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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56472	A treatise of three conversions of England from paganism to Christian religion. The first two parts I. Under the Apostles, in the first age after Christ, II. Under Pope Eleutherius and King Lucius, in the second age, III. Under Pope Gregory the Great and King Ethelbert, in the sixth age : with divers other matters thereunto appertaining : dedicated to the Catholics of England, with a new addition ... upon the news of the late Queens death, and the succession of His Majesty of Scotland to the crown of England / by N.D., author of the Ward-word.	Parsons, Robert, 1546-1610.	1688 (1688)	Wing P575; ESTC R36659	362,766	246

credible and sufficient to move any wise considerate man to believe the same tho' they do not enforce him 30. And the like may be said and shewed concerning the Arguments for Catholic Religion against all Sects and Heresies whatsoever which are so many and pregnant in themselves to him that will consider them duly as there can be no probable doubt in the world which is the truth and which is falshood tho' oftentimes for want either of diligence to know them or pious affection to consider indifferently of them which is the third Point here to be mentioned many Mens Judgments are so obscured or perverted that they cannot or will not see the truth Of these Arguments of credibility for proof of Catholic Faith in general against Heresies you may see many put together by Tertullian in his excellent Book De praescriptionibus adversus Haereses and in S. Augustin's Books De utilitate credendi de moribus Ecclesiae and other such Treatises and in all his other Books against the Donatists Manichees and Pelagians And in that Golden Treatise of Vincentius Lirinensis contra prophanas haeresum omnium novitates who wrote soon after S. Austin and in our times Bosius de signis Ecclesiae and divers others have handled the same Argument And more than this there want not also store in our English Tongue of like matter as Dr. Bristow's Motives and others and you shall find no small number of these Arguments in this Treatise if you read it over So as this Point maketh any man inexcusable that will pretend ignorance herein 31. But now there resteth the third Point which as I said is the Key of all the rest to open the Gate to true Faith and Belief which is a pious and purged Affection without which all the Arguments of Credibility in the World will do no good to move a man to true Religion no more than the persuasion of S. John Baptist did with Herod nor the often speeches and Conferences of S. Paul prevail'd with the Proconsul Foelix the reason whereof is that albeit naturally our Judgment and Understanding should yield to that which appeareth truest and that our Will and Affection by the same natural course ought to follow our said Judgment and Understanding yet thro' the corruption of mankind we find daily by experience that our Will draweth after it our Judgment and as she is affected or disaffected so goeth our Judgment and Understanding also 32. This Point touch'd Christ our Savior when he said in S. John's Gospel to certain ambitious Jews Quomodo vos potestis credere qui Gloriam ab invicem accipitis Gloriam quae à solo Deo est non queritis How can you believe in me which do take and seek Glory one of another and do not seek that true Glory which is only to be had from God Here you see that an ambitious affection did impossibilitate their Understanding to believe notwithstanding what Arguments Reasons or Motives soever to the contrary S. Paul also giving the reason why certain Infidels did not believe the Gospel preach'd by him with many Signs Miracles and other Arguments to move them he noteth the whole impediment to be in their affections saying In quibus Deus hujus saeculi excaecavit mentes ut non fulgeat illuminatio Evangelii gloriae Christi qui est Imago Dei In whom the God of this world hath blinded their Minds and Vnderstanding so that the light or illumination of the glory of Christ's Gospel cannot shine in them who is notwithstanding the very Image of God c. 33. Here you see that there wanted not external Light on the behalf of Christ and his Gospel whose Glory shin'd by so many Miracles in those days of S. Paul but that the love of this World and disorderly affection to Honor Ambition Riches and other Sensualities thereof which here by the Apostle are called the God of this World for that worldly men do adore them This God I say or Devil rather of corrupt affections had so blinded their Judgments and Understanding inwardly as they could not see this shining Light of Truth So that where this pious affection is not or at leastwise where it is not so purg'd from sinister humors as it remaineth with some indifferency of desire to know and follow the Truth if it be discovered no good can be hop'd for In regard whereof Christ refus'd to do Miracles before Herod or in his own Country for that he knew them so obstinately averse in mind as they would not profit by them And for the same cause he refus'd to reason or argue with Pilat about his own Cause when he gave him occasion for that he knew his affections to be so ty'd to the World and himself so addicted to please the People and to gain the good will of Tiberius the Emperor as his labor would be but lost in seeking to persuade him being so obstinately dispos'd otherwise And thus much of this third Point of pious affection and the necessity thereof to a Man's Salvation 34. The fourth and last Point of this Consideration is That tho' it be true as is said in the first Point that ordinarily and for the most part the Object or Articles of our Faith are above the reach of man's Reason and were first reveal'd to man from God himself yet are there some Points thereof which by force of human Reason may be known and demonstrated As for example that there is a God and that he is but One and cannot be Many and that the World was made by Him and that he hath Providence over the same and other such-like Points Which Points and Articles notwithstanding for that on the other side they are propos'd also in the Scriptures and in the Nicene Creed as Articles of our Faith that must be believ'd by Christians as reveal'd from God hence ariseth no small question among School-Divines whether these Points here set down may be known by two distinct ways or no to wit evidently by force of human Reason or Demonstration and inevidently by Light of Faith and Revelation from God And the more common and probable Opinion of School-men and more conformable to the Scriptures and ancient Fathers is That they may for that our Vnderstanding may have two Lights to know one and the self-same thing the first by Revelation from God which always is with some darkness and obscurity to our Reason as before hath been declared and consequently our Judgment being not forc'd to yield thereunto by the clearness of evidence it followeth that our assent by Faith is more free and greater place is given to pious affection of our will and thereby also more merit to assent as before hath been shewed 35. The second Light may be by force of Man's Reason and evidence of Demonstration which sometimes is so clear in it self as it admitteth no doubt at all as when we shew

are saved by Christ's Grace but yet not without Good Works which is the very Exposition that Sir Francis himself holdeth before in the second Encounter but his Masters here do deny it And then in the next Age they say Magis quàm superioris saeculi Doctores hujus aetatis à vera Doctrina Christi Apostolorum de bonis operibus declinarunt The Doctors of this Age are fallen away from the Doctrin of Christ and of his Apostles about Good Works more than the Doctors of the former Ages And then in particular they cry out of Origen that he writeth That God giveth Glory to every one in the Life to come pro mensura meritorum according to the measure of his merits Et simili errore say they Cyprianus meritorum praecedentium defensione obvelari peccata subsequentia And that Cyprian by like Error to Origen doth say that by the defence of precedent Merits Sins that follow may be covered Which they cannot abide to hear 11. Well I might run over many other things as about Laws of Fasting Observation of Holydays Virginity Continence and the like wherein the ancient Fathers no less disagreed from our new Gospellers than We do at this day And they complain thereof even at the first entrance of the second Age saying Doctrina de libertate Christiana nonnihil coepit obscurari c. The Doctrin of Christian Liberty began greatly to be obscur'd in these days Note I pray you that still their complaint is of obscurity and darkness no less in those ancient first Ages than now they complain of Ours and with the self-same reason For what is the reason think you why they complain so greatly here of Christian Liberty abridged 1500 years agone You shall hear the particulars which they alledge complaining first of these words of S. Ignatius Scholar to the Apostles Do not dishonor saith he the Holydays do not neglect the Fast of Lent for that it containeth the imitation of God while he liv'd upon Earth despise not the Passion-week but do you fast Wednesdays and Fridays and give the rest of your meat to the Poor c. 12. Thus said he and it misliked greatly the Magdeburgians to hear so much talk of Fasting And from this complaint they pass to another against all the Fathers of that Age saying De Martyrio nimis magnificè sentire caeperunt The Doctors of this Age did begin to have too magnificent an Opinion of Martyrdom And about the Consecrating of Virgins to Christ they mislike greatly certain speeches of St. Ignatius as for example Ep. ad Antiochen Virgines videant cui se consecrarint Let Virgins consider well to whom they have consecrated themselves And again Epist ad Thrasen Eas quae in Virginitate sunt honorate sicut sacras Christo Do you honor them that live in Virginity as consecrated unto Christ And yet further in his Epist ad Hieronem Virgines custodi tanquam Sacramenta Christi Have care to keep Virgins as Sacraments of Christ Which kind of Speeches misliking our Magdeburgians they say That they were an occasion and opened the way to those things which afterwards were thereupon founded concerning Cloisters and Vows 13. In the next Age after to wit the third they also complain greatly of the same things and many other the like As namely about Chastity and Virginity Nimium praedicari extolli Continentiam That Continency and Chastity was too much commended and extolled And they are so earnest against Tertullian Origen and Cyprian for this matter especially the latter as they do accuse the Holy Man for hatred to Womankind saying Ex professo quasi ubique detestatur multebrem sexum He doth every-where almost even of purpose detest Womankind But in what sense I pray you In no other point without doubt but that he had no desire to have a Sister for himself as each of our German-Ministers may be presumed to have But why is this false slander of detesting Womankind laid upon holy St. Cyprian by these good Fellows Forsooth for that he praised so much Virginity affirming as they alledge him That Virginity doth equal it self to Angels yea if we do examin well the matter we shall find it to exceed Angels for that contrary to Nature it getteth a Victory in Flesh against Flesh which Angels do not And again in another place Albeit Marriage be good and instituted by God yet Continency is better and Virginity exceedeth all Behold the cause why these Protestants affirm St. Cyprian to have hated the Feminine Sex. 14. They say also of Martyrdom that the Fathers of this Age spoke immoderately thereof Martyrium immodicè extulerunt omnes hujus aetatis Doctores All the Doctors of this Age did praise immoderately Martyrdom And then again of Invocation of Saints Videas in Doctorum hujus saeculi scriptis non obscura vestigia invocationis Sanctorum You may see in the Writings of the Doctors of this second Age clear steps of Invocation or Prayer to Saints And then of Purgatory Semina I urgatorii in aliquot locis apud Originem subinde sparsa videas You may see the Seeds of Purgatory dispersed in this Age in the Writings of Origen And you must note that these good Fellows do speak by diminutives of purpose calling it signs or footsteps of Prayer to Saints and Seeds of Purgatory and the like But presently in the next Age they accuse openly and by name St. Athanasius St. Basil St. Gregory Nazianzen St. Ambrose Prudentius Epiphanius and Ephrem eight great Doctors and principal Guides of the Christian Church for this Error of Praying to Saints They accuse also for express holding of Purgatory Lactantius Prudentius and St. Hierom in the same Age. 15. They accuse all the Doctors of this Age for attributing too much to Traditions and Observations of the Church especially about Monastical Life Virginity honoring the Memory and Reliques of Martyrs And they are so earnest and impudent in these fancies of theirs as having cited the Fathers Sentences against themselves they cannot let them pass without intollerable reproachful words So do they accuse holy Athanasius of Superstition for commending Virginity And having alledged a long place of St. Basil in praise of Monastical Life they add this Censure Quae quidem omnia praeter contra Scripturam sunt All which words of St. Basil are both besides and contrary to holy Scripture Then take they in hand St. Ambrose saying Nimis insolenter pronunciat de Virginum meritis Ambrosius Ambrose doth pronounce too too insolently of the merits of Virgins And for that holy Ephrem had said That all pious people shall come merrily in the Day of Judgment before the face of Christ but especially Monks and other such as have lived in Desarts in Chastity Labors Watchings Fastings and the like These good Fellows whose greatest Labors of Penance have been to drink

propagation was in like manner from the same City under Pope Gregory by St. Augustin Now remaineth it that we shew and declare how the Britans from King Lucius's time until the coming of St. Augustin which was 400 years and more downward did not alter their Faith nor yet the See of Rome Hers and consequently that the Faith remaining among the Britans when St. Augustin entred and that which was brought in by Him from Rome and taught unto the English was all one 2. And first for the Church of Rome if we count the Bishops thereof that held that Seat from Eleutherius the fourteenth Pope after St. Peter who died Anno Domini 196 until the beginning of Pope Gregory I. the sixty-sixth Pope who was chosen Anno Domini 590 In this space I say of 400 years there passed fifty Popes all of one Faith nor shall it be found that any one of them changed his Religion or was different in belief the one from the other which is a sufficient proof that the Roman Faith in Gregory's time was the same that it was in Eleutherius's time 3. And as for the Britans we read not but that from the time of King Lucius they continu'd the Faith receiv'd under him from Pope Eleutherius until the rising up of the Heretic Pelagius which was somewhat more than 200 years after and for other 200 years again after that to wit from the time of Pelagius until the coming of St. Augustin we find not in any History that the Britans being once deliver'd from the Heresie of Pelagius by the help of St. German and Lupus Bishops of the Roman Faith ever changed their Religion in any one substantial point nor that they swerv'd from the general Faith of the rest of Christendom except only some few of them infected with the foresaid Heresie whiles it lasted and the Custom of keeping Easter-day with the Jews Which before we have shewed to have been perhaps some remainder of Pelagianism or otherwise brought in after But howsoever it got in certain it is that in other substantial points of Doctrin and Religion there was no difference between the Britans and Romans at that day to wit under Pope Gregory that sent hither Augustin which I shew by the Reasons following Reason I 4. First That if St. Augustin at his coming had found any other substantial difference of Belief in the British Faith from that which he brought from Rome he would have reprehended the same as well as he did their different Custom in celebrating Easter after the Jewish manner and some few other Rites of less moment or at leastwise being afterward made Archbishop and Primate of all the Land and conferring with the British Bishops in Council as Fox saith he did he would have communed with them about the same or objected it unto them or at leastwise have made some mention thereof either in his Letters to Pope Gregory as he did of far lesser matters or to some other man. But any such thing we do not read and consequently it may be concluded certainly that there was no such difference in matter of Faith and Doctrin 5. Another Reason may be taken on the other side from the Britans towards Reason II St. Augustin who being in Controversie with him about his preaching to the Saxons whose Conversion for the present they seemed not to desire in respect of many injuries receiv'd from them as St. Bede affirmeth they did observe all Occasions Causes and Reasons which they might alledge by any probability why they would not joyn with him in that Work and if they could have alledged this Cause That the Doctrin which he preached had been different in any one point from that which they had received and observed before it had been a very sufficient excuse and reason for them But we do find no such exception alledged by them and consequently we may conclude as before that there was none 6. Our third Argument or Reason may be deduced from the consideration of Reason III the Universal State of Christian Faith in those days to wit under Gregory I. who was chosen Pope about the year of Christ 590 at what time there was Unity and Conformity of one Religion throughout all Christendom except only in some places of the World certain Reliques of Pelagians Origenists Donatists and Eutychians out of whom sprung also in those days the Arminian Errors as appeareth by the History of those times especially out of St. Gregory's own Works Neither do we read that the Britans were noted with any of these Heresies but only with Pelagianism some years before from which they had been deliver'd by the Preaching of the French Bishops St. German and St. Lupus and by the diligence of their own Metropolitans St. Dubritius and St. David afterward Seeing then St. Augustin came from Rome by Italy and France and was directed to the Bishop of Arles from whom he passed through France into Britanny it is certain he brought no other Faith than the Universal Faith of Christendom receiv'd and believ'd in those days From which seeing that Britanny was not held nor noted to be different nor yet Excommunicated as certain Bishop of Ireland appear to have been by divers Letters of St. Gregory himself written to them in their reprehension for participation with certain Schismatics it followeth that the Faith which St. Augustin brought and that which the Britans had before must needs be one and the self-same in all material and substantial points 7. To which effect also may be added That in the very next Age among Reason IV the Britans before the English entred there were British Bishops in divers General and National Councils as in the time of Constantine and Pope Sylvester we read That one Restitutus a famous Bishop of London was present at the Synod of Arles in France in the year of Christ 325 and subscribed to the same as by the Acts of the said Council appeareth wherein among other points was ordained That no man having a Wife should be made a Priest without his Wifes consent promising to forbear her Company for the time to come It appeareth also by the Apology of St. Athanasius that divers Bishops of Britanny were present at the Council of Sardica held for St. Athanasius against the Arians about the year of Christ 350 as also the Council of Ariminum wherein tho' the greater part of that Council were beguil'd by the Arians yet St. Hilary doth praise divers good Bishops for their Constancy and among other Provinciarum Britannicarum Episcopos certain Bishops of the Britan Provinces By all which is shewed that the Christian Religion of Britanny was Catholic and Universal and concurring in all points with the Roman in those days as Athanasius and St. Hilary who praised these Bishops are known to have done and consequently it cannot be presumed that either the British Religion should be different from the