them yet when the same were executed complayned of persecution and their church they teaâ—med the persecuted church that did not persecute And such on their side as were iustly punished for murders and other crimes they called their martirs and to their relikes they did great devotion Even the same course do the Papists take who by their wicked practises having giuen cause of making lawes against them do vpon the execution therof cry out of persecution and do call them Martirs that are put to death for such horrible treasons and do honor their relikes c. W. B. will not this proper resemblance bee much more truly verified in the protestants who hauing by their mutinous and seditious practises in many Christian countries provoked most Catholike Princes to enact severe lawes against them and being afterward for their open rebellions executed yet the protestaÌ„ts without blushing do in print proclaime them for martirs thrust their names into their Calender In which kind M. Fox our doating countryman hath I thinke excelled all his fellowes As for devotion vnto their mad martirs relicts I reade not in any place quoted by M. Abbot that the Donatists vsed any that is but a florish of his Rhetorike to make them seeme somewhat more like vnto vs that do honor the reliks and memories of those holy personages that haue honored God by their noble Martirdomes traced vs out the true steps to eternall glory but therin they were for ought I can find no more devoute then bee the protestants who do litle esteeme the dead bones of their dreaming Saints and mad Martirs nay S. Austins words cited by him self do declare that the Donatists did not and that the Catholiks did worship the relicks of martirs these they be l. 2. co Petil. c. 71 you donatists be not blessed but you make blessed martirs with whose soules the heavens are replenished and the earth florisheth with the relicks of their bodies vos non colitis sed facitis quos colamus you do worship them but make them such as may be worshipped by vs. R. AB 11. ALbeit the Emperors to represse the enormious crimes of the Donatists Aug co lit Petil. l. 2. c. 92. made such lawes against them yet they would haue it thought that the Emperors did it not of their owne mind but through the instigation of the godly Bishops Even so do the Papists and namely M. Bishop though they know the Prince to haue iust cause to deale so severely with them yet doth hee impute his proceedings vnto the instigation and exasperation of his Ministers W. B. I Must needs confesse that I know no cause why his Maiestie in the first parlament of his raigne in England did confirme all those severe lawes with some additions which had been enacted against Catholikes in Queene Elizabeths daies for the same Catholikes had as much if not more trauailed to make his highnes true title vnto the Crowne of EnglaÌ„d knowen and his person acceptable then the protestants and did as willingly receiue him into the possession therof And albeit some few Catholikes did rashly ioyne with protestants to haue attempted the surprising of his royall person out of their hands whom they presumed to abuse his Maiesty verie much with false and malitious informations Yet that could hardly bee in my poore opinion any iust cause to confirme so many rigorous lawes against the whole body of Catholikes no more then to haue made the like against protestants who were principall sticklers in that desperate enterprise All which considered had I not reason writing in that time to remoue that imputation which seemed to touch his Maiesty and to impute it rather vnto the malice of some certaine crept to farre into his royall favour and knowen to bee maliciously bent against our religioÌ„ then to his highnes who as many haue reported did in the beginning often protest that hee would take no soule mony and that hee would like of no Catholike the worse for his religion so that otherwise hee found him loyall and faithfull Since the horrible plot of the Gunpowder though there bee more colour for those seuere lawes yet there is in my slender iudgmeÌ„t no iust cause for what equity or coÌ„science teacheth for the crimes of some fewe offenders to punish innumerable Innocents that never consented vnto them nor were any waie culpable of the same crime It is the vniforme consent of all the learned that paena sunt restringeÌ„dae non ampliaÌ„dae Punishments are to bee restreyned and shortned and not to bee inlarged or lengthned To forgiue offeÌ„ders is an honorable duty of Christians but to inflict punishment where there is no iust desert is not excusable even amoÌ„gst pagans Therfore it being the dutifull part of a subiect rather to excuse his soveraigne then to accuse him wee that hold our selues so well assured of his maiesties most clement naturall disposition fortifyed also with iust and even proceeding in civill affaires could not but lay the blame of those extreme courses vpoÌ„ other more violent spirits were they temporall Lords or ministeriall I know not but sure I am that they haue shewed themselues towards men of our religion too too malitious and spitefull God Almighty pardon them and giue those of them that yet liue grace to amend those that bee dead would not haue vs to pray for their soules and therfore wee can do no more for them but to leaue them to Gods mercifull Iudgments R. AB 12. THe Donatists albeit they knew well that it was but a small part of the world that ioyned with them yet gloried to vse words as though they had had a church throughout all the world Even so the papists although they know the communion of the church of Rome to bee accepted of but in a small part of the world yet take pleasure to bable as if the Popes triple crowne were so wide as to compasse the whole earth W. B. AS the former resemblance was pared out of that which went next before it so hath this been thrice before touched The odd idle man that purposed to arriue vnto the full nuÌ„ber of twelue is forced to mince them into mammocks and to make no bones to repeate the same thing in effect very often ouer all to retourne a full Iury of twelue that may bring in a verdict against himself either of Ignoramus or els a billa vera for a poore peece of Inuention to frame resemblances as common as the high way and for the most part such as may bee imputed to what sect soeuer you please but do indeed not more properly appertaine vnto any then vnto the protestaÌ„ts themselues Thus farre to refute M. Abbots addition of triuiall and improper resemblances Now I come to confirme those points of comparison which I to requite him did propose I stood not vpon coÌ„mon accideÌ„ts which lightly are incident vnto all kind of sects as M. Abbot hath done very trifflingly but at the first do set vpon
seruice and loue towards him Ioh. 15. â— maiorem Charitatem nemo habet quam vt animam suam ponat quis pro amico suo wherfore in the primitiue church it was the common opinion of all Christians that sanguis Martyrum semen sit ecclesiae the blood of Martirs is the seede of the church the sence wherof is recorded in these words of ancient Tertullian directed to the Heathen persecutors Tertul in fine Apolog Neither doth your ouer curious and diligent crueltie preuaile anie whit at all against vs but is rather an allurement to our religion we are multiplied and made more as often as wee are mowed and cut downe by you for the blood of Martirs is the seede of Christians Matth. 13 yea it is compared by diuers holie fathers to that seed which was sowed in the best ground and brought forth an hundreth fold encrease Iustin in Apolog. That glorious and learned Martir S. Iustin comparing Christians to a vine as in the scriptures they be often resembled saith Esai 5. Ioh. 15. that as a vine euerie yeare must be pruned and haue all superfluous branches cut of to make it yeeld more stoare and better fruite so some Christians now and then cut downe and put to death for the Christian religion doth both multiplie and make more perfect Christians To be short I will rehearse but one passage vttered by that golden mouth of S. Io Chrisostome wherin all the forsaid branches of losse of goods losse of libertie and life are couched together without anie feare of losse of their religion Chrisost quod Christus sit Deus Albeit saith hee the faithfull Christians were disgraced despised lost their goods and were cast into prison yea were butchered burned drowned and put to all kind of tortures with the greatest shame and spite that could be deuised like Traitors and publike enemies of the comon weale yet did they alwaies encrease and multiplie As well Maisters as schollers Preists as Lay men were fettered and suffered a thousand kind of euills yet the number of both Maisters and Schollers did grow dailie greater and greater Thus Saint Chrisostome and much more to the same purpose And if it would please our owne Magistrates who are of greater yeeres to call to mind how few priests and recusants were in the daies of Queene Elizabeth when they began first to put priests to death and to heape such heauie penalties vpon recusants in comparison of them that now be they must needes if passion do not much blind them cleerlie see that their persecution hath mightilie augmented our number I out of my small experience may be bold to auouch that since I can well remember for one Romane priest that then was in England there are now litle lesse then twentie And for one recusant then now more then a hundred Haue we not therfore iust cause following euen the light of humane reason and policie to thinke that the Protestants themselues who sit at the helme of government yeelding vnto that sensible argument of their owne manifest experience will shortlie cease the heat of the persecution and bridle those distempered restlesse spirits that seeme to feed vpon other mens sorrowes if it be for no other cause but for the preservation of their owne religion I meane not here to propound to them who are without all comparison exceedinglie far wiser then my selfe how manie great comodities both at home and abroad they might reape by holding a milder course in matter of religion bicause I find small disposition in them to accept of that seruice but for the comfort of afflicted Catholikes my most deere countrimen and brethrene and for the fuller confutation of the new article of M. Abbots false beliefe I haue briefly shewed that to stripp Catholikes of their goods for their religion is to put them though perhaps against their wills to purchase the redemption of that with their penurie which their Ancestors lost through ouer much superfluitie To cast and keepe them in prison is to sequester them from their worldly occupations and therby to make them much apter for heauenlie meditations To hange them like traitors is to prefer them to the glorious crowne of Martirs And all this put together cometh so far to short from rooting out the Romane Religion or from daunting of others from the liking of it that it worketh marvelous effects in many good soules and procureth multitudes to embrace it wherfore M. Abbots dreame of the vtter ruine therof to be at hand maie be aptlie compared to the diuination of those pagans which S. Austin recorded as most absurd when the Gentiles saith hee saw that the church of Christ could not be rooted out with soe manie greiuous persecutions as it had endured Aug. l. 18. de ciuit 54. but that it was therby wounderously enlarged they neuer theles were so blindly bent against it that they would needes appoint a certain time wâ—thin the which it should be vtterlie rooted out which was expired before S. Austen had written those his worthie Bookes of the cittie of God the christian Church much more florishing and enlarging it self then before The like successe will be no doubt vnto M. Abbots dreame who would needes counterfait those malitious Pagans in prognosticating the vtter decay of the Roman religion to approch if wee remaine constant and doe with patience after the example of those ancient noble Christians beare the losse of our goods lands libertie and life in the quarell of Gods cause and for his sacred religion I am not of their mind who looking vpon the helpe of men doe out of human probabilitie either appoint some time when this shall come to passe or on the other side not seing anie mans aide readie at hand do vtterlie despaire of the recouerie of it but do like maruelously well of them who huÌ„blie acknowledging our owne and our forefathers manifold grieuous iniquites to be such that we haue not yet suffred the hundreth part of that which they and wee haue iustlie deserued yet lifting their harts towardes heauen and maturelie pondering vpon God almighties incompreheÌ„sible mercie wisdome and power do conceiue good hope of our speedie redemption for noe Christian can saie his creede but he finds in the first article thereof that God is Almightie he can doe all things when hee will and assoone as he will with one word of his mouth one fiat of his by which he made heauen earth is more then a thousand times sufficient to alter the whole course of the protestants proceeding yea to worke such a strange alteration that they who now be most earnest persecutors of the Romane religion maie after the manner of Saint Paul become most zealous professors and planters of the same for most true is that which good Mardocheus in his deuoute praier confessed Hester 13 O Lord God the disposition of all things doth he in thy hands and there is no man that can resist thy will
Apollinarists did not swarue from the Catholiks in any other point of faith except that they maintained our saviour Christ to haue had no soule of man but that his Godhead did supplie the place of the soule Eutiches and his fellowes agreeing in the rest auouched the flesh of Christ to bee turned into the divine nature All these did professe to beleeue in Christ and to hold all the articles of the Creede So did the MacedoniaÌ„s that imagined the holy Ghost to be lesse then the sonne And the latter Grecians also that deny the same holie Ghost to proceed aswell from the sonne as from the father The Pelagians did not denie Christ or anie article of the Creed no more did the Novatians nor the Donatists at lest as they vnderstood the creed For albeit the Nouatians denied priests to haue power to forgiue some certen of the most grieuous sort of sins as the Protestants do now denie them to haue power to forgive any at all yet they denied no more then the protestants do that article of the creed I beleeue remission of sinnes For they beleeued that God could at all times forgiue all sort of sinnes though they denied priests to haue power to remit some of the most enormious So the Donatists though they taught the church to haue been decayed all the world ouer saving in Africa yet did they professe to beleeue the Catholike church But they expounded it to bee Catholike not for that it was spred ouer all but for that it reteyned all the seven sacraments or for that it professed to keepe all Gods commaundements as you haue heard before Out of these examples I frame this argument If it were sufficient to saluation to beleeue in God our Creator and in Iesus Christ our Redeemer withall other articles set downe expresly in the Apostles Creed Then were the Arrians Macedonians Pelagians and all those other aboue rehearsed heretiks notwithstanding their obstinate cleaving to their condemned heresies in the state of saluation because they refused not to beleeve any of the foresaid points But to hold that anie of the aboue named heretikes dying in their said heresies died in the state of saluation is to gainsay and reproue all pure antiquity it is to condemne the holy prelats and most learned Doctors of the primitiue church of want of learning want of Iudgment and want of charity who cast those erring men as heretikes out of their churches condemned them to the pit of hell as the profest enemies of Christ and the Devils champions Besids the best informed Christians of those times chose rather to suffer all kind of torments then to professe any one point of their condemned opinions which had been great folly if with the profession of them they might holding the other fundamentall points haue enioyed Christ his fauour and been inheritors of the kingdome of heauen Moreouer what necessity had there been for the most learned and renowmed ancient prelats to haue taken such paines either in writing so many learned volumes or in disputing or preaching against those heretikes if they might haue been all saued euery one in his owne religion Might not also the huge charges and exceeding great paines of assembling of generall councels haue been well spared if those men for whose right information they were called might haue obtâ—ined saluation though they had been let alone in their owne errours It must needs therfore bee graunted that the best Clerks and holiest personages in the purest times of Antiquity thought it enough to damnation to deny anie one article of the Catholike faith Matth. 7.15 after it was in anie generall councell declared for such Doth not our blessed Saviour when hee stileth heretikes by the name of false prophets and resembleth them to rauening wolues that devoure Christian soules cleerlie demonstrate that they haue no part in his good grace and favour but bee in his sight odious and hatefull creatures Againe when hee doth in another place compare theÌ„ to theeues and robbers Ioan. 10.1 that do breake into his fold of their owne authority and take vpon them to bee his ministers when hee sent them not scattering killing his flocke Doth hee not I say plainly intimate them to bee guiltie of death and eternall Damnation Tit. 3 11. S. Paul chargeth vs to auoide the companie of an hereticall man knowing that such bee subuerted do sinne and bee even by their owne iudgment condemned And elswhere amoÌ„g the workes of the flesh rangeth heresies sects diuisions forewarninge vs expresly that whosoeuer doth committ anie of them shall never enter into the kingdome of heauen what hope then can there bee of their saluation wherfore heretiks being by our Saviour likened vnto wolues Gallat 5.15 theeues and robbers and by his Apostles declared damnable creatures vncapable to enter into the kingdome of heauen who were also in all ancient councels held for accursed can any bodie bee either so ill aduised or so foolish hardie as to perswade them that there is any hope of saluation for them vnles they forsake their errors in season But because worldlings neuer waÌ„t false prophets to lay pillowes vnder their elbowes to vphold them in their errors some such may heere step forth and in their excuse saie for theÌ„ that seing they beleeue in Christ hold all the articles of the Apostles Creede though they erre in other points they caÌ„not bee heretiks therfore whatsoeuer is said against heretikes doth not touch theÌ„ that be not of that nuÌ„ber This excuse will not serue the turne for as I haue before shewed neither Arrians NestoriaÌ„s PelagiaÌ„s nor any other most notorious heretikes did plainly denie either Christ to bee Saviour of the world nor anie other expresse point of any article of the creed neuerthelesse they were by the true verdict of the ancient Catholike church denounced and declared for heretikes In a word if to beleeue in Christ and to hold the rest of the Apostles Creede were sufficient to preserue any Christian from the Canker of heresie then hee that would denie both the old and new Testament to bee Canonicall scriptures and the true word of God might bee no heretike because the Canon of holy scripture is not expressed in the creed So hee that would ouerthrow the whole Hierarchie of the church and send all the sacraments into banishment might escape the brand of heresie because of those points there is no particular mention in the said Creed wherfore it is most certaine that men may bee most wicked and damnable heretikes albeit they professe to beleeue in Christ and do not deny anie one substantiall point expressed in the Apostles Creed if they shall wilfully defend any other erronious doctrine contrary vnto the truth reuealed by God and so declared vnto vs by the pastors and doctors of the Catholike church For witnes wherof I will now cite only two leaving the rest for the vpshot of this question Aug l. q. in Math. q. 11.