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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A13839	A synopsis or compendium of the fathers, or of the most famous and ancient doctors of the Church, as also of the schoolmen Wherein is clearely shewed how much is to be attributed to them, in what severall times they lived, with what caution they are to be read, and which were their perfections, which their errors. A treatise most necessary, and profitable to young divines, and delightfull to all such whose studies in humanity take from them the leisure, though not the desire of reading the fathers; whose curiosity this briefe surveigh of antiquity will in part satisfie. Written in Latin by that reverend and renowned divine, Daniel Tossanus, chiefe Professor of Divinity in the University of Heidelberge, and faithfully Englished by A.S. Gent.; Synopsis de patribus. English	Tossanus, Daniel, 1541-1602.; Stafford, Anthony.	1635 (1635)	STC 24145; ESTC S118496	31,571	108

Scriptures which neglected they shall grope like one blinde in the darke and saile in a wide Sea without either North-Starre or Compasse Another Caution ought to bee that though the authority and consent of the Fathers in the Truth doe much confirme and comfort yet Faith is onely to bee builded upon the Apostolicall and Propheticall Scriptures as a foundation most firme For the Scripture as the only Queene and Empresse as Luther is used to say ought to have the soveraigne Command The third Caution is that in reading the Fathers wee doe not imitate those flatterers of ●ionisius Siculu who licking up the Tyrants spittle affirmed it to bee sweeter than Nectar To these I may liken such as without any exception embrace and magnifie indifferently all the Writings and Sayings of the Fathers These are the points about which at this day we combat the Iesuites the stoutest Champions the Pope hath and not as they labour to perswade the vulgar about the Fathers themselves or reverent Antiquity as if wee did plainely reiect them and after the Athenian manner were delighted with the novelties of Newes-tellers For first wee recall them to true Antiquity which is to be derived from the ancient of dayes and his revelations that so wee may refuse and condemne as new whatsoever Christ hath not taught us as Saint Ambrose adviseth us lib. 1. Officior Next wee distinguish betweene the ages of the Church and betweene Father and Father and demonstrate in one and the same Father what is authenticall what erroneous irreptitious and inserted by the Monkes Moreover when wee enquire after the Church we doe not seeke the degenerate and adulterate but the chast and holy Spouse of Christ And why may not wee say the same of the Roman Church at this day that Cicero in his Oration for his house said of the Roman people An tu populum Romanum esse putas qui constat ex iis qui mercede conducuntur qui impelluntur ut vim adferant magistrastibus optant quotidiè praecipiti furore caedem incendia rapinas O speciem dignitatis populi Romani quam scilicet reges quam nationes ex terrae quam gentes ultimae pertimescunt Dost thou thinke saith hee that to be the people of Rome which consisteth of those that are mercenary who are ready to offer violence to Magistrates that desire daily with a desperate fury fire rapes and slaughter Othe goodly dignity of the Roman people whom Kings forreigne Nations and the most remote inhabitants of the earth doe feare Wee doe indeed much esteeme that Roman Church whose faith is preached through the whole world we likewise reverence those Fathers and Bishops which are not commended to us by the onely authority and Canonization of Popes but by their owne purity of Doctrine Innocency of life and constancy in Martyrdome But it is well the Iesuits so distrust their owne cause that they dare not stand to the decision of the sacred Scriptures nor of the Fathers themselves except they bee mutilated and altered according to their will and deformed with many suppositious bookes Their Impudency this way clearely appeareth in their Index Expurgatorius not long since here published out of all which wee may easily collect that they retaine neither shame faith nor conscience nor any thing authenticke either in the Scriptures or Fathers but onely what is appropriated to their superstition and will-worship of Images Now most loving Auditors because it is much materiall to the Students in Divinity though all have not the meanes and faculty of reading the Fathers at least to know what is to be iudged and determined of them in generall and which were the most famous Fathers and Scholasticall Authors as also with what iudgment choyce they are to be read I thinke it wil neither be a service unacceptable nor unprofitable if in the end of these dogge-dayes and before the Mart now at hand I instruct you in the premises and contract the whole matter into as it were a Synopsis or abridgement Errata Page 2. line 3. read it●● p. 5. l. 4. r. litera● p. 8. l. 8. r. Academicorum p. 11. l. penu●● r. ●●lle p. 14. l. 1. r. Canon law p. 19. l. 13. r. A Doctrina p. 23. l. 13 r. Constantinople p. 24. l. 11. f. preiudice r. produce p. 27. l. 14. r. quantum p. 70 l. 12. r. Lazarum p. 71. l. 10. r. Masse p. 77. l. 2. r. taught p. 67. l. 7. r. Nestorius p. 71. l. 3. f. shall r. doth p. 72. l. 19. r. it is told u● p. 74. r. French p. 76. l. penult f. upon Bookes r. upon the sacred Writ A SYNOPSIS OR COMPENDIVM of the Fathers or of the most Famous and Ancient Doctors of the Church as also of the Schoole-men Generall Aphorismes containing certaine Rules by which we may judge in reading of the Fathers of their true Antiquity and Purity together with the Solutions of some Objections Aphorisme 1. THat true Antiquity is to bee sought after and magnified is the Common Tenent of all Pious People 2. For it is manifest that the Christian Religion is the most Ancient as deriving it Testimonies from the very beginning of the world 3. But this is not to be esteemed true Antiquity to understand Quid hic aut ille ante nos fecerit aut docuerit sed quid is qui ante omnes est Christus et qui solus via est veritas et vita à cujus praeceptis nullo modo recedendum est What this or that man did or taught before us but what he did who was before all even Christ himselfe who onely is the Way the Truth and the Life from whose Precepts wee ought not to digresse as saith Saint Cyprian ad Caecil lib. 2. epist 3. 4. Omnis quippe Antiquitas ct consuctudo sine veritate nihil aliud nisi Err●ris vetustas censenda est So that all Antiquity and Custome not grounded on the Truth is to bee accounted no other than an Ancient Errour as the same Saint Cyprian piously writeth to Pomp. against the Epistle of Stephanus 5. But the Ancient Truth God taught us by his Prophets and Apostles who though in condition they were men and indeed sinners yet in Doctrine which was revealed to them supernaturally by the holy Ghost not by the will of man wee know them rightly to bee fellow-Witneffes Ephes 2. 20. 2 Pet. 1. 20. 6. The Perfection of the Scriptures is easily proved by these two Arguments First That they are sufficient to instruct in those things that belong to salvation and to the full knowledge of the Truth Iohn 5. 39. Iohn 20. 30. 2 Tim. 3. 15 16. Secondly Because in Temptations Faith onely finds rest in the Testimonies of the sacred Scriptures having alwayes for its Object the Word of God revealed by the Prophets and Apostles which cannot bee said of any other Writings or Bookes whatsoever 7. To recall us therefore from the manifest Testimonies of the Scriptures to the Writings of

of Patience of Mortality of the lapsed also against Demetrianus and the Iewes scarce anything of Saint Cyprian is left us although I cannot deny some other Sermons are inserted The explication of the Creed is rather made by Ruffinus than Saint Cyprian The Treatise of the Lords Supper seemes also to have another Author After the Frobenian and Lugdunensian Edition his workes were printed and revised by Turnebus at Paris and after that at Colen with an addition of some fragments Hee confuted Novatus the Hereticke whom in his Epistles hee stiles an importunate Innovat●r and a murtherer of penitence The staines of Saint Cyprian were that hee contended too obstinately that they were to be re-baptized who were baptized by Heretickes or who leaving Heresie repented Although the Affrican Councell assented to him yet Stephanus a Roman Bishop opposed him Saint Augustine lib. 2. contra Crescon Grammat saith thus Nos nullam Cypriano facimus iniuriam cum eius quaslibet literas a Canonica Divinarum Scripturarum anthoritate distinguimus Non teneor authoritate Epistolae Cypriani ad Iubaianum et cum eius pace quod cum Scripturis non convenit respuo Wee doe no wrong to Cyprian if we distinguish any of his letters from the Canonicall Authority of the Divine Scriptures I am not tyed to the authority of Cyprians letter to Iubaianus and by his leave I refuse that which agrees not with the Scriptures Saint Cyprian also in his Epistles over-carefully and superstitiously urgeth water to be mixed with wine in the Administration of the Lords Supper because water and blood flowed from the side of Christ Also Epist 8. lib. 3. hee affirmes Infantes statim esse baptizandos ne pereant quòd eis misericordia non sit deneganda That Infants must forthwith be baptized lest they perish because mercy is not to be denied them Where hee seemes to confine mercy to the Signes Anno 260. Gregorius Neocaesariensis the Disciple of Origen a learned and pious man confuted Samosatenus of whose workes there is nothing extant save a confession of his in the Councell of Antioch against Samosatenus To these times may be referred Arnobius an Affrican of whose composing eight bookes are extant against the Gentiles as also his Commentaries on the Psalmes but they are very briefe and falsified by the Monkes About the yeare after Christ 317. flourished Lactantius Firmianus in the beginning of the reigne of Constantine the great to whom hee dedicated his bookes of Divine Institutions against the Gentiles Hee lived at Nicodemia and excelled in Elegancy and lustre of Language all the Writers of the Church But hee seemed little to understand the proper Doctrine of the Gospell concerning the Benefits of Christ and of Faith For hee expresly writeth that Christ was therefore sent that by his Word and Example hee might invite us to vertue and suffered onely to be a president of Patience And when in his 5. and 6. booke hee expresly and of purpose handles the point of Christian Justice he onely disputes of the Justice of the Law and mentions very sparingly the Justification by Faith But the first part of his Institutions which taxeth the heathenish Idolatries and Philosophicall opinions of God and the Chiefe Good as also his booke of the Workemanship of God in the structure of man may be read with great profit and pleasure The Fathers in the time of the Nicene Councell which was held anno Christi 330. whose Writings are extant Athanasius although in the time of the Councell he were not a Bishop yet was he alwayes a faithfull assistant of Alexander the Bishop of Alexandria whom hee afterward succeeded and deservedly obtaines the first place amongst the Fathers of that time For although hee were exposed to innumerable Calumnies yet with an incredible constancy he frustrated all the endevours of his adversaries and is stiled the Bulwark of Faith in the Ecclesiastical History neither was there any other cause that more whetted the bitter hatred of the Arians against him as saith Theodoret lib. 1. hist than that they perceived the sharpnesse of his wit and industry in confuting of Heretickes in the Nicene Councell His Creed or his explication of the Apostolical Creed is in the Church among other Creeds received There are yet some of his most grave and excellent Treatises extant at Basill set forth heretofore by the Frobenii and Episcopii but more lately at Paris by Nivellius Petrus Nannius an eloquent man being his Interpretour as an oration against Idols of the Incarnation of the Word an Epistle against Heretickes to Epictetus Bishop of Corinth an Exposition of Faith foure Orations against the Arians a double Apology for his flight against the Calumnies of the Arians of divers questions of the Scripture to Antiochus and many others of the same Argument which our Divines usually object against the Neorians and Vbiquitarians The life of S. Anthony the Abbot is father'd on him but there are in it many things fabulous which savour not of the gravity and simplicity of S. Athanasius Most true it is that both S. Athanasius and those ancient Fathers were too fervent in commending the signe of the Crosse and the miracles wrought by that signe and by Martyrs thinking by this meanes to authorize the Evangelicall Doctrine While wee give these cautions touching the blemishes of the Fathers we are not lyable to that censure which the Papists lay upon us derived from the Authority of the same Father who in his first Oration complaines that the Arians accused the Fathers for he speakes not there of all the writings of the Fathers but of the Nicene Creed gathered out of the Scriptures by the Fathers of that Councell to confute the Arians For hee there diligently admonisheth us to try the Spirits which may be easily done by those who are conversant in the Scriptures There are some memorable speeches of Athanasius to be observed First against the Lutherans out of the second Oration against the Arians Nunquam populus Christianus ab Episcopis suis sed a Domino in quem creditum suit nomen accepit Ne ab Apostolis quidem appellationes adepti sumus sed a Christo Illi qui aliundè originem suae fidei ducunt ut haeretici meritò authorum suorum cognomenta praese ferunt The Christian people never tooke their Name from the Bishops but from the Lord in whom they beleeved Neither have wee our appellations from the Apostles but from Christ himselfe They who derive their Faith from any other Originall as heretickes deservedly beare the surnames of their Authors Then against the Vbiquitaries upon that saying Omnia mihi tradita sunt c. All things are given mee Tradita sunt illi omnia ut medico qui sanaret morsum serpentis ut vitae qui vivificaret ut luci illuminanti id est ratione officii Dedit inquit Deus ut quemadmodum per eum facta sunt omnia ita in eo omnia

epist 38. Si delitioso cupitis pabulo saginari B. Augustini opuscula legite et ad comparationem siligimis illius nostrum furfur em non quaeratis If you desire saith he to be fatned with delicious fa●● read the workes of Saint Austine and having ●●sted his flowre you will not seeke after our Branne Which is to be noted against the Papists who preferre that Gregory the first before all others The workes of Saint Austine are distributed into ten Tomes some of them are Philosophicall and of no great moment as of Grammar Rhetoricke Logicke Musicke of Order of the quantity of the soule In his bookes of Confessions wherein he describes his owne life hee often useth too much simplicity and copiousnesse yet may they be read cursorily But the Students in Divinity meaning to read Saint Augustine ought to beginne at his Doctrinals and first at his foure books of Christian Doctrin in which he instructs a future Divine Next hee must read his Enchiridion to Laurentius and the booke of Faith to Peter of the spirit and the letter and of the Ecclesiasticall opinions The Epistles of Saint Augustine and the bookes of the City of God are of a mixt kind partly Doctrinall partly Historicall but full of various learning Thence let him proceed to his Polemicall or Controversiall which hee wrote against the Maniches the Arians Donatists c. His expository bookes as upon the Psalmes and Saint Iohns Gospell containe more piety than solid Interpretation partly by reason of his small insight in the Hebrew and Greeke Tongues partly because in those Interpretations hee accommodated his writing to those times as also that sometimes he makes digressions but his Commentary on Saint Iohn is excellent above the rest The Palmary or Master-peece of Saint Austin was that above all the other Fathers and almost alone being provoked by the Pelagians hee discusseth diligently the Doctrine of Originall sinne and Predestination But as in Saint Austin it is very laudable that he only of all the Ancients wrote bookes of Retractations for in his seventh Epistle hee professeth himselfe to bee of their number who write by profiting and profit by writing so there remaine some things which require a censure Yet is there no doubt but many things are inserted in his workes of which hee is not the Author For he being yet alive sixteene Articles were falsly father'd on him to which hee replyed But chiefly this was his errour that as hee wrote much so hee often varies nor is alwayes consonant to himselfe Hee hath also many Acurologia's as Danaeus a most learned Divine observes in his Annotations upon the Enchiridion of Saint Austin Then he erred in that he precisely included the salvation of Infants in the sacrament of Bap●isme But whereas in some places hee cals the Eucharist a Sacrifice hee thus interpreteth himselfe lib. 10. Civit. Dei cap. 20. that it is the Sacrament of the Sacrifice of Christ In another place hee seemes to affirme that the pious soules of the deceased are helped by the Almes and prayers of the living but without the warrant of the Word of God especially in his booke entituled The ●are for the dead where he handles this question Whether or no it profiteth to be b●ried neere the Monument of any Saint But that Booke as Calvin admonisheth lib. 3. Instit. cap. 5. Sect. 10. conteines so many doubts that the coldnesse of it is able to extinguish the heate of any foolish zeale and there is no doubt but that Booke hath beene depraved by many Monkish additions for in another place as lib. 2. question Evangeli● c●p 38. hee affirmes Nullum auxilium a justis praeberi defunctorum animabus that the soules of the deceased receive no helpe from just men Cyrillus Bishop of Alexandria flourished about the yeere 433. in the reigne of Theodosius the younger He expelled the Iewes out of his Diocesse and killed not a few of them in the Synagogues by the hands of his Souldiers Being much incensed against Nestorious he excommunicated him by his owne proper authority which was not approved of by the Fathers although he defended a good cause and that Nestorius was a little after condemned in the Ephesine Councell Cyrillus wrote in Greeke and many things which are extant in Latine They were publisht at Basill apud Hervag anno 66. with an addition In the first Tome are found Commentaries upon Leviticus in which he insists too much upon the Anagogicall sense He also wrote Commentaries upon Saint Iohn but imperfect His second Tome is Doctrinall as the booke which he calleth a Treasure There in 14. bookes he defends the Consubstantiallity of the Sonne and the holy Ghost against the Arians In the third Tome he disputes against Iulian for the Christian Religion also touching the right Faith to Theodosius and the Queene The fourth Tome conteines Epistles Homilies and an Apologie to Theodosius also an Exposition of the Nicene Creed and Synodicall Epistles together with other things against the Nestorians The fift Tome is a Commentary upon Esay not long since added to his Works and Translated by Laurence Humfre an Englishman Vigilius Bishop of Trent flourished in those times of whose Workes but a few are extant printed at Colen in Octavo as a disputation against the Arians and five books against Eutyches both pious and learned which are often objected against the Vbiquitaries The Hearers of Saint Austin who reteined his Doctrine were anno 440. Primasius who wrote upon all the Epistles of Saint Paul Prosper Aquitanic anno 454. Helychius anno 490. hee wrote upon Leviticus Fulgentius a Bishoppe in Africa about the yeere five hundred under Thrasymund King of the Vandals hee wrote three bookes of diverse questions to Monimus seven bookes to King Thrasymund and other things worthy the reading His Workes were most accurately Printed at Antwerpe by Plantin anno 74. After the time of Saint Austin and his Disciples the purity of Doctrine began with the Roman Empire very much to decline by reason of the accumulated superstitions of the Munkes wherefore the succeeding Fathers cannot be in the same esteeme with the first and more ancient yet had the following their peculiar gifts not to be cōtemned wrote many things which are read with great profit Leo the first of that name Bishop of Rome about the yeere 444. in the time of Attila Hee was the Author of gathering together a Synod against Eutyches and Dioscorus Bishop of Alexandria who would oppresse Flavianus an orthodox Bishop of Constantinople His Workes as his Sermons Epist are imprinted at Colen by Birkmannus Amongst his Epistles that to Flavianus against the Blasphemies of Eutyches is most eminent the authority of which Epistle was of great force in the Chalcedonian Councell wherein amongst the rest this speech is remarkeable Agit vtraque forma id est natura cum alterius communione quod proprium est verbo operante quod verbi est

Emperors and when he was Proconsul in Liguria in the time of Valentinianus he was called to the Bishopricke of Millan with the full consent of the people It is reported that he baptized Saint Austine Hee was endued with great zeale as appeares in the Ecclesiasticall story and by his demeanour in his Bishopricke The writings of Saint Ambrose extant are divided into foure Tomes and are partly morall as the three bookes of the offices of a Christian an institution and exhortation to Virgins of Widowes of Repentance of the worlds volubility of the good wee receive by death Also they are partly Doctrinall Tom. 2. of the vocation of the Gentiles of faith to Gratianus of the holy Ghost to the same of Faith against the Arians of the Sacrament of the Dominicall Incarnation But it is to bee observed that the more learned have judged Saint Ambrose not to bee the Author of the Treatise of the calling of the Gentiles 1. Because he speaks no where so purely of the Predestination of God 2. By reason there is mention made of Pelagius who lived after Saint Ambrose 3. In that Saint Augustine who cites many things out of Saint Ambrose against Boniface the Pelagian mentions not this b●●ke which inveighes most of all against the Pelagians 4. The dissimilitude of phrase But it is certaine the Author of that booke to have beene a learned man and well exercised in the Scriptures which makes Erasmus not unaptly wish that many such were mixed with the workes of Saint Ambrose Amongst many excellent sayings contained in those books these golden words are extant making directly against the Papists lib. 1. cap. 5. where hee disputes the reason why to one man grace is given to another denyed Quid Calumniamur inquit iustitiam occultam qui gratias debemus misericordiae manifestae Laudemus et veneremur quod agitur quia tutum est nescire quod tegitur Hic nec praeterita nec futura merita censeri possunt vilesceret Redemptio Christi neo misericordiae Dei humanarum operum praerogativa succumberet si iustificatio quae fit per gratiam meritis praecedentibus deberetur ut non munus largientis sed merces esset operantis Why doe we calumniate saith hee the hidden Justice who owe thankes for the manifested Mercy Let us prayse and adore what is done because it is safe not to know what is hid Here neither past nor future merits are to bee reckoned The Redemption of Christ would be abased neither would the prerogative of humane workes give place to the mercy of God if Iustification which is by grace were due to precedent merits so that it should not be the gift of the distributer but the reward of the worker The Writings of Saint Ambrose are partly also Homileticall as Tom. 3. Orations Epistles Sermons partly againe Expository as Tom. 4. lib. Hexaemeron and a Treatise of the Patriarchs which belong to Genesis He wrote also copiously on the 119. Psalme and of the Sacraments of the Church also a glosse upon Saint Luke and Commentaries upon the Epistles of Saint Paul Where againe it is to be noted against the Papists that S. Ambrose upon the fourth Chapter to the Romans useth the particle onely when he averreth Gratiam Dei solam fidem poscere ad salutem The grace of God doth require faith onely to salvation Saint Augustine quotes his Commentaries upon Esay and the 48. Psalme but they are not extant By reason of his ignorance in the Greeke and Latine Tongues he erred often in his Expositions which is common to him together with Saint Austin and some others But although he be over-vehement in the commendations of Virginity yet is that memorable against the Papists which he writes in his first booke of Virgins Non debere imperari virginitatem nec necessitatem imponendam nec castam esse quae metu cogitur Virginity saith he ought not to be commanded neither of necessity to bee imposed nor is shee chaste who is compelled by feare In his bookes of the Sacraments there are some things ambiguous othersome superstitious as of Unction in Baptisme which notwithstanding was not done altogether without cause by those of riper yeares also of water to bee mixed with the Wine in the Cup at the Lords Table Yet is it remarkeable against the Papists that in his booke of Sacraments hee onely acknowledgeth two Baptisme and the Supper of the Lord. And when lib. 6. he disputes how the bread is made the body of the Lord hee speaketh nothing at all of Transubstantiation but hee confesseth that there seemeth to be a similitude onely not true flesh and blood and that wee must beleeve the operatory word of Christ that is the efficacious that the Sacrament is taken outwardly Grace and Vertue inwardly Hee plainely distinguisheth bread from Grace Tu inquit qui accipis panem in illa alimento Divinae participas Substantiae quia idem Christus est particeps corporis et Divinitatis Thou saith hee who takest bread in that nourishment participatest of the Divine Substance because the same Christ is partaker of a body and Divinity which is as much to say wee communicate the whole Christ and communicating his flesh have communion also with God Neither did the Greeke Churches want excellent Doctors for in those times namely under Valentinian Basilius Magnus of Caesaria Cappadocia and Gregory Bishop of Nazianzena were famous of whom as yet some worthy monuments are extant Wee linke them together because they were companions in Studies and most intimate friends Yet Gregory lived longest even to the yeare 400. and wrote a Monody or Funerall Oration which containes the life of S. Basil There are extant of this S. Gregory eloquent Orations and Epistles as also Greeke Poems which are in the hands of all men There lived also in those times Gregorius Nissenus brother of Basilius who wrote eight bookes of Man There is a learned Epistle extant written to him by S. Basil of the difference betweene the Essence and Subsistence Moreover S. Basil as hee himselfe somewhere writeth was diligently instructed in the Christian Religion from a child He was indued with so much Eloquence that Erasmus doubts not to call him the Christian Demosthenes Amongst others that saying which is extant in his Sermon of Humility is eminent and is often cited by our Divines against the Papists Haec est perfecta et integra gloriatio quando non propter iustitiam suam aliquis ●ffertur sed agnoscit sibi deesse veram iustitiam fide autem sola in Christum iustificari This is saith he perfect and entire glory when a man is not puffed up with his owne Iustice but acknowledgeth himselfe to want true Iustice and that Iustification is onely by faith in Iesus Christ Also in his Epistle of the sacred Scripture to Eustathius the Physician Non consuetudinem sed sacras Scripturas nermam debere esse The sacred Scriptures and not Custome ought to

the Fathers or other men were injustice and contumely against the holy Ghost himselfe especially since our Faith doth not consist in wisedome or in the words of men but in the power of God or in the evident proofes of the holy Ghost 1 Cor. 2. 8. Wherefore Saint Austine writeth thus against the Donausts lib. 2. cap. 3. Quis nescit sanctam Scripturam Canonicam tam veteris quam novi Testamenti omnibus posterioribus Episcoporum literis ita praeponi ut de illa omnino dubitari et disceptari non possit Episcoporum autem literis quae post confirmatum Canonem vel scriptae sunt vel scribuntur a doctioribus libere reprehendi et particularia Concilia a plenariis et haec quoque a posterioribus emendari Who knoweth not the holy Scripture Canonicall as well of the old as New Testament so farre to excell all the writings of the later Bishops as that there needs no doubt or dispute thereof and that the workes of Bishops which have beene or are now written after the confirmed Canon may bee freely reprehended by the more learned and that particular Councels may be amended by Generall and these also by the Successive 9. Moreover Whereas many complaine of the obscurity of the Scriptures wee ought to make no scruple thereof there being greater obscurity lesse purity and certainety in the writings of men as plainly manifest the almost infinite Commentaries upon Peter Lombard and not a few animadversions of the Sorbonists upon him Cum it a sit temperata Scripturae obscuritas they be the words of Saint Austine lib. 3. de Doct. Christ ut facile quis se possit expedire modo cum similibus et apertioribus locis Scripturae locum obscuriorem conferamus et imprimis oculos a scopo non dem●veamus et quod in uno idiomate non intelligimus ex alio cognoscere studeamus Whereas the obscurity of the Scriptures is so temper'd that wee may easily explaine it if we conferre the obscure place with places more open and perspicuous especially if wee move not our eyes from the scope and what wee understand not in one tongue wee study to know by another 10. Lastly the Fathers have often erred as also the Schoolemen as the Papists themselves confesse but that the Scriptures are voyd of all error no Christian doubteth 11. It is enquired therefore whether there bee any need of reading the Fathers and ancient Doctors and if it bee needfull how much wee ought attribute to them 12. To read the Fathers profitably no man forbiddeth but it is not necessary to reade them all neither are they promiscuously to bee read by all persons neither to the same proper end that wee read the Scriptures 13. They are not presently to bee accounted the writings of the Fathers that are fathered on them As for example Some things passe under the name of one Dionissius Areopagita others under that of Origen whereof part were forged by idle Monks part were falsly attributed to those Fathers as also many Legends of Saints Neither hath every man such light and knowledge of the Scriptures as may enable him to judge of the Fathers whom wee reade not as Foundations of our Faith 14. Civitas Dei saith Austin lib. 19. de Civit Dei c. 18. dubitatîonem Academicoram tanquam Dementiam detestatur credit Scripturis sanctis veteribus et novis quas Canonicas appellamus unde fides ipsa concepta est qua justus vivit per quam sine dubitatione ambulamus The City of God detests all the doubts of the Academicks as meere madnesse She beleeves the sacred Scriptures both old and new which are called Canonicall from whence Faith it selfe is derived wherby the Just shall live by which wee walke with full assurance 15. Wherefore Christ and the Apostles when they taught did not cite the Rabins nor any Father before them but Moses and the Prophets nor was it in vaine decreed in the third Councell of Cartharge that nothing should be read in the Church but the Canonicall Scriptures 16. But the Fathers are read and are often cited in the Schooles partly that wee may see the consent of the ancient Church concerning the principall Heads of Doctrine after they were first constituted by the sacred Scriptures and partly that we may know the History of the Church and discerne her inclination who as witnesseth Eusebeus lib. 3. Hist cap. 29. after the Apostles times remained not long a Virgin nor long retained her faith incorrupted partly also that wee may accommodate to our use the many pious admonitions and consolations savouring of the very spirit of Martyrdome together with the many elegant similitudes comparisons as somewhere saith Erasmus 17. And wee reade so that wee may try all as admonisheth Saint Hierom in epist ad Minerium Meum est prepositum Antiquos legere probare singula retinere quae bona sunt et a fide verae Ecclesiae Catholicae non recedere It is my purpose to reade the Aneients to prove every particular to retaine that which is good and not to fall from the Faith of the true Catholike Church 18. The same in a manner writes Saint Austine to Bishop Fortunatianus Neque enim inquit quorumlibet Disputationes quamvis Catholicorum et laudatorum hominum velut Scripturas Canonicas habeee debemus ut nobis non liceat salva honorificentia quae illis debetur hominibus aliquid in eorum Scriptis reprobare atquerespuere si forte inveniamus quod aliter senserint quam veritas habet Talis ego sum in Scriptis aliorum tales volo esse inttllectores meorum Neither saith he ought wee to have the Disputations of any in the same esteeme with the Canonicall Scriptures although they bee men truly Catholike and praise-worthy nor to lose the freedome paying the reverence due to them of censuring their writings if wee finde any thing in them not consonant to Truth Such am I in the workes of others such would I have the understanders of mine 19. Wherefore the madnesse of them is great who without choyce would simply admit all the sayings of the Fathers which often contradict each other and as often digresse from the Truth 20. Lapsus est a fide et crimen maximae Superbiae saith Saint Basil in oration de confession fidei velle a Scripturis recedere veleas solas cum agitur de side molle admittere Christus enim ait suas oves suam vocem audire non alterius It is a falling from the faith and a crime of the highest Arrogancy to forsake the Scriptures or when Faith is our Theme not to receive them onely For Christ saith His Sheepe heare his voyce not anothers 21. Wherefore Saint Austine when Cyprians authority was urged against him concerning Baptisme of Heretickes answered that hee held not the Epistles of Saint Cyprian for Canonicall and when Saint Hierome had cited three or foure Fathers touching the reprehension of Saint Peter by Saint Paul hee replyed that hee also