Babells indeed shewing babish ignorance ioyned with extreme malice Which two things ioyned togeathet make this Babe that euen now could not spell his lesson straight fall on babling Scriptures against the Pope leaping from Peraldus to him because they begin with the same letter in so ridiculous manner as sobernes it self might smyle thereat Search the Scriptures saith Christ and looke on them pag. 80. and on Images saith the Pope How readest thou saith Christ it is paynted and grauen saith the Pope Thy word saith Dauid is my light not the golden Cherubins but non saith Popery euen in the new Testament â—â—e Scripture and images are lay-mens light Thus he Might not 〈◊〉 Parrat chatter Scriptures as much to the purpose as he doth making Christ pose poore men that cannot read such as Peraldus meaneth with his question vnto the lawieâ— Quomodo lâ—gis how readest thou This forsooth is the new Ghospell men are not saued by belieuing but by reading not by their workes but by their booke they must learne their â—eck-verse against the day of iudgment when a tatling sister that hath read Scriptures and can prate of them like a parraâ— shal be better then an vnlearned Catholick that hath weâ—t many teares for his sinnes praying before an Image of the passion of Christ 13. Touching the doctrine it selfe that Images are bookes which teach and instruct ignorant men that cannot read what man well in his wits would deny it Doth not daiâ—y experience teach that the Images of Christ as he was borne in great pouerty and need in a stable crucified full of many sores and wounds of his flagellation crowning wiâ—h thornes and other passages of his life do help ignorant men to call to mind and liuely apprehend these mysteryes mouing them to deuotion and loue and sorowfull contrition for their sinnes What needed this Bachelour to search out later Authors
Fathers are wrested out of their hands they choose to fly vnto rather then yield which may be shewed by the example to omit diuers others of two English writers of singular credit in bookes which they write of two grauest arguments The one M. Doctour Iewell to whose name I need add no other Epithete to make him seeme peerelesse vnto Protestants in his booke of the Apology of the Church of EnglaÌ„d who doth not blush into a Treatise of so graue a subiect to insert trifles known to be false of our thinking the Pope to be our Lord God allowing fornication and such like of M. Crashawes trumpery scattered here and there in his (f) Especially 4. part booke as the penury of better weapons forced that great captayne to fight with rushes The other is Doctour Andrews now Bishop of Ely In his Tortura Torti who lately summoned to fight with the learned Cardinal doth often wouÌ„d his Latin stile worthy of better matter with M. Crashawes wounds vrging ould and worme-eaten glosses against vs who being a man of so knowne learning euer thought of a stayed iudgment and temperate spirit neither we nor the world did expect Babels from him nor that he would staine his learned pen with triuiall slauÌ„ders seeking to crack the credit of our cause with men of meane iudgment by the losse of his owne among those of better learning But necessity is a forcible weapon with which were those learned Protestants driuen to fight of whoÌ„ Doctour Field doth (g) in his Epistle dedicatory to the L. of CaÌ„terbury complayne that forbearing to write themselues laugh in their (h) With many a scornefull looke simile at the follies of others writings sleeues and sometymes more openly at others labours would perchance be forced to speake these very Babels which now they laugh to behould in Doctour Field and others finding by experience that not want of learning or weakenes of iudgment but the nakednes of their otherwise indefencible cause driueth these Doctors to make Babels bulwarkes of their Church 5. VVherefore it might in a manner haue been wished by vs his sinne excepted that M. Crashaw should as it were sweep the writings of his learned Authors raking all their ordure into his Sermon as into a dunghill or stable of such stuffe which one of farre lesse strength then Hercules might cleanse by letting in the pure streames of truth the Catholicke Church teacheth in those points which cannot but clearely carry away from her doctrine the dung of those slaunders in the iudgment of any indiffereÌ„t Reader Against which slaunders had we conceiued as we might iustly so great a hatred as euer that (i) Caligula Tyrant had against Rome who wished the heades of the people stood all vpon the same shoulders to cut theÌ„ off at a stroke M. Crashaw may seeme very sufficiently to haue satisfied our desire who hath gathered these slaunders into heades layd those heads as you shall see very orderly togeather in his owne head and Sermon that all their chiefe slaunders togeather with his may be cut off and cleared by one and that not very long Answere 6. But besides this first vse of this Treatise the same may also serue for an Answere vnto many SermoÌ„s that are continually made against the Church of Rome in England in M. Crashawes rayling tune falling rising vpon the same notes of falshood That the Pope is our Lord God that he can do more then euer God did and the rest Often also singing vnto their false notes the very same ditty of this misapplyed text We would haue cured Babel c. By which clamorous rayling they put their ignorant Auditors into such rage fury against vs that as (k) Erasm in spongia aduersus Hutten Erasmus noted long ago they come froÌ„ sermons no lesse fierce fiery then souldiers from the warlike speach of a Captaine exhorting them to fight I remember I haue read of the Cittizens of (l) Lucian Quomodo scribeÌ„da sit historia Abdera that once hearing a furious Tragedy in a hoat day of summer they were all stroken into such a fit of frenzie that many dayes after they did nothing but act the same tragedy with furious gestures in their streets The like doth often happen in England by the Tragicall declayming of Ministers against vs specially when the persecution is hoatest they seeke to kindle the same fiery impressions of hatred in others wherwith theÌ„selues are inraged the Monsters wherwith they thus fright poore men out of their wits against the faith of their Ancestours being euer coÌ„monly M. Crashawes Babels that We teach the Pope to be God that with the Virgin Marie God hath deuided his Kingdome that Images are better bookes then Scripture that we pray vnto stockes and stones and the rest 7. VVherin they do liuely imitate the (m) Diu multumque de imperitorum erroribê° latissimè ac vehementissimè disputabant Aug. de vtil credâ— c. 1. Manichees who seeme to haue exceeded all other Heretikes in their slaunderous charging the Church of Christ with senslesse and prodigious doctrine as with teaching that God is enuious furious mutable subiect to passion cruell and the like declayming bitterly against such blasphemies citing some words of the old Testament that might sound to that sense And two reasons as S. Augustine noteth moued them to this course the very same that make our Ministers follow the same deceiptfull course First to affright ignorant people from the bosome of the Cath. Church by setting fearfull bug-beares of horrible blasphemy vpon her that not knowing whither else to go they might in a manner be forced to fly to the Manichean Conuenticles like Fowlers saith this (n) Itaque nobis faci ebaÌ„t quod solent insidiosi aucupes qui viscatos surculos propè aquam defigunt vt sitientes aues decipiant obruunt enim quoquomodo operiunt alias quae circa sunt aquas vel inde etiam prodigiosis molitionibê° deterrent vt in eorum dolos non electione sed inopia decidatur Aug. de vtilit credend c. 1. Father who hauing laid their lime-twigs by some water side seeke to stop other waters therabout or set some dreadfull scar-crowes ouer them that the poore birds not knowing where els to find water not out of choice but out of meer necessity come at last to light in their snares Secondly not to want matter in their Sermons which they might copiously dilate vpoÌ„ to get with men of small iudgment the name of great Preachers by making large graue inuectiues which any man saith (o) Quod cuiuis mediocriter erudito esset facillimum Ibid. S. Augustine though of very meane learning may easily do against such palpable follies as are God his being mutable passionate furious c. In confutation of which Babels the Manichees did vse to spend long sermoÌ„s with almost as much stayed grauity as M. Crashaw and other Ministers do vse in their pulpits
and from them redound vnto their Church For this their publishing of the Sermon to be a patterne of their truth and modesty to shew that our complaints against them are vniust and without cause was as much as to say vnto the Church of Rome ab vno disce omnes by this one Minister learne all the rest see how sincere in accusing modest in reprehending solide in reprouing your errours iudicious in producing diligent in perusing faithfull in quoting your Authors we are finally how far from any lying and rayling which you falsely lay to our charge By which also you may see that the credit of the Church of England lyeth vpon M. Crashawes head which must needs be crackt in peeces if in this very Sermō which they made publike to iustify themselues we find rayling and lying in very exorbitant or rather impudent manner 11. As for his recrimination that it is a trick in Popery to set vp men with authority to rayle and lye the proofes he bringeth are so poore that they will rather serue to discouer his fraud and falshood and make his impudency more apparent compared with the sincerity of our proceeding See his Epistle to the Earle of Salisbury For wheras we charge him with many hundred of manifest and vnexcusable slaūders vttered in this one Sermon he that hath spent the whole course of his studies to peruse our Records could bring but three examples and those neither to the purpose nor true Nay therin he doth shew his owne false dealing as will appeare by the examination of them as they are set downe in his Epistle Dedicatory to the Princes Highnesse A Booke saith he was printed in the English Colledge at Rome wherin it is affirmed that we take Catholikes and draw vpon their legs bootes full of hoat boyling liquour and vpon their feet hoat burning shoes do put them into Beares skins and cast them to the dogs to be pulled in peeces All this and many such other set down in pictures But first it is false that any such book was printed in the English Colledge in which since the first erectiō therof neuer any book was printed Some things indeed are painted vpon the walls of their Church which booke perchance the Bachelour meaneth so that insteed of Preachers set vp in pulpit he accuseth Painters hyred to make pictures vpon walls which is great folly seing all graunt vnto them (b) Pictoribus atque Poetis quidlibet audendi sēper fuit aequa potestas Horat. licence to deuise and faigne without charge of falsehood And if a Catholike painter to expresse how Priests in England are traduced as Traytors how disguised with the vgly terms of enemies of the State they are made hateful did paint thē in the forme of a man in a Beares skin no lesse meeke and innocent within then dreadfull and horrible without if to represent the fury and violence of Purseuants in hunting after seeking out and abusing these men he did expresse thē vnder the shape of bloud-hounds or mastiues truely I see no reason why this may not be aswell excused as their ordinary painting the Pope in the shape of vgly Monsters and Iohn Fox his filling his lying Acts Monuments with such Pageants and ridiculous deuises to fright fooles wherof he was Father Secondly I say that these things are not our deuises or inuentions but true storyes that at Louth in Lincolneshire a Catholike was put into a beares skinne torne in peeces by doggs in King Henry the 8. his dayes whether by publick authority or popular fury it is not certayne which answere was made long since to Syr (c) See the warn-word to Syr F.H. watch-word 2. encount c. 2. pag. 6. Frauncis Hastings and not yet refuted As touching bootes of boyling liquour a venerable Byshop of Ireland had bootes annoynted with oyle put on his leggs and set to the fire was put to cruell torture So that they accuse vs of speaking fables when we doe but rehearse their furyes and belying vs to feygne what their cruelty forced vs to feele 12. The second instance or charge is more vayne and false then the first Feuardant a famous fryar sayth he wrote in latyn seauen yeares agoe that we reuile and reiect that prayer to the holy Trinity Sancta Trinitas vnus Deus miserere nobis what will not he say that dare say this Thus he But indeed the Bachelour doth abuse that famous and learned Fryar who doth only say that the errour against the inuocation of the Blessed Trinity was (d) Feuardant in 1. Petri. c. 1. fol. 140. edit Paris 1600. restored by Caluinists in France Flanders and England who cauill at and reiect the former prayer Where you see he doth not charge with that errour all heretikes or Protestants in those Countryes but Caluinists only nor all Caluinists neyther but some to wit such as are of the purer strayne that mislike all words in prayer that are not found in Scripture and follow Caluin exactly in all points who doth wish buried in obliuion the name of Trinity and such like as (e) Feuardant vbi supra pag. 36. Feuardant proueth Wherefore I would demaund of M. Crashaw when he saith Feuardant doth write that we reiect the prayer c. whom doth he meane by that we We State Protestants or We Puritans for I think his conscience is not so stiffe vnto one but it may extend to the other If Protestants Feuardant doth not charge them If Puritans the Bachelour doth vainly seeke to iustify them by the booke of Common Prayer which they are knowne to hate and detest So that this trick of setting vp lyers commeth to fall vpon his owne head 13. In the third charge of falsehood which is against Gretzerus his narration concerning Father Garnet and Ouen his man he doth neither cite the words nor quote the place nor name the booke and at most it is but an Historicall vntruth wherunto men are subiect as Iohn Fox was in his Calendar of Martyrs who reporteth of some that were (f) Iohn Marbecke the singer of windesore and diuers others Acts and mon. 115. burnt into ashes vnder Queene Mary which liued and drunke merrily in tauernes many a faire day after Queene Elizabeth her cōming to the Crowne But our Controuersie is about wilfull and malicious falsehood which the Authour could not but know to be such when he wrote or spake it wherof we accuse M. Crashaw and his Church Neither haue they cause to wonder though strangers doe not giue great credit vnto their publike Acts and Records against Priests and Iesuits against whom the State professeth emnity which may giue cause to feare and suspect partiall (g) Professae inimicitiae suspitionē habent mendacij Hieron dealing specially when the persons condemned are well knowne vnto strangers and their learning and sanctity highly esteemed But this Minister that doth so declayme against the contradictors of their publick Records concerning the Powder-treason
hath giuen any words of her that may giue the least blemish to her blessed state it was not done in any the least contempt of her but in the zeale they bare to the honour of their Sauiour whom they held dishonoured by the vnequall comparing of her with him For what will not a Christian mans zeale cause him to doe (2) Not to slander any man nor to blasphem any Saynt though hypocryticall zeale will giue aduantage to Atheists against God when he seeth his God dishonored Who would haue thought that Moyses would haue cast so carelesly out of his handes so precious a Iewel as were the two tables written with the finger of God And yet when he heard the name of the Lord blasphemed he forgot himself and them and as though he remembred none but God he threw them away and brake them in peeces If Moyses zeale makes his hastines excusable no reason to condemne them whose zeale gaue passage to their passions and caused them for the honour of their Creatour to forget the priuiledge of a creature Thus he In which words few Readers I thinke can be so simple or blind not to espy a wolfe whose teeth water with desire to teare in pieces the immaculate mother of the lamb of God though he would faigne couer himselfe and do it in a sheeps skin of zeale which wil not serue his turne the example of Moyses the meekest of men being too short little by much to hyde the least particle of such monstrous fury as is giuing passage to passions against Gods Mother specially so full of blaphemy and falshood as theirs are 20. And first to discouer his faygned zeale marke as I touched before how it is hoat or cold as he pleaseth sometimes dutifull to truth against Gods honour somtymes zealous of Gods honour against truth as the taking vpon him a shew of eyther of these zeales may best serue his turne to giue vnder pretence of piety a passage to his passions against the Pope Somtimes his zeale to Gods honour is so calme that he is content God be euen denyed not caring though his discourse may giue aduantage therunto At other times so hoat in the spirit and zealous of Gods honour that the least sound of a blasphemy though but in a poeme will put him into a traunce where forgetting the true priuiledge of a creature to honour the Creatour he will thinke it no sinne to speake vildely and irreuerently of his Mother vttering slaunders that may giue blemishes to her blessed state Is any man so blind that doth not see this zeale to be coūterfayt true neither towards truth nor God which he can make hoat and cold sweet and sower carefull carelesse of the same thing as he pleaseth Can any thing be in that hart sincere from which both hatred and neglect of blasphemy both reuerence and contempt of truth both zeale and carelesnesse of Gods honour doth flow Secondly heere you may discouer the impiety of Ministers and the true cause why they so curiously search into our writings to find some speaches concerning the Blessed Virgin that may seeme blasphemy which when they haue found wrapping their woluish intentiōs in a sheeps skin of zeale against it they straight fal into a traunce forgetting thēselues and giuing passage to their passions against her whom they hate the more because the Church of God doth highly honour her 21. In this zeale we cannot deny but Iohn Caluin the Moyses of their new Law did forget himselfe and the Virgin how he remembred God her Sonne let the Reader iudge whē he wrote that in the birth of Christ she was so broken and weakened that the fourty daies before her Purification were not sufficient for her to recouer her forces but God did yet spare her donec ex (3) Caluin Harmon in cap. 2. Matth. v. 3. puerperio conualesceret that she might gather vp her strength lost in the labour of child-birth In this zeale doe diuers Protestants giue passage to their passions accusing her to haue committed as great sinnes as Eue (4) Cētur l. 1. cēt 1. the Mother of mischiefe vnto all mankind making her the very type of Heretikes and Infidels carnall (5) Sarcerius in Euāgel de festo annunciat apud Canisium l. 4. de Deipar c. 7. and prophane men In which passion a Lutheran preaching vpon her answere to the Angell How can this be done called her Zuinglian and (6) Georg. Muller apud Hospin 2. p. fol. 390. Caluinist whom they hate no lesse if not more then (7) Insatanized supersatanized persatanized Luther apud Tigur in tract 3. cōt suprē confess Lutheri Diuels But no man more like Moyses in forgetting himselfe and breaking in pieces the tables of the Law then our English Minister (8) In his booke of Christian exercise p. 669. M. Buney who dareth to write that when that innocent sorrowfull LADY stood at the foot of the Crosse she brake foure commaundements of God at one clap the first the fifth the sixt the ninth by this blasphemous slaūder breaking into pieces both the tables of the Law in her Virginall hart where Christian antiquity did euer belieue they were (9) De Sācta Maria Virgine nullam habere volo cùm de peccatis agitur mentionē quae gratiā habuit ad vincendū omni ex parte peccatum Aug. de nat grat c. 36. inuiolably kept In this pretēded zeale M. Crashaw practising himselfe what he doth patronize in others thinking or making a shew to thinke that we compare her breasts and milke with the wounds and bloud of Christ doth likewise forget himselfe saying that no extraordinary (10) In his Iesuits Ghospell pag. 44. blessednesse doth belong to the wombe of the Virgin none to her breasts in this regard only that they did breed and feed the Sonne of God that she whome we do so exalt is no more then another (11) pag. 91. holy woman but a belieuing (12) pag. 36. Iew. And giuing further passage to his passions he doth not only beate her sacred wombe and breasts into dust wormes by scoffing at her assumption into heauen (13) pag 95. but also carelessely casteth them out of his hart into a lower place then wormes magots by a foule comparison of them her milke with other (14) pag. 92 womens not excepting the most impurest Strumpet What Seneca (15) L. 3. de ira c. 14. said of the arrowes which a barbarous (†) Cambyses Tyrant did fasten in the hart of a child making the same his marke praysed by the flattering (¶) Praexaspes Father of the child that stood by we may say of these blasphemies that do so deeply penetrate into the hart and honour of Christs Mother iustified by M. Crashaw that they are sceleratiùs laudata tela quà m missa not so barbarously discharged as commended that the tongue is more blasphemous that doth prayse such passions
then the pen that wrote them 22. And as for Moyses his example of breaking the tables of the law the Bachelour doth wrong that great Prophet by accusing him to haue bene hasty carelesse forgetfull in that fact which he did aduisedly piously not dishonoring the tables but honouring them rather thinking them to be ouer worthy Iewells to be deliuered to drunken people as S. (16) Propheta sanctissimus indignum existimauit vinoleÌ„tuÌ„ populum à Deo legem accipere Ser. 1. de ieiunio ante mediuÌ„ Basile sayth as Catholickes honour the Images of Christ which they put into the fire rather then permit them to fall into heretickes handes that will abuse them But had Moyses pretending zeale fell into a rage against to Tables calling them the law of sinne and the Diuell whose Slaue heretickes in their passions make the Virgin in whose hart God with his owne finger wrote his law had Moyses in a faigned traunce reuiled Abraham or Isaac or any deceased Saynt had he falsly slaundered the meanest woman lyuing as Ministers doe the most blessed of women and the most glorious of all Sayntes I thinke no Christian would haue dared to speake a word in defence of that zeale as I doe not know that any man pretending the name of a ChristiaÌ„ before this Bachelour did euer iustify against Gods mother confessed blasphemy that may blemish her blessed state And verily I doe somewhat wonder in what a slumber Protestant Bishops were when they did permit such a defence of passions passe to the print full not only of blasphemy against the Virgin but also of discredit against their owne writers giuing such a censure of them which if it be true the man that shall beare respect to their writinges may iustly be thought worse then mad For how can any well in his wits belieue such bookes whose authours euen by their best friendes are confessed to haue written forgetting themselues giuing passage to their passions without exact care of truth How can we thinke that doctrine deserueth credit which they did deliuer not knowing what they said thinking of one thing and speaking of another remembring none but God when they rayle on his Mother carelessely casting from their pen sentences that might breake and beat her honour into dust Let M. Crashaw answere me this argument if he can If the men of his religion wrote about the Virgin remembring theÌ„selues without passion why doth he slaunder them that they gaue passage to their passions in such wrytings If they did indeed write in a passion forgetting themselues how can any man of iudgmeÌ„t beleiue theiâ— doctrine in this poynt or in any other when they speak against the supposed blasphemies of our Church seeing of men so zealous we may iustly thinke that their zeale doth still make them forgetfull of truth mouing them to giue passage to their passioÌ„s against the Pope whom they will seeme to belieue that we coÌ„pare with Christ against whome the zeale of their passion is no lesse feruent then against the Bl. Virgin So that you clearly see the suite of Moyses his zeale in breaking the tables of the Law doth not fit nor can hyde the monster of Ministers fury against the Mother of God Neither hath it to couer their impiety any more proportion then the skinne of the least lamb to hyde the mightyest wolfe By which it is apparent that not only excesse of loue but of hatred also doth bereaue men of their iudgment which is the cause that hypocrisie could not keep M. Crashawes huge hatred against the Pope greater then his loue to God or the best thing vnder God so within the compasse of shew of piety but it hath broken out into such open tokens of secret Atheisme that the discreet Reader may iustly wonder to behould them in his writings that doth not know Atheisme to be in truth the very spirit of the new Ghospell mouing men to hate (17) Papatê° reijcitur Christo nomina noÌ„ daÌ„tur iuuentus ferè nil Dei habet Gaspar Hedio Ep. ad MelaÌ„ct Popery but not imbrace christianity leaâ—ing them without loue or feeling of God 23. From this hatred doth proceed the bloudy drift of his SermoÌ„ The scope wherof saith he is to discouer that â—hese would but deceyue vs who speake or write that Popery 〈◊〉 now well reformed in manners and refined in doctrine therfore they we by a reasonable mediation might well be â—econcyled You see this Minister is all for war he will â—ot heare of peace no mediation no reconcilement â—â—ough reasonable shall be thought or spoken of aâ—ongst vs but fight we must one against the other â—ith irreconciliable and mortall hatred In his epist dedicatory to the Prince burning with â—â—â—e and deuouring each others flesh and dashing heads aâ—ainst the stones In all which Metaphors he doth vtter â—â—e intent and finall scope of his Sermon which is so â—â—oudy and so vnchristian that I caÌ„not thinke charity â—â—so dead in any among You that they do not euen abâ—orre the same as proceeding from the canckered maâ—â—e of a venemous spyder These men know well and â—â—ele the weaknes of their cause which they mantayne â—ecause they haue no other way to liue but by keeping â—enefices first appoynted vnto Catholike Priests for â—â—emselues their wiues and children should a reasoâ—able mediation or toleration betwixt them and vs be â—â—ought of such as Hugonots enjoy in France vnder a â—atholike Prince that we might haue any tolerable liâ—erty to speake for our selues discouer their fraudes â—nd slaunders their guilty conscience doth make them â—elieue and excesse of feare somtymes that in such a â—â—se they would be forced to shut vp their Church â—oores and be soone forsaken of all Nay they feare â—â—e discouery of their grosse lying might perchance stir â—â—o the people that were before deluded by them to take some violent reueng vpon them This is their feare which to preuent they buzze slaunders into peoples heades that they may not thinke of any peace mediation or reconcilement but still pursue vs with sword and fire to incite them Whereunto the Bachelour deuised in his chamber preached at the Crosse published in print finally presented to the Princes Highnes this Sermon of the most odious slaunders that wit of man could possibly inuent seeking by hooke crooke to fasten them vpon the Church of Rome 24. Now to vnderstand how farre he doth endanger your eternall saluation by this dealing I doe wish you would seriously ponder what (r) De vtilitate credendi c. 6. 7. S. Augustine teacheth That it is an offence sinne very damnable not only in preachers to vtter but also in the auditors to belieue against the Church that beareth away the name of Catholicke by the consent of the world and hath the fame and opinion of great learning sanctity with humane kind horrible and heynous blasphemyes wicked and senseles doctrines vpon the credit and clamors of her
knowne enemyes And so hard of beliefe in this point ought Christians to be in S. Augustine his iudgment that they should scarse belieue their owne eyes though they should see some wordes that may seeme to yield a blasphemous sound but read againe and againe the place to vnderstand the true meaning thereof And if thou canst not excuse those wordes from blasphemy nor giue them a good sense by thy owne learning (*) Ibid. cap. 7. seeke saith he some learned and godly man that may instruct thee Cannot such a man be found with ease Seeke him with labour Is he wanting in thy owne Country What better reason canst thou haue to trauaile Canst thou meete with no such man in the Continent Sayle beyond the seas beyond the seas if thou canst not find any neare the sea passe further into the country and euen into those parts where the things were done their bookes speake of This diligence doth S. Augustine require to be vsed before we fasten vpon the whole Catholicke Church any imputation of false and blasphemous doctrine Whereupon he accuseth himselfe and his friend Honoratus for hauing belieued such slaunders against the Church vpon the Manichees report not hauing first vsed such diligence to find out the truth What (s) Quid tale fecimê° Honorate tamen religionem fortasse sanctissimaÌ„ adhuc enim quasi dubitanduÌ„ sit loquor cuius opinio totum terrarum orbem occupauit miserrimi pueri pronostro arbitrio iudicioque damnauimus de vtilit credend c. 7. like thing haue we done friend Honoratus And yet wretched yong men haue we presumed vpon our iudgment and fancy to coÌ„demne a religion perchance most holy for yet I speake as though the matter were doubtfull whose fame hath filled the world And more earnestly in another place We (t) De vtil cred c. 6. witty and learned yong men forsooth saith he and deep searchers into truth not hauing so much as once turned ouer their bookes not hauing sought any to declare them vnto vs non aliquantum nostra tarditate accusata non vel mediocri corde ipsis coÌ„cesso neuer fearing or mistrusting the weaknes of our wit nor graunting so much as meane iudgment coÌ„mon sense vnto those men that haue permitted such bookes to be read ouer the world for so many ages laying aside I say all these respects we haue resolued to belieue nothing what those men teach moued thereunto by the clamours of their enemyes who with false promises of cleare truth haue brought vs to belieue many thousands of their owne fables Thus S. Augustine 25. VVho seemeth vnto me liuely to describe the miserable estate of many thousands now in England that rashly condemne so glorious a Church as the Roman whose fame hath filled the world of most horrible blasphemyes belieuing them vpon the word and clamours of her professed enemyes such as Ministers are knowne to be especially M. Crashaw who feareth not to say as you haue heard that he will not spare the Pope though (†) pag. 74. therby he may giue vantage to the Atheist resoluing to pluck down the Sea of Rome though God and all godlines fall with it vpon whose wordes they haue belieued the Roman Church to teach that the Pope is God that he can deliuer soules out of Hell that one may appeale from God to the Virgin Mary that we do pray vnto and call vpon a wodden Crosse that those which receaue the blessed Sacrament must haue a wife or else keep a whore in her place and the like paradoxes senselesse doctrines which euen children know to be hated by vs. Now what diligence haue his credulous Auditors vsed to find out the truth before they yielded their assent vnto these slaunders What seas haue they passed What CouÌ„treys haue they trauailed What long search haue they made after learned teachers to declare some speaches sayings that may seeme more harsh How many that neuer so much as read the senteÌ„ces they cauill at in our Authors And if they haue done none of these things how can they be excusable with God in their confident condemning so famous a Chistianity vpon so sleight examination of matters 26. The secoÌ„d reason of my presenting this Treatise vnto you was a care of your honour which the Bachelour doth much abuse by publishing his grosse folly and ignorance vnder the name of the Preacher of your Temple who doth so farre surpasse any meane or mediocrity therin printing absurdities so voyd of common sense and so intollerable to any learned eare that your long forbearaÌ„ce to take notice therof harbouring him in one of your Courts doth make many wonder and thinke they may iustly apply vnto you the wordes of S. (§) 2. Cor. 11. v. 19. Paul Libenter suffertis insipientes cùm sitis ipsi sapientes you gladly suffer fooles being your selues wise I will not lay that title on M. Crashaw though his ignorance may seeme to deserue it except by his lauish bestowing the same on learned men it do from the diamond wall of their excellent wisdome reflect on himselfe wherof I am content to make you Iudges 27. First as for the learned Catholike Writers of this age Bellarmine Valentia Vasquez many others he doth rate and reuile them at his pleasure tearming them Patrons of (u) pag. 88. damnable Idolatry loud (x) p. 115. lyars the like reproachfull tearmes without any respect He â—osseth and turneth them vp and downe as himselfe thinketh best making now Bellarmine chiefe now Valentia now Vasquez somtymes putting Chrysostomus a Cistercian before them all vsing them as counters which stand somtymes for ten somtymes for twenty somtymes for a thousand somtimes for nothing at all as it pleaseth the caster of the account Secondly all the learned Deuines successiuely since the dayes of Aquinas and namely that Angelicall Doctour he doth charge to haue taught that a stocke or stone representing Christ is to be worshipped as God and a wodden Crosse to be (y) In his 8. wound prayed vnto that they brought wodden arguments for their Idolatry were blind in their vnderstandings and druÌ„ken with the whore of Babylons spirituall abhominations Thirdly Pope Adrian the sixt who before his aduancement to S. Peters Chaire was a learned Doctour and Reader in Louaine Maister vnto Charles the fifth of famous memory and Gouernour of the Kingdomes of Spaine in his absence this Pope I say the Wiseman of your Temple tearmeth (z) pag. 163. foole in plaine tearmes Finally the noble nation of Italians he doth not blush to affirme that they are eyther (a) pag. 111. Atheists or fooles some priuy Protestants excepted which priuy men what they are Atheists or Protestants or fooles or all three who can tell but himself who hath a nose to smell them into England from their Italian priuy Churches But if Italians whose workes of piety shew they are not Athiests whose learned bookes do witnes they are not fooles see
this shamefull reproach in print as they may this Sermon being turned into latin they will perchance attribute such speaches without salt or wit to the clownishnes of our Countrey and grossenes of the northern climate and apply vnto M. Crashaw the verse with some allusion to his name (b) Horatius Bootem Crasso iurares äere natum Now if it be the property of a foole as the holy (c) In via stultus ambulans cùm ipse insipiens sit omnes stultos aestimat Eccl. 10. ◠3 Ghost saith it is to iudge rashly that others are fooles you will easely see the stones of reproach cast vp at others fall foole on his owne head 28. But no where doth this Minister shew greater want of iudgment then in his Iesuits Ghospell which in truth is such a peece of worke as I do much meruaile that such an owle to vse his owne phrase was let fly abroad in the dayes of light and in the fayrest day of sommer though that booke was likely to be written as it was indeed vnder the hoatest influence of mid-sommer moone I doe not thinke any are liuing in your Courtes which doe not blow away such light stuffe with contempt yet will I speake a word or two therof that no seely fly or foole may be entangled therin and that you plainly may see the notorious folly of your Preacher which is such as the sweet and diuine muse of the graue learned and venerable Father that wrote that excellent mellifluous poeme may seeme to haue wrought with the Minister as some sound of musick doth with the (†) Tigres tympanorū sonitu aguntur in rabiem Plutarch Tiger wherewith enraged her fury wanting other matter to worke vpon teareth out her bowells as the Bachelour with raging and rayling doth his braynes which I will make playne by three or foure examples of such folly as are long in him lasting from the first beginning to the end of his Ghospell though I shall dispatch them in few wordes 29. The first is to gather a Ghospell out of a Poeme and that not written historically or doctrinally but in patheticall verse full of metaphors Metonomi's Apostroph's Prosopoper's and other aswell Rhetoricall figures as poeticall flowers which to take in a proper and rigorous sense is folly to vrge them as points and articles of faith is such a solemne foolery that it may seeme the next degree vnto madnes it self which was to present the figures and flowers of the Poeme to be condemned in the (d) in the end of his Iesuits Ghospell Parlament as heresyes Catholicks in that respect to be pronounced hereticks Truly I thinke midsommer moone had neuer the like influence in any Minister or mad-man Bachelour or Bedlame before And yet doth he vrge these points of our doctrine as most authenticall and substantiall things much more credible and certaine as he saith then the knowledge they haue of Iesuits and their doctrine and practises from (e) Iesuits Ghospell pag. 18. the report of their merchants or intelligence of their Embassadours or from the writing of their owne men which is the truest point in his whole Iesuits Ghospel though Iesuits need not faith to belieue it they see and feele it For the relations which their Merchants and Embassadors giue the storyes their men write of them are such as no patheticall exaggerations no poeticall figures fables or fictions can be more false as many late books can witnesse specially a late Pamphlet dedicated to the Princes Highnesse called the Diuell (†) The Diuels pilgrimage to the Iesuits Colledges printed anno 1611. his pilgrimage where this lackey or footman of the Diuell telles many false stories naming persons that were neuer heard of speaking of actions that neuer any dreamed of as to omit foule matters that on * Quà m multis intrandi in Ecclesiam aditum obserabāt rumores maledicorum qui nescio quid aliud nos in altare Dei ponere iactitabant Aug. ep 48. ad Vincent the Altar of our Lady at Sichem a sheep was sacrificed and a long poeticall narration of the cause of the Iesuits expulsion from Venice abusing the knowledge of the whole Christian world and that in their Colledge straight vpon their banishment was found such a summe of money as all Merchants hauing taken whatsoeuer they would challenge vpon their owne words which we may imagine was no small quantity the remnant was fiue hundred millions besides plate vestures and yet he saith he telleth not these things vpon heare-say but what he saw with his eyes Now what Poet could haue told a more lusty lye So that this part of his Ghospell is very true and credible that their reports rumors and printed relations about Iesuits are more false incredible and fuller of exaggerations and fictions then any poeme 30. Now if you desire to see how wittily hādsomely the Ghospeller doth gather his Ghospell out of the Poeme I will present you a faire patterne by which you may ghesse the rest In that poeme the Authour in in his meditatiōs doth imagine a familiar dialogue betwixt the Virgin and Christ and saith vnto Christ Say to thy Mother see my brothers thirst Mother your milke would ease him at the first Which speach is imagined to shew the great familiarity betwixt Christ and his blessed Mother that she hath a speciall interest in the ioyes and comforts metaphorically tearmed milke that flow into the soule by deuout contemplation of her blessed Breasts which comforts are not graunted but to whome she doth singularly fauour nor giuen without her consent without which the Sonne of God would not be borne in her wombe Now what doctrine doth this Bachelour gather out of this poeticall imagination thinke you Marry that Popery doth make Christ a mediatour to his Mother which againe he deuideth into diuers branches opposite to the Ghospell of Christ grounded vpō the first mistaking vnto the fifth and sixt generation Ies Gosp pag. 87. in this sort Christ saith of himselfe as man Romish doctrine makes him say He that will may see another like Ghospell that we teach that Christ this present yeare a sucking child at Hall in Brabant opposed in like māner vnto the Ghospell of Christ pag. 64. My Father is greater then I. My Mother in some respects is greater then I. Christ saith of himselfe as God Romish doctrine makes him say I and my Father are one I and my Mother are one Christ saith Romish doctrine makes him say Come to me all that are weary I will ease you Come to me and I will send you to my Mother for ease The Scripture saith They make him say No man commeth to the Father but by me No man commeth to my Mother but by me The Scripture saith They make him say Whatsoeuer you aske my Father in my name he will giue it you Whatsoeuer you aske my Mother in my name she will giue it you All this Ghospel doth he gather
text (s) Gen. 11. v. 9. euery one into his owne Countrey as the buylders of Babel their toÌ„gues being deuided were dispersed vpon the face of the earth some one way some another into different Sects for number more then the CouÌ„treys of Europe more opposite then the foure corners of the world where euery Babylonian may curse the Pope in his owne language euery Heretike damne him in their owne Sect euery cocke crow at him on his owne dunghill euery Minister rayle at him in his owne pulpit euery good fellow drink to his damnation in the tauerne neere vnto the Church if not rather within it but meet togeather all in one general CouÌ„cell make an end of their disorders agree vpon the same salue or forme of faith in all points this they will neuer do so long as the foure coastes of the world shal be opposit one to the other nor euer so long as (t) Protestants Frigida pugnabunt (u) with Puritans calidis (x) Anabaptists humentia (y) with AriaÌ„s siccis (z) Soft Lutherans Mollia cum (a) with Rigid duris (b) SacrameÌ„taries which deny the Real presence sine pondere (c) with Realists that put it habentia pondus Hoat thinges with cold moisture with drought shall fight Soft thinges with hard and heauy thinges with light Let S. Augustine (d) Aug. de vtilit credend c. 14. Vos auteÌ„ tam pauci tam turbulenti tam noui nemini dubium est quà m nihil dignum authoritate praeferatis August ibid. conclude this Chapter and what he sayd to the boasting Manichees let vs say to M. Crashaw and craking Ministers Redite in latebras vestras returne into your holes in which you lurked like dorme-mice so many ages before Luther Seeke not to impayre the credit of that Church that mayntained the name credit of Christianity before you were knowne The Church of him who bringing a soueraigne medicine to heale the most corrupted manners by miracles wonne authority by authority gayned credit by credit gathered a multitude by multitudes got antiquity by antiquity strenghtned the religion which neither the fond vanity of heretikes by their fraudulent deuises nor the ancient errour of the Heathens by violent fury shall euer be able to ouerthrow but You for number so few for age such vpstarts and for spirit so turbulent and deuided one against the other euery man may see that you carry neyther credit nor authority with you THE SECOND CHAPTER LAYING OPEN The vayne and ridiculous braggs of the Bachelour of foure salues very charitably applied by the Protestant Church to heale the woundes of the Roman THE Bachelour hauing layd no better foundation of his Sermon then you haue heard hauing brought no reasons at all to proue himself and his fellowes to be mysticall Israel and such reason to proue the Church of Rome to be Babylon as he might with more credit haue beene sileÌ„t The Bachelours 4. salues or plaisters yet doth he goe forward in his fancy and beginneth to build the first square of his Babel which is in the prayse of his Churches charity and of the excellent balmes and salues by her applyed to the woundes of Rome to wit these foure pag. 45. Instructions Prayers Examples Lawes by which he saith the heauens haue seene and the world will witnes with them they haue sought to heale Babylon nay such excelleÌ„t salues these are haue beene applyed by them with such admirable dexterity and skill that in his conceipt seing we are not cured he must needs pronounce vs incurable This he preacheth very stoutly and proueth so doughtily that I dare say the iudicious Reader will be moued to laugh at if not rather to pitty the misery beggery of his Church whose Preachers for want of better subiect of her praise are forced to fly to triuiall stuffe which euery hereticall Sect in the world doth brag of and may with as good reason as any this her Procter doth or can alledge in her behalf as will appeare by this short examination of them 2. The first meanes then to heale our woundes which he braggeth of is his Churches Instruction of vs pag. 4â— informing them saith he in the truth and discouering their errours both by holy Scripture and the ancient Fathers of the best and purest tymes Iewell A ValiaÌ„t Vaunt Fuâ—ke Whitaker Reynolds Perkins and many others who now sleep in Christ haue lest behind them such testimonyes of this truth as shall liue while the world lasteth and neuer can be confuted as appeares in that they haue not dared to answere most of their bookes to this day Thus he craketh giuing vs for our salue a plaister of big brags without any proofe For that some of their bookes haue not beene answered to this day the iudicious Reader will easely perceaue the cause to be that by authority they haue wronge the presse out of our handes not permitting vs so much as a corner where such weapons may be cast and keep so carefully the portes that no booke can passe except it be almost inuisible which though they know the world seeth Great vanity of English Ministers yet these ioylly Champions for want of greater proofes of their prowesse blush not to brag of euen in pulpit But might it please his Excellent Maiesty to permit this booke-warre about Religion indifferently on both sides so nothing be written that otherwise may offend the State that we might beare weapons as openly as they you should soone see the learned of our side make M. Crashaw and such Crakers that dare them now they haue nothing in their hands pull their hornes into their shells In other Countryes we doe not heare Protestants brag so much of their vnanswerable bookes in which kind of battayle they haue beene so beaten that now they seeme rather to trust as they thinke vnto stronger weapons 3. But indeed M. Crashaw haue we beene such dastards in England as you seeme to make vs Haue we bene so beaten with your bookes that one may iustly thinke we dare not meet you with such weapons in the field Nay such hath bene the strength of our inuincible cause that not withstanding the great aduantage you haue had to write at your wil yet very few of your books that might seem to need answer but haue returned vnto you with a full answere and many in the height of their pride haue receyued such blowes that their pen beaten out of their hand they were glad to run to take a (a) Iewels vain challeng who hauing dared catholikes to answere him the answere was no sooner come out but he got the same to be forbidden by Proclamation Proclamation for their defence vnto which shamfull shift M. Iewell whom you make leader of your learned army is knowne to haue bene dryuen by Doctour Harding And with far greater reason might we brag of our Hardings Sanders Allens Bristowes
Reynolds Parsons others who haue left behind them many excellent Monuments of our inuincible cause some of which remayne vnanswered euen vnto this day So that things duely considered this book-victory you so much brag of may seeme very doubtfull on your side euen in the iudgment of any indifferent Protestant though Authority hauing bound our hands haue giuen you free leaue a long time to beat vs with your bookes at your pleasure and afterwards sing your owne triumphes as you doe now in pulpit prophesying though you seeme neyther Prophet nor sonne of a Prophet that your writers works shall lyue whiles the world lasteth which I must confesse seemeth scarse credible vnto me hauing read in Storyes that many greater lakes of water to which S. Augustine (b) Non nos terreaÌ„t isti torreÌ„tes multae haereses iam emortuae suÌ„t cucurreruÌ„t in riuis suis decurrerunt siccati sunt riui nec eorum iam memoria reperitur In Psal 56. pag. 44. compareth heretikes falling from proud hills haue for a tyme ouerrun weake and ignorant people in more violent manner yet haue dryed away within few yeares the corne of Catholike doctrine growing where that inundation had raigned 4. But you must expect from this Bachelour no better proofes of what he saith then big words and if the former be not big inough he openeth his mouth yet wyder into the prayse of his later wryters If I may giue saith he my iudgment who can hold a man of his iudgment from speaking of these dayes the skirts of the Romish VVhore were neuer better discouered her grossest absurdities soulest impieties neuer so clearly displayed as they haue bene by Deuines of this present age Thus he This also you see is but a foolish florish in a foule phrase that might better become her mouth whose skirts he doth long to discouer then a Preacher at the Crosse For what Heretike or Sectary in the world might he giue his iudgment as this wiseman doth would not vaunt of the writings of his Church and prefer their bookes before all other as wonderfull salues to cure wounds But if his Doctours be such great Surgeons and so full of charity as he pretends first I aske why none of them durst appeare in the Councell of Trent to conferre with our Surgeons to which they were so inuited that not only charity but euen shame might haue moued them therunto Secondly why do none of these learned troupes so full of charity go to Rome to instruct the Pope Cardinalls other Prelates Doctours of our Church which were an enterprize worthy of their excellent charity learning specially seeing diuers Catholike Priests come to venture their liues and liberty in England to heale their wounds soules prouoking them to dispute euen in their owne Vniuersities Thirdly if his Deuines be so great Champions as he maketh them why durst they neuer yield to a publike Disputation with vs for fourty yeares aboue in the dayes of the late Queene Wheras Catholikes did not feare to graunt theÌ„ diuers such publike disputations (c) Fox giueth testimony hereof in his Acts MonumeÌ„ts one in Paules Church for six dayes p. 905 at Oxford 931. Againe at Oxford pag. 1411. within the fiue yeares of Queene Maryes Raigne 5. Finally I demaund their Surgeons and salues being so excellent what is the cause the body of their Church is and euer hath beene full of woundes or rather rent and torne in many peeces whereas the Catholicke Church which they accuse as mortally wounded is vnited in peace and vnity of doctrine hauing soueraigne salues of instruction to heale any wound of discord or errour that may grow in her body whereof Syr Edwyn Sandes knowne to be zealous against vs writeth in this sort relating what he fouÌ„d experimentally in his trauayles (d) His relation c. fol S. 2. on the B. side The papist saith he hath the Pope as a common Father aduiser and conducter to reconcile their iarres to decide their dissentions to draw their religion by consent of Councells into vnity whereas on the contrary side Protestants are seuered or rather scattered troupes ech drawing aduerse way without any meanes to pacify their quarrells Mark this speach M. Crashaw no Patriarch one or moe to haue a common Superintendency or care of their Churches for correspondency or vnity no ordinary way to assemble a generall Councell the only hope remayning euer to asswage their contentions Thus this Protestant writeth of the remedilesse woundes and dissentions of their Church and of the peace and vnity of ours and that which is chiefest of the balme or salue or meanes to keepe and conserue the same amongst vs which Protestants want and euer will want and the woundes of their discord like to rot and rancle more and more for want thereof Which consideration should make euery Christian detest the salue and balme of Bookes which M. Crashaw doth present to cure vs the scope drift of which writings is that forsaking the authority of Gods Church and generall Councells for many ages we reforme and refine our selues by Scripture vnderstood as we thinke best or as such writers shall make vs conceaue which is the very sourge of discord and endles debate Wherefore with more reason might we proclayme our salues which euen our enemyes are forced to admire and say with the Prophet (e) Hier. 3. v. 22. Is there not balme in Galaad Is there not a Phisitian there VVhy then is not the wound of my people recouered What more soueraigne balme to heale discord and dissention then the doctrine taught and decreed by Generall Councells What Phisitian more excellent or more to be desired of Christians then a common Father aduiser and directer to decide their differences to compound their iarres to keepe them being dispersed ouer the world in the vnity of the same faith How great the wounds of the ProtestaÌ„ts discords are Why then do so many Protestant Countryes remayne vnhealed Why doe they still rancle in dissention and discord betwixt themselues Why do they not repayre vnto Galaad where they may be healed where they confesse such a Phisitian and soueraigne salues to be found and out of which they haue no hope to find them in any other 6. M. Crashaw will perchance say that these woundes are not deadly they are not in the head or hart nor such as may endanger life though they doe somewhat blemish her beauty as one saith he may haue a hart sound and strong and yet haue 〈◊〉 blemish in the face or want of a finger But if we looke into the practises and writings which in their Churches an immortall and implacable hatred betwixt them for matter of religion hath brought forth you shall find that in their practises they do not only blemish faces but also seeke to â—tab ech other into the hart and in their writings not only with sharp penknifes of short Treatises cut
off toes or fingers but also with big bookes beat out ech others braynes â—lamning themselues as Heretikes vnto hell mutually not cursing as we may charitably expound but prophesiyng â—ather what wil be their seuerall ends and I feare though in other thinges they be false yet in this they will proue but too true Prophets Which war betwixt them doth appeare both by the Catalogue of their bookes which they haue written one against another set downe by (f) Histo Sacram. part 2 Hospinian a Protestant and (g) Iodocus Coccius in his Thesaurê° c. Tom. 2. Prot. Apo. in the end others as also by the yearely Marts of Franckford in which store of such bookes wherewith they wound ech other mortally neuer want disagreeing in points most essentiall and not in sleight matters only as about Scriptures whether the Epistles of Iames of Iude the second of Peter the second and third of Iohn the Epistle to the Hebrewes the Apocalyps be authenticall or no which not some few but whole Churches and the chiefest (h) Luther Illyricus Chem nitiê° and others See Chem. enchirid p. 63. exam CoÌ„c Trid. part 1 p. 55. pillers of Protestancy deny about Christs Incarnation about the blessed Trinity and such like (i) See Edkandus his enchiridion of Contro betwene Protestant Churches points in which errours and heresies must needes passe to the hart of any Religion 7. As for their practises read the second part of Hospinians SacrameÌ„tary Story which I haue of late perused with great admiration to see how their Churches doe wound teare ech other in peeces for religion who to poore people that know not these things dare auouch their iarres to be tryfles There you may behould how they banish ech other by publike (k) Hospin p. 2. Sacr. Histor fol. 127. p. 2. fol. 227. fol. 389. Proclamation prohibiting the sale reading of ech others (l) 383. books cast ech other into (m) Hospin 393. prison not permitting common hospitality to those of the aduerse part passing by their (n) Hospin fol. 399. CoÌ„rad Schlusselb in his Catal. Haeret. l. 13. pag. 828. Townes rise in armes fight one against another for (o) Hospin fol. 395. OsiaÌ„d epit centur 16. p. 735. Religion finally mangling the very dead (p) Hospin fol 395. corses of the contrary faction not graunting (q) Hosp ibid. sepulture as vnto Christians in their Churches Now M. Crashaw are these woundes in the heele and not in the hart in the finger and not in the head Are these sister-Churches that do thus not onely byte and scratch which might be pardoned vnto their weake sexe and would perchance hurt but face finger but also cruelly cut ech other in pieces for Religion damning ech other to hell in words and sending themselues thither mutually with their swords Are not these deadly wounds euen those wounds wherof all heresies in former times haue euer bled vnto the death If you know not this point of spirituall surgery your Father Luther can teach you it who saith that (*) Neque nâ—vlli vmquam haeretici vi aut astu victi suÌ„t sed mutua dissentioÌ„e c. Tom. 3. VVitteÌ„berg in ps 106 in fine Heretikes neuer at any tyme haue bene ouercome by force or subtilty but by mutuall dissention neyther doth Christ fight with them otherwise then with a spirit of gyddines and disagreement Thus Luther Now M. Crashaw either heale this deadly desperate wouÌ„d in your Church if you be able or else if you be wise neuer brag of your Surgeons and salues hereafter 8. But let vs see whether there be any vertue in the second salue or meanes to hâ—ale vs which M. Crashaw and his Church as he saith hath layd to our woundes This is their deuout Prayers for our conuersion whereof the Minister braggeth in very good earnest pag. 43 45. though most ridiculously as you shall see saying that they haue the testimony of a good conscience that they pray for vs dayly yea continually publikely and priuately euery where ouer the world all of their Church that vse to pray for themselues Which last parenthesis warily put in by him I feare will depriue vs of a great deale of good prayers that exception reaching far and wyde in their Church not only to the swearers swaggerers and swas-bucklers therof but also vnto their purest Preachers and good men of God For to omit others of Iacobus Andreas a man of great credit in their Church as much honoured and famous in Germany as euer was Caluin or Beza in Geneua Chauncellour of the Vniuersitie of (r) Hospin p. 2. Histor SacraÌ„ fol 198. Tubinga of whose zeale against the Pope they giue this testimony that (s) Osiâ—nd in Epitom Histor ceÌ„t 16. p. 1044. concionibus suis grauiter in Antichristum RomanuÌ„ est inuectus multas Ecclesias piè reformauit In his sermons he did bitterly inueigh against the Roman Antichrist and piously reforme many Churches Of this great Preacher of the Ghospell reformer of Churches a (t) Nicolas Seluecer Protestant that liued very much with him doth affirme that he could neuer see nor heare nor by any probable coniecture gather quòd vel cubitum iturus â—el de lecto surrecturus autorationem Dominicam recitauerit aut vllam Dei mentionem secerit (u) Hospinian p. 2. Histor Sacram. fol. 389. that going to bed or rising from thence he did euer so much as say the Lords prayer or had any remembrance at all of God What may we thinke of the reformed Churches whose Reformer was so deuout How piously did he teach them to pray for the Pope that was so slack and slouthfull to pray for himselfe And yet did he preach against the Roman Antichrist as zealously as M. Crashaw spake of godlynes no lesse hypocritically reformed Churches more successiuely then euer he is like to do which example may giue vs iust cause to doubt whether such earnest declaymers against the Pope and busy searchers into wounds euer pray for themselues or no. So that this continuall praying for vs by Protestants euery where ouer the world seemeth a very incredible paradoxe and I do thinke most Protestants that should practise the same were it true doe somwhat wonder to see it in print 9. The Bachelour goeth forward to set out the pompe of his praying Church with more magnificent words This our diligence saith he so shamed them Catholikes for their negligence in the same pag. 41. that foure yeares agoe they published at Rome a forme of Letany and publike prayer for the peruerting of the Realmes of England and Scotland to Popery Thus he But if you aske me what valiant exployts I euer heard the Protestant Church to haue performed by praying that may iustly make the Church of Rome so much ashamed or vpon what shew or colour of truth the Bachelour speaketh such strange thinges in so confident manner I plainly confesse I
which makes me more then suspect the prayer came originally from Rome especially seeing he addeth that it was appoynted of old Old M. Crashaw Look well to it that it be not some prayer taken out of an old Missall some skirt of the Romish VVhore which you haue sworne to discouer Will you see that I hit the nayle on the head or rather the Minister on the noddle who so much brags of a prayer Missal RoÌ„ in officio feriae sextae hebdomadae Sanctae or rather a little particle of a prayer taken from that very Church which he reuileth as wanting the charity shewed in it Looke into our Missalls both in the old and new you shall find three prayers besides many others appoynted for good Friday one for Pagans another for Iewes a third for Heretikes which Babylonian Booke such godly Isräelites as M. Crashaw comming to reforme their deuotion to a flesh dynner on Good friday making theÌ„ thinke the Roman morning-prayers ouer long put Pagans Iewes Turkes and Heretikes into one prayer not so long as the shortest of our three in which the Church imitating the charity of her dearest Spouse that day on the Crosse prayeth for her greatest enemies A smal particle of which deuotion found by M. Crashaw in his English Liturgy did so rauish the man in the loue of his Church that lifted vp to the third heauen he bestoweth as you haue heard blessing and blessing and blessing vpon her with an Amen in the end O M. Crashaw that you had grace to consider how blessed indeed you might be did you receaue all the robes and ornaments of the Roman Churches piety and deuotion seeing one only little skirt or particle therof left by great chance in your reformed Church makes you so proud that you spread it abroad like her peacocks tayle full of blessings not looking down to her deformed feet fugitiue from that very Church from whose larger example of louing her enemies praying for them this poore peece of your piety is cut off to adorne if not rather patch with a short shew of deuotion your Communion-Booke 14. Now about the Catholike Church praying for the conuersion of Heretikes though she seeke to make her charity in this point more knowne to God then the world to heauen then earth vnto Saints and Angells then mortall men yet there want not arguments therof which euen our enemies may see if they please to open their eyes For in Iubilyes and plenary Indulgences which are vniuersally graÌ„ted to all and very frequent with vs as themselues complaine is not euer one condition required of Catholikes to gaine them that they pray for the conuersion of Heretikes pag. 109. 112. The like is of the graines the Pope graunteh two copyes of which grauÌ„ts the Bachelour hath inserted into his Sermon vnmindfull of what here he bableth where praying for Heretikes is expressely required by the Pope to gayne the pardon of his graynes vsing that doctrine to their good which they most maligne not sucking siluer out of mens purses by granting pardons as the Bachelour lyeth but seeking to saue such wretched soules as his is that rayle on him if the prayers of all Christendome may preuayle to that effect And as for our priuate deuotions for the conuersion of hereticks especially our deare Countrey our prayers sacrifices disciplynes hayre clothes and others pennances with secret sighes and teares in the eares of God hauing more cause then these counterfait Isräelites to weepe vpon the bankes of Babylon for the desolation of Syon that is of a most florishing Church that was once in our Country now turned into a Congregation of carnall Ministers of these I say and such like thinges we will not boast as the Bachelour doth of his Churches poore deuotion the Father that seeth in secret will doubtles reward them and heare in the end the prayers of the poore the sighes of the humble the groanes of the fettered restoring againe at the tyme his infinite Wisdome hath appointed the buildings which these deformers of Christendome rather then reformers haue cast downe in few yeares but would neuer be able to repayre againe in many ages 15. The third manner of salues or meanes to heale vs that these Surgeons doe brag of in their Church are their good examples pag. 43. professing to vse his owne wordes and practising their owne religion dayly in our sight where first we are not sure of M. Crashaw whether he for his part professe his owne religion and not rather the Kings religion in our sight liking best of another religion in his hart For he is thought of some that know him well to preferre the Lemon-lake before Lambeth which he was wont with his Puritan brethren to to terme Limbo-lake when that voice Crashaw Crashaw gâ—â— to Geneua did ring strongly in his eares And that the same affection doth still reigne in his hart howsoeuer he seeketh to dissemble it in this Sermon desirous as he saith to iustify the state much more then to honour truth doth sufficiently appeare both by his bitter inuectiues against them that persecute the good men of God bannish and force them to fly the countrey and also by his earnest coniuring his brethren the Brownists notwithstanding persecution not to depart from England but still continue The Bachelours exhortatioÌ„ vnto Brownists and labour to heale by their preaching and draw more and more from Protestancy to their sect If saith he they be healed already why doe they not more seriously labour the healing of others They cannot but know there be many in our Church curable inough if they could shew theÌ„ to need their healing VVhy then doe they not stay among vs to heale and help vs He is no good phisitian that flyes and forsakes his Patient In this manner M. Crashaw coniureth them not to forsake their Patient the Church of England which may be well termed M. Crashawes Patient seeing she could indure him so long time togeather crying in pulpit till he was hoarse plaistering or rather pestering her eares with such intolerable fooleryes as haue beene discouered and as is this to intreat sectaryes condemned by her to continue still in the country and labour more seriously to draw men from her vnto their sect 16. Now as for the good examples and practises of his Ghospell done in our sight we know (c) Luther Peter Martyr Bucer their profession hath drawne many professed Nunnes out of their Cloysters to marry a thing punishable with death by the most ancient Christian (d) Vide Zozomen Histor l. 6. c. 3. Cod. i. 1. de Episc Cler. Si quis non dicaÌ„ rapere sed attentare tantùm iungendi causa matrimonij sacratissimas Virgines ausus suerit capitali poena feriatur lawes but of any that by their persuasion haue left the world forsaken the house of their parents professed themselues Virgins to Christ lyuing chast in body and mynd as was the practise of
extr de Baptismo eius effectu Et in C. Sicut Iudaei Item extr de Iudaeis Saracenis D. Th. 22. q. 10. a. 8. ad 2. Val. tom 3 d. 1. q. 10. punct 6. lawes nor their yong children christened against both the parents will as Deuines teach How then may Ministers seeke to compell Catholikes from their Religion â—n which their Ancestours successiuely for many ages did both gloriously liue and religiously dye especially ours being a Religion which the more learned Protestants do confesse to be truly Christian and sufficient (s) See ProtestaÌ„ts Apology tra 2. sect 6. subd 1. to saluation 24. Were we Idolaters which in Ministers mouthes is our ordinay reproach or Heretikes with which title they please sometymes to disgrace vs what need they deuise new lawes seeing lawes haue bene enacted long since by God against the one by the Church against the other What is the reason they proceed not against vs by these lawes The cause is that when they call vs Idolaters and Heretikes their conscience doth secretly check their toÌ„gue that these crimes are more stoutly pronounced by them then indeed practised by vs rather vttered by way of reproach then of truth Neither can iudicious Princes who measure others worthines by their owne be easily perswaded that their noble Ancestors whose valour and wisdome the admire were indeed drowned in such brutish Idolatry more then Cymerian darknesse For in truth should they proceed against vs as Idolaters and stone vs to death their harts might seeme harder then the very stones which they should force to fly at vs pursuing the faith of so many Kings Queenes Princes and famous Worthyes whose persons also they neyther would nor without exception of persons could spare being guilty with vs of the same faith were not these blessed and euerliuing stones now eternally placed in the glorious Pallace of Gods Kindgdome which the stones of malice can neither ouerthrow nor reach vnto who haue left behind them so many Monuments of their Christianity and piety which yet stand and may stand to the worlds end except Ministers destroying them imploy the stones to beat out of the world that faith and Religion that built them which should they doe the very stones if men were silent would cry vnto heauen for vengeance against them 25. And for burning vs as Hereticks such fire would giue a cleare light to make the shame of their new Ghospell apparant to all Christians should they which this their fury supposed we might expect at their handes make the fire of all Christian bookes which euen themselues doe confesse to teach the same doctrine for which Catholicks should burne For into such a flame not only so many thousand of bookes of the learned Deuines of this present age should enter but also the rest of all learned Christian Authors for these thousand (t) Protestants haue written saith M. Fulke that the Pope hath blinded the world these many hundred yeares some say a 1000. some 1200. some 900. Fulke in his treatise against Stapleton Martial pag. 25. yeares without any question and all the rest of all ancient Fathers some for one point some for another would by the Protestant Censure be cast on the same heape to serue for fewell from which their priuate spirits interpreting Scripture as they please would neuer be able to keep eyther the blessed Apostles or Christ himselfe who hath giuen his word neuer to part from the mouth and doctrine of his Church in any age to the (u) Matt. 28. v. 20. worlds end A fire made of so sacred fewell would yield rather flames of diuine loue to comfort the hart then corporall flames to consume the body neyther might that fire be thought so much to turne the sacred members of the Martyr into ashes as embalming his holy Reliques with the myrh of immortall memory commend them as pledges of ChristiaÌ„ coÌ„stancy to the custody of future ages Such a death-bed how comfortable might it be to a Martyr where the flagrant sent of holy Scriptures by which Fathers proue their doctrine and as with flowers adorne their writings might make him with the glorious (*) S. Laurence Deacon in the middest of flames seeme to lye vpon roses where their sweet and diuine eloquence declaring the ioyes of heauen and miseryes of this life would yield a more pleasing gale of â—ynd to coole his burning heat then that which bedewed â—e Babylonian furnace where finally the rarest spices of all manner of learning conteyning within them the fiery perâ—me of Christian piety laid on a heape and set on fire â—ight make them neuer enuy the odoriferous death-bed of â—â—e Arabian byrd And should they stay their fury against â—â—ese bookes not to make our death more glorious and â—â—eir cruelty more barbarous in the eye of the world yet â—â—e bookes themselues full of spirit and zeale of their Auâ—â—ors would be ready to leape into such a fire and to dye â—ith them in whose hartes they kindled the fire of that viâ—orious fayth From which kept by force they would â—â—mayne as so many fiery tongues to torment the conscienes of them that set such a glorious faith on fire togeather â—ith which had all Christian bookes that teach it beene â—urnt no ancient writer for Christianity had bene left So â—â—at Catholicke Religion is indeed so glorious and so full of Maiesty euen in the eyes of her enemyes that they deuise â—â—d enact new lawes to proceed against her disgraced with â—gly tearmes of treason or sedition against the State tremâ—ling to behould her stand at the bar in her natiue beauty â—nd Princely robes which lawes are the good and Godly â—eanes or salues to heale vs which M. Crashaw doth so much â—ag of 26. Now let vs looke into the lawes wherewith the Catholicke Church hath sought to heale The cause why Protestants are punished by Catholicks and reforme â—rotestants whose proceeding therin will appeare to haue â—eene both iust and mercifull and efficacious to worke â—hat effect if you consider eyther the cause for which or â—he lawes by which they were punished or the manner of â—he execution of them The cause of their punishment hath â—uer beene their leauing the Church whereof they were â—hildren their forsaking the faith whereof they were proâ—essours their reuolting from the army whereof they â—ere souldiers their rebelling against the Kingdome wherâ—f they were subiects a thing punishable by the law of all Nations as by the law of all CoÌ„mon-wealths doth appeare and among Christians the very brand of heresie set on heâ— forhead to make her knowne therby euen by Gods ownâ— word they went out from vs (x) 1. Ioan. 2. v. 19. 2. Iud. v. 19. these are they which segregate themselues and that Protestants haue thus reuolted the world caâ— witnesse Caluin (z) Discessionem à toto mundo facere coacti sumus ep 141. pag. 273. confesseth Now how great inexcusable this sinne is
Nation of all that came from all the Sonnes of Noah be 〈◊〉 your religion All that came from Cham are of ours all that came 〈◊〉 Iaphet are of ours and all that came from Shem but only your selâ—â— c. And during the tyme that you haue had your Kings and Priests shew one Nation by you conuerted or one that came and ioyned with you all thâ—â— tyme c. VVherfore neuer tell vs of healing vs beale your selues seeâ—â— fooles for you haue need as for vs we are well we are far better thâ—â— Isräel can make vs. 4. Thus M. Crashaw who speaking so bitterly againâ—â— Players in the end of his Sermon pag. 170. turneth the Pulpit into a stage and bringeth in a Babylonian to play the Vize which part ended pag. 20. he steppeth in himself to play the Epilogue with all his Ministeriall grauity in these wordes Thus did Babeled away the good counsell the Isräelites gaue them and pleased themselues in the like carnall arguments and fleshly conceipts as Papists in their Popery The prophanesse impieâ—y of the former discourse Which Epilogue if you consider the same well hath dare say more prophanesse impiety and blasphemy conched togeather in few words then those Players whom he doth pursue euer scattered abroad in the longest Playes For wheras other Protestants vse commonly to deny with what probability I will not discusse at this tyme the Church of Rome to be that Christianity that conuerted and ouerran the world that Church which hath lineall succession of Bishops from Christ and his Apostles confirmed by the vniforme consent of ancient Fathers the same that ouâ— Christian Ancestours famous for sanctity did professe which are the true markes of the Church we alleadge thâ— Bachelour seeming to make no bones to graunt vs all faith they are but carnall arguments fleshly and Babylonian conceipts The Bachelour putteth no difference betwixt Christianity and Idolatry not sticking to compare Christianity by the conuersion of Nations vnto Christ gloriously spread ouer the world which we challenge with the Babylonian deluge of Idolatry ouerwhelming the face of the earth the neuer interrupted succession of Bishops from the most Bl. Prince of the Apostles wherin we glory with the Babylonians carnall Pedigree from cursed Cham the authority of ancient Fathers and Doctours of the Church defining Controuersies in generall Councells which we alleage with the soothsaying and diuining of Chaldean Astrologers and their learned interpretation of dreames finally the piety and religion of our most Christian Ancestours which moueth vs to imbrace or rather to continue in their faith with the cruell and bloudy tyranny of Nemrod and other idolatrous Babylonian Monarches Can there be more prophane impiety or greater blasphemy then this to cast as he doth the glorious Iewells of Christian Religion to be troden vnder and defiled by Pagans feet If he were so moued against the Players for bringing two hypocrites on the stage vnder the names of Nicolas S. Anntlings pag. 71. and Symon S. Mary Oueryes two Churches in London which he and his fellow Puritans much haunt such open hypocrisy the meane tyme haunting them as it commeth to be perceaued euen of Players if this child of Babylon as he tearmes it did so offend him that like Phinees full of zeale he passeth the sword of his censure through it exclayming Oh what tymes are we cast into that such a wickednes should passe vnpunished what cause of iust anger haue all Christians against him that in the person of Babylonian Idolaters durst represent in the Pulpit as on a stage our famous Christian Ancestors that liued before Luthers tyme Haue they not iust reason to complaine and exclaime Oh what tymes are we cast into that such a wickednes should passe vnpunished Nay such a prophane play be put in print as the patterne of a modest Sermon 5. No lesse blasphemously in this discourse doth this Pulpit Stage player abuse the ancient Fathers making this Babylonian dispute against Isräelites in the same maÌ„ner which he calls carnall as they did against old heretikes and we against these of our age The very first sentence wherewith he beginneth Can you silly Isräelites teach Babylon a better religion then it hath Is not hers of so many yeares and so many yeares continuance VVas it not the religion our forefathers liued and dyed in This sentence I say is taken almost word by word out of S. Hierome who by this argument carnall in Crassus his conceit casteth of the bringers in of new doctrine against the Church of Rome (a) Quisquis assertor es nouoruÌ„ dogmatum quaeso te vt parcas Romanis auribê° c. Our post 400. aÌ„nos docere nos niteris quod ante nesciuimê° c epist ad PaÌ„machium Oceanum VVhosoeuer thou be saith he that doest bring new doctrine we beseech thee pardon our Romish eares and the faith praysed by the Apostles mouth After foure hundred yeares wilt thou teach vs that which we knew not before Vntill this day the world hath bene Christian without this your doctrine c. S. Hilary discourseth also against hereticks in the same Babylonian manner (b) Tardè mihi hos pijssimos Doctores aetas nunc huius saeculi protulit serò hos habuit fides mea quà m tu eruduisti Magistros l. 6. de Trinit ante medium Lord saith he speaking with Christ this last age hath brought forth ouer late these godly men to be my teachers they came not soone inough to be maisters of my faith which thou hadst before instructed I did belieue in thee when they had not yet preached That great Father of Gods Church surnamed the Diuine famous for sanctity and learning Gregory Nazianzen doth likwise rely his conscience vpon the religion his ancestours liued and dyed in (c) Si triginta his annis fides originem habuit cùm quadringenti anni ferè ab eo tempore fluxerint quo Christus palà m conspectus est inane tanto tempore fuit Euangelium c. Epist 2. ad Cheliâ—on If within thirty yeares saith he true faith began four hundred yeares being almost expired since Christ first appeared in vayne hath the Ghospell beene so long time preached in vayne hath the world belieued in vayne haue Martyrs shed their bloud in vayne haue so many and so great Prelates gouerned Churches Had not this Babylonian thinke you read these sayings of the Fathers at least cited in some Catholicke booke who could apply to his Idolatry their arguments for Christianity almost in their wordes only changing Rome into Babylon 6. The wordes also which follow in the same speach Is not our Religion generall and vniuersall ouer the world and yours only in a corner And is not ours visible doe shew that this Babylonian by some chaunce or other hath had a smack at S. Augustine who shaketh of hereticks with the same maÌ„ner of argument (d) Sivestra est Ecclesia Catholica osteÌ„dite illam per
non quasi facienda esset scriptura laudauit Aug. loc cit death of Razias more admirable theÌ„ allowable hauing more shew of valour then true wisdome thâ— Scripture doth set downe in what manner it was done not prayse as a thing that should haue beene done Thus S. Augustine Who doth not see that Syr Edwards Readers of bookes and rosters of crabs by the fire side do slaunder S. Augustine as though he had beene as drunken and dizzy-brayned a Reader of the Machabees as themselues Can any corruptions be more grosse then these I could wish Syr Edward for his credits sake to lay the matter of his Pamphlet on the Minister that was the true Father therof only challenging to himself the style and phrase which may well beseeme a Knight and is too rich and goulden to choth the foule brat of a Ministers brayne 13. But to returne to M. Crashaw if he keepe thiâ— Caueat that he put not whole sentences into the Fathers oâ— the first foure hundred yeares he will neuer be able to proue that they all did discard from the Canon the former bookes as he doth brag he can doe nor that any ancient Father euen those that are most accused therof Origen (u) apud Eseb l. 6. Hist c. 19. Epiphanius (x) â—e ponderbus mensuris and Hierome (y) praefat in lib. Reg. did superstitiously tye themselues or the Church to the Canon of the Hebrewes Let him proue that Origen and S. Hierome doe not admit the two last Chpaters of Daniel concerning Susanna and the Dragon which both Protestants and Iewes reiect in defence of which Chapters Origen wrote an Epistle to Iulius Africâ—â— (z) Orig. epist ad IulianuÌ„ Africanum homil 1. in Leuit. and S. Hierom being charged by Ruffinus to reiect them because his wordes in his Preface vpon Daniel to the lesse wary Reader may seeme to carry such a sense doth answer (a) Qui hoc criminatur stultum se sycophantam probat Non enim quid ipse sentireÌ„ sed quid ipsi aduersus nos dicere soleant explicaui I did not set downe what my self thought but what the Hebrews â—re accustomed to say against vs. Further calling Ruffinus stultum â—cophantam a foolish SycophaÌ„t for mistaking and charging â—im therein with the hebrews opinion which title did S. Hierome lyue he would as with great reason he might lay â—pon M. Morton who still (b) Apol. Cathol p. 2. l. 1. c. 3. challengeth S. Hierome to be â—f his side and to reiect these two Chapters notwithstanding his earnest disclayming from that errour Finally let â—im proue that S. Epiphanius with the Hebrew and Proteâ—â—ant Canon doth reiect the booke of VVisdome and of Eccleâ—iasticus both which he numbreth among the Diuine Scriâ—tures (c) Haeres 76. and maketh Salomon authour of the (d) de mensuris ponder initio Epiphaniê° in that place leaueth these bookes out of the Canon of the Hebrues but he doth not speake according to his owne opinion first Let M. Crashaw I say proue these thinges the next tyme he apâ—eares eyther in print or pulpit and not only beat the ayre â—nd wound the eares of the learned with foolish brags and â—alpable falshoods Which he will neuer be able to proue much lesse can he proue that any ancieÌ„t Father or true Chriâ—â—ian since the tyme of Christ in any age was so Iewishly adâ—icted to the hebrew Canon as Protestants now are that â—hey were resolued in defence thereof to stand out against Canons of generall Councells of the Christian Church â—eing S. Hierome of all the Fathers thought to be most affected to the hebrew vpon the first sound of the Ordenance of the Nicen Councell for the booke of Iudith yielded thervnto which was the humble resolution of the rest far from â—he pride of our Bachelour and his fellowes who would â—ondemne such a Councell of the ancient Church as presumptuous and such a Canon as a high disgrace to holy Scripture resoluing rather to dye desperately by the curses proceeding from the mouth of such a Canon or OrdenaÌ„ce then yield to obey them 14. Now remaineth his cauill against another Canon taken likewise from the same Councell of Trent For saith â—he a Romish Councell will neuer meete for one euill therefore secondly they decree That in all disputations sermons lectures and to all other purposes that latin Translation called the vulgar shal be held the authenticall text and that no man presume vnder any pretext to refuse (e) CoÌ„cii Trident. sess 4. it Thus he where I may note that this Bachelour lightly neuer permitteth any Author passe his hands with one simple corruption of his saying but still printeth vpon it a double marke of falshood at least as now he peruerteth this Canon both by omission of some words that might haue made the same more plausible and adding some of his owne to draw it to an harder sound First he omitteth the description which the Councell maketh of this translation calling it (f) Longo tot saeculorum vsu in Ecclesia ipsa probata the translatioÌ„ approued in the Church by the long vse of mâ—â— ages which description with men of iudgment may be suâ—ficient to moue them to allow of that decree as very conformable both to reason wisdome and piety and therfore was left out by the Bachelour to leaue the Canon as bare as might be and in the worst sound he could But much more perfidious and full of wilfull malice is his adding to the Canon that this translation must be vsed for all purposes which is neither the text nor sense therof For the Canon doth not forbid but that we may haue recourse vnto the Originalls for foure purposes as Bellarmine noteth 1. To correct the faults that may be in the Latin print 2. To know which is the truest Lecture when the Latin copyes vary 3. To know the true sense of a place wheÌ„ the Latin is ambiguous 4. To know the force power and emphasis of the words that so we may better vnderstand the Scripture so that aâ—â— purposes was added to the text by the Bachelour of purpose to deceaue his Reader and slaunder our doctrine which may seeme wonderfull that no place can escape him without such palpable corruption therof after such promises of exact dealing the credit of the English Ministry lying vpon his head 15. Now yow will wonder if you read his Comment vpon this Canon pag. 51. A multitude of vntruths with what a multitude of false and foolish vntruthes he chargeth the same First saith he heere is a strange decree the streame shal be of more vertue then the fountaine the translation of more authority then the originall which is a strange vntruth there being no word of fountaine or originall or of being more or lesse vertue in the Canon but only the translation to be true the water from the fountaine cleare Cannot a translation be true except it be
were tolerated sayth he whilest they liued yet being dead their bookes are eyther purged that is altered or els reproued And in his marâ—gent he nameth Arias Montanus Sixtus Senensis and Oleaster to be the men This is so strang an vntruth that to any learned man that hath perused these Authors he may seeme to speake in a dreame For who doth not know that is learned that these Authors both in their life and since they death are highly esteemed in our Church as may appeare by (a) in bibliotheca sancta Posseuinus his censure of them which the Bachelour saith ought to be accoumpted the censure of our (b) p. 67. Church And did these Authors stand out against this Canon of the Councell euen vnto death Nay did they not highly esteem prayse and commend this decree Let Sixtus Senensis who stands in the midst speake for the other two which he doth in the eight booke of his Bibliotheca sancta in the refutation of the thirteenth heresy which reiecteth the authority of the vulgar Translation where he doth coÌ„fute the Protestant Paradoxe of still reforming the translations vnto the originalls which were saith he to raise an eternall tumult and discord in the Church and neuer make an end of translating a new the Scriptures nor of correcting altering and censuring former translations (c) Vide SixtuÌ„ Senens l. 8. Biblioth sanct haeres 13. pag. 1051. Edit Venet. Proinde saith he hâ—â— animaduertens Sacrosancta Tridentina Synodus rectè c. VVherfoâ—â— the holy Councell of Trent perceyuing this to wit the necessity of oneâ— translation in Gods Church hath vpon good reason ordayned that of all Latin Editions which are extant only the old and vulgar be authenticall c. which Decree was made with great cause not only because thâ—â— Edition hath bene approued in the Church by the continuance of so many yeares but also for that not any of the more recent translations is eyther more certaine or more secure or more exact or more faithfull them this 19. Thus writeth this Author and in that place proueth largely not hauing any sillable that may sound of the least dislike of this Canon but doth learnedly grauely anâ— sharply condemne Protestants for resisting the same Noâ— what shall we say of M. Crashaw that brings him in following a contrary course and standing out euen vnto death against thâ— doctrine of this Canon and curses of the Councell What trick or policy is it in this Minister to vtter such grosse falshoods and in his fellowes to allow them to be printed to iustifie the State Verily I know not what their policy may be heerin except they meane to amaze vs with their impudency and put vs out of hart euer to conquer their malice by shewing them the truth or that euer their mouths will close vp from rayling at vs for want of matter seeing they can create the same of nothing and find whatsoeuer they fancy against vs euen in those Authors where the contrary is both plainly earnestly taught their policy I say may be to thinke to discourage vs from answering their slauÌ„ders discouering their false tricks seeing that therin we do but wash bricks or Black-Moores that will not be white But let them know that they deceaue themselues we being resolued to follow S. (d) Vtamur igitur haereticis non vt eoruÌ„ approbemê° errores sed CatholicaÌ„ fidem aduersus eorum insidias asserentes vigilaÌ„tiores simus etiaÌ„ si eos ad saluteÌ„ reuocare noÌ„ possumus Aug. de vera relig c. 8. Augustines counsell to make vse of Heretikes Not saith he to approue their errours but that by defending the Catholike doctrine against their deceipts we may be more vigilant and wary our selues though we shall not be able to reclayme them from their damnable â—ourse And yet we cannot but expect that this dung of M. Crashawes falshood that he hath layd vpon the soyle of our Countrey consumed by the force of truth will make many the more apt and disposed to bring forth the corne of Catholike faith which we seeke by these labours to sow in their soules For as S. (e) Haec est verè dementia noÌ„ cogitare nec seÌ„tire quòd mendacia noÌ„ diu fallant nocteÌ„ taÌ„ diu esse donec illucescat dies clarificato auteÌ„ die soâ—e oborto luci tenebras caliginem cedere l. 1. ep 3. ad Cornel. Cyprian saith it is meere madnesse in Heretikes not to thinke or consider that lyes do not long â—yme deceyue that night doth continue no longer then till â—he breake of day and that the day being cleare and the â—unne rysen the darknes doth yield vnto the light 20. And thus much of the Protestant salues which the Bachelour hath with no more vehemency then vanity praysed and of his cauills and slaunders against Councells the salues to heale the wounds of errour and discord which the Church of God in all ages hath vsed which not onely â—aith but euen naturall reason not only the word of God â—ut also common sense must needs moue any discreet man that seriously and really desireth to be saued to prefer before the new conceipts of any humourizing Paracelsian that doth brag of his knowledg in spirituall phisick and â—nderstanding of Scripture aboue Fathers and Councells of former ages The end of the first Part. THE SECOND PART of this TREATISE THE FIRST CHAPTER CONCERNING the Errours and Blasphemies tearmed by him Woundes which the Bachelour doth falsly and slaunderously impute vnto the Roman Church NOvv we enter into the confession of M. Crashawes Babells we come to cleanse the Augaean stable of his Sermon M. Crashawes drift in his 20. wouÌ„ds deuided into twenty different roomes of slaunders the drift of which discourse is to make some principall points of Catholike doctrine which heretickes euer haue most hated as are the Primacy of the Roman Bishop the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin the Authority of Gods Church to decide doubtes about Scriptures the vse of holy Images directing prayers before them vnto Christ and such like Pillars of Christian piety seeme horrible blasphemyes accusing vs to teach what in truth we detest and to hould what we abhorre to wit that the Pope is God the Virgin Mary aboue God the Popes Decretalls of more credit then Scriptures that Images are to be prayed vnto worshipped as God And not to seeme to rayle altogeather without reason to make some little shew of proofe he citeth the most harsh and inconuenient sayings that haue escaped the pen of any Catholike writer in search wherof he hath spent as he doth confesse the (a) In his Epistle to the Lord Treasurer course of his studyes which he vrgeth not as the inconuenient or inconsiderate speaches of priâ—â— Authors but as generally receaued doctrines of our Church These are the woundes he chargeth the Roman Church withall these the graue and substantiall proofes of so grieuous and horrible slaunders this
his sincere and vpright dealing endeauouring to make the errours of some few seeme articles of our faith opinions of priuate men definitions of the whole Church which course men of iudgment that vnderstand of these matters must needs perceaue to be no lesse absurd then vniust A iugling tricke of Ministers and that therin Ministers play with their Auditors the trick of some Iuglers who with the smoake of certaine hearbs make therafters of faire goodly rooms wherin they burne them seeme snakes and adders by this meanes frighting fooles and children from the same which false slaunderous smoake changing pious doctrines inâ—â— seeming blasphemies doth M. Crashaw raise within the fairest and goodliest Rome of the Catholik Church by setting fire with his rayling tongue to the sayings of some Catholike Authors making a smoake of blasphemy vampe from them wherwith the doctrines of the whole Church may seeme to ignorant people vgly Monsters 2. And though in such variety of gardens as are the learned bookes of our Authors M. Crash vanity in the search of the woundes among such store of their sweet hearbs and fragrant flowers it might seeme no wonder though some twenty weedes of erroneous sayings be found which taken in rigour of speach may seeme blasphemous yet to make the purity of our doctrine and the falshood of rayling Preachers wherof the Bachelour is Procter more apparant by this Answere it shal be clearly shewed that learned Catholikes haue vsed such diligence to weed their owne writings and that such hath bene the care of the Church to purge their works which they did submit to her Censure that the Bachelour to iustify his rayling Church hath bene able to alleage no one saying of any Catholike Authour that doth not containe pious and iustifiable doctrine Neyther can he make the sweet hearbes and flowers of their doctrine take the fire of his rayling Rhetorike to yield the smoake of false slaunders without drying them vp and bereauing them of their naturall iuyce and sense which also commonly he cannot doe without wringing and wresting bruzing and breaking mangling and corrupting their wordes as shall appeare by this full and particuler Answer vnto euery one by him alleadged wherin if I be longer and more earnest then such palpable slaunders vttered vpon no better proofes may seeme to require let the Reader remember and consider for his comfort and ours that in this Sermon we confute and he readeth in this Answer a refutatioÌ„ of all the rest of the like rayling inuectiues that are daily preached though not printed against vs which how false for matter foule for laÌ„guage they are may appeare by the monstrous deformity of this that durst come to light as the publickly allowed iustifying patterne of the rest Which if we conuince of horrible falshood as we shall of such as all men of conscience must needes abhorre we may iustly apply to the English Ministry the saying of Christ If (b) Si IumeÌ„ quod in te tenebrae sunt ipsae tenebrae quaÌ„tae erunt Matt. 6.23 thy light be darknesse how darke is thy darknesse it selfe That is if such Sermons as they dare bring to light are full of grosse and foule lyes what store of such darke foule stuffe may be supposed to be in such Sermons as themselues for very shame suppresse in darknesse The first of the twenty slaunders That we teach the Pope is God 3. THE Pope as he is most hated in the Bachelours hart so he commeth first to his mouth when he is in rayling mood with whom he beginneth the list of his twenty slaunders pag. 53. 57. accusing vs to teach that he is God and our Lord God and that wee doe equalize him to vse his owne word to the true God Which accusation being most heynous yet he bringeth for proofe thereof only this seely argument against vs that the Pope is called God and Lord God not only in priuate Authors but also in his owne Canon law Where first though the antecedent were true that the Pope is called God yet the inference that therefore he is God equall to the true God is full of ignorance and blasphemy against all holy Scripture which doth often honour men with the name of God For who hath not heard that famous place of the prophet I (c) Psal 81.6 sayd yee are Gods and children of the highest all where those to whom the word of God was reuealed are called Gods as (d) Ioan. 10.35 Christ doth declare Who doth not know that often in the Scripture Iudges are called Gods (e) Exod. 21.6 ad Deos vtriusque causa perueniet their cause shal be brought before the Gods Dijs (f) Exod. 22.9 8. non detrahes thou shalt not detract from the Gods Doth not the Scripture also tearme Moyses (g) Exod. 7.1 Deum Pharaonis the God of Pharao Doth it not salute Salomon by the same title if we belieue Caluin vpon this verse of the (h) Psal 44.7 Psalmist Thy seate ô God is for euer and euer where Caluin saith not Christ but Salomon is tearmed God Hauing this warrant of Scripture what great matter is it though the Pope by some Catholick Author be tearmed God Is not the Bachelours vanity wonderfull that after such promises of great proofes of no triuiall things nor trisles begins with this Babel argument 4. Secondly he hath not been able to bring in this place any one Catholicke Author where the Pope is so much as tearmed God though he haue as he doth confesse spared no cost to get no labour to peruse Records where he thought such blasphemous sentences might be found nay there is not any by him brought whom he hath not notoriously corrupted slaundered as you shall see They are only these three First the Glossers saith he call the Pope their Lord God pag. 53. the Pope is content to take it to himself where he coupleth togeather two loud vntruths The first that the Glossers A double slaunder about a glosse which signifyes a number call the Pope their Lord God giuing his Reader to vnderstand that many Glossers doe vse that phrase or rather that it is the ordinary stile they giue to the Pope which to be false may appeare by this that neuer Protestant before this Bachelour durst charge with this slaunder more Glossers then one and for one only tyme vsing this speach Dominum Deum nostrum Papam (k) Extrauag Ioan. 22. tit 14. c. 4. though him also without cause this being indeed not his phrase but an errour ouersight in the print in some later editions which is proued by many ancient copyes in which Deum is wanting and this title found Dominum nostrum Papam our Lord the Pope which is no more absurd then Dominus noster Rex our Lord the King the vsual stile of subiects to their Prince Moreouer the originall manuscript of Zinzelinus the Author of that Glosse is yet extant in the
him This is his vaine and ridiculous proofe which serueth to proue clearely that these Bachelours of Babell want solid matter against vs that are forced to obiect such far-fetcht Babels For first though the booke were dedicated to the Pope yet doth it not follow that the Pope did euer peruse the same or any part therof eyther before or after the printing How many books come forth which the Patrons to whome they are dedicated did neuer read or know of before they appeared with their names How could this Pope be accessarie to the doctrine of the booke which he neuer read as it is very probable he did not being full of other businesse and this booke of Bernardinus very long Must their Patron be accounted Author or approuer of the blasphemyes lyes and slaunders wherwith Ministers stuffe their bookes May the Princes Highnes be taynted with the Bachelours impudent tricks because his Sermon was dedicated vnto him God forbid Secondly suppose that Pope Alexander had knowne and neglected to condemne this sentence of the Fryer must it therfore needs be the approued doctrine of all Catholikes Among whome are many thousands I dare say that neuer so much as heard the name of this Fryer till now many moe thousands that neuer saw the booke some few that may perchance haue seene the booke yet neuer stumbled on this sentence for which the Bachelour hath bene seeking the whole course of his studyes as he saith sparing neither cost nor labour to get toyes to bestow gratis on the Pope This is the vanity of the accusation and the wrong he doth Catholicks though the former doctrine he doth rayle so eagerly at were to be found in Bernardinus his bookes 20. But now we are to examyne how truly this Fryar is accused of this strange Paradoxicall doctrine where the perfidious dealing of this Minister is such as I make no doubt but the conscionable Reader though otherwise Protestant will be euen amazed at his want of conscience and at the lack of wisdome in the Church of England to print this Sermon to iustify themselues from the imputatioÌ„s of lying and rayling The impiety saith he of this blasphemy is so execrable and incredible that I will set downe the words of the booke it selfe (l) Bernardiâ—ê° de Busto in Mariali p. 3. ser 5. pag. 96. edit Lugdun ann 1517. as it was dedicated to the Pope which he doth in the margent thus in latin Licet ad Mariam appellare à diabolo à Tyranno imo à Deo si quis à Dei iustitia grauarise sentiat Thus in English in the text A man may appeale to the Virgin Mary not only from a Tyrant and from the Diuell but euen from God himself namely when he feeleth himself grieued or oppressed by Gods iustice Now hauing made Bernardinus speake in this sort he begins to thunder against vs what is this we heare Doe there lye appeales from God and from God to a creature is Gods iustice such as a man may iustly be grieued at We may say with the Prophet o heauens be astonished at this and let all Christian harts tremble to heare such blasphemyes Thus he Can any clamours be lowder then these wherewith he would shake the very heauens What if they be raised vpon a false quest What if the blasphemy he rayleth at be his owne words added to Bernardinus his sentence if this be true haue not Protestants cause to tremble to see themselues guided by men without conscience or shame who so desire to disgrace the Pope that catch at a shaddow that may seeme to make against him nothing so wicked that they will not do nothing so sacred that they will spare no not though they may giue aduantage vnto Atheists to deny God pag. 73. The true sentence wordes of Bernardinus in that place are these Confidenter quisque appellet ad ipsam siue grauetur à diabolo Bernardinê° loco citato siue à Tyranno siue a proprio corpore siue à diuina iustitia That is Let any man confidently appeal vnto her whether he be vexed or oppressed by the Diuell or by some tyrant or by his owne body or by the diuine iustice Compare this sentence with that which the Bachelour cited and you shall find him to haue made three very grosse and inexcusable corruptions of this place 21. The first is by omission leauing out à proprio corpore putting the body out of the number of those from whom Bernardinus saith we may appeale to the Virgin Mary because that makes the metaphore manifest that Bernardinus did not meane of proper and iuridicall appealing but only of praying vnto and inuocating the Mother of God in any temptation misery or distresse For what man so mad as to thinke of a proper appeale from his owne body Bernardinus in that place telleth how S. Mary of Egypt being grieuously tempted by the suggestions of carnall lust fled vnto this Empresse and appealed ouercame her body and kept chastity Where you see plainly he meaneth no other thing by appealing then inuocation of the Blessed Virgin when eyther the Diuell doth seeke to deceiue or the world pursue or our body molest vs or the rigour of the diuine iustice driue vs into despayre which is the doctrine of all ancient Fathers (m) See Coccius Tom. 1. Thesauri c. 3. art 4. l. 5. art 4 6. and the counsell of S. (n) Bernardus ser 2. super Missus est Bernard in all distresses doubts temptations dangers specially when thou feelest thy self sinking into the depth of despayre Respice stellam voca Mariam looke vpon the star call vpon Mary 22. Secondly he giueth a wicked and a blasphemous sense to these wordes Si quis graueter à diuina iustitia accusing Bernardinus to teach that one may be iustly agrieued by the iustice of God that the iudgment of God may be vniust and his proceedings erroneous and that therfore there needs a Chauncery or Higher Court to mitigate the one and rectify the other pag. 65. which are intolerable slauÌ„ders and wicked blasphemies that were far from Bernardinus his meaning For grauari à diuina iustitia cannot signify to be wronged by the diuine iustice for it were not iustice did it offer wroÌ„g vnto any but to be oppressed or weighed down into despaire by comparing the multitude of our sins with the rigour of Gods iustice which might cast vs into the pit of hell without doing vs wrong Neither should such a sentence be vniust or such proceâ—â—ing vnequall but agreeable to our deserts This proceeding with vs by iustice according to our deserts though iust yet is it most terrible dreadfull at which the Saints of God did tremble from which they did euer appease namely the Prophet Dauid Lord Iudge me not thy (o) Psal 6. 37. v. 1. sury but haue pitty on me according to thy great (p) Psal 50. v. 1. mercy The weight of
to which S. Anselme saith that the purity of Gods Mother was requisitely such as greater vnder God cannot be (o) Ansel de concept virg c. 18. imagined And to me it seemes a wonder that this Bachelour should mislike those titles in the Virgin only which the Scripture alloweth euery Saint to be (p) 2. Petr. 1. v. 4. diuinae consortes naturae partakers consorts of the diuine nature consequently of power maiesty which is inseparable froÌ„ that nature to be (q) Rom. 8. v. 17. heredes Dei coheredes Christi the heyres of God fellow-heires with Christ And in what are Saints fellowes with Christ but in his Fathers Kingdome Or in what doth that consist but in honour glory power and maiesty In the diuision of which blisfull inheritance the greatest portion by all titles and rights is due to the Mother howsoeuer the Bachelour wonder at it saying that God hath deuided his Kingdome with a Creature euen with a woman and rage against it o ye heauens be astonished at this Where he calleth her woman by contempt not finding any thing in so glorious a creature that might seeme contemptible but her sexe he casteth that in her teeth which God by being her sonne made sacred and venerable to the very Angells The same loue to the Virgin makes him vtter this notorious vntruth pag. 64. that in our Ladyes Psalter we turne the Psalmes from Dominus to Domina from God to our Lady For that Psalter compiled by S. Bonauenture doth not turne the Psalmes of Dauid vnto the B. Virgin but maketh a new Psalter of Psalmes and Hymnes in her praise following therein the phrase and imitating the stile taking often the very wordes which he doth so temper with his owne that they may suite with all and not exceed the dignity of the Virgin But the Bachelour is so distempered with malice and want of affectioÌ„ towards Gods mother that to him euery thing seemeth to sound of blasphemy that tasteth of her honour a manifest signe of a reprobate as you heard Oecolampadius auouch to which reprobate sense we must leaue him beseeching the mother of Mercy and Wisdome that by her powerfull intercession he may be reclaymed wherof I should haue greater hope would he appeale from the Diuell the Father of falshood to her the Mother of God and truth THE SECOND CHAPTER OF His slaunders concerning Scriptures THE Bachelour hauing discharged his duty to the Pope done his deuotions to the B. Virgin by rayling on the one blaspheming the other lying against both passeth vnto holy Scriptures making great shew of respect and reuerence towards them with as much truth as former Heretickes haue done who by counterfayte deuotion to Scripture raysed lamentable tumults in the Church Nothing was more rife in the Arians mouths theÌ„ this brag that they were Scripturarum discipuli (a) Maximinus Arian oro opto scripturarum esse discipulê° August l. 1. contra Maxim initio Schollers in the booke of God By this preteÌ„ce of Scripture saith Tertullian hereticks seduce the weake they make the meaner stagger they weary and tyre the learned (b) in praescript c. 15. knowing that by this kind of weapons only aut nulla aut parùm certa victoria (c) ibid. c. 19. they cannot be conuinced or not so euidently but they may by some phantasticall shift (d) ibid. c. 16. euade This is the cause that nothing commeth out of their mouth which they doe not adorne with some wordes of Scripture (e) VinceÌ„t Lyrin aduersus haeres c. 35. priuately publickly in their speaches in their bookes abroad at home at table in the streetes the wordes of Scripture doe so flow from their mouth to make men belieue that they haue the spring therof in their harts as Vincentius Lyrinensis coÌ„plaineth cloathing their woluish senses with the soft woll of Gods sacred (f) Act. 36. word And because Catholikes refuse to stand to Scripturâ— only as (g) NoÌ„ ad Scripturas prouocaÌ„dum Tertull praescrip c. 16. Heretikes declare the same appealing from theâ— to the Churches (h) Vt diuinum canonem secunduÌ„ vniuersalis Ecclesiae traditioÌ„es interpreteÌ„tur Vincent vbi supra c. 38. iudgment from Scripture interpreted by the fancy of priuate men to the same declared by the spirit of truth which shall neuer forsake the true (i) Ioan. 25. v. 26. Church which practise though in truth it be an honour and not a contempt of Scripture yet it is a wonder to see what an vproare in all ages Heretikes haue made herupon accusing Catholikes as denyers of Gods word followers of the traditioÌ„ of (k) AriaÌ„s apud Aug. cont Maxim l. 1. initio men in which veyne M. Crashaw bestoweth fouâ—â— his twenty wounds treading the steps of his damned predecessours (l) NestoriaÌ„s apud Vincent aduers haeres c. 42. which though they be very triuiall cauills old Babells wherwith euery Minister commonly when he commeth to the Crosse playeth the foole in pulpit answered by vs many hundred tymes yet out of ambitious vanity to be thought the first discouerer of the whores skirtes he dareth say that they are rare thinges which haue not bene often touched by many wherat the learned will laugh wheÌ„ they shall heare them though I confesse he hath added some few falshoods more impious new follyes more ridiculous then euer any perchaunce did before him specially in the two latter of these foure that euen Turkes will abhorre his prophanesse in the one and children laugh at his ignorance in the other which I dare promise the Reader this Answer shall make apparant to be spoken in rigide truth without any exaggeration at all An answere to the fourth wound or slaunder That the Popes Decretalls are made equall to holy Scriptures 2. THE first of these foure his fourth wound he sets downe in these words In the Decree the Pope shameth not to affirme that his Decretall Epistles are numbred among the Canonicall (m) Decretum d. 19. c. 6. Scriptures This all know to be an old worme eaten carp which hath bene so often brought to the table and discouered to be a meere cauill that I wonder men do not loath the very sight therof yet the Bachelour to make the same more pleasant addeth the sauce of a new lye that this is the saying of a Pope The Pope saith he shameth not to affirme But first I demaund of him the Popes name was it Pope Ioane or Pope Gyn or Pope Geffrey Gratian (n) Vide Posseuin in Apparatu sacro the Author of the Decretum a booke so called was neuer Pope except he were created in the CoÌ„claue of the Bachelours idle braine Hath he not cause to be ashamed at his folly or fraud not to distinguish betwixt sentences of priuate (o) GratiaÌ„ and his Decretum is accused often of ignorance errours by Catholiks namly by Bellarmine l. 4. de Rom. Pont. c.
hatred to the Pope then of loue to him from which proceed three fraudulent tricks heere vsed by him to raise this Babel that giueth aduantage vnto Atheists First he doth wittingly misconster the playne meaning of the Glosse giuing it this impious sense that the wordes of God are not of as good authority as the Popes and that they are to be belieued not because they are Gods but because the Pope hath pleased to put them in the Canon law which doctrine the Glosser neuer dreamed of who by canonizing the senteÌ„ce of Salomon The Glosser by canonizing the words of SalomoÌ„ doth not vnderstaÌ„d the making them Canonicall Scripture but only a part of the Canon law or a rule in the Ecclesiasticall Court doth not vnderstand the making it diuine and Canonicall Scripture but the making it a Canon law with authority to bynd or a rule to decide doubts in the Ecclesiasticall Court which authority a Prince that can make lawes may giue to a place of Scripture if he doe vtter his law in wordes thereof For all sentences of Scripture though truths which must be belieued haue not the necessity to bynd as lawes but some only as directions and counsells which may be made lawes of a Common-wealth eyther ciuill or Ecclesiasticall by the Princes Gouernours therof This sentence of Christ for example he that striketh with the sword shall dye by the sword is a truth that such as strike with the sword though perchance they do not kill yet deserue the punishment of death which is a law in some Countreys Now suppose that the Parlament intending to make a law that those that go into the field or fight with eminent danger of their liues be punished with death should set downe that law in these words of Christ Qui gladio percutit gladio peribit he that striketh with the sword shall dye by the sword should not the Parlament giue to that sentence of Christ the power of a ciuill and politike law which it had not before Should not they bestow impart their authority vpon it Should not they authorize that part of Scripture to be a part of our CoÌ„moÌ„ law Is there any blasphemy or absurdity in this speach Doth it giue any aduantage vnto Atheisme Were he not an absurd fellow or an Atheist that would therupon infer that the ParlameÌ„t gaue diuine authority vnto that sentence That the word of the Parlament is of more authority then the word of God All which Babels and many moe pag. 74. this Babel-Bachelour doth infer out of the saying of the Glosse that a sentence of Salomon was inserted by the Pope into the Canon law as a rule or law how to proceed in the Ecclesiasticall Court Now hath he not religiously discharged his duty to truth and giuen Atheists vantage where they had none Is not this proceeding to be detested by all that haue eyther religion or conscience in them 7. Secondly he doth conceale from his Reader that these wordes of the Glosse both in regard of their harsh sound as also because they are grounded vpon a grosse ouersight in the Glosser in all the latter Editions of the Canon law reformed by Gregory the 13. are left out so that now they should not be seene so much as in a secret Pamphlet did not such children of darknes as our Bachelour is bring them to light to giue aduantage vnto Atheists to obscure the light of all truths that God is And here M. Crashaw I caÌ„not but charge you vpon your Allegiance vnto God to discharge your duty to the truth and shame the Diuell by taking away the vantage you may haue giuen Atheists are not these words indeed left out in the latter impressions of the Canon law I named Heare his answer then iudge of the religion of the Minister If saith he they haue left it out in any latter impression so it be with open confession and detestation of the fault it is well but sure I am it is in the impression I haue and in all other which I could borrow further I do not know any Pope or Popish writer that hath with authority and allowance condemned and reproued this Atheisme If they know any they may do well to produce them Do you perceaue how he that before was so hoat to discharge his duty to the truth now is become so cold in the same duty that he flyeth from confessing the truth like a Beare from the stake feeding vs with iffs ands loath to bereaue Atheists of the aduantage he hath giuen them And not onely doth he conceale the truth but also against his conscience vttereth a mayne and malicious vntruth that he could not borrow any impression where these words were left out which to be notoriously false this very Sermon doth conuince in which he doth cite very often (k) pag. 5◠〈◊〉 70. pag. 72 pag. 42. the new impression of the Canon law corrected by the appointment of Gregory the 13. that of Lyons and that of Paris in both which impressions all other the aforesaid recited words are left out and his iffs and ands and humming about the matter doth make it more then suspicious that he did find them left out in that impression but would not confesse it nor discharge his duety to the truth which by the former flaunder he might haue obscured And I desire the Christian Reader specially the Gentlemen of the Temple to charge M. Crashaw to shew according to his promise the reformed Edition of Gregory the 13. which he did borrow and cyte in this Sermon wherby they may make tryall of his honesty and bring this lurking Atheist to light who vnder pretence of the Ghospell seeketh wickedly to conuey Atheisme into his Auditors harts which yet shal be made more plaine 8. Thirdly concerning the errour ouersight in the Glosse for which the former words were discharged wheras M. Crashaw requireth open detestation therof he cannot but know that we do curse detest it who seeing he could with no colour of truth charge that errour vpon the RomaÌ„ Church vnto which his owne Church doth come much nearer concealing the same from his Auditours in lieu therof fathereth his owne Atheisticall brat vpon vs. For what was that errour ouersight in the Glosse To think that the Sapientiall bookes of Salomon among which are the Prouerbs were not Canonicall mistaking a place of S. Hierome and of another Glosse where some bookes ascribed to Salomon as that of VVisdome and Ecclesiasticus were accounted Apocriphall reading the place sat citò sed non sat bene with more hast then good speed as M. Morton excuseth his (l) In his AnimaduersioÌ„s in the very end 2. p. Apol. Cathol Vide Deâ—ret l. 2. tit 23. ouersights For a little after the former wordes in that very place the Glosser moueth the question in termes whether the Prouerbs and other bookes of Salomon be Canonicall of authority or no and answereth that by
Christ which in those books are not affirmed of S. Francis as for example to be truly borne of a Virgin mother to be the eternall Sonne of God conceaued without sinne the promised Messias of the Iewes the onely Christ proued himselfe to be God I hope no Protestant but doth both see and detest it And as for the taming of wild beasts and their obeying and honouring Gods Seruants as if they were endued with reason the liues of Saints both of the old and new Testament are full of exaÌ„ples as Balaams (g) Num. 22. Asse Elias his (h) 1. Reg. 3. â— 17. Crow Daniels (i) Daniel c. 14. Lions and in the new the two Lions that made S. Paul the first Hermit his graue in their language seeming to bewayle his death (k) HieroÌ„ in eius vita And the like story to this of the wolfe tamed by S. Francis you may read of another wolfe in Seuerus Sulpitius a most ancient (l) He liued anno 400. Dial. 1. c. 8. Tua haec viâ—tus Christe tua suÌ„t haec Châ—iste miracula Etenim quae in tuo nomine operantur serui tui tua sunt Et in hoc ingemiscimê° quòd MaiestateÌ„ tuaÌ„ seâ—â—â— senti unt homines non verentur Father which story he concludeth in another manner then M. Crashaw thus exclayming vnto Christ This is thy power oâ— Sauiour these thy wonders for the myracles which thy seruants worke in thy name be thine but this we lament that men dâ— not feare thy Maiesty which euen wild beasts do feele Thus this Saint did giue honour to Christ that could tame wolues wild beasts and make them subiect to his seruants which myracle M. Crashaw taketh in great snuffe we should vrge him and his fellowes to the like and no wonder though he feare seeing one wolfe will deuour another though he pretend this excuse because Christ Iesus their Captaine forsooth neuer did such a wonder But if you pose them with written wonders he and his Hugonots know how to do them at their fingers ends And if I might pose them I should only require that he and his good fellowes of England meet with their Brethren Hugonots of France midway betwixt Douer and Calis walking vpon the waters as Christ and S. Peter did which when they haue done we may promise neuer to bid them more to goe tame wolues seeing they so snuffe we should vrge them with S. Francis his myracles nor do any other wonder after that which alone might suffice to send them to their true Captaine rid Christendome of a great deale of trouble The tenth and eleauenth wounds or slaunders concerning Indulgences graunted by the Pope to Churches and Graynes THIS lying without booke or proofe M. Crashaw doth likewise obserue in his two next wounds à pag 105. ad p. 114. against Pardons and Indulgences graunted vnto Churches Grains which he beginneth with a most palpable vntruth That two or three hundred yeares agoe Indulgences did grow to such height of rotten ripenesse that all men of vnderstanding euen of the Popes owne brood were ashamed of them and that many of the wiser euen in that misty tyme did see and laugh at the nakednesse of Popery in that point Where to omit the putred tearmes of rotten-ripenes and misty tymes which are fit phrases for a Bachelour of his brood the substance of his saying is such that the Minister may seeme to dreame that he is speaking to posts not vnto men of learning among whome are none but know The doctrine of Indulgences hath byn more fully handled with in these last 400. years then euer before that Catholike Deuines within the last 400. or 300. yeares haue written more copiously clearly fully and resolutely of this matter then any before as he that will discouer the Bachelours bouldnes in talking he knowes not what may see the Deuines vpon the 4. Sentent distinct 20. the Canonists vpon the Decretalls tit de Poenitentijs remissionibus besides many others that haue written large and peculiar Treatises of this subiect so far they were from being ashamed therof And I much wonder that such shamefull fooleries could creep into print and that Ministers do not blush at their Bachelours bould ignorance herein 8. But before we come to proue the sacred and venerable antiquity of this practise we must cleere our doctrine of Pardons from the grosse slaunder wherwith our Bachelour seeketh to apparell Popery standing he saith naked in this point and as shamelesse in her impiety as the VVhore in her sinne the same modesty and charity mouing him now to cloath her with lyes and slaunders which in the eight wound forced him to discouer her skirts to wit to make her odious hatefull The slaunder is That we teach that Beades or Buckles of brasse hallowed by the Pope haue such vertue of Pardon and Indulgence annexed vnto them that Christs owne bloud can haue no more (n) pag. 108. and that for a toy or trifle a man hath graunted him many thousand yeares of Pardon and is absolued from the guilt both of sinne and payne and made cleare and free as he was the houre he was (o) p. 105. baptized Which vggly raggs of horrible blasphemy we doe detest teaching concerning Indulgences the points of doctrine that follow 9. First that whereas the least drop of Christs precious bould might suffice to redeeme a thousand worlds no grayne nor holy place can haue power or vertue annexed vnto it to remit the guilt of the least sinne no not of a veniall sinne as Catholike Deuines teach (p) Vide Bellar toÌ„ 3. l. 1. de Indulg c. 7. conclus 1. Per indulgentias non absoluimur nec soluimur à reatu cul pae vllius id est nec laethalis nec venialis Et quideÌ„ de culpa laethali nulla dubitatio esse potest and as for mortall sinnes committed after baptisme for those before baptisme are remitted by that Sacrament no such synnes can be forgiuen but by confessing the same with sorrow and contrition of hart to a Priest that hath authority to absolue which to be our doctrine no child in our Church that is come to yeares of discretion but doth know Secondly that though the guilt of sinne be remitted by the Sacrament of pennance through the merits of Christs precious bloud yet there doth often remayne an obligation of temporall punishment to be payd by satisfactory workes in this life or if we neglect them by Purgatory fyer of the next Thirdly that these PeÌ„nances may be eyther voluntarily assumed by ourselues or imposed by the Church vpon vs wherein she may vse some pardon requiring lesse then the grieuousnes of our sinnes deserue forgiuing the rest by the power of those keyes which Christ left her to bynd and loose on earth not only temporall satisfactions but euen sinne also in the Sacrament of PeÌ„nance Fourthly that the cause of this pardon must not be a toy or
of our men seeme worse then it is they vrge that as an incurable wound of our Church which is an vnauoydable misery of this life to haue many wicked ioyned with the iust many sinners with Saints euen the worst with the best From which misery the Church of Christ can neuer be free nor healed till she become glorious without spot or wrinkle in heauen (u) Ephes 5. v. 27. Now she is a great house which conteyneth vessels of reproach togeather with vessels of honour (x) 2. Tim. 2. v. 20. a net which draweth good bad fish through the waues of this life to the shore (y) Matt. 13. v. 47. a floore that now is threshed hauing chaffe mingled with corne (z) Matt. 3. v. 12. a field where the Diuell soweth his darnell amidst Christs wheat (a) Matt. 13. v. 25. which must grow togeather till haruest when a diuision shall be made no lesse ioyfull for the one then wofull for the other when chaffe by heapes darnell by buÌ„dells shal be cast into vnquencheable fire the choyce corne wheat of the elect layd vp in the granary of eternall glory This is the blessed state the Church of God doth expect the meane tyme the office of good men is with great patieÌ„ce to suffer whom neither their charity can conuert nor their authority punish seeking to keep themselues vnspotted not by running vnto another Church nor by knowing the sinnes of others but by not consenting vnto what they know nor iudging rashly of what they know not (b) Non malefacta hominuÌ„ cognosceÌ„do sed cognitis non coÌ„seÌ„tieÌ„do de incognitis verò noÌ„temerè iudicaÌ„do innoceÌ„tiam custodimê° August de vnit Eccl. l. 2. expecting the glorious comming of the great God (c) Tit. 2. v. 23. when secrets shal be seene (d) 1. Cor. 5. v. 5. and men rewarded according to their workes (e) Matt. 16. v. 27. Vos interea quid saeuitis to speake vnto Protestants in the wordes of S. Augustine against hereticks of his tyme quid excaecamini in studio partium quid tanti erroris longa defensione implicamini (f) l. 1. de moribus Eccl. Cathol c. 35. c In this interim of mortall life why doe you rage why doe you blind your selfe with partiall affection vnto your owne side why doe you loose your selues in so long and vayne defence of your vast errours seeke corne in the field grayne in the floore which will easely appeare and shew it self to such as seeke it (*) Quid nimis in purgameÌ„ta inteÌ„ditis oculos Quid ab opimi horti vbertate imperitos sepium asperitate terretis Est certus aditus quamuis paucioribus notus qua possit intrari quem vos aut esse non creditis aut inuenire non vultis VVhy doe you cast your curious eye vpon chaffe only VVhy doe you detayne ignorant people from the entrance into this fruitfull garden by shewing thornes and bryers that grow in the hedge There is a passage which leadeth men into this orchard though not so obuious vnto all which eyther you doe not belieue or els will not find Thus S. Augustine 12. And thence appeareth the fifth thing I intended to proue that Ministers in this point are willfully blynd who cast their eyes euery way to seeke cauils against vs not enduring to see the great and heroycall sanctity of many in our Church And first concerning our Ancestors 400. yeares agoe whose sinnes this modest Minister rippeth vp to lay them vpon vs they haue left so many famous monumeÌ„ts of zeale and piety that Protestants are no wayes comparable with them whose religious liberality erected Churches and endowed them with rents and reuenewes for Catholick Priests which marryed Ministers with their wiues and children now enioy who otherwise might goe a begging how much soeuer they brag of their nursing Kings and Queenes (g) M. Crashaw in his Virgin Sermon which superiority aboue them in works of piety one of theÌ„ doth coÌ„fesse with shame inough saying If we looke (h) M. Stubbs in his motiue to good workes printed 1596. p. 43. into the ages past we shall find more godlines deuotion zeale though blynd more loue one towards another more fidelity and faithfulnes eueryway in them then is now found in vs. And yet further Is (i) pag. 72. it not a shame vnto vs that our forefathers liuing in the tymes of superstition c. should notwithstanding so far passe vs in good workes that we may not once be compared with them in any small measure Thus he Shewing the blyndnes of our Bachelour and such Mates as rayle at the liues of our (k) See likwise the testimony of the Centuriators cent 7. c. 7. col 181. Ancestors with whom their Church is no wayes comparable which howsoeuer she brag of her sun-shine is more dark and obscure theÌ„ Egipt it self if we respect the light of good workes which Christ did commaund (l) Matt. 5. v. 14. to shyne in his Church And that now also there is an entrance into our Church to find out many good and holy men our Aduersary Syr Edwyn Sandes can witnes vpon his owne knowledg who writeth in this sort Let Protestants looke with the eye of charity vpon the Popery as well as of seuerity and they shall find some excellent orders of gouerment some singular helps for increase of godlynes and deuotion for the conquering of sinne for the profitting in vertue (m) In his relation of the religioÌ„ vsed in the west â—â—â—ts of the world sect 48. And of our Catholicke Clergy he saith In their Sermons much matter both of faith and piety is eloquently deliuered by men surely of wonderfull zeale and spirit (n) sect 6. All Countryes are full of the Iesuits bookes of prayer and piety to their language and wonderfull is the reputation which thence redounds to their Order (o) sect 7. Thus doth this Protestant write of our Church vpon certayne experience after long trauailes whereas M. Crashaw who neuer moued foote out of England by the intelligence he gets from his Gossips at Pemblico doth pronounce this iudgment and censure that our Church is deliuered vnto a generall and vniuersall pollution in all estates and many other big wordes to the same purpose 13. But when he commeth to touch either the sinnes on sanctity of his owne Church you may wonder how he doth mince his wordes about the one and open his mouth wyde in the other Touching the sinnes in his Church he doth confesse some are incurable which he tearmeth litle petty Babells or daughters and sprigs of Babylon Examples of great Sanctity he hath none but had he any to dilate vpon how his tongue would swell in their praise you may see by this that commending two Churches in London S. Antlings and S. Mary Oueryes famously knowne to be the hauntes of Puritans and Brownists he saith In a Church in London meaning one of the
should be the Cōuertite of that great Apostle though the first Roman Bishop These thinges in our bookes we take notice of and examine them more exactly then Protestants haue done But to what purpose are these brought by Protestants The Britons receyued the Christian faith some of them at the least in tyme of the Apostles vnder S. Peter the first Roman Bishop the whole Realme openly and publickly vnder Eleutherius Pope in the second age (p) In the yeare of Christ 180. by Fugatius and Damianus sent from Rome in King Lucius his tyme which Syr Edward maketh no mention of what is this against the third Conuersion of the English Nation which long after this tyme being heathen hauing expelled the Britons began to inhabite the Realme who the Britons neglecting them were conuerted by S. Augustines meanes sent by Gregory Pope as that Treatise (p) In the yeare of Christ 180. proueth and all Historyes of our Countrey doe witnes euen Protestants themselues doe confesse as is proued in the first Chapter and first section of the learned Treatise of the Protestants Apology for the Roman Church and that it was conuerted to the now Catholick Roman faith Thus do Ministers bob Syr Edward making him print such stuffe either false or impertinent with the losse of his honour which I dare say had he seene the booke he would neuer haue done against his conscience and knowledge 18. Now how great this benefit is to haue beene conuerted by such men and in such manner we may perceaue if we confer the same with the conuersion and plantation of religion intended in Virginia by the new Ghospell M. Crashawes New-yeares-gift to Virginia wherof I will speake a word seeing M. Crashaw in great glory and triumph made a long Sermon therof with many false and bitter slaunders against vs. In which Sermon he doth denounce vnto all that doe know the true intents of that conuersion that they are bound to help therunto eyther with their persons pag. 27. or purses or prayers such as assist it not discouer themselues to be vnsanctified vnmortified and vnconuerted men But this conuersion not being performable without Preachers of Gods word the obligation of going in person pag. 21. did lye chiefly vpon Ministers who brag to be so specially conuerted thēselues from Paganisme Popery therfore bound to conuert others according to M. Crashawes text But did any troupe of Ministers vndertake that voyage Doe they prepare for it now Doe they learne the language of the Sauages to be able to conuert them hereafter Doe not they thinke rather of conuerting themselues to their wiues then Heathens vnto God Doe not they desire to beget rather carnall then Ghostly children Their deeds speake Truly for my part I make no doubt that had there bene a marryed Ministry in the Church in former ages most Nations had bene vnconuerted at this day 19. But M. Crashw makes a shew that the Pope is the cause they are so cold pag. 60. that they are afrayd of him Oh saith he the Pope will curse vs. Doubtlesse he can name many Popes that haue cursed Heretickes for conuerting Nations vnto Christ and yet the man dareth not only doubtingly as you haue heard but constantly and plainly auouch in print and pulpit pag. 62. VVe know saith he that as soone as this intent and enterprize of our Nation is knowne at Rome forthwith there wil be a Consistory called and consideration will be had with wit and policy inough what course may be taken to crosse vs and ouerturne the busines But if they haue neuer a Gamaliel left saith he let me tell them and we are willing to heare him for now he will speake a truth which is a rare thing in him if this worke be only of men it will come to naught of it selfe without their help Which Prophesy taken out of Scripture the euent hath shewed most true But the other that the Pope would gather a Consistory and imploy his policy against it the world knoweth to be false and no meruaile being a prophesy deuised in M. Crashawes head vttered out of his owne spirit And poore soule that dreameth the Pope would hinder him and his fellowes from that voyage by cursing them whome should the Kings Maiesty presse to go in person and leaue his new wife the man would I dare say take it very vnkindly and though the Pope should prick him on with a spur yet would he draw back 20. No M. Crashaw the miseryes which the enterprize of cōuerting Sauages doth bring with it the wanting your natiue soyle friends and Gossips wherwith now after Sermō you may be merry the enduring hunger cold The difficult enterprize of cōuerting barbarous Nations nakednes danger of death and the like but specially the want of the new Ghospells blessing a fayre wife too heauy a lump of flesh to be carryed into Virginia these be such curses such hinderances as you may speake of vnsanctified vnmortified vnconuerted men yet once againe before you sanctify or mortify or quicken any for that voyage And as for your selfe as you say of the Players that they are so multiplyed in England that one cannot liue by the other therfore are grieued that no Players are sent by which meanes those that remayne would gaine more at home I feare you do heere bewray your owne disease and speake of others out of your owne hart who seeing Ministers to be so multiplyed that you cannot well liue one by the other you would fayne haue moued and mortified some to forsake their Benefices and goe to Virginia in person that you might haue stepped into one of their roomes with your wife whō perchāce then you had in hart if not in house for you married not long after but howsoeuer you might be minded to be a Virgin then we are now out of hope you will go to Virginia in hast or any store of marryed Ministers till Virginia be in such ease as you may keep there your wiues as gallantly as in England which is not like to be in your dayes though you say you do not doubt to see the day men shall speake of this Plantation as it is spoken in another case (*) In the Genitiue case in which case M. Crashaw then was who saith in this Virginian Sermon that a man cannot forget the tyme he marryed pag. 17. though the beginning be small yet thy latter end shall greatly increase by which you may seeme to imagine to haue a long lease of your life to see the end of so great an enterprize which is a signe that you thinke little of death and therfore may be well termed in your owne phrase an vnmortified man 21. Truly I heard a Gentleman of Honour say that he heard it from the Lord De-la-VVare himselfe that making meanes in both Vniuersityes to moue Ministers to goe with him this Apostolicall iourney yet he had gotten no more then
shame condemne Christ by witnesses contradicting one another what shall we thinke of these men that condemne the Church they confesse to be their mother vpon such euidence as doth far lesse agre But against them all let S. Cyprian be heard who saith that infidelity can haue no accesse to the Roman and principall Sea (i) Ep. 55. Let S. Hierome speake Be it known saith he that the Roman faith praysed by the Apostle cannot be changed (k) Hieron l. 3. Apolog. cont Ruffin c. 4. And though two agreeing witnesses may suffice let vs add a third of no lesse credit S. Augustine who vpon Gods owne booke deposeth the Roman Chayre is the rock which proud gates of hell do not (l) August in Psal contra partem Donat. conquer 27. Wherfore for a friendly farewell I wish M. Crashaw were like to the cleane beasts that chaw the cudd that he would weigh and ruminate his owne words that seeing he doth professe himselfe a Preacher he were one of the Mysticall Tables the Prophet (m) Ezech. c. 40. v. 43. speaketh of which were types of Preachers that had labia reflexa intrinsecus their ledges which the Scripture termeth lips inwardly reflexed signifying as S. Gregory noteth (n) Tunc mensarum labia intrinsecus reflectuntur quando Doctores ad cor reuocant tacita cogitatione quid dicunt c. homil 21. in Ezech. that a Preacher ought to reflect his speach vpon himselfe what he preacheth (o) O doctor intus reflecte labium id est ad cor reuoca sermonē audi quod dicis operare quod praedicas Gregor vbi supra to others eares seeke by reflexion to print in his owne hart in which hart of M. Crashaw and his Auditors I wish these his owne words ingrauen (*) pag. 29. How vndutifull and vnthankfull are they to their spirituall Mother that forsake her and cast the dust of contempt in her face that bare them in her wombe and brought them forth the Sonnes of God A TABLE OF THE CHAPTERS AND SECTIONS handled in this Booke IN THE FIRST PART THE Preface to the right Honourable and VVorshipfull the Students of the Common Law in his Maiesties Innes of Court pag. 3. THE first Chapter shewing M. Crashawes and other Ministers extreme folly in their ordinary applying the words of his text we would haue cured Babell c. to the progeny of Martyn Luther against the Church of Rome pag. 63. THE second Chapter laying open the vayne and ridiculous brags of the Bachelour of foure salues very charitably applyed by the Protestant Church to heale the wounds of the Roman pag. 88. THE third Chapter VVherin is discouered M. Crashawes impious stage-playing in Pulpit bringing in a Babylonian to speake like a Catholike seeking to disgrace therby ancient Christianity and the glorious markes of the true Church taught by the ancient Fathers pag. 112. THE fourth Chapter discouering the Bachelours proud hereticall contempt of Generall Councells and how notoriously he doth falsify diuers Canons taken out of the Councells of Constance and of Trent pag. 125. IN THE SECOND PART THE first Chapter concerning the Errours and Blaspemyes termed by him Woundes which the Bachelour doth falsly and slaunderously impute vnto the Roman Church pag. 145. The second wound and slaunder That the Pope can do more then God hath done pag. 156. The third slaunder That we teach to appeale from God to the Virgin Mary pag. 162. THE second Chapter of his slaunders concerning Scriptures 173. An answere to the fourth wound or slaunder That the Popes Decretalls are made equall to holy Scriptures pag. 147. The fifth slaunder That the Popes Decretals are of more authority then diuine Scriptures pag. 177. The sixt wound In discouery wherof the Bachelour giues aduantage vnto Atheisme pag. 179. The seauenth slaunder or wound That Images are made Lay-mens bookes pag. 187. THE third Chapter The eight wound and slaunder concerning adoration of holy Images where the Catholike doctrine in this point is shewed to be far from Idolatry and false worship and M. Crashawes manifould slaunders corruptions of our Authors are so discouered that will he stand to his word he must publikely recant at the Crosse pag. 162. THE fourth Chapter A Confutation of innumerable falshoods lyes and slaunders heaped togeather by the Bachelour concerning S. Frācis Indulgences VVhich point of Catholike doctrine is cleared from diuers slaunders and cauills and proued out of the consent of Antiquity pag. 221. The ninth wound An heap of lyes touching S. Francis vttered by this Minister pag. 222. The tenth and eleauenth wounds or slaunders concerning Indulgences graunted by the Pope to Churches and Graynes pag. 227. THE fifth Chapter concerning the Sacraments of Baptisme and the Eucharist and Sanctuaryes answering to his tweluth thirteenth wounds pag. 238. The second sore of his tweluth wound concerning Communion in one kind pag. 248. The thirteenth wound about Sanctuaryes as impudent accusing the Church of Rome as guilty of all the bloudshed vpon earth pag. 354. THE sixt Chapter contayning an answere to his fiue next wounds concerning vncleane matters wherin he wasteth the rest of his Sermon pag. 260. The fourteenth wound concerning Stewes How perfidiously he dealeth with our Authors namely Nauar and Graffijs accusing them of that doctrine which euen in the places by him cyted they detest pag. 261. His fifteenth wound or slaunder That a man may keep a wife or a whore as he pleaseth by our practise pag. 277. The sixteenth wound or slaunder That we make Matrimony worse then VVhoredome and VViues worse then Strumpets 279. The seauenteenth and eighteenth slaunder That we permit Priests to haue Concubines at a yearly rent and force such as would liue chast to pay the rent because they may haue Concubines if they will pag. 285. An Answere to the nyneteenth wound pag. 289. THE seauenth Chapter An Answere to his last wound concerning the bad life of Catholikes pag. 291. THE eight Chapter conteyning a Conclusion of this Treatise Shewing the impiety of the Protestant reuolt from the Church of Rome by the same soure arguments wherwith M. Crashaw vrgeth the Brownists for their Schismaticall separatiō from the Church of England pag. 306. Faultes escaped in the Printing Page Line Fault Correction 29 8 to Tables the Tables 31 29 somtymes that confesse that 32 5 fire to fire To 35 4 no not 52 16 pistilent pestilent 69 38 falsily falsity 79 26 booke brooke 107 29 the they 113 36 is it 120 30 begotted begotten 135 24 gaine to gaine 141 36 Anthors Authors Ibid. Ibid. they their 166 10 thy fury in thy fury 180 2 peosy poesy 257 38 rangeth ranketh 272 30 be by 273 1 modest modesty 288 25 polygamina polygamia FINIS