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A13235 A defence of the Appendix. Or A reply to certaine authorities alleaged in answere to a catalogue of Catholike professors, called, An appendix to the Antitdote VVherein also the booke fondly intituled, The Fisher catched in his owne net, is censured. And the sleights of D. Featly, and D. VVhite in shifting off the catalogue of their owne professors, which they vndertooke to shew, are plainly discouered. By L.D. To the Rt. VVorshipfull Syr Humphry Lynde. L. D., fl. 1624.; Sweet, John, 1570-1632, attributed name. 1624 (1624) STC 23528; ESTC S120948 43,888 74

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of the Appendix shewing the continuall Visibility of the Catholike Church YOur owne Doctors in your owne house professed as you know The true Church must be able to name Professors in all Ages made it the very groūd of their Argument in that Dispute Wherefore in all reason before you went about to answere the Booke which you receaued of the Catalogue of our Professors you should haue giuen another or referred vs to some booke of an other of yours And that so much the more because hitherto such a Catalogue on your side hath byn held impossible to be found made or produced And hauing beene euermore demaunded and required for a hundred yeares togeather could neuer as yet be seene nor obtayned Certainly those your Champions which were chosen by your selfe and with great expectation vndertooke to doe it when they came to the Tryall performed nothing and all that they did was but cunningly to auoyde the Question giuen in these expresse termes Whether the Protestant Church was in all Ages visible especially in the Ages before Luther and whether the Names of such visible Protestants in all Ages can be shewed and proued out of good Authors Wherein euery man may see there was nothing els demaunded but a playne Catalogue or Table of the Names of your Professors in all Ages proued by good Authors According wherunto they receaued also another paper before the meeting which there was publickly read that ech partie should produce their Catalogues out of good Authors and then interchangably by termes defend them But this Table or Catalogue of the names of our Professors seemed a Lyon in the way of your Doctors which therefore they durst not come neere nor behold but sought by diuers straines to eschew it and to turne the eyes and eares of the audience from their expectation of it As first they sought to make two Questions of the Question propounded and flying the latter part insteed of shewing the visibility of their Church they would haue proued it à Priori as they tearmed it without shewing their visible Pastors which was the poynt demaunded Secondly they deride their Aduersaries for demaunding the Names of their Professors as if they had impertinently called for a Buttry Booke of the Names of those that euer were admitted into the Church of Christ irregiously comparing the Histories of the Church wherein the Names of her Bishops Martyrs and other holy Men were carefully recorded to Buttry Bookes of Names And for the same cause calling their Aduersaries Nominalls they boasted themselues to be Realls as if their Aduersaries had demaunded no Men but only Names of Men or as if the Professors of the true Faith like Knights Errants or those of the round Table had been no reall Men at all but only names which is asmuch to say as that the Hystories of the Church were meere fables Thirdly they sought to flinch by propounding sūdry tymes diuers other Questions to be disputed Which was as it were to put vp many Hares before the Hoūds thereby to conceale the Kennell of that Fox which was then hunted Fourthly they endeauoured to diuert the Question from prouing themselues the true Church by naming the visible Professors therof in all Ages which was the thing demaunded to proue the same by assuming they held the truth that is to say in euery particular Controuersie as for Example in denying of Transubstantiation Merits of Works and the like Which was as plaine a Transition as if in case the Question had byn about Transubstantiation their Aduersaries should haue gone about to proue it by prouing themselues to be the true Church that held it For both these kinde of proofes by a remote Medium do euidently transferre the Question the one from a generall to a particular point which was your Doctors fault the other from a particuler to a generall as in the other Example Fiftly being called vpon by the Hearers and especially by the Protestants themselues which were ten to one and confided much in their owne cause to giue the Names of their Professors in all Ages they named only Christ and his Apostles with others one or two more of the first Age alone Which according to the question vndertaken they should haue proued to be Protetestāts by naming Protestants that succeeded them in all Ages following but seeking euermore to auoyde that Rocke they would haue stayed there and before they went any further vrged to proue the Professors of the first Age to be Protestants not by naming their Successors but by examining their Doctrine Which againe had been to diuerte from the matter and to runne from the generall point then in Question to all particular Controuersies Sixtly Therefore when none of these deuises could satisfy the expectation of the Hearers fearing as it seemed least according to the words of the Question and playne intention of that meeting they should haue byn vrged againe by the Hearers to set downe a full Catalogue of all Ages as once before they were importuned to doe they suddenly brake off and so departed Seauenthly My L. of Warwicke imagining perchāce that this proceeded not so much from lacke of ability as from want of due preparation on their behalfe promised a Catalogue within 2. or 3. dayes which though sought agayne by letter neuer yet appeared Eightly The Answerers themselues repayred the next day to your owne house agayne offering to deliuer their Catalogue with one hand so they might receaue yours with the other Which another stāding by whome they also tooke to be a Protestant Minister affirmed to be very reasonable and indifferent But you answered You knew their minde for that point and that they would neuer doe it before the Names of the first Age were tryed and so of the rest in order Ninthly a printed Catalogue was sent to your selfe in particuler hoping it might serue as an engine to importune and as it were to extort another from you or from your Doctours But all in vayne which maketh many much to feare that this Catalogue of your Professors will neuer be produced and consequently that your Church cannot possible be the true Church of Christ And now no maruell if some of the Hearers when they saw the Booke of The Fisher catched in his owne Net writen as it were in triumph of your victory in that Dispute compared it to those other Puritan Bookes which haue been lately printed of the great victories of the Protestants in their Warres against the Catholiks beyond the Seas whereas in truth not the Catholikes but the Protestants themselues haue beene alwayes notoriously vanquished and ouerthrowne And presuming it came forth from his owne fingers that hath the principall part therin they spare not to say that it better deserued to be called The feates and lyes of Doctor Feat-Lye then the other Title which in falshood well agreeing with the Booke it selfe in that respect alone might iustly seeme a fit lace or facing for it For besides the sundry shifts
vpon paine of damnation to belieue a thing so incredible as that Christ being Crucified was risen againe in his owne flesh and ascended into Heauen if many other Myracles which the Apostles wrought in confirmation therof had not made it euidently credible as S. Austen disputeth in his booke de Ciuit. Dei lib. 22. cap. 7. and in the former Epist. 49. quaest 6. albeit he well obserued that this kind of proofe was euer lowdly and extremely laught at by the wicked Pagans yet most true it is which there he also affirmeth that we should not belieue Christ to be risen againe frō the Dead if the Fayth of Christians did feare in this point of Myracles the laughter of Pagans Wherefore to answere those places of the Fathers which you obiect not only agaynst so many of their owne Testimonies alleaged by your Aduersary but also against Scripture and against Christian beliefe it selfe grounded vpon Myracles as hath beene noted you must further vnderstand that the world hauing beene once perswaded by myraculous operations and workes of wōder to belieue the Doctrine of the Apostles with this firme promise that it should alwayes remaine with them and their Successors the visible Pastors of the Catholike Church vniuersally spread ouer all the world it ought not to belieue any other Doctrine or any other Myracles pretended to be done in opposition to that Doctrine which by continuall Tradition hath beene receaued frō them For as there can be no after-word of God contrary to that which was first preached soe there can be no latter Myracles contrary to the testimony of those by which the world first belieued but rather as S. Paul saith If an Angell from Heauen should preach otherwise then we haue receaued we should hold him accursed This made Tertullian in the Booke you cite de Praesc cap. 44. to protest against all Myracles supposed to be done against the Tradition of the Church whereof S. Augustine in his Booke de vnit Eccles obiected by you giueth the reason yet more plainly shewing that the Catholike amplitude or vniuersality of the Church by conuersions of Nations in all Ages doth more euidently proue it to be the true Church of Christ then any other worke which is done therein for it is more manifest to sense and human reason that the cleare Prophesies of the true Church in holy Scripture are fullfilled and accomplished only in the Catholike Church which accordingly in all Ages doth visibly spread it selfe ouer all the world then it can possibly appeare that any worke of admiration is truly a Myracle surpassing the force of Nature or power of the Diuell whereof it followeth that the true Church is more manifestly knowne by the accomplishment of those promises then by the wondrous effects of any Myracles and that Myracles doe not soe well and cleerly proue any Church to be Catholike as the Church being visibly Catholike doth manifest those Myracles to be true which are approued by it Whereof it followeth againe that all Myracles which are done against it or agaynst the vnity thereof are as firmely and constantly to be reiected Which is it that he also teacheth lib. 13. cont Faust. cap. 5. and Tract 13. in Ioan. and lib. 22. de Ciuitat Dei cap. 8. obiected by you And heere by the way I beseech you to note how much Saint Ansten esteemeth the former Argument of the conuersions of Nations in all Ages according to the promises therof in holy Scripture which he maketh such an euident marke and such an infallible proofe of the true Church that he preferreth it before Myracles And for the same cause lib. 22. de Ciuit. Dei cap. 8. he spareth not to say That he who seeketh to be confirmed by Wonders now is himselfe to be wondred at in refusing to belieue that which all the world or the visible Church through the world belieueth Which your selfe also hauing obserued you may wōder at your self both in refusing to belieue what you know the visible Catholike Church for a thousand yeares through the world belieued and wherin I also wonder my selfe at your not obseruing that S. Augustine doth wonder at you in that very place wherein you suppose he agreed with you as by and by I shall make it appeare Adde in the meane tyme to that which hath beene sayd that the Myracles whereunto the holy Fathers alleadged by you forbid vs to giue credit as vnto Arguments not sufficient to proue the Truth of Religiō were eyther Myracles in apparence only and such wherewith Heretikes might easily be deceaued or so deceaue as S. Augustine speaketh in the former place vpon Ioan not such as might reasonably induce any prudēt man to belieue thē As Dreames and Visions and exauditions of Prayers like vnto those of the Donatists against whome wrote Saint Augustine lib. de Vnit. Eccl. cap. 16. Or such as were Testimonies of the Iustice and mercy of God in generall and not of Doctrine in particuler as were those whereof S. Hierome speaketh Or finally such as being wrought by wicked men exceeded not the power of the Diuell as S. Augustine obserueth lib. 20. de Ciuit. Dei cap. 19. Tract 13. in Ioan. Or were not sufficiently testified but rather sayd then proued which Tertullian lib. de Praeser derideth and sayth that the power of Heretiks was nothing like but rather contrary to the power of the Apostles for their vertue was not to rayse the Dead but rather to kill the liuing literally fullfilled in Caluin Bolsec in vita Caluini who pretending by his prayer to rayse a counterfaite dead man being then truly aliue was thought to be the cause that he was instantly slaine eyther by God or the Diuell In the same sense also Epiph. lib. 1. de haer cap. 30. vrgeth Ebion to rayse some dead man c. assuring himselfe that he could not doe any true Myracle by meanes of his false Faith yea though he called vpon the name of Christ. Not so the Myracles alleaged by your Aduersary which hauing beene wrought and belieued and most authentically testified by soe many most holy most prudent and learned Witnesses in confirmation of that Doctrine which is professed against you need no more to feare the laughter of Protestants thē the Myracles of former tymes as S. Austen saith had cause to feare the laughter of Pagans And such as belieue them not may iustly feare to be condemned as Pagans for belieuing nothing To deny therefore this Doctrine of Myracles seemeth noe lesse impious then to deny Christianity it selfe and to affirme that myracles haue ceased sithence the tyme of the Apostles were noe lesse vnreasonable then to reiect all humane Testimonies and in particuler the Authority of S. Augustine himsefe in those very places obiected by you For in that very place of S. Aug. de Ciuit. Dei lib. 22. cap. 8. which you alleage against Myracles That they were necessary before the world belieued to induce it to belieue And That he that
Come let vs put Wood on his Bread that is sayth Tertullian the Crosse vpon his Body But our Sauiour gaue his Apostles that Bread which he made his Body saying This is my Body therefore he fullfilled the law in giuing that Body which the law figured in Bread and was therefore called Bread in Ieremie In the same manner againe he proueth that giuing his Bloud in the forme of Wine he fullfilled the law because he gaue that which the law figured in Wine and therefore Gen. 49. was called Wine where it was prophesied of our Sauiour That he should wash his stole in Wine that is sayth Tertullian his Flesh in bloud So sayth Tertullian he qui tunc vinum in sanguine figurauit who then made Wine a figure of his Bloud now consecrated his Bloud in Wine Secōdly your Aduersaries proue the same because Tertullian vrgeth these former words to proue also against Marcion that our Sauiour had a true Body and not the shadow or phantasme only of a Body as he contended Which supposing that his Body was as Tertullian speaketh the figure of his Body then fullfilled he proueth because vnto the figure of a Body to be Crucified there must answere a true Body for of a Phantasme saith he there can be noe figure Secondly he proueth the same Because in the mention of the Cupp instituting his Testament signed with his Bloud he cōfirmed the substance of his Body That is to say he confirmed his Body to be no shadow but a substance for sayth he the proof of Bloud is a proof of Flesh and the proof of Flesh is a proofe of a true body Wherefore hauing giuen Bloud in his Testament he gaue also a true Body These Arguments therefore haue place if according to the sense which your Aduersaries make of the words of Tertullian Our Sauiour fullfilled the law by giuing that which was figured in the law But if according to your exposition he gaue only a figure of his Body and Bloud he gaue not that which was figured in the law as Tertullian himself expoūdeth the law for that which was figured in the law sayth Tertullian was that Body which was to be crucified by consequence he fullfilled not the law which notwithstanding was the Heresie of Marcion there condemned by Tertullian And againe if our Sauiour had giuen that which was only a figure of his Body Tertullian could not haue proued thereby that our Sauiour had a true Body answerable to the figure therof in the Prophet Ieremie For if there might haue beene a figure of a figure there might haue been also a figure of a Phantasme And if in the mention of the Cup he had not signed his Testament with true but only with figuratiue Bloud his Testament had not beene true but only figuratiue neyther had he thereby confirmed that his Body was a true Substance For figuratiue Bloud could haue proued but figuratiue flesh and figuratiue flesh could haue proued but a figuratiue Body Add vnto this that if in your sense Tertullian hath sayd This is my Body that is the figure of my Body Marcion might as well haue sayd in lyke manner This is my Body that is to say the shadow or Phantasme of my Body And so in effect Tertullian had agreed with Marcion whose Heresy he there condemned and had impugned the Truth of the Eucharist which he there mētioned for as Ignatius long before obserued the Simonian and the Saturnian Heretikes did not admit Eucharists and Oblations because they did not confesse the Eucharist to be that flesh of our Sauiour which suffered for our sinnes Epist. ad Smyr vt citatur à Theodoreto Dial. 3. Wherefore if Tertullian had not confessed the Eucharist to be the flesh of Christ he must also haue denyed the Eucharist and the oblatiō thereof and for the same reason the Protestants denying it to be the flesh of Christ and consequently denying the oblation thereof it is euident that they admitt not the Eucharist of Ignatius no more then the Simonian and Saturnian Heretikes haue done before them but insteed of the Eucharist which was in his dayes they haue supposititiously brought in another of their owne inuentiō This is that S. Ignatius Martyr the disciple of S. Iohn thought to be that Boy who was found to haue the fiue Barly loaues and two fishes which our Sauiour multiplyed that thereby the harts of men might be the better disposed to belieue the locall multiplication of his owne body in the dreadfull Mystery Euen frō thence he tooke a great deuotion thereunto and was euen then ordayned to be a witnes of the admirable Doctrine thereof I delight not sayth he Epist. ad Rom. post med in the nutriment of corruption I desire the Bread of God the Heauenly Bread which is the Flesh of Christ the Sonne of God and the drinke which is his Bloud And as he had beene fed with the bread which was Christs flesh while he liued so when he came to dye he desired that his flesh might be grown'd as in a Mill with the teeth of Lyons that he might be made cleane bread for the mouth of our Sauiour Where also he sayth It is not lawfull without a Bishop that is to say without orders receaued from a Bishop to baptize nor to immolate Sacrifice And what Protestant Minister will take vpon him to immolate Sacrifice Or what Protestant Bishop eyther can or will giue him power to doe it For which cause the Centurists Cent. 2. cap. 4. affirme those wordes of his to be incommodious Col. 55. dangerous and as it were the seedes of errors Col. 167. Yet this is that Ignatius of the first Age whome your Doctors with vnspeakable bouldnes claymed to be theirs as you know in the former Cōference and in their Booke would make fooles belieue that the Catholikes when they heard him named much reioyced taking him to be Ignatius Loyola the founder of the Society of IESVS But the truth is your Doctors might aswell haue claymed the latter as the former For ī his Religion be tryed by Workes or Epistles that are extant then your Authors disclayme from the former no lesse then from the later Your M. Wotton being vrged with the saying of Ignatius in the behalfe of Merit taken out of his Epistle to the Romans vndoubtedly his as both S. Hierome and Eusebius acknowledge yea S. Irenaeus lib. 3. aduers haeres prope finem doth alleage a sentence of this Epistle yet to be found therein being I say pressed with this testimony your Doctor in his defence of Perkins pag. 339. answereth in these wordes I say plainely this mans testimony is nothing worth because he was of little iudgment in Diuinity What more could he haue sayd in contempt of the testimony of S. Ignatius of Loyola But your Grand Maister Caluin yet speaketh more plainely in his Institutions l. 1. c. 14. § 44. Ignatium quòd obtendunt nihil naenijs illis quae sub Ignatij nomine edita sunt
which being discouered were better found then Mynes of gold For vnlesse by some such meanes the Professors of your Ghospels may be brought to light your Church cannot long continue aboue ground but the former Question alone will suffice to coniure it downe againe into her auncient darkenes 2. What can be more vnworthy thē whē Priests Iesuites other Religious men execute the cōmādemēt cōmissiō of our Sauiour in carrying his Ghospel to the ends of the Earth as their Auncestors haue done in all Ages before them thereby prouing themselues their true Successors whome our B. Sauiour according to his promise Matt. 28. hath euer assisted and will alwaies accōpany Teaching and baptizing all Nations Omnibus diebus vsque ad consūmationem saeculi all dayes or euery day vnto the end of the world that your wiued Ministers in the meane tyme fatned with their benefices should only execute their owne malice in rayling vpon those laborious men and deprauing their Christian endeauours thereby shewing themselues to be that peruerse and bastard generatiō which insteed of cōuerting Infidells doth labour only to subuert belieuers insteed of planting the faith of Christ only indeauor to extirpate that Faith which they found to be already planted insteed of sowing the first corne only scatter cockle and darnell vpon that corne which was first sowed by others Rather set forth whole fleets of Ministers with their numerous families both for the East and for the West to bring those miserable Nations vnto the liberty and light of the Ghospell that haue layne so long captiue vnder the foule bondage and execrable Tiranny of the Prince of darknes Then it would be quikly tryed whether in those parts the diuells would submit themselues and fly before them or Whether like the strōger party Luc. 11.18 as hitherto in Virginia they haue shewed thēselues they would be able to keepe in peace the soules and vessells which they haue there soe long possessed vntill there come others stronger thē your Ministers that may be able to bind them 3. What can be more impious then whereas your Aduersaries like true Christiās confirme their doctrine in all Ages by those signes myraculous operations which were promised to follow the true belieuers Marc. 16.17 you on the other side should haue nothing to answere but only like Iewes and Pagans to laugh at them and at the holy Fathers themselues that were so simple as eyther to testify or to belieue them Rather ioyne your harts and your hands togeather that once in your tyme you may see a Generall Councell from all Protestant Prouinces meete togeather where out of so many Religions sprūg vp amongst you hauing chosen one by Lot to be generally professed beseech him who heareth all those that with a true Fayth doe call vpon him to confirme that chosen doctrine by some ostension in the Sunne or in the Moone or with some such notorious signe from Heauen as might no lesse exceed the former Myracles of the Papistes then the wondrous workes of Moyses confounded the magicall practises of the Egiptian Sages 4. And lastly what can be more voyde of shame and conscience then to clayme those Fathers of the first 500. yeares for yours that haue so impartially censured so many seuerall points of your Doctrine in the Heretikes of their tymes for the which I refer me to the fourth Sectiō of this Treatise as he that considereth them may iustly esteeme the body of your Religion to be almost nothing els but only a confarcination or bundle of old Heresies condemned by them Rather ioyne all in prayer that if your Cause be true as Almighty God vouchsafed in his owne person to iustify Iob against his friends so that our Sauiour would be pleased with a voyce from Heauen to iustify you agaynst the Fathers But ouer Shooes ouer Head and Eares sayth the Prouerbe according whereunto if being once entred into a bad cause it be resolued that still you must needes goe forward ceasing to falsify the words and to peruert the meaning of those holy Fathers least God in his iustice double your punishment as you double your iniquity hold your selues to the Scripture alone and to your owne interpretation of Scripture with M. Luther and M. Caluin and those learned Protestants of your owne Nation for so many yeares togeather not fearing to reiect the Fathers that were but men and directly refuting their errors for in so doing though you should want verity yet God might be pleased at the length to haue mercy vpon you for your sincerity O Mercifull God the Author of all truth If you be in the truth why should you defend it by fraud and falshood And how can it stand with his good will and pleasure that against so many powerfull Arguments and euident demonstrations to the contrary you should any longer thus contentiously hold it And obstinately so continue to professe it Certainly those 4. Considerations before remembred and reported more at large in the 4. first Sections of this Treatise do make it so euidēt vnto me that theirs not yours is the only true visible vniuersall Church ordayned and founded by Christ and his Apostles to teach the world that I wonder in my hart how any learned Protestant can be so blinde as not to see it or so voyd of honesty as not to confesse it Neyther if I were now a Protestant should any thing with-hold me from ioyning my selfe vnto them vnlesse it were only in honor of that Religion wherein I was bred to expect a little Whether the foresayd Catalogue of the Names of your Professors in all Ages and especially in the Ages before Luther might be found and produced The Question is now very happily set on foot I hope it wil be soundly followed and it were to be wished that no other Controuersy might be imbraced before this which is but matter of fact and the key of all the rest be fully cleared If Satisfactiō may be giuen in this poynt you may the better hope to be satisfied in the rest But if not so much as one man can be produced in 500. yeares before Luther that held not some maine points of Popery against you or some other grosse errors condemned by you if when Luther first began not one Protestant can be named that did not first fall from the Religion wherein he was bred or which he had first receaued then certainly it is not to be marueiled if thousands and thousands ere it be long doe renounce abandone with prayer for those to come after thē whom they shall leaue behind them that vpstart Fayth which was new when Luther began and none at all before Luther ALmighty God inspire the hart of his Majesty whom it importeth noe lesse then our selues that whereas the Catholike Recusants were neuer as yet accused of heresy according to forme of Ecclesiasticall iustice much lesse sommoned and called to make their answere or iuridically condēned that their Enemies formerly cēsured by Generall Coūcells according to the Aunciēt Law and receaued custome of the Church haue notwithstanding beene hitherto admitted not only as accusers but also as witnesses and iudges against them whereby the people of the Land being constrained to heare the one party and restrained from hearing the other haue been morally compelled to loue the one and hate the other to magnify the one and detest the other his Maiesty would be pleased to grāt vnto all his louing subiects for the saluation of their poore Soules committed to his charge that now at the lēgth they might be allowed both their eares to heare both sides indifferently to weigh and ponder both causes and well to cōsider of both Religions Left vnder the plausible name of spirituall liberty they be cunningly held in miserable captiuity being flattered with the shew of light they be insnared in dubble darkenes being deluded with presumption of knowlege they be bound and buried in most dredfull ignorance A request soe fauorable both in the sight of God and Man and so agreable to the principles of Protestant Religion as I thinke it can be vngratefull to none who doe wish vnfainedly that only falshood may be suppressed and the truth maintained For the which all those that sincerely desire to serue God vprightly shall be infinitely obliged to pray for his Maiesty not only as for their Gratious King but also as for their deliuerer from the thraldome of conscience wherein he found them and for the Author of their chiefest liberty wherin he should place thē FINIS