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A12062 The triall of the protestant priuate spirit VVherein their doctrine, making the sayd spirit the sole ground & meanes of their beliefe, is confuted. By authority of Holy Scripture. Testimonies of auncient fathers. Euidence of reason, drawne from the grounds of faith. Absurdity of consequences following vpon it, against all faith, religion, and reason. The second part, which is doctrinall. Written by I.S. of the Society of Iesus. Sharpe, James, 1577?-1630. 1630 (1630) STC 22370; ESTC S117207 354,037 416

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is no desert of ill It is lesse blasphemy to make two Gods the one authour of good and the other the authour of euill then to make one God and yet to make him the authour and worker of euill and of all euill to call him iust and yet to make him the punisher of that in others which he wills commandes and workes by himselfe to account him mercifull and yet vpon his meere will and pleasure without any cause or desert to ordaine create millions of men to eternall torments and damnation It was not so great impiety in the Iewes to make God mourn sorrowfull for the punishment he wrought on Hierusalem as it is in the Caluinists to make him well pleased with the vnreasonable tormenting of soules in hell to make it one of the chiefest attributes of Gods iustice to appoint men to sinne and then for that sinne to punish and damne them It is not so foolish to say with the foole there is no God at all as it is to say God is the Authour and worker of all wickednesse and yet the punisher and reuenger of the same for they by the light of reason will condemne and auoid thefts murders periuries iniustice as lying in their power to auoid but these will may by their owne principles practise and exercise them al as being by God forced and necessitated to them as wanting freedome to auoid them and as fearing no punishment for them Though therefore most wicked yet lesse wicked were the former opinions of Iewes Heretikes and Atheists then these of the Caluinists Secondly it may be obserued that no Caluinist can be certaine and assured either of any verity of Scripture or of any article of his Faith or of any assurance of his saluation by his priuate spirit for though he may imagine himselfe to be certaine of the sense of Scripture of the articles of his fayth and of the infallibility of his saluation that they are reuealed from God yet he may with all according to his principles of fayth imagine that God who reueales these may reueale tell him which is false for as God according to them is he who effectually procures the sinner to sin who as the principall cause vses the sinner as an instrument to commit sinne who incites compels and necessitates the sinner to sinne who phisically and effectually workes and causes the act of sinne so the same God according to them may procure and incite the Apostles and Prophets as his instruments compel and necessitate them as the chiefe authour and worker and produce in them as the principall agent lyes and vntruthes and so may by them in Scripture reueale an vntruth either of the beliefe of the mysteries of their fayth or of the certainty of their saluation What certainty therefore can they haue from God of reuelations they receaue from him or of any thing suggested by their supposed spirit as from him Againe God according to Caluin hath one will exteriour another interiour doth call exteriourly whome he withouldes interiourly speakes to them but to make them more deafe giues them light but the more to blind them doth teach them but to make them more dull doth apply to them a remedy but not to cure them for so are Caluins wordes If so then how can any be sure that the calling the speaking the light the doctrine and the motion of their spirit as they suppose of God is not rather to detaine then draw them rather to darken then lighten them rather to dull them then teach them rather to increase then cure their diseases Surely if the spirit of God may worke and doth more ordinarily worke the bad then the good doth more vsually make shew to call when he intends they shall not come doth more generally make blind then enlighten make obdurate then mollify make dull then teach and wound then cure And if God do more often intend bad thē good obduration then illumination damnation then saluation of most whome he cals inuites and makes shew of intending their good And if the greatest part of the world be thus by God deluded and deceaued then why may not or rather should not euery Protestant iustly suspect the same of himselfe Why may he not rightly feare that God intends one thing by his inward will and pretends another by his outward will that God doth worke errour and deceit in him rather then truth and verity That he is a lying spirit rather then a true in him Surely if God hath deceaued more then he hath taught truth darkened more thē he hath lightned obdurated more then he hath mollifyed woūded more then he hath cured and damned more then he hath saued iustly may euery one both suspect and feare that God may do the like to him sith no ground reason or motiue he hath of the one rather then of the other and no more assurance of his saluation among the lesser number then of his damnation with the greate● Thirdly it may be obserued that the God of these Caluinists and precise Protestants is not the same with the ancient Christians and present Catholikes but the one doth so farre differ from the other that the one of the Caluinists doth will decree and predestinate all sinnes which are committed by men and so makes man sinne by the will decree and predestination of God the other of the Catholickes doth will decree and predestinate only good works and all good workes and so doth make man to doe good workes according to the will of God and doth suffer him to do euill according to the man his owne will The one doth command vrge and compell Sathan to deuise sinnes and to sollicite men vnto it The other doth bind hould and hinder Sathan that he do not tempt man and doth ayde help and assist man that he be not by Sathan tempted aboue his power The one doth himselfe secretly incite moue necessitate man to sinne the other doth disswade deterre and enable man against sinne The one is the principall authour worker and effectour of all sinnes as sinnes and men only his instruments to do that sinne which he workes by them The other is no authour nor instrument nor worker at all of sinne as sinne but only the efficient cause of that which is good leauing man to be the deficient cause of that which is malice and sinne The one vpon his meere will because it is his pleasure without any demerit or sinne in man did ordaine predestinate and create most men to damnation and ordained and predestinated only some few to saluation The other created all men to saluation and had a will and desire that all should attaine to it and be saued and ordained none to damnation but vpon his foresight of their sinne by which they would deserue damnation The one did will appoint and decree the sinne of Adam and of all mankind for that end only that in
Doctour Montague in his appeale to Caesar and condemned by Lutherans as well as Catholicks Out of which doctrine it followes 1. That those actions which we esteeme sinnes as idolatry periury adultery murder theft pride malice and the rest are no offences against God because he wils commands and works them himselfe 2. That they are no sinnes because sinne is against the will and law of God but these are according to the will decree and commandement of God which is the rule according to which all actions are to be squared 3. That sinne is nothing but as the Libertins confuted by Caluin do hould an opinion of men because it is not contrary but conformable to the will decree and commandement of God 4. That God in words forbidding sinne and these actions as sinne doth either dissemble as inwardly willing and working that which exteriourly he prohibits or els is contrary to himsele as willing and not willing the same sinnes 5. That if there be any sins at all then God who is the principall authour agent and not man who is the instrumēt only is the sinner offender 6. That men are excusable in committing any or all the foresayd actions because they do that which God wils works and which themselues cannot but worke 7. That no credit can be giuen to the word of God in Scripture because God may as well lye in it as he doth in other bookes of Pagans or Heretikes of both which he is equally the principal authour and dictatour All which absurdities as they are most horrible and blasphemous so do they all necessarily follow vpon the former Protestant positions and must needs be true if the former Protestant doctrine and positions be true SVBDIV. 3. Protestant doctrine of Predestination makes God a sinner SECONDLY that God is by this doctrine not only the authour of sinne but a very sinner and worker not only of the materiall entity or action by which sinne is cōmitted but also of the formall malice or defect of goodnesse in which sinne consisteth and so is formally a sinner and committer of sinne according to this doctrine is proued 1. Because the teachers of this doctrine as before call God the principall authour actour and the worker of sinne but as sinne is in like manner as a picture a denominate concreet including the malice as the forme and the action as the matter of sinne as the picture doth the forme of a man and the matter of colours of which it is made so he that affirms God to be the author or worker of sinne doth as properly affirme him to be the authour of the malice in sinne as the painter is sayd to be the authour worker of the forme of the picture and so God is as properly a sinner by being the authour and worker of sinne as the workmā is a painter by being the authour and worker of the picture And though in the Catholike doctrine God is no more a sinner in that he is in somesort the efficient cause of the reall entity of the sinnefull action to which as the authour of Nature he concurs with man as an vniuersall and indifferent agent to any action then the soule is the authour of the lamenesse in the legge or the writer the cause of the ill writing of the penne the defect o● formality of sinne proceeding from the particular agent man who is the deficient cause as the formall lamenesse or ill writing proceeds from the legge penne in whome is the defect of lamenesse or writing Yet in the Protestant doctrine which makes God the authour of sinne formally as sinne thereby to shew his iustice in punishing sinne as sinne and sinnefull men for sinne it cannot be auoided but that God is a sinner as the authour of sinne and that formally as sinne and if it would excuse God from being a sinner in that he wills and workes sinne for a good end to shew his iustice then it would also excuse man from sinne in that he sinned for a good end as if he stole to giue almes or kild a man to send him to heauen by which reason euill might be committed that good might come thereupon which is contrary to S. Paul Secondly because the same teachers make God the principall willer commander and worker of sinne who that he may iustly punish men for sinne whome he hath vpon his owne meere will without any preuision of their sinne ordained and created to be punished and damned doth therefore ordaine will command worke sinne doth force necessitate them to sinne that for the same sinne he may execute his decree of damnation vpon them but whosoeuer is the principal willer commander and worker of sinne must needes be a sinner and more properly a sinner thē the instrument which is vsed or the subiect in which the sinne is committed that is man Therefore God must be a sinner properly a sinner and more properly a sinner then man yea and the greatest sinner of all sinners as the chiefe willer commander and worker of all sinnes which is a horrible blasphemy SVBDIV. 4. Protestant doctrine of Predestination makes God the only sinner THIRDLY that God is by this doctrine not only a sinner but also the only sinner and that the Diuell Man are innocent and no sinners at all is proued Because if the Diuell in tempting to sin be ruled by the will of God to whose command he obeyes If in alluring to sinne he be cōpelled to obey and do what God doth compell him to do And if the wicked who sinne are not excusable in that they cannot auoid the necessity of sinning which by the ordination of God is imposed vpon them as Caluin affirmes If Iudas did necessarily betray Christ and Herod Pilate did necessarily condemne him as Beza affirms If the thiefe be compelled to steale by the compulsion of God that for the theft he may be hanged as Zuinglius affirmes then surely is not the thiefe who is compelled but God who cōpels both the Diuell to set on the thiefe and the thiefe who steales the sinner who sinnes For if the goodnesse and badnesse of the worke in euery action is to be attributed to the principall authour willer and worker of it not to the instrument especially such as want freewill vsed in working it as the well building of the house is to the architect not to the axe and tooles then is the malice of sinne to be imputed to God the principal and chiefe authour not to man only the enforced instrument of it and so only God is the sinner and man innocent and no sinner at all Which is also confirmed out of that saying of S. Augustine that sinne is so voluntary that except it be voluntary it is not sinne but it is voluntary only in God according to these teachers not in man in whom it is necessary therefore it is a sinne only in God not in
one blow Of Caligula who held that it was lawfull for him to do what he list with any man Of Tiberius who kild the most of the Senatours of Rome and left Caligula his successour because he hoped he would kill the rest and exceed him in cruelty Memorable were the tyrannies of Phalaris of Aegrigentum who tormented men in a fiery bull Of Diomedes of Thrace and of Busciris of Aegypt who gaue their guests to be deuoured by their horses fed them commonly with mans flesh Of Dionysius of Syracusa of Anno of Carthage of Eliarcus of Heraclea of Hyparchus of Athens all who deuised torments the more cruelly to kill their subiects and of the persecuting Emperours who sought all new deuises of tormenting by racke wheels renting brusing and by lingring death the more cruelly to execute the bodyes of the innocent Christians Wherupon the Philosophers sayd Cruelty is hatefull to God a monster of madnesse and misery that cruelty and equity cannot be ioyned togeather that cruelty is a wickednesse not humane but bestiall and which cannot stand with equity But of all crueltyes the most memorable yea horrible and not imaginable if the Diuell himselfe had not inuented and deuised it is this cruelty which they impose vpon God who is a God so good so clement so pittifull and so mercifull that his mercy is aboue all his works and from generation to generation that he disposes all things in mercy and doth with good thinges fill the earth that he shou●d not only impose lawes vpon man aboue his ability for the breaking of these laws should inflict hell-paines but also that he should will ordaine decree predestinate yea and create and that certainly ineuitably and immutably as the prime and principal cause only because it was his m●ere will and pleasure the greatest parte of mankind that is al who are damned to eternal death destruction and damnation in those intollerable paines of hell-fier for all eternity And that he did will command worke yea and compell and necessitate man to sinne that for this sinne he might punish and damne him eternally in hell This certainly is such a cruelty that if it were true it would follow that this good God was more cruell then the former tyrants euer were for they put men to a temporall death God to an eternal They kild men whom they found in their kingdome God created and made men that he might damne them eternally They puld downe them whom they had exalted God exalted these to his liknesse for that end that he might cast them downe to the deepest hell They murdered a few ōly of their subiects God the greatest part of the world They kild them against whome they conceiued displeasure or such as had offended them God damnes thē who haue no way offended him or sinned yea whom he forces to sinne that for that sinne he may damne them They punished with great punishment small offences God with eternall punishment no offences They punished with death men who did otherwise one way or other both deserue death and must dy God damnes them who otherwise then for his will and pleasure were not to be damned as much therfore as the number is greater the punishment more grieuous and the cause of their damnation lesse so much is God by these doctours made more cruel and tyrannicall then any of the former tyrants If it were a horrible cruelty for a King to call thousands of his subiects out of the Country to the Court and there to grace and giue them dignity only for that end that when he had thus graced them he might presently without any fault committed by them torture torment and with all cruelty by his owne hands murder and butcher them alone after another then surely a greater cruelty it is in God to create and bring out of nothing so many millions of soules as are or shal be in hell tormented to exalte them to the dignity of his owne liknesse in memory will and vnderstanding and to enrich them with so many benefits of nature grace only for that end that without any desert or offence in them he may in those intollerable flames eternally himselfe torment them yea to cause compell and force them to commit such acts of sinne that for the same he may thus punish and damne them Surely this is a cruelty ●nd tyranny so great that a greater cannot be conceiued to be in the diuell nor yet be imagined by the diuell himselfe and yet these Protestant doctours do not only impute it vnto God but wil haue it to be a property of God and to stand with his mercy Indeed if to make lawes not impossible to be performed if to oblige men to do thinges impossible to be done if to command men to do a worke and then to deny them meanes to do it if to command and will men yea to force and compel them to do some action and then to punish them for doing the same and that with such horrible paines as of hell If this I say be mercy and mildnesse be grace and goodnes then what can be seuerity iniustice cruelty and tyranny If this be Gods mercy pitty clemency longanimity grace and goodnes to man what is his iustice and seuerity what is or can be cruelty and tyranny If these be his wayes of mercy what are his wayes of iustice If to punish cura condignum and to reward vltra condignum that is to punish lesse and reward more then is deserued be a property of mercy which all attribut to God then to punish without desert yea to cause and force a man to do euill and then to punish him for it is surely no mercy yea no iustice but vnspeakable cruelty and intollerable iniustice Surely if this may be accounted mercy it is a mercy which is mercilesse a mercy which brings all misery and makes millions most miserable A mercy which makes mercy ste● more then seuere iustice mercy most extreme iniustice mercy and most inhumane cruelty all one for what greater iniustice and cruelty can there be in a tyrant or a diuell then to choose and picke out so many millions of soules and without any cause giuen by them to ordaine appoint and put them into eternall paines of hell-fire there to fry for all eternity and to debarre them of all meanes or ability either of the merits of Christ or of freedome in themselues or of any other helpes or meanes whatsoeuer to auoid the same so that vpon necessity they must sinne and deserue damnation vpon necessity must for that sinne be dāned O mercilesse mercy O vniust iustice nay O cruell cruelty of all cruelties the gre●test that cruelty it selfe could conceiue or the Diuel himself can either deuise or execute Far be it from thee O God of mercy who works all in mercy and whose mercy is aboue all thy works SVBDIV. 7. Protestant doctrine of Predestination makes
of beliefe And the Formall motiue or meanes that is reuelation of God is the formall finall and last resolution why we belieue infallibly such verityes to be true So that if one aske by what we are before prepared and disposed to belieue the truth it is by the credible testimonies if by what we are directed guided to know the truth it is by the Churches propositiō if by what we are assisted and enabled to assent infallibly to this truth it is by the habit of Faith if for what and why we doe actually formally and finally assent belieue the same truth it is for the reuelation of God As therefore the Samaritans at the first were prepared by the womans relation who told them that surely it was the Messias who had told her all that she had done to thinke it probable that he might be the Messias and the woman was as it were a proponent or propounding cause to them of him Many of the Samaritans belieued in him for the word of the woman giuing testimony that he told me all thinges whatsoeuer I haue done But afterwards hauing heard and conuersed with our Sauiour himselfe for two dayes they now sayd Not for thy saying O woman do we belieue for our selues haue heard and do know that this is the Sauiour of the world indeed So all Christians are first prepared by credible testimonies directed by Church authority to the knowledge and certainty of that truth but afterwards when the diuine reuelation it selfe as the word of our Sauiour is made knowne to them then do they now formally and finally not for the testimonies of credibility or Church proposition but for the diuine reuelation it self giue firme and infallible assent and beliefe to the verityes or articles of fayth And thus Catholike fayth is that which is for probable testimonies accepted as credible by Church proposed as infallible by an infused habit effected as supernaturall by diuine verity reuealed as truth infallible and necessary to be belieued This fayth is that which is the beginning and ground of iustification the way and gate to saluation vpō which the Church of Christ is founded and is as the life and soule of it which maketh vs members and partes of Christs Church we being by it and Baptisme inserted into his mystical body which maketh vs certainly infallibly belieue either expresly or implicitè all whatsoeuer articles of sayth God hath reuealed to his Church by his Apostles which is a necessary meane instrument or dispositiō to our iustification and saluation without which none are iustified and by which informed with charity all are iustifyed which is one entire fayth in all faithfull who for one motiue and by one proponent cause do belieue all one doctrine which being one and entire belieue as they ought eyther all articles of fayth explicitè or implicitè or none at all which by refusing to assent to any one article in which is questioned the ground of all is by infidelity lost to all and to conclude which distinguisheth a Catholike from an Heretike in that whosoeuer hath this fayth is a Catholike and whosoeuer wants it or looses it is an Infidell or Heretike and so out of state of grace and saluation And thus much for the order and manner of Gods working of fayth by these meanes in vs. Secondly for the necessity and efficacy of these meanes though all and euery one in particuler be ordinarily necessary to true and diuine supernaturall faith the credible testimonies as exteriour motiues to conuince our Vnderstanding that it may prudently accept of this faith as credible and worthy of beliefe the motion of grace and habit of fayth as interiour assistants that the Will may not resist but piously incline to consent determine the Vnderstāding to assent and that the Vnderstanding may obediently yeild assent to the misteries of fayth the materiall obiects as those which we are to belieue and the formall as that why we are to belieue all which are absolutly necessary to make fayth credible free and supernaturall and without them all faith is but humane false or fained yet in respect of vs and of our certainty of beliefe a proponent cause and that infallible which can be no other but the Churches authority is most important and necessary And first that a proponent cause is needfull all grant because faith being by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ some preacher or teacher is necessary to propose and teach vs what is to be belieued by vs for as fayth depends not vpon reason but vpon authority that of God affirming this or that to be true and commanding it to be belieued so this authority thus affirming this verity must be made knowne to vs by some directing or proponent meanes or els we cannot come to the knowledge of it 2. That this directing and proponent cause must be infallible so that it cannot erre it selfe nor propose to vs an errour or falshood to be belieued for a truth is proued for since God requires of vs a certainty infallibility of fayth and this our certainty must be had by some direction and proposition by which it is proposed made knowne to vs what we are certainly to belieue it must needes follow that this Proponent cause must be certaine and infallible or els our fayth directed and guided by it cannot be certaine Thence it followes that they who admit a proponent cause as the Protestants do their church and yet do admit it to be fallible and subiect to errour as all of them do their Church cannot haue any certaine and infallible fayth at all as wanting a necessary certaine and infallible meanes to propose and teach them this certaine and infallible fayth which is confirmed by S. Augustine who sayth That if Gods prouidence rule and gouerne humane matters we may not despaire but that there is a certaine authority appointed by the same God vpon which staying our selues as vpon a sure step we may be lifted vp to God Thirdly this certaine infallible proponent or directing cause is Church-authority which Church that it may infallibly direct vs we securely rely vpon it first Iesus Christ selected and made it not only his inheritance Which he hath chosen Or his house which he builded and gouerned Or his Temple of which himselfe is Priest but also his dearest spouse VVhich he espoused to himselfe alone in fayth and truth As a Virgin pure and vnspotted without corruption Yea as his owne body And one body with him VVhich as head he nourisheth cherisheth and sanctifieth making her glorious without spot And which he hath purchased with his pretious bloud Secondly he priuiledged it first with his owne presence promising to be with it all dayes euen to the consūmation of the world Next with the presence of the Holy Ghost The spirit of truth
interpreted by Prophecy was not doctrine or mysteries of faith but either exhortation to piety for edification and consolation or of things secret as future euents or vnknowne faults or facts done by which the secrets of the heart of the infidell or idiot was made knowne and he conuinced and iudged of all therfore it makes nothing for doctrine of faith and interpretation of scripture 4. This manner of Prophecy howsoeuer and of whatsoeuer it was it was not independent and of it selfe free to interprete what and how it will but so that the rest doe iudge that the spirits of Prophets be subiect to the Prophets And so euery priuate spirit must be subiect to the iudgment of the Church and the Churches spirit Fourthly they obiect those places where it is said that All thy Childrē are taught of our Lord Al shal be docible of God Your selues haue learned of God I will giue my law in their bowels and I will write it in their heart All shall know me from the least to the greatest If any will do his will who sent me he shall vnderstand of the doctrine whether it be of God My sheepe do heare my voice do follow me Yow haue no need that any do teach you but as his vnction teacheth you of all things All these places I say do not either ioyntly altogether or particularly any one mention any priuiledge that euery one hath by the instinct of his owne priuate spirit to interprete holy scripture to decide deep mysteries of faith and to iudge of all controuersies of diuinity which is the point auerred by the Protestants denied by vs and in controuersy betweene both 2. In them is affirmed only that God will giue his inward guift of grace to all sort of persons so sufficiently that they may know him his truth and the true way to saluation and by the same may obserue his Commandements and come to be saued In which yet is neither excluded but rather supposed as precedent and an exteriour proponent cause the ordinary meanes of preaching by Pastours and of instruction by them and subordination to them But yet is not giuen to any one any power or priuiledge to preferre his owne spirit before the spirit of the whole Church or to censure the doctrine which is once adiudged by the same which among the rest this Protestant priuate spirit doth assume to it selfe For which we may note that it is one thing to haue faith sufficient for saluation another to haue the guift of infallible interpretatiō of scripture The former is a guift general to all the faythful though they be as yet little ones who only sucke milke though they be as yet carnal not spiritual thogh they be ignorant of many things and haue many thinges wanting to the perfection of their faith Yet they be sealed with the spirit of the promise the pledge of our inheritance haue the spirit of God dwelling in them and so haue the literall verity of all the former places verifyed in them The later is a guift peculiar and proper only to them who by place and function are spirituall and perfect haue their senses exercised to the discerning of good and euill And haue the guift of discerning of spirits and interpreting of speaches And these are they who as tryers and discerners of fayth interpreters of Scripture and haue the guift and power infallible to direct others in the doctrine of fayth who are ex officio the Pastours and Prelates of Gods Church and are as Bishops to rule to feed the flocke of Christ to exhort and reproue with all authority to controule rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the fayth and to denounce to certaine not to teach otherwise And all by that power which God hath giuen them to edification and to reuenge all disobedience and to bring into captiuity al vnderstanding to the obedience of Christ This is the office of the Prelates and Bishops of Gods Church 3. This inward guift of grace or vnction of the Holy Ghost is only an efficient internall and cooperant cause and so necessary to mooue the vnderstanding and will to assent to that which as certaine is proposed but this iudge or interpreter must be an exteriour proponent cause which must deliuer to vs this sense as certaine which being proposed grace doth enable vs to belieue Now all these and such like places are meant of the interiour guift of grace which is necessary but not ordinarily sufficient without a precedent exteriour and proponent cause which is this infallible Interpreter of holy Scripture in Pastours of the Church Fifthly to those places where it is commanded not to belieue euery spirit but to proue the spirits if they be of God and to proue all thinges and hould that which is good is answered 1. That all and euery person of the body of the holy Church is not directed to make this tryall but only the chiefe that is the Pastours and Prelates as when a man is willed to discerne and see not euery member and part of the body is directed so to do but the chiefe members as the head which is to iudge and the eye to see to whose function it is proper and belonges or as when an Vniuersity is directed to examine and iudge of such a booke and doctrine not euery student but the chiefe Doctours of that faculty are so directed and willed so that not euery person and vnlearned party in the Church is to make this tryall of spirits but only Pastours and Prelates to whose function it is peculiar and proper to iudge and decide all such like questions and doubts 2. This tryall and iudgment is to be made not of questions doctrine already decided and determined by the authority of the Church but of such as are yet doubtfull and vndecided For that which is once determined by the generall consent of the Church or Councell is not againe to be examined and iudged by any priuate mans spirit for so the Decrees of Coūcells were both vaine endlesse that therfore is to be tryed which is not before both tryed and iudged and that by those who haue both ability and authority to do it which makes nothing for this priuate spirit which will both try what is before by any Councell iudged and will by euery simple vnlearned person try and iudge it Sixthly to that of 1. Cor. 2.15 The spirituall man iudgeth all thinges and himselfe is iudged of none It is answered that S. Paul to confound the Corinthians who standing vpon their humane worldly wisedome contemned his vnlearned manner of instruction affirmes that they being men sensuall can iudge only of sensuall thinges but he being spirituall and perfect in diuine wisedome can iudge both of things sensuall and spirituall and