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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	faith_n	word_n	write_v	2,460	5	5.5381	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A14435	A very Christian, learned, and briefe discourse, concerning the true, ancient, and Catholicke faith, against all wicked vp-start heresies seruing very profitably for a preseruatiue against the profane nouelties of papists, Anabaptists, Arrians, Brownists, and all other sectaries. First composed by Vincentius Lirinensis in Latine, about twelue hundreth yeares ago. And now faithfully translated into English, and illustrated with certaine marginall notes. By Thomas Tuke.; Pro catholicae fidei antiquitate libellus. English	Vincent, of Lérins, Saint, d. ca. 450.; Tuke, Thomas, d. 1657. aut	1611 (1611)	STC 24753; ESTC S102090	49,335	192

and sound Who to make way for his one heresie inueighed against the blasphemies of all heresies But this was that which Moses saith The Lord your God proueth you whether yee loue him or no. And that we may passe by Nestorius in whom there was alwaies more wonderment then profite and more fame then experience whom the fauour of men rather then of God had for a while aduanced in the opinion of the common people let vs rather speake of those who hauing profited well and being full of industry became no small temptation to Catholike men As in Hungarie in the memory of our Ancesters Photinus is said to haue tempted the Church of Sirmion Where whēas with the great liking of al mē hee was called vnto the priesthood and had executed his office for a time like a Catholike suddenly like that euil Prophet or Dreamer which Moses speaketh of hee began to perswade the people of God committed to his trust to follow after strange gods that is to say strange errours which before they knew not But this is vsuall and that dangerous because hee was furnished with no meane helpes to so great a wickednesse For hee had a good wit and hee was an excellent Scholler and very eloquent or powerfull in speech able in both languages to dispute and write eloquently and substantially as appeareth by the monuments of his bookes which hee hath written partly in Greeke and partly in Latine But it was well that the Sheepe of Christ committed to him being very watchfull and wary for the Catholicke Faith had quicke regard to the words of Moses who did forewarne them and that although they did admire the eloquence of their Prophet and Pastor yet notwithstanding they were not ignorant of the temptation For whō before they followed as the Bel-weather of the Flocke euen him they fled frō afterwards as from a Wolfe Neither do wee come to know the perill of this Ecclesiasticall temptation by the example of Photinus but of Apollinaris also and are therby also admonished to the more diligent keeping of the faith which is to be kept For he made his hearers to haue much a doe and brought them into great straites For whereas the authority of the Church drew them one way the custome or conuersation acquaintance of their Maister drew them backe another way and so wagging and wauering betwixt both they see not which way they should rather chuse But it may be he was a man that might easily bee contemned Yea verily he was so worthy a man and so qualified as that he might in the most things be too soone beleeued For who surpast him in acutenes of wit practise and in Schollership How many heresies hee hath ouerthrown in many volumes how many errours contrary to the faith hee hath confuted that most excellent and very huge worke consisting of no lesse then thirty bookes doth witnesse wherein he hath with a great masse of argumēts confounded the furious cauils of Porphiry It is too long to reckō vp all his workes for the which he might intruth be matched with the chiefest builders of the Church had he not through that wicked lust of hereticall curiosity found out what nouelty I wot not by the which he might both defile all his labours as with the mixture of a certaine leprosie and should haue his doctrine said to be not so much an edification as an Ecclesiasticall tentation Heere perhaps some may require at my hands that I would shew them the heresies of these men of whom we spake before to wit Nestorius Apollinaris and Photinus But this is nothing to the matter which now wee are in hand with For our purpose is not to set downe the errours of all but to shew the examples of a few whereby that may euidently and plainely be cleered which Moses speaketh Namely that if at any time any Ecclesiasticall Teacher and hee a Prophet by reason of interpreting the mysteries of the Prophets shal attempt to bring in some new point of doctrine into the Church of God the Diuine prouidence doth suffer it to be done that We might be proued CHAP. 17. IT will not therefore bee amise by way of digression briefly to shew the opinions of the fore-named heretiques that is Photinus Apollinaris Nestorius This is then the doctrine of Photinus that God is single and alone and to bee confessed after a Iudaicall manner he saith that there are not full three persons neither doth he thinke that there is any person of the Word or Son of God or any of the Holy Ghost he doth also say that Christ is a meere man only to whom he ascribeth a beginning from Mary and this he teacheth by all meanes for a doctrine That we ought to worship onely the person of God the Father and onely Christ the Man These things therefore held Photinus Apollinaris also doth as it were glory that hee doth consent vnto the vnity truly of the Trinity and that with perfect soundnes of faith but he doth by open profession blaspheme against the Incarnation of the Lord. For hee saith that the soule of a man was either not at all in the flesh of our Sauiour or else surely that there was such a one as wanted vnderstanding and reason Yea and he said that the very flesh of our Lord was not of the flesh of the holy Virgin Mary but that it came downe from heauen into the Virgin and alwaies staggering and doubting he said sometimes that it was coëternall with the God the Word sometimes that it was made of the Diuinity of the Word For he would not that two substances should bee in Christ one Diuine and another Humane one of a father the other of a mother but he immagined that the nature of the Word was diuided as though a part thereof remained in God and the other had bene turned into the flesh that whereas the truth saith that of two substances there is one Christ he being opposite to the truth might affirme that of one Diuinity of Christ there are two substances These then are the errours of Apollinaris Now Nestorius being sicke of a contrary disease to Apollinaris whiles he makes fare as if hee did distinguish two substances in Christ all on the sudden hee brings in two persons and with incredible wickednes will haue two Sons of God two Christs One of them God the other Man one that is begotten of a Father the other generated of a Mother and therefore hee doth affirme that holy Mary is not to bee called the Mother of God but the Mother of Christ to wit because of her came not Christ who is God but he which was man If so be that any man thinke that hee saith in his letters that Christ is one and that hee speaks of one person of Christ let him not easily giue credit to him For either hee hath deuised this shift through his skil to deceiue that by good things he might the

it listed to smite them downe as from some place on high Then were wiues defiled widdowes robd Virgins deflowred Monasteries demolished Cleargy-men disturbed Leuites beaten Priests banished prisons gaoles and mynes filled with the Saints the greatest part of whom being driuen out of Citties forbidden to them and exiled were euen broken and consumed with nakednesse hunger and thirst amongst deserts dens wild beasts and rockes But all these things did they for no other cause befall but euen because the superstitions of mans inuentions were taught for heauenly doctrine because well-grounded antiquity was vedermined by wicked nouelty because the ordinances of the Elders were violated because the decrees of the Fathers were repealed because the determinations of the Ancient were disanulled and for that the lust of profane and vpstart curiosity contained not it selfe within the most chaste limits of sacred and vncorrupt Antiquity CHAP. 7. BVt it will bee thought perhaps wee faine these things through hatred of nouelty and loue of Antiquity Whosoeuer iudgeth this let him giue credit at the least to blessed Ambrose who in his second book to the Emperour Gratian himselfe bewailing the bitternes of the time saith But now almighty God quoth he we haue beene sufficiently punished by our owne destruction and bloud-shed for the slaughters of the Confessours the banishments of the Priests and for such wicked villany It is cleare enough that they which violated the faith cannot be safe In like manner in the third booke of the same worke Let vs therefore keepe saith he the commandements of the Elders that wee be not bold through vnciuill rashnesse to breake the seales that are hereditary Neither the Elders nor the Power nor the Angels nor Archangels durst open that sealed booke of prophecy the prerogatiue of explaning that was reserued for Christ alone Which of vs dares vnseale the Sacerdoticall Booke sealed of Confessours and consecrated now with the martyrdome of many which they that haue bene compelled to vnseale it yet afterwards haue sealed when the fraud was condemned they that durst not violate it were Confessours and Martyrs How can wee deny their faith whose victory we do extoll Wee praise them I say O venerable Ambrose wee praise them indeed and praysing wee wonder at them For who is he that is so mad who though he be not able to ouertake them yet would not wish to follow whom no violence hath driuen from defending of the faith of the Elders Not threatnings not flatterings not life not death not the palace not Sergeants not the Emperour not the Empire not men not diuels Whom I say the Lord for their constant imbracing of holy Antiquity deemed meete for so great an office as by them to repaire Churches ruinated to quicken spirituall people extinguished to put on the Crownes of Priests that were deiected to deface a fountaine of vnfeigned teares being infused from heauen into the Bishops those wicked I say not letters but litures blots or dashes of nouell impiety and finally to call back now almost all the world being strucken with the tempest of suddaine heresie I say to call it backe to the ancient faith from vp-start falshood vnto ancient soundnesse from furious and vnsound newnesse and to the ancient light from the blindnesse of nouelty CHAP. 8. BVt in this certaine Diuine vertue of Confessions that we are also euen most of all to mark that then in the very Antiquity of the Church they vndertooke the defence not of some part but of the whole body For it was not lawful for mē so great and of such quality to mantaine with so great contention indeauour the straggling selfe-thwarting coniectures of one or two or to striue for the rash consent of some little Prouince but following the decrees and determinations of Apostolique and Catholicke truth made by all the Priests of the holy Church they choosed rather to betray themselues then the faith which was held of old vniuersally Whereby they obtained also so great a degree of glory as that they were rightly and worthily counted not Confessours only but the Principall of Confessours also It behoueth therefore all true Catholikes vncessantly to meditate on this notable and indeede diuine ensample of those same blessed men who shining like the seuen headed Candlesticke with the seuenfold light of the holy Spirit haue shewed their posterity a most euident way how the boldnesse of prophane nouelty may in all the vaine bablings of errours bee hence forth cooled with the authority of sacred Antiquity CHAP. 9. NEither is this a new thing truly for this custome was alwaies vsed in the Church that the more any man flourished in religion the more ready he was to withstand nouell deuices The world is full of such examples But for breuity sake wee will make choyce of some one and this especially from the Apostolicke Sea In times past therefore Agrippinus of venerable memory Bishop of Carthage held rebaptization first of all men against the Canon of the Word against the Rule of the Uniuersall Church against the iudgement of all his Fellow-priests against the manner and customes of the Elders The which presumption caused so great a mischiefe as that it ministred a forme of sacrilege not onely to all heretickes but gaue occasion of error to some Catholickes also When as all men therefore euery where vpon the nouelty of the thing cryed out against it all the Priests on euery side did euery one indeuour to resist it then Pope Stephen of happy memory Bishop of the Apostolike See with the rest of his Fellowes but yet aboue the rest withstood it deeming it as I suppose a thing beseeming if hee did excell all the rest as much by deuout affection to the faith as hee did surpasse them by the authority of place Finally in an Epistle which was sent into Affrica the said Stephen ordeined in these words That nothing should bee renewed but that which is deliuered For that holy and wise man knew that piety doth nothing else allow of but that all things should with the same faithfulnesse bee reteined for the Children with the which they were receiued of the Fathers and that we ought to follow religion not which way wee would lead it but rather by that way it would lead vs and that that is the propertie of Christian modesty and grauity for men not to deliuer their owne deuices to them that so come after but to keepe the things receiued of their Elders What therefore was the issue then of all the matter Surely what else but that which was vsuall and accustomed Antiquity namely reteined and nouelty exploded CHAP. 10. BVt peraduenture then that new deuise was destitute of means to defēd beare it out Yea verily there was for it so great acutenes of wit so great aboundance of eloquence so great a number of maintainers so great likelihood of truth so many Oracles of Gods word but

well qualified whiles he doth insolently abuse the grace of God whiles he makes too much of his own wit and thinks so well of himself whiles he contēneth the ancient simplicity of Christian religion whiles he presumes he is wiser then all men and whiles that contemning the traditions of the Church and the maisterships of the Elders he doth after a new manner expound certaine places of the Scriptures he hath deserued that it should be sayd vnto the Church of God concerning him also If there arise among you a Prophet And a little after Thou shalt not quoth he listen to the words of that Prophet And againe Because the Lord your God saith he tryeth you whether ye will loue him or no. It was indeed not onely a temptation but euen a great temptation to remoue the Church being giuen vnto him and depending vpon him and through wondring at his wit learning eloquence conuersation and reputation suspecting him not nor fearing him to remoue the Church I say all vpon the sudden by little and little from the ancient Religion to nouell profanenesse But some man will say that the bookes of Origen are corrupted I gain say it not but had rather too it were so For that is both deliuered and written of some not onely Catholikes but also Heretiques But that is it which now we are to marke that although he himselfe bee not yet the bookes which are publiked vnder his name are a great temptation which being pestered with many wounds of blasphemies are both read embraced not as other mens but as his owne so that although Origen did not conceiue the error yet Origens authority may seeme powerfull to perswade the error CHAP. 24. BVt Tertullians cōdition also is euen the same For as he among the Greekes so this man among the Latines is without doubt to bee reputed the chiefest of all our men For who more learned then this man who more exercised in diuinity and in humanity For verily he did with a certaine admirable capacity of vnderstanding vnderstand compasse al Philosophy and all the sects of the Phylosophers the authors abettours of the sects and all their doctrines and all manner of stories and studies And did hee not excell for a wit so graue and vehement as that he propounded almost nothing to himselfe to vanquish which he did not either breake into with acutenesse or strike out with weightinesse Moreouer who can expresse the praises of his speech which was replenished with such I wot not what vrgent arguments as that whom he could not perswade he forced to consent vnto him whose sentences were almost as many as words and as many victories as reasons This knew the Martionists Apelles the Praxeans Hermogenes the Iewes Gentiles Gnostickes and the rest whose blasphemies he ouerthrew with his manifold great volumes as with certaine lightenings And yet this man also I say this Tertullian being vnmindfull of the Catholicke doctrine that is the vniuersall and ancient faith and much more eloquent thē happy changing his iudgment afterwards wrought that at last which the blessed Confessour Hilarie writeth of him in a certaine place By the error quoth he which he fell afterwards into he made the workes which he wrote well to loose their reputation And hee himselfe was also a great temptation in the Church But of him I will say no more This thing I will onely mention that because hee did against the commandement of Moses affirme that the new braine-sicke doctrines of Montanus arising in the Church and that those madde conceits of mad women euen the dreames of an vpstart doctrine were true prophecies he did deserue that it should be said of him also and of his writings If a Prophet shall arise among you And againe Thou shalt not heare the words of that Prophet Why so Because saith he the Lord your God tryeth you whether you will loue him or not By these therfore so many and so great examples in the Church and by the rest of that nature we ought euidently to marke and to know more clearely then the light that if euer any teacher in the Church shall wander from the faith the prouidence of God doth suffer it to be done for our tryall to proue whether we loue the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soule or no. CHAP. 25. VVHich things seeing they so stand he is a true and right Catholicke who loueth the truth of God the Church the body of Christ and who preferres nothing to Gods Religion nothing to the Catholicke faith not the authority not the loue not the wit not the eloquence nor the philosophy of any man but contemning all these things and abiding firme and stedfast in the faith doth iudge that whatsoeuer he shall vnderstand to bee vniuersally held of old of the Catholicke Church himselfe should hold and beleeue alone but whatsoeuer nouell and strange doctrine hee shall perceiue to bee priuily brought in after by any one besides or against the iudgement of all the Saints hee knowes that it belongs not to religion but rather to tentation And is also especially by the speeches of the blessed Apostle Paul instructed for this is that which hee writeth in his first Epistle to the Corinthes There must bee saith he heresies euen among you that they which are approued among you might be knowen As if hee should say for this cause the Authors of heresies are not presently rooted out by God that they which are approued might be seene that is that it might appeare how sure faithful and constant a louer of the Catholick faith euery mā is And in truth when euery nouelty cometh vp the weightinesse of the Corne and the lightnesse of the Chaffe is presently perceiued at which time that is easily shaken frō the Floore which was held with no weight within the Floore For some doe forthwith flye quite away but others being onely driuen out doe both feare to perish and blush to returne being wounded halfe dead and halfe aliue as haiung drunke such a quantity of poyson as neither kild them nor was digested as would neither make them dye nor suffer them to liue Oh miserable condition with what waues of care with what whirlwinds are they tossed For somtimes which way the wind shal driue thē they are carried with a violent error sometimes returning to themselues they are beatē back like cōtrary waues somtimes by rash presumptiō they allow of those things which seeme vncertaine sometimes also through a reasonlesse feare they are afraid of those things that are certaine being vncertaine which way to go which way to returne what to follow what to fly what to hold what to let go Which afflictiō verily of a doubting wauering hart is the medicine of Gods mercy towards them if they would be wise For therefore are they tossed beaten and almost killed with sundry tempests of thoughts out of the most quiet