rites of the Church the doctrine of the Fathers approv'd Legends and most ancient custom That I will hear none of these things Be it known to the ignorant Popes wicked Priests sacrilegious Monks c. that we are not baptiz'd nor do believe in the name of Augustin Bernard Gregory c. Tell not me Bernard liv'd and wrote so and so but so he ought according to the Scriptures to have liv'd and writ Concerning the chief Controversy that of the Mass being pressed by King Henry the 8th with the authority of the ancient Church concurring with the present that it is a Sacrifice and using it as such he answers thus Vltimo dicta Patrum inducit Rex pro Missario Sacrificio ridet meam stultitiam quod solus vellem sapere prae omnibus Hoc est quod dixi c. Lastly the King alledges the Fathers for the Sacrifice of the Mass laughing at my folly that would be wiser than all the world besides Is it not as I said these block-headed Thomists have nothing to produce for themselves but a multitude of Authors and ancient custom And Captiv Babylonica he resolves Si nihil habetur quod dicatur satius est omnia negasse quam Missam Sacrificium esse concedere Is there nought to be reply'd i. e in answer to the Fathers Better however to deny all than grant the Mass to be a Sacrifice And on the same matter in Missa privata Hic non moramur saith he si clamitent Papistae Ecclesia Ecclesia Patres Patres quia ut dixi hominum dicta aut facta nihil in tam magnis causis curamus Scimus enim ipsos Prophetas lapsos esse adeoque Apostolos c. Here we value not the Papists crying the Church the Church Fathers Fathers because as I said what men say or do in such cases as these it matters not For we know the very Prophets nay even the Apostles themselves have err'd By the words of Christ i. e. by that which he apprehends to be the sense thereof wherein why may not he be mistaken if others are we judg the Church the Apostles nay even the Angels Lastly see his Colloquies c. 27 29 30. what a character he gives of the Fathers to his companions That God's Word of it self pure bright and clear through the doctrines books and writings of the Fathers like milk streined through a Coal-sack is very sorely darkned falsified and spoiled That there is great darkness in the Books of the Fathers concerning Faith That Austin wrote nothing to the purpose concerning Faith For he was first rouzed up and made a man by the Peâ—agians That at the first he willingly read Austin but when the door of St. Paul was opened unto him insomuch that he knew what was the righteousness of faith then he had done with St. Austin and that the Fathers were of very small value That Chrysostom was only a talker Bazil meerly a Fryer Cyprian a weak Divine Tertullian amongst the Church-teachers a meer Carolostadius That Bernard did nimium tribuere praeceptis libero arbitrio attribute overmuch to precepts and free-will That Macarius Antonius and Benedictus brought apparent mischief to the Church with their Monkery that they lead a private grizly kind of life far from a Holy That he knew none among the ancient Teachers of the Church that he hated like Jerom for he writeth only of fasting of victuals of virginity c. teacheth nothing neither of faith nor hope nor love nor of the works of faith That the Fathers stumbled oft-times and mingled in their books many impertinent and Monkish things That the Apology of P. Melancthon surpasseth all the Fathers of the Church yea St. Austin And in his Preface to his Works he saith Non in omnibus omnium Patrum scriptis tantum reperiri Eruditionis Theologiae quantum in locis hisce Communibus Et si omnia illorum Scripta conflentur colliquescant non tamen Locos Philippi inde prodituros More learning to be found in those Common-places than in all the Fathers which all melted in one lump together would not make one such book as Melancthons Such stuff as this it seems he usually vented and his friends Aurifaber and others who heard them from him had not the discretion to conceal them and to cover his shame and nakedness § 21. n. 1 The 6th his setting up his own authority and maintaining his own doctrines as certain and infalâ—â—ble truth This his contempt and low esteem of all other humane authority and of their doctrines was accompanied as usually with a most high esteem of his own so greatly liable to mistakes and errors he thought others so little himself and how much uncertainty he put in their opinions so much certainty in his own confidently stiling by the name of God's word his Expositions and sense thereof tho these contrary to that formerly delivered using frequently such expressions That if an Apostle or an Angel from Heaven should come and teach contrary to such his Expositions let him be Anathema and That if he was deceived God had deceived him and such things he said not only of those Expositions of his against the Church of Rome but those made against other Protestants those made against Zuinglius Oecolampadius c. and of the contrary of which his Protestant-posterity think themselves most certain equally certain always of his being in the right and having no less affirmed his certainty even in those things wherein himself afterwards changed his opinion who is much noted both by his enemies and friends to have contradicted in his latter many things in his former Works as better discerning truth say the one as more still departing from it say the other and to have contradicted those Expositions of Scripture concerning the Lord's Supper in his latter writings against Carolslad and Zuinglius which he delivered for certain in his former against Catholicks See the particulars shewed by Hospinian hist Sacram. 2. part fol. 8 9 12. and so of many things whereof he was once certain he became afterwards as certain of the contrary § 21. n. 1 Tho these in his latter and former times much varying For example see in his doctrine of Consubstantiation wherein he was opposed by other Protestants he pretended as much certainty and as clear revelation thereof in God's word as in any of those wherein he opposed the former Church Si quisquam mihi persuadere potuisset saith he Ep. ad Argent in Sacramento praeter panem vinum esse nihil magno beneficio me sibi devinctum reddidisset gravibus enim curis anxius in hac excutienda materia multum desudabam omnibus nervis extensis me extricare expedire conatus sum c. Could any man have perswaded me these was nothing but bread and wine in the Sacrament he had much oblig'd me For being in great perplexity I took great pains in discussing this point I endeavoured with all my might to
hearts his reproving his rebellious subjects the incorrigible and blaspheming Pharisees and by the great Apostle full of the Holy Ghost as it is in the same verse he quotes denouncing God's judgment against a Conjurer blaspheming the Gospel of Christ as if when only he can shew that such words are used it mattered not by or to whom Sometimes again he lays the blame of his choler on those who he saith provoked him to it Non negare possum saith he me esse vehementiorem quam oportuit quod cum illi non ignorant sane irritare non debuerunt That I am too passionate I cannot deny and they know very well and so ought not to have provoked me Sometimes also he pretends a profitable design of such his passion for saith he quae quiete dicuntur cito cadunt in oblivionem nemine illa curante See Adam vit Luth. endeavouring it seems to add weight to his words by personal Invectives as others by Oaths Add to this that the fault is not observed in his latter time to have decreased in him but to have grown with his age and his last writings to have bin most violent and passionate as his Confessio parva written but a little before his death tho against those whom his friends thought of all dissenters from him the most innocent that is Zuinglius Buce's and Calvin's party So when by the importunity of his friends he had written three or four submissive letters one to Henry the 8th after that his bitter book written against him and another to George Duke of Saxony another to Cardinal Cajetan and a fourth to Erasmus these only instead of his other contumelious writings he is said to have repented of as doing some prejudice to a just cause Adam vit Luth. p. 132. § 30 Sâ—me Instanceâ—â—â—th râ—oâ— If you would taste a little the maledicency and bitterness of this man's spirit which those who do not examin can hardly believe do but look into those two books of his which of all other one would think he should have written with most respect that Contra Henricum Regem Angliae because a King and that against Zuinglius Oecolampadius and Bucer's party his Confessio parva because these his brethren reformed the latter also written when now his blood was chill and cold In one single leaf of his former book taken at adventure fol. 338. edit Wirtenb 1562. I find all this railing stuff against that Learned Prince Elinguis defensor linguax in nugis Rex pro suo more satis fortiter mentitur Rudis indoctus Laicus Cum obstinata impudenti nequitia Henrici agendum Non hic mentitur modo sicut scurra leviss mus sed nunc audet nunc fingit c. ut nequissimum nebulonem si non superat certe egregie aequat Quod virulentum nequam hunc Thomistam sensisse hoc argumento quod c. Nihil potest pro ingenio suo nisi perpetuo mentiri fallere simulare illudere Revelemus sceleratam hanc Regiam nequitiam Larvatus Thomista Anglorum Non in animo ejus scintilla boni viri Sophistica malitia impudentia quae de industria adversus cognitam veritatem insanit Plane vas Electionis iste est Satanae Totus suus blasphemus sacrilegus libellus Cavendus ut sentina mortis c. Jejune Defender of the Faith copious upon a trifle The King as his manner is lies stoutly enough A rude and ignorant Laiâ— We have to do with Henry's obstinate and impudent knavery Here he not only lies like a whiffling buffoon but sometimes he is bold and daring sometimes he feigns c. insomuch as he fairly matches if not outdoes the greatest villains That this virulent rascal of a Thomist was of this opinion I have this argument for it c. His only talent is in perpetual lying deceit counterfeiting buffoonery Let us unmask this wicked and truely Princely knavery England's Thomist in disguise Not one dram of an honest man in him Malicious Sophistry and impudence thus to set himself to rave against the known truth Certainly this man is a chosen vessel of the Devil His little book top-full of sacrilege and malice To be shun'd as the sink of death Not mistake but meer knavery and inveterate malice bent upon lying and blasphemy This is the extract of his raging choler in one leaf taken casually How much is there in the book Now you may be pleas'd to call to mind his Rule Quae quiete tractantur c. and joyn another with it Calumniare fortiter aliquid haerebit § 31. n. 1. Concerning the other book I mentioned his Confessio parva thus heavily complain the Tigurine Divines in the Preface of their Apology written upon it Libellus hic tanta Diabolorum atque selectissimorum a Christiana fide imprimis abhorrentium convitiorum copia scatet tant a verborum immodestia faeditate impuritate turget tanto denique iracundiae maledicentiae furoris insaniae impetu furit ut quotquot illum legere dignantur modo non ipsi quoque cum illo insanire coeperint non sine gravi animorum stupore infelix hoc inauditum hactenus exemplum admirari coguntur c. So fraught is this little book with nick-names as Devil c. and other unchristian terms of reproach pickt out of the choicest Authors so cramm'd with lewd nasty ribaldry-stuff nay so ranting and thundering with anger maledicency fury and madness that none that is not as craz'd as Luther himself can read it without great admiration and astonishment at so unfortunate and unheard of an example To see so great a man in his old age after having been inur'd and taught by long experience and with many still in great esteem yet so hurried away and transported with unruly passions and that in so unseemly manner as to render himself vile and contemptible to all sober men Elsewhere thus they respons ad Luth. cont Zuingl censure his great Pride Prophetae Apostoli Dei gloriae non privato honori non suae pertinaciae superbiae studebant Lutherus autem sua quaerit pertinax est insolentia nimia effertur in omnibus correptionibus suis plurimum maligni spiritus c. deprehenditur The Prophets and Apostles studied the glory of God not their own honour pride and obstinacy but Luther seeks his own is pertinacious and too too insolent and in all his correptions there is much of the evil spirit c. And another Zuinglian Conradus Rheg contra Hessum de coena Domini saith that Deus propter peccatum superbiae qua sese Lutherus extulit quemadmodum pleraque ejus scripta testificantur verum illi spiritum abstulit ut Prophetis illis 3 Reg. 22. atque ejus loco iracundum fastuosum atque mendacem spiritum dedit God for Luther's pride and vaunting himself in most of his writings hath taken from him as from the Prophets 3 Kings 22. the good spirit and given him a
apprehended that the Devil did this only to perswade him seeing the Mass was clearly unlawful that he had formerly for many years in using it incurred a most horrid sin for which God's Justice would never pardon him Thus the Devil useth to represent to us the former good we have done as evil the former faith and truth we have held and maintained as error or idolatry or blasphemy c. seeking many times thereby to beget in good people also as well as bad a diffidence in God Here therefore all ought to be suspected that he saith all his proofs well weighed and tho when God and our own conscience or our friends accuse us of our sins it is a commendable humility in us to be most ready to confess them yet when the Devil will make us a roll of them it is no such vertue here to confess them such because he calls them so or trust him with such an office for if we do he will throw into the account all our virtues too and require repentance and reformation for our good works Therefore in the assaults of this enemy as we are to fence our selves for things ill done from despair by God's mercy and Christ's merits so are we very warily to examine whether the actions he blames have incurred God's displeasure and be really faulty § 38 And that Luâ—her had no secure ground that he was not by him most miserably deluded These several ways and subtleties of the Devil well considered I see no sure ground or motive that Luther had in such frequent negotiations as he pretends with him whereby he can secured that he was not miserably deluded and deceived by him Neither the great plerophory and confidence he had in his opinions and in his singular interpretations of Scripture of which confidence see more below § 47. that it is many times an operation of the evil spirit in us Neither the strong imagination he had touching the regrets he felt within himself touching his Reformation that these were Satan's suggestions and temptations only thereby to make him despair or desert truth For why might not this imagination rather be from Satan and this regret from a relenting Conscience or God's Holy Spirit And strange it is how he makes the Devil here blow both hot and cold for when he was as yet in the bosom of the Church then the Devil objected gross errors to him and by his Arguments disputed him into a Reformation and when gone out of the Church and having so Reformed it must be the Devil again that with terrifying his conscience and telling him that his new Doctrines had undone the world endeavours to drive him back again and make him undoe his former work But if he gathered from the later of these attempts of Satan that because this Fiend would perswade him his Reformation was full of guilt therefore it was just and right why in his former attempts concluded he not That because the Devil opposed his saying Mass and such other things therefore he rightly performed them Neither is this any sure argument of Luther's not being deceived by him viz. his frequent railing and inveighing against the Devil his discovering and slighting of his arts and wiles his vilifying and triumphing over him as a routed and vanquished enemy See § 32. Whose subtleties holy men use to speak of with much more modesty and fear of being deceived For as I have said before § 35. none rail more at the Devil than the Devil will do for his own advantages nor profess a greater hatred of him or be more ready but this is a greater plot to discover his plots In fine then in the great uncertainty of the Author of the several thoughts and scruples that do arise within us and in such variety and disagreeing shapes of Satan's suggestions and temptations I know no safe-gard for Luther or any other to stand upon but this to be sure not to be gotten out of the Circle which incloseth all Catholicks of their obedience to their Superiours and to subject their own private holy Spirit if I or they may so call it to the publick Holy Spirit that dwells in God's Church and to entertain no private senses and expositions of God's Word contrary to the general one of the Church from whomsoever these singular senses come much lesse when they know they come from Satan As Luther relates in his Disputation with him de Missa privat Sacerd unctione many of those to have done according to which he regulated his Reformation § 39 11. In particular concerning Satan's famous Disputation with him touching the Mass nullity of the present Clergy Justifying Faith c. and Luther's behaviour therein Which famous disputation of Satan with him I think not amiss to view more particularly because several things appear from it very prejudicial to Luther's new doctrine which it concerns Christians to take notice of For whatever Satan's design in that disputation might be whether by his defending and proving such things for truth to drive Luther into despair for having so long practised contrary to them the thing which Luther imagined or whether by the strength of his reasons tho not by the credit of his authority to confirm Luther the more in his new opinions which indeed was the issue of this disputation he having yeilded the field to the Devil in this combate as Conquerour 1. There seems great evidence from this disputation that the whole platform of the Reformation be Satan's design therein what it will He deceiving Luther or deceived himself proceeded originally from the Devil For many of these very arguments against the former Church-doctrine and Faith which the Devil now openly owned and urged to Luther in this disputation held A.D. 1522. i.e. as he saith fifteen years after he was made Priest and said Mass which was in 1507 Melch. Adam vit p. 104. were the very same that had bin urged by Luther some years before who began to publish them to the world about A.D. 1518. And who was as he saith of himself Prefat 1. Tom. Concionator Doctor Theologie 'a Preacher and Doctor of Divinity in 1517. Was made Doctor 1513 writ a Book de abroganda Missa privata ' of the abrogating private Mass in 1521. using such arguments against it then as Satan brought afterward as also then his Book against Monastic Vows and begins thus another Treatise De Abominatione Missae privatae quam Canonem vocant ' Of the Abomination of private Mass commonly call'd the Canon written in 1523. Toties hactenus cum pro concionibus tum editis libellis docui de ratione abrogandae horribilis istius profanationis Missae Papisticae c. Oftentimes heretofore both in Sermons and printed books have I shown why that horrible Prophanation the Popish Mass was to be abrogated c. Such Arguments then we see he used before this Disputation and by it it appears from whose suggestion he used them And tho this
Melancthon Praefat in 2. tom Luther who also was translated to the new-founded University of Wirtenberg some years after Luther for his famed learning in the Greek tongue Eruditis gratum erat quasi ex tenebris educi Christum Prophetas Apostolos conspici discrimen legis Evangelii promissionum legis promissionis Evangelicae quod certe non exstahat in Thoma Scoto similibus The Learned were well pleased to see the doctrine of Christ the Prophets and Apostles as it were brought to light and the difference betwixt the Law and Gospel the Legal promises and the Evangelical one now cleared to 'em which in the writings of the Schools Thomas Scotus c. were not at all or but obscurely to be met with Concerning which error in Justification the chief matter surely in all our Christianity he there also saith That Origenica aetas effudit hanc persuasionem mediocrem rationis disciplinam mereri remissionem peccatorum esse justitiam de qua diceretur Justus ex fide sua vivet Haec aetas pene amisit totum discrimen Legis Evangelii sermonem Apostolicum dedidicit In Origen's time first arose that perswasion That a little disciplining of reason was sufficient to merit remission of sins and was that Righteousness whereof it is said The Just shall live by faith We of this age have well nigh lost all distinction of law and gospel and unlearnt the doctrine of the Apostle O ridiculous pride and self-conceit § 5. n. 2. Hence Luther also proceeded to such bold speeches both concerning the Fathers and also in comparing the writings of the New Testament in order to his doctrine of sole Justification by Faith of which in his Preface to his Enarrations on Pet. he saith Qui hoc potissimum majori prae caeteris studio tractarunt quod sola in Christum fides justificet ii omnium optimi sunt Evangelistae c. Those that more particularly and diligently than the rest treat of this doctrine That Faith alone justifies they are the best Evangelists of all Hence may you more properly say The Gospel of St. Paul than of Matthew Mark Luke these latter being little more than a bare Historical narration of the works and miracles of Christ What not of his Doctrines and Sermons also and of the way to salvation he taught us And afterwards censuring the Fathers on c. 1. v. 8. Benedictus Deus c. O Deus saith he quam parum de hac praedicatione viz. Omnia nobis dona a Patre donata ex mera misericordia citra nostrum meritum in omnibus libris invenitur etiam iis qui optimi habentur c. O God! How little of this doctrine viz. All our Gifts bestow'd on us by the Father out of his meer mercy without our merits is there to be found in all even reputedly the best books In all the writings of St. Hierome and St. Augustine how is there nothing at all not so much as the words i.e. his sense of the words of St. Peter a sufficient autocatacrisis We ought thus to preach Jesus Christ viz. That he dyed and rose again and why he dyed and why he rose again that men mov'd by such preaching may believe in him and believing be sav'd Here must be interpos'd his solum else what more frequent in St. Austine and St. Hierome This is indeed preaching the true Gospel and whatsoever by whomsoever is preach'd otherwise Gospel it is not And a little below Inde facile discitur Epistolam Divi Jacobi nomine scriptam haud quaquam Apostolicam esse Epistolam c. Thence may we easily learn that to be no Canonical Epistle that is ascrib'd to St. James this makes sufficient way for his straminea arida worthleâ—s and dry as a straw there being scarcely the least tittle of this doctrine in it But then how much do we read there contrary § 5. n. 3. Yea so strangely affected was Luther himself also with this his new invention That abstracting from this device he most impiously makes bold much to prefer the Mahometan and Turks religion as to good life and practice before the Christian It is necessary I set you down his words that what I say here may be believed Thus then he in an Epistle before a Treatise De Moribuâ— Religione Turcarum joyned with the Alcoran and some other Treatises against the Alcoran published by him as he saith on purpose because those who had writ against the Alcoran concealed the good things of the Mahometan Religion but mentioned and confuted the odious but that Author had declared it with much integrity Now Ex hoc libro saith he videmus Turcarum seu Mahometi religionem caeremoniis poene dixerim moribus esse multo speciosiorem quam nostrorum etiam Religiosorum omnium Clericorum Nam ea modestia simplicitas victus vestitus c. By this book we see the Religion of the Turks or Mahomet is much more plausible for shew and ceremony I had almost said and for good life too that word stuck a little with his modesty at first than that even of our Religious nay all the Clergy put together For no where amongst us are to be seen that modesty and simplicity of diet apparrell houses all things or the like fasts prayers public conventions of the people as this book recounts Then the miracles and the prodigious abstinencies and severities of their Religious whom of our Monks do they not quite put down and shame And this is the reason why from the Christian faith so many revolt and so pertinaciously adhere to Mahometanisme Again Christiana Religio longe aliud sublimius aliquid est quam Ceremoniae speciosae rasura Cucullus pallor vultus jejunia horae Canonicae universa illa facies Ecclesiae Romanae per orbem c. Christian Religion is quite another and far more sublime thing than a few specious ceremonies shaven crowns cowls pale countenances fastings Canonical hours of prayer and all that outward pomp of the Roman Church all the world over for in all these the Turks infinitely go beyond us Will he stay here No. Christiana religio longe aliud est quam boni mores seu bona opera Nam in his quoque ostendit is liber Turcas longe superiores esse Christianis nostris Christianity is quite another thing than a good life now without a paene dixerim or good works for even in these also as this book shews the Turks far out-do us Christians And Nunc video quid causae fuerit quod a Papistis sic occuleretur religio Turcica cur solum turpia eorum narrarunt sc Quod senserunt id quod res est si ad disputandum de religione veniatur totus Papatus cum omnibus suis caderet c. Now I see the reason of the Papists concealing many things of the Turkish Religion and relating only the deformities thereof viz. because they were sensible which is the plain truth of
made on the Scripture His rejecting 3ly the Authority of the preâ—â—â—â— Church not displeasing to many as yeilding much comfort to great sinners and relaxing strict life the next thing which followed was the throwing off his Obedience to her Authority But this by certain degrees Questioned for his Doctrines and upon this cited to Rome he made friends to have his cause heard in Germany Heard and condemned in Germany by Card. Cajetan for one a moderate and learned Prelate he now appealed to Rome and to the Pope But well perceiving also that his doctrine would be most certainly condemned there as it was he suddenly intercepted this Appeal with another see Adams vit Luth. opera Luth. 1. tom made from the Pope to a Council But perceiving that neither thus the usual former laws of Councils being observed or only this law of all Assemblies that the much major part shall conclude the whole his doctrine could stand as indeed it did not he appeals yet again from Councils to Scripture where now he knew himself safe as any Heresy tho never so absurd would be in chusing that to be the Judge or decider of the Controversie which could never deliver any new sentence on any side and concerning the meaning of whose former sentence is the present Controversy But if he means here an Appeal to the Scriptures i.e. to that which either Christian Princes or the common professors of Christianity in general for such he names for his Judges sometimes shall declare to be the true sense of them here first it seems unreasonable concerning the meaning of God's Word to prefer the judgment of the Laity before that of the Clergy of the Churches subjects before that of their Governours Secondly Thus also his cause is lost for after all his allegations of Scripture produced and divulged in his writings the Princes and the Common people also of Christianity that condemn his doctrine did then and do still very much out-number those who approve it § 15. n. 1 The 4th his dâ—nying the then present to be a true Church or the Clergy thereof a true Ministry affirming â—he Pâ—pe to be Antichrist He stayed not here only in an absolute disobedience not only of non-assent but also of open contradiction to all Church-authority but proceeded so much farther as to deny the present visible Church or that of many former Ages to be a true Church he De judicio Ecclesiae de quavis doctrina making this the only note of the true Church that therein the Gospel be purely and sincerely preached or to have in it any true Clergy or Ministry And again from this defect of a true Clergy he argued that there had bin formerly in celebrating the Eucharist no true Consecration of the Elements for operating the presence of the Body and blood of Christ tho the mean-while he justified his own and his Disciples Consecration to be effectual herein and therefore that the people had continually committed idolatry in worshipping the naked bread as Christ's Body This urged to him as he saith De Missa privata unctione Sacerdot by the Devil to reduce him for many years guilty of such Non-consecrations to despair he assented to and afterwards maintained Next from this he made yet a further discovery of the chief Bishop in the Church the Pope his being Antichrist the Bishops his Apostles and the Universities his Lupanaria or Brothel-houses for the Universities much afflicted him § 15. n. 2 the 5th his rejecting the authority also of the fâ—rmer and ancient Church Councils Fathers Thus having cast off blasted and defied to the uttermost all present Church-Authority next sollicited that at least concerning the sense and meaning or right exposition of the Scriptures he would stand to the judgment of the ancient Church and be tryed by it This also he expresly renounced frequently vilifying the doctrine of the Fathers their weak interpretations of Scriptures and accusing them of many errors and contradictions § 16 Some Instances and testimonies 1. Concerning hâ—s rejecting the presâ— t church-â—â—â—hoâ—ity For these things it were easie to produce out of his Writings a multitude of testimonies For the newness of his opinions and his marching alone against the Doctrines of present and former Church he every where acknowledgeth it not to say glorieth in it as a thing arguing his singular illumination and wisdom Nay Erasmus Ep. to Justus Jonas saith it was observed of him That where he agreed in Sense yet he strove to express himself contrary to the former usual doctrine Aiunt Lutherum aliquoties quum eadem doceat quae caeteri tamen verbis ipsis id videri conari ut diversissima videatur adferre as particularly appears in his Expositions of some of his condemned assertions Assertio Articulorum See his book de Captivitate Babylonica in the entrance of his discourse on the Mass where Rem arduam saith he quam forte sit impossibile convelli aggredior ut quae tanto saeculorum usu firmata omniumque consensu probata sic insedorit ut necesse sit majorem partem librorum qui hodie regnant pene universam Ecclesiarum faciem tolli mutari penitusque aliud genus caeremoniarum induci seu potius reduci Sed majori cura verbum Dei oportet observare quam omnium hominum Angelorum intelligentias A hard and perhaps unfeisible task the abolishing that which being ratified by the practice of so many ages and approv'd by general consent is at length so settled that the greatest part of books now in vogue nay almost the whole face of the Church must be taken away and chang'd and quite another kind of ceremonies induc'd or rather reduc'd But the word of God is more to be regarded than all the wit of men or Angels And in his Preface to his book de abroganda Missa privata Quot medicamentis saith he quam potentibus evidentissimis Scripturis meam iâ— sius conscientiam vixdum stabilivi aut auderem unus contradicere Papae credere eum esse Antichristum Episcopos ejus esse Apostolos Academias esse ejus Lupanaria quoties mihi palpitavit tremulum cor reprehendens objecit eorum fortissimum c. With how many powerful remedies and most evident Scriptures and yet all little enough to my wavering conscience did I bring my self at length to dare one single man to contradict the Pope and believe him to be Antichrist the Bishops his Apostles the Universities his Brothel-houses How often have I trembl'd and quak'd for fear and chidingly objected to my self that their strongest and onely argument Are you alone in the right Is all the world besides in the wrong In the Preface to his book Adversus falso nominatum Ordinem Episcoporum he as it were repenting of his former respects thus defies them and withdraws his doctrine from theirs and all humane cognizance and censure Jam ante pronuncio me de câ—tero quandoquidem
se nullius fanatici sive is sit Stenkfeldius sive Zuinglius sive Carolostadius sive Oecolampadius sive quisquam alius haereticus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hoc est Christi hostis blasphemi consortium recipere nec literas libros salutationes benedictiones scriptiones aut nominationem intra animi sui penetralia admittere nec visu vel auditu dignari decrevisse That he will neither keep company with any Fanatick whether it be Stenfeldius or Zuinglius or Carolostadius or Oecolampadius or whatsoever other Heretick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. bread-eater winedrinker that is with any enemy of Christ and blasphemous person nor receive either letters books salutations benedictions or writings from them nor even name them or vouchsafe so much as to hear or see them Ib. Neminem pro illis orareposse peccare enim eos ad mortem that none can pray for them because they sin unto death Ib. Malle centies discerpi vel comburi quam illorum doctrinae consentire that he had rather a thousand times be torn in pieces and burnt than assent to their doctrine And Hoc testimonium hancque gloriam ad Tribunal Jesu Christi secum allaturum quod Suermeros Sacramentorum hostes Carolostadium Zuinglium Oecolampadium Stenkfeldium eorumque discipulos Tiguri ubicunque sint toto pectore damnarit atque vitarit that he would carry this testimony and glory along with him to the Tribunal of Christ that with all his might and main he had condemned and avoided the Suermers enemies of the Sacraments as also Carolostadius Zuinglius Oecolampadius Stenkfeldius and their disciples whether at Zurich or wheresoever else they be And concludes his major Confession with a Protestation That if at any time hereafter I shall say or write otherwise than now I hold in this my Confession especially about the Sacrament it is false and comes from the Devil He is said also in his later time perceiving some variety of opinion especially by Melancthon's indifferency to begin to spread it self at Wirtenberg to have mediated a prescribed form of doctrine tho contrary to his former principles in which siquis aliter quam ipse sentiret Wirtenbergae non duraturum if any should be of a contrary opinion to him he should not stay at Wirtenberg Upon which foreseen by Melancthon he writes thus to Calvin Totos jam annos viginti expecto exilia propterea quod ostendi me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non probasse Every day for this twenty years have I expected to be banished for shewing a dislike to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Bread-worship He means of the Lutheran party See Hospinian fol. 193. c. and 249. And all this he saith chiefly in opposition of or to Calvin's way of Real presence how orthodoxly how certainly let Calvin's followers judge and by this judge of the certainty of his other doctrines also so authoritatively maintained by him against the former Catholick Church of God § 26 Where also of their reciprocal censures of him for it Therefore for this great fault of self-pleasing and confidence in his own opinions expositions of Scripture when as they say he most grosly erred and for the frequent contradictions observed in his former and later writings inconsistent with such certainty yet which he always pretended as much in his first till these recanted as in his last Tenents as likewise for the varying of his doctrine according to his adversary expounding Scripture a contrary way as he had occasion to make use thereof against the Church of Rome or against his anti-sects Reformed of which see many instances Hospinian f. 8. c I say for all these he hath not escaped a heavy censure even of his brethren when they found themselves to suffer from such his exorbitances Thus speak of him the Tigurine Divines in their Confession Proprii cerebri figmenta usque adeo illi placent ut quotquot illa haud secus ac Dei Oracula Revelationes non recipiunt pro asinis habet nihil intelligere putet ' He dotes so far upon the fictions of his own brain that he takes for meer fools and asses all those who receive them not as Oracles and divine Revelations And again In omnibus Correptionibus suis plurimum maligni spiritus quam minimum vero amici paterni animi deprehenditur In his reprehensions you may frequently find marks of a malign spirit but little or nothing of a friendly and fatherly affection And thus Conradus Gesnerus in his Bibliotheca Illud non est dissimulandum virum esse Lutherum vehementis ingenii impatientem qui nisâ—per omnia sibi consentientes ferre nesciat It cannot be conceal'd that Luther is a man of a vehement spirit impatient and of such a humour as can indure none but those who side with him in all things And thus Zuinglius in resp ad lib. Luther de Sacrament as to Protestant Controversies accuseth Luther's new Expositions of Scriptures for as erroneous as consident Tu leges fingis juxta quarum Praescriptum Scripturae sanctâ—e intelligi debeant quas alioquin in tuo sensu minus tueri ac asserere potes Eas Traditiones praescribis quae Dei verbum nusquam tradidit nec traditas quoque ullo modo admittere aut ferre potest You frame laws to your self for the understanding of the Scriptures which other ways you would not be able to assert and abett in the sense you would have them You prescribe such Traditions as never were delivered by the word of God nor can be suffer'd or admitted by it And again in his answer to Luther's Confessio magna p. 478. En saith he ut totum istum hominem Sathan occupare conetur cum in verborum sensu misere fallitur errat Dei est ut ipsum excuset pro ipso satisfaciat Behold saith he how wholly Sathan has possess'd that man when he grosly mistakes the sense of the words no less than God must be brought upon the Stage to make the excuse and satisfy for him Again Clandestinum quoddam effugium sibi hoc modo praeparare conatur hoc videlicet Si seductus aut falsus sum Deus me seduxit fefellit nam hujus verbo me totum commiseram c. A fecret refuge upon occasions he thus prepares for himself If I am seduced says he if I am deceived God has seduced me God has deceived me for to his word alone I gave my self over And in the mean time he does not consider that the very Pope of Rome and all other Hereticks may say the same c. And again Non ex verbis modo quae non alia arma quibus se defendat quam convitia probra immites increpationes continent verum etiam ex ipsis sententiis violenta Scripturarum tractatione ipsum non aliquo Fundamento vere solido inniti videre liceat Tot enim sententias absurdas c. You may gather not only out of his words which
Disputation was not made known by him to the world till ten or eleven years after it happened when he had some experience of many being swayed by them viz. in his book de Missa privata Sacerdotum unctione ' Of private Mass and Priests unction writ in 1533 yet the Reasonings of this evil Fiend were urged by him against the Church as Truth both before and after his Colloquy through his whole ensuing life the strength of these arguments with him overpoising the mendacity of the Author And therefore this disputation of the Devils against the Mass and former religion hath had with many a contrary effect to what it had with Luther either causing them to return to the Church as amongst others it had once such an operation upon Mr. Chillingworth one of the motives of his reconcilement to the Roman Catholick Religion being set down by him thus in his Preface sin Because saith he Luther to preach against the Mass which contains the most material points now in controversy was perswaded by reasons suggested to him by the Devil himself disputing with him as himself professeth in his book de Miss privat that all men saith he might take heed of following him who professeth himself to follow the Devil or causing them more firmly to persevere therein Tho Luther whether out of vain-glory to shew his more intimate acquaintance and negotiation with the inhabitants of the incorporeal world and his defeat of their designs or out of a conceit that by the unanswerableness of the arguments tho taken from a prohibited Author he should promote his cause or rather out of the merciful providence of God to shew to all the world by Luther's own Confession the Original Founder and Abetter of the Reformation the more to deter all from believing such a lie was forced to the great regret of many of his followers for the scandal given thereby to publish to the world this his Confession as he calls it of the things that secretly passed between him and the wicked Fiend 2ly For the disputation it self the Devil's arguments are vain and of no weight to perswade what he pretends and Luther's weakness very great in yeilding to them and in afterwards using them especially known to come from the Father of lies which to clear to you I will give you the story with some animadversions upon it § 40. n. 1. Luther's own relation of it after his telling us how vigorously and convincingly and in short periods the Devil disputes is this Quondam intempesta nocte e somno evigilavi mox Satan hujusmodi disputationem in animo meo quemadmodum scilicet multas noctes mihi satis amarulentas acerbas reddere ille novit mecum instituit Audisne dixit Excellentissime Doctor Num ignoras te quoque per annos quindecim privatas Missas quotidie fere celebrasse Quid vero si Missis hujusmodi meram Idololatriam exercuisses non Christi corpus sanguinem sed nudum panem vinum illic tu adoravisses aliis quoque exhibuisses adorandum Respondebam sic Atque Sacerdos sum ad istud muneris consecratus qui Christma Consecractionem ab Episcopo olim habui praeterea omne hoc ex meorum Superiorum jussu obedientiae debito per me factum est Cur ergo non Consecravissem sum verba ipsa diligenti studio pronunciaverim summa qua potui devotione in Missis celebrandis usus sim Vere equidem hoc dicis Respondit Satan sed Turcae Ethnici omnes quaecunque in templis suis agunt exjussa studiosa devotione facere solent Sacerdotes Jeroboam faciebant etiam omnia certo zelo studio contra veros sacerdotes in Jerusalem Quid si tua Ordinatio Consecratio falsa esset sicut Turcarum Samaritanorum falsi Sacerdotes falsus impius cultus est Some time since about midnight I chanc'd to awake out of sleep and behold the Devil as he had known well enough how to occasion me many troublesome and restless nights began a disputation with me in my interior soul Dost thou hear said he most Excellent Doctor Can you be ignorant that you also for fifteen years together have almost daily celebrated Private Masses what if in those Masses you have practised down-right Idolatry in adoring there and exhibiting to others to be ador'd not the body and blood of Christ but the naked bread and wine I made answer after this manner I am certainly a Priest consecrated to that holy function of offering the body of Christ having long ago received both Chrism and Consecration from a true Bishop Besides all this I did by the command of my Superiors in due obedience to them Why might not I therefore in celebrating those Masses be said truly to consecrate when with all possible care I pronounced the very words of Consecration in the greatest devotion I was able You say very true answered the Devil but even Turks and all Heathens perform what they do in their Temples as by command and with a sedulous devotion So Jeroboam's Priests acted all things with a constant zeal and fervour tho contrary to the true Priests at Jerusalem What if your Ordination and Consecration also should be false as amongst the Turks and Samaritans false Priests false and impious worship As yet Luther 's Ordination is questioned by Satan as false but not proved Satan then proceeds to give these Reasons thereof § 40. n. 2. 1. Primum nosti inquit nullam tunc habuisti cognitionem Christi nec veram fidem First you know said he you had then no knowledg of Christ nor true faith Nosti This Colloquy then was after Luther's reforming the former Doctrine concerning Faith and his holding it the sole Instrument or Condition of our Justification which Truth Satan contrary to his custom surely confirms to Luther Should he not rather have bin jealous here of this his new Doctrine concerning true Faith from Satan's recommending it And might he not here have replyed That doubtless when a Roman-Catholick he had veram cognitionem Christi veram fidem ' true knowledge of Christ and true faith or else God's Church then had none and then how could any salvation be had in it or how have not the Gates of Hell prevailed against it Lastly Satan's and Luther's vera fides the Solifidian doctrine is now exploded by the better-understanding Protestants Satan discovered a lier in it and his Disciple Luther deceived Et quod ad fidem attinet nihilo melior fuisti quovis Turca Nam Turca adeoque omnes diaboli etiam credunt historiam de Christo ipsum esse natum crucifixum mortuum c. Sed Turca nos Spiritus rejecti non fidimus illius misericordiae neque habemus eum pro Mediatore aut Salvatore sed exhorrescimus ut saevum Judicem And as to matters of Faith you are no better than a Turk For the Turks and so the Devils themselves also believe