feareth that if God behold his workes he shall finde more offences then merites and if he shall deale with vs accordyng to our desertes he shall finde nothyng in vs but damnable Ierome doth so call vs backe froÌ„ all confidence in our deédes that he boldly pronounceth that if we coÌ„sider them in their own nature we should vtterly dispayre What and may it not be lawfull for Luther to vtter his mynde with Christ with the godly Prophetes with the holy Apostles with the learned auncient Fathers Are they commeÌ„ded in the old Gospell for that they spake well and shall Luther Melancthon Bucer and Caluinâ— be reproched in scoffyng wise with a new fouÌ„de name of new Gospellers bycause they thinke and speake the selfe same thyng that they did If Luther were such a kynde of felow as would take part with Epicure and would practize to let louse the reynes to voluptuousnes turning mens myndes vpsidowne and carry them away quyte from vertuous endeuour from loue of godlynesse from their duetie and honest trade of godly lyfe to lust and licentiousnesse and would place all mans felicitie in this corruptible body and the vayne ticklyng delightes therof it were not altogether from the purpose that ye speake Osorius nor you should be much blamed for makyng him companion with Epicure neither would I refrayne my penne so Christ helpe me but would inueigh agaynst him with all my power as sharpely as your selfe But peruse now all Luthers bookes searche sift consider and ponder all Luthers writynges all his exhortations his doctrine his Lessons his Sermons and all his imaginations yea prye narrowly into his lyfe and conuersation if you can shewe out of all these I will not say one place or example but one worde or sillable so much which doth sounde agaynst the loue and practize of vertue which may seéme to rende the sinowes of righteousnesse and holynesse or breéde dislikyng to the embracyng therof or which doe bruyse the fruites of good workes weaken serious trauaile breake of honest industry or hinder godly enterprises from doyng well or by any maner of meanes doe extenuate the feare due to the lawes of God and man Finally where he may seéme to thinke lesse then may bee seéne a perfect Deuine or behaue him selfe more dissolutely in his maners theÌ„ he resembleth in honest iudgement Nay rather if he do not employ all the care possible to rayse vp all men in euery place to the dewe feare of Gods law to true obedience and to all honest conuersation and earnestly emprinte into the sight and myndes of all men the renowne dignitie and worthynesse of vertue picâ—e and godlynes you shall haue the Conquest But euen the same thyng say you Epicurus did I confesse that to be true Osorius which ye reporte of Epicurus and which you haue very finely pyked out of your M. Cicero Who doth deny in his thyrd booke of Tusculane questions That Epicurus was Authour of any voluptuous sentences and with all sayth that he vttered many and soudry notable sayinges seémely enough for a true Philosopher But what doe ye conclude hereof Epicurus doth commende vertue in some place Luther doth also the lyke Ergo Luther is an Epicurean Why doe ye not also conclude agaynst S. Paule that hee is an Epicurean bycause he doth also the selfe same thyng O rare and singular sharpe witted Chrisippus whiche if had not altogether beéne nooseled in his old Gospell could neuer haue knitte such knots together of meére particular propositioÌ„s neither would this woÌ„derfull Logician haue euer coupled Luther with Epicurus But bycause Osorius hath borowed this Argument out of Cicero we will open his iugglyng boxe in fewe wordes and first of all shew what Cicero speaketh next how west this CiceroniaÌ„ doth agreé with Cicero And first as concernyng Cicero Whenas he maketh meÌ„tion of Epicurus senteÌ„ces he doth not reprehend the quicknesse and nymblenes of his witte but rather prayseth him therfore onely he noteth the scope and end of his doctrine Neither doth he condeÌ„ne those senteÌ„ces which Epicurus spake well but bycause he did so define chief Felicitie as though it coÌ„sisted onely in voluptuousnes herein he founde fault with him and not without cause For Epicurus amongest other his sayinges wrate in this maner That mans lyfe could not be pleasaunt if it were not ioyned with vertue he denyed that fortune was of any such force as to apall the courage of a wise man That the meane lyfe of the poore was better then the riche He denyed also that there was any wise man but the same was also happy Truely all those sayings are worthely spoken by him as Tully him selfe reporteth Now let vs see what Argument our Ciceroes Ape will shape out of all this And Luther sayth hee doth offer the same order perhappes exhorte his Auditory in his writyngs and Sermons to the same dueties of lyfe c. If Luther doe so Osorius he doth very well What then will you finde fault with this No but as Epicurus disputyng sometymes gloriously of vertue did notwithstandyng with his preceptes vtterly wipe away vertue euen with lyke craftie conueyaunce Luther doth subuerte and ouerthrowe all dueties of vertue and godlynesse Speake out Parrotte in what place doth Luther subuerte the dueties of vertue Where doth hee blotte out honesty and godly carefulnesse of good men May this be tollerable in you with slauÌ„ders and lyes to deface the good name of a man that neuer deserued it who is also dead to condemne his writynges after you haue geuen him a most cruell wounde to be so voyde of all reason as to be vnable to alledge one Title one place one sillable so much of iust accusation wherfore ye should so do Nor make your slaunderous reproches to carry any shew of truth let vs throughly peruse the begynnynges of Luthers doctrine the proceédyng and dayly increasinges therof let vs sift out the ende and the whole course and purporte of his proceédyng what doth he forth with plucke vp the rootes of vertue which abateth the Affiaunce of mans workes and ascribeth all our saluation to the onely bountie and mercy of God Which doth likewise affirme that the workes of the Saintes in this world if they be examined to the vttermost pricke are not able to counteruaile Gods wrath nor satisfie his iudgement but preacheth that of all partes they neéde mercy directyng vs in the meane whiles to the true marke of assured Confidence is this man to be coupled with Epicurus as though hee should be Authour of the ouerthrow of all honesty or rather shal he be adiudged a good Phisition of the Soule as one that doth minister wholesome medicine agaynst poysoned errours But you will inueigh to the contrary That if that maner of doctrine be admitted wherof Luther is Authour then will all studious care of pietie decay and hauocke will bee made of all godly endeuour and licentious liberty will be
punishement befalleth him sithence that first corruption bee suffreth it righteously and deseruedly For God is sayd to harden his hart whom hee will not mollifie so is hee sayd also to reiect him whom hee will not call and to blynd them whom he will not enlighten For whom hee hath Predestinate them hath he called c. 2. Moreouer after this withdrawyng of Grace this also followeth thereupon That God doth righteously minister occasioÌ„ of sinnyng in the wicked and reprobate and maruelously enclineth the hartes of men not onely to good but also to euill If we may beleue the testimony of Augustine Who in his booke De Libero Arbit Grat. alledgyng certeine testimonies out of the Apostle Where it is sayd that God gaue them vp to vyle affections Rom. 1. And agayne hee deliuered them vp vnto a reprobate mynde And in an other place Therfore God doth send them strong delusion that they should beleeue lyes By these and such lyke testimonies of Sacred Scriptures appeareth sufficiently that God doth worke in the hartes of men to bende encline and bow their willes whereunto him listeth either to good accordyng to the riches of his mercy or to wickednesse accordyng to their owne desertes to witte by his IudgemeÌ„t sometymes reuealed in deede and sometymes secret but the same alwayes most righteous For this must be holdeÌ„ for certeine and vnshaken in our myndes That there is no iniquitie with God And for this cause when ye read in holy writte that meÌ„ are deceaued or amazed or hardened in hart doubt hereof nothyng at all but that their sinnefull deseruyngs were such before as that they did well deserue the punishment that followeth c. The premisses considered and for as much as God doth vse the peruersenes of men will they nill they to these purposes endes whereunto he hath decreéd them may any maÌ„ be doubtfull hereof but that God ought not by any meanes be excluded from the disposing of sinnes 3. Besides this also whereas the holy Ghost misdoubteth not to speake in the Scriptures after this vsuall phrase of speach to witte That God doth harden mens hartes doth deliuer vp into reprobate myndes doth dazell with blyndnesse doth make eares deafe doth lead into error and such like How shall we say that sinnes doe happen now without God Albeit neither doe we say that God is therefore properly and simply the cause of wickednesse whenas we are of our selues more then enough the true naturall cause of wickednesse Be it therfore that the will of maÌ„ is the cause of sinne but seyng this will must of Necessitie be subiect to the will of God and be directed by the same surely it may not be lawfull to exclude God from the direction and disposition of sinnes If Osorius shall thinke him selfe not yet fully satisfied with this auÌ„swere he may be resolued agayne if he will with this That the whole cause of sinne is resiaunt in man him selfe and in his corrupt will but the cause wherfore sinne doth become sinne must be ascribed to Gods good ordinaunce in the one wherof is sinne and the punishment for sinne as Augustine maketh mention Out of the other affections be ordeyned that such affectioâ—s as be may be wicked which affections notwithstandyng are not in the guidyng cause it selfe but are by hym guided to some good purpose end of which doctrine let vs heare what August doth him selfe testifie professe It is out of all controuersie sayth he That God doth well euen in suffering all things whatsoeuer yea euen in the thynges that be wickedly done for eueÌ„ those he suffereth to be done not without his most iust Iudgement now whatsoeuer is iust the same is good surely Therfore albeit the thynges that are wicked in this respect that they are wicked be not good yet that not onely good be but euill also is neuertheles good For if it were not good that wickednes should be surely the almightie goodnes it selfe would by no meanes permitte it to be done who without doubt can as easely not permit the thynges that he will not as he caÌ„ easily do the things that be done If we do not firmely beleue this the grouÌ„dworke of our faith wherein we do coÌ„fesse that we do beleue in God the Father almighty is in great hassard For God is not called omnipoteÌ„t for any other cause in very deede but bycause he is able to do what he will the operatioÌ„ of whose Deuine will the will of no creature caÌ„ hinder or preiudice by any meanes at all c. This much Augustine And bycause I will not be tedious I argue vpon Augustines wordes in this wise Euery good thyng doth proceede from God as from the Authour and guider therof But it is good that wickednesse be Ergo God is the Author and directer that wickednesse commeth to passe But here some Iulian of Pelagius sect with him our Portingall Prelate Osorius will brawle and cauill That those deédes of wickednesse are committed through the sufferaunce of God forsakyng them and not by his omnipotent power workyng in theÌ„ meanyng hereby I am sure That God doth permit wicked thynges to be done in deéde but by his power forceth no man to doe wickedly Agaynst such persones Augustine doth mightly oppose hym selfe euen to their teéche prouyng those thynges to be done by Gods power rather then by his SufferauÌ„ce and for more credite voucheth a place of S. Paule Who knittyng those two together to witte Sufferaunce and Power writeth after this maner What and if God willyng to shewe his wrath and to make his power knowen did suffer with long patience the vessels of his wrath prepared to destruction c. Rom. 9. Afterwardes produceth many examples reasons taken out here and there of the Propheticall Scriptures to make good his Assertion Achab was Deliued ouer to geue credite to the lyeng mouthes of the false Prophetes First in that he beleéued a lye you perceaue that he sinned Moreouer in that he was geuen ouer not without cause you conceaue the punishment of sinne I demaund of you now by whom hee was geuen ouer you will aunswere of Sathan neither will I deny it though it seéme rather that he was deceaued by him then deliuered ouer But goe to Who did send Sathan but he which sayd Go forth and doe so vnlesse Osorius do suppose that to send forth and to suffer be all one which besides him no man els will say I suppose By like Iudgement of God Roboam is sayd to be driuen to harken to sinister Counsell bycause he should refuse the counsell of the Elders And from wheÌ„ce came this I pray you but from him of whom it is written in holy writte For it was the ordinance of the Lord that he might performe his saying which he speake by the mouth of his Prophet 1. Kynges 15.12 The lyke must iudged of Amasias who had not fallen into that perill if he
before committed but Purpose concerneth thyngs to come preuenteth them Agayne if we must speake after the proper phrase of speache whatsoeuer is done by Iudgement must neédes be cōfessed to be righteously done according to deserte not accordyng to Grace But whereas the Election Predestinatiō of God which I think Osor. would gladly expresse by this word Purpose for this word Predestinatiō he dare scarse meddle withall as not worthy the finesse of a Ciceronian proceédeth from grace and not from workes by what meanes may any sentence be geuen vpon workes that were neuer done or how will Osorius say that Election commeth by Iudgement geuen vpon workes which Paule affirmeth to be ascribed to Grace freé mercy onely all merite of workes beyng excluded Hee sayth that in the euerlasting counsell of God all things which are which haue bene and which shal be are all as if they were presently in the sight of God so that in executing his iudgement he needeth not to regard the thinges thēselues I do confesse that all thinges whatsoeuer are be open and present to the foresight of God as if they were presently and openly done but what will Osorius conclude hereof vnto vs forsooth he doth conclude hereupon that God hath already determined according to the diuersitie of mens actions foreseéne by him before after this manner To witte That whome God doth foresee will cōtemptuously despise his benefites those he hath excluded from Paradise contrariwise whom God doth foreknow will behaue themselues in this lyfe dutifully and vertuously those he hath mercifully chosen to euerlasting lyfe as worthy of his mercy To impugne this crafty cauillacion I perceaue I shal be pestered not with Osorius alone but with Pelagius and with the whole troupe of the Pelagians for this hereticall schoole chattereth not vpon anye one matter more then in maynteining this one heresie But Paule alone shall suffice at this present to refell all the rable of them The force of the Argument tendeth to this ende at the last The wonderfull quicksited mynd of God did throughly perceaue euen from the beginning what manner of lyfe euery person would leade as well as if the view thereof had bene layed presently open before him Ergo Gods purpose was applyed according to the proportion of euery mans workes and life forseene of God before to choose the good to saluation and to iudge the wicked to damnation This argument is altogether wicked and tending altogether to Pelagianisme And the conclusion meerely opposite to the doctrine of S. Paule For if the difference of eternall election reiection do depend vpon workes foreseéne before Then doth the Apostle Paule lye who affirmeth that election is of Grace not of Workes Rom. 11. and agayne in the 9. Chapter of the same Epistle That the purpose of God might remayne according to election not of workes but of him that calleth What and shameth not Osorius to affirme that which the Apostle doth deny If it were expedient for me to ruffle Rhetorically agayne with a Rhetoriciane You seé Osorius howe great and howe champaine a plaine lyeth open for me to triumph vpon you and such crauēs as you are with lyke force in farre more weighty matter What tragicall exclamations could I bray out here what quartaine feuers what outrages frensies madnes dronkennes impieties impudencies yea what whole Cartloades full of raylinges and reproches frequented by you and pretely pyked out of your Cicero could I now throw back agayne into your teeth and spitt euen into your owne face But away with these madd outragies of rayling and this cāckred botch of cursed speakyng worthy to bee rooted out not of mens maners onely but to be razed out of the writinges bookes also of christians the contagious custome wherof being frequented by you to the noysome example of the worlde I do verily thinke vnseemely for the dignity whereunto you are aduaunced neyther would I wish any man to enure himself vnto the like after your example namely in the debating of so sacred a cause where the controuersie tendeth not to the reuēgement of iniury but to the discouery of the truth where skirmishe must be mayntayned and conquest purchased by prowesse of knowledge and Gods sacred scriptures and not by outrage of rayling And therefore to returne our treatise to the right tracke of the Scriptures leauing all bypathes aside the Apostle doth deny that election springeth out of workes What aunswere you to the Apostle Osorius you will vouch that old rotten ragge worne out to the hard stumps by your schoolemen to witte that the workes that were foreseene are the cause of predestination not those whiche are done but which are to be done for so doe the schoolemen expound and distinguishe it but this will be proued many wayes both friuolous and false by sundry reasons First if this be true which you did earst confesse and whiche Pighius doth euery where inculcate that of all thinges whatsoeuer nothing is to come or past but is as it were present in the sight of God Agayn if there be no diuersitie of times with God because his knowledge comprehendeth as you say all thinges past present and to come as though they were present in view how can hys election or reiection spring out of workes then that are yet to be done If they bee present in what sence call you them to be done in after tyme but if they be to come and to bee done in after tyme how call you them present or how doe these thinges agree together that there is nothing to come in respect of the foreknowledge of God and yet that election must be beleued to issue frō out the foreknowledge of works to come 2. Agayne in what respect soeuer these workes are taken whether in respect of God or of men which your schoolemen do distinguishe into works done and works to be done they vauntage thē selues nothyng by this distinction but that the question will continue as intricate as at the first For whereas all good workes which either men worke or shall worke do proceéde frō God the question reboundeth backe agayne frō whence it came first to witte Why God accordyng to the same purpose should geue good workes more to one then to an other if the performaunce hereof did arise of foreseéne workes and not rather of the determined will of him that calleth whiche is not limited by any conditions of workyng 3. Whereas the Scripture doth manifestly declare that we are created elected to good workes it appeareth therfore that good workes are the effectes of Predestination But the effectes cānot be the cause of that wherof they were the effectes Ergo workes can not be the cause of Predestination But if they alledge that not workes but the foreknowledge of workes in the purpose of God be the cause out of the which the Grace of Election ensueth and is gouerned surely neither can this
seély flock of Christ when as Paule breathed out threatninges and slaughters no man will deny but these were haynous horrible factes of all which notwithstanding no one wanted the singuler counsell of God and hys especiall prouidence whereupon it could not possible be otherwise but that the thinges which he had determined before should so come to passe in the ende For neyther doth enter into mans thought any thing that God doth not will before that mā shoulde will neither doth mans will purpose any thinge which is not both foreseéne and foreordained of God What thē shall we therefore accuse God as Author of the wickednesse of the vngodly because these thinges chaunce of Necessitie which God hath purposed shall come to passe and can by no meanes be altered For so seemeth Osori to conclude hys argument But I argue agaynst hym in this wise and with two reasons First If this preordinaunce of God whereof I speake do bryng such a Necessitie of externall coaction vppon men as Osorius doth speake of as that no man could sinne voluntaryly but cōpelled thereunto by God it might not seeme altogether perhaps from the purpose to impute the fault thereof to God But what is he now or what mā hath euer bene so horribly wicked at any time who in performing his treacherous deuises can say that he was constrayned agaynst hys will to commit the facte that he would not haue done being neyther led thereunto of any motion of him selfe nor blynded with any hys owne affections Moreouer although the will of God doth work together with mans will or as Augustine liked rather to speake whether God do worke in the hartes of men to apply their willes whervnto it pleaseth hym eyther to godlines for hys good mercies sake or to wickednes and vyce according to their owne deseruinges or whether man be afflicted with any crosse of persequution yet doth God bring all these to passe according to his own iust Iudgement sometimes open and manifest but alwayes most righteous for what sitteth more with iustice thē to punish offenders then to tame and suppresse the outragious pryde of rebellious Nature But forasmuch as all the workes of GOD are directed chiefly as to one ende from whence then may man take a more large occasion to magnifie and extoll the Iustice of God then out of hys owne works And therefore though weé confesse that it is one selfe work which is wrought by God and by man yet because in the selfe same worke God worketh by an other way and to an other ende Namely putting in vre the worke of hys Iustice and because men do the workes of pryde of Luste of wrath and of couetousnes hereupon it commeth to passe that sinne is worthely imputed vnto them the will of God remayning alwayes righteous and good notwithstanding For this rule is to be holden alwayes vnshaken That all the works of God are wrought for the best So the fall of our first parent Adam the hardening of Pharaoes hart the treasō of Iudas the persequutiō of Paule tended to as good purpose as the perseueraunce of Noah in fayth The humblenes of Dauid Peters denyall of hys maister and the conuersion of Paule For what soeuer is wrought by God doth alwayes tourne to the glorifiing of hys power and magnifieng hys Iustice of hys Iustice because by sinne he doth punish sinne and that most righteously of hys power whē with hys mighty hand and onstretched arme he doth aduaunce and deliuer them for his wonderfull mercies sake and of hys free liberalitie it pleaseth hym to vouchsaue But Osorius is a wylypye and will not be destitute of a starting hoale but will seéke to escape through some chynk or moushoole And because he doth perceaue that Gods power cānot be vtterly sequestred from the Actions of men he like an olde tryed shifter will collour the matter and applye the workes of God which we haue rehearsed to Gods foreknowledge For this is the subtill distinction whereunto our aduersaryes flee for their defence They say that no prouidence of God that may enduce any Necessitie doth go before to cause men to sinne Onely that God did foreknow that they would so do that they were such in deed not for that God did foreknow that they would be such but rather that he did therefore foreknowe that they should be such through their own inclination Where the Aduersaryes make mencion of the foreknoweledge of God they doe not altogether lye in this poynte For it is most true that the Maiestye of God doth behold as it were with present view all thinges that are haue bene and shal be as though they were present in hys eye but herein they go amisse where they practize to establish the foreknowledge and permission of God so firmely that they would haue hys vnchaungeable prouidence seuered from the same which cannot possibly be by any meanes for what may a man thinke if God doe foreknow and permitte wickednes to raigne which he is not able to turne away where is then hys power if he be able and will not where is then his mercy what father is so hard harted that seéing his childe ready to receaue some harme will not call him from the perill if he may But say they he that doth wickedly he also that doth consent thereunto are both in one predicament Therfore as it is an absurde thing not to confesse God to be omnipotent or that any thing is done that he cannot do so is that as false also to say that any thing with God will not is permitted wtout hys knowledge and agaynst hys will For howe shall we conceaue that God doth permitte any thing to be done but because hys will is that it shall so be done whereupon we may frame an argument agaynst those persones who reiecting the necessary doctrine of predestination flee onely to Gods Permission on this wise If God do permitte sinne that doth he eyther with hys will or agaynst hys will But he doth not permitte it agaynst hys will for there can nothing be done agaynst the will of God Then followeth it that God doth willingly permitte sinne and will not stay nor hinder it Which beyng graunted their obiection hath a dubble error First because they take away sinne altogether from the will of God casting the same wholy bpon hys Permission Next because they do feare least Gods Iustice should be blemished beyng of this opinion To witte if God do worke in the hartes of the wicked when they do sinne Then must it be taken for confessed that the cause of sinne shal be forthwith imputed to God and withall that men shall hereof take iust occasion to excuse thē selues Both which are easily confuted For first of all whereas it is sayd that GOD worketh in the hartes of men to encline their willes whereunto it pleaseth hym eyther when he doth thrust vpō men outward calamities as straunge diseases cruell Warres flames of
the Gospel a visitour as he reporteth of him selfe and an Inquisitour of heretiques O pleasaūt parasites O delicate deuises Tully hath a pretie sentēce worthy to be noted in this place which sayth That hee can not but wonder to ése how two Southsayers talkyng together can refrayne frō open laughter when they make mentiō of their blind superstitious opinions Euen so do I much marueile truely how you two worshipfull Prelates cā keépe your countenaunces when you meéte together vsing such fonde dotyng ceremonies touchyng the reiectyng of our bookes When I name you I comprehend you two alone your selfe and your sweéte brother Emanuell of the rest bicause I know no certeintie I conceaue frendly as reason requireth After this superstitious nycetie you begyn to declare the causes that moued you to inueigh against my poore defence And here you note if especiall causes wherof the one you assigne to the holynesse of Religion which beyng defiled by me you must of necessitie purifie agayne As though I accused your Religion and did not rather defend our owne or as though I moued this cōtrouersie first and not rather prouoked by you did vndertake the defence of my coūtrey agaynst your malicious snarling except perhaps ye be of opinion that a Porting all borne may with greater reason cauil agaynst Englād then an English man stād to succour the same But we will see hereafter whereunto this tendeth Your second cause you say proceéded of dutiefull charitie that so you might depraue me for some lacke of modestie in that to your iudgement my writinges doe represent I know not what arrogancie so that I seeme to you in some places to ouer reache so much as standyng still amased in myne owne cōceite I seéme to gape after my frendes cōmendations This is a new kinde of charitie truely with such viperous rācour of wordes to charge your Christiā brother of that horrible crime of arrogancie whom you neuer saw nor knew S. Paule doth detest this charitie pronouncyng that man inexcusable whiche iudgeth an other And therfore redreth a reason Bicause saith he in that he iudgeth an other he cōdemneth him selfe In this therfore Osorius being hym selfe a most vayne arrogant mā bewrayeth his owne beastly canckred stomacke vpbraydyng hawtines to Haddō especially sithēce the demeanour of Haddon by the testimonie I trust of such as doe know him doth as farre differre from all hawtines as the poysoned Pamphlet of Osorius is voyde of all ciuilitie shamefastnesse But what shall I say to this babler who is so captious that he will not admit one good word of my mouth For hee vtterly disdayneth the prayses that I do geue hym as where I denounce him to be artificiall in his wordes and phrases hee thinketh I mocke him or els that I doe so commende his vtteraunce in stile as otherwise I doe discommend him for lacke of iudgement and knowledge You are to to nyce Osorius to prye so narrowly into your own prayses And yet to cōfesse the truth simply you are not to be reprehended for it For thus I iudged at the first and euen the same I iudge of you still that you are plentifully flowyng in very apt wordes but are so drowned in them that you haue very slender or no vnderstandyng at all in science Neither shall I neéde any long search to discouer the same for in your gallant writyng euen at hand is there a very exquisite discourse vpon this worde Priuate the whiche I will so expresse by peéce meale that all the world may discerne how much skill and wit is in Osorius First you repeate my wordes in the whiche I seéme to reprehend your saweynesse that beyng a Priuate man a meére straunger to our common wealth so farre distaunt by land and sea would yet so malapertly write to the Queénes Maiestie And forthwith you moue a deépe questiō and desire to know what I thought this word Priuate might signifie There is no Carter but knoweth it and you if you doubt therof must be sent to women and childrē to schoole Then you demaūd whether it be a word of reproche As though you do at any time doubt hereof wherein you doe erre very childishly For this name Priuate doth alwayes signifie a difference in degreé but is neuer named by way of Reproche But you are not yet contented and require to be taught farther whether all persons that be not Maisters of Requestes ought to be restrained from their Princes presence Whom euer heard you say so And how came this into your braynes vayne Tritler As it seémely for an old mā yea and a bishop to daunce thus in a net And doth Osorius so openly shewe him selfe so vnskilfull in all mēs sight hearyng But at the last you come to the pricke that seémeth most to rubbe you on the gal Ye do vpbraide me say you with this name Priuate as though ye iudged it a word of Reproche This is your owne dreame Osorius very fitte for so rotten a mazer Did I name you to be a Priuate mā And what if I did were you not so in deéde Truly all mē knew this to bee true For when you wrote your letters to the Queénes Maiestie you had not yet purchased the dignitie of a Byshop as you are now yea long time after the receipt of your famous Epistle it was reported that you were a bishop elect But I did obiect this name Priuate as in Reproche ye say how I pray you whē as this name Priuate is in no respect contuinelious nay rather is many tymes applyed as your selfe doe know to most honest and honorable Personages That you may therfore know playnly what my meanyng was therein and withall learne some witte of me By this word Priuate I had respect to your estate onely as whē being a Priuate person scarse peépyng out of your cowle and not yet credited with administration of any publicke functiō it was nothing sitting for your personage to be an entermedler in fore in Princes causes such especially as were already established and most firmely ratified by expresse Edict and agreable cōsent of all Estates meanyng hereby to call you home from your vnaduised rashnes nothing seémely for your degreé This was my purpose This I thought and by this meanes of frendly aduise I supposed you would the better bee reclaymed to some modestie beyng otherwise vndiscreét by nature And yet ye make no end of your triflyng for immediatly you proceéde on this wise As though you would say that I came of some clownes race and fostered in some base Villadge and neuer beheld any kyng in the face and therefore had committed some haynous offence worthy of punishmēt that durst presume to write to Queene Elizabeth whom for the honor due to Princely Maiestie I alwayes name Gracious Are ye not ashamed of so many lyes couched into one sentence As though I tooke any exception to your birth or parentage or that I could be ignoraunt
els hereby but to be esteémed the most vnciuil person of all mē that cā finde in your hart to rēder so churlish a requitall for such gay benefites But I do not condēne all England say you I doe onely confute the errours of some whiche haue brought this new Religion into England You name England by generall wordes once twise thrise you barcke against the whole state of our religiō you accuse all the lawes made touchyng the same you doe violently rend in peéces our whole Ecclesiastical gouernement with most vnshamefast cauillatiō you inueigh against the honest conuersatiō of our maners with most outragious slaunders And yet to untwyne your selfe out of this manifest flame of cancred malice you would seéme to charge but a few whom you call seditious Schismatiques to their countrey Not so my good Lord you may not so escape England vnderstandeth the Latine toūg very well is also of a ripe iudgement and is myndfull what her selfe hath done and cā not forget how much and how greuously you haue diffamed her nor will not admit this your painted satisfaction in threé wordes especially beyng manifestly false when she throughly cōsidereth the ouerlauish backbytinges of the rest of your laboursome volume And whereas you persuade your selfe to haue iust cause of quarell bycause you write in the behalfe of Religion herein truly you bewray your ignoraūce euen as in all the rest of your doynges For albeit you be appointed a Sphepheard ouer the sheepe of Siluan in Portingall you may not therefore sheare the fliece frō English and foreine sheépe vnlesse you had bene called thereunto by lawfull authoritie vnlesse Paule paraduenture did appoint ouer euery congregation seuerall pastours in vayne especially when as the same Paul doth charge euery of vs with our vocation I vse here his own wordes and commaundeth vs to abyde in the same As for you Syr I beseéch you who hath called you vnto vs or how will you preach vnto vs beyng not sent for I doe here gladly vse the simple wordes of the Scriptures Your burnyng charitie I trow is so whote that if your bold bragges may be beleéued you will shed your bloud in the defence of Religiō Be not to bold Bayard It is an easie matter Osorius to despise a tempest in a quiet calme but if any perillous flaw shall happen the very sounde therof I feare me will make our glorious Thraso eftsoones to thrust his head in a mousehole But if you bee of such inuincible courage stand to your tackle at home and as neéde shall require hasarde your lyfe for your owne sheépe We haue pastours of our own and seuerall Seés we neéde no raungyng Prelate out of Protingall Afterwardes you beleue that I can not shew you how that you enforce your writyng of malice rancour and greedy lust to cauil bicause as you propes you were hereunto moued of very loue onely pure denotiō Truely if you may be a witnesse in your owne cause you will easely persuade what you list But if it be lawfull to vrge your owne Epistle agaynst you as reason requireth there is nothyng more easie then to shew by euident demōstration your incredible despight viperous hatred agaynst our Preachers Where euery sentence doth swarme with manifest stinges of Scorpion like venime At the last you come downe nearer to the flat accusation it selfe the which bycause I perceaued so farced with pestilent poyson and creépyng for couert into the Queénes highnes presence I tooke it in very ill part that my coūtrey was so cruelly and wickedly accused and slaūdered by you wherfore I desired to haue the causes set down the persons named the tymes noted and all circumstaunces to bee described that we might haue some sure grounde to begyn our controuersie vpon Here our clamorous titiuiller taketh occasiō to scorne my to to foreward diligence beyng him selfe most ridiculous in confounding all thinges making mingle mangle of all thinges distributyng nothyng into his partes openyng nothyng distinctly And beleueth forsooth that I came to late when Rethoricke was a dealing Surely my Lord you are come tyme enough to the dole For in this controuersie which is now betwixt vs I doubt not but I shal seare you with so good a whote yron that the very Printe therof shall remaine whiles the world doth endure as a perpetuall testimonie of your grosse ignoraunce Yet foreward proceédeth his worshypfull Maistershyp and deépely debateth vpon old rules and principles of schooles and at the last cōcludeth very grauely that in criminall and iudiciall causes due order of circumstaunces ought to be obserued But that his Epistle is of an other hewe altogether of the perswadyng kinde What do I heare is not your raylyng backbityng Epistle a most slaunderous accusation and execrable Inuectiue No you say for the Iudge and the place of Iudgement wāted and there was no trespassour somonned Ueryly you are a very vntoward scholer that haue so soone forgottē the lesson your Maister taught you especially beyng beaten into you with so many expresse examples A good fellowship Syr. What doth Cicero when hee declameth agaynst L. Piso and Gabinius doth he not accuse thē if you seéke for the Guildhall here and the offendours there was neither of them For the matter was determined in the Counsell Chamber amongest the Senatours And yet no man of any founde iudgement will deny that they were accused and that all circumtaūces of tyme and place were ripped vp against thē The same order is to be seéne in his second Phillip agaynst Anthonius and in the Inuectiue which he made agaynst Saluste Many like examples may be shewed but these beyng the Presidens of your Maisters shop chiefly will suffice to conuince you of Childishe ignoraunce But you affirme that your quarellsome Epistle lacketh no argument for that we yeld vnto all those haynous crimes which you throw out agaynst vs. It is vntrue we deny all in the same plight as you haue set them downe And for your own part if you had any sparcle of shame or honesty you would neuer haue defiled your paper with so manifest a lye You rush vpon me with a sharpe battry of wordes as though I did not perceiue what were comely nor could discerne what the cause doth require Those be yours Osorius your owne drousie dreames as I haue made manifest by your owne schoolemaister Tullie the same is also apparaunt enough by your own Epistle which I can vouche agaynst you for a most euident witnesse You say that you haue reckoned vp many monsters of Religion I confesse it in how much the number of them is the greater so much the more deadly haue you helped our pastours cōsidering none of them can be founde in England as your selfe seéme also somewhat to doubt for this your write If those monsters haue not inuaded England I do hartly reioyce in your commō wealthes behalfe and confesse my selfe to be in errour to thinke that your Ilād was
vexed with many such furies Do ye confesse at length wise wisard Wherfore then do you so expressely pronoūce in those wordes which I recited out of your Epistle That a certeine sauadge herde of all Swinish filthynes was crept into Englād So the first you diffame this noble Iland to be a sincke of horrible abominations euen to the Queénes Maiestie her selfe And afterwardes stand in a dumpe amazed how you may colorably pray pardon of so great a crime so maliciously conceaued Doth charitie teach you this is this seémely for a Byshop an old mā Is this the wisedome of Osorius that blameth lacke of discretion in others But you seéme not to be satisfied bycause with one worde I haue ouerthrowen all your cursed babling Why sufficeth not to be denied in one worde that is verified in one word You haue taken vpon you to accuse most spitefully maliciously which accusatiō if you be not able to iustifie you must yeld For it sufficeth the accused to deny who vnlesse he be cōuinced by good proofe ought to be acquired But I accuse no man say you before a Iudge what is it materiall who sit in iudgement The court of Christians doth stretch farre wyde in the whole world extendeth it selfe to all natiōs Ierome Osorius hath by his infamous Epistle cited England vnto this Consistory as guiltie and doth earnestly perswade that it is defiled with all maner of monstruous abominatiōs yea in the prefence of the Queénes Maiestie Do ye not accuse Osorius Do ye not here as much as in you lieth deface nay rather vtterly subuert the good estimation of this noble Iland Did ye lacke no arguments to furnish this your horrible enterprise or did ye beleue that your onely affirmatiue was of sufficient credite in so perillous pestiferous an exāple But you deny that I do perceaue how you haue displayed all things most euidently In deéde so I say if we will admit your own cauill for a witnes of your own cause for what should I els call it but a mere cauill Peruse your Epistle who litle and he shall finde my saying true I doe write vnto you that you conceaue of the doctrine of the Gospell which our Pastours on professe as a matter detestable abominable and dānable the Authours therof haynously wicked common barretiours subuertours of commō weales enemies of mankind These speaches you will not acknowledge to be yours but myne Nay in deéde these pernitious and pestilent wordes are your owne the whiche though I repeated in myne owne wordes yet the whole sentence of wordes is your owne though ye speake not the selfe same yet ye speake that which in effect is all one like a peruerse Sophister I did also disclose all your filthy rayling in so much that no kynde of ignominie no crime of haynous offence no spot of beastlynesse no sparke of impietie could almost be reckoned by but you had therewith defiled the doctrine of the Gospell and the professours of the same The selfe same slaunderous Inuectiue is extant abroad Iudge of it who will And yet as though you had played the proper Speareman therein and as though it sufficed not that this doggishe eloquence was ones throughly swallowed vp by me with toylesome irkesommes yet are you nothyng ashamed to barke the same agayne in our eares Truly it greéueth me to be encombred with such friuolous brauling But bycause this gallant pedler doth make so proude crakes of his braue wares let vs seé them sith it must neédes be so and note diligently what metall they be made of I sayd in that Epistle of myne quoth he that Nonnes cōsecrated vnto God were defiled with incestuous mariage I sayd that Saintes Images Crosses Crucifixes and many other godly monumentes were throwen downe from their places broken in peeces I sayd that the auncient Maiestie of Religion was subuerted in your Temples and other straūge orders supplied in the place Other thyngs I passe ouer and reserue them for place fitt for it You haue sayd Syr. You haue said in deéde or rather in that vnciuil cauilling Epistle you haue spurled out all those sixe hundred such like slaunderous reproches But let vs seé what substaunce any of them bringeth First in the vauntegarde you haue placed the Nonnes and those you say bene defiled with incestuous mariage We reply to the cōtrary and say that such virgines beyng bounde apprentices to gluttony idlenesse lust entred afterwardes into lawfull and honorable Matrimonie Next to the Standerd mayne battel you place Banuers Saints Images Crosses Crucifixes other holy monumētes those you say are throwen down and broken in peéces We way not so but we say that Ioals and such tromperies were by good aduise for great reason taken frō the gaze of Christiās eyes bycause they occupied the places of great perill of Idolatry In the rereward commeth foorth old raynebeaten bruysed souldiours which you name the old auncient maiestie of Religion and the same you say is supplanted in our Temples and other straūge orders supplied we on the other part do boldly pronounce that the auncient Religion is restored by vs and your new stinking superstitions worthely abolished And for proofe hereof aswell in these as in all the rest which you seéme to keépe in store for an other tyme we appeale to the testimonie of the most auncient primitiue Churche founded and established in the most blessed age of our Sauiour Iesus Christ and his Apostles which beyng of all partes absolutely pure and vndefiled did neuer acknowledge the durtie dregges of your filthy single life your superstitious Idolatries nor your cold naked mockeries of Sacramentes and Ceremonies But here you require of me to euery of them seuerall proofes I haue satisfied already euery point as much as was neédefull for so bluntish an aduersary Moreouer if the controuersie were debated before indifferent Iudges the onely authoritie of that sacred tyme in the which our Sauiour Iesus Christ lyued vpō earth and the next age wherein his Disciples preached would easely confounde and crushe in peéces all those scattered stinkyng maymed shadowes of your Religion Last of all if alleadgyng nothyng for my selfe I should onely deny your poysoned accusation This onely might suffice for all reasonable men vnlesse you make better demonstration of your assertion by more probable argumentes And therfore sithence you can not procure me as guiltie to confesse as you seé you must suborne other witnesses accordyng to your promise In the meane space you recite certeine wordes of myne which are these You exclame as much as you may heapyng a masse of foule words together which you seeme to haue hoorded vp for the same purpose to deface that your painted Religiō and cutte some throates whom no man doth know but you alone In this speach of myne you play the tall man at these wordes you hurle out your cancred stomacke obbraydyng me with dronkēnes
in discipline You accuse him also as a rayler agaynst Princes amongest whom you name the Emperour our famous Henry of worthy memory and George Duke of Saxone You do helye him in Caesar impudeÌ„tly for Luther did reuerence him most humbly In deéde he did mainteine the cause of the Gospell agaynst our kyng and somewhat sharpely confuted his Epistle written agaynst him at the first whom afterward beyng amended and reformed in doctrine hee embraced most louyngly and aduaunced with all kynde of honorable title LoÌ„g tyme he instructed George Duke of Saxone with most sweéte aduertisementes perswaded him called vpon hym with incessaunt prayers and Supplications But after the Duke had hard harted him selfe and waxed insolently obstinate in all thynges nor would make any ende of spoyling and turmoyling Gods people Lurther beholdyng the lamentable ruine of his Christian brethren round about him did bitterly inueighe agaynst that trayterous outrage of Duke George induced thereunto by the example of the holy Prophets agaynst the Princes of Iuda â— and of Iesu Christ our Sauior agaynst Herode the Tetrarche At the last you conclude That all Luthers preachyngs did tende to prouoke the people to sedition O shamelesse touÌ„g How would you delude vs if no man had read Luthers bookes but your selfe how would you abuse our age in heapyng lyes vpon lyes if we had no witnesse agaynst you when as Luther left behynde him as many pledges of Christian humilitie as he wrote bookes No man more constantly mainteined the authoritie of Magistrates no maÌ„ did more often inculcate more plentyfully preach more vehemently Imprinte more earnestly exact Christian obedience then he did His writyngs are extaunt liuely and florishyng and will with a whole searyng yron of detractioÌ„ marke you for a backbiter to your euerlasting reproch That was a great and manifest errour that I made but here ensueth a greater farre more horrible agaynst renowmed Princes notable common weales yea in matters of high treason by the which as by degreés this reuerend Prelase aduaunceth his shamelesse and execrable vanitie so much that all men may iudge him not onely to haue forgotten all truth and modestie but also vtterly abandoned the same This matter hee affirmeth to be most apparaunt that Lewes kyng of Hungarie and a great multitude of Christians were slayne in battell through the folly and wickednes of Luther and that hereof ensued the Conquest of Buda by the Turkishe Emperour O venemous toung to bee detested of all men that haue any loue of the truth or regard of humanitie Can you doubt or be ignoraunt of this most peruerse dissembler that this lamentable death of the king and the losse of Buda came by the onely outragious vnmeasurable rashnes of that cowled prelate Tomorraeus Archb. of Tholosse Which had so bewitched the people with hautie arrogaunt preachyng that they rushed out headlong with a small and weake handfull agaynst an huge hoste and inuincible power of Solyman in so much that after the Conquest Solyman him selfe could not keépe countaunce but smilingly scorned the insolencie of the Hungarians which had so vnaduisedly yelded into his hands their kyng to be slayne their kyngdome to be spoyled Is not this true do ye not know it perfectly Doth not Paulus Iouius your chief a counsell report this story parcell meale yea euery title therof was euer any man besides you so franticke as to charge Luther therewith The place it selfe doth conuince you wherein at that tyme scarse any Lutheran had set any footyng The tyme doth confute you for Luthers name was as yet scarsely knowen The circumstaunces of the History doe condemne you whiche doe cry out agaynst that Monkishe Archbyshop of Tholosse for that pityfull losse lamentable effusion of Christian bloud as I haue declared before out of Paulus Iouius But it is no maruell if hee can so franckely coyne a lye agaynst a Region so farre distant from vs when as hee spareth not to presse vpon vs Englishmen here in English with a most exectable lye For hee affirmeth that Edward the sixt our Royall kyng of famous memory was haynously poysoned in his Childhode O monstruous beast can you beyng a Portingall borne so impudently diffame our Region with the horrible crime without all likely or probable proofe now that sweÌ„tie yeares he spent and gone when as no sober or discreét English man did euer conceaue any such thought in his mynde The Phisitians reported that he dyed of a consumption The same was affirmed by the Groomes of his priuy Chamber whiche did keépe coÌ„tinuall watch with the sicke kyng All his subiectes did beleue it for a confessed truth Neither could your slaunderous Fable haue bene blowen abroad but amongest tattlyng women foolishe children and such malicious English loselles like vnto you nor yet could this rotten vnfauorie cauill haue had any discreét Authour had it not bene whispered into that Asse head of Osorius He coupleth hereunto Caesar who he saith was betrayed and destroyed by treason Truely Caesar did not onely pursue but also vanquishe the Germaines chasing them in Germanie with a great army of Spanish and Italian souldiours The which ouerthrow the Germaines shooke of as well as they might But the last warres raysed by Maurice what they purported and what successe they tooke I will passe ouer nor will blame in the dead whom I confesse a victorious Emperour when hee lyued He ioyneth Queene Mary a Princesse that raigned very lately and her also auoweth to haue bene destroyed with poyson Who euer beleéued or reported this but you railyng Scorpion All the English Nation and all other StrauÌ„gers that were then in England will manifestly reproue condemne this your malicious and shamelesse impudencie There raunged at that tyme a certeine outragious burnyng feauer which infected all the estates in the Realme and amoÌ„gest the rest shortned the liues of the richest and most honorable personages at what tyme Queéne Mary in many things most commendable after a few monethes dyed of the same disease In like maner Cardinall Poole an excellent learned maÌ„ beyng sicke of a quartan departed this world the same tyme. You demaunde of meâ—ery malaâ—ertly as if the matter were manifest and confessed whether I vnderstode any thyng of that conspiracie wherewith most wicked men practized the destruction of Queene Mary and Cardinall Poole Ueryly I do simply confesse that there was neuer any such matter spoken writteÌ„ fayned or surmised vnlesse by some such madde dogges as your selfe which hauyng els nothyng to snarle at do barcke and houle at the cloudes moone and starres and many tymes at their owne shadowes You tell vs a tale of some flying vapours and drousie dreames Osorius imagined in that rotten mazer of yours when you clatter out such matters whereof neither I or any man els euer heard or could heare one word except he might chaunceably light vpoÌ„ some Synon of Osorius trayning that could with most
bolster out uphold this sowsie ragged rabble with stout countenauÌ„ce But it will not be you come all to late And your labour is all lost It was not without reason that I noted haw this huge heapes of Pictures were the offcombe of that vnsauory schoolekitchen Neither did I erre in notyng the certeine limitation of their whelpyng no more can you cease from your old cankred custome of cauilling scarse one minute of an houre You flée ouer to your Councell of Nice as to an inuincible bulwarke as though what soeuer a Councell doth thrust vpon vs ought to be holden of vs for inuiolable In déede your filthy vnmaryed life crawled first into the Churche after this maner So also your friuolous and Sophisticall Transubstantiation was commaunded in the begynnyng But let vs scanne this Deuine Decrée of the Councell touchyng Images which was vttered in that second Nicene CouÌ„cell vnder these wordes Images ought to be worshipped as reuereÌ„tly as God is worshipped But you will not admit this to be true I trow when as els where you are of opinion that Images and Pictures remaine to be viewed onely all worship set apart wherein neuertheles you disagrée in your selfe also For in the same place you tell vs a tale of Robinhoode alledgyng miracles withall to witte that bloud hath bene séene to gush out of Images perdy and certeine uertue of healyng hath issued froÌ„ theÌ„ And that for this cause they ought to be worshypped Hereby meanyng to proue both of the whiche a litle earst you admitted neither What grossenesse is this Osorius what ouersight what forgetfulnesse of your selfe and your owne wordes you reporte that Eusychius did behold the Images of the Apostles exquisitely paynted What hereof This was but a commendation of Paynters my good Osorius and not a prayse of Pictures Yet you notwithstaÌ„dyng as though you had made a fayre speake do affirme that it is without all coÌ„trouersie that Images were in the Apostles tyme. How or from whence doe you persuade this Osorius is this a good Argument to proue that Images were uisited in the Apostles tyme bycause without comptrollement you tell vs a smoath tale of Thomas of Inde of Eusebius and of Pope Siluester Do ye so conclude my Lord beyng an old man a Priest and a Byshop Semblable and lyke drousinesse is in you where you charge me that I did accuse your Scholemen to be the first founders of Images This is false I doe not charge them withall but I will abyde by this that this uenemous doctrine was wonderfull encreased with the corruption of this poysoned Schoole â—y wordes are as followeth When true Religion began to decay Images crept into the Churche by title and litle and that former earnest desire of pure doctrine waxed cold in mens hartes and that bastard and deformed superstitious Schoole Diuinitie vaunted it selfe at the length and immediatly all places were patched vppe with Images c. Now speake Parrotte of Portingall I pray you Did I not orderly enough distinguish the seasons of tymes By litle and litle crept Images in yea long before the péepyng of Schoolemen abroad but beyng settled in their stalles all places were stuffed with Pictures You sée their Originall before Schoolemen but the increasinges thereof in the chief reigne and sway of that brotherhoode And yet ye dare impudently affirme that I named Schoolemen to bee the very wellsprynges of Pictures And at length ye crye out What dulnesse what negligeÌ„ce when as I might more iustly haue exclaimed O forgetfull dottard O rayling scolde After that you haue long turmoyled your selfe in this gulfe sometymes treatyng of Pictures sometymes inducyng them as representations of holy personages you packe vp your trunckes and returne to your former course of exhortation wherein you persuade that bycause Images be sauory Instrumentes to enforme the vnlettered people therefore they ought bee reserued to that vse But learned and godly men will rather say that Images are daungerous Rockes of manifest Idolatry And as I will not much gaynesay that discréete men and well exercized in the Scriptures may haue in their Closettes without any perill the Image of the Crucifixe so doe I boldly pronounce that without great daunger of Idolatry Images can not be placed in Churches to the uiewe of the rude people beyng naturally incliuable to all superstition And therefore it is most necessary to abandone Images out of Churches and to instruct the people in the holy Scriptures the often hearyng and readyng wherof will make the diligent and uertuous followers to finde no want of any such paynted bables Sathan carying our Lord and Sauiour Iesus into the wildernesse willed him to fall downe and worshyp him Our Lord Iesu despising and rebukyng him sayd It is written Thou shalt worshippe the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serue Ueryly when I ponder the Maiestie of these wordes throughly in my mynde and the dayly practizes of your Churches wherein so perillous and euident tokens of Image worshyp and knéelyng to Pictures is frequented my very hart panteth and trembleth within me to thinke how this expresse commaundement of God the Father and of our Lord Iesus Christ séemeth vtterly buried in obliuion with you But runne on sith it so pleaseth you and scorche your soules in the flames of Idolatry we beyng terrified with the Deuine Oracles of the sacred Scriptures haue vtterly subuerted Images and Pictures and exiled them from our Churches In like maner we passe ouer the Saintes in our prayers make intercession onely vnto God the Father and our Lord and Sauiour Iesu Christ and vpon them do we call onely for succour Unto whom with the holy Ghost we do confesse and professe all glory all honour all power euerlastyng eternitie to be due And to confirme this our confession to bee most pure and true the testimonies of eche Testament are plentyfull wherein we doe also follow the manifold examples of the Patriarches Apostles and Martyrs As for you there is nothyng vttered of your part sauoryng of the auncient pure founteine of the primitiue Church either in coÌ„uersation of life or profession in Religion We haue heard the voyce of our Lord Iesu Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serue Certes if the onely Maiestie of God must be worshipped alone the worshipping of saintes ought in no case to be admitted theÌ„ The Euangelist Iohn begaÌ„ to worship the Angell but the Angell withstood him yelded the reason I am quoth he thy fellow seruant If we haue Angels our fellow seruaunts Osor. surely we haue no Saints to be our Aduocates There is but one Aduocate betwixt God and man The God and man Christ Iesu. If Saintes make no intercession for vs then to worship them is but vayne Semblably take worshyp away to what purpose serue Images For to gaze vpoÌ„ them auayleth litle Let the people heare the Scriptures Let them be busied therein There is Christ
brawlyng toung with the chaynes of holy Scriptres and tame your waywardnes Now therfore albeit God hath called him hence vnto him selfe let vs imagine that hee were alyue and in fewe wordes confutyng your cursed declamation after this maner First of all how may I take this reuerend Prelate that you beyng an old man a Deuine and a Byshop at the first choppe should call me most wicked man whereas I am not knowen vnto you nor haue euer bene sene o◠you nor haue deserued any euill of you Is this the brotherly loue which Christ requireth of his Disciples Is this the mildnesse and modestie of a Byshop wherof Paule maketh mention I haue written I confesse it haue spoken in the commō Argument of Religiō as seémed good vnto me I haue not offēded you in any thyng neither haue I had any disputation with you touchyng matters of Religion neither was any contention betwixt vs at any tyme. Wherfore then doe you storme agaynst me so vnciuilie why do ye call me most wicked which can not duely charge me with any wickednes at all But be it that your maners are so naturally of an euill disposed inclination that ye can not choose but oppresse your brother with infamous reproches whom of duetie you ought gently haue admonished beyng in errour why do ye haynously offende in the cause whiche you haue vndertakē that you must neédes stampe out so manifest a lye in the very begynnyng for ye write that the Sacrament of Euchariste is defaced defiled peruerted by me This is false and you herein are iniurious and slaunderous I call to witnes myne owne bookes let them be brought forth perused it shall euidently appeare that I haue beautified this excellent Sacrament with most honorable titles haue spoken therof alwayes with greatest reuerence But whereas you demaunde of me and my maisters with what face we durst attempt so execrable a fact contrary to so many former ages and where you also demaūde if so many Martyrs and so many Religious men haue strayed from the truth and we onely haue seéne the truth Truely I cā not coniecture what Maisters what Martyrs and what Religious men you doe meane Neither doe I presume any thyng vpon my selfe nor do derogate from any other man neither cā I iudge you to be sober enough which in matter of nothyng cā gush out such a Sea of idle words But you are come somwhat nearer the matter and would bee certified of me What great matter our Lord Iesus Christ did if in his last Supper he did leaue nothyng els vnto vs but a naked remembraunce of his death In this question I turne you ouer to the Anabaptistes whose speaches are these A bare signe bare bread and bare remembraunce which their nakednes of speach I do abhorre and condemne as well as you I do speake honorably iudge most reuerently of the excellencie of this godly Sacrament The Sacrament is the most excellent and effectuall visible signe of inuisible grace the heauenly bread mysticall bread the pledge and vessell of our redemption finally it is the true body of our Lord Iesus Christ euen in the same maner as the true body of our Sauiour may be present in a Sacrament spiritually by fayth and in a mysterie Therfore away with those your bare signes your bare remembraunce I call them yours bycause they are your slaūders your manifest quarels agaynst me for I do not acknowledge nor defend any such matter for myne As often therfore as you do repeate the same which you do very often so oftē you do repeate not myne errour but your owne lye You imagined in my writyng very monstruous interpretations and absurde disputations Wherof I neuer thought of once so much as in my dreame All whiche come to this onely effecte as if I had taught that nothyng had bene in the Sacrament but a bare signe of Christ Crucified for vs. Wherein you are very farre wyde not onely from the duety of a Byshop and person of a Deuine but also from the profession of a true Christiā man for you thrust vnto me a Bastard whelpe as it were myne own and the same also you tosse topsie tyruie from post to piller after your own 〈◊〉 as if it were mine But this whelpe is not myne it is a Bastard I hate it and abhorre it and will forsweare it also if you will haue me so do At the length you are come to the very bowels of the controuersie and do stoutly affirme that the matter is most manifest proue the same with the wordes of Paule But let a man first proue him selfe and so eate of that bread and drinke of that cuppe alledgyng also these wordes of our Lord Iesu. This sayth hee is my body do ye this in remembraunce of me You will therfore that we should stand fast to these wordes beyng so notable and euident and accuse my wicked interpretation of Christes wordes affirme that I do make none accoūpt of the meanyng of Paule Doe I apply a wicked interpretation of Christes most sacred wordes Syr Ierome Do I esteéme the sence and mynde of S. Paule of no value shewe the place recite the wordes bryng forth in the face of the world this haynous crime that all men may abhorre myne impudencie detest myne impietie and spitte at myne ignoraunce If you can discouer nothing in so notorious an escape if you exclame against me without cause if you be clamorous without reason if none of all these be in me but if it be your foule and vnshamefast slaūder what maner of Christian what Deuine and what kynd of Byshop shall mē surmise you to be Now I will returne to your allegations whereby to deale in playne open tearmes with you if vpon those wordes you will haue it cōcluded that Christ is truely deliuered in the Sacrament to the true beleuers in fayth and spirite I will not gaynsay you But if you meane to grounde the foundation of your grosse Idolatrous Transubstantiation vpon the same wherof you make mention a litle after I must neédes tell you that I doe vtterly dissente from you and your Maisters the Schoolemen herein and do so nothyng refuse to debate this controuersie by the very selfe same testimonies whiche you haue alledged that I doe rather desire and most earnestly require the same This is therfore the sentence of Paule Let a man examine him selfe and so eate of that bread and drinke of that cuppe Which word Bread Paule through the whole discourse of that Chapiter once twise yea many tymes doth inculcate Whereby it appeareth playnly that when a man hath tryed him selfe to the vttermost when he hath done all that apperteineth to the due receiuing of the Sacrament he must yet at the last eate Bread So that after your consecrations Bread remaineth and neuertheles the Sacrament yea Bread remaineth euen to the last Wherfore the substaūce of the materiall Bread can not passe into an
is this to make guiltie of the body and bloud of Christ your naturall brother that hath not offended you as though he had written that which he neuer wrate as though he had done that which heé neuer did as though you haue affirmed that which you do not proue nor can euer iustifie nay rather which you haue not endeuoured to proue for what haue you alledged of myne what wordes what sentences haue you noted out of my writyngs lastly what one thing haue you explaned whereby you may not bee adiudged of all men a most shamelesse slaunderour and notorious rayler Your processe that ensueth is stuffed full with demaundes wherein albeit I dyd pittie your singular amazednesse very much yet could I scarse hold my laughter in them they were so cold so friuolous so variable and to speake my mynde at a word so altogether like Osorius him selfe Your first question is That though myne eyes are so dazeled in matters of Diuinitie that I can not cōceaue that wonderfull chaunge of earthly bread into the nature of heauenly bread yet why I would notwithstādyng with quarelling peruert so wonderfull a benefite of God Truely I doe confesse right reuerend Prelate that myne eye sight hath bene alwayes so dymme that I could neuer discerne this your counterfait Trāsubstantiation But I ought to haue beén pardoned herein bycause it hath beén a generall disease and blindnes of all tymes of all ages and of all Nations The Apostles neuer saw so foolishe a thyng The auncient Fathers could neuer discerne so cloudy a forgerie at the last Sathan opened the eyes of your Schoolemen made them so sharpe sighted that in Distinctions eccyties and quiddities they could many time easely seé that thing which was no where at all This kinde of people enlumined by the Prince of darkenes furnished with the authoritie of the Laterane Coūcell and Innocentius Pope of Rome not much aboue 300. yeares past did rayse out of hell this newfangled monster of Trāsubstantiation Euen then when that Councell had sitte abrood Transubstantiation began first to peépe out of the shell beyng neuer heard of before any where nor knowē so much as by any name Why then do ye vpbrayde me with blindnes so sharpely sith your selfe I say your selfe do know that all the world was as blind as I before that Laterane Coūcell But do you as ye list I for my part will continue blind still with Christ with the Apostles with the aūcient Fathers with all the commendable company of godly Deuines in this Laberinthe of Transubstātiation rather then I will acquaynte my selfe with so monstruous a frameshapen new start vp puppet with your Schooleianglers confessours and lousie Friers But you begyn here to waxe very whote and teastie and spurre questions at me on all sides What is it you say that you do vnderstand what do you conceaue in your mynde and reasons Lastly what is it that your vnderstandyng doth feele and know I will tell you my good father and without any cholor I promise you if you will heare me patiently First I do seé that you doe childishly wander in this bitter talke that demaunde one and the selfe same thyng in threé seuerall distinct questions Then I do also playnly seé that you are so doltishe and blockishe a patrone of Transubstātiation that ye can not with any honesty open your packe amongest your owne pedlers But you neuer cease demaundyng You aske of me what doth trouble me in the mysterie of the Sacrament Truly nothyng at all graue Prelate troubleth me there but your vnmeasurable vnskilfulnes in so great a mysterie which is no small reproch to your profession and dignitie yea to your gray heares also But ye will know more yet Whether I doe mistrust the power or the clemencie of God Neither of both finewitted Gentleman no more doe I trust your selfe nor yet your Transubstantiation bycause ye goe about to throw it vpon vs contrary to the meanyng of the holy Scriptures in the which God the Father hath most fully declared vnto vs his power and will by his Sonne our Lord and Sauiour Iesu Christ. Lastly ye demaūde What the cause should be why I should thinke wherefore you should beleue that the body and bloud of Christ is cōteined in the Sacrament in a wonderfull meane and that I my selfe can not beleue the same whereunto you annexe this that in witte and learnyng ye doe farre surmonte me It is a very hard matter holy father to descry any peculiar cause whiche moueth you to beleue and defende Transubstantiation but I will gesse somewhat nearer the chiefest Forsooth you are addicted wholy to your Schooletriflers and Confessours but very litle to the Scriptures by meanes wherof it is come to passe that ye skyppe ouer the open Oracles of truth and are entangled in the weuett of errour peraduenture also ye are become an apprētice to the Romish Seé and ye meane to procure with the prety Marchaūdize of your pedlers pilfe some Cardinals Hatte It may likewise be that for countenaunce sake ye will face out your false packe with a carde often bycause ye thinke it will empaire the credite of your gray heares to be ouersene in any thyng Besides all these custome perhappes of many yeares had made your iudgement rotten before it was ripe as men vse to say of common lyers which redouble a lye so often that by their often rehearsall beleue it to be true at the length euen so may you thinke to establishe the countenaunce of your imagined Transubstantiation by alledgyng in defence therof a continuall allowaunce of long tyme. If none of all these haue moued you I thinke surely ouermuch pride hath blinded you wherewith ye swell in such sort that you dare boldly without blushyng make vaunt of your selfe more like vnto a bragging Thraso or if any thing cā be more vayne thē Thraso then like a Deuine For you doe not exceede me in witte say you nor excell me in learnyng Truely I will not compare my selfe with you nor with any other person Neither do I professe my selfe to know any thyng at all but Iesus Christ and him also Crucified As for you if one droppe of Christian humilitie or ciuill modestie were in you so hautie a bragge of your braue witte and learnyng would neuer haue escaped you Consider with your selfe in good earnest my holy father this your foolish communication and learne somewhat of Christian humilitie lest almightie God besides this your most vnsauory errour of Transubstantiation adde a more heauie plague vpon you for your vnmeasurable arrogancie You accuse me that I doe trust to much to my naturall senses but that you doe direct all the course of your life to the fayth of the Churche and that I doe shake of from my shoulders the yoke of Christ but you take it vpon you and that I doe forsake the benefites of God but that you doe leane stedfastly to fayth All which are cleane contrary
disagreé from his frend nor the Scholer from his Maister nor the Seruaunt from his Lord ne yet the wife from the husband That is to say it is not conuenieÌ„t that the frend from his frend the Scholer from his Maister the Seruaunt from his Lord or the wife should disagreé from her husband What say you Osorius is any of these not spoken after the Latine phrase are they not vttered playnly and properly doe ye not in all these conceaue the negatiue and not the affirmatiue Are you not ashamed doe ye blush nothyng at all at this manifest fault and marke of your follie I haue a boye of sixten yeares age whom I keépe to Grammar Schoole who shoulde haue felt the smarte hereof if hee had made so foule an escape in these Grammer principles Truely I am wery long sithence gentle Reader to bee so childishly occupyed in siftyng out the titles and sillables of wordes after this maner but you may note the amazednesse and ouerthwartenes of myne aduersary to whom the fault must be imputed accordyng to reason which beyng both bussardly blynd in ponderyng bare wordes and also fondly franticke and senselesse in the substaunce of thynges doth altogether deny any difference to be in this how farre so euer a sunder the head bee separated from the members so that they be vnited in one fayth Surely experience hath not onely taught vs here in England but the practize of all other natioÌ„s also doth playnly bewray his singular ignorauÌ„ce and blockishnesse what it is to be seuered from Italy by farre distaunce of regions when as in matters of Religion iustice equitie could not bee ministred but it must bee procured with immesurable charges and tedious pursuite of many yeares From whiche inconuenieÌ„ces we have good remedy prouided through the speciall goodnesse of God For we haue in our owne Realme both Iudges and Consistories But our reuerend Father caÌ„ not disgest this by any meanes that the Queénes Maiestie should entermedle with the Churche and after a long friuolous preamble after his accustomed maner at the length choppeth downe to a sentence of myne videl The Queenes Maiestie is Lord ouer all maner of persons in England And these wordes he supposeth to be spoken barbarously bycause the gouernement of a kyng is not with force Tyranny nor tendeth to keépe his CouÌ„trey people whom he hath vndertake to defende of a fatherly loue in seruile subiection nor is referred to the consideration of his owne profite but to the publicke sauetie of his subiectes And therfore sayth he it is false that a kyng doth rule as a Lord vnlesse we should take him for a Tyraunt rather then a kyng Harken I pray you harken vnto this AldermaÌ„ brable harken vnto this most subtill corrector of the Latine toung There was neuer such an other Valla or Varro in our tyme for this our notorious Prelate doth farre surmount all Vallaes and Varroes who by his fine pythe and polished Iudgement hath fishte a Poole and caught a Foole and with his new sharpenesse of witte hath espied that wherof no man could euer conceaue so much as a shadow in his dreame what say you my Lord Byshop doth no maÌ„ rule as a Lord except he be a Tyraunt Ergo no man is a Lord vnlesse he be a tyrauÌ„t if at least he bare any rule Truly you had neéde of Helleborous to purge that Calues braynes Our Lord Iesus Christ is sayd sometymes to bee a Lord of the quicke and the dead sometymes to be a Lord in heauen and in earth and in all the holy Scriptures throughout is called by this name Lord. Therefore this your blasphemous and horrible Grammar distinction ought be accompted a TyrauÌ„t this can not be denied Becommeth you an old Byshop to vtter such mockeries can you beyng a Prelate either through fury or maddenesse to be so frame shappenly translated to bee openly franticke and make your selfe a laughyng stocke to litle boyes Truely I am ashamed in your behalfe for I did neuer seé so great so foule so monstruous absurdities in a maÌ„ of such yeares that hath bene all his life long conuersaunt in learnyng Afterwardes you do make a very subtill distinction I promise you of the authoritie of kynges that is to say though they gouerne all their subiectes yet are they not Lordes ouer all causes Yes in deéde good sir they are Lordes ouer all causes aswel Ecclesiasticall as Temporall which may seéme to apperteine to the good gouernemeÌ„t of the coÌ„mon wealth And yet they do not minister in their own persons in matters Ecclesiasticall as I wrate before for how can they so do but they doe assigne and authorise other Magistrates vnder them who may execute euery thyng in due order In like maner albeit Emperours be onely chief of their Armyes yet haue they vnder them Centurians LieutenauÌ„ts Serieauntes Corporals and other meaner officers which do trayne in due order and exercize the whole affaires the rest of the Souldiours So doe Maisters of Nauies and Shippes appointe vnder them their Mates and Boateswaynes and other meaner degreés to their seuerall offices by this meanes to preserue their course the better at Seaboorde whereby appeareth that the chief authoritie is resiaunt alwayes in the chief and knowen estates but the trauaile toyle and execution of orders is ministred by inferiour Magistrates But ye require to make demonstration how these things can be so First of all your question is worthy to bee scorned beyng so voyde of reason to haue euident demonstration to be made of those thynges which common course of mans lyfe and dayly practize of all common weales may assure you were you neuer so voide of sense But I will satisfie that captious grossehead of yours in this matter with threé wordes I do affirme that the authoritie of kynges is aboue all other and yet that kyngs them selues do not minister in Ecclesiasticall matters Which two are most manifestly proued aswell by the gouernement of kyngs in the old TestameÌ„t as also in the later age in the tyme of the new Testament For Dauid Salomon losias Ezechias and other godly kynges amongest the people of Israell did commaunde the Priestes in matters of Religion yet did not they entermedle with execution of any thyng In the tyme of the Gospell Paule that great teacher of the Gentiles coÌ„mauÌ„deth That intercessions and publicke prayers bee made with fayth and truth first of all for kinges then for all others that are set in authoritie Peter also that excellent Elder For other name then Apostle or Elder did hee neuer acknowledge howsoeuer you do coÌ„uey your false Papisticall Seé froÌ„ him Peter I say in open and expresse wordes doth verifie my saying when as he geueth commaundement in this wise Submit your selues to euery humane creature for the Lordes sake whether it â—ee to the king as most excellent or to the Magistrates as to them that are sent by him assigning the punishement of
the wicked doers and the laude and prayse of them that doe well for so is the wâ—ll of God Beholde you haue both my propositions out of Peter First the chief and most excellent authoritie of kinges then rulers and Magistrates sent and assigned by kinges for the punishment of the vngodly and the coÌ„fort of the godly Lastly you heare also that it is the will of God that by this meanes executioÌ„ of Iustice may duly proceéed Wherfoâ—â— cast away all your cauillations and beyng an Elâ—â—r your selfe if you bee wise geue attentiue and speédy eare to Peter the Elder You thunder out your malicious slaunders agaynst the demeanour and ignoraunce of our Byshops discharge your venemous stomacke agaynst them And here vnhappely as it chaunced ye begyn your talke with extreme incongruitie yea redoubling the same for your more skill For thus ye write What Byshops name you Illino whether they whom you haue disgraded from their Sees and deteine them in chaines or Illi they rather whoÌ„ you haue takeÌ„ out of Brothelhouses and Tauernes and haue enstalled in the degree of holy Byshops Is it eueÌ„ so proude comptroller Can you make so euident a fault contrary the principles of GraÌ„mar and write Illi they in steéde of Illos them Enquire of your wormeeateÌ„ companion Dalmada he will amend your escape and will be sory that you haue sâ—ypped your penne so childishly I doe medle with these trifles much agaynst my will neither would I haue done it at all but to treade downe your hautynesse a litle which can continually quarell with me for titles and sillables yea without cause I know that such escapes chaunced many tymes to Tully him selfe but I ought not forgeue you any fault at all consideryng you do so with cruell wordes â—ourge my poore speach though otherwise both cleane and pure Latin And now this I do auÌ„swere to that your filthy accusatioÌ„ agaynst our Byshops that they are replenished with more ornamentes of true Byshops wherof Paule made mention to Timothe then Osorius hath or euer will haue except he shape him selfe to a new maÌ„ betymes And how much the more their vertue godlynes beauâ—ified with singular learnyng is manifestly approued extauÌ„t to all our eares eyes so much more detestable hatefull is your quarell agaynst those auncieÌ„t Fathers especially for that you do rage so beastly agaynst your brethren whoÌ„ ye neuer haue seéne nor do know Paule coÌ„maundeth that a Byshop bee vnreprouable but you do not onely reproue but maliciously deface the estimatioÌ„ of Byshops who haue neuer offended you in word or deéde I pray you good sir how can you cleare of reprehension and fault that your caÌ„kred choler so lauishly vomited agaynst those graue Fathers whom you know not You demaunde also why those same Byshops did not vndertake the defence of Religion agaynst you and by what meanes I crept thereunto beyng a Ciuilian Truly I do franckely acknowledge my selfe to be a Ciuilian Osorius and not a Deuine As for you you are neither Ciuilian nor Deuine and therfore I might be the more â—old to try Maistrie with you Let any men that will peruse that your tedious Epistle to her Maiestie and he shall finde nothyng therein but huge heapes of idle wordes madde mazes of long SenteÌ„ces full of yrkesomnesse vnmeasurable and haynous lyes and slauÌ„ders agaynst true godlynesse Agayne let your second great Uolume bee layde abroad what is in it els but a dounghill of tauntes and reproches agaynst me No sparcke of Diuinitie except those pestilent deuises forged out of Schoolemen of pardons of couled Uipers Confessions flames of Purgatory and other patcheries of these late vpstartes Wherefore if ye will prouoke our Byshops to disputation you must open your Budget and make a shewe of better ware of purer or at lest somewhat more learned Diuinitie then you shall finde what spirite and courage they be of in the meane tyme whiles they are occupyed in matters of more importaunce you may content you with Haddon beyng but a meane aduersarie whiche hath and will alwayes haue skill enough to suppresse your insolencie and confute your trifles You demaunde an other question touchyng our Byshops By what Religion by what Ceremonie by what authoritie they were instituted who layd handes vpon them who consecrated them how holyly how sincerely this matter was executed I aunswere you at a word Handes were layd vpoÌ„ them lawfully and prayers likewise poured out for them accordyng to the prescript ordinaunce of the Gospell we doe vse our owne ceremonies like as you doe yours and as other Nations doe minister their owne At the last you Enquire of their holynesse foolishly forsooth consideryng it is an inward action of the mynde and wherof no man liuyng can pronounce any certaintie Ye murmur I can not tell what Of a confused functioÌ„ of Byshops and Deuines bycause I ascribed the office of administration of the Sacramentes to Byshops but of determinyng causes to Deuines As though Byshops are not Deuines and Deuines Byshops or as though seuerall functions may not be vndertaken many tymes in the Church or as though Byshops beyng the chiefest of the Clergy haue not a charge to execute matters apperteinyng to the Church in their own right or as though this question seémeth not to haue proceéded from a captious Sophister rather theÌ„ from a gray headed Byshop You say That the rumour goeth abroad how that our Byshops are chosen to this end especially that beyng contented with some portion of Reuenewes of their Byshoprickes the rest should be confiscate vnto our possession as a cleare gayne If this bee a rumour this rumour is wicked and slauÌ„derous and such a one as the grauitie of your person should stoppe your eares from and deceit in hart But if this lye be deuised by you and your fraternitie into how horrible a sinne doe ye wilfully drowne your selues that will scatter such wicked slaunders agaynst your brethren whoÌ„ ye know not But you say that I such as I am are charged with the greater part of this infamie for when we choose such Byshops we geue iust cause to men to conceaue some suspition of our auarice and couetousnesse Ye write monstruously Osorius Do we choose Byshops or do I choose Byshops how long and in what places hath this custome preuayled that euery particular subiect or the vulgare multitude should choose Byshops your fraÌ„ticke communication denounceth you a maÌ„ more worthy to be whipped in Bedlem theÌ„ to be disputed with all in Schooles For ye seéme to be altogether voyde of commoÌ„ sense The election of our Byshops Syr Ierome is ordered accordyng to the auncient and best receaued Canons choyse is made by the Deane and Chapter of the most excelleÌ„t in vertue and learnyng The Prince doth confirme the election The Archbyshops do consecrate them that are chosen Of whoÌ„ some are nothyng inferiour to your Maister shyppe in auncientie of race wherein you
reposed in them the Apostles meanyng was to aduertize them that they should ascribe true righteousnes to those outward Ceremonies shadowes and cleansinges What a iest is this as though the Iewes did settle their cōfidence in the Ceremonies onely and did not much more rather glory in their Race in their Parentage in their worshippyng and callyng vpon God in their Prophetes in Gods promises in the deédes and workes of holynes Furthermore whereas this Epistle was not written to the Iewes but to the Romaines what aunswere will Osorius make here Were the Romaines also instructed to the obseruation of those Ceremonies or did they rest so much vpon them that it behooued the Apostle of necessitie to forewarne them in his letters written vnto them But what better weapon shall I vse in this conflict agaynst Osorius then one taken out of his owne armory for thus he speaketh If the Apostle had first praysed the Iewes for their vertues and good deedes and afterwardes had sayd that those vertues and good deedes were of no valew towardes the purchasing of righteousnes and then at last had concluded that they could not haue bene Iustified through the workes of the lawe then the matter had bene cleare that Paule had not excluded the Ceremoniall law onely but the Morall law also frō righteousnes Marke well gentle Reader and note aduizedly what hee speaketh If Paul had first praysed the workes of the Iewes afterwardes had derogated Iustification from these workes c. Uery well and what if out of the same Nation I doe name some men whose singular integritie of lyfe and study of righteousnesse Paule could by no meanes reproue yea whose godly endeuour vpright dealyng procured them no droppe of righteousnes notwithstandyng what will this Sophister say then And first of all let vs behold the workes of that most holy Patriarche Abraham who for his inestimable godlynesse can neuer be condignely enough commended of any of vs. And yet will ye heare Osorius the testimonie of the Apostle touchyng the same Patriarche What shall we say sayth hee that our Father Abraham did finde accordyng to the flesh For if Abraham were Iustified through workes he hath wherein he may glory but not in the sight of God Rom. 4. What then did he not obteine of God to bee called righteous Yes veryly but let vs seé by what meanes not through workes sayth the Apostle but by the commendation of his fayth which onely maketh vs appeare worthy in the sight of God For Abraham beleued God and it was Imputed vnto him for righteousnesse It is manifest therefore that he was accoumpted righteous but by what meanes forsooth not simply nor in respect of his workes but by way of Imputation onely Now what soeuer commeth of Imputation proceédeth from meére mercy of him that Imputeth and is not geuen in reward after the proportion of duetie or of dette For no man Imputeth that to an other that is duely owyng vnto him Now let vs here the testimonies of the Scriptures cōcernyng that whiche was Imputed Not bycause hee did the thynges which he was commaunded albeit he did many thynges wonderfully well but bycause he beleued God this was sayd to be Imputed vnto him for righteousnesse And why was not righteousnesse imputed vnto him aswell in those respectes bycause he did sacrifice vnto God Bycause he forsooke his natiue countrey Bycause hee offred his onely sonne to be slayne Neither doth the Apostle ouerskippe or conceale those causes especially bycause that he which was the Parente of the Posteritie the same also should be the Authour of the doctrine For why this was written sayth Paule videl That it was Imputed vnto him for righteousnesse not for his sake onely but for vs also to whom it shall likewise bee Imputed that beleue in him which raysed our Lord Iesus from death to life c. Rome 4. And thus much concerning Abrahā who though alone may suffice in place of all others so that we neéde none other example yet let vs ioyne to this holy Patriarche as holy a Kyng Dauid with Abraham both beyng deare vnto God both equally endued with like excellent ornamētes of godlynesse and vertue Whereof the one as he had nothyng whereupon to glory before God so the other did so disclayme altogether from righteousnesse that he besought nothyng more carefully of God in his prayers Then that hee would not enter into Iudgement with his seruaunt And rendreth a Reason of his most earnest prayer Bycause all flesh shall not be Iustified in thy sight And what other thyng is meant by this then that which Paule affirmeth in the selfe same wordes almost That no man is Iustified by the workes of the law Goe to then And where are now those wonderfull fruites of workes Where is that glorious shewe of righteousnesse Finally where shall Osorius him selfe appeare with all his cleannes good disposition temperaunce of mynde singular humanitie lenitie patience chastitie vnfayned charitie and with that absolute huge Chaos of bountyfull vertues so vnseparably vnited and linked together as it were chayned fast with yron ropes When as Dauid so great a Kyng and Prophet a most choyse vessell accordyng to Gods owne hart dare not presume to offer him selfe to Iudgement when as Iob a man commended of God for his singlenesse of hart and approued holynesse beyng asked a question of God durst not aunswere one word It will not be Impertinēt to the matter if we speake somewhat here of Paule him selfe Whose conuersation whiche he led vnblameable beyng as yet a Pharisie Tertullus him selfe could not charge with any fault The same beyng afterwardes engraffed into Christ liued in that vprightenesse of conscience that Osorius cā not iustly reprehende him as worthy of crime And yet all those so great and so many ornaments of holynesse did so nothyng auayle him to righteousnesse that hee him selfe accompted them for drosse Wherefore consider here with me Christian Reader a good felowshyp how much difference is betwixt Osorius and Paule where as the same workes whiche Osorius doth with so glorious pompe of eloquēt wordes garnishe so gorgiously Paule in playne termes doth compare thē to durtie drosse and filthy dounge whereby he may be found in Christ not to haue any his owne righteousnesse by the operatiō of the law but that onely righteousnesse grounded vpon fayth which is through the fayth of Christ. c. Cornelius of whom mention is made in the Actes of the Apostles was a holy man and feared God together which his whole houshold dealyng much almes to the poore and makyng continuall intercessions to almighty God This was a great and glorious commendation truely of excellent godlynesse which no sensible mā would say ought to be referred to the Ceremoniall law but to the Morall law rather And yet the selfe same Cornelius beyng neuer so notable for his commendable bertues vnlesse by the aduertizement of the Aungell had sent for Peter
what sayth Osorius in the Ceremonies of the old law no not so for that were altogether Iewish in Fayth therfore neither yet so in any wise for this is the very doctrine of Luther Uouchsafe therfore a good felowshyp Osorius to escry out one safe Hauen for vs wherein we poore forlorne abiectes may cast Anker saue our selues frō shipwracke Forsooth in workes sayth Osorius and in keépyng the prescribed rules of vertuous lyfe That is to say in Innocencie in chastitie in modestie in abstinence in vprightnesse of mynde in holynesse of Religion in feruentnesse of the spirite in aboūdaunce of the loue of God in earnest endeuour of godlynesse in deédes of righteousnesse dueties of pietie in geuyng much almonesse in obedience in keépyng peacible vnitie and such like ornamentes treasures wherof Osorius in many wordes maketh a long rehearsall Of all whiche vertues there is not so much as one croome or sparckle in these Lutherans and Buceranes and these new Gospellers thē which kynde of people nothyng can bee named more wicked nothyng thought vpon more pestiferous nothyng more troublesome in the common wealth nothyng more readyly armed to rayse maliciousnesse to sow contentious quarelles strife enemitie nothyng more pernicious to procure the destruction of Princes none more geuē to bloudsuckyng and Treason who beyng embrued with all wickednesse licentiousnesse libertie lust with all manner shamelessenesse crueltie and madnesse outragiously rushe into all places whereby they may thrust their Gospell in place and defile all thynges with filthy stenche wheresoeuer they make neuer so litle abode they corrupt the land with trecherous villanies finally they doe poyson the ayre they doe abandone chastitie geue full scope to voluptuousnesse roote out all feare of Gods law and mans law and in all this outrage they promise vnpunishable libertie On the contrary parte I meane in the Court of Rome and in all that most sacred Citie florisheth a farre other maner of countenaunce and Maiestie of seuere discipline and vertuous lyfe And first of all in that most royall hygh and chief Prelate and most renowmed Monarche of all Prelates sittyng in Peters owne chayre In those Reuerend estates of the Tridentine Councell in the worshypfull Massemongers of the Romish Church in the great Doctours of that old Gospel in Monasteries and Dorters the very forgeshops of most pure doctrine in the most chast Selles of holy Nunnes finally in all that sacred Senate and Catholicke people no such Presidentes of wickednesse and abhomination may bee seene no spotte so much of corrupt infection raigneth no ambition no lust no insolencie neither any kynde of malice no quarellyng no crueltie no foule or vnseémely thyng sauoryng of any earthly contagion can be discernable amongest this generation But whole heapes yea huge mountaines of godly and heauealy store doth florishe and abounde no vnquietnesse or molestation of Empires and Princely gouernement no seéde plottes of mortall warres no shew so much of bloudy battell no Treason no ouerthrowe of Kynges and publicke authoritie nor any seditious plātes of cōtentious discorde finally no earthly thyng in the secret closettes of the Romishe Court in so much that if Diogenes would in midday with torche in hād prye neuer so narrowly he should no be able to finde in all the Citie of Rome one Harlot or strumpet so much To conclude it is not possible to heare amōgest that most sacred Catholicke conuenticle any sounde of cauillation at all no mutteryng of outragious slaunders no blaste of cunnyngly forged lyes wherof as all others of that sect are cleare so are these bookes of Osorius chiefly most purely purged wherein appeareth no smatche of brabling distempered affections no lyeng slaunder nor iarre of erronious doctrine no significatiō of a mynde troubled and seuered from the Castle of Reason But all thynges are debated and expounded with peaceble gentlenesse quyet tranquillitie of mynde wonderfull lenitie and mildenesse not with rigorous and malicious wordes not with slaunderous carterlike reproches but with inuincible Argumētes as forcible as the dartes of Achilles or Hector discharged I thinke out of the very guttes of the Troian horse nothyng vttered to the vayne ostentatiō of witte or reuengemēt of spightfull hatred as it were in Triumphe of victory fie beware of that gentle Reader but of a very simple earnest desire to aduaunce vertue pietie for this especiall cause forsooth that those sparkes and Embres of honesty and godlynesse which Luther hath raked vp buryed and vtterly quenched out might once agayne be quickened and florishe in that most sacred Seé of Rome These euen these same bee the workes if ye will neédes know them Catholicke Reader and good deédes of those men wherewith they doe prepare an entyre to true righteousnesse and furnish their iourney to heauen and wherewith as it were with ladders they clymbe by steppe to the purchase of eternall inheritaunce And how els this euen this must bee the right way to heauen But in the meane space with how many foggy and thicke cloudes hath S. Paule the seruaunt of God Apostle of Iesus Christ ouerwhelmed the Christiā people And into how deépe and darkened doungeons hath he drowned our senses Who albeit was rapt into the thyrd heauen had not as yet conceaued this incomprehensible wisedome out of the very forgeshops of mysticall Philosophy Belike he could not escry throughout all the heauens this hidden secret that men are not Iustified by workes but are made righteous by the Fayth of the sonne of God so by fayth that in no respect by workes Finally that the especiall meanes and singular substaunce of our Iustification is in this sorte to bee wayed as that it may not be attayned els where then in Christ onely nor by any other meanes then through Fayth onely in Christ. But if S. Paule had not receaued this doctrine from heauen or had not taught vs the doctrine which he receaued from thence or if you for your part Osorius had disputed after this sort as ye teach now in any Paynyme common wealth or before any Ethnicke Philosophers or amongest the Iewes or Turkes it might happely haue come to passe I suppose that this your Aristotlelike Iustice might haue obteined at the least some resemblaunce of truth or perhappes crept into some credite nay rather it is not to bee doubted but if the Iewes them selues or Turkes were now consederate with you in Portingall in the same Argument they could not scarsely alledge any other proofes then you bryng forth vnto vs at this present neither would I thinke expoūde the same in any other phrase of words then your selfe do vse But now for as much as we contend not together in Tullies Tusculane questions nor in his Academycall probabilities nor in Platoes common wealth nor in the Iewishe Thalmude ne yet in the Turkes Alcaron but in the Churche of Iesu Christ surely ye ought to haue regarded the place chiefly where you were when ye wrate this
vnblameable c. Wherein you haue both the cause the end of our Electiō The cause is Christ or the grace of God in Christ The end is herein signed that we should become holy vnblameable For he speaketh not in this wise he did chuse thē which had lead an vncorrupt life to the ende he might engraffe them in Christ. But he did chuse vs in Christ Iesu first that we should liue holy and vnrebukeable But by what meanes vnrebukeable say you whenas the very elect them selues can not be free from faulte as Luther doth say The aunswere is playne and easie Whereas Luther doth deny that Gods true elect are freé frō all guilt he seémeth therein to haue regard to the frayltie of mās nature making a comparison therof doth set the same directly opposite against the seuere Iustice of Gods law This weake nature bēding her force as much as she may agaynst the assaults of sinne although she get the vpperhād sometymes yet besides that she yeldeth ouer very oft as vāquished euē then chiefly whē she hath obteined the maistry she doth neuer yet expresse the immaculate sinceritie vndefiled vprightenes in mainteinyng the battell but some default may be foūde in her most perfect obedience so pumples will yet sticke fast in the flesh that they may be easily espied For curing wherof she shal be cōstreined of necessitie to pray in ayde for the generall triacle of the Church Lord forgeue vs our sinnes c. So that Augustines wordes may well be verified here why is the possibilitie of nature so much presumed vpon It is woūded maymed troubled and vtterly destroyed it neédeth a true Confession and not a false purgation c. Furthermore where the Apostle maketh this addition Thar we should become holy vnblameable he seémeth not therein so much to respect the naturall perfectiō of innocēcy which I doubt whether may be foūde in the very Angels as the zealous mynde godly will earnestly bent affectiō of euery of vs in this life vprightnes in euery our seuerall vocatiō meanyng nothyng in this placeels thē as he did in an other place where speaking of the vocation of widdowes cōmaūdeth thē to be instructed to lead an vnreproueable life 1. Timo. 5. Likewise making mētion of Byshops sayth That they must be vnblameable haue a good testimony left they fall into reproch and reprofe of the slaūderer 1. Tit. 3. Agayne setting an order for seruaūtes cōmaūdeth thē to haue regard to their calling lest the name of God the doctrine of their professiō should be brought into obloquy In like maner to Titus the 2. chap. Appointyng a rule of comely cōuersation he doth exborte all persons that euery one so behaue him selfe in his vocation that the word of God be not blasphemed that the aduersary may be ashamed hauing no iust quarell to accuse vs. And agayne to the Colloss the first chap. That he may deliuer you holy and vndefiled and vnblameable in his sight c. Which sayings tend not to this end as though mās nature could put on that perfection wherby by she might be preserued frō fallyng at any tyme afterwardes by frayltie from the state of integritie but prouoke vs rather thereby to take heéde that our will be no more in thraldome vnder wicked rebellion so voluntary yeld ouer the members of the body to sinne or by any meanes bryng her selfe in bondage to wickednes And this is the meanyng of the Apostle as I suppose That we are therfore chosen of God not to be delighted in mynde with the cōcupiscence of the flesh to fulfill the lust therof But to become holy That euery of vs in this world should demeane our selues in our callying soberly vprightly and godly as be seémeth the chosen and holy ones of God Whereby you may sufficiently perceaue if I be not deceaued That those sentēces which Paule hath written cōcernyng holynes and Luther touching naturall infirmitie are not so repugnaunt one agaynst the other but they may both be admitted well enough For hereof ariseth no repugnauncie but that in outward conuersation and obseruyng the rules of our function duely it may be sayd after a simple maner of speach and vnfaynedly That is to say in the sight of God a man may demeane him selfe honestly in whose nature notwithstādyng some such filthe may cleaue as may of necessitie compell him to crye out with that elect vessell of God wretched man that I am who shall deliuer me from this body of death But Osorius perhappes will chaunte vs an higher note not with this miserable Paule Vnhappy man that I am who shall deliuer me But will descaunt I suppose with that blessed Phariseé I thanke thee O heauenly Father that I am not as other mortall men are c. But let vs goe foreward and pursue the Reliques of this notable monument And sithence we are come now to the treatize of Predestination and Freéwill Let vs marke well what stuffe this Raunger hath brought out of his Forrest and what dogges he leadeth to course other mens game withall ¶ Of Predestination and Freewill LVther affirmeth that freewill is a thyng in name onely or a Name without substaunce That mā is the patiēt and not the agent That he is drawen and doth not purpose or Deliberate any thyng That man is an instrument onely and as it were a Sawe or Axe whiche God doth frame and force whether he will and whereunto him pleaseth and that mā hath no power nor strēgth reserued him either to doe good or to cōmit wickednesse in so much that we are not able not onely not to do good or euill but also not to thinke any thought by any meanes of our selues Moreouer when I name Luther I vnderstād also withall Melancthon Bucer Caluin and the rest of your Iolly fellowes whose opinions and writynges tend to this effect at the length That no difference at all may seeme to be betwixt man and any other toole or instrument In uery good tyme Syr blessed bee this houre wherein we are come now at the length to the most combersome and crabby treatie of Freéwill which beyng heretofore so oft tost to an fro in common Schooles in assemblies and disputations of Deuines after so many combates turmoyles hath now at the last founde out a champion hope I through whose onely force and actiuitie beyng defended and shrowded as it were vnder the Target of Aiax she shall be able to endure and withstād all the assaultes and coūtermoyles of all heretiques whatsoeuer For whereas heretofore this vnsearcheable gulfe hath encombred entangled the wittes and studies of so many notable Clerkes Cardinalles Byshops and Priestes the bottome and depth whereof could notwithstandyng neuer yet bee attayned vnto I suppose the onely let thereof hitherto hath bene for that our Osorius was not hatched as then nor produced to be Proctour in this cause But
now sithence this vpstarte wrestler is skipt ouer the old barriers and hath catcht the collers in hand may any man doubt but that the whole force of the Enemy beyng vtterly discomsited and compelled to fleé the field the Maiestie of Freéwill hauyng bene long tyme wounded and weakened with greéuous maladie yea and through feéblenesse euen yeldyng vp the ghost shall presently recouer health stand vpon her feéte and be strong For this lusty gallaunt disdayneth to encounter as Bythus did sometyme with Bacchius or as Ecerinus with Pacidianus or as Hercules agaynst two or as Horarius agaynst threé brethren at once or with one man hand to hand onely but of valiaunt courage challengeth the field agaynst foure choise and tryed souldiours at one choppe together to witte Luther Melancthon Bucer Caluine Yea with them also agaynst the whole armye of Lutheranes Agaynst whom neuerthelesse if Osorius durst haue cast his gloue when they liued amongest vs or if they were present now to aunswere the challenge and defende the cause no doubt the iustie crakes of proude Iacke bragger would carry but a small coūtenaunce to moue the godly to be displeasaunt withall But as to rake the dead out of their graues and to pike quarell agaynst ghostes and spirites is the common guise of euery rascall varlet so to the discreét and well disposed hath it bene accompted most filthy and contemptuous yea most to be abhorred in our Osorius at this present who in all this his discourse of Freéwill alledgyng no one thyng agaynst them but that whiche in their writynges and bookes is fully aunswered and satisfied yet as though they had made no aunswere at all crawleth hee foreward neuerthelesse patchyng together his rotten and motheaten trumperie wherein neither is any thyng of his owne inuētion nor any new stuffe but that he hath somewhat furbushed the old rusty Argumentes of other raynebeaten souldiours with a fresh glaze of raylyng and slaunderous tearmes like the foolish Choughe attiryng him selfe wholy with the feathers of other Fowles and in this respect also more vyle and lothsome That where the other doe in their arguyng make a certeine shew of some reason vouched either out of Scriptures or of Doctours wrongfully wrested but he for the more part doth so frame his discourse rather to the accusing of men then to the discussing of the controuersie and doth so handle his matters as one hauyng regarde rather to the persons agaynst whom hee quarelleth then to the cause which ought to haue bene discouered by him The man is fully persuaded that Freewill ought to be mainteyned by all meanes possible But what the will or choyse of mā is what thyng is freé or not freé in the will of man what is necessary and what difference is betwixt freé and necessary and how many maner of wayes necessary to be taken he doth neither discouer by definition nor distinguishe by Argument nor deuide by partition nor doth declare what diuersitie and difference ought to be betwixt braunche and braunche Many sondry persons before him haue stoutely maynteined the quarell of Freewill yea with no lesse courage then they would haue done if the state of their countrey had bene in hazard In the same quarell long sithence the Celestines and Pelagians kept a great sturre agaynst Augustin Amōgest many others of late yeares wrate chiefly Roffensis and Eckius agaynst Luther Cardinall Pighius hath stuffed vp tenne Inuectiues full agaynst Caluine Likewise many others haue written agaynst Melancthon agaynst Bucer and others All which albeit preuayled very litle agaynst the truth yet to the end they might the more easily deceaue vnder a certeine visour of the truth they did shuffle amōgest their owne writynges many sentences of the Scriptures and many also of the most approued Doctours After all these our Osorius intendyng to vphold Freewill beyng in great ieopardie to perish what doth he what bryngeth he what vttereth he at length elles but certeine simple croppes scattered here and there in the fieldes of holy Scriptures which he hath gleaned together and wretchedly misordereth to make his Assertions get some credite yet nothyng auayleable to his purpose God knoweth In the meane whiles he citeth not one world so much out of the autenticke monumentes of the auncient Authours nor out of Augustine who was altogether busied in decydyng this controuersie and by whom he ought chiefly haue bene guided in this cause either bycause he hath practised other sciences and read nothyng of this writer or els bycause he is wicked and craftely dissembleth the thynges whiche he hath read And yet all this notwithstandyng this our Portingall champion so carrion leaue in the knowledge of Scriptures altogether disfournished of Doctours persuadeth him selfe to be man good enough if it may please the Muses to beare the whole brūt of the battell in the behalfe of Freewill against freély Luther Melancthon Bucer and Caluine not with mayne strength onely but euen with a proude Portingall looke But go to bycause we will not protract any long tyme with the Reader in wordes purposing to wrestle somewhat with Osorius herein Let vs approche to the marke And bycause the whole force of his communication seémeth to tend to this end to accuse men rather then to open any matter worthy to be learned and for as much he obserueth no order in teachyng in accusing ne yet in disputyng but beyng violently whirled and carried as it were in some forcible whirlewinde of accusation raūgeth the field without Iudgement and out of all aray and after a certeine confused maner of talke doth wrappe vp and mingle all thynges togethers as it were vnder one confused heape we on the contrary part will to temper our aunswere that as neare as the matters will permit we may dispose in some reasonable frame the chief pillers and Arguments of his accusation which him selfe hath set downe most disorderly And therefore in my simple conceite the whole substaunce of all his accusation whatsoeuer may bee gathered into foure or fiue principall places chiefly whiche he seémeth to finde fault with all most in Luthers doctrine as matters full of absurditie and which he obiectagayust Luther in this wise First that Luther affirmeth that there is no freé choyse or freédome in the will of man That all thyngs haue their begynnyng through absolute and vnanoydeable necessitie That impossible thynges are commaunded by God That men are damned for the thynges which they commit not of their owne freé and voluntary motion but compelled by fatall necessitie That God is to be taken for the originall and Authour of all mischief and wickednesse For into these few places as in a short Cataloge may be deuided all whatsoeuer is comprehended in this huge masse of Osorius Inuectiues Which beyng in this wise placed it remaineth that we frame our aunswere to euery of them particularly as oportunitie and place shall offer them in the discourse and so to purge and wash away as
doubted that mens willes can not resiste the will of God but that he must needes doe what God will for as much as he doth dispose the willes also as him listeth and when him listeth Therefore to will and to nill is so in the power of him that willeth and nylleth that it neither goeth beyond Gods power nor hindereth his will but is many tymes hindered by the power of God and alwayes ouermaistered c. But that is somewhat more hard which is obiected out of the same Article that will is so fast bounde that we cā thinke no euill thought by any meanes For so doth Osorius cite the place Wherein he doth first cast a myste before the Readers eyes and then deale iniuriously with Luther For he doth neither faythfully nor fully rehearse the wordes of his Article He is also no lesse iniurious to Melancthon and Caluine whō he alledgeth as partakers of the same opinion Albeit I know right well that they doe not varie from Luthers meanyng yet did they alwayes of very purpose refrayne from this kynde of speache Where did Melancthon euer write that all thynges are performed by vnaduoydeable necessitie Where did Caluine say that Freewill was but a deuise in thynges Who euer heard Bucer say that man was not of power to thinke euill not bycause they varied from him in meanyng and Iudgement but they chose rather to quallifie with some more plausible kynde of stile that which seémed to be propoūded by him somewhat more roughly But to returne agayne to Luthers wordes I doe reknowledge herein not your new furnished cauill Osorius but the auncient rusty canker of many others agaynst Luther as of Leo Roffensis Eckius Iohānes Coclaeus Albertus Phigius Iohn Dreidon Alphansus de Castro Andrew Vega Peter Canisius and such like which do neither read Luthers writyng with Iudgement neither consider his meanyng nor cōferre the first with the last but catch here and there a worde halfe gelded for hast and out of these beyng sinisterly construed if they finde any one thyng more then other fitte to be quarelled withall that they snatch vp that they vrge stiffely and are alwayes rakyng their nayles vpon that scabbe as the Prouerbe sayth And bycause amongest all other his Assertions they can picke out no one sentence more odious in the Iudgement of the simple people it is a wōder to seé what a coyle they keépe here and how viperously they gnaw and turmoyle this one Sentence wherein he sayd That mans will hauyng lost her freédome is now of no force at all not so much as to thinke an euill thought And in this respect surely I can not but marueile much to seé the vndiscreéte disorder of some but chiefly the singuler shamelessenes of Osorius For albeit Luther in so many his Commentaries Sermons Bookes and Aunsweres doth vrge this one pointe alwayes and euery where trauaile earnestly to proue that mās Freewill beyng voyde of Grace auayleth to nothyng but to cōmitte sinne yet doth Osorius so frame all his writyng agaynst Luther as though Luther did teach that mans Freewill could not so much as thinke an euill thought And frō whence doth he pike this quarell out of the wordes of Luthers Article before mentioned I suppose But for as much as Luther doth in the selfe same Article openly professe that Freewill of her owne nature auayleth to nothyng but to Sinne and that all the imaginations of the hart do of a certeine naturall inclination rushe headlong into euill in what sense can that mā be sayd not to be able to thinke an euill thought whiche is alwayes occupied in imaginyng euill But I beleue he will presse vpon vs with Luthers owne wordes wherewith he affirmeth that no mā of him selfe is of power to thinke a good thought or an euill thought c. Well let vs heare what conclusion this Logician will coyne out of these wordes Mans minde whether it thinke well or euill doth neither of them both of her owne power Ergo Mans mynde of it selfe cā neither thinke a good nor an euill thought I do here appeale to your Logicke Osorius What kynde of Argumēt is this by what rule make you this cōsequent what bycause the substaunce of the matter doth depend vpon the first causes properly will you thereupō conclude that the secōd causes do therfore nothing at all Or bycause the freédome of doyng is restreined to the first and principall cause to witte to the onely Maiestie of God that therefore mans will is no cause at all bycause it is not freé and that therfore it cā thinke no ill thought by any meanes bycause it doth it not of her owne strength and libertie as though to do a thyng properly a thyng to be done of her owne proper power were all one to say So then by this reason the Iewes which crucified the Lord of glory shal be sayd to do nothyng bycause all the outrage whatsoeuer they kept was determined before by Gods vnsearcheable coūsell In like maner Pharao in withholdyng the people of Israell and Nabuchadonasor in spoylyng them may be sayd to do nothyng bycause the hart of the one was hardened by the Lord and bycause the other leadyng his armye into Egypt was constrayned to chaunge his will in his iourney and bende his force agaynst Ierusalem Likewise neither the Shippe whiles she sayleth nor the Pylote within the Shippe do any thyng at all bycause their course whether it bee fortunate or vnfortunate is not alwayes directed after their owne will but as the wyndes the tydes do driue them For what doth Luthers disputation of Freewill enforce els but that he may referre all the order of doyng to Gods freé disposition onely Neither doth hee dispoyle mā of will altogether which doth onely disable will of freédome Neither is it a good consequent to say bycause mans will is denyed to be freé therfore that man is altogether destitute of will bycause it is not freé but alwayes captiuate bounde an handmayde as the which in euill thyngs is either alwayes seruaunt to Sinne or in good thynges handmayde to grace euen as an Instrument or toole is alwayes at the bestowing of him that worketh withall For what should let but Luther may as well call Freewill by the name of a toole as Esay doth name the wicked by the name of Sawes in the band of the Lord and as well as in many places of Ezechiell those hartes are called stoany hartes which the Lord doth promise to soften and mollifie with his grace And yet I will not much trouble Osorius herein For whether will be freé vnto euill or be seruaunt vnto euill it maketh litle to the present purpose nor will stād Osorius much in steéde This is vndoubtedly true that mans naturall strength bee it freé or be it bond is more thē strong enough to all wickednesse So were all these stormes raysed agaynst Luther neédelesse also consideryng that he doth so frankely
are sequestred froÌ„ all felicitie euen so farre seéme we to be cut of from all freédome without the Grace of the Redeémer For shyppe wracke beyng once made of vniuersall blessednesse I can seé none other remedy but that freédome must be drowned withall Therefore the selfe same thyng whiche doth open Paradise beyng shut fast agaynst vs must of necessitie restore freédome agayne which can not by any meanes be brought to passe through force of nature or through any power of our owne It consisteth onely in the Grace of the Redeémer As our Redeémer him selfe witnesseth in S. Iohns Gospell If the Sonne shall make you free then shall you be free in deede Notyng vnto vs this one thyng chiefly by those wordes the state of our bondage to be such as except it be renewed with Grace of the Redeémer that in all this nature of ours is nothyng freé Moreouer as concernyng the vsuall maner of speach that men are called good holy and wise I know that men haue bene accustomed to bee tearmed so But what is this to the purpose The question here is not by what name meÌ„ are called but of what value euery thyng is in the sight of God And yet do I not doubt at all but that many men may bee in their kinde good holy and wise euen so to be esteémed well enough But howsoeuer this holynesse godlynesse and wisedome of meÌ„ seémeth in mans Iudgement yet is nothyng whatsoeuer it be if it proceéde not from the grace of God For what hast thou that thou hast not receaued After the same sorte do I aunswere touchyng freédome whiche beyng once lost through Freewill must of necessitie sticke fast cloyed in the puddle of thraldome vnlesse it be renewed agayne by Gods grace WhereupoÌ„ August very aptly Freedome sayth he without grace is no freedome but coâ—tumacle And as in this place August denyeth that to be liberty which is seuered froÌ„ grace so in an other place he will not graunt that to bee named will except it be conuersaunt in good things Will sayth he is not will but in good thyngs for in euill wicked thinges it is properly called Luste not will Wherfore if there be neither freédome where Gods grace is not present nor will where wickednesse is practized by what meanes then will Osorius mainteyne that Freewill is in euill thinges whenas in that respect there is neither freédome nor will There is also in the same August in the same his Epistle to Hillary that may well be gathered and framed into an Argument on this wise The lyfe of libertie is the perfect soundenesse of will But in doyng euill mans will is not sounde Ergo In doyng euill mans will is not freé For euen so are we taught vp Augustines wordes The lyfe of libertie sayth he is the soundenesse of will and by so much euery man is more free by how much his will is most sound Albeit I will not striue much about the contention of tearmes If any maÌ„ be minded to name the choyse of will applyable towardes good or euill to be voluntary rather then freé he shall not erre much in my Iudgement Neither will I be offended if a man do say as Augustine doth that maÌ„s will is freé towardes euill thinges so that he hold the meanyng of Augustine as well as the wordes For I am of this mynde that when Augustine doth name mans Freewill couple it to grace he calleth it freé in this respect bycause beyng freé froÌ„ all forcible constrainte it beÌ„deth it selfe through voluntary motioÌ„ that way whereunto it is directed be it to goodnes through Grace or to euill through naturall lust And in this sense accordyng to August meanyng the ConfessioÌ„ of Auspurgh doth expouÌ„de maÌ„s will to be freé that is to say yeldyng of his owne accord The selfe same do Bucer and Melancthou also this also doth Caluine not deny who doth neither striue much about this tearme of freédome doth learnedly also professe that the originall cause of euill is not to be sought elles where then in euery mans owne will But as concernyng Luther for that he doth vpon some occasion sometyme expresse his minde in writing somewhat roughly wherein afterwards he discouereth his meanyng in a more mylde phrase of speach it was not seémely in my conceite to racke out those thynges onely whiche might breéde offence cloakyng meane whiles those thynges fraudulently which do wipe away all mislikyng He doth set downe in his Assertion thus That it is not in mans freé power to thinke a good or euill thought Agayne in the same Assertion the same Luther doth not deny that all mans imaginations of their owne inclination are carried to all kynde of naughtynesse that Freewill can do nothyng of it selfe but Sinne. On this wise with lyke heate of disputation rather then of any errour he calleth Freewill sometyme a fayned or deuised tearme not to bee founde in deéde any where makyng all thynges to be gouerned by vnauoydeable necessitie Which vehemencie of speach many men do cast in his teéth reprochfully now and then And yet in other places agayne expâ—undyng him selfe he doth grauÌ„t without all Hyperbolicall speéche that in inferiour causes Freewill can do somewhat and withall doth franckely affirme that it can do all thynges beyng assisted with Grace And why is hee not holden excused as well for this as snatcht at for the other why doe the aduersaries shut fast their eyes and blindfold them selues willyngly at matter well spokeÌ„ and neuer looke abroad but when they liste to carpe and cauill Was there euer any so circuÌ„spect a writer whose latter diligence more attentiue heédefulnes might not alwayes amend some ouersight escaped at the first either in Exposition or Iudgement of thynges The more that Solon the Sage grewe in yeares the more he increased in knowledge and may it not bee lawfull for vs to encrease vnderstaÌ„dyng with our age likewise Surely August could not excuse the errours of his youth neither shamed he to confesse in his age the ouersight that escaped his penne in youth vnaduisedly not onely to reforme them by ouerlickyng them as the Beare licketh her whelpes but also to reuoke them openly with an open graue and grayheaded retractation and to pray Pardon of his errours franckly nor doth in vayne permitte those bookes to be preiudiciall vnto him whiche hee wrate beyng a young man saying very modestly of him selfe that hee began then to write like a learner but not aâ— grounded in Iudgement Neither was such perfection to be required in Luther who albeit vttered somewhat at the first in wordes otherwise then common custome of Schooles were acquainted with it had bene the partes of graue Deuines not to prye narrowly into the vnaccustomed phrase of wordes so much as to sift out the substaunce of the doctrine how agreably it accorded with the Scriptures in truth and sinceritie And if
the matter would admitte some other interpretation yet ought Assertiō haue bene compared with Assertion and place with place Finally consideration ought to haue bene had of the entent and meanyng of the writer then also of the first originall scope of his doctrine whereunto it tended and what it emported And if ye would examine vprightly the opinions and assertions of mē accordyng the true touchstone of Gods truth and not sinisterly for eiudge them whether opinion I pray you seémeth in your cōceite most sounde of those which doe aduaunce the Maiestie of Gods grace or of those whiche doe enhaunce the weakenesse of mans nature of those which doe make mens merites workes the effectes of Saluatiō or of those which do ascribe it to Gods freé imputation through Iesu Christ of them which doe determine that righteousnesse commeth by fayth or of them which say it is obteyned by the workes of the law of those whiche spoyle Freewill of all matter to glory vpon or of them which do call mē backe to a true and humble acknowledgement of them selues of those whiche razing out the euerlastyng and vnchaungeable decreé of Gods Predestination doe committe the successes of thynges to happe hazard and blynd chaunce and to freé affectiō of mans will or of them whiche settyng aside all chaunceable euentes of fortune and all power of mans will doe referre all things to the assured gouernaunce of Gods infallible foreknowledge guidyng all thyngs after his own pleasure in most stayed and stable order And yet doth not Luther so roote out all Free-will altogether and all chaunceablenesse of fortune but that he doth admitte the vse of them in some respect to witte in respect of inferiour causes although in respect of hygher causes in those thynges whiche concerne saluation or damnation he beleueth surely that no force of Freewill ne yet any chaunceablenesse of fortune doe preuayle any thyng at all For as much as this is the chief grounde of Luthers doctrine what els may the well affectioned indifferent Reader I pray you cōceaue of this his Assertiō then that which may magnifie the glory of God extoll his omnipotencie may establishe the sauetie of the faythfull dependyng vpon the freé promise of God through fayth not vpō the worthynes of merites through Freewill may terrifie the wicked with a wholesome feare of God may restrayne them frō outrage may comfort vs agaynst death with lyfe that is in God agaynst miserie with grace against infirmitie with strength agaynst destruction with Gods mercy may rayse vp the godly to loue and embrace their God The fruite of all which thyngs as the godly Reader may easily reape by this doctrine let vs seé now on the other side what poyson Osorius doth sucke out of the fame as one that seéth nothyng in this Assertiō but horrible wickednes as he fayth shamelesse arrogācie detestable maddnes execrable outrage And now would I fayne heare how he will confirme this proude affirmatiue so vehemētly vttered For sayth he this beyng graunted I doe say that lawes are abolished decrees put to silence sciences rooted out learnyng extinguished peace and trāquillitie disturbed and vtter confusion made of all right and wrong without all order If Osorius require this at our handes that whatsoeuer his lauishe tounge shall rashly roaue at large be coyned for an vnreproueable oracle thē is this matter soone at an end But that world is gone long sithēce Osor. wherin this Pythagoricall Prouerbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was takē for a law We thinke it not now enough to harken to all that a man will speake but to cōsider what vpon what groūde a mā speaketh Well what say you vnto vs at the lēgth Osorius That lawes will decay statutes be put to silence sciences rooted out learnyng extinguished trāquillitie disturbed and right and wrong confounded together Certes you haue heard of this man here many hygh and absurde speaches gentle Reader but heare yet much more absurditie I say furthermore that hereupon doth follow that mā is spoyled of sense bereft of aduise and depriued of reason and driuen to that passe as no difference may seeme to be betwixt him a stone throwen out of a mans hād And yet haue you not heard all Osori crauleth forward still is come now as it seémeth into some mayne playne where he purposeth to make vs a course of his harysh eloquence I say also that the holy cōmaundements of God his preceptes statutes his exhortatiōs and threatnyngs rewardes promised for well doyng and punishmēt threatened for malefactours were all in vayne prescribed to the posterity by Gods word O Heauē O Earth O Sea of Hercules But is there any more yet tush all these be but trifles yet For ouer and besides this ensueth so haynous a fact more horrible then toung can speake or hart cā thinke so vnspeakeably filthy so monstruously straūge that all the rest beyng layd together may in respect of this be accompted scarse worth the speakyng And what is it a Gods name Forsooth that Luther or Melancthon Bucer or Caluine or whosoeuer were the first foūder of this doctrine besides that he doth thereby turne all states and cōmon weales quite vpsidowne he breaketh yet further into such vnmeasurable impiety as that he doth imagine God him selfe the most holy of holy ones our most deare Father to whō no iniquitie can by any meanes be imputed to be the author of all wickednes and cruelty We haue heard a tedious Catalogue of haynous absurdities which as he sayth must needes ensue vpō Luthers doctrine And if it be not true He requireth vs to make him a lyar as that either Luther neuer spake so or els to teach him that Luthers doctrine may well be mainteined As though there were any such pitthe in all this your rayling M. Osorius that might not easily be confuted or any such weakenes in Luther that might not much more easily be defended yea so defended as that neither he may seeme to haue taught the doctrine of Necessitie without good cōsideratiō nor you able to deface the same without great perill of cōmittyng horrible sacriledge I speake now of Necessitie not that Necessitie that is called violēt coactiō but of that which is named of vndoubted assuraūce absolute infallibilitie not that Necessitie which the schoolemen call Consequēti◠but which is called Consequētia or ex Hypothesi For Necessitie is neither takē after one onely significatiō amongest the Deuines nor yet amōgest the Logiciās Philosophers wherof of I suppose you be nothyng ignoraunt at the least you ought not be ignoraunt therof surely Therefore they that haue employed their studyes somewhat more carefully about the scannyng of this matter haue defined Necessary after this maner to be such a thyng as can not bee altered a certeine settled and firme vnmoueablenes which can not be chaūged by any meanes from that
vnsearcheable will doth sometymes encline the willes of men to committe horrible mischiefes and after a certeine maner willeth Sinne. Ergo God may be iustly accused of vnrighteousnes iniquity Which Argument applyed in the behalfe of mans nature might seéme to be of some validitie perhappes in the opinion of men But to transpose the same from men to God It can not holde And why so bycause there is great difference betwixt thynges wherof God is the Authour and thynges wherof man is the doer For euen Sinnes them selues and wickednesse as they come frō God are scourges yea and that most righteous and whatsoeuer is decreéd either by his couered or discouered will it is in this respect both holy and righteous bycause the will of God ought alwayes to be accompted for the very foundatiō of all righteousness Upon which matter let vs heare what Augustine speaketh in his thyrd booke De Trinitate euen his owne wordes The will of God is the chief and principall cause of all kindes of actions and motions For there is nothyng done whiche proceedeth not frō that vnsearcheable and intelligible wisedome of the most mightie Emperour accordyng to his Iustice vnspeakeable for where doth not the almightie wisedome of the highest worke as it willeth which reacheth from one ende of the world to an other mightely and ordereth all thynges sweetely and doth not these thynges onely which beyng in dayly practise and by reason of common vse are not much marked or marueiled at but thynges also passing all vnderstandyng and capacitie and whiche for the rarenesse of vse and straungenesse of successe seeme marueilous as are Ecclipses of the Sunne and Moone earthquakes mōsters and vgly deformed vnnaturall shapes of creatures such like Of the which no one thyng commeth to passe without the will of God though it seeme to be otherwise in the Iudgement of many persons And therfore it seemed good to the phātasticall Philosophers to ascribe such vnkindely operations to other causes beyng not able to discerne the true cause thereof which in power surmounteth all other causes to witte the will of God wherefore besides the will of God there is none other principall cause of health sickenesse reward punishment of blessinges and recompences This is therfore the onely chief and principall cause from out the which do flow all thyngs whatsoeuer and is it selfe without beginnyng but endureth without endyng Let vs now gather the Argumēts of Augustine into a short abridgement If the will of God be the souereigne and principall cause of all motiōs what remayneth but that Osorius must either deny that Sinnes are motions or yeld vnto this of necessitie that the same motions are not done without the will of God which will neuerthelesse must be adiudged cleare from all reproche Moreouer if the same motions which are on our behalfe Sinnefull be punishementes for Sinne What should lette why that euē the selfe same sinnes should not seéme to proceéde after a certeine maner frō God without any preiudice of his Iustice at all none otherwise truely then when as God is accompted the creatour of monsters Ecclipses of the Sunne Moone vnpassable darkenes vntymely byrthes and yet notwithstandyng no ioate of his maiesty and integritie empayred But we are vrged here with an Obiection out of the Scriptures where it is sayd that God is not a God that willeth iniquitie Aunswere As though Luther did not perceaue this saying of the Prophet well enough or that he were so impudent at any tyme as that he would cōtrary to the Prophet deny that sinnes raunge immoderately agaynst Gods will We rehearsed a litle earst out of Augustine that somewhat may be done agaynst the will of God which neuerthelesse cā not happen without his will In the one part wherof the vnsearcheable wisedome of his Deuine counsell is playnly discernable in the other the thyng that is naturally wicked displeasaūt in Gods eyes So that the thing which is of it selfe in respect of it selfe naturally euill may become good in respect of Gods ordinaūce in respect of the end whereunto it is directed by God The worke of our redēption from sinne and death is a good worke of Gods mercy But man should neuer haue stoode in neéde of this redēptiō vnlesse death sinne had happened Therfore death and sinne could not execute their malice wtout the foreknowledge ordinaunce of God So also no lesse notable is the worke of Gods Iustice in executyng his iust wrath agaynst Sinners which seueritie of Iustice had neuerthelesse neuer expressed his wonderfull brightnesse if sinne had neuer bene committed But here I suppose Osorius will not deny that men rushe headlong into wickednesse and Sinne if not by Gods prouidence yet by his sufferaūce at the least For it may be that many thynges may happen by a mans permission in the which he that did permit them may be blamelesse notwithstandyng I heare you well aunswere to the same that it is not altogether nothyng that Osorius doth alledge in deéde and yet this allegation of his comprehendeth not all For first I demaunde what if Osorius beyng a Bishop do suffer Gods flocke committed to his charge to starue by defraudyng thē the necessary foode of the word whom of duety he ought to cherish with all diligēce and care What if the Shepheard doe willyngly suffer the maggotte to pester the sheépe or what if the Maister should suffer the seruaunt to perish whose perplexitie he might haue releued by puttyng his hand to in tyme may not we iustly accuse Osorius of fraude for not feédyng or can Osorius acquit him selfe by any slipper deuise of negligence in this behalfe If in cōmon cōuersation of lyfe the man that will not repell iniury when he may be adiudged in euery respect as blameworthy as if he offereth the iniury him selfe by what meanes can God whō you say doth permit sinnes to be done either deémed be excusable in respect of this sufferaunce onely or how can you charge vs as accusing him of iniustice bycause we say that he doth not onely permit but also will sinne after a certeine maner Which thyng Augustine doth very well declare If we suffer sayth August such as are vnder our correctiō to doe wickedly in our sight we must needes be adiudged accessaries to their wickednesse But God doth permitte Sinne to raunge without measure euen before his eyes wherein if he where not willyng surely he would not suffer it in any wise and yet is be righteous notwithstandyng c. Wherfore your allegation of bare Sufferaunce doth neither helpe your cause nor disaduantageth ours any thyng at all But go to let vs somewhat yeld to this word of yours Sufferaunce whereupō ye stād so stoughtely yet will ye not deny but that this Sufferaunce of God is either coupled together with his will or altogether sundered frō it If ye confesse the will and Sufferaunce be ioyned together how can God be
by vnauoydeable Necessitie If this be graunted sayth he all Ciuill societie is rooted out Lawes are established in vayne correction praysing dispraysing good counsell are ministred in vayne neither anye ordinaunce deuised for the aduauncement of vertue and punishement of vyce serueth to any purpose at all Now bycause these haynous and daungerous absurdities are not tollerable in any weale publique Therfore sayth Augustine this man will not yeld that there should be any foreknowledge of thyngs to come So that by this meanes he forceth the Reader into these inconueniences to chuse one of these two either that mans will is of some force or els that thynges must be determined vpon before of Necessitie beyng of opinion that they can not be both at one tyme together but that if the one be allowed the other must needes be abolished If we leane vnto Gods foreknowledge and prouidēce then must Freewill haue no place on the other side if we mainteyne Freewill then foreknowledge of thyngs to come must be banished So the whiles Cicero beyng otherwise a man of wōderful experience as August sayth endeuoureth to make vs freé doth bring vs wtin the cōpasse of sacrilege as horrible robbers of Gods foreknowledge and beyng ignoraunt him selfe how to vnite this freédome and foreknowledge together rather suffreth God to be despoyled of his wisedome then men to be left destitute of Freewill which errour Augustine doth worthely reproue in him For it is not therfore a good consequent bycause the well orderyng dispositiō of all causes is in the hands of God that mans Freewill therfore is made fruitelesse altogether for that our willes them selues being the very causes of humaine actions are not exempt frō that well disposed order of causes which is alwayes vnchaungeable with God and directed by his prouidence And therfore he that with his wisedome doth cōprehend the causes of al thyngs the same also in the very causes them selues could not be ignoraunt of our willes which he did foreknow should be the causes of al our doyngs Go to now Let vs compare with this blynd Philosophy of Cicero the Diuinitie of Osorius in all respectes as bussard-lyke For as Cicero doth vphold the freédome of mans will by the ouerthrow of Gods prouidence and predestination and contrarywise by the ouerthrow of mans Freewill doth gather and establish the certeintie of Gods prouidence supposing that they can not stand both together In lyke maner our Osorius imaginyng with him selfe such a perpetuall and vnappeasable disagreément betwixt Necessitie in orderyng of causes and mans Freewill that by no meanes they may argreé together what doth he meane els thē pursuyng the platteforme that Cicero before him had builded in the couplyng of causes but to come to this issue at the length either to establish the doctrine of Necessitie with Luther or agreéyng with Cicero vtterly to roote out the foreknowledge and prouidēce of God for if to chuse be the propertie of will then are not all thynges done of Necessitie accordyng to Osorius opinion Agayne if not of Necessitie then is there no perpetuall orderyng of causes after Ciceroes suppositiō If there be no perpetuall order of causes neither is there any perpetuall order of thynges by the foreknowledge of God which can not come to passe but by the operation of causes precedent If the perpetuall orderyng of thynges be not in the foreknowledge of God thē all thyngs atteyne not the successes wherunto they were ordeyned Agayne if thyngs atteyne not the successes whereunto they were ordeyned then is there in God no foreknowledge of thynges to come Let vs cōpare now the first of this suttle Sophisme with the last The choise of mans will is free Ergo There is in God no foreknowledge of thynges to come Let Osorius aduise him selfe well what aunswere he make to this Argument If he hold of Ciceroes opinion what remayneth but hee must neédes condemne vs of Sacrilege as Cicero doth whiles he endeuoureth to make vs freé But I know hee wil not hold with this in any case and in very deéde Ciceroes Argument ought not to be allowed for that he doth not discende directly in this Argument frō proper causes to proper effectes For whereas Freewill is mainteyned in the one propositiō this is no cause wherefore it should be denyed that thynges are done by Necessitie As also this is not a good consequent lykewise bycause Necessitie is taught to consiste in an vnchaūgeable orderyng of causes and in Gods foreknowledge that therfore nothyng remayneth effectual in our Freewill And why so bycause agreéyng herein with Augustine we doe confesse both to witte Aswell that God doth know all thynges before they be done and that for this cause the thynges foreknowen are done of Necessitie And that we also do willyngly worke whatsoeuer we know and feéle to be done by vs not without our owne consentes But you will Reply That Luther contrary to Augustines doctrine both leaue mans lyfe altogether destitute of Freewill tyeng all our actions fast bounde in the chaynes of vnauoydeable Necessitie I do aunswere As Luther doth not defend euery absolute and vnaduoydeable Necessitie but that whiche we spake of before of the consequence No more doth he take away all freédome from will neither from all men but that freédome onely which is set contrary and opposite to spirituall bondage no nor yet doth he exempt all men from that freédome but such onely as are not regenerate with better Grace in Christ Iesu. For whosoeuer will inueste such persons with freédome is an vtter enemy to Grace And no lesse false also is all that whatsoeuer this coūterfaite Deuine doth now groūde him selfe vpon and hath more then an hundred tymes vrged touchyng this opinion of Necessitie For in this wise he brauleth agaynst Luther and Caluine If the thyngs that we doe are done of meere Necessitie and decreed vpon from the furthest end of eternitie Surely whatsoeuer wickednesse we do committe as not lead by our owne voluntary motion but drawen by perpetuall constraynte is not to bee adiudged for Sinne. Which triflyng Sophisme we haue vtterly crusht in peéces before by the authoritie of Augustine Neither came euer into the myndes of Luther or Caluine to mainteyne any such Necessitie which by any cōpulsary externall coaction should enforce will to committe wickednesse vnwillyngly For no man sinneth but he that sinneth voluntaryly Albeit none of our actions are destitute of a certeyne perpetuall directiō of the almighty Lord and Gouernour yea though neither the sinnes them selues can not altogether escape the prouident will and foreknowledge of God Yet is not the peruerse frowardnesse of the wicked any thyng the lesse excusable but that they ought to receaue cōdigne punishment accordyng to their wicked deseruynges for whosoeuer hath voluntaryly offended deserueth to be punished And therfore herein Osorius friuolous Diuinitie doth not a litle bewray her nakednesse that whereas debatyng about the matter of
sinne he seémeth not to haue learned this lesson yet out of Augustine that sinne the punishmeÌ„t of sinne is all one And therfore mainteynyng one lye by an other doth conclude as wisely that it is not agreable to equitie sithence men are Instrumentes onely God the worker of all thyngs that they should be condemned as malefactours which are onely Instrumentes with as good reason as if the sworde wherewith a man is slayne should be adiudged faultie not the persoÌ„ that slue the man with the sword Whiche I my selfe would not deny to be agaynst all reason if that matter were as Osor. would applye it But who did euer speake or dreame that men were Instruments onely in doyng wickednesse and that God is the Authour and worker of all mischief These be the wordes of Osorius not Luthers nor Caluines That wicked men are Sawes Instrumentes many tymes in the handes of God for the punishement of sinne this not Luther onely but Esay also doth boldly confesse Go to And will you therfore coÌ„clude that men are nothyng els but instruments and tooles onely very wisely I warraunt you deriuyng your Argument from the propositioÌ„ Exponent to the Exclusiue nay rather maliciously wrestyng and peruertyng all thynges from the truth to slaunderous cauillyng August doth sundry tymes witnesse that mens willes are subiect to Gods will and are not able to withstand it For as much as the willes them selues sayth he God doth fashion as him liketh and when him lysteth and that our willes are no further auayleable then as God both willed and foresawe then to bee auayleable Whereby you seé that Gods almighty power doth worke in our willes as in a workeshoppe wheÌ„ he purposeth to do any thyng that then he doth neither traÌ„spose our willes otherwise or to other purposes then by the seruice of our owne willes And yet doth it not therfore follow the mens willes are nothyng els then Iustrumentes and tooles onely of Gods handyworke as the thyng that of it selfe doth nothyng but as it is carryed and whirled about hither thither without any his own proper motioÌ„ through the operation of the agent cause onely Truly Augustine sayth very well We doe not worke by wishinges onely sayth he least hereupon cauillation arise that our will is effectuall to procure to lyue well Bycause GOD doth not worke our saluation in vs as in vnsensible stoanes or in thynges which by nature were created voyde of reason will c. In deéde God doth worke in the willes and harts of men and yet not rollyng or tossyng them as stoanes or driuyng whirlyng them as thynges without lyfe as though in enterprising and attemptyng of thynges the myndes and willes of men were carryed about by any forrein constraint and Deuine coaction without any voluntary motion of the intelligible mynde And therfore Osorius doth hereof friuolously and falsely forge his cankred cauillation and maliciously practizeth to procure this doctrine of Luther to be maligned As though we did deuise man to be lyke vnto a stoane or imagined God to be the onely Authour and worker of mischief bycause we do teach that mens willes are subiect to Gods wil as it were secundary causes Certes if that â— August writeth begrauÌ„ted for truth That Gods will is the cause of thynges that are done Why should the same be lesse alowable in Luther or not as false in eche respect in Aug. since they both speake one selfe sentence be of one iudgement therein Neither is it therfore a good consequent that Osor doth phantasie The onely will of God to be so the cause of sinne as though mans will did nothyng reproueable for sinnyng or punishable for deseruyng For to this end tendeth the whole cutted conclusion of all Osorius brabblynges But if you haue no skill to know the nature of a distinctioÌ„ as yet you must be taught that it is one thyng to permitte a sinne voluntarâ—ly an other thyng to committe a sinne voluntaryly Wherof the first is proper to God the other is peculiar to men the first may be done without all offence the other can bee done by no meanes without wickednesse Whereas GOD is sayd to will sinne after a certeyne maner the same is sayd to be done accordyng to that will which they call Gods good pleasure neither euill nor without the truth of the Scriptures And yet it followeth not hereupon necessaryly that God is the onely and proper cause of sinne No for this is accompted the onely cause which excludeth all other causes besides it selfe So is that cause called the proper cause which doth respect onely one end yea and that also the last end in respect wherof it is accompted to be the proper cause Whereas therfore sinne is the last end not of Gods will but of mans peruersenesse we do affirme that it is not done in deéde without Gods will but that man is the proper cause therof and not God For if the causes of thynges must be proportioned by their endes surely sinne is not the last end of Gods will in respect that it is euill but in respect that it is the scourge plague of sinne and to speake Paules own wordes The shewyng forth of Gods righteousnesse and the feare of God then which ende nothyng can be more better or more holy And where is now that iniquitie and cruelty of God Osorius which by misconstruyng Luther wickedly maliciously your fruitlesse Logicke taketh no fruite of but which your deuilishe Spirite and slaunderous cursed fury doth corrupt But that I may not seéme to stand to much vpon refutyng this toye lettyng slippe many thynges here in the meane whiles whiche make nothyng to the purpose nor conteyne any other thyng almost in them but vayne hautynesse of speache Tragicall exclamations maddnesse feéuers frensies spittyngs reproches horrible coÌ„tumelies wherwith this vnmanerly Deuine hath most filthely defiled whole papers I will come to those places which carry a certeyne shew of lesse scoldyng and more Scripture After this maner the vermine crawleth foreward But that ye may perceaue how illfauouredly your Doctours haue interpreted those testimonyes of Paule which you haue heaped vp together I thinke it expedient to disclose the meaning of Paule And that this may be done more orderly it behoueth to note diligently to what ende Paule gathered all those reasons together It is well truly This cruell scourgemottoÌ„ weried throughly with whippyng poore Luther miserably vnmercifully buffetyng him doth now at the length hyde his rod vnder his gowne beginneth to creépe to high desk will teach somewhat and God will out of the Scriptures so that we shall neede nothyng now but a Camell to daunce whiles this Assehead minstrell striketh vppe his drumme And therfore harken in any wise you blinde buzardly Lutherans you caluish Caluinistes you foolish Bucerans sith you be so blockish by nature that of your selues you can coÌ„ceaue nothing of
be agreable to reason For God did also foreknow the euill will of the reprobate as there is nothyng in the world that his vnsearcheable purpose did not foreknow euen aswell as he foreknew before the glory of the elect that should come yet did he not therfore chuse vnto glory some bycause he foreknew thē nor did chuse all thynges which he did foreknow but whatsoeuer his Electiō had predestinated it is out of all doubt that the same were all foreknowen 4. Agayne the foreseéne pety workes which they make to be the cause of Election are either our owne or properly apperteynyng to God If they be Gods and not ours where then is the freédome of our choyse any merites of works But if they be ours that is to say in the direction of our owne willes then is that false that Paule teacheth God it is that worketh in vs both to will and to worke declaryng hereby that we are vnable to will or to attemp any thyng that good is without Gods assistaunce 6. The fift reason is this whatsoeuer is the cause of the cause is worthely adiudged the cause of the effect If the foreseéne workes of the faythfull be the cause of Predestination certes they must neédes be the cause of Iustification also whiche is directly opposite and aduersary to the doctrine of Paule and the Grace of Christ. 6. Workes as they issue from vs are thynges vncerteine But Gods Election is a thyng alwayes certeyne and permanent Now by what reasō will Osorius proue then that thyngs beyng of their own nature certeine vnchangeable shall depēd vpon thynges transitory and variable Not but foreknowledge sayth he of thynges that are foreseene doth stand in a certeine permanēt and vnremoueable assuraunce Neither do I deny this And therefore when the foreknowledge of God hath established thyngs in such a Necessary vnaduoydeable assuraunce whiche will be chaunged by no alteration what should moue him to gnaw so greédely vpon Luther for teachyng such a Necessitie of our workes 7. When as God did regarde the people of the old Testament as a Damsell naked polluted and adulteresse c. Agayne in the new Testamēt where we are heare the vyle things things despised in this world and thyngs which are not to be had in estimation with God Moreouer whereas accordyng to the testimony of August Gods Electiō is said to haue ouerpassed many Philosophers notable for their vertue famous for the cōmendable cōuersation of life doth not the thyng it self declare sufficiently that the whole exploite of our saluation is accōplished not of any desert of our workes that were foreseéne but of his onely bountyfull benignitie and most acceptable freé mercy 8. Moreouer what shall be sayd of Infantes who are taken out of this worlde assoone as they are Baptised what shall we thinke of the theéfe hangyng on the Crosse and others the lyke who hauyng lyued most abhominably were yet receaued into the kyngdome of Christ by holy repentaunce onely thorough fayth whenas they had done no good worke at all were either any workes to come foreseéne in these persons which were none at all shall we Iudge that they wanted Electiō bycause they wanted workes foreseéne before 2. Furthermore whereas this seémeth to be the onely scope of Paules Epistle to extoll and aduaunce the freé mercy of God by all meanes possible surely this scope is vtterly ouerthrowen and rooted out if the whole action of freé Election must be decided by merites of workes foreseéne before Whiche matter moued Augustine so much that to preferre knowledge of workes yea of foreknowledge of fayth either before the Grace of Election he adiudged matter of all other most intollerable 10. Lastly bycause Osorius doth so scornefully loathe our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 innouations as her termeth them as newfangled deuises of rascallike abiects to make it euidēt that we are not altogether destitute of antiquitie to iustifie our Assertions to be true we will ioyne with vs herein the Iudgement of Augustine who excludeth foreseéne workes altogether from the worke of Gods Electiō For these are his wordes most expressely set downe And least peraduenture the faythfull should bee thought to be Elect sayth he before the foundation of the world for their workes that were foreseene he proceedeth addeth therto But if Electiō come by Grace then cōmeth it not now of workes Or els Grace now is not Grace at all c. What say you moreouer to this that in an other place hee doth vtterly deny that choyse was made of the younger to beare rule ouer the Elder through the very foreknowledge of any workes at all c. Which matters being thus set in order what remayneth but that we encounter with our aduersaries argumentes wherwith they endeuour to reuiue the auncient heresie of Pelagius and hale it out of hell agayne For as those olde heretiques dyd teach that mans will was so farforth freé as that euery man was elected for the merite of their workes foreseéne before by God none otherwise do these our new Pelagians iarre vpon the same string or not very much vnlike treading the track of their forerunners the Archheretiques referring all thinges in lyke sort to workes foreseéne before least something maye seéme to bee found altogether without recompence in the behalfe of our most bountifull and souereigne God And amongest these notable Champions rusheth out this couragious ringleader Osorius and geueth a proud onset agaynst the kingdome of Grace and hath so disposed the whole force of hys battery that the maiestie of Freewill may not by any meanes bee endamaged trustyng chiefly to this Target of proofe before mentioned arguyng on this wise If election did consist of freemercy onely sayth he without respect or choyse of any the thinges that God did foresee he might be worthely accused of vnaduised and rashe dealyng But now whereas God accordyng to his vnpenetrable counsell doth determine all thinges aduisedly in a certayne well disposed order Ergo Gods Election doth not consiste of his mercy onely without respect or choyse of workes which he foresaw would be done by the faythfull To aunswere these thinges brieflye If Osorius senselesse iudgement were not throughly ouerwhelmed with heddinesse and rashenes he would not skatter abroad such black and thick cloudes to vse Augustines wordes and such crafty cautels of confused disputations We doe know and confesse Osorius that God doth neuer any thyng at all aduētures nor vnaduisedly Yet doth not that rashe imagination therefore followe whiche you haue as rashely conceaued in that blynde denne of your intoxicate braynes to witte that workes foreseene before are the cause of Election Moreouer Gods Election is neyther therefore decreéd vpon without cause nor yet therefore guyded by blynde chaunce though it hang not vpon the choyse of works afterwardes to be done But Osor. beyng a very naturall Philosopher and very Ethicall seémeth to
Cauiller did oppose agaynst him selfe Is there any vnrighteousnesse with God why doth he yet complayne of man who is able to resiste his will It may appeare most euidētly that Paule was fully resolued there that as well Election as reiection did depend altogether vpon the very will of God without all mans deseruynges For otherwise there had bene no place to make this Obiection For if they onely should be chosen that did deserue and they likewise should be onely cast away which did not deserue what reasonable man might murmure at this when Gods Iustice rewardyng euery man accordyng to his deseruynges did now leaue no cause to moue man to be offended nor gaue any stumblyng blocke to the Apostle to enter in this kynde of Obiection But let vs now draw neare to the aunswere of the Apostle it selfe which seémeth to me to be two maner of wayes The one in respect of the person whereby he stoppeth the mouth of the murmurer O man what art thou that pleadest against God The other in respect of the thyng whereby he doth expresse the very cause it selfe perswadyng it by a certeine similitude of the Potter and the clay For as the Potter in makyng his vessels doth not regard any desert on the clayes behalfe Euen to Gods purpose in the gouernement of his Election is at libertie and freé from all respect of workes and is directed by the onely will of the maker And for this cause Paule doth make this comparison betwixt this Election of Grace and the power of the Potter Doth the thyng formed sayth Paule say to him that formed it why hast thou made me thus hath not the Potter power ouer the claye to make of the same lumpe one vessell to honour and an other to dishonour And yet GOD hath much more power ouer men then the Potter ouer the clay In deéde the Potter hath power to fashion his vessels as him listeth If God were not able to doe the lyke with his creatures then were the Potter of more power then God For the Potter is able to fashion his vessels yea to breake them and fashion them a new after his own will And shall God then be bounde to our merites and regulate his Election by the measure of our deseruynges Take this Argument if it may please you The power that the Potter hath ouer his vessels the same power hath God ouer men The Potter is of power to make vesseles to honour or to dishonour as him listeth nor is bounde to any worthynesse of the Claye Ergo God is of power to dispose his creatures after the bountie of mercy or measure of his Iustice as him listeth without all regard of deserte in his Creatures To this Argument the aduersaries make this aunswere that they do not take away power from God and that they are not able so to do neyther did euer meane anye such thinge but that onely power which he putt of from himselfe And albeit there is nothing that his omnipotēt power cānot bring to passe yet would he neuerthelesse be no more able then was be seéming to his Iustice. And because it is horrible to condemne anye man without deserte by the same reason it standeth not with equitie to defraude good workes of their due rewarde And therefore it behoueth Gods Iustice to yelde this of Necessitie that whom God would haue to be saued the same he should haue chosen for their good workes foreseéne before and the Reprobates hee should destroy for their wickednesse for otherwise if heé had no consideration of workes his Iustice could not be constant and vnchaungeable And therefore this Trifler doth conclude vpon the premisses That the Lutheranes assertion is false that in the worke of Election and Reiection choyse or respecte of workes is meerely opposite and cōtrary to the libertie and power of God c. But this obiectiō is to be encountred withall on this wise That it is one thing to treate of Election and an other thing to treate of Gods iudgement As concerning Gods iudgement it is true that no man is damned vnlesse heé haue deserued it through wickednes of sinne and that no man is saued vnlesse same cause be found in him which may be imputed vnto him for saluation But it is not so in Election and Predestination which is accomplished by Gods Freewill without all respecte eyther of former workes or workes to come afterwardes Or els what meaneth the Apostle by speaking of gods freé Election when he sayth Not of works but of him that calleth Whereupon let vs heare what Augustine wryteth Saying this not of Workes sayth hee but of him that calleth was spoken touching that the Elder shal be in subiection to the Yonger For he doth not say of works past but when he spake generally of workes in that place hys meaning was as well of workes already done as of workes that were to be done to witte workes past which were none at all and workes to come whiche as yet were not c. Workes therefore haue both their place and tyme but in Election they haue neyther place nor tyme neither is there any thyng effectuall in Election besides the onely will of God which neither hangeth vpon Fayth nor vpon Workes ne yet vppon promises but Workes Fayth promises yea and all other thinges whatsoeuer do depend vpon Election Neyther is Gods Election proportioned after the qualitie or quantitie of our workes but our workes rather directed by his Electiō none otherwise then as the effectes do depēd vpon the cause not contrariwise the cause vpon the effectes And yet in the meane tyme God is not vnrighteous Neither doth GOD therfore offend in Iustice distributiue if he haue mercy on whom hee will haue mercy or if hee doe harden whom he will harden And why so because hee oweth nothing to any man for whereas all men are borne by nature the children of wrath altogether why might not God according to the purpose of hys will haue mercy on whom he will haue mercy and agayne cast them awaye whom him listed leauing them to their naturall filthe and corruption to witte not hauing any compassion vpon them Wherby all men may throughly perceaue as well the reprobate what the cause is that they are rightfully condēned as the elect also how much they be indebted to God for this his so vnmeasurable mearcye These matters beyng so cleare your foolish consequent then whereby you wrestle so much for the vpholding of works against the Election of Grace as though if God did not work Electiō for the merite sake of the workes foreseéne that then his Iustice could not possible beé acquited nor defēded frōiust accusation of slaunder is vtterly fonde faynte and not worth a rush for if it were true then is not Election of Grace but of workes yea Paule spake foolishlishly also saying that the remnant are saued according to the Election of Grace and according to the purpose
he liue and be conuerted shall now alter his nature and will not the lyfe but the destruction of a Sinner whenas also all things are good that God hath created can he hate the worke of his owne handes yea not onely after he hath created it but also before hee hath made it I am not ignoraunt Osorius of these and such lyke your not absurdities but cauilles rather which you are wont to thrust vpon vs now and then To the which to make a playne and distinct aūswere First the nature of causes it selfe must bee considered Then must a playne distinction of Gods will be opened For when question is made of Gods will the Scripture doth not speake therof alwayes after one maner phrase of speach nor expresse the same euery where after one onely signification Sometymes this name of will is taken in a most large and ample signification for that which Gods decreé hath determined shall come to passe in all matters As in that place of Paule God doth take mercy on whom he will haue mercy and doth indurate whom he will c. And agayne God did what soeuer he would doe in heauen and in earth And in an other place Bycause it seemeth so good in thyne eyes O Father Luke 10. And this will seruyng in eche respect to as many purposes as the foreknowledge and essence of God doth both go before all other meane and secondary causes in order of tyme and of it owne power also doth dispose all thynges good Syr not as though it would enforce them agaynst their willes by any outward coaction but doth so dispose and order thyngs with a certeine secrett power as that through their voluntary and seruiceable yeldyng they atteyne at the last to the same purpose whereunto the will of God did first chiefly foreordeyne and direct them Whereby it commeth to passe that though the will of God of it selfe make no persons euill properly yet that wicked persons notwithstandyng shall accōplish the will of God if not accordyng to the euent and successe properly and absolutely yet by accidentall meanes So that on this wise albeit the destruction of the wicked proceéde from the voluntary corruptiō of man not from Gods will as from the nearest cause yet do not those wicked persons fulfill their wickednes without Gods will For in as much as it is a due scourge and punishment of sinne man is not punished therewith without Gods will Agayne by this word will is signified sometymes that wherewith God by his expresse word doth notifie him selfe to be delighted to be well pleased and which is acceptable in his sight Of whiche sort are all thynges whiche be naturally good and commendable In which significatiō God is sayd not to will wickednes nor to will the death of a sinner And of this will speaketh the Apostle This is the will of God your sanctification And this will the faythfull onely do performe properly and simply We haue spokē now of will we must now create somewhat of the order of causes Wherein this is to be noted aboue all other To witte that the first causes haue alwayes relatiō to the vttmost endes the meane concurraūt endes effectes to the meane middle causes Forasmuch therfore as the will of god that is to say the decreé of God is the originall of all causes we must then seeke out what the last end is which may be answerable to this will now the same is sufficiently discouered by Paul If God sayth he willing on the one side to shew hys wrath and to make his power knowne do with much sufferaunce and lenyty beare with the Vessels of wrathe prepared vnto destruction and on the other side to make knowne the richesse of hys glory towardes the vessels of mercy which he hath prepared to glory c. By which wordes who doth not easely perceaue that the last and principall ende of Gods workmanship doth consist in this not that wicked men should perish but that the Larges of hys heauenly mercy should more mightely increase in the saluation of hys faythfull Now because this could not be brought to passe by any other meanes vnlesse there were some on the contrary part vpon whome the seueritie of Gods Iustice might be exequuted it seémed good therefore to the Almighty Creator of all the creation in this vnspeakeable Workshop of the whole world to dispose his vessels to seuerall vses not all vnto honor nor yet all vnto dishonor but some he made seruiceable instrumentes of hys Iustice other some meéte instruments of hys mercy not that he created his creatures to this effect as to the finall and vtmost end of hys purpose that they should perish but because he had so determined with himselfe in his secret counsell before the foundations of the world not to haue mercy vpon all therefore it could not othertherwise be but that such as should be forsaken of him beyng forsaken and yelded ouer to themselues should fall away of very necessitie For Gods grace withdrawing assistaunce mans imbecillity must withall neédes fall to the ground and Nature being nowe ouerthrowne Gods Iustice coulde not but execute his office punish greuously of very necessitie And hereof cōmeth the destruction of the reprobates persecutors of hys people the efficient cause wherof cōsisteth truely in euery of their own corruption but the cause deficient in the will of God And therefore we ought not to Iudge alyke of the causes of Election and Damnation For although these be certayne brāches of predestination and concurre altogether in one kynde one originall and one end yet do they differ notwithstanding in the maner The fountayne original of them both is the decreé of God and the ende is the glory of God And yet is not Election to lyfe euerlasting of the same sort that reprobation to destruction is For hee hath chosen by making hee doth reiect not by doyng somewhat but rather by forsaking And in the saluation of that Godly that whol cause is so wholy shut vp in God as that besides him no person nor cause can come betwixt that may challenge any interest in the title of Election and Saluacion But that matter goeth otherwise in the destruction of the reprobate for albeit such as perishe are not damned at all without the will of God yet besides this will also that obstinate rebellion of mans will thrusteth it self in wherby they do worthely procure to thē selues deserued Damnation For God doth neyther so cast of those whom he doth cast away as one that did enforce them to commit filthines but forsaketh euery such one and yeldeth him ouer to hys owne guiding Now Freewill beyng nothing els but fraylty and feéble weakenes it selfe vnable to defend the brickle inclination of nature agaynst the monsturous assaultes of vnsatiable lust yeldeth it selfe coward captiue to euery storme of suttle Tētation By meanes whereof
a whiles Let vs heare Augustine hereupon and make him as it were Iudge of the cause For where question is made Whether God did call all men indifferently by a generall inspiration to fayth and Saluatiō Augustine doth make this aunswere For as much as vocation or callyng is taken two maner of wayes to witte internall and externall true it is sayth he that all men are indifferently called after the maner of that externall calling but all are not as indifferently drawen by this internall vocation And if the cause be sought for why all are not drawen indifferently but that to some it is geuen to others some not geuen He maketh this aunswere Some there be that will say quoth he it is the will of man But we say it is the Grace and Predestination of God But God doth require mē to beleue I confesse sayth he yet is fayth neuerthelesse the gift of God For he that doth require faith doth promise withall that he will bring to passe that they shall performe that which he commaundeth c. And agayne If it be demaunded whether mercy be therefore geuen to man bycause he beleueth or that mercy were therfore bestowed vpon him bycause he should become beleuyng to this questiō he maketh the very aunswere of the Apostles I haue obteined mercy bycause I should be faythfull He doth not say bycause I was faythfull c. And this much hetherto out of Augustine Let vs now come to Pighius And bycause we are happened vpon this place to discourse vpon to witte the equall dispensatiō of Gods mercy It shall not be amisse to consider briefly his opinion herein agreéyng with Osorius altogether For these be the speaches of Pighius God doth offer him selfe sayth he an equall and indifferent father to all persons he ouerspreadeth all mē generally with the one selfe same gladsome beames of mercy and clemency without any difference Now if some through this lenitie become tractable and other some hereby made more indurate this discrepaunce proceédeth frō the corruption of mē There is no vnequallitie of distribution of lenitie and mercy in God For proofe whereof takyng a Similitude out of the Epistle to the Hebrues the iiij Chap. For as not euery land watered with like bountyfulnesse of the heauenly dew doth yeld lyke fruite to the husbandman but one land yeldeth forth corne an other thornes brambles the one wherof is blessed of God the other accursed euen no lesse ioyously doth the mercy of God shyne indifferently with generall and equall largesse and bountie towardes all vniuersally which beyng set wyde open to all alike doth deny it selfe to none but such as will refuse it them selues But some turne to amēdemēt of life through this mercy others some do abuse this mercy to more outragious licentiousnes of sumyng And agayne fetchyng a similitude frō the heate of the Sunne Whereas the Sunne yeldeth one selfe same heate we doe seé that through the same the earth is made more stiffe and hard and the waxe softened and made more plyable Hereupō Pighius gathereth That what soeuer difference is betwixt the good and the reprobate the same wholy to issue out of the corruption of men and not out of the will of God But our Expositours haue sufficiently aunswered this slipper deuise that this Assertion of Pighius and of his mate Osorius that Gods mercy is powred alike into all men is vtterly false and absurde where they do affirme that God maketh no choyse in the dispensation of his Grace that there is great difference betwixt the godly the vngodly in deéde that there is great difference betwixt the good bad we do not deny But where they doe ascribe the principall motion and efficient cause hereof in mans will onely and not in God onely they are altogether deceaued For as concernyng the common nature of mā truly in this we may with more certeintie determine equabilitie of condition in mankynd as that they reteine one semblable condition and qualitie of freé choyse for as much as all beyng created out of one lumpe are alike all poysoned alike with one kynde of infectiō as men that be altogether vnable of them selues to doe any thyng auayleable to Saluation And for as much as this imbecillitie doth infect all mākynde alike as with a generall pestilence It appeareth therfore euidently that this difference standeth not so much vpon the determination of their will or at least if it stand vppon their will yet that it doth not proceéde first from mans will but from the callyng of God whiche offereth it selfe not alike to euery one nor after one maner to all ingenerall but doth diuersly drawe some after one sort and some after an other For as I sayd before The Scriptures haue set downe a double maner of callyng the one wherof is generall and outward The other is inward accordyng to purpose to witte the callyng of them whose willes the holy Ghost doth enspire and enlighten with an inward effectuallnesse But this Similitude of the Clay and Waxe is ridiculous and worthy to be laughed at Bycause that this distinction can not be appliable to Freewill after the fall of Adam For of the whole ofspryng of Adam not some be plyable as Waxe nor some lumpish as hard earth For where God doth fashion vessels of one kynde of Clay as Paule sayth some vnto honour some vnto dishonour no mā is so madd to affirme that the Clay is the cause of this difference but the Potter rather Moreouer to as small purpose serueth that place to the Hebrues which treateth not of Grace Freewill but of the word of God and men whom he doth exhort by way of demonstratiō and cōparison of frutefull grounde to receaue the word of God fruitefull and professe the same with effect The same also is to be vnderstanded of that Parable of the good ground yeldyng to the husbandman plenty and aboundaunce of fruite mentioned in the Gospell But how may these be applyed to Freewill or what will Pighius coyne hereof If Gods word take roote in none but such as be good what auayleth this sentence to establish the doctrine of Freewill For the question is not here whether they onely be good which receaue the word of eternall lyfe effectually But this is the pointe that must be touched From whence men receaue habilitie to be made good of the nymblenesse of their owne will or of the callyng of God And therfore that Parable serueth to no purpose in this case as beyng applied for none other end but to signifie the dispensation and disposition of Gods holy word which in a maner may aptly be compared to seede wh though the husbandman do sow vpon euery ground indifferētly yet it yealdeth forth fruite but in a fewe yea in those also that be good groundes But hauing now rent in sunder these slender and trifling cob webbes The aduersaries notwithstanding be neuer a deale the
determineth to be done The Logitians that haue described the fourme of a Sorites doth deny that this kinde of arguyng is of any substaunce vnlesse the parts of the true properties and differences do accord and aunswere eche other with a necessary coupling together of the kyndes and the formes and that the proper effectes be applied to the proper causes Of all which there is not one so much obserued in all this heape of wordes and sentences wherein if I might as lawfully vtter some follishe skill by creeping forward after the same sorte with follish childish degrees of propositions it would not be hard for me to conclude out of gramtyng the freédome of mans will That there were no Predestistation nor prouident of God at all in heauen which we proued before out of Augustine â— was once concluded vpon by Cicero First such as doe affirme that God is the chief and principall cause of all thyngs and do graunt all things to be subiect to his will do not erre except Augustine do erre who discoursing vpon the will of God The will of God sayth he is the first and Soueraigne cause of all formes and motions for there is nothing done that issueth not fromout the secrett and intelligible closett of the highest Emperour according to vnspeakeable Iustice for where doth not the omnipotent wisedome of God worke what it pleaseth hym which mightely stretcheth hys power from one ende of the worlde to the other and ordereth all thinges most sweetely Thus much Augustine And yet this cause doth not therefore enduce such a Necessitie of coactione as Osori doth imagine as that no freédome of will should remayne in man that he should do nothing of hys own accord that he should deserue nothing worthy of punishment but should serue in steede of an Instrument as it were enforced through fatall coaction should be gouerned by an others power that it selfe should bring nothyng to passe wherefore it ought to be punished Now for asmuch as Luthers Assertion doth maintayne none of all these what is become of that horrible accusation wherein Luther is sayd to accuse God of vnrighteousnesse It is not agreable with Iustice sayth he that such as are onely instrumentes of wickednesse should be punished But according to Luthers doctrine men in doing wickedly seeme nothing els then instrumentes of wickednes Where finde you this M. Doctour where haue you it who euer besides Osorius spake on this wise either waking or sleéping sometime Gods prouidence doth vse the seruice of man to punish euill doers Euen so did God auenge hym vpon the sinnes of owne people by the Babilonianes Agayne to take vengeaunce of the Assirianes was Cirus the Duke of Persia raysed vppe So did God vse also the malice of the Iewes to finish the worke of our redemption for vnlesse that Natione had conspired agaynst the sonne of God we had not bene redeémed And what is the deuill himselfe but the Rodde of correction in the hand of God and as it were an Instrument of vengeaunce ordayned to punishe the outragies of euill doers yet doth it not therefore follow that deuils and wicked persones when they are called Instrumentes of Gods wrath are nothing els but Instrumentes as though they were forced onely and themselues did nothing at all and as though by doyng nothing themselues deserued no wrath For neyther do we so imagine meÌ„ to be like vnto stoanes as I haue sayd before as though we left vnto them no abilitie in action euen as the mynde of man vnlesse it be ayded can of it selfe do nothing but sinne so doth no man sinne at any tyme but by hys owne voluntary motione which sinne albeit he doth not commit without the will of God yet because he doth commit it contrary to the will and commaundement of God he is not acquired of hys fault As when a murtherer killeth men albeit he seeme after a certeine maner to exeâ—uute the will of God yet because he doth not the deede onely beyng of the minde simply to serue hys God but rather to follow the rage of his malice therfore is he neyther excusable as beyng not faulty nor is God to be accused for vnrighteous because he executeth hys wrath Wherfore it is false and slaunderous which Osorius doth conclude vpon the Assertion of Predestination For he coÌ„cluded two absurdities chiefly but with a farre more grosse absurditie The first That God is the cause of destruction and reprobation The secoÌ„d That they which offend are punished vnworthely Both which are vnmeasurably vayne For albeit the decreé of God be the first and soueraigne cause in all actiones by the which all other second and inferiour causes are gouerned and although there is condemnation to the Reprobates without the same decreé Yet neuerthelesse this same condemnation is both adiudged righteous and floweth also from their own will properly not properly froÌ„ the decreé of God For many thinges be done agaynst the will of God by a certayne wonderfull and vnspeakeable maner as I haue sayd whiche come not passe notwithstanding without hys will He ruleth ouer the mindes of men as Augustine reporteth and worketh in their hartes to encline their will whither him listeth eyther vnto good thinges for hys great mercyes sake eyther to euill thinges according to their deseruings after the proportioÌ„ of his owne IudgemeÌ„t sometymes manifest sometimes secrett but alwayes most iust and righteous bringing to passe by a certayne merueilous operation of hys owne power that in the things which men do agaynst the will of God it cannot be but that the will of God must needes be fulfilled Therefore the will of God as you seé is the first and soueraigne cause of all causes and motiones whiche neuerthelesse must be so vnderstanded that thys first cause respect properly nothyng but the last ende Now this ende is the glory of God and the most excellent commendation of hys Iustice and mercy In the meane tyme the other middle endes do depend vpon their owne middle and proper causes and are referred vnto the same Whereby it commeth to passe that betwixt Gods decreé and the condemnation of the Reprobate many causes of condemnation doe come betwene to witte Infidelitie the Inheritable corruption of Nature defiled and whatsoeuer fruites spring thereof Now the proper efficient cause of this Infidelitie and naturall corruption is mans will not Gods predestination which corruption and Infidelitie notwithstanding are so gouerned by Gods decreé so subiect there vnto that although they be not executed by the decree of God yet chaunce they not at any tyme besides hys decree nor without hys decreé whereof God as Augustine sayth is not the cause efficient but the cause deficient Now therefore where is that fatall and euerlasting Necessitie Osorius which as you say doth thrust men maugre their heades by violent coaction without any their owne will into all kynde of wickednes where are the vndescrued
the Grace of God offered vnto vs or els not to receaue it I deny the Argument For where the effectuall Grace of God is which worketh in vs not onely by outward callyng but also by the inward renewyng and earnest motion of the mynde as Augustine writeth to Simplician there can be no defect of will And agayne wheresoeuer is any want of will there is not Gods effectuall Grace which is comprehēded within these two partes outward callyng and inward drawyng So that the receauyng of grace is within vs in deéde yet commeth not of our selues but of the grace of God But the Refusall of Grace is both in vs and of vs and yet in such wise as that beyng left ouer to our owne weakenesse we are not able to doe otherwise of our selues There is obiected out of Augustine Hypognosticon 3. booke That we haue lost our freedome not to will but to be able and to performe First by that consent of the learned it is certeine that this booke was neuer made by August 2. the aduersaries do not interprete it aright 3. let the premisses be ioyned with that which followeth For he doth cōfesse that there is a Freewill hauyng Iudgemēt of reason in deéde not by wh it may be apt either to begyn or to end any godly action wtout God but onely in the actions of this present life And forthwith followeth in the same August When we speake of Freewill we do not treate of one part of man onely but of whole mā altogether c. Whereupō their errour is cōdēned which do affirme that corruptiō is wholy includeth within the flesh whereas by testimony of the same Aug. corruption hath defiled that inward powers of the soule likewise whereupō he speaketh in the same place on this wise Freewill beyng defiled the whole mā is defiled wherfore without helpe of the Grace of God he is neither able to begin to do any thyng that may be acceptable vnto God nor yet to performe it The Scripture doth euery where describe the Freedome of will Where it testifieth that God will render to euery man accordyng to his deseruyng whereas it cōteyneth ordinaunces and preceptes of good lyfe where it exhorteth euery where to godlynes forbyddeth to sinne and threateneth punishment Out of all whiche it is most assured that the power of freewill is declared If the whole Scriptures treate altogether euery where of these where be the premisses then First as touchyng merites Augustine doth Aunswere Woe be vnto the lyfe of man thought neuer so commendable if God deale with vs after our deseruynges As cōcernyng reward he doth aunswere after the same maner That reward is geuē in deede to them that deserue it but yet so as to deserue is geuen first from the grace of God and proceedeth not from mans Freewill vnto whō reward is geuen afterwardes That is to say Grace for Grace as Augustine sayth Moreouer as cōcernyng the preceptes and commaundementes in deéde GOD doth commaunde vs to walke in them but he doth promise that he will bryng to passe that we may walke in thē that is to say that he will geue vs both a mynde and feéte to walke withall Where a Recompence is made there is a consideration of merite Nay rather the conclusion would haue bene more correspōdent on this wise Where Recompence doth follow there doth consideration of obedience goe before For of Obedience the Argument is good enough but of Merite starke naught Where Recompence is there is regarde had both of Obediēce and of Merite out of the Maister of Sentēces Wherupon they argue on this maner Hope doth not trust to the mercy of God onely but to our Merites also And therfore to hope beyng voyde of Merites is not to hope but to presume as they affirme This Treatize here toucheth Merites and Obediēce both I aunswere vnto both First of Obedience the Assertion may be graunted But that Obedience is ment here that is made acceptable to God and proceédeth not from the will and abilitie of our Freéwill but from the grace of GOD onely But of Merite if the worthynesse of the worke be regarded we doe vtterly deny it if they vnderstand of Obedience approued and acceptable in the sight of GOD we doe not striue agaynst them so that they will reknowledge this much agayne that this Obedience of ours how ready soeuer it be doth not spryng from our owne abilitie but that we ought to acknowledge it as a gift receaued by the benefite of the heauenly Grace to be his gift onely and none others Agaynst this Masterlyke sentence I will set downe the opinion of Basile He that trusteth not in himselfe neither looketh to be iustified by workes that man hath the hope of Saluation reposed onely in the mercies of God Augustine disputyng agaynst the Pelagians which did say that the same Recōpence which shal be geuen in the ende is a reward of good workes going before doth aūswere That this may be graūted vnto them if they likewise agayne would confesse that those good workes were the gifts of God and not the proper actiōs of mē for those that are such that is to say proper vnto men are euill but yet are good giftes of God c. Whereupō in an other place If thy merites sayth he come of thy selfe they be euill and for that cause are they not crowned and therefore that they may be good they must be the giftes of God And agayne writyng to Sixtus Be there no merites of righteous men yeas truly Bycause they be righteous men but their merites brought not to passe that they were made righteous For they be made righteous when they be Iustified but after the maner of the Apostles teachyng Freely Iustified through the Grace of Christ. And agayne writyng vpon the 94. Psalme If GOD would deale accordyng to mens deseruynges he should not finde any thyng but that he might of very Iustice vtterly condemne c. But these sayinges bycause they apperteyne to the Iudgement of yeldyng Reward do concerne our cause nothyng at all who do not create now of the last Iudgement but of the Grace of Election properly Whiche grace whosoeuer will say is geuen accordyng to the proportion of deseruynges Augustine doth call the same a most pernitious errour It is Furthermore obiected that Augustine writyng vnto Prosper and Hyllary doth not onely in the very title of the booke ioyne Freewill with Grace but also heapyng a nomber of Arguments together doth very earnestly endeuour to confirme that man hath Freewill I do confesse that Augustine in these bookes as many tymes otherwise doth by certeyne Argumentes framed out of holy Scriptures teache Freewill and withall ioyne it with Grace But such Argumentes are they as him selfe afterwardes confuteth Moreouer consideration must be had in what wise he doth ioyne both these together how he doth part them a sūder agayne
c. And these giftes of God in deéde as Augustine reporteth if there be no Predestination are not foreknowne of God if they be foreknowne then is there a necessary predestination of God which we do defend To conclude Christ doth aduertize hys disciples That God doth know well inough what they stand in neede of before they doe pray and yet he willeth them to pray notwithstanding shewing vnto them aforme of prayer also Sufficient aunswere is made nowe Osori if I be not deceaued vnto the obiections of your fraternity that is to say to your trifles and slaūders if not to all yet at the least to the very principall pillers and chiefe stayes of your vagarant disputation if not with such force and dexterity as may be able to putte your ouerthwhart obstinacy to scilence yet as much for the defence of Luthers cause as will satisfie the reasonable Reader I trust sauing that there remaineth one quarrell or cōplaynt of yours as yet agaynst Luther A hanger by of all the rest as it were whereunto I cannot tell what I shall say whether I were best to laugh at it or aunswere it for who can possibly resfrayne from laughter to reade that ridiculous counterfayte Prosopopoeia of yours wherein lyke a very foolish Rhetorician you haue thrust in vppon the stage a lusty Ruffler who in the person of a Swartrutter may accuse Luther for the vproares raysed by the countrey Boores in Germany As though of all that whole route of Clownes any one were heard at anye tyme to accuse Luther as Author of this tumulte or woulde haue vttered somuch as halfe a word of reproche against him for the same if he might speake for him selfe were not compelled to vse herein the counterfaite person of an other or as though the Hystories do not declare sufficiētly from whence the spryng head of all this mischief burst out at the first surely not from Luther but from an other Crowbyrde from an other Chayre of pestilence Osorius what soeuer it was But goe to Let vs heare what dronken eloquence this gallaunt counterfaite swart Rutter doth gushe out vnto vs out of Osorius drousie tankerd And with what flashes of thundryng wordes he meaneth to scorche vppe Luther withall O Luther why doest thou accuse the harmelesse and innocent why doest thou rage why art thou madde Truly I should haue wondered if Osorius would haue spoken any thyng agaynst Luther but with some haryshe eloquēce Nay rather Osori if your selfe be not starke madde what kynde of maddnes What rage what accusatiōs do ye tell vs of here Wherfore let it be as lawfull for Luther to aunswere for him selfe agayne and with like speéche not to the Germaine ruffler but to the Porting all Byshop whom if he might reproue agayn contrarywise after this maner O Osorius why do ye accuse the guiltelesse why doe ye keépe such a sturre why are you so franticke who if were well in your wittes would neuer reproche me with such madnesse But what haue I haue done what haue I deserued is it bycause I would not encline to the furious disorders of the rebellious what dyd I euer so much as moue a finger towardes that cause did I not reproue them forthwith with penne and speache very instauntly did euer man more earnestly bende the force of his arme agaynst them thē I did my writing If they would but haue harkened to my counsell and continuall admonitions the matter had neuer proceéded to so much bloudshead What And shall I receaue this recompence for my good meanyng towardes you to be accoumpted a madd man No say you not bycause ye wrote agaynst them doe we reprehend you but bycause you ministred the occasion of this vprore But from whence do ye gather this to be true Osorius Forsooth bycause they did learne this of you that we were not able of our selues to doe either good or euil for that God doth as you say worke all in all in vs. c. In deéde I haue denyed that to thinke good or euill is in our owne hād And what hereof I pray you in what respect are these wordes applyable to the Countrey Boores and to their rebellion Doth that man open a gappe of licentiousnesse and seditious treachery to husbandmen which doth abate that Freédome from mans will in doyng or atchieuyng any enterprise which your Deuines do falsely challenge as proper to mā Is it therfore lawfull to be wicked bycause many tymes men are hindered agaynst their wills from puttyng a mischief in executiō or shall the will be therfore not wicked in doyng wickedly bycause it is not freé but enforced to yeld to a necessary Seruilitie which of it selfe it is not able to shake away Is the wicked Spirite therfore excused bycause in doyng euill he doth it not so much of any Freédome as of Necessitie for how shall he be sayd to be freé which amiddes the race of his rudenes is now and then restrayned agaynst his will and is not Lord of his owne will not so much as in doyng euill yet doth this beyng not freé of him selfe nothyng withstād but that he continue euill still what and if I had sayd that the will of the wicked of it selfe is not freé but euery way captiue and bonde is it therfore to be imputed to God forthwith not to men whatsoeuer they shall do wickedly As though when men do thinke or committe euill they be compelled thereunto agaynst their willes are not willyngly and of their owne motion chiefly drawen thereunto For to confesse this saying to be most true That God is he that worketh all in all yet doth he bryng to passe nothyng in mā surely without their owne wills so that if there be any euill in them there is no cause why God should be accused for it but euery man must laye the fault of his owne folly and wilfulnes to his owne charge But say you for as much as God doth lead mens willes hereunto by what reason cā ye couple the stabilitie of your doctrine with the defence of Gods Iustice. I do aunswere First when we do ioyne the singuler prouidence of God workyng all in all in all the actions of mans lyfe we do set the same forth as all thynges may be referred to this as to the primer cause efficient which doth not worke properly but in respect of the last end of all thinges Here now for as much as God is of his owne nature most best and most perfect hereupon it commeth to passe that he which hath ordeined all thynges for him selfe can in no respect be the cause of euill 2. Then as touchyng the middle causes whereas there is no man that doth not fall through his owne default and the procurement of Sathan it shal be reason therfore that no man seéke for the cause of sinne without his own selfe and that he complayne not of God for the same 3. But yet to admit
doctrine were of such authoritie with you why did you shut vppe your eares from your Masters lessones If you betooke your selues to Armes through occasion of one sentence wrongfully vnderstoode or misconstrued why dyd ye not forsake the field for so many my exhortatiōs and notable exclamations to the contrary But go to Osorius bycause vnder the person of the Boores complaynte you do so vehemently wrest all this false suggestion of mischief agaynst me What if I deny your Assumpsit how will you be able to proue it perhappes by heare say amongest the clownes what of any that be liuyng or that be dead But when the poore clownes lyued and were drawen to execution tormented and stretched out vpon the rackes in which extremitie men are wont for the more part to vtter more thē they know If there were one so much of that whole rable muttered euer halfe a sillable of me such as your Carterlyke and senselesse Imagination hath deuised agaynst me I will willyngly yeld to this accusation of suspitiō But by your occasion say you this tumult might haue bene raysed easily So might the Blacke Moore chaūge his skinne And Osor. also might leaue his lyeng But all thynges are not by and by done that may be done But onward how proue you that it might haue bene so Bycause say you that God worketh all in all in vs accordyng to Luthers Assertion and we be instrumentes onely applyed and wrest with his handes hereupon followeth it therefore sithe God onely raysed vppe these tumultes and was the onely procurour deuisour and accomplisher of this sturre that the Boores of necessitie must be guiltlesse and innocēt hereof Go to And do ye suppose Osorius that these wordes were the whole seédeplotte of all this Rebellion what shall we say thē to that which we read in Paul That it is God that worketh all in all And agayne That worketh all according to the purpose of his will And in the Prophet Amos. There is no euill in the Citie that the Lord hath not done And agayne whē we heare on euery side aswell amongest the Prophetes as the Apostle That men are made blinde of God are deliuered ouer into a Reprobate mynde Why might not the Boores haue taken occasion of these wordes aswell as of myne Go to And what and if I had writtē these wordes also namely That it is in the power of our Freewill to dispose our selues whereunto we lyst either to make our selues earthen vessels or golden vessels in the house of the Lord would the Boores haue the sooner bene quieted for this cause And yet this is the generall proclamation of that notorious Seé of Rome dispersed throughout all Catholicke Nations the same doe all their Recordes and Canons noyse abroad wheresoeuer they crawle yea many yeares before Luther was borne and the very same also doth Osorius write at this day in Portingall and many other of the lyke fraternitie elles where what was there neuer any cōmotions therfore of the rude multitude before Luther was borne in Portingall none in Italy Germany Fraunce England Cycill other Nations Could this or any other portiō of Scripture or doctrine euē so bridle the affections of the vnruly but that they would at one tyme or other burst out into outragious extremities I adde moreouer Admit that my wordes beyng either misconceaued or misconstrued might suggest some matter of euill occasiō shall it be lesse lawfull therfore to beare testimony of the truth bycause there be some that are so beastly brutish that will mishandle the wordes and deédes of others be they neuer so well spoken By this reason away with the Bible bycause out of the same the most parte of heretiques haue sucked their poyson what dyd not Paule therfore not commende the Iustice of God aright by our vnrighteousnesse bycause there wanted not that would abuse his saying to occasion of euill Let vs doe euill say they that good may come thereby The auncient godly Christians were wont to assemble together and sing Psalmes before day light and to receaue the Sacrament of bread wyne Hereupon began rumours to be scattered abroad that the Christiās dyd worshyp the rysing of the Sunne dyd sacrifice to Ceres Bacohus And what hath bene so well spoken or established at any tyme that the peéuishenesse of peruerse and froward persons will not depraue◠if they lyst to pyke a quarell or slaunder the good wordes and well doynges of men The same came to passe with Augustine him selfe through the Pelagians who after had once brought in the name and commendation of grace hereupon forthwith they began to quarell with him as though he should affirme that men are made good by fatall Necessitie And agayne where he denyed that Grace was distributed accordyng to mēs deseruyngs this saying they gnawed at as though he should say That no endeuour ought to be looked for from the will of man contrary that saying in the Gospell where the Lord spake Aske and it shal be geuen you seeke and ye shall finde knocke and it shal be opened vnto you for euery one that doth aske shall receaue c. And all this haue I debated with you euen as it were truth that your counterfaite imagination hath deuised to witte that I should be the originall of all that rebellious insolencie I come now to that pynche of my true defence Namely to deny that there is or euer was any Boore in all Germany that did euer Iustifie this slaunder agaynst me This was neuer the speéche of any Boore but the rude vnshamefastnesse of Osorius voyde of all matter of probabilitie to make me authour of all this mischief The very authour wherof if as yet you do not know and would fayne know him in deéde I will tell him you but briefly yet truly Osorius When Sathan perceaued that the kyngdome of your pride was ready to haue a fall and that the Romishe Prelate could now no longer mainteyne his erroneous sacriledges agaynst the glorious excellency of the gladsome Gospell he entred by a notable pollicie into this deuise vnder the pretence of the Gospell to tickle vppe madd braynes thereby to bryng the Gospell in obloquy and infamy the ouerthrow whereof he perceaued now past his compasse as the which he was now no longer able to withstand Then also vnlesse this lying Osorius had sett him selfe forth as an especiall Instrument of this wyly Serpent vpon whose shauen sconse not so much as a herebreadth may be founde growing of an honest or sober man ye would neuer haue so filthyly infamed the good reporte and credite of honest personages standyng in the defence of the Gospell with so many slaunderous lyes and cursed reproches If Luther should vse this or the lyke counterbuffe accordyng to the frankenes of his speéche agaynst your rusty clownish and illfauored false Diuinitie I do not aske what you could answere him agayne Osorius But I feare this rather least as he should not
pure elegancy of Cicero do seeme in his iudgement childishe stammerers in vayne haue Augustine Ierome Ciprian Ambrose Gregory Bernard in vayne haue the Romish Prelates and all other expositours both of the Greéke and the Latine Churches in vayne haue Angrensis Dalmata Alphonsus Turianus Andradius bestowed great and paynfull labours in writiÌ„g whose style and forme of phrase if be throughly viewed and considered peraduenture the more part of them will be found to differre as farre from the finesse of Cicero as Haddon doth That I may be so bolde to make no mencioÌ„ at all of Scotus Sotus LoÌ„bardus Gratiane Thomas de Aquino Raphaell Gabriell and such like trasshe yea how many may a maÌ„ pyke out from amongst the most famous and true Christian deuines who of sett purpose haue abased their stile not because they could not write so loftely of the thinges that you esteéme of so gaâ—ly but because they were of this minde that this hawty loftinesse of affected Eloquence woulde not agreé with the naturall simplicitie of the Gospell Whereupon Ierom writing to Pammachius seemeth in this respecte to haue him in the more estimacioÌ„ because he despised Cicero in respect of Christ and farther also is of this Iudgement that in the expositioÌ„ of scriptures the nycetye of speache ought not onely to be dissimuled but also vtterly eschued because it might be more profitable for all ingenerall Christ our sauiour accompteth the high and great thinges of this worlde to he execrable and abhominable in the sight of God And the Prophet Esay doth with wonderfull manacing threaten Manasses the day of the Lord agaynst all things that be fayre beautifull florishing things of this world Paule in enlarging the knowledge of the Euangelicall doctrine durst not beginne the same with high and lofty Rhetoricall speache nor furnishe his wordes with humayne Eloquence not because it was hard for him to do so if he listed but chose rather to refrayne least the Crosse of Christ sayth he might be made voyde and of none effect I speake not this because I would haue men tyed to such a necessitie now a dayes by his example namely sithe the Gospell of Christ doth so florish euery where as though it might not be lawfull in these dayes with what soeuer ornamentes yea of greattest estimatioÌ„ to beautifie the speache to applye the same to the vse of Christes congregatioÌ„ But yet must modest discretioÌ„ be vsed here Truely if Plato were of opinion that the last end of Eloquence was that we should deliuer vtter things acceptable to God how much more theÌ„ is the same to be required in a Deuine Aud therefore as concerning the Grace and dexteritie of Cicero whatsoeuer it be that eyther Nature did emplant in him or Industry did attayne as I despise it not but rather very well like of it and do wonder at so excellent a gift of God in him so agayne do I not reprehend in any man to immitate him so that his imitation be ioyned with Christian simplicitie so that it be done not to hawke after the proud estimation of the worlde nor to the vayne glorious ostentation of witte nor for anye priuate glory finally so that it be so applyed that discret imitation may be clearely voyde of vayne affectation Nowe what shall we say to them who reiecting all other teachers of maners and doctrine do employ all their endeuour to file vpp their tongues so addict themselues altogether to Cicero alone and so amazedly dote vpon him onely that thinke it a lesse fault not to be a Christian almost then not to be a Ciceronian nor iudge hym scarse worthy the reading though he be neuer so Christian a wryter that doth not frame hys stile after Ciceroes patterne and sauor altogether of hys delicate speache And that is the cause as I suppose why Osorius doth recken that Haddon doth wryte nothing purely and nothing playnly Not because he hath corruptly or fasly written but that it seémeth to Osori that he hath not written like a Ciceronian because hee doth not throughly resemble his dexteritie loftines although in deéde he be not very farre behinde hym And therfore this sweete man doth woÌ„der what waywardnes of minde forced him to be so bold as to wryte agaynst Osorius and coÌ„maundeth him to learne of him if it please the Muses how hawty and vehement interrogations must be applyed in place fitte for the same Last of all in steade of a Rhetoricall acclamation concluding with a Satyricall skoffe he doth aduertize hym To procede in writing franckly as hym listeth and because he will encourage hym to wryte more franckly and freely he telleth him that he may freely wryte without daunger because no man of any iudgement or skill will blame him in this respect that he is addicted to Cicero more then is needefull If there were any sense or feélyng of right or wrong in all your body or if there were any reason in all these your vnmanerly tauntes and rascallike scoffes Osorius I could acquite you with the lyke and could be contented to space them vnto you in Haddons behalfe But now for as much as this your speach is so aboundauÌ„tly replenished with vanitie and folly what were better for me to doe then accordyng to the counsell of the wise man To aunswere a foole accordyng to his foolishnesse Briefly therfore and bycause I make hast to the end of your booke to auÌ„swere not to your Argumentes which in deéde are none but to aunswere your scoffes and nyppyng conceiptes not altogether vnpleasauntly yet neuerthelesse somewhat truly Surely I do geue you harty thankes Osorius not for myne owne cause onely but in the publicke name of all the learned generally for the thynges wh you haue taught vs hetherto in these your notable books For so haue you taught as we all can not but be merry and receaue singuler delight at your doynges For what is he that can absteine from laughing that shall heare you disputyng vpon those matters in wh you seéme to behaue your self no more aptly then as though a blind man should discerne betwixt colours and a Camell Iudge of dauncing You take vpon you to determine franckly betwixt true and false ReligioÌ„ very hautely and proudely but yet much more impudently And yet it shal be as easie a matter for a maÌ„ to finde as much Relligion in Tullies Offices yea and as true as this your Relligion is which you haue so gloriously painted out in these your bookes hetherto a fewe sparckles onely except Likewise also throughout the whole course of the rest of your discourse how often haue your friuolous and confused Argumentes moued me to myrth and laughter As where you thrust your selfe to stoughtly into the matter of Iustification Predestination in all which kinde of doctrine notwtstaÌ„dyng you seéme as meére a strauÌ„ger as though you came new froÌ„ India neither dare once so much all the while in all your
natures yet shall you neuer be able to raze out the remembraunce of them from the posterity so long as this world doth endure And as for theyr vertuous liues and cōmendable monumentes of their godlynesse left behinde them all the packe of your popish prelacy priestes and parasites will neuer be able to reach vnto Let me be so bolde to annexe somewhat of Luther himselfe Reported euen of him who is so much the more to be beleued as he seémed to be wholly seuered from partaking his doctrine For after this maner Erasmus writing to Thomas Arch. of Yorke in a certayne Epistle concerning Luther doth constātly affirme that his life was irreproueable by all mens iudgement and addeth furthermore which he confesseth to be no smal argument of his commendation That he was of such integrity of maners and common conuersation of life that his enemies could finde nothing whereat they might cauill And albeit the credite of this testimony seéme but of small estimation with you as appereth by your writing Yet whoseuer is endued with sound iudgement shall easily perceiue that in respect of theyr age and countrey wherein they were both borne he was better acquaynted with the whole life and cause of Luther then you were I could also recite vnto you the testimony of Fisher Byshoppe of Rochester touching the same Luther out of an Epistle of his written to Erasmus who although was more outragiously bent agaynst Luthers doctrine then beseémed him yet made he much more honest and commēdable report of Luther then you do The words of Roffensis as I finde them are these Luther of whom you wrate vnto me is a man endued with singuler dexterity of witte and hath the scriptures at his fingers endes For I haue readde ouer his writinges very earnestly And as willingly would I haue some conference with the man if I might with out any preiudice to my person that I might debate many matters with him which trouble me c. Agayne in an other Epistle to Erasmus I doe heare say that Luthers Commentaries vpon the Psalmes and vpon the Epistle to the Ephesians shall shortly come forth in print I am maruey lously delighted with the mans witte and his wonderfull knowledge in the scriptures Truely I could wish that he had quallified his speeches agaynst the high Byshoppe and masters appertayning to the See Apostolicke c. But go to if this be your reason Osorius that the soundnes of the doctrine shal be aportioned according to the liues of the teachers I beseech you forgette a whiles that your collericke passion of your blinde affection vouchsafe to aunswere vprightly What fault finde you in the liues of Phil. Melancthon Mart Bucer Oecolampadius Zuinglius Peter Martyr and Iohn Caluyne For their liues were not led in hugger mugger nor theyr conuersations so closely cloystered but that there be yet eye witnesses liuing Recordes by whome this question may easily be decided betwixt vs whether I doe Imagine or flater more in praysing then you erre more monstrously in slaundering them And where are now those horrible wickednesses mōstruous sacrileges murthers lust outrages and Treasons Surelye wheresoeuer they be they are not in Luther nor euer published by his doctrine sithēce his doctrine is none other maner of doctrine then is of all true Christiās therfore let Osorius him selfe looke out who these be and what Auditory of what Gospell they be whom he accuseth guilty of such horrible crimes whatsoeuer they be surely they are neither Lutheranes nor Gospellers And forasmuch as there is none so holy a profession but doth shrowd oftentymes many such persons as in deéd are nothing lesse then they seéme in outward countenaunce Osorius doth argue skarse Clarkly like a doctor herein that valueth the dignity of the doctrine by the quallity of the Auditory Logitians call it Fallax consequentis For whereas Signes are not all of one nature but some called accidentes some likely hoodes many perpetuall and necessary he learned Logitians therefore teach that an argument can not lightly be deduced from Signes except it be from snch Signes onely which in their owne nature appropried to the thinges it selfe haue alwayes a perpetuall and necessary cause of consequence coupled with them For Parentes are not alwayes to be adiudged wicked though their childrē be vnthrifty and go out of kinde Nor is the scholemayster to be blamed alwayes if his schollers profitte not in learnyng accordingly Nero was enstructed by a very godly Mayster in all godly and vertuous preceptes of learning and life yet what man was euer more wicked The soundnes of doctrine doth not alwayes appeare in the maners of the Schollers And sometimes also the matter fareth quite contrary as that vnder the veyle of vertuous maners may lurcke perilous poyson of most contagious doctrine Doctrine therefore ought alwayes to be measured by her owne principles and groundes chiefly from whence it taketh her Roote Otherwise whereas all those are accounted Christians in name and profession which are infected with semblable vyces and corruptions It should follow vpon this rule of Logick that Christian doctrine were in this respect worthy to be blamed because many Christians at this day do abuse the name of Christians to cloake and couer theyr wicked and abhominable lustes I haue aunswered all the partes of Osorius Inuectiue reasonably well Wherein he bringeth himselfe expostulating with the Lutheranes by a figure called Apostrophe or a Rhethoricall sleight rather but in such wise as that you may not so easily discerne Osorius as that old witch called Slaunder it selfe speaking in the wordes of Osorius This quarrell therefore being now throughly canuassed which seémed to pinch Haddós maisters most He remoueth his camp bendeth his whole force now agaynst his opposed enemy Haddon whom he determineth to assayle on euery syde First touching the most auncient profession of the Church next concerning a comparison made betwixt both Churches to seé whether of thē do resemble the Apostles Church nearest In which part many things are discoursed of all partes of the ordinaunces of both Churches of manners and lyfe of preaching of Masses of the communion of the variablenesse of opinions of the Papane of Images of praying to Sayntes of sacrifice and of Purgatory For these be almost the chiefest furniture of this wiffeler And first as touching Prescription of Antiquity Osorius perpleding demaūdeth of Haddon in what wise he defendeth that his innouation or new gospell If Haddon were present this matter could not be destitute of a sufficient Aduocate And because Haddon can not now come I will by your patience aunswere not so artificially peraduenture as him selfe could haue done yet as effectually in his behalfe as shall satisfie the cause though can not stopp your ianglyng which cause neuerthelesse remaineth vnuāquishable not so much by any my defēce as fortified thoroughly with her owne strength and force of the truth And that I may know first
also in S. Seuerines Church at Burdeauâ— so that the same Rodd wh was once tourned into a Serpent is tourned now into threé Rodds The multiplying of whiche Rodd seémeth not much vnlyke the Toath of Saincte Appolyne here with vs in England of the which a certein Abbot of Almesbury named Andrew doth make relation For it chaunced on a tyme that as Edward theÌ„ king of EnglaÌ„d was greuously tormented with the toath ach he commaunded by generall proclamation that all the teéth of S. Appolline that were reserued for Reliques within all the Churches of his Realme should be brought vnto him there were such a multitude of one poore Relique of S. Appolline his teéth Raked together that two or threé Toones were skarse able to receaue them when they were throwen together on a heape I Haue abused thy leasure perhappes gentle Reader longer then was conuenient in reckonyng vpp this Raggemarow of rusty Reliques howbeit I haue not rehearsed the thousandth part of the lyke religious Ragges So farre and so wide hath this pestilent canker crept ouer all the partes of Christendome that almost there is no Cathedrall Church Parish Church Mounckery Abbay Fryerhouse Selle Brotherhood or neuer so litle a Chappell but is poysoned with some contagion of this Serpigo And I would to God that the lyke endeuor were generally employed that Iohn Caluine perfourmed in seéking out those Reliques wherof I haue made meÌ„tioÌ„ that a generall view might be taken of all the Reliques remayning in all Christendome in Monasteries Selles Shrynes Boxes Caskets Glasses and such lyke deuises that the world might be made acquainted with them It is incredible to be spoken what legerdemaine Iuggling and peéuish pelting what monstruous lyes aud crafty packing what horrible forgery and apish halting would appeare to be fostered by these rakers of Reliques and fabâ—ing Fathers But I will not deteigne theé Reader in these tryfles any longer Onely this by the way I wishe theé not so to interprett my trauayle herein as though I would that all reuerence vsually ascribed to the true monuments and true Reliques of Martyres and other godly personages should be vtterly suppressed such especially as is meéte and conuenient for them But hereof neuerthelesse must be had a double consideration First That we defraud not Christ of his due honor and worshipp transferring the same ouer to Saintes and their monuments Next That we vaunte not to the gaze counterfeites for truethes and falshoods for verityes and abuse not the simplicitie of the vnlettered vnder the visor of true Religion Which kinde of fraude as is of all other most execrable so is there not any one more dayly frequented at this present by the rowled generation Howbeit this is no new griefe of a yeare or two continuaunce but is an olde wound long lurking euen emongest the boanes and gnawing dayly vpon the Synowes of all Christendome Of the which Augustine complayneth greuously in his owne tyme in his booke De Opere Monachorum writing on this wise He hath skattered abroad so many hipocrites vnder the weede of Mounckes in euery place gadding lyke Vagabounds about the Countries sent to no certein place remaining no where settled in no place nor making abode any where Some carry about the Reliques of Martyrs if they be not rather the boanes of other dead men but they do all begg they doe all rake for money all make gaynefull marchaundise either of their cloaked holynesse or of their deceiptfull needynes c. But of Reliques hath bene sufficiently spoken now for the confutation of the which what shall I neéde to say any more sithence to the sound witted Reader this may suffice that I haue made him an open shew onely of these mockeryes and trumperies The controuersies which concerne the strongest pillers of their Religion being on this wise dispatcht now that we be escaped out of these crabbed rowgh and vnsauery subtiltyes of disputation I seé no cause to the contrary but that I might make an end of this booke sauing that there remaine yet a fewe dregges in the cloasing vp of Osorius cauillations that are not lightly to be passed ouer though also they apperteigne not so necessarily to the cause as to require any speciall aunswere Whereof I purpose neuerthelesse to speake somewhat by Gods grace And first touching his solemne protestation wherein he accurseth and denounceth himselfe for a damned creature if he haue written any thing in his booke fayningly and counterfetly or colorably Lett vs heare him speake in his owne words I doe here protest before Iesus Christ Iudge of the quick and the dead that if I do not write the trueth which I do determine vpon which I iudge to be true and which I doe vnfainedly and firmely beleue to be the true and vndoughted Religion that he will exclude me from entraunce within that heauenly Citty and possession of that euerlasting glory not suffer me to enioy his glory world without end c. In which protestatioÌ„ I doe easily beleue you Osorius though you hadd neuer made so deépe a Protestation Neither doe I suppose that you doe dally with vs in these matters contrary to the very meaning of your minde but vtter in deéde the very bottome of your thought according as you haue cauilled in these bookes But this sufficeth not to haue your phrase of wryting agreé outwardly with your profession vnlesse your minde within differ not nor be discrepaunt from the right rule of trueth Neither doth it matter so much that you haue vttered in writing according as the fancy of your mind hath carried you but you ought rather to be well aduised that your hart be so instructed wtin as it may conceaue that which is wholesome sound that your penn be not violently whyrled at Randone by the vayne suggestions of your brainesicke headd to endite false matter instead of the trueth For herein consisteth the whole substaunce of our controuersie not in the vtteraunce of thinges which are conceaued in minde but in the discouerye of the meaning and sence of the trueth Such as in tymes past did persequute the Gospell of Christ and such as at this present doe seéke the ouerthrow thereof euen whiles they doe embrue their bloudy hands with goare of the Saintes being seduced by glauering conceipt of colorable error did and doe thinke to doe good seruice herein to God Not much vnlyke vnto them of whom we heare mention made in S. Paule and whereof the number is infinite at this present Which hauing zeale but not according to knowledge doe seéme to erre very much in the affection which they seéme to beare to godlynes but wander altogether out of the way in their choyse lyke as seémeth to haue happened at this present to Osorius in defending this cause of the Popes supremacy of Purgatorye of the Sacrifice of the Masse of Pardons of Reliques and worshipping and of many other Misteries of the Romishe counterfettes wherein I doe confesse that
should be defaced for the peéuish pratyng of one Portingall Surely if the aucthoritie of a woman haue not prerogatiue in decidyng determining Ecclesiasticall causes Gregory did not demeane him selfe discreétly who in a cause of purgatiō of a certein womā named Mēna sent backe that Appeale to Brunichelda the Frenche Queéne as to her lawfull Princesse Gouernesse What shall I say of Eleutherius Pope of Rome who writyng vnto Lucius kyng of Englād called him the Uicar of God within the precinct of his owne kyngdome and therfore doth exhort and require him that he gouerne his Realme with wholesome ordinaunces established by the word of God If Christian Kynges and Princes euery one within their owne seuerall Realmes do as it were represent the Uicares of God vpon earth I beseéch you Osorius what is more proper vnto God then to prouide circumspectly for the well orderyng and good dispositiō of such thynges as apperteigne to the Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction But of this enough and more then enough But of all other this is a most pleasaunt iest very fitt for a Rhetorician Where you complayne bitterly that the Popes Byshops are dispoyled of their lawfull authoritie which seémeth to me euen as much in effect as if AEsopes Crow should take an action agaynst the litle byrdes for entryng vpon possession of their owne feathers which were their own of right But bycause this matter hath bene sufficiently enough debated already take here a resolute aunswere Osorius for the knittyng vppe of this knotte in fewe wordes Peruse throughly this whole Papane whatsoeuer which you call by the name of a lawfull aucthoritie I speake not of the personages that haue supplyed the place I say behold agayne and agayne the whole forme and proportion of that Seé and Pontificall royaltie as it is at this present the conuersation the practizes the orders the insolency the pryde the greédynes the cruelty the slaughters executed the infinite vnspeakeable Martyrdomes the Idolatryes the blasphemyes the immoderate iniuries and tyrannies of this Popish Church behold I say search out examine and circūspectly consider with your eyes and emprinte in your imaginatiō all the premisses withall compare all the same to the notes signes and Prognostifications of the Propheticall Scriptures and if it do not approue by the infallible Prophecies and most certein tokens and for eshewynges and markes of the sacred Scripture that this same Prelate◠euen he whom you do propp vpp so proudly in that Pontificall Prelacy whom you defend so stoughtly is the very naturall Antichrist that Child of perdition Behold here I will yeld ouer my right and will become your bondman But if this cā not be denyed to be an vnuanguishable veritie nor gaynsayd by you by any reason nor can be mainteyned by you by any proofe or due Argumentes what will you say then Osorius Where is that authoritie violently taken from your lawfull Byshops which you haue most wickedly vsurped so long not without execrable iniury of other Christian Princes Wherefore either defend if you can that he that doth supply the place of that Romish Papane is not very Antichrist or cease from hēceforth to barcke so currishly agaynst the gouernement of our Mayden Queéne vnto whose authoritie we Englishmen do most humbly acknowledge our dutyfull subiection by the prouident appointment and most happy ordinaūce of almighty God whose Princely prerogative established from aboue neither are you able to suppresse but you shall withall become an errand rebell agaynst Gods ordinaūce nor yeld the souereignty thereof to that proud Prelate but that you shall herein conspire with Antichrist and denounce your selfe an open traytour agaynst Christ the Sonne of the liuyng God From hence now is our Portingall Parrott taken his flight hoppyng from one treé to an other and passing ouer many bushes and brambles that he may at the last come to his appointed marke to witte that last place of his booke wherein the seély Childish babe Haddō doth sayth he teare his owne flesh with his owne nayles and hath withall geuē him selfe a very deadly wounde c. If this gallaunt challēger were as valiaunt in armes as he can face out the matter with a carde of tenne surely he were mā good enough to ouerthrow all the Pigmees in the world Here is a great noyse of woundes yea and of deadly woūdes but God be praysed not so much as one dropp of bloud shedd we heare a sounde o◠mostruous stormes and horrible thundercrackes but neuer a droppe of rayne wherein to my conceipt happeneth to Osorius a chaunce not much vnlyke to that wherof the old tale maketh mention of an husbandman not all of the wisest that did sheare his Dogge Good Lord quoth he what a noyse is here and not so much as a locke of wolle But passing ouer those outcryes and painted speaches of Osorius Let vs consider the matter it selfe somewhat aduisedly The place of Haddon wherein this Scourgeluther doth so much whyppe Haddon is on this wise What now sayth Haddon shall this most sacred doctrine of the Gospell wherein we haue alwayes cōtinued by the space of xxx yeares together except that troublesome tyme of vi yeares wherin the Queenes Maiestie hath bene trayned and instructed from her infancie wherein her highnesse hath hadd so many trialles of Gods great bountyfull liberalitie towardes her wherein hath bene a generall consent of all estates wherein hath bene a settled stay of most excellent lawes and ordinaunces shall this so pure and syncere worshipping of God so circumspectly defended and established by the Royall Maiestie of all partes be defaced and disgraced thorough the crakes of a peeuish ` Portingall These be Haddones wordes in that which place will be worthe that notyng to seé what scarres Osorius hath espyed out The first is wherein Haddon doth name the sacred doctrine of the Gospell to be the Discipline of Luther Zuinglius Bucer Caluine and such lyke frantick fellowes Truely this is a greuous wound And why so forsooth because those men haue not onely with the rules of their doctrine but also with the euill example of their lyues haue rooted out all shamefastnes Modestye Ciuilitye and obedience First here be two lyes at a chopp but lett vs search out the other woundes Moreouer in steed of fayth and freedome they haue bestowed vpon their familiars presumptiō and rashnes together with vnpunishable lycentiousnes of sinning They haue in steede of true righteousnes brought in a false and deceitfull righteousnes They haue made God the Authour of all wickednes The decayed Church which they promised to Restore to her auncient integritye they haue defiled with more abhominations so that by how much the more a man doth encline to their discipline so much the more is he estraunged from all shamefastnes and Chastitie c. These be old winde shaken Broomes worne out before to the bare stumpes and which hath bene handled before sufficiently but haue you any new
that either he recreate his spirites with some other exercize or cease here after do abuse our Gracious Queéne Elizabeth specially with such kinde of trumpery wherein to tell you the truth Osorius you haue lost your labor and cost for you preuayle no whitt thereby as you seé What successe you may haue hereafter we committ vnto the Lord Certes hetherto as yet you may putt all your winninges in your eyes and seé neuer a shine the lesse as the proofe it selfe doth declare And be it say you that I preuayle nothyng herein yet wanted not sufficient testimony of a well wishyng mynde which ought not be vnthankefully taken emongest gratefull and honest personages Of your good meanyng what shall I say which how ready and inclinable it is I do easily perceaue but to what effect I beseéch you For to what other end shall we Iudge it so ready but to procure our most gracious Queéne then whose nature nothyng can be more disposed to lenitie and gentlenes to be sett on fire none otherwise then as it were some flamyng firebrand contrary to the naturall disposition engraueÌ„ within her royall brest by the finger of God to seéke the spoyle of her natiue Countrey with cruelty tormentes and destruction of her subiectes by fier and fagottes like vnto the furious persecutions and madde outrage executed in the tyme of her sister Queéne Mary For what better successe could haue bene hoped for out of those wicked mischieuous counsell of yours for lett vs suppose and imagine in our conceiptes which yet her most excellent Maiestie could neuer haue suffred to haue entred in her thought that you might haue preuailed and obteined your purpose or at least as much as you hoped for what then Could you conceaue in your mynde that the matter had bene accomplished forthwith assoone as you had entred into the Castell of fauour as though her Maiestie alone be the onely enemy to the Pope within this her dominion Beleéue not so O Solon and hereof assure your selfe that there is within this litle Island a greater nomber by many thousandes more then any man would Iudge that will rather yeld their carâ—asses to tortures then suffer theÌ„ selues to be defiled with the marke of that Beast And what thinke you will become then of the rest of the multitude whose consciences are not yet fully settled of whom there is an infinite nouÌ„ber within this Realme you will say that the Prince must vse force force them to fagotte that will not obay Is this the couÌ„sell you geue to a Queéne Herein forsooth we poore wretched Englishmen are very much beholdyng vnto your sweéte Fatherhood for your gentle reward But what if fayth will not be forced yea what if it can not be brought to yeld what if her highnes it selfe be not Queéne ouer consciences nor any worldly creature els for fayth wil be enstructed can not constrayned I say also moreouer it can not be vanquished by death but euen then rather it triumpheth most And although it may lose lyfe in this world yet will it neuer yeld to earthly creature but to God and his truth Wherefore in as much as this your whole discourse which you prosecute so earnestly is of this condition that it doth no more concerne any Christian Prince whatsoeuer then the subiectes of his Realme for what is more agreable with the maners of the people then Fayth and Religion If you haue determined with your selfe to bestow any further trauaile in the like cause by word or by writyng I iudge it best and withall do aduise you that you trouble not her Maiesty from henceforth with any such matter but proclayme forth your challenge agaynst the Byshops rather agaynst the Doctours and Deuines finally agaynst the subiectes of England and the consciences of the people whom if you be able to enduce with force of firme doctrine and pytthe of substaunciall Arguments to the direction of their consciences you shall shewe your selfe herein a very honest man But then must you frame vs some other kynde of bookes and other maner of letters For the bookes that we haue hitherto receaued from you are such kinde of ware as neither delighte the Queénes grace nor like well the subiectes For this cause therefore my good Lord Ierome I do the more willingly aduize you not to cease wrytyng henceforth Nay rather write on a Gods name paynte on deuise on and coyne on as much as ye list I will not lett you For so long shall it be lawfull for you to haue will to endite vntill at the last it will not onely repente you of the losse of your labour but withall make you ashamed of so much good tyme so wickedly employed And therefore take me not as though I would wishe you to surcease from writyng to throwe away your penne but rather I wish you to write and to endyte vntill you be hoarse withall Hereof neuerthelesse I warâ—e you before that vnlesse you mainteyne the quarrell that you haue vndertaken with better furniture you shall both come to late as I sayd and lose your labour also For what doe you thinke to gayne in this cause of Religion wherein if you hadd none other aduersary yet the Lord him selfe doth warre agaynst you with the very breathe of his mouth the whole Scriptures fight agaynst you and the authoritie of auncient Fathers haue bent their force to ouerthrow you Your purpose was to pleade for the Popes proper Chayre But he is quite abandonned not out of our Churches onely but much further banished out of mens consciences nor can possibly by mans pollicy be restored to the possession of Christian consciences in despight of Gods word It is the Lord who hath by his deuine Inspiration cast a darkened cloud ouer this proude Prelates Chayre which all Portingall can not bryng to light agayne though it lighten all the Tapers torches and waxe lightes in Portingall when the Sunne is at the highest But Osorius vpoÌ„ confidence of his Rhetoricke doth dreame vpoÌ„ some dry Sommer nothyng mistrustyng his Tackle as it seémeth which shal be more stronger then any Cable or Anker but that he shall be able to enduce our most Souereigne Lady Elizabeth to like well with his Request at the leÌ„gth maugre the bearde of thousand Haddones for after this maner writyng agaynst Haddon he sayth What sayth he doe you suppose that her witte is so rude and so vnciuill when I shall haue discouered the practizes and coÌ„spiracies of treacherous traytours by inuincible Argumentes and Reasons clearer then the Sunne in mydday when I shall paynte out vnto her view eueÌ„ before her eyes the mischieuous filthynes and wickednesse of this new fangled Religion when by manifest proofe I shall make euident the foolish and illfauored scatteryng Reasons of these heretiques wherewith they attempt the maintenaunce of their cause that she will rather allowe of that most pestilent opinion coupled with vnauoydeable perill of her
marke of Circumcision haue glorified your Church carrying the marke of the Beast vpon your crownes that Barbour of Horace whatsoeuer he be will serue for your turne much more fittly Upon which wordes of the Poet you proceéde forewarde But by what meanes doe you know me so well Who did euertell you say you that I haue not bestowed longer tyme vpon the Readyng of holy Scriptures then vpon Cicero Demosthenes Aristotle and Plato Truly if you perfourme in deéde Osorius as your wordes do emporte you are much to be commended But your bookes declare otherwise Howbeit we do nothyng mistrust but that you are busily exercized in readyng the Scriptures as your function and dignitie requireth nor did Haddon obrayde you with any such matter as that you did litle or nothyng at all apply the perusing and conference of Scriptures and so also did he meane nothyng lesse then to forbidd you beyng a Byshop as you say and a Priest from the study and practize of Gods holy Testament Wherein you doe vnhonestlye slaunder him and belye him without cause And therefore I cann not seé to what end these wordes of yours which you inferre hereupon and wherewith you seéme to fight with your owne shadow as it were do preuaile on this wise Is it lawfull for you to geue full liberty to wemen to Porters and Carters to tattle and clatter without Iudgement of matters of Diuinitie and will you presume to prohibite me I do not say a Byshop I do not say a Priest finally I do not say a mā many yeares exercised in the most sacred Scriptures furnished with no small encrease of knowledge but as you doe affirme a man of vnderstandyng and wisedome that I may not medle with this most holy learnyng Abate somewhat of your courage good my Lord Byshop I pray you if you can And lett vs reason together vpon some true allegations Tell vs a good fellowshypp where in what place when and at what tyme in whose presence with what phrase of wordes did Haddon euer forbidd you the study of heauenly Philosophy in speach or in thought If you can not Iustifie agaynst him by any meanes to what purpose then is all this so gorgeous and glorious floorish of wordes about the Mooneshine in the water But this braue Marchaunt would neédes blaze out his bracelettes and Iewells lately transported vnto him from out the Calecutes and therefore on this maner ietteth forth this Buskine Portingall Moreouer by what law by what authoritye by what power may it be lawfull for you being a Cyuilian to pearch so presumptuously to handle Gods booke Renouncing the proctorshipp for old Rotten walles windowes and gutters vyle and base contractes Couenaunts and bargains and pleading with pelting libells and may not I who am called to this function to instruct my flock committed vnto me with the word of God be so bold to employ some labour and diligence vpon the interpreting and expounding thereof without your comptrollement c. You haue heard an accusation tragicall enough if I be not deceaued and a very haynous complaynt of this babler For the rest now harken to the Morall of the Fable You offer me a double iniurye sayth he for you doe both entrude vpon an other mans possession and you dispossesse me from my right with most iniurious prohibitions c. Yea but if a man may be so bold vnder correction by your leaue being so great a Byshop so wise a Priest so great a Clarke to speake as the trueth is your selfe haue made two lyes together Osorius without touch of breath For neither he beyng a Ciuilian forsaking his pleadyng of walles windowes gutters doth entrude vpon any other mans possessions nor yet doth force you out of your owne right nor doth prohibite you with any such kynde of prohibitions but that you may proceéde in that course of studies which beseémeth your age profession best bestow as much trauaile thereupon as you can by all meanes possible Yea rather he doth earnestly perswade your holynesse thereunto Enioy therefore a Gods name those possessions which you clayme as your right as much and as longe as you may Haddon will neuer interrupt your course no more will any Christian man els driue you from your interest therein But in the meane space lett vs behold what maner of possessions these be whereof you speake verely if you meane the knowledge of Christ the word of lyfe holy Scriptures readyng hearing of heauenly Pphilosophye Certes I seé no cause why you should haue any more especiall prerogatiue in these possessiōs then any other Nor why this treasure ought apperteigne more to Osori because he is a Priest then to Haddon being a Ciuiliā for as much as by Godes institution this one learning aboue all other is prescribed to all persons indifferently as the chiefe and principall rule of this lyfe vnlesse we will accompt this saying Search the Scriptures to be spoken to Priestes onely and that for this cause Lawyers and Ciuilians ought not intermedle therein But if it were lawfull for Bartillmew Latomes being a Lawyer to write agaynst M. Bucer in matters of highest Diuinitye If Iulius Phlugius a professed Ciuilian might be warrāted by themperour Charles the 5. to sitt in Synodes and disputations of Deuines If Albert Pius Earle of Carporites writing agaynst Erasmus a Deuine and a Priest If King Henry the 8. doing the lyke agaynst Luther and descending into disputation in matters of Diuinitye being neither a Byshopp nor a Priest was supposed neuerthelesse to doe nothing vnseémely his Regall magnificence nor contrary to order Why is Haddon accused then as an encrocher vpon other mens possessions because being a Ciuilian he dare presume to encounter with a priest in matters of Religion But he should haue yelded ouer the charge of writing against you to Deuines and Byshops rather Truely it is not to be doughted but he would haue done so Osorius If in this kinde of conflict he could haue bene perswaded that he should haue contended agaynst a Deuine But whenas he perceaued by the course of your writing that your whole discourse sauored of nothing but of a Rhetorician and a Philosopher and that in your treaty of Diuinitye you alleadged skarse any one sentence of true Dyuinytye and sound doctrine he being himselfe a Rhetorician and withall throughly studyed in the same kinde of exercizes did conceaue in his minde that there could be no fitter match for him then being a Rhetorician to deale agaynst a Rhetorician as Bithus did in tymes past with Bachius that so with one manner of weapō and one kinde of furniture he might encoūter your lyes wherewith you doe so nimbly seéke the ouerthrow of the verytye In this poynt therefore of Haddons determination touching the debating of this cause he did nothing vncomely or vnseémely for his personage nor did he for this cause relinquish his owne walles and encroch vpon your possession yea so much
stricken downe and confounded with the remembraunce of theyr owne sinnes vnto whom chiefly appertayneth the comfortable promise of fayth how can it be possible that this serious and earnest repentaunce cann conceiue any pleasure or delight in horrible wickednesse And yet out of this so manifestly false forged slaunder Osorius hath clowted vpp the remnaunt of all his patcheryes And from hence forsooth are all those so manye huge Tempestes Lightenynges and Thunderboltes so many outragious exclamations tragedies and earthquakes raysed vpp agaynst the poore abiect Lutheranes no lesse vnsauory then shamelesse Wherefore I was so much the more desirous to aduertyze the godly zealous youth that they would not suffer them selues to be entangled by any meanes with the flattering fawning of Osorius bookes and that they behaue themselues with discrete moderation in the reading of them least as the SerpeÌ„t did once beguyle Eue they also may be carryed away from the pure simplicity which is in Christ Iesu. God did not in vayne send his sonne into the world nor in vayne did he geue that especiall commaundement that we should harken vnto him Moreouer not in vayne lykewise dyd the Sonne himselfe descending from out the bosome of his Father take vpon him to proclaime the fathers will out of heauen If petitions proceéding from harty inward and most pure loâ—e if most excellent and vndefiled prayers if most commendable conuersation of life in all kinde of vertue might haue auayled to the attaynment of perfection of saluation I seé no cause to the coÌ„trary why the heauenly Father might haue taken away that bitter Cupp of heauy displeasure out of the haÌ„d of this Sonne But our woundes could not otherwise be healed but by the death deadly wouÌ„des of the Sonne The wound was farr more deépe and deadly then could be curable by any pollicy power treasure workes or actions of men Briefly when Osorius hath spoken of and aduaunced iustice and most excelleÌ„t integrity of life with all the skill that he cann Yet shall he neuer be able to bring to passe the contrary but that the song which we dayly sing vnto Christ shal be an vnuanquishable trueth Thou onely art holy Out of the which what thinke you may be gathered els but that all other creatures whatsoeuer adorned with neuer so plausible opinion of holynes be neuerthelesse vncleane and defiled in the sight of God And yet do we not hereby derogate one hearebredth so much from the grace of God whose riches and treasure we do confesse to be vnspeakeable and dispersed ouer the face of the whole earth Notwithstanding we do also as boldly professe that this grace wherein doth coÌ„sist the highest honour of most perfect obedience did neuer happen to any nor was euer geuen to any but vnto Christ alone But what neéde any more CircumstauÌ„ce I will vrge one Reason agaynst Osorius and so make an end What one prayer can be more holy or knitt vpp in fewer wordes then the Lordes prayer Herein I do appeale to his conscience Let him pronounce the same one prayer vnto God in such sort that he be not faulty in some respect nor swarue in thought any where froÌ„ that absolute perfection of righteousnesse whereupon he doth bragg so much with such an vnremoueable conuersion of mynde to Godward and in so humble an abacement of himselfe and with so dutyfull a reuerence as is beseémyng so vnspeakeable a Maiesty And I wyll yeld him the victory I do most hartely desire and wish vnto the learned Reader and to all other the elect Saynctes of God whosoeuer do professe the name and weare the badge of Christ Iesu that departing from iniquity and gathering all together into one vniforme agreément of sincere doctrine by thenlightening and inspiratioÌ„ of the holyghost we may be all together receiued into that heauenly Ierusalem and into that kingdome of immortall glory and eternall felicity which shall neuer haue end not for the workes of righteousnesse which we haue done but for the loue of our Lord and Sauiour Iesu Christ who suffered death for our sinnes and rose agayne for our Iustification Amen AT LONDON Printed by Iohn Daye dwellyng ouer Aldersgate Cum Gratia Priuilegio Regiae Maiestatis Anno. 1581. Iohn 7. Apoca. 17. Emanuell Dalmada a Portingall Byshop of Angrence Thomâ— Wilson Osorius beginneth with a double excuse Emanuell Byshop of Angrence in Portingall a Popish Inquisitour Two causes shewed by Osorius why hee writeth agaynst M. Haddog The second part of the excuse of Osorius Rom. 2. The name of a priuate persoÌ„ what it signifieth Plautus in milite glorioso Syr Thom More Iohn Fisher Byshop of Rochester More and Rochester rightly coÌ„uicted and condemned for traytors by the law Osorius is writing to our Quene vnder pretence of charitie goodwill couereth extreme hatred against true Religion True charitie is sooner preteÌ„sed in wordes theÌ„ truely performed in deedes Cicer. Orat. in Lucium Pisonem Cicer. Phillip 2. in AnthoniuÌ„ In SalustiuÌ„ Cod. de proba lib. 〈◊〉 Osor. pag. 8. Osorius coÌ„plaineth of subuertyng Religion in England Nonnes Images of Saintes Picture of the Crosse. Auncient ceremonies of the Romane Church The words of M. Haddon cited by Osorius Cicer. in Anthon Phil. 2 Osor. pag. 9 Osor. pag. 9. b. Osorius maketh Bugge beares and fighteth with shadowes Osor. pag. 9. b. Luther falsely accused Luther to be take whole and not by pecces Osor. pag. 10. The cauilling of Osorius vpon wordes and sillables Perpessa Persparsa Psal. 119. Two soule abuses noted in Osorius his Religion Trust in Popish pardoÌ„s vayne and wicked Osorius agaynst hym selfe Osorius cauilleth about the word of lead Synechdoche Metonymia The Bishop of AngreÌ„ce One Church Apoc. 1. One Monarchie Liuius 3. Decad. Polycrates Phalereus Dionysius Apoc. 21. 22. Luce. 4. ex Esaia Ad Heb. 10 Timoth. 1. Luce. 9. Mar. 6. Math. 9. Touchyng supremacie of Peter his successours Marg. 9. Iohan 6. Aug. Retra Cap. 11. Chrisost. in Hom. Penthec To. 3. Hillar de Trim. lib 6. Cipr. Epist. 3. Orig. in Math. Cap. 16. Gregor 1. Distinct. 10. ConsideraÌ„dum Math. 18. Luc. 22. Amongest the Apostles no singular power geuen to any one more then all the rest Iohan. 17. Iohan. 17. Orig. in Math. Cap. 16. Augustin de Agone Christi Math. 16. Gal. 2. Petri Epist. 1. Cap. vlt. Act. Cap. 1. 2.5 Act. Cap. 15. The priuiledge of the person reacheth no further theÌ„ the partie him selfe vnlesse it be limited by name Math. 16. Galat. 2. Iohan. 3. Iohan. 4. Iero. and Euagr. Cypri ad Simplic Osorius pag. 17. Osorius ibidem Ibidem Sueto in the lyfe of xiâ— Emperours Platina de vitis Pontificum Grego in Epist. ad Mauri lib. 4 Epist. 32. Grego in Epist. 30.50 36. Cant. 2. Osor. pag. 17. Act. of the Apost the 5.15 Chap. Osorius pag. 18. b. Ad Thessa. 2. Cap. 2. Osorius pag. 18. b. pag. 19. pag. 19. Alphonsus de Castro contra haeret lib. 4. Cap. 4. pag. 19. Osori