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A14436 The waie home to Christ and truth leadinge from Antichrist and errour, made and set furth in the Latine tongue, by that famous and great clearke Vincent, French man borne, aboue .xi. hundred yeres paste, for the comforte of all true Christian men, against the most pernitious and detestable crafte of heretikes, which in his tyme by all subtell wayes, deuised to obscure and deface the doctrine and religion of the vniuersall churche. And now the same worke is englished, and by the Quenes highnes authorised to be sette furthe for the reliefe fo diuers Englishe menne, which yet stande in doubte, whether they may goe to heauen in the peace and vnitie of Christes vniuersall churche, or to hell in the dissention and confusion of heretikes; Pro catholicae fidei antiquitate libellus. English Vincent, of LĂ©rins, Saint, d. ca. 450.; Proctor, John, 1521?-1584. 1554 (1554) STC 24754; ESTC S104650 58,039 228

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expressed and throughly resolued the same to cōsolidate confirme and assure What hathe been confirmed and ratified the same faythfullye to kepe folowe and beleue For what hath the churche purposed at anye time by the decrees of general counsailles but that such thynges shoulde afterwarde more diligentlye be obserued whiche afore were simply beleued And that whiche tofore was but slackly taught should afterwarde be preached more in stantlye This I say at al tymes and nothing els the churche being vexed with the furious nouelties of wicked herelikes hathe purposed to doe in the decrees of her counseylles that suche doctrine as was receyued by tradition onely from the auncetours might be assigned sealed hensforth vnto the posteritie by scripture cōprising in litle writyng a great weight of matters And manye times for the better vnderstanding of them vttereth expresseth the olde sense and meaning of our faith in new termes newly deuised for the playne opening of suche matters as might otherwise apeare obscure But let vs returne to the apostle S. Paule He sayeth Depositum custodi Kepe that whiche was left vnto the auoidynge prophane nouelties of words auoide saith he hate as a viper as a scorpiō as a venemous cockatrice least they hurt thee not onelye with their touching but also with their sight and pestilent brethe What is it to auoide Forsothe not once to eate or drinke with thē Auoide sayth S. Paule What Yf anye sayth he cōmeth vnto you and bringeth not with him this doctrine What doctrine The catholycke and vniuersall doctrine which hath remained one and the same by all succession of ages through incorrupt tradition of verite shall remayne to the worldes end whosoeuer saye naye What then Doe not receyue him sayeth S. Paule into thy house neither shalte thou saye vnto hym aue God spede For he that sayeth vnto him God spede or all hayle he doeth communicate with hys wickednes He sayth prophane nonelties of wordes What is prophane Verely that whiche is neither God! ye nor goodly all whory and nothing holy that whiche straieth without the borders and boundes of the catholyke Churche whiche is the temple of God He saith Prophane nouelties of wordes or voices What is that No doubt nouelties of wordes opinions censures sectes contrarie to antiquitie repugnaunte to the auncient faieth of the vniuersal churche For if suche nouelties be receiued suche innouations admitted thē of necessitie must the faieth of the holy fathers be greatlye stayned then must all faiethfull of all ages all holye and chast fathers all contment and godly virgins all clerkes leuites and priestes theu must so many thowsande of confessours so greate hostes of martyrs so innumerable multitude of cities of peoples of Islādes and prouinces so many thowsande kinges and nations Finally in maner the whole world being incorporate vnto our heed Christ throughe the catholyke faieth must of necessitie I say be indged all this while so many hundreth yeres to haue been ignoraunt to haue erred and blasphemed God not to haue knowen what they shoulde beleue Prophane nouelties of wordes saieth Paule auoide Whye auoyde Because it was neuer the custome and propertie of catholyke men but onely of heretikes to receiue and folowe thē And in dede what heresie hathe there been that spronge not vp vnder a singular and certaine name in a singular and certaine bothe time and place Who euer forged any heresies but that he first diuided him selfe from the consent of the vniuersalitie and aunciētie of the catholike church Whoo euer presumed so greate force of frewill that he thought it sufficiente to worke all good actions without the helpe of Goddes grace before that prophane heretike Pelagius Whoo euer denaied all mankinde to be boūde in the offēse of Adam his preuaricatiō before Celestius the prodigious disciple of that monstruous maister Pelagius Who euer durst either to diuide the vnitie of the blessed trinitie before that cursed Arrius or confound the Trinitie of the ineffable vnitie before wicked Sabellius Who euer saied before that mooste cruell Nouatianus that GOD woulde rather haue the deathe of a sinner then that hee shoulde returne and liue Who euer before Symon Magus of whome that olde goulfe of filthes euen vnto Priscillianus by continuall and priuie succession haue issued dursie saye God our creatour to be the authour of euell that is of oure wicked impious abhominable dedes For he affirmeth that God hath created such a nature in man that by a certaine propre motion and impulse of necessarie wyll he neither can ne wil any thinge els but sinne for being exagitate in flamed with the furies of al vices he is pluct and pulled throughe insatiable desyre into al kinde of iniquitie There be inumerable examples of this sorte whiche I omit for breuities sake by whiche it is clerely and manifestly declared that this hath been as it were a solemne vowe euer moore amonges heretikes to set vp prophane nouelties to neglecte the orders of auncietie And by oppositions of doctrine falselye termed to hasarde the catholyke faith Of thother side this euermore hathe ben the propertie of the catholikes to kepe maintaine saue all suche godly orders and constitutions deliuered and left of the holye fathers to condempne vtterly all prophane nouelties according to the counsel of S. Paul Who earnestly warneth if any shal preache vnto you any other doctrine thē ye haue receiued accurse him Here perchaūce some wyll saye vnto me do not suche as ye call heretikes vse the scriptures And can the scriptures lye Surely the scriptures lye not Yet lyinge heretikes abuse the testimony of the scriptures yea and veray vehementlie For ye shall se them flye throughe euerie volume and parte therof throughe all the bokes of Moy ses of the kynges throughe all the Psalmes the Apostles gospelles and Prophetes Wheresoeuer and with whomsoeuer they talke beinge at home or a brode whether they preache or write be they at feast or in the stretes scripture droppeth out of their mouthes as thicke as hayle from heauen They bring not one iote of their owne but the same is shadowed with scripture termes Reade who list the workes of Paulus Samosatenus or Priscillianus Eunomius Iouinianus all other heretikes that euer haue ben or hereafter shal be And ye shall finde an infinite heape of examples yea ye shall se not one leafe in all their bookes almoost but it is painted set as thicke with quotations notes in the margente of sentences as well of tholde as the newe testamente as possybly the margente canne holde Yet are they detestable heretikes Of whome we oughte so muche the more to beware and feare the more priuely they lurk vnder the bowers of diuine scriptures For they know well that their trecherie and filthes ill stenches coulde not quickly please if they were nakedlye and simply brethed furth And therefore they all besprincle thē with the swet spices as it were of the heauenlye doctrine that he
handes of other that then they carpe not or rashelye disproue any thing therein conteined whereof is promised a reformation and amendement Nowe therefore to come to the matter it selfe I haue with greate studie and earnest diligence manye times sought and that of verie many godlye and learned men howe and by what certaine and generall rule I mighte trye and throughly discerne the veritie of the catholike faithe from the falshood of wicked heresye the true preacher of Christe from the false minister of Antichriste And I haue receiued of them all at all tymes thys one onlye aunswere that whether I A rule or anye other man woulde perfitely knowe and perceiue the trecherie falshood 〈…〉 Wherfore it is verie necessarie for the auoydinge so greate daungers of diuers errours doubtes that the lyne of the Propheticall and Apostolicall scripture be drawen and directed along according to the rule and exposition of the catholike churche Lykewise in the catholyke churche we oughte seriously to regard and take hede that we faythfully hold that whiche is euery where alwaies and of algenerally receiued obserued and beliued for that is properly catholike Catholike as by the Etimologie of the terme catholike doth appeare whiche comprehendethe all vniuersally And this shall we doo Vniuersalitie Auncientie Consent if we ensue and folowe the vniuersalitie the auncientie the consent of the churche These thre pointes he must firmely holde that wil be counted catholike and desireth to continue in the faieth of the catholike churche with out whiche there is no saluation Of these three pointes I shall teache as I haue learned And touchinge the firste we shall not misse to folowe the vniuersalitie if we hartely confesse acknowledge that faieth to be the true christian faieth whiche the vniuersall Churche throughoute the whole world dothe confesse and acknowledge Touchinge the seconde we shall assuredlye folowe the auncientie if we stray not from the censures and iudgementes of the auncient holy and catholike fathers Touching the third we shal rightlye folowe the consent and vnitie if in that antiquitie we admit imbrace and allowe the difinitions iudgementes and censures of all or the moost parte of the saied holie fathers Nowe what shall the catholike Christian man doo if any one particle of the churche hathe deuidid if selfe from the communion of the vniuersall faith What els shoulde he doo but preferre the helth safetie of the whole body before the corrupte and pestiferous membre What if some new contagion inuade the churche and laboureth to cōmaculate and corrupte not a parcell onely but a whole congregation Then let him cleue to antiquitie whiche cannot be seduced by anye crafte of noueltie What if in the selfe same antiquitie we shall trye that twoo or thre yea whole cities and pro uinces haue erred Then in any wise he ought to prefer before the rashenes temeritie ignoraūce of a few that decrees determinations of an vniuersal coūsell What if no suche decrees of any vniuersall counsell can bee founde in some case as some suche may befall Then shall he diligently conferre searche and considre the bookes and monumentes of the auncient fathers of the churche and receiue their iudgementes Whiche although they were neither of one place neither of one tyme yet are one in the communion and faieth of one catholike church And what soeuer these sages wyth one consent manifestlie haue defended written and taughte the same ought he beleue without all doubt For the better vnderstanding of that whiche I haue said I wyll set furthe the same one after an other by examples and declare thē more at large least whiles I study to be short I slēderly passe ouer the weight of the matter In the tyme of Donate that heretike Donate of whom suche as maintaine his heresies be called Donatistes what time a great part of Affricke had tombled them selues headlong into the goulfe of the pernitious errors of the said Donate and forgettinge their religion and profession preferred the cursed and blasphemous temeritie of one vayne man before the vnitie of the churche then throughe Affricke suche as detested that prophane scisme adhered fast to the vniforme consente of Christes vniuersal church they only of them all mought be said vnto their posteritie leauinge a speciall fourme howe hereafter the wisedome of al vniuersally ought more to be estemed then the madnes of a fewe singular persons in anye weightie matter concerning our faieth Likewise what time the pestilent poyson of the Arrians Arrians had infected not one portion but almost the whole worlde in somuche that in maner all the byshoppes of the Latine churche partlye by force partly by craft circumuented were wōderouslie perplexed and amased what were best to be done folowed in so great confusiō of matters Then whosoeuer was the true worshipper and louer of God the same was not infected with the skorfe of that fylthye contagion but preferred the auncient faith and vnitie of Christes vniuersall church before the new forged trecherie and falshood of certaine singular newe fangled harebraines And what calamitie howe great miserie dothe ensue innouation of religion the bringing in of suche newefanglenes contrarie to the vnitie of the catholike churche it is moost cleare and verie euident by that whiche folowed in the time of these Arrians For then all kinde of thinges both great and small went to wracke affinities cognations amities houses and families were deuided yea whole cities peoples prouinces nations And finally the whole Empire of Rome was merueilouslye distourbed For when that prophane noueltie of the Arrians as it were some Bellona or infernall furie the Emperour himselfe being firste bewitched withall had ones brought all the heades and nobles of the courte in subiection vnto that newe lawe sessed not after to disturbe vexe and confounde all maner of thinges bothe priuate and publique holye and prophane without discrepaunce of good and badde to disquiet and hurte whome she listed and howe she liked Then were wiues violated widowes desolated virgins defloured monasteries suppressed clearks persecuted deacons buffeted priestes hated thē were gayles prisons dongeons stuffed full of good and godly men of whō some were banished from cities and townes and compelled among wilde beastes caues and rockes in desertes in greate neede famine and thirst to end their miserable lyfe Suche miserie dothe certainely ensue and folowe whensoeuer for the heauenlye doctryne humaine superstitions are broughte in when well gounded antiquitie is vndermined throughe wicked noueltie when the orders and institutions of our elders are violated the decrees of the fathers broken the definitions of our auncetours neglected whē the pernitious desire of newefangled curiositie kepeth not it selfe within the commendable limites of the sacred and incorrupte antiquitie Some perchaūce wil thinke that I speake this of affectiō and hatred that I beare to innouations Whosoeuer thinketh soo let him at lest wise geue credite to s Ambrose in this behalf S. Ambrose
who in his seconde booke vnto Themperoure Gratian deploringe and lamentinge the cruell bitternes of that tyme writeth in thys wyse O almightie god we haue now sufficientlie purged and cleansed the slaughter of thy confessours the murder of thy ministers the wickednes of soo great impietie with our bloude and with oure destruction Thou hast now sufficiently declared that they cannot be saued whiche haue uiolated broken thy catholike faith Likewise in the thirde booke of the same worke Let us obserue therfore saith S. Ambrose the preceptes of thelders let us beware through presūptuous temeritie to uiolate the seales of oure inheritaunce The fast sealed booke of the prophet nor thi seniours nor the powers nor the Angelles ne Archaungelles durste unseale To Christ onely was the prerogatiue reserued to open the same The boke of Apostolike fathers who of us dare open being sealed by so many confessours and halowed with the bloud of so many godlie martyrs They were holie confessours and martyrs howe maie we dense their faithe whose uictorie we commende Yea playnelye holye S. Ambrose we commende and greatlye alowe thē For who is so mad who so euyl disposed that wisheth not to trace and folowe their steppes all if he cannot ouertake them whom no violence no crueltie no kinde of death coulde terrifie whome no allurementes of worldlie felicitie no hope of life no desire of libertie no flatterie of frendshippe coulde withhold from the defense of the faieth whiche their auncetours had Whom I say our heauenly lord for their cōstancie in the aūcient faieth iudged worthie by whō his diuine maiestie mighte restore his churches beinge greuouslie mangled reuiue and quicken vp the spirites of well disposed people merueilouslye discomforted set vp and restore againe the holye ordre of hys priesthood beinge trode vnder foote and by whom finally his inscrutable prouidence mought with the bloude of so innocente martyrs cleanse the people being pitiouslye defiled with the stinkinge frothe of daungerous heresies And with the plentifull teares of so godlye by shoppes washe cleane awaye and vtterly deface suche newefangled not properly writīges but rather wrestinges of well written verities And so reuoke almoost the whole worlde frome pestilent heresies vnto the most certaine trueth of hys worde from altering noueltie vnto the sounde and constante auncientie from newetangled fantasies vnto the approued iudgment of his catholike Churche But in this heauenly constācie this is to be noted and earnestlie to be considered of vs that in the auncientie of the Church they defēded nat any one singular part but the catholyke that is to witte the vniuersal faith vniuersallie receiued Neither is it leefull to thinke that suche and so many sage and learned fathers would with suche constauncie affirme maintaine and defende the dreaines of one or two persones A rule or would for the fantasticall conspiracie as it were of one smale prouince cōtende euen to deathe But they imbracinge and faithfullye ensuing the decrees censures and definitions of all the ministers of the holye Churche and of the apostolike veritie had rather to deliuer their bodies vnto moost cruell tourmentes then to be deliuered from the auncient beliefe rather to be ouerthrowen by their enemies to death thē to geue ouer their catholike faith whereby they shoulde lose the hope of life at Goddes handes Thus losing al to wyn Christ suffering themselues willingly to be ouercome of al that truth might ouercome by them they haue pourchaced vnto theire name suche inestunable glorie that they be moost rightlye reputed and accompted not onlye confessors but the princes and cheife heades of all other confessors and Martyrs Wherefore this diuine and heauēly example of these blessed fathers ought to be a special president vnto all singular Catholike mē worthie in cōtinual meditation to be recorded who in maner of the seuenfolde candelsticke braushing which the seuēfold light of the heauenly spirit haue foreshowen vnto all their posteritee a verye manifest and cleare forme howe hereafter in al vprores of vaine errours the vnaduised temeritie of fantasticall innouation ought to be repressed vtterly to be suppressed by the authoritie of holy An tiquitie and by the force of the vniuersal consent of Christ his churche This hath not been straunge amonges the fathers of the Churche For euermore the holyer the better disposed any haue been the more ernest prompt and ready he hath been alwayes to withstand newe inuentions Examples hereof are plentie But to auoide tediousnes I wyll passe ouer many only recite one whereby it may be euident vnto all with howe great care studie and contention the blessed succession of the Apostles haue at all tymes defended the integritie of the religion once allowed receyued by the consent of the vniuersall Churche Agrippinus So it was therefore that Agrippinus bishop of Carthage first of all other thought good to be rebaptised contrary to the canon and rule lefte by the Apostles contrarye to the custome or order of the elders contrary to the general consent of the Clergie Which presumption of his raysed vp so much mischiefe that therby was geuen not onelye matter of factious sacrylege to Heretikes but also to certayne catholikes occasion of errour Howe be it on euerye syde eche good man withstod it earnestly Stephen But Stephen of honourable memorie then byshoppe of Rome with certayne other godlye men most vehementlye of all other did resist that fantasye of Agrippinus And in an Epistle sent vnto Affrike vpon that occasion he ordeyned that nothinge ought to be altred or renewed but all thinges to be obserued and kept as thei were by tradition left For that holy and prudent father well perceyued that ther was not the true religion where all thinges are not receyued in lyke faythe of the children as they were lefte of the fathers where we be not led by religion but we lede religion whether we like And this is the propertie of christen sobrutie and grauitie not to deuise new sectes and fashions for his posteritie but with all his power to obserue the old and holsome lawes receyued of antiquitie What was then the ende of that busines raysed by Agrippinus Forsoth the vsuall and tofore obserued the auncient custome was reteyned the newe deuise vtterly refused But ye wyll say perchaunce Note that suche men lacke power and learninge to defende theyr new deuised opinions Yea they were so excellent in wit so stowing in eloquence and so many in numbre agayne they had so greate likelyhode of trueth and brought so many sentences of the scriptures for their purpose but wrongfully vnderstanded that assuredlye they coulde by no meanes haue been ouermated had not their matters quailed in them selues as moost vntrue and contrarye to the will of God To be shorte what shall I saye of the decrees passed in the counsell kepte by certain in Affrica Howe did God fauour the same Were not all thynges therein done accōpted as dreames abolyshed as fables abrogated and vtterlye
neuer confesse two substaunces to be in Christ one diuine another humaine the one receiued of God his father the other of Mary his mother But he supposed that the nature of the worde was deuided as though a part therof remained still in God a part also was turned into flesh Insomuche that where as the veritie saith one Christ to be of two natures he being aduersarie to trueth affirmeth two substaunces to be made of one diuinitie of Christe And this was the error of Apollinaris Nestorius contrarie to Apolinaris whiles he feineth to distincte two natures in Christe Sodainly doth introduce two persons and so deuillishlye imagineth to be twoo Sonnes of God twoo Christes the one God the other man the one begottē of the father the other begottē of the mother And for this cause he affirmeth that holye Marye ought not to be called the mother of God but the mother of Christ For because of her was borne not that Christe which is god but he that was mā And if any man thinke that in his bokes he writeth one Christ and preacheth one persone of Christ let him not lyghtly credit hym For he doeth it vpon purpose to deceiue that by good he may perswade euil as Thappostle saieth Per bonum mihi operatus est mortem That is to say By that which was good he hath wroght vnto me deathe Vndoubtedlye this was his opiniō that Christ was borne veray man and not yet sociated in the vnitie of person vnto the word but that afterward the person of the word descended into him And although Christ now be assūpted sitteth in the glorie of god yet saith he betwene him and other mē was no differēce For mā he was only so now remaineth These be the blasphemies that Nestorius Apollinaris Photinus as mad dogges haue barked againste the catholike faieth taught and receiued in the vniuersall Churche Whiche truely and syncerely iudginge of God the father and our sauiour the sonne blasphemeth not either in the mysterie of the trinitie either in the incarnatiō of Christ For she honoreth bothe one diuinitie in the fulnesse of a Trinitie the equalitie of the Trinitie in one and the same maiestie She also confesseth one Iesus Christ not two the same one Christ to be both God and man Againe in that one Christ to be one person and twoo substāces or natures two natures or substaūces because the word of God is not mutable that it in parte or in all mighte be conuerted into fleshe neyther twoo persons but one person Least in professinge twoo sonnes she mighte seeme to worshyppe a quaternitie and not a Trinitie But it shal be good to declare enucleate the same somewhat more expresselye and distinctly Vnderstande therfore that in God is one only substaunce and three persones in Christe are two natures and one onely person In the Trinitie are mo persons but not mo natures in our sauiour mo natures but not mo persons Why so Because in the Trinite there is one person of the Father another person of the Sonne an other of the holye Ghost and yet of the Father of the Sonne of the holy Ghost there is one only and the same nature and no mo Euen so in oure sauioure Christe there be mo natures as one of the diuinitie an other of the humanitie yet not two persones For the deitie is not one person and the humanitie an other person but bothe is one onely and the same Christe one onely and the same sonne of God And of one onely and the same Christe and the sonne of God one only and the same person is and no mo As in man the fleshe is one thinge and the soule an other thinge yet is it but one and the same man the fleshe the soule In Peter or Paule the soule is one thinge the fleshe an other thinge yet are there not twoo Peters the soule and the fleshe or the soule one Paule and the fleshe and other Paule but one and the same Peter one the same Paule subsisting of ii sondry natures the one of the soule the other of the body In lyke maner in one and the same Christe be two natures but the one diuine and the other humaine the one of God the Father the other of Marye virgine the mother the one coequall coeterne vnto the father thother temporall and lesse then the Father th one consubstauntiall to the Father thother consubstantial to the mother Yet is but one and the same Christ in both substaunces not one Christ God an other Christ man not one increate an other create not one impassible an other passible not one equall to the father an other lesse then the Father not one of the father an other of the mother but one onely and the same Christe is God and man the same bothe create and increate the same incommutable and impassible the same was also commutable and passible the same equall and inferior to the father the same begotten of the Father before all worldes the same borne in the worlde of his mother perfite God perfite man being God he is in ful diuinitie being man he is in ful humanitie Hauinge perfecte soule and perfect fleshe perfect minde and perfecte vnderstandinge There are in Christ therfore the word soule and fleshe but all thre one Christ one sōne of God one sauiour one our redemer one not in corruptible confusion of the deitie and humanitie together but in a most perfect miraculous singular vnitie of persone Neither doth that coniunction conuerte and chaung them one into an other as the Arrians dreame but rather in one Christ both natures are placed that the singularitie of one and the same person still remaininge in Christe the proprietie also of eche nature abideth for euer that at any tyme god neither beginneth to be the bodie neither ceaseth to be the body To the better vnderstanding hereof the iuste consideration of mannes state shall easelye induce vs. For we knowe that not in this present worlde onely but also in the worlde to come euery man shall consist of bodye and soule Yet shall not the bodye at anye time be conuerted into the soule or the soule into the bodye but eche manne made to liue without ende in man necessarelye the difference of bothe substaunces shall remayne without ende for euer Euen so in Christ the propertie of bothe natures remayne for euer and yet in one vnitie of personne But wher as I name often times the personne and saye that God the persone is made man it is to be feared least some mistake vs to saye that GOD the worde hathe taken vpon him our nature and substaunce by onelye imitacion of the action and that he was here conuersaunt not as man in dede but as a counterfayte personne of man As in stage playes we see where one man resembleth sodaynlye diuers personnes and yet is he none of them all For as ofte as we woulde