come to S. Dominicus who hath been like vnto the Lord as Authonine the Archbishop writeth and consequently hath been Dominicus in name and in deed being that in possession which Christ is in authority Which Anthonme sheweth by many comparisons betweene Christ and Dominicus alleaging first that as Christ said I am the light of the world euen so the Church singeth of Dominicus Thou art the light of the world Secondly like as Iesus Christ praying vnto God his father was alwaies heard when he would so likewise Dominicus neuer demanded any thing of God but â—e obtained it entirely according to his desire This neuerthelesse is not to be omitted that herein he preferreth his Dominicus before Iesus Christ that hee hath demanded no thing of God as Iesus Christ did in the garden according to sensualiâ—â—â— that is to say according to the infirmitie of the flesh but all things according to reason and for this respect his prayer was alwaies heard as Dominicus a witnesse not worthie of beliefe in his owne cause recounted it himselfe to one of his familiar friends To proceed vnto the comparisons of this Adorator of Dominicus As Christ before his departure out of this world bad his Disciples farewel promised them the great Comforter the Spirit of truth and shewed them that it was expedient he should depart euen so saith this brauing fellow Dominicus answered his welbeloued friends Weepe not my welbeloued and let not my bodily departure these are his very words trouble you where I goe I shall be more profitable to you then I haue been here and after my death you shall haue mee for the best Aduocate you can haue in this life These fine fables haue been verified by your Friers and authorized by your Popes who haue canonized these holy Fathers and ranked them with those which haue merited to bee adored Is it not then with false shewes and against your conscience that thus you doe boast your selues that praying to the Saints you doe no wrong nor dishonour to Iesus Christ whoÌ„ ignominiously you cast out of his place setting him beneath the Virgin Mary these two seducers of the people which I haue named And yet this is not all for the Euangelists make mention that the souldiers of Pontius Pilate to expose our Sauiour to open reproch and scorne before all the world nailed him on the Crosse betweene two theeues as captaine of the malefactors but you as though it were a vertue in you to doe worse place him in heauen amidst many seditious fellowes and murtherers canonized by your Popes and too well knowne by your Iacobins and Iesuites What would Bonauenture say at this who at last corrected his owne excessiue praises aswell to the Virgin Mary as to the other Saints departed confessing in his 3. sentence dist 3. quest 2. Sith that Iesus Christ is the Sauiour and vniuersall Redeemer of all mankinde who hath opened the gates of heauen hee onely dying for all therefore one ought not to shut out of this generallitie that is to say from the companie of all those which Christ hath saued the blessed virgin Mary nor to amplifie the excellencie of the Mother to diminish the glorie of the Sonne because that in so doing wee should prouoke her to wrath as she who being but a creature and he a Creator had rather that her Sonne should be exalted then her selfe Would he not say the same which Iohn Wicliffe did whom God shortly after raised vp to awaken the world buried in the dreames of your vaine Traditions that it was a great folly yea and a detestable impietie to make a scurram that is to say a bouffon or a base fellow his Mediatour And as for the authoritie of the Catholike Church of generall Councels of holy Fathers and Doctors whereby you thinke to dazle our eyes and to amaze vs First of all I answere that you are of the same humor as the high Priests and inhabitants of Ierusalem were extreamely rebellious to the doctrine of the Prophet Ieremy who in time past did say the same as you doe at this day and maintained also obstinately as you doe that they could not erre The law said they shall not perish from the Priest nor counsell from the wise nor the word from the Prophet Come and let vs smite Ieremie with the tongue and let vs not giue heed to any of his words according to the complaint which the Prophet Ieremie maketh thereof in the 18. chap. and 18. verse But what did the Lord answere them by the mouth of his Prophet Trust not in lying words saying The temple of the Lord the temple of the Lord this is the temple of the Lord. Is this house become a denne of theeues whereupon my name is called before your eyes behold euen I see it saith the Lord. But goe ye now vnto my place which was in Shilo where I set my name at the beginning and behold what I did to it for the wickednesse of my people Israel Therefore will I doe vnto this house whereupon my name is called wherein also yee trust euen vnto the place that I gaue to you and to your fathers as I haue done vnto Shilo And I will cast you out of my sight as I haue cast out all your brethren euen the whole seed of Ephraim The Priests said not where is the Lord and they that should minister the law knew me not and the Pastours also offended against me and the Prophets prophecied in Baal and went after things that did not profit Moreouer From the least euen vnto the greatest euery one is giuen to couetousnes and froÌ„ the Prophet euen vnto the Priest euery one dealeth falsly Likewise by the Prophet Ezekâ—el chap. 22. vers 26. 28. Her Priests haue broken my law and haue defiled mine holy things they haue put no difference betweene the holy and prophane And her Prophets haue seene vanities and diumed 〈◊〉 vnto them saying Thus saith the Lord God when the Lord hath not spoken In like manner the Prophet Azariah 2. Chron. 15. vers 2. 3. The Lord is with you while ye be with him and if yee seeke him hee will be found of you but if ye forsake him he will forsake you Now for a long season Israel hath been without the true God and without Priest to teach and without law Where wee are to note that God promised to the conductors of Israel that thee would remaine with them not simply but with this condition if they would abide with him and follow his holy Commandements And he addeth euermore this condition to the promises of his Couenant with the children of Israel If yee will heare my voyce indeed saith the Lord by Moses in the 19. chapter of Exod. 5. 6. verses and keepe my couenant then ye shall be my chiefe treasure aboue all people though all the earth be mine Yee shall be vnto me also a kingdome of Priests and
saith he rauished with all my affection there will I attend with my deuotion There through loue do I take all my delight and thereunto will I hold my selfe by consent Now although this zeale of S. Austin and S. Bernard hath been followed and obserued badly by their successors who since their time gaue too much credit to their owne Councels and humane fantasies yet Gerson neuerthelesle sought to remedie this abuse through his wholesome aduertisements For in his booke of the spirituall life of the soule he sheweth that the sayings of the Apostles and their disciples were of another kinde of authoritie namely in things which purely concerne our faith then the instructions of their successors and consequently that the authoritie of the Primitiue Church is farre greater then that which is at this day and that there is neither Pope nor Councell that can abate any thing of that which was giuen vs by the Euangelists and S. Paul or which hath the like authoritie to make that any thing should bee of faith as some men dreame And in another place vpon this question if in points of faith one might be called before the Pope No particular man saith he not the Pope himselfe neither the Bishops can make a proposition which is hereticall to be catholicall or which is catholicall to be hereticall And againe in the triall of doctrines Consider 5. Tom. 1. That in case of doctrine more credit is to be giuen to one simple lay man excellently skilfull in the Scripture then to the Popes declaration insomuch as it is certaine that one ought to beleeue the Gospell rather then the Pope Also that such a learned man ought to oppose himselfe against a whole Councell if he be there present and seeth the greater partie to be inclined either through malice or ignorance to that which is contrarie to the Gospell according to the example of S. Hilary Whereunto doth agree that which the Abbat Panorma wrote in his chapter intituled Significat extra de Elect. to wit that in things which concerne faith the saying of a priuate person ought to be preferred before the saying of the Pope if so be it is fortified with better reasons out of the old and new Testament Franciscus Picus de Mirandula saith If in a whole Councell the greater partie would ordaine some things which are â—ontrarie to the holy Scriptures and against things that are not lawfull to bee violated the other which are of the lesser number opposing themselues against the greater wee must rather cleaue vnto the lesser number as it happened in the Councels of Rimini and the second of Ephesus Yea euen a simple countriman a childe or an old woman are more worthie to bee beleeued then the Pope and a thousand Bishops if they should speake against the Gospell Now that which wee haue spoken of the authoritie of Councels ought to be appropriated to the censure of our fathers pastors of the ancient Church to wit that wee ought not to receiue their writings with such a reuerence and obedience of faith as wee receiue the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles but to iudge and examine them by the Scriptures according to that good counsell and example of some faithfull Doctors of the Primitiue Church We ought not saith S. Ierome inter cap. 9 on the 98. Psalme to follow the errors of our Fathers but the Scriptures authoritie and the commandements of God which â—nctruct vs. Euery other thing which shall be spoken after the Apostles time ought to bee cut off let it haue no authoritie then though the author thereof be holy or eloquent Reade me those things saith S. Austin in his booke of the Church chap. 6. in the Law in the Prophets in the Psalmes or in the Epistles reade them there and we will beleeue them All others saith he how holy or learned soeuer they be I may reade them not to beleeue what they say is true because they say it but in so much as they proue it by those canonicall authors or by probable reason And in his epistle to Fortunatus We ought not saith he to esteeme of all disputes though they proceed from praise worthie and catholike men as the canonicall Scripture but that in such a sort as is lawfull with the honour due vnto such men to gainsay them or to reiect some things in their writings if per aduenture we finde they iudged otherwise then stands with the truth found out through the helpe of God either by others or by our selues For I am such a one in the writings of other men as I would they should be in mine Doe not stand saith he in his preface of the third booke of the Trinitie vpon my words and writings as vpon the canonical Scripture What soeuer in them thou shalt finde beleeue it without doubting but in my writings that which thou holdest not for very certaine or if thou vnderstaÌ„dest it not hold it not as firme The like saith he of S. Cyprians bookes in his second booke against Crescon chap. 32. I hold not S. Cyprians bookes for canonicall that which agreeth with the authoritie of holy Scripture I receiue it with his praise but that which agreeth not with them I reiect by his good leaue and we doe him no wrong to make a distinction betweene his writings and the canonicall For this wholesome canon of the Church was not without cause established whereunto were brought certain bookes of the Prophets and Apostles which wee dare not at all iudge and according vnto which we freely iudge of all other bookes either of beleeuers or Infidels The like saith he also of S. Ieroms books of S. Ambroses and of the rest of the Fathers which haue written since the Apostles time in his epistle 112 and 11 booke against Faustus Manichean cap. 5. I would not bring in the opinions of those great personages lest thou shouldest thinke that it behoueth me to follow the iudgement of any man as the authoritie of the Scripture In all their bookes the reader or hearer hath a free iudgement to approue or reiect them without the necessitie of beleeuing them but with freedome to iudge thereof From thence it commeth that hee exhorteth Vincent his friend in his 48. epistle that hee should take heed of gathering against so many holy cleere and vndoubted testimonies some cauils out of the writings of the Bishops whether saith he of our owne or of Hilaries Cyprians or Agrippines for such writings ought to be distinguished from the authoritie of the canon for men reade them not so is it were to draw any testimonie from them contrary to which it should not be lawfull to deeme if peraduenture their opinion were otherwise then the truth requires Wherewith the sentences of our Fathers agree We haue no commandement frÌ„o Christ saith Iustine the Martyr in Triph. pag. 207 to beleeue in humane doctrines but in those which his Apostles haue preached and himselfe hath taught Therefore
and in what manner they may heare your Prayers and Supplications For to build the first point you lay downe two Articles and principles most false The one That this hath alwaies beene the doctrine of the Christian Church to say and teach that this was a thing more then reasonable and most profitable to man to inuocate the Saints yea that the Church hath taught the same for the space of 1605 year unto this day The other How certaine Heretikes which are sprung vp within this fortie or fiftie yeares haue meant to preach and teach the cleane contrarie to wit those whom you call Lutherans and Caluinists who but a few yeares ago endeuoring to â—uerthrow so auncient a doctrine according to your opinion haue said and say still that we must not call vpon any of the Saints but vpon God onely I say that your first foundation is false because as Eckius one of your principall Doctours plainely confesseth in his booke of the worshipping of Saints that it is impossible for you to alledge one onely text either out of the old or new Testament whereby you can prooue that either Christ his Euangelists or Apostles haue commanded vs to adore the Saints or haue recommended this seruice to vs as very profitable or reasonable Also Petrus à Scoto confesseth that the inuocation of Saints is not taught in the bookes of the Prophets and Apostles but is there insinuated And likewise some of the Iesuits say that it is not manifestly represented in them but obscurely and mystically or by certaine consequences which are pretended and not well grounded And for this cause the Councell of Trent recommending it vnto the Christians makes no mention of the authority of the holy Scripture but of the ancient custome only of the consent of fathers and of the decreâ—s of holy Councels From whence followeth that this commandement of inuocating the Saints hath not bene giuen to the Christians as you write a thousand sixe hundred and fiue yeares ago or thereabouts but hath bene a long time after forged as I will prooue in due place by your Predecessors who haue made no conscience to teach for doctrine of saluation their owne traditions and humaine inuentions Which hauing shewed your second foundatioÌ„ wil tumble downe of it selfe that is how this rule of worshipping God alone hath bene inuented by those whom wrongfully you terme Lutherans and Caluinists for wee acknowledge none for our soueraigne Doctour and Master but our Lord Iesus Christ the only perfect wisedome and essential word of his Father who hath spoken heretofore to our Fathers by the auncient Prophets and since being manifested in our flesh hath spoken himselfe by his sacred mouth to his Disciples and after his Ascension by his Apostles who as faithful Secretaries and dispensators of the secrets of God haue left vs in writing the fundamentall points of pure Religion and touching this point haue taught vs that God only and no other ought to bee called vpon by vs in our necessities And although this is as cleere as the Sun shine in a bright day at noone yet because you are blinde and leaders of the blinde as your predecessors the Scribes and Pharisies were in the time of Iesus Christ wee will alleage against you some certaine proofes for that which is abouesaid to the end they may serue as a cleere light to those which wink not with their eyes that they might not see in seeing but open them with a holy desire to behold this light When God saith in the first Commandement of his law giuen by Moses to our Fathers * Thou shalt haue none* other Gods before me what doth hee signifie by this prohibition but only that we ought not to acknowledge any other God and Sauiour but him nor to attribute to any one that honour which is proper to him that is to call vpon him only in our anguishes according to that expresse command which he giueth vs in Deuteronom Thou shall worship the Lord thy God and serue him And by the Prophet Asaph in the 50 Psalme verses 14. 15. Offer vnto God praise and pay thy vowes vnto the most high and call vpon me in the day of trouble and I will deliuer thee and thou shalt glorifie me And to stirre vs vp the more thereunto he denounceth by the Prophet Esay chap. 42. and 8 verse I am the Lord this is my name and my glorie will I not giue to another neither my praise to grauen Images And in the 45 chap. and 21 verse Haue not I the Lord and there is none other God beside me a iust God and a Sauiour there is none beside me And in the 22 verse Looke vnto me and yee shall be saued all the ends of the earth shall be saued for I am God and there is none other If hereupon you object against me that God commandeth not by these places that wee should only worship him and none other beside him The answere is cleere to wit that this commandement of God was so interpreted by the Prophet Samuel and in the fulnesse of time by our Soueraigne Doctor Iesus Christ himselfe For therefore you may see how the Prophet warneth all the house of Israel in the 7 chapter of his booke and third verse where he saith If ye be come againe vnto the Lord with all your heart put away the strange gods from among you and Ashtoroth and direct your hearts vnto the Lord and serue him only and hee shall deliuer you out of the hand of the Philistims By which you may see that the Prophet Samuel sheweth vnto the children of Israel that the meanes and way to conuert and direct themselues vnto the Lord with all their hearts is to serue him only and to take away from before his eyes the Idols of the Heathen which hee calleth the gods of the strangers Euen so also our Lord Iesus Christ being tempted in the wildernesse by the wicked spirit which had transported him vpon a high mountaine and shewed him all the kingdomes of the world and the glorie of them with promise that he would giue them all vnto him if so be he would fall down and worship him he alleageth against Satan that which is written in the sixt chapter of the book of Moses called Deuteronomie expounding the intention of his father as he which is his Counsellour witnesse the Prophet Isaiah in his ninth chapter and fifth verse he addeth thereto this word only when hee answereth Satan that in that place it is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serue as though he would haue said That the seruice which is due vnto God only is to worship him and to prostrate our selues before him And to this end and purpose the sonnes of Korah who composed the 44 Psalme teach vs in the 20 and 21 verses that to call vpon any other besides God is to forget and denie him If say they
the Deitie any thing which by God hath been made and created but the only God who hath made and created all things From whence appeareth that the inuocation of Saints bore not any sway in those daies nor any degree or title of diuine seruice in the Christian Church in the time of Saint Austine and his predecessors True it is hee complaineth that in his daies the Church began to lose her virginitie and that they obscured not those most wholesome things which in the diuine books are commanded but that there were instituted some other ceremonies beyond the custome He confesseth also that the Church being setled among much chaffe and tares did beare with many things which themselues durst not reproue nor condemne to auoid the scandals of some persons whereof some were holie and others seditious But howbeit on the other side hee declareth that neither hee nor the Church hath allowed the things which were against the faith and a godly life There is a difference saith he in his 119 epistle to Ianuarius betweene the things that we teach and the things which we suffer betweene the things that wee are commanded to teach and between the things that we are commanded to amend and constrained to support them till we haue reformed them And yet notwithstanding ye would make vs beleeue that S. Austin S. Ierome S. Ambrose S. Chrysostome S. Basil S. Athanasius S. Origen S. Irenaeus and Denys the disciple of S. Paul haue not only approued the superstition of those which worshipped the departed Saints but that euen themselues haue recommended it to the people aswell by their prayers addressed to the Virgin Mary and some other Saints as by the recitall of their vertues and merits Whereunto first of all I answere that many sentences haue been falsified and many annexed to the writings of the Fathers against their intention Which was easie to bee done because in their time the Art of Printing was not found out but copies only in written hand Secondly where as many books haue bin falsely published vnder the names of the Apostles which had been receiued if the Apostle S. Iohn who suruiued the others according to the testimony of S. Tertullian and Ierome had not foreseene it so many Treatises haue been deceitfully attributed to their successors as by their complaints appeareth To begin then with the writings of S. Clement Bishop of Rome S. Ierome in his Apologie against Ruffinus saith of him that hee made some bookes intituled Recognitions among which although there was a doctrine truly Apostolicall exposed in many texts vnder the person of the Apostle S. Peter yet they had mixed among them the doctrine of the Heretike Eumonius So that it seemed in sundrie places of them there is none but he that speaketh Eusebius also saith in his third booke and 35. chapter that it cannot bee cleerely knowne that the second Epistle and the Commentaries which are attributed to him be his because the ancient Fathers made no vse of this Epistle and that these Commentaries kept in no wise neither the stile nor the forme of the pure doctrine of the Apostles and containe in them the communication betweene Peter and Appion of which the ancients make no mention S. Epiphanius addeth that the Ebonians did vse certaine bookes intituled The Peregrinations of S. Peter written by S. Clement stuffed with falsehood and that S. Clement himselfe controlled theÌ„ by his owne epistles written to the Enoclycians Eusebius speaking of the booke intituled the Pastor in his third booke and third chapter saith That it is Apocrypha and that they were deceiued who thought that that Hermes which the Apostle S. Paul greeteth in his 16. chapter of the Epistle to the Romanes was the author thereof So likewise Erasmus of Roterdam saith that many bookes badly patched together haue bin annexed to S. Cyprians bookes to wit the Treatise of the Reuelation of S. Iohn Baptists head which is full of fables and superstitions that reciteth sundrie things happened a long while after S. Cyprians time The treatise of Sina and Sion against the Iewes which in no wise representeth neither the knowledge nor zeale of S. Cyprian They haue also mingled among S. Austins bookes the booke intituled The true and false penance which containeth that fine fable how S. Andrew seeing that the people would haue taken him away from the crosse whereunto they had bound him began to make this prayer to God Lord it is time that thou laiest my bodie in the graue suffer them not to take me downe aliue from this crosse It is time that my bodie should be interred c. In like manner Lewes Viues Valentine one of your best Catholikes complaineth in his annotations vpon the bookes of the Citie of God that many sentences are annexed to them which are not S. Austins They haue put into the books of S. Ierome the Commentaries of some of the Epistles of the New Testament which as S. Austin testifieth was composed by a Monke and a hereâ—ike called Pelagus Robert Bellarmine also maintaineth in his disputations that the booke written to Orosus and attributed to be Saint Austins is not his And many other bookes base and illegitimate and which euen your selues confesse to haue been falsely fathered on our Fathers and in no wise receiueable But to answere more particularly to your allegations You deceiue your selues in that you thinke your S. Denys Areopagite was the disciple of the Apostle S. Paul For in the booke of Celestial Hierarchies which you attribute to him he speaketh of his predecessors Clement and Ignatius which liued and suffered martyrdome vnder Traian the third persecutor of the Christians after Nero and the 14. Emperor which began to raigne about the yeere of Christ 100 and the thirtieth yeere after the decease of the Apostle S. Paul according to the calculation of your Bishop Treculphus This booke we haue also in suspition because wee finde in it no marke of the true disciple of the Apostle S. Paul neither in his language nor in his doctrine For there is no mention made therein for the abolishing of the ancient ceremonies of which the Apostle S. Paul very often disputeth in his Epistles neither doth hee say in any place thereof that that which he wrote he did it by his masters authoritie Therein hee doth but sport himselfe with deliberate discourses to teach the doctrine of the holy Gospell by obscure subtilties vaine speculations and very intricate He there treateth of Popes Prelats Priests Monks and of many other Orders which in the Apostles time were not in the Church nor a long while after Likewise to shew that he did dissent from the Apostles he applaudeth therein the Order of Monkes as the highest and most excellent of all others Causes wherefore Laurence Valla one of your chiefest Doctors flouts at such as thought this S. Denys to be the disciple of S. Paul and the author of this booke As Erasmus of Roterdam noteth in
instructions of those Doctors touching the inuocation of one only God the intercession of one only Mediatour Iesus Christ the leauen of the inuocation of Saints to corrupt the pure seruiâ—e instituted by our Lord Iesus Christ in the Apostolicall Church euen so the successors of these enemies of the ancient puritie perceiuing that the zealous followers thereof made vse of the good bookes of the ancient Fathers to encounter their superstitions haue continued in falsifying more and more their bookes And to make vp the measure of their Fathers being assembled in the Councell of Trent they enioyned some to change cut off and condemne whatsoeuer they should finde and iudge offensiue and contrarie to their errors Vpon which the Iesuits are diligently employed following therein the example of the idolatrous Gentiles who perceiuing as Aâ—nebius complaineth thereof in his third booke that they might be conuicted of falsehood by Ciceroes bookes touching the nature of the Gods formerly published corrupted them and maliciously concealed them that no more mention might be made of them For the Iesuites haue made two Registers imprinted at Naples Madril and Antwerp wherein they haue not only put sundrie words and sentences of the Fathers which expressely they commanded to chaunge and deface out of their bookes but also added certaine annotations to their writings by some great personages to helpe and ease the memorie of the Reader yea without sparing their owne Teachers who haue laboured asmuch to impart vnto vs the true exposition of the Fathers doctrine as they to bereaue and rob vs of it Now to cosen the world they haue intituled these fiâ—e bookes Indices expurgatorij that is to say Purgatiue Indices or Registers which more aptly may bee tearmed Putrefactiues For so farre off is it that these scullions haue laboured to purge the booke of the ancient Fathers and their expositors from staines and filth that contrariwise they haue defiled them wheresoeuer they laid their clutches on them full of stench and putrifaction I am ashamed to discover their villanies but seeing I haue begun I must proceed at once in manifesting it to them In their Index of Spaine they haue ordained to deface these words of S. Hillaries whereby he declareth the reason why the wise virgins answered the foolish that they could not guie theÌ„ of their oyle to wit because none ought to be succored with the works and merits of another In that very Index they command to race out of S. Anselmus booke of the manner of visiting the sicke these words of great consolation Beleeuest thou that thou canst attaine vnto glorie not through thine owne merits but by the vertue and merit of Iesus Christ Beleeuest thou y â— he died for our saluation and that none can be saued through his own merits nor no otherwise then by his death and passion They iudge also in that Index that these words annexed to S. Chrysostoms Register of his bookes ought to be defaced to wit that faith only iustifieth and faith only saueth grounded on certainâ— sentences of S. Chrysostoms noted in y â— said Register It admonisheth the Reader also to reiect this glosse that There are no more workes in the world to come nor any calling to repentance c. Which was receiued froÌ„ the discourse of Epiphanius in his treatise of Heresie 59. Likewise it ordaineth that this proposition be raced out that Prayer be made for the liuing but not for the dead Which was taken from S. Ieromes admonition vpon the third chapter of the Epistle to the Galathians whereupon he noteth this sentence of the Apostle that euery one shall beare his owne burthen Whilest we are in this present world we may succour each other either by prayers or counsels but when wee shall appeare before the iudiciall thronâ— of Christ neither Iob Dauid nor Noah can pray for vs c. What else haue not the Iesuits commanded in the two Indices of Spaine and the Low-Countries to cut out of the Register added to S. Chrysostoms bookes these words That all the Prophets haue bin married whereby the Reader is sent to that which S. Chrysostome speaketh thereof in his 56. Sermon vpon S. Matthew where he proueth by the examples of Moses Esay and Ezechiel that all the Prophets had wiues and houses In the Low-Countrie Index they condemne the sentences of one of their principall writers called Faber Stapulensis whereby hee maintaineth that S. Ierome and Chrysostome haue taught that inuocation appertaineth to none but vnto God only Also they would haue one to purge the writings of George Cassander touching the naturall exposition of the word merit and of whatsoeuer hee alleageth in his bookes concerning the custome of the Apostles first successors to wit that they haue communicated in the Lords Supper for more then a thousand yeeres vnder the two signes of bread and wine They haue also commanded to race out the annotations of Erasmus of Rotterdam vpon the third chapter of the first Epist. to Timothy and in like maner those of S. Chrysostoms That a Bishop must be the husband of one onely wife Finally as many lines so many corruptions and as many infallable markes of their vngodlinesse and ill consciences For albeit they seek to couer their impietie vnder that false mask the title of purgation yet so it is y â— they do most manifeâ—tly discouer it by the soueraigne authority which they take to themselues in censuring and condemning as Iudges the instructions of their ancestors conformable to the word which God himselfe hath inspired into his Prophets and Apostles And if they had made no doubt of the testimonie of truth which shined in the books of those first lights of the Church they would not haue inforced themselues to quench then so much but might thereby haue been armed to haue defended and preserued themselves On the other part if they had been faithfull keepers of their writings which were put into their hands they would haue altered nothing neither concerning the matter nor the forme thereof but would haue been carefull to haue preserued them in their originall puritie But knowing now that these falsaries haue not kept the treasure committed to their charge but haue mixed among them their lead with the pure gold which they receiued from their ancestors what man is it among vs which will dare to assure himself of the sinceritie of those authors and sentences which they alleage against vs and of the integritie of the interpretations which they recoÌ„mend vnto vs and of the truth of those examples which they propound vnto vs And sith I haue quoted so many excellent sentences of the Fathers manifestly contrarie to those which you haue produced in your epistle vnder the name and authoritie of the same Doctors what should we doe in so great a contradiction of those sundrie rules of prayers cited aswell in the one part as on the other as alreadie wee haue vnderstood that there is nothing more
sure when any point of doctrine is to be disputed or of the true sense of some texts in the Bible then to hold our selues to Gods law which is a faithfull witnesse according to the counsell of the Prophet Esay chap 8. verse 20. to giue the exposition of the law of God in expounding it by the Scripture it selfe imitating the example of Esdras and some other Doctors of the old Testament which is represented by Nehemiah before our eies in the 8. chapter and 2. verse Euen so when a question is of the true rule and manner of prayer there is nothing more expedient then to follow in all our prayers that only forme of prayer which our Lord Iesus Christ taught his Apostles as S. Tertullian and S. Cyprian shew vs by their excellent discourses touching the excellencie and perfection of this prayer And S. Austin in his epistle which he wrote to a Christian widow called Proba Wee say no other thing saith he then that which is contained in the Lords Prayer if we pray rightly and conueniently And whosoeuer should say any thing which is not agreeable with this Euangelicall prayer though he prayeth not vnlawfully yet he prayeth carnally and I know no reason why but that one may say he prayeth vnlawfully sith that such as are regenerated by the holy Ghost ought to pray spiritually By which admonition S. Austin signifieth to all Christians that all prayers which haue not their foundation in the prayer of our Lord Iesus Christ as are such which be addressed to the Saints departed are carnall and vnlawfull But to returne to your obiections where you say that you â—et slip in silence the miracles done through the inuocation of Saints and yet you send vs to the 22 booke of the Citie of God and we send you back againe to that which wee haue formerly noted to wit that Viues testifieth that many sentences haue been annexed to that booke of the Citie of God and for that reason we ought to giue no beleefe thereunto But rather as Origen witnesseth vpon Ieremiah it behoueth vs to call for witnesses the holy Scriptures forasmuch as without those witnesses our sense and discourses are of no credit which S. Austin also giueth vs to vnderstand by this exhortation that whatsoeuer wee would haue men to beleeue we must proue it by cleere testimonies of holy Scripture and vse them against the enemies of the Church And if we should grant you that many miracles haue been done by the inuocation of Saints yet you cannot with a good conscience gather froÌ„ thence that this seruice was pleasing to God seeing that the false prophets and ministers of Satan haue sought to set vp their impieties through the lustre of many miracles Thereupon Moses aduertiseth the people of his time saying in Deut. â—3 1. If there arise among you a Prophet or a dreamer of dreames and give thee a signe or wander and the signe and the wonder which he hath told thee come to passe saying Let vs go after other gods which thou hast not known 〈◊〉 let vs serue them Thou shalt not hearken vnto the words of that prophet or vnto that dreamer of dreames for the Lord your God proueth you to know whether you loue the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soule And Iesus Christ in the 24 of Matthew and 23 verse saith If any shall say vnto you loe here is Christ or there beleeue it not for there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets and shall shew great signes and wonders so that if it were possible they should deceiue the very elect Behold I haue told you before according to which Saint Paul writeth in the â— of Thesâ— 2. that the comming of the Sonne of perdition who sâ—â—ll sit as God in the temple of God and shall exalt himselfe against God and shall be by the working of Satan with all power and signes and lying wonders and in all 〈◊〉 of vnrighteousnesse among them that 〈◊〉 Whereupon S. Austin grounding himselfe saith on the 9. Psalme That Antichrist shall vse force in his empire and deceit in his miracles And in the treatise of Antichrist which is added to his bookes Antichrist saith he shall rise vp against the elect by three manner of waies by terrors by gifts and by miracles And Chrysostome speaking of the false Doctors on the seuenth chapter of S. Matthew They cast forth diuels saith he in the name of Christ hauing the spirit of the enemie or they rather doe not cast them foorth but seeme to cast them foorth through the collusion which they haue with the diuels and so alwaies they cast them foorth and neuer doe heale The diuels euermore crie before them as if they were chastized and they neuer come foorth of them as though they were afraid Behold therefore Theophylact teacheth vs in the explication of the seuenth chapter of S. Luke and namely on the second verse that preaching is confirmed by miracles and miracles by preaching for oftentimes diuers haue done wonders by the diuels but their preaching was not sound therefore their miracles also were not of God Which Anselmus appropriating to the miracles of Antichrist in his Commentaries vpon the second Epistle to the Thessalonians and second chapter These signes and wonders saith he shall be lying either because they should deceiue the mortall through magicall visions or else because that although they should be wonders and prodigious signes yet they should draw vnto lies such as beleeue in them Moreouer Meses recounteth in the booke of Exodus that Pharaohs Magicians haue imitated and counterfeited many miracles which he formerly had done in the countrie of Egypt Also Hippocrates reciteth in his book de Morbo Sacro that some Sorcerers in his time healed many of the falling sicknesse in making sacrifices and certaine prayers because they would be reputed as holy personages The like writeth Bodin of Appolonius Thyaneus and of some other Sorcerers which chased away diuels and did many other wonders through fainednesse and collusion This is that also whereof the Emperour Charles the Great would aduertise vs by his third and fourth bookes made vnder his owne name and approued by Pope Adrians Legats and many other Bishops of France Germany and Italie which were present in the Councel of Frankford in the yeere 794. There is great danger saith he in many miracles because there may be in them some craft of that crooked Serpent which doth transfigure himself into an Angel of light for many miracles are done by those Angels reuolted by Powers or rather by spirituall subtilties which communicate to diuers miserable wretches the gift of prophecying and doe many strange things through their officers of which sort those shal be which shall say Lord Lord haue we not prophecied in thy name and haue wee not cast out diuels in thy name and by thy name done many great workes To whom the Iudge will